Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 China's homegrown C919 aircraft begins regular flights to Hong Kong Xinhua) 08:08, January 02, 2025 HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's domestically-produced C919 passenger jet made its debut on scheduled services between Shanghai and Hong Kong on Wednesday, representing a significant milestone in the country's aviation manufacturing sector. Decorated in a special design symbolizing "Chinese red," the narrow-body airliner operated by China Eastern Airlines took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 8:21 a.m., carrying 157 passengers, and landed in Hong Kong at 10:44 a.m., followed by a ceremonial water salute. A daily round-trip flight between Shanghai and Hong Kong will be operated under flight numbers MU721 and MU722, the airline announced. The launch of regular commercial flights not only enhances travel experiences for Hong Kong residents but also allows international travelers to appreciate the advancements in China's civil aviation technology, said Mable Chan, Secretary for Transport and Logistics of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government. "Leveraging Hong Kong's advantages as a gateway, this service will also showcase China's breakthroughs and achievements in the aviation manufacturing sector to the world," she added. A staff member displays a placard with the C919 Flight MU721 in the background in Shanghai, east China on Jan. 1, 2025. (China Eastern Airlines/Handout via Xinhua) MORE ROUTES With the launch of this new service, China Eastern Airlines is the first airline to utilize the C919 for scheduled commercial flights to Hong Kong. "I am very honored that Hong Kong has become the first region outside the mainland to have regular C919 flights, opening a new chapter for Hong Kong as an international aviation hub," Chan said. The C919 is a narrow-body passenger aircraft with a maximum capacity of 192 seats. It is China's first self-developed trunk jetliner, built in accordance with international airworthiness standards and featuring independently registered intellectual property rights. China initiated the C919 project in 2007, and it was developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC). The first C919 aircraft rolled off the production line in Shanghai in November 2015. The aircraft conducted its first commercial flight from Shanghai to Beijing in May 2023, marking its official entry into the civil aviation market. The Shanghai-Beijing route became a regular service in January 2024. Hong Kong's inclusion into the C919 routes network did not happen overnight. As early as December 2023, the C919 aircraft made its inaugural visit outside the Chinese mainland, landing in Hong Kong. During its stay, the aircraft was showcased at Hong Kong International Airport and conducted a flight demonstration over Victoria Harbor, sparking a wave of excitement for the domestically produced large aircraft. The C919 Flight MU721 takes off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 1, 2025. (China Eastern Airlines/Handout via Xinhua) In June 2024, a commercial charter flight operated by China Eastern Airlines' C919 aircraft transported over 100 Hong Kong students to Shanghai for an internship program. As the first customer and operator of the C919, the Shanghai-based China Eastern Airline owns the largest C919 fleet in the world. Following the delivery of a new C919 jet on Tuesday, it now operates 10 C919 jets, with a total of 105 orders. INCREASED CONNECTIVITY Hong Kong resident Ryan Fung occasionally travels to mainland cities for business. On Wednesday, he chose to board the C919 to Shanghai. "I'm both excited and proud to travel on domestically-produced jets, and I really hope the C919 will take us to broader skies," he said. The new service is expected to strengthen connectivity between Shanghai and Hong Kong, both financial hubs and popular tourist destinations. For travelers, this means more options for efficient and reliable air travel. "Given the comfortable cabin environment and my son's love for domestically-produced aircraft, I would definitely choose the C919 as a travel option," said Wan Jie, a mainland citizen on a business trip to Hong Kong. A celebration ceremony is held after the arrival of the C919 Flight MU721 in Hong Kong, south China, Jan. 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) As domestic airlines swiftly deploy the new aircraft type, the C919 will serve more cities across the country. "The new service is a timely addition that meets the booming travel demand in major cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai," said Gary Zhang, a member of the Legislative Council of the HKSAR, adding that new services are both practical and demonstrative. According to data compiled by aviation analytics firm Cirium, international flights into Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong are set to increase in 2025, showcasing the recovery of air demand and capacity in these cities. EXPANDED REACH This route marks the first commercial C919 flight outside the Chinese mainland, a key step in expanding the global reach of China's domestically-produced aircraft. Over the past year, the C919 has accelerated its commercialization process, with the model already being used by three domestic carriers: Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Together, they have transported about 1 million passengers since the model entered commercial operations in May 2023. Passengers prepare to board China Eastern Airlines flight MU722, operated by a C919 jetliner, at the Hong Kong International Airport in south China's Hong Kong, Jan. 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) So far, the C919 has garnered over 1,000 orders from both domestic and international clients. For 2025, COMAC plans to intensify efforts to promote commercialization and scale up production, the company stated. As a global aviation hub, Hong Kong plays a crucial role in the jetliners' expanded reach. In October 2024, the Airport Authority Hong Kong signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COMAC, pledging to support C919 aircraft operations at Hong Kong International Airport and promote them in global markets. With the three-runway system of Hong Kong International Airport going operational last November, the airport is now equipped to expand support facilities for C919 maintenance and facilitate relevant talent training, providing robust support for the aircraft's international expansion, Zhang noted. "As a global aviation hub, Hong Kong is within a five-hour flight from half the world's population," Chan noted. "We will continue to leverage the unique advantages of 'one country, two systems' to help the country shine on the international aviation stage," she said. (Reporting by Lu Yun, Lyu Qiuping, Guo Xin, Wang Xinyi, Jia Yuankun and Di Chun) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Du Mingming) A 16-year-old teen was arrested in Austin in connection with a shooting that killed one teen and injured another last month. Ajax9/Getty Images/iStockphoto A 16-year-old teen was arrested in connection with a shooting in East Bexar County that killed one teen and injured another. Authorities arrested the teen Monday at an apartment complex in the 1900 block of Onion Creek Parkway in Austin, according to a social media post by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office. He is being held at the Hays County Juvenile Detention Center while awaiting extradition to Bexar County. He is currently facing charges for murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the sheriffs office said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The arrest stems from a shooting that happened on Dec. 8 at a house party in the 10400 block of Loop 106 in East Bexar County. Deputies responded to the residence after receiving multiple calls about shots being fired. When they arrived, they found a 15-year-old male and a 17-year-old female with gunshot wounds, according to the sheriffs office. First responders pronounced the 15-year-old dead at the scene. The 17-year-old was taken to a hospital, where she eventually recovered. Witnesses told police they saw a dark-colored Dodge Charger parked in front of the home. After people approached the vehicle, multiple shots were fired from inside the Dodge Charger, striking the two teens, the sheriffs office reported. Advertisement Article continues below this ad During an investigation, authorities were able to identify the 16-year-old as a suspect and tracked him down to the apartment in Austin, the sheriffs office said. New Year's Eve Tragedy In New Orleans, Record U.S. Homelessness, Former Australian Prime Minister On God link to download the audio instead. link to download the audio instead. 07:37 07:37 Top headlines for Thursday, January 2, 2025 In this episode, we delve into a harrowing New Years Eve tragedy in New Orleans, where a pickup truck driver violently disrupted celebrations, resulting in the tragic loss of at least ten lives. We then shift our focus to an eye-opening report on the increasing homeless population in the U.S., exploring how undocumented migrants struggling to secure housing are contributing to this crisis. Finally, we hear from former Australian Prime Minister, who shares an intimate account with The Christian Post about how his faith in God provided strength and guidance during his time leading the country. ?Follow Us on Social Media ?Get the Edifi App ?Subscribe to Our Newsletter ?Links to the News Home Opinion Here's a great goal for the New Year With a new year upon us, when we consider new goals for the next 12 months, heres a worthy ambition to pursue to get closer to Christ. That resolution would put you in the company of a good number of Americas founders. When the great founding father Patrick Henry was dying, in his last Will and Testament, he wrote to his children, This is all the Inheritance I can give to my dear family, The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed. The man who once declared, Give me liberty or give me death, minced no words about living for Jesus. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe George Washington noted that we could never hope to be a happy nation unless we imitated Christ. This was his conclusion in a very famous letter he wrote to the governors of the states in June 1783, after we had won the American War for Independence, by Gods grace. His letter climaxes with this inspirational call to follow in the footsteps of the God-Man from Galilee: I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do Justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves, with that Charity, humility & pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion & without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. Of course, pacific temper of mind refers to a mind at peace and a mind with peaceful intentions toward others. Like his fellow Virginian, the father of our country was encouraging us as a nation to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The late Dr. Donald S. Lutz was the author of The Origins of American Constitutionalism and a long-time professor at the University of Houston. He pointed out that the founders intended for America to be moral. They also intended that this would be accomplished through voluntary religion by which they meant Christianity. Even the liberal-minded Thomas Jefferson once said, Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus. In his above-mentioned book, Lutz pointed out, The concept of virtue was central to politics throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in America (p. 28). Virtue, of course, was defined with a biblical criterion, observed Lutz. In one sense, virtue meant following Gods law as found in the Bible. One who did not lie, steal, or fornicate, but who adhered to the golden rule was a virtuous person (p. 28). Lutz adds, And the most fundamental assumption is that the American people are a virtuous people (p. 85, emphasis his). This sentiment can be found repeatedly in different American founders. Rev. John Witherspoon was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He also was a key educator to many of our founding fathers, including James Madison. Witherspoon believed strongly that following the Bible is the key to imitating Christ. He said, The character of a Christian must be taken from Holy Scriptures the unerring standard. Regularly reading the Bible has been the habit of many great Americans through the centuries. Our second president, John Adams, once said, I have made it a practice every year for several years to read through the Bible. Like many of our presidents, the Bible was the most important book also in the life of John Quincy Adams, his son. JQA served as our sixth president. And what a difference in made in his life. Adams was the Hell hound of abolition. When he left the presidency, he served in Congress until he died. Why? So he could imitate Jesus by working to uproot slavery in America. While in Congress, he managed to influence the thinking and policies of a one-term Congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. This was about 15 years before the latter became president and played a key role in ending slavery in America. John Quincy Adams devotion to Jesus paid off for America and the world long after our sixth president had died and gone to his reward. Of course, it should be pointed out that following Christ, or attempting to, doesnt save anyone. Only truly trusting in Christ who died for sinners and rose from the dead saves those who believe. But once touched by Christ, it is a natural outworking of a transformed heart that we want to imitate Him. As so many great Americans throughout our history did their best to put their faith in action, we do well to make imitating Christ our goal for the New Year and beyond. Happy New Year. Home News 15 dead, dozens more injured in apparent New Orleans terrorist attack; suspect identified as Shamsud Din Jabbar Handgun, rifle, ISIS flag found in truck bed; Sugar Bowl postponed An apparent terrorist attack on famed Bourbon Street in New Orleans early New Year's Day left 15 people dead and more than 30 others injured. The attack occurred at approximately 3:15 a.m. Wednesday as thousands of people gathered in the French Quarter to celebrate the New Year, according to the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). A white pickup truck slammed into a crowd near the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets, one of the busiest spots in the city during the annual festivities. After crashing into the crowd, the driver stopped the vehicle and opened fire on police officers as they arrived at the scene. The responding officers, who were stationed nearby to monitor the New Years Eve festivities, returned fire, killing the suspect, police said. The driver has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Houston, Texas. Jabbar was shot dead at the scene. U.S. defense officials said he served in the U.S. Army from 2006 to 2015, followed by the Army Reserves from 2015 to 2020, according NBC News. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe According to law enforcement sources, Jabbar was driving a Ford pickup which appeared to have been rented. The FBI said the agency is working to determine how Jabbar obtained the vehicle. Earlier Wednesday, Fox News reported that the truck used in the attack was registered in Texas and had crossed the southern U.S. border just two days before the incident. Two anonymous federal law enforcement sources told the network that the truck entered the U.S. at Eagle Pass, Texas, although it remains unclear whether Jabbar was the one driving the vehicle at the time of the border crossing. Investigators found an Islamic State (ISIS) flag in the trucks bed, along with a handgun and an AR-style rifle, sources told The Associated Press. Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs New Orleans field office, told reporters that investigators do not believe Jabbar acted alone, but did not offer any further details. Speaking live on WWL-TV, New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno noted that the suspect was reportedly dressed in full military gear at the time of the assault. An improvised explosive device (IED) was also found at the scene of the attack, though it is not yet clear whether the device was a viable threat. Police confirmed that two New Orleans police officers were injured in the exchange of gunfire with Jabbar. Both officers were taken to a nearby hospital and are listed in stable condition. Authorities confirmed that 10 victims were declared dead at the scene, while five more were declared deceased after receiving medical attention. Another 35 people were injured, many of whom were transported to local hospitals with varying degrees of injury. President Joe Biden released a statement which read in part: I am grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing even greater death and injury. I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind. ... My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nations communities. Security was beefed up at the Caesar's Superdome, where the Sugar Bowl was scheduled to be played Wednesday evening. While officials initially signaled the Georgia-Notre Dame matchup would proceed as scheduled, they later announced the playoff game would be postponed. "The Sugar Bowl Committee is devastated by the terrible events from early this morning," Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. We are in ongoing discussions with authorities on the local, state, and federal levels and will communicate further details as they become available." The attack comes less than a week after a deadly Christmas Day attack in which a 50-year-old Saudi doctor plowed into a crowded Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, killing four women and a 9-year-old boy. Home News Bear Grylls faces criticism for calling Mary, mother of Jesus, 'Palestinian refugee' British adventurer Bear Grylls is facing criticism after referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a "Palestinian refugee" in a Christmas message shared on social media. The 50-year-old outdoorsman posted a message on X, formerly Twitter, delivering a Christmas reading in which he described Mary as a "young, poor, and no doubt terrified Palestinian girl." "In these next few days billions of us around the world celebrate the birth of a Middle Eastern refugee who, 2,000 years ago, changed the course of the world forever," he said in the original post. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "Let me tell you some of his story. This is just a short extract from near the beginning of the adventure. When Maryam, a young, poor, and no doubt terrified Palestinian girl, gives birth in a run-down animal pen, to a baby who was foretold for hundreds of years. Yet she was not alone. And she never would be. Because this was the moment that God Almighty broke into our fallen world in person. To many of us, it is undoubtedly: The Greatest Story Ever Told." The message drew swift backlash from critics, including the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which responded by saying Mary "was a Jewish woman from Judea, under Roman rule." "The region wasn't called 'Palestine' until 100 years later when the Judeans (Jews) were exiled and Emperor Hadrian renamed it Syria Palaestina after the Bar Kokhba Revolt to try to sever the Jewish connection to the land," the group tweeted. "A lot of people over the millennia since have believed his propaganda. While Mary's family fled to Egypt to escape King Herod's persecution, calling her a 'Palestinian refugee' not only imposes modern terminology on ancient history but completely eradicates her Jewish identity. It's historical nonsense, with an agenda. If you want to honour her story, tell it properly." In an op-ed for The Telegraph, writer George Chesterton said that calling Jesus Palestinian ignores historical realities, as "Palestine" was a Roman term used after Jewish rebellions, and Jesus was born in Judea during a Roman census, not as a refugee. Such claims, Chesterton warned, are "dangerous" and part of a trend to politicize Jesus and undermine Jewish historical ties to Israel. "If you leave aside the theological and historical absurdity equating a Jewish man from 2000 years ago with a political identity that didn't exist this is the nub of the problem. It promotes the idea that Jews are systematic baby killers. This is the sort of thing that is screamed at elderly people on the streets of London, Glasgow and Brighton. That's not something Jesus would have approved of. He was Jewish, after all," he wrote. Mark Wallace, chief executive of Total Politics, asked: "In what sense historical, archaeological, political, religious, geographic, ethnic, literally any sense at all would Mary have regarded herself as a Palestinian?" A community note on X was added beneath the post, debunking Grylls' claim. "They were not refugees. Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken. Joseph and Mary traveled to Judea, to the town of Bethlehem (the town of David) because Joseph belonged to the house and line of David." Following the initial backlash, Grylls took down the post and reuploaded it, removing the word "Palestinian." "Just as way of a response to all the argument going on here about the area of the world Mary lived in. I referred to this area as Palestine as per the maps you will find in most Bibles," he wrote. "Scholars will always go and back forward debating the technicality of exact dates that various regions became known by their names, but in this case I am simply setting the scene for the Greatest Story Ever Told. I refer to Palestine as the general area that Mary lived in. I am not referring to her nationality or ethnicity. She was clearly Jewish." "In response to whether Jesus was a refugee, yes he was. Mary, Joseph and Jesus were forced to flee their homeland to live as refugees in the Egyptian desert. They were escaping Herod's decree to kill all the young male babies in Bethlehem. They returned finally four or so years later to their homeland and to Nazareth." He later added, "And if you think Mary's country of origin is controversial, wait until you read the bulk of what is in The Greatest Story Ever Told! When you read the words of Jesus, you'll discover that is where it gets truly disruptive." This isn't the first time Grylls has sparked controversy with his views. In a 2023 interview with The Christian Post, the bestselling author, who is slated to host "The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls," made waves after suggesting Christians stop going to a physical church if it betters their spiritual life. "I think Jesus would really struggle with 99% of churches nowadays," he said at the time. "Our job in life is to stay close to Christ and drop the religious, drop the fluff, drop the church if you need to because that means so many different things to different people anyway. Keep the bit of church which is about community and friends and honesty and faith and love. All the masks, performances, music and worship bands and all of that sort of stuff I don't think Christ would recognize a lot of that." In a later interview with CP, he described faith as a "journey," adding: "Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin. I have many doubts, many struggles, and many days, I think it's all crazy. But through it all, I feel Christ has been a light to a dark path and strength to a failing body. Through many valleys and summits, jungles and deserts, He's always there. We need that in life. For me, it's not a Sunday thing. I really need Him every day. That's how I kind of approach life." Home News Driver of Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of Trump Hotel in Las Vegas identified Law enforcement officials have identified the man they believe to be behind the wheel of a Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas Wednesday as a motive for the incident remains unclear. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill held a press conference Thursday providing updates on the investigation into the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. He said the driver of the truck, 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado, remained in the vehicle during the fire and was "burnt beyond recognition." Authorities found identification left behind in the vehicle. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Although final confirmation of his identity was contingent upon DNA evidence or medical records, the investigation has uncovered images of Livelsberger traveling across the country in the same vehicle. Livelsberger "sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle," McMahill said, later telling a reporter he believes it was self-inflicted immediately before the explosion. He commented on possible connections between what unfolded in Las Vegas Wednesday and the attack that killed more than a dozen people in New Orleans, Louisiana, just hours earlier. "He is a current member of the military," McMahill said of Livelsberger. "Both of the subjects served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina." At the same time, McMahill stressed that no record exists that the perpetrator behind the New Orleans attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and Livelsberger "served in the same unit or even [in] the same years." "I also know that they both served in Afghanistan in 2009," he said. "We don't have any evidence that they were in the same province in Afghanistan, the same location or the same unit." Jabbar and Livelsberger had spent time at Fort Bragg, a massive Army base home to Army special forces command now known as Fort Liberty. An official familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press there wasn't any "overlap in their assignments." Both men's use of the car-rental app Turo to rent their vehicles is another similarity between them. McMahill detailed the route Livelsberger took before arriving in Las Vegas, which began when he rented the truck in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday. Based on data obtained from his stops at Tesla charging stations, Livelsberger stopped in Monument, Colorado, on Monday and made several stops on Tuesday in Trinidad, Colorado; Las Vegas, New Mexico; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Gallup, New Mexico. Livelsberger's journey continued Wednesday morning with stops in Holbrook, Flagstaff, and Kingman, Arizona, before arriving in Las Vegas, Nevada. The motive behind the explosion remains unknown as of Thursday afternoon. The investigation determined that Livelsberger lawfully purchased two firearms recovered at the scene on Monday, two days before the attack. Law enforcement officials previously revealed that seven people were injured as a result of the blast. Home News Daytona Beach repeals ordinance, allows church to operate food pantry for families Daytona Beach, Florida, has repealed an ordinance that previously restricted the Seventh-Day Baptist Churchs ability to operate its food pantry, enabling the church to continue providing essential assistance to impoverished families. The citys decision follows a federal lawsuit filed by the church, culminating in a settlement that makes the temporary allowance of the pantrys operations permanent. The city of Daytona Beach had initially agreed to permit the Seventh-Day Baptist Church to resume its food distribution ministry while the contested ordinance was repealed. The finalization of the repeal on Tuesday solidifies that agreement, leading to the dismissal of the federal case as per the settlement terms submitted by both the church and the city, according to a joint statement by the First Liberty Institute and Sidley Austin L.L.P. We are grateful to Daytona Beach city officials for working with us so that Seventh Baptist can resume its mission of providing food for the hungry, hurting people in the community, said Ryan Gardner, counsel at First Liberty. People who take action to care for the hungry should be encouraged and affirmed. The church is thrilled to be able to continue helping those in need. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The Seventh-Day Baptist Church has provided community support since 2007. For the majority of its existence, the churchs efforts were met with support and encouragement from both city officials and local residents. This collaboration allowed the food ministry to thrive without significant obstacles, even after the church relocated to its current premises within a designated redevelopment area. Redevelopment areas in Daytona Beach are zones identified by the city for improvement projects aimed at enhancing the quality of life for residents, businesses and visitors. Despite the relocation, the churchs food pantry continued its operations without issue until an enforcement action by the city mandated the closure of the pantry. Following the closure, the Seventh-Day Baptist Church filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ordinance that restricted their food distribution activities. Pastor David Troxler, who has led Daytona Beachs First Christian Church since 1995, told Spectrum News 13 last month that the congregation operated a food distribution center until it was closed by city authorities last fall. In November, the pantry was permitted to resume operations after officials found documentation proving it was exempt under a 2011 regulation. Troxler, who initiated the pantry in 2010 to address Daytonas status as a food desert, noted a significant increase in demand, with monthly service rising from about 200 families to over 500 last year. The pantry operates on the third and fourth Fridays each month, providing canned goods, dry supplies and meat to families facing food insecurity. Home News God gap among GOP, Democrats increases in 119th Congress: report A "God gap" exists among members of the incoming 119th Congress, despite Protestants and Catholics dominating the religious affiliation of both parties, according to a recent report. CQ Roll Call published an analysis on Monday of the religious affiliation of the 119th Congress, which was elected last November and begins its sessions on Friday. Roll Call found that while 98% of Republican members identified as Christian, only 75% of Democrats or members who caucus with Democrats identified as Christian. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Five Republican members did not identify as Christian, while 66 Democrats did not identify as Christian. Additionally, while only one Republican Rep. Dave Taylor of Ohio identified as religiously unaffiliated, 21 Democrats did not list an official religious affiliation. Ryan Burge, a professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University who has written extensively about religion in America, referred to the differences as a God gap. Burge was quoted by Roll Call as noting that Republicans could just say theyre a Christian, theyre a person of faith, and this turns off almost no one in their party. I think [Democrats] calculation is if I dont give an answer, Im not going to make anybody mad, said Burge. For the Republicans, its if I dont say Im Christian, I will make a lot of people mad. The analysis did not include Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who, while reelected to his seat last year, later announced that he was resigning from Congress. Roll Call also found that, as in past years, Protestants made up the majority of religious adherents in Congress for both parties. Roman Catholicism was the largest religious affiliation, with 83 Democrats and 68 Republicans identifying as such. Religious affiliation in Congress is higher than the general population in the U.S., with Roll Call noting that while 95% of congressional lawmakers are religiously affiliated, less than 70% of Americans are the same, according to the Pew Research Center. Congress represents America as it looked 20 or 30 years ago, not the way it looks today, Burge told Roll Call. Incumbency advantage keeps people in office that were elected some of them in the 80s, in the 90s, when America was overwhelmingly a religious country. In the elections last November, Republicans maintained a narrow majority of the House of Representatives while regaining control of the Senate, giving the GOP control over both houses of Congress and the White House come inauguration day. Home News New Jersey man arrested for sexually assaulting 6-year-old girl at home prayer meeting Editor's note: This article includes details of child sexual abuse that some readers might find disturbing. A New Jersey man has been arrested for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl at an at-home prayer meeting. A statement posted to the Instagram account of the Trenton, New Jersey Emergency Public Information Office on Tuesday details how Jose Agustin-Hernandez, 51, had been arrested Sunday in connection with the sexual assault of a 6-year-old girl that took place the previous week. The incident occurred during a prayer service at an in-home chapel on Hamilton Avenue in Trenton. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe According to the complaint, a man entered a room where a 6-year-old girl was sleeping and sexually assaulted her, the statement noted. The victim ran out of the room crying and told a family member. While others gathered in the house tried to chase after Hernandez, the perpetrator ended up escaping and getting away. Local law enforcement zeroed in on Hernandez as the suspect who entered the residence and committed the assault after interviewing numerous witnesses and collecting and reviewing video surveillance footage from various locations in the area. Hernandez now faces charges of first-degree aggravated assault, second-degree criminal sexual contact and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors are seeking to keep him in detention while he awaits trial. Hernandezs arrest follows a collaborative investigation conducted by the Mercer County Prosecutors Office Special Victims Unit and the Trenton Police Department. Home News New Orleans terrorist acted alone, was '100% inspired by ISIS,' FBI says Federal investigators said Thursday they "do not believe" any other suspects acted with gunman Shamsud-Din Jabbar to carry out the deadly attack on New Orleans' Bourbon Street on New Year's Day, though he was inspired by the Islamic State terror organization. Jabbar, 42, a U.S. Army veteran, is suspected of deliberately driving a pick-up truck into a crowd gathered in the French Quarter of New Orleans to celebrate the new year. The attack killed 14 people and left more than 30 others injured. In a media briefing, Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI's counter-terrorism division, stated unequivocally the attack was an "act of terrorism." Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "It was premeditated and an evil act," said Raia, who added that investigators obtained surveillance video of Jabbar placing the explosive devices near the site of the crash. Jabbar "specifically picked out Bourbon Street," Raia said, though they're "not sure why." The officer acknowledged Jabbar "was 100 percent inspired by ISIS," an acronym for the Islamic State. Jabbar shared his allegiance to the Islamic State in posts on social media. Two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found near the crash site, although they were safely recovered and did not detonate. There is no indication that the IEDs were part of a broader, coordinated effort, nor is there any evidence suggesting any other individuals played a role in planning or executing the assault, Raia said. Jabbar, said Raia, acted independently, inspired by extremist propaganda. FBI investigators "do not believe" anyone else was involved in the attack, said Raia. The early Wednesday morning attack came just hours before an explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, involving a Tesla Cybertruck containing fireworks and camp fuel canisters. The explosion resulted in the death of a suspect inside the vehicle. According to three U.S. officials, the person who died in the explosion was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier who had previously been stationed at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, were not authorized to reveal specific details about his service. Jabbar and Livelsberger had spent time at Fort Bragg, a massive Army base home to Army special forces command now known as Fort Liberty. However, an official familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that there is "no apparent overlap in their assignments there." The FBI's investigation into both incidents continues, but officials say there is no evidence to suggest the events are related. The AP also cited two unidentified law enforcement officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, who emphasized that there is no indication the men knew each other. Investigators determined the car-sharing app Turo was used to book both vehicles used in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Described as an Airbnb-style app for cars, Turo allows customers to search for and select vehicles similar to a car rental company. A Turo spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal there is no indication that the renter in either case had a "criminal background that would have flagged them as a security threat." Earlier Thursday, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell said officials expected to reopen Bourbon Street ahead of the Sugar Bowl, which was postponed following the attack. "The confidence is there to reopen Bourbon Street to the public before game time today," said Cantrell. Home News Pope Francis calls for debt forgiveness in Jubilee Year In his message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Francis lamented the "devastation" seen worldwide and "the conflicts that presently plague our human family." Pope Francis said that certain challenges were causing "havoc" in the world, including "the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants, environmental decay, the confusion willfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue and the immense resources spent on the industry of war." "All these, taken together, represent a threat to the existence of humanity as a whole," he said. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "At the beginning of this year, then, we desire to heed the plea of suffering humankind in order to feel called, together and as individuals, to break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim God's justice. "Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about." He said he wanted 2025 to "be a year in which peace flourishes." "A true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises," he said. The pope also called for international debt forgiveness during the Catholic Church's Jubilee year, which is being marked throughout 2025. "I have repeatedly stated that foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets," he said. "In addition, different peoples, already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the burden of the 'ecological debt' incurred by the more developed countries. "Foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis. "In the spirit of this Jubilee Year, I urge the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world. This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice." He continued, "The cultural and structural change needed to surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in His debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility. We will be able to 'rediscover once for all that we need one another' and are indebted one to another." The Catholic Church holds a Jubilee once every 25 years as a time for Catholics to focus on renewing their faith and spiritual life. The 2025 Jubilee of Hope was officially inaugurated by Francis when he opened the Holy Door of Saint Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve. In his final homily for 2024, Francis said that all people were welcome to Rome during the Jubilee year as he invited not only Catholics but "other Christians; believers in every religion, and seekers of truth, freedom, justice, and peace all pilgrims of hope and fraternity." "The hope of the world lies in fraternity," he said. The Jubilee year will conclude on Jan. 6, 2026, when the same Holy Door of Saint Peter's Basilica is closed. Inaugurating the year, Francis prayed, "May the light of Christian hope illumine every man and woman, as a message of God's love addressed to all." This article was originally published at Christian Today Annasofia Scheve covers trending news for the Express-News. She can be reached at Annasofia.Scheve@express-news.net. Annasofia has bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Missouri. She is an Ohio native, and wrote for Cincinnati Magazine and the Cincinnati Enquirer before joining the Express-News in 2023. (Photo: Getty/iStock) The media world is changing fast, and 2024 offered plenty of proof. From grassroots reporting in politics to the rise in power of interactive platforms, it's clear that people today don't just consume content - they create it, share it, and shape it. For Christian media, this shift isn't a threat; it's a huge opportunity to connect in ways that feel personal, relevant, and real. One of last year's clearest examples was the US presidential election. It showed just how much media consumption has evolved. Republicans effectively tapped into 'citizen journalism' - authentic, ground-up storytelling that resonated with voters. Democrats, meanwhile, struggled to fully engage with the participatory potential of digital platforms. But this was about more than politics. It reflected a broader cultural moment: the digital generation wants a say in the stories being told. For Christian media, this opens the door to rethink how the Gospel is shared. The mission to spread the message of Christ has always adapted to new tools - from the printing press to television. Today's digital tools are no different, but they require a new mindset. Instead of broadcasting to audiences, the focus needs to shift to fostering dialogue and connection. Young people especially crave authenticity and meaningful interactions. They prefer relatable stories over polished performances and respond to humility more than authority. Christian media doesn't need to be perfect to be impactful. It needs to tell human stories - stories of faith, doubt, redemption, and transformation. The Gospel, at its core, is about relationships. In a world flooded with shallow engagement, it offers something deeper. That's why storytelling remains one of the most effective ways to connect. Jesus used parables to make profound truths relatable. Today, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, podcasts, and newsletters like Substack provide powerful ways to do the same. But storytelling alone isn't enough. The digital generation wants to contribute, not just consume. They want to feel part of something meaningful. Christian media can meet this need by inviting young believers to share their own faith experiences and struggles. By creating collaborative spaces, we show that faith isn't a top-down institution - it's a shared, living journey. This generation also values transparency. They're quick to spot anything that feels fake or forced. By openly acknowledging struggles and doubts, Christian media can reflect the truth of faith as a journeyone that is full of challenges, growth, and grace. Faith isn't about having all the answers; it's about seeking, trusting, and walking with Christ through life's complexities. The global reach of digital platforms is another gift. The Gospel is universal, and the digital age makes it easier than ever to connect across cultures and borders. But this requires sensitivity and humility, ensuring that the message respects and resonates with the diversity of its audience. Building these connections won't happen overnight. Digital outreach is about the long gamebuilding trust, listening, and nurturing relationships over time. Like Paul adapting his message to different audiences, Christian media can use today's tools to meet people where they are, addressing their unique questions and needs. The goal isn't to compete with the noise of the digital world but to offer something distinct: a space of grace, hope, and truth. By doing so, Christian media can serve as a beacon for those seeking renewal in an often chaotic and confusing world. The digital generation isn't unreachable. They're looking for authenticity, connection, and purpose. Christian media has the opportunity to meet them in this search - not with perfect answers, but with open hearts, honest dialogue, and the transformative message of the Gospel. "Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16 Clergy providing spiritual support to Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline. (Photo: Ukraine Bible Society) This morning, on our way to the firing positions, we stopped by some hidden old buildings where our soldiers our defenders were resting. Along the frontline, the scars of war stretched as far as the eye could see; they were fresh and raw. The earth beneath us trembled with explosions. The wind carried smoke and sulphur, leaving a bitter taste that felt like it was grinding in our teeth. We entered a dark room. As our eyes adjusted to the dim light, we noticed a small stove in the centre. Its warmth spread through the cold space, offering some comfort to the freezing soldiers. Around the stove, we could make out many soldiers resting on ammunition boxes and crates. Above them, damp clothes hung on shoelaces attached to the ceiling, resembling a spider's web. The soldiers gathered around us on benches, while others remained seated on their makeshift "beds". We started our conversation. Among them was a man around 60 years old. His face bore the marks of war exhaustion. When Bishop Valeriy Antonyuk mentioned Satan during the conversation, everyone burst into laughter. We couldn't understand the reason for their reaction at first. Later, the commander explained that the soldier sitting near us had the call sign "Satan". The defender, who identified as Satan, turned our conversation into an engaging discussion with his thought-provoking questions and comments. He started by calling himself an agnostic, later claimed that Buddhism was the best religion, and insisted that Satan never forced anyone to do evil. Instead, he argued that Satan always provided people with a choice. He claimed that Satan was a son of God who simply disobeyed his Father, asserting that Satan never lied and does not deceive people today. He challenged us to question God: Why war? Why bloodshed? Why do children die? Throughout the meeting, this soldier truly resembled the character of Satan in some ways. Father Vasyl took the Bible and read the account of how Eve and Adam were deceived making the beginning of lies. The following discussion was lively and profound, as we delved into existential questions. "Satan" then shared the story behind his call sign. He was from Luhansk, now occupied by the Russians. His parents remained there, supporting the enemy as separatists. He said he disobeyed his father and was forced to leave, and now he no longer communicates with his parents. As he spoke, every word carried deep pain. I read a passage from Psalm 119, verses 8494. A heavy silence fell over the room. At the end of our meeting, we suggested praying together. The prayer was heartfelt, given the intense atmosphere. Here we were, in a dark hangar, discussing Satan while bombs exploded outside. As soon as the prayer ended, 'Satan' asked aloud, "Can I have a Bible?" Father Vasyl gave him one as a gift. The soldier then asked if he could hug each of us. War had stolen his parents and his hometown. The pain he felt was unbearable. As we said our goodbyes, another soldier shared his story. He, too, was from Luhansk. His parents supported Ukraine and paid the ultimate price. They died during the battles when the enemy seized the Luhansk region. Quietly, he asked, "I don't have the call sign Satan, but could I have a Bible too?" He added, "I've never owned one, but my mother used to read it to me when I was a child." His name was Ilya, and he was 52 years old. As we walked back to the vehicle, Bishop Valeriy Antonyuk turned to 'Satan', who was seeing us off, clutching the Bible tightly. "We're giving you a new call sign," the bishop said. "Moses". Moldova pentru Educatie: Liceul Teoretic O. Ghibu din Orhei va avea unul dintre cele mai moderne blocuri alimentare din tara EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY Chemonics International Inc., a leader in international development and fostering sustainable and inclusive growth worldwide, announces an opening for a Communications Specialists role within USAID Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity (RCRA) in Moldova (the project). The goal of RCRA is to stimulate a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the regional crisis brought on by the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine and accelerate an inclusive, climate-resilient economic development of rural Moldova by protecting the development gains made with USAID support over the past decade and further stimulate the competitiveness of key economic sectors, including the wine industry, high-value agriculture, and tourism. Moldova RCRA is implemented by USAID contractor Chemonics International Inc. (www.chemonics.com), a U.S.-based international consulting firm providing expertise in developing and emerging-market countries since 1975. About the role: As Communications Specialist, you will spotlight RCRAs achievements and shape public narratives around Moldovas key sectorswine, high-value agriculture (HVA), and tourism. Through creative storytelling, campaigns, and events, you will promote the projects impact across media and digital platforms. You will manage media outreach, build partnerships with stakeholders, oversee social media presence, and ensure all communications align with USAID branding. As part of the communications team, you will prepare compelling reports, support partner communications, and drive communication strategies that engage diverse audiences. This role offers a unique opportunity to lead impactful communications and help transform Moldovas rural economy. Key responsibilities Media Outreach & Strategic Partnerships Social Media & Digital Presence Content Creation, Reporting & Design Vendors Coordination Branding, Compliance & Quality Control Training & Capacity Building Required Skills and Qualifications Join Us: If you are ready to make a difference and contribute to the development of rural Moldova, we would love to hear from you. Please email your CV and cover letter in English to MDA-RCRA-Recruit@chemonics.md with Communications Specialist in the subject line by January 15, 2025. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis so early applications are encouraged. Chemonics values diversity and inclusivity, committed to creating a dynamic work environment that respects all backgrounds and perspectives. While we appreciate all applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Development works here. Alte articole de la acest autor: Maryland is suing the company that produces the waterproof material Gore-Tex often used for raincoats and other outdoor gear, alleging its leaders kept using forever chemicals long after learning about serious health risks associated with them. The complaint, which was filed last week in federal court, focuses on a cluster of 13 facilities in northeastern Maryland operated by Delaware-based W.L. Gore & Associates. It alleges the company polluted the air and water around its facilities with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, jeopardizing the health of surrounding communities while raking in profits. The lawsuit adds to other claims filed in recent years, including a class action on behalf of Cecil County residents in 2023 demanding Gore foot the bill for water filtration systems, medical bills and other damages associated with decades of harmful pollution in the largely rural community. PFAS are linked to cancer, weakened immune systems, and can even harm the ability to bear children, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement. It is unacceptable for any company to knowingly contaminate our drinking water with these toxins, putting Marylanders at risk of severe health conditions. Gore spokesperson Donna Leinwand Leger said the company is surprised by the Maryland Attorney Generals decision to initiate legal action, particularly in light of our proactive and intensive engagement with state regulators over the past two years. We have been working with Maryland, employing the most current, reliable science and technology to assess the potential impact of our operations and guide our ongoing, collaborative efforts to protect the environment, the company said in a statement, noting a Dec. 18 report that contains nearly two years of groundwater testing results. But attorney Philip Federico, who represents plaintiffs in the class action and other lawsuits against Gore, called the companys efforts too little, much too late. In the meantime, he said, residents are continuing to suffer one of his clients was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer. Its typical corporate environmental contamination, he said. Theyre in no hurry to fix the problem. The synthetic chemicals are especially harmful because theyre nearly indestructible and can build up in various environments, including the human body. In addition to cancers and immune system problems, exposure to certain levels of PFAS has been linked to increased cholesterol levels, reproductive health issues and developmental delays in children, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Gore leaders failed to warn people living near its Maryland facilities about the potential impacts, hoping to protect their corporate image and avoid liability, according to the states lawsuit. The result has been a toxic legacy for generations to come, the lawsuit alleges. Since the chemicals are already in the local environment, protecting residents now often means installing complex and expensive water filtration systems. People with private wells have found highly elevated levels of dangerous chemicals in their water, according to the class action lawsuit. The Maryland facilities are located in a rural area just across the border from Delaware, where Gore has become a longtime fixture in the community. The company, which today employs more than 13,000 people, was founded in 1958 after Wilbert Gore left the chemical giant DuPont to start his own business. Its profile rose with the development of Gore-Tex, a lightweight waterproof material created by stretching polytetrafluoroethylene, which is better known by the brand name Teflon thats used to coat nonstick pans. The membrane within Gore-Tex fabric has billions of pores that are smaller than water droplets, making it especially effective for outdoor gear. The states complaint traces Gores longstanding relationship with DuPont, arguing that information about the chemicals dangers was long known within both companies as they sought to keep things quiet and boost profits. It alleges that as early as 1961, DuPont scientists knew the chemical caused adverse liver reactions in rats and dogs. DuPont has faced widespread litigation in recent years. Along with two spinoff companies, it announced a $1.18 billion deal last year to resolve complaints of polluting many U.S. drinking water systems with forever chemicals. The Maryland lawsuit seeks to hold Gore responsible for costs associated with the states ongoing investigations and cleanup efforts, among other damages. State oversight has ramped up following litigation from residents alleging their drinking water was contaminated. Until then, the company operated in Cecil County with little scrutiny. Gore announced in 2014 that it had eliminated perfluorooctanoic acid from the raw materials used to create Gore-Tex. But its still causing long-term impacts because it persists for so long in the environment, attorneys say. Over the past two years, Gore has hired an environmental consulting firm to conduct testing in the area and provided bottled water and water filtration systems to residents near certain Maryland facilities, according to a webpage describing its efforts. Recent testing of drinking water at residences near certain Gore sites revealed perfluorooctanoic acid levels well above what the EPA considers safe, according to state officials. Attorneys for the state acknowledged Gores ongoing efforts to investigate and address the problem but said the company needs to step up and be a better neighbor. While we appreciate Gores limited investigation to ascertain the extent of PFAS contamination around its facilities, much more needs to be done to protect the community and the health of residents, Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain said in a statement. We must remove these forever chemicals from our natural resources urgently, and we expect responsible parties to pay for this remediation. Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Israel warned Wednesday that it will intensify its strikes in Gaza if Hamas keeps up its rocket fire, as Palestinian rescuers reported dozens of deaths from Israeli strikes on the first day of the New Year. Over the past week, Palestinian militants have repeatedly fired rockets at Israel, particularly from northern Gaza, where the Israeli military is conducting a major offensive. The rockets have caused little damage and have been fired in far smaller numbers than in the early stages of the war, but they have been a political blow for the Israeli government after nearly 15 months of fighting. "I want to send a clear message from here to the heads of the terrorists in Gaza: If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza... and continues firing at Israeli communities, it will face blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time," Defence Minister Israel Katz said. His warning came after a visit to the Israeli town of Netivot, which was recently targeted by rocket fire from nearby Gaza. Palestinian militants are still holding 96 hostages seized during their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and successive rounds of negotiations for their release and a ceasefire have all failed. Israeli strikes continued across Gaza on Wednesday. "The world welcomed the New Year with celebrations and festivities, while we witnessed 2025 begin with the first Israeli massacre in the town of Jabalia just after midnight," Gaza's civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. "Fifteen people were martyred and more than 20 were injured" in the strike on a house where displaced people were living, he said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported strike. Since October 6, the military has been conducting a major land and air offensive in northern Gaza, particularly targeting Jabalia and its adjacent refugee camp. The military says the operation is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping in the area. But on Monday UN human rights experts said the "siege" appears to be part of an effort "to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza's annexation". Bassal said those living in the house were members of the Badra, Abu Warda and Taroush families who had sought refuge there. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once since the war began on October 7 last year. "The house has turned into a pile of debris," said Jibri Abu Warda, a relative of the victims, adding that the strike hit at around 1:00 am (2300 GMT Tuesday). "It was a massacre, with body parts of children and women scattered everywhere. They were sleeping when the house was bombed," Abu Warda said. "No one knows why they targeted the house. They were all civilians." Women wept over shrouded bodies in the morgue of the Al-Mamadani Hospital, some of them those of children. "We don't want aid, we want the war to stop. Enough with the bloodshed! Enough!" said Khalil Abu Warda, another relative. The Israeli assault, which began on October 6 in Jabalia, has since expanded across the north of the territory. On Friday, the military raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, emptying it of its last staff and patients. The army said it had killed more than 20 suspected militants and detained more than 240, including the hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, it described as a suspected Hamas militant. "Around me there's nothing but rubble and destruction. People don't know what to do, don't know where to go. And they don't know how to survive," said Jonathan Whittall, a UN aid official in a video released after he visited the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza. The Israeli military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centres, an allegation the militant group denies. A report published Tuesday by the UN Human Rights Office said "insufficient information" has been made available to substantiate "vague" Israeli accusations of military use of hospitals. Two further Israeli strikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed another 10 people, rescuers said. The bombardment piled further misery on displaced Gazans already struggling to keeping warm amid wintry conditions. "For three days, we haven't slept out of fear that our children would fall sick because of the winter, as well as fear of missiles falling on us," said one displaced woman, Samah Darabieh. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,553 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable. A federal judge in Connecticut refused to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing the former Nestle Waters North America of defrauding consumers by labeling its Poland Spring bottled water as spring water. While rejecting some claims in the proposed class action, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer in New Haven called it an open question whether Poland Spring qualified as spring water under the laws of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Poland Spring is now owned by Primo Brands PRMB.N, following multiple corporate transactions. The Tampa, Florida-based company had no immediate comment on Tuesday. Consumers sued Nestle Waters, then owned by Nestle NESN.S, in 2017, saying it deceived them into overpaying for Poland Spring with labels declaring it to be Natural Spring Water or 100% Natural Spring Water. The plaintiffs said not one drop of the 1 billion gallons sold annually in the United States came from a natural spring, and that the actual Poland Spring in Maine ran dry two decades before Nestle bought the brand in 1992. In seeking a dismissal, Nestle Waters said geologists and officials in the eight states agreed that Poland Spring complied with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule defining spring water, and each state authorized its sale as spring water. But the judge cited a former Syracuse University earth sciences professor hired by the plaintiffs, who said Nestle Waters appeared to use man-made springs and extracted pond water and other surface water instead of true spring water. Meyer agreed with Nestle Waters that the plaintiffs lacked standing to demand new labels, because they now knew the alleged truth about Poland Spring and could buy other brands of water. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nestle Waters had been Nestles North American bottled water business. Nestle sold it in 2021 to two private equity firms, which renamed it BlueTriton. That company merged in November with the former Primo Water to form Primo Brands. The case is Patane v. Nestle Waters North America Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 17-01381. (Reporting by Stempel in New YorkEditing by Nick Zieminski) Commercial aviation has suffered its deadliest year since 2018 after the Jeju Air Co. disaster in South Korea and last weeks downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Fatalities onboard passenger aircraft jumped to 318 this year with the two recent accidents, data compiled by Cirium shows. Thats by far the highest death toll since more than 500 people died in 2018, a year marked by the first of two Boeing Co. 737 Max crashes. This year started and ended with tragedies in Japan and South Korea during attempted landings, among the most dangerous phases of flight. Fatal aviation accidents remain very rare, and one major incident can suddenly turn a statistically safe year into one of the worst. The recent spike falls into the margins of unpredictability, said Darren Straker, a former head of air accident investigation units in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. He suggested airline crews could be better trained to respond to so-called outlier events. Investigators have yet to determine why a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 a predecessor to the Max careered down the runway at Muan International Airport early Sunday with no landing gear deployed and smashed into a concrete wall. All but two of the 181 people on board died as the wrecked jet exploded into a ball of fire. The fatal Jeju Air crash was the airlines first, and ranks as the worst civil air accident ever in South Korea. As the plane neared the airport, one of the pilots reported a bird strike, declared a mayday and initiated a fly-around procedure, according to Korean transport ministry officials. The plane then turned back and attempted to land in the opposite direction, with the barrier in its path at that end of the runway. While it seems increasingly evident a bird strike was an initiator of this tragic chain of events, what happened next is less clear, said Jeff Guzzetti, a former accident investigation chief for the US Federal Aviation Administration. Key questions include why flaps werent extended that could have slowed the plane down, and why the landing gear wasnt lowered, Guzzetti said. If birds damaged both of the engines, that could have caused a loss of power affecting those other systems, he said. Members of South Korean Army comb through a field at the crash site of Jeju Air Flight 2216 at Muan International Airport on Dec. 30. If you have both engines out or even one engine theres going to be lots of cautions and warnings and bells and whistles going off in the cockpit, he said. And that can really challenge a flight crew. While the Jeju Air aircraft was almost entirely destroyed, investigators will have valuable data to work with as they reconstruct the event. The damaged flight data device may take longer to analyze than the cockpit voice recorder. After another Jeju plane experienced a landing-gear issue, Korean authorities on Monday ordered maintenance record checks of 101 other 737-800s in operation among local airlines. Boeing shares fell 1.8% as of 1:08 p.m. in New York, bringing their 2024 decline to 32%. The wider inspections came as investigators started to analyze the cockpit voice recorder and the damaged flight data device, which hold crucial clues into the movements of the jet and the actions and state of the pilots. In January, a huge Japan Airlines Co. jet collided with a coastguard plane at Tokyos Haneda Airport. Everyone aboard the commercial jetliner survived, but five people on the smaller aircraft were killed. The year was also marred by a fatal case of severe turbulence in May on a Singapore Airlines Ltd. jet flying over Myanmar. In July, Nepals Saurya Airlines crashed after taking off from Kathmandu, killing 18. And in August dramatic footage of a plane operated by Brazilian airline VoePass captured the turboprop freefalling from the sky after encountering icy weather conditions. That accident killed 62. Global conflicts may also have contributed to this years aviation fatalities. The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer SA 190 had nearly completed a scheduled flight from the capital city of Baku to Grozny, Russia, on Dec. 25 when it was suddenly diverted across the Caspian Sea. The damaged plane crashed about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from its destination of Aktau, Kazakhstan. Azerbaijans president has said the plane was accidentally shot down by Russia. The spike in fatalities marks a reversal from 2023, which became the safest year ever in aviation with no deaths among large passenger jetliners typically planes made by Airbus SE and Boeing. Airline safety has been improving for decades as regulators, manufacturers and carriers incorporate lessons learned to minimize accidents and improve the chances of survival when things go wrong. Fire-repelling designs on the carbon-hulled Airbus A350 involved in Januarys Tokyo crash, for example, combined with near-flawless execution by the JAL crew and rescue team to allow all 379 people onboard to survive. Its best to look at aviation safety over decade-long periods, said Jan-Arwed Richter, an aviation safety consultant who runs the Jacdec research site in Hamburg, Germany. Im pretty confident that 2024 may be regarded as an outlier in years to come, he said. Top photo: The tail of Jeju Air plane at the site of a plane fire at Muan International Airport, South Korea, on Dec. 29. Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In Praxis Fiber Workshops bright and colorful studio in the Waterloo Arts District on a cloudy November morning, a group of Afghan refugee women gathers around looms to learn and practice weaving for three hours. The class isnt about crafting a table runner, a pillow or a piece of art. Its purpose runs deeper: to create a sense of belonging and help them adjust to their new lives in Cleveland. In the many months it takes for their paperwork and everything else to go through, theres a lot of sitting and waiting, along with mental health and other problems that come with being disoriented and displaced, said their instructor, Jessica Pinsky, the executive director at Praxis. We wanted to provide a program that would be about feeling good and community. The five-week workshop is now in its third round. The first class consisted of Congolese refugee women, while Afghan women have attended the last two. The program is a collaboration between Praxis and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), a nonprofit that advocates for the rights and needs of refugees and immigrants. A member of the Praxis community, who also volunteers at USCRI, connected the two organizations. Both immediately recognized the benefits. Weaving has these therapeutic qualities, Pinsky explained. It involves repetition, and its also very tactile. Youre touching soft things, and that makes your brain feel good. The repetitive nature of weaving can calm the mind, too, she said. Theres something about that action that makes it hard to think about other things. Its incredibly meditative. Pinsky, an adjunct professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, founded Praxis in 2015 after the college downsized its fiber and material studies department. She brought the programs looms to her new endeavor, opening a space to serve CIA students and the neighborhood. During each round of classes, Pinsky and the USCRI have seen the power of the ancient art form to spark human connection. Rachel Rogers, one of a trio of occupational therapists at USCRI who crisscross the region every week, picking up the women and driving them to the studio, said the refugees often exchange phone numbers and invite each other to their homes, even sometimes when they dont speak the same language. This class provides a sense of belonging for them, to be able to be with people from the same culture, she noted. The ladies enjoy their time here. You can just tell by their body language and smiles. Laila Fazly, an interpreter with USCRI, relays instructions to a group of Afghan refugee women learning weaving at Praxis Fiber Workshop in Cleveland.Joey Morona A group of Afghan refugee women spent five weeks learning how to weave at Praxis Fiber Workshop, creating pieces like a table runner, pillow, baby's hat and more.Rachel Rogers, USCRI Most of the students declined to be interviewed and photographed for this story in part due to concerns over their safety a sobering reminder of the challenges theyve endured. One exception was Qudsia Shukran, a 34-year-old Afghan who arrived in Cleveland five months ago. I come (to Praxis) because I want to be busy and meet friends, she said through an interpreter. I also want to learn something new because in Afghanistan we dont have these things. Its new for me, and I enjoy it a lot. Interest in the course has grown beyond the available looms. So, Pinsky invited the USCRI to bring refugees who simply wanted to sit around in a circle in the studios gallery, where they could knit, crochet or chat. A dozen women showed up to a recent class. Half weaved, and half socialized. Theres a need for them to feel calm and relaxed even for a few moments in the week, Pinsky said. Weve become a safe place and a welcome space, which can be rare for them to find. Funding for the program has been approved through July. Beyond that, its future is uncertain. Darren Hamm, the field office director at USCRIs Cleveland branch, said the organization is anticipating a significant drop in refugee admissions and processing in 2025 following the outcome of the election. We will continue to monitor new policies and will adjust our programming accordingly, he shared in a statement to cleveland.com. For over 40 years, the American people have welcomed refugees from around the world, holding our place among nations as a beacon of hope and freedom. We look forward to continuing this work together with a community of supporters to keep Northeast Ohio a welcoming place for newcomers. Rogers, the OSCRI occupational therapist, hopes programs like this remind Clevelanders of the citys diversity and underscore the value of supporting refugees. Its important to continue to advocate for services that make people feel they belong and empower them to improve their well-being, she added. Listening to Pinsky talk about the experience, its clear that she has been profoundly moved by the opportunity to get to know this unique group of students and teach them a new skill. One of the Congolese women said to me, This is what I want to do for work, she recalled. The comment resonated with Pinsky and got her thinking about potential ways Praxis and USCRI could team up to provide resources beyond weaving and sustain the community she helped nurture after class is dismissed. With apartments above the studio and plans underway for a Praxis retail store, she wonders if the partnership could be expanded to include housing, workforce training and jobs. I want them to be here forever, Pinsky said. But she has already made a difference. The response to the class has been so positive that the USCRI purchased looms for its office, providing the refugees with a convenient space to continue weaving. The goal is for them to maintain the skills, mindfulness and friendships cultivated in the studio as they rebuild their lives a world away from their war-torn home country. Cleveland is a new place for me, but Im happy, said Shukran, one of the weaving students. Were trying to learn how to live in the United States, and I want to know everything about the United States. Ten people were shot late Wednesday night when several men opened fire on a crowd waiting outside a music venue in Queens, New York, according to the New York Police Department. The incident occurred at 11:18 p.m., as officers received reports of multiple gunshot victims outside an event space, Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said during a Thursday press conference. Inside the venue, 90 people filled the building to capacity, while approximately 15 others were waiting in line to enter. According to Rivera, three to four males approached the group outside and began shooting. The victims, identified as six females and four males, were transported to nearby hospitals. None of the injuries are considered life-threatening, and all victims are expected to recover. A large police and ambulance presence was observed outside the Amazura nightclub, a venue with a capacity of 4,000 people that frequently hosts DJs and live performances. Authorities are investigating the possibility that the shooting was gang-related, according to Rivera, who clarified that the incident was not a terrorist attack. Southern Ontario is expected to experience heavy snow on Thursday, with some areas potentially receiving up to 60 centimetres. Environment Canada has issued snow squall warnings for the early morning hours. Regions such as Newmarket, Barrie, Kitchener, Owen Sound, and Orillia are under heavy snowfall warnings, with at least 20 centimetres expected. Weather advisories have also been issued for areas like Hamilton, Guelph, and Caledon, where 5 to 10 centimetres of snow and reduced visibility are anticipated. Flurries overnight are expected to intensify into lake-effect snow squalls early Thursday morning, continuing through the evening. Environment Canada has issued warnings for wind gusts of up to 60 kilometres per hour, which could lead to blowing snow and reduced visibility. Driving conditions are expected to be hazardous, as snow squalls can cause severe and highly variable weather. The weather agency advises travelers to be cautious, as road conditions will change quickly. In Toronto, while no specific weather alerts have been issued, there is a 70% chance of flurries throughout the day, with winds expected to reach around 30 kilometres per hour. watch now Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day: 1. New beginnings Stock futures were higher on the first trading day of 2025. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.6% higher, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.8% and Nasdaq-100 futures gained 1%. Still, it's not looking good for the traditional "Santa Claus rally" in which stocks usually advance in the five final days of a calendar year and the first two trading days of January since the averages suffered into the 2024 year-end. Follow live market updates. 2. Closure An exterior view of the Wendy's restaurant in Muncy. Paul Weaver | Lightrocket | Getty Images It was a tough year for restaurants, as inflation-fatigued Americans stayed home and visits to U.S. eateries broadly fell. Twenty-six restaurant companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024, and scores of chains closed down locations. The likes of Wendy's , Denny's and Applebee's were among the hardest hit. Here's who else saw their footprint shrink last year. 3. Holdovers Realtor.com ranked the hottest housing markets in the United States. Feverpitched | Istock | Getty Images The U.S. housing market has strong supply but that's not necessarily a good sign. Active listings in November were up 12% year over year, largely because houses are staying on the market longer, according to data from Redfin. More than half of the homes listed in November had been up for sale for at least 60 days, the highest share for any November in five years. As one Redfin agent put it: "A lot of listings on the market are either stale or uninhabitable. There's a lot of inventory, but it doesn't feel like enough." 4. New challenge Customers are seen at an Apple Store near Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, China, on Sept. 18, 2024. Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images Apple is facing stiff competition from Huawei in China. Shipments of Apple smartphones fell 6% year over year in China during the third quarter, according to Canalys, while shipments of Huawei devices jumped 24% year over year. In response, Apple is offering discounts on some products in the all-important market around the upcoming Chinese New Year as much as 500 Chinese yuan ($68.50) off its top-line phones. 5. New Year's Day violence FBI investigators arrive at the scene where the white Ford F-150 pickup truck that crashed into a work lift after allegedly driving into a crowd of New Year's revelers in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 1, 2025. Matthew Hinton | Afp | Getty Images It's been a topsy-turvy last year for the euro zone with its largest economies, Germany and France, seeing political and economic turbulence that means neither has a budget in place for 2025. Economists say the trajectory for both countries is worrying, warning that the absence of growth, fiscal imbalances and political intransigence could lead to decline and a loss of standing for Europe, as a whole. "The situation today is different from the earlier [sovereign debt] crisis insofar as Europe's most acute problems are no longer concentrated in smaller economies like Greece. Instead, it is Europe's two most important economies that are struggling," Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics said in analysis in December. "Europe faces ongoing decline without fundamental reform at its core," Shearing said, noting that if this is not carried out, "it is difficult to escape the conclusion that Europe's future is one of very low growth, continuing concerns about fiscal sustainability and a dwindling sense of standing in a world increasingly characterised by a superpower rivalry between the U.S. and China." As it stands, neither France nor Germany has a 2025 budget in place amid political infighting that ultimately brought down their governments. New elections are set to take place in Germany in February, and analysts are placing bets on new parliamentary elections in France next summer. The countries are now operating with provisional budgets, after rolling over their 2024 taxation and spending provisions into this year, and it's uncertain when either will agree a 2025 budget. France and Germany contend with different economic challenges, reflecting both the dangers of overspending and of underspending. France had a budget deficit estimated to hit 6.1% and a debt pile seen at 112% in 2024, according to the IMF. The new government under Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is expected to struggle to get warring deputies on all sides to pass a 2025 budget, just as did his predecessor Michel Barnier. A police officer escorts Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon after he served a sentence for document forgery in Podgorica, Montenegro, March 23, 2024. Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to U.S. criminal fraud charges, after being extradited from Montenegro this week. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Kwon, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, in March 2023 with two counts each of securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy. An updated 79-page indictment filed on Thursday added a count of money laundering conspiracy. Kwon, 33,entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger in Manhattan federal court. He had agreed last June to pay an $80 million civil fine and be banned from crypto transactions as part of a $4.55 billion settlement that he and Terraform reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In Thursday's indictment, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office alleged Kwon misled investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. Kwon allegedly told investors a computer algorithm known as "Terra Protocol" had restored the coin's value when it slipped below its peg in May 2021, when in fact he arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price. Prosecutors said that false claim and others drove retail and institutional investors to buy Terraform products and boost the value of Luna, a more traditional token developed by Kwon that fluctuated in value but was closely linked to TerraUSD, to $50 billion by the spring of 2022. "Much of this growth followed Kwon's brazen deceptions about Terraform and its technology," the indictment said. When TerraUSD's value began sliding again in May 2022, the trading firm warned that propping it up "wasn't so simple this time," according to the indictment. TerraUSD and Luna crashed that month, dragging down the value of other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, and caused wider havoc in the crypto market. Prosecutors did not identify the trading firm, but it matches the description of Jump Trading, which SEC lawyers said in their civil case had propped up TerraUSD in May 2021. Jump did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a trial on the SEC's claims, a federal jury in Manhattan found Kwon and Terraform liable last April for defrauding cryptocurrency investors. A lawyer for Terraform said in closing arguments in that trial that Terraform and Kwon had been truthful about their products and how they worked, even when they failed. Kwon did not attend that trial because he had been detained in Montenegro since March 2023. Terraform declared bankruptcy last January. Kwon is one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies. As the final installment of our three-part "Dogs of the Dow/S & P 500" series of articles, we're following up on Monday's trade idea in ConocoPhillips , an idea for an "oil" company of another variety. Rather than an energy sector oil/petroleum company, this time, we're discussing a consumer staple that makes edible oils. Bunge Global is one of the world's largest traders and processors of grains and oilseeds, such as soybeans, corn, wheat and sunflower seeds. It supplies raw materials for food production, animal feed, and renewable energy. The agribusiness segment represented over 71% of the company's total revenue last year. Nearly 25% of the company's revenue is from producing edible vegetable oils for cooking, baking, and industrial purposes. The rest of the business is milling, sugar and bioenergy. BG YTD mountain Bunge Global in 2024 Bunge competes with other major agribusinesses, such as Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland and Louis Dreyfus Company. These four companies are collectively known as the "ABCD" of global agribusiness. The industry landscape hasn't been particularly favorable over the past few years. Bunge is down more than 20% this year and nearly 40% since its all-time high in April 2022. The company's proposed acquisition of Dutch private agriculture products company Viterra, initially announced in June 2023 , was delayed. Assuming the companies receive the requisite government approvals, the acquisition would broaden Bunge's footprint. The "Dogs" strategy attempts to take a contrarian position by identifying out-of-favor stocks, and Bunge certainly qualifies as out of favor. One reason? Crush margins. Crush margins refer to the profit margin that processors (or crushers) earn when converting raw soybeans (or other oilseeds) into their derivative products: soybean meal and soybean oil. They are a critical metric in the agricultural and commodity trading industries, as they measure the profitability of processing soybeans, and lately, they've been falling. In contrast to the challenging environment, the stock already reflects negative news. With forward earnings estimates at just 8.7 times, Bunge is valued at a 12% discount compared to its historical average. Presently, Bunge offers a projected 12-month dividend yield of 3.5%, and the company has a strong track record of consistently increasing its dividend. The options trade Uncertainty over fundamental drivers, such as falling crush margins, has also contributed to premiums for higher-than-average options. Thus, investors doing buy-writes or covered calls can enhance their dividend yield by selling some upside options premium. For example, the January 82.5 buy-write, where one would purchase the shares at about $79 and sell the 4.4% out-of-the-money upside call for $1, offers a standstill yield of nearly 1.3% (the standstill yield is the premium collected divided by the current stock price), while also offering more than 4% upside price appreciation potential. Dividends and buy-writes in agribusiness, fracking and real estate investment trusts may not be as exciting as buying calls in high-flying stocks like MicroStrategy and Palantir Technologies . Still, they serve another critical role: portfolio diversification. If or perhaps more accurately, when the highest-flying stocks suffer a correction, the income-producing constituents of your portfolio may provide some welcome stability. DISCLOSURES: (None) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THE ABOVE CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY . THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL'S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. Click here for the full disclaimer. An impending decision on the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google could mean a pullback for Alphabet shares in the coming months, according to Citizens JMP. The firm downgraded the tech giant to market perform from market outperform, citing the risk of antitrust penalties that it believes could "significantly impact" Google's U.S. distribution of search and its revenue. The move comes after a federal judge ruled in August 2024 that the company illegally held a monopoly in both search and text advertising . Following that ruling, the DOJ has called for Google to divest its Chrome browser as a remedy. "With a final ruling expected by August 2025, we expect this case to be a primary focus for investors in the year ahead, limiting multiple expansion," analyst Andrew Boone wrote in a Thursday note to clients. Adding that there hasn't been a "good" remedy presented to the judge, Boone said there is an increased risk that any punishment against the tech company will be "severe." With that in mind, he sees the court possibly forcing Google to break up Android and Chrome and prevent the company from offering revenue share payments. "With a best-case scenario likely limiting Google's ability to offer revenue share contracts for distribution of search in the U.S., we are comfortable moving to the sidelines after shares returned 37% in 2024 as we await greater legal clarity before becoming positive again, and see shares as fairly valued," the analyst continued. As a result, Boone thinks Google losing search access point distribution could shave $1.15 from 2026 earnings per share. A majority of analysts on Wall Street are still bullish on Alphabet. Of the 58 that are covering the megacap tech company, 47 have a strong buy or buy rating, per LSEG data. Its average target of roughly $208 implies nearly 10% upside from Tuesday's close. Over the past 12 months, the stock has outperformed the broader market, gaining around 37%. Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, speaks during The New York Times' annual DealBook Summit in New York City, Dec. 4, 2024. Billionaire investor Ken Griffin's handful of hedge funds at Citadel all posted double-digit returns in 2024, led by its tactical trading strategy. Citadel's multistrategy Wellington fund, its largest, finished the year up 15.1%, according to a person familiar with the returns. All five strategies used in the flagship fund commodities, equities, fixed income, credit and quantitative were positive for the year, the person said. The Miami-based firm's tactical trading fund was the standout performer, with a 22.3% return for 2024, the person said. Citadel's equity fund returned about 18%, while its global fixed income strategy gained 9.7%. Citadel declined to comment. The hedge-fund giant had $66 billion in assets under management as of December. The stock market just closed out a banner year with the S&P 500 surging 23.3%, building on a gain of 24.2% in 2023. The two-year gain of 53% is the best since the nearly 66% rally in 1997 and 1998. Griffin recently criticized the steep tariffs President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to implement, saying crony capitalism could be a consequence. The CEO also said he's not focused on taking Citadel Securities public in the foreseeable future. The securities firm is a Miami-based market maker founded by the 56-year-old Florida native in 2002. CNBC is now accepting applications for the 2025 Disruptor 50 list our thirteenth annual look at the most innovative venture-backed companies using breakthrough technology to meet increasing economic and consumer challenges. The deadline for submissions is Monday, Feb. 10 at 11:59 pm EST. All independent, privately-owned companies founded after Jan. 1, 2010, are eligible, and any company founder or executive, investor in the company, or any of their communications representatives can access and submit an application. Nominees will be put through a comprehensive and rigorous process of researching and scoring across a wide range of quantitative and qualitative criteria, including scalability, revenue and user growth, and the use of breakthrough technology. Naturally, this means AI. Last year, roughly two-thirds of the 50 companies making the Disruptor 50 list describe artificial intelligence as "critical" to their businesses, including OpenAI, which has topped the list for the past 2 years. But this also means that one third of last year's Disruptors were NOT AI companies, and the 2025 list will also honor market-changing innovations in food, energy, financial services and other industries where some disruptions have been less dependent on the generative AI boom. CNBC's two advisory boards one made up of leading academic thinkers in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, the other a group of top-tier venture capitalists - will provide weighting for the quantitative criteria underpinning the list's proprietary methodology that has made the Disruptor 50 recognition a gold standard in the startup community. The quantitative score is combined with a qualitative assessment and editorial review, performed by CNBC staff, who read every submission on the way to finalizing the selection of this year's fifty. 2025 honorees will be notified in April, and the list will be released in June across CNBC's TV, digital and social platforms In a series of videos, the suspect behind the deadly New Year's attack in New Orleans detailed plans to kill his family and described dreams that allegedly motivated him to join ISIS, according to officials familiar with the investigation. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran and Texas-born U.S. citizen, is accused of driving a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Authorities believe Jabbar recorded the disturbing videos while traveling from Texas to Louisiana, CNN reported. In the recordings, Jabbar reportedly referenced his divorce and admitted that he initially intended to gather his family for a "celebration" with plans to kill them, officials said. However, he claimed to have changed his plans after experiencing dreams that he interpreted as signs to join ISIS, according to the officials. The videos, which have not been independently verified, were reportedly recorded at night while Jabbar was driving, though the exact timeline remains uncertain, officials said. Jabbar killed himself after ramming his truck into a crowd in the early hours of New Year's Day. Authorities found potential improvised explosive devices and an ISIS flag in the vehicle, according to local and federal officials. Now, law enforcement is analyzing the videos Jabbar created as they work to uncover how he transitioned from a military veteran to the suspect behind a deadly rampage. According to reports, he had an Islamic State flag on the car that he used to ram into a crowd. Court documents from a U.S. district court in North Carolina, obtained by CNN, reveal that in November 2014, Jabbar was charged with driving under the influence of an impairing substance. His blood alcohol level exceeded the legal limit at the time. The documents also indicate that Jabbar was driving with "an open container of alcoholic beverage after he consumed alcohol." An image of Matthew Alan Livelsberger is displayed on a monitor as Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill speaks about the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded on New Year's Day in front of the entrance to the Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas during a news conference at LVMPD headquarters on January 02, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ethan Miller | Getty Images Authorities said Thursday that their investigation into an explosion that rattled the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and killed one person had narrowed in on a decorated U.S. Army soldier, but that key details including a motive for the incident remained elusive. At a news conference, officials said that identification belonging to the soldier, Matthew Alan Livelsberger, was found at the scene, where a Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames after an improvised explosive was detonated in the truck's bed. Livelsberger had rented the Cybertruck through the online platform Turo. Before the news conference, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News that it was Livelsberger who had died. Clark County/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill acknowledged speculation on social media surrounding Livelsberger, 37, a master sergeant in the U.S. Army's elite special forces unit and resident of Colorado Springs, but said there was no immediate indication that he was working as part of a larger operation. "We don't believe there's any further threat or anyone associated with him in Las Vegas," McMahill told reporters. Authorities said a military ID, a passport and credit cards found at the scene were in Livelsberger's name, but that the body in the Cybertruck was "burned beyond recognition." Investigators are still awaiting DNA or medical record confirmation of the body's identity, but had other evidence indicating Livelsberger had died, including tattoos on the body's stomach and arms. Authorities also recovered two handguns, including a .50-caliber Desert Eagle and a semiautomatic pistol. The remains of a Tesla Cybertruck that burned at the entrance of Trump Tower, are inspected in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 1, 2025. Ronda Churchill | Reuters The body recovered from the Cybertruck sustained an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, McMahill said, adding that one of the weapons was found at the body's feet. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the guns were traced back to Livelsberger, who lawfully purchased them on Dec. 30. ATF officials said they are still investigating the explosive device and sifting through debris, but the components appear to include consumer-grade fireworks, mortars and aerial shells. The incident was being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, three senior law enforcement members said Wednesday. Spencer Evans, a special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas field office, said Thursday that officials have been vetting tips, one of which was "alluding to this person's experiences related to his time in the military." An Army spokesperson said Livelsberger was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and on approved leave from his base in Germany. He first entered the Army in 2006, re-entered active duty in December 2012 and was a Green Beret candidate after serving in the National Guard and the Army Reserve. Earlier Thursday, federal law enforcement agents began searching a residence in Colorado Springs connected with the case and were expected to be on-site for several hours, the agency said in a statement. "This activity is related to the explosion in Las Vegas," the FBI said on X, declining to provide further details. The blast in Las Vegas came just hours after a driver plowed a pickup truck into New Year's Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 14 and injuring more than 30 others before being shot dead by police. A flag of the Islamic State terrorist group was found in the back of the pickup truck. The driver in New Orleans was identified Wednesday as a U.S. Army veteran from Texas, and officials said they believe he acted alone. Livelsberger's long military career included deployments to the Republic of Congo in 2014, Ukraine in 2016, Tajikistan in 2016 and Afghanistan in 2017, 2018 and 2019. "The military gave him several honors, including multiple Bronze Star medals, at least one with valor, meaning he saw combat and was considered to have served with valor or individual merit." A woman with a dog lies down to record images next to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department vehicle blocking the road near the Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded in front of the entrance on Jan. 1, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ethan Miller | Getty Images Shortly after the opening, we will be selling 250 shares of Nvidia at roughly $136.02. Following the trade, Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust will own 1,050 shares of NVDA, decreasing its weighting to about 4% from about 5%. We're kicking off the new year by rightsizing our position in Nvidia, locking in a huge gain of about 975% on stock purchased in March 2021. As with our Apple trim last week , this sale doesn't reflect any change in our longstanding view about Nvidia and the artificial intelligence giant's status as an "own it, don't trade it" stock. However, discipline always trumps conviction. Just because we want to own a stock for the long term doesn't mean we can forgo discipline. We still must take profits from time to time after a big run. We let the stock run for essentially all of 2024, a year in which it delivered a 171% return. Ironically, the last time we sold Nvidia shares was on Jan. 2, 2024, on the heels of its monster 2023 performance. In addition to Thursday's sale, we are downgrading our rating to 2, meaning wait for a pullback before buying shares . Previously, we had upgraded Nvidia to our buy-equivalent 1 rating on Aug. 2 when the stock fell to roughly $109 a share. The stock is up about 23% since the upgrade, exceeding the S & P 500's return of about 10%. Nvidia is still in strong position for a 2025 , but we must acknowledge there could be some speed bumps along the way. Some of those bumps could be from increased competition from custom AI chips, a rationalization in capital expenditures from the megacap tech companies, and a dependence on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in an era where we have to be a little more careful about China with President-elect Donald Trump soon returning to the White House. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. Varun Beverages invests 413 crore in South African subsidiary for debt repayment and growth Shares of Varun Beverages Ltd ended at 648.00, down by 2.55, or 0.39% on the BSE. ???? #BREAKING: MASS SHOOTING IN NEW YORK CITY At least 11 people have been shot in Queens, NY at Amazura Night Club This is still an ACTIVE situation. pic.twitter.com/HFYY0Cb3qZ Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 2, 2025 In a yet another attack in the United States, at least 11 people were injured in a shooting in a night club in Queens, New York, reports said.Reports said the gunfire started near the Amazura event hall at 91-12 144th Place in Jamaica, within the confines of the 103rd Precinct, at about 11:15 pm on January 1.Police officers received multiple 911 calls around 11:18 pm on Wednesday for "several people" shot outside the Amazura nightclub in Jamaica, Queens.Police said three to four males were walking toward the venue and opened fire over 30 times in the direction of a group standing in line outside the event, striking multiple vehicles. Six females and four males, ranging in age from 16 to 20, were struck by bullets, NYPD officials said at a press conference on Thursday.\Police are searching for a light-coloured sedan in connection with the shooting. The police said that none of the victims were in critical condition .The New York Police Department (NYPD) reassured the public that it was "not a terrorist attack".On January 1, US Army veteran drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers in New Orleans, killing 15 people. He had posted videos to social media hours before the carnage saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressing a desire to kill, the president said.The FBI said it was investigating early Wednesday's attack in which the driver steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police as a terrorist act and did not believe he acted alone.The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, and said it was working to determine any potential associations with terrorist organizations.With inputs from Agencies The man killed in Wednesday's Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas was identified as Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty U.S. Army Special Operations soldier, according to the Army. Livelsberger's military career began in January 2006, serving in the active-duty Army until March 2011. He then transitioned to the National Guard, serving until July 2012, followed by a brief stint in the Army Reserve until December 2012. Livelsberger rejoined the active-duty Army that same month, continuing his service as a Special Operations soldier. U.S. Army Special Operations Command confirmed that Livelsberger was on approved leave at the time of his death in the Tesla Cybertruck explosion. Las Vegas police reported on Wednesday that gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters, and large firework mortars were recovered from the back of the Cybertruck. The explosion, captured on video, left seven people injured in addition to claiming Livelsberger's life. Investigators revealed that the Cybertruck had been rented in Colorado. Using Tesla charging station data, authorities tracked the vehicle's arrival in Las Vegas approximately an hour before the explosion. Police have labeled the incident as "isolated." Earlier, law enforcement and intelligence officials investigated a possible link between the pickup truck explosion outside the Trump Hotel and the attack in New Orleans, where a man drove a truck into a crowd, killing 15 people and injuring dozens. However, no evidence had been found linking the two incidents. Police stated that the impact of the explosion could have been far worse if not for the Cybertruck's body construction, which helped contain the blast. According to Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the truck's design directed most of the force upward, minimizing damage in the hotel valet area and leaving the building's front glass intact despite the explosion. "The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast. Up through the truck and out," he said. "You'll see that the front glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken by that blast which they were parked directly in front of." "I have to thank Elon Musk specifically," McMahill added. State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Zip Code This image provided by Alcides Antunes shows a Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel early Wednesday. The vehicle was rented through Turo. Associated Press A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a Houston man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning. The pickup was rented through Turo. Gerald Herbert/Associated Press Deadly attacks Wednesday in Las Vegas and New Orleans so far have at least one connection: The vehicles used in both were rented through Turo, an online car-sharing platform. In New Orleans, a Ford F-150 pickup rented through the companys peer-to-peer app plowed into a throng of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 15 and injuring dozens of others early on New Years Day. Hours later in Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck parked in front of Trump International Hotel. The vehicle laden with fireworks and gas canisters burst into flames and exploded. The blast killed the driver and injured at least seven others. The news that both vehicles were rented through Turo has raised questions about whether the attacks were connected and about the company itself. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Turo is dedicated to fostering a trustworthy marketplace, the San Francisco company said in a statement. We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals. Heres what to know about Turo: What is Turo? The San Francisco-based company calls itself the worlds largest car sharing marketplace. It allows car owners to rent out their vehicles to others through the companys app. Advertisement Article continues below this ad As of September, it reported 150,000 active car hosts had a total of 350,000 vehicle listings on its platform, according to a November Securities and Exchange Commission filing. In total, the company says its app has 3.5 million users. Turo reported revenue of $879.7 million in 2023, an 18% increase over the previous year. How does Turo work? Turo is similar to home rental platforms such as Airbnb. Customers post their vehicles for others to rent. The app acts as a middleman to manage the transaction. Car owners set trip distance parameters and daily rates. How does Turo screen users? In its terms of service, Turo says it has the right to screen owners and renters to verify identities, manage background checks, check driving histories and validate licenses. The app tells potential customers the verification process can take 24 hours or more. It also includes a criminal background check. Advertisement Article continues below this ad We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat, Turo said. The FBI identified the New Orleans Driver as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas. The other driver was identified Thursday as Matthew Livelsburger, a highly decorated U.S. Army Green Beret who deployed twice to Afghanistan. It is still unknown if the incidents were linked. How old is Turo? Turo was founded in 2009 under the name RelayRides. The company changed its name to Turo as it shifted its business model to focus on longer term rental periods rather than quick errands in 2015. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Is it available in San Antonio? A search of the app Thursday found more than 200 cars available for rent in the San Antonio area. Turo is one of the many rideshare options available at San Antonio International Airport. In November, the company signed an agreement promising to give the airport 10% of gross receipts for rides that begin there. When the deal was approved, airport officials said they were unsure how much they stand to gain under the contract because the company was tightlipped about how many customers they had at the airport. The agreement, which took two years to hammer out, says Turo can only allow vehicles to be exchanged in the airports garages and surface lots. It also gives city staff and law enforcement authority to inspect the vehicles at any time. Recreational vehicles, trailers and cargo haulers are not allowed to be exchanged by Turo at the airport. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The city said Turo has similar operating agreements with more than 130 airports across the country, including eight in Texas. Where else can I use Turo? Michelle Buteau is intent on bringing the love in her new Netflix special, A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall. But she still reserved a few powerful backhands for fellow comic Dave Chappelle during her one-hour set. Using a bit about her Black lesbian friend as an example, Professor Buteau launched into a comedy lesson. We can tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community, she explained. We can do that. We can make it funny, we just have to work at it. So if you guys ever run into Dave Chappelle, can you let him know that shit? I dont think he know that shit. Some people might view Chappelle as the GOAT, but in Buteaus estimation, greatest of all time doesnt apply here. In his case, she jokes, GOAT stands for going off about trans people. Don't Miss Dave, its not funny! she announced to applause. Its dangerous. Make it funny. I cant believe someone would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me, she told the crowd. I want to make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel safe, seen, secure, heard and entertained. That is my goal. Netflix, which has been the main bully pulpit for specials in which Chappelle insists on sharing his trans rants, at least is providing a forum for Buteau to tell him to give it a rest. She joins comics like Jerrod Carmichael and Hannah Gadsby, as well as outraged Netflix employees, in taking Chappelle to task. Advertisement Like Gadsby, Buteau rightly points out that Chappelles anti-trans bits arent only dangerous, theyre lazy. At this point, the main joke is that Chappelle wont be told what he can and cannot say. Isnt it hilarious and brave that hes saying it anyway? But theres little comedy thought or insight behind the routines, just contrarian foot-stomping. Buteau likely wont be the last comic to tell Chappelle that his rhetoric is dumb and dangerous. Unfortunately, such criticism usually encourages him to double down. Lets see if hes finally ready to listen. In todays hyper-sensitive comedy culture, everybodys a critic and everybodys a club owner, too, so long as everybody can tape trash bags over their bedroom windows. Look, the comedy industry is absolutely brutal toward its bottom rung, and despite the democratization of contemporary comedy platforms due to social media, getting any sort of comedy career off of the ground in 2025, either as a performer or a producer, requires a shameless ability to hustle and self-promote. Getting big in comedy requires one to make moves that are well-past what online haters who have never risked anything to achieve their dreams would consider cringe, and, as such, when an artist or aspiring comedy mogul over-markets themselves on the internet, its easy to mock them, criticize their business strategy and leave a one-star review on Google calling the weird bedroom open mic you paid $50 to watch a complete scam. Don't Miss But when such an aspiring mogul goes on the offensive against bad reviews and accuses unamused audience members of being jealous competitors looking to destroy him with spam fake accounts well, then hes just asking to get dunked on. This week, one humor fan deep-dove into Keys Stand-up Comedy Club Toronto Improv Bar and Grill, the hottest Joe Rogan and Tony Hinchliffe-inspired apartment bar/barber shop in the Great White North: Its unclear how, exactly, the Twitter user going by the name of Peter Bogdanovics character Brooks Otterlake in the posthumous Orson Welles film The Other Side of the Wind determined that Keys Stand-up Comedy Club Toronto Improv Bar and Grill is an explicitly anti-woke establishment, especially considering how apparently devoted the Bar and Grill is to the Stop Asian Hate movement. Perhaps Mr. Otterlake came to that conclusion based on how the clubs owner describes his bedroom bar as hosting globally recognized comedians who have graced esteemed stages like Joe Rogans Comedy Club and made regular appearances on the renowned podcast Kill Tony. Advertisement Its also unclear which Keys regulars have performed either at the Comedy Mothership or on Kill Tony Googling the names on the clubs last three lineups didnt return any Rogan clips. The Keys Stand-up Comedy Club owner or, more likely, renter Kivork Kidanian goes by the stage name KeyEpic, and he describes himself as a STAND UP COMEDY LEGEND!!, on his YouTube channel where he appears to be a formerly successful Prank YouTuber who amassed millions of views in the mid-2010s on videos with titles like, HOW TO PICK UP CHICKS IN TORONTO" and PRANK ON BOYFRIEND | PRANK VS PRANK | PRANK VIDEO | PRANK WARS | PRANK CALL AUDIO | Voices to Use. Advertisement While the views on Kidanians videos have petered out in the decade since the peak of the KeyEpic YouTube channel, his use of SEO buzzwords certainly hasnt he recently posted a stand-up video with the title, "KeyEpic: Stand-Up Comedy (CANCELED) WOKE Crowd Work Special." The special runs a hair past five minutes. Advertisement This kind of clickbait-y self-promotion is commonplace on online platforms, but that strategy clearly doesnt always work out in the real world, and running a Comedy Club Toronto Improv Bar and Grill and a soon-to-be-opened barbershop out of a small room in an apartment leads to some nasty reviews that will provoke equally nasty responses from Kidanian. However, the one-star experiences arent the only responses, as plenty of reviewers reported having a good time at Keys Stand-up Comedy Club Toronto Improv Bar and Grill, even if the room was tiny and hard to reach, the comics werent international superstars, the bar was just a guy handing out Heinekens and the grill is about as real as the brick wall backdrop. Advertisement From what I can tell, Keys Stand-up Comedy Club Toronto Improv Bar and Grill looks like a small room in someones apartment where local Torontonian open-micers hang out with their friends and try out new material, and theres nothing wrong with running a space like that every comedy scene in the world needs people like Kidanian who are willing to host shows where up-and-comers can get their reps. The problem lies in the hilariously sensationalized marketing, as, no matter how many hashtags Kidanian puts in his YouTube videos, or how many times he name-drops Joe Rogan, or how many disgruntled guests he accuses of being rival club-owners, search engine optimizing is no replacement for an actual, legal, unexaggerated liquor license. SquareX, an industry-first Browser Detection and Response (BDR) solution, leads the way in browser security. About a week ago, SquareX reported large-scale attacks targeting Chrome Extension developers aimed at taking over the Chrome Extension from the Chrome Store. On December 25th, 2024, a malicious version of Cyberhavens browser extension was published on the Chrome Store that allowed the attacker to hijack authenticated sessions and exfiltrate confidential information. The malicious extension was available for download for more than 30 hours before being removed by Cyberhaven. The data loss prevention company declined to comment on the extent of the impact when approached by the press, but the extension had over 400,000 users on the Chrome Store at the time of the attack. Unfortunately, the attack took place as SquareXs researchers had identified a similar attack with a video demonstrating the entire attack pathway just a week before the Cyberhaven breach. The attack begins with a phishing email impersonating Chrome Store containing a supposed violation of the platforms Developer Agreement, urging the receiver to accept the policies to prevent their extension from being removed from Chrome Store. Upon clicking on the policy button, the user gets prompted to connect their Google account to a Privacy Policy Extension, which grants the attacker access to edit, update and publish extensions on the developers account. Fig 1. Phishing email targeting extension developers Cyber NewsWire Fig 2. Fake Privacy Policy Extension requesting access to edit, update or publish the developers extension Cyber NewsWire Extensions have become an increasingly popular way for attackers to gain initial access. This is because most organizations have limited purview on what browser extensions their employees are using. Even the most rigorous security teams typically do not monitor subsequent updates once an extension is whitelisted. SquareX has conducted extensive research and demonstrated at DEFCON 32, how MV3-compliant extensions can be used to steal video stream feeds, add a silent GitHub collaborator, and steal session cookies, among others. Attackers can create a seemingly harmless extension and later convert it into a malicious one post-installation or, as demonstrated in the attack above, deceive the developers behind a trusted extension to gain access to one that already has hundreds of thousands of users. In Cyberhavens case, attackers were able to steal company credentials across multiple websites and web apps through the malicious version of the extension. Given that developer emails are publicly listed on Chrome Store, it is easy for attackers to target thousands of extension developers at once. These emails are typically used for bug reporting. Thus, even support emails listed for extensions from larger companies are usually routed to developers who may not have the level of security awareness required to find suspicion in such an attack. As per SquareXs attack disclosure and the Cyberhaven breach that occurred within the span of less than two weeks, the company has strong reason to believe that many other browser extension providers are being attacked in the same way. SquareX urges companies and individuals alike to conduct a careful inspection before installing or updating any browser extensions. Fig 3. Contact details of extension developers are publicly available on Chrome Store Cyber NewsWire SquareX team understands that it can be non-trivial to evaluate and monitor every single browser extension in the workforce amidst all the competing security priorities, especially when it comes to zero-day attacks. As demonstrated in the video, the fake privacy policy app involved in Cyberhavens breach was not even detected by any popular threat feeds. SquareXs Browser Detection and Response (BDR) solution takes this complexity off security teams by: Blocking OAuth interactions to unauthorized websites to prevent employees from accidentally giving attackers unauthorized access to your Chrome Store account Blocking and/or flagging any suspicious extension updates containing new, risky permissions Blocking and/or flagging any suspicious extensions with a surge of negative reviews Blocking and/or flagging installations of sideloaded extensions Streamline all requests for extension installations outside the authorized list for quick approval based on company policy Full visibility on all extensions installed and used by employees across the organization SquareXs founder Vivek Ramachandran warns: Identity attacks targeting browser extensions similar to this OAuth attack will only become more prevalent as employees rely on more browser-based tools to be productive at work. Similar variants of these attacks have been used in the past to steal cloud data from apps like Google Drive and One Drive and we will only see attackers get more creative in exploiting browser extensions. Companies need to remain vigilant and minimize their supply chain risk without hampering employee productivity by equipping them with the right browser native tools. About SquareX: SquareX helps organizations detect, mitigate, and threat-hunt client-side web attacks happening against their users in real-time. SquareXs industry-first Browser Detection and Response (BDR) solution, takes an attack-focused approach to browser security, ensuring enterprise users are protected against advanced threats like malicious QR Codes, Browser-in-the-Browser phishing, macro-based malware, and other web attacks encompassing malicious files, websites, scripts, and compromised networks. With SquareX, enterprises can provide contractors and remote workers with secure access to internal applications, and enterprise SaaS, and convert the browsers on BYOD / unmanaged devices into trusted browsing sessions. Contact Head of PR Junice Liew SquareX junice@sqrx.com Court documents unsealed Monday show that US authorities have arrested a 20-year-old soldier, Cameron John Wagenius, charged with two counts of selling or attempting to sell confidential phone records without the customers authorization. But behind the scant details provided in the charge sheet submitted to the US District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle lies a much bigger story, according to cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs. The phone records Wagenius is charged with selling could include those Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump, part of a trove of AT&T and Verizon call records leaked in November by a hacker using the moniker Kiberphant0m. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images A rare 1.84 acres on Indian Creek Island, home to notable terribles like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, is on the market. The news out of Billionaire Bunker went up late last month, as first reported by the Highest & Best newsletter. The plot at 9 Indian Creek Road costs a sky-high $200 million, or $2,500 per square feet, and will mean youll have to be neighbors with Jeff Bezos. The Florida gated community has only 41 homes to begin with, and the Amazon founder has bought up three of them: 11 Indian Creek Island Road, 12 Indian Creek Island Road, and 28 Indian Creek Island Road. (The Post reported that Bezos plans to live in the last house he bought, while demolishing the other two for custom builds.) Altogether, Bezoss home-shopping spree on the island cost him $237 million. The lot that just opened up next door last sold for $27.5 million in 2018, which means its gone up 627 percent in less than a decade. Ilya Reznik, the broker representing the owners, told Bloomberg that the number is negotiable but that Bezos is part of the sellers calculus. I think $200 million is a big number but Im confident that in the end the buyer will pay a little extra because Bezos is a neighbor, Reznik said. Those prices just didnt exist before he came to Indian Creek. Still, its hard to imagine who would be willing to pay so much for an empty lot just to live next to Bezos. Maybe Jeff Bezos? Whatever happened to the telephone? Perhaps the most brilliant invention of the modern age, it is being driven out of business by inferior rivals. And this has happened just when it has reached its technical peak. Almost everyone now has a telephone in his pocket or her bag. It has a free, simple-to-use voicemail if you miss the call or are engaged when it comes. Yet these things are used less and less for the simple purpose of one person talking to another who is far away. On my mobile device, which must be one of the most outdated and crude in daily use, you have to hunt for the phone function amid 15 or so other purposes, from taking pictures to arguing on Twitter. And I think most of the people who wish to contact me do so through emails, text messages or that green thing I can never remember the name of, but is definitely not Instagram. I like to think I am not a slapdash person, but in the past couple of years I have missed an annoying number of fairly urgent engagements because the person inviting me has chosen to send me a text message or an email instead of just ringing me up. The great thing about ringing people up is that you know you have reached them. I tell these texters and emailers reproachfully that they might as well have sent me a postcard, and they giggle - but I suspect they don't know what a postcard is. I have missed an annoying number of fairly urgent engagements because the person inviting me has chosen to send me a text message or an email instead of just ringing me up, writes Peter Hitchens The problem works, or rather does not work, the other way. I spend quite a lot of time trying to get government departments, police forces, local authorities or bodies such as the BBC to answer my irritating questions. Once, there was a publication called The White Book, frequently revised, which provided the direct telephone numbers of government press officers. It stated on its title page that it was 'designed to help journalists and the staff of the organisations listed'. I still have what I think is one of the last ever issued (if it is still being released, I have no idea where to get it). It is still slightly useful for those rare offices of the state which have not been renamed or re-purposed five times since it was published in 2012. Now it's all websites or general numbers, if you are lucky. I have noted a growing habit of government offices replying to phone messages with emails, and the great thing about emails is that, when you don't want to answer the questions, you can just stop replying to them. It is the same with many businesses. If you can find their phone number from their website, which you often cannot, you then cannot get anyone to answer it. The idea is obviously to get the information a customer might need on to the internet, presumably to save staff. But quite often I have a particular question which the website does not help with. It is also a general rule that the younger a person is, the harder it is to get him or her to actually answer the phone. Obviously this is sometimes because modern phones tell you who is trying to reach you, and I can understand if people of any age do not want to hear from me. But I get the same complaint from people who are much nicer than I am. Amidst all this, I am reminded of how frustrating the world used to be if you did not have a telephone. I must be one of the last people ever to have received an actual telegram - and not one of those greetings ones. It was in 1969, and it came in a little yellow envelope, delivered by a young man on a scarlet-and-gold Royal Mail motorbike, and it contained (as telegrams are supposed to do) unwelcome news. This was because I had no telephone in my cheap bedsit, not even a payphone on the stairs. My early years as a reporter were dogged by the need to hunt for such payphones (something I had nightmares about for many years). I learned how to call a number when the dial was broken, as it often was. I was even told how to disable the phone to stop my rivals using it. When I finally made it to a national newspaper, the Post Office - which then ran almost all the telephones in the country - allowed me to jump the queue and I at last had my own phone. I can still remember the number, and the sheer joy of it being mine. My office made good use of it, with late-night calls complaining that I had been scooped by my rivals. There was a stern rule that, when I was out of the office, all reporters had to call the news desk every hour, on the hour, in case they wanted to reach us. Later, when I began travelling in the old Communist world, where international phone calls could take hours to get through, and phone boxes were as likely to give you an electric shock as to connect you with anyone, I had to start all over again. Before going to live and work in Moscow, I took a short course in telephone engineering, so that I could plug good-quality British phones into the Soviet network, greatly improving the quality of the calls. I also rigged up complex systems so that I could pick up messages from London on my answering machine, via Moscow payphones (two kopecks a call - a bargain). The problem was that it took at least three hours to call London back, unless you could wangle an illicit reversed-charge call through Helsinki - the only foreign city I could dial from my illegally let Soviet elite flat. Lewis Collins using a walkie talkie in 1970s TV series The Professionals Thanks to this frantic need to keep in touch somehow, I drove past one of the biggest stories of my life - Boris Yeltsin climbing on to a tank in the midst of a KGB coup in August 1991. I could see there was something going on, but had been out of touch with London for so long that I dared not stop to look. A big mistake. A mobile phone would have changed everything, but in those days such things were on the edge of science fiction, especially in the unmodernised Soviet Empire. Back in the 1970s we had all marvelled at a TV action series called The Professionals in which secret agents Bodie and Doyle, played by Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw, kept in constant touch with HQ using hand-held communicators. Our nearest approximation to such things was a phone in a pub, which you had to cram with coins every few seconds. But at least the USSR still had a functioning system of 1930s-style links. When a Soviet citizen living in the Urals, 1,100 miles away, had an interesting letter published in The Times, I was asked by London to interview him. But it turned out that he had no phone. So I went down to my wonderful, old-fashioned post office, which had a cat, balls of string and pots of glue - and sent him a telegram. He was on the phone to me within half an hour. These days, I could send him a text message, or an email. But would he ever answer? Death toll rises to 15 in U.S. New Orleans truck attack Xinhua) 08:13, January 02, 2025 HOUSTON, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll rose to 15 after a man drove a pickup truck into New Year revelers in New Orleans of the southern U.S. state of Louisiana early Wednesday morning, authorities updated at a press conference. Two improvised explosive devices were confirmed to have been found in the pickup, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Officials said they were hunting for possible connections to terrorist organizations and the suspect, who was shot dead by responding police on the scene, may not be "solely responsible" for the attack. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Du Mingming) The FBI investigates the area on Orleans St and Bourbon Street by St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter where a suspicious package was detonated after a person drove a truck into a crowd earlier on Bourbon Street on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton) Matthew Hinton/Associated Press Harris County Sheriffs Deputies position to close Crescent Peak Drive as a police investigation continues in the neighborhood near Hugh and TC Jester Blvd. Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Houston. An address on the street is associated with Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who is identified as the attacker in the New Orleans massacre. Melissa Phillip/Staff Photographer Federal law enforcement described the attack as intentional. The driver, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Houston, wounded two officers when he opened fire on police after the crash around 3:15 a.m. The driver was killed in a shooting, according to the FBI. Heres everything to know about the investigation so far: Advertisement Article continues below this ad Where and when did the attack happen? The crash happened around 3:15 a.m. on Bourbon Street, the legendary party district in the heart of New Orleans. The truck driver apparently drove through or around barricades meant to stop vehicles from entering the street, officials said. New Orleans police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver was "hellbent on creating the carnage." How many people were killed and injured in the attack? At least 15 people were killed, according to a report from NOLA.com, and more than 30 injured people were rushed to New Orleans hospitals, including the two police officers who were shot. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Among the people killed in the attack were Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, an 18-year-old from Mississippi; Nicole Perez, a woman from the New Orleans suburb of Metairie; Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old man from Baton Rouge; Hubert Gauthreaux, a 21-year-old who attended Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, Louisiana; Kareem Badawi, a University of Alabama student; Matthew Tenedorio, an audiovisual technician for Caesars Superdome; and Tiger Bech, a former college football player, according to news reports. Three verified fundraisers have been created on GoFundMe, including for two people who allegedly died in Wednesday morning's attack. Tenedorio's fundraiser had raised $16,099 out of a $22,000 goal for funeral expenses as of 9 a.m., while Hunter's fundraiser had raised $11,515 out of a $25,000 goal. Bech's fundraiser, which also included funds to help support his friend Ryan Quigley who was injured in the attack had raised nearly $80,000 before the organizers cut off the call for donations. What were Shamsud-Din Jabbar's connections to Houston? Multiple law enforcement sources on Wednesday confirmed to the Chronicle that Jabbar was from the Houston area. Public records list multiple addresses for Jabbar in north Harris County, as well as previous addresses in Fresno and Beaumont. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Jabbar has a short criminal history in Harris County. He was charged with misdemeanor theft in 2002, receiving deferred adjudication and a $100 fine, according to court records. There is no detail about what Jabbar was accused of stealing. The St. Louis Cathedral is seen on Orleans St is seen in the French Quarter where a suspicious package was detonated after a person drove a truck into a crowd earlier on Bourbon Street on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton) Matthew Hinton/Associated Press Around 7:50 a.m. Jan. 2, FBI officials in Houston and the Harris County Sheriff's Office announced that the agencies concluded a court authorized search at the 12000 block of Crescent Peak Drive in north Houston, according to a joint release by the agencies. There is no threat to residents in that area, authorities said. What other details have come to light about Jabbar's history? Officials with FBI Houston on Wednesday confirmed they were searching an address in the area in connection with the terror attack. They provided limited details about what they were investigating. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Records show Jabbar was born in Texas. Misinformation circulated on social media that Jabbar was an immigrant or had crossed the U.S. Mexico border, including from President-elect Donald Trump from his Truth Social profile. Jabbar was married in 2017 and separated from his former wife in 2021, according to Fort Bend County court records. In court records, Jabbar wrote he worked for Deloitte and Blue Meadow Properties, a property management company, and earned $7,300 a month. Jabbar was granted joint custody of a child as a result of the divorce and ordered to pay monthly child support. In a YouTube video posted in 2020, Jabbar said he was born and raised in Beaumont and spent 10 years in the U.S. military as a human resources and IT specialist. In the video, Jabbar described himself as a real estate agent. Sitting in front of a sign that read "Discipline," and wearing a gray jacket over a blue jacket, Jabbar described himself as a "fierce negotiator." YouTube removed Jabbar's video channel as of Wednesday afternoon. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Does the FBI think this was a terrorist attack? Yes. Authorities on Wednesday said the truck used in the attack had been rented through Turo, a peer-to-peer carsharing company. The truck was displaying an ISIS flag, according to the FBI. Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI, on Thursday reiterated the attack was an act of terrorism that was premeditated and evil. Investigators determined Jabbar allegedly drove a rented vehicle from Houston to New Orleans on Dec. 31 and recorded a series of videos that he uploaded to social media, starting around 1:29 a.m. Jan. 1, in which he announced he had initially planned to harm family and friends before deciding instead to commit an act of terrorism, Raia said. Jabbar in the videos allegedly said he joined ISIS in the summer, Raia said. FBI and New Orleans law enforcement said they don't believe there were any other suspects involved in the Bourbon Street attack that caused 14 deaths, and injured dozens on New Year's Day. Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy are reportedly on the verge of writing a cheque for hundreds of millions of pounds to Mauritius. Surely, you may say, these exalted statesmen must have a good reason for shelling out so much cash to a foreign government. Actually, no, they don't. There is no case at all. And yet the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary seem determined to fling public money at the undeserving Mauritians. Not only that. In so doing they are likely to weaken the West, and enhance Chinese power. In the nearly six months since Labour took over, we have witnessed a depressing number of self-inflicted wounds. It's arguable, though, that this particular Starmer/Lammy farce exceeds in sheer stupidity anything we've seen before. Naivety, weakness and ignorance have combined. A bit of background. In October it was announced that an agreement had been reached with the Mauritian government. Britain would hand over an undisclosed sum of money in return for a 99-year lease to maintain the strategically important Anglo-American air base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands. Many scratched their heads in wonderment. In the first place, Mauritius renounced any claim over the Chagos Islands in 1965 on becoming independent, and accepted a settlement of 3 million. It is in no position to grant a lease in respect of Diego Garcia because it has already ceded it. Note that the Chagos Islands are more than 1,300 miles away from Mauritius in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Both colonised by the French, they have nothing else in common. In 1814 France was obliged to hand over Mauritius to the British with the islands thrown in as a job lot. The Chagos Islands are made up of seven atolls, comprising more than 60 individual islands, south of the Maldives archipelago When Starmer and Lammy welcomed their fatuous deal three months ago, it was pointed out that tiny Mauritius (population 1.2 million) is an ally of China. A 99-year lease on Diego Garcia might not be cast iron. Besides, Mauritius will gain sovereignty over the other Chagos Islands under the agreement. It might allow China to build its own base. Little wonder that Donald Trump's camp is unhappy about a deal that could jeopardise the future of an important base, which is run by the Americans rather than the British. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State-designate, has said that it poses a 'serious threat' to US National Security. Believe it or not, the agreement unveiled in early October is now in doubt, though not because Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Lammy have woken up to the error of their ways. The new prime minister of Mauritius, Navinchandra Ramgoolam, claims the terms aren't good enough, and must be renegotiated. You'd think this would be seen by the Labour Government as a heaven-sent opportunity to tear up a deal that is injurious to British, American and Western interests. But you would be overestimating the good sense of these two titans of diplomacy. The new Mauritian government is reportedly demanding an annual payment of 800 million from Britain plus billions of pounds in reparations (for what exactly?) in return for granting a lease in respect of an island half an ocean away over which it doesn't have sovereignty. If any practitioners of the three-card trick are reading this piece, they might think about getting Messrs Starmer and Lammy in a corner. There's a lot of easy money to be made out of these two chumps. Even a former Foreign Office mandarin well-schooled in the arts of surrender has suggested that the amounts of money sought by Mr Ramgoolam are steep. Lord McDonald has publicly advised Sir Keir Starmer not to dole out huge sums. That's not the end of it. It is reported and accepted by Lord McDonald that the Government hopes to renegotiate the deal before President Trump takes office on January 20. The idea is to present him with a fait accompli. Bad luck, Donald. You've lost your base, or at any rate got it on a 99-year lease, and we'll dig deeper into our pockets. The largest of the islands, Diego Garcia, is the site of a joint UK-US military base Can you imagine anything more short-sighted? Imposing a deal on Trump that he's known to dislike is hardly going to predispose the hot tempered and mercurial President in Starmer's and Lammy's favour. By the way, I haven't mentioned that a key figure on our negotiating team is Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's former chief of staff, who has somehow morphed into the Government's National Security Adviser, an important role for which I'd say he is ill qualified. Mr Powell is a serpentine customer who is also practised in Foreign Office surrender techniques. In all the annals of guilt-ridden, knee-bending, cringing diplomacy has any British government ever surpassed what Starmer and Lammy are cooking up? There is another aspect about which neither the British nor the Mauritian governments seem properly concerned. I mean the fate of the Chagossians, who were displaced in 1968 when the British and Americans decided they wanted a base. Nearly a thousand people were evicted from Diego Garcia, and hundreds from the smaller islands, by the then Labour government to make way for the base. However reasonable the cause, this was a draconian policy, which I should have thought indefensible in morality or international law. Some 10,000 Chagossians are now scattered in Mauritius, the Seychelles and this country. No one gives much thought to their fate. Certainly not Sir Keir Starmer or David Lammy, while Mr Ramgoolam and other Mauritian politicians appear more interested in extracting as much money as possible from the British than in a just settlement for the Chagossians. 'There's a lot of easy money to be made out of these two chumps,' says Stephen Glover of Keir Starmer and his Foreign Secretary David Lammy Nor did the Chagossians weigh heavily with the International Court of Justice, which in 2019 ruled that at the time of independence Mauritius was coerced by Britain into giving up the Chagos Islands. This was judged to be in breach of a UN resolution passed in 1960 prohibiting the break-up of colonies before independence. It was this judgment that spooked the querulous Foreign Office, though it was advisory rather than binding. Yet, as we have seen, the idea that Mauritius and the Chagos Islands ever formed a homogeneous colony is absurd, given that they are so far apart, and had almost nothing culturally in common. This is no more than an opportunistic bid by Mauritius, backed by Third World countries that delight in waving the fraying flag of anti-colonialism, to squeeze cash out of a weak-minded British Government. The Chagos Islands are far away. The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary probably calculate that voters are unlikely to get worked up by a disadvantageous deal with Mauritius. If so, they could be fatally wrong. People will resent hundreds of millions of pounds of precious public money going to an undeserving government of a tiny country in a bad cause. They won't relish China being the ultimate beneficiary. How foolish are the hapless diplomatic duo of Starmer and Lammy. The best hope is that Navinchandra Ramgoolam will overplay his hand, and so there'll be no deal before Trump enters the White House. In which case the new President should suggest to Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy that they start behaving like grown-ups, and take the West's interests seriously. Keir Starmer came to power promising to smash the people smuggling gangs. The only thing he has smashed is the British peoples sense of justice and fair play over illegal migration. He posed as the champion of tough border controls after years of Tory inaction. Labour, he said, would stop the chaos and go after the criminal gangs who trade in driving this crisis. How utterly hollow that sounds now, six months after his landslide. The partys pledges are in tatters, its credibility has collapsed. Far from resolving the crisis generated by illegal crossings over the English Channel, the new Government has actually made the problem worse, as highlighted by the latest truly shocking statistics from the Home Office. Between December 25 and 28 alone, no fewer than 1,485 migrants reached Britain, making this the busiest Christmas period since official records of the Channel racket began in 2018. Altogether in 2024, a total of 36,816 people made the perilous journey to our shores, a rise of 20 per cent on the previous year. Astonishingly, this brings the total since 2018 to more than 150,000, enough to almost fill a town the size of Reading with illegal migrants who are breaking the rules. Labours plan, put simply, is not working. As everybody who is anybody in the world of border security knows, the surge of crossings is a direct consequence of the Governments approach. Starmer, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and ministers like to peddle their slogan smashing the gangs, but it will never happen as long as illegal migrants know there is little chance they will be deported. Just look at Labours record. Theyve already granted asylum to two-thirds of people who applied for it in soft-touch Britain. You might as well put a big neon sign on the White Cliffs of Dover that reads: If you come we will let you stay! Without the legal capacity or political will to remove people who have no right to be here, the demand for crossings will remain and so will the traffickers who ruthlessly exploit it. The occasional seizure of an inflatable dinghy in Germany and arrest of a smuggler in France are little more than publicity stunts designed to give the illusion of a crackdown. A British Border Force vessel picking up an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants in front of the white cliffs of Dover Only an active deterrent will break this illicit trade in human cargo. For all their other weaknesses, the Conservatives recognised that truth. That is why they put together the Rwanda scheme, whereby the central African republic was to be used for accommodating deportees and processing asylum claims. Despite the derision it attracted from metropolitan sophisticates, the plan could have worked by spreading the message that Britain was no longer a soft-touch for illegal migrants, particularly if the Tories had also been willing to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights which, from its original conception in the aftermath of the Second World War as an instrument against genuine political oppression, has been transformed into a charter for criminals, protecting rapists, drug dealers, terrorists and even murderers from deportation. The Labour Government of Tony Blair, which imposed the 1998 Human Rights Act on our legal systems, also began the revolution that has drastically altered the very fabric of our society through record- breaking levels of immigration. Yet Starmer and his Cabinet have learnt nothing from all this upheaval. On arriving in office in July, one of their first acts was to dump the Rwandan initiative. They never gave it a chance, nor did they put any effective substitute in its place. They also watered down plans to ensure that anybody who entered Britain illegally would never have the right to stay in the country. Instead they indulged in bureaucratic tinkering, one of Starmers favourite political activities as this paper revealed last month, Labour have set up a new quango for every week they have been in office. So a grandly titled Border Security Command was established, complete with a director on up to 200,000 a year and an investment over the next two years of 150 million. Predictably, the BSCs only impact so far has been to drain away public money while the Border Force continues to provide a quasi-ferry service across the Channel and the Home Office acts as a hotelier for illegal migrants. A savage humanitarian price is being paid for the spectacular inability of Starmer and Cooper to resolve this deepening crisis. The French authorities estimate that 77 people lost their lives in the Channel in 2024, another depressing record. But apart from the shocking death toll, an increasingly heavy burden is also placed on the British people by this disastrous political failure, which threatens the integrity of our immigration system, puts an intolerable strain on our civic infrastructure and undermines the rule of law. Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper like to talk about 'smashing the gangs' - but migrants know there is little chance of them being deported, says Matt Goodwin Migrants walk into the water towards an already loaded smugglers' boat in northern France, heading for Britain A Border Force vessel brings in migrants to Dover following a small boat incident in the Channel only last Sunday Taxpayers now have to fork out 5.4 billion a year to prop up our broken asylum structure, including hotel accommodation and cash support. That huge bill does not even include a host of other costs such as social security for migrants who do not work, as well as healthcare, education and subsidised transport. The theory that an unceasing influx of new arrivals from overseas would boost our economy has been tested to destruction. Indeed, in the era of open borders, we seem trapped in a downward spiral of wage stagnation and sluggish growth. The economic mess is compounded by a profound sense of injustice, an affront to the traditional sense of British fair play, not only because of the blatant queue jumping by immigrants who treat legal entry procedures with contempt, but because many of them are put up in luxury hotels at the publics expense. Moreover, tax-paying British citizens also have to bankroll the vast immigration industry made up of Left-wing lawyers, activists and campaigners whose very existence is predicated on challenging or subverting the law. It is voters resentment at this injustice which has fuelled the rise of the Reform UK party at the expense of Labour and the Tories. According to one recent poll by YouGov, nearly 70 per cent of British people think that immigration is being handled badly, while another survey showed that among voters who backed Brexit, border policy is now overwhelmingly their chief concern. In my own academic work, I have conducted extensive research into public attitudes and found that hostility towards open borders is especially strong in the Red Wall former Labour heartland seats in the north of England that went Tory in 2019. The Conservatives shamefully squandered their gains by failing to abide by their promise to reduce the level of net immigration, instead allowing it to reach an incredible 903,000 in June 2023 under Rishi Sunak. Now, Labour is in real danger of going down the same road and the sense of betrayal at the political class is almost palpable, as reflected in the ugly riots during the summer following the multiple fatal stabbings in Southport. Anti-migration protesters rioting in Rotherham in August last year It suits the elite to pretend that the publics anger is just a product of far-Right agitation, but that does not stand up to scrutiny. The British public can see with their own eyes that the vast experiment in uncontrolled immigration is failing as social cohesion breaks down and solidarity is lost. They know, for all the virtuous claims of the Left, that there is nothing compassionate about allowing this anarchy to continue. If Labour wants to survive in power, the party needs a much more realistic policy than the ones which have signally failed to work so far. Professor Matt Goodwin is a political commentator and author of the substack mattgoodwin.org Despite an honours list and the creation of dozens of peerages last month, Simon Case makes history as the only Cabinet secretary to retire without elevation to the Lords. Case, once the shining star of the Civil Service who, at 41, became the youngest Cabinet secretary in 2020, fails to emulate his antecedents. When Jeremy Heywood, his predecessor but one, became ill with cancer and resigned early, Theresa May rushed through a peerage. He died nine days later. Case, like Justin Welby, is finding that automatic rewards for those in high office are becoming history. Simon Case makes history as the only Cabinet secretary to retire without elevation to the Lords Case, like Justin Welby, is finding that automatic rewards for those in high office are becoming history. Pictured: Case at the Cabinet Office in London on September 12, 2024 Jimmy Carter's visit to London in 1977 is best remembered for him giving the Queen Mother a smacker on the lips. But he also made an impression on the late Queen. At a black-tie reception he wore a pre-tied bow tie, something considered a shocking faux pas. Carter didn't understand the fuss, couldn't be talked out of it and ignored attempts by staff at the US ambassador's residence to provide him with the real thing. Courtiers, who can spot fake bows a mile off, were unimpressed. The Queen appeared highly amused, dissuading Prince Philip from asking if Jimmy's neckwear twirled around like other novelty ties. When the late Queen bought Gatcombe Park in 1976 as a wedding gift for Princess Anne for a reported 500,000, it was riddled with dry rot. The previous owner, Tory politician Rab Butler, fretted about the issue, according to Channel 5's documentary Gatcombe Park: A Royal Residence, which will be broadcast on January 11. 'I suppose it must have given him some pride that he was about to sell to the Queen,' recalls ex-BBC correspondent Wesley Kerr.' He said, 'I hope she doesn't ask me about the dry rot!' Anne had to spend 40,000 on refurbishment. When the late Queen bought Gatcombe Park (pictured) in 1976 as a wedding gift for Princess Anne for a reported 500,000, it was riddled with dry rot Having long considered himself a lucky charm for showbiz pals on the honours front, Gyles Brandreth now enthuses: 'If they're in the news they're on Rosebud [Gyles's podcast]. Stephen Fry, Anne Reid, Alan Titchmarsh are just three guests honoured this New Year.' Why still no sign of a gong for royal chum Gyles? The Archers began a new storyline this week about organic Bridge Farm owners Pat and Tony Archer facing a battle over its future with children Tom and Helen, who fancy kicking them out and running it themselves. There's also another Ambridge family battle at Lakey Hill. Curiously the BBC farm soap avoids almost any reference to Rachel Reeves's inheritance tax changes the only thing country folk are talking about. DJ Johnnie Walker, who has died at 79, believed in life after death and became obsessed with discredited clairvoyant Doris 'Voices in My Ear' Stokes. DJ Johnnie Walker, who has died at 79, believed in life after death and became obsessed with discredited clairvoyant Doris 'Voices in My Ear' Stokes When she died in 1987 aged 67 she promised her manager she would get in touch from beyond the grave. He is still waiting. Nothing has surprised, shocked and delighted me more than the letter I received from the Cabinet Office telling me I was to become a Dame. The year was 2011 and Id had a similar communication in 1999 inviting me to the Palace to receive an OBE. That had been amazing, but a Damehood for my contribution to broadcasting was something else. How could a working-class girl from Barnsley be thought worthy of such an honour? Stephen Fry, whos been awarded a Knighthood in the New Year Honours list this week, admitted similar sentiments. He asked himself how a formerly naughty boy (expelled from a lot of schools; went to prison...) could have risen to the heights of being dubbed Sir Stephen. I know exactly what he meant. That said, in the Mails analysis of this years list, one thing in particular caught my eye: the proportion of those rejecting the honour has risen by a quarter in three years. Since Charles became King in 2022, more than 120 people have turned down an honour. Although the annual figures fluctuate and remain small, 2024 marked the second highest number of refusals in 15 years. I would never have dreamt of refusing, but there is something about the honours system that makes me uncomfortable. I have a huge certificate, signed by the Queen, which names me as a Dame Commander of the British Empire. But we no longer have an empire. The title is long out of date. I would prefer to be a Dame of the United Kingdom or maybe of Great Britain. It was my proudest moment, though, so I dont want anyone to think Im ungrateful. Such was my excitement when I opened the letter in the Womans Hour office that I danced around like a demented cat given a bowl of cream. I got a lot of Well, you deserve it, and people passing my desk humming, There is nothing like a Dame. Mail columnist Jenni Murray being made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by the Queen in 2011 Former 'naughty boy' Stephen Fry was awarded a Knighthood in this year's New Year's Honours list Next, I called my husband David, then my younger son, Charlie, then the older one, Ed. He was working in New Zealand at the time and sounded almost as bowled over as I was. Crikey, Mum, thats big. Its like being made a Sir, isnt it, like a Knighthood. I asked if he would be able to come with me to the Palace. The investiture was to take place just before Christmas. He said he didnt think he could afford the air fare. I heard the hint and told him Id book it and pay for it, here and back. Sorted. The only sad part of the whole event was the fact that neither of my parents was still with me. Much as my mother and I had a difficult relationship, I know that my one aim in life had always been to make her proud. This was the big one, but she wouldnt be here to enjoy it. I had a suit made for the occasion and even bought a little hat. My men, David, Ed and Charlie, got out their best suits and off we went to the Palace in a taxi. It feels quite overwhelming, no matter how often youve done it, to sweep through those great gates, be dropped off in front of the entrance and find yourself welcomed into Buck House as my mother had called it. I was lucky enough on both occasions to have Queen Elizabeth carry out my investiture. I have never been more impressed by anyone. She was 85 in 2011 and came quietly to the low stage in the ballroom wearing a simple day dress. She stood facing the gathered crowd with a uniformed man behind her. It was his job to whisper details of each recipient into her ear. She had a few words for everyone, and the ceremony was long. A couple of hours as I recall and she simply stood there smiling, never hinting that she might need to sit down. She pinned my medal to my chest, shook hands and told me how much she enjoyed Womans Hour. Shed been sorry when it moved from 2pm to 10am because she was often busy with work in the morning and was no longer able to listen as often as she had in the past. I told her Id preferred the afternoon too and she gave me the smiling nod that indicated dismissal. When the Prime Minister become Sir Keir, his wife Victoria automatically became Lady Starmer I nodded, did a little bow, stepped backwards so as not to turn my back on her and walked out feeling very full of myself. Having enjoyed the whole experience hugely, I know what it must take to turn it down. But I understand why some do. Apart from the fact that the title itself feels outdated, theres the sexism. When Keir Starmer became Sir Keir his wife Victoria became Lady Starmer. When a woman receives a Damehood, equivalent to a Knighthood, her husband, if she has one, gets nothing. My David should be a Lord, but he isnt. So, no Empire please and an equal right to a shared title for a spouse. Its time to modernise. Divorcing Brangelina still at war Brangelina is no more. After eight long years of fighting each other in a crazily long divorce case, finally Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are no longer married. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's 'War of the Roses' is dragging on over a disputed vineyard they bought when married Their feud is over. Or is it? For whats known as the War of the Roses continues. The pair jointly owned Chateau Miraval and winery in the South of France, famed for its rose wine. Its alleged Angelina sold her $62m share to the Stoli group, best known for its vodka, without Brads approval. Thats a lot of money to keep on fighting for. Pete Wicks, who did so well on Strictly, is annoyed that too many people treat their dogs as fashion items, and Im with him. Ive seen a lot of super-cute little cockapoos being shown off in North London since Christmas. Dont be sending them to the rescue centres when youre faced with the sky-high vets bills. That dog was not for Christmas, its for life. Trust me boys, perms ruin hair A warning for any men thinking of following the current trend for a perm: dont do it! Actor Paul Mescal has natural curls - but, lads, don't follow his lead and go for a perm I had a perm in my 20s when they were last fashionable. The solution stinks, it ruins your hair and it never looks like real curls. However tempted you are by the actor Paul 'Gladiator II' Mescals look (pictured), stay the way you are as we women like you. Real reason cats need rescuing... Fire crews are spending a record amount of time and money rescuing cats from trees. The old cliche of cats being rescued from trees by fire crews is becoming a worrying modern trend In London the cost hit 500,000 in just one year. What madness is this? My cat Suu climbs every tree in the neighbourhood, usually winding up the dogs, then descending when she feels like it. Unless of course owners calling 999 have cut their cats claws to save their furniture. That would make it far more difficult for them to get down. Didnt we gender-critical women warn that transgender women who still have male genitals pose a risk? Almost two-thirds of such people in prison are serving sentences for sex offences a rate far higher than the male prison population as a whole. Fact: Last year, I remained mostly single. Give or take a few situationships and a cheeky one-night stand. And so did most of my girlfriends. And as I scratch my head and ponder who coupled up among the at least 20 gorgeously single women in my social circle, there are only two girlfriends I know who had the 'let's make it official' chat with the man-of-the-moment in their lives. The rest of us remained 'on the shelf', as my horrifically old-fashioned great uncle likes to call it (but, may I add, on the shelf willingly). Could I, and my fellow womenfolk, have shacked up with a bloke if we wanted to? Sure. But did we? No. The guys who put themselves forward for the job were fine, sweet, perfectly capable. But did we align in ways that would enhance our lives? Not really. You see, last year, you couldn't escape one simple fact: women were in a 'mating crisis'. Or so the experts kept calling it in those viral clips flooding our social media feeds. Yes, the world was suddenly single (and looking mighty fine, may I just add). The experts harped on about one simple truth: as women level up in education and their careers, they naturally look for partners who are equally smashing it - or better. But here's the catch: that shrinks the dating pool a LOT. Especially as more women are heading to university, while fewer men do the same (don't bite my head off, blokes, it's just simple facts). I cheered in the New Year on Sydney Harbour feeling gloriously single with my rambunctious girlfriends This means plenty of brilliant, independent women are flying solo. Not because they can't find a date but because finding someone who ticks all the boxes (and doesn't get intimidated by their success) is like searching for a Chanel bag at a garage sale. Sure, it could happen, but don't hold your breath. And honestly, can you blame them? Standards are the new sexy. Think about it, how many couples do you know who called it quits last year? And most of those splits were initiated by women. It felt like everyone was breaking up. Single women weren't just embracing their independence last year - they were owning it. And the numbers back it up. First up, let's talk living arrangements. The number of single-person households in the U.S. has skyrocketed - up more than fivefold since the 1960s, hitting a whopping 37.8 million in 2022. That's a whole lot of women living their best solo lives, free to leave their bras on the floor and their wine glasses unwashed (no judgment from me). And single women aren't just renting - they're buying. They own 58 per cent of the nearly 35.2 million homes owned by unmarried Americans. Yes, ladies are out there signing mortgage papers while their exes are still splitting the rent on dingy apartments with their college buddies. Economic independence? Checkmate. Meanwhile, over in the UK, women are smashing the careers game. Back in the 1970s, only 52 per cent of women were in the workforce. Today, that number has hit 72 per cent. With those paychecks rolling in, it's no wonder women are ditching the 'happily ever after' myth for a happily independent reality. And the piece de resistance? Women are now more educated than ever before. More women than men are earning college degrees in the U.S., giving them the upper hand in everything from paychecks to power plays. Who needs a knight in shining armour when you've got a master's degree and a killer 401(k)? And let's not forget people are waiting longer to tie the knot - if they tie it at all. The median age for first marriages is now 30.1 for men and 28.2 for women. We're no longer rushing to say 'I do' just because society says we should. Nope, we're busy living life on our own terms. Jana Hocking examines the 'mating crisis' - and why she's embracing the freedom, fun and flings that come with it One man's 'mating crisis' is another woman's fist pump for freedom. Huzzah! Remember when being single past a certain age made you the social equivalent of unclaimed baggage at the airport - ignored, pitied, judged? I mean, they made a whole Bridget Jones franchise out of it. Oh, how times have changed! Over the past year or so, the narrative has flipped. Single women are no longer society's leftovers, they're its secret sauce. How do I know? I'm a living, breathing and perfectly functioning example of this new plot twist. Just two months ago, I hopped on a plane to New York City. Why? No major reason. There were just a few fun things happening over there that I fancied going to. So, being a single career woman with a few funds in the bank, I had the freedom to do so. Guess who tried to stop me? No one. There were no kids to shepherd to school or footy practice. No man whingeing that I was leaving him stranded. Nope, I was free to do what (and who) I jolly well liked. And dear reader, I did. I went out with my group of four girls and two gays to many a rambunctious party. I had a cheeky fling with my very own Mr Big - a charming and mightily successful, salt-and-pepper-haired New Yorker who made me feel like a goddess. Then I jumped back on the plane to Sydney feeling revived and alive. It really put a pep in my step. How did I ring in the New Year? At North Bondi Fish with my girlfriends for a long, boozy lunch, before hopping on a boat to watch the fireworks rain down over Sydney Harbour Bridge, champagne in hand as we cheered the night away. It was glorious! The next day? No hangover-fuelled chaos trying to entertain kids or a husband. I got up, threw myself in the ocean for a quick swim, ordered Uber Eats, and spent the day binge-watching Real Housewives before heading out for a cheeky 'hair of the dog' with friends. Okay, okay, and a cheeky 'you up?' text to a former flame to quell the hangover horn. So, do you know what this 'mating crisis' has really brought the single women of the world? Freedom, funds, and flings - and I, for one, am very much here for it. And you, dear reader? What has single life given you that you wouldn't trade for the world? Tell me your stories: jana.hocking@mailonline.com Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent has admitted to putting breast milk in her morning cup of coffee - but there's good reason why. Kent, 34, is a mom of two girls - welcoming her first daughter, Ocean, with ex-fiance Randall Emmett in March 2021, and second child Sosa via a sperm donor in September 2024. The former Bravo star has shared a lot about her motherhood journey, including her desire to have a second child, which she opened up about on the last season of the reality series. However, during a recent appearance on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, she revealed that she had poured some breast milk in her coffee that morning because she didn't want any of it to go to waste. 'Can I tell you something? So, I pumped when I got here, but there was nowhere to put my breast milk to save... I put it in my coffee and drank 10 ounces of breast milk this morning,' she told host Amanda Hirsch. 'I'm not gonna dump it down the sink!' Kent added. The Give Them Lala Beauty founder also shared that she was 'never married' to the idea of breast feeding, but was lucky that she had a lot of milk come in and was able to do so. And, according to Women's Health, drinking your own breast milk is 'absolutely safe,' as they explored the topic after Susan O'Brien of New Zealand was running a 20K trail race and drank her own milk for survival. Lala Kent, 34, is a mom of two girls, welcoming her first daughter, Ocean, with ex-fiance Randall Emmett in March 2021, and second child Sosa via a sperm donor in September 2024 During a recent appearance on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, she revealed that she had poured some breast milk in her coffee that morning because she didn't want any of it to go to waste The Give Them Lala Beauty founder also shared that she was 'never married' to the idea of breast feeding, but was lucky that she had a lot of milk come in and was able to do so OB-GYN Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine, told the outlet at the time that because the milk comes from your own body, 'the bacteria that's in the fluid is completely okay for you to consume.' Kent isn't the only celebrity who has dared to drink their own breast milk, either. Last year, Kourtney Kardashian told the world that she drank an entire glass of her breast milk because she wasn't feeling well. 'This filter is crazy and I just pounded a glass of breast milk because I feel sick. goodnight,' she wrote in an Instagram post last April. The Kardashian had been breastfeeding her baby son Rocky Thirteen, who is now one. However, according to Parents, although breast milk can have healing benefits for babies, it may not have the same advantages for adult moms. Kent's breast milk admission comes just two months after Bravo announced a complete recast for hit show Vanderpump Rules. The show, which premiered in January 2013, has seen 11 seasons since. Kent's breast milk admission comes just two months after Bravo announced a complete recast for their hit show, Vanderpump Rules 'The decision to scrap the cast had nothing to do with ratings,' a source told DailyMail.com exclusively in November Vanderpump Rules skyrocketed to viral fame during its tenth season, after 'Scandoval' was exposed. It turned out that Tom Sandoval had been cheating on his longtime girlfriend, Ariana Madix, with Rachel Leviss, another member of the cast. 'The decision to scrap the cast had nothing to do with ratings,' a source told DailyMail.com exclusively in November. 'There was simply nothing more that was left to say. The story had been told,' they continued. The insider stressed that the dynamics between the cast members had severed and there was no longer any 'truth' to their friendships and their work at Lisa Vanderpump's SUR restaurant. 'In the beginning, Vanderpump Rules was about a group of people who were genuinely friends,' the source said. 'They were roommates and had a close bond with each other. They also worked at SUR.' They continued: 'In the end none of this was true anymore. They were not friends. Hardly any of them talked to each other and they no longer worked at the restaurant. They all knew after the finale last season that there was nothing left to tell. 'Fans knew this too. It is sad how divided they had become. They knew that they were not returning when time came to shoot a new season and it was put on pause.' The source went on to confirm that the new cast has yet to be locked in, but insisted that they will all work at Lisa Vanderpump's restaurants, mainly SUR, and will have authentic relationships. The 60-year-old said New Orleans 'is the closest to a hometown I've ever felt' Hoda lived in Louisiana from 1992 until 1999 while working for CBS affiliate WWL Hoda Kotb has expressed her sadness over the tragic New Orleans terror attack this week as she revealed she is 'heartbroken' for her former home. The 60-year-old TV host, who spent the holidays at her new house in suburban New York, took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a photo of the New Orleans emblem with the date of January 1, 2025. 'Praying for my city. Heartbroken,' she captioned the post alongside a broken heart emoji. Ten people were killed and dozens injured in the early hours of Wednesday when US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street before getting out of the vehicle and firing a gun. On Thursday, investigators said they believe multiple people were involved in the terror attack and authorities are now looking into people of interest. Hoda's 2.6 million followers were quick to like and comment on her post, with many people sharing their own heartache and fondness for New Orleans. Hoda Kotb has expressed her sadness over the tragic New Orleans terror attack this week as she revealed she is 'heartbroken' for her former home Hoda shared this image of the New Orleans emblem and said she was 'praying for my city' 'Praying with you, Hoda. My parents were both born and raised there and just would be heartbroken by this,' one person commented. Another wrote: 'Dearest Hoda - thank you for bringing your delightful spirit to today's parade, while supporting your dear home state. You are an incredible light and humanitarian.' A third person said, 'Horrible - my heart is with you,' and a fourth wrote: 'It is tragic.' Someone else commented: 'I thought of you right away... turned to watch you and Al on the rose parade. News report was on.' A different Instagram user added: 'Thank you Hoda and thank you for holding it together for the Rose Parade, I'm going to miss seeing you on TV, but I'm so excited for your next chapter! I met you in Nola in April, you're so sweet and genuine.' 'So so heartbreaking!' someone else commented, while another added: 'My heart breaks for you and your New Orleans.' Hoda lived in New Orleans from 1992 until 1998, when she was an anchor and reporter for CBS affiliate WWL. Back in 2023, the mother-of-two opened up about her soft spot for New Orleans and said she wants her daughters Haley, seven, and Hope, four, to love it just as much as she does. An officer walks down Bourbon Street, which is where the terror attack took place in New Orleans on New Year's Day Hoda was all smiles during a trip to New Orleans with Jenna Bush Hager last year 'It's the closest to a hometown I've ever felt,' she told Southern Living, adding: 'There's a magnetism about New Orleans that grabs you right out of the gate.' Referring to her young kids, she said: 'I want them to know New Orleans - to love the city and for this to be part of their lives because it's such an important part of mine. 'I want them to see what it's like to be front and center at the parade,' she continued. The TV star takes her daughters to Louisiana regularly and describes New Orleans as having a 'real community.' Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza Spencer looked typically stylish as they posed next to their rarely seen mother on Tuesday. The twin sisters, 32, welcomed in the New Year during their lavish trip to Clifton, an affluent suburb located in sunny Cape Town. Amelia and Eliza soaked up the rays with their older sister, Lady Kitty Spencer, as they celebrated her birthday on December 28. Princess Diana's nieces looked effortlessly chic as they shared snaps of them posing in front of a picturesque sunset. And their mother, former fashion model Victoria Aitken, 59, even made an appearance on Amelia's Instagram. Charles Spencer's first wife donned a floaty leopard print gown and looked in high spirits as she posed in-between her daughters during golden hour. She wore her blonde tresses down in a flattering wavy blow-dry and showed off her youthful skin with natural makeup. Victoria used to model for Dior and Levi and was once described by Ralph Lauren as 'the most beautiful girl in the world,' according to Tatler. Lady Amelia Spencer posed with her twin sister Lady Eliza Spencer (left) and their mother Victoria Aitken (centre) Eliza donned a fashionable flowy blue and white modern dress, whereas Amelia wore an elegant red floral patterned cut-out frock. The twins - who have both taken after their mother and are signed with Storm modelling agency - wore their golden locks down in a sleek, straightened blow-dry. Eliza also shared a picture of herself and Amelia with Kitty, who wore a colourful jumpsuit for the occasion. She wrote: 'Going into 2025 with a full heart,' alongside sharing videos of their private pool and images of herself at a vineyard. The De Meye estate has been farmed by the Myburgh family for five generations and they are in one of South Africa's most prestigious regions for winemaking. The vineyard produces Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz, along with Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. The images shows the Spencer trio laughing as they attempted to pose for a picture while embracing each other in the sunshine. Kitty, 34, posted a video full of highlights over the year and wrote: 'Thank you, 2024. Feeling huge gratitude for a year of health, happiness, travel and laughter but most importantly motherhood., love and plenty of family time. Wishing everyone a wonderful 2025.' Eliza shared a photo with her sisters outside the prestigious De Meye estate in South Africa Amelia also shared the images, writing the caption: 'Family. Celebrating you @Kitty Spencer.' Earl Spencer proposed to Victoria only six weeks after they first met, opting for an unusual engagement ring in the shape of a heart, consisting of both a ruby and a diamond. They wed in 1989 and had Princess Diana's youngest son, Prince Harry, as the pageboy at their wedding. They divorced in 1997 after moving to South Africa together, following eight years of marriage. Victoria decided to stay in the sunny country with their four children, Louis, Kitty, Amelia and Eliza, whereas Earl Spencer returned him to the UK after they divorced. Cape Town holds a special place in Kitty's heart, as she was raised in South Africa with her siblings and attended Reddam House school in Cape Town. When her parents divorced, Kitty began splitting her time between South Africa and the UK, where she stayed at Althrop, the family's seat in West Northamptonshire. She married Michael Lewis, 66, in 2021, who was also born and raised in South Africa. Amelia, who is the first cousin of Princes William and Harry, also met her real estate beau Greg Mallett while they were both studying at the University of Cape Town. The twin daughters of Sean 'Diddy' Combs flaunted their bikini bodies, as they soaked up the sun in St Bart's amid their father's legal woes. Identical twins Jessie and D'Lila Combs, who turned 18 the week before Christmas, were snapped looking carefree in matching bikinis as they lounged on the beach on the Caribbean island. The girls showed off their lithe figures in matching peach-colored swimmers with sarongs tied around their waists. They both wore their hair in braids, as they posed on the sand for numerous photos with a friend. In another picture, the twins stood on some rocks on the shore, showing off their statuesque figures as they posed in the sun. Their music mogul father remains in federal custody at the notoriously tough Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City awaiting trial. On New Years Day, Jessie and D'Lila posted a photo to their joined 'Combs Twins' Instagram account from a luxury yacht wearing matching silver sequined outfits. The girls, who wore a cropped silver top with a matching mini skirt, captioned the snap: '2025 is OUR year.' Sean Diddy Combs' twin daughters flaunted their bikini bodies, as they soaked up the sun in St Bart's amid their father's legal woes Identical twins Jessie and D'Lila, who turned 18 the week before Christmas, were snapped in striking matching bikinis Last week, the girls were spotted with a friend aboard a luxury yacht moored off the island on Sunday. The teenagers, who turned 18 on December 21, wore matching pink dresses with their hair in braids, and were only distinguished by nameplates on their necklaces as they celebrated the festive season on the boat. In an Instagram post shared last week, the duo continued to lap up the limelight as they posed in front of a Christmas tree in pink minidresses, captioning the post: 'Blessed to see another.' The duo reportedly marked Christmas with their brothers Quincy, 33, Justin 30, and Christian, 26, as well as sisters Chance, 18, and Love Sean, two. The siblings have put up a united from of support for the disgraced rapper - who was branded a 'monster' in the upcoming documentary, Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy, which streams on Peacock on January 14. The 90-minute documentary will spill on Combs early years, 'his decades-long transformation to Puffy and then to Diddy, with crucial insight into the forces that shaped the man and may have made him a monster,' according to Peacock. Notably, the trailer showed clips from his inner circle - including a childhood friend, a former bodyguard and a Making the Band winner. 'Sean Combs is a monster,' declares attorney Lisa Bloom in the trailer. Bloom is representing Dawn Richards, who is sued the rapper for 'terrorizing and sexually abusing' her in a civil case against Combs. The girls showed off their lithe figures in matching peach-colored swimmers with sarongs tied around their waists In another picture, the twins stood on some rocks on the shore, showing off their statuesque figures as they posed in the sun The Combs twins showed off their statuesque figures They enjoyed the beach with a friend The girls both wore their hair in braids, as they posed on the beach for numerous photos with a friend The girls looked striking in their matching swimmers On New Years Day, Jessie and D'Lila posted a photo to their joined 'Combs Twins' Instagram account from a luxury yacht wearing matching silver sequined outfits In November, the Combs twins celebrated their father's 55th birthday by gathering to sing him 'Happy Birthday' over the phone. In a video shared to the twins and their brother Justin Dior Combs' Instagram accounts, they were heard singing happy birthday to their father over a jailhouse phone. Combs is then heard telling his children he is proud of all of them and 'looking forward to seeing them soon.' An upbeat Diddy said: 'I love y'all, I can't wait to see y'all. I'm proud of y'all, especially the girls, all of y'all, but just for being strong, thank you for being strong. 'Thank you for being by my side and supporting me, I got the best family in the world 'My birthday, I'm happy for you giving me this call, I'll see you in a couple of days.' Love, two, told her father she loved him to which he responded: 'I love you too baby.' Following his arrest, Combs' seven children shared a joint statement supporting him ahead of his trial, which is expected to begin in May 2025. 'The past month has devastated our family,' they wrote on Instagram. 'Many have judged both him and us based on accusations, conspiracy theories, and false narratives that have spiraled into absurdity on social media. 'We stand united, supporting you every step of the way. We hold onto the truth, knowing it will prevail, and nothing will break the strength of our family. WE MISS YOU & LOVE YOU DAD.' Combs has pleaded not guilty, and in a recent report from Page Six he was said to have appeared in court earlier this month 'astonishingly thinner' and 'greyer,' after months away from the lavish lifestyle he and his family were accustomed to. As he sat in his cell on Christmas, an insider told DailyMail.com that he had a meltdown because he couldn't believe he was still behind bars in a 'hellhole' Brooklyn jail. Following a months-long investigation by authorities, he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution all of which he denies and a trial date has been set for 5 May, 2025. The twins were spotted enjoying the festive season while their disgraced music mogul father remains in federal custody awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges It comes days after the twins marked Christmas together in an Instagram post, where they posed in front of a Christmas tree in pink minidresses, captioning the pic: 'Blessed to see another' Diddy pictured with his partner Kim Porter and twin daughters D'Lila and Jessie in 2007 Combs was placed on suicide watch during his first week in custody, but was taken off of it shortly after, with his lawyer claiming his client was 'focused and very strong.' He faces a string of sex charges alongside renewed allegations, including a new lawsuit alleging sexual assault against a 13-year-old girl. The new legal filing seen by DailyMail.com claims Diddy had allegedly 'aggressively approached' the young girl with a 'crazed look in his eyes' before sexually assaulting her. She claims an unidentified male celebrity also raped her while Diddy and an unnamed female celebrity watched. The rapper has denied the allegations. His attorneys told DailyMail.com he 'never sexually assaulted anyone' and said the most recent 'barrage of filings' were nothing but 'clear attempts to garner publicity.' Combs was arrested in September on federal charges of racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation for purposes of prostitution - and is incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, a prison that previously held Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and R Kelly. Private health data will be sold off to companies and researchers to help fund the NHS under controversial plans being considered by officials. The proposals are expected to form part of the Government's 10-year plan for the health service to be unveiled in the spring by Health Secretary Wes Streeting. While anonymised patient records are already sold, a new 'National Health Data Service' will make the currently 'complicated' and disjointed process of accessing patient data easier. But the professor charged with reviewing the sale of medical data has warned that members of the public may find it 'unpalatable' having their records bought by multinationals. The government-backed review into the way data is stored and used by the NHS carried out by Cathie Sudlow, Professor of Neurology and Clinical Epidemiology at Edinburgh university, has called for a central service to control and store information. The idea is gaining support across Whitehall departments, the Financial Times reported. The most controversial part of the plan is likely to revolve around the pricing of medical data, which experts have warned will fuel public concern over profiteering from private medical information. Professor Sudlow said there had already been 'a lot of thinking and ongoing discussions' - within the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS and the government body Office for Life Sciences - over the pricing of health data. Private health data will be sold off to companies and researchers to help fund the NHS under controversial plans being considered by officials (stock photo) The proposals are expected to form part of the Government's 10-year plan for the health service to be unveiled in the spring by Health Secretary Wes Streeting (stock photo) She told the FT the proposals under study would ensure 'benefits for patients and the public can be realised'. The data would be anonymised and so cannot be linked to individual patients. But she said any shift would need to be carefully handled. 'The idea of large multinational companies profiting off the back of the NHS is not palatable for many people, and the notion of direct data selling doesn't go down well with the public,' she said. Her report warned that 'undue emphasis on [selling data] damages trust' in the system. Mr Streeting has said 'data is the future of the NHS' and NHS England awarded a controversial 330million contract to US group Palantir's technology - sometimes described as 'spy tech' has been criticised by human rights groups as capable of being abused to spy on private citizens. Health Secretary Wes Streeting meeting staff during a visit to London Ambulance Service headquarters in south London While anonymised patient records are already sold, a new 'National Health Data Service' will make the currently 'complicated' process of accessing patient data easier (stock photo) The British Medical Association called it 'deeply worrying' that the US giant, which has close ties to defence and intelligence agencies in America, the UK and elsewhere, would be handling British patients' sensitive details. A paid advisor to Palantir is former Labour MP and peer Tom Watson. A government spokesman said: 'We welcome the comprehensive Sudlow Review and are considering the recommendations ahead of the upcoming Spending Review, Life Sciences Sector Plan and 10-Year Health Plan. Our priority will always be to ensure that data is used to benefit patients.' The St. Louis Cathedral is seen on Orleans St is seen in the French Quarter where a suspicious package was detonated after a person drove a truck into a crowd earlier on Bourbon Street on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton) Matthew Hinton/Associated Press A man from the Houston area drove a truck into a New Year's Day crowd Wednesday morning in the French Quarter of New Orleans, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more, according to authorities. The driver, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was killed in a shooting, according to the FBI. Investigators with the FBI said they believe more people may have been responsible for the attack. The attack has captured the attention of people all over the country. Here are some of the reactions from Texas politicians, national leaders and more. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Governor Greg Abbott Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted a statement on social media Wednesday morning on the attack, saying he told Texas authorities to ensure the state doesn't face any threats in the coming days. "Our prayers go out to the victims of this heinous crime in New Orleans," Abbott said in statement. "I have been briefed by the Texas Department of Public Safety on this attack and commanded them to get to the bottom of it immediately with a special focus to ensure no one in Texas faces any safety threat. I am treating this as a terrorist attack and will work closely with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas National Guard, and law enforcement at every level to ensure we know exactly what happened, that the danger is contained, and that every detail is analyzed to make sure there is no other attack like this." Our prayers go out to the victims of this heinous crime in New Orleans. I have been briefed by the Texas Department of Public Safety on this attack and commanded them to get to the bottom of it immediately with a special focus to ensure no one in Texas faces any safety threat. I Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 1, 2025 Mayor John Whitmire Houston Mayor John Whitmire released a statement Wednesday afternoon on the attack. Advertisement Article continues below this ad "Houston stands in solidarity with the people of New Orleans and our prayers are with the victims and their families following this mornings tragic and senseless act of violence. I have been in regular contact with state and local officials, as well as law enforcement leadership," Whitmire said in the statement. "The FBI, as the lead agency in this federal investigation, has our full confidence and collaboration. The Houston Police Department is closely integrated with the FBIs Houston office and Harris County Sheriff Gonzalezs team. Houston is ready to deploy any resources needed to ensure the safety and security of our communities." Mayor Whitmires response to the tragic attack in New Orleans: pic.twitter.com/gTrQKK5BFt Houston Mayor's Office (@houmayor) January 1, 2025 Senator Ted Cruz Senator Ted Cruz said on social media that his team is looking into the attack in New Orleans. He said he do whatever he can to hold any potential perpetrators accountable. Advertisement Article continues below this ad "The investigation is ongoing, but what we already know is horrific. I will work with my colleagues and the Trump administration to hold accountable all those who were involved," Cruz said on X. "Heidi and I are deeply grateful to all the law enforcement and first responders who bravely rushed to the scene and acted in the face of evil. We are continuing to pray for the families and loved ones of the victims." My team and I are closely monitoring the atrocity that took place in New Orleans. The investigation is ongoing, but what we already know is horrific. I will work with my colleagues and the Trump administration to hold accountable all those who were involved. Heidi and I are Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 1, 2025 Senator John Cornyn Senator John Cornyn posted on X: "The civilized world is stunned by the senseless attack in New Orleans. Texans will be keeping our neighbors in Louisiana, especially the families of the victims, first responders, and police, in our prayers." Advertisement Article continues below this ad The civilized world is stunned by the senseless attack in New Orleans Texans will be keeping our neighbors in Louisiana, especially the families of the victims, first responders, and police, in our prayers. Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) January 1, 2025 Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a statement the county will do what it can to help fellow officials in their investigation. "I am aware of the Harris County Sheriffs Office work assisting the FBI in its enforcement activity following the tragic attack in New Orleans. Our hearts go out to the families affected and we are committed to assist to the greatest extent possible," Hidalgo said. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez Gonzalez posted twice on X about the New Orleans attack, saying the sheriff's office will monitor the situation to make sure the local population stays safe. Advertisement Article continues below this ad "Praying for everyone in New Orleans today, those who lost their lives, those that were injured, and those that responded to protect lives and render life-saving care," Gonzalez posted. "Such a tragic way to start the new year." Praying for everyone in New Orleans today, those who lost their lives, those that were injured, and those that responded to protect lives and render life-saving care. Such a tragic way to start the new year. Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) January 1, 2025 President Joe Biden President Joe Biden released a statement Wednesday declaring that the FBI will lead the investigation into the attack and will make sure that "every resource is available." "My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday," Biden said. "There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nations communities." President-elect Donald Trump President-elect Donald Trump's statement featured two parts. The first two sentences focused on criminals coming into the U.S., seemingly implying that Jabbar was not American. However, records show that Jabbar was born in Texas and raised in the U.S. He then said his administration will "fully support" New Orleans in the following weeks and months. "Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department," Trump said. "The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!" SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey released a statement Wednesday following the decision to postpone the Sugar Bowl, in which Notre Dame and Georgia will face off, to Thursday. "The decision to postpone tonight's Sugar Bowl was made in the best interest of public safety," Sankey said. "Lives were tragically lost last night and we are appreciative that public officials and law enforcement agencies continue to work with great diligence to ensure the safety of the New Orleans community." President of France Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, posted on social media Wednesday expressing his sadness about the attack. "New Orleans, so dear to the hearts of the French, has been struck by terrorism," Macron posted on X. "Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the injured, as well as with the American people, whose sorrow we share." Pope Francis appears to have made his views on assisted dying clear in his New Year's message, calling on the public to 'respect natural death'. The Pope has previously spoken out against assisted dying but remained silent on the issue in lead-up to the controversial vote in British parliament. Yet, during New Year's Day Mass in St Peter's Basilica on Wednesday, he urged everyone for a 'firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death', taking a swipe at abortion too. In November, MPs in the UK took the first step in passing one of the most historic pieces of legislation in the last decade following five hours of emotionally-charged debate. The Commons approved the second reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill which argues for the right for patients with less than six months to live to seek an assisted death in England. The result was won by a narrow majority 330 votes to 275, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer among the politicians in favour. In his homily a commentary that follows a reading of scripture the Pope said: 'I ask for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life, from conception to natural death. 'So that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children.' The Pope has previously spoken out against assisted dying but remained silent on the issue in lead-up to the vote in British parliament Yet, during New Year's Day Mass in St Peter's Basilica on Wednesday, he urged people to 'respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death' In November, MPs voted 330 to 275 in favour of assisted dying, although we won't know if the Bill becomes a law until later this year at the earliest He also called on people to protect 'the precious gift of life, life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying' and for 'the elimination of the death penalty in all nations'. The Pope has become more outspoken in his opposition to abortion in recent years. He has referred it as 'more than an issue, abortion is murder', as well as 'hiring a hitman to solve a problem'. In September, he labelled Belgium's abortion laws 'homicidal'. Catholic leaders in England and Wales were among the most vociferous opponents of a private member's bill to legalise assisted dying that ultimately passed in the House of Commons in late November. That campaign was led by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who called on worshippers to write to their MPs and ask them to vote against the bill. It is understood the Pope did not raise the issue with deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, when she met him at the Vatican days before the vote. But while the bill passed its second reading, assisted dying in England is not a certainty. In total, 235 Labour MPs supported the Bill alongside 23 Tories, 61 Liberal Democrats, and three Reform UK MPs. Catholic leaders in England and Wales were among the most vociferous opponents of a private member's bill to legalise assisted dying that ultimately passed in the House of Commons In total, 236 Labour MPs supported the Bill alongside 23 Tories, 61 Liberal Democrats, and three Reform UK MPs Kim Leadbeater told fellow MPs that her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will give people 'choice, autonomy and dignity at the end of their lives' This compared to 147 Labour MPs who opposed the Bill alongside 93 Tories, 11 Lib Dems, and two Reform UK MPs - including party leader Nigel Farage. The five-hour debate in the Commons saw MPs make impassioned arguments on both sides, with supporters saying they wanted to offer 'choice' to those in 'excruciating agony'. But opponents warned against implementing a 'state suicide service' for terminally ill people. The nation will not know if assisted dying will be enshrined into law until later this year at the earliest. This is because the bill will now go to a committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the Commons and the House of Lords. Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Bill to Parliament, has also said it would likely be a further two years from then for an assisted dying service to be in place. The Bill includes a number of stipulations regarding who would be able to seek assistance with ending their life, and how they could do so. First, two independent doctors must confirm that the patient fits the following criteria. Those who qualify must be over 18, live in England and Wales, and have been registered with a GP for the last year. They must be deemed to have mental capacity to make the choice to end their own life, and not be pressured into doing so by others. A medical team must have calculated a bleak prognosis less than six months. The patient must also make two seperate declarations of their wish to die to ensure the decision has been adequately considered. If the medics feel the patient is eligible, the case is referred to a High Court judge who makes the ultimate call. At least two weeks after a positive ruling, a patient is permitted to take their own life with the help of a doctor. But concerns have been raised that 'gaps' in the legislation would put vulnerable patients at risk of ill-thought-out decisions. For instance, it emerged in November that doctors will be allowed to broach the topic of assisted suicide with patients even if they have not mentioned it themselves. And anyone who wants help dying will be allowed to 'shop around' until they find a medic who will sign off their application if their first choice is unable or unwilling to do the job. Corrine Jones was tucking her two young children into bed one Sunday evening when she was suddenly struck by excruciating stabbing pains in her lower abdomen. The heavy, dull ache that had plagued her on and off for more than six months had now turned into severe shooting sensations that left her bent over double and vomiting. 'I was so scared and had no idea what was happening,' says the former surfer and model, who runs a production company with her husband Ben, 37. 'I'd always managed the dull ache before with rest, paracetamol and a hot water bottle, but this was different the sharp pain was totally unbearable,' says the mother of two, from Newquay, Cornwall. A 'very worried' Ben called 111. The operator suspected appendicitis and urged Corrine to go A&E. 'The NHS was wonderful, I can't fault them,' says Corrine, 36, who was rushed to hospital by her mother, while Ben stayed at home to look after their sons, Albee, now six, and Ozzie, three. Corrine Jones had the typical symptoms of pelvic congestion syndrome (PCS) - which affects 1.5million women - caused by varicose veins around her ovaries 'I was admitted overnight and examined for an ovarian cyst and anything else that could be going on in that area.' But blood tests and internal and external ultrasound scans were clear. 'The nurse said this sometimes happens where women come in with these symptoms, and they don't ever really find out why they're in pain,' says Corrine. She was sent home the following day and told to take normal pain relief and rest. 'I was also put on a waiting list to see the gynaecology team.' By now, the intense, sharp pain had subsided. Yet, Corrine still suffered with the ongoing dragging feeling in her pelvic region. 'It was really upsetting because I knew something was wrong, but a cause hadn't been found. 'I forced myself to carry on with life as normal but was so lethargic. The pain was particularly debilitating after long days on my feet running around after the children. 'All I could do was go to bed and rest.' In fact Corrine had the typical symptoms of pelvic congestion syndrome (PCS), caused by varicose veins around her ovaries. Also known as ovarian vein reflux, it occurs as a result of faulty valves in the veins so blood that should be pumped out of the pelvis and back to the heart instead pools in the pelvic and ovarian veins, stretching and dilating them. Over time the enlarged, sagging veins are pushed onto the bladder, bowel, vagina and pelvic floor, causing extreme discomfort. Some women complain of pain after sexual intercourse, the need to use the loo more urgently (because of pressure on the bladder and bowel), hip and back pain. Common signs include pelvic pain that worsens as the day goes on, especially after prolonged periods of standing, and during menstruation. Varicose veins at the top of the inner thigh are another clue. Up to 1.5 million adult women in the UK are believed to be affected by hidden pelvic varicose veins. While it affects both sexes, it's less common in men, with bulging veins in the scrotum a possible sign. Typically if it is diagnosed, this is in women under 40 who've had more than one pregnancy pressure from the womb, a growing baby and increased blood flow can sometimes cause valves to stop working properly. But despite affecting so many people, the condition is not well known, say experts. Corrine had never heard of it until she stumbled across an Instagram post in April 2023, three months after her hospital admission: it was a lightbulb moment. Like her mother and grandmother, Corrine first developed varicose veins in her legs in her mid-20s. 'I'd taken a lot of long-haul flights, but my legs would still swell and feel like they were filled with concrete. 'I went to the doctor multiple times because of my family history of varicose veins but was told they weren't severe enough to be looked at as they weren't ulcerated.' During her first pregnancy, in 2018, the bulging veins in Corrine's legs worsened, and after giving birth to her second child in 2021, the pelvic discomfort really ramped up. 'I had what felt like period pains all the time,' Corrine says. Treatment options for PCS include anti-inflammatory drugs, the Pill (which relieves pain by reducing bleeding) and keyhole surgery to tie off veins. Common signs include pelvic pain that worsens as the day goes on, especially after prolonged periods of standing, and during menstruation However, Robert Morgan, a professor of interventional radiology and clinical director for diagnostics at St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, says the preferred method is PVE (pelvic vein embolisation), a minimally invasive procedure which stops blood flow in the congested veins and causes them to shrink. First, an internal ultrasound is used to identify the troublesome veins: tiny catheters are then inserted into the vein (via a vein in the neck or groin), and when in situ, special platinum coils which cluster together to stop blood flow are released with a special foam that contains a chemical to destroy veins. Once blocked, the faulty veins are reabsorbed into the body by the immune system over many months, and the competent veins can work more efficiently. '[PVE] is relatively safe, takes 30 to 60 minutes, has low complications and patients are discharged from hospital the same day,' explains Professor Morgan, whose team of 13 interventional radiologists perform approximately 40-60 procedures at St George's annually. However, the procedure is only available on the NHS in some centres. Corrine contacted The Whiteley Clinic, a private practice that specialises in vascular procedures, as 'I knew the NHS wouldn't treat me as they had already told me my veins weren't bad enough'. Professor Mark Whiteley warns one in three women attending gynaecology outpatients with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) have hidden varicose veins An internal scan revealed that Corrine had pelvic congestion in the ovarian vein on her left side and on both sides in the internal iliac veins these are a group of veins that return blood from the pelvic organs to the heart. These veins are the problem 'in 97 per cent of PCS cases, but most doctors only treat the ovarian veins as they are easier to treat', says Professor Mark Whiteley, a consultant venous surgeon who set up The Whiteley Clinic. 'It was eye-opening to realise this was what I'd been dealing with since my 20s,' Corrine says. 'On the scan, I could see the blood pooling in the pelvic veins and not flowing properly.' Corrine travelled to London for the 90-minute day case procedure (PVE treatment starts from 4,400). She returned to Newquay the same day. It took a month for the internal inflammation to settle, but Corrine began carrying out her daily activities, including going to the gym, with no discomfort. 'It was amazing. Sadly, I think a lot of women are probably living with hidden varicose veins and just trying to manage the discomfort because it's not picked up or talked about. 'Looking back, it's surprising, given how common it is, that no one mentioned it or suggested it when I had my tests in the hospital.' One in three women attending gynaecology outpatients with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) have hidden varicose veins, according to Professor Whiteley. 'Unfortunately, these conditions are not recognised by most gynaecologists, let alone other health professionals and these patients are frequently told they have endometriosis or that there is 'nothing wrong with them'. 'Many gynaecologists see the dilated veins on scans but are not trained to know that these are the cause of the problems, so they ignore them.' Professor Whiteley warns it is only an effective treatment if the right veins are located using a transvaginal duplex ultrasound scan, which is performed with the patient half sitting and half lying with their back at a 45-degree angle to spot faulty blood flow. 'Although many doctors like to use MRI, CT or venography [an X-ray using a contrast dye], these have been shown to be less accurate as they do not give information about the blood flow in the veins,' he says. 'Unfortunately, we do see patients [who've had PVE elsewhere] but don't get improvement because the wrong veins were identified or the coils were left too high in the vein. This can be due to inexperienced doctors performing the embolisation, or a groin approach being used rather than in the neck, meaning that the catheter is not passed all the way to the bottom of the affected vein.' Earlier this month, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee warned that women with conditions including heavy periods, endometriosis and adenomyosis were being dismissed and suggested there was a lack of medical research, treatment options and specialists. Arguably, more research is needed on pelvic congestion syndrome, too. Professor Morgan, who is currently president of the British Society of Interventional Radiology, suggests awareness about the condition is improving he's seen a rise in PCS procedure referrals, a result of increasing media reporting, patient knowledge and greater education. Corrine, who received her treatment free in exchange for sharing her story, says she's been 'inundated with messages [on social media] saying 'I think I have this'. 'I want women to know that the pain of PCS isn't something they have to put up with for ever.' Another bird flu alert has been issued in England after an outbreak of the virus was detected in East Yorkshire. The latest incident, in Nafferton, East Riding of Yorkshire, is the 16th detected in the Britain this year. Government officials have imposed a 3km protection and 10km surveillance zone around the area that restrict the movement of birds like chickens as well as poultry products like meat and eggs in the area. All birds at the premises of the new outbreak will be culled, officials added. It comes as experts warned that the virus, which spreads through wild and domestic birds' droppings and saliva, as well as contaminated food and water, could jump to humans, sparking a new pandemic. However, the current risk is considered low with cases of bird to human infection rare. But experts are concerned about the current strain of bird flu spreading worldwide with multiple cases making the jump to humans. This include 66 people diagnosed with the virus in the US in cases believed to be linked to contact with infected poultry or from drinking unpasteurised milk from sickened cattle. Alan Gosling (pictured), a retired engineer in Devon, caught bird flu after his ducks, some of which lived inside his home, became infected in 2022 Another bird flu alert has been issued in England after an outbreak of the virus was detected in East Yorkshire. Stock image This map, from the Government's Animal and Plant Health Agency show the areas with bird flu restrictions in place Blue rings on the map represent the 3km protection zones and the yellow rings 10km surveillance zones. The shaded burgundy area represents a 'avian influenza protection zone' where people with birds are asked to take measures to protect their flock from wild birds that may carry the virus, such as housing them in indoor enclosures if possible Meanwhile, a Mexican man died after contracting the virus last year. It is unknown how the 59-year-old, who had health complications and died in April, came into contact with the pathogen. He was reported to have developed a fever, shortness of breath, diarrhea and nausea. There is, as yet, no examples of human-to-human transmission, though some studies suggest the virus is only a mutation away from having this capacity. The latest outbreak in Yorkshire comes after a string of other cases in England last month. Poultry from three premises have been identified in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, the latest being found on December 28. Other outbreaks have been reported near Norfolk, City of Kingston upon Hull and Suffolk, some involving turkeys which had been destined for Christmas dinner tables. The wave of outbreaks comes just months after a panel of UK Government experts said the ongoing infections in American cattle had boosted the risk of human-to-human transmission to up to 35 per cent, compared to just five per cent previously. They also warned Britain will need to ramp up surveillance efforts from September onward when birds from the US cross the Atlantic as part of their annual migrations, potentially bringing the virus with them. Independent experts have told MailOnline the threat of a new pandemic sparked by bird flu is low but 'cannot be excluded' as a possibility. Weeks a go the UK Health Security Agency announced it had purchased 5million doses of a human H5 influenza vaccine in preparation for a potential bird flu, also called avian influenza, pandemic. While no new human cases of H5N1 have been detected in the UK as part of the current wave of outbreaks, Britain has seen people infected before. Alan Gosling, a retired engineer in Devon who kept ducks at home, caught the virus in early 2022 after his pets became infected. He later tested negative while he was in quarantine for nearly three weeks. It's a New Year, which means millions of Americans are setting out to hit the gym, eat healthier, and ditch alcohol. In fact, it's estimated as many as 75million Americans will participate in Dry January, an increasingly popular trend that involves giving up alcohol for a month. This would be the biggest Dry January yet since the movement started in 2013. Quitting booze even for a month has been shown to cause a host of benefits like more restful sleep, weight loss, clearer skin, and even a healthier liver. An increasing number of celebrities have even taken Dry January a few steps forward and quit alcohol altogether, citing increased social pressure and struggles with addiction. Rihanna revealed this week that she hasn't had a drink in a year. 'New Year, New Me,' she wrote on Instagram. Spider-Man star Tom Holland started his own non-alcoholic beer company, Bero, after realizing during Dry January that he might have 'a little bit of an alcohol thing.' And last year Formula 1 phenom Lewis Hamilton revealed he had also stopped drinking and created the first alcohol-free tequila brand. Medical experts told DailyMail.com that more celebrities opening up about sobriety could reflect changing attitudes about alcohol amid mounting evidence on the long-term harms of drinking, such as liver disease, heart attacks, and dementia. They also suggested that the rise in celebs opening up about sobriety could be linked to the rise of non-alcoholic beverages, which are now a billion-dollar industry. Rihanna revealed on Instagram this week that she didn't have a single alcoholic beverage in 2024. She is pictured here during New Year's Eve Pictured at left is Rihanna in 2023 before going teetotal and on right at the end of 2024 after a year sober Your browser does not support iframes. Data from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) shows that alcohol consumption has gone up overall in the US, largely due to the pandemic. From 2018 to 2020, heavy alcohol use surged by 20 percent, and these rates remained steady through 2022. NIAAA estimates eight in 10 Americans over 12 have had a drink in their lifetime, and nearly two-thirds of US adults drink alcohol regularly, according to Pew Research Center. However, rates are starting to fall, especially in Gen Z. A 2023 survey from Gallup found that the amount of US adults under 35 who say they ever drink dropped from 72 percent in 2001-2003 to 62 percent in 2021-2023. Even in adults over 55, the rate of drinking has decreased from 59 percent to 49 percent in the same timeframe. Dr Shoshana Ungerleider, an internal medicine physician at Crossover Health in California, told DailyMail.com: 'Sobriety is no longer seen as unusual or restrictive; instead, it has become socially acceptable, even aspirational. 'Public figures often serve as role models, and their decision to quit drinking aligns with a desire to maintain a positive public image, maximize productivity, and enhance their personal lives. 'The normalization of sobriety in popular culture has also made it easier for individuals to discuss alcohol use openly and consider making changes in their own habits.' Sophia Spencer, a social psychologist in the UK, told DailyMail.com that this doesn't mean more celebrities are suddenly becoming sober. Instead, more conversations are happening about it. She said: 'The key shift isnt that sobriety is now trendier, but rather social norms have evolved. Sobriety is no longer seen as a response to excessive drinking or being socially awkward. 'It has been normalized to the point where people are choosing, and celebrities are being public about, being sober without feeling that theyre going against social norms or having to justify their choices explicitly. 'This normalization means were not necessarily seeing an increase in sober celebrities rather we are seeing more celebrities being open about being sober.' While Rihanna did not reveal her reasons for quitting alcohol in 2024, several celebrities have done so after struggling with addiction. Pictured at left is Robert Downey Jr's mugshot from 2000, shortly after he was jailed for drug possession. He has since been open about his addiction issues and being sober for the last two decades Donald Trump Jr, pictured here, said in 2019 that he gave up drinking because he had a 'compulsive personality' One of the most infamous is Robert Downey Jr, who publicly battled drug and alcohol addiction in the 90s and early 2000s. He started using drugs and alcohol as a teenager, which quickly escalated to him being sentenced to three years in prison in 1999 for possession of heroin and cocaine. In 2001, he checked himself into rehab, and he's been in recovery since 2003. Now 59, the Iron Man star said in a recent documentary: 'I was just kind of playing a game of just wanting to self-soothe or just stay loaded rather than deal with the fact that things had gone off the tracks a little bit.' More recently, Donald Trump Jr wrote in his 2019 book 'Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us' that he chose to abstain from alcohol after realizing he has a 'compulsive personality.' He wrote: 'Once I got going, it wasn't easy to stop me - which, when you're in college, isn't a huge problem, as long as you're getting your work done. 'With my personality, drinking alcohol was a recipe for disaster.' His father, Donald Trump, also claims to have gone teetotal after the death of his brother Fred Trump Jr in 1981 from alcoholism. High School Musical and The Iron Claw star Zac Efron has also spoken about remaining sober after struggling with addiction. Bella Hadid (left) and Zac Efron revealed they ditched alcohol due to addiction issues and realizing they were 'losing control' while drinking In 2013, he checked into rehab for alcohol and cocaine addictions. He has remained sober since 2014 and has opened up about the pressures of Hollywood influencing his substance abuse. The actor, now 36, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014: 'I was drinking a lot, way too much. 'Its never one specific thing. I mean, youre in your 20s, single, going through life in Hollywood, you know? Everything is thrown at you. 'I wouldnt take anything back; I needed to learn everything I did. But it was an interesting journey, to say the least.' Other celebrities have turned to increasingly popular non-alcoholic cocktails and beer to curb the habit. Supermodel Bella Hadid revealed last year that she went sober in 2022 by co-founding non-alcoholic beverage company Kin Euphorics. She wrote on Instagram: 'I'm so proud of anyone discovering their sobriety or anyone who has had the courage to open their mind to Dry July!' In a recent interview with InStyle, the 27-year-old admitted she had started to lose control of herself after a night of heavy drinking. She said: ''I have done my fair share of drinking. 'I loved alcohol and it got to the point where even I started to, you know, cancel nights out that I felt like I wouldn't be able to control myself. 'There's just this never-ending effect of, essentially, you know, pain and stress over those few drinks that didn't really do much, you know?' Tom Holland went sober in 2022 after completing Dry January. He has since founded non-alcoholic beer company Bero Zendaya, pictured with boyfriend Holland, said after her 21st birthday in 2017 that she never plans on drinking Tom Holland had a similar shift when he embarked upon Dry January in 2022. At that point, he was drinking so regularly that it became second nature. He told Men's Health this week: 'Every Friday after work was a write-off: Let's get drunk and have a good time. 'I didn't have bad experiences, but I would drink enough so that I would ruin my next day.' He has been sober ever since and founded non-alcoholic beer company Bero last year. Holland told Forbes: 'My first year sober was really difficult, and had I had Bero, I think it would have been easier.' In 2023, the non-alcoholic beverage market totaled $1.2billion, a 29 percent increase from the year before. Dr Ungerleider said: 'For some celebrities, like Tom Holland, sobriety has even opened doors to new opportunities, such as his business venture in non-alcoholic beverages, further highlighting how abstaining from alcohol can fit seamlessly into a modern lifestyle.' His girlfriend and fellow actor Zendaya also abstains from drinking, which Holland said helped him stay sober. When she turned 21 in 2017, the Euphoria star wrote on her website: 'Just because I'm now the legal drinking age, doesn't mean I'm going to start throwing 'em back. 'I don't plan to start drinking. My life is too stressful to need help with relaxing by having a cocktail. This industry is way too nuts for me to not be in control of myself and my decisions, so I just don't want to introduce drinking! 'Plus, I dont want drinking to become a vice. Why try something if you dont need it?!' A quadruple-whammy of viruses are hitting the US as millions go back to work after the holidays, data shows. Official figures reveal that infections cause by flu, Covid, RSV (a respiratory illness that causes the cold) and norovirus (sometimes called the stomach flu) all started to surge over the Christmas period, when families gathered to celebrate. And experts say figures will only continue to rise over the coming weeks as the US heads into the peak period of its annual flu season. Data shows that norovirus cases are at their highest level for this time of year since 2012, while RSV hospitalizations are up nearly 40 percent in two weeks. An estimated 3.1million people have been sickened by the flu so far this season, while 37,000 have been hospitalized and 1,500 have died. And the number of states with 'very high' levels of the disease has quadrupled in a week to eight. There have also been an estimated 2.5 to 4.4million Covid cases between October 1 and December 7, estimates suggest, including 72,000 to 120,000 hospitalizations and 8,200 to 13,000 deaths. The surge in infections is prompting a return of mask mandates in some states, with a hospital system in Wisconsin this week becoming the latest to reinstate them. Hospitals in parts of California, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey have also brought back the rules for staff and visitors. Officials in New York City are urging people to consider wearing a face mask on public transport. The above map shows flu activity levels by state in the week to December 21 last year. A total of eight states had 'very high' levels of the virus The above shows detections of flu cases by week in the US, indicating that the number continues to rise Experts say the surge in winter infections is being driven by increased mixing over the holiday period, and also by travel on public transport and airplanes. The issue is compounded by the fact that people's immune systems were weakened during Covid lockdowns and work-from-home rules, leaving some at greater risk of more severe illness. Dr Joe Bresee, an infectious diseases expert who spent two decades at the CDC, told DailyMail.com: 'What we are seeing now is an increasing amount of respiratory disease and norovirus that is really all over the US. 'It is what we see most years and we will probably see increasing amounts over the next few weeks as well.' The expert, who also works for The Task Force for Global Health, added: 'For each of these four viruses, we will see increases through January and then they will peak sometime in January or early February. But the peaks will be slightly different depending on where you live in the US.' Dr Todd Rice, a professor of medicine in Tennessee, told a local provider: 'Being indoors and around a lot of people can lead to more viral spread. '[Cases] will probably stay high for another week or two.' The eight states with very high levels of flu are: Louisiana, Washington, Tennessee, Alabama, California, Idaho, New Mexico and Mississippi. Data also shows that for RSV, an estimated 22,000 to 45,000 people have been hospitalized with the disease since October, while 980 to 2,300 have died. Its hospitalization rate was up nearly 40 percent to 1.8 per 100,000 in the week to December 7, the latest available compared to 1.3 in the week to November 23. The above shows norovirus detections by week in the US. The number of outbreaks was at its highest level in the first week of December for that week since 2012 Covid detections are also rising. The above shows the proportion of Covid tests that are detecting the virus The above shows that RSV hospitalizations per 100,000 people have risen nearly 40 percent in two weeks For norovirus, data shows there were more than 90 outbreaks recorded in the first week of December triple the 30 recorded two weeks previously. It was also the most outbreaks recorded at this time of year for any year since 2012. The unusual surge in norovirus cases may in part be linked to an outbreak in Los Angeles, with at least 80 people sickened after eating raw oysters tainted with norovirus at a restaurant. Dr Bresee told DailyMail.com previously: '[Cases] will go up as people get back on planes and travel for this holiday season. Any airplane right now certainly has people with viruses on board. 'And we do tend to see big peaks just after the winter holidays as people have traveled, got infected, and then gone back to school.' Flu, Covid and RSV are all spread primarily via respiratory droplets that are released into the air when someone coughs, sneezes or even talks. But norovirus, on the other hand, is spread via contact with surfaces that have been touched by someone who is already sick. Your browser does not support iframes. Experts say that norovirus cases can spike at any time of year, but that they tend to surge during the cold months because people are spending more time indoors. Symptoms of flu, Covid and RSV include a fever, cough, shortness of breath and blocked nose. Norovirus, on the other hand, is a gastrointestinal illness and causes symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps and body aches. Each can be treated using anti-viral drugs, as well as painkillers to ease discomfort from symptoms. Doctors urge those who believe they are suffering from a serious infection to visit the ER. Wisconsin's Aurora Health Care system which treats 1.2million patients a year is among the latest to bring back mask mandates for its units. It says that visitors will now need to mask up 'when in contact with patients or in congregate areas, including patient rooms and other areas designated by signage'. It follows hospital systems in other states like New Jersey, where its largest hospital system RWJBarnabas Health which sees three million patients a year has also reinstated its mask mandate. In guidance posted online, the hospital system also said that visitors would now be expected to 'wear an appropriate face mask' and 'maintain physical distance'. It added: 'We will offer you a new mask for source control or may ask you to replace your own mask with a hospital-supplied mask.' The Rush University Medical Center, Rush Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital in Illinois, have also all started requiring face masks for staff and visitors. And In Indiana, Union Health has asked visitors to wear face masks due to an uptick in respiratory viruses. To avoid getting sick, the CDC recommends getting the annual flu vaccination and staying up to date on Covid and RSV vaccines. Flu and Covid shots are recommended for those aged six months and older, while the RSV vaccine is available for those who are 75 years old and above. It also recommends other actions to help limit the spread of viruses including frequent handwashing, covering coughs and sneezes and staying at home when sick. The US is now well into its flu season, which lasts from December to February every year. A top doctor has revealed which common medications taken by millions could put you at risk of a heart attack. Dr Zain Hasan, an anesthetist in California, highlighted non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Aleve (the brand name for naproxen sodium) and Motrin (ibuprofen). While these medications are used to reduce pain, inflammation, and fever, over time they can cause changes to the blood that raise the chances of heart attacks and strokes. If taken in high doses and for prolonged periods, they can cause blood clots to form more easily, which can block arteries in the heart, and they can potentially raising blood pressure through fluid retention. The FDA says the drugs can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes by between 10 percent to 50 percent or more, depending on the drugs and the doses studied. The risk is particularly high for individuals with pre-existing heart conditions, which is why people are urged to discuss the meds with their doctor. Next up, Dr Hasan warns about the risks associated with corticosteroids such as prednisone, which are a different class of anti-inflammatory drugs compared to NSAIDs. These drugs, used to treats conditions like asthma, allergic reactions, arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease, can also cause water retention, which then can affect your heart long term. FROM THE HEART: Dr Zain Hasan has revealed which common medications taken by millions could put you at risk of a heart attack Your browser does not support iframes. Corticosteroids can narrow blood vessels, leading to increased blood pressure. Over time, this damages the arteries and increases the workload on the heart, making it more susceptible to blockages and heart failure. These types of steroids may also lead to the hardening of arteries, which makes it more difficult to get blood to and from the heart properly. In at number three on Dr Hasan's list are chemotherapy drugs. Explaining his reasoning, the medic says: 'Certain chemotherapy medications can affect your heart, can cause heart failure, [and] can cause breathing problems. '[It] makes sense cause chemotherapy kind of affects every part of your body.' Dr Hasan says the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin is the worst offender when it come to developing heart problems. The British Heart Foundation says at the current maximum dosing limit for doxorubicin which only a small number of patients receive seven in every 100 people who are given this dose will develop heart failure. From research, the charity says that it has 'established that an enzyme called NADPH oxidase, which occurs naturally in the body but is increased in disease, plays an important role in causing heart failure in response to chemotherapy'. It says that when mice were given high doses of doxorubicin chemotherapy and the activity of this enzyme was blocked, it was found that the rodents were protected against heart failure. Several studies back the doctor's claims Researchers are now trying to understand exactly how this enzyme causes heart failure in response to chemotherapy and whether blocking its action in cancer patients could prevent this from happening. Moving on, Dr Hasan says certain diabetes medications can also negatively affect your heart. He highlights that it isn't the 'majority' of diabetes medications, but certain medications like Avandia (rosiglitazone) are linked to heart failure and can affect your heart long term. One study found that individuals taking Avandia were 33 percent more likely to have a heart attack, heart failure, or or death from heart problems or or other causes. Because of these links, sales of the drug used to treat type 2 diabetes were suspended in Europe by 2010 and it is rarely prescribed in the US. Dr Hasan says when selecting a medication, sometime you have to 'weigh the risks with the benefits' beforehand. The final drugs he touches on are stimulants, such as Adderall and Ritalin, used to treat ADHD. Alarmingly, he says, these are commonly prescribed 'heavily' for children. In the US, around 3.4 million children aged 3 to 17 are taking ADHD medications. Dr Hasan says these drugs - which increase the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain to help improve focus and concentration - have a big impact on the heart. He explains: 'These medications are stimulants. What does that mean? Increases your heart rate, increases your blood pressure, makes you more awake, has more blood flow to your brain. Dr Hasan is a Los Angeles-based anesthetist 'But you think about it, if you're continuously stimulating your heart over a long period of time, it makes total sense that it could potentially damage your heart.' One study found that people who take ADHD medications for more than five years have a 23 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who don't take medication. As with all of the medications he mentions, Dr Hasan advises talking to a health provider before changing them. Stopping medications suddenly can be dangerous, with a higher risk of withdrawal symptoms. Your original health problems are also more likely to return or get worse. Health officials are warning about a little-known deadly fungus that caused the biggest fungal outbreak in US history. Last February, 162 workers at Billerud Paper in Michigan were sickened with blastomycosis, an infection caught by inhaling spores from the fungus Blastomyces. Of those, 18 workers were hospitalized with scarring on their lungs that made it difficult to breathe. One patient died. The outbreak made headlines at the time, but the CDC has published its full report on this week. All of the patients worked at or visited the factory, and most reported seemingly benign symptoms like coughing and fatigue. Blastomyces is believed to be found in moist soil, especially in the woods or near water, and decaying wood. Investigators warned that despite the paper mill's location 'in a wooded area consistent with Blastomyces' habitat,' they were unable to find the cause of the outbreak. And officials fear the disease may be more widespread than previously thought, as most states are not required to report cases. A Billerud paper mill in Escabana, Michigan (pictured) has reopened after closing for three weeks because it found itself at the center of a deadly blastomycosis outbreak Ian Pritchard, a 29-year-old chef in Michigan, died last year of blastomycosis after the disease made his lungs look like 'Swiss cheese.' It's unclear if he had any connection to the Billerud paper mill Your browser does not support iframes. Blastomycosis kills one in five patients, as spores ravage the lungs by triggering harmful inflammation, leading to severe pneumonia. The disease is rare, affecting just two in 100,000 Americans every year. Delta County, where the mill is located, reported just one case a year before the outbreak. CDC officials wrote in the report: 'This outbreak was the largest documented blastomycosis outbreak in the United States, and the first associated with a paper mill or an industrial setting. 'A coordinated public health response facilitated swift prevention measures with recommendations focused on reducing workers' exposure to Blastomyces, including hazard communication, respiratory protection, mill cleaning, and ventilation system improvements.' In April 2023, the plant voluntarily shuttered production for three weeks to upgrade air filters and clean ventilation ductwork. Health authorities conducted information sessions for workers about blastomycosis and trained them about protective measures, such as wearing masks. The report comes nearly one year after 29-year-old Ian Pritchard, a chef from Michigan, died from the disease after it ravaged his body for months. Mr Pritchard's father said the disease attacked his son's lung tissue, making them look like 'Swiss cheese.' It's unclear if Mr Pritchard had any connection to the paper mill. He lived in Petoskey, about 180 miles from Escanaba, where the plant is located. According to the CDC's report, local health authorities in Michigan were notified of a 'cluster of atypical pneumonia cases' among workers at the mill in February 2023. Urine tests were positive for Blastomyces. 'All cases occurred among persons who worked at or visited the paper mill (workers) before illness onset,' CDC experts wrote. Officials from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) opened an investigation in March 2023 and surveyed 645 of the mill's 1,000 workers. More than eight in 10 employees were men, and 94 percent were white. The average age was 46, with the youngest worker being 19 and the oldest being 73. Most patients suffered a cough (90 percent), shortness of breath (76 percent), fatigue (76 percent), and a fever or chills (73 percent). Just under two-thirds had 'abnormal lung findings on chest imaging,' which could have included fluid around the lungs or white spots, which indicate an infection. The above map shows states where blastomycosis cases have been confirmed (red), recently confirmed (orange) or are suspected to occur (blue) Mr Pritchard was one of the roughly half of people exposed to Blastomyces who get sick. The infection is fatal in up to 22 percent of cases Health authorities were unable to find the source of the fungus, which is usually found in soil and decaying wood in forests and along water. No additional cases have been reported as of April 2024. Officials estimate blastomycosis affected one in five mill workers. The most common symptoms of blastomycosis are fever, cough, shortness of breath, night sweats, muscle aches, weight loss, and fatigue. Some patients also develop skin lesions like blisters or ulcers. Blactomycosis is treated with antifungal medications for six months to a year. Could the tempestuous weather that ushered in the New Year be a bad omen for 2025? Lets hope not. But Im not alone in looking ahead to the next twelve months with a high degree of trepidation. The post-war world order in the West looks increasingly unstable with free trade and centrist politics under threat from a surge in populism. The biggest event we already know about is the return of Donald Trump to the White House: he will officially be sworn in for his second term on January 20. To state the obvious, this will have enormous implications for the UK, politically and for the economy. If Trump goes ahead with his threat to slap tariffs on imports into the US, it would threaten the decades-long trend towards free trade and globalisation. Instability: The post-war world order in the West looks increasingly unstable with free trade and centrist politics under threat from a surge in populism Some economists argue the UK will not be in the front line of countries affected, but even so. Our chances of a good trade deal are not helped by fractious relationships between elements of the Labour Government and the incoming Trump administration. This is, predictably, leading to calls to reset to use the Chancellors word our relationship with the EU, a euphemism for trying to undo Brexit. It is easy to envisage the UK being caught between a Trump White House and trying to placate EU leaders. Who would have confidence in this Governments ability to walk such a tightrope? Not me. Alongside Trump is Elon Musk, a figure who is as alarming as he is fascinating. In the UK, Nigel Farage has claimed political support from Musk and there has been speculation the Tesla billionaire may find a way to provide cash backing. He has thrown a grenade into German politics by writing an article in support of the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland ahead of elections there in February. The German economy, once a mighty engine, is in a bad way and is vulnerable in a new Trumpian world order because of its dependency on exports in general and the motor industry in particular. Germany has been slow to embrace tech and AI, and is particularly vulnerable on the energy front because of Angela Merkels decision to shun nuclear in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. In France, few could fail to have been inspired by the re-opening of Notre-Dame, five years after the terrible fire. Neither that, nor the Paris Olympics, can disguise that 2024 was an awful year across the Channel and this one could be worse. The attempts by former prime minister Michel Barnier best known in the UK as the EUs chief negotiator over Brexit to push through 60billion of tax hikes and spending cuts resulted in a no-confidence vote and the first collapse of a French government for more than sixty years. President Macrons chances of seeing out his term until 2027 rest with his new Prime Minister, Francois Bayrou, who will have to persuade those on the Left and the Right to desist from toppling the government. The far-Right National Rally partys Marine Le Pen, who with leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon brought down Barnier, is facing a verdict in an embezzlement case in March. Prosecutors have asked for a five-year jail term and a bar from running for public office for five years, though this could backfire and make her a martyr. Perhaps it is not that surprising that some big investors view the UK as an oasis of political stability relatively speaking. Happy New Year. It might have been a new year, but the biggest corporate news on the first session of 2025 came from a number of old deals completing. Vodafone said it had finalised the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for 6.6billion. As part of the agreement, the UK mobile telecoms firm will continue to provide some services to Vodafone Italy for up to five years. Vodafone said the proceeds will be used to reduce net debt with a target to return up to 1.66billion to shareholders once its buyback programme has completed. It gained 0.9 per cent, or 0.58p, to 68.88p. Meanwhile, FTSE 250-listed John Wood announced the completion of the sale of its 51 per cent stake in Ethos Energy Group a joint venture with Siemens Energy focused on rotating equipment to One Equity Partners for 110million in cash. Investors in the oilfield and engineering services provider were cheered by news that the 33.7million of prior planned loan notes were replaced by an extra cash consideration at completion. Wood Group rose 2.6 per cent, or 1.7p, to 67.3p. Debt fight: Vodafone said it had finalised the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for 6.6bn but will continue to provide some services to Vodafone Italy for up to five years The new year started in the same volatile fashion it exited the last. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 1.1 per cent, or 87.07 points, at 8260.09, while the FTSE 250 rose 0.1 per cent, or 17.62 points, to 20,640.23. As investors braced for the deluge of post-Christmas retail trading updates, Marks & Spencer stood out, gaining 3.7 per cent, or 13.8p, to 389.3p, on speculation it enjoyed a strong festive period thanks to its premium-quality food and drink. But retail chain Kingfisher lost 0.5 per cent, or 1.3p, to 247.4p, amid DIY market uncertainties. Strength in heavyweight commodity issues was the main prop for the blue-chips. Precious miners found support from a higher gold price, with Fresnillo up 4.5 per cent, or 28p, to 649.5p, and Endeavour Mining ahead 4.9 per cent, or 70p, to 1495p. Banking issues were a drag, however. Barclays shed 0.5 per cent, or 1.25p, to 266.9p, while HSBC fell 0.2 per cent, or 1.9p, to 73.2p. Among the small caps, Roquefort Therapeutics gained 3.7 per cent, or 0.15p, to 4.2p, as it revealed plans to sell its Lyramid subsidiary to Pleiades Pharma for at least 8million. Mission Group rose 12.5 per cent, or 3p, to 27p, as the digital marketing and communications firm sealed the sale of its April Six subsidiary to Marketbridge for a total of 17.4million, with the net proceeds to go towards paying off debt. And Victoria added 7.3 per cent, or 5p, at 73.6p, following a spate of share buying from directors, including Gavin Petken, a non-executive director of the royal carpets supplier. Before Christmas, Saqib Karim, managing director of a Victoria subsidiary, took his holding up to over 5 per cent. Meanwhile, Emmerson gained 19.7 per cent, or 0.12p, to 0.73p, after the Morocco-focused potash development company signed a deal with a specialist litigation funding firm to secure 8.8million in financing, with the funds to go towards its dispute with the government of Morocco. Contango Holdings took on 12 per cent, or 0.15p, at 1.4p, after the Zimbabwe coal producer received a royalty payment of 160,000. The typical home increased in value by around 12,000 last year, according to Nationwide Building Society. It said the average house price rose by 4.7 per cent over the course of 2024, increasing from 257,443 to 269,426. However, Nationwide says prices remain just below the all-time high recorded in summer 2022, before mortgage rates spiked. Prices have risen consecutively for the past four months. December saw a 0.7 per cent per cent monthly rise, after taking account of seasonal effects, following a 1.2 per cent increase in November. The recent spike in prices is linked to buyers trying to beat the stamp duty changes taking effect from 1 April this year. Recovering: House prices ended 2024 on a strong footing, up 4.7% compared with December 2023, though prices were still just below the all-time high recorded in summer 2022 These changes will increase the costs of buying for both first-time buyers and home movers. The price at which stamp duty starts to be charged will revert back to 300,000 for first-time buyers, from its current level of 425,000. For first-time buyers, it would mean that instead of paying no stamp duty on a purchase worth 425,000, they will pay 6,205. Home movers currently pay stamp duty if their home costs more than 250,000, but from 1 April, this will drop back to 125,000 - the level it was at before temporary changes were made in the 2022 mini-Budget. Nicky Stevenson, managing director at national estate agent group Fine & Country said: 'December continued to defy expectations, with house prices continuing to rise despite the usual seasonal slowdown. 'This reflects strong demand as buyers moved quickly to secure deals ahead of the April 2025 stamp duty threshold changes, driving growth both monthly and annually.' Where did house prices rise most in 2024? Northern regions continue to see higher price growth than southern regions. Northern Ireland is the best performing area for second year running, according to Nationwide, with prices up 7.1 per cent over 2024. The North of England was the best performing English region, with prices up 5.9 per cent year-on-year. Meanwhile, East Anglia was the weakest performing region, with prices up just 0.5 per cent over the past year. North-south divide: Northern regions have seen higher price growth than southern regions Will house prices rise in 2025? Nationwide is forecasting house prices to rise by between 2 and 4 per cent this year. It says the upcoming changes to stamp duty are likely to generate volatility, as buyers bring forward their purchases to avoid the additional tax. This will lead to a jump in transactions in the first three months of 2025 and a corresponding period of weakness in the following three to six months, as occurred in the wake of previous stamp duty changes. 'As 2025 unfolds, the urgency of pre-April transactions may ease, potentially leading to a more balanced market,' added Stevenson. 'If demand slows due to fewer buyers actively making purchases, sellers may feel pressure to lower prices or offer more favorable terms to attract buyers. 'This creates opportunities for those still in the market, as they might find it easier to negotiate better deals, potentially making 2025 a "buyers market". Buying agent, Jonathan Hopper of Garrington Property Finders is also expecting a strong start to the year. 'Many who held off in 2024 now have both the will and the way to move, and this is likely to get the market out of the blocks strongly in the coming weeks,' said Hopper. 'Money flows where attention goes, and this is why price rises have been sharpest in the most affordable parts of the UK and among first-time buyers. 'Meanwhile, the abundant number of homes for sale is providing plenty of choice for buyers while also keeping price growth in check. 'While many buyers remain highly price-sensitive, steadily improving sentiment will encourage more people to press ahead with their moving plans before prices rise further.' For the first time in several years, fewer people in Houston have had their vehicles stolen. Between 2023 and 2024, reports of car theft declined almost 20%, from around 19,000 incidents down to 15,345, according to Houston Police Department crime data. Loading... Sgt. Tracy Hicks, an investigator in the Houston Police Departments auto theft task force, attributed the decline to greater public awareness of the problem along with car companies taking steps to make their vehicles harder to steal. It has a lot to do with education, he said. Unfortunately, its taken people seeing those close to them targeted for them to take action. Instead, we need to be preemptive and not wait until a vehicle is stolen. Advertisement Article continues below this ad This decline in auto thefts is new for Houston. Before 2024, auto thefts increased steadily each year. Former Chief Troy Finner in October 2023 said the number increased around 15% from 2022 and data examined by the Chronicle found Houston had nearly 70,000 incidents of motor vehicle theft between 2019 and 2023, with 2023 having the highest year-over-year increase. Department investigators at the time attributed the uptick to the ease of stealing several types of vehicles, the growth of the citys population and organized auto theft groups operating locally. Two of those car makers singled out at the time were Kia and Hyundai. Marc Levin, chief policy counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice, in 2023 attributed some of the rise to the unique design of Kias and Hyundais making it easy to steal them with a USB drive. They comprise around 52% of auto thefts nationwide, and the number has increased 1,000% since 2020, he said. Loading... But in recent months, Hicks said both auto manufacturers have taken steps to get owners to bring their vehicles in for upgrades to prevent them from being so easily stolen. The police department earlier in 2024 hosted a clinic in which they helped about 1,700 car-owners install the technology, Hicks said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Ira Gabriel, a spokesman for Hyundai, said the company has worked to reduce vehicle thefts in recent years, including by making engine immobilizers standard on all vehicles designed post-November 2021, developing a software upgrade to prevent a popular method of theft and rolling out an upgrade for 4 million vehicles. Hicks said different groups target different vehicles based on their needs and goals. Those looking to resell stolen vehicles often steal various truck models, which is why those are so targeted in Houston. Nearly 70% of Houstons most frequently stolen vehicles in 2024 were pickups. The motors inside the trucks are also versatile, making them useful for those looking to break down cars for parts, Hicks said. Stealing Kias and Hyundais, by contrast, became popular for those looking for a car to take on a quick joyride, Hicks said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Loading... All vehicle owners can take steps to make their cars harder to steal than usual, he said. Hicks encouraged everyone to consider at least purchasing a wheel lock and a cheap tracker, both of which should cost less than $100 and make it harder to steal a car and easier for police to recover. These stories really are heartbreaking for a lot of people who lose their vehicles, he said. A little, small investment can make a big difference. The new bride of a buck's party gang rapist - who stood by her man as he was convicted of his heinous crime - has been forced to raise their new baby without him away from their $2.5m mansion. Healthcare worker, Loubna Yousif, 29, married her first cousin, lawyer, Maurice Hawell, 23, in April 2022 during a lavish wedding attended by friends and family. At the time the young bride had no idea that, just weeks earlier, he had been involved in the gang rape of three teenage girls in, Newcastle, NSW. The dark secret was revealed when her new husband was arrested just weeks after the ceremony - shortly followed by his best man, younger brother Marius and groomsman Andrew David. Ms Yousif, who is still wearing her wedding ring, is now sharing a cramped granny annex with her parents and multiple other family members in western Sydney. It's a far cry from what was promised by the start of married life - including her husband's lawyer salary and their wedding packed with glitzy details such as designer clothes and luxury cars. The victims two aged 18, one 19 told the court they were raped in a dark bedroom by men including Maurice Hawell, Marius Hawell and Andrew David after going back to an Airbnb hired for Maurice's bucks party in February 2022. A few weeks later Marius and David stood alongside Hawell as he tied the knot with Loubna, later posing for photos with the happy couple. Loubna Yousif, 29, has been left to bring up their new baby as a solo mum after her husband Maurice Hawell got a lengthy jail term for raping three girls on his buck's night Ms Yousif had no idea her husband would be arrested just weeks after their fairytale wedding (above) for his part in the gang rape of three teenage girls Above is Hawell's wedding party in April 2022, just 36 days after the rapes. Attendees included his fellow offending gang rapists, brother Marius (circled, centre) and Andrew David (circled, back) Loubna wore a beautiful hand-beaded, embroidered 'princess' gown by Steven Khalil at the ceremony held at their former 5-bedroom home in south-west Sydney which featured a convoy of luxury cars including a $500,000 McLaren 720S convertible. Hawell was arrested and charged the following month, while Marius and David were arrested in June 2022. After claiming the intercourse was consensual Hawell spent thousands on his legal defence forcing the newlyweds sell their dream home in October 2022. Daily Mail Australia can reveal the pair welcomed a baby earlier this year before Hawall was jailed in November to 14 years in prison with a non-parole period of eight years and six months. David was sentenced to 13 years in prison with a non-parole period of seven years and nine months and Marius was sentenced to nine years in prison with a non-parole period of five years and five months. Loubna wrote a letter to the courts explaining she was 'heartbroken' by her husband's 'infidelity' but said she simply did not believe that he is capable of the 'monstrous acts.' She pleaded with the court not to separate her husband from his family and to consider its impact on their lives. Ms Yousif was seen clutching a designer handbag - and wearing her wedding ring - recently Ms Yousif wrote a letter to the judge saying she was heartbroken by his infidelity but simply could not believe he was capable of what he was convicted of. Together, above 'The discovery of Maurice's infidelity was deeply painful for me and went against the values that are central to our relationship,' she wrote. She added: 'Despite the unfaithfulness, I chose to forgive Maurice for this mistake, recognising that it was a breach of our relationship but not a reflection of his entire character.' 'And although I was heartbroken to discover Maurice's infidelity, I never, not for a single moment, believed he could be capable of the monstrous acts described in those papers,' she wrote in her letter to court. Ms Yousif is still driving a high-end Lexus and sporting a Louis Vuitton handbag, but looked glum as she stepped out with family pushing her pram around the local shopping mall last week. When Daily Mail Australia asked Ms Yousif if she still stood by her husband despite the lengthy prison sentence, she declined to comment. Handing down their sentences earlier this year, NSW District Court Judge Gina O'Rourke described the Hawell brothers and David as 'highly educated, intelligent, successful, professional young men who come from loving Christian families, who treat their own sisters, mothers and female partners with respect and love.' But she added: 'And yet on this weekend, they were capable in a pack mentality of treating three young women in this cold, callous, degrading and criminal way.' A judge has unleashed on a Sydney woman who drained her grandmother's life savings shortly before her death - and then left the 93-year-old's multi-million dollar home 'uninhabitable'. Justine Bosschieter, a 53-year-old National Disability Insurance Scheme worker, sued over her grandmother's inheritance in the NSW Supreme Court, in an action that badly backfired on her. It resulted in Ms Bosschieter being ordered to repay $200,000 she took from her relative, and pay for the damage done to the deceased's home in Forestville while she was living there. The legal drama began when the grandmother's Forestville home was sold for $2.85million in the wake of her death, with the assets to be divided in equal shares to her four children and one of her grandchildren. Ms Bosschieter wanted a larger chunk. She had been living at the Forestville property with the deceased and acting as her caregiver at the time of her death. Ms Bosschieter received a regular carer's pension from Centrelink for caring for her grandmother and paid 'significantly reduced rent' of $200 per week. But in November 2021, during Covid restrictions, Ms Bosschieter drove her grandmother with her oxygen tank, which she used to assist her breathing, to a bank branch. Ms Bosschieter was living at the property with the deceased and acting as her caregiver at the time of the $200,000 gift, according to a decision from NSW Supreme Court Justine Bosschieter, a 53-year-old NDIS worker, left the property in Forestville so damaged and full of rubbish that the repair and clean-up cost $55,000 The grandmother transferred more than $200,000, her 'life savings,' from a term deposit account to Ms Bosschieter's personal account. The elderly woman had experienced mental decline in the months beforehand and did not have legal advice about the transfer, the decision said. 'The deceased was physically and emotionally dependent upon Justine who was her gatekeeper to the outside world.' Two of the deceased's children gave evidence that she had always expressed her intention to leave the term deposit to her four children equally, which the court accepted. 'The Court does not accept Justines evidence that the deceased spontaneously wanted her to have the $200,000,' Justice Slattery said. The grandmother caught Covid at the home in January 2022 and died a month later from Covid-related pneumonitis. 'Someone brought the infection into the house, and it may be inferred that there was insufficient control within the house to protect her,' the judge said. The money from the deposit was then 'withdrawn rapidly,' within about four months of the death. It cost the estate $55,000 to clean up the Forestville property, which was sold in February for $2.85 million Ms Bosschieter gave most of the $200,000 to her children, though some of it was also spent at 'licensed venues,' Justice Slattery said Ms Bosschieter's explanation was she gave most of it to her children, which the court accepted, 'although there was other personal discretionary expenditure undertaken with the funds, some of it at licensed venues'. In the deceased's final will, made in March 2021, she left one fifth of her estate to Ms Bosschieter, with the rest distributed equally among her four children. It also granted Ms Bosschieter the right of first refusal to acquire the Forestville property. But in February 2023, Ms Bosschieter commenced court proceedings seeking 'further provision from the deceased's estate'. She was seeking the provision so that she could 'buy her own home, buy a good quality second-hand car, top up her savings account with the contingency for future unplanned expenses of $250,000, and top up her superannuation in the sum of $150,000, and provide a fund for future medical expenses of $100,000'. She ignored letters from the deceased's estate, executed by one of the deceased's sons, asking when she would vacate the Forestville property. In May 2023 the estate filed a cross claim seeking repayment of the $200,000 transfer. In November 2023, Ms Bosschieter and her family finally vacated the Forestville property, four months after the estate had terminated her lease. 'The photographic evidence shows it was left in a grossly dilapidated state,' Justice Slattery said. 'The Forestville property was left in uninhabitable condition with obvious signs of property damage and rubbish strewn both in and outside the dwelling on the property. '[Justine's] conduct in leaving the Forestville property in the state that she did is thoroughly discreditable.' It cost the estate $55,000 to clean up the property. The house was then sold in February for $2.85 million, with Ms Bosschieter not exercising her first right to purchase it. Justice Slattery found that Ms Bosschieter obtained the $200,000 gift by undue influence. He ordered the $200,000 plus interest, along with the $55,000 clean-up costs, should be deducted from her share of the estate. Hollywood icon Joan Collins was named as a pro-MAGA patriot as she attended a 'pre-inauguration celebration' with right-wing friends. The Dynasty actress, 91, was seen having a 'lovely dinner with friends' in a picture shared by conservative actor James Woods to his X account. 'It evolved from a post-Christmas dinner to a pre-Inauguration celebration,' Woods captioned the image. 'Not often in Hollywood you can be surrounded by patriots. What a joyous night.' Also in attendance was actor Jon Voight, who is Angelina Jolie's father. He has made no secret of his love for Donald Trump and was recently seen enjoying the election result at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago estate. While Voight and Woods are among Hollywood's most outspoken MAGA fanatics, many fans were surprised to see Collins in attendance. 'Is that Joan Collins I see???' one X user questioned. Another said: 'No way Joan Collins is 91 and looking that young!' 'John Voight is an incredible patriot and Trump supporter as well... nice to see conservatives in Hollywood!' Joan Collins raised eyebrows this week as she was pictured at a dinner with MAGA loving celebrities including James Woods and John Voight Collins previously shared how Donald Trump (pictured together in 1989) was an 'inspiration' for her iconic character Alexis Carrington from hit show Dynasty Also present in the snap was Joan's fifth husband Percy Gibson, 60. While she has not outed herself as a Trump supporter before, Collins has previously shared how the president-elect was an 'inspiration' for her. She told the Jonathan Ross show in 2017 that Trump was the basis for her character Alexis Carrington from hit show Dynasty. 'I actually wrote about it years and years ago, that one of the people mentioned was Donald Trump,' she said. Collins said she was drawn to Trump 'because he was a very harsh, tough, clever, devious and manipulative.' She said she had seen Trump several years before when she was buying an apartment in New York, and said the businessman was 'very interested' in her moving into Trump Tower. 'Thank god we didn't!' she added. 'You know what it's like now, you have to go through security.' British-born Collins has long been a proud right-winger, hailing the achievements of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Collins, who is a gay icon, previously railed against stars who lecture the public about politics. Others claim Sydney is the best for New Year's Eve display Melburnians who attended the city's New Year's Eve fireworks display have slammed the event as 'disappointing'. More than half a million revellers converged in Melbourne to watch the fireworks, which included 60 laser projections and pyrotechnics set off at 27 points. However, many were disappointed by the underwhelming firework displays. 'So, we just watched the Melbourne fireworks in the city. What was that? It was so bad,' one girl said in a TikTok video. 'I am never coming to [Melbourne] city for the fireworks again. I'm never, every watching it. We should have just stayed in our hotel room'. Her friend chimed: 'It was so s***. I came from America for this s***? Melbourne is cancelled'. Another reveller mocked Melbourne's fireworks, which showed hundreds of people trying to film the sporadic display. 'Melbourne after claiming they've got world class fireworks 15x better than Sydney's,' the caption read. Aussies have slammed Melbourne's New Year's Eve fireworks, with many claiming the display was underwhelming 'I was there and I agree with them completely- s*** show,' one commented. 'Why on earth would you go to Melbourne before Sydney,' a second wrote. A third said: 'I just watched a video of the Melb fireworks... no big ones, just "spritzers" off the top of the buildings and a couple of cheap laser lights. I reckon the local official ones I went to were better'. Some defended the display and explained the fireworks were better observed from afar rather than in the heart of the CBD where a lot of the display would have been going on out of your sightline. 'You couldnt see how much space the fireworks took up if you were in it, watching it from the beach 20km away was wild,' one wrote. 'You have to see it from afar, I watched on a hill in Hawthorn and it was unbelievable,' another person commented. A third added: 'Theyre not really designed to be watched from the cbd or city itself, they were awesome on tv especially with the lasers... very good and far better than Sydneys'. One social media user, who watched the fireworks in the heart of Melbourne's CBD, claimed the New Year's Eve celebrations should be cancelled Others mocked people who claimed Melbourne's fireworks were better than Sydney's Another reveller even claimed Melbourne's display was better than Sydney's as it catered for all and not just the 'rich'. 'Sydneys fireworks look spectacular on TV but can only really be enjoyed live by those rich enough to own a yacht or afford waterfront property,' they wrote on Reddit. 'Melbourne launches fireworks off every tall building in the city. Its messy and chaotic but everyone gets to have some fun'. Online commentators slammed that opinion, with most agreeing the fireworks in Sydney were far better than in Melbourne. 'Sydney's fireworks s**t all over Melbourne's on every metric, don't kid yourself,' one person wrote. 'I've seen both and I can hold my hand on my heart that Sydney's NYE fireworks displays is way better than Melbourne's. They have a landmark and a beautiful harbour to do these, we don't,' a second person wrote. A third person added: 'Theres thousands of buildings in Sydney, many of which let people on the roof. Theres also hundreds of vantage points that locals meet at to enjoy them. 'Im a born and raised poor houso kid, and have watched them dozens of times with views that were amazing.' However, for some frustrated Sydneysiders, their view of the iconic Harbour display was blocked by a train as the fireworks ushered in 2025. Many argued Melbourne's New Year's Eve fireworks paled in comparison to the 12 minute firework show on Sydney's iconic Harbour However, some revellers had their view of Sydney's fireworks blocked when a train made its way through Circular Quay train station A video shared to TikTok showed crowds of people packed into a vantage point on Alfred Street in Circular Quay. A train, which slowly drove through Circular Quay station, interrupted the view of the fireworks, angering many of the partygoers. 'The worst timing for that train to pass and ruin the fireworks view,' the video's caption read. Social media users said a train at Circular Quay station had spoiled the view of the fireworks last year as well. 'It's the same last year. Some smart people catch the train during this period to get a fantastic view of the fireworks,' one person wrote. New Year's Eve was celebrated across the country at midnight on Tuesday, with capital cities and local councils celebrating the start of 2025. In Brisbane, about 80,000 individual fireworks were exploded across the skyline, with more set off along the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. While in Adelaide, fireworks, food trucks and live music lured about 25,000 people to the Torrens Riverbank with more than 400,000 people visiting the CBD on New Year's Eve. Perth was treated to two explosive displays, one at 8.30pm from a barge on the Swan River and a second midnight display to announce the arrival of 2025. In Tasmania, Launceston combined fireworks with a festival to showcase more than 40 of the island state's fine food and drink producers at the seventh annual BeerFest in Royal Park on New Year's Eve. Attempts to enforce the UK's border could lead to an increase in Channel deaths, a charity has warned as it urged ministers to reveal how many migrants perish. As figures confirmed the number of migrants arriving in the UK in 2024 in small boats was up by a quarter on the previous year, the Refugee Council called for data on deaths. At least 69 people died crossing the Channel last year, but the Government does not publish data confirming the numbers or any information about those who have lost their lives. The Refugee Council said ministers seem to have 'accepted that enforcement action against the smuggling gangs has made the journeys more dangerous'. But it criticised the Government for making 'no announcements on improving search and rescue in the Channel'. Labour has repeatedly pledged to 'smash the gangs' trafficking people across the Continent, and ministers have said increased pressure on people smugglers has led to boats being overloaded - leading to more deaths. The Refugee Council said the Government, jointly with the French, should publish quarterly data on the numbers who have died, including their age, sex and nationality. A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel on December 29 A graph which indicates the number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat on December 28 It also urged ministers to produce a plan for reducing lives lost, and to set out a plan for reviewing and expanding safe and legal routes to the UK. The charity warned: 'There is a risk that 2025 continues to see an increase in deaths as more action is taken to enforce the UK's border without also addressing the reasons why people are willing to put their lives at risk in the first place.' CEO Enver Solomon said: 'The record number of deaths in the Channel this year should serve as a stark reminder that the current approach is not working. 'Smuggling gangs are profiting from men, women and children forced into life-threatening conditions, and enforcement measures alone are not enough to address this. 'More safe and legal routes are needed to provide a lifeline for those fleeing war and persecution... The Government needs to take a different approach if it is to ensure everything possible is done so that 2025 does not see a repeat of last year's devastating loss.' However, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told the Mail safe and legal routes 'will not stop the crossings unless we let in every single person who wants to come to the UK - which is manifestly ridiculous'. A graph indicating the cumulative arrivals of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by the RNLI Dungeness Lifeboat A graph indicating the number of migrants per boat crossing the English Channel since recording began in 2018 'It is therefore deeply disingenuous of the Refugee Council to suggest that safe and legal routes are a solution to Channel crossings.' A Home Office spokesman said: 'Every life lost at sea is a tragedy, which is why our efforts are focused on saving lives, as well as protecting our borders. 'The people smuggling gangs only care about profit and we are seeing their behaviour adapt, with more people crammed into flimsy and dangerous boats. 'Our joint work with France in preventing crossings is about stopping people putting themselves and others at risk.' Some 36,816 people crossed the Channel in small boats in 2024, a jump of 25 per cent from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. The total is down 20 per cent on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022, however. The man shoved into the path of a Manhattan subway train was revealed to be a music programmer and curator just one day after the terrifying near-fatal New Year's Eve incident. Joseph Lynskey, 45, a New York City music programmer, miraculously survived after he was abruptly shoved into the path of a fast-moving southbound train at the 18th Street 1 Train station on Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, his accused attacker, 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins, looked on indifferently as he was arraigned on attempted murder and second-degree assault charges at Manhattan Criminal Court on New Year's Day. Despite suffering from serious wounds including a cracked skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen, Lynskey is expected to make a full recovery. 'Our main priority right now - our sole priority right now - is supporting our brother Joe,' Eileen Parsons, his sister, told The New York Times. 'We are so grateful that he is alive.' Lynskey is the head of content and music programming at Gray V - a New York company that creates background music and playlists for hotels, restaurants, gyms and retail businesses. Lynskey's online bio described him as being a Miami native when he first began 'honing his sound' during the 1990s, The Times reported. The man shoved into the path of a Manhattan subway train on New Year's Eve was identified as being 45-year-old Joseph Lynskey - a music programmer in New York City His accused attacker, 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins, looked on indifferently as he was arraigned on attempted murder and second-degree assault charges at Manhattan Criminal Court on New Year's Day Terrifying surveillance video showed the moment a masked man pushed Lynskey in the back after seemingly noticing the oncoming train - violently sending him onto the tracks just as the train passed through 'After a move to Manhattan, he began an eclectic journey through some of New York's best underground clubs,' his bio stated. He has also produced soundtracks for runway fashion shows and provided music for events held by major companies and at clubs around the country as well as in Brazil and Costa Rica. Just weeks before the heinous attack, Lynskey spoke to BNN Bloomberg about how music shapes the public's interactions with luxury brands, especially during the holiday season. He spoke specifically of one of his recent projects, The Times Square Hotel, and how the created playlist for the entrance is 'intentionally designed to signal a transition - inviting guests to leave the chaos of Times Square behind'. His attack on Tuesday is just the latest in a string of concerning acts on the New York City subway system. Terrifying surveillance video showed Lynskey in a light orange jacket standing by the edge of the platform at around 1.30pm Tuesday afternoon as the train approached the 18th street station in Chelsea. In a matter of seconds, a masked man was captured walking behind him, and after seemingly noticing the oncoming train, turned and pushed Lynskey in the back - violently sending him onto the tracks just as the train passed through. Two young men who jumped the turnstile to avoid paying for their ticket just seconds before then turned and fled after witnessing the shocking scene. Despite suffering from serious wounds including a cracked skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen, Lynskey miraculously survived and is expected to make a full recovery Additional video footage captured the moments where nearly a dozen firefighters rescued Lynskey from underneath the train The footage appeared to show blood on Lynskey's face before he was transported to the hospital in critical condition - but he is now listed as being stable Separate footage shared by shocked passengers showed the moments where nearly a dozen firefighters rescued Lynskey, who appeared to have blood on his face, from underneath the train. A law enforcement official told the New York Post that he survived because 'he fell perfectly in the trench,' describing the near miss as an act of God. Not only was he able to survive the sickening attack, but he was able to speak to his family from his bed at Bellevue Hospital where he is now listed as being in stable condition. 'He's good,' Christopher Lynskey, his brother, told the Daily News. 'He's busted up a little bit but he's going to make a full recovery.' Cops launched an urgent manhunt for 23-year-old Hawkins, who was taken into custody several hours after the horrifying incident and ordered to be held without bail. He failed to enter a plea during his arraignment on Wednesday but is due to enter one at the Supreme Court at a later date. According to the Post, Hawkins also has pending assault cases going through the courts. He was allegedly charged with assault in June 2019 after attacking a police officer, and was charged on October 12 for assault, harassment and possession of weapons. Cops launched an urgent manhunt for 23-year-old Hawkins, who was taken into custody several hours after the horrifying incident and ordered to be held without bail Shamel Hawkins, 40, the suspect's father, acknowledged that his son had been in run-ins with the law, but that he is a 'good kid' who began acting strange recently - noting how he believes that someone put something in his weed Hawkins, who is being held without bail, failed to enter a plea during his arraignment on Wednesday but is due to enter one at the Supreme Court at a later date Additionally, he has an open case in Brooklyn criminal court on harassment charges for throwing bleach on a woman and trying to kick down her door, the Times reported. Cops said that he did not appear to know the victim, and described it as a random attack. Hours after the incident, Mayor Eric Adams took to social media and called the attack 'an appalling act of violence' that 'has absolutely no place on our subway system'. 'Random acts of violence like this contribute to New Yorkers feeling unsettled,' he added. Shamel Hawkins, 40, his father, who lives with his son in an apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, told the Times that he was shocked by the accusations surrounding his son. He acknowledged that his son has had run-ins with the law but said how he never could have expected him to be accused of such a violent act. 'He's not a bad kid at all,' he told the outlet while also adding that he is 'usually focused and work-driven' at his job at a moving company. The father also told the New York Post on Wednesday that his son had been fine until he recently began acting strange. Lynskey's revealed identity gave more insight into his seemingly electric music life as the head of content and music programming at Gray V - a New York company that creates background music and playlists for hotels, restaurants, gyms and retail businesses His online bio described him as being born and raised in Miami before moving to Manhattan to begin an eclectic journey through some of New York's best underground clubs 'Lately he's been going through something, some mental issues,' his father said. 'We think somebody put something in his weed.' 'I just know right now he's not himself,' he added to the Times. Tuesday's incident is expected to put more pressure on officials to bring an end to horror subway attacks. NYPD told DailyMail.com that they recorded 24 incidents of people being pushed onto subway tracks this year - a 41 percent increase on last year's total of 17. On Christmas Eve, two people were injured in Manhattan's Grand Central Station after a maniac went on a stabbing rampage. Sources told DailyMail.com at the time that a 28-year-old man slashed two strangers with a knife in the seemingly random attack just after 10pm at the busy tourist hotspot. And just days before, the Big Apple was stunned when a homeless woman was set on fire and burned to death while she slept on a subway car. The victim was identified Tuesday by the NYPD as Debrina Kawam, a 61-year-old homeless woman from New Jersey. Melania Trump issued a statement on the Telsa Cybertruck explosion outside the president-elect's Las Vegas property amid speculation it was an act of terror. She urged the country to 'strive for a future where peace prevails' after two separate incidents just hours apart left at least 15 dead and dozens others injured. Donald Trump has not yet weighed in on the explosion outside his property in Sin City, but his ally Elon Musk suggests it was a terrorist attack. It comes just hours after a suspect plowed a truck through a crowd just after 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday in New Orleans. There are 15 confirmed dead. The FBI on Thursday said there was no definitive connection between the two incidents or attackers. In the Las Vegas incident Wednesday, an individual was killed and seven other injured when a Telsa Cybertruck exploded outside Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, according to city police. The former and future first lady denounced the New Year's Day violence in a post to X. 'The incidents of violence that have impacted our communities are deeply concerning. The brutality must stop,' Melania wrote. 'My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families who are experiencing such profound grief and loss.' Melania Trump weighed-in on the two back-to-back New Year's Day tragedies by urging less 'brutality' and more 'peace' 'The incidents of violence that have impacted our communities are deeply concerning. The brutality must stop,' Melania wrote Footage was shared on social media of a Tesla Cybertruck exploding and bursting into flames outside the front doors of Trump's Las Vegas, Nevada hotel. Musk, a close buddy of Trump, said he thinks the explosion was an 'act of terrorism,' and said the Cybertruck was rented from Turo, which also rented out the truck involved in the New Orleans attack on New Year's Day. The $80,000 car made by Musk's company Tesla was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump Hotel. Trump's middle son Eric, who serves as Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, wrote on X about the incident but did not classify it was terrorism. 'Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochere of Trump Las Vegas,' Eric wrote. 'The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism.' Many social media users said that the incident was meant to send a message to Trump and Musk. The billionaire Tesla, X and SpaceX owner thinks that the explosion outside Trump's hotel is somehow linked to the terror attack in New Orleans just hours earlier. A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel on Wednesday Melania Trump did not confirm in her X post whether the explosion was a terrorist attack like speculated by Elon Musk A truck plowed into a crowd celebrating New Year's just after 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The suspect then got out of the vehicle and opened fire. At least 15 are confirmed dead. The 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning was rented through Turo, a peer-to-peer online marketplace that allows customers to rent cars from other users. Musk pointed out how the Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 were both rented from the same vendor. He insisted that the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself. A Los Angeles woman was killed after she was thrown from her boyfriend's car during a domestic dispute over the weekend. Police say Edgar Gutierrez, 34, and the unidentified victim - who had been together for two years - got into a fight outside of a home in North Hollywood on Saturday afternoon, KTLA reports. Gutierrez then got into a nearby car, at which point his girlfriend grabbed onto the vehicle, clinging to it as her boyfriend sped away. 'The suspect accelerated to unsafe speeds and drove through several short residential streets, while making violent maneuvers to force the victim from the car,' the Los Angeles Police Department said. She was then thrown from the car and hit the pavement on Willard Street, causing severe head trauma. The unidentified victim was thrown from the car on Willard Street in North Hollywood, and hit the pavement, causing severe head trauma The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital in grave condition, as Gutierrez fled the scene, according to CBS News. Gutierrez was eventually located by Burbank police officers the following afternoon, and was originally charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence. But after the victim succumbed to her injuries on Monday, Gutierrez's charges were upgrade to attempted murder. He is now being held at the Valley Jail in Van Nuys on a $1million bond as he waits to be arraigned. A former Tennessee police chief fired over a sex scandal that rocked the city has now been arrested for stalking. Murfreesboro police reported that former La Vergne Police Chief Burrel 'Chip' Davis was arrested at an apartment complex on December 23. He was then taken into custody on a warrant for aggravated stalking, after he allegedly violated an order of protection, according to WKRN. Davis was arrested without incident and was booked into the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center on a $3,000 bond. The arrest came just over one week after a Tennessee commission unanimously voted to decertify Davis as a law enforcement officer - barring him from working at any police departments across the state. The members of the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission ruled that his conduct before and after a sexual harassment investigation involving cop-gone-wild Maegan Hall did not uphold the professional standards of a police officer, let alone a police chief, WTVF reports. Davis had claimed he had no knowledge of a sexual relationship between officers on his force when a whistleblower claimed that Hall, was having 'intimate relationships' with multiple male colleagues and even on police property. Over the course of an ensuing investigation, it emerged that Hall was having sex with multiple fellow officers - including officer Lewis Powell - and they had carried out sex acts while on duty. Former La Vergne Police Chief Burrel 'Chip' Davis was arrested at an apartment complex on December 23 for aggravated stalking Members of the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission ruled that his conduct before and after a sexual harassment investigation involving cop-gone-wild Maegan Hall did not uphold the professional standards of a police officer, let alone a police chief When investigators later questioned her about the claims, Hall said she had played games of 'strip Uno' exchanged foot fetish photos and played out wife swapping sessions with fellow officers. That is when, Davis said, city officials first asked him about graphic images of Hall that were circulating around the police department. He claimed he cooperated with investigators at the time, and when they could not find that he had committed any wrongdoing, he was allowed to return to work. But Hall later claimed she had been 'sexually groomed' by her 'predator' superiors and had tried to 'kill herself.' She then filed her own lawsuit, claiming that: 'Sgt. Powell positioned himself as a reliable source of companionship and advice regarding Ms. Hall's career and her marriage. The lawsuit said: 'Sgt. Powell persisted in requests for sex despite Ms. Hall's resistance. Eventually, Ms. Hall gave in to Sgt. Powell's requests for sexual favors.' She went on to claim that Powell threatened to kill himself when she tried to stop. At first, Powell denied the relationship, but later admitted to it - claiming that Davis told him to lie. Hall claimed she had been 'sexually groomed' by her 'predator' superiors and had tried to 'kill herself' Hall also claimed that Davis was 'no better than his subordinates, inviting Hall on lunch dates, asking her to come into his office to dance for him and questioning whether she preferred 'dark, white or milk chocolate.'' It later emerged that Davis had shared explicit videos of Hall and made sexist comments on a secret burner phone he nicknamed 'Ole Boy.' Davis feigned surprise as he oversaw the internal inquiry into the scandal. But court filings obtained by DailyMail.com later revealed that Davis knew all about the events before the inquiry and had even pestered one of his sergeants to send him video of Hall masturbating. Davis was fired from his position in the aftermath, as the city of La Vergne ultimately settled the suit for $500,000 with no admission of guilt on the city's behalf. Hall claimed that Officer Lewis Powell (left) kept asking her for sex, while Sgt. Ty McGowan allegedly sent Davis a racy photo of Hall The disgraced police chief later tried to file his own lawsuit against the city, claiming his firing was due to racial discrimination. He told commissioners on December 12 that his suit was denied because he filed it one day too late, as he placed the blame back on Hall - even suggesting at one point there should have been a criminal investigation with Hall as the primary suspect and with 'many victims.' 'First of all, all of this stems from a private party on a houseboat and had nothing to do with the police department other than the fact that an officer was there,' Davis argued. 'If they were concerned about me - well my head of internal affairs had sex with her on the boat, but he's still working there.' The commission unanimously voted to decertify Davis as a law enforcement officer - barring him from working at any police departments across the state Davis did not deny receiving racy photos of Hall from former Sgt. Ty McGowan in a text message exchange during the hearing. Once of the photos allegedly showed a black man's foot in Hall's mouth, and investigators claimed McGowan told Davis the foot belonged to one of her colleagues at the police department. Along with the photo, McGowan allegedly wrote, 'She has a tight little a**,' to which Davis responded, 'yup.' He then claimed that the messages were just harmless banter between friends 'that were not on city phones. 'Did I let my hair down and have trust in a friend? Yes. Did they use it against me? Yes. Am I going to be responsible and accountable for my text messages? Yes,' Davis said. 'Am I going to say that's a reflection on my job? No because I did my job.' He then tried to claim that if the commission had seen all the evidence, they would know some messages were missing, which would prove that he had no idea who was in the photos with Hall. POST investigators responded by saying the only reason why some messages were missing was because Davis originally denied having another phone and deleted many of the messages. 'It's my phone,' Davis argued. 'Those text messages are deleted when I get them. It had nothing to do with this investigation. They were gone well before that.' But commissioners ultimately told Davis it did not matter if the messages were from people he considered friends, saying, 'You're a police officer 24/7 and you're a chief 24/7. 'I think your conduct was very unbecoming.' Meghan Markle's return to Instagram has sparked international intrigue and debate as the Duchess of Sussex embarks on a calculated effort to revive her public image and unlock fresh revenue streams. With the new handle @meghan, she has already attracted over 100,000 followers in a single day. However, this move is being viewed by many as an attempt to bounce back from a string of setbacks that have plagued her and Prince Harry's brand in recent months. The past two years have proved to be challenging for the Sussexes, marked by notable missteps that included the cancellation of Meghan's much-hyped Spotify podcast Archetypes, reportedly due to a lack of impactful content. Their joint Netflix documentary, Heart of Invictus, focused on Prince Harry's beloved Invictus Games but failed to generate the buzz expected from their multimillion-dollar deal. Perhaps most glaring was the failure of their Netflix project Polo, a docuseries chronicling Harry's polo escapades, where they inexplicably only appeared toward the end, leaving audiences disappointed. And on top of that Meghan's American Riviera Orchard lifestyle brand, once envisioned as a cornerstone of her post-royal ventures, has been mired in trademark disputes and a lack of tangible progress. These hurdles have left their future in Hollywood uncertain, particularly as their Netflix contract approaches its expiration in 2025. In March 2021, the Sussexes appeared on Oprah following 'Megxit' and alleged that some members of the royal family questioned 'how dark' their child's skin might be when he's born Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in 2018, before they abandoned Britain and the Royal Family to move to California Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams frames Meghan's Instagram comeback as a pivotal part of her broader strategy to reclaim control of her narrative while reigniting interest in the Sussexes: 'She and Harry were forced to stop using their @sussexroyal account. 'They had launched it in 2019 and received a million followers in record time. She shut her personal Instagram account and closed her successful lifestyle blog The Tig before their wedding.' Fitzwilliams also links her re-emergence on social media to an ambitious slate of branding efforts, including an upcoming Netflix cookery series and further ventures under the American Riviera Orchard brand: 'Meghan's intention in the video is to look relaxed, confident and, above all, symbolise the freedom they claim they have found,' he observes. 'At the moment, interest in the Sussex brand remains enormous.' However, Fitzwilliams cautions that Meghan and Harry are entering a make-or-break period as their current media deals near expiration. 'If their multimillion-dollar Netflix deal is not extended this year, it would be a disaster for them,' he notes. 'Polo' is the third documentary from Prince Harry and Meghan to disappoint both viewers and critics Prince Harry is pictured playing polo at the event in Florida in April 2024 Meghan has asked US authorities for more time to get her lifestyle brand off the ground This makes Meghan's digital relaunch an even higher-stakes endeavor, as the couple seeks to demonstrate their enduring relevance in the competitive Hollywood landscape. Whereas brand and culture expert Nick Ede sees Meghan's Instagram revival as a chance for her to reestablish credibility and connection with fans: 'Meghan has returned to social media, and this is a great way of authoring her truth. 'She will be looking at 2025 as the year she reinvents herself and owns who she is. Using social media as a platform to express her personality and own her narrative is a positive step for her.' Meghan's Instagram debuta video reportedly filmed by Prince Harryprojects an image of ease and confidence. Set against the scenic backdrop of a Montecito beach, Meghan playfully frolics in the sand before carving '2025' into it with a dramatic flourish. But Fitzwilliams remains sceptical: 'When Meghan carves 2025 on the sand, she knows high noon is coming as their contract with Netflix runs out this year and if it were not extended, it would be a disaster for them.' Whereas Ede asserts that Meghan is simply positioning herself more as a Hollywood celebrity than a former royal. 'She's using her platform like a social media star would, and this is where she belongs. She's one of many who have a platform and can create content and make money.' The Duke of Sussex laughed off the rumours about his and Meghan's separation while onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2024, New York, on December 4 Many of her celebrity pals, including Kris Jenner, have sampled the jam For Meghan, the stakes couldn't be higher, but the rewards could be immense. Experts suggest that her Instagram presence could open doors to lucrative endorsement deals and partnerships with global brands. Hollywood A-listers like Serena Williams, Chrissy Teigen, and Mindy Kaling have already followed her account, underscoring the potential for high-profile collaborations. Meghan's Instagram journey reflects her evolution from actress and blogger to duchess and now media personality. Before her royal marriage, she maintained a thriving social media presence and authored the lifestyle blog The Tig, which focused on food, fashion, and travel. Its closure ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry symbolised her transition into royal life, where she relinquished personal projects in favour of palace duties. Now, with no official ties to the Royal Family, Meghan appears ready to reclaim the space she once dominated. Ede believes that Meghan's return to Instagram offers her a chance to foster authenticity, a quality she will need to restore trust with both fans and critics. 'She's not hiding behind PR spin or brand narrative. She's being herself, and this can be a great way for her to build her profile and trust from consumers and fansand even people who don't really care about her,' he said. Yet, doubts linger. Fitzwilliams emphasises that the Sussexes' track record of polarising decisions continues to haunt them: 'It is impossible to erase memories of the ruthless way they launched a series of brutal attacks on the Royal Family, shamelessly exploiting their royal connections to be where they are today.' Saul Rodriguez guides a large crane to life a downed tree from his home after strong thunderstorms pass through the Greater Houston region, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Porter Heights. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer To assist Porter-area residents impacted by Saturday's EF-3 tornado, the Houston Humane Society is hosting a drive-thru disaster relief distribution of pet supplies. The distribution is from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday or while supplies last at Caney Creek Cowboy Church in Conroe, 17703 Nonesuch Road. Debris block a portion of Porter Lane after strong thunderstorms pass through the Greater Houston region, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Porter Heights. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP) Jason Fochtman/Associated Press Advertisement Article continues below this ad "Pet owners will receive free pet food, supplies and information on additional resources," according to information from the humane society. "The event is in partnership with the Liberty County Precinct 6 Constables Office. The distribution events are first come, first served." English and Spanish-speaking spokespersons will be available at the distribution. Donations can also be made online at the Houston Humane Society website. On Saturday afternoon, an EF-3 tornado traveled about 10 miles from Porter Heights to Splendora in east Montgomery County, according to the National Weather Service. Winds reached 140 mph at the tornados peak, damaging homes and businesses, including the East Montgomery County Fire Department's station on FM 1485. About 10 people in east Montgomery County were injured in the storms, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, according to the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Women watch as debris is removed from a property after strong thunderstorms pass through the Greater Houston region, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Porter Heights. Jason Fochtman/Staff photographer On Saturday, Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough signed a local declaration to bring resources available at the county level to assist with response and recovery for the affected communities. Keough said initial assessments show more than 300 structures were damaged by the storms. Of those, Keough said 31 were destroyed and 47 sustained major damage. Those with damage are urged to report the damage to the Individual State of Texas Assessment tool. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The Houston Humane Society offers adoptions, low-cost services, free resources, cruelty investigations and temporary boarding. In 2023, the Houston Humane Society distributed more than 500,000 pet meals, performed more than 10,000 spay-neuter surgeries, provided veterinary services for more than 30,000 animals and enabled nearly 3,000 animals to find their forever homes. Catherine Dominguez contributed to this report. Neighbors move debris from a woman's home after strong thunderstorms pass through the Greater Houston region, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024, in Porter Heights. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP) Jason Fochtman/Associated Press President Joe Biden finally addressed the New Orleans New Year's Day terror attack Wednesday night from Camp David. Biden reiterated that the alleged killer was a Texas-born American who served in the armed forces and was inspired by ISIS to mow down and kill at least 15 victims in the early hours of 2025 on the city's famed Bourbon Street. He advised that 'no one should jump to conclusions.' Earlier President-elect Donald Trump had suggested the perpetrator was an illegal migrant. The now deceased subject has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen. 'The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before he attacked he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS - especially the desire to kill, the desire to kill,' Biden said. 'The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack.' The president called the situation 'very fluid' and said he was being updated on the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel as well. On Thursday, the FBI said there was no definitive connection between the two incidents or attackers. 'Including whether there's any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans,' Biden said. 'Thus far, there's nothing to report on that score at this time.' President Joe Biden finally addressed the New Orleans New Year's Day terror attack Wednesday night from Camp David Both vehicles were rented out on Turo, a car-sharing app, but beyond that there doesn't appear to be a connection. The president gave just brief remarks and walked off ignoring shouted questions including whether he had been in touch with Trump, who will be sworn back in as president in just 20 days. At one point he appeared to have teleprompter hiccup - saying 'there you go' once it was fixed, after looking down at his notes during an awkward silence. Biden started off his Camp David appearance by consoling those in mourning. 'Our nation grieves with you. We're going to stand with you as you mourn and as you heal in the weeks to come,' the president said. Biden thanked the first responders who rushed to Bourbon Street and law enforcement who shot Jabbar dead in his tracks. The president said that Jabbar served on active duty in the United States Army and then was a reservist until a few years ago. He said explosives were found in the Jabbar's vehicle and more were found in the surrounding area. Police have identified the killer as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, an Army veteran who was born in Texas and was inspired by ISIS to conduct the vehicle attack on people out celebrating New Year's Eve on New Orleans famed Bourbon Street Members of the FBI and New Orleans Police remained on the scene on Bourbon Street into Wednesday after U.S. citizen Shamsud Din Jabbar drove into revelers in the early hours of 2025 Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy speaks at a press conference Wednesday afternoon in New Orleans in the aftermath of a terror attack that has left at least 15 people dead. Kennedy thought it best that the Sugar Bowl be delayed FBI agents are captured at the scene of Shamsud Din Jabbar's barbaric early morning New Year's Day attack on revelers and workers out late on Bourbon Street, New Orleans famous party district The white truck used in the attack is seen from above. President Joe Biden confirmed that the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar was inspired by ISIS to drive through a crowd on Bourbon Street, leaving at least 15 dead on New Year's Day 'The law enforcement, intelligence community will continue to look for any connections, association or co-conspirators,' Biden said. 'We have noting additional to report at this time, the investigation is continuing to be active and no one should jump to conclusions.' He rounded out his appearance, which lasted less than five minutes, to talk about the global love affair with the city of New Orleans, which he pronounced with a southern drawl several times during his remarks. 'New Orleans is a place unlike any other place in the world, a city full of charm and joy. So many people around the world love the New Orleans because of its history, its culture and above all its people,' Biden said. 'The spirit of New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated.' The Sugar Bowl, which was to take place between Georgia and Notre Dame at the Superdome on New Year's Day, has been postponed in the wake of the attack. New Orleans is accustomed to hosting largescale events including Mardi Gras and the annual New Orleans Jazz Festival. The city will also host the Super Bowl this year. The technology minister has said an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s is now highly unlikely. Peter Kyle previously said it was 'on the table' if companies do not take stronger action to protect children. He made the warning while preparing to tell Ofcom to be more assertive with tech giants, as both he and the regulator ready themselves for new legal powers in the Online Safety Act to commence from the start of 2025. The Act will see new safety duties placed on social media platforms for the first time, requiring them to protect users, and in particular children, from harmful content. The Technology Secretary said he did not want to pursue further law changes until he sees how the Online Safety Act works. But he signalled he had been speaking to politicians from Australia where social media restrictions for under-16s have been considered. He said he was 'looking forward' to 'seeing the results' of the legislation that would stop children using sites such as TikTok and Instagram. However, Mr Kyle now says he 'doesn't have any plans' to bring in an Aussie-style social media ban because they have to be 'very careful' about restricting anything that could be a lifeline to vulnerable children. Peter Kyle previously said a ban was 'on the table' if companies do not take stronger action to protect children Mr Kyle told The Sun that Childline is using social media to connect with children who need help and it can be a 'lifeline'. The Aussie bill, passed during the final day of Parliament of the year, is set to come into effect by the end of 2025, and will require platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, to block children and younger teenagers from accessing their services. Individual companies face $50million fines for failing to comply. Asked if the UK could push its age limits up to 16, Mr Kyle told the Telegraph a few weeks ago: 'When it comes to keeping young people safe, everything is on the table.' The House of Commons Education Committee said in May that the Government should consider a total ban on phones for under-16s and that tougher action is needed to limit screen time and combat online harm. Asked if the UK could push its age limits up to 16, Mr Kyle told the Telegraph a few weeks ago: 'When it comes to keeping young people safe, everything is on the table' But Keir Starmer said in July that he does not support 'simply banning' phones for children under 16, adding that the Government needs 'to look again' at what content children are accessing online. Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, has campaigned for an age limit to smartphone usage and stricter controls on access to social media apps. In February, the previous government gave schools in England non-statutory guidance intended to stop the use of mobile phones during school hours. Ian Russell, chairman of the Molly Rose Foundation, said the new priorities offered some 'course correction' for the Online Safety Act in the UK and would allow Ofcom to be 'bolder', but warned more reform to the rules was still needed. The Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) was set up by Mr Russell and his family in memory of his daughter, Molly, who ended her life aged 14 in November 2017 after viewing harmful content on social media. 'This announcement outlines a much-needed course correction, vital for improved online safety, and to prevent the new regulation falling badly short of expectations,' he said. 'However, while this lays down an important marker for Ofcom to be bolder, it is also abundantly clear that we need a new Online Safety Act to strengthen current structural deficiencies and focus minds on the importance of harm reduction.' Maria Neophytou, director of strategy and knowledge at the NSPCC, said the new priorities have 'the potential to change the online world for children'. She added: 'Through Childline, we hear daily from young people about the range of harms they are experiencing online, including online bullying, access to content encouraging suicide and eating disorders and child sexual abuse and exploitation. 'Tech companies must be transparent about the harm happening on their platforms. They should be disrupting 'safe havens' for offenders by tackling the hidden abuse taking place through private messaging. 'It is right that the Government is focusing on driving innovation and new technology that can identify and disrupt abuse and prevent harm from happening in the first place.' An Ofcom spokesperson said: 'Our resolve to create a safer life online for children and adults in the UK has never been stronger. 'We welcome the Government's draft statement of strategic priorities for online safety which, once finalised, will help shape this important work.' A Canadian man tragically died while snowboarding with his dog in Utah after an avalanche swept him underneath the snow. David Ethier, 38, of Quebec, was riding his splitboard - a snowboard that splits in two pieces - in Millcreek Canyon with his black Labrador on Saturday when the natural disaster occurred. Ethier's pet was spotted alone that night roaming along the canyon's Porter Fork Road and authorities identified her owner using her microchip. But the snowboarder's body was not retrieved until Tuesday - after days of extensive search and recovery efforts. The man's avalanche-related death was the first of two that transpired in the area within just three days. On Sunday afternoon, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office (SLCSO) received reports of an 'overdue party' in Millcreek Canyon and found Ethier's car parked at the Porter Fork trailhead. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) launched search efforts that night, but were restricted by the weather, avalanche conditions and limited daylight, according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team (SLCOSAR). Search efforts were resumed Monday morning by teams from the SLCOSAR and the Utah Avalanche Center. David Ethier, 38, was killed by an avalanche while he was snowboarding in Utah with his dog He was snowboarding in Millcreek Canyon and was found along the Porter Fork trail Helicopters and drones scoured the area for days, but harsh weather conditions were an immense obstacle They were able to search higher up throughout the Porter Fork trail, but conditions were still too dangerous to scour the upper area. Later that day, they unsuccessfully used drones and a helicopter to take another look around. The SLCOSAR wrote that 'a good Samaritan' was responsible for finding Ethier. He reportedly found him on Monday night, buried underneath three feet of snow near the edge of the avalanche's debris. Finally, Ethier's body was retrieved on Tuesday. Recovering his body sparked more accidental avalanches, authorities said. 'One avalanche covered the ascent track in Upper Porter Fork, and another nearly reburied the patient,' the SLCOSAR explained. 'This is a heartbreaking tragedy,' Sheriff Rosie Rivera said in a Tuesday press release. 'Our hearts go out to the family as they grieve the loss of their loved one.' On Facebook, Ethier's sister wrote that he was a 'fit man' that enjoyed the outdoors. He was also a beloved son, godfather and 'friend to all.' Either filled his social media page with pictures of him - and his loyal dog - in various snowy landscapes. The SLCOSAR warned snowboarders and hikers to be cautious while exploring the mountains and trails within the Wasatch Range. Ethier's sister described him as an outdoorsy individual. His Facebook was flooded with photos of him enjoying snowy landscapes Ethier's dog was found Saturday night by a nearby road. The next day, her owner was reported as an 'overdue party' There were two avalanche-related deaths within just three days. Ethier's recovery was interrupted by another disaster in a neighboring canyon 'While it is never our goal to criticize someone involved in an accident, this should serve as a stark reminder to how unstable the snowpack is in the Wasatch right now,' the team wrote. 'We have had two avalanche deaths in the last three days. Both patients were traveling solo, in High hazard terrain. 'Now is the time to stick to low angle terrain, read the avalanche forecast, have a partner, tell someone where you are going and when you will be back, and bring rescue gear.' While the recovery team was trying to retrieve Ethier's body on Tuesday, they had to temporarily divert their attention to another avalanche burial at the Big Cottonwood Canyon. According to a statement released by the Utah Avalanche Center, this incident resulted in the second casualty. The solo-snowboarder, whose identity has not been released, was traveling down Davenport Hill in Big Cottonwood Canyon's Silver Fork area - triggering the avalanche that killed him. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center reported that there have been four reported avalanche deaths across the country since December 15, 2024. Almost half of Britons don't have confidence in the police to turn up if their home was burgled, a shocking new poll has revealed. Some 46 per cent of adults have given up on the idea of a home burglary being properly investigated, with 49 per cent saying the same for car thefts. The issue is even worse with pensioners, with 54 per cent of those aged 65 or older expressing a lack of confidence in officers attending their property. Remarkably, eight per cent of Britons have admitted to delaying a phone call to police after suffering criminal incidents. A quarter of these felt officers would take too long to arrive, while over a third thought police would not have the time to take the crime seriously. In 2023 ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman ordered police to attend every burglary incident, though the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) have said resourcing is an issue. A spokesman also said that 'an immediate response may not be possible or appropriate if the resident is away or does not want us to attend.' The Police Federation, which represents 145,000 police officers in England and Wales, said at the time that forces simply didn't have enough resources to render such a promise viable. The survey also showed that two in five adults said they would not be confident if they had experienced an assault in the street. Almost half of Britons don't have confidence in the police to turn up if their home was burgled, a shocking new poll has revealed (file image) Some 46 per cent of adults have given up on the idea of a home burglary being properly investigated, with 49 per cent saying the same for car thefts (file image) The Liberal Democrats, who commissioned the polling, said the 'scandalous' findings were a direct consequence of underfunding of the police. The party's Home Affairs spokesperson Lisa Smart said: 'These findings are scandalous - but with unsolved crime rates remaining sky-high, it is difficult to find them shocking. 'This crisis in confidence is a direct consequence of years of neglect and mismanagement from the previous Conservative government. They decimated frontline policing and left our communities to pay the price. 'People deserve to feel confident that if they do fall victim to crime, the police will turn up and properly investigate. The new government must act urgently to restore the public's trust in policing. That requires a return to proper community policing - keeping our communities safe and reducing crime with more bobbies on the beat.' Last month the Mail revealed that officers failed to solve a staggering 31,980 domestic burglaries - three in every four - across England and Wales in the three months leading up to June 2024. Overall, just 2,494 charges were brought forward out of 42,488 investigations where an outcome was recorded. This is equivalent to just six per cent. The Liberal Democrats have called on ministers to guarantee all domestic burglaries are attended to and investigated. Remarkably, eight per cent of Britons have admitted to delaying a phone call to police after suffering criminal incidents (file image) In 2023 ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman ordered police to attend every burglary incident, though the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) have said resourcing is an issue Last night an NPCC spokesman said: 'We remain resolutely committed to our attendance policy as this is an important first step in improving detection rates and bringing more offenders to justice. 'Burglary is an incredibly invasive crime which we know has a significant impact on victims and this is why in March 2023, police forces across England and Wales implemented a new attendance policy to ensure police attendance at every reported residential dwelling burglary. 'Not every burglary report is the same and like every effective emergency service, police control rooms across England and Wales must assess the threat, harm and risk associated with every call they receive to ensure attendance is effectively prioritised. 'The focus of initial attendance at residential burglaries is about capturing best evidence and supporting victims of crime but there are occasions when an immediate response may not be possible due to resourcing or appropriate if the resident is away or does not want us to attend.' Police have released a series of chilling photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of makeshift explosives. The driver of the Cybertruck - made by Elon Musk-owned company Tesla - has not been formally identified after being killed in the explosion. Seven people were left injured in the blast. Charred fireworks, gas cannisters and camping fuel were found in the bed of the truck when authorities were finally able to put out the fire. Hours earlier in New Orleans, Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove an electric vehicle into crowds, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. Police revealed on Wednesday afternoon that they are currently investigating potential links and have not ruled anything out yet - but the FBI on Thursday said there was no definitive connection between the two incidents or attackers. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' In a bombshell press conference, officers investigating the incident revealed the Cybertruck was hired from Turo in Colorado and driven across the border into Nevada at 7.30am Wednesday. The explosion took place just an hour later. Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of explosives Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Officers shared a series of photographs taken from inside the car, revealing fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the truck. They are still exploring how the explosives were detonated, but sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed that it was likely controlled by the driver. The driver's remains are 'still in the truck as we speak today,' McMahill said, adding that while they know the name of the person responsible for renting the truck, they're not yet in a position to reveal those details to the public. Officers have also considered the driver may have purposefully chosen to use a car owned by Musk to send a message, given Musk's newfound friendship with President-elect Donald Trump. 'It's a Tesla truck, we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and it's the Trump hotel, so there's obviously something to look at,' he said. But the driver's decision to send a message using the Cybertruck may have actually been a small silver lining in the tragedy. Authorities echoed a comment made earlier today by Musk that the structure of the Cybertruck contained the explosives. 'The fact this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage,' McMahill said. 'It made most of the damage go up rather than out. The front glass doors at the Trump Hotel were not even broken by that blast.' Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday Hours earlier, Musk had said: 'Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle.' Wednesday's Cybertruck explosion is 'likely an act of terrorism', Musk said earlier, occuring just hours after the New Orleans tragedy which left 15 people dead. The $80,000 car was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the hotel, killing one and injuring seven at around 8.40am. By Wednesday afternoon, Musk revealed the explosion was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks.' He said the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself, and it's understood the unnamed driver had rented the truck using Turo. 'Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional,' he added. 'Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.' Musk said 'Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously,' meaning his team were able to check whether anything was wrong with the car's mechanics prior to the explosion. Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance, appearing to have nothing wrong with it. Seconds later, the entire car explodes, its roof blowing up first before the truck goes flying Sheriff McMahill thanked Musk for his efforts in assisting the investigation, turning over data to authorities along with access to CCTV from Tesla charging stations across the nation. The incident immediately sparked fears of a coordinated terror attack as the United States was still reeling from the violence on the streets of New Orleans hours earlier. Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove a rented electric vehicle into crowds, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more as they celebrated the New Year. The Texan-born terrorist had an ISIS flag draped on the back of the vehicle when he drove into the crowds, killing at least 15. Jabbar, a deranged US veteran, got out of his car and started firing a weapon. Investigators later added that they found what appeared to be improvised explosives at the crash site that did not detonate. McMahill said: 'With the event that occurred [in New Orleans], and the victims there, and the additional IEDs, so as you can imagine, with an explosion here on our iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep the community safe.' There were no overt links to ISIS in the Las Vegas attack as there were in New Orleans, but detectives have not ruled out any motive. There is no ongoing threat to the community, McMahill said, adding that additional officers have been deployed and will remain hyper vigilant for copycat attacks. The hotel, owned by the Trump family, was seen with a large cloud of smoke near it. The cause of the explosion is currently unknown The explosion left a large cloud of smoke billowing from the Trump Hotel on Fashion Show Drive around 9am Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance. Seconds later, the entire car blew up, with its roof going up in flames first. Debris smoked as it pinged off the pavement and sparks which looked like fireworks could be seen lighting up the black cloud of smoke emitting from the vehicle. After the explosion, orange flames were seen crawling out the windows of the Cybertruck before several more explosive sounds rung out. Fire alarms were heard going off in the ritzy building, where penthouse suites can cost up to $2,600 a night. It is unclear if hotel guests were evacuated. The explosion left a large cloud of smoke billowing from the Trump Hotel on Fashion Show Drive, alarming local and tourists. Tesla's Cybertrucks are the third best-selling EV in the US - with around 27,185 sold as of October 2024. The oddly shaped vehicles have been controversial since their unveiling in 2019 - yet the company continues to brag about large waitlists for the cars. A manhunt is underway for a convicted felon after three people - including two children - were found dead inside a Wisconsin home. Convicted felon Virgil Thew, 47, was seen picking up one of the children later found dead inside the New Lisbon home in Juneau County on Monday, Wisconsin Rapids Tribune reported. Thew is wanted through Wisconsin Probation and Parole Office and is considered to be armed and dangerous. The manhunt comes after the Monroe County Sheriff's Office contacted Juneau County authorities in regards to a missing child shortly after 10pm on Sunday evening, according to the New Lisbon Police Department. Investigators said that the missing child had been picked up and was last seen alongside Thew. The New Lisbon Police Department began to investigate the missing Monroe County child at around 7.40am Monday morning when they received another call informing them of a second missing child from New Lisbon. But hours later, officers made the heartbreaking discovery of two children and one adult dead inside a New Lisbon home on West Bridge Street. The Wisconsin State Crime Lab, Juneau County Sheriff's Office and Monroe County Sheriff's Department responded to the scene to process the home. A manhunt is underway for 47-year-old Virgil Thew, a convicted felon, in connection to the deaths of two children and one adult who were found inside a Wisconsin home on Monday afternoon The bodies were discovered inside a New Lisbon home on the 300 block of West Bridge Street following a search for two missing children Authorities were alerted of a missing child on Sunday evening and informed of a second missing child the very next morning - one of whom was said to be seen getting picked up by Thew the last time they were seen alive Neighbors were left in utter shock upon learning about the grim discovery. 'Everybody is terrified,' Kristina Johnson, one neighbor, told News 3 Now. Johnson said she headed outside to check out the abundance of police cars - initially believing that it may have been a drug bust or a routine traffic stop. But once she learned of the bodies discovered just steps away from her own home, she ran upstairs, turned the lights and television off and hid in the bathroom with her dog. 'That's extremely unnerving,' Johnson told the outlet. 'When I found out there was a murderer and that he was on the loose, I was totally terrified.' She noted how the entire community was left feeling on edge - making sure to religiously lock their doors as they wait for more information. While the police department said that one of the missing children found dead inside the home was last seen with Thew, it remains unclear if the other minor found was the second child reported as missing just a day later. The search is still on for the 47-year-old man, who is described as being 5-foot-10, weighing around 150 pounds and last seen wearing a dark-colored down coat, blue jeans and a hat. It still remains unclear if the other minor found dead inside the home was the other child reported missing Neighbors initially thought the police presence was in regards to a possible drug bust, but the community was left 'terrified' after learning about the grim discovery right next door Thew - who is described as being five-foot-10, weighing around 150 pounds and believed to be armed and dangerous - has been convicted of committing dozens of felonies and is wanted by the Wisconsin Probation and Parole Office Parole records show that he has been convicted of committing dozens of felonies and is currently on active community supervision, Fox News reported. Some of his crimes include possessing a gun as a felon, burglary and theft. He has been in and out of jail nearly every single year since 1995 before he was officially paroled in 2012. 'If seen, do not confront or approach him,' authorities wrote in a statement, adding how he is considered to be a dangerous criminal. Anyone who has information regarding his whereabouts are instead urged to contact the New Lisbon Police Department or 911. Russian officials have fined nightclub revellers for 'looking too gay' in their choice of outfits. At least seven people received the penalties following a police raid on a nightclub in Tula in February, according to court documents now seen by independent Russian media outlet Verstka. Video footage of the operation shows men in military-style uniforms and helmets detain at least eight people, the Telegraph reports. They were reportedly hit with charges of 'trying to arouse interest in non-traditional sexual relations', which has been outlawed in Russia for a decade. Usually this charge is directed at those publishing pro-LGBT material - not at those wearing 'unmanly' clothing. The detainees reportedly wore clothing that police suspected promoted 'non-traditional sexual relations', according to Verstka. One man reportedly wore 'crosses of black tape glued to his nipples' and a 'women's style corset' on his 'naked' body, while another with 'bright orange' hair and 'red tattoos on his face' wore 'pink socks' as well as 'an unbuttoned kimono'. The arrests come as the Kremlin further pushes its anti-LGBT crackdown in its bid to promote 'traditional values', which includes a ban on 'propaganda promoting a child-free lifestyle'. Video footage of the operation shows men in military-style uniforms and helmets detain at least eight people The detainees reportedly wore clothing that police suspected promoted 'non-traditional sexual relations', according to outlet Verstka Another description of those detained in the raid said that there was a man who wore a crop top, black leather shorts and fishnet tights. Judges ruled that the detainees' clothing was promoting a 'non-traditional' sexual lifestyle and their appearance was 'inconsistent with the image of a man with traditional sexual orientation', Verstka reports. While eight people were detained, only seven received a fine - the eight, a male bartender, avoided a fine after arguing that he was goth, saying that this was the reason he had eyebrow piercings, turquoise-dyed hair and wore a black T-shirt that was reportedly rolled up to his chest. Not all of the court's decisions have been made public, according to Verstka, but the outlet reported that two detainees received 350 (50,000 roubles) fines. This is not the only time Russian authorities arrested partygoers. In November, police reportedly raided several bars and nightclubs in Moscow under the laws criminalising 'LGBT propaganda'. The decade-old legislation under which they were punished is often called Russia's 'anti-gay law'. Initially, it only banned the spreading of 'LGBT propaganda' among minors, but was extended in 2022 to include the promotion of 'non-traditional lifestyles'. As part of his 'traditional' push, Russian president Vladimir Putin (pictured) even signed a decree last August that makes it easier for foreigners to apply for residency permits if they share Russia's traditional values The law has been used to punish people for 'offences' from sharing rainbow flags on social media to publicly admitting engaging in sexual activity with minors. In 2024, a minimum of 131 cases of 'LGBT propaganda' were sent to court in Russia, according to Verstka. Of those, at least 71 people received fines ranging from 350 (50,000 roubles) to 1,400 (200,000 roubles). As part of his 'traditional' push, Russian president Vladimir Putin even signed a decree last August that makes it easier for foreigners to apply for residency permits if they share Russia's traditional values. Woman died after falling seven storeys at unit block A woman who plunged to her death from a seventh floor apartment was seen clinging to a balcony moments before she fell. Emergency services were called to a unit block on River Road in Parramatta at about 1.40am on Thursday. Officers arrived at the scene and discovered the woman, believed to be aged 39, on the street with critical injuries. Despite efforts to revive the woman, she was pronounced dead at the scene. She is yet to be formally identified. NSW Police said a 40-year-old man had been arrested. Detective Superintendent Barry Vincent, Commander Parramatta Police Area Command, revealed that the man had an AVO taken out against the victim. It also emerged that a triple-0 call was made from the apartment at 11.45pm where police could hear 'raised voices' in the background. Police rang back and spoke to a male at the property who revealed his name and location, with officers saying they would attend the apartment. Forensics are seen at the balcony crime scene in Parramatta, western Sydney, where a woman is believed to have fallen to her death during the early hours of Thursday What appeared to be a blood stain could be seen in the cordoned off crime scene The woman, believed to be 39-years-old, died at the scene after police were called at 1.40am Detectives were seen arriving at the unit block on River Road on Thursday morning However, they did not make it there before the 1.40am triple-0 call. 'Shortly before 1.40am police received calls from a neighbour at unit block River Road following reports of a female person hanging from a balcony,' Superintendent Vincent added. 'That call was received at 1.40am and at 1.41am our officers responded to that scene whereupon they found a woman in the driveway of a unit block and they immediately commenced CPR. Despite their best efforts, the woman died at the scene.' Superintendent Vincent revealed that there had been 'previous interactions' with the police and the couple in question. Sai Pamula, who lives in the building, said he heard a 'loud smashing noise' and rushed down to the street where he saw two men and the woman. 'Her partner was not panicked, he was calm and just kept saying 'she is not breathing, she is not breathing',' he told Daily Mail Australia. He asked the other man to call the police. They came and did CPR.' Mr Pamula said he'd been told that the couple were allegedly arguing in the street earlier that evening. Police were seen stopping and interviewing residents as they left the underground parking The apartment tower on River Road, Parramatta, is just metres from a Light Rail station A resident is seen peering out the window of his unit as emergency services arrived Residents awoke on Thursday to find their apartment tower surrounded by police 'People tried to intervene but he was just not listening to them,' he added. Uniformed officers were also seen canvassing residents at the apartment tower. A female neighbour on the top floor said her child was awoken by the couple's 'screaming and shouting'. 'They were swearing at each other on and off throughout the night. I heard the word 'ungrateful' at one point,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'It sounded like something was thrown in the flat. And then I heard a big thump and saw all the sirens.' Another neighbour who lives six floors above the balcony said he heard a 'piercing' scream at 12.47am. 'I was half asleep watching TV in our sitting room and I heard a distinctive female scream. I rang my partner, who was in the other room, to ask if it was her,' he said. The man went to bed but understood the gravity of the situation the next morning when officers were cordoning off the street. 'I think she (the victim) landed in the flower bed,' he said. 'It's so awful. The innocence of the building is totally gone.' Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers. A woman died after suffering complications during her weight-loss surgery on the first day of a junior doctors' strike, a coroner's court has heard. Susan Evans, 55, returned to Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Portsmouth just two days after she underwent gastric bypass surgery - suffering with stomach pains. A coroner has now criticised the hospital after finding there was no specialist weight-loss nurse on duty and that Ms Evans was not seen by a senior doctor. By the time Ms Evans returned, after first being discharged, she was 'extremely unwell' and her condition continued to deteriorate until she died the following month. Now, an inquest into her death has heard of several 'failures' by Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust which 'contributed more than minimally to her death'. Coroner Sally Olsen said Ms Evans underwent elective Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery on July 11 last year, which was the first day of industrial action by junior doctors. The surgical procedure helps with weight-loss by reducing the size of the stomach and rerouting the small intestine. An inquest heard that the surgery 'went to plan' and measures were taken to avoid the possibility of an 'anastomotic leak', a recognised complication of gastric bypass surgery. Susan Evans, 55, returned to Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Portsmouth (above) just two days after she underwent gastric bypass surgery with stomach pain That day in July 2023 marked the first of industrial action and the coroner said there was no specialist weight -loss nurse on duty, and Ms Evans was not seen by a senior doctor (file photo) It was said that Ms Evans initially 'recovered well' but experienced stomach pain in the early hours of July 13, which was the first day of a junior doctors' strike. Ms Olsen, assistant coroner of Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton, added: 'Unrelated to this, the hospital only had the equivalent of one full time specialist bariatric nurse, who was not on duty. 'Contrary to Queen Alexandra hospital's written policy for gastric bypass patients, Ms Evans was not seen by a member of the specialist bariatric team on [that day] and was not seen by a senior doctor after reporting pain in order to rule out the possibility of an anastomotic leak.' It was heard that the night nursing team, who administered pain relief, were 'unaware' of the latter requirement. Ms Evans was also not seen by a member of the bariatric team - a group of medical professionals who work together to treat patients with obesity - prior to her discharge. The patient left the Portsmouth hospital 'in a degree of pain' and was readmitted two days later. By this time, she was 'extremely unwell' with sepsis and had to undergo remedial surgery on July 15 before a further operation some ten days later. Ms Evans was also not seen by a member of the bariatric team - a group of medical professionals who work together to treat patients with obesity - prior to her discharge The patient left the Portsmouth hospital 'in a degree of pain' and was readmitted two days later The coroner said: 'Despite appropriate medical care following her re-admission, her condition deteriorated, and she died at Queen Alexandra Hospital on 12 August 2023. 'It is likely that, if she had been seen by a member of the bariatric team on 13 July 2023, she would have been kept in hospital and would have been operated upon sooner. 'The failures identified contributed more than minimally to her death.' In a prevention of future deaths report, addressed to the Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust, Ms Olsen said her inquiries revealed several 'matters giving rise to concern'. The coroner said that under Queen Alexandra's post-operation care guidance, a bariatric specialist nurse, consultant or registrar, was required to carry out a daily review on patient of weight loss surgery. And, a senior doctor was also to see a patient if the experienced abdominal pain within two hours of attending hospital. The coroner said: 'Neither the written nor informal policy set out above were followed in Ms Evans' case. 'She was not reviewed by a member of the specialist bariatric team at any point on day two after surgery and the pain she experienced from the early hours of 13 July 2023 was not escalated to a senior doctor at all. 'The inquest heard evidence that medical staff who were not part of the specialist bariatric team were unlikely to appreciate the significance of pain. 'The failure to follow policy contributed more than minimally to Ms Evans death and is therefore a matter of concern.' The trust have until February 7 to respond to Ms Olsen. WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Builder Leigh Powell, 44, of the village of Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, was enjoying a day on the green at his local golf club when he was suddenly struck by the wayward ball in June last year. Mr Powell (left, before the incident and right and inset, after the incident), a keen golfer of more than 20 years, was knocked out for more than five minutes - leaving other players thinking he was dead. His eye was so swollen that doctors had to wait a whopping five months, until November, before they could see inside it properly to operate. He was using eye drops 50 times a day and sleeping sitting up for months, just to get the fluid to drain. There was 'blood everywhere' when he was first hit, the 44-year-old said: 'It was excruciating, I've never known pain like that, I was just screaming and screaming, even the morphine didn't really touch it.' Blinded by the horrifying accident, he has been unable to work as a builder anymore, meaning he has lost 32,000 in earnings. He is having to sell his home, with 360 per month in universal credit not even close to covering his expenses. A surge of frigid, teeth-chattering arctic air is expected to invade much of the United States early next week, plunging the nations temperatures, from the Rockies and the Plains to the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard, into near-freezing or subfreezing levels. How will Houston and Southeast Texas fare in this bitter blast of the polar votex? Heres what we know: Shown are the probabilities of below-freezing temperatures on Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service. Monday night and Tuesday night have the greatest potential for widespread subfreezing temperatures, forecasters said. They cautioned that conditions and probabilities will change over the next few days. National Weather Service 1. A cold front arrives next week We know a strong cold front will push into Southeast Texas on Sunday and sink temperatures to levels way below normal, which for this time of year range from as low as 43 to as high as 63. Current projections by the National Weather Service show Houston experiencing high temps in the middle to upper 40s but also lows falling below the freezing mark of 32 degrees, possibly into the mid-20s. Advertisement Article continues below this ad WEATHER EXPLAINED: What is the difference between a freeze and a frost in Southeast Texas? What remains unknown, however, is just how low temperatures will go and where the so-called freezing line, or the boundary where freezing temperatures end, will form. In our regions most recent freeze in mid-December, Houston temperatures stayed just above freezing, largely because of the urban heat island effect. That happens when more urbanized areas, which are made of glass, asphalt, concrete and steel, retain heat more than rural areas with more natural surroundings. This time, however, the city might succumb to the freezing temps that gripped many of Houstons northern suburbs. Shown are the probabilities of below-freezing temperatures on Monday night, according to the National Weather Service. Monday and Tuesday nights have the greatest potential for widespread subfreezing temperatures, forecasters said. They cautioned that conditions and probabilities will likely change over the next few days. National Weather Service There remains quite a bit of uncertainty on precipitation next week as it all depends on how far northward a coastal system in the western Gulf drifts, the weather service said Thursday afternoon. The probabilities for wintry precipitation (next) Wednesday/Thursday are low, but not zero, so be sure to stay up to the date on the latest forecasts/briefings for additional details as we get them. 2. Expect freezing nights but thawing days Although we dont know the exact timing of the arrival of cold air or when it will leave Houston and Southeast Texas, we know that temperatures are expected to climb out of freezing levels during the day. The upcoming freeze could be similar to what we endured last year, during the week of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. In that 2024 freeze, Houston temperatures dropped to near or below freezing for four nights from Jan. 14-17. But daytime highs each day made it above freezing, ranging from the mid-30s to the low 50s that week. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The National Blend of Models, a composite of forecast models, shows temperatures across the contiguous 48 states before dawn on Jan. 7, when a surge of cold arctic air is expected. Weather variables can change between now and then, so consider this a best guess for now. Pivotal 3. This will be much worse outside of Texas Houston actually will be on the warmest end of this cold air mass plunging into the U.S. next week, relatively speaking. The worst of the freezing blast of arctic air will be in the upper Midwest and across the eastern half of the country. The northern half of Texas also is more likely to experience 24-hour stretches of freezing temperatures. CRAMMING FOR THE COLD?: Preparing for a freeze in Southeast Texas? Heres a quick list of precautions to take Shown are the probabilities of below-freezing temperatures on Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters cautioned that conditions and probabilities will likely change over the next few days. National Weather Service 4. We can blame the polar vortex The historic statewide February freeze of 2021 was the product of an outbreak of the polar vortex, which is simply an area where strong winds at high altitudes blow from west to east around the North Pole. As John Nielsen-Gammon, state climatologist and director of the Southern Climate Research Center, told the Houston Chronicle last year, the polar vortex is not the polar jet stream, per se, but it can interact with and enhance the jet stream if it moves far enough south. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Every once in a while, the polar vortex gets split into two centers of circulation, one of which can sink southward into North America. This lasts a couple of weeks before it becomes a single vortex over the Arctic again. Even if the polar vortex stays over the Great Lakes or Canada, the winds blowing from the north across Canada into the central Plains will send that cold air into Texas, Nielsen-Gammon said. This upcoming freeze also is expected to be the result of a polar vortex escaping south. 5. You should be skeptical of social media The weather service is warning the public to beware of extreme scenarios on social media, adding that it is too soon to determine the extent of freezing temperatures and if any precipitation will occur midweek. Also be skeptical of long-range forecasts on weather apps on your smartphone: They often rely on a single algorithmic weather forecast model, rather than a more reliable composite of forecast models like the National Weather Service does. Revelatory new DNA analysis has suggested that people with Nordic heritage could be found in Britain centuries before the Vikings first arrived. According to this new analysis, the Nordic presence in the UK even pre-dates the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons on these shores, with the first Scandinavian settlers in the UK thought to have fought as gladiators. The findings stem from the discovery of remains in York, which upon further research was found to have lived at some stage between the second and fourth centuries AD. An individual was found buried in a cemetery on Driffield Terrace in York and it is thought they were either a 'gladiator or soldier'. The Vikings first arrived in Britain in 793 AD, while the Anglo-Saxons' first noted presence was in 449 AD, therefore suggesting that Nordic genes were the earliest to appear in Britain. Researchers from the Frances Crick Institute in London used high-tech DNA analysis to help identify three separate waves of migration in Europe roughly two millennia ago. The first wave saw people migrate from parts of Northern Germany and Scandinavia southwards into central Europe over the first 500 years AD. Britain was not the only area with a significant Scandinavian DNA found during this period though, with Germany, Italy, Poland and Slovakia all offering up similar results. Revelatory new DNA analysis has suggested that people with Nordic heritage could be found in Britain centuries before the Vikings first arrived The Vikings first arrived in Britain in 793 AD, while the Anglo-Saxons' first noted presence was in 449 AD It is this Nordic influence which saw the evolution of the modern English and German languages. Inverse migration also occurred according to the new research, with some Europeans moving northwards into Scandinavia. This is known due to the analysis of teeth fragments found in Sweden. During what remains the most familiar wave of migration, the Viking hordes settled across Europe, with many battles breaking out particularly in England. This led to famous battles such as the Battle of Stamford Bridge and the Lindisfarne Priory raids. In order to collate the data, researchers used a process called Twigstats, which can recreate ancestry by looking at how many genetic mutations are shared between individuals. 'It allows us to see what we couldn't before, in this case migrations all across Europe originating in the north of Europe in the Iron Age, and then back into Scandinavia before the Viking Age,' said Leo Speidel, lead author of the study, who now works at Riken, a scientific institute in Japan. 'Our new method can be applied to other populations across the world and hopefully reveal more missing pieces of the puzzle.' Peter Heather, a professor of medieval history at King's College London, a co-author of the study, said: 'Historical sources indicate that migration played some role in the massive restructuring of the human landscape of western Eurasia in the second half of the first millennium AD which first created the outlines of a politically and culturally recognisable Europe. 'But the nature, scale and even the trajectories of the movements have always been hotly disputed. Twigstats opens up the exciting possibility of finally resolving these crucial questions.' A three-year-old girl was killed in a vicious dog attack while visiting her father's Ohio apartment for Christmas. The panicked father called Cincinnati police on December 27 after he discovered blood all over his living room. His toddler daughter, Kingsley Wright, was already dead on the ground. 'My baby is dead,' he told the dispatcher. 'This has got to be a f***ing nightmare.' The Hamilton County Coroner's Office ruled that little Kingsley was mauled by the family's three dogs, The Enquirer reported. Kingsley's mother Gina Smith had taken her from their Wilmington home to her father's apartment in Roselawn on December 23 to celebrate the holidays. Smith told WLWT television that Kingsley was spending time with the family for the holidays, but she had no idea that the dogs in the home were dangerous. She noted Kingsley was staying at the home 'for the first time ever.' The last time Smith would speak to her daughter would be through a Facetime call before Kingsley headed to bed on Thursday evening. Kingsley Wright, 3, was tragically killed in a vicious dog attack last Friday while staying at her father's Ohio apartment 'for the first time ever' to celebrate the holidays Her father, who remains unnamed, called the Cincinnati police in a panic Friday morning after he had walked into his living room and discovered blood all over the place with his daughter already lying dead on the floor 'It's just been one big roller coaster,' Smith told The Enquirer. 'I feel like we ain't ever going to get off of it.' At around 7.50am Friday, Kingsley's father stumbled upon the horrifying scene, later telling police there did not appear to be a break-in through the night because the front door was still locked. Dispatchers told him to put away any pets in the home before authorities arrived on the scene, to which he responded that all three dogs - who he said were terriers - were already in their cages. 'That's why I'm like, did any of my pets attack her or something?' he said on the call. 'I would have heard this.' Relatives and friends have since been engaging in a Facebook debate about whether the three family dogs were pit bulls, XL bullies or Cane Corsos - both of the latter being pit bull variants, Animals 24-7 reported. 'Those kinds of dogs are over 100 pounds, so did they just sit on her and then start mauling on her?' Joshua Justice, Smith's boyfriend, told WLWT. Gina Smith, Kingsley's mother, tragically spoke to her daughter for the last time through a Facetime call before Kingsley headed to bed the evening before the fatal attack Dispatchers told Kingsley's father to put away any pets in the home before authorities arrived on the scene, to which he responded that all three dogs - who he said were terriers - were already in their cages 'Did they crush her? And why?' he added. 'What made them want to do that to just a little baby sleeping on the couch?' Cincinnati Animal CARE was called shortly after the discovery to remove the three dogs from the home and take them to the animal shelter to be held for a state-mandated 10-day quarantine period. Kingsley's mother received a message from the girl's older sister that same morning - informing her that she needed to call because it was about her daughter. That is when she was told that Kingsley had died and that the girl's father had been taken by police for questioning. The coroner wouldn't let Smith see her daughter after the attack due to how graphic her injuries were. Smith told WLWT that leaving Kingsley at the home where she was mauled by three dogs 'was the last time that I got to say goodbye to my baby.' 'I told her I loved her, and I would see her in a few days,' she added. 'I would have not left my baby around vicious dogs,' she told the outlet. 'Why would I do that?' It has been debated whether the dogs were terriers, pit bulls or a form of pit bull variants but all three have since been taken to an animal shelter to be held for a state-mandated 10-day quarantine period Joshua Justice (pictured), who is identified as Smith's current boyfriend, told WLWT: 'What made them want to do that to just a little baby sleeping on the couch?' Although there have not been any arrests in connection to Kingsley's death, the department's homicide unit was called to investigate and have since been in contact with her family. Smith's only answer to those asking how this could've happened is 'I don't know.' 'For that poor baby to be attacked by dogs like that and him not hear it, you know, that's what I'm questioning,' she told The Enquirer. Her hope is that the police will uncover the answers to all of the questions plaguing her during the course of the investigation. Three days after the fatal attack, a detective told Smith they had a home security camera in the living room which showed her daughter sleeping on the couch, WLWT reported. 'He is devastated and understands all of her mom and mom's family's feelings and is very sorry,' one friend of the father, Calissa H, said online. 'This is a nightmare, as he just learned that Kingsley was his daughter. He was so excited for her to spend time with him and meet her sister and family. He feels that it is his fault for not being able to protect her.' Kingsley's mother told The Enquirer: 'For that poor baby to be attacked by dogs like that and him not hear it, you know, that's what I'm questioning' Although no arrests in connection to Kingsley's death have been announced, the department's homicide unit was called to investigate and have since been in contact with her family Despite losing her daughter in such a heinous way, Smith said that she is still appreciative of all of the support she has been receiving from the community. She said that several people have made decals in honor of Kingsley and that a childhood friend gave her a throw blanket decorated with pictures of her daughter. 'She was happy. She liked to sing, she liked to dance,' Smith told the outlet. 'She just put a lot of smiles on a lot of people's faces.' Lisa Colina, a spokesperson for the animal shelter, told the outlet that the dogs will be held in the shelter until they are given further direction by the police rather than euthanizing them straight away. She is unaware of any other previous issues concerning the dogs. Crisis negotiators rushed to a scene in Las Vegas where a person had barricaded himself onto a bus. The latest threat comes hours after a Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel, sparking fears of a coordinated terror attack. Police were on the scene near Fremont Street and Charleston Boulevard, along with SWAT teams and crisis negotiators. They have since taken the person into custody without incident. It is understood a person barricaded themselves onto a bus, however it was not immediately clear if there were others locked inside. The area surrounding the unfolding situation was closed to the public. It is understood the incident was first reported to police as a person wielding a knife, according to 8 News Now. Police have been praised for 'working overtime' today after earlier responding to a potential terror threat which injured seven and killed one. The $80,000 car - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the hotel, killing one and injuring seven at around 8.40am. Crisis negotiators have rushed to a scene in Las Vegas where a person has barricaded himself onto a bus Police are on the scene near Fremont Street and Charleston Boulevard, along with SWAT teams and crisis negotiators Charred fireworks, gas cannisters and camping fuel were found in the bed of the truck when authorities were finally able to put out the fire. Police are working to determine whether the incident is connected to a terror attack in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day. FBI on Thursday said there was no definitive connection between the two incidents or attackers. Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove an electric vehicle into the NOLA crowds, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance, appearing to have nothing wrong with it. Seconds later, the entire car explodes, its roof blowing up first before the truck goes flying A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday Police revealed on Wednesday afternoon that they are currently investigating potential links and have not ruled anything out yet. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' In a bombshell press conference, officers investigating the incident revealed the Cybertruck was hired from Turo in Colorado and driven across the border into Nevada at 7.30am Wednesday. The explosion took place just an hour later. South Korean police raided Muan International Airport and Jeju Air's office just days after the airline's horror crash that killed 179 passengers. On Thursday, the Jeonanam Provincial Police launched a search and seizure operation into the southwest South Korea airport and the airline's office in Seoul. Authorities also swarmed the Muan office of the Busan Regional Office of Aviation, Yonhap News Agency reported. Police said in a statement to AFP: 'In relation to the plane accident that occurred on December 29, a search and seizure operation is being conducted from 9 a.m. on January 2 at three locations.' Police issued a search warrant for professional negligence resulting in death, according to officials. The search comes after a 15-year-old Jeju Airline Boeing 737-800 was torn apart and burst into flames across the Muan Airport runway on Sunday. A total of 179 were killed that day when a plane carrying 181 passengers skidded off a runway as it landed and smashed into a wall. A plane carrying 181 people has crashed into a wall at at Muan International Airport in South Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday Rescue workers take part in a salvage operation at the site where an aircraft crashed after it went off the runway at Muan International Airport, in Muan, South Korea - December 29, 2024 People listen at Muan International Airport as an official discloses the additional names of passengers who died in the horror plane crash South Korea's emergency office said the jet's landing gear seemingly malfunctioned, with a bird striking the aircraft among the possibilities of what caused the crash. There were wails in the airport's arrivals hall as families wept loudly when a medic announced the names of 22 dead passengers. They were identified by their fingerprints. The death toll includes at least 82 men and 83 women, according to the National Fire Agency. Two crew members, a man and a woman, were miraculously rescued from the tail section of the burning plane. The flaming crash was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea's aviation history. Kimberly Guilfoyle wished her ex-fiance Donald Trump Jr. a happy birthday as he flaunted his new relationship with Bettina Anderson at his father's New Year's Eve party. Guilfoyle, 55, shared a heartfelt birthday social post for the president-elect's son, who she dated for several years. The news personality and ex-wife to California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared a collage featuring pictures of her and Don Jr. smiling together, demonstrating their amicable break-up. The pair got together in 2018 after Don Jr. divorced his now ex-wife Vanessa. They were engaged in 2022. Since then, Guilfoyle has become a prominent member of soon-to-be president Trump's circle. She was recently made Trump's ambassador to Greece. But trouble publicly arose after Don Jr. was caught kissing Anderson during a romantic dinner in Palm Beach about three months ago - before he'd announced his split with Guilfoyle. Guilfoyle was reportedly 'blindsided' by the photos of Don Jr. and the glamorous model. Friends of the former prosecutor exclusively told DailyMail.com that Guilfoyle was completely caught off guard when she learned about Anderson and her fiance at the time. Kim Guilfoyle wished Donald Trump Jr. a happy birthday in a heartfelt Instagram story post Don Jr. and Bettina Anderson were seen smiling on their way inside Donald Trump's New Year's Eve party Guilfoyle's post comes after the pair amicably broke off their engagement The insider said: 'Kimberly either didn't know about Bettina or didn't want to know. Did she hear whispers that Don Jr. was fooling around with someone else? Probably. 'She's no fool but it's easy to deceive yourself when you're so committed to someone and believe he's committed to you.' Rumors of the relationship only intensified after a photo of them holding hands during a night out in Palm Springs in December. Days later, he finally addressed his split from Guilfoyle in a statement to Page Six. 'Kimberly and I will never stop caring for each other and will always keep a special bond,' he told the outlet. 'I could not be more proud of her and the important role shell continue to play [as US ambassador to Greece].' Don Jr. celebrated his 47th birthday at his father's annual New Year's Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago, publicly debuting his new socialite girlfriend just weeks after he announced the end of his engagement to Guilfoyle. The pair strutted down the red carpet into the famous Florida club flashing bright smiles. Anderson, a model and socialite, has caused a stir among some Trump supporters who claimed she is not 'MAGA' enough Rumors about Don Jr. and Anderson's relationship spawned when the couple started going out together months before Don Jr. addressed that he was no longer engaged Don Jr. and Anderson, 38, rang in the New Year alongside other prominent members of Trump's group, including 'First Buddy' Elon Musk and Vice President-elect JD Vance. Anderson has been slammed as a 'social climber' and a Florida party girl. But she appeared to subtly responded to critics by citing a bible verse in a social media post in late December. 'So let them lie. Let them manipulate. Let them talk. You just be still, because when God is on your side, who can stand against you?' the bible passage, from the book of Exodus, states. Friends of the president elect's eldest son have expressed concern that his new love interest is not 'MAGA enough,' based on her social media posts and political stances. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic she shared an image of her wearing a mask posing alongside a sign that read: 'Only you can stop the spread of ignorance.' Some even accused her of being a 'liability' to Trump's administration and using her relationship with Don Jr. for fame. A Ferrari has crashed into a $4million mansion once owned by finance guru Mark Bouris leaving a woman temporarily trapped in the car. The luxury vehicle crashed through a brick fence at Robertson Place in Watsons Bay, an elite suburb in Sydney's east, at 1.15pm on Thursday. A 55-year-old woman sustained chest injuries and was trapped in the wreckage while the 56-year-old male driver suffered minor head injuries. A NSW Ambulance spokesman told Daily Mail Australia the driver and his passenger have been taken to St Vincent's Hospital where they remain in a stable condition. NSW Fire and Rescue crews and NSW Ambulance paramedics were earlier working to free the woman from the Ferrari before she was treated for injuries. Pictures from the scene showed several police vehicles and fire trucks at the scene. The rear of the black Ferrari could be seen partially blocking the footpath as a crowd of pedestrians gathered around the crash site. Several parts of the front exterior of the luxury vehicle were badly damaged by the impact from the collision and the bonnet was forced open by the crash. The luxury vehicle (picture) crashed through a brick fence before it collided into a wall at Robertson Place in Watsons Bay, in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Thursday afternoon The front exterior including the bonnet of the vehicle (pictured) was badly damaged The Ferrari crashed into a $4million waterfront home in Sydney's eastern suburbs once owned by finance guru Mark Bouris (pictured) The vehicle is understood to be a Ferrari 458 Speciale which cost around $550,000. Mr Bouris is understood to have sold the property in 2013 for $7million according to real estate records, the Daily Telegraph reports. NSW Police said officers were investigating the circumstances of the crash. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Bouris for comment. Federal investigators believe a US Army veteran who drove a truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers in New Orleans' French Quarter prepared the IED explosives at a nearby rental property. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen born and raised in Texas drove an electric vehicle from Houston to Louisiana to carry out the deadly attack which killed 15 and left at least 35 injured. Investigators are probing the theory he rented a nearby property on Airbnb in St. Roch for his base before carrying out the attack. Exclusive DailyMail.com photographs show the moment the FBI removed bomb making materials from the two-bedroom and two-bathroom property close to the French Quarter. A total containment vessel was seen being taken away from the property at around 8pm on New Years Day, hours after authorities had evacuated residents from the area. The area is mostly rentals available to tourists travelling to the area for the holiday period, who have now been left without a place to stay. Authorities told one couple not to count on being allowed back into the properties, blocking off a three-street radius. The FBI were joined by special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen born and raised in Texas drove an electric vehicle into a crowd of revelers in New Orleans' French Quarter Investigators are probing the theory he rented a nearby property on Airbnb in St. Roch for his base before carrying out the attack A total containment vessel was seen being taken away from the property at around 8pm on New Years Day, hours after authorities had evacuated residents from the area A spokeswoman for the ATF confirmed that they were involved in assisting the investigation, but were unable to comment further when contacted by DailyMail.com. Officials were called to the property after firefighters put out a fire at the rental in the early hours, with sources claiming bomb making materials were found. State Attorney General Liz Murrill told NBC News: 'We know that these individuals had rented the house were using it for that purpose.' The two-bed two-bathroom property was revamped by real estate developer Oliver Doxater at Wysteria Properties. Sources believe that Jabbar could have rented the property out on Airbnb or another rental service before the deadly attack. Authorities told one couple not to count on being allowed back into the properties, blocking off a three-street radius New Orleans Police pull a bomb containment vessel from the property The tw0-bedroom, two-bath property rented by Jabbar was close to the French Quarter Jabbar was killed by police after he slammed a truck into pedestrians celebrating the New Year, exited the vehicle, and started firing. The vehicle, which was hired by Jabbar on car-rental app Turo, was reportedly carrying an ISIS flag and a chest with explosives inside it. Suspect Jabbar is said to have made a series of videos that is being reviewed by law enforcement. Multiple officials told CNN that the recordings appear to have been made while driving at night and the suspect is not visible in them. Authorities believe that the videos were made as he drove from Texas to Louisiana, although the timing is unclear. The driver who plowed into pedestrians celebrating the New Year in New Orleans killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens is dead following a shootout with police Suspect Jabbar is said to have made a series of videos that is being reviewed by law enforcement. CNN report that the recordings make reference to his divorce and that he planned on gathering his family together for a fake celebration so he could kill them. The suspect is also said to have talked about how he joined ISIS, and spoke of dreams that he had about joining the terrorist group. His brother told The New York Times that his brother was a caring man. Abdur Jabbar, 24, of Beaumont, Texas, told the outlet: '[He was] a sweetheart really, a nice guy, a friend, really smart, caring.' He said that his brother had converted to Islam at a young age, and that 'what he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion'. Hours after the New Orleans terror attack a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the front doors of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Elon Musk said Wednesday's Cybertruck explosion was 'likely an act of terrorism,' occurring just hours after a terror attack in New Orleans which left 15 people dead. A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas An image from outside the hotel shows smoke billowing from the vehicle An image taken after the blast shows the wreckage inside the Cybertruck According to Fox5, several agencies are now investigating whether there is a link between the two attacks. The FBI on Thursday said there was no definitive connection between the two incidents or attackers. The $80,000 car - made by Musk's company - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the hotel, killing one and injuring seven at around 9am, according to Las Vegas police. By Wednesday afternoon, Musk revealed the explosion was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks.' He said the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself, and it's understood the unnamed driver had rented the truck using Turo. 'Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional,' he added. 'Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.' CNN later reported fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver. An insider told the network authorities have obtained CCTV footage which shows the Cybertruck passed by the hotel an hour earlier, and circled back to park seconds before the explosion. Musk said 'Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously,' meaning his team were able to check whether anything was wrong with the car's mechanics prior to the explosion. Sheriff Kevin McMahill had earlier revealed police are treating the explosion as an act of terror. Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to spot a concerning feature on President Joe Biden's face as he addressed the nation on the New Orleans terror attack. Biden took to Camp David on Wednesday evening where he finally addressed the country on the ISIS-inspired attack that slaughtered at least 15 victims in the early hours of New Year's Day on the city's famed Bourbon Street. But some of those watching were quick to spot a slight difference to his face - leading to discussions on X regarding his overall health. 'Biden looked awful,' one viewer shared to X. 'He looked like he may have fallen from his lower lip looking swollen and bruised.' Another viewer tagged Fox News and agreed, questioning: 'When President Biden came on and gave an update today, what's wrong with the left side of his jaw and lip?' 'Did he have dental work, fall, or did he have a small stroke?' they added. 'How about finding out? Something is not right.' A third viewer chimed in and tagged the White House account, adding: 'Biden looked like he had fallen and couldn't get up prior to his address.' 'Look at his lip.... he also has a scar above his lip on the left side of his face,' they added. 'I couldn't be the only one to notice this!!' Biden took to Camp David on Wednesday evening where he finally addressed the country on the ISIS-inspired attack that slaughtered at least 15 victims in the early hours of New Year's Day in New Orleans Some eagle-eyed viewers were quick to spot a slight difference to his face - leading to discussions on X regarding his overall health and if he fell and busted his lip before the address Yet his seemingly injured face wasn't the only thing that left viewers questioning his presidential capabilities during his last 18 days in office. The 82-year-old president's health has been back in the news since The Wall Street Journal published a story on December 19 on how aides dealt with a 'diminished' president throughout his entire term. The report revealed that aides would have to repeat obvious instructions to Biden such as where to exit a stage. Wednesday evening's address, which lasted less than five minutes, appeared to prove no different. Biden started off his Camp David appearance by consoling those in mourning. 'Our nation grieves with you. We're going to stand with you as you mourn and as you heal in the weeks to come,' the president said. Biden thanked the first responders who rushed to Bourbon Street and law enforcement who shot 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, the subject, dead in his tracks. He said that explosives were found in the Jabbar's vehicle and more were found in the surrounding area. Viewers also questioned his cognitive abilities yet again during Wednesday evening's address after Biden appeared to have a hiccup while squinting at the teleprompter and walked off the stage ignoring any further questions about the attack Biden's recent slip-ups came just days after he sputtered his way through a nine-minute appearance Sunday night in St. Croix to pay tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter Biden reiterated that the alleged killer was a Texas-born American who served in the armed forces and was inspired by ISIS to mow down and kill at least 15 victims just hours into the new year while also advising that 'no one should jump to conclusions'. 'The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before he attacked he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS - especially the desire to kill, the desire to kill,' Biden said. 'The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack.' But at one point during the address, Biden appeared to have a hiccup while squinting at the teleprompter. He was heard saying 'there you go' once is was seemingly fixed after looking down at his notes during a period of awkward silence. Viewers were also quick to criticize the president's brief remarks after he walked off stage, ignoring any questions shouted at him as he walked towards the exit door. 'I am so tired of this man walking away from the press. An entire presidency turning his back on the American people,' one viewer wrote on X. Another chimed in, adding: 'The ice cream is melting so he had to run. It's not gonna eat itself, ya know.' 'Stumbled out of the room without tripping, another wrote. 'Big success.' 'He couldn't even stay focused while reading notes his staff fixed up for him..' another said. Biden's recent slip-ups came just days after he sputtered his way through a nine-minute appearance Sunday night in St. Croix to pay tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter. His coughing and sluggish delivery reinforced frequent concerns about his declining cognitive abilities. Biden was also in hot waters over his 'tone deaf' response to the overnight tragedy in New Orleans - leaving social media viewers furious. His first post on X in 2025 was a simple 'Happy New Year, folks' at 10am ET, just hours after the attacker plowed into the celebratory crowd. Enraged people took to social media to immediately point out his 'heartless' blunder - calling it out of touch and insensitive to the victims and their families. 'Joe Biden is a heartless pos,' wrote one user. 'People lost their lives in a terror attack, and he just tweeted 'Happy New Year, Folks.' Jan 20th can't come fast enough.' 'It's utterly clumsy and tone deaf,' another added. Biden was also criticized over his 'tone deaf' and 'heartless' response to the overnight tragedy in New Orleans - leaving social media viewers furious Biden would also not answer whether he'd spoken to Trump, who took to social media to pin the blame for the New Year's attack on rampant illegal migration perpetrated under Biden over the last four years But approximately an hour after his New Year's post, Biden finally issued a formal statement condemning the 'act of terrorism' and sending condolences to the victims' families. He then addressed reporters as he boarded his plane to Camp David, saying he'd have 'more to say' soon and that his first reaction was one of 'anger and frustration.' Although the 42-year-old suspect was confirmed to be a US citizen, Trump took to social media to pin the blame for the attack on rampant illegal migration perpetrated under Biden over the last four years. 'When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,' Trump posted to Truth Social on Wednesday morning. 'The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.' 'The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!' Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stark warning ahead of Donald Trump's second term in the White House. In his annual report on the federal judiciary, which was released Tuesday, the chief justice argued that the United States must maintain 'judicial independence,' as he wrote about the threats to the federal judicial system. 'It is not in the nature of judicial work to make everyone happy. Most cases have a winner and a loser,' Roberts wrote in the 15-page report, according to Fox News. 'Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system - sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics. 'Nevertheless, for the past several decades, the decisions of the courts, popular or not, have been followed and the Nation has avoided standoffs that plagued the 1950s and 1960s,' he noted. 'Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings.' Roberts did not name Trump, President Joe Biden or any other lawmaker in his report, despite public spats with both executives. 'These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected. Judicial independence is worth preserving,' Roberts argued. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stark warning ahead of Donald Trump 's second term in the White House Roberts did not name Trump, President Joe Biden or any other lawmaker in his report, despite public spats with both executives He went on to quote late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who he said argued that an independent judiciary is 'essential to the rule of law in any land' but is 'vulnerable to assault; it can be shattered if the society law exists to serve does not take care to assure its preservation.' 'I urge all Americans to appreciate this inheritance from our founding generation and cherish its endurance,' Roberts wrote. He also quoted the former Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who once remarked that the three branches of government 'must work in successful cooperation' to 'make possible the effective functioning of the department of government, which is designed to safeguard with judicial impartiality and independence the interests of liberty.' 'Our political system and economic strength depend on the rule of law,' Roberts said. The chief justice went on to explain that the judiciary is under threat from intimidation and disinformation. 'Violence, intimidation and defiance directed at judges because of their work undermine our Republic and are wholly unacceptable,' he said, arguing that not everyone engages in '"informed criticisms" or anything remotely resembling it.' He agued that 'attempts to intimidate judges for their rulings in cases are inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed,' and noted that while public officials and others can criticize rulings, they should also be aware that their comments can 'prompt dangerous reactions by officials.' Disinformation on social media can magnify these distortions and even be exploited by 'hostile foreign state actors' to exacerbate divisions. Roberts and Trump previously clashed in 2018, when the chief justice rebuked the then-president for denouncing a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an 'Obama judge' In some cases, Roberts noted, judges have even had to wear bulletproof vests at public events, according to the New York Times. Threats targeting federal judges have more than tripled over the last decade, according to US Marshals Service statistics. State court judges in Wisconsin and Maryland were even killed at their homes. 'Violence, intimidation and defiance directed at judges because of their work undermine our Republic and are wholly unacceptable.' The remarks came after an eventful year for the Supreme Court, with Roberts issuing a landmark decision over the summer when the highest court ruled that the president of the United States has immunity from prosecution for official acts in office. Republicans touted that ruling - and another that halted efforts to disqualify Trump from the ballot in Colorado - as major victories for the former president ahead of his victory. Democrats, however, including President Biden, criticized the highest court for its ruling in the immunity case - and Biden even wound up calling for term limits in the aftermath, as well as an ethics code following reports of undisclosed trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors. Yet Roberts and Trump also clashed in 2018, when the chief justice rebuked the then-president for denouncing a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an 'Obama judge.' The Supreme Court is now expected to hear arguments next week on the constitutionality of a law that could ban TikTok The Supreme Court is now expected to hear arguments next week on the constitutionality of a law that could ban TikTok. Trump pleaded with the Supreme Court to halt the implementation of the Protecting Americans from Controlled Applications App, which would ban the video-sharing app by January 19 if it is not sold by its Chinese parent company by then. The incoming president's controversial conservative agenda is also likely to be legally challenged and end up before the nation's highest court, whose conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump during his first term. A suspect has been questioned after members of a Virgin Australia crew were allegedly raped and robbed during a night of clubbing in Fiji, the island nation's deputy prime minister has announced. It comes just hours after Fijian authorities confirmed they were investigating two separated incidents that allegedly occurred outside the popular Bar One nightclub after a late night of partying on New Years Eve. Two members of the Australian airline's flight staff - a man and a woman - were allegedly attacked during the encounters in the tourist town of Nadi, on the resort island's scenic west coast, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Fijian assistant police commissioner Mesake Waqa said the female crew member was sexually assaulted while her male colleague was robbed by an assailant and had to be taken to hospital and treated for facial injuries as a result of the ordeal. The island nation's deputy prime minister Viliame Gavoka extended his sympathies to the victims and said that a suspect, who was 'known to police', had been questioned in relation to both encounters. 'It is reported that an alleged theft and sexual assault occurred, with victims being crew members of a foreign airline,' he said on Thursday. 'Our thoughts and concerns are with them and for their health and well-being. 'These alleged incidents are regrettable. A female member of a Virgin Australia flight crew was allegedly sexually assaulted outside the Bar One nightspot in Nadi, on Fiji's west coast, in the early hours of Wednesday morning while a male colleague was robbed and needed to go to hospital to be treated for a facial injury The alleged incidents came after a late night of partying at the popular nightclub (pictured) to celebrate New Year's Eve Virgin Australia's crew have been asked to remain 'contactable' during the rest of their stay so that they can help police with their ongoing enquiries 'There were two separate alleged incidents, one being alleged theft and the other being alleged sexual assault which affected two different crew members. 'A suspect known to police for the alleged sexual assault has been questioned. Investigation continues.' Mr Gavoka also clarified that none of Virgin Australia's crew members had been detained as a result of the investigation, though they had been asked to ensure they were contactable and able to assist police with their ongoing enquiries. 'We refer to reports by various international media claiming that the crew are being 'detained' this is incorrect and false,' he said. 'The crew, who are in good health, are being accommodated at a local hotel which is the nominated crew accommodation for layovers. 'The three crew members were also advised by their Headquarters to remain within the hotel vicinity to ensure contactability and assist with Police investigations; they should return home before the end of this week.' Mr Gavoka, who is also Fiji's tourism minister, said he was concerned the incidents could damage the island nation's international reputation as a holiday destination, while urging visitors to remain vigilante while visiting the country's nightspots. 'Regrettably, incidents like this can happen anywhere and Fiji is not immune,' he said. Fiji deputy prime minister Viliame Gavoka is concerned about the impact the incident will have on the resort island's reputation as an international holiday hotspot Seven guests, including four Australian women, at Fiji's Warwick Resort (pictured) were last month hospitalised following a suspected mass alcohol poisoning The resort (pictured) is a five-star hotel located on Fiji's south coast, 92km west of Suva, the nation capital 'We, as always, remind tourists to exercise caution in nightclub areas and late at night.' Acting Police Commissioner Juki Chew Fong confirmed the suspect was a local but added that, while they had been questioned, no arrest had yet been made. The alleged assaults come just weeks after Fiji attracted negative headlines around the globe after seven tourists - including four Australians - were hospitalised after drinking pina coladas at a bar in the ritzy Warwick Resort last month. Mr Gavoka said a toxicology report into alcohol samples from the five-star resort revealed 'no illicit substances' had been detected in the cocktails - and the source of the poisoning remains a mystery. 'I can confirm that no illicit substances or methanol were found in the ingredients or liquor samples,' he said. 'All of the affected tourists and the locals have now been discharged from medical care, fully recovered. This is a significant relief. 'No tourist wants to end their holiday in illness and we are sorry that their holiday ended on such a note.' After being missing in action for a while, Chinese actress Zhao Lusi recently updated her health status through a letter she posted on Weibo. When Zhao was seen in public using a wheelchair, many citizens became worried about her health. In reaction, a friend disclosed that someone in Zhao's firm had purportedly attacked her. Zhao wrote in her letter appreciating her support from the profession and opened up about her mental health issues. She wrote," This is my first and last response to everything that has happened recently. I sincerely apologize for taking up public attention. Before all this, I never allowed my illness to affect my work or those around me. I also acknowledge my own shortcomings." #ZhaoLusi: This is my first and last response to everything that has happened recently. I sincerely apologize for taking up public attention. Before all this, I never allowed my illness to affect my work or those around me. I also acknowledge my own shortcomings. I've always... pic.twitter.com/cvg8lwE5eh jov (@wonwoncity) January 1, 2025 Zhao, who had a similar experience in the past, opened up about suffering abuse at the hands of a teacher in her childhood. This made her really think about how it affected her confidence and how much she would speak out about it. She wrote: "When I was a child, I was often labeled as "useless" and a "pretty face." During after-school tutoring, a teacher once hit me in their dorm. I believed it was justified because I wasn't performing well academically and didn't dare to speak up, thinking, "I must be the problem." The scars of being bullied after failing a contractual audition took time to heal, Zhao continued, feeling like she was to blame for her situation and not speaking out about how she felt. Even worse, she said, the individual who abused her wanted a large sum to end the contract she had with him. "Even then, she spread endless slander and rumors about me, both inside and outside the industry. Countless people reached out to gossip after hearing these stories. Every incident deepened my pain, and the harm hasn't stopped." Zhao, in an impactful mental health assertion, noted that depression is an actual illness and that it cannot simply be resolved with positive thoughts. She said, "Feeling depressed can be an emotion, but depression as an illness is a medical condition. It cannot be resolved by simply 'thinking positively' or 'talking it out.': In the end, she thanked her supporters and wished them good cheer for the new year. Zhao said, "It's because of love that I've found the strength to live again." The man responsible for the Cybertruck explosion outside Trump International Hotel served at the same military base as the New Orleans terrorist, according to a new report. Law enforcement officers raided a home belonging to a 37-year-old man from Colorado Springs on Wednesday night. The suspect has a military background and served at the same base as Shamsud Din Jabbar, who fatally ran down 15 people in a rented car in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day, Denver7 reported. The shock revelation comes hours after police in Las Vegas confirmed they were exploring any potential links between the two men. The Cybertruck suspect had several addresses in Colorado Springs linked to his name, and late on Wednesday night the FBI arrived at a townhouse complex associated with him. The publication reported neighbors were 'escorted away' from the complex. Police have assured the public they do not suspect there is any ongoing threat to the community. The Colorado man is suspected of hiring the Elon-Musk owned Cybertruck in Colorado and driving it across the border on Wednesday morning. The 37-year-old man reportedly has a military background and served at the same base as Shamsud Din Jabbar (pictured), who fatally ran down 15 people in a rented car in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day In a press conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the car arrived in Las Vegas at 7.30am. The explosion took place at 8.40am in the valet area outside the hotel. The Tesla Cybertruck driver was the sole fatality, and authorities largely credit Musk's hulking truck with preventing further damage because it was able to contain much of the explosion. According to the publication, officers wearing tactical gear arrived in armored vehicles to assess his Colorado Springs property. At the scene of the explosion, charred fireworks, gas cannisters and camping fuel were found in the bed of the truck when authorities were finally able to put out the fire. Hours earlier in New Orleans, Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove an electric vehicle into crowds, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of explosives Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. Police revealed on Wednesday afternoon that they are currently investigating potential links and have not ruled anything out yet. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. 'We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Officers shared a series of photographs taken from inside the car, revealing fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the truck. They are still exploring how the explosives were detonated, but sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed that it was likely controlled by the driver. Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday Officers have also considered the driver may have purposefully chosen to use a car owned by Musk to send a message, given Musk's newfound friendship with President-elect Donald Trump. 'It's a Tesla truck, we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and it's the Trump hotel, so there's obviously something to look at,' he said. The $80,000 car was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the hotel, killing one and injuring seven at around 8.40am. By Wednesday afternoon, Musk revealed the explosion was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks.' He said the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself, and it's understood the unnamed driver had rented the truck using Turo. 'Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional,' he added. 'Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.' Musk said 'Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously,' meaning his team were able to check whether anything was wrong with the car's mechanics prior to the explosion. Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance, appearing to have nothing wrong with it. Seconds later, the entire car explodes, its roof blowing up first before the truck goes flying Sheriff McMahill thanked Musk for his efforts in assisting the investigation, turning over data to authorities along with access to CCTV from Tesla charging stations across the nation. The incident immediately sparked fears of a coordinated terror attack as the United States was still reeling from the violence on the streets of New Orleans hours earlier. Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove a rented electric vehicle into crowds, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more as they celebrated the New Year. The Texan-born terrorist had an ISIS flag draped on the back of the vehicle when he drove into the crowds, killing at least 15. Jabbar, a deranged US veteran, got out of his car and started firing a weapon. Investigators later added that they found what appeared to be improvised explosives at the crash site that did not detonate. McMahill said: 'With the event that occurred [in New Orleans], and the victims there, and the additional IEDs, so as you can imagine, with an explosion here on our iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep the community safe.' Investigators are probing a theory Jabbar rented a nearby property on Airbnb in St. Roch for his base before carrying out the attack. Exclusive DailyMail.com photographs show the moment the FBI removed bomb making materials from the two-bedroom and two-bathroom property close to the French Quarter. The driver who plowed into pedestrians celebrating the New Year in New Orleans killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens is dead following a shootout with police Suspect Jabbar is said to have made a series of videos that is being reviewed by law enforcement. Jabbar was killed by police after he slammed a truck into pedestrians celebrating the New Year, exited the vehicle, and started firing. He is said to have made a series of videos that is being reviewed by law enforcement. Multiple officials told CNN that the recordings appear to have been made while driving at night and the suspect is not visible in them. Authorities believe that the videos were made as he drove from Texas to Louisiana, although the timing is unclear. CNN report that the recordings make reference to his divorce and that he planned on gathering his family together for a fake celebration so he could kill them. The suspect is also said to have talked about how he joined ISIS, and spoke of dreams that he had about joining the terrorist group. There were no overt links to ISIS in the Las Vegas attack as there were in New Orleans, but detectives have not ruled out any motive. There is no ongoing threat to the community, McMahill said, adding that additional officers have been deployed and will remain hyper vigilant for copycat attacks. A total containment vessel was seen being taken away from the property at around 8pm on New Years Day, hours after authorities had evacuated residents from the area The hotel, owned by the Trump family, was seen with a large cloud of smoke near it. The cause of the explosion is currently unknown The explosion left a large cloud of smoke billowing from the Trump Hotel on Fashion Show Drive around 9am Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance. Seconds later, the entire car blew up, with its roof going up in flames first. Debris smoked as it pinged off the pavement and sparks which looked like fireworks could be seen lighting up the black cloud of smoke emitting from the vehicle. After the explosion, flames were seen billowing out the windows of the Cybertruck before several more explosive sounds rung out. Fire alarms were heard going off in the ritzy building, where penthouse suites can cost up to $2,600 a night. An allegedly armed man pulled a gun on police before he was shot dead outside a regional hospital. The confrontation unfolded in the carpark of Manning Base Hospital in Taree on the NSW mid-north coast at about 12.55pm on Thursday. 'The man allegedly pointed a firearm at the attending officers, and he was shot by police,' a police statement read. Police provided first aid until paramedics arrived. The man aged in his 30s was taken then rushed into the hospital where he died a short time later. No police officers or other members of the public were physically injured. 'There were a lot of people around,' a witness told Nine News. Shortly before the incident, police were called to Rouse St in nearby Wingham, following reports a man had fired shots into the air. A man has been shot dead in the carpark of the Manning Base Hospital (pictured) in Taree No officers or other members of the public were physically injured. Pictured are police at the scene Those calls came five minutes after the police had been called to nearby Summerville St to conduct a concern for welfare check. Wingham is located 8.5km west of Taree. Manning-Great Lakes officers attended the Rouse St scene and conducted a search of the area before they located the man 13km away in the hospital carpark half an hour later. A critical incident team from the State Crime Command's Homicide Squad will now investigate what happened. The investigation will also be subject to an independent review. Woman was seen hanging from the balcony Police are probing a missing window of time between a mysterious triple-zero phone call and the death of a woman who plunged from a seven storey balcony. Emergency services were called to a unit block on River Road in Parramatta about 1.40am on Thursday. Officers arrived at the scene and discovered the woman, believed to be aged 39, on the street with critical injuries. Moments before, horrified onlookers had seen her hanging from the balcony. Despite efforts to revive the woman, she was pronounced dead at the scene. She is yet to be formally identified. A 40-year-old man was arrested at the scene and questioned by police. He has since been released without charge as investigations continue. It emerged on Thursday afternoon that a triple-zero call had been made from the apartment at 11.45pm - almost two hours before the woman fell to her death. Nothing was said on the call but the operator could hear 'raised voices' in the background. Forensics are seen at the balcony crime scene in Parramatta, western Sydney, where a woman is believed to have fallen to her death during the early hours of Thursday What appeared to be a blood stain could be seen in the cordoned off crime scene Police eventually rang the number back and spoke to the man at the property, who revealed his name and address. Officers confirmed that they would visit the property but did not arrive until after the woman fell from the balcony. 'Part of the investigation will be a review of a triple-zero call made to police radio about 11.45pm last night,' Detective Superintendent Barry Vincent said. 'There was no conversation during that call and despite a further two calls from triple-zero back to the caller contact could not be established. 'Officers from Parramatta Police Area command were able to make contact with that number at 11.47pm, whereupon they spoke with a man and he was able to provide an address and his name and where the call had originated from. He added: 'Police advised the man that they would be in attendance at his apartment. 'Following that phone call police attended other calls for assistance and shortly before 1.40am police received calls from a neighbour at unit block River Road following reports of a female person hanging from a balcony.' 'That call was received at 1.40am and at 1.41am our officers responded to that scene whereupon they found a woman in the driveway of a unit block and they immediately commenced CPR. Despite their best efforts, the woman died at the scene.' The woman died at the scene after police were called to the complex at 1.40am Detectives were seen arriving at the unit block on River Road on Thursday morning Superintendent Vincent revealed that there had been 'previous interactions' with the police and the pair in question and that the man had an AVO taken out against the woman. He said police 'receive calls similar to this quite often and it is our usual practice to attend and confirm that everything is okay'. 'Following attendance at a number of other addresses in response to other jobs they were en route to that address when that (second) call for assistance came.' He added: 'These are assessments our officers make routinely, the decision-making around that is obviously something that we will be looking at.' Sai Pamula, who lives in the building, said he heard a 'loud smashing noise' and rushed down to the street where he saw two men and the woman. 'Her partner was not panicked, he was calm and just kept saying 'she is not breathing, she is not breathing',' he told Daily Mail Australia. He asked the other man to call the police. They came and did CPR.' Mr Pamula said he'd been told that the couple were allegedly arguing in the street earlier that evening. Police were seen stopping and interviewing residents as they left the underground parking The apartment tower on River Road, Parramatta, is just metres from a light rail station A resident is seen peering out the window of his unit as police continued their investigations Residents woke on Thursday to find their apartment tower surrounded by police 'People tried to intervene but he was just not listening to them,' he added. Uniformed officers were also seen canvassing residents at the apartment tower. A female neighbour on the top floor said her child was awoken by the couple's 'screaming and shouting'. 'They were swearing at each other on and off throughout the night. I heard the word 'ungrateful' at one point,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'It sounded like something was thrown in the flat. And then I heard a big thump and saw all the sirens.' Another neighbour who lives six floors above the balcony said he heard a 'piercing' scream at 12.47am. 'I was half asleep watching TV in our sitting room and I heard a distinctive female scream. I rang my partner, who was in the other room, to ask if it was her,' he said. The man went to bed but understood the gravity of the situation the next morning when officers were cordoning off the street. 'I think she (the victim) landed in the flower bed,' he said. 'It's so awful. The innocence of the building is totally gone.' Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers. Jane Austen fans are set to descend on Britain to celebrate the birth of the Pride and Prejudice writer 250 years on. Austen's literary works have attracted tourists by the tens of thousands to the towns and villages she once spend her life annually. But this year droves of fans are set to flock to the British Isles as they celebrate the authors life by attending, festivals, talks and exhibitions. Among the most popular events is entry to the home where the author spent her final weeks - No 8 College Street, Winchester. This will be the first time the historic residence has welcomed the public behind its doors. The Hampshire home saw the the Sense and Sensibility author pen her final poem before taking her last breath on July 18, 1817, with the rooms where she spent her final hours remaining private for years - until now. Fans fortunate enough to bag a ticket will be able to book slots for Wednesdays and Saturdays during June, July and August. According to the head of events at Winchester College - a school which was attended by eight of Austen's nephews - the building wasn't a tourist hotspot for literary fanatics but has become increasingly popular with the anniversary of her birth. Droves of tourists are set to descend on Britain to celebrate the famous author's birth 250 years on (pictured: Participants in the annual Jane Austen Regency Parade last year) Jane Austen was famed for her novels including Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and more Her home No 8 College Street, Winchester (pictured) will open its doors to the public for the first time Phillip Holroyd-Smith revealed thanks to the soaring interested in Austen's last nearby residence, visitors 'from all over the world' are arriving to visit the historic educational facility. 'The US is particularly strong, as well as Canada, Australia and lots of Europeans,' he told The Times. 'The Dutch and the Germans are very interested. They are coming for a broader Jane Austen experience, which is running throughout the country, with all sorts of attractions.' The nearby cathedral where she is buried is also said to be unveiling a 100,000 life-sized statue of the author, while special services, tours, and theatre performances are held in memory of Austen's life and legacy. Elsewhere in the village of her birth - Steventon, Hampshire - there will be a fair in July, with tickets up for grabs over the coming months. The Reading Ladies' Boarding School, where Austen was educated for a year-and-a-half of her life as a nine-year-old girl alongside her cousin Jane and sister Cassandra will also be welcoming the public for events and tours. The writer's former school is said to have served as inspiration for Mr Goddard's School in one of her most famed novels - Emma. At one point in her younger years, Austen and her family moved to Bath - a location that features in some of her work including Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Droves of Jane Austen fans walking through the city centre of Bath as the costumed parade last year There will also be events in Steventon - where Austen spent the first 25 years of her life (pictured: A woman dressed in regal costume last year) The Reading Ladies' Boarding School, where Austen spent a year-and-a-half of her life as a nine-year-old with her cousin Jane and sister Cassandra will also be holding tours Bath - who has boasted its Austen connections - will hold its annual celebrations as well as three balls to celebrate the author The city located in West England has long-celebrated their connection to the writer, annually holding a festival in her honour. But on this particularly special year, not only will there be a festival but three balls including a seaside themed Sanditon dance, a Persuasion nautical-themed and finally a birthday celebration for Austen on December 13 Several events including a talk with TV history presenter Lucy Worsley about Austen and her homes will take place on May 27 at the Bath Forum. The managing director of the tourism body Visit West, Kathryn Davis has said Austen alongside the inspired Neftlix series Bridgerton draw in a 'younger and more diverse audience' to bath, particularly appealing to Nordic tourists. Austen later returned to her original county, living in Southampton for her final eight years no earth. Here she wrote several famed novels including Emma, Mansfield Park, Abbey, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility and Price and Prejudice. An exhibition of her writing desk will take place until February, as well as tours of her Chawton home - which was made a permanent exhibition in October - delving into her passion for books. Meanwhile across the pond the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) will be honouring the author's birth in Baltimore, Maryland this coming October. The celebration among the 'Janeites' will include three days of talks at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel. Several events including an talk with TV history presenter Lucy Worsley about Austen and her homes on May 27 at the Bath Forum An exhibition of her writing desk will also be available to attend in her Chawton home until September Meanwhile across the pond the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) will be honouring the author's birth in Baltimore, Maryland this coming October A heartbroken mother has detailed how her 12-year-old daughter's life tragically unravelled when she was kicked out of her friendship circle within months of starting high school. Adiel Boyd, 12, was found dead in her bedroom by family members at their Townsville home in North Queensland early on Sunday morning after taking her own life. Just 12 months ago, she was excited to graduate from primary school with her best friends and was looking forward to attending the same high school with them, according to her mum Victoria. But, over the course of 2024, Ms Boyd claimed Adiel's friends relentlessly bullied and socially excluded her in the playground. She alleges the bullying followed Adiel home during the school holidays via social media. Ms Boyd told Daily Mail Australia that her youngest child tried to shield the family from the full extent of her suffering. 'Adiel was very private. She shared a little bit of things,' Ms Boyd said. She learned a little of what was going on, and supported Adiel through the ordeal with the help along with her eldest daughter Tameka. The tragic death of 12-year-old Adiel Boyd has spurned an urgent warning for Australian parents The Townsville schoolgirl took her own life four days after Christmas 'They were calling her things like 'annoying,' saying that 'she's no longer accepted,' but it's not only that. It's what goes to other friend groups and what they relay back to Adiel,' Ms Boyd said. She admitted she doesn't know the full scale of what her daughter endured. 'When it comes down to social media, there's a closed space,' Ms Boyd said. She believes social media has become nearly impossible for parents to monitor effectively, with much of the harmful content remaining unseen. Although she doesn't yet know exactly what was said to her daughter, Ms Boyd is desperately seeking answers. Police are currently investigating the contents of Adiel's phone and social media accounts. 'Whatever was mentioned and whatever was said that pushed her to that moment for her to do that, we're waiting for that too because that is inside her phone,' Ms Boyd said. Alleged bullying at school moved to social media before Adiel took her own life on Sunday Victoria Boyd (pictured with daughter Adiel) urged parents to pay attention to their teens' social media use Adiel (pictured) was a gifted student who could speak four languages 'We all need to be more observant with our children. We need to pay more attention, have a closer look,' Ms Boyd urged. '[We need to be able] to see these signs, recognise these dangers that our children are dealing with.' She encouraged victims of bullying to speak openly with their loved ones. 'Stay strong, there is help out there. Speak out and talk about it,' she urged. 'Don't feel like you are by yourself. Don't feel like you're on your own because someone is always there ready and waiting to hear whatever you have to say.' 'No matter is too small for anyone. Open up, don't rely on social media, don't rely on the posting of statuses. We need to have physical interactions.' Adiel was a gifted student from the start, according to her proud mum. She spoke her family's Indigenous language as well as Japanese and Filipino and played three musical instruments. Ms Boyd said police are currently investigating the contents of Adiel's phone to determine the circumstances leading up to her passing Ms Boyd said her daughter spoke four languages, played three instruments and was a star student at school 'She was a very impressive girl, a top student,' Ms Boyd said. '[She was] very, very humble, very loving. Never hated anybody. Never knew hate. Whoever she knew and interacted with, it wasn't like, 'I like you' she interacted with genuine love. 'She was like an angel, literally, like an angel.' Adiel's sister Tameka has launched a GoFundMe, which has raised more than $7,000 to help the family say their goodbyes to Adiel. 'Adiel left a birthmark on everybody she knew in her short 12 years of life,' she wrote. 'Adiel will be sadly missed and forever in our hearts. We, her family, would like to thank you all in advance for your support during this very sad and unfortunate time.' 'In retrospect of how we lost our Adi, we would also like to raise awareness on suicide prevention, especially in our children.' Lifeline: 13 11 14 Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 Thieves have reportedly managed to get their hands on 35,000 pints of Guinness after a lorry packed full of the Irish stout vanished in the midst of a nationwide shortage. It is understood criminals seized the truck in mid-December which had been carrying 400 50litre kegs of the black stuff through the Midlands. The news comes at a time where supermarkets and off-licences have been feeling the effects of the Great Guinness Shortage following a 22 per cent increase in sales. Contents of the truck had reportedly been destined for pubs desperate for kegs during the festive peak and the lorry was stolen from a logistics hub near Daventry, in Northamptonshire. According to the Guardian, sources familiar with the incident have confirmed a subcontractor working for a company in the Diageo supply chain reported the theft to the police. Diageo, which owns Guinness, has been contacted for comment on the alleged theft. A source said a police investigation into a 'potential theft' was ongoing, and claimed the amount taken would amount to a 'tiny proportion' of the weekly Guinness production equivalent to less than 0.5 per cent. Around the time the lorry went missing, some pubs like the Old Ivy House in Clerkenwell, central London, had resorted to issuing customers with ration cards. The news comes at a time where supermarkets and off-licences have been feeling the effects of the Great Guinness Shortage following a 22 per cent increase in sales It is understood criminals seized the truck in mid-December which had been carrying 400 50litre kegs of the black stuff through the Midlands (file image) The special cards were signed and stamped by staff to prove punters were entitled to purchase 'one ration of Guinness'. And the shortage has continued into the new year as shoppers have shared pictures of sold-out Guinness sections in a string of Tesco supermarkets across the country amid a bout of panic buying. Brewer Diageo said supermarkets and off-licences had seen a 22 per cent increase in Guinness can and bottle sales, the most recent available data showed. The boom was partially driven by a viral game where a drinker tries to 'split the G' by supping down to name on the pint glass in the first gulp and the stout's ensuing increased popularity with younger drinkers. Stephen Clews, who found the Guinness section bare at Tesco in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, said: 'Every can and bottle of Guinness were gone.' Film producer Ray Verma added: 'I just got the last pack of Guinness in my local Asda.' Shoppers took pictures of sold-out Guinness sections in a string of Tesco supermarkets across the country in recent days Shoppers have stripped Tesco and other supermarkets bare after some pubs ran dry amid a buying boom Tesco said photos taken of empty Guinness shelves in its supermarkets did not represent its overall stocks of Guinness at other stores. But Craig Panks, who found Guinness sold out at a Tesco in Scotland, said: 'It can only be described as a disaster. And my local off-licence is out as well.' Northamptonshire Police have been contacted for comment on the alleged heist. The British teenager who is serving a one year jail sentence in Dubai for having sex with a 17-year-old girl spent the start of the year in solitary confinement in the notorious Al Aweer prison. Marcus Fakana, 18, a construction apprentice, was arrested in August after the mother of the girl he had a secret romance with filed a complaint about Marcus to the Dubai authorities on her return to the UK. Marcus, of Tottenham, North London, will spend a week in isolation, according to Radha Stirling of Detained in Dubai, an organisation assisting Marcus' case. The human rights expert shared the update on the teen in a post on X yesterday, saying: 'Marcus Fakana spent New Year in isolation where he will be held for a week while undergoing health testing. He cannot call his family. What outrageous treatment of a British teen. The girls mother should not have been able to file a criminal complaint from abroad.' Marcus was sentenced to one year inside the maximum-security jail earlier this month. Rather than appealing and dragging the ordeal out for potentially no gain or even a longer sentence, Marcus this week made the difficult decision to turn himself in to begin his sentence. Marcus has been prevented from leaving Dubai since his arrest in August. Marcus Fakana had a weeklong holiday romance with the girl, also British, but was arrested and detained after her mother complained to the Dubai police. He has now been jailed Pictured is the high-security al-Aweer prison where Fakana will serve his sentence. The jail houses some of Dubai's worst offenders, including murderer, terrorists and rapists While the relationship would have been legal in the UK, under Dubai law a 17-year-old is defined as a child. The girl, from London, has since turned 18 He will serve his year-long sentence at the Al Aweer jail, which is also known as the Dubai Central Prison for Men. The prison houses death row inmates and some of Dubai's worst criminals - including terrorists, murderers and rapists. In a message posted before entering the prison, the student wrote: 'Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my fight. 'It's been a long fight but nothing is hard with my Lord and saviour Jesus Christ guiding me. I'm grateful for all the people who helped by donating to me and my family of faith for supporting me.' The 18-year-old was with his family in the UAE when he met and had sex with the teenage girl, also from London. Detained In Dubai said the teen 'feels abandoned by the British government' following the judgement, which it branded 'an utter disgrace' and 'an embarrassment to Britain'. Radha Stirling, founder of the pressure group, said: 'The police had discretion to charge him with a misdemeanour like 'offensive behaviour' or similar, but chose to charge him with the felony of sex with an underage girl, the same law a 40 year old engaging in sex with a 14 year old would have been charged with. 'Although Marcus received the lowest statutory sentence, it is clear that this could have been handled more reasonably and the prosecutors could have exercised more discretion.' 'He never imagined that he would be going to jail for a holiday romance with a girl who was a few months younger, but is now the same age. 'It is just shocking. His life is being ruined. Here we have two British tourists who were on holiday in a consensual relationship and now one is going to jail. 'Dubai likes to market itself as a glamorous party destination, one for influencers, yet they are jailing a British tourist for a something that would not be a crime in his own country and ruining his life.' Ms Sterling added: 'I did expect the British Government, as other governments have done, to step up and save one of their citizens from unjust sentencing. 'Marcus did plead guilty, but police and prosecutors had a disturbing litany of details in his file which ended up making it more than a misdemeanour and heard in a higher court. 'They said he was older than 19 and he was from Pakistan. He was a British citizen. There were a lot errors deliberately to torment him.' Ms Sterling said Fakana now hoped the ruler of Dubai could get involved as he has done in the past involving visitors who have fallen foul of their laws. The family of Marcus Fakana, from Tottenham, London, have been left devastated by his prison sentence, sources claimed A doctor shows a hallway at the medical centre of Al-Aweer prison during the Covid pandemic Karl Williams claims he saw men torn apart by knife-wielding inmates, while others were forcibly infected with HIV during his time in the hellish Dubai prison. Here he is pictured in his cell during the horror ordeal Former inmate Karl Williams has written about his experience inside the prison in a new autobiography called Killing Time. Here is a picture of one of the meals he was served The prison is located in the Dubai desert miles away from the UAE's famed beaches Under strict UAE law only tourists aged over 18 are legally allowed to sleep together. In the UK he would not have been considered to have committed any crime. Ms Stirling blasted the 'unreasonable' sentence and slammed Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy for not doing enough to help the teen. 'Marcus feels abandoned by the British government and Keir Starmer who just spent the weekend in the UAE,' she wrote in a blistering tweet on X. 'While people like JD Vance and the Irish government have been able to resolve cases of injustice and bring their citizens home, the UK has prioritised trade deals over people's lives. This is truly abhorrent. 'David Lammy and Keir Starmer have failed Marcus. This is an embarrassment to Britain... the Labour government should be ashamed they have not secured the freedom of a teenage tourist. It wasn't a difficult job.' Ms Stirling said Fakana's parents 'don't know what to do' and had to return to London without their son to resume work as a cleaner and in a warehouse. 'He was desperately hoping to come home this week but prosecutorial mishandling in the first stages of the case meant it wasn't heard as a misdemeanour when it should have been,' she added. According to his own account, apprentice builder Marcus had arrived in Dubai on August 26 with his family on holiday. Marcus is pictured with his family who have been battling to get the teenager released According to his own account, apprentice builder Marcus had arrived in Dubai on August 26 with his family on holiday (Pictured: Hilton Dubai Palm Jumeirah) Marcus told police after his arrest that the girl approached him and asked him to have sex with her. The prosecution document stated: 'We received a complaint via the Dubai Police application about the rape of a 17-year-old British woman by an unknown person at the Hilton Palm Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai. 'When the complainant was asked over the phone about the details, she stated that an unknown person had recognised her daughter (the victim) at the hotel and raped her by force on August 27 while she was in the country.' Since the court sentence earlier this month, Marcus has been allowed out on bail while he decided whether to lodge an appeal, but he had been barred from leaving the country. A Foreign Office spokesman previously said: 'We are supporting a British man in the UAE and are in contact with his family. 'The British Embassy Dubai was not involved in reporting any offence to the UAE authorities. 'They have informed the UAE authorities of the error in their records and all other interested parties are also aware.' The bomber who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas has been identified as Army service member Matthew Livelsberger. Livelsberger, 37, was identified by law enforcement sources as the bomber in the Wednesday attack that left seven wounded. He served over 19 years in the Army - 18 of which were spent with the Special Forces, according to his LinkedIn profile. His current role was listed as a Remote and Autonomous Systems Manager, which he had been in for just three months. A Colorado townhouse associated with Livelsberger was raided by the FBI late on Wednesday night. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were brought in to assist. The suspected bomber was raised in Ohio, moved to Colorado Springs as an adult and has reportedly been linked to several addresses in the city, included the one searched by investigators. He is suspected of renting the Cybertruck in Colorado Springs, via the Turo app, and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning, stopping at various charging stations along the route. Law enforcement sources revealed that Livelsberger, who died Wednesday in the explosion outside the hotel, had previously served at the same military base as New Orleans terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42. Police have not confirmed if the pair were known to each other. Jabbar, who had allegedly pledged himself to Islamic State, rammed a pickup truck - which bore the ISIS flag - into a crowd of New Year revelers, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The FBI says 'no definitive link' has been discovered between the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks at this time. The bomber who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas has been identified as Army service member Matthew Livelsberger Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado Springs, via the Turo app, and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning - where he allegedly carried out the attack (pictured) The 37-year-old man had a military background and served at the same base as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, (pictured) who fatally ran down 15 people in a rented car in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day In a press conference, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the cybertruck arrived in Las Vegas at 7.30am. The explosion took place at 8.40am in the hotel's valet area. Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance. Seconds later, the $80,000 car blew up in a fiery blaze. Debris smoked as the roof pinged off the pavement and sparks which looked like fireworks could be seen lighting up the black cloud of smoke coming from the vehicle. A tumble of charred fireworks mortars, cannisters and other explosive devices were found in the back of the pickup. Officials are still exploring how the explosives were detonated, but sources have said that they were likely controlled by the driver. Livelsberger was the sole fatality in the attack, and authorities largely credit Musk's hulking truck with preventing further damage because it was able to contain much of the explosion. According to the KOAA, law enforcement officers wearing tactical gear and travelling in armored vehicles arrived at one of Livelsberger's Colorado Springs properties on Wednesday night. Neighbors were 'escorted away' from the complex in the Stetson Hills neighborhood as investigators carried out their search. Police have assured the public they do not suspect there is any ongoing threat to the community. Hours before the attack in Las Vegas, Jabbar drove an electric vehicle into crowds in New Orleans, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger is allegedly the man who filled the truck with explosives and fuel before driving it to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and setting them off on Wednesday morning Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of explosives Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver Your browser does not support iframes. Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. Police revealed on Wednesday afternoon that they are currently investigating potential links and have not ruled anything out yet. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. 'We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Turo added: 'We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals.' Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday Officers have also considered that Livelsberger may have purposefully chosen to use a car owned by Elon Musk to send a message - given the Tesla billionaire's newfound friendship with President-elect Donald Trump. 'It's a Tesla truck, we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and it's the Trump hotel, so there's obviously something to look at,' McMahill said. By Wednesday afternoon, Musk revealed the explosion was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks'. He said the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself, and it's understood the unnamed driver had rented the truck using Turo. 'Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional,' he added. 'Both this Cybertruck and the Ford F-150 in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.' Musk said 'Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously,' meaning his team were able to check whether anything was wrong with the car's mechanics prior to the explosion. McMahill thanked Musk for his efforts in assisting the investigation, turning over data to authorities along with access to CCTV from Tesla charging stations across the nation. Trump has also broken his silence on the explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel, vowing to rid America of 'violent scum.' The president-elect took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to excoriate the security and justice establishment. He wrote in a post: 'Our country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the world! This is what happens when you have open borders, with weak, ineffective and virtually nonexistent leadership. 'The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job. They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, me, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent scum that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our nation itself. 'Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our country. The CIA must get involved, now, before it is too late. The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of safety, national security, and democracy is taking place all across our nation. 'Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20. Make America Great Again!' Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance, appearing to have nothing wrong with it. Seconds later, the entire car explodes, its roof blowing up first before the truck goes flying President-elect Donald Trump has also broken his silence on the explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel, vowing to rid America of 'violent scum' Jabbar drove the rented electric vehicle into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more as they celebrated the new year. The Texan-born terrorist had an ISIS flag draped on the back of the vehicle when he drove into the crowds. Jabbar, a deranged US veteran, got out of his car and started firing a weapon. Investigators later added that they found what appeared to be improvised explosives at the crash site that did not detonate. McMahill said: 'With the event that occurred [in New Orleans], and the victims there, and the additional IEDs, so as you can imagine, with an explosion here on our iconic Las Vegas boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep the community safe.' Guns and pipe bombs were also located inside the truck, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. The devices were contained in coolers and wire for remote detonation. A remoted control was also discovered inside the vehicle, the bulletin detailed. Further potential explosive devices were also found in the French Quarter. 'We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,' Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent with the FBI's New Orleans field office, said in at a news conference Wednesday. 'We're aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates.' Law enforcement officials began searching a residence in Houston, Texas on Wednesday that they believe could be connected to Jabbar. 'FBI Houston and the Harris County Sheriffs Office are continuing a court-authorized search of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive,' the agency said in a statement. As of Wednesday night, no arrests had been made at the residence. Authorities previously revealed that the rented truck was listed on Turo by a 42-year-old man who lives in Houston, who has been contacted by investigators. It is unclear if the Houston property that was searched Wednesday night was linked to this man. The FBI's New Orleans field office is also 'conducting a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states'. The driver who plowed into pedestrians celebrating the New Year in New Orleans killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens is dead following a shootout with police Suspect Jabbar is said to have made a series of videos that are being reviewed by law enforcement Jabbar was killed by police after he slammed a truck into pedestrians celebrating the new year, exited the vehicle, and started firing. Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, law enforcement officials said. Investigators are probing a theory Jabbar rented a nearby property on Airbnb in St Roch as a base before carrying out the attack. Exclusive DailyMail.com photographs show the moment the FBI removed bomb making materials from the two-bedroom, two-bathroom property close to the French Quarter. Jabbar is also said to have made a series of videos that are being reviewed by law enforcement. Authorities believe that the videos were made as he drove from Texas to Louisiana, although the timing is unclear. Multiple officials told CNN that the recordings appear to have been made while driving at night and the suspect is not visible in them. CNN reported that the recordings make reference to his divorce and that he planned on gathering his family together for a fake celebration so he could kill them. The suspect is also said to have talked about how he joined ISIS, and spoke of dreams that he had about joining the terrorist group. There were no overt links to ISIS in the Las Vegas attack as there were in New Orleans, but detectives have not ruled out any motive. A total containment vessel was seen being taken away from the property at around 8pm on New Year's Day, hours after authorities had evacuated residents from the area The hotel, owned by the Trump family, was seen with a large cloud of smoke near it. The cause of the explosion is currently unknown The explosion left a large cloud of smoke billowing from the Trump Hotel on Fashion Show Drive around 9am Jabbar worked for Deloitte as a Business Developer and Data Engineer, after working in real estate at Blue Meadow Properties. He had a Bachelor's degree from Georgia State University - and had served in the US Army. Jabbar worked as a human resources specialist and an information technology specialist during his decade-long tenure in the armed forces. He joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology. He was deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010 and transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015. Jabbar left the Army in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. 'We believe he was honorably discharged, but we are working through this process, figuring out all this information,' said FBI assistant special agent in charge, Alethea Duncan. The suspect's love life was scattered - having been married twice. His first marriage ended in 2012, and his second in 2022. Shamsud Din Jabbar (pictured) has been identified as the driver who massacred pedestrians His second wife's new husband, Dwayne Marsh, said Jabbar had begun to convert to Islam within the last year and was 'being all crazy,' reported The New York Times. Marsh said Jabbar had two daughters, one a teenager and one a young adult, and that they were 'a mess' after the attack. The terrorist, who was shot dead in the bloody scene on New Year's Day, also had a criminal history - including being charged with misdemeanor theft in 2002 and for driving without a valid license in 2005. A motive for the heinous crime has not been revealed. For a century, the utterings of 'Dogger', 'German Bight' and 'Cromarty' have made sense to a select few - and confused the rest of us. This year, the Shipping Forecast celebrates its 100th year of broadcast on the BBC. But only now has the broadcaster produced a beginner's guide, prompting presenter Jonny Dymond to joke on the Today Programme on Radio 4 that it is 'perhaps 100 years too late'. The forecast divides waters around the British Isles into 31 areas. They start at Viking - between Scotland and Norway - and end at South-East Iceland. In a strict 350 words, the announcer reveals wind speed and direction, precipitation and visibility. Each broadcast begins with the time and the familiar words, 'issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency'. The bulletin consists of a gale warning summary, a synopsis of the general conditions and then forecasts for each of the areas. Each term has a strict definition. For example, to be defined as a gale, wind speeds have to be at least 34 knots. Your browser does not support iframes. Radio 4 has celebrated 100 years of the Shipping Forecast with a special schedule of programming, including tributes from Stephen Fry , Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Ruth Jones - pictured is a ship getting into trouble in the North Sea In a storm, wind speeds are at least 48 knots. When an announcer says a storm is 'imminent', they mean it is expected in the next six hours. 'Soon' refers to the within six and 12 hours of issue. 'Very poor' visibility' refers to less than 1,000 metres, whilst 'good' extends to more than five nautical miles. Paddy O'Connell, presenter of The Shipping Forecast: A Beginner's Guide, says in the programme: 'If there's one thing we know about the Shipping Forecast, it's that it is a survivor. 'From Fitzroy's first gale warnings back in 1861, to the very latest bulletin, the Shipping Forecast has been saving lives at sea. 'Like a life buoy floating away on choppy waters, it remains a signal in the dark, guiding people to safety.' The Shipping Forecast was broadcast four times a day until last year, when the briefing was cut back to twice a day. The spur for the forecast came from The Royal Charter Storm of 1859, when an estimated 800 people were killed in appalling weather conditions. A total of 133 ships were sunk and a further 90 badly damaged. The Shipping Forecast's founding hero is Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (pictured) after whom a sea area north-west of Portugal was renamed in 2002 The radio broadcast marks its formal centenary this year, but the Shipping Forecast actually began long before then, in 1867 (stock photo) This led to pioneer weather forecaster Robert Fitzroy - the Captain of HMS Beagle and founder of the Met Office - developing a telegraphic messaging system to issue weather warnings to ships. In February 2002, the sea area previously known as 'Finisterre' was renamed 'FitzRoy' in honour of Fitzroy. The other areas are named after places or river estuaries. The forecast was first broadcast on the radio in 1924, and then made its debut on the fledgling BBC in October 1925. Some people who never go near water swear by its soothing reassurance and only listen to it so they can drop off to sleep. It took a break for the Second World War, as it was felt predictions of calm conditions in a certain area might help the enemy. Charlie Mullins has revealed he is living in Spain after leaving Britain straight after Labour came into power - as he branded the new government 'worse than I feared'. The Pimlico Plumbers founder announced his intention to flee the country of his birth last year, and has now announced his new home as the sun-drenched coastal city of Marbella. The 72-year-old, who sold the firm in 2021 for 172million, insisted he was delighted with his decision. He told MailOnline: 'I'm very pleased to have moved - I left as soon as the election result was announced. Labour are socialists so I was expecting bad things but it's actually a lot worse than I feared. 'I knew capital gains and inheritance tax could go up, but I wasn't expecting a national insurance increase too. It's probably the worst blow to entrepreneurs that I've seen over my whole life in business. 'I didn't want to be part of the tax system any more. A lot of people think I left for tax reasons but you wouldn't choose Spain if that was my intention, as some taxes are higher. 'The real reason is not what they are charging but what they are doing with the money. I'd be more than happy to help the NHS and pensioners but I'm not prepared to help people who don't contribute.' Mr Mullins, who previously revealed that he has paid more than 120million in tax to the Treasury, is currently in the process of moving his assets abroad, including a stunning penthouse apartment in the heart of Westminster. The Pimlico Plumbers founder is selling his assets in the UK, including the stunning riverside property He has now cut the 12million asking price to try and secure a quick sale due to his fears Labour could introduce an 'exit tax' on rich people leaving Britain. He is also worried that the property could incur a bumper inheritance tax bill. 'It was on for 12million but I'm prepared to sell it for 11million,' Mr Mullins explained. 'They've not introduced a leavers tax yet. And you never know what could happen when it comes to inheritance.' Mr Mullins has not yet cut ties with Britain entirely and is currently working with family members on a new handyman business called WeFix. But he insisted he would have never launched the venture if he knew of Labour's plans to hike national insurance and introduce a new Employment Rights Bill - which companies fear will lead to a fall in investment, job cuts and increased industrial action. The legislation is set to give all employees the right to request a four-day working week and protection from unfair dismissal 'from day one'. 'If we'd have been aware of what Labour would do - certainly in employment law - we would not have set up We Fix London - we would have gone to Dubai and set it up there,' Mr Mullins said. 'The employment rights stuff is just nonsense.' A view from the apartment looking over to the MI6 building across the river Mr Mullins has not yet cut ties with Britain entirely and is currently working with family members on a new handyman business called WeFix Mr Mullins said he had advised family members involved with the business to 'give it five years' and consider either selling up or moving it elsewhere if the economic backdrop did not improve. The entrepreneur is a vocal supporter of Reform UK and vowed to return to the UK if Nigel Farage's party entered government. 'The quality of life has gone down now Labour are in - I don't feel like I want to contribute any more into the system until Reform get in,' he said. 'Britain's Richest Plumber' is not the first to warn of the unintended impact of the Employment Rights Bill, which Labour has touted as the biggest reform of its kind in a generation. Among its 28 measures is a ban on 'exploitative' zero-hours contracts, the right to parental and bereavement leave from a worker's first day on the job and more access to sick pay. Industry groups including the Federation of Small Businesses have hit out at the reforms, warning they could 'inject fear' into firms already struggling and make owners reluctant to take on new staff. It comes amid concerns that more rich entrepreneurs like Mr Mullins will decide to leave the UK to avoid facing punitive tax rates and the abolition of non-dom status. Chad West, a 33-year-old tech executive who previously worked for Revolut and is now vice president at another fintech, previously told MailOnline that wealthy people were 'simply not willing to foot the bill for reckless spending'. Rachel Reeves' Budget pushed Britain's tax burden to historically high levels 'The sheer number of tech founders and employees packing their bags for more tax-friendly destinations (Dubai, Spain, Portugal, Singapore) is worrying to say the least,' he said. 'As for those who decide to stay, they are simply not going to sell any shares or other assets for the next few years. They'll hang on in hope that this will be a one-term Labour government.' Mr Mullins, who is currently on holiday in Dubai, said he had repeatedly been approached by fellow Brits in restaurants and bars who told him how they had also taken the decision to leave. Henley & Partners, which helps wealthy investors to move overseas, estimated that Britain was on track to lose a record 9,500 millionaires in 2024, more than any country except China. Its analysis found that the UK suffered a net loss of 4,200 millionaires in the first five months of this year, with a further 5,300 expected before the New Year. The most popular destinations are Dubai, Switzerland and Portugal. David Lesperance, the founder of tax and immigration advisory Lesperance and Partners, said enquiries about leaving the country doubled when it became clear that Labour would win the election in July. 'Ever since Rachel Reeves started talking about a 'fiscal black hole', my wealthy UK non-dom and domiciled clients have been looking anxiously at the exit door,' he told MailOnline. . 'The UK's richest families are getting out while the getting is good. You don't wait until the fireman confirms your house is on fire before fleeing.' Choi Daniel recently discussed his challenging upbringing during an episode of his YouTube show, ChoiDa Cheese. He talked about the areas where he faced difficulties and struggled personally throughout his life, highlighting that he did not grow up feeling entitled. In the latest episode of the show featuring Jeon So Min as a guest, Choi spoke about his family, revealing that he lost his mother at the age of four. "My mother passed away when I was four. That has left a big hole in my family," he said, "I am six years younger than my big brother." After the incident, Choi said, his father was busy trying to make a living for the family. "We needed the bare minimum, at the very least. He was very, very busy," he said. The actor also shared how he struggled as a young boy when he had to go to school without proper funds to purchase uniforms. "Ivy Club was a huge brand back in the day. I couldn't afford that brand but went to a nearby school shop to get one," Choi said. He mentioned being in the wearing of second-hand clothing from school, referring to his upbringing. Relating a story of a friend who once spilled something on his uniform, he spoke from a place of deep respect for the garments we display our identity in. "I took such pride in watching it," he said. When he turned 20 years old, he had to start working and self-supporting as a high schooler. Nearly 20 years in, it hasn't been without its struggles, though. He is now starring alongside Jeon So Min in the KBS K-Drama "Sorry Not Sorry." When read between the lines, Choi reveals his own faults and failures that many will recognize from their own lives the way you can bounce through life with your best foot forward but knowing that you can always do better, an incredible message of perseverance and grit. You can check out the entire episode on Youtube on his channel. The number of migrants dying while crossing the Channel has risen sixfold as callous smugglers adopt even riskier tactics in a bid to maximise profits. At least 77 people perished on the perilous sea route in 2024 compared to 12 in 2023, according to French officials - making it the worst year on record as overall crossings rose by a quarter. Campaigners have urged the UK Government to publish data on migrant deaths as it currently does not confirm any figures. Evidence points to migrants crossing on increasingly dangerous boats with little or no safety equipment. An average of 53 people arrived in each dinghy last year compared to 49 in 2023 and 41 in 2022. Sturdier, rigid-hulled vessels with proper engines have almost entirely been phased out by gangs in favour of bigger, flimsier craft described by one senior police official as 'little more than a paddling pool'. Migrants are often being handed poor quality lifejackets, including ones that do not work in deep water or are designed for children. One group was seen holding rubber rings. Another factor that is believed to be driving the rise in deaths is the use of riskier crossing routes, with smugglers leaving from a wider area of the French coast to try and avoid patrols. The Refugee Council said last night that ministers seem to have 'accepted that enforcement action against the smuggling gangs has made the journeys more dangerous'. Migrants on a packed boat leaving the French coast last year, with some seen holding rubber rings Last year, the National Crime Agency seized a haul of lifejackets which were not designed for use in deep water Your browser does not support iframes. The charity said the Government, jointly with the French, should publish quarterly data on the numbers who have died, including their age, sex and nationality. It also urged ministers to produce a plan for reducing lives lost, and to set out a plan for reviewing and expanding safe and legal routes to the UK. CEO Enver Solomon said: 'The record number of deaths in the Channel this year should serve as a stark reminder that the current approach is not working. 'Smuggling gangs are profiting from men, women and children forced into life-threatening conditions, and enforcement measures alone are not enough to address this. 'More safe and legal routes are needed to provide a lifeline for those fleeing war and persecution... 'The Government needs to take a different approach if it is to ensure everything possible is done so that 2025 does not see a repeat of last year's devastating loss.' However, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told the Mail safe and legal routes 'will not stop the crossings unless we let in every single person who wants to come to the UK - which is manifestly ridiculous'. 'It is therefore deeply disingenuous of the Refugee Council to suggest that safe and legal routes are a solution to Channel crossings.' A Home Office spokesman said: 'Every life lost at sea is a tragedy, which is why our efforts are focused on saving lives, as well as protecting our borders. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. 'The people smuggling gangs only care about profit and we are seeing their behaviour adapt, with more people crammed into flimsy and dangerous boats. 'Our joint work with France in preventing crossings is about stopping people putting themselves and others at risk.' Some 36,816 people crossed the Channel in small boats in 2024, a jump of 25 per cent from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the Home Office. The total is down 20 per cent on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022, however. Today, the Home Office unveiled new plans to hand travel and social media bans to suspected people smugglers in a bid to dismantle organised immigration crime networks. Ministers will accelerate the process for placing restrictions on those being investigated through the use of 'interim' Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPOs). Suspects could be banned from travelling, prevented from accessing their phone or money and barred from associating with certain individuals. The Home Office said the approach, which will form part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, will help to crack down on people smugglers at an early stage. Your browser does not support iframes. Ministers have announced new measures to target smugglers who advertise their services on social media platforms like TikTok Amanj Hasan Zada (right) 33, was jailed for 17 years after a YouTube video showed him firing a gun while celebrating bringing seven illegal immigrants to Britain Interim orders could also be used to tackle a range of other organised-crime offences, including drug trafficking, fraud and prostitution, which are already covered by SCPOs. SCPOs are court orders that can prevent, restrict or disrupt a person's involvement in serious crime. Securing a full SCPO can be a lengthy process, but the new interim version will enable action while the maximum order is considered. And the National Crime Agency police and other law-enforcement agencies will be able to apply to the High Court to impose immediate restrictions. Interim orders can be issued without a conviction and breaching one could lead to up to five years in prison. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'Dangerous criminal people-smugglers are profiting from undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. 'They can not be allowed to get away with it. Stronger international collaboration has already led to important arrests and action against dangerous gangs over the last few months. 'We will give law enforcement stronger powers they need to pursue and stop more of these vile gang networks. 'Border security is one of the foundations of this Government's Plan for Change, including making people better off, delivering safer streets and strengthening our NHS, and we will do everything in our power to deliver for working people.' In November, Amanj Hasan Zada, 33, was jailed for 17 years after a YouTube video showed him firing a gun while celebrating bringing seven illegal immigrants to Britain. A man has been left fighting for his life after an explosion at a home in Leeds on New Year's Day. Police, paramedics and fire crews rushed to the explosion at a house in Yeadon just after 10.30pm on Wednesday. The 57-year-old was found in the wake of the blast on Marshall Street by emergency crews who rushed to the scene. He was sent to hospital for treatment on injuries which are said to be serious. A large number of emergency services were still at the Yeadon cul-de-sac after midnight as debris could been seen scattered across the street. Local resident Kim Swales called emergency services after her nearby home was shaken by the blast, which she said was '1,000 times louder' than the fireworks launched earlier that day to celebrate the New Year. She said: 'It sounded like a sonic boom... my house shook, all the windows, doors, everything - it just shook. 'My (15-year-old) daughter, she's autistic and blind, she came running down crying: 'What was that noise?' The 57-year-old was found in the wake of the blast on Marshall Street by emergency crews who rushed to the scene A large number of emergency services were still at the Yeadon cul-de-sac after midnight as debris could been seen scattered across the street 'I got outside and straight away I could smell gas.' She walked towards the home where she could see smoke rising and said there was 'glass all over the street'. The 52-year-old Hayes Travel agent said the windows of the home and those adjacent to it had all been 'blown out', and some of the walls between the homes had collapsed. Ms Swales welcomed a lady in her eighties from the house next door to the explosion into her home as emergency services were sent to the scene. 'She's 85 this year, this lady, so it's a bit traumatic for her,' Ms Swales said of the neighbour. 'She said she doesn't even remember hearing the bang - all she remembers was just the walls coming in and the dust. 'We're just a street away, house is warm and kettle were there - what more could you do? I sent the lady on with pyjamas and a dressing gown.' Ms Swales said the local council contacted her in the early hours of Thursday morning and transferred the elderly lady to a hotel. Police, paramedics and fire crews rushed to the explosion at a house in Yeadon just after 10.30pm on Wednesday Nearby resident Aimee Olivia, 20, told the Telegraph&Argus: 'I heard the explosion, it was a massive bang that shook my whole house and it happened at the top of my street. 'I have never heard anything like it before. It sounded like a bomb had gone off.' She added that her neighbours had reported having doorbell footage of the explosion 'blowing their windows in'. Two properties sustained substantial damage, with authorities evacuating nearby homes amid fears of further danger. However, residents were given the green light to return to their homes by 4.30am, according to West Yorkshire Police, except for two homes which are yet to be cleared. According to a police media statement, initial investigations suggest that gas may have ignited and therefore triggered the Marshall Street explosion. The source of the gas is currently under investigation. Northern Gas has made the gas mains connected to local residences safe. The area has been roped off from the public by authorities, with police adding that cordons on Marshall Street will remain in place throughout Thursday as further investigations take place. Sweden has recorded its lowest number of asylum applications since 1997 following a huge crackdown as the immigration minister blames migrants' failure to integrate. For decades, Sweden was hailed as a beacon of compassion, offering an unparalleled welcome to refugees with Europe's most generous support schemes. The Nordic state went further than just opening its borders, but celebrated cultural diversity by funding migrants' efforts to maintain their native languages and traditions. But in the past decade, deadly violence linked to feuds between criminal gangs has escalated against the backdrop of the high levels of migration into the country. During the 2015 migration crisis, Sweden stunned the world by taking in nearly 163,000 asylum seekers - the highest number per capita of any EU country. Fast forward nine years, and the picture could not be more different. In the first 11 months of 2024, just 8,935 irregular migrants arrived in Sweden, with 4,814 of them voluntarily returning home, making it the smallest figure since 1997. This dramatic reversal is credited to a sweeping package of reforms following a landmark election in 2022, which ushered in the most hardline immigration policies Sweden has seen in decades. Your browser does not support iframes. Sweden has been described as a 'haven' for mafia gangs off the back of surging migration. Backlash against immigration has in turn - in the past - led to clashes between groups and Police (pictured), who are swamped with trying to crack down of rising levels of gang violence Police are seen at the scene of an explosion in Uppsala on September 28, 2023. The blast killed 24-year-old Soha Saad Incredibly, early data now suggests that Sweden may have net emigration for the first time since the 1960s. Sweden's migration minister Johan Fossell, 45, is the architect of this seismic shift but has been blunt about the government's new direction. Speaking to The Times, he said: 'We are implementing what we describe as a paradigm shift in Swedish migration policy, and we are doing this with a very outspoken agenda that we want to limit the number of people seeking asylum here in Sweden'. He explained that the move does not mean that the country does not like migrants, or understand the situation they face, but because it is 'impossible' to manage the task of integration when there is such a huge influx each year. This is a stark difference to the 1970s and 1980s when Sweden boasted itself as a 'humanitarian superpower'. Even after the 2015 migration wave, Sweden held onto its open-hearted ideals, but as gang-related gun violence and bombings soared, critics warned that the country was being stretched to breaking point. In 2023, Sweden had by far the EU's highest rate of per capita and by December 2024, 40 people had been shot dead in the country - a chilling number for a European country of only 10 million people. These figures represented a 35 per cent decrease compared to 2022, the most lethal year of the gang wars, when 63 people were shot dead. Police said gangs have begun using social media platforms as 'digital marketplaces' to openly recruit children, some as young as 11, to commit murders and bombings across the Nordic region. Inexperienced teenagers, seen as expendable by the gangs, are easier for police to catch than those ordering the shootings. Still, 72 per cent of deadly shootings were solved in 2023, compared to just 29 per cent in 2022, helped in part by surging camera surveillance. Police said they aimed to employ 2,500 cameras and drones this year, a five-fold increase from five years ago. Smoke billows from burning tires, pallets and fireworks during riots of Police with few hundred protesters in the Rosengard neighbourhood of Malmo, Sweden, 28 August 2020 Police vans are on fire amid clashes between protesters and police in 2022 The radical right-wing Sweden Democrats capitalised on this discontent, gaining ground by highlighting problems linked to immigration. Scandinavian neighbours began issuing warnings about 'Swedish conditions,' alarmed by the spillover of gang violence into their own borders. Forssell remained frank about the lessons learned, saying that the open-heart policy paved the way to a tough reality. 'We can find housing for people coming here. The difficult thing is the integration part of it: finding schools, finding apartments, giving people the possibilities to find work,' he said. The turning point was the 2022 election. With the Sweden Democrats riding high, even the traditionally centre-left Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson conceded that Sweden didn't need more 'Somalitowns' or 'Little Italies'. The centre-right Moderates only managed to form a government by striking a deal with the Sweden Democrats, giving them significant influence over crime and immigration policies. Since then, the reforms have come thick and fast. Family reunifications have been tightened, residency permits are more easily revoked, and asylum rights have been slashed to the bare minimum allowed under EU law. Immigrants who do not qualify for residency are being urged to return home, with some placed under electronic surveillance or confined to special centres. Sweden's immigration policy has undergone a seismic shift, abandoning its once open-handed approach in favour of stricter rules and a focus on control. The government is now steering away from traditional asylum status and pushing more migrants into the weaker 'subsidiary protection' category. This status, unlike full asylum, requires renewal every 13 months and only extends beyond three years for those who can prove they are financially independent. Three teenagers were sentenced after a man was murdered while eating dinner at a restaurant south of Stockholm in March, with the 17-year-old who is believed to have fired the fatal shot handed a jail term Forssell has made no apologies for the hardline approach, and speaking candidly, he revealed that the goal is to return to a pre-1970s immigration model, prioritising skilled 'guest workers' and limiting asylum to only those with indisputable claims. 'We're going back to basics,' Forssell explained, adding that restricting family reunification has already delivered results. The minister also wants to introduce mandatory language and integration tests for anyone seeking Swedish citizenship. While most European nations adopted such measures years ago, Sweden's reluctance to follow suit was once a badge of pride, but now, even Forssell dismisses the previous policy as absurd. He blasted the ability of becoming a Swedish citizen if an individual can not speak the language or known little to nothing about the country as 'stupid'. Sweden's shift is also reflected in its refugee demographics. Syrians, who made up a third of the 2015 wave, now dominate Sweden's refugee population, numbering 111,000. Many of them are expected to return home as the Assad regime stabilises, but Forssell estimates that some 100,000 undocumented immigrants remain in Sweden, forming what he calls a 'shadow society.' This shadow society represents one of Sweden's toughest challenges. These undocumented individuals, many with no right to stay, exist on the margins, out of reach of the state's systems but still within its borders. Forssell is determined to crack down, especially on those who have committed crimes yet managed to avoid deportation due to legal loopholes. Currently, even convicted criminals who can't be deported are allowed to remain in Sweden, receiving benefits and holding jobs. The minister called this 'completely unacceptable' and vowed to end it, defiantly stating that if an individual is not granted asylum, then they must return home. In the past, Sweden's leniency allowed undocumented immigrants to reapply for asylum after four years of living in the shadows, a policy Forssell says led to tragic consequences. It's a stark turnaround for a nation once celebrated as a haven for refugees. A decade ago, when Forssell served as a migration spokesman, foreign observers would marvel at Sweden's utopian image. The minister said Sweden was once recognised as a country where everything worked perfectly before it erupted into chaos. But now, nations are asking Sweden how they flipped the situation so quickly, becoming a role model in handling a seemingly out-of-control immigration crisis. And although Sweden may no longer be the superpower of its humanitarian heyday, under Forssell's leadership, it has carved out a new identity - one that prioritises control, integration, and a no-nonsense approach to immigration. Donald Trump has broken his silence on the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel, vowing to rid America of 'violent scum.' Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger is allegedly the man who filled the truck with explosives and fuel before driving it to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and setting them off on Wednesday morning, killing himself and leaving seven people injured. The president-elect took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to excoriate the security and justice establishment. He wrote in a post: 'Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. 'The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job. They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself. 'Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country. The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late. The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. 'Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' Mere hours earlier in New Orleans, Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove an electric vehicle into crowds, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger is allegedly the man who filled the truck with explosives and fuel before driving it to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and setting them off on Wednesday morning Officers shared a series of photographs taken from inside the car, revealing fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the truck Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs. But the FBI said earlier today there was no 'definitive link' between the two attacks. Earlier Wednesday, Melania Trump took to X to urge the country to 'strive for a future where peace prevails' after the two separate incidents just hours apart. The former and future first lady denounced the New Year's Day violence saying: 'The incidents of violence that have impacted our communities are deeply concerning. The brutality must stop,' Melania wrote. 'My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families who are experiencing such profound grief and loss.' In a press conference, officers investigating the incident revealed the Cybertruck was hired from Turo in Colorado and driven across the border into Nevada at 7.30am Wednesday. The explosion took place just an hour later. Melania Trump did not confirm in her X post whether the explosion was a terrorist attack like speculated by Elon Musk 'The incidents of violence that have impacted our communities are deeply concerning. The brutality must stop,' Melania wrote A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Officers shared a series of photographs taken from inside the car, revealing fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the truck. They are still exploring how the explosives were detonated, but sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed that it was likely controlled by the driver. The driver's remains are 'still in the truck as we speak today,' McMahill said. Officers have also considered the driver may have purposefully chosen to use a car owned by Musk to send a message, given Musk's newfound friendship with President-elect Donald Trump. Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday 'It's a Tesla truck, we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and it's the Trump hotel, so there's obviously something to look at,' he said. But the driver's decision to send a message using the Cybertruck may have actually been a small silver lining in the tragedy. Authorities echoed a comment made earlier today by Musk that the structure of the Cybertruck contained the explosives. 'The fact this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage,' McMahill said. 'It made most of the damage go up rather than out. The front glass doors at the Trump Hotel were not even broken by that blast.' Hours earlier, Musk had said: 'Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle.' Wednesday's Cybertruck explosion is 'likely an act of terrorism', Musk said earlier, occuring just hours after the New Orleans tragedy which left 15 people dead. The $80,000 car was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the hotel, killing one and injuring seven at around 8.40am. The hotel, owned by the Trump family, was seen with a large cloud of smoke near it. The cause of the explosion is currently unknown By Wednesday afternoon, Musk revealed the explosion was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks.' He said the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself, and it's understood the unnamed driver had rented the truck using Turo. 'Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional,' he added. 'Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.' Musk said 'Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously,' meaning his team were able to check whether anything was wrong with the car's mechanics prior to the explosion. Sheriff McMahill thanked Musk for his efforts in assisting the investigation, turning over data to authorities along with access to CCTV from Tesla charging stations across the nation. A multimillionaire who bankrolled a host of 'teal' climate independents has drawn criticism for comparing Scott Morrison's popularity to a paedophile. Businessman and climate activist Simon Holmes a Court posted of a photo of the former prime minister with Donald Trump and their wives at a New Year's Eve party earlier this week, with a controversial caption. 'If (Mr Morrison) ever reads the replies to this tweet, it'll be the second time he'll have wished he could stay in the US and avoid ever coming back home,' he wrote. 'Morrison is almost as popular as Rolf Harris,' Holmes a Court added, comparing the Liberal Party stalwart to the late Australian entertainer who was a convicted child sex offender. The response to Mr Holmes a Court's comment was swift and brutal, with one woman branding him 'a sick attention seeker. How disgusting'. 'No matter your opinion of ScoMo this comparison is beyond contempt. You should be ashamed of yourself, but we all know you love s*** stirring purely for attention, ' she wrote. Another added: 'It really doesn't take much to pull back the thin veneer of civility and expose the nasty piece of work lurking underneath left-wing activists like this one. 'Here - the great one - compares a former prime minister to a convicted sex offender, all because he doesn't like Morrison's politics.' Businessman and climate activist Simon Holmes a Court is pictured if @ScoMo30 ever reads the replies to this tweet, itll be the second time hell have wished he could stay in the US and avoid ever coming back home. morrison is almost as popular as rolf harris. https://t.co/BWppJqHbNS simon holmes a court (@simonahac) January 1, 2025 Politicians also slammed Mr Holmes a Court, with Liberal Senator James Paterson saying 'It's deranged to compare a former Prime Minister with a convicted child sex offender, and that it reflects on Simon Holmes a Court not Scott Morrison.' Mr Paterson also called on teal MPs elected with the help of his money, to say where they stand on the comments. 'As the primary funder of the teal MPs, Holmes a Court's wacky views do matter,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'A hung parliament at the next election could give the teals immense influence over the foreign and national security policy of a minority Albanese government. 'The teals should assure their electorates and the Australian people they won't allow Holmes a Court to dictate policy on AUKUS or the US alliance. Rolf Harris arrives with his wife Alwen Hughes (second right) and daughter Bindi (L) at Southwark Crown Court in central London on June 30, 2014 'In a dangerous world the last thing we need is reckless and irresponsible views like these influencing our foreign and defence policy.' One of those teal MPs, Kylea Tink, who represents North Sydney, told The Australian that 'Simon Holmes a Court's opinions are his own. 'He was not, nor has never been, my chief fundraiser and I have never consulted him on policy.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Holmes a Court and Ms Tink for further comment. A German firefighter accused of raping an unconscious woman has been spared from serving time behind bars after a court said it was important that he kept his job. The Munich judge's decision to sentence Thomas B, 28, to 11 months probation has sparked outrage in Germany for favouring the offender's career over the victim. If the fire brigade employee's sentence had been more than a year, he would have lost his civil servant status, but according to German outlet ZS, the judge believed that the outcome would have been 'very harsh'. The rape took place in February 2022 when Thomas, from Munich, sexually assaulted his friend Jennifer L after the two saw each other at a party. Jennifer invited Thomas back to her home for a final drink after he had confided in her about his recent separation from his wife. She fell asleep, only to wake up hours later to find that her underwear had been taken off and that Thomas was inappropriately touching her. The court heard a video testimony from Jennifer, in which she described the psychological toll the incident had had on her. 'The days after the crime were terrible, very terrible,' she said, and told of her ongoing struggles with sleep, hypervigilance and discomfort around men resembling Thomas. A German firefighter accused of raping an unconscious friend has been spared from serving time behind bars after a court said it was important that he kept his job Picture shows an aerial view of Munich. The Munich judge's decision to sentence Thomas B, 28, to 11 months probation has sparked outrage in Germany The court was 'convinced' that the crime had happened as Jennifer had stated and acknowledged that she 'will not be the same for the rest of her life'. However the court justified the lenient sentence by claiming that the perpetrator was very young and that the rape was an 'immature reaction' from Thomas due to his recent separation. The court also argued that Thomas was 'still young' at the time of the incident. Meanwhile Thomas, who claimed to have no memory of the assault due to his drunken state, admitted his guilt and expressed remorse, and said that he trusted Jennifer's account. He was also ordered to pay the victim around 5,000 in compensation and will be required to complete 80 hours of community service. The Munich I public prosecutor's office now wants to appeal. 'We are of the opinion that the sentence should have been higher, which is why we requested one year and six months probation,' senior public prosecutor Anne Leiding told German magazine Merkur. 'In our opinion, the significant aggravating circumstances are the massive consequences for the victim and the particular breach of trust that accompanied the course of events', she added. Under German law, rape is punishable by a minimum sentence of two years' imprisonment, with up to 15 years. An old jet rumoured to once be owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar has been turned into a luxury Airbnb on a traditional estate. The plane sits on the site in Bristol and boasts of a hot tub and a sauna but guests could have to fork out up to 850 per night. Originally built in 1968 and fitted out as a private jet in 1981, the craft was flying up until 2012 - when it made its final journey to Filton Airfield in South Gloucestershire. With walnut panelling, leather seats, a gold-plated shower and toilet, the plane gives the guests a taste of what the Billionaire life would be like. It also boasts two double bedrooms with en-suite toilets and showers, as well as seats which can convert into beds. Businessman Johnny Palmer, 41, who got the green light from Bristol City Council for his project said: 'It was built in 1968 for Japan Airlines and in 1981 it got converted into a private jet. It had a series of owners. 'Eventually it could not fly anymore and in 2012 it was decommissioned.' There have been many rumours about who the previous owners were - including an Arab prince and the Mafia. The plane sits on the site in Bristol and boasts of a hot tub and sauna and can cost up to 850 per night It boasts two double bedrooms with en-suite toilets and showers, as well as seats which can convert into beds There have been many rumours on who the previous owners were, including drug lord Pablo Escobar, pictured 'Someone said that Pablo Escobar might have owned it for a while,' he said. 'As to where it came before that who knows - that doesn't change the fact that we are doing so many positive stuff with it now.' He added: 'There is a bit of a roll play cosplay thing going on there - people enjoy that experience and living that fantasy for a little while and then living their normal lives. 'The contrast - billionaire and real life - is actually really healthy to people. Although the plane does not have wings or engines, all other features work including the airstairs, lighting, three toilets, shower, kitchen, fridge and many of the cockpit lights. Mr Palmer said: 'I always wanted to have a private jet and this was an opportunity to get one - the thing that I wanted was never a plane that flew it was just having a private jet so this was perfect. 'I just think they are cool - I just like airplanes. Everyone wants a private jet, right? 'On industrial estates people don't really care what you do because visually they are not very nice as they are so that gives a creative opportunity to do weird things like airplanes. Originally built in 1968 and fitted out as a private jet in 1981, the craft was flying up until 2012 - when it made its final journey to Filton Airfield in South Gloucestershire With walnut panelling, leather seats, gold plated shower and toilet, the plane gives the guests a taste of what the Billionaire life would be like Businessman Johnny Palmer, 41, pictured, said the jet built in 1968 for Japan Airlines and in 1981 got converted into a private jet Mr Palmer added: 'There is a bit of a roll play cosplay thing going on there - people enjoy that experience and living that fantasy for a little while and then living their normal lives' 'Whereas if I tried to do this in agricultural or residential setting you just wouldn't get planning permission for it.' The whole project was a restoration job that took several years to complete. 'The stuff that is inside was fitted out in 1981 - before I was born - and all we have done was restored it to the best that we can,' he said. 'I did a lot of the electrics myself, I had a plumber, a carpenter - there have been lots of people who have been involved in the process.' Mr Palmer now has regular open days where residents living nearby can come and tour the plane for a donation to local charities. He added: 'I like that it brings joy to people and a lot of people have great nights on there, kids are inspired by it. People come up here and take selfies with it.' The cheapest nights in the aircraft are 250 and the peak nights are 850 for the night. Peak times are in August and it's nearly fully booked the whole year. Although the plane does not have wings or engines, all other features work including the airstairs and lighting Some of the cockpit lights, as well as the three toilets, shower, kitchen, fridge also work Mr Palmer said the whole project was a restoration job that took several years to complete. 'The stuff that is inside was fitted out in 1981 - before I was born - and all we have done was restored it to the best that we can,' Mr Palmer said Mr Palmer said he did a lot of the electrics himself and had a plumber, a carpenter and others involved in the process Originally built in 1968 and fitted out as a private jet in 1981, the aircraft was still flying up until 2012 - when it made its final journey to Filton Airfield, Bristol Mr Palmer now has regular open days where residents living nearby can come and tour the plane for a donation to local charities The cheapest nights in the aircraft are 250 and the peak nights are 850 for the night Peak times are in August and it's nearly fully booked the whole year Mr Palmer said he lends the jet for artists for free if they are doing music videos or photoshoots for artistic processes - mostly Drill and Rap artists Mr Palmer said he lends the jet for artists for free if they are doing music videos or photoshoots for artistic processes - mostly Drill and Rap artists. When asked if there had been any celebrities staying in the Airbnb Johnny said: 'Not that I know - but it is also quite discreet. 'The whole point of it is that it is a very private space. Even if they did I would not say because respecting guest privacy is really important.' With the popularity of the business, all the income has meant they can restore the jet and improve the experience. 'The money we get from it just goes back into the project to make it better and better for future guests. 'It has never the intended to make money.' A pre application was submitted this month for a second airplane to be placed next to the existing one. He added: 'This one will be bigger and much more impressive. And much higher and a bigger structure.' A desperate search for an autistic five-year-old boy has come to a tragic end, after police pulled a body from the Georges River. Essa Dennaoui was last seen on Epsom Street in Chipping Norton in Sydney's southwest about 6.35pm on Thursday. When Essa could not be located, frantic family members alerted police, who immediately launched an urgent search which also involved locals. Police held graves concerns for Essas whereabouts as he had autism and was non verbal. A NSW Police spokesman confirmed a body had been pulled from the nearby river several streets away shortly after 10pm. The body is yet to be formally identified but believed to be that of the missing boy. Essa's loved ones sadly confirmed the tragic news on social media later that night. The desperate search for five-year-old Essa Dennaoui came to a tragic end on Thursday night Community members joined the search for Essa, with grave fears for his safety from the outset Police led search efforts for Essa, which ended at the Georges River on Thursday evening 'Little Essa has just been found past away (drowned) hes being taken out of the Georges River right now. May Allah give hes family patience,' they posted. Another person wrote: 'I'm lost for words what a beautiful boy, may Allah give the family patience and ease at this difficult time.' 'Poor baby, may Allah give his family strength.' Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun added: 'Heaven has gained another Angel'. 'May his parents and family be granted strength.' Police are not treating the drowning as suspicious and will prepare a report for the coroner. The tragedy takes Australia's drowning toll to 35 since the start of summer on December 1. Police had appealed for the public's assistance in the hours before Essa's body was found Irish police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a woman in her 90s suffering from Alzheimer's disease by a fellow hospital patient. A middle-aged man was arrested after he was seen by another patient on the ward allegedly getting into the elderly woman's hospital bed on Wednesday, December 18. Hospital staff intervened and he was removed from the facility the next day, when he was arrested by gardai and taken into questioning. According to the Irish Independent, the suspect said he was confused about the woman's identity and said he got into her bed thinking she was a woman he knew. The suspect was later released without charge, but a file on the incident is reportedly being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. The alleged victim has not been able to give police a statement due to her mental condition. A spokesperson for the RCSI Hospital group told MailOnline: 'The hospital places great importance on the safety of patients, visitors and staff, and are fully cooperating with An Garda Siochanas investigation. We are unable to comment further on an ongoing investigation.' The horrific incident comes after it was revealed in 2023 that gardai had investigated 143 incidents of sexual assault in hospitals over a three-year period. Irish police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a woman in her 90s suffering from Alzheimer's disease by a fellow hospital patient. Pictured: Stock image of a woman with Alzheimer's disease A middle-aged man was arrested after he was seen by another patient on the ward allegedly getting into the elderly woman's hospital bed on Wednesday, December 18 Separate data revealed that a total of 12 patients were reportedly sexually assaulted in Irish mental health facilities in 2022. Meanwhile, a damning 2023 report revealed that dozens of rapes and sexual assaults take place in hospitals every week in the UK. The official figures lay bare the horrific scale of abuse with 6,500 attacks being reported in just three years. They include gang rapes and assaults on children. The statistics were published today by the Women's Rights Network whose founder Heather Binning said they were 'just the tip of the iceberg'. Back in May, an Italian woman took her life after being raped while lying on a stretcher in an emergency department. The 22-year-old was awaiting treatment in the Vizzolo Predabissi hospital near Milan when she was sexually assaulted. She told nurses, who swiftly called the police, around 4am: 'Help, I was raped', according to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Serra. The suspect, a 28-year-old warehouse worker, was arrested just hours later as he was sleeping on a stretcher in the ER. The following morning the woman is said to have jumped from a window on the fourth floor of the hospital. Despite attempts by medics to save her life, she was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspect denied the rape allegation and told a local court that the sexual encounter had been consensual. He said that he 'didn't force anyone' and that they chatted and shared a cigarette together before they started kissing. He could not remember how he got to the hospital and told investigators he had drunk a lot of alcohol with some friends and had smoke a few joints, according to local reports. Stormzy was today banned from driving for nine months and branded 'dangerous and irresponsible' for using a mobile phone at the wheel of his 275,000 Rolls Royce Wraith. The rapper, real name Michael Ebenezer Owuo Jr, 31, pleaded guilty via a letter after he was caught by an off-duty police officer talking on his mobile on Addison Road, West Kensington on 7 March 2024. The undercover officer knocked on his 'tinted' passenger window and said 'get rid of your tints and get off your phone', Wimbledon Magistrates' Court heard today. District judge Andrew Sweet banned the rapper, who was not present in court, from driving for nine months and fined him 2,010 after six more points were added to his licence. He said Owuo's driving record is 'not good' and criticised his 'dangerous and irresponsible' actions. Stormzy had previously denied using his mobile while driving but wrote to the court to change his plea. Previously, he also admitted driving a 200,000 Lamborghini Urus that had front windows illegally tinted to only 4% light transmission, violating the 70% requirement. The vehicle's use was dangerous and put 'vulnerable road users at risk', prosecutor Alice Holloway told the court today. In that incident, Owuo was stopped by officers on Coombe Lane, Kingston upon Thames, at about 12.45pm on October 17 2023, having previously been warned about the windows. Stormzy, real name Michael Ebenezer Owuo Jr, had pleaded not guilty to using the device while driving through central London in his 225,000 vehicle Rolls Royce Wraith Stormzy changed his plea to guilty over the use of a mobile phone at the wheel of his Rolls Royce (pictured) Rapper Stormzy (pictured at Wimbledon on July 11) was banned from the roads for nine months and given a 2,010 fine Peter Csemiczky, defending Stormzy, described his client as a 'well-known recording artist' who 'accepts responsibility for his actions'. He said he was 'pleased to update the court he has now removed the tint from his vehicles' before telling the court that 'Mr Owuo Jr appreciates that he will be disqualified.' Sentencing the 'Shut Up' singer, District Judge Andrew Sweet said: 'The court has given credit to guilty pleas. 'In relation to the use of the mobile phone, (that plea) comes later in the day and limited credit is given. 'In terms of Mr Owuo Jr's behaviour with regards to driving, his driving record is not very good. 'He has many points on his licence and in this particular case, clearly, driving with tinted windows and also using his mobile phone is dangerous and irresponsible.' The rapper pleaded guilty to driving his yellow four litre Lamborghini Urus (pictured in May last year) with heavily tinted windows in Kingston-upon-Thames, near his 2.5million home, in October last year The judge said he 'didn't have any detail of (Stormzy's) means' so referred his financial penalty to the 'sentencing guidelines'. He fined Owuo Jr 900 for using a mobile phone whilst driving and 250 for driving with illegally tinted windows. Stormzy was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of 460 as well as 400 in costs. 'A total of 2,010 is payable to the court', the judge said. The rapper was hit with six penalty points for using a hand-held telephone meaning he has 15 points on his licence after totting up a string of driving offences. He was 'disqualified with immediate effect for a period of nine months.' Stormzy, of Kingston, admitted using a motor vehicle in a condition likely to cause danger of injury and using a handheld mobile phone while driving a motor vehicle on the road. The star was given seven days to pay. It comes off the back of a tough year for Stormzy which saw him split from partner Maya Jama. District judge Andrew Sweet said Owuo's driving record is 'not good' and criticised his 'dangerous and irresponsible' actions The court case came at a turbulent time for the rapper who broke up with Maya last year (pictured together on July 5) The pair rekindled their romance in 2023 before eventually calling things off in July. Stormzy's flash Lamborghini is estimated to cost between 190,000 to 230,000 but the vehicles can re-sell for as much as 260,000. As well as his Lambo and Rolls Royce, the musician also owns a 110,000 Mercedes G550, known as a G-Wagon, which is regarded as one of the most expensive luxury SUVs on the market. He also owns a black 77,980 Audi A8, which is the car manufacturer's largest luxury sedan. En espanol With the holiday season approaching, many people are already planning their New Year's Eve celebrations. A recent WalletHub report highlights cities in the U.S. offering the best New Year's Eve experiences without breaking the bank. Read more: Belinda Announces Release Date for More Music and Other Plans for 2025 Analysts evaluated 100 major cities based on 26 key metrics, including fireworks regulations, dining, and lodging options. The top 5 U.S. cities for New Year's Eve: New York, NY: Famous for the Times Square ball drop, it remains the ultimate celebration destination. Orlando, FL: Perfect for families, featuring fireworks and events at theme parks. @stephanieinorlando Christmas event in Orlando inside a Garden One more year I am present at this stunning event! Get ready to live a unique experience at Dazzling Nights - the biggest and brightest Christmas event in a Garden in Orlando! From November 29, 2024 to January 5, 2025, on select nights, Harry P. Leu Gardens will be transformed into a true paradise of lights, with over a million twinkling lights, enchanted forests, magical sculptures and lots of music for the whole family! It's 1.2 km of enchantment, with an interactive walk full of new attractions, such as: In addition, the event features Christmas delights, special drinks (including for adults) and lots of live music to liven up your night even more! When: November 29, 2024 to January 5, 2025 Where: Harry P. Leu Gardens, Orlando, FL Tickets: From $22 for adults and $19 for children (over 3 years old). Children up to 2 years old enter for free! Parking available on site for a small fee. Buy your tickets in advance at www.dazzlingorlando.com and guarantee the best experience! Follow me for more tips on the best things to do in Orlando and the holiday season! #thingstodoinorlando #stufftodoinorlando #orlandofl It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas - Michael Buble San Diego, CA: With mild weather, it's ideal for outdoor parties. Las Vegas, NV: The "city of sin" is known for extravagant shows and parties on New Year's. Chicago, IL: Offers vibrant nightlife and unique events. Other notable cities include Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Denver, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Virginia Beach, Anaheim, Reno, Louisville, Birmingham, Boston, and Philadelphia. International destinations Outside of the U.S., several global cities also deliver unforgettable celebrations: Paris: Fireworks light up the Eiffel Tower at midnight. Berlin: Hosts a massive party at the Brandenburg Gate to ring in the new year. Rio de Janeiro: Features tropical beach festivities at Copacabana. This year, over 128 million Americans are expected to travel during New Year's, with 65% driving to their destinations. Additionally, 54% plan to celebrate with family or friends. The average cost for a couple to enjoy dinner and a show in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago is approximately $807. Budget-Friendly Tips: Book early: Claire Stewart, associate professor at CUNY, advises early reservations to save money. Avoid peak travel days: Joshua A. Roe, Ph.D., from West Virginia University, suggests traveling a day before or after New Year's Eve to cut costs. Opt for affordable lodging: Traditional B&Bs or Airbnb rentals often offer better rates than large hotels. Enjoy local activities: Instead of pricey all-inclusive events, consider bars or clubs for budget-friendly fun. Use public transportation: Karin Curran from Nichols College warns against driving on New Year's Eve, recommending public transit or hosting celebrations at home instead. Personal preferences matter Harold S. Lee, Ph.D., from the University of North Texas, encourages choosing celebrations that align with your interests, whether lively or laid-back. The key is to welcome the new year joyfully without overspending or stressing over crowds. Prepare to ring in the new year with style and financial savvy. Happy New Year! Elon Musk continued his attempt to interfere in UK politics today with a blast at Keir Starmer over grooming gangs - and public backing for far-right agitator Tommy Robinson. The X owner used the platform to allege that the Prime Minister allowed rape gangs to 'exploit young girls without facing justice' when he was England and Wales' top prosecutor. He also alleged that Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips was refusing to investigate the gangs because it would lead back to the PM's time as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. He wrote that she 'deserves to be in prison', after she denied requests from Oldham Council to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in the town. However, his attack came as he lined up to support Robinson, the diminutive far-right agitator whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The English Defence league co-founder was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October after admitting 10 beaches of a High Court injunction barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee. During the unrest over the summer, billionaire Musk engaged with posts by Robinson, suggesting that civil war in the UK was 'inevitable'. He also retweeted a fake Daily Telegraph headline suggesting rioters would be sent to detention camps in the Falkland Islands. Writing on X last night Mr Musk said: 'In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service's approval for the police to charge suspects. 'Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013.' The X owner used the platform to allege that the Prime Minister allowed rape gangs to ' exploit young girls without facing justice' when he was England and Wales' top prosecutor. He also alleged that Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips was refusing to investigate the gangs because it would lead back to the PM's time as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. However, his attack came as he lined up to support Robinson, the diminutive far-right agitator whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. He added: 'Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Stamer (sic). The real reason she's refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Stamer (sic) (head of the CPS at the time).' He also tweeted 'free Tommy Robinson' and retweeted a follower who claimed Robinson was a 'political prisoner', a viewpoint held by many of the incarcerated Englishman's supporters. Last January a report found young girls were 'left at the mercy' of paedophile grooming gangs for years in Rochdale because of failings by senior police and council bosses. The damning 173-page review covers 2004 to 2013 and sets out multiple failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters, mainly white girls from poor backgrounds, all identified as potential victims of abuse in Rochdale by Asian men. Successive police operations were launched, but these were insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation within the area. The report follows reports by the same authors on grooming in Manchester and Oldham, which found authorities had again failed children, leaving them in the clutches of paedophiles. In a letter to the council, Ms Phillips said she believes it is 'for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene'. An Oldham Council spokesman said: 'Survivors sit at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation. Whatever happens in terms of future inquiries, we have promised them that their wishes will be paramount, and we will not renege on that pledge.' Mr Musk's support for Robinson could cause some unhappiness in the Reform Party. Reports have suggested that he is preparing to hand it a war chest of up to $100million (79million). But party leader Nigel Farage has previously distanced himself from Mr Robinson, who was once a political adviser to Gerard batten, Mr Farage's successor as leader of Ukip. It comes weeks after Mr Musk, a close advisor to incoming US president Donald Trump, voiced his support for the German far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD). Sir keir was director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. Robinson was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October after admitting 10 beaches of a High Court injunction barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee. This morning Tory leader Kemi Badenoch leaned into a row on social media, tweeting: 'The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. This morning Tory leader Kemi Badenoch leaned into a row on social media, tweeting: 'The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. 'Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.' But Mr Farage replied: 'Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level.' A Home Office study published in 2020 that found child sexual abuse gangs are most commonly made up of white men. Mr Musk has spent considerable time attacking Sir Keir since Labour came to power. Last week he attacked the party over its economic plans for the UK. Responding to a story about Scottish politicians urging him to invest in a Tesla gigafactory, the billionaire posted on X: 'Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration.' Downing Street insisted Sir Keir was running an 'unashamedly' pro-growth government, but refused to criticise Mr Musk directly. Asked about Mr Musk's view about the government being anti-business, the PM's spokesman said: 'We look forward to working with President-elect Trump and indeed his team to progress the UK-US special relationship, and particularly the UK-US trade and investment relationship, which supports hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs both sides of the Atlantic, and tens of billion pounds of investment and trade.' He added: 'I'm not going to kind of get into commentary on individual comments, but if you look at what's happened since the election, you've seen the 63 billion of additional investment from the Investment Summit. 'You've seen the Government respond to some of the businesses' key concerns in the UK, which is lack of stability, and the Government's brought back that stability, both politically and economically.' Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Musk's latest comments today. This is the shocking moment a gang of thieves jumped over the counter of an Asda petrol station store stealing alcohol and cigarettes leaving shoppers stunned. The group filled bags of alcohol and cigarettes and walked out as supermarket workers and guards stood and watched the gang swipe the goods. In the video shared online, one of the employees is seen making a phone call to report the theft to police. One stunned shopper said: 'They are doing what they got to do. 'I just came to get petrol.' He then added: 'Why aren't they stopping them? 'F****** hell.' The raid took place on the Asda Express in the Texaco garage on Wandsworth Road, Battersea, south London. The crooks filled bags of alcohol and cigarettes before walking out as supermarket workers and guards stood and watched the gang swipe the goods In the video shares online, one of the thieves, pictured, is seen leading the shop with a bag Another thief is seen taking several bottles during the raid on the Asda Express in the Texaco garage on Wandsworth Road, Battersea, south London The video was taken on December 23 and was shared attracted a lot of attention online. A spokesperson for the Met Police said: 'At around 20:00hrs on Monday, 23 December, officers responded to a suspected burglary at a shop on Wandsworth Road, Nine Elms. 'The incident is now under investigation. Anyone with information should call 101, stating the reference 6407/23DEC.' It follows a spate of shoplifting last year amid the cost-of-living-crisis. One local - named Nicole - joked: 'At least the Mayor of London got knighthood.' Dan said: 'By the end of 2025 all shops will basically be click and collect only.' Another added: 'London is lawless now.' Steve Thomas said: 'Would like the right to carry a firearm in the UK.' MailOnline has approached Asda for comment. It comes as robberies targeting businesses reached a record high last year with 33 every day, according to new figures. Office for National Statistics data showed that robbery of a business property rose by 52% inthe year to June 2024 - rising from 7,884 to 12,000 - the highest ever recorded. An investigation conducted by Udsaw - the shop workers union - also revealed one in five retail staff members had been the victim of a violent assault last year. And although attacks on retail workers is also up by eight per cent from 2022, not even one in ten robberies end with an assailant. According to The Times, almost 50 per cent of business robbery investigations were concluded without police forces able to determine a suspect. Robbery is a different crime from burglary. It is when an individual uses force or threats while stealing. Fresh statistics indicate criminals are setting their sights on businesses over personal dwellings, with the rise of personal property robbers seeing a one per cent rise. Shoplifting offences across Britain soared by 30 per cent in a year to the highest level in two decades. Almost 444,000 crimes were recorded by forces in England and Wales in the year to March, up from 342,428 in the previous 12 months. This is the highest figure since records began in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics. Meghan Markle released a stunning new smiling image to mark her Instagram return taken by a fashion photographer friend from Toronto who knew her and Harry when they fell in love while she was starring in Suits, MailOnline can reveal today. The laughing Duchess of Sussex, 43, wears a near-1,000 white cotton dress from New York Luxury brand Khaite and a 12,500 diamond necklace from Santa Monica jewellery designer Logan Hollowell. Experts have analysed the black and white image and believe the beach photo, and her outfit, was carefully chosen to show 'purity' and released on January 1 to 'timestamp' a 'new era' and 2025 relaunch to the world. The laughing Duchess of Sussex made it her profile picture for her @meghan account as she also released a video of her frolicking barefoot on a Montecito beach filmed by her husband Prince Harry. It was taken by New York-based Jake Rosenberg, who has known the Sussexes for years and attended their London wedding and was photographed entering St George's Chapel, Windsor, with Oprah Winfrey. Sharing the image Mr Rosenberg used the photo in a post marking the start of 2025 and to 'welcome back' Meghan to Instagram after a six-year hiatus. He said: 'Always love capturing these moments together - What a way to start the year!'. Jake flew to California from New York to take the picture. He has not said when it was taken. But in recent months he visited Harry and Meghan's mansion in Montecito for a photoshoot to coincide with the launch of her lifestyle and cookery brand, American Riviera Orchard. Jake also took a series of pictures of Meghan on her own and her with the children. The stunning new image of Meghan Markle taken by her friend Jake Rosenberg, a renowned fashion photographer There is also a video of Meghan putting 2025 in the sand in a video filmed by Prince Harry and released to promote her return to Instagram The photo-shoot may have coincided with the launch of Meghan's lifestyle and cookery brand, American Riviera Orchard, and was shot by New York-based Mr Rosenberg (pictured) who has worked with Meghan before Jake, originally from Toronto, Canada, where Suits was filmed, follows Oprah into St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry The stunning image may have been captured then. Meghan teased her return to Instagram in 2022 but has waited two years to launch it. Experts have said that the account, which has gone from 100,000 followers to 715,000 in 24 hours could command fees of 790,000 from companies per post as an absolute minimum. Experts have told MailOnline that the black and white image, and the choice of white dress, are a carefully constructed message to the world that she is planning big things in 2025. Mark Borkowski, arguably the UK's to PR guru, told MailOnline: 'The all-white attire screams purity of reinvention while the 2025 etched in the sand conveniently doubles as both a literal timestamp and a metaphorical clean slate. 'Meghan has gone for the classic cryptic performance art Instagram post. 'Its a PR textbook example of someone signaling a new era,designed to intrigue and mystify. 'Its a subtle power play, simultaneously fostering curiosity and establishing control'. The photo taken by Jake Rosenberg is a California-style fashion shot that would not be out of place on the pages of a glossy magazine like fashion bibles Vogue or Vanity Fair, experts have said. Looking typically stylish, the mother-of-two opted for a white oversized flowing shirt, which was rolled up at the sleeves. Complementing her statement shirt, she donned a pair of white skinny jeans that were also rolled up on her leg as she ran through the sand barefoot. Meghan's return to social media came despite vowing not to return to social media due to the almost unsurvivable abuse she faced, the Duchess of Sussex returned to Instagram yesterday with a playful video on a beach. A source close to Meghan said yesterday that: 'The Duchess is excited to return to social media as a way to reconnect with communities around the world and share updates on the impactful projects she has been working on. 'She is committed to promoting a joyful and thoughtful approach to online engagementone that fosters meaningful connections and inspires positivity in todays digital space'. The 43-year-old shared her first clip filmed by Prince Harry near their California home and simply captioned it @meghan. It had been rumoured that the profile originally set up in 2022 but lying dormant belonged to her after she teased fans in 2023 by declaring she was getting back on Instagram. Now the mother-of-two has confirmed the account is hers by posting footage taken on the shore not far from the home she shares in Montecito with Harry and their children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three. Within minutes, tens of thousands of people had begun following the account. To the sound of the surf, the 30-second clip shows Meghan in white pedal-pushers and a white shirt jogging barefoot to the waters edge and writing 2025 in the sand with her finger, before running off giggling. Meghan's post has caused a massive frenzy online The Duchess of Sussex , 43, made her dramatic return to Instagram on New Year's Day morning, uploading a short clip that showed her frolicking on the beach in an all-white ensemble The duchess shut down her social media accounts in January 2018, just after getting engaged to Prince Harry, and in 2020 the couple stopped posting to their Sussex Royal Instagram and Twitter accounts. However, she then secured the new account in June 2022 before launching her Archetypes podcast in August 2022. It had a profile image of pink dahlias, but no biographical information. At the time, a source said: Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind... so its just sitting there now. Experts have predicted she could earn 790,000 per post as an absolute minimum. Social media expert Eric Schiffer told The Mail On Sunday that there was no reason Meghan couldnt be earning those sorts of fees. Tesla Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger is a long-serving married Green Beret who was on leave from active duty when he carried out the attack outside Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel. Livelsberger, 37, was identified by law enforcement sources as the bomber in Wednesday's attack, which left seven wounded. The electric vehicle exploded about 15 seconds after the driver pulled up in front of the hotel's entrance. The blast was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks', according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Livelsberger died in the bombing. He lived in Colorado Springs and was an active member of the Army. He previously received a Meritorious Honor Award for work benefiting the US Embassy in Tajikistan. Liveslberger was profiled by a local newspaper in Ohio for his work with the military in Afghanistan. He grew up in Ohio and was married to social worker Sara Livelsberger, who in the lead up to the 2016 election shared a slew of Facebook posts spouting anti-Trump rhetoric. According to CBS News, Liveslberger was on break from duty in Germany when he carried out the attack. His wife hadn't heard from him from several days. Property records reveal the couple purchased a home in Colorado Springs together in 2015. However, police have linked Livelsberger to several addresses throughout the city - including a different townhouse that was raided by the FBI overnight. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was identified as the bomber in the attack that left seven wounded. He is pictured in Afghanistan in a profile by a local newspaper in the Ohio town where he grew up Few details have been made public about the alleged bomber's personal life. He is pictured with his ex-wife Sara. Livelsberger remarried and had a baby after the couple's divorce Livelsberger, 37, was identified by law enforcement sources Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Cybertruck in Colorado Springs and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning to carry out his attack. Law enforcement sources have also revealed that Livelsberger previously served at the same military base as New Orleans terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar, who on Wednesday drove a rented truck into a crowd of New Year revelers, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. Police have not confirmed if the pair were known to each other. Jabbar served at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, previously known as Fort Bragg. Livelsberger previously lived at an address close to the base, but investigators have yet to confirm the location of the base the pair have in common. Livelsberger has served in the Army for 19 years, the majority of which was spent in the Special Forces unit. The suspected terrorist seemingly climbed the ranks throughout his time with the unit, having started off working as a SF Communications Specialist in 2006. While holding that position, Livelsberger said on his Linkedin that he also worked on a nearly one-year contract with General Dynamics Corp, a firm specializing in aerospace and defense. He alleges he 'engineered and fielded the first mobile standoff hyperspectral imaging "Lightguard Minotaur" system' during his time at General Dynamics Corp. General Dynamics told DailyMail.com they have no record of employing Livelsberger. Livelsberger in 2015 moved into an intelligence and operations role within the SF and in 2016 received the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award. He was recognized by the US Ambassador for 'interagency contributions that resulted in increased interoperability and efficiency while serving as the Operations Sergeant at Special Operations Command Forward- Central Asian States (SOCFWD-CAS) within US Embassy Dushanbe', Livelsberger wrote on LinkedIn. He became a SF operations manager and team sergeant in February 2023 and moved into his remote and autonomous systems role in November last year. His LinkedIn profile also touts proficiency in French and certifications in unmanned aircraft systems, as well as a Project Director qualification. Livelsberg is seen in another picture from his deployment The Tesla cybertruck exploded about 15 seconds after the driver pulled up in front of the hotel's entrance. The blast was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks' Livelsberger (pictured) - who died in the bombing - grew up in Colorado Springs and was an active member of the Army. He previously received a Meritorious Honor Award for work benefiting the US Embassy in Tajikistan Livelsberger has limited social media presence, but his 'registered Democrat' ex-wife Sara was very active on Facebook in 2015 and 2016 She also shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Trump in 2015, writing that he 'needs to spend less time on Twitter posting and deleting tweets, and more time focusing on maybe...a god d**m platform of some sort?' Another post showed her wearing a t-shirt that said 'Girls just want to have FUN-damental Rights', suggesting she takes a pro-choice stance on abortion Livelsberger has limited social media presence, but his ex-wife Sara was very active on Facebook in 2015 and 2016. Sara, who according to her profile studied political science and social work, revealed that she was a 'registered Democrat' in a post shared in May 2016. Sharing a photo of a sign featuring a cartoon image of Trump that read 'stop bigotry', Sara wrote that she 'can't wait to slap this baby on my truck'. She also shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Trump in 2015, writing that he 'needs to spend less time on Twitter posting and deleting tweets, and more time focusing on maybe...a god d**m platform of some sort?' Another post showed her wearing a t-shirt that said 'Girls just want to have FUN-damental Rights', suggesting she takes a pro-choice stance on abortion. Sara, whose hometown is listed as Playa del Carmen, Mexico, has not posted on Facebook since May 2016. She also has not been tied to the Las Vegas bombing. The Tesla cybertruck arrived in Las Vegas at 7.30am Wednesday, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a press conference. Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado Springs, via the Turo app, and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning - where he carried out the attack (pictured) Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance, appearing to have nothing wrong with it. Seconds later, the entire car explodes, its roof blowing up first before the truck goes flying The explosion took place at 8.40am in the hotel's valet area. Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance. Seconds later, the entire $80,000 car blew up in a fiery blaze - with its roof going up in flames first. Debris smoked as it pinged off the pavement and sparks which looked like fireworks could be seen lighting up the black cloud of smoke emitting from the vehicle. A tumble of charred fireworks mortars, cannisters and other explosive devices were found crowded into the back of the pickup. Officials are still exploring how the explosives were detonated, but sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed that it was likely controlled by the driver. Livelsberger was the sole fatality in the attack, and authorities largely credit Musk's hulking stainless steel truck with preventing further damage because it was able to contain much of the explosion. None of the nearby windows of the hotel were damaged despite the violence of the blast. According to the KOAA, law enforcement officers wearing tactical gear and travelling in armored vehicles arrived at one of Livelsberger's Colorado Springs properties Wednesday night. Neighbors were 'escorted away' from the townhome complex in the Stetson Hills neighborhood as investigators carried out their search. Police have assured the public they do not suspect there is any ongoing threat to the community. Hours before the attack in Las Vegas, Shamsud Din Jabbar drove an electric vehicle into crowds in New Orleans, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Soldier Matthew Livelsberger is the man who filled the truck with explosives and fuel before driving it to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and setting them off on Wednesday morning Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of explosives Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. Turo is akin to Airbnb for cars and lets people hire strangers' vehicles for a daily rate. Police revealed on Wednesday afternoon that they are currently investigating potential links and have not ruled anything out yet. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. 'We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Turo added: 'We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals.' Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday Officers have also considered that Livelsberger may have purposefully chosen to use a car owned by Elon Musk to send a message - given the Tesla billionaire's newfound friendship with President-elect Donald Trump. 'It's a Tesla truck, we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and it's the Trump hotel, so there's obviously something to look at,' McMahill said. By Wednesday afternoon, Musk revealed the explosion was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks.' He said the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself, and it's understood the unnamed driver had rented the truck using Turo. 'Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional,' he added. 'Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.' Musk said 'Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously,' meaning his team were able to check whether anything was wrong with the car's mechanics prior to the explosion. McMahill thanked Musk for his efforts in assisting the investigation, turning over data to authorities along with access to CCTV from Tesla charging stations across the nation. Trump has also broken his silence on the explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel, vowing to rid America of 'violent scum.' The president-elect took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to excoriate the security and justice establishment. He wrote in a post: 'Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. 'The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job. They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself. 'Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country. The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late. The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. 'Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' The 37-year-old man reportedly has a military background and served at the same base as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, (pictured), who fatally ran down 15 people in a rented car in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day Your browser does not support iframes. The FBI has said officials 'do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible' for the New Orleans attack. 'We're aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates,' Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent with the FBI's New Orleans field office, said in at a news conference Wednesday.' Law enforcement officials in Texas searched a residence in Houston on Wednesday that they believe could be connected to Jabbar. 'FBI Houston and the Harris County Sheriffs Office are continuing a court-authorized search of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive,' the agency said in a statement. As of Wednesday night, no arrests had been made at the residence. Authorities previously revealed that the rented truck was listed on Turo by a 42-year-old man who lives in Houston, who has been contacted by investigators. It is unclear if the Houston property that was searched Wednesday night was linked to this man. The FBI's New Orleans field office is also 'conducting a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states'. The driver who plowed into pedestrians celebrating the New Year in New Orleans killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens is dead following a shootout with police Suspect Jabbar is said to have made a series of videos that is being reviewed by law enforcement. Jabbar was killed by police after he slammed a truck into pedestrians celebrating the New Year, exited the vehicle, and started firing. Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, law enforcement officials said. Investigators are probing a theory Jabbar rented a nearby property on Airbnb in St. Roch for his base before carrying out the attack. Exclusive DailyMail.com photographs show the moment the FBI removed bomb making materials from the two-bedroom and two-bathroom property close to the French Quarter. Jabbar is also said to have made a series of videos that are being reviewed by law enforcement. Authorities believe that the videos were made as he drove from Texas to Louisiana, although the timing is unclear. Multiple officials told CNN that the recordings appear to have been made while driving at night and the suspect is not visible in them. CNN reported that the recordings make reference to his divorce and that he planned on gathering his family together for a fake celebration so he could kill them. The suspect is also said to have talked about how he joined ISIS, and spoke of dreams that he had about joining the terrorist group. There were no overt links to ISIS in the Las Vegas attack as there were in New Orleans, but detectives have not ruled out any motive. This is the terrifying moment a yacht carrying tourists crashed into rocks and sunk during a chaotic New Year's Day boat trip. The vessel - named Amore Mio - was ferrying guests in Mexico who were celebrating the start of 2025 in style before it went dramatically wrong. Tense footage captured the luxury whit boat slamming into a large rock wall as a group of bikini-clad revelers crammed into an open space at the front of the yacht. The ship could be seen swaying from side to side as the panicked guests scrambled to find safety before the boat toppled or crashed into the rock surface again. Onlookers and divers frantically called out to the tourists and made hand gestures encouraging them to escape the crashing boat by jumping off the side. Screams and yells of stranded tourists filled the footage as some were seen walking to the side of the boat to jump off while other remained stationed in the bow. According to local reports, a total of 15 tourists fell into the water but were thankfully saved by nearby divers who dragged them to safety. Another clip of the boat post-crash shows the vessel slowly sinking into the blue waters off La Quebrada, Acapulco, as pieces of its mechanics broke off and floated out to sea. The yacht - named Amore Mio - was ferrying guests in Mexico who were celebrating the start of 2025 in style before it went dramatically wrong The white boat crashed into a rock face in the waters off La Quebrada, Acapulco, as tourists scrambled to jump off The empty yacht could later be seen in footage almost vertical as it sank into the blue waters Pieces of the wrecked yacht could be seen floating away into the sea following the crash The empty yacht could be seen bobbing up and down while at least two other small boats lurked behind, watching the destruction unfold. The Amore Mio was almost vertical as large slabs of metal floated away, causing the vessel to sink further into the water as onlookers watched on in shock. The wreckage was then seen slowly drifting towards a rock face, causing further damage to the vehicle as it bounced against the surface. Eye-witnesses told local media that the strong currents pulled the boat towards the rocks, which eventually made it crash. Passengers who were rescued from the boat were reportedly left uninjured, but suffered nervous breakdowns as a result of the fright of the boat crashing. Following the incident the Mexican Navy cordoned off the area. It comes after a 10million superyacht smashed into a cruise ship off the Bahamas last month. Footage taken by passengers showed the Aurora yacht veering diagonally towards the massive Allure of the Seas cruise ship while it was docked in Nassau Harbour on December 12. Horrified cruise guests standing at the railing can be heard shouting: 'That's for sure about to hit us. They're hitting us. Oh no they're going to hit us.' The 121ft yacht then smashed into the Royal Caribbean ship with a loud crash, before it scraped along the hull of the 1,187ft cruise liner, accompanied by deafening creaking sounds. The yacht's mast even struck one of the lifeboats on the cruise ship, which ripped off its radar dome and left debris lying on the yacht. But the Allure of the Seas only sustained minimal damage and set off from the Bahamas port with a 40-minute delay. No injuries were reported following the incident, but the Aurora remained docked in Nassau for repairs due to the significant damage it sustained. Were you at the pub when this happened? Punters were left in shock after a man turned up for a New Year's Eve fancy dress party at a pub dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. The unnamed man arrived at the Chiverton Arms, near Blackwater in Cornwall, wearing clothes that closely resembled those worn by the notorious racist hate group. The reveller walked into the pub at around 7pm on Tuesday while covered in white sheets that had a blood drop cross, a primary symbol closely related to the KKK, on the hood. The man's appearance caused a stir among some of the pubgoers, before he was asked to remove the costume by the landlord. A member of the public, who was in the pub on the night, said they were 'so angry and annoyed' to see it. The pubgoer said there were two people dressed in the attire, but just one of them was photographed. They said: 'It's not right and people should not be dressed like that.' They added that staff in the pub were also in fancy dress on the night, although no one appeared to recognise the person was wearing KKK robes. A man was seen wearing white sheets, clearly resembling the costume of the infamous far-right group The landlord of the Chiverton Arms in Blackwater asked the man to remove his costume 'We were in shock at first and couldn't believe it. We spoke to a guy standing near us and he thought it was a game character as some people were dressed as Mario. 'No one seemed to take much notice and they did seem to know people and staff,' they added. The pub asked the individual wearing the costume to remove it. A spokesperson for the pub said: 'I'm the landlord and was made aware that one person was dressed like that and the costume was removed. 'We put up a fancy dress 80s theme for the new year and we can't tell people what to wear. 'We did though tell the person to remove it once we were aware. No complaints were made on the evening for us to deal with.' Devon and Cornwall Police said they had not received any reports about the incident. Previous similar instances across the country have been treated as hate crimes. In 2018, police in Northern Ireland received reports that a gang dressed as the Ku Klux Klan were pictured dressed outside an Islamic Centre in County Down. The incident was reported to the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the force treated it as a hate crime. On the outfit was the distinguishable blood drop cross, the primary symbol related to the Ku Klux Klan group. In October a man dressed up as Manchester arena bomber Salman Abedi was taken to court. David Wootton posted pictures of himself wearing an Arabic-style headdress, with the slogan 'I love Ariana Grande' on his T-shirt, and carrying a rucksack with 'Boom' and 'TNT' written on the front. The disturbing Halloween costume which was captioned 'bet I get kicked out of the party' caused fury on social media, with his friends slamming the stunt. The 40-year-old was arrested and pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message online. Airline tickets will be phased out within the next five years and replaced by biometric scans such as fingerprints and facial or iris recognition, an airline boss has predicted. Riyadh Air chief executive Tony Douglas also believes even phone-based boarding passes will disappear by 2030 with apps becoming the sole method for booking. While physical tickets and boarding passes have been gradually phased out in the past two decades in favour of digital options, paper documents are still available. But Saudi Arabian startup Riyadh Air, which will begin flying this summer, is set to become the world's first airline to bring in a digital-only approach to booking. The airline, owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, recently unveiled plans to launch its own custom-made system specifically designed for smartphones. Mr Douglas, whose airline is ordering up to 200 jets, told the Telegraph: 'What we've designed is something that's got more in common with Uber and Amazon. Tony Douglas (pictured), chief executive officer of Riyadh Air, believes airline tickets will be phased out within the next five years and replaced by biometric scans such as fingerprints 'We're not starting with a legacy system and therefore we don't need to switch. Existing airlines are trying to bridge a gap and it's going to take three to five years for most of them.' ANALYSIS: Switch to digital is fine as long as more is spent on tech infrastructure By PAUL CHARLES Paperwork is almost dead in aviation. Whether it be pilots using iPads in the cockpit, or passengers checking-in via their App, we are seeing the end of paper and the widespread usage of digital assets. If anything, airlines and airports have been quite slow compared with banks and retailers to introduce more app usage for when we travel. Airlines know that they can increase customer loyalty via app, such as giving better fare discounts to their most frequent fliers, or increase revenues by making you choose a particular seat at time of booking, for a fee quickly taken via app payment. Of course, there will always be some passengers who don't want to use an app and are more reassured with printing out their boarding pass but it's now a tiny percentage of those travelling. It's up to airlines and airports to provide more charging facilities on the plane and at the airport as the downside is that phones run out of charge - and many travellers don't have the ability to recharge their phone so easily. We will also see the end of paper passports within ten years as airports introduce eye and facial technology to check you are who you say you are. This also speeds up processing of passengers as our airports get busier. So the switch to digital is fine as long as more resources are spent on providing the tech infrastructure. PAUL CHARLES is chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency Advertisement He claimed the new system would help customers more easily make reservation changes and compared it to how banking apps, online shopping and home delivery have all evolved in the past five years. Mr Douglas added: 'If you return an item, you get your money back. Yet if you book a trip involving a number of partner airlines and try to get a refund on one of the flights it takes 10,000 years because it was never designed with that in mind.' The system being designed with San Francisco-based technology firm Flyr will include a shopping basket function allowing multiple bookings from relatives or colleagues, even when travelling from different cities - and the ability to split or combine payments. It comes after Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary revealed in October 2024 that he wanted to eliminate paper-based boarding passes for the airline's passengers by May 2025. The move, which would make Ryanair the world's first airline to go fully paperless, could mean those without a smartphone will be unable to board one of its flights. Mr O'Leary said at the time: 'We are working towards, from May 1, that everything will be done on the app, nothing will be done on paper any more.' Travel expert Paul Charles told MailOnline today that paperwork is 'almost dead in aviation', although airlines and airports have been 'quite slow compared with banks and retailers to introduce more app usage for when we travel'. Mr Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: 'Airlines know that they can increase customer loyalty via apps, such as giving better fare discounts to their most frequent fliers, or increase revenues by making you choose a particular seat at time of booking, for a fee quickly taken via app payment. 'Of course, there will always be some passengers who don't want to use an app and are more reassured with printing out their boarding pass but it's now a tiny percentage of those travelling. 'It's up to airlines and airports to provide more charging facilities on the plane and at the airport as the downside is that phones run out of charge and many travellers don't have the ability to recharge their phone so easily.' He added that he believed paper passports will also end within ten years as airports introduce eye and facial technology, which 'speeds up processing of passengers as our airports get busier'. Mr Charles concluded: 'The switch to digital is fine as long as more resources are spent on providing the tech infrastructure.' While physical tickets and boarding passes have been gradually phased out in the past two decades in favour of digital options, paper documents are still available (stock photograph) But Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams told MailOnline: 'Any move to make tickets virtual is likely to be met with equanimity by those who are savvy smart phone users, but with dismay by the millions of people, most of them older, who aren't online at all. 'At best it would make it much harder for them to purchase a ticket and at worst it could make it virtually impossible. 'Technological innovation is a wonderful thing and potentially offers cost savings to organisations at a time when money is tight - but it's incumbent on everyone to remember that digital exclusion is still a major problem in our society. 'If organisations want to accelerate a shift to digital then they must also take responsibility for ensuring that those who aren't computer users now and never will be, have good alternative options and aren't simply airbrushed out.' Riyadh Air is planning to unveil a route map in the coming months ahead of its launch, having confirmed an order for 60 Airbus A321neo-family aircraft in October 2024. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary (pictured) revealed in October 2024 that he wanted to eliminate paper-based boarding passes for the airline's passengers by May 2025 The airline also ordered 39 Boeing 787 wide-body jets in 2023 with options for another 33 as part of a wider deal also involving national carrier Saudia. It is also weighing up the industry's largest twin-aisle jets, Boeing 777X and the Airbus A350-1000, and expects to make a decision on this within the coming months. The creation of Riyadh Air by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is part of a broader Saudi strategy to diversify its oil-based economy and boost tourism amid its hopes to become a global aviation hub and attract 100million annual visitors by 2030. Last year, Riyadh Air and Delta Air Lines announced they had entered into a partnership with the goal of operating flights between the US and Saudi Arabia. Joe Biden has been blasted for announcing January 6 committee members as recipients of Presidential Citizen Medals less than 48 hours after the New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks. The president is awarding former Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) the second highest civilian honor. The Presidential Citizens Medals are being given to Cheney and Thompson for their leadership on the congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Trump's senior adviser Jason Miller called the selection for the awards 'pathetic.' 'With attacks happening in the United States and around the world, THIS is how Biden is spending his time today?' Miller wrote on X, referencing the two acts of violence on New Year's Day. First, a suspect drove a car through a crowd in New Orleans before opening fire and killing 15. Just hours later a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, killing one and injuring seven. Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume called Biden's decision 'repulsive'. Referring to the January 6 probe, he said it was 'done by a committee all of whose members were chosen by Nancy Pelosi, and was produced like a TV show. 'There was no cross examination of witnesses,' he added. 'The media fell for it, but it was utterly one-sided. A show trial.' Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo) added: 'President Biden was either going to pardon Liz Cheney or give her an award. She doesnt deserve either. She represents partisanship and divisiveness not Wyoming'. Biden is awarding a total of 20 people with the medals during a White House ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Former Rep. Liz Cheney will be awarded the Presidential Citizens Medals at a White House ceremony on Thursday for her actions on the House Select Committee investigating January 6 Joe Biden is getting in at least one more snub in against Donald Trump with just 18 days left in his presidency The list includes Americans who fought for marriage equality and civil rights, a pioneer for rescuing and treating wounded soldiers, as well as two of the president's longtime friends, and former Senators Ted Kaufman (D-Del) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). 'President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,' the White House said in a statement on the awards. 'The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.' Last year Biden's honorees included people involved in defending the Capitol from rioters. Cheney quickly became one of Trump's most prominent foes in Congress after the Republican voted to impeach him and then agreed to co-lead the House January 6 Select Committee probe. 'Throughout two decades in public service, including as a Congresswoman for Wyoming and Vice Chair of the Committee on the January 6 attack, Liz Cheney has raised her voiceand reached across the aisleto defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency,' Biden wrote of his decision to award the medal to the former lawmaker. 'Her integrity and intrepidness remind us all what is possible if we work together,' he added. While she has not changed party affiliation from Republican, Cheney campaigned for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in her ultimately unsuccessful White House bid against Trump. President-elect Trump has vowed to pardon January 6 prisoners on his first day in office this month. He also said that Cheney and the other eight panel members should be jailed for their investigation that found him at fault for the Capitol attack. President Joe Biden is holding a ceremony for 20 honorees who will receive the second highest civilian honor on Thursday Trump said previously during an interview with NBC's Meet the Press: 'Cheney did something that's inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,' claiming without evidence they 'deleted and destroyed' testimony they collected.' 'Honestly, they should go to jail,' he added. Other than Cheney, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger was the only other Republican on the committee. The Democratic members of the select committee included Chairman Thompson, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Pete Aguilar (Calif.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), and former Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Elaine Luria of Virginia. Biden is reportedly weighing whether he would give preemptive pardons to Cheney, Thompson and the other January 6 panel members amid suggestions Trump will target them in his second term. The terrorist who killed 15 and left dozens injured in the New Orleans attack was living in a run-down trailer park where he kept sheep, chickens and goats after he left the army, it has been revealed. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen born and raised in Texas drove an electric vehicle from Houston to Louisiana to carry out the deadly attack which killed 15 and left at least 35 injured. Jabbar, once an IT specialist with an established career in the military, quickly fell from grace and became a two-time divorcee who lived in a squalid trailer park in Houston, Texas, where he kept farm animals, according to the New York Post. He has also been divorced twice, with each separation leaving him in apparent financial ruin. According to court records, his first wife sued him for child support payments in 2012. And in 2022, amid his second divorce, he said in an email to his ex-wife's lawyer that he had he accumulated over $16,000 in credit card debt paying for court fees and the expenses for a second home. 'I cannot afford the house payment,' he wrote, adding that his real estate business suffered more than $28,000 in losses the previous year. His first wife, Nakedra Jabbar, has since remarried, and she and her new husband were cooperating with investigators, her husband's father, Nelson Marsh Sr., told the New York Post. Jabbar, once an IT specialist with an established career in the military, quickly fell from grace and became a two-time divorcee who lived in a squalid trailer park in Houston, Texas, where he kept farm animals (pictured) A drone view shows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Harris County law enforcement officials as they surround a residence in an armored vehicle in north Houston, Texas, U.S., January 1, 2025 The terrorist lived in Houston, Texas Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S citizen, drove a rental truck brandishing an ISIS flag into the crowd on Bourbon Street Wednesday morning, killing at least 15 people Other legal woes came in the form of arrests - once in Texas for theft in 2002, and once in 2005 for driving without a license. He served in active duty from Mark 2007 until January 2015, before becoming a reservist until July 2020, according to military records reviewed by the New York Post. The terrorist was deployed to Afghanistan between February 2009 and January 2010, leaving the service as a staff sergeant. The year he left the army, he posted a video on YouTube to promote his real-estate business. In it, a clean-shaven Jabbar described himself as a reliable, trustworthy native Texan who spent a decade in the military, which taught him 'the meaning of great service.' Jabbar traveled to Egypt for 10 days last year, officials told the Post. His neighbours told the New York Post that they knew little about him. One man, Francois Venegas said Jabbar was a 'simple person' who kept to himself, though they would occasionally exchange words on the street. In a social media post, the FBI stated the activity in North Houston is 'related to this morning's New Orleans attack' and asked residents to avoid the area Officials confirmed Jabbar had attached an ISIS flag to the truck he used to plow through the crowd '[He was] pretty quietJust walking, [he would say] 'hello,' 'hola,' and that was it,' Venegas said. Jabbar's truck turned on to Bourbon Street, maneuvered past a NOLA police department vehicle, then rammed into a crowd of pedestrians. After mowing down the revelers, he got out of the car and started shooting, before he was shot himself by police. The ordeal is being probed as a terror attack. The EV truck is a particularly deadly weapon with its large height and weight and the ability to go from zero to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds. New Orleans police said the mechanical barricades installed at the intersection were malfunctioning, and they placed other barriers and police cars at parts of Bourbon Street for the holiday. 'We knew these were malfunctioning. So we did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it,' Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. 'This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target. We did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around.' Officials confirmed Jabbar had attached an ISIS flag to the truck he used to plow through the crowd. 'An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations,' the FBI said. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch joined Elon Musk in demanding a new probe into the UK's 'rape gang scandal' today, after the X owner reignited his feud with the PM. Ms Badenoch and the billionaire Trump advisor jumped on a decision by Labour not to back a new probe into allegations of abuse in Oldham. The X owner used the platform to allege that the Prime Minister allowed rape gangs to 'exploit young girls without facing justice' when he was England and Wales' top prosecutor. He also alleged that Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips was refusing to investigate the gangs because it would lead back to the PM's time as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. Mr Musk, who also shared his backing for far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, wrote that she 'deserves to be in prison', after she denied requests from Oldham Council to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in the town. Ms Badenoch joined him and Reform UK figures including Nigel Farage by leaned into the row on social media, tweeting: 'The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. 'Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice.' However, Mr Farage, whose party has been linked to a $100million donated from Mr Musk, replied: 'Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level.' Ms Badenoch and the billionaire Trump advisor jumped on a decision by Labour not to back a new probe into allegations of abuse in Oldham. The X owner used the platform to allege that the Prime Minister allowed rape gangs to ' exploit young girls without facing justice' when he was England and Wales' top prosecutor. Ms Badenoch joined him and Reform UK figures including Nigel Farage by leaned into the row on social media, tweeting: 'The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. Last January a report found young girls were 'left at the mercy' of paedophile grooming gangs for years in Rochdale because of failings by senior police and council bosses. The damning 173-page review covers 2004 to 2013 and sets out multiple failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and apparent local authority indifference to the plight of hundreds of youngsters, mainly white girls from poor backgrounds, all identified as potential victims of abuse in Rochdale by Asian men. Successive police operations were launched, but these were insufficiently resourced to match the scale of the widespread organised exploitation within the area. The report follows reports by the same authors on grooming in Manchester and Oldham, which found authorities had again failed children, leaving them in the clutches of paedophiles. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022, described the sexual abuse of children as an 'epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake'. Led by Professor Alexis Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol. In November last year, Professor Jay said she felt 'frustrated' that none of the probe's 20 recommendations had been implemented more than two years after its conclusion. In a letter to the council, Ms Phillips said she believes it is 'for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene'. An Oldham Council spokesman said: 'Survivors sit at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation. Whatever happens in terms of future inquiries, we have promised them that their wishes will be paramount, and we will not renege on that pledge.' Mr Musk's attack came as he lined up to support Robinson, the diminutive far-right agitator whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The English Defence league co-founder was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October after admitting 10 beaches of a High Court injunction barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee. However, Mr Farage, whose party has been linked to a $100million donated from Mr Musk, replied: 'Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level.' He also alleged that Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips was refusing to investigate the gangs because it would lead back to the PM's time as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. However, his attack came as he lined up to support Robinson, the diminutive far-right agitator whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. During the unrest over the summer, billionaire Musk engaged with posts by Robinson, suggesting that civil war in the UK was 'inevitable'. He also retweeted a fake Daily Telegraph headline suggesting rioters would be sent to detention camps in the Falkland Islands. Writing on X last night Mr Musk said: 'In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service's approval for the police to charge suspects. 'Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013.' He added: 'Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Stamer (sic). The real reason she's refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Stamer (sic) (head of the CPS at the time).' However, Sir Keir started the original investigation into gangs in Rochdale in 2012, the year before he left office as DPP. He also tweeted 'free Tommy Robinson' and retweeted a follower who claimed Robinson was a 'political prisoner', a viewpoint held by many of the incarcerated Englishman's supporters. Mr Musk's support for Robinson could cause some unhappiness in the Reform Party. Reports have suggested that he is preparing to hand it a war chest of up to $100million (79million). But party leader Nigel Farage has previously distanced himself from Mr Robinson, who was once a political adviser to Gerard batten, Mr Farage's successor as leader of Ukip. It comes weeks after Mr Musk, a close advisor to incoming US president Donald Trump, voiced his support for the German far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD). Sir keir was director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. Robinson was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October after admitting 10 beaches of a High Court injunction barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee. A Home Office study published in 2020 that found child sexual abuse gangs are most commonly made up of white men. Mr Musk has spent considerable time attacking Sir Keir since Labour came to power. Last week he attacked the party over its economic plans for the UK. Responding to a story about Scottish politicians urging him to invest in a Tesla gigafactory, the billionaire posted on X: 'Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration.' Downing Street insisted Sir Keir was running an 'unashamedly' pro-growth government, but refused to criticise Mr Musk directly. Asked about Mr Musk's view about the government being anti-business, the PM's spokesman said: 'We look forward to working with President-elect Trump and indeed his team to progress the UK-US special relationship, and particularly the UK-US trade and investment relationship, which supports hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs both sides of the Atlantic, and tens of billion pounds of investment and trade.' He added: 'I'm not going to kind of get into commentary on individual comments, but if you look at what's happened since the election, you've seen the 63 billion of additional investment from the Investment Summit. 'You've seen the Government respond to some of the businesses' key concerns in the UK, which is lack of stability, and the Government's brought back that stability, both politically and economically.' Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Musk's latest comments today. 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Herriman City Police Department discovered the remains of Summer Tatiana Roney, 30, in the backseat of her boyfriend Jacob Holt Johnson's car at a 7-Eleven around midnight on Tuesday as part of a DUI investigation. Roney's body had 'significant injuries and trauma that would be consistent with a homicide,' according to a probable cause statement, viewed by Fox 13 Now. Johnson, 40, was taken to the Saratoga Springs Police Department - which originally requested help with the investigation - for questioning, where he admitted the pair were in an intimate relationship and they had had an argument. He told police that their relationship was 'over,' according to Fox 13 Now. He also admitted Roney had 'physical trauma' and that he had 'put her in the vehicle,' according to court documents. The father-of-two did not elaborate on how his girlfriend got the wounds. He was booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail without bail on a first-degree murder charge. It is unclear if he has entered a plea at this time. Court records show Johnson had previously pleaded guilty to DUI charges, as well as felony drug possession and aggravated robbery, among others. The body of Summer Tatiana Roney, 30, (pictured) was found in the backseat of her boyfriend Jacob Johnson's car after he was stopped by Herriman City Police Department at a 7-Eleven around midnight on Tuesday as part of a DUI investigation Johnson (pictured) was booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail without bail on a first-degree murder charge. He is a father of two While Johnson, 40, spoke with officers, they discovered Roney's body in the backseat with 'significant injuries and trauma that would be consistent with a homicide,' according to a probable cause statement Roney's family remembered the young woman as a 'vibrant, kind, and loving soul who touched the lives of everyone she met.' 'She was deeply loved by her friends, family, and coworkers, who will always remember her infectious personality and the joy she brought into their lives,' a statement, released through their attorney, reads, according to ABC 4. 'This senseless act has left an unfillable void in our hearts.' Michelle Kellie Tischner, took to Facebook to vow to 'fight for you even when you're on the other side.' 'I sure could use one of your long hugs right now,' Tischner wrote. A friend, Karina Bunch, also took to the social media platform to honor Roney, writing: 'I have such a fun time hanging out with you; you always make me laugh when Im sad. You always give me advice, and I have to say, you kept me out of trouble so many times. 'Youre a sweet soul, so funny, and you always know how to make people laugh around you. Rest in peace, my beautiful friend.' While in questioning, he admitted the pair were in an intimate relationship and they had had an argument. He told police that their relationship was 'over,' and admitted Roney (pictured) had physical trauma and that he placed her in the car Roney's family remembered the young woman as a 'vibrant, kind and loving soul who touched the lives of everyone she met' (pictured: Roney with a friend) 'She was deeply loved by her friends, family, and coworkers, who will always remember her infectious personality and the joy she brought into their lives,' a family statement read (pictured: Roney with a friend) Court records show Johnson (pictured) had previously pleaded guilty to DUI charges, as well as felony drug possession and aggravated robbery, among others Another friend, Stephen Collins, who posted photos of Johnson, blasted the father, writing: 'How dare you be four times this little woman's size and beat her the way you did!!?? I am glad you were stopped by police for a DUI cause god knows where you were going to take her body. 'We will be by her side at every court hearing and make sure your a** is going to rot past hell. You belong on the death penalty and I hope you die, you piece of s**t.' Another pal, Kay White, said she hoped Roney was 'shining bright in the sky and looking down on all of us.' 'You will forever be loved and missed. You were loved by so many,' she wrote on Facebook. 'Even when you didn't feel like you were, I can promise you were so, so loved.' A pink-haired 14-year-old girl appeared in court after allegedly stabbing her stepfather to death during an argument. The unidentified teen was arrested on Monday at her family home in San Antonio, Texas, after police were called to reports of a stabbing. San Antonio Police officers arrived at the scene on the 300 block of Stutts Drive on the East Side around 6:20 pm and found the girl's stepfather, Ray Allen Hardy Jr., 53, with stab wounds to his neck and face. The fatal attack occurred after the girl's unnamed mother called her daughter into a room where she and Hardy had a verbal altercation, police said. It is unclear what the alleged dispute was about. Hardy was pronounced dead at the scene. The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office said he died from sharp force injuries. Because the teenager, who was found inside another home on the property, has no family or guardian to be released to, she was detained, KENS 5 reported. She was taken into custody for charges related to family violence and charged with murder. The San Antonio Police Department said she cooperated with authorities. A pink-haired 14-year-old girl has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing her stepfather, Ray Allen Hardy Jr., 53, to death on Monday evening in San Antonio, Texas The fatal incident occurred after the girl's unnamed mother called her daughter into a room while she and Hardy had a verbal altercation, police said A neighbor told the outlet they were shocked by the news, adding that the neighborhood is typically safe. 'It's just shocking that that happened. I just can't believe he is the victim,' they said. Her next detention hearing is scheduled for January 15. It is unclear if she has entered a plea at this time. DailyMail.com contacted the San Antonio Police Department for comment. In other news, a pre-teen from Nevada was recently accused of stabbing her father to death after an argument over her punishment for running away earlier in the day. North Las Vegas Police arrested the 12-year-old girl after responding to a call from a concerned family member about a possible homicide on Friday. Police arrived at an apartment in the 3400 block of Mercury Street around 9.30pm and discovered the uninjured juvenile and her father, James Waldie, 55, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The girl, whose name is not being released, initially claimed someone broke into their home and killed her dad, but ultimately confessed to the stabbing, cops said. Because the teenager, who was found inside another home on the property, has no family or guardian to be released to, she was detained Detectives interviewed the daughter who provided information about a disagreement with her father earlier that evening. The disagreement reportedly involved disciplinary action taken by the father,' North Las Vegas Police Lieutenant Ann Taylor said. 'The juvenile made different claims regarding what had occurred that night but ultimately confessed that she had stabbed her father after becoming upset with him.' Waldie had called police earlier in the day to report his daughter had run away for a second time this month. Police located the girl and returned her home where she would go on to allegedly kill her father after a fight over her punishment. The investigation revealed a history of domestic issues and police calls to the family home leading up to the homicide. On December 7, officers responded to a report of a run away juvenile who was ultimately located and returned home safely. Later in the month, officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at the apartment where police determined the girl had battered her father causing visible injuries which led to her arrest on December 13. An Israeli hostage who was set to be freed under a new exchange deal allegedly attempted suicide after talks collapsed, his Islamic Jihad captors claimed. Abu Hamza, a spokesperson for the movement's armed wing said in a video posted to Telegram on Thursday that the hostage had tried to take his own life three days ago due to his psychological state, without going into more details. One of the group's medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying, the Al Quds Brigades spokesperson added, but failed to confirm the hostage's identity or current condition. Israel has previously condemned terrorist groups for conducting 'psychological warfare' by using hostages and unverified claims about their welfare. Hamza accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of setting new conditions that had led to 'the failure and delay' of negotiations for the hostage's release. The man had been scheduled to be released with other hostages under the conditions of the first stage of an exchange deal with Israel, the Islamic Jihad spokesman added. He did not specify when the hostage had been scheduled to be released or under which deal. Arab mediators' efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire in Gaza, under a possible deal that would also see the release of Israeli hostages in return for the freedom of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Israel has previously condemned terrorist groups for conducting 'psychological warfare' by using hostages and unverified claims about their welfare. Pictured: Relatives of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants gather for a demonstration calling upon the US to intervene for their release, outside the US Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv on December 12, 2024 Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, December 7, 2024 Israeli soldiers are seen in a tunnel that the military says Hamas militants used to attack the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, on December 15, 2023 Islamic Jihad's armed wing had issued a decision to tighten the security and safety measures for the hostages, Hamza said. In July, Islamic Jihad's armed wing said some Israeli hostages had tried to kill themselves after it started treating them in what it said was the same way that Israel treated Palestinian prisoners. 'We will keep treating Israeli hostages the same way Israel treats our prisoners,' Hamza said at that time. Israel has dismissed accusations that it mistreats Palestinian prisoners. It comes after Palestinian terror group Hamas partially rejected a list of hostages that Israel insists must be released in the first phase of any ceasefire deal, according to a Monday report. Kan news, citing an unnamed Palestinian source, said Hamas is willing to release 22 of the 34 hostages on the list, but is refusing to agree to the release of the other 12. Instead, the report stated, the group offered to release 22 living hostages and 12 bodies during the first phase of a potential deal. Israel turned down the offer and made it clear that it would only accept living hostages during the initial stage of a deal, the report continued. Israel and the terror group have repeatedly traded blame for the latest failure to reach an agreement after a spate of renewed negotiations, nearly 15 months after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 people hostage during its October 7, 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip - including 34 confirmed dead. During a high-intensity meeting last week, Netanyahu defiantly said that Israel will resume fighting even after a hostage deal comes around. Smoke rises from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, December 16, 2024 Protesters raise placards and wave flags during an anti-government protest demanding action for the release of Israelis held hostage in Gaza on December 7, 2024 'If there is a deal - and I hope there will be - Israel will return to fighting afterward,' Channel 12 quoted Netanyahu as saying. 'There is no point in pretending otherwise because returning to fighting is needed in order to complete the goals of the war. Saying this does not thwart a deal, it encourages a deal.' The Israeli TV channel also reported Monday that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposes a deal that would end the war, met last week with the families of hostages and told them he couldn't be sure their loved ones would return alive. Families had requested the meeting in light of Smotrich's ongoing rejection of a deal, the report said. When challenged by devastated families who raised concerns that time was running out for the still-living hostages, Smotrich responded: 'I can't guarantee to you that we will bring them back alive'. During the meeting, Smotrich reportedly also said he was 'not prepared to bring back bodies in return for terrorists' - a reference to Palestinian security prisoners who would be released as part of a hostage deal. Last year, Hamas' military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, announced that they managed to rescue an Israeli prisoner who had attempted suicide in captivity. 'We rescued, a few days ago, in the final moments, one of the enemy's prisoners after he attempted suicide in his place of captivity,' the armed wing said in a statement on Telegram. They added: 'We hold the enemy and (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu personally responsible for the deteriorating physical and mental health of some of the enemy's prisoners.' Militants led by Gaza's ruling Hamas movement killed 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage in an attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad also took part in the assault. The military campaign that Israel launched in response has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the coastal enclave. Advertisement This is the disturbing moment 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar is shot dead by police after slaughtering 14 people on the streets of New Orleans. The FBI is still conducting its investigation and on Thursday released new images of Jabbar taken just one hour prior to the mass slaying, hoping it will prompt new leads from members of the public. Jabbar rammed his rental truck through revelers on Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Years Day, killing 14 and leaving dozens more injured. Alongside the new images of Jabbar, they also released an image of a cooler that they say he loaded with IEDs and left on Bourbon Street in the Louisiana City. Our live coverage has now ended but for a full recap see below A California housekeeper was finally caught after allegedly scamming, kidnapping and assaulting a former client while posing as an elderly donor for a holiday toy drive. Olga Mendez, 44, was arrested on Friday and charged with kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats related to the nightmarish incident, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office. Mendez, of Menifee, was also booked for two unrelated warrants during her Friday arrest. The former housekeeper for Temecula resident Erin Quinn posed as an elderly woman wanting to donate a heap of toys to a local holiday drive. Quinn, a mother of two, was lured to a home in Winchester on the premise of collecting the toys on December 18, KTLA reported. She said received a text message from an anonymous number that claimed to be from an older woman named 'Connie' wishing to donate gifts. Quinn arrived at the address and began to walk toward the home before receiving another message stating that someone would bring the toys to her car. As she got back into her vehicle, Quinn said she was grabbed from behind by Mendez, who began yanking her hair and tasering her. Olga Mendez, 44, was arrested on Friday and charged with kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and criminal threats, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office The former housekeeper for Temecula resident Erin Quinn posed as an elderly woman wanting to donate a heap of toys to a local holiday drive Quinn, a mother of two, was lured to a home in Winchester on the premise of collecting the toys on December 18. Pictured: The Winchester neighborhood where Erin Quinn was kidnapped Quinn was ordered by the woman to drive, but the mom ended up crashing her car after about 25 minutes due to the pain of being tasered around 30 times. She eventually managed to escape her vehicle and the women began tussling on the side of the road - with Quinn even biting off part of her attacker's finger. 'I kicked her as hard as I could,' she explained. 'She tried to put her fingers in my mouth, maybe in an attempt to rip my mouth open, and in a complete panic, I bit part of a portion of her finger off in self-defense because I didn't know what else to do.' In a stunning twist, Quinn said that she recognized her assailant as a former housekeeper. She claimed that Mendez had disguised herself in a blonde wig. The attacker fled the scene when a bystander rushed over to help. 'My brain was jolting so bad and my body was shutting down and I thought either I was going to die or I was going to pass out,' Quinn said. Quinn said received a text message from an anonymous number that claimed to be from an older woman named 'Connie' wishing to donate gifts She arrived at the address and began to walk up to the home before receiving another message stating someone would bring the toys to her car Quinn said her attacker climbed into her car and began tasering her, causing her to crash She claimed that the woman had disguised herself in a blonde wig 'I am completely terrified,' Quinn said. 'I don't know why she would do this.' Quinn was left with bruising on her limbs, taser burns to her scalp, missing clumps of hair and broken nails. 'My entire world has been turned upside down!' she wrote on a GoFundMe set up to cover the cost of her bills while she takes time to recover. 'All I was trying to do was help with the Christmas toy drive and thought I'd be able to stop by really quick to pick up these presents before I started my workday. 'I was completely set up (there were no presents) and when I got back into my vehicle, I had no idea someone was waiting for me, ready to attack.' She believes her attacker, who she has not spoken to for nine months, was hoping to take her over the border. 'I strongly believe that her plan was to kidnap me and take me to Mexico for either ransom or sale,' Quinn added. She said she and her mother had previously supported the suspect by providing housing and money for her and her daughter. The victim sustained bruises from the attack, which continued after she crashed her car She described how she was forced to bite off part of her attacker's finger in a desperate bid to escape Quinn said the culprit is a former housekeeper who she believes had plans to take her to Mexico for ransom money Following Mendez's arrest, Quinn rook to social media to share her gratitude. 'One thing I will never lose is my fight and passion for life!' she wrote in a December 29 Facebook post. 'I love the community I live in and Im feeling very very blessed!!!' Mendez's next court appearance is scheduled for January 10. New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick was previously investigated for hitting pedestrians with her car in the same area where a deadly terror attack took place. The superintendent was driving in the city's French Quarter when she struck a man and woman, leaving the female with minor injuries. The August crash took place in the same district as the Ford F-150 Lightning terror attack which killed 15 people earlier this week, although Kirkpatrick's collision was accidental. US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, has been identified as the driver who plowed into the crowds on Bourbon Street as they were out celebrating the New Year. An additional 30 people were left injured following the deadly strike and Jabbar was killed at the scene. He used a rented Ford electric vehicle packed with explosives and an ISIS flag to carry out the massacre, but is understood not to have acted alone. It comes five months after Kirkpatrick was involved in the collision with two pedestrians. The superintendent told NOLA that she was returning from visiting an injured officer in the hospital when she made a left hand turn and failed to spot the two people. New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick was previously investigated for hitting pedestrians with her car in the same area where a deadly terror attack took place 'Im so sorry for what happened last night,' she told the outlet the day after. 'Im so grateful that the two people involved really are going to be fine. Just terribly sorry. 'It is under investigation, and when its completely finished, Im going to ask for the state patrol to look at that investigation as well. Again, terribly sorry for the whole event.' Kirkpatrick was not under the influence at the time of the crash and did not face any charges. However, it was not the first time she has been embroiled in a controversy. The 65-year-old was fired from her role as the first ever female police chief for the California city of Oakland three years after she took on the position. Kirkpatrick later successfully sued the department, claiming she had been ousted for exposing corruption and was awarded $1.5 million for wrongful termination. In 2023, she was hired by New Orleans Police Department. In the aftermath of Wednesday's fatal attack, Kirkpatrick explained that mechanical barricades installed at the intersection were malfunctioning. She is overseeing the investigation into the deadly attack by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, which left 15 people dead and 30 injured Officials confirmed Jabbar had attached an ISIS flag to the truck he used to plow through the crowd of revelers who were out celebrating New Year's Eve in the city's French Quarter She said that other barriers and police cars were placed at parts of Bourbon Street for the holiday. 'We knew these were malfunctioning. So we did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it,' Kirkpatrick said. 'This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target. We did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around.' Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she is certain 'multiple people' were involved in the attack. It has since emerged that the man responsible for a Tesla CyberTruck explosion outside a Trump hote in Las Vegas served at the same army base as New Orleans suspect Jabbar. Law enforcement officers raided a home belonging Matthew Livelsberger, 37, from Colorado Springs on Wednesday night in connection with the CyberTruck explosion. The person behind the wheel was the sole fatality from the attack, which was largely contained by the hulking vehicle. In a press conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the car arrived in Las Vegas at 7.30am. The explosion took place at 8.40am in the valet area outside the hotel. Jabbar used a rented Ford electric vehicle packed with explosives and an ISIS flag to carry out the massacre, but is understood not to have acted alone Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. Police revealed on Wednesday afternoon that they are currently investigating potential links and have not ruled anything out yet. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. 'We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Woke comedian Michelle Buteau has slammed Dave Chappelle and accused him of profiting from 'dangerous' transgender jokes that 'make people feel unsafe'. During her own Netflix special Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall, which premiered on Tuesday, she roasted the controversial comic's past performances that have aired on the streaming giant. 'I don't think we'll run into Dave because he's the GOAT,' she said. 'And he is the GOAT, if that means "going off about trans people."' 'Dave, it's not funny. It's dangerous,' she continued. 'I can't believe somebody would make millions and millions of dollars for making people feel unsafe. That is so wild to me, truly.' Buteau emphasized her own approach to inclusive comedy referring to a joke about her 'beautiful, Black lesbian friend' - which she insisted proves comedians can be funny without 'disparaging a whole community.' 'What I'm saying is it can be done. It can be done. We can tell jokes and stories and not disparage a whole community,' Buteau said. 'We can do that, we can make it funny. You just have to work at it, right? 'So if you guys ever run into Dave Chappelle, can you let him know that s***? I don't think he knows that s***.' The feud follows Chappelle's history of controversial material, specifically regarding his ongoing topic of transgender people. Woke comedian Michelle Buteau has scolded Dave Chappelle, accusing him of profiting from 'dangerous' transgender jokes that 'make people feel unsafe' The feud follows Chappelle's history of controversial material, specifically regarding transgender people In his 2023 special 'The Dreamer,' Chappelle compared trans identity to Jim Carrey's method acting. He also slammed trans protesters who claimed his transphobic jokes caused violence against them, but then turned up to his show and became violent in the crowd. The comedian's show in Minneapolis in 2022 was forced to change venues because of the backlash from the community. And while Chappelle was met with a line of fans and a standing ovation at the Varsity Theater, he was also met with violence. In an episode of his podcast, 'The Midnight Miracle' with co-hosts Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, Chapelle said the protesters threw eggs at him, yelled for him to go home and even threw a barricade at the crowd. He pointed out the hypocrisy of protesters who have blamed transphobes and those speaking out against trans for recent violence against the trans community, yet are now causing violence themselves. Chappelle also drew a backlash in 2021 for material in his Netflix comedy special 'The Closer' that some in the LGBTQ+ community said ridiculed transgender people. His supporters viewed it as a cry against cancel culture. 'The Closer' even sparked employee walkouts at Netflix. 'Dave, it's not funny. It's dangerous,' Buteau (pictured) said of Chappelle's previous remarks Chappelle (pictured) also drew a backlash in 2021 for material in his Netflix comedy special 'The Closer' that some in the LGBTQ+ community said ridiculed transgender people. His supporters viewed it as a cry against cancel culture Speaking to USA Today, Buteau doubled down on her criticism. 'Im not saying you cant say things Im just saying, "Can you make it funny?" Because it doesnt feel funny,' Buteau said. 'Youre hurting people and youre making it dangerous. And its not just Chappelle its part of the culture that I dont understand. When people say, "We cant do what we used to do." Yeah! Slavery used to be legal, you guys. Sometimes weve got to move forward, and Im sorry if its different, but wrap your little mind around it.' She even compared resistance to changing comedy styles to defending slavery. 'When people say, "We can't do what we used to do." Yeah! Slavery used to be legal, you guys. Sometimes we've got to move forward, and I'm sorry if it's different, but wrap your little mind around it,' she added. 'Catwoman' Jocelyn Wildenstein was facing arrest at the time of her death for ignoring multiple court orders related to an unpaid $344,000 debt, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Judge Migna Sanchez-Llorens issued a writ of bodily attachment after the plastic surgery-loving socialite failed to attend an October 23 contempt hearing in Miami. The shocking order directed sheriffs across the Sunshine State to take 84-year-old Wildenstein into custody and even lock her up in jail until she could be taken to court. Wildenstein had reportedly taken up temporary residence in Paris when she died in her sleep Tuesday from a pulmonary embolism. It's unclear whether she was planning to return to the US where she also faced being booted out of her Miami Beach apartment in a separate eviction suit filed just weeks ago. Court records obtained by DailyMail.com reveal that Wildenstein allegedly owed Regal Jewelry and Gift Shop $268,000 for gems she never returned to them, plus a further $75,928 in interest. The debt dates back to her 2018 bankruptcy case but when it went unpaid the firm took further legal action in Miami, where she's been living for the past several years. When Wildenstein blew through deadlines to hand over documents and schedule a deposition, the firm's lawyers asked the court to hold her in contempt. Late socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein was last seen looking healthy on December 18 in Paris. She had been facing arrest over unpaid debts at the time of her death on New Year's Eve, DailyMail.com can reveal Wildenstein, who was once the wealthiest people in the world after scoring her infamous divorce settlement, died at the age of 84 Judge Sanchez-Llorens wrote on November 4: 'Defendant may be confined in the Miami-Dade County Jail until the earliest possible time that she can be brought before the Court. 'However, Defendant may be released upon the posting of a bond in the amount of $1,000.00.' A case management conference was scheduled for January 14 but it's uncertain whether it was going to proceed after her lawyer, David Valero, withdrew from proceedings last month. Valero responded via email: 'I am sorry but I cannot comment on this matter'. Had Wildenstein ended up behind bars it would have been the second high profile arrest for the free-spending octogenarian who was famously locked up for clawing boyfriend Lloyd Klein in the face. The pair later patched up their differences and rejoiced when the case was dismissed before announcing their 2017 engagement in an interview with DailyMail.com. Mom-of-two Wildenstein was once one of the wealthiest divorcees on the planet after she bagged a $2.5 billion settlement after splitting from her art dealer ex-husband Alec Wildenstein in 1999. She was rumored to spend as much as $1million until a shocking bankruptcy filing revealed that she had nothing left in her checking account and was surviving on $900 per month in social security benefits. Court records obtained by DailyMail.com reveal a court-ordered arrest of Wildenstein who allegedly owed Regal Jewelry and Gift Shop $268,000 for gems she never returned to them, plus a further $75,928 in interest Jocelyn Wildenstein's longtime partner Lloyd Klein described finding her unresponsive and revealed the Swiss socialite died while taking a nap on Tuesday in Paris Wildenstein had been living in Miami for the past several years with longtime fiance Lloyd Klein. They were pictured by DailyMail.com enjoying a luxury beach getaway in Miami Beach last August Wildenstein's opulent New York residence, comprising three adjoining apartments in the swank Trump World Tower, was sold off to settle debts totaling $6.38million. But her housing woes continued in the Sunshine State where earlier this year she was kicked out of a $4,000-per-month Miami Beach apartment Klein had leased for her. According to an October 2023 complaint, the couple owed $12,000 in unpaid rent on the pricey two-bed property a block from the ocean. Fashion designer Klein, 57, clapped back in his counter-filing, insisting the property had 'significant mold damages and gaping holes in the ceiling'. 'The condition of the property was such that the rental value of the property was not what the defendant bargained for defendant should not be obligated to pay rent under the lease,' he added. A judge ruled that was not sufficient grounds to withhold rent and an eviction notice was served in April. Jocelyn won a $2.5billion settlement from the divorce from Alec Wildenstein with a $100million payment each year thereafter. But the payments stopped in 2015 when his family cut her off, she claimed Jocelyn rose to international fame amid her divorce from renowned art dealer Alec in the 1990s. She claims his infidelity led her to file for divorce More recently, Wildenstein appeared to have taken up residence at another Miami Beach property under a complicated legal arrangement. According to a December 12 lawsuit, her $800,000 condo was owned by an entity named Apartment Inc., which described itself as trustee of the Jocelyn Trust. She was granted permission to live there so long as she covered the taxes, maintenance and utilities, but the complaint said she failed to do so. The court never received any reply from Wildenstein, who looked to be happy, healthy and in good spirits when she was last seen publicly on a date night with Klein in Paris on December 18. The Swiss-born star came from humble origins before she wed Wildenstein, the son of the French art dealer and horse breeder Daniel Wildenstein, in 1978. Wildenstein, pictured in her youth, somehow managed to squander her fortune after years of tinkering with her face and spending on countless luxuries The socialite earned the nickname 'Catwoman' because she reportedly had many facial cosmetic procedures in the hopes of resembling a cat. She is seen left in 1998 and right in 2005 He filed for divorce in his homeland hoping Jocelyn was less likely to win a significant divorce settlement but she walked away with a reported $2.5billion plus a pledge to pay her $100million per year for 13 years. Her ex-husband's family cut off the payments in 2015, however, sending her finances into a spiral. Despite obtaining more wealth than most people could ever imagine, Wildenstein managed to fritter it away through extravagant purchases on plastic surgery, clothing, jewels, art and even tens of thousands of dollars in annual phone bills. Court records show a judgment in the ongoing debt case was filed back in 2021 Court documents show Wildenstein appeared to have taken up residence in this Miami Beach property under a complicated legal arrangement Wildenstein's former opulent New York residence, comprising three adjoining apartments in the swank Trump World Tower, was sold off to settle debts totaling $6.38million. She once claimed that the vast majority of her wealth disappeared because one of the paintings that was part of the trust set up for her in the divorce settlement, attributed to Diego Velazquez, turned out to be a forgery. Meanwhile a Cezanne that was expected to go for around $35million on auction only sold for $4.7million, she told the New York Post. Despite the obvious facial surgeries that dramatically changed her face that earned her the moniker 'catwoman,' Wildenstein routinely denied going under the knife. She and Klein never got around to marrying but the pair were inseparable. 'She died in her sleep very peacefully,' he told People magazine in the wake of her passing. 'It's very sad. It's extremely sad. It's extremely sad to lay down with your other half that I know for 21 years and waiting to celebrate New Year's Eve and to find her cold.' President-elect Donald Trump's pick for national security advisor is calling for the U.S. to close the border after the deadly terror attack in New Orleans early New Year's Day. In an interview Thursday morning, Mike Waltz, who has been tapped as a key figure in the incoming administration, said that Trump has been kept informed. 'We've got to take a hard look at our defenses. First and foremost, close our border where we've had over 300 people on the terrorist watch list traverse our border in the last years,' Waltz said. His comments come after Trump also zeroed in on the border following the horrific attack that left 15 dead. The FBI identified the driver in the attack as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas. Investigators do not believe he acted alone. A night of celebration in New Orleans quickly turned into chaos and terror when Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd out welcoming the new year on busy Bourbon Street before he was killed in a shootout with police. The rented truck was loaded with weapons and one 'potential' improvised explosive device. An Islamic State flag was found in the trailer. On Thursday, Waltz said terrorists around the world 'didn't get the memo that the war on terror is over. 'They still hate us. They are plotting and planning to attack us. And we have to be on maximum guard,' he said. Incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz called for the U.S. to close the border following the New Orleans terror attack on New Year's Day Waltz said while the U.S. needs to have a defensive aspect, he also called for an 'offensive aspect, and taking a hard look at our strategy overseas.' The Florida congressman said the U.S. needs to look at its posturing for intelligence operatives to 'keep a lid on ISIS, Al-Qaeda and others.' Waltz praised law enforcement for their response to the attack but said there was a failure in it having not been prevented. 'We need to look at whether we had intel indicators. We need to look at how he was radicalized online,' he said. The incoming national security advisor did note that it not yet clear who Jabbar may have been in contact with from overseas, or if the attack was completely homegrown. 'I can't emphasize enough: close the border. Secure our sovereignty,' Waltz repeated. 'The entire world knows that we have an open border. They intend to hit us, and they are pushing people into our interior to do just that,' he said. He claimed that if the U.S. is 'looking internally' it can't 'be defending ourselves abroad.' Police have identified the killer as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. Army veteran who was born in Texas and was inspired by ISIS to conduct the vehicle attack on people out celebrating on Bourbon Street The rented white truck used in the attack which left 15 dead on New Year's Day in New Orleans His remarks come as Trump has also seized on the U.S. border despite the investigation being ongoing and the attacker being identified as a U.S.-born citizen. 'This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job,' the 78-year-old wrote in a social media post just after midnight Tuesday. The president-elect claimed that the U.S. is 'breaking down' as he prepares to return to office later this month. 'With the Biden Open Borders Policy I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe,' he added in another Truth Social post Tuesday morning. FBI agents at the scene of the early morning New Year's Day attack on revelers and workers out late on Bourbon Street, New Orleans famous party district A White House spokesperson said that President Biden would be convening members of his homeland security team in the White House Situation Room Tuesday afternoon to receive an update on the investigation into the New Orleans attack. He addressed the terror attack Wednesday night from Camp David where he reiterated that the attacker was a Texas-born American inspired by ISIS and urged 'no one should jump to conclusions.' Biden also said investigators were looking into any possible connections between the attack in New Orleans and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside Trump's Las Vegas hotel. Two children were orphaned after a single-vehicle rollover crash on New Years Day morning killed their parents, the Colorado State Patrol reported. The crash occurred around 9:46 a.m. on U.S. Highway 36 near Lefthand Canyon Drive in Altona, north of Boulder. According to the agency's press release, a northbound Jeep crossed the center grass median, rolled over, and came to rest in the southbound lanes of the highway. The driver and an adult passenger, both parents of the two other passengers, were pronounced dead at the scene. Two children, ages 11 and 16, sustained moderate injuries and were transported to a local hospital for treatment. The highway was shut down in both directions between Nelson Road and Neva Road following the crash. By 2:40 p.m., northbound lanes had reopened, but southbound lanes remained closed at Lefthand Canyon Drive. The identities of the victims have not yet been released, as the investigation is still underway. This tragic incident comes after a Missouri mother of five was struck by a train and killed after her car got stuck on the tracks in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve. Two children were orphaned after a single-vehicle rollover crash on New Years Day morning killed their parents, the Colorado State Patrol reported Ashley Hogan, 35, tragically lost her life when her car was struck by a train on December 24, just after 3:30 a.m., near the intersection of James S. McDonnell Boulevard and Banshee Road in St. Louis. The single mother was on her way home from her shift at a nursing facility, eager to surprise her daughters ages 15, 12, 11, 9, and 6 with Christmas gifts stored in the trunk of her car. According to Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Dallas Thompson, the vehicle veered off the roadway for reasons yet unknown and became stuck in the gravel beside the railroad tracks. Authorities are investigating whether Hogan experienced a medical emergency before the collision. Hogan's 60-year-old mother, Vernadine Hogan, told the local news station the young mother's children were her whole world and she loved celebrating the holidays. 'She would always try to figure out what can I do to top the last Christmas, and unfortunately, that didn't happen this year,' Vernadine said. Now grieving the loss of her daughter, Vernadine is also adjusting to raising her five granddaughters. 'Never in my wildest imagination thought that at my age I would be taken on raising five children and I am starting over from scratch.' The children have moved in with their grandmother, who has launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover their expenses and funeral costs. 'She left behind five wonderful children that she loved and worked very hard for. They were her life and she was theirs, and now suddenly she's gone,' Vernadine said on the page. Hogan's friend and high school classmate Ferguson Police Officer Andrae Spraggin launched a donation drive in coordination with the department to collect supplies for the girls. Single mother of five Ashley Hogan, 35, was hit by a train and killed on her way home from work on Christmas Eve Hogan was hit by a train just after 3:30 a.m. on December 24 when her car got stuck on the tracks near the intersection of James S. McDonnell Boulevard and Banshee Road in St. Louis 'Her life revolved around her kids,' Spraggin told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 'When the accident happened, she had presents for them in the trunk. That's her. She's a great mom.' The police department posted to Facebook informing the community they will be accepting donations at the station Monday through Friday. 'Ferguson family, one of our officers has suffered a great loss in the death of a dear family friend killed when a train hit her stranded vehicle on Christmas eve,' Ferguson Police said. 'The 35-year-old woman leaves 5 daughters behind. The children will now live with their grandmother who is on a fixed income. Help is surely needed.' The Post Office is set to hike bank fees by around 350million a year in an attempt to claw back money for payouts arising from the Horizon scandal. Around 30 banks and building societies are considering a proposal from the Post Office that would see the banks pay between 350m and 400m a year to allow their customers to access its network, Sky News reported. Currently the banks pay around 250m-a-year to access the Post Office's network, to allow their customers to take out cash at local banks. The additional money will be used to strengthen the new deal for sub-postmasters announced by Post Office chair Nigel Railton in November, which sets out to to deliver a quarter of a billion pounds boost to postmasters' income by 2030. The Post Office relies on an annual government subsidy to operate and cost-cutting measures are understood to be designed to help the company deal with large financial losses. Insiders in Whitehall have reportedly been consulted on the plans, as they ponder handing the network back to thousands of local sub-postmasters. The company has been engulfed in scandal since the ITV drama 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office' brought mainstream attention to the Horizon scandal. The wrongful fraud and theft convictions of hundreds of sub-postmasters has been described as the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history. The Post Office is pursuing a deal which would see bank fees hiked in an attempt to claw back money for payouts to victims of the Horizon scandal Nigel Railton, Former CEO of Camelot (former operator of National Lotteries) has been interim chair of the Post Office since 2024 A huge number of those affected have since suffered ill health, financial loss or even death before their exonerations. The company has seen a revolving door of senior personnel in the last year, leading to calls for a review of the company's ownership model. Former chair Henry Staunton was sacked by Kemi Badenoch when she was business secretary. He then disclosed an investigation into bullying claims against chief executive Nick Read, which he was exonerated of in April. Mr Read joined in 2019, long after the events which eventually sparked the Horizon scandal. He had replaced Paula Vennells, who forfeited her CBE following public anger over her handling of the Horizon scandal. Despite its reported efforts to raise more cash, in September it was revealed that the Post Office had handled a record amount of cash as customers continue to flock to its branches following the closure of thousands of Britain's high street banks. Customers have been forced to use the Post Office in many cases because it is the only option available to them after 6,000 bank branches shut their doors since 2015. The additional money will be used to strengthen the upcoming 'new deal' for sub-postmasters The rate of closure has been around 50 branches a month, and it shows no sign of slowing down as customers continue to gravitate to online banking. However a sizeable portion of the population continues to need access to brick and mortar banking, causing them to use the Post Offices basic cash handling services. A Post Office spokesperson told Sky News: 'We will set out a 'new deal' for postmasters and the future of the Post Office as an organisation. 'It will dramatically increase postmasters' share of revenues, strengthen our branch network and make it work better for local communities, independent postmasters and our partners who own and operate branches.' A gym-goer at Planet Fitness was shocked to discover a no-jackets policy at the workout chain. The runner, who goes by Camrun on TikTok, posted a video to share his frustration over the policy shortly before the New Year. He explained that he used his jacket to cover the time and distance display on a treadmill while running at the gym. After running for nearly an hour, an employee told him he was breaking the rules by leaving his jacket on the machine. 'The worker comes up to me after 40 minutes and says, "hey we actually have a no jacket and no bag policy,"' the runner said in the clip, which had been viewed more than 350,000 times as of Thursday morning. He noted that the employee never took his jacket away after telling him it needed to take it to the front desk. The runner, who said he exercises at Planet Fitness regularly, insisted he'd never heard of the policy until then. However, the rule is a requirement for all gym-goers. A gym-goer, who goes by Camrun on TikTok, posted a video to share his frustration over a petty policy at Planet Fitness The policy, which can be found on Planet Fitness' website, states that personal belongings 'must be kept in lockers.' Planet Fitness members are required to keep their bags and unused clothing off of gym floors. The company explained in its rules that items on the gym floor could be safety hazards and targets for theft. Several viewers who watched the video also expressed shock that the policy existed. 'I bring my bag every time! I have so many things in that bag that help me work out,' one TikToker commented. 'It's wild they messed with you.' Others claimed that enforcement depends on the gym and that the employee may have brought it up because their manager was being a 'Karen.' 'I think it's from gym to gym. Cause my PF honestly doesn't care - people have their bags and jackets with them all the time,' one wrote. Daily Mail has reached out to Planet Fitness for comment. All Planet Fitness members are required to keep their bags and unused clothing off of gym floors Various Reddit users who already knew about the policy understood why Planet Fitness may have created it. 'More or less clothing and bags on the floor create a tripping hazard and also jackets and things hanging on machines cause damage,' a Reddit user wrote in a 2023 post. 'At my gym we had a guys string backpack get caught up in a treadmill. Not a great day for anyone involved.' Others didn't understand 'why it matters' if jackets are not in the way. 'There's literally no way anyone could have stepped on my stuff. To think that someone would be pissed at me for this is ridiculous to me,' a Planet Fitness member wrote. As of September 2024, Planet Fitness had approximately 19.6 million members and 2,637 locations, according to a November 7 press release. The gym has locations in the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama, Mexico, Australia and Spain. The company emphasizes that its gyms are 'Judgement Free' zones and over 90 percent of its clubs are independently owned. As of September 2024, Planet Fitness had approximately 19.6 million members and 2,637 locations Those who made working out central to their New Year's resolutions can reach their goals by the end of the year. Justin Hale, an adviser and speaker at Crucial Learning, revealed his tips in December 2024 to CBS News. 'It's not that you have a motivation problem. You have a strategy or plan problem. Tweak your strategy, tweak your plan and you'll be much more successful,' he said. New Year's Eve resolutions are tough to follow. Between 9 and 12 percent of Americans were successful in keeping them in 2024, according to KTVH. What's in a title? Well quite a lot if you're Meghan Markle and her team in California, whose decision to add Duchess of Sussex to her Instagram profile has coincided with a flurry of 650,000-plus new followers in 24 hours, MailOnline can reveal. The wife of Prince Harry, 43, returned to social media on New Year's Day after quitting in 2018 warning of 'loud and damaging bad voices' and suffering almost unsurvivable abuse in that online world. But yesterday she shared her first clip filmed by Prince Harry near their California home and simply captioned it @meghan. It led Instagram users to the account, which had around 100,000 followers. And today the account was verified and her title 'Duchess of Sussex', given to her by the late Queen Elizabeth II, added to the biog below her profile picture, with followers now over 785,000. MailOnline revealed today that she released a stunning new smiling image to mark her Instagram return taken by a fashion photographer friend from Toronto who knew her and Harry when they fell in love while she was starring in Suits. The laughing Duchess of Sussex, 43, wears a near-1,000 white cotton dress from New York Luxury brand Khaite and a 12,500 diamond necklace from Santa Monica jewellery designer Logan Hollowell. Meghan has added Duchess of Sussex to her new Instagram account, with followers going from 111,000 to 784,000 in a day The stunning new image of Meghan Markle taken by her friend Jake Rosenberg, a renowned fashion photographer Experts have analysed the black and white image and believe the beach photo, and her outfit, was carefully chosen to show 'purity' and released on January 1 to 'timestamp' a 'new era' and 2025 relaunch to the world. The laughing Duchess of Sussex made it her profile picture for her @meghan account as she also released a video of her frolicking barefoot on a Montecito beach filmed by her husband Prince Harry. It was taken by New York-based Jake Rosenberg, who has known the Sussexes for years and attended their London wedding and was photographed entering St George's Chapel, Windsor, with Oprah Winfrey. Sharing the image Mr Rosenberg used the photo in a post marking the start of 2025 and to 'welcome back' Meghan to Instagram after a six-year hiatus. He said: 'Always love capturing these moments together - What a way to start the year!'. Jake flew to California from New York to take the picture. He has not said when it was taken. But in recent months he visited Harry and Meghan's mansion in Montecito for a photoshoot to coincide with the launch of her lifestyle and cookery brand, American Riviera Orchard. Jake also took a series of pictures of Meghan on her own and her with the children. The stunning image may have been captured then. Meghan teased her return to Instagram in 2022 but has waited two years to launch it. Experts have said that the account, which has gone from 100,000 followers to 715,000 in 24 hours could command fees of 790,000 from companies per post as an absolute minimum. Experts have told MailOnline that the black and white image, and the choice of white dress, are a carefully constructed message to the world that she is planning big things in 2025. There is also a video of Meghan putting 2025 in the sand in a video filmed by Prince Harry and released to promote her return to Instagram The photo-shoot may have coincided with the launch of Meghan's lifestyle and cookery brand, American Riviera Orchard, and was shot by New York-based Mr Rosenberg (pictured) who has worked with Meghan before Jake, originally from Toronto, Canada, where Suits was filmed, follows Oprah into St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Mark Borkowski, arguably the UK's to PR guru, told MailOnline: 'The all-white attire screams purity of reinvention while the 2025 etched in the sand conveniently doubles as both a literal timestamp and a metaphorical clean slate. 'Meghan has gone for the classic cryptic performance art Instagram post. 'Its a PR textbook example of someone signaling a new era,designed to intrigue and mystify. 'Its a subtle power play, simultaneously fostering curiosity and establishing control'. The photo taken by Jake Rosenberg is a California-style fashion shot that would not be out of place on the pages of a glossy magazine like fashion bibles Vogue or Vanity Fair, experts have said. Looking typically stylish, the mother-of-two opted for a white oversized flowing shirt, which was rolled up at the sleeves. Complementing her statement shirt, she donned a pair of white skinny jeans that were also rolled up on her leg as she ran through the sand barefoot. Meghan's return to social media came despite vowing not to return to social media due to the almost unsurvivable abuse she faced, the Duchess of Sussex returned to Instagram yesterday with a playful video on a beach. A source close to Meghan said yesterday that: 'The Duchess is excited to return to social media as a way to reconnect with communities around the world and share updates on the impactful projects she has been working on. 'She is committed to promoting a joyful and thoughtful approach to online engagementone that fosters meaningful connections and inspires positivity in todays digital space'. The 43-year-old shared her first clip filmed by Prince Harry near their California home and simply captioned it @meghan. It had been rumoured that the profile originally set up in 2022 but lying dormant belonged to her after she teased fans in 2023 by declaring she was getting back on Instagram. Now the mother-of-two has confirmed the account is hers by posting footage taken on the shore not far from the home she shares in Montecito with Harry and their children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three. Within minutes, tens of thousands of people had begun following the account. To the sound of the surf, the 30-second clip shows Meghan in white pedal-pushers and a white shirt jogging barefoot to the waters edge and writing 2025 in the sand with her finger, before running off giggling. Meghan's post has caused a massive frenzy online The Duchess of Sussex , 43, made her dramatic return to Instagram on New Year's Day morning, uploading a short clip that showed her frolicking on the beach in an all-white ensemble The duchess shut down her social media accounts in January 2018, just after getting engaged to Prince Harry, and in 2020 the couple stopped posting to their Sussex Royal Instagram and Twitter accounts. However, she then secured the new account in June 2022 before launching her Archetypes podcast in August 2022. It had a profile image of pink dahlias, but no biographical information. At the time, a source said: Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind... so its just sitting there now. Experts have predicted she could earn 790,000 per post as an absolute minimum. Social media expert Eric Schiffer told The Mail On Sunday that there was no reason Meghan couldnt be earning those sorts of fees. Thousands of people were lured into Birmingham city centre with the promise of a hoax New Year 'fireworks spectacular' by articles that could have been written by AI. Blogs and social media posts online promoted a 'spectacular midnight show' in Centenary Square, despite no such fireworks display taking place in the city since 2016. Locals and visitors alike were left confused after rumours of a display were shared online and in local groups. Railway operator CrossCountry was among the websites to publish the false information, telling the public to expect 'an unforgettable evening as England's second city lights up the night sky with its magnificent fireworks display'. Other well-known sites, including Day Out With The Kids, The Camping and Caravanning Club and Prima also published articles claiming official fireworks would be going ahead in the square. West Midlands Police tried to warn the public that no fireworks would be let off in Centenary Square earlier on New Year's Eve, but thousands still turned out hoping to start 2025 with a bang. Analysis has now shown that blog posts rounding up the 'best' firework shows in the UK may in fact have been written by AI, the Times reports. One-such article was published on December 19 and listed the fictional fireworks display in Birmingham as the third best New Year display, behind London and Edinburgh. Blogs and social media posts online promoted a 'spectacular midnight show' in Centenary Square, despite no such fireworks display taking place in the city since 2016 Huge crowds gathered at Centenary Square in Birmingham on New Year's Eve only to be told reports about a fireworks display were fake Images show would-be spectators wrapped up warm and waiting for the show to begin before West Midlands Police revealed there would be nothing to see Railway operator CrossCountry was among the sites to contain false information about the hoax firework display It said attendees would be treated to a 'mix of performances' as well as local food vendors and the final fireworks display, all between 8pm and 12:30pm. And a lengthy article on CrossCountry detailed delights tempting to many would-be revellers. 'Join the biggest New Year's celebration in the West Midlands at Birmingham's stunning Centenary Square,' the article, published on November 25, read. 'This vibrant and modern space sets the stage for an unforgettable evening as England's second city lights up the night sky with its magnificent fireworks display. 'With a history of bringing together people from all walks of life, Birmingham offers the perfect atmosphere to welcome the new year surrounded by excitement, joy, and a spectacular show to remember. 'Only a ten minute walk away from Birmingham New Street station, not only is this a mesmerising New Year's fireworks celebration, but it is also super convenient to reach from a whole host of UK towns and cities with CrossCountry services.' AI programmes can typically write an article in a matter of seconds, although do sometimes make mistakes. Anyone can use AI sites such as ChatGPT and simply type in a brief instruction, for an entire article to be churned out. When asked to write about the best firework displays in Britain, some of them include Birmingham, presumably relying on old articles from before 2016 as source information. Once published online, other AI programmes - and real humans - may be duped into believing the article is a legitimate and factual source. When asked by MailOnline to produce an article on New Year celebrations in the UK's main cities, ChatGPT provided several paragraphs stating there would be fireworks in Birmingham. Analysis reportedly shows some of the articles were written by AI programmes Witnesses reported people being 'packed in like sardines' at Centenary Square in Birmingham Rumours of the display spread rapidly online and were shared in local social media groups Meanwhile crowds in London were far from disappointed following a 'world-first' Paddington Bear cameo appearance within the London Eye Fireworks light up the sky over Elizabeth Tower, also known as Big Ben, and the London Eye in central London during the New Year celebrations The fireworks included a projection of the Union Jack on to the London Eye, as well as red, white and blue sparks A CrossCountry spokesperson said: 'We use a third-party provider to write blog posts for our website. Information is taken from a range of sources, and the content of blog posts is not AI-generated. 'We apologise to anyone inconvenienced by this incorrect information both on our website and elsewhere, and have now removed the detail from our blog. 'There is a full investigation underway with our supplier to ensure similar incidents are avoided going forward.' Images from Birmingham on Wednesday show would-be spectators wrapped up warm and waiting for the show to begin. Earlier in the day West Mercia Police had issued a warning to those heading to Birmingham to avoid disappointment. Birmingham Superintendent Emlyn Richards said: 'There are rumours online that a fireworks display will take place in Centenary Square but there isn't a planned event this year. 'We don't want people travelling into the city to be disappointed when they arrive and discover this is the case. 'There will be thousands of people travelling into the city to enjoy themselves at venues across the city. 'We will be visible on the streets tonight to ensure everything runs smoothly and people have a wonderful evening.' Despite the police warning, thousands thronged the square as police officers turned up to inform them no display was happening. One witness told the Times entire families, many with children, were 'packed like sardines' ahead of the bogus event. Firework displays elsewhere in the UK left thousands treated to a cheerful start to 2025. In London, the traditional display on the banks of the River Thames involving the London Eye went ahead and this year included a holographic image of Paddington Bear. But around the country other planned events, including Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations, were cancelled due to poor weather. CrossCountry has been contacted for comment. U.S. failure in Afghanistan was driven by a system that rewarded generals, diplomats, contractors, and policymakers who reported successes on the ground rather than the grim reality of a bloody insurgency, according to the watchdog who spent 12 years observing the war unravel. The result, said one U.S. military adviser, was that the system 'became a self-licking ice cream cone' as more money was committed to justify the billions already spent. John Sopko, the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, will deliver his final report later this year. It will reveal that experts and government officials now believe that decisions made as far back as 2002 meant the war was doomed to fail. And it will highlight how American ignorance of Afghan culture, the impact of local corruption, plus weak cooperation between U.S. agencies all contributed to a war effort that left the country back in Taliban hands at a cost of more than 2,400 American lives and $2 trillion. Yet, writes Sopko in a New York Times opinion piece published Thursday, you wouldn't know it from the optimistic reports coming from the officers and officials in charge at the time. 'But a perverse incentive drove our system,' he writes. 'To win promotions and bigger salaries, military and civilian leaders felt they had to sell their tours of duty, deployments, programs and projects as successes even when they were not. 'Leaders tended to report and highlight favorable information while obscuring that which pointed to failure. After all, failures do not lead to an ambassadorship or an elevation to general.' Taliban fighters mark the anniversary of seizing control of the Afghan capital Kabul U.S. Marines help a child to safety during the 2021 evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Taliban swept into the city in August of that year John F. Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, will produce his final report later this year on the U.S. war The U.S. war in Afghanistan ended with humiliation in August 2021. Taliban fighters had made rapid advances ever since President Joe Biden announced he was bringing home American troops in April of that year, and they quickly swept into the capital Kabul dashing Washington's hopes that the Afghan government could survive without foreign forces. Thousands of Afghans and foreign civilians flocked to the capital's airport seeking safe passage as U.S. diplomats hurriedly abandoned their embassy. Tragedy struck when a suicide bomber killed 13 American personnel amid the chaos at the airport. The confused exit cast a black cloud over Biden's first year in office, undermining his reputation as a foreign policy expert and a safe pair of hands after Donald Trump's first term. Those final weeks showed the futility of U.S. claims that things were moving in the right direction, says Sopko. 'The sudden collapse of the Afghan government and rise of the Taliban showed that the United States could not buy favorable Afghan perceptions of the countrys corrupt leaders and government, or of America's intentions,' he writes. 'Yet over two decades and even as Afghan provinces fell like dominoes in the summer of 2021 I do not recall any senior official telling Congress or the American people that failure was a real possibility.' Members of the 82nd Airborne Division prepare to leave Kabul in August 2021 Taliban gunmen patrol a runway at the airport a day after the last US forces leave President Joe Biden on the day he announced the American war in Afghanistan had ended Instead, he pointed to occasions when official spokesmen offered misleading information. He cited the Pentagon official who said just before the collapse that the Kabul government had more than 300,000 soldiers and police officers, despite evidence of thousands of 'ghost' personnel who existed only on paper so that bosses could collect extra salaries. 'Important information for measuring the success of initiatives was at times deliberately hidden from Congress and the American public, including USAID-funded assessments that concluded Afghan ministries were incapable of managing direct U.S. financial assistance,' he writes. 'Despite vigorous efforts by the U.S. bureaucracy to stop us, my office made such material public.' He describes how one general said his biggest problem was how to spend the remaining $1 billion from his annual budget in a little over a month, amid a culture that measured spending as the best metric of success. 'Another official we spoke to said he refused to cancel a multimillion-dollar building project that field commanders did not want, because the funding had to be spent,' writes Sopko. 'The building was never used.' Meanwhile, the spending continues. Sopko said much was routed that United Nations agencies that lacked transparency and proper oversight. And last year, his office reported that since the withdrawal, U.S.-funded partners paid at least $10.9 million in taxes and fees to Taliban authorities. A grieving mom who lost her daughter in the New Orleans terror attack has revealed how she begged her not to go out in the Big Easy on New Year's Eve. Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, was among the 14 people murdered when a car plowed into crowds in the city's French Quarter in the early hours of Wednesday. The high school graduate had snuck out from her Lyman home along with her cousin and their friend Zion Parsons, 18, to attend the festivities. Her mom Melissa Dedeaux, 40, told how she pleaded with her daughter not to go. 'When your parents say dont go anywhere please listen to them,' the stricken parent wrote 'This was an act of terrorism and now my baby is gone yall.. my baby is gone she is no longer with us. 'I lost my baby just pray for me and my family pleaseeeeee!!! God I need you now!!' She described her daughter as a bright, aspiring nurse who 'never got into trouble'. Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, was among 14 people killed in the NOLA terrorist attack Melissa Dedeaux, 40, told how she pleaded with her daughter not to go out in New Orleans for New Year's Eve Dedeaux was killed after Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, plowed a car into crowds of revelers on Bourbon Street. Thirteen other victims were murdered,, with Jabbar shot dead during a subsequent gunfight with cops. Parsons managed to duck into a brick doorway and escaped impact, but sadly the same could not be said for Dedeaux. After fleeing the scene Parsons told NOLA he later returned to try and search for his friend and to make a heartbreaking call to Dedeaux's mom. He told her that he had last seen her daughter laying on the ground with hers eyes closed. 'Did they cover her up with a sheet, Zion?' Melissa asked. 'Yeah,' Parsons replied. 'What does that mean?', the line then went quiet before the grieving mom began to cry. He later learned that Dedeaux's cousin survived without injury. 'It's different from the movies. It's real people,' he said. 'People don't talk about what that does to your brain.' Dedeaux was a bright aspiring nurse who 'never got into trouble' according to her mom Zion Parsons, 18, had to Dedeaux's mom and tell her she didn't survive the NOLA terrorist attack US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was responsible for the attack, police said He described the harrowing scenes immediately after Jabbar went barreling into the crowds just after 3am on New Year's Day. 'Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,' he said. 'People crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground. It was just insane, like the closest thing to a war zone that I've ever seen.' Parsons was heading out of Voodoo Chicken & Daquiris on Bourbon near Bienville Street at the time. After avoiding the impact, he said he looked back and saw Dedeaux lying on the ground with her leg twisted above her head. He began running and later returned, but was ordered to leave Dedeaux in the street. Parsons said he began calling local hospitals in the hopes that she had been wounded, but could not get any information. A further 30 people were hurt during the attack which took place in the early hours of Wednesday His worst fears were all-but confirmed when he checked the location tracker on her phone showed it was still on Bourbon Street. 'If I was a little bit quicker, I could've stopped it,' Parsons said. 'I haven't had the time to cry. It's just so crazy.' US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was responsible for the attack, police said. He was killed during a shootout with the cops shortly after. A 25-year-old man was today praised as a 'loving, kind, funny soul' after he died following an incident that saw four pedestrians hit by a car in London's West End. 'Beautiful' Aidan Chapman died from his injuries in hospital on New Year's Eve following the chaos on Shaftesbury Avenue at 0.45am on Christmas Day last week. Mr Chapman's parents said in a statement issued today: 'The loss of our beautiful son is a parent's worst nightmare. We are utterly devastated with the loss of Aidan. 'He enriched everyone's lives. He was a loving, kind, funny soul and the world is a darker place without him. We, his parents, have lost the best part of ourselves.' Anthony Gilheaney, 30, of Harlow in Essex, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on December 27 charged with four counts of attempted murder. He was also charged with causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified and possessing a knife in a public place, according to court documents. Gilheaney was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on January 24. He is accused of causing serious injury to four pedestrians while driving a Mercedes-Benz E-Class on Shaftesbury Avenue whilst disqualified. Aidan Chapman, 25, was seriously injured in the incident and died on New Year's Eve A car is seen speeding along Shaftesbury Avenue at the time of the incident on Christmas Day Forensic investigators collect evidence at the scene on Shaftesbury Avenue on Christmas Day He is also accused of having a small knife in Lincoln's Inn Fields on the same day. The Metropolitan Police said today that the existing charges will be reviewed by the court following the death of Mr Chapman. The victim's next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, and a post-mortem examination will take place in due course. The Met's Specialist Crime Command is now leading the investigation and Mr Chapman's death is being treated as a homicide. Previously, the force said officers were called at 0.45am after reports of a collision and a car driving on the wrong side of the road on Shaftesbury Avenue in the capital's theatre district. The police cordon stretched between the Gielgud Theatre, where the musical Oliver is performed, and Sondheim Theatre, home to Les Miserables. Police officers at the scene on Christmas Day on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End Forensic investigators collect evidence at the scene on Shaftesbury Avenue on Christmas Day Police officers at the scene on Christmas Day on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End A further police cordon was on Archer Street and Great Windmill Street, covering the Windmill Soho nightclub and other venues in the Soho area. Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Jolley, from the Met's Specialist Crime Command, said today: 'Our thoughts are with the victim's friends and family at this difficult time. 'My team are continuing to conduct enquiries to establish all the facts surrounding the circumstances, however it has been confirmed as an isolated incident which is not terror-related. 'We would appeal to anyone who holds any CCTV or dash cam or mobile phone footage of the incident to come forward as well as anyone else who might have had contact with the suspect that evening.' Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or message @MetCC quoting CAD 233/25DEC. Information, photos and footage can also be uploaded to Public Portal. Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org A furious cat cafe owner has hit out at plans to open a dog grooming salon next door to her business. The owner of Andover Catfe in Hampshire said the proposals could 'potentially end us' and spook their feline residents. The comments come after an application was formally submitted by Barks 'N' Bubbles to open a salon in Andover. Stuart Waue, owner of Andover Catfe, lodged an official objection to the application and said his cafe attracts cat lovers from around the UK. He said: 'As the proprietor of the neighbouring Andover Catfe, I hereby object to this property being used for dog grooming adjacent to our Cat Cafe. 'Our Catfe is supposed to be a calming atmosphere for people to enjoy the company of cats. 'If there are agitated dogs making a lot of noise it will upset our cats and create unnecessary stress for them and our visitors. 'The increased canine traffic in the area may also result in an increase in dog faeces and members of the public waiting outside our windows with their (potentially agitated and noisy) dogs disturbing our cats and visitors. The owner of Andover Catfe, pictured, has hit out at plans to open a dog grooming salon next door to her business The comments come after an application was formally submitted by Barks 'N' Bubbles to open a dog salon in the former nail shop, pictured here 'We're not dog haters and can appreciate a small business taking on an empty unit, but to open this right next to a cat cafe will potentially end us when we are currently bringing people from outside the town into Andover. 'Additionally, please be sure to note that this change of use application would result in three consecutive non-shop uses which contradicts the [Test Valley Borough Council] 2016 Local Plan.' Amber Cooper, owner of Barks 'N' Bubbles, defended her application. She said: 'As an owner of three cats myself, I understand the Catfe's concerns about any distress their cats may experience due to having a dog groomers close by. 'However, as I work by an appointment only basis and will have a waiting area in my salon, I am confident my clients will not have any need to wait outside the premises, potentially causing a disruption to the cats. 'Furthermore, I have known my customers for many years, all of which are responsible owners who will be sure to pick up after their dogs should they mess outside. 'Finally, I take steps in my business to minimise noise wherever I can, and due to not sharing a wall with the Andover Catfe, I am sure any noise will not be heard from inside the cafe.' Mr Waue's objection is the only objection to the dog grooming salon, with over 20 comments in support of the business. Previously the shop was a nail salon. The owner of Andover Catfe said the proposals could spook their feline residents, one of whom is pictured in the cafe here Another look at a furry feline enjoying a rest at the Andover Catfe in Hampshire One supporter is Donna Whatley, who wrote: 'A lot of dog owners will wander into town for coffee or to browse other shops whilst their dogs are being groomed, potentially leading to more sales for other businesses. 'I don't believe it will have a negative effect on the cat cafe as there is no reason why anybody would be stood outside the cafe with agitated dogs. 'In my experience most dogs love going to the dog groomers and being pampered so they wouldn't be agitated at all and certainly wouldn't be peering through windows of the cat cafe. 'I'm sure there will be minimal noise and there is also a stairway leading to the Indian restaurant, between the shop and the cat cafe so not even sharing a wall so I'm sure the cafe won't hear anything.' Donna Bell added: 'I am in full support of this application. Amber has been grooming Molly for almost eight years, and not only does a great job, but is kind and supporting to the owners. 'She has a successful business and has a great reputation, I would not go anywhere else. 'This is an opportunity for someone who lives locally, to set up a small business in the town centre for local people.' Justin Baldoni's attorney has issued a scathing response after Jack Schlossberg falsely claimed the Kennedy family member was the actor's lawyer amid his legal battle against Blake Lively. JFK's grandson, 31, took to X on Thursday morning claiming that Baldoni 'is my client' and that he agreed to 'take on' the star because 'EVERYONE is entitled to a FAIR trial.' Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against Baldoni just days before Christmas, accusing him of sexually harassing her and fostering a toxic work environment on the set of their movie It Ends With Us, in which he both directed her and acted with her. He has staunchly denied the allegations. Schlossberg, a Harvard Law School grad who passed the bar exam in 2023, added: 'I agreed to take on JUSTIN BALDONI as a client. Why ? FAIRNESS EVERYONE is entitled to a FAIR TRIAL and ZEALOUS DEFENSE. Justin has NOTHING to hide, Justice will be his revenge. 'After BOSTON MASSACRE, John Adams represented the British at trial. Same sh**, different day.' Baldoni's actual lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told the DailyMail.com that Schlossberg's claim is 'ridiculous' and his client 'has never spoken to him.' 'Nobody on my team has spoken to him,' Freedman continued. Jack Schlossberg went on a bizarre rant about being Justin Baldoni's lawyer amid the ongoing legal battle between him and Blake Lively JFK's grandson, 31, took to X on Thursday morning claiming that Baldoni 'is my client' Baldoni's actual lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told the DailyMail.com that Schlossberg's claim is 'ridiculous' and his client 'has never spoken to him' Following his initial post about the actor, Scholssberg said: 'My personal feelings about Justin Baldoni are irrelevant. Justin is my client, Im his lawyer.' 'Even the most heinous individuals have the right to counsel for their defense. 'I am not a hero. I'm just doing my job,' he added. In Lively's initial complaint, which was a precursor to the more formal complaint filed on Tuesday, the actress claimed Baldoni worked to tarnish her reputation with a team including his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan, who previously worked with Johnny Depp. Abel has denied waging a 'smear campaign.' Livelyfiled her first complaint in early December with the California Civil Rights Commission, but is now suing Baldoni in federal court in New York. Lively's first lawsuit contained a raft of accusations against Baldoni, who she says showed her nude images and videos of other women, 'improvised physical intimacy' during a scene without prior discussion, entered her trailer while she was 'nude' and allowed his 'friends' to watch her filming sex scenes. Launched on New Year's Eve, her new lawsuit is a more formal proceeding that targets Baldoni, Abel and Nathan as defendants, as well as Baldoni's production company Wayfarer Studios. In her latest legal action, Lively is demanding both 'punitive' and 'compensatory' damages and a jury trial, accusing the defendants of causing her 'mental pain and anguish,' as well as 'severe and serious emotional distress' and 'lost wages.' Lively's attorneys gave a statement to the DailyMail.com alleging their client has been subject to 'further retaliation and attacks' since she made the 'decision to speak out' about her allegations against Baldoni. DailyMail.com has reached out to Nathan, Abel and Wayfarer Studios, as well as representatives for Baldoni for comment. Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against Baldoni just days before Christmas, accusing him of sexually harassing her and fostering a toxic work environment on the set of their movie It Ends With Us The Harvard grad said he agreed to 'take on' the star because 'EVERYONE is entitled to a FAIR trial' In her new lawsuit, Lively demands both 'punitive damages' as well as 'a money judgement representing compensatory damages, lost wages, earning, and all other sums of money,' plus 'interest' on the above 'in an amount to be proven at trial.' She also wants 'an award of money judgment for mental pain and anguish and severe and serious emotional distress, in an amount to be proven at trial.' Her lawyers provided a statement to DailyMail.com Tuesday, saying: 'Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York. 'Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Unfortunately, Ms. Livelys decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.' Lively's attorneys continued: 'As alleged in Ms. Livelys federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court.' They added: 'Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.' The actress claimed Baldoni worked to tarnish her reputation with a team including his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan. (The stars pictured in January 2024) Lively, who is married to Deadpool lead Ryan Reynolds and is close friends with pop superstar Taylor Swift, has seen former colleagues rally around her amid the feud. (Pictured: The couple in 2014) On the same day The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actress filed her second lawsuit against the Jane the Virgin star, he initiated a $250 million libel action against the New York Times, which broke the news of Livelys first complaint earlier this month. In a statement, the outlet stood by its reporting and denied the allegations. It said it plans to 'vigorously defend against the lawsuit'. Since news of Lively's first lawsuit broke, Baldoni's career has imploded, as he was dropped by his agency William Morris Endeavor. Liz Plank, one of the co-hosts of Baldoni's Man Enough podcast that billed itself as a space for 'positive masculinity,' announced she was quitting the show. Lively, who is married to Deadpool lead Ryan Reynolds and is close friends with pop superstar Taylor Swift, has seen former colleagues rally around her amid the feud. Her It Ends With Us co-stars Brandon Sklenar and Jenny Slate have spoken out to support her, as has Colleen Hoover, author of the novel on which the film is based. Hoover shared a heartfelt message the same day the initial lawsuit became public, defending Lively. Accompanying the post was a photo of Hoover and Lively sharing a warm embrace in what appeared to be a movie theater, likely during a screening of the film, as the audience applauded. '@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met,' Hoover wrote in the caption. 'Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.' Reynolds is said to have 'aggressively' accused Baldoni of a string of offenses against his wife, including 'fat-shaming' her She also included a link to a New York Times article, which detailed the allegations against Baldoni. Lively's husband, whom she met on the set of Green Lantern in 2010, has also been named in Baldoni's bombshell lawsuit. According to the legal documents, Reynolds and Lively are accused of 'bullying' the producer, adding that the Deadpool actor 'berated' Baldoni during a heated meeting at their New York penthouse. Reynolds is said to have 'aggressively' accused Baldoni of a string of offenses against his wife, including 'fat-shaming' her. On the evening of January 4 last year, the lawsuit says Baldoni plus other producers and a representative of Sony were invited to the home shared by the couple. It says: 'They arrived eager to discuss plans for the next day's filming, prepared with their production materials. Instead, they were blindsided by Lively and Reynolds, who presented a list of grievances that were both unanticipated and troubling. 'Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a 'traumatic' encounter, stating he had 'never been spoken to like that in his life.' Colleen Hoover, author of the novel on which the film is based, has also stood by Lively, stating 'you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met' Reynolds demanded an apology to Lively for actions that were mischaracterized and demonstrably false, the lawsuit says. It adds: 'When Baldoni resisted apologizing for what he had not done, Reynolds became further enraged. Everyone, including the producer Lively had asked production to engage and a representative of Sony that was in attendance, left that 'meeting' in shock. The producer offered that in his 40-year career he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that.' Baldoni says after the filming was complete that Lively took over the movie project from him, refused to walk the red carpet with him or let him attend its premiere, and that she and husband Reynolds allegedly used their power to try and damage him. Freedman previously responded to Lively's first lawsuit by calling her claims 'false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt'. He argued that Lively's suit was a gambit to 'fix her negative reputation' after rumors spread that she had been difficult to work with during the making of the film. The ex-wife of Tesla Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger went on a series of anti-MAGA rants on social media years before he blew up the truck outside Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel. To the contrary, Livelsberger's family say he 'loved' Trump and was '100 percent a patriot'. 'He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country. 'He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. 'Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty,' his uncle told The Independent on Thursday. Sara, on the other hand, dialed up in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, where she shared a slew of Facebook posts condemning the Republican. Sharing a photo of a sign featuring a cartoon image of Trump that read 'stop bigotry', Sara wrote that she 'can't wait to slap this baby on my truck'. She also shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Trump in 2015, writing that he 'needs to spend less time on Twitter posting and deleting tweets, and more time focusing on maybe...a god d**m platform of some sort?' Few details have been made public about the alleged bomber's personal life, although he was previously married to Sara Livelsberger, pictured Livelsberger has limited social media presence, but his 'registered Democrat' ex-wife Sara was very active on Facebook in 2015 and 2016 She also shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Trump in 2015, writing that he 'needs to spend less time on Twitter posting and deleting tweets, and more time focusing on maybe...a god d**m platform of some sort?' Another post showed her wearing a t-shirt that said 'Girls just want to have FUN-damental Rights', suggesting she takes a pro-choice stance on abortion. Sara, whose hometown is listed as Playa del Carmen, Mexico, has not posted on Facebook since May 2016 and has not been tied to the Las Vegas bombing. Livelsberger remarried after their split and had welcomed a baby shortly before his shocking suicide. It comes as authorities say they are investigating possible links between Livelsberger's bombing and the terrorist attack in New Orleans hours before, as it was revealed both perpetrators once served on the same military base. Livelsberger was identified as the perpetrator of the bombing at Trump's hotel just hours after he died in the explosion. Although investigations are still ongoing, the blast was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks', according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Livelsberger lived in Colorado Springs and was an active member of the Army, previously received a Meritorious Honor Award for work benefiting the US Embassy in Tajikistan. In his time in the military, he was also profiled by a local newspaper in Ohio for his work with the military in Afghanistan. He grew up in Ohio and was married Sara, with property records showing the couple purchased a home in Colorado Springs together in 2015. However CBS News reported that he was on break from duty in Germany when he carried out the attack, and Sara had reportedly not heard from him in several days. Cops have also linked Livelsberger to several addresses - including a different townhouse in Colorado Springs that was raided by the FBI overnight. Another post showed her wearing a t-shirt that said 'Girls just want to have FUN-damental Rights', suggesting she takes a pro-choice stance on abortion Livelsberger (pictured) - who died in the bombing - grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado and was an active member of the Army. He previously received a Meritorious Honor Award for work benefiting the US Embassy in Tajikistan Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Cybertruck in Colorado Springs and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning to carry out his attack. Law enforcement sources have also revealed that Livelsberger previously served at the same military base as New Orleans terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar, who on Wednesday drove a rented Tesla truck into a crowd of New Year revelers, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. Police have not confirmed if the pair were known to each other. Din Jabbar served at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, previously known as Fort Bragg. Livelsberger previously lived at an address close to the base, but investigators have yet to confirm the location of the base the pair have in common. Livelsberger has served in the Army for 19 years, the majority of which was spent in the Special Forces (SF) unit. The suspected terrorist seemingly climbed the ranks throughout his time with the unit, having started off working as a SF Communications Specialist in 2006. While holding that position, Livelsberger said on his Linkedin that he also worked on a nearly one-year contract with General Dynamics Corp, a firm specializing in aerospace and defense. He alleges he 'engineered and fielded the first mobile standoff hyperspectral imaging "Lightguard Minotaur" system' during his time at General Dynamics Corp. General Dynamics told DailyMail.com they have no record of employing Livelsberger. Livelsberger in 2015 moved into an intelligence and operations role within the SF and in 2016 received the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award. Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of explosives Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver The Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday He was recognized by the US Ambassador for 'interagency contributions that resulted in increased interoperability and efficiency while serving as the Operations Sergeant at Special Operations Command Forward- Central Asian States (SOCFWD-CAS) within US Embassy Dushanbe', Livelsberger wrote on LinkedIn. He became a SF operations manager and team sergeant in February 2023 and moved into his remote and autonomous systems role in November last year. His LinkedIn profile also touts proficiency in French and certifications in unmanned aircraft systems, as well as a Project Director qualification. The explosion took place at 8.40am in the hotel's valet area. Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance. Seconds later, the entire $80,000 car blew up in a fiery blaze - with its roof going up in flames first. Debris smoked as it pinged off the pavement and sparks which looked like fireworks could be seen lighting up the black cloud of smoke emitting from the vehicle. A tumble of charred fireworks mortars, cannisters and other explosive devices were found crowded into the back of the pickup. Officials are still exploring how the explosives were detonated, but sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed that it was likely controlled by the driver. Livelsberger was the sole fatality in the attack, and authorities largely credit Musk's hulking stainless steel truck with preventing further damage because it was able to contain much of the explosion. None of the nearby windows of the hotel were damaged despite the violence of the blast. Hours before the attack in Las Vegas, Shamsud Din Jabbar drove an electric vehicle into crowds in New Orleans, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. New Year's Day celebrated across China Xinhua) 08:16, January 02, 2025 Fork artists perform in the old city of Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Fei) People visit an art gallery in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Bingjie) People interact with a lion dancer at an ancient cultural street in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Folk artists perform on stilts at an ancient cultural street in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a winter swimming enthusiast swimming in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a winter swimming enthusiast swimming in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) People watch a New Year parade in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) Children read at a library in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Shao Rui) Tourists in traditional costumes visit Taohuatan Township, Jingxian County, east China's Anhui Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Cao Li) Folk artists perform on stilts at an ancient cultural street in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) People visit an art gallery in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Bingjie) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Du Mingming) A Georgia family shockingly discovered what police believe to be the remains of a missing Alabama woman in their front yard. Several bones found on the family's lawn in northwest Georgia have been identified as parts of a human skeleton, tentatively belonging to Timaya Williams, 23, who was reported missing in Montgomery, Alabama in June 2024, according to the Walker County Sheriff's Office. The homeowner called local authorities shortly after the grisly discovery on the night of December 26 in the Cooper Heights area, about a 225-mile drive from Williams' home. An animal had brought the bones to their yard. An exhaustive search for the rest of the skeleton involved Walker County detectives, deputies, the deputy coroner and a cadaver K-9 team from the Rhea County Sheriff's Office. The search continued before the canine-led team located the rest of the remains. The remains were taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for an autopsy. Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson believes Williams' death to be a suicide, after her vehicle was found abandoned in the area. The young woman's mother, Yaschia Williams, first reported her daughter missing in early June after she failed to return home. The worried mom last saw her daughter in surveillance footage showing her leaving their home on June 2 around noon. Several bones found on a family's lawn in northwest Georgia have been identified as parts of a human skeleton, tentatively belonging to Timaya Williams, 23, who was reported missing in Montgomery, Alabama in June 2024 The homeowner called local authorities shortly after the grisly discovery on the night of December 26 in the Cooper Heights area, about a 225-mile drive from Williams' home. An animal had brought the bones to their yard 'I am desperately seeking help for my daughter, Timaya Williams, who has been missing since June 2, 2024,' she wrote on a GoFundMe page organized to help raise funds to find her missing daughter. 'Despite my timely report to the police, they dismissed her disappearance, assuming she simply ran away, even though she left her room untouched, indicating she intended to return.' Her mother disclosed that her daughter did have a known mental health-related condition, but her added that she has never been in any trouble. 'I wasn't alarmed because I assumed that she would be coming back, and when I returned home on the following day, I was calling and asking her, "Hey are you okay?" and I didn't get an answer,' Yaschia told WAKA News in August. 'I was trying to locate her through Find My Phone and I couldn't, so I immediately reported her missing.' Williams was last seen driving a blue four-door Dodge Avenger with a black ram's head on the driver's side door, according to police. The vehicle was found abandoned along Highway 193 in early June and was later towed after being left for more than a week, according to the Walker County Sheriff's Office. Montgomery authorities said they had not entered the vehicle into the National Crime Information Center database. Williams' mother, Yaschia Williams, first reported her daughter missing in early June after she failed to return home Williams' vehicle was found abandoned along Highway 193 in early June and was later towed after being left for more than a week The worried mother organized the fundraiser with hopes to find a reputable investigator willing to take on her daughter's mysterious disappearance. 'As a working-class mother with no extensive social network, I am heartbroken and lost without my only child,' she wrote on the page. 'While several organizations have offered support, I have been advised to hire a private investigator, but funding is a significant barrier, as I have no financial assistance available,' she added. No foul play is suspected at this time, and the case remains under investigation. An MSNBC star has revealed plans to air dirty laundry about her famed author mother in an upcoming book. Molly Jong-Fast, 46, has begun promoting How To Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir, on social media app Bluesky. Jong-Fast, whose mother is iconic feminist writer Erica Jong, also shared a summary of the tome, stating: 'Erica Jong's daughter's delicious and despairing memoir about an intense mother-daughter relationship, a sometimes chaotic upbringing with a fame-hungry parent, and how that can really mess you up.' The liberal MSNBC host, a vocal anti-Trumper, has long been accused of using her mother's fame and reputation to launch her media career. Erica Jong is best known for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying, a semi-autobiographical work surrounding subjects such as sex, fantasy and desire - all from a woman's point of view. Figures like John Updike and Henry Miller have praised the book, with the latter calling it a female version of 'Tropic of Cancer.' Despite spurring some controversy for its frank, sex-laden talk, it launched Jong's career. The work paved the way for a litany of books eventually acquired by Columbia University and praised by Bob Dylan. First, though, she wed Jong-Fast's father, fellow novelist Jonathan Fast, in 1977. The following year, they gave birth to their daughter, who is now set to spill secrets about her hyper-privileged upbringing on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Jong-Fast previously milked her mom's success for an earlier memoir published in 2005 subtitled: 'True Stories from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood.' Since then, the fine arts graduate became involved in politics, starting in 2016. She's held positions at Playboy, Glamour, Vogue, The Daily Beast and Vanity Fair, before signing with MSNBC. Scroll down for video: MSNBC Political Analyst Molly Jong-Fast, 46, advertised a new memoir on both X and Bluesky Sunday, nine years after embarking on a career as a political writer. She is seen here bashing Donald Trump to coworker Jen Psaki on the air a few days earlier Before pursuing a career as a political writer, Jong-Fast was raised by author Erica Jong, who is 82 and is diagnosed with dementia. The book paints their relationship as 'complicated', and one that 'can really mess you up' Posting on Bluesky - a liberal-leaning alternative to Elon Musk's X - she confirmed the work will be released in both the US and the UK, after her first foray into biographical work failed to make any bestseller lists. Both posts pointed to a cryptic blub about the soon-to-come tome, - presenting it as a 'compulsively readable memoir about an intense mother-daughter relationship.' Said to have been penned in 2023 after Jong was diagnosed with dementia and Jong-Fast's husband, New York-based college English professor Matthew Greenfield, was found to have cancer. '[It surrounds] a sometimes chaotic upbringing with a fame-hungry parent, and the upheavals that challenge our hard-won adulthood,' the synopsis stated further. 'A pitch-perfect balance of acceptance and rage, humor and heart, How to Lose Your Mother tells a universal story of loss alongside a singular story of a literary life. 'This is a memoir that will stand alongside the classics of the genre,' it eventually concluded. This week, she hinted at what's to come in her memoir, in posts to both Bluesky and X, where she has a prominent following thanks to posts disparaging conservatives and propping up progressive ideals Jong-Fast is seen here signing copies of her first book 'Normal Girl' in 2000, when she was 22. The book was also memoir, and was followed by another also about her childhood released in 2005 Five years before giving birth to her only daughter, Jong - seen with Jong-fast here at the same book signing - penned 1973's Fear of Flying, a semi-autobiographical work surrounding subjects such as sex, fantasy and desire that received praise and topped bestseller lists No other details were provided, as Jong-Fast continues to appear on MSNBC and post scathing critiques of figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk on social media. She told colleague Jen Psaki on Monday of how she believed Trump took the Oval Office from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: 'One of the things [Trump] did that was really smart was he went to these websites, he went to these podcasts. 'He met people where they were Joe Rogan. He endorsed Bernie Sanders. If Democrats want to win those voters, they must go to those spaces,' she continued, as she spoke on behalf of female voters. 'A lot of us thought Trump being a felon, would have been disqualifying,' the political pundit with nine years' experience went on, smirking at this point. 'Or January 6... or any number of things that he did. And for a large chunk of the American voting public, they were not disqualified.' 'Like what are we doing here?' the blue-blooded author posted last week, in response to Trump's remarks about asserting control over Denmark-controlled Greenland. A day before, she griped about Musk's previous championing of disgraced almost-AG Matt Gaetz, who the billionaire only a few weeks ago heralded as a Hammer of Justice.' 'Trump nominated this person to be attorney General,' she added, sharing the damning ethics committee report on the former congressman's misdoings, which she called 'infuriating.' he work paved the way for a litany of books eventually acquired by Columbia University and praised by Bob Dylan Jong-Fast's new book - her fourth - surrounds 'a sometimes chaotic upbringing with a fame-hungry parent, and the upheavals that challenge our hard-won adulthood,' she writes. Jong-Fast is seen speaking a t a variety show in New York City last year She's seen again here with fellow author Sharon Coplan Hurowitz and Isaac Mizrahi, following the release of her third book, The Social Climber's Handbook, in 2011 Unlike those of her mom, none of Jong-Fast's works have made any bestsellers lists, with this being the first since her foray into politics. It's set to release in June, she said - linking to sites to preorder. She is seen here in 2015, just before the start of her career in political pundancy Such critiques have become commonplace from the journalist in recent years, after she became one of several to seize on the post-2015 political surge. Trump's successful, first campaign started the commentary, which became increasingly opinionated as the decade continued. This paved the way for success for figures like Jong-Fast, who used the writing background inherited from her mother and father - who himself was the son of a successful novelist Howard Fast - to wax poetic about politics. Prior to that, she released three books including her 2005 memoir, which she advertised as a true story of growing up amongst New York's wealthy and famous, and a revolving door of nannies, secretaries, and potential stepdads. 'I thought this is the time to write about these people because they are so nuts," the young author - who now has three kids - told the Arizona Daily Sun at the time. This time around, the narrative may be less kind to her dementia-stricken mom - with the writer telling prospective readers that such a relationship 'can really mess you up.' Another description bills Jong-Fast as 'the only child of a famous woman', and her book being about 'her elusive mother's encroaching dementia and... her complicated childhood.' Already available for preorder, the book will be released on June 3. A man who smuggled an antique gun into a police station before shooting dead a policeman at point blank range received 167,000 in legal aid. Louis De Zoysa, 27, was jailed for life in 2023 after being convicted of the murder of police officer Matt Ratana, 54, following the shooting in September 2020. De Zoysa had an antique gun on him but officers who searched him before his arrival at the custody block in Croydon, south London, failed to find it. Despite being handcuffed he managed to get hold of the weapon while in a cell and then used it to shoot Sgt Ratana twice in the chest. De Zoysa had denied the murder and his legal team argued a defence of diminished responsibly claiming he suffered from a 'autistic meltdown' caused by the stress of the arrest and being held in a confined space. Officials have now revealed that lawyers on behalf of De Zoysa were paid 167,341 to build up his defence case and provide legal representation for him in court. Sgt Ratana, originally from New Zealand, had been a Metropolitan police officer for 29 years and was three months from retirement at the time of his murder. The high ranking officer died in hospital despite the best efforts of medical staff to save him. Louis De Zoysa was sentenced to life by a High Court judge at Northampton Crown Court last year following the murder of Sergeant Matt Ratana Sergeant Matt Ratana was two months away from retiring when he was fatally shot with an antique firearm that Mr De Zoysa had managed to successful conceal Chilling footage from inside the cell showed the moments before Sgt Ratana was shot dead Louis De Zoysa was handing a whole-life order upon sentencing, meaning he will never be released unless there are exceptional circumstances to warrant it. He joined a list of more than 60 criminals serving whole-life orders in the UK, including Sarah Everard's killer Wayne Couzens, necrophiliac David Fuller and quadruple murderer Damien Bendall. De Zoysa was found guilty of murder at Northampton Crown Court after jurors were shown distressing CCTV footage of him using a legally bought revolver to shoot Sgt Ratana. The jury which convicted the former tax office data analyst was not told a shortened infantry rifle, numerous types of ammunition, a pipe gun and a dummy launcher were found at his rented property after the killing. De Zoysa, a former UCL student and cannabis addict, claimed the gun that killed Sgt Ratana had gone off by accident - but laboratory tests showed this was not possible. Analysis of his devices revealed an interest in weaponry and violence including right wing extremism, Islamic extremism and homophobia. Speaking at the sentencing in 2023, Sgt Ratana's partner Su Bushby, whom he had been planning to propose to before he died, said: 'Losing Matt, my partner of five years was the most devastating event that happened in my life. 'If he was alive today we would be celebrating eight years together. When I was told Matt had been shot my whole body just froze, I felt such shock and cold. Sgt Ratana's partner said losing her partner of five years was the most devastating event that happened in her life The revolver used by Louis De Zoysa to shoot Metropolitan Police officer Matt Ratana in the chest inside a custody block in Croydon Screen grab taken from body worn camera footage issued by the Metropolitan Police of Louis De Zoysa being put into a police van before the murder De Zoysa, depicted here in a court sketch, gave some of his evidence by writing and drawing on a court whiteboard and the trial was conducted in simplified language because of his brain injury 'The words seemed to come out in slow motion and I can remember falling to the floor screaming and crying uncontrollably. Everyday I am still waiting for him to walk through the door. 'I remember seeing the man who shot him in November 2022 and I found it extremely difficult to face him and remember thinking how unfair it was. 'I was overwhelmed with grief and pain seeing him and his family and knowing they still had their son. 'The man who shot Matt gets to remain on this Earth and he doesn't. He was an amazing man and didn't deserve to die. 'Prior to trial I was given the opportunity to watch the CCTV and have some kind of understanding of what happened. 'It was so difficult to hear Matt's voice and see him in the video being a custody sergeant, a role he loved, knowing that when he went into that room his life would be over seconds later.' Donald Trump's incoming border czar referred to the New Year's Day New Orleans attack and Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas as 'suicide' missions and blamed Joe Biden. Tom Homan argued in an interview on Fox & Friends Thursday morning that attackers targeting the U.S. have been emboldened and shared what he expects to learn about the suspects in both New Orleans and Las Vegas. 'I think theyre both on a suicide mission. I think both of these incidents, these men knew they weren't going home,' he said. Law enforcement officials have identified the attacker who drove a truck into a crowd on busy Bourbon Street killing 15 people early New Year's Day as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen born in Texas and Army veteran. President Biden said that the explosion of the Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas is also being investigated for any connections to the Louisiana attack, but officials have said they have not definitively linked the two. Homan on Thursday zeroed in on the U.S. border as investigators carry out a multi-state investigation despite there being no immigration links in the investigation. 'This is just another danger this country faces because this country has been lax on national security and groups like this have been emboldened,' Homan claimed. He expects the investigations will reveal both were U.S. citizens with prior military experience. 'I think youre going to find they both have recent and foreign travel. They were both inspired by ISIS,' he said. Trump's incoming border czar Tom Homan slammed the Biden administration over the border following the New Orleans attack and Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police after ramming his rented truck into the crowd of people out celebrating the start of the new year. After the attack, law enforcement officials said an ISIS flag was found in the trailer of the rented pickup truck. He also had potential improvised explosive devices. Law enforcement officials have not yet revealed whether they know if the attacker or driver of the Cybertruck in Las Vegas traveled internationally as they sift through the data. But Homan on Thursday went off on the Biden administration over the U.S. border and argued the administration unsecured the border 'on purpose.' He is one of multiple people set to serve in the Trump administration as well as the president-elect who have used the deadly New Year's Day attack to call for more border security. 'Its open invitation for those around the world that hate this country,' he said of the current border. On Thursday morning, Trump's incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz called for the U.S. border to be closed in the wake of the attack. Police have identified the killer as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, an Army veteran who was born in Texas and was inspired by ISIS to conduct the vehicle attack on people out celebrating New Year's Eve on New Orleans famed Bourbon Street The white truck used in the attack is seen from above. President Joe Biden confirmed that the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar was inspired by ISIS to drive through a crowd on Bourbon Street, leaving at least 15 dead on New Year's Day President Biden is meeting with his homeland security team on Thursday in the Situation Room of the White House. He addressed the attack Wednesday night where he said 'no one should jump to conclusions.' On Thursday, the FBI said they now believe that Jabbar is likely to be a lone wolf terrorist who carried out his slaughter of people celebrating in New Orleans without accomplices. Law enforcement officials have also identified a suspect in the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas after it exploded on Wednesday On Thursday afternoon, officials said at a press conference that 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger is believed to have rented the Cybertruck. He was an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army. The Cybertruck was rented in Colorado Springs where Livelsberger lived and then driven to Las Vegas. The sheriff shared on Thursday that the driver had a gunshot wound to the head before the explosion. Officials are investigating whether the explosion was an act of terrorism. Fuel canisters and large firework mortars were found in the back of the truck after the explosion. The FBI said on Thursday there is not definitive link between the attack in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas. Investigators in Las Vegas also said they do not believe there is an ongoing threat there. In a second appearance on Fox News on Thursday, Homan suggested investigators will eventually find a connection between the two incidents. 'I think both these men realized they weren't going home after this event, but the threats aren't over,' he claimed. He then turned his focus once again to threats at the southern border. After the attack but before any details on either suspect had been revealed, President-elect Trump tried to blame the New Orleans attack on immigration even though the suspect has since been identified as a U.S. citizen. Sir Keir Starmer is facing a new grassroots rebellion against his leadership after a group of councillors quit en masse in protest against his 'centrist' policies. Twenty members of Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire have left the party, costing it control of the authority. In a furious open letter to the PM, leader Milan Radulovic said he was ending his own personal 42-year association with the party. He took aim at policies including the decision to make 300 winter fuel payments for pensions means-tested claiming local councillors were blocked from running for election for 'questioning' it. The veteran local politician also hit out at proposals to reform local democracy with the creation of 'super councils' with powers over planning, saying it was 'nothing short of a dictatorship'. 'I cannot support and will not support another centrist government intent on destroying local democracy and dictating national policy from a high pedestal,' he wrote. The former Labour councillors have formed a new party, Broxtowe Independents, and plan to run the council as a minority administration, with help from other independents. Tory former minister Robert Jenrick, the MP for Newark, said: 'Labour are ''failing the working classes''. 'That's just what their own councillors say about them. Labour's internal coalition is already falling apart.' Sir Keir Starmer is facing a new grassroots rebellion against his leadership after a group of councillors quit en masse in protest against his 'centrist' policies. Twenty members of Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire have left the party, costing it control of the authority. In a furious open letter to the PM, leader Milan Radulovic said he was ending his own personal 42-year association with the party. Sir Keir Starmer hailed the past 12 months as a 'year of change' and insisted Britain was already starting to see the fruits of a Labour government in his new year message. But new YouGov polling last night revealed that just 31 per cent of the electorate are upbeat about the upcoming year, with 37 per cent feeling pessimistic. There appears to be a particular disillusionment among voters who backed Labour in July's general election - many who did so for the first time - casting doubt over whether the party can hold on to them in 2029. 'I cannot support and will not support another centrist government intent on destroying local democracy and dictating national policy from a high pedestal,' Mr Radulovic wrote. Some 46 per cent of them said they 'expected them to do well but have been disappointed', while just over a third say they have done well so far. The Prime Minister's own personal ratings show the problem appears to be with both party and leader, with 42 per cent of Labour voters saying they were disappointed. Despite earning a commanding majority in the Commons last July, Labour's popularity has continued to falter as the Prime Minister admitted to making 'tough decisions' to stabilise the economy. This included slashing the Winter Fuel Allowance and imposing harsher inheritance tax laws on farmers. A poll from More in Common earlier this week showed Labour would lose its majority and nearly 200 seats if an election were held now. Party insiders are also concerned about next May's local elections after data showed that Labour have lost more than one in five council by-elections since taking office. The FBI agent in charge of providing updates on the New Orleans terror attack apparently took her nose ring off after being slammed for it online, according to internet sleuths. Special agent Alathea Duncan was seen with the facial piercing during a morning press conference following the terror attack in the French Quarter, which left 14 dead on Wednesday. But by the next press conference, Duncan appeared without the nose jewelry, sparking comments on social media given that the FBI does not allow its agents to have facial piercings. 'Special agent in charge, Aletha Duncan, shows up to the scene sporting a nose ring,' read one post on X. 'Can the FBI at least pretend to function as a serious law enforcement organization?' 'Did FBI Special Agent Alethea Duncan remove her nose ring after her first press conference - when she said this was "not a terrorist event" - to her second press conference?' wrote one popular X account. Duncan was also criticized when she contradicted the claim by NOLA's mayor that the attack was terrorist in nature. 'This is not a terrorist event,' Duncan claimed before the FBI confirmed that indeed the attack was a terror one. Special agent Alathea Duncan was slammed online for wearing a nose ring as she updated the public on the New Orleans terror attack on Wednesday In a later press conference, Duncan appeared without the nose ring According to the FBI, 'Facial piercings are not permitted, except for female trainees, who are authorized to wear earrings.' Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, acted alone when he drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Years revelers, the FBI said Thursday, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others in carrying out the deadly attack, which officials say was an act of terrorism inspired by the Islamic State group. The FBI also revealed that the driver, a US citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with IS and told viewers that he had joined the militant group before last summer. 'This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,' said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBIs counterterrorism division. The attack killed 14 people, including an 18-year-old woman who had ambitions of becoming a nurse. Authorities initially put the death toll at 15, which included Jabbar, who was fatally shot in a firefight with police. He was shot to death by police, and the FBI said Wednesday that it believed he did not act alone. Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle, along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the French Quarter. Officials fanned out to serve search warrants and spent hours at a Houston-area home thought to be connected to the investigation. But as of Thursday morning, no additional arrests were known to have been made, and it was unclear if the FBI was still actively looking for more suspects. The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. There was also a deadly explosions outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump. Biden said the FBI was looking into whether the Las Vegas explosion was connected to the New Orleans attack but had 'nothing to report' as of Wednesday evening. Iran brutally carried out at least a thousand executions in 2024 as its ruthless leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei attempts to clamp down on political dissidence, it has been claimed. According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group which calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, the killings carried out at the hands of the government took place across 86 prisons. The toll of those executed in 2024 includes 34 women and seven minors and is the highest figure recorded in over three decades. 119 Baluchi people - a minority group from Iran's Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan provinces - were also executed. The NCRI's report also revealed that four executions were barbarically carried out in public. The NCRI, however, notes that the number of overall executions could be much higher taking into consideration that several have been carried out in secret. The release of the statistics comes after at least 12 prisoners were reportedly executed in Iran on New Years Day. President-elect of the NCRI Maryam Rajavi claims that the barbaric wave of executions are part of Khamenei's 'desperate' attempt to prevent an uprising, with capital punishment used as a way of instilling fear throughout society. Iran brutally carried out at least 1000 executions in 2024 as its ruthless leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei attempts to clamp down on political dissidence Execution ceremony in Nowshahr, Iran 2014. The country uses capital punishment to discipline those convicted of certain crimes, including murder, theft, adultery and homosexuality Iran's use of capital punishment has been condemned around the world. Here, a group of protestors can be seen demonstrating against executions in Iran in Brussels, Belgium, 2019 'Khamenei resorts to these executions to suppress the people's uprising demanding the regimes overthrow,' she stated. Saudi Arabia execution 'killing spree' Saudi Arabia has executed six Iranians for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said Wednesday, after a year in which it carried out a record number of executions. Saudi Arabia carried out at least 338 executions in 2024, sharply up on the 170 recorded in 2023 and the highest number in decades, the AFP tally showed. Human rights group Amnesty International said the previous highs were 196 in 2022 and 192 in 1995. Convicted drug traffickers made up at least 117 of those put to death last year, according to the tally Advertisement 'These atrocities only strengthen the determination of Irans youth to overthrow the religious dictatorship. 'The regime must be ostracized by the international community, and any dealings with it should be conditioned on halting executions and torture. Its leaders must be held accountable before justice.' Iran is also known to use several other forms of cruel punishments in order to discipline those who defy the nation's cruel regime. Under the Islamic Republic's penal code, authorities are allowed to use their 'eye for an eye' law, which sees prisoners endure horrific punishments designed to inflict as much pain as possible. This includes amputating the fingers of people convicted of theft - an act that is widely condemned as abhorrent and illegal by human rights activists across the world. According to the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre, Iranian authorities have amputated the fingers of at least 131 men since January 2000. Punishments also include gouging out the eyes of prisoners and torturing them. Alongside other human rights campaigners, Amnesty has called for Iran to half these callous punishments. Brompton Bicycles have seen their 2024 profits nosedive by over 99 per cent to just over 4k as the biking industry becomes embroiled in a post-pandemic spiral. Profits at the Middlesex-based firm fell from 10.7 million in to just 4,602 in the year to the end of March 2024, a paltry sum which would not even allow you to purchase their top line models. The profit plunge has been induced by the industry's Covid boom, according to experts. During the pandemic, bike makers struggled to meet demand as people sought alternative outdoor methods of keeping fit. This exponential growth in demand resulted in manufacturers such as Brompton incorrectly estimating stock requirements and left the bike market awash with heavily discounted options for consumers in the pandemics's aftermath. For Brompton, whose cheapest model begins at roughly 1,000, sales fell 5.3 per cent whilst the company sold 8.2 per cent fewer bikes in the year to the end of 2024. The worrying sales figures are not just confined to Brompton though, with bike manufacturers across the US and Europe struggling to recoup their investments on their inventory overestimations. Some manufacturers have collapsed altogether and entered into administration as a result of this prolonged period of poor sales. These include the likes of online retailer Wiggle and UK firms Merican, Orange Mountain Bikes and P Bairstow. Despite the ostensible turmoil engulfing the biking industry, Brompton's Managing Director, Will Butler-Adams, remains hopeful that brands can overcome what he has called 'a really sad state of affairs'. Brompton Bicycles have announced that their 2024 profits have nosedived by over 99 per cent to just over 4k as the biking industry becomes gripped in a post-pandemic spiral Manufacturers such as Brompton has suffered from overestimating on stock requirements Admitting that sales are unlikely to rise sharply in just one year, Butler-Adams told the Guardian that he predicts 2025 will see a recovery of sorts in the bicycle market. Growing usage of electric bike rental schemes such as Lime and Forest, alongside the introduction of cheaper Chinese alternatives on the market, will likely elongate this recovery process though. As a result of the dwindling profits, Brompton has now placed their planned relocation to a new headquarters in Kent on hold and cancelled the payment of dividends to shareholders. In an effort to pay off debts, the company also sold off an 8.5 per cent stake in the business in early 2024 to a fund set up by multiple high street banks such as Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds. The hope at Brompton is that the firm's more commuter-friendly biking options will help claw them out of their financial hole as consumers look for 'more utilitarian' options. If the company can stay the course and ride out the current lull in sales, Butler-Adams believes that the bicycle market still holds huge potential in the long-term as the world's major cities continue to implement more biking-conscious policies. 'London, Edinburgh, New York, Seville, Paris all have the momentum of getting people more active for air quality and trying to get people fitter. In the macro picture things are going in the right direction. The industry shot itself in the foot but that will roll out', Butler-Adams stated. The Brompton Managing Director also added that the launch of the manufacturer's new G-Line model would help steer sales in the right direction in the short to medium-term. An adorable 10-year-old girl was killed outside her Florida home after she was struck in the head by a stray bullet believed to have been fired in celebration of the New Year. Yanelis Munuguia, who had just celebrated her 10th birthday on December 26, was ringing in the New Year with family when she was struck in the head by the stray bullet around 12:04 am on Wednesday. The innocent child immediately collapsed to the ground outside of her family's home on the 2100 block of Northwest 27th Avenue in Allapattah, sending the family into a panic. Her parents noticed a gunshot wound on the back of little Yanelis' head. Now frantic, amidst a lively New Year's Eve celebration outside their home. The family put the girl into a car with the intent of driving her to the hospital and called 911. Hialeah Fire Rescue eventually intercepted the family and took Yanelis to Jackson Ryder Trauma Center, where she pronounced dead. 'Shooting a gun into the sky has consequences. Who paid? A little girl,' Yanelis' family member, Carlos Gutierrez, said through tears. 'What did the girl do? Nothing. What fault did she have? But that's the way things are.' Yanelis Munuguia, 10, was ringing in the New Year with her family when she was struck in the head by a stray bullet around 12:04 am on Wednesday The innocent child immediately collapsed to the ground outside of her family's home on the 2100 block of Northwest 27th Avenue in Allapattah Miami-Dade Police believe the unidentified person who fired the shot could have been shooting wildly into the air to celebrate the start of 2025. 'We speak time and time again every new year about the fact that what goes up must come down,' Detective Andre Martin told CBS News. 'This is a prime example of the dangers of shooting a firearm indiscriminately into the air. We have a 10-year-old girl who lost her life at the beginning of the year.' The grief-stricken family is now grappling with planning a funeral of the child and struggling to explain to her 7-year-old brother that his older sister is gone. 'Every time I came over, she was always happy to see me and now I can't bear to enter their home and not be able to see her again,' Yanelis' grandfather, Ramon Valdizon, said. 'It hurts my soul. I cannot stand to go in that house and not see her again.' he said. The family has since set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs of the young girl's funeral expenses. Her funeral is scheduled for January 11. Yanelis Munuguia had just celebrated her 10th birthday on December 26 'Every time I came over, she was always happy to see me and now I can't bear to enter their home and not be able to see her again,' Yanelis' grandfather, Ramon Valdizon, said. 'It hurts my soul. I cannot stand to go in that house and not see her again' 'It is a great loss and it's a disgrace that a 10-year-old girl was killed by this bullet,' a family member told CBS News. 'You can only imagine how the parents are feeling and the family. A moment of joy turns into a tragedy. 'The public needs to be aware that you can not do these things. I'm encouraging people if you know something, say something.' Miami-Dade Police are offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Federal agents raided the home of Jeffrey Maddrey, the former Chief of Department of the NYPD, as new Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch continues to go scorched earth on the boys in blue. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office is spearheading the investigation, Tisch confirmed on Thursday. The federal probe reportedly centers on allegations that Maddrey, as the NYPD's highest-ranking uniformed officer, repeatedly wielded his power to procure sex from a subordinate and granted her excessive overtime to secure her silence. In his former role, Maddrey oversaw the department's crime-fighting strategies, quality-of-life programs, and operations. Maddrey, who abruptly resigned amid the allegations late last month, has strongly denied the accusations. Following his resignation, John Chell was appointed interim Chief of Department, and Tisch officially removed the interim title on New Year's Eve. 'At my direction, the Internal Affairs Bureau of the New York City Police Department is working with law enforcement authorities to investigate allegations against former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey,' Tisch said in a Jan. 2 statement. 'Maddrey was suspended from the Department this morning, as law enforcement agents executed search warrants at several locations, including his residence. Any further inquiries about this matter should be directed to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.' Video footage shared by Freedomnews TV on X captured federal agents leaving Maddrey's Rosedale, Queens residence on Jan. 2, carrying boxes and entering unmarked black vehicles. Federal agents raided the home of Jeffrey Maddrey, the former Chief of Department of the NYPD, under the instruction of new Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The federal probe reportedly centers on allegations that Maddrey repeatedly sexually assaulted a female subordinate and granted her excessive overtime to secure her silence The raid adds Maddrey to the growing list of officials linked to Mayor Eric Adams who have faced federal scrutiny. Others include former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, former First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and former Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks. The allegations against Maddrey first came to light in a New York Post report. on Dec. 21, which detailed claims by NYPD Lt. Quathisha Epps. Epps accused Maddrey of persistently soliciting sexual favors, including requests for anal, vaginal, and oral sex, and described inappropriate advances such as asking her to kiss his genitals. Epps alleged that Maddrey sought to buy her silence by awarding her significant overtime. According to reports, Epps earned $204,000 in overtime last year, making her the department's highest-paid officer in Fiscal Year 2024 with total earnings of $400,000. At a Dec. 27 press conference, Maddrey's attorney, Lambros Lambrou, categorically denied the allegations. ' 'We can tell you now those allegations are a lie, they're not true, we deny every aspect of them.' Lambrou said. Pictured: statement issued by Jessica Tisch The fallout from the allegations prompted significant changes within the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau, which handles investigations into police misconduct. Tisch, who assumed her role as Police Commissioner in late November, replaced Internal Affairs Chief Miguel Iglesias and reassigned several other senior members of the bureau. The Supreme Court The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the tagging of a plea filed by AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi seeking implementation of the Places of Worship Act, 1991 with a pending batch of matters. The 1991 Act prohibits the filing of a lawsuit to reclaim a place of worship or seek a change in its character from what prevailed on August 15, 1947. At the very outset, a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar ordered that Owaisis plea be tagged with the pending clutch of petitions, where it had imposed restrictions on registering new suits, delivering effective or final judgments, or ordering surveys in ongoing cases concerning mosques and shrines. In an interim order passed on December 12, 2024, the CJI Khanna-led Special Bench had ordered that no fresh suits would be registered under the Places of Worship Act in the country, and in the pending cases, no final or effective orders would be passed till further orders. The Special Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan, had asked the Union government to file within four weeks its reply to the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Places of Worship Act, 1991. As per the computerised case status, the matter is tentatively listed for hearing on February 17. On the other hand, several intervention/impleadment applications were filed before the Supreme Court seeking the dismissal of the petitions against the Places of Worship Act. In its application, the Managing Committee of Varanasi's Gyanvapi Mosque said the "consequences of declaring the 1991 Act unconstitutional are bound to be drastic and will obliterate the rule of law and communal harmony." It said that an Article 32 petition challenging a legislative enactment must indicate the unconstitutionality of the provisions based on constitutional principles and the rhetorical arguments seeking a sort of retribution against the perceived acts of previous rulers cannot be made the basis for a constitutional challenge. "As many as 20 suits are pending before different Varanasi courts seeking to nullify the protection accorded by the 1991 Act and to convert the character of the Gyanvapi Mosque and prevent access of Muslims to the mosque," it said. In a similar application, the Committee of Management of Mathura's Shahi Masjid Eidgah said that the law was enacted by Parliament in the interest of the country's progress, which has stood the test of time for more than 33 years. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had said that local courts were undermining the spirit of the 1991 Act by entertaining petitions and issuing orders concerning mosques. The manner in which local courts declared appeals admissible and issued orders on mosques and dargahs had made this Act ineffective. The Supreme Court has now stopped any effective or final decisions and prohibited survey orders until the next hearing, added the AIMPLB. This is the moment a woman watching a New Year's Eve fireworks display was hit by a rogue shell which fired through the window. Bianca Miranda, 27, suffered serious burns to her breasts and hand after a pyrotechnic hit her as she admired the display from a rented apartment with her boyfriend. Footage of the blast in Navegantes, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, from New Year's Eve shows the couple kiss and cuddle as they watch the show from their room. But as Bianca leans out of the window for a better look, one rogue firework misfires and sends a searing hot bombshell right at her chest. The clip shows the firework burning its way through her dress as she screams and frantically tries to snuff it out with her bare hand. Her partner Victor Frasca later told local media she suffered third-degree burns to her chest where the firework melted her skin and second-degree burns to her hand. Bianca added: 'I burnt my hand because I tried to put out the fire. Bianca Miranda and her partner watching a New Year's Eve fireworks display when she was hit by a stray shell A rogue firework is seen firing suddenly through the window and hitting Bianca's dress 'I was desperate. The dress stuck to my body, I had to go under the shower to try to alleviate the pain.' Bianca and Victor, from Porto Alegre, had rented the apartment specially to see in the New Year and set up their phone on a tripod to record the moment. After the blast, Victor rushed Bianca to the Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes Hospital for emergency treatment. Bianca said: 'It took us about half an hour to find the hospital, but we were very well taken care of. 'I received pain medication, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics, as well as guidance on the necessary care. The US Army veteran who drove a truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers in New Orleans's French Quarter tried to sell off his guns and ammo online just weeks before the fatal terror attack, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen born and raised in Texas, drove an electric vehicle from Houston to Louisiana to carry out the deadly attack that killed 14 and left at least 35 injured. Online listings on firearm classifieds website Armslist.com, seen exclusively by DailyMail.com, show that the terrorist had tried to flog three handguns and a shotgun online just weeks before the bloody massacre. In one chilling description of an Escort BTS 12-gauge Bullpup Shotgun, listed for $200, he even touted the gun as 'Great for sending home invaders to Hell!' Federal investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle after a shootout with police that left the suspect dead. It is unclear if the guns recovered were the ones listed for sale. Jabbar had previously claimed that he was struggling for money after his divorce and had listed the weapons between November 4 and December 13. A number associated with Jabbar was advertised on the Armslist.com listings, which showed his location as Houston, Texas. He was also selling a 2.25 Ruger SP101 with ammo, holster and tritium site for $690, along with a Keltec P50 with ammo for $625 and a CZ-52 Pistol and 700 rounds for $399. US Army Veteran and suspected terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, had tried offloading an arsenal of weapons online just weeks before carrying out attack on New Year's revelers in New Orleans, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal Online listings on firearm classifieds website Armslist.com seen exclusively by DailyMail.com show that the terrorist had listed three handguns, a shotgun, and ammunition for sale, including a Escort BTS 12-gauge Bullpup Shotgun for $200 In a chilling description of the shotgun he advertised it as 'great for sending home invaders to Hell!' The listing for the CZ-52 pistol said the weapon had been kept in a box for 'close to two decades' but had 'no misfires or hangs, so the weapon and ammo are both good.' Jabbar's Ruger revolver had 50 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense hollows which are designed to expand inside the target to cause maximum damage. He was also using the same username of 'shamjabbar' to list a pair of military combat boots on eBay. In a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for eBay said: 'While we cannot comment on individual users' activities, when contacted by law enforcement agencies we cooperate and work closely with them to assist with their investigations.' The account appears to have since been taken down. This comes after the FBI raided several homes in multiple states and previously said they believe others were also 'responsible' for the attack, officials have now said they believe it was a lone wolf attack. Investigators have described the incident as a 'premeditated act of evil' and are probing the theory he rented a nearby property on Airbnb in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans for his base before carrying out the attack. Exclusive DailyMail.com photographs show the moment the FBI removed bomb making materials from the two-bed, two-bath property close to the French Quarter. He was also selling a CZ-52 Pistol and 700 rounds for $399, according to his profile on the site The listing for the CZ-52 pistol said the weapon had been kept in a box for 'close to two decades' but had 'no misfires or hangs, so the weapon and ammo are both good' The website showed Jabbar was also using the same username of 'shamjabbar' on Armslist as well as on eBay where he was selling a pair of military combat boots A Keltec P50 with ammo was listed for $625 A total containment vessel was seen being taken away from the property at around 8pm on New Year's Day, hours after authorities had evacuated residents from the area. The area is mostly rentals available to tourists traveling to the area for the holiday period, who have now been left without a place to stay. The FBI were joined by special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security. Authorities confirmed on Thursday that they obtained three phones and two laptops from the address rented by Jabbar and were trawling through his digital footprint. The FBI has reportedly extracted just one of the three cell phones so far, as it was revealed that he rented the truck until January 4. He left five sickening videos explaining why he was carrying out the atrocities in his now-deleted Facebook page before the attack, between 1:29am and 3:02am on January 1. Deputy Assistant Christopher Raia with the bureau's Counterterrorism Division said at a press conference that Jabbar: 'originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the 'war between the believers and the disbelievers'.' Raia added: 'He stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. He also provided a will and testament.' The driver, who plowed into pedestrians celebrating the New Year in New Orleans killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens, died during a shootout with police Videos circulating on social media from the scene shows multiple casualties on the ground as shots ring out in the background. People were also seen running from the area A total containment vessel was seen being taken away from the property at around 8pm on New Years Day, hours after authorities had evacuated residents from the area Officials in New Orleans added that they do not believe the city's New Year's terrorist attack was related to a suspected bombing in Las Vegas. Tesla Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger is a long-serving married Green Beret who was on leave from active duty when he carried out the attack outside Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel. Livelsberger, 37, was identified by law enforcement sources as the bomber in Wednesday's attack, which left seven wounded. The electric vehicle exploded about 15 seconds after the driver pulled up in front of the hotel's entrance. The toddler and his teenage relative who died just a day apart after they ate fish as part of the family's New Year's Eve dinner in Brazil have been identified. Manoel da Silva, 17, fell ill on Wednesday and tragically died while he was being rushed to Dirceu Arcoverde Regional Hospital after consuming the fish. Igno da Silva, one, died at the hospital on Thursday after eating the same meal - which was donated to the family in a meal basket by a local organization, police said. The baby's mother, Maria da Silva, 43, was among the seven people who fell ill after consuming the food. Five people, aside from the deceased, were rushed to hospital. Her condition worsened Thursday, requiring doctors to place her on a ventilator. Manoel's two nieces are the two other sick victims who remained hospitalized as of Thursday. Authorities are awaiting the results of an autopsy report that will determine Igno's and Manoel's cause of death. 'The symptoms [of the patients] were basically the same: heart rate below normal, intense sweating, reduced level of consciousness,' said Dirceu Arcoverde Regional Hospital director, Carlos Teixeira, as quoted by Brazilian news outlet G1. 17-year-old Manoel da Silva died Wednesday after falling sick from eating fish during the family New Year's Eve dinner. The fish was part of a meal basket that was donated to residents Igno da Silva, 1, passed away Thursday, a day after he fell ill from the fish he consumed during his family's New Year's Eve dinner. The boy's death comes after his older siblings died in August and November after they were gifted poisoned cashews by a neighbor in August 'We are still carrying out tests to discover the origin and the material of this poisoning. We are giving priority attention to children in very serious condition.' The owner of the home told the Piaui Civil Police that his family consumed a meal that was donated in a basket by a local organization. Investigators were able to comb through a garbage container outside the housing complex and recovered possible leftovers. 'The people who delivered the food came forward voluntarily and will be interviewed by the police this afternoon,' Civil Police chief Abimael Silva said. 'The rice consumed by the family that was the victim of the misfortune was prepared by the family itself the day before. They did not consume the rice donated by the people, only the manjuba [fish] that came in the bag.' A Civil Police agent is handed over leftovers from the family dinner that was dumped in a garbage container An investigator searches through a garbage bag as part of the investigation into the fish that was served at a New Year's Eve family dinner that left two children dead and seven people hospitalized Siblings Joao da Silva, 7, and Ulisses da Silva, 8, died August 28 and November 10, respectively, after consuming poisoned cashews that was gifted to them by a neighbor on August 23 Piaui Legal Medicine Institute director, Antonio Nunes, told TV Clube that police investigators have acquired blood and urine samples from Manoel. Igno's death comes four months after his two older brothers died after eating poisoned cashews that were gifted to them by a neighbor. Joao da Silva, 7, and Ulisses da Silva, 8, received a bag of cashews that were tainted with terfubos, a chemical that is used as an insecticide and nematicide, on August 23. Joao died on August 28 and Ulisses died November 11 after spending two months in the hospital. It is unclear if the little boy's death after eating the fish is linked to his brother's deaths in August. This comes after a mystery Christmas cake poisoning in the southern Brazilian city of Torres ended with the deaths of three members of the same family. Zeli dos Anjos, 61, prepared the traditional 'Bolo de Natal' festive treat for a family meal on December 23. She remains in hospital on a ventilator although the other survivors who were hospitalised have all now been discharged. Zeli was one of six family members including a 10-year-old child who ended up in hospital with food poisoning. Her sisters Maida, 58, Neuza, 65, and Neuza's daughter Tatiana, 43, all died shortly after eating the cake. Traces of the toxic metal arsenic were reportedly found in the victims' bodies, although further tests are ongoing. In the wake of the Christmas horror it emerged Zeli's husband had died from suspected food poisoning in September. Zeli's family have since revealed he ate bananas suspected to have been contaminated by chemicals following a flood in their home city. Torres-based police chief Marcos Vinicius Veloso said earlier this week of the Christmas drama, as it emerged the poisoning could be linked to the use of contaminated foods following a power cut: 'With the evidence we have collected, we do not know whether the poisoning was negligent or intentional. 'So far, I have not been able to find any intentional conduct. However, other evidence that comes to light may contradict what I think now. 'This is an investigation that requires great caution.' More than 1million of public cash has been handed to illegal immigrants in Scotland, including dangerous criminals, so they can fight deportation. The money was paid in relation to 183 cases involving individuals looking to appeal or challenge deportation or removal. Details of the cash involved comes after the Mail previously revealed more than 630 people served deportation orders, after being convicted for crimes including sexual assault and violence, have not been removed by the Home Office. The number of foreign criminals at large in the UK rocketed over the past year from 11,940 to 17,428, a record high. The latest figures show the number in Scotland stands at 635. The situation has emerged as Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay calls for deportations as an alternative to mass prisoner releases being proposed by SNP ministers, to ease an overcrowding crisis. Scottish Conservative spokesman for victims and community safety Sharon Dowey MSP said: Taxpayers should not be continuing to foot the bill to help dangerous criminals fight deportation. While we must look at deporting these offenders to free up space in Scotlands overcrowded jails, best value for taxpayers must always be a top priority. Sam Sharma drugged and sexually abused a 14-year-old girl after the Home Office failed to deport him following a stint in prison for a police assault Meanwhile, Labour faces increasing pressure to deport non-British criminals rather than hold them at taxpayers expense. Although the justice brief is devolved to Scotland, the decision to deport foreign criminals would be up to the UK Home Office. Labour Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has told the Commons she is looking at the point at which foreign criminals could be deported rather than be kept in jail at taxpayers expense. She said: Deportation for somebody who has been convicted and is due to be imprisoned in our country is as good a punishment as serving time in this country. Figures provided by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) show a total of 1,219,725 was paid out in legal aid for civil cases involving deportation or removal between April 2019 and December of this year. The figures will include foreign criminals looking to challenge efforts to remove them from the country. The money was said to cover all solicitors fees, counsel fees and outlays such as travel, interpreters costs and expert witnesses. A recommendation for deportation to the Home Office can be made where an accused person over the age of 17 who is not a British citizen has been found to have committed an offence punishable by imprisonment. Any actual decision on deportation is made by the Home Office. Under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more. In October Perth Sheriff Court heard how failed asylum seeker and Indian national Sam Sharma drugged and sexually abused a 14-year-old girl after the Home Office failed to deport him following a stint in prison for a police assault. The Home Office has said it is committed to deporting foreign national offenders and aim to remove them from the UK at the earliest opportunity. As of November, there were 629 foreign nationals in Scottish jails, with about half convicted of a crime and the others on remand. Such is the concentration and mix of nationalities inside Scotlands jails that a Scottish academic has described one of Scotlands toughest jails as akin to a mini UN conference. Jim Watson, a criminal justice lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland, said that during a recent visit to HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow, Scotlands largest jail, he had encountered inmates from all over the world. Mr Watson told a BBC Scotland radio phone-in: There are a number of foreign nationals held within Scottish prisons. I was in Barlinnie last week. There were Mexicans, Vietnamese, Lithuanians, Albanians, and various others from across the world. It was like a mini-UN conference almost. Part of the problem is that when you try to extradite [deport] someone, it normally kicks in a human rights appeal. A pharmacist who ordered in thousands of tablets and sent them home to Africa without permission has been allowed to keep his licence, a tribunal has decided. Sylvester Vinkabb was suspended for a year after he ordered in 16,000 diazepam and Xanax tablets and 100 litres of codeine to the pharmacy he worked for in Derbyshire. The experienced pharmacist then sent the medication to his home country Sierra Leone in an 'Africa box', the tribunal was told. Vinkabb denied being dishonest with regard to knowing that he didn't have the permission of his employer and valid UK prescriptions for the prescription medication. He admitted, however, that he sent the medicine to Africa, saying he was 'blinded by wanting to help people'. But despite his pleas, a General Pharmaceutical Council [GPC] panel found him guilty of professional misconduct. They said he was 'plainly aware' he was ordering the medication without permission and suspended him from work for a year. It was noted however, that Vinkabb 'did pay cost price for the medications he ordered'. The tribunal also heard there was 'no evidence' he was 'dishonest in order to make personal financial gain'. Vinkabb 'ordered and removed' the medication from Evans Pharmacy in Long Eaton, Derbyshire between May 2022 and February 2023. Pictured: A general view of Evans Pharmacy in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, where Sylvester Vinkabb worked as a pharmacist This included 330 boxes of Xanax and Diazepam tablets - totalling to more than 16,000 pills, more than 100 litres of codeine and around 357 of phenergan elixir, the panel heard. The pharmacist was caught out after spreadsheet of discrepancies was presented to the GPC. Vinkabb denied the charges but said he had been sending medicine back to Sierra Leone since 2022 - saying he put returned medicine in an 'Africa box'. He told the Committee: 'I cannot remember exactly when, but probably in around 2022, I started to take some medicines out of the patient returns bin in the Pharmacy to send back to Sierra Leone. 'This was not in any significant quantities. For example, if old paracetamol or ibuprofen came back in their original packs and were unused and untouched, I would take them out of the patient returns bin, remove the labels and put them in a separate box, which was known as the 'Africa box' in the branch. 'The 'Africa box' did not just include medicines, but also other medical products such as dressings. 'This was opportunistic rather than targeted, so if something came in that I thought would be helpful back in the local community in Sierra Leone then I would put it to one side.' He went on to describe how he would buy barrels from a shipping company in Leicester and would stash the supplies - as well as old clothes and shoes - in them before sending them to Africa. Vinkabb added: 'I usually send it back to Sierra Leone, all go to my home, none are sold here. They all go in the barrel. I pay for it and send it. I am blinded by wanting to help people' The barrels would then be shipped to his mother's house - who Vinkabb described as a 'community leader' - and distributed as appropriate. Vinkabb ordered in 16,000 diazepam and Xanax tablets and 100 litres of codeine to the pharmacy he worked for in Derbyshire The panel ruled it was 'a unique case' in that the dishonesty was not for the financial gain of the pharmacist but rather to help his mother's home community. They noted the following mitigating factors: The Registrant is of previous positive good character and has no earlier findings against him; He paid for the medications; He made significant admissions at the earliest opportunity to his employer indeed he admitted more, in relation to the materials and other medications he was taking, than his employer had discovered; The Registrant has provided positive professional references which do not suggest there are any issues with his standard of professional practice; He has been working as a pharmacist since 2022 with no further concerns, and provide a positive testimonial from his current superintendent; The Registrant thought at the time that was he was doing could be justified in his mind because it was for a good cause; Due to his personal and direct experience of the suffering of the community he was trying to help, he found it very hard to refuse when asked by the local doctor to supply medicines to the community Vinkabb issued an apology and admitted he couldn't be certain he hadn't put patients at risk as result of his behaviour. In determining Vinkabb be suspended for one year, the panel said he had committed a 'very serious breach' of standards and said: 'Although the mitigating circumstances of this case set it apart from many others involving the dishonest diversion of medication including controlled drugs from the legitimate supply chain, even the best of intentions should never be an excuse for a professional to do so.' A former primary school headteacher who described a pupil as a 'fat slug' and branded another 'f***ing ugly' has escaped a ban from the classroom. Nicola Brogan, who worked at Woodland Community Primary School, in Heywood, Lancashire, also nicknamed a teacher 'Captain Camp' in reference to his sexuality and called a parent who was Scottish a 'f***ing jock,' a teaching misconduct panel found. The experienced headteacher, who led the school between September 2011 and December 2019, created an 'uncomfortable and negative working environment' that left some staff in fear, they said. Although the panel found her guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and bringing the profession into disrepute, they did not recommend Mrs Brogan be banned from teaching altogether. They said she deserved 'considerable credit' for helping steer the 470-pupil school out of special measures and to achieve a 'good' rating with Ofsted. She had also made a 'significant contribution to the teaching profession,' had 'expressed regret' about her behaviour and had an unblemished record, working for 22 years without any complaints, the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found. A three-day hearing, in Coventry last month, was told that Mrs Brogan was appointed to turn around the struggling school in September 2011. Less than four years later, in June 2015, Mrs Brogan told local paper, the Heywood Advertiser, that securing the 'good' rating from Ofsted had taken four years of 'hard work...dedication and blood, sweat and tears.' But she was subsequently referred to the TRA in November 2019, following two anonymous complaints about her behaviour. Nicola Brogan, who worked at Woodland Community Primary School, in Heywood, Lancashire, has avoided a classroom ban over her comments towards pupils Woodland Community Primary School, in Heywood, Lancashire, where Nicola Brogan worked Mrs Brogan, who gave evidence in person to the hearing, admitted making abusive and inappropriate comments about pupils, teachers and parents in a group WhatsApp chat set up for senior leaders at the school. Other comments included calling a teaching assistant a 'fat cow' and claiming another member of staff, who was late for a meeting, wouldn't need an inhaler if she 'wasn't so fat.' She also described one pupil as a 'wimp' and said another 'annoys the f*** out of me, he has no personality.' The panel also found she inappropriately joked with a teacher about whether they would have sex with an Ofsted inspector in return for an outstanding rating. She was also inconsistent and moody in her dealings with staff and shouted at them inappropriately in her office on at least two occasions. The TRA report said: 'The panel was satisfied that the conduct of Mrs Brogan, which concerned abusive and inappropriate comments about staff, pupils and a parent, was very serious. 'There was a significant weight of evidence from staff which confirmed that this behaviour had a seriously negative impact upon the working environment of the school and adversely affected how staff felt and behaved. 'The working culture at the school at the material time was at times negative and hostile. Some pupils and some staff members were clearly not always treated with respect by Mrs Brogan.' Although the panel concluded that some staff members had been left distressed by Mrs Brogan's behaviour, it did not result in 'any appreciable harm to pupils,' their report said. She was also cleared of several other allegations, including making staff members cry, mimicking a Polish accent and threatening to ruin a member of staff's career. Ruling on behalf of the Education Secretary, Sarah Buxcey agreed with the panel's recommendation not to ban Mrs Brogan from the classroom, adding: 'A prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest.' A woman emitted piercing screams while being arrested at Nashville Airport while so drunk she did not know what state she was in. Self-styled spiritual guru Lauren Maten was taken into custody fighting and screaming over the incident on March 15, with bodycam of the drama just released. Airport cops were initially called to reports that Maten, 24, had failed to pay her bill at the 400 Degrees restaurant. Newly released body cam footage shows the moment the police approached Maten before all hell broke loose. The altercation began when Maten denied that she had skipped out on her bill and started aggressively demanding the officer return her ID. 'Can I have it back? That's my iPhone,' she fumes before correcting herself and adding, 'I mean my ID.' But as the officer refuses and encourages her to relax, Maten only becomes more irate. She climbs off her chair and begins trying to grab her ID from the officer's hand as they urge her to refrain. A woman who was arrested for public intoxication at Nashville Airport was so drunk she did not know which state she was in Lauren Maten was taken into custody fighting and screaming over the incident on March 15 She was arrested for public intoxication after an airport restaurant reported her to the police for allegedly failing to pay her bill 'What's happening, what's going on? I need my ID. Give me my ID. Give it back,' she shouts. As she continues to rage, they slap her in handcuffs which only intensifies her outburst. She begins screaming at the top of her lungs and begging other passengers for help and insisting she is sober. Maten then refuses to keep walking and slumps to the floor shouting: 'Public intoxication is not even a thing in Indiana.' To which an officer replies: 'You're in Tennessee' before she is placed into a wheelchair and escorted through the airport. 'Help me! I don't know what's going on,' she yells. 'Miss please, please help me. I don't know what's going on, what do I do?' At one point she bizarrely yells out imploring President Joe Biden to help. Maten continues resisting as they take her into an elevator, requiring the strength of three officers to wrestle her inside as she screams and writhes on the floor. One officer was clearly amused by the bizarre drama and could be heard bursting into laughter as Maten's theatrical shrieking continued. The performance carries on even as she is walked out of the airport and into a waiting police car. Online records show she faced charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. She lets out another ear-splitting shriek as the officers bundle her into the car, yelling: 'What did I do wrong?' Maten keeps arguing with the cops all the way to the station, but eventually calms down and starts singing. A cop then informs her that someone had reported her missing earlier. Once she arrives at the police station Maten walks herself to the station door and promises to behave herself and is booked in. Online records show she faced charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. Both cases were dismissed and Maten was ordered to pay $220 in court fees. The incident came less than a year after UK comedian Rachel Jackson ended up in jail following a meltdown at the same airport. The Edinburgh-born star, who has appeared in 'Outlander' among others, was captured on police bodycam footage berating and swearing at police while being escorted from Nashville Airport. Ticket prices for Sigourney Weaver's West End debut in Shakespeare's The Tempest have been slashed after a string of bad reviews apparently put theatregoers off. The cost of watching the play at at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane has been dramatically slashed from 231 to just 85. A spate of bad reviews in part focused on 75-year-old Weaver's turn as Prospero. On Friday, over half of the theatre's most spenny tickets that cost between 169 to 231 were still available. Half-empty auditoriums were visible on the website until end of the production on February 1, according to The Times. Meanwhile, the most expensive tickets for Much Ado About Nothing are already being sold before its opening on February 10. The Tempest's December opening was the first time Shakespeare had been performed in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane since Sir John Gielgud had performed as Prospero in same play from 1957-58. The building's owner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, said at the final performance in 1958, Gielgud 'broke Prospero's staff and pronounced that Shakespeare would never again be performed at the Theatre Royal as it would be 'lost to musicals'.' Oliver Ryan, Jamie Lloyd, Jude Akuwudike, Forbes Masson, Mathew Horne, Mason Alexander Park, Sigourney Weaver, Selina Cadell, Tim Steed, Mara Huf, James Phoon and Jason Barnett Sigourney Weaver made her West End debut as Prospero in the new production of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest (pictured in May) Lloyd Webber said that he is 'determined to prove him [Gielgud] wrong'. Sigourney Weaver made her West End debut as Prospero in the new production of The Tempest while Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell star in Much Ado About Nothing. The two plays are part of a season of Shakespeare by The Jamie Lloyd Company at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. They are the first plays by the Bard to be staged at the theatre since Peter Brook's production of The Tempest starring John Gielgud in 1957. Alien actress Sigourney, 74, plays the storm-creating magician Prospero in the new staging of the Shakespeare classic The Tempest, in a role typically played by a man. The production opened on December 19, with previews from December 7, and run until February 1 2025. She said previously: 'I am delighted to be making my West End debut in Shakespeare's The Tempest directed by the brilliant Jamie Lloyd - and to do so in Andrew Lloyd Webber's beautiful and historic Theatre Royal Drury Lane is an extraordinary opportunity. Come and see us!' Tom, 43, and Hayley, 42, will play sparring enemies-to-lovers Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, which will open on February 19, with previews from February 10, and running until April 5 2025. While Tom Hiddleston (pictured in May) stars in Much Ado About Nothing alongside Hayley Atwell as part of a season of Shakespeare by The Jamie Lloyd Company Loki star Tom said: 'Working with Jamie Lloyd on Harold Pinter's Betrayal was one of the most fulfilling and meaningful experiences of my performing life.' 'I could not be more thrilled to have been given the opportunity to collaborate with him again, this time on one of Shakespeare's most warm-hearted and joyful plays: Much Ado About Nothing.' 'It's an honour to have been invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to bring Shakespeare back to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in a season alongside Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest, and to be working with the great Hayley Atwell for the first time.' Captain America actress Hayley added: 'I am thrilled to be joining Jamie Lloyd's company for the third time in my career.' 'His bold and electric direction, combined with the warmth and wit of one of Shakespeare's most celebrated comedic duos is a truly exciting opportunity and one that I hope will delight our audiences.' Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, who owns the theatre, said: 'When I was nine years old I was taken to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane to see Peter Brook's legendary production of The Tempest with John Gielgud as Prospero.' 'It made a profound impression on me. At the final performance, Gielgud broke Prospero's staff and pronounced that Shakespeare would never again be performed at the Theatre Royal as it would be 'lost to musicals'. 'Ever since I owned the Theatre Royal I have been determined to prove him wrong. It is therefore a massive joy that Jamie Lloyd is bringing back Shakespeare to the Lane and even more wonderful that the first of two Shakespeare plays will be The Tempest.' It comes after David Tennant and Cush Jumbo's Macbeth was cancelled for the third night running, with the cancellation being announced just two hours before the show was due to start. The Shakespearean play, which was being shown at the Harold Pinter theatre in London's West End, was forced to close its doors due to 'company illness'. Fans shared their fury over the last-minute announcement, with many stating how far they had travelled to see the play. Ticket holders said they wished the cast a speedy recovery but wanted the announcement earlier in the day before spending money on travel and food. David Tennant (pictured) and Cush Jumbo's Macbeth was cancelled for three nights running, with the latest cancellation being announced just two hours before the show was due to start The Harold Pinter X account announced on November 1 that the show's evening performance would not be going ahead The Harold Pinter X account first announced on November 1 that the show's evening performance would not be going ahead. The next three shows two on Saturday and one on Monday night were also eventually cancelled, as the social media account apologised and thanked ticket holders for their understanding. The post read: 'Unfortunately due to company sickness the performance of Macbeth tonight has been cancelled. 'Your ticket provider will be in contact with you in the next few days regarding your tickets. We're very sorry and thank you for understanding.' Reporting that fans were most recently alerted just two hours before the show was due to start, one person said: 'Meanwhile, in London, UK, the entire company (including David Tennant) of Macbeth is ill & forced cancellation of 4 consecutive performances just hours prior to their curtain call.' A Republican senator known for his support of Donald Trump insulted a member of the media this week - as he spoke about the recent terror attack in New Orleans. The quip from Louisiana's John Kennedy, 72, came hours after 14 were killed on the city's iconic Bourbon Street, by a 42-year-old Army veteran shot dead at the scene. As Kennedy was tasked with giving members of the media an update, a reporter was heard reminding the conservative that NBC News was 'here on the right.' Kennedy's response - uttered alongside law enforcement officials and the state's governor Jeff Landry - has since lived in infamy, seemingly unable to resist lampooning the network's progressive reputation. 'Thats an unusual position,' he said aloud Wednesday, to a combination of laughter and confusion. As he spoke, Kennedy was seen moving his hands to the right - further hitting home the idea that NBC is a left-leaning outlet. The jab was seemingly met in jest, but quickly spurred a torrent of outrage on social media. On the floor in New Orleans, it appeared to confuse the reporter who had shouted the directional in the first place. She's heard calling out, 'I dont get it' - to which a Kennedy responded, 'You wouldnt,' before taking over the podium. Scroll down for video: John Kennedy, a Republican senator representing Louisiana, insulted a member of the media this week as he spoke about the terror attack in New Orleans The quip from Louisiana 's John Kennedy, 72, came hours after 15 were killed on the city's iconic Bourbon Street, by a 42-year-old Army veteran shot dead at the scene The rest of the conference contained far fewer jokes - not surprising considering the occasion. Kennedy, however, did have some strong words about the federal support the city was receiving during the investigation at the time, before the FBI eventually intervened. As a result, the outspoken senator's comments were riddled with contempt, as he appeared visibly frustrated by the situation. 'I did talk to the Secretary of Homeland Security a little while ago, and I told him that, with all the respect I could muster, that we expect [him] to put the full force and resources of the federal government behind this investigation,' he said. Taking occasional sips out of two red solo cups, the politician also promised to 'raise fresh hell' and 'chase the federal government' for more information. At the time, specifics of the believed terror attack were still trickling out, leading to an erroneous report from Fox News that the Texas-born suspects truck crossed the US border in Eagle Pass 'two days ago.' Attributed to anonymous sources, the bit of misinformation brought politics into the budding investigation, and was quickly aired as fact by a fervent President-elect Trump. 'When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,' he wrote on Truth Social eight minutes later. As Kennedy was tasked with giving members of the media an update, a reporter was heard reminding the conservative that NBC News was 'here on the right.' Kennedy's response - uttered alongside law enforcement officials and the state's governor Jeff Landry - has since lived in infamy, as he seemingly could not resist honing in on the network's progressive reputation At the time, specifics of the believed terror attack were still trickling out, leading to an erroneous report from Fox News that the Texas-born suspects truck crossed the US border in Eagle Pass 'two days ago' Before Fox could amend the report, he added: 'The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. 'Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.' Hours later, it was revealed the suspect was a US citizen, Beaumont-born Shamsud-Din Jabbar. He served in the US Army Reserve, and the car he drove into a crowd gathered in the city's famed French Quarter was not even his. He had rented it via an app known as Turo, and the person who Fox reported had driven the Ford-150 across the border was found to be someone else. The timeline was also wrong, with the conservative news station later changing the 'two days' assertion to 'two months.' But the damage was already done, and spawned unfounded accusations online that feds on the scene were in the midst of covering the incident up. As this was occurring, Kennedy continued to offer his update - appearing somewhat disheveled as he insulated his plastic cups with paper towels. He promised to chase feds as if 'they stole Christmas to find out the 'truth,' as his earlier joke sparked some pushback online. Attributed to anonymous sources, the bit of misinformation brought politics into the budding investigation, and was quickly aired as fact by a fervent President-elect Trump Hours later, it was revealed the suspect was a US citizen, Beaumont-born Shamsud-Din Jabbar. He served in the US Army Reserve, and the car he drove into a crowd gathered in the city's famed French Quarter was not even his As this was occurring, Kennedy continued to offer his update - appearing somewhat disheveled as he insulated his plastic cups with paper towels. He promised to chase feds as if 'they stole Christmas to find out the 'truth,' while his joke sparked some pushback online The checkmarked account 'Republicans against Trump' wrote that Kennedy was a 'disgrace', tweeting to more than 780,000 followers. Conservative political commentator Kimberly Klacik conference added how the conference was 'definitely one of the worst' shed ever seen, tweeting, 'I can barely take notes.' 'Theres a lot of information going around. Some of it is actually true. Some of it isnt,' Kennedy said earlier in the day - as information continues to come out. Hour later, President Joe Biden promised to give onlookers updates - as the case continues to fold. The FBI is handling the investigation. Amazon corporate employees have officially returned to the office for a full work week, a move that has Seattle residents hoping will revive the decaying city. CEO Andy Jassy, who Jeff Bezos appointed as his successor in July 2021, announced in September that effective January 2 all employees are expected to come into the office for a typical work week 'outside of extenuating circumstances.' The policy applied to approximately 350,000 Amazon employees company-wide and 55,000 of those work in the Seattle office. Seattle, like many liberal west coast cities, has seen struggles with migrants moving in and homelessness increasing in recent years. Local businesses surrounding the company's South Lake Union office buildings are hoping the influx of employees can boost their revenue to pre-pandemic numbers. 'We were working here in South Lake Union and selling out between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. every day bringing in about $2500-$3000 business,' Christopher McClendon, of Pararepas food truck, told KOMO. 'When the pandemic hit we went from two food trucks, 12 employees and we had to go back to four employees operating both food trucks doing all the shopping and everything, so quite a bit of a cut back.' He said business picked back up when Amazon started to require employees to come in three days a week, which makes him optimistic about the five day policy. Amazon corporate employees have officially returned to the office for a full work week. Pictured: the Amazon Spheres at the Seattle campus Seattle residents are hoping the Amazon return to the workplace will revive the decaying city 'So, we definitely look forward to them coming back five days a week. I understand that's not going to be convenient for everybody but as far as our industry goes, it is going to be a big boost,' said McClendon. The Downtown Seattle Association told the local news station they hope other businesses will follow in Amazon's footsteps. 'Amazon's decision reinforces the value of in-person work to the success of companies and organizations,' said DSA President and CEO Jon Scholes. 'When Amazon moved to three days per week in May '23 the impact was huge, particularly in the Denny Regrade and South Lake Union neighborhoods. 'Other employers may take notice and make similar moves, and downtown is ready for their return.' Seattle has devolved into a sea of drugs, prostitution and homelessness in recent years. According to the Point-in-Time Count, over 16,000 people experienced homelessness in King County on a single night in 2024. Shocking video posted in June showed a woman, alleging to be a sex worker, wearing nothing but a bikini and high heels while shopping at an Arco gas station on Aurora Avenue North. Seattle has devolved into a sea of drugs, prostitution and homelessness in recent years The city has concerns over crime and prostitution in that area, according to Fox 13. In fact, the non-profit organization Stolen Youth has called Aurora Avenue North the epicenter of sex trafficking in the state of Washington. According to a midyear crime report from the Council on Criminal Justice published in August, homicides in Seattle are preceding pre-pandemic numbers, reported The Seattle Times. Seattle had 50 percent more homicides in the first half of 2024 versus the same period in 2019. Robberies in the first half of 2024 were down 15 percent compared to the first half of 2019, while gun assaults were up 1 percent, car jackings were up 68 percent and nonresidential burglaries were up 14 percent, according to the report. Political rivalries shouldn't be obstacle in ryots' welfare: Shivraj accuses Delhi govt of being anti-farmer Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday expressed concern over the plight of farmers in Delhi, accusing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of indifference towards their welfare. In a letter addressed to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, Chouhan slammed the Delhi government for allegedly failing to implement central agricultural schemes, which he claimed has deprived farmers of essential benefits. Chouhan urged that political rivalries should not hinder the welfare of farmers. "I am writing this letter to you with great sorrow. You have never made appropriate decisions in the interest of farmers in Delhi. Your government has also stopped the implementation of the farmer-friendly schemes of the Central Government in Delhi. There is no sympathy for the farmers in your government," he wrote. The Union Minister alleged that the AAP government in Delhi has ignored farmers' needs for the past decade. Referring to Arvind Kejriwal's tenure as the former Chief Minister, he stated, "Instead of taking public welfare decisions, he has always cried about himself. The farmers have been cheated and used for political gains through pre-election promises." Chouhan highlighted several key central schemes that he said have not been implemented in Delhi, including the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and the National Agriculture Development Programme (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana or RKVY). He called this a sign of the AAP government's "irresponsible behaviour," which, according to him, has resulted in farmers losing benefits such as subsidies for mechanisation, micro-irrigation, soil health management, crop residue handling, agroforestry, and crop diversification. The letter also criticised the non-implementation of the Beej Gram Yojana, which aims to improve seed quality and distribution. He said that this negligence has left farmers unable to reap the benefits of seed certification, infrastructure improvements for seed testing, and traditional seed cultivation assistance. "Not only have you not implemented the farmer welfare schemes of the Central Government in Delhi, but your policies have also been anti-agriculture and anti-farmer," Chouhan asserted Further, the minister alleged that essential agricultural equipment, such as tractors and harvesters, are being registered as commercial vehicles in Delhi, forcing farmers to purchase them at higher prices. He also accused the AAP government of setting high electricity rates for farmers, saying, "AAP talks of free electricity, but farmers are being charged commercial rates for irrigation. Connections for irrigation equipment in areas like Gondi near Bamuna have been cut, hindering irrigation and causing crops to dry up." Chouhan stressed the need to prioritise farmers' welfare over party politics. "Political rivalries should not become an obstacle in the welfare of farmers. Farmer welfare is the duty of every government, irrespective of the party politics," he stated, urging the Delhi government to implement central agricultural schemes without delay. He concluded by requesting that the Delhi government rise above political differences and take immediate action to ensure the benefits of central schemes reach the farmers of Delhi. "I request you to ensure that the food producers of Delhi get the benefits they deserve," he wrote. The suspected terrorist who drove a Tesla filled with explosives to the Trump hotel in Las Vegas shot himself in the head before the Cybertruck blew up, officials revealed. The body of decorated Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was burned beyond recognition in the explosion and was identified through his tattoos, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on Thursday. Police found credit cards, his passport and military ID on him, but they are still referring to him as a person of interest as they await DNA confirmation. The weapons found in the truck were purchased legally on December 30, 2024. The electric vehicle, which was rented on the app Turo, exploded about 15 seconds after the driver pulled up in front of the hotel's entrance. Police are still looking for a motive for the attack. Sheriff McMahill addressed similarities between the terror act in Vegas and the one in New Orleans by Texas native Shamsud-din Jabbar, 42, who flew an ISIS flag as he slaughtered 14 and injured dozens with a rented truck. The body of Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was burned beyond recognition after he apparently blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas Livelsberger was identified through his tattoos, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on Thursday Police found credit cards, his passport and military ID on him, but they are still referring to him as a person of interest as they await DNA confirmation Both served at the same military base in North Carolina, but officials do not know if they ever crossed paths. Moreover, both also served in Afghanistan in 2009 - however officials say they have seen no evidence they were in the same providence or unit. That remains under investigation. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others. Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas. Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. Livelsberger was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement. The weapons found in the truck were purchased legally on December 30, 2024, police said The passport found by authorities inside the Tesla vehicle is pictured above The Green Beret grew up in Ohio and was married to social worker Sara Livelsberger, who has said she had not heard from him for days before his apparent suicide. His uncle Dean Livelsberger told The Independent that his nephew was '100 percent a patriot', and described him as a 'Rambo-type.' 'He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country,' he continued. 'He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty.' Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded on Wednesday. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides. Las Vegas officials shared the above image of the Tesla as it headed to the Trump hotel Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado Springs, via the Turo app, and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning - where he carried out the attack (pictured) Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that 'we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.' 'All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,' Musk wrote. A young child has died after a caravan caught fire at a lakeside tourist town in Victoria. Emergency services were called to the blaze on Lake View Street, in Boort, at 5.50pm on Thursday. Fire crews managed to extinguish the fire but they found the dead child inside the caravan. Victoria Police are investigating the cause of the fire. 'The Arson and Explosives Squad has been notified and an arson chemist will attend the scene to determine the cause of the fire,' a spokesperson said. 'Officers are aware of the impact that such a tragic incident has on family, community members and first responders and will ensure that welfare services are in place.' Boort, located next to Lake Boort in the Shire of Loddon, is a tourist hotspot northwest of Melbourne. It becomes busy in the summer months when travellers flock to lakes in the area. The scene on Lake View Street (pictured) overlooks Little Lake Boort, and is lined with mostly residential properties. Tourists flock to the area during the summer months It's not yet clear if the child was local or a visitor. The scene on Lake View St overlooks Little Lake Boort, and is lined with mostly residential properties. The lake is popular with kayakers and swimmers. Anyone who witnessed the incident or with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. The father of JonBenet Ramsey believes his daughter's killer may be linked to an unsolved assault case involving a girl that attended the same dance studio as JonBenet. In speaking to Fox News, John Ramsey, 80, revealed his concern over a 1997 assault case that he feels displays stark similarities to his daughter's grisly 1996 murder. Ramsey's daughter was found strangled and bludgeoned to death in the basement of the family's Boulder, Colorado home the day after Christmas in 1996, when she was just six years old. Twenty-eight years later, authorities have still not been able to identify her killer. Following the November release of a Netflix documentary focused on the mysterious cold case, the separate, unsolved 1997 assault has garnered newfound interest. 'I think there's a very strong indication that there possibly is a connection,' Ramsey told Fox News. 'The police blew it off in the beginning, and to my knowledge, never looked at that as an option. The police chief at that time said, "Well, it's not the same because that little girl in the second incident was not murdered." That's absurd to say something like that. In September 1997, nine months after JonBenet's murder, an unknown suspect broke into a 14-year-old girl's home, just two miles from the Ramsey residence, a 2004 report by 48 Hours detailed. The father of JonBenet Ramsey believes his daughter's killer may be linked to an unsolved assault case involving a girl that attended the same dance studio as JonBenet In speaking to Fox News , John Ramsey, 80, revealed his concern over a 1997 assault case that he feels displays stark similarities to his daughter's grisly 1996 murder That evening, the suspect allegedly attacked the girl in her bedroom, but ultimately fled out the window as the victim's mother heard whispering and confronted the attacker. The girl's father, who was out of town at the time of the alleged break-in said: 'My feeling is he got into the house while they were out and hid inside the house, so he would have been in there for perhaps four to six hours, hiding.' The victim's father, who asked that his identity be obscured, even noted similarities to the Ramsey case. 'The first thing that occurred to us was that it was the parallel to the Ramsey case, because it was exactly the same situation,' the girl's father said. Ramsey echoed the sentiments, claiming he believes the attacker's 'method of operation for this person was the same.' 'I believe he was in our home when we got home from going out to friends for dinner with the kids,' he said. Ramsey suspects the attacker was already inside their home and waited until the family was asleep before murdering his innocent daughter. JonBenet Ramsey was found strangled and bludgeoned to death in the basement of the family's Boulder, Colorado home (pictured) the day after Christmas in 1996, when she was just six years old 'We went to bed, and he waited till we were asleep and attacked JonBenet,' Ramsey said. 'In the second case, the parents had gone out. They came home, and they set the burglar alarm on. And the mother heard a noise, eventually, and went into the child's bedroom, and there was a person standing over her bed. So the person was in the house when they came home because they set the burglar alarm. He couldn't have gotten in otherwise.' Boulder police previously said there was no connection between the two incidents. 'Chief Mark Beckner said Boulder Police have known about this case for two years and previously looked at the sexual assault in association with the Ramsey murder. While the two cases have some similarities, detectives found no definitive connection at the time,' Boulder Police said in an August 2001 update. To this day, police have not indicated any possible connection between the two cases. Ramsey has since called out the Boulder Police Department for its inability to handle a case of that nature. 'The police department at the time was very poorly led,' he told Fox News. 'They had, frankly, a group of misfits as detectives that shouldn't have been in that role. They had no skill set or mindset to do that...and it just spiraled out of control very quickly.' In September 1997, nine months after JonBenet's murder, an unknown suspect broke into a 14-year-old girl's home, just two miles from the Ramsey residence. Pictured: JonBenet 'I think there's a very strong indication that there possibly is a connection,' John Ramsey told Fox News. Pictured: John and Patsy Ramsey Ramsey plans to propose conducting further DNA testing on several items recovered from the crime scene using revolutionary new techniques In the years since the horrific crime, officials have sorted through more 2,500 pieces of evidence and approximately 40,000 reports containing more than a million pages detailing the investigation. The Colorado Cold Case Review team has also provided the Boulder Police Department with a list of tips for the department to pursue, according to Chief Stephen Redfearn - who is the fifth police chief to take on the case since 1996. Ramsey now hopes to sit down with the new chief later this month, hoping the leader will use his powers to recruit the FBI to the case. Ramsey plans to propose conducting further DNA testing on several items recovered from the crime scene using revolutionary new techniques. The grieving father is more confident than ever that a breakthrough is imminent and plans to sit down with Redfearn and representatives from testing labs to nail down an action plan. 'We have been asking and praying for this over the past 28 years,' Ramsey told the US Sun. 'We are encouraged that the police will finally use the FBI's skills and resources to help solve our case.' The father of an 18-year-old killed in the New Orleans French Quarter terror attack on New Years Day has revealed to to DailyMail.com the heartbreaking final text he received from his son. Kareem Badawi travelled to the popular New Years Eve celebration with friends before sending his father one final message moments before his death saying: Happy New Year Daddy, Belal Badawi told DailyMail.com that his son was a good honest hard worker, who was studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama. Were going through an awful time right now, our son is just 18 years old, he said. He is a good kid, hes smart. Everyone was back together for the holiday period, thats why he was back in town. I texted him at midnight to say Happy New Year, and he replied saying Happy New Year Daddy, and thats the last time I heard from him. We kept calling him after we saw the news, because we knew he was in the attack area. The family then drove to New Orleans from their home in Baton Rouge in an attempt to track down Kareem. The father Kareem Badawi, 18, who was killed in the New Orleans French Quarter terror attack on New Years Day has revealed the heartbreaking final text he got from his son The teen's final message said, 'Happy New Year Daddy', but just moments later he was dead Kareems father confirmed that one of his sons friends, Parker Vidrine, was also critically injured in the attack. Vidrine's family told Kareems father that he had been hit by the car, with Belal adding: We were hoping he was just injured or something, but it was the worst new that he lost his life. The Badawi family also say that the Orleans Parish Coroners Office are currently refusing to release Kareems body or allow the family to go and see him. His father added: Were trying to get the body, but they wont release it. We are frustrated, I want to just get my kid, at least to see him and they wont even let me do that. We arent being given any kind of time frame, and to me it will be a relief when I can bury my son. I want to be done with the procedure as soon as I can. His father described terror suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, as evil, asking What kind of evil would do something like that? Killing civilian people, killing my kid. The US Army Vet, born and raised in Texas drove an electric vehicle from Houston to Louisiana to carry out the deadly attack which killed 15 and left at least 35 injured. Authorities confirmed that he had an ISIS flag in the back of his truck, and posted several videos shortly before the massacre explaining that he had joined the terror organization back in summer. Badawi travelled to the popular New Years Eve celebration with friends, one of whom was also critically injured His father Belal Badawi said the family is going through 'an awful time' as they mourn the loss of Kareem Kareem was one of 15 people killed when a vehicle plowed into crowds at the New Year celebrations in the French Quarter The teen's father described terror suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, as evil Belal blasted the terrorist, telling DailyMail.com: This guy is not representing any religion at all. What reason is there to justify killing civilians or innocent people? Its just terrorists, they brainwash them, they have. Mental sickness, and they do a stupid thing like that. Kareem is one of six victims who have been identified so far by their families. Tiger Bech, 28, Ni'Kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, Reggie Hunter, 37, Matthew Tenedorio, 25, Kareem Badawi, Nicole Perez, 27, and Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, all died in the attack. Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, the youngest daughter of co-founder James Walton, turned heads in St. Barth's on New Year's as she showcased her $300 million yacht, Kaos though the vessel has a somewhat unpleasant history. She was spotted in a pink romper paired with pink strappy sandals, accessorized with a light pink Balmain bag, as she boarded a taxi boat heading back to her yacht. Walton, who inherited 40 million shares in Walmart in 1995, has amassed a net worth of $14.6 billion. Her yacht, originally named Jubilee, underwent a lavish transformation by designer Sam Sorgiovanni, blending Arabian and European aesthetics with extravagant touches such as Crystal Caviar insets, silk carpets, and Iranian white onyx. After its completion in 2022, Kaos was not only marked the Oceanco's largest build ever, but also the largest yacht ever built in the Netherlands - and the largest such vessel to be woman-owned. Designed to accommodate up to 31 guests, Kaos boasts a private owner's deck, a sprawling 135-square-meter main saloon, and an array of luxurious amenities. These include a helipad, a 12-seat cinema, a hammam, a gym, and the opulent 'London Bar,' complete with a DJ booth and a cascading water wall chandelier. Kaos also features a crew gym and a small hospital, underscoring its status as a beacon of luxury and innovation on the seas despite its controversial past. Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, turned heads in St. Barth's on New Year's as she showcased her $300 million yacht, Kaos though the vessel has a somewhat unpleasant history. The ship, once defined by exclusivity and male-dominated spaces, underwent a complete transformation spearheaded by the Walmart heiress, to reflect its new purpose, as a sanctuary for a modern and independent woman. Pictured: Kaos moored at Butlers Wharf in London, England The 1453-square-foot main saloon is a regal space equipped with a large television and royal seating. One of the four-decker ship's main highlights resides in its massive swimming pool, surrounded by additional seating and is elevated above the superyacht beach club. Inside the opulent beach club sits an aquarium that offers a captivating view into the pool above. Kaos's impressive features continue with a helipad, a 12-person movie theater, a massage parlor, a hammam, a gym. The grandiose ship also features an upscale room named 'The London Bar,' complete with smoke machines, a DJ booth, and a water wall chandelier. The yacht also includes a separate gym for the crew and a small hospital for at-sea medical emergencies. Under Nancy Walton Lauries ownership, the vessel has become a striking symbol of progress and empowerment, sharply contrasting its history under Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani. The previous owner reportedly reserved certain spaces such as mens quarters or meeting rooms for the Emirs entourage as off-limits to women, embodying a traditional and hierarchical approach to luxury. The heiress was spotted in a simple pink romper paired with pink strappy sandals, accessorized with a light pink Balmain bag, as she boarded a taxi boat heading back to her yacht The incredible now-361-foot superyacht was purchased by Walmart heiress, Nancy Walton Laurie, daughter of Walmart's co-founder James 'Bud' Walton, in 2018 from a Qatari royal. Pictured: Inside the luxurious superyacht Under her ownership, Nancy Walton Laurie, 73, transformed the then-262-foot vessel to its sprawling size, having it rebuilt and customized by Oceanco, a Dutch shipyard that specializes in building custom yachts. When Walton Laurie acquired the yacht, she reimagined it entirely, transforming the once-exclusive and male-dominated ship into a sanctuary for the modern, independent woman. However, in 2023, the now-iconic superyacht became the target of controversy when climate activists vandalized it while it was docked in Ibiza, an island off the coast of Spain. Members of the Spanish environmental group Futuro Vegetal spray-painted the yachts stern in red and black and held a sign reading, You consume, others suffer. A video of the incident, later posted online, showed workers cleaning the paint from the vessel. Walton Laurie is the youngest daughter of James "Bud" Walton, who co-founded Walmart with his brother, Sam Walton. The duo opened the first Walmart store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Walton Laurie currently resides in Henderson, Nevada, and Los Angeles, according to Bloomberg. In 1973, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Memphis, where she met her husband, Bill Laurie. When her father passed away in 1995, Walton Laurie inherited roughly half of his 40 million shares in Walmart, while her older sister, Ann Walton Kroenke, received the other half. Designed to accommodate up to 31 guests, Kaos boasts a private owner's deck, a sprawling 135-square-meter main saloon, and an array of luxurious amenities. Today, Walton Laurie owns less than a 5 percent stake in the company and is not actively involved in its operations. Collectively, the Walton family maintains an estimated 45 percent stake in Walmart. As of April 29, 2024, Walton Laurie ranks as the 269th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $14.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The stunned family of suspected Las Vegas Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger say the Army veteran was a 'big Trump supporter' who loved his time in the military. It comes as more details are revealed about Livelsberger, a long serving married Green Beret who was on leave from active duty when he carried out the attack outside Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel. His uncle Dean Livelsberger told The Independent that his nephew was '100 percent a patriot', and described him as a 'Rambo-type.' 'He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country,' he continued. 'He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty.' He added that the amateurish construction of the explosive device in the Cybertruck was curious to him, as he knew Matthew to be a 'very skilled warrior' who 'would've been able to make a more sophisticated explosive.' 'He was what you might call a supersoldier. If you ever read about the things he was awarded, and the experience he had, some of it doesnt make sense, when he had the skills and ability to make something more, lets say, efficient,'' Dean said. 'His skills were enormous from what he had been taught in the military.' Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was identified as the bomber in the attack that left seven wounded. He is pictured in Afghanistan in a profile by a local newspaper in the Ohio town where he grew up The suspected bomber's family say the Army veteran was a 'big Trump supporter' who loved his time in the military Livelsberger, 37, was identified by law enforcement sources as the bomber in Wednesday's attack, which left seven wounded. The electric vehicle exploded about 15 seconds after the driver pulled up in front of the hotel's entrance. The blast was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks', according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Livelsberger died in the bombing. He lived in Colorado Springs and was an active member of the Army. He previously received a Meritorious Honor Award for work benefiting the US Embassy in Tajikistan. Liveslberger was profiled by a local newspaper in Ohio for his work with the military in Afghanistan. He grew up in Ohio and was married to social worker Sara Livelsberger, who in the lead up to the 2016 election shared a slew of Facebook posts spouting anti-Trump rhetoric. According to CBS News, Liveslberger was on break from duty in Germany when he carried out the attack. His wife hadn't heard from him from several days. Property records reveal the couple purchased a home in Colorado Springs together in 2015. However, police have linked Livelsberger to several addresses throughout the city - including a different townhouse that was raided by the FBI overnight. He is pictured with wife Sara Livelsberger (both pictured), who in the lead up to the 2016 election shared a slew of Facebook posts spouting anti-Trump rhetoric Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Cybertruck in Colorado Springs and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning to carry out his attack. Law enforcement sources have also revealed that Livelsberger previously served at the same military base as New Orleans terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar, who on Wednesday drove a rented Tesla truck into a crowd of New Year revelers, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. Police have not confirmed if the pair were known to each other. Jabbar served at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, previously known as Fort Bragg. Livelsberger previously lived at an address close to the base, but investigators have yet to confirm the location of the base the pair have in common. Livelsberger has served in the Army for 19 years, the majority of which was spent in the Special Forces unit. The suspected terrorist seemingly climbed the ranks throughout his time with the unit, having started off working as a SF Communications Specialist in 2006. While holding that position, Livelsberger said on his Linkedin that he also worked on a nearly one-year contract with General Dynamics Corp, a firm specializing in aerospace and defense. He alleges he 'engineered and fielded the first mobile standoff hyperspectral imaging "Lightguard Minotaur" system' during his time at General Dynamics Corp. General Dynamics told DailyMail.com they have no record of employing Livelsberger. Livelsberger in 2015 moved into an intelligence and operations role within the SF and in 2016 received the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award. He was recognized by the US Ambassador for 'interagency contributions that resulted in increased interoperability and efficiency while serving as the Operations Sergeant at Special Operations Command Forward- Central Asian States (SOCFWD-CAS) within US Embassy Dushanbe', Livelsberger wrote on LinkedIn. He became a SF operations manager and team sergeant in February 2023 and moved into his remote and autonomous systems role in November last year. His LinkedIn profile also touts proficiency in French and certifications in unmanned aircraft systems, as well as a Project Director qualification. Livelsberg is seen in another picture from his deployment The Tesla cybertruck exploded about 15 seconds after the driver pulled up in front of the hotel's entrance. The blast was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks' Livelsberger (pictured) - who died in the bombing - grew up in Colorado Springs and was an active member of the Army. He previously received a Meritorious Honor Award for work benefiting the US Embassy in Tajikistan Livelsberger has limited social media presence, but his 'registered Democrat' wife Sara was very active on Facebook in 2015 and 2016 She also shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Trump in 2015, writing that he 'needs to spend less time on Twitter posting and deleting tweets, and more time focusing on maybe...a god d**m platform of some sort?' Another post showed her wearing a t-shirt that said 'Girls just want to have FUN-damental Rights', suggesting she takes a pro-choice stance on abortion Livelsberger has limited social media presence, but his wife Sara was very active on Facebook in 2015 and 2016. She is an anti-Trumper with very different politics to her late husband. Sara, who according to her profile studied political science and social work, revealed that she was a 'registered Democrat' in a post shared in May 2016. Sharing a photo of a sign featuring a cartoon image of Trump that read 'stop bigotry', Sara wrote that she 'can't wait to slap this baby on my truck'. She also shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by Trump in 2015, writing that he 'needs to spend less time on Twitter posting and deleting tweets, and more time focusing on maybe...a god d**m platform of some sort?' Another post showed her wearing a t-shirt that said 'Girls just want to have FUN-damental Rights', suggesting she takes a pro-choice stance on abortion. Sara, whose hometown is listed as Playa del Carmen, Mexico, has not posted on Facebook since May 2016. She also has not been tied to the Las Vegas bombing. The Tesla cybertruck arrived in Las Vegas at 7.30am Wednesday, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a press conference. Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado Springs, via the Turo app, and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning - where he carried out the attack (pictured) Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance, appearing to have nothing wrong with it. Seconds later, the entire car explodes, its roof blowing up first before the truck goes flying The explosion took place at 8.40am in the hotel's valet area. Surveillance footage showed the truck sitting outside the front entrance. Seconds later, the entire $80,000 car blew up in a fiery blaze - with its roof going up in flames first. Debris smoked as it pinged off the pavement and sparks which looked like fireworks could be seen lighting up the black cloud of smoke emitting from the vehicle. A tumble of charred fireworks mortars, cannisters and other explosive devices were found crowded into the back of the pickup. Officials are still exploring how the explosives were detonated, but sources with knowledge of the investigation have expressed that it was likely controlled by the driver. Livelsberger was the sole fatality in the attack, and authorities largely credit Musk's hulking stainless steel truck with preventing further damage because it was able to contain much of the explosion. None of the nearby windows of the hotel were damaged despite the violence of the blast. According to the KOAA, law enforcement officers wearing tactical gear and travelling in armored vehicles arrived at one of Livelsberger's Colorado Springs properties Wednesday night. Neighbors were 'escorted away' from the townhome complex in the Stetson Hills neighborhood as investigators carried out their search. Police have assured the public they do not suspect there is any ongoing threat to the community. Hours before the attack in Las Vegas, Shamsud Din Jabbar drove an electric vehicle into crowds in New Orleans, killing 15 pedestrians and injuring dozens more. Soldier Matthew Livelsberger is the man who filled the truck with explosives and fuel before driving it to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and setting them off on Wednesday morning Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of explosives Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver Law enforcement sources have since revealed the cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. Turo is akin to Airbnb for cars and lets people hire strangers' vehicles for a daily rate. Police revealed on Wednesday afternoon that they are currently investigating potential links and have not ruled anything out yet. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. 'We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Turo added: 'We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals.' Fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the car, and were likely connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday Officers have also considered that Livelsberger may have purposefully chosen to use a car owned by Elon Musk to send a message - given the Tesla billionaire's newfound friendship with President-elect Donald Trump. 'It's a Tesla truck, we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and it's the Trump hotel, so there's obviously something to look at,' McMahill said. By Wednesday afternoon, Musk revealed the explosion was caused by 'a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck' or 'very large fireworks.' He said the explosion was not caused by or related to the vehicle itself, and it's understood the unnamed driver had rented the truck using Turo. 'Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional,' he added. 'Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.' Musk said 'Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously,' meaning his team were able to check whether anything was wrong with the car's mechanics prior to the explosion. McMahill thanked Musk for his efforts in assisting the investigation, turning over data to authorities along with access to CCTV from Tesla charging stations across the nation. Trump has also broken his silence on the explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel, vowing to rid America of 'violent scum.' The president-elect took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to excoriate the security and justice establishment. He wrote in a post: 'Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. 'The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job. They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself. 'Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country. The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late. The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. 'Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' The 37-year-old man reportedly has a military background and served at the same base as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, (pictured), who fatally ran down 15 people in a rented car in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day Your browser does not support iframes. The FBI has said officials 'do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible' for the New Orleans attack. 'We're aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates,' Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent with the FBI's New Orleans field office, said in at a news conference Wednesday.' Law enforcement officials in Texas searched a residence in Houston on Wednesday that they believe could be connected to Jabbar. 'FBI Houston and the Harris County Sheriffs Office are continuing a court-authorized search of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive,' the agency said in a statement. As of Wednesday night, no arrests had been made at the residence. Authorities previously revealed that the rented truck was listed on Turo by a 42-year-old man who lives in Houston, who has been contacted by investigators. It is unclear if the Houston property that was searched Wednesday night was linked to this man. The FBI's New Orleans field office is also 'conducting a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states'. The driver who plowed into pedestrians celebrating the New Year in New Orleans killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens is dead following a shootout with police Suspect Jabbar is said to have made a series of videos that is being reviewed by law enforcement. Jabbar was killed by police after he slammed a truck into pedestrians celebrating the New Year, exited the vehicle, and started firing. Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, law enforcement officials said. Investigators are probing a theory Jabbar rented a nearby property on Airbnb in St. Roch for his base before carrying out the attack. Exclusive DailyMail.com photographs show the moment the FBI removed bomb making materials from the two-bedroom and two-bathroom property close to the French Quarter. Jabbar is also said to have made a series of videos that are being reviewed by law enforcement. Authorities believe that the videos were made as he drove from Texas to Louisiana, although the timing is unclear. Multiple officials told CNN that the recordings appear to have been made while driving at night and the suspect is not visible in them. CNN reported that the recordings make reference to his divorce and that he planned on gathering his family together for a fake celebration so he could kill them. The suspect is also said to have talked about how he joined ISIS, and spoke of dreams that he had about joining the terrorist group. There were no overt links to ISIS in the Las Vegas attack as there were in New Orleans, but detectives have not ruled out any motive. Nick Clegg is set to be ousted as Meta's President of Global Affairs and replaced with a Republican ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration this month. The former Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister will be replaced in the upper echelons of Mark Zuckerberg's empire by his deputy, Joel Kaplan. Kaplan was White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush and has reportedly been voicing internal opposition to Meta's restrictions on political speech in recent years. The news comes three weeks before Trump is inaugurated for a second time, with Meta rival Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly Twitter, to take up his post at the Department of Government Efficiency. Meta, parent company of Facebook, is not alone in shifting policy or personnel in advance of America's political upheaval. Jeff Bezos' Washington Post notably failed to endorse either Trump or Kamala Harris in advance of the election with the Amazon owner having to defend the move as a way not to seem biased. Zuckerberg himself was seen dining at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home two months ago to congratulate the President-elect despite Trump previously threatening to jail the billionaire. Clegg posted on X today saying: 'As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta. It truly has been an adventure of a lifetime! Sir Nick joined Meta in 2018 after leading the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015 and being in David Cameron's coalition government from 2010 to 2015 The former Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister will be replaced in the upper echelons of Mark Zuckerberg's empire by his deputy, Joel Kaplan Elon Musk speaks with Donald Trump at a viewing of the test flight of the SpaceX Starship 'I am proud of the work I have been able to do leading and supporting teams across the company to ensure innovation can go hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability, and with new forms of governance. 'My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between 'big tech' and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector. 'I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe. 'I will be forever grateful to Mark and Sheryl Sandberg for taking me on in the first place and to the many colleagues and teams I have had the good luck to work with ever since. 'It has been an extraordinary privilege to gain a front row insight into what makes Silicon Valley such an enduring hub of world leading innovation. 'And I am simply thrilled that my deputy, Joel Kaplan, will now become Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer. 'Over the years that we have worked together, we have become good friends as well as close colleagues I have laughed with, as well as learned from, Joel in equal measure. He is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time! 'I much look forward to spending the next few months handing over the reins to Joel before finally leaving Meta after so many enjoyable years at the company.' Sir Nick participated in the UK Artificial Intelligence Safety Summit in November 2023 Mark Zuckerberg (L) and Joel Kaplan pictured in 2019 Last year, it was reported that Sir Nick scooped 5.5million by selling shares in Meta. The former deputy prime minister sold millions of shares in the company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, where he earns more than 2.8million a year as president of global affairs. Sir Nick joined in 2018 after leading the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015 and being in David Cameron's coalition government from 2010 to 2015. He sold 710,300 worth of shares in February 2023, 870,000 in May and 2.4million in August. Then in November last year, the 56-year-old cashed in another 1.9million worth, papers at the US Securities and Exchange Commission show. His boss and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sold shares worth more 150million that month. Aussies are paying more to see a doctor than they were a year ago as Anthony Albanese plans to entice voters with a pre-election Medicare overhaul. Despite the Labor government investing $3.5billion to boost bulk billing rates, Aussies across all age groups are paying more to see their GP since Labor came to power in 2022. Though the rates for children and the elderly have rebounded slightly, the trend for working Aussies continues downward. In the 16-64 age group, bulk billing rates - when patients have appointments fully covered by Medicare - fell from 82 per cent in the year to October 2022 to 69 per cent in the year to October 2024, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showed. Labor's main 2023 budget policy targeted younger Aussies and the elderly and tripled the bonus paid to doctors when they bulk billed those age groups. The policy has resulted in a modest reprieve for those target groups. Bulk billing rates for children aged under 15, and old people over 65, both increased from 2023 to 2024, by two per cent and one per cent respectively. But the rate for working Aussies went down, with a two per cent drop from 2023 to 2024. Aussies are paying more to see a doctor than they were a year ago as Anthony Albanese plans to entice voters with a pre-election Medicare overhaul (stock image of Sydney medical practice) Despite the Labor government investing $3.5billion to boost bulk billing rates, Aussies aged 16 to 64 are paying more to see their GP since Labor came to power in 2022 And even the rates for young Australians and the elderly were lower in October 2024 than they were two years earlier, with rates falling across the board since 2022. With doctor's fees increasing each year, this means Aussies across all age groups are out of pocket. Health Minister Mark Butler said on Thursday the government's investment had already made a 'meaningful difference'. '[But] there are cohorts who are still really doing it tough. We know there's more to do on bulk billing, and we're committed to doing more,' Mr Butler told The Age. 'We're keeping a very keen eye on what's happening with patients who aren't covered by the bulk billing incentive, what's happening in areas of general practice where the incentive is not being taken up. 'Although there is a very marginal decline in bulk billing [for adults] according to the AIHW data last year, frankly, those rates were in freefall before we tripled the bulk-billing incentive.' Coalition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said despite Labor's investment it had left Medicare weaker than it was in 2022. 'Australians can feel the truth of Labor's Medicare record every time they go to pay the bill at their GP reception desk,' she said. Labor is now signaling even bigger investments in bulk billing as it puts Medicare at the centre of its election campaign. Mr Albanese is expected to unveil Labor's new health promises for bulk billing, the GP workforce and urgent care clinics before the federal election, which could be as early as March. This is not the way you would expect a politician to flush away years of public service. Shocking surveillance camera footage revealed the moment a staffer of outgoing councilwoman Janaina Lima removed a toilet and two sinks from her city council office in Sao Paulo. The lawmaker's worker could be seen making two trips to haul away a toilet and a large sink. He was later spotted flashing a grin as he carried a smaller sink with his hands. Lima also instructed her staffer to remove the shower from her room in defiance after bitterly losing her election. The 41-year-old ran under the Brazilian Democratic Movement ticket and lost out to Adrilles Jorge, of the Brazilian Labour Party, in the 2024 elections by picking up 12,215 votes. In a statement to Brazilian news outlet G1, Lima said that the office did not have a bathroom after she was elected to the city council seat in 2021 under the New Party and that she personally paid to have the office remodeled. 'It is our duty to return the office as we received it, ensuring that all public assets remain duly registered and intact,' Lima said. A staffer for former councilwoman Janina Lima carries hauls away a toilet from her office, which was also completely stripped down of its shower and sinks Former Sao Paulo city council member Janaina Lima told Brazilian news outlet G1 that she paid to remodel her office after noticing that it did not have a bathroom and followed the city council rules to leave her old work area the way she found it 'Following the guidance of the Chamber itself, which determines that items not belonging to the assets must be removed, this was done.' Jorge told the outlet that he first learned his new office had been completely stripped down just hours after he had been sworn in Monday. 'I visited the office and thought the architecture was brilliant. But she took everything out,' Jorge said. 'They even took out the toilet and the sink. She didn't say [that she was going to take them out]. And it's something that neither she would say, nor I would ask.' Jorge, a 50-year-old poet and journalist, teased that maybe he and his staffers would just have to settle for public toilets. Janaina Lima was not reelected to the Sao Paulo council council in 2024 Lima made headlines in November 2021 when the New Party stripped her affiliation after she got into a fight with fellow part member, Cris Monteiro, inside one of the bathrooms at the city council. The pair argued over the time they had been allotted to address the council members during a pension reform vote and carried out their differences to the bathroom. Both women were suspended for 60 days. An Aussie man who earns $150,000 a year as the owner of a home security business has revealed why the industry is suddenly booming. The Brisbane man, who was interviewed by job app Getahead, said a rising number of Aussies are purchasing security systems in response to recent crime waves. While adding the increased crime rates was 'unfortunate', the man said his industry was 'absolutely' booming because of it. 'Unfortunately it really helps my industry and helps my business grow,' he said. 'I also, on the other side of that, make people feel safe and secure. 'It's a double edged sword.' The business owner said he earned between $80,000 to $150,000 a year installing security systems in homes across Brisbane. But he had some advice for Aussies keen to enter the workplace. Advertised salaries in the home security industry increased by a massive 15.4 per cent to $93,536 last year while crime rates increased in almost every state and territory (stock) 'Get off your ass, go have some fun, go and travel,' he said. 'Travel was the best thing that got me confident, got me wanting to go places in life. 'Get out there and live.' Working in the industry includes the installation and maintenance of security systems such as CCTV cameras and alarm or motion sensors in homes and businesses. It also requires a registration from an Australian Communications and Media Authority approved provider and a security installer's licence from a state-approved provider. The Australian Security Industry Association estimates the private security industry generates about $11billion a year with about 180,000 employees nationwide. Queensland saw increased rates of assault, sexual assault, robbery, blackmail, break ins and motor vehicle theft in 2023, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Up to 18,210 people reported incidents of car theft during the year, the highest recorded number of victims since 2000. The Brisbane man (pictured) said a rising number of Aussies are purchasing security systems in response to recent crime waves The ABS data revealed similar increases in crime rates recorded in almost every Australian state and territory, with sexual assaults hitting a 31-year high. ABS head of crime and justice statistics, Samantha McNally, there were 36,318 victim-survivors of sexual assault recorded by police in 2023. 'Accounting for population growth, the rate of recorded sexual assault victim-survivors has gone up from 126 per 100,000 people last year, to 136 victim-survivors per 100,000 people,' she said. Salaries advertised on Seek for roles in the industry on increased by a massive 15.4 per cent to $93,536 last year, according to Yahoo. It was the third-largest increase for the year, only behind operations team members whose salaries rose by 21.2 per cent and support engineers by 17.3 per cent. Seek's head of market data and customer analytics for Australia and New Zealand, Leigh Broderick, said key industries saw massive salary increases last year including education, infrastructure, and trades and manufacturing. 'The increasing demand for these workers, coupled with ongoing talent shortages and a willingness to offer higher salaries for more specialised and technical roles, is likely driving larger pay increases in these positions,' Mr Broderick said. Bangladesh court rejects ISKCON priest Chinmoy Krishna Das' bail A Bangladesh court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Chinmoy Krishna Das, a Hindu monk and spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilit Sanatan Jagran Jote, also associated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), during a hearing held under tight security, local media reported. Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam rejected the bail plea after hearing arguments from both sides for around 30 minutes, said Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan to The Daily Star. As many as 11 Supreme Court lawyers, led by Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee, represented the ISKCON priest in the high-profile sedition case. Following the hearing, Chinmoy's lawyer, Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee, said that they plan to appeal to the High Court for bail. Arrested on November 25 from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on sedition charges, Das has remained in jail amid growing calls for justice. The charges, filed against Das and 18 others, were linked to the hoisting of a saffron flag above the country's official flag during a protest rally on October 25 in Chattogram's Laldighi Maidan. The bail petition, supported by 20 advocates from Dhaka and Chittagong, highlights allegations of a false and fabricated case. Advocates argue that Das, suffering from health issues such as diabetes and respiratory problems, is being unjustly detained. His primary lawyer, Ravindra Ghosh, was previously barred from filing an anticipatory bail petition. Earlier on December 11, a Bangladesh court rejected Das' initial bail plea, citing procedural lapses. Reports indicate that the absence of a valid power of attorney and lawyer representation led to the rejection. The case took another turn when Subhashish Sharma, one of Das' lawyers, missed a December 3 hearing due to security concerns. Prosecutor Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan stated that the absence of proper documentation and legal representation hindered earlier proceedings. Meanwhile, India has called for a fair and transparent trial, emphasising the need to respect the legal rights of all involved. Advocates and supporters are hopeful that the court will consider the monk's deteriorating health and the procedural irregularities that have plagued the case so far. Rachel Reeves was one of 41 Labour ministers who charged taxpayers for their second-home council tax bills last year with claims from all MPs totalling more than 500,000. As households brace for further council tax hikes this year, critics said the expenses claims showed politicians were living in splendid isolation from ordinary voters. And they said it was morally questionable for well-paid ministers, earning six-figure sums, to ask taxpayers to foot the bill. Under the rules, MPs are entitled to put the costs for energy, utilities, internet and council tax at their second home on expenses. Many MPs have properties in both London and their constituencies. But the sizeable sum comes at a time when households are struggling to make ends meet and council tax bills will rise by up to 5 per cent for many in April. Some 316 MPs claimed for council tax totalling 506,000 in 2023-24, according to analysis by the i paper of Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) data. The figure is up from 480,000 the previous year, and brings the total claimed since 2019 to 2.6 million. Rachel Reeves (pictured) was one of 41 Labour ministers who charged taxpayers for their second-home council tax bills last year Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds claimed more than any other Labour minister since 2019 with his council tax bills amounting to 14,800 since the start of the last parliament Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has also claimed 13,400 for council tax since 2019 Fifteen members of Sir Keir Starmers Cabinet claimed for council tax in 2023-24. In all, 41 ministers made claims totalling 58,000 for the cost of second-home council tax. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds claimed more than any other Labour minister since 2019 with his council tax bills amounting to 14,800 since the start of the last parliament. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has claimed 13,400 for council tax since 2019, and Chancellor Ms Reeves has asked taxpayers to foot a 10,800 bill over the past five years. Other senior MPs who have put second-home council tax on expenses include Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens. Dennis Reed, director of the Silver Voices pensioners campaign group, said: MPs dont have any real inkling of what the cost of living crisis is like for people on modest incomes, because they are partly protected from the increases in council tax and other things. Other senior MPs who have put second-home council tax on expenses include Deputy PM Angela Rayner (left), Energy Secretary Ed Miliband (centre) and Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens (right) Your browser does not support iframes. Theres a rather odious stink that comes from claiming for so much. Its morally questionable. A Labour spokesman said: MPs of all parties are entitled to this, and they continue paying their utility bills for their own homes like everyone else. In December it was revealed that MPs charged taxpayers 306,000 for energy bills at their second homes in 2023-24. The Mail on Sunday revealed in November that Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, whose department axed winter fuel payments, has her own 350-a-month energy bills paid by the taxpayer. Her main base is a four-bedroom property in Notting Hill, West London, but she is allowed to claim costs for the second property she rents in her Leicester West constituency. This is the dramatic moment a plane suddenly slammed on the brakes while speeding down a runway for takeoff. The Jet 2 craft braked hard after a full throttle, throwing up clouds of dust. But the plane seemed to come to a rest safely on the tarmac. The incident apparently forced another plane to loop around and delay landing. There was said to be an 'air speed indication issue' where there were false readings on the pilot's display. The incident happened at just before 3pm at Manchester Airport today. According to the person who filmed the shocking video, the plane took off again five hours later. Commenting on the footage, one person said: 'Excellent control that was...' This is the dramatic moment a plane suddenly slammed on the brakes while speeding down a runway The Jet 2 craft braked hard after a full throttle and seemed to come to a rest safely There was reportedly an 'air speed indication issue' where there were false readings on the pilot's display Another said: 'Happened to us twice in July, a broken sensor on the plane. 'We were almost in the air when they slammed on. Eight hours delay waiting for new plane and crew. Was pretty scary at the time.' It comes after flights departing from Gatwick last Friday were delayed by up to three hours because of the fog. And about half a dozen services set to leave Manchester Airport on Friday evening were cancelled. One person wrote on X: 'Returning home from a Christmas cruise with @pandocruises. Stuck at Tenerife Airport due to the severe fog at @Gatwick_Airport. 'Flight delayed indefinitely. Lots of angry passengers but safety has to come first. The weather must be bad in #Sussex! Wonder when I'll get home!' Another said: 'Why are all the flights from @Gatwick_Airport suddenly delayed? Our flight to #ZRH delayed by an hour. Many delayed 3hrs. The incident seemed to force another plane to loop around and delay landing A third added: 'We were told that flights have not departed before 4pm and there is a huge line now. We're stuck on an airplane on the runaway in Naples and been told there might be a delay of up to 3hrs.' The Met Office has not yet issued a weather warning for fog but said it will monitor conditions overnight. A Nats spokesperson said: 'Due to widespread fog, temporary air traffic restrictions are in place at several airports across the UK today. Restrictions of this sort are only ever applied to maintain safety. 'We continue to monitor the situation and have a Met Office expert embedded within our operation to ensure we have the latest available information. Our teams are working closely with the airports and airlines to minimise disruption.' One passenger inside Gatwick told MailOnline: 'Had my flight to France cancelled last minute, staff couldn't let us out of the airport as there was not enough crew for it. 'Hundreds of families were super confused as of where to go because 4 other flights going to Belfast, Olso and elsewhere were cancelled at the same time.' Advertisement The man who brought terror to the streets of New Orleans left behind dozens of religious items in his dilapidated Texas trailer. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, told neighbors he was moving to a furnished apartment in the Big Easy so he didnt need his belongings. But along with the cheap furniture he abandoned in the trailer was a Koran, prayer mats and a book on Islamic banking and finance. That book, The Art of RF (Riba-Free) Islamic Banking and Finance purports to take a modern American approach to incorporating Islamic financial principles into banking and investment techniques. Riba charging interest on loans is prohibited in Islamic finance as it is considered an unjust gain. When DailyMail.com visited the home on the eastern edge of the Heritage Village section of the city early on Thursday, the front door was closed. But when we returned later in the day it had been kicked off its hinges allowing the world to see in. Jabbar, 42, plowed his pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year Day, killing 15 and injuring at least 35 others. He was shot dead in a gun battle with police. He had been an open admirer of the Islamic terror group ISIS and had the groups flag flying from his vehicle. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was living in a dilapidated trailer on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, DailyMail.com can reveal DailyMail.com photos reveal how the accused killer was living and what he left behind before going on his deadly rampage where he callously mowed down innocent bystanders, killing 15 and injuring dozens more on New Year's Day In the kitchen area, there were pantry items on the countertop and a white fire extinguisher. Below the countertop area in the kitchen, a military green backpack sat on the floor near a black garbage can And his home in a largely Muslim neighborhood of North Houston shows his devotion to Islam. A copy of the Koran was left open on an easel next to a vase of faux flowers. Other books inside the home included a seven-volume set known as the Islamic library, including a book titled The Sealed Nectar- a comprehensive biography of the Prophet Muhammad and several pamphlets on comparative religions. Although the home was disheveled it was clean. The home gives the impression that Jabbar left in a hurry. A suitcase and two prayer mats were thrown over a blue couch in the living area, along with a black belt. Incongruously among the religious items in his living room, a dart board hung on the wall next to a fake fireplace. By the front door, Jabbar left behind a mobile credit card machine, duct tape and bubble wrap and several pairs of shoes. In the kitchen, there were pantry items on the countertop alongside a white fire extinguisher. Below the countertop area in the kitchen, a military green backpack sat on the floor near a black garbage can. Near the kitchen area Jabbar had a desk with several papers and other items left on top, there is an area where the hard drive of his computer was taken by police hours earlier. DailyMail.com photos offer a closer look inside Jabbar's disheveled yet clean home which he abandoned to carry out his bloody rampage He kept a bookshelf filled with various religious books, including a large Koran left open on an easel next to a vase with faux flowers On the floor below his desk was a portable filing box. While the place looked ransacked, it was clean. Outside of his trailer is an area where he stored outdoor items. Through a cabinet door inside of which you could see several cans of spray paint. According to a neighbor Jabbar left his house just hours before he went on his New Years Day rampage, saying he was moving to New Orleans for a better job. Muntaz Bashir told the New York Post that Jabbar had left just hours before the 3.15 am attack. Bashir said the neighbor appeared normal when he spoke to him. Unfortunately, you cant read someones mind. I was shocked. Cops believe Jabbar, a US citizen born and raised in Texas drove an electric vehicle from Houston to Louisiana to carry out the deadly attack which killed 15 and left at least 35 injured. Investigators are probing the theory he rented a nearby property on Airbnb in the New Orleans neighborhood of St. Roch for his base before carrying out the attack. Exclusive DailyMail.com photographs show the moment the FBI removed bomb making materials from the two-bedroom and two-bathroom property close to the French Quarter. A total containment vessel was seen being taken away from the property at around 8pm on New Years Day, hours after authorities had evacuated residents from the area. Jabbar told neighbors he was moving to a furnished apartment in New Orleans so he didnt need his belongings Outside of his trailer there was an area where he stored yard and outdoor items, there was another cabinet door where you could see several cans of spray paint The area is mostly rentals available to tourists travelling to the area for the holiday period, who have now been left without a place to stay. Authorities told one couple not to count on being allowed back into the properties, blocking off a three-street radius. The FBI were joined by special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security. A spokeswoman for the ATF confirmed that they were involved in assisting the investigation, but were unable to comment further when contacted by DailyMail.com. Officials were called to the property after firefighters put out a fire at the rental in the early hours, with sources claiming bomb making materials were found. State Attorney General Liz Murrill told NBC News: 'We know that these individuals had rented the house were using it for that purpose.' The two-bed two-bathroom property was revamped by real estate developer Oliver Doxater at Wysteria Properties. Sources believe that Jabbar could have rented the property out on Airbnb or another rental service before the deadly attack. Jabbar was killed by police after he slammed a truck into pedestrians celebrating the New Year, exited the vehicle, and started firing. The vehicle, which was hired by Jabbar on car-rental app Turo, was reportedly carrying an ISIS flag and a chest with explosives inside it. Suspect Jabbar is said to have made a series of videos that is being reviewed by law enforcement. Multiple officials told CNN that the recordings appear to have been made while driving at night and the suspect is not visible in them. Authorities believe that the videos were made as he drove from Texas to Louisiana, although the timing is unclear. The recordings make reference to his divorce and that he planned on gathering his family together for a fake celebration so he could kill them. The suspect is also said to have talked about how he joined ISIS, and spoke of dreams that he had about joining the terrorist group. His brother told The New York Times that his brother was a caring man. Abdur Jabbar, 24, of Beaumont, Texas, told the outlet: '[He was] a sweetheart really, a nice guy, a friend, really smart, caring.' He said that his brother had converted to Islam at a young age, and that 'what he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion'. Tesla Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger had access to high-level intelligence and was part of a special forces military unit which oversaw the operations and maintenance of drones. The 37-year-old shot himself in the head as the makeshift explosives he planted blew up around him outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Years Day. His body was charred beyond recognition and seven innocent victims were injured in the attack. Police chiefs credit Elon Musk's Cybertruck for preventing further casualties. Livelsberger was a decorated soldier and active member of the Army who had served in Afghanistan. Over his 19 year military career, Livelsberger worked in several critical roles which granted him access to sensitive intelligence and data. In November 2024, he accepted a role as a remote and autonomous systems manager while stationed at Camp Panzer Kaserne just southwest of Stuttgart, Germany. In that job, he helped to integrate drones into the Army and ensured they were operated and maintained to a sufficient standard. But prior to that, he was involved in intelligence and operations for the special forces for seven years. The 37-year-old shot himself in the head as the makeshift explosives he planted blew up around him outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Years Day Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was identified as the bomber in the attack that left seven wounded. He is pictured in Afghanistan in a profile by a local newspaper in the Ohio town where he grew up Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado Springs, via the Turo app, and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning - where he carried out the attack (pictured) Livelsberg is seen in another picture from his deployment As part of this role, he conducted vulnerability assessments, cultural studies and technical data analysis. Livelsberger was on a break from duty which allowed him to return to the US to carry out the plot. The 37-year-old's wife had not heard from him for several days, but relatives have since come forward to describe him as a 'patriot' who 'loved Trump' and his country. Livelsberger is suspected of renting the Cybertruck in Colorado Springs and driving it across the border to Nevada on Wednesday morning to carry out his attack. In a press conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the car arrived in Las Vegas at 7.30am. The explosion took place at 8.40am in the valet area outside the hotel. At the scene of the explosion, charred fireworks, gas cannisters and camping fuel were found in the bed of the truck when authorities were finally able to put out the fire. Police found credit cards, his passport and military ID on him. The weapons found in the truck were purchased legally on December 30, 2024. Police are exploring whether Livelsberger was trying to send a message to incoming President Trump and Elon Musk. Police found credit cards, his passport and military ID on him, but they are still referring to him as a person of interest as they await DNA confirmation The body of Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was burned beyond recognition after he apparently blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas Law enforcement sources have also revealed that Livelsberger previously served at the same military base as New Orleans terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar, who on Wednesday drove a rented truck into a crowd of New Year revelers, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens. Moreover, both also served in Afghanistan in 2009 - however officials say they have seen no evidence they were in the same providence or unit. That remains under investigation. Hours before Livelsberger's explosion, Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove an electric vehicle into crowds in New Orleans. The timing immediately sparked fears of a coordinated terror attack as the United States was still reeling from the violence on the streets of New Orleans. The Texan-born terrorist had an ISIS flag draped on the back of the vehicle when he drove into the crowds. Jabbar, a deranged US veteran, got out of his car and started firing a weapon. Investigators later added that they found what appeared to be improvised explosives at the crash site that did not detonate. The cars used in both attacks were rented through Turo, and they were both EVs, prompting concerns they are linked. 'Do I think it's a coincidence? I don't know,' Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. 'We're absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans.' Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of explosives The 37-year-old man reportedly has a military background and served at the same base as Shamsud Din Jabbar (pictured), who fatally ran down 15 people in a rented car in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day A Cybertruck - made by Trump ally Elon Musk's company Tesla - was seen in a fiery blaze outside the front revolving doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday A spokesperson for Turo later issued a statement describing the company's heartbreak 'by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. 'We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. 'We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.' Officers shared a series of photographs taken from inside the car, revealing fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel were in the bed of the truck. A manhunt has been launched after two women were repeatedly sexually assaulted inside a busy central London tube station. The women were allegedly targeted inside the ticket hall of Leicester Square Underground Station at around 7pm on November 23. It comes as police today released an image of a man they would like to speak to as they believe he may have information about the assaults. In the CCTV image shared by the British Transport Police, the man is wearing a hooded, zipless sweatshirt with a brand across the chest. He also appears to be wearing the same brand of tracksuit bottoms. Anyone who recognises him has been asked to contact the force by texting 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40, quoting reference 37 of 27 November. Police today released an image of a man they would like to speak to in connection with the assaults In the CCTV image shared by the British Transport Police, the man is wearing a hooded, zipless sweatshirt with a brand across the chest The women were allegedly targeted inside the ticket hall of Leicester Square Underground Station at around 7pm on November 23 (file photo) In a full statement, British Transport Police said: 'Officers investigating an incident of sexual assault at Leicester Square underground station are today releasing these images in connection. 'Just before 7pm on Saturday 23 November, a man repeatedly sexually assaulted two women in the ticket hall. Officers believe the man in the images may have information which could help with their investigation. 'Anyone who recognises him is asked to contact BTP by texting 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40, quoting reference 37 of 27 November. 'Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.' The Princess of Wales has access to an extensive array of brands, from coveted high-street labels to renowned designers. Yet, instead of constantly searching for new outfits, Kate often opts to reinvent her existing wardrobe with simple updates, such as adding a bow or swapping buttons. These subtle changes have a powerful impact, breathing new life into timeless pieces. Here, we take a closer look at Kate's talent for sustainable style. Alexander McQueen coat - worn in 2024 and 2020 At this year's Together at Christmas carol service, Kate embraced a festive and familiar ensemble with a fresh twist. The standout piece of her look was a 20 black velvet bow from Jigsaw, showcasing her flair for literal dressing. She paired the bow with her previously worn red Alexander McQueen coat, Emilia Wickstead pleated tartan skirt and Ralph Lauren suede knee-high boots, blending elegance with sustainability. At this year's Together at Christmas carol service (left), Kate embraced a festive and familiar ensemble with a fresh twist Jenny Packham dress - worn in 2024 and 2023 For the 2024 Trooping the Colour, Kate chose a polished white dress by Jenny Packham, which she previously wore to meet well-wishers on The Mall ahead of King Charles' coronation. This time, Kate refashioned the fitted knee-length frock with a striped waist trim and a striking bow added to the neckline, making it a sustainable choice for the Princess. She accessorised with an off-the-peg Philip Treacy hat and simple Jimmy Choo court shoes. For the 2024 Trooping the Colour (left), Kate chose a polished white dress by Jenny Packham, which she previously wore to meet well-wishers on The Mall ahead of King Charles' coronation Catherine Walker coat - worn in 2024 and 2020 Attending the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph, Kate cut a sombre figure in her military-inspired coat by Catherine Walker, a re-wear from 2020. She updated the look by removing the shoulder fringing, changing the buttons and adding a velvet bow to the neckline. The silhouette, mandarin collar, epaulettes and waist tabs remained unaltered. The Princess topped her all-black look with a Juliette Botterill flower and feather teardrop hat. Attending the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph (left), Kate cut a sombre figure in her military-inspired coat by Catherine Walker, a re-wear from 2020 Alexander McQueen gown - worn in 2023 and 2019 In 2023, the Princess of Wales gave her Alexander McQueen one-shoulder white dress a fresh twist at the Bafta Awards. She debuted the ethereal gown, with its original ruffled shoulder, at the same event in 2019. Kate accessorised her revamped gown with Cornelia James 'Melissa' black velvet opera gloves and striking rose gold floral earrings from Zara. In 2023, the Princess of Wales gave her Alexander McQueen white one-shoulder dress a fresh twist at the Bafta Awards (left). She debuted the ethereal gown, with its original ruffled shoulder, at the same event in 2019 Alexander McQueen dress - worn in 2021 and 2011 Kate revisited her fashion archives for the 2021 Earthshot Prize Awards. She recycled a lilac dress by Alexander McQueen, previously worn a decade earlier at a Bafta black-tie event in 2011. Kate updated the dress with an embellished gold belt, narrower than the original, and styled her hair in glamorous loose waves. Since stepping down as a working royal four years ago, Prince Harry has been busy building a new life in the US - and has leant on the support of several father figures while doing so. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are raising son Archie, five, and daughter Lilibet, three, in Los Angeles, and despite his seemingly strained relationship with King Charles, Harry has managed to find guidance elsewhere. The situation may not be so different to when he was a child. In 1993, royal expert Ingrid Seward wrote in the Daily Mail how Princes William and Harry, then aged 11 and nine, had 'an emotional vacuum' which needed to 'be filled'. Her comments came a year after their parents' separation and at a point when the brothers were splitting their time between the home of their father and that of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales. Ms Seward claimed: 'Given the Waleses' royal position, there is no shortage of people willing to come forward to play the role of surrogate father, if only for the afternoon.' Back then, Harry enjoyed spending time with David Armstrong-Jones, son of Princess Margaret; his older cousin Peter Phillips and his bodyguard, David Sharp. He also looked up to his uncle, Earl Spencer - and the pair still share a close bond today. Others who have looked out for Harry since his move to Montecito include Canadian composer David Foster and former royal equerry, Mark Dyer. Read on as MailOnline takes at look at the men who have offered support to the prince and his young family in America. Royal equerry Mark Dyer and Prince Harry attend a concert at Kensington Palace for his charity Sentebale in 2016 Harry attends his grandmother Frances Shand Kydd's funeral with Earl Spencer in 2004 Music mogul David Foster with Harry at a polo match in California in 2022 Earl Spencer Harry's uncle, Earl Spencer, has maintained a strong relationship with the prince despite his move abroad. According to the Daily Express, Charles Spencer invited Harry and Meghan to spend Christmas at Althorp this year, though it is not known if the couple accepted the offer. The earl also supported Harry at a service to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games in St Paul's Cathedral in May. King Charles was reportedly 'too busy' to attend the event. And when Harry visited the UK in August to attend his maternal uncle Lord Robert Fellowes's funeral, he is thought to have stayed at Althorp. The service took place two days before the 27th anniversary of his mother's death, and the Spencer family's ancestral home in Northamptonshire is Diana's final resting place. Earl Spencer walked beside William and Harry as they solemnly followed their mother's coffin during her funeral procession in 1997. He was reportedly against the two princes walking at all. He and Harry's bond is documented in the prince's memoir, Spare. In the acknowledgements, Harry writes: 'Stand out thanks to my mother's siblings for their love, support, time and perspective.' Charles Spencer walks beside Princes William and Harry at their mother's funeral in 1997 Harry speaks to his aunt, Lady Jane Fellows, and his uncle, Earl Spencer, as a statue of his mother Diana is unveiled at Kensington Palace in 2021 Mark Dyer As King Charles's equerry during the 1990s, Mark Dyer became a fatherly figure to Prince Harry. He mentored both Harry and William and his influence on the brothers was great, especially after the death of their mother. In 2001, when Harry was a student at Eton College, Mr Dyer paid him a visit and told the prince that he had been sent to 'find out the truth' about his drug taking. Charles's press office had been informed that a newspaper had evidence that Harry had been taking drugs. When he did admit to smoking cannabis as a teenager, it was Mr Dyer who escorted him in 2002 to spend a day at a residential centre for drug users in Peckham, South London, at the insistence of his father. Mr Dyer helped foster Harry's early romantic relationships and protected the young prince from prying photographers. Tina Brown writes in The Palace Papers: 'Dyer had become almost a second father to Harry and, with his mop of ginger hair, could easily have been mistaken for such'. He helped plan Harry's 2003 gap year and during the prince's stint in Australia, warned off reporters who were swarming him on a ranch where he was working. Mark Dyer accompanying William and Harry to Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk back in 1999 Harry talking to Mr Dyer at the prince's passing out Sovereign's Parade at Sandhurst Military Academy in 2006 Mr Dyer's son, Jasper, was a page boy at Harry and Meghan's wedding in 2018 'I've got a young man in there in pieces. He can't do his job as a jackaroo, he can't go out, he can't even muster cattle in the yards near the road without having his photo taken,' Mr Dyer told members of the press, according to Tina Brown. Their relationship continued as Harry grew older and Mr Dyer's son, Jasper, is the prince's godson and served as a page boy at he and Meghan's wedding in 2018. Harry also served as an usher at his friend's wedding in 2010. Mr Dyer is now also the godfather to Harry's son, Archie, and since his equerry days he has created - and sold - a chain of pubs. Last year he underwent treatment for stomach cancer, returning home to his family after six weeks in hospital. David Foster Film composer David Foster seems to have taken the duke under his wing in recent years, helping the Sussexes to find a home in Canada before they moved to California. In 2020, his wife Katharine McPhee told Access Hollywood: 'My husband has a really, really beautiful relationship with Harry. They're like father and son.' The music mogul, who is just a year younger than the King, reportedly planned a birthday party for the Prince that same year, a source told The Mirror. 'David wants to make it special for Harry but also keep it casual and low-key with some fine wine, great food and intimate company,' the source claimed. David Foster and his wife Katharine McPhee at a birthday celebration in New York in 2022 'He is setting aside the fire pit at his home plus the whole outdoor area, which security will cordon off.' Katharine is also friendly with Meghan as the pair knew each other as children. In 2019 she wrote on Instagram: 'Meghan and I did musicals together as kids. She grew up to be the Duchess of Sussex and I grew up to star on the West End, so same life if you ask me.' There have been many significant years in the lives of the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex, not least the ones when they married into the Royal Family or gave birth to their children. The next 12 months may, however, be defining in very different ways for Catherine, who turns 43 next week, and Meghan, who celebrated her 43rd birthday in August. If anyone was in any doubt of the significance Meghan attaches to the coming year, she made a long-awaited return to Instagram yesterday, with a video in which Harry filmed her on a beach while barefoot and writing 2025 in the sand with a stick. The duchess followed up that teaser with a trailer for her new Netflix cookery and lifestyle show, which she revealed will be called With Love, Meghan and launches on January 15. But its a vital year for Catherine, too. She completed her treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer last September, with a Kensington Palace spokesman explaining at the time that her focus was now on doing what she can to stay cancer-free. This year will see her return to public life with a programme of royal engagements, albeit one that will probably be a slimmed-down version of the schedule she had before her health problems began. Hopefully, Catherine will be doing a bit more next year, her husband said last November during an interview in South Africa. Some of those engagements would be overseas, the Prince of Wales suggested: Well have some more trips maybe lined up. Im told that the princesss enforced break has given her an even stronger desire to make a difference to the causes she feels most strongly about. Catherine wants every day to count, a friend of the family tells me. She has always been passionate about helping others. Now, she has an even greater sense of urgency. The Duchess of Sussex has made a long-awaited return to Instagram, with a video in which Harry filmed her on a beach while barefoot and writing 2025 in the sand with a stick The 27-second clip was filmed on the shore not far from the home Meghan shares in Montecito, California, with Harry and their children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three The 43-year-old Duchess also updated the profile picture on her @meghan account to a black-and-white photograph of her laughing and wearing a white dress That was seen back in May when a landmark new report was published by the Early Years business taskforce, which the princess founded in 2023. Early childhood is one of the fields on which Catherine wants to concentrate. Although palace officials were keen to stress at the time that the princess was not in a position to return to work, there was no doubt of the keen interest she had taken in every aspect of the report. Meanwhile, 2025 will be the year in which we discover if the Duchess of Sussex can fulfil one of her greatest ambitions: to become a screen star. Meghan has been desperate to be famous ever since she first trod the boards in high school productions. She wants to be the star of the stage and the star in life, her father, Thomas Markle, told biographer Tom Bower. It is claimed that, as a child, Meghan asked her father to pay a professional photographer to take a headshot of her to be sent out to film studios. He dutifully did so but the resulting mail-shot failed to generate any interest. Not that this setback put her off the idea of a movie career. I want to be an actress, she kept saying, according to Bowers book. The Princess of Wales, who turns 43 next week, in December. After completing her cancer treatment four months ago, 2025 will see her returning to public life and royal engagements This year will also reveal if the Duchess of Sussex can fulfil one of her greatest ambitions: to become a screen star as she launches her Netflix cookery and lifestyle show Mr Markle even took her to the Emmy awards ceremony when he was nominated for best lighting director for his work on US soap opera General Hospital. After they walked down the red carpet, Meghan, then aged 14, said: Daddy, I want to be famous just like you one day. Of course, she went on to achieve a degree of celebrity as a briefcase girl on game show Deal Or No Deal, a member of the cast of American legal drama Suits, shown on cable TV, and bit parts in films such as Horrible Bosses. But the release of her new Netflix show gives her the chance to become a bona fide star in her own right. It could also give her commercial fortunes a boost as With Love Meghan is expected to coincide with the opening for business of her lifestyle company, American Riviera Orchard. That was launched with a glitzy video on Instagram a full ten months ago intriguingly just one day after I contacted her office for comment on her plans. Meghan and Prince Harrys Netflix deal expires this year and, if it is to be renewed, the duchess may have to prove that she can be a success without riding on Harrys coat-tails. Her television ambitions may highlight the difference between her priorities and those of the Princess of Wales. For Meghan, it seems 2025 is about making money and boosting her own profile; for Catherine, its about making a difference to good causes. Yes, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will also undertake work for charity this year but, since they quit royal duties back in 2020 to lead a more independent life, as the late Queen Elizabeth diplomatically put it, Meghan has also had her eyes set on global superstardom. This ambition suffered an early reversal when her solo podcast series, Archetypes, was ditched by audio giant Spotify after one season. This year, we will discover if Meghan can truly achieve the status appears to crave. Sign up for Richard Eden's Royal Newsletter. Click here A thick fog is sweeping across the US with locals in multiple states reporting how a 'burning chemical-like smell' has blanketed their communities. Concerned Americans have flooded social media with videos of what looks like white particles raining down and swirling in the air. Some witnesses have also claimed the fog has triggered health symptoms similar to a respiratory illness. A Florida resident told DailyMail.com that they stopped at a gas station for about 10 minutes and began feeling ill. 'Within about and hour, I kept sneezing over and over for about three hours, and my eyes were really puffy,' she said. 'I got very warm and I felt like I had a fever, and my stomach was cramping.' Parts of Texas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Florida, and Minnesota were under fog alerts when the bizarre reports surfaced this week. Similar experiences have also emerged from parts of Canada and the UK, sparking widespread concern. Conspiracy theories are running rampant with people suggesting the fog could be a kind of chemical weapon or is related to the drones that mysteriously plagued the nation in December. David Bamber from St Petersburg, Florida said the 'weirdest part' is the taste and smell of the fog. It smells like the aftermath of the fireworks show and it tastes 'toxic' Parts of Texas , Wisconsin , Iowa , Maryland , Virginia , West Virginia , Nebraska , Kansas , Oklahoma , North Dakota , Florida (pictured), and Minnesota were under fog alerts when the bizarre reports surfaced this week 'Well weren't there drones that sprayed something? I seem to recall some videos of that somewhere... No idea of the validity though,' asked one X user. A Texas woman shared on X that her dog has been 'acting strange' when it goes outside. '[She] keeps smelling the air,' Sandra Jenkins Webb posted, adding that she was experiencing burning eyes, a mild cough, stomach aches and headaches. Another woman in Kansas shared that there were 'massive amounts of chemtrails' over the area in a week, followed by a dense fog. And a California resident shared on X Monday: 'Here in SoCal, unusual fog the last few days. Strange smells, but I've been noticing the smell for months now, burns my nose. Seems like an all-out assault from the skies the last few days.' David Bamber, from St Petersburg, Florida, shared a TikTok video of himself walking through the dense fog. He explained that fog typically dissipates later in the day, but the the current natural phenomenon lingers into all hours of the night. 'The weirdest part is the taste and smell,' said Bamber. 'It's smells like after you set off a bunch of fireworks and the taste of the air is toxic. It is super weird.' However, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a dense fog advisory for multiple states, suggesting there could be a scientific explanation behind the bizarre reports. While the particles may seem unusual, fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Shining a light in the fog makes these particles visible. As for the 'chemical' smell people have described, the fog can absorb and trap polluted air near the Earth's surface, acting as a carrier for car exhaust, industrial emissions and other airborne chemicals. While fog typically looks like a soupy gray mist, shining a light directly through it causes the light to scatter off of each individual water droplet that makes up the fog Did anybody have poisonous fog on their 2025 bingo cards? Apparently, there are some reports of people saying this fog smell smells like burning plastic! pic.twitter.com/EakjxVbVdf Sarah Smith (@Defundmedianow) January 2, 2025 'When fog forms, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and other polluting gases are taken up or 'scavenged' by fog water droplets,' explained Rudolf Husar, a Washington University atmospheric scientist, in an article for NASA Earth Observatory. What's more, smells become more potent in humid air because the water droplets trap the odor-causing molecules and allow them to linger for longer and remain concentrated. This is not unusual for this time of year. Fog forms when the temperature cools to the dew point, or the temperature at which air can become completely saturated with water. Much of the fog currently hanging over the US is likely advection fog, which typically forms in winter when warm, moist air flows over colder land. This is commonly seen over the southern or central US, where many affected states are located. Some states, such as Minnesota, are also experiencing radiation fog that occurs in air with a high dew point. A Florida resident told DailyMail.com that they stopped at a gas station (pictured) for about 10 minutes and began feeling ill. She then went into a coughing fit and had a fever While the particles in the fog may seem unusual, shining a light in the fog makes them visible. Pictured is the fog in Massachusetts It forms when the sky is clear, temperatures reach the dew point and winds are low enough to cause minimal atmospheric mixing. While fog typically looks like a soupy gray mist, shining a light directly through it causes the light to scatter off of each individual water droplet that makes up the fog, reflecting that light back towards your eyes. This makes each droplet appear as a small 'particle' within the beam of light, as is shown in many of the photos and videos recently shared online. The 'chemical' smell associated with this recent fog is likely not coming from the fog itself, but rather from pollutants that were already present in the air when the fog formed. The respiratory-illness-like symptoms people have been reporting can also be explained by natural fog. As for the 'chemical' smell people have been describing, fog can absorb and trap polluted air near Earth's surface, making their scents more potent. Similar experiences have also emerged from parts of Canada and the UK (pictured), sparking widespread concern Multiple studies have shown that fog can cause respiratory issues such as coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, congestion and wheezing. PIctured is a still from a camera in Texas, showing the particles in the fog Multiple studies have shown that fog can cause respiratory issues such as coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, congestion and wheezing, especially in people with asthma. That's because our lungs are are designed to inhale oxygen, not water. When we inhale the increased moisture content of the air, it can irritate the respiratory system and trigger uncomfortable symptoms. Fog can be especially irritating when it is mixed with airborne pollutants, allergens or other particles. Thus, this 'mystery' fog isn't so mysterious after all. People across the US are most likely experiencing a perfectly normal winter weather event, as there is no evidence to suggest otherwise at this time. Scientists have finally discovered the mysterious origins of an 'alien' signal received from outer space. In 2022, a radio telescope detected a burst of energy coming from a galaxy about 200 million light-years from Earth. Although the burst only lasted milliseconds, it contained enough energy to outshine entire galaxies and was theorised to have been a signal from an advanced alien civilisation. Now, scientists from MIT have discovered that this 'fast radio burst' (FRB) originated from a small area extremely close to a rotating neutron star, the ultra-dense remains of a dead sun. The researchers argue that the burst must have come from the layer of powerful magnetic fields surrounding the star known as the magnetosphere. Although thousands of FRBs have been detected, this is the first time that astronomers have been able to pin down the origin of one of these mysterious signals. Co-author Professor Kiyoshi Masui says: 'Around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars, atoms can't exist they would just get torn apart by the magnetic fields. 'The exciting thing here is, we find that the energy stored in those magnetic fields, close to the source, is twisting and reconfiguring such that it can be released as radio waves that we can see halfway across the universe.' Scientists have revealed the origin of a mysterious 'fast radio burst' signal (illustrated) which arrived from space in 2022. Although the signal only lasted two milliseconds it briefly outshone some galaxies Neutron stars are formed when a star about seven to 19 times the size of our sun explodes in a violent supernova, leaving behind a dense core of compressed matter. Although they are only a few miles wide, these alien stars contain up to twice as much matter as the sun. These stellar cores are so dense that a sugar cube-sized chunk of neutron star material would weigh one billion tonnes on Earth - making them the densest objects we can directly observe. Surrounding these strange worlds are violent magnetic fields which can be trillions of times stronger than those surrounding the Earth. Since the first FRB was spotted in 2007, researchers have detected thousands of these brief but intense bursts everywhere from our own galaxy to 8 billion light-years away. Although these bursts don't contain enough energy to be dangerous, they have presented scientists with a perplexing mystery. Some scientists have suggested that these could be created by the powerful magnetic fields surrounding distant neutron stars - but not all astronomers agree. Lead researcher Dr Kenzie Nimmo says: 'In these environments of neutron stars, the magnetic fields are really at the limits of what the universe can produce. Researchers believe this powerful signal originated from within the magnetic fields surrounding a neutron star, the ultra-dense remains of a dead star. As this burst passed through gases in another galaxy it split into multiple paths (illustrated) causing the signal to flicker in brightness The signal was detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (pictured). By looking at how the signal flickered, researchers calculated that it must have emerged from a region no larger than 10,000 km (6,200 miles) across What are fast radio bursts? FRBs have perplexed researchers for years, appearing as fleeting signals from the distant universe that can't yet be explained definitively. It's thought that these brief flashes may come from black holes or neutron stars, though some have even speculated they may be of alien origin. The first FRB was spotted, or rather 'heard' by radio telescopes, back in 2001 but wasn't discovered until 2007 when scientists were analysing archival data. But it was so temporary and seemingly random that it took years for astronomers to agree it wasn't a glitch in one of the telescope's instruments. Advertisement 'There's been a lot of debate about whether this bright radio emission could even escape from that extreme plasma.' Some models suggest that the bursts of energy are formed in the turbulent magnetosphere while others argue that they originate from much farther out as part of a shockwave coming from the star itself. In their study, published in Nature, the researchers focused on a radio pulse spotted in 2022 by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). Using four large radio receivers shaped like half pipes, scientists detected a two-millisecond pulse which was named FRB 20221022A. Based on the highly polarised light that the FRB produced, the researchers worked out that its source is very likely to be rotating - something that has been seen in fast-spinning neutron stars called pulsars. But to figure out exactly where FRB 20221022A originated, Dr Nimmo and her co-authors looked at a property called 'scintillation'. If you see a star in the night sky from Earth, it appears to twinkle or 'scintillate' because the light from the star is filtered through gasses in the atmosphere. Yet this effect doesn't just affect stargazers since light from any small, bright source will be bent as it passes through an obstruction like the gasses surrounding a galaxy. The researchers argue that the burst would have come from the magnetic fields within hundreds of thousands of kilometres of a neutron star. This is the first evidence that a neutron star's magnetosphere (illustrated) is capable of releasing a fast radio burst. The smaller and farther away the source of light is the more it scintillates, which is why planets like Jupiter and Mars don't appear to twinkle when you see them. If the FRB originated from a shockwave tens of millions of kilometres from the neutron star the area of origin would be so large that researchers wouldn't expect to see any scintillation at all. But when Dr Nimmo and her colleagues analysed the energy from FRB 20221022A they saw that the mysterious flash was twinkling like a star in the sky. Dr Nimmo says: 'This means that the FRB is probably within hundreds of thousands of kilometres from the source.' By identifying the gas cloud that the flash must have passed through, the researchers were able to zoom in on its origin within unprecedented accuracy. Although the FRB emerged from a galaxy more than ten times the distance to our nearest neighbouring galaxy, the researchers found that its source was an area just 10,000km (6,200 miles) wide. For comparison, that is equivalent to the distance from Edinburgh to Cape Town, South Africa. Professor Masui says: 'Zooming in to a 10,000-kilometer region, from a distance of 200 million light years, is like being able to measure the width of a DNA helix, which is about 2 nanometers wide, on the surface of the moon.' The fatal shooting, San Franciscos first homicide of 2025, occurred in the Mission District about 25 minutes after the start of the new year, police said. Filipa Ioannou/The Chronicle San Franciscos first homicide of 2025 occurred at a gas station in the Mission District less than 30 minutes into the new year with a suspect taken into custody shortly after, police said. Officers responded to reports of a shooting at a business on the 500 block of South Van Ness Avenue about 12:25 a.m. Wednesday, where an adult male was on the ground suffering from gunshot wounds, officials said. The man died at the scene despite lifesaving efforts, they added. 3 million photos a day: Inside SFPDs huge surveillance tech expansion this year Advertisement Article continues below this ad The preliminary investigation identified an SUV that fled after the shooting, and the vehicle was found in the area of Bayshore Boulevard and Geneva Avenue. The homicide suspect inside, Jose Rivera Flores, 29, was taken into custody and booked into San Francisco County Jail, police said. There was no immediate identification of the victim. While an arrest was made, police said this is a continuing and active investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact police at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD. Just a few hundred metres from the roaring traffic of the M40, scientists have uncovered a very different kind of road. Around 166 million years ago Britain's 'dinosaur highway' was teaming with lumbering giants and fierce predators making their way across the country. Researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham have uncovered a huge expanse of quarry floor filled with hundreds of different dinosaur footprints. Scientists found five of the UK's most extensive dinosaur trackways, with the longest measuring 150m in length. Four of these belong to long-necked herbivores - most likely Cetiosaurus, an 18-metre-long cousin of the Diplodocus. The fifth track was made by a passing Megalosaurus, a ferocious nine-metre-long predator which stalked the boggy lagoons of Britain during the Middle Jurassic period. These uniquely well-preserved tracks reveal some stunning insights into the lives of the long-extinct giants, even recording the moment two dinosaurs crossed paths. And researchers say it is 'very likely' that there are still more tracks to be found. Scientists have uncovered Britain's 'dinosaur highway' where giant herbivores and fierce predators would have passed 166 million years ago In the Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, palaeontologists have found more than 200 dinosaur footprints in five distinct sets of tracks The tracks were found in the Jurassic limestone of the Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire. Originally buried under clay, these new tracks were first spotted by quarry worker Gary Johnson when he felt 'unusual bumps' while stripping back the clay to reach the quarry floor. Realising the significance of the find, experts were contacted and a full-scale excavation of the site began. During June last year, more than 100 scientists and volunteers carefully uncovered over 200 fossilised footprints. In addition to making casts of the prints for further study, the researchers also took more than 20,000 photographs to create a complete 3D model of the site. This discovery connects to earlier finds made in the area in 1997 when a previous limestone quarry uncovered more than 40 tracks from sauropods and theropods, a group of bipedal dinosaurs including the Tyrannosaurus Rex. However, the site was buried before the widespread use of digital cameras and drones so no 3D models of the tracks could be made. That means this latest discovery is an especially valuable insight into a vibrant prehistoric ecosystem. Your browser does not support iframes. Four of the trackways belong to a long-necked sauropod, most likely the 18-metre-long Cetiosaurus (right). The last remaining set belonged to a Megalosaurus (left), a ferocious predator which grew up to nine metres in length The trackways extend up to 150 metres along the quarry bed and were discovered when a worker noticed 'unusual bumps' in the limestone How do fossil footprints form? Just like any animal, when dinosaurs walked through mud they left tracks behind. When these are made near water soft silt or clay can be washed into the track, preserving its shape. Over time, the tracks become buried by layers of sediment and the soft materials turn to stone. When the layers of stone are exposed by geological changes or human activity we can still see the traces of the dinosaur's footprint preserved in the stone. These footprints are vital clues for palaeontologists to understand how dinosaurs moved and behaved. Advertisement Around 166 million years ago, before this layer of limestone formed, this part of Oxfordshire was a warm, shallow lagoon above a thick bed of mud. Dr Duncan Murdock, a palaeontologist from Oxford University, told MailOnline: 'As the feet of the giant animals, some up to 10 tonnes, went into the mud they left behind both an impression of the foot and a rim of displaced mud around the print. 'The surface was then flooded and buried with a more clay-rich mud, preserving the footprints. Over time, and further burial, these sediments turned into rock.' That thick mud has preserved such incredible levels of detail that scientists can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaurs' feet squelched in and out. 'Unlike fossil bones, finds like these tell us about the behaviour of extinct animals,' says Dr Murdock. 'The size, shape and position of the footprints can tell us how these dinosaurs moved, their size and speed.' Each three-toed Megalosaurus track is around 65cm in length and 2.7m apart. Based on those measurements, scientists estimate that this ancient predator would have been ambling along at around three miles per hour (five kmph) - roughly the same as a human's walking speed. By looking at the size and distribution of the footprints, scientists are able to work out how the dinosaurs moved and how fast they were going at the time The Megalosaurus (left) produced footprints that are 65cm in length and was likely moving at around three miles per hour (five kmph). The sauropod produced huge 90cm footprints (right) and is believed to have been moving at a similar speed to human walking pace At one point in the track, palaeontologists even discovered a point where a Megalosaurus and sauropod crossed paths. Based on the disturbances in the mud, the scientists believe that the sauropod passed through first, followed by the Megalosaurus sometime later. Dr Murdock says: 'Where trackways cross we get a glimpse of the potential interactions between different species like the carnivorous Megalosaurus and the giant herbivorous sauropods.' And as exciting as these discoveries already are, experts say there could still be more to find. Professor Kirsty Edgar, a micropalaeontologist from the University of Birmingham, told MailOnline that it is 'very very likely' that more tracks will be found. She says: 'When the animal walks over a surface and leaves an impression in soft sediment so [tracks are] most commonly found around river, lake lagoon margins or coastal environments more generally.' Additionally, the Dewars Farm quarry is still actively extracting layers of rock above the trackway surface which means there may be more discoveries to come as the Jurassic limestone is exposed. Smiths Bletchington, the quarry's operators, are working with Natural England to explore options to preserve the site for the future. With Britain in the midst of an arctic blast, it might be tricky to believe. But the Met Office has revealed that 2024 was provisionally the fourth hottest year on record for the UK. Average temperatures last year hit a balmy 9.78C, which is 0.64C above the 1991-2020 average. This means 2024 follows 2022, 2023, and 2014 as the fourth warmest year for the UK. According to the Met Office, all top 10 warmest years have been since the year 2000, with five in the most recent decade, 2015-2024. What's more, every single year of the most recent decade has been warmer than the 1991-2020 long-term average. 'With 2024 joining the top ten warmest years for the UK's annual temperature series, once again this is a clear illustration that our climate is changing, right now, and we continue to head up this warming curve,' said Met Office Senior Scientist, Mike Kendon. 'The fact that all ten of the most recent years have been above the 1991-2020 average demonstrates that this recent period, entirely within my own adult lifetime, is a stark reminder of just how fast our climate is changing.' With Britain in the midst of an arctic blast, it might be tricky to believe. But the Met Office has revealed that 2024 was provisionally the fourth hottest year on record for the UK Christmas Day was extremely mild. Dyce, Aberdeen enjoyed balmy temperatures of 14.2C on December 25, with minimum temperatures in northern Scotland holding up above 10C Of the 12 months of the year, eight saw temperatures above average, including the warmest May on record, second warmest February, and fifth warmest December. On 28 January, Achfary, Sutherland recorded a staggering temperature of 19.9C - a UK January record. Christmas Day was also extremely mild. Dyce, Aberdeen enjoyed balmy temperatures of 14.2C on December 25, with minimum temperatures in northern Scotland holding up above 10C. '2024 has been another year with minimum temperatures well above average,' Mr Kendon said. 'We have experienced some particularly mild nights and far fewer frosts than normal, particularly in February and December.' In terms of rainfall, 2024 was a relatively wet year, with the UK recording 1,242mm - 107 per cent of the average. Parts of central southern England bore the brunt of this wet weather, with Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire each recording their second-wettest year in records from 1836. Last year included the warmest May on record, second warmest February, and fifth warmest December Meanwhile, 2024 was a rather dull year with just 1,274 hours of sunshine - 91 per cent of the average. Several notable storms also hit Britain last year, bringing flooding, fallen trees, power outages, transport disruption, and a number of fatalities with them. Mr Kendon hope the news will highlight just how fast our climate is changing. 'We have not had a top ten coldest year in the UK since 1963,' he said. 'The UK receives weather influences from all points of the compass, and we are all familiar with just how variable our weather can often be from one day to the next. 'However, the long-term pattern in the observations is undeniable: the global climate is warming and there is clear evidence of this in the UK's own temperature series. 'We are heading outside the envelope of historical observations.' The news comes shortly after the Copernicus Climate Change Service revealed that 2024 is 'effectively certain' to be the hottest year ever. 'We can now confirm with virtual certainty that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first calendar year above 1.5C,' said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S. 'This does not mean that the Paris Agreement has been breached, but it does mean ambitious climate action is more urgent than ever.' Travelers are ready to ditch their friends and head out by themselves - according to new surveys. As per tourism market research firm Future Partners, nearly 40 percent of female travelers expressed interest in embarking on a solo trip in 2025, up eight percent from last year. The survey noted that men are more likely to travel alone for fun, but there has been an increased demand for women, which hasn't been seen before. Travel organizations have reported concentrated female focused travel has catapulted in popularity over the last 12 months. Of these female travelers, 40 percent admitted they were seeking a 'sense of belonging,' with 27 percent craving an 'expedition.' Almost half of these women are widowers, divorcees, or separated from their partners, the research found. For example, Virtuoso, a lush travel company, reported 71 percent of their solo travel clients are females. According to data from the Adventure Travel Trade Association, women now make up over half of the bookings with adventure travel companies - and many of those women are above 50-years-old. Another travel group, Natural Habitat Adventures boosted its capacity by 75 percent over the last year and has plans to double it for 2025. As per tourism market research firm Future Partners, nearly 40 percent of female travelers expressed interest embarking on a solo trip in 2025, up eight percent from last year The Boulder, Colorado-based company partners with the World Wildlife Fund for conservation-driven tourism and has seen particularly strong demand in older women. 'Theres an emerging space thats normalizing and encouraging travel for older women, particularly for those whose partners may not be able to travel with them, or for women who have lost a partner,' said Renata Haas, head of adventure operations for North America told NBC. Oliver Winter, CEO and founder of a&o Hostels, added that they've seen an increase in the demand for female-only dorms in the last 12 months. 'There has been a remarkable increase in solo travelers since last year across the portfolio. Notably, weve seen a significant bump in solo female travelers,' he noted. He continued: 'This trend continues to grow at such a rapid pace that weve added a significant additional number of female dorms to our hostels. As the largest hostel chain in Europe, female travelers can stay at our hostels in premier European cities such as Berlin, Venice, Salzberg and more.' Melissa Krueger, CEO of Classic Vacations, said that women traveling in groups - either as lifelong friends, complete strangers, is on the rise. 'Marketing to women often revolves around telling us what we needhow we should look, act or consumebut when it comes to women in their 50s, particularly regarding travel, theres a glaring gap,' she explained. Melissa added that as a woman in her 50s, and a mother of three, she often travels alone for business, and finds having the opportunity to explore new places on her terms 'incredibly liberating.' Virtuoso, a lush travel company, reported 71 percent of their solo travel clients are females 'In contrast to the prescriptive marketing women are used to, this stage of life is less about being told what we need and more about embracing our self-expression and autonomy,' she explained. 'As the mother of three daughters, I've seen first hand how the journey of self-identity is crucial for personal growth, and it's no different for women in midlife,' she continued. 'The rising trend of female-focused travel aligns beautifully with thishelping women build resilience, adaptability and independence. Travel becomes a powerful tool for shaping us into well-rounded individuals and global citizens.' In 2024, avid traveler Cherlynn Ng, assistant digital editor of Singaporean newspaper The New Paper, penned an article titled Things I (Should Not) Have Done as a Solo Female Traveler, candidly reflecting on her experiences and the lessons learned. In her article, Cherlynn details three significant mistakes she made that could have jeopardized her safety, along with the strategies she now uses to protect herself. She advises solo travelers to share their location with loved ones, avoid walking the streets at night alone, and be open - but sensible - when meeting new people. Her experience underscores the importance of exercising caution, trusting her instincts, and setting clear boundaries when interacting with strangers. Giovanni Pernice proved that he has not lost his competitive edge after his break from British TV as he ditched fellow Strictly pro Kai Widdrinton in an effort to win Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted. Giovanni, 34, has teamed up with Strictly pal Kai Widdrington, 29, for Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted after being kicked off Strictly during the BBC probe into Amanda Abbington's claims that the he had bullied her. The Sicilian dancer joined the Italian version of Strictly - Ballando Con Le Stelle - after he was axed from the UK's version, before being cleared of ten out of 16 allegations when the investigation concluded in September. Celebrity Hunted sees a group of stars, AKA Fugitives, go on the run across mainland UK for 14 days as they are chased by the Hunters - a handpicked team of police and military personnel. Hunters have access to all of the celeb's personal information and use the 'powers of the state' to locate and capture them, including cyber forensic technology, ANPR, CCTV, helicopters, drones, dogs and call tracing. They even use social media to bribe members of the public or captured contestants with monetary rewards in exchange for information on the celebs whereabouts. Giovanni Pernice proved that he has not lost his competitive edge after his break from British TV as he ditched fellow Strictly pro Kai Widdrinton in an effort to win Channel 4 's Celebrity Hunted Giovanni, 34, has teamed up with Strictly pal Kai Widdrington , 29, for Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted It comes as Giovanni makes his return to British TV screens after being kicked off Strictly during the BBC probe into Amanda Abbington's (pictured together) claims that the he had bullied her Those who successfully evade capture for 14 days must reach a designated 'extraction' point on the final day before winning 100,000 for Stand Up To Cancer. The Strictly pros are among six famous pairings participating in the suspenseful gameshow but Giovanni was prepared to throw Kai under the bus to win the show himself. He said: 'It's exciting to be back on British TV. It's been too long!' 'It was super stressful. Me and Kai are the best of mates, but I'm very competitive and he is not at the same level when it comes to competitiveness. 'In fact, you will see we split up. I was thinking, "I want to win this", but Kai was thinking about where we could stay that was nice. 'He was like, "Here is cool, it's relaxed, it's warm, let's eat". And I was like, "I don't need to eat. I don't want to be warm. I want to escape the Hunters!".' Giovanni explained that Kai's slower pace nearly got them caught by the Hunter's a few times. He said: 'There was a few times we nearly got caught. So I said to him, "We have to split because I really need to win this".' The Sicilian dancer joined the Italian version of Strictly - Ballando Con Le Stelle - after he was axed from the UK's version, before being cleared of ten out of 16 allegations when the investigation concluded in September Giovanni explained that Kai's slower pace nearly got them caught by the Hunter's a few times Kai explained that the show really encapsulates his a Giovanni's close friendship and shows how the truly engage with eachother Kai gracefully obliged with the hope that the plan would double their chances of winning. The pair turned to Celebrity Hunted alumni and fellow Strictly pro Katya Jones for help as she went on the last season of the show with her Olympian best friend Aimee Fuller. Recalling her advice, Kai said: 'She said basically be on it all the time because you never know where the Hunters are. They could be anywhere.' Also joining the star-studded cast of Celebrity Hunted is Loose Womens Denise Welch, 66, and her husband Lincoln Townley, 51. Celebrity Hunted sees a group of stars, AKA Fugitives, go on the run across mainland UK for 14 days as they are chased by the Hunters - a handpicked team of police and military personnel Also joining the star-studded cast of Celebrity Hunted is Loose Womens Denise Welch, 66, and her husband Lincoln Townley, 51 (Denise picture in her recent role on Emmerdale) The soap stars joining Celebrity Hunted are EastEnders actress Danielle Harold, 32, and Corrie's Kimberly Hart-Simpson, 37 It comes as Denise enjoys a wave of new TV jobs, including appearing on an upcoming episode of Emmerdale as a member of the jury as Tom King faces trial for abusing his wife Belle Dingle. She is also being lined up to return to Waterloo Road. The soap stars joining Celebrity Hunted are EastEnders actress Danielle Harold, 32, and Corrie's Kimberly Hart-Simpson, 37. Journalists including former BBC news anchor Simon McCoy, 63, and ITV News anchor Lucrezia Millarini, 48, are also on the list of this year's Fugitives. Other celebs joining the show include popstar Duncan James, 46, model Christine McGuinness, 36, podcasters David Whitely, 33, and Zeze Millz, 35. Celebrity Hunted will air on January 5 at 9pm on Channel 4. War drama SAS Rogue Heroes returned to BBC One on New Year's Day. However, not all viewers were happy, with many issuing the same complaint. Series two saw the return of cast members Jack O'Connell, 34, and Sofia Boutella, 42, but as one actor started talking, fans began complaining just minutes into the show. The drama, from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, 65, follows rebellious Paddy Mayne (Jack) as he takes control of the SAS and attempts to prove that the regiment remains essential to the war after former leader David Stirling (Connor Swindells) is captured. However, as Jack began to read his lines, viewers at home spotted something 'wrong' with his Northern Irish accent. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, to complain about his accent, one viewer wrote: '#SASRogueHeroes I cant stick this. The accent is being slaughtered.' '#SASRogueHeroes slightly weird NI accent.'; 'I'd hoped Jack O'Connell would have worked on his North Down accent. Maybe spend some time in Newtownards. Seems not... #SASRogueHeroes.'; War drama SAS Rogue Heroes returned to BBC One on New Year's Day. However, not all viewers were happy as they all issued the same complaint (Jack O'Connell pictured) Series two saw the return of cast members Jack O'Connell, 34,(left) and Sofia Boutella, 42, (right) but as one actor started talking, fans began complaining just minutes into the show The drama, from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, 65, follows rebellious Paddy Mayne (Jack) as he takes control of the SAS and attempts to prove that the regiment remains essential to the war after former leader David Stirling (Connor Swindells) is captured 'Wow this episode is really boring so far. Why has the Northern Irish accent turned into a weird way of spewing words. I hope it gets better, the last series was good. #RogueHeroes.' While some viewers were not best pleased, other viewers were absolutely delighted that the show had returned and proceeded to praise the actor's performances. One fan gushed: '#SASRogueHeroes did not disappoint wowza!!'; 'Always love Jack O'Connell in anything he's in. Came a long way since this is england #SASRogueHeroes.' Alongside Paddy and David, a whole host of familiar faces returned to the drama including Dominic West, 55, as Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Wrangel Clarke and Theo Barklem-Biggs, 35, as Reg Seekings. Last year Connor spoke about the challenges of filming the second series of SAS Rogue Heroes, which included losing 'a lot of weight'. Connor, 28, said his problem-solving character was 'descending into madness' in his cell, both 'thirsty and malnourished'. The Sex Education star said of the new show, directed by Stephen Woolfenden: 'I lost a lot of weight for this series.' 'I knew in reading the scripts I was going to have to and that was a big challenge, as it's something I've not done before.' However, as Jack began to read his lines, viewers at home spotted something 'wrong' with his Northern Irish accent (L-R Gwilym Lee and Jack) Fans took to X, formerly Twitter, to all issue the same complaint While some viewers were not best pleased, other viewers were absolutely delighted that the show had returned 'I felt like I had to do that in order to get to this place, I had to try and live as much like David as I could.' He added: 'To feel the hunger of "I need to get out of here". I didn't realise how helpful it was going to be to lose weight for a project like this, but it was really helpful.' The new series is based in Sicily but filmed across 81 days in Croatia, Italy, England and Scotland. Connor said much like his character, he had to come to terms with 'missing out on all the fun' as his cast mates were 'shooting in very wonderful conditions and I was in a cave'. Prison set locations included an old World War Two barrack with his performance involving 'a lot of creeping around on my hands and knees' with 'a couple of rats I got the great privilege to work with in some scenes'. He said: 'It was a challenge to shoot at times, but ultimately it's been a great joy and an honour.' Meanwhile, Jack described it as 'the best job in the world'. The British actor said: 'You have to dig deep in this job, you're up against it,' 'It's an ambitious story and in order achieve it you have to suck it up and get on with it quite a lot, which is good because it has to be difficult; if it was too easy then it wouldn't be that much of an enjoyable drama to watch.' Last year Connor spoke about the challenges of filming the second series of SAS Rogue Heroes , which included losing 'a lot of weight' (pictured on the second season) Connor, 28, said his problem-solving character was 'descending into madness' in his cell, both 'thirsty and malnourished'(pictured at Sex Education season two Premiere in 2020) 'I feel that anything that has SAS in it isn't going to be cups of tea, dressing gown and slippers, sitting pretty.' The Lady Chatterley's Lover star said 'it was a relief' to discover the cast would reprise their roles in the drama, describing Knight's script as 'banging'. The new series also features new characters, including Bohemian Rhapsody actor Gwilym Lee, 41, starring as diplomat Bill Stirling, who comes on board to save the regiment while his younger brother David is a prisoner of war. He said: 'I've loved being embraced by them, it's a really special job,' 'It can be tricky coming into a second series with a really established cast of actors and a great crew, as you worry about ruffling feathers or breaking into a clique, but there was none of that whatsoever.' The star added: 'It was open arms from day one.' The Crown star Dominic said he had not seen Lee since he performed alongside him in a production of Shakespeare's Othello a decade ago. The Sex Education star said of the new show, directed by Stephen Woolfenden: 'I lost a lot of weight for this series,' (pictured 2022) Adapted from Ben Macintyre's best-selling book, the series offers a dramatised account of how the SAS was formed during the Second World War, having been granted access to secret SAS archives. Knight said: 'The fact is that the true story of the SAS is a piece of drama better than anyone in fiction could invent.' 'The characters are beyond belief but, in the majority of cases in the series, they're real.' The second season of SAS Rogue Heroes continues on BBC One at 9pm on January 2 and is available to stream on iPlayer. Vera fans broke down in tears and made a desperate plea to ITV bosses as the final season kicked off. Inspired by the award-winning works of author Ann Cleeves, Vera has become a much-loved and acclaimed series since its debut in 2011. The detective series is famed for its compelling storylines, mysteries and captivating performances. However, Oscar-nominated actress Brenda Blethyn, 78, who stars as DCI Vera Stanhope in the show, is hanging up her infamous trench coat and hat as she bids farewell to Northumberland and the North East with one last season. There are only two episodes in the 14th and final season, Vera - Farewell Pet, which aired on Wednesday and Thursday. Fans who tuned into the first episode on New Year's Day were left sobbing just seconds into the show. They took to social media to demand that similar detective shows are made to fill the Vera-shaped hole forming in their hearts. Vera fans broke down in tears and made a desperate plea to ITV bosses as the final season kicked off Brenda Blethyn in character pictured on the set of Vera's final season with Anne Cleeves the author of the books the show is base There are only two episodes in the 14th and final season, Vera - Farewell Pet, which aired on Wednesday and Thursday 'I'm going to miss watching #Vera on @itv. Straightforward detective drama with no OTT stories or officers with hang-ups or dark secrets. Need more like this!' 'Can't believe it's the last Vera. Have enjoyed every episode.' '1 of 2 final episodes of #Vera. Honestly I've been watching this for such a long time, one of the only shows mum and myself will sit and watch together and try to figure out who done it. Sad to see it ending. Brenda Blethyn is an icon.' 'Great episode tonight, kept me guessing right to the end. Gutted the series is ending. #Vera' 'Gutted that this is the last Vera. I loved the books and loved the series. They need to make more shows like this.' 'It's so sad that it's the final series of Vera But @BrendaBlethyn deserves a decent break now and time to relax #Vera.' Brenda Blethyn was just as sad to say goodbye to the beloved programme and recently how she felt shooting the final episode. She said: 'It was very appropriate that the last day of filming was scheduled to take place in the police incident room where so much of the drama has happened. 'I think our producer Will Nicholson contrived that incidentally, that is not where the final scene of the episode takes place.' Vera fans broke down in tears and made a desperate plea to ITV bosses as the final season kicked off Brenda Blethyn pictured with the show's crew on set of Vera as they film the final season Fans who tuned into the first episode on New Year's Day were left sobbing just seconds into the show She continued: 'You could hear a pin drop when we were filming. Then when I heard "that's a wrap", I was emotional. As, indeed, Vera would have been. 'There were a lot of people behind the cameras and at the end I thanked everybody. I said: "We're all as important as one another." 'I might be the one playing the title character, but it's only an ingredient in a great big pot. And all of the ingredients are necessary, everyone contributes to it, and it's the sum of all of those parts that made Vera a success.' She made the decision to end her long run as DCI Vera so that she can spend more time with her family. She said: 'Naturally, I missed my family. And my dog Jack, although he was with me in the North East, but I didn't see him much because I was working all day. 'I love my Vera family, but I love my other family too. And when you consider I was already thinking about packing work in when I was offered the job back in 2010, 14 series of working on Vera is pretty good going! 'I wasn't actually going to do any more after series 13, but of course ITV said they needed to wind the series up. So I said: "Oh, go on then, I'll do a couple more episodes."' Brenda also previously admitted that she has kept a few souvenirs from the set as a sweet reminder of her time on the show. 'I have got the mac and hat! I think I've got the coat as well, the tweedy one. Although it looks like it's been through the mill,' she said. The final series aired on January 1 and January 2 at 8pm, while the show's accompanying factual documentary, Vera: Farewell Pet, will air on January 3 at 9pm, all on ITV1 and STV. The actress initially refused to speak about the finale at an event at the BFI in London. 'No comment. I'm not going to tell you,' she quipped when she was pressed for information. But she did drop some hints, suggesting a rocky time ahead for Vera and her colleague Joe Ashworth (David Leon). Brenda Blethyn and author Anne Cleeves pictured together on the set of Vera's final season Brenda Blethyn was just as sad to say goodbye to the beloved programme and recently how she felt shooting the final episode Vera's recognisable khaki hat perched solemnly on her equally iconic Land Rover Defender She made the decision to end her long run as DCI Vera so that she can spend more time with her family David Leon as Sergeant Joe Ashworth and Brenda Blethyn as DCI Vera Stanhope in preview shots released in 2011 for the show's first ever season The actress did drop some hints, suggesting a rocky time ahead for Vera and her colleague Joe Ashworth (David Leon) She said: 'I love my Vera family, but I love my other family too. And when you consider I was already thinking about packing work in when I was offered the job back in 2010, 14 series of working on Vera is pretty good going!' Brenda as DCI Vera pictured with co-star Kevin Whately who plays Gary Creelan in the show Brenda said: 'Joe has something going on that he doesn't want to talk about and Vera is anxious to get to the bottom of that. 'We know he came back to the area because his father was ill. He passed away we've already seen that. 'Joe doesn't seem to have come out of that dungeon and Vera's concerned about that.' Meanwhile, Vera is faced with her own dilemma after she learns her boss intends to promote her. Brenda said: 'Vera's superior, the Chief Inspector, wants to promote her, and so it's a big decision for Vera to make.' Vera airs on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITV1X. Netflix fans only have days left to watch a 'severely underrated' British Comedy hailed as 'an all-time favourite' on the streaming service. British sitcom Cuckoo first hit screens on the Beeb between 2012 and 2019. The show has had five successful series over the years with a total of 33 episodes, which originally aired on BBC Three, followed by BBC One. Back in 2016, Cuckoo fans were delighted when it was added to Netflix. The programme follows the lives of the Thompson family Dale Ashbrick Sr/Cuckoo, Ken, Lorna, Dylan and Rachel Thompson It is based in the Midlands town of Lichfield. Netflix fans have dubbed Cuckoo 'severely underrated' - but you only have days left to watch it on the streaming service Parents Ken and Lorna are left lost for words when they realise that their daughter Rachel has secretly tied the knot while travelling. They can't believe their eyes when they meet her husband for the first time when they pick them both up from the airport. Cuckoo (played by Andy Samberg) isn't the best son-in-law and is more interested in taking drugs than trying to better himself. Despite wrapping up six years ago, it is still a huge favourite and has amassed a whole new fanbase. So much so that it has been hailed as severely underrated and one of viewers' 'all-time favourite comedies in Rotten Tomatoes' online reviews. Unfortunately fans only have until the end of the week to watch it on Netflix, as the streaming service has decided to remove the popular series on January 4. Cuckoo has a star-studded cast, including Andy Samberg, Greg Davies, Helen Baxendale, Tyger Drew-Honey, Tamla Kari and Esther Smith. Cuckoo has been a huge fan favourite over the years Twilight legend Taylor Lautner also took part in the programme. They were also joined by Kenneth Collard, Selina Griffiths, Holly Earl and Philip Jackson. The show was created and written by Robin French and Kieron Quirke. Between series one and two, it was directed by Ben Taylor, with series three and four directed by Paul Murphy. Ben Gregor directed series five. Cuckoo was also nominated for a number of awards, including Best New Comedy Programme at the British Comedy Awards. Back in 2016, when it was confirmed that two more series would return to our screens, controller of BBC comedy, Shane Allen said at the time: 'Cuckoo has proved itself as a monster BBC3 hit with plenty more comedy gas in the tank. 'It is world-class in the writing, performance and direction.' Executive producer Dan Hine added: 'Like anxious parents, we watched Cuckoo leap into the brave new world of BBC3 online, but we neednt have worried. 'Were delighted it connected with such a wide audience. The response to this series has been outstanding, which is testament to our hugely talented cast and crew. 'We cant wait to engineer another few rounds of mayhem for Dale, Chief Ken and the rest of the Thompson clan.' The stars of Good Morning America have been sharing their hopes and goals for the year ahead, and one in particular is longing for a better relationship with his daughters. Whit Johnson had joined hosts Gio Benitez and Janai Norman for the weekend edition of the ABC program when he opened up about his family life. Whit, 42, started the conversation and said: 'All right, we're having a lightning round here, our new year's resolutions, let's start with you, Janai. What have you got?' 'I want to become conversational in Spanish,' she revealed, before adding: 'I almost got it in college and Gio offered to help me.' Gio, 39, quickly replied: 'So now our conversations, we're going to do them in Espanol.' 'You'll just ignore me?' Whit then joked as Janai responded: 'Si, si, amigo!' Gio then told him: 'You can learn too,' before he revealed: 'My resolution would be to master the piano. I'm already learning it, I'm going to master it.' 'I like it,' Whit then replied before admitting: 'Don't judge me on this one... I'm actually looking for ways to avoid arguments with my daughters. Good Morning America host Whit Johnson has revealed he's 'looking for ways to avoid arguments' with his daughters in 2025 Whit made the admission whilst hosting GMA on December 28 alongside Janai Norman and Gio Benitez 'I love my daughters dearly, but [I'm] looking for solutions for a better relationship for 2025.' He then said: 'If anybody has any tips, please send them this way!' as Janai said: 'I love to give him a hard time, but you're a good papa, Whit.' The TV anchor and his wife Andrea Fujii are parents to Leah, 12, and Summer, 10. In July of last year, Whit admitted that he'd 'scored a few Dad points' after he managed to get his daughters a meet and greet with Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. The duo were in the Good Morning America studio to promote their movie Deadpool & Wolverine and posed for a photo with Whit and his girls. When he shared the snap on Instagram, Whit captioned the post: 'So when my daughters asked if they could come with me to work today, I quickly realized it had nothing to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with these guys!! '@vancityreynolds and @thehughjackman were hilarious and so sweet with my girls. Made their day!! And I think I scored a few dad points too. Cant wait to see #deadpoolandwolverine!' Whit has been married to fellow ABC correspondent Andrea for 17 years. Whit pictured with his wife Andrea Fujii and their daughters Leah, 12, and Summer, 10, in September 2024 The TV anchor admitted he 'scored a few Dad points' when he got to introduce his kids to Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman last year Whit pictured hosting Good Morning America alongside Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts The happy couple marked their anniversary back in August and celebrated the occasion with a family trip to Honolulu, Hawaii. Posting some snaps of him and his wife on Instagram, Whit wrote: '17 years married! Endless adventures, 2 wonderful kids, a lot of addresses and so many dogs! Truly grateful for this life weve built together. Happy anniversary!' Whit met Andrea while working at his first television station job in Yakima, Washington. The two met while he was an evening weekend anchor and reporter for KNDO/KNDU-TV, an NBC-affiliated station in Yakima/Tri-Cities. The couple have moved around the country together to pursue their TV careers. Sir David Attenborough has been the face and voice of the BBCs natural history programmes for over 70 years. But he now has competition from a more glitzy candidate, as the corporation announced it would broadcast a new ten-part nature series narrated by Tom Hanks. The Oscar-winning actor, 68, will provide commentary for The Americas, a new epic series which has been five years in the making and filmed over 180 expeditions. It will air on BBC One later this year and will explore the wildlife on the Atlantic coast, Mexico, Wild West, the Amazon, the frozen North, the Gulf coast, the Andes, the Caribbean, the West coast and Patagonia. Toby Gorman, one of the American executives behind the series, which is a co-production between BBC Studios and NBCUniversal, said: We asked ourselves, who is the American version of David Attenborough? 'When we embarked on this we wanted to go as big as possible and after some conversations we said internally that there was a list of one: Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks bags himself an epic new BBC nature series The Americas David Attenborough has been the face and voice of the BBC's natural history programmes over the past 70 years The upcoming series will air on Sunday 23 February 2025 'We wanted Tom, it just felt right. What we didnt know is whether he would want to do it. [But] it resonated with him. It is not the first time that A-list celebrities have been drafted in to narrate natural history epics, as BBC programme makers increasingly turn to younger, more famous voices. Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch has lent his voice to BBC series South Pacific and documentary Arctic: Our Frozen Planet, while Doctor Who star David Tennant has narrated the BBCs Spy in the Wild. It is not understood if Sir David, 98, was considered as the narrator of The Americas by the programme makers. The veteran filmmaker was last heard on the BBC in November providing the commentary for Asia, a seven-part series exploring the natural wonders of the planet's largest continent. Later this year he will also narrate a feature-length documentary called David Attenborough: Ocean, which will stream on Disney+. BBC producer Mike Gunton, who has worked closely with Sir David for four decades and is the executive producer of The Americas, previously admitted he once asked the famed narrator if he ever had plans to retire. According to him, Sir David responded: I dont know what that word means. The trailer was released in November 2024 The programme has been five years in the making and filmed over 180 expeditions Mr Gunton added: Working with him in his nineties is not that hard, because he can do almost anything. Jo Lapping, head of BBC Factual Acquisition, said she was delighted to bring the new programme to the BBC, and described Mr Hanks, the seriess composer Hans Zimmer, BBC Studios and American studio NBCUniversal as a dream team. Mr Hanks is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood having starred in movies such as Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and Toy Story. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. Lockerbie: A Search For Truth Rating: To a generation of Janeites, the worshippers of Miss Austen, he will always be Mr D'Arcy striding moodily out of a lake in his wet shirt. At the same time, he's the prince of romcoms, the man who made an honest woman of Bridget Jones and fell for his Portuguese housekeeper in Love Actually. But there's much more to Colin Firth than light romance. He is a superb choice to play Dr Jim Swire, the Old Etonian tortured by the death of his beloved daughter in a terrorist attack, on Lockerbie: A Search For Truth. The real-life Dr Swire, now 89, is a true crusading hero, a man who has refused for decades to be fobbed off in his determination to discover who was behind the death of his beloved child Flora, and what the British government could have done to prevent it. Flora was 23 and a PhD student when she boarded Pan Am Flight 103 at Heathrow, en route to the U.S., shortly before Christmas in 1988. The Boeing 747 crashed over the Scottish town of Lockerbie after a bomb exploded in the hold. All 259 people on board and 11 on the ground were killed. This meticulously researched and sensitively told five-part drama did not dwell on the atrocity itself. Neither was the sheer horror of it minimised. The first few minutes, after we met Dr Swire, his wife, Jane (Catherine McCormack), and their three children, were ominous without exploiting the nightmare that was to come. What followed was surreal massive chunks of torn metal plunging out of the sky, and a fireball as a petrol station on the ground was hit by debris. Colin Firth plays the lead role of Dr Jim Swire, the Old Etonian tortured by the death of his beloved daughter in a terrorist attack, on Lockerbie: A Search For Truth The decision to casr Firth as Dr Jim Swire was a superb one, writes Christopher Stevens Sam Troughton plays reporter Murray Guthrie, a fictional character representing the many journalists whose work has shone a spotlight on the callous double dealings that led to this needless disaster The aftermath was more atrocious still, with a crater where family homes once stood, and bodies scattered over the ground. The most upsetting scene of all, because it was one that any of us can imagine without having lived through such a cataclysm, came a few days later, when Dr Swire identified his daughter's remains. At the Lockerbie ice rink, hundreds of bodies were laid out on pallets, covered by sheets. The image belonged on a battlefield, not in a little town in the Scottish borders. Dr Swire's presence at the rink set the theme of this drama. Grieving relatives were not supposed to be present, but he walked in anyway. For more than 35 years, he has continued to refuse to take 'No' for an answer from anyone. Firth portrays Dr Swire with a quiet dignity and undercurrents of deep emotion, coupled with an inextinguishable belief in fair play and honesty. Sam Troughton plays reporter Murray Guthrie, a fictional character representing the many journalists whose work has shone a spotlight on the callous double dealings that led to this needless disaster. Guthrie has a touch of the conspiracy theorist about him. A willingness to believe unproven rumours can be as dangerous as a cover-up. This superb show promises to guide us between the two. Jerry Kuns, a retired mobility and way-finding consultant, uses the in-app audio direction feature to find his Waymo in San Francisco. Kuns, who is blind and frequently uses ride-hailing apps, is a fan of the autonomous vehicle service. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Jerry Kuns, 83, takes public transit as much as he can, but like many San Franciscans, hell opt for an Uber or a Lyft if hes running late. But for Kuns, who is fully blind, ride-hailing is like flipping a coin: At least half the time, Kuns said, his Uber or Lyft drivers wont identify themselves clearly, even though he messages ahead of time asking them to. The car might be sitting across the street for minutes, but he wont know it. So increasingly, Kuns turns to a transit option he said is more accessible and makes him feel more independent: Waymo. At the push of a button on the Waymo app, Kuns can honk the robotaxis horn or play a melody through its speakers, taking the guesswork out of locating the vehicle, he said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad A robotaxi plays a melody through its speakers so a blind rider can locate the vehicle. Stephen Lam / The Chronicle I call it my ride, my car, Kuns said of the autonomous vehicle company. I dont have to interact with anybody, its gonna take me basically where I want to go, when I want to go there, and its all about my choice and Im not dependent on your eyes to see whats around me. Kuns is one of the many Bay Area blind or visually impaired people who say theyre increasingly choosing Waymo over traditional ride-hailing services. While the robotaxis can feel like an unsettling loss of control for some sighted people, many blind riders say the opposite: that Waymos restore a sense of control and agency they thought theyd never experience, or never experience again. Jerry Kuns, a retired mobility and way-finding consultant, feels a tactile map of the city at his San Francisco home. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle The Mountain View company and Alphabet subsidiary, which opened up rides to the public in San Francisco in June and now has nearly 500,000 paid trips a month statewide, has accessibility features that ride-hailing competitors dont have. Advertisement Article continues below this ad During the ride, users can opt in to audio cues that describe when the car is stopping at a light or yielding to pedestrians. And after drop-off, the app offers turn-by-turn walking directions to a riders exact destination. Perhaps most importantly, calling a Waymo means certainty that the ride wont be canceled a frequent gripe some blind people, especially those who use guide dogs, have with Uber and Lyft. Jerry Kuns, a retired mobility and way-finding consultant, requests a Waymo vehicle with his phone in San Francisco. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Ill get denial after denial, five or six times, Sharon Giovinazzo, 55, said of her experience using Uber and Lyft. Giovinazzo, the CEO of San Francisco nonprofit Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, uses a guide dog, a sticking point with some drivers. They say, We dont want a dog in our car. In October, the National Federation of the Blind protested these service denials in front of both ride-hailing companies San Francisco headquarters. Uber and Lyft provide a service that is of tremendous benefit to blind people, but these companies are failing to address discrimination against us that often leaves us stranded, federation President Mark Riccobono said in a statement at the time. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Jerry Kuns, a retired mobility and way finding consultant, enters a Waymo in San Francisco. Kuns appreciates Waymos in-app accessibility features such as audio directions in the vehicle and the ability to honk the cars horn by pressing a button. Stephen Lam Ubers and Lyfts policies prohibit drivers from canceling rides because a rider has a disability or travels with a guide dog, and both companies are piloting a feature for people with service animals to disclose their animal when requesting a ride, according to company spokespeople. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated, and our Community Guidelines make this clear, an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. Discrimination has no place in the Lyft community, a Lyft spokesperson said in a statement. Waymo has a partnership with Lighthouse and occasionally sponsors events there, Giovinazzo said. Lighthouse was an inaugural member of the Waymo Accessibility Network, a group of disability advocates and nonprofits that has met semi-regularly since 2022 to give the company feedback on accessibility features, according to Rachel Kamen, a spokesperson for Waymo. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Jerry Kuns, a retired mobility and way-finding consultant, exits a Waymo autonomous vehicle after a ride in San Francisco. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle For some blind people who lost their sight later in life, Waymos give them a taste of a freedom they never thought theyd experience again: the feeling of being alone in a car. Kevin Chao, 33, who is blind, still remembers the thrill of learning how to drive before he lost his vision as a teenager. Riding a Waymo, he said, is just super empowering and liberating. I was like, This is cool a blind person in the car without anyone else. Giovinazzo says giving up driving was one of the most difficult consequences of going blind at 31. Now, with Waymo, I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, and I have full control over that, she said. Plus, she can even play her favorite music through the cars speakers, toggling from K-pop to country to R&B. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Blind advocacy organizations also say that Waymo and other autonomous vehicle companies could help solve systemic issues that blind and low vision people face, like isolation and unemployment. The unemployment rate for working-age people with visual impairments is double that of sighted people, according to the American Foundation for the Blind. Jerry Kuns, a retired mobility and way-finding consultant, enters a Waymo in San Francisco last month. Kuns, who is completely blind and frequently uses ride-hailing apps, is a fan of the autonomous vehicle service. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle I see it as a game-changer for our community when it comes to linking people to employment and community, Giovinazzo said. Karae Lisle, CEO of the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which operates three offices in the South Bay, said blind people are often late to their appointments, or wait hours in the lobby for a ride home afterward, because ride-hailing drivers often cancel rides and government services such as paratransit can be slow or unreliable. Though Vista Centers offices are outside of Waymos service area, Lisle said her blind patrons and staff are eager for the robotaxis to expand. Its a no fear, we cant wait kind of feeling, Lisle said. This is going to change their lives. Still, some blind people have accessibility features theyd like to see Waymo add, such as a play-by-play audio tour of sights passing by during the ride or a sighted assistant on-demand for emergencies. And Waymos limited service area and high price point mean its not an everyday transit option for most blind people. Chao, who lives in the East Bay, uses Waymo only when hes in San Francisco. Sometimes, he said, Waymos price is two or three times that of a traditional ride-hail, so hell go for an Uber or Lyft instead. Jerry Kuns, a retired mobility and way-finding consultant, exits a Waymo autonomous vehicle after a ride in San Francisco. Stephen Lam/The Chronicle Besides offering rides in San Francisco, Waymo is available in Daly City, Broadmoor and Colma. The company has offered rides in Phoenix since 2020 and began limited service in Los Angeles in April. Waymo has expressed its intent to expand to the East Bay and San Jose but has not disclosed a timeline for that expansion. Waymo is the only autonomous vehicle company offering public rides, after General Motors Cruise left the robotaxi market in December. The company faced a $1.5 million fine after failing to fully report an October 2023 crash in San Francisco, when one of Cruises autonomous vehicles dragged a pedestrian 20 feet after she was hit by a human driver. Amazon-owned Zoox began operating its pill capsule-shaped robotaxis in the South of Market neighborhood in November, but the vehicles are not yet open to the public. Giovinazzo, the Lighthouse CEO, said the nonprofit has already made contact with Zoox and will be one of the companys community partners when it rolls out its rides. Giovinazzo said she is excited about more companies entering the robotaxi market, though Waymo has set a high bar for accessibility. Nearly 30 years ago, as billionaire Jocelyn Wildenstein's fabulously juicy divorce captivated the global aristocracy and the common reader, the feline-featured socialite held court in a corner of the Manhattan townhouse that she was still permitted to use. Newly christened by the newspapers as the 'Bride of Wildenstein', Jocelyn, then 52, served champagne to a New York Magazine profile writer and batted down speculation that her increasingly bizarre cat-like appearance had nothing to do with cosmetic surgery. 'If I show you pictures of my grandmother, what you see is these eyes cat eyes and high cheekbones,' the Swiss-born beauty told New York Magazine in 1997. At the time, Jocelyn was ending her marriage to French art dealer Alec Wildenstein, the descendant of a family worth billions and believed to be in possession of the world's largest private collection of masterpieces, vaults of paintings and a rumored, long hidden and priceless work by Johannes Vermeer. The couple's property portfolio included a ranch in Kenya with a 366-strong staff, a castle in France and the 25,000-square-foot brownstone on East 64th Street, where Jocelyn had been relegated to certain rooms during certain hours amid the very messy public end to her tumultuous 21-year marriage. Indeed, fissures had shown early in their romance. Nearly 30 years ago, as billionaire Jocelyn Wildenstein's fabulously juicy divorce captivated the global aristocracy and the common reader, the feline-featured socialite (pictured here in 1998) held court in a corner of the Manhattan townhouse that she was still permitted to use. At the time, Jocelyn was ending her marriage to French art dealer Alec Wildenstein (pictured), the descendant of a family worth billions and believed to be in possession of the world's largest private collection of masterpieces, vaults of paintings and a rumored, long hidden and priceless work by Johannes Vermeer. Alec and Jocelyn eloped in Las Vegas on April 30, 1978, and would have two children together but, of course, the romance wouldn't last. (Jocelyn is pictured here with her daughter Diane). According to Alec, Jocelyn's obsession with plastic surgery began about a year after their wedding in 1978. They underwent 'his-and-her eyelifts,' he said, after his new bride complained that his eyes looked baggy. 'She was crazy,' Alec told Vanity Fair in 1998. 'She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldn't listen.' A friend told Vanity Fair that they couldn't recall a time when Jocelyn, 'wasn't healing from something.' Alec would later complain to a divorce judge that his wife's looks were 'scaring people.' Jocelyn, however, claimed that it was Alec who was preoccupied with youth and hated 'to be with old people.' And as both their appearances changed, their marriage disintegrated. In September 1997, Alec was led away from their townhouse in handcuffs. The husband and estranged wife gave police different explanations of how a gun ended up in his hand. Jocelyn said that, upon coming home early from a trip to Africa in 1999, she found Alec wearing only a towel and a naked blonde woman in the bedroom only for her husband to grab a 9mm pistol and point it at her. Alec said he mistook Jocelyn's bodyguards one of whom called the police for burglars and put the gun down as soon as he realized his mistake. Regardless, police arrested him, and the billionaire spent 16 hours in custody on charges of menacing. He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay away from Jocelyn. Sadly, domestic strife and even violence would haunt Jocelyn for decades, through her eventual $2.5 billion divorce settlement with Alec, her ever-changing visage, dubious bankruptcy claims and a volatile relationship with a fashion designer more than two decades her junior, Lloyd Klein. It was Klein, 57, who announced this week that Wildenstein had died in her sleep on December 31 of a pulmonary embolism. The couple was staying in a luxury hotel in Paris where they had taken up residence. 'An icon is gone,' Klein told the French media, saying his longtime fiancee had passed away at the age of 79, even as other outlets reported that Jocelyn was 84. (She had told reporters various stories about her age.) Indeed, Jocelyn was legendary, followed by more than 1.1 million fans on Instagram and instantly recognizable to many as 'Catwoman.' Her love of everything wild marked a steady theme throughout her life. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, around 1940, Jocelyn Perisset was the daughter of a department store buyer and a housewife. By her teenage years, she had begun dating a Swiss movie producer and moved to Paris, armed with only her svelte figure, pixie features and a fearless spirit. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, around 1940, Jocelyn Perisset (pictured here) was the daughter of a department store buyer and a housewife. She claimed to have flown on private jets in her 20s, bragging that Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi's plane featured 'a bedroom and a bathroom and a bidet.' The beauty's jet-setting lifestyle would later fuel rumors - despite her denials - that she'd worked for a high-end European madame. By the time she met her future husband, she had been in a five-year relationship with another filmmaker, this one Italian. Alec, too, was romantically involved and living with a woman when he first laid eyes on Jocelyn in 1977 at his 66,000-acre ranch in Kenya. He was inspecting the family property; she was on safari with friends. On their first day together, Alec killed a lion during a 5am hunt and the pair dabbed its blood on their neck and ate the animal's heart. Jocelyn said of the rituals: 'You must eat a part of the heart of your game. It's legend. Maybe to take the power of the lion. It's a respect of the lion. It became like a certain bond right away.' The couple eloped in Las Vegas on April 30, 1978, and would have two children together but, of course, the romance wouldn't last. In the final divorce settlement, Jocelyn ended up with $2.5 billion and an annual $100 million payment for 13 years. The money would only fuel the suspected excesses. Her appearance would become increasingly drastic in the decades after her divorce. The corners of her eyes stretched ever further back narrowing her gaze in a decidedly feline stare, as her lips and cheeks ballooned so much that her face looked perpetually swollen the distortion affecting her speech. Barely able to blink, Jocelyn barely resembled the lithe, elfin Swiss beauty who stared out coquettishly in photos from her youth. Estimates have placed the costs of Jocelyn's cosmetic work as high as $4 million even though she continued to insist she'd had no surgeries. And as Jocelyn played coy about her lynx-like look, she spent much of the Wildenstein family money on real cats. She owned a pet lynx and a black leopard. At the family's 66,000-acre African ranch, she kept two tigers in a bulletproof glass cave. In 2003, Jocelyn found love again with Klein. He dutifully maintained her line that the feline features came naturally the 'high cheekbones and long hair,' as Jocelyn put it, which she compared to Brigitte Bardot. But the pair made headlines for more than Jocelyn's unusual countenance. They were arrested in 2016 after a brawl in her Trump World Tower apartment. Jocelyn sank her claws into Klein's face and scratched him with scissors, while he allegedly shoved her to the floor. Both were arrested and charged after the incident; charges against Klein were dropped in January 2017, and charges against Jocelyn were dismissed the following month. In 2003, Jocelyn found love again with a fashion designer more than two decades her junior, Lloyd Klein (pictured with Jocelyn in 2006). Jocelyn and Klein were arrested in 2016 after a brawl in her Trump World Tower apartment. (Jocelyn is pictured here in her mugshot). Jocelyn sank her claws into Klein's face and scratched him with scissors, while he allegedly shoved her to the floor. (Klein's injuries are shown here). Klein later made up with Jocelyn with two apology gifts, a 200-carat ring composed of emeralds and diamonds and a 32 carat pear-shaped snakeskin inspired engagement ring. The designer popped the question in July 2017 at the Versace Mansion in Miami, where they'd enjoyed time with their good friend Gianni Versace, who was murdered by a crazed serial killer in 1997. Four months after the proposal, the couple was arrested again after neighbors heard screaming coming from their apartment. Police found a shattered casserole dish on the kitchen floor, bruises to Jocelyn's neck and arms and a cut to Lloyd's forehead; both were charged with misdemeanor assault. Despite Jocelyn's fabulous wealth, she dubiously declared bankruptcy in 2018 as financial disclosures showed more than $15 million in real estate, a Bentley and an extensive wardrobe. The unlikely pair, however, remained together and were reportedly considering a reality show when Jocelyn died this week. It has been two years since Jeremy Renner was hit by and almost crushed by a seven-ton snowplow at his compound near Reno, Nevada. The Mayor of Kingstown actor, 53, shared a photo from that time in his life on Instagram and wrote about the gratitude he has for everyone who fought so hard to save his life. 'Happy New Year blessings to you all. Ringing in my second "ReBirthday today,' his caption began. 'I send out my love, respect, and gratitude for the army of people that it took to put me back together again. Thank you to each and every nurse, doctor, first responder I literally owe you my life. 'All my heart goes out to my beautiful, brave nephew and the angels (my neighbors) who jumped to my aid and endured the chaos for 45 long minutes on the icy asphalt New Years morning.' It has been two years since Jeremy Renner was hit by and almost crushed by a seven-ton snowplow at his compound near Reno, Nevada Renner's emotion-filled post continued: 'Im so sorry for all the haunting images I imprinted on you all (Ill spare you all from the meat grinding images ).' 'My gratitude list is very long . With the amount of love and prayers that flooded in from you all around the world (needing each and everyone of them), my family never leaving my side, with some divine intervention, a bit of luck and a whole lot of miracles I stand strong again,' he wrote. The Hurt Locker star's love and gratitude shone through his words as he recounted the ways in which he's rebuilt his life from that fateful New Year's Day accident. 'More Open. More Loved. More Connected. And f***ing BLESSED to take my next step, to take MY NEXT BREATH. Thank you with every fiber and cell in my body. I love you ALL .' On January 1, 2023, Renner's home near Reno had a blizzard and he and his nephew Alex Fries set out to plow the snow. His nephew was detaching the chain connecting the car to the plow, but Renner couldnt see him and became concerned for his safety. He grew worried that the plow would roll into Alex and in an effort to get back into the plow to set the emergency break, he was run over. Renner was immobile and in critical condition as his nephew and neighbors stayed with him until paramedics arrived. The Mayor of Kingstown actor, 53, shared a photo from that time in his life on Instagram and wrote about the gratitude he has for everyone that fought so hard to save his life. Seen here December 10, 2024 'Happy New Year blessings to you all. Ringing in my second "ReBirthday today, his caption began. Seen here December 10, 2024 Renner's injuries included a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and more than 30 broken bones from the blunt force trauma he took to his chest in the accident. He had to learn to walk again following the accident. In an interview with Diane Sawyer at the time he said, 'I chose to survive.' He also said that he refused 'to be f***ing haunted by that memory.' The snow plow that ran him over weighed 14,300 pounds. 'It undulates, because theres four sections of tires with these metal tracks it pulls it like a tank. I remember every undulation, he told Men's Health last summer. 'I remember my head cracking on the thing and it just pressing on me its exactly like you think it would feel. An immovable object and a crushing force, and somethings gotta give.' Jeremy did not spare any of the gruesome details but did express his gratitude as it could have somehow ended up worse than it actually had. He continued: 'But thank God my skull didnt fully give. And then it kept going. Undulate, undulate, undulate, undulate.' 'I send out my love, respect, and gratitude for the army of people that it took to put me back together again. Thank you to each and every nurse, doctor, first responder. Seen here December 10, 2024 ' All my heart goes out to my beautiful, brave nephew and the angels (my neighbors) who jumped to my aid and endured the chaos for 45 long minutes on the icy asphalt New Years morning.' Seen here December 10. 2024 'Cheekbone broke, eye socket broke, and then from the crushing of getting run over by the machine, my eye bulged out. I could see my left eyeball with my right eyeball. I was screaming for a breath.' The star went into detail about how he tried as hard as he could to breathe but everything he did simply didn't work. He said: 'There was no breathing happening. It's hard to use your stomach muscles when you have 14 broken ribs and a popped lung. I dont know this at the time I just needed to get air. I was going through the checklist of my body, figuring it the f*** out.' Once the EMTs arrived, he gave his body over to them. Recovery was long and arduous but Renner had a remarkable perspective about it. He said: 'The only thing we can control in our lives is our perspective.' Armie Hammer is opening up about the scandal that rocked his life in 2021, when he was canceled over sexual assault allegations and disturbing claims about 'cannibalism.' The 38-year-old Call Me By Your Name star, whose career came to a halt after allegations of rape and sharing violent fantasies, was investigated by the LAPD in 2023 but ultimately wasn't charged. On Wednesdays Your Mamas House podcast, Hammer, who claims he's now living in a 'tiny apartment' as he works to rebuild his career, reflected on the whirlwind of the controversy and how it captivated the public during the COVID-19 lockdown. 'The world seemed like it was falling apart, and people were just deeply unhappy with their own lives,' he said. 'Then this salacious story comes out about an actor wanting to murder and eat people. And all of a sudden, everyones like, Oh, this is so much more fun to focus on than the fact that I cant leave my living room. Hammer went on to explain how the media storm spiraled as more stories emerged, adding, 'If anyone took anyone's bedroom conversations, even if it was completely vanilla, and read it out of context, everyone would go, "You guys are f---ing disgusting."' He also revealed how the scandal hit his finances and mental health. Armie Hammer is opening up about the scandal that rocked his life in 2021 , when he was canceled over sexual assault allegations and disturbing claims about 'cannibalism'; (seen in 2019) On Wednesdays You Mamas House podcast, Hammer, who claims he's now living in a 'tiny apartment' as he works to rebuild his career, reflected on the whirlwind of the controversy and how it captivated the public during the COVID-19 lockdown 'I was so broke, I had to sell my truck because I couldnt afford gas anymore,' he shared. When asked if he was losing his mind during the fallout, he admitted, 'I was just in full panic mode.' He explained how the persona he had built up was shattered, leaving him exposed and vilified: 'There would be articles in The Punjabi Times about how I was a cannibal...and in March 2021, I was the fifth most-searched person on Google, and all of it was negative.' Describing the toll it took on him, Hammer said, 'Youre just left standing there naked in front of the world, with all your proclivities and kinks being judged. That s--- is tough.' Hammer also reflected on his past behavior with women, admitting that he used them to feed his ego. 'People were my bags of dope with skin on it,' he said on the podcast. 'Having people want to have sex with me gave me a sense of power and validation.' He confessed to using women for his own gratification and leaving them feeling used, explaining, 'I would scoop these girls up, take them on whirlwind trips, have great sex, and then just bounce, leaving them feeling like they were sucked into this tornado.' The actor, who has previously shared his own trauma of being sexually assaulted by a pastor at 13, revealed hes been in therapy and reflecting on his actions. Armie also revealed how the scandal hit his finances and mental health; (Pictured with Timothee Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name) He shares two children, daughter Harper and son Ford, with his ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers, and they have been co-parenting since their 2020 split He also spoke about his children, who he recently spent the holidays with, acknowledging that they might one day feel the effects of his actions. Im well aware that my daughter and son are gonna get to a point where they do therapy, and theyll say, 'I hate my dad, too.' He shares two children, daughter Harper and son Ford, with his ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers, and they have been co-parenting since their 2020 split. Despite the fallout, Hammer recently shot a film, Frontier Crucible, with William H. Macy. 'I wouldnt say Im back,' he said, 'but Im working.' Mariah Carey put on a busty display in a smoldering new Instagram album she posted to celebrate the arrival of 2025. In snaps that were apparently taken the night before on New Year's Eve, the songstress wore a plunging nude dress studded with rhinestones. Her gown was perfectly fitted to accentuate her hourglass frame as the All I Want For Christmas Is You hitmaker posed up a storm for the camera. Wearing a 'Happy New Year' tiara, she had her pictures taken in front of a festive display, including shiny balloons and her Christmas tree. 'Happy New Year!!!!!!' she wrote, sending her season's greetings to the impressive 14 million followers she has on the social media platform. The post comes after Mariah, 55, confirmed her relationship with Anderson .Paak, 38, during her annual trip to Aspen over the holidays. Mariah Carey put on a busty display in a smoldering new Instagram album she posted to celebrate the arrival of 2025 Each year, Mariah does a Christmas tour of concerts and then decamps to the upscale Colorado ski resort for a glamorous getaway. She brought along her 13-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan, whom she shares with her amicable ex-husband, comedian Nick Cannon. This year, however, her trip also include a romantic interlude with Anderson, who she was spotted enjoying a date with at the posh Italian restaurant Duemani on Sunday. They were spotted hand in hand outside the celebrity hot spot, and while they were inside, a source observed Anderson kissing one of Mariah's hands over the table. Shortly after that sighting, a source shed light on their burgeoning relationship, speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com. 'Anderson is such a joyful and fun person to be around. He is funny, brilliant and infects joy in everyone he is around, and Mariah has caught on to his nature and is eating it all up,' the insider revealed. 'They just have natural fun around each other and their brewing relationship has no obstacles to it because they aren't forcing anything or getting serious about it.' The source continued: 'Everything has been so easy, there are no hidden agendas, they just get each other. If they end up continuing at this pace, the sky is the limit. They are just taking it in stride as they love hanging out with each other.' In snaps that were apparently taken the night before on New Year's Eve, the songstress wore a plunging nude dress studded with rhinestones Her gown was perfectly fitted to accentuate her hourglass frame as the All I Want For Christmas Is You hitmaker posed up a storm for the camera The post comes after Mariah, 55, confirmed her relationship with Anderson .Paak (pictured in November), 38, during her annual trip to Aspen over the holidays For her Aspen trip, Mariah brought along her 13-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan, whom she shares with her amicable ex-husband, comedian Nick Cannon (not pictured) It was said they 'want to collab with music, but just like their relationship, they aren't forcing anything, they are letting it all happen naturally, letting life happen.' Mariah and Anderson have been working on music together and had also been spotted dining together at Catch Steak in Aspen the previous weekend. In spite of their warm rapport when they were seen together at Catch Steak, sources told TMZ they were not dating and exited the eatery separately. Anderson has reportedly not yet finalized his divorce from South Korean musician Jae Lin, whom he filed for divorce from last January. Jae and Anderson were married for 12 years and share two children - Soul, 13, and Shine, six - of whom Anderson has requested joint custody. After he and Mariah were seen at Catch Steak, a source remarked; Mariah and Anderson have been hanging out for months, and have a flirty connection.' The insider noted further: 'But he has a reputation as a ladies man in Hollywood and is still legally married to his wife,' via the US Sun. Real Housewives of Potomac personality Mia Thornton has announced her split from boyfriend Incognito. The 40-year-old housewife who sparked engagement rumors in January 2024 and Incognito, who also goes by Inc, dated for about one year before Thornton confirmed their breakup to The Shade Room this week. 'Inc is my best friend and perfect in so many ways, but I have decided to focus on my children and maintaining a healthy co-parenting relationship with their father,' she explained. The two initially dated in high school. Mia fueled speculation that she and Inc called it quits after she shared a New Year's Eve selfie with estranged husband Gordon Thornton. 'NEW Year. New Beginnings. Cheers to living life to the fullest,' she wrote to her 363,000 Instagram followers on Tuesday. She added, '#momanddad #nye2025,' and her handle has remained @MrsMiaThornton despite their separation in June 2023. Real Housewives of Potomac personality Mia Thornton has announced her split from boyfriend Incognito The 40-year-old housewife and Incognito, who also goes by Inc, dated for about one year before Thornton confirmed their breakup to The Shade Room this week 'Inc is my best friend and perfect in so many ways, but I have decided to focus on my children and maintaining a healthy co-parenting relationship with their father,' she explained The separation came after 11 years of marriage, but the spouses have yet to finalize their divorce. They share son Jeremiah, nine, and daughter Juliana, seven. Mia is also mother to a teenage son named Joshua from a previous relationship. Earlier this week she appeared on social media to share snapshots with her two younger children from their visit to Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. 'Family Traditions. Christmas @biltmoreestate,' she wrote in her Instagram caption. One month before announcing her latest breakup, Thornton discussed the possibility of having children with Incognito. She told Bravo's The Daily Dish, 'Inc does want more children. Were gonna take our time, and Im not opposed to having a surrogate, but he wants me to carry. And he wants to have two more, so pray for me.' The star added, 'Were taking our time, and when the time comes we will make that decision. But Im definitely exploring options, like freezing my eggs and things like that.' Mia fueled speculation that she and Inc called it quits after she shared a New Year's Eve selfie with estranged husband Gordon Thornton 'NEW Year. New Beginnings. Cheers to living life to the fullest,' she wrote to her 363,000 Instagram followers on Tuesday Mia shares son Jeremiah, nine, and daughter Juliana, seven, with Thornton The mom-of-three went on to note, 'Because you know my biological clock is ticking. It might have tocked.' Expanding on her relationship dynamic, she explained, 'I wanted to just make sure that were doing things the proper way.... We want to enjoy each other, and then we can add more children to our roster. Mia went public with Incognito in 2023, months after sharing her separation from Gordon. And she spilled about co-parenting with her ex: 'It has its ups, it has its downs, but I am fortunate that I do have someone to co-parent with. Gordon is a great father, and he is present.' She continued, 'He [lives] in my [apartment] building, so hes very much so in the kids' day-to-day [lives]. 'And, as far as Inc is concerned, hes definitely in the mix when it comes to just navigating the day-to-day. But I would say that a lot of the responsibility of parenting does fall back on me and Gordon, right, 'cause were their parents. But [Inc's] there.' Jocelyn Wildenstein, famously dubbed the 'Catwoman' for her feline-inspired plastic surgery, was preparing for a return to the limelight before her unexpected death on Tuesday at 85. The Swiss socialite, once a billionaire, had been filming a reality show just a year prior, according to TMZ. Produced by Christine Peters and Jeff Jenkins, the series followed Jocelyn's transition from her longtime New York City roots to a new life in Los Angeles. Filming reportedly spanned a month, but the project remains in limbo, still searching for a network or streaming platform. Despite its uncertain fate, insiders shared that Jocelyn was 'happy,' 'healthy,' and 'a joy to work with' during production. 'She fully enjoyed the experience,' the source added. Jocelyn Wildenstein , famously dubbed the 'Catwoman' for her feline-inspired plastic surgery, was preparing for a return to the limelight before her unexpected death on Tuesday at 85; (seen in 2022) The Swiss socialite, once a billionaire, had been filming a reality show just a year prior, according to TMZ; (seen in 1997) Sources reveal that the show is fully wrapped, with plenty of compelling footage ready to captivate audiences. Insiders remain optimistic about securing a platform to bring the series to viewers. Wildenstein, born Jocelyne Perisset, was taking a nap in a Parisian palace at the time of her death, it was reported by Paris Match. Her longtime partner Lloyd Klein, 57, confirming she passed from a pulmonary embolism. The socialite frequently denied getting work done over the years and told DailyMail.com in 2018, 'I've always looked like Brigitte Bardot.' Last month, Utah-based Dr. Jerry Chidester, or 'Dr. Chiddy,' weighed in on claims she had work done, explaining the procedures Jocelyn could have potentially underwent - as well as possible complications. In 2018, Jocelyn revealed to Page Six that her fortune had dwindled significantly, thanks in part to an art scandal. A Velazquez painting included in her divorce settlement trust was exposed as a forgery, while a Cezanne expected to fetch $35 million at auction sold for a mere $4.7 million. Produced by Christine Peters and Jeff Jenkins, the series followed Jocelyn's transition from her longtime New York City roots to a new life in Los Angeles; (seen in 2017) Lloyd Klein and Jocelyn pose for a photo at Baccarat Hotel in 2017 Romantically, Wildenstein found companionship with fashion designer Klein, whom she began dating in 2003. Though the two later became engaged, their relationship has been anything but smooth. In 2016, Wildenstein was arrested after an altercation at her Trump Tower apartment, during which she allegedly slashed Klein's face with scissors. Days later, Klein was arrested for robbery and assault while attempting to collect his belongings from her apartment. Despite their turbulent history, the couple ultimately reconciled. Jocelyn Wildenstein's longtime partner Lloyd Klein broke his silence on her death. The 57-year-old fashion designer spoke about finding the Swiss socialite after she died at age 84 while taking a nap on New Year's Eve on Tuesday. The couple, who had been engaged since 2017, had laid down to take a nap together and were in anticipating ringing in the new year together after a quick rest. However, Klein said he would wake up to find Wildenstein had unexpectedly and tragically passed. 'She died in her sleep very peacefully,' he told People shortly after he confirmed Wildenstein, who was nicknamed Catwoman for her extensive plastic surgery to resemble feline-like characteristics, had died. 'It's very sad. It's extremely sad. It's extremely sad to lay down with your other half that I know for 21 years and waiting to celebrate New Year's Eve and to find her cold.' Jocelyn Wildenstein 's longtime partner Lloyd Klein broke his silence on her death; pictured August 2017 in New York City The 57-year-old fashion designer spoke about finding the Swiss socialite after she died at age 84 while taking a nap on New Year's Eve on Tuesday; pictured September 2022 in New York City 'We had a nice happy hour the same night and we were getting ready for the new year, and we took a little nap just to look good before getting dressed,' he said as he recounted the hours before her passing. When asked about her cause of death, he said that she had phlebitis, a condition that causes a blood clot to form and block one or more veins, often in the legs, per the Mayo Clinic. 'Because of her phlebitis, the legs were very, very swollen, and the blood was blocked, and there was no oxygen in the brain,' he explained. 'And we were having a nap and when I wake up, I said, "Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed," and she was cold and she was dead.' He continued: 'It's very sad. It's extremely sad.' Klein noted that the condition, which Wildenstein's grandmother also had, did not affect their holiday celebrations in Paris. He said that her health had been 'perfect.' 'We were at the Ritz two days ago,' he recounted. 'We were having dinner. Before that, we had come for Fashion Week at Chanel. Everything was good, everything was good.' About their holiday celebrations up until then, he said it was 'beautiful.' The couple, who had been engaged since 2017, had laid down to take a nap together and were in anticipating ringing in the new year together after a quick rest. However, Klein said he would wake up to find Wildenstein had unexpectedly and tragically passed; pictured October 2015 in New York City 'She died in her sleep very peacefully,' he said. 'It's very sad. It's extremely sad. It's extremely sad to lay down with your other half that I know for 21 years and waiting to celebrate New Year's Eve and to find her cold'; pictured November 2006 in Los Angeles He said that her health had been 'perfect' up until then. About their holiday celebrations, he said it was 'beautiful'; pictured 2005 in New York City 'We were at the Ritz. We were having parties. She was in great shape. She was in impeccable health,' he told the outlet. He said they had been spending time in Paris together and she was 'very happy' and 'at the top of her game.' He also noted that she made a few television appearances during this time and looked 'extremely beautiful.' 'Two months ago, she attended the Chanel show. Everyone invited us to dinner. Everyone welcomed her with red carpet. Paparazzi were following us. It was the return to Paris. We were at the top of our game. Everything was at the top.' The former billionaire and and cosmetic surgery aficionado passed away on Tuesday in Paris from a pulmonary embolism as previously reported. Alabama Barker stunned in an assortment of sultry photos on Instagram as she celebrated the New Year's holiday - shortly after clarifying her hospitalization timeline. The media personality, 19 - who is the daughter of Travis Barker and ex Shanna Moakler - was reportedly rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles last last month due to nicotine withdrawal. However, earlier this week on Tuesday, she opened up in a since-deleted post about what had prompted her to seek medical treatment, stating she was 'not in the hospital this month or last.' Alabama has since been active on social media and uploaded pictures on Wednesday as she posed inside a vehicle. She donned a figure-hugging, black dress with a plunging neckline on the front and material that only covered her left arm. Her blonde locks were swept up into a chic up do, allowing wavy strands to border the sides of her face. Alabama Barker, 19, stunned in an assortment of sultry photos on Instagram as she celebrated the New Year's holiday - shortly after clarifying her hospitalization timeline Barker glammed up the look for the big night with a pair of silver earrings as well as a necklace that had a cross-shaped pendant on the front. The star's makeup comprised of voluminous lashes as well as a black winged liner on her eyelids. A warm blush was added to her cheekbones for a radiant glow, while a glossy nude-colored tint was worn on her lips for a finishing touch. While sitting in the passenger seat of a spacious vehicle, she gazed towards the camera for the spontaneous photo session. In a filter added to the carousel of snaps, the date showed that the images were taken on New Year's Day shortly after midnight. Alabama penned in the caption to her 2.1 million followers, 'Going through the motions, stay strong.. been her all along!' Her celebration to ring in 2025 comes shortly after she took to Instagram on Tuesday to clarify her hospitalization timeline in a since-deleted post and further explained what caused her to seek medical treatment. 'Hello everyone, I just want to clarify that I was not in the hospital this month or last,' she stated to her fans. Alabama has since been active on social media and uploaded pictures on Wednesday as she posed inside a vehicle Alabama penned in the caption to her 2.1 million followers, 'Going through the motions, stay strong.. been her all along!' 'Hello everyone, I just want to clarify that I was not in the hospital this month or last,' she stated to her fans in the since-deleted post 'The situation occurred some time ago, and I was there for about three hours before being discharged,' the Vogue rapper revealed. Alabama had reportedly been feeling 'panicked and unwell' and was by herself when she sought medical attention. After dialing 911, she was transported to a Los Angeles-area hospital. 'They provided me with a nicotine patch and an inhaler, and that's all,' the blonde bombshell detailed, according to an account from Just Jared. She ended her message: 'Let's please avoid spreading any rumors and focus on moving forward. Thank you.' Earlier last year in February 2024, Barker had sparked concern after asking fans for prayers when she shared a since-deleted photo from inside a hospital. The snap didn't show the media personality, but was taken as she rested in a bed with a monitor next to her as well as a clock that read 10:20. In text added over the picture, Alabama penned to her 2 million followers, 'Send me your prayers,' followed by a crying face emoji. 'The situation occurred some time ago, and I was there for about three hours before being discharged,' the Vogue rapper revealed; seen in February in L.A. She later shared another photo while at an airport and wrote, 'I'm back baby,' but chose to not comment on the previous hospital post. However, the photo was also seemingly deleted. Back in August 2023, Alabama revealed that she suffers from an autoimmune disorder and a 'thyroid problem' while hitting back at body shamers. The update comes after Alabama used social media to show off her Christmas and birthday gifts. She displayed a number of her lavish gifts in a TikTok, labeling it the 'ultimate Christmas haul.' The influencer, whose mother is Travis' ex-wife Shanna Moakler, unveiled more than $80,000 worth of presents from her family. She highlighted some of her favorite items, including a $7,950 Balenciaga rhinestone shoulder bag, Chrome Hearts gloves, multiple diamond necklaces, and a vintage Dior bag. The burgeoning music artist also showed viewers a third Cartier Love bracelet from her rockstar father. 'Its kind of, like, a tradition now,' she explained of the $29,200 present. 'Like, every year I get a better one.' She also praised her dad, who is the longtime drummer of the band Blink-182, for gifting her a Enfants Riches Deprimes jacket, which retails for $7,850. Earlier last year in February 2024, the daughter of Travis Barker had sparked concern after asking fans for prayers when she shared a since-deleted photo from inside a hospital The update comes after Alabama used social media to show off her Christmas and birthday gifts 'The details are just tea,' she said of the outerwear, before thanking step-grandmother Kris Jenner for treating her to a pricey Chanel backpack. Alabama also gushed about receiving a 'cute' $1,390 Prada shearling mini pouch that she said she would keep in her car. The haul additionally included a $360 Jean Paul Gaultier bathing suit coverup, Balenciaga boots, and a Roberto Cavalli vintage jacket. Her 'favorite' gift was a black Hermes Birkin bag, which ranges from $14,000 to $20,000. Timothee Chalamet's older sister Pauline Chalamet surprised fans with a breathtaking reveal nearly three months after quietly welcoming her first child in September. The Sex Lives of College Girls actress, 32, took to Instagram with a New Years photo carousel showcasing her most cherished moments from 2024. Among the highlights were a stunning nude mirror selfie from her pregnancy and a heartfelt snap of her breastfeeding, marking her first social media acknowledgments of her journey to motherhood. 'Moments and books and moments 2024,' she captioned the post. The gallery also included heartwarming snapshots, like an adorable sibling moment with Timothee. Pauline welcomed her baby with her longtime partner, Rhys Raiskin, though details about their little one and the baby's name remain under wraps. Timothee Chalamet 's older sister Pauline Chalamet surprised fans with a breathtaking reveal nearly three months after quietly welcoming her first child in September; (Pauline and Timothee in 2018) The Sex Lives of College Girls actress, 32, took to Instagram with a New Years photo carousel showcasing her most cherished moments from 2024. The exciting news first surfaced in October during a viral moment at Paris Fashion Week. At the Stella McCartney show, a candid video captured Pauline sharing the life update with Barbie director Greta Gerwig. 'I just had a baby!' she exclaimed, met with Gerwigs incredulous, 'No!' Pauline beamed, wrapping an arm around Raiskin and confirming, 'We just had a baby. Three weeks ago.' Yeah!' Chalamet said before putting an arm around her beau and sharing, 'We just had a baby. Three weeks ago.' The new mom didn't reveal the baby's name, gender, or exact birth date. Chalamet first revealed her pregnancy by quietly debuting her baby bump during Paris Fashion Week in June. She appeared in a photo uploaded to friend Jeanne Damas' Instagram Stories. The low-key TV star never publicly announced that she was expecting and has generally kept quiet on her love life. It's unknown how long Pauline has been romantically involved with Rhys. But according to Just Jared, the couple was spotted together on a 2022 New York City lunch date with Timothee, 28. Pauline is best known for her portrayal of Kimberly in the HBO Max series, Sex Lives of College Girls. The show follows four 18-year-old freshman roommates at Essex College in Vermont.' An IMDb synopsis describes its characters as 'a bundle of contradictions and hormones' who 'are equal parts lovable and infuriating.' Among the highlights were a stunning nude mirror selfie from her pregnancy and a heartfelt snap of her breastfeeding, marking her first social media acknowledgments of her journey to motherhood The gallery also included heartwarming snapshots, like an adorable sibling moment with Timothee Pauline welcomed her baby with longtime partner Rhys Raiskin, whose name and details about their little one remain under wraps; (seen in September) The first season of the show premiered in 2021, and in December 2022 the series was renewed for a third season. Pauline opened up about following her passion for acting and starring in the show in a 2022 interview with The Cut. She said while doing a scene for the play Antigone in high school, 'something clicked.' 'I was so prepared. We'd really worked, and it was the first time I understood what the work was of bringing a scene and a character to life,' she recalled. Chalamet added, 'I always enjoyed acting but didn't put all my energy into it until relatively recently, when I was living full time in Paris.' Andy Cohen dubbed Jon Hamm the 'male Nicole Kidman' during CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast on Tuesday night. Telecast co-hosts Cohen, 56, and Anderson Cooper, 57, were joined virtually by the 53-year-old Fargo star who weighed in on Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover's breakup during the appearance. Andy compared him to the 57-year-old Australian actress, whose acting roles seemed ubiquitous last year, due to Jon also having a heap of gigs throughout 2024. 'Do you feel as an actor you should share a little bit more?' the media personality asked Jon playfully. 'Listen, Im achieving peak Kidman, I think you called it,' Jon agreed in response. 'I love it. Its all I can do. I love working. I get to work on great stuff and yeah, why not me? I vote yes, more me.' Cohen added, 'Why not? I agree. I want more Jon Hamm.' Andy Cohen dubbed Jon Hamm the 'male Nicole Kidman' during CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast on Tuesday night, which he hosted alongside Anderson Cooper The telecast co-hosts were joined virtually by the 53-year-old Fargo star; pictured December 14 In the past year the Man Men sensation has reprised his role as Don Draper in Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix film Unfrosted, appeared in Transformers One, and played a part in the musical movie Mean Girls. Fans will next see him star in the period drama William Tell, which will play at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 3 and be released in the United Kingdom on January 10. Meanwhile, Nicole has kept audiences' attention over the last 12 months with projects including the Netflix series The Perfect Couple, the streamer's rom-com A Family Affair, the animated adventure film Spellbound, Amazon Prime's Expats, and Paramount+'s Lioness. On Sunday she will appear at the Golden Globes, where she has been nominated in the Actress in a Drama Motion Picture category for her acclaimed role in Babygirl. During NYE telecast Andy pointed out that 10 years have passed since Jon's iconic show Mad Men ended. 'Well, obviously, its the greatest thing Ive ever done in my career,' Jon acknowledged. 'I guess what I really am impressed with is that now new generations are kind of discovering the show,' he noted. The longtime entertainer shared, '30-year-olds go up to me and are like, "Oh my God, I love that show." I'm like, "You were 10 when it came out. What are you talking about?" But, its impressive and its obviously, its something Im tremendously proud of.' Andy compared him to the 57-year-old Australian actress, whose acting roles seemed ubiquitous last year, due to Jon also having a heap of gigs throughout 2024 Via Instagram on Wednesday, Andy shared what he and his close friend Anderson got up to once they wrapped their annual New Year's Eve special Via Instagram on Wednesday, Andy shared what he and his close friend Anderson got up to once they wrapped their annual New Year's Eve special. He shared that he was headed to a late-night party following the completion of their hosting duties. Then, in a selfie timestamped at 2:58am, he smiled while holding a plate of tater tots and sitting next to Cooper. Corner Bistro was tagged as their location. And early on Wednesday he shared a single snapshot from Times Square, where he spent the previous night entertaining viewers. He captioned the post to his 5.5 million followers, 'WOW! The privilege & fun of ringing in the New Year with one of my closest pals - and all of you -is not lost on me. 'Last night was one for the books! What was your favorite part of the show?' Visitors view the recently dedicated replica of the Laurel Tie at Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais on Nov. 24. The Golden Spike was driven into the historic Laurel Tie at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869, completing the Transcontinental Railroad. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle The Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais in Mill Valley. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Visitors view exhibits at the Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais in Mill Valley. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle The recently dedicated Laurel Tie at the Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais. The original Laurel Tie burned in the Great Fire of 1906 in San Francisco, so a group of historians came together to fashion a replica that commemorates it. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Visitors view exhibits at the Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais on Nov. 24. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Recently arrived at a one-room museum on Mount Tamalpais is a freshly milled length of laurel tree cut to the dimensions of a railroad tie. A bronze plaque identifies it as a re-creation of the Laurel Tie, the ceremonial final crossbeam laid in Utah to complete the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. That original beam of laurel was then removed to a display in San Francisco, where it unceremoniously burned to ash in the earthquake and fire of 1906. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Forgotten for 118 years, the Laurel Tie has finally been remembered, after a group of preservationists representing the descendants of Chinese and Irish railroad laborers chipped in $6,000 to create the replica. It was dedicated last month as the Laurel Tie Memorial at the Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais, where the wood used to create the original tie was harvested. The Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais in Mill Valley. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle There was a purpose for the original Laurel Tie. It was a monument to the workers who built the railroad, said John Morse, a member of the Friends of the Laurel Tie, a group of 60 people dedicated to the men who dynamited the rock, built the tunnels and laid down 690 hard miles of track through California, Nevada and Utah. When the Laurel Tie went up in flames, the workers lost their recognition. The Laurel Ties flashier counterpart, the Golden Spike, gets far more attention. Advertisement Article continues below this ad On May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah, railroad tycoon Leland Stanford gave the final tap of the mallet that drove that spike into the Laurel Tie, completing the Transcontinental Railroad, which joined the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines and connected the country for the first time. The Golden Spike represented the financiers, the Laurel Tie the laborers. Both artifacts were displayed together in downtown San Francisco until the 1906 quake hit. The spike survived and remains on display at Cantor Arts Center at the railroad barons namesake, Stanford University. The tie was destroyed and essentially lost to history. It would be lost still but for the leadership of Pat Goggins, an 88-year-old Mill Valley retiree who can trace his lineage to Irish railroad workers on the Great Northern out of Cheyenne. Pat Goggins, chair of Friends of the Laurel Tie, stands with the replica on display at the Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais. Sam Whiting/The Chronicle In 2019, Goggins convinced his wife of 62 years, Ute, to take a two-day train ride on the California Zephyr to Promontory Summit for the 150th anniversary reenactment of the driving of the Golden Spike. Advertisement Article continues below this ad As it turned out, Goggins was the only representative of Irish descent in a passenger car full of descendants and representatives of the Chinese workers, who had stories to tell including the one about Chinese and Irish working together to lay 10 miles of track in one day. By the end of the return trip, Goggins had his mission. We must recognize the contributions of the forgotten Chinese workers, he said. They are the ones who were left out of the pictures and the speeches at the Golden Spike ceremonies. That was the beginning of Friends of the Laurel Tie, chaired by Goggins, who has experience in reconciliation. He was a co-founder of the Irish Forum, a 1980s group that brought Catholic and Protestant leaders from Northern Ireland to San Francisco to promote dialogue for a peaceful solution to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Goggins made sure the leadership of Friends of the Laurel Tie was an equal number of people of Irish and Chinese descent, a mix of two groups who have not always gotten along, due to lingering discrimination in the building of the city and its surrounding transportation network. The Irish and the Chinese were at the bottom of the labor pool in San Francisco, Goggins said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad To build momentum for their cause, Friends of the Laurel Tie created a Styrofoam replica and in 2022 marched with it in the St. Patricks Day Parade on Market Street, with a person portraying an Irish railroad worker carrying one end and a person dressed as a Chinese laborer carrying the other. It was so popular that they built a stretch of track and laid it on the back of a flatbed truck, with the Friends marching behind. The Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais now houses the replica Laurel Tie from the Transcontinental Railroad. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Its very exhilarating, Goggins said. When people see a sign that says Chinese and Irish Railroad Workers, we get applause like you cannot believe. The Laurel Tie Railroad Worker float won first place at the St. Patricks Day Parade in 2024 and is expected to enter the upcoming Chinese New Years Parade in Chinatown on Feb. 15. Re-creating the Laurel Tie was difficult. The laurel tree has a notoriously crooked trunk, and the tie would have to meet exact standards: 8 feet long and broad enough in diameter to be cut to 8 inches wide. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Redmond Lyons, an Irish immigrant and contractor in San Francisco, was assigned to find a source a difficult task because the tree that produced the original laurel tie is now either part of Mount Tamalpais State Park or the Marin Municipal Water District. In the end, he found a 20-foot laurel tree on private property in Sonoma County that was straight and true and milled it free of charge. I have a great interest in the history of the building of the railroad by the people who actually worked on it, said Lyons, who is from County Mayo in west Ireland. The Irish got recognized but the Chinese were not recognized at all. The bronze plaque affixed to the tie is the most radical aspect to the re-creation. The original plaque, which was square and silver, mentioned only the Big Four financiers Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington and Mark Hopkins. Unmentioned were the 1,400 laborers who worked for them. The new bronze plaque reverses that. It is all about the railroad workers, with no mention of the financiers. Etched into the plaque are the images of three Chinese laborers Ging Coi, Wong Fook and Lee Shao who were among the eight who put the final rail in place. The bronze plaque on the recently dedicated Laurel Tie at the Gravity Car Barn Museum on Mount Tamalpais. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle The selection of the Gravity Car Barn Museum as home for the Laurel Tie memorial has nothing to do with the Transcontinental Railroad. The museum is dedicated to a much smaller line, the Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway, an 8-mile tourist ride with 281 curves and turns that was known as the crookedest railroad in the world. Among its passengers were Jack London, John Muir and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. With its open-air cars, which coasted downhill by force of gravity and were pushed back up by locomotives, the railway lasted from 1896 to 1929. The Mount Tamalpais railroad was built by the same immigrant labor backbreaking work with picks and axes and carts, the same stuff as on the Transcontinental Railroad, said Fred Runner, historian for the Tamalpais Railway. Having the Laurel Tie here opens up the subject of immigrant labor that had been ignored for too long. The museum, near the East Peak Visitor Center at 3801 Panoramic Highway in Mill Valley, is staffed by volunteers and open on weekends from noon to 4 p.m. It is free, though Mount Tamalpais State Park charges for parking. The approach is a narrow and twisting highway that gets progressively narrower and twistier until you reach the museum, often shrouded in fog. Among those who made that drive to attend the Nov. 3 dedication was Micheal Smith, consul general of Ireland, and Frank Mah, a retired Chinatown organizer who wrote a two-stanza haiku for the occasion. With musical accompaniment by a member of the Oakland-based Great Wall Youth Orchestra, he read Ode to Chinese and Irish aloud. Immigrants from different shores Irish and Chinese Stronger together than apart Laying miles of track Laurel tie that binds Guy Pearce has revealed his very surprising reaction to receiving a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the upcoming Golden Globes for his work on The Brutalist. The Australian actor, 57, admitted he thought the ceremony sometimes got it wrong when it came to picking the winners, and wasn't sure if his work on the period drama was worthy. 'I am a bit confused, I suppose. I've seen people win awards and I thought "really?"' Guy told The Courier Mail. 'Then Ive seen other people not win awards and gone "really?" So I dont know what I think about it all to be honest. 'I'm sure if I was to win an award I'd go, "Wow. That was great, pretty cool" 'I think as long as I felt like what I'd done was worthy of it. I won an award once and I felt pretty positive about it because I felt like I created a character that was pretty good.' Guy Pearce (pictured) has revealed his very surprising reaction to receiving a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the upcoming Golden Globes for his work on The Brutalist Guy stars alongside Adrien Brody, Felicity Martin and Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn in the 2024 movie which explores people working towards the American dream in post-WWII America. The Memento star also said he was pleased to be nominated at the Emmys last year for Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series, for his cameo appearance on Neighbours in 2022. 'It was flattering, I have to say, but pretty funny. It did make me laugh.' The English-born actor had a major role in the three-and-a-half-hour historical epic The Brutalist. He plays an American industrialist who employs Adrien Brody's lead character, a Hungarian Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust. The film was released in the US last month and will be out in Australian cinemas later this year. Guy is one of Australia's most respected actors and he recently revealed the startling reason he missed out on a role in Christopher Nolan's Batman movies - despite being friends with the director. The acclaimed trilogy began with the 2005 release Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as the title character opposite Liam Neeson as the villain Ras Al Ghul. The Australian actor, 57, admitted he thought the ceremony sometimes got it wrong when it came to picking the winners, and wasn't sure if his work on the period drama was worthy Guy stars alongside Adrien Brody, Felicity Martin and Joe Alwyn in the 2024 movie which explores people working towards the American dream in post-WWII America Pearce had previously played the lead role of an amnesiac in Nolan's 2001 neo-noir picture Memento, alongside The Matrix bombshell Carrie-Anne Moss. When the time came to cast Batman Begins, Nolan thought highly enough of Pearce to fly him out to London to read for Ras Al Ghul. However, Guy was ultimately denied the role by circumstances out his control - and has in fact never worked with Nolan since then. In December, he revealed the real reason they have not done a picture together in almost a quarter of a century, in an interview with Vanity Fair. The problem was that immediately after Memento, Nolan began a long professional relationship with Warner Bros., where one particular executive was not a fan of Pearce's acting and vowed 'never' to cast him. Alessandra Ambrosio marked the start of the New Year with a new set of celebratory Instagram snapshots. The 43-year-old model was joined by new boyfriend Buck Palmer with whom she's 'finally found true love' in a carousel post, which she simply captioned, '2025.' Ambrosio and Palmer coordinated in brown, white, and tan outfits as they rang in January 1 at Fasano Las Piedras - Punta Del Este resort in Brazil. Her sexy netted dress, from Brazil-based label Andrea Almeida, boasted a pattern of skin-baring square panels and an asymmetric hemline. The fashionista slipped her feet into a pair of backless, minimal, gold wedges with two straps. For his part, Buck looked effortlessly stylish in a white shirt, loose-fitting white trousers, and a khaki-colored shirt jacket. Alessandra Ambrosio marked the start of the New Year with a new set of celebratory Instagram snapshots Ambrosio and Palmer coordinated in brown, white, and tan outfits as they rang in January 1 at Fasano Las Piedras - Punta Del Este resort in Brazil Photos shared in a carousel post showed the new couple partying the night away In one image, the pair posed for a selfie as they each held up their respective drinks. One day earlier Alessandra shared a roundup of recent photos with loved ones and added a heartfelt caption. Interacting with her 12.2 million followers, she wrote, 'So grateful for all my Loved ones this year!! Ending on such a high note gathering all my closest friends and family at home' She added, 'Looking forward to a beautiful year ahead and sending you all Good vibes for this new year!' The new posts come amid her budding new romance with the Los Angeles-based jewelry designer. And according to insiders, the beauty believes she has found the right partner in the Australian stud. Ahead of the holiday, a source told DailyMail.com 'Alessandra knows who her New Year's Eve kiss is going to be, and she hopes to have the same man to kiss for every New Year's Eve for her entire life.' 'She has been through the ringer in relationships but really truly believes in love and feels like she finally found it,' the person noted. Her sexy netted dress, from Brazil-based label Andrea Almeida, boasted a pattern of skin-baring square panels and an asymmetric hemline Ambrosio and Palmer were joined by friends and the beauty captioned the post, '2025' It was added: 'She has been a serial monogamist in a sense and loves being in relationships but has been with men that are resentful of her fame and her money. 'Shes been told so many times that she didnt have to work and had everything handed to her and that isnt true. Buck doesnt do this.' The source said about the new man in Ambrosio's life: 'He is incredibly successful in his own right as a jewelry designer and of course he designs special pieces just for her.' The runway vet has already introduced Palmer to her daughter Anja, 16, and son Noah, 12. 'She has introduced him to her children, and they really like him. They are the toughest critics and are so protective over their mom,' the insider spilled. John Travolta marked New Year's by posting a sweet family snap accompanied by his children Ella, 24, and Benjamin, 14. They were pictured in an undisclosed winter setting, all bundled up in warm clothing while posing in the snow in front of the woods. The 70-year-old Grease icon wrapped an affectionate arm around his youngest child, who was standing between him and Ella. 'Happy new year from the Travolta family,' John wrote for his nearly five and a half million followers on the social media platform. He was dressed in a stylish midnight blue coat over a black turtleneck, a couple of chain necklaces and a chic monochrome scarf. Wednesday marked the family's fourth New Year's Day since John's late wife Kelly Preston - the mother of all his children - succumbed to cancer at the age of just 57. John Travolta marked New Year's by posting a sweet family snap accompanied by his children Ella, 24, and Benjamin, 14 John and Kelly were married since 1991 and shared three children, Ella and Benjamin as well as Jett, who died tragically aged 16 in 2009. Jett, who had a history of seizures, suffered one during a family vacation to the Bahamas and hit his head on the bathtub on January 2, 2009, resulting in his death. This April, John marked what would have been Jett's 32nd birthday on Instagram, writing: 'Happy birthday my Jetty - not a day goes by where youre not with me!' One month later on Mother's Day, he posted a picture of Kelly with Ella and Benjamin, captioned: 'Happy Mothers Day Kelly. We love you we miss you.' The family was struck by bereavement yet again when Kelly died in July 2020, two years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. John heartbrokenly announced her death and thanked her medical team, writing: 'My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped.' The post ignited rumors that John and Kelly had drifted away from Scientology, whose founder L. Ron Hubbard was against chemotherapy and radiation. However the Church Of Scientology's website does urge believers to 'seek conventional medical treatment for illnesses and injuries.' This Mother's Day, John touchingly posted a picture of Ella and Benjamin with their late mother Kelly Preston, who succumbed to cancer in 2020 at the age of 57 John spoke candidly about his grieving process in the year following Kelly's death, in a 2021 profile interview he gave to Esquire Spain. 'I learned that crying and mourning over someone is something personal. Mourning is individual and experiencing your own journey is what can lead to healing,' he said. 'The most important thing you can do to help another when they are in mourning is allow them to live it and not complicate it with yours,' John observed. 'Let's say you lose someone and at the funeral you are very sad, then another person approaches you who is feeling more sadder and doesn't leave enough space for you to mourn. It would be like two boats plummeting to the bottom. That is my experience,' the Pulp Fiction star explained. 'I felt saturated with everyone's sadness that I didn't know what to do. The first thing you should do when you experience grief is to go to a place where you can mourn, without any interference,' he added. Tammy Hembrow turned up the heat on Thursday as she stripped down to a very racy black bikini and flaunted her incredible figure. The fitness influencer, 30, showcased her gym-toned body and flawless skin in a series of racy beach pictures shared to Instagram which left very little to the imagination. One picture captured Tammy showcasing her ample assets as she stared into the camera in her barely there two-piece swimsuit. Her incredible figure didn't have an inch to pinch as she confidently showcased her long slender legs and genetically blessed body. Another photo captured Tammy taking a stroll in the refreshing shallow water as she worked on starting her fitness goals for 2025. The bombshell's blonde hair was wet from a refreshing dip in the ocean, as she confidently rocked her best angles in the fiery pictures. Tammy Hembrow (pictured) turned up the heat on Thursday as she stripped down to a very racy black bikini and flaunted her incredible figure She captioned the photos with some revealing words. 'Fitness becomes a form of self-care that enhances every part of your life. I encourage all of you to go into 2025 with this mindset,' she wrote. Tammy recently gave fans an insight into her and new husband Matt Zukowski's first Christmas as newlyweds after they tied the knot. The couple were joined by Tammy's three children Wolf, eight, Saskia, six, and Posy, one, as they all spent some quality time together over the holidays. In a series of snaps shared to social media, Tammy and Matt looked every inch the doting couple as they posed with her three children. The couple opted for matching burnt orange ensembles as they cuddled up to her three children. In other images shared from the day, the new husband and wife shared a passionate smooch. 'Christmas 2024 - first Christmas as a wifeyyy hehe,' Tammy captioned the series of photographs. The fitness influencer, 30, showcased her gym-toned body and flawless skin in a series of racy beach pictures Tammy and Matt tied the knot in at Byron Bay's Chateau Du Soleil in front of their loved ones before jetting off for a snowy honeymoon in Finland. Since returning Down Under, Tammy has marked a huge step in her newly-married life as she has already changed her name. The bio on her Instagram account, which boasts an impressive 17.3 million followers, now bears the name Tammy Zukowski. However, her account handle @tammyhembrow remains unchanged. The pair got engaged during a holiday in the Maldives in December last year after just three months of dating. Tammy has been engaged twice before, the first time to influencer Reece Hawkins, who she shares her son Wolf and daughter Saskia with. In November 2021, she then became engaged to restaurateur and former Ironman Matt Poole. The pair split in December 2022 and share their daughter Posy. Joan Collins looked stylish as enjoyed a day out shopping with her husband Percy Gibson at J.Crew in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The legendary actress, 91, opted for a leather jacket layered over a white and black fair isle jumper. She teamed the look with black jeans, white slip trainers, and shielded her eyes from the winter sun with a pair of black sunglasses. Joan opted for minimal jewellery and kept warm with a thick white scarf and Chanel cap. Meanwhile Percy, 59, was ever the perfect gentleman as he carried their shopping bags around whilst they browsed the shops. He donned a light pink shirt, a navy blue knit cardigan, and a pair of beige trousers. Joan Collins looked stylish as enjoyed a day out shopping with her husband Percy Gibson at J.Crew in Los Angeles on Tuesday The legendary actress, 91, opted for a leather jacket layered over a white and black fair isle jumper Percy - who is 31 years Joan's junior - is the Dynasty star's fifth husband, with the pair tying the knot at London's Claridge's in February 2002. The American Horror Story star was previously married to Maxwell Reed, Anthony Newley, Ron Kass and Peter Holm. Originally from Peru, Percy is a noted Hollywood producer, known primarily for producing Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The pair hit it off right away and when a last minute change of plans saved Percy from being near the World Trade Center on 9/11, they decided to marry. Gushing about her husband, Joan previously told Saga magazine: 'He takes care of everything. He takes care of my children and all our finances. He's the love of my life. It's a great marriage, a great relationship.' The Golden Globe winner, who calls Percy 'the best lover I ever had' in her book Behind The Shoulder Pads, recalled how their relationship was platonic at first. She explained: 'Percy and I became really good friends first. So we had this connection. We really knew each other. 'And separate bathrooms is key! Although we are very lucky. I know that's not something everyone can have.' She teamed the look with black jeans, white slip trainers, and shielded her eyes from the winter sun with a pair of black sunglasses Joan opted for minimal jewellery and kept warm with a thick white scarf and Chanel cap Meanwhile Percy, 59, was ever the perfect gentleman as he carried their shopping bags around the mall Their outing comes after Joan recounted being starved on the set of Dynasty as show bosses 'refused to let the cast eat. She played the role of Alexis Carrington Colby in the American soap for eight years until 1989 and spoke of how the crew gorged on 'buns and goodies' while the stars were 'left looking like stick insects.' Joining the Loose Women panellist in September, she discussed her long-standing showbiz career and the role which kickstarted it all. Joan began: 'We weren't allowed to eat anything in between meals. They had all these buns and goodies that all the crew would eat, they put on two stone. 'But they would say to us " no no no, carrot stick!" If you looked at us all we were like stick insects.' Joan, who was wearing a jacket from her time on the series, added: 'This jacket was the only thing I kept from the show because it looks very classic YSL.' Back in November, she revealed the very unlikely inspiration for her iconic Dynasty character Alexis, during a 'flirty' interview with Louis Theroux. Their outing comes after Joan recounted being starved on the set of Dynasty as show bosses 'refused to let the cast eat (pictured on set) Speaking about the show, which told the story of a fictional American Dynasty, Joan revealed one of its biggest fans at time was none other than former president Donald Trump, now 78, who influenced her portrayal. 'I said when I was asked about my character Alexis, who did I think of when preparing, I said well a mixture of Donald Trump", who was not President then, he was just a businessman', 'And a friend of mine who was a very glamorous woman about town who was very clever, so I wanted to have a mixture of them. Louis then asked what specific qualities of Trump did she incorporate into the character with the actress pin pointing his 'ruthlessness'. But Dame Joan refused to be drawn into a discussion on politics saying: I am trying not to get involved politically. I am an actress so I dont think we should spout our political opinions, Only to quip: Well lets say that if you played him in a movie people would say no, thats too over the top'. Swiss socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein passed away suddenly on New Year's Eve aged 84. She came from humble origins but became one of the wealthiest people on the planet after her divorce from French-born American billionaire called Alec Wildenstein. The couple married in the 1970s and had two children called Diane and Alec Jr. However Alec Jr has made headlines in recent years after he was found guilty of tax evasion March 2024 and handed a two-year suspended prison sentence. In November 2023, Jocelyn shared an undated throwback snap where she was seen holding both Diane and Alec Jr as toddlers. 'My daughter Diane and my son Alec Jr my personal family photos ,' she wrote under the snap - which showed Jocelyn before her dramatic transformation. Swiss socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein passed away suddenly on New Year's Eve aged 84, leaving behind daughter Diane and son Alec Jr In November 2023, Jocelyn shared an undated throwback snap where she was seen holding both Diane and Alec Jr as toddlers Jocelyn, nicknamed Catwoman because she reportedly had many facial cosmetic procedures in the hopes of resembling a cat, died in Paris from a pulmonary embolism while taking a nap. Jocelyn developed an interest in hunting and wildlife, which led her to the Wildenstein family ranch Ol Jogi, located in Kenya. There, she was introduced on a safari to ex-husband Alec Sr by Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi arms dealer. In adulthood, the couple's son Alec Jr went on to run Ol Jogi, and Jocelyn shared throwback of him in September 2023. 'The Wildenstein Dynasty,' she wrote. 'My Son Alec Jr #oljogi.' Alec Jr came under fire in 2016 as he was embroiled in a tax evasion court case alongside his uncle Guy Wildenstein. Both were accused of hiding the Wildenstein family fortune in an off-shore tax shelter. Also an art dealer, Alec Sr's brother Guy was acquitted after trials in 2017 and 2018 as judges ruled that since his father, Daniel, and older brother had died, he wasn't legally obliged to declare his foreign assets. But in 2014, France's highest court cancelled those exonerations, and Guy faced a retrial. His brother Alec Sr's son, Alec Jr, was a co-defendant in the case, alongside his widow, Liouba Stoupakova. Guy was found guilty in March 2024 and handed a four year prison sentence, of which two were suspended and he was allowed to serve the other two at home. Jocelyn had two children with her ex-husband Alec Wildenstein, called Diane and Alec Jr Jocelyn came from humble origins but became one of the wealthiest people on the planet after her divorce from French-born American billionaire called Alec Wildenstein (Pictured), who she married in the 1970s In adulthood, the couple's son Alec Jr went on to run the Wildenstein Kenyan family ranch Ol Jogi, and Jocelyn shared throwback of him in September 2023 'The Wildenstein Dynasty,' she wrote. 'My Son Alec Jr #oljogi' Meanwhile Alec Jr received a two-year suspended sentence and was fined 37,500. Guy's son David spoke to Tatler in 2016 and revealed that he and Alec Jr were very close, as they were born just six months apart and grew up together. 'We're like brothers,' David said. 'The bond in the family is between him and me. We did a lot of things together, got into a lot of trouble together [as kids]. We're very similar in terms of how we think.' David went on to add that Alec 'loves nature' and is 'very into flying, he's an amazing pilot.' Meanwhile Jocelyn and Alec Sr's daughter Diane lives in London and breeds horses, in-keeping with another of the Wildenstein family ventures, The Times reported. However unlike Alec Jr and his cousin, Diane was the oldest of the children on both sides and was not close to her female cousins due to the age gap, David said. Jocelyn has previously revealed both Diane and Alec Jr were estranged from her. Alec Jr came under fire in 2016 as he was embroiled in a tax evasion court case alongside his uncle Guy Wildenstein (Pictured together at court) Meanwhile Jocelyn and Alec Sr's daughter Diane lives in London where she breeds horses Jocelyn has previously revealed both Diane and Alec Jr were estranged from her (Pictured in 1998) Of her meeting with ex-husband Alec Sr, Jocelyn recalled how he decided to kill a lion that had been killing nearby antelope, so she accompanied him on a pre-dawn mission. She recounted how, after her future husband took down the lion with one shot - plus a second for good measure - they ate part of the animal as a kind of trophy and rubbed its blood on their necks. 'You must eat a part of the heart of your game,' she said. 'It's legend. Maybe to take the power of the lion.' Alec previously commented on Jocelyn's dramatic transformation. He told Vanity Fair, 'She was crazy. I would always find out last. She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldn't listen.' Jocelyn fired back that he 'hired a publicist and paid a plastic surgeon to certify that I completely changed my face' to win the divorce, she stated. In the wake of years of reported over-the-top spending and seemingly unending cosmetic procedures, Alec filed for divorce in 1999, though Jocelyn has said she was the one to first decide to end the marriage due to her husband's infidelities. Jocelyn became one of the wealthiest people on the planet after her divorce settlement, which left her with more than $2 billion plus millions more annually. Jocelyne became one of the wealthiest people on the planet after her divorce settlement, which left her with more than $2 billion plus millions more annually (Pictured in 2022) But she somehow managed to lose it all after years of tinkering with her face and spending on countless luxuries. The star, born Jocelyn Perisset, was taking a nap in a Parisian palace at the time of her death on Tuesday, it was reported by Paris Match. 'Her partner Lloyd Klein is saddened to announce the death of Jocelyne Wildenstein in Paris,' it was shared by AFP. She was last seen looking healthy on December 18 in Paris when with Klein. The star smiled at onlookers while in a fur jacket, leggings and boots as she wore black sunglasses and her blonde hair in soft waves over her shoulders. She was nicknamed Catwoman due to her pronounced cat eyes and leonine features and she had over one million Instagram followers and described herself as an 'art dealer.' Maya Jama has shared a huge hint that she's serious about her romance with Manchester City star Ruben Dias. Discussing her hopes for 'marriage and kids' in a recent interview, the presenter, 30, admitted that she 'didn't need anyone' and would only date with intention. The pair were pictured celebrating the New Year together in Ibiza this week after first been linked in November. Speaking to the The Evening Standard last month, Maya explained: 'I am so happy right now but the next person I meet I want to marry and have kids with, so obviously Im feeling fussy. 'Ive created such a nice life for myself alone and I dont want anyone whos not going to add to that. 'Im in this lovely bubble and I dont want you unless you make me happy. If youre not, I kind of dont need you.' Maya Jama has shared a huge hint that she's serious about her romance with Manchester City star Ruben Dias Discussing her hopes for 'marriage and kids' in a recent interview, the presenter, 30, admitted that she 'didn't need anyone' and would only date with intention (Ruben pictured last month) Maya sparked has been single since she split from her boyfriend Stormzy last year. But a snap circulating on social media shows the TV personality and Dias dining at Sa Capella in Ibiza with one of the star's friends as they prepared to ring in 2025. While Maya did share a racy snap on her Stories while celebrating the New Year, she didn't post any images with Dias. This isn't the first time the pair have sparked romance rumours, as back in November they began following each other on Instagram. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Maya Jama and Ruben Dias for comment. Stormzy and Maya announced their shock split in July after taking to Instagram with a joint statement stating: 'We fell madly in love in 2014, broke up in 2019, and the spent five years manoeuvring life apart. They confirmed the breakup was 'final' after previously going their separate ways following a five year relationship in 2019 and reconnecting in August 2023. While it was thought the couple split after disagreements over when to settle down, with Stormzy more of a homeboy and Maya more career driven, last month she confirmed this wasn't the case. The pair were pictured celebrating the New Year together in Ibiza this week after first been linked in November Speaking to the The Evening Standard last month, Maya explained: 'I am so happy right now but the next person I meet I want to marry and have kids with, so obviously Im feeling fussy' Maya sparked has been single since she split from her boyfriend Stormzy last year (pictured in June) After photos emerged of the rapper, 31, his new girlfriend Victoria Monet, Maya took to Instagram to take the opportunity to say that the narrative 'that I don't want to settle down and have kids is a lieeeee.' It had been reported that the former couple broke up because Maya was keen to focus on her career instead of settle down with the 'homebody' rapper. Meanwhile Dias previously dated Love Island star Arabella Chi for three months, before he reportedly dumped her in the New Year of 2024. Arabella went onto appear on Love Island: All Stars just weeks later. They met through mutual friends and tried to keep the romance under wraps, but were rumbled when they shared posts of the Eiffel Tower in November 2023. Married At First Sight UK star Ella Morgan has broken her silence on her split from boyfriend Alex James Ali. The reality star, 30, met Alex during her stint on Celebs Go Dating earlier this year but decided to call it quits after there were rumours of infidelity within their relationship. Taking to her Instagram Stories on Thursday, Ella set the record straight on their relationship and said that it's 'time to focus on myself.' She penned: 'I've had a lot of questions over the last week or so regarding my relationship with Alex following the articles announcing we had split over Christmas. I was hoping to do this in my own time after the festive period so I could focus on spending time with my family. 'Unfortunately we made the decision to separate in December and I am so saddened by the decision, but it was the right thing to do to protect myself and ultimately, for us to both be happy. 'I'm incredibly grateful for @celebsgodating and the amazing team who introduced us. Married At First Sight star Ella Morgan broke her silence on her split from boyfriend Alex James Ali on Instagram on Thursday just days after 'she accused him of being unfaithful' The reality star, 30, met Alex during her stint on Celebs Go Dating earlier this year 'Since meeting in July, my time with Alex has helped me grow massively as a person and I know now what I want from a man in my next relationship. I'll cherish the memories we made. I wish Alex the very best. '2025 is the time to focus on myself, and my career, and I can't wait! Thank you so much for all your continued love, and the support around the news. Love always, Ella x.' It comes after The Sun claimed that things ended after Ella accused him of being unfaithful and messaging other women. A source told the publication: 'Ella is absolutely heartbroken and disappointed but the trust is gone now for her. On the outside they appeared so happy and loved up but there was cracks growing on the inside. 'Fans absolutely adored them and that initially spurred them on to try and make things work and they even planned to move into Alex's house at some point. 'She's going into the New Year single with a positive mind frame but it has come at the worst time with Christmas and her birthday just days away.' Ella has been contacted by MailOnline for comment. The trans activist found love with boyfriend Alex after sparking up a connection on Celebs Go Dating. It comes after The Sun claimed that things ended after Ella accused him of being unfaithful and messaging other women A source told the publication: 'Ella is absolutely heartbroken and disappointed but the trust is gone now for her Back in September, Ella revealed she had gotten her first ever tattoo while holidaying in Mallorca with Alex Speaking to the Daily Record last month, Ella gushed about her new romance and admitted her joy at finding 'the one' at last. She said: 'He's honestly incredible I can't say a bad word about him, he's amazing. I'm just so glad I have found someone after all these years of being single and everything I have gone through.' They became official shortly after filming wrapped on the hit E4 show. Back in September, Ella revealed she had gotten her first ever tattoo while holidaying in Mallorca with Alex. She opted for a small butterfly tattoo on her arm and shared the sentimental meaning behind the body art. The TV personality said the inking shows her journey from a 'caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly'. 'My first ever tattoo (and probably my only!)... everyone in my family has at least one but me!' Ella began by writing. 'So I decided on my 2nd from last day on holiday I'd get a tattoo. Nearly got A for Alex but I didn't. Instead I got a butterfly (while drunk) which symbolises my transition (from caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly)'. Before Alex she was linked to Strictly hunk Bobby Brazier. Before Alex she was linked to Strictly hunk Bobby Brazier (seen) But in September Bobby rebuffed her advances as she appeared to make an attempt to rekindle things at the National Television Awards. The pair, who were first introduced in May when the 21-year-old, who plays Freddie Slater in EastEnders, was seen locking lips with Ella at the TV Baftas. And at the raucous afterparty, which was held at the O2's American Express Lounge, the Ella made a beeline for the actor once again, but this time Bobby was 'having none of it,' according to a fellow reveller. Revealing the 'cringe' moment, an onlooker told MailOnline: 'Ella was keen to show off her dress to Bobby and clearly hoped that sparks would fly again, but Bobby wasn't interested and gave her the cold shoulder. 'He was polite, but firmly shut down any suggestion that the pair of them would enjoy another drunken snog. 'Bobby made his excuses before darting across the room and hiding from Ella.' Speaking about her dalliance with Bobby, Ella said: 'We had a nice time, but now I'm putting everything into this (Celebs Go Dating). 'Yes, we're friendly. Bobby's a lovely boy and we get on really well. He's aware I'm doing this show.' Recently Bobby, the son of television presenter Jeff Brazier and the late Big Brother star Jade Goody, was spotted kissing X Factor star Virginia Hampson, also 21, while in the streets of London however he is believed to be single. Following last year's Strictly, in which was a finalist, Bobby was seen out with Ellie Leach, who won the glitter ball. However, sources close to both parties insist they were only ever good friends. Bobby won the prestigious rising star award at last year's NTAs and went on to become somewhat of a national treasure while appearing on Strictly. Lloyd Klein is opening up about his final moments with his fiancee Jocelyn Wildenstein. Klein, 57, revealed to People that he was with the socialite just before her death at 84 on New Year's Eve. Wildenstein, who was dubbed the 'Catwoman' due to her appearance-altering cosmetic surgeries over the years, died 'peacefully' in her sleep, her longtime partner told the publication. 'We had a nice happy hour the same night and we were getting ready for the new year, and we took a little nap just to look good before getting dressed,' Klein recalled. 'We were having a nap and when I [woke] up, I said, "Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed," and she was cold and she was dead,' he added. 'Its very sad. Its extremely sad,' the French fashion designer continued somberly. 'Its extremely sad to lay down with your other half that I know for 21 years and waiting to celebrate New Years Eve and to find her cold.' Lloyd Klein, 57, opened up about his final moments with his fiancee Jocelyn Wildenstein while speaking to People after her death at 84 on New Year's Eve; seen together in 2015 in NYC Klein claimed that Wildenstein had been suffering from phlebitis, a condition in which blood vessels become inflamed, according to WebMD. The condition can sometimes lead to potentially deadly blood clots. 'Because of her phlebitis, the legs were very, very swollen, and the blood was blocked, and there was no oxygen in the brain,' Klein claimed. It was previously reported by AFP that Wildenstein had died of a pulmonary embolism, which is when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the lungs. The deadly condition is often caused by blood clots in the legs that travel to the lungs, according to the Mayo Clinic. Klein added that Wildenstein's grandmother had also suffered from phlebitis, but the condition didn't negatively affect their holiday celebrations, and he said she was otherwise in 'impeccable health.' He recalled that 'everything was good' in his final days with his fiancee, and he said that Wildenstein, who had been spending time with him in Paris, had been 'very happy' and 'at the top of her game' at the time. Wildenstein was last seen looking healthy on December 18 in Paris with Klein. Klein said Wildenstein died 'peacefully' in her sleep after they took a nap before their New Year's Eve festivities; pictured in September 2022 in NYC 'We were having a nap and when I [woke] up, I said, "Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed," and she was cold and she was dead,' he said; pictured in 2019 in Miami, Florida Klein said Wildenstein had suffered from phlebitis, or inflammation of blood vessels. AFP reported she died of a pulmonary embolism, in which a blood clot blocks circulation to the lungs; pictured together in May 2023 in LA The star smiled at onlookers while in a fur jacket, leggings and boots as she wore black sunglasses and styled her blonde hair in soft waves over her shoulders. Following her divorce from Alec N. Wildenstein, Jocelyn began dating Klein in 2003. The two later got engaged, but they have had a bumpy relationship over the years. In 2016, Wildenstein was arrested for slashing Klein's face with scissors during a fight at her Trump Tower apartment. Klein was subsequently arrested days later for robbery and assault after he allegedly tried to retrieve some of his belongings from Wildenstein's apartment. But the couple later reunited. The Swiss-born socialite, who had over 1 million Instagram followers, described herself as an 'art dealer.' She came from humble origins, only to tie the knot in the 1970s with a French-born American billionaire. He recalled that 'everything was good' in his final days with his fiancee, and he said that Wildenstein, who had been spending time with him in Paris, had been 'very happy' and 'at the top of her game' at the time; seen in May 2023 in LA Here she is seen at a much younger age as she held onto a child But the two courted headlines just over two decades later with their messy divorce. She became one of the wealthiest people on the planet after her divorce settlement, which left her with more than $2 billion, plus millions more annually. But she somehow managed to lose it all after years of tinkering with her face and spending on countless luxuries. The high society fixture was married to the late art dealer and billionaire Alec N. Wildenstein, who was the son of the French art dealer and horse breeder Daniel Wildenstein. Their family presided over Wildenstein & Co., an influential Paris-based art dealership. While speaking to The Times of London, Jocelyn described how she became fascinated by Africa and its fauna after finding a box of picture books about the continent when she was a child. Later, she developed an interest in hunting and wildlife, which led her to the Wildenstein family ranch Ol Jogi, located in Kenya. There, she was introduced on a safari to Alec by Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi arms dealer. Wildenstein was previously married to Alec N. Wildenstein. They met at his family's African ranch in 1977 before eloping in Las Vegas in 1978; pictured in 2000 in Paris Jocelyn lived a life of luxury with Wildenstein, but they divorced in 2000, allegedly after she discovered his infidelities. She won a stunning $2.5B in the divorce, plus $100M to be paid annually for 13 years; pictured in 1997 in Manhattan But the lion-faced socialite frittered away the fortune through extravagant purchases. She also claims a painting comprising part of her trust turned out to be a forgery, while another was auctioned for tens of millions less than expected; seen in 2017 in NYC Jocelyn recalled how Alec decided to kill a lion that had been killing nearby antelope, so she accompanied him on a pre-dawn mission. She recounted how, after her future husband took down the lion with one shot plus a second for good measure they ate part of the animal as a kind of trophy and rubbed its blood on their necks. 'You must eat a part of the heart of your game,' she said. 'Its legend. Maybe to take the power of the lion.' But by the '90s, Jocelyn was completely unrecognizable after her face was transformed reportedly from numerous cosmetic surgeries. They left her with slanted cat eyes, a prominent chin and exaggerated cheek bones, which some have compared to a lion's face. Despite the obvious change in her appearance, Wildenstein at one time bizarrely claimed to have never had plastic surgery. Alec did comment on her face. He told Vanity Fair, 'She was crazy. I would always find out last. She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldnt listen.' Wildenstein fired back that he 'hired a publicist and paid a plastic surgeon to certify that I completely changed my face' to win the divorce, she stated. Wildenstein was arrested for assault in 2016 after slashing Klein's face with scissors, and he was arrested for robbery and assault days later while allegedly trying to take his belongings from her apartment. But the two reunited and are together to this day; seen in 2017 in NYC More recently she owned up to having some procedures, though she downplayed its impact. In the wake of years of reported over-the-top spending and seemingly unending cosmetic procedures, Alec filed for divorce in 1999, though Jocelyn has said she was the one to first decide to end the marriage due to her husband's infidelities. Although he filed for divorce in Switzerland, where Jocelyn was less likely to get a significant divorce settlement, she ended up receiving what should have been a windfall a reported $2.5 billion. On top of that, she was to be paid $100 million per year for 13 years by her ex-husband, and later his estate following his death in 2008 at 67. However, her ex-husband's family cut off the payments in 2015. Despite obtaining more wealth than most people could ever imagine, Wildenstein managed to fritter it away through extravagant purchases on clothing, jewels, art and even tens of thousands of dollars in annual phone bills. In 2018, she claimed to Page Six that the vast majority of her wealth disappeared because one of the paintings that was part of the trust set up for her in the divorce settlement, attributed to Diego Velazquez, turned out to be a forgery, while a Cezanne that was expected to go for around $35 on auction only sold for $4.7 million Linda Evans shared a sweet New Year's note on Instagram on Wednesday. The timeless beauty was seen in a video posted to Instagram as she said she wants all her fans to be happy in 2025. 'May this be the year that you discover the beauty and wonder of who you really are. May we never stop believing in our dreams and fight for them till they become our reality. Happy New Year. Lots of love from me,' wrote the star in her caption. Dallas star Linda Gray, who played Sue Ellen Ewing, hit the like button. Evans wore a royal blue sweater with long gold earrings and her hair was worn in her signature style. Linda was the star of nighttime television soap opera Dynasty which aired from 1981 until 1989. The now 82-year-old Hollywood actress played the innocent blonde beauty Krystle Carrington who was wed to dashing millionaire Blake Carrington, played by John Forsythe. Linda Evans, 82, shared a New Year's note on Instagram on Wednesday. The timeless beauty was seen in a video posted to Instagram as she said she wants all her fans to be happy in 2025 'May this be the year that you discover the beauty and wonder of who you really are. May we never stop believing in our dreams and fight for them till they become our reality. Happy New Year. Lots of love from me,' wrote the star in her caption. Dallas star Linda Gray, who played Sue Ellen Ewing, hit the like button Evans was the star of nighttime television soap opera Dynasty which aired from 1981 until 1989. The Hollywood actress played the innocent blonde beauty Krystle Carrington who was wed to dashing millionaire Blake Carrington, played by John Forsythe But she had to battle her husband's evil ex-wife Alexis Carrington, played by Joan Collins. That led to catfights and very high ratings. These days Linda - who was wed to Bo Derek's ex John Derek - is retired and thriving in Washington. Evans' first guest-starring role was on a 1960 episode of Bachelor Father. The series starred John Forsythe, with whom she would costar 20 years later on Dynasty. After several guest roles in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet between 1960 and 1962, and guest appearances on television series such as The Lieutenant and Wagon Train, Evans gained her first regular role in 1965 in The Big Valley. She played stunning Audra Barkley, the daughter of Victoria Barkley (played by Barbara Stanwyck). She then appeared on The Rockford Files with James Garner, Mannix, Harry O with David Janssen, Banacek with George Peppard, McCloud with Dennis Weaver, and McMillan & Wife with Rock Hudson. In 1977, she starred with James Franciscus and Ralph Bellamy in the series Hunter. Next it was the 1979 thriller, Avalanche Express, and in 1980, she co-starred with Steve McQueen in Tom Horn. These days Linda - who was wed to Bo Derek's ex John Derek - is retired and thriving in Washington. Seen in 1984 Evans played the new beauty in the family who had to battle her husband's evil ex-wife Alexis Carrington, played by Joan Collins, far right Linda in her bathing suit with John on Dynasty Then came Dynasty, which in January 1981. When Collins was added to the cast as the villain ex-wife of Blake, ratings went up. Evans left Dynasty in 1989, four months before the series came to an end. In 1991, Evans returned to the role of Krystle for the television miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. Then she was in three made-for-TV movies in the 1990s, but then retired. The star has been married twice in her life and told BUNTE that she doesn't regret never giving up on searching for love In 2009, Evans appeared in and won the British TV program Hell's Kitchen. In 2021 Evans popped up in the movie Swan Song. When she turned 80, she talked about aging. 'The number is high, but I see my age as an adventure. I'm excited to see what else is to come,' she said. Looking back on her life, the The Big Valley star said if she could go back to her 20s, she would 'do everything differently'. During the conversation at her home in Tacoma, Washington, she revealed the only two things she would not change. Throwback time circa 1980s: 'When you get to be my age, you relish each decade of your life with a sense of wonder and awe for every summer that comes again,' the soap star wrote in her caption. 'The escapades and adventures may take on new meaning. But with sunshine on my shoulders and my heart wide open for change, this season is as promising as ever' She was on The Big Valley in 1965; see in promo shoot for the show 'I would buy my house here in Tacoma again and never give up the search for love,' she said. 'But despite this, I have loved every time and every challenge in my life. I've suffered a lot, but I'm proud of it.' The soap star spoke about her quiet life in Washington. 'I only work on special projects that fill my heart with joy. That's why, in 2019, after falling in love with a script written by the filmmaker Todd Stephens, I accepted a role in his [2021] film,' she said. She added: '[Swan Song] tells the story of an older man dying with sadness about his life but who is reborn after revisiting his past.' Evans spoke about revisiting her own past and finding self-love. 'It's one of the lovely things about getting older. Truly loving myself has been very valuable to me it doesn't matter how late in life it happened.' The actress has been married twice in her life. Her first marriage was with the late multitalented actor and director John Derek from 1968 to 1974. A year later, she married Sexual Intent actor Stan Herman until their subsequent divorce in 1979. The Connecticut star has no children and lives a peaceful life by herself. The star dated Greek composer Yanni for almost a decade from 1989 to 1998; seen in 1991 Her last publicly known relationship started in 1989. She dated Greek composer Yanni in for almost a decade, but the couple ultimately called it quits in 1998. In 2014, he told Oprah: 'Linda is one of the most amazing human beings I've ever met in my life.' The blonde beauty shared a throwback photo and wrote an insightful caption on getting older: 'When you get to be my age, you relish each decade of your life with a sense of wonder and awe for every summer that comes again. The escapades and adventures may take on new meaning.' The Butte County Sheriffs Office released photos of two kindergartners injured in a Dec. 4 shooting at the Feather River Adventist School in Oroville (Butte County), Roman Mendez and Elias Wolford. Butte County Sheriffs Office A 5-year-old boy injured in an early December school shooting in Butte County is able to wiggle his left foot and feel some sensation in both legs, according to an update from his grandmother on social media. Elias Wolford was one of two kindergarten students injured in the shooting at Feather River Adventist School in Palermo on the afternoon of Dec. 4. He and Roman Mendez, 6, were both hospitalized following the incident. Elias was hit once, with the bullet piercing his chest and abdomen, hitting multiple organs before exiting, and initially he had no movement in his legs. He has since had three surgeries and is now stable, said his grandmother, Debbie Wolford, in the Facebook update on Tuesday. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Elias is experiencing some sensation in his left leg and feeling in his right leg, along with slight movement, she wrote. Just yesterday, he managed to wiggle his left foot, which is an encouraging sign! The suspected shooter, identified by the Butte County Sheriffs Office as Glenn Litton, 56, reportedly met with school administrators that day, claiming he wanted to enroll his grandson, giving him access to the campus without raising suspicion, according to Sheriff Kory Honea. Litton then left the building and pulled a gun from his waistband and opened fire on the school playground before fatally shooting himself. Investigators believe Litton may have targeted the school for its affiliation with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Litton had a long criminal past and a history of mental illness, officials said. Both boys were in critical condition following the shooting. No other students were injured. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Roman had injuries to his chest and back. Surgeries have been successful, family members told local media, but he faces a long recovery. His twin brother, Armani, witnessed the shooting. Roman is doing amazing! according to an update on his condition from his family on a fundraising site in late December. He was released December 20th, right before Christmas! He still has doctors appointments, but otherwise, God has truly taken care of him through this all. Elias remains hospitalized. Debbie Wolford said they plan to transfer Elias soon to a specialized hospital that focuses on spinal rehabilitation. A GoFundMe effort has raised more than $100,000 to help the Wolford family through the ordeal. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Trinny Woodall's daughter Lyla Elichaoff has poked fun at her beauty guru mum's choice of outfit during a holiday to Egypt. The TV presenter, 60, and Lyla, 21, are currently enjoying a lavish trip to Egypt, including trips to see the incredible pyramids. But in a tongue and cheek post on Instagram on Wednesday as they headed to Edfu Temple, Lyla compared her mum's day trip ensemble to a bright yellow highlighter pen. Trinny stepped out for the day in a very striking luminous yellow co-ord, complete with wide-leg chiffon trousers and a matching scarf top wrapped around her. She also tied a green and yellow tie-dye jumper around her waist. Poking fun at the outfit, Lyla took to her Instagram Story to share a snap of her mum edited with a picture of a highlighter pen. While in another, she papped her mum from far away and added the caption: 'Spot the highlighter'. Trinny Woodall 's daughter Lyla Elichaoff poked fun at her beauty guru mum's choice of outfit as they holidayed in Egypt on Wednesday In a tongue and cheek post on Instagram on Wednesday as they headed to Edfu Temple, Lyla compared her mum's day trip ensemble to a bright yellow highlighter pen Meanwhile Trinny shared another a snap of her and her daughter posing as she wrote: 'Thought she loved my look...' Another snapped showed Lyla looking excited as Trinny captioned it: '1st January 2025... The temple at Edfu.' Last year, Lyla revealed she thought her mum and Susannah Constantine would be 'cancelled' now when asked about their show What Not To Wear. 'I think they would be cancelled if the show was made now. 'You can't really speak to people like that any more, and say things like, "You're so ugly".' Lyla graced the cover of Tatler alongside Susannah's daughter Esme Bertelsen, 23, as they joked that their mothers would likely be 'cancelled' now for how they spoke to each other. The pair have been friends for most of their lives through their mothers. While the duo were raised in the London fashion scene, Lyla and Esme admitted they have never watched What Not To Wear or Trinny & Susannah Undress. Asked if they're fans of the show, they both replied simultaneously: 'I've never actually watched it.' Lyla papped her mum from far away and added the caption: 'Spot the highlighter' Meanwhile Trinny shared another a snap of her and her daughter posing as she wrote: 'Thought she loved my look...' The TV presenter, 60, and Lyla, 21, are currently enjoying a lavish trip to Egypt, including trips to see the incredible pyramids But they do recall some of their time on sets, as Esme said: 'I remember going to places like Poland or Sweden and doing the European tour things. Lyla added: 'I was like six or seven. It was in some country in Europe, but I can't remember which. 'This woman wanted to look like Hannah Montana, and no one knew who that was apart from me, so I got to help.' Their mothers have treated them to some of their iconic fashion pieces over the years too. Esme revealed her mother had given her a pair of snakeskin heels, a chiffon Prada dress, a long, multicoloured Missoni coat, and silver and gold Miu Miu heels. Meanwhile, Lyla got a green and black Prada dress to wear for her 18th birthday party Esme confessed her mother gave her 'free reign' to wear what she wanted to. 'I was never allowed to wear ripped jeans,' Lyla added. 'I think it's good to let your kids develop their own fashions and make really bad mistakes.' In June, Trinny and Lyla arrived together for the V&A Summer Party 2024 to celebrate the upcoming Naomi: In Fashion exhibition Lyla is studying communication and digital media at Madrid's IE University. Her father Johnny Elichaoff, former drummer for Stark Naked and the Car Thieves turned financial adviser, died by suicide in 2014 when she was 11. In June, Trinny and Lyla arrived together for the V&A Summer Party 2024 to celebrate the upcoming Naomi: In Fashion exhibition. The fashionista, 60, looked sensational as she graced the red carpet wearing a silver metallic illusion dress with padded frilly sleeves. By her side was her lookalike daughter Lyla, who commanded attention in a plunging blue and green sequin dress. Alexandra Daddario flaunted her post-baby body in a white one-piece swimsuit while relaxing in a hot tub during her New Year's getaway to Iceland on Thursday just two months after welcoming her first child. The 38-year-old first-time mother appeared unafraid to brave the hot springs-filled Nordic country's 35F-degree winter weather while scantily clad. Alexandra also posted a TikTok video of herself from behind in the jacuzzi. Daddario - who miraculously snapped back into shape six days after birth - famously donned a white bikini as newlywed journalist Rachel in the first season of HBO's The White Lotus in 2021. The Emmy-nominated actress' Instagram slideshow included a snap of her admiring the wonder of the Northern Lights. At one point, Alexandra bundled up to feed a furry horse a loaf of bread. Alexandra Daddario flaunted her post-baby body in a white one-piece swimsuit while relaxing in a hot tub during her New Year's getaway to Iceland on Thursday just two months after welcoming her first child Daddario - who boasts 37.1M social media followers - captioned her post with the following exchange: 'What's the best beer you have in Iceland?' 'For that, you'd have to go to the airport, and fly to Germany.' The Mayfair Witches star and her husband Andrew Form welcomed their first child together on Halloween, but they have not disclosed the baby's name nor gender. At 55, the Apartment 7A producer is 17 years older than Alexandra and they first met by chance in Manhattan in 2020 while he was still married to his first wife Jordana Brewster, who promptly filed for divorce in July 2020. 'He was also on a walk, and we passed each other downtown,' Daddario recalled to Vogue in 2022. 'He turned back and said, "Hi," just as I was turning around to glance back at him. I laughed and said, "Hi," and then we both laughed about how we were the only two people on what is normally an incredibly busy street. 'He asked if he could take me to dinner. I said okay against my better judgment. Nowadays, you're supposed to meet people on dating apps!' The New York native is now stepmother to Andrew's two sons - Julian, 11; and Rowan, 8 - with the 44-year-old Cellar Door actress, and their divorce was finalized in 2021 after 13 years of marriage. Last August, the married couple of two years sold their renovated Mandeville Canyon house in Los Angeles for $2.9M - $100K more than they paid for the treehouse-inspired abode in 2023. The 38-year-old first-time mother appeared unafraid to brave the hot springs-filled Nordic country's 35F-degree winter weather while scantily clad Alexandra also posted a TikTok video of herself from behind in the jacuzzi Daddario - who miraculously snapped back into shape six days after birth - famously donned a white bikini as newlywed journalist Rachel in the first season of HBO's The White Lotus in 2021 The Emmy-nominated actress' Instagram slideshow included a snap of her admiring the wonder of the Northern Lights At one point, Alexandra bundled upto feed a furry horse a loaf of bread Daddario and her husband Andrew Form welcomed their first child together on Halloween, but they have not disclosed the baby's name nor gender At 55, the Apartment 7A producer (L, pictured in 2023) is 17 years older than the Mayfair Witches star and they first met by chance in Manhattan in 2020 while he was still married to his first wife Jordana Brewster, who promptly filed for divorce in July 2020 Alexandra is now stepmother to Andrew's two sons - Julian, 11; and Rowan, 8 - with the 44-year-old Cellar Door actress (pictured last Saturday), and their divorce was finalized in 2021 after 13 years of marriage Daddario will next reprise her role as neurosurgeon Dr. Rowan Fielding in Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford's eight-episode second season of Mayfair Witches, which premieres this Sunday on AMC Alexandra previously romanced Fifth Wall Ventures co-founder Brendan Wallace, The Beat host Ari Melber, Fifth Wall CEO Brendan Wallace, as well as actors Logan Lerman, Jason Fuchs, and Henry Cavill. Daddario will next reprise her role as neurosurgeon Dr. Rowan Fielding in Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford's eight-episode second season of Mayfair Witches, which premieres this Sunday on AMC. The first season of Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches adaptation received a dismal 44% critic approval rating (out of 36 reviews) and a 47% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Justice League actress will also appear in Adam Scott's upcoming feature directorial debut Double Booked alongside Sterling K. Brown and Zazie Beetz. Alexandra is also every bit the influencer with paid partnerships for brands like Dior, Frida Mom, and Babylist. Johnny Depp's son Jack Depp was spotted in a very rare sighting in Paris. The 22-year-old bundled up in an olive zip up jacket, paired with a scarf and beanie while strolling through the French capital on Christmas Eve. Jack, who is rarely seen in the public, was spotted the next day - on Christmas - holding on to multiple shopping bags filled with gifts as he headed to his family's residence. The reclusive star had been working in secret a at trendy Lebanese restaurant called L'Area in the Bastille quarter of Paris as a bartender. His sighting comes weeks after his sister Lily-Rose Depp's film Nosferatu was released to critical acclaim. In mid-December, Lily-Rose made a rare comment about brother Jack while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - while she was promoting her movie Nosferatu. Johnny Depp's son Jack Depp was spotted in a very rare sighting in Paris. The 22-year-old bundled up in an olive zip up jacket, paired with a scarf and beanie while strolling through the French capital on Christmas Eve Jack, who prefers to keep a low profile, was seen the next day - on Christmas - holding on to multiple shopping bags filled with gifts as he headed to his family's residence Lily-Rose and Jack were both born in France, as mother Vanessa hails from there. Lily-Rose was born in 1999 and Jack, born John Christopher III, was born in 2002. Vanessa and Johnny were together from 1998 until 2012. In mid-December, Lily-Rose made a rare comment about brother Jack while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon during her promotional tour for Nosferatu. Lily-Rose didn't say anything about her brother's job, but did reveal why her film Nosferatu had a special connection to her brother. Jimmy asked her how familiar she was with the story of Dracula. She said: 'I was always a fan of the Dracula tale.' Adding: 'My brother and I were obsessed with Abbott and Costello as kids, and, you know, they have a whole, like, Meet the Monsters' series.' Lily Rose and Jack are the two children of Hollywood icons Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis - pictured 1994 In mid-December, Lily-Rose made a rare comment about brother Jack while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - while she was promoting her movie Nosferatu 'We particularly were drawn to the "Meet Dracula" one, the Bela Lugosi,' she said, admitting they were both quite young. 'And my brother was, like, three or four at the time, and he started dressing up like Dracula, and doing these kind of, like, really serious line readings of the lines,' she said. Depp admitted, 'So, in a way, I grew up as, like, older sister to Dracula,' admitting her new Nosferatu role is, 'totally full circle' for her. 'When I heard that, you know, when I got the opportunity to audition for this movie, I thought, like, you know, "How full circle, and maybe I'll get some cool points with my bro,"' she said of Jack. Jack had been working at L'Arena for a few years before leaving the restaurant a few months ago, although he's expected to return. Lily Rose has been receiving critical acclaim for her turn in Nosferatu L'Arena owner Edouard Chueke told Daily Mail that he expected Jack to return sometime later next year. 'Jack is a great guy; he keeps out of the limelight, but worked here behind the bar and in the kitchen,' Chueke said of his employee. 'He was a good employee, he left a few months ago but I expect him back later next year. Good staff are hard to find,' he added. Brad Pitt's girlfriend Ines de Ramon reportedly pushed him to finalize his bitter eight-year divorce with Angelina Jolie so they could 'have a life' and children together. On Tuesday, an insider close to the 61-year-old actor told Page Six that his 32-year-old jewelry executive girlfriend 'influenced' him to 'settle' with her in order to make 'progress in the right direction.' 'He was influenced by Ines to finally settle,' the source said. 'Ines wants to have a life together with possibly children in the future without the albatross that was the eight-year War of the Roses.' The insider added, 'She has made [it known that] her opinion is that life would be much more enjoyable with this settled.' In June DailyMail.com reported that Brad is open to the idea of having children with Ines. Jolie, 49, filed for divorce from the Bullet Train star on September 19, 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. And the A-list exes have been declared legally single as of 2019. They reached a settlement and signed divorce documents on Monday, December 30, but are still disputing over the $62million French chateau and vineyard, Chateau Miraval, they once jointly owned. Brad Pitt's girlfriend Ines de Ramon pushed him to finalize his eight-year divorce with Angelina Jolie so they could 'have a life' and children together; Brad and Ines seen in September 2024 A separate source told the outlet Ines 'is a positive influence on Brad. She has a really good perspective on things. 'Its sad how this whole thing has played out, but at least this is progress in the right direction.' Jolie and Pitt were reportedly on the same page about signing the divorce papers because they agreed it was 'time to move on.' 'Both sides realized it was time to move on. It was mutually beneficial to get it done with,' the insider shared. The Lost City actor and his lady love have been romantically linked since late November 2022, but made very few public appearances together in their first year of dating. The age-gap couple made their official red carpet debut on the sun-soaked fourth day of the Venice Film Festival in August of 2024. Another insider previously revealed that Pitt is 'so grateful' for the raven-haired vixen, 'who not only supports him but isnt fazed by being in the public eye or all of the issues surrounding [his] legal drama.' They shared that de Ramon 'doesnt let any of those issues come between them or put any type of strain on their relationship.' Jolie, 49, filed for divorce from the Bullet Train star on September 19, 2016, citing irreconcilable differences; Angelina and Brad seen in January 2012 They reached a settlement and signed divorce papers on Monday, December 30, but are still disputing over their $62million Chateau Miraval; Angelina and Brad seen in September 2007 His 32-year-old jewelry mogul girlfriend 'influenced' him to 'settle' with her in order to make 'progress in the right direction'; Brad and Ines seen in September 2024 A separate source told the outlet Ines 'is a positive influence on Brad. She has a really good perspective on things'; Brad and Ines seen in September 2024 Pitt and Jolie share six children Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16; seen on February 2019 Back in August, another source told People that Pitt is 'serious about Ines. He's very happy and enjoys spending time with her. She's easygoing and everyone likes her.' On Monday, Jolie's attorney James Simon told the outlet: More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt. She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family. 'This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.' The Mr. & Mrs. Smith stars tied the knot at Maraval in 2014, 10 years after meeting of the hit action-comedy film. They share six children Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16. Prior to marrying Jolie, Pitt was previously wed to Friends star Jennifer Aniston. The exes separated in 2005. And before romancing Fight Club star, de Ramon was married to Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley they split on 2022 and finalized their divorce in early 2024. Angelina Jolie took to her Insta Stories on Wednesday with a heartbreaking message after news spread that her divorce from Brad Pitt had been finalized. The Oscar-winning actress posted a photo of a country in ruins with a poignant message for her 15M followers. The 49-year-old Maria actress was addressing the mass carnage in Syria as she moved the spotlight from her personal life to her humanitarian efforts. 'Syria: over 17 million people in need of aid. Syria has been decimated by almost 14 years of conflict, displacement and economic deterioration. 'While the recent change in government brings about a chance of a fresh start, millions still need help, and critical needs continue to be unmet.' The information was from the The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an organization that advocates for displaced people and their rights. Angelina Jolie took to her Insta Stories on Wednesday with a heartbreaking message after news spread that her divorce from Brad Pitt had been finalized; seen in November in LA The Oscar-winning actress posted a photo of a country in ruins with a poignant message for her 15M followers. The 49-year-old Maria actress was addressing the mass carnage in Syria as she moved the spotlight from her personal life to her humanitarian efforts Jolie has worked before with the NRC in Jordan and Yemen. Last week Jolie and Pitt reached a settlement in their divorce. Eight years after Angelina filed for divorce citing 'irreconcilable differences', the former couple have finally come to an agreement on terms and both have signed off on it. Angelina's lawyer James Simon told PEOPLE: 'More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt. She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family. 'This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. 'Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.' Although the split was acrimonious, a source close to Jolie added: 'She doesn't speak ill of [Pitt] publicly or privately. She's been trying hard to be light after a dark time.' Angelina, 49, filed for divorce from Brad, 61, in September 2016 after just two years of marriage. It came just days after a journey on a private plane in which Angelina claimed Brad was abusive to her and their six children but authorities did not charge him after investigating. Last week Jolie and Pitt reached a settlement in their divorce. Eight years after Angelina filed for divorce citing 'irreconcilable differences', the former couple have finally come to an agreement on terms and both have signed off on it. Seen in 2012 Angelina and Brad later released a joint statement declaring that they would keep all divorce proceedings private for the sake of their children. They said: 'The parties and their counsel have signed agreements to preserve the privacy rights of their children and family by keeping all court documents confidential and engaging a private judge to make any necessary legal decisions and to facilitate the expeditious resolution of any remaining issues. 'The parents are committed to act as a united front to effectuate recovery and reunification.' The former couple share children Maddox, 23, Pax, 21, Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and twins Vivienne and Knox, now 16. They were declared legally single in 2019 but have battled over custody and legal issues over their French estate and winery, Chateau Miraval, since the split. Meanwhile, Jolie has a promising new project set for early 2025 that will keep her passport busy. The first film the Oscar-winning actress will make since finalizing her divorce from Pitt will be an action-packed female-driven movie. The 4 beauty - who is now shooting Stitches in Paris - will be starring in Maude v Maude. Her costar Halle Berry has called it as a 'mix of Mr And Mrs Smith and Mission Impossible with a comedy twist' and two women in the leading roles. Deadline added it was a 'Bond vs. Bourne' type of global action thriller with exotic locations. Berry told a Red Sea International Film Festival audience that she might return to Saudi Arabia to film the movie. There will also be several other locations that filmgoers are not used to seeing in a movie, added Berry. That means Jolie will be traveling a lot for the project. A shooting date has yet to be announced, but in September Halle told Yahoo that the film is her first project for 2025: 'Going into next year that is on our docket and I'm really excited.' She has a new movie coming up soon that is action packed. Seen December 14 in London Her costar Halle Berry has called it as a 'mix of Mr And Mrs Smith and Mission Impossible with a comedy twist' and two women in the leading roles. Deadline added it was a 'Bond vs. Bourne' type of global action thriller with exotic locations. Seen December 12 in Saudi Arabia Berry said earlier this year that she has already 'bonded' with Jolie over their 'divorces and exes'. The two have never worked together before. Halle has revealed that they actually spent some time together discussing their love lives. The 57-year-old actress - who was previously married to David Justice, Eric Benet and Olivier Martinez - told Variety: 'We've been talking a lot about divorces and exes. We bonded, let's say that.' Despite this, Halle acknowledged that their friendship actually got off to a 'rocky start'. The Hollywood actress - whose co-star has also been married three times - shared: 'We had a rocky start and I think that is going to serve us well in our screen time together.' Jolie has been busy promoting her new role in Maria and even sings opera for the part But she also told Yahoo she admires Jolie: 'It's been a joy to work with [Angelina]. We seemed like two unlikely friends, but when we sat down with each other, we realized that we were each the thing we both needed that we didn't know we needed. You know, we have so many things in common and we realized that in our first meeting.' Other projects for Jolie in 2025: the films Every Note Played with Christoph Waltz and Maleficent 3, it has been claimed. She will also promote Without Blood which stars her pal Salma Hayek. It is not known when the film will get its theatrical release. The film premiered in the Special Presentations section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2024. Angelina will also be working on her store Atelier Jolie in NYC with kids Zahara and Vivienne. Josh Gad has revealed how the first time he met Jeff Goldblum was just as wacky as one might expect, recalling how the Hollywood star nearly flashed his private parts in a 'surreal, welcome-to-Hollywood moment.' Gad, 43, opened up about the unusual encounter during his appearance on Kelly Ripa's Let's Talk Off Camera podcast where he shared tales of his early days in Hollywood. The Frozen star explained that when he first moved to the area, an old college friend reached out with an offer to hangout with her and her boyfriend. 'I had a girlfriend from college who was when I had just arrived in LA out of school who was like, "Hey. I saw that you're out here. My boyfriend and I would love to have you over. If you have nowhere to go, just come chill with us tonight." So I was like, "Oh, cool."' However, Gad started to realize that this might not just be a regular boyfriend as he continued: 'He lived in a real place called Mount Olympus. That is not just where Greek gods live, but where Hollywood gods live. 'So I'm driving up on this rainy night, I'm 23 years old, and I'm like, "Who the hell is her boyfriend?" He lives in a mythical god land, a kingdom.' Josh Gad has revealed how the first time he met Jeff Goldblum was just as wacky as one might expect He recalled the Hollywood star nearly flashed his private parts in a 'surreal, welcome-to-Hollywood moment' The Love & Other Drugs star continued: 'And so I get to this house, and there's this giant gate that looks like it's out of Jurassic Park. 'And I knock on the door, and my friend and her boyfriend open the door in matching bathrobes. And it is Jeff Goldblum.' He continued: 'They invite me in and he's like, "Oh, hey, you must be Josh." And I'm like, "I am Josh. You must be Jeff Goldblum. I know this because I know your work."' The night only proceeded to get stranger for The Book of Mormon star as he then found himself having to do acting exercises with Goldblum, 73, during 'the most surreal evening of my life'. He explained the couple's home had 'this weird sort of triangular seating arrangement where the two of them are sitting in these cushion chairs, and I'm at the point on the other end sitting opposite them.' Gad continued: 'Jeff proceeds to engage me in a game of call-and-repeat acting, something called 'the Meisner Technique. So he starts saying words and having me repeat them.' However, concentrating on the task wasn't made easy due to Goldblum's attire. 'And like, I'm pretty sure his ball sack wasn't hanging out, but was pretty close to it,' Gad joked. The Frozen star explained that an old college friend reached out with an offer to hangout with her and her boyfriend in LA - and then greeted him in matching robes As they sat across from each other, Gad stated: 'I'm pretty sure his ball sack wasn't hanging out, but was pretty close to it' (Goldblum pictured with wife Emilie Livingston) The experience made Gad feel like he was being recruited for Goldblum's acting class, as he explained: 'At the end of this very surreal exchange, he looks at me and he goes, "You're very good. You should come audit one of my classes." 'And I was like, "Was I invited over here to give Jeff Goldblum another student in his Los Angeles acting class?" It was such a surreal, welcome-to-Hollywood moment.' Gad noted: 'I thought I was in an episode of Punk'd.' While he didn't accept the offer to attend a class, the actor was 'thrilled to get a personal invitation from Jeff Goldblum in a bathrobe in his home.' Thankfully all worked out well for Gad who has enjoyed success by voicing characters in Frozen, A Dog's Purpose, and animated musical series, Central Park. Elsewhere, he has appeared in hit films such as Beauty and the Beast, 21, Murder on the Orient Express, and Jobs. Meanwhile, Goldblum is famously known for his roles in Jurassic Park, The Big Chill, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Annie Hall. The actor most recently portrayed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in hit musical film, Wicked. Barry Keoghan delighted staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre in Dundee as he made a surprise visit to the stables. During his trip, the Saltburn actor happily posed for selfies and snaps with the team, with the pictures shared on the stable's Facebook page. The caption read: 'Not every day your yard gets a visit from a Hollywood star.' While Barry spends plenty of time in Hollywood and London for work, he owns a house in the nearby town of Broughty Ferry. He moved to the area in 2023 with his partner at the time, Alyson Kierans, with whom he shares two-year-old son Brando. While the pair split up at the beginning of last year, he still has close family in the Dundee area. Barry Keoghan delighted staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre in Dundee as he made a surprise visit to the stables During his trip, the Saltburn actor happily posed for selfies and snaps with the team, with the pictures shared on the stable's Facebook page The caption read: 'Not every day your yard gets a visit from a Hollywood star.' It's likely Barry made the visit because he owns a house in the nearby town of Broughty Ferry Barry grew up in Summerhill, in the beating heart of Dublin, alongside his mother who was a heroin addict and brother, Eric. Meanwhile, very little is known about his father. A constant battle with addiction left Debbie unable to care for her children and at aged five, Barry and his younger brother, Eric were sent into foster care where they moved between 13 different homes over a period of seven years. Later, Barry and his brother, Eric, were able to move in with their aunt, Lorraine Keoghan, and his cousin, whom Barry describes as 'a sister' to him. There in Summerhill, Lorraine, 59, took charge of raising the three children, taking a job as a cleaner in a pub to pay the bills and support the family. A world away from his new life stepping onto red carpets in designer regalia, Barry's hometown Summerhill is renowned for being a criminal hub rife with drugs and gang violence. One incident in 2022 in which a gang attacked a Deliveroo cyclist, has left drivers refusing to take orders from the crime riddled area. Barry was eight when Lorraine who also lived with her mother, Barry's grandmother Patricia, now 91 adopted him while his mother was incapable of caring for him. His father, now dead, was never involved in his upbringing. The apple of his mother's eye, Barry used to visit Debbie in hospital every day after school, dancing like Elvis and doing impersonations to make her laugh. However, the string of tragedy continued for Barry who, aged just 12, received the earth shattering news that his mother had died. She was 31 years old. After many years of battling addiction, Debbie fell victim to pneumonia, septicemia and hepatitis. Barry, who was 12 at the time, described the moment as 'worst day of his life', but admitted the experience made him stronger as a result. Talking about the crushing moment to JOE, he said: 'I remember it, it wasn't nice. It's not ever nice, kids being taken from their parents.' Barry moved to the area in 2023 with his partner at the time, Alyson Kierans (pictured in 2023) While the pair split up at the beginning of last year, he still has close family in the Dundee area The actor shares his two-year-old son Brando (pictured) with dentist Alyson In a recent interview, the Oscar-nominee opened up about the trauma of losing his mother at such a young age. Speaking on a recent episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, Barry sweetly remembered his 'lovely, gorgeous' mother as he sadly recalled how her addiction 'caught her'. 'That kind of haunts me still, you don't forget those things,' he said. He said: 'My mum, she was lovely. She was gorgeous, almost like six-foot, dark hair, just beautiful. Like every lad was chasing her and this thing caught her, like many families. 'It's sad to see the deterioration of people around the area and see people kind of struggle with it and the recovery they're in now. It caught my mum, it caught my uncle who died of it and caught my father as well. 'She was just unable to look after us.[] My father wasn't there and so we got taken into care and no one knew about this. 'I think she was too embarrassed to tell my granny and so no one knew that's when we went through all that. All the different homes.' Tom Holland has revealed why he rarely walks the red carpet with his girlfriend Zendaya as he gave an insight into their fiercely private relationship on Thursday while posing for a hunky new shoot. The actors, both 28, began publicly dating in July 2021 after years of rumours and even denying their relationship. The loved-up pair met while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016. Zendaya was cast as MJ opposite Holland's Peter Parker. Now in a new interview with Men's Health - where he displayed his abs in an accompanying shoot - Tom has spoken about why he often misses red carpet opportunities with his mega star partner. He said: 'It's because it's not my moment, it's her moment, and if we go together, it's about us.' He also gave a glimpse into their sweet relationship as he gushed over their shared love of their pets. Tom Holland has revealed why he rarely walks the red carpet with his girlfriend Zendaya as he gave an insight into their fiercely private relationship while posing for a hunky new shoot The actors, both 28, began publicly dating in July 2021 after years of rumours and even denying their relationship The pair share a dog, Noon, and recently got another, a Doberman named Daphne. He told the publication of Daphne: 'She's so cute, man, it's actually a joke!' Elsewhere in the interview he spoke about his decision to go sober and launch his alcohol free beer brand. He said one turning point for him giving up alcohol was when is older brother noticed that it had started to become a problem. He recalled an incident when he drove to see his brother for a poker night and wasn't going to drink but then half way through the night asked his sibling if he would take him home instead as he wanted to drink. Tom told how his brother was surprised at his request, explaining: 'It was a bit of an eye-opening moment for me and for him. 'It's really helpful when the people closest to you start going, 'Are you sure?'' Last month Tom revealed that he was spending Christmas with Zendaya and her family but intends to unite both their loved ones for a joint festive bash next year. Despite being away from his own family, including comedian dad Dominic, 57, and fellow actor brother Paddy, 20, Tom insisted he was looking forward to Christmas as the last time he was abroad over the festive period he was holed up inside a hotel room. Speaking about his plans, Tom said: 'I am gonna be in America this year, I'll be with my girlfriend's family, which will be fun. Where we'll be is a secret.' Now in a new interview with Men's Health - where he displayed his abs in an accompanying shoot - Tom has spoken about why he often misses red carpet opportunities with his mega star partner He said: 'It's because it's not my moment, it's her moment, and if we go together, it's about us' The loved-up pair met while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016. Zendaya was cast as MJ opposite Holland's Peter Parker He added: 'The first time I spent Christmas away from home was in America, and unfortunately, not by choice... 'I made two movies back-to-back through COVID. Did two press tours through COVID and did not get COVID once, the entire time. And after the Spider-Man 3 premiere was the last day of work I had, I was supposed to fly home the next day for Christmas, and I got COVID. 'So, I spent like two weeks in essentially the guest bedroom and just was by myself. It was a pretty rough Christmas, to be fair. This year will be great. This will be great.' And he hopes next year, given how his relationship with the Euphoria star is progressing, both their families will be spending it together. He explained: 'I think what we'd like to start doing is rather than like, spending it with each family each year is to bring the families together. 'That's what I think we want to do next time. This time, 'cause we're both actors, we're terrible at organising things. So it hasn't happened yet. The thought's there. The idea has been planted.' Tom and Zendaya have become one of Hollywood's most talked-about couples since finding love on set in 2016 while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming. When they're not appearing at red carpet events and film premieres, they manage to keep a low profile and are often pictured walking their dog Noon together in London. Indeed, Tom admits he enjoys cooking for Zendaya and has been preparing her meals while she shoots movie The Drama, which also stars Robert Pattinson, in Boston. However, his culinary skills haven't impressed, as he admits struggling to knock-up edible meals for vegetarian Zendaya. Speaking to the Dish podcast, which is presented by former Radio 1 Breakfast Show host Nick Grimshaw and Michelin star chef Angela Hartnett, he said: 'I'm starting to like, venture into a lot of vegetarian cooking. 'My girlfriend's vegetarian, so I've been in Boston these past few weeks and she's been working so I've been doing a lot of the dinners. They haven't been great. 'There's been a few like, let's just order ins. But no, but I really enjoy it. I don't find it stressful at all. I really like it. I need to have a tidy kitchen though.' Tom revealed Zendaya's specialty in the kitchen is an Italian dish favoured by celebrities. He added: 'I actually love Zendaya's spicy vodka fusilli thingymajiggy that she does. And it is delicious. Yeah. It's really good. The vodka doesn't really do much though.' Tom insisted dating a fellow actor has big plus points, especially when it comes to being able to stay with each other on location and communicate hidden messages with just one look. In fact, Tom says being with Zendaya, who has also starred in The Greatest Showman and last year's Challengers, is the 'best thing that's ever happened to me.' He said: 'Studios love it, one hotel room. Separate drivers. We're not crazy now. Listen it's work, alright?! Oh God, yeah. It's a saving grace. Yeah, best thing that's ever happened to me. 'But it's just that perfect thing when you're on set and a director will give you a note that maybe you don't agree with, or I know that she doesn't particularly like, and it's just that like familiar glance at each other of like, can't wait to talk about that later.' Despite launching non-alcoholic beer brand BERO this year, which was a project close to his heart following his sobriety journey, Tom admits starting another new business is not on his radar. He said acting is still very much his future and he is 'excited' to start filming Christopher Nolan's next film, which also stars Zendaya. Tom said: 'I don't foresee myself becoming like an entrepreneur and like building companies. He also gave a glimpse into their sweet relationship as he gushed over their shared love of their pets in the Men's Health interview (pictured last May) 'This is so personal to me that it felt like it was something I should do. Like if I wanted to start, I don't know, like a leisurewear brand, like no one needs another leisurewear brand. You know? Um, so, and, and with acting, like I love acting. 'One of the beautiful aspects of it is that you can dip out. But I haven't worked for three years.' On his next project, he said: 'It hasn't started shooting. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't know anything about it. I'm super excited. Um, everything is very very hush hush. 'I met with him. It was awesome. He kind of loosely pitched what it was. And I'm sure when he's ready, he'll announce what it is. Yeah. It's a film with Christopher Nolan.' Tom Holland has revealed the 'eye-opening' moment that led him to go sober and recalled how his family realised he had a problem with alcohol. In a candid new interview the actor, 28, spoke about launching his new alcohol free beer and the journey that led him to giving up. He said one turning point for him giving up alcohol was when his older brother noticed that the drinking had started to become a problem. He recalled an incident when he drove to see his brother for a poker night and wasn't going to drink but then half way through the night asked his sibling if he would take him home instead as he wanted to drink. Tom told how his brother was surprised at his request, explaining to Men's Health: 'It was a bit of an eye-opening moment for me and for him. 'It's really helpful when the people closest to you start going, 'Are you sure?'' Tom Holland has revealed the 'eye-opening' moment that led him to go sober and recalled how his family realised he had a problem with alcohol In a candid new interview the actor, 28, spoke about launching his new alcohol free beer and the journey that led him to giving up In January 2022, he decided to take a one-month break from alcohol and after struggling to keep to his goal decided to give up for good. He told the publication: 'Every Friday after work was a write-off: Let's get drunk and have a good time. I didn't have bad experiences, but I would drink enough so that I would ruin my next day.' Of his sobriety efforts he said: I'm quite strong-willed. When I decide to do something, I'm really gonna do it. 'I leaned on close ones a lot: family, friends, old colleagues, new colleagues, people that reached out that I didn't know who also were sober.' It comes after last month Tom revealed that he was spending Christmas with Zendaya and her family but intends to unite both their loved ones for a joint festive bash next year. Despite being away from his own family, including comedian dad Dominic, 57, and fellow actor brother Paddy, 20, Tom insisted he was looking forward to Christmas as the last time he was abroad over the festive period he was holed up inside a hotel room. Speaking about his plans, Tom said: 'I am gonna be in America this year, I'll be with my girlfriend's family, which will be fun. Where we'll be is a secret.' He said one turning point for him giving up alcohol was when his older brother noticed that the drinking had started to become a problem He recalled an incident when he drove to see his brother for a poker night and wasn't going to drink but then half way through the night asked his sibling if he would take him home instead as he wanted to drink He added: 'The first time I spent Christmas away from home was in America, and unfortunately, not by choice... 'I made two movies back-to-back through COVID. Did two press tours through COVID and did not get COVID once, the entire time. And after the Spider-Man 3 premiere was the last day of work I had, I was supposed to fly home the next day for Christmas, and I got COVID. 'So, I spent like two weeks in essentially the guest bedroom and just was by myself. It was a pretty rough Christmas, to be fair. This year will be great. This will be great.' And he hopes next year, given how his relationship with the Euphoria star is progressing, both their families will be spending it together. He explained: 'I think what we'd like to start doing is rather than like, spending it with each family each year is to bring the families together. 'That's what I think we want to do next time. This time, 'cause we're both actors, we're terrible at organising things. So it hasn't happened yet. The thought's there. The idea has been planted.' Tom and Zendaya have become one of Hollywood's most talked-about couples since finding love on set in 2016 while filming Spider-Man: Homecoming. When they're not appearing at red carpet events and film premieres, they manage to keep a low profile and are often pictured walking their dog Noon together in London. Indeed, Tom admits he enjoys cooking for Zendaya and has been preparing her meals while she shoots movie The Drama, which also stars Robert Pattinson, in Boston. However, his culinary skills haven't impressed, as he admits struggling to knock-up edible meals for vegetarian Zendaya. Speaking to the Dish podcast, which is presented by former Radio 1 Breakfast Show host Nick Grimshaw and Michelin star chef Angela Hartnett, he said: 'I'm starting to like, venture into a lot of vegetarian cooking. 'My girlfriend's vegetarian, so I've been in Boston these past few weeks and she's been working so I've been doing a lot of the dinners. They haven't been great. 'There's been a few like, let's just order ins. But no, but I really enjoy it. I don't find it stressful at all. I really like it. I need to have a tidy kitchen though.' Tom revealed Zendaya's specialty in the kitchen is an Italian dish favoured by celebrities. He added: 'I actually love Zendaya's spicy vodka fusilli thingymajiggy that she does. And it is delicious. Yeah. It's really good. The vodka doesn't really do much though.' Tom insisted dating a fellow actor has big plus points, especially when it comes to being able to stay with each other on location and communicate hidden messages with just one look. In fact, Tom says being with Zendaya, who has also starred in The Greatest Showman and last year's Challengers, is the 'best thing that's ever happened to me.' He said: 'Studios love it, one hotel room. Separate drivers. We're not crazy now. Listen it's work, alright?! Oh God, yeah. It's a saving grace. Yeah, best thing that's ever happened to me. 'But it's just that perfect thing when you're on set and a director will give you a note that maybe you don't agree with, or I know that she doesn't particularly like, and it's just that like familiar glance at each other of like, can't wait to talk about that later.' Despite launching non-alcoholic beer brand BERO this year, which was a project close to his heart following his sobriety journey, Tom admits starting another new business is not on his radar. He said acting is still very much his future and he is 'excited' to start filming Christopher Nolan's next film, which also stars Zendaya. Tom said: 'I don't foresee myself becoming like an entrepreneur and like building companies. It comes after last month Tom revealed that he was spending Christmas with Zendaya and her family but intends to unite both their loved ones for a joint festive bash next year (pictured in May) 'This is so personal to me that it felt like it was something I should do. Like if I wanted to start, I don't know, like a leisurewear brand, like no one needs another leisurewear brand. You know? Um, so, and, and with acting, like I love acting. 'One of the beautiful aspects of it is that you can dip out. But I haven't worked for three years.' On his next project, he said: 'It hasn't started shooting. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't know anything about it. I'm super excited. Um, everything is very very hush hush. 'I met with him. It was awesome. He kind of loosely pitched what it was. And I'm sure when he's ready, he'll announce what it is. Yeah. It's a film with Christopher Nolan.' Jennifer Aniston showcased her incredible age-defying body while sporting a tiny string bikini for her annual trip to Cabo, Mexico with her pals on Tuesday. The 55-year-old flaunted her flat midriff in her coral triangle bikini top, paired with blue swimsuit bottoms. Her celeb pal Jason Bateman, also 55, was also on hand for the yearly trip. He was seen lounging nearby, basking in the sunshine. The star was wearing the same swimsuit she wore 13 years prior - while on holiday in the same resort city with her then-fiance Justin Theroux. Jennifer even re-wore the same sarong she donned at the same 2013 holiday. Jennifer Aniston showcased her incredible age-defying body while sporting a tiny string bikini for her annual trip to Cabo, Mexico with her pals The 55-year-old flaunted her flat midriff in her coral triangle bikini top, paired with blue swimsuit bottoms Jennifer married Justin on August 5, 2015 after dating for four years; they announced their in February 2018 - after separating in late 2017. The A-lister was spotted taking off her sarong to reveal her toned physique to enjoy sunbathing with her friends. She rocked sunglasses with her caramel highlighted locks loose around her for a low-key vacation look. Jason sat nearby with his shirt and sunglasses on, before taking them off to take a quick dip in the warm waters. The star also threw a football around with a pal, as he showed off his chiseled frame. Jennifer was late seen chatting with pals while rocking a skintight white tank top and low-slung gray shorts. The Friends star added a straw hat and sunglasses for her casual ensemble. She put her flat stomach on display in her fit. Jennifer spoke to Today.com about her fitness routine, revealing that she focused on strength training. The star was wearing the same swimsuit she wore 13 years prior - while on holiday in the same resort city with her then-fiance Justin Theroux The A-lister was spotted taking off her sarong to reveal her toned physique to enjoy sunbathing with her friends She rocked sunglasses with her caramel highlighted locks loose around her for a low-key vacation look Jason sat nearby with his shirt and sunglasses on, before taking them off to take a quick dip in the warm waters The star also threw a football around with a pal, as he showed off his chiseled frame Jason wore black swimsuit bottoms with his baseball cap Jason showed off his bulging biceps as he playfully tossed a football around The movie star hired personal trainer Dani Coleman to help get her strength back up after she said she dealt with injuries that flared up. 'At the beginning of the year, I had a couple of injuries just due to old stuff that flared up again. So we kind of worked around it,' Jennifer told the outlet. She worked on her strength training consistently until she felt like she was back to herself. The fitness method Pvolve, which Jennifer has been a spokesperson for since 2023, has her fitness routine available to try. Her Strength Redefined challenge will be available between January 6 through February 17. Jennifer noted: 'There's more awareness lately around the importance of muscle mass versus just cardio,' especially 'in terms of the importance of muscle mass, especially as we get older to prevent osteoporosis to support our bones.' Jennifer has previously said she does Pvolve five days a week. She told Today.com that five days a week is ideal, but she tries for a minimum 3-4 gym sessions. Her workout regime is cardio intense, while she also attends 10-to-20 minute Pvolve classes. Pvolve is a science-led workout method that combines low-impact functional fitness with resistance-based equipment, she has said. Jennifer was late seen chatting with pals while rocking a skintight white tank top and low-slung gray shorts The Friends star added a straw hat and sunglasses for her casual ensemble Jennifer appeared very passionate about their conversation during the beach trip, with the star spreading her arms mid-conversation to emphasize her point Jennifer wore only piece of jewelry - a gold ring - opting to keep her look minimalist She took off her sarong to reveal her blue bottoms, opting for a mismatched bikini look The star seemed to enjoy her New Year vacation Her and her pals seen relaxing during their holiday Jennifer made sure to stay hydrating, as she was seen carrying a large water bottle Jennifer flaunted her flat stomach during the Tuesday outing Jason looked handsome walking around in a polo shirt and shorts - paired with a belt and cap That is how she stays a reported 117lbs at 5ft5in. The Emmy winner talked to InStyle about how she has beaten her body up over the past 15 years in order to look Hollywood perfect but it has taken a toll on her. While talking up her collaboration with fitness brand Pvolve, she said now her mindset around health has shifted. That means she no longer does exercises that are 'too repetitive' - like being on a StairMaster for hours. 'When you're in a mindset of, "I need to do 45 minutes of cardio or I won't get a good workout," it's daunting,' she shared with the site. 'I believed it for so long. I just burnt out and broke my body.' Sometimes she just worked out too hard. And a therapist had to point it out. 'My physical therapist gave me a Barbie doll that's covered in Kinesio tape,' she shared. 'It's a silly mental image until you realize the purpose of all that tape is 'to show every injury I've had in the last 15 years.' How she cultivates the right workout vibe: 'I much prefer working out with friends,' she admitted. 'Doing your own workout by yourself, meh. If you get some good music going you can have fun, but I like to be guided. It's too easy for me to do things less correctly than I should.' The movie star hired personal trainer Dani Coleman to help get her strength back up after she said she dealt with injuries that flared up She told Today.com that she does the 80/20 diet, where 80% of the time its healthy, nutrient dense foods, and 20% cheat meals. Last year Jennifer said she loves a 'cheat day' and will sip on a dirty martini cocktail when the mood takes her. The Emmy winner is committed to a healthy and holistic lifestyle and follows a high-protein, low-carb and low-sugar diet. Aniston will reward herself with cheat days when she wants to enjoy her favorite foods and drinks. Her alcoholic tipple of choice is the martini mix, which is made with gin and vermouth and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. A source told Us Weekly magazine: 'Jen's meals are rich in protein with a healthy amount of carbs, and she also indulges in treats and cheat days. 'If she wants to enjoy a dirty martini or tequila, she'll splurge. It's no big deal.' When it comes to relaxing, The Morning Show star practices meditation and makes sure she gets plenty of fresh air with her pet dogs. The source added: 'She meditates, and loves hikes with her dogs.' She told Today.com that she does the 80/20 diet, where 80% of the time its healthy, nutrient dense foods, and 20% cheat meals Jennifer seen in Just Go With It in 2011 In April 2022, the Morning Show actress shared with First For Women magazine how she is able to look so youthful even as she works full time on her acting career and heads up companies like LolaVie Haircare. The 5ft5in cover girl admitted that she keeps her diet in check by starting her day off with warm lemon water and she also takes climbing classes on her stair climber. But the best part of her day is the time she sets aside to meditate, she said. In the section titled Curbs Cravings: Breakfast With A Twist, the blonde beauty said: 'During quarantine I loved cooking.' The Cake actress added: 'When I wake up I have warm lemon water, then a shake or avocado and eggs. I found ways to make eggs every which way.' The ex-wife of Oscar-winning actor Brad Pitt then shared: 'But I also do oatmeal with an egg white whipped in. Do it right before the oatmeal is finished cooking - it gives extra protein and this fluffy texture that's delicious.' Vallejo interim police Chief Jason Ta has been selected to be the citys permanent police chief. Vallejo PD courtesy Vallejo has selected its interim police chief, Jason Ta, to permanently lead the citys police department after a robust national search process, City Manager Andrew Murray announced Tuesday. My commitment to the community, city, and department remains steadfast as we continue our journey in elevating the Vallejo Police Department in becoming the Gold Standard of public safety, Ta wrote in a news release. We have come a long way and still have much road ahead. Ta was appointed interim police chief of the North Bay citys embattled department in November 2022 after the previous chief, Shawny Williams, resigned abruptly. Months before, the Vallejo Police Officers Association gave a vote of no confidence in Williams leadership, calling him the king not the chief. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Since 2020, the Vallejo Police Department has been under oversight from the state to reduce unlawful use of force and racial discrimination. Williams had led the department during the fatal police shooting of 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa by a Vallejo officer in June 2020, just over a week after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. Monterrosa had been the 19th person killed by Vallejo police officers since 2010, a 2020 Chronicle investigation found, a relatively high number in a city of only 122,000 people. Thereafter, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a review and reform agreement with Vallejo, requiring the police department to implement reforms related to use of force, racial bias and other police accountability measures. In April, the city and the California Department of Justice entered a new 60-page settlement agreement outlining the path to continue reforms. Ta previously served for more than 27 years at the San Jose Police Department, departing with the rank of captain before joining the Vallejo Police Department in 2021 as deputy chief. The city of Vallejo said in a news release that Ta had, during his tenure as interim police chief, stabilized department staffing levels, adopted new crime-reduction technologies, and led a reform effort with the California Department of Justice. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Ta was selected from three finalists, all persons of color, the city stated. In his new role, Ta will focus on increasing staffing, completing requirements of the California Department of Justice settlement agreement, improving communication between the department and the community, and bringing new attention to issues including violent crime, sideshows, abandoned vehicles and sex trafficking. In recent weeks, Vallejo residents have petitioned for Gov. Gavin Newsom to send California Highway Patrol to support the understaffed police department. Yesterday, Newsom addressed the issue at a news conference on continuing the California Highway Patrol surge in Oakland that Vallejo should contract with the Solano County Sheriffs Office to fill vacant positions rather than hoping to get the state to do it for free. I just want the folks in Vallejo to know, youre not getting the CHP to do the work of local law enforcement, Newsom said. Disgraced rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs' inner circle speak out about his criminal allegations in an explosive new documentary. The film 'Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy' gives insight into the mogul's decades long career and never-before-seen footage of him. Diddy insiders, such as a childhood friend, a former bodyguard and a Making the Band winner give interviews in the Peacock special. His former Uptown Records label mate Al B. Sure!, who dated Kim Porter before her relationship with Combs, breaks his silence in the documentary. The trailer for the special released on Thursday includes footage of the rapper partying at home and in the studio. 'I've been with Sean for quite a while and I've captured a lot of moments,' one unidentified insider said. 'Anytime a studio or any rooms is [lit with red lighting], he's making love, sex. Some of the girls who were in the room, for sure, they were underage.' 'They said they could ship me off and sell me to anyone,' added an unidentified woman. The film 'Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy' gives insight into the mogul's decades long career and never-before-seen footage of him An insider revealed when Diddy partied with a red light on 'he's making love, sex' The 90-minute documentary will spill on Combs early years, 'his decades-long transformation to Puffy and then to Diddy, with crucial insight into the forces that shaped the man and may have made him a monster,' according to Peacock. 'Sean Combs is a monster,' declares attorney Lisa Bloom in the trailer. Bloom is representing Dawn Richards, who sued the rapper for 'terrorizing and sexually abusing' her in a civil case against Combs. 'Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy' will be available for streaming on January 14 on Peacock. The music mogul remains in federal custody at the notoriously tough Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City awaiting trial. Combs has pleaded not guilty, and in a recent report from Page Six he was said to have appeared in court 'astonishingly thinner' and 'greyer,' after months away from the lavish lifestyle he and his family were accustomed to. Following a months-long investigation by authorities, he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution all of which he denies and a trial date has been set for May 5. Combs was placed on suicide watch during his first week in custody, but was taken off of it shortly after, with his lawyer claiming his client was 'focused and very strong.' Combs was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution He faces a string of sex charges alongside renewed allegations, including a new lawsuit alleging sexual assault against a 13-year-old girl. The new legal filing seen by DailyMail.com claims Diddy had allegedly 'aggressively approached' the young girl with a 'crazed look in his eyes' before sexually assaulting her. She claims an unidentified male celebrity also raped her while Diddy and an unnamed female celebrity watched. The rapper has denied the allegations. His attorneys told DailyMail.com he 'never sexually assaulted anyone' and said the most recent 'barrage of filings' were nothing but 'clear attempts to garner publicity.' Cheyenne and Tahyna Tozzi put on a head-turning display as they both stepped out at Camp Cove in Sydney on New Year's Day. The model sisters stripped down to their swimwear for a sun-soaked day at the beach as they rang in 2025 with some quality family time. Tahyna, who recently sparked rumours of a split with her husband Tristan Macmanus, showed off her incredible figure in a black two-piece. She swept her brunette tresses back into a sleek ponytail as she enjoyed a cooling dip in the sea while she showed off her natural beauty during the outing. Tahyna, 38, appeared to be in jovial spirits as she was seen smiling and laughing with her sister during their family catch-up. She once again did not appear to be wearing her wedding ring, months after it was first claimed that she and Tristan had quietly split earlier this year. Cheyenne and Tahyna Tozzi put on a head-turning display as they both stepped out at Camp Cove in Sydney on New Year's Day Tahyna, who recently sparked rumours of a split with her husband Tristan Macmanus , showed off her incredible figure in a black two-piece Tahyna was joined by her younger sister Cheyenne, 36, who showed off her enviable physique in a plunging beige bikini. She swept a lilac patterned sarong around her waist and completed her stylish beachwear look with a pair of straw sandals. Cheyenne kept her essentials in a colourful blue handbag and added to her stunning features with a bronzed make-up palette. She looked every inch the doting mother as she held hands with her daughter Dahlia De La Lune, six, who she shares with her ex Marlon Teixeira. Cheyenne and Marlon quietly went their separate ways shortly after the model gave birth and they officially confirmed their split in early 2020. Elsewhere, Tahyna and her TV presenter husband Tristan recently sparked rumours that they had split after 10 years together. In September, Tahyna made a rare public appearance at the Australian Women's Film Festival without her wedding ring. It is believed that Tahyna and Tristan had quietly split several months earlier and are focused on co-parenting their children. She swept her brunette tresses back into a sleek ponytail as she enjoyed a cooling dip in the sea while she showed off her natural beauty during the outing She once again did not appear to be wearing her wedding ring, months after it was first claimed that she and Tristan had quietly split earlier this year Tahyna, 38, appeared to be in jovial spirits as she was seen smiling and laughing with her sister during their family catch-up Cheyenne, 36, who showed off her enviable physique in a plunging beige bikini while she wrapped a lilac sarong around her waist Cheyenne kept her essentials in a colourful blue handbag and added to her stunning features with a bronzed make-up palette She looked every inch the doting mother as she held hands with her daughter Dahlia De La Lune, six, who she shares with her ex Marlon Teixeira Elsewhere, Tahyna and her TV presenter husband Tristan recently sparked rumours that they had split after 10 years together when she was seen without her wedding ring on The pair haven't been pictured together on social media since April last year, when Tristan shared a birthday tribute to his former wife. 'Happy birthday to this absolute superstar/smoke shop!! We love you so much, thanks for making all our lives so much better and happier,' he wrote at the time. Tristan and Tahyna tied the knot in 2014 and the pair have three children together - Echo Isolde, seven, Oisin Lir, four, and Tadhg, two. Daily Mail Australia contacted Tristan and Tahyna for comment at the time. Charlize Theron kicked off 2025 by showcasing her statuesque 5ft10in figure on the patio of her vacation home in Los Cabos, Mexico on Wednesday. The Oscar winner easily defied her 49 years wearing a black one-piece swimsuit, which featuring a striped cut-out at the waist and halter neckline. Charlize wore chic shades over her youthful complexion and styled her signature short blonde locks into a tiny ponytail. Theron appeared to be bringing a platter with chips and salsa over to the sun loungers where her live-in mother Gerda Maritz was already relaxing. The South African stunner and Gerda co-parent her two daughters - Jackson, 12; and August, 9 - whom she adopted in 2012 and 2015, respectively. 'They're so embarrassed by me constantly,' Charlize lamented to E! News last July. Charlize Theron kicked off 2025 by showcasing her statuesque 5ft10in figure on the patio of her vacation home in Los Cabos, Mexico on Wednesday 'They're kids, they're girls, you know? I have a preteen and I feel like I have a nine-year-old who thinks she's a 13-year-old. It's a lot of girl in our house. I'm just trying to keep my head above water, because they are smart and they are witty and they are firecrackers. 'But they do not go, "Oh my god, Mom, you're so amazing!" They're like, "Excuse me, I need. I want." They're normal kids. They're a**holes, but they're really nice. Other parents know what I'm talking about.' At one point, Theron bent over her sun lounger in order to grab a black quilted backpack emblazoned with a large Yves Saint Laurent logo. The Into the Fire producer hasn't publicly dated anyone since ending her six-month engagement to two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn back in 2015. On the career front, Charlize will soon begin her role as a rock climber faced with Taron Egerton's psychopath in Baltasar Kormakur's wilderness thriller Apex, which will eventually stream on Netflix. Theron is rumored to be playing the enchantress Circe in Christopher Nolan's big-screen adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, which is expected to start shooting early this year. On December 26, The InSneider reported that the Greek myth epic will be 'the most expensive film of Nolan's career' compared to The Dark Knight, which had a budget between $250M-300M. Zendaya, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong'o are also slated to star in the Universal Pictures flick hitting IMAX theaters on July 17, 2026. It's been nearly two years since the Emmy nominee wrapped her role as the oldest immortal warrior Andromache 'Andy' of Scythia in Victoria Mahoney's superhero sequel The Old Guard 2, and Netflix still hasn't announced a release date. The Oscar winner easily defied her 49 years wearing a black one-piece swimsuit, which featuring a striped cut-out at the waist and halter neckline Charlize wore chic shades over her youthful complexion and styled her signature short blonde locks into a tiny ponytail Theron appeared to be bringing a platter with chips and salsa over to the sun loungers where her live-in mother Gerda Maritz (M) was already relaxing The South African stunner and Gerda co-parent her two daughters - Jackson, 12; and August, 9 - whom she adopted in 2012 and 2015, respectively (pictured September 19) Charlize lamented to E! News last July: 'I have a preteen and I feel like I have a nine-year-old who thinks she's a 13-year-old. It's a lot of girl in our house. I'm just trying to keep my head above water, because they are smart and they are witty and they are firecrackers' At one point, Theron bent over her sun lounger in order to grab a black quilted backpack emblazoned with a large Yves Saint Laurent logo The Into the Fire producer hasn't publicly dated anyone since ending her six-month engagement to two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn back in 2015 Charlize will soon begin her role as a rock climber faced with Taron Egerton's (pictured December 5) psychopath in Baltasar Kormakur's wilderness thriller Apex, which will eventually stream on Netflix Theron is rumored to be playing the enchantress Circe in Christopher Nolan's big-screen adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, which is expected to start shooting early this year (painting of Circe and Ulysses) On December 26, The InSneider reported that the Greek myth epic will be 'the most expensive film of Nolan's career' compared to The Dark Knight, which had a budget between $250M-300M (pictured December 10) It's been nearly two years since the Emmy nominee wrapped her role in Victoria Mahoney's superhero sequel The Old Guard 2, and Netflix still hasn't announced a release date 'Netflix went through quite a changeover,' Charlize explained to Variety last July. 'We got kind of stuck in that and our post-production shut down, I think, five weeks into it. They were going through a lot of changes, and I totally understand it. We finally picked it back up and I'm really excited about it.' Theron executive produced the small-screen adaptation of Greg Rucka's 2017 graphic novel which will also feature Uma Thurman, KiKi Layne, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Matthias Schoenaerts, Van Veronica Ngo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Henry Golding. Gina Prince-Bythewood's original 2020 film The Old Guard received a 'certified fresh' 80% critic approval (out of 286 reviews) rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Afghan refugees returning voluntarily from Pakistan wait at the UNHCR centre in Nowshera The space in which refugee Shaharzad has to live has shrunk to the small courtyard of a guesthouse in Pakistan's capital, reminiscent of her life under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. She fears being swept up in a wave of anti-Afghan sentiment, including reports of harassment, extortion and arrests by Pakistan authorities who have cracked down on mainly undocumented families living there. "For Afghans, the situation here is terrible and the behaviour of the Pakistani police is like that of the Taliban," said Shaharzad, who lives in constant fear of being deported with her children. Her son was recently detained while walking in a park, when "the police asked him for money instead of documents", she said. The government cited spiking militant attacks claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, for a campaign last summer that evicted some 750,000 Afghans, mostly undocumented. In recent months, however, Islamabad and the police have also started alleging Afghan involvement in opposition unrest over the imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan. - 'Scapegoats' - Afghans who are waiting to be relocated to Western nations say they are being caught up in the political tensions. Afghan refugees head towards the Pakistan-Afghanistan Torkham border in November following an expulsion order from Islamabad "After coming here, we feel like we are out of the frying pan and into the fire," said Afghan Mustafa, who is waiting with his family for visas to the United States. The 31-year-old said his family cannot go out freely to buy groceries and medicine for fear of arrest. "If they know you are an Afghan, whether you have the visa or not, they will arrest you or will extort you," he said. More than three years after the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul, the United States and European countries have yet to reopen their embassies there, forcing Afghans to complete their applications from within Pakistan. Shaharzad was told to travel to Pakistan by a European nation that said it would process her onward visa from the capital Islamabad. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry called on Western nations in July to expedite the relocation of more than 44,000 Afghans living in Pakistan and awaiting relocation to the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and Britain. Millions of Afghans have travelled to Pakistan over the past four decades, fleeing successive conflicts including the Soviet invasion, a civil war and the post-9/11 US-led occupation. Some 600,000 Afghans have fled to Pakistan since the Taliban government took over again in August 2021 and implemented their austere version of Islamic law. According to UNHCR, Pakistan currently hosts some 1.5 million Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers, alongside more than 1.5 million Afghans of different legal statuses. An Afghan refugee (R) provides biometric verification at a holding centre near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border A campaign to deport undocumented Afghans was launched as political ties between the neighbouring governments frayed and Pakistan's economic and security woes worsened. A wave of political protests in the capital in support of jailed former premier Khan last month saw a new spike of about 30 arrests of Afghans, according to officials. Khan's heartland is in the ethnic Pashtun belt of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which shares close cultural and linguistic ties with Afghan Pashtuns. Muhammad Khan, an Afghan community leader in Islamabad, said the protests were used as a cover to intimidate Afghans. Clashing with the official account, he claimed close to 200 Afghans were arrested over several days, including during raids on guesthouses. "Afghan refugees are the sacrificial lambs for Pakistan's domestic problems and the tensions between the governments in Islamabad and Kabul," Khan said, denying the involvement of Afghans in Pakistani political activities. Pakistan's interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment. - 'Free licence' to extort - Imaan Mazari, a human rights lawyer who defends arrested Afghans in Islamabad courts, said the protests have led to a spike in "racial profiling (of Afghans) in Islamabad and Rawalpindi", just south of the capital. The police have been given "a completely free license to pick up whoever they want, extort them (and) exploit them". The provincial Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who led the recent protests, said hostility towards Afghans has spread to Pakistani Pashtuns. In a letter to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, he accused the police of the "arbitrary rounding up" of "Pashtun labourers in Islamabad" and warned that "such actions risk fostering a sense of alienation and exclusion among communities". The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was "deeply concerned by the alleged ethnic profiling of ordinary Pashtun citizens" and called on Islamabad police to refrain from actions "that create divisions among various communities living in the country". The Afghan embassy in Islamabad has denied any involvement by Afghans in political activities in Pakistan. "This policy (of blaming the Afghans) brings no benefit to Pakistan and will only deepen the mistrust between the two neighbouring countries," it said in a statement. For Afghans in limbo as they wait to be relocated, life has become similar to what they left behind in Afghanistan. "We have become like prisoners, we go out very rarely and only when we really have to," Mustafa said. The soaring price of cocoa has led chocolate-makers to experiment with lab grown alternatives. Mondelez International, which makes Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies and Cadbury chocolate bars, poured funding into start-up Celleste Bio earlier this month, according to The Financial Times. The company uses cell culture technology to grow 100 percent natural cocoa from just one or two beans. Its aim is to 'eliminate the industry's costly reliance on fragile rainforests,' the company says on its website. It comes as the cost of cocoa has continued to grow to dizzying heights, in a rally which started a year ago. At their peak in April, prices for the ingredient surpassed $12,000 per tonne, which was an almost threefold increase from January, the FT reported. Cocoa prices have soared due to poor climate and bean disease in West Africa - which is home to 70 percent of global cocoa production - which has tightened supply. 'If we don't change how we source cocoa, we won't have chocolate in two decades,' Michal Beressi Golomb, chief executive of Celleste Bio, told the outlet. With cell-cultured cocoa, the industry 'won't need to be dependent on nature,' she added. Mondelez International, which makes Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies, poured funding into start-up Celleste Bio earlier this month According to Golomb, record prices and global shortages are driving a surge of interest in cocoa alternatives. 'They're really worried about having a sustainable, consistent supply of quality cocoa,' she said. 'Everybody wants to be part of the party.' The Israeli company, which was established in 2022, is one of several firms looking into how the industry can become less reliant on traditional cocoa production. British food ingredients company Tate & Lyle has also partnered with BioHarvest Sciences to develop sweeteners from synthetic plant-derived molecules, the outlet reported. Others are looking to how to create sweet treats with other natural ingredients. Last year confectioner Fazer, which is based in Finland, rolled out a limited edition cocoa-free 'chocolate' made from local malted rye and coconut oil. 'Nearly four years ago, research told us climate change would impact the availability and price of cocoa,' Annika Porr from Fazer Confectionery's Forward Lab, told the FT. 'This year it has become a reality.' While cocoa prices may be soaring, lab-grown alternatives still face price pressures - and the challenge of making products appeal to consumers. Celleste Bio aims to reach cost parity with pre-2024 cocoa prices once they are in the market in 2027. Porr added: 'Consumers really expect it to taste and feel similar to traditional cocoa. There is still work to be done.' The soaring price of cocoa has led chocolate-makers to experiment with lab grown alternatives Cocoa prices have soared due to poor climate and bean disease in West Africa - which is home to 70 percent of global cocoa production - which has tightened supply 'If we don't change how we source cocoa, we won't have chocolate in two decades,' said Michal Beressi Golomb, chief executive of Celleste Bio It comes as some confectioners responded to cocoa price rises earlier this year by pitching more non-chocolate treats. Hershey's shipped more non-cocoa treats to retailers this Easter in addition to its traditional Reese's chocolate bunnies and eggs. It introduced a new six-pack of cookies 'n' cream bunnies, offering full-sized Kit Kat lemon crisp bars and mixing Haribo gummy bears with chocolate bars in its assortment bags. But despite moves to pull back from a heavy reliance on cocoa, large scale confection-makers said they would not be willing to sacrifice taste in order to save money. 'Tinkering now with the recipes and flavor profiles simply because the input cost for cocoa has gone up, in my opinion, would be a mistake,' Nestle Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider said on call with journalists in February. Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL)leading power utility supplying electricity to a populace of around 9 million in North & Northwest part of Delhi, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Delhi Police, for enhancing public safety awareness across the National capital. Under the MoU, the two parties will work together to produce content on a variety of safety issues. Punjab has the potential to harness artificial intelligence as a cornerstone for global competitiveness and unprecedented growth and bring about substantial gains Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept confined to science fiction; it is a transformative force redefining governance globally. For a state like Punjab, rich in culture and potential but grappling with multifaceted challenges, embracing AI could be a game-changer. With a technocrat policymaker like Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab is uniquely positioned to leapfrog other states by recognising AI as a critical element for global competitiveness to unlock unprecedented growth.One of the first steps toward AI-driven transformation is the creation of a dedicated Ministry of Artificial Intelligence (MAI). Such a ministry, backed with an Artificial Intelligence policy equipped with adequate budget provisions, could centralise its AI initiatives, ensuring that day-to-day work across multiple departments is well-coordinated and strategically aligned. The ministry could also promote AI literacy among citizens, emphasising the benefits of AI and addressing any potential concerns or ethical challenges. A robust policy framework led by MAI could position Punjab among innovative states. States like Telangana have already set an example by launching an AI mission to drive AI adoption across governance, healthcare, and agriculture. Punjab can adapt these learnings to build a robust AI ecosystem that attracts accountability and efficiency. Fostering Accountability and EfficiencyAI is not a replacement for human effort but a tool to support it. AI can free up human resources for more strategic work by automating routine tasks and providing real-time insights. For example, Finland has successfully used AI to improve public services, ensuring accountability and efficiency in governance without overburdening employees. Punjabs administration can similarly use AI to track project progress, measure outcomes, and enhance transparency. AI can also play a vital role in curbing corruption, a long-standing issue in governance. By using AI algorithms to analyse patterns in financial transactions and detect anomalies, the government can identify and address instances of mismanagement or fraud. Such measures save resources and build public trust in the governance. Empowering Citizens Through AI Successful implementation of AI empowers citizens. AI-driven e-governance platforms can simplify administrative processes, making it easier for people to access government services. For example, AI chatbots can assist citizens in filing complaints, applying for permits, or seeking information, significantly reducing bureaucratic delays. AI can enhance public safety by enabling predictive policing and improving disaster management systems. By analysing data on crime patterns and natural disasters, AI can help authorities take preventive measures, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Punjabs residents. Revolutionising Key Sectors -AI can be the cornerstone for transformation in Punjabs key sectors: 1. Health: AI-powered diagnostic tools can revolutionise healthcare delivery in Punjab, especially in rural areas with limited access to quality healthcare. Tamil Nadus use of AI to predict disease outbreaks and improve maternal healthcare outcomes offers a model worth emulating. Punjabs healthcare system could leverage AI for telemedicine, enabling remote consultations and reducing the burden on overworked medical professionals. Moreover, AI can assist in making cutting-edge treatments more accessible to patients. 2. Education: AI-driven platforms can personalise student learning experiences, addressing individual strengths and weaknesses. For instance, a country like Estonia has integrated AI into its education system to offer tailored teaching, ensuring no student is left behind. Punjab can adopt similar systems to improve education levels and employable skill development. AI can also predict dropout rates and identify at-risk students, enabling timely interventions to keep them in education. Additionally, AI tools can train teachers, equipping them with modern methodologies to enhance classroom engagement. 3. Agriculture: Agriculture is Punjabs backbone, but the sector faces multifaceted challenges. AI can optimise irrigation, predict weather patterns, and offer crop-specific advice to farmers. Karnatakas use of AI to predict crop yields and help farmers secure better prices exemplifies how technology can empower agricultural communities. Punjab could take this further by implementing AI-powered precision farming techniques, which use data from drones and sensors to monitor soil health and pest activity, ensuring higher productivity with lower resource consumption. 4. Industry and Infrastructure: For enterprises, AI could bring regulatory clarity or, conversely, added scrutiny in areas such as data sharing, intellectual property and the ethical use of AI. It can streamline manufacturing processes, enhance supply chain efficiency, and improve project monitoring in infrastructure development. Gujarats use of AI to attract investments and facilitate industrial growth shows how a state can harness technology to boost its economy. Punjabs industrial sector could use AI to identify global market trends and adapt its manufacturing capabilities accordingly. In infrastructure, AI can ensure better planning and execution of projects, reducing delays and cost overruns. 5. Resource Mobilisation: AI tools can help Punjabs government enhance efficiency in tax collection, reduce revenue leakages, and improve financial planning. Andhra Pradeshs Real-Time Governance Society (RTGS) uses AI to monitor and optimise resource allocation, providing a blueprint for Punjab to follow. AI can also assist in identifying untapped revenue streams, enabling the government to fund developmental projects without increasing the financial burden on its citizens. The Way Forward By embracing AI with a comprehensive and forward-thinking approach, Punjab can address its existing challenges and set itself on a path toward sustainable and inclusive growth. The magic of AI lies in its ability to amplify human potential and solve complex problems. Under the visionary leadership of Bhagwant Mann and with the proper policy framework, Punjab can harness this magic to transform its socio-economic landscape. Establishing a dedicated AI ministry, investing in infrastructure, and adopting AI across key sectors will make Punjab a leader in good governance and improve its peoples quality of life. The time to act is now, and Punjab must rise to the challenge to set a precedent for other states to follow. (The Author is Vice-Chairman of Sonalika ITL Group, Vice-Chairman (Cabinet minister rank) of the Punjab Economic Policy and Planning Board, Chairman of ASSOCHAM Northern Region Development Council and President of Tractor and Mechanization Association. Views expressed are personal) Vajpayees vision of a New India, anchored in democratic principles and citizen-centric governance is giving a new look to the education Ten years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set forth his vision of sushasan (good governance), calling it the key to a nations progress. He declared December 25, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayees birth anniversary, as Good Governance Day. Vajpayee had envisioned a New India where the government would embody the principles of democracy and development, emphasising citizen-centric decision-making, transparency, and public participation. Put simply, good governance means that the day-to-day functioning of the government is effective, transparent, and accountable, which, in the modern age naturally includes e-governance and digital empowerment. In fact, in the context of a welfare government functioning in a vastly unequal society, good governance is fundamental for ensuring sustainable development, social justice, and the protection of human rights. In 2019, India also adopted a metric called the Good Governance Index (GGI) to track and compare governance among the states and union territories across ten key sectors. The 11th Good Governance Day presents an apt moment to pause and reflect on the state of governance in one of the most critical sectorseducation. Even though Human Resource Development, composed of indicators like quality of education and elementary school retention rate, is one of the ten key sectors covered by the GGI, a close look at Indias education governance reveals substantial room for improvement, particularly at the school level. Vajpayees commitment to education was evident during his tenure as Prime Ministerhe pioneered the landmark Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2002, which emphasised universal school enrollment and went on to form the cornerstone of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Building decisively on this foundation, Prime Minister Modis leadership has elevated education to new heights through bold reforms. The introduction of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, along with the NIPUN Bharat Mission, has revolutionised the approach to foundational learning. This shift is being carefully monitored through multiple assessment initiatives - states have implemented third-party evaluations, while programs like CBSEs SAFAL, the National Achievement Survey, and Gujarats groundbreaking Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) use cutting-edge technology to track progress systematically. These assessment systems have revealed both progress and persistent challenges in our education system. The data highlights critical areas that need attention, particularly in learning outcomes. Various learning surveys show that over 5 crore elementary-grade students lack foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Learning gaps for these children only keep widening as they progress through grades with a weak foundation. It is then unsurprising that almost 33 per cent of Grade VIII students are unable to read simple sentences or do basic arithmetic. Recognising these challenges, PM Modis administration has taken a step through the State School Standards Authority (SSSA), recommended in the NEP 2020, which emerges as a pivotal reform to enhance Indias school governance standards. The proposed SSSA would be an independent quality regulator for all schools, both public and private. One of the key functions of the SA is to ensure public disclosure of school performance data for all schools through a digital portal. With all schools being held to clear and uniform quality standards and policymakers being informed by data-driven insights, educational resources will be used more efficiently. The SA can create a culture of transparency where parents are active participants in their childrens education. With its emphasis on streamlining bureaucracy, focusing on outcomes rather than inputs, and integrating technology to reduce administrative burdens, not only does it embody Prime Minister Modis ideal of minimum government, maximum governance. A pertinent example is the set of eight principles of good governance recommended by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)participation, rule of law, transparency, accountability, equity, effectiveness, consensus, and responsiveness. As the nation observes Good Governance Day, the call to action is clear: states must embrace the SA to realise the shared vision of a New India, where quality education is a right, not a privilege. (The writer is National Spokesperson, BJP; views are personal) India faces new challenges from the Trumps tough stance, spurring urgent talks on tariffs and trade The year gone by saw some crucial path-altering elections in nearly 70 of the most powerful democracies in the world. Some of the most populous countries led by India and including the US, Bangladesh, Indonesia etc. voted for a leadership of their choice in 2024. While the Indian electorate chose to renew another 5-year term for Prime Minister Modi (albeit with a less-than-expected mandate), Bangladesh too renewed its faith in Sheikh Hasina ( who was accused of rigging the electoral process to retain power), which ultimately led to her been thrown out in a coup. In a highly polarised election ground, in the US, the incumbent President a front runner for the top job at the white house, pulled out near the finish line, leaving his second in command the Vice President to throw her hat in the ring against a mighty opponent Donald Trump. The US electorate gave a clear mandate for Donald Trump to lead the new global order for the US. Donald Trumps clear victory in the US elections, now potentially could lead to several multilateral, bilateral rejigs, around the globe. President-elect has already nominated several friends and allies from the past, in some of the top jobs. He has threatened high tariffs for Canada and Mexico while joking that the former is another state of the US. He has strong views on Indias trade surplus with the US which is already an issue of concern for Indian officials. Several Indian ministries were in a huddle in the last week of the year 2024, trying to assess the amount of exports from their respective sectors, while looking at the tariffs imposed on US imports. New Delhi-based policy research institute Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) spent the last day of the year discussing Trade Tariff and Trump. Several recommendations were made by the panel of experts regarding the future of India-US bilateral trade relations. A press release from the event highlighted in the first paragraph that India should have comprehensive engagement with the US, as new administration led by President-elect Trump takes over. India should explore a comprehensive new institutional framework to address the multiple issues that arise from trade, investment, technology and finance linkages. India should urgently consider appointing a Task Force or create other institutional mechanisms that bring in domestic policy coherence on these lines. In an unrelated development, Indias External Affairs Minister Jaishankar spent the last week of the year in the US, meeting key presidential nominees for the incoming Trump administration and also attending the last foreign affairs ministers meeting under President Biden, even though QUAD as the framework was empowered by Trump Presidency 1.0. The policy research institute RIS has cautioned to not respond with any knee-jerk reactions, to possible volatile statements emerging from Washington, immediately after President Trumps swearing-in, instead, it suggests India may need to plan first, plan hard, and yet plan fast. An agile, business approach may be the best way forward to dealing with the incoming administration. It may also be worthwhile to note that the Indian government should reconsider some of the non-tariff barriers it imposes on imports in the form of regulatory compliances and compulsory testing etc. To avert losses, tie up with our US importers need to be strengthened so that they lobby for their own needs. However, low technology products have high US tariffs. We may be left with an avenue there to improve our participation in the value chains being built up in the US manufacturing sector. A diversification of markets for Indian products may be needed, which could also have a sectoral focus. India can focus on exporting a certain bunch of products to say the Gulf Nations or the ASEAN group of countries depending on the price advantage. Some hedges need to be built to prevent any major hit of Trump tariffs. (The writer is a policy analyst; views are personal) There is a pressing need for parliamentary reforms to ensure discipline, decorum and efficiency as a lot of parliamentary time is simply wasted The Parliaments productivity in the recent Winter Session was a record low, with only 52 per cent of scheduled work completed. Various factors, including disruptions and lack of quorum, contributed to the reduced output. The confrontation between the treasury benches and a belligerent Opposition continued throughout. The current performance highlights the challenges in maintaining productivity. The Opposition, in particular, wanted to discuss the Adani issue. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has been raising the issue in public. It is a matter of significant public interest due to its implications. Also, the Opposition asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to apologize for his comments about Dr BR Ambedkar, a highly respected figure in Indian history. The government was not willing to be flexible. With a productivity of merely 40.03 per cent during the Winter session. Lok Sabha passed four of the five bills it received. Rajya Sabha approved 3 bills. During this session, the Lok Sabha lost 65 hours and 15 minutes, the highest in 2024. Many requests for adjournment motions made in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were not accepted. The 18th Lok Sabha is different in many respects. For the first time in a decade, we have a strong opposition with an official leader of Opposition (LOP). The bitterness between parties within and outside Parliament is increasing. Neither side is willing to accommodate. Discipline, decorum and dignity of Parliament are of paramount importance. The pressing need for parliamentary reforms is more evident than ever, and action is needed now. Over Rs 97,87,50,000 of taxpayers money was spent during the Winter Session. The cost of running a Parliament session is over Rs 2.5 lakh per minute, a considerable burden on the exchequer, which should prompt reevaluating our parliamentary practices. The Parliaments high cost and low productivity must be addressed sooner or later. House is often adjourned many times a day. In the last five decades, it has increased by over 100 times. This underlines the need to address the issue. For instance, Parliament saw protests from the ruling BJP-led NDA and the aggressive Opposition INDIA Bloc. BJP MPs accused the Congress party of insulting Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and INDIA Bloc MPs demanded the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his comments about Ambedkar. The escalating conflict over this issue resulted in two injuries and police involvement. Political parties should focus on honouring Ambedkars legacy instead of blaming each other.Other bills include the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal) Bill, the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, the Bills of Lading Bill, the Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill, the Railways (Amendment) Bill, the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, and the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment Bill. The government also introduced a controversial bill, One Nation, One Poll. While the MPs are called lawmakers, Bills have been passed amidst the din and noise without proper discussion. The decreasing time available for parliamentary debates is detrimental to democracy. Protests, adjournments, and shortened sessions have lost nearly half of the sessions. Parliamentarians question the government, elicit information, and check it mainly through the Question House. Short Notice questions, calling attention, and adjournment motions all check the executive. But all these are relevant only when the House runs. More efforts need to be made to establish the success of a parliamentary system: Discipline, character, and a strong sense of public morality. The need for comprehensive and immediate parliamentary reforms is more evident than ever, and the time for action is now. All stakeholders, including political analysts and citizens, must understand the urgency of the system.All stakeholders, from political parties to citizens interested in governance and parliamentary affairs, should feel this urgency. Economic reforms are imperative to ensure sustainable economic growth. The role of Parliament is linked with the new economic policy, which should lead to a drastic reduction in the role of the State.Professionalising floor management techniques is crucial to ensuring Parliaments efficient functioning. While we can legitimately be proud of the reasonably successful work of Parliament during the last five decades, Parliament must function in step with the needs of the changing times. We must proceed carefully and cautiously and evolve a national consensus on desirable changes. After all, Parliament is the communication link between the people and the government. The solution lies in adopting healthy parliamentary practices and maintaining decorum and discipline, which are crucial for dignified conduct in the Parliament. For this, both the government and the Opposition must cooperate. (The writer is a popular columnist; views are personal) Colleen and Dan Kees work on their Halloween display in the Lego lab in their San Jose garage on Oct. 27. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle The inside of Dan and Colleen Kees San Jose garage is packed with thousands of tiny plastic bricks. But theyre far from just clutter. Crucial components of the couples self-proclaimed Lego lab, the bricks are stored and organized in floor-to-ceiling drawers that line the space and surround a huge worktable where the two piece together both store-bought Lego sets and their own creations. Through a door leading into their home is a row of staggered shelves showcasing some of their favorite sets, including pirate ships, London Bridge and a rocket ship. Theres even a custom Lego portrait of their dog, Ghirardelli, who recently passed away. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Dan may be 51 and Colleen 54, but they both love Lego. The pair are part of a large and thriving community of adult fans of Lego also known as AFOLs who appreciate constructing the small plastic bricks as an art form. Dan Kees works on a Halloween Lego display. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Two Lego Minifigures take a boat ride in the Keeses Halloween Lego display. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Dan and Colleen Kees with a Lego mural of their recently deceased dog, Ghirardelli. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle A scene from the Keeses Halloween Lego display. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle A Lego owl spreads its wings in the Lego lab. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Dan and Colleen Kees work in their Lego lab in San Jose. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Legos organized in storage bins in Dan and Colleen Kees collection. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Nick Micheels designed Twilight: Cullen House as a submission to the Lego Ideas competition. Now Lego plans to make his set a reality. Courtesy o Nick Micheels Nick Micheels designed Twilight: Cullen House as a submission to the Lego Ideas competition. Courtesy of Nick Micheels. Nick Micheels designed Twilight: Cullen House as a submission to the Lego Ideas competition. Courtesy of Nick Micheels. Nick Micheels designed Twilight: Cullen House as a submission to the Lego Ideas competition. Courtesy of Nick Micheels. Lego Masters host Will Arnett, left, with contestants Sam and Neena in the Roller Coaster Madness episode. FOX Image Collection via Getty Images In 2021, a group of Bay Area artists collaborated with Washington-based Theatre Battery to develop a Lego stop-motion animated web series, Lego Harry Potter and the Transgender Witch, and even Grammy-winning musician Pharell Williams is in on the action, sharing his appreciation for the bricks with his 2024 Lego documentary Piece by Piece. Eager to connect with other AFOLs in their community, the Keeses joined Bay Lego User Group, a meetup community that organizes gatherings and events for builders in the Bay Area. Russell Clark, 49, founded the group after meeting fellow Lego fans in Golden Gate Park during the Danish toy companys 25th anniversary tour in the late 1990s. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Its all about the friendships, he said. Dan Kees in his Lego lab. Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle Now Clarks group has turned 26 years old and boasts roughly 250 members. Its a buzzing community that allows builders of all generations to connect. Were mentors to the next generation of little hands, Clark said with pride. Though the group does have events geared specifically toward adult members, its open embrace is something that many, like the Keeses, have come to value. Advertisement Article continues below this ad I think thats nice specifically about BayLUG, Colleen said. They grasp the whole age gap from children to adults. Not all AFOLs, though, are members of large groups. Sacramentos Nick Micheels, 32, is a skilled builder who has managed to get one of his creations developed into an official Lego set. Indulging in the romance fantasy series Twilight with his wife during the pandemic sparked an idea: a 2010s nostalgia-filled Twilight Lego set. Lego plans to make Nick Micheels Twilight: Cullen House into a set available for purchase. Courtesy o Nick Micheels He submitted his design, which was based on Edward Cullens vampire familys home, to Lego Ideas in February 2023. The global contest, which started in 2008, allows people to create and enter their own sets and have fans vote on their favorites. His creation was one of two sets that have been greenlit for production, picked from a record-breaking pool of 71 finalists that were reviewed by Lego experts. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Its so many dreams coming true all at once, Micheels told the Chronicle. Ever since I was a kid, I was always fascinated by people who can make something out of nothing or make something out of really abstract pieces. Micheels has two young stepchildren, but he admits neither of them enjoy Lego as much as he does. I dont get as much sleep as I should, he said. I often work on Lego projects at night ironically, when the kids go to bed. Sacramento resident Nick Micheels Lego Twilight creation is set to hit shelves in 2025. Courtesy of Nick Micheels. Much like the Keeses, Micheels has been a fan of Lego since childhood, and has slowly gotten his wife, Laura, into building. She said theyve even started spending time making Lego creations as a family now. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Its very fun and its just brought us kinda closer, she said. Though the Keeses dont have any children, theyve found their own way to connect with younger generations through their passion for Lego. The kids in the neighborhood know that were the Lego house, Colleen said, and every October she and Dan put together a Legoween display in their garage building space and open it to the public. Judges Jamie Berard, left, and Amy Corbett with host Will Arnett and Lego Masters contestants in the Bricks & All (Clip Show) episode. Fox The growing numbers of AFOLs prompted the Lego Group to license Foxs competition show Lego Masters. Currently in its fifth season, the show provides adult builders with a platform to showcase their skills. Hosted by actor Will Arnett, the movie voice of Lego Batman in the Lego Movie franchise, each episode challenges contestants with a task such as building wearable Lego hats, re-creating scenes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or designing cat houses. More Information Lego Masters (TV-PG) airs 6 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox. We found, even in very early days of casting, there was this vibrant community of Lego artists that took their craft very seriously. They were intellectuals, they were comedic they were very cerebral in their approach to building with Lego bricks, said Lego Masters executive producer Michael Heyerman. The amazing stories they were able to tell with the bricks absolutely blew our minds. Throughout the fall, the Keeses have been busy working on designs for BayLUGs annual holiday show, carving out extra building time into their schedules. Nick Micheels has been a fan of Lego since childhood. Courtesy of John Micheels Meanwhile, Micheels is experiencing what its like to work for Lego firsthand, as he continues to work with the companys designers to get his Twilight creation ready for consumers. It takes roughly a year from when a design is selected to be developed to when it hits shelves, and Micheels' set is expected to release on Feb. 1. The Lego Group to me is kind of like working at Willy Wonkas factory, Micheels said with a laugh. Its like this magical place where Im like, Dont even pay me, just let me live there! West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Border Security Force (BSF) of letting infiltrators from Bangladesh enter India and charged the BSF with trying to destabilise the state. Stating that she could sense a "blueprint of the central government behind this attitude of the BSF", Banerjee also accused a section of District Magistrates and SPs of helping the border guards in their illegal act. Reacting to the allegations, Union minister Sukanta Majumdar flayed the Chief Minister and said that said she has reached the "ultimate level of delusion". Majumdar alleged that according to Banerjee, the "incompetent" district magistrates and superintendents of police under her administration are allowing foreign criminals to infiltrate the border to kill the elected representatives of her party. "Until now, she used to hold the opposition responsible for such incidents. But why this sudden shift in Mamata Banerjee's narrative? Is she trying to shield the misdeeds of her party's looter, criminal representatives by making such claims?" the member of Parliament from West Bengal's Balurghat asked. The Trinamool Congress supremo claimed that it was a conspiracy to blame the TMC for the infiltration issue. "If someone thinks of destabilising the state and blaming it on the Trinamool Congress, I would say that it is not done by TMC as (border) areas are controlled by the BSF and not by the TMC. Some media channels are trying to spread this for the sake of their TRP," she said. Banerjee also alleged that goons are entering the state from across the border, killing people and going back. "We have got information that the BSF is letting infiltrators enter India through Islampur, Sitai, Chopra and several other bordering areas. The BSF is also torturing women and trying to destabilise the state," Banerjee said at an administrative review meeting at the state secretariat Nabanna'. "Border security is not our responsibility and BSF looks after this. Visa is not our matter but that of the central government. We used to get the list of who were taking flights to come here, but now it has been stopped. So, we do not know who all are coming," she said. This is a deep-rooted conspiracy of the BSF and the central government has a blueprint for it. If there was no blueprint of the Centre, it would not have happened, she said. "There is no bad relationship between the two Bengals (West Bengal and Bangladesh). We speak the same language and we follow a similar way of lifestyle. People across the border can come here for treatment. But we should be informed," she stated. The CM asserted that she had told the Centre several times that she would follow whatever decision it would take on the situation in Bangladesh. But if I see that someone is helping terrorism to disturb my state, we will have to protest, Banerjee said adding that she would send a strongly worded letter to the Centre in this regard. "But why didn't you people (DM, SPs) protest this act of the BSF? I will ask DGP Rajeev Kumar to find out through which spots they had entered the state and where these people stay. The police get information of infiltrations. But (a section of) the DMs and SPs have not shared any information with us. They have not carried out their responsibility properly," Banerjee said. The Bengal CM directed the DGP to share a detailed report on the matter as she has planned to send a protest letter to the Centre. "Rajeev Kumar has shared some information and also some inputs from the locals. But I want detailed information on this to understand why this is being done. I will be writing a strong letter (to the Centre). I want to have peace on both sides of the border," she said. All eyes are on the massive Mahapanchayat scheduled for January 4 at the Khanauri protest site in Punjab, where over two lakh farmers are expected to congregate in a powerful display of unity and defiance. The gathering comes amid a prolonged standoff between the farmers and the government, with farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewals hunger strike entering its 38th day. This pivotal meeting is anticipated to set the course for the farmers future strategy, as they remain steadfast in their demands for a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) and other key issues. The Mahapanchayat is not just a gathering but a call to arms for Indias agrarian community. Farmer leaders from across states are expected to join forces, amplifying their collective voice against what they see as the governments apathy towards their plight. The event will also be a platform for Dallewal to address the nation. Dallewals fast unto death has not only captured national attention but also drawn the Supreme Court into the fray. The apex courts interventions have so far failed to resolve the impasse, as Dallewal remains adamant about not receiving medical treatment, despite his deteriorating health. The Punjab government, under intense scrutiny, has set up a makeshift hospital near the protest site and deployed a team of 50 doctors to monitor his condition. Yet, the hunger-striking leaders unyielding stance underscores the gravity of the farmers demands and their frustration with the governments lack of response. The January 4 Mahapanchayat at Khanauri border is poised to be a historic gathering, uniting farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and other states in solidarity. The event aims to amplify the farmers demands, include a legal guarantee for MSP, debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, opposition to the proposed Agricultural Marketing Policy draft, and assurances against the reintroduction of the repealed farm laws. Farmer leaders have emphasized that the Mahapanchayat will be a peaceful yet powerful show of strength, with Dallewal expected to deliver a crucial message about the movements future. Preparations for the Mahapanchayat are in full swing, with farmer unions mobilizing support from villages and towns. The event is seen as a critical juncture in the ongoing protest, which has drawn comparisons to the 2020-21 farmers movement that forced the repeal of controversial farm laws. The mega event is scheduled about four days after the Punjab bandh, on the call given by farmers, put the state to a grinding halt. Besides the Mahapanchayat, the farmers plan to mark Sikh master Guru Gobind Singhs prakash parv (birth anniversary) on January 6 at the Shambhu border. The Supreme Court, during a hearing on Thursday, took a stern view of the Punjab Governments inability to persuade Dallewal to accept medical aid. The Court expressed concerns about the situation deteriorating deliberately and criticized irresponsible statements by some farmer leaders. While acknowledging the complexity of the issue, the Court refrained from issuing direct orders to end the hunger strike, instead seeking a compliance report on Dallewals health. Punjabs Advocate General informed the court that Dallewal might consider medical intervention if the Central Government initiates talks. However, farmer leaders clarified that no decision had been made, as Dallewals fast is symbolic of the farmers disillusionment with the governments indifference. Farmer leader and Dallewals close aide Abhimanyu Kohar reiterated the movements respect for constitutional institutions but criticized the Governments perceived apathy. Kohar accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of prioritizing meetings with celebrities over addressing the concerns of Indias farmers. The Prime Minister has time to meet artists but not a farmer leader who has been fasting for 38 days. This shows the governments lack of regard for the very people who ensure the nations food security, Kohar said. The farmers alleged that the government is trying to revive the repealed farm laws through the backdoor by introducing the draft Agricultural Marketing Policy. They also accused the Centre of failing to engage with stakeholders meaningfully, despite the Supreme Courts reminders about the importance of dialogue. The political tussle between the BJP and AAP escalated on Thursday as both parties engaged in a poster war, accusing each other of voter fraud ahead of the upcoming Delhi assembly polls in a bid to sway public opinion. The development came amid an intensifying feud between the two parties where AAP recently accused the BJP of voter deletions and cash distribution to buy votes and in return BJP slammed AAP over alleged vote rigging. The BJP released a poster targeting AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, titled "Farzi Voters Se Ishq Hai" (love for fake voters). The poster, inspired by the design of the popular web series 'Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story', replaced the series title with the caption "Voter List Me Scam 2024" (Scam in the Voter List 2024). "Kejriwal's new game in Delhi! Attempt to save power by rigging votes. The house owner did not know, and this fraud had created hundreds of votes on his home address, particularly of a specific community, with ages ranging from 40 to 80 years," the BJP alleged in a social media post. The AAP countered the BJPs accusations by sharing a video of Kejriwal labeled G.O.A.T" (greatest of all time), in an attempt to dismiss the allegations. AAP too, shared a poster featuring BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah, accusing the BJP of undermining democracy and tarnishing the legacy of Dr BR Ambedkar. The poster read, "Beware Delhiites. In the new year, you have changed your calendar, but BJP has not changed its character." AAP also alleged in the poster that the BJP was responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation in Delhi. AAP also shared a post which portrayed Kejriwal as the 'Greatest of All Time'. BJP earlier mocked the AAP supremo in a series of posts on X. It released a poster of him dressed in a theatrical priest-like avatar, reminiscent of actor Rajpal Yadavs character in the 2007 film Bhool Bhulaiyaa. The image showed Kejriwal adorned with rudraksha beads, flower garlands, and vermilion on his forehead, with incense sticks tucked behind his ear, in what the BJP described as a staged, election-time display of religiosity. Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva alleged that Kejriwal and his allies are deeply involved in political crimes aimed at systematically ruining Delhi step by step. He pointed fingers specifically at AAPs Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, accusing him of falsely blaming BJP for removing his wife Anita Singhs name from the voter list. He asked Singh to clarify where exactly his votes and those of his wife are registered. Additionally, Sachdeva alleged that Delhi Mayor Mahesh Kumar has arranged for dual voter registrations for his wife, under the names Mamta and Nidhi, at the same address, with identical photos for both entries. Kejriwal has spent the past ten years positioning himself as the champion of fraudulent votes, whether they belong to Bangladeshi Muslims, Rohingyas, or double voters, he said. Meanwhile, Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh called out the BJP for spreading falsehoods, dubbing it the Bharatiya Jhootha Party. He stated, The master party of spreading lies across the world has once again made an attempt to mislead. As a representative of the Aam Aadmi Party, it is our responsibility to counter every single lie of the Bharatiya Jhootha Party. He further claimed that when his party exposed the BJP, they resorted to making laughable allegations, claiming that the AAP is either adding or deleting votes. Responding to the allegation by the BJP of dual voter registration, the senior AAP leader also shared that his wife has already applied for deletion of her name from the voters list on January 4, 2024. In 2013, I wrote to the District Election Officer in Sultanpur, requesting that my name be deleted from the voter list and transferred elsewhere. After that, the municipal elections were conducted under the supervision of the State Election Officer. If my name was still on the voter list for the 2018 municipal elections, it is the employees under CM Yogi who prepared that list. Go talk to them, he said. In a sustained effort to make Delhi drug free following the orders of the Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, the Delhi Police nabbed a drug peddler and recovered 402 grams of heroin from his possession, worth approximately Rs 2.5 crore in the international market in outer North Delhis Narela Industrial Area. According to the police on Thursday, the accused has been identified as 23 year old Sheikh Shahnawaz alias Sohail alias Bura, resident of C-400 Jahangirpuri. Deputy Commission of Police (Outer North) Nidhin Valsan said, The Anti-Narcotics Cell staff is tasked with unearthing illegal drug syndicates and gathering intelligence on drug traffickers operating in the district. Secret informers were deployed to collect information. Based on secret information, a trap was laid by the Anti-Narcotics Cell staff of Outer North District on Wednesday. One person, Sheikh Shahnawaz was nabbed with a bag at Sirka Chowk, J J Colony, Bawana. During the search of his bag, 402 grams of heroin (a commercial quantity) was recovered, the officer added. A case under Section 21 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act on Wednesday was registered at Narela Industrial Area police station. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Thursday flagged off a 13-day educational and recreational tour for orphaned children, officially referred to as "children of the state", under its Sukh Aashray scheme. This is the first batch of children for the tour, comprising 16 girls and six boys. The CM wished them an enriching and memorable journey as they departed in a Volvo bus. On this occasion, Sukhu said that the state government enacted a law for orphaned children and had adopted 6,000 of them under this legislation. "The government launched the Sukh Aashray Yojana to ensure their welfare and provide for their educational needs. This scheme aims to empower these children and support them in becoming self-reliant. As part of this initiative, the children will visit places such as Chandigarh, Delhi, and Goa for exposure and learning, he said. "The group will visit Chandigarh from January 2 to 4 and stay at Himachal Bhawan, Chandigarh. They will then travel to Delhi on January 5 via the Shatabdi Express and explore various historical landmarks until January 8. On January 9, the children will fly to Goa, where they will stay in a three-star hotel and visit key tourist and historic attractions," he said. "They are scheduled to return to Chandigarh on January 14," he added. Sukhu reiterated that the government acts as parents for these children and is committed to ensuring their rightful access to state resources. "The government is providing these children with the same experiences as those who go on trips with their own families. Such exposure adds to their knowledge and prepares them for future opportunities. These children are the future of the nation, and they will definitely play an essential role in the development of the state and the nation," he said. State govt to allocate 22 new hydropower projects of 828 MW capacity: CM Chief Minister Sukhu on Thursday said the state government is set to allocate 22 new hydropower projects with a total capacity of 828 MW. The projects, ranging from 6.5 MW to 400 MW, are located across the districts of Kullu, Chamba, Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti, and Shimla. He said the largest allocation comprising nine projects with a total capacity of 595 MW is planned for the Chenab river basin. Additionally, eight projects totalling 169 MW are earmarked for the Sutlej river basin, four projects with a combined capacity of 55 MW for the Ravi basin and one project with a capacity of 9 MW for the Beas basin. Sukhu said for the first time, the state government would allot these projects to other states, union territories and central and state undertakings. "The projects would be assigned on a 40-year lease with an upfront premium of Rs 10 lakh per megawatt," said the CM. He said that a letter has already been issued by the Energy Directorate to secretaries of states and central undertakings in this regard. He further said that these projects would secure power supply, increase revenue through free electricity and boost employment for local residents. "It will also foster development in the surrounding areas and pave the way for Himachal Pradesh to become one of the most prosperous states in India" he added. A day after Delhi Chief Minister Atishis claim on temple demolition, the Lieutenant Governor Secretariat on Thursday called it a political game with communal overtones being played out and alleged that in 2023, Chief Minister Atishi and then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recommended the demolition of nine temples in different parts of the city. The LG Secretariat was reacting to an allegation made by Aitshi that the BJP-led Central government is planning to bring down some temples and Buddhist places of worship at different locations in Delhi with the approval of the LG. In a press note, the LG Secretariat stated that on February 8, 2023, Arvind Kejriwal, as Chief Minister recommended the demolition of nine temples in different parts of the city and then home minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia approved the recommendations of the Religious Committee for demolition of these nine temples. According to the statement, the LG Secretariat has called out the hoax being run and cheap political games with obvious communal over tones being played out by AAP Leader and MLA Arvind Kejriwal, CM Atishi and the Aam Aadmi Party. Lashing out at the AAP-led Delhi Government, the LG Secretariat brought out the documents where in former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal himself had on 08.02.2023, recommended the demolition of nine temples in different parts of Delhi. Kejriwal and the then Minister (Home), Manish Sisodia had approved the recommendations of the Religious Committee for demolition of these nine temples. Of the nine temples approved for demolition by Kejriwal, seven temples were situated in Karawal Nagar area while the other two were in New Usmanpur area, a statement said. It added that earlier on June 23, 2016, the then Minister (Home), Satyendra Jain too had approved the demolition of eight temples in different parts of Delhi. The documents reveal that in all, 24 Hindu religious structures including 22 temples and just one Muslim religious structure were approved for demolition by Kejriwal and his Ministers from 2016 to 2023, it read. An official from Raj Niwas added that interestingly, on July 17, 2017, Satyendra Jain had rejected the recommendations of the Religious Committee for demolition of two unknown mazaars citing religious sentiments and sensitivities, despite the fact that the Committee had found no historical significance of the said structures and that only five to 10 persons visited those majaars every week. Removal of these two majaars was critical for construction of a grade separator from Filmistan Cinema to DCM Chowk, land for which was transferred by the Northern Railways to the MCD, he added. Officials in the Secretariat said that given the facts presented those who make the allegations against the LG Secretariat should retract their statements, apologize and refrain from indulging in cheap politics. The 13 Akharas of Sanatan Dharma, a cornerstone of public faith, continue to establish their presence in the Akhara sector for the upcoming Maha Kumbh at the Sangam. The Shri Shambhu Panch Dashnam Atal Akhara entered the cantonment on Wednesday. A large number of devotees gathered to see the grand entry. The akharas, which came into existence in an organised form in the sixth century with the efforts of Adi Guru Shankaracharya, were established to advance both weapons and scriptures. If the scriptures spread Shankars religious thoughts to the masses, the weapons protected it from attacks from other religions. Among these akharas, the akhara of Shaiv Sanyasi Shri Shambhu Panch Dashnam Atal Akhara, took out its grand cantonment entry procession for entry into the Kumbh area. This entry procession was taken out from the local headquarters of the akhara at Alopi Bagh. A beautiful combination of tradition, enthusiasm and discipline was visible throughout the entry procession. This entry procession was taken out under the leadership of Acharya Maha Mandaleshwar Swami Vishwatmanand Saraswati. The procession of the akharas Isht Devta Lord Gajanan was at the front and behind him were the traditional deities of the akhara. A crowd of local people gathered in the city to see the army of Naga ascetics at the cantonment entry of Atal Akhara, which started from the local headquarters. Naga ascetics were walking in a queue after the revered deity Bhalo of the akhara, who was walking behind Isht Devta Ganapati. This was the first akhara in which Naga Sanyasinis also registered their presence. A child Naga was also the center of attraction for the people at the cantonment entrance. Acharya Mahamandaleshwar Swami Vishwatmanand Saraswati of the akhara says that more than two dozen Maha Mandaleshwars and more than two hundred Naga Sanyasis were present in the cantonment. People gathered on both sides of the roads to seek the blessings of the saints of the akhara riding on chariots. A unique feature observed in the procession of Atal Akhara was the spears adorned with flowers at the forefront of the entrance procession, receiving reverence equal to that of the akharas deity. The spear named Surya Prakash was also at the front of the procession of the akhara which comes out from the ashram of the akhara to the Maha Kumbh area only during the Maha Kumbh of Prayagraj. The procession reached Sector 20 of Maha Kumbh after covering a distance of five kilometres. At many places on the way, the saints were welcomed with flower showers by the Maha Kumbh administration. Preparations for Maha Kumbh 2025 in Prayagraj are in full swing, with rapid efforts underway to ensure the events success. As the city prepares to host millions of devotees, the excitement is palpable among sadhus, kalpvasis, pilgrims and local residents alike. Shopkeepers at the Sangam and Mela areas are stocking up essential religious items, including puja materials, patra-panchang, Rudraksha, Tulsi garlands and sacred texts, sourced from Nepal, Banaras and Mathura-Vrindavan. The Maha Kumbh is a grand celebration of the Sanatan faith, drawing devotees from every corner of the country to Prayagraj to partake in the spiritual virtue of bathing at the Triveni Sangam. This year, an estimated 40 to 45 crore devotees are expected to visit Prayagraj during the Maha Kumbh. Under the guidance of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Mela Authority is enthusiastically preparing for the arrival, stay and spiritual needs of the devotees. The people of Prayagraj, along with shopkeepers and traders, are equally excited about the Maha Kumbh, viewing it as an opportunity for both spiritual enrichment and economic growth through business and employment opportunities. Across the city, hotels, restaurants, food stalls and shops selling puja materials, religious books, garlands and flowers are being decked up to cater to the needs of visitors. Wholesale traders are stocking up on goods from various cities, anticipating the high demand during the event. Rudraksha garlands are being sourced from Uttarakhand and Nepal, Tulsi garlands from Mathura-Vrindavan, and puja items like roli and sandalwood from Varanasi and Delhis Paharganj. Sanjeev Tiwari, a religious book seller in Daraganj, Prayagraj, reported that books from Gita Press, Gorakhpur, are in highest demand, especially the Ramcharitmanas, Bhagwat Gita, Shiv Puran and collections of bhajans and aartis. Priests performing rituals are also purchasing patra and panchang printed in Varanasi. Additionally, brass and copper bells, lamp and idols from Moradabad and Varanasi are being ordered in large quantities. Devotees, sadhus and sanyasis participating in kalpavas at the fair are demanding havan samagri, aasan, Gangajal, plates, urns and other items for worship. Shopkeepers are stocking these items in large quantities to meet the anticipated demand, ensuring they are well-prepared to serve the spiritual and practical needs of the visitors. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Central Government for its alleged apathy towards farmers and its attempt to reintroduce the repealed farm laws through the draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing. Mann, at the same time, rejected the policy draft outright, deeming it unsuitable for Punjab while suggesting that it should be tested in another state first. Mann, addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, criticized the Centre for its rigid approach and failure to engage with farmers protesting at the Khanauri and Shambhu borders since February. Farmers are the backbone of this nation. Their concerns must be addressed through dialogue, not ignored with indifference. Even wars end at negotiation tables, Mann said. The Chief Minister accused the BJP-led Union Government of shying away from its responsibilities by pushing contentious policies without consultations. Referring to the protests, Mann said: The Centre is trying to bring back the black laws through the backdoor. Farmers are demanding a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP), but instead of addressing these demands, the government is evading talks. Highlighting the health crisis of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on a hunger strike for over a month, Mann expressed deep concern. Dallewals fast has entered its 38th day. Weve deployed a team of 50 doctors and set up a temporary hospital near the protest site to monitor his health. Yet, the Centre has remained indifferent, he said. I have myself called Dallewal and urged him to end his fast but the Union Government has not made any effort to assuage the sentiments of food growers. The Union Government wants Dallewal and farmers to be lifted from the protest site irrespective of the fact that they are not creating any law and order problem, he said. Mann urged the Centre to initiate meaningful dialogue with the protesting farmers. The Modi government must abandon its haughty approach and engage with all stakeholders. Farmers are neither violent nor disruptive; they are fighting for their rights, he said. The Chief Minister stressed that the Punjab Government has gone above and beyond to ensure peaceful protests and safeguard the health of farmers. We are fulfilling our responsibility as per Supreme Court directives. However, if any adverse incident occurs, the BJP-led Government will be held accountable, Mann warned. He also criticized the Union Government for attempting to shift the blame onto Punjab while Haryana uses force against the protesters. The Centres failure to engage with farmers has created this situation. Instead of addressing their grievances, the Government is using state machinery to suppress them, Mann added. The Chief Minister also lambasted the Union Government for failing to address other critical issues like fertilizer shortages and delayed rice procurement. Instead of resolving these problems, the Centre is creating divisions between the state and farmers. Such actions are unacceptable and harmful to Punjabs peace and prosperity, Mann said. Mann reaffirmed Punjabs commitment to supporting farmers and opposing any anti-agriculture policies. Punjab does not need air ambulances or extra force to manage the protests. We need the Centre to open its ears and start listening to the voices of farmers, he asserted. Rejects Agriculture Market Policy Mann reiterated Punjabs strong opposition to the Agriculture Market Policy draft, which he termed a threat to the state's robust mandi system. The draft aims to dismantle Punjabs strong agricultural marketing framework. We will not allow this policy to be implemented here, he asserted. Mann suggested the Centre first test the policy in other states and share results before imposing it nationwide. Chinese carmaker BYD reports soaring NEV sales in 2024 Xinhua) 08:20, January 02, 2025 This photo shows a Yangwang U7 of BYD at the 22nd Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition at the China Import and Export Fair Complex in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 15, 2024. (Xinhua/Deng Hua) SHENZHEN, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese auto company BYD saw new energy vehicle (NEV) sales soar 41.26 percent year on year to over 4.27 million units in 2024, the company stated in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Passenger vehicles dominated the company's NEV portfolio, with sales reaching 4.25 million units, up 41.07 percent from the previous year, it said. Breaking down the numbers, fully electric vehicles accounted for more than 1.76 million units, rising 12.08 percent year on year, while plug-in hybrids surged 72.83 percent to around 2.49 million units. Meanwhile, BYD's overseas sales of passenger NEVs grew 71.9 percent year on year to 417,200 units last year, underscoring the company's expanding presence in international markets. BYD is one of many NEV producers that have seen booming sales as China, which has the largest number of motor vehicles in the world, continues its transition toward greener technology. China's carmakers sold more than 11.26 million NEVs in the first 11 months of 2024, a 35.6 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. As tackling climate change becomes a global priority, NEVs play a critical role in reducing carbon emissions in the transportation sector. According to the International Energy Agency, global sales of NEVs will need to reach 45 million units by 2030 to meet carbon neutrality targets. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Du Mingming) Mac and cheese from Easy Rider in Petaluma, which closed in December. Cesar Hernandez / The Chronicle The following is a list of notable Bay Area restaurants which closed in December 2024. For a list of restaurants that closed in November 2024, click here. Easy Rider, a Petaluma restaurant known for its fried chicken and other Southern-style dishes, has turned off its lights, at least in its previous form. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports chef-owner Jared Rogers has sold the restaurant and that Dec. 31 was the final service for the 2-year-old business. Rogers signed a nondisclosure agreement with the new proprietor, he told the Press Democrat, so he was unable to comment on what comes next for the space on the corner of Kentucky and Washington streets. Souvenir Bottle Shop in San Anselmo sold its final bottles of natural wines in December. For three years it was a stop for funky vintages and even curated vinyl. In a message to customers, management thanked its patrons and informed them that the Souvenir wine club will continue at nearby bar Voyage. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Franchettis Gasthaus, a rare restaurant bringing together German and Italian flavors, closed in Santa Rosa at the end of December. Sonoma Magazine reported that the restaurant is closing as a neighboring church is in the process of purchasing the building where the business is located. The restaurant originally opened in 2014 as Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar before pivoting into a German-Italian restaurant in 2019. Various dishes and drinks at Canteen in Menlo Park. The restaurant closed in December. Salgu Wissmath/The Chronicle Menlo Parks Spanish-inspired wine bar Canteen is now closed. An announcement from the mixed-use development, Springline, where the bar was located states there will be a new, unspecified project taking over the space. East Palo Altos Three Brothers Tacos has served its last tacos and Mexican meals at University Avenue. The restaurant announced the closing on social media but did not specify a reason. The location on Bayshore Road will remain open. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Cattlemens Steakhouse in Petaluma served its final hand-cut chops after 54 years. The Chronicle reported the 9,000-square-foot restaurant space, which featured an Old West look, closed so it could be torn down and replaced with a Chick-Fil-A location. Napa Valley Mexican restaurant La Calenda ended its years-long run in December. Owner Thomas Keller, best known for his lauded Yountville restaurant the French Laundry, announced the closing in a message explaining a general economic downturn in Napa valley drove the decision. Kellers restaurant offered some of the Bay Areas best fish tacos and Oaxacan mole dishes. Dennis Khuu (left) and Tina Nguyen celebrate their 1-year anniversary with glasses of Heiwa Shuzo Nigori sake at Daytrip in Oakland. The popular restaurant closed in December. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle 2021 The celery salad is no more. Oaklands instant hit restaurant Daytrip closed in December, as the restaurant has been bleeding cash due to high labor costs. It was a buzzy spot with dishes centering fermentation and natural wines, inside a dining room with trippy artwork and pastel pink walls. The Chronicles associate restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez praised the psychedelic hallucination of a restaurant for its fine-dining caliber food served in a laid back setting, which included nixtamalized yams and a hit miso butter pasta. Hugo Briseno, manager at Yellow Moto Pizza, waits for customers to enter along Valencia Street in San Francisco. The pizzeria closed in December. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle Yellow Moto on San Franciscos Valencia Street served its last pizzas on Dec. 7. Founder David White, one of the founding partners behind the original Flour+Water Pizzeria, wrote in an Instagram post that the restaurant has been facing significant headwinds, without specifying further. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The 45-year-old seafood restaurant Steamers Grillhouse in Los Gatos is now closed. Owners said they could not afford the costly remodel for the 6,000-square-foot restaurant space that its landlord proposed, on top of struggling with post-pandemic challenges. For years, locals came in for cocktails and seafood dishes like Dungeness crab and linguine with prawns. A 30-year-old restaurant in San Franciscos South of Market neighborhood has closed for good. Mathilde French Bistro owner Lina Yew told the Chronicle she is closing to focus on new possible projects. Inside the Parisian-style restaurant diners enjoyed onion soup and classics like steak frites. She and her husband will continue to operate LArdoise Bistro in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood. Uptown Oaklands Firebrand Artisan Breads location has closed. Company owner and founder Matt Kreutz told the Chronicle the lease at 2343 Broadway was running out and is opting to focus on Firebrands Alameda location instead. Seating for guests at the bar is seen at Aphotic. The darkened restaurant, which earned a Michelin star, closed in December. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle San Franciscos Aphotic, where chef-owner Peter Hemsleys seafood-based tasting menus garnered plenty of praise, including a Michelin star, closed for good in December. Inside the dark, expansive dining room, guests could bite into seafood dishes like dry-aged bluefin tuna and sip on cocktails made with botanical spirits produced in-house. In a social media post, Hemsley lamented that running the restaurant in SoMa had become too difficult. Call them what you will, the woke, progressives, socialists, liberals, they all love open border policies, and have opened the borders of Western countries for decades allowing anyone to come into the West. Furthermore, because these woke Marxists are supposedly inclusive they have enabled terrorism and criminality to flourish in the West. Progressive inclusive woke policies are essentially a form of enablement that allows criminals and terrorists to be included and celebrated in society, because socialists are inclusive, arent they? The terrorist group Hamas is an example of this inclusivity, as they are revered and supported in many woke institutions and by progressive socialists. In the UK, foreign criminals are not allowed to be deported back to their country of origin because the ECHR rules against it. In the USA, the open door policy by the Obama and Biden administration at the border allows anyone to come into the country because these administrations are inclusive. Where the West was once great and exclusive it is now being dragged down to a Third World status by the inclusive mob of woke zealots who have taken over the asylum. During the New Years Eve riots in Berlin, 15 police officers were injured and 390 people were detained. Migrants detonated a homemade bomb in a neighbourhood of the German capital. Material damage was caused.#Germany Source: @new_militarycolumnist pic.twitter.com/tMfX5Csv96 Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) January 1, 2025 The open door policy in the EU by the inclusive Angela Merkel was another disaster, and now Germany is paying a severe price for this folly, along with all the other European countries. Forced inclusivity is dangerous, and Western nations will have to either turn the clock back by cleaning up their house or fall into terminal permanent decline and ultimately ruin. Wokism is proof that there are people within Western countries who are actively working day and night to ruin the West. Natural forms of inclusivity and slow integration policies through gentle controlled immigration as was employed in the past before the woke militant socialists opened the borders was the key to success, but was essentially abandoned decades ago and now the damage is so deep, it may be too late. San Francisco fire crews were dispatched to the scene of an unknown medical emergency Thursday at 8:12 a.m. in the 1000 block of Tompkins Avenue, near the Alemany Farmers Market, fire officials said. Google Street View A man died and a woman and toddler were injured Thursday morning in a shooting in San Franciscos Bernal Heights neighborhood, authorities. Law enforcement and fire crews were dispatched to the 1000 block of Tompkins Avenue at 8:12 a.m. Thursday after receiving reports of an unknown medical emergency, fire officials said. Officers found a woman suffering from gunshot wounds and a deceased man inside the home, police officials said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The woman was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening injuries, and the man was declared deceased at the scene, fire officials said. Officers were advised that a toddler suffering from a gunshot wound had been transported to a local hospital, authorities said. The man who died was Antoine Thomas, 24, a man at the scene who identified himself as the young man's father told KTVU. Anthony Thomas said his son took his own life "for some strange reason." Thomas said he received a call from his son's girlfriend begging him to come to their home, located just one street over from Alemany Farmer's Market. "But I didn't make it in time," Thomas told KTVU. He told the station that he received a phone call from a family member saying his son had shot himself. Thomas told reporters at the scene that his son was a youth football coach, according to KTVU. Police did not immediately respond to a request for more information on the shooting. Advertisement Article continues below this ad In a powerful display of community appreciation, Praxis Care recently honoured its dedicated volunteers at the annual Volunteer Celebration Event held at Belfast Castle in late November 2024. The event, which brought together over 50 attendees, including 23 volunteers, paid tribute to those who generously give their time and efforts to support the charity's mission of empowering individuals to live more independent lives. Among those recognised were seven exceptional volunteers from the Magherafelt area, whose contributions span up to an impressive 25 years of service. Praxis Care began as a befriending service and has grown into one of the UK and Irelands leading social care providers. Volunteers play a vital role in befriending, service support, and other activities that enrich the lives of those supported by the charity. Praxis Care benefits from the dedication of more than 80 volunteers. Praxis Cares Volunteer Manager, Ian Cardwell, expressed: Praxis Care takes great pride in showing thanks to the dedicated volunteers who help make the charitys mission a reality. Their selflessness and commitment are vital in supporting those in care, and events like this provide the opportunity to express deep gratitude for their ongoing contributions. This years celebration featured moving speeches from three volunteers Ada, Ivor and Andrew - who shared their personal experiences and the profound rewards of volunteering with Praxis Care. Their heartfelt stories highlighted the dual impact of volunteering, enriching the lives of those they support, while offering meaningful personal growth and fulfilment. Mr Caldwell reflected: The stories told by Ada, Ivor and Andrew made me very proud to be Praxis Cares Volunteer Manager a great way to end 2024. The celebration was attended by Deirdre Carr, Regional Director of Care and Development for Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, who joined the occasion to highlight the importance of volunteer contributions in strengthening the services Praxis Care provides across the region. This years event honoured 12 volunteers with long service awards, recognising their outstanding contributions. The Magherafelt Befriending Service volunteers honoured were: Roisin Scullion (25 years), Ivon Faulkner (15 years), Margaret Bradley (15 years), Anita McGurk (10 years), Martina Kennedy (10 years), Paddy Henry (10 years) and Patsy Devlin (10 years). J.D. Morris covers San Francisco City Hall, focused on Mayor Daniel Lurie. He joined the Chronicle in 2018 to cover energy and spent three years writing mostly about PG&E and California wildfires. Before coming to the Chronicle, he reported on local government for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, where he was among the journalists awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the 2017 North Bay wildfires. He was previously the casino industry reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. Raised in Monterey County and Bakersfield, he has a bachelors degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. South Korea invests US$24.79 million in 48 next-gen chip R&D projects South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) has announced a KRW36.4 billion (US$24.79 million) investment to fund 48 next-generation semiconductor R&D projects by 2025. The initiative focuses on Processing-In-Memory (PIM) chips, advanced packaging, on-device AI semiconductors, system semiconductors, and compound power semiconductors. Major investment in core semiconductor technologies As reported by ZDNet Korea, MOTIE's KRW36.4 billion investment forms part of South Korea's 2025 Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Industrial Technology Innovation. Of this, KRW17.9 billion is allocated to PIM chip development, spanning a 3 to 4-year cycle with annual funding of approximately KRW1 billion per project. The PIM chip development funding will support memory interfaces and commercial platform technologies leveraging PIM computing architecture. It will also fund SCM control semiconductor technologies and commercialization efforts for manufacturing equipment based on phase-change memory (PRAM) and magnetic random access memory (MRAM). The advanced packaging sector will receive KRW17.8 billion for 13 new projects. Recognizing the growing importance of advanced packaging, MOTIE aims to support associated technologies, materials, components, and equipment. Each project will receive approximately KRW1 billion annually, with development cycles lasting 3 to 7 years. MOTIE will allocate KRW4.3 billion to on-device AI semiconductor projects. These include edge computing chips for low-power robotics and PHM chips for industrial automation. Each project will receive KRW1.5 billion annually, with a development cycle capped at four years. For system semiconductor development, MOTIE has dedicated KRW10.5 billion, targeting five industries with high commercialization potential: automotive, energy, biotechnology, drones/urban air mobility, and IoT/smart home appliances. Each project will receive about KRW1.83 billion annually over a 3-year development cycle, with enterprises collaborating on R&D efforts. MOTIE plans to invest KRW21.1 billion in 18 projects to advance compound power semiconductor technologies. These projects will focus on commercializing power conversion devices, power integrated circuits, and material technologies, with each receiving KRW1.2 billion annually over a 4-year cycle. Innovation in manufacturing and emerging technologies On another front, MOTIE intends to invest KRW100 million to establish mini fabs in South Korea, scheduled to launch in 2025. These facilities will focus on 12-inch wafers and advanced semiconductor front-end processes, strengthening the domestic supply chain for semiconductor materials, components, and equipment while enhancing chip manufacturers' global competitiveness. To reduce reliance on imported sensor products, MOTIE will invest KRW30.2 billion in the "K-Sensor Technology Development Project." Each project will receive between KRW500 million and KRW1 billion annually over a development cycle of 3 to 7 years, fostering innovation in South Korea's sensor technology industry, according to Fortune Business Insights. In the future vehicle sector, MOTIE has earmarked KRW4.6 billion for semiconductor R&D. The investment will focus on developing ultra-high-speed communication semiconductors for Level 4 autonomous vehicles, Ethernet switches enabling data transmission speeds above 10 Gbps, software-defined vehicle (SDV) communication architectures, and functional electronic control units (ECUs). Additionally, the SDV AI accelerator semiconductor technology development project will receive an investment of KRW4.2 billion, aimed at developing AI accelerators rated at 1,000 TOPS and driving software for application processors. Strategic investment outlook South Korea's 2025 Comprehensive Industrial Technology Innovation Project will see a record-breaking investment of KRW5.7 trillion. Of this, approximately KRW1.25 trillion will be allocated to six strategic industries: semiconductors, secondary batteries, displays, biotechnology, future vehicles, and next-generation robotics. Amid political uncertainties, South Korea plans to allocate a record-breaking KRW247 trillion in policy financing through institutions like the Korea Development Bank (KDB) in 2025. According to Maeil Business Newspaper and JoongAng Ilbo, this funding will target advanced industries, including AI, semiconductors, aerospace, secondary batteries, and biotechnology. Pedestrians and bicyclists travel along the Upper Great Highway in San Francisco in September. A 68-year-old San Francisco woman has been identified as the pedestrian struck and killed by a car along the Upper Great Highway on Dec. 27. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle 2024 A 68-year-old San Francisco woman has been identified as the pedestrian struck and killed by a car along the Upper Great Highway on Dec. 27. Melissa Lai Chow died after the early morning collision at Upper Great Highway and Ulloa Street, San Francisco medical examiners said Thursday. She was transported to a local hospital, where she died, officials said. Public records show Chow was an Outer Sunset resident. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The driver of the car stayed at the scene and cooperated with police. Forty-one people were killed in San Francisco traffic in 2024, the worst toll on record since 2007. The city recorded more traffic fatalities than homicides in 2024, despite years of efforts and investments to improve street safety. Chow was the 24th traffic-related pedestrian death of 2024 in San Francisco, the highest number since 2014, according to the nonprofit Walk San Francisco. In a statement on the social platform X, San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio mourned the pedestrians death, saying, Im sad to learn of a tragic loss of life in the Outer Sunset on Friday morning. ... Any tragedy like this is a shock and deeply saddening for our community, especially during the holidays. Im grateful to the first responders who serve 24/7 and provide help whenever it is needed. In November, San Francisco voters approved Proposition K, a controversial ballot measure that will permanently ban vehicles on a 2-mile stretch of the Upper Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard, which includes Ulloa. A separate portion of San Franciscos Great Highway is also scheduled to close to car traffic in 2026 due to risks caused by rising sea levels. Advertisement Article continues below this ad TSMC global update: Japan producing, US growing, Europe building TSMC has confirmed mass production at its Japanese wafer fab, marking a significant milestone in its overseas expansion strategy amid geopolitical uncertainties. While its Japan project advances smoothly, the company faces varying degrees of success and challenges across its global operations. Japan leads TSMC's overseas progress TSMC's Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM) facility has begun mass production as scheduled in December 2024. In contrast, the company's Fab 21 in Arizona has experienced delays and is now set to commence 4-nanometer process production in 2025. European venture advances despite political uncertainty The European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC), TSMC's European facility, has made substantial progress since beginning construction in August 2024. The project, which recently launched its official LinkedIn account showcasing the facility's architectural designs, aims to achieve mass production of 28-nanometer automotive and industrial-grade specialty chips by the end of 2027. US operations secure major clients TSMC's US plant has already garnered trust from prominent American clients, including Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and AMD, due to its impressive yield rates. This progress comes as competitors Intel Corporation and Samsung Electronics continue working toward advanced process nodes such as 5-nanometer or 4-nanometer processes at their US facilities. Cultural contrasts shape expansion success The company's expansion beyond Taiwan has revealed stark contrasts in regional responses. While the Kumamoto fab in Japan received strong local support and achieved production targets ahead of schedule, the Arizona facility encountered various cultural challenges during construction despite its earlier start. Political shifts pose new risks Recent political developments in Germany have introduced additional uncertainty to TSMC's European ventures. While European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's re-election ensures continued support for the EU's "Made in Europe" agenda under the European Chips Act, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's position has weakened significantly. With Scholz now leading a caretaker government and facing dim prospects in the upcoming German federal election on February 23, 2025, the political landscape presents new challenges. The political instability within the German government could potentially impact TSMC's regional operations and expansion plans. A fragmented political landscape might delay decision-making, affect funding allocations, or shift priorities away from semiconductor initiatives, potentially straining collaboration between TSMC and local authorities. A proposal to build a cross-border bridge linking Warrenpoint and Omeath at a cost of 500,000 was considered half a century ago. Newly released files show officials did not believe that the 200,000 funding required from Northern Ireland would be made available for the proposed link in 1975. Earlier last year, it was confirmed that, after decades of speculation, work had begun on the Narrow Water Bridge between Co Down and Co Louth, with the Irish Government providing more than 100 million euros towards the project. However, the files show that the Department of the Environment had prepared a report in response to a proposal from Louth County Council for a bridge almost 50 years before. The file is called Schemes for new roads and bridges across the Northern Ireland/Eire border. It includes a map showing the area of the proposed bridge. A covering letter says the estimated cost to N Ireland is 200,000. It adds: Fifteen hundred vehicles per day as the maximum summer usage is probably a reasonable estimate. The winter usage could exceed the 250 stated and would probably be around 1,000 especially if a high percentage of the Carlingford Omeath traffic used the crossing to take advantage of the dual carriageway to Newry. Traffic on the existing Newry to Omeath road would probably drop on the length from Narrow Water to Newry. At present I cannot see money being available for this work. It is a proposal which is most attractive from a tourist point of view and is worthy of further consideration in the future. A more detailed report in the file says the overall likely cost of the bridge would be approximately 500,000. It says the proposed site is the most southerly location clear of the Warrenpoint harbour and industrial sites. Regarding the tourist potential of the proposed project, the report says: There might be little Northern usage of such a link since the main car trip passes through Newry in any case. Only a small percentage of the Mourne tourist trip is round Ireland and of that only a proportion might wish to use the bridge in preference to bypassing the scenery Warrenpoint/Newry/Omeath which is itself as unique as much of the traditional Mourne circuit. Read Next: Blackrock comes alive for Crosscause Perhaps 200 trips per day summer. In all perhaps the maximum daily number usage might be in the order of about 1000-1500 with this falling to less than 250 in the winter. The report concludes: The likely usage appears to be too low to justify participation in such inessential expenditure, especially in the current financial scene and the competing work of infinitely greater necessity in Newry. If Louth County Council wish to pursue the idea of a Omeath/Warrenpoint link, perhaps they should examine the possibility of introducing a car ferry. The Northern contribution to such a venture could perhaps be the provision of a slipway at Warrenpoint commercial risk and profits (if any) to Louth County Council. DkIT recently hosted the graduation of students from the Headstart Programme which the Institute runs in conjunction with Louth Local Development. The Headstart Programme is aimed at people thinking about going to college and takes place for three hours a week over a ten-week block. The programme focuses on the main skills required for college, including academic writing, presentation skills, group work, time management, career guidance and assignment feedback. It is delivered on the DkIT campus, offering one to one time with lecturers to support learners with their specific needs. This course is open to absolutely everyone who ever thought that college wouldnt be a possibility for them and explores the different pathways available to starting college in DkIT including the application process. 12 graduates were presented with certificates for completing this years course by Christina King, Youth & Education Coordinator at Louth Local Development, Johdi Quinn, DkIT Pathways & Headstart Co-ordinator and Maeve Harkin, the SICAP Social Inclusion Manager at Louth Local Development. Participants were also given the opportunity to share the positive impact the course had on them and their hopes for their futures in education. Dr Colette Henry, Head of the Department of Business at DkIT congratulated the participants for overcoming their fears and the challenges they faced to complete the course and encouraged them to channel their motivation to take the next step on their third-level journey. She was joined by Dr Brian Boyd, a lecturer in the Department of Management and Financial Studies and Pastoral Care Coordinator Alan Conlon, who provided integral support to the course participants throughout the ten weeks. Johdi Quinn (DkIT Pathways & Headstart Co-ordinator, Community Development and Spanish Lecturer) said: Headstart changes people's lives. It allows participants to realise that they are enough, it encourages them to believe in themselves again often after many years of giving to everybody else. It supports people to believe that they can come into DkIT - that they are good enough, that they are more than enough. Read Next: Blackrock comes alive for Crosscause "Participants often walk into DkIT on day one thinking that they don't belong on our corridors and by the end of the programme, they have their heads held high and they are determined to come and get their degree. It's such a privilege to be a part of something so powerful and transformative. I'm so proud of the Headstart 2024 gang. Christina King, Youth & Education Coordinator, Louth Local Development said: It was lovely to see another fabulous group of people get further in their dreams of progressing back to education. We really enjoyed another successful year of working with DKIT. A participant in the 2024 Headstart Programme said: I walked into Headstart really nervous and wondering what I was doing here. But I'm finishing up today and I've made the decision to apply for DkIT. Now's my time. It was the women who came in to speak to us, who did Headstart and are now doing their degrees that swayed me. They showed me that it is possible. I'm going to do it! I'm still feeling the fear but I'm going to do it anyway. Back for Business, the free government programme that helps returned emigrants start and develop businesses in Ireland, is now open to applications from people who have recently returned to Louth, or are still living abroad but thinking of returning in the near future Those eligible to apply include returned Irish emigrants who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned to Ireland in the last three years, and emigrants currently living abroad who are planning to return to Ireland in the near future. Now in its eighth cycle, the programme will run from February to June 2025 and there is no charge for those selected to participate. Up to 50 places will be available nationally. Eligible candidates have until Thursday, January 16, to submit their applications. Those interested can apply through www.backforbusiness. com . Funded by the Irish Abroad Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs, the programme was created to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among emigrants recently returned to Ireland. Since launching in 2017, Back for Business has helped entrepreneurs who are returned emigrants to significantly grow sales and employment. It also addresses challenges that all early-stage entrepreneurs encounter, but also focuses on additional barriers faced by emigrants who have been living away from Ireland. Participants on the last cycle, Back for Business 7, quadrupled their collective turnover from 300,000 at the start of the programme to 1.2million at its conclusion. Their collective employee numbers also increased from 14 to 47 during the cycle. Back for Business 8 participants will take part in round table sessions focused on goals and milestones, which are facilitated by voluntary Lead Entrepreneurs who have experience of successfully starting and growing a business. The 8th cycles Lead Entrepreneurs are: serial entrepreneur Hannah Wrixon; Morgan Browne, CEO of Milner Browne and Enterpryze; Paul Duggan of The Gardiner Group; Seamus Reilly, co-founder and formerly of Critical Healthcare; Sinead Doherty, founder and CEO of Fenero; and Thomas Ennis, founder of the Thomas Ennis Group. A Back for Business Community is also being formed for previous participants, who will be offered workshops, review round tables and an annual Community Forum. Former participants from Co. Louth include Jennifer Provan and Oran Finegan. Having experienced at first hand the benefits of participation in Back for Business, they encourage others to apply for the programme. Before leaving Ireland, Jennifer Provan was working in hospitality after studying Hospitality Management, and she set up her own catering company and two cafes while living in Glasgow. Ultimately, however, she had always wanted to return to Ireland and, after 21 years in Glasgow, the couple took the opportunity to do so when their son went away to college. When she returned home, she set up Kitchenetta Catering, which caters for all events big or small using local, sustainable, seasonal Irish ingredients. Jennifer says Back for Business was an amazing experience. It was very collaborative and very supportive. "We gleaned a lot of knowledge from each other and our Lead Entrepreneur, a lot of which weve gone on to use, she says. I would highly recommend it. I really enjoyed every minute of it, and I know that all of my group did as well, and were all very much in touch since and still supporting each other. Its been seriously advantageous. Oran Finegan had spent 25 years working as a leading forensic specialist with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) when the opportunity arose to take the methods he had learned in conflict and post-conflict zones around the world and apply them back home in Ireland. A native of Carlingford, Co. Louth, Oran set up his company, Forensic Action International, shortly after his return to Ireland in October 2023. Oran believes the Back for Business programme gave him a step up in his bid to develop the business. I have a huge amount to learn and having the structure that the programme provided, as well as access to likeminded entrepreneurs, was fantastic for helping me bridge that knowledge gap, he says. Back for Business Lead Entrepreneur Thomas Ennis says: I was lucky enough to receive excellent mentoring when I was starting out and it made all the difference. It is great to be in a position to give back and to support those at the start of their entrepreneurial journey. Back for Business has been designed and is being implemented by Fitzsimons Consulting, specialists in areas related to entrepreneurship and growth. The deadline for completed applications for Back to Business 8 is midnight on Thursday, January 16th, 2025. For more information or to register your interest in receiving an application form, please see www.backforbusiness.com Yeah, you heard right. The Boracay grotto in front of Willys Rock Station 1 in Boracay, the famous landmark at this favorite tourist summer destination in the country was chiseled off by an unidentified man two nights ago. My sister was the first to tell me this news today while we were chatting and I was aghast and saddened. I need to confirm the news at Plurk but it took more than a couple hours before someone said it was true. I searched for info and there it was a news on Inquirer Provincial News February 5, 2010 confirmed it. The report said there have been dispute of resort owners and businessmen in Boracay about the Virgin Marys presence on Willys Rock since not all of them are Catholic. But for goodness sake that Virgin Mary/ Grotto has been there since I can remember, It was there the first time I went to the island more than 10 years ago and was there when we were there more than a month ago. It was considered the most photographed spot in Boracay by tourist and its one of the spot I recommended my family to take photos at because I told them if you dont have a picture of you by the grotto youve never been to Boracay! Now that its gone what will separate the Boracay beach from the rest of the many beautiful white beaches around the Philippines? I mean seriously? Well here was the last photographs with the Boracay Grotto/ Virgin Mary I took with my family: It has been a week since Shangri-la Fort Manila (Shangri-la Hotel Fort Bonifacio Global City Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines) management cobtracted Pest Busters Philippines to rid of the open park beside their hotel of the community cays in the area. Numbers of cats extinguished by the pest buster was still unsure but according to the #CatsofBGC community members there used to be 36 cats roaming the area. Shangri-la Fort made inconsistent statements of nunbers but they said 11 or 12 cats were taken away by Pest Busters for relocation. This happened February 14,2018 on the stroke of midnight, it is February 21,2018 now and Shangri-la Fort and Pest Bisters cant, wont and dont show eveidences and documentation of the whereabouts of the community cats they stole from the park. I was told to be a keyboard warrior getting angry on social media with Shangri-la Fort re the #catsofBGC as I was one of those who really got aggresive online tagging TV networks and news agency to pick up the story and tell the world about it and pressure the hotel to show the cats. Until now they cant and wont say where are the cats out of pride (and humiliation ?) You may check my Facebook personal account s I have the story in public. It appears to me, maybe the one who order a pest buster to rid the park was a cat hater. So I did some research and found this cat trivias on why cats are not included in the Chinese Zodiac, why some love and some dont love cats and what killing a cat could do to your karma. To get you to start reading did you know in the ancient times esp in Egypt, KILLING A CAT IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH !!! Read on 1. There were no pet cats in China when the Chinese Zodiac was made. pet Cats only came to China 1600BC before the Chinese Zodiacs was created from Egypt. 2. Only Royal families/ royalties are allowed to have pet Cats in 2600BC . While there are wild cats in China it was not a household animal then. 3. When the Jade Emperor decided to name the 12 characters of Chinese Zodiac under animal he assigned his close friend cat to invite his animal friends. The rat was not invited but because of the rats conniving ways he tricked the one registering the names that included rat which is why rats is the first of the animal sign. The Jade emperor did not notice the cat was not registered though as both thought he was already included since he was assigned to invite his friends. 4. The cat and the rat used to be best friends. When the Jade emperor announced he will name the Chinese Zodiac characters before each animals who register very early morning on a certain date. Cat asked rat to wake him up so they can go together but the sleepy head cat did not wake up and his friemd rat did not wake him wanting to be in the limelight and loved animal too. Since then cat and rat became sworn enemies. 5. Jade emperor held an animal race tondetermine which animal will be included in the 12 Chinese Zodiac. During the race it was said the rat pushed the cat in the river and so he did not make it in time. So cat was excluded from the Chinese Zodiac and the reason why rats ram away when they see cats. Cats in history: 1. The last common ancestor of wildcats and domesticated cats lived more than 100,000 years ago 2. It is clearly established that, by 450 BCE, the penalty in Egypt for killing a cat was death. 3. The goddess Bastet, commonly depicted as a cat or as a woman with a cats head, was among the most popular deities of the Egyptian pantheon. She was the keeper of hearth and home, protector of womens secrets, guardian against evil spirits and disease, and the goddess of cats. 4. Egyptians cared so much for their cats that they placed their safety above human life and property. When a house caught fire, the Egyptians would concern themselves more with rescuing the cats than with anything else, often running back into the burning building or forming a perimeter around the flames to keep cats at a safe distance. 5. When a cat died, Herodotus writes, All the inhabitants of a house shave their eyebrows [as a sign of deep mourning]. Cats which have died are taken to Bubastis where they are embalmed and buried in sacred receptacles (Nardo 117). The period of mourning was considered completed when the peoples eyebrows had grown back. 6. The Persian soldiers painted images of cats on their shields, and may have held cats in their arms, as they marched behind the wall of animals. The Egyptians, reluctant to defend themselves for fear of harming the cats (and perhaps incurring the death penalty should they kill one), and demoralized at seeing the image of Bastet on the enemys shields, surrendered the city and let Egypt fall to the Persians. The historian Polyaenus (2nd century CE) writes that, after the surrender, Cambyses rode in triumph through the city and hurled cats into the faces of the defeated Egyptians in scorn. 7. Cats in India were found to be particularly useful in controlling the populations of less desirable creatures like mice, rats, and snakes and so were honoured in the homes, farms, and palaces throughout the land The cat was seen as more than just a method of pest control is substantiated by the reverence accorded to felines in the literature of India ergo famous story of Puss in Boots. 8. Persian cats were magically created as a gift to a Persian her named Rustum who saved so many lives. It was created with stars and smokes. 9. The prophet Muhammed was also very fond of cats. According to legend, the `M design on the forehead of the tabby cat was made when the prophet blessed his favourite cat by placing his hand on its head. The status of the cat, therefore, was further enhanced by its association with a figure of divinity. 10. An ancient Chinese myth relates that, in the beginning of the world, the gods appointed cats to oversee the running of their new creation and, in order for communication to be clear, granted cats the power of speech. Cats, however, were more interested in sleeping beneath the cherry trees and playing with the falling blossoms than with the mundane task of having to pay attention to the operation of the world. cats explained they had no interest in running the world and nominated human beings for the position. The power of speech was then taken from the cats and given to humans but, as humans seemed incapable of understanding the words of the gods, cats remained entrusted with the important task of keeping time and so maintaining order. It was thought that one could tell the time of day by looking into a cats eyes and this belief is still maintained in China. 11. In Japan, the famous image of the `Beckoning Cat (the maneki neko figure of the cat with one raised paw) represents the goddess of mercy. The legend goes that a cat, sitting outside of the temple of Gotoku-ji, raised her paw in acknowledgement of the emperor who was passing by. Attracted by the cats gesture, the emperor entered the temple and, moments later, lightning struck the very spot where he had been standing. The cat, therefore, saved his life and was accorded great honours. The Beckoning Cat image is thought to bring good luck when given as a gift and remains a very popular present in Japan. The cat was regularly considered a guardian of the home and was thought to be the special protector of valuable books. Cats were often housed in private pagodas in Japan and were considered so valuable that, by the 10th century CE, only the nobility could afford to own one. 12. A much later development in Greek appreciation for the cat is evidenced in the legend that the cat protected the baby Jesus from rodents and snakes and so is accorded the best of spots in a Greek home but, originally, they do not seem to have been regarded highly. 13. Greek mythology was the reason cats were feared back then as Hera transformed Galinthius into a cat and sent her to the underworld to ever after serve Hecate. This myth, then, associated cats with darkness, transformation, the underworld, and witchcraft and, in time, these associations would prove very unfortunate for the cat. 14. Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241 CE) issued his papal bull denouncing cats as evil and in league with Satan, cats and especially black cats were demonized to the point where they were regularly killed all across Europe. It has long been argued that the death of so many cats allowed the mice and rat populations to thrive and that the fleas these vermin carried brought about the Bubonic Plague of 1348 CE. 15. During the Victorian Age (1837-1901 CE) were again elevated to their previous high standing. Queen Victoria of Great Britain, who had always kept dogs as pets, became interested in cats through the many stories of archaeological finds in Egypt being published regularly in England. The queens interest in the cat led her to adopt two Blue Persians whom she treated as members of her court. This story was carried by the newspapers of the day and, as Queen Victoria was a very popular monarch, more and more people became interested in having cats of their own. 16.This trend spread to the United States and was encouraged by the most popular magazine in America. In an 1860 article, Godeys stated that cats were not solely for older women or monarchs and that anyone should feel comfortable in embracing the love and virtue of the cat. Cat popularity in the United States grew appreciably after Godeys article. Cats first came to North America, it is thought, in 1749 CE, from England, to help control the mice and rat population but they seem to have been largely considered utilitarian until the Victorian Age. Meanwhile, to Shangri-la Fort and Pest Busters cat karma is a bitch, if you still dont understand we have Republic Act 10631 or Animal Welfare Act of 1998 even with ammendments in 2013. SEC. 9. Any person who subjects any animal to cruelty, maltreatment or neglect shall, upon conviction by final judgment, be punished by imprisonment and/ or fine, as indicated in the following graduated scale: (1) Imprisonment of one (1) year and six (6) months and one (1) day to two (2) years and/or a fine not exceeding One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00) if the animal subjected to cruelty, maltreatment or neglect dies; (2) Imprisonment of one (1) year and one (1) day to one (1) year and six (6) months and/or a fine not exceeding Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00) if the animal subjected to cruelty, maltreatment or neglect survives but is severely injured with loss of its natural faculty to survive on its own and needing human intervention to sustain its life; and (3) Imprisonment of six (6) months to one (1) year and/or a fine not exceeding Thirty thousand pesos (P30,000.00) for subjecting any animal to cruelty, maltreatment or neglect but without causing its death or incapacitating it to survive on its own. Sa mga mamimilosopo animals for this law are defined as the following The killing of any animal other than cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, poultry, rabbits, carabaos and horses is likewise hereby declared unlawful Claws are out for the #catsofBGC.except in the following instances: Be kind to animals , cats are not pests they are pets . Be kind to yourself and be humble admit to your mistake and repatriate do not be abrasive and aggressive cat karma I tell you. In the past couple of years, especially this decade, Iceland has experienced a big tourism boom more than they can imagine. This could be attributed to the blockbuster Hollywood movies and series that got people so curious that they actually want to go and experience it for themselves. In fact, a lot of film producers come to Iceland to take advantage of what the country has to offer. I personally have long dreamed to go to Iceland for more reasons than spotting movie and TV locations in Iceland but for everything this magical country has to offer. Today I am sharing my visiting Iceland travel bucket list in hopes that someday I get to cross this one out from my European dream travel destinations someday soon. Chasing the Northern Lights Tour If you want to embark on a quest to witness one of natures most magnificent phenomena the Aurelia Borealis, this is one of the must things to do in Iceland. The perfect time to start chasing northern lights in Iceland is around August to November and starts at 9 pm onwards. The best place to do this is the Reykjavik area. Get Mesmerized at Jokursaron Glacier Lagoon Experience a day full of glaciers, icebergs, and waterfalls at Icelands jewel. Jokursalon Glacier Lagoon is one of the most spectacular natural wonders in Iceland. Youll be floating on a stream of 1000-year-old ice formations. You can even take a dip in the lagoon if you want to. Dont forget to see two famous waterfalls at the Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss. The best time to do this is in May. Experience the Simple Icelandic Lifestyle at the Snfellsness Peninsula Travel to the charming fishing villages of Grundarfjondur, Arnarstapi, and Hellnar and Discover the slow-paced lifestyle of the villagers and fishermen. Marvel at the stunning mountains and volcanic craters, black sand beach and look at the seal colony. The best time to do this is the first week of May. Go on a Snowmobile Riding Tour Explore the stunning landscapes of Iceland on a snowmobile tour at the Golden Circle across the Langjokull glacier, Icelands second largest glacier. Best to do this very early in the morning and join a chartered bus tour to the area. At the tour, they will show and explain to you the amazing powerful active geysers that erupt every minute at Strokkur. Learn more about the unique geology of the Thingvellir National Park and see one of the most important sites featuring the Islandic history and lore. The best time to start doing this is in May. Check out the Kerid volcanic crater Observe boiling hot spring upclose as it releases water up to 30 meter high every 8 minutes! May is the best time to do this. Whale Watching There is a 90 to 99% chance that you will spot a whale aboard a whale-watching boat in Iceland at the Reyjvavik old harbor. You can actually go scuba diving in Iceland. They are not known for this but if you are one of those experienced divers and want a new location, this is one diving spot you want to dive into. Best done in Silfa in ingvellir National Park. The water in Silfra is amongst the clearest in the world with water visibility between 80 and 100 m (262 and 328 ft). I think got my visiting Iceland travel checklist covered. Please leave a comment below if you have any other suggestions that I have not mentioned above. Stay gorgeous everyone! Professor Maggie Cusack has been president of the Munster Technological University (MTU) since it was formed in January, 2021, through the amalgamation of the Cork Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology Tralee. MTU is split across six campuses, two of which are in Kerry: Its north and south campuses. In Cork, it has its Bishopstown campus, as well as the Cork School of Music, the Crawford College of Art and Design, and the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy. A Scottish native whose parents hailed from Mayo and Donegal, Prof Cusack, who was previously dean of natural sciences at the University of Sterling, was only the second woman in 400 years to become head of an Irish university (and was only beaten by six months by Professor Kerstin May, who became interim president of the University of Limerick in July, 2020). When she spoke with The Echo just before Christmas, Prof Cusack said that 2024 had been great, and she selected the highlight of the year. Over October and November, we had our conferring ceremonies, and that was about 3,500 graduates going out in to the workforce with really high employability, because we have the approach of creating opportunities for work placement, working closely with companies and organisations, so that our graduates are work-ready, Prof Cusack said. Weve appointed six members of our new university executive, and two of our faculty deans are forming five new faculties, so thats really great, as we get on with all the new structures and we look forward to making five appointments in the new year to complete the executive. Its been a really positive year to look back on, and to look forward, she said. Prof Cusack said she was enthusiastic about the year ahead, and cited the ongoing development of MTUs campuses as future-proofing the university for the expansion of its student body and for the courses on offer. If you look at any of our campuses our Kerry North campus or our Bishopstown campus weve had a lot of building going on, so into next year we will be opening our STEM building on our Kerry North campus. On the Bishopstown campus, we have a new student hub for learning and teaching, and office space. Thats the first building you will see as you come onto the campus, so lots of things to be positive about at MTU, she said. We have a large geographical footprint and we have a great student population about 18,000 learners and were really delighted with the new buildings to give that capacity to make sure were offering state-of-the-art facilities, because thats what our learners deserve, and it also allows us the possibility for expansion. That expansion could well help Ireland to cope with the environmental existential crisis that is climate change. If you think about some of the challenges society is facing around sustainability and renewable energy, facilities like the National Maritime College and all the expertise there Im thinking about offshore renewable energy linked with the breadth of expertise across MTU, then we would be in a very strong position to contribute in a very significant way to such an important area. Asked if MTU had a particular number in mind for the expansion of its student body, Prof Cusack said she did not have a specific target, and said that the number of students would be dictated by the demand from industry. We are committed to making sure that what we are providing is highly relevant, so we work with industry and with companies to make sure that we are future-proofing our skills and our offerings and make sure that we can continue to bring on new courses, adding through a process of evolution. Prof Cusack cited two of the universitys new offerings for the start of the academic year in September: A pair of four-year honours degrees, one a BSc in digital health and infomatics for healthcare, and the other a BSc in food business, integrating business with food production and management. Thats the approach that we take, that we need to continue to reach out to employers and make sure that what we are providing is highly relevant, she said. Because the university has such a wide range, not just in subjects, but also in its types of courses, it can be responsive through schemes such as Springboard, identifying gaps as they arise and addressing them on an ongoing basis. I think thats a very important aspect of the technological universities, that we can do special-purpose awards, we can do the Springboards, we can do full degrees all the way through Masters and PhD, and that comes in as really important to us, that allows us to have that different, flexible approach to the needs of employers, because their needs are changing at different rates as well, Prof Cusack said MTU could not have a one-size-fits-all approach, she said, adding that it was one of her priorities that MTU be an inclusionary, welcoming university to all. We are really passionate about access to education, from many groups who would traditionally be under-represented, and that includes students with disabilities, and we would have strong disability support services on our Cork and Kerry campuses and staff who work to support students with a whole range of disabilities, and thats something that we work hard on and we never relax on that matter, she said. We recognise that its important to continually listen to the student body and to make sure that we continue to make sure that we can support our students with disabilities so that they can have the opportunity to access higher education. Thats an ongoing process for us, that we continue to work in that way, we continue to work with the Higher Education Authority and make the case for our needs and our funding in those areas, to make sure that we can support our students, and we really welcome when that funding is available in a multi-annual basis, Prof Cusack said. Having that certainty is very important for us, because it allows us to plan out in terms of what students needs are and how we can best support them, which is, of course, our top priority as a university, Prof Cusack said. Cork camogie legend Anna Geary has opened up about the sudden passing of her father in 2022. Broadcaster and former camogie player Gearys father, Michael, died unexpectedly in March of that year, six weeks after he received a terminal diagnosis. And her brother Thomas passed away in November of 2023. Speaking to Carl Mullan on the Phone Truths podcast, Geary recalled how her world was turned upside down. My dad was in his early 60s. He was so healthy. We used to always joke if he was a farmer, if he spent the night outside in the pouring rain, he wouldnt even have a sniffle the next day. We used to always joke there was meat in the fridge a week old that, only for the dogs, if my dad ate it, he would be grand. He had a stomach of steel, Geary said. He had this invincibility, in my eyes. So to find out so quickly, so suddenly and out of the blue, that he was ill. He had a bit of back pain and then went in (to hospital). They found a tumour and it had spread. Within six weeks he was gone. To find out that, it was hard to believe. I think I took the phonecall and went about my day. It probably hit me in the hours afterwards. During her camogie career with Cork, Geary won four All-Ireland senior titles, and six All Stars. Her father was one of her biggest supporters. Geary added: Our whole life turned upside down and when you lose anybody in your family, particularly a parent, the dynamic of your family shifts. And I was the oldest. Suddenly, then, you are not a child. I used to love going home at Christmas time, because, after a busy year of work, veg out on the sofa for two weeks. You could just be a child again for two weeks, have your dinners handed up to you and relax at home. Shut out the outside world, if you wanted to. Whereas, when that happened, everything changed in an instant. I had to step up and all the rigmarole that comes with consultants and appointments. It just turned our world upside down. I think, if there are people listening going through that, it is allowing yourself the space to process it, because... I probably didnt process it until after he was gone. More than 2,500 incidents were reported by the Irish Coast Guard in 2024, official figures released by the Department of Transport show. The year end information for 2024 showcases that the Coast Guard coordinated a total of 2,554 incidents over the past 12 months. This included search and rescue, maritime casualty responses and pollution and preparedness responses. The figure included 1,154 mobilisations of the 44 Coast Guard units and also 752 missions conducted by the Coast Guard helicopters. The Coast Guard helicopters conducted 134 air ambulance flights in support of the offshore island communities, while the Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats were launched on 699 occasions. Joanna Cullen, Assistant Secretary General at the Department of Transport with responsibility the Irish Coast Guard, said 2024 was an important year and busy one for the Irish Coast Guard. I want to thank all members of the Irish Coast Guard who have once again shown their dedication to keeping the Irish coastline safe. I want to particularly extend my appreciation to the staff in the three Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres, who remain vigilant both day and night and ensure our critical work continues, especially during the Christmas period when others enjoy some time off with family and friends. The month of December 2024 saw the first of two AW189 helicopters, provided by Bristow Ireland Limited under the new aviation service contract, commencing operation in Shannon. There are four more helicopters scheduled for delivery early in the new year. The Irish Coast Guard advise that if you see somebody in trouble on the water or along the coast, use marine VHF Ch 16 or dial 112 and ask for the Coast Guard. Researchers in Dublin have produced a report showing the benefits of a plurilingual approach in teaching Irish in primary schools, particularly children whose first language is not Irish or English. The Dublin City University (DCU) project said it promotes cultural diversity in schools by encouraging children in English-medium primary schools to draw on all of their linguistic knowledge. Ireland is a multilingual country with more than 200 languages spoken daily. Polish is the most commonly spoken outside of Irish and English. Almost 124,000 people speak Polish as their home language, which represents 16.5% of the population. Dr Aisling Ni Dhiorbhain and Dr Tara Concannon-Gibney, of the DCU Sealbhu Research Centre for the Learning and Teaching of Irish, compiled the report, laying out guidance for the development of a plurilingual approach to Irish teaching. Between 60% and 80% of the 291 children across five schools who took part in the project, which was funded by An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaiochta (COGG), had another home language apart from English or Irish. Diversity Dr Ni Dhiorbhain said there is an increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in Irelands schools, which includes children who do not have English as their first language. These kids are coming to school with really valuable linguistic knowledge, and we wanted to look at ways to support children to use their home languages in school to affirm this linguistic and cultural diversity, she added. Were very passionate about Gaeilge as well, and we see the potential for Irish as a common second language to provide more opportunities for children to develop language learning skills, and then to use their home languages in class as well. Its emphasised to encourage children who have home languages other than Irish and English, to use their language at school. But we looked at practically how to do that. We wanted to find a practical way to show teachers how they can support children in using all of their linguistic knowledge. All linguistic knowledge is an asset. When children come to school, a majority of children would have English as a home language, whereas when theyre learning Irish, the majority of children are learning Irish as a second language, so theyre all starting off from the beginning. It shows the potential of Irish to connect all of the other languages. Theres huge cultural advantages to learning Irish, but something that isnt recognised enough are the values of learning Irish because it is an additional language. Plurilingual approach Dr Concannon-Gibney added: We have a curriculum that emphasises and encourages a plurilingual approach to languages, and that has kind of been in the ether for a couple of years now, but teachers need more support in looking at the practicalities of what that actually looks like in a classroom. This project has a professional development aspect to it, so we looked at strategies that might empower teachers to try this out in classrooms. Ireland is such a unique country in the fact that we have English and Irish taught in primary school, and theyre both national languages, as well as being in a diverse society. We felt like we really needed to add to the body of knowledge that is out there. Dr Concannon-Gibney also said it is important to show children whose first language is not Irish or English that their home language has value in the school system. Developing that home language is important because research shows us that the more languages you have, and the more you develop them across, say reading, writing or languages, it actually becomes more and more beneficial to a child, she added. And it really promotes an analytical mindset as well, which is really key in the primary school curriculum. It is important to not just recognise the linguistic diversity we have in our schools and classrooms and our society, but to actively encourage it in the classroom, that children get opportunities to use their language for repertoire, and using Gaeilge as the driver was a really positive one. January 1, 2025: At a high school in the northwestern city of Arkhangelsk, high school students have been using 3-D printers to produce grenade components for Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The government is encouraging Russian civilians to help out any way they can to provide Russian soldiers equipment and components they need. The Russians are emulating what the Ukrainians were doing even before the war started, especially when it came to homemade drones. Children make weapons components and adults are encouraged to collect winter clothing and other equipment for soldiers. Calling on civilians to supply the troops that the government cant afford to provide is traditional in Russia. Local and Republic governments in 2022 and 2023 had to supply uniforms and equipment for raw recruits from their areas. Government-supplied equipment is subject to loss or substituting inferior items because of corruption. All of this is a desperate effort to close the capability gap between Russian forces and those of the NATO coalition. One reason Russia is still fighting in Ukraine is to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Russian military experts believe that the American and NATO military superiority over Russia is greater than it was during the Cold War. That explains why many Russians support Russia threatening to use its nuclear weapons and special operations subterfuge and deception forces to achieve anything against foreign enemies. While this has proved to be useful in explaining how the current Russian government will somehow do the impossible and rebuild the ancient Russian empire, it has not worked in practice. Despite that, the current Russian leadership has kept trying. In 2014 Russian leaders began using a new term, New Russia, to describe what they were doing in Ukraine and, without saying so, planned to do elsewhere. The objective was to restore the old Russian Empire built by the czars over several centuries, taken over by the communists in the 1920s and then lost by the communists in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. This caused half the Soviet population to leave for newly formed, or re-formed, nations. Current Russian leaders, especially Vladimir Putin, are quite explicit in describing this loss of empire as the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. Many Russians agree, although most of the people in the 14 new nations created from the wreckage of that empire do not. Nor do most Russian neighbors. Officially Russia denies all this ill will but the restoration of the centuries old Russian Empire remains a popular goal among Russians, whether the state controlled media puts a spotlight on that or not. Ukraine was always a key component of that empire and Russians wants it back. To do that the cost, in political, financial and military terms has, so far, been higher than expected. While rebuilding the empire is popular inside Russia it has terrified and united the rest of Europe and led to a growing militarization effort. Russias economy cannot match the rest of Europe and as Europe revives its military power Russia will be at a disadvantage there as well. While Russia has nuclear weapons, so does France and Britain. Then there is the United States which has the largest GDP on the planet as well as nuclear weapons, large armed forces and is the primary supplier of weapons for Ukraine. Meanwhile Russia has a very embarrassing problem in the former parts of the Soviet Union that were not mainly Slavs. This means Central Asia where the locals, mainly Turkic and other non-Slavs always resented Russian domination. The ethnic Russian minority left in the 1990s and now the number of locals who can speak Russian is rapidly shrinking. Since the early 1990s, these unwilling provinces of the former Russian empire have lost between a third and half of their Russian speakers. Next to Poland there are the Baltic States where the favorite second language is now English while in the east it is Chinese and English. During the Soviet years the majority of the locals could speak or at least understand some Russian. The speed with which that disappeared was amazing, and demoralizing for Russians. Russia still has a lot of non-Slav minorities and these minorities have higher birth-rates than the ethnic Russians. For centuries Russia, which was rebranded as the Soviet Union in the early 1920s, was considered a threat to its neighbors in part because of its larger population. But since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991 the remaining Russian population has been in decline. Twenty years after the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian population implosion was getting worse. Currently Russia has the 11th largest economy in the world but without more local or foreign investments and fewer sanctions the economy will shrink. Meanwhile the workforce is also disappearing as couples are not having enough children. Poverty rates fell from 29 percent of the population in 2000 to just under 12 percent in 2012 and 11 percent in 2024. A major reason for the change was the collapse of world oil prices in 2013 when it went from 166 dollars a barrel to $44 dollars in 2016 and $23 in 2020. At the end of 2024 it was $70 a barrel. That spotlights another economic problem, expanding non-oil and gas industries so Russia can cover its oil production costs, which are currently $69 dollars a barrel. The government insists that growing international sanctions, imposed because of Russian aggression in Ukraine, are manageable. But many of the economic experts on the government payroll disagree and as long as they disagree only with the handful of officials who make the final decisions, they keep their jobs. Details of these disagreements eventually leak out and disclose the obvious problem with the government promising more than the current economy can provide. Increasing taxes is difficult because it creates unpopular increases in the cost of living at a time when more people have less to spend. Another contentious issue is popular demand that the government go after the many businesses that evade taxes, often on a massive scale. This is possible because there are so many corrupt officials and a tolerance for the use of gangster-style violence to intimidate officials into going along with criminal scams. The government prefers short term fixes that create long term problems. Most of the Russians this policy hurts have not been born yet so this approach tends to be favored by rulers who are willing to sacrifice the future to preserve the current power. For Russia this policy seems to be leading to Russia falling apart rather than rebuilding the old empire. The core problems for Russia are lack of maintenance of, well, everything, and the widespread corruption which limits the formation of new businesses as well as discouraging investments in current or new businesses by both foreign and Russian investors. In addition Russia is becoming more dependent on oil and gas exports. These commodities are suffering from falling prices and increased foreign competition. Unlike Western politicians, who have less corruption and vigorous growing economies, Russia lacks the potential for turning its current dilemma around. As more Russians become aware of that they will, as they did in the late 1980s, they seek other solutions. The Cork Migrant Centre (CMC) at Nano Nagle Place has been empowering migrant people, families and communities in Cork for almost two decades. Established in 2006 by the Presentation Sisters, the CMC provides free, confidential, and current information on access to services and immigration issues. The centre is committed to advocating on behalf of migrant children, families, and communities, and to ensure they have access to the services and supports they need to alleviate the day-to-day challenges. It also aims to provide them with the best possible opportunities to empower them individually and collectively. The then taoiseach Micheal Martin with members of the Cork Migrant Centre Youth Initiative at Nano Nagle Place in Cork to mark its being awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize. Picture: Darragh Kane. The CMC creates safe spaces for migrants as well as integration opportunities and collaborations with organisations across Cork and further afield all with the goal of creating and enhancing opportunities for equality and equity. Dr Naomi Masheti, programme coordinator of the CMC, was recently recognised for her pioneering work in advancing migrant rights and social inclusion. Not only was Dr Masheti awarded the University College Cork Alumni Achievement Award, but she was also named as one of the outstanding women to feature in Accentures Women on Walls at UCC. Dr Masheti has made significant strides in empowering migrant communities, particularly through the establishment of a psychosocial wellbeing hub. This approach moves beyond traditional individual-focused models, using a community-based framework drawn from humanitarian settings. It prioritises human dignity and is rooted in a strength-based, human rights perspective, a shift away from conventional charity models. Some of the key projects Dr Masheti leads include a culturally relevant parenting programme, a peer-led textile social enterprise called Saoirse Ethnic Hands on Deck, and a peer-led youth group that has led the way in advocating for social and racial justice through creativity, and pioneered anti-racist youth summits in Ireland. These initiatives help bring people together and empower migrant communities to create positive change. Dr Masheti works with local, national, and international partners, including universities, government agencies, and charities, to build evidence-based practices that improve the lives of migrants. Reflecting on her achievements, Dr Masheti said: I am deeply humbled by these recognitions. These awards reflect the collective strength of the community at the Cork Migrant Centre, Nano Nagle Place, and our shared commitment to creating a more inclusive society. I dedicate this honour to my colleagues, the migrants and refugees we support, and everyone who helps drive positive change. John Smith, CEO of Nano Nagle Place, shared his admiration for Dr Mashetis leadership: Dr Mashetis unwavering dedication to uplifting migrant communities is nothing short of inspiring. Her tireless work to promote inclusion and empowerment is integral to the mission of Nano Nagle Place, he added. We are incredibly proud to have her as a leader in our organisation, and this recognition is a testament to the transformative work she continues to do. Nano Nagle Place also proudly highlighted that Nano Nagle herself was featured in Accentures Women on Walls at UCC, celebrating her groundbreaking contributions to education and social justice. Aaliyah Onog with fellow young leaders from Cork Migrant Centre who were honoured with the first Cork Learning City Award on Irish Learning Cities Day, in September, 2020. Picture: Clare Keogh The local heritage museum stated that the recognition of both Nano Nagle and Dr Masheti underscores their shared legacy of empowering marginalised communities and fostering an inclusive, compassionate society. One project at the CMC has been giving a voice to younger migrants in Cork. The CMC works with a group of young people who have come together under the banner of Sauti, a Swahili word meaning voice. Sauti is a youth-led movement that empowers young people to use their creativity to combat social injustices. Through music, poetry, creative writing, visual arts and more, the Sauti group are finding innovative ways to collaborate, express themselves, and drive change. One of Sautis projects in 2024 was the creation of a mural in Turners Cross, a collaborative effort that was part of their broader involvement in the recent anti-racism summit. Speaking to The Echo when the mural was revealed earlier this year, a spokesperson for the Cork Migrant Centre at Nano Nagle Place said: This mural is an artwork and a powerful statement of inclusivity, opportunity, community, and a deep sense of belonging. Through facilitated workshops led by Creativity and Change, the young artists immersed themselves in discussions and brainstorming sessions for weeks to decide what the mural should represent. They explored the essence of Cork, reflecting on what makes this city unique. One particularly poignant symbol they chose to feature was the Echo Boy, a familiar figure outside the GPO, whose chant has become a part of the citys soundscape, he added. Through this mural, they aim to spread a message of safety, empowerment, and inclusion not just in Cork but throughout the country. The Cork Migrant Centres Sauti initiative group is a testament to the belief that local actions can have an impact. In this mural, they have captured their voices and the spirit of a community that embraces diversity and the power of creativity to drive social change, the spokesperson concluded. Armed gardai rushed to Oliver Plunkett Street at around 10 oclock at night in response to a report of a man wielding a knife who was abusive to members of the public. Judge Mary Dorgan commented today at Cork District Court that it was a very serious matter and she imposed a total sentence of six months on the accused man in respect of charges that included possession of the weapon and engaging in threatening behaviour. Sergeant John Kelleher said members of An Garda Siochana including members of the armed response unit arrived at the scene and that Trevor Connolly was quickly located. He was searched. Found in the waistband of his tracksuit pant was a black-handled knife. Asked to account for it he said, It is for my own protection. He was extremely abusive to members of the public and the gardai." The address on the charge sheets for the accused gave his address at Cork Simon Community. But at Cork District Court previously the accused said he had an address at Mayfield, Cork. Sgt Kelleher said the defendant had 38 previous convictions including one under the Offensive Weapons Act, 19 for being intoxicated to such an extent that he was a danger to himself or others and nine for engaging in threatening behaviour. Defence solicitor Eddie Burke, said the 36-year-old had a very good work ethic and had successfully held down a number of jobs over the years. However, in recent times his drink problem escalated and he began drinking vodka instead of beer and his offending got worse. Judge Mary Dorgan said, In relation to the knife I think this is very serious a man in possession of a knife on Oliver Plunkett Street." Trevor Connolly pleaded guilty to three charges, possession of a knife, being threatening and abusive and being drunk and a source of danger to himself or others at 10pm on November 26, 2024. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to address you as your mayor and to look back on the year we have shared, while looking forward with hope and determination to the year ahead. 2024 has been an extraordinary year for our county, filled with moments of great pride, resilience, and togetherness. From celebrating global triumphs to weathering storms, we have shown the strength and heart that define us. One of the years unforgettable highlights was the return of our Skibbereen rowers from the Paris Olympics. Their inspiring performance not only earned medals but captured the hearts of people across Ireland and beyond. The homecoming was a joyous celebration of their dedication, hard work, and the deep connection they share with this county. It was a busy year for Cork County Council as we celebrated our 125th anniversary, stepping back in time to display the original council meeting minutes from 1899. A total of 125 native Irish trees were also planted across various locations in County Cork serving as living symbols of our commitment to sustainability and community growth. 2024 was an opportunity to witness democracy in action with the local, European and general elections. In June, the people of Cork County had their say, electing a new Council of 55 members. It was an incredible honour for me to assume the role of the Mayor of the County of Cork at the start of the new five-year Council term. Travelling around the county, attending community events and meeting people is one of the best parts of being mayor. Patricia Liddy, Director of Service, Municipal District Operations & Rural Development; Cork County Council; Joan Kearney, Librarian, Leabharlann Oilean Chleire; Emer OBrien, Cork County Librarian; Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Joe Carroll; Moira Murrell, Chief Executive of Cork County Council and Ruairi ODonovan, Udaras na Gaeltachta pictured at Leabharlann Oilean Chleire which opened in 2024. Picture: Alison Miles /OSM PHOTO I was proud to officially open two wonderful libraries in 2024, Leabharlann Oilean Chleire and Macroom Library. We also had the official opening of Briery Gap Theatre, several Safe Routes to School, and the reopening of Camden Fort Meagher. There were plenty of awards along the way too; the Tidy Towns saw 26 medals for towns and villages in County Cork; Durrus was recognised at the prestigious Pride of Place Awards; Kinsale Library won the Conservation, Adaption and Re-Use category at the RIAI Architecture Awards; with Mallow Castle awarded the RDS Forestry Award. I was honoured to accept the Asia Matters Local Government Award 2024 in recognition of the vital role Cork County Council plays in positioning Ireland as a trusted and valued partner for countries in the Asia Pacific region. However, alongside these achievements, we faced significant challenges this year. A series of storms, such as Bert and Darragh, tested our resilience. These storms are a constant reminder of the growing impact of extreme weather. I want to extend my thanks to our emergency services, council staff, and volunteers who worked tirelessly to keep our communities safe and to help where it was needed most. It is important to remember that the Christmas season is not merely about gifts under the tree or the celebrations we enjoyed, but about the ties that bind us. It is a time to come together, to share joy with our loved ones, and to extend compassion to those who may be less fortunate. Our families, friends, and neighbours are the heart of this season. They remind us that, despite any hardship, we are never alone. We must acknowledge that not everyone in our county experiences Christmas with ease. The economic pressures felt by many families and individuals remind us of the importance of reaching out and supporting one another. From ensuring food and essentials for those in need to sharing the warmth of friendship, there are countless ways to make this season brighter for someone else. I encourage you all to reflect on how you might lend a helping hand or a listening ear to a neighbour in need. This holiday season is also an opportunity to support the backbone of our local economy our small businesses. I urge you to consider buying local. Every purchase at a local store, craft market, or family-run business strengthens our local economy and preserves the unique character of our towns and villages. By supporting local, we contribute to the vibrancy of our communities and show gratitude to those who work tirelessly to serve us throughout the year. Looking ahead to 2025, I am filled with optimism for our county. As your Mayor, I am committed to working with all of you to ensure that our communities and county continue to thrive, that we provide opportunities for every individual and family, and that the spirit of generosity and inclusion remains at the heart of all we do. Together, we have achieved so much in 2024, but our work is not done. Let us use the inspiration of this season to fuel our efforts in the year to come. Whether its through acts of kindness, community initiatives, or simply being a supportive neighbour, we each have the power to make a difference. Together, we can create a future filled with hope, opportunity, and prosperity for all. Wishing you a happy, healthy new year. Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions. Chicago City Hall, with a green roof, is adjacent to the nearly identical Cook County Building, which has no green roof. Patrick L. Pyszka, City of Chicago Chicago, Illinois is kicking off the New Year with clean energy. As of Jan. 1, all of Chicagos 411 municipal buildings, such as its international airports, fire stations, libraries and City Hall, are now powered entirely by renewable energy. The feat has been made possible through a 5-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Constellation signed in August 2022, the Chicago Tribune reported. Every Chicagoan interacts with a city-owned building, whether the cultural center, City Hall, Harold Washington Library, OHare and Midway (international airports) or your local library. To be able to achieve this milestone on behalf of city residents is exciting, Angela Tovar, chief sustainability officer for Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune. Most (70%) of the municipal buildings 900,000 MWh of annual power demand is now met through a new, 4,100-acre solar farm called Double Black Diamond, which was established in Sangamon and Morgan counties, about 30 miles from Springfield, Illinois. Double Black Diamond, developed and operated by Swift Current Energy, is the largest solar farm east of the Mississippi. As explained by the U.S. Department of Energy, a PPA is when one party purchases power supply from a third-party, which handles the development and operation of the power source. This allows the power source owner and operator to reap tax benefits and generate income by selling energy, while the customer who is buying the power can access clean energy without the cost of installing the infrastructure. Through this plan, all of Chicagos municipal buildings now run on clean energy, which the city buys from Constellation and is supplied by renewable energy sources, including the Double Black Diamond solar farm. Its a plan that gets the city to take action on climate and also leverages our buying power to generate new opportunities for Chicagoans and the state, Tovar said, as reported by Grist. Theres opportunities everywhere. Constellation will provide the remaining 30% of clean energy for Chicagos city buildings through renewable energy credits (RECs), where funding from the Chicagos energy bills is put toward clean energy projects around the U.S., Chicago Tribune reported. While the move to power Chicagos municipal buildings entirely with renewable power is expected to reduce the citys carbon emissions by around 290,000 metric tons or around the same effect of taking 62,000 vehicles off the roads, Grist reported some people have concerns over the inclusion of RECs in the plan. As the Chicago Tribune reported, critics have argued that these credits are a type of greenwashing that dont necessarily contribute to local clean energy generation. However, the city addressed concerns over RECs, noting that the plan could still encourage more renewable energy development locally. Thats really a feature and not a bug of our plan, Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer Jared Policicchio told Grist. Our goal over the next several years is that we reach a point where were not buying renewable energy credits. Additionally, Tovar told Chicago Tribune that securing the 30% energy from RECs will give the city the time to explore solar installation on local buildings. The city has also collaborated with Constellation and Swift Current Energy on a $400,000 annual deal for clean energy job training, American Cities Climate Challenge reported. Chicago further set a goal to power all buildings in the city, not just municipal buildings, through renewables by 2035. If it achieves the goal, Chicago would be the largest U.S. city to power all buildings entirely with clean energy, the Sierra Club reported. Chicago joins around 700 other municipalities in the U.S. that have committed to PPAs, totaling over 18,372 MW worth of renewable energy, or enough clean energy to power about 4 million homes per year, as of 2021, the World Resources Institute reported. (Photo: Courtesy Vatican Press Office)An image by American photographer Joseph Roger O'Donnell that Pope Francis is circulating, under the heading "The fruits of war." Pope Francis has issued a card showing a 1945 photo of victims of the Nagasaki nuclear bombing in a New Year warning over the threat of global conflict and its effect on humanity. The Vatican is to print and distribute copies of the image, which shows a young Japanese boy carrying his dead brother on his shoulders to a cemetery, with the words "the fruit of war" written on the back. The picture was taken by U.S. Marine photographer Joe O'Donnell shortly after American forces dropped atomic bombs on Japan, first on Hiroshima and then days later on Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War. The cards issued by Francis will carry his own signature along with a caption: "The young boy's sadness is expressed only in his gesture of biting his lips which are oozing blood," The Independent newspaper in the UK reported. O'Donnell spent four years documenting the trail of destruction after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the first and only times an atomic bomb has been used in a wartime act. The Vatican press circulated the photo ahead of the Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, which is celebrated every Jan.1 January. Vatican analyst John Allen said, "The gesture is consistent with Francis's effort since his election to speak out against what he describes as a 'Third World War' today, being fought in piecemeal fashion in various parts of the world." "The pontiff has also spoken about the disproportionate suffering children often experience in conflicts, including the risk of being enrolled as child soldiers," said Allen writing in Crux. "The gesture with the photo of Nagasaki also comes at the close of a year in which the threat of nuclear conflict once again had the world on edge, in light of North Korea's threat to use nuclear weapons, and U.S. President Donald Trump's vow that America would unleash 'fire and fury' should that happen." (Photo:Courtesy Vatican News)Pope Francis presides at a Holy Mass at the Vatican on Jan. 1, 2025 Pope Francis ushered in 2025 with a New Year's Day Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, braving untypically cold weather in Rome, with a renewed appeal for followers to reject abortion. The Pope's address called on Catholics to reject abortion urging a "firm commitment" to protect and respect life "from conception to natural death," DPA reported. Francis prayed in his homily that everyone should learn to care for "every child born of a woman." He called on followers to protect "the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying." "I ask for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future," said Francis. The Catholic Church strongly opposes abortion and assisted suicide. According to DPA, the German news agency said that in the first months of his pontificate in 2013, Francis complained that the church had become obsessed with "small-minded rules" on issues such as abortion. However, the Pope now regularly likens the procuring of an abortion to "hiring a hitman to solve a problem." In September, he courted controversy on a visit to Belgium by describing the country's abortion law as "murderous." At his New Year mass, Pope Francis was accompanied by 36 cardinals, 22 bishops, 40 priests and thousands of visitors in the basilica prayed vespers and then sang the "Te Deum" ("We praise you, oh God") in thanksgiving for the blessings of the past year. In his homily during the prayer service, Francis said that striving for human fraternity is not just a "rhetorical slogan" but is rooted in the person of Jesus Christ, OSV, a Catholic news portal reported. Despite extraordinary cold gripping Rome, Francis visited the Vatican Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square after the service, seated in a wheelchair. He greeted the faithful and handed chocolates to children, while the Swiss Guard band played Christmas carols to serenade the crowd. January 2, 2025: The Ukrainian Police Security Services, or SBU, have become more important since Russia invaded in 2022. This unit was created in 1991 after Ukraine emerged from the demise of the Soviet Union. During its first thirteen years the SBU was regarded as corrupt and largely ineffectual. Reforms in 2014 cleared up the corruption and since then the SBU has been kept busy fighting crime and corruption. By 2023 SBU was even busier chasing down Russian agents and saboteurs. Five months after the 2022 invasion began, president Volodymyr Zelensky fired the head of the SBU and the chief prosecutor along with over sixty other officials and brought treason and collaboration charges against 651 SBU members and local officials. Most of those charged worked for the SBU. The large number of people charged is the result of more Ukrainians reporting information leaks and collaboration with the Russians in Ukraine as well as the occupied territories, especially the ones that were seized in the first week of the Russian February invasion. There were also credible complaints from more recent members of the SBU that there were still a lot of SBU veterans who openly criticized government policy and condoned corruption, especially within the SBU. The SBU is the successor to the Ukrainian branch of the KGB. After Ukrainian became independent in 1991, obvious KGB loyalists were fired but many vets remained and they perpetuated a culture of corruption along with the formidable deception and operational skills the KGB excelled in. The SBU is a large organization, with 35,000 employees. That is the same size as the American FBI, for a country with seven times more people. Equivalent European agencies, like DST in France and MI5 in Britain, are equally small, relative to population, as the FBI. On a per-capita basis Western internal agencies have about 109 agency personnel per million population. For the Russian FSB it is 591 and for the SBU it is about 850. For the pre 1991 Soviet era KGB it was 1,600. The SBU, like its predecessor the KGB, demanded high performance and discipline. In return, KGB personnel were free to make a little extra on the side, The KGB was literally above the law as the only ones who could arrest KGB personnel were other KGB personnel. The post-Soviet FSB and SBU have similar immunities. A growing number of the post-199os SBU hires were personnel who, like those who voted Zelensky into office in 2019, saw corruption as a major obstacle to Ukrainian prosperity and independence from Russian influence. Then came the 2022 invasion and NATO military aid and assistance, especially in intelligence collection. This monitored and decrypted (when needed) Russian communications relevant to Ukraine and shared much of that data with the Ukrainians. That data revealed many things, including evidence that turned suspicions of SBU treason into indictments. With leaky SBU members identified it was possible to identify many of their Ukrainian sources. It also sent a message to the SBU that the long sought culture shift in the organization was happening. Life in wartime is one of extremes in courage and craven behavior. The courageous tend to be the majority, at least on the winning side and thats where Ukrainians want to be. For Russians the war in Ukraine is all about gaining real estate and population. For Ukrainians the war is all about the survival of the Ukrainian state and its separate identity. Russia has been trying to erase that separate identity for centuries and this is something people in all nations can understand. Ukrainians have openly complained about Russian efforts to regain control of Ukraine after 1991. Thats what numerous independence movements in Ukrainian history are all about. The 2014 uprising of Ukrainians against a president who sold out to the Russians after promising closer ties to Europe and NATO did not end with the resignation of that president. The Russians kept trying and the Ukrainian kept resisting until 2022 when a desperate Russian leader risked another major defeat to force all of Ukraine back into Russia. Its another example of the irresistible force going against the immovable object and, like the Germans in 1941, irresistible is often not enough. Once the Russians invaded SBU became patriotic and very effective. SBU was responsible for developing Ukrainian naval drones, which were a key factor in the destruction of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2023 . SBU has also been successful at finding and arresting Ukrainian officials guilty of corruption during wartime. Most of those caught had engaged in corruption before the Russians invaded in 2022. Even before the 2014 reforms there were occasions when the SBU was effective. In 2009 SBU operatives arrested three men trying to sell 3.6 kg of plutonium for $10 million. It turned out that they did not have plutonium, but the less radioactive and not suitable for nuclear weapons Americium which could be used for a dirty bomb. Those arrested included a politician and two businessmen from Western Ukraine. These men had obtained the radioactive material, which was originally produced inside Russia, from someone outside Ukraine. This incident is typical of dozens that have gone down since the end of the Cold War in 1991. Most of the nuclear material being peddled is not weapons grade. But since 1993, there have been over two dozen instances of smugglers caught with weapons grade uranium or plutonium. Thefts of non-weapons grade material have been reported in many countries around the world since the end of the Cold War. What's amazing is that Islamic terrorists have not yet obtained any of this stuff and used it to set off a dirty bomb which consists of explosives surrounded by radioactive material. When detonated this makes radioactive, and uninhabitable, the blast area. Since the end of the Cold War, and the dismantling of over 20,000 nuclear weapons, there has been over three tons of additional nuclear fuel sitting around. Nuclear material cannot be destroyed and remains radioactive for thousands of years. Several terrorist organizations and nations are known to be in the market for this weapons grade nuclear material, and don't care what the source is. Criminal organizations are active in trying to develop the trade. Only an enormous amount of police and intelligence work prevents a more active illegal trade in nuclear material. But there is a hundred times more, less radioactive, material around. These less potent substances are used in hospitals and for manufacturing or food processing work. This is what can be used for dirty bombs. There is a black market for this material as well, but no terrorists have, so far, gotten some and used it. The US Treasury Department told lawmakers in a letter back in December that its documents and workstations were accessed by an external party in a security breach. It described the attack as "a major cybersecurity incident" and attributed it to a "China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor." Now, The Washington Post has reported that the bad actors infiltrated a "highly sensitive office" within the Treasury in charge of deliberating and administering US government sanctions. As The Post explains, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is in possession of some important information that could be very useful to another country's government. While the hackers were only able to steal unclassified data, they could still have gotten their hands on the identities of potential sanction targets. They could also have stolen pieces of evidence that the agency had collected as part of its investigation on entities that the government is thinking of sanctioning. Overall, the attackers could have gotten enough information to give them the knowledge of how the US develops sanctions against foreign entities. In addition to OFAC, the Office of the Treasury Secretary and the Office of Financial Research were also affected by the breach. The attackers infiltrated the Treasury's systems by gaining access to a key used by BeyondTrust, a cloud-based service that provides the department with technical support. The US government has attributed numerous cyberattacks on its agencies and American companies to China state-sponsored actors over the years. Just last year, the FBI blamed "PRC-affiliated actors" for a massive hack on US telecom companies. The actors, a group known as Salt Typhoon, reportedly targeted the mobile devices of diplomats, government officials and other people linked to both presidential campaigns. According to The Post, Chinese officials called claims that their country was involved in the attack on the Treasury Department "groundless" and insisted that their government "has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks." He will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a longtime executive known for his ties to Republican circles in Washington. Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister turned Meta executive, is leaving after a seven-year stint with the social media company. Clegg announced his departure in posts on X and Threads, saying that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta. Clegg will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a longtime policy executive and former White House aide to George W. Bush known for his deep ties to Republican circles in Washington. As Chief Global Affairs Officer, Kaplan as Semafor notes will be well-positioned to run interference for Meta as Donald Trump takes control of the White House. Clegg joined Meta in 2018, a year after the British public deemed the former leader of the Liberal Democrats unelectable. The company then known as Facebook was looking to improve its political relationships after Cambridge Analytica and other scandals. In 2022, he was promoted to President of Global Affairs, a position that reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg (his previous role was overseen by Metas then-COO Sheryl Sandberg). ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement The former politician played a key role in some of Metas most significant and controversial decisions. He publicly defended the companys decision not to apply its fact checking policies to politicians and authored its public statements about the suspension and reinstatement of Donald Trumps Facebook account. More recently, Clegg has criticized the European Unions handling of tech regulation, arguing that the bloc is hampering advancements in AI. My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between big tech and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector, Clegg wrote in a post on Threads. I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe. January 2, 2025: In 2018 Norway openly complained about Russia deliberately jamming GPS signals in Norway. The jamming was done from a Russian military base in the Kola Peninsula on the Barents Sea, where Norway and Russia share a small border. The jamming took place in late 2018 as NATO held its largest training exercise since the Cold War ended in 1991. Russia denied any responsibility even though they are known to possess long-range jammers, for GPS and other signals. Norway said they had tracked the jammer to a specific location but when Russia refused to admit any involvement, Norway refused to explain how they tracked the signal because that would provide Russia with information on Norwegian electronic warfare or EW equipment that might be useful to them. The jamming incident encouraged Norway to add more electronic warfare spending to its defense budget. Norway is working towards nearly doubling their defense spending through 2036, when annual defense spending will almost double its military budget and reach 3 percent of GDP by 2036. This is about $55 billion a year. As recently as 2015 the annual defense budget was only $5.8 billion. This money will make possible the purchase of more warships and reconnaissance drones as well as the formation of more infantry brigades to protect areas threatened by Russian forces. Over the next decade the navy will receive five new 4,300-ton frigates, each carrying an ASW/Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopter. There will be ten smaller warships using a new standardized design and the ability to add or remove modular weapons and support systems. With these smaller ships the emphasis is on ASW warfare. The navy will also be receiving five new submarines and over a dozen auxiliary vessels for mine clearing and offshore patrol. The navy is replacing its force of elderly P-3 maritime patrol aircraft with a larger number of maritime patrol drones that can patrol more frequently the northern waters near the Russian Kola base area. Norway has a new ally in the north because Finland joined NATO recently. Finland already has forces deployed along its long border with Russia. In the north, the Finnish border reaches an area where Norwegian, Finnish, and Russian forces are facing each other. The Norwegian Army is forming two new infantry brigades, one of them based near the short land border with Russia in northern Finland near Norway and the Russian border. All three countries have military, naval and air forces in this area. Norway was one of the original NATO members when NATO was formed shortly after World War II ended. Finland is one of the newest NATO members, joining in 2023. Neighboring Sweden, which had been neutral for two hundred years, abandoned its neutral status and joined NATO in 2024. There is a long border between the two countries in northwestern Sweden and northeastern Finland. With Sweden now a NATO member, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania, and the Russian city and port of St Petersburg at the eastern end of the Baltic Sea, are Russias only presence in the Baltic Sea. Otherwise, the Baltic Sea is surrounded by NATO members. This annoys Russian leader Vladimir Putin who ominously warns of possible Russian action in the future to expand the Russian presence in the Baltic Sea. Putin is also unhappy with the situation in northern Norway where Norway, Finland, and Russia border the Barents Sea. NATO regularly holds training exercises in this area to practice quickly bringing more, usually American, soldiers and marines into the area to reinforce Norwegian and Finnish forces. These exercises also involved American aircraft carrier task forces and warships from local NATO allies. The Russian Northern Fleet is based on the Kola Peninsula that is adjacent to Norway and Finland. This region, where the borders of Russia, Finland and Norway meet, are above the Arctic Circle and relatively warm only because the warmer Gulf Stream current runs through this area. This makes coastal areas very habitable. The farther inland you go, the more Arctic the climate becomes. For thousands of years the local population lived mainly on the coast. Thats why the relatively large area of Norway has a population of only 5.5 million. This is expected to grow to six million by 2040. Currently the Norwegian GDP is about half a trillion dollars and per capita GDP is over $100,000, which is one of the highest in the world with petroleum and natural gas accounting for a quarter of that GDP. The oil and natural gas are exported and nearly all the electricity generated in Norway comes from hydropower, dammed water released to operate electric generation turbines. Norway began developing this hydropower a century ago, after World War I. Norway did not participate in either of the World Wars although during World War II Nazi Germany occupied Norway to prevent the allies from using Norwegian resources, including those needed to create an atomic bomb. Norwegian resistance fighters and allied commandos carried out several operations to sabotage German efforts to use Norwegian resources for nuclear weapons research. Nazi Germany never came close to developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile the Americans spent $5 billion to develop nuclear weapons and the B-29 bomber needed to carry it to targets. Only two targets were hit with nuclear weapons near the end of World War II, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima in Japan. This forced Japan to surrender, four months after the Germans did. The American nuclear weapons and B-29 bombers were originally meant for use against Germany, then Japan because it was known that the Japanese were willing to fight to the death while opposing an allied, mainly American, invasion. The nuclear weapons used against Japan shocked the stalwart Japanese government into surrendering. This was something Japan had never done before and some military officers tried, at the last minute, to disrupt the surrender plans. That effort failed, in part because the Americans indicated that they had more nuclear weapons and would keep bombing Japanese cities until Japan surrendered. The Americans did have more nuclear bombs, but they were still being assembled back in the United States after the first two were used against two Japanese cities. After World War II, Russia, Britain, and France developed nuclear weapons and the threat of those weapons being used again has made possible the longest period of peace between the major powers in history. The nuclear peace still holds, despite threats by some nuclear armed nations to use nukes. These are largely empty threats because a nuclear war would kill many millions and devastate the world economy. Its always possible that some mad national leader, like North Koreas Kim Jong Un, would use nukes but even that is doubtful. The North Korean people are more concerned with food shortages than nuclear war. At the other end of the economic spectrum, Norway is also opposed to any nuclear war or serious threats of starting one. Such threats by Russian leader Vladimir Putin make him look weak and somewhat deranged. The ongoing legal dispute involving Blake Lively and her director and co-star Justin Baldoni from the film "It Ends with Us" has now entangled Ryan Reynolds in the mix. Baldoni has filed a lawsuit seeking $250 million in damages against The New York Times. The lawsuit is in response to their reporting on Lively's allegations of sexual harassment against Baldoni, along with claims that he was involved in a coordinated effort to tarnish her reputation. Following her initial claims, she proceeded to submit a federal lawsuit reiterating those allegations earlier this week. In the legal document, Baldoni and the additional plaintiffs, including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, are accusing the publication of committing libel, invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breaching an implied-in-fact contract. They claim that the publication intentionally deceived its readers. They also believe the publication heavily depends on Lively's "unverified and self-serving narrative," describing them as "blatant falsehoods and egregious misrepresentations." Before "It Ends with Us" resumed production earlier in 2024 after industry strikes, a comprehensive meeting was reportedly held to discuss Lively's legal action regarding a toxic work environment. Reynolds was present at the gathering alongside other key individuals. It was alleged that Baldoni was confronted by Reynolds "aggressively" at their New York penthouse. Reynolds reportedly accused Baldoni "fat shaming" Lively. "Baldoni, in an effort to avoid further confrontation with Lively and Reynolds and rebuild rapport with his co-star, continued to bend to her will," the lawsuit claimed. "[Plaintiffs] arrived eager to discuss plans for the next day's filming, prepared with their production materials," the lawsuit added. "Instead, they were blindsided by Lively and Reynolds, who presented a list of grievances that were both unanticipated and troubling." "Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a 'traumatic' encounter, stating he had 'never been spoken to like that in his life.'" Lively pointed fingers at Baldoni, alleging that he had been "shaming her for her body and weight." There was an alleged incident where she felt embarrassed when he supposedly contacted her fitness trainer behind her back, hinting that he wanted her to shed pounds within a short timeframe. In the lawsuit, Baldoni argues that these accusations have twisted the truth. He alleged that Lively and Reynolds subjected him to "inappropriate and humiliating berating" while "other celebrity friends were coming in and out of their penthouse." "When Baldoni resisted apologizing for what he had not done, Reynolds became further enraged," the lawsuit stated. "Everyone, including the producer Lively had asked production to engage and a representative of Sony that was in attendance, left that 'meeting' in shock." The document also mentions how Lively took it upon herself to make daily changes to the script. The consistent adjustments made by the actress caused concern among the producers, director, and studio, who feared that her interventions would continue throughout the entire filming process. It was allegedly feared that this could potentially cause disruptions to the meticulously planned shooting schedule, add pressure to the production team, and incur financial burdens. Throughout the lengthy process of finalizing her divorce from her estranged husband, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie found support and encouragement from her six children to assert herself and speak up. It took a total of eight years for the divorce to be officially signed off on Christmas Day. An insider told PEOPLE, "She's been trying hard to be light after a dark time." "The kids have grown up seeing that some people have so much power and privilege that their voices don't matter," the insider added. "Their pain doesn't count." "They have wanted her to speak up for herself, to defend herself over these years but she reminds them to focus on changing laws over telling public stories," the insider continued. The 49-year-old award-winning actress continues to hold primary custody of her two remaining underage children, 16-year-old fraternal twins named Vivienne and Knox. Five of Jolie and Pitt's children have distanced themselves from him, particularly his daughters Zahara, Shiloh, and Vivienne. All three girls have decided to remove Pitt from their names as well. The "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood" actor was said to have engaged in a physical confrontation with his son Maddox, 23, while on a private jet in 2016. Subsequently, his son Pax, 21, publicly described him very negatively in a fiery outburst on Instagram. In an interview with "Good Morning America" in November, Jolie revealed, "None of my children want to be in front of the camera at this time." "They're quite private. Shiloh's extremely private," she said. "They weren't born with privacy, right? So I hope they can have that as they grow." At one point, the duo famously referred to as "Brangelina" entered into marriage without a prenuptial agreement. Surprisingly, their official time as a married couple spanned only from 2014 to 2016, even though their love story began on the set of the spy movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" in 2004. While their divorce has been settled, the former power couple is still in an ongoing legal battle concerning their 1,200-acre winery Chateau Miraval in Correns, France, where they exchanged vows. They dispute is now approaching its fourth year. In 2011, Jolie and Pitt made a joint investment in a sprawling 35-room estate, acquiring it for $28.4 million. However, Pitt took legal action against Jolie in 2021 for selling her share of the property to the Stoli Group without his consent. Initially, she had proposed a resolution. However, Jolie later withdrew her offer due to concerns regarding the compulsory non-disclosure agreement. Another insider told PEOPLE, "Sadly, until [Pitt] drops his lawsuit, this family will not have the peace and healing they so very much desire and deserve." A third source revealed the ongoing lawsuit is the "Maleficent" actress' way of punishing her ex, sharing, "Brad built an extraordinary, increasingly valuable business and she chose to deliberately disregard their agreement." It was also alleged that Jolie "instead chose to sell to a total stranger not aligned with the company's vision so she could take the money for herself and punish him." On January 1, Meghan Markle made a comeback on Instagram with the username @meghan. In her initial upload, a Reel shows Meghan in an all-white outfit, playfully etching "2025" in the sand at a beach close to their residence in Montecito, California. The video, believed to have been filmed by Prince Harry, captured this lighthearted moment before Meghan exits the frame with a giggle. Before this, Meghan had shared aspects of her life through the Instagram handle @meghanmarkle. The account was deactivated following her engagement to Prince Harry in 2018. Upon transitioning away from their roles as senior members of the royal family, the Sussexes decided to discontinue their dedicated royal Instagram account, @sussexroyal, which had served as their official social media platform. In March 2024, Meghan made a return to Instagram by introducing her latest personal account dedicated to featuring her lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. The bio on the account proudly states, "By Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. Established 2024." The initial posts on the page were strategically arranged to create the brand's distinctive logo within the photo grid. Meghan's first Instagram post captivated the interest of a multitude of individuals and sparked a significant online uproar. She immediately turned off the comments section on the video. But fans have very different reactions to the former "Suits" star's Instagram comeback. Her return to Instagram may bring back not just her presence, but also the potential for meaningful dialogue and advocacy. Meghan has the platform, now its about how she uses it to shape 2025. tmoniiyoungbless (@youngblesstmoni) January 1, 2025 MEGHAN MARKLE SURVIVED AND THRIVED NO ONE AND NO AMOUNT OF BRITISH PRESS WILL EVER DIM HER LIGHT ena J.Gill (@JaiShreeRam90) January 1, 2025 this video alone has more personality than the entire royal family Vix (@skinnyforlunch) January 1, 2025 Shes dealt with enough hate to last a lifetime. I hope 2025 is good to that family. Your Daily Birds (@yourdailybirds) January 1, 2025 real queen of england aj (@tylaspriority) January 1, 2025 Some noticed an awkward blunder leading to all kinds of speculation such as a divorce. In her bio, her name is "Meghan, Duchess of Sussex," when it should have been "Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex." Meghans Instagram has already had an update, changing her name in the profile from Meghan to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Hopefully we will see another update, as she left out the The in her title. No The before Duchess of Sussex means she is a divorcee. pic.twitter.com/aNUKHrY7LO Gert's Royals (@Gertsroyals) January 1, 2025 Embarrassing you can get her title right, but she cannot pic.twitter.com/OvhxE9imNl Sabirah Lohn (@SabirahLohn) January 1, 2025 With her return on social media, some fans want her to return to acting next. finally! acting next LESEGO (@LeeLovesBey) January 1, 2025 I love how Meghan has just made her triumphant return to Instagram like 3 hours ago and we are all already so greedy and want more IAmSage (@SageKnowsAll) January 1, 2025 However, there are those who don't really agree with her return, with some calling her desperate, while some criticized her actions. Couldnt care less QueenEmyB (@QueenEmyB1) January 1, 2025 Shes almost a half a century and still acting like shes a teen. YIKES! Tradwife2222 (@Tradwife2222) January 1, 2025 What a fantastic idea for ANOTHER IG account launch Her ideas are otherworldly How long did it take for her to come up with the running on a beach with her back to the camera idea ?! How many rehearsal sessions did it take to make that groundbreaking video AzureRN1997 (@RN199720191) January 1, 2025 Thats how many dog biscuits she made before her new business collapsed Calm Down Jen (@calmdownjen) January 1, 2025 Stepped down from her royal role but still clinging desperately to her title. mandy (@mandyandey1) January 1, 2025 Some fans have things to say after Meghan turned off her comments. Would you leave your front door unlocked and wide open when your home is unattended? So why are Meghan haters so mad that she's turned the comments off on her Instagram post pic.twitter.com/mFTbZJ8J5u Lorraine King (@lorrainemking) January 1, 2025 the turned off comments is telling of this new grift.. I mean narcissistic page sorry influencer profile.. autocorrect Argos (@LoyalArgos) January 1, 2025 Again, the sense of entitlement is off the charts. These people are angry because they're having to post their hate on their own social media accounts instead of their target's account. So cringe worthy it's embarrassing. Woke Lefty (@SalfordMe2023) January 1, 2025 Awww, the Meghan haters are upset they can't post vile comments. They must be incandescent with rage. Bless. Maxine, Duchess of Survival (@Maxine2xs) January 2, 2025 "She just wants attention!" *turns off comments* "Why doesn't she want our attention??" Derek Pakora (@DeathlyAcorn) January 2, 2025 I hope she never turns the comments on and protects her mental health. Good for her! Henderson (@JohnetteNichole) January 2, 2025 I hope she disabled messages as well. She doesnt need them sending hate messages privately DaVonna (@JustLacheal) January 2, 2025 This comes after Meghan shared her concerns about the challenges of parenting in a digital era during a discussion at the World Mental Health Day Festival in Oct. 2023. "Everyone now is affected by the online world and social media," she said. "Some more than others." "We all just want to feel safe," the duchess pointed out. "In that so much of it can come down to, if someone is looking for something, please don't feed them the thing that they're not looking for that is going to harm them." Her husband Prince Harry also agreed, emphasizing the importance of transforming challenges into opportunities. He shared, "I think for us, for myself and my wife, with kids growing up in the digital age, for us the priority here is to turn pain into purpose." Meghan's has yet to be verified with a blue tick, but it's widely believed the account is legitimate. YouTube superstar MrBeast has announced his engagement to author Thea Booysen, marking a joyous moment in their relationship. "Ya boy did a thing ," MrBeast wrote in an Instagram caption on New Year's Day. The carousel included photos of the content creator down on one knee, Booysen sitting on his leg, and a snapshot of newly-engaged Booysen showing off her diamond ring. Speaking with PEOPLE, MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, confirmed he proposed on Christmas Day. Booysen recounted, "We were opening presents, and then for the very last present he asked me to close my eyes because it was a surprise." Both their families were present to witness the heartfelt proposal. "Of course, I said yes," she added. Donaldson shared his thoughtful planning behind the special moment. "I was trying to think of the best way to catch her off guard," he explained. "Thea is really close to her family, so I wanted to make sure that they were included in this momentous occasion." The pair's romance began in 2022 after they were introduced through a mutual friend during Donaldson's visit to South Africa. Following a lively dinner conversation, Booysen returned home to find a message from him on X. Donaldson expressed interest in reading her book, The Marked Children, sparking the start of their connection. Reflecting on her initial impressions of Donaldson, Booysen remarked, "I thought YouTubers were just sort of a persona, but when I met him, I was quite surprised to see that he's actually a nice guy. He wasn't sitting there with an ego." Read more: MrBeast Rents Egypt Pyramids for 100 Hours of Private Access for Unprecedented Project Donaldson had been ready to propose a year into their relationship, but Booysen asked him to wait until she completed her master's degree in human cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Edinburgh. With her studies now behind her, she is thrilled to move forward. "In my mind, we're already married," Booysen said. "We talk about children, how we're going to live together when we're 70 years old... this was just another step in the process." Donaldson, known for his grand stunts on his YouTube channel, opted for an intimate proposal. "My friends thought I would want to propose in a very public way, like some sort of spectacle at the Super Bowl," he said. "But I knew that I wanted it to be the opposite, to be really private and intimate." The couple envisions a similarly low-key wedding. "This will definitely be more family and friends definitely more private," Donaldson shared. Booysen added, "We're thinking of doing it somewhere on an island where we're far away from just about everybody. We're not going to try and have a big, extravagant wedding. It's going to be nice, but it's certainly going to be intimate with close family and friends." UPDATE: Schlossberg later clarified that his announcement was satire and that he would not be representing Baldoni. The Kennedy legacy has entered the legal fray involving Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, as Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, has joined Baldoni's legal team. Schlossberg, a Harvard Law School graduate and practicing attorney, announced his decision to represent Baldoni amidst the recent lawsuits. He proclaimed in a tweet on New Year's Day how he "agreed to take on JUSTIN BALDONI as a client. Why? FAIRNESS. EVERYONE is entitled to a FAIR TRIAL and ZEALOUS DEFENSE." I agreed to take on JUSTIN BALDONI as a client. Why ? FAIRNESS EVERYONE is entitled to a FAIR TRIAL and ZEALOUS DEFENSE. Justin has NOTHING to hide, Justice will be his revenge. After BOSTON MASSACRE, John Adams represented the British at trial. Same shit, different day Jack Schlossberg (@JBKSchlossberg) January 2, 2025 "Justin has NOTHING to hide. Justice will be his revenge. After BOSTON MASSACRE, John Adams represented the British at trial. Same s**t, different day," he concluded. The attorney also emphasized his professional obligation, noting his personal opinions about Baldoni do not influence his work. "My personal feelings about Justin Baldoni are irrelevant. Justin is my client, I'm his lawyer. Even the most heinous individuals have the right to counsel for their defense. I am not a hero. I'm just doing my job," Schlossberg explained. The legal battle began when Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment. Baldoni subsequently filed a countersuit against the The New York Times, alleging that the publication recklessly shared falsified emails to damage his reputation. The dueling lawsuits have attracted significant public and media attention. The Los Angeles, California, native filed the $250 million lawsuit on December 31, 2024. According to Variety, the It Ends With Us director is one of 10 plaintiffs, next to publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, who are suing the outlet for libel and false light invasion of privacy over the December 2024 article "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine." Per the lawsuit, the publication " 'cherry-picked' and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead." "The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article," The Times declared in a statement to Variety. "To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit." Schlossberg's involvement has brought additional spotlight to the case. Known for his active social media presence, he frequently shares poetry recitations and personal reflections, which have garnered him a considerable following. His charisma and Kennedy family connection add an intriguing dimension to the unfolding legal drama. Last summer, Schlossberg gained national attention at the Democratic National Convention, where he voiced support for Kamala Harris. Now, his role as Baldoni's advocate places him at the center of another high-profile matter, with the Kennedy ethos of fairness and justice guiding his approach. Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson recently addressed questions about his breakup with Sharelle Rosado, delivering a confident and humorous response. When asked how he could part ways with Rosado during an online livestream, he quipped, "Have you seen me? Look at me. She left this. Look at this chocolate, this is Willy Wonka chocolate. She left this. She left me when I'm in my season too." "I'm in my season!" Johnson proclaimed. During a sit-down with Carlos King, the Selling Tampa alum detailed how she found out the ex-Cincinnati Bengals' player had "something going on, [...] texting other women, and I found out about it. Like, 'Do you know who I am?' Like I know who you are and I will respect what you have, but it is what it is. Like nobody is perfect, but when things happen, be honest about it. It shouldn't lead to the point of how I found out." "Yes I went through the phone," Rosado clarified when King clarified how she found out about his alleged infidelities, and not through "home surveillance footage." She described how she went through his phone and "found women everywhere." Rosado, meanwhile, has openly shared her emotions about the split. During an episode of the Humble Baddies Podcast, the reality star became tearful when discussing the holiday season without Johnson. She described their former blended family as being like "The Brady Bunch" but found it difficult to continue before tears overwhelmed her. "I don't know, maybe it still will happen. Awww, I'm getting a little sad," Rosado said, using podcast cue cards to fan her face. Her co-hosts supported her, reassuring her that it was okay to feel vulnerable and process her emotions. "Y'all are still family at the end of the day," one host reminded her. Rosado later wiped her tears and joked, "I'm a G," but her sadness was evident as she reflected on her connection to their family. Their breakup, reported in October, followed allegations of infidelity on Johnson's part. Sources claimed that Rosado discovered him in bed with another woman, leading to their separation. Despite Johnson's attempts to reconcile, including posting Rosado's initials with a lock emoji on Instagram, the pair has remained apart. However, their playful banter on social media has led some fans to speculate about lingering feelings between the two. The couple began dating in 2020 after Johnson finalized his divorce from Evelyn Lozada. Though their relationship ended in heartbreak, both continue to navigate the aftermath in their own ways, with Johnson displaying humor and confidence while Rosado processes her emotions. 2 Borrador de la Declaracion de la Renta 2024: Ya puedes consultar si te devuelven o tienes que pagar January 1st has witnessed pivotal moments that shaped history, marked by beginnings, endings, and turning points. Here are ten notable events: 45 BCE The Julian Calendar Is Implemented Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar, introducing the Julian calendar. This marked the first day of the new system, aligning the calendar year with the solar year. 404 CE The Last Gladiatorial Games in Rome The Roman Empire officially ended gladiatorial combat after centuries of brutal spectacle. The ban reflected shifting societal and religious values under Christian influence. 1801 Discovery of Ceres Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi identified Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, marking a milestone in astronomy. 1863 Emancipation Proclamation Takes Effect U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation declared freedom for slaves in Confederate states, a critical step toward abolition and civil rights. 1901 The Commonwealth of Australia Is Born Six British colonies united to form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a federal parliamentary democracy. 1958 The European Economic Community (EEC) Is Established The EEC, a precursor to the European Union, was created to foster economic cooperation and integration among six European nations. 1959 Fidel Castro's Forces Enter Havana The Cuban Revolution culminated as Fidel Castro and his forces seized Havana, leading to profound political and social changes in Cuba. 1984 AT&T Is Broken Up The United States Department of Justice ordered the breakup of AT&Ts monopoly, restructuring the telecommunications industry and paving the way for competition. 1994 NAFTA Comes into Effect The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted, creating one of the world's largest free-trade zones between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. 2002 Euro Becomes Legal Tender The euro officially replaced national currencies in 12 European countries, marking a significant step toward European economic integration. These events highlight how January 1st has repeatedly served as a day of transformation and milestones throughout history. Passengers on Turkish Airlines have recently had cause to seriously question whether bedbugs are hitching a ride with them during flights. Few passengers claimed to have encountered infestations on at least three flights within recent months. The airline made paltry payments in some instances but dismissed complaints in others, leaving travelers dissatisfied and upset. Shocking Encounters with Bedbugs As The New York Times reported, 28-year-old Matthew Myers reported a nightmare that took place during his flight from Istanbul to San Francisco with his girlfriend in October. Myers said that a passenger actually saw bedbugs falling from the ceiling and landing on the chairs. Some even plopped on the lap of a passenger. That caused one traveler to switch to the jump seat of a flight attendant to get away from it all. Despite the scary situation, Turkish Airlines allegedly offered Myers a meager 10% discount on future travel, good for only two months. "Multiple passengers were asking to move seats after discovering bugs," Myers told the Times. Similarly, Kristin Bourgeois, a 37-year-old science teacher, found bedbugs on her blanket and pillow on a 10-hour flight from Washington Dulles Airport in the same month. Bourgeois later found 13 bite marks on her body and took photos of the experience. The airline requested a medical report before conducting an investigation after filing a complaint. Bourgeois stated that her flight history was deleted from the airline's app and she was compensated with 5,000 frequent flyer miles. Read More: Best Electric Heaters That Will Keep You Warm This New Years Eve Bedbug Infestation in Turkish Airlines Reached Social Media Patience Titcombe, one of the passengers, claimed that she saw a bedbug in her seat when she was flying from Johannesburg to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. "Bedbugs on our inbound flight to IST is every traveler's nightmare!!! @TurkishAirlines," Titcombe posted on X. Although a flight attendant removed the bedbug, Titcombe's complaint was dismissed, Business Insider reported. Even after sending pictures and filing complaints through email and Facebook Messenger, Turkish Airlines claimed that no record of the incident existed. A Wider Bedbug Problem Reports of the appearance of bedbugs on Turkish Airlines flights come at a time when the world is raising alarm against bedbug infestations. In 2023, Paris experienced the most publicized infestation this year as these pests invaded public transport systems. South Korea had already initiated its drive targeting transport stations to track down these insects. Silence from Turkish Airlines As of now, Turkish Airlines has not issued a formal response to the bedbug complaints reported by The New York Times. The lack of acknowledgment has further fueled passengers' frustrations and left many questioning the airline's commitment to customer satisfaction and safety. Rising Awareness and Precautions Such incidents are becoming increasingly frequent, and therefore it becomes essential to take pre-emptive measures against bedbug infestation in public sectors, especially in the airline sector. Travelers should be aware of their surroundings, check their seating areas, and report any anomaly to the crew so that necessary action can be taken. Turkish Airlines is now under extreme pressure to address the allegations. If they are really listening to the customers, they should improve their pest control measures to regain the public trust. Only time will tell if the airline takes meaningful action to resolve these concerns. Back in 2023, the bedbug epidemic was a thing in hotels, particularly, those in the UK. To combat this annoying problem, UK hotels adopted a combination of traditional and modern technologies to slow down the infestations. 10 Historical Events That Took Place on January 2nd Here are ten notable events occurred on January 2nd. 1492 Fall of Granada The last Muslim stronghold in Spain, Granada, was surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, marking the end of the Reconquista. 1788 Georgia Joins the U.S. Constitution Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, further solidifying the foundation of the new nation. 1839 Louis Daguerre Photographs the Moon Louis Daguerre took one of the earliest known photographs of the Moon, marking a leap forward in astronomical observation. 1920 The Birth of the Palmer Raids The U.S. Department of Justice initiated raids against suspected radicals and anarchists, reflecting the tensions of the post-World War I "Red Scare." 1942 The Battle of the Atlantic Intensifies During World War II, German U-boats began Operation Paukenschlag, targeting Allied shipping off the U.S. east coast. 1959 Luna 1 Becomes the First Spacecraft to Reach the Moon's Vicinity The Soviet Union launched Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the Moons vicinity and orbit the Sun, beginning the space race. 1967 Ronald Reagan Sworn in as Governor of California Ronald Reagan began his political career as California's governor, setting the stage for his eventual presidency. 1974 Nixon Signs National Speed Limit President Richard Nixon signed a bill enacting a 55 mph speed limit in the U.S. to combat the 1973 oil crisis. 1992 Boutros Boutros-Ghali Becomes UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali became the first African to lead the United Nations, ushering in a new era for the organization. 2020 Australian Bushfires Rage On Massive bushfires continued to devastate large parts of Australia, drawing global attention to the climate crisis. Albania's Prime Minister says the decision to ban TikTok came after discussions with parents and teachers, but critics worry that it is part of his crackdown on political dissent after a year of popular unrest. Daughters and daughters-in-law often become the default caregivers for aging parents, taking on the majority of caregiving A significant majority of older adults in the United States express a strong desire to age in place, preferring to remain in their own homes as they grow older. A 2024 AARP survey revealed that 75% of adults aged 50 and older wish to stay in their current residences, and 73% hope to remain within their communities. Matt McCann, an expert on long-term care planning, says this preference underscores the importance of early planning to ensure that aging in place is safe and feasible. Families often overlook long-term care planning until a crisis arises. When that happens, they're forced into reactive decision-making, leaving much of the burden on adult children. Importance of Early Planning Proactive measures taken before retirement can significantly influence the ability to age in place successfully. Early planning allows individuals to assess their future needs, make necessary home modifications, and arrange for potential caregiving support. McCann says that without such preparation, families may face substantial challenges, including financial strain and emotional stress when a loved one needs help with daily living activities or supervision due to dementia. People often need long-term care services due to chronic illnesses, accidents such as falls, mobility challenges, dementia, or general frailty. However, health insurance and Medicare only cover short-term skilled care. Without a plansuch as Long-Term Care Insurancefamilies are often left scrambling in crisis mode. Role of Family Caregivers Family caregivers support older adults who choose to age in place. According to a 2024 report by the Administration for Community Living, more than 53 million Americans provide a broad range of assistance to loved ones, often at significant personal cost. These caregivers frequently balance their caregiving responsibilities with other aspects of their lives, including employment and personal commitments. Financial Implications of Caregiving The financial burden on family caregivers is substantial. A 2024 AARP report indicates that nearly 80% of family caregivers incur out-of-pocket expenses averaging $7,200 annually. Professional in-home care is costly. An LTC News survey of long-term care costs throughout the United States shows the national median average of in-home care is about $5200 a month based on a 44-hour week. Those costs increase over time. Many families are not able to pay for full-time in-home care. Even if money does exist, spending money from savings can adversely impact the lifestyle of the care recipient and their spouse. Without Long-Term Care Insurance, much of the caregiving role falls on the family. Family caregivers often encompass a range of personal expenditures, from transportation to medical appointments and home modifications to medical equipment. Such expenses often compete with the caregivers' own living costs, potentially leading to debt and financial insecurity. Home Modifications and Safety Ensuring that a home is equipped to accommodate the changing needs of aging individuals is crucial. However, only a small percentage of U.S. homes are considered "aging-ready," featuring essential accessibility modifications. Common modifications include installing grab bars in bathrooms, creating step-free entryways, and enhancing lighting to prevent falls. The costs associated with these modifications can be significant, adding to the financial burden on families. McCann says those with Long-Term Care Insurance often have benefits that help pay for these expenses as well. Long-Term Care Insurance as a Solution Given the financial and emotional challenges associated with aging in place and family caregiving, many people are including Long-Term Care Insurance in their retirement planning. An LTC policy will help cover the costs of in-home care, home modifications, and other related expenses, alleviating some financial pressures on family caregivers. An LTC policy will also pay for adult day care centers, assisted living, memory care, and nursing homes. However, McCann notes that the first choice for most people is to remain at home. An LTC policy will better prepare you and your family for your future care needs, ensuring you can age in place comfortably without placing undue strain on your loved ones. Planning Starts Now - Before Retirement Planning shouldn't begin when a crisis hits. According to McCann, most people purchase Long-Term Care Insurance between the ages of 47 and 67. He emphasizes that your health significantly impacts not only the cost of a policy but also your eligibility for coverage. Since each insurance company has its own underwriting guidelines and premiums can vary widely, working with a Long-Term Care Insurance specialist can help you find the best coverage at the most affordable price based on your age, health, and other factors. How Much Does Long-Term Care Insurance Cost at My Age? McCann says many top-rated insurance companies offer long-term care solutions. 2025 Long-Term Care Insurance Rankings Helping Older Loved Ones Aging in place remains a preferred choice for many older adults, but achieving this goal requires early and comprehensive planning. By addressing potential care needs, making necessary home modifications, and considering financial tools like long-term care insurance, individuals can enhance their ability to remain in their homes safely and comfortably. Family caregivers can also use adult day care centers to reduce the stress. The LTC News Caregiver Directory is the nation's most comprehensive directory of caregivers and long-term care facilities, and it is free to use. Find Quality Long-Term Care Services Near You. Such proactive measures not only support the desires of older adults but also mitigate the financial and emotional burdens on family caregivers, fostering a more sustainable and supportive environment for aging in place. Get Professional Planning Help Matt McCann represents the top-rate insurance companies that offer long-term care solutions. His innovative approach enables clients to consult with him via phone while viewing his computer screen, making the education, exploration, and selection of options convenient and transparent. You can get free and accurate quotes from all the top companies, along with professional recommendations - Free and Accurate Quotes. Media Availability McCann is available for radio, TV, and podcast interviews. He also speaks to groups and organizations worldwide on the issues of aging, caregiving, health, and long-term care. Contact McCann through his website for information. A group of children have delivered letters directly to the prime minister about the impact that the so-called 'family farm tax' will have on the industry. Just before Christmas, campaigners at Save British Farming appealed to children to write a letter to Sir Keir Starmer over the controversial measure. The industry pressure group said the inheritance tax proposals unveiled in the autumn budget would be 'disastrous' for British agriculture. A 20% inheritance tax for agricultural assets over 1 million will roll out from April 2026, a move which triggered numerous protests and rallies across the UK. As part of the Christmas appeal, the children of farmers were asked to write a letter to Sir Keir Starmer - and Santa - about 'their wishes for British farming in the new year'. ?? Families help us this Christmas ?? ?? We are launching a Christmas appeal to ask children to write a letter to @Keir_Starmer as well as Santa ?? about their wishes for British farming in the New Year. ?? We want Sir Keir and his Government to hear personal stories from our pic.twitter.com/TgG9FpjQPi Liz Webster (@LizWebsterSBF) December 18, 2024 The letters were handed directly to Number 10 Downing Street at 12:30pm on Thursday (2 January). Simon Broad, a Kent farmer who thought up of this concept said: After taking part in the recent tractor protests, I wanted to come up with a way of involving the children as my son is very passionate about the cause. "But as hes only aged 10, he obviously couldnt join me in tractor and we are fighting for their future in the industry as much, if not more than, our own. Save British Farming recently organised a London tractor rally, dubbed 'RIP British Farming', which took place in December. Liz Webster, founder of the campaign group, called on the government to listen to farming families and do a u-turn on the farm tax. She said: "Farms are central to Britains rich history and identify, every farming family knows the pivotal role farms play in our country. "It is devastating that our children are suffering with anxiety and insecurity since Rachel Reevess budget and their future. It comes as a new UK-wide day of action will take place on 25 January as part of the farming industry's next steps in stopping the government's inheritance tax proposals. Towns across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will see farmers rallying against the changes. A fart-free cow has been created to save Earth. A fart-free cow has been created Hilda, which came from IVF, is part of the Cool Cows Project - which looks to breed cattle that produce less methane gas when trumping. According to Professor Richard Dewhurst, from Scotland's Rural College, it will "produce a greater number of offspring from these donors, rapidly establishing a nucleus of highly methane-efficient calves". Professor Dewhurst is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper as saying: "The birth of Hilda is potentially a hugely significant moment for the UK dairy industry. "We will use a new genomic assessment alongside existing production and environmental efficiency indices to select elite, methane-efficient heifers for breeding." The UK isn't the only country taking measures as farting cows will be taxed in Denmark from 2030, with the Danes having placed a levy on agricultural emissions in an attempt to decrease climate change. China sends emergency relief supplies to quake-hit Vanuatu Xinhua) 08:26, January 02, 2025 Emergency relief supplies with "China Aid" marks are transported onto a plane at Shenzhen Baoan International Airport in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Liang Xu) SHENZHEN, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- A shipment of emergency relief supplies departed Wednesday evening from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, to support earthquake relief efforts in the Pacific island country. The flight, carrying essential supplies including tents, folding beds, water purification equipment, solar lamps, emergency food and medical materials, left Shenzhen Baoan International Airport at 7:18 p.m. Beijing time. It is expected to arrive in Port Vila at 4:45 a.m. Thursday, according to civil aviation authorities. A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Port Vila on Dec. 17, causing casualties and significant damage. The Chinese government has provided 1 million U.S. dollars in emergency assistance to Vanuatu to support its disaster response and reconstruction efforts, Li Ming, spokesperson for China International Development Cooperation Agency, announced last week. At the request of the Vanuatu government, China has sent four engineering experts to assist with post-earthquake response in the country, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday. "This is the first time that China has sent an emergency post-disaster assessment team to a Pacific island country, with hopes of contributing to Vanuatu's reconstruction," Mao said at a daily press briefing. Emergency relief supplies with "China Aid" marks are transported onto a plane at Shenzhen Baoan International Airport in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Liang Xu) Emergency relief supplies with "China Aid" marks are transported onto a plane at Shenzhen Baoan International Airport in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Liang Xu) A flight carrying emergency relief supplies prepares to depart from Shenzhen Baoan International Airport in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Liang Xu) Emergency relief supplies with "China Aid" marks are transported onto a plane at Shenzhen Baoan International Airport in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 1, 2025. (Xinhua/Liang Xu) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Du Mingming) Jocelyn Wildenstein died aged 84 after taking "a little nap". Jocelyn Wildenstein died aged 85 after a 'little nap' The Swiss socialite - who was famous for her extensive plastic surgeries which earned her the nickname 'Catwoman' - passed away on December 31, and her longtime partner Lloyd Klein has said her cause of death was related to phlebitis, an inflammation of a vein which can be caused by a blood clot or damage to the vein wall. He told People magazine: "We had a nice happy hour the same night and we were getting ready for the new year, and we took a little nap just to look good before getting dressed. "Because of her phlebitis, the legs were very, very swollen, and the blood was blocked, and there was no oxygen in the brain. "And we were having a nap and when I wake up, I said, 'Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed,' and she was cold and she was dead." Klein admitted it was "extremely sad" to discover his partner - who he had known for over two decades - was dead as they were preparing to celebrate the New Year. He added: "It's very sad. It's extremely sad. "It's extremely sad to lay down with your other half that I know for 21 years and waiting to celebrate New Year's Eve and to find her cold." And he revealed her health had been "perfect" days earlier over the festive period despite her condition, which her grandmother also had. He recalled: "We were at the Ritz two days ago. We were having dinner. "Before that, we had come for Fashion Week at Chanel. Everything was good, everything was good." Meanwhile, TMZ has reported that Wildenstein had been working on a new reality show just one year before her death. The series - which was being produced by Jeff Jenkins and Chrstine Peters - followed her transition from her roots in New York City to a fresh start in Los Angeles. It's said filming was completed over a month with the star appearing "happy", "healthy" and "a joy to work with", while the project is in limbo with no broadcaster confirmed as of yet. Justin Baldoni has accused Ryan Reynolds of berating him for allegedly fat-shaming Blake Lively. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have been married since 2012 The 37-year-old actress has accused her 'It Ends With Us' director and co-star of sexual harassment while making the romantic drama film - but Justin has hit back in a $250 million countersuit against the New York Times newspaper, making a series of accusations against Blake and Ryan, her husband. Justin, 40, has admitted to inquiring about Blakes weight before shooting a scene in which he was supposed to lift her up. But the actor has defended his comments, with his lawsuit describing it as a "reasonable inquiry into crucial information needed to ensure safety and avoid injury in a scene". And Justin has now accused Ryan, 48 - who has been married to Blake since 2012 - of subsequently delivering a "humiliating berating" of him at the married couple's home in New York City. Justin has speculated that the incident could've been planned in advance, noting that "other celebrity friends were coming in and out of their penthouse". A Sony representative, quoted in the lawsuit, regretted that she "didnt stop Reynolds berating of Baldoni". Meanwhile, Blake recently accused her former director of causing her "severe emotional distress". The actress - who played Justin's on-screen love interest in 'It Ends with Us' - subsequently told the New York Times newspaper: "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted." Justin later denied the allegations, with his lawyer describing the claims as "categorically false". Bryan Freedman, who is acting as a lawyer for the actor and his Wayfarer Studios production company, told Variety: "These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media." Justin Baldoni is suing the New York Times for $250 million after the newspaper published Blake Lively's sexual harassment allegations. Justin Baldoni has launched a countersuit The 37-year-old actress recently launched a lawsuit against her 'It Ends With Us' director and co-star, accusing him of harassing her while making the romantic drama film - but Justin now hit back, accusing the New York Times of publishing Blake's "self-serving narrative". The lawsuit reads: "The Times story relied almost entirely on Livelys unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives." Justin and his lawyers claim that Blake launched her lawsuit in an effort to "reshape her public persona" with "salacious, headline-grabbing allegations". The lawsuit reads: "Livelys cynical abuse of sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production was both strategic and manipulative. "Simultaneously, her public image suffered as a result of a series of high-profile blunders, which she tried to deflect by blaming Plaintiffs for the publics prying interest into the foibles of an A-list celebrity. This is nothing but an excuse. Fame is a double-edged sword, but Livelys tactics here are unconscionable." Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for the New York Times, has revealed that the publication plans to "vigorously defend against the lawsuit". Speaking to CNN, she explained: "The role of an independent news organisation is to follow the facts where they lead. "Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. "To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well." Lord Julian Fellowes is largely confined to a wheelchair. Lord Julian Fellowes is using a wheelchair The 'Downton Abbey' creator has been stricken by spinal stenosis - a narrowing of the spinal canal that can put pressure on the spinal cord - and although he has undergone an operation to address the problem, he's not recovered as well as he had hoped to. He told the Daily Mail newspaper's Eden Confidential column: "It's true that I do spend too much time in a wheelchair these days. "About 40 years ago, I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, probably resulting from an early slipped disc. I had an operation and, after quite a long convalescence, I was well again, dancing, riding and the rest. "Unluckily, a couple of years ago, I was told the condition had returned and, after another operation, I was obliged to recognise that my powers of recovery at 75 were not quite what they had been at 35. Which, I suppose, is no great surprise." But Julian doesn't feel "unlucky" because other people have "far worse" health issues to deal with. He added: "I am not entirely immobile, but I do have to remain sitting for most of the time. I don't consider myself unlucky in this. Other people have far worse to put up with." Despite his health issues, Julian has no plans to slow down as he's got a third 'Downton Abbey' film in post-production and filming on a third series of 'The Gilded Age' - which he also created - underway. And just a week ago, the 75-year-old screenwriter announced he will be adapting Donna Leon's acclaimed 'Detective Brunetti' series into a TV series after his friend and mentor, Ileen Maisel, originated the idea but passed away last year aged 68. Set in Venice, the series will follow Detective Commissario Brunetti as he solves crimes in the Italian city. The plotline reads: "Unhappy detectives are all alike; a happy detective struggles to stay happy in their own way. In fading Venice, far from the tourist crowds, detective Commissario Brunetti faces a daily battle to protect his city, and his family, from the harsh realities of murder, corruption, and of course the interference of his aristocratic in-laws." The first novel, 'Death at La Fenice', was published in 1992 and the 33rd tome, 'A Refiner's Fire, earned rave reviews upon its release this year. Ileen and the author are credited as executive producers along with Julian, Gesine Lubben, PK Fellowes and Lawrence Elman. Here is your chance to win a copy of author Stuart Blackburns latest novel a thriller laced with radical politics, divided loyalties, and personal tragedies, a story of love, loss, and survival. Luck Of The Draw by Stuart Blackburn Luck of the Draw follows Stephen, a young man whose story begins with evading the Vietnam War draft and feeling to California. Its 1969 - Stephen plans to attend Harvard Law School are derailed by the Vietnam War draft lottery. Faced with the prospect of being sent to fight in Southeast Asia, he evades military service by fleeing to California. Arrested at an anti-war protest, Stephen flees again, this time to a commune in northern California. There, he falls in love with Sharon, the leader of an underground radical group. Under Sharons influence, Stephen plants a bomb that accidentally claims a life. Escaping from the FBI, he heads to Canada with his newborn daughter, Rosie, after Sharon decides to stay behind. As Rosie grows up, Stephen conceals the truth about their past. Many years later, Rosie uncovers the truth and sets out to find her mother. With the FBI closing in, Rosie loses her father and is left to navigate an uncertain future. Luck of the Draw is a thriller laced with radical politics, divided loyalties, and personal tragedies. Ultimately, it is a story of love, loss, and survival. The Competition prize provider To be in with a chance to win a copy of Luck Of The Draw all you need to do is answer the the question below then complete and submit the attached entry form. GOOD LUCK Question In the book Luck Of The Draw Stephen and Sharon have a daughter together, what was her name ? A. Daisy B. Rosie C. Buttercup by Natalie key for www.femalefirst.co.uk Tagged in Competition Closing Date : 22nd January 2025 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has rejoined Instagram. Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has rejoined Instagram The 43-year-old former actress launched her new account @meghan on New Year's Day (01.01.24) with a black and white 27-second video of her running barefoot on a beach towards the sea. When she got inches away from the calm waters, she etched '2025' into the sand with her finger. So far, over 3.4 million people have seen her debut post - which was filmed by her husband, Prince Harrry - including the likes of Serena Williams, Chrissy Teigen, and Tan France, and Meghan has clocked up over 600,000 follolwers in less than 24 hours. Celebrities including 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star Garcelle Beauvais are among those who want to keep tabs on what Meghan - who lives in California with Harry and their children, Prince Archie, five, and three-year-old Princess Lilibet - gets up to on the platform. The New York Post's Page Six column revealed in August 2023 that Meghan had secured the Instagram handle, which only had an image of pink flowers before she launched her now-defunct 'Archetypes' podcast on Spotify in August 2022. A source told the publication at the time: "Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind shortly before she launched her 'Archetypes' podcast, so its just sitting there now. In an interview with The Cult in August 2022, the duchess dropped the hint of her return to the social media platform. She said: "Im getting back on Instagram." However, in 2024, the former 'Suits' actress also made a brief return to Instagram to create a social media presence for her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard. Almost five years ago, she and Harry posted their final upload to the now inactive @sussexroyal joint account, which highlighted how fragile the world had become due to COVID-19 and expressed a commitment to make a difference. It read: "While you may not see us here, the work continues." Before her engagement to King Charles' youngest son in November 2017, she deactivated her account in January 2018. View this post on Instagram A post shared by DrShivaRajkumar (@nimmashivarajkumar) Expressing his gratitude to Dr. Manohar, who treated him with great care, Shivarajkumar shared his confidence in being cancer-free. Geetha confirmed the same, stating that all medical reports were negative and thanked fans for their prayers, which she credited as pivotal in his recovery. Shivarajkumar had initially disclosed his health struggles in November without sharing details. Reflecting on his emotional journey, he acknowledged the fear he faced but credited his fans' love for easing the burden. The actor assured his return to work with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Kannada superstar Shivarajkumar, son of legendary actor Rajkumar, shared an emotional video message on New Year's Day announcing his recovery from bladder cancer. Speaking from the US, he expressed gratitude to his fans for their unwavering support throughout his journey.The actor revealed he underwent chemotherapy while shooting his latest film, 45 and even performed an intense climax fight scene during his treatment. His wife, Geetha Shivarajkumar, and daughter, Nivedita, supported him throughout his treatment in Miami, where he underwent surgery to replace his cancerous bladder with an artificial one constructed from his intestine. The film is reportedly based on real-life events and is set to explore the world of espionage. Ranveer plays the role of a RAW agent. Ranveer Singh and Aditya Dhar have collaborated on the film Dhurandhar and the actor is currently busy shooting for the same. Amid his shoot, a couple of photos from the sets have leaked that show Ranveer in his character. He sported a turban and a long beard for the shoot and wore a suit. One can also see blood stains on his face. A couple of months back, Aditya and Ranveer visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar to seek blessings before commencing their next schedule. This is the first time the filmmaker will be directing RS. The film also stars Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Akshaye Khanna and Arjun Rampal. The movie is slated to release in the second half of 2025. The couple, who were together for over a decade and married in 2014, also faced disputes over Chateau Miraval, their French winery. Jolies 2021 sale of her stake in the winery remains a separate ongoing legal issue, with Pitt claiming the sale was unlawful. Jolies attorney expressed relief that this chapter is over, though the process has taken a toll on her and the family. In previous statements, Jolie emphasized prioritizing her children's healing and well-being throughout the ordeal. See Also: What happened to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitts son Pax? Jolies attorney expressed relief that this chapter is over, though the process has taken a toll on her and the family. In previous statements, Jolie emphasized prioritizing her children's healing and well-being throughout the ordeal. After an eight-year legal battle, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have officially settled their divorce battle. Filed on December 30 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the settlement's specifics, including financial details and custody arrangements for their two minor children, remain undisclosed.Jolie initiated the divorce in 2016 after a private plane incident where she alleged Pitt physically and verbally abused her and their children. While no charges were filed against Pitt, Jolie cited irreconcilable differences and sought sole physical custody, leading to years of contentious legal proceedings. Amid Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively's feud, the former has filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for libel after it carried an article in December titled "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine." The lawsuit alleged that the publication wrote the article based on the actress' unverified account and ignored other evidence. Baldoni's attorney further accused Lively and New York Times for conducting a vicious smear campaign and using manipulated texts. It accused the publication of putting out defamatory claims against Baldoni. His legal team also claimed that the article relied on cherry-picked and manipulated communications. SINGAPORE, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Genesis Medtech is proud to announce that iReach Omnia, the world's first powered stapler with 90 articulation capability, has been approved for market release in China by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Independently developed by Genesis Medtech, this innovation addresses key challenges in complex laparoscopic surgeries by enabling surgeons with unprecedented precision and access in tight and deep anatomical positions. Surgical staplers play a critical role in minimally invasive surgeries by replacing traditional manual sutures, offering more consistent clinical outcomes while reducing infection risk and enhancing surgical efficiency. However, existing staplers, with typical articulation angles from 45 to 60, face challenges in complex procedures such as low anterior resection or single-port thoracic surgery, where restricted anatomical access in the pelvis or chest cavity demands greater flexibility. The iReach Omnia sets a new standard in surgical stapling with its 90 articulation capability, providing surgeons with the maneuverability and precision necessary to perform effective stapling even in the most confined spaces. This innovation potentially reduces the need for multiple stapler firings, minimizes weak points in the staple line, thus lowering the risk of anastomotic leakage. By addressing these critical issues, the iReach Omnia empowers surgeons to deliver better patient outcomes in complex procedures such as colorectal and thoracic surgeries. Colorectal cancer is one of the top three cancers worldwide, affecting millions of people each year.[1] Surgical resection of the tumor remains the primary treatment for low rectal cancer but surgeons face significant challenges in completely removing the tumor, achieving clear margins in confined spaces, preserving sphincter function, and minimizing complications such as anastomotic leakage.[2] The iReach Omnia's 90 articulation capability addresses these challenges by enabling precise vertical cutting and stapling in the low rectal resections, reducing the risk of leakage and ultimately, enhancing long-term patient outcomes. As demand for effective surgical solutions continues to grow globally, Genesis MedTech continues to lead the change in driving innovation. With its industry-leading 90 articulation capability, the iReach Omnia sets a new standard for surgical precision, empowering surgeons and improving patient outcomes. [1] World Health Organization. (2020). Colorectal cancer. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/colorectal-cancer [2] Tsalikidis, C., Mitsala, A., Mentonis, V. I., Romanidis, K., Pappas-Gogos, G., Tsaroucha, A. K., & Pitiakoudis, M. (2023). Predictive Factors for Anastomotic Leakage Following Colorectal Cancer Surgery: Where Are We and Where Are We Going? Current Oncology, 30(3), 3111-3137. https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol30030236 ABOUT GENESIS MEDTECH Genesis MedTech Group is a medical device company headquartered in Singapore. Founded by a group of professionals and entrepreneurs with MedTech experience globally, the company's product portfolio focuses on multi-therapy medical device products for emerging markets with sales and distribution through its established commercial network. Genesis MedTech Group covers the entire industry value chain of research and development, production, quality management, supply chain, marketing, and sales. For more information, visit http://www.genesismedtech.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2589003/iReach_Omnia_90__articulation.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/revolutionizing-surgical-precision-genesis-medtechs-worlds-first-90-articulation-powered-stapler-achieves-chinese-approval-302340907.html SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- KT&G (KRX:033780) met with the Uzbek Department of Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance to discuss methods for technological training for experts and directionality of practical cooperation for future joint research projects. The meeting was finalized after members of the Uzbek Department of Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance ("Uzbek Sanitary Department") visited Korea on the 10th of December. Members of both organizations including Cho, Seong-Moon, Chief of R&D HQ and Soyibjon Goziev Department Head of Sanitary met and discussed potential cooperation for technological infrastructure and analytic technology. Furthermore, the Uzbek Sanitary Department visited KT&G and affiliate companies' R&D facilities and production factories for a deeper insight into the group's business, reaffirming well-established research infrastructure as well as technological capabilities, and promised to continue mutual technological cooperation based on a friendly partnership. In August, KT&G and the Uzbek Sanitary Department signed a MOU for mutual technological exchanges. KT&G is enhancing R&D capabilities through intimate cooperation based on the MOU with the Uzbek Sanitary Department. KT&G established an office in Uzbekistan in 2023, and has started expanding in the Eurasian market with its flagship brand, ESSE. KT&G is also establishing offices in Russia and other Eurasian nations, creating new jobs locally and vitalizing the local economy, seeking mutual growth. The KT&G Group is a notable Korean company and a market leader in the Korean combustible cigarettes, Next Generation Products, and health functional foods industries. As of 2023, KT&G is a global corporation with 5,184 members, selling 717 brands in 143 countries around the world including Uzbekistan. KT&G cooperates with local organizations to vitalize local economies in Uzbekistan and across the Eurasia region. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2586754/image_5016829_32469368.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2316472/5090395/KT_G_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/ktg-meets-uzbek-sanitary-and-epidemiological-supervision-department-to-discuss-long-term-technological-cooperation-302341034.html Miami, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - January 1, 2025) - Condemned to go beyond its innovative strides in unveiling the FDA-cleared Electro Muscle Stimulation (EMS) training system for at-home use, the SQAI Power Suit is well applicable to such user-demanding technology as innovative EMS and user-friendliness to make available an answer to attend to benefits form short and intense workout sessions equivalent to a 2-hour gym EMS workout at home in just 20-minutes. This new technology is redefining fitness for busy professionals, athletes, and any individual looking to be a little safer in implementing fast, efficient muscle development and overall fitness improvement. The Power of EMS at Home The recent fitness technology that involves sending electrical pulses to activate muscles by replicating signals transmitted from the brain to the muscle's outcome: has far greater efficacy than traditional resistance training. This technology is nothing new; for many decades, professional athletes and physical therapists have used it for hasting and low-impact benefits. The key advantage SQAI brings with Power Suit is democratizing the technology so that everyone can enjoy: A Complete Workout: Get most muscles working together while at it - full body workout. Time Effective: The work done in two hours of a gym can be experienced in just 20 minutes. Joint Friendly Exercise: It can reduce wear and tear on the body with hardly any application of strain, hence offering the most suitable scenario for recovery from an injury or prevention. Portability and Comfort: Designed for home use, the EMS suit is lightweight, easy on the body, and intuitive app guidance for personalized support. Transforming the Fitness Journey "The SQAI Power Suit is more than just fitness equipment-it's a game-changer for health and wellness," said Alec Oliver, CEO of SQAI. "We're on a mission to empower people of all fitness levels to achieve their goals more efficiently, safely, and conveniently. Whether you're an elite athlete, a busy parent, or someone recovering from an injury, our EMS technology adapts to your needs." The SQAI app makes the experience better by providing a personalized plan for workouts combined with the facility of recording progress along with the ability to manage the intensity and duration of every session, which is an exciting concept for many fitness enthusiasts. Scientific Backing SQAI bases its commitment to excellence on science-backed results in the application of EMS. This has been proven by a plethora of studies, the summary of which is available in the Science section of the company. All of these studies illustrate how EMS encourages muscle hypertrophy and increased endurance in rehabilitation, thereby resulting in minimal physical stress. Who Can Benefit? SQAI Power Suit is designed for: Athletes: Activates specific muscles and helps improve performance and enhance recovery. Fitness Lovers: Exclusively avail for high-quality workouts without heavy weights and equipment in gym facilities. Injury Recovery: Get strength and range of motion back after an injury quickly and easily. Busy and Professional People: Achieve fitness goals in just a fraction of the time. The Future of Fitness Is Here SQAI makes a new mark in fitness innovation by making it an open, high-tech solution for everyone interested in adopting a practical yet sustainable lifestyle to be fit. Read further to learn about SQAI Power Suit and how it can revolutionize any fitness regimen. https://sqai.co. About SQAI SQAI is a Miami-based fitness-tech firm that devises innovative solutions that inspire people to achieve their health and wellness goals. The flagship product SQAI Power Suit is an FDA-cleared EMS training system intended to bring home the efficiency of professional-grade workouts. Driven by science and guided by a passion for improving lives, SQAI is redefining fitness in the modern world. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/234585 SOURCE: Brand Featured Beverly Hills, California--(Newsfile Corp. - January 1, 2025) - The Pocket Bidet unveils its latest innovation, offering a sustainable and portable hygiene innovation tailored for active, eco-conscious individuals.. Pioneered by inventor Mark Dereci, this portable bidet introduces a new era of eco-friendly hygiene practices that not only elevate cleanliness but also prioritize health and sustainability. The Pocket Bidet To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10926/233651_57d33ab324888bab_001full.jpg Innovation at One's Hand The Pocket Bidet stands out not just as a compact and portable gadget but as a marvel of sleek design that evokes the futuristic allure of a flying saucer. Its form is as visually striking as it is functional, designed for those who seek a fresh and convenient cleansing experience wherever they go. This innovative invention puts the power of water-based cleaning right at one's fingertips, ensuring that its owner is always prepared-whether on a business trip, an outdoor adventure, or simply during a daily commute. With its patented flying-saucer-inspired design and eco-conscious principles, this gadget offers an unparalleled sense of freshness and confidence, revolutionizing the way people approach personal care. Sustainability at its Core The Pocket Bidet not only promotes personal well-being but also champions environmental conservation by reducing reliance on disposable wipes and toilet paper. As highlighted in Scientific American, the production and disposal of toilet paper contribute significantly to deforestation and carbon emissions. This makes the eco-conscious approach of The Pocket Bidet a crucial step towards a more sustainable lifestyle. The Pocket Bidet's emphasis on sustainability extends beyond individual advantages, as it follows a wider trend towards environmental awareness and conscientious consumer behaviors. Getting involved in this initiative implies not only adopting a new hygiene tool but actively supporting positive environmental change- each bidet spray contributing to a sustainable future. Embracing a Movement Towards Cleaner Living Joining The Pocket Bidet revolution means embracing a lifestyle that combines hygiene and sustainability seamlessly. In a world where consumer demand for eco-friendly products is on the rise, this portable bidet caters to individuals who value personal well-being, environmental responsibility, and the confidence that comes with feeling clean. The tagline "Feel Clean, Confident, and Eco-Conscious with The Pocket Bidet" captures the essence of this movement towards a cleaner, more mindful way of living. Take Action Ready to experience a new standard of personal hygiene and sustainability? Visit The Pocket Bidet's Amazon Store at pocketbidet.com/amazon to purchase The Pocket Bidet and embark on a journey towards cleaner living. Enhance one's daily routine with a product that not only promotes hygiene but also supports a healthier planet that reinforces every individual's commitment to self-care and environmental stewardship. About The Pocket Bidet The Pocket Bidet is a compact, portable, and eco-friendly device that offers a superior cleaning experience. It is a revolutionary personal hygiene tool designed to enhance one's daily routine. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/233651 SOURCE: Brand Featured LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rio Tinto confirmed that Gel Aguaviva, a deck fitter on board its bulk carrier RTM Zheng He, was reported missing on 26 December 2024, while the vessel was traveling from China to Western Australia.According to the company, an extensive and ongoing search and rescue operation to find Mr Aguaviva has been conducted over the past seven days, with Rio Tinto working in collaboration with RTM Zheng He ship and crew manager, Anglo Eastern, and relevant authorities.The company noted that the Philippine Coast Guard is leading the search and rescue operation.RTM Zheng He was in international waters near the Philippines when Mr Aguaviva was reported missing.Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedCopyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Edison Lithium Corp. (TSXV: EDDY) (OTC Pink: EDDYF) (FSE: VV0) ("Edison" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news releases of November 18, 2024, and November 29, 2024, and the proposed disposition of the Company's Argentina subsidiary, Resource Ventures S.A. ("ReVe"), as contemplated by the non-binding purchase offer letter, effective November 12, 2024, from Mava Gasoil LLC ("Mava") for USD$3,500,000 disclosed therein, the Company has received the initial USD$100,000 deposit from Mava. The sale terms include Mava paying the Company this initial USD$100,000 deposit, with further payments of USD$3,200,000, USD$100,000 and USD$100,000 payable by Mava to the Company and the two other shareholders of ReVe, respectively, on closing. Edison has already received conditional acceptance of the proposed disposition from the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). Completion of the disposition remains subject to, amongst other things, final documentation, the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement, final acceptance from the TSXV, and receipt of the balance of the purchase price by the Company. The transaction is expected to complete in the latter half of February 2025. About Edison Lithium Corp. Edison Lithium Corp. is a Canadian-based junior mining exploration company focused on the procurement, exploration and development of cobalt, lithium, alkali and other energy metal properties. The Company's acquisition strategy is based on acquiring affordable, cost-effective, and highly regarded mineral properties in areas with proven geological potential. Edison is building a portfolio of quality assets capable of supplying critical materials to the battery industry and intends to capitalize on and have its shareholders benefit from the renewed interest in the battery metals space. On behalf of the Board of Directors: "Nathan Rotstein" Nathan Rotstein Chief Executive Officer and Director Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Disclaimer: This news release contains certain forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Edison's beliefs and expectations, are forward- looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "will be", "expect," "anticipate," "target," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue,", "proposes", "contemplates", "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. All information provided in this news release is as of the date of this news, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law. Forward-looking statements in this press release relate to, among other things: the negotiation and execution of the definitive agreement, the receipt of final TSXV approval for the disposition, the closing of the transaction, and the receipt of the purchase price. Actual future results may differ materially. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections of management on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: determination of acceptable terms for the proposed definitive agreement, receipt of final TSXV approval required for the disposition, and receipt of the purchase price. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235697 SOURCE: Edison Lithium Corp. With the closure of the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin along with the transfer of hundreds of incarcerated women across the United States, troubling reports of systemic abuse, retaliation and neglect have resurfaced. Two lawyers, Susan Beaty and Kara Janssen, have been actively advocating for the women of FCI Dublin and have uncovered alarming reports of sexual harassment and assault. The incarcerated women have since been relocated to various federal prisons across the country, including a facility in Aliceville, Alabama. Tribeca Lawsuit Loans provides pre-settlement funding to empower the FCI Dublin victims to pursue justice during this difficult time. Abuse Persists After FCI Dublin's Closure Earlier this year, the FCI Dublin was shut down due to the pervasive sex abuse scandal involving prison staff. As a result, the women incarcerated were relocated to different federal prisons nationwide, including Aliceville in Alabama. Instead of finding relief and rehabilitation, more reports of abuse and retaliation have emerged for speaking out against the past misconduct that occurred in Dublin. According to Beaty and Janssen, multiple women relocated to FCI Aliceville experienced harassment because of their affiliation with the Dublin scandal. Additionally, several women came out claiming that they were sexually assaulted by the guards at Aliceville. These series of abuses and their nature deeply ingrained within the system highlights the flaws within the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Although the BOP has conducted investigations and mass interviews, this did little to give security and restore trust among incarcerated women. Reports of poor confinement conditions and lack of access to mental health services only make it harder for these women to deal with the trauma. Tribeca's Commitment to Human Rights Tribeca Lawsuit Loans is deeply committed to respect for human rights, including the right to safety and dignity even in correctional facilities. Understanding the need for justice in these circumstances, Tribeca introduces its initiatives to provide lawsuit loans for the victims of abuse at FCI Dublin and other federal prisons. Legal battles against large institutions like the BOP can be a huge undertaking and could require significant resources. Most of the victims and their families don't have the financial means to pursue their cases, especially in instances of mistreatment and abuse. Tribeca Lawsuit Loans aims to empower the victims by aiding them financially to secure skilled legal representation and cover necessary expenses without upfront costs. Tribeca Lawsuit Loans to Provide Legal Funding for Prison Abuse Victims Tribeca Lawsuit Loans extends financial assistance to prisoners at FCI Aliceville and other related facilities through lawsuit cash advances, also known as pre-settlement loans, based on the class action lawsuit filed against the Bureau of Prisons. This legal action addresses the allegations of misconduct and abuse within federal prisons, emphasizing cases of sexual abuse involving prison staff. Tribeca's dedication extends beyond financial support. It is a catalyst for systemic change within the federal prison. By collaborating with victims, lawyers and advocacy groups, Tribeca hopes to bring these injustices to the forefront and hold the responsible parties accountable. If you or someone close to you require financial support in the middle of an ongoing case, don't hesitate to reach out. Call us now at (866) 388-2288 or apply online via our secure online form. ABOUT US: TRIBECA Capital Group is a litigation finance company funding those across the nation involved in lawsuits, and need an upper hand financially to level the playing field. PRESS CONTACTS: Adrienne Tabag adrienne@tribecacapllc.com Tribeca Capital Group, LLC 19019 Callaway Court Tampa, Fl 33647 (866) 388-2288 SOURCE: Tribeca Capital Group LLC View the original press release on accesswire.com Eco-Movement, the global leader in EV charging station data services, announces the acquisition of EVA Global's Spectrum technology platform, following EVA Global's recent bankruptcy proceedings. This milestone acquisition reinforces Eco-Movement's mission to enhance the EV ecosystem by delivering advanced data solutions tailored for OEMs, navigation platforms, and charging network operators. UTRECHT, Netherlands, Jan 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Through the integration of EVA Global's innovative Spectrum platform, Eco-Movement secures a critical technological asset that directly connects to charge point hardware. This unique capability will be seamlessly incorporated into Eco-Movement's cutting-edge data architecture, enabling the delivery of additional real-time, accurate, and reliable charging information to its partners. With this acquisition, Eco-Movement solidifies its position as the frontrunner in EV charging data, driving innovation and elevating service quality for millions of EV drivers worldwide. Roderick van den Berg, CEO of Eco-Movement, stated: "The acquisition of EVA Global's technology platform ensures its innovative solutions will continue to benefit the EV ecosystem. At Eco-Movement, we view this as a significant opportunity to expand our data capabilities and accelerate the electrification of transportation on a global scale." Eco-Movement emphasizes that only EVA Global's technology platform Spectrum has been acquired. The company will not engage in other activities provided by EVA Global prior to its recent bankruptcy proceedings. About Eco-Movement Based in the Netherlands, Eco-Movement is the premier global data platform for EV charging station location, pricing, and hardware information. Covering over 1.5 million (semi-)public chargers across Europe, North America, and beyond, the company maintains direct connections with more than 1,000 Charge Point Operators. By partnering with leading brands such as Tesla, TomTom, NIO, Mercedes, Google, IONITY, Apple and HERE, Eco-Movement delivers reliable and comprehensive data, empowering EV drivers with seamless navigation and optimal charging experiences. For more information click on this link: Eco-Movement Boosts EV Charging Data Innovation with Acquisition from EVA Global. Website: www.eco-movement.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/eco-movement-boosts-ev-charging-data-innovation-with-acquisition-from-eva-global-302338228.html WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Joe Biden said the attacker in New Orleans who killed 15 and wounded dozens on New Year's Day was inspired by the Islamic State group.He said the FBI is taking the lead in the investigation and is investigating this incident as an act of terrorism.FBI said an ISIS flag was located in the Ford pickup truck which the attacker drove into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the early hours of Wednesday.After hitting the crowd, he exited the vehicle and fired upon police. Police returned fire, and the assailant was pronounced dead at the scene.The attacker has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas.FBI said it is working to determine Jabbar's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.Addressing the media from Camp David about the latest developments in New Orleans, Biden said the FBI has told him the suspect had uploaded videos to social media 'mere hours before the attack' indicating that he was inspired by Islamic State and expressing a 'desire to kill.'Biden told reporters that there is no link between the New Orleans massacre and the deadly explosion of a cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas within a space of few hours.'I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind,' he said in a separate statement.Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedCopyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Creative Society, a global non-profit organization dedicated to climate research, hosted an informative event on December 28th that brought together scientists and community members to confront the urgent challenges of climate change. The "Ask a Scientist About Climate" event, held in New York City, provided a substantial platform for in-depth discussions about the escalating climate crisis, featuring presentations by experts Dr. Anastasia Pashigreva and Dr. John Ahn. Dr. Anastasia Pashigreva, PhD, chemical technology specialist, and Dr. John Ahn, PhD, MBA, expert in technology development in energy. The scientists represent the Creative Society project at the event in New York. The event delivered a comprehensive review of recent climate trends, offering insights into the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters across the United States and globally. Speakers explored the complex mechanisms driving climate change, emphasizing the critical role of human activities while also acknowledging the interactions between anthropogenic factors and geodynamic processes that contribute to the recent surge in temperature rise and climate disaster escalation. Creative Society event in New York, "Ask a Scientist About Climate." Of particular note was the presentation of innovative research on the massive Siberian mantle plume, a geological phenomenon with potential implications far beyond current scientific understanding. Dr. Pashigreva and Dr. Ahn highlighted the primary drivers of climate change, with a focused discussion on greenhouse gas emissions and the devastating impact of plastic pollution on global ecosystems. The presentation proposed innovative strategies to address these critical challenges. Attendees were introduced to global initiatives aimed at cleaning micro- and nano-plastics from the world's oceans, as well as comprehensive community resilience plans designed to mitigate the impacts of climate-related disasters. "We believe that no challenge is too great when approached with determination and collaboration," said Dr. Pashigreva. "Climate change is a formidable test, but by uniting our knowledge, expertise, and efforts, we can create solutions to ensure a sustainable future. This isn't just about understanding the problem-it's about actively being part of the solution." The event culminated in an interactive Q&A session that sparked thoughtful discussions and encouraged community-driven approaches to climate action. Participants had the unique opportunity to engage directly with climate experts, bridging the gap between scientific research and public understanding. It is worth noting that Creative Society encountered an unexpected challenge in press release distribution regarding its recent climate change event. EIN Presswire unexpectedly terminated its long-standing partnership with Creative Society and blocked the distribution of the press release without providing a substantive explanation. ?reative Society has serious concerns that this action may be connected to an ongoing disinformation campaign targeting Creative Society with direct links to Russian intelligence services, specifically indicating potential involvement of FSB-directed efforts to manipulate media narratives and suppress critical scientific discourse through information warfare strategies. There is a possibility that EIN Presswire has been influenced by these coordinated efforts to obstruct scientific communication and climate research reporting. In response, Creative Society has chosen to partner with Accesswire, a platform that demonstrates a commitment to unbiased information dissemination and supports freedom of speech. About Speakers Dr. Anastasia Pashigreva , PhD, brings expertise in chemical technologies as a specialist at the Earth Research Analytical Department of the Creative Society project. Her colleague, Dr. John Ahn , PhD, MBA, specializes in technology development across energy, chemical processes, and natural sciences, further strengthening the team's comprehensive approach to climate research. About Creative Society Creative Society drives global climate research through an unprecedented international platform, engaging volunteers across 180 countries with a mission to inform the public about critical climate phenomena. Creative Society is dedicated to researching climate change, developing innovative solutions, and promoting international scientific collaboration. Aligned with United Nations goals, Creative Society works tirelessly to unite humanity's scientific potential and prevent climate collapse. The organization's commitment extends beyond research, actively supporting key United Nations principles including the maintenance of international peace and security, development of friendly relations among nations, international cooperation, protection of human rights, and advancement of sustainable development. Alicia Smith info@creativesociety.com SOURCE: Creative Society View the original press release on accesswire.com TogetherForSharon is a prominent grassroots movement dedicated to Parkinson's disease awareness, announces the release of A Son's Journey: From Parkinson's Disease Caregiver to Advocate. This powerful new memoir by founder Dr. George Ackerman details his experiences as a caregiver for his late mother, Sharon Riff Ackerman, and his transformation into a global advocate for Parkinson's disease awareness. The book is more than a tribute-it is a call to action for individuals and communities worldwide to unite in raising awareness and support for the fight against Parkinson's. Sharon Riff Ackerman battled Parkinson's disease for over 15 years, inspiring Dr. George to establish TogetherForSharon in her memory. "Through this book and our movement, I hope to provide a beacon of hope for caregivers and families while advocating for a global effort to find a cure," said Dr. Ackerman. A Memoir of Advocacy and Hope "A Son's Journey" provides: A detailed account of Sharon's battle with Parkinson's, offering readers insights into the progression of the disease and the strength of her spirit. Real-world advice for caregivers navigating the challenges of supporting loved ones with chronic illness. A compelling narrative on the power of grassroots advocacy in driving awareness and action for Parkinson's, research. Dr. Ackerman emphasizes the book's goal of uniting voices worldwide. "We are not a foundation or nonprofit but a movement to amplify awareness and accelerate the search for a cure," he said. "Together, we can make a difference." Unlike traditional advocacy organizations, TogetherForSharon operates as a voluntary grassroots movement with a global vision. It is dedicated to fostering a sense of community for those impacted by Parkinson's disease, ensuring that no one feels alone in their fight. The movement leverages storytelling, social media, and partnerships to create a network of support and amplify its message of hope. About Sharon Riff Ackerman Born on September 28, 1950, Sharon Riff Ackerman was a devoted mother, teacher, and community leader. Known for her kindness and resilience, she inspired all who knew her. Her legacy lives on through TogetherForSharon and the countless lives it continues to touch. About - TogetherForSharon TogetherForSharon is a movement dedicated to Parkinson's disease awareness and advocacy. Established in memory of Sharon Riff Ackerman, the movement aims to keep her legacy alive by fostering a sense of community and hope. TogetherForSharon operates with the belief that "No one is alone in this fight," and strives to amplify voices advocating for a cure. Join the Movement TogetherForSharon invites families, caregivers, and advocates impacted by Parkinson's disease to join its mission. Follow the movement on social media, explore resources, and purchase A Son's Journey to support the fight against Parkinson's. For more information, visit www.TogetherForSharon.com. Media Contact Organization: TogetherForSharon Contact Person Name: Dr. George Ackerman Website: https://www.togetherforsharon.com/ Email: togetherforsharon@gmail.com City: Florida State: Florida Country: United States SOURCE: TogetherForSharon View the original press release on accesswire.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - PowerStone Metals Corp. (CSE: PS) ("PowerStone" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that further to its press release dated December 2, 2024 it has executed a definitive agreement dated December 31, 2024 (the "Definitive Agreement") with Libra Lithium Corp. ("Libra"), whereby the Company will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Libra pursuant to a three-cornered amalgamation in accordance with the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) as further detailed below (the "Transaction"). The Transaction will constitute a "Fundamental Change" of the Company as defined by Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") policies. As part of the Transaction and pursuant to the terms of the Definitive Agreement, the Company will complete a consolidation of its issued and outstanding common shares (the "Consolidation") on the basis of approximately one post-Consolidation common share (the "Company Shares") for every 2.4966 outstanding common shares in the capital of the Company. Following completion of the Consolidation and as part of the Transaction, each of the shareholders of Libra (the "Libra Shareholders") will receive one (1) Company Share in exchange for each common share held in the capital of Libra (the "Exchange Ratio"). On completion of the Transaction, the Company will change its name to "Libra Energy Materials Inc." or such other similar name as the parties may agree to (the "Name Change") and the Company anticipates applying for and changing its trading symbol on the CSE to "LIBR". Concurrently with the Transaction, the Company also proposes to make certain amendments to its articles to allow for the Company's board of directors to implement certain structural changes to its capitalization structure in the future, which are permissible in accordance with the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) and such amendments shall be put before the shareholders of the Company to seek approval (the "Articles Amendment"). Following completion of the Transaction, the Company will be carrying on the business of Libra, a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the discovery and development of the critical minerals necessary for the green energy transition. The Transaction will be structured as a three-cornered amalgamation in accordance with Section 285 of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) in which Libra will amalgamate with 1001099231 Ontario Corp., a newly incorporated, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company ("Subco"), formed solely for the purpose of facilitating the Transaction. Following the Transaction, the amalgamated company will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company. About Libra Lithium Corp. Libra is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the discovery and development of the critical minerals necessary for the green energy transition. Libra's Flanders North, Flanders South, and Oz lithium projects in Ontario are being explored under a $33M earn-in deal with KoBold Metals Company. In addition, Libra has 100% ownership over its Toivo, Burton, Bitchu, Tennant, Battery Hill and Kivinen projects in Ontario, Canada and its Nemiscau project in Quebec, Canada. The Libra team comprises a mix of seasoned executives, engineers, and geoscientists, with extensive experience in mining and mineral exploration, capital markets, asset management, energy, and First Nations engagement. In addition to Libra's lithium exploration portfolio, Libra holds 43,865,217 common shares in the capital of Athena Gold Corporation's (CSE: ATHA) (OTCQB: AHNR) ("Athena") wholly-owned subsidiary, which subject to certain conditions, are exchangeable for no additional consideration into common shares of Athena. About PowerStone Metals Corp. PowerStone is a mineral exploration company focused on the identification and exploration of high-quality critical and precious metals assets, in favorable mining jurisdictions. PowerStone is a reporting issuer in the Provinces of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, Canada and its common shares are currently listed for trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange. About the Combined Company Upon completion of the Transaction, the resulting Company (the "Combined Company") will continue to carry on the business of Libra. Subject to an adjustment to the Exchange Ratio, it is expected that upon closing of the Transaction, the Combined Company will issue from treasury 45,903,209 Company Shares to Libra, and that after such issuances, the Company will have approximately 57,379,011 issued and outstanding Company Shares on a non-diluted, post-Consolidation basis. Based on the foregoing, following completion of the Transaction, the current shareholders of the Company will hold approximately 20.00% of the outstanding Company Shares and the Libra Shareholders will hold approximately 80.00% of the outstanding Company Shares on a non-diluted, post-Consolidation basis. The Company Shares issuable under the Transaction will be subject to the escrow requirements of the CSE and hold periods as required by applicable securities laws. Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of closing conditions, including the completion of the Consolidation, completion of the Name Change, receipt of applicable shareholder and regulatory approvals, including approval of the CSE and satisfaction of the initial listing requirements of the CSE and other customary closing conditions. Completion of the Articles Amendment is subject to applicable shareholder and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that the proposed Transaction, Consolidation, Name Change, Articles Amendment or other transactions described in this news release will be completed as proposed or at all. Management and Board of Combined Company Upon completion of the Transaction the current directors and officers of the Company will be reconstituted and are expected to be comprised of the following: Koby Kushner, P.Eng., CFA - Chief Executive Officer and Director Mr. Koby Kushner, P.Eng., CFA, is the Chief Executive Officer and a director of Libra. He has spent most of his career as a mining engineer and more recently, an equity research analyst. Prior to entering finance, Mr. Kushner worked at several mines in Ontario and Manitoba, including Hemlo (Barrick Gold), Detour, Rice Lake, and others. During this time, Mr. Kushner has seen projects advance through all stages of development, including exploration, production, and closure. He then moved into equity research at Red Cloud Securities, a mining-only investment bank, where he wrote on over 100 companies across various stages of development and a wide range of commodities, with a particular focus on precious and energy metals. He holds a BSc in Mining Engineering from Queen's University, is a licensed Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario and is a CFA charterholder. David Goodman, B.Com, LL.B (cum laude), CFA - Chairman and Director David Goodman, LLB, CFA, is the Chairman of Libra. Mr. Goodman left an early career as a litigator in 1994 to become a Partner, Vice President and Portfolio Manager at the investment management firm behind Dynamic Funds. He became President and Chief Executive Officer of Dynamic Funds in 2001 and of DundeeWealth, Dynamic's public company parent, in 2007. Under Mr. Goodman's leadership, the firm became one of Canada's best performing and fastest growing investment managers, was recognized as Fund Company of the Year seven times at the Canadian Investment Awards while growing assets under management from $5 billion to approximately $50 billion, until its ultimate sale in 2011 to a Canadian bank. In the past Mr. Goodman was a member of the boards of DundeeWealth, Repadre Capital Corporation, Dundee Corporation, SickKids Foundation and a trustee of the Dundee REIT. Mr. Goodman was previously the head of Global Asset Management for a major Canadian bank and CEO of Dundee Corporation. In addition to his business interests, Mr. Goodman is the founder and CEO of Humour Me, an annual event whereby high-profile executives compete in stand-up comedy and has raised over $20 million to date for worthy causes. Ben Kuzmich, MSc., P.Geo. - VP Exploration Mr. Ben Kuzmich, MSc., P.Geo, is a professional geologist with a proven track record of exploration success in Canada throughout Ontario, Manitoba, and the Yukon. His accomplishments include the delineation of the E-Zone at Barrick's Hemlo gold mine, where he managed a $20M drill program, and where his reinterpretation of geologic models resulted in a 23% improvement in underground head grade for 2019. Outside of Hemlo, he led the discovery of the Little Wing gold occurrence at Alamos's Lynn Lake project as well as numerous REE/LCT pegmatite, precious, and base metal occurrences throughout the Superior Province. He completed his MSc thesis at Lakehead University on the highly endowed, critical mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, and his undergraduate thesis on S-type granitic intrusions. Zachary Goldenberg, HBA / JD - Director Zachary Goldenberg is the current Chief Executive Officer of PowerStone and a principal of Liberty Venture Partners, a Toronto-based advisory and investment firm focused on startup and growth companies in rapidly emerging industries. A corporate lawyer by background, Zach has significant experience in both the private and public markets as an advisor, investor and board director and has spent much of the past decade working with companies transitioning from private to public navigate the Canadian public venture markets and to source and close strategic transactions. Zach is a graduate of the combined JD / HBA from Western Law and Ivey School of Business, is a member of the TSX Venture Exchange's Ontario Advisory Committee and is a recipient of ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. Carlo Rigillo, B.Com, CPA - Chief Financial Officer Carlo Rigillo is the current Chief Financial Officer of PowerStone and is an experienced Chartered Professional accountant with over two decades of relevant public company audit and operational experience. Mr. Rigillo holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and is a Chartered Professional Accountant. Listing Statement and Caution Further details about the Transaction and the Combined Company will be provided in a CSE Form 2A listing statement of the Company to be prepared and filed in respect of the Transaction. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the listing statement, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. PowerStone Shareholder Approval To obtain shareholder approval for the Transaction, Consolidation, Name Change, Articles Amendment and certain ancillary matters related to the Transaction, PowerStone expects to hold an annual general and special shareholders' meeting as soon as reasonably practicable. Trading in the Company Shares Trading in the common shares of the Company will be halted as a result of this announcement. Trading in the common shares will remain halted pending the review of the proposed Transaction by the CSE. There can be no assurance that trading in the common shares will resume prior to the completion of the Transaction. PowerStone Corporate Update The Company announces that the option agreement dated June 13, 2022 in respect of the Chilton Cobalt Property lapsed on December 31, 2024 and that PowerStone retains no carried interest in the project. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to the closing of the Transaction, the conditions to completing the Transaction, the proposed Consolidation, Name Change and Articles Amendment, timing and receipt of regulatory, shareholder and exchange approvals, future plans and business objectives of the Combined Company and other matters. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company. As a result, there can be no assurance that the proposed Transaction or related matters will be completed as proposed or at all. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to continue operations if the Transaction is not completed, the Company's ability to raise further capital upon terms acceptable to the Company or at all, the Company's ability to obtain regulatory, shareholder and exchange approvals, and the Company's ability to complete the Transaction as currently proposed or at all. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235702 SOURCE: Powerstone Metals Corp. Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks are down firmly in negative territory in late morning trades on Thursday, extending early losses after data showed a sharp decline in the nation's manufacturing activity in the month of December.The benchmark CAC 40 was down 71.41 points or 0.97% at 7,309.33.Final data from S&P Global confirmed that the HCOB France Manufacturing PMI dropped to 41.9 in December from 43.1 in November. That marked the sharpest decline in manufacturing activity since May 2020.Among the major losers, Kering is down 3.4%, while LVMH and Hermes International are down 2.3% and 2.5%, respectively. BNP Paribas and Edenred are down 2.1% from their previous closing levels.L'Oreal, Societe Generale, Credit Agricol, Stellantis, Accor, Saint-Gobain, Essilor, Pernod Ricaard, Vinci, Schneider Electric, Renault and STMicroElectronics are lower by 1 to 2%. is lower by about 1.2%.Airbus is rising nearly 2%. Engie and Safran are up 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. Orange and Michelin are up marginally.Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedCopyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy will speak with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, and Don Pettit on Monday to discuss their mission aboard the International Space Station.The U.S. space agency said the Earth to space call coverage will begin at 1:30 p.m. EST on NASA+. The NASA content can also be watched through a variety of platforms, including social media.NASA's Commercial Crew Program has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is opening access to low Earth orbit and the space station to more people, science, and commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and eventually, to Mars.Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been living and working aboard the station since docking on June 6, contributing to the expedition crew's research and maintenance activities, while helping ground teams collect critical data for long-duration Starliner flights to the orbiting complex.The astronauts were supposed to return to earth on June 14, but after encountering technical issues, it has been delayed.The mission was meant to last eight days. However, as the capsule's thrusters malfunctioned and helium leaked as Starliner docked with the ISS, NASA decided not to fly the spacecraft back to Earth until the problems were solved or at least better understood.Following the U.S. space agency's decision to return Starliner uncrewed, the duo will remain on the space station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew. NASA had plans to return them home in February aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members on its SpaceX Crew-9 mission. But latest reports say their home-coming will possibly be delayed further.Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedCopyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. New magmatic sulphide targets outlined by Transition at Saturday Night Project approved for matching grant funding up to $200,000 under the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) Company mobilizing drill to recommence drilling on the project in the New Year Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Transition Metals Corp. (TSXV: XTM) ("Transition", the "Company"), is pleased to announce that is has been given notice that it is eligible to receive matching grant funding up to $200,000 to resume drilling at its Saturday Night PGM discovery (the "Property") located near Thunder Bay Ontario. In 2016, a single hole was drilled on the Property to test a prospective magnetic target located 16 km to the west of the Company's Sunday Lake discovery. This drill hole intersected mineralization of 6.25 metres averaging 1.07g/t PGM's including a higher-grade section of 4.0 g/t PGM, and 0.56% Cu over a core length of 0.30 metres, near an interpreted base of a >200 metre thick sequence of early-rift intrusive rocks (see news release dated January 23, 2017). Commenting on the project, CEO Scott McLean stated "We consider this project to be another important discovery for Transition. It was a similar program that led Transition to its discovery in 2013 of the nearby Sunday Lake deposit. We are now very excited to be able to return to Saturday Night and get the drill turning again on this prospective project." As follow up to the discovery hole, a small ground-based audio frequency magnetotelluric (AMT) survey was completed in 2018. This survey highlighted that the mineralized intrusion at Saturday Night could be larger than the footprint of the targeted magnetic feature and the area covered by the initial AMT survey. To more fully define the full extent of the Saturday Night intrusion, an airborne AMT survey was flown over the Property in 2023. This survey has helped to define targetable features that may host thick intervals of high grade PGM with Ni-Cu mineralization, similar to those found at nearby Sunday Lake deposit. Next Steps The Company expects to mobilize a drill to the Property in early January 2025 to undertake approximately 1,500 metres of drilling, in a minimum of two holes. The drilling will test for extensions to the mineralization intersected in the discovery hole, and to more fully assess the prospectivity of the Saturday Night Intrusion. About the Saturday Night Project The Saturday Night Project, wholly owned by Transition Metals, comprises 63 staked mining claims situated in Fowler Township, that is located approximately 30 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, Ontario within the Robinson Superior Treaty area. The project has year-round road access to a main highway and is close to infrastructure. The exploration work to date has confirmed that a magnetic anomaly found on the Property is linked to an underlying mafic-ultramafic Saturday Night Intrusion (SNI), which is interpreted to have originated during the Proterozoic era and is associated with the renowned Midcontinental Rift (MCR). The MCR is a geological feature that extends over 2,000 kilometres across the heart of North America. It formed around 1.1 billion years ago as the North American craton began to rift. Notably, the early stages of this rift (referred to as 'early-rift') are associated with the presence of mafic to ultramafic intrusive rocks that contain significant quantities of platinum group metals (PGMs). Nearby MCR related deposits include the Thunder Bay North and Sunday Lake deposit. The Sunday Lake deposit was discovered by Transition in partnership with Implats Platinum in 2013. Other rift related Ni-Cu and PGM bearing systems include the Eagle deposit located in Michigan, and the Tamarack and Duluth deposits located in Minnesota. The Saturday Night Project is currently in the early exploration phase, with ongoing assessments aimed at determining the potential of the Property to host PGM mineralization of interest. The Property is subject to an underlying 1.0% Net Smelter Return royalty (see company press releases dated September 8, 2020). Government Exploration Grant Program (OJEP) Transition Metals Corp. would like to acknowledge financial support from the 2024-25 Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) for the Saturday Night Project, in Ontario. Through the OJEP program, Transition has been selected to receive up to $200,000 to cover 50% of eligible explorations costs on the project, aimed at facilitating the exploration of Critical Minerals within Ontario. The receipt of these grants represents a meaningful milestone, leveraging government support towards advancing the exploration of this magmatic PGM project. It's important to note that the opinions and views expressed in this announcement are those of Transition Metals Corp., and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Ontario. Qualified Person The technical elements of this news release have been approved by Mr. Benjamin Williams, P.Geo. (PGO), Senior Geologist of Transition Metals Corp. and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 About Transition Metals Corp. Transition Metals Corp. (TSXV: XTM) is a Canadian-based, multi-commodity explorer. Its award-winning team of geoscientists has extensive exploration experience which actively develops and tests new ideas for discovering mineralization in places that others have not looked, often allowing the company to acquire properties inexpensively. Joint venture partners earn an interest in the projects by funding a portion of higher-risk drilling and exploration, allowing Transition to conserve capital and minimize shareholder's equity dilution. Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Information Except for statements of historical fact contained herein, the information in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities law. Such forward-looking information may be identified by words such as "plans", "proposes", "estimates", "intends", "expects", "believes", "may", "will" and include without limitation, statements regarding estimated capital and operating costs, expected production timeline, benefits of updated development plans, foreign exchange assumptions and regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate; actual results and future events could differ materially from such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, metal prices, competition, risks inherent in the mining industry, and regulatory risks. Most of these factors are outside the control of the Company. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by applicable securities statutes or regulation, the Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Further information is available at www.transitionmetalscorp.com or by contacting: To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235788 SOURCE: Transition Metals Corp. Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ultra Nuclear Limited and Weed Instrument Co., Inc. ("Ultra Energy") for $200 million in cash. Ultra Energy is a leading global provider of safety-critical measurement and control systems to the Commercial Nuclear and Aerospace Defense markets. The business designs and manufactures reactor protection systems, neutron monitoring systems, radiation monitoring systems, and temperature and pressure sensors that facilitate the safe and reliable operation of commercial nuclear reactors and other power generation plants. It also provides support to the legacy UK nuclear submarine fleet, as well as current and next-generation ship designs. In alignment with our strategic priorities highlighted at our 2024 Investor Day, the acquisition of Ultra Energy increases the breadth of Curtiss-Wright's global commercial nuclear portfolio with highly complementary measurement and control solutions supporting plant life extensions and modernization projects of aging power plants and further expands our presence with the leading global designers of small modular reactors, both in the U.S. and Europe. The acquisition also supports Curtiss-Wright's long-term financial objectives for profitable growth and strong free cash flow generation. Ultra Energy generated sales of approximately $65 million in 2023 and is expected to be accretive to Curtiss-Wright's adjusted diluted earnings per share in its first full year of ownership, excluding first year purchase accounting costs, and produce a strong free cash flow conversion rate in excess of 100%. The business will operate within Curtiss-Wright's Naval Power segment. Through its predecessor companies, Ultra Energy's roots date back to the mid-1950s as a specialist in neutron monitoring and the late-1960s as a manufacturer of temperature and pressure sensors. Today, its diverse portfolio includes neutron monitoring for measuring reactor power and safety management, radiation monitoring for plant safety, reactor protection systems to constantly monitor plant conditions, and highly accurate temperature and pressure sensors. Ultra Energy employs approximately 300 people and maintains primary operations in Wimborne, UK, and Round Rock, TX. About Curtiss-Wright Corporation Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) is a global integrated business that provides highly engineered products, solutions and services mainly to Aerospace Defense markets, as well as critical technologies in demanding Commercial Power, Process and Industrial markets. We leverage a workforce of approximately 8,600 highly skilled employees who develop, design and build what we believe are the best engineered solutions to the markets we serve. Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright, headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, has a long tradition of providing innovative solutions through trusted customer relationships. For more information, visit www.curtisswright.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on management's beliefs and assumptions. Such statements, including statements relating to Curtiss-Wright Corporation's expectations for the future opportunities associated with the acquisition, the 2024 financial forecast for Ultra Energy, the success of transferring Ultra Energy's technology throughout our existing world-wide network, and the success of the Company integrating Ultra Energy into its Naval Power segment are not considered historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements under the federal securities laws. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: a reduction in anticipated orders; an economic downturn; changes in competitive marketplace and/or customer requirements; a change in US government spending; an inability to perform customer contracts at anticipated cost levels; and other factors that generally affect the business of aerospace, defense contracting, marine, electronics and industrial companies. Please refer to the Company's current SEC filings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, for further information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250102047598/en/ Contacts: Jim Ryan (704) 869-4621 jim.ryan@curtisswright.com Contracting Resources Group, Inc. (CRG) has been awarded the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Plus (OASIS+) contract. The award, along with Notices to Proceed (NTP), was announced on December 17, 2024. Through OASIS+, agencies will have access to CRG's 22 years of expertise delivering professional services to support critical government initiatives. CRG's proven track record in program management, acquisition lifecycle support, research and evaluation, financial management, and strategic consulting positions the company as a trusted partner for addressing complex challenges. "At the heart of our work lies a dedication to providing top-tier services that address agencies' most pressing challenges," said Dina DiPalo, Chief Executive Officer of CRG. "This new contracting vehicle enables us to expand our reach across federal and civilian sectors, bringing innovative solutions and unmatched commitment to our customers' missions." CRG, a woman-owned small business, has been recognized with the 2024 HIRE Vets Medallion Award for its commitment to recruiting, hiring, and retaining veterans. Additionally, it has been featured by Inc. Magazine as one of the nation's fastest-growing private companies from 2016 through 2024. "As we continue to advance our customers' missions, OASIS+ provides a new avenue for us to support federal agencies with flexibility and expertise," said Moira Rivera, President of CRG. "We are excited to continue building on our long-standing success." CRG is one of 588 companies awarded this unrestricted contract vehicle, which spans eight service domains, including management and advisory, technical and engineering, intelligence, research and development, logistics, facilities, environmental, and enterprise solutions. Ordering under OASIS+ began on GSA eBuy on Dec. 20, 2024. The NTP milestone signals the start of a five-year base performance period, with the possibility of an additional five-year option period. About Contracting Resources Group, Inc. (CRG) For over 22 years, CRG has specialized in delivering professional support services to the U.S. Department of Defense and civilian federal agencies in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The company excels in management, process improvement, program evaluation and analysis, and strategic communications, contributing to a wide range of mission-critical government initiatives. Contact: Robyn Mincher, Senior Editorial Director rmincher@contractingrg.com Contact Information Robyn Mincher Senior Editorial Director rmincher@contractingrg.com SOURCE: Contracting Resources Group, Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com The Kiwi Ears Ellipse is a new studio-grade dynamic driver headphone designed to deliver exceptional audio quality. Featuring a 50mm premium dynamic driver, the Ellipse offers a true Hi-Fi sound experience, ideal for audiophiles seeking clarity and depth in their music. The Kiwi Ears Ellipse ensures precise, immersive sound, built with custom-made PU and PEK composite diaphragms, an ultra-pure copper ring, and powered by a CCAW High-Tension voice coil with N42 high-performance magnets. Its open-back design enhances airflow to the drivers, creating a natural and wide soundstage with enhanced lows and airy trebles. While open-back headphones offer less external noise isolation, they provide a speaker-like musical experience that's unrivaled in its natural sound reproduction. Headphones with Floorstanding Speaker Tuning The driver as well as the acoustics of the headphone housing has been meticulously tuned to sound balanced and natural. The lows have a strong impact with sensational rumble and body. The low-mids have a rich warmth that is free of bloat and an accurate vocal and instrument tonality. The trebles are compensated to match the human ear's acoustics that mirror the perceived tonal balance from stereo speakers. The Ellipse's tuning profile is perfect for those wanting to sit back and immerse themselves in their music. Comfortable Design The Kiwi Ears Ellipse is designed to be lightweight and comfortable for extended listening sessions. The headband has a thick padding made of vegan-leather. The vegan-leather earpads are specially designed to enhance the bass response of the drivers while being plush and comfortable. Detachable Cable Design The Ellipse features a detachable cable design with a 3.5mm plug and a 6.3mm adapter plug. The detachable design allows users to customize their sound and wearing experience, allow greater adaptability to different devices, as well as extend the longevity of the headphones. Headphone Specifications: Driver Unit: 50mm Impedance: 32 Ohm Sensitivity: 98dB+/-3dB Frequency Response: 20Hz to 20KHz Plug: 3.5mm+6.3mm adaptor Cable: 3m About Kiwi Ears Kiwi Ears is a leading audio brand dedicated to crafting innovative, high-quality audio solutions for audiophiles, music enthusiasts, and professionals. From IEMs to over-ear headphones, Kiwi Ears combines cutting-edge technology with a passion for sound to create products that inspire and delight. The Kiwi Ears Ellipse is now available for purchase at Kiwi Ears official website and authorized retailers worldwide. For more information about the Kiwi Ears Division, please visit Kiwi Ears Website Linsoul Website Contact Information Evelyn Zhou Marketing Assistant marketing@kiwiears.com SOURCE: Linsoul INC View the original press release on accesswire.com Wellesley, Massachusetts--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Babson College announced today the launch of its new Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program, which will welcome its first cohort in fall 2025. The three-year, hybrid program is designed for accomplished and successful business leaders, offering the skills and instruction needed to elevate their leadership expertise, engage with cutting-edge research, and connect with an expansive network of business leaders across industries. With a multi-faceted approach focused on entrepreneurial leadership, applied research, and learning facilitation, the blended program is ideal for professionals with 10-20 years of work experience, 7-10 years at the managerial/executive level, looking to enhance their leadership skills and make a significant impact on their industry, combining practice and research to address complex, relevant business challenges. The curriculum is also designed to serve those pursuing a career in business academia. "The creation of Babson's Doctor of Business Administration program underscores our commitment to advancing entrepreneurship education across all levels of professional experience," said President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA'92, PhD. "At Babson, we believe that teaching and learning occurs over a lifetime. The development of our DBA program will provide industry experts and innovative thought leaders with access to Babson's proven entrepreneurial thought and action framework." While a PhD emphasizes theoretical research for academic knowledge creation, a DBA degree emphasizes applied research skills for industry impact. Over the three-year program, students will complete courses covering entrepreneurial leadership and organizational change, the academic research process, various relevant and rigorous research methods, the art and science of teaching, and designing and executing research projects. The unique design of Babson's DBA program allows for extensive peer collaboration via in-person residencies, virtual discussion boards, live virtual sessions, peer support, research projects, and more. Students will complete three in-person residencies on the Wellesley campus per semester, and in total, 18 on-campus residencies through the entire program. The introduction of the Babson DBA program (accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education) comes amid an increased demand for innovative, creative thinkers. As Sebastian Fixson, Founding Faculty Director of the DBA program notes: "Recent years have shown that what we have to offer as an education institution is increasingly what the world needs. The complexity of business challenges is increasing, and the pace is accelerating. Our entrepreneurial approach is becoming more and more relevant and crucial for all kinds of business leaders. The latest iteration of that is our new Doctor of Business Administration program." Learn more about Babson's new Doctor of Business Administration program here. About Babson College Babson College is a global leader in entrepreneurship education. Through its proven Entrepreneurial Thought & Action methodology, the College prepares entrepreneurial leaders who create, grow, and steward sustainable economic and social value around the world. Founded in 1917 in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Babson has empowered more than 45,000 entrepreneurial leaders to impact communities and industries of all kinds. Babson is recognized as the No. 2 best college in the United States by The Wall Street Journal and has maintained its place as No. 1 atop U.S. News & World Report's entrepreneurship rankings for decades. The College offers an array of undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programs and partners with organizations around the world to support global entrepreneurship initiatives. Through the Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership and Babson's centers and institutes, the College empowers accomplished and aspiring entrepreneurs to advance the study and practice of entrepreneurial thought leadership around the world. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/234773 SOURCE: Babson College Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Altiplano Metals Inc. (TSXV: APN) (WKN: A2JNFG) ("Altiplano" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the option agreement to acquire the Santa Beatriz copper-gold-iron (Cu-Au-Fe) mine has been extended for one year. Santa Beatriz is located approximately 45 kilometers south of La Serena, Chile, and 13 kilometers south of the El Penon processing plant. President and CEO Alastair McIntyre comments: "We are very pleased with the technical progress and results at Santa Beatriz. Extension of the option provides us the opportunity to continue our exploration and development to support further underground work. Given the similarities to the Farellon mine and our positive technical results, we are encouraged that Santa Beatriz will reveal the potential to provide high grade low-cost material for our mill, generating positive returns for the Company." Key Highlights: Option Extension: Altiplano has extended its option to acquire Santa Beatriz until December 2025. The extension provides Altiplano the opportunity to continue exploration and mine preparation work. The original terms of final buyout remain the same with monthly rental payments increasing from CLP3,500,000 to CLP5,000,000. Permitting: Current production permit for Santa Beatriz is currently 2,000 tonnes/month Production can be extended to 5,000 tonnes per month under the Chilean national small mining permitting process. The extension is expected after the company completes the appropriate development work. The permitting process can be completed within several weeks after submitting the request. The Company has obtained the required permits to work with and store explosives necessary to conduct ongoing mining activities Mine Refurbishment and Sampling: Dewatering and refurbishment of the lower portions of the mine have been completed. An additional 150 meters of the historical mine area have been exposed, surveyed, mapped, and sampled (see Figure 1). Bulk Sampling A targeted initial 3,500-tonne zone of mineralized material has been identified for bulk sampling (see Figures 1). Processing : Copper, gold, and iron material extracted from the Santa Beatriz Mine will be processed at the Company's El Penon processing facility. The first shipment produced at Santa Beatriz is expected to be received at the Plant in early January 2025. : Figure 1: Plan View of the Santa Beatriz Mine. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/4303/235736_377099d274fd5a47_001full.jpg The decision to develop the Santa Beatriz deposit is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and there is increased uncertainty of economic and technical risks of failure associated with any potential production decision. Altiplano has generated over C$22.5 million from the recovery and sale (after processing costs) of more than 6.95 million pounds of copper with an average grade of 1.8% Cu (Dec 2018 Jun 2024). Cash flow has been re-invested into equipment, underground drilling, expanding underground development at Farellon, enhancing ventilation to increase productivity and capacity, new underground development and exploration, and the start-up of the El Penon fit-for-purpose mill and flotation plant located 15 km from the Farellon site. About Altiplano Altiplano Metals is a growing gold, silver, and copper company focused on the Americas. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets that include an operating copper/gold/iron mine and a state-of-the-art operating copper/gold and iron processing facility in the final stages of completion. Altiplano is focused on creating long-term stakeholder value through developing safe and sustainable production, reinvesting into exploration, and pursuing acquisition opportunities to complement its existing portfolio. Management has a substantial record of success in capitalizing on opportunity, overcoming challenges and building shareholder value. Altiplano trades on the TSX.V under the symbol APN and the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol A2JNFG. John Williamson, B.Sc., P.Geol., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed, and approved the technical contents of this document. Altiplano is part of the Metals Group of Companies, led by a dynamic group of resource sector professionals with a long record of success in evaluating and advancing mining projects from exploration through to production, attracting capital, and overcoming adversity to deliver exceptional shareholder value. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the (TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify any historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the issuer is not treating any historical information or estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Santa Beatriz mine was previously in production mid 2010's with little known production records. This material was processed and sold locally to a private processing facility. Altiplano is relying upon limited past production records, underground sampling and related activities to further explore and potentially develop Santa Beatriz. The decision to develop the project and extract material for potential processing is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with any future potential production decision. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedarplus.ca. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235736 SOURCE: Altiplano Metals Inc. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower in the week ended December 28th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.The report said initial jobless claims slipped to 211,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 220,000.The dip surprised economist, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 222,000 from the 219,000 originally reported for the previous week.With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 209,000 in the week ended April 27, 2024.'The claims data are consistent with a labor market that is strong enough to allow the Federal Reserve to proceed with rate cuts at a more measured pace in 2025,' said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. 'The level of initial claims is consistent with a relatively low pace of layoffs.'The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also edged down to 223,250, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 226,750.Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also fell by 52,000 to 1.844 million in the week ended December 21st.The four-week moving average if continuing claims also slid to 1,870,750, a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,877,500.'While the level of continued claims suggests unemployed workers face some challenges finding new work, the recent decline in continued claims is encouraging,' said Vanden Houten.Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedCopyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Beyond Ordinary Software Solutions announced the release of AskUncleSam, an AI-powered SAM.gov search integration tool designed to enhance bid competitiveness during the RFP (Request for Proposal) identification process for small- to mid-sized defense contractors. Founded in 2000, Beyond Ordinary has historically specialized in developing bespoke commercial software and cybersecurity solutions for the personal insurance sector. However, after securing a subcontractor position on a Naval project in 2024 and leveraging decades of experience across company leadership in federal contracting and DoD operations, the company has introduced AskUncleSam to optimize the early stages of the acquisition process for programmatic personnel. Caption: Jacob Anderson, Founder of Beyond Ordinary To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10129/235256_25e474cab4775817_001full.jpg Jacob Anderson, Beyond Ordinary's founder, is a mechanical engineer, CISSP-certified, and holds an MS in Computer Science and Machine Learning from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Anderson has previously supported R&D at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Alongside company director Frank Muller, a former vice president at DoD contractor American Systems, and cybersecurity expert Robert Morgan, a DSc (Doctor of Computer Science) and a former Naval mechanic, Anderson developed AskUncleSam for business development and acquisition managers in the federal contracting ecosystem, specifically for small-to-mid-sized contractors. Beyond Ordinary Expands Focus to Defense Contracting in 2025 While continuing to serve as an insurance-tech software consultancy, Beyond Ordinary plans to prioritize growing its defense contracting portfolio in 2025. "Beyond Ordinary is actively supporting a multi-million-dollar, five-year Navy program as a sub-contract partner. The firm received its Facilities Security Clearance (FCL) in 2024 and plans to leverage it for additional technical contracting work in 2025," said Anderson. AskUncleSam: SAM.gov Search Integration As part of the company's pivot to defense contracting, AskUncleSam is tailored to help SMB federal contractors navigate the acquisition process. Designed for programmatic and acquisition-focused personnel, the tool enables users to build narratives on SAM.gov, the U.S. government's System for Award Management site, where contractors identify and bid on federal contracts. AskUncleSam's AI-powered chat function allows users to generate company-specific narratives by analyzing their website URLs. It instantly identifies relevant NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes and matches the narratives to relevant federal solicitations. The tool also includes a ranking index that compares the user's narrative to targeted solicitations, calculates a probability of success, and suggests enhancements to improve the likelihood of winning bids. "There are over 10,000 defense contractors in the U.S., most of which are SMBs." Anderson continued. "For contractors within their first 5 years, the acquisition process is costly, complex, and intensely competitive. AskUncleSam seeks to support those bidders in simplifying the process." About Beyond Ordinary Software Solutions Beyond Ordinary is a San Diego-based software consultancy and research firm specializing in technical solutions for national defense and personal insurance sectors. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235256 SOURCE: AK Infinite BANGALORE, India, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- AI Language Translator Tool Market is Segmented by Type (Text and Document Translation, Voice Translation, Image Translation), by Application (Personal Use, Corporate Use). The Global AI Language Translator Tool Market was valued at USD 5939 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 42750 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 26.2% during the forecast period 2024-2030. Claim Your Free Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-19L17118/Global_AI_Language_Translator_Tool_Market Major Factors Driving the Growth of AI Language Translator Tool Market: The AI Language Translator Tool market is poised for robust growth, driven by the increasing need for efficient and accurate multilingual communication solutions across diverse sectors. Advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning enhance the capabilities of translation tools, making them more reliable and user-friendly. The rising globalization of businesses, expansion of e-commerce, and the proliferation of digital content contribute to the sustained demand for AI-powered translation services. Additionally, the integration of these tools into mobile devices, applications, and various digital platforms broadens their accessibility and usage. With continuous innovation and expanding applications, the AI Language Translator Tool market is set to achieve significant milestones in the coming years, catering to the evolving needs of a globalized world. Unlock Insights: View Full Report Now! https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-19L17118/global-ai-language-translator-tool TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE AI LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR TOOL MARKET: Text and document translation plays a pivotal role in the expansion of the AI Language Translator Tool market. As globalization intensifies, businesses and individuals increasingly require accurate and efficient translation of written materials such as contracts, manuals, and marketing content. AI-powered tools enhance this process by providing real-time translations that maintain the context and nuance of the original text, thereby reducing the dependency on human translators. Moreover, advancements in natural language processing enable these tools to handle complex language structures and specialized terminologies across various industries. The demand for multilingual content in sectors like legal, healthcare, and e-commerce further propels the adoption of AI-driven translation solutions, fostering market growth and innovation in this space. Voice translation technology is significantly contributing to the growth of the AI Language Translator Tool market by enabling seamless communication across different languages in real-time. With the rise of global interactions in both personal and professional settings, the ability to instantly translate spoken language has become essential. AI-powered voice translators utilize advanced speech recognition and machine learning algorithms to accurately interpret and convert spoken words into target languages, facilitating smoother conversations and reducing language barriers. This technology is particularly beneficial in areas such as international business meetings, travel, and customer service, where immediate and precise translation is crucial. The increasing integration of voice translation features in smartphones, smart devices, and applications further drives the adoption and expansion of the market. Corporate use is a major driver in the growth of the AI Language Translator Tool market, as businesses seek to operate efficiently in a globalized economy. Multinational companies rely on accurate translation tools to manage communication across diverse regions, ensuring consistency in branding, legal compliance, and operational procedures. AI language translators enable corporations to streamline their workflows by automating the translation of emails, reports, and other business documents, thereby enhancing productivity and reducing costs associated with manual translation services. Additionally, these tools support customer engagement by providing multilingual support, improving client relationships, and expanding market reach. The increasing emphasis on digital transformation and the need for scalable translation solutions in the corporate sector continue to fuel market growth. The exponential growth of the e-commerce sector significantly propels the AI Language Translator Tool market. Online businesses cater to a worldwide audience, necessitating the translation of product descriptions, customer reviews, and support services into multiple languages to enhance user experience and accessibility. AI-driven translation tools enable e-commerce platforms to provide localized content swiftly, ensuring that customers from different regions can engage with the products and services in their native languages. This localization not only improves customer satisfaction and trust but also increases conversion rates and sales. As e-commerce continues to expand, the demand for efficient and accurate translation solutions remains a key driver for market growth. Advancements in AI and machine learning technologies are crucial drivers for the AI Language Translator Tool market. Continuous improvements in natural language processing, deep learning algorithms, and neural networks enhance the accuracy and efficiency of translation tools. These technological advancements enable AI translators to better understand context, idiomatic expressions, and complex sentence structures, resulting in more reliable and human-like translations. Additionally, the ability of AI systems to learn from vast amounts of data allows them to continuously improve their performance and adapt to new languages and dialects. These innovations not only increase the functionality of translation tools but also expand their applicability across various industries, fostering broader market adoption. The growing demand for real-time translation is a significant factor driving the AI Language Translator Tool market. In today's fast-paced world, the need for instant communication across different languages is essential in various settings, including business meetings, international conferences, and live customer support. AI-powered translation tools that offer real-time capabilities help bridge language gaps quickly and efficiently, enhancing the overall communication experience. This demand is further fueled by the proliferation of mobile devices and the integration of translation features in applications and platforms, making real-time translation accessible to a broader audience. The emphasis on immediate and accurate translations supports the continuous growth and innovation within the market. The widespread expansion of internet and mobile device usage plays a vital role in the growth of the AI Language Translator Tool market. Increased connectivity enables users to access translation tools anytime and anywhere, facilitating seamless communication across languages. The proliferation of smartphones and the availability of translation applications make these tools highly accessible to a global audience, driving higher adoption rates. Moreover, the integration of translation functionalities into social media, messaging apps, and other digital platforms enhances user engagement and reliance on AI translators for everyday communication. As internet penetration continues to rise, particularly in developing regions, the demand for versatile and user-friendly translation solutions is expected to grow accordingly. The rise in educational exchanges and international collaborations significantly drives the AI Language Translator Tool market. As students and academics engage in cross-border studies and research, the need for accurate and efficient translation tools becomes essential for accessing educational resources, collaborating on projects, and communicating with peers from different linguistic backgrounds. AI language translators facilitate the translation of academic papers, course materials, and communication, thereby enhancing the learning experience and promoting academic excellence. Additionally, universities and educational institutions adopt these tools to support diverse student populations, ensuring inclusivity and effective knowledge dissemination. The growing emphasis on global education initiatives underscores the importance of reliable translation solutions, contributing to market growth. Claim Yours Now! https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-19L17118&lic=single-user AI LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR TOOL MARKET SHARE North Americas occupied the largest market share, and the AI Language Translator Tool market size was valued at around USD 2.05 billion in 2023. Europe is the second largest market, accounting for 22.40% of the global market share in 2023. China is estimated to be the third largest market for AI Language Translator Tool, and China AI Language Translator Tool market size is expected to reach USD 10.96 billion in 2030, with a CAGR of 31.61% over the period 2024 to 2030. Other major growth regions in Asia-Pacific include Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, India, etc. Key Companies: Microsoft OpenAL Wordly Sonix DeepL Grammarly Jasper AI Copy.ai Quillbot Smartling Mirai Translate Google Cloud Translation Lokalise AI Smartcat Platform Inc. 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DISCOVER MORE INSIGHTS: EXPLORE SIMILAR REPORTS! - AI Video Subtitle Translator Market - Portable Real-time Language Translator Market - AI-Enabled Translation Service Market - Real-time Voice Translation Software Market - AI Translation Headset Market was valued at USD 120 Million in the year 2023 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 310 Million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.6% during the forecast period. - Artificial Intelligence Translation Equipment Market was valued at USD 2925 Million in the year 2023 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 5229 Million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 9.2% during the forecast period. - Real-Time Text Translation Software Market was estimated to be worth USD 10790 Million in 2023 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 13690 Million by 2030 with a CAGR of 3.5% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - Language Translator Device Market - Small Language Model market was valued at USD 5180 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 17180 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 17.8% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - Multilingual Translation Service Market DISCOVER OUR VISION: VISIT ABOUT US! 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GET A FREE QUOTE Valuates Reports sales@valuates.com For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225 WhatsApp: +91-9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Blog: https://valuatestrends.blogspot.com/ Pinterest: https://in.pinterest.com/valuatesreports/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@valuatesreports6753 https://www.facebook.com/valuateskorean https://www.facebook.com/valuatesspanish https://www.facebook.com/valuatesjapanese https://valuatesreportspanish.blogspot.com/ https://valuateskorean.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesgerman.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesreportjapanese.blogspot.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/ai-language-translator-tool-market-soars-with-a-26-2-cagr-unveiling-opportunities-in-text-voice-and-image-translation--valuates-reports-302341262.html Islamabad, Jan. 2 (UNI) The Pakistan Navy recently carried out a successful anti-narcotics operation in the north Arabian Sea, seizing a large quantity of illegal drugs, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Thursday. The ISPR, the media wing of the Pakistani military, said in a statement that the operation was conducted with the assistance of naval air assets. Pakistan Navy Ship named Moawin intercepted a suspicious vessel and conducted a boarding operation, uncovering drugs concealed within hidden compartments of the vessel, said the ISPR. NH encourages new manufacturing like ePropelled's in such rapidly growing industries as global drone technology ePropelled, Inc. , a leading innovator in advanced electric power and propulsion for uncrewed systems, hosted New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Dec. 13 for a demonstration of its USA-manufactured unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) propulsion solutions. Gov. Sununu lauded the success of ePropelled as an important contributor to high-tech aerospace manufacturing in the Granite State. "New Hampshire has always been strong in aerospace," said Gov. Sununu. "But this is next-generation aerospace. This is aerospace 3.0." After seeing the drone motors in action at ePropelled's Gilford test facility, Gov. Sununu said: "To see what's coming out of ePropelled right now is just awesome. Homegrown, great ideas, and real technology that has a real-world use. It's a huge market and this is just the ground floor." ePropelled offers compact UAV propulsion systems engineered for enhanced thrust efficiency, from 2.2 kg to 4.8 kg, and reduced operational costs. Sununu saw ePropelled's Sparrow and Falcon motors along with Hercules UAV starter generators. ePropelled is expanding its manufacturing facility in Laconia to meet the surging demand for UAV systems. Drone industries worldwide have been reliant on China-made technologies, but ePropelled's motors, generators, and intelligent controllers provide an immediate option to replace them. "ePropelled is going after these markets, and the markets are responding," said Sununu. "ePropelled is a young company that is cash-flow positive and that's hiring like crazy. So, if you're interested in the next generation of real-world technology, it's happening right here in Laconia. I couldn't be more proud. Congratulations." Nick Grewal , CEO of ePropelled, said: "Our Sparrow product line exemplifies ePropelled's commitment to innovation and excellence in USA-based propulsion technology. As the global regulatory landscape shifts, ePropelled provides cutting-edge drone solutions that not only meet the most stringent industry requirements, but also help our customers stay ahead of compliance challenges with products assembled in the US." "New Hampshire as a whole - you see people coming in. Families want to be here, not just for our incredible quality of life, but for the high-tech experiences. We're the tax-free suburb of high-tech manufacturing. That's what Laconia is providing," said Gov. Sununu. "You can have the incredible high-quality, low-cost of living, and have the high-tech experience." "The expansion of our Laconia facility represents an important milestone in our company's mission to revolutionize electric propulsion," said Grewal. "We are excited to be part of New Hampshire's vibrant innovation ecosystem and look forward to driving growth in both the UAV industry and the local economy. Our investment in Laconia will create new job opportunities and contribute to the region's prominence in manufacturing." About ePropelled ePropelled delivers advanced electric power and propulsion solutions for autonomous systems across air, land, and sea. Founded in 2018, ePropelled serves more than 40 customers worldwide. Contact ePropelled at info@epropelled.com, 603-236-7444, or https://epropelled.com . SOURCE: ePropelled, Inc. View the original press release on accesswire.com Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Alpha Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: ALEX) ("Alpha" or the "Company") announces that Mr. Michael Hopley has notified the Company that he will be retiring from his position as President and Chief Executive Officer of Alpha effective as of December 31, 2024. Mr. Hopley will remain as a director of the Company's board of directors (the "Board") and continue to serve as the Chairman of the Board following his resignation as President and Chief Executive Officer. Alpha would like to sincerely thank Mr. Hopley for his valuable services to the Company in his capacity as President and Chief Executive Officer and will work closely with Mr. Hopley in his capacity as a director and Chairman of the Board. Mr. Timothy (Tim) Livesey, a current director of the Board, has been appointed as Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Company, effective as of December 31, 2024. Mr. Livesey is an experienced Exploration and Development professional, with over 35 years in the sector. He has worked across all stages of exploration, project development and mine operations for Major, Mid-Tier and Junior companies. Mr. Livesey has extensive experience with recent roles including CEO of Tethyan Copper Company in Pakistan (Barrick Gold/Antofagasta Minerals), Managing Director in Saudi Arabia (Barrick Gold), COO of Reservoir Minerals Ltd, Managing Director of Rakita Exploration in Serbia (Nevsun), and most recently as CEO of Oriole Resources PLC, where he led a complete company transformation and repositioning, with the discovery of a new gold district in Cameroon. Mr. Livesey holds positions as a Non-Executive Director (NED) with Metals Exploration PLC and Montero Mining & Exploration Ltd. For more information concerning the Company, please refer to the Company's profile on the SEDAR Plus website at www.sedarplus.ca. About Alpha Exploration Ltd. Alpha (TSXV: ALEX) is an exploration company that is rapidly advancing a number of important gold and base metal discoveries across its 100% owned, large (771 km2) Kerkasha Project in Eritrea. The Company has also advanced the Aburna Gold Prospect, the Tolegimja VMS Copper-Zinc-Gold Prospect and over 17 other gold prospects since listing in 2021. The Company is managed by a group of highly experienced and successful professionals with long track records of establishing, building and successfully exiting a number of world class gold and base metals discoveries in Eritrea and across the wider Arabian Nubian Shield. Cautionary Notes This press release is intended for distribution in Canada only and is not intended for distribution to United States newswire services or dissemination in the United States. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward- looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include but are not limited to statements or information with respect to Mr. Hopley's resignation as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and Mr. Hopley's continuing involvement with the Company in his capacity as a director and Chairman of the board of directors. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified using words such as "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward- looking statements and information. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, Alpha has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions with respect to Mr. Hopley's resignation as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and Mr. Hopley's continuing involvement with the Company in his capacity as a director and Chairman of the board of directors. Although management of Alpha believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Alpha does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235797 SOURCE: Alpha Exploration Ltd. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Flights departing the UK have begun using greener fuels as the government's ambitious Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate officially came into force at the New Year.Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, is made from sustainable sources, such as materials like household waste or used cooking oil and produces an average of 70 percent less carbon emissions than traditional fossil-based aviation fuel.By law, this type of fuel must now make up at least 2 percent of all jet fuel in flights taking off from the UK from 2025, growing year-on-year to 10 percent by 2030 and 22 percent by 2040.These ambitious targets should see around 1.2 million tons of SAF supplied to the UK airline industry each year by 2030 - enough to circle the globe 3,000 times.Being one of the first countries in the world to sign the mandate into law, the UK is at the forefront of decarbonizing air travel.From this moment on, aviation will be a greener, more sustainable form of travel and today marks a significant milestone for the UK SAF industry, said Mike Kane, Minister for Aviation.'With thousands of jobs supporting the UK SAF industry and flying becoming popular than ever, the mandate will help deliver our Plan for Change helping to grow the economy and giving people the freedom to travel in a more sustainable way.'Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, said, UK airlines support the SAF Mandate as both a powerful and practical tool for driving down aviation carbon emissions and a clear signal that the industry is fully committed to a net zero future.'Our priority is ensuring airlines have access to the increasing volumes of SAF required to meet the mandate as global demand soars, at the most competitive price possible for consumers.'Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedCopyright RTT News/dpa-AFX NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / January 2, 2025 / Mastercard: Mastercard Doing well by doing good is a powerful principle that helps us build an inclusive future together - and this past year provided plenty of evidence. Employees in New York City are approaching corporate volunteerism as professional development by improving their neighbors' access to crucial social services. In St. Louis, data scientists are on a mission to remove unintended bias from the surveys that assess the level of need for the homeless. And 5,000 miles away, in Warsaw, Poland, women entrepreneurs who fled war-torn Ukraine started rebuilding their lives and livelihoods with the support of a small business development program that included free childcare. At Mastercard, we're proud of the small role we play, alongside a laudable cast of public and private partners, in building a society where everyone has the tools and support needed to thrive. Here are some of the ways we've made a difference together this year. Personal mission meets professional perk for New York City volunteers Alice Halter wants to live in a city where everyone does well. That's what drove the senior product design specialist at Mastercard's Tech Hub in Manhattan to volunteer her time and expertise improving user experience on Access HRA, New York City's Human Resources Administration portal, through which residents in need can access a host of public benefits and assistance, including food benefits, Medicaid and home energy relief. Halter connected to the project through Unlocked, Mastercard's AI-driven career development platform, launched in 2021, which matches employees with short-term projects, volunteer opportunities, mentoring and customized educational offerings. When Unlocked announced an innovative public-private partnership with the New York City Mayor's Office and NYC Service in March, Halter, who spends her work hours designing seamless user experiences for Mastercard's cybersecurity business, knew right away that she wanted to pitch in. Her focus for the city's Department of Social Services is accessibility - and for the two million people NYC DSS serves, there's a great deal at stake. "Everyone has to be able to use this platform, whether they have just learned how to use a computer, don't speak English or have an auditory processing or visual impairment," Halter says. "Ease of use can determine whether or not someone gets benefits that they not only need but have a right to." St. Louis leverages data for good to deliver fairer homeless services Mastercard data scientists were already helping St. Louis police and social services assess their Crisis Response Unit when the city sought solutions for another critical problem: improving services for unhoused people to identify disparities and accelerate inclusion. Since unintended biases came to light in the widely used Vulnerability Index, a questionnaire used across the country to help measure need and allocate housing, the city of St. Louis developed its own survey in hopes of avoiding similar problems and administering a fairer process. Mastercard experts worked pro bono in partnership with the Institute for Community Alliances, the nonprofit that maintains St. Louis's homeless management information system, to analyze the anonymized responses of nearly 5,000 clients - and uncovered some unexpected issues the city is now working to address. For example, the findings showed that Black respondents were underrepresented among the survey's high scorers, who are considered most critically in need. The volunteers went further to understand how these disparities arose. For instance, lower scores on a section that asks about medical diagnoses and prescriptions may be linked to Black Americans' greater distrust of the health care system, so the survey creators are revising these questions to account for their experiences. Ensuring that people can access housing services through a system they trust "all starts with this assessment," says Kathy Connors, executive director of St. Louis emergency shelter Gateway180. "This work is critical for giving fair entry to the people who need it most." Ukraine's unstoppable women entrepreneurs get a new start in Poland Polina Khlibanovska and her young son were among more than a million Ukrainian women and children who fled to neighboring Poland since Russia began its assault in 2022. With extensive experience in childcare but less knowledge in starting a business - let alone navigating permits and financing in a new country - Khlibanovska could only depend on one thing: She would stop at nothing to provide a better life for herself and her child. After seeing it advertised, Khlibanovska was one of 1,500 women to apply for (Re)building Ukrainian Business, a small business program run by Poland's Impact Foundation and supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. She was one of 80 to be accepted into the yearlong program. Now, thanks to the legal, business and financial support she received through the program, Khlibanovska's venture, Smart Kindergarten Warsaw, is thriving in her new home, employing other women, and she's looking to expand. The women in the program were "full of energy and motivated to start a new life," said Emilia Borkowska, project manager for the Impact Foundation. To ensure they felt comfortable and safe in their new environment, and to better equip them to succeed in business and beyond, (Re)building Ukrainian Business provided free childcare for families in the program. Entrepreneurship - like motherhood - can be a tumultuous journey, but it's one that the women in the program now feel ready to tackle. "Even when you have a bad day," Khlibanovska says, "the next day, the wings open up again, and you fly." Originally published by Mastercard Follow along Mastercard's journey to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere. View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Mastercard on 3blmedia.com. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Mastercard Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/mastercard Email: info@3blmedia.com SOURCE: Mastercard View the original press release on accesswire.com The brand is debuting a "Chipotle segment" in London on Strava that will allow runners to compete for free Chipotle Chipotle is rolling out a fresh lineup of Lifestyle Bowls for 2025 featuring its new Supergreens salad mix starting 3 January Chipotle's lineup of seven Lifestyle Bowls makes maintaining a healthy lifestyle easier than ever LONDON, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Chipotle Mexican Grill UK, the fast-casual restaurant chain that serves burritos, bowls, tacos, quesadillas, and salads made with real ingredients, today announced a partnership with Strava, the app for active people with more than 135 million users in more than 190 countries, to encourage and rewards healthy habits this year. Chipotle is launching its first-ever international Strava segment challenge for participants to compete to win free Lifestyle Bowls for a year, plus free Chipotle for their city. 1 The initiative connects Chipotle's running community across 25 cities in Europe and North America, including London. See all locations at chipotle.co.uk/city-challenge. People can also complete the segment by walking or in a wheelchair. The cities participating in the competition are the top 25 cities that eat the most Chipotle. London: Ready, Set, Go The "Chipotle Segment" in London is located at 101-103 Baker St, London W1U 6LN. Starting today through 31 January, fans in London will have the opportunity to compete for Local Legend Status (LCL), an award for the individual who completes the segment the most times. Chipotle will reward the Local Legend in London with free Lifestyle Bowls for a year.1 "Our nourishing, real food is quickly becoming a go-to training meal for athletes across all levels in London," said Anat Davidzon, Managing Director, International for Chipotle. "After launching with Strava in the U.S. in 2024, we saw a passionate response from our fans in the UK requesting to bring the competition here." Chipotle x Strava: The City Challenge According to a Chipotle running survey, nearly 7 out of 10 Chipotle consumers who are runners indicate they are likely or very likely to eat Chipotle after training for a race. Chipotle partnered with Strava to create 25 "Chipotle segments," which are portions of roads and trails created by the Strava community where athletes can find friendly competition by chasing the fastest times on the leaderboard. Each segment ends at a Chipotle restaurant, making it easy to enjoy a nutritious, post-workout recovery meal. Every city with a Chipotle segment, including London, will also compete to see who can collectively complete the highest mileage on the segment. The cities' progress will be tracked on the "Chipotle x Strava: The City Challenge" heatmap, a first-of-its-kind leaderboard showing daily updates of each city's performance. The city that wins will score a BUY-ONE-GET-ONE-FREE (BOGOF) entree offer for their entire city valid on instore orders on a future date to be announced by Chipotle. This will be the first time Strava segments will be in direct competition with each other as part of a brand-sponsored competition. Celebrating 2025 With New Lifestyle Bowls and Supergreens Salad Mix Chipotle's Lifestyle Bowls are chef-curated mains designed to make healthy habits convenient and delicious with easy one tap ordering on the Chipotle UK app and Chipotle.co.uk. Starting tomorrow, Chipotle will feature an entirely new menu of nourishing bowls for every lifestyle, including keto, paleo, gluten free, grain free, vegan and vegetarian. Chipotle has also innovated its menu with Supergreens salad mix. Made of hand-cut romaine, antioxidant-rich baby kale and crisp baby spinach, Supergreens will replace the existing romaine-only salad base permanently starting tomorrow. "At Chipotle, we are always looking for ways to innovate our existing menu offerings," said Nevielle Panthaky, Vice President of Culinary at Chipotle. "Lifestyle Bowls allow us to preconfigure our real ingredients, including the new Supergreens salad blend, to help our guests achieve health and wellness goals all year long." The 2025 Lifestyle Bowl Lineup: Balanced Macros Bowl: Light White Rice, Black Beans, Chicken, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Guac, Extra Romaine Lettuce Light White Rice, Black Beans, Chicken, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Guac, Extra Romaine Lettuce Veggie Full Bowl: White Rice, Black Beans, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa, Guac White Rice, Black Beans, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa, Guac Wholesome Bowl (Whole30 compatible): Supergreens Lettuce Blend, Chicken, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Guac Supergreens Lettuce Blend, Chicken, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Guac Keto Salad Bowl: Supergreens Lettuce Blend, Chicken, Tomatillo-Red Chili Salsa, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Sour Cream, Cheese Supergreens Lettuce Blend, Chicken, Tomatillo-Red Chili Salsa, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Sour Cream, Cheese High Protein Bowl: White Rice, Black Beans, Double Chicken, Tomatillo-Red Chili Salsa, Cheese, Romaine Lettuce White Rice, Black Beans, Double Chicken, Tomatillo-Red Chili Salsa, Cheese, Romaine Lettuce Plant-Powered Bowl: Supergreens Lettuce Blend, White Rice, Sofritas, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa, Guac Supergreens Lettuce Blend, White Rice, Sofritas, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa, Guac Go Half Veggie Bowl: 1/2 Chicken, 1/2 Sofritas, Supergreens Lettuce Blend, White Rice, Fajita Veggies, Fresh Tomato Salsa, Roasted Chili-Corn Salsa, Sour Cream Lifestyle Bowls are digital exclusive menu items available across the UK starting tomorrow. Guests can download the latest version of the Chipotle UK app in the Apple App Store and on Android Google Play or order seamlessly via http://chipotle.co.uk. Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/chipotle-uk/id6483440848 Android Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chipotle.ordering.eu 1 - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Contest begins 1/1/25 at 3:01 p.m. PT and ends: 1/31/25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Minors must have parental consent. See official rules at: chipotle.co.uk/city-challenge-rules for additional eligibility restrictions, entry periods, segment details, prize descriptions/restrictions, and complete details. Sponsor: CMG Strategy Co., LLC. ABOUT CHIPOTLE Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked, real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. There are over 3,600 restaurants as of September 30, 2024, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Kuwait and it is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants in North America and Europe. Chipotle is ranked on the Fortune 500 and is recognized on Fortune's Most Admired Companies 2024 list and Time Magazine's Most Influential Companies. With over 125,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience, Chipotle is a longtime leader and innovator in the food industry. Chipotle is committed to making its food more accessible to everyone while continuing to be a brand with a demonstrated purpose as it leads the way in digital, technology and sustainable business practices. For more information or to place an order online, visit Chipotle.co.uk. About Strava Strava is the app for active people with more than 135 million athletes in more than 190 countries. The platform offers a holistic view of your active lifestyle, no matter where you live, which sport you love and/or what device you use. Everyone belongs on Strava when they are pursuing an active life. Join the community, find motivation and discover new experiences with a Strava subscription. Join the Strava Club or follow Strava on Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Visit www.strava.com for more information. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2589220/Chipotle_Strava_City_Challenge_2025.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2589221/Chipotle_Lifestyle_Bowls.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/624816/Chipotle_Mexican_Grill_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/chipotle-and-strava-to-reward-runners-in-london-with-free-lifestyle-bowls-to-kick-off-2025-302341355.html Paris, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- THIS DOCUMENT IS AN UNOFFICIAL ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TRANSLATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE PRESS RELEASE WHICH WAS PUBLISHED BY THE OFFEROR ON 2 JANUARY 2025. IN THE EVENT OF ANY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THIS UNOFFICIAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATION AND THE OFFICIAL FRENCH LANGUAGE PRESS RELEASE, THE OFFICIAL FRENCH LANGUAGE PRESS RELEASE SHALL PREVAIL. PRESS RELEASE ON THE FILING OF A DRAFT OFFER DOCUMENT RELATING TO THE SIMPLIFIED TENDER OFFER for the Neoen shares ("Shares") and bonds convertible into and/or exchangeable for new and/or existing Neoen shares ("OCEANEs") initiated by Brookfield Renewable Holdings SAS presented by Bank presenting the offer Bank presenting the offer and acting as guarantor TERMS OF THE OFFER: EUR 39.85 per share of Neoen EUR 48.14 per 2020 OCEANE of Neoen EUR 101,382.00 per 2022 OCEANE of Neoen DURATION OF THE OFFER: 21 Trading Days The timetable for the simplified tender offer referred to herein (the "Offer") will be set by the French stock market authority (Autorite des marches financiers) (the "AMF") in accordance with the provisions of its general regulation (the "AMF General Regulation") This press release (the "Press Release") was prepared by Brookfield Renewable Holdings and published pursuant to Article 231-16 of the AMF General Regulation. The Offer and the draft offer document remain subject to review by the AMF. IMPORTANT NOTICE The Press Release must be read together with all other documents published in connection with the Offer. In particular, in accordance with Article 231-28 of the AMF General Regulation, a description of the legal, financial and accounting characteristics of Brookfield Renewable Holdings will be filed with the AMF and made available to the public no later than the day prior to the opening of the Offer. A press release will be issued to inform the public of the manner in which this information will be made available. The Offer is not and will not be proposed in any jurisdiction where it would not be permitted under applicable law. Acceptance of the Offer by persons residing in countries other than France and the United States of America may be subject to specific obligations or restrictions imposed by legal or regulatory provisions. Recipients of the Offer are solely responsible for compliance with such laws and it is therefore their responsibility, before accepting the Offer, to determine whether such laws exist and are applicable, based on the advice they obtain from their own advisers. For more information, see Section 2.14 (Offer restrictions outside of France) below. In the event that the number of shares not tendered to the Offer by the minority shareholders of Neoen, excluding treasury shares held by the Company and the shares covered (or that will be covered) by the Liquidity Agreements (as defined in this Press Release) does not represent more than 10% of the share capital and voting rights of Neoen following the Offer, Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to implement, at the latest within three (3) months following the closing of the Offer, in accordance with Articles L. 433-4 II of the French Monetary and Financial Code and 237-1 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation, a squeeze-out procedure in order to transfer the Neoen shares not tendered to the Offer (excluding treasury shares held by the Company and the shares covered (or that will be covered) by the Liquidity Agreements) in exchange for compensation equal to the Offer Price per Share (i.e. EUR 39.85 per Share). In addition, in the event that the number of shares not tendered to the Offer by the minority shareholders of Neoen (excluding treasury shares held by the Company and the shares covered (or that will be covered) by the Liquidity Agreements) and the number of shares that may be issued upon conversion of the OCEANEs not tendered in the Offer do not represent more than 10% of the sum of existing Neoen shares and Neoen shares that may be issued upon conversion of the OCEANEs following the Offer, Brookfield Renewable Holdings also intends to implement, at the latest within three (3) months following the closing of the Offer, in accordance with Articles L. 433-4 III of the French Monetary and Financial Code and 237 1 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation, a squeeze-out procedure in order to transfer the OCEANEs not tendered to the Offer in exchange for compensation equal to the Offer Price per OCEANE (i.e. EUR 48.14 per 2020 OCEANE and EUR 101,382.00 per 2022 OCEANE). The draft offer document prepared by Brookfield Renewable Holdings) and may be obtained free of charge from: Brookfield Renewable Holdings SAS 39 rue de Courcelles 75008 Paris BNP Paribas (M&A EMEA Department) 5 boulevard Haussmann 75009 Paris ("BNP Paribas") Societe Generale GLBA/IBD/ECM/SEG 75886 Paris Cedex 18 ("Societe Generale") OVERVIEW OF THE OFFER Pursuant to Title III of Book II and more specifically Articles 233-1, 2 and 234-2 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation, Brookfield Renewable Holdings SAS, a French societe par actions simplifiee with a share capital of 1,000 euros, having its registered office at 39 rue de Courcelles, 75008 Paris, France registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Registry (Registre du Commerce et des Societes) under number 928 680 024 ("Brookfield Renewable Holdings" or the "Offeror") irrevocably offers to all shareholders of Neoen S.A., a public limited company (societe anonyme) with a board of directors and a share capital of 305,697,548 euros, having its registered office at 22 rue Bayard, 75008 Paris, registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Registry under number 508 320 017 ("Neoen" or the "Company", and together with its directly- or indirectly-owned subsidiaries, the "Group"), and to all holders of Neoen bonds convertible into new ordinary shares and/or exchangeable for existing ordinary shares of the Company issued by the Company on 2 June 2020 (the "2020 OCEANEs") and of Neoen bonds convertible into new ordinary shares and/or exchangeable for existing ordinary shares of the Company issued by the Company on 14 September 2022 (the "2022 OCEANEs" and, together with the 2020 OCEANEs, the "OCEANEs"), to acquire, in cash: all of the shares of the Company which are traded on the compartment A of the Euronext Paris regulated market under ISIN Code FR0011675362, ticker symbol "NEOEN" (the " Shares "), "), all of the 2020 OCEANEs of the Company which are traded on the multilateral trading facility Euronext Access (" Euronext Access ") under ISIN Code FR0013515707, and ") under ISIN Code FR0013515707, and all the 2022 OCEANEs of the Company which are traded on Euronext Access under ISIN Code FR001400CMS2, that the Offeror does not hold (subject to the exceptions set out below), directly or indirectly, on the date of the Draft Offer Document, at the price of: EUR 39.85 per Share (the " Offer Price per Share "), "), EUR 48.14 per 2020 OCEANE (the " Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE "), and "), and EUR 101,382.00 per 2022 OCEANE (the "Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE"), as part of a simplified mandatory tender offer, the terms and conditions of which are described hereafter (the "Offer") and which may be followed, if all conditions are met, by a squeeze-out procedure for the Shares and/or OCEANEs pursuant to the provisions of Articles 237-1 to 237-10 of the AMF General Regulation (the "Squeeze-Out"). The Offer results from the completion of the Block Trade Acquisition (which is described in Section 1.1.2). As of the date of the Draft Offer Document0F1, Brookfield Renewable Holdings holds: directly 81,197,100 Shares (i.e. 53.12% of the share capital and 53.19% of the voting rights of the Company), by way of assimilation pursuant to Article L. 233-9 of the French Commercial Code: the (i) 545,672 Unavailable Holding Shares (as defined below) (i.e. 0.36% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company) with respect to which Brookfield Renewable Holdings benefits from a Call Option (as defined below) at the Offer Price per Share for each Unavailable Holding Share exercisable as from 16 April 2025, pursuant to the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro (which is described in Section 1.3.3), (ii) 39,943 Managers Unavailable Shares (as defined in Section 2.4 and also covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro) held by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, (iii) 1,600 PEE Shares (as defined below) held by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, and (iv) 180,8321F 2 2024 Free Shares (as defined below and also covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro) held by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, the (i) 442,895 Shares, (ii) 9,445 Managers Unavailable Shares (as defined in Section 2.4 and covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux), and (iii) 120,555 2024 Free Shares2F 3 (as defined below and also covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux) held by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux, and 14,330 Shares (i.e. 0.009% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company) through the intermediary of Aranda Investments Pte. Ltd., a Singapore private company limited by shares, having its registered office at 60B, Orchard Road, #06-18, The Atrium @Orchard, Singapore 238891 and whose Unique Entity Number is 200312481K (" Aranda Investments "), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, a Singapore Exempt Private Limited company, having its registered office at 60B, Orchard Road, #06-18, The Atrium @Orchard, Singapore 238891 and whose Unique Entity Number is 197401143C (" Temasek "). In total, the Offeror holds, directly and indirectly, alone and in concert, and by assimilation, 82,250,985 Shares (i.e. 53.81% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company)3F4. The Offeror does not hold, directly and indirectly, alone and in concert, or by assimilation, any OCEANEs. To the extent that, because of the Block Trade Acquisition, the Offeror has crossed the threshold of 30% of the Company's share capital and voting rights, the Offer is mandatory pursuant to the provisions of Article L. 433-3, I of the French Monetary and Financial Code and Article 234-2 of the AMF General Regulation. In accordance with the provisions of article 231-6 of the AMF General Regulation, the Offer targets: (i) all Shares, whether outstanding or to be issued, that are not held directly by the Offeror, i.e., the Shares: which are already issued other than the Excluded Shares (as defined below), i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum of 70,713,338 Shares, which may be issued before the closing of the Offer (as per the indicative timetable provided in Section 2.10), other than the Excluded Shares (as defined below), as a result of the vesting of Free Shares granted by the Company under the Free Shares Plans (as defined in Section 2.4), i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum of 161,9714F 5 Shares corresponding to all 2022 Free Shares, Shares corresponding to all 2022 Free Shares, which may be issued before the closing of the Offer (as per the indicative timetable provided in Section 2.10) in connection with the conversion of the 2020 OCEANEs, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum number of 4,445,020 new Shares5F 6 , , which may be issued before the closing of the Offer (as per the indicative timetable provided in Section 2.10) in connection with the conversion of the 2022 OCEANEs, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum number of 7,519,824 new Shares6F7, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum number of Shares targeted by the Offer equal to 82,840,153; and (ii) all outstanding OCEANEs that are not held by the Offeror, i.e. to the knowledge of the Offeror at the date of the Draft Offer Document, 3,679,653 2020 OCEANEs and 3,000 2022 OCEANEs. Among the Shares covered by the Offer, the 283,5817F8 Unavailable PEE Shares (as defined below) cannot be tendered into the Offer (except in the case of an early release in accordance with applicable laws and regulation). However, Unavailable PEE Shares will be targeted by the Squeeze-Out, if applicable. It is specified that the Offer does not target: the Shares held in treasury by the Company, the board of directors of the Company having decided not to tender them to the Offer, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as the date of the Draft Offer Document, 188,338 Shares (representing 0.12% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company)8F 9 , , the Unavailable Free Shares (as defined below), i.e. to the knowledge of the Offeror and as of the date hereof, a maximum of 932,7619F 10 Free Shares (these Shares being legally and technically unavailable and not being able to be tendered in the Offer). The situation of the beneficiaries of Free Shares in the context of the Offer is described in Sections 1.3.3 and 2.4. The Unavailable Free Shares (as defined below) will be covered under the Liquidity Agreements (as defined in Section 1.3.3), Free Shares (these Shares being legally and technically unavailable and not being able to be tendered in the Offer). The situation of the beneficiaries of Free Shares in the context of the Offer is described in Sections 1.3.3 and 2.4. The Unavailable Free Shares (as defined below) will be covered under the Liquidity Agreements (as defined in Section 1.3.3), the Managers Unavailable Shares (as defined below), i.e. to the knowledge of the Offeror and as of the date hereof, a maximum of 49,388 Free Shares (these Shares being legally and technically unavailable and not being able to be tendered in the Offer). The situation of the beneficiaries of Managers Unavailable Shares in the context of the Offer is described in Sections 1.3.3 and 2.4. The Managers Unavailable Shares (as defined in Section 2.4) are covered under the Liquidity Agreements entered into by, respectively, Mr. Xavier Barbaro and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux (as defined in Section 1.3.3), the Shares held by (i) Cartusia10F 11 subject to a holding period (i.e. to the knowledge of the Offeror at the date of the Draft Offer Document 403,928 Shares), and (ii) Equinox11F 12 , Kampen12F 13 , Hilaris13F 14 and Palancia14F 15 , such entities being family-owned entities indirectly represented by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, subject to a holding period (i.e. 141,744 Shares), collectively the " Unavailable Holding Shares ". The Unavailable Holding Shares are covered under the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro (as defined in Section 1.3.3) and are subject to a Call Option exercisable by Brookfield Renewable Holdings at the Offer Price per Share as from 16 April 2025, and subject to a holding period (i.e. to the knowledge of the Offeror at the date of the Draft Offer Document 403,928 Shares), and (ii) Equinox11F , Kampen12F , Hilaris13F and Palancia14F , such entities being family-owned entities indirectly represented by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, subject to a holding period (i.e. 141,744 Shares), collectively the " ". The Unavailable Holding Shares are covered under the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro (as defined in Section 1.3.3) and are subject to a Call Option exercisable by Brookfield Renewable Holdings at the Offer Price per Share as from 16 April 2025, and 154,938 Shares held, directly or indirectly, by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux that could be the subject, in whole or in part, of a contribution in kind in the event of the exercise of his reinvestment option, as described in Section 1.3.2 (the "RD Shares That May Be Tendered")15F16, (together, the "Excluded Shares"). As a result of the indicative timetable of the Offer provided in Section 2.10, the 105,416 2023 Accelerated Free Shares (as defined below) being vested on 28 February 2025, they cannot be tendered into the Offer16F17. Such 2023 Accelerated Free Shares will however be covered by the Squeeze-Out, if applicable. To the knowledge of the Offeror, there are no other equity securities or other financial instruments issued by the Company or rights conferred by the Company that may give access, immediately or in the future, to the share capital or voting rights of the Company, other than the existing Shares and the OCEANEs described in Section 2.3 and the Free Shares described in Section 2.4. The Offer, which will be followed, if conditions are met, by a Squeeze-Out procedure pursuant to Articles L. 433-4 II and L. 433-4 III of the French Monetary and Financial Code and 237-1 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation, will be conducted following the simplified procedure in accordance with the provisions of Article 233-1 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation. The duration of the Offer will be 21 Trading Days17F18. In accordance with the provisions of Article 231-13 of the AMF General Regulation, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale (together, the "Presenting Banks"), as presenting banks of the Offer, filed the Offer and the Draft Offer Document with the AMF on behalf of the Offeror, it being specified that only Societe Generale guarantees the content and the irrevocable nature of the commitments made by the Offeror in connection with the Offer. 1.1 Background of the Offer 1.1.1 Presentation of the Offeror (a) Presentation Brookfield Renewable Holdings is a special purpose vehicle whose share capital is directly fully owned by BRHL UK Holdings Limited18F19, itself indirectly fully owned by BRHL Master UK Holdings Limited19F20 ("Holdco"). Brookfield Renewable Holdings is ultimately indirectly controlled by Brookfield Asset Management20F21, Brookfield Corporation21F22 and their respective affiliates ("Brookfield"). Brookfield is pursuing the transaction through Brookfield Global Transition Fund II ("BGTF II"), which is Brookfield's flagship vehicle for investing in and facilitating the global transition to a net-zero economy and which has Brookfield Renewable Partners22F23 as cornerstone investor. BGTF II is the successor of the inaugural Brookfield Global Transition Fund, the world's largest private institutional investment fund dedicated specifically to investing in the transition to clean energy technologies globally. Brookfield Renewable Partners is an affiliate of Brookfield and Brookfield's flagship listed renewable power and sustainable solutions company. Brookfield Renewable Partners operates one of the world's largest publicly traded renewable power and transition platforms, with a 35 GW operating asset portfolio and an approximately 200 GW development pipeline consisting of hydroelectric, wind, utility-scale solar, distributed generation and storage facilities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Brookfield Renewable Partners is a longstanding owner, operator, developer and acquirer of renewable power and is increasingly focused on providing decarbonisation and energy transition as a service, helping businesses and governments globally to advance their sustainability goals. Brookfield Renewable Partners is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BEP and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BEP. It is specified that Temasek holds a minority interest in Holdco via its indirect wholly owned subsidiary Rosa Investments Pte. Ltd., a Singapore private limited company, having its registered office at 60B, Orchard Road, #06-18, The Atrium @Orchard, Singapore 238891 and whose Unique Entity Number is 202340014H ("Rosa Investments"), which is a shareholder of Holdco (as further described below). Incorporated in 1974, Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore. Supported by 13 offices across 9 countries, Temasek owns a S$389 billion portfolio as at 31 March 2024, mainly in Singapore and the rest of Asia. Brookfield, Temasek, Mr. Xavier Barbaro (and Cartusia) and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux are acting in concert through Brookfield Renewable Holdings towards the Company in accordance with article L. 233-10 of the French Commercial Code. (b) Shareholders Agreement BRHL Aggregator LP23F24 (the "Brookfield Aggregator Shareholder", together with its affiliates who are shareholders, the "Brookfield Shareholder Group") and Rosa Investments have agreed to enter into a shareholders agreement (the "Shareholders Agreement") in relation to Holdco, the main terms and conditions of which are summarized below. Holdco indirectly owns 100% of the share capital and voting rights of Brookfield Renewable Holdings (subject to the reinvestment of the Managers as described in Section 1.3.2). (iii) Governance of Holdco Holdco is a private limited company incorporated under the laws of England. The board of directors of Holdco ("Holdco Board") oversees the management of Holdco and its subsidiaries and has full and complete authority, power and discretion to manage and control the business affairs and properties of Holdco. Each shareholder is entitled to appoint one member to the Holdco Board for each 10% interest in Holdco held by the shareholder. Other than certain material actions that are classified as "Reserved Matters" (requiring the prior written approval of shareholders holding at least 75% of the shares of Holdco (or directors appointed by such shareholders)) and "Fundamental Matters" (requiring the prior written approval of shareholders holding at least 90% of the shares of Holdco (or directors appointed by such shareholders)) in the Shareholders Agreement, all matters will be decided by a simple majority vote of the Holdco Board or the shareholders, as applicable. (iv) Transfer of Holdco securities The Shareholders Agreement establishes the following principles with respect to the transfer of Holdco securities, subject in each case, to certain exceptions and preconditions: Lock-up period: except for authorized transfers to affiliates, the Holdco securities are subject to a three (3) year lock-up period as from the settlement date of the last acquisition of Neoen securities by Brookfield Renewable Holdings in the context of (i) the Offer or (ii) the Squeeze-Out (as applicable), during which they cannot be transferred by any shareholder; Right of first offer: following the lock-up period, any transfer of any Holdco securities by a shareholder is subject to a right of first offer in favor of the other shareholders; Tag-along rights: if the Brookfield Shareholder Group proposes to transfer any of its Holdco securities and, as a result of this transaction, the Brookfield Shareholder Group (i) ceases to control Holdco, then the other shareholders have a full tag along right, or (ii) continues to control Holdco, then the other shareholders have a proportionate tag along right. (v) Exit clause Subject to certain conditions (including in terms of timing and a minimum shareholding in Holco), a shareholder can require that Holdco initiates an exit process. 1.1.2 Reasons for the Offer Neoen was founded in 2008 and inaugurated its first solar power plant in France in 2009. Since then, Neoen has established itself as a renowned independent player in the global renewable energy sector with 10.36 GW of secured capacity and 20.3 GW of advanced pipeline. Neoen has a presence in 15 countries, including strong positions in France and Australia. On 17 October 2018, Neoen's shares were admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Paris. After having successfully grown its development business and portfolio of renewables projects over the preceding 10 years, Neoen's listing allowed the Group to pursue its successful growth and supported the capital-intensive nature of a scaling renewables development business. At the end of 2023, Neoen was present in 15 countries and had approximately 8 GW of assets in operation or under construction across solar, wind and storage technologies. Brookfield closely followed the development of Neoen. After a period of negotiation and due diligence, the Offeror made an offer to the main Company's shareholders (including Impala24F25), following which the envisaged majority stake acquisition by Brookfield was announced on 30 May 2024 as further indicated below. The Offeror regards Neoen as a high-quality global developer and operator, and believes that the Group would represent a complementary addition to Brookfield's existing renewable power and transition portfolio. The Offeror believes it is uniquely positioned to assist the Company in the next stage of its growth, from a commercial and financial perspective. Neoen's growth is based on a strategy of geographic and technological diversification of its project portfolio, allowing it to create leading development capabilities across multiple core clean energy technologies. This has led to the Company strategically building global leadership positions in key markets while maintaining a balanced portfolio of contracted energy assets with complementary revenue profile characteristics. As France's leading independent producer of exclusively renewable electricity, and Australia's overall leading renewable electricity producer, Neoen develops its own projects in-house, and arranges their contracting and financing as part of the project management process. After site commissioning, the Company operates, monitors and manages projects through their useful life. Impala, controlled and managed by Mr. Jacques Veyrat, has been a cornerstone founder and investor of Neoen since 2008, supporting the Company's growth over the same period. Since 2018, Neoen has grown from 2 GW to 8 GW of assets in operation or under construction, reaching a very significant scale of operations and development. Today, the Company has the opportunity to more than double this capacity by the end of the decade, potentially reaching between 15-20 GW of assets in operation or under construction over the same time period. To execute on this opportunity set, the Company would need to deploy substantial capital at pace. In this context, the Offeror has appeared to the Selling Shareholders (as such term is defined below) as a suitable majority shareholder, already among the world leaders in renewable energy, with the global operating capability and access to scale capital necessary to provide support for this next phase of growth of the Group. The Offeror has stated its support for the Company's management team and ambition to continue deploying renewables projects at scale, and looks forward to partnering in growing the business to meet the increasing demand for clean power globally. On 30 May 2024 (the "Announcement Date"), the Offeror entered into a put option agreement with Impala, the Fonds Strategique de Participation ("FSP")25F26, Cartusia and Mr. Xavier Barbaro (and his family members), Celeste Management SA26F27 ("Celeste") and Mosca Animation Participations et Conseil27F28 ("Mosca", together with Impala, the FSP, Cartusia and Mr. Xavier Barbaro (and his family members) and Celeste, the "Selling Shareholders") to acquire approximately a 53.32% shareholding in the Company at the Offer Price per Share. On 24 June 2024, following completion of the works council information and consultation process, and exercise of the put option by the Selling Shareholders, the Offeror, as purchaser, entered into a share purchase agreement (as amended on 19 December 2024) (the "SPA") with the Selling Shareholders, to acquire approximately 53.12%28F29 of the Company at the Offer Price per Share (the "Block Trade Acquisition"). On the same day, the Offeror entered into an undertaking to tender with the FPCI FONDS ETI 202029F30 (the "BPI Tender Undertaking") pursuant to which Bpifrance, acting on behalf of FPCI FONDS ETI 2020, undertakes to tender its 6,674,470 Shares (representing at such date 4.36% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company) into the Offer. On 27 December 2024, following satisfaction of the condition precedents provided for under the SPA (i.e., see relevant regulatory approvals referred to in Section 1.1.6), and in accordance with the terms and conditions of the SPA, the Offeror completed the Block Trade Acquisition and acquired 81,197,100 Shares from the Selling Shareholders representing 81,197,100 theoretical voting rights (i.e. 53.12% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company)30F31. Because of the Block Trade Acquisition, the Offeror has exceeded the thresholds of 30% of the Company's share capital and voting rights and is required to file the Offer pursuant to the provisions of Article L. 433-3, I of the French Monetary and Financial Code and Article 234-2 of the AMF General Regulation. 1.1.3 Shareholding structure of the Company's share capital and voting rights (c) Shareholding structure of the Company's share capital and voting rights before the Block Trade Acquisition On the Announcement Date, to the knowledge of the Offeror, the share capital and voting rights of the Company were as follows: Shareholders Number of Shares Percentage of Shares Number of theoretical voting rights Percentage of theoretical voting rights Impala 64,144,529 42.14 % 64,144,529 42.14 % Cartusia 1,261,485 0.83 % 1,261,485 0.83 % Mr. Xavier Barbaro and members of his family (directly or indirectly) 780,419 0.51 % 780,419 0.51 % Total concert party(1) 66,186,433 43.48 % 66,186,433 43.48 % FSP 10,534,226 6.92 % 10,534,226 6.92 % FPCI FONDS ETI 2020 6,674,470 4.39 % 6,674,470 4.39 % Celeste 3,778,059 2.48 % 3,778,059 2.48 % Mosca 835,977 0.55 % 835,977 0.55 % Treasury shares 188,338 0.12 % 188,338 0.12 % Free float 64,009,501 42.05 % 64,009,501 42.05 % Total 152,207,004 100.00 % 152,207,004 100.00 % (1) The concert party results from an agreement between shareholders Impala and Cartusia, the latter being a long-term investment vehicle held by Mr. Xavier Barbaro and the members of his family. The concert has been terminated upon completion of the Block Trade Acquisition. (d) Shareholding structure of the Company's share capital and voting rights as of the date of the Draft Offer Document On the date of the Draft Offer Document, to the knowledge of the Offeror, following completion of the Block Trade Acquisition, the share capital and voting rights of the Company were as follows: Shareholders Number of Shares Percentage of Shares Number of theoretical voting rights Percentage of theoretical voting rights Brookfield Renewable Holdings 81,197,100 53.12 % 81,197,100 53.12 % Aranda Investments 14,330 0.009 % 14,330 0.009 % Xavier Barbaro and his holding companies31F32 587,215 0.38 % 587,215 0.38 % Romain Desrousseaux 452,340 0.30 % 452,340 0.30 % Total concert 82,250,985 53.81 % 82,250,985 53.81 % FPCI FONDS ETI 2020 6,674,470 4.37 % 6,674,470 4.37 % Treasury shares 188,338 0.12 % 188,338 0.12 % Free float 63,734,981 41.70 % 63,734,981 41.70 % Total 152,848,774 100 % 152,848,774 100 % Neither the Offeror, nor any of the companies under its control or controlling it within the meaning of article L.233-3 of the French Commercial Code, held any Shares and OCEANEs, directly or indirectly, prior to the Block Trade Acquisition (see Section 1 for assimilated Shares held by Aranda Investments). 1.1.4 Declarations of threshold crossing and of intentions In accordance with Articles L. 233-7 et seq. of the French Commercial Code, pursuant to the declarations of threshold crossing dated 27 December 2024, the Offeror informed the AMF, following completion of the Block Trade Acquisition, that its interest in the Company, individually and in concert with Brookfield, Temasek, Mr. Xavier Barbaro (and Cartusia) and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux, has risen above the thresholds of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 1/3, and 50% of the Company's share capital and voting rights, and stated its intentions. In accordance with Article 10 of the Company's by-laws, pursuant to the declarations of threshold crossing dated 27 December 2024, the Offeror informed the Company, following completion of the Block Trade Acquisition, that its interest in the Company, individually and in concert with Brookfield, Temasek, Mr. Xavier Barbaro (and Cartusia) and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux, has risen above the statutory thresholds of 1% of the Company's share capital or voting rights, and all multiple of this percentage, up to 53% of the share capital or voting rights of the Company. 1.1.5 Acquisition of Shares by the Offeror during the last 12 months Neither the Offeror nor any person acting in concert with the Offeror have acquired any Shares in the twelve (12) months preceding the filing of the Draft Offer Document at a price higher than the Offer Price per Share. 1.1.6 Regulatory administrative and antitrust approvals The Offeror has obtained all relevant regulatory approvals required to complete the Block Trade Acquisition, including the following antitrust and foreign direct investment clearances in the following jurisdictions: Antitrust clearances: Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and Zambia. Foreign direct investment clearances: Australia, Finland, France and Sweden32F33. The antitrust clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was obtained on 31 October 2024 subject to the divestments detailed in Section 1.2.6. 1.1 Intentions of the Offeror for the next twelve months 1.1.7 Industrial, commercial and financial strategy Brookfield Renewable Holdings' intention is to operate Neoen as a standalone portfolio company led by the existing management team, with its own balance sheet and budget, while benefiting from the full support of Brookfield's global renewable power and transition platform and asset management capabilities. Brookfield Renewable Holdings is supportive of the Company's existing strategy with respect to countries and technologies, as well as general approach to contracting. As part of this strategy, Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to continue the ongoing disposal of assets in non-core jurisdictions in Africa and Latin America, including in Jamaica and Zambia, in order to allocate more resources and focus on core assets and regions where Brookfield Renewable Holdings sees the most potential for value creation. Any expansion beyond the current footprint would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Today, Neoen pursues farm-downs with a communicated limit of no more than 20% of the annual capacity increase in the secured portfolio, and no more than 20% contribution of annual reported EBITDA as per the Company's annual financial report. Farm-downs are primarily executed once development projects are taken through construction and have reached commercial operations. Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to maintain the Company's existing farm-down strategy, but would retain the flexibility to exceed any such previously communicated limit, and to pursue farm-downs of larger portfolios and Company assets on a regional basis. The amount of farm-downs will be assessed based on the future capital requirements of the Company to fund growth, amongst other considerations. Brookfield Renewable Holdings also intends to support the Company's debt capital markets strategy, and gradually expand the corporate financing facilities over time as the business grows. 1.1.8 Intentions regarding employment The Offer is part of an ongoing growth strategy with respect to Neoen and should not have any particular impact on the Group's workforce and human resources management policies, nor on the working conditions of employees or their collective or individual status. In particular, Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to rely, preserve and develop the talent and know-how of the Group's workforce in order to continue the development and growth of the Group. Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to maintain and keep the Company's workforce to implement this strategy and is not considering any substantial changes in the way and the locations where the Group operates. 1.1.9 Composition of the Company's governing bodies and management The board of directors of the Company currently comprises seven (7) directors, three (3) of which represent Brookfield Renewable Holdings and have been co-opted as directors on the date of completion of the Block Trade Acquisition in replacement of the resigning directors representing the Selling Shareholders. Under the BPI Tender Undertaking, Bpifrance has undertaken to cause its representative at the board of directors to resign from her position upon having tendered its Shares into the Offer and Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to request the co-optation of an additional representative at the board of directors of the Company at this time. Subject to the success of the Offer, the Offeror may further modify the composition of the board of directors of the Company to reflect its new shareholding structure. Should the Offer be followed by a Squeeze-Out, it will result in the delisting of the Shares and/or the OCEANEs from Euronext Paris and/or Euronext Access. If so, further changes in the composition of the Company's corporate bodies may be envisaged. Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to rely on the current management team in place and fully supports the Company's strategy and current operations. Should the Squeeze-Out be implemented and the Company be delisted, it is envisaged that the current CEO and Deputy CEO of the Company resign from their current corporate offices within the Company and have, directly or indirectly, executive positions within the Offeror's acquisition structure (including within the Offeror). 1.1.10 Interest of the Offer for the Offeror, the Company and its shareholders As indicated in Section 1.1.2, the Offeror regards Neoen as a high-quality global developer and operator of renewable assets, and believes that the Group would represent a complementary addition to Brookfield's existing renewable power and transition portfolio. The Offeror believes it is uniquely positioned to assist the Company in the next stage of its growth, from a commercial and financial perspective. The Offer will allow the minority shareholders of the Company and holders of OCEANEs to achieve immediate and full liquidity of their Shares and OCEANEs: the Offer Price per Share represents a 26.9% premium over the last closing price of the Shares on the Announcement Date and premia of 40.3% and 43.5% over the 3-month and 6-month volume-weighted average price (" VWAP ") respectively, as well as significant premia on the other valuation criteria; and ") respectively, as well as significant premia on the other valuation criteria; and the Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE and the Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE are aligned with the prices resulting from the adjustment provisions of the OCEANEs in case of Change of Control (as such term is defined in the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs). The summary assessment of the Offer Price per Share, the Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE and the Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE is provided in Section 3 of this Press Release. An independent expert has reviewed the fairness of the financial terms of the Offer. This fairness opinion will be reproduced in its entirety in the draft response document that will be published by Neoen together with the reasoned opinion of the Company's board of directors. 1.1.11 Synergies - Economic gains The Offeror is a company incorporated in France, whose corporate purpose is to acquire, manage and hold stakes in the share capital and voting rights of French and foreign companies. The Offeror, which does not have any stake in other companies, does not anticipate the realization of cost or revenue synergies with the Company following the completion of the Offer. 1.1.12 Intentions regarding a potential merger or legal reorganization The Offeror does not intend to merge with the Company. For the purpose of obtaining the antitrust clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as part of the Block Trade Acquisition (described in Section 1.1.6=, the Offeror has agreed to divest the entire portfolio of assets and projects in the State of Victoria, Australia, which includes 652 MW33F34 of assets in operation and approximately 2.8 GW of projects in development (the "Victorian Assets"). The Company has entered into an agreement with HMC, an alternative asset manager listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, for the sale of its Victorian Assets (the "HMC Transaction"), with an intended completion date as at 1 July 2025. Subject to the implementation of the Squeeze-Out and the delisting, the Australian business assets (including the Victorian Assets to the extent closing of the HMC Transaction would not have already occurred) would undergo an internal reorganisation within the group controlled by Holdco driven by commercial and strategic preferences to move towards transferring assets into separately managed hubs. Additional post-closing of the Offer corporate restructuring steps of a purely capitalistic nature may be decided and implemented in order in particular to facilitate the optimization of Neoen's debt facilities. In that context, should the Squeeze-Out and the delisting of the Company be implemented, a change in the current corporate form of the Company may be envisaged. All such corporate reorganizations would not have any impact on Neoen's operations or workforce. Relevant staff representative bodies would be informed and/or consulted, as and when required, in accordance with applicable laws. However, the Offeror reserves the right to proceed with any subsequent changes in the organization of the Group, the Company, or of other entities of the Group, especially that are necessary to implement the strategy described in Section 1.2.1. The Offeror further intends to propose to the 2025 annual shareholders' meeting of the Company to be held before 30 June 2025, to approve the deletion of the double voting rights attached to shares registered in "pure" registered form for more than two years (previously approved in 2023 and provided for in Article 11 of the Company's by-laws). 1.1.13 Intentions regarding the implementation of a squeeze-out and a delisting of the Company following the Offer In the event that the number of Shares not tendered to the Offer by the minority shareholders of the Company (excluding treasury Shares held by the Company and Shares covered (or that will be covered) by Liquidity Agreements but including the PEE Unavailable Shares and the 2023 Accelerated Free Shares) does not represent more than 10% of the share capital and voting rights of the Company following the Offer, Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to implement, at the latest within three (3) months following the closing of the Offer, in accordance with Articles L. 433- 4 II of the French Monetary and Financial Code and 237-1 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation, a Squeeze-Out procedure in order to transfer the Shares not tendered to the Offer (excluding treasury Shares held by the Company and Shares covered (or that will be covered) by Liquidity Agreements, but including the PEE Unavailable Shares and the 2023 Accelerated Free Shares) in exchange for compensation equal to the Offer Price per Share. The implementation of this procedure will result in the delisting of the Shares from Euronext Paris. In addition, in the event that the number of Shares not tendered to the Offer by the minority shareholders of the Company (excluding treasury Shares held by the Company and Shares covered (or that will be covered) by Liquidity Agreements but including the PEE Unavailable Shares and the 2023 Accelerated Free Shares) and the number of Shares that may be issued following the conversion of the OCEANEs not tendered in the Offer do not represent more than 10% of the sum of the existing Shares and the Shares that may be issued as a result of the conversion of the OCEANEs following the Offer34F35, Brookfield Renewable Holdings also intends to implement, at the latest within three (3) months following the closing of the Offer, in accordance with Articles L. 433-4 III of the French Monetary and Financial Code and 237-1 et seq of the AMF General Regulation, a Squeeze-Out procedure in order to transfer the OCEANEs not tendered to the Offer in exchange for compensation equal to the Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE and the Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE. The implementation of this procedure will result in the delisting of the OCEANEs from Euronext Access. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs, the Company may, at its discretion and at any time, but subject to giving at least 30 calendar days' notice (and a maximum of 90 calendar days), redeem at par plus accrued interest all of the relevant remaining outstanding OCEANEs, if they represent less than 15% of the number of the 2020 OCEANEs issued with respect to the 2020 OCEANEs and if they represent less than 20% of the number of the 2022 OCEANEs issued with respect to the 2022 OCEANEs (the "Early Redemption Option"). In the event that the conditions required to implement a Squeeze-Out for the Shares are met, but the conditions required to implement a squeeze-out for the OCEANEs are not met, Brookfield Renewable Holdings intends to implement a Squeeze-Out for the Shares under the conditions set out above, subject to the Company being able to exercise the Early Redemption Option in due course (it being specified that Brookfield Renewable Holdings reserves the right to waive this condition). Holders of OCEANEs will, however, retain the right to exercise their right to the allocation of Shares up to and including the 7th business day35F36 preceding the date set for early redemption. The conversion/exchange ratios shall be equal to the relevant conversion/exchange ratio if the allocation right is exercised during the Adjustment Period (as defined below), or equal to the relevant conversion/exchange ratios in force outside of the Adjustment Period (as defined below) and indicated in Section 2.6. In the event that the Offeror is not in a position, following the Offer, to implement a squeeze-out under the above-mentioned conditions, it reserves the right to file a public tender offer followed, if applicable, by a squeeze-out for the Shares and/or OCEANEs it does not hold directly or indirectly, alone or in concert at that date. In this context, the Offeror does not exclude increasing its interest in the Company after the end of the Offer (directly or indirectly, through the acquisition of Shares or OCEANEs or otherwise) and prior to the filing of a new offer in accordance with the applicable legal and regulatory provisions. In this case, the public tender offer will be subject to the control of the AMF, which will rule on its conformity in light of the independent expert's report to be appointed in accordance with the provisions of Article 261-1 I and II of the AMF General Regulation. The Offeror reserves the right, following the acquisition of OCEANEs, to exercise any right available to it in accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs. The Offeror also reserves the right to cause the Company to exercise any right available to it in accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs. 1.1.14 Company's dividend distribution policy Following the Offer, the Company's dividend policy will continue to be determined by its corporate bodies based on Company's distributive capacity, financial situation and financial needs, in compliance with any applicable regulatory requirements. 1.2 Agreements that may have a significant impact on the assessment or outcome of the Offer 1.2.15 BPI's undertaking to tender its Shares in the Offer As indicated in Section 1.1.2, on 24 June 2024, Brookfield Renewable Holdings entered into the BPI Tender Undertaking with Bpifrance pursuant to which Bpifrance undertakes to tender its 6,674,470 Shares (representing at such date 4.36% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company) into the Offer (the "BPI Shares"). The BPI Shares which are the subject of this BPI Tender Undertaking will be tendered to the Offer at the Offer Price per Share. Bpifrance has notably undertaken to keep the free and full property of the BPI Shares until the date upon which it will tender the BPI Shares to the Offer, not to encumber them with any right or any engagement whatsoever and not to transfer title to the BPI Shares, enter into any agreement with, or give any undertaking to, a third party to transfer or restrict the ownership of, or rights in, the BPI Shares, nor grant any rights whatsoever over the BPI Shares in favour of a third party. Under the BPI Tender Undertaking, Bpifrance has agreed to cause its representative at the board of directors of the Company to resign from her position upon having tendered its Shares into the Offer (see also Section 1.2.3). The undertaking of Bpifrance is notably subject to the Offer being cleared by the AMF. This undertaking may be terminated by Bpifrance in the event, cumulatively, (i) of a competing offer filed by a third party which would be cleared by the AMF and (ii) (A) in the absence of an improved offer by the Offeror that is declared compliant (conforme) by the AMF or (B) in case of withdrawal of the Offer by the Offeror in accordance with article 232-11 of the AMF General Regulations. The Offeror and Bpifrance are not acting in concert. 1.2.16 Reinvestment of the managers (e) Description of the Reinvestment Plan and the Synthetic Share Plan Brookfield Renewable Holdings and Cartusia have entered into a reinvestment agreement on 27 December 2024, (the "Reinvestment Agreement"), in order to set out the main provision of (i) the reinvestment plan that should be put in place at the level of BRHL UK MidCo Limited36F37 ("BRHL Midco"), an intermediary holding vehicle wholly owned by Holdco, which in turn indirectly wholly-owns Brookfield Renewable Holdings, for the benefit of certain executives and corporate officers of the Group, including Mr. Xavier Barbaro (acting as legal representative of Cartusia) and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux (the "Managers") (the "Reinvestment Plan") and (ii) the synthetic share plan that should be put in place for the benefit of the Managers (the "Synthetic Share Plan"), in each case, following the closing of the Offer. In the context of the Reinvestment Plan, the Managers will enter into or adhere to a shareholders' agreement in respect of BRHL Midco, which will reflect the terms of the Reinvestment Agreement (the "BRHL MidcoSHA"). The Reinvestment Plan includes: an investment by certain Managers in ordinary shares of the BRHL Midco, pari passu with BRHL UK Topco Limited37F38 ("BRHL Topco"), being an intermediate vehicle wholly-owned by Holdco and shareholder of BRHL Midco, financed by the use of all or part of their Shares proceeds received as part of the Block Trade Acquisition, the Offer or resulting from the contribution in kind of their Shares at the Offer Price per Share to BRHL Midco; and the free grant to certain Managers of ordinary shares of BRHL Midco, as part of a new retention plan in cash (see Section 2.4). The ordinary shares issued by BRHL Midco will be subscribed for at market value, as the case may be, determined by an expert. The Synthetic Share Plan would consist of bonus payments to the Managers, for an amount corresponding to the notional value attached to synthetic shares (the "Synthetic Shares") awarded to them, as follows: the Synthetic Share Plan provides for a linear vesting of the Synthetic Shares over a period of five years (with customary accelerated vesting provisions); the notional value of the Synthetic Shares is based on the capital gain realized by BRHL Topco on its investment in BRHL Midco above a certain hurdle rate, upon the occurrence of (i) a termination of duties of a Manager, (ii) a listing of a company of the Group, (iii) a direct or indirect transfer of shares in BRHL Midco, (iv) a winding-up of BRHL Midco or (v) a significant dividend distribution by BRHL Midco (an "Exit"). (f) Reinvestment of CEO and Deputy CEO Cartusia (in accordance with the terms of the Reinvestment Agreement) has committed to reinvest in cash at the level of BRHL Midco, by way of subscription to ordinary shares of BRHL Midco, for an aggregate reinvestment amount of EUR 25 million. In accordance with the reinvestment agreement entered into on 27 December 2024 between Brookfield Renewable Holdings and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux, the latter has the option to reinvest a maximum total amount of approximately EUR 6.2 million, which may be carried out directly or indirectly, by way of a contribution in kind of all or part of the RD Shares That May Be Tendered at the Offer Price per Share or by way of a cash contribution. (g) Description of BRHL Midco SHA - Transfers of securities and liquidity The following provisions shall be applicable to transfers of BRHL Midco securities: Pre-emption right of BRHL Topco: BRHL Topco shall benefit from a pre-emption right in the event of a transfer by a Manager of his/her securities in BRHL Midco other than a customary free transfer, unless such transfer has been approved by BRHL Topco. Drag along right of BRHL Topco: in the event BRHL Topco receives an offer from a third party for the acquisition of a majority of the share capital of BRHL Midco, BRHL Topco shall have the right to cause the Managers to sell 100% of their BRHL MidCo securities. Tag along right: Proportional tag along right: in the event of any direct or indirect transfer of BRHL Midco securities to a third party other than a customary free transfer, the Managers may require to sell the same proportion of BRHL Midco securities to such third party. Total tag along right: in the event of any direct or indirect transfer of BRHL Midco securities to a third party that would result in either (i) such third party holding more than 50% of the BRHL Midco securities other than in connection with a customary free transfer, or (ii) BRHL Topco or its affiliates ceasing to control BRHL Midco, the Managers may require to sell all their BRHL Midco securities to such third party. Managers will ultimately benefit from liquidity rights on a portion of the BRHL Midco securities they own in the form of a put option granted by BRHL Topco to each Manager (the "Liquidity Put Option"). The exercise price of the Liquidity Put Option will be based on the market value of 100% BRHL Midco securities, as determined based on the most recent quarterly valuation of the Group as set out in reporting to BRHL Topco's ultimate investors or, in case of disagreement, by an independent expert. 1.2.17 Liquidity Agreements The Offeror has offered to the beneficiaries of Unavailable Free Shares, Managers Unavailable Shares (as defined below) and/or Unavailable Holding Shares (together the "Unavailable Shares") (the "Holders of Unavailable Shares") to enter into commitments to buy and sell their Unavailable Shares in order to enable them to benefit from cash liquidity for the Shares that could not be tendered to the Offer or acquired in the Squeeze-Out (the "Liquidity Agreement"). With respect to the Unavailable Free Shares and Managers Unavailable Shares held by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux, in accordance with the Liquidity Agreement, if an Event of Liquidity Default (as defined below) occurs, the Offeror will have a call option (the "Call Option"), pursuant to which each Holder of Unavailable Shares irrevocably undertakes to sell to the Offeror its Unavailable Shares at the request of the Offeror at any time during twenty (20) calendar days starting on the sending date of a notice informing each Holder of Unavailable Shares of the availability date of the relevant Unavailable Shares (being specified that such notice shall be sent at the latest five (5) business days as from the availability date of the relevant Unavailable Shares) (the "Call Option Period") and, in the absence of exercise of the Call Option during the Call Option Period, Holders of Unavailable Shares will have a put option against the Offeror, pursuant to which the Offeror irrevocably undertakes to acquire from the holder its Unavailable Shares, at any time during a period of sixty (60) calendar days starting on the first business day following the expiry of the Call Option Period (the "Put Option", together with the Call Option, the "Options"). An "Event of Liquidity Default" means: a Squeeze-Out has been implemented by the Offeror, or, the Offeror holds more than 90% of the share capital or voting rights of the Company and the Offeror has not requested to the AMF that a Squeeze-Out be implemented; or the average volume of the Company's shares traded each day over the past twenty (20) trading days is less than 0.055% of the Company's share capital, on the basis of the information published by Euronext Paris. In accordance with the provisions of the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro (as well as Cartusia, Equinox, Kampen, Hilaris and Palancia), the exercise of the Options on his Unavailable Holding Shares, Unavailable Free Shares and Managers Unavailable Shares is not subject to the occurrence of an Event of Liquidity Default and can be exercised as from the availability date of each category of Unavailable Shares (based on an identical exercise price for all beneficiaries of Unavailable Shares as described below). In addition, with respect to the Managers Unavailable Shares, they must be held (and consequently, the Options cannot be exercised) as long as Mr. Xavier Barbaro and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux respectively hold their positions of corporate officers within the Group and cannot therefore be tendered in the Offer; they are thus covered by the Liquidity Agreements entered into respectively by Mr. Xavier Barbaro and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux and the Options may be exercised after the termination of their respective positions as corporate officers within the Group. In the event of the exercise of an Option, the exercise price per Unavailable Share will be (i) equal to the Offer Price per Share if the Option is exercised before 31 December 2025, or (ii) equal to the market value of the Shares as at the exercice date of the Option according to the terms and conditions of the Liquidity Agreement if the Option is exercised after 31 December 2025 (and, if necessary, determined by an independent expert in the event of disagreement). Should the Squeeze-Out be implemented, the Unavailable Shares (with the exception of the Unavailable PEE Shares and 2023 Accelerated Free Shares, which will be targeted in the Squeeze-Out) which exist as at the date of the Squeeze-Out and for which a Liquidity Agreement has been entered into, will be assimilated to the shares held by the Offeror in accordance with Article L. 233-9 I, 4 of the French Commercial Code, and will not be affected by the Squeeze-Out and the delisting. In the event of exercise of the Options, holders of Unavailable Shares would not benefit from any mechanism enabling them to obtain a guaranteed transfer price. It is specified that no contractual mechanism is likely (i) to be analyzed as a price supplement, (ii) to call into question the relevance of the Offer Price per Share or the equal treatment of minority shareholders, or (iii) to highlight a guaranteed transfer price clause in favor of holders of Unavailable Shares. It is further provided that: the beneficiaries of the 2023 Free Share Plan and the 2024 Free Share Plan (including Mr. Xavier Barbaro) are offered by the Offeror the possibility to benefit, subject to an "Event of Liquidity Default" (or, in the case of Mr. Xavier Barbaro, subject to a resignation from his position as CEO of the Company following completion of the Squeeze-Out and up to the number of 2024 Free Shares acquired pro rata temporis on the date of termination of his duties), from a cash retention plan in lieu of all or part of their rights to receive these 2023 Free Shares and these 2024 Free Shares, as applicable, under the conditions described in Section 2.4, and as an exception to the above, certain Group executives38F39 (excluding Mr. Xavier Barbaro) holding 2023 Non-Accelerated Free Shares and 2024 Free Shares (as these terms are defined in Section 2.4), are being offered by the Offeror the opportunity to benefit, subject to an "Event of Liquidity Default", from a new retention plan in the form of shares of BRHL Midco (in lieu of all or part of the above-mentioned cash retention plan), under the conditions described in Section 2.4, it being specified that the beneficiaries of the 2023 Free Share Plan and the 2024 Free Share Plan will be able to choose to benefit from the cash retention plan or the retention share plan, as applicable, until 7 February 2025 (inclusive). 1.2.18 Other agreements of which the Offeror is aware With the exception of the agreements described in this Section 1.3, there are, to the knowledge of the Offeror, no other agreements likely to have an impact on the assessment or outcome of the Offer. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OFFER 1.3 Terms of the Offer In accordance with the provisions of Articles 231-13 and 231-18 of the AMF General Regulation, the draft Offer was filed on 2 January 2025 with the AMF by the Presenting Banks, acting in the name and on behalf of the Offeror. A notice of filing will be published by the AMF on its website). In accordance with Articles 233-1 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation, the Offer will be implemented in accordance with the simplified tender offer procedure. The attention of the shareholders and holders of the Company's OCEANEs is drawn to the fact that, as the Offer is being made under the simplified procedure, it will not be reopened following the publication of the result of the Offer. The Offeror irrevocably undertakes to the Company's shareholders and holders of OCEANEs to acquire, all the Shares and OCEANEs that will be tendered in the Offer during a period of 21 Trading Days at the price of: EUR 39.85 per Share, EUR 48.14 per 2020 OCEANE, and EUR 101,382.00 per 2022 OCEANE. Societe Generale guarantees the content and the irrevocable nature of the undertakings made by the Offeror as part of the Offer in accordance with the provisions of Article 231-13 of the AMF General Regulation. 1.4 Adjustment of the terms of the Offer It is specified for all purposes that the Offer Price per Share, the Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE and the Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE have been determined on the basis of the assumption that no distribution (dividend, interim dividend or other) will be decided before the closing of the Offer. In the event that, between the date of the Draft Offer Document and the date of the settlement- delivery of the Offer (included), the Company proceeds in any form whatsoever to (i) distribute a dividend, interim dividend, reserve, premium or any other distribution (in cash or in kind), or (ii) redeem or reduce its share capital, and in both cases, in which the detachment date or the reference date on which it is necessary to be a shareholder in order to be entitled thereto is set before the date of the settlement-delivery of the Offer, the Offer Price per Share, the Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE and the Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE will be adjusted to take into account this transaction. Similarly, in the event of transactions involving the share capital of the Company (in particular merger, spinoff, stock split, reverse stock split, distribution of free shares for existing shares through the capitalization of profits or reserves) decided during the same period, and for which the reference date on which any person must be a shareholder in order to receive the distribution is set before the settlement date of the Offer, the Offer Price per Share, the Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE and the Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE will be mechanically adjusted to take into account the effect of any and all such transactions. Any adjustment of the terms of the Offer will be subject to the publication of a press release which will be submitted to the prior approval of the AMF. 1.5 Number and nature of the securities targeted by the Offer As of the date of the Draft Offer Document39F40, Brookfield Renewable Holdings holds: directly 81,197,100 Shares (i.e. 53.12% of the share capital and 53.19% of the voting rights of the Company), by way of assimilation pursuant to Article L. 233-9 of the French Commercial Code: the (i) 545,672 Unavailable Holding Shares (i.e. 0.36% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company) with respect to which Brookfield Renewable Holdings benefits from a Call Option at the Offer Price per Share for each Unavailable Holding Share exercisable as from 16 April 2025, pursuant to the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro (which is described in Section 1.3.3), (ii) 39,943 Managers Unavailable Shares (as defined below and also covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro) held by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, (iii) 1,600 PEE Shares (as defined below) held by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, and (iv) 180,83240F 41 2024 Free Shares (as defined below and also covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro) held by Mr. Xavier Barbaro, the (i) 442,895 Shares, (ii) 9,445 Managers Unavailable Shares (as defined below and covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux), and (iii) 120,55541F 42 2024 Free Shares (as defined below and also covered by the Liquidity Agreement entered into by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux) held by Mr. Romain Desrousseaux, and 14,330 Shares (i.e. 0.009% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company) through the intermediary of Aranda Investments (an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek). In total, the Offeror holds, directly and indirectly, alone and in concert, and by assimilation, 82,250,985 Shares (i.e. 53.81% of the share capital and theoretical voting rights of the Company)42F43. The Offeror does not hold, directly and indirectly, alone and in concert, or by assimilation, any OCEANEs. The Offer targets: (vi) all Shares, whether outstanding or to be issued, that are not held directly by the Offeror, i.e., the Shares: which are already issued other than the Excluded Shares, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum of 70,713,338 Shares, which may be issued before the closing of the Offer (as per the indicative timetable included in Section 2.10), other than the Excluded Shares, as a result of the vesting of Free Shares granted by the Company under the Free Shares Plans (as defined in Section 2.4), i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum of 161,971 43F 44 Shares corresponding to all 2022 Free Shares, Shares corresponding to all 2022 Free Shares, which may be issued before the closing of the Offer (as per the indicative timetable included in Section 2.10) in connection with the conversion of the 2020 OCEANEs, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum number of 4,445,020 new Shares44F 45 , , which may be issued before the closing of the Offer (as per the indicative timetable included in Section 2.10) in connection with the conversion of the 2022 OCEANEs, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror and as at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum number of 7,519,824 new Shares45F46, i.e., to the knowledge of the Offeror at the date of the Draft Offer Document, a maximum number of Shares targeted by the Offer equal to 82,840,153; and (vii) all outstanding OCEANEs that are not held by the Offeror, i.e. to the knowledge of the Offeror at the date of the Draft Offer Document, 3,679,653 2020 OCEANEs and 3,000 2022 OCEANEs. Among the Shares covered by the Offer, the 283,58146F47 Unavailable PEE Shares (as defined below) cannot be tendered into the Offer (except in the case of an early release in accordance with applicable laws and regulation). However, Unavailable PEE Shares will be targeted by the Squeeze-Out, if applicable. It is specified that the Offer does not target the Excluded Shares. As a result of the indicative timetable of the Offer provided in Section 2.10, the 105,416 2023 Accelerated Free Shares (as defined below) being vested on 28 February 2025, they cannot be tendered into the Offer47F48. Such 2023 Accelerated Free Shares will however be targeted by the Squeeze-Out, if applicable. To the knowledge of the Offeror, there are no other equity securities or other financial instruments issued by the Company or rights conferred by the Company that may give access, immediately or in the future, to the share capital or voting rights of the Company, other than the existing Shares and the OCEANEs described in Section 2.1 and the Free Shares described in Section 2.4. 1.6 Situation of the beneficiaries of Free Shares The Company has granted Company's shares for free (the "Free Shares") to employees and executives' officers of the Group under several free shares plans (the "Free Shares Plans"). As of the date of the Draft Offer Document, three Free Shares Plans remain outstanding with the Free Shares allocated pursuant to these Free Shares Plan still under vesting: (i) the 2022 Free Shares Plan, (ii) the 2023 Free Shares Plan, and (iii) the 2024 Free Shares Plan. To the knowledge of the Offeror, pursuant to an authorisation granted by the general meeting of the shareholders of the Company dated 25 May 2021 and an authorisation granted by the general meeting of the shareholders of the Company dated 10 May 2023, the board of directors of the Company has granted 2022, 2023 and 2024 Free Shares to employees and executives' officers of the Group under Free Shares Plans, as follows: on 14 March 2022, the board of directors of the Company decided to grant 164,046 Free Shares to certain employees of the Group. The granting of Shares will only be final after a vesting period of three years, i.e. on 14 March 2025, being specified that the availability date of these Free Shares is set on 17 March 2025, provided that the beneficiaries are still present in the Group and that the performance conditions set by the board of directors in the plan rules and relating in particular to the achievement of financial and development objectives are met (the " 2022 Free Shares " and " 2022 Free Shares Plan "); " and " "); on 28 February 2023, the board of directors of the Company decided to grant 221,766 Free Shares to certain employees of the Group. The granting of Shares will only be final after a vesting period of three years, i.e. on 28 February 2026, being specified that the availability date of these Free Shares is set on 3 March 2026, provided that the beneficiaries are still present in the Group and that the performance conditions set by the board of directors in the plan rules and relating in particular to the achievement of financial and development objectives are met (the " 2023 Free Shares " and " 2023 Free Shares Plan "); " and " "); on 28 February 2024 and 14 March 2024, the board of directors of the Company decided to grant 729,303 Free Shares to certain employees and executives' officers of the Group. The granting of Shares will only be final after a vesting period of three years, i.e. on 1st March 2027, being specified that the availability date of these Free Shares is set on 3 March 2027, provided that the beneficiaries are still present in the Group and that the performance conditions set by the board of directors in the plan rules and relating in particular to the achievement of financial and development objectives are met (the "2024 Free Shares" and "2024 Free Shares Plan"). 2022 Free Share Plan 2023 Free Share Plan 2024 Free Share Plan Date of the general shareholders' meeting 25 May 2021 25 May 2021 10 May 2023 Date of the grant decision 14 March 2022 28 February 2023 28 February 2024 14 March 2024 Number of Free Shares initially granted 164,046 221,766 729,303 Number of Free Shares under vesting period (as at 30 November 2024) 161,971 210,833 721,928 Definitive vesting date 14 March 2025 28 February 2026 1st March 2027 Performance conditions Attendance conditions Availability date 17 March 2025 3 March 2026 3 March 2027 Holding period None None None Number of Free Shares subject to a specific holding period for executives' officers N/A N/A 45,208 On 26 December 2024, the Company's board of directors has decided, subject to completion of the Block Trade Acquisition, which occurred on 27 December 2024: with respect to the 2022 Free Shares Plan: (i) to deem entirely satisfied the performance requirements provided by the 2022 Free Shares Plan, and (ii) to accelerate the end of the vesting period provided for in the 2022 Free Shares Plan, for all the 2022 Free Shares, as their number may be adjusted from time to time in accordance with the terms of the 2022 Free Shares Plan, which will become immediately available on the opening date of the Offer; with respect to the 2023 Free Shares Plan: (i) to deem entirely satisfied the performance requirements provided by the 2023 Free Shares Plan, and (ii) to offer each of the beneficiaries of the 2023 Free Shares Plan who have chosen this option: (x) the acceleration of the vesting period on 50% of their unvested Free Shares as their number may be adjusted from time to time in accordance with the terms of the 2023 Free Shares Plan (the "2023 Accelerated Free Shares"), which will definitely be vested on 28 February 2025, subject to a presence condition, (y) not to change the vesting period of the remaining 50% unvested Free Shares under the 2023 Free Shares Plan (the "2023 Non Accelerated Free Shares"), which will definitely be vested on 28 February 2026, subject to a presence condition, and (z) subject to the occurrence of an "Event of Liquidity Default" and a presence condition of the beneficiary on 28 February 2026, to benefit from a cash retention plan in lieu of the concerned beneficiary's right to receive 2023 Non Accelerated Free Shares (it being specified that the gross amount per 2023 Non-Accelerated Free Share that will be paid to any beneficiary who elects to benefit from the retention plan in cash will correspond to the Offer Price per Share); and with respect to the 2024 Free Shares Plan: (i) to deem entirely satisfied the performance requirements of this 2024 Free Shares Plan, and (ii) to offer to beneficiaries of the 2024 Free Shares Plan to benefit, subject to an "Event of Liquidity Default" (or, in the case of Mr. Xavier Barbaro, subject to a resignation from his position as CEO of the Company following completion of the Squeeze-Out and up to the number of 2024 Free Shares acquired pro rata temporis on the date of termination of his duties) and a presence condition of the beneficiary on1st March 2027, a cash retention plan in lieu of all or part of the rights of the beneficiary concerned to receive the 2024 Free Shares (it being specified that the gross amount per 2024 Free Share that will be received by any beneficiary who chooses to benefit from the retention plan in cash will correspond to the Offer Price per Share). In this respect, it is specified that the cash retention plan from which Mr. Xavier Barbaro benefits (i) is conditional on the termination of his duties as CEO of the Company (see Section 1.2.3 regarding the evolution of the Company's governance in the event of a Squeeze-Out), (ii) relates to a number of 2024 Free Shares that will be acquired on the date of termination of his duties as CEO of the Company (taking into account the particular characteristics of the 2024 Free Share Plan concerning him, which provide, in the event of termination of his duties, for an acquisition of the 2024 Free Shares by the latter pro rata temporis to the duration of his duties during their vesting period), and (iii) will vest on 1st March 2027. As an exception to the above, certain Managers48F49 (as defined in Section 1.3.2) (excluding Mr. Xavier Barbaro) holding 2023 Non-Accelerated Free Shares and 2024 Free Shares, will be offered by the Offeror the opportunity to benefit from a new retention plan in the form of BRHL Midco shares (in lieu of all or part of the above-mentioned cash retention plan). It is specified that the number of BRHL Midco shares that will be delivered to any beneficiary who elects to benefit from the retention share plan will be determined on the basis of the number of 2023 Non-Accelerated Free Shares and/or 2024 Free Shares renounced to multiplied by the Offer Price per Share, reported to the value of BRHL Midco's share capital on the date upon which the rights to receive the said shares of BRHL Midco are allocated. The vesting period of BRHL Midco's shares will be for a period of one year, it being specified that the definitive acquisition of these shares will be conditional on the occurrence of an "Event of Liquidity Default ", a presence condition of the beneficiary and the latter's adherence to the BRHL Midco SHA. In addition, the definitively acquired shares of BRHL Midco will be subject to an additional one-year holding period. It being specified that the beneficiaries of the 2023 Free Share Plan and the 2024 Free Share Plan will be able to choose to benefit from the Liquidity Agreement or the cash retention plan (or, for certain Managers, the retention share plan in lieu of all or part of the cash retention plan) until 7 February 2025 (inclusive). Holders of Free Shares delivered before the closing of the Offer (i.e., as a result of the indicative timetable of the Offer provided in Section 2.10, the2022 Free Shares) representing a maximum of 161,97149F50 Shares will be able to tender such Free Shares to the Offer given its contemplated timetable as indicated in Section 2.10. As a result of the indicative timetable of the Offer provided in Section 2.10, the 105,416 2023 Accelerated Free Shares being vested on 28 February 2025, they cannot be tendered into the Offer 50F51. Such 2023 Accelerated Free Shares will however be targeted by the Squeeze-Out, if applicable. The 932,761 Shares which may be issued as a result of the definitive vesting of all of the 2023 Free Shares and all 2024 Free Shares (together the "Unavailable Free Shares") granted by the Company, cannot be tendered to the Offer and will therefore be covered by the Liquidity Agreements51F52. In addition, to the knowledge of the Offeror and as of the date of the Draft Offer Document, 49,388 Shares are held by executive officers of the Group as a result of the definitive vesting of Free Shares granted by the Company under the Free Shares plans implemented in 2018 and 2021 and are subject to a specific lock-up period as long as they remain executive officers of the Group (the "Managers Unavailable Shares"). Such Managers Unavailable Shares cannot be tendered to the Offer and will therefore be covered by the Liquidity Agreements respectively entered into by Mr. Xavier Barbaro and Mr. Romain Desrousseaux. 1.7 Situation of the shareholders holding Shares through a Plan d'Epargne Entreprise (PEE) To the knowledge of the Offeror and as the date of the Draft Offer Document, 426,17052F53 Shares are held by employees of the Group in the context of an employee savings plan (Plan d'epargne entreprise or "PEE") (the "PEE Shares"). To the knowledge of the Offeror and as the date of the Draft Offer Document, 142,589 53F54 PEE Shares are transferable and their holders will be able to tender such PEE Shares to the Offer. To the knowledge of the Offeror and as the date of the Draft Offer Document, 283,58154F55 Shares already issued and held by employees of the Group in the context of a PEE resulting from (i) the implementation of employee share ownership plans, i.e. 179,256 Shares for which the five-year mandatory holding period will not have expired prior to the closing date of the Offer or (ii) the exercise of stock-options within the framework of the PEE, i.e. 104,325 Shares for which the five-year mandatory holding period will not have expired prior to the closing date of the Offer (such Shares referred to in (i) and (ii), the "Unavailable PEE Shares") shall not be tendered into the Offer, taking into account its indicative timetable and subject to the early release events provided by the French Labour Code which may allow their holders to tender such PEE Shares to the Offer. The Offeror undertakes to offer to the remaining holders of Unavailable PEE Shares, at the closing of the Offer and provided that the conditions required for the implementation of a Squeeze-Out are not met, to enter into the Liquidity Agreement. The terms and conditions of the Liquidity Agreement to be entered into at that time will be strictly identical to the ones of the Liquidity Agreements entered into by the Holders of Unavailable Shares prior to the closing of the Offer. In the event of a Squeeze-Out, these Unavailable PEE Shares will be targeted by the Squeeze-Out, as applicable. 1.8 Situation of the holders of OCEANEs On 2 June 2020, the Company issued 3,679,653 2020 OCEANEs due 2 June 2025. The 2020 OCEANEs, with a par value of EUR 46.20 each, bear a 2.00% annual nominal rate payable semi-annually (2 June and 2 December) and are convertible or exchangeable at any time by the delivery of 1.176 new or existing Share for one 2020 OCEANE55F56, subject to additional adjustments provided for in the terms and conditions of the 2020 OCEANEs and under the conditions set out therein. To the Offeror's knowledge, 3,679,653 2020 OCEANEs are outstanding as of the date of the Draft Offer Document. The 2020 OCEANEs are listed on Euronext Access under ISIN Code FR0013515707. On 14 September 2022, the Company issued 3,000 2022 OCEANEs due 14 September 2027. The 2022 OCEANEs, with a par value of EUR 100,000 each, bear a 2.875% annual nominal rate payable semi-annually (14 March and 14 September) and are convertible or exchangeable at any time by the delivery of 2,118.0805 new or existing Share for one 2022 OCEANE56F57, subject to additional adjustments provided for in the terms and conditions of the 2022 OCEANEs and under the conditions set out therein. To the Offeror's knowledge, 3,000 2022 OCEANEs are outstanding as of the date of the Draft Offer Document. The 2022 OCEANEs are listed on Euronext Access under ISIN Code FR001400CMS2. 1.8.19 Tenders to the Offer Holders of OCEANEs are entitled to tender their OCEANEs to the Offer, in accordance with the terms and conditions described in this Press Release. 1.8.20 Early redemption in the event of a Change of Control Completion of the Block Trade Acquisition resulted in a "Change of Control" of the Company under the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs, upon the occurrence of such a Change of Control, any holder of OCEANEs may, at its option request, from the Company, the early redemption in cash of all, but not some only, of the OCEANEs held by such holder at par value plus interest accrued from (and including) the last interest payment date to (but excluding) the relevant optional redemption date in accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs. The price of such early repayment would be EUR 46.44 for the 2020 OCEANEs and EUR 101,382.00 for the 2022 OCEANEs, based on a latest anticipated early repayment date on 7 March 2025, and assuming up to 30 calendar days after completion of the Block Trade Acquisition for the Company to publish a notification of the Change of Control and then additionally up to 25 to 30 business days (jours ouvres) to proceed with the early repayment. The Company will inform the holders of OCEANEs of the Change of Control resulting from the Completion of the Block Trade Acquisition by means of a notice distributed by the Company and posted on its website) as well as in a notice to be issued by Euronext Paris no later than 30 calendar days following the effective Change of Control (i.e., date of completion of the Block Trade Acquisition). These notices are expected to remind the holders of OCEANEs that they have the right to request the early redemption of their OCEANEs and to indicate (i) the early redemption date which would be between the 25th and the 30th business day (jours ouvres) following the distribution date of the notice by the Company, (ii) the redemption price and (iii) the period, of at least 15 business days (jours ouvres) following the publication of the notice by the Company, during which the early redemption requests for the OCEANEs must be received by the centralizing agent. To obtain early redemption of the OCEANEs, holders of OCEANEs must file a request with the financial intermediary holding their OCEANEs in a securities account. Any such demand may not be revoked once it is received by the relevant financial intermediary. Requests for early redemption and the corresponding OCEANEs must be received by the centralizing agent no later than the fifth business day (jours ouvres) before the early redemption date. In such case, the OCEANEs, where an early redemption was requested, will be redeemed at a price equal to par plus accrued interests from the date the interest was last paid preceding the date of early redemption, to the date set for the early redemption. 1.8.21 Rights of the holders of OCEANEs in the event of a public offer (h) Conversion or exchange of the OCEANEs in the event of an offer In accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs, and if the Offer is cleared by the AMF, the opening of the Offer will result in an adjustment of the conversion/exchange ratio of Shares during the Adjustment Period (as defined below) in accordance with the following formula (the result will be rounded off in accordance with the terms and conditions of issuance of the OCEANEs) NCER = CER x [1 + ICEP x (c / t)] where: "NCER" means the OCEANEs new conversion/exchange ratio applicable during the Adjustment Period (rounded to three decimal places, with 0.0005 being rounded up to the nearest thousandth, i.e. 0.001); "CER" means the conversion/exchange ratio in effect prior to the Offer opening date, such conversion/exchange ratio being 1.176 Share for one 2020 OCEANE, and 2,118.0805 Shares for one 2022 OCEANE; "ICEP" means 40% for the 2020 OCEANEs and 35% for the 2022 OCEANEs; "c" means the actual number of calendar days from the Offer opening date (inclusive) to the maturity date (exclusive), with the maturity date being 2 June 2025 for the 2020 OCEANEs and 14 September 2027 for the 2022 OCEANEs; and "t" means the actual number of calendar days from the issue date of the OCEANEs (inclusive) (such date being 2 June 2020 for the 2020 OCEANEs and 14 September 2022 for the 2022 OCEANEs) to the maturity date (exclusive) (such number of days being 1,826 for the 2020 OCEANEs and for the 2022 OCEANEs). As a result of the Offer, the adjusted conversion/exchange ratios (or NCERs) are 1.208 for the 2020 OCEANEs and 2,506.608 for the 2022 OCEANEs, based on an opening date of the Offer on 30 January 2025, as set out in the indicative timetable in Section 2.10. As the ratios are dependent on the opening date of the Offer, they would be modified in the event of a postponement or advancement of this date. The adjustment of the conversion/exchange ratios, as set out above, will, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the respective OCEANEs exclusively benefit to the holders of OCEANEs who will exercise their conversion/exchange right, between (and including): The opening date of the Offer; and The earlier of (A) (i) the date that is ten (10) business days57F58 after the date of publication by the AMF of the notice of result of the Offer, or (ii) if Brookfield Renewable Holdings withdraws the Offer, the date on which such withdrawal is published, and (B) the date that is the 7th trading day58F59 preceding the maturity date or the early redemption. This period is referred to as the "Adjustment Period". If the right to the conversion/exchange of Shares is exercised during the Adjustment Period, the corresponding Shares will be delivered within a maximum period of three (3) business days from the date of exercise. In the event of an adjustment, the Company will inform the holders of OCEANEs by means of a notice distributed by it and posted on its website). This adjustment will also be the subject of a notice circulated by Euronext Paris within the same timeframe as may be required by applicable rules and regulations. (i) Early redemption if the outstanding 2020 OCEANEs represent less than 15% of the total outstanding 2020 OCEANEs and if the outstanding 2022 OCEANEs represent less than 20% of the total outstanding 2020 OCEANEs In accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs, the Company may, at its discretion and at any time, but subject to giving at least 30 calendar days' notice (and a maximum of 90 calendar days), redeem at par all of the relevant remaining outstanding OCEANEs, if they represent less than 15% of the number of the 2020 OCEANEs issued with respect to the 2020 OCEANEs and if they represent less than 20% of the number of the 2022 OCEANEs issued with respect to the 2022 OCEANEs. In the event a Squeeze-Out procedure is implemented in relation to the Shares only, Brookfield Renewable Holdings reserves the right to request that the Company carry out such early redemption in due course. Holders of OCEANEs will, however, retain the right to exercise their right to the allocation of Shares up to and including the 7th business day preceding the date set for early redemption. The conversion/exchange ratios shall be equal to the relevant NCER if the allocation right is exercised during the Adjustment Period, or equal to the relevant conversion/exchange ratios in force outside of the Adjustment Period and indicated in Section 2.6. (j) Early redemption in the event that the Shares are delisted In accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs, if the Shares are no longer admitted to trading on Euronext Paris or any other regulated market (a "Delisting") (which would be the case if the Squeeze-Out is implemented, see Section 1.2.7 regarding the intent of Brookfield Renewable Holdings regarding the Squeeze-Out and delisting), any holder of OCEANEs may, at its option request, from the Company, the early redemption in cash of all, but not some only, of the OCEANEs held by such holder at par value, being EUR 46.20 for the 2020 OCEANEs and EUR 100,000 for the 2022 OCEANEs, plus interest accrued from (and including) the last interest payment date to (but excluding) the relevant optional redemption date in accordance with the terms and conditions of the OCEANEs. The Company will inform the holders of OCEANEs of the Delisting by means of a notice distributed by the Company and posted on its website) as well as in a notice to be issued by Euronext Paris no later than 30 calendar days following the effective Delisting. These notices are expected to remind the holders of OCEANEs that they have the right to request the early redemption of their OCEANEs and to indicate (i) the early redemption date which would be between the 25th and the 30th business day (jours ouvres) following the distribution date of the notice by the Company, (ii) the redemption amount and (iii) the period, of at least 15 business days (jours ouvres) following the distribution date of the notice by the Company, during which the early redemption requests for the OCEANEs must be received by the centralizing agent. To obtain early redemption of the OCEANEs, holders of OCEANEs must file a request with the financial intermediary holding their OCEANEs in a securities account. Any such demand may not be revoked once it is received by the relevant financial intermediary. Requests for early redemption and the corresponding OCEANEs must be received by the centralizing agent no later than the fifth business day (jours ouvres) before the early redemption date. In such case, the OCEANEs, where an early redemption was requested, will be redeemed at a price equal to par plus accrued interests from the date the interest was last paid preceding the date of early redemption, to the date set for the early redemption. Such early redemption may be decided under the above-mentioned conditions in the event a Squeeze-Out procedure is implemented in relation to the Shares only, especially in the event the OCEANEs are not redeemed before such date. 1.9 Terms and conditions of the Offer A notice of filing of the Offer will be published on the AMF website). In accordance with the provisions of Article 231-16 of the AMF General Regulation. The Draft Offer Document is made available to the public free of charge at the office of Brookfield Renewable Holdings, and with the Presenting Banks and will be published on the websites of the AMF), the Offeror). The draft Offer and the Draft Offer Document remain subject to review by the AMF. The AMF will declare the Offer compliant after having verified its conformity with the legal provisions applicable to it and will publish the declaration of conformity on its website). This declaration of conformity issued by the AMF will serve as the approval ("visa") of the offer document and will only occur after the Company has filed a draft response document to the Draft Offer Document. The offer document having thus received the AMF's approval), the Offeror). A press release specifying the terms and conditions for making these documents available will be issued no later than the day before the opening of the Offer in accordance with the provisions of Articles 231-27 and 231-28 of the AMF General Regulation. Prior to the opening of the Offer, the AMF will publish a notice of opening and the timetable of the Offer and Euronext Paris will publish a notice setting out the content of the Offer and specifying the timetable and terms of its realisation. 1.10 Procedure for tendering in the Offer The Offer will be open for a period of 21 Trading Days. The attention of the Company's shareholders is drawn to the fact that, as the Offer will be conducted following the simplified procedure, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 233-1 et seq. of the AMF General Regulation, it will not be reopened following the publication of the result of the Offer. The Shares and OCEANEs tendered in the Offer must be freely negotiable and free from any lien, pledge, collateral or other security or restriction of any kind on the free transfer of their ownership. The Offeror reserves the right to reject, in its sole discretion, any Shares or OCEANEs tendered in the Offer that do not fulfil this condition. Shareholders whose Shares are in "pure" registered form ("nominatif pur") in the account register of the Company may request that their Shares be converted into "administrative" registered form ("nominatif administre") in order to tender their securities in the Offer, unless they have already requested their conversion to bearer form ("au porteur"). It is specified that the conversion to bearer form of Shares held in registered form will result in the loss for such shareholders of the benefits associated with holding such Shares in registered form. Notwithstanding the foregoing, shareholders whose securities are held in "pure" registered form will also have the possibility to tender their securities to the semi-centralized Offer through Euronext Paris without prior conversion into bearer or "administered" registered form through Uptevia acting as registrar of the Shares. Shareholders and holders of OCEANEs of the Company whose Shares or OCEANEs are registered with a financial intermediary and who would like to tender their Shares or OCEANEs in the Offer must submit to their financial intermediary (bank, credit institution, investment firm, etc.) holding their Shares or OCEANEs a tender or sale order at the Offer Price per Share, the Offer Price per 2020 OCEANE or the Offer Price per 2022 OCEANE59F60 (as applicable), in time for their order to be executed, by specifying whether they opt either for the sale of their Shares or OCEANEs directly on the market or for the tender of their Shares or OCEANEs in the semi-centralised Offer by Euronext Paris in order to benefit from the reimbursement of the brokerage fees by the Offeror under the conditions described in Section 2.13 below. Shareholders and holders of OCEANEs shall contact their respective financial intermediaries to obtain information on the potential constraints and the deadlines of each of these intermediaries as well as on their own procedures for treating orders to be able to tender their securities to the Offer. Orders to tender Shares or OCEANEs in the Offer will be irrevocable. The Offer and all related agreements are subject to French law. Any dispute or litigation of any nature whatsoever relating to the Offer will be brought before the competent courts. The transfer of ownership of the Shares and OCEANEs tendered in the Offer and all of the rights attached thereto (including the right to dividends) will occur on the date of registration in the Offeror's account, in accordance with the provisions of Article L. 211-17 of the French Monetary and Financial Code. It is reminded, if need be, that any amount due in connection with the tendering of the Shares and OCEANEs in the Offer will not bear interest and will be paid on the settlement-delivery date. 1.10.22 Procedure for tendering in the Offer directly on the market Shareholders and holders of OCEANEs of the Company who wish to tender their Shares and/or OCEANEs to the Offer may sell their Shares and/or OCEANEs on the market. They must submit their sale orders no later than the last day of the Offer and the settlement and delivery of the Shares and OCEANEs sold will take place on the second trading day following the day of execution of the orders, it being specified that the trading costs (including the corresponding brokerage fees and value-added tax ("VAT")) relating to these transactions will remain entirely at the expense of the shareholders or holders of OCEANEs tendering their Shares and/or OCEANEs in the Offer. Societe Generale, investment services provider qualified as a member of the bidding market to purchase, will acquire, on behalf of the Offeror, all Shares and OCEANEs which will be tendered in the Offer. As 2022 OCEANEs are trading in percentage of par value, those instruments will be purchased at 101.382% of the par value of EUR 100,000 per 2022 OCEANE, which corresponds to EUR 101,382.00. 1.10.23 Procedure for tendering in the semi-centralised Offer by Euronext Paris A procedure for tendering in the semi-centralised Offer has been set by Euronext Paris to allow for the reimbursement of the brokerage fees by the Offeror, under the conditions described in the Section 2.13 below. Shareholders and holders of OCEANEs of the Company who wish to tender their Shares and/or OCEANEs in the semi-centralized Offer by Euronext Paris must submit their sale offers to the financial intermediary with which their Shares or OCEANEs are deposited no later than the last day of the Offer (subject to specific time limits for certain financial intermediaries). The settlement-delivery will then occur after the completion of the semi-centralization transactions. In this context, the Offeror will bear the brokerage fees of the shareholders and holders of OCEANEs, under the conditions described in WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Financial software and solutions provider PowerPlan, Inc. Thursday announced a settlement with software company Lucasys, Inc. for an after-tax payment of $17.7 million.The pending litigation, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, releases all claims between the parties and specifically excludes any admission of liability or wrongdoing.PowerPlan, owned by Roper Technologies Inc. (ROP), intends to focus on its next-generation SaaS technology solutions, including Tax Fixed Assets, and prepare for the launch of its monthly Tax Provision SaaS solution.Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedCopyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Portfolio Exceeds $4 Billion in Retail Sales with the Addition of the Iconic Home, Fashion and Lifestyle Brand Marquee Brands, the global brand accelerator and owner of 17 world-renowned brands announces the strategic acquisition of Laura Ashley, the legacy home, fashion and lifestyle brand celebrated for its romantic English aesthetic, from Gordon Brothers, the global asset experts. Founded in 1953, Laura Ashley has become synonymous with timeless design, blending delicate florals, vintage-inspired motifs and exceptional craftsmanship across hundreds of products and categories. The strategic acquisition retains Laura Ashley's UK-based team and expands Marquee Brands' global footprint with the opening of its first European headquarters in London. Distributed in more than 80 countries through leading wholesalers, best-in-class digital marketplaces, and over 150 branded retail locations globally, the addition of Laura Ashley increases the retail value of Marquee Brands' global portfolio to $4 billion. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250102801787/en/ Courtesy of Laura Ashley "Laura Ashley's licensed business model and robust group of high-quality partners makes the brand a seamless addition to Marquee Brands. We are excited to harness the strong affinity for this iconic brand and drive expansion across new platforms and partnerships," said Heath Golden, CEO of Marquee Brands. "With the existing UK team in place, we are primed and ready to leverage Laura Ashley's seven-decade legacy to unlock its future potential as a full lifestyle brand innovating new products and categories, offering unique collaborations and engaging multi-generational audiences in key markets worldwide." "As a firm that actively invests in and revitalizes iconic brands like Laura Ashley, we acquired the British heritage brand out of insolvency in 2020 and built a flexible, scalable licensing business and a global e-commerce presence over the last four years," said Tobias Nanda, Head of Brands at Gordon Brothers. "We could not be prouder of Laura Ashley's growth under Carolyn D'Angelo's leadership, the former President of Laura Ashley, and know the brand is in the right hands for continued global growth under Marquee Brands' leadership." Building on its reputation for scaling iconic brands, Marquee Brands integrates Laura Ashley into its portfolio as a globally recognized lifestyle brand with a fully licensed operating model spanning the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and other leading markets across Asia. Laura Ashley operates in more than 200 lifestyle categories through a network of over 100 licensed partners with products available at thousands of points of sale. By leveraging its global network, Marquee Brands is poised to deepen Laura Ashley's presence, driving new business across North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, EMEA and other key regions. The acquisition of Laura Ashley marks the culmination of a transformative year for Marquee Brands. To support its accelerated growth to $4 billion and commitment to increasing organic revenue, Marquee Brands bolstered its executive team with the appointments of Rachel Terrace as Chief Commercial and Growth Officer, John Hayes as Chief Financial Officer, Joseph Zarro as Chief Business Development Officer and Natasha Fishman as Chief Marketing Officer. The addition of industry leaders has been instrumental in shaping Marquee Brands' upward trajectory. With key leadership in place, Marquee Brands kicks off 2025 well-positioned to drive expansion, optimize operational efficiencies and foster sustainable growth across its expanding portfolio. Lincoln International served as the exclusive financial advisor to Gordon Brothers in facilitating the completion of this transaction. ABOUT MARQUEE BRANDS Marquee Brands, established in 2014 by Neuberger Berman, is a globally recognized brand owner, licensor, marketer and media company. As a brand accelerator and a prominent licensor, Marquee Brands manages a portfolio of renowned brands with substantial consumer recognition. Marquee Brands strategically works to harness and grow the value of its brands by partnering with best-in-class operators across multiple channels, geographies and product sectors. Marquee's brand portfolio is organized into three distinct verticals: Home Culinary, Fashion Lifestyle and Active Outdoor, and encompasses timeless brands such as Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, Sur La Table, America's Test Kitchen, BCBG, Ben Sherman, Bruno Magli, Anti Social Social Club, Totes, Isotoner, Destination Maternity, Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in The Pod, Dakine and Body Glove. For more information visit, www.marqueebrands.com. ABOUT GORDON BROTHERS Since 1903, Gordon Brothers has maximized liquidity through realizable asset value by providing the people, expertise and capital to solve business challenges. Our solutions-oriented approach across asset services, lending, financing and trading gives clients the insights, strategies and time to optimize asset values throughout the business cycle. We work across the full spectrum of assets globally with deep expertise in retail, commercial, industrial, brands and real estate. We are headquartered in Boston with over 30 offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. For more information visit, www.gordonbrothers.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250102801787/en/ Contacts: For media inquiries, contact the Marquee Brands Press Office: Email: corporate@marqueebrands.com Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Parvis Invest Inc. (TSXV: PVIS) ("Parvis" or "the Company"), a technology-driven private investment platform dedicated to democratizing access to institutional-quality private investments, is reflecting on a transformative 2024 that delivered substantial growth and innovation in the alternative and private real estate investing space. In 2024, Parvis onboarded over 40 new issuers, introducing a broad range of offerings and strengthening existing partnerships. Platform accounts saw a 320% increase, while the investor network grew by 250%, underscoring the rising demand for private real estate and alternative opportunities. To meet this demand, Parvis strategically expanded its team, ensuring the capacity to maintain its high standards of service and innovation. These milestones align with the Company's vision of making high-quality real estate and alternative investments accessible to more investors across Canada. The company also reported a 523% increase in net revenue (Q1-Q2 FY25 vs. Q1-Q2 FY24), driven by growth in its EMDsolutions services and larger transaction volumes. Preliminary figures for Q4 2024 indicate a tenfold year-over-year increase in transaction volume, highlighting Parvis' ability to execute its growth strategy while responding to shifting market sentiment. These results have established a strong foundation for Parvis' ambitious plans for 2025. "The growth we've experienced in 2024 across issuers, investors, and our team has laid the groundwork for an even more impactful 2025," said David Michaud, CEO of Parvis. "Onboarding over 40 issuers, expanding our investor network by 250%, and doubling our team size reflect not only the increasing demand for private real estate investments but also our commitment to delivering innovative, efficient solutions to meet that demand." 2024 Business Highlights Transaction Volume: Achieved 2835% year-over-year growth, reflecting the platform's increasing adoption by issuers and investors alike. Achieved 2835% year-over-year growth, reflecting the platform's increasing adoption by issuers and investors alike. Investor Network Expansion: Grew the investor network by 250%, strengthening engagement and enabling access to institutional-grade real estate opportunities. Grew the investor network by 250%, strengthening engagement and enabling access to institutional-grade real estate opportunities. Platform Growth: Platform accounts increased by 320%, showcasing the platform's accessibility and appeal to a broader audience. Platform accounts increased by 320%, showcasing the platform's accessibility and appeal to a broader audience. Issuer Growth: Welcomed over 40 new issuers, providing EMDsolutions to support compliance, back-office operations, and marketing, allowing issuers to focus on growth and investor value. Welcomed over 40 new issuers, providing EMDsolutions to support compliance, back-office operations, and marketing, allowing issuers to focus on growth and investor value. Team Growth: Doubled team size from 8 to 14, reinforcing Parvis' capacity to meet the growing needs of its expanding issuer and investor communities. Looking Ahead to 2025 Parvis is entering 2025 with ambitious plans, including the January launch of the Parvis Direct Access Fund, a diversified fund offering best-in-class private real estate investments. Additionally, the company is ramping up its Secondary Market, providing liquidity in a traditionally illiquid asset class and enhancing investor flexibility. These initiatives demonstrate Parvis' dedication to delivering innovative, high-quality investment opportunities while continuing to build trust and value for its stakeholders. With a strong team and a clear strategy, Parvis is well-positioned to drive the next chapter of growth and transformation in the private real estate investing space. About Parvis Parvis is a technology-driven investment platform dedicated to democratizing access to institutional-quality opportunities. Utilizing AI and blockchain technology, Parvis streamlines the investment process, making it more accessible and efficient. Headquartered in Vancouver, Parvis operates with experts in Toronto, Vancouver, Kelowna, and Montreal. For more information, visit www.parvisinvest.com and SEDAR+. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information generally refers to information about an issuer's business, capital, or operations that is prospective in nature, and includes future-oriented financial information about the issuer's prospective financial performance or financial position. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions and includes information regarding: execution and integration of the investment offerings; and the Company's business plans and role in the investment industry. To develop the forward-looking information in this news release, the Company made certain material assumptions, including but not limited to: prevailing market conditions; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and the ability of the Company to execute and achieve its business objectives. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary from the forward-looking information in this news release due to certain material risk factors. These risk factors include, but are not limited to: adverse market conditions; changes in general economic, business and political conditions; changes in applicable laws and regulations; compliance with extensive government regulation; reliance on key and qualified personnel; risks associated with the real estate, investment, and technology industries in general. The foregoing list of material risk factors and assumptions is not exhaustive. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information in this news release, unless it is required to do so under Canadian securities legislation. Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction. Follow us on social media: Instagram: @ParvisInvest Facebook: ParvisInvest LinkedIn: Parvis To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235828 SOURCE: Parvis Invest Inc. Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Aleksandra Whiting Photography, a studio dedicated to photographing motherhood and babies, is offering three kinds of photography style sessions: maternity, newborn, and milestone. This is the perfect opportunity for parents to capture the unique bond between mother and child as an art form in order to preserve fleeting moments as cherished keepsakes for a lifetime. Aleksandra Whiting Photography The studio was named after Aleksandra Whiting herself, a photographer and mother of six who understands the profound love and tenderness shared between mothers and their children. Driven by a personal desire to document her own motherhood journey, Aleksandra created a space where mothers can have their stories beautifully told through stunning imagery. "Mother-child photography is more than just taking pictures," says Aleksandra. "It's about capturing the essence of this special connection, a timeless reminder of the love, joy, and tenderness that defines it." All of this magical photography happens at the private studio of Aleksandra Whiting Photography, where she has stored a lot of props, maternity gowns, backdrops, and almost anything that can be potentially used for a maternity, newborn, or milestone session. With over 15 years of experience and having done thousands of photography sessions, Aleksandra's passion of photographing motherhood and babies is a genuine dream come true for her. As Aleksandra has found her purpose in mother and child photography, she is now hoping to inspire other photographers to do the same. With her years of experience in the photography industry and her strong passion for the craft, Aleksandra has embarked on a new initiative to teach new photographers how to create client workflows and help them find their niche and self value as an artist. "Every photographer has the potential to achieve great success. By providing them with the necessary tools and guidance, I hope to empower them to build thriving businesses and pursue their passion for photography," Aleksandra shared. Aleksandra's mission is to empower photographers to thrive in today's competitive market by providing them with the tools and knowledge they need to excel. She believes that by understanding their personal style and identifying their target audience, photographers can create a sustainable and fulfilling business. Get in touch with Aleksandra Whiting by visiting her website at https://www.aleksandrawhiting.com/ and create lasting memories that will be cherished for the generations to come. Interested and hopeful photographers who are interested in learning from her can also watch her space to know more about Aleksandra's future workshops. About Aleksandra Whiting Photography Aleksandra Whiting Photography is a studio founded by Aleksandra Whiting that is dedicated to photographing motherhood and babies. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/231242 SOURCE: Brand Featured Moscow, Jan 2 (UNI) Ukraine has lost up to 1,200 soldiers in battles with Russian forces over the past day, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday. Kiev has lost over 460 servicemen and three armored fighting vehicles in clashes with Russias Zapad (West) group of forces, which also repelled six Ukrainian counterattacks, the ministry said in a daily bulletin. Russias Tsentr (Center) group of forces has eliminated up to 240 Ukrainian soldiers and repelled 13 counterattacks, while Russias Yug (South) group has continued advancing behind enemy lines, eliminating up to 210 Ukrainian troops and repelling four counterattacks, the statement read. Gilbert, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - A Race Against Blindness, an Arizona-based nonprofit organization, has awarded a $1 million grant to fund research and clinical trials focused on Bardet-Biedl Syndrome 1 (BBS1), a rare genetic disorder that leads to progressive blindness and metabolic complications in children. Nonprofit funding sight-saving research for children. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10926/235303_f77c7e6884db7b60_002full.jpg The grant will support Axovia Therapeutics, a UK-based biotechnology research company, in advancing the clinical trial of AXV-101, a gene therapy designed to address the vision loss and obesity associated with BBS1. The trial is scheduled to begin in the United Kingdom in mid-2025, with plans to expand to the United States in subsequent phases. "This $1 million in funding proves what can be achieved when family and community unify around a singular cause for change," said Dr. Stephen Johnston, Co-Founder of A Race Against Blindness. "The support for this clinical trial is a symbolic milestone for the community affected by both vision loss and rare diseases." Clinical Research to Address Bardet-Biedl Syndrome Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS) is caused by mutations in the BBS1 gene, affecting multiple organ systems and leading to significant vision loss and obesity. Retinal degradation, a hallmark of the syndrome, typically results in severe vision impairments or blindness by adolescence. The AXV-101 clinical trials aim to halt the progression of vision loss by targeting the underlying genetic cause. Additionally, the therapy is designed to address metabolic dysfunctions linked to BBS1, potentially providing comprehensive treatment for those affected. The funding from A Race Against Blindness helps enable Axovia Therapeutics to move forward with this critical research, marking an important step in the development of therapies for rare genetic disorders, including BBS and related conditions like retinitis pigmentosa. Co-Founder, Stephen Johnston, with his son, Luke, who is going blind. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10926/235303_f77c7e6884db7b60_004.jpg A Personal Mission with Global Impact A Race Against Blindness was founded by Dr. Stephen Johnston and Kristina Johnston when their son was diagnosed with BBS. Through creative fundraising initiatives, the nonprofit has rallied thousands of supporters nationwide. These efforts have helped advance research into rare genetic conditions while raising awareness about the importance of addressing rare diseases. "We began this journey to help our son, but it has grown into something far bigger," said Dr. Johnston. "Every dollar raised reflects hope. Our family will keep pushing, fundraising, and believing we can save the eyesight of children affected by RP/BBS, and eventually make even bigger impacts for the rare disease community as a whole. This journey continues." The organization is deeply rooted in the rare diseases community, where research often goes underfunded. Through public support, A Race Against Blindness has demonstrated that meaningful change is possible even for the most challenging and overlooked medical conditions. Advancing Rare Disease Research The AXV-101 clinical trial will be a significant step forward in gene therapy for Bardet-Biedl Syndrome. This research highlights the broader applications of gene therapy in treating rare diseases. As advancements in genetic medicine continue, therapies like AXV-101 have the potential to transform the standard of care for conditions that previously had limited or no treatment options. To learn more about A Race Against Blindness and its mission, and to join upcoming fundraising initiatives, please visit http://www.araceagainstblindness.org. About A Race Against Blindness A Race Against Blindness is a nonprofit organization based in Arizona dedicated to funding research and advancing treatments for progressive vision loss caused by rare genetic conditions such as Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Founded by Dr. Stephen Johnston and Kristina Johnston, the organization was inspired by their personal experience with their son's diagnosis of a vision-loss condition. A Race Against Blindness focuses on supporting clinical research, raising awareness, and engaging communities through creative fundraising efforts. By addressing the gaps in resources and attention often faced by rare diseases, the organization aims to bring hope and meaningful solutions to affected children and their families. About Axovia Therapeutics Axovia Therapeutics is a biotechnology research company focused on developing advanced gene therapies for ciliopathies, including Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS). Specializing in adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies, Axovia aims to address the root causes of genetic disorders by targeting neurological, metabolic, and retinal dysfunctions. With a commitment to improving the lives of patients and their families, Axovia is advancing innovative treatments like AXV-101, designed to prevent blindness and mitigate metabolic complications associated with BBS. ### To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235303 SOURCE: Brand Featured Trust Consulting Services (Trust), a leading provider of professional services and innovative solutions, is pleased to announce its award of a SeaPort Next Generation (SeaPort NxG) prime contract. This prestigious contract positions Trust to deliver critical support services to the U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense (DoD) entities, furthering its commitment to national defense and mission readiness. SeaPort NxG, the Navy's electronic procurement portal, provides a streamlined and efficient contracting platform to acquire engineering, technical, and programmatic support services. As a prime contractor, Trust will play a pivotal role in supporting the Navy's missions, ensuring operational excellence and the advancement of critical capabilities. "This is a significant milestone for Trust Consulting Services and a testament to our dedication to supporting the Department of Defense," said James Radford, CEO of Trust Consulting Services. "As a SeaPort NxG prime contractor, we are excited to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions that empower our Navy partners and ensure mission success." Through this contract, Trust will offer a range of services, including: Engineering and Programmatic Support: Delivering expertise to enhance operational performance. Cybersecurity and IT Solutions: Strengthening digital infrastructure and safeguarding mission-critical information. Training and Workforce Development: Equipping personnel with the skills needed for mission readiness. This award underscores Trust's reputation for delivering exceptional performance in support of national security initiatives. As part of the SeaPort NxG program, Trust will have the opportunity to compete for task orders across a wide spectrum of services, benefiting both the Navy and its workforce. "Our success in securing this contract reflects our team's dedication and deep expertise in providing tailored solutions for the U.S. Navy," said Eric Bynes, COO. "We are honored to contribute to the SeaPort NxG program and look forward to advancing the Navy's mission with innovation and precision." Trust Consulting Services' selection as a SeaPort NxG prime contractor further solidifies its position as a trusted partner for government and defense organizations. About Trust Consulting Services Trust Consulting Services is a leading provider of professional services, specializing in acquisitions, security, and workforce development. With a focus on delivering innovative and mission-critical solutions, Trust is committed to empowering organizations and communities to achieve their goals. Contact Information Patton Hunnicutt Marketing Manager pattonh@tcsservices.net 2028884567 James Radford Marketing jamesr@tcsservices.net (202) 888-4567 SOURCE: Trust Consulting Services View the original press release on accesswire.com NowVertical to realize additional cash savings of approximately US$970K NowVertical's core leadership aligned with shareholder value through debt settlement agreement Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - NowVertical Group Inc. (TSXV: NOW) ("NowVertical" or the "Company"), a leading data analytics and AI solutions provider, today announced it has entered into a debt settlement agreement with the former owners of Acrotrend Solutions Ltd. (the "Vendors"). The Vendors include Sandeep Mendiratta, NowVertical's CEO, who is a key part of the Company's core leadership team, have agreed to settle an aggregate entitlement of US$815,000, from the US$1,055,000 owing to the Vendors as of December 31, 2024, through the issuance of Class A subordinate voting shares of NowVertical (the "Subordinate Voting Shares"). Subject to receipt of TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") approval, the Company will issue an aggregate of 3,553,646 Subordinate Voting Shares (collectively, the "Settlement Shares") to the Vendors at a price of C$0.33 per share (the "Settlement Price"), representing an approximate 11% discount to the last closing price of the Subordinate Shares on the TSXV. Additionally, the Vendors have agreed to defer the remaining US$240,000 of cash payments that became owing to the Vendors on January 1, 2025, spreading it into 12 equal monthly installments of US$20,000 throughout 2025. Following the issuance of the Settlement Shares, the only remaining obligations to the Vendors will be the payment of the US$240,000. For further details of the prior obligations to the Vendors which have been settled, please see the Company's press releases of April 23, 2024, and June 12, 2024, copies of which are available under the Company's profile on www.sedarplus.com. In a separate agreement, the Company and Andre Garber, NowVertical's Chief Development Officer, have entered into a debt settlement agreement to settle an outstanding debt of US$151,200 related to a 2021 cash bonus. Subject to receipt of TSXV approval, the cash bonus will be settled through the issuance of 659,278 Subordinate Voting Shares at the Settlement Price. These agreements, combined with the previously announced LATAM market unit debt-to-equity conversion, deliver total cash outflow savings of approximately US$1.6 million, significantly supporting NowVertical's organic growth strategy. "In 2024, we completely transformed the business to position it for profitable and sustainable organic growth," said Sandeep Mendiratta, CEO of NowVertical. "The growth potential of this business has allowed us to strengthen our balance sheet and further align our passionate management team with fellow shareholders as we progress toward achieving our US$50 million revenue run rate and 20% best-in-class EBITDA margin financial goals. With a substantial reduction in our cash outflows in 2025, we can now focus our energies on accelerating organic growth earlier than anticipated." In the event the Settlement Shares have not been issued to the Vendors by March 31, 2025, the US$815,000 that is being settled through the issuance of such shares will become due and payable upon notice from the Vendors to the Company. Upon issuance, the Settlement Shares will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus a day from the issuance date, as per applicable securities regulations. In addition, the Vendors and Andre Garber have agreed to a contractual lock-up for twelve (12) months from the issuance date. Additionally, the Vendors have agreed to vote in favour of board recommendations for director elections until June 30, 2025, but retain the right to abstain from voting during this period. Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Related Party Transactions Sandeep Mendiratta is the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company and Andre Garber is the Chief Development Officer and Corporate Secretary of the Company. As a result, the entering into of the debt settlement agreements and certain of the transactions contemplated thereby are considered to be a "related party transaction", subject to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Related Party Transaction ("MI 61-101"). Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Company is exempt from the formal valuation requirement per sections 5.5(a) and 5.5(b) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the subject matter of either of the transactions, nor the fair market value of the consideration for those transactions, insofar as it involves interested parties, exceeds 25% percent of the Company's market capitalization and the Company is not listed on any of the exchanges specified in 5.5(b) of MI 61-101. The Company further confirms that it has not obtained any valuations relevant to the transactions in the 24 months preceding entering into the debt settlement agreements. In addition, the Company is exempt from the requirement to obtain minority shareholder approval per section 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101, as neither the fair market value of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involves interested parties, exceeds 25% percent of the Company's market capitalization. The terms of the debt settlements were settled through arm's length negotiations between the independent directors of the Company and each of Sandeep Mendiratta and Andre Garber. The entering into of debt settlements and the transactions contemplated thereby was considered and unanimously recommended to the Company's board of directors by the independent members of the Company's board of directors, having regard to, among other things, the impact of the transactions on the Company's balance sheet, liquidity and overall stability, and, upon such recommendation, the board of directors unanimously approved the transaction with Sandeep Mendiratta and Andre Garber declaring their interests and Sandeep Mendiratta recusing himself from any deliberations or voting on the transactions. The Company did not file a material change report 21 days in advance of implementing the transactions as the negotiations were only recently concluded. Early Warning Disclosure Sandeep Mendiratta currently beneficially owns or has control or direction over, directly or indirectly, 8,734,742 Subordinate Voting Shares, representing approximately 10.3% of the currently issued and outstanding Subordinate Voting Shares. Following completion of the debt settlement transactions contemplated in this press release, Sandeep Mendiratta will own or have control or direction over, directly or indirectly, 10,511,565 Subordinate Voting Shares which will represent approximately 11.8% of the issued and outstanding Subordinate Voting Shares. The acquisition of the Subordinate Voting Shares by Sandeep Mendiratta was completed by way of issuance from treasury for investment purposes in connection with the debt settlement. Depending on market conditions, Sandeep Mendiratta may, from time to time, acquire additional securities, dispose of some or all of the existing or additional securities or may continue to hold the securities of the NowVertical. This press release is being issued pursuant to the requirements of National Instrument 62-104 - Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, which also requires an early warning report to be filed containing additional information with respect to the foregoing matters. A copy of the early warning report will be made available on SEDAR+ under NowVertical's issuer profile at www.sedarplus.com. For further information and to obtain a copy of the early warning report. To obtain a copy of the early warning report, please contact Andre Garber, Corporate Secretary of NowVertical via email at IR@nowvertical.com or at its head office of 545 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1M1. About NowVertical Group Inc. The Company is a global data and analytics company which helps clients transform data into tangible business value with AI, fast. Offering a comprehensive suite of solutions and services the Company enables clients to quickly harness the full potential of their data, driving measurable outcomes and accelerating potential return on investment. Enterprises optimize decision-making, improve operational efficiency, and unlock long-term value from their data using the Company's AI-Infused first party and third-party technologies. NowVertical is growing organically and through strategic acquisitions. For further details about NowVertical, please visit www.nowvertical.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary note regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws (together "forward-looking statements"), including, without limitation: statements pertaining to the ability of the Company to realize cash savings, the approval of the TSXV and the issuance of the Settlement Shares, the alignment of the Company's leadership and shareholders, and the associated results of the transactions contemplated in this press release on NowVertical's business, finances and operations. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, and contingencies, certain of which are unknown. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "will", "could", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe" or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and the forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by inherent risks and uncertainties, including: adverse market conditions; risks inherent in the data analytics and artificial intelligence sectors in general; regulatory and legislative changes; that future results may vary from historical results; inability to obtain any requisite future financing on suitable terms; any inability to realize the expected benefits and synergies of acquisitions or dispositions; that market competition may affect the business, results and financial condition of the Company and other risk factors identified in documents filed by the Company under its profile at www.sedarplus.com, including the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2023. Further, these forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, except as expressly required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235848 SOURCE: NowVertical Group Inc. NB Advisors Brings Tailored Financial Expertise to Boost Kissimmee's Thriving Business Community NB Advisors, a leading accounting firm committed to empowering small businesses, is proud to announce the launch of its new location in Kissimmee, Florida. This expansion marks an exciting opportunity for local business owners to access comprehensive financial services tailored to the unique economic landscape of Kissimmee. Known for its vibrant culture and world-class attractions, Kissimmee is a city bustling with energy and potential. While the job market experienced a 10.4% decline over the past year, future job growth is projected at an impressive 45.5% over the next decade , far outpacing the national average of 33.5%. Tourism plays a crucial role in the local economy, supporting 450,000 jobs and generating a staggering $87.6 billion in economic impact annually across Central Florida. NB Advisors' Kissimmee office is strategically positioned to help local businesses harness these opportunities and tackle the challenges of operating in a dynamic environment. As a trusted Kissimmee small business accountant, NB Advisors offers: Tax Planning and Compliance: Ensure accuracy and optimize returns with proactive strategies. Bookkeeping Services: Simplify day-to-day financial management. CFO Advisory: Leverage expert insights for strategic decision-making. Quarterly Financial Reviews: Stay informed and agile in a competitive market. "Kissimmee is a city full of opportunities and challenges," said Ryan Niedoba, Managing Partner at NB Advisors. "With its thriving tourism industry and rapid future job growth, it's an exciting time for local businesses. We're thrilled to support entrepreneurs with the financial tools they need to thrive in this dynamic market." Kissimmee's economic profile underscores the importance of strategic financial management. While the city benefits from a 0.0% income tax rate - compared to the national average of 4.6% - the cost of living is slightly higher due to elevated housing and grocery costs. NB Advisors' expert services are designed to help businesses adapt to these factors and maintain profitability. Local business owners are encouraged to schedule a free consultation with NB Advisors to explore how tailored accounting solutions can drive their success. For more information on this Kissimmee small business accountant, visit https://nbcpa.us/small-business-accountant-kissimmee-fl/ or call (856) 263-2626. About NB Advisors: NB Advisors is a fourth-generation family-owned accounting firm headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, dedicated to helping small businesses minimize their tax burden and maximize profitability. With decades of experience, we offer personalized and innovative strategies to save clients $100K to $1M in taxes while ensuring sustainable business growth. Led by Ryan and Kevin Niedoba, NB Advisors takes pride in treating each client's business as their own, offering proactive, world-class service with a commitment to transparency and excellence. SOURCE: NB Advisors View the original press release on accesswire.com Top Accounting Firm Expands to Oceanside, Providing Tailored Financial Services for Small Businesses in a Vibrant Beach Community Accountant Partners is excited to announce the opening of its new office in Oceanside, California, as part of its ongoing expansion. This move is in response to the increasing demand for expert financial services in one of San Diego County's most dynamic and diverse communities. Known for its sandy beaches, surfing opportunities, and vibrant nightlife, Oceanside is a hub for both residents and visitors. The city's bustling economy is anchored by its popular beaches, local art galleries, museums, and performing arts centers such as the Star Theatre and California Surf Museum. Oceanside also benefits from its proximity to major transportation routes and its community of popular local brands like Swami's Cafe and Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub offering unique experiences to both tourists and locals alike. "We're thrilled to establish our new office in Oceanside, a city that offers a blend of beautiful beaches and a thriving local economy," said Allan Bayer, senior partner at Accountant Partners. "Our team is committed to providing personalized accounting solutions that will help local businesses succeed in a competitive and growing market." Oceanside's economy offers a robust environment for small businesses to thrive. Despite an unemployment rate of 7.4% and a recent job market decrease of -8.6%, the city is home to numerous vibrant sectors from tourism to retail, making it an ideal location for entrepreneurs. Accountant Partners will offer a full suite of services including tax planning, bookkeeping, and strategic financial advisory to help small businesses navigate the financial challenges they face. The city's median household income of $86,701 and median property value of $644,600 reflect its growing prosperity and appeal. With the city government's strong fiscal management and business-friendly policies, Oceanside continues to be an attractive destination for both new businesses and established companies looking to expand. As part of its ongoing commitment to supporting local entrepreneurs, Accountant Partners invites Oceanside business owners to schedule a free consultation and discover how the firm's accounting services can foster long-term financial stability. For more information, visit https://accountantpartners.com/small-business-accountant-oceanside/ or call (844) 703-0880. About Accountant Partners: Headquartered in Irvine, CA, Accountant Partners is a leading small business accounting firm helping business owners save up to $1M per year in taxes through partner-level accounting, reporting, and strategic advisory. With 27 years of experience, Accountant Partners specializes in best-in-class tax minimization strategies, personalized advisory, and technology-driven efficiency. SOURCE: Accountant Partners View the original press release on accesswire.com The CDC Estimates Around 385,000 Needlestick and Sharps-Related Injuries Among Healthcare Workers Annually in the U.S. In light of growing concern over needlestick injuries, BioMedical Waste Solutions, a leading medical waste disposal company, with locations in Miami, FL, is dedicated to educating the public on the risks of improperly disposing of medical waste, including needles. The CDC states that roughly 385,000 needlestick and sharps-related injuries occur each year among healthcare workers in the U.S. This number is likely underreported, especially in private residences where elderly individuals and the 38.4 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes rely on needle use daily. The World Health Organization (WHO) has noted the dangers of sharps injuries in spreading diseases, citing global annual infection rates among healthcare workers as: About 2,005,000 cases of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) 66,000 cases of hepatitis B virus (HBV) 16,000 cases of hepatitis C virus (HCV) Exposure to these infections could lead to various long-term health problems, disabilities, and death. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) notes that a third of sharps injuries occur at the point of disposal, highlighting the critical need for strict medical waste disposal practices to protect healthcare workers and the public. To address this significant issue, the Miami medical waste disposal company BioMedical Waste Solutions has released The Definitive Guide to Medical Waste Disposal in 2024. This guide offers vital information on the safe disposal of needles, syringes, and other sharp objects, reflecting the company's dedication to enhancing safety and preventing the spread of infections through proper waste management. The guide outlines five essential tips for preventing needlestick injuries: Use containers approved by the FDA for sharps disposal. Do not overfill disposal containers. Refrain from reaching into disposal containers. Do not recap needles. Ensure sharp objects and disposal containers are kept out of children's reach. JP Richards, Director of Communications at BioMedical Waste Solutions, remarked, "The rising number of needlestick injuries and their serious implications for healthcare workers and the community are concerning. Our guide is crucial for preventing these injuries and ensuring the safety of healthcare providers and individuals handling needles at home. We are committed to delivering reliable Miami medical waste disposal solutions. Together, we can mitigate the risks associated with needlestick injuries." As a leading Miami medical waste disposal company, BioMedical Waste Solutions urges healthcare facilities, professionals, and individuals using needles to use its comprehensive guide for effective sharps and medical waste disposal. The company's expertise and advanced technology guides you in the safe handling, transport, and disposal of medical waste, adhering to the highest national, state, and local standards. For further details on safe medical waste disposal or to view the guide from BioMedical Waste Solutions, please visit our website at https://www.biomedicalwastesolutions.com/medical-waste-disposal/ or reach out directly at 346-660-4994 or JPRichards@BioMedicalWasteSolutions.com . About BioMedical Waste Solutions: BioMedical Waste Solutions is a leading medical waste disposal company dedicated to providing safe and reliable solutions for the management and disposal of medical waste. With a commitment to environmental responsibility and public health, the company serves healthcare facilities, private practices, dental offices, veterinarians and laboratories across America. BioMedical Waste Solutions offers comprehensive services to ensure the proper collection, transportation, and disposal of medical waste, including sharps, in compliance with all regulatory requirements. SOURCE: Biomedical Waste Solutions View the original press release on accesswire.com Atlanta, Georgia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Atlanta-based injury law firm Monge & Associates has expanded its services to support victims of nursing home abuse and neglect in Suwanee, McDonough, and Stone Mountain. The firm's announcement addresses the growing crisis of elder mistreatment and ensuring justice for vulnerable individuals who have suffered from physical abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation. With a reputation for winning results, the firm offers a lifeline to families seeking legal recourse against negligent care facilities. Monge & Associates stands with nursing home abuse victims in Suwanee, McDonough, and Stone Mountain, providing trusted legal advocacy for justice and accountability. The expansion comes amidst an increase in cases. Nursing home abuse and neglect cases often involve a complex intersection of state and federal regulations, making legal representation essential to achieving a fair resolution. Monge & Associates brings a track record of successful advocacy in personal injury law to the fight for elder rights. The firm's attorneys thoroughly investigate incidents of abuse, from inadequate staffing and substandard medical care to instances of emotional or physical harm. Families are encouraged to act quickly to protect their loved ones and secure justice. For additional information or a free consultation, visit Monge & Associates or call (888) 477-0597. The announcement has been well received as legal claims related to nursing home abuse often involve significant challenges, such as identifying liable parties and collecting evidence to support a case. Monge & Associates works closely with families, medical experts, and witnesses to uncover the truth behind these devastating incidents. Victims may suffer from bedsores, malnutrition, unexplained injuries, or emotional trauma. In more egregious cases, elder financial exploitation and wrongful death lawsuits arise. The firm's attorneys pursue maximum compensation to cover medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other damages, ensuring victims and their families are not left to face these burdens alone. The impact of nursing home neglect extends far beyond physical injuries, often leading to long- term emotional and psychological effects. Residents subjected to neglect or abuse may experience anxiety, depression, and diminished quality of life. Monge & Associates emphasizes the importance of holding nursing homes accountable for failing to provide the standard of care required under law. By addressing systemic issues within care facilities, the firm seeks not only to win cases for clients but also to prevent future incidents of elder mistreatment. Reports of abuse in nursing homes and assisted living facilities highlight a troubling public health issue affecting vulnerable adults. Elderly residents, particularly those with cognitive impairment or cognitive decline, face a heightened risk of abuse due to their dependence on nursing home staff for daily care. Common abuse types include physical violence, emotional harm, financial abuse, and verbal abuse, each of which can severely impact an elderly patient's physical health and quality of life. Nursing home abuse attorneys emphasize the importance of identifying and addressing these issues promptly to ensure the safety and dignity of nursing home patients. Warning signs of abuse in nursing homes often go unnoticed, placing nursing home residents at continued risk of harm. Indicators such as unexplained head injuries, social isolation, emotional abuse, and neglect in nursing homes may point to a failure of duty of care. Elder abuse victims may also exhibit signs of elder neglect, such as malnutrition, dehydration, or a decline in mental or physical health. Nursing home abuse lawyers work diligently to investigate these warning signs and hold negligent long-term care facilities accountable for their failure to provide adequate care. Neglect and abuse within nursing facilities stem from systemic issues such as understaffing and inadequate training for nursing staff. These shortcomings can lead to substandard care to residents, increasing the prevalence of abuse and neglect in nursing homes. Victims of abuse in long-term care facilities often suffer from psychological abuse, sexual abuse, or even bodily harm. Nursing home abuse attorneys collaborate with health care providers and review medical records to document the extent of the harm and build strong cases on behalf of elderly adults who have been wronged. Legal action against nursing care facilities often involves complex nursing home abuse cases requiring extensive investigations and evidence gathering. Elder abuse lawyers pursue nursing home abuse lawsuits to ensure justice for victims of abuse while highlighting systemic failures within nursing home facilities. By seeking accountability and compensation, these legal professionals work to secure high-quality care standards for current and future nursing home residents. This approach not only addresses immediate risks for abuse but also promotes long-term improvements in care quality for elderly adults in health care facilities. With the rise in elder abuse cases, Monge & Associates leverages its winning approach to deliver justice for victims and families. The firm's legal team employs in-depth investigations, strategic litigation, and compassionate client support to bring accountability to nursing home operators and staff. Families in Suwanee, McDonough, and Stone Mountain can now rely on Monge & Associates for the legal expertise needed to navigate these challenging cases and secure fair compensation for their loved ones. The attorneys at Monge & Associates have been recognized for their efforts in safeguarding the rights of vulnerable populations. Through tireless dedication and a focus on winning strategies, the firm continues to set the standard for legal advocacy in nursing home abuse and neglect cases. By providing transparent communication and personalized guidance, Monge & Associates ensures clients are informed and empowered throughout the legal process. Listen to Scott Monge, founder and CEO of Monge & Associates, offer an in-depth look at his journey through personal injury law on The Attorney Post podcast. About Monge & Associates: Located in Atlanta, Georgia, Monge & Associates serves a diverse clientele across the Southeast. The firm provides expert legal services in personal injury, wrongful death, and elder abuse cases. Its attorneys handle a broad spectrum of claims, including nursing home abuse, motor vehicle accidents, defective product litigation, and more. Monge & Associates is dedicated to securing justice for accident victims and maintaining its reputation as a trusted advocate for those in need of legal representation. With a sole focus on personal injury law, Monge & Associates operates on a contingency fee structure, ensuring clients pay nothing unless their case is won. The firm's Big Settlement Guarantee and Client Satisfaction Guarantee reflect its commitment to achieving outstanding results. For more information or to schedule a consultation, visit Monge & Associates or call (888) 477-0597. Atlanta-based Monge & Associates expands support for nursing home neglect cases in Suwanee, McDonough, and Stone Mountain, fighting for the rights of vulnerable residents. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235269 SOURCE: Monge & Associates Injury And Accident Attorneys When Lusnail Haberberger didn't see the professional opportunities she wanted, she engineered them through her company LUZCO Technologies, which treats people like family and delivers top-notch, multimillion-dollar transmission and distribution projects. LUZCO Technologies boasts all the hallmarks of excellence one expects of a leading electrical engineering firm. It provides services in transmission and distribution line design, substation engineering, project management, cost control and scheduling, data and business analytics, environmental support, and Lean Six Sigma training, and it's known for delivering high-quality projects on time and within budget. For founder and CEO Lusnail Haberberger, PE, PMP, these achievements are secondary to the company's mission of creating lasting change. "Our vision is to develop leaders and improve communities through economic stability," she says. "Engineering is a means to deliver what we want." Familia First, Quality Always Haberberger's entrepreneurial instincts emerged from personal adventures. She was born and raised in Venezuela, but after graduating from high school, her parents sent her to learn English in Seattle in the hopes that an English education would grant her better opportunities back home. After learning English, instead of returning to Venezuela, she took calculus classes at a community college, eventually transferring to The University of Texas at Austin to major in electrical engineering. It was there that she met her future husband, inspiring her decision to officially make the United States her home. While working as an engineer for various utility companies, Haberberger dreamed about running her own company. When she became pregnant, the realities of establishing a work-life balance became painfully clear. "I struggled to be the perfect mother while pursuing a career," says Haberberger. "My mother gave up her career when she had children, and she regretted it. I didn't want that experience." That inner conflict, combined with what she saw as a lack of progressive values in the engineering field, inspired Haberberger to launch LUZCO-a company where professional goals don't require sacrificing familial responsibilities. "People, especially parents, need flexibility," says Haberberger. "You won't be judged if you leave our office at 3 p.m. to pick up your kid, because you'll see the CEO do it too." This familia-based culture improves client experiences as well, says Haberberger. "We deliver high-quality service on time and within budget, and I treat my employees like family. This culture lets them go the extra mile for our clients." Under Haberberger's leadership, LUZCO has attracted diverse talent-something she credits to the power of representation. "There are not many Latina CEOs running engineering firms," she says. "The talent we hire wants to work with people they relate to at a place that genuinely cares about them." Diversity yields benefits for LUZCO and the industry at large by inviting new perspectives and attracting engineering professionals of color to a field in need of fresh talent. The ripple effects don't stop there, says Haberberger. "We're using engineering as a means to an end," she concludes. "If I give someone opportunities to grow professionally that impacts their family and their community for generations." Contact Information Christine Yount cyount@luzco.com 314-312-3966 SOURCE: LUZCO Technologies View the original press release on accesswire.com Wireless channel leaders combine forces to create a new brand with an eventual American factory presence. Leadership from Richmond, Virginia-based wireless channel leader Connected Solutions Group (CSG) and China-based telecommunications manufacturer Gl.iNet have announced a new American joint venture to bring quality connectivity products to the North American market. Bolt Brands, LLC; a Delaware-based corporation, will feature carrier-agnostic connectivity products built for small businesses and focused on ease of use and world-class customer support. The new brand - KATALYST - will begin marketing products in 2025 with the goal of bringing a factory presence to the USA as soon as possible. "To say we are excited is a severe understatement," CSG CEO Michael Pittman shared. "The knowledge we have amassed with actual hands-on experience with thousands of SMB customers deploying fixed wireless access puts our product developers in such a unique position to truly understand what the customer desires," he said. "To have a factory partner who has the forethought and genuine desire to create real value from that feedback has been transformational in how we view hardware and the ultimate customer experience. While the hardware must work and have features catered directly to the business, the ease of implementation and real-time support is truly what will separate the KATALYST brand in our targeted segments." GL.iNet President and CEO Jin Zhao brings 20 years of product development and factory automation into the joint venture. "Our partners have proven to have a wealth of knowledge in what business customers expect in North America, and we have greatly enjoyed the team approach in catering to these needs," Mr. Zhao commented. "By aligning our quality products with their marketing vision and customer-first model - we are confident we can deliver something special." The branding for KATALYST will be bold, simple, and matter-of-fact. "I have no doubt that our messaging will resonate strongly with our customers," Pittman continued. "This will not be your run-of-the-mill tech stack presentation in suits and ties and slide shows," he commented. "We are going to meet the customer where they truly are, working their tails off to meet their payroll, and our messaging will be so clear and simple and different. The products will reflect that ease of use." The ultimate goal of an actual factory presence could begin as early as late 2025. "We are in advanced discovery processes to bringing a physical factory presence to the USA which will be a dream come true for us," Zhao stated."Our current landscape includes options outside of mainland China and we are expanding them rapidly while fine-tuning our processes and automation to be most efficient for our eventual American facility - and bring jobs with us." The KATALYST brand will launch with global-ready 5G, and LTE fixed wireless access products but will expand into WiFi products and a host of other business-focused IT hardware solutions. Distribution partners are currently being added. "We hold a very special place in our heart for small business, and we understand their plight," Pittman said. "Our brand and products will offer value and experience that will be hard to match." "We will make products that work great and are simple to use," Zhao added. "The marketing and distribution knowledge that our American partners possess, along with the desire to handhold the customer through the process will make the KATALYST brand special." Bolt Brands, LLC dba Katalyst is a completely separate operating entity from Connected Solutions Group and Gli-Net and is in no way a merger of the mentioned corporations. Devices will be certified on all Tier-1 carrier networks in North America but only as a hardware manufacturer and will not be participating in co-selling or activation programs. For questions or press and media relations please reach out to Mr. Pittman himself at mpittman@katalystbrand.com or schedule a call via his Junior Chief of Staff Caitlyn Sharpe at csharpe@katalystbrand.com. CES Booth Location: 8352 North Hall LVCC. SOURCE: Katalyst Brand View the original press release on accesswire.com Melbourne, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Classico Painting, a family-owned enterprise renowned for its exceptional painting services across metropolitan Melbourne, has announced the release of a comprehensive guide titled "The Psychology of Color." This new resource is now available on their website, offering valuable insights into how color choices can influence mood, perception, and overall design aesthetics. The Psychology of Color With a strong reputation built on personalized service and meticulous attention to detail, Classico Painting continues to innovate by providing educational resources that empower homeowners, property managers, and design enthusiasts. The guide explores the psychological effects of different colors, helping readers make informed decisions when selecting hues for their spaces. "The Psychology of Color" guide is designed to bridge the gap between aesthetic appeal and emotional impact, offering practical advice on how to use color effectively in various settings. From calming blues to energizing reds, the guide covers a spectrum of colors, each with its unique influence on human emotions and behavior. "Understanding the psychological impact of color is crucial for creating spaces that not only look beautiful but also feel harmonious," said Giancarlo Stangherlin, CEO of Classico Painting. "Our new guide aims to provide our clients and the broader community with the knowledge they need to make color choices that enhance their living and working environments." Classico Painting's commitment to excellence is reflected in their latest initiative, which underscores their dedication to not only delivering quality painting services but also educating their clients. The guide is part of a broader effort to support the community with resources that enhance both residential and commercial spaces. Known for their quick response times and efficient project turnaround, Classico Painting has consistently demonstrated their ability to meet the diverse needs of their clients. This new guide further solidifies their position as a trusted partner for property managers and homeowners alike, offering insights that extend beyond traditional painting services. For those interested in exploring the psychological dimensions of color and its application in design, "The Psychology of Color" guide is an invaluable resource. Classico Painting invites everyone to visit their website and discover how thoughtful color choices can transform any space into a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing environment. About Classico Painting Classico Painting is a family-owned painting enterprise serving metropolitan Melbourne that combines traditional values with professional excellence. Working with home owners, body corporate, and property management solutions, the company distinguishes itself through personalized service, meticulous attention to detail, and comprehensive clean-up practices. Known for their quick response times and efficient project turnaround, Classico Painting has built a strong reputation through client referrals and their commitment to problem-solving. Their service model bridges the gap between individual care and commercial capability, making them a trusted partner for property managers across Melbourne. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235853 SOURCE: Classico Painting Whether you are a budding entrepreneur, a researcher in the future, or just figuring out your career path, you're better off with a strong network on your back during your college years. Networking in college opens up opportunities that may not have existed otherwise. From finding an internship to getting advice from industry insiders, networking will form the basis for your success. Importance of Networking in College According to University Lab Partners, one of the reasons networking in college is very important is the access to valuable resources and connections. Professors, alumni, and guest speakers are usually well-connected in their fields and can introduce you to people or organizations that align with your career goals. Believe it or not but you are likely to get more interest from an alumnus who has passed through the same hall as you. You can engage with professionals who can guide you or recommend you for opportunities by attending college-organized networking events, career fairs, and workshops. Another important college networking advantage is the ability to improve your communication and interpersonal skills. Building Professional Relationships In college, talking to new people, self-introduction, and handling professional relationships are some of the essential abilities that you need to work on. However, some colleges provide relatively low pressure for practicing them. With networking, you can give yourself an edge in further doing job interviews and professional interactions. For instance, in a club or an industry event, you could learn how to create the right first impression by confident expression of your passion, while listening to others appropriately. Because networking helps you understand your chosen industry or field, the next step is talking to professionals, alumni, or peers of like-minded individuals to better understand the job market and possible career options by emerging trends. These conversations can help you refine your career goals and make informed decisions about internships, further education, or job applications. Referrals Another thing is that college life can help you build a network that opens up hidden job markets. There are several opportunities in competitive fields that are almost never publicly advertised. Instead, these positions are filled through referrals and recommendations. Forbes shared that networking in college will increase your chances of hearing about these openings and being considered for them since you've already established a rather long and strong connection with whoever is associated with this opportunity. A former classmate, a professor, or an industry contact might recommend you for a position simply because they know your work ethic and abilities. Head Start Finally, networking in college can bring lifelong benefits. What you make today may become crucial professional connections tomorrow. If you're looking to change careers or industries or even start your business, your college connections will give you a head start. Maintaining these relationships after graduation ensures your network grows with you to provide support throughout your entire career. For a long time, perhaps, you thought networking in college was just exchanging contact information. However, it's also about selling your competitive edge to people who will soon be included in a web of relationships that can support your career aspirations. As early as now, you can take the time to connect with your peers, professors, and others in the industry to help set yourself up for long-term success. Not everyone is extroverted so you can simply start small by attending events, doing small talks, and learning how to socialize well. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Easy Renovation, a leading home improvement company specializing in kitchen, bathroom, and basement renovations, has released a comprehensive study identifying the top five best and worst Canadian cities for homebuyers in 2024. The study sheds light on the factors influencing housing affordability and desirability, helping prospective homebuyers make informed decisions about their next move. 2024 Housing Shortages in Canadian Cities By analyzing housing market trends, affordability, quality of life, and economic prospects, the study offers valuable insights into which cities provide the most opportunities for homebuyers and which present significant challenges. In a housing market that remains competitive and unpredictable, this research aims to empower Canadians with actionable knowledge. Key Metrics Behind the Rankings The study evaluates cities based on five primary criteria: Affordability: Average home prices relative to median household income. Housing Availability: The supply of homes for sale. Cost of Living: Expenses such as utilities, groceries, and transportation. Economic Opportunities: Employment prospects and average income levels. Quality of Life: Factors like crime rates, healthcare, and recreational amenities. A Resource for Homebuyers The Easy Renovation study underscores the importance of evaluating multiple factors beyond housing prices when considering a move. For buyers looking to maximize their investment, it's essential to assess long-term affordability, job opportunities, and the overall lifestyle a city can provide. Read the full study here: Top 5 Best and 5 Worst Canadian Cities for Homebuyers in 2024 About Easy Renovation Easy Renovation is a trusted home improvement company serving the Greater Toronto Horseshoe Area, specializing in kitchen, basement, and bathroom renovations. With a focus on delivering a seamless and stress-free renovation experience, Easy Renovation combines innovative design, expert craftsmanship, and a customer-first approach to transform living spaces into modern, functional, and beautiful areas. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235735 SOURCE: Easy Renovation Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Quantum eMotion Corp. (TSXV: QNC) (OTCQB: QNCCF) wishes to address statements made earlier today by Terranova Defence Solutions ("Terranova") about the performance and quality of QeM's quantum-based communication security platform. Francis Bellido, CEO of QeM, responded: "It is impossible for Terranova Defence Solutions to have tested our technology, as they have never had access to it. Our technology is safeguarded by robust intellectual property protections, including four patents granted by the U.S. Patent Office. We stand firmly by the proven security and performance of our solutions." Quantum eMotion remains steadfast in its commitment to innovation, transparency, and delivering state-of-the-art quantum security solutions. Moreover, management confirms that it has not been in communication with Terranova and has not been made aware of any change in its relationship with Terranova prior to the issuance of its press release. About QeM The Company's mission is to address the growing demand for affordable hardware and software security for connected devices. QeM has become a pioneering force in classical and quantum cybersecurity solutions thanks to its patented Quantum Random Number Generator, a security solution that exploits the built-in unpredictability of quantum mechanics and promises to provide enhanced protection for high-value assets and critical systems. The Company intends to target highly valued Financial Services, Healthcare, Blockchain Applications, Cloud-Based IT Security Infrastructure, Classified Government Networks and Communication Systems, Secure Device Keying (IOT, Automotive, Consumer Electronics) and Quantum Cryptography. For further information, please visit our website at https://www.quantumemotion.com/ or contact us at: info@quantumemotion.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from targeted results. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in the Corporation's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Quantum from time to time with securities regulatory authorities. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235905 SOURCE: Quantum eMotion Corp. Jacksonville, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Bold Bite Orthodontics has opened a new location in Jacksonville, FL, to address the increasing demand for orthodontic care in the region. The expansion highlights the clinic's commitment to supporting the local community with modern, patient-focused services. The new Jacksonville location is designed to serve families, professionals, and individuals seeking advanced orthodontic care. The office is equipped with the latest technology, ensuring precise diagnosis and treatment in a comfortable, patient-focused environment. To support its commitment to advanced care, the location utilizes cutting-edge tools such as iTero and CBCT scans to enhance treatment precision. These technologies enable accurate diagnostics and support the creation of customized orthodontic solutions, including 3D-printed braces and Invisalign clear aligners, designed for effective and discreet teeth straightening. Bold Bite Orthodontics Expands Operations to Jacksonville, FL To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10740/235896_aca49052f4d50a41_001full.jpg The Jacksonville location also emphasizes tailored treatment plans to meet each patient's needs. The team fosters a patient-centered approach that prioritizes comfort, trust, and open communication throughout the treatment process, ensuring a supportive orthodontic experience. The Jacksonville office also incorporates virtual care options for patient convenience. Using self-scan technology like the Grin Scope, patients can submit progress scans remotely, reducing the need for frequent in-person visits. This innovative feature aligns with Bold Bite Orthodontics' goal of creating an efficient and seamless orthodontic experience. The expansion of Bold Bite Orthodontics in Jacksonville FL represents a meaningful investment in the community. With a local presence, the practice seeks to strengthen access to orthodontic care for residents and ensure individuals and families have more convenient options for achieving healthy, confident smiles. Beyond enhancing orthodontic care access, Bold Bite Orthodontics is proud to contribute to the Jacksonville community. By establishing a local presence, the practice aims to strengthen the area's healthcare services, create new employment opportunities, and build partnerships with other local businesses. The clinic is open daily, offering extended hours to accommodate the busy schedules of working professionals and families. About Bold Bite Orthodontics: Bold Bite Orthodontics is a family-oriented orthodontic practice dedicated to serving patients in Jacksonville and the surrounding communities. Committed to expanding access to care, Bold Bite Orthodontics recently opened a new location, offering advanced orthodontic solutions in a welcoming and modern environment. The practice remains dedicated to addressing orthodontic needs for patients of all ages, ensuring accessible and comprehensive care tailored to different requirements. Media Contact: To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235896 SOURCE: GetFeatured Summary: Redemption Orthodontics announces the opening of a new location in North Tallahassee, providing advanced orthodontic care and improved accessibility to the growing community. Tallahassee, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - January 2, 2025) - Redemption Orthodontics has opened a new location in North Tallahassee, offering advanced orthodontic care to meet the needs of the area's growing community. The expansion underscores Redemption Orthodontics' commitment to delivering high-quality, accessible treatment options to patients of all ages in a state-of-the-art facility. North Tallahassee has experienced significant growth in recent years, with an increasing number of families, young professionals, and students calling the area home. This expansion by Redemption Orthodontics is a direct response to the community's need for high-quality orthodontic care closer to home. The new clinic's convenient location reduces travel times for residents, making it easier for them to access essential treatments without disrupting their daily schedules. Redemption Orthodontics Opens New Location to Serve North Tallahassee To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10740/235906_49e51f9234b15a22_001full.jpg The newly opened facility represents a significant milestone for the orthodontic practice, offering a modern, patient-centered environment. Designed to enhance efficiency and comfort, the clinic features private consultation rooms, a welcoming reception area, and state-of-the-art treatment spaces equipped with advanced technology. Among Redemption Orthodontics - North Tallahassee's technological advancements is the iTero Lumina scanner, an innovative device that creates precise digital impressions. This eliminates the need for traditional molds, streamlining the treatment planning process while improving patient experience. By incorporating this cutting-edge technology, the new office underscores the practice's commitment to delivering personalized, high-quality orthodontic care. The practice also incorporates digital X-rays, which use low radiation levels to capture detailed images, ensuring safe and effective diagnostic procedures. Additionally, 3D printing technology is used to fabricate custom orthodontic appliances with precision, streamlining the treatment process and reducing wait times. These advancements are integral to Redemption Orthodontics' mission to deliver patient-focused care. Redemption Orthodontics' recent opening of its new North Tallahassee location marks a significant expansion in its mission to provide accessible orthodontic care to the local community. This new office reflects the practice's ongoing efforts to enhance patient experiences and address the growing need for specialized orthodontic services in the region. About Redemption Orthodontics Redemption Orthodontics offers high-quality orthodontic care to the North Tallahassee community and beyond. The team uses advanced technology and modern methods to provide quality care with convenient and affordable options for Invisalign, braces, and other treatments. The opening of the new location marks a significant milestone in Redemption Orthodontics' mission to expand access to high-quality care, making it more convenient for families in the region. Media Contact: To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235906 SOURCE: GetFeatured Hangzhou-based Alibaba, a leading player in Chinas vast e-commerce sector, has faced stiffer competition in recent years as its rivals surge and consumers look to cut costs read more Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has swiftly sold two businesses in a bid to keep up with rising competition. File image Alibaba Group has agreed to sell its majority stake in Chinas largest hypermarket operator, Sun Art Retail, at a steep discount, as the tech giant shifts focus back to its core e-commerce business amid rising competition. Alibaba disclosed in a filing Wednesday (January 1) evening that it will sell its 73.7 per cent stake in Sun Art to private equity firm DCP Capital at HK$1.75 per share. This price is significantly below the HK$2.48 closing price of Sun Arts shares earlier that day. Advertisement The sale is expected to generate up to $1.7 billion in gross proceeds but will result in a loss of RMB 13.2 billion ($1.8 billion) for Alibaba shareholders. The company first invested in Sun Art in 2017 and took majority control in 2020 in a $3.6 billion deal. The investment was part of a broader strategy to integrate online and offline retail under a new retail model, Financial Times reported. However, the initiative struggled due to the pandemic and slowing consumer spending in China. Alibaba struggles to keep up with competition This marks Alibabas second major divestment of brick-and-mortar assets in less than a month. In December, the company sold Intime Retail Group, a department store chain, to a consortium for $1 billion, less than half of what Alibaba originally paid for it. The rapid exits from Sun Art and Intime show Alibabas urgent effort to streamline its operations and focus on its e-commerce business. The Hangzhou-based company, a leading player in Chinas vast e-commerce sector, has faced stiffer competition in recent years as its rivals surge and consumers look to cut costs. As a result, the company has sought to shore up efficiency, partly by shedding nonessential assets. Founded by entrepreneur Jack Ma in 1999, Alibaba launched the biggest restructuring in its history last year, splitting the group into six distinct entities. Alibaba described the sale as an opportunity to monetise non-core assets and redeploy proceeds to focus on developing its core businesses and enhancing shareholder returns. Advertisement In November, Alibaba announced plans to merge its domestic and international e-commerce operations into a single unit under CEO Jiang Fan. The company still holds smaller stakes in other Chinese retailers, including Suning.com, and is restructuring its grocery chain Hema to boost profitability. With inputs from agencies Talking about her wedding with Double XL costar, Sonakshi told News18, Having an intimate wedding was always the plan. read more Sonakshi Sinha celebrated the New Years Eve with husband Zaheer Iqbal in Sydney with a lot of fireworks but was trolled as she asked fans not to burst crackers during Diwali. One user wrote- Kuch nahin is baar fridge bada lagega. Another said, Sydney mein thi wo New Year pe and Diwali India mein. A third commented- The firecrackers during New Years dont cause pollution but work as air purifiers. Advertisement Sonakshi Sinha on her wedding with Zaheer Iqbal Talking about her wedding with Double XL costar, Sonakshi told News18, Having an intimate wedding was always the plan. That has always been the kind of wedding that we both wanted. Zaheer and I were very clear that our wedding has to reflect the both of us as people, the bond we share, and the love we have for each other. Sonakshi added, There were wedding crashers too here and there but I was too busy having a good time. Im glad that they also had a good time (laughs). Every wedding be it big or small has people crashing them. Kuch log aa jaate hai khaana khaane and I think thats okay even though Ive never crashed a wedding. The Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, a critical bridge for international students to gain work experience in the US, faces mounting scrutiny as MAGA proponents label it a threat to American jobs. Amid growing debate over immigration policies, the future of OPT could reshape US higher education and its global competitiveness read more A Yemeni national shows a cancelled visa in their passport from their failed entry at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, US, February 6, 2017. File Image/Reuters The Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, a vital pathway for international students in the US, is now facing increasing criticism from supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. Following debates on the H-1B visa, OPT has emerged as the next focal point in the broader immigration discourse. Critics argue that the programme unfairly competes with American graduates for jobs, while advocates highlight its role in fostering innovation and economic growth. What is the OPT programme? The OPT programme allows international students holding F-1 visas to work temporarily in the US in jobs directly related to their field of study. Established in 1947, it provides a crucial bridge for students to gain hands-on experience, build professional networks, and develop skills that enhance their career prospects. Students in any academic field can apply for post-completion OPT for up to 12 months. Those in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are eligible for a 24-month extension, bringing their total work authorisation to three years. The Department of Homeland Security maintains a list of degree programmes that qualify for the STEM extension. Advertisement In 2023 alone, 276,452 students were authorised for post-completion OPT, while an additional 122,101 were approved for STEM OPT. Many of these students transition to H-1B visas or pursue permanent residency after their OPT period expires. Why is OPT under fire? MAGA proponents contend that the OPT programme has deviated from its original purpose of providing temporary work experience for skill development. They argue it has become a backdoor to long-term employment, bypassing Congressional oversight and displacing American graduates in the job market. Critics often cite OPTs rapid growth as evidence of its misuse. Over the last decade, the number of students receiving OPT work authorisation has more than doubled, while the US international student population has only grown by about 15 per cent. They claim the programme operates without proper legislative approval and unfairly prioritises foreign graduates over domestic workers. Legal challenges have also targeted OPT, including a 2023 lawsuit from WashTech challenging the STEM OPT extension. However, the Supreme Court declined to review the case, leaving the programmes validity intact for now. What is the economic and academic impact of OPT? Advocates for OPT highlight its significant contributions to the US economy and higher education system. International students contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy in the 2023-2024 academic year, supporting over 378,000 jobs. Research also suggests that regions with higher concentrations of OPT participants see increased wages and lower unemployment for US workers. Beyond economic benefits, OPT plays a critical role in maintaining the global competitiveness of US universities. Without programmes like OPT, international students might opt for alternative destinations such as Canada, Australia, or China, which offer similar post-graduation work opportunities. This could result in reduced enrollment and financial resources for US academic institutions. Advertisement Restricting OPT could have far-reaching consequences. A Business Roundtable study estimates that curbing the programme might cost 443,000 jobs over a decade, including 255,000 held by US-born workers. It also warns of potential declines in hourly wages and GDP, further underscoring OPTs economic importance. What challenges are there with the OPT? While OPT serves as a valuable tool for international graduates, it also highlights the limitations of the current US immigration system. The F-1 visa, which OPT participants hold, does not allow for dual intent, making it difficult for students to transition to permanent residency. The highly competitive H-1B visa lottery exacerbates these challenges, with only 25 per cent of applicants selected in FY 2024. For many, OPT provides a temporary reprieve a chance to gain work experience, contribute to the US economy, and explore long-term career opportunities. However, the lack of comprehensive immigration reform means that OPT often becomes the sole viable pathway for international students to remain in the US post-graduation. Advertisement The debate surrounding OPT is emblematic of broader tensions in US immigration policy. While critics seek to curtail the programme, supporters argue it is indispensable for attracting global talent, fostering innovation, and maintaining US leadership in critical industries such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. As international students continue to contribute to the US in diverse ways, the stakes for preserving and modernising OPT remain high. With inputs from agencies There are reports that Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for over two decades, was the victim of an attempted poisoning in Moscow. Social media account General SVR, reportedly run by an ex-top Russian spy, claimed that Assad had fallen sick on Sunday afternoon and that there is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made. But what happened? What do we know? read more Was an assassination attempt made on Syrias deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad? There are reports that Assad, who ruled Syria for over two decades, was the victim of an attempted poisoning. Assad fled to Russia in December after being ousted by rebels groups in Syria. But what happened? What do we know? Lets take a closer look: What happened? Social media account General SVR, reportedly run by an ex-top Russian spy, claimed that Assad had fallen sick on Sunday afternoon. There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made," the social media account alleged. The account claimed that Assad first alerted security guards about feeling unwell and breathing problems. Advertisement Assad asked for medical help to be called, then began coughing violently and even choking. Assad was given water, which helped a little, but his breathing still did not return to normal. By now, he also had a headache and abdominal pain. By the time medical help arrived, Assads condition was becoming worse, the account alleged. Russian authorities were alerted and a treatment room was set up in Assads apartment. Deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, his wife Asma al-Assad, and their three children are living in Russia after opposition groups overthrew the Assad dynasty earlier this month. The photograph shows Bashar and his wife Asma. (Photo: AFP) His condition is now stable but tests show that the ex-Syrian dictator was exposed to a poisonous substance, the account claimed. However, the account has cited no sources. There is also no confirmation from Russia. Express UK pointed out that the social media outlet has previously published stories about Putin that the Kremlin has dismissed. This includes when Putin allegedly fell down some stairs and soiled himself. Assad and his family have reportedly been in Moscow since December 8. As per Politico, it was Russias President Vladimir Putin who made the decision to give Assad and his family shelter. Such decisions certainly cannot be made without the head of state. It was his decision, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Advertisement Mikhail Ulyanov, Russias ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, confirmed the news in a post on X. Breaking news! Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow. Russia does not betray friends in difficult situations, Ulyanov said. Asma unhappy? There were reports that Assads wife Asma, unhappy with their life in Moscow, was considering filing for divorce and heading to the UK. However, the Kremlin has refuted those reports. UK government sources also told The Times that Asma has been barred from the UK as her passport is not valid. Asma, a dual citizen of Syria and the UK, has an aggressive form of blood cancer, as per The Telegraph. Assad, who ruled Syria for 24 years, left the capital, Damascus, following his removal from power amid a prolonged anti-regime uprising. He issued directives for a peaceful transfer of authority before his departure, according to a Kremlin source cited by the TASS news agency. Advertisement The rebel coalition, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, began their lightning offensive on November 27. Moscow was one of Assads biggest backers alongside with Iran during his presidency. Russias forces became militarily involved in the Syrian conflict, which had begun in 2011, in 2015, providing support for Assads forces to crush the opposition in the bloody civil war. With inputs from agencies Passengers on Turkish Airlines flights have reported unsettling encounters with bedbugs, citing incidents of the pests crawling on seats, blankets, and even falling from the cabin. Complaints of bites and infestations have drawn attention to the airlines cleaning protocols read more Passengers flying with Turkish Airlines have increasingly reported bedbug infestations on flights, sparking frustration and concern among travellers. Incidents have involved bedbugs crawling on seats, blankets, and even falling from the cabin, leading to discomfort and disrupted journeys. Patience Titcombe, a passenger on a Johannesburg-to-Istanbul flight in March 2024, shared her unsettling encounter. I almost flicked it away, Titcombe told The New York Times. But my friend stopped me and said, Thats a bedbug. Advertisement While the flight attendant removed the insect, Titcombes concerns about potential infestations were dismissed. She later changed clothes at the airport to protect her family from possible contamination. @TurkishAirlines bedbugs on our inbound flight to IST is every travelers nightmare!!! pic.twitter.com/cO03qBT73h Patience Titcombe (@lasgidicafephx) March 18, 2024 In October, Matthew Myers and his girlfriend faced a similar issue on a flight from Istanbul to San Francisco. Myers recounted seeing bedbugs falling from the ceiling and crawling on seats, prompting multiple passengers to request seat changes. Multiple passengers were asking to move seats after discovering bugs, he said. Despite filing a complaint, Myers was offered only a 10 per cent discount on a future flight. Kristin Bourgeois experienced her ordeal on a DC-to-Istanbul flight in the same month, noticing bedbugs on her blanket and pillow. After the flight, she discovered 13 bites on her skin. Although she filed a complaint, the airline demanded extensive documentation, only to later claim her reservation details were missing. Advertisement How Turkish Airlines has responded Turkish Airlines has been criticised for its response to these incidents. While some passengers received minimal compensation, others were met with denials or unhelpful responses. The airline has stated that its aircraft undergo deep cleaning every 21 days and are cleaned generally before each flight. However, these measures have not alleviated concerns about bedbug infestations. Dealing with bedbugs on airplanes is a costly and time-consuming process. Rob Tuck, president of Jet Research, told The New York Times that fumigating a plane can take up to five days and cost up to $125,000, including lost revenue from cancelled flights. Planes must be taken to maintenance bases for thorough treatment, presenting logistical challenges for airlines. Founded in 1933, Turkish Airlines is one of the worlds largest carriers, operating nearly 400 airplanes across more than 300 destinations. Despite its reputation for extensive global reach, the recent reports of bedbug infestations have cast a shadow over its services. Advertisement Issuing a statement on January 2, 2025, the airlines spokesperson Yahya Ustun told Firstpost in an email that bedbug cases are a common issue encountered in public spaces, including aircraft. In this regard, we take all feedback seriously and thoroughly investigate each report. In such cases, affected aircraft are promptly subjected to all necessary inspections and treatments. As part of our routine operations, our aircraft are regularly cleaned and thoroughly sanitized before every flight. We also maintain close communication with aircraft manufacturers to ensure the most effective and safe disinsection procedures are implemented, added Ustun. How travellers can prevent bedbugs While bedbug infestations on airplanes are rare, experts suggest precautions to minimise risk. The New York City Department of Health advises passengers to cover their seats using specially designed covers to prevent bugs from transferring to clothing or luggage. Placing carry-on items in airtight plastic bags can also reduce exposure to potential contaminants. Advertisement Abell Pest Control recommends bringing personal pillows and blankets to avoid using airline-provided items that might harbor pests. Following these measures can help travellers protect themselves from unwanted encounters with bedbugs. Also Watch: (The article has been edited to include a statement from Turkish Airlines) With inputs from agencies Forty years after the Bhopal gas disaster, toxic waste has been relocated from the Madhya Pradesh capital to Pithampur amid intense security on Wednesday night. The 337 metric tonnes of chemical waste, stored in 12 special containers, will be incinerated over the coming months read more Container trucks carry toxic waste after collecting from the Union Carbide factory for disposal at the Pithampur Industrial Waste Management Facility, January 1, 2025. PTI Forty years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the process of shifting toxic waste from the Union Carbide factory in Madhya Pradeshs capital began. On Wednesday (January 1) night, 337 metric tonnes of chemical waste stored in 12 containers was sent to a disposal plant in Pithampur amid tight security. These special containers carrying hazardous waste were transported through a 250 km-long green corridor. This comes after the Madhya Pradesh High Court gave a four-week deadline on December 3, 2024 to dispose of the toxic waste material. Advertisement Lets take a closer look. 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy In 1984, highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) leaked from American company Union Carbides pesticide factory in Bhopal, exposing around five lakh people to the poisonous gas. Bhopal gas tragedy, as it has come to be known, was one of the worst humanitarian and environmental disasters in the world. The official number of deaths was 2,259, which remains disputed. An estimated 574,000 people were poisoned in Bhopal as 40 tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate gas was released into the air. Over 20,000 people have died since the night of the disaster from related conditions. Union Carbide regularly dumped highly toxic chemical waste inside and outside their factory premises in Bhopal for 15 years before the disaster. According to a government-commissioned study in 2010, there are 11 lakh tonnes of contaminated soil, one tonne of mercury, and nearly 150 tonnes of underground dumps in the factory premises. However, the Central government is funding the disposal of just 337 tonnes of waste collected 18 years ago and stored in a shed in the facility of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of the US-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), which is now part of Dow Chemicals. How the toxic waste was relocated The 337 metric tonnes of toxic waste reached a disposal facility in Pithampur, 230 km from Bhopal, in the wee hours of Thursday (January 2). Twelve leak-free containers, each containing about 30 tonnes of waste, departed from the abandoned Union Carbide site in Bhopal last night. As per an Indian Express report, the relocation process began on Sunday afternoon with the waste being packed into bags over four days. The toxic waste was packed into jumbo HDPE (high-density polyethylene) non-reactive liners to prevent any chemical reactions during transport. Advertisement About 200 workers, each operating in short 30-minute shifts, were involved in the relocation process. More than 50 labourers were tasked with filling the bags with toxic waste. They were given PPE kits for their safety and underwent health checks later. The process of packing and loading hazardous waste, consisting of soil, pesticide residues and chemicals, was done in the sealed 200-meter radius of the factory, reported The New Indian Express (TNIE). The fire-resistant containers were equipped with GPS tracking for real-time monitoring of their movement. More than 100 police personnel were stationed to ensure the safe transport of the waste from Bhopal to Pithampur. Advertisement To ensure safety, traffic within a 2-kilometre radius around the containers has been stopped, with similar measures in place throughout the route. Five police vehicles are escorting the convoy, a senior police officer was quoted as saying by Indian Express. The vehicles reached the Pithampur factory where the waste will be disposed of around 4.30 am on Thursday, Dhar Superintendent of Police Manoj Singh told PTI over the phone. It will take three to nine months to incinerate the waste. Bhopal gas tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department Director Swatantra Kumar Singh said to PTI, If everything is found to be fine, the waste will be incinerated within three months. Otherwise, it might take up to nine months. Advertisement Concerns about toxic waste disposal Activists and residents of Pithampur have expressed concerns about the waste disposal in the industrial town near Indore. In 2015, a trial run for the disposal of 10 metric tons of toxic waste was carried out at the Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (TSDF) in Pithampur. Local activists allege that the soil, underground water and water sources in surrounding villages were polluted after the trial run, as per PTI. Container trucks carry toxic waste after collecting from the Union Carbide factory for disposal at the Pithampur Industrial Waste Management Facility, January 1, 2025. PTI Speaking to Reuters, Rachna Dhingra, a Bhopal-based activist who has worked with survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy, said that after burning the solid waste, it would be buried in a landfill, which could contaminate water and lead to environmental concerns. Why is the polluter Union Carbide and Dow Chemical not being compelled to clean up its toxic waste in Bhopal, Dhingra said. Advertisement Bhopal gas tragedy relief department director has rejected the claims, saying there is no risk to the environment, land, or people around the disposal plant at Pithampur. Several people took to the streets in Pithampur to protest the disposal of toxic waste in the city. Local industrialist workers are also concerned about the development. To quell anxiety among the locals in Pithampur, MP pollution control board regional officer in Indore Shriniwas Dwivedi said in a video statement, A special shed has been created with a concrete floor. It is leakproof. No activity will be carried out that will affect the people, farm, property, land or environment, he added, as per Times of India (TOI). With inputs from agencies Arrested five days after his nationwide manhunt, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's alleged killer is Luigi Nicholas Mangione. The 26-year-old suspect is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with the reasons behind his alleged killing have been considered highly controversial. Mangione, who graduated in computer science and received both a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, is said to have committed a premeditated attack. The police found him with a gun with a silencer, four fake IDs, and a manifesto against the health insurance industry, specifically UnitedHealthcare. Investigators believe that Mangione's anti-capitalist beliefs, coupled with his support for climate change activism, contributed significantly to the crime. Fox News interviewed Cornell Law professor William Jacobson, who stated that Ivy League schools are more skewed toward leftist ideologies and it might influence the thinking pattern of students. He believed that anti-capitalist and anti-American sentiments are widespread at such institutions. In fact, a former teacher of Mangione's alma mater faced criticism after initially writing praise for him on the social media platform before the woman retracted her postings. Read more: California Bill Proposes to Prioritize Descendants of Slaves in Public University Admission What Luigi Mangione's Peers Say About His Arrest Mangione's former high school classmates said they were shocked to hear that he was involved in the crime, describing him as a smart and ambitious young man from a well-off Maryland family. However, according to law enforcement sources, Mangione had radical views and had shown admiration for some of the most notorious figures, including the Unabomber, in his social media activities, Forbes shared. Charged with second-degree murder and other offenses, Mangione is being held behind bars as the authorities dig further into his background. The killing has raised many questions in people's minds about how someone who had such an auspicious educational and professional future, while also coming from a wealthy family, could turn to violence. All efforts are on to save Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse who has been sentenced to death in Yemen in a murder case. The family of the 36-year-old is trying to prevent her execution by offering a diyya, an Islamic Sharia law concept often referred to as blood money. What does it mean? read more Nimisha Priya's family trying to negotiate her release through 'diyya,' an Islamic Sharia law concept often referred to as 'blood money'. News18 Malyalam Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse from Kerala, is facing a grim fate in Yemen after she was awarded the death penalty in the country. Recently, President Rashad al-Alimi gave a nod to the death sentence of the 36-year-old for allegedly murdering a Yemeni national. The sentence, which could be carried out within a month, has sent shockwaves through her family and the Indian government. The Ministry of External Affairs stated on Tuesday that the Indian government is extending all possible help in the matter. Meanwhile, her family is leaving no stone unturned, exploring every legal option available to save her life. Advertisement One such option being considered is diyya, an Islamic Sharia law concept often referred to as blood money. But what exactly is blood money, and how might it work in this case? Heres an in-depth look. First, who is Nimisha Priya? What is the case? Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kollengode in Kerala, began her medical career with aspirations for a brighter future, moving to Yemen in 2008 in search of better opportunities. In 2011, she married Tomy Thomas in Kerala, and the couple soon relocated to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, to build a new life together. While Priya worked as a nurse, Tomy found employment as an electrician. Seeking to improve their financial situation, the couple decided to open their own clinic. However, since Yemens laws prohibited foreigners from registering businesses, they needed a local partner. This is when they joined hands with Talal Abdo Mahdi, a frequent visitor to the clinic where Priya worked, to kickstart their new venture. With time, he developed close ties with the family and even attended the baptism of Priyas daughter in Kerala in 2015. While Priya returned earlier to Yemen, her husband and their daughter could not join her as a civil war broke out in the country. This is when things went awry. Betrayal and abuse Upon Priyas return to Yemen, Mahdi helped her open a clinic but he soon changed his attitude, and allegedly refused to share any of the profits with her, claimed Priyas family. Over time things became worse, her family said as Mahdi began harassing her under the influence of drugs, and extorted money from her clinic. He even threatened her at gunpoint and manipulated the clinics ownership documents to take full control. Further, family members and legal representatives alleged that he seized her passport to prevent her from leaving Yemen and restricted her contact with her family in Kerala. Advertisement By 2017, Priya decided to retrieve her passport from Mahdis control to escape Yemen. According to a News18 report, a prison warden, who was also her patient, as well as one who knew of her case as she had repeatedly reported to the local police of assault or threats by the Yemeni national, advised her to incapacitate Mahdi temporarily and retrieve her passport to flee back home. Her first attempt failed as Mahdis substance abuse didnt calm him down. On her second attempt, she used a stronger dose, which tragically led to his death from an overdose within minutes. In a state of panic, she sought the help of a fellow Yemeni nurse, who allegedly suggested that they chop up the body and dispose of the parts in a water tank. Though the two went into hiding, the police were able to catch them. They were charged with murder in 2017 and have been lodged in the Central prison in Sanaa. Advertisement Priya, who has been jailed since then only gets to talk to her daughter, then two years old, via video calls. Whenever Nimisha calls me, the first thing she asks about is our daughter. She asks how shes doing, enquires about my health, and how were coping. Shes in jail and has no knowledge of whats happening outside. But the first thing is always to know how our daughter is faring and how she wants to reunite as a family, her husband told News18. In 2018, a trial court in Sanaa sentenced Priya to death. What is blood money? While many countries, particularly democracies, have abolished the death penalty for murder and other crimes, it is still a part of the legal system in some countries governed by Islamic Sharia law. Advertisement However, the Sharia law also emphasises forgiveness and compensation to the sufferers loved ones. Under this system, the victims family has the right to decide the punishment for the offender. One option is forgiveness in exchange for monetary compensation known as diyya, commonly referred to as blood money. The Quran provides guidance on this matter, stating: O believers! The law of retaliation is set for you in cases of murdera free man for a free man, a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. But if the offender is pardoned by the victims guardian, then blood-money should be decided fairly and payment should be made courteously. This is a concession and a mercy from your Lord. But whoever transgresses after that will suffer a painful punishment (Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 178). Advertisement While the Quran explains the concept, it does not set a fixed amount for blood money. The amount is determined through negotiation between the families of the murderer and the victim, although some Islamic countries have set minimum compensation amounts. How can this help in the case? Priyas family is attempting to stop the death penalty by negotiating with the victims family, offering blood money as part of the resolution. We are trying to get my wife back so that we can live as one family again I strongly believe that the discussions will reach a point where we can discuss diya or blood money. I am positive. I refuse to give up hope. My wife is a good human being, her husband, a daily wage labourer and autorickshaw driver, told News18. Earlier this year, the Indian government allocated $40,000 (over Rs 34 lakhs) in November 2023 to initiate talks for Nimisha Priyas release, reported Indian Express. Eventually, her family may need to pay between $300,000 and $400,000 (Rs 2.57-3.43 crore) to prevent the death sentence. International support has been crucial in their efforts to raise money through crowdfunding. The Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, a group of NRI social workers in Yemen, has been actively involved. Activist Prema Kumari has been stationed in Sanaa since early 2024, working on negotiating the blood money payment. However, the negotiations have faced setbacks. Now, with the involvement of Indian authorities, efforts are being made to secure forgiveness from Mahdis family and tribal leaders. If successful, Nimisha Priyas life could be spared through a financial settlement. With input from agencies Several days after the suicide case of Bengaluru techie Atul Subhash came to light, Puneet Khurana, Delhi-based owner of Woodbox Cafe, died by hanging from a ceiling fan at his home. According to Khuranas family, he faced daily threats from his wife and her family over financial and property disputes amid ongoing divorce proceedings read more Police said that the last person Khurana spoke to was his wife. Image courtesy: X/@PracticalSpy A few days after the Bengaluru techie Atul Subhashs suicide case came to light, another similar incident has emerged in Delhi, allegedly involving mental torture and harassment by a wife and her family. Puneet Khurana, a 40-year-old businessman, died by hanging from a ceiling fan at his home in the Kalyan Vihar area of northwest Delhi. ALSO READ | Why parents of OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji want FBI to investigate his death Khuranas family has accused his wife and in-laws of being responsible for his death. Police have seized his mobile phone and initiated an investigation into the case. Advertisement What are the allegations? The family of Puneet Khurana has alleged that his estranged wife, Manika Pahwa, and her family subjected him to mental harassment, which they claim drove him to take his own life. They accused Manika of repeatedly demanding her share of their bakery business, India Today reported. Puneets father told the media that the family allegedly threatened him daily over financial and property matters. #WATCH | 40 -year old Puneet Khurana dies allegedly by suicide, his family levels charges of harassment against his wife and in-laws The deceased's sister says, "Manika Pahwa, her sister and parents mentally tortured and harassed him. There is a video recording of around 59 pic.twitter.com/TfKfOBIZIE ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2025 The deceaseds sister revealed that Puneet had recorded a 59-minute video detailing the harassment he faced. Speaking to ANI, she said, Manika Pahwa, her parents and her sister forced my brother, stressed him out, instigated him by saying, you cant do anything, die by suicide if you dare. There is a video recording of around 59 minutes, in which Puneet has mentioned details of harassment he faced. The woman had even hacked Puneets social media account. Advertisement When asked about the reason for their dispute, the sister explained that Puneet and Manika had previously divided their bakery business after signing divorce papers. Puneet was supposed to manage For Gods Bakery, while Manika took ownership of Woodbox Cafe. However, she allegedly continued to demand her share from Puneet. The matter had already been decided in court, so she should have raised it there. Instead, she kept calling him and demanding her share, the sister added. #WATCH | Delhi | Deceased Puneet's mother says, "She (Puneet's wife) used to keep torturing him...I want justice for him." pic.twitter.com/DHQt9mNU2E ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2025 Advertisement Puneets mother also shared her anguish, saying, She (Puneets wife) used to keep torturing him I want justice for him. Relations between the couple, who co-owned Woodbox Cafe and married in 2016, had reportedly been strained for some time. ALSO READ | Atul Subhash case: The shocking suicide of Bengaluru techie after harassment by wife You need to clear my dues A 16-minute audio recording has also surfaced, reportedly throwing light on a heated argument between Puneet Khurana and his wife over their business property, according to NDTV. Khuranas wife says in the recording, We are getting a divorce, but I am still a business partner. You need to clear my dues. Advertisement Puneet Khurana died by hanging from a ceiling fan at his home. Image courtesy: X/@theanshuldixit Jatin Khanna, the brother of Khuranas brother-in-law, revealed that the couple had been living apart since 2022. They started living separately in 2022. They tried to resolve their differences but then decided to go for a divorce. The first hearing for divorce proceedings started on September 30, 2024, Khanna told The Indian Express. He added that after Woodbox Cafe shut down, Khurana started a new venture. He opened a bakery, Gods Cake. His wife was also a co-owner of the bakery. However, disputes arose over the bakery. It is your habit to lie Police said that the last person Khurana spoke to was his wife, during a phone call at around 3 am on Tuesday, where they argued about the bakery business. Advertisement An audio recording accessed by India Today TV reveals details of the argument. Khuranas wife allegedly said, You are calling me at 3 am, cant you sleep? You have disgraced me and my family on several occasions despite what we did for you. Khurana reportedly responded that such matters held no meaning at that moment and asked his wife to state her demands, adding that she could do as she wished. In her reply, his wife allegedly said he would now threaten to take his own life, leave the house, or seize control of the bakery business. When Khurana asked her again to specify what she wanted, she suggested that he visit her the following day, to which he reportedly refused. The wife said, as per a report by India Today, You do not owe me anything We have appealed for divorce but we are business partners. Our business is different. It is your habit to lie. What did I ever ask from you? She further accused him of meeting several other women in the past. ALSO READ | Atul Subhash suicide case: How wife Nikita Singhania, her family were traced by cops, arrested Relations between the couple, who married in 2016, had reportedly been strained for some time. Image courtesy: X/@Kings_Gambit__ What did the police say? The police said that they received information about the incident on Tuesday at approximately 4:20 pm. Upon arriving at the scene, officers found Puneets unresponsive body lying on a bed, with a ligature mark visible around his neck. The police later confirmed that he had died by hanging. Khuranas body was later taken to BJRM Hospital, where it was preserved for post-mortem examination. Sources told ANI that Puneet and his wife, married since 2016, began facing marital issues within two years of their marriage. Divorce proceedings were initiated through mutual consent, which was ongoing in court. Notably, Puneets father, Trilok Nath Khurana, produced a mobile phone to the authorities, alleging harassment by his sons wife and in-laws. The police confirmed they had taken the deceaseds mobile phone and other relevant items into possession. Bengaluru techie suicide case This incident comes after the recent suicide case of Bengaluru techie Atul Subhash. The 34-year-old deputy general manager at a private firm died by suicide in December, leaving behind a 24-page note accusing his wife and her family of harassment. ALSO READ | Atul Subhash suicide case: Did Bengaluru techies wife, family demand Rs 3 crore, file false cases? In his note, Subhash alleged that his wife and her relatives had filed numerous false cases against him. Days after his death, Subhashs wife Nikita Singhania, along with her mother and brother, was arrested and remanded to 14-day judicial custody. With inputs from agencies A collection of Suicide prevention helpline numbers are available here. Please reach out if you or anyone you know is in need of support. The All-India helpline number is: 022-27546669) Thailand will roll out its electronic visa or e-visa system in India today. Meanwhile, Russia is set to halt gas supplies to Moldova. Pakistan is set to assume a non-permanent seat on the UNSC for a two-year term read more An employee works at the Chisinau-1 gas distribution plant of Moldovatransgaz energy company in Chisinau, Moldova. File image/Reuters It will be a busy day with several events lined up. Firstly, Thailands e-Visa system in India will be effective from today while Russia is set to halt gas supplies to neighbour Moldova. Meanwhile, Pakistan is set to sit at the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term as an elected non-permanent member. Same-sex marriages will come into effect in German-speaking Liechtenstein from today. In India, an FIR will be lodged against people giving alms to beggars in Indore beginning today. Advertisement Here is all that is set to take place today. Thailands e-Visa system in India to be effective Thailand will roll out the Electronic Visa (e-Visa) system in India from January 1. The system is aimed at streamlining the visa application process. It will also include an offline payment option while offering added convenience to applicants. While announcing the rollout earlier in the month, the Royal Thai Embassy in Delhi clarified Each application can be applied by the applicants themselves, or by other representatives. However, it warned that it shall not bear responsibility if any application submitted by a representative is incomplete. Applicants can find a detailed guide on the application process on the same website. Russia set to halt gas supplies to Moldova Russias state-owned energy company, Gazprom, announced on Saturday that it will cease gas supplies to Moldova starting January 1, citing claims of unpaid debt by the European Union candidate country, reported news agency Associated Press. In response, Moldova has implemented emergency measures to prepare for potential power outages. In an online statement, Gazprom asserted its right to take additional measures, including terminating its contract with Moldovagaz, Moldovas primary gas operator, where the Russian company holds a majority stake, the AP further reported. The suspension of gas supplies will also affect the Cuciurgan power plant, Moldovas largest, located in the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria. Pakistan set to begin two-year term as UNSC non-permanent member Pakistan is set to assume a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term, beginning January 1. Ambassador Munir Akram has pledged that Pakistans delegation will actively engage in addressing the worlds most pressing challenges. Somalia, Denmark, Greece and Panama are some of the other nations that have been elected as non-permanent members. Pakistan is set to assume a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term. Representational image Elected for the eighth time as a non-permanent member, Pakistan said it looks forward to working closely with the other members of the UN Security Council and with the broader UN Membership for upholding UN Charter and pursuing the vision of preventing war and promoting peace; fostering International cooperation for global prosperity and promoting universal respect for human rights, stated a TOI article quoting PTI. Same-sex marriages to come into effect in Liechtenstein Same-sex marriages will come into effect in German-speaking Liechtenstein from today. This will make it the last country in Europe to take this step. Daniel Seger, parliamentary group spokesperson for the conservative Progressive Citizens Party in Liechtenstein, described the passage of the marriage law amendment as a big relief after its second reading. Liechtenstein first legalised registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 2011, giving them some of the same rights as married heterosexual couples. FIRs to be lodged against people giving alms to beggars in Indore District authorities in Madhya Pradesh will begin registering FIRs against those people who give alms to beggars. The move is a step taken to make the state beggar-free, reported news agency PTI. Our awareness campaign against begging will go on in the city till the end of this month (December). If any person is found giving alms from January 1, a First Information Report (FIR) will also be registered against him/her, district collector Ashish Singh said. Advertisement The administration has in recent months exposed different gangs that make people beg and many of those involved in begging have also been rehabilitated, reported PTI. On this day Global Family Day Birth anniversary of actress Vidya Balan Birth anniversary of actor Nana Patekar Birth anniversary of author EM Forster Birth anniversary of mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose Birth anniversary of author JD Salinger Birth anniversary of politician Jyotiraditya Scindia The first travellers cheques, which could be used in 90 European cities, went on sale in London, England in 1772 Queen Victoria of the UK was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877 In 1959, Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 crashed into the sea, off the coast of Bombay, killing 213 in 1978 The Internets domain name system was created With inputs from agencies Pakistan in June was elected to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as a non-permanent member. It began its two-year-term from January 1, 2025. Lets take a closer look at why this is not a favourable development for India which has been trying to become a permanent member of the UNSC for ages and reform the council read more On 1 January, 2025, Pakistan joined the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as a non-permanent member. Pakistan, which was elected to the UNSC, will serve a two-year-term. Ambassador Munir Akram, Pakistans top diplomat at the UN, has said that the Pakistani delegation will play an active and constructive role in addressing key challenges facing the world. Our presence will be felt in the Security Council, Ambassador Akram vowed. But what do we know about Pakistan getting the seat? And what does it mean for India? Advertisement Lets take a closer look: What we know First, lets briefly examine the UNSC. Based in New York, the UNSC is responsible for maintaining international peace and security among all 193 members of the UN. The UNSC currently comprises 15 members five permanent and 10 elected members which have two-year terms. The United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and France are the permanent members of the UNSC all of whom have the power of the veto. Collectively, this group is called the P5. Pakistan in June was elected to the UNSC as a non-permanent member the eight time in the councils history. Though just 124 votes were required a two-thirds majority to elect Pakistan to the UNSC as a non-permanent member, the country received 182 votes. As per Siasat.com, Pakistan got the backing of China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Singapore after a fierce campaign. As per Tribune, Pakistan was endorsed by the 53-member Asian Group in 2023. As per The Hindu, Denmark, Greece, Panama and Somalia were the other countries elected to the UNSC. Advertisement Representational image. Reuters Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia are the other non-permanent members. The terms of Japan, Ecuador, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland ended on 31 December. Pakistan replaced Japan, which currently occupies the Asian seat in the Security Council, a primary instrument for establishing and maintaining international peace. It earlier sat on the council in 2012-13, 2003-04, 1993-94, 1983-84, 1976-77, 1968-69 and 1952-53. What it means for India This is not a favourable development for India which has been trying to become a permanent member of the UNSC for ages and reform the council. As per NDTV, Pakistan will likely use every trick in the book to deny New Delhi its seat as a permanent member of the UNSC. Islamabad previously said it will stand against adding any new permanent members to the UNSC. It instead said it would push for the non-permanent group to be expanded. Advertisement Regular elections and rotation are essential for a democratic council, Akram was quoted as saying by Dawn. As The Hindu noted, half of the 10 elected members of UNSC are now from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). As per NDTV, Pakistan will look to project itself as the Voice of the Muslim World.' Islamabad is also set to chair the UNSC in July which will let it decide the agenda. As per Siasiat.com, can then convene two Signature Events on topics of its choosing with high-level participation from both its own and invitees. The balance of power will also see a subtle change with pro-Western Japan leaving as a non-permanent member and Pakistan being added to the council with China and Russia already part of the P5. Advertisement Pakistan is also likely to rake up the issue of Kashmir. The outlet quoted Akram as saying that Islamabad will continue to highlight the Kashmir issue and push for concrete steps from the international community. In this photo, Indian Army personnel are seen deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. PTI Economic Times reported that India will be looking to counter any moves by Pakistan on Kashmir with its allies and UNSC members from Europe. Sources told the newspaper New Delhi is depending on support from Russia, France and the US to help it combat Pakistans manouvers on Kashmir. Sources said India has kept in contact with some permanent members of UNSC over the issues that may be debated over the next two years. Advertisement India says Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of its sovereign territory. It considers it a domestic matter and thus opposes any international interference in the matter. New Delhi says discussions regarding Kashmir should occur directly with Islamabad under the auspices of the 1972 Simla Agreement. But thats not all. Islamabad also has a seat on the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, which is responsible for labelling individuals and groups as terrorists and imposing sanctions. A piece in Dawn noted that non-permanent members of the UNSC have significant influence because decisions are made by consensus under established norms. We look forward to working closely with other members of the UN Security Council and the broader UN membership to uphold the UN Charter and promote peace, Akram was quoted as saying by Dawn. We enter the council at a time of great geopolitical turbulence, intense competition between the two largest powers, raging wars in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere and a sharply escalating and multi-dimensional arms race, Akram added. As a responsible State the fifth largest by population Pakistan will play an active and constructive role, in accordance with the UN Charter, to halt wars, promote the pacific settlement of disputes and contain the negative impacts of great power rivalries, the arms race, new weapons and domains of conflict as well as the spreading scourge of terrorism, Akram added. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan begins its term as a non-permanent member of the UNSC with a rich legacy of experience and commitment to the principles and purposes of the UN Charter. He was addressing a reception hosted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Office said in a statement. Dar said that Pakistan looked forward to seeking just and peaceful resolution of situations on the agenda of the UN Security Council. As a member of the council, Pakistan will continue to oppose the unilateral and illegal use or threat of force; combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations; and support effective UN peacekeeping, and peacebuilding efforts, he said. With inputs from agencies Bangladesh schools will soon get new textbooks in which it will be declared that Ziaur Rahman, husband of current BNP chief Khaleda Zia, and not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, proclaimed the countrys independence on March 26, 1971. Interestingly, this isnt the first time that textbooks are changing its text read more A sales person stands in front of a picture of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Now, school textbooks will say Ziaur Rahman not Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the countrys independence in 1971. File image/Reuters History is written by the victors, is the popular adage. And in Bangladesh, it is proving true with the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government now looking to rewrite the countrys history in school textbooks. What are we talking about? Read on to find out. Changes in Bangladeshi history textbooks A Daily Star report states that textbooks in Bangladesh will now be changed to state that Ziaur Rahman not Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the countrys independence in 1971. Moreover, the textbooks have also removed Mujibs title of Father of the Nation. Prof AKM Reazul Hassan, chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), was quoted as telling the daily that the new textbooks for the 2025 academic year will state that on March 26, 1971, Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu. Advertisement The new textbooks are meant for primary and secondary students. When asked why the text in the books was being revised, writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who was involved in the process, said they tried to free the textbooks from exaggerated, imposed history. Those who revised the textbooks found that it wasnt fact-based information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message (declaring independence) while being arrested by the Pakistani army, and so they decided to remove it. A man is silhouetted as he passes by a graffiti of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The change in textbooks follows a pattern of removing Mujibur Rahmans legacy from the nation. File image/Reuters Not the first time, though Notably, this hasnt been the first time that such changes have been made to textbooks in Bangladesh. In fact, history has often been rewritten in textbooks. The person who declared independence in Bangladesh has changed as per the dispensation in power. Supporters of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, maintain that it was him who made the announcement. However, followers of Ziaur Rahman, founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and husband of current BNP chief Khaleda Zia, believe it was him to do so. According to some NCTB officials when Awami League was in power between 1996 and 2001, the textbooks said that Bangabandhu made the declaration of independence while Ziaur Rahman read out the announcement. On the other hand, when the BNP was in power from 2001-2006, it was stated that Ziaur had made the declaration. When asked if the present changes would create a stir, Reazul Hassan said, Of course not This isnt a matter related to Awami League or BNP. This is a national issue. We want to give due recognition to individuals like Maulana Bhashani and Tajuddin Ahmed, who also played significant roles in the Liberation War. Were trying to make sure that focusing on factual representation remains consistent. Advertisement However, one cant help but note the timing. Since the interim government took over control in Bangladesh following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the legacy of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is slowly but surely being wiped out in the country. First, it was his residence Bangabandhu Bhaban or Dhanmondi 32 and his statue that was vandalised. Even his portrait was removed from the official residence and workplace of the president. And last but not least, early December 2024, the interim government removed Rahmans face from currency notes. Ziaur was the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and husband of current BNP chief Khaleda Zia. File image/Reuters What history reveals While both sides continue to debate on who actually made the independence declaration in 1971, what does history say? Historically, there is ample evidence to show that it was Mujibur Rahman and not Ziaur who made the proclamation on March 27, 1971. According to the US Defense Intelligence Agencys (DIAs) now-unclassified report to the White House on March 26, 1971: Pakistan was thrust into civil war today when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proclaimed the east wing of the two-part country to be the sovereign independent Peoples Republic of Bangla Desh. Advertisement Newspapers across the world also reported that Bangabandhu made the proclamation on March 27, 1971. An AP report then said, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nationalist leader of East Pakistan, was arrested only hours after he had proclaimed his region independent. Interestingly, Ziaur Rahman, who was then a major in the Pakistan Army, read out another declaration on March 27, 1971, which too was widely reported. However, since then it has been an argument as to who made the first declaration. In fact, last March, Sheikh Hasina said the history of proclamation of independence in 1971 was distorted in the years following his assassination. Advertisement Bangabandhus independence proclamation was spread through wireless and his party men reached it elsewhere in the country. But after his assassination, the history was distorted. In the distorted history, it was said one major standing on a drum blew the whistle and Bangladesh got independence. But, any country cant attain independence this way. If it happened, then Bangladeshs history would have been written differently. However, all said and done, the constitution of Bangladesh states that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made a declaration of independence at Dacca on March 26, 1971. It is left to be seen what happens next in Bangladesh. With inputs from agencies Ukraines halt to Russian gas transit marks a historic shift in Europes energy landscape. As the EU ramps up LNG imports and renewable energy projects, questions loom about the future of energy cooperation, economic implications for Kyiv and Moscow, and the fate of vulnerable nations like Moldova read more A gas worker walks between pipes in a compressor and distribution station of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline, some 30 km (19 miles) from the south western Russian city of Kursk, January 4, 2006. File Image/Reuters Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas through its pipeline network on January 1, bringing an end to decades of Moscows dominance over Europes energy markets. This move, initiated by Ukraines refusal to renew a prewar transit agreement, marks a significant turning point in the regions energy landscape. The stoppage follows nearly three years of war between the two nations, during which Russian gas continued to flow through Ukraine under a five-year deal that expired in 2024. Advertisement Ukraines Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko called it a historic event, stating, Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. He stated that this aligned with Europes decision to phase out Russian gas. What alternative energy sources does Europe have? European countries have prepared for this eventuality by diversifying their energy sources. Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary, the last major EU consumers of Russian gas through Ukraine, have sought alternative supplies. Austrias OMV and Slovakias SPP have turned to pipelines from Germany and LNG imports from the US. Meanwhile, Hungary, as well as Turkey and Serbia, continues to receive gas from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline traversing the Black Sea. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico remarked that the end of gas flows via Ukraine will drastically affect us all in the EU but not Russia. Fico, known for his divergent stance on Russia compared to the European mainstream, previously criticised Kyivs refusal to renew the transit deal and warned of halting electricity exports to Ukraine in retaliation. The European Union has invested heavily in enhancing its gas infrastructure since 2022. A spokesperson for the European Commission remarked, The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin. It has been reinforced with significant new LNG import capacities. Europe has slashed its reliance on Russian energy, dropping Russian pipeline gass share of its market from nearly 40 per cent to about 8 per cent by 2023. Key suppliers like Norway, the United States, and Qatar now play a prominent role in filling the gap. What does this mean for Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova? While the cessation of gas transit represents a strategic victory for Ukraine, the country faces economic repercussions. Transit fees, previously amounting to nearly $1 billion annually, will be lost. To offset this, Ukraine has increased domestic gas transmission tariffs, a move that could cost its industries $38 million annually. Russia also faces significant losses. Gazprom, its state-owned energy giant, is set to lose around $5 billion annually. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the halt one of Moscows biggest defeats, adding that Europe must support Ukraine and Moldova during this energy transformation. Advertisement A general view shows the headquarters of Gazprom on the day of the annual general meeting of the companys shareholders in Moscow, Russia, June 26, 2015. File Image/Reuters Moldova, particularly its breakaway region of Transnistria, has been hit hard. With Russian gas no longer flowing, the regions residents face harsh winters and energy shortages. Local authorities have implemented emergency measures, urging citizens to conserve energy. Hospitals and critical facilities have been exempted, but a humanitarian crisis looms. What does this mean for the European energy market? The end of Russian gas transit through Ukraine underscores Europes commitment to energy independence. It accelerates the EUs non-binding goal to eliminate Russian gas imports by 2027 and highlights the blocs efforts to bolster energy security through LNG imports and regional cooperation. However, challenges remain. Countries like Slovakia and Hungary, which depended heavily on Russian gas, fear higher costs and reduced competitiveness. In response, the EU is working to integrate Ukraines energy grid with its neighbours and secure access to alternative supplies. A view of the business tower Lakhta Centre, the headquarters of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 27, 2022. File Image/AP The shift also highlights the importance of renewable energy. Europes investment in wind and solar power has been instrumental in reducing dependency on fossil fuels. Analysts argue that greater emphasis on renewables could mitigate the risks associated with geopolitical tensions and supply disruptions. Advertisement What about the Ukraine-EU balance? The cessation of Russian gas transit raises critical questions about future energy cooperation between Ukraine and the EU. For Ukraine, the focus must shift toward developing its own energy infrastructure, including the expansion of domestic gas production and renewable energy projects. On Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski characterised Ukraines decision to cease gas transit as a victory for those opposing the Kremlins policies. In a post on X, Sikorski accused Moscow of systematically attempting to blackmail Eastern Europe with the threat of cutting off gas supplies, citing examples like a Baltic pipeline bypassing Ukraine and Poland to deliver gas directly to Germany. Putin spent billions building Nordstream to circumvent Ukraine and blackmail Eastern Europe with the threat of cutting off gas supplies. Today Ukraine cut off his ability to export gas direct to the EU. Another victory after the enlargement of NATO by Finland and Sweden. Radek Sikorski (@radeksikorski) January 1, 2025 Advertisement The country has significant untapped potential in its gas fields and wind-rich regions, which could serve as a foundation for energy independence. The EU, on the other hand, faces the challenge of supporting Ukraine while balancing its own energy needs. This could involve greater financial assistance for Ukraines energy reforms and closer integration of Ukrainian energy markets with the EU. Advertisement Joint investments in green energy projects and cross-border energy trade agreements may also be explored. What is needed now? The crisis has exposed vulnerabilities in Europes energy strategy, prompting calls for a more coordinated approach. Experts suggest creating a unified European energy policy that highlights resilience and sustainability. This could include building additional LNG terminals, strengthening interconnections between national grids, and establishing a strategic gas reserve to cushion against future disruptions. For countries like Moldova, targeted assistance will be crucial. International aid and EU support can help the country navigate its immediate energy challenges while laying the groundwork for long-term energy security. This includes diversifying energy imports and investing in renewable energy projects to reduce reliance on external sources. As Europe adapts to this new reality, the emphasis on green energy and regional cooperation will likely grow. Also Watch: With inputs from agencies The United States was horrified by three violent incidents on New Years Day. The truck attack in New Orleans, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded in Las Vegas and a public shooting at a New York nightclub have tainted the revelry read more New Orleans police and federal agents investigate a suspected terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year's Day on January 1, 2025. AP It was a violent start to the New Year for the United States. Multiple incidents were reported on Wednesday (January 1), killing at least 16 people and injuring several others. An attack by a US Army veteran in New Orleans, a public shooting in New York and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas has stunned America. Authorities are investigating the incidents and it is yet to be known whether there is a connection between any of them. Advertisement Lets take a closer look. New Orleans attack A 42-year-old US Army veteran, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove a pickup truck into a crowd early on New Years Day, killing at least 15 people. The attacker drove around police barricades and ploughed into New Year revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans French Quarter. Jabbar was shot dead by police after he came out of the truck and opened fire on responding officers, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said, as per Associated Press (AP). Over 30 people were injured in the attack, including two police officers who were hit by gunfire but were in stable condition. A black flag of the terrorist Islamic State group was found on the trucks rear bumper. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism, reported CBS News. US President Joe Biden said later on Wednesday the FBI discovered just hours before the attack, Jabbar posted videos to social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill. He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did, Kirkpatrick said. The FBI suspects Jabbar was not a lone wolf and had help to carry out the attack. We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible," FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said at a news conference. Advertisement Investigators found a handgun, an AR-style rifle and two potential improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in the rented pickup truck driven by the attacker. One other IED was found in the French Quarter, and was detonated by law enforcement, a person familiar with the investigation told CBS News. Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside President-elect Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel early Wednesday. The person inside the vehicle died and seven others were injured. Authorities are investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack. The blast came just hours after the New Orleans attack. Clark County/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the police know who rented the Tesla truck with the Turo rental app in Colorado but is determining if it is the same person who died, as per AP. Advertisement He also reportedly said no link was found to the terrorist group ISIS, but we are investigating every aspect of this. McMahill said the pickup truck used in the New Orleans attack was also rented from Turo. When asked whether the two incidents were linked, he said, I dont know, adding but we are investigating whether there is any connectivity. As per NBC News, Turo said in a statement, We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. The sheriff said the Tesla arrived at 7:30 am local time in Las Vegas and exploded an hour later, about 15-20 seconds after reaching the Trump International Hotel. Advertisement Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 1, 2025, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Reuters He said Tesla CEO Elon Musk provided video of the Cybertruck at Tesla charging stations that helped authorities track the vehicles journey to Las Vegas. Musk, who is also a top adviser in the incoming Trump administration, said on X that the explosion had nothing to do with the vehicle. We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, Musk claimed. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. Police later found gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters, and large firework mortars in the back of the vehicle. Advertisement This is a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and its the Trump Tower, McMahill said. So theres obviously things to be concerned about and its something we continue to look at. Queens nightclub shooting In a third violent incident on New Years Day, three to four men opened fire on a group of 16 to 20 year olds outside the Amazura nightclub in Jamaica, Queens, New York. At least 30 shots were fired, injuring 10 people, before the gunmen fled on foot, Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said on Thursday, as per AP. The gunmen then got into a light-coloured Sedan with out of state plates. Six women and four men were hospitalised with non-life threatening injuries. While the motive is not known yet, Rivera said: This is not terrorism. With inputs from agencies Referred to as Catwoman, Swiss-born socialite Jocelyne Wildenstein died on December 31, 2024. Known for her feline-inspired appearance due to several surgeries, she died of a pulmonary embolism at a luxury hotel in Paris read more She was given nicknames by the American press such as "Catwoman". Image courtesy: Instagram/@jocelynewildenstein Jocelyne Wildenstein, often referred to as Catwoman, has died, The Swiss-born socialite, known for her feline-inspired look due to numerous surgeries, passed away from a pulmonary embolism at a luxury hotel in Paris. ALSO READ | Who is Woah Vicky, social media influencer who faked her kidnapping? She was given nicknames by the American press such as Catwoman and the Bride of Wildenstein. It is with heavy heart and with great sadness that Mr Lloyd Klein announces the unexpected death of his beloved fiancee and longtime companion Jocelyne Wildenstein, her partner said in a statement sent to AFP. Advertisement Her name was sometimes referred to as Jocelyne and Jocelyn in English-language media. According to some reports, she was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1940 and died on December 31. Who was Jocelyne Wildenstein? Born in Switzerland in 1945, Jocelyne Perisset rose to fame as a New York socialite after marrying art dealer Alec Wildenstein. The couple had two children together. Their marriage ended in the 1990s, resulting in one of the most expensive and public divorces in history. The reported settlement, valued at $2.5 billion, also specified Jocelyne would receive $100 million annually for the next 13 years, according to The Guardian. Her name was sometimes referred to as Jocelyne and Jocelyn in English-language media. Image courtesy: Instagram/@jocelynewildenstein Following the highly publicised divorce, she kept her ex-husbands surname. Some reports suggested she was five years older than her actual age. In a recent interview, she explained the confusion was due to her birth year being mistaken for her ex-husbands, 1940. ALSO READ | Doctor in China, patient in Morocco: How worlds longest remote surgery was performed Known for her love of cosmetic surgery, she gained the nickname Catwoman in the tabloids due to her distinctive feline-like appearance, particularly her eyes. With over a million followers on Instagram, she was quite popular on social media. Advertisement I never wanted to change my face Jocelyne first met her future husband, Alec Wildenstein, on a safari in Kenya and married him a year later in Las Vegas. Their marriage marked the beginning of her transformation, as she pursued cosmetic procedures to resemble a big cat. According to the Daily Mail, she spent 2m on surgeries, reportedly in an effort to please her husband, who was fascinated by big cats. She even kept a lynx as a pet, explaining to Vanity Fair that the lynx has perfect eyes. However, Alec Wildenstein had a different view. In a Vanity Fair interview, he said, She was crazy. I would always find out last. She was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldnt listen. Advertisement A judge overseeing their divorce settlement allegedly ruled that Jocelyne could not use any of the funds for further cosmetic surgery. In an interview with French TV channel C8, Jocelyne said, I never wanted to change my face, though she did acknowledge wishing her lips were a little thicker. Advertisement Extremism or beauty? Interview magazine once described Jocelyne as one of the jet sets most outrageous characters for nearly five decades. In her conversation with the media outlet, she revealed that she spent over $700,000 annually on food, wine, flowers, pills, and more, adding, and that was just the beginning. While some viewed her actions as extreme, others saw them as a form of beauty. When the magazines editor and interviewer Mel Ottenberg asked her about her passion for big cats, Jocelyne spoke about Ol Jogi, the Wildenstein family ranch in Kenya, where 2,000 animals were under protection. We have everything except lions, because they would kill what we are trying to protect, she explained. When asked about her favourite animal, she chose the leopard, stating that they form close attachments to just one person. Advertisement Leopards are jealous, she said. Despite the lavish lifestyle, Jocelynes financial situation shifted. In a 2023 interview with The Telegraph, she revealed that she had filed for bankruptcy in 2018. She explained that, after the death of her husband Alec in 2008, his family stopped the annual payments to her in 2015. The Lloyd Klein story Lloyd Klein and Jocelyne Wildenstein first met at New York Fashion Week in 2003 and immediately bonded over their shared love for extravagant style, as Klein later told People Magazine in 2016. The couple began dating that same year, though their relationship often attracted tabloid attention, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Lloyd Klein and Jocelyne Wildenstein first met at New York Fashion Week in 2003. Image courtesy: Instagram/@jocelynewildenstein In 2016, Wildenstein was arrested for slashing Kleins face with scissors during a violent altercation, in which she also allegedly threw a burning candle at him. Despite the incident, the couple reconciled, and in July 2017, they announced their engagement through The Daily Mail. However, just days later, Klein was arrested for robbery and assault after attempting to retrieve his belongings from Wildensteins apartment. Despite these challenges, they ultimately reunited. Speaking to People Magazine, Klein shared that Wildenstein passed away while taking a nap. We had a nice happy hour the same night and we were getting ready for the new year, and we took a little nap just to look good before getting dressed, he recalled. When asked about the cause of death, Klein explained that Wildenstein had phlebitis, a condition described by Healthline as inflammation of a vein that can result from vein wall damage or a blood clot blocking a vein. Because of her phlebitis, the legs were very, very swollen, and the blood was blocked, and there was no oxygen in the brain, he told the magazine. And we were having a nap, and when I woke up, I said, Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed, and she was cold and she was dead. Klein further stated that Wildensteins health had been perfect just days before, and the condition, which her grandmother had also experienced, did not impact their holiday celebrations. Wildenstein is survived by her two children and Klein. With inputs from agencies Five years after Covid-19, China is grappling with an outbreak of the human metapneumovirus (HMPV). The HMPV is an RNA virus that belongs to the Pneumoviridae, Metapneumovirus genus. It was first detected in 2001 by Dutch researchers studying samples of children with respiratory infections, but it has been around for six decades read more The human metapneumovirus (HMPVI) mimics the symptom of the common cold. mage for Representation. Pixabay Five years after COVID-19 emerged from China, another mysterious virus is turning heads. Authorities in China are facing an outbreak of the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) in several parts of the country. Authorities have asked citizens to wear face masks and wash hands frequently. But what do we know about the HMPV? And what about the rising cases in China? Lets take a closer look: What do we know? According to Chinas CDC website, the human metapneumovirus is an RNA virus. It belongs to the Pneumoviridae, Metapneumovirus genus. It was first found in 2001 by Dutch researchers studying samples of children with respiratory infections. Advertisement Studies have shown that the virus has existed for at least six decades. It has spread all over the world as a common respiratory pathogen. It is mainly spread in droplets through coughing and sneezing. Transmission may also occur due to close contact with the infected people and exposure to contaminated environments. The virus has an incubation period of three to five days. The immune response induced by HMPV is too weak to stop repeated infections. There is no vaccine for HMPV. Representational Image/Pixabay Though it can be found throughout the year, it is most detected in winter and spring, as per the CDC website. The HMPV is most likely to infect children, the immunocompromised and the elderly. It can manifest as symptoms of the common cold including cough, fever, nasal congestion and wheezing. However, in severe cases it can also result in bronchitis and pneumonia. As per Lung.org, doctors in sever cases can perform a bronchoscopy. Here, small, flexible camera is inserted into the lung and a sample of fluid is removed to test for viruses. HMPV can kill people who have underlying medical conditions. A piece in Lancet Global Health in 2021 quoted data as showing that HMPV was responsible for the deaths of 1 per cent of children with acute lowest respiratory under age five. Advertisement There are no vaccines against HMPV. Treatment is usually limited to easing symptoms. According to Inkl.com, over-the-counter medication such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help. So can decongestants to relieve nasal congestion. Those with COPD, asthma, and pulmonary fibrosis may get severe symptoms and might need medication to control wheezing and coughing. In a recent interview with the state-backed National Business Daily, a respiratory expert at a Shanghai hospital warned the public against blindly using antiviral drugs to fight human metapneumovirus, for which there is no vaccine but whose symptoms resemble those of a cold. What do we know? The Star reported that Chinas National Disease Control and Prevention Administration in has established protocols for laboratory reporting and case verification. As per Financial Express, the CDC has issued a slew of recommendations including wearing masks in crowded places, keeping a social distance, frequently washing hands and avoiding crowded areas. Advertisement The department also advised maintaining good hygiene, ensuring proper ventilation of indoor spaces and adopting a healthy lifestyle. Chinas diseases control authority previously said that it was piloting a monitoring system for pneumonia of unknown origin. The move to establish a dedicated system is aimed at helping authorities set up protocols to handle unknown pathogens, in contrast to the lower level of preparedness five years ago when the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 first emerged. The National Disease Control and Prevention Administration will establish a procedure for laboratories to report and for disease control and prevention agencies to verify and handle cases, state broadcaster CCTV reported, quoting an administration official at a news conference. Advertisement China is likely to be affected by various respiratory infectious diseases in winter and spring, Kan Biao, another official, said at the news conference. He said without elaborating that the overall number of cases this year would be smaller than last year. Recent cases detected include pathogens such as the rhinovirus and human metapneumovirus, with cases of the human metapneumovirus among people under the age of 14 showing an upward trend, especially in northern provinces. Data from Dec 16-22 indicates a rise in acute respiratory infections, including hMPV, particularly in northern provinces. Recent cases have predominantly involved individuals under 14 years of age, Reuters reported. Advertisement With inputs from agencies The Trinamool Congress supremo further said that she has directed DGP Rajeev Kumar to identify where these infiltrators are staying and that she would write a strong-worded letter to the BJP-led central government read more West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday the Border Security Force (BSF) of easing the entry of infiltrators into India from Bangladesh as the two countries witness a downfall in relations. We have got information that the BSF is letting infiltrators enter India through Islampur, Sitai, Chopra and several other bordering areas. The BSF is also torturing people and trying to destabilise the state, she said according to PTI. There is a blueprint of the central government behind this. But goons are entering India. I want peace on both sides of the border. We have a good relationship with neighbouring Bangladesh, she claimed at an administrative review meeting at the state secretariat. Advertisement The Trinamool Congress supremo further said that she has directed DGP Rajeev Kumar to identify where these infiltrators are staying and that she would write a strong-worded letter to the BJP-led central government. BJP responds BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar said that Banerjee has reached the ultimate level of delusion by accusing the BSF of the infiltrations. Despite not providing land to set up outposts for border surveillance, she used to blame the Border Security Force for illegal infiltration. But now, crossing all limits of accusations, she has started blaming her own administrations officials! According to her, the incompetent District Magistrates (DMs) and Superintendents of Police (SPs) under her administration are allowing foreign criminals to infiltrate the border to murder the elected representatives of her party, he said. BJP says TMC is blocking border fencing Meanwhile, another BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has alleged that the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal is deliberately stopping border fencing projects along the Bangladesh border and hence endangering national security. The West Bengal government is obstructing the land acquisition process to build Border Outposts (BOPs) and fences to secure the border. While the central government is willing to bear all expenses, the state government is deliberately not providing the land, Adhikari said earlier this week. Adhikari stated that out of the 456.474 km area along the Indo-Bangladesh border deemed suitable for fencing, land acquisition processes are underway for 284.56 km. This is a crucial measure to prevent infiltration. Four decades after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, some 377 tonnes of hazardous waste were loaded on sealed containers and shifted from the defunct Union Carbide factory for disposal. Know where it has been taken and what will happen next read more On Wednesday night, trucks loaded with hazardous waste left over from 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy began rolling out of the abandoned Union Carbide site for a disposal plant in Pithampur. Source: ANI. On the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, at least 5,479 people were killed and thousand others were left with serious and long-lasting health issues after highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal. It has been over 40 years since the Bhopal gas tragedy but the hazardous waste remained there till some 377 tonnes of it were loaded in 12 sealed container trucks on Wednesday and were sent out for disposal at the Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district, some 250 kms away from Bhopal. Advertisement The hazardous waste loaded trucks were escorted by police and emergency vehicles along a green corridor on Wednesday night. The decision of disposing of the waste from the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, considered to be among the worst industrial disasters in the world, was taken after workers of other factories in the industrial estate near Indore voiced concern about their safety. The move to clear the waste comes after the Madhya Pradesh High Court on December 3 rebuked authorities for not clearing the Union Carbide site in Bhopal despite directions from the Supreme Court. It then had set a four-week deadline to shift the waste, observing that even 40 years after the gas tragedy, authorities were in a state of inertia. The high court bench had warned the government of contempt proceedings if its directive was not followed. Green corridor to dispose Bhopal gas tragedy toxic waste 12 container trucks carrying the waste set off on a non-stop journey around 9 pm. A green corridor has been created for the vehicles which are expected to reach Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district in seven hours, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department Director Swatantra Kumar Singh said. How Bhopal gas tragedy waste was disposed Since Sunday (December 29), around 100 people, wearing PPE kits and maintaining other a host of other strict safety measures, worked in 30-minute shifts to pack and load the waste in trucks, Singh said. They underwent health check-ups and were given rest every 30 minutes, he further said. The waste was then loaded in 12 leak-proof and fire-resistant containers with each carrying an average of 30 tonnes. #WATCH | Madhya Pradesh: The toxic waste from Bhopal's Union Carbide Factory is being taken away in containers to Pithampur, to be discarded. pic.twitter.com/7yB8CCWdxC ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2025 Advertisement Ahead of transferring the waste, a 200-metre radius around the site was sealed. All entry points were closed and over 1,000 police officers were deployed for security. For the safe transportation of waste, the convoy of 12 containers was moving at an average speed of 50 kilometres per hour. The waste laden truck was transported through Bhopal, Sehore, Dewas and Indore to reach Pithampur. Apart for police, the convoy also included ambulances, doctors, fire brigade units and quick-response teams, with a total of 25 vehicles, which travelled overnight. Advertisement But where was this waste for 40 years? The 337 metric tonnes of toxic waste till now was stored at the abandoned Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. What the waste comprises of The waste comprises five types of hazardous materials, including remnants of Sevin, a pesticide produced at the Union Carbide factory, contaminated soil, pesticide and reactor residues, and chemicals left from manufacturing processes. #WATCH | Dhar, Madhya Pradesh: The containers of toxic waste from Bhopal's Union Carbide Factory have reached the disposal site in Pithampur. pic.twitter.com/t0y14HPOND ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2025 As per reports, the waste includes 162 metric tonnes of soil, 92 metric tonnes of Sevin and naphthol residues, 54 metric tonnes of semi-processed pesticides, and 29 metric tonnes of reactor waste. Advertisement The site also contained highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC), the gas which leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory causing thousands of deaths. What will happen with Bhopal gas tragedy waste in Pithampur Initially, some of the waste will be burnt at the waste disposal unit in Pithampur and the residue (ash) will be examined to find whether any harmful elements are left, a report by PTI quoted Singh as saying. The smoke from the incinerator will pass through special four-layer filters so that the surrounding air is not polluted, he further said. Once it is confirmed that no traces of toxic elements are left, the ash will be covered by a two-layer membrane and buried to ensure it does not come in contact with soil and water in any way. Advertisement The process will be carried out by a team of experts under the supervision of officials of the Central Pollution Control Board and State Pollution Control Board. Singh also informed that if everything is found to be fine, the waste will be incinerated within three months. Otherwise, it might take up to nine months. Pithampur protests against Bhopal tragedy waste disposal Meanwhile, local activists have claimed that in 2015, around 10 tonnes of Union Carbide waste was incinerated on a trial basis in Pithampur after which the soil, underground water and water sources in surrounding villages became polluted. Singh rejected the claim, saying that the decision to dispose of the waste at Pithampur was taken only after the report of the 2015 test and all the objections were examined. On Sunday, a large number of people took out a protest march in Pithampur to oppose the disposal of Union Carbide waste in the city which houses about 1.75 lakh. In a bid to ease anxiety among Pithampur residents and industrialists about the Union Carbide waste disposal, the Madhya Pradesh pollution control board regional officer in Indore Shriniwas Dwivedi also issued a video statement explaining the safety precautions. A special shed has been created with a concrete floor. It is leak proof. No activity will be carried out that will affect the people, farm, property, land or environment, Dwivedi said in the video message. Operated by Ramky Enviro Engineers under CPCB guidelines, the waste disposal plant in Pithampur is the only state-of-the-art incineration plant in Madhya Pradesh. With inputs from agencies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the newly built flats for residents of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters and distribute keys to eligible beneficiaries, according to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) read more Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate a series of development initiatives in Delhi on Friday, which includes 1,675 flats for residents of JJ clusters and two urban redevelopment projects in the countrys National Capital. As per a statement from the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), PM Modi will visit the newly-built flats for residents of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters, part of a slum rehabilitation initiative at Swabhiman Apartments in Delhis Ashok Vihar. Advertisement He will also distribute keys to eligible beneficiaries. The PMO further stated that the 1,675 newly constructed flats are part of the governments housing for all initiative. The project aims to offer residents of JJ clusters in Delhi a healthier and more comfortable living environment, with essential amenities and facilities. For every Rs 25 lakh spent on construction of a flat by the Central government, the eligible beneficiaries pay less than seven per cent of the total amount, comprising Rs 1.42 lakh as a nominal contribution and Rs 30,000 for five years of maintenance, the statement read further. The BJP-led government at the Centre is pushing for development as the national capital gears up for the upcoming assembly elections, expected to take place February this year. The BJP has been engaged in a fierce political rivalry with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been in power in the union territory since 2013. The Washington Posts claim that R&AW is behind a plot to overthrow President Muizzu is not only false but also ignores the complicated political situation in Maldives read more In the normal course, any Western media outlet crafting a sensational year-ender on Asia would have chosen Indias strained ties with Bangladesh in recent months if Taiwans narrative no longer excited global readers and South Koreas impeachment votes were still unfolding. Throw in some gunfire on Males streets or scandals in its luxury resorts and The Washington Posts exclusive on India plotting to overthrow Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu in early 2024 might well have fit the fiction category for year-end leisure reading. Advertisement Instead, the report speculates by naming two Indians with professional or business interests in the Maldives and linking them to meetings with serving officials of Indias intelligence agency, R&AWwithout evidence that these meetings involved any discussion of the alleged plot. Similarly, it remains unclear if journalist-authors Gerry Shih and Siddharthya Roy had provided former R&AW chief Hormis Tharakan with the full context of their emerging story before posing questions to quote him. Thankfully, the Washington Post report offered only this on their interaction: Hormis Tharakan, a former RAW chief who worked on Maldives-related issues but said he has no knowledge of current events. Maintaining a secure and stable relationship with its closest neighbours, like the Maldives, is essential for India. That a R&AW chiefTharakan or anyone elsewould have worked on Maldives-related issues is unsurprising. However, Tharakans substantive quote leans toward a more positive outlook on Indias relationship with the Muizzu presidency in early 2024 than anything else. New low, but There is no denying the downturn in bilateral relations since Muizzu was elected president in November 2023 through a two-phase voting process. He led in both rounds with the first serving as an elimination round. Unlike the presidential elections of 2008 and 2013, no significant realignment of forces determined the victor in the second round. India may have preferred the re-election of incumbent President Mohammed Ibrahim Solih, or Ibu Solih, from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Solihs continued tenure would have ensured the seamless execution of India-funded development projects across the Maldivian atolls and islands avoiding the potential for review, reshaping or rejection by a new government. Despite campaign-period tensions that led to India recalling three aerial platforms it had gifted for medical evacuation and EEZ surveillance, Muizzu approved ongoing India-funded projects. Advertisement At the time, legacy economic issues suggested that neither India nor Chinas committed funding would face disruption in the near future. This included the $500-million Thilamale sea-bridge project linking Male with two key islands. Muizzu, holding a PhD in structural engineering from a prestigious British university, personally visited the project site with his ministerial team and Indian High Commissioner Munu Mahawar. His primary request was to expedite the project, which had slowed due to Covid lockdowns. Diplomatic challenges, however, were inevitable, given the starkly different political backgrounds of Muizzu and his predecessor. One sensitive issue involved Indias withdrawal of soldiers stationed to operate the aerial platforms. This matter was addressed during a meeting between President Muizzu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai. The leaders formed a high-level core group, which promptly began working toward a mutually beneficial resolution, prioritising the Maldivian people who had long benefited from Indian support. Advertisement There was no denying that Muizzu leaned heavily toward Turkey and China, often beyond what was warranted. Agreements signed during his Beijing summit visit in mid-January and commitments from Ankara for early delivery of Turkish drones for sea surveillance, as well as a year-round supply of staple foods replacing India, appeared aimed at provoking New Delhi. However, India seemed prepared to handle these provocations with caution. After early indications of Solihs likely defeat in the presidential poll, New Delhi reportedly reiterated its position of engaging with democratically elected neighbourhood governments, regardless of leadership changes. India appeared to acknowledge the fluctuating nature of geopolitical and geostrategic diplomacy in smaller nations contrasting with Indias relatively consistent approach to foreign policy despite major political shifts caused by its five-year election cycles. Advertisement Relations hit a new low when three junior Maldivian ministers criticised Prime Minister Modi on social media after he praised Indian islands near the Maldives as promising tourism destinations. This coincided with Muizzus China visit and he responded by suspending the ministers for their comments. While The Washington Post suggested the ministers might have acted with Muizzus tacit approval, such claims were more reflective of street-level suspicions in India and opposition circles in the Maldives than concrete evidence. The backlash in India sparked the unprecedented Boycott Maldives social media campaign, which resonated particularly with centre-right voters aligned with Prime Minister Modis BJP in the lead-up to his bid for a third term. Although the campaign dented Maldives tourism industry initially, the damage has since been repaired, with Indian tourists returning. However, China has now overtaken India as the top source of tourists to the Maldives, post-Covid lockdown. Advertisement Amid these developments, New Delhi recognised that Muizzu faced domestic competition from his estranged mentor, jailed former president Abdulla Yameen, over their platforms presidential nomination. The Maldivian Supreme Courts rejection of Yameens candidacy, citing his criminal conviction, thwarted his plans to make the India Out/India Military Out campaign a centrepiece of his electoral manifesto. Notably, the campaign had failed to gain significant traction among Maldivian voters. The economy remained the foremost concern for voters, a reality Yameen seemingly recognised too late. Muizzu, on the other hand, grasped the issue more fully after assuming office. His China visit highlighted promises for the future, particularly in geostrategic terms, which seemed more important to Beijing than the Maldivian economy. By contrast, his state visit to India focussed squarely on addressing the economic crisis. India, as always, responded promptly, extending interim assistance without hesitation. Impeachment talk In this broader context, The Washington Post story is at best a written account of street-level chatter in Male the authenticity of which cannot be vouched for that suggested that the MDP-led Opposition had considered impeaching President Muizzu under the previous Parliament. While the Opposition held a majority then, it fell short of the two-thirds needed for impeachment. For those familiar with Maldivian politics, talk of impeaching a sitting president often serves as a recurring political pastime, indulged in not only by Opposition members but also by rebel factions within ruling parties. Currently, speculation about Muizzu persists, though his Progressive National Congress (PNC) commands 75 of the 93 parliamentary seats, bolstered by four more from allied parties. Social media interest in the possibility of a split within the ruling coalition occasionally flares up but typically fizzles out after a weekend. Realistically, with such a commanding majority in Parliament, the likelihood of anyone seriously pursuing impeachment remains slim. The reality is that most PNC members owe their parliamentary seats to the popularity Muizzu has garnered during his tenure as president rather than the other way around. Muizzus decisive victory in the presidential election was largely a product of his own political acumen, bolstered by the mounting failures of his predecessors and the unorthodox approach of his former mentor, Yameen. PNC MPs, keen on completing a full term and securing re-election in 2029, are acutely aware of these dynamics, which serve to consolidate Muizzus position further. It is not a crime for diplomats, intelligence officials, journalists and academics to meet as often as they wish and exchange information. This is part of their professional responsibilities. To attribute motives to every such meeting is simply unfounded. In the case of the Maldives, there has been persistent loose talk since the later years of president Maumoon Abdul Gayooms lengthy tenure, during which Opposition factions and lower-level rivals frequently spread rumours of an imminent impeachment or overthrow. They often claimed that such an event required millions of dollars and no Indian friend or acquaintance of the prominent Maldivian figures has been spared from such solicitations or inquiries. Not that their contacts access to New Delhis decision-making apparatus mattered much to anyone involved. Invariably, Indias name has been invoked for dramatic effect with some individuals attempting to create the impression that they were in direct communication with high-ranking officials in Indias Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Indian High Commission in Male, or the nations external intelligence agency, R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing). In this case, however, former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed has publicly stated that he did not believe India would have done anything close to what was being claimed by The Washington Post. While Nasheed has denied it, he is also said to be behind the Twitter (now X) account, Hassan Kurusee, which revealed a July date when the Post journalists had approached him for confirmation. Given that Hassan Kurusee has provided specifics of his phone conversation with the journalists, it is likely that his real identity will emerge sooner rather than later. However, that is beside the point. Throughout the immature talk of Muizzus imminent impeachment, public opinion remained firmly in his favour. Not that every voter loved him, no, but every voter cherished democracy and did not want their mandate to be undermined in any way. Equally important was the mood among voters that Muizzu should be given time first to settle in and then to address legacy issues and inherited problems. They promised to judge his performance in five years. If anything, the talk of an imminent impeachment during the lead-up to the parliamentary elections contributed significantly to Muizzus sweeping victory for the PNC. Therefore, the argument that India was working on a plot to topple Muizzu was fundamentally flawed. The Constitution clearly states that if the presidency falls vacant, the Vice-President assumes office to complete the remainder of the former presidents term. The new president then has the right to nominate a vice-president, subject to parliamentary approval. Those seeking to impeach the president would need to act decisively, either achieving their goal in one swift move or repeatedly finding new leaders a situation that was unlikely to be sustainable. Under the law, if both the presidency and vice-presidency are vacant, the Speaker the ambitious Abdul Rahim Adhurey would temporarily assume office for 60 days to conduct fresh presidential elections. During this time, he would hold all the powers of a full-time, elected president, including the ability to proclaim a state of emergency in response to growing political instability and constitutional challenges. It would undoubtedly lead to a messy situation after which those who initiated the impeachment proceedings would likely lose their resolve and their chance of success. Regime change Otherwise, the Washington Post editors, with their vast and varied experience, should have known that there are plenty of such documents and even more serious ones stored in the vaults of the CIA, documents aimed at regime change and colour revolutions, particularly in Third World nations that did not align with their interests. The number and severity of these instances have only grown in the post-Cold War era, especially following the lull during the transition from the now-forgotten Cold War period. Leaving the Maldives aside for a moment, in the neighbouring country of Sri Lanka, there have been numerous instances over the past decade of the US attempting to destabilise the incumbent regime in Colombo or influence a regime change. After losing the presidential election in 2015, the war-victorious Mahinda Rajapaksa openly declared that the regime change was due to western intelligence agencies. No guessing was needed he had the US, the US Embassy and the CIA in mind. More recently, in Sri Lanka, responsible political leaders and newspaper analysts openly declared that the US Embassy in Colombo, along with Ambassador Julie Chung, were responsible for the Aragalaya mass protests, which led to the forced exit of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2022, well before the end of his five-year elected term. An alleged American role in bringing the once-despised, unproven pro-China JVP and presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake to power through the 2024 elections was whispered about in the corridors of Colombo. However, that seems to have faded with time, especially following the massive parliamentary victory in November. More to the point, media outlets not only in India and the rest of Asia, but even in Europe, hinted at an American hand behind the well-known mass protests in Bangladesh, which led to the ouster of three-term prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her replacement by octogenarian NGO activist Mohamed Yunus earlier this year. No section of the American media has conducted any serious investigation to prove or disprove these claims or beliefs, which point an accusing finger at Washington, particularly at the CIA and the so-called American Deep State, a term that has gained frequent use in recent weeks and months across the world. Suffice it to recall how, when the US was nudging the short-lived government of President Mohamed Waheed (2012-13) to sign the sensitive Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) for bilateral defence cooperation, a senior American diplomat told newsmen in Washington that they had taken India into confidence on the matter. As it turned out, India had only been informed at a low level within the military hierarchy regarding Maldivian relations and that too informally. No serious diplomatic discussions had been held or formally notified then, or since. It does not stop there. Months earlier, at the height of the anti-Nasheed December 23 Movement protest aimed at ousting the incumbent president, a senior American diplomat reportedly told an Indian civilian interlocutor from the past how, at the end of the day, the US would sideline India out of the Maldivian equation in order to take on China more directly. According to him, India wants to be in the Big Boys Club, but we cannot afford it, hence would not allow it, even though it was in Indias backyard, within Indias traditional sphere of influence. The writer is a Chennai-based Policy Analyst and Political Commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. America must navigate the middle path with wisdom, rejecting both the misuse of diversity politics and the reinstatement of racist ideologies that seek to divide US society and denigrate immigrants read more In the ongoing debate over immigration, diversity, and national identity in America, we confront not only the dangers of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies but also face the resurgence of overt racism and xenophobia. Luckily for us, far-right activist Laura Loomers inflammatory comments against Indian immigrants have received a strong push-back. They force us to reflect on the future of MAGAMake America Great Againwhich, arguably, brought president-elect Donald Trump back to power. Now the new administration must ensure that the proper corrective for the overreach of DEI does not mean the resurgence of white supremacism and racism. Advertisement DEI initiatives aimed to address systemic inequalities by promoting inclusivity across various platforms, including education and the workplace. But under President Joe Biden DEI went to extremes prioritising identity politics over competence. Some went so far as to argue that excessive and unfair DEI policies and practices led to reverse discrimination. We, of course, are very familiar with this in India, with our iron-clad quota system. In the United States, however, the fear that DEI could ruin America has resulted in a rethinking not just the policies but the politics behind notions such as equality not only of opportunity, but of outcomes. Ideas of creating a society where opportunities are based more on diversity and quotas than on individual talent or achievement have now come not only under scrutiny but are in considerable disrepute. No doubt, the original principle behind DEI, which was to ensure fairness and opportunity for all, cannot be abandoned. But insisting on equalising outcomes regardless of merit or competence, it is acknowledged, will no longer work. On the opposite end, white supremacist ideologies have seen a disturbing resurgence, often cloaked in nationalist rhetoric. This has been starkly illustrated by the actions and words of individuals like Laura Loomer, a known far-right activist whose rhetoric directly targets immigrants, particularly those from India, under the guise of protecting American jobs and culture. Loomers comments have included derogatory remarks about Indian hygiene, intelligence, and our place in American society. She has notably described Indians as third-world invaders and made racist slurs about the average IQ in India, stating it to be 76 to undermine the capabilities of Indian immigrants. Earlier, she claimed that with Indian influence, the White House will smell like curry if Kamala Harris become president, invoking racist stereotypes. Her opposition to the H-1B visa programme, which she sees as a mechanism for replacing American workers with Indian ones, further highlights her anti-immigrant stance. Advertisement Should she be taken seriously? No. But she may have, inadvertently, served to highlight the road that neither Trump nor MAGA should take. Because her rhetoric not only promotes racial prejudice but also attempts to legitimise the exclusion of skilled immigrants who contribute significantly to American innovation and economy. The danger here is not just in the immediate harm of such slurs but in how they fuel a broader narrative of racial and cultural superiority, which has no place in a nation built by diverse peoples. The slogan Make America Great Again (MAGA) must not been co-opted by various factions, including those with racist undertones like Loomers. Else, the accusation that MAGA is merely disguised racism may come true. MAGA cannot be a front or disguise for a return to a time when white dominance was considered normal, even natural or God-given. We know that these ideas are historically untrue, having been disproved over and over again. Greatness, especially in the US, is not tied to racial identity or homogeneity. MAGA should represent a return to economic and moral prosperity for all Americans, not an endorsement of racial or cultural exclusion. Advertisement It is up to the winning side to ensure that MAGA does not stand for white dominance or prejudice against immigrants. Not just moderate Republicans, but all sensible Americans must to reclaim the narrative from extremists. It is crucial to assert that Americas greatness is tied to its diversity, not diminished by it. The balance lies in crafting immigration and diversity policies that uphold meritocracy while ensuring inclusivity. This is not as hard to do as it might first seem. Immigration reform is, of course, crucial and long overdue. It boils down to preventing illegals from flooding into the US while protecting, even encouraging, deserving legal immigrants. Policies should recognise the contributions of skilled immigrants while protecting the rights of all workers, native and foreign-born alike. Advertisement At the same time, DEI also needs to be reformed if not dismantled. The powers that be must ensure that DEI initiatives do not create new forms of discrimination but rather promote equality of opportunity based on competence and fairness. Combatting misinformation and hate through education about cultural contributions, both past and present, to foster a society that values diversity as a strength is an added step. Especially countering the bilge and bile spewed out daily on social media. The silver lining is that Laura Loomers racist slurs and anti-Indian rhetoric have received a strong pushback from the likes of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Donal Trump has also supported regulated legal immigration, especially in areas and fields, such as science and engineering, where local expertise is not sufficient. The dangers of extreme positions, whether on the left or the right, vitiate the discourse on American identity as much as they do ideas of Indian nationalism. Advertisement America must navigate the middle path with wisdom, rejecting both the misuse of diversity policies and the reinstatement of racist ideologies that seek to divide US society and denigrate immigrants. Rolling back DEI, if it succeeds, may also serve as a lesson to India on how to moderate, mitigate, or modify the stranglehold of reservations in the state-funded Indian education and service sector. The writer is an author and columnist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. Malaysias internet regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), disclosed that X argued it did not meet the user threshold. Meanwhile, Google has expressed concerns about how YouTubes video-sharing features are classified under the new rules read more Despite the backlash, some platforms have complied. Chinese tech giants ByteDance, which operates TikTok, and Tencent, the company behind WeChat, were the first to secure licences. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has also begun the application process. Image Credit: Reuters, Reuters Elon Musks X and Googles YouTube may face bans in Malaysia as the platforms have not yet secured operating licences under the countrys newly introduced social media law. The law mandates social media platforms with more than eight million users in Malaysia to apply for a licence to continue operations. However, both X and YouTube have yet to comply, potentially putting their operations at risk. Malaysias internet regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), disclosed that X argued it did not meet the user threshold. The commission is currently verifying this claim. Meanwhile, Google has expressed concerns about the licensing framework, particularly how YouTubes video-sharing features are classified under the new rules. Advertisement Tightened regulations face resistance The law introduces strict requirements, including provisions for warrantless arrests and demands for private data disclosure to aid surveillance. Unsurprisingly, the regulations have met resistance from tech companies, civil society groups, and lawmakers. Critics argue the law could lead to overreach and infringe on privacy rights, sparking debates about its long-term implications. Despite the backlash, some platforms have complied. Chinese tech giants ByteDance, which operates TikTok, and Tencent, the company behind WeChat, were the first to secure licences. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has also begun the application process, ensuring continued access for its users in Malaysia. Broader push to regulate big tech Malaysias move to regulate social media aligns with a growing trend among Asian governments to hold Big Tech accountable. Countries like India and Australia have also introduced measures to address concerns about illegal content, disinformation, and the influence of social media on politically sensitive issues. Malaysias law, approved by parliament in December, aims to tackle various forms of online harm, including scams, cyberbullying, pedophilia, and child exploitation. While the government frames the regulations as necessary for public safety, the scope of enforcement has raised questions about freedom of expression and potential misuse. What lies ahead for X and YouTube? As the licensing saga unfolds, X and YouTubes future in Malaysia hangs in the balance. Their reluctance to comply could lead to operational restrictions, leaving millions of Malaysian users without access to these platforms. Meanwhile, Meta and Telegram are positioning themselves to continue operations, having started the licensing process. For Malaysia, the law represents a significant step in its digital governance efforts. However, the reactions from global tech giants signal a rocky road ahead as governments and corporations navigate the complex balance between regulation, user privacy, and free expression. DeepSeeks model boasts an impressive 671 billion parameters, placing it on par with some of the most advanced models globally. Yet, it was developed at a fraction of the cost incurred by giants like Meta and OpenAI, requiring only $5.58 million and 2.78 million GPU hours read more DeepSeek researchers have claimed that they spent under $6 million (Rs 51 crore) on its latest AI model (DeepSeek V-3) launched on January 10 a fraction of what tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft spend. Reuters Chinese start-up DeepSeek is making waves in AI developers all over the world, with the release of its latest large language model (LLM), DeepSeek V3. Launched in December 2025, this model has been hailed as a game-changer for its remarkable efficiency in development and cost-effectiveness. The Hangzhou-based company has quickly become a standout player in the global AI community, showcasing innovative strategies to overcome resource constraints and geopolitical challenges. DeepSeeks model boasts an impressive 671 billion parameters, placing it on par with some of the most advanced models globally. Yet, it was developed at a fraction of the cost incurred by giants like Meta and OpenAI, requiring only $5.58 million and 2.78 million GPU hours. These figures are a stark contrast to Metas Llama 3.1, which needed 30.8 million GPU hours and more advanced hardware to train. DeepSeeks success highlights the rapid advancements of Chinese AI firms, even under US semiconductor sanctions. Advertisement Revolutionary approach to LLM training DeepSeek attributes its efficiency to a novel architecture designed for cost-effective training. By leveraging NVIDIAs H800 GPUs, customised for the Chinese market, the company optimised its resources to achieve results that rival those of much larger players. This pragmatic approach underscores the potential of resource constraints to drive innovation, as noted by industry experts like NVIDIAs Jim Fan and OpenAIs Andrej Karpathy. Fan commended DeepSeek for demonstrating how limited resources can lead to groundbreaking achievements in AI. Similarly, Jia Yangqing, founder of Lepton AI, praised the start-ups ability to produce world-class outcomes through intelligent research and strategic investments. DeepSeeks early acquisition of over 10,000 GPUs, prior to US export restrictions, laid the groundwork for its success. DeepSeek and controversies DeepSeek has embraced open-source principles, making its models accessible to the global community. Its V1 model remains the most popular on Hugging Face, a leading platform for machine learning and open-source AI tools. This openness has put pressure on commercial AI developers to accelerate their own innovations. However, DeepSeek V3 has faced criticism for occasional identity confusion, mistakenly identifying itself as OpenAIs ChatGPT during certain queries. Experts attribute this issue to GPT contamination in training data, a common problem across many AI models. While such errors are not unique to DeepSeek, they have sparked discussions about the challenges of ensuring model accuracy and identity integrity. A new era for AI development DeepSeeks rise signals a shift in the AI landscape, demonstrating that innovative approaches can rival the dominance of tech giants. Despite geopolitical hurdles, the start-ups achievements underscore the potential for Chinese AI firms to lead in the global market. With strong backing from High Flyer Quant and a team of young, capable developers, DeepSeek is poised to continue disrupting the field. As the AI community watches closely, DeepSeeks journey serves as a testament to the power of ingenuity and adaptability in shaping the future of artificial intelligence. With a release date rumoured for late January, the S25 Ultra promises to bring plenty of exciting upgrades and innovations to the table. Reports suggest the 256GB base model will launch at 1,449 euros or about Rs 1,30,000 read more Samsung is gearing up to launch its much-anticipated Galaxy S25 Ultra, with the official unveiling expected later this month. The flagship phone is already stealing the spotlight, even before its debut, with enthusiasts eagerly speculating about its features. As the successor to the hugely popular Galaxy S24 Ultra, which dominated the charts throughout the year, the S25 Ultra has big shoes to fill. In fact, its already creating waves, having overtaken its predecessor in recent online popularity rankings. Advertisement With a release date rumoured for late January, the S25 Ultra promises to bring plenty of exciting upgrades and innovations to the table. From enhanced cameras to sleek design updates, lets dive into what Samsungs upcoming flagship has in store. Familiar pricing with the S24 series Samsung is expected to keep the pricing of the Galaxy S25 Ultra consistent with the S24 Ultra, making it a relief for fans who dreaded a price hike. Reports suggest the 256GB base model will launch at 1,449 euros or about Rs 1,30,000 with Samsung likely to sweeten the deal by doubling the storage at no extra cost for pre-orders. Pre-orders are rumoured to begin on 24 January, with deliveries starting as early as February in most markets. Samsung is also expected to offer exclusive pre-order bonuses, which might include additional accessories or discounts. If these reports are accurate, the S25 Ultras price-to-value proposition could be even more enticing than its predecessor. Camera upgrades galore Samsungs Ultra line has always been a trailblazer in smartphone photography, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra continues this tradition. The headline upgrade is expected to be a 50 MP ultrawide sensor, improving over its predecessors specifications. This new sensor is rumoured to bring better clarity and colour accuracy, especially in low-light conditions. The rest of the camera setup is likely to remain unchanged, retaining the powerhouse 200 MP main sensor, a 50 MP 5x telephoto lens, and a 12 MP selfie camera. This consistent lineup ensures users get reliable performance across various shooting scenarios. Whether capturing a sweeping landscape or snapping a detailed close-up, the S25 Ultra looks set to deliver stunning results. Whats under the hood The S25 Ultra will reportedly run on the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset globally, providing lightning-fast performance. Samsung might finally push its flagship to 16GB of RAM, giving it a competitive edge in the market. The phone will debut with Android 15 and Samsungs revamped One UI 7, which introduces seamless updates for the first time in the flagship series. This feature allows users to install updates in the background, minimising downtime during the process. Additionally, Samsung is bundling a year of Gemini Advanced, a premium AI service with Google Drive perks, adding an extra layer of utility to the device. The combination of hardware and software enhancements promises a smooth and powerful user experience. Sleek design and new colours Visually, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is expected to turn heads with its rounded corners and thinner bezels, making it more ergonomic without compromising on screen size. The 6.8-inch display remains, but slimmer bezels might slightly reduce the phones overall footprint. Samsungs use of Gorilla Glass Armor ensures durability and a premium finish. The phone will come in an array of colours, including striking options like Titanium Jade Green and Titanium Pink Gold. Some shades may be exclusive to Samsungs online store, adding a touch of exclusivity to the mix. With its refined design and versatile colour palette, the S25 Ultra aims to set a new benchmark in smartphone aesthetics. Advertisement The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is shaping up to be an exciting evolution of the Ultra series, blending familiar strengths with fresh innovations. Whether its the upgraded camera, the cutting-edge processor, or the sleek design, the phone promises to deliver on all fronts. With a launch just around the corner, all eyes are on Samsung to see if it can maintain its reign in the flagship smartphone market. Kremlins initiative is part of a broader effort by Russia to build alliances with BRICS nations and other partners. Putin envisions creating an AI Alliance Network to pool resources and expertise read more By teaming up with China, Russia hopes to sidestep these limitations. Chinas leadership in AI and its access to advanced hardware provide a lifeline for Moscow to continue its AI development despite the restrictions. Image Credit: Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a directive for government agencies and Sberbank, the nations largest bank, to collaborate with China in advancing artificial intelligence (AI). The Kremlin announced the move on Wednesday, underscoring Russias push to strengthen ties with China to enhance its technological capabilities in the face of growing global competition. This initiative is part of a broader effort by Russia to build alliances with BRICS nations and other partners. Putin envisions creating an AI Alliance Network to pool resources and expertise, helping Russia maintain relevance in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Advertisement Navigating Western sanctions Russias AI ambitions have been significantly hampered by Western sanctions, which have blocked access to advanced microchips and other critical technologies. These restrictions have forced Russian companies to innovate with limited resources. GPUs (graphics processing units), essential for AI development, have been particularly challenging to replace, as acknowledged by Sberbank CEO German Gref. By teaming up with China, Russia hopes to sidestep these limitations. Chinas leadership in AI and its access to advanced hardware provide a lifeline for Moscow to continue its AI development despite the restrictions. Partnering with BRICS for technological growth Putins directive aligns with his vision of fostering cooperation within the BRICS framework. The proposed AI Alliance Network aims to bring together experts from member nations, including China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. This initiative is expected to help Russia share knowledge, reduce dependency on Western technologies, and drive progress in AI research. Russias AI position on the global stage Russia currently ranks 31st on the Global AI Index, far behind leaders like the US and China. Even fellow BRICS members, such as India and Brazil, surpass Russia in AI innovation and investment. The collaboration with China is seen as a vital step for Russia to improve its standing and challenge the dominance of Western powers in this critical technology sector. In recent months, six African countries have asked France to withdraw their troops, significantly curtailing Frances influence in the region that it had traditionally had a sway in read more Ivory Coast has become the latest African country to join the France Out campaign. Within weeks of Senegal and Chad telling France to withdraw its troops from their territories, Ivory Coast also conveyed to France on Wednesday (January 1) that it needs to withdraw its soldiers. While these nations say they are evicting French soldiers over sovereignty concerns, neocolonial business practices, and patronising attitude of France, the fact that such moves have come at a time when Russia is making inroads in the continent cannot be missed. Advertisement France is the former colonial power of Western Africa and has acted as the traditional security guarantor in the region. In the Sahel region comprising the nations of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Guinea Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal, France has repeatedly intervened militarily over the years to contain the Islamist insurgency. However, such interventions have been used by critics to incite opposition to both France and elected governments in the region. Despite years of counter-insurgency activities, at least six countries have asked France to withdraw soldiers: Ivory Coast, Chad, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Once France is out of these countries, its military footprint in the region would be just limited to Djibouti and Gabon. While the orders to leave the territory in other nations came after coups Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger there was no such coup in Senegal or Chad. Meanwhile, Gabon continues to host French troops despite the coup. The decision of Ivory Coast took many observers by surprise as the country has been a staunch ally of Frace. However, President Alassane Ouattara said in an address broadcast to the nation Tuesday night that the countrys militarys modernisation was over and there was no longer a requirement of French soldiers. We can be proud of our army, whose modernisation is now complete. ,It is in this context that we have decided on the coordinated and organized withdrawal of French forces from the Ivory Coast, said Ouattara In a recent joint statement carried by New York Times, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger called the French government imperialist French junta. The further said that French bases where merely an attempt to make Frances neocolonial inclinations less visible in the region. Advertisement Even as these countries have enthusiastically evicted French troops, the security situation in the region has worsened in the absence of French troops, with rising attacks by terrorists on civilians, according to Associated Press. The forced flight of French troops has been followed by the entry of Russian mercenaries in the region. Even before Ivory Coasts decision, the fate of French influence in the region was seen as having been sealed. Mucahid Durmaz, a senior analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, told AP that Chads decision marks the final nail in the coffin of Frances post-colonial military dominance in the entire Sahel region. Advertisement Durmaz further said that decisions by Senegal and Chad are part of the wider structural transformation in the regions engagement with France, in which Paris political and military influence continues to diminish. Albanias Prime Minister Edi Rama announced TikToks ban on December 21 and the social media app is expected to be taken down in the coming weeks read more Every evening, Ergus Katiaj uploads a video on TikTok reminding customers that his shop in Tirana delivers potato chips, cigarettes and alcohol through the night. His phone buzzes with orders that add about 1,000 euros to his monthly profit. But Katiaj will soon have to find a new way to attract business. Albanias government has imposed a year-long ban on the social media app that it says is aimed at reducing youth violence but which rights groups and business owners say threatens commerce and free speech ahead of May elections. Advertisement It will have a huge impact on my business because most of the sales are through delivery thanks to TikToks free marketing, Katiaj said as he made deliveries across the outskirts of the capital. Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the ban on December 21 after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death in November by a fellow pupil, a crime that local media reports said occurred after the boys clashed online. TikTok is expected to be taken down in the coming weeks. The move follows bans or partial bans in at least 20 countries due to worries about improper videos or security concerns linked to the apps owner, China-based ByteDance, and its proximity to the Chinese government. In Albania, Rama said the decision came after discussions with parents and teachers, but opponents worry that it is part of the prime ministers crackdown on political dissent after a year of popular unrest. This creates a dangerous precedent that at any moment governments can close different platforms, said Orkidea Xhaferaj, from the Tirana-based think tank SCiDEV. TikTok said it was seeking urgent clarity from the Albanian government because it says multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform, not TikTok. Advertisement Albania saw regular violent protests last year against the jailing of political opponents. Demonstrators threw petrol bombs at government buildings and police responded with tear gas and water canons. The leaders of the two biggest opposition parties, Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party and Ilir Meta of the Freedom Party, are charged with corruption offences. They deny the charges, which they say are politically motivated. Arlind Qori, the leader of the political party Bashke (Together) formed in 2022, said the TikTok ban curtails a powerful opposition communication tool. He wants to close our mouth, Qori said from his office where party supporters took refuge from the cold and discussed their campaign plans. Advertisement Rama insists the move is meant to protect young people. In an alleyway in central Tirana, a photo of the slain schoolboy hangs on an electric pole surrounded by withered flowers and messages from friends. He was stabbed there and walked towards his school bleeding before an ambulance came. Inside Chinas TikTok, you dont see hooliganism, perversity, violence, bullying, crime, Rama said when announcing his decision last month. While in TikTok outside of China only scum and scoundrels. Why do we need this? Chinmoy Krishna Das was represented by a legal team of 11 lawyers led by advocate Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee read more Devotees and members of Iskcon hold posters during a protest outside the Bangladesh High Commission in Mumbai on December 2, 2024, amid the unrest in Bangladesh after the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari. Source: AFP. A Bangladeshi court on Thursday once again rejected the bail plea of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das months after he was arrested on sedition charges for allegedly disrespecting the countrys national flag. A report by The Daily Star quoted Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizur Haque Bhuiyan as saying, Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam rejected the bail plea after hearing arguments from both sides for around 30 minutes. Das was represented by a legal team of 11 lawyers led by advocate Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee. Advertisement The rejection of the monk has invited criticism from Isckon with its vice president, Radharaman Das, calling the move unfortunate. We all were very hopeful that today he will get bail. Hes a, you know, you know, hes a Brahmachari. Hes a monk. And he was there, he was inside jail for last 42 years, 42 days. And we also heard that his health is not good. So we are very hopeful that the judge will grant him bail, he said. But if his bail has been rejected, then this is very unfortunate. Whole world was looking towards this hearing and, and we are waiting. Well see why the judge refused his bail. Das, a spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested last month at Dhakas Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while en route to Chattogram for a rally. Denied bail, he was remanded to custody until January 2 by a Bangladeshi court. Minorities, especially Hindus, have been facing religious persecution in Bangladesh ever since the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year. In one of her first addresses since she fled Dhaka, Hasina lambasted the current interim government for not protecting minorities. What is this persecution of minorities for? Why are they being ruthlessly attacked? she said. She added, Today, I am being accused of genocide. In reality, Yunus has been involved in genocide in a meticulously designed manner. Hindus, Buddhists, Christians no one has been spared. Eleven churches have been razed, temples and Buddhist shrines have been broken. When Hindus protested, the Iskcon leader was arrested. Advertisement Biden last year honored people who were involved in defending the Capitol from the rioters, or who helped safeguard the will of American voters during the 2020 presidential election, when Trump tried and failed to overturn the results read more President Joe Biden is bestowing the second highest civilian medal on Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson the lawmakers who led the congressional investigation into the violent Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot by Donald Trumps supporters, and who Trump has said should be jailed. Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people in a ceremony Thursday at the White House, including Americans who fought for marriage equality, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and two of the presidents longtime friends, former Sens. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn. Advertisement President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others, the White House said in a statement. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice. Biden last year honored people who were involved in defending the Capitol from the rioters, or who helped safeguard the will of American voters during the 2020 presidential election, when Trump tried and failed to overturn the results. Cheney, who was a Republican representative from Wyoming, and Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, led the House committee that probed the insurrection. Cheney later said she would vote for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race even campaigned with her, raising Trumps ire. Biden has been considering whether to offer preemptive pardons to Cheney and others Trump has targeted. Trump, who won the 2024 election and will take office Jan. 20, still refuses to back away from his lies about the 2020 presidential race and has said he would pardon the rioters once he takes office. During an interview with NBCs Meet the Press, Trump said, Cheney did something thats inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps, claiming without evidence they deleted and destroyed testimony they collected. Honestly, they should go to jail, he said. Biden is also giving the award to attorney Mary Bonauto, who fought to legalize same-sex marriage, and Evan Wolfson, a leader of the marriage equality movement. Advertisement Other honorees include Frank Butler, who set new standards for using tourniquets on war injuries; Diane Carlson Evans, an Army nurse during the Vietnam War who founded the Vietnam Womens Memorial Foundation; and Eleanor Smeal, an activist who led womens rights protests in the 1970s and fought for equal pay. Hes also giving the award to photographer Bobby Sager, academics Thomas Vallely and Paula Wallace, and Frances Visco, the president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. Other former lawmakers being honored include former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J.; former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, the first woman to represent Kansas; and former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who championed gun safety measures after her son and husband were shot to death. Advertisement Biden will honor four people posthumously: Joseph Galloway, a former war correspondent who wrote about the first major battle in Vietnam in the book We Were Soldiers Once and Young; civil rights advocate and attorney Louis Lorenzo Redding; former Delaware state judge Collins Seitz; and Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was held with other Japanese Americans during World War II and challenged the detention. The Presidential Citizens Medal, created by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is the countrys second highest civilian honor after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is awarded to those who performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. Advertisement The boat carried 27 passengers and left Zuwara in Libya at 10 pm on December 30. The mishap occurred in the rough sea waters after waves tilted the boat. Despite this, seven people managed to travel on the vessel before the Italian coast guard found them on December 31 read more As many as 20 people have gone missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Libya. The missing people fell into the rough waters after the boat tilted about 20 miles off the coast of Libya. survivors have recalled. The boat carried 27 passengers and left Zuwara in Libya at 10 pm on December 30. The mishap occurred in the rough sea waters after waves tilted the boat. Despite this, seven people managed to travel on the vessel before the Italian coast guard found them on December 31. Advertisement Initially, it was thought that the vessel had overturned near Lampedusa, prompting the Italian police and coastguard to conduct an overnight search and rescue operation in the waters southwest of the island. However, according to local Italian media, survivors recounted that the boat began taking in water five hours after it departed from Libya causing it to tilt and creating panic among passengers with 20 of them falling offboard. Among the witnesses were two individuals each from Syria, Egypt, and Sudan, who reported that five women and three children had fallen overboard. They described the sea as rough and the winds as strong. The seventh survivor, an eight-year-old boy from Syria, has also been rescued. All survivors have been transported to Porto Empedocle in Sicily. As per the news agency Ansa, Italian authorities have ceased the search and rescue operations after transferring the case to their Libyan and Maltese counterparts. In a sign of poor confidence in Chinas ability to grow its economy and fear of US President-elect Donald Trumps promised tariffs, China recorded the worst New Years Day trading since 2016 as key index fell more than 3% read more Even as Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to continue taking proactive steps to revive the economy, investors dont appear to have much faith. In the New Years Day trading, China on Thursday (January 2) recorded the worst day since 2016. The CSI 300 Index closed 2.9 per cent lower on Thursday whereas the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell by 3.1 per cent. The poor investors sentiment is being attributed to weaker-than-expected manufacturing data that was published earlier this week and tariffs that the incoming Trump administration in the United States is expected to impose US President-elect Donald Trump has indicated he could impose 60 per cent tariff on Chinese imports which investment and financial services firm UBS says could wipe out as much as 2.5 per cent of Chinese GDP. Advertisement Earlier this week, the official manufacturing figures were 50.1, which was much lower than the projection of 51.7. The losses on the New Years Day, which were the highest in nearly a decade, show that investors are not convinced of multiple rounds of stimulus, rate cuts, and tax cuts that the Chinese regime has announced in recent months to revive the sluggish economy. The underlying momentum for China remains quite fragile, said Homin Lee, a Senior Macro Strategist at Lombard Odier. Lee told Bloomberg, Its a bit troubling that investors are starting the new year in a cautious mode as this is happening after clearer stimulus signals from Beijing during its December policy meetings. The underlying momentum for China remains quite fragile, and it will take some efforts from the authorities to change the conversation on the countrys medium-term deflationary dangers. Even as authorities have indicated that more spending and measures are in the offing, a lull is expected until March when a major Communist Partys annual legislative session would be held. The nearly-four month lull means that investor sentiment is unlikely to improve in the short term. While Chinese market recorded its worst New Years Day since 2016, the 10-year bond yields hit a fresh record low as well, according to Bloomberg. Liu Dejun, a Fund Manager at Beijing Kaiyuan Private Fund Management Co, told the outlet that many investors are avoiding keeping Chinese stocks in their portfolio ahead of Trumps inauguration. Advertisement The losses today look very much trading driven, as there was a bit of accumulated gains that would have prompted selling with the breach of technicals. Many are also talking about avoiding too much stock exposure ahead of Trumps inauguration, which is close to the Lunar New Year holidays, said Dejun. New environmental regulations and geopolitical risks, such as recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea, have cooled interest in ultra-large vessels, industry insiders say read more Big shipping containers are going out of style, courtesy of geopolitics. Representative Image/AFP The redirection of global trade away from China toward other Asian ports is prompting shipowners to abandon the trend of ordering massive cargo vessels, instead opting for smaller, more versatile ships. Only six ultra-large container ships, capable of carrying over 17,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), are set for delivery in 2025, compared with 17 in 2020, according to shipbroker Braemar. In contrast, orders for mid-sized vessels, ranging from 12,000 to 16,999 TEUs, have surged, with 83 scheduled for completion in 2025nearly five times the number delivered five years earlier, Financial Times reported. Advertisement Changing trade patterns Peter Sand, chief analyst at shipping market tracker Xeneta, said supply chains are increasingly shifting from China to smaller manufacturing hubs across Asia. We definitely see increased interest away from sourcing only your products from China, Sand said, noting that larger ships are only cost-effective when they can be fully loaded. The trend reverses decades of shipowners favouring ever-larger vessels to meet the demands of booming global trade. The risks associated with such vessels became apparent in 2021 when the 20,000-TEU Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for six days, disrupting international shipping. Environmental and geopolitical concerns New environmental regulations and geopolitical risks, such as recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea, have further cooled interest in ultra-large vessels, industry insiders say. Donald Trumps return to the White House this month is expected to amplify trade disruptions, as the president has threatened to escalate tariffs on Chinese imports, Financial Times reported. The shutting of the Suez Canal has had a serious impact on container shipping, said William MacLachlan, a partner at law firm HFW. Smaller ships can respond to macroeconomic events more readily. Challenges for ultra-large ships Ultra-large ships dominate Asia-Europe routes via the Suez Canal but face challenges transiting other key waterways, such as the Panama Canal. These limitations, coupled with uncertainty over future fuel standards and the International Maritime Organisations net-zero emissions targets by 2050, have made shipowners cautious about investing in the largest vessels. Shipowners earnings spiked after attacks by Yemens Houthi militants near the Suez Canal forced liners to reroute, driving up shipping costs as vessel availability dropped. But experts say these disruptions underscore the need for flexibility in fleet composition. Smaller ships are a less risky investment, MacLachlan said, citing lower costs and adaptability to economic and regulatory changes. Despite the trend, demand for vessels larger than 18,000 TEUs saw a modest rebound in 2024, with 76 such ships on order as of December, up from 45 a year earlier, Braemar data shows. However, industry insiders expect smaller, more agile ships to play an increasingly prominent role as trade routes evolve. Advertisement The Baltic Sea has seen multiple attacks on energy and communications infrastructure since Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. These have often been linked to hybrid warfare tactics read more Undersea cables are vital to global communications and finance, and are thus of great strategic importance. AI-generated image via DALL-E Finnish authorities plan to inspect the Eagle S tanker, suspected of being part of Russias shadow fleet and involved in the December sabotage of an undersea power cable in the Baltic Sea, the countrys transport agency said Thursday (January 2). The inspection, scheduled for later Thursday, follows an ongoing inquiry by Finnish police into the incident that severed the EstLink2 power cable connecting Finland and Estonia. Developments around the incident On December 25, the EstLink2 submarine cable, carrying electricity from Finland to Estonia, was damaged. A day later, on December 26, Finnish authorities announced they were investigating the potential involvement of an oil tanker now known to be Eagle S that had sailed from a Russian port in what was described as a sabotage incident. Advertisement On December 31, Finnish police identified seven sailors from the Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S tanker as targets of a sabotage investigation. Authorities banned the crew from leaving the country. Investigators reported finding a seabed track extending for dozens of kilometers, though the ships anchor remains missing. Nato and EUs responses The European Union (EU) threatened further sanctions against Russian vessels. The suspected vessel is part of Russias shadow fleet, which threatens security and the environment while funding Russias war budget, the European Commission and the EUs foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said in a joint statement. We will propose further measures, including sanctions, to target this fleet. North Atlantic Treaty Organisations (Nato) chief, Mark Rutte, pledged to bolster military presence in the Baltic Sea following the incident. The alliance described the attack as part of ongoing hybrid warfare targeting critical infrastructure. Background and related incidents The Baltic Sea has seen multiple attacks on energy and communications infrastructure since Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. These have often been linked to hybrid warfare tactics: October 2023: An undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship. November 2023: Two telecommunications cables in Swedish waters were severed. The Arelion cable linking Sweden and Lithuania and the C-Lion 1 cable connecting Finland and Germany were damaged in separate incidents. A Chinese-flagged bulk carrier, Yi Peng 3, is suspected of involvement. September 2022: Explosions ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe. Investigations into the cause are ongoing. Advertisement The geopolitical context Finnish officials, along with EU and Nato leaders, have highlighted the risks posed by Russias shadow fleet, which transports embargoed oil and crude products. These vessels have been accused of undermining security while funding Moscows military efforts. Authorities continue their investigation into the Eagle S and other suspected acts of sabotage in the region. With inputs from agencies New Orleans was initially founded by colonists from France and the attack took place in the Louisiana citys famed French Quarter read more Police investigators surround a white truck that has been crashed into a work lift in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Wednesday. AFP International condemnation poured in Wednesday for the attack on a crowd of New Years Eve revellers in New Orleans, which killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens more. Here is a round-up of global reactions. France New Orleans, so dear to the hearts of the French, has been struck by terrorism, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media platform X, posting in both French and English. New Orleans was initially founded by colonists from France and the attack took place in the Louisiana citys famed French Quarter. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the injured, as well as with the American people, whose sorrow we share, Macron said. Advertisement Christian Estrosi, mayor of the southern city of Nice, which suffered a car-ramming attack in 2016 that killed 86 people, also sent condolences. The tragedy in New Orleans, a sister city of Nice, very painfully recalls our own Our thoughts go out to the families and the lives mowed down in mid-New Years celebrations, he said on X. UK The shockingly violent attack in New Orleans is horrific, said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on X. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the emergency responders and the people of the United States at this tragic time. Ukraine Horrified by the attack in New Orleans, US, which has claimed innocent lives and left many injured, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X. We trust that those responsible for this terrible act will be brought to justice. Violence, terrorism, and any threats to human life have no place in our world and must not be tolerated. Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims Ukraine stands with the American people and denounces violence. European Union I am deeply saddened by the deliberate attack on those celebrating New Years in New Orleans, the European Unions top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, posted on X. There is no excuse for such violence We stand in full solidarity with the victims and their families during this tragic time. Germany This is terrible news from New Orleans, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a post on X. People celebrating happily are torn from their lives or injured by senseless hatred. We grieve with the families and friends of the victims and wish all those injured a quick recovery. Israel Deeply saddened by the terrorist attack in New Orleans, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X. My heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims. Wishing a swift recovery to the two injured Israeli citizens and all the wounded Terror has no place in our world. Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia condemns and denounces the attack, its foreign ministry said in a statement on X. Turkey We are deeply saddened by the attack that took place in New Orleans, USA, Turkeys foreign ministry said in a statement. We extend our condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives We hope that the motive for the attack will be revealed as soon as possible and that those who might be responsible will be held accountable before justice. Advertisement Hamas delegation is said to leave Cairo for Doha today to continue talks with mediators. However, no Israeli delegation is expected to take part in talks tomorrow, according to a report read more Demonstrators gather with signs during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, outside the Israeli Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 AFP File There is a good chance that hostage negotiations will succeed this time, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told the Qatari daily al-Araby al-Jadeed, according to a Times of Israel report. His comments come as a Hamas delegation is said to leave Cairo for Doha today to continue talks with mediators. Meanwhile, Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also approved a delegation to resume ceasefire negotiations in Qatar, his office said on Thursday in a statement. Advertisement Earlier, Times of Israel reported that no Israeli delegation is expected to take part in the talks tomorrow. Hamass optimism contrasts with recent Israeli assessments indicating that negotiations have stalled due to the groups refusal to provide a list of living hostages for release. Another Hamas official Jihad Taha told a Qatari outlet that the Hamas delegation has met with Egyptian, Qatari, and Turkish mediators in Cairo in order to overcome the obstacles and conditions put recently by the Israeli side with the goal to continue the aggression against our people, adding that Hamas is dealing positively and openly with all the issues. He emphasised that Hamas is engaging positively and openly with all issues. According to the report, citing Al-Araby al-Jadeed, discussions in Cairo focused on potentially postponing negotiations on certain contentious points until after the first phase of a ceasefire. The report suggests that this proposal, which Hamas is said to have accepted, will be presented to the Israeli side in hopes of reaching an agreement before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. However, the timeline and location for future meetings between mediators and an Israeli delegation remain unclear, added the report. Advertisement Israeli officials have accused Hamas of reverting to a rigid stance that obstructs progress towards a deal, despite earlier indications of a possible softening. Meanwhile, Hamas claims that Israel has introduced new demands, causing delays in the negotiations. According to Arab mediators speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, talks have reached a deadlock, as both sides have intensified their demands beyond what the other is willing to accept. The report said that Israel is insisting that only living hostages be released in the initial phase of any potential agreement, while Hamas is demanding that the first group of approximately 30 hostages includes deceased individuals. Advertisement Hamas has also reiterated its demand for a permanent cessation of hostilities, a commitment that Israel is unwilling to make, added the report. With inputs from agencies An Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in central Gaza killed Hamass police chief, Mahmoud Salah, his deputy, Hussam Shahwan, and several others, including children, according to a report, citing Hamas read more Palestinians walk amid scattered debris of tents on Thursday following an overnight Israeli strike on a makeshift displacement camp in al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip, that reportedly killed at least 11 people, including the chief of the Hamas police chief and his deputy. AFP An Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in central Gaza killed Hamass police chief, Mahmoud Salah, his deputy, Hussam Shahwan, and several others, including children, according to a report, citing Hamas. According to a Times of Israel report, the strike took place in the al-Mawasi area, which is located within the IDF-designated humanitarian zone west of Khan Younis. Medics reported a total of 11 fatalities in the attack, added the report. The Israeli military confirmed Shahwans death, accusing him of hiding under the protection of the civilian population in Khan Younis, but did not mention Salah in its statement. Advertisement However the Palestinian media, including the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV station, said that the police chief Salah was also killed in the strike, in addition to nine others, including women and children. The IDF identified Shahwan as the head of Hamass internal security, claiming he was responsible for significant human rights violations against Gazan civilians, including violent interrogations and involvement in planning attacks against Israeli forces. The IDF said it took precautions to minimise civilian harm, asserting that Hamas was cruelly exploiting civilian shelters, civilian buildings and the civilian population as human shields. The Hamas terror group systematically violates international law, while viciously using the cover of civilian shelters, civilian buildings and the civilian population as a human shield while carrying out terror activities, The Times of Israel quoted IDF as saying. In a statement, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry condemned the killing of the two police officers, saying they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people. By committing the assassination, the occupation continues to spread chaos in the Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens, Times of Israel quoted the ministry as saying, adding that the police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens. Advertisement The ministry said Salah spent 30 years in the police and was appointed its chief six years ago. Meanwhile, Gazas civil defence agency said in a statement that 11 people were martyred, including three children and two women, and 15 were injured after the occupation aircraft bombed a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip. Defence Minister Israel Katz had on Wednesday warned Hamas that it would face intensified attacks if it does not soon facilitate the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza and continues its rocket fire at Israeli communities. This threat follows an increase in rocket attacks from Hamas over the past week, after a period of sporadic missile fire from the Strip. Advertisement On Thursday at noon, Hamas launched a rocket at Kibbutz Holit near the border, which the IDF reported was intercepted. At midnight on New Years Day, Hamas fired rockets at the southern city of Netivot. On Saturday afternoon, they targeted Jerusalem with two long-range rockets, marking the first time in over a year that the capital has been attacked. Additionally, the group has launched several strikes against border towns near Gaza in recent days. With inputs from agencies Amid straining diplomatic ties, Bangladesh army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman has described India as an important neighbour while distinguishing China as a development partner. In a media interview, he said Bangladesh has a give and take relationship with India read more Amid growing diplomatic strain, Bangladesh army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman has created a flutter in his latest media interview, describing his countrys ties with India as one based on give and take in a comment apparently aimed at discrediting New Delhis support and military help in the Liberation of the nation in 1971 from Pakistan. In contrast, he termed China a UNSC veto holder with a long-held rivalry with India a partner in the development of Bangladesh. Advertisement In an interview to Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo, Waker said that Dhaka will not do anything that will go against the strategic interests of New Delhi. Bangladesh dependent on India in many ways Waker said that India is an important neighbour of Bangladesh and people should in no way feel that New Delhi is dominating Dhaka. India is an important neighbour. We are dependent on India in many ways. And India is getting facilities from us too. A large number of their people are working in Bangladesh, formally and informally. Many people go for medical treatment to India from here. We buy a lot of goods from them. So, India has a lot of interests in Bangladeshs stability. This is a give-and-take relationship. This must be based on fairness, Waker said. Any country will want to get benefits from the other. There is nothing wrong with that. If we want to extract our benefits, then we are to blame too. We must look into these matters. We have to maintain good relations based on equality. The people in no way should feel India is dominating over us, which goes against our interests. People should not feel this in any way, Waker said. Ties between India and Bangladesh soured after the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on August 5, 2024, after the student-led anti-quota protest against her Awami League government burgeoned. Wakers remarks assume significance as its not common for army chiefs in a democracy to comment on diplomatic aspects of the country. Bangladesh has a history of military rules and interventions in national politics. Wakers role also came up for discussion during the anti-Hasina protests in Dhaka in July-August last year. Advertisement Reports said Hasina decided to flee the country, seeking shelter in India, after Waker refused to obey the command of the elected government, suggesting to the then-Bangladesh prime minister that she better resign. Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took the charge late in August to head the interim government in Bangladesh and several reports of attacks on minorities, especially Hindus, in the neighbouring country came to the fore . Yunus claimed that India was peddling a false narrative that minorities were being targeted and attacked in Bangladesh. New Delhi, however, maintained it was the responsibility of the interim government to ensure the welfare of Hindus and all the minorities in Bangladesh and it was also communicated to Yunus by Indias foreign secretary Vikram Misri during his visit to Dhaka earlier in December. Advertisement New Delhis ties with Yunus caretaker government has also been cold since Hasina has been sheltering in India. In December end, Bangladeshi authorities extended India a note verbale seeking extradition of Hasina to face trial at the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka. Responding to a question on Bangladeshs cooperation in ensuring security in Indias northeast region, Waker said, We will not do anything with our neighbour that goes against their strategic interests. At the same time, we will expect that our neighbour does nothing that is contrary to our interests. When we look after their interests, they will look after our interests with equal importance. He also highlighted the key areas where balanced cooperation is crucial, including the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the stability along the Myanmar border. Unrest will not be created in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The stability along the Myanmar border will not be disrupted either. They will not kill our people along the borders. We will get our fair share of water. There is no problem with this. Let the relations be on equal footing, Waker said. Advertisement China very important to Bangladesh Waker said that Bangladesh has an excellent foreign policy of friendship towards all countries and it must maintain a balance as it goes ahead. As for China, Waker said, China is a partner in our development. They have investment in Bangladesh. So China is very important to us. We use a lot of weapons from China. The air force uses weapons from China too. So does the navy. Their weapons are comparatively inexpensive. Waker remarks came around the same time Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen in an opinion piece published by the Daily Star on Wednesday made it clear that Beijing would support Dhakas independent foreign policy. Bangladesh wants long-lasting peace Addressing the concerns back home, Waker said that in 2025 Bangladesh wants to tread the path to long-lasting peace. We want a peaceful environment. Peace and stability is very important now for Bangladeshs economy and social development. Without these two factors, there can be no development or good governance. That is why we need to restore tolerance among ourselves. An environment of national consensus must be created, he said. Advertisement Bangladesh army will support Yunus Waker even went on to say that the Bangladesh army is wholly by the side of the interim government-led by Muhammad Yunus and will try to support the chief advisor in any way that he wants. Even if this is inconvenient and the troops face temporary inconvenience, we will do this in the interests of the country, the nation. We are ready to make any sacrifices in the interests of the nation, the country and the people of the country, he said. Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing holds celebration for four giant pandas Xinhua) 08:41, January 02, 2025 This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a panda at Locajoy animal theme park in Yongchuan district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On the first day of the New Year, the Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing held a celebration for its four giant pandas, marking their first anniversary at the park. Since their arrival at the park last year, the four giant pandas have successfully adapted to their new surroundings under the attentive care of their keepers. Their relaxed lifestyle and endearing appearance have brought much joy to visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a panda at Locajoy animal theme park in Yongchuan district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On the first day of the New Year, the Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing held a celebration for its four giant pandas, marking their first anniversary at the park. Since their arrival at the park last year, the four giant pandas have successfully adapted to their new surroundings under the attentive care of their keepers. Their relaxed lifestyle and endearing appearance have brought much joy to visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a panda at Locajoy animal theme park in Yongchuan district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On the first day of the New Year, the Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing held a celebration for its four giant pandas, marking their first anniversary at the park. Since their arrival at the park last year, the four giant pandas have successfully adapted to their new surroundings under the attentive care of their keepers. Their relaxed lifestyle and endearing appearance have brought much joy to visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a panda at Locajoy animal theme park in Yongchuan district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On the first day of the New Year, the Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing held a celebration for its four giant pandas, marking their first anniversary at the park. Since their arrival at the park last year, the four giant pandas have successfully adapted to their new surroundings under the attentive care of their keepers. Their relaxed lifestyle and endearing appearance have brought much joy to visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a panda at Locajoy animal theme park in Yongchuan district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On the first day of the New Year, the Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing held a celebration for its four giant pandas, marking their first anniversary at the park. Since their arrival at the park last year, the four giant pandas have successfully adapted to their new surroundings under the attentive care of their keepers. Their relaxed lifestyle and endearing appearance have brought much joy to visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a panda at Locajoy animal theme park in Yongchuan district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On the first day of the New Year, the Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing held a celebration for its four giant pandas, marking their first anniversary at the park. Since their arrival at the park last year, the four giant pandas have successfully adapted to their new surroundings under the attentive care of their keepers. Their relaxed lifestyle and endearing appearance have brought much joy to visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a panda at Locajoy animal theme park in Yongchuan district of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. On the first day of the New Year, the Locajoy animal theme park in Chongqing held a celebration for its four giant pandas, marking their first anniversary at the park. Since their arrival at the park last year, the four giant pandas have successfully adapted to their new surroundings under the attentive care of their keepers. Their relaxed lifestyle and endearing appearance have brought much joy to visitors. (Xinhua/Wang Quanchao) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) by Marie Snyder Timothy Snyders dictum, Do Not Obey in Advance, seems to be everywhere these days. Its the title of the first chapter of his book out in 2017: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, which is worth a revisit along with conformity experiments that back up his concerns and some clarification from a recent podcast. When I first read this book seven years ago, it seemed like a concern for a far off future that would surely not happen in my lifetime. But it has lately reemerged as a prescient warning, and now there are more obvious signs that we need a path through potential political ruptures. In the first few pages, Mr. Snyder points out the power we have in avoiding acceptance of tyranny and the danger we fall into if we do obey: After the German elections of 1932, which permitted Adolf Hitler to form a government, or the Czechoslovak elections of 1946, where communists were victorious, the next crucial step was anticipatory obedience. Because enough people in both cases voluntarily extended their services to the new leaders, Nazis and communists alike realized that they could move quickly toward a full regime change. The first heedless acts of conformity could not then be reversed. As the political theorist Hannah Arendt remembered, when German troops invaded the country and Gentile neighbors started riots at Jewish homes, Austrian Jews began to commit suicide.' Its the mere act of going along that could determine if we lose another mass of people in heinous ways, divided apart from among us in one way or another. Were seeing that unnerving agreement already in some political speeches and pretty mainstream news outlets. Mr. Snyder writes about Stanley Milgrams attempts to show that there was a particular authoritarian personality that explained why Germans behaved as they had with his shock experiments conducted on hundreds of people. Instead, when most of his participants shocked another person until their perceived death, Milgram grasped that people are remarkably receptive to new rules in a new setting. They are surprisingly willing to harm and kill others in the service of some new purpose if they are so instructed by a new authority. This experiment was one of many that came after WWII to try to figure out what could possibly have compelled regular people to participate in the rounding up and gassing of millions of people. Hitler couldnt have done all that on his own, but he was able to sway the masses to join in. We need to be aware of this stark reality to ensure we, ourselves, dont end up passively agreeing to harm others or allow harm to come to others. The Experiments I used to teach these studies to high school students with an assignment attached to break a norm. Often its perfectly fine to blindly follow rules and guidelines, but sometimes, every once in a while, it can permit atrocities to happen: from cruel conspiracies against that one person in your friend group whos a little different all the way up the scale to genocidal actions. So its absolutely vital to be able to think about the norms we follow, and, from time to time, to break the less useful ones just to make sure we still can. We need to practice non-conformity to make sure we can do it when we need to. Its always wise to take a minute to think, Do I really agree with this, and could it harm anyone? before acting. In 1951 Solomon Asch had one participant and a group of confederates (who were in on it) state which is the longest line in a series, but the confederates all said the same wrong line for a few responses to see what the lone participant would do. Almost 40% also said the obviously wrong line was correct. When a majority does something, even when its blatantly inaccurate, it tends to make us question ourselves. Following along can help us avoid the discomfort of making waves, especially in a meaningless experiment were just doing for some quick cash (video here). We can see this today in the discomfort of people who want to wear a mask to protect themselves or others but cant bring themselves to do it. Its hard to be different. Then came Milgrams experiments in which two people did a rigged coin toss that would always make a confederate (an actor) get the part of the test taker and the participant the test-giver. The test-taker had to memorize a string of words and would get a shock after any error, with the voltage increasing with each mistake. At a specific point, the actor would mention his heart condition and later keel over. The observing experimenter would just say, repeatedly, Please continue with the experiment. As you can imagine, it was extremely distressing for the participants, yet 63% continued to shock the confederate to the maximum level (video here). In 1963, Hannah Arendts famous work, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil came out. The Jewish German writer escaped a prison camp during the war and made it to the U.S., then was convinced by the New Yorker to return during the war crime trial of Adolph Eichmann. Like Milgrams realization, her stance was that Eichmann wasnt a monster, but just a regular person following the rules. A massive backlash ensued against the possibility that there could be people like that among us that we could ever be like that. Its not unlike early arguments, quickly dispelled, against the possibility that 51 regular, ordinary men could sexually assault Gisele Pelicot, who announced to any victim of sexual violence, Look around you: You are not alone. We want to believe these things could only be done by deviants, yet recently the The Telegraph uncovered a rape chat group with over 70,000 members. Arendt turned her article into a book explaining how easily and successfully a bureaucracy can create a populace who will do anything if theyre divorced from any sense of personal responsibility and eager to do a good job for the authority figures directly rewarding them. We have to pay attention to the types of bureaucratic institutions that are just following the rules when the circular nature of bureaucracies create a rule by nobody. And we have to develop and keep in touch with our own values. Then, in 1968, reacting to MLKs death, Jane Elliott did her famous blue eye / brown eye experiment on her grade 3 students, giving one group arm bands based on something as innocuous as eye colour, and merely suggesting they were kind of dumb and not very clean as she moved their seats to the back of the classroom. That was enough for the other half of the kids to hate and bully them. She undid their hatred the next day by pointing out what she had done in order to teach the children how easily people can slip into seeing others as enemies with the smallest suggestion (video here). This is an important lesson to remember right now. Is that person whos being dismissed or ridiculed any less deserving of the dignity and safety you expect for yourself because of a difference in a detail or two? Then, in 1968, Latane and Darley ran the Smoke Filled Room experiment in which a participant is placed in a room that appears to be filling with smoke from a fire. If alone, the participant immediately got up to tell the researchers and left for safety. However, when there were confederates in the room who didnt react, the participant didnt react either for at least 20 minutes (video here). Essentially, wed rather die and/or enable harm to others or ourselves than look weird. Zimbardo rounded it all off in 1971 with the famous Stanford Prison Experiment that pitted student volunteers against one another by randomly assigning them to play the part of either prisoners or guards. The guards got power-hungry and abusive, and some prisoners defaulted to passive subservience. Social cohesion is vitally important to our survival, so it makes sense to follow the herd except when its running off a cliff. Then we need to use our prefrontal cortex to think about the wisdom of their decisions and whether or not we should forge a different path. But the most important thing to remember is that, in every single one of these experiments, there were people who didnt blindly follow the crowd or the instructions and instead questioned them or just walked out. A good 10-30%, and sometimes 60%, of people rejected the pull towards obedience in favour of doing the right thing. The Podcast Recently, Timothy Snyder spoke with Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush about his new book On Freedom and what it looks like to obey in advance. Mr. Snyder explained that, to avoid being led into a tyranny, we have to know ourselves and develop a solid sense of whats right and what normal means. We saw with Covid how quickly normal devolved into meaning getting sick several times each year. Mr. Snyder suggests writing a letter to yourself about whats important right now, and then check it frequently to see if youre changing. Even if youre a saint, youll feel that tug to go along with the tide and obey in advance. We need to talk about this with other people and check in with them again and again. People will adapt and not notice. And its important to do all this. The only way Trump transforms the system is if people think he can and focus on how to protect themselves gives him the power. Once youve done that, youll use the rest of your mind to justify having done it. The usefulness of congregations is to reflect on what principles are and what to stand up for. The recent appointments in the US are a form of moral aggression, which is a test of our morality and willingness to acquiesce. Appointing some anti-vaxxer to some important health position its not going to shake things up; its just going to kill lots of people. The idea that somehow this is okay is a form of obeying in advance. These things are unthinkable. If we think theyre okay, then youre going along for this ride. You cant really have freedom without a notion of what is goodto lead you to caring about things like grace or mercy. A few more words of wisdom from the Mr. Snyders other 19 lessons in On Tyranny: Defend institutionschoose an institution you care abouta court, a newspaper, a law, a labor unionand take its side (22). Take responsibility for the face of the world. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so. The world reacts to what you do (32). We have to widen our in-group to include the entire world, and prevent any manipulation that could possibly convince us that some people matter less: What might seem like a gesture of pride can be a source of exclusion. Be wary of paramilitariesthe use of violence in the United States is already highly privatized (43). Be reflective if you must be armedevils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no (47). The Holocaust began not in the death facilities, but over shooting pits in eastern Europeregular policemen murdered more Jews than the [death squads] (49). Some killed from murderous convictions. But many others who killed were just afraid to stand out. Without the conformists, the great atrocities would have been impossible (50). Stand out. It is those who were considered exceptional, eccentric, or even insane in their own timethose who did not change when the world around them didwhom we remember and admire today (52). Believe in truth. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights (65). Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Make new friends and march with them (83). For resistance to succeedideas about change must engage people of various backgrounds. Protest can be organized through social media, but nothing is real that does not end on the streets (84). Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Sharing in an undertaking teaches us that we can trust people beyond a narrow circle of friends (92). Listen for dangerous words. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary (99). Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate powerthe suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial. Do not fall for it (103). Courage does not mean not fearing, or not grieving. It does mean recognizing and resisting terror management right away, from the moment of the attack, precisely when it seems most difficult to do (110). History allows us to see patterns and make judgments. It must be hoped that [we can] become a historical generation, rejecting the traps of inevitability and eternity (126). This might feel like a very new struggle for many of us, but its been done before, and we can look back for the tools that helped us previously: Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on December 19, days after the United States and Italy arrested two Iranian nationals over export violations linked to a deadly attack on American servicemen read more Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was arrested by police in Tehran, Iran on December 19, 2024, according to Italy's foreign ministry, speaks at the event called "Chora Volume 1" in Milan, Italy on February 16, 2024. Reuters File Italys Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Thursday summoned the Iranian ambassador over the detention of an Italian journalist in Tehran two weeks ago, demanding her release. Cecilia Sala, 29, was arrested on December 19, days after the United States and Italy arrested two Iranian nationals over export violations linked to a deadly attack on American servicemen. The journalist, who writes for the Italian daily Il Foglio and is the host of a news podcast, has been kept in isolation since then. Advertisement The foreign ministrys secretary general, Riccardo Guariglia discussed her case with Irans ambassador, Mohammad Reza Sabouri, said a foreign ministry statement. Italy requested the immediate release of Sala, who arrived in Iran with a regular journalist visa, it added. The government, as it has from the first day of Cecilia Salas arrest, is working tirelessly to bring her home, and we demand that all her rights be respected, Tajani wrote. We will not leave Cecilia and her parents side until her release. Sala travelled to Iran on December 13 on a journalists visa. She was arrested six days later for violating the law of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said the countrys culture ministry, which oversees and accredits foreign journalists. In a phone call with her family on Wednesday, she told her family she had been sleeping on the floor in a cell with the lights permanently on, Italian media reported. Romes ambassador to Tehran, Paola Amadei, has visited Sala but a care package she gave officials for the Italian reporter has not been passed on to her, Italian media said. Guariglia told Irans envoy that Italian embassy staff in Tehran should be allowed to visit her and provide her with the comfort items that have been denied to date, the foreign ministry said. Advertisement Iranian behind bars in Italy In a statement Thursday, Irans embassy in Rome said Guariglia and Sabouri had discussed Sala in what was described as a friendly meeting. They also discussed Iranian citizen Mohammad Abedini, who is detained in the prison of Milan on false charges, the statement added. Abedini, 38, was arrested in Italy last month at the request of American authorities, who have accused him of supplying sophisticated drone navigation technology to Irans military in violation of US sanctions laws. The components were later used in a January drone strike at a Jordanian military base near the Syrian border that killed three American service members, US justice authorities have alleged. A second man, naturalized American-Iranian Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, 42, was also arrested in the United States and charged with conspiring with Abedini. Iran has denied the accusations. The embassy statement said Sala had been provided with all the necessary requirements. It is expected from the Italian government, that reciprocally, in addition to accelerating the release of the detained Iranian citizen, the necessary welfare facilities are provided to Mr. Abedini, it said. Advertisement Tajani has denounced Irans arrest of Sala as unacceptable but says efforts to free her from Tehrans Evin prison are complicated. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a meeting Thursday with Tajani, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, and the heads of Italys intelligence services over the Sala affair. Sala last posted on X on December 17 with a link to a podcast entitled A Conversation on Patriarchy in Tehran. She had previously reported from Ukraine on its war with Russia, an ally of Iran. At least 11 people have been injured in a mass shooting near the Amazura event hall at 91-12 144th Place in Jamaica, within the 103rd Precinct, around 11:20 pm on January 1 read more At least 11 people injured in a mass shooting outside Amazura nightclub in Queens, New York on the night of Wednesday, January 1, 2025. Source: Screengrab | X. At least 11 people have been injured in a mass shooting at Amazura nightclub in Queens, New York, on Wednesday. A report by amNY quoted law enforcement sources as saying that the gunfire was reported around 11:20 pm on January 1 near the Amazura event hall at 91-12 144th Place in Jamaica, within the confines of the 103rd Precinct. Amazura is said to have an expansive interior with a capacity for 4,000 people and it often hosts DJs and live performances. Advertisement Several units of New York Police Department (NYPD) have rushed in the event hall area and established a large crime scene, the report said. MASS SHOOTING IN NYC: At least 13 victims shot at the Amazura Night Club located at 91-12 144th Pl, Jamaica, Queens. Massive crime scene set up. Unknown conditon of the victims. pic.twitter.com/HDXGhA3HJo Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 2, 2025 The police have discovered multiple shell casings at 91 Avenue and 144 Place, establishing an additional crime scene. Nearby roads have been closed as the police expanded the crime scene area and deployed all available units to Amazura and Sutphin Blvd. According to a report by Citizen, police have identified a white BMW potentially involved in the shooting incidents and are investigating further. As per the report the cops are investigating a gray Infiniti Q50 sedan with New Jersey plates and red interior, potentially linked to the shooting incidents. A report by New York Post quoted sources as saying that the victims of the Queens night club mass shooting were rushed to area hospitals including Long Island Jewish Hospital and Cohens Children Medical Center. The NYPD, meanwhile, confirmed none of the victims are in critical condition and all are expected to survive. Advertisement More details are awaited. As investigators piece together evidence to understand motive and hunt for accomplices, testimonies from friends and families along with self-recorded videos reveal a conflicting story of a man who descended into extremism over the years while keeping a cover of normalcy for most of the people around him read more Investigators work the scene after a person drove a vehicle into a crowd earlier on Canal and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, on Wednesday. AP Friends and family members of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man who is believed to have killed 15 and injured around three dozen in New Orleans on the New Years Day, appear to be struggling to make sense of the news. The brother of Jabbar blamed radicalisation for the mass-murder. A former classmate who reconnected many years later found Jabbar a changed person the quiet and reserved Christian boy he knew had turned into a passionate Muslim man. A sister-in-law described him as the nicest person she knew. Meanwhile, the husband of his first wife described him as all crazy and the second wife also divorced secured a restraining order against him. Advertisement In sharp contrast to the recollection of friends and family are the recordings with the investigators in which they say Jabbar talks about wanting to kill his family and having dreams telling him to join the Islamic State. Just hours into the New Year when celebrations were still ongoing, Jabbar drove a rented pick-up truck into reveller in New Orleans. Shortly after he began his murderous rampage, the police confronted him. He was shot dead in the confrontation that also injured two police personnel. A flag of the Islamic State and an improvised explosive device (IED) were recovered from his vehicle. Jabbar has been identified as a US citizen who had served in the US Army for eight years as a computer and human resource specialist during 2007-15. After his active service, he dabbled into real estate and consulting. At the time of the attack, he was employed with Deloitte and had previously worked at Accenture. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said the incident is being treated as an act of terror and the understanding at the moment is that Jabbar did not act alone. The agency said the search to find any accomplices is ongoing. This is radicalisation, not religion Abdur Jabbar, the younger brother of the older Jabbar, said that he was brought up Christian but had long ago converted to Islam. In an interview with The New York Times, Abdur blamed radicalisation for his brothers act. Advertisement Abdur said, As far as I know he was a Muslim for most of his life. What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion. Abdur further said that joining the military was his brothers way of trying to find a new outlet to get some sort of discipline. From reserved & smart boy to passionate Muslim, crazy husband Jabbar went through a major transformation in his life. Born and brought up as a Christian, his classmate, Chris Pousson remembers Jabbar as Sham apparently a nickname for Shamsud-Din. Pousson, who went on to serve in the US Air Force, told The Times he remembered Jabbar from middle and high schools as a quiet, reserved, and really, really smart. Advertisement Pousson said, He wasnt a troublemaker at all. He made good grades and was always well-dressed in button-ups and polo shirts. However, Pousson noticed a change when he reconnected with Jabbar around 2015 on Facebook. He had converted to Islam by then and used to post passionate content about Islam. Before, if he was into it, he wasnt open or verbal about it. It was never Muslim extremist stuff, and he was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he had gotten really passionate, said Pousson. This undated passport photo provided by the FBI on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, shows Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar. (Photo: AP) The memory of Pousson is in sharp contrast to how the husband of Jabbars first wife Nakedra Charrlle Marsh, Dwayne Marsh, describes himself as all crazy. Advertisement While others describe Jabbar as a perfectly normal and even good, with a sister-in-law telling NBC News he was the nicest person she knew, the accounts of ex-wives shine light on signs that were missed along the way. Dwayne told The Times that Jabbar had been acting erratically in recent months, being all crazy, cutting his hair after converting to Islam. He said that he and his wife had stopped allowing his wifes two daughters with Jabbar, aged 15 and 20, to spend time with their father. The second wife sought a restraining order from the court against Jabbar. The order said Jabbar has to refrain from threats, physical harm, or other stipulated behavior against his ex-wife and either of their children, according to NBC News. Advertisement Jabbar recorded plan to kill family, say officials Even as investigators piece together information to understand the motive and conspiracy behind the murderous rampage and people struggle to come to terms with the attack, a new piece of evidence has surfaced that sheds more light on how Jabbar descended into extremism without giving most people any hint. In videos that Jabbar is said to have recorded, which have been accessed by investigators, he discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join Islamic State, multiple officials aware of the investigation told CNN. The videos were recorded at night while driving but the exact time is not certain, according to CNN. Two officials who had been briefed on the video told CNN that Jabbar in a video referenced to his divorce and the plan to gather his family for a celebration with the intention of killing them. The officials further said that Jabbar said in the videos that he changed his plans and joined Islamic State instead. While vehicular attacks, such as the one in New Orleans on the New Years Day, can be traced to 1960s, such attacks surged after 2014 when jihadist groups like the Islamic State began to promote them and, with the surge of far-right in 2016 in the West, far-right and other extremist movements also adopted the tactic read more A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning. AP Well past the midnight, the New Years Day celebrations were still ongoing at the Bourbon Street in the New Orleans city when a car turned the revellers cheers into fearful screams. A white pick-up truck was speeding through the street and tearing through revellers. By the time the rampage ended, at least 15 were dead and around three dozen were injured. The driver of the vehicle was killed in a shootout with police. Two police personnel were injured in the shootout. Advertisement The attacker was later identified as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a 42-year-old former armyman. A flag of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group and at least improvised explosive decide (IED) were also found in his truck. In a statement, President Joe Biden said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had briefed him that Jabbar had had posted videos on social media mere hours before the attack indicating that he was inspired by IS. The world is not a stranger to car-ramming acts. There have been hundreds of car-ramming attacks across America, Europe, and West Asia, which involve both extremists or racist attacks and acts of terror. Among terrorists, Palestinian group Hamas pioneered vehicle-ramming attacks, which were later adapted by Islamic State (IS), whose operatives have mounted a number of such attacks. What drives vehicle-ramming attacks? Even though vehicular attacks have increased in recent years, they have been around for decades. Vehicular attacks have been carried out since as early as 1960s, according to a study by Mineta Transporation Institute (MTI) at San Jose State University. While the MTI study traced the first such vehicular attack to 1963, it found that 70 per cent of these have occurred since 2014. Separately, the think tank Counter Extremism Project (CEP) in report in December 2024 noted that at least 82 vehicular terrorist attacks have been reported since 2006, which collectively killed at least 238 people and injured at least 1,278. Broadly, two reasons have driven such attacks. One, while guns or explosives are relatively difficult to procure or manufacture, and are also highly traceable to source, cars and other vehicles are all around us. Therefore, its easy to acquire a car and use it as a weapon. No one suspects when someone buys a car but everyone would suspect you if you would start purchasing bombmaking material one day. Advertisement Two, terrorist organisations have realised the potency of vehicular attacks are promoting them across the world. They urge both members as well as radicals or those on the path of radicalisation to adopt vehicular attacks as the preferred medium of attacks in countries far-off their hubs, such as America or Europe which are far removed from the home turfs of terrorist organisations in West or South Asia. While vehicular attacks have been carried for decades in nearly all parts of the world, such as in North Carolina, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Quebec, West Bank, and Xinjiang, the uptick in recent years appears to have been in large part inspired by ISIS explicit calls to employ cars as weapons, notes the CEP in its report. Advertisement The report further says, Terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas have long called for and claimed responsibility for vehicular terrorist attacks. Al-Qaedas second issue of Inspire magazine, released in October 2010, contained an article calling for vehicular attacks and referring to a pickup truck as a potential mowing machine that can be used to mow down the enemies of Allah. Inspire Editor-in-Chief Yahya Ibrahim urged al-Qaeda followers to go for the most crowded location and pick up as much speed as you can in order strike as many people as possible. These attacks can be either a remote control attack where a handler sitting in West Asia or Afghanistan guides the attacker or a lone wolf attack where an individual operates independently out of allegiance to a terrorist group. Advertisement In the most notable such attack, 84 people were killed and more than 200 were injured when a man drove a truck into revellers during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, France in 2016. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State. In 2016, a man in an attack claimed by the Islamic State drove into pedestrians in Germanys Berlin, killing 12 and injuring more than 50. In 2017, a man drove a pick-up truck into a crowd along the Hudson River in New York City, killing eight and injuring 11. The driver, who was shot by the police, had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. Advertisement Palestinian groups pioneered vehicular attacks Even though vehicular attacks can be traced to 1960s, such attacks did not become a terrorists tactic until the 1990s when Palestinians started carrying out vehicular assaults in Israel, according to the MTI study. It was only by early 2000s that vehicular attacks became a mainstay of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, according to the study. Of all the vehicular attacks so far, the majority have been reported against Israelis in Israel and West Bank. Since 2014, after which the vast majority 70 per cent of vehicular attacks were carried out, most of the attacks have been in Israe and West Bank (32), followed by the United States (24), and China (16), according to the MTI study. But not all vehicular attacks are terrorist acts Over the past decades, extremists have also adopted vehicular attacks. There have been instances of White supremacists, other racists, and sexists using vehicles to attack racial and ethnic minorities and women. Since 2016, which marked the surge of far-right in the United States with the election of Donald Trump, the CEP says there have been at least 24 vehicular attacks against protesters that have killed two and injured 74. In the most polarising such attack, a person drove a car into a gathering protesting a White supremacists gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring around 40 people. In another hate crime, an incel man in 2018 killed 10 people when he drove a van into people in Canadas Toronto. The incel is an anti-women movement and eight of those killed were women in the case. During demonstrations, many of which were violent and damaged public and private property, following the killing of Black man George Floyd, there were 104 vehicle attacks on protesters, according to the Chicago Project on Security and Threats of the University of Chicago. The CEP says that the far-right has turned car attacks as a tool to intimidate people. The far-right has not just been encouraging car attacks since the rise of Trump, it has also been normalising it. The far right has since encouraged vehicle attacks against protesters by dehumanizing and objectifying protesters in online propaganda. Ultimately, this propaganda appears designed to delegitimize the protests, which broadly support values anathema to the far right such as racial equality and the Black Lives Matter movement specifically. Online memes promote the perversion of the Black Lives Matter slogan into All Lives Splatter, with depictions of cars driving into protesters, says CEP. Soleimani was a central figure in Irans support for the axis of resistance, an alliance of Middle East militant groups opposing Israel and the United States. His death on January 3, 2020, ordered by then-President Donald Trump, was a significant blow to Tehrans regional strategy read more Shortly after arriving in Baghdad on January 3, 2020, Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a key figure in the development of Iran's regional dominance, was struck by a drone strike that was claimed by the United States. File image/Reuters Iran held rallies across major cities on Thursday (January 2) to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020. In Tehran, demonstrators gathered at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque, chanting slogans such as Down with America and Down with Israel while holding photos of Soleimani. President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed the crowd, pledging to counter what he described as efforts to sow discord among Muslims. We will stand on the side of the truth. We will continue on the path of martyr Soleimani with strength and defeat these cowards, he said. Advertisement Similar rallies took place in other cities, including Soleimanis hometown of Kerman, according to state media. A key figure in Iran Soleimani was a central figure in Irans support for the axis of resistance, an alliance of Middle East militant groups opposing Israel and the United States. His death on January 3, 2020, ordered by then-President Donald Trump, was a significant blow to Tehrans regional strategy. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei described Soleimani as a commander of hearts in a post on the social media platform X, saying, Great commanders are not conquerors of known territories in geography, they are conquerors of hearts. Heavy losses for Irans allies Irans regional influence has faced setbacks, including the collapse of its long-standing ally, the Assad regime in Syria, during a 2024 rebel offensive. In the same year, Hamas and Hezbollah suffered significant losses in conflicts with Israel, further straining the axis of resistance Soleimani had championed. Deadly memorial service Past commemorations for Soleimani have also been marked by tragedy. A memorial service in Kerman in January 2024 became the scene of Irans deadliest attack in decades when twin bombings, claimed by the Islamic State group, killed more than 90 people and injured hundreds. Soleimani remains a revered figure in Iran, symbolizing the countrys regional ambitions and resistance to US policies in the Middle East. With inputs from agencies The PA insisted its own suspension measure was temporary, adding its decision followed a complaint from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate concerning the networks coverage read more A man photographs the closed door of the Doha-based Al-Jazeera TV channel in the occupied-West Bank city of Ramallah on January 2, 2025. AFP The Palestinian Authority has ordered the suspension of broadcasts by Qatar-based Al Jazeera and on Thursday accused it of incitement, which the news channel compared to Israeli practices. Al Jazeera is already banned from broadcasting from Israel amid a long-running feud with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government. In September, armed and masked Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah also raided the Al Jazeera office, saying it was used to incite terror. The military issued an initial 45-day closure order, prompting the Palestinian foreign ministry at the time to condemn a flagrant violation of press freedom. On Thursday, the PA insisted its own suspension measure was temporary, adding its decision followed a complaint from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate concerning the networks coverage. Advertisement These measures shall be applied until Al Jazeera chooses to act in accordance with basic media ethics, including its duty to prevent deliberate disinformation, ban the glorification of violence, and end the incitement to armed mutiny, the PA said. The syndicate, which represents about 3,000 Palestinian journalists, said several had filed complaints against Al Jazeera for biased media coverage on its platforms, including incitement, misleading reports, and content that stirs internal discord. The PAs decision includes temporarily freezing the work of all journalists, employees, crews and affiliated channels until their legal status is rectified due to Al Jazeeras violations of the laws and regulations in force in Palestine, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported late Wednesday. The channel aired images of what appeared to be Palestinian security officers entering the networks office in Ramallah and handing over the suspension orders. Al Jazeera condemned the decision, saying it aligns with Israeli occupation practices targeting its media teams. It accused the PA, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank, of attempting to deter Al Jazeera from covering escalating events in the occupied Palestinian territories including in Jenin and its refugee camp. The PAs security forces have been engaged in weeks of deadly clashes with armed militants in Jenin, in the northern West Bank. Advertisement Tensions over coverage Militant group Hamas, rivals of Fatah which dominates the PA, condemned the decision to ban the network. This decision aligns with a series of recent arbitrary actions taken by the Authority to curtail public rights and freedoms, and to reinforce its security grip on the Palestinian people, Hamas said in a statement. We call on the Palestinian Authority to immediately reverse this decision It is crucial to ensure the continuation of media coverage that exposes the occupation and supports the steadfastness of our people. Islamic Jihad, allied with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, also criticised the decision. We condemn the authoritys decision to close Al Jazeeras office in Palestine when our people and our cause are in dire need to convey their suffering to the world, the group said in a statement. Advertisement Tensions between the network and the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas have risen in recent weeks following the channels coverage of the clashes in Jenin. In late December, the channel condemned what it said was an incitement campaign by Fatah against the network in some areas of the occupied West Bank. This campaign follows the networks coverage of clashes between Palestinian security forces and resistance fighters in Jenin, it said in a statement at the time. The security forces of the PA have been engaged in deadly clashes with gunmen since early December, triggered by the arrests of several militants. They are fighting members of the Jenin Battalion, most of whom are affiliated with either Islamic Jihad or Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. Advertisement Fatahs rivals have accused PA forces of aiding Israel. Al Jazeera continues to work in Gaza, where Hamas seized control in 2007. The violence in Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of armed groups and a frequent target of Israeli military raids, has killed 11 people including PA security personnel, militants and civilians. The mercy petitions of 19 convicts involved in the May 9 pro-Imran Khan riots in Pakistan have been accepted on humanitarian grounds, according to a report, citing the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Thursday read more The mercy petitions of 19 convicts involved in the May 9 pro-Imran Khan riots in Pakistan have been accepted on humanitarian grounds, according to a Dawn report, citing the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Thursday. The development comes less than a month after military courts sentenced 85 civilians for their roles in the May 9 riots. On December 21 last year, military courts sentenced 25 civilians to prison terms between two and 10 years for their involvement in the May 9 riots. A week later, an additional 60 civilians received jail terms of two to 10 years for participating in the nationwide unrest. Advertisement Sequel to the promulgation of punishments to 9th May Tragedy convicts, they have exercised their right to appeal and have asked for mercy/remission in their punishments, Dawn quoted the statement issued by the army on Thursday as saying. A total of 67 convicts have given their mercy petitions, it said, adding that 48 petitions have been processed to Courts of Appeal, while petitions of 19 convicts have been accepted purely on humanitarian grounds, under the law. Mercy petitions of remaining will be decided in due course of time, following the legal process, added the statement. On May 9, 2023, former prime minister Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party supporters allegedly attacked several military installations, including the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and the ISI building in Faisalabad, to vent their anger against the arrest of their party founder in a corruption case. Hundreds of suspects were arrested in the countrywide swoop. Cases of more than 100 civilians were sent to the military court for trial because they were involved in the attack on military installations. In December, military courts sentenced 85 civilians to prison terms ranging from two to ten years for their roles in the violence. Advertisement The remission of punishments is a testament to the strength of the due process and fairness, which ensures that justice is served while also taking into account the principles of compassion and mercy, the statement added. The army said that all those whose mercy appeals had been accepted would be released after the completion of procedural formalities. It also said that all those convicted retain the right of appeal and other legal remedies as per the law and the constitution. It is the second batch of those involved in the attacks being released. Earlier in April 2024, the release of 20 convicts was also carried out on humanitarian grounds in accordance with the law. Advertisement With inputs from agencies The cutting of Russian gas supplies to Moldovas breakaway Transdniestria region has forced the closure of all industrial companies except food producers, an official said on Thursday read more The coat of arms of Transdniestria is depicted on a banner in central Tiraspol, in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria on May 5, 2022. Reuters File The cutting of Russian gas supplies to Moldovas breakaway Transdniestria region has forced the closure of all industrial companies except food producers, an official said on Thursday. The mainly Russian-speaking territory of about 450,000 people, which split from Moldova in the 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed, has suffered a painful and immediate hit from Wednesdays cut-off of Russian gas supplies to central and eastern Europe via Ukraine. All industrial enterprises are idle, with the exception of those engaged in food production - that is, directly ensuring food security for Transdniestria, Sergei Obolonik, first deputy prime minister of the region, told a local news channel. Advertisement It is too early to judge how the situation will develop The problem is so extensive that if it is not resolved for a long time, we will already have irreversible changes - that is, enterprises will lose their ability to start up. Ukraine had allowed Russia to keep pumping gas across its territory despite nearly three years of war, and was earning up to $1 billion a year in transit fees. But Kyiv refused to renew a five-year deal that expired on Wednesday. European gas buyers such as Slovakia and Austria had prepared for the cut-off by securing alternative supplies. But Transdniestria - despite its ties to Moscow and the presence of 1,500 Russian troops there - has been crippled. Keeping warm The local energy company cut heating and hot water to households on Wednesday, urging families to keep warm by gathering in a single room, covering windows with curtains or blankets and using electric heaters. Transdniestrias leader Vadim Krasnoselsky said the region had gas reserves that could likely last for 10 days of limited usage in its northern parts and twice as long in the south. He said the main power plant had switched from gas to coal and should be able to supply electricity to residents in January and February. Russia had been pumping about 2 billion cubic metres of gas per year to Transdniestria - including the power plant which also provided energy for the whole of Moldova, a country of 2.5 million people that wants to join the European Union. Advertisement Moldova has a long history of gas payment disputes and tense relations with Russia. The ex-Soviet republic is trying to cut energy consumption by at least a third and import more than 60% of its needs from neighbouring Romania. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described the end of Russian gas transit as one of Moscows biggest defeats and urged the United States to supply more gas to Europe. Since Moscows full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe has slashed its dependence on Russian energy and increased imports from other sources including piped gas from Norway and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. and Qatar. Advertisement In a statement on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the loss of Russian gas was hurting Europe economically, and the U.S. was the beneficiary. Responsibility for the cessation of Russian gas supplies lies entirely with the United States, the puppet Kyiv regime, as well as the authorities of European states that sacrificed the wellbeing of their citizens for the sake of providing financial support for the American economy, she said. South Korean impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol resisted arrest for a third day on Thursday. He had, on December 3, declared martial law that led to his impeachment and has left him facing arrest, imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty read more Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was resisting arrest for a third day on Thursday after vowing to fight authorities seeking to question him over his failed martial law bid. The embattled leader issued the bungled declaration on December 3 that led to his impeachment and has left him facing arrest, imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty. Supporters and opponents of Yoon have since camped outside his presidential residence, while members of his security team have blocked attempted police raids in a dramatic stand-off. Advertisement Yoon has gone to ground but remained unrepentant as the crisis has rolled on, issuing a defiant message to his base days before a warrant expires on January 6. The Republic of Korea is currently in danger due to internal and external forces threatening its sovereignty, and the activities of anti-state elements, he said in a statement passed around to protesters, his lawyer Yoon Kab-keun confirmed to AFP. I vow to fight alongside you to the very end to protect this nation, he added, saying he was watching the hundreds-strong protest Wednesday evening on a YouTube live stream. The impeached leader remains in the capital Seoul, the lawyer confirmed to AFP. Opposition lawmakers were quick to condemn Yoons message as inflammatory, with Democratic Party spokesperson Jo Seoung-lae calling him delusional and accusing him of trying to incite clashes. Yoons legal team has filed for an injunction to block the warrant and claimed Wednesday that the arrest order was an unlawful and invalid act. But Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) chief Oh Dong-woon warned that anyone trying to block authorities from arresting Yoon could themselves face prosecution. South Korean officials have previously failed to execute arrest warrants for lawmakers in 2000 and 2004 due to party members and supporters blocking police for the seven-day period the warrant was valid. Advertisement Refused questioning Discussions between prosecutors and police are taking place in the background of a political crisis that initially saw the country briefly lurch back to the dark days of military rule. But the martial law order which he said was aimed at eliminating anti-state elements only lasted a few hours. Heavily armed troops stormed the building, scaling fences, smashing windows and landing by helicopter, but Yoon was quickly forced into a U-turn after a night of protests. He was then stripped of his presidential duties by parliament and now faces criminal charges of insurrection that could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty. Yoon has since refused summonses for questioning three times and doubled down on claims the opposition was in league with South Koreas communist enemies. In the wake of his refusal, supporters have raced to Seoul to support him. Advertisement As night fell on Wednesday, pro-Yoon protesters spewed vitriol at police while waving glowsticks and anti-impeachment placards. A constitutional court will rule whether to uphold Yoons impeachment. The turmoil deepened late last week when Yoons replacement, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached by parliament for failing to sign bills for investigations into his predecessor. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has been installed as acting president and pledged to do all he can to end the political upheaval. He has since decided to appoint two new judges to the constitutional court hearing Yoons impeachment meeting a key demand of the opposition, but branded an overstepping of his powers by Yoons staff. Advertisement Choi took office on Friday and found himself immediately thrust into handling a disaster, after a Jeju Air plane crashed on Sunday, claiming 179 lives. The burqa ban is part of the new constitutional article which calls for the probation of covering the face. The federal authorities stated that the violation of the law would be dealt with through the administrative fine procedure to minimise bureaucracy read more Switzerland welcomed the year 2025 by putting into effect several new policies, one of them being the ban on burqa. On Wednesday, the Swiss government decided to put the ban into effect across the country. According to Swiss news outlet Swissinfo, the law came out of the controversial anti-burqa initiative which was approved by voters across the country by 51.2 per cent. The ban was supported by the voters in March 2021. The burqa ban is part of the new constitutional article which calls for the probation of covering the face. The federal authorities stated that the violation of the law would be dealt with through the administrative fine procedure to minimise bureaucracy. The administrative fine will be CHF 100 and can be directly paid on the administrative offices website. Advertisement Those who will refuse to pay the fine will be subject to the ordinary procedure which carries a maximum penalty of CHF1,000. It is pertinent to note that the ban on covering the face does not apply in aeroplanes or diplomatic and consular premises. People can also cover their faces in places of worship or any sort of secular site across Switzerland. Why face coverings are banned in Switzerland? According to Swissinfo, the proposal to ban face-covering was brought by the right-wing Swiss Peoples Party (SVP), which was campaigning on slogans like soft extremism. While the proposal made no mention of Muslims or Islam and largely focused on protesters covering their faces, the ban was seen as prohibiting women from wearing burqa. However, the Swiss government opposed the proposal when it was introduced, arguing that it was not up to the state to dictate what women wear. The proposal then went to a referendum in 2021, where the Swiss people narrowly voted in favour of banning face coverings in public. While 51.2 per cent voted in favour of the referendum 48.8 per cent voted against it. It is important to note that the people in New Zealand are usually given a direct say in their own affairs. The country usually votes in referendums on various national or regional issues. According to research by the University of Lucerne (in German), only five per cent of Switzerlands population is Muslim originating majorly from countries like Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo. Out of them, no woman in Switzerland wears a burqa and only 30 women across the country wear the niqab. The proposal was formalised into an Act in November 2024, when the government said that prohibition would come into effect from January 1, 2025. After the ban was imposed Muslim community and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International condemned the prohibition. In a statement shared last year, Amnesty International called the ban a dangerous policy that violates womens rights, including to freedom of expression and religion." Advertisement After the ban came into effect, the Swiss government made it clear that covering the face remains allowed for reasons of health, safety, weather conditions and local Swiss customs. It will be also permitted during artistic, entertainment purposes and for advertising purposes. With inputs from agencies. The Syrian education ministry will make big changes to textbooks that seek to affect students at all educational levels. The government will amend subjects like history and religious studies that explain the Quran in the wrong way read more A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as fireworks explode, while people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) at the Umayyad Square, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on December 20. Reuters Syrias education minister on Thursday defended the interim governments decision to alter the school curriculum that was announced this week. The changes invited criticism from activists who denounced them as extremist and potentially harmful to religious minorities. Education Minister Nazir al-Qadri, in a statement shared on Telegram, said the changes were only meant to scrap glorifying references to the deposed president and correct misinterpretations of the Quran, Islams holy book. The curricula in all Syrian schools will remain as is until specialised committees are formed to review and audit them, he said. Advertisement We have only ordered the deletion of parts glorifying the defunct Assad regime, and we have adopted pictures of the Syrian Revolution flag instead of the defunct regime flag, Qadri said. What are the changes? The Syrian education ministry will make big changes to textbooks that seek to affect students at all educational levels. The government will amend subjects like history and religious studies that explain the Quran in the wrong way. The changes include scrapping poetry relating to women and love and references to Gods in ancient history courses, and interpreting a Quranic verse about those who had angered God and strayed as referring to Jews and Nasara, a derogatory term for Christians. The administration has also removed Syrias national anthem from the textbooks saying that it was the Assad regimes anthem. The nationalistic phrase to sacrifice ones life in defence of his homeland has been replaced with the Islamist to sacrifice ones life for the sake of Allah. Additionally, words like brutal referring to the Ottoman Empires rule will also be removed from books. Images and references related to Assad and his family will be removed or reworded. Changes spark outrage Activist and journalist Shiyar Khaleal lambasted the changes in a Facebook post, warning that education based on extremist ideologies may shape individuals whose ideas threaten regional and international security. Changing the curriculum under the supervision of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is not just an educational danger, but a long-term threat to the social fabric and future of Syria, said Khaleal. Advertisement Journalist Ziad Haidar described the changes as educational executions in a Facebook post, warning that specific religious groups have been targeted. With inputs from AFP A statement shared by Syrias Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabias Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim El-Khereiji had received the delegation at the international airport in Riyadh read more This handout image made available by the Telegram channel of the official Syrian Foreign Ministry shows Saudi Arabia's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed al-Khereiji (R) welcoming Syria's new foreign minister, Assaad al-Shibani, in the Saudi capital Riyadh late on January 1, 2025. AFP Syrias top diplomat said he hoped to open a new, bright page with Saudi Arabia upon arriving in the kingdom Wednesday, the first foreign visit for Syrias new rulers, who seized power last month. I have just arrived in the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, accompanied by the Minister of Defence Murhaf Abu Qasra and the Head of the General Intelligence Service Anas Khattab, Assaad al-Shibani said in a statement on X. Through this first visit in the history of Free Syria, we aspire to open a new, bright page in Syrian-Saudi relations that befits the long shared history between the two countries, he added. Earlier Wednesday Syrian state media said the top delegation had come to the kingdom at the invitation of the Saudi foreign minister, quoting a foreign ministry source. Advertisement A statement shared by Syrias Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabias Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim El-Khereiji had received the delegation at the international airport in Riyadh. The statement was accompanied by photos of him and Shibani shaking hands and other pictures of Saudi officials sitting down with the delegation. Last month, a Saudi delegation met Syrias new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus, a source close to the Saudi government told AFP at the time. Sharaa heads the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that led the rebel offensive that ousted President Bashar al-Assad on December 8. Last week, in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television, Sharaa said Saudi Arabia will certainly have a large role in Syrias future, pointing to a big investment opportunity for all neighbouring countries. Syrias economy and infrastructure has been devastated by more than 13 years of civil war that began with a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011. Saudi Arabia severed ties with Assads government in 2012 and backed Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow him early in the countrys civil war. But last year, Riyadh restored ties with Assads government and was instrumental in Syrias return to the Arab League, ending its regional isolation. Advertisement Saudi Arabia has become a major market for captagon, an addictive drug for which there is huge demand in the oil-rich Gulf. The amphetamine-like narcotic was Syrias most valuable export under Assad, turning the country into one of the worlds leading narco states. The man was arrested on the basis of a single-count criminal complaint accusing him of illegally possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle read more The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a man in Virginia and said that it had found the largest cache of finished explosive devices ever found in the bureaus history. The man named Brad Spafford was taken into custody at a farm outside Norfolk on December 17. The man was arrested on the basis of a single-count criminal complaint accusing him of illegally possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle. When the investigators searched his 20-acre property they found a detached garage with more than 150 explosive devices. Most of these pipe bombs were labelled lethal and the property was located in Isle of Wight County. Advertisement The prosecutors noted that more pipe bombs were found inside his bedroom in a loosely stuffed backpack. The bag bore a patch shaped like a hand grenade and a logo reading #NoLivesMatter." The slogan is usually spread across the far-right section of Telegram. Apart from the hashtag, there was no other evidence that Spafford adhered to such beliefs. What does the No Lives Matter mean? According to the threat assessment released by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, the No Lives Matter movement promoted targeted attacks, mass killings and criminal activity and has historically encouraged members to engage in self-harm and animal abuse." In the filed court papers, prosecutors in the Federal District Court in Norfolk maintained that Spafford must be kept in custody as the case moves towards a trial. According to court papers, the prosecutors started investigating Spafford last year. The authorities started scrutinising Spafford after a neighbour reached out to the authorities. Spafford lost three fingers on his right hand while working with a homemade explosive device. The neighbour told authorities that Spafford was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition. The neighbour mentioned that Spafford told him that he and his friends were preparing for something that he would not be able to do alone, the court papers said. The neighbours also claimed that Spafford sometimes used photographs of US President Joe Biden for conducting target practice at a local shooting range. He used to believe that political assassinations should be brought back," The New York Times reported. The court papers mentioned that after the attempted assassination of US President-elect Donald J. Trump in July, Spafford told his neighbour that he hoped the shooter doesnt miss Kamala, an apparent reference to Vice President Kamala Harris. The authorities noted that the suspect moved to his farm this fall and the neighbours went to visit him there in October. Advertisement The neighbours were wearing a secret recording device in which they recorded Spafford saying that he had various types of explosives at the property and discussed fortifying it with a 360-degree turret in which he planned to mount a 50-calibre rifle, according to the papers. With inputs from agencies. In his brief remarks over the devastating New Orleans attack, US President Joe Biden said that the prime suspect in the incident had a desire to kill. The comments from Biden came after authorities confirmed that the death toll in the incident rose to 15 read more In brief remarks about the deadly New Orleans attack, US President Joe Biden said that the prime suspect of the incident expressed a desire to kill. The statement from the president was delivered on Wednesday after the authorities noted that the death toll in the attack rose to 15. Biden mentioned that the FBI found that mere hours before the attack the suspect posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill. Advertisement The POTUS maintained that the investigation is still at a preliminary stage and the situation continues to remain fluid. The law enforcement intelligence community continues to look for connections, associations or co-conspirators, he said. In his New Year remarks, Biden mentioned that law enforcement officers are also investigating the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Donald Trumps hotel in Las Vegas. He said that the authorities would look into whether there was any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans. Biden maintained that he had nothing yet to report on those inquiries. New Orleans is a place unlike any other place in the world a city full of charm and joy. So many people around the world love New Orleans because of its history, its culture and above all its people. I know that while this person committed a terrible assault on this city, the spirit of New Orleans will never, never be defeated," he said. The president did not take any questions following his remarks. Meanwhile, Trump pushes his anti-immigration rhetoric. While pushing his same-old anti-immigration rhetoric, US President-elect Donald Trump suggested on social media that the suspect was an immigrant. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump wrote on TruthSocial. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, he added falsely. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department," he added. While some initial reports suggested that the truck driver came from Mexico, officials on Wednesday confirmed that the suspect was a US-born citizen and served in the countrys army. The man named Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar was from Texas. The authorities mentioned that he drove a pickup truck that carried an Islamic State flag, into the New Years Eve revellers, killing 10 people. The suspect passed away after exchanging gunfire with authorities. With inputs from agencies. The 42-year-old served in the US Army for 13 years and was deployed in Afghanistan as well. The US military shared new details of Jabbar on Wednesday to help the police know more about the suspect read more New Orleans authorities have identified the main suspect in the attack that killed 15 people. The police identified a man named Shamsud-Din Jabbar as the prime suspect in the New Year Carnage. The 42-year-old served in the US Army for 13 years and was deployed in Afghanistan as well. The US military shared new details of Jabbar on Wednesday to help the police know more about the suspect. Both Federal officials and local law enforcement in New Orleans maintained that Jabbar did not act alone. The authorities stated that the officials were hunting for accomplices. The FBI maintained that Jabbar had an Islamic State flag on his truck and the bureau is referring to the incident as a potential act of terror. Advertisement Who is Shamsud-Din Jabbar? The 42-year-old man served in the US Army as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist from 2007 until 2015. He later joined the US Army Reserve as an IT specialist until 2020. As per the records, Jabbar held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of service. The suspect was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, the official said. Apart from this, Jabbar was also enlisted in the US Navy in August 2004 under a delayed entry program. However, he was discharged from the Navy a month later. Meanwhile, Corporate records submitted to law enforcement showed that Jabbar got involved in a series of businesses in recent years. In a promotional video for a real estate business, posted on YouTube in 2020, a man with the same name as the suspect was seen recalling his time in the military. Ive taken those skills and applied them to my career as a real estate agent, where I feel like what really sets me apart from other agents is my ability to be able to be a fierce negotiator, he said, encouraging clients to give him a call. In the video, the man introduced himself as a manager at Blue Meadow Properties LLC, which is a Texas-based company whose license expired back in 2022. Records showed that Jabbar was registered as a real estate sales agent for four years through February 2023. In his real estate profile, he said that he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. Meanwhile, online Texas criminal records showed that the US veteran had done relatively minor offences in his past, including a misdemeanour theft and driving with an invalid license before his military service. According to The New York Times, Jabbar was divorced twice. Back in 2022, when he was going through the end of his second marriage, he wrote an email about relatively minor offences in his past, including a misdemeanour of theft and driving with an invalid license before his military service. Advertisement Dwayne Marsh, the new husband of Jabbars second ex-wife, Nakedra Charrlle said that the suspect converted to Islam at some point and his behaviour had become more erratic recently. The couple eventually barred Jabbar from spending time with the daughters he shared with Charrle. With inputs from agencies. China dominates the US commercial drone market, with DJI, the worlds largest drone manufacturer, accounting for over half of all commercial drone sales in the country read more The US Commerce Department is considering new rules to restrict or ban Chinese-made drones, citing national security concerns, officials announced Thursday (January 2). The department has requested public comments by March 4 on potential regulations to safeguard the drone supply chain. The agency warned that threats from countries such as China and Russia could allow adversaries to remotely access and manipulate drones, potentially exposing sensitive US data. China dominates the US commercial drone market, with DJI, the worlds largest drone manufacturer, accounting for over half of all commercial drone sales. Advertisement US efforts to curb Chinese drones Over the past year, Washington has increased scrutiny of Chinese drones. In December, President Joe Biden signed legislation that could ban DJI and Autel Robotics from selling new models in the US. The law mandates a US agency to determine within one year whether drones from these companies pose unacceptable national security risks. If no study is completed, the companies would be barred from introducing new products in the US. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo had said in September that the department could implement measures similar to those under consideration for Chinese vehicles, focusing on drones with Chinese or Russian components, chips, and software. In September, the House of Representatives voted to block new DJI drones from operating in the country. Raimondo said in November that she hoped to finalise the vehicle rules by January 20. The final decision on drone restrictions will fall to the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who assumes office on that same day. Congress has raised repeated concerns about DJI drones, citing potential risks to data security and surveillance. In 2019, lawmakers prohibited the Pentagon from purchasing or using drones and components made in China. DJIs response DJI has rejected the allegations, maintaining that its products do not pose national security threats. It has pushed back against the restrictions, too. The company sued the Defence Department in October over its designation as a company allegedly tied to Beijings military, a move DJI claims is baseless and financially damaging. Additionally, DJI has faced scrutiny under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, with US Customs and Border Protection blocking some of its drone imports. Advertisement DJI denies any use of forced labour in its manufacturing. With inputs from agencies On January 2, 2025, President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Xi Jinping pointed out that China and Ecuador are comprehensive strategic partners. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 45 years ago, China-Ecuador relations have maintained a sound momentum of development. In recent years, the two sides have strengthened political mutual trust, achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation in various fields and deepened the China-Ecuador friendship. In particular, the smooth signing and entry into force of the China-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement has strongly promoted the upgrading of economic and trade cooperation and injected new impetus into the development of bilateral relations. Xi Jinping said, he attaches great importance to the development of China-Ecuador relations and is ready to work with President Daniel Noboa to take the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as a new starting point, continue the traditional friendship, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields and elevate China-Ecuador relations to a new level. Daniel Noboa said, the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ecuador and China is a milestone of far-reaching significance. Over the past 45 years, the two sides have established a comprehensive strategic partnership on the basis of mutual respect and trust and achieved fruitful results in cooperation in various fields. Ecuador's participation in the Belt and Road Initiative and the entry into force of the Ecuador-China Free Trade Agreement have greatly improved the well-being of the two peoples. Ecuador is willing to continue working closely with China to deepen friendship, dialogue and cooperation and build a future of common prosperity. Issue Date: 01/01/2025 Gardai continue to investigate the death of a 58-year-old man following an incident that occurred in New Ross, Co. Wexford on Tuesday, 31st December 2024. A post-mortem examination was carried out by the State Pathologist earlier today and preliminary results have been provided to the investigating team. Details of these results are not being released for operational purposes. Following the post-mortem, An Garda Siochana has now commenced a murder investigation. A male aged in his 30s, arrested in connection with the investigation remains in Garda custody at this time. He is detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at a Garda Station in the Eastern Region. The second individual arrested has been released from the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act and is no longer being held in connection with this investigation. An examination of the scene by the Garda Technical Bureau is continuing. A senior investigating officer (SIO) is leading the investigation from the incident room at New Ross Garda Station. A family liaison officer (FLO) continues to provide support the family. Gardai are appealing for witnesses to contact them and are seeking any available camera footage, including dashcam recordings, from those who were in the vicinity of Cluain Fada, New Ross at the time of the incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact New Ross Garda Station on 051 426030 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. Investigations are ongoing. The Glasgow City Council will meet in regular session, Monday, Jan. 6, 5 p.m., in the Council Chambers located inside of the Glasgow Civic Center. Click on the image above to view the full agenda. Retired major gets 12 years for passing secrets to China ROC Central News Agency 01/01/2025 04:21 PM Taipei, Jan. 1 (CNA) Retired Army Major Lee Hai-peng () has been sentenced to 12 years in jail by the Taiwan High Court for selling secrets to China, a much stiffer sentence than he received from the same court in the same case earlier last year. Lee Hai-peng's sons, former Captain Lee Yu-sheng () and former Sergeant Lee Yu-ching (), were found guilty of colluding with their father and received sentences of two years and a month and 10 years and six months, respectively, the court said on Tuesday. Also, former Air Force Major Lee Wen-sheng () was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of rendering aid to an enemy's spies. Similar to Lee Hai-peng, the sentences for Lee Yu-ching and Lee Wen-sheng were far longer than in the previous verdict. All of the rulings can still be appealed. In August 2024, the high court sentenced Lee Hai-peng to four years in prison for delivering classified military information that he obtained or knew of through his position and collecting national classified information. After the Supreme Court returned the case to the Taiwan High Court, however, Lee Hai-peng was convicted on three charges under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act, including delivering classified national security information to China, and was given 12 years in jail. According to the high court's ruling, Lee Hai-peng, in his 70s, started brokering meetings between Taiwanese and Chinese officials after retiring in 1990, during which time he was recruited by China to collect intelligence. In 2008, Lee Hai-peng recruited Lee Wen-sheng, an Air Force officer serving in Hualien, to gather classified and confidential information. Lee Hai-peng told Lee Wen-sheng he was helping China collect military information and Lee Wen-sheng agreed to participate for monetary benefits, the court found. It said Lee Wen-sheng handed over hard or digital copies of "confidential" or "classified" files that he came across in his position and passed them on to Lee Hai-peng, which were then transferred to Chinese intelligence officials in exchange for US$10,000 in cash and a paid trip to South Korea, it said. In May 2010, Lee Hai-peng began to ask Lee Yu-sheng and Lee Yu-ching to divulge classified information because of Lee Wen-sheng's imminent retirement. Lee Yu-ching collected classified information and took it with him off the base before turning it into digital files and handing the files to his father, according to the court. In 2012, Lee Hai-peng and his wife as well as Lee Yu-ching and his girlfriend received an all expenses paid trip to Malaysia, where they met Chinese officials, the court said. It noted that Lee Yu-ching was aware that his father was a spy for China but continued collecting intelligence for him after returning to Taiwan. Lee Wen-sheng was originally sentenced to three years and two months in jail by the Taiwan High Court on the lesser charge under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces of delivering classified military information that he obtained or knew of through his position. Lee Yu-sheng and Lee Yu-ching were originally sentenced to two years and two months and two years and four months under the same original charge as Lee Wen-sheng. But while Lee Yu-sheng was simply found guilty of the same charge in the retrial and had his sentence reduced by a month, Lee Yu-ching was convicted on the more serious charge of rendering aid to an enemy's spies and given a much heavier sentence. (By Flor Wang and Liu Shih-yi) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hezbollah-Iran cooperation based on confronting common enemy: Sheikh Qassem IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Secretary-General of Hezbollah Sheikh Naeem Qassem has stated that the collaboration between Lebanon's resistance and Iran is a response to shared challenges in the region. In a video message delivered at a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, Sheikh Qassem affirmed that the resistance against their common enemy will persist. "We believe that the cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran is aimed at addressing the existing challenges in the region," he said. "Support from Hezbollah, Yemen, and Iraq for Gaza arises from a unified perspective on confronting a common adversary." He identified this common enemy as the Israeli regime, which he said is supported by the United States in its efforts to "destroy the region and establish dominance over it". Describing Israel as a "wild and criminal regime", Sheikh Qassem accused it of acting with the support of the "criminal US", which he labeled as an enemy of humanity. He urged the Islamic community and the global audience to rally behind Palestine and Gaza against this enemy. "We take pride in this support, and our actions have placed the world's evildoers alongside the occupying regime of Israel in a predicament," he stated. Additionally, Sheikh Qassem emphasized that Hezbollah has successfully prevented Israeli occupying forces from advancing in border areas during their offensive against Lebanon. "The resistance continues and has rebuilt its strength," he said. 4353**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemen warns US aircraft carrier presence in Red Sea: Report IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Yemen's Ansarullah has warned the United States about the continued presence of the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea, media outlets have reported. Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, a senior member of the Yemeni Supreme Political Council, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the carrier should leave the Red Sea and return to the American coast, IRNA cited Fars news agency on Wednesday. Al-Houthi emphasized that the carrier's continued presence militarizes the waters and lacks legitimacy, falling outside of its legal mission and duties. He described the situation as "an uncalculated move" by the United States. Over the past year, the Yemeni army, in support of the resistance of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and within the framework of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, has targeted several Zionist ships or ships bound for the occupied territories in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, as well as carried out dozens of drone and missile attacks on the positions of the Zionist regime. 7129**9417 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Al-Qassam Brigades fire rockets at Zionist settlement IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, has announced that it has bombarded Netivot, southern occupied Palestine, with a barrage of rockets in response to the massacre of civilians by the Zionist regime. "In the first minute of the new year, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades announced that it had bombarded "Netivot with a barrage of rockets in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians", The Palestine Chronicle quoting the Brigades reported on Tuesday. Aljazeera reported that the sound of sirens was heard in the Netivot Zionist settlement. According to this media, after the rockets were fired at Netivot, Zionist regime's army had warned the residents of Gaza Camp of imminent strike. 6125**9417 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address AFP renews commitment to protect, defend PH in 2025 Philippine News Agency By Priam Nepomuceno January 1, 2025, 9:42 am MANILA -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reiterated its commitment to defending the country and the people in welcoming the New Year. "This New Year is an opportunity to renew our commitment to our shared goals and aspirations as an organization. Let us move forward with unity and determination, embracing innovation, strengthening partnerships, and remaining steadfast in our resolve to protect the Filipino people and our nation's future," AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said in his New Year's message. Brawner also added that 2024 has proven the AFP's collective strength, resilience, and professionalism as it faced numerous challenges. "Together, we have faced challenges with courage, fulfilled our missions with excellence, and made significant strides in safeguarding our sovereignty and promoting peace and security," he stressed. Brawner also thanked military personnel for their dedication and tireless service to the nation. "To the AFP family and our fellow Filipinos, I wish you all a prosperous and peaceful New Year. May 2025 bring us closer to our vision of a strong, secure, and progressive Philippines," he added. The Philippine Army (PA) also recognized the hard work of its personnel, which led to numerous gains in 2024. "What we achieved this 2024 was not born out of ease but of effort. It came from steadfast dedication, strong collaboration, and from the unwavering support of those who believe in our mission," PA chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said in his New Year's message. Galido also hoped that the year 2025 would be filled with "meaningful work, steadfast unity, and the courage to push boundaries." "May the coming year be also defined by strength, purpose and progress for us all," he added. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Reds soon to become an insignificant threat: NTF-ELCAC Philippine News Agency By Priam Nepomuceno January 1, 2025, 2:40 pm MANILA -- A ranking official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), will soon be an insignificant threat, as the country ushered in the New Year. "Despite the CPP's denials, the NTF-ELCAC's achievements speak volumes. Through our concerted efforts, we have dismantled 88 out of 89 guerrilla fronts and benefitted 4,830 geographically isolated and disadvantaged barangays through the Barangay Development Program, effectively eradicating the CTGs (communist terrorist groups) in their traditional strongholds," NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. said in a statement Wednesday. Aside from this, Torres said the task force has successfully reconciled thousands of surrenderers with their families, facilitating their reintegration into their communities. He added that these outstanding achievements significantly contribute to the country's journey towards stable internal peace and security. "As we persist with our tried and tested strategy against the CPP, its underground forces, particularly the NPA, will soon become an insignificant threat. Its armed remnants are now disconnected from the masses, discredited, and incapable of launching meaningful offensives," Torres said. He added that the government will continue dismantling the CPP-NPA's financial and material support network. This, Torres said, will ensure that extremist recruiters and propagandists are held accountable by the country's justice system. "These 'ahas sa damuhan' (snakes in the grass) who exploit our legal and democratic spaces in order to sow division, are the last lifeline of the CPP. Alas, they have unmasked themselves as transactional operators, with their questionable alliances and cash-driven motives exposing them as mercenaries rather than true servants of the people," he added. Through Executive Order 70 which created the NTF-ELCAC, Torres said the Philippine government continues to confront the root causes of insurgency with tangible solutions. "From educational opportunities to enhanced governance are our investments to address long-standing systemic issues. Sitio electrification programs, farm-to-market roads, and livelihood training are initiatives that directly uplift vulnerable communities. The whole-of-nation approach has delivered measurable outcomes, transforming lives and fostering trust in government. By comparison, the CPP clings to outdated rhetoric and superficial critiques, blind to the efforts of a nation marching forward for peace and progress," he added. By proactively addressing grievances through socio-economic programs, he said the government has removed the insurgents' ability to exploit and weaponize communities. "It is evident that the CPP is collapsing under the weight of its hypocrisy and internal contradictions. Its leaders continue to advocate lofty ideals while engaging in actions that betray the very communities they claim to uplift. The rectification movement is not a path to renewal but a desperate attempt to remain relevant and stall their inevitable decline," the NTF-ELCAC executive director noted. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hezbollah resistance movement has recuperated, revived its prowess: Sheikh Naim Qassem Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 11:28 AM The secretary general of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement says the group has recuperated well following the assassination of its late leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on September 27, emphasizing that his group has revived its military prowess as well. "We proved through resistance that we will not allow the [Zionist] enemy to advance its agenda. It is the responsibility of the Lebanese government and the international community to confront the acts of aggression that are currently taking place [against Lebanon]," he pointed out. The Hezbollah chief stated that his movement has stood up against Israeli expansionist schemes, stressing it is now the Beirut government's turn to prove itself through political action. Sheikh Naim Qassem made the remarks in a televised address to the fourth international congress on honoring Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, which is being held in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday. He emphasized that Hezbollah is thriving, and revived itself. "It has the faith and devoted servicemen that enable it to grow stronger." The Hezbollah chief went on to say that the Israeli military is killing any living creature in the Gaza Strip, leveling all houses to the ground and perpetrating genocide in the besieged coastal territory. The Tel Aviv regime is recognized as a barbaric and criminal regime by the Muslim world and the international community, Sheikh Qassem noted, adding that the regime commits such atrocities with the support of the criminal United States, which is itself the enemy of humanity. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Afghanistan's politicization of dams against Iran Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 11:25 AM A decade after the unilateral control and capture of water resources of Harirud through the Salma dam, Afghanistan's rulers have built a second barrier on the river, further disrupting the flow of water to Iran and Turkmenistan. For millennia, the rivers that formed in the mountains of central Afghanistan - once a part of Iran - have sustained life in its western territories. In an otherwise arid region, the control of water has been a point of tension since the modern borders were established in the mid-nineteenth century. The Harirud Basin is an international water basin shared between Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, which has crucially contributed to the livelihood of many people. When in 2016, Afghanistan officially opened the Salma dam on the upper reaches of the Harirud River, it was said that the dam would cut down the water flow of the river to Iran and Turkmenistan by 73%. Some 3.4 million Iranians in the northeast rely on the Harirud river basin for water. This includes the population of Mashhad which depends on water pumped 182 km from the Doosti dam jointly built by Iran and Turkmenistan. Now, the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan say they have started filling the new Pashdan dam built on Harirud near Herat, drawing strong reaction from Iranian authorities for ignoring the country's customary rights. The group's ministry of energy and water says the effort does not end with Salma and Pashdan, and the construction of two other dams on Harirud is also on the agenda. The 1,124 km-long Harirud River flows from the Koh-i-Baba Mountains to Herat where it turns northwards to reach Iran, forming approximately 160 km of the political border between the two countries. In Iran, it joins the Kashafrud River, shaping around 170 km of the border between Iran and Turkmenistan before draining into the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan. Iran is already locked in a dispute with Afghanistan over its share of water from the Helmand River. The river runs through much of Afghanistan from its source in the mountains north of Kabul, feeding Iran's Sistan wetlands in the border regions of the two countries. The construction of numerous dams and canals in Helmand as well as Nimruz and Kandahar has constantly depleted the flowing water level, as a result of which the Hamoun lakes in Iran have nearly disappeared with their exotic flora and fauna. With the exception of an unbinding 1973 water accord that defined an acceptable rate of discharge from the Helmand, there are no formal water-sharing agreements between Iran and Afghanistan. This means the two neighbors have to rely on cooperation and trust on the issue of water. However, trust was eroded when the accord was breached by Afghanistan during a drought from 1998 and 2002. At the time, Taliban authorities choked off water from the Kajaki dam to Iran during the region's worst droughts. Many experts believe that Afghanistan's rulers are using dams as leverage for pressure on neighbors and care less about water diplomacy. They treat water as a political tool to regulate their foreign policy with neighbors. In fact, water is their only geopolitical advantage which they think they should use as a bargaining chip to set out their conditions. The general thinking is that past Afghan governments have not properly exploited this perceived geological heft which has made the country vulnerable and weak. From their perspective, the best way to gain power or balance their power against the regional countries is to use water resources as a weapon. Hence, the construction of dams, canals and tunnels is not a merely economic exigency. Iran's water security concerns, instead, are legitimate and deserve serious consideration. A productive start toward an optimal regional solution and development of equitable water management regulated by legal cooperation agreements is a must. Therefore, it is necessary to resolve the dispute by focusing on treaties, international legal rules and procedures that emphasize and clarify the right of countries to shared rivers. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni air defenses intercept, shoot down another US MQ-9 Reaper drone Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 9:59 AM Yemeni air defense units have successfully intercepted and shot down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone while it was conducting hostile activities in the airspace over the country's west-central province of Ma'rib. The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF), Brigadier General Yahya Saree, made the announcement in a televised statement on Wednesday. He stated that the American aircraft was downed with a homegrown Yemeni surface-to-air missile, as it was carrying out a reconnaissance drone operation above the area. Back on December 28, Saree said Yemeni forces had intercepted and shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the central province of al-Bayda. Saree said in a televised statement at the time that the unmanned aerial vehicle was targeted with a locally-made surface-to-air missile. Yemenis have been hitting Israeli and American targets in support of Palestinians in Gaza since the regime launched its devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, and in response to the American-British aggression on their homeland. Yemen's Ansarullah resistance movement has been also targeting ships linked to Israel, the United States, or the United Kingdom to force an end to the Tel Aviv regime's genocidal war on Gaza. The operations have effectively shut down the Eilat port south of the occupied territories, causing significant economic setbacks for the Israelis. The Yemeni Armed Forces have said they will not stop their attacks until Israel's ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end. Israel has killed at least 45,541 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured another 108,338 individuals in Gaza since the onset of the war. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Dec. 31: 'Axis of Resistance' operations against Israeli occupation Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 7:58 AM By Press TV Website Staff Amid the West-backed Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 45,600 Palestinians so far, resistance groups in Palestine and across the region continue their operations against the Tel Aviv regime and its Western backers. The major operations by the Palestinian and regional resistance groups on Tuesday, December 31, are as follows: Al-Qassam Brigades' operations on Dec. 31: Launched a barrage of rockets at the Netivot settlement at midnight stroke. Al-Quds Brigades' operations on Dec. 31: Targeted the occupied cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with a volley of rockets. Targeted an Israeli military vehicle with a highly explosive device in the town of Anabta, east of Tulkarem city, occupied West Bank. In a joint operation with the Al-Qassam Brigades, an Israeli military Merkava tank and a D9 bulldozer were targeted and destroyed with two "RBG and Yassin 105" shells in the middle of Jabalia camp, northern Gaza Strip. Targeted a convoy of Israeli military vehicles with a volley of highly explosive anti-tank bombs of the type (Thaqib and Raad) in the vicinity of the Martyr Anwar Aziz Mosque in the middle of Jabalia camp, northern Gaza Strip. Launched a barrage of mortar shells at the positions of Israeli soldiers in the so-called "Netzarim" axis. Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades' operations on Dec. 31: In a joint operation with the Martyr Omar al-Qassem Forces and the Ansar Brigades, targeted an Israeli command and control site in the so-called "Netzarim" axis with mortar shells Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades' operations on Dec. 31: Targeted an Israeli military command and control site in the so-called "Netzarim" axis with a barrage of rockets. Yemeni military's operations on Dec. 31: Targeted Ben Gurion Airport with a 'Palestine-2' hypersonic ballistic missile. Targeted a power station south of occupied Jerusalem Al-Quds with a 'Zulfiqar' ballistic missile. Targeted the US aircraft carrier 'USS Harry S. Truman' with several drones and cruise missiles while the US forces were preparing to launch a major air attack on Yemen. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran slams US, UK attacks on Yemen, warns of 'dangerous consequences' for region Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 7:55 AM A senior Iranian diplomat has condemned the latest round of airstrikes by US and British warplanes against a number of sites in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a, holding Washington and London directly responsible for any "dangerous" and "unpredictable" consequences of the regional situation. An assistant to Iran's foreign minister and the director general for the Persian Gulf Affairs in the Iranian Foreign Ministry vehemently denounced the large-scale US-British strikes on various neighborhoods of Sana'a as efforts in support of the Zionist regime's ongoing crimes in Gaza. "The continuation of adventurous and aggressive attacks by the US-led coalition on Yemen's soil are aimed at destabilizing the region and undermining the peace and ceasefire process between the groups and countries involved in the Yemeni crisis," Mohammad Alibek said on Wednesday. He also held the US and Britain directly responsible for any dangerous and unpredictable consequences arising from the regional situation. "The recurrent military aggression by the United States and Britain against Yemeni territory is a clear violation of the international law and the UN Charter, and a blatant encroachment on Yemen's national sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said. The official said all conflicts and attacks in the West Asian region are rooted in the Zionist regime's genocidal policy in Gaza, warning about the negative consequences of the regime's warmongering and provocations for regional and international peace and security. Yemen's al-Masirah television channel reported a series of US-British aerial attacks on the Yemeni capital on Tuesday afternoon. Two of the airstrikes hit the Defense Ministry building and other areas in downtown Sana'a, while the rest struck the 1st Armor Division and an ammunition manufacturing complex in the city center. Ambulances were seen rushing to the scenes, as security forces cordoned off the targeted sites. Residents reported that the powerful airstrikes rocked the entire city, with some houses near the targeted sites being partially damaged. The strikes against Yemen come amid retaliatory attacks against the Israeli regime over the Gaza war which has killed at least 45,541 Palestinians and wounded 108,338 since October 7, 2023. The Yemeni Armed Forces have declared their open support for Palestine's struggle against the Israeli occupation and vowed they will not stop their attacks until Israel's ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end. Yemenis have hit targets throughout the occupied territories, in addition to firing at Israeli ships or vessels heading to or departing Israeli-occupied ports, in the southern Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Gulf of Aden, and the Arabian Sea. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US strikes blatant violation of Yemen sovereignty: Houthi Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 12:36 AM A member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council has condemned US aggression against the country as a blatant violation of the sovereignty of an independent state. Mohammed Ali al-Houthi on Tuesday called US strikes part of a dirty mission that is aimed at encouraging Israel to continue its genocide against the people of Gaza. He said Washington was trying to impose the rule of the jungle on the region, instead of the rule of law, only to support the Israeli regime. Al-Houthi stressed that Yemen will continue to confront the US aggression and support Gaza. Another Yemeni official also reacted to US aggression. Mohammad Abdulsalam said those who seek security and stability in the region must restrain Israel, instead of providing it with more time, weapons, and political cover. "The US aggression on Yemen is a blatant violation of the sovereignty of an independent state, and blatant support for Israel to encourage it to continue its crimes of genocide against the people of Gaza," said Abdulsalam on Tuesday. His remarks came after the US Army confirmed in an earlier statement that its Navy ships and aircraft had conducted fresh attacks on multiple locations across Yemen. At least, twelve airstrikes hit the capital Sana'a and other areas along the coast, with no reported casualties. The US military said that it carried out attacks against targets in the capital Sana'a and coastal locations in Yemen on both Monday and Tuesday. "On December 30 and 31, US Navy ships and aircraft targeted a Houthi command and control facility and advanced conventional weapon (ACW) production and storage facilities that included missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV)," the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on X. Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine's struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched its campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023. Yemenis have hit targets throughout the occupied territories, in addition to firing at Israeli ships or vessels heading to or departing Israeli-occupied ports, in the southern Red Sea, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Gulf of Aden, and the Arabian Sea. The Yemeni Armed Forces have said they will not stop their attacks until Israel's ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Romanians, Bulgarians Celebrate Visa-Free Travel Across EU By RFE/RL's Romanian Service and RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service January 01, 2025 Bulgarians and Romanians celebrated the lifting of European Union visa restrictions, as the two EU members gained full entry into the bloc's Schengen Zone. Fireworks lit up the sky at the border crossing near the Bulgarian town of Ruse just after midnight on January 1 as the interior ministers from the two countries symbolically raised a gate on the Friendship Bridge across the Danube River. Romanian authorities said they will scrap 39 border crossing posts between it and Hungary and Bulgaria. Though both Romania and Bulgaria have been members of the European Union since 2007, they were still subject to visa requirements across the EU. Objections from Austria, which argued that the two countries were not doing enough to stem illegal migration, had held up the process for years. Joining the Schengen Zone now means citizens can now cross borders, neighboring and further afield, without passport checks. Romania pledged to continue conducting random spot checks of identification documents to monitor illegal migration. "This is a historic moment," said Bulgarian Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev who symbolically splashed water at the border checkpoint at Kulata. "From Greece in the south to Finland to the north and all the way to Portugal to the west -- you can travel without borders." The Schengen area now covers 25 of the 27 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. With reporting by Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/bulgaria-romania-join- eu-schengen-zone-visa-restrictions-lifted/33260426.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Houthis Say Shot Down US MQ-9 Drone Over Yemen Sputnik News 20250101 BEIRUT, (Sputnik) - Yemeni movement Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, brought down a US military MQ-9 drone in northeastern Yemen, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Wednesday. "The air defenses of the Yemeni Armed Forces were able to shoot down an American MQ_9 aircraft while it was carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Ma'rib Governorate," Saree said in the statement. He added that a Yemeni-made surface-to-air missile shot down the drone. It is the second such drone shot down in the past three days and the 14th since the start of active combat operations by the Houthis in support of Gaza, Saree said. In November last year, Yemeni forces began attacking what they say are ships associated with Israel in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in response to Tel Aviv's military assault on the Gaza Strip. The US and the UK have since launched a series of strikes at targets in Yemen. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Senegal to Expel Foreign Troops in 2025 Sputnik News 20250101 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has confirmed that the country intends to get rid of foreign military presence as early as 2025. "I have instructed the minister of the armed forces to propose a new doctrine of cooperation in the field of defense and security, which will entail the end of any foreign military presence in Senegal from 2025," the president was quoted as saying by Senegalese news agency APS on Tuesday. In November, Bassirou Diomaye Faye said that the presence of French military bases on the territory of the country is incompatible with national sovereignty. In late January, French media reported that France was going to significantly reduce its military contingents in Gabon, Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire. Last week, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said that the country will close all foreign military bases in the near future. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israeli airstrikes kill 17 in northern, central Gaza By VOA News January 01, 2025 Israeli airstrikes in northern and central Gaza killed at least 17 Palestinians on Wednesday, according to Palestinian officials and local media reports. One of the strikes hit a house in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, while another hit the Bureij refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. Israel's military did not immediately comment on the attacks, but earlier Wednesday, it warned people to evacuate the Bureij area, saying militants located there were firing rockets. The Israeli military said it killed Abd al-Hadi Sabah, a Hamas militant who helped lead the infiltration into Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7, 2023, attack by the militant group on southern Israel. Israel warned Wednesday that it will intensify its strikes in Gaza if Hamas continues its rocket fire. "I want to send a clear message from here to the heads of the terrorists in Gaza: If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza ... and continues firing at Israeli communities, it will face blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time," Defense Minister Israel Katz said. Israel has repeatedly told people to move from parts of Gaza in what the military says are evacuations necessary for safely carrying out its war against Hamas militants. The United Nations and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli tactic, saying that the evacuation orders often give people little time to leave, and that they do not have safe places to go in Gaza to escape the airstrikes and Israeli ground operations. More than 1,500 tents sheltering displaced people across Gaza were flooded by heavy rains over the past two days, leaving people exposed to the cold, the Palestinian civil defense said. The war in Gaza began with Hamas militants attacking southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage. About 100 hostages are being held in Gaza, with at least one-third of them believed to be dead. Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed at least 45,500 Palestinians and injured more than 108,000, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave. The ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count. The war has leveled wide areas of Gaza and displaced 90% of its 2.3 million people. The United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others have designated Hamas as a terror organization. Some information for this report was provided by from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera broadcasts By Liam Scott January 01, 2025 The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday temporarily suspended Al Jazeera broadcasts across the Palestinian territories, according to media reports. A ministerial committee suspended the broadcaster's operations over what it described as broadcasting "inciting material and reports that were deceiving and stirring strife" in the territories. The committee included the culture, interior and communications ministries. The Qatari-owned Al Jazeera came under criticism last week by the Palestinian Authority over its coverage of the weeks-long standoff between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Fatah, the political faction that controls the Palestinian Authority, said the broadcaster was fostering division in "our Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular." It encouraged Palestinians to not cooperate with the network. Last week, Al Jazeera condemned what it described as an "incitement campaign" initiated by Fatah against Al Jazeera and its reporters over their coverage of clashes between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in Jenin. "Al Jazeera has successfully maintained its professionalism throughout its coverage of the unfolding events in Jenin," Al Jazeera said in the statement. The Palestinian Authority's decision to suspend Al Jazeera isn't expected to be implemented in Hamas-run Gaza, where the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority does not exercise power. Al Jazeera did not immediately reply to VOA's email requesting comment. This suspension is the latest of several recent challenges that Al Jazeera has faced in the occupied West Bank and Israel. In September 2024, Israeli soldiers raided Al Jazeera's Ramallah office in the occupied West Bank and ordered the bureau to shut down operations. And in May 2024, the Israeli government shutdown Al Jazeera in Israel over national security concerns. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tigray leader says region losing gold without benefit By Gebre Gebremedhin January 01, 2025 Ethiopia's prime minister recently touted the country's mining resources and said the industry could achieve a historic milestone by generating up to $2 billion in gold revenue this year. He made the comment while inaugurating a gold exploration and mining factory in the Gambella Region. On Dec. 10, Abiy Ahmed reported that Ethiopia's economy is "one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa and a beacon of opportunity on the continent." "Among its many thriving sectors, the gold mining industry stands out as a significant driver of growth, presenting immense potential for both local and international investment," he said on social media. But officials in Tigray, one of the richest gold mining regions in Ethiopia, say they are losing resources without benefit for their region at a time when Tigray is trying to recover from two years of brutal war between local rebels and the federal government. The interim president of Tigray, Getachew Reda, speaking on Nov 15 said during the three and half months prior (August, September and October) "28.25 quintals of Gold entered into the Federal Government." "The government has not received a single penny," he said. Ethiopia's Commercial Bank, through its branch in Shire Inda Selasse, the hub of the gold in Tigray, recently bought $132 million worth of gold in just three months, according to branch manager Tekie Giday. The Tigray region's entire budget for this year is nearly $100 million. Officials in Tigray said the region is struggling with budget shortfalls as it attempts to bring back services discontinued or destroyed during the war. Environmental fears In addition to lack of economic benefits, officials in Tigray reported that gold mining has exposed some of the region's residents to dangerous chemicals like mercury and cyanide, which are used for extracting gold. Residents living close to the mining fields say the chemicals have been harmful to humans and livestock, with reports of deformed skin on cows and degraded farmland, witnesses and officials said. Some residents in Tigray's Northwest region have gone to the courts seeking justice, to get judges to act against goldminers, who they accuse of polluting the environment and causing ill health to their children. The president of the High Court of the Northwest, Judge Mengistu Teklay, told VOA that chemicals used by miners are becoming the source of health, security and stability concerns. "Utilizations of natural resources must be governed by law and order. It shouldn't benefit the few individuals," Mengistu said. "Those individuals who benefit from these resources should not be allowed to bring safety concerns, existential threats, and health concerns to the unbenefited public." Cyanide and mercury have both been used during the mining process in Tigray, according to multiple interviews conducted by VOA's Horn of Africa Service. The World Health Organization identifies mercury as one of the top 10 chemicals or chemical groups posing public health concerns. Alarmed by the use of the chemicals, Ethiopia's Bureau of Innovation and Technology, a government body tasked with overseeing the country's science and technological development, asked Tigrayan regional government institutions to take action to prevent unsafe use of the chemicals. Gizachew Weldetsadik Beyene is director of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Department in Tigray's Bureau of Innovation and Technology. He said a team from the bureau posing as traditional miners traveled to the mining areas and saw what he called a "sad" situation. "It is so scary," Gizachew said, sharing a video of a cow affected by the chemicals, and pictures of women washing the soil using chemicals in search of gold without safety protocols and with their bare hands. "We've seen the damage to animals, to the land, the soil, to people who use running water and suffer, with their skin damaged, the animals which are drinking that water and exposed to dangerous diseases," Gizachew said. Action taken The Tigray region's Cabinet this week called for a halt to goldmining. The announcement was made by the deputy president of Tigray's interim administration, Lieutenant General Tsadkan Gebretinsae. He did not elaborate about when the suspension will start and how the measure will be implemented. Prior to that, the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau said in a statement that action was taken against people who were using illegal dangerous chemicals to process gold in Tahtay Koraro district near a dam that is a source of potable water for the city of Shire Inda Selasse. No details were given about the actions and the type of chemicals used. A security source who requested anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media alleged that foreign companies are working with Ezana Mining Development, a local mining company. The head of Ezana company, Tesfatsion Desta, did not initially respond to VOA calls. After a VOA Tigrigna Service radio report aired, Ezana put out a statement saying it was not asked to comment on the story, which it called "distorted." In the statement, Ezana said it worked with foreign companies before the Tigray war. The statement continued that because of insecurity and instability, however, these companies did not come back after the war. The company said the gold factory located in Northwest Tigray's Asgede district, in the Tabia Lemat area, is free from pollution, waste and environmental distraction. Without naming a specific country, Tigray President Getachew told the region's diaspora community in a Zoom meeting that he believes more gold than reported is smuggled out of Ethiopia. Getachew said what is happening in Tigray is becoming "a crime." "It is a very serious problem. It is not just robbery. People are losing their animals because of the dangerous chemical used by the miners. There are people who are known to participate in this network from top to bottom among government and security officials." VOA's repeated attempts to get comment from the Tigray Bureau of Land and Mining and the Mining Ministry, as well as the National Bank of Ethiopia, were unsuccessful. This story originated in VOA's Horn of Africa Service. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russo-Ukraine War - 01 January 2025 - Day 1043 Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos. On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. "To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal] The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the Defense Forces are directing efforts to disrupt the execution of Russian invaders' offensive plans and exhaust their combat potential. Since the beginning of the day, there have been 125 combat clashes, the Russian enemy launched one missile and 26 air strikes, using 7 missiles and 34 guided bombs, 562 kamikaze drones strikes, carried out more than 3,000 shelling positions of Ukrainian troops. Russian forces attacked seven times on Ukrainian fortifications in the Kupyans komu direction in the areas of Kolisnikivka, Zagrizovoye, Lozova and Nova Kruglyakivka. At this time, there are five battles. In the Lyman direction a day Russian troops 16 times stormed the positions of Ukrainian defenders in the vicinity of Novosergiyivka, Tverdohlibovy, Kopanok, Makiyivka, Ivanivka and Serebryansk forest. Two attacks of the Russian opponent in the areas of tors kogo and terniv continue until now. In the Kramatorsky direction, Ukrainian troops repelled 14 Russian attacks in the areas of the settlements of Chasiv Yar, Stupochka and Predtecina. So far, two clashes are ongoing. In the Toretsky direction, Russian forces for today seven times stormed the positions of Ukrainian defenders. In the area of Cherbinivka, all attacks were repelled, so far three enemy attacks continue in the areas of Toretsk and in the direction of Diliyivka. In the Pokrovsky direction throughout the day, Russian forces carried out 35 assault and offensive actions. The largest activity of the Russian occupiers is kept in the regions of Vozdvizhenko, Peace-loving, Lisivka, New Labor, Solonoy, Kotlinoy, Sand, Pokrovsk, Novooleksiyivka, Zelenoy, Novooelenivka, Dachenky and Novovasilivka. Thirteen assaults of the positions of Ukrainian troops continue so far. According to preliminary calculations, today Ukrainian soldiers eliminated 161 and wounded 143 Russian invaders in this direction; destroyed an armored transporter and five vehicles, also damaged three vehicles and one Russian combat armored vehicle. Intensely attacks the Russian opponent and in the Kurakhiv direction. At this time of the day, there are already 18 clashes near Ukrainka, Petropavlivka and Kurakhovy, currently four clashes are being sharpened. The losses of the Russian enemy in this direction amounted to 86 Russian occupants killed and wounded; in addition, five armored vehicles were destroyed and one infantry fighting vehicle damaged. In the Vremivs .komu direction, Ukrainian troops repelled 17 Russian attacks near Dachny, Konstantinopol, Amber, Novosilka, Spillway and New Komar, six combat clashes continue so far. In the Orihivsk direction, Ukrainian troops successfully repelled one attack of the enemy near the settlement of Novoandriivka. In the Pridniprovsky direction, Russian forces today carried out two unsuccessful assaults in the area of the island of Zabych. In Kur ini Ukrainian defenders for today fought 32 attacks of the occupiers, one fight is ongoing. In addition, Russian forces launched one missile and nine air strikes, using seven missiles and eleven guided bombs, as well as carrying out 202 artillery shells. In Kharkiv, Gulyaipilsky, Siversky directions from the beginning of the day, Russian forces did not carry out assault actions. In other directions, there have been no significant changes in the environment. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that in Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces defeated units of one motorised Infantry brigade of the AFU and two territorial defence brigades close to Malye Prokhody, Siminovka, and Volchansk (Kharkov region). The AFU losses amounted to up to 45 troops, one motor vehicle, and one 152-mm D-20 gun. The Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line, defeated manpower and hardware of one mechanised brigade, one assault brigade of the AFU, five territorial defence brigades, and one national guard brigade close to Dvurechnaya, Ivanovka, Kovsharovka (Kharkov region), Torskoye and Terny (Donetsk People's Republic). Nine counter-attacks of AFU assault groups were repelled. The AFU losses amounted to up to 330 troops, one tank, three pickup trucks, one French-made 155-mm Caesar self-propelled artillery system, one 122-mm Gvozdika howitzer, one U.S.-made 105-mm M119 gun, and one UK-made L119 guns. One Nota electronic warfare station and one ammunition depot have been neutralised. The Yug Group of Forces' units captured more advantageous lines, defeated formations of two mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, one infantry brigade, and one airmobile brigade of the AFU near Chasov Yar, Dalneye, and Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic). One counter-attack launched by an enemy assault group was repelled. The AFU losses amounted to more than 250 troops, one motor vehicle, one 122-mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and one 122-mm D-30 howitzer. The Tsentr Group of Forces' units improved the tactical situation and delivered strikes at manpower and hardware of five mechanised brigades, two assault battalions of the AFU, one marine brigade, and two national guard brigades close to Dzerzhinsk, Shcherbinovka, Aleksandropol, Shevchenko, Dachenskoye, Slavyanka, Baranovka, Ulyanovka, and Peschanoye (Donetsk People's Republic). Fourteen AFU counter-attacks were repelled. The AFU losses amounted to up to 235 troops, two tanks, one UK-made Spartan armoured personnel carrier, one U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carrier, one armoured fighting vehicle, three motor vehicles, one French-made 155-mm Caesar self-propelled artillery system, two 152-mm Msta-B howitzers, and one 152-mm D-20 gun. The Vostok Group of Forces' units continued advancing into the depths of the enemy's defence, defeated formations of one tank brigade, two mechanised brigades of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades near Razliv, Bogatyr, Neskuchnoye, Velikaya Novosyolka, and Zelyonoye Pole (Donetsk People's Republic). Three counter-attacks of enemy assault groups were repelled. The AFU losses amounted to more than 150 troops, one infantry fighting vehicle, four motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155-mm Paladin self-propelled system, one Bogdana self-propelled artillery system, one 122-mm D-30 howitzer, and one UK-made 105-mm L119 gun. The Dnepr Group of Forces' units hit manpower and hardware of one AFU infantry brigade and two territorial defence brigades close to Stepnogorsk (Zaporozhye region), Pridneprovskoye, Berislav (Kherson region), and Kherson. The AFU losses amounted to up to 40 troops, six motor vehicles, and one 152-mm D-20 gun. Operational-Tactical Aviation, strike UAVs, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged power facilities that provided for the operation of the enterprise of the Ukrainian military industry, the infrastructure of military airfields, assemblies for storing uncrewed surface vehicles, and clusters of enemy manpower and military hardware in 142 areas. Air defence systems shot down seven U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS and Uragan projectiles as well as 66 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles. The Black Sea Fleet units neutralised three AFU uncrewed surface vehicles. In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 650 aircraft and 283 helicopters, 39,047 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,127 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,504 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,120 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,685 units of special military vehicles have been neutralised. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also reported that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat AFU formations in Kursk region. In the course of offensive operations, units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on units of one heavy mechanised brigade, six mechanised brigades, three air assault brigades, one marine brigade, and two territorial defence brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Daryino, Zamostye, Kurilovka, Leonidovo, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Martynovka, Maryevka, Makhnovka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Novaya Sorochina, Pogrebki, Staraya Sorochina, Sudzha, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye. Six counter-attacks of AFU assault groups were repelled. Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery engaged AFU manpower and hardware close to Aleksandriya, Veselovka, Guyevo, Kositsa, Lebedevka, Mirny, Mikhailovka, Nikolsky, Russkoye Porechnoye, Sverdlikovo, Yuzhy, and Basovka, Belovody, Vodolagi, Zhuravka, and Pavlovka (Sumy region). The AFU losses amounted to more than 480 troops, nine armoured fighting vehicles, and 21 motor vehicles. Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 46,460 troops, 262 tanks, 204 infantry fighting vehicles, 143 armoured personnel carriers, 1,381 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,280 motor vehicles, 337 artillery guns, 42 MLRS launchers, including 11 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 83 EW stations, 13 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 28 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, seven armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle. The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Statement on New Orleans Attack Wednesday, January 1, 2025 For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs The Justice Department issued the following statement from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland following the attack in New Orleans: "The country woke up this morning to news of a terrible tragedy in New Orleans that killed at least 10 people and injured many more. My heart is broken for those who began their year by learning people they love were killed in this horrific attack, and my prayers are with the dozens who were injured, including the New Orleans Police Department Officers who risked their lives to save others. The FBI is investigating this matter as an act of terrorism. The FBI, the ATF, the Justice Department's National Security Division, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana will continue to work with our law enforcement partners and will deploy every available resource to conduct this investigation." Topic: National Security Component: Office of the Attorney General Press Release Number: 25-01 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address WHO calls on China to release all data on COVID-19 origins Five years after the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, global health body 'honors' victims, health workers, long-haulers. By Luisetta Mudie 2025.01.01 -- The World Health Organization has called on China to fully release crucial data surrounding the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan in 2020, although the call was dismissed by Beijing. Five years ago, on Dec. 31, 2019, WHO's Country Office in China picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on cases of "viral pneumonia" in Wuhan, China, the World Health Organization, or WHO, said in a statement commemorating the start of the pandemic. "In the weeks, months and years that unfolded after that, COVID-19 came to shape our lives and our world," the United Nations health body said. "We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative." It added: "Let's take a moment to honor the lives changed and lost, recognize those who are suffering from COVID-19 and long COVID, express gratitude to the health workers who sacrificed so much to care for us." China on Tuesday dismissed calls on its government to release more data from the emergence of the pandemic, which has killed at least 7 million people worldwide, and defended its record on international collaboration. "After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago, China immediately shared epidemic information and virus gene sequences with the World Health Organization and the international community," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. "On the issue of COVID-19 origin tracing, China has always adhered to the spirit of science, openness and transparency, actively supported and participated in global scientific tracing, and resolutely opposed any form of political manipulation," Mao said, quoting WHO experts as saying that they were satisfied with the access granted during their February 2021 visit. Early days of COVID-19 pandemic When reports first began to emerge of a "mystery virus" causing pneumonia in patients in Wuhan, China said it definitely wasn't SARS, but later said it was a SARS-like virus. Officials initially denied that the disease was being transmitted between people. Ho Pak-leung, head of the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Infection, warned in early January 2020 that that it was highly possible that the disease was spreading from human to human, given the sheer number of cases that appeared in a short period of time. Human-to-human transmission was confirmed by the WHO on Jan. 19, 2020. Officials also denied that the virus spread through the air. The WHO also continued to advise that the disease was spread through "respiratory droplets and contact" rather than traveling through the air like smoke. This led governments and health services around the world to emphasize hand-washing and social distancing over other preventive measures. The body eventually published a report in April 2024 admitting that the virus was transmitted "through the air." Experts lacked full picture But a WHO team sent to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2021 sent out mixed signals regarding the transparency of the probe. Investigators said China refused to hand over raw patient data on early COVID-19 cases, making it harder to figure out how the outbreak began. Whistleblowing doctors like Li Wenliang died of COVID-19 in the early phase of the pandemic, while those who survived were later silenced by intense political pressure. Citizen journalists who went to Wuhan to document the early weeks of the outbreak and the citywide lockdown that followed were eventually caught, detained and sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Even after their release, some continue to face restriction and harassment. Rights groups said many Chinese people who spoke out against the government's handling of the initial outbreak that eventually spread around the world had been prevented from getting anywhere near the team. Competing theories of origin Experts hired by the global health body to carry out a politically sensitive investigation of the origins of the pandemic had initially said that a leak from the lab was "extremely unlikely." But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later said the lab leak theory warranted further investigation, as experts from 13 countries criticized a lack of transparency from China. The U.S. intelligence community remains divided over whether COVID-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan or from natural exposure to an infected animal, and is only sure it wasn't a deliberate bioweapon, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the Senate in March 2023. China has continued to insist that the virus originated from outside its borders, a claim reiterated by Mao on Tuesday. "The international scientific community has more and more clues pointing to the global origin of the virus," she said. "Origin tracing should also be based on a global perspective and carried out in multiple countries and regions." Better public health response still needed Nearly five years since the first SARS-CoV-2 infections were reported, most countries have lifted public health and social measures and have moved to end their national COVID-19 emergencies, the WHO said on its official website. "COVID-19 continues to circulate widely, however, presenting significant challenges to health systems worldwide," it said, adding that "tens of thousands" of people are infected or re-infected with SARS-CoV-2 each week around the world. It called on governments to "sustain the public health response to COVID-19 amid ongoing illness and death and the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants." According to the National Institutes of Health's LitCovid website, which compiles COVID-19 research from around the world, Long COVID and sequelae new health problems like neurological and cardiovascular disease that are caused by the virus are among the most heavily researched and trending topics among scientists. Papers on the virus' links to neurodegeneration, chronic fatigue and mitochondrial damage topped the list of trending topics out of more than 440,000 articles from 8,000 scientific journals on the website on Dec. 31, 2024. Edited by Roseanne Gerin. Copyright 1998-2025, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content January not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PLA Eastern Theater Command's New Year video sparks discussions on alleged China's sixth-gen fighter jets Global Times China on own pace in defense development amid major power contests: expert By Liu Xuanzun Published: Jan 01, 2025 08:58 PM The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday released a music video to celebrate the New Year, with a scene showing a ginkgo leaf and a bird triggering netizens' associations to the alleged debuts of China's sixth-generation fighter jets that have been circulating on social media recently. A number of videos and photos emerged on Chinese social media on December 26, showing alleged test flights of a new type of aircraft, shape of which resembles the ginkgo leaf. The term "ginkgo leaf" was first used by Chengdu-based Defense Times as an apparent metaphor for the new aircraft given their resemblance in appearance. "It really looks like a leaf," the South China Morning Post reported on Friday, citing Defense Times' post on its Weibo account alongside an image of a ginkgo leaf. Neither the Chinese military nor the Chinese defense industry has verified the videos and photos, or made any official announcement on the aircraft as of press time. Shortly after the emergence of the large "ginkgo leaf" aircraft, another video circulated online on December 26, showing another new type of aircraft, seemingly smaller than the "ginkgo leaf" one, in an apparent flight test. Since then, Chinese netizens and some overseas media outlets have been engaging in heated discussions about the two new aircraft. Reuters reported on Friday that the two seemingly new Chinese military aircraft have stealth characteristics. Both designs are tailless, meaning they do not have vertical stabilizers to help maintain control. Such aircraft are typically kept stable by computers that interpret the pilot's control inputs. The larger of the two designs is roughly diamond-shaped, with three air intakes for its engines - two alongside the fuselage and one on top. The smaller one has a more conventional layout, but no tail. Both lack the 90-degree angles typical of stealth shaping, which is designed to reduce radar detection, Reuters said. According to US media outlet the Warzone, which cited unconfirmed accounts, the larger aircraft is from the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, while the smaller aircraft is from the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. Chengdu builds the J-10 multirole medium fighter and the heavy J-20 stealth fighter, while Shenyang is responsible for the production of fighters such as carrier-borne J-15, heavy J-16 and stealth-capable J-35. The Washington Times quoted defense analysts as saying that the two new fighters "appear to be Beijing's first advanced sixth-generation stealth fighters." Despite the new Chinese aircraft garnering attentions overseas, not all mainstream large Western media outlets have covered them. The Washington Times noted that the Pentagon has remained quiet, with Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh saying on Monday that she had seen the news reports but declined to comment on the flight tests. Reuters quoted an analyst as saying that as China modernizes its military, the designs "show the willingness of China's aviation industry to experiment and innovate." The analyst said, "They deserve kudos for that, and should shake off any lingering complacency that the US and its allies always set the pace." The US is also developing its sixth-generation fighter jet. However, the US Air Force has decided to let the incoming Trump administration make its own decision on the path forward for its Next Generation Air Dominance fighter. This summer, the US Air Force paused its effort to develop and build a sixth-generation fighter amid concerns about its potential costs, US media outlet the Defense News reported on December 6. The UK, Italy and Japan are also jointly developing an advanced stealth jet, meanwhile France, Germany and Spain are working on their own next-generation fighter project, Reuters reported on December 13. Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the so-called sixth-generation fighter jet has become a key vantage point major powers have been contesting to reach. In the past, it was usually the US that first developed and defined generations for aircraft, but the US' sixth-generation fighter jet has been stalled given huge risks in costs against the backdrop of the US' deindustrialization and its breaking of industrial chains, Fu noted. Song Zhongping, another Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday that China's development of new aircraft, believed to be sixth-generation fighter jets - faster than the US, will buy China more precious time for its peaceful and stable economic development. The US will likely accelerate its own projects, as it will not resign itself to losing technological hegemony. But China will continue to develop its national defense capabilities at its own pace, with the aim of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, Song said. On this aspect, both Fu and Song mentioned another recent milestone of China's military development, the launch of the world's first electromagnetic catapult-equipped amphibious assault ship, the Type 076 Sichuan on Friday. Fu said that the concentrated debuts of China's military equipment is not a coincidence. It took China years of development at its own stable pace, and it is now that the country's weapon and equipment systems have reached a new level. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Ginkgo leaf' sparks discussions on alleged sixth-gen fighter jets as PLA Eastern Theater Command publishes music video, releasing multiple signals Global Times By Guo Yuandan, Liu Xuanzun and Chen Shan Published: Jan 01, 2025 11:58 PM The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command released a music video titled "Zhong Guo Ren (Chinese People in English)" on its official WeChat account in celebration of the New Year on Wednesday, showing the determination, will and ability of officers and soldiers in the theater to stay vigilant, remain ready to fight at any time and resolutely safeguard the reunification of the motherland. Military expert Zhang Junshe told the Global Times on Wednesday that the video clip for the first time combined the images of combat readiness of troops from various services in the PLA Eastern Theater Command, as well as those of multiple military exercises around Taiwan island. It highlighted images of new equipment such as the "ginkgo leaf" and the Type 076 amphibious assault ship, which shows that the PLA can resolutely fight back and thwart any attempt for "Taiwan independence," and will never allow any forces to split the island of Taiwan from China's sovereign territory. In November 2024, Andy Lau sang "Chinese People" at a concert in Taipei and received a warm response, but was attacked by the "green camp" on the island. In response, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said that the song was composed by a musician from Taiwan, and with iconic lyrics that include "Hand in hand, no division between you and me, moving forward with pride, let the world know we are all Chinese." The song not only received a warm response from the audience, but also aroused widespread resonance among Chinese people at home and abroad. Certain politicians from "green camp" in Taiwan have forgotten their roots, attempting to politicize and disrupt normal musical exchanges, which has been met with strong criticism. Experts said that the PLA Eastern Theater Command specially selected the "Chinese People" as the theme song for the music video, showing that compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are Chinese people. The video clip also demonstrates a scene of teachers and students from universities in the Chinese mainland visiting Taiwan and being warmly welcomed, reflecting the deep friendship between compatriots across the Straits. These scenes of harmonious coexistence also convey a signal that the Chinese mainland hopes that the majority of Taiwan compatriots can see the true face of "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and work together with mainland compatriots to promote the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations. Zhang said that the video shows no matter if it is on workdays or holidays, troops are always on high alert and in a state of combat readiness to fight at any time. Through the video, the Chinese people can rest assured about the determination and ability of the PLA to defend the country, suppress secession, and safeguard national unity and security. "In 2024, the PLA Eastern Theater Command carried out a large number of combat readiness tasks to safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. For example, the scene of the J-16 and foreign military's P-8A patrol aircraft in the same picture shows that the Eastern Theater Command troops can effectively detect and respond to external threats. In addition, the 'Joint Sword' series of exercises demonstrated the Eastern Theater Command's resolute response to the provocations of the collusion between "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and external forces, and its determination to resolutely defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," Zhang noted. Elaborating on the meaning of the appearance of the "ginkgo leaf" and the Type 076 amphibious assault ship among other advanced equipment in the video, Zhang said that by the end of 2024, China had displayed a series of advanced national defense equipment, representing the advanced level of national defense science and technology and the improvement of naval and air combat capabilities. The video attracted particular public attention because it also featured pictures of a bird and a ginkgo leaf. Media on the island of Taiwan claimed that they are metaphors for the PLA's sixth-generation stealth fighter jet. In the evening of December 26, social media account of Defense Times shared an image of a ginkgo leaf with a caption that says "Ginkgo has turned yellow. It really looks like a leaf." This is seen as an ambiguous tacit approval of the public's speculation about China's "sixth-generation fighter jet." Recently, many netizens speculated that China has tested two different types of suspected "sixth-generation fighter jet" prototypes based on videos and photos circulating on social media. One of them uses a delta-wing tailless design resembling to a ginkgo leaf, while the other looks similar to the bird that appeared in the music video. Zhang said that the new-type military aircraft, heatedly discussed online and dubbed by the outside world as a sixth-generation fighter jet, have powerful stealth performance, high cruise speed and advanced avionics system, and is at the world's leading level. Advanced weapons and equipment such as the newly launched Type 076 large amphibious assault ship also appeared in the video. "They demonstrate the ability of the PLA to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, which makes the Chinese people feel proud and excited, and also makes forces with ill intentions toward China feel uneasy, Zhang said. The PLA Eastern Theater Command's release of the video on the first day of the New Year also issued a stern warning to the separatist forces of "Taiwan independence." Zhang noted that since August 2022, the PLA Eastern Theater Command has responded strongly to the provocations of "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and their collusion with external forces to seek "independence." "Through these exercises, it can be seen that the PLA has formulated a complete combat plan and has strong combat capabilities, including reconnaissance and early warning, sea assault, air superiority and combat capabilities, as well as land strike capabilities. For potential provocations of 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces, the PLA can resolutely fight back," Zhang said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China In Eurasia Briefing: The Stories To Watch In 2025 By Reid Standish January 01, 2025 Beijing's Headwinds And Tailwinds It's another new year and that means it's time to look ahead into the coming year for the big stories that will shape China's growing role across Eurasia. Here's what's at stake for 2025. Finding Perspective: While each new year brings its own set of questions, 2025 will inject an added layer with the return of Donald Trump as U.S. president in January. Trump has promised to pick up where he left office and raise tariffs on Chinese imports up to 60 percent and keep adding export controls on advanced technology. A tougher relationship with the United States could have wider ripple effects for Beijing. Unlike back in 2018, when Trump first unleashed tariffs on China, the country's economy is in a two year slump as it grapples with high debt, deflation, and a real estate crisis. Further economic pain brought by Washington could potentially push many of Beijing's global ambitions off course, leading to setbacks in tech, lending, and broader influence. But Chinese leader Xi Jinping isn't only facing headwinds as he prepares for Trump 2.0. Xi now has a strengthened partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin as both leaders chase revisions to international borders and the global and regional security order. And while Trump could ramp up pressure on Beijing in areas like the South China Sea, Xi is also sensing opportunity from the incoming U.S. president. Trump has promised to bring changes of his own to the international trading system and Washington's relationship with its allies and partners. Xi is banking that Trump's policies will alienate other countries from the United States, leading typically U.S.-friendly nations to hedge more toward China and a greater acceptance from others of Beijing's vision for the world order. Geopolitical Twins: The biggest test could come early as the incoming Trump administration looks to the ongoing war in Ukraine. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to end the war, and while doing so will be no simple feat, a push to end the conflict is expected and the future of Ukraine will have wider effects across Eurasia and beyond. A perceived Russian victory in Ukraine would resonate particularly in China. One clear possibility is that it would embolden Xi to pursue his own ambitions in Asia. China under Xi has become more nationalistic and more menacing in its behavior toward Taiwan, and Taiwanese officials have warned that a Russian victory would be a signal for Beijing to ramp up pressure on the self-governing island. Why It Matters: Xi has vowed to unify with Taiwan, and to do so by force, if necessary. Some prominent U.S. officials have speculated that Xi has told the military to be ready to conquer the island by 2027. Xi himself has mentioned 2050 in public as a potential date, but many analysts also believe that the Chinese leader would aim to take the island and secure his legacy during his tenure. Already 71 years old, that leaves a short window. President Joe Biden has said several times that Washington is prepared to go to war to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, though Trump has made no such commitment. What to expect from Trump was the topic of most of my conversations during a recent reporting trip to Taiwan in December. Many Taiwanese officials have taken some solace in the China hawks that the incoming president appears to be surrounding himself with, but Trump has also inserted a new level of uncertainty and his campaign rhetoric calling for Taiwan to pay for the United States to come to its aid in a crisis appears to have rattled some in Taipei. Current and former senior Taiwanese officials said that both Taipei and Beijing are already drawing important lessons from the war in Ukraine, but the biggest one could come in 2025 as both countries watch how Kyiv's own experience with Western support plays out over time. Three More Stories From Eurasia To Watch In 2025 1. Chinese Firms Take Hold In Central Asia Chinese companies have been ascendant in Central Asia for many years and that trend looks set to continue in 2025 amid a push from Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers and tech giants. The Details: While mega-projects and investments often get the spotlight when looking at China's economic profile in the region, its companies are becoming mainstays of everyday life for many Central Asians. EVs are a large part of this push, especially as Chinese companies eye emerging markets and look to export their overcapacity at home. A factory from BYD, China's industry leader, opened this year in Uzbekistan and is looking to ramp up production and expand with a local workforce of employees trained in China. EVs sales continue to climb globally and within Central Asia, with Chinese brands taking up a growing percentage of the market thanks to their combination of affordability and increasing quality. On the tech front, Huawei is also rising in the region despite the company coming under pressure from Washington and other Western nations. Despite some global setbacks, the company remains formidable and has turned its focus outside the West with increasing returns and a renewed focus on emerging tech like AI and semiconductors. 2. The EU's Tightrope 2.0 Brussels is preparing to once again navigate potential tariffs and trade disputes with a Trump-led United States while balancing pressure and opportunities from China. What You Need To Know: In many ways, it's deja vu all over again for the EU. During Trump's last term, trade tensions with Washington led the bloc to more strongly balance its ties with the United States with China. By the time that Trump left office, Brussels was preparing to push through a historic EU-China investment deal and had lingering questions about its reliance on America. That trade deal was eventually put on ice and a series of scandals and incidents, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic and culminating with Beijing's support for Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have severely damaged China's relationship with Brussels. But while there is a new line toward Beijing from the EU, it's a familiar balancing act that could leave Brussels in an even worse spot than before as it looks to balance security concerns with economic necessity. 3. Is This The Year For China In Afghanistan? It's been a year of major announcements for China's footprint in Afghanistan, but will 2025 be the year when Beijing's projects in the country move forward? What It Means: 2024 saw a series of notable developments. In July, Chinese engineers and the Taliban government officially started work at Mes Aynak, a massive project in Afghanistan to mine the world's second-largest deposit of copper. The first train carrying goods from China to Afghanistan arrived in November after crossing through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and Beijing granted tariff free access to Afghan companies in October. That momentum looks set to carry over into the new year. But beyond headlines and flashy groundbreaking ceremonies, will newfound Chinese investment be coming into Afghanistan? That seems uncertain given that Beijing still has lingering security questions about Afghanistan, something that is set to only grow as tensions rise between Kabul and Beijing's main regional partner in Islamabad. Across The Supercontinent Russia's Car Market: Since Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Chinese carmakers have come to dominate the Russian auto market. According to a new study by the Rhodium Group, Russia has also emerged as China's most significant automotive export market. Between January and October 2023, China shipped 735,000 vehicles to Russia, accounting for 19 percent of its total passenger vehicle exports. New Lines In Central Asia: At a December 27 ceremony, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov broke ground on a long-planned railway link between China and Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. BRICS Balancing: Kazakhstan officially joins BRICS as a partner state, starting on January 1, 2025. But Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's office said that the country does not plan to seek full membership in the organization that comprises economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. One Thing To Watch Xi made his annual New Year's speech where he said that no one can stop Beijing's desire to take control of Taiwan. "The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification," Xi said in a televised speech. The Chinese leader also said that the country's economy is his "top priority" and was on course to expand, as he looked to rebut concerns that Trump's incoming administration will harm Beijing's prospects in the new year. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/xi-putin-taiwan-ukraine-2025- central-asia/33259380.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India and Pakistan exchange list of Nuclear Installations India - Ministry of External Affairs January 01, 2025 India and Pakistan today exchanged, through diplomatic channels, simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, the list of Nuclear Installations and facilities, covered under the Agreement on the prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installation and Facilities between India and Pakistan. 2. The Agreement, which was signed on 31 December 1988 and entered into force on 27 January 1991 provides, inter alia, that India and Pakistan inform each other of the nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under the Agreement on the first of January of every calendar year. This is the 34th consecutive exchange of such lists between the two countries, the first one having taken place on January 1, 1992. New Delhi January 01, 2025 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Exchange of list of prisoners between India and Pakistan India - Ministry of External Affairs January 01, 2025 India and Pakistan today exchanged, through diplomatic channels, simultaneously in New Delhi and Islamabad, the lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen in each other's custody. Under the provisions of the bilateral Agreement on Consular Access 2008, such lists are exchanged every year on 1st January and on 1st July. 2. India has shared names of 381 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen in its custody, who are Pakistani or are believed-to-be-Pakistani. Similarly, Pakistan has shared names of 49 civilian prisoners and 217 fishermen in its custody, who are Indian or are believed-to-be-Indian. 3. The Government of India has called for early release and repatriation of civilian prisoners, fishermen along with their boats, and missing Indian defence personnel from Pakistan's custody. Pakistan has been asked to expedite the release and repatriation of 183 Indian fishermen and civilian prisoners, who have completed their sentence. In addition, Pakistan has been asked to provide immediate consular access to the 18 civilian prisoners and fishermen in Pakistan's custody, who are believed-to-be-Indian and have not been provided consular access so far. Pakistan has been requested to ensure the safety, security and welfare of all Indian and believed-to-be-Indian civilian prisoners and fishermen, pending their release and repatriation to India. 4. India remains committed to addressing, on priority, all humanitarian matters, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen in each other's country. In this context, India has urged Pakistan to expedite the nationality verification process of 76 believed-to-be-Pakistani civilian prisoners and fishermen in India's custody, whose repatriation is pending for want of nationality confirmation from Pakistan. 5. As a result of sustained efforts by the Government, 2,639 Indian fishermen and 71 Indian civilian prisoners have been repatriated from Pakistan since 2014. This includes 478 Indian fishermen and 13 Indian civilian prisoners who have been repatriated from Pakistan since 2023 till date. New Delhi January 01, 2025 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran, E3 to hold fresh round of talks on January 13: Deputy FM IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi has announced that a new round of talks between Iran and three European countriesBritain, France, and Germanyknown as the Troika or E3is scheduled for January 13, 2025. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Gharibabadi announced that a new round of talks between Iran and the E3 will take place on January 13, adding, "We are not focusing on predictions at this time; as we have stated before, what is happening now are talks, not negotiations." He emphasized that the upcoming event will provide an opportunity to discuss issues and conduct further consultations regarding the formation and framework of negotiations if they occur. Gharibabadi commented on the recent news published regarding the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), stating that if this issue is brought before the Expediency Council, the outcome should determine whether Iran's accession to the relevant conventions serves the country's interests and if it is confirmed, the appropriate measures will be taken to facilitate the ratification process. He emphasized that the current Iranian government's stance on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is straightforward, noting that the efforts by President Masoud Pezeshkian and Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Abdolnaser Hemmati to address the FATF indicate that the consideration of joining the Palermo and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) conventions should be prioritized on the agenda of the Expediency Council. The Iranian parliament has approved Palermo and the CFT as part of the issue of the FATF, but Iran's Guardian Council, which is responsible for vetting parliament legislation, has refused to ratify them, citing the need for some amendments. Iran has ratified other conventions and regulations of the FATF. 3266**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Army Chief asserts enemies have not seen Iran's true power IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Iran's Army Chief Commander has stated that enemies have not witnessed the true power of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We have not shown all of our military power and have not shown many of our capabilities yet, Mousavi said on Wednesday. There are numerous things that the enemies do not know, and there is no reason to demonstrate all our power, he added. Mousavi highlighted that only an underground drone base of the Iranian army, and its location remains undiscovered by adversaries. He undermined the enemies' claims regarding the Zionist regime's victory, asserting killing women and children and destroying hospitals, houses, and schools is not a victory. Resistance is a school of thought and a culture that will never weaken, he stressed. Mousavi reiterated that following the Al-Aqsa storm Operation, the resistance has become stronger. 9376**9417 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US imposes sanctions on Iran, Russia under new pretexts IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 New York, IRNA -- The United States imposed new sanctions on some entities in Iran, Russia under the pretext of interfering in 2024 elections. The US Treasury Department, said in a statement on Tuesday local time, that a subsidiary of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and an organization affiliated with Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU) were targeted with sanctions. These actors, as affiliates of the IRGC and the GRU, intended to incite socio-political tensions in the United States and influence the American people during the 2024 elections, the statement claimed. Bradley Smith, the Treasury Department's acting deputy assistant secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence also accused the Iranian and Russian governments of interfering in America's electoral processes and institutions without providing any evidence. Iran has always dismissed the US claims of interference in the elections, saying that allegations are just a pretext to add to its futile and illegal sanctions on the Islamic Republic that Washington initiated under its so-called maximum pressure policy in 2018. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller had previously stated that there were more than 600 sanctions were imposed on Iranians and Iranian entities since the beginning of the administration under President Joe Biden. The American newspaper Wall Street Journal has claimed in a report that incoming President Donald Trump intends to intensify the so-called "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran in his second term with the aim of limiting its oil exports and influence in West Asia. Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the first version of the "maximum pressure" policy inevitably met with "maximum resistance" and ultimately led to "maximum failure" for the United States. Compare the state of Iran's peaceful nuclear program before and after the so-called "maximum pressure" policy, Araghchi cited one of the proofs of the failure of the US sanctions regime against Iran. 4399 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's oil exports rebounded sharply in second half of December: Data firm Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 7:08 PM Iran ramped up its oil exports in the second half of December after a slump reported earlier in the month, according to an announcement by a major international tanker tracking service. The TankerTrackers said in a post on its X account on Tuesday that it had traced increasing exports of oil from Iran to other markets in the second half of December. "Iran's crude oil exports have rebounded sharply after a slower first half of December 2024," it said. The service did not provide more details or figures. It came nearly a month after reports suggested that Iranian oil exports had dropped to multi-month lows mainly because of an increase in domestic demand and also because of growing political and military tensions in the region. Kpler, another major data analytics firm, said in mid-December that Iranian oil exports to China had reached an average of 1.31 million barrels per day (bpd) in November, down 0.524 million bpd from October and the lowest reported in four months. The company said new US sanctions affecting Iran's oil transport arrangements with Chinese customers had also influenced the shipments. It said that Iran's floating oil supplies near Singapore and Malaysia had increased in early December because of declining deliveries to China. Iranian Oil Ministry authorities rejected the figures and said there had been no major change in the volume of exports to China. Some other sources said a sudden fall of the government in Syria, a major customer of Iranian oil in the past year, had also affected the supplies. They said developments in Syria had provided the Chinese customers with increased negotiating power on prices because more Iranian oil shipments were being rerouted to China after the ouster of Syrian President Basher al-Assad in early December. Iran has been supplying a bulk of its crude oil to private buyers in China in the past years to avoid US sanctions that restrict deliveries to state buyers. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address No one would negotiate with Iran if not for its missiles: Araghchi Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 3:19 PM Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has emphasized the significant leverage that Iran's missile capabilities provide in diplomacy with the West, saying without this power, no country would be willing to negotiate with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear energy program. Araghchi made the remarks in an interview with the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Wednesday. The minister said diplomacy moves based on power and power-building factors such as missile capabilities. "I have said many times, and I firmly believe, that had it not been for our missile capabilities, no one would have negotiated with us at all." In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group of countriesthe United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germanysigned the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was ratified in UN Security Council Resolution 2231. "If they could destroy our nuclear facilities with a military strike, what reason would they have had to negotiate with us?" "What reason," the Iranian foreign minister asked, "would they have to sit down for over two years of negotiations, and have the US secretary of state or the foreign ministers of the P5+1 meet for 18 days to reach an agreement?" "The reason was that they lacked the ability to eliminate our facilities militarily," Araghchi stated. "Our armed forces had generated this capability through missiles that had a deterrent effect." However, in 2018, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the JCPOA and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the agreement, leaving the deal's future in limbo. In retaliation, the Islamic Republic resorted to several legitimate retaliatory measures, which were in line with its entitlement under the JCPOA. The steps came in response to Washington's unilateral and illegal withdrawal and its Western allies' refusal to restore the deal to its former glory by bringing Washington back into the accord. "It was the United States that withdrew from this agreement, and we, considering the US's withdrawal, adjusted our policies and expanded our nuclear program," Araghchi said. "When the sanctions were reinstated, we naturally suspended our commitments based on the mechanisms outlined in the JCPOA." "They are not going to make it through force, pressure, and sanctions. They have experienced this; the more sanctions and pressure they impose on Iran, the more resistance Iran will show." Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian foreign minister said that whether or not new negotiations will take place depends on how prepared the other side is. "We have never, even after the US's withdrawal, and not even until recently under the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's government and afterward, left the negotiation table." "We are confident about the peaceful nature of our nuclear program, and that negotiations should result in building trust regarding Iran's nuclear program, with the lifting of sanctions in return." "This has always been our position, and we negotiated based on this approach and formula in the JCPOA," Araghchi stated. "The Islamic Republic has never abandoned negotiations." "This is a principle, but it must be a negotiation that is honorable and fair, with which the rights of the Iranian people and our red lines are respected, and it should not be for wasting time, nor should it be negotiations for the sake of negotiations or a prolonged process," Iran's top diplomat said. In 2019, Iran started to roll back the limits it had accepted under the JCPOA after the other parties failed to live up to their commitments. Tensions between Iran and European countries have escalated over the past two years due to European accusations that Iran has supplied ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the Ukraine conflict. Tehran rejects that allegation categorically. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also stated that no such missiles were delivered to Russia. In a recent action against Tehran, the European troika pushed the adoption of a resolution in the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The resolution accused Tehran of poor cooperation with the agency and demanded a "comprehensive" report on its nuclear activities by spring 2025. In response, Iran said it has activated a "series of new and advanced centrifuges." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran to hold nuclear deal revival talks with European trio on Jan. 13: Official Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 11:31 AM A senior Iranian diplomat says the Islamic Republic is about to resume its talks with the European trio of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany (E3) later this month on the revival of a deal on Tehran's nuclear program. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi provided the information to reporters on Wednesday, saying the dialog would resume in the Swiss city of Geneva on January 13. He said the country would not speculate concerning the outcome of the talks, noting, "We are not in favor of predictions, and have to wait and see what would happen during the talks." The official, meanwhile, dismissed the notion of the existence of a "negotiation" process between Tehran and the European states, saying, "In fact, there are going to be some talks, and no negotiations are underway." According to Gharibabadi, the pending talks would feature defining of the standing issues and further consultations "so we get to know within which frameworks and through which method we should conduct any [potential] negotiations if there were going to be any." The two sides have been conducting on-again, off-again talks since 2018, when the United States illegally and unilaterally left a historic nuclear accord between Iran and world powers under its former president Donald Trump, returning Washington's unlawful sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The trio then failed to live up to their promise of bringing Washington back into the deal. Reacting to the counter-party's non-commitment to its obligations, Tehran initiated a set of retaliatory nuclear steps, including by activating more advanced centrifuges. The country has been stepping up the measures in response to the other parties' continued refusal to uphold their obligations. Earlier this year, the European states forwarded an anti-Iranian resolution that had been proposed by the US, to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was approved by the board. Last month, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi strongly criticized some members of the Board of Governors for taking "unconstructive measures" that prevented a November visit by the IAEA's Director General Rafael Grossi to the Islamic Republic from resulting in progress in the two sides' attempts to resolve outstanding issues concerning the agency's Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement. The Islamic Republic, though, has vowed to respond in kind to any positive measures on the part of the other parties to the nuclear agreement. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US gives $22b in military aid to Zionist regime in past year IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- The United States has spent more than $22 billion to support the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, newly published data shows. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported on Tuesday night that the United States supplied 69 percent of the Israeli regime's weapons from 2019 to 2023, which increased to 78 percent this year. According to SIPRI estimate, by December 2023, the United States had delivered more than 10,000 tons of weapons worth $2.4 billion to the Zionist regime. This number reached 50,000 tons by August 2024, which were transported via hundreds of planes and ships. As Israel's main ally, the United States has sent a wide range of advanced military equipment to the Israeli regime, including Iron Dome missile systems, precision-guided bombs, CH-53 heavy helicopters, AH-64 Apache helicopters, and 155mm artillery shells, along with bunker-busting bombs and armored vehicles. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank, Washington has provided more than $310 billion in military and economic assistance to the Israeli regime since its creation. In 2016, the United States and Israel signed a 10-year military aid agreement worth $38 billion, which is still in effect. Under the agreement, the United States allocates $3.8 billion annually to finance Israel's military capability and missile defense. The emergency military packages to the Zionist regime in 2024 increased by billions of dollars, including $14.1 billion in US military aid to Israel approved in February and a $2.5 billion arms package in March. In 2024, the US also allocated more than 100 arms contracts to Israel, which will enable support for its missile systems and replenish the regime's weapons stockpiles. That despite activists and human rights organizations regularly criticized the Zionist regime of using US-supplied weapons against civilians in Gaza with limited US oversight. 4399 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ex-war minister Yoav Gallant resigns from Israeli Knesset Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 7:12 PM Former Israeli minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant has announced his resignation from Knesset (the Israeli regime's parliament) less than two months after being fired by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the army's top brass. The two have frequently clashed over who is to blame for the "security lapse" that led to the Hamas-led attack on the occupying entity on October 7, 2023, as well as the handling of the ongoing war in Gaza that was launched on the same day. In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for both Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The genocidal war has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, displaced almost the entire population, and left much of the coastal territory in ruins. In its verdict, the court said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that both Gallant and Netanyahu "intentionally and knowingly" deprived Palestinians in Gaza of basic needs like food and water, adding that their actions geared towards destroying the conditions of life in the coastal sliver constituted crimes against humanity. The genocidal war has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, displaced almost the entire population, and left much of the coastal territory in ruins. Earlier this month, however, the United States, the Israeli regime's biggest ally that has backed it up with billions of dollars in military support during the war, welcomed Gallant on its soil. Gallant met with US President Joe Biden's West Asia envoy, Brett McGurk, at the White House on December 10, posting information about the meeting on social media and attaching pictures of the duo's shaking hands joyously. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China-backed election raises fears of 'negative peace' in Myanmar By Nyein Chan Aye January 01, 2025 As Myanmar's military government prepares for elections in 2025, attention turns to neighboring China, which, critics say, is pressuring Southeast Asian nations to treat the vote as a solution to Myanmar's ongoing political crisis. A military coup in Myanmar in February 2021 overthrew the democratically elected government and triggered a civil war that left thousands of people dead and millions displaced. Myanmar's neighbors have been seeking a solution to the crisis and recently held meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss it. China was a participant at a Dec. 19 meeting that included Bangladesh, India, Laos and Thailand. All five countries are neighbors of Myanmar. At the meeting, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong urged the neighbors' representatives to support Myanmar's "peace and reconciliation," according to a statement by China's Foreign Ministry. "All parties should respect Myanmar's national conditions and ... prioritize people's livelihoods," Sun said. At the Dec. 19 meeting, Than Swe, Myanmar's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, outlined the junta's 2025 election roadmap. Opposition groups, including ethnic armed forces and the National Unity Government, or NUG, a parallel government formed after the 2021 coup, rejected the plan, questioning its legitimacy and whether the elections would be free and fair. On Dec. 20, there was a meeting of all representatives of ASEAN countries, except Myanmar because junta political appointees usually have been barred from attending high-level meetings of the bloc since the coup. Thai Foreign Ministry official Bolbongse Vangphaen said the bloc still awaits details of the proposed ballot, which China backs. Myanmar's military leadership did not respond to VOA's request for comment regarding the Bangkok meetings, controversies surrounding its proposed elections or its preparations for the polls. China maintains close ties with Myanmar's military and the rebel groups near its border. In his recent Christmas and New Year's messages, Myanmar's junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, reiterated and reaffirmed the government's commitment to "strengthening the multiparty democratic system and returning to the correct democratic path." VOA asked the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar for comment on China's support for the election in Myanmar but has not received a response. However, during a visit to Myanmar's capital, Naypyidaw, in mid-August by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Beijing called for an "all-inclusive election," according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Skeptics argue that any election carried out by the junta would lead only to a superficial peace that ignores decadeslong political and ethnic grievances. China's growing sway Experts told VOA that Beijing is urging ASEAN members to deepen their engagement with Myanmar's military. According to Jason Tower of the United States Institute of Peace, China is pressuring its Southeast Asian neighbors to accept the junta's election as a quick solution. "From China's vantage point, if ASEAN is bringing the regime back in and is having higher-level interactions, it legitimizes what China is doing," Tower said. Myanmar expert Htet Min Lwin of York University in Canada said Beijing prefers leveraging its influence over that of Western intervention. "If the resolution goes through ASEAN, where China holds considerable influence, Beijing will likely keep pushing an ASEAN-led path," he told VOA. Sai Kyi Zin Soe, a regionally based Myanmar political analyst, agreed. "Some ASEAN member countries will not be able to overcome China's influence, economically or in terms of security," he said. "China's power doesn't stop at ASEAN; it also extends to domestic groups, including ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, which are now controlling almost all the border areas with China and are traditionally closely tied to China. Tower, meanwhile, sees "no viable plan" for a political solution and said Beijing views Myanmar's generals as "completely cornered" and open to "significant concessions" that could jeopardize sovereignty, including allowing Chinese troops to protect investments. "China has been strong-arming two of the northern ethnic armed organizations into talks with the regime," Tower said. "Chinese influence continues to rise, and [Beijing] is exerting that influence on other countries in the region, trying to get those countries to follow along." He warned the junta "is bankrupt when it comes to a real solution," instead relying on "airstrikes, forced conscription and a sham election to legitimize junta leader Min Aung Hlaing." Tower predicted ASEAN would eventually realize the military's steady decline. Mounting battlefield losses The junta's China-backed electoral push comes amid a series of defeats. "The military is losing ground at an alarming pace and is desperate," Tower said. Tower believes that after the fall of two major regional commands, Myanmar's weakened military has no alternative but to trade away parts of its sovereignty to China. "It's making major concessions," he said, citing China's proposed joint venture security company. "For China, this turns Myanmar into a testing ground for its Global Security Initiative and new approaches to secure interests beyond its borders." In October, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or the Kokang group, part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance along with the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, captured the city of Lashio in northern Shan State. Lashio is considered strategic for the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, marking the first time in modern Myanmar history that a regional command fell to rebels. On Dec. 20, the Arakan Army seized the junta's western regional command in Rakhine state, an area rich in natural gas that includes major Chinese projects. Video on social media shows emaciated junta troops surrendering. Tower said it was an "embarrassment of an army." "The bottom line is increasing desperation," Tower said, adding that this explains why Myanmar's military is ceding sovereignty to China, including the potential deployment of Chinese private security troops in Rakhine state. Concerns of 'negative peace' Analysts say an election without real dialogue will yield a fragile ceasefire. "All the neighboring countries, including China, cannot understand that each ethnic group in Myanmar has its own right to rule and sovereignty," Htet Min Lwin said. Sai Kyi Zin Soe noted, citing World Bank and United Nations data, that 42 million of Myanmar's 53 million people now live in poverty. He said the humanitarian crisis could push many armed groups to pause fighting but not necessarily resolve the conflict. "If the international community pushes them, the war may stop, and the election will happen," Sai Kyi Zin Soe said. "However, it will not be a solution that benefits Myanmar in the long term. It needs to be understood that only negative peace will prevail." Tower told VOA there may be opportunities this year for ASEAN to expand its role, but China's involvement, especially in border areas, could overshadow that. "If other countries don't take careful note of Chinese interference," he said, "the response in Myanmar tilts more toward where Beijing is headed." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Exchange of Lists of Prisoners between Pakistan and India Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Today, Pakistan and India exchanged, through diplomatic channels, the lists of prisoners in each other's custody. The simultaneous exchange of lists took place in pursuance of the Consular Access Agreement of 2008. Under the Agreement, both countries are required to exchange the lists of prisoners in each other's custody on 1st January and 1st July, every year. The Government of Pakistan handed over a list of 266 Indian prisoners in Pakistan (49 civilian prisoners and 217 fishermen) to a representative of the High Commission of India in Islamabad. Simultaneously, the Government of India shared the list of Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails to an officer of Pakistan High Commission, New Delhi. According to the list, there are a total of 462 Pakistanis in Indian jails (381 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen). Separately, the Government of India has been urged to release and repatriate all those Pakistanis (52 civilian prisoners and 56 fishermen), who have completed their respective sentence and whose national status stands confirmed. The Government of India has also been urged to ensure safety, security and well-being of all Pakistani or believed-to-be Pakistani prisoners, awaiting their release and repatriation. Furthermore, a request for grant of consular access to 38 missing defence personnel of 1965 and 1971 wars has been made. Islamabad 1 January 2025 3/2025 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Annual Exchange of Lists of Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan and India exchanged the lists of their respective nuclear installations and facilities, today. The exchange took place pursuant to the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India. Signed on 31 December 1988, the Agreement, inter alia, provides that both countries shall inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities, falling within its definition, on 1st January of each calendar year. Accordingly, the list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan was officially handed over to a representative of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Simultaneously, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs handed over the list of India's nuclear installations and facilities to a representative of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. As the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India entered into force on 27 January 1991, the two countries have been exchanging the lists since 1st January 1992. Islamabad 1st January 2025 2/2025 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistani Shi'ite, Sunni Leaders Reach Peace Deal To End Regional Clashes By RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal January 01, 2025 Shi'ite and Sunni leaders in northwestern Pakistan on January 1 signed a peace agreement to end tensions and establish a permanent cease-fire after clashes believed to be linked to a tribal land dispute killed more than 100 people in the past 90 days. A traditional gathering of ethnic, religious, and political leaders known as a Loya Jirga concluded in the regional capital, Quetta, after the parties signed the agreement. The meeting had taken place over the previous three weeks with the support of the provincial government. The agreement comes after an attack on November 21, 2024, on a passenger convoy in the Kurram district killed around 46 Shi'ites and four Sunnis. Fighting between Shi'ite and Sunni groups subsequently broke out, killing around 130 people and injuring more than 200, including the initial attack on November 21. An earlier attack on October 12, 2024, initially injured three people traveling to Kunj Alizu mountain before the gunmen attacked a convoy of passenger vehicles in the same area, killing 17. Malik Abdul Wali Khan, a participant in the Loya Jirga, told RFE/RL on January 1 that Shi'ite leaders had first signed the agreement. Twenty leaders representing Sunnis then added their signatures on January 1. Some of the remaining leaders would sign the agreement soon, Khan said. He added that after the peace agreement is signed by all the leaders attending the Loya Jirga, roads in the Kurram district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province that have been closed for nearly three months will be reopened and the government will be responsible for protecting them. Roads in Kurram have remained closed despite repeated calls from the public for them to be reopened. Though the two sides reached a cease-fire brokered by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on December 1, 2024, key public roads have not reopened, according to local residents. The road closures have led to severe shortages of essential goods, including food, medicine, fuel, firewood, and gas. The provincial government had previously decided to deploy about 400 special police officers to secure the Parachinar road in Kurram by setting up checkpoints every few kilometers. According to the agreement signed at the Loya Jirga, a strategy is to be developed within 15 days for the handover of weapons to the government. In return, the bunkers built by both sides in the area will be dismantled, and all people displaced by the unrest will be resettled back home. The agreement also says that future land disputes will be resolved through oral and written documents and says the government will take action against those who spread hate on social media. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-loya-jirga-ceasefire-khyber- pakhtunkhwa-province-land-dispute/33260519.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address After A Plane Crash, Putin's Partial Apology Speaks Volumes By Steve Gutterman January 01, 2025 When Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart over the crash of a passenger jet that was damaged in the sky above Chechnya, it was an extremely rare if not unprecedented occurrence in his 25 years in power. It was also incomplete: Putin apologized for "the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace," the Kremlin said in a readout of a phone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on December 28 -- three days after the Embraer-190 crashed in Kazakhstan, across the Caspian Sea from Chechnya, killing 38 of the 67 people on board. Putin did not accept Russia's responsibility for the crash and stopped short of stating what multiple pieces of evidence suggest: that a Russian missile fired amid what Moscow said was a Ukrainian drone attack on Grozny may have led to the disaster. The rare apology and its limited nature point to a struggle by the Kremlin to avoid major damage to relations with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and other countries in the region while at the same time refusing to say Russia was responsible. "On one hand, this is perhaps the first time Putin has apologized to a foreign state for Russia's actions in real time, not for some historical guilt of previous authorities -- a watershed moment in Russian foreign policy," Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote in a thread on X, formerly Twitter. "On the other hand, the wording avoids direct acknowledgment of responsibility. What we see is recognition of the incident without admission of guilt, which seems to have left Baku and its allies dissatisfied," Baunov wrote. "For Azerbaijan, the lack of accountability in the Kremlin's statement remains a sticking point." Whatever he and Putin said in private, Aliyev's public comments were pointed. In an interview aired on December 29, he said the plane's tail section was severely damaged "by fire from the ground," accused Russia of trying to "cover up" the cause, and suggested the apology should have come sooner. He made no mention of the conversation with Putin. Aliyev said that attributing the crash to a bird strike or the explosion of a gas canister on board, versions put forward by Russian media and officials, was "both stupid and dishonest." He alluded to speculation that Russian authorities may have redirected the damaged jet to Aqtau, Kazakhstan, in the hope that it would crash into the Caspian, hiding evidence of an external blast. Declining Regional Clout He also said Azerbaijan had "categorically" rejected Russia's proposal that the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee investigate the crash. "The reason is clear: because it is no secret that this organization consists mostly of Russian officials and is headed by Russian citizens. The factors of objectivity could not be fully ensured here." From Putin's partial, belated, apology to the tone and content of Aliyev's remarks, the back-and-forth seems to underscore Russia's declining regional clout. "Inside Russia's 'near abroad' -- the states on territory formerly part of/occupied by the U.S.S.R., which Russia has thought of as its sphere of interest since 1992 --- things are not looking good" for Moscow, Ruth Deyermond, senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, wrote in an end-of-year thread on the social media site Bluesky. "A telling-off from the president of Azerbaijan would be bad enough in itself, but the tragedy has also drawn international attention to the embarrassing reason for the incident -- Russia having to defend itself from Ukrainian drones over Chechnya," Deyermond wrote. Putin's focus on the war against Ukraine -- his effort to subjugate the country by force -- is one of the factors that has dented Moscow's influence in the South Caucasus and in Central Asia. Russia's neighbors are not enthusiastic about the war, but it has handed some of them levers over Moscow. "Azerbaijan is a crucial partner in 'laundering' Russian gas -- buying north of 30 million ($38 million) worth a month to re-export it to Europe as its own. It is also allied to Turkey, whom Putin hopes will help him keep his bases in Syria," London-based analyst Mark Galeotti wrote in The Times on December 28. "Kazakhstan, likewise, is one of the countries most heavily engaged in importing goods covered by sanctions then quietly re-exporting them to Russia." The air disaster came weeks after the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has diminished Russia's reputation as a powerful player abroad and threatens to shrink its footprint in the Middle East. In addition to harming Russia's image in the region and beyond, the plane crash and its aftermath have exposed a vulnerability that the Kremlin works hard to hide, Galeotti suggested. "Vladimir Putin notoriously never apologizes. Yet following the accidental shooting down of an Azerbaijani Airlines passenger plane on Christmas Day, he has come as close as he ever could. He stopped short of admitting that it was a Russian missile that was to blame, but recognized...that 'the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace," he wrote. "His unusual candor reflects the way Putin's position, while strong, is brittle, and can be threatened by unexpected crises." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/plane-crash-russia-influence- caucasus/33259438.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Halts Gas Flow Through Ukraine as Deal Expires - Gazprom Sputnik News 20250101 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Gazprom has no technical and legal ability to supply gas for transit through Ukraine due to the expiration of the agreement with Ukrainian national oil and gas company Naftogaz, the Russian energy giant said on Wednesday, adding that the gas supply stopped at 8 a. m. Moscow time (5:00 GMT). "On January 1, 2025, at 8:00 Moscow time, the validity period of documents signed on December 30, 2019, ended: the agreement between Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine on the transportation of Russian gas through the Ukrainian territory, and the cooperation agreement between the operators of Russia's and Ukraine's gas transmission systems - Gazprom and Operator of the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System," Gazprom said on Telegram. The company also said it had been deprived of an ability to supply gas to Ukraine due to the "repeated and explicit refusal of the Ukrainian party to extend these agreements." "From 8:00 Moscow time the Russian gas supply for its transportation through the territory of Ukraine is not carried out," the company said. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian gas supplies through Ukraine end By VOA News January 01, 2025 Russian gas exports crossing through Ukraine were halted Wednesday with the expiration of a transit agreement. The development will force some European nations to find alternative sources of gas with the interruption of the decades-old route. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine had already prompted many in the European Union to cut their dependence on Russian gas. "We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets, it will suffer financial losses. Europe has already made the decision to abandon Russian gas," Ukraine's energy minister, German Galushchenko, said in a statement. Russian gas giant Gazprom said it lost the "technical and legal right" to send its gas through Ukraine. Russia is still able to export gas to Turkey and central European nations such as Hungary and Serbia. Moldova's government, meanwhile, has ordered sharp cuts in energy consumption to deal with its loss of Russian supply. The European Union played down the impact on its member states, saying, "The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin" to central and eastern Europe. Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkiye launches artillery attacks on different areas of northern Syria IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jan 1, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- The Turkish artillery shelled the areas of 'Ain Isa', 'Tal Tamr' and the city of 'Ain al-Arab' (Kobani) located in northern Syria. According to al-Mayadeen, local sources said that Turkish attacks have taken place against the positions of the Syrian Kurdish forces supported by the US, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Ain al-Arab and Ain Isa. So far, no reports have been provided on the amount of casualties and possible damages of these attacks. The US Department of Defense (Pentagon) announced yesterday that a ceasefire between Turkiye and the SDF is in place around the city of Manbij in northern Syria. Meanwhile, an official of the Turkish Ministry of Defense said that there is no talk of a ceasefire agreement between Ankara and the Kurdish armed forces supported by the US. 2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Abductions, extra-judicial killings surge in Syria under HTS rule: Report Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 6:51 AM A new report says violence has surged in Syria under the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rule, with approximately 400 kidnappings and extra-judicial killings since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's government in early December. Sputnik news agency, citing medical sources, reported on Tuesday that most of the victims who were abducted or killed across Syria were members of the Alawite minority religious group, as acts of revenge continue in the Arab country. The news agency, citing local sources, also noted that six civilians were kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the Abbasiya neighborhood of the city of Homs on Monday. "Their bodies were found after they were executed by firing squad" on the outskirts of the city, it said, adding that "five of them were from the same family." The sources further stated that the bodies of three people who were abducted by an armed group two weeks ago were found in the coastal city of Jableh. The fate of four young men who were also kidnapped by masked gunmen riding two four-wheel drive vehicles in Homs is also unknown, the sources added. According to Sputnik, a further 15 people have also been kidnapped in the western port city of Latakia in the past 48 hours. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also reported that the HTS militant group has carried out a raid in the town of Ras al-Ma'arra in the Damascus countryside, killing its mayor, and arresting 30 people. On December 8, militants, led by the HTS, took control of Damascus and declared an end to President Bashar al-Assad's rule in a surprise offensive that was launched from their stronghold in northwestern Syria, reaching the capital in less than two weeks. The HTS has repeatedly claimed it would respect the rights of all sects and religions in Syria. The situation, however, remains very fragile, with a potential risk of further clashes as sectarian sentiments continue to boil over, amid the ongoing political instability and pressure on minority groups. Over 750 people killed in Syria throughout 2024: Report Separately on Monday, the UK-based SOHR reported that Daesh terrorists had killed around 753 people during 491 recorded operations in Syria throughout 2024. The report stated that Daesh continues "executing almost-daily military operations and counter-attacks" in areas controlled by the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while the terrorist group's cells "are still able to exploit opportunities to create a security vacuum and carry out assassinations." This clearly indicates that the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group "is still alive and kicking," it added. According to the report, these operations included ambushes, armed attacks, and bombing which were concentrated in the northern cities of Aleppo, Hama, Raqqa, the central city of Homs and the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, where a total of 646 people were killed. It further noted that at least 78 of those killed were civilians, including women and children, while 568 were members of defected Syrian Arab Army (SAA). Furthermore, another 107 people were killed in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led SDF in Dayr al-Zawr, Hasakah, Aleppo, and Raqqah, the report said. This comes as concerns are growing over the fate of 10,000 Daesh terrorists imprisoned by the SDF in northeast Syria as the terrorist group continues to revitalize its forces. The HTS leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has not commented on the crisis since seizing power in December. Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011. The former Damascus government blamed Western states and their regional allies for aiding terrorist groups to wreak havoc in the Arab country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lai proposes talks with Beijing to ease tourism restrictions ROC Central News Agency 01/01/2025 01:09 PM Taipei, Jan. 1 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te () has called China the "real barrier" to cross-strait exchanges and urged Beijing to hold talks with Taipei to ease tourism restrictions. "The real barrier to cross-strait exchanges is actually China, not Taiwan," Lai said, referring to Beijing's restrictions on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, during a question and answer session at the Presidential Office on Wednesday following his New Year's Day address. "If China is genuinely sincere, I suggest that the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association and the Association for Tourism Exchange across the Taiwan Straits begin negotiations [to ease those restrictions," Lai said. The two associations were established by Taipei and Beijing, respectively, to facilitate coordination and negotiations between the two sides on tourism. Lai cited government data as saying that the number of Taiwanese traveling to China for tourism or business reached 2.05 million between January and November in 2024, while only 285,000 Chinese tourists visited Taiwan during the same period. The 2.05 million visitors were primarily individual travelers, as Taiwan's government currently does not allow Taiwanese citizens to travel to China in groups. At the same time, Lai criticized Beijing for prohibiting Chinese students from pursuing degrees in Taiwan and for restricting tourists from visiting Taiwan. The president made the comments after being asked about a pledge made by a Shanghai official during the Shanghai-Taipei City Forum earlier this month that the Chinese city planned to allow its residents to travel to Taiwan. Currently, only residents from the Chinese province of Fujian are permitted to travel to Taiwan, but their visits are limited to Kinmen and Matsu, according to China's regulations. As cross-Taiwan Strait relations remain strained and Beijing continues to refuse to engage in dialogue with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government in Taipei, bilateral tourism has taken a hit, with both sides blaming each other for creating obstacles. During the news conference, which began with Lai's New Year's Day address that barely touched on cross-strait issues, the president also said it was "not worth it" for Taiwanese to apply for a Chinese identification card, which will lead to the revocation of Taiwanese citizenship as per Taiwan's laws. He was commenting on a video by a Taiwanese YouTuber which claimed that many Taiwanese had been encouraged to apply for Chinese ID cards, with around 100,000 Taiwanese having obtained the document. The government will work to raise public awareness of the seriousness of the issue to better prevent Taiwanese from being tempted by "short-term gains" and "going down the wrong path." Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, the top government agency handling cross-strait affairs, has said it would look into the matter. (By Teng Pei-ju) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address No one can separate Taiwan from China: President Xi in New Year message Iran Press TV Wednesday, 01 January 2025 8:23 AM China's President Xi Jinping has once again underscored the reunification of Beijing with Taiwan, saying no one can separate the two as they are one family. "We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same family. No one can ever sever the bond of kinship between us," Xi said in his 2025 New Year message on Tuesday. "No one can block the historical momentum of the reunification of the motherland," he added. China has sovereignty over Taiwan, maintaining it as an inalienable part of it. The US does not recognize Taiwan as a country and officially supports the "One China" policy, but regularly oversteps its own principles. The island has become China's most sensitive territorial issue and a major bone of contention with Washington. China amassed naval forces around Taiwan earlier in December after the self-governed island's president Lai Ching Te stopped over in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during a Pacific trip criticized by Beijing. Washington continues to antagonize Beijing by siding with Taipei's secessionist administration, engaging in frequent military missions around the island, and serving as its largest weapons supplier. Beijing has repeatedly warned against any official exchanges between Washington and Chinese Taipei, including provision of military assistance to the island. The US government approved in October a potential $2bn arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery of an advanced air defense missile system as well as advanced surface-to-air missile systems and radar. Beijing said the sale of weapons to Chinese Taipei was against international law, and would upset regional security. The Chinese government also sanctioned seven companies in response to American weapons sales and aid to Taipei. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan ROC Ministry of National Defense 2025/01/01 PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan 1. Date 6 to 6 a.m. (UTC+8) Tuesday to Wednesday, Dec. 31-Jan. 1 2. PLA activities 2 PLA aircraft and 7 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 1 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ. ROC Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities. 1140101_Diagram of PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan's president says Beijing remains the obstacle for resuming cross-strait exchanges By William Yang January 01, 2025 Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te reiterated his administration's willingness to welcome equal and dignified exchanges with China but said Beijing remains the obstacle for both sides to resume regular exchanges. "Taiwan hopes to have healthy and orderly exchanges with China under the principle of reciprocal dignity, and [Beijing] can cooperate with Taiwan openly and generously," Lai said during his first New Year address since becoming president in May 2024. He added that China's attempt to weaken Taiwan's democracy would only be "counterproductive" to conducting cross-strait exchanges and earning Taiwanese people's trust. Lai said Beijing is blocking civil society exchanges across the Taiwan Strait by restricting Chinese tourists from visiting the island or preventing Chinese students from studying in Taiwan. "From this, we can see that the real obstacle to cross-strait exchanges is China, not Taiwan," he told journalists gathering at the presidential office in Taipei. Apart from addressing cross-strait dynamics, Lai warned about the threat that authoritarian countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea pose to the rules-based international order. "Authoritarian regimes continue to cooperate and threaten the rule-based international order, seriously affecting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe," he said, adding that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is a "necessary element" for global security and prosperity. "Taiwan must be prepared for danger even in times of peace, continue to enhance its defense budget, strengthen its defense capabilities, and showcase the determination to defend itself," Lai added. Lai's speech comes as China continues to increase military pressure against Taiwan. Since he took office last May, China has conducted two blockade-style military exercises around Taiwan and increased the frequency of deploying military aircraft and naval vessels to waters and airspaces near the island. China views Taiwan as part of its territory and has repeatedly vowed to reunify with the island, through force if necessary. During his New Year address on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the message that Beijing's efforts to reunify with Taipei cannot be stopped. "No one can ever sever the bond of kinship between us, and no one can ever stop China's reunification, a trend of the times," Xi said in his 10-minute televised address. Analysts say Lai is trying to create "a new narrative" about relations between Taiwan and China by highlighting the collective threat that authoritarian countries pose to democracies around the world. "He is grouping China with other authoritarian regimes and portraying China as a threat to the democratic world, in which Taiwan is a member," said Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. "This new narrative not only aims to highlight and promote Taiwan's separate identity from China but is also geared towards winning international support for Taiwan's de facto independence," he told VOA in a written response. During his roughly 20-minute speech, the Taiwanese president said the island will continue to defend democracy and its democratic way of life under his leadership. "Regardless of the threats and challenges to Taiwan, democracy is the only way for us and there is no turning back," Lai said. "The safer Taiwan is, the safer the world will be, and the stronger Taiwan is; the stronger the world's democratic defenses will be," he added. Zhu said Lai's rhetoric is unlikely to soften Beijing's pressure and intimidation against Taiwan in 2025. "He highlighted the importance of strengthening Taiwan's ability to deter Beijing's invasion, combating information and cognitive warfare, raising Taiwan's defense budget, and boosting its military power," he told VOA. "This is not music to Beijing's ears and Beijing's view that Lai is a diehard separatist is unlikely to change, which means that official contacts between the two sides are unlikely to resume in the near future," Zhu added. Focus on economic diplomacy in 2025 To highlight Taiwan's efforts to deepen engagement with like-minded democracies, Lai said Taiwan has redirected investments to democratic countries, including Japan and the United States, in recent years. "Taiwan's investment in the U.S., Japan, and Europe has risen sharply, significantly surpassing that in China," he said, adding that the trend shows Taipei's efforts reduce reliance on a single market. Additionally, Lai said Taiwan will utilize its advantages in the semiconductor and AI sector to strengthen the resilience of the "democratic supply chain" with democracies around the world. Taiwan needs to "master advanced technologies and promote diversified development so that Taiwan can continue to lead the advancement of the global democratic supply chain and also ensure the security and stability of the global democratic supply chain," he added. Experts say these signals show that Taiwan will focus on deepening relations with other democratic countries through economic diplomacy in 2025. "From his speech, we can see the core of Taiwan's economic diplomacy is democracy, and based on this principle, Taiwan can use its strength in advanced technologies to deepen relations with like-minded countries," Hung Chin-fu, a political science professor at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone. Hung said as China struggles to boost its sluggish economy and Lai continues to portray Taiwan as part of the democratic world, relations between Beijing and Taipei are not likely to improve in 2025. "China's military intimidation against Taiwan will likely continue in 2025 because Beijing needs to use it as a distraction from the ongoing economic downturn the country is experiencing," he told VOA. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address End Of Russian Gas Transit A Defeat For Moscow, Zelenskiy Says By RFE/RL January 01, 2025 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on January 1 that the end of natural gas supplies to Europe via a major pipeline traversing Ukraine is a major defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin. When Putin became president of Russia more than 25 years ago, the amount of natural gas transiting through Ukraine to Europe annually totaled more than 130 billion cubic meters, Zelenskiy said on X. Now it is zero, he said. "This is one of Moscow's biggest defeats. As a result of Russia weaponizing energy and resorting to cynical blackmail of partners, Moscow lost one of the most profitable and geographically accessible markets," he said. Zelenskiy's comments came after Russian state gas giant Gazprom said that it had suspended gas supplies to Europe via the pipeline after Kyiv refused to renew a transit contract signed before Moscow's all-out invasion in 2022. The stoppage means Ukraine will forego around $800 million a year in transit fees. Gazprom, meanwhile, will lose out on nearly $5 billion in gas sales. Zelenskiy said the majority of European countries had adjusted to the changes but noted that Ukraine and its allies must "support Moldova during the energy transformation period." Moldova is still partially dependent on Russian gas. He also said Ukraine hopes for an increased U.S. gas supply to Europe, saying that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to be inaugurated on January 20, had already mentioned this possibility. "The more gas available on the market from Europe's true partners, the sooner the last remaining consequences of Europe's reliance on Russia will be eliminated," he said. The stoppage, announced by Gazprom early on January 1 on Telegram, was expected after Ukraine had repeatedly said it would not renew the contract. It was not expected to cause major immediate problems for most European customers due to a yearslong effort by many countries to wean themselves off Russian gas. Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and several Balkan countries had continued to use Russian gas shipped via Ukraine, though in smaller volumes. Challenges In Moldova Moldova, however, was more at risk, due to a major power plant that is fueled by Russian gas. Moldovan officials had declared a state of emergency last month in anticipation of the transit contract between Moscow and Kyiv expiring. The Transnistrian Regional Power Plant, located in the breakaway region of Transdniestr, began shutting down early on January 1, and its operator, Tirasteploenergo, said it was cutting central heating and hot water supplies to all households and administrative buildings in Transdniestr except for hospitals. Residents of the region were told where they could buy firewood and coal and were permitted to collect tree trunks, fallen branches, and other dry wood from forests for personal use, but must inform the forestry authorities in advance. Residents have access to electricity from the power plant, but it is unclear how long it will last. Authorities in the breakaway region said this could be about 50 days, based on the supply of coal. However, estimates from officials at the Energy Ministry in Chisinau say it would be closer to 20 days. Soviet-Era Pipeline The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said the flow of Russian natural gas through the territory of Ukraine was stopped for national security reasons and it had informed its international partners about the move. "We have stopped the transit of Russian gas, this is a historical event," Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a statement. "Russia is losing its markets, it will suffer financial losses." The Soviet-era pipeline, which brought gas from Siberia to the Russia border town of Sudzha then into Ukraine, was the last major pipeline for Russian gas to Europe in operation following the destruction of the undersea Nord Stream pipeline in late 2022. The Yamal-Europe pipeline, which brought gas to Poland via Belarus, has also been shut due to the Ukraine invasion launched in February 2022. Many European customers have turned to alternative sources, including liquefied natural gas provided by the United States and Qatar and from Norway. Austria's Energy Ministry said its supplies were guaranteed thanks to purchases made for gas flowing through Italy and Germany and earlier efforts to fill up storage containers. Hungary and other countries continue to receive Russian gas from the south via the Black Sea TurkStream pipeline. Fico Visit Slovakia, whose prime minister, Robert Fico, made an unusual visit to Moscow last month, was also not expected to see any shortages, though officials said alternate supplies would cost an extra 177 million euros ($184 million). In a statement released hours after gas stopped flowing, Fico predicted the move would have "dramatic consequences for all of us in the European Union" but not for Russia. "Regardless of whether two elephants love each other or fight against each other it's the grass that invariably gets hurt," he said. He added that he did not want Slovakia to be "that grass" and for this reason he would continue building a "dual-track" foreign policy toward the EU and Russia simultaneously and would "not interfere in the internal affairs of others." In his post on X, Zelenskiy referred to the "hysteria of some European politicians who prefer mafia-style schemes with Moscow to transparent energy policy" but did not refer to Fico by name. Zelenskiy last week was outraged when Fico met with Putin and subsequently threatened to cut off Ukraine's emergency power supply during the winter months over Kyiv's decision not to renew the pipeline contract. Zelenskiy accused Fico of taking "orders" from the Kremlin to harm Ukraine and his own people while Russia attacks Ukrainian power plants and its energy grid. With reporting by Reuters and AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-gas- gazprom-supplies/33259941.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Targets Ukraine With Scores Of Drones; Kyiv Says 63 Downed By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service January 01, 2025 Russia targeted Ukraine with scores of drones overnight, and Ukrainian officials claimed most were downed or jammed by air defenses. At least one person was killed in Kyiv. The January 1 air assault was the latest effort by Russia to batter Ukraine's energy infrastructure and terrorize its exhausted population, nearly three years into Moscow's all-out invasion. Ukrainian authorities said one person was killed in Kyiv during the attack, and seven others were wounded by debris. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two floors of a residential building were partially destroyed and the body of a woman was later pulled from the debris. Ukraine's air force said in a statement that 111 attack drones in all were launched by Russia, and 63 of them were shot down. Another 46 were "locationally lost," it said, meaning they were likely jammed by electronic warfare defenses. "Even on New Year's Eve, Russia was only concerned about how to hurt Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram. Though Ukraine has made major strides in protecting its energy infrastructure and building alterative backup supplies, the country continues to suffer regular blackouts and disruptions in central heating and hot water as Russia uses drones, as well as ballistic and cruise missiles to hammer targets. Russia, for its part, said Ukraine had fired at least 66 drones at targets inside Russia. The Defense Ministry claimed all had been downed. On the battlefield, meanwhile, exhausted Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back relentless Russian advances at multiple locations across the nearly 1,100-kilometer front line. The logistics hub of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, is increasingly at risk of encirclement, and Russian forces are grinding down Ukrainian defenses near Kurakhove, Velyka Novosilka, and Chasiv Yar. Further to the north, Ukrainian troops have steadily lost ground in Kursk, the Russian border region where Kyiv launched a surprise, cross-border invasion over the summer. Moscow has employed thousands of North Korean forces to help push back Ukrainian troops. "We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war, something each of us desires," Zelenskiy said in 21-minute New Year's greetings video that was set against a backdrop of the blue-and-yellow national flag, battlefield scenes and pictures of children. With reporting by Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-drone- strike-january-1-kyiv-air-defenses-/33260019.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Forces Strike Key Ukrainian Military and Industrial Facilities Sputnik News 20250101 Russian forces targeted several key facilities in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, including an energy infrastructure site supporting the defense industry, military airfields and a site for assembling unmanned boats, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported. "Operational-tactical aviation, strike drones, missile forces and artillery units of the Russian Armed Forces struck an energy facility supporting a Ukrainian defense enterprise, military airfield infrastructure, a boat assembly site and enemy troop and equipment concentrations in 142 areas," the MoD statement said. Russian air defense systems also intercepted seven rockets from HIMARS and Uragan (Hurricane) multiple-launch rocket systems and shot down 66 fixed-wing drones. Other Developments Tsentr Battlegroup - Repelled 14 Ukrainian counterattacks. - Improved tactical positions in multiple areas. - Ukrainian losses: up to 235 personnel, two tanks, British Spartan and US M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs), a French Caesar self-propelled howitzer and other equipment. Zapad Battlegroup - Struck eight Ukrainian brigades. - Repelled nine counterattacks. - Ukrainian losses: up to 330 personnel, one tank, Caesar and Gvozdika self-propelled guns, 105-mm M119 and L119 guns and an electronic warfare station. Vostok Battlegroup - Advanced deeper into Ukrainian defenses. - Repelled three counterattacks. - Ukrainian losses: over 150 personnel, an infantry fighting vehicle, US M109 Paladin and Ukrainian Bogdana self-propelled guns and a D-30 howitzer. Yug Battlegroup - Secured advantageous positions. - Repelled a Ukrainian counterattack. - Ukrainian losses: over 250 personnel, motor vehicles, Gvozdika and D-30 howitzers. Sever Battlegroup - Targeted Ukrainian forces in Kharkov Region. - Ukrainian losses: up to 45 personnel, motor vehicles and a D-20 howitzer. Dnepr Battlegroup - Struck forces in Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions. - Ukrainian losses: up to 40 personnel, six motor vehicles and a D-20 howitzer. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Staggering Toll: Ukraine Lost Nearly 600,000 Troops in 2024 Sputnik News 20250101 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Ukrainian forces have lost around 593,410 troops over 2024, according to Sputnik calculations of the Russian Defense Ministry's data. The ministry's weekly briefs over the year indicate that Kiev lost around 4,000 soldiers weekly in early 2024. By March, this figure increased to 7,000, before it experienced a slight decrease. Besides, in March, Ukrainian forces attempted to cross the Russian border in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, which resulted in losing around 3,000 troops more, Sputnik calculated on Wednesday. After that, Kiev's combat losses started increasing, reaching over 10,000 people per week in late May, after which the number did not go lower than that. Following the Ukrainian attack on Russia's Kursk Region in August, the losses further escalated, the calculations revealed. The most significant weekly losses for Kiev's troops occurred from October 26 to November 1, with approximately 17,000 Ukrainian fighters being lost. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian drone attack kills 2 in Kyiv By VOA News January 01, 2025 Russia launched a New Year's Day drone attack on Ukraine's capital early Wednesday, killing at least two people, injuring at least six others, and damaging buildings in two districts, authorities said. Two floors of a residential building in central Kyiv were partially destroyed in the strike, according to the State Emergency Service. Two people were killed, it said. The National Bank of Ukraine also said in a statement that one of its buildings nearby had been damaged by debris from a downed drone. "Even on New Year's Eve, Russia was only concerned about how to hurt Ukraine," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media about the strike. Ukraine's military said it shot down 63 out of 111 drones launched by Russia overnight across various regions of Ukraine. An additional 46 were downed by electronic jamming, it said. The intercepts took place in the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said. In Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said Russia attacked with artillery, rockets and drones, damaging seven houses and a medical center. Russia's defense ministry said Wednesday it destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the Kursk region. In neighboring Bryansk, the regional governor said Russian air defenses destroyed two drones, and that there were no casualties or damage. Also on Wednesday, Ukraine said that the transit of Russian natural gas through its territory had been halted as of 7 a.m. local time, citing "national security." "We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event," Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said in a statement. In a New Year's Eve address to his nation Tuesday, Zelenskyy said his country would do everything it could in the new year to end the war with Russia. "And every day in the coming year, I, and all of us, must fight for a Ukraine that is strong enough. Because only such a Ukraine is respected and heard, both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table," Zelenskyy said. "May 2025 be our year. The year of Ukraine. We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war. This is what each of us wishes for," he added. In 2024, Ukraine lost seven times more ground to Russia than it did in 2023: about 4,000 square kilometers, mostly in the east, according to data from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. At the same time, Ukraine took several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 1 dead, 7 injured after Tesla Cybertruck explodes outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas Xinhua) 08:45, January 02, 2025 An area is sealed off outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States, on Jan. 1, 2025. One person was killed and seven others were injured on Wednesday after a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, local media reported, citing the police. (Xinhua/Tan Jingjing) LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and seven others were injured on Wednesday after a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, local media reported, citing the police. One person is dead after a Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames outside the Trump International Hotel near the north end of the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday morning, reported local KSNV television station. A vehicle fire was first reported around 8:40 a.m. local time in the valet area of the hotel. The Cybertruck pulled up to the front to the entrance when smoke started showing and there was an explosion, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill was quoted as saying, adding that one person inside the vehicle was killed. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a post on X that "We are investigating a vehicle fire at the entrance to Trump Towers. The fire is out. Please avoid the area." Officials confirmed to media that seven people suffered minor injuries as a result of the explosion, with two of them taken to a hospital for treatment. Most people staying at Trump International have been moved to a nearby hotel, Resorts World Las Vega, said the report of KSNV television station, citing McMahill. Videos posted on social media showed a Tesla Cybertruck engulfed in flames outside the hotel's lobby entrance. Authorities said they are investigating the explosion. An official who briefed on the probe told ABC News that the Tesla Cybertruck had a load of fireworks-style mortars onboard. Investigators are urgently working to determine a motive and whether the driver intended to set off an explosion and why, said the report, noting that "Until a motive is determined and other possibilities are ruled out, police are treating the explosion like a possible criminal act and a possible act of terror." Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, said in a post on X that "The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now." The staunch ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump noted that "We've never seen anything like this." He wrote later that "We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself." "Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochre of Trump Las Vegas," Eric Trump, the president-elect's son and a leader of the Trump Organization, said in a post on X. "The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority." "We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism," he added. First responders are seen in an area sealed off outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States, on Jan. 1, 2025. One person was killed and seven others were injured on Wednesday after a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, local media reported, citing the police. (Xinhua/Tan Jingjing) Police officers stand guard in an area sealed off outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States, on Jan. 1, 2025. One person was killed and seven others were injured on Wednesday after a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, local media reported, citing the police. (Xinhua/Tan Jingjing) Police officers stand guard in an area sealed off outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States, on Jan. 1, 2025. One person was killed and seven others were injured on Wednesday after a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, local media reported, citing the police. (Xinhua/Tan Jingjing) Police officers stand guard in an area sealed off outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States, on Jan. 1, 2025. One person was killed and seven others were injured on Wednesday after a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, local media reported, citing the police. (Xinhua/Tan Jingjing) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Human rights plummet in Ukraine, Russian-occupied territories By Lisa Schlein January 01, 2025 U.N. human rights monitors find that almost three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the human rights situation in the country and areas occupied by Russia is on a downward spiral, as military operations intensify, civilian casualties rise, and torture, summary executions and other gross violations proliferate. "The human rights situation remains bleak with a still-rising number of civilian casualties, continued executions and torture of prisoners of war, and efforts by Russia to solidify its control of occupied Ukrainian territory," according to the new report by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, HRMMU. The report, released Tuesday by the U.N. Human Rights Office, covers key developments in the human rights situation between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, 2024. It's based on information gathered in the course of dozens of field trips and visits to detention centers, as well as interviews with more than 800 victims and witnesses of human rights violations. "Behind each of the facts and figures in this report are stories of loss and human suffering, showing the devastating impact of the war across Ukraine," said HRMUU chief Danielle Bell in a statement issued from Kyiv to coincide with the release of the report. She said HRMMU teams documented 574 civilian deaths, and more than 3,000 civilians injured over the three-month period, adding that September marked the highest monthly casualty toll since July 2022. The report attributes the surge in civilian deaths primarily to "intensified military operations" by Russian armed forces, especially in Kherson, Donetsk and other Russian government-controlled areas of Kharkiv. "The use of aerial glide bombs and short-range drones contributed to the high number of civilian casualties and harm to communities," the report says, noting that in mid-November, Russian armed forces began conducting large-scale coordinated aerial attacks against Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure. "The attacks disrupted electricity and dependent services such as water, heating, and transportation services in multiple regions," it says, "further diminishing Ukraine's energy capacity as winter approached." There was no immediate response to the report from Russian or Ukrainian officials. A spokeswoman for the U.N. Human Rights Office tells VOA the office "sent the report to the Russian Federation in advance of its publication, as per usual practice. We did not receive any comments from them." Ukrainian POWs subjected to sexual violence The report finds torture, and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the hands of the Russian Federation, "has been widespread and systematic." It says 42 recently released Ukrainian POWs have presented "credible and detailed accounts" of torture they had experienced, "including beatings, electric shock, and prolonged solitary confinement" during their captivity. It says the use of sexual violence is prevalent against both women and men, with many being subjected to "rape, electric shocks and beating to genitals, forced nudity, and threats of rape and castration." Since the end of August, U.N. monitors have recorded a significant increase in "credible allegations of executions of Ukrainian POWs," involving the killing of 62 individuals in 19 incidents. The U.N. human rights office has verified "the execution of 15 Ukrainian servicemen." While Russian POWs also have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by Ukrainian authorities, authors of the report say this has occurred to a much lesser extent and predominantly while prisoners "were held in transit facilities during the early stages of captivity." It adds that the Human Rights Office documented the death of one Russian POW at a transit facility in early 2024 caused by torture and is looking into the deaths of two other Russian POWs under similar circumstances. The report also examines the treatment of civilians in territory occupied by the Russian Federation in Ukraine and in Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014. Imposing Russian identity Authors of the report accuse Russia of entrenching its control in the occupied territory through the imposition of Russian laws, in violation of its obligations under international humanitarian law, "resulting in further restrictions to fundamental rights and freedoms, property ownership, and cultural rights." They cite the example of a new strategy adopted by the Russian authorities in September "to compel Ukrainian children and youth in occupied territory to demonstrate loyalty to the Russian Federation." The strategy involves the training of children in military skills as part of their summer recreational activities and the use of propaganda in education. "Over the 2024 summer, Russian occupying authorities sent children from occupied territory of Ukraine to camps in Crimea and in the Russian Federation, where both girls and boys received military training and participated in activities focused on reinforcement of Russian patriotism and identity," in violation of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law, they say. The report lambasts the Russian Federation as the occupying authority for restricting religious freedom and for restricting freedom of expression "to silence criticism of Russian military actions." The report also finds fault with provisions adopted by the Ukrainian government in the territories they control that "prohibit the activities of Ukrainian religious organizations affiliated with counterparts in the Russian Federation." These provisions, the authors say, disproportionately restrict the free expression of one's religion or belief and "should be amended to align fully with international human rights law." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Dublin, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2019-2029F" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market was valued at USD 379.45 Million in 2023, and is expected to reach USD 553.98 Million by 2029, rising at a CAGR of 6.51%. The truck leasing and rental market in Saudi Arabia is experiencing steady growth, driven by an increasing focus on logistics, transportation, and construction projects. With the rising need for cost-effective supply chain solutions, businesses are shifting from ownership to leasing, eliminating maintenance expenses and providing access to modern fleets. Infrastructure developments under Vision 2030 have further elevated the demand for trucks to support mega-projects across diverse sectors. The market also benefits from the flexibility leasing offers, enabling businesses to scale operations without high capital investment. Emerging trends highlight the growing adoption of digital platforms in truck leasing and rental services, improving customer experience and streamlining processes. Technological advancements in fleet management, such as telematics and GPS tracking, enhance efficiency and safety, making leasing more attractive to companies. The market is also shifting towards eco-friendly and fuel-efficient vehicles as environmental concerns and regulatory pressures intensify. These trends align with Saudi Arabia's broader sustainability goals, encouraging leasing companies to expand offerings in electric and hybrid trucks. Despite these opportunities, the market faces challenges, including fluctuating fuel prices and the high cost of advanced truck models, which can deter adoption for smaller businesses. Regulatory compliance related to vehicle emissions and safety adds complexity to operations, increasing costs for providers. Additionally, the availability of skilled drivers remains a bottleneck, impacting service reliability and efficiency. Addressing these issues is crucial for the market to sustain its growth trajectory while meeting evolving industry demands. Key Market Trends Digital Transformation in Leasing Services Digitalization is revolutionizing the leasing market, with platforms enabling online bookings, fleet tracking, and seamless payment solutions. These innovations enhance customer convenience and operational efficiency, setting new industry standards. The adoption of digital tools not only streamlines processes but also appeals to tech-savvy clients, ensuring a competitive edge for early adopters. Shift Toward Long-Term Leasing Contracts Long-term leasing agreements are gaining traction as businesses seek predictable expenses and tailored service packages. These contracts are particularly popular among industries with consistent transportation needs, offering stability and cost efficiency. The preference for long-term solutions underscores the market's evolution towards more structured and client-focused offerings. Rise in Sustainable Fleet Options The increasing emphasis on sustainability has driven demand for eco-friendly trucks, such as hybrid and electric models. Leasing companies are actively expanding their green fleet offerings to align with environmental goals and attract businesses prioritizing sustainability. This trend is expected to grow as regulatory frameworks and consumer preferences continue to favor environmentally responsible practices. For instance, In 2023, Quantron AG, a clean technology firm specializing in sustainable transportation for both passengers and freight, in collaboration with its partner Electromin, which is fully owned by the Petromin Corporation, announced the delivery of the inaugural 50 QUANTRON QARGO 4 EV trucks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These vehicles have been prepared for use by clients such as PepsiCo and Red Sea Global. This delivery marks the largest shipment of battery-electric trucks in the Kingdom, representing a significant step towards the decarbonization of mobility, in alignment with the sustainability objectives outlined in Saudi Vision 2030. Regional Insights In 2023, the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia stands out as the dominant area in the truck leasing and rental market. This region's prominence is largely driven by its central role in the country's oil and gas industry, which significantly influences the demand for transportation services. The Eastern province, home to key industrial cities such as Dammam, Dhahran, and Al Khobar, plays a crucial part in supporting logistics and infrastructure development for the energy sector. The substantial logistics demand for moving goods, equipment, and materials related to the oil industry drives the high demand for trucks in this region. Furthermore, the increasing focus on industrial diversification and urbanization under Vision 2030 has resulted in large-scale construction and development projects, further boosting the demand for truck leasing and rental services. The region's strategic location, with its proximity to major ports like the King Fahd Port in Dammam, also enhances its importance as a transportation hub. This provides easy access to both local and international markets, increasing the reliance on flexible and scalable truck leasing solutions to meet the growing logistics needs. Additionally, the region's infrastructure development is focused on enhancing transport links, including roads and logistics hubs, which further strengthens the need for reliable vehicle fleets, which leasing and rental services provide. Economic diversification efforts are also playing a role in shifting the region towards more diversified industries such as manufacturing, petrochemicals, and non-oil sectors. This broadens the types of companies needing trucks for various uses, from transporting raw materials to delivering goods and products. Truck leasing becomes an attractive option for these companies, as it reduces capital expenditures while ensuring access to modern fleets and equipment. The Eastern region's continuous industrial growth, coupled with its pivotal role in logistics, infrastructure, and trade, positions it as the largest and most active market for truck leasing and rental services in Saudi Arabia in 2023. The convergence of oil-related industries, regional infrastructure projects, and diversified economic activities makes it the leading region for this market segment. Key Market Players YANAL Finance Company Saudi Transport and Investment Company (Mubarrad) Fraikin Dayim Truck Rental Ltd United International Transport, Inc. TruKKer Technologies DMCC Neeraan International IMAD COMPANY Trukkin Middle East FZ-LLC Arabian transporter Co. Hertz Corporation Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 85 Forecast Period 2023 - 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $379.45 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $553.98 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.5% Regions Covered Saudi Arabia Report Scope: In this report, the Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market, By Lease Type: Finance Lease Full Rental Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market, By Truck Type: Heavy Duty Medium Duty Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market, By End-User Industry: Oil & Gas FMCG Construction Mining E-Commerce Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market, By Booking: Online Offline Saudi Arabia Truck Leasing and Rental Market, By Region: Northern & Central Western Eastern Southern For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/78bwu3 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Attachment Dublin, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market, By Region, Competition, Forecast and Opportunities, 2019-2029F" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market was valued at USD 856.15 Million in 2025, and is expected to reach USD 2.17 Billion by 2029, rising at a CAGR of 16.65%. The travel insurance market in Saudi Arabia is rapidly evolving, reflecting the nation's commitment to becoming a leading global tourism destination. This growth is largely fueled by the government's Vision 2030 initiative, which aims to diversify the economy by enhancing tourism infrastructure and attracting international visitors. The market is characterized by a variety of insurance products, including trip cancellation, medical coverage, baggage loss, and personal liability. Increasing awareness of travel-related risks, especially following the global pandemic, has led consumers to seek comprehensive insurance solutions that provide peace of mind. Digital transformation is also reshaping the landscape, with more travelers opting to purchase policies online through user-friendly platforms. This shift allows for easier comparison and selection of coverage tailored to individual needs. Additionally, significant demand arises from the influx of pilgrims during Hajj and Umrah, necessitating specialized travel insurance products. Overall, the Saudi Arabia travel insurance market presents substantial opportunities for growth, innovation, and improved customer experiences as the tourism sector continues to expand. In 2023, the Saudi Cabinet approved the establishment of a new unified and independent regulator for the insurance sector in the Kingdom. The Cabinet also sanctioned the founding law of the Authority, outlining its mandate and powers. This development signifies a major transformation in the insurance landscape of the Kingdom, as the Authority is now the sole regulator of the insurance sector. Previously, the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and the Council of Health Insurance (CHI) shared regulatory responsibilities, having established the existing legal framework. The consolidation of regulatory oversight from two entities to one reflects the country's commitment to achieving the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Financial Sector Development Program (FSPD). A key component of this initiative is fostering growth and advancing the insurance sector. The Authority has already reported a 14.6% growth in the sector during the third quarter of 2023, and this growth is expected to continue into 2024 as the Authority becomes fully operational and implements a new legal framework. Key Market Trends Digital Transformation The digital transformation of the insurance sector is a prominent trend in the Saudi Arabia travel insurance market. With the rise of technology, consumers now expect seamless online experiences when purchasing travel insurance. Insurers are increasingly investing in user-friendly digital platforms that allow travelers to compare policies, obtain quotes, and purchase coverage with ease. Mobile applications and websites are being enhanced to facilitate instant access to information, making it more convenient for travelers to secure the protection they need.Additionally, the integration of artificial intelligence and data analytics is enabling insurers to offer personalized products based on individual travel habits and preferences. This technological advancement not only improves customer engagement but also streamlines the claims process, making it faster and more efficient. Insurers can leverage data to assess risks more accurately, leading to better pricing strategies. As digital channels become more popular, traditional distribution methods are being supplemented or replaced, pushing the industry toward a more tech-driven future. This shift not only broadens market access but also enhances competition, driving innovation and ultimately benefiting consumers with improved service and offerings. Customization of Insurance Products Another significant trend in the Saudi Arabia travel insurance market is the customization of insurance products. As travelers become more aware of their unique needs and risks, insurers are responding by offering tailored solutions that cater to specific demographics and travel purposes. This trend is particularly evident among frequent travelers, business travelers, and those undertaking religious pilgrimages, such as Hajj and Umrah. Insurers are now providing flexible policies that allow customers to select coverage options that best suit their circumstances. For example, travelers can customize their plans to include features like medical coverage, trip cancellation, or coverage for adventure activities. This level of personalization not only enhances the customer experience but also helps insurers capture a broader audience by addressing specific concerns that standard policies may overlook. As consumers increasingly seek more comprehensive and relevant protection, the demand for customized travel insurance products is expected to rise. This trend encourages insurers to innovate continually and refine their offerings, ensuring they meet the evolving needs of a diverse traveler population. Segmental Insights Trip Type Insights Inbound travel insurance was the dominant segment in the Saudi Arabia travel insurance market, driven by the country's position as a key global destination for religious, business, and leisure travel. Saudi Arabia attracts millions of international visitors each year, particularly for religious tourism, with the annual Hajj pilgrimage drawing a significant number of Muslims from around the world. This influx of travelers creates a strong demand for comprehensive travel insurance coverage, which often includes protection for medical emergencies, trip cancellations, lost baggage, and other travel-related risks. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia is a hub for business tourism due to its growing economy and status as a leader in sectors like oil and gas, as well as finance. International business travelers increasingly seek insurance policies that offer coverage for unforeseen circumstances such as medical treatment, delayed flights, or travel disruptions. The dominance of inbound tourism insurance is also supported by the rise in leisure travel, with tourists coming to explore the country's cultural heritage, historical sites, and modern attractions. Given these factors, inbound travel insurance remains crucial in the Saudi market, as it offers both protection for international travelers and caters to the broader tourism and business sectors, reinforcing its prominent role. Regional Insights The Western region of Saudi Arabia is the dominating segment in the travel insurance market, largely due to its pivotal role as a hub for religious tourism, particularly during the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. Cities like Mecca and Medina attract millions of visitors each year, creating a substantial demand for tailored travel insurance products that address the unique needs of pilgrims. Additionally, the Western region's growing popularity as a tourist destination, with attractions like historical sites and cultural festivals, further boosts the need for travel insurance among both domestic and international travelers. Insurers are responding by offering specialized policies that include coverage for medical emergencies, trip cancellations, and baggage loss, ensuring comprehensive protection for travelers. As the region continues to expand its tourism infrastructure and attract diverse visitors, the Western region is set to maintain its dominant position in the Saudi travel insurance market. Key Market Players Tawuniya Insurance Company Al-Rajhi Company for Cooperative Insurance Walaa Cooperative Insurance Company Allianz Saudi Fransi Cooperative Insurance Company Gulf Insurance Group (GIG) Arabian Shield Cooperative Insurance Company Gulf General Cooperative Insurance Company LIVA Insurance Company SALAMA Cooperative Insurance Company AL-Etihad Cooperative Insurance Company Report Scope: In this report, the Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:: Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market, By Trip Type: Domestic Outbound Hajj and Umrah Inbound Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market, By Mode Of Purchase: Airline Banks Online Travel Agencies Offline Travel Agencies Others Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market, By Traveler Type: Senior Citizens Education Travelers Business Travelers Family Travelers Independent Travelers Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market, By Mode of Payment: Card Payments E-Wallets Bank Transfers Other Online Payment Saudi Arabia Travel Insurance Market, By Region: Northern & Central Western Southern Southern For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/v4hp90 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Dublin, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Japan Autonomous Vehicle Market, By Region, Competition, Forecast and Opportunities, 2019-2029F" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Japanese Autonomous Vehicle Market was valued at USD 3.21 Billion in 2025, and is expected to reach USD 8.06 Billion by 2029, rising at a CAGR of 16.74%. The Japanese autonomous vehicle (AV) market is poised for significant growth, driven by advancements in technology, supportive government policies, and evolving consumer preferences. The adoption of Level 3 and Level 4 automation is accelerating as Japan works to address challenges like aging demographics and labor shortages. Key growth drivers include the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, LiDAR, and V2X communication, which enhance the safety and functionality of autonomous systems. Japan's emphasis on mobility solutions for its elderly population and its investments in smart transportation infrastructure further bolster the market's development. Key Market Trends Integration with Smart City Initiatives Japan is at the forefront of integrating autonomous vehicles into its smart city initiatives. With the adoption of 5G networks, IoT devices, and big data analytics, smart cities are becoming more interconnected and optimized for autonomous transportation solutions. Autonomous vehicles are being tested as part of broader mobility systems that leverage real-time data for improved traffic management and efficiency. In cities like Tokyo and Osaka, AVs are being integrated into public transportation networks, including autonomous buses and shuttles. This trend reflects Japan's vision of creating integrated, sustainable, and efficient urban mobility ecosystems. These smart city projects aim to streamline transportation, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance safety through the deployment of autonomous vehicles. The integration of AVs with smart city technologies creates a seamless transport network, offering residents and visitors a more convenient and sustainable way to travel. Focus on Electric Autonomous Vehicles (AEVs) The shift toward electric vehicles is a key trend driving the development of autonomous vehicles in Japan. The country's decarbonization goals and government incentives for EV adoption are driving the growth of electric autonomous vehicles (AEVs). Electric powertrains are well-suited to autonomous vehicles, as they offer low emissions, quiet operation, and the potential for reduced maintenance costs. With a focus on sustainability, Japan's automakers are increasingly developing AEVs with autonomous capabilities, helping to meet both environmental and technological goals. The rise of electric AVs also aligns with Japan's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fostering eco-friendly mobility solutions. This trend is expected to accelerate as charging infrastructure improves and battery technology advances, making AEVs a viable and attractive option for the Japanese market. Partnerships Between Automakers and Technology Companies In Japan, collaboration between traditional automakers and technology companies is becoming increasingly common to drive the development of autonomous vehicles. Automakers recognize the need for specialized expertise in areas like AI, machine learning, and sensor technology, prompting partnerships with tech firms to accelerate the pace of AV development. For instance, In June 2024, deep-tech startup TIER IV partnered with Suzuki to advance autonomous driving services in Japan. TIER IV, known for developing Autoware, the first open-source autonomous driving software, joined forces with Suzuki to speed up the development and commercialization of autonomous technology. The collaboration aimed to combine TIER IV's software platforms with Suzuki's manufacturing experience to create innovative mobility solutions for regional transportation. Vehicle Type Insights The passenger car segment was the fastest growing in Japan autonomous vehicle market due to several key factors. Japan is a global leader in automotive innovation, with major manufacturers heavily investing in autonomous vehicle technologies. The nation's aging population has created a strong demand for autonomous cars, as older citizens seek safer, more accessible transportation options. Autonomous passenger vehicles can offer a solution by providing a higher level of safety and reducing the burden on elderly drivers, which is particularly important in a country where the proportion of senior citizens is growing rapidly. Japan's advanced infrastructure supports the integration of autonomous technology. The country has well-maintained roads, smart city initiatives, and a high level of digital connectivity, all of which are critical for the successful deployment of autonomous vehicles. This infrastructure facilitates the seamless operation of self-driving cars, making passenger vehicles a more viable option for consumers. Japan's government policies are heavily geared toward promoting smart mobility. The government has been actively supporting autonomous vehicle development through research grants, tax incentives, and pilot programs. This regulatory support encourages both automakers and tech companies to accelerate the development of autonomous passenger cars. The convenience and potential cost savings associated with autonomous passenger vehicles drive consumer interest. With advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, autonomous vehicles can offer increased efficiency, reduced fuel consumption, and lower maintenance costs, making them an attractive option for consumers seeking long-term value. Together, these factors position passenger cars as the fastest-growing segment in Japan autonomous vehicle market, fostering increased investment and adoption of self-driving technology. Regional Insights Kansai was the dominated market in Japan autonomous vehicle sector due to its strategic advantages in technology, infrastructure, and government support. This region, which includes major cities like Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, is home to some of Japan's leading automotive and technology companies, driving innovation in autonomous vehicle development. Kansai has established itself as a hub for research and development, particularly in robotics and AI, which are essential for the advancement of autonomous driving technologies. The presence of major universities and research institutes also accelerates innovation, attracting both domestic and international investments. In addition to technological expertise, Kansai benefits from a well-developed transportation infrastructure that supports the deployment of autonomous vehicles. The region has been actively testing AVs on public roads, facilitating real-world applications and helping refine the technology. Its high-tech urban centers are ideal for AV pilot programs, providing a controlled yet dynamic environment for testing self-driving cars. The region's road networks, equipped with advanced traffic management systems, are being upgraded to further support autonomous vehicle integration, creating a conducive ecosystem for AV adoption. Kansai also enjoys strong governmental support for autonomous vehicle initiatives. Local governments have been proactive in creating favorable policies, including regulations that encourage the testing and deployment of self-driving cars. These efforts align with Japan's broader push to lead the global autonomous vehicle market, ensuring Kansai's leadership in this area. Kansai's manufacturing and logistics sectors, which rely heavily on efficient transportation, are poised to benefit from autonomous technology, making the region a key player in the development and commercialization of AVs. This combination of technological, infrastructural, and governmental support solidifies Kansai as the dominant market for autonomous vehicles in Japan. Key Market Players Toyota Motor Corporation Honda Motor Co., Ltd Nissan Motor Co., Ltd Suzuki Motor Corporation Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Mazda Motor Corporation Hyundai Mobility Japan Co., Ltd BMW Japan Co., Ltd Volkswagen Group Japan Co., Ltd General Motors Japan Co., Ltd Report Scope: In this report, the Japanese Autonomous Vehicle Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: Japan Autonomous Vehicle Market, By Vehicle Type: Passenger Car Commercial Vehicle Japan Autonomous Vehicle Market, By Propulsion Type: ICE EV Japan Autonomous Vehicle Market, By Automation Level: Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Japan Autonomous Vehicle Market, By Region: Kanto Kansai Chubu Tohoku Rest of Japan For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/wpu357 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Dublin, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "AI Training Dataset Market by Dataset Creation (Data Collection, Data Annotation, Synthetic Data Generation), Dataset Selling (Off-the-Shelf Datasets, Dataset Marketplaces), Data Modality (Text, Image, Video, Audio, Multimodal) - Global Forecast to 2029" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The market for AI training datasets is expected to increase from USD 2.82 billion in 2024 to USD 9.58 billion in 2029, experiencing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.7% from 2024 to 2029 The scope of the report covers detailed information regarding the major factors, such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities, influencing the growth of the AI training dataset market. A detailed analysis of the key industry players has been done to provide insights into their business overview, solutions, and services; key strategies; contracts, partnerships, agreements, new product & service launches, mergers and acquisitions, and recent developments associated with the AI training dataset market. Competitive analysis of upcoming startups in the AI training dataset market ecosystem is covered in this report. The demand for AI training datasets is rapidly increasing as various sectors look for more machine learning and AI uses. A key factor driving the growth of the market is the increasing demand for top-notch, varied data collections to properly train AI models, especially in industries such as healthcare, finance, and autonomous vehicles. However, concerns regarding data privacy and compliance with regulations continue to pose a major barrier that could hinder data collection and restrict access to personal data. Businesses encounter difficulties in obtaining and controlling data that comply with performance and regulation requirements, while also harmonizing innovation and ethical factors. By offering, dataset creation segment is expected to register the fastest market growth rate during the forecast period. The dataset creation segment is expected to have the quickest increase in the market in the forecast period, due to the growing need for top-notch data in different industries. Businesses are realizing the significance of making decisions based on data and are therefore making substantial investments in developing thorough and precise sets of data. This part takes advantage of AI and ML progress, which simplify data collection and processing, enabling businesses to create datasets more quickly and on a larger scale. Additionally, the rapid growth of this sector is fueled by the increasing number of IoT devices, and the growing amount of data produced from digital interactions. Companies are prioritizing the creation of large data sets to conduct predictive analysis, comprehend customer actions, and devise tailored marketing tactics to improve their results. Rules like GDPR and CCPA have prompted businesses to focus on ethical ways of collecting data, creating a demand for customized datasets that abide by the regulations. Companies require tailored data sets to meet specific business requirements in order to stay competitive in their respective industries and experience market growth. By dataset selling, Off-the-Shelf (OTS) datasets segment is expected to have the largest market share during the forecast period. The OTS datasets are expected to lead the dataset selling segment in market because of their inexpensive price, easy access, and immediate suitability for various uses. Companies are opting for pre-made datasets more often as they save time on data collection and preparation, enabling a swift adoption of data-driven strategies. The rising demand for data analysis in different sectors such as healthcare, finance, and marketing are pushing this trend further, as companies seek to leverage existing data for improved decision-making and obtaining valuable insights. In addition, the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies has raised the demand for top-notch data to train models, resulting in a heavier reliance on pre-made datasets. The use of ready-made datasets is expected to rise steadily in the upcoming years as businesses prioritize adaptability and remaining competitive. By annotation type, synthetic datasets segment is expected to register the fastest market growth rate during the forecast period. Throughout the predicted period, the synthetic datasets segment in the AI training dataset market is expected to experience the most significant increase in growth rate. Synthetic datasets generate abundant data simulating real-world scenarios, solving problems of insufficient data and privacy issues associated with authentic datasets. Customizing synthetic data to suit particular purposes increases its attractiveness, since it can be tailored to fulfill the diverse demands of artificial intelligence models across different industries. Progress in developing models and simulation techniques enhances the accuracy and authenticity of synthetic data, ultimately boosting its efficacy in training machine learning algorithms. The demand for robust and flexible datasets is projected to increase as companies focus on improving their AI capabilities, underscoring the importance of synthetic datasets in future AI projects. This phenomenon is encouraging ethical AI methods by employing artificial data to reduce prejudice and ensure fairer outcomes in AI uses. By Region, North America to have the largest market share in 2024, and Asia Pacific is slated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. In 2024, North America is expected to dominate the AI training dataset market with the largest market share. The reason for this dominance is the existence of big tech firms, significant investments in AI, and a strong network of data-centric advancements. Companies in North America are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence to enhance their operations, leading to a demand for high-quality training data. In the meantime, it is expected that the Asia Pacific region will show the highest rate of growth in the predicted period. The rapid expansion is due to additional investments in AI, higher internet usage, and a growing number of AI and machine learning startups. China and India are leading the way in embracing AI technologies, thanks to their abundant data and young population well-versed in technology. The report provides insights on the following pointers: Analysis of key drivers (increasing demand for diverse and continuously updated multimodal datasets for generative AI models, rising demand for multilingual datasets for conversational AI, demand for high-quality labeled data for autonomous vehicles, and Increased used of synthetic data for rare event simulation), restraints (legal risks of web-scraped data due to copyright infringement and limited access to high-quality medical datasets due to HIPAA compliance), opportunities (growing demand for specialized data annotation services in diverse fields, synthetic data generation and privacy-preserving techniques for augmented training data, and creation of customized AI Datasets and specialized formats (3D, AR/VR) for Enterprise Solutions), and challenges (data quality and relevance issues like inconsistency, bias, keeping datasets up to date, and diverse dataset formats and inconsistent annotation practices may hinder integration and reliability). Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research & development activities, and new product & service launches in the AI training dataset market. Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative markets - the report analyses the AI training dataset market across varied regions. Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products & services, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the AI training dataset market. Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, growth strategies and service offerings of leading players like Google (US), IBM (US), AWS (US), Microsoft (US), NVIDIA (US), Snorkel (US), Gretel (US), Shaip (US), Clickworker (US), Appen (Australia), Nexdata (US), Bitext (US), Aimleap (US), Deep Vision Data (US), Cogito Tech (US), Sama (US), Scale AI (US), Lionbridge Technologies (US), Alegion (US), TELUS International (Canada), iMerit (US), Labelbox (US), V7Labs (UK), Defined.ai (US), SuperAnnotate (US), LXT (Canada), Toloka AI (Netherlands), Innodata (US), Kili technology (France), HumanSignal (US), Superb AI (US), Hugging Face (US), CloudFactory (UK), FileMarket (Hong Kong), TagX (UAE), Roboflow (US), Supervise.ly (Estonia), Encord (UK), TransPerfect (US), Keylabs (Israel), and Data.world (US) among others in the AI training dataset market. Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 447 Forecast Period 2024 - 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $2.82 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $9.58 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 27.7% Regions Covered Global Companies Featured Google Microsoft Aws Appen Nvidia IBM Telus International Innodata Cogito Tech Sama Clickworker Transperfect Cloudfactory Imerit Lionbridge Technologies Scale AI Snorkel AI Gretel Shaip Nexdata Bitext Aimleap Alegion Deep Vision Data Labelbox V7Labs Defined.AI Superannotate Toloka AI Kili Technology Humansignal Superb AI Hugging Face Filemarket Tagx Roboflow Supervisely Encord Keylabs Lxt Data.World For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/e92rok About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Attachment FREMONT, Calif., Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jackery , a global leader in sustainable energy solutions, is set to electrify CES 2025 with the unveiling of a bold new vision for the future of renewable energy. The announcement, which includes the debut of a new slogan and an expanded portfolio of innovative solar generators for both home and outdoor use, marks a defining moment in the companys evolution. This milestone underscores Jackerys commitment to advancing renewable energy through cutting-edge technology designed to meet modern energy needs. Jackery has grown from a trusted provider of portable solar generators to a leader in comprehensive home and outdoor energy solutions, said Jack Sun, CEO of Jackery. We are thrilled to showcase our vision for sustainable and independent energy at CES 2025. This year, were unveiling innovations that not only keep pace with, but also anticipate, the evolving needs of households and adventurers seeking smarter, greener energy solutions. Jackerys Journey: Pioneering Renewable Energy Solutions Since its founding, Jackery has redefined whats possible in renewable energy solutions, evolving from a pioneer of portable solar generators to a trusted leader in comprehensive energy independence. By delivering innovative and reliable products, Jackery has enabled individuals and families to adopt sustainable livingwhether securing their homes, venturing off the grid, or meeting everyday energy needs. This forward-thinking approach has solidified Jackerys reputation as a brand synonymous with dependability and progress. A Year of Milestones 2024 marked a year of extraordinary growth for Jackery, driven by remarkable milestones and groundbreaking product launches. The introduction of the Solar Generator 5000 Plus and Smart Transfer Switch set a new benchmark for portable and home-tied energy storage, offering a modular 5kWh-60kWh capacity range customizable for even the most demanding home power scenarios. Alongside these, the compact yet powerful Explorer 2000v2 and Explorer 1000v2 models deliver sustainable, uninterrupted backup power in portable form factors versatile enough to meet the energy needs of households of all sizes as well as on-the-go lifestyles. Redefining Energy Independence at CES 2025 At CES 2025, Jackery will showcase its expanded portfolio of solar generators and renewable energy solutions, including new technologies aimed at enhancing energy capture, storage, and delivery. These advancements reflect Jackerys ongoing commitment to staying ahead of the curve and addressing diverse energy needs with user-friendly, future-focused products. In addition to its flagship products, Jackery is set to unveil a preview of next-generation renewable home energy solutions at CES, further expanding its commitment to create the most innovative, user-friendly, and reliable alternative energy solutions that provide peace of mind and energy independence. These new innovations promise to blend functionality with elegance, offering greater energy capture, storage capacity, enhanced durability, and seamless smart-home integration. Jackerys presence at CES will offer a hands-on look at its new and existing technologies, emphasizing the brands mission to seamlessly integrate renewable energy into daily life. With a growing lineup of home and portable solutions, Jackery is poised to lead the next chapter of renewable energy innovation. Jackery invites media, retail partners, industry professionals, and all CES attendees to experience its innovations firsthand at Booth 9815, located in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information about Jackery and its lineup of solar generators, visit www.jackery.com . Stay connected with us for live updates during CES 2025 by following on social media at @JackeryUSA. About Jackery: Founded in California in 2012, Jackery is a leader in innovative solar generators and renewable energy solutions. Offering a diverse range of products from compact 100W units to robust 123kWh energy storage systems for whole-home backup, Jackery combines cutting-edge technology with a steadfast commitment to sustainability. Dedicated to providing reliable, renewable energy solutions, Jackery prioritizes convenience, trust, energy independence, and environmentally responsible practices. With over 150,000 five-star reviews, Jackery has earned the trust of customers worldwide. Jackery products have generated a potential of 761 million kWh of renewable energy, reducing 758.4 tons of carbon emissions and fostering a greener, more resilient future for individuals and communities. To learn more, check out Jackery on Facebook , Instagram , X , YouTube , and LinkedIn . Malvern, Pennsylvania (USA), Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh wireless networks, and the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) have entered into a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for emerging technologies and capabilities. This establishes a collaborative framework for evaluating, assessing vulnerability and performance, and modeling and simulating Rajant solutions in relevant US Army applications. With this agreement, Rajant will work with the Army on its advanced mesh communications, encryption, distributed computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) capabilities for evaluation against current and future electronic warfare and cyber threats. Rajant President of Military and Government Markets Ed Preston shares, This agreement continues our previous agreement with US Army DEVCOM and is a win-win for both organizations. Rajant can gain detailed information on threats the Army faces today with complete freedom of innovation to counter those threats. The Army rapidly gains access to cutting-edge technology and can evaluate it in a real-world environment. First built for military and defense applications, Rajant Kinetic Mesh networks are specifically designed for the rugged terrains and harsh physical environments seen by troops in the field and have been battle-proven to support the mission-critical communications needed to overcome environmental adversity for 20+ years. Testimony regarding Rajants military and defense capabilities can be found here. #### About Rajant Corporation Rajant Corporation is the broadband communications technology company that invented Kinetic Mesh networking, BreadCrumb wireless nodes, and InstaMesh networking software. With Rajant and its family of products, customers can rapidly deploy a highly adaptable and scalable network that leverages the power of real-time data to deliver on-demand, mission-critical business intelligence. A low-latency, high-throughput, and secure solution for a variety of data, voice, video, and autonomous applications, Rajants Kinetic Mesh networks provide industrial customers with full mobility, allowing them to take their private network applications and data anywhere. With successful deployments in more than 80 countries for customers in military, mining, ports, rail, energy, manufacturing and logistics, municipalities, agriculture, and more, Rajant is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with additional facilities and offices in Arizona and Kentucky. For more information, visit Rajant.com or follow Rajant on LinkedIn and YouTube. Attachment GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The cryptocurrency exchange landscape is evolving rapidly, with platforms competing to provide traders with the best tools, ETFs, crypto and futures trading, leverage, liquidity, and security. While Binance, Bybit, OKX, and BingX offer strong features, Toobit stands out as the top choice for 2025. Binance Binance is one of the worlds largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, famous for its extensive list of supported cryptocurrencies, advanced trading tools, and competitive fees. The exchange also provides a variety of educational resources to help users learn about crypto trading and investment strategies. Binance has developed a global presence and continues to expand, offering a wide range of features. Despite facing regulatory challenges in some countries, Binance has remained a dominant player in crypto space, attracting millions of users globally. Binance remains a powerhouse in the crypto exchange space, known for its extensive reach and advanced features. Key Features: Leverage: Up to 125x . Up to . User-Friendly Interface Global Reach: Available in multiple jurisdictions. Available in multiple jurisdictions. Risk Control: Advanced tools for managing trading risks. Advanced tools for managing trading risks. Liquidity: One of the highest trading volumes globally. Toobit The Best Choice for 2025 Toobit Exchange is an innovative and rapidly growing cryptocurrency exchange that stands out for its unique features tailored to both beginner and experienced traders. Established with the vision of simplifying the crypto trading experience, Toobit offers a user-friendly platform with advanced trading tools and a seamless interface, making it accessible for all levels of traders. The exchange supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and various altcoins, ensuring diverse trading opportunities. You can also check Bitcoin price live on Toobit before purchasing your desired crypto coins. As the crypto space evolves, Toobit continues to introduce innovative features and expand its offerings, positioning itself as a leader in the cryptocurrency exchange industry. Toobit has emerged as the leading crypto exchange by offering advanced trading tools such as derivatives trading, crypto trading, and leverage trading. With exceptional risk control and unmatched leverage options, traders can enjoy a seamless experience that blends innovation with reliability with Toobit. Key Features: Leverage: Up to 175x , surpassing competitors. Up to , surpassing competitors. Mode Options: Split Position Mode: Each order is split and managed independently. Merged Position Mode: Orders in the same direction merge into a single position for easier management. Advanced Position Management: Set stop-loss and take-profit for each order separately. Comprehensive risk control ensures user protection. Toobit Proof of Reserves (PoR): Transparency and security at the highest level. Transparency and security at the highest level. Superior Liquidity: Ensuring smooth and uninterrupted trading. Ensuring smooth and uninterrupted trading. Multiple Trading Tools: Futures Grid and Futures DCA (Martingale) strategies empower traders to automate and optimize profits. Zero Slippage Copy Trading: Supports over 40 trading pairs, giving users an edge in fast-moving markets. Bybit Bybit is known for its competitive leverage and staking options, making it a popular choice for traders. Bybit has quickly grown in popularity, becoming one of the top platforms for crypto enthusiasts looking to trade with high leverage. Bybits user-friendly interface and high liquidity have made it a favorite among those seeking to execute fast trades with minimal slippage. Key Features: Leverage: Up to 125x . Up to . User-Friendly Interface Staking: Earn passive income through staking features. Earn passive income through staking features. Risk Control: Comprehensive stop-loss and take-profit features. OKX OKX offers comprehensive trading options and a wide range of cryptocurrencies, making it a strong contender. OKX has quickly gained a reputation as one of the most advanced exchanges in the crypto space, offering a sophisticated trading experience to users worldwide. The platform supports over 300 cryptocurrencies, providing ample trading opportunities for investors and traders alike. Key Features: Leverage: Up to 100x . Up to . Comprehensive Trading Options: Access to spot, futures, and options markets. Access to spot, futures, and options markets. Wide Range of Cryptocurrencies Advanced Trading Features Global Availability BingX BingX has established itself as a reliable and secure platform for buying, selling, and trading a broad selection of cryptocurrencies. The exchange offers spot trading, futures trading, and copy trading, with a unique feature that allows users to mirror the trades of more experienced investors. Key Features: Leverage: Up to 125x . Up to . Risk Management Tools Futures Trading User-Friendly Interface What to Consider When Selecting a Crypto Exchange Here are several factors that all users should take into account before signing up for a crypto exchange: Leverage and Trading Tools: Higher leverage and advanced tools can maximize profits. Higher leverage and advanced tools can maximize profits. Security and Transparency: Look for Proof of Reserves (PoR) and strong risk management. Look for Proof of Reserves (PoR) and strong risk management. User Experience: Intuitive interfaces ensure seamless trading. Intuitive interfaces ensure seamless trading. Advanced Features: Tools like grid trading, copy trading, and staking provide added value. Tools like grid trading, copy trading, and staking provide added value. Customer Support and Payment Methods: Ensure responsive support and diverse payment options. Conclusion With new cryptocurrency exchanges coming and going faster than the blink of an eye, platforms like Binance, Bybit, BingX, and OKX have established themselves as leaders--offering advanced features and global accessibility to traders. Each of these exchanges brings unique strengths to the table, catering to a range of user preferences and trading strategies. However, in a crowded market, Toobit stands out for its user-centric approach, innovative features like Zero Slippage, and strong security protocols. By combining cutting-edge technology with a commitment to transparency, Toobit is carving a niche for itself as a trusted platform for both beginners and seasoned traders. With its focus on enhancing the trading experience and ensuring user safety, Toobit is quickly becoming a preferred choice for those looking for a reliable, efficient, and secure cryptocurrency exchange. Whether you're looking for low-slippage trades, an intuitive interface, or educational resources, Toobit continues to lead the way in revolutionizing how users engage with the crypto market. As the exchange grows and evolves, its clear that Toobit is positioning itself as one of the standout players in the cryptocurrency exchange space. Disclaimer: This content is provided by sponsor.This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading and investment involve substantial risks, including the risk of losing all invested capital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Readers are advised to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before engaging in any trading or investment activities. The mention of specific platforms, including Toobit, Binance, Bybit, OKX, and BingX, does not constitute endorsement or recommendation. The features and services of these platforms are subject to change, and it is the user's responsibility to verify all claims and information before proceeding. Neither the author nor the publisher assumes any liability for the use of the information provided in this article. Contact: Erin Gao erin.gao@toobit.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/105d17c4-6d07-456e-a266-35624f16dcd5 ATLANTA, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATLANTA, January 2, 2025 PowerPlan, Inc., a leading provider of financial software and solutions for the energy industry, announced that it has settled the outstanding litigation between PowerPlan and Lucasys, Inc. that was pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Though PowerPlan vigorously contests the baseless claims brought by Lucasys in 2020, it is pleased to eliminate the distraction and uncertainty of litigation. This development enables PowerPlan to fully focus on the continued success of its next generation SaaS technology solutions, including Tax Fixed Assets (TFA) - the market leading cloud tax software for asset intensive industries - and prepare for the launch of its monthly Tax Provision SaaS solution (expected late 2025), while continually innovating and advancing cloud-enabled systems. The settlement releases all claims between the parties for an after-tax settlement payment of $17.7 million, and specifically excludes any admission of liability or wrongdoing. PowerPlan looks forward to continuing to compete and win in the market based on the strength of its 30+ year history of innovative software and solutions. About PowerPlan For more than 30 years, PowerPlan has helped utility and energy companies make the right financial decisions to improve lives and power the world. Through our industry-leading expertise, innovative technology, and vast experience listening to and working in tandem with our clients, PowerPlan software sets the standard that CFOs can count on for financial clarity. For more information, visit www.powerplan.com. MONTREAL, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Velan Inc. (TSX: VLN) announced today that, on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, it will release its financial results for the third quarter ended November 30, 2024. The company will hold an analyst call on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, at 8:00 a.m. (EDT) to discuss the results. To instantly join the conference call by phone, please use the following link to easily register close to the call start time. After registering, the system will call you instantly and connect you into the conference call automatically: https://emportal.ink/3B0rDEL. Alternatively, you may dial in to the conference call by calling 1-888-510-2154 and you will be connected to the call by an Operator. You may also stream the call by Webcast by following: https://app.webinar.net/eJzNR7EjEb9. The webcast replay will be available at the same URL within 2 hours of the end of the call. A replay of the call will be available within 2 hours of the end of the call until January 22, 2025, by calling 1-289-819-1450 or 1-888-660-6345 and entering the replay code 76543. The material that will be referenced during the conference call will be made available shortly before the event on the companys website under the Investor Relations section: (https://www.velan.com/en/company/investor_relations). Beijing, China, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In 2024, China's visa-free policy sparked global excitement for "China travel." Inspired by a reply letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who encouraged Italian students to become modern-day Marco Polos as cultural ambassadors between Italy and China, Marco, an Italian student, set out to witness modern China firsthand. Guided by panda Meng Xiang (Dream), Marco embarked on a fantastic journey, observing how the Chinese people embrace modernization with vitality and confidence. It is a tale of exploration, wonder, and heartfelt moments. This article first appeared in the Global Times https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202412/1326028.shtml Company: Global Times Contact Person: Anna Li Email: editor@globaltimes.com.cn Website: https://globaltimes.cn City: Beijing Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of KISS PR or its partners. This content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or professional advice. KISS PR makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information in this article and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Dr. Zachary Solomon Scholarship for Medical Students is now accepting applications, offering a one-time $1,000 award to support aspiring medical professionals dedicated to advancing healthcare. Established by the renowned cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Zachary Solomon, this prestigious scholarship reflects his lifelong commitment to medical excellence, innovation, and patient care. Dr. Zachary Solomon, a celebrated expert in advanced cardiovascular surgery, has built an illustrious career combining groundbreaking research, clinical mastery, and contributions to healthcare innovation. His journey began at George Washington University School of Medicine, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine degree. Following his education, he completed a rigorous general surgery residency at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, GA, and an advanced fellowship in adult cardiac surgery at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA. With this scholarship, Dr. Zachary Solomon aims to inspire the next generation of healthcare leaders by providing financial support to undergraduate students committed to pursuing a career in medicine. By encouraging applicants to explore the evolving landscape of healthcare, the scholarship underscores Dr. Solomons belief in the transformative power of innovation and dedication in shaping the future of medicine. Eligibility Criteria The Dr. Zachary Solomon Scholarship for Medical Students is open to undergraduate students from any accredited institution who demonstrate: Enrollment in an undergraduate program with a clear intent to pursue a career in medicine. A passion for advancing healthcare through clinical practice, research, or medical technology. Submission of a compelling 1,000-word essay addressing the following prompt: Medicine is a field shaped by innovation and the evolving needs of patients. Discuss a recent medical advancement that has inspired you, and explain how you see yourself contributing to the future of healthcare. Application Deadline and Winner Announcement The deadline to apply for the scholarship is September 15, 2025. The winner will be announced on October 15, 2025. Dr. Zachary Solomon: A Visionary in Medicine and Innovation Dr. Zachary Solomon's expertise extends beyond the operating room. Known for his leadership in cardiothoracic surgery, his contributions include pioneering research on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, published in leading medical journals, and active involvement in the development of cutting-edge medical devices and surgical tools. As a practitioner, Dr. Solomon has performed life-saving surgeries, including heart transplants and complex valvular procedures. As an innovator, he continues to drive advancements in healthcare technology, collaborating across disciplines to enhance patient outcomes. His dedication to shaping the future of medicine makes the Dr. Zachary Solomon Scholarship for Medical Students a reflection of his enduring legacy and vision for the medical field. Encouraging Medical Aspirations Nationwide This scholarship is not limited by geographical boundaries and is open to students across the United States. It invites ambitious medical students to articulate their vision for healthcare innovation and contribute to a rapidly evolving industry. The essay prompt, focusing on recent medical advancements and their potential impact on future careers, reflects Dr. Zachary Solomons emphasis on thought leadership and the integration of technology in medicine. Dr. Zachary Solomons name is synonymous with excellence in both clinical practice and medical research. His role as a mentor and visionary underscores his commitment to fostering the next generation of medical leaders. By establishing this scholarship, Dr. Solomon is creating a platform for students to explore their aspirations and contribute meaningfully to the future of healthcare. How to Apply Eligible students are encouraged to visit the official scholarship website at https://drzacharysolomonscholarship.com/ to learn more about the application process, eligibility requirements, and submission guidelines. The Dr. Zachary Solomon Scholarship for Medical Students provides a unique opportunity for students to receive financial support while reflecting on the transformative power of medicine. Dr. Zachary Solomon invites all aspiring medical professionals to seize this opportunity to envision their role in shaping the future of healthcare. For further information about the scholarship or Dr. Zachary Solomons impactful work, visit the official website at https://drzacharysolomonscholarship.com/. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Dr. Zachary Solomon Organization: Dr. Zachary Solomon Scholarship Website: https://drzacharysolomonscholarship.com Email: apply@drzacharysolomonscholarship.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ad7a3d93-fb16-4380-ad71-6d9785e38881 ATLANTA, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) (the Company) today announced that it will now release its fiscal 2025 first-quarter results on Wednesday, January 8, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. (EST), followed by a conference call at 8:00 a.m. (EST). Neil Ashe, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acuity Brands will lead the call. The Company originally scheduled the release of its fiscal 2025 first-quarter results on January 9, 2025. The change reflects the observance of the National Day of Mourning in recognition of the passing of former President Jimmy Carter. The webcast, earnings release, and supplemental presentation can be accessed via the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.investors.acuitybrands.com on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. The online replay will remain available for a limited time following the call. A replay of the call will also be posted to the Investor Relations site two hours after the completion of the conference call and will be archived on the website. To learn more about Acuity Brands, please visit the Company's website. About Acuity Brands Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We use technology to solve problems in spaces, light, and more things to come. Through our two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Acuity Intelligent Spaces, we design, manufacture, and bring to market products and services that make a valuable difference in peoples lives. We achieve growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including lighting, lighting controls, building management solutions, and location-aware applications. We achieve customer-focused efficiencies that allow us to increase market share and deliver superior returns. We look to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals. Acuity Brands, Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 13,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuitybrands.com Investor Contact: Charlotte McLaughlin Vice President, Investor Relations (404) 853-1456 investorrelations@acuitybrands.com Media Contact: April Appling Vice President, Corporate Communications & Events corporatecommunications@acuitybrands.com BOSTON, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Dr. Sudipta Mohanty Grant for Healthcare Students has been officially announced, offering a one-time award of $1,000 to undergraduate students in the United States who are committed to pursuing a career in healthcare. Spearheaded by Dr. Sudipta Mohanty, an esteemed physician, educator, and advocate for healthcare excellence, this grant underscores his dedication to fostering the next generation of healthcare leaders. Dr. Sudipta Mohanty, currently an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a staff physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is widely recognized for his contributions to clinical practice, medical education, and research. With a distinguished academic background that includes a Bachelors degree in Biology from California State University Los Angeles and an MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. Mohanty has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to advancing the field of medicine. Grant Overview and Purpose The Dr. Sudipta Mohanty Grant for Healthcare Students is designed to support undergraduate students enrolled in accredited colleges or universities in the United States. Eligible applicants must be pursuing a career in healthcare, with fields of study ranging from pre-med and nursing to public health, biomedical engineering, and other health-related disciplines. Applicants are required to submit a 500-750 word essay addressing the prompt: "What is one significant change you would like to see in the healthcare industry within the next 10 years, and how do you envision contributing to this change?" Essays will be evaluated on originality, clarity of thought, and their alignment with the healthcare field. Submissions must be sent via email to apply@drsudiptamohantygrant.com by the deadline of September 15, 2025. The winner of this prestigious grant will be announced on October 15, 2025. Dr. Sudipta Mohantys Vision for the Future of Healthcare Dr. Sudipta Mohantys career has been defined by his dedication to elevating healthcare standards and nurturing the talents of aspiring healthcare professionals. Having served as Chief Resident at the University of California Riverside, where he also held a junior faculty position, Dr. Mohanty has a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities within the medical field. Through the establishment of this grant, Dr. Sudipta Mohanty aims to inspire undergraduate students to think critically about the future of healthcare and how they can contribute meaningfully to its evolution. His commitment to mentorship and education has made him a beacon of inspiration for countless students. Eligibility and Application Criteria To be considered for the Dr. Sudipta Mohanty Grant for Healthcare Students, applicants must meet the following criteria: Enrollment: Must be an undergraduate student currently enrolled at an accredited U.S. college or university. Must be an undergraduate student currently enrolled at an accredited U.S. college or university. Field of Study: Must be pursuing a career in healthcare, including but not limited to pre-med, nursing, public health, or biomedical engineering. Must be pursuing a career in healthcare, including but not limited to pre-med, nursing, public health, or biomedical engineering. Academic Excellence: Must demonstrate strong academic performance and a genuine passion for healthcare. Must demonstrate strong academic performance and a genuine passion for healthcare. Essay Submission: A compelling 500-750 word essay responding to the provided prompt is required. Encouraging Innovative Thinking in Healthcare Dr. Sudipta Mohanty believes that meaningful progress in healthcare begins with innovative ideas. This grant is an opportunity for students to showcase their vision for the future of healthcare while reflecting on the personal contributions they aspire to make. By providing financial support to deserving students, Dr. Sudipta Mohanty hopes to alleviate some of the financial burdens associated with higher education and empower recipients to focus on their academic and professional goals. A Legacy of Excellence Dr. Sudipta Mohantys contributions to medicine extend beyond patient care and research. As a passionate educator and mentor, he has consistently advocated for creating pathways that enable students to achieve their full potential. His vision for the grant reflects his belief in the transformative power of education and the importance of cultivating future leaders in healthcare. How to Apply Students interested in applying for the Dr. Sudipta Mohanty Grant for Healthcare Students are encouraged to visit https://drsudiptamohantygrant.com for detailed information. All applications must be submitted via email by September 15, 2025, to apply@drsudiptamohantygrant.com. About Dr. Sudipta Mohanty Dr. Sudipta Mohanty is a renowned physician, educator, and mentor dedicated to advancing healthcare excellence. His extensive experience in internal medicine, coupled with his commitment to education and research, has earned him recognition as a leader in the medical community. Through initiatives like this grant, Dr. Mohanty continues to make a lasting impact on the healthcare industry and the lives of aspiring professionals. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Dr. Sudipta Mohanty Organization: Dr. Sudipta Mohanty Grant Website: https://drsudiptamohantygrant.com Email: apply@drsudiptamohantygrant.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2a78ae29-7710-4aa0-9850-4048a211e56e VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund announces its transformative scholarship opportunity for undergraduate students who exemplify extraordinary resilience and an unwavering commitment to personal growth and community involvement. The scholarship, founded by esteemed entrepreneur and philanthropist Dylan Sidoo, offers a one-time award of $1,000 to empower individuals navigating lifes challenges while striving for success. A Vision Rooted in Resilience Dylan Sidoo, a recognized leader in entrepreneurship and community advocacy, has made resilience the cornerstone of his professional and philanthropic endeavors. His personal journey of overcoming adversity and navigating complex challenges inspired the creation of the Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund. This initiative seeks to amplify the potential of individuals who share a similar commitment to perseverance, community engagement, and self-betterment. The scholarship provides financial support to individuals who not only face significant life obstacles but also demonstrate a proactive approach to personal and communal growth. Through this fund, Dylan Sidoo aims to nurture a generation of individuals who can drive change and inspire others through their resilience. Eligibility Criteria The Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund scholarship is open to undergraduate students nationwide. To qualify, applicants must meet the following criteria: Overcoming Challenges: Applicants must share compelling stories of resilience, illustrating their ability to overcome personal, professional, or community-based challenges. Applicants must share compelling stories of resilience, illustrating their ability to overcome personal, professional, or community-based challenges. Commitment to Personal Growth: Candidates should display a dedication to self-improvement, showcasing a willingness to learn and develop the skills necessary to foster resilience. Candidates should display a dedication to self-improvement, showcasing a willingness to learn and develop the skills necessary to foster resilience. Community Engagement: Applicants must be actively involved in their communities through volunteer work, initiatives, or service projects designed to uplift others. Applicants must be actively involved in their communities through volunteer work, initiatives, or service projects designed to uplift others. Financial Need: The fund recognizes the role financial barriers play in achieving success and seeks applicants who demonstrate a genuine need for support. The fund recognizes the role financial barriers play in achieving success and seeks applicants who demonstrate a genuine need for support. Potential for Impact: Individuals must articulate how the funds resources will enable them to make a meaningful and lasting impact on their lives and communities. Essay Submission As part of the application process, candidates are required to submit an essay addressing the prompt: Unlock Your Resilience: Share Your Story and Transform Your Future. The essay should detail: Significant challenges faced and how resilience helped in overcoming them. Active community involvement and dedication to personal growth. Aspirations for the future and the anticipated impact of receiving support from the Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund. A clear vision of how the funds resources will help achieve these goals. Submissions of up to 1,000 words must be sent to apply@dylansidooresiliencefund.com by May 15, 2025. The winner will be announced on June 15, 2025. Dylan Sidoos Legacy of Support and Growth Dylan Sidoos career exemplifies resilience and innovation, with accomplishments spanning entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and leadership. Despite facing challenges, Dylan Sidoo has consistently shown the ability to adapt and achieve success in dynamic and demanding industries. His dedication to supporting individuals and communities reflects his belief in the transformative power of perseverance and collaboration. In addition to the Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund, Dylan Sidoo is actively involved in initiatives supporting education, healthcare, and community development. His work is a testament to his belief in creating sustainable and meaningful opportunities for individuals to thrive. Conclusion The Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund offers a unique opportunity for undergraduate students nationwide to gain recognition and support for their resilience, commitment to growth, and dedication to community impact. With a $1,000 award, the scholarship provides vital resources to enable recipients to unlock their potential and contribute positively to their communities. For more information about the Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund, eligibility criteria, and application guidelines, please visit https://dylansidooresiliencefund.com. Contact Information Spokesperson: Dylan Sidoo Organization: Dylan Sidoo Resilience Fund Website: https://dylansidooresiliencefund.com Email: apply@dylansidooresiliencefund.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4cf2ae51-a1e6-41d2-bd6d-3e22b962e7cc SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Granite Credit Union is kicking off its 90th anniversary by opening two branch locations on January 6th. The first branch is inside the Latino Mall in West Valley, Utah. This location is 2470 South Redwood Road, West Valley, Utah. The second location is 9383 South 700 East, Sandy, Utah. Both ribbon cuttings and grand opening celebrations will be announced later. The public is invited to meet the teams and explore the new branches. This is a historic moment for Granite Credit Union, as we not only celebrate our 90th anniversary but also do something we have never done before. We are opening two branches on the same day, said Mark Young, president, and CEO of Granite Credit Union. The simultaneous launch of these locations represents a major milestone in our growth journey and reaffirms our commitment to better serving our communities. As we expand into new areas, we remain focused on providing both new and existing members with the financial tools and exceptional experiences that have made us a trusted partner for nearly a century. We are excited to see the positive impact we can continue to have on our members and the communities we serve. A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link. Branch Manager Kim Reyes described her teams anticipation for the move. Our team is eager to welcome the West Valley community to our new branch; were excited to provide a convenient location where members can receive personalized financial guidance and reach their financial dreams. Charlotte Toone, branch manager of the new Sandy location, shares a similar sentiment. We are thrilled to bring Granite Credit Unions services to the Sandy area. Our team is ready to create an inclusive and innovative environment where members can manage their finances and feel supported every step of the way. Both locations feature a modern, open design that creates a welcoming and progressive space for members to easily conduct financial matters. Granite Credit Union offers a wide range of services, including cutting-edge checking accounts, insurance, investments, automobile loans, RV loans, and a full suite of mortgage options, such as real estate, commercial lending, and business accounts. The regular hours for the Sandy and West Valley branches are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturdays, both branches are open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with drive-up services available exclusively at the Sandy branch. To learn more please visit Granite Credit Union. About Granite Credit Union Founded in 1935, Granite Credit Union serves over 35,000 members and has just over $800 million in assets. Committed to helping members achieve their financial goals, Granite Credit Union offers a variety of financial products and services, including competitive rates, flexible lending options, and personalized financial guidance. With a vision of "always there... so you can make life happen," the credit union strives to empower members with the tools and support they need to succeed financially. Members enjoy access to secure mobile banking services, online tools, and personalized in-branch assistance at locations across Utah. Granite Credit Union is dedicated to making a positive impact in the communities it serves through financial education, trusted relationships, and exceptional service. Granite Credit Union is always there... so you can make life happen. Learn more at granite.org. Media Contact: marketing@granite.org MILLSBORO, Del., Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a groundbreaking initiative aimed at fostering excellence and innovation in the healthcare industry, Dr. Nihar Gala, esteemed founder and CEO of Alpha Care Medical, introduces the Nihar Gala Grant for Healthcare Students. This distinguished grant offers undergraduate and high school students aspiring to careers in healthcare an opportunity to secure $1,000 in financial aid. Dr. Nihar Galas commitment to advancing healthcare education reflects his enduring dedication to cultivating a new generation of healthcare professionals. As the visionary leader of Alpha Care Medicala comprehensive healthcare provider with locations in Millsboro, Harrington, Dover, and Seaford, DelawareDr. Gala has long prioritized professional excellence, compassionate care, and the development of forward-thinking healthcare solutions. A Grant Designed to Inspire Healthcare Innovation The Nihar Gala Grant for Healthcare Students is designed to alleviate financial barriers for students pursuing careers in fields such as pre-medicine, nursing, physical therapy, medical laboratory science, and other allied health programs. High school students preparing to embark on university healthcare degrees are also eligible to apply. Applicants must submit a compelling essay of 1,000 words or less addressing the thought-provoking question: What is a national or global problem that concerns you, and how do you propose a solution? The grant is intended to support tuition, books, or living expenses, ensuring that winners can focus fully on their educational pursuits. Dr. Nihar Gala envisions this initiative as a way to encourage students to engage deeply with the challenges and opportunities of healthcare, fostering their development as passionate advocates, skilled professionals, and leaders in health policy and research. Eligibility and Selection Criteria Students must be enrolled in an accredited college or university or preparing to enter one for a healthcare-related degree. The essays will be evaluated based on originality, relevance, and the feasibility of the proposed solutions. The winner will be announced on August 15, 2025, following the application deadline of July 15, 2025. Dr. Nihar Gala: A Legacy of Excellence and Leadership Dr. Nihar Gala earned his medical degree from Rutgers University Medical School in 2012, where he also completed his internship and residency. In 2017, he founded Alpha Care Medical, which has since become a premier healthcare provider in Delaware. Specializing in addiction medicine and pain management, Dr. Galas multilingual fluency in English, Spanish, and Hindi enables him to serve patients from diverse backgrounds with unmatched professionalism and empathy. Under Dr. Nihar Galas leadership, Alpha Care Medical has established itself as a trusted healthcare provider committed to patient-centric care. This same dedication to excellence underpins the Nihar Gala Grant for Healthcare Students, reinforcing Dr. Galas belief in the transformative power of education and innovation. A Vision for the Future of Healthcare The Nihar Gala Grant is not bound to any city or state in the United States, emphasizing Dr. Galas vision of impacting healthcare on a national and global scale. By supporting aspiring healthcare professionals, Dr. Nihar Gala aims to equip students with the resources and inspiration necessary to address critical issues, improve patient outcomes, and redefine the future of medicine. The essay promptfocused on problem-solving at national or global levelsunderscores Dr. Galas commitment to nurturing students who think boldly and act decisively. This approach reflects his own career-long dedication to addressing complex healthcare challenges through innovative and patient-focused solutions. Application Details Eligible students are encouraged to visit the official grant website at https://nihargalagrant.com/ or https://nihargalagrant.com/nihar-gala-grant/ for more information and to submit their essays. About Dr. Nihar Gala Dr. Nihar Galas reputation as a healthcare leader extends far beyond his role at Alpha Care Medical. His dedication to professional standards and quality care has solidified his standing as an influential figure in the healthcare industry. By creating the Nihar Gala Grant for Healthcare Students, Dr. Gala demonstrates his unwavering support for the next generation of healthcare professionals, ensuring they are equipped to lead and innovate in an ever-evolving field. Encouraging Excellence in Healthcare Education The Nihar Gala Grant for Healthcare Students exemplifies Dr. Nihar Galas enduring commitment to education and the healthcare profession. By investing in the aspirations of future leaders, he seeks to inspire transformative change in the industry. This grant is more than financial supportit is a testament to the power of education in shaping the future of healthcare. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Nihar Gala Organization: Nihar Gala Grant Website: https://nihargalagrant.com Email: apply@nihargalagrant.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/212c36f9-8399-4a94-a848-c216657946e2 Beijing, China, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the China Peacekeeping Police Training Center (CPPTC) of the China People's Police University in Langfang, North China's Hebei Province, everyone carries the concept that "peace is precious" deep in their hearts, as this reflects their original aspiration for participating in peacekeeping missions. "This phrase is deeply ingrained in their minds because it originates from Chinese nation's deep-rooted tradition and cultural heritage of loving and cherishing peace," Wang Honghai, director of the CPPTC, told the Global Times. China has always been a peace-loving nation. The Chinese people love and cherish the hard-won peace. China's development is inseparable from a peaceful and stable international and neighboring environment and China's growth will strengthen the justice force maintaining the world peace, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, said during a speech at the National Assembly of Vietnam on November 6, 2015. During the speech, Xi cited the proverb "He Wei Gui" (peace is precious), which is an excerpt from the Confucian classic The Analects of Confucius. The Analects of Confucius has the concept of "peace is precious" from the statement "In conducting the rituals, the principle of harmony is the most valuable." Here, the rituals are used to help maintain harmonious relations among the people. Xi also cited the proverb in 2017 when he spoke at the United Nations Office in Geneva, noting the Chinese people firmly believe that peace and stability is the only way to development and prosperity. When Global Times reporters stepped into the CPPTC's exhibition room, a quote caught their eye: "Peace is the common aspiration and lofty goal shared by all of humanity," which Xi said at the UN Peacekeeping Summit on September 28, 2015. "China is a peaceful country and a safe nation. Chinese people are peace-loving people. As peacekeeping police, we carry with us the tolerance, inclusiveness, and respect of China's excellent traditional culture to the peacekeeping mission areas around the world," Kang Lin, an instructor at the CPPTC, told the Global Times. The deep understanding of "peace is precious" also stems from our conviction that the Chinese people are committed to contributing toward a peaceful world, Wang said. "As peacekeepers, we continually strive to add China's strength to the efforts aimed at maintaining global peace through the fulfillment of our duties," he stressed. China is the largest contributor of peacekeeping personnel among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the second-largest contributor to the peacekeeping budget, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry. "Our participation in UN peacekeeping missions is an important task in maintaining world peace through the platform of the UN. It showcases China's determination to uphold world peace and our aspiration for a better world," said Xin Yue, associate professor at the CPPTC. For the CPPTC's peacekeeping police, it is an honor to put into practice the country's commitment to promoting global peace through concrete actions. On January 12, 2000, China deployed 15 police officers to Timor-Leste, marking the beginning of a new chapter in Chinese police participating in UN peace operations. Over the last 24 years, China has deployed more than 2,700 peacekeeping police officers to 18 mission areas, according to data released by China's Ministry of Public Security in December 2024. Taking on responsibilities Both Kang and Xin are proud and honored to work at the CPPTC, which is widely regarded as the starting point for Chinese peacekeeping police. They also feel a sense of accomplishment for having successfully passed through rigorous selection processes to become UN peacekeepers. In 2020, after a rigorous selection process, Xin stood out among more than 60 police experts worldwide and was selected by the United Nations as a permanent police reform advisor for the Department of Peace Operations. Xin introduced that in China, peacekeeping police candidates must have five to seven years of police service experience. Before going abroad, they have to undergo intensive training for three months. "We always adhere to the highest standards of selection and training to ensure that our peacekeeping police can fulfill their duties to the best of their abilities in the mission areas," Xin said. Kang has served in two UN peacekeeping missions: One in South Sudan from 2019 to 2020 and another in Cyprus from 2022 to 2023. In Kang's view, peacekeeping police must possess excellent communication skills, cultural adaptability, and problem-solving abilities. Kang still remembers her mission in South Sudan vividly. "It was probably in January or February of 2020 when it was still quite chilly. The day was unusually dark. I was pacing back and forth near the sentry post when I suddenly noticed something resembling a bomb under the sandbags. I almost cried out loud. It was indeed an explosive device." Despite being shocked by what she saw, Kang remained calm and composed, taking immediate action to report the situation to the UN joint operations center in the mission area via handset radio. "I needed to buy time for the professional explosive ordnance disposal team to arrive. On the other hand, I had to remind my colleagues to ensure the safety of the refugee children playing nearby and to protect the surrounding environment," she explained. Fortunately, the crisis was averted, but Kang still shudders at the thought: "If the flashlight's beam had triggered the explosive device, the consequences would have been unimaginable." "Choosing this profession means being prepared for sacrifice. This profession is intertwined with sacrifice and a sense of mission," Xin said. "You never know when danger may suddenly be triggered." Despite knowing that danger lurks around every corner, Kang, Xin and other Chinese peacekeepers remain undeterred, bravely taking on peacekeeping missions. When Kang and Xin met at the CPPTC, they would often naturally fall into conversations about their families. "I have a special longing for UN peacekeeping missions, which I believe are very honorable. My strongest supporter in my family is my husband. He can sense my strong desire to participate. When I think of him, I always feel motivated," Kang said. Kang hopes that her experiences working in overseas mission zones and at the CPPTC will set a good example for her daughter. "I have the opportunity to represent my country in contributing to world peace and demonstrating China's responsibility and commitment as a major power. My whole family feels very proud," she said. Widespread recognition During the interview with the Global Times, Xin showcased his collection of police arm patches from various countries. "A common practice among police colleagues in the mission areas is to exchange arm patches as a sign of goodwill. Behind each arm patch is a shared sense of purpose and the dedication of police officers who strive for world peace," Xin explained. "In UN mission areas, many officers from other countries took my arm patch and said, 'I will keep your arm patch. In the future, I will say this is from my good friend Xin Yue, a police officer from China,'" Xin recalled. During peacekeeping missions, Chinese police officers have appeared all over the world and formed deep friendships with local people. Kang noted that in the refugee camp in Juba, South Sudan's capital, many local children would actively approach her for conversation. Many of them spoke fluent Putonghua and sang Chinese songs. "Later, I learned that those children had learned [Putonghua and the songs] from our peacekeeping soldiers. One of their greatest wishes is to travel to China," Kang said. As the New Year approaches, Kang still remembers that in 2023, the Chinese Embassy in Cyprus and the local overseas Chinese associations jointly organized a Spring Festival gala. Kang invited colleagues from her mission area's police department to participate in the gala. "Our non-Chinese colleagues attached great importance to it, and I felt very elated. They all dressed up, wearing the most beautiful police uniforms from their respective countries," she said. Xin said that during his peacekeeping mission in Liberia from 2014 to 2015, he and his colleagues often visited local communities to share their experiences and help create a safer environment. "Through our efforts, we helped the local police and law enforcement agencies better fulfill their duties, creating a better environment for peace and building a protective environment where people are well protected," he said. With the support of United Nations peacekeeping operations, Liberia, where Xin was stationed, has been able to develop in peace in the last 15 years. The population of Liberia has grown from just over 2 million in 1995 to over 5.2 million in 2023, with over 1 million refugees able to return home, according to data released by the United Nations. In the South Sudan region where Kang once worked, the presence of peacekeeping forces provided opportunities for political dialogue and reconciliation, promoting communication among various parties. Through participating in community development, humanitarian assistance, and conflict resolution work, UN peacekeeping personnel have provided crucial assistance in improving the living conditions of local people. "Through the words and actions of each individual peacekeeper, the international community can observe and understand the chosen development path, systems, and culture of that nation." Wang said. "As qualified peacekeepers, we should demonstrate to the world that China unswervingly follows a path of peaceful development." "Wearing the Chinese police uniforms adorned with countless honors, Chinese peacekeepers will continue to work tirelessly to embody the concept of 'peace is precious,' and strive to be builders of world peace, contributors to global development, and upholders of international order," Wang said. This article first appeared in the Global Times: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202412/1325973.shtml Company: Global Times Contact Person: Anna Li Email: editor@globaltimes.com.cn Website: https://globaltimes.cn City: Beijing Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of KISS PR or its partners. This content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or professional advice. KISS PR makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information in this article and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cypress Door & Glass LLC, a trusted leader in commercial glass repair and door services , is proud to announce the successful launch of its newest location in Texas. Opened just two months ago, the Texas branch represents the companys latest strategic effort to expand its footprint and bring its high-quality repair and installation services to underserved regions. Founded in Pennsylvania, Cypress Door & Glass LLC has built its reputation on delivering exceptional craftsmanship, reliability, and customer service. Over the years, the company has grown steadily, identifying regions with significant demand for specialized door and glass solutions and bringing its expertise to new markets. The Texas location marks a major milestone in this expansion, enabling the company to better serve customers in the southern United States. The launch of the Texas branch follows a proven approach to growth. Cypress Door & Glass LLC begins by identifying areas with high demand for its services,and then recruits talented technicians to join its team. Each technician undergoes extensive training at the companys Pennsylvania headquarters, ensuring they meet Cypresss rigorous standards for quality and professionalism. After completing their training, technicians are deployed to establish and expand operations in their assigned locations . Texas joins Florida, which launched operations in March 2024, as one of the companys most recent expansions. With the addition of the Texas branch, Cypress Door & Glass LLC now operates in four states, offering a full range of services, including emergency glass repair , storefront window repair , automatic door repair , and custom solutions for commercial and industrial clients. The companys commitment to quality extends beyond its servicesit also prioritizes building strong, lasting relationships with its clients and local communities. This focus has been instrumental in the companys ability to grow quickly while maintaining its reputation for excellence. As operations in Texas ramp up, Cypress Door & Glass LLC is excited to continue providing exceptional service to customers in the region. With plans to grow its technician team and further enhance its capabilities, the company is poised for long-term success in the Lone Star State and beyond. It is with great sadness that Rio Tinto confirms that Mr Gel Aguaviva, a deck fitter on board its bulk carrier RTM Zheng He, was reported missing on 26 December 2024, while the vessel was traveling from China to Western Australia. An extensive and ongoing search and rescue operation to find Mr Aguaviva has been conducted over the past seven days, with Rio Tinto working in collaboration with RTM Zheng He ship and crew manager, Anglo Eastern, and relevant authorities. The Philippine Coast Guard is leading the search and rescue operation. Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said: "Our thoughts are with Gel's family, friends and colleagues, and we stand with everyone affected by this distressing situation. We are focused on offering all possible support during this difficult time. "We would like to thank everyone involved in the search for their tireless efforts." RTM Zheng He was in international waters near the Philippines when Mr Aguaviva was reported missing. Rio Tinto is co-operating fully with relevant authorities and the ship's manager on investigations into the incident, as well as conducting its own investigations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250101965943/en/ Contact Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com Media Relations, United Kingdom David Outhwaite M +44 7787 597 493 Media Relations, Australia Matt Chambers M +61 433 525 739 Michelle Lee M +61 458 609 322 Rachel Pupazzoni M +61 438 875 469 Media Relations, Canada Simon Letendre M +1 514 796 4973 Malika Cherry M +1 418 592 7293 Vanessa Damha M +1 514 715 2152 Media Relations, US Jesse Riseborough M +1 202 394 9480 Investor Relations, United Kingdom David Ovington M +44 7920 010 978 Laura Brooks M +44 7826 942 797 Wei Wei Hu M +44 7825 907 230 Investor Relations, Australia Tom Gallop M +61 439 353 948 Amar Jambaa M +61 472 865 948 Rio Tinto Plc 6 St James's Square London SW1Y 4AD United Kingdom T +44 20 7781 2000 Registered in England No. 719885 Rio Tinto Ltd. Level 43, 120 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 Australia T +61 3 9283 3333 Registered in Australia ABN 96 004 458 404 riotinto.com Category: General Vancouver, January 2, 2025 - Edison Lithium Corp. (TSXV: EDDY) (OTC Pink: EDDYF) (FSE: VV0) ("Edison" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news releases of November 18, 2024, and November 29, 2024, and the proposed disposition of the Company's Argentina subsidiary, Resource Ventures S.A. ("ReVe"), as contemplated by the non-binding purchase offer letter, effective November 12, 2024, from Mava Gasoil LLC ("Mava") for USD$3,500,000 disclosed therein, the Company has received the initial USD$100,000 deposit from Mava. The sale terms include Mava paying the Company this initial USD$100,000 deposit, with further payments of USD$3,200,000, USD$100,000 and USD$100,000 payable by Mava to the Company and the two other shareholders of ReVe, respectively, on closing. Edison has already received conditional acceptance of the proposed disposition from the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). Completion of the disposition remains subject to, amongst other things, final documentation, the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement, final acceptance from the TSXV, and receipt of the balance of the purchase price by the Company. The transaction is expected to complete in the latter half of February 2025. About Edison Lithium Corp. Edison Lithium Corp. is a Canadian-based junior mining exploration company focused on the procurement, exploration and development of cobalt, lithium, alkali and other energy metal properties. The Company's acquisition strategy is based on acquiring affordable, cost-effective, and highly regarded mineral properties in areas with proven geological potential. Edison is building a portfolio of quality assets capable of supplying critical materials to the battery industry and intends to capitalize on and have its shareholders benefit from the renewed interest in the battery metals space. On behalf of the Board of Directors: "Nathan Rotstein" Nathan Rotstein Chief Executive Officer and Director Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Disclaimer: This news release contains certain forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Edison's beliefs and expectations, are forward- looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "will be", "expect," "anticipate," "target," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue,", "proposes", "contemplates", "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. All information provided in this news release is as of the date of this news, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law. Forward-looking statements in this press release relate to, among other things: the negotiation and execution of the definitive agreement, the receipt of final TSXV approval for the disposition, the closing of the transaction, and the receipt of the purchase price. Actual future results may differ materially. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections of management on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: determination of acceptable terms for the proposed definitive agreement, receipt of final TSXV approval required for the disposition, and receipt of the purchase price. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235697 Saguenay, January 2, 2025 - First Phosphate Corp. (CSE: PHOS) (OTCQB: FRSPF) (FSE: KD0) ("First Phosphate" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed its non-brokered private placement financing (the "Offering"), as further described in the Company's news release dated December 18, 2024. As part of the Offering, originally announced for gross proceeds of a minimum of $1 million, the Company raised total gross proceeds of $2,695,459. The Company issued 7,448,455 Flow-Through Shares for gross proceeds of $2,606,960 and 252,857 Hard Dollar Units for gross proceeds of $88,500. "We are happy to have raised funds exclusively from a select group of existing and new investors, none of which is a traditional flow-through fund," says Company CEO, John Passalaqua. In connection with the Offering, the Company issued 230,948 Compensation Shares at a price of $0.35 per Compensation Share, and issued 230,948 Compensation Warrants, exercisable at a price of $0.50 per common share of the Company, until December 31, 2025, subject to an Accelerated Expiry Date. All securities issued under the Offering will be subject to a four-month and one day statutory hold period in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Offering as disclosed in the Company's press release dated December 18, 2024. Capitalized terms used in this news release and not defined herein have the meanings given to them in the Company's news release dated December 18, 2024. Insider Participation In connection with the closing of the Offering, Larry Zeifman, a director of the Company, purchased a total of 285,714 Flow-Through Shares. Registered Share Units (RSUs) Grant The Company also announces that it has approved the grant of 3,100,000 restricted share units of the Company ("RSUs") to eligible directors, management and staff of the Company as part of year end bonus compensation. The RSUs vest immediately and the terms of the RSUs are in accordance with the Company's Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. All securities issued are subject to a hold period of four months plus one day from the date of issuance. Grant of Shares under Collaboration Agreement with Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation Under the collaboration agreement signed on April 9, 2024, the Company has issued 574,389 shares to Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation for the exploration and development expenditures undertaken by the Company on the First Nation's lands in calendar 2024. Related Party Transactions As related parties of the Company received Flow-Through Shares and RSUs in connection with the Offering and the grant of RSUs, the transactions are considered related party transactions for the purposes of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The participation of the related parties of the Company are exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under MI 61-101 in accordance with sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101. The Company is relying on an exemption from the formal valuation requirements of MI 61-101 available because the fair market value of the Flow-Through Shares and RSUs purchased by and issued to the related parties does not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization, as determined in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report related to the transactions more than 21 days before the expected closing of the transactions as required by MI 61-101 but believes that this shorter period is reasonable and necessary in the circumstances as the Company wishes to improve its financial position and to close the Offering in short order for sound business reasons. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Completion of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals. There can be no assurance that any further securities will be sold under Offering. About First Phosphate Corp. First Phosphate (CSE: PHOS) (OTCQB : FRSPF) (FSE: KD0) is a mineral development company fully dedicated to extracting and purifying phosphate for the production of cathode active material for the Lithium Iron Phosphate ("LFP") battery industry. First Phosphate is committed to producing at high purity level, in a responsible manner and with low anticipated carbon footprint. First Phosphate plans to vertically integrate from mine source directly into the supply chains of major North American LFP battery producers that require battery grade LFP cathode active material emanating from a consistent and secure supply source. First Phosphate is owner and developer of the Begin-Lamarche Property in Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, Quebec, Canada that consists of rare anorthosite igneous phosphate rock that generally yields high purity phosphate material devoid of harmful concentrations of deleterious elements. -30- Forward-Looking Information and Cautionary Statements This news release contains certain statements and information that may be considered "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" and other similar expressions. In addition, statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward looking statements, including, among other things: the Company's planned exploration and production activities; the properties and composition of any extracted phosphate; the Company's plans for vertical integration into North American supply chains; the terms of the Offering, including, the issuance of any securities, the closing and date of future tranches, and the receipt of all necessary approvals. These statements and other forward-looking information are based on assumptions and estimates that the Company believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in the Company's public disclosure record including the short form base prospectus dated June 5, 2024, as well as: the receipt of all necessary approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. There can be no assurance that any opportunity will be successful, commercially viable, completed on time or on budget, or will generate any meaningful revenues, savings or earnings, as the case may be, for the Company. In addition, the Company will incur costs in pursuing any particular opportunity, which may be significant. These factors and assumptions are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors and assumptions that could affect the Company and, though they should be considered carefully, should be considered in conjunction with the risk factors described in the Company's other documents filed with the Canadian and United States securities authorities, including without limitation the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis dated October 21, 2024 and Annual Report on 20-F dated July 8, 2024, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking information or information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. THIS NEWS RELEASE IS INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/235732 Jervois reaches funding and recapitalisation agreement with Millstreet CapitalManagement, which will result in Jervois being recapitalised through aprepackaged United States Chapter 11 procedure and becoming a private group Transaction implementation will not disrupt commercial operations or businesscontinuity; completion of the transaction will result in a stronger balancesheet with additional capital to revitalise its business plan US$145 million new equity capital pre- and post-recapitalisation to fundbusiness, including funding to restart the Sao Miguel Paulista nickel cobaltrefinery in Brazil Total forecast debt reduction of US$170 million including a full debt toequity conversion of the US$100 million ICO Bonds and US$25 million JervoisGlobal Convertible Notes plus an expected US$44.5 million repayment of JFOWorking Capital Facility principal on transaction close Millstreet extends its existing US$150 million JFO Working Capital Facilityfrom March 2025 to March 2026 on amended terms Jervois recapitalisation to be implemented in Australia through Millstreetproposing a deed of company arrangement once the recapitalisation plan has beenconfirmed through the United States Chapter 11 prepackaged plan Jervois Global Ltd. ("Jervois" or the "Company") (ASX: JRV) (TSX-V: JRV) (OTC: JRVMF) has reached an agreement with Millstreet Capital Management LLC ("Millstreet" or "Lender"), a leading alternative investment firm and current lender to the Company, on a comprehensive proposed recapitalisation that will strengthen the group's balance sheet and provide US$145 million of new pre- and post-recapitalisation equity capital to fund the business and certain growth initiatives, including underpinning the restart of the Sao Miguel Paulista ("SMP") nickel cobalt refinery in Brazil. To effect the proposed recapitalisation in a timely and efficient manner, Jervois and certain of its subsidiaries will commence a prepackaged United States ("U.S.") Chapter 11 procedure ("Chapter 11 Plan"), expected to commence in January 2025. Throughout the process, the Company is expected to continue operations in the normal course, and anticipates that its vendors, suppliers, customers and employees will remain unaffected by the proposed recapitalisation. Millstreet is expected to implement the recapitalisation in Australia by an interconditional deed of company arrangement in respect of Jervois. Millstreet's intended Australian deed of company arrangement proposal will be consistent with the recapitalisation plan under the Chapter 11 Plan, which requires Jervois to dispose of its material assets to a nominee of Millstreet, conditional on creditor approvals required under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). As an implementation condition, Jervois would seek Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") approval of its delisting. Millstreet currently provides the secured Jervois Finland ("JFO") Working Capital Facility ("Facility"), is the majority and controlling lender of the 12.5% US$100 million Idaho Cobalt Operations ("ICO") Senior Secured Bonds ("ICO Bonds") and is the sole holder of the US$25 million convertible notes ("CN") issued by the Company. Under the Restructuring Support Agreement ("RSA") between Jervois (and certain of its subsidiaries) and Millstreet: Millstreet will provide US$145 million of pre- and post-recapitalisation new equity capital to recapitalise the Jervois group business, including a US$70 million equity commitment to underpin the SMP nickel cobalt refinery restart Jervois will transfer the subsidiaries that operate the JFO, SMP and ICO assets and the CN to a reorganised parent entity, and the ICO Bonds and CN shall be converted into new equity interests in the reorganised parent entity The reorganised parent intends to operate all of its subsidiaries with no interruption to business, continuing to service its customers. This includes JFO where the Lender intends to continue the existing US$150 million Facility for the group's working capital requirements under amended terms The recapitalisation is intended to be implemented in Australia by Millstreet proposing a deed of company arrangement in respect of Jervois once the Chapter 11 Plan has been confirmed Post completion of the proposed recapitalisation, Jervois is intended to be delisted (subject to the ASX agreeing to the delisting) and wound up. As a result of the proposed recapitalisation there is anticipated to be no return for the current equity holders of the Company The Company will confirm with the ASX that a waiver from any requirement for shareholder approval under the ASX listing rules will be granted The RSA allows that the Directors of Jervois can comply with their fiduciary duties and in those circumstances, potentially terminate the RSA. Jervois has agreed to exclusivity arrangements in the RSA which restrict it from soliciting, or encouraging any alternative proposals, subject to certain customary exceptions It is expected that the proposed recapitalisation will be completed before 30 April 2025. Background Jervois has undertaken significant diligence and negotiations with third parties, stakeholders and Millstreet in relation to the proposed recapitalisation of the Company's balance sheet extending to potential partnerships including joint ventures, sale of its assets and or injections of equity capital into either its assets or the Company. Due to several factors including the current cobalt price which is, in real terms, at all-time lows, these negotiations have not resulted in a transaction that allows Jervois to recapitalise its group balance sheet on terms more favourable than those provided in the RSA. With the proposed recapitalisation and Chapter 11 process, Jervois will request that its ordinary shares be suspended from the ASX and no longer trade on the TSX-V or United States OTC market pending the outcome of the Chapter 11 Plan and associated implementation steps. On behalf of Jervois Global Limited Bryce Crocker, CEO For further information, please contact: Investors and analysts: Alicia Brown Group Manager - External Affairs Jervois Global alicia.brown@jervoisglobal.com Media: Nathan Ryan NWR Communications nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au Mob: +61 420 582 887 Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule", "expected" and other similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to the restructure of the balance sheet, amount of debt reduction, operations of the reorganised parent, the proposed Chapter 11 process, confirmation of waivers from the ASX and certain other factors or information. Such statements are not guarantees and represent Jervois' current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by Jervois, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many uncertainties and other factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Jervois does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Vancouver, January 2, 2025 - Terra Clean Energy Corp. ("Terra" or the "Company") (CSE: TCEC, OTCQB: TCEFF, FSE: C9O0) is pleased to announce the appointment of Greg Cameron as President and Chief Executive Officer and C. Trevor Perkins as Vice President, Exploration of the Company effective immediately. The appointment of Mr. Cameron follows the resignation of Alex Klenman as President and Chief Executive Officer, with Mr. Klenman continuing to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Company. Mr. Cameron has extensive experience and knowledge in business development, strategy, acquisitions and divestitures as well as corporate restructurings. He is a former Senior Investment Banker and held senior positions at leading Canadian and International Investment Banks including Canaccord Genuity, Orion Securities and Macquarie. He currently is the Managing Director of Colby Capital Limited, a private merchant bank in Toronto. Mr. Cameron has over two decades of high-level experience in the capital markets, serving on numerous public and private company boards from startups to seasoned public companies. "I'm excited to lead Terra and begin an aggressive development plan of the South Falcon uranium deposit." said Mr. Cameron, CEO. "We believe strongly that our upcoming exploration program will allow us to increase both the size and grade of the current deposit. With renewed optimism in the uranium sector and fresh capital to deploy we believe the timing is right to create a lot of value." Mr. Perkins is a Professional Geologist with wide-ranging experience in planning and executing mineral exploration programs and managing exploration teams. He brings a proven track record in uranium exploration that includes significant results. During his three-decade career, Trevor has fulfilled roles as Exploration Manager, UEX Corporation, Vice President, Exploration, Cameco Mongolia, District Geologist - Europe and Asia, Cameco Corporation, Senior Geologist, Rio Tinto Senior Project Geologist, Cameco Australia, and Project Geologist, Cameco Corporation in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan. As Project Geologist for the McArthur River project, he led a team that discovered the McArthur River North Extension zones and as Senior Project Geologist for Cameco Australia, led a team that discovered the Angulari Uranium Deposit. Most recently Mr. Perkins was a technical advisor for the company and is currently the Vice President, Exploration for Azincourt Energy Corp. "I am very excited to move into this new role with Terra Clean Energy," commented Mr. Perkins, Vice President, Exploration. "This is an exciting time for the company. I am eager to move forward with our South Falcon East Project and look for opportunities to expand our exploration portfolio". The Company also announces an award of 2,075,000 restricted share units (each, an "RSU") pursuant to its Omnibus Incentive Plan to directors, officers and consultants of the Company. Each RSU entitles the recipient to receive one common share of the Company on vesting. The RSUs vest on the date that is one year from the date of grant. The grant of RSUs remains subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. About Terra Clean Energy Corp. Terra Clean Energy (formerly Tisdale Clean Energy Corp) is a Canadian-based uranium exploration and development company. The Company is currently developing the South Falcon East uranium project, which holds a 6.96M pound inferred uranium resource within the Fraser Lakes B uranium/thorium deposit, located in the Athabasca Basin region, Saskatchewan, Canada. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF TERRA CLEAN ENERGY CORP. "Greg Cameron" Greg Cameron, CEO Qualified Person The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the company by C. Trevor Perkins, P.Geo., the Company's Vice President, Exploration for the Company, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. *The historical resource is described in the Technical Report on the South Falcon East Property, filed on sedarplus.ca on February 9, 2023. The Company is not treating the resource as current and has not completed sufficient work to classify the resource as a current mineral resource. While the Company is not treating the historical resource as current, it does believe the work conducted is reliable and the information may be of assistance to readers. Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including statements regarding the ability of the Company to satisfy regulatory, stock exchange and commercial closing conditions of the grant of RSUs, and the potential development of mineral resources and mineral reserves which may or may not occur. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and general economic and political conditions. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary approvals, including governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by applicable laws. For more information on the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ from current expectations, please refer to the Company's public filings available under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information please contact: Greg Cameron, CEO info@tcec.energy Terra Clean Energy Corp Suite 2200, HSBC Building, 885 West Georgia St. Vancouver, BC V6C 3E8 Canada www.tcec.energy PERTH, January 2, 2025 - Sarama Resources Ltd. ("Sarama" or the "Company") (ASX:SRR) (TSX-V:SWA) is pleased to advise the appointment of Michael Bohm as Non-Executive Director, effective 1 January 2025. Mr. Bohm is a seasoned Director and Mining Engineer in the resources industry. His career spans roles as a mining engineer, mine manager, study manager, project manager, project director, and managing director. He has played a direct role in numerous mine developments across the gold, nickel, and diamond sectors. He is a current director of ASX listed Riedel Resources and has previously been a Director of ASX listed Perseus Mining Limited, Ramelius Resources Ltd., Mincor Resources NL and Cygnus Metals Limited. Sarama also wishes to advise that Steven Zaninovich has resigned as a director of the company due to changing work commitments, effective 31 December 2024. The Board thanks Mr. Zaninovich for his dedication and commitment for the last 4 and a half years and wishes him well in his future endeavours. Sarama's Chairman, Andrew Dinning commented: "We are pleased to welcome Michael Bohm as a director. Michael's extensive experience, including his valuable contributions to Ramelius during its early years, is especially relevant as Sarama is currently rebuilding its operations in Western Australia's prolific Eastern Goldfields. This includes the recent acquisition of the promising Cosmo Gold Project, covering the entire 50 kilometers of the Cosmo Newbery greenstone belt which we believe presents a significant opportunity for the Company. We would also like to sincerely thank Steven Zaninovich for his valuable contribution during what has been a very challenging time for the business and wish him well in his future endeavours." For further information, please contact: Andrew Dinning Sarama Resources Ltd e: info@saramaresources.com t: +61 8 9363 7600 This announcement has been authorised by the Board of Sarama Resources. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Sarama Resources Ltd. VANCOUVER, Jan. 2, 2025 - Luca Mining Corp. ("Luca" or the "Company") (TSXV: LUCA) (OTCQX: LUCMF) (Frankfurt: Z68). The Company has been advised that on December 31, 2024, one of the Company's insiders, Calu Opportunity Fund LP, ("Calu") with an address at 1166 Alberni Street, Suite 1201 Vancouver, BC V6E 3Z3, sold an aggregate of 5,699,975 common shares ("Common Shares") of Luca. The Common Shares were sold on the open market through the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") at an average price of approximately $.62 per Common Share for an aggregate gross amount of $3,533,984 (the "Sales Proceeds"). Calu has advised the Company's management that it intends to use $2,000,000 of the Sales Proceeds to exercise a total of 4,000,000 warrants at an exercise price of $.50 per warrant. Immediately prior to the sale of the Common Shares described above, Calu owned or controlled an aggregate of 35,000,000 Common Shares, representing approximately 17.57% of the then issued and outstanding Common Shares and 7,000,000 share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") entitling Calu to acquire an additional 7,000,000 Common Shares. Following the sale of the Common Shares and the exercise of 4,000,000 Warrants, Calu will own or control 33,300,025 Common Shares and 3,000,000 Warrants. Calu does not have any specific current plan or future intention with respect to such securities and may or may not purchase or sell securities of the Company in the future on the open market or in private transactions in the ordinary course, depending on market conditions and other factors material to Calu's investment decision. About Luca Mining Corp Luca Mining (TSXV: LUCA) (OTCQX: LUCMF) (Frankfurt: Z68) is a diversified Canadian mining company with two 100%-owned producing mines in Mexico within the prolific Sierra Madre Mineral Belt. The Company produces gold, copper, zinc, silver and lead from these mines that each have considerable development and resource upside. The Campo Morado mine, is an underground operation located in Guerrero State, an important mining region in Mexico. It produces copper-zinc-lead concentrates with precious metals credits. It is currently undergoing an optimisation program which is already generating significant improvements in recoveries and grades, efficiencies, and cashflows. The mill at Campo Morado has a capacity of 2,400 tonnes per day. The Tahuehueto Gold, Silver mine is a new underground mine in Durango State, Mexico which hosts numerous producing and historic mines on trend. Tahuehueto has a designed processing capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day and is expected to achieve commercial production in Q1 2025. Luca Mining is focused on growth with the aim of maximizing shareholder returns. For more information, please visit: www.lucamining.com On Behalf of the Board of Directors (signed) "Dan Barnholden" Dan Barnholden, Chief Executive Officer Cautionary Note Regarding Production Decisions and Forward-Looking Statements It should be noted that Luca declared commercial production at Campo Morado prior to completing a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Accordingly, readers should be cautioned that Luca's production decision has been made without a comprehensive feasibility study of established reserves such that there is greater risk and uncertainty as to future economic results from the Campo Morado mine and a higher technical risk of failure than would be the case if a feasibility study were completed and relied upon to make a production decision. Luca has completed a preliminary economic assessment ("PEA") mining study on the Campo Morado mine that provides a conceptual life of mine plan and a preliminary economic analysis based on the previously identified mineral resources (see news releases dated November 8, 2017, and April 4, 2018). Positive operating cash flow is defined as excluding capital, debt repayment and Trafigura financing. Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding the planned program to improve mining operations at Campo Morado; and other possible events, conditions or financial performance that are based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action; the timing and costs of future activities on the Company's properties, such as production rates and increases; success of exploration, development and bulk sample processing activities, and timing for processing at its own mineral processing facility on the Tahuehueto project site. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified using words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates" or variations of such words and phrases. In preparing the Forward-Looking Information in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, that the current exploration, development, environmental and other objectives concerning the Campo Morado Mine and the Tahuehueto Project can be achieved; that the program to improve mining operations at Campo Morado will proceed as planned; the continuity of the price of gold and other metals, economic and political conditions, and operations. Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release SOURCE Luca Mining Corp. For further information about Luca Mining Corp., please contact: Sophia Shane, Director of Corporate Development, Tel: +1 (604) 306-6867, sshane@lucamining.com or Glen Sandwell, Corporate Communications Manager, Tel: +1 (604) 684-8071, ir@lucamining.com VANCOUVER, Jan. 02, 2025 - Novo Resources Corp. (TSX: NVO) (ASX: NVO) (OTCQB: NSRPF) announces that it has transitioned its trading platform from the OTCQX to the OTCQB market in the United States. Effective immediately, Novo Resources will now trade on the OTCQB under the ticker symbol NSRPF. This transition reflects the company's evolving strategic priorities while continuing to provide an opportunity for increased engagement with the U.S. investment community while maintaining access to a highly respected U.S. trading platform. "We are pleased to make this transition to the OTCQB, which is better suited to our current growth stage and offers a more efficient, cost-effective platform for both our shareholders and potential investors," said Mr. Michael Spreadborough, Executive Co-Chairman of Novo Resources. "Our commitment to advancing gold exploration in Western Australia remains steadfast, and this change will help enhance our market presence in the U.S. and beyond, ultimately supporting our goal of creating long-term value for stakeholders." The OTCQB is a premium tier of the OTC Markets Group, offering increased visibility, higher compliance standards, and greater trading efficiency. Despite the change, Novo Resources remains committed to transparency, regular communication with investors, and providing operational updates. Novo Resources continues to trade on the TSX under the symbol NVO and on the ASX under the symbol NVO. Authorised for release by the Board of Directors. CONTACT Investors: Mike Spreadborough +61 8 6400 6100 info@novoresources.com North American Queries: Leo Karabelas +1 416 543 3120 leo@novoresources.com Media: Cameron Gilenko +61 466 984 953 cameron.gilenko@sodali.com ABOUT NOVO Novo is an Australian based gold explorer listed on the ASX and the TSX focused on discovering standalone gold projects with > 1 Moz development potential. Novo is an innovative gold explorer with a significant land package covering approximately 5,500 square kilometres in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, along with the 22 square kilometre Belltopper project in the Bendigo Tectonic Zone of Victoria, Australia. Novo's key project area is the Egina Gold Camp, where De Grey Mining is farming-in to form a JV at the Becher Project and surrounding tenements through exploration expenditure of A$25 million within 4 years for a 50% interest. The Becher Project has similar geological characteristics as De Grey's 12.7 Moz Hemi Project1. Novo is also advancing gold exploration at Nunyerry North, part of the Croydon JV (Novo 70%: Creasy Group 30%), where 2023 exploration drilling identified significant gold mineralisation. Novo continues to undertake early-stage exploration across its Pilbara tenement portfolio. Novo has a significant investment portfolio and a disciplined program in place to identify value accretive opportunities that will build further value for shareholders. Please refer to Novo's website for further information including the latest Corporate Presentation. An Exploration Target as defined in the JORC Code (2012) is a statement or estimate of the exploration potential of a mineral deposit in a defined geological setting where the statement or estimate, quoted as a range of tonnes and a range of grade (or quality), relates to mineralisation for which there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource. Accordingly, these figures are not Mineral Resource or Ore Reserve estimates as defined in the JORC Code (2012). The potential quantities and grades referred to above are conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource. These figures are based on the interpreted continuity of mineralisation and projection into unexplored ground often around historical workings. The Exploration Target has been prepared in accordance with the JORC Code (2012). As detailed in the Company's ASX announcement released on 25 September 2024 (available to view at www.asx.com.au). The Tonnage range for the exploration target is 1.5Mt to 2.1Mt and the Grade range is 6.6g/t Au to 8.4g/t Au. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information that material affects the information included in the original market announcement and that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the original market announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed. 1. Refer to De Grey ASX Announcement, Hemi Gold Project Resource Update, dated 21 November 2023. No assurance can be given that a similar (or any) commercially viable mineral deposit will be determined at Novo's Becher Project. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7b3e33ad-d947-48fb-b70c-856c6e1e7f17 Atlantic Avenue in East New York, a Brooklyn neighborhood not far from John F. Kennedy International Airport, isnt exactly picturesque or inviting. It's a six-lane road carrying heavy trucks past auto dealers, fast-food restaurants and abandoned industrial properties. The neighborhood it borders has been in decline for decades, as blue-collar jobs disappeared and white flight emptied much of its housing.Now New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to make East New York, and Atlantic Avenue in particular, the test case for his latest strategy for making the Big Apple affordable for people at all income levels. To do that, de Blasio and his administration want to harness the forces that have transformed other Brooklyn neighborhoods into upscale enclaves.The city is using a combination of zoning changes and public works projects to entice developers to come to East New York. By opening up new areas to residential sites and relaxing some costly rules, the city would better enable developers to build lucrative, dense projects. But there's a catch: From now on, large projects will have to set aside a quarter or more of their units for low- or moderate-income tenants. The city, meanwhile, will develop affordable housing on its own property in the neighborhood, and it will also build a new school, add a community center, upgrade parks, improve streetscapes, install broadband and offer support services for existing residents.Its an ambitious undertaking -- not just for its scale but also for the amount of coordination it will require across city departments -- and could serve as a template for transforming the other 14 neighborhoods where the mayor wants to increase affordable housing.But the same forces that are raising rents across New York could also jeopardize the citys efforts in the neighborhood. Property values in East New York are already shooting up, because of the areas transit access and its proximity to other gentrifying neighborhoods. The long-discussed plans for improvements from the city also make the area more attractive to wealthy residents and developers.Carl Weisbrod, chair of the City Planning Commission, said the city has to intervene before the area prices out its current residents as well as other lower-income people who might want to move there.If we do nothing, gentrification is just going to occur, and poor people are going to be displaced, he said. That is just the reality. One of the reasons we wanted to address the issue in East New York is we believe we can cushion that and reduce the impact.Not everyone is convinced. In fact, some advocates think parts of the plan could make things worse.One point of contention is the so-called set-aside ordinance, otherwise known as Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, which lets the city decide whether to require a developer to build 25 percent of its units for poorer households or 30 percent for slightly more affluent households. Thirty percent of the city's residents make less than $25,000 a year. But under the rules, families making up to $52,000 could qualify for lower-income units, while households making as much as $95,000 could qualify for medium-income units.Mandatory Inclusionary Housing is not an affordable-housing plan but a gentrification plan, the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a tenants rights group, wrote in its April newsletter. Building new housing that is 70 to 75 percent market-rate housing in low-income communities of color will only fuel gentrification.Weisbrod, however, defended the income thresholds, noting that a family with a teacher and a police officer might seem well-off but would nonetheless have a hard time finding a place to live in the city.In fact, Weisbrod said New Yorks set-aside ordinance is one of the strongest in the country and should serve as a national model. The law makes it difficult for developers to build their affordable units off-site, and it doesn't let them simply pay a fee instead of building the units. The income thresholds are tied to percentages of median income and change as that number rises or falls. That way, Weisbrod said, the neighborhoods where that housing is built will have mixed incomes for a long time.As the neighborhood gets better, the impact of mandatory inclusionary zoning would assure that a percentage of the housing would be affordable forever, he said. Youre not just providing affordable housing for the time. The commitment is that the housing is permanently affordable.Still, Weisbrod and other city officials say they recognize the anxiety the plan could cause. They've tried to address those concerns by, for example, sharing the status of promised projects on a city website so residents know the amenities that they're promised will actually materialize.Neighborhoods throughout the country and probably throughout the world fear change. They are wary about development. They are worried [about] increased development and more people. Partly theyre wary because public investments dont always accompany increase in density, so existing services get overcrowded. We recognize that, he said, noting that the city held 100 neighborhood meetings in developing its plan for East New York. I cant say we satisfied them on everything, but we heard a lot from them, and that did guide our thinking. Next article: Unilever, ETI, GCB, GLD and MTN emerge best performers on Ghana Stock Exchange in 2024 Featured Government proposes GH68.1billion mini-budget for first quarter 2025 GraphicOnline Business News Jan - 02 - 2025 , 17:33 The government has proposed a GH68.1 billion mini-budget to Parliament to fund essential expenditures for the first quarter of 2025. This allocation, submitted by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam today, aims to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of critical government services during the transitional period. The proposed amount will cover salaries of public sector workers, statutory payments, vital infrastructure maintenance, and social intervention programs. The GH68.1 billion proposal is part of Ghanas constitutional requirement during transition years to avoid fiscal disruptions. It bridges the gap between outgoing and incoming governments, ensuring public institutions remain operational while the new administration drafts its comprehensive financial plan for the year. Advertisement The Second Deputy Speaker Andrew Asiamah Amoako has referred the mini-budget to Parliaments Budget and Finance Committees for detailed scrutiny. The committees will review the proposed figures and policies before presenting their findings to the House for debate and approval. Parliament will reconvene later on January 2, 2025, to formally receive and deliberate on the budget. The discussions will focus on justifying the proposed GH68.1 billion allocation, with an emphasis on its ability to address urgent national needs during the first quarter. Nestle Ghana to intensify sustainability initiatives in 2025 Beatrice Laryea Business News Jan - 02 - 2025 , 18:52 The Corporate Communications Manager of Nestle Ghana, Deborah Kwablah, has reiterated the companys commitment to strengthening its sustainability efforts to maximise benefits across environmental, social, and economic domains, while contributing to global objectives. Mrs Kwablah highlighted Nestle Ghana's active involvement in various sustainability initiatives, such as waste management and the use of renewable energy. These efforts recently earned the company the "Overall Best Practices in Sustainable Manufacturing" award at the 13th Association of Ghana Industries and Quality Awards, held two weeks ago. Looking ahead, she expressed the companys intention to expand its sustainability projects in 2025 to fully harness their potential. Advertisement In addition, Mrs Kwablah noted that Nestle Ghana received multiple accolades at the AGI ceremony, including the "Overall Best Industrial Award, Diamond Category (Food)", "Best Company (Food Sector)", and "Overall Industrial Company of the Year". She made these remarks during this year's Maggi Fufu Festival, organised in partnership with Gold Coast Restaurant in Accra. "We will keep strengthening our sustainability efforts. We are involved in various sustainability initiatives, including waste collection, renewable energy, and wastewater treatment, among others," she stated. "This year has been exceptional. I say exceptional because we were named the Sustainable Manufacturing Company of the Year by the Association of Ghana Industries at the 13th awards ceremony. This recognition clearly shows that our sustainability efforts are valued and acknowledged by the industry and its associations," she added. Fufu Festival Mrs Kwablah explained that the Fufu Festival was designed to bring individuals and groups together to reflect on their activities over the past year while celebrating one of Ghanas beloved traditional dishes, fufu. The event featured members from various alumni associations, including Aburi Girls SHS, Prempeh College, St. Augustines College, Adisadel SHS, Labone SHS, and Nungua SHS. Guests were entertained by the vibrant Adaha Dance Band with lively Ghanaian highlife music and dance, alongside live music performances and rap competitions among the alumni associations. "Today, we are here at the Gold Coast Restaurant celebrating fufu with Maggi. Fufu is a special dish for all of us, no matter which part of Ghana we come from. It is enjoyed by many tribes across the country," she remarked. "What better way to kick off the year-end celebrations than with a fufu party, cooking it to perfection with Maggi? Alumni associations are groups that do a lot of great work for their schools, and at the end of the year, they also come together to celebrate," she said. "This platform, with the Gold Coast Restaurant cooking with Maggi, has made it easier for old school unions and other groups to gather and celebrate the things they have accomplished within the year," she explained. Mrs Kwablah concluded by urging Ghanaians to live peacefully and work towards a prosperous future for the country in the coming year: "We all belong to this beautiful country, Ghana. It is a peaceful nation, so lets cherish it. Lets give our best in everything we do and celebrate joyfully as we look forward to a successful 2025." Education For her part, Category Development Executive Magherita Amon explained that the festival aimed to educate consumers about the usefulness and benefits of Maggi in their households, particularly during the Christmas season. "From the brands perspective, this fufu festival is an opportunity to inform our consumers that Maggi is a trusted household brand. We use local ingredients to prepare Maggi, and if you visit our Maggi stand here, you'll be able to see the ingredients we use in its preparation." "We have Maggi Shrimp, Maggi D3d33d3, Maggi Tablets, and Maggi Chicken. These varieties give consumers options to choose from when preparing their meals. Also, we use this occasion to let our friends in the diaspora know that when they come home, they can experience events like these with Maggi," she added. Featured Unilever, ETI, GCB, GLD and MTN emerge best performers on Ghana Stock Exchange in 2024 Kweku Zurek Business News Jan - 02 - 2025 , 11:14 The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) wrapped up 2024 with a strong showing, marked by a 56.17 percent Year-To-Date (YTD) increase in the Composite Index and a 25.20 percent year-to-date (YTD) rise in the Financial Stock Index. These figures underscore a year of investor confidence and market recovery. Unilever Ghana Limited Leads the Charge Unilever Ghana Limited (UNIL) was the standout performer of 2024, achieving an impressive 140.44 percent increase in its share price. Starting the year at GH 8.11, UNIL closed at GH 19.50, making it the highest-gaining stock on the GSE. The stock recorded a trading volume of 586,268 shares, accounting for 0.19 percent of total market volume. In value terms, UNIL contributed 0.90 percent of the total market value traded, equivalent to GH 9.55 million. Advertisement ABSA NewGold ETF Delivers Solid Gains ABSA NewGold ETF (GLD), a gold-backed security, also performed robustly, posting a 78.72 percent increase. Its share price surged from GH 218.50 to GH 390.50, driven by strong global gold prices. GLD accounted for 48.65 percent of the markets total value traded, equivalent to an impressive GH 513.98 million. Telecom and Banking Sector Highlights MTN Ghana (MTNGH) solidified its dominance, with its share price climbing by 78.57 percent, closing at GH 2.50 from GH 1.40. The telecom giant traded a staggering 234.5 million shares, contributing 40.89 percent of the markets total value traded, equivalent to GH 431.99 million. In the banking sector, GCB Bank (GCB) emerged as a strong performer, with its share price rising by 87.35 percent, closing at GH 6.37. GCB traded 2.47 million shares, contributing 1.27 percent of the markets total value, equivalent to GH 13.37 million. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) also delivered a solid 106.67 percent gain, with its share price rising from GH 0.15 to GH 0.31. ETI traded 1.79 million shares, accounting for 0.03 percent of market value traded, or approximately GH 297,387.69. Mixed Performances Across the Board While many stocks delivered significant gains, others posted mixed results: - Access Bank Ghana (ACCESS) closed the year with a 52.94 percent gain, ending at GH 5.20. - Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) recorded a 31.05 percent increase, finishing at GH 23.00. - CAL Bank (CAL), however, saw a decline of 27.08 percent, closing at GH 0.35, reflecting a challenging year for the institution. Key Market Statistics - Top Gainer: Unilever Ghana Limited (140.44 percent). - Largest Contributor to Market Value: ABSA NewGold ETF (48.65 percent). - Overall GSE Composite Index Growth: +56.17 percent YTD. - Financial Stock Index Growth: +25.20 percent YTD. Looking Ahead to 2025 The outstanding performance of stocks such as Unilever Ghana, MTN Ghana, and ABSA NewGold reflects a rejuvenated market. Analysts anticipate further growth in 2025, buoyed by strong investor sentiment and improving economic indicators. Next article: Trudys drops official video of Gods Time on New Years day Previous article: Meghan Markle's Netflix Series, With Love, Meghan, set to premiere in January: All the Details! Featured The Macallan targets Ghana's affluent market with expansion in 2025 Gifty Owusu-Amoah Showbiz News Jan - 02 - 2025 , 18:36 3 minutes read In a recent report by audit firm, KPMG, it is estimated that the African luxury market will grow by 10% annually over the next five years due to increasing affluence, rising middle class and a growing appreciation of high-end products. To tap into the new emerging market, The Macallan, a renowned Speyside distillery has announced plans to expand their market in Ghana and West Africa in 2025. At a recent event marking one of the activities of bicentennial celebrations of The Macallan held in Accra, Miguel Angel Soto, Head of Commercial MEAI, Edrington, emphasised the importance of the Ghanaian and African market to its growth. Africa is a fundamental plain for us at The Macallan because many of the world's wealthiest consumers are here and their knowledge of single-malt whisky is ever evolving. Advertisement We want to capitalise on the opportunity that young affluent consumers present for our brand as well as versed whisky connoisseurs across the key markets of Africa like Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria." He mentioned that The Macallan's strategy locally in Ghana includes collaborations, localised marketing campaigns, and a diverse product portfolio. Kumar Thakur, Managing Director of Raju Ghana, local distributors of the luxury single malt whisky, said, "There has been an uptake in the consumption of luxury whiskies. The consumers are drinking high-end whiskies and appreciate brands like The Macallan based on their understanding of what goes into the distillation process". The Macallan is concluding its bicentennial celebrations with the release of "A Night on Earth in Jerez de la Frontera," a limited-edition single malt Scotch whisky. This third instalment in the distillery's A Night on Earth Series pays homage to Jerez de la Frontera, the birthplace of The Macallan's sherry-seasoned oak casks. Steven Bremner, Whisky Maker at The Macallan, explained that Jerez plays a crucial role in The Macallan's past, but also present and future. As a whisky maker, having been able to tell part of that story through a whisky has been wonderfully rewarding. A combination of European and American sherry seasoned casks has enabled us to capture the flavours, traditions and Maria's memories of New Year in Jerez de la Frontera, the home of sherry wine." As The Macallan reflects on its 200-year legacy, Ghana remains a key focus. In the words of Nana Ama Akyeabea Sakyi-Obuobi, Regional Assistant Brand Manager Edrington MEAI, As we celebrate The Macallan's 200-year legacy, we're excited about the future of luxury spirits in Africa. Our commitment to excellence and sustainability resonates strongly with the continent's discerning consumers. We're not just sharing our heritage; we're crafting new experiences that speak to the sophisticated tastes and aspirations of Africa's luxury whisky enthusiasts." Featured FULL TEXT: President-elect John Dramani Mahama's New Year message John Mahama Opinion Jan - 01 - 2025 , 20:09 3 minutes read Fellow citizens, my brothers and sisters, As we begin the new year 2025, Lordina and I wish each of you a year filled with the promise of a productive and prosperous 2025. We thank God for guiding our paths through the past year, and I trust Him to do something new in our lives. This year marks not merely the beginning of another chapter but a renewed promise to youa promise of hope, progress, and shared prosperity. In the coming months, we will embark on a purposeful, enthusiastic, and enterprising journey to reset the Ghanaian economy for growth and jobs. My administration is committed to implementing our 24-hour economy policy, expanding job opportunities, and transforming Ghana into an export-driven economy. Together, well create an environment that fosters entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainable development, ensuring that our youth can achieve their dreams right here at home. Advertisement My vision for our great nation includes a lean, efficient government responsive to your aspirations as a proud Ghanaian. We will work tirelessly to correct the outgoing administration's many wrongs, tackle corruption with dogged determination, and reduce excessive government expenditures. Each citizen's voice will be heard, and together well build a Ghana that reflects our collective hopes and dreamsthe Ghana we all want and voted convincingly for. To the youth: You are our most valuable asset. Your energy, creativity, and passion are vital to our future success. I urge you to believe in yourselves and in the endless possibilities that lie ahead. Your participation will be crucial as we work together to cultivate a thriving economy and forge a brighter future for all. To business owners and entrepreneurs: I want you to know that my administration will support your efforts to create jobs and wealth. We are committed to removing barriers, simplifying processes, and providing the necessary resources to empower you to build and expand your businesses. Together, let us embrace positivity and hope. Let us stand united in the belief that we can reset our economy, restore dignity and integrity, and renew our collective commitment to building the Ghana we wanta Ghana of opportunities, equity, and shared success. As we celebrate this new year, let us work together to build a Ghana that will be a place of peacea place of peace for all. Let us commit to working hand in hand to achieve our goals and dreams. I am upbeat about fulfilling my campaign promises, knowing we can and will make a difference together. Heres to a transformative and prosperous 2025 for all of us. May this year be filled with strength, resilience, and the unwavering belief that we can achieve great things for our beloved country, Ghana. My brothers and sisters, my fellow citizens, I wish you a happy new year. Previous article: See the cut-off points for admission at the University for Development Studies Featured Colleges of Education Teachers declare indefinite strike Richard Osei Boateng Education Jan - 02 - 2025 , 09:27 1 minute read The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has declared an indefinite strike starting Thursday, January 2, 2025. This decision was reached during an Emergency National Council meeting held on Monday, December 30, 2024, according to a statement issued by the association on December 31. CETAG stated that the strike follows prior warnings issued on September 26 and December 23, 2024, which the National Labour Commission (NLC) failed to address. The association explained that the governments repeated breach of agreed-upon terms and failure to honor the compulsory arbitration award issued by the NLC on May 2, 2023, left them with no choice but to take this action. Advertisement The National Council of CETAG wishes to state unequivocally that members of the union shall not under any circumstance return to the colleges to undertake any official duties including teaching, and supervision of project work and macro-teaching, until the last pesewa is paid into our accounts. This declaration of an indefinite strike action is in accordance with section 159 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651). Next article: See the entry requirements for HND Programmes at Accra Technical University Featured Registration ongoing for WASSCE resit examination GraphicOnline Education Jan - 02 - 2025 , 09:12 2 minutes read The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced that registration for the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for Private Candidates (WASSCE PC1) is ongoing and will close on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. The examination, which offers students an accelerated opportunity to improve their grades, is set to take place from January 24 to February 15, 2025. Faster path to academic success Speaking on JoyNews AM Show on December 31, 2024, WAECs Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, explained that the initiative, dubbed WASSCE PC1, is designed to assist candidates who wish to resit one or two papers without waiting an entire year. Students who access their results now and realise they need to resit one or two papers have until 8th January to register online through our website or at WAEC-accredited internet cafes, he stated. Advertisement The exams will primarily be conducted in regional capitals due to the relatively low number of candidates for the first series. Support for candidates To help candidates prepare, WAEC has committed to releasing chief examiners reports ahead of the exams. These reports will offer detailed feedback on common mistakes and tips for better performance. Weve advertised this programme widely through banners, our website, and our results checker platform to ensure that both students and parents are aware, Mr Kapi added. Who is eligible? Students whose results have been cancelled due to malpractice are eligible to register, provided they have not been banned from taking the examination. This initiative also aims to assist candidates in quickly improving their grades to meet admission requirements for the next academic cycle. How to register Prospective candidates are urged to visit the WAEC website for detailed registration instructions. Registration is to be done online or at WAEC-accredited internet cafes. WAEC is optimistic about the impact of this programme. This initiative will allow candidates to improve their grades and qualify for the next cycle of admissions, avoiding a year-long delay in their academic progress, Mr Kapi noted. Students and parents are encouraged to take advantage of this expedited opportunity to enhance their academic outcomes. The clock is ticking, and registration closes on January 8, 2025. Featured Don't dwell on criticisms and challenges of the past - Evangelical Presbyterian Church Moderator Timothy Ngnenbe Jan - 02 - 2025 , 02:17 2 minutes read The ongoing transition of power from one government to the other presents Ghanaians with a unique opportunity to reflect on the past, learn from mistakes, and forge a new path towards a brighter future, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, Rt. Rev. Dr. Lt. Col. Bliss Divine Agbeko (rtd), has stated. In his 2025 New Year message, the clergyman called on citizens to approach the new year with "a sense of hope, renewal of our attitude to work and expectations." Again, he said as a people of faith, Ghanaians must be reminded that the transition to a new government meant that God was doing a new thing for the country. In that regard, he said it was important for people not to dwell on the criticisms and challenges of the past, but rather learn from the successes and setbacks of the previous administration. Advertisement "While we embark on this new journey of hope, I urge our new leaders to build upon the foundation laid by their predecessors, learn from the mistakes of the past, implement measures to correct them with integrity,and replicate the successes and good initiatives that have benefited our nation," he stressed. While underscoring the need for citizens to hold leaders accountable, the moderator also urged them to support public office holders with good ideas, prayers, wisdom, and constructive feedback. He further emphasised the need for members of the public to work together to build "a nation that is just, equitable, and prosperous for all." "As we navigate the complexities of our national life, let us remember that we are all in this together. Let us strive to be good citizens, caring neighbors, to love one another, and to seek the common good of communities," he added. Rev. Dr Agbeko also called on Ghanaians to be guided by the principles of justice, equity, accountability, compassion, and righteousness in their daily lives. He said what citizens should look out for was a nation that feared and loved God, honoured His word, and sought His wisdom in all aspects of national life. Drawing inspiration from Psalm 127:1-2 - unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain, he said unless the Lord watched over the country, human security was not enough. "Let us seek the blessings of God and His presence to be with us Ghanaians as we move forward in 2025 and beyond," he said. He called on all Christians to pray fervently to God God for his direction, guidance, leading, wisdom, and protection in the year ahead. Featured EOCO freezes Prestea-Bogoso mine transaction following investigations into process of acquisition by Heath Goldfields Enoch Darfah Frimpong Jan - 02 - 2025 , 15:35 4 minutes read The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has initiated investigations into what it says was an alleged fraud in the acquisition of the Prestea-Bogoso Mine by Heath Goldfields Ltd in the mineral and mine industry. Heath Goldfields Ltd in November 2024 took over the Bogoso-Prestea Mines from Future Global Resources (FGR), owners of Blue Gold International. FGR had acquired the Prestea-Bogoso Mine from Golden Star Resources in October 2020. But according to the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU), due to a reported financial constraint, the mine ceased operations in December 2023. Advertisement As of December 2023, the GMWU claimed operations of the FGR Bogoso Prestea Mine was inactive and the Volta River Authority and GRIDCo had even reportedly cut power to the mines operations due to the formers indebtedness. The government therefore in November 2024 approved the acquisition for Heath Goldfields Ltd, a local Ghanaian company, which then took over. The government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in a letter dated November 12, 2024 and seen by Graphic Online, approving the take over explained that, the move was to ensure the need to revamp the mine, secure the employment of workers, restore economic activities to the area and prevent any negative environmental impact arising from the closure of the mine. However, FGR has disputed the issue. There are claims that the mine has been taken away from FGR who is financed and was five weeks away from listing on the New York Stock Exchange and it has been given to a Ghanaian owned company. FGR has therefore issued a notice of dispute to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Minerals Commission and interested parties and planning to injunct the transaction. One of the allegation is that, the Ghanaian company, Heath Goldfields Ltd was incorporated on February 6, 2024 and had a stated capital of GH10,000 at the time of incorporation. The company's profile filed with the Registrar indicates that the principal place of business is in Accra and has an Accra digital address but the postal address is in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region [See the attachment below]. EOCO's investigation It is following this and an allegation of fraud in the acquisition/transaction according to EOCO, that it has initiated an investigation and requested for documents [See copy of EOCO's letter attached below]. EOCO has directed the freezing of the transaction/acquisition process between the said companies until the investigations are completed. EOCO in a letter dated December 23, 2024 and signed by the Executive Director, Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah, a Commissioner of Police (COP) directed the Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission to provide it with information in relation to documents pursuant to section 19 of the EOCO Act. The EOCO letter to the Minerals Commission, a copy of which has also been seen by Graphic Online directed the Chief Executive Officer of the commission to report to the Executive Director of EOCO with documents on the registration process in the acquisition of the Prestea-Bogoso Mine by Heath Goldfields Ltd and any other documents in relation to the transaction. In relation to the directive to freeze the transaction and or acquisition, EOCO quoted Section 33 of the EOCO Act, 2010 (Act 804) which gives it power in that respect. Ghana Mine Workers Union commend government as Heath Goldfields takes over Bogoso-Prestea Mines In a recent statement published by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on December 31, 2024, the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) of the Trades Union Congress for instance commended the government for deciding to issue the mining leases of the Prestea-Bogoso Mine to Heath Goldfields Ltd. The union said it was excited about the decision and pledged support and commitment to work with Heath Goldfields to turn around the Prestea-Bogoso Mine. The union's statement was signed by Abdul-Moomin Gbana, the General Secretary of GMWU. The Ghana Mine Workers Union is now convinced that the Bogoso-Prestea Mines are in a good position to receive the needed capitalisation that will revamp the mines and reposition them on the path of growth and sustainability, he stated. The union said it was deeply convinced that the government had diligently acquitted itself in accordance with the laws of Ghana to terminate the mining leases held by FGR/Blue Gold to Heath Goldfields. The Ghana Mine Workers Union rejects all claims orchestrated by FGR/Blue Gold seeking to impugn and undermine every effort of the government and other relevant stakeholders targeted at revamping the Bogoso-Prestea Mines, the statement added. It said statutory payments, including Tier 1, Tier 2, and the provident fund of the workers, have been in arrears since 2021. Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh Follow @enochfrimpong Follow @Graphicgh Next article: The year 2025 will be good - Agyinasare Featured Fire outbreak at Kantamanto market in Accra, 13 fire tenders battling inferno Enoch Darfah Frimpong Jan - 02 - 2025 , 06:04 2 minutes read Thirteen fire tenders have been marshalled from various areas in Greater Accra to fight an ongoing fire incident at the Kantamanto market in Accra central. The fire which started around 1:00 am has destroyed many shops in the market. The incident is at the Kantamanto Railways area. The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) responded to the distress call with an initial five fire appliances from Makola, Greater Accra Regional Headquarters, National Headquarters, Flagstaff House, and Parliament House to combating the blaze. Advertisement The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was called upon to cut power supply to the area to facilitate firefighting. An additional of three fire tenders from Circle, Trade Fair and Dansoman were also dispatched to assist, to bring the total to eight appliances after about an hour of fighting the incident. Later, two more fire tenders from Abelenkpe and Kasapreko also joined the operation, increasing the total number of appliances to 10. Additional appliances from Tema Regional Headquarters and Madina were also at the scene, before another one from the Legon Fire Station joined bringing the total number of appliances to 13. The large deployment of resources was part of the GNFS' efforts to combat the blaze effectively and bring it under control. As of 6am, personnel from the GNFS were still battling the inferno after five hours that it started. Attached below are some videos from the scene of the incident. more to follow.... Writer's email: enoch.frimpong@graphic.com.gh Follow @enochfrimpong Follow @Graphicgh Featured Ghana AIDS Commission expresses worry over increasing HIV cases in Ashanti GNA Jan - 02 - 2025 , 08:05 2 minutes read The Ashanti Regional Technical Coordinator of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Ms Olivia Graham has expressed worry over the increasing cases of HIV infection in the region. Ashanti region currently has over 66,000 cases of HIV infections, with less than 50 percent of the infected persons undergoing the Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) treatment, despite the availability of the treatment. Ms Graham made this known to the Ghana News Agency during an interview on the sidelines of a free multiphasic health tests organised by the GAC to mark the World AIDS Day in the Ashanti Region. The multiphasic health screening exercise held at the Kejetia market in Kumasi included an HIV test, blood sugar level test, Blood Pressure (BP) test, and Body Mass Index (BMI) check. Advertisement Free condoms and HIV Self-Test kits were distributed to those who checked their HIV status and those who wanted to run the tests at home. The theme for the World AIDS Day celebration was, Take the Right Path: Ending AIDS Together. Ms Graham said 3,650 new cases of HIV were recorded in 2023, indicating that about 10 people were getting infected with the virus every day in the region. She said the main focus for the multiphasic screening was to get many people checked for HIV since most people shy away from getting tested. The HIV test does not indicate a positive or negative result but a reactive or non-reactive result that takes 15 minutes to be ready, she noted. Ms Graham said persons with reactive results were counselled and referred to a health centre where further HIV tests would be performed for the final HIV status results. She noted that HIV was no longer a death sentence because there was a treatment for it, and when taken consistently, would reduce the viral load in the body system. Ms Graham encouraged all citizens to take the HIV test to know their status and get treated if the result was positive to help attain the 95 percent infected persons on treatment target. This will also help prevent the wide spread of the virus in the region and the country at large. Ms Princess Owusu-Ansah, a lady in her early 20s, said she was sexually active and wanted to get checked for HIV to know her status. This is my first time of checking my HIV status and I am not scared. Again, it is important to always know that you are healthy, so I want to take advantage of the free screening, she said. Featured I'll maintain and strengthen Ghana's relations with France - Mahama Rosalind K. Amoh Jan - 02 - 2025 , 13:06 3 minutes read The president-elect, John Dramani Mahama, has assured that Ghana under his leadership will seek to deepen the bilateral relations it has with France and build upon the gains the relationship has already yielded. With France in recent times changing the approach of the relationship from one of benefactor-dependant to a win-win relationship carved out of mutual respect, Ghana would want to maintain that relationship and even build on it as it was the way to go, Mr Mahama indicated. The president-elect said this when the French Ambassador to Ghana, Jule Armand Aniambossou, paid a courtesy call on him on December 24, 2024. Mr Aniambossou had visited to deliver a message of congratulations from the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to Mr Mahama on his successful election as the President of Ghana. Advertisement Accompanying the Ambassador were some senior officials of the Embassy, while an aide of the President-elect, Julius Debrah also sat in the meeting. Message The message, signed by Mr Macron read: "Following the official announcement of the results confirming your election as President of the Republic of Ghana, I would like to congratulate you warmly and wish you every success in the mandate that the people of Ghana have once again given to you. "The exemplary conditions under which the general elections were held on December 7, like all Ghanaian elections since 1992, are testament to Ghana's democratic tradition and the civic sense of the Ghanaian people. "I eagerly look forward to working with you to strengthen our bilateral relations in all areas, particularly, in the economic and cultural sectors. "In this respect, I applaud Ghana's accession to the status of full membership of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie; a move which will enable us to cooperate more closely in the teaching of French in Ghana, in the interest of the Ghanaian youth and of regional integration. "I wish you and the people of Ghana continued prosperity and peace. Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of my highest consideration," Mr Macron's message concluded. Response In response to the message, Mr Mahama said he enjoyed the working relationship Ghana had with France during his first tenure and was happy that the relationship and even been strengthened over the years, and he intended to further build on that. He said he was happy that Ghana had joined the Francophie community, but that should be more people-centred and beneficial to people instead of it being just an institution. "The opportunity to be part of the Francophonie organisation is not only important but also strategic given that Ghana is surrounded by francophone countries, hence the need to have common interests. "However, this opportunity should not be just an institution, but to be of practical benefit by being people-centred with tangible benefits," the President-elect stated. He said he also looked forward to playing his part to ensure that the relations are not just strengthened, but it also help France achieve its new approach of the win-win friendship. The French Ambassador also used the opportunity to update the President-elect on some of the initiatives France has supported in recent times and what needs to be continued. Mr Aniambossou said the focus of France's support to Ghana has been on security and efforts to curb counter-terrorism, military cooperation, academic and scientific partnership, support for the creative and cultural industries. Also, he stated that there has been improved support of France's development agency, Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) for key development projects . "Mr President-elect, this is to brief you on the current direction of our relationship; but the message from France is that at any given time, it is not in our place to impose our development plan, but rather, work in close collaboration to achieve what you consider your priority. That is what we mean a win-win relationship that is built on mutual respect," the Ftench Ambassador said. Featured JUSAG calls for salary review approval, threatens strike action Richard Osei Boateng Jan - 02 - 2025 , 09:12 2 minutes read The Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG) has reiterated the call for the immediate approval of revised salaries and allowances for its members, signaling potential industrial action if delays persist. According to JUSAG, the Judicial Council has concluded its review of the salary and allowance structure, submitting recommendations to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in line with Article 149 of the Constitution. In a statement dated December 31, 2024, the association noted the President's directive to Parliament regarding the budgets for the Audit Service, Parliamentary Service, and Judicial Service. This development, which includes provisions for compensation, was met with cautious optimism by JUSAG. However, the association expressed frustration over delays in the approval process, emphasizing that its National Executive Council (NEC) has petitioned Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo to expedite the matter. Advertisement As of December 30, we have been informed that the Judicial Council's recommendations are under serious consideration by the President and have been forwarded to the Finance Minister for further action, the statement read. While JUSAG acknowledged these updates as promising, it maintained that any further delay could trigger industrial action. We are monitoring the situation closely. If the revised salary structure is not approved and implemented without undue delay, we are prepared to initiate a series of industrial actions to ensure the government addresses our concerns, the association warned. JUSAG's firm stance underscores its commitment to securing fair compensation for its members, urging swift governmental action to avoid disruptions within the judicial service. Next article: Don't dwell on criticisms and challenges of the past - Evangelical Presbyterian Church Moderator Featured The year 2025 will be good - Agyinasare Emmanuel Bonney Jan - 02 - 2025 , 04:05 2 minutes read The Founder and Prelate of the Perez Chapel International, Archbishop Charles Agyinasare, has said the year 2025 will be good. "It is going to be a very good year for you, it is going to be a very good year for the nation." "It is going to be a very good year for Africa, it is going to be a good year for the world. I declare it in the name of Jesus," he said. Archbishop Agyinasare, who is also the President of the Bible Society of Ghana, said this when he delivered the 31st Watch Night Service message at the Perez Dome in Accra. The event was dubbed 31st Night of Prophecy and Power. Advertisement He reminded the congregants not only to be hearers of the word but doers of it as well. Among other things, he charged Christians to release and use the word of God as it was going to work or manifest in their lives. "Let's release and use it," he said and that "when you stand on the promises of God, God has no choice but to honour His Word" Archbishop Agyinasare urged the congregation to pray to all the promises of God and speak His Word. He mentioned Proverbs 18:21, emphasizing that death and life were in the power of the tongue and "So declare the Word of God over your wife, over your family, over other nations. Declare the Word and I tell you, it's going to happen, it's going to be a very good year" He admonished the members to also preach the word of God of this year and win souls for God's Kingdom. "Preach the Gospel to every creature. Proclaim the Gospel and win souls for the Kingdom 2025. Win souls 2025. "Tell people about the good news. Tell people. Promote the propagation of the Bible by partnering with people who have initiatives to spread the Word," he said. He called on Christians to support to Bible Society to spread the Gospel of Christ across the nation and the world. Archbishop Agyinasare said members of the congregation should allow the Word of Christ dwell richly and that they should put themselves in a place where the Word of God would be manifested in their lives. "I am confident that by the end of 2025, you will have the whole testimony of how God's Word has manifested in every area of your life," he said. Next article: See all the holidays to be observed in Ghana in 2025 Featured Tuesday, January 7 declared statutory public holiday for Constitution Day GraphicOnline Jan - 02 - 2025 , 23:09 3 minutes read The Ministry of the Interior has declared Tuesday, January 7, 2025, as a statutory public holiday to mark Constitution Day. The announcement was made in a statement signed by the Minister for the Interior, Henry Quartey, on Thursday, January 2, 2025. Constitution Day is a significant occasion in Ghanas calendar, commemorating the coming into effect of the 1992 Constitution and the birth of the Fourth Republic. First observed in 2019, the holiday underscores Ghanas commitment to the rule of law, constitutionalism, and democracy. Historical context The 1992 Constitution, which came into force on January 7, 1993, after being approved in a referendum on 28th April 1992, serves as the fundamental framework for Ghanas political principles. It defines the structure, powers, and duties of the government, as well as the rights and responsibilities of citizens. Advertisement January 7 also holds special significance in election years, as it is the day on which Ghanas Heads of State are sworn into office. The government solidified the observance of Constitution Day as a statutory public holiday when it amended the Public Holidays Act, 2001 (Act 601). This legislation replaced 1st July, formerly Republic Day, with Constitution Day as a commemorative day. Broad support The introduction of Constitution Day received widespread backing from political parties, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC). At the time, the NDCs Deputy General Secretary, Peter Boamah Otokunor, remarked, It is not out of place to celebrate it as a public holiday. Although the party raised concerns about the designation of August 4 and September 21 as Founders Day and Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, respectively, there was general consensus on the significance of marking Constitution Day. Reflecting on Ghanas Fourth Republic The Fourth Republic, established under the 1992 Constitution, is the longest in Ghanas history, having lasted over 27 years and counting. In comparison, the first three republics were interrupted by military coups that toppled civilian governments. Prominent presidents of the Fourth Republic include: - Jerry John Rawlings (NDC): Served from January 7, 1993, to January 7, 2001. - John Agyekum Kufuor (NPP): Took office on January 7, 2001, and served two terms until January 7, 2009. - John Evans Atta Mills (NDC): Elected in 2009 but passed away in office on July 24, 2012. - John Dramani Mahama (NDC): Succeeded President Mills and served from 2012 to 2017. - Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (NPP): Sworn in on January 7, 2017, and set to end his tenure in January 7, 2024. Civic responsibility Ghanas National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has endorsed the observance of Constitution Day, encouraging citizens to embrace the principles enshrined in the Constitution. The NCCE has called on Ghanaians to "make the study and application of provisions of the Constitution part of our daily lives. As Constitution Day approaches, citizens are encouraged to reflect on how best to uphold the supreme law of the land and contribute to building a stronger Republic. Featured Accountability key to eliminating impunity - Zanetor Rawlings Graphic.com.gh Politics Jan - 02 - 2025 , 04:49 3 minutes read The Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, at the 43rd anniversary of the 31st December Revolution on Tuesday, called for accountability in Ghana as the new National Democratic Congress (NDC) government works to "reset and recalibrate the direction of the country." She stated that consequence management was key to holding people accountable for doing right or wrong so we can do away with the psyche of impunity that people have. It is time we celebrated our heroes for doing the right thing and shame those who use their positions to destroy and use their incumbency to amass wealth at the expense of the people of this country. The resources of this country are not meant for one family, one ethnic group and definitely not for one party, Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings stated. Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings, expressed sadness that her father, the late Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings was not around to witness the dawn of a new era in Ghana. Advertisement The Member of Parliament for the Klottey Korle constituency in the Greater Accra Region, said the mandate the people of Ghana had given the NDC was a sacred and solemn one. She noted that at a time in history that we are surrounded by democratic reversals and unrest, we need to show that we are on the path of righteousness and the path towards a sustainable future where the integrity and dignity of Ghanaians is assured. That is what the NDC represents and that is what the people of Ghana are expecting of us, the Member of Parliament said. The Klottey Korle legislator said citizens must not think it is us and them. She enjoined Ghanaians to join hands in steering the country back on track, stating that "we must not allow arrogance, pride and hubris to fill our hearts because, of the electoral victory." The NDC, Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings said, is inheriting a broken family and a wounded nation that has become so polarized and divided not on right or wrong but on partisanship, cronyism and corruption. "Not a single aspect of the society, Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings lamented, was spared from the tsunami of the NPP government of the past eight years," she said. We are duty bound to do what is right by the people of Ghana for the sake of those who died in the pursuit of our liberty and for the sake of those yet unborn, she stated. Touching on the inner strength and resolve of Ghanaians, Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings said when in the 1980s millions of Ghanaians were forcibly expelled from Nigeria the whole world expected Ghana to collapse but it did not happen because we had good leadership and a good followership. Good followership is as essential as good leadership for good governance, she said. She said: It is not enough to have good leaders. We as the citizens must also make sure we are keeping our leaders and ourselves accountable and on the path of the straight and narrow. That is the only way we can bring Ghana to her former glory and make Ghana truly the pride of this continent yet again. We have unfortunately been presided over by a government who have weaponized our democracy against us. That is not what democracy is about and we have a solemn duty to restore the power of the people. Dr. Agyeman-Rawlings urged Ghanaians to do a thorough introspection by thinking about Ghana and how as a collective we can share a vision of making Ghana a better place for ourselves and our future generations. Other speakers at the occasion which took place at the Nungua Town Park were NDC Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, NDC General Secretary Fiifi Kwetey and the Member of Parliament for Krowor, Agnes Naa Momo Lartey. Featured NPP sets up committee to investigate 2024 election defeat Samuel Doudu Politics Jan - 02 - 2025 , 18:10 2 minutes read The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has formed an 11-member committee to investigate the party's defeat in the 2024 general election. The committee will be chaired by Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, a former Speaker of Parliament. This decision was made during a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Accra today, chaired by the partys National Chairman, Stephen Ayesu Ntim. The committees mandate is to assess the factors contributing to the NPPs loss and recommend strategies for rebuilding the party and preparing for future elections. It is expected to engage stakeholders, including party members, grassroots supporters, and political analysts, to ensure a thorough review. The committee is to commence work immediately, with its findings anticipated to play a pivotal role in shaping the NPPs strategy moving forward. Party members and supporters have been encouraged to contribute and support the process to ensure a comprehensive and impactful investigation. Advertisement At the same meeting, the NEC confirmed Alexander Afenyo-Markin as the Minority Leader for the Ninth Parliament. Mr Afenyo-Markin, who is also the NPP Member of Parliament for Effutu in the Central Region, has been retained in this role, reflecting the partys confidence in his ability to lead effectively and hold the majority accountable. During the meeting, NPP National Chairman Mr Ntim emphasised the significance of the committees work and urged party members to remain united during this period of reflection and rebuilding. This is a critical moment for the NPP. We must take this opportunity to learn from our setbacks and emerge stronger and more determined, he said. Background At a news conference held on 23 December 2024, at the party's headquarters in Asylum Down, Accra, Mr Ntim announced the partys intention to establish an election review committee in January 2025. The purpose of the committee is to conduct a thorough post-mortem analysis of the party's defeat in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections. The committee will engage with party stakeholders and the general public to identify the factors and circumstances that led to the loss. It will also examine the need for constitutional amendments and restructuring of the partys internal decision-making processes, particularly regarding the election of presidential and parliamentary candidates, as well as party executives. Next article: LIST: See what the world Googled the most in 2024 Previous article: How to add a home screen 'button' on an iPhone, iPad Featured Iran lift 2-year ban on WhatsApp, Google Play News24.com Technology Jan - 02 - 2025 , 16:12 3 minutes read Iranians can now access WhatsApp and Google Play without a VPN after the government lifted a two-year ban, signaling a shift in internet restrictions, but the fight for full online freedom continues. This morning (Thursday), I was able to send messages via WhatsApp without using a VPN, Hamid, a northern Tehran resident and a cafe worker, told EFE. However, the 32-year-old lamented that he still needs a VPN to access Instagram and Telegram, which are the most popular platforms in Iran. While many had hoped for a complete removal of social media restrictions, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which includes the heads of the three branches of government, decided to lift the ban only on WhatsApp and Google Play for now. Advertisement This marks a first step towards fulfilling a promise by President Masud Pezeshkian to ease internet restrictions. The Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Sattar Hashemi, reaffirmed this by stating that the path continues. He wrote tjhis on X, a platform officially used by the authorities despite being blocked in Iran. Despite the unblocking of WhatsApp and Google Play, Instagram, Telegram, X, and YouTube remain restricted. Kian, an employee at a currency exchange in Tehran, emphasized that while WhatsApps unblocking is significant, Instagram and Telegram are more critical for Iranians, particularly those using these platforms to promote businesses. Thousands, if not millions, of Iranians rely on Instagram to market their businesses, services, and products, Kian said. Despite these restrictions, many Iranians continue to access international platforms through VPNs. Former presidential assistant for social rights and freedoms, Sakineh Saadat, criticized the partial unblocking. The unblockers remain on peoples phones, imposing an excessive cost on the peoples basic needs. The unblocking of WhatsApp and Google Play has been widely covered in Irans official media, with some newspapers like Sazandegi and Jorasan optimistically headlining the event as Cracks in the Wall of Censorship. Others, however, view it as a slow advance towards full internet freedom. These internet restrictions were imposed during the 2022 protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating the countrys strict dress code. The Iranian government has long justified its censorship as a means to prevent opposition groups and enemy countries from using social media platforms to incite unrest and threaten national security. The policy has failed to fully contain the digital resistance, as Iranians continue to access blocked platforms with VPNs. According to Saeedreza Ameli, a member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, 97 percent of Iranians aged 15 to 17 use VPNs to access blocked content. A report from Sharif University of Tehran in July indicated that 79% of Iranians still access foreign platforms with VPNs, calling the governments censorship policy failed. In September, the U.S. called on tech companies to help circumvent internet censorship in countries like Iran. Unofficial sources suggest that hundreds of Iranians have already installed Starlink satellite internet, which bypasses all government-imposed internet restrictions. JungHyun and JeongEun Park, looking over ingredients at Atomix. Photo: Janice Chung Its 2:30 in the afternoon, and JungHyun Park, who goes by JP, is squished onto a small sofa with one of his sous chefs. A nervous cook is sitting across from them, interviewing for a spot on the line at Atomix, the fine-dining restaurant that JP runs with his wife and business partner, JeongEun Park, whom everyone calls Ellia. After the usual interview questions past experience, interests outside of work JP asks the prospective cook if he has any questions. He does: Would you consider this authentic Korean food? Its a question that JP and Ellia hear often and one that theyve spent plenty of time considering. A lot of Korean food is very new, like tteokbokki and budae-jjigae, JP tells me. Even the onion has been important in Korea for only 100 years but now every recipe in Korea has onion in it. Time, in other words, shifts the perception of what qualifies as authentic, and more than anything, the Parks are interested in exploring that evolution. Maybe what we are doing, in 100 years, this is what Korean food can be, he offers. The couple has given themselves a few different venues to house that exploration. Atoboy, opened in 2016, was inspired by banchan the small plates that are a part of traditional Korean meals and is now a spot to find riffs on well-known Korean dishes and ingredients (fried chicken served with a peanut sauce, the cinnamon tea sujeonggwa reimagined as granita). A couple blocks north is Atomix, a two-level space that opened in 2018. At the downstairs tasting counter, the Parks present a ten-course, $375 menu that allows them to define their own vision for contemporary Korean dining (one that might, for example, transform Koreas beloved stamina-boosting eel into sauces and mousse). For the past couple years, the restaurant has consistently placed in the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list, where it currently sits at No. 33, making it the top-ranked restaurant in the United States. They also run Naro part of the cadre of high-profile arrivals in Rockefeller Center where, across from the ice rink, they interpret the history of the Korean culinary canon (a recent menu, for example, focused on the cuisine of the Joseon era, which comprises the five or so centuries prior to the 20th century). Finally, there is their newest, and most casual, spot, Seoul Salon, a Koreatown destination with an emphasis on cocktails and soju. Working around the dining counter inside Atomixs downstairs dining room. Photo: Janice Chung The couple has only lived in New York for about a decade, but they are already among the citys most prolific and acclaimed restaurateurs, collecting Michelin stars and critical accolades along the way. Next, they want to turn their success into a foundation for the future: Our first goal was to open our small restaurants well, Ellia says. Now our goal is legacy, the legacy of our culture in this country and of the next generation. Theyve assembled their restaurants under the umbrella of a new hospitality company Na:eun they have the Korean Cookbook due in the fall, and they are taking their new standing as role models seriously. I came here for Danny Meyer, for Thomas Keller, Ellia says. Theyve led the industry for 30, 40 years now and they are still here. I want to be here in 10, 20 years too this is about community and culture. How can we make a better industry for the next generation? The couple met in Seoul, at Kyung Hee University. While Ellia completed her culinary science degree, JP studied abroad in Finland and externed at a restaurant in London. He ended up at the Ledbury, which had just earned its first Michelin star. JP was their inaugural intern; he started work at 8 a.m. and finished near midnight. He loved it. The energy of the kitchen and all the line cooks, they were eager to succeed, he recalls. Everyone was on the same page. He continued in fine dining and worked in Australia before he went back to Seoul to learn more about the cooking that could help him stand out as a chef. I knew Korean food could be my secret weapon, he says. But I didnt know many things about Korean food, so I wanted to learn more. He reconnected with Ellia and got a job under chef Jungsik Yim, working at his esteemed eponymous restaurant. He was a baby, Yim says, laughing. But he knew everything. In 2012, he got the green light to work at Jungsiks new Tribeca outpost. Two days after he and Ellia got married, they moved to New York. JP went to work for Yim and Ellia began plotting her own career. I moved here for JPs work, but Im the person who is really competitive, she says. I wanted to work with the best. She bought a Zagat guide and handed out her resume. When they could, the couple dined at the citys esteemed spots like Daniel, Per Se, and Eleven Madison Park. Eventually, Ellia was hired at Kajitsu, and, in 2015, as part of the opening team at Noreetuh, the Hawaii-inspired restaurant in the East Village, helmed by veterans of Thomas Kellers restaurant group. She worked harder than anyone else, says Jin Ahn, the restaurants general manager and a co-owner. The Parks' newest restaurant, Seoul Salon, is a reimagining of a traditional drinking house. Food, like spicy beef soup, is featured alongside cocktails and soju. Janice Chung. The Parks' newest restaurant, Seoul Salon, is a reimagining of a traditional drinking house. Food, like spicy beef soup, is featured alongside cocktai... more The Parks' newest restaurant, Seoul Salon, is a reimagining of a traditional drinking house. Food, like spicy beef soup, is featured alongside cocktails and soju. Janice Chung. Inspired by the positive reception of Jungsik, the couple decided to open their own restaurant. As unknowns, they found it difficult to secure investors until they met Kihyun Lee, whose own restaurant group, Hand Hospitality, was starting to take shape. JP had been all around the world he knew where fine dining in New York was going, Lee recalls. Ellia was very similar, in terms of having a clear vision and passion for the project I could see them creating something extraordinary. Hand offered support with construction, licensing, and other city-specific operating resources; the Parks focused on food and service. Ellia also began to hone her own style of hospitality, an approach that is designed to in her words change the air. We dont want to be stiff or soigne, she says. Our goal is to be warm, considerate, and humble to create a better mood and a better atmosphere. That, she explains, is changing the air. The couple still lives across the street from Atoboy; they dont cook at home and theyve excised anything from their lives that might take their focus off their restaurants or their staff. Since the early days, Ellia has asked people, What is your plan? says Ahris Kim, who started as an assistant manager at Atoboy and is now the director of operations at Na:eun. Its a cliche to ask, but she genuinely wants to know the answer she remembers what people say and she makes it happen. Kim continues, We have so many stories of line cooks who became chefs, or managers who got their start on the floor. Arnold Byun, a former maitre d at Atomix, wanted to work for the couple after one meal at that restaurant. I was having this out-of-body experience, he says. It was something that resembled me, and my childhood, but in a way that was refined and intentional. I was like, Something is happening here and I need to get involved. He directly credits his time with the Parks as the catalyst for his current project, Maum Market, a monthly shop in the Los Angeles area and an incubator for Asian-owned businesses: They inspired me to dig deeper into my Korean heritage and roots and to look within myself for inspiration. JP, in the kitchen of Naro, which opened in Rockefeller Center late last year. Photo: Janice Chung To some extent, this is the couples ultimate goal, and the reason they wanted to build a corporate entity separate from Hand (which is still involved in a few of their restaurants). We realized we need to create our own system for support, Ellia says. What Hand wants and what we want the visions are both good but different. What we want to do is more about the legacy of the industry and building our own culture. Yim, who has stayed in touch with the couple, says that as their profile continues to rise, so does the outside support. Theyre being watched by even Korean chefs, he says, and we always cheer for them they are in the most important position at this moment. Its safe to assume that all of this was not going through JPs mind when the prospective line cook asked whether he considered his food to be authentic. Its hard to say its Korean, JP replied. The flavors are Korean, but we are more New York, and we get to be inspired by other places. He then mentioned his experiences in Europe and Australia. Those flavors and techniques informed my cuisine, he said. Now I can share: This is me. Poco website is now discontinued, all new phones will be on Xiaomi's Poco announced back in October 2024 that it will close its dedicated po.co website, and now it is officially discontinued. Starting in 2025, all Poco products will be sold through the Xiaomi website in an attempt to streamline its digital ecosystem. The first new Poco product that will be sold on the Xiaomi website is the Poco X7 duo, scheduled to arrive on January 9. New Poco launch available on Xiaomi website The global po.co site and any other regional website are clearly no longer working. The European sites, including the British, French, and German variants, are all redirected to the respective Xiaomi Store. Poco India seems frozen in time, sometime before the launch of Poco C75 and Poco M7 Pro 5G, which were bound to arrive in the second half of December. Poco X7 and Poco X7 Pro launching on mi.com The Poco Store app is also closed. While personal data will be stored for a certain time in accordance with applicable laws, it can be downloaded through the Xiaomi account settings. Poco has affirmed that Xiaomi will handle all warranties. This has consistently been the case; the brand, often labeled independent, has never been fully autonomous. Instead, it serves as a marketing strategy to broaden sales through offline and online channels in various markets. Source The Poco X7 Pro is coming on January 9, which will be joined by the Poco X7. However, those are not the only smartphones Poco will unveil next Thursday since the Chinese brand has announced it will also introduce the Poco X7 Pro Iron Man Edition. Poco's Thailand branch also posted a picture of the Poco X7 Pro Iron Man Edition, revealing its design. Its rear panel features a golden Poco logo and an Iron Man logo in the center, below which are Marvel's and Avengers' logos. You can also see that the rear cameras and the power button have red accents. Poco X7 Pro Iron Man Edition The Poco X7 Pro Iron Man Edition will likely share the hardware with the standard version, but you can expect it to come with some Iron Man-inspired themes, icons, and wallpapers. However, it remains to be seen if the Poco X7 Pro Iron Man Edition will pack a 6,000 mAh battery or a 6,550 mAh cell since the latter will be exclusive to the Indian models. Poco X7 Poco X7 Pro Poco is yet to detail the X7 Pro's specs sheet, but it has confirmed the smartphone will be powered by the Dimensity 8400 Ultra SoC, run HyperOS 2, feature a 50MP primary camera with OIS, support 90W charging, and have a base price of less than INR30,000 ($350/340). Source 1, Source 2 (both in Thai) | Via Haiti - 221st Independence Day : Venezuela salutes the triumph of the Haitian Revolution Wednesday, January 1st, 2025, Yvan Gil Pinto, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, "greets the Haitian people celebrating the 221st anniversary of the triumph of the Haitian Revolution, a process that took place between 1791 and 1804, and which allowed Haiti to obtain its independence from France, as well as the abolition of slavery." Chancellor Gil recalled that with its revolution, Haiti became the first free country in Latin America and the Caribbean. "Today, we commemorate the triumph of the Haitian Revolution. By proclaiming itself the first free Nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, Haiti not only gained its independence, but also became a beacon of hope for other anti-colonial movements around the world." Likewise, the Venezuelan Chancellor highlighted the ongoing struggle of the Haitian people against constant imperialist interventions. "The celebration of this day reminds us of the unwavering resistance of the Haitian people in their quest for justice and dignity, a fight that continues today in the face of Washington's destabilizing interventions." S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - 221st Independence Day : Message from Secretary of State Blinken On Wednesday, January 1st, 2025, in a message, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on behalf of the United States extended his best wishes to Haiti and its people on the occasion of its 221st anniversary of independence. "On behalf of the United States of America, I send my heartfelt best wishes to Haiti and its people on this occasion of the anniversary of your independence. The United States and Haiti enjoy a strong and enduring relationship. This day marks an important opportunity to commemorate the Haitian Revolution and Haitis long history as a nation. The past year brought with it grave challenges, but we were proud to stand with the Haitian people as they pressed forward with hope and determination. The people of Haiti have displayed courage and fortitude, and they deserve peace and security. The United States is committed to supporting Haiti in its fight against gangs and its efforts to achieve long-term security, a just and Haitian-driven political transition, and economic stability. The greatest strength of the partnership between our nations lies in our people-to-people ties, reinforced by the Haitian diaspora in the United States. The United States will continue to support the people of Haiti as they pursue peace, free and fair elections, and economic prosperity." HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - 221st Independence Day : Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada On Wednesday, January 1st, 2024, on the occasion of Haitian Independence Day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared : "Today, we join the Haitian people and Haitian communities in Canada and around the world in celebrating the 221st anniversary of Haitis independence. "Canada is proud to be home to nearly 180,000 Canadians of Haitian descent, one of the largest Haitian diasporas in the world. From coast to coast to coast, their social, economic, and cultural contributions including contributions to the vitality of the French language make our communities stronger. "On this occasion, we reaffirm Canadas commitment to helping the Haitian people restore democracy, security, and stability in their country and meet the immediate needs of the most vulnerable. At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly last September, we announced funding and new measures to increase humanitarian assistance, support programming for women, and help reduce gang violence in Haiti. We will continue to mobilize international support for Haitian-led and owned solutions to the ongoing crises facing the country, including through Canadas presidency of the UN Economic and Social Council for 2024-25. We also remain steadfast in our support for the Haitian National Police and the Multinational Security Support mission to address violence and re-establish security in Haiti. "On behalf of the Government of Canada, I offer my best wishes to everyone celebrating Haitis Independence Day. Today and every day, Canada stands with the Haitian people as they work to build a brighter future." HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Bandits attempt to take control in Kenscoff On Wednesday, January 1st, 2025, armed individuals from the "Viv Ansanm" coalition attempted to take control in the commune of Kenscoff and the Taras neighborhoods. The clashes took place in Makako, a strategic area that connects key points such as Savanna Pistache and "Granravin". Control of these areas is crucial due to their strategic and territorial importance. The failed attack triggered intense armed clashes between gang members and local police forces, supported by popular defense militias... The Mayor of P-a-P visits injured police officers On Wednesday, January 1st, 2024, Ralph Youri Chevry, the President of the Interim Executive Council of Port-au-Prince, visited the police officers injured in recent attacks by armed gangs. During this visit, the mayor took the time to listen to the concerns of the police officers and showed them his unconditional support. Chevry did not fail to salute their courage and commitment faced the many challenges they face in the exercise of their duties. He reaffirmed his desire to strengthen the resources made available to them in order to enable them to fight more effectively against the insecurity that seriously affects the municipality of Port-au-Prince. Solidarity Day for displaced persons On December 31, the Haitian Government organized a solidarity day for displaced persons living in camps in the capital. During this event, hundreds of people attended the distribution of food kits and toys, targeting the most vulnerable groups. Rain of wishes Part 4 : Mayor of Delmas Wilson Jeudy: "At the beginning of 2025, Mayor Wilson Jeudy sends you his most sincere wishes for health, peace and prosperity. May this new year bring you and your loved ones the courage, strength and determination necessary to overcome the challenges that lie ahead. Today, more than ever, it is essential to maintain our spirit of solidarity and unity, because these are the values that allow us to meet collective challenges together with optimism. Delmas is a strong municipality, and Mayor Wilson Jeudy is convinced that in this year 2025, we will continue to write the pages of a history of progress and success together. He wishes you all a year 2025 full of hope, success and happiness." FAES : The Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES) sends you its warmest wishes for a Christmas of Peace and hope. During this holiday season, we wish everyone a year 2025 marked by a renewal bringing security for our families and prosperity for our common projects. We take this opportunity to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the Haitian community. More than ever, we remain determined to accomplish our mission: to work tirelessly to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable. May this new year be synonymous with unity, resilience and hope for our Nation ! With all our solidarity. National School Canteen Program (PNCS) : "During this holiday season, Me Kevenot Dorvil, General Coordinator of the National School Canteen Program, sends his most sincere wishes to the Haitian population, the educational community and its valuable partners. For 2025, he expresses the hope of a year marked by Peace, stability and a renewed collective commitment to guarantee every Haitian student a hot and nutritious meal at school. May this new year be one of mobilization and innovation to strengthen access to quality school meals, the cornerstone of our country's educational and social development. Let us work together to make our school canteens an essential lever for the well-being of children and the future of Haiti. " National Education Fund (FNE) : "The year 2024 was particularly trying for the education sector. In this season of sharing and contemplation, the National Education Fund (FNE) sends you its wishes for Peace and serenity. May the year 2025 bring us the courage to work for a Haiti where tolerance, prosperity, solidarity, development and education are the pillars. Let's strengthen education, let's ensure the future !" Union of the National Police of Haiti (SPNH-17) : "The SPNH-17 sends its wishes of courage and resilience to all police officers, administrators, and citizens committed to a better Haiti. The year 2024 has been marked by many challenges and by the tragic loss of brothers and sisters, fallen under the assassin's bullets. We cannot be insensitive to these sacrifices, and this pushes us to redouble our efforts in our fight for a country free of gangs and juvenile delinquency [...] In this new year, we renew our call for unity, solidarity and courage in the face of the challenges that await us. Together, we will continue to build a Haiti where justice and peace will triumph. Happy New Year 2025 to all !" See also : Rain of wishes Part 3 : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-43932-haiti-social-rain-of-wishes-part-3.html Rain of wishes Part 2 : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-43925-haiti-social-rain-of-wishes-part-2.html Rain of wishes Part 1 : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-43916-haiti-social-rain-of-wishes-part-1.html HL/ HaitiLibre Over the past decade, many liberal democracies have witnessed a strong rise in polarisation. As a small nation, we cannot afford that. A divided nation cannot defend itself or grow, he stated in his inaugural New Years speech . PRESIDENT Alexander Stubb has revealed that he is more concerned about internal polarisation than external security in Finland. The president called attention to the responsibility of the individual, viewing that everything ultimately depends on how people treat one another and handle new, difficult and uncertain situations. Everyone, as a result, bears the same responsibility for the future a responsibility that cannot be outsourced to elected representatives, to the media or to anyone else. We must not react to every little noise. It is always good to keep calm, he said. Although Stubb admitted to being concerned about internal polarisation, he insisted that unity, mutual trust and the will to defend the country remain solid pillars of Finnish society. Let us respect one another, he pleaded. The most important glue keeping our society together is trust. We cannot afford to lose that. Let us defend human rights and humanity. Every individual is valuable. Gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic background or age does not define anyones value as a person. Part of being a Finn is caring for others regardless of their background. There is no place for racism in Finland. He dedicated several sections of the speech to addressing causes for public anxiety from uncertainty over personal finances and employment prospects to regular shocks to sense of security and the unrelenting barrage of information that appears to have left people more anxious, confounded and detached from each other. There is no panacea for strengthening the national economy, he reminded. Spending cuts alone will not balance the economy. Increasing public expenditure will not save us. Structural reforms are always difficult, he acknowledged, adding that he hopes that parliamentary parties can find common ground and make compromises on bold measures to spur growth and restore the country on a path toward sustainable growth. We live in a time when our sense of security is shaken almost on a daily basis. We try to understand change. We seek security, he noted. We are bombarded with a constant flow of information. It was supposed to make us wiser, but it seems that it has not. We have become more anxious and grown more distant from each other. In the midst of all this commotion, we need to focus on what is essential. The future is not coming at us, we are building it every day, he said. My message today is clear. We are doing fine. We will build a good future. Together. Finland, he re-affirmed, remains committed to supporting Ukraine, which is embroiled in a fight for its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity just as Finland was in the Winter War and the Continuation War. Despite Russias war of aggression in Ukraine, there is no immediate threat of war against Finland, he assured. However, this does not mean that Russia has ceased to be the biggest threat in our security. It has been a threat before, and, unfortunately, will continue to be one in the foreseeable future. Stubb argued that security should be understood holistically, as encompassing not only border, defence and other safety-related services provided by the state, but also civic skills and mental well-being. Security is also about culture and education. They protect us from hybrid influences and propaganda. They are also part of what I would call our mental security of supply. They represent what is worth defending in Finland. Our common and shared experience, he stated. Stubb also utilised the speech to continue re-shaping the aesthetic of the presidency, an effort that was visible as noticeably dimmer and warmer lighting also at the Independence Day Reception. He delivered the speech in a setting with warm, moody and indirect lighting a visible contrast to the bright natural light preferred by his predecessor, Sauli Niinisto. The setting was made more inviting with candles and other smaller sources of light, Henrika Pihlajaniemi, an assistant professor of architecture who teaches lighting design at the University of Oulu, observed in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat. The broadcast had a pleasantly soft, warm, white light. It brought a range of tones to the space, she said. Stubb also stood out from his predecessor in that he delivered the speech live. Yet another change from previous years is that he gave the speech not only in Finnish and Swedish, but also in English. The English version, though, was only broadcast on YLE Areena. Aleksi Teivainen HT Emergency services were alerted to the fire shortly after midnight. By the time firefighters arrived, flames engulfed one end of the L-shaped building, reaching several meters high. A large fire on New Years Eve severely damaged Kimara daycare in Vantaas Askisto area, forcing its operations to relocate and prompting an arson investigation. Authorities suspect fireworks caused the blaze, which destroyed one side of the building and left the other with significant smoke and water damage. The fire was brought under control by 4 a.m., but crews remained onsite to handle smoldering remnants until morning. Detective Inspector Sampsa Aukio from the East Uusimaa Police Department stated that preliminary evidence, including surveillance footage and eyewitness reports, suggests the fire was started by fireworks fired at the building. "The footage shows two young men shooting fireworks, one of which hit the daycare and caused the fire," Aukio said. While the suspects have yet to be identified, police have clear images from security cameras and are urging the individuals to come forward. "It would be in everyones best interest if they voluntarily report to the authorities," Aukio added. The fire has rendered the daycare, which serves around 100 children and is the only one in the Askisto area, unusable. Vantaa city officials announced that Kimara daycares operations will relocate to temporary facilities starting 7 January. Efforts are underway to secure appropriate spaces for the children and staff. Built in 2001, Kimara daycare is a critical resource for local families. The disruption has caused concerns among parents, who have been updated on the temporary arrangements. The incident has sparked calls for stricter safety measures and public awareness regarding fireworks. Mika Grondahl of the Finnish National Rescue Association (SPEK) emphasized the dangers of using fireworks near buildings, noting that even small rockets can ignite severe fires. Fireworks can behave unpredictably. When combined with flammable materials, the results can be catastrophic, Grondahl said. Authorities reminded the public to exercise caution, particularly near residential areas or large structures, and reiterated the importance of adhering to safety guidelines during festive celebrations. The police are investigating the fire as aggravated vandalism but have not ruled out reclassifying it based on further findings. The financial cost of the damage has not been fully assessed, but officials described it as significant. Fire damage to one end of the daycare required parts of the structure to be demolished during firefighting efforts. Although firefighters successfully contained the flames to one side, the entire building suffered from smoke and water damage. The fire has drawn widespread attention and concern from the local community. Many residents expressed frustration over the recklessness of fireworks misuse, especially near critical public infrastructure. The investigation is ongoing, with police appealing to the public for information. Anyone with knowledge of the incident is encouraged to contact the East Uusimaa Police Department. HT Saluda Arts Festival calls for artists, volunteers and sponsors The 20th annual Saluda Arts Festival, which takes place Saturday, May 17, in historic downtown Saluda, is issuing a call for artists to show exhibitors work and for volunteers and sponsors to support the event. Related Stories The festival will transform downtown Saluda into a vibrant celebration of the arts, featuring an impressive selection of handcrafted works from talented local and regional artists. Drawing thousands of visitors each year, the family-friendly arts show promises something for everyone, with live music across multiple venues, a Childrens Art Activity Tent supported by the Saluda Fund of the Polk County Community Foundation and Saludas signature warm hospitality. This 20th anniversary is a tribute to the incredible talent of our artists and the unwavering dedication of the volunteers who make this event possible, said Missy Orr, chair of the Saluda Arts Festival. In light of the financial challenges Hurricane Helene brought to Western North Carolina, especially for the regions artists, were committed to making this year extra special. We dedicate this festival to all the artists, studios, and galleries who have faced and continue to overcome Helenes challenges. Dont miss this opportunity to be part of a truly special day celebrating the arts, resilience, and the enduring spirit of Saluda. Call for artists, volunteers and sponsors Artists should apply online before the March 1 deadline. For an online application visit https://form.jotform.com/243444076835158 . The festivals core committee still needs volunteers to oversee artist relations and promotion and music performances. If you are interested in serving on the festival core committee, contact Missy at 864-457-6981 or saludancartsfestival@gmail.com. To support the festival through a sponsorship, contact Beth Carson at bethcarson151@gmail.com. A CHRISTMAS singalong was held in Henley for a father with an incurable brain tumour. Simon Cromack, 52, a former landlord of the Baskerville pub in Shiplake, was diagnosed with aggressive glioblastoma in November 2023. More than 40 of his friends and family gathered in Falaise Square close to the town Christmas tree to sing carols on Sunday, December 22. The programme included Away in a Manger, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Good King Wenceslas, While Shepherds Watched, O Come, All Ye Faithful, O Come Let Us Adore Him and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The event was originally planned to be held at Simons home in Ashampstead, West Berkshire, as a surprise but there had to be a change of plan. He suffered a small bleed on his brain the day before, which led to multiple seizures and he had to be readmitted to hospital but was back home two days later, the day before Christmas Eve. Simons brother Jason said that they decided to go ahead with the carol singing and hold it in Henley instead. Mr Cromack said: As many of you know, Simon is an incredible fighter and, after a difficult 24 hours, and being prescribed a big dose of new anti-seizure drugs, we're thrilled to say he got back home on Monday night in time for Christmas. A number of Simon's friends and family were planning to surprise him on Sunday evening by singing carols outside his home. With a rapid change of plan the gang gathered at Falaise Square in Henley and filmed the carols to send to Si. Max Tilney has put this fabulous recording of the event together and filmed everyone at the end sending a message to Si. Max forgot to record himself, but massive thanks Max for pulling it together. Steff and I shared the video with Simon in hospital yesterday morning and it made his day. He said he was a very lucky boy to have such amazing friends. Thanks to everyone for your support this year. It's been a hell of a rollercoaster and knowing people are there for Si, Steff and the girls gives us all so much strength and a very warm feeling. Simon wants to live long enough to see his 19-year-old daughter, Ella, a professional rugby player with Harlequins, win her first senior cap for the England womens team, the Red Roses. His brother has been leading the campaign to raise funds to pay for advanced treatments that arent available in the UK. Support has poured in with nearly 240,000 already raised by the familys GoFundMe page. In October, Simons primary tumour had now grown and developed a second tumour and he hopes most of it can be removed through surgery. Since then, the tumour has not grown. After visiting his oncologist at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, he said: We had the fantastic news that we were hoping for, we were thinking it was going to be the case and had everything crossed. That there has been no further growth of the tumour since August which, as you know, is extremely great news with a glioblastoma. It clearly points to all the special treatment, the immunotherapy, the Optune cap, all the stuff outside the normal treatment, I only had chemo for the first six weeks and since then we have not had any of the normal gold standard stuff. When we have looked back at the timelines of when things have started to get better it all points to the immunotherapy, the Optune cap which is all the electro-magnetic pulses and all of the extra treatment which you all have helped us amazingly to get done, it is all down to you. We are going back to Cologne on the 5th of January for maintenance treatment, which is all the stuff you have seen me posting, for another week. And we will have to keep going back as long as we need to keep this glioblastoma at bay as long as possible which at the moment seems to be working. We are not going to start any additional chemotherapy until after Christmas and then we will decide if we will do a lighter dose, as I have not needed it as all the alternative treatments seem to have been doing all the work, which is great. (JNS) - Anna hugs a battery-powered cat named Ginger. Seeing the social, friendly and positive child full of hugs, one would never guess the horrors she experienced during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. How she hid for hours as she waited for someone to rescue her while her mother's bloody body blocked the closet door where she hid, and her father's lifeless body lay just a few feet away. We've read the headlines and stories. We remember those who were interviewed, giving voice to their traumatic experiences and sharing memories of lost loved ones. Yet there are myriad untold, heartbreaking... Identifying the signs of stress is crucial for maintaining well-being, especially as people age. Listen to your bodys cues, whether its tension headaches, muscle tightness, or a constant feeling of unease. Taking proactive steps to counter these effects is key. Try deep breathing exercises, take a leisurely walk, or simply carve out a moment to focus on relaxation techniques. Prioritize your time for self-care Carving out time for yourself is not selfish its necessary for maintaining balance and vitality. Incorporate daily routines that prioritize your well-being, such as regular exercise... On Dec. 12, a terrorist opened fire on a passenger bus on Route 60, just north of the Jerusalem tunnels. The bus continued to the security checkpoint before getting assistance. Twenty-three bullets hit the bus and three people were injured. The young boy in this photo was killed. Just him. Out of 23 bullets, only one person was killed. Miracle? Our rescue medics (Hatzalah) were at the scene quickly. We were not qui k enough to save the one boy though. We dont always succeed. It is a hard part of the work. Take a look at the photo. Not just at the little boy shot in cold blood look at the bo... Written by Karen Zatz Saul Zatz was born on Jan. 19, 1943, to his parents, Meyer and Sarah Zatz of Atlantic City, New Jersey. He lived a life filled with the love of his wife and children and dedicated in service to the Jewish community. He is survived by his adored wife, Lea Zatz; his cherished children, Harold Zable (Chris) and Karen Zatz (Paul Bloom); as well as five grandchildren that he was enormously proud of: Seve Zatzenbloom, Mira Zatzenbloom, Willa Zatzenbloom, Rebecca Zable and Aether Zable. He is also survived by his beloved older brother, Paul Zatz (Laura) as well as his niece, Rac... (JNS) The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous has announced its largest one-time seasonal award to rescuers of Jews during the years of World War II and the Holocaust. During historys darkest hour, these brave men and women risked their lives and the lives of their families to save Jews from Nazi persecution, Stanlee Stahl, JFR executive vice president, told JNS, referring to Righteous Gentiles. As they grow older, many face increasing hardship and isolation. We hope this special award allows them to experience joy this holiday season, creating cherished memories with their loved ones.... (JNS) The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has a 30-year history of ties to Hamas, has used open-meeting laws across the United States to influence city councils, school boards and other public forums. But when it comes to the ethnic-studies curriculum adopted in secret in Santa Ana, Calif., CAIR has made it clear that it is not interested in governmental transparency or community participation. CAIR and its affiliate organizations selectively champion free speech and transparency only when it serves their agenda. On Dec. 6, the Orange County Superior Court heard a case against t... By Mike Wagenheim (JNS) Some 150 people gathered on Dec. 18 at the Cannon House Office Building to discuss ongoing efforts to convince the U.S. government to mint a commemorative Gold Meir commemorative coin. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) introduced H.R. 987, the Prime Minister Golda Meir Commemorative Coin Act, on Feb. 10, 2023. The bill, which has drawn another 221 cosponsors, calls on the U.S. Mint to create up to 50,000 gold $5 coins, up to 400,000 silver $1 coins and up to 750,000 half-dollar coins honoring the former Israeli prime minister. Surch... (Israel Hayom via JNS) Talks toward a hostage release deal have gained significant traction, an Israeli government official said on Monday evening. Recent negotiations have focused on bridging gaps, particularly regarding the deployment of Israeli forces along the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors during a ceasefire. Reuters reported that an Israeli delegation has traveled to Doha to continue the dialogue. The Philadelphi and Netzarim routes are no longer an obstacle; Hamas has shown flexibility on these matters, Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Commi... (JNS) The Israeli Ministry of Tourism will allocate approximately $64 million (230 million NIS) to 55 tourism projects across the country. This will include $6 million in Judea and Samaria, the highest budget for the region in the last five years, and $18 million in Israels north. On assuming my role as Tourism minister, I decided to increase investment in the Judea and Samaria region, the biblical heartland of Israel, with its rich history, stunning landscapes and natural beauty, Israeli Minister of Tourism Haim Katz told JNS. Judea and Samaria are a magnet for Jewish and Christian tour... China-Laos railway serves as vital link 08:49, January 02, 2025 By Li You ( China Daily In early winter, as beans at the coffee plantations in Simao district of Pu'er city begin to ripen, tourists flock to experience the entire process from harvesting to roasting, grinding, hand brewing, and tasting. Across the city, businesses integrating coffee and tourism add punch to the local economy. Dai Xiaoyan, general manager of a coffee estate, said that during the National Day holiday in October, the daily number of visitors to her operation hit 1,000. While sampling the local coffee culture, tourists also enjoy Yunnan's ethnic specialties, such as wood carvings and Wa ethnic group brocades. The booming coffee industry is also driving the development of dining and accommodation. By the end of October, it was picking season for Pu'er tea. Hou Jianrong, head of a local tea estate, said that though tourism also integrates with tea selling, about half his company's sales rely on long-term repeat consumption. Coffee and tea have become significant tools for Pu'er in driving rural vitalization, increasing income for the local people, and promoting culture and tourism. In the first half of 2024, the city's raw tea production reached 74,700 metric tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.65 percent. Raw coffee bean production hit 58,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 26.44 percent. On Dec 3, 2021, a 1,035-kilometer railway linking Kunming, Yunnan's capital city, to Vientiane, capital of Laos, officially commenced operations. Known as the China-Laos Railway, it is a vital cog in the economic revitalization of Pu'er. It now takes just around two hours to travel from Pu'er to Kunming, while traveling from Simao district of Pu'er to Xishuangbanna, a typical Yunnan tourism destination, takes just 40 minutes. The China-Laos Railway has brought new opportunities for the integrated development of coffee and tourism in Simao district, where business owners are creating modern boutique coffee estates that offer a one-stop experience from seed to cup. During this year's National Day holiday, Pu'er welcomed 1.82 million tourists over the seven-day break a 9.34 percent increase compared to 2023. "Many tourists travel to Simao via the China-Laos Railway, bringing a wealth of market information and orders," said Yang Hongjian, owner of a local coffee plantation. "The China-Laos Railway has shortened the distance between Simao district and other parts of China, as well as countries in South and Southeast Asia." While driving the development of the tourism industry in Pu'er, the two pillar industries of tea and coffee are also using the railway to enter domestic and international markets more efficiently. Coffee growers in Simao are planning ahead to understand information such as tariffs and import and export regulations in a bid to open businesses in Laos and Myanmar. At the Yunnan Jinkelong Coffee Industry processing line in Simao district, local products are continuously graded and packaged, to be shipped nationwide and to South and Southeast Asia via the China-Laos Railway. "Jinkelong's establishment is due to the raw material advantages of Pu'er coffee's place of origin being along the China-Laos Railway, which is convenient for importing raw materials and exporting products," said Shi Huazhong, the company's deputy-general manager. As a flagship project under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Laos Railway is becoming a typical case of driving mutual benefit and win-win cooperation among countries, providing impetus for the economic development of China and Laos. Over the past three years, Pu'er's foreign trade structure has continued to optimize thanks to the railway. From January to October 2024, the import and export value reached 6.2 billion yuan ($850.5 million). In 2024, coffee and yeast exports have increased by 390.3 and 327.1 percent respectively, compared to 2023. Since the opening of the China-Laos Railway, a large number of investment opportunities and technological cooperation opportunities have been pouring into Simao district, injecting momentum into the economic and social development of the region. "We are seizing the historic opportunity of the China-Laos Railway to accelerate the domestic and foreign industrial upgrades as well as enriching investment projects along the railway. Focusing on advantageous industries such as tea, coffee, biomedicine, cultural tourism and health preservation, and commerce and logistics, we are introducing representative projects to drive more capital and talent to invest and start businesses in Simao," said an official from the investment promotion bureau of the district. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) (Israel Hayom via JNS) - Beginning on Jan. 20, 2025, "it will be possible to take additional actions in Gaza," senior Israeli officials say. The prevailing impression in Israel is that President-elect Donald Trump does not particularly care what measures Israel employs in the Gaza Strip. He has two clear objectives: the release of the hostages, and an Israeli victory to conclude the war. The methods to achieve these aims appear irrelevant to him. In Jerusalem, as well as in the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, preparations for the Trump era are being kept under strict secrecy. When tha... (JNS) Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the military will continue to maintain security control over the Gaza Strip after the war with Hamas concludes. In response to various reports, my position regarding Gaza is clear. After we defeat Hamass military and governing power in Gaza, Israel will maintain security control in Gaza with full freedom of action, just as in Judea and Samaria, the minister wrote in a post to X. We will not allow any terrorist group to organize against Israeli communities and citizens from Gaza. We will not allow a return to the reality that... (JNS) Some 5,000 people attended the annual Chabad lighting of the National Menorah on the Ellipse, south of the White House, on Wednesday night, the first night of Chanukah, according to organizers, who had to set up extra chairs for the overflow crowd. Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, emceed the event, which he and his father, Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, have organized for decades. He told JNS that the turnout and energy at the event show that Jews havent given in amid difficult times. The Maccabees were also exhausted, but they didnt give up, S... (JNS) The 37th anniversary of the Hamas terrorist organizations founding on Dec. 10 came during a period of decline due to defeats in Gaza and the broader region, a senior Hamas official based in Turkey told Saudi media. Hamas is suffering from a genuine leadership crisis, the official said. The Al-Aqsa Flood [Oct. 7, 2023], attack backfired on us, submerging us in a sea of blood and crises. The most recent blow was the fall of Bashar Assads regime in Syria, with which Hamas had been attempting to rebuild relations. The Syrian government, according to a report by the Saudi news site El... (JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently on trial for allegations of bribery and/or requests for better press coverage, which could be interpreted as normal official actions of a democratically elected leader. He is certainly not the first leader to be accused of bribery or corruption while in office. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a similar case back in 2016 when it found, in a unanimous 8-0 decision, in favor of former Virginia Gov. Robert (Bob) McDonnell. The U.S. Justice Department had charged McDonnell with corruption for receiving $175,000 in loans and gifts from... (JNS) The International Federation of Journalists was disturbed last month when the Israeli Cabinet voted to cut all financial ties with Haaretz, the countrys self-described paper of record with a proud, far-left bent. We are extremely concerned over Israels authoritarian drift that undermines media pluralism and the publics right to know, Anthony Bellanger, the IFJ general secretary. responded to the move. The IFJ urges the government to review its decision and stop damaging press freedom in the country by boycotting a newspaper. We express our solidarity with Haaretz journalists.... (JNS) If there was one terrorist whose life epitomized the Arab war against Israel and shattered the illusions fostered by the Oslo Accords, it was Fuad Shubaki, who died this week at the age of 83. Shubaki was born in Gaza in 1940. Note that the Jews didnt rule Gaza in those days (the British did), so Gazans didnt demand a Palestinian state and didnt organize any movement for independence. The next occupier was Egypt. The Egyptians illegally occupied Gaza in 1948 and ruled it for the next 19 yearsyet still, there was no uprising against an occupation. According to the Palestinian Author... (JNS) If its Tuesday, then it must be time for more cries of a fake famine in Gaza. Gaza, as you know, has been starving to death now since Oct. 2023. A year later, Gaza is notable for having some of the fattest starvation victims around. The Biden administration, its congressional allies and the media have continued to lambast Israel for blocking food from entering Gaza despite undeniable evidence of a constant flow of food into Gaza. But that only matters so much when the United Nations refuses to deliver it. Again. Staggering images of waste and dishonesty: for the first time since the... (JNS) Lebanon stands at a pivotal crossroads. For decades, Hezbollah, fueled by Iranian patronage and bolstered by Syrian support, has held the nations destiny in its iron grasp. Yet with the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and the recent elimination of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollahs once-charismatic leader, that seemingly unbreakable hold is weakening. Stripped of vital supply lines, cut off from Tehrans backing and now led by an unremarkable successor, Hezbollahs dominance is at its most tenuous point in living memory. The question is whether Lebanon will seize this rare opportunit... Thursday January 2, 2025 FILE - Somalias Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman (Abukar Baalle), delivers a statement during a United Nations Security Council session. (UN Photo) Mogadishu (HOL) Somalia has officially reclaimed its seat on the United Nations Security Council, marking the first time in over half a century that the East African nation will serve as a non-permanent member. The two-year term, which began on January 1, 2025, is a historic milestone in Somalia's ongoing efforts to reestablish itself as a significant player on the global stage. The election on June 6, 2024, saw Somalia secure 179 votes in the UN General Assembly, representing East Africa in an uncontested bid. Somalia joins Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama as new non-permanent members, replacing outgoing nations Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland.Somalia's position on the 15-member council grants it a voice in decisions related to international peace and security, including sanctions, peacekeeping operations, and the use of force. Speaking about this opportunity, Somalia's UN Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman (Abukar Baalle) expressed the nation's commitment: "We are determined to uphold the UN Charter and to contribute actively to safeguarding global peace and security."The development comes as Somalia navigates a web of complex internal and external challenges. Externally, the contentious Ethiopia-Somaliland Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed in January 2024, forced Somalia to go on a diplomatic offensive to foil the deal. The agreement, which grants Ethiopia access to the Berbera port in exchange for recognizing Somaliland's independence, challenges Somalia's sovereignty, as Somaliland is considered a breakaway region by Mogadishu. The Ankara Agreement , brokered by Turkey in December 2024, has greatly impacted regional dynamics. The accord led Ethiopia to walk back its earlier MoU with Somaliland while supporting Somalia's territorial integrity and opening an avenue for Ethiopia to access the Red Sea through Somali ports, pending further technical discussions.Domestically, the federal government continues to struggle with limited control over vast territories, facing resistance from Al-Shabaab militants and ongoing disputes with regional federal member states like Jubbaland and Puntland. In November 2024, Jubbaland suspended relations with the federal government, accusing it of undermining regional autonomy, while Puntland has expressed persistent dissatisfaction with federal leadership, complicating efforts to unify governance structures. The African Union played a key role in securing Somalia's candidacy. In February 2024, the AU Executive Council endorsed Somalia as East Africa's sole candidate after Tanzania withdrew its bid. Somalia's diplomatic outreach, spearheaded by Prime Minister Hamse Abdi Barre and other senior officials, was instrumental in rallying support from neighbouring nations and beyond.Ambassador Baalle, who has been widely praised for his contributions to Somalia's diplomatic recovery, called the election a "diplomatic victory" that reflects the country's progress.While Somalia's election underscores its external sovereigntythe recognition of its statehood by the international communityit also highlights the disparities in its internal governance. Analysts note that the federal government continues to grapple with limited control over its territory, with Al-Shabaab, Somaliland, and other regional actors wielding significant influence.Somalia's last tenure on the Security Council was in 1971. Since then, decades of civil war and political instability have hindered its global presence. The election is a testament to its resilience and determination to reassert itself in international affairs. Commentary: Carry on Carter's legacy for better China-U.S. ties 09:04, January 02, 2025 By Deng Xianlai ( Xinhua WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Jan. 1, 2025, marks the 46th anniversary of the establishment of China-U.S. diplomatic relations. Against the backdrop of profound changes unseen in a century and clamorous anti-China rhetoric among some U.S. politicians, it is time to remember late U.S. President Jimmy Carter's legacy and navigate this pivotal relationship forward. Carter's determination to normalize China-U.S. relations in 1979, which he referred to as the "crowning achievement of his life," testified to his vision and courage. Amid Cold War tensions, Carter acted decisively to sever official ties with Taiwan, setting the stage for steady and sound growth of bilateral ties. Today, as the bilateral relationship is encountering heavy headwinds, Carter's legacy serves as a reminder to Washington of the importance of strategic sobriety and vision. If history is any guide, at the core of a sound China-U.S. relationship stands the common understanding that, despite widely differing political systems, historical experiences, and cultural backgrounds, the two countries share a profound stake in the stability and prosperity of the world. Over the past 46 years, this commitment to cooperation has been instrumental in addressing global challenges and bringing about tremendous benefits to both sides and the world at large. China-U.S. relations are, in essence, defined by mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. Over the years, both nations have leveraged their complementary strengths to make bigger the "pie" of cooperation, bringing tangible benefits to both peoples. Economic and trade cooperation has laid the cornerstone of their relationship, with trade having shot up more than 200-fold. Two-way investments have topped 260 billion U.S. dollars, with over 70,000 American companies operating in China and generating annual profits of 50 billion dollars. On top of these, exports to China support 930,000 jobs back in the United States. Despite clamorous "decoupling" and "de-risking" rhetoric among some U.S. politicians, China-U.S. cooperation has by no means been a zero-sum game. Over decades of development, the interests of the two countries have become deeply intertwined. The path of mutual benefit remains the only viable choice for both. As Apple CEO Tim Cook quipped, "There's no supply chain in the world that's more critical to us than China." Rather than define the relationship in a zero-sum rivalry mentality, the United States needs to work with China to focus on expanding the areas of converging interests and finding the maximum common ground. Whether in trade, scientific innovation, people-to-people exchanges, or pursuit of world peace, opportunities for win-win outcomes abound. The China-U.S. relationship has long gone beyond a bilateral scope and become a crucial factor in shaping the future of humanity. In a rapidly evolving international landscape, Carter's legacy serves as an earnest exhortation that China and the United States must explore the right way to get along with each other, not least by engaging in dialogue, managing differences, enhancing mutual trust, removing misunderstandings and expanding cooperation, so as to deliver benefits to the two countries and the world at large. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Whitbread's Premier Inn Snow Hill Reaches Key Construction Milestone in the Heart of the City of London - Image Credit Whitbread Whitbread has marked a significant development stage in its new Premier Inn hotel at Snow Hill, located in the City of London. This 212-bedroom hotel, set to open in early 2026, is part of Whitbread's plan to expand its footprint in central London. The Snow Hill site, previously a police station, aligns with the City of London Corporation's 'Destination City' policy, which aims to turn the Square Mile into a lively, week-long destination. Shravan Joshi MBE, Chairman of the Planning and Transportation Committee at the City of London Corporation, attended the 'topping out' ceremony and acknowledged the hotel's contribution to enhancing the Square Mile's appeal. The hotel design incorporates a striking new atrium space and 212 'compact' bedrooms. The Victorian police station's Grade II Listed frontage and other heritage features have been preserved to highlight the site's historical significance. The hotel's location, just a four-minute walk from Farringdon Station and the Elizabeth Line, will provide guests with excellent access to the City's business, cultural, and leisure offerings. St Paul's Cathedral is also just a ten-minute walk from the hotel. Mark Anderson, Managing Director for Property & International at Whitbread, expressed his excitement about the project's progress. He highlighted London's strong demand for high-quality, affordable accommodation and the unique opportunities that the City of London offers for business expansion. He also thanked everyone involved in the project and expressed eagerness to stay in what he described as Whitbread's flagship hotel in the Square Mile. Whitbread currently operates six Premier Inns and hub by Premier Inns in the Square Mile. The company sees potential growth opportunities for its brands in London, and the Snow Hill site is one of three central London developments Whitbread is currently delivering. In a first for Whitbread, the Snow Hill Hotel will house a free exhibition space, showcasing the history of the development site for hotel guests and the public. This contribution aligns with the City Corporation's Culture Mile and Destination City initiatives. Shravan Joshi MBE praised Whitbread's conversion of the former Snow Hill Police Station into a Premier Inn hotel. He noted that such developments meet the increasing demand for budget hotel accommodation and ensure the long-term preservation of historic sites. The hub by Premier Inn at Snow Hill, expected to open in early 2027, will likely be named hub by Premier Inn Old Bailey due to its proximity to the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales. Ray Hutchinson OBE, Managing Director of Gilbert-Ash, Whitbread's principal contractor, commended the collaborative effort in transforming the former Snow Hill Police Station into a flagship Premier Inn hotel while preserving its historical facade. Travel Industry Leaders' Predictions for 2025 - Image Credit Unsplash Excerpt from PhocusWire With 2024 officially closed, travel industry leaders are looking ahead. 2025 is sure to shape up as another exciting chapter in the travel history books building on plenty of newsworthy happenings, trends and people moves in 2024. Experts from across the industry shared predictions around a myriad of topics including generative artificial intelligence, search, transparency, the funding climate and the future of branding. Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity and length. Mia Morriset, principal, Inovia Capital The integration of fintech solutions is set to revolutionize travel platforms were already starting to see it with pioneers like Guesty, Hopper and Super, who are paving the way for broader adoption and industry-wide growth. While generative AI-first scaled platforms in travel have yet to emerge, AI-enabled companies are poised to unlock even greater rewards, transforming operations, enhancing customer experiences and driving profitability to much higher levels. Expect a resurgence in late-stage funding in 2025, fueled by secondary transactions and strategic consolidation plays reshaping the travel and tech landscape. Greg Webb, CEO, Travelport As we embark on 2025, transparency will be central to the travel industry's efforts to improve consumer trust. Travel suppliers are starting to realize that the only long-term, commercially sustainable business model in travel is to focus on customer lifetime value. In other words, they are prioritizing repeat customers who seek enhanced experiences over one-time buyers chasing the lowest fares. The use of bundled pricing can streamline decisions, but consumers must understand the components to assess value. Unfortunately, theres been a rise in consumer washing that has eroded trust with companies doing things that they state are in the best interest of the consumer but are really aimed at driving more profit. Radical transparency is now essential as consumers require a simple way to comparison shop that allows for comprehensive decision making. Mario Gavira, vice president of global growth and brand, Kiwi.com A number of converging trends will crystallize in 2025 casting a shadow on Google's 20-year search dominance. On one side, AI is slowly but steadily changing how humans browse and find information. On the user side, short-form video is gradually transforming information consumption from text-based queries to engaging, contextually rich visual experiences, shifting the search behaviour to more relevant platforms like TikTok and Instagram. That said, Google's wealth of user data, its widespread user ecosystem and leading AI capabilities to offer marketers the most relevant touchpoint to acquire a customer will remain unparalleled in the travel industry. The implementation of autonomous agentic AI systems that are able to complete real, multi-step process tasks with minimal human oversight will become a reality in 2025. These multi-agent systems will allow to increasingly automate all sorts of rule-based workflows in travel company backends. Conversely, consumer facing AI agents will struggle to replace the human search and booking experience. Cara Whitehill, vice president, Thayer Investment Partners, founder, Unlock Advisors Two interrelated predictions that Im quite optimistic about are a resurgence of exit activity in the travel sector and a corresponding unlock in funding for early-stage startups. With lower interest rates, a more favorable M&A climate that is likely with the incoming administration and a nice bench of mid- and later-stage companies that have been getting fit over the past couple years, well see a perfect combination of supply and demand build throughout the year and drive a flurry of activity. These exits in turn will refresh the capital pool for investors (and startup employees) to recycle into other new and early-stage companies that have been starving for funding these past couple years. Click here to read complete article at PhocusWire. ADVERTISE Hypebot & MusicThinkTank With the internet and digital technologies driving rapid change within the music industry, articles about new releases and who has been hired and fired are no longer enough. Our up to the minute industry news alongside insightful commentary helps our readers sift through the rumors and developments to find the information they need to keep their businesses moving forward. Hypebot is read daily by more than 30,000 music industry professionals including executives and senior staff of music related tech firms, internet based music sites, every major label group and most indies as well as many managers, artists and members of the live music community: Contact us for the latesst stats, ad rates and sponosorship opportunites. We also offer combined rates with MusicThinkTank. Wander to Host Sober Sweaty Dance Parties in January PITTSFIELD, Mass. Wander, a sober-friendly community space, is kicking off 2024 with its Sober Sweaty Dance Party series. The event features two nights of music and dance, designed to celebrate Sober January in an inclusive atmosphere. The series includes performances by two experienced DJs: Saturday, Jan. 4 (8 to 11 p.m.): DJ Bengey, a Brooklyn-born DJ with more than 20 years of experience, will bring his signature genre-defying mixes to energize the crowd. Saturday, Jan 11 (8 to 11 p.m.): DJ BFG (Gabby Squailia) will deliver eclectic, upbeat sets that celebrate diversity and inclusivity. Both events will be held at WANDER, located at 34 Depot St., Suite 101. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at wanderberkshires.com The parties aim to create a vibrant, substance-free environment where participants can connect and express themselves through dance. Berkshire Art Association Invites Submissions for 2025 College Fellowship Show PITTSFIELD, Mass. The Berkshire Art Association (BAA) is accepting submissions for its 2025 College Fellowship Show, offering $5,000 in grants to undergraduate art majors. The show will be held in April 2025 at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The fellowship is open to Berkshire County residents enrolled as art majors at colleges nationwide and non-residents studying art at Berkshire colleges, including Berkshire Community College, MCLA, Williams College, and Simon's Rock. Applications can be submitted online at baafellowshipshow2025.artcall.org from Dec. 20, 2024, to Feb. 23, 2025. There is no registration fee. The show will culminate in an awards ceremony on Saturday, April 15, 2025, from 3-5 p.m. The BAA Fellowship is supported by the Norman and Rose Avnet Fellowship Endowment, the Feigenbaum Foundation, and private donations. Proceeds from the 10x10 RAP (Real Art Party), held on February 20, 2025, at the Clock Tower Artist Studios in Pittsfield, also contribute to funding the fellowship and other art programs for secondary school students in Berkshire County. North Adams voted to move forward with a new $65 million Greylock Elementary School. No Paws Left Behind opened in North Adams. The city's first shelter is a predecessor to Pittsfield's closed Eleanor Sonsini shelter. Heavy machinery has been months leveling and preparing the former St. Francis site for a Starbucks and fast-food chain. Marine Erwin King of Clarksburg, a Drury graduate, is laid to rest in Southview Cemetery 82 years after he fell at Guadalcanal. A few months after King, another military funeral was held in Southview as North Adams native Bernard Calvi came home. Calvi, an airman, died in a Philippines POW camp in 1942. PreviousNext 2024 Year in Review: North Adams' Year of New Life to Old Institutions President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz poses in one of the new patient rooms on 2 North at North Adams Regional Hospital. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. On March 28, 2014, the last of the 500 employees at North Adams Regional Hospital walked out the doors with little hope it would reopen. But in 2024, exactly 10 years to the day, North Adams Regional was revived through the efforts of local officials, BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who was able to get the U.S. Health and Human Services to tweak regulations that had prevented NARH from gaining "rural critical access" status. It was something of a miracle for North Adams and the North Berkshire region. Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed in 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. BMC had renovated the building and added in other services, including an emergency satellite facility, over the decade. But it took one small revision to allow the hospital and its name to be restored: the federal government's new definition of a connecting highway made Route 7 a "secondary road" and dropped the distance maximum between hospitals for "mountainous" roads to 15 miles. "Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," Rodowicz said. "It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated countywide system of care." The public got to tour the fully refurbished 2 North, which had been sectioned off for nearly a decade in hopes of restoring patient beds; the official critical hospital designation came in August. The big story for the city was definitely the reopening of the 139-year-old hospital, but close behind was the authorization for a $65 million elementary school. Greylock Elementary in the West End had been deemed in need renovation for years and the city had tried to convince the Massachusetts School Building Authority to consider a two-school project with what was then Conte Middle School back in 2011. That was a no-go for the state and the 70-year-old Greylock was put on the back burner until about 2019. But the pandemic and other factors led the project to be shelved again until the MSBA came back the following year with the suggestion the city look at both Brayton Elementary and Greylock with the understanding one of them would close. After a year of research and study, the School Building Committee voted to go with construction of a brand-new Greylock as the most feasible and long-term solution to the city's educational needs. In the meantime, the old Greylock was closed at the end of the 2024 school year in large part because aged building's heating system was on the verge of collapse. The pool at the newly renamed North Adams Recreation Center reopened this fall after being empty for nearly 18 months. Another well-known institution, the YMCA, made its departure from the city in 2024. The organization had cited the closure of the pool the year before because of structural issues, staffing, child-care availability and "ongoing facility maintenance" as its reasons for consolidating at the newly refurbished Pittsfield facility. The organization had been in the city since 1886 and moved to Brayton Hill in 1971 after its downtown building was targeted for demolition as part of urban renewal. By 1990, the Y was struggling financially and the city purchased its land and assets to clear its debt and to provide a location for the new and attached Brayton School. It was leased back to the nonprofit, which was responsible for its upkeep. Mayor Jennifer Macksey described the condition of the building as "gross" after the Y left and American Rescue Plan Act funds were invested in repairing the pool roof and cleaning, painting and upgrading the rest of the building. The pool finally reopened in November after intense scrubbing and a new HVAC system installed to control humidity. The mayor hopes to maintain the building as a city recreation center and has been in talks with organizations who might operate it. The year also saw the opening of North County's first animal shelter with No Paws Left Behind setting up in the dog pound at the city yard. The shelter will take care of dogs picked up by the city's animal control officer but also take surrenders and offers adoptions for cats and dogs. No Paws is the successor to the Eleanor Sonsini Animal Shelter in Pittsfield. Manager Noelle Howland had been in charge of Sonsini when it closed last summer and launched a fund drive to try to keep shelter open in some form. Two big projects in the making saw some movement this year as well. The Hoosic River Revival and the city are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a $3 million, three-year engineering and feasibility study for the 70-year-old flood control system. Neal was able to secure $700,000 for the project, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey stopped by to express support and surveyors were in the city taking measurements in this summer. The city's Connecting Communities grant study kicked off in April. The $750,000 grant with partner Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art will look at possibilities for the decades old Central Artery project that sent a four-lane highway through the heart of the city including the now crumbling Veterans Memorial Bridge. The goal is to better connect the museum to the downtown and restore the divided city. Stoss Landscape Urbanism of Boston is leading the study. The year did see the disappearance of a landmark on historic Eagle Street: the Moderne Studio building. The rear of the three-story brick building collapsed in March and officials deemed it a public hazard that needed an emergency demolition. That demolition took weeks as the 150-year-old structure was taken apart by hand to prevent its collapse on the building next door, now Eagle Street Cafe. Business There were a number of openings and closings this past year, with what was hoped to be a major employer shutting down before it really fully opened. The city had celebrated the $21 million Temescal Wellness cultivation facility setting up in the former Crane building on Curran Highway but the high cost of business and a supply glut of cannabis led the company to lay off staff and shut the doors before the end of the year. Friday 27 December 2024, 12:31 - Last updated: 2 January, 17:05 Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been arrested in Tehran, Iran. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that Cecilia Sala was in Iran and was detained on December 19 by the police authorities of the capital. She is currently held in Evin prison, in the north of the capital. Trump Urges Israel to Strike Iran's Nuclear Sites Who is Cecilia Sala, the journalist arrested in Tehran? Cecilia Sala is one of the best known and most respected Italian journalists on the international scene, known for her commitment to conflict zones and her ability to tell human stories in extreme contexts. Born in 1995 in Rome, she embarked on a career that led her to document some of the most complex international conflicts and political contexts of recent years. In recent years, her experience in the field and her ability to tell human stories even in the most extreme contexts have made her a reference voice in investigative journalism, especially abroad. Her journalism career began when, as a young woman, she moved to Milan to study economics at Bocconi University. However, she left her studies six exams short of graduation to pursue her passion for journalism and storytelling. In 2015, she joined the Vice editorial team, earning recognition for her bold and engaging reporting style. By 2018, after contributing to prestigious outlets such as Vanity Fair, LEspresso, and Rai, she began collaborating with Michele Santoro on the Servizio Pubblico program on LA7, where she officially became a professional journalist. What's happening? Almost two weeks have passed since Cecilia Sala's detention in Evin prison, and the Tehran government has formalized the charges against her. The accusation is not clear, she violated the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This official act, when viewed in a diplomatic context, is interpreted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a positive sign. It suggests a willingness to open negotiations for her release, though these negotiations remain complex, as the condition for bringing the reporter back to Italy involves sending Iranian drone engineer Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, arrested at Malpensa airport on December 16 under a U.S. warrant, back to Tehran. Tuesday 31 December 2024, 17:38 - Last updated: 2 January, 11:56 We thank the Mayor for this work, for carrying the city forward while we admire with gratitude the results of the work carried out in the city. The year closes and the Te Deum ritual at St. Peter's is traditionally sung on the evening of December 31st to thank the Lord for the past year, and Pope Francis takes the opportunity to reiterate how the construction sites opened in Rome for the Jubilee have certainly tested the Romans but at the same time have made the city more beautiful and welcoming. Pope Opens Holy Door, Calls for Clemency Amid Prison Overcrowding Concerns Pope's words In the front row listening to the praise is also Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, who kept the promise made to the Vatican to close the underpass of Piazza Pia, at the beginning of Via della Conciliazione, and the refurbishment of Piazza del Laterano before the opening of the Holy Door. The pontiff's homily roughly echoes the message of encouragement addressed to the Romans on December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, when in Piazza Mignanelli, under the column of the Madonna, he repeated that the evident inconveniences were bravely endured by the citizens, thinking especially of the vitality, the resulting work, the ongoing possibilities of making the Eternal City even more modern. This time in the "sapiential reflection" the Pope emphasizes that 2024 was "a very demanding year. Citizens, pilgrims, tourists, and all those passing through experienced the typical phase preceding a Jubilee, with the multiplication of large and small construction sites" and that "all this work, besides having value in itselfas long as it is dignified workhas a meaning that corresponds to Rome's own vocation, its universal vocation." This means, the pontiff repeated, that Rome "is called to welcome everyone so that all can recognize themselves as children of God and brothers among themselves." Francis then noted that God must certainly be thanked because the Jubilee "allowed us to work, to work a lot, and above all because it gave us the opportunity to do so with this great sense, with this broad horizon which is the hope of fraternity." The motto for the coming year revolves around hope. "Yes, the hope of the world lies in fraternity! And it is beautiful to think that our City in recent months has become a construction site for this purpose, with this overall sense: preparing to welcome men and women from all over the world, Catholics and Christians of other denominations, believers of every religion, seekers of truth, freedom, justice, and peace, all pilgrims of hope and fraternity." Hope, a cardinal virtue for Christians, never has to do with "a rhetorical slogan" but is always "a 'rocky' foundation on which to build something stable and lasting." The Te Deum celebration in the basilica concluded with a long tour of St. Peter's Square where Pope Francis, braving the cold, had himself wheeled around to remain in prayer in front of the nativity scene. As he passed, followed by his collaborators behind the barriers, two wings of the crowd quickly formed, and Francis occasionally stopped to caress infants or to give sweets to other children. Tuesday 31 December 2024, 17:44 - Last updated: 2 January, 11:31 Brad Pitt is reportedly ready to move on and marry Ines de Ramon, a 34 years old jewelry executive. This might also be the reason why the actor has reached a divorce settlement after eight years of legal battles with his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie. The news according to an exclusive report by the DailyMail. Brad Pitt and Ines De Ramon Make Their Relationship Official at the Venice Film Festival His deal with Angelina Jolie In recent years, according to People magazine, the legal battle between Angelina and Brad has focused on child custody and legal disputes concerning Chateau Miraval ($164 million French estate and winery the couple once shared). Brad Pitt (61 years old) and Angelina Jolie (49 years old) got together in 2005 after falling in love on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and married in 2014 at Chateau Miraval. Two years after announcing their separation, followed by a long and exhausting legal battle, finally coming to an end. According to The Guardian, the deal isn't official yet, but it will be soon. Court documents have not yet been filed, and a judge will need to sign the agreement, the details of which remain undisclosed. The actress had accused Pitt of being violent towards her and their six children, Maddox, 22, Zahara, 19, Pax, 20, Shiloh, 18, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 16. Authorities did not charge the actor after investigations at the time. Subsequently, the former Hollywood golden couple, for whom the term 'Brangelina' was coined, signed an agreement for the privacy of their children and family. In 2019 they were declared 'legally single.' Who is Ines De Ramon? Brad Pitt has been dating Ines de Ramon, 34, a jewelry executive, since 2022. She was born on December 19, 1992, in Cologny, Switzerland, and is of Spanish descent. She graduated from the University of Geneva in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. Fluent in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian, she has built a career in the jewelry industry. De Ramon has held positions at Christie's and the luxury Swiss jeweler de Grisogono. She currently serves as Vice President at the Los Angeles-based jewelry brand Anita Ko. Prior to her relationship with Pitt, de Ramon was married to actor Paul Wesley from July 2018 until their separation in February 2024. IMDB She and Pitt began dating in late 2022, and their relationship has since become public. PEOPLE Reports suggest that de Ramon's desire to start a family with Pitt has influenced his decision to finalize his divorce from Angelina Jolie, ending an eight-year legal battle. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Babygirl director Halina Reijn has admitted her erotic thrillers sensual milk scene was inspired by an experience in her own life. The newly released film stars Nicole Kidman as a high-powered CEO who risks her family and career to begin a torrid love affair with a much younger intern (played by Harris Dickinson). Early on in the movie, when Dickinsons Samuel is courting Kidmans Romy, the two attend after-work drinks. As Romy speaks to a group of colleagues a waiter comes by and sets a glass of milk down on the table. Confused at first, Romy then looks up and locks eyes with Samuel realizing he ordered the drink for her before downing the beverage. Speaking about the scene in a recent interview with W Magazine, Reijn, 49, revealed that it had actually happened to her years ago. Sometime in her 30s, the director and actor recalled going out for drinks after one of her stage performances. From across the bar, a famous Belgian actor, who was way, way younger than her sent her a glass of milk. I drank it, and he just walked out, she said. I thought, How does this guy get the courage? I did think it was a very sensual thing to do. And I thought it was very funny. Nicole Kidman stars in Babygirl as a high-powered CEO who begins a torrid love affair with a much younger intern ( Miss Gabler Productions LLC; Miss Gabler Rights LLC ) Elsewhere in the interview, Reijn discussed the importance of flipping the script on age-gap relationships, which typically feature a much older male with a younger female partner. If we see a movie where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that odd. Which is insane. It should completely be normalized that the age gaps switch and that women have different relationships, she explained. Were not trapped in a box anymore. We internalize the male gaze, we internalize patriarchy, and we need to free ourselves from it. Its really hard. Earlier this month, 58-year-old Kidman, whos been nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as Romy, told The Hollywood Reporter that a lot of times women are discarded at a certain period of their career as a sexual being. So, it was really beautiful to be seen in this way, she said, adding that from the minute she read the script, I was like, Yeah, this is a voice I havent seen, this is a place that I havent been, I dont think audiences have been. Babygirl is out in U.S. theaters now. It will be released in the U.K. on January 10, 2025. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Tom Holland has shared how he recently stopped a fight in a grocery store. The 28-year-old actor recalled stopping a fight between two men in a Whole Foods in Los Angeles during an interview with Mens Health published on Thursday (January 2). Theyre like going at it, right behind me, Holland explained to the publication. In response, he then jumped into the fight and grabbed one of the men, pulling the stranger away. According to the Spider-Man: No Way Home star, the person involved in the fight quickly realized who he was. I can see that hes recognized me immediately, and you could see the wheels turning, like, Im really angry, but Spider-Man is telling me to calm down, he quipped. So, yeah, I go to the supermarket. Although Holland said that he goes to supermarkets, this doesnt mean he can easily step outside whenever he wants. For example, he said that if he goes out to see a play in the afternoon, everything is planned out beforehand. Tom Holland says he was recognized immediately when he stopped two men who got in a fight in Whole Foods ( Getty Images for University of S ) Its booked in advance, we sort it all out, we call ahead to the theater and make sure we can get somewhere private, he added. He said that he doesnt like to be surrounded by fans, which is why he doesnt go to many high-profile events. While this doesnt stop him from attending his girlfriend Zendayas movie premieres, he still chooses not to pose with her on the red carpet. Because its not my moment, its her moment, and if we go together, its about us, Holland explained. The actor is heading into a big year for his career, alongside his girlfriend. In November, it was announced that Zendaya would be joining the cast of Christopher Nolans next big movie, which features Holland, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyongo, and Charlize Theron. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free Last week, the film was unveiled as an adaptation of the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey. One of the most significant works of early literature, it is attributed to the poet Homer and is believed to have been written in the eighth century BC. It is a mythical tale following the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he journeys home after the Trojan War. To The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Studios revealed that the movie is using brand new IMAX film technology, and will open in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026. This isnt Holland and Zendayas first time working together as they first met on the set of 2016s Spider-Man: Homecoming and have gone on to star opposite each other in 2019s Spider-Man: Far From Home and 2021s Spider-Man: No Way Home While discussing his and Zendayas new project during an appearance on the Dish podcast last month, Holland joked about why producers like casting the two actors in movies together. Studios love it: One hotel room, he said, before adding: Separate drivers. Were not crazy. Back in October 2024, Holland first confirmed he agreed to star in Nolans next film, without any knowledge of what it was about. The Crowded Room star said that receiving the offer from Nolan was the phone call of a lifetime. He also noted that the moment felt akin to getting offered the role of Peter Parker a decade ago. All I can say is that Im incredibly excited, he told Good Morning America at the time. And obviously honored, but thats all I can say because, to be honest, thats all I know. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Coronation Street star Sue Devaney was allegedly left furious after learning her character will die in 2025. The actor has appeared on the ITV soap as Debbie Webster sister of Kevin as a full-time cast member since 2019, and is set to leave the show as part of a hard-hitting dementia storyline. According to reports, Devaney, unlike her Gail Platt co-star Helen Worth, who left the soap over Christmas, had no intention of leaving and couldnt believe it when she was blindsided by the revelation. Sue was very shocked when she discovered she was being killed off, a source told The Sun. She was initially very sad and then furious and then upset again. Its taken her a long time to come to terms with it. However, after Devaneys alleged shock subsided, the actor fixated on the storylines potential to raise awareness about dementia. An insider told The Independent: Sue is a total professional and is already putting her all into what she sees as hugely important long running storyline. She saw the positive impact of the MND storyline and hopes that her dementia story can have the same effect and raise awareness of the condition. The inclusion of Debbies dementia as part of the soaps 2025 storylines comes after the arrival of new showrunner Kate Brooks. A source described it as Devaneys chance to finally get her time in the spotlight. Devaney first joined the soap in 1984 when she was a teenager but her original stint lasted for just one year. She reprised the role in 2019. Sue Devaney as Debbie Webster in Coronation Street ( Danielle Baguley/Shutterstock ) She previously opened up about her love of playing Debbie, stating: When I first came back, I never imagined I would be around for that length of time and I am delighted. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free Every day when I drive into work, I have a big grin on my face. I am so happy to be here. Another Corrie star who was stunned by their axing from the soap was former star Sean Wilson, who was set to return as Martin Platt for Gails exit storyline. However, after he had started filming his scenes, the brakes were mysteriously put on his return due to what ITV said were personal reasons. Earlier this month, Wilson said that it was due to a pending police inquiry, exploring an allegation of indecent assault dating back to 1997, which he has been cleared of. I had no idea who had made this complaint or anything about it but I lost my job, the actor told The Sun, adding: Its been hell. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy EastEnders will celebrate its 40th anniversary with the return of an iconic character. Actor and presenter Ross Kemp will be reprising his role as Grant Mitchell for the first time in nine years, for a storyline the BBC says will be explosive. Kemp, 60, last appeared in EastEnders in 2016 but will return later this year as his brother, Phil Mitchell, struggles with loneliness. Im delighted to be returning to EastEnders as the show heads towards its 40th anniversary, Kemp said in a statement. EastEnders has always meant so much to me, so to return as the show is about to celebrate such a special anniversary is an absolute honour. Grant has never been far from the action and, lets just say, this time is no different as he certainly comes back with a bang. Kemps return also comes as his characters ex-wife, Sharon who had an affair with Phil in the early Nineties and later married him is now dating another family member, his long-lost cousin Teddy Mitchell. Sharons affair with Phil dubbed Sharongate was a huge TV draw and, when it reached its climax on 24 October, attracted over 25 million viewers. The storyline was drawn out over several years and culminated with the memorable episode in which, after Sharon unwittingly confesses to her and Phils betrayal on tape, Grant airs it to a pub full of people at Phils engagement party before beating his brother unconscious. open image in gallery Ross Kemp will return to Albert Square this year as Grant Mitchell ( BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron/PA Wire ) Among Grants other storylines was his tumultuous marriage to Tiffany Mitchell (Martine McCutcheon) and the farewell to his mother, Peggy Mitchell, as part of the late Barbara Windsors exit storyline. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled Try for free His 2000s return saw him involved in the unveiling of Den Wattss (Leslie Grantham) killer, have an affair with Ian Beales (Adam Woodyatt) girlfriend Jane Collins, and a series of episodes which saw the Mitchell brothers embroiled in a vendetta against gangland boss Johnny Allen (Billy Murray). Kemp initially appeared in the soap for nine years from 1990 until 1999, when Phil fired a gun at him after learning he had revenge sex with Phils then-wife, Kathy Mitchell. He also returned for a year between 2005 and 2006, then again in 2016 for Windsors final appearance as Peggy. open image in gallery Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden as brothers Grant and Phil Mitchell, with the late Barbara Windsor as their onscreen mother, Peggy Mitchell ( BBC ) During his time away from EastEnders, Kemp has presented the Bafta award-winning documentary series Ross Kemp On Gangs between 2004 and 2009, which spawned a number of similar series including Ross Kemp In Afghanistan and Ross Kemp In Search of Pirates. Chris Clenshaw, EastEnders executive producer, said of Kemps return: We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Ross Kemp back to EastEnders as he reprises the legendary role of Grant Mitchell. While Im not currently revealing exactly what brings Grant back to Walford, I can say that his return will play a significant part in the shows 40th anniversary and will make up many moments of truly unmissable TV. In December, it was reported that EastEnders had filmed a sensational plotline in which the famous Queen Vic pub is torn apart in a huge explosion. Meanwhile, fans got a treat ahead of Christmas as character Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) returned to the soap for the first time in 26 years. Additional reporting by Press Association. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy China banned the export of dual-use products to over two dozen US defence contractors, targeting top players like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, as it objected to Washingtons latest arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing imposed the ban on 28 US defence contractors, placing 10 of them on an unreliable entities list over weapons sales to Taiwan, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. The decision, based on Chinas export control law and regulation on export control of dual-use items, was taken to safeguard national security and interests and fulfil international obligations including non-proliferation, the ministry said. The targeted firms also included General Dynamics and Boeing. The 10 unreliable entities were engaged in the American weapons sales to Taiwan despite strong opposition from Beijing. The so-called military technology cooperation seriously undermines Chinas national sovereignty and territorial integrity, violates the One China principle and the provisions of the three joint communiques between China and the US, and significantly threatens peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, a ministry spokesperson said. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory and does not rule out the use of force to reunite the island. The export ban mimics last months sanctions on defence and aerospace entities involved in a previous sale of weapons to Taiwan. The sanctions targeted Insitu, Hudson Technologies, Saronic Technologies, Raytheon Canada, Raytheon Australia, Aerkomm, and Oceaneering International Inc. The firms under the latest ban will be barred from import and export activities in China and from making new investments. Their officials cannot enter the country and their work permits or residency will be revoked. It was not immediately clear how many individuals would be impacted by the decision. Taiwan last month received a batch of 38 advanced Abrams battle tanks from the US in a significant boost to the islands land defence capabilities. Another 42 tanks, considered the heaviest in the world, are due to be delivered this year, and 28 the year after. The island has been upgrading its defence capabilities acquiring F-16 fighter jets, missiles, submarines and artillery systems from the US in the face of increasing military drills by China. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy China appears to have tested novel sixth-generation stealth military aircraft as videos of the warplanes went viral on social media. Mysterious tailless aircraft were seen flying over Chengdu city in southwest Sichuan province, though the defence ministry is yet to confirm the speculation. Both jets are tailless, meaning they do not have vertical stabilisers to help maintain control. Such aircraft are typically kept stable by computers that interpret the pilot's control inputs and make it impossible to detect. The test flight coincided with the birth anniversary of Mao Zedong, founder of the Peoples Republic of China. The aircraft designs are separate from airframers Chengdu and Shenyang and may be among the most sophisticated manned fighters in the world. The larger of the two designs is roughly diamond-shaped, with three air intakes for its engines, two alongside the fuselage and one on top an extremely unusual configuration. The smaller one has a more conventional layout, but no tail. Both have the lack of 90-degree angles typical of stealth shaping for reduced radar detection. It really looks like a leaf, Defence Times, a website based in Chengdu, wrote on Weibo. The new Chinese aircraft are not the first modern tailless designs. The Northrop Grumman B-2 and B-21 stealth bombers are both flying wings, and several uncrewed aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 and China's CH-7, lack tails. The Chinese military flaunts its new technology at the end of the Western calendar year in late December or January. In May 2024, the military said its J-20 stealth fighter jet, also known as the Mighty Dragon, can easily reach supercruise. Beijing has reportedly deployed as many as 250 of the stealth aircraft, first introduced into service in 2017, but its capabilities are not publicly known. At the November Zhuhai air show, China revealed the twin-engine J-35 stealth fighter jet. As China continues to modernise its military, the designs "show the willingness of China's aviation industry to experiment and innovate", said Euan Graham, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "Whatever the merits or demerits, it appears to be a highly original design," he told Reuters. "They deserve kudos for that, and should shake off any lingering complacency that the U.S. and its allies always set the pace." The US defence department said it was "aware of the reports" but did not have an additional comment beyond what was included in its annual report on the Chinese military this month. China on Friday also launched a new amphibious assault ship which is designed to strengthen the navy's combat ability in distant seas. The Sichuan, the first ship of the 076 type, is China's largest yet, displacing 40,000 tonnes and equipped with an electromagnetic catapult which will allow fighter jets to launch directly off its deck, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The ship is designed to launch ground troops in landing crafts and provide them air support. It is also equipped with the "arrestor technology" that allows fighter jets to land on its deck. China's first amphibious assault ships, the type 075, launched in 2019. Chinese military expert Song Zhongping compared the Sichuan to a "light aircraft carrier", according to state media Global Times. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy South Korean police raided Jeju Air and the operator of the Muan airport as they ramped up their investigation into Sundays catastrophic plane crash that claimed 179 lives, marking the worst aviation disaster in the countrys recent history. A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crashlanded after failing to deploy its landing gear, skidded off the runway at the Muan airport and rammed into a concrete embankment. The plane burst into flames, killing all but two of its 181 passengers and crew. The survivors, crew members seated at the rear, suffered injuries but were rescued. Investigators searched the offices of the airport operator and the transport ministrys aviation authority in the southwestern county of Muan as the well as office of Jeju Air in Seoul, the South Jeolla provincial police said in a statement. They planned to seize documents and materials related to the operation and maintenance of the aircraft as well as the operation of airport facilities, a police official told Reuters. Jeju Air was cooperating with police, a director at the airline, Song Kyeong Hoon, said. The airport operator was yet to issue a comment. Authorities also banned the chief executive of Jeju Air from leaving South Korea. The investigation team imposed a travel ban on two individuals, including Jeju Air CEO Kim E Bae, police said. open image in gallery The Boeing plane was carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea when it crashed on arrival on 29 December 2024 ( AFP via Getty ) In the wake of the crash, aviation safety experts expressed concerns about the embankment the plane rammed into, questioning the design of the structure designed to support navigation equipment. This rigid structure proved catastrophic when the skidding aircraft made impact, Najmedin Meshkati, engineering professor at the University of Southern California, said. Such installations should use lighter materials such as metal towers to minimise damage during collisions, he said. Investigators were also examining whether the embankment should have been constructed from lighter materials to reduce its potential danger. open image in gallery Tributes are placed along a fence near the site of the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 plane crash ( Getty ) The incident was also under investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, and Boeing, in collaboration with South Korean authorities. Preliminary analysis indicated the aircraft encountered multiple issues, including a bird strike and an engine problem, before the crash. A video of the crash showed the aircraft belly-landing at speed and bursting into flames after hitting the concrete wall. The pilot had declared an emergency after warning of a bird strike but reportedly attempted a second landing without success. Black boxes found in the wreckage were being analysed. The conversion of data from the cockpit voice recorder to audio files, which could provide critical information about the final minutes of the flight, was completed on Thursday, deputy transport minister for civil aviation Joo Jong Wan said. Transport ministry officials said the audio files might not be publicly released due to the sensitivity of the investigation. Acting president Choi Sang Mok, meanwhile, ordered immediate inspections of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in South Korea. Given the public concern, thorough reviews of operation, maintenance, and training procedures must be prioritised, Mr Choi said during a disaster management meeting. The tragedy sparked a week of national mourning. Save for two Thai citizens, the victims of the crash were all South Koreans, many of them returning home from holidays in Bangkok. Bereaved relatives held a memorial service at the site of the crash on New Years Day, laying white flowers and offering traditional rice cake soup in tribute to their loved ones. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A convoy of trucks took away 337 metric tonnes of hazardous waste from the site of the Bhopal gas tragedy, 40 years after what is regarded as the worlds worst industrial disaster. The trucks left the abandoned Union Carbide plant in the capital of Indias Madhya Pradesh state on Wednesday night despite protests by workers at the disposal plant the waste was destined for. A gas leak from the pesticide plant on the night of 2 December 1984 wound up killing over 20,000 people activists working in the affected community put the toll much higher and poisoning half a million. The toxic waste was transported under heavy security for disposal at a plant in Pithampur, 143 miles away, Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation department director Swatantra Kumar Singh said. The 12 container trucks carrying the waste set off on a non-stop journey around 9pm, he said. A green corridor was created for the nearly seven-hour journey of the vehicles to the Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district. Nearly 100 workers toiled over four days to load the trucks. The workers underwent health check-ups and were given rest every 30 minutes, Mr Singh said. The 337 metric tonnes of waste will undergo scientific disposal within three to nine months, he added. Children play in front of their homes near the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India ( Getty ) Five district administrations were put on alert and some 700 security personnel were deployed to move the convoy, The Times of India reported. The long-pending disposal of the toxic waste began after the state High Court last month set a four-week deadline to clear it away. Are you waiting for another tragedy? the court asked while rebuking authorities for not cleaning up the Union Carbide plant site. A trial run to dispose of the waste had seen 10 metric tonnes transported away in 2015. The impending arrival of the toxic waste in Pithampur, a small town near Dhar city, had sparked concerns and protests from the local population. Many workers at the Pithampur industrial area and their relatives feared for their health and safety, and some had even requested leave. They also held a protest march on Sunday. Rachna Dhingra, a campaigner for survivors of the gas tragedy, said the solid waste would be buried in a landfill after incineration, likely contaminating local water sources. Why is the polluter, Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, not being compelled to clean up its toxic waste in Bhopal? she asked. The Union Carbide factory was built in 1969 and for years seen as a symbol of Indias industrialisation, generating thousands of jobs for the poor and, at the same time, manufacturing cheap pesticides for millions of farmers. A settlement with the Indian government, signed in 1989 and overseen by the Supreme Court, saw Union Carbide pay out a total of 367m in compensation. Dow Chemical, the American multinational which now owns Union Carbide, has been under pressure from campaigners to pay additional compensation to the survivors of the gas leak disaster. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A 21-year-old Thai social media influencer died after being hired to chug whiskey at a party for 700. Thanakarn Kanthee, popularly known as Bank Leicester, was a garland seller who gained popularity after the rap songs that he improvised to entice buyers made their way online. He had previously been seen in videos accepting similar challenges, consuming alcohol, as well as hand sanitiser and wasabi, in exchange for money. Kanthee was hired for a birthday party on 25 December in the Tha Mai district of Chanthaburi, according to Bangkok Post. He arrived at 11pm. He was dared to drink Regency whiskey and offered 10,000 baht (233) for every 350ml bottle he gulped. Kanthee was reportedly paid 30,000 baht (700) for the challenge after apparently drinking three bottles. Social media videos showed him gulping down at least two bottles within 20 minutes. Thai media reports said he appeared sick after completing the challenge, vomited and lost consciousness. Kanthee was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3.40am. The autopsy revealed acute heart failure as the cause of death, The Nation noted. open image in gallery Thanakarn Kanthee ( Thanakarn Kanthee/Facebook ) On Saturday, police arrested two influencers from Chanthaburi and Pathum Thani provinces in connection with Kanthees death. One of them, Ekachart Em Meephrom, admitted to daring Kanthee to take up the challenge but denied knowing him personally or hiring him. Mr Meephrom was charged with negligence resulting in death. He was denied bail after the local court he was presented in ruled that Mr Meephrom had exhibited reckless behaviour, The Nation reported. According to Thai law, Negligence causing death could result in a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to 20,000 baht (465). The second suspect was identified as Theerawat Srirot from Pathum. Videos of the partygoers cheering Kanthee on as he drank went viral on social media after his death, drawing wide condemnation. Social media users dug up Kanthees old posts in which the influencer said he performed such risky challenges to support his family. I am willing to be bullied and insulted to just get scraps of money from the rich people in order to provide for my family, one of his posts read. Kanthee lived with his 80-year-old grandmother, who had raised him. Currently, I live in this house with my son and Thanakarn, just the three of us. Thanakarn took care of everything for me. Now that hes gone, I have no idea how I will continue to manage, she told The Nation. Kanthee had gone away promising to return with 60,000 baht (1,396) they needed to settle overdue payments, the grandmother added. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Vodafone has completed the eight billion euro (6.6 billion) sale of its Italian business to Switzerlands Swisscom as a flurry of deals are sewn up for the start of the new year. The mobile phone giant which last month saw its 15 billion tie-up with Three UK cleared by Britains competition regulator plans to use the cash to pay down its debt pile and complete a further two billion euro (1.7 billion) share buyback to boost returns for investors once its current programme has ended. Vodafone agreed the deal with Swisscom in March just two weeks after the pair confirmed talks, with Vodafone saying the move marked the final step of its strategy to sell off parts of its European portfolio. As part of the deal, the firms have agreed that Vodafone will continue to provide certain services to Vodafone Italy for up to five years, which will see the FTSE 100 listed group receive an annual charge of around 350 million euro (290 million). Vodafone has been looking to free up cash and improve its financial performance by selling off parts of the business, including its Spanish arm, having previously struck deals to sell its Hungarian and Ghanaian divisions. The Italian division sale comes after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last month gave the green light to the mega-merger between Vodafone and Three UK, paving the way for the creation of Britains biggest mobile phone network. The CMA had been probing the deal amid concerns it could substantially reduce options for mobile customers. It said the landmark deal can go ahead if both companies agree to invest billions to roll out a combined 5G network across the UK, while the firms were told to offer shorter-term customer protections requiring the merged company to cap certain mobile tariffs for three years. Vodafone is now hoping to complete the deal in the first half of this year. The completion of the Italian business sale also comes amid a raft of other deals completing at the start of the new year. Coventry Building Society finalised its 780 million takeover of the Co-operative Bank on January 1. The tie-up, announced in May, creates a banking giant with millions of customers and about 89 billion worth of assets. John Wood Group also completed the sale of its stake in rotating equipment business Ethos Energy for 138 million US dollars (114 million). Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Armie Hammer has addressed a series of accusations that derailed his career, blaming Covid and kink-shaming for the fallout. The 38-year-old actor, known for his roles in Call Me By Your Name and The Social Network, found himself at the centre of a social media scandal in 2021 after direct messages allegedly sent from Hammer detailed graphic sexual desires and cannibalistic fetishism. Several women later accused the actor of sexual assault and he was subsequently accused of rape and abuse by ex-girlfriend Effie Angelova. Hammer has consistently denied any criminal wrongdoing and said that all of his relationships with women were consensual. In May 2023, the LA County District Attorneys Office announced it would not file sexual assault charges, citing insufficient evidence and the complexity of the relationship. He has since shared his financial struggles, admitting he sold his truck because he couldnt afford the petrol. The world seemed like it was falling apart, and people were just deeply unhappy with their own lives, Hammer said on the Your Moms House podcast about the news breaking during the Covid lockdown. And then this salacious story comes around where this actor wants to murder and eat people. And all of a sudden, everyones like, Oh, this is so much more fun to focus on than the fact that I cant leave my living room. Speaking about this sexual preferences, Hammer suggested that kink-shaming could have been at play in the backlash he received about his alleged sexual fantasies. If anyone took anyones bedroom conversations specifically if people were having a little bit of sexy time, and they took the s*** that they said, even if it was completely vanilla, and you read that somewhere else out of context, everyones going to go, You guys are f***ing disgusting. he said. Hammer has denied any criminal wrongdoing ( Getty Images ) The actor said that the volume of private messages made public made him feel like he was left standing there naked in front of the world with all of your proclivities or kinks being judged by the world. Describing his relationship to women, he said: People were my bags of dope with skin on it. He hinted that he understood why he would be disliked as he added: I would scoop these girls up, take them on a whirlwind month and a half... then Im going bounce and go do it with someone else. Going further to expand on his sexual inclinations, he said: I like the idea that you are so completely mine. Yeah. I can do whatever I want, and you love it because you know youre mine. Hammer has since embraced the cannibal label. This possession-kinda thing, he continued, thats just fun to talk about. And by the way, especially if youre drunk or stoned or high at night and youre texting. While youre saying it, youre chuckling to yourself, like, Im going to f***ing cut your toe off and keep it in my pocket so I got a piece of you everywhere I go. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Jeremy Renner has shared a moving post on the second-year anniversary of his near-death snow plow accident. In January 2023, the 53-year-old Marvel actor was helping clear snow from the driveway of his nephews house when he was crushed by his large, seven-ton snow vehicle. He was airlifted to the hospital, where he was treated for severe injuries, including a collapsed lung and more than 30 broken bones. Earlier this year, Renners Mayor of Kingstown co-star Michael Beach, said the actor had actually died after his heart stopped beating following the serious incident. Ringing in my second ReBirthday today, Renner wrote in a caption to an Instagram post on Thursday (1 January). I send out my love, respect, and gratitude for the army of people that it took to put me back together again. Thank you to each and every nurse, doctor, first responder I literally owe you my life. He shared the caption alongside an image of himself in a hospital gown, covered in bruises and medical equipment, and surrounded by staff. All my heart goes out to my beautiful, brave nephew and the angels (my neighbours) who jumped to my aid and endured the chaos for 45 long minutes on the icy asphalt New Years morning, he continued. Im so sorry [for] all the haunting images I imprinted on you all (Ill spare you all from the meat grinding images). Renner thanked medical staff for their support as he spared fans the meat-grinding images ( Getty/Instagram/JeremyRenner ) Renner said his gratitude list was very long as he thanked his loved ones and supporters for their wishes throughout his recovery process. With the amount of love and prayers that flooded in from you all around the world (needing each and everyone of them), my family never leaving my side , with some divine intervention, a bit of luck and a whole lot of miracles, I stand strong again. More Open. More Loved. More Connected. And f***ing BLESSED to take my next step, to take MY NEXT BREATH. Thank you with every fiber and cell in my body. I love you ALL. Support flooded in for the actor as Fatal Attraction star Glenn Close wrote an especially heartwarming message in the comments: You are a rare and beautiful man, walking through our fractured world as one who has been monstrously fractured himself. You have a mighty heart and are making a profound difference in so many peoples lives. Its ALL about love. HAPPY NEW YEAR, dear Jeremy. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Jocelyn Wildenstein, the Swiss socialite nicknamed Catwoman because of her intense, animal-esque plastic surgery, has died at age 84. According to her partner Lloyd Klein, Wildenstein, born Jocelyne Perisset, died on New Years Eve in Paris. The couturier confirmed her cause of death was pulmonary embolism in a statement sent to People. The celebrity had been diagnosed with phlebitis, the inflammation of a vein in the leg, which is what led to the artery blockage in her lungs. Because of her phlebitis, the legs were very, very swollen, and the blood was blocked, and there was no oxygen in the brain, Klein told the outlet, explaining how he and Wildenstein had planned to take a nap before going out on December 31. When I wake up, I said, Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed, and she was cold and she was dead, he continued. Wildensteins death came as a massive shock to Klein, whod known her for over 21 years. We were at the Ritz two days ago. We were having dinner. Before that, we had come for Fashion Week at Chanel. Everything was good, everything was good, he noted. It wasnt just Wildensteins feline-like appearance that intrigued the masses throughout her adult life. The self-proclaimed art dealer was also highly-regarded for her hefty divorce settlement of $2.5 billion, which she reportedly blew through, leaving her living paycheck to paycheck in the last few months of her life. open image in gallery Jocelyn Wildenstein suffered from pulmonary embolism caused by phlebitis at the time of her death ( Getty Images for Honey Birdette ) In 1978, she married her first and only husband, Alec Wildenstein, a famous French art dealer who died from prostate cancer in 2008. The two were together for 21 years before they officially parted ways after their two-year divorce proceeding that spurred a wild media circus. According to Reuters, the Lausanne-born woman had been promised an additional $100 million on top of her $2.5 billion for the next 13 years. However, Wildenstein claimed she had been cut off from her ex-husbands family in 2015 even though Alec had inherited $10 billion from his fathers estate in 2002. open image in gallery Alec Wildenstein was a French art dealer who was married to Jocelyn Wildenstein for 21 years In 2023, Wildenstein spoke to The Times of London, alleging she hadnt received a dime of her settlement money in eight years. Whats more, she told the outlet she had zero income. Wildenstein said her trust that was set up in the divorce settlement was also the cause of her money issues. In an interview with the New York Post, she said the trust was meant to be secured by lucrative artwork, which were later characterized as forgeries by her bankruptcy lawyer, Douglas Pick. In 2018, she filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing her checking account balance as $0, her debt as $6.4 million, and the total worth of her assets as $16.4 million. Wildenstein never confirmed her penchant for plastic surgery. In fact, she denied the rumors that had long followed her during a discussion with the Daily Mail TV in 2018. When asked if shed ever been under the knife, Wildenstein said: No, especially when we look back at my pictures I think of course I am maybe more beautiful. When we are young theres a certain freshness we lose with the years. But you still find the same eyes, same high cheeks, or same nose. I think I was more pretty. It was thought by many that her ex-husband had inspired the first of her cosmetic surgeries. Yet, he refuted the speculation in a 1998 Vanity Fair article where he claimed that his wife was thinking that she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin does not work that way. But she wouldnt listen, he continued. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Millie Bobby Brown has hit back at critics who accused her of looking old in her latest Instagram post. The 20-year-old actor took to Instagram on Monday (December 30) to share a new mirror selfie, as she posed with her white Louis Vuitton bag. However, some critics quickly went to the comments to make remarks about her appearance, with claims that she looked 35 and that she Googled how to look 65 when you are 16. Another Instagram user said she looked like a 40-year-old Jersey housewife. Brown hit back at the criticisms on her Instagram Story on Wednesday. Women grow!! Not sorry about it, she wrote in the since-expired post, alongside a smiley face emoji. In her initial selfie, the Stranger Things star posed with her small, white purse while wearing a white and pink floral dress. Me and my mini, she wrote in the caption while tagging the Louis Vuitton Instagram account. Millie Bobby Brown hits back at critcism about looking old ( milliebobbybrown / Instagram ) Her post came days after she shared a tribute to Stranger Things, as she recently finished filming the fifth and final season of the show. The Instagram post included a series of throwback pictures from her time on the program, where she played the character Eleven, alongside the caption: With love, el. The post also included a video of the sweet speech she gave to the cast and crew while on set. Isnt graduation supposed to bring relief, like youre glad to leave behind the teachers and classmates? Not me, she said in the clip, as she had a microphone in her hand. I am nowhere near ready to leave you guys. I love each and every one of you and Ill forever carry the memories and bonds weve created together, as a family. I love you. Thank you, she added. Last year, Brown celebrated another major milestone in her life: Getting married to Jake Bongiovi. In October, she gave fans an intimate glimpse into her secret Italian wedding, which took place in May 2024, by sharing breathtaking photos from the ceremony. Forever and always, your wife, she wrote in the caption, as she shared glimpses from their celebration at Villa Cetinale in Italy. For the occasion, the Enola Holmes star donned a custom white lace Galia Lahav gown with a corseted bodice, cascading into a fitted fishtail skirt and lengthy train. She paired it with a long tulle veil with lace trim that billowed behind her and fell to her feet in an ethereal look. Her brown locks were pulled back into a tight updo with two tendrils framing her face. Meanwhile, Bongiovi wore a white tuxedo jacket and black bow tie, which Brown later stole for the night as she hit the reception dance floor in a short white satin minidress with off-the-shoulder sleeves. Matthew Modine, Browns Stranger Things co-star and on-screen father figure, officiated the ceremony. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Step aside Moo Deng, theres a new pygmy hippopotamus in town. Earlier this month, the Metro Richmond Zoo in Moseley, Virginia, welcomed a baby female pygmy hippo calf whose name will be decided by the public. The newborn, currently weighing in at 15 pounds, is the third calf to be conceived by the hippo couple Iris and Corwin in the last four and a half years. According to the Zoo, Iris delivered her on December 9 via water birth. She was the second baby to be born around Christmas. Though standard-size hippopotamuses usually give birth underwater, pygmy hippos can give birth in water or on land. A grown pygmy hippopotamus can weigh between 400 to 600 pounds, while larger, fully-grown hippos can weigh up to 9,920 pounds and 3,000 pounds, depending if theyre male or female. The zoo opened the discussion of her name up to the public on December 27 with a poll that includes four choices: Juniper, Poppy, Omi, and Hammie Mae. Each name holds a significant meaning with Juniper acting as an ode to the time of year she was born; Poppy following suit with her mothers moniker of a type of flower; Omi because it means water in Yoruba (a Niger-Congo language), and Hammie Mae being a sweet and southern tie to Virginia ham. The name that gets the most votes will be given to the newborn. However, a subsequent vote will be conducted if the results show a tie between multiple names. According to an update posted on the zoos Facebook page, the poll received a total of 14,000 participants from around the world in the first 24 hours. The final decision will be announced on New Years Day after the poll closes at 2 p.m. on New Years Eve. Were thrilled to see so many people joining in on the fun of naming our adorable pygmy hippo baby, the Zoo wrote on its social media page. The excitement and global interest in Virginias newborn pygmy hippo comes after a female two-month-old pygmy hippo named Moo Deng from Thailands Khao Kheow Open Zoo launched an internet craze back in September. Moo Deng is a baby female pygmy hippo at Thailands Khao Kheow Open Zoo ( Getty Images ) It wasnt just that her name translated to bouncy pork, though that did humor many, fans were also captivated by the baby animals displays of lethargic behavior and playful innocence as she splashed around in pools of water and bit zoo workers. She became the subject of several political memes amid the U.S. presidential election and was even given a say in which candidate she preferred. Showing great foresight, she picked president-elect Donald Trump. Some Moo Deng-obsessors modeled cakes after the small hippo to sell to other hippo enthusiasts. Bangkoks Vetmon Cafe was the first of many to make a Moo Deng delectable. However, a few customers reportedly exhibited a moral dilemna, refusing to munch on the edible hippo because she looked too cute. Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Mr Beast, the most-watched YouTuber in the world, has announced his engagement to girlfriend Thea Booysen. The 26-year-old YouTuber, real name James Donaldson, is best known for his philanthropy projects and expensive stunts he shares on his YouTube channel, which has the highest number of subscribers in the world at 340 million. He proposed to gaming streamer Booysen, 27, on Christmas day in front of both of their families. Donaldson, who is from Wichita, Kansas, told People: My family flew out from South Africa for Christmas and we were going to do Christmas in our house so both families were here. Donaldson said he asked Booysen to close her eyes as he gave her a present as he tried to keep it as a surprise until the last moment. I intentionally dropped a large box to make noise before presenting the real gift, with the ring inside, to her. And then I went down on a knee and proposed, he said. I was trying to think of the best way to catch her off guard so it would be a surprise, he explained. Thea is really close to her family, so I wanted to make sure that they were included in this momentous occasion. Christmas worked out great because they were in town from the other side of the world. In a picture shared online, Donaldson is down on one knee in a living room surrounded by presents with Booysen standing before him gazing at the ring. In the background, their family members are smiling at them. Although Donaldson said the bride-to-be would have been happy with a plastic ring, he proposed with a diamond on a rose gold band with additional diamonds on each side. The pair first met when Donaldson visited Booysens home country, South Africa, where they were introduced by a mutual friend at a dinner. Booysen is a gaming YouTuber with the username @TheaBeasty, and is also a published author. She has degree in Degree in Law, in addition to an MA in Human Cognitive Neuropsychology from the University of Edinburgh. When we were first introduced, it came through right away how brilliant Thea is, Donaldson told the publication. She has such a range of knowledge and can go deep on lots of topics. She told me about her work as an author and how passionate she is about her hobbies we vibed instantly. I kept thinking she is really smart and beautiful. I knew within the first few minutes of meeting that I wanted the chance to date her. Thankfully, she also felt a strong connection. The pair are planning on a tropical wedding after travelling to Richard Bransons Necker Island, which is where they have taken inspiration. Donaldson said: Were thinking of doing it somewhere on an island where were far away from just about everybody. Were not going to try and have a big, extravagant wedding. When the pair announced their relationship in 2022, Booysen admitted she was nervous about the world finding out. Going out as Mr Beasts [girlfriend] was super anxiety provoking. You get common sayings like, Oh, shes gonna break his heart, or, Shes gonna be a gold digger, she said. James Donaldson and Thea Booysen pictured at the launch of Beast Games ( Getty Images for Prime Video ) Donaldson announced their relationship when he shared a picture of them together online, writing in the caption Mr Beast and Beasty. The YouTuber was previously in a relationship with influencer Maddy Spidell, who he dated for three years before they split in early 2022. Donaldsons is considered one of the highest-paid content creators in the world, with an estimated net worth of $500 million, according to Forbes. The engagement announcement comes as Donaldson makes his debut as a TV host as part of recently-launched controversial Amazon Prime show Beast Games, which has been dubbed the worlds largest game show in history and is comparable to the real-life version of the fictional game show Squid Game. The show has been met with dogged with numerous allegations from people involved in making it, detailed in a lawsuit. The allegations include failure to pay minimum wages and overtime, subjecting contestants to infliction of emotional distress, did not provide meal breaks, rest breaks or access to basic hygiene and that contestants were exposed to dangerous circumstances and conditions as a condition of their employment. Donaldson has not formally commented on the allegations but a statement from a spokesperson said that a formal review had been launched. The Independent has contacted Donaldson for comment. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy South Korean cryptocurrency mogul Do Hyeong Kwon pleaded not guilty Thursday to a freshly unsealed indictment released in time for his first U.S. court appearance. Kwon entered the plea in Manhattan federal court two days after his extradition from Montenegro. The indictment alleges that the man dubbed by some as the cryptocurrency king lied to investors from 2018 to 2022 to fool them into pouring money into Terraform Labs, the Singapore crypto firm he cofounded. Authorities say investors worldwide were harmed by the $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs cryptocurrency. The May 2022 collapse came despite the companys claim that TerraUSD was a stablecoin that could be relied upon. Kwon did not speak during his court appearance, except to acknowledge that he understood English. His lawyer, Andrew Chesley, entered not guilty pleas to two separate versions of the indictment charging him with conspiracy, along with commodities, securities and wire fraud. A money laundering charge was added Thursday. Chesley and another defense lawyer, David Patton, declined comment as they emerged from the courtroom. Their client was returned to a federal jail after the lawyers consented to his detention. The superseding indictment accused Kwon of deceiving investors by telling them that Terraform had developed novel reliable financial technologies enabling it to turn blockchain technology into a self-contained decentralized financial world with its own money, payment system, stock market and savings bank. In fact, the indictment said, Kwon's constructed financial world was built on lies and manipulative and deceptive techniques used to mislead investors, users, business partners, and government regulators about Terraform's business. Behind the scenes, core Terraform products did not work as Kwon advertised, and were manipulated to create the illusion of a functioning and decentralized financial system in order to lure investors, it added. Commentary: WTO at 30 -- a pivotal moment for reaffirming global free trade and multilateralism 09:12, January 02, 2025 By Xia Yuanyi ( Xinhua BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 30th anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) arrives at a precarious moment for the global economy. The principles on which the WTO was founded -- free trade and multilateralism -- are under siege. Rising protectionism, unilateral trade actions, and the erosion of trust in international institutions have all cast doubt on the future of the system, which has underpinned decades of growth. In this challenging moment, the international community must come together to reaffirm its commitment to the ideals of open and inclusive trade. This is not just a matter of economic policy; it is about preserving the stability and peace that free trade has helped foster. Over the past 30 years, the WTO has transformed global trade. By lowering tariffs, clarifying rules, and resolving disputes, it has spurred unprecedented economic growth. Developing economies, in particular, have seen their share of global trade increase from 25 percent in 1995 to 44 percent in 2023, according to UN data, enabling them to industrialize and modernize. China's own journey is a testament to the power of free trade. Since joining the WTO in 2001, China has rapidly integrated into the global economy, becoming a main trade partner for more than 140 countries and regions. Committed to further market liberalization, China has consistently reduced tariffs, lowering its overall tariff rate from 15.3 percent in 2001 to 7.3 percent now. This integration has not only driven China's development but also created immense opportunities for its trading partners, highlighting the mutually beneficial nature of globalization and free trade. However, cracks in this multilateral trading system are evident. The Appellate Body, the cornerstone of the WTO's dispute resolution mechanism, has been paralyzed since 2019 because Washington blocked the selection of judges of the body. What is worse, unilateral tariffs and protectionist rhetoric, particularly from the United States, have raised barriers to global trade. The resulting uncertainty threatens to erode decades of progress. In a recent article, Anne Osborn Krueger, former World Bank chief economist, cautioned that if the global trading system continues on its current path, economic growth will lag behind its potential. "The world would be poorer, more divided, and far more vulnerable to looming existential threats." Critics of the WTO and globalization may argue that free trade has fueled inequality and job losses. However, these criticisms often overlook deeper structural issues. Failure to invest in education, infrastructure, and worker retraining has left many economies ill-prepared to adapt to rapid changes in technology and trade patterns. The solution lies not in retreating from free trade and globalization but in reforming domestic and international systems to ensure that trade benefits are more broadly shared. The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and other pressing global crises have underscored a fundamental truth: the world's challenges are deeply interdependent. No single nation, no matter how powerful, can tackle these issues in isolation. Therefore, multilateral cooperation, supported by the principle of free trade, is an urgent necessity. It is the only way to not only navigate today's crises but to ensure long-term peace and prosperity. China is not only a beneficiary of the multilateral trading system but also one of its staunchest defenders. It has called for reforms to the WTO, including measures to address digital trade, climate change, and the rights of developing nations. These efforts reflect China's understanding that a stable, rules-based global trading system benefits all economies, particularly in a world increasingly shaped by shared challenges. As said by Li Chenggang, China's ambassador to the WTO, China has always been a staunch defender of the multilateral trading system, a major participant in WTO reform, and an important driving force of the global development agenda. With the WTO entering its fourth decade, the need for global unity has never been clearer. The international community must recommit to the ideals of free trade and multilateralism. This means resisting the growing tide of protectionism and, more importantly, taking bold steps to strengthen the global trading system. The stakes are too high, and the time for action is now. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A woman who disappeared more than five decades ago has finally been found alive after a single blurry photograph of her was released by police 52 years after she went missing. West Midlands Police said finding Sheila Fox after she vanished from Coventry in 1972 solves one of its longest-running missing person investigations. At the end of December, the force published a renewed appeal to help find Ms Fox, which included one grainy picture of her from around the time she vanished that was recently found by officers. Within hours of its release, members of the public got in touch with information that led to finding Ms Fox. Officers who spoke with her confirmed Ms Fox is alive, safe and well, and now living in another part of the country. open image in gallery West Midlands Police said finding Sheila Fox after she vanished from Coventry in 1972 solves one of its longest-running missing person investigations ( West Midlands Police ) The announcement on Wednesday marks the resolution of one of the longest running missing person cases that the force has investigated. Detective Sergeant Jenna Shaw, from the Cold Case Investigation Team, said: We're absolutely delighted to have found Sheila after more than five decades. We searched through every piece of evidence we could find and managed to locate a photo of Sheila. We are a small team of officers and Id like to recognise the work of DC Shaun Reeve, who managed to resolve this case with help from the public. Every missing person has a story, and their families and friends deserve to know what happened to them and, hopefully, be reunited with them. Police added that forensic and technological advances enable the team to pursue fresh leads on cases that have remained unresolved for a long time. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The King has made a donation to help a charity carry out its humanitarian work in Syria following the fall of the countrys dictator Bashar Assad. Charles made an undisclosed contribution to the International Rescue Committee UK (IRC UK), of which he is a patron, to help it provide a range of services including distributing 2,400 hygiene kits to families in emergency shelters and offering trauma care and mental health support. Syrias citizens have been given a glimmer of hope following the overthrow of the countrys dictator Bashar Assad but the IRC said the nation ranks fourth on its 2025 Emergency Watchlist and continues to face profound humanitarian needs despite recent political developments. Khusbu Patel, IRC UKs acting executive director, said: As the UK patron of the IRC since 2021, His Majestys contribution underscores his deep commitment to addressing urgent global challenges, and helping people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. We are immensely grateful to His Majesty the King for his donation supporting our work in Syria. open image in gallery Camilla and Charles during a visit to an International Rescue Committee Project in Berlin (Steve Parsons/PA) ( PA Archive ) Ms Patel said about the Kings donation: This assistance will enable us to provide essential services, including healthcare, child protection and emergency cash, to those people most in need. His dedication shines a vital spotlight on these pressing challenges, and we hope it inspires others to join in supporting these efforts. In the run-up to the festive period Charles said he would be praying this Christmas for Syria, a comment made when he met a Catholic congregation supporting a charity helping Christians persecuted across the Middle East and the globe. Charles met a Syrian nun when he joined a Catholic congregation at the event held at the Catholic Farm Street Church in Mayfair. open image in gallery Charles met a Syrian nun when he joined a Catholic congregation at the event held at the Catholic Farm Street Church in Mayfair . ( Getty Images ) After the short service the King met Sister Annie Demerjian, from the Syrian Catholic Church, in a side chapel and the pair, who have met before, warmly embraced. She described to Charles the desperate situation in her homeland after the fall of Syrian leader Bashar Assads regime and said afterwards: It is desperate, but we are praying for a better future. The nun added: He said he was praying for us, for all the people who have been displaced and find themselves battling against (the) odds. We are praying and we are hoping for a better future, and we appreciate your Kings support. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A headteacher of a primary school made inappropriate and abusive comments about pupils and staff, including calling one child a fat slug. Nicola Brogan, who was head of Woodland Community Primary School in Heywood, Lancashire, was not banned from teaching after a panel ruling last week. She made derogatory remarks about staff, pupils and a parent which was highly likely to create an uncomfortable and negative working environment, a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found. Mrs Brogan who led the school between September 2011 and December 2019 described one child as a fat slug and another as f***** ugly. She referred to one pupil as a wimp and another as having no personality in a group chat with the senior leadership team, the panel heard. The former headteacher used the term Captain Camp about a male member of staff in reference to his sexuality. The panel said the conduct of Mrs Brogan which concerned abusive and inappropriate comments about staff, pupils and a parent was very serious. There was a significant weight of evidence that this behaviour had a seriously negative impact upon the working environment of the school, it found. The report pointed to 26 different comments, including: The panel heard evidence that a staff member had cut her finger and that she applied a plaster. The panel heard evidence that Mrs Brogan described the plaster as looking like a condom and described the staff member as pathetic, thus showing a lack of empathy. French maid: The panel heard differing accounts in oral evidence as to how this comment came to be made, and by whom. Witness B gave evidence in which she stated that the comment was made by Mrs Brogan in a meeting when referring to Person H ([REDACTED]) whom Mrs Brogan is said to have described as looking like a French Maid and a prostitute. Witness B stated that this was said in an informal meeting but not in the presence of Person H and also added that this reflected the general nature of the comments and language used in such gatherings. Mrs Brogan initially said she did not refer to the term French Maid but then accepted in questions that she was or at least could have been party to a conversation in which the term French Maid was used, and that she herself may have used this term. Mrs Brogan gave her account of the context but states that she was referring to Witness B and clothes which she could wear as fancy dress reflective of an old television programme known as Upstairs Downstairs. Mrs Brogan denied describing any staff member in such terms. The panel was satisfied that Mrs Brogan used the term French Maid in a conversation with staff and that its use was inappropriate even on her own account. The panel is not satisfied that this comment was used about Person H specifically. However, the panel found this allegation proved on the basis set out above. Fat cow: The panel heard clear and credible evidence from Witness C in relation to this particular. Witness C stated that Mrs Brogan would refer to a teaching assistant in this manner and she found this embarrassing. Witness Cs account was detailed and specific. Mrs Brogan denied this allegation, but on the balance of probabilities the panel were persuaded that Mrs Brogan did use this comment about another staff member. The panel found this allegation proved. The TRA report said: The working culture at the school at the material time was at times negative and hostile. Some pupils and some staff members were clearly not always treated with respect by Mrs Brogan. The panel concluded Mrs Brogans actions amounted to unacceptable professional conduct, but it said that not recommending a prohibition order was a proportionate and appropriate response. Ruling on behalf of the Education Secretary, Sarah Buxcey said the panel was led to believe that Mrs Brogan had worked for many years at the school without complaints prior to the allegations which came to light in November 2019. She said Mrs Brogan deserved considerable credit for leading the school out of special measures. Ms Buxcey wrote: I have also placed considerable weight on the finding of the panel that the panel also considered that, given her experience and prior good service, there was every prospect that Mrs Brogan would be able to make a contribution to the education profession in the future. I have given weight in my consideration of sanction therefore, to the contribution that Mrs Brogan has made to the profession. For these reasons, I have concluded that a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy An amber health alert for England has been extended to Tuesday as the cold snap is set to continue with temperatures falling to as low as -20C on Friday night. The rare warning issued by the UK Health Security Agency means the cold weather is likely to impact the health service, potentially putting some people at risk. It comes after the UK recorded its coldest night of this winter so far with the temperature falling to -14C in Altanharra, northern Scotland, according to the Met Office. Friday night could see even lower temperatures in parts of Scotland and northern England, with temperatures between minus 15C and minus 20C possible. The Met Office said: Amounts of snow are uncertain probably small and confined to high ground, but there is a risk of icy surfaces in places. Much of the rest of the UK will have another dry and bright day but remaining very cold, with few freezing fog patches lasting all day. Rain, sleet and some snow are set to move into the south west of England on Friday, leading to some icy stretches, a five-day forecast from the Met Office said. Hill snow, cloud and patchy rain will continue into the night. Across the UK it will continue to be cold into the night, with temperatures falling to as low as -20C in northern England and Scotland. Light winds will lead to clear spells, allowing more frost and freezing fog into Saturday, when temperatures will see a maximum of between 1C and 5C. The Met Office said the West could expect some hill snow and rain on Saturday, while the rest of the country will face cold sunny spells and light winds. Sunday will be milder, but will remain cold. open image in gallery The temperatures across the UK on Saturday morning at 6am ( Met Office ) Met Office meteorologist Liam Eslick said said: We probably dont really expect many places to get close to minus 20C, but we could see one or two places that could just touch that mark overnight Friday into Saturday. Just because its, again, still conditions, its high pressure, not a lot of wind and under clear skies as well. Especially where theres still snow on the ground across Scotland and northern England, thats sort of a perfect scenario to see those temperatures just plummet from Friday night into Saturday morning as well. open image in gallery The temperatures across the UK on Saturday afternoon at 3pm ( Met Office ) Already, the cold spell has brought heavy snowfall to many parts of the country, as a number of flood alerts and warnings were issued in England to account for heavy rain or melting snow. The Met Office issued five yellow weather warnings for snow and ice until Friday at 10am following days of wintry conditions across the country weather. Many faced travel disruption from the severe weather with major roads closed and railway lines blocked amid flooding this week. Manchester airports runways were closed early on Monday morning because of heavy snow but have since reopened. Hundreds of schools across the country faced closure due to the adverse weather conditions, with nearly 200 schools closed in Bradford alone. In England, the Environment Agency has 95 flood warnings in place, although in the last 24 hours, they removed 65 of them. In the Commons, environment minister Emma Hardy told MPs flooding was a personal priority for her, adding that the Environment Agency was particularly concerned about Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Britons wanting to travel home after the New Year have been warned to expect disruption, as snow and icy weather grips the UK and temperatures plunge as low as -8C. The country will be welcoming 2025 with a cold snap expected to last a week, with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issuing cold weather health alerts for all of England until 8 January, meaning a rise in deaths is likely. The Met Office has also issued weather warnings for the next five days, the first of which for snow and ice, in parts of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland came into force at 4pm on Thursday, cautioning that travel disruption was likely. Dan Stroud, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: Therell be widespread frost across the country tonight, from Lands End to John OGroats. It will be comfortably below where we should be for this time of year and I would expect temperatures to hit -8C in parts of Scotland. Mr Stroud confirmed conditions should become warmer by the end of this weekend before cold weather strikes again early next week. He said: The second half of the weekend should be in the high singles or low doubles. But temperatures will dive again next week, particularly on Monday and Tuesday. They should start to improve towards the latter end of the week. But theres a lot of water to go under the bridge until then. Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said the governments decision to limit the winter fuel allowance to only the poorest pensioners will be put into sharp relief by the cold snap. The charity has already been contacted by older people worrying about what to do when this moment arrived, she said. Ms Abrahams said: We urge older people to do everything they can to stay warm, even if that means risking spending more on their heating than they feel they can afford. The energy companies are under an obligation to help if you are struggling and there may be support available from your local council too. For those who intend to travel despite the current wintry weather, both the Met Office and National Rail issued alerts to remind Britons to plan ahead. Difficult driving conditions should be expected, particularly within areas under a yellow weather warning. Allowing extra time is also advised, with delays, diversions, or hampered conditions likely for road users. open image in gallery Snow touched the ground in the west end of Aberdeen on Thursday ( Beth Edmonston/PA Wire ) For those using public transport, passengers were advised to check any timetables and services before setting out in case of delays or cancellations due to inclement weather. As per National Rail, the poor weather will impact trains running across Great Britain, with Northern services, TransPennine Express services, Transport for Wales services and ScotRail services all impacted. On Thursday, services were halted on two key Scottish railway lines the Highlands Main Line, and the Far North Line between Inverness and Wick after heavy rain caused landslips and flooding, while the A939 between Cockbridge and Tomintoul in Aberdeenshire was closed due to snow. It comes after many in Greater Manchester woke up on New Years Day to devastating flooding, with the police declaring a major incident as people were forced to evacuate. Around 450 people were evacuated on Wednesday evening from a Didsbury hotel while 400 homes were at a lower risk with no widespread evacuation needed, police said. open image in gallery Around 450 people were evacuated on Wednesday evening from a Didsbury hotel ( REUTERS ) As of Thursday night, the Environment Agency had issued seven flood warnings in areas where flooding is expected, mainly in Yorkshire and Shropshire, along with 37 lesser flood alerts in areas where flooding is possible. open image in gallery A yellow warning for snow will be in place until Monday morning ( Met Office ) Over Saturday and Sunday, England and Wales are set to see the brunt of the wintry weather, with the Met Office warning of the potential for power cuts, communities to become cut off, and for some vehicles to be left stranded, with disruption to rail and air travel also possible. About 5cm of snow is expected widely across the Midlands, Wales and northern England, with as much as 20-30cm over high ground in Wales and/or the Pennines, the forecaster added. A final warning, in force until midday on Monday, warns of snow across most of Scotland, with similar hazards to those seen over the weekend further south. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to intervene as a leading theatre company has warned that even performances of Shakespeare in the EU are at risk in the wake of Brexit. White Horse Theatre, Europes largest educational touring theatre, has provided English-language performances to schools and theatres across Europe for nearly half a century but rising costs, logistical challenges, and the long-term instability caused by Brexit now threaten its future. At its peak, the company employed 32 professional actors and performed for half a million students annually. Since Brexit, this number has declined to fewer than 300,000 students per year, and the company has been reduced to 24 performers. It may be cut in its entirety if the government doesnt do more to tackle Brexit red tape for theatres, the theatre company insisted. open image in gallery White Horse Theatre has seen student numbers decline sharply ( White Horse Theatre ) Peter Griffith, the founder of White Horse Theatre, told The Independent urgent solutions are needed to ensure the survival of initiatives like ours that enrich so many lives. He explained that Brexit has made it increasingly difficult to bring British actors to European schools, reducing student audiences, and forcing significant price increases. It comes as Sir Keir attempts to pursue a reset of relations with the EU after years of tense relations under successive Conservative prime ministers. While the prime minister has pledged to make Brexit work by renegotiating the deal agreed upon by Boris Johnson and pursue closer cooperation with the EU, he has made no guarantees on slashing red tape for artists. Since Brexit, UK citizens are now only able to stay in EU countries for 90 out of every 180 days unless they apply for a temporary long-stay visa which lasts up to six months at a time, or for permanent residency. The dramatic decline in the number of students we can reach is a stark reminder of how much is at stake, Mr Griffith said. Coupled with rising costs and the risk of pricing ourselves out of reach for many schools, there is a real danger that English theatre could become an art form only accessible to the wealthy. He said the uncertainty and instability that has resulted from the UKs exit from the European Union had made it difficult for the theatre to plan ahead or commit to long-term investments in the company, further jeopardising our ability to operate sustainably. It comes after a report by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre warned that hundreds of theatres face closure and more than 500 museums have shut since the turn of the century, laying bare the true scale of the risk facing Britains cultural venues. Leaders in the sector are urgently demanding major investment from the Labour government as they grapple with fresh challenges including rising energy bills and the hike to employer national insurance contributions in the Budget. open image in gallery The PM has been urged to step in to support the arts in the wake of Brexit ( Getty ) Brexit had introduced numerous bureaucratic hurdles, from the need for work permits to more complex immigration processes, all of which had increased the cost of hiring and operating, Mr Griffith said. To cover these higher costs, we have had to raise our prices significantly a trend that may continue. However, higher prices result in fewer bookings, which in turn spreads our fixed costs over a smaller customer base. This creates a vicious cycle that could ultimately make English theatre a luxury affordable only to wealthier schools and families, undermining our goal of making theatre accessible to all. Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine told The Independent that this case is another example of the creeping death that Brexit has injected into our economy. In 2021, the National Theatre announced it was postponing European tours of its internationally acclaimed productions, and actors union Equity released figures showing a third of its members reported seeing casting adverts requiring EU passports. A letter signed by union members including Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart published in the same year warned that Brexit poses a greater challenge to the industry than the coronavirus pandemic, calling for new visa terms for artists. For a sector that is deeply embedded in the international community from touring theatre and dance to film, television, and commercials which must work fast, flexibly and to demand, this is a disastrous blow and will hit those already struggling and marginalised groups the hardest, the letter said. The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Elon Musk has launched another attack on Sir Keir Starmer, accusing the prime minister of failing to prosecute child grooming gangs during his time as director of public prosecutions (DPP). In a series of posts to his social media platform X, the tech billionaire also called for safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to be jailed for rejecting calls for a public inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham, as well as demanding the release of far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court last October. Hours after the tech billionaires intervention, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called for a national inquiry into the UKs rape gangs scandal, arguing that 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice. Mr Musk has engaged in a long-running war of words with Sir Keirs administration, which came to a head during last summers far-right riots when the social media boss claimed civil war is inevitable in the UK. Posting to X on Thursday, Mr Musk said: In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Services approval for the police to charge suspects. There has been a long running war of words between Elon Musk and Keir Starmers administration ( Getty ) Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013. Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Starmer. The real reason shes refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Starmer (head of the CPS at the time). A number of prosecutions involving grooming gangs were taking place around the time Sir Keir took up his post as DPP. He launched reforms into how the CPS handles child sex abuse cases, as well as saying that ethnicity or political correctness should not get in the way of prosecutions. Sir Keir has also blamed the previous Conservative government for not bringing in a duty to report safeguarding issues. Mr Musks comments came after GB News reported the government has formally rejected requests for a Home Office-led inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham. Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips reportedly responded to two letters from the Oldham Council executive after the authority voted to request a formal public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in the borough. Weighing in after Mr Musks intervention, Ms Badenoch said: The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice. But responding to Ms Badenoch, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level. Mr Musk, who is a close ally of Donald Trump, has been increasingly supportive of Nigel Farages Reform UK in recent weeks, amid growing rumours that he is planning to donate tens of millions of pounds to the political party. In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service's approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 2, 2025 She deserves to be in prison Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025 His latest attack comes just days after Downing Street was forced to defend Sir Keirs government as unashamedly pro-growth after Mr Musk lashed out at his policies. Responding to calls to build a new plant for his electric cars in Scotland, the Tesla boss said very few companies would be willing to put money into the UK under Labour. Downing Street rejected Mr Musks assessment of the governments policies, but sought to avoid being drawn into a public spat with the owner of the X social media site and a member of Mr Trumps inner circle. Responding to the latest criticism, a Labour spokesperson pointed out that the party called for and supported a national inquiry into child sexual abuse under Professor Alexis Jay, which concluded in 2022, as well as supporting an independent review commissioned by Mayor Andy Burnham which covered Oldham. The spokesperson also said the party would welcome and support an independent investigation commissioned by Oldham Council which puts victims voices at its heart, following the examples of Telford and Rotherham. Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most horrendous crimes and the Home Office supports police investigations and independent inquiries to get truth and justice for victims. We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated. In Oldham the crimes committed by grooming gangs were horrific. Young girls were abused in the most cruel and sadistic way. Victims and the community need to know that all steps are taken to deliver justice and protect children properly in the future. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Sir Keir Starmer is being assailed by both the Tories and Elon Musk over his handling of the Oldham grooming gangs scandal, in an explosive row which threatens to overshadow the return of parliament. Kemi Badenoch has demanded the government launch an immediate inquiry into child exploitation in Britain, after Mr Musk doubled down on his criticism of the UK government and accused the prime minister of failing to prosecute child grooming gangs during his time as director of public prosecutions (DPP). The row spread across British politics as Reform leader Nigel Farage then waded in, criticising the Tories for failing to hold an inquiry while in office. In the extraordinary new year spat: Mr Musk attacked Sir Keirs handling of the grooming scandal, claimed Jess Phillips should be jailed and demanded the release of Tommy Robinson Ms Badenoch said an inquiry into child exploitation is long overdue Two Tory ministers wrote a letter to Yvette Cooper and Ms Phillips demanding a probe Mr Farage took aim at the Tories, saying they had 14 years to launch an inquiry A Labour MP argued Mr Musk had pushed it too far this time In a series of posts to his social media platform X, the tech billionaire called for safeguarding minister Ms Phillips to be jailed for rejecting calls for a public inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham, as well as demanding the release of far-right activist Robinson, who was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court last October. Hours after Mr Musks bizarre intervention, Ms Badenoch demanded a national probe into the UKs rape gangs scandal, arguing that 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp and shadow safeguarding minister Alicia Kearns also piled further pressure on the government, writing a letter to Ms Phillips and home secretary Ms Cooper. The row was triggered after GB News reported the government has formally rejected requests for a Home Office-led inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham. Ms Phillips responded to two letters from the Oldham Council executive after the authority voted to request a formal public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in the borough, insisting it was for Oldham council alone to decide whether to launch an investigation into alleged exploitation between 2011 and 2014. The last Tory government also rejected a similar request from Oldham council for a public inquiry, saying it is for local authorities to commission local inquiries. Responding to the criticism, a Labour spokesperson pointed out that the party called for and supported a national inquiry into child sexual abuse under Professor Alexis Jay, which concluded in 2022, as well as supporting an independent review commissioned by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, which covered Oldham. The spokesperson also said the party would welcome and support an independent investigation commissioned by Oldham Council which puts victims voices at its heart, following the examples of Telford and Rotherham. Mr Musk has engaged in a long-running war of words with Sir Keirs administration which came to a head during last summers far-right riots when the social media boss claimed civil war is inevitable in the UK. Posting to X on Thursday, Mr Musk said: In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Services approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013. Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Starmer. The real reason shes refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Starmer (head of the CPS at the time). A number of prosecutions involving grooming gangs were taking place around the time Sir Keir took up his post as DPP. He launched reforms into how the CPS handles child sex abuse cases, as well as saying that ethnicity or political correctness should not get in the way of prosecutions. Sir Keir has also blamed the previous Conservative government for not bringing in a duty to report safeguarding issues. Nigel Farage took aim at Kemi Badenochs intervention ( Nigel Farage ) After Mr Musks intervention, Ms Badenoch said: The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice. Before the government responded, Mr Farage hit back: Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level. Mr Musk, who is a close ally of Donald Trump, has been increasingly supportive of Reform UK in recent weeks, amid growing rumours that he is planning to donate tens of millions of pounds to the political party. His latest intervention sparked anger from within Labour ranks, with one MP telling the Guardian that he has pushed it too far this time. Twitter [now X] is really rapidly becoming a cess pit, even for disinterested non-partisan types, they said. The Tesla bosss latest attack comes just days after Downing Street was forced to defend Sir Keirs government as unashamedly pro-growth after Mr Musk lashed out at his policies. Responding to calls to build a new plant for his electric cars in Scotland, Mr Musk said very few companies would be willing to put money into the UK under Labour. While Downing Street rejected Mr Musks assessment of the governments policies, it sought to avoid being drawn into a public spat with the owner of the X social media site and a member of Mr Trumps inner circle. The turbulent start to the year comes after a damning YouGov poll revealed voters see Labour as incompetent and dishonest, with only 12 per cent saying Labour has been successful so far. A Labour spokesperson said: Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most horrendous crimes and the Home Office supports police investigations and independent inquiries to get truth and justice for victims. We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated. In Oldham, the crimes committed by grooming gangs were horrific. Young girls were abused in the most cruel and sadistic way. Victims and the community need to know that all steps are taken to deliver justice and protect children properly in the future. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Twenty Labour councillors have quit the party in protest at its direction under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, accusing the prime minister of having "abandoned traditional Labour values". The councillors - from Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire took aim at policies such as cutting the winter fuel allowance for some pensioners, the bus fare increase and Labours plans to scrap two-tier county and district councils. It is with a heavy heart that we can no longer be in a party that has abandoned traditional Labour values under Keir Starmers leadership, the group said. From the cutting of the winter fuel allowance for 11 million pensioners, to the retention of the two-child benefit cap for struggling families, the increase in bus fares across our towns and cities, the betrayal of Waspi women pensioners to a tepid response to the genocide in Gaza, we say this is not the Labour Party we campaigned for. Council leader Milan Radulovic, who had been a party member for more than four decades, is among those walking away from Labour to establish a new independent party. open image in gallery The move is a fresh blow for Sir Keir in what has become a turbulent first week of the year ( Leon Neal/PA Wire ) The move means Labour has lost overall control of Broxtowe borough council, which it gained in 2023. They are planning to run the borough council as a minority administration in the short-term, but are likely to need support from existing independents in order to hold control. It follows months of public disagreement between Labour activists in Broxtowe and the party hierarchy, including a row over the selection process for the partys candidates at the general election and the forthcoming county council contest. The councillors claimed 10 of them had been blocked from standing for Labour at upcoming local elections for Nottinghamshire County Council after criticising the winter fuel policy. The party has insisted the selection process followed the normal format. In 2023, the executive committee of the Broxtowe constituency Labour Party resigned, claiming Labours national executive committee had blocked local councillor Greg Marshall from standing in the seat. The constituency was won by Labours Juliet Campbell in the July 2024 landslide, who was previously a councillor in Lewisham. But ahead of the election, Broxtowe Labour accused the party of unfairly imposing an outside candidate on the constituency. It comes amid wider criticism of the Labour party executive, which has been accused of parachuting loyal members of the party into safe seats and blocking candidates who are thought to be too critical of the partys leadership. But former Broxtowe Tory MP Anna Soubry, who quit the party for an independent group and backed Labour at the last election, said the councillors who quit the party never supported Starmer, saying their treatment of their partys [parliamentary] candidate from the time of her selection was appalling. Meanwhile, the remaining Labour councillors in Broxtowe said it is incredibly disappointing that they have quit the party just 18 months after being elected on a Labour ticket. Mr Radulovic said he was "deeply saddened" over the decision to quit the party, but said he had been placed in an "impossible position". "I cannot support and will not support another centrist government intent on destroying local democracy and dictating national policy from a high pedestal," he said. He also criticised plans to reorganise local government, which could see district and borough councils scrapped after Angela Rayner said she wants every region of England to get a mayor. "I believe the concentration of power in the hands of fewer people and the abolition of local democracy through the current proposals of super councils is nothing short of a dictatorship, where local elected members, local people, local residents will have no say over the type and level of service provided in their area," Mr Radulovic. The group claimed that 100 local grassroots members had also left Labour. It comes amid a turbulent first week of the year for Sir Keir, with the Tories and Elon Musk piling in on the government over its handling of the grooming gangs scandal, and a damning YouGov poll revealing that voters see Labour as incompetent and dishonest, with only 12 per cent saying the party has been successful so far. The prime minister has faced widespread criticism from across the political spectrum over the decision to cut winter fuel payments for those not on benefits, with Labours own analysis from 2017 revealing that thousands of pensioners could die as a result of the policy. In a statement, the remaining Broxtowe Labour Councillors said: "It is incredibly disappointing that some Broxtowe councillors have decided to leave the Labour Party and sit as independents when they were elected on a Labour ticket just over 18 months ago. These defections have no effect on the commitment of the remaining Labour Councillors in serving our residents. We, together with our Labour colleagues including MPs Juliet Campbell and Alex Norris, will continue to work to make Broxtowe a healthier, greener, safer and more prosperous place for everyone as change begins under this Labour government. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Less than 36 hours after a massacre at the gateway to the French Quarter, New Orleans officials reopened Bourbon Street, now heavily guarded with military police, fresh barricades and 14 roses to mark the 14 people who were killed in what law enforcement officials have labeled an act of terror. Authorities removed the remaining bodies and swept blood from the sidewalks and streets beginning at 2 a.m. Thursday. Deliveries to the streets bars and restaurants resumed a few hours later. Several blocks of Bourbon and surrounding streets had been blocked off, businesses were closed and residents living in the footprint of an active crime scene were navigating police tape and barricades after a driver plowed a pickup truck into a crowd shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday. Thousands of workers still checking on the safety of friends and colleagues are now returning to the bars, restaurants, music venues, hotels, gift shops and other businesses that keep the citys tourism economy running. One French Quarter worker told The Independent she was dreading returning to work. My anxiety is at an all-time high, she said. Thankfully I have health insurance through my spouse, but a lot of hospitality workers are uninsured and underpaid. Having to risk your life for a job that most likely doesnt care about you is awful. Praying for us all. open image in gallery Law enforcement guards the entrance to Bourbon Street as city officials re-open the street less than two days after a massacre ( Getty Images ) Workers have already felt unsafe and uncertain through a series of cascading disasters, from hurricanes and Covid-19 to political maneuvering and high-profile acts of violence. Social safety nets are inadequate. Statements and sympathies to New Orleans residents from city and state officials after the latest tragedy arent enough. The citys multi-million dollar plans to boost security relies on timelines for major events that draw billions of dollars in tourist revenue. The city is never really going to prioritize the concerns of French Quarter workers and residents, Waites Lacester, a bartender who lives and works in the neighborhood, told The Independent. The French Quarter is an economic engine to drive revenue, not just for the city, not just for the parish, but for the entire state, he said. Those of us who are actually here in the Quarter were always going to be I dont want to put it as an afterthought, but theres lots of other considerations that are going to be weighed against us. open image in gallery Temporary barriers installed on Bourbon Streets intersections intend to prevent vehicles from entering the area ( AP ) The incremental updates to a years-long, multi-million French Quarter security plan have repeatedly brushed up against workers and residents who have demanded better investments for locals who fuel the citys biggest economic driver, not just those who benefit from it. The pain felt among the neighborhoods workers is crippling, French Quarter bartender Jameson Lynn told The Independent. The fact that we dont know yet if its our French Quarter family or not is worse, she said. Its all super damn traumatic. Several Bourbon Street workers told The Independent they anticipated waiting at least 48 hours before they could go back to work. More than a dozen world-famous restaurants near the scene of the attack did not have a timeline for reopening after the attack. They are all now moving quickly to open their doors and barrooms, many of which were used to shelter survivors who ran into the nearest open door to escape chaos. People who work on Bourbon they have families, they have rents, they have mortgages, they have bills, Lacester said. New Years is one of our biggest weekends, economically speaking, he said. The fact that we have this capitalist hellscape that we found ourselves in, you kind of have to weigh those factors, too. Like, should we necessarily be rushing Bourbon Street reopening? I dont know. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel on New Years Day has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger, according to media reports. Multiple informed sources told ABC affiliate Denver 7 and KOAA News that Livelsberger, 37, a former Army veteran of Colorado Springs, was behind the wheel of the vehicle that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel at Las Vegas Boulevard and Sammy Davis Jr. Drive at 8:40 a.m. on Wednesday. Livelsberger died in the blast, according to the sources. Police are yet to officially confirm the identity of the deceased individual. Seven people sustained injuries, Las Vegas County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a news conference. Two of the casualties were taken to University Medical Center Southern Nevada. All injuries are minor, the sheriff said. The suspect is believed to have rented the silver Tesla Cybertuck in Colorado via the carsharing company Turo. open image in gallery Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, on January 1 ( Alcides Antunes via REUTERS ) McMahill noted that officials are very well aware of the New Orleans attack in which Texas resident Shamsud Din Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd of people celebrating New Years Eve just hours earlier, killing at least 15 people. Livelsberger and Jabbar allegedly served at the same military base, sources told Denver7. Sources also told the outlet that multiple addresses had been associated with the alleged suspect, with the FBI awaiting a search warrant for one residence on Marksheffel Road late Wednesday. The Burea of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Exploves have been brought in to assist, according to reports. Authorities continue to investigate the explosion as a possible act of terror, an official with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told ABC News, but a potential motive is not yet known. At this time, we are investigating a number of leads, and Im not prepared to release any of that information to you just yet. I can tell you that there are seven victims right now that sustained injuries from the explosion, McMahill said. open image in gallery Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department swarm the area around the Trump International Hotel ( Getty Images ) Video posted on social media showed different angles of the explosion, which appeared to include fireworks. Firework mortars and camp fuel canisters were found inside the truck, sources told Denver 7. Guests staying at the hotel and on surrounding properties told FOX5 that they heard several booms which many described as being louder than the New Years Eve fireworks. It was shaking the glass, it was so loud, one witness who was staying at the Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip told KLAS. I looked out and see smoke and me and my wife booked it out of there. McMahill highlighted the link between Trump and Elon Musk, the Tesla founder and the president-elects incoming head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with cutting trillions from government spending. open image in gallery Firefighters work at the Tesla Cybertruck which burned at the entrance of Trump Tower in Las Vegas ( REUTERS ) Obviously a Cybertruck, the Trump hotel, there are lots of questions we have to answer, McMahill said, underscoring the close relationship between the president-elect and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Musk took the opportunity to praise Teslas Cybertruck for being so sturdy that he said it helped contain the blast. The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards, he wrote in a post on X. Trump is yet to comment on the situation. The Independent has contacted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI for more information. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy More than a decade after a Florida woman vanished, a local sonar group say they have found her remains inside a minivan in a lake. Yekaterina Katya Belaya was last seen on the evening of September 28, 2014, at her home on Rock Springs Drive in Melbourne, Florida. That night, the mother-of-three, who was also a science professor at Eastern Florida State College, told her daughters that she was going to the store and left in her white 2003 Honda Odyssey minivan. But Belaya never made it to the store, according to investigators. She never returned home to her family and hasnt been seen or heard from since. open image in gallery Katya Belaya was last seen Sept. 28, 2014. Now, a sonar group say they have found her remains ( The Brevard County Sheriffs Office ) After years of no answers, Sunshine State Sonar took on the case in August 2024, and worked closely with Belayas family and the Brevard County Sheriffs Office Major Crimes Unit. Mike Sullivan with Sunshine State Sonar told Fox35 they learned key information that helped in their search. Then after canvassing 32 bodies of water and locating two other submerged vehicles, they finally found what they were looking for. We received additional information on that case that was not posted online cellphone ping data from that evening and that is ultimately what led us to that particular area where we located that vehicle, Sullivan explained. On December 20, the group announced that they had located Belayas minivan in a retention pond less than two miles from where she once lived. The minivan was upside down, submerged 24 feet under water. Human remains believed to be Belaya were inside the vehicle. Its unclear how the van ended up in the water, but an investigation is ongoing. The Brevard County Sheriffs Office confirmed to local news outlets that a van with remains inside were found in the pond. According to Fox35, the remains were analyzed and a DNA test confirmed they belong to Belaya. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Heavy metal drummer and vocalist Joshua "Nassaru" Ward famous for his work in the band Voraath was killed after being struck in a drunk driving tragedy on New Years Eve in South Carolina. Ward, 37, a father-of-one, and three others died in the two-vehicle collision just after 9 p.m. Tuesday on Cooley Bridge Road, just south of the city of Greenville, according to multiple law enforcement agencies. The group was struck while their 2017 Subaru SUV was backing out of a private driveway onto Cooley Bridge Road when suddenly a 2012 BMW sedan traveling south crashed into them, forcing the SUV off the road where it struck a tree, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. All four occupants inside the Subaru died in the crash. Nicholas Shane Meeks, 32, who was driving the BMW, was arrested by the Greenville County Sheriffs Office on New Years Day and charged with four counts of felony DUI involving death, and another for driving with a suspended license, according to Greenville County jail records. open image in gallery Nicholas Shane Meeks, 32, (pictured) has been charged for the fatal collision according to Greenville officials ( Greenville County Detention Center ) Shelton England with the Greenville County Coroners Office identified two of the victims Wednesday morning as Audrey Maris Ross, 29, of Donalds, and Amanda Lynn Leroux, 30, of North Carolina, reported CNBC-affiliate WYFF4 News . One of the victims is reported to have been Wards girlfriend while two others were believed to be his friends, reported heavy music outlet Lambgoat . Sick Drummer Magazine posted a tribute to Ward on New Years Day on Facebook which read: Woke up to hear the horrible news about the passing of our dear friend, drummer Joshua Nassaru Ward of Voraath. Our deepest condolences go to his family, friends, and bandmates. Josh was killed by a drunk driver in an accident last night. A great drummer and a really good person. According to the magazine, Ward had helped to deliver goods and services to those stranded in remote areas during recent floods. A GoFundMe page has been set up to cover funeral costs and to support Wards son Kai. Meeks was booked into Greenville County Detention Center and issued a $653 bond for driving with a suspended license, said jail records. The Independent contacted the Greenville County Coroner and the South Carolina Highway Patrol for an update on the incident. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger caused the explosion outside of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas to serve as a wake up call, chilling notes police recovered from his phone revealed. The active-duty Green Beret, 37, fatally shot himself before the vehicle exploded outside the hotel on the morning of New Years Day. This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call, Livelsberger said in the excerpt of the letter, read aloud by Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police at a press conference on Friday afternoon. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence, excerpts of Livelsbergers letter read. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives? Seven others were injured in the blast outside the hotel. It also emerged that the army veteran had argued with his wife after she told him she suspected he had been cheating, the New York Post reports, citing law enforcement sources. Heres what we know about the suspect in the Las Vegas explosion: open image in gallery Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old U.S. Army veteran, was identified as the suspect in the early hours of Thursday morning ( Facebook ) Who was Matthew Livelsberger? Matthew Livelsberger was a 37-year-old army veteran from Colorado Springs. Sources told Denver 7 that multiple addresses had been associated with Livelsberger in Colorado and FBI agents were investigating these properties. According to a family member, who spoke exclusively to The Independent, Livelsberger was a 100 percent patriot, who loved the Army and was an ardent supporter of President-elect Donald Trump. Pictures from social media show him with a tattoo of a bald eagle and the American flag visible on his shoulder. He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country, his uncle, Dean Livelsberger, said. He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty. open image in gallery Multiple addresses had been associated with Livelsberger in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and FBI agents were investigating these properties ( AP ) Livelsberger divorced his first wife, who now lives in South Florida with her new husband, several years ago. He had a newborn with his second wife, who reportedly ended their relationship just days before the explosion. He had argued with his wife after she told him she suspected he had been cheating, the New York Post reported, citing law enforcement sources. Livelsberger left his home in Colorado Springs the day after Christmas following the argument with his wife, two sources familiar with the investigation told the newspaper. It has also emerged that Livelsberger had reportedly been back in touch with former girlfriends in the days before the explosion. open image in gallery Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on January 1 ( Alcides Antunes/Reuters ) He boasted to one of them, Alicia Arritt, that he felt like Batman after renting the Tesla Cybertruck. Arritt, from Colorado Springs, his former girlfriend of three years, said the 37-year-old got in touch with her on December 29 out of the blue. I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. Its the s***, he texted Arritt that morning, the Denver Gazette reports. I feel like Batman or halo, he added. According to Arritt, Livelsbergers behavior changed after he returned from a tour in the Middle East suffering from a traumatic brain injury in 2019. Chilling notes recovered on his phone: Explosion was a wake up call At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Coren of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police shared excerpts from notes investigators found on Livelsbergers phone following the explosion. They provided an insight into his state of mind before he detonated the vehicle, according to officials. Fellow Servicemembers, Veterans, and all Americans, TIME TO WAKE UP! he said in one excerpt. We are being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves. In a second letter, Livelsberger said the US is headed toward collapse. This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call, Livelsberger said. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives? He added: Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers Ive lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took. Coren added that the words he read aloud were only excerpts of more letters they uncovered, which he said would be made public. He explained that Livelsberger wrote about political grievances, issues about conflicts elsewhere, domestic issues and a variety of things including personal challenges. Where did he serve? open image in gallery The profile picture on Livelsbergers LinkedIn account shows a man sporting winter gear armed with a rifle, standing atop of a snowmobile in mountainous terrain ( LinkedIn ) Livelsberger was in the U.S. Army for 19 years, 18 of them in the elite Special Forces. He is believed to have joined the Green Berets as a communications specialist in January 2006, before becoming an operations manager and team sergeant in February 2023. The profile picture on his LinkedIn account shows a man sporting winter gear armed with a rifle, standing atop a snowmobile in mountainous terrain. His most recent role, from November 2024, was listed as a Remote and Autonomous Systems Manager for the Army. Livelsberger was stationed in Germany, and was on leave in Colorado Springs when he rented the Cybertruck and drove to Nevada, law enforcement sources said. open image in gallery An ID found in the wreckage of the Tesla Cybertruck belonged to Livelsberger, police in Las Vegas have said ( Las Vegas Metro police ) Matt was a very skilled warrior, and he would be able to make if it was him, and if he did this he wouldve been able to make a more sophisticated explosive than using propane tanks and camping fuel, Dean Livelsberger told The Independent. He was what you might call a supersoldier. If you ever read about the things he was awarded, and the experience he had, some of it doesnt make sense, when he had the skills and ability to make something more, lets say, efficient. His skills were enormous from what he had been taught in the military. Livelsberger earned a summa cum laude an award given to the students earning the highest grades in their class after graduating from Norwich University in Vermont with a degree in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis, according to his LinkedIn profile. It also states he earned the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award for interagency contributions that resulted in increased interoperability and efficiency while serving as the Operations Sergeant at Special Operations Command Forward. At 22 years old, Livelsberger began collecting clothes, toys and educational items for children and disseminating off humanitarian aid while serving a tour in Afghanistan, he told the News Journal in his native Ohio. What happened in Las Vegas? open image in gallery LVMPD have released a map showing Livelsbergers route from Colorado down to Las Vegas ( Las Vegas Metro police ) Just after 8.40 a.m. on Wednesday, Livelsberger detonated explosive devices inside the Tesla Cybertruck, which he had parked outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Video posted on social media showed different angles of the explosion, which included fireworks. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill later confirmed that camp fuel canisters and firework mortars were found in the truck. On Thursday, McMahill said investigators were confident that Livelsberger was the person in the vehicle, though his body was burned beyond recognition. The sheriff added that there was evidence that he had shot himself in the head prior to the blast. Complicating this identification of this individual, we also discovered through the coroners office that the individual had sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle. One of the handguns was found at his feet inside of the vehicle, McMahill said. open image in gallery Camp fuel canisters and firework moratrs were among the items found in the burned out vehicle ( Las Vegas Metro police ) open image in gallery Investigators also found handguns in the vehicle, and Livelsberger is thougt to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound prior to the explosion ( Las Vegas Metro police ) Im comfortable calling it a suicide with the bombing that occurred immediately thereafter. Im not giving it any other labels. McMahill also said it was likely that the reinforced exterior of the Cybertruck had limited both the number of victims and destruction to nearby surroundings, as the blast had been directed up and through the vehicle. I just don't think that it was done as well as he was expecting it to be done, he said. No definitive link to New Orleans attacker Both the sheriffs office and FBI investigators said they are well aware of the incident in New Orleans, which happened just hours before the Las Vegas explosion. According to a report from Denver 7, the two New Years Day attackers Livelsberger and Jabbar allegedly served at the same military base, Fort Bragg, and were deployed in Afghanistan around the same period. In addition, the pair both rented their vehicles via the carsharing company, Turo, officials have said. Despite this, authorities have said that there is currently no definitive link between the two incidents. At the time they were fighting in the Middle East, the US had around 100,000 military personnel in Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obamas troop surge. open image in gallery Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department swarm the area around the Trump International Hotel ( Getty Images ) At a previous news conference, McMahill highlighted the link between Trump and Elon Musk, the Tesla founder and the president-elects incoming head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with cutting trillions from government spending. Obviously a Cybertruck, the Trump hotel, there are lots of questions we have to answer, McMahill said, underscoring the close relationship between the president-elect and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Musk took the opportunity to praise Teslas Cybertruck for being so sturdy that he said it helped contain the blast. The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards, he wrote in a post on X. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. In the UK, people having mental health crises can contact the Samaritans at 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The FBI has shared the movements of suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the final days and hours leading up to his deadly New Orleans attack early New Years Day. New details have emerged about how Jabbar, 42, traveled from his home in Houston, Texas, to New Orleans on New Years Eve in a rented pickup truck. He later rammed it into a crowd on bustling Bourbon Street, filled with revelers enjoying the celebrations at approximately 3:15 a.m. on January 1. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Christopher Raia, the FBIs deputy assistant director of its counter-terrorism division, said investigators are reviewing video footage of Jabbar recorded in the hours before the attack where he proclaimed his support for ISIS. Jabbar joined ISIS before this summer, Raia said at the briefing. The FBI and other agencies are combing through hundreds of hours of footage and surveillance, Raia added. This is how the movements of the suspect unfolded in the days and hours leading up to the massacre. open image in gallery Shamsud-Din Jabbar traveled from Houston to New Orleans on New Years Eve ( FBI/AFP via Getty Images ) December 30 - Suspect collects rental vehicle According to Raia, Jabbar collected the rented Ford F-150 pickup truck that he used to plow into the crowd just over 24 hours later in Houston, Texas. Jabbar moved north of Houston a year ago but previously lived in an apartment building in the city from 2021 to 2023. December 31 - Jabbar drives from Houston to New Orleans Jabbar then drove the roughly 350-mile journey from Houston to New Orleans on the evening of New Years Eve. During the journey, which is approximately a six-hour drive, Jabbar posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming his support for ISIS, Raia said. The suspect was staying in an Airbnb property on Mandeville Street. Authorities did not detail the timings of when he arrived at the apartment, but Raia confirmed the address was still being searched by investigators. A neighbor told CNN that their Ring camera captured footage of Jabbar unloading his car at 10:02 p.m. Tuesday. Two laptops were recovered at the Mandeville address and are currently being analyzed. open image in gallery Police outside the house fire on Mandeville Street ( Getty Images ) January 1, 2025 - Suspect posts ISIS videos, plants IEDs and carries out attack Raia did not specify the exact timings, but he told the briefing that Jabbar planted two explosive devices in coolers one near the cross-section of Bourbon and Orleans Street, and the second at an intersection approximately two blocks away probably after midnight. When asked what time Jabbar planted the devices, Raia said: I dont have the exact times in front of meprobably after midnight I want to say 1 or 2 in the morning. Surveillance footage later captured the moment Jabbar planted the devices and Raia said the FBI believes he left the scene after positioning the explosives before returning with the pickup truck later on. They were functional, but rendered safe at the scene, Raia said. Raia appealed for witnesses to come forward. open image in gallery The wreckage of the crash was captured via a drone ( AP ) We want to talk to anyone who was in the French Quarter on New Years Eve or early on New Years Day, he said. That includes people spotted near one of the two IEDs on Bourbon Street. Many people stopped and looked at the cooler and then continued on their way. He clarified that authorities do not believe those people are involved but are needed as witnesses. Jabbar also posted videos time-stamped at 1:29 a.m. and another at 3:02 a.m. the latter just 10 minutes or so before he rammed the pickup truck into the crowd of revelers. In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the war between the believers and the disbelievers, Raia said during the briefing. Additionally, he stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. Meanwhile, sometime after the suspect carried out his attack on Bourbon Street, a fire broke out at the Mandeville address. Raia said that the FBI is currently working on the assumption that it started after the suspect was killed in the standoff with officers. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry added that authorities may be able to walk everyone through a full timeline of the incident by early next week. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A string of harrowing attacks on the New York City subway system in recent weeks has deepened a growing sense of unease among some locals. When a woman was set ablaze inside a subway car in Brooklyn on December 22, graphic footage of the deadly attack ricocheted across social media, putting many who rely on the system on edge. The brutal killing was the latest in a mounting series of violent incidents on the subway. That same day, a man was stabbed to death on a train in Queens. On New Years Eve, a man was shoved in front of a train in Manhattan, but miraculously survived. And on the first day of the new year, two men were stabbed 17 minutes apart in unrelated attacks at subway stations in Manhattan. Despite years of efforts by city officials to make the mass transit system secure, including more police, more National Guard members, security cameras in every subway car and more outreach to homeless passengers, the subway has felt more dangerous in recent weeks. open image in gallery A woman was set on fire on the F train at Coney Island-Stilwell subway station, putting many on edge ( FNTV ) Overall, according to authorities, crime is down in the transit system this year when compared to last year major felonies declined six percent between January and November of this year and in 2023, data compiled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority show. But murders are up, with nine killings this year through November compared to five in the same period last year. Woman is set on fire on subway Debrina Kawam, 57, of Toms River, New Jersey, was sleeping inside a train car at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn on December 22 when she was set on fire by a stranger. The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta, 33, watched from a bench on the platform as she burned, prosecutors alleged. He was arrested and faces one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson. Mayor Eric Adams defended the system in a press conference on Tuesday but also noted his frustration at the difficulty of keeping mentally unwell people out of the subway stations. open image in gallery Sebastian Zapeta has been charged with murder in the burning death of Debrina Kawam ( AP ) People should not be sleeping on subways and on streets, he said. And we should not wait until they commit a crime like burning an innocent person or shoving someone on the subway before we say we have a problem. Two hours later, a 45-year-old man was standing on the platform at the 18th Street station, looking down at his phone, when a man ran up and shoved him into the path of an arriving train. Man shoved onto subway tracks and struck by train but survives Joseph Lynskey, 45, was hit by a southbound train at the 18th Street station in Manhattan on December 31, according to the New York Police Department. Surveillance video obtained by media outlets appears to show the victim checking his phone when he was suddenly pushed off the platform by a man with a hood over his head just before the train pulled into the station. Lynskey suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs and ruptured spleen, but survived. Police arrested 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins, who has multiple prior arrests for assault and harassment, according to law enforcement sources, and charged him with attempted murder and second-degree assault. Hawkinss father said that his mental state had recently seemed disturbed, according to the New York Times. They want to hike fares up and they want to do certain things, but they cant even keep the people of New York City protected, passenger Anthony Rodriguez told ABC7. You know what Im saying? Its kind of sad. New Years Day stabbing spree The first two days of the new year began with a pair of unrelated stabbings on the subway. Police said the first happened on Wednesday morning in Morningside Heights. A person standing on the southbound 1 train platform at the Cathedral Parkway110th Street station was stabbed repeatedly. The injured victim, who has not been named, was rushed to the hospital with stab wounds to the head, arm and hip Police said the suspect was last seen wearing a red sweater, black jacket and black ski mask. Just 15 minutes later, another stabbing occurred on a northbound 2 train in the area of 14th Street and 7th Avenue. A 31-year-old man was stabbed in the back, and was transported to the hospital where his condition wasnt immediately known. Police do not believe the stabbings are related. No arrests in either attack have been made. On Thursday, an MTA worker was stabbed at the Pelham Parkway subway station in the Bronx following an verbal altercation with another man. The third stabbing in just over 24 hours comes at a time of increased focus on security in the subway system. Subway crime by the numbers Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last month, days before Kawam was set on fire, that 250 more National Guard troops were being deployed into the system to help during the holiday season. She also announced that crime overall on the subway is down 10 percent since March. And only two years since the year 1970 have we had fewer subway crimes than we had last year, she added. Since the pandemic, subway ridership has recently reached its highest level, according to MTA officials. Alongside the increased ridership, there has been a substantial increase in violent crime on the subway. Felony assaults in the system are up 60 percent since 2019, according to reports compiled by the Times. Murders are up from three in 2019 to at least 11 in 2024. Also in 2024, people were pushed to the tracks at least 25 times compared with 20 times in 2019. open image in gallery Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul is backing a bill which she hopes will reduce attacks on the New York City subway ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ) On Wednesday, Governor Hochul said in a statement that she is backing a bill that would make it easier to involuntarily hospitalize people in psychiatric crisis, which could help reduce attacks in the subways. We have a duty to protect the public from random acts of violence, she said, and the only fair and compassionate thing to do is to get people the help they need. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The brother of the New Orleans terror attack suspect said his actions were the result of some type of radicalization and did not represent Islam. Just after 3 a.m. on New Years Day, police say 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a truck into a New Orleans crowd before opening fire, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens of others. Jabbar, who died in a shootout with police, had an ISIS flag on his truck. He also posted several Facebook videos hours before the attack in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS. The FBI is now investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. His brother, Abdur Jabbar, says they were both raised Christian but that the 42-year-old was Muslim for most of his life. What he did does not represent Islam, the 24-year-old told The New York Times. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion. open image in gallery Police say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, pictured during his military service, drove a truck bearing the ISIS flag into a New Orleans crowd on New Years Day ( via REUTERS ) The brothers last spoke in mid-December. Jabbar did not mention anything about a trip to New Orleans, his younger brother said. Chris Pousson, Jabbars former classmate who reconnected with him on Facebook in 2015, told the Times the attack came as a surprise. This is a complete 180 from the quiet, reserved person I knew, he said. He wasnt a troublemaker at all, he added. He made good grades and was always well-dressed in button-ups and polo shirts. Pousson said Jabbar often posted about his faith on Facebook. It was never Muslim extremist stuff, and he was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he had gotten really passionate, Pousson told the Times. open image in gallery Jabbars former classmate said the attack came as a surprise ( EPA ) Jabbar, who moved north of Houston a year ago, is a father to a six-year-old son and two daughters, 15 and 20. He and his first wife, Nakedra Charrlle Marsh, divorced in 2012, the Times reports. He re-married before separating from his second wife. Dwayne Marsh, the now-husband of Jabbars ex-wife, told the Times that the 42-year-old was barred from seeing his two daughters after he began acting erratically in recent months. Meanwhile, 70-year-old Marilyn Bradford, Jabbars former neighbor in Houston, told the Times he would often help her and offer to carry her groceries. He was no terrorist to me, Bradford said. Jabbar lived below Bradford in a Houston apartment building from 2021 to 2023. Bradford said he gave her a dryer and cleaning supplies before moving out. I said, Oh, you are giving me something to remember you by? He laughed, like he always did, she told the Times. He was an outcast person. I was the only one he really talked to. I used to refer to him as my buddy. Jabbar was inspired by ISIS and had a desire to kill, President Joe Biden said in an address on Wednesday. I know while this person committed a terrible assault on the city, the spirit of our New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated. It always will shine forth, Biden said. open image in gallery A police officer patrols the street in New Orleans where officials say Jabbar rammed his truck into a crowd, killing at least 15 people ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ) The conditions of the more than 30 people injured are not immediately clear. Meanwhile, four of the 14 people killed have been identified: Martin Tiger Bech, 28; NiKyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18; Reggie Hunter, 37; and Matthew Tenedorio, 25. Michelle Bech, mother to the 28-year-old victim, told NBC News she said goodbye to her son before he died at a local hospital. He was living his best life, and he knew it, she said. It just leaves a huge void in our life. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A 10-year-old girl has been shot dead by a stray bullet just as her family lit the sky ablaze with fireworks to celebrate New Years Eve in Florida, say officials. Yaneliz Munguia was struck by a bullet in the back of the head after celebratory gunfire erupted in the early hours of Wednesday at a home in Allapattah, said the Miami-Dade Police Department. Police said the young girl suddenly collapsed at the property which prompted her parents to examine her for injuries. When they discovered a wound to the back of her head they frantically called 911, police explained in a statement. Hialeah Fire Rescue responded to the incident and the young girl was rushed to the Jackson Ryder Trauma Center, where she was pronounced dead. An investigation is now underway to find the person responsible for the shooting. The 10-year-old girl was swiftly taken to the Jackson Ryder Trauma Center (pictured) where she later died, said officials ( Google Maps ) Miami-Dade police said the bullet [was] fired into the air from an unknown location by an unknown subject. Yaneliz had only just turned 10 years old days before her death. "Every time I came over, she was always happy to see me and now I cant bear to enter their home and not be able to see her again. It hurts my soul, Ramon Valdizon, her grandfather, told CBS News. He struggled to hold back tears as he spoke of how difficult it was to explain to Yanelizs younger brother that she was no longer alive. Her father told NBC6 on Thursday: "She was the most beautiful. Ill never have another like her." Police are now seeking the publics help to bring justice for Yaneliz and her family and have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. This heartbreaking incident serves as a devastating reminder that what goes up must come down. Bullets fired into the air can take innocent lives, the department wrote on Facebook on New Years Day. Anyone with information can contact Miami-Dade & The Florida Keys Crime Stoppers at (305) 471 - 8477 or by dialing **TIPS. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Police are investigating a possible act of terror in Nevada after a rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of President-elect Donald Trumps hotel in Las Vegas on New Years Day. The driver of the vehicle, who was killed in the blast, has since been named as US Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Several more were injured during the incident on Wednesday morning. The exact cause of the violent explosion is unknown, however, authorities said they were well aware of the deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans and were taking all precautions. President Joe Biden said in a Camp David address on Wednesday evening that investigators were trying to establish any links between the New Orleans and Las Vegas incidents. Heres what we know so far: open image in gallery One person has died and several more were injured after a Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning ( Reuters ) What happened? The explosion occurred around 8.40am on Wednesday morning in the valet area outside of the lobby of Trump International Hotel at Las Vegas Boulevard and Sammy Davis Jr Drive. The 64-story hotel is just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall. Video posted on social media showed different angles of the massive explosion, which appeared to include fireworks. Footage from inside the hotel showed the burning vehicle right outside the entrance, with a series of explosions going off. open image in gallery The 64-story hotel is just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall ( Reuters ) Guests staying at the hotel and on surrounding properties told FOX5 that they heard several booms which many described as being louder than the New Years Eve fireworks. It was shaking the glass, it was so loud, one witness who was staying at the Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip told KLAS. I looked out and saw smoke and me and my wife booked it out of there. Las Vegas County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the hotel was evacuated and guests were taken to Resorts World while police investigated. What was the cause of the explosion? Police initially said that the cause of the explosion was unknown, though Tesla boss Elon Musk wrote online that the companys entire senior team was also assisting with investigations. In a later post on X, Musk said that the incident was not due to a fault with the Cybertruck itself. We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, he said. All vehicle telemetry [data collection] was positive at the time of the explosion. McMahill later confirmed that authorities had gasoline cannisters and large firework mortars in the back of the truck. Was there a motive behind the incident? McMahill noted during Wednesdays press conference that officials are very well aware of the New Orleans attack in which a man intentionally drove a truck into a crowd of people celebrating New Years Eve just hours earlier, killing 15 people. He said that officials are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe and that they are looking for secondary devices. The FBI is also involved in the investigation. I know you have a lot of questions, Jeremy Schwartz, acting FBI Special Agent in Charge for the Las Vegas office, said at the news conference. We dont have a lot of answers. open image in gallery A police source told ABC that the Cybertruck was carrying a load of fireworks-style mortars, and the incident is being investigated as a possible act of terror ( Reuters ) Despite authorities caution, Musk later posted that the incident appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way, he suggested. President Biden has directed his team to offer any federal assistance needed, the White House said. Who are the victims? One person died inside the vehicle, according to McMahill, and efforts were underway to remove the body. That individual is understood to be Livelsberger. Seven other people were injured in the explosion. Two of the injured were transported to University Medical Center Southern Nevada for treatment. McMahill said all the injuries were minor, and there did not appear to be any further threat to members of the public. Further details on the victims are yet to be released. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Watch a view outside Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel on Thursday (2 January) after a Cybertruck explosion killed one person and injured several others. The FBI is investigating the possible link between the assailants in the two deadly New Years Day attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans. Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others after ramming a truck into a crowd of revellers on New Orleanss Bourbon Street on Wednesday morning after evading police barriers. Officials do not believe Jabbar acted alone and are investigating whether he had accomplices. Investigators are now looking at the possible link between Jabbar, a US citizen and Army veteran, and the driver in the Tesla Cybertruck blast outside Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel which took place just hours earlier. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, a former Army veteran of Colorado Springs, was allegedly behind the wheel when the vehicle exploded, according to local media reports. Livelsberger and Jabbar are believd to have served at the same military base, sources told Denver7. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The active-duty Green Beret who was driving a Tesla Cybertruck that blew up outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on New Years Day was a 100 percent patriot, his bewildered uncle said Thursday. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was like a Rambo-type, for lack of a better word, Dean Livelsberger told The Independent. Dean, whose older brother is Livelsbergers father, Roger, himself an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, said his nephew loved the Army. He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country, he continued. He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty. open image in gallery Matthew Livelsberger, the man believed to have detonated a Tesla outside Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel, was a Green Beret ( LinkedIn ) Dean Livelsberger said he was aware of the explosion in Vegas, but had not yet been made aware that Matt, as he called him, had been named as the culprit until The Independent contacted him for comment. At first, Dean assumed the explosion had been caused by one of those big lithium batteries that short-circuited or something, he said. He was relieved that the blast only caused seven minor injuries and didnt kill anyone else. But, he added, the amateurish construction of the explosive device, an array of propane tanks, fireworks and camping fuel, left him with a slew of additional questions. Matt was a very skilled warrior, and he would be able to make if it was him, and if he did this he wouldve been able to make a more sophisticated explosive than using propane tanks and camping fuel. He was what you might call a supersoldier. If you ever read about the things he was awarded, and the experience he had, some of it doesnt make sense, when he had the skills and ability to make something more, lets say, efficient. His skills were enormous from what he had been taught in the military. With Livelsbergers skills, his uncle suggested, his nephew could have fashioned a bomb that would have obliterated half of that hotel if he seriously wanted to hurt others. Think of Oklahoma City, he said. McVeigh was just a normal soldier. Not a Tier 1 operator like Matt. Livelsberger was in the U.S. Army for 19 years, 18 of which were in the elite Special Forces. He was currently stationed in Germany, and was on leave in Colorado Springs when he rented the Cybertruck and drove to Nevada, law enforcement sources said. open image in gallery Livelsbergers Tesla Cybertruck seen driving through Las Vegas before exploding at a Trump hotel ( Las Vegas Metro police ) The truck blew up just a few hours after Shamsud-Din Jabbar rammed a truck into New Years Day revelers in New Orleans killing at least 15 people. Jabbar, 42, was also an Army veteran who was posted to the same base as Livelsberger, and also served in Afghanistan around the same time that Livelsberger did. Investigators were looking into a possible link between the two men, who both rented their vehicles through the same carshare service, Turo, but so far they have found no direct connection between the two. At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the coroners office found that Livelsberger had sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle. And while the investigation is still ongoing, he believed Livelsbergers actions indicated a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately thereafter, rather than a suicide mission. Livelsbergers military ID and passport were found inside the Cybertruck, as well as a Desert Eagle .50 caliber semi-automatic pistol and an SLR Rifleworks B30. Both weapons, and Livelsberger himself, were burnt almost beyond recognition, according to McMahill. He said investigators also recovered a cache of fireworks, along with an iPhone, a smartwatch, and several credit cards in Livelsbergers name. open image in gallery Burned fireworks found inside Livelsbergers Tesla ( Las Vegas Metro police ) Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans of the FBIs Las Vegas Division said agents had tracked the vehicle from Denver, through Tesla charging stations in Arizona and New Mexico, before it arrived in Vegas at 7:29 a.m. on Wednesday. Kenny Cooper, assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms San Francisco Division, said it remains unclear how the explosives were detonated. He noted that everything used was consumer-grade, such as the camping fuel and propane tanks, in addition to some explosive targets that can be purchased at any sporting goods store. Both of the firearms in the Cybertruck had been legally purchased two days earlier, on December 30. Cooper also noted, echoing Dean Livelsberger, that the level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience. Livelsberger divorced his first wife, who now lives in South Florida with her new husband, several years ago. Livelsberger shares a newborn with his new partner, and in September posted a picture on Facebook of himself cradling the infant in his arms, according to Dean. Over the past few months, an array of photos Livelsberger posted from Germany, including pictures of himself proposing to his partner, and the ring he gave her, have disappeared, his uncle said. Livelsbergers father, who was unreachable on Thursday, was married several times, and had children with a couple of different women, according to Dean Livelsberger, who has been semi-estranged from his brother for years. At the same time, Dean said, Matt wasnt estranged from the family at all. Everyone thought the world of Matt. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A social media wildlife star has been hospitalized after being bitten by a venomous rattlesnake in Florida. David Orin, 25, set out on December 18 on Floridas Shired Island in Dixie County to go herping the act of searching for reptiles when he was savagely bitten by a four-foot Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake, according to the influencer. The young star who is followed by 1.4 million on Instagram and over 2.3 million on TikTok captured the heart-stopping moments after the attack on video and gave his followers a glimpse of the deadly bite while his three friends stood next to him in shock. Welp, Im cooked. Alright, that right there is a fantastic Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake that I just got bit in the leg by because I didnt notice him when I was peeling back bark. Orin calmly told his stunned friends: Alright, Im about to lose my ability to walk so lets get back to the car. The 25-year-olds health rapidly began to decline as he described his body plunging into what he believed was an anaphylactic shock which left him feeling paralyzed from head to toe. open image in gallery The venomous rattlesnake sunk its teeth into Orins leg leaving it swollen and bruised (pictured) ( adventorin/Instagram ) Orin spoke of how his shin the site where the snake sunk its teeth felt like it was going to explode as the venom began to take hold. After being driven to the nearest ambulance station, Orin was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville before being given ten vials of antivenom as his leg swelled and began to bruise heavily. Orin was filmed by his wife lying in hospital comatosed by the deadly experience. In the video, he tells his wife: Im scared Im going to die, but hopefully not. As of New Years Day, the 25-year-old remains in hospital and heading into his 15th day of medical treatment, according to his wife Emma Rynear. open image in gallery The stars wife, Emma Rynear, has frequently posted updates on his recovery from the attack he heads into his 15th day of hospitalization ( GoFundMe ) She filmed the star slowly walking inside the hospital on crutches while he continued to show signs of inflammation and discoloration around the site of his horrific wound. She posted on her Instagram story on January 1: We are trusting and believing that inflammation will reduce with time, PT, and anti-inflammatory meds. Once this happens, Lordwilling, we are hoping that any compressed nerve will reduce and we can have ankle mobility again!! A GoFundMe page set up in aid of Orins medical bills has totaled $28,360 so far. The social media influencer rocketed in followers online since he began posting a range of daring videos where he will typically handle venomous reptiles and amphibians this is not the first time the star has been bitten. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Authorities are trying to identify human remains discovered near the site of an annual music festival in northern Michigan, the same area where a Detroit-area man disappeared while attending the event in 2018. "A positive identification of the remains cannot be made at this time pending autopsy results and further investigation," state police said on X. Investigators were sent Monday to a wooded area near Rothbury in Oceana County, site of the popular Electric Forest music festival. Forensic anthropologists from Western Michigan University also joined the effort. State police have not offered an update since Tuesday. Kevin Graves, 28, was last seen at Electric Forest in 2018. A woman who attended the festival with him told police he was acting odd all week. Oakland County Sheriffs Office Detective Sgt. David Bach previously told MLive that he had been acting paranoid, fighting with his girlfriend, accusing her of calling the FBI on him and having a sexual relationship with another friend who attended the festival. He eventually returned to his tent, but by time his girlfriend went there to find him, he was gone, according to WoodTV. open image in gallery The parents of Kevin Graves have been notificed after their tireless search for their son ( Oakland County Sheriff Deparment ) Police at the time searched with dogs and dozens of volunteers, while divers checked area lakes. Police notified Gary Graves, Kevins father, after the remains were found. I am waiting to hear for sure what they found, Gary told FOX 17 Tuesday afternoon. Gary and the rest of the Graves family have been tirelessly trying to locate their son ever since he was last seen in 2018, attending the festival every year to hand out missing persons flyers. In 2023, they even paid to have a billboard put up near the festival entrance with his details on. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is starting the new year with her first Instagram account since 2020. The Associated Press confirmed Wednesday that @meghan belongs to the Duchess of Sussex. Her first post is a black and white video of herself at the beach, wearing white and drawing 2025 in the sand on an overcast day. The account already has more than 200,000 followers. Meghan and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, were married in 2018, and were initially part of @KensingtonRoyal, which also included Harry's brother, Prince William, and his wife, Kate, the Princess of Wales. But a year later, Meghan and Harry launched their own account, @SussexRoyal, a sign of their growing distance from the royal family. @SussexRoyal was discontinued in 2020, around the time that Meghan and Harry announced they were stepping back from their official roles. Meghan, who had a popular Instagram account when she was best known for her role in Suits, had indicated she would return. In a 2022 interview with New York Magazine's The Cut, she confided: Do you want to know a secret? Im getting back on Instagram." At other times, she sounded reluctant to return to Instagram, citing concerns about harassment. In 2023, Meghan and Harry urged social media platforms to strengthen content-moderation policies, saying that some apps could damage the mental health of young people. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Authorities investigated a possible connection between the New Orleans terrorist and the driver in a Cybertruck explosion in Las vegas after it emerged both had military experience. Investigators are still trying to determine what motivated Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, to plow into a crowd of New Years revelers while flying an ISIS flag from his truck, killing 15 people and injuring 30 more before dying in a shootout with police. FBI officials initially said they were focused on whether Jabbar, who had once served in Afghanistan, had any help in planning the deadly attack and whether it was linked to the explosion in Las Vegas. On Thursday, they confirmed he acted alone. A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel, killing Matthew Livelsberger and injuring seven others, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20. open image in gallery Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, had served in the Army and had been deployed to Afghanistan. He was named as the terrorist suspect who plowed through a crowd in New Orleans ( FBI/AFP via Getty Images ) In an evening address, President Joe Biden said the White House was tracking the incidents and law enforcement was investigating "whether theres any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans." On Thursday, the FBI said that there was no definitive link between the two incidents, but that investigations were still in the early stages. We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling everything out, Christopher Raia, the FBIs Deputy Assistant Director of its Counter Terrorist Division said. However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas. Livelsberger is thought to have died in the blast, but police are yet to officially confirm the identity of the deceased. Multiple informed sources told ABC affiliate Denver 7 and KOAA News that Livelsberger, 37, was a former Army veteran of Colorado Springs, who served on the same military base as Jabbar. Police said both men used the same car-sharing app Turo to rent the vehicles used in the attacks. Firework mortars and camp fuel canisters were also found inside the truck, with Las Vegas County Sheriff Kevin McMahill telling a press conference that officials are very well aware of the New Orleans attack. open image in gallery Flames rise from a Tesla cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas after it exploded in New Years Day. ( Alcides Antunes/Reuters ) In New Orleans, party-goers on the citys busy Bourbon Street, which is famed for its nightlife, packed the streets when Jabbars vehicle steered past bollard and defeated safety measures carry out the attack, police said. Guns and an improvised explosive device were discovered in the vehicle which bore the flag of the Islamic State group along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the citys famed French Quarter. The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence and the deadliest ISIS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years. open image in gallery Emergency services at the scene in New Orleans after 15 were killed in a terror attack ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ) Investigators found multiple improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, authorities said. The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that police had surveillance footage showing three men and a woman placing one of the devices. Investigators later clarified that the terror suspect acted alone and planted the devices. On Thursday authorities confimed that Jabbar was the only suspect in the deadly incident. We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, Raia, said. Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. He is a U.S. citizen from Texas. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy President-elect Donald Trump has insisted that he was right about everything after falsely connecting the New Orleans attack to migrants. Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! Trump said on Truth Social. This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. At least 14 people have been killed and dozens were injured when a truck drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day. Authorities have said that they believe the driver wasnt solely responsible. The FBI has said that the suspect - 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar - is an army veteran from Texas. He died after exchanging gunfire with police. Officials added that the suspect had made videos before the attack in which he said he had joined ISIS. Trump added that federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI, as well as Democrat state and local prosecutors havent done their jobs, going on to call them incompetent and corrupt. The president-elect argued that they shouldnt be focused on attacking him but instead protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself. Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country. The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late, he added. The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING, Trump added in a subsequent post. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump incorrectly linked the New Orleans attack to immigration ( Getty Images ) On Thursday morning, Trump wrote in yet another post on his social media platform that With the Biden Open Borders Policy I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe. That time has come, only worse than ever imagined. Joe Biden is the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, he added. What he and his group of Election Interfering thugs have done to our Country will not soon be forgotten! MAGA. Trump incorrectly linked the New Orleans attack to immigration even as authorities said the man responsible was from Texas and a veteran of the U.S. Army. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump said on Wednesday morning on Truth Social. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, he added. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! Trumps outburst came after a Fox News report, which has since been retracted, incorrectly stated the suspects truck had crossed into Texas from Mexico two days before. The truck, which was rented via the site Turo, had entered the U.S. from Mexico on November 16. At the time, it was being driven by a man without any connection to the attack on Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, the authorities said there was no connection between the attack and the U.S.-Mexico border. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, noted that the FBI is looking into the attack as an act of terrorism, with the agency saying that an ISIS flag was found on the truck. The FBI said its working to determine the subjects potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Weapons and a potential IED were located in the subjects vehicle. Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter, the federal law enforcement agency added. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Elon Musk has leaped to the defense of his Tesla Cybertruck after one of the vehicles exploded outside of a Donald Trump-owned luxury hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on New Years Day, leaving one person dead and seven more injured. The driver of the truck, which was rented in Colorado and driven south, was killed in the blast and has since been named by local media as U.S. Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs. The incident came just hours after another vehicle plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, leaving 14 people dead and many more hurt. The worlds richest man, a close ally of the president-elect since the latter stages of last years presidential campaign, initially responded to events in Las Vegas on Wednesday night on X, the social media platform he owns, by saying: The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now. Will post more information as soon as we learn anything. Weve never seen anything like this. In an update approximately 80 minutes later, Musk reported that the explosion had not been the result of a technical fault with the truck. We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, he wrote. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. open image in gallery ( Alcides Antunes/Reuters ) Half an hour later, he wrote in response to an MSNBC clip covering the story: Appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way. While investigators have said they are looking at possible connections between the two incidents, they have so far found no direct link. A spokesperson for the Turo app alluded to by Musk said in a statement: We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. They continued: We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. open image in gallery Elon Musk praises robustness of his Tesla Cybertrucks structure for ensuring the incident in Las Vegas did not have even deadlier consequences ( PA ) We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals. Musks final post of the evening regarding the destroyed Cybertuck saw him repost a Fox News clip in which local police praised the robustness of his vehicle for ensuring the incident did not have even deadlier consequences, also noting that it left the Trump hotel largely undamaged. The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack, the Tesla owner jeered in celebration. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken. Musk has since posted a number of complaints about media coverage of the Las Vegas episode, including branding the Associated Press Associated Propaganda for initially reporting that the truck involved simply caught fire. He has since posted on a number of unrelated subjects via his X account, from the accomplishments of his SpaceX company and politics in El Salvador to campaigning for the release from prison of British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, having seemingly been influenced by a Robinson-approved documentary. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Donald Trumps one-time White House strategist Steve Bannon warned Elon Musk Tuesday that he and other MAGA diehards are going to rip your face off unless Musk smartens up and stops pushing visas for skilled foreign workers to take good-paying tech industry jobs away from Americans. He instructed Musk to sit back and study to understand MAGAs - and what supporters believed was Trumps - America First stance to keep U.S. jobs for Americans. Theyre recent converts, Bannon said Tuesday on his War Room podcast, referring to Musk and other tech-world Trump supporters. We love converts, Bannon noted. But the converts sit in the back and study for years and years and years to make sure you understand the faith and you understand the nuances of the faith and understand how you can internalize the faith. Dont come up and go to the pulpit in your first week here and start lecturing people about the way things are going to be, Bannon added. If youre going to do that, were going to rip your face off. Bannon called for a 100% moratorium on all immigration until we get this thing sorted. Bannon the previous day demanded reparations from Musk and other tech leaders for cutting Americans out of jobs. The visa issue is central to the way they gutted the middle class in this country, he complained. Donald Trumps one-time strategist Steve Bannon throws down with tech billionaire Elon Musk over H-1B visas ( Getty/AFP ) Musk was a Johnny-come-lately to politics before he forked over at least $250 million to help Trump get elected. Both he and tech entrepreneur (and Trumps former rival for GOP presidential nomination) Vivek Ramaswamy have now been tasked by the president-elect with carving up the federal government to save money in their new DOGE operation. Musk and Ramaswamy have suddenly strongly spoken up in recent days on behalf of protecting special H-1B visas for skilled foreigners to fill high-level tech jobs, including in Musks businesses because American simply arent up to the task. The South African-born Musk last week endorsed a post on X that referred to American workers as re***ed, which is widely regarded as an ugly slur (Musk has since deleted his support for the attack post). Ramaswamy has also complained that Americans are not up to snuff when it comes to competing with brainy foreigners. He blamed the dumbed-down culture of the U.S. Trump has backed Musk on the many great foreign workers in the country on H-1B visas, surprising many of the MAGA supporters who voted for him. Musk doesnt appear to be budging, even though he has, out of character, suddenly called for a more positive and beautiful social media conversation. He made the appeal two days after he told H-1B opponents in a diatribe on X: F*** yourself in the face. Bannon came back with a different idea for Musks face. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Hours after a U.S. Army veteran plowed a truck into a crowd of revelers celebrating New Years on New Orleanss Bourbon Street, leaving 14 dead and dozens injured, Fox News reported that the terror suspects vehicle was spotted crossing the U.S.-Mexico border just two days prior. The conservative cable giants suggestion that the horrific tragedy may have been linked to migrants entering the United States sparked an immediate freakout from prominent conservatives and likely led to President-elect Donald Trumps initial statement on the mass casualty event that tied immigration to the terror attack. While the incoming president insisted hed been proven right that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, Fox News soon walked back much of its reporting, noting that the vehicle had been spotted near the border in November rather than late-December and that it didnt appear the suspect was the driver in that instance. At that point, though, the genie was already out of the bottle. MAGA hardliners who have already spent the past couple of weeks squabbling about immigration and visas cited the Fox News story while demanding for the United States to shut the border down because an illegal immigrant was responsible for the heinous attack. In the first few hours after Shamsud-Din Jabbar allegedly carried out his attack, which the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism, media outlets were furiously trying to gather information about the suspects identity, motivation and background. During this initial fog of reporting, Fox News took to the air late Wednesday morning to issue breaking news sourced to two federal law enforcement sources. Fox News reports that the New Orleans terror suspects truck was spotted crossing the US-Mexico border two days prior. The network soon walked back the story, noting that it was actually two months ago and the suspect wasnt the driver. ( Fox News ) The first on-air mention of this story occurred at 10:40 a.m. ET, with Fox News reporter Alexis McAdams noting that correspondents David Spunt and Griff Jenkins were working their sources to find out that this person came through Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago. During Fox News live coverage seven minutes later, Spunt noted that the vehicle was traced to coming across from Mexico into the United States at Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago. Pointing out Jenkins had also contributed to the report, Spunt said they didnt know 100 percent if this man was the person driving who crossed the border, adding the actual license plate was picked up by a reader at a border crossing. I know that raises more questions than answers, but we are providing information to our viewers as we get it, Spunt continued. The most accurate information. So thats what we know right now. As far as the name of the suspect, we dont know. Weve heard several names right now, but we want to be sure we have the accurate name before we say anything about a name and before we broadcast that at all. Meanwhile, the network ran a chyron on air that blared: SOURCES: SUSPECTS TRUCK CROSSED BORDER 2 DAYS AGO. Moments before Spunt went on air, Fox News senior national correspondent Aishah Hasnie posted his and Jenkins reporting on X (formerly Twitter). NEWS - Federal law enforcement sources tell FOX, the NOLA suspect came through Eagle Pass, Texas two days ago. The suspects citizenship status is not yet confirmed, she wrote at 10:43 a.m. ET. Hasnie would edit that tweet nine minutes later, removing the reference to the suspect coming through the Eagle Pass border station and replacing it with truck. The correspondents tweet quickly went viral, sparking former Trump adviser Steve Cortes to call for a legal immigration pause and to close the damn border! Trump, a rapacious Fox News viewer and social media consumer, would soon deliver his first official comments on the massacre and tied it directly to migrant crime and so-called open borders, issues he ran relentlessly on during his successful presidential campaign. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, he wrote at 10:48 a.m. ET on his Truth Social platform. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, he added. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! The networks digital site also added the reporting to its live blog and main article on the attack, prompting other outlets to aggregate the story. At the same time, far-right provocateurs and MAGA lawmakers seized on the report to link immigration to the likely terror attack. BREAKING: The suspects truck in the horrific Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans crossed over the US/Mexico border just two days ago in Eagle Pass, TX, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk tweeted to his 4.3 million followers, sharing a Fox News clip. New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) exclaimed from her official congressional X account. Shut the border down!!! Who did our government bomb lately that is taking it out on innocent Americans? Sharing a clip of McAdams initial on-air report, right-wing news aggregator Breaking911 fumed that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris HAVE MORE BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS because the man who committed the NYE New Orleans terror attack, crossed into the U.S. from Mexico via Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO. That post soon racked up thousands of retweets and 3.9 million views. When it was reported that the suspected terrorist had rented the truck using a car-sharing app, Fox News soon began dialing back its reporting. Roughly an hour after sparking a full-fledged meltdown on the right, the network retracted its initial story. Sources now tell Fox that that truck from Eagle Pass, Texas, did not cross two days ago. It crossed on November 16, host Bryan Llenas told viewers at 11:55 a.m. ET. And the identification of the driver that crossed the border does not appear to be the shooter. We will get more clarification. The Fox News digital team would soon add editors notes to the live blog, stating that an earlier version of this blog post stated the truck had crossed into Eagle Pass two days ago. Sources tell FOX there was some initial confusion on their end about the date. Eventually, all references to the report about the truck crossing the border were removed from the main digital article on the attack. Later in the afternoon, Fox News would add even more clarifications to the story. Speaking to Lousiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, host Julie Banderas noted at 3:49 p.m. ET that the truck never actually passed through from Mexico into Eagle Pass. At the same time, Banderas attempted to keep the topic of immigration and border security relevant to the attack, adding that sources told Fox that the license plate on this truck has a history of plate readers at the border, in patterns and Im quoting, that may be suspicious for human smuggling. Earlier in the day, though, Spunt made a point of refuting Trumps attempts to tie immigration to the attack. Reading off the president-elects statement which was potentially spurred by his initial reporting Spunt added: To be clear the suspect was born in the United States. He served in the United States Army. He was a veteran. Fox News and Trumps transition team did not respond to requests for comment. Indeed, the FBI confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the suspected assailant was 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a veteran of the U.S. Army who was born in Texas and converted to Islam after being brought up Christian. The former real estate agent and consultant, who was also divorced twice, had recently posted videos discussing plans to kill his family and join the Islamic State, federal law enforcement officials said on Thursday. An ISIS flag was found in the truck he drove, and the FBI said on Thursday that Jabbar was 100 percent inspired by the terrorist group. Meanwhile, after suggesting that Jabbar had accomplices, the FBI stated on Thursday that nobody else was involved in the attack besides Jabbar, adding that this was an act of terrorism. They also stated that they saw no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and the explosion of a Cybertruck at a Trump-branded hotel in Las Vegas. Despite Fox News walking back its reporting and the assailant being a US-born military veteran, Trump has tripled down on blaming the attack on Bidens border policies, claiming he was RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. Other Republicans and conservatives have also followed suit, saying the wide open southern border invited this. With the Biden Open Borders Policy I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe, Trump raged on Thursday. That time has come, only worse than ever imagined. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The H-1B visa is at the center of a feud that has engulfed supporters of President-elect Donald Trump. While many on the far-right, such as activist Laura Loomer and former Trump adviser Steven Bannon, are fiercely anti-immigrant, Silicon Valley tech figures, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have come out in support of the visas, which are for highly skilled immigrants typically working in tech, healthcare, engineering and finance. Trump has supported Musk and Ramaswamy, who want better legal immigration routes such as the H-1B program to fill skills gaps in key sectors such as engineering, science, and technology. The president-elect told the New York Post that he has always been in favor of the visas, but previously said they are very bad and unfair for U.S. workers. What are H-1B visas? open image in gallery Trump was vehemently against the H-1B visa during his first administration ( Getty Images ) The popular visa, created in 1990, allows U.S. employers to temporarily offer work to foreign nationals who have theoretical and practical application of highly specialized knowledge. Applicants must have a bachelors or higher degree in a specific specialty subject, or equivalent, as a minimum to enter the U.S., according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Typically, the visa is valid for three years with the possibility of extending for a maximum of six years. The visa can cost employers approximately $5,000 per applicant. It does not automatically grant permanent residency. The visas are highly sought after in healthcare, engineering, tech, finance and higher education. A company will employ an H-1B worker on the basis that the specialty cannot be filled by the U.S. workforce. The majority of H-1B visa applicants come from India, whose citizens account for more than seven in 10 recipients, according to a USCIS report. One in 10 comes from China, with the remainder coming from other nations including Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, Taiwan and Korea. Are they difficult to obtain? Each year, 65,000 H-1B visas are approved by the Department of Homeland Security, with an additional 20,000 available for applicants who graduate with a masters degree or doctorate from a U.S. institution. Applicants are chosen by a lottery system for review, which means that some are denied due to chance even if they are eligible. The application process can generally take between two to eight months, according to a number of immigration law firms. Premium processing is available for a fee, which can reduce the wait time. What has Trump previously said about H-1B visas? open image in gallery Trump has backed his ally Elon Musk on the H-1B visa ( AP ) During Trumps first administration, the H-1B visa program was restricted in 2020 over concerns it allowed employers to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign workers. Now, he appears to have backtracked on that sentiment after coming out in support of Musk and Ramaswamy, who will lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. Ramaswamy argued that America does not produce the best engineers, while Musk said that there is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent in the U.S. Speaking by phone with The New York Post on Saturday, the president-elect agreed. Ive always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. Thats why we have them, he said. In a 2016 primary debate, however, Trump called the H-1B visa program very bad and unfair for U.S. workers. First of all, I think and I know the H-1B very well. And its something that I frankly use and I shouldnt be allowed to use it. We shouldnt have it, he said. Second of all, I think its very important to say, well, Im a businessman and I have to do what I have to do. Three months after taking office in 2020, Trump issued his Buy American and Hire American executive order, which directed Cabinet members to suggest reforms to ensure that H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers, the Associated Press reported. In June 2022, in conflict with the president-elects previous views on the visa, Trump Media & Technology Group which owns Truth Social, filed an application for an H-1B visa for an employee with a $65,000 salary, according to AP. The company said it did not hire the worker and the application was made under prior management. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A Republican senator known for his antics in front of the cameras made some curious remarks during a press conference on Wednesday where officials updated the public on the investigation into a car attack in New Orleans that left 15 people dead. John Kennedy, appearing alongside law enforcement officials and the state of Louisianas Republican governor, Jeff Landry, used the opportunity to take shots at reporters and outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In one widely-circulated clip, the senator is seen questioning several reporters in the room to determine which outlets they worked for. Then, a woman informs him that reporters for NBC News were to his right. The senator couldnt resist a shot at the network and its politics: Thats an unusual position. His comment drew chuckles from a few people in the room, and a confused reply from a woman off camera: I dont get it. You wouldnt, he snidely told the reporter. Reporter: NBC is here on the right Kennedy: Thats an unusual position Reporter: I dont get it Kennedy; You wouldnt pic.twitter.com/wYxDDIz0Gf Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2025 The senators comments about federal support which by all reports is underway were dripping with contempt. Kennedy said hed spoken to Mayorkas, telling reporters: I did talk to the Secretary of Homeland Security a little while ago, and I told him that, with all the respect I could muster, that we expect [him] to put the full force and resources of the federal government behind this investigation. In the friendly arms of a Fox News interview, the senator would go even further, and baselessly suggested that the Biden administration might seek to orchestrate a cover up of the attacker or their motive(s). open image in gallery Senator John Kennedy is known for hamming it up for the cameras, especially during TV interviews and Senate hearings. ( Getty Images ) I dont want to hear anyone in the federal government claiming they lack resources. They need to saddle up and ride, said the senator, evoking one of his typically folksy quips. We need answers about what happened in New Orleans...No cover ups. You never know what theyre not telling us, he added. But I know how to probe pretty hard. Kennedy is no stranger to spectacle, and has been repeatedly rebuked by everyone from his Democratic rivals to foreign governments for the comments he makes in front of TV cameras. In 2023, the government of Mexico described him as vulgar and racist after the senator suggested that, figuratively speaking, the people of Mexico would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback [Steakhouse] were it not for U.S. foreign aid. Interview on Fox News with @SenJohnKennedy about the New Orleans incident: I dont want to hear anyone in the federal government claiming they lack resources. They need to saddle up and ride. We need answers about what happened in New Orleans...no cover ups. pic.twitter.com/CA3yhIlmhJ TheCalvinReport (@TheCalvinReport) January 2, 2025 Lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee were due to receive a briefing on the New Orleans attack with updated information Thursday morning, according to reports. The situation is being investigated in concert with the response to a Tesla Cybertruck, apparently packed with fireworks and other explosives, in front of a Trump property in Las Vegas, though no connection has been established by law enforcement. At a news conference Thursday morning, FBI officials said the agency believed that the New Orleans attacker acted alone. The deadly car attack in New Orleanss famous French Quarter came as the citys cultural districts were packed with tourists and locals alike for New Years celebrations. Fifteen people are reported dead and dozens more were injured in the attack. FBI officials say a black flag associated with the terrorist Islamic State ideology was found on the pickup truck driven by the New Orleans suspect. The FBI on Wednesday named 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar as the suspect in the New Orleans attack; he died in a shootout with police. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy President Joe Biden is handing the second-highest civilian honor to fierce Donald Trump critics Liz Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson for their work leading the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people in a ceremony at the White House Thursday evening. Some of the recipients fought for same-sex marriage, one led the charge in treating wounded soldiers, and two others are close friends of the president: former Sens. Ted Kaufman and Chris Dodd. President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others, the White House said. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice. The medal, created by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is the second-highest civilian award in the U.S., following the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is given to those who performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. Last year, Biden handed the honor to some of those protecting the Capitol during the attack on democracy by supporters of President-elect Trump, and some of those who defended the vote of the American people when Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. The final report from the committee found that Trump had criminally taken part in a multi-part conspiracy to overturn the election and that he didnt take sufficient action to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. During the 2024 campaign, Cheney said she would back Vice President Kamala Harris and also joined her on the campaign trail. Trump has repeatedly attacked Cheney, leading Biden to consider whether to offer preemptive pardons to her and others the incoming president has targeted. Even as hes set to return to the White House on January 20th, Trump is holding firm to his lies that he won the 2020 election. He has also said that he would pardon some of the rioters following his return as president. Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) speaks at a town hall with Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on October 21, 2024 in Royal Oak, Michigan. She will receive the Presidential Citizens Medal Thursday evening ( Getty Images ) Trump recently appeared on NBCs Meet the Press, saying that Cheney did something thats inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps, He baselessly claimed they deleted and destroyed testimony and added: Honestly, they should go to jail. Evan Wolfson and attorney Mary Bonauto, who both fought for same-sex marriage, will also receive the medal, as will Frank Butler, who set new standards for treating injuries in war, and Diane Carlson Evans, the founder of the Vietnam Womens Memorial Foundation and an army nurse during the Vietnam War. Womens rights and equal pay activist Eleanor Smeal is another honoree. Other recipients include photographer Bobby Sager, academics Thomas Vallely and Paula Wallace, and National Breast Cancer Coalition President Frances Visco. Other former lawmakers are also receiving the award, such as former Sens. Ben Bradley and Nancy Kassebaum, the first woman to represent Kansas, as well as ex-Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who worked on gun safety issues after her son and husband were killed. Biden is set to give the award posthumously to four people former war correspondent Joseph Galloway, Louis Lorenzo Redding, an attorney and civil rights advocate, former Delaware judge Collins Seitz, and Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was detained along with other Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The Associated Press contributed to this report Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Mike Johnson is set to face a vote on Friday that will determine whether he remains Speaker of the House, and although he is running unopposed with Donald Trumps support, its unclear if all his conservative colleagues are willing to back him up. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, has faced pushback from some Republicans after he supported a recent spending bill that the president-elect and Elon Musk opposed. That could pose a problem for him this week because Johnson can only afford to lose two Republican votes assuming all Democrats vote against him if he wants to keep the top Congressional job. At least one Republican has already signaled they are not voting for Johnson. As of now, Johnson is the only official speaker candidate, in part thanks to Turmps endorsement. However, several other names floated around before Johnsons nomination was made official, providing some potential backups if Republicans have a repeat of last years fiasco. open image in gallery Mike Johnson, the current speaker of the House, has butted heads with the far-right faction of House Republicans over the last year ( Getty Images ) Who are potential other speaker candidates? Several notable representatives and non-elected officials have been floated as candidates to replace Johnson in December when Republicans split over a crucial spending bill intended to keep the government running over the holidays. Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and now advisor to Trump, was one of the suggested names. Musk, who has turned into a staunch Trump ally, is not a member of Congress but nothing in the Constitution indicates the speaker must be a congressional member. Similarly, Vivek Ramaswamy, the failed presidential candidate who co-chairs the advisory committee with Musk, was another person suggested for the position due to his proximity to Trump. open image in gallery Elon Musk has quickly emerged as a close ally to Donald Trump one that has enough power to sway Congress ( Getty Images ) Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican in the House, seems like an obvious backup choice for the party if Johnsons bid fails. Scalises name was thrown around as a potential successful last year when far-right members threatened to oust Johnson. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, is a staunch Trump ally who has often been one of the suggested speakers. He ascended as a potential candidate during the speaker drama last fall. Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who serves as majority whip, was a named potential candidate. Emmer has been a member of Congress since 2015 and was one of the people who ran for speaker last year but Trump sank his bid by publicly opposing him. open image in gallery Steve Scalise is a representative whose name has often been thrown around as a potential speaker. He is currently the No. 2 republican in the House ( Getty Images ) Who is Mike Johnson? Johnson, 52, was elected to Speaker of the House somewhat by chance last year when former representative Matt Gaetz suddenly motioned to oust then-speaker Kevin McCarthy. Republicans had a notoriously difficult time agreeing upon a speaker nominee causing multiple rounds of voting that made a mockery of the party. Ultimately, they landed on Johnson, a more conservative figure who is allied with Trump but is not as far-right as some of his colleagues. Johnson advocates for traditional social conservatism but has split from other Republicans on his funding stances. He earned the ire of far-right member Marjorie Taylor Greene last year after pushing for Ukraine aid and made enemies with others for supporting the recent spending bill. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky is the Republican leading the charge against Johnson. Representative Chip Roy, of Texas, has yet to confirm if he will vote for Johnson as well. Despite that, Johnson told FOX & Friends on Thursday morning that hes confident he will survive the vote. I think well get it done, Johnson said. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A man shot dead 12 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro before killing himself early on Thursday, authorities said, in one of the tiny Balkan nations worst mass killings. The attacker, named by police as 45-year-old Aleksandar (Aco) Martinovic, initially killed four people when he opened fire after a brawl at a restaurant in Cetinje on Wednesday afternoon. He then shot dead eight people, including two children, at three other locations, prosecutor Andrijana Nastic said. Martinovic was cornered by officers near his home in the town and tried to kill himself, then died of his injuries on the way to hospital in the early hours of Thursday, interior minister Danilo Saranovic said. When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide. He did not succumb to his injuries on the spot, but during the transport to hospital, Saranovic told Montenegros state broadcaster, RTCG. The incident is the second shooting in three years in the same town 38 km (24 miles) west of the capital Podgorica. In 2022 a gunman killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot dead. According to the latest census the town has a population of roughly 12,500. Map of Cetinje: Police said Martinovic had been drinking heavily and had a history of illegal weapons possession. After an altercation with patrons in the restaurant he went home, took a weapon, returned to the restaurant and started shooting, police said. Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries during Wednesdays rampage, and one remains in a critical condition, Aleksandar Radovic, the director of the Clinical Centre in Podgorica, said. Police said Wednesdays shooting was not related to organised crime. open image in gallery A police officer on a checkpoint near the restaurant ( REUTERS ) Montenegros prime minister Milojko Spajic called the shootings a terrible tragedy and declared three days of national mourning. President Jakov Milatovic said he was horrified by the attack. Mr Spajic said authorities would consider tightening criteria for owning and carrying firearms, including the possibility of a complete ban on weapons. That will likely face opposition in Montenegro, which has a deeply rooted gun culture. Despite strict gun laws, the western Balkans (comprising Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia) remain awash with weapons. Most are from the wars in the 1990s, but some date back to the First World War. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy By the time February 2025 arrives, marking three years since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the situation on the front line could look very different. Currently, Russian forces are advancing in the east, slowly but surely, and they are shrinking Ukraines partial hold of the border region of Kursk. That the Russians havent been more successful is a testament, above all else, to the resilience of Ukraines troops on the ground, many of whom have been fighting continuously for years. Dysfunction in the Russian military, with Mr Putin as its de facto commander-in-chief, is another. But US president Joe Biden has sent the final military package of his tenure to Ukraine, ending the support (for now) of Kyivs most heavily-armed ally. US president-elect Donald Trump will soon re-enter the White House on the promise of ending the fighting altogether, even if that potentially means rewarding Mr Putin for his illegal land grab. Each inch of territory lost or gained could prove vital in future negotiations. Below, we look at the current flashpoints of the roughly 640-mile front line. Kursk Ukraine captured a chunk of the Russian border region of Kursk after a daring cross-border attack in August. They have held onto some of that territory ever since, though advancing Russian forces are shrinking the Ukrainian-held zone. Senior Ukrainian official Mykhailo Podolyak revealed to The Independent a week after the attack that the assault was a military tool of coercion to force Russia into the negotiation process. Kyiv will hope that what remains of their captured territory in Kursk when Mr Trump returns will prove vital in possible negotiations. Russian forces have recently shifted more towards infantry-led assaults in the area, having tended towards mechanised, vehicle-heavy attacks in their initial attempts to reduce the Ukrainian-controlled territory. Casualties are high. Bolstered by between 10,000 and 12,000 North Korean troops, however, they have continued to squeeze Ukraines perimeter. North Koreas forces, for their part, have already suffered upwards of 1,000 casualties, according to Ukraine, the US and South Korea. Russia has advanced into the northwestern side of Ukraines assault as well as to the southeast of Sudzha, the main city held by Kyivs troops in Kursk, located on the other side of the attack. open image in gallery Medics provide care at a first aid post in Kupyansk ( Getty ) Kupyansk Russian forces are conducting attacks to the north of the city of Kupyansk in the northeast Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, but they have gone months without a major breakthrough. Recently, according to the Centre for Defence Strategies (CDS), a Ukrainian security think tank, the Russians were also forced to retreat from the northeastern outskirts of Kupyansk to fortified positions around the nearby village of Petropavlivka. In a swelling offensive to the south, though, they have captured several villages, the most significant of which is Lozova, made up of around 15 homes. It fell two weeks after the Russians surrounded it on three sides. Chasiv Yar Ukraine and Russia have been fighting in the streets of Chasiv Yar, a city in the Donetsk region, since July, when Kyivs troops withdrew from the eastern Kanal neighbourhood, establishing the waterway there as the new front line. Despite fears, at the time, that this could lead to the fall of the strategically valuable Chasiv Yar, which sits on high ground, Russian forces have yet to stage a significant breakthrough. Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for Ukrainian forces fighting in that area, said on 30 December that Russian forces are attempting to attack the Refractory Plant in central Chasiv Yar, a key Ukrainian defensive position in the settlement. He added, however, that Ukrainian forces continue to control the facility. open image in gallery Members of Ukraines Khyzhak Brigade prepare to fire a mortar at Russian troops on a front line near Toretsk ( Reuters ) Toretsk The Russians are pushing through the centre of Toretsk, another city in Donetsk, but have been held by Ukrainian forces for months, some of whom have been defending that area for years. Mr Trehubov stated on 29 December that street fighting continues within Toretsk. He added that lightly armoured Russian forces have been spotted picking up anti-tank mines and then throwing them at buildings in the Toretsk direction. Pokrovsk This appears to be the ultimate objective of the Russian forces advancing in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region. Sitting on logistical routes connecting the rest of the region, Pokrovsk is a linchpin of Donetsks defence. Since the Russian capture of the city of Avdiivka in February, Moscows troops have advanced around 30 miles to the outskirts of Pokrovsk, seizing around 400 square miles of the region in the process. That advance looks like a swollen bulge protruding from the front line. Their success in the direction of Pokrovsk is clear as the Russian forces push towards the western outskirts of the city. Like in Kursk, they appear to have shifted towards small, infantry-led assaults after months of costly mechanised attacks. Ukraine estimates Russian vehicle losses in that area alone to be upwards of 2,000 in recent months, which includes tanks and armoured personnel carriers. The situation of Ukrainian Defense Forces continues to deteriorate, writes CDS. The enemy is gradually expanding its penetration south of Pokrovsk. open image in gallery Ukrainian soldiers of Skala Battalion load anti-tank mines into an armoured vehicle near Pokrovsk ( AP ) Senior Ukrainian officers have blamed the disastrous defence of the Pokrovsk area partially on poor management and communication between generals and those fighting on the ground. Kyiv hopes to fix this issue in 2025, having appointed a new land forces commander. In his latest update, Ukraines military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi described the fighting in Pokrovsk as the hottest of the roughly 640-mile front line. Russia is suffering high casualties, he added, as it carries out continuous meaty assaults. Kurakhove Roughly 15 miles southwest of Pokrovsk lies Kurakhove. It sits in the bottom left-hand corner of Russias bulging attack towards Pokrovsk. Russian forces have had success in this area, pushing along the northern outskirts of Kurakhove along the Vovcha reservoir. They have reached the outskirts of the village of Shevchenko beyond the reservoir and behind Kurakhove, according to DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker with close ties to the military. Some of Ukraines troops, meanwhile, have retreated several miles back from Kurakhove, around Shevchenko, to defend the advancing Russian forces. Fighting within Kurakhove, however, is ongoing. Velyka Novosilka After the capture of the town of Vuhledar in October, Russian forces have advanced around 18 miles towards Velyka Novosilka, a town that sits near the Donetsk border with the Zaporizhzhia region. The town has served as a key assembly area for both offensive and defensive operations in the area, says Frontelligence Insight, a Ukrainian war tracker. It is also a key route linking towns further east to the rest of unoccupied Ukraine. Its capture could afford Russia multiple options for further advances, the group adds. Velyka Novosilka is almost surrounded on three sides by Russian forces. The main thrust of recent Russian attacks has been on Velyka Novosilkas western flank, but Moscows troops have also pushed towards the town of Novyi Komar to the east, as well as from the south. A representative of a Ukrainian brigade operating near Velyka Novosilka said that Russian forces are attempting to bypass and seize Velyka Novosilka to reach the junction of the three regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Dnipropetrovsk. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Russian gas is no longer flowing to EU states through Ukraine following the expiration of a five-year deal, closing an energy route that has existed since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the move means Russia can no longer earn billions on our blood. His energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows in the interest of national security. This is a historic event, he wrote on the social media platform Telegram. Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. The deal had allowed for Russian gas to travel through Ukraines pipeline networks into European countries, primarily Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. Its end will not cut off all Russian gas to Europe, but significantly reduce it. Gas can still travel from Russia to Europe via the Turkstream pipeline, but no longer through Ukraine, cutting gas imports to the EU by around 14 billion cubic metres. The European Commission has said that this volume can be replaced by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline imports from other sources, such as Norway and the United States. However, the impact is already being felt in parts of EU candidate country Moldova, which was getting Russian gas via Ukraine. The breakaway Russian-speaking region of Transnistria, home to around 45,000 people, cut supplies to households. There is no heating or hot water, said a worker at energy company Tirasteploenergo. The financial impact Though Ukraine benefitted financially from the now-expired agreement to the tune of $800m (640m) a year, the gas was not imported to Ukraine itself. Latest estimates show that Russia is expected to lose around 5bn (4.14bn) a year from gas transported to Europe via Ukraine. According to its own reports, Gazproms market capitalisation stands at around 22bn (3 trillion roubles). Gazprom is Russias largest company, and has the largest gas reserves in the world. Since the invasion of Ukraine its business has taken several blows. By the end of 2024, Russian gas exported to Europe via the Ukraine pipelines alone has already dropped by 78 per cent since the contract started in 2020. And for the first time since 2001, Gazprom reported a net loss of 5.5bn (629 billion roubles) in 2023, after gas sales plummeted. Up to this point, the gas giant consistently raked in billions each year; including even 14bn (1.9 trillion roubles) in 2022, during the first year of the war. Revenue decreased by around 27 per cent in 2023, to 61bn, while revenue from gas sales in particular fell by 40 per cent. In this context, a loss of 4.14bn in gas sales without the Ukraine transit deal could trigger a further 6.7 per cent decrease in revenues for Gazprom and Russia. The Russian oil and gas war chest open image in gallery Russias oil industry is seen as vital to financing its continued war against Ukraine ( AP ) Gazprom is majority state-owned, which means that the Russian state receives a sizeable sum of its profits. Russia relies on oil and gas business in part to fund its ongoing war in Ukraine; with revenues accounting for 30 to 50 per cent of the Russian federal budget, according to The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES). Other than the EU, Russias biggest pipeline gas exports go to Turkey and Belarus, while LNG exports are largely reliant on sales to China and Japan. According to Bloomberg, Russian gas exports to China are discounted as heavily as -28 per cent compared to European exports, meaning that they are less profitable for Russia overall. But ultimately, the vast majority of Russian state oil and gas revenues come from oil sales, rather than gas sales, according to the OIES. Although the EU has banned oil imports from Russia, numerous reports suggest that Russian oil is still reaching the EU via back channels. A Global Witness investigation found that 130 million barrels of refined products were imported into the EU from refineries that process Russian crude oil in 2023, worth an estimated 1.1bn in tax revenue to the Kremlin. Russia is the largest crude oil supplier to China and India. The UK and EU countries import billions in refined oil from these two countries, part of which is likely originating from Russia despite sanctions. The trouble with Russian gas open image in gallery Russian president Vladimir Putin (L) and Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh shake hands ( EPA ) Separately to sanctions from the invasion of Ukraine, European countries reliance on Russian gas has been a difficult challenge to address. Russia has historically used its gas pipeline exports to exert political control over dependent countries, from Ukraine to Armenia. As of today, Gazprom is also weaponising the same tactic in Moldova, cutting off gas supplies over an alleged $709m (565m) debt. Yet the decision not to extend gas transit via Ukraine faced some pushback. Slovakias prime minister threatened to cut electricity supplies to Ukraine in retaliation, as he said that ending Russian gas transit would increase energy prices. Nonetheless, gas transit via Ukraines pipelines has now ceased. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Every evening, Ergus Katiaj uploads a video on TikTok reminding customers that his shop in Tirana delivers potato chips, cigarettes and alcohol through the night. His phone buzzes with orders that add about 1,000 euros to his monthly profit. But Katiaj will soon have to find a new way to attract business. Albanias government has imposed a year-long ban on the social media app that it says is aimed at reducing youth violence but which rights groups and business owners say threatens commerce and free speech ahead of May elections. It will have a huge impact on my business because most of the sales are through delivery thanks to TikToks free marketing, Katiaj said as he made deliveries across the outskirts of the capital. Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the ban on December 21 after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death in November by a fellow pupil, a crime that local media reports said occurred after the boys clashed online. TikTok is expected to be taken down in the coming weeks. open image in gallery FILEA TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File) ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ) The move follows bans or partial bans in at least 20 countries due to worries about improper videos or security concerns linked to the apps owner, China-based ByteDance, and its proximity to the Chinese government. In Albania, Rama said the decision came after discussions with parents and teachers, but opponents worry that it is part of the prime ministers crackdown on political dissent after a year of popular unrest. This creates a dangerous precedent that at any moment governments can close different platforms, said Orkidea Xhaferaj, from the Tirana-based think tank SCiDEV. Why ALbania banned TikTok Albania will ban TikTok for one year, citing concerns about violence, bullying, and its impact on children. The decision follows a teenagers stabbing death after a social media dispute, though TikTok claims no direct link to the incident. The Albanian government consulted with teachers and parents, with a reported 90% supporting the ban. TikTok has requested clarification from the government and denies responsibility for the incident. TikTok said it was seeking urgent clarity from the Albanian government because it says multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform, not TikTok. Albania saw regular violent protests last year against the jailing of political opponents. Demonstrators threw petrol bombs at government buildings and police responded with tear gas and water canons. open image in gallery Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ) The leaders of the two biggest opposition parties, Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party and Ilir Meta of the Freedom Party, are charged with corruption offences. They deny the charges, which they say are politically motivated. Arlind Qori, the leader of the political party Bashke (Together) formed in 2022, said the TikTok ban curtails a powerful opposition communication tool. He wants to close our mouth, Qori said from his office where party supporters took refuge from the cold and discussed their campaign plans. Rama insists the move is meant to protect young people. In an alleyway in central Tirana, a photo of the slain schoolboy hangs on an electric pole surrounded by withered flowers and messages from friends. He was stabbed there and walked towards his school bleeding before an ambulance came. Inside Chinas TikTok, you dont see hooliganism, perversity, violence, bullying, crime, Rama said when announcing his decision last month. While in TikTok outside of China only scum and scoundrels. Why do we need this? For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, who was known for her extreme plastic surgery and record divorce settlement, has died. The 84-year-old who was nicknamed Catwoman, reportedly because she had her numerous procedures done in the aim of looking feline suffered a pulmonary embolism and passed away in a palace in Paris on Tuesday, according to local reports. Her partner Lloyd Klein is saddened to announce the death of Jocelyn Wildenstein in Paris, according to AFP, reported Paris Match. Ms Wildenstein, born Jocelyne Perisset, appeared healthy when she was last seen in the French capital with Mr Klein a mere two weeks ago. Alongside her looks, Ms Wildenstein who described herself as an art dealer on Instagram, where she had 1.1 million followers was also known for her immense divorce settlement of $2.5 billion (1.7 billion). open image in gallery French designer Lloyd Klein with Jocelyn Wildenstein ( Grant Lamos IV/Getty Images ) Born on 5 August, 1940, in Lausanne, Switzerland, not much is known about her upbringing in a middle-class family in Switzerland other than that she was the daughter of a struggling department-store buyer. At the age of 17 her life changed she started dating Swiss movie producer Cyril Piguet. She later dated European filmmaker Sergio Gobbi for five years and spent a lot of her time exploring Africa, a continent she fell in love with. Her life as a socialite let her move in elite circles across the world, with Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi introducing her to her future husband, the late Alec Wildenstein, while on safari with friends in Kenya in 1977. open image in gallery The late Alec Wildenstein was a French-born American billionaire, former elite art dealer and horse-racer ( Getty Images ) After marrying the French-born American billionaire and former elite art dealer in 1978, she split from him in the late 1990s in one of the biggest divorce settlements in history. Her penchant for surgery to make her face more cat-like has been widely reported as being done to please her horse-racing ex-husband. Ms Wildenstein was also an accomplished hunter and pilot, and she had a love for art and decoration. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy An Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment housing displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza killed at least 11 people on Wednesday night. At least 15 people were also wounded in the attack on Al Mawasi, which the Israeli forces had designated as a humanitarian area in western Khan Younis, medics said. The news agency Shehab and the Palestinian Information Centre confirmed that at least 11 people were killed in the attack. The victims included women and children. The Al Mawasi tent camp stretches 12 km along the coast, from the western part of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza to Khan Younis and Rafah in the south. Covering around 3 per cent of Gazas land, the area primarily consists of sandy hills. Before the Israeli war on Gaza began, it had a population of about 9,000 people, according to Al Jazeera. Another Israeli attack on Shejaiya, a suburb of Gaza City, killed at least eight Palestinian, according to emergency services. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said a woman and a child were among those killed in the strike. The Israeli military claimed that it had asked people in the area to evacuate before the strike. The UN has maintained that there are no safe enclaves in Gaza anymore and that frequent Israeli evacuation orders worsen the humanitarian situation. More than 1,500 tents housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza were flooded after heavy rain, worsening their plight. At least six infants and one other person froze to death over the past week as temperatures dropped below 10 degrees Celsius at night, the health ministry said. Israels war on Gaza has killed over 45,500 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and displaced nearly 90 per cent of the besieged territorys 2.3 million people. Humanitarian agencies estimate that 1.6 million Gazans are living in makeshift shelters, nearly half a million in flood-prone areas. Most children eat only one meal a day, further reducing their ability to withstand the cold. The population of Gaza has declined by 6 per cent since Israel launched the war on the territory 15 months ago, with 100,000 people fleeing and over 55,000 presumed dead, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said. The population now stands at 2.1 million, nearly half of it under 18, the bureau added. It accused Israel of conducting a brutal aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life there, humans, buildings and vital infrastructure. Entire families were erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses. Israels foreign ministry dismissed the numbers as fabricated and manipulated. Additional reporting by agencies. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy As around 80,000 Avanti West Coast passengers are hit by the second walk-out in a five-month series of strikes, the boss of the RMT union has claimed senior managers are paying themselves double what our members would earn for acting as train managers. Three-quarters of intercity trains on the West Coast main line connecting London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and southern Scotland have been cancelled as train managers walk out. One train per hour is running linking the capital with: Wolverhampton via Coventry and Birmingham Crewe Manchester No trains are running through to Glasgow, though a shuttle service is connecting Preston with the Scottish city. North Wales, Blackpool, Wigan, Warrington and Edinburgh have no Avanti West Coast service. Strikes are planned to continue on 12 January and every Sunday through to 25 May. Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, told BBC Breakfast that his members would earn only 250 for working an 11-hour shift on their rest days at the rate proposed by Avanti West Coast. He said that the companys managers, when working as management train managers, earn between 500 and 600 as much as 140 per cent more than regular staff members. Instead of paying our people a premium rate for working on their rest days, they have decided to pay their management grades much more than our members up to double what our members can earn, Mr Lynch said. Our members are meant to be doing that work. They pay themselves, in effect, as managers, double what our members would earn on those shifts. The taxpayer and the fare payer are being ripped off by management grades working at twice the rate for the job that our members receive. We would like managers to stop doing members work at twice the rate. We simply want an agreement on that so we can get an incentive for our people to come in on those days when theyre meant to be at home with their families. An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: When necessary we use or contingent managers to keep our customers moving. Train drivers working for the rail firm earn a flat 600 for working on a day off. Ahead of the strike, Kathryn OBrien, executive director of Customer Experience at Avanti West Coast, said: Were disappointed by the RMT calling strike action on 31 December and 2 January. Our customers will face significantly disrupted journeys as a result, and I would like to thank them for their patience and understanding. On the two strike days well have a significantly reduced service, so customers with tickets for 31 December or 2 January are strongly advised to travel on alternative dates or claim a full fee-free refund. We remain open to working with the RMT to resolve the dispute. The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has urged the leadership of Avanti West Coast, which is currently a privately owned train operating company, to get back round the table with the RMT. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Police in Fiji are investigating an allegation that two Australian airline crew members were sexually assaulted and robbed during New Years Day celebrations. The Virgin Australia crew members, a man and a woman, were celebrating at a tourist spot in Fiji during their layover in the early hours of 1 January, acting commissioner of police Juki Fong Chew said. They had gone to the Bar One nightclub in Nadi and were attacked on the way back to their hotel. Virgin Australia said it was aware of the incident and had sent a team to provide support to the crew members. "Our focus is on the wellbeing of our team members affected," it said, but did not provide details of the incident. "Unfortunately, two of the crew members were victims of an alleged theft and rape after exiting the nightclub trying to find their way back to the hotel," Mr Chew said, adding the investigation was ongoing. The man was robbed and the woman was assaulted, assistant police commissioner Mesake Waqa said. The man was treated for facial injuries. A spokesperson for Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that they were aware of the incident but could not comment further due to privacy obligations. The crew members remained holed up in their hotel rooms in Nadi until further notice, the Fiji Sun reported. Teri OToole, federal secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia, said they were waiting for official approaches for assistance. I believe these crew were on what we would call an overnight, so they would get to Fiji, wait, and their flight would leave the next day, she told AAP. There was a lot of guesswork about what had happened, she said and urged people not to make assumptions and respect the crew members privacy. This is not a very common thing but its not something thats never happened before either, she said, adding that it was disturbing for the families and colleagues of the crew members. The incident could further hit Fijis tourism industry which was rocked when seven people, including four Australian tourists, were hospitalised after drinking alcohol at a resort bar on 14 December. The cause of the poisoning was still under investigation as toxicology tests showed no methanol or illicit substances in the drinks, authorities said. President Joe Biden said suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar posted a video before the New Orleans New Year attack indicating he was inspired by Islamic State group. A man driving a pickup truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans bustling French Quarter early on New Years Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring 30 others. In a statement released by the White House, President Biden said: He posted videos on social media indicating that it is inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill. Biden said an ISIS flag was found in his vehicle. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The UK experienced its coldest January night in 15 years after a hamlet in northern Scotland dropped to minus 18.7C on Friday. Altnaharra, which is in the most northern region of the Highlands, recorded minus 18.7C on Friday night, the Met Office said. It is the coldest January overnight temperature since 2010, when temperatures dropped below minus 15C several times at locations across the UK, including minus 22.3C on January 8 in Altnaharra. open image in gallery (PA Graphics) ( PA Graphics ) Forecasters said they are not expecting temperatures in the Sutherland hamlet to fall below minus 18C on Friday but there is a very small probability it could reach 19C. Altnaharra reached minus 14.5C on Thursday night. Temperatures for large parts of the UK are set to fall again as the cold weather continues. open image in gallery A woman walking through the snow in Saddleworth, England ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin said: Friday night into Saturday morning may well be the nadir of this current cold spell. Towns and cities in Scotland could see minus 2C to minus 5C and the Highlands may reach minus 14C or minus 15C. Higher ground in England such as the Pennines could hit minus 11C or minus 12C while the coldest city in England is expected to be Birmingham, which may reach minus 4C. The average low in northern Scotland for this time of year is about 0.3C, while for England, overnight lows are around 1.5C to 1.6C. open image in gallery Temperatures will continue to fall over the coming days, with the mercury potentially reaching minus 20C in northern parts of the UK on Friday night (James Manning/PA) ( PA Wire ) Met Office meteorologist Zoe Hutin said: Certainly a cold night to come, especially for those beneath clear skies in the east and the north and in rural spots as well. Cloud coverage is keeping the temperatures from falling as low but it will still be chilly, Ms Hutin said. Snow may fall overnight in hills of the south-west and parts of Northern Ireland but not to the same level as the past 10 days. open image in gallery (PA Graphics) ( PA Graphics ) Saturday is forecast to be cold too, and Ms Hutin said: Weve still got tonight to come, and tomorrow night could also be chilly as well. Temperatures for tomorrow night, it will be mainly eastern parts that see temperatures dropping widely below freezing, so East Anglia, the north-east of England, northern and eastern Scotland as well. So another chilly night to come on Saturday, but then as we go into Sunday and into Monday, then we can start to expect temperatures to recover somewhat. I wont rule out the risk of seeing something around or just below freezing again on Sunday night into Monday, but it wont be quite so dramatic as the temperatures that were going to experience as we go overnight tonight. Looking ahead to next week, she said: Were saying its getting milder but by no stretch does that mean (temperatures) are going to be above average it just will feel comparatively much more pleasant than it is at the moment. The UK has experienced a particularly long cold spell, she said, adding: It has been getting progressively colder each night this week, whereas looking at previous years, weve had maybe two or three days where things have been particularly cold. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A three-day snow warning has been issued for much of Britain, with temperatures set to plunge this weekend bringing misery to areas already hit by flooding in the wake of high winds and torrential rain. Britain began the new year with weather alerts in place across large swathes of the country, including more than 170 flood warnings in England, Scotland and Wales. A yellow warning is in place from noon on Saturday until 9am on Monday and covers all regions of England except the South West, the majority of Wales and parts of southern Scotland. open image in gallery Waves crash against Folkestone harbour wall in Kent, as wind, rain and snow warnings are in force across parts of the UK ( Gareth Fuller/PA Wire ) About 5cm of snow is expected widely across the Midlands, Wales and northern England, with as much as 20-30cm over high ground in Wales and/or the Pennines, the Met Office added. Greater Manchester Police said a major incident has been declared after widespread flooding in the area following heavy rain overnight, with the worst affected areas in Bolton, Didsbury, Harpurhey, Stalybridge, Stockport and Wigan. Mountain rescue teams have been deployed to help Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service deal with damaged properties and stranded vehicles. open image in gallery A council worker attempts to unblock drains after heavy overnight rain in Manchester ( REUTERS ) Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: At the moment weve issued a very large snow warning for Saturday until Monday but it doesnt mean that everywhere within that warning could see snow, its just a heads-up there could be some impacts. Its definitely going to start off as snow in many places but its a question of how quickly that snow melts and turns back to rain. Its more likely that the snow wont last that long in southern England. Its quite likely the warning will be updated quite frequently between now and the weekend. Certainly if youve got travel plans on Sunday and perhaps Monday, stay tuned into the forecast. open image in gallery A drone view shows abandoned cars after heavy overnight rain caused roads to flood, leaving cars stranded in Manchester ( REUTERS ) It comes as strong winds and heavy rain have been battering the UK as revellers celebrated the start of 2025. A yellow wind warning is in force until 3pm on Wednesday for the majority of England and Wales, as winds of up to 60mph are forecast, with gusts of 75mph likely around coastal areas and hills, according to the Met Office. The start of Londons New Years Day Parade was delayed by 30 minutes due to high winds being forecast, and inflatable cartoon characters were no longer going to be used, event spokesperson Dan Kirkby said. The North West and Wales have seen heavy rain for much of the morning on Wednesday, which comes after the Met Office said some parts of the North West saw almost a months worth of rain within 48 hours. open image in gallery A yellow warning for snow will be in place until Monday morning ( Met Office ) Honister Pass in Cumbria saw nearly 6in (150mm) of rain, while Rochdale in Greater Manchester had 3in (77mm). In addition more than 170 flood warnings are in place across England, Wales and Scotland. Ben Lukey, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said significant inland flooding is possible after heavy and persistent rain and river levels will remain high across parts of the north of England until Thursday. He added: Environment Agency teams will be out on the ground, operating flood defences, taking action to reduce the impact of flooding, issuing flood warnings and supporting those communities affected. open image in gallery A railway crossing at Blackford, Perthshire, covered in snow ( PA Wire ) We advise anyone travelling or out celebrating the new year to be especially careful and urge people to stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through flood water as just 30cm of flowing water is enough to move your car. A number of train routes have been disrupted or blocked by flooding, mainly in the North West of England, with some Northern services, TransPennine Express services, Transport for Wales services, and South Western Railway services affected. National Highways has listed road closures including a section of the A628 Woodhead Pass between Woolley Bridge and Flouch, the westbound M56 between Junction 6 for Manchester Airport and Junction 8 for Bowdon and the M57 in Merseyside between Junction 6 for Kirkby and Junction 7 for Switch Island, Aintree. open image in gallery A DFDS ferry arrives in stormy conditions at the Port of Dover in Kent ( Gareth Fuller/PA Wire ) A snow and ice yellow warning is in place covering northern Scotland until 10am on Thursday, as rain turning to snow is likely to lead to some travel disruption and difficult driving conditions on New Years Day, the forecaster added. Meanwhile, a yellow ice warning has been issued from 4pm on Wednesday until 10am on Thursday, covering Northern Ireland, parts of North Wales, England and Scotland, which could also lead to difficult travel conditions. Additional reporting by PA The pre-tax profits of 37.07m follow pre-tax profits of 48.24m in 2022. Stock photo: Getty Pre-tax profits at timber processing group Glennon Bros declined by 23pc to 37m in 2023 as its joint managing director warned that Ireland is facing an afforestation crisis. Consolidated accounts for the Longford-headquartered Glennon Bros Holdings Ltd show the groups profits declined after revenues dipped by 17.5pc from 381.12m to 314.59m. The pre-tax profits of 37.07m follow pre-tax profits of 48.24m in 2022. Glennon Bros, which has plants in Longford and in Fermoy, Co Cork, as well as operations in Scotland, supplies both the Irish and UK markets with products for the construction, pallet wood and fencing industries. The firm employs 900 people directly and over 450 indirectly in log-harvesting and haulage. Commenting on the accounts, joint managing director Mike Glennon said: 2022 was an exceptional year, on the back of unprecedented demand for timber. 2023 was still a good year with reasonable demand for timber in both the UK and Ireland. However, the firms 2024 performance was expected to be below that of 2023 due to weaker demand for timber in the UK and no increase in demand in Ireland. There was additional pressure on group operating costs, especially for energy, insurance and wages costs, negatively impacting group costs, Mr Glennon said. We have an afforestation crisis in Ireland today. We need to ask the difficult question; why have we the lowest level of planting since 1946, with a mere 1,600 hectares planted in 2023, versus a government target of 8,000, and a climate change target of 18,000 hectares? Are we serious, in Ireland, about reaching our climate change commitments? Forestry holds the key to help meet climate change targets while also providing timber for the much-needed housing market. We need to build Irish homes from Irish timber to support the underlying demand for housing and underpin the need to decarbonise our built environment. Staff costs declined from 41.88m to 40.15m. The group recorded post-tax profits of 27.99m after incurring a corporation tax charge of 9.08m. The post-tax profits last year strengthened an already very healthy balance sheet as accumulated profits increased to 196.68m. The groups cash funds increased from 95.32m to 99.3m. The profits in 2023 take account of non-cash depreciation costs of 13.26m Irish Distillers is the producer of some of the worlds best-known whiskeys, including Jameson. Photo: Bloomberg A group of 250 workers at the maker of Jameson whiskey are set to receive an annual cash payment of 4,700 to compensate for any potential losses over changes to a company profit-share scheme. This follows a Labour Court recommendation endorsing the proposal by Irish Distillers Ltd to make the 4,700 cash payment to 250 workers at various grades as part of a dispute resolution between Irish Distillers and Connect trade union over the profit share, reward and benefits scheme. In the recommendation, Labour Court deputy chairwoman Louise ODonnell rejected a submission from Connect that the 4,700 be made available to new employees along with existing workers. Ms ODonnell stated that the 4,700 is to compensate existing staff for any potential losses that might arise from the change to the profit-share scheme and therefore there is no basis for extending it to new employees who commence work after the date of this recommendation. Irish Distillers was not agreeable to also making the cash payment to new staff and told the Labour Court that what was on offer was a good proposal for all staff. Irish Distillers is the producer of some of the worlds best known and successful Irish whiskeys including the worlds best-selling Irish whiskey, Jameson. As part of their claim, Connect was also seeking an increase in the upside element in the profit-sharing scheme. The core profit share element is to be based on the existing profit-share formula with a maximum payment of 8,000 to each worker. At the Labour Court hearing, Irish Distillers submitted that they were prepared to increase the upside value of the profit-sharing scheme from 150 to 175 for each 1pc achievement in global net sales on condition that the upside payment would be applied to a maximum of 3pc of overachievement in any one year. Connect told the Labour Court hearing that this fell short of their expectations and that in the companys original proposal in November 2022 had a monetary value of 300 per 1pc of global net sales albeit some of the other elements of the package were also different. However, the Irish Distillers proposal to increase the upside element to 175 each was also endorsed by Ms ODonnell as part of the Labour Court recommendation. The Labour Court recommendation also includes an annual health benefit allowance of 1,300 as agreed by a working group. On holiday benefits, the minimum holiday entitlement will increase by three days from the date of joining with an entitlement of 27 days holidays once 10 years of service has been achieved, as agreed by the working group. The deal also includes Christmas Eve as an additional company paid holiday, as agreed by the working group. Insomnia has 175 coffee shops throughout Ireland and the UK Pre-tax profits at the firm behind the Insomnia coffee chain reported a more than threefold increase in pre-tax profits to 2.49m in 2023. Accounts filed by BHJ Holdings Ltd show the group recorded the sharp increase in profits as revenues increased by 7pc from 37.32m to 39.87m. The pre-tax profits of 2.49m for 2023 follow pre-tax profits of 797,236 in 2022. Directors Harry OKelly, John Clohisey and Barry Kehoe state they are satisfied with the performance of the group in 2023 and will look to further grow the business in Ireland as well as abroad. The company paid a dividend of 1.625m during the year. The directors state that the dividend was paid to the ultimate holding company, Insomnia Coffee Limited, which is a company incorporated in Malta. No dividends were paid to directors by any group company during the year, the directors said. The group operates a chain of coffee outlets here and in the UK and the 39m revenues for 2023 top pre-Covid 19 revenues of 36.77m for 2019. The group recorded revenues of 39.16m in Ireland and 714,853 in the UK. On the companys future developments, the group plans to further develop and consolidate its existing activities. Insomnia Coffee Company is the countrys leading independent coffee shop chain and the 15th largest in Europe. More than 25 years in business, Insomnia has grown from a single location in a Galway bookstore in 1997 to over 175 coffee shops throughout Ireland and the UK, both on the high street and in partnership with retailers. The company also has over 600 self-service machines in operation in Ireland and the UK. The groups operating profits totalled 4.69m which takes account of 1.83m in non-cash net depreciation costs and 106,679 in a non-cash impairment of assets. The group made a pre-tax profit of 2.49m after paying interest charges of 251,834. The group had a post-tax profit of 2.27m after paying corporation tax of 217,000. Numbers employed increased from 491 to 509 as staff costs increased from 12.65m to 13.2m. The company continued to expand in 2023 as it paid out 3.1m for the purchase of tangible fixed assets. Shareholder funds at the end of 2023 totalled 8m that included accumulated profits of 7.44m. The groups cash funds increased from 1.45m to 3.23m. The latest fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine sees Russias Gazprom halting gas supplies on New Years Day Russia stopped sending gas to Europe via Ukraine, shutting off a route thats operated for five decades after Kyiv refused to allow any transit that funds Moscows war machine. The move could increase pressure on gas prices, which increased in Europe by 45pc over the last 12 months. Both Russia and Ukraine confirmed the halt on Wednesday after a key transit deal expired. The stoppage means a number of central European countries that have relied on the flows will be forced to source more expensive gas elsewhere, adding to pressure on supplies at a time when the region is depleting winter storage at the fastest pace in years. Ukraine has been a key avenue for gas deliveries into Europe, even during the past three years of war. While the route accounts for just 5pc of the regions needs, countries are still reeling from the aftershocks of an energy crisis triggered by Russias invasion of its neighbor. The looming cutoff recently helped drive up gas prices in a market thats up more than 50pc year-on-year. Russias Gazprom halted supplies on New Years Day after the five-year transit deal expired, citing a lack of technical and legal opportunities for shipments amid repeated and explicit refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements. The stop was confirmed by the Energy Ministry in Kyiv, which said Russian flows across its territory ceased as of 7 am local time. Slovakias network operator also confirmed it wasnt receiving gas. The end of the deal has highlighted the European Unions continued reliance on Russian piped gas and shipments of liquefied fuel, despite a plan to wean itself off supplies from Moscow. Several countries have sought an alternative arrangement, but months of political wrangling have failed to produce an agreement. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has set a political objective to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027, and has said the end of transit will have little impact on regional energy markets. Still, countries such as Slovakia and Hungary have waged an increasingly bitter campaign to keep the fuel flowing. We knew that the transit agreement would not be renewed, said Jonathan Stern, a distinguished research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. The question is whether anybody in Europe but especially the Slovaks, who will be hit the hardest by this will be successful in making an agreement to continue receiving some gas. Europe is also facing an increasingly tight global gas market. Benchmark prices closed 2024 at the highest price in more than a year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected any arrangement that would ultimately send money to Russian coffers while the war continues. Meanwhile, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has threatened Ukraine with a possible electricity cutoff, raising questions about broader energy security in the region. In a last-ditch effort over the weekend, Fico urged the EU to address the looming halt of supplies via Ukraine, saying the economic effect on the bloc would outweigh the impact on Russia. He estimated European consumers could face as much as 50 billion in extra gas prices every year and a further 70 billion in higher electricity costs. Slovakia and some other central European states have favored discounted gas from the east, and in recent months, key companies from the region have raced to build support for an alternative to the Russia-Ukraine deal. The stop of flow via Ukraine on January 1 is the expected situation and the EU is prepared for it, a European Commission spokesperson said. The commission, the EUs executive, has been working with member states for more than a year to prepare for such a scenario, she said. The bloc has diversified its supplies since 2022, turning increasingly to imports of liquefied natural gas, notably from the US. There are various options for regulating gas transit to central and eastern Europe, including through another pipeline route and LNG terminals, the German Economy Ministry said Tuesday. Officials from Poland, which assumes the rotating presidency of the EU on Wednesday, said the nation is in close contact with the commission and ready to coordinate further steps with member states, if needed as from January 1. Disputes between Moscow and Kyiv have previously disrupted gas shipments to European customers in winter months. In 2009, Russian flows via Ukraine to Europe stopped for almost two weeks, with more than 20 nations affected during freezing temperatures, until the two nations signed a deal ending their dispute. A shorter disruption occurred in 2006. The expiring agreement, set in 2019, was also a result of last-minute negotiations. Putin apologises to Azerbaijani president after Russian forces accused of firing on crashed civilian plane However, the war makes a quick resolution unlikely for now. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week indicated there was no time left to conclude an agreement before the end of the year. Separately, he said a lawsuit from Ukraines Naftogaz alleging that Gazprom hasnt fully paid for transit services is another barrier. Some European nations have also warned against ideas that would brand Gazproms fuel as non-Russian. Energy companies in the region have previously floated options such as taking ownership of the fuel when it enters Ukraine, or resorting to a complex swap involving Azerbaijans energy company Socar as a mediator. Russia still supplies gas to nations such as Serbia and Hungary via another pipeline, TurkStream, which bypasses Ukraine. But that link isnt sufficient to fully compensate for the loss of the Ukraine route. Another pathway, across Poland, is now closed. The Nord Stream pipeline linking Germany to Russia was damaged in explosions in 2022, and the newer Nord Stream 2 link has never been authorised by Berlin. (Bloomberg) Health If you were told an Irish professor was responsible for the deadly wave of peanut allergies in the last two decades you would expect he would be laying low. Except it was not his fault. Research led by Dr Jonathan Hourihane in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland was published in the British Medical Journal in 1996 on the association between the consumption of peanuts by pregnant women and their childs allergy. This was then used by many national health advisory agencies to recommend children abstain from peanuts until at least three years of age. Flu hospitalisations have increased by more than 60pc in the space of a week, latest figures show. A total of 1,034 influenza confirmed patients are in hospital this Thursday, an increase from yesterday figure of 1,001, according to the HSE. This marks an increase of 63pc when compared to this day last week at 632. It comes as both primary and secondary schools are set to return from Christmas Break on Monday, with Met Eireann issuing a nationwide cold weather advisory for the weekend. There is a growing number of people in hospital with flu and cases are increasing daily. The HSE is asking everyone to help stop the spread of flu by staying at home if you're sick. "If you need care, visit your pharmacy, GP or family doctor, GP Out of Hours, or an injury unit for non-serious issues like fractures or burns, the HSE said. Emergency Department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Today's News in 90 Seconds - January 2nd In cases where there are visiting restrictions in place in hospitals due to flu or other infections, people are being urged to cooperate with staff. For those attending hospitals across the west and north west, as well as Waterford University Hospital (WUH), University Hospital Kerry (UHK) and Cork University Hospital (CUH), face masks are now mandatory in the Emergency Department. Meanwhile, up to 16 ambulances were waiting with patients outside Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda on Wednesday night. This was just days after a three-hour temporary ambulance bypass was implemented by hospital management to ease the pressure on the emergency department services, leading to ambulances being diverted to other hospitals in Dublin, Meath and Cavan during this time. Some of the ambulances lined up outside the Louth hospital at 7pm had been there up to six hours waiting for available beds to hand over patients to the care of hospital staff. Some ambulances with critical and unstable patients have already been told to bypass Navan's Emergency Department since 2022 as part of HSE reconfiguration plans. Aontu leader and Meath West TD Peadar Toibin described the situation as incredible. "A flu outbreak in Ireland is to be expected at this time of year and the fact that services across the country can't cope with additional demand is wrong and it is dangerous, he said. "The emergency department in Navan should play a significant role in the increased capacity that is needed in health services in the region. Pressure would be eased in Drogheda if a full ambulance service was reinstated there." In response, the HSE said the ED in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital remains very busy with a high number of presentations and admissions. "It is expected that the pressure will continue over the coming days and we would urge the public to use alternative healthcare services for treatment such as GP, GP Out of Hours, Dundalk Injury Unit and pharmacies when appropriate. But if patients are very sick and in an emergency situation they should of course come to the Emergency Department. There is no ambulance bypass in place. Emergency Departments are always available to treat seriously ill patients and the sickest patients are seen first. People with less severe injuries and symptoms may have to wait to be seen. An extract from the 1955 Irish Independent Golden Jubilee edition magazine Dublin was silent and sleeping. The time was 2.30 oclock on the morning of January 2, 1905. A misty rain had been falling and the flickering gas lamps that still remained lighted threw pale, uncertain circles of illumination on the glistening pavement and uneven, cobble-paved streets. Shop fronts were barred and darkened, and shadows shrouded the gay decorations of Christmastide and the displays that greeted the dawning of another New Year. In Middle Abbey Street, in the citys centre, only one building was lighted, No. 111, the new offices of Dublins newest paper, the halfpenny Irish Independent, due to make its first appearance that morning. To anyone abroad in the murky streets on that January morning half a century ago, the lighted windows here and there in No. 111 might have seemed odd. Outwardly the building was strangely silent and the straggler in the streets might have wondered what was going on within while the city awaited the winter dawn. O'Connell Street, formerly Sackville Street, in 1893. Photo: Getty There was no hum of machinery, no bustle of busy workers. The sounds of activity that had reached out to the street all the previous day and through the early hours of the new morning had now ceased. Inside, however, the stranger would have sensed the air of waiting. Hushed expectancy was in the atmosphere of the entire building. In a room on the first floor overlooking the deserted street a man walked up and down with quick, nervous strides. He was a big man, powerfully built and broad-shouldered, with a round fresh-complexioned face. But the face was now drawn with lines of fatigue and the keen eyes showed signs of strain and anxiety. As he moved to and fro restlessly he took off his pince-nez more than once and wiped them slowly with his white silk handkerchief. Again and again his hand slipped to his waistcoat pocket and his face became more anxious as the minute hand moved forward on his watch. Suddenly, without warning, there came from below him the sound of machinery being put in motion. The firstly clanking sounds, rising through two floors, settled down to a steady hum which grew rapidly in volume. The hum became a high-powered throbbing roar which rose from the deep basement to the buildings topmost floor. Above the pulsating roar, with its pounding pattern of speed and power, there came the sound of men cheering. The man who had been restlessly pacing his office stopped and looked at his watch once again. It was exactly 2.35am. With a thankful sigh he sat down for a moment to compose himself. He let the deep inward feeling of relief and achievement flow over him like healing balm. The tension left his frame, the lines of overwork and anxiety were sponged from his face. The first front page of the Irish Independent, 120 years ago today Then he was on his feet again, to go hurrying over the odd little covered footbridge that linked the editorial offices with the rear portion of the building and the work that went on there. As the printing press roared its triumphant song, editor Timothy R Harrington went down to join the rest of the cheering staff on the gallery that overlooked the machine room where the Irish Independent as we know it today had just been born. The Irish Independent's first editor Timothy R Harrington Only one of the two Goss presses was running. Around the other, which had arrived in pieces from America only a few days earlier, the mechanical engineer, Thomas Stobie he had not been out of the office for a week and his band of sweating, oil-streaked helpers still toiled feverishly as they had been doing for many long hours. Erected in record time, the giant complex machine still required a great deal of tuning and testing. Despite all the coaxing of the skilled men around it, it still kicked stubbornly, tearing at the white ribbons of newsprint being fed into it so carefully. The machines recalcitrance seemed at the time not to matter a great deal. The other Goss was running obediently and smoothly and eager hands were hurrying tens of thousands of the first issue to the waiting dispatch staff. On that morning just 50 years ago some 50,000 newspapers were printed and circulated. It created a sensation. The paper was in everybodys hands, editor Harrington remarked afterwards, and the circulation was regarded as phenomenal. Extract from the 1955 Irish Independent Golden Jubilee edition magazine Missing mans partner endured flight next to suspect who skipped bail in Spain Police on runway in Belfast couldnt arrest man without European warrant John George Allison Morris Wed 1 Jan 2025 at 12:24 A suspect in the disappearance of Belfast man John George skipped bail in Spain and flew back to Northern Ireland on the same flight as the missing mans partner, it can be revealed. Ireland should be offering refugees a guarantee over their security here, says Fr Tony ORiordan Ireland should take steps to open diplomatic relations with the new regime in Syria, Irish priest Fr Tony ORiordan has said. Fr ORiordan had been living in the Middle East country until recently and worked as director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, in Aleppo, for three years. He said the fall of the Assad regime had reawakened hope, though millions of people are going meal to meal, day to day. In June, the Jesuit priest left Syria and is now living in Co Armagh, but he maintains daily contact with his former colleagues in Aleppo and Homs, getting updates on the situation. Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said he was really concerned about Irelands move to temporarily pause decisions on asylum applications from Syrians following the end of Bashar al-Assads rule. I was disgusted that we were thinking that way as our first reaction. To create that level of uncertainty for the small pool of Syrians who are in Ireland seeking asylum at the moment, was below the belt and very dubious leadership. The Co Cork native said he believes Ireland should be supportive of Syrians. We should be offering them the necessary legal guarantee that their position in Ireland is secure. I think many of them will be minded to go back to Syria, but it would be easier to contemplate going back if you had the guarantee that you could return to Ireland. We should look at training needs to help them re-establish themselves when they get back to Syria. They are ordinary people who are family-focused, who are experiencing hunger, darkness and cold. They have hopes for their children. Their families are scattered throughout the world. They very much just want to have normality, and are not too ideologically focused on what democratic system they have, once they have fairness and a sense of safety within their country. Fr Tony O'Riordan Today's News in 90 Seconds - January 2nd Fr ORiordan was to the fore of relief efforts around Aleppo following the deadly 2023 earthquake in which almost 6,000 Syrians and over 50,000 people in neighbouring Turkey perished. The priest said he was worried about the crushing humanitarian suffering of Syrians who struggle for sufficient food and the basic necessities, access to healthcare, education for their children, and adequate and dignified shelter after more than a decade of conflict. There has been a huge rise in food insecurity, about 16 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. What is really frustrating is that last year the World Food Programme, which had been active in Syria for many years, had to cease its operations because of a lack of funding. Meanwhile, people with chronic illnesses such as hypertension or diabetes, in the vast majority of cases have to forgo medication in favour of food. One contributory factor is the dramatic collapse of the value of the Syrian pound. The value of peoples income was being slashed day by day, and basic commodities were increasing. But the toppling of Assad has, he believes, reawakened hope. People are relieved Assad is gone and it happened in a miraculous way with no bloodshed. They are happy banks and commerce are beginning to function again and that their work is resuming. In a context where hope was dead, people are beginning to believe there is a way to a better future. That is hugely significant because most Syrians, particularly the ablebodied and the young, had got to the stage where their future lay outside of Syria. Now they are saying maybe they have a future in Syria. But having lived through the last 14 years, Syrians have grounds to be cautious about the de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, and the possibility that the new regime might take things in an oppressive or sectarian way. For Fr ORiordan, what gives him concern is the role of vested interests of outside forces. The attitude and actions of bad actors who want to see the situation develop in a way that suits their interests. The Russians are still active there, the Iranians, the Americans, the European Union and Turkey. These are very powerful, they have the capacity to create huge instability in Syria. The scale of Israels bombing in Syria has been frightening and there has been a land grab in the south of Syria. That has the capacity to threaten a regime with the best of intentions. If Syria was left to itself and was supported, there would seem to be enough resourcefulness amongst the Syrians and enough capacity to work across different religions and identities within Syria to build together. My time in prison with man wrongly convicted of bombing Birmingham... and one of the men who really did it Writing after the death of Paddy Hill, former IRA man Shane Paul ODoherty reflects on advising the man next door Shane Paul O'Doherty and Paddy Hill (inset) Shane Paul O'Doherty Wed 1 Jan 2025 at 12:45 In his book, Forever Lost, Forever Gone, Paddy Hill kindly recorded our interaction in 1982 in Gartree Prison, Leicestershire, when in a fit of depression at his wrongful conviction and imprisonment he threatened to begin a hunger strike to the death. He was not joking. Do you suffer from cluster headaches or other chronic pain conditions? Psychedelics might be the answer Chronic pain sufferers claim to have found relief via psychedelic substances. Author Joanna Kempner explains why this could become a more closely studied area of medicine Cluster headaches are one of the most debilitating forms of pain a human can experience. Image: Getty Suzanne Harrington Thu 2 Jan 2025 at 03:30 At a 2023 conference in Denver, Colorado, organised by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), 12,000 people gathered to listen to 500 speakers talk about the multiple healing properties of what is still euphemistically referred to as plant medicine. Sophie White: You invariably collect ailments as you age and since nobody cares to listen, Ive come up with the perfect business idea It is important to avoid the blizzard of unsought advice and makeover wisdom thrown our way as the book closes on one year and another begins. All any of us can do is be exactly where we are right now: make the most of it and keep going. As Aldous Huxley said: There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and thats your own self. Your space is where the only decisions that really count can be made. Theres a reason why so many of us have cultivated a deaf ear for when we are told: Its for your own good. Avoiding those who would trample over a carefully cultivated inner terrain with ever more pressing demands to change, renew, rejuvenate or otherwise transform ourselves to conform with someone elses idea of who we ought to be seems to be getting harder. There is a tyranny that asserts the years close must be either an end point or a launching pad, when in truth it is a matter of gathering our forces to keep going. Being too hard on ourselves comes with its own costs. US chat show host Jay Leno had a refreshing take on attaining personal goals and self-empowerment, saying: Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means youve met your new year resolution. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you A gentler approach has its own rewards. How often do we spend time looking for flaws instead of going a bit deeper and drawing on our potential? As the ethicist Lewis B Smedes wrote: To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. There is something to celebrate in having another chance to get it right, in a fresh year filled with possibilities. Oscar Wilde was more sceptical, saying: Good resolutions are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account. It is not easy, as many seem too ready to point out. There may, indeed, be trouble ahead, but there always is. There will also be opportunities to grow and do better if we rise to them. Yet to listen to some people, all legitimate grounds for hope have been dug up. Perhaps we should concede to the doom-scrollers that the challenges of war, climate change and global inequity are daunting; but they can be overcome if we bring our collective wills together and act in concert. Weeks ago, we heard the bells of Notre Dame ring out again, only five years after the revered cathedral was gutted by fire. A ruin became a rousing symbol of world resilience, transformed by a spirit of co-operation. Craftspeople and artisans from around the world rallied to raise the building from the ashes. Their faith turned a disaster into a stepping stone towards which new generations could journey. The old year leaves, a new one comes. It begins again with today. And the time is still ours to make the most of. The concept of a sober January, while commendable and potentially advantageous, may sometimes yield unintended outcomes. On the upside, it raises awareness about the dangers of personal alcohol use and motivates some people to pursue healthier lifestyle choices. For others, it serves as an opportunity to reduce spending during a financially challenging time of year. However, a significant concern emerges when individuals with problematic drinking habits use the challenge to convince themselves that their behaviour isnt an issue. Abstaining for a single month, especially when planning to revert to previous habits afterwards, might not provide a true understanding of your relationship with alcohol. Relying on a short-term break to address deeper alcohol-related issues can be an oversimplification of a problem that needs to be given serious attention. In some cases, individuals may end up increasing their alcohol intake in the months following giving it up in January, falsely comforting themselves with the belief that they can quit whenever they choose. For those committed to genuinely reassessing and modifying their drinking habits, aiming for a minimum of three months of sobriety is a more effective strategy. Consulting a healthcare provider beforehand is especially important for heavy drinkers, as the process could have serious health implications. Taking a longer break from alcohol offers a clearer and more thorough perspective on its impact on physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Gerry Hickey, Dundrum, Dublin 13 Galway cinema a brilliant cultural amenity that we should fight to keep open Your New Years Day editorial contained many nuggets of wisdom, not least from ethicist Lewis B Smedes, who wrote: To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. (New year brings the chance to start afresh lets make most of it, Irish Independent, January 1). We are told the country is currently awash with money. With that in mind, it will be a travesty if the Palas Cinema in the heart of Galway city must close its doors for good next month. Built specifically to be an arthouse film exhibition space, its three screens have showcased hundreds of national and international moving images of art since it opened its doors in 2018. A petition on change.org has been launched to raise awareness and help keep it open. Hopefully, all the parties involved can find a new years resolution to keep the Palas Cinema open and allow it to continue doing what it does best. Tom McElligott, Listowel, Co Kerry New year unlikely to bring fresh sense of generosity to those who dodge rounds I was delighted to read Tom Gilsenans letter about his friends new years resolution to stop buying his round of drinks when in company (Irish Independent, Letters, January 1). I couldnt help but chuckle, as it seems we must share the same friend. Mine made a similar resolution last year. Ive also noticed he has developed a sudden fascination with the intricacies of pub menus. Just long enough, of course, for someone else to reach for their wallet and pay for the next round of drinks. I suspect such resolutions are less about saving money and more about testing the patience of those who still have to buy their round. If nothing else, they certainly keep the rest of us on our toes. Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh Nothing quite like the warm welcome of a local to put a pep in your step Seamus Joyces letter about the welcome he received in a remote pub in his native Mayo struck a chord (Irish Independent, Letters, December 31). I experience a similar welcome when visiting Spells Bar in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, which is the town I grew up in. Last summer, on a visit to the pub, they gave me an especially warm welcome even though it had been a few years since I was last there. It was a touching welcome back for a stray visitor, leaving me with a warm feeling in the heart long after the heat from the turf fire had departed from my bones. Tommy Roddy Ballybane, Co Galway History shows Defence Forces personnel wrongly treated after World War II In his letter, Tom Cooper is spot on with his remarks about Eamon de Valera (De Valeras condolences for Germany were not the actions of a friend to Hitler, Irish Independent, Letters, December 30). Indeed, the Department of External Affairs were in regular contact with the German ambassador, together with the Irish legation in Berlin throughout the war. That contact was responsible for saving the lives of Irish-born allied merchant seamen held as prisoners by the Nazis. Mr Cooper also advises that De Valeras government introduced internment of IRA members for the duration of the war to prevent IRA attacks in Britain. In fact, the IRA had also planned to attack the six counties, supported by invading Nazi forces. In June 1945, on their release from internment, many former IRA internees had the opportunity of seeking work in Bord Na Mona, the ESB and other Irish semi-state organisations. In contrast, blacklisted Defence Forces personnel who went absent without leave and joined Allied forces fighting the Nazis and Japanese during the war were barred on their return to Ireland from working in state employment for seven years. Meanwhile, IRA volunteers and Nazi collaborators were given a free pass by the De Valera government. Thankfully, history now shows that the introduction of the Defence Forces (Second World War Amnesty and Immunity) Act 2013, initiated by former defence minister Alan Shatter, removed the imputation of guilt imposed on blacklisted Defence Forces personnel by the introduction of emergency powers in August 1945. Peter Mulvany, Clontarf, Dublin 3 Manchester United is a club full of bosses, none of whom are taking charge Watching poor old Manchester United in action, it brings to mind the saying that too many cooks spoil the broth. The team is on a slide that shows no sign of being halted. Too many bosses at Old Trafford is partly to blame for the fall from grace. It seems that there needs to be a clean sweep of the unnecessary extras. Leo Gormley, Dundalk, Co Louth The Northern Lights photographed above Millstreet on the evening of New Year's Day. Photo by Sean Radley A Millstreet man kicked off the new year in truly colourful style when he photographed the beauty of the Northern Lights shimmering above his hometown on Wednesday. Sean Radley, who is well known for recording all events in his locality via the website Millstreet.ie, told The Corkman he captured images of the lights from his home in Mount Leader estate, in the west of the town. What a truly colourful beginning to the New Year, Sean said. The retired primary school teacher said that in the run up to Wednesday night, he had been aware that there was a possibility that the Northern Lights might be visible. My loyal mobile phone, out of the blue, at the end of 2024, decided to cease working after some five years so with my replacement phone I was attempting to check out the camera of the new phone. I noticed a magnificent image shared on our RTAI (Retired Teachers of Ireland - Cork Branch) Camera Group WhatsApp by one of our members and this stimulated me to try to capture a possible image in Millstreet, he explained. I decided at 6.45pm on Wednesday, January 1 to use the night mode of my mobile phone camera to attempt photographing the skyscape. Although the Northern Lights were clearly present judging by the red, blue and green hue of the sky with countless stars visible, it was only when I examined what the night mode had captured that the much clearer image of the Northern Lights became apparent. Following his photographing of the stunning Northern Lights, Sean has wished a very happy, healthy, and colourful, new year to all readers. Businesses on the south side of the city now face 150 fines for non-compliance with the new rules From January 1, plastic waste sacks will be banned from use in the area around Grafton Street and Temple Bar and beyond Businesses and residences on a number of Dublin streets will no longer be permitted to leave waste on the pavement for collection. Photo: Derick Hudson/Getty New rules announced by Dublin City Council in September, which aim to ban plastic refuse sacks on select streets, have now come into effect. Businesses that fail to comply from 1 January could face fines of 150, as the transitionary period of just over three months has now ended. From now on, all occupiers of buildings on the list of streets on the south side of the city will not be permitted to present waste in plastic bags on city streets for collection. These new rules will see plastic refuse sacks banned from use in the area around Grafton Street, Temple Bar, and beyond. Dublin City Council (DCC) has said that it tested alternatives to plastic bin bags to address the severe litter issue, often caused by vermin, seagulls, foxes, and pets tearing the bags apart. According to the council, the situation has worsened since the introduction of the deposit return scheme, which has led to people deliberately ripping open bags to retrieve bottles and cans for cash refunds. The new regulations, which came into force on 16 September, cover 90 streets in the city centre and will apply to all "retail, commercial, and residential buildings. However, a number of businesses have complained they dont have the space required for wheelie bins and criticised the lack of consultation from DCC. The council had also confirmed it had been in discussions with waste collectors since July last year about these changes which they felt gave enough of a transition period for businesses to adjust to full compliance from this month onward. There will be a fine issued for 150 under the Litter Pollution Act for non-compliance from January 1, as the derogations are removed, a Dublin City Council spokesperson said. The initial streets targeted since September are located on the south side of the city, including Westmoreland Street, Dawson Street, Drury Street, Temple Bar, Grafton Street, and more. From January 1, plastic waste sacks will be banned from use in the area around Grafton Street and Temple Bar and beyond Addressing the concerns of businesses that lack space for wheelie bins, the council responded by stating that waste collection options are a matter for "private waste collectors and their customers. "Dublin City Council has advised the waste collection companies that we will facilitate removing traffic restrictions for waste collection vehicles, where possible; on-street waste storage containers, on-street mobile compactors, and any other options that eliminate the need to present waste in plastic bags on the citys streets for businesses in the Phase 1 area," they added. "The waste collectors have advised Dublin City Council that they would consider all options for their customers, including facilitating customers who want to move to reusable receptacles (wheelie bins, etc.) and offering a business-to-business collection service for customers who choose to continue using plastic bags." "It is the intention to move to a similar scheme in the commercial district on the north side of the city as Phase 2," the council said. While the uptake of bins has been limited, the council has confirmed it will extend the bag ban to the north inner city from the second quarter of 2025, concentrating on the areas around Henry Street and Abbey Street. Two Louth entrepreneurs who set up their own enterprises after taking part in the Back for Business programme that helps returned emigrants start and develop their own businesses, are urging other returned emigrants to do the same. Now in its eighth cycle, the free government programme is seeking offers of interest from people who have recently returned to Louth or are still living abroad but thinking of returning in the near future. Those eligible to apply include returned Irish emigrants who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned to Ireland in the last three years, and emigrants currently living abroad who are planning to return to Ireland in the near future. Former participants from Louth include Jennifer Provan and Oran Finegan. Having experienced at first hand the benefits of participation in Back for Business, they are encouraging others to apply for the programme. Before leaving Ireland, Jennifer Provan was working in hospitality after studying Hospitality Management, and she set up her own catering company and two cafes while living in Glasgow. However, she always wanted to return home and after 21 years in Glasgow, she came back to Ireland with her husband their son went away to college. She now runs her own business Kitchenetta Catering, from her home at Ballymascanlon, catering for weddings, parties and other functions, and was extremely busy over the festive season. Jennifer says Back for Business was an amazing experience. It was very collaborative and very supportive. We gleaned a lot of knowledge from each other and our Lead Entrepreneur, a lot of which weve gone on to use, she says. I would highly recommend it. I really enjoyed every minute of it, and I know that all of my group did as well, and were all very much in touch since and still supporting each other. Its been seriously advantageous. Carlingford native Oran Finegan had spent 25 years working as a leading forensic specialist with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) when the opportunity arose to take the methods he had learned in conflict and post-conflict zones around the world and apply them back home in Ireland. Oran Finegan and Rory Geraghty, Department of Foreign Affairs Oran set up his company, Forensic Action International, shortly after his return to Ireland in October 2023. Last year he commenced working as forensic lead on the excavation of the Tuam mother and babies home. Oran believes the Back for Business programme gave him a step up in his bid to develop the business. I have a huge amount to learn and having the structure that the programme provided, as well as access to likeminded entrepreneurs, was fantastic for helping me bridge that knowledge gap, he says. The 8th cycle of the Back for Business programme will run from February to June 2025 and there is no charge for those selected to participate. Up to 50 places will be available nationally. Eligible candidates have until Thursday, January 16, to submit their applications. Those interested can apply through www.backforbusiness.com. The Lead Entrepreneurs for the latest cycle are serial entrepreneur Hannah Wrixon; Morgan Browne, CEO of Milner Browne and Enterpryze; Paul Duggan of The Gardiner Group; Seamus Reilly, co-founder and formerly of Critical Healthcare; Sinead Doherty, founder and CEO of Fenero; and Thomas Ennis, founder of the Thomas Ennis Group. Funded by the Irish Abroad Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs, the programme was created to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among emigrants recently returned to Ireland. Since launching in 2017, Back for Business has helped entrepreneurs who are returned emigrants to significantly grow sales and employment. It also addresses challenges that all early-stage entrepreneurs encounter, but also focuses on additional barriers faced by emigrants who have been living away from Ireland. Back for Business 8 participants will take part in round table sessions focused on goals and milestones, which are facilitated by voluntary Lead Entrepreneurs who have experience of successfully starting and growing a business. A Back for Business Community is also being formed for previous participants, who will be offered workshops, review round tables and an annual Community Forum. Lidl Ireland is celebrating the success of its Christmas Trolley Dash, which raised 314,123 for its new charity partner, Family Carers Ireland, including more than 3,500 from Wexford customers. Pictured at Lidl Gorey is Store Manager Edgars Spole and Trolley Dash winner David Harpur from Gorey who took home over 350 worth of Lidls award-winning festive food and treats to enjoy over the Christmas season. Photograph by Jim Campbell Lidl Ireland is celebrating the success of its Christmas Trolley Dash, which raised 314,123 for its new charity partner, Family Carers Ireland, including more than 3,500 from Wexford customers. Pictured at Lidl Gorey is Store Manager Edgars Spole and Trolley Dash winner David Harpur from Gorey who took home over 350 worth of Lidls award-winning festive food and treats to enjoy over the Christmas season. Photograph by Jim Campbell Lidl Ireland is celebrating the success of its Christmas Trolley Dash, which raised 314,123 for its new charity partner, Family Carers Ireland, including more than 3,500 from Wexford customers. Pictured at Lidl Gorey is Store Manager Edgars Spole and Trolley Dash winner David Harpur from Gorey who took home over 350 worth of Lidls award-winning festive food and treats to enjoy over the Christmas season. Photograph by Jim Campbell Lidl Ireland is celebrating the success of its Christmas Trolley Dash, which raised 314,123 for its new charity partner, Family Carers Ireland, including more than 3,500 from Wexford customers. The fundraising initiative received widespread support from Lidl shoppers across Ireland, with 100% of the proceeds raised supporting family carers and young carers across the country. One winner in every one of Lidls 182 stores nationwide completed a 2-minute supermarket sweep-style dash, with Lidl Gorey Trolley Dash winner David Harpur taking home over 350 worth of Lidls award-winning festive food and treats to enjoy over the Christmas season. Speaking on the success of this years campaign, Corporate Affairs Director at Lidl Ireland Eimear OSullivan said, "We are proud to announce that this years Trolley Dash has raised an incredible 314,123 for Family Carers Ireland, marking a fantastic start to our new three-year charity partnership. Trolley Dash is our flagship fundraising initiative, and its wonderful to see our customers and employees coming together to support such an important cause. Were incredibly proud of this achievement and grateful to everyone who participated in and supported this years dashes. Id also like to say a massive well done to our 182 lucky Trolley Dash winners who took on the challenge in their local stores this past weekend." Since its launch in 2014, Lidl Irelands Trolley Dash has raised more than 2.5 million for its charity partners, with winners also taking home thousands of euros worth of Lidls award-winning festive food and treats to enjoy over the festive season. In November, Lidl unveiled its new official charity partner, Family Carers Ireland, which provides free supports and services such as guidance on rights and entitlements, peer support networks, learning and education, emergency care planning, respite, counselling, young carer support and more. Lidl has committed to raising 1 million in funds over the next three years for Family Carers Ireland. As the first large scale fundraising activity since the partnership announcement, Trolley Dash is set to give the new partnership a significant boost. Head of Communications and Policy of Family Carers Ireland Catherine Cox, thanked Lidl Ireland, its employees and its customers for their unwavering support and this substantial Trolley Dash donation. "We are blown away by the generosity of those who supported the Trolley Dash campaign, especially in these challenging times. This incredible total raised which will be transformative in enabling us to continue delivering our vital services in support of family carers across the country. Family Carers Irelands mission is to ensure that family carers are properly recognised, supported and empowered so that no one has to care alone, and these funds will go a long way in supporting some of our services and in raising awareness of family carers in our communities, our charity and the work that we do, said Ms Cox. Tributes have been paid to the Wexford man who was found dead at his home in New Ross on Tuesday. John King OConnor, of Cluain Fada, New Ross was found unresponsive at his home in Cluain Fada, New Ross on New Years Eve. A murder investigation was subsequently launched. A man is to appear before the courts on Thursday night in Wexford charged in connection with Johns death. "A man in his 30s arrested as part of this investigation is due to appear before a special sitting of Wexford District Court tonight, January 2nd, 2024, at 10:30pm, where he will be charged in connection with the case, a garda spokesperson said. A second man who arrested in connection with Mr OConnors death has since been released without charge. Mr OConnor was found unresponsive at around 11am on Tuesday by emergency services. A post-mortem examination was carried out by the state pathologist on Wednesday and preliminary results have been provided to the investigating team. Details of these results are not being released for operational purposes. Funeral details for Mr OConnor were announced on Thursday evening, with the community of New Ross struggling to come to terms with the death of a kind and lovely man. Childhood friends and neighbours of Mr OConnor have recently spoken to the Irish Independent about how he adored his mother, with one tribute online describing him as a beautiful man who would give you his last cent, and a bed to lay in anytime, adding he loved his mammy so much. A family member of Mr OConnor also shared a tribute online saying: Rest in peace John. Youre with nanny now. I hope you get the best bed up there, while another person offering their condolences described him as such a good-hearted person. The funeral arrangements for Mr OConnor are as follows: Reposing at Cooney's Funeral Home, New Ross, on Saturday, January 4, from 4 p.m. concluding at 7 p.m.; and removal on Sunday, January 5, at 11:30 a.m. to St. Stephen's Cemetery, New Ross, for burial at 12 p.m. Mr OConnor is predeceased by his mother, Nancy and is sadly missed by his loving children Chloe, Aaron and Kaylee, father Ned, siblings, Eddie, Triona, Deirdre and Paula, and grandchildren, Freya Rose, Paddy and Carson Jax, brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, aunts, uncles, extended family and a large circle of friends. A senior investigating officer is leading the investigation from the incident room at New Ross garda station. A family liaison officer also continues to provide support to the family. Gardai are appealing for witnesses to contact them and are seeking any available camera footage, including dashcam recordings, from those who were in the vicinity of Cluain Fada at the time of the incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact New Ross Garda Station on 051 426030 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. The restrictions came into place on Monday, December 30, as there was, and continues to be, cases of Acute Infectious Gastroenteritis, Covid-19 and Influenza throughout the hospital. Visiting continues to be suspended at the hospital but some visits may be permitted in exceptional circumstances on compassionate grounds, according to a statement from Ireland East Hospital Group (IEHG), on behalf of the Wexford hospital. In these cases, people are encouraged to contact the relevant ward to pre-arrange their visit, they added. Its been confirmed that nominated partners will be granted access to the Maternity Unit, along with parents accompanying sick children on Gabriels Ward. We would ask that no children visit the hospital. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and would like to thank the public for their understanding and patience at this time, added a spokesperson for IEHG. Visiting has also been restricted in other hospitals around the country on similar grounds, including Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Waterford (UHW) where on Thursday, January 2, UHW had 61 Flu, three COVID-19 and three Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) positive inpatients and a high volume of staff across all disciplines absent with flu symptoms. Surgical mask wearing is mandatory in all areas of the hospital for staff and visitors, in addition to the wearing of Filtering Face Piece (FFP) 2 masks in all outbreak wards in UHW until further notice. Brazilian Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Flavio Helmold Macieira, and his wife Mrs Josieane Macieira with artist Elis Taves at her 'Page by Page' exhibition in Arklow Library. Photo: Brian Kelly Brian Kelly with artist Elis Taves at her 'Page by Page' exhibition in Arklow Library. Photo: Gerry Kelly Jennifer Parsons with artist Elis Taves at her 'Page by Page' exhibition in Arklow Library. Photo: Michael Kelly Artist Elis Taves at her 'Page by Page' exhibition in Arklow Library. Photo: Michael Kelly Brazilian Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Flavio Helmold Macieira, and his wife Mrs Josieane Macieira with artist Elis Taves at her 'Page by Page' exhibition in Arklow Library. Photo: Brian Kelly Talented Wicklow artist Elis Taves recently had the honour of welcoming the new Brazilian Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Flavio Helmold Macieira, to see her innovative exhibition, Page by Page. Part of Library Ireland Week and supported by Wicklow Library Services, the thought-provoking exhibition featured works crafted using recycled paper, reflecting Taves environmentally conscious approach to art. The exhibition programme included a sold-out workshop and a captivating talk exploring the perception of visual and spoken language, with a particular focus on French. Entitled In Conversation, the talk featured Professor Jennifer Parsons and sparked a compelling debate on how visual art and language intersect to shape communication and meaning. Taves offered Mr Macieira, and his wife, Mrs Josieane Macieira, a unique insight into the creative process behind Page by Page, organising a private tour for the distinguished diplomat, who took up his ambassadorial role in June. Elis has maintained a long-standing relationship with the Brazilian Embassy, having collaborated on several exhibitions in the past. Following the culmination of the exhibition, Arklow Library staff shared their admiration for Taves work, describing it as one of the most unique presentation styles they had ever seen at the library. The exhibition programme went very well, with lots of good feedback from the public and the library staff, Taves said. I chose books, pages and images as my medium to honour the essential role of libraries and librarians in fostering knowledge and creativity. A big thanks to Arklow Library for hosting the exhibition. It was great to be able to welcome Mr Macieira and his wife Josieane for a private tour. We even had the chance to discuss future collaborations on projects between Ireland and Brazil, which they greatly enjoyed, she added. I will return again in October with new works, presenting another programme of workshops and talks. Follow Elis Taves on Instagram at Taves_Elis for updates on her work and future exhibitions. The decision to grant planning permission for the Dublin Fields movie studios at a site in south Dublin has again called into question the plans for the much-vaunted Greystones Media Campus, which have stalled since they were first announced over two years ago. The green light for the south Dublin location, which has got its approval for a world-class studio and will create up to 2,000 jobs on and off site when operational, has prompted Wicklow Sinn Fein TD John Brady to question the governments priorities on balanced regional development. It follows South Dublin County Councils granting of a 10-year planning permission to Lens Media Ltd for the 56-acre site, which includes 20 individual structures amounting to over 74,000 square metres of gross floor space. The development includes six sound stage buildings that comprise 11 internal sound stages along with ancillary offices at the location, at Grange Castle Business Park. And the local authority is requiring the applicants to pay 8.85m to the council towards public infrastructure and facilities. While Deputy Brady said the decision represents a significant investment in Irelands film industry, its approval comes amid glaring government inaction on the stalled Greystones Media Campus. He warned that without immediate government action, there is a very real danger that this vital project could be permanently abandoned, resulting in the loss of significant opportunities for jobs, innovation, and growth in the region. The decision to grant planning permission for Lens Media Ltd's Dublin Fields movie studio in South Dublin raises serious questions about the governments priorities and commitment to balanced regional development, he said. "While the project represents a significant investment in Irelands film industry, its approval comes amid glaring government inaction on the stalled Greystones Media Campus a development that has now been pushed to the margins despite significant taxpayer investment and regional importance. The 300m Greystones Media Campus was announced as a transformative project for Wicklow, long considered the heart of Irelands film industry. Planned to open in 2024, the campus was set to deliver 450 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent roles on its 44-acre site, establishing Wicklow as a global leader in media production. The scheme involves the construction of 14 film and TV studios, offices, and production facilities across 15 buildings. However, work abruptly stopped in 2022, and the project has since been left in limbo. It is understood the current status of the development is commercially sensitive and the focus of the project is now being reviewed. This neglect is particularly alarming given the substantial public investment in the project through the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which allocated 24mn of taxpayer money to the campus, Deputy Brady continued. "The lack of government action to protect this investment is a betrayal of public trust and an insult to the people of Greystones and Wicklow, who were promised a development that would bring jobs, innovation, and economic growth to the region. By failing to safeguard this investment, the government is not only wasting public money but also denying the people of Greystones and Wicklow the economic and cultural benefits they were promised. Without immediate action, there is a very real danger that this vital project could be permanently abandoned, resulting in the loss of significant opportunities for jobs, innovation, and growth in the region. The decision to forge ahead with Dublin Fields while allowing Greystones to stagnate raises broader concerns about accountability and strategic planning in public investment. Taxpayer money should not be funnelled into high-profile projects only to see them shelved without explanation or resolution. The government must act immediately to move forward with the Greystones Media Campus, he said. Without decisive intervention, this transformative project risks fading into irrelevance, leaving a legacy of wasted taxpayer investment and broken promises. The time for action is now, before the opportunity is lost forever. The Dublin Fields project has been in the works for a number of years, and while the project was mired in legal disputes, these were resolved last year, clearing the way for a positive outcome for Lens Media. Lens Media Ltd is backed by Irish producer Alan Moloney, known for films The Siege of Jadotville and Brooklyn, and Oscar-nominated American producer Gary Levinsohn, best known for Saving Private Ryan. A rare image of a buzzard in flight through the woods, captured at Newtownmountkennedy. Local environmental charity ReWild Wicklow have just published their latest report on their camera trap initiative across the east of the mountains, with sika deer, grey squirrels and a buzzard in flight all captured on camera. The annual initiative is part of a wider Snapshot Europe project and the goal is to collect systemic wildlife camera trap data on mammals across as many study sites in Europe as possible during September and October each year. The initiative is the largest systemic camera trap project in Ireland and its completely run by volunteers. In 2023 the group successfully monitored 47 sites, collected 183,297 photographs and captured 11 wild mammal species and a variety of birds. This years camera trap monitoring project, in association with UCD, came to an end in November and ReWild Wicklow volunteers have finished collecting all the cameras, with some surprising highlights. On the 'Aaron Wright' camera near Newtownmountkennedy a rare shot of a buzzard in flight through the woods was captured. In nearby the Mount Kennedy Wood, images of an impressive lone stag and a grey squirrel were both captured. Plenty of sika deer and hinds were photographed going about their business in Inchavore Valley by the Tome Stokes camera. The 'Paddy O'Byrne' camera in the Devil's Glen Wood near Ashford captured lots of pine marten and frolicking red squirrels. Pat Davis has unveiled his first ever Christmas mural along the East Pier at Wicklow Harbour as he approaches his 49th year of painting the murals. The retired postman only completed the latest mural on Christmas Eve, when he spent a couple of hours adding some finishing touches. The ship featured in this artwork is the Irish Naval patrol vessel LE Aoibhinn, which visited the port in late September, shortly after she was commissioned into her Irish Sea patrol duties. Pat said: In my 48 years of painting on the pier, it is my first ever Christmas mural to share with the many people who enjoy a walk in that area. I took over two months to complete and the weather was awful, like it has been for most of the year, but Im a stubborn mule so I just kept working away. It wasnt the most inviting place to paint the mural as the location was basically in a wind tunnel. The sun only shines on that part of the wall for around an hour and a half, and then the temperatures drop by 8 or so degrees. I looked like an Inuit Eskimo because of all the different layers of clothing I was wearing. People found it funny that I was so well; wrapped up, while still wearing shorts, but its only the core part of my upper body that I need to protect to stay warm. The murals seem to bring a lot of joy to people, who find them very attractive. There were quite a few passers-by on Christmas Eve who stopped to have a quick chat because they were interested to see someone painting away on the pier wall on Christmas Eve, of all days. 2024 proved to be a highly prolific year for Pat as he completed a total of 15 new additions to his special outdoor gallery. It was only my second year painting during the winter months, so I was delighted to complete 15 new murals, especially given how bad the weather conditions generally were, said Pat. 2025 will be my 49th year working on the pier and I hope to add more4 images to fill in the remaining gaps on the wall. I would like to express my gratitude to my supporters who chat to me, some of which have passed on donations to my paint fund. This supports my motivation to continue into the future, into my 50th year and beyond. Can you give your complexion a January boost with a detox? We ask the experts "Sugar and alcohol are both bad for collagen, which is what keeps skin supple and springy, and this is only amplified by the dehydrating effect of drinking." Image: Getty My skin is dull and tired-looking after the party season can I give it a detox? Who doesnt love the idea of a detox? After the festive season of excess, a complexion quick fix sounds just what the doctor ordered. However, as any doctor will testify, theres no such thing as a skin detox. The medical fact is that waste is primarily excreted through the kidneys and liver, so ditch the notion of purging poisons through the skin for an improved appearance. Forget about flushing out the damage done and think about repairing and restoring instead. You cant detox your skin, says Dawn Hill, master facialist and founder of Floraison, with salons in Dublin and Tullamore. Lots of products are labelled that way but thats just marketing. Detox is a mind frame more than anything, but instead of a detox, I would call it a reset, and nourishing the skin is the way to go. So why does my skin look so bad right now? Youre not imagining that Christmas and New Year have taken their toll. For many of us at Christmas, we eat more sugar and drink more alcohol, experience more stress and get less sleep. Sugar and alcohol are both bad for collagen, which is what keeps skin supple and springy, and this is only amplified by the dehydrating effect of drinking. For many Irish complexions that are prone to inflammation and rosacea, theres also every chance that this greyness and increased redness turn up together this time of year. Hill describes the result as grey, almost ragged-looking skin. So where should I start with a skin reset? Skin health is the outward manifestation of whats going on inside the body. Healthy gut means healthy skin, says Hill, who personally swears by Co Clare-made Oir Tonics Moss Boss Tonic, in particular the version with Irish sea moss and anti-inflammatory turmeric, ginger and apple cider vinegar. Start from within, says Jessica Sepel, clinical nutritionist and founder of JS Health, which makes ingestible and topical products for skin health and general wellbeing. Make water your best friend and consider herbal teas like dandelion or ginger for added benefits. Both dandelion and ginger claim to have anti-inflammatory benefits, and ginger is widely accepted as beneficial for the gut, which is increasingly acknowledged as the root source of good skin health, too. Sepel suggests a supplement with marine collagen and vitamin C, which boosts the efficacy of a collagen product. Do I need to reset my skincare routine, too? People always think that if you want glowy skin, you need to go hard or go home with acids, but thats not the case at all, Hill explains. They reach for acid and clay masks and super acidic toners, thinking theyre going to brighten, but no. Change that mindset and think nourish, nourish, nourish. In pushing for polish, theres the danger that we aggravate skin that is already irritated. While acids like glycolic (alpha-hyroxy) or salicylic (beta-hydroxy) have a low molecular weight, which means they descend further and faster into the layers of the skin, their swift efficacy can be counterproductive. Polyhydroxy acids (PHAs) such as gluconolactone or lactobionic acids, with a high molecular weight, cant penetrate as fast or as deep as AHAs or BHAs, but are more gentle on the skin while still producing an improved texture and appearance. Sepel encourages following up any kind of exfoliation with skincare, including hydrating hyaluronic acid, topical probiotics, seaweed extracts and ceramides and peptides. Hill is a big fan of using masks to restore the skin with high-intensity ingredients and advocates taking a bath not too hot with the mask on. I would do that about once a week. It has incredible effects on the body and the mind. Im not saying it will open pores and clear them, because pores dont work like that, they dont open and close, but the heat will help the mask work better. If you have access to a sauna, that can also be used as an opportunity to use a skin and hair mask, but high heat should be avoided by anyone with rosacea. JS Health Vitality X + Collagen Powder, 54.99 for 30 servings, eu.jshealthvitamins.com What products might help? JS Health Vitality X + Collagen Powder, 54.99 for 30 servings, eu.jshealthvitamins.com With hydrolysed marine collagen which means it has been broken down into amino acids that are more easily dissolved anti-inflammatory turmeric, ginseng and both astaxanthin and vitamin C, which are said to help boost the efficacy of the collagen, this is a powerhouse powder that can be added to smoothies or other cold drinks. Ayuna Balm Volcanic Revitalising Mask, 150, floraison.ie Ayuna Balm Volcanic Revitalising Mask, 150, floraison.ie A little goes a long way with all the products from this niche Spanish skincare brand that is tipped for bigger things. Black in colour and described as detoxifying, thanks to the charcoal content, it also has gluconolactone, for gentle acid action and a lactobacillus ferment to work on restoring the skin biome. Kinvara Natural Skincare Elemental Exfoliating Powder, 34.95, kinvaraskincare.com Kinvara Natural Skincare Elemental Exfoliating Powder, 34.95, kinvaraskincare.com Irish-owned and made in Co Galway, Kinvara Natural Skincare, this powder is a zero-plastic, microbead-free product that you mix with water to activate pumice and rice powder for a no-scrubbing exfoliation. Seaweed nourishes and soothes, while it also has ingredients such as vitamins B, E and niacinamide, which are calming. From Planet Earth II executive producer Mike Gunton, and with music by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, The Americas uses cutting-edge technology to highlight wildlife from across North and South America. The 10-part series, which was five years in the making, spotlights locations including, Mexico, the Amazon rainforest, the Andes, the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean. American bison feature in the show (Donald M Jones/NBC/PA) The docu-series was made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit, in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, for US television broadcasting company NBC, and will also air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The head of BBC Factual Acquisition, Jo Lapping, said: The BBC is delighted to bring NBCs remarkable nature epic The Americas to BBC One and iPlayer. From northern Canada to Patagonia, the spectacular beauty and diversity of the American continents has been captured in this mesmerising series from a multi-award winning dream team; Tom Hanks, Hans Zimmer, BBC Studios Natural History and Universal Television Alternative Studio. Hanks, 68, who won leading actor Oscars for his roles in Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994), is also known for voicing character Woody in the Toy Story film series. Stormzy banned from driving for nine months after using mobile phone Stormzy has been banned from driving for nine months after an undercover police officer caught him using a phone behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce in west London. The rapper, named Michael Ebenazer Owuo Junior, 31, pleaded guilty via a letter to driving the Rolls-Royce Wraith while using his device on Addison Road, west Kensington, shortly after 3.30pm on March 7 2024. The undercover officer knocked on his tinted passenger window and said get rid of your tints and get off your phone, Wimbledon Magistrates Court heard on Thursday. Previously, Owuo admitted driving a Lamborghini Urus which had front windows illegally tinted to only 4pc light transmission, violating the 70pc requirement. The vehicles use was dangerous and put vulnerable road users at risk, prosecutor Alice Holloway said on Thursday. Owuo was stopped by officers on Coombe Lane, Kingston upon Thames, at about 12.45pm on October 17 2023, having previously been warned about the windows. Before Thursdays hearing he had six points on his licence for a previous speeding offence. District judge Andrew Sweet banned the rapper, who was not present in court, from driving for nine months and fined him 2,010 after six more points were added to his licence. He said Owuos driving record is not good and criticised his dangerous and irresponsible actions. Peter Csemiczky, defending, said Owuo accepts responsibility and apologises. He added that the rapper has removed the tints. Sex workers in Belgium have been granted maternity leave and pensions under new reforms hailed as a groundbreaking move for their rights. The changes, thought to be the first of their kind, will also entitle sex workers to official employment contracts, health insurance and sick leave, providing greater security for women in the industry. Magnus Carlsen, the worlds No1 chess player, has triggered a major backlash after cutting short a game to share a world championship title with his rival. The 34-year-old Norwegian grandmaster was drawing his speed chess match with Ian Nepomniachtchi, of Russia, yesterday and was deep in a sudden-death tie-break before he leaned over the board and suggested a deal for them both to be crowned winners. Are you celebrating? Israeli strikes kill at least 12 in Gaza Locals say women and children died in the attacks on New Years Day An Israeli soldier walks through a staging area as his unit prepares to enter the Gaza Strip at the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel. Photo: Tsafrir Abayov/AP Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy Thu 2 Jan 2025 at 03:30 Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said yesterday, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year. LATEST | New Orleans attack: Driver who killed 15 people acted alone, FBI now says, but no definitive link found to Las Vegas blast US Army veteran drove pick-up truck into New Orleans New Years celebrations, killing 15 peopleTruck found guns and improvised explosive devices in the vehicle, and it bore the flag of terror group Islamic StateThe FBI said it was investigating the attack early on Wednesday as a terrorist actInvestigators also trying to determine whether Tesla explosion outside Trumps Las Vegas hotel is connected to the attack Biden says New Orleans attacker posted video beforehand indicating he was inspired by Islamic State Irish Independent Newsdesk Thu 2 Jan 2025 at 17:24 A pick-up truck driver responsible for a deadly rampage in New Orleans acted alone, the FBI has now said. New Orleans explainer: What we know so far about attack and suspected assailant Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism and said it does not believe the driver acted alone Biden expresses anger over deadly New Orleans attack as FBI names suspect Irish Independent Newsdesk Thu 2 Jan 2025 at 08:52 Authorities say the driver of a pick-up truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians gathered in New Orleans bustling French Quarter district early on New Years Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring about 30 other revellers. LATEST | They picked the wrong vehicle: Elon Musk defends Cybertruck after Trump hotel explosion The truck explosion came hours after a driver rammed a truck into a crowd in New OrleansThe driver of the truck, which was rented in Colorado and driven south, was killed in the blast and has since been named by local media as US Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs One person dies when Tesla Cybertruck catches fire and explodes outside Trumps Las Vegas hotel Ty O'Neil and Anita Snow Thu 2 Jan 2025 at 08:58 Elon Musk has leapt to the defence of his Tesla Cybertruck after one of the vehicles exploded outside of a Donald Trump-owned luxury hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on New Years Day in what now appears to have been a terrorist incident that left one person dead and seven more injured. The Indo Daily: Why is even the mention of water charges like playing with fire for politicians? Livermore, CA (94550) Today Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 41F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 41F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Gunaah Season 2 OTT release date is here. In the crime thriller series, Surbhi Jyoti portrays Tara, while Gashmeer Mahajani plays Abhimanyu. The Turkish drama Ezel served as the inspiration for the series. The series tells the tale of Abhimanyu, a young man whose life drastically changes once he is caught and charged with murder. Gunaah Season 2 will be released on Disney+ Hotstar on 3rd January 2025. Plot The show centers on Abhimanyu, a young man whose life takes a significant turn once he is detained and charged with murder. He finds that the line between right and wrong is getting fuzzier while he is incarcerated, particularly after finding out that someone wants him to remain there indefinitely. He sets out on a quest for vengeance after he escapes from prison. Throughout the series, the subsequent events are made public. Cast and crew Gashmeer Mahajani, Surbhi Jyoti, and Zayn Ibad Khan play the main parts in Anil Senior's thriller drama web series Gunaah Season 2. Along with Tanmay Nagar, Akshy Mishra, Saad Baba, Ansh Aggarwal, Gantavya Sharma, and numerous others, the movie also features a large supporting cast. Surbhi Jyoti talks about the show Surbhi Jyoti recently discussed her thoughts on playing Tara again in Gunaah's second season. The actor said she was eager to delve into the character's dramatic and emotional elements. According to her, Tara is constantly put in circumstances that test her convictions and strain her emotions and strength. Surbhi emphasized the heartbreaking and unvarnished turns in Tara and Abhimanyu's relationship, pointing out that the plot explores love, guilt, and atonement in great detail. She thinks that everyone who has struggled with such intense feelings will be able to relate to the story. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. Vidaamuyarchi OTT Release: This Tamil film written and directed by Magizh Thirumeni was recently postponed from its Pongal schedule. However, the streaming rights of this action thriller have already been locked. Vidaamuyarchi will be streaming on Netflix after its theatrical release concludes. The films satellite rights have been acquired by Sun TV. Vidaamuyarchi cast and crew Produced by Subaskaran Allirajah under Lyca Productions, Vidaamuyarchi stars Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra, Arav, Nikhil Nair, Dasarathi, Ganesh Saravanan, and Ramya Subramanian among others. Anirudh Ravichander has composed music for this saga in the cinematography of Om Prakash and editing of N. B. Srikanth. Vidaamuyarchi plot summary Inspired by the 1997 movie Breakdown, the film tells the story of a husband who is desperately searching for his wife, who went missing while they were on vacation in Azerbaijan. As he journeys through a dangerous desert, he discovers that his wifes disappearance is tied to a dangerous criminal gang. What starts as a personal mission to find her quickly turns into a fight for his own life as he uncovers dark secrets that put him in danger and threaten the dangerous world of crime. Magizh Thirumeni's note for Ajith Kumar Last week, Magizh Thirumeni who replaced Vignesh Shivan as the director of Vidaamuyarchi in its initial days penned a straight-from-the-heart note for Ajith. He said, Sir, infinite love and gratitude to you. You have guided, inspired and motivated all of us simply by being yourself. Vidaamuyarchi has indeed been a triumph of perseverance and the entire team owes it to you, sir. I thank you sir for the love, care and support you have given me from day one to this day. A note of gratitude from the Director to Ajith sir Wrapping up VIDAAMUYARCHI with heartfelt thanks and admiration for his support and guidance. #Vidaamuyarchi In Cinemas worldwide from PONGAL 2025!#AjithKumar #MagizhThirumeni @LycaProductions #Subaskaran @gkmtamilkumaran pic.twitter.com/4Q1zUCuQdB Suresh Chandra (@SureshChandraa) December 22, 2024 Are you excited about Vidaamuyarchi? Tell us @indiatimes. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. Anurag Kashyap has reaffirmed his critical views of Hindi filmmakers and the condition of the Hindi film industry. The filmmaker claimed in a recent interview that the 'brains' of the Hindi film business are insufficient to make a picture like Pushpa: The Rise or Pushpa 2: The Rule. He further talked about plans to move out of Mumbai and a lot more. Want to know what all he said? Scroll down to know 4 things Anurag Kashyap said in his recent and viral interview. Anurag Kashyap's statements in a recent interview Anurag Kashyap says filmmakers in the Hindu film industry cant make Pushpa Talking about filmmakers, the director said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, that filmmakers now dont have the brains. He added, They dont understand anything. They cant even make a Pushpa. They cannot, because they dont have the brains to make a film. They dont understand what filmmaking is. Bollywood filmmakers have ignored Hindi audience Producer Naga Vamsi's comments about how South Indian film is altering Bollywood's approach have generated conversations on social media. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recently weighed in on the debate, slamming Bollywood for not appealing to its predominantly Hindi-speaking audience. Using the Covid era as an example, Anurag claimed that his audience was disregarded as a whole. He disclosed that his two films, Mukkabaaz and Gangs of Wasseypur, which are currently very popular in North India, were not distributed there. During a distribution conference, he learned that his films were not available in the area because the studio had made the shortsighted decision to restrict his primary audience to Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, and Hyderabad. Why Anurag wants to go to the South Anurag Kashyap said while talking about wanting to shift from Mumbai, "Now it has become difficult for me to go out and experiment because it comes at a cost which makes my producers think about profit and margins. From the very beginning, before the release of the film, there is a thought on how to sell it. Due to this, the joy of filmmaking ends." The filmmaker criticised the inability of Bollywood to produce a film of the caliber of Pushpa 2: The Fire. In search of adventure and new chances, he stated that he intends to go to the South and leave Mumbai the following year. If he continued in his current surroundings, he stressed, he would "die as an old man." He took up acting jobs daughter Aaliyah's wedding Anurag Kashyap revealed that he would want to unwind, rejuvenate, and watch movies next year rather than making a movie. He clarified that he was concentrating on acting and filmmaking this year in order to raise money for his daughter Aaliyah's wedding. He pointed out that funding such a wedding was an important challenge in his capacity as an indie filmmaker. He feels more at ease now that his daughter is married, and he is eager to feed his soul. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. President Bola Tinubu has appealed to leadership of the National Assembly, to prioritize good governance, particularly, the welfare of the people. Tinubu led this out during a visitation, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, on Wednesday. The former governor of Lagos State noted that his administration is determined to fight anyone who is planning to enslave Nigeria and its people. Advertisement He said: It is for us to build a nation. We have confidence and competence. The enslavers want us to be an enslaved people, but we say no. We are determined, we are capable, and we are resolute, and we will be there. We will take Nigeria to that Promised Land with you. Tinubu urged lawmakers to display good leadership over the citizens. He said: Nigerians are the heart of everything we are doing. We have come to serve. You have made my day by coming on this visit. Happy New Year. May God bless you and our country and give our nation more prosperity. It is for our tomorrow. It is for the future generation. Your commitment will yield that fruit for the babies yet unborn. Your commitment to value addition and bringing about the spirit of can do and must do is for all of us together. We have a saying in Yoruba that it is only a courageous dog that will capture the animal in the bush. Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma has appealed to residents of the state to increase their collaboration with his government, irrespective of their political affiliations. Governor Uzodimma, in a 2025 New Years message, called on those promoting insecurity across the state to repent and embrace peace. He vowed that promoters of unrest in the Imo will face severe punishments of the law. Advertisement Uzodimma said: To those who promote insecurity and social tension in the state, I urge you once again to repent and embrace peace. Take advantage of this new year to make peace with God and your conscience. If you persist, the long arm of the law will catch up with you, and you will be held accountable for your evil deeds. READ MORE: Weapons Recovered As Troops Repel IPOB/ESN Attack In Imo Let me also use this auspicious occasion to urge all Imo people, regardless of political affiliations, to work with the government in our relentless quest to bring more development to our dear state. In this regard, I recommit myself to working harder and maintaining transparency in the allocation of your resources for the maximum benefit of the people. I assure you that the 2025 budget will be faithfully implemented to address the needs of our people and achieve the administrations goals. This year, 2025 is a defining year for all of us to prove our mettle in serving the people of the state. Laxity and corruption will not be tolerated. Let it be clear that those called to serve Imo State in my administration must either serve with dignity and integrity or face the consequences. Vice President Kashim Shettima has expressed optimism about Nigerias economic trajectory, stating that the nations economy is showing signs of recovery. Speaking after a New Year visit to President Bola Tinubu at his Lagos residence on Wednesday, Shettima assured Nigerians that they will start seeing the results of the administrations reforms in the coming weeks and months. According to Shettima, the administration is working hard to stabilize the economy, and Nigerians will smile and prosper in 2025 as the economy turns the corner. Advertisement Im highly optimistic about tomorrow. I believe we have turned the corner. We shall have very robust economic activities in the new year. I believe Nigerians will prosper, he said. READ ALSO: Policies Will Benefit Generations Unborn Tinubu, Shettima Boast Of Nigerias Positive Growth Trajectory Shettima emphasized that the economy has started picking up and that Nigerians will start smiling for the better in the coming weeks and months. He also noted that the administration is working closely with the National Assembly to come up with robust solutions to the nations challenges. The Vice President acknowledged that Nigeria is not immune to global economic headwinds, including the Ukraine crisis, but expressed confidence that the nation is navigating these challenges through strategic planning and resilience. But I want to assure Nigerians that the economy is turning the corner. By the grace of God, we have crossed the rubicon and we are on a path to sustained growth. We wish Nigerians well, he said. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) turned down a $750 million offer from billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote to manage the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries in 2007. According to Obasanjo, Dangotes team paid $750 million to participate in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to run the refineries. However, the NNPC, now rebranded as NNPCL, rejected the offer due to its inability to operate the refineries effectively. Advertisement READ ALSO: Were Going Through Hardship, But Dont Lose Hope Obasanjo Urges Nigerians Obasanjo, in a chat with Channels Television stated, Aliko got a team together and they paid $750m to take part in PPP in running the refineries. My successor refunded their money and I went to my successor and told him what transpired. He said NNPC said they wanted the refineries and they can run it. I now said but you know they cannot run it. He further noted that since the rejection, more than $2 billion has been spent on the refineries, yet they remain non-functional. But I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2 billion have been squandered on the refinery, and they still will not work, Obasanjo added. President Bola Tinubu has reaffirmed his administrations commitment to prioritizing the needs of Nigerians and the countrys national interest. According to the President, he and Vice President Kashim Shettima believe that the governments policies have put Nigeria on a positive growth trajectory. Advertisement During a New Years Day meeting at his Ikoyi residence in Lagos, Tinubu commended Shettima for his services to the nation. The President emphasized that his government is dedicated to implementing sustainable policies that will benefit all Nigerians, both now and in the future. READ ALSO: New Year Message: Tinubu Seeks Nigerians Support Amid Economic Hardship Tinubu stated in a series of posts via X on Wednesday, This administration remains committed to prioritizing the needs of Nigerians and our nations interests as we work towards strategically implementing sustainable policies that will endure over time and benefit all Nigerians, now and for generations yet unborn. He also expressed gratitude to Nigerians for their support, saying, We both believe in the positive trajectory of our country and sincerely appreciate the support of all Nigerians as we join hands and work together in making Nigeria the great nation it has the potential to be. China cuts import tariffs to expand domestic demand Global Times) 09:36, January 02, 2025 The "Xin Shanghai," a vessel operated by China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, is berthed at Yangshan Port, east China's Shanghai, Dec. 18, 2024. The "Xin Shanghai" arrived in Shanghai's Yangshan Port on Wednesday afternoon after a 23-day journey from Peru's Chancay Port, marking the first official voyage between the two ports. The journey opened the first two-way operational sea link between Shanghai and Chancay Port, a newly inaugurated flagship project of Belt and Road cooperation between China and Peru. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe) China began implementing import tariff cuts on Wednesday, as the world's second-largest economy continues to push forward to advance high-quality development and high-standard opening up in the new year. As part of an annual tariff adjustment plan, provisional import tariffs - lower than the most-favored-nation rates - will be applied to 935 commodities including certain chemicals, pharmaceuticals, equipment, and parts. Also, according to the China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that took effect on Wednesday, the vast majority of the Maldives' aquatic exports to China will also enjoy zero tariffs. The high-standard opening up by China, the major trading partner for over 150 countries and regions, will bring fresh opportunities to the rest of the world, especially developing countries, Tian Yun, an economist based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday. High-quality development The plan to impose lower tariffs on 935 commodities "will help increase the imports of quality products," according to a statement from the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council on Saturday, noting that the tariff reduction aligns with the need to foster new quality productive forces through scientific and technological innovation, enhance people's well-being, and promote green and low-carbon development. Under 24 free trade and preferential trade arrangements, conventional tariff rates will be applied to certain products from 34 countries or regions in 2025 as part of China's efforts to expand its globally oriented network of high-standard free trade areas, the commission said. Previously, the number of free trade and preferential trade measures was 20, and the number of countries covered by these trade facilitation measures was 30. In addition, China will continue to offer zero-tariff treatment on 100 percent of tariff lines in 2025 to the 43 least developed countries with which it has diplomatic relations in a bid to support their development and foster mutual benefits. Tian Yun, an economist based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday the new move is in line with the deployment of the recent Central Economic Work Conference, which vowed to vigorously boost consumption and expand domestic demand on all fronts and further stressed efforts to promote high-standard opening up. "In the new list, tariffs on many items relating to national security and people's livelihoods have been reduced, which will expand the demand for imports and in turn drive up domestic consumption," Tian said. As the world's second-largest importing country, China's steady push to increase its imports will allow more countries in the Global South to share China's development dividend, Tian said, noting that China's stance and commitment to opening-up and free trade will garner more support from the global community amid a projected rise of anti-globalization and trade protectionism in 2025. Growth dividend Mohammad Jan Aminzai, president of Afghanistan-based Khwaja Mohammad Amin Co, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the Chinese government's slashing of import tariffs is a "very great idea" for Afghan traders in China as it allows traders to import more Afghanistan products to China and "this increase of imports in turn generates good working opportunities to Afghan people who get their income from their handicrafts." "We expect 2025 to be the best year ever for our business and also hope it will be more prosperous for both countries," Aminzai said. China's voluntary and unilateral opening-up will allow countries, especially least developed countries to fully develop their comparative economic advantages, improve their balance of payments in international trade, and grow their economies, a Chinese analyst said. Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the targeted, fine-tuning of the import tariff regime is an important grip by the Chinese central government to provide valid support to enterprises and enable them to better participate in the global market. "For instance, the tariff reduction on industrial raw materials such as ethane will allow Chinese companies to better utilize cost-effective resources on the international market, thereby receiving a boost from supportive policies,'' Zhou said. Zhou said the new free trade arrangement such as the new FTA with the Maldives, and the China-Singapore FTA Further Upgrade Protocol that came into effect on Tuesday, will inject more predictability into the market, noting that they're essential steps in building up a resilient market environment with enhanced expectations. Institutional opening-up A set of legal and policy measures, including the country's first energy law, and a new regulation on data security, also took effect in China on Wednesday, as the country continues to push for institutional opening-up. The import tariff cuts came after other moves in the country's ongoing opening-up efforts such as measures in extending visa-free transit stays to 240 hours with more entry points and the granting of license for medical services to China's first wholly foreign-owned, third-grade general hospital in December. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) celebrated its third anniversary of entry into force on Wednesday, with China playing an active part, Xinhua reported. After years of pushing to voluntarily reduce import tariffs, China's average import tariffs have dropped to around 7 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce in 2023. Huo Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that after rounds of reductions in import tariff rates, China's average import duty rates could drop to the range of 6-7 percent in the future, demonstrating the country's resolve to open up wider, with higher standards, to the rest of the world. The plan also raised import tariffs on a number of commodities based on the development trend of domestic industries and supply/demand dynamics. Commodities such as syrup and battery separators were among those that have seen a rise in tariff rates. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) The Sokoto State Police Command arrested 575 suspects for various crimes and recovered 142 items, including weapons, in 2024. The Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Musa, disclosed this on Wednesday in Sokoto. Mr Musa stated that the suspects were involved in culpable homicide, rape, vandalism, drug addiction, theft, fraud, rustling, and robbery. READ MORE: Police Arrest Suspect Linked To Ritual Murder Of Sex Worker In Ogun He revealed that the recovered items included a General Purpose Machine Gun with six rounds of live ammunition, nine AK-47 rifles, three magazines, and 341 rounds of live ammunition. He added, Today, I can confidently say that we have made significant progress in reducing these crimes to the barest minimum. We have implemented innovative strategies to address emerging security challenges, strengthened community partnerships, and enhanced the welfare and training of our officers. These achievements were guided by intelligence-led policing, community engagement, increased visibility, and adherence to police ethics. We also worked in synergy with other security agencies while upholding the rule of law. He praised the state government for its support, including the donation of 34 Toyota Hilux vehicles, to enhance the commands operational efficiency. We also received one Toyota Hilux and five Hunter motorcycles from the Force Headquarters in Abuja. These have been deployed to areas of need, enhancing the commands operational capabilities, Mr Musa said. He reaffirmed the commands commitment to maintaining safety and security in the state. (NAN) An unidentified motorcyclist has left three individuals hospitalised after colliding with them along the Owode-Siun road in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area, Ogun State. The victims were returning from a New Year church service at the time of the incident. According to a traffic update from the Commandant General of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Seni Ogunyemi, PUNCH Metro gathered that the accident occurred at approximately 1:10 am on Wednesday. Advertisement Ogunyemi stated that the motorcyclist, while speeding, lost control and crashed into pedestrians returning from church. READ MORE: Lagos-Badagry Expressway Accident Leaves Three Injured He further stated that three people, two men and one woman, were seriously injured and were taken to Owode-Egba General Hospital. Ogunyemi said, Serious RTA at Ring Road, inbound Owode of Siun-Owode highway on January 1, 2025. The cause of the accident was excessive speed on the path of the Ladles Bike, which led to a loss of control and rammed amid the pedestrians coming from church. Two male adults who were occupants of the motorcycle and a female pedestrian sustained injuries. There was no death recorded. TRACE operatives were on the ground to rescue the victims to the Owode-Egba General Hospital through a Good Samaritan car, while police were contacted for further investigation. The Minister of education, Tunji Alausa, on Tuesday, said that President Bola Tinubu has directed that history should be reintroduced as a subject in Nigerias basic schools. Mr. Tunji, while speaking in an interview on Channels Televisions End-of-Year Special Review show, expressed concern that Nigerias youth are disconnected from its history. READ MORE: New Education Minister Reverses 18-Year Age Limit For Admission Into Higher Institutions Advertisement He said: Let me go to basic education, the curriculum is good. What has been missing in the past is Nigerian history. We now have people of 30 years disconnected from our history. It doesnt happen in any part of the world, the minister said. President Bola Tinubu has mandated that we put that back in our curriculum and that is back. From 2025 our students in primary and secondary schools will have that as part of their studies. INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that history was said to have been removed from Nigerias basic school curriculum in 2007, attracting criticisms for years. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticized President Bola Tinubus New Year message, stating that it offers no hope in sight for Nigerians. According to Debo Ologunagba, PDP spokesperson, the Presidents speech was self-satisfying and failed to address the economic hardship in the country. Ologunagba, in a statement on Wednesday, noted that Tinubus administration is completely disconnected and unconcerned with the challenges faced by Nigerians. Advertisement Nigerians were appalled that despite the prodding by the PDP and well-meaning citizens, President Tinubus New Year speech did not articulate any specific direction for the nation or proffer solutions to the myriad of problems caused by APCs misrule, he said. READ ALSO: Controversial Tax Reform Bill Will Destroy Nigerias Unity Kano Gov Warns Tinubu The PDP spokesperson emphasized that the Presidents speech lacked a clear plan to address unemployment, reduce the price of petroleum products, and revamp the ailing productive sector. If indeed the APC administration has the interest of Nigerians at heart, the New Year address would have made definite pronouncements on the price of fuel, Ologunagba said. Furthermore, Ologunagba stated that Nigerians have lost faith in Tinubus administration and are eagerly waiting for the next round of elections. He urged the President to listen to Nigerians and focus on their welfare and security. The Ogun State Police Command has arrested two security guards for allegedly setting a 44-year-old man, Basiru Aliu, on fire in the Agura Sabo area of Sagamu. This was said in a statement by Omolola Odutola, the Police Public Relations Officer, which was obtained by DAILY POST on Wednesday. The statement revealed that the suspects, Segun Sodiya and Segun Abatan, mistook the victim for a thief while he was assisting his employer in moving his belongings from his previous residence to a new location in Ijokun. Odutola highlighted that the security guards aggressively assaulted the victim and are alleged to have set him on fire. READ MORE: Lagos-Badagry Expressway Accident Leaves Three Injured She stated that Fatai Ifekoya, the victims employer, reported the incident to the command. Odutola said Aliu was reportedly helping his employer, Fatai Ifekoya, move belongings from his former residence to a new site in Ijokun at around 7 a.m. on Monday. While carrying out the task early on Monday, Aliu was said to have been violently attacked by Sodiya and Abatan, security guards employed by one of the residents, Kingsley Nwabueze. The duo allegedly poured a flammable substance on Aliu and set him on fire, believing he was trying to steal the items he was transporting for his employer, she said. Odutola, while confirming that the suspects had been arrested and would face charges of attempted murder, urged locals to report suspicious activities to the police instead of resorting to violence. A woman was arrested after she drove a car into a Cumberland County, N.J., hospital shortly before midnight on New Years Eve, police said. April Love, 38, of New Castle, Del., was charged with assault by a motor vehicle, endangering another person, and criminal mischief after she drove her car through the ambulance bay doors at Inspira Health Center in Bridgeton, nearly hitting a security officer, Bridgeton police said. Advertisement When police arrived at the hospital around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, they found Love at the scene. She had crashed through the ambulance bay entrance and careered approximately 60 feet through a hospital hallway, police said. The security officer sustained a minor injury when he jumped out of the way of the car, a spokesperson for Inspira Health said. Ambulances were diverted until around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, the spokesperson said. The walk-in emergency entrance remained open at the time of the incident, and patient care was not affected, the spokesperson said. Love was arrested without incident and taken to the Cumberland County Jail, where she was being held Thursday. Bill Cosby arrives for sentencing in his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown in 2018. Read more Bill Cosby, the disgraced comedian who has been accused of sexual assault by dozens of women, now has two Manhattan townhouses facing foreclosure Cosby, 87, allegedly defaulted on a mortgage for his 12,000-square-foot Upper East Side house after not making payments since June, according to court records. The complaint, filed in New York County Supreme Court on Saturday, alleges that Cosby and his wife, Camille, owe First Foundation Bank more than $16 million. Advertisement The couple used the six-story property, which they purchased in 1987, as their primary residence, according to Crains New York Business. The building is not occupied by its owners, the complaint says. Earlier in December, CitiMortgage filed a lawsuit against the Cosbys for defaulting on a $4.5 million mortgage for another Upper East Side townhouse. The mortgage-granting entity of financial giant Citibank said in court records that the couple owes $3.68 million of the mortgages principal, plus interest. READ MORE: Bill Cosby defaults on $4.2 million mortgage for Manhattan townhouse The new default is for a large house, and a large loan, 10 blocks south. The overall principal on the loan was $17.5 million after First Foundation refinanced an existing mortgage in 2014, according to court records. The current monthly payment is over $125,000. The bank says in its complaint that the Cosbys stopped making payments in June. In a November letter, an attorney for the bank gave the couple a month to pay the $800,000 owed for those months, including late fees. This was not the first time they defaulted on this mortgage, according to the letter. The couple missed payments in 2023 but paid more than half a million dollars that October to cover back payments. Much to the Lenders chagrin, you managed to keep the loan current for only a few months, but once again there was a failure to pay, wrote Jay Hack, the lawyer who represents the bank. Hack declined to comment for this article. This time, the Cosbys did not pay by the letters mid-December deadline, according to the complaint. The bank is now demanding the $15.3 million that is left on the mortgages principal plus nearly $800,000 in interest and late charges. Andrew Wyatt, a longtime spokesperson for Cosby, declined to comment. Cosby has faced civil and criminal trials on allegations of sexual assault. He has denied all allegations. Cosby settled for $3.4 million a lawsuit brought by a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, in which she accused Americas Dad of drugging and assaulting her in his Cheltenham mansion in 2004. Cosby was criminally charged by the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office in 2015 based on the allegations. A jury found him guilty in 2018, after a trial in which other accusers testified. Cosby was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2021 based on a decade-old promise by a previous Montgomery County district attorney that Cosby would never be charged, leading Cosby to provide incriminating testimony in a civil lawsuit. Cosby sought to take out a $30 million loan against the six-story Upper East Side townhouse in 2017 to pay for his growing legal bills, Page Six reported at the time. He continues to battle civil lawsuits by women who accuse him of sexual assault. A gun and a cell phone is marked as evidence at the 700 block of East Willard Street where a man in his 20s was shot and killed on Dec. 30. Read more Philadelphia in 2024 experienced its largest annual decline in homicides in at least a half-century a stunning reversal after three years of record-setting violence that devastated families and left thousands of men, women, and children struck by bullets. According to police, 268 people were slain in the city last year a 35% reduction compared with the year before, when more than 400 people were killed. Advertisement Just as remarkable, the decline came just three years after the city recorded 562 annual homicides its highest-ever level of violence. The homicide tally in 2024, by contrast, was the fourth-lowest since 1970. Shootings have also plummeted. Police recorded fewer than 1,090 shootings last year, the lowest level in a decade, and on pace to rival the lowest rates since at least 2007. The reasons for the decline are difficult to pinpoint, as was the case when violence began surging in 2020. Interviews with law enforcement officials, community leaders, and academic experts reveal a variety of potential factors for last years historic drop, including a continued return to normal life post-pandemic, an increase in arrests of perpetrators of violent crimes, and the continued expansion of grassroots community programs. Violence has also been waning across the country, with homicides nationally poised to drop by unprecedented levels for the third year in a row. Killings in 2024 declined by about 40% in New Orleans, 30% in Washington, D.C., and 28% in Baltimore, according to AH Datalytics, a research organization that tracks crime rates across the nation. Some observers in Philadelphia believe the citys unrelenting pandemic-era violence which left more than 1,500 people dead in three years may have played a role in last years drop-off. Many feuds between gangs have burned out, some said, in part because potential shooters have been either arrested or killed. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said that the departments data analysts sought to study the theory last year, but that it was very, very challenging, because doing so involved revisiting old cases some of which remain unsolved for potential connections to suspects who are now dead or incarcerated for other crimes. John Roman, who runs a public safety and justice program at the University of Chicagos research organization NORC, said attrition among potential gunmen could be one contributing factor. But he also cited the widespread, post-pandemic return of services that often serve as de facto deterrents to crime, such as in-person schooling, after-school or weekend programs, counseling, probation visits, court services, and more. There isnt one answer here, Roman said. This is complicated, and were going to be figuring this out for a while. READ MORE: What community leaders think led to Phillys drop in shootings, and whats needed to sustain it long-term For the families of last years victims, there is little to celebrate. Every homicide creates a ripple effect, with grief and trauma making it difficult for those left behind to sleep and to work. People who are shot and survive are often forced to navigate new disabilities, long-term pain, and mental health challenges. We get into this mode of Lets celebrate, crime has dropped, said Andre Simms, executive director of DayOneNotDayTwo, a North Philly youth mentorship group. A lot of people died. A lot of people got locked up. Among those killed in 2024: Amber Lewis, 17, shot at a party in North Philadelphia. Kemo Vaughn, 51, and Tahira Wynn, 28, gunned down in their car. Melody Rivera, 29, killed by her ex-boyfriend and buried in a shallow grave, according to police. Kameenah Bronzell, 18, who runs a memorial page for young gun violence victims on Instagram called PhillyAngelsss, has a unique perspective on the issue: Fewer young people have been killed this year, and so fewer families have reached out to her for help. But I still post the ones who are still on the page, for their birthdays, their anniversaries, she said. People are still gone. Focused policing strategies Until 2024, the citys largest single-year drop in homicides was in 2013, when 246 people were killed 25% fewer than the year before, according to an Inquirer analysis of police statistics. In most other years, the number of homicides fluctuated by a few percentage points, without huge year-to-year swings, the analysis shows. Bethel was a deputy commissioner during the last drastic decline and was among a group of law enforcement leaders who at the time credited targeted enforcement with helping identify, monitor, and promise consequences for potential shooters. (That initiative, called Focused Deterrence, was criticized by some for being too heavy-handed, and it ultimately fizzled out amid city leadership changes.) Now, as the citys top cop, Bethel said investigators and patrol officers were again focusing their attention on areas of the city that have traditionally experienced high levels of violence including Kensington, North Philadelphia, and parts of West Philadelphia. Shootings in many of those neighborhoods have dropped to levels not seen in decades. While Bethel said police would remain targeted in their approach, he acknowledged that some of the recent decline in violence which began in 2022 before accelerating last year might simply be an unexplainable retreat to more typical trends after a prolonged, sustained crisis period. If you look at the last 20, 30 years here 560-plus homicides, thats a lot, Bethel said. And so you knew something had to change. Beyond homicides and shootings, robberies with a gun were also down by more than a third in 2024, police statistics show. Residential and commercial burglaries declined, and rapes were down by about 1%. Meanwhile, arrests in violent crimes, including for homicides and nonfatal shootings, increased, and although officers made more vehicle and pedestrian stops, they recovered fewer guns, according to police data. This is a generational fight Beyond policing, the citys tools to address violence have expanded compared with a decade ago. And some observers credit additional programming including the funding of grassroots organizations with contributing to the recent drop. Kendra Van de Water, cofounder of YEAH Philly, a West Philly-based violence-reduction program for young people in the criminal justice system, has seen job and housing opportunities expand in the last two years. She said the citys approach to reaching young people hasnt really changed, but the work of community-based organizations has become more widespread. A lot of young people are involved in more productive things. They have their needs met, they see more opportunity, she said. Theyre sick of being in and out of placement and jail. Teenagers continue to make up a growing portion of the citys shooting victims. Last year, 12.5% of shooting victims were under 18 up from 9% last year and nearly double the proportion from 10 years ago. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said city support for community-based organizations which began under her predecessor, Jim Kenney, and which she supported while on City Council is at the foundation of her administrations effort to reduce crime. Still, funding for those programs is not permanent and some organizers say its difficult to plan for the future without knowing what the city might choose to fund each year. Others note that long-standing contributors to violence including the citys high poverty levels, concentrated unemployment, underfunded schools, and thriving drug markets remain largely unchanged. This is a generational fight, said Simms, of DayOneNotDayTwo. We really got to attack the root causes. Roman, the public policy expert, agreed, saying the goal for leaders across the country should be to continue working to address violence by getting more resources into places that dont have enough. As long as the risks that cause violence remain in place, theres going to be a short-term reduction in shootings, but long-term, the prospects are no better than they were before, he said. Its all about the underlying risk factors and creating communities where people have opportunities, and thats been missing in some Philadelphia neighborhoods for decades. Staff writer Dylan Purcell and news researcher Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel talks about his first year on the job and the significant drop in gun violence across the city on Dec. 18, 2024. Read more Starting on Monday, Philadelphia police will stop arresting kids who are accused of first-time, low-level offenses, and instead will send them to a police diversion program that aims to address misbehavior without drawing youth into the juvenile justice system. The offenses including disorderly conduct, shoplifting, vandalism, and assaults without significant injuries, plus some more serious charges involving children under 13 are ones that almost certainly would have been funneled into diversion programs later in the court process. Advertisement Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said his hope is to spare children the trauma of being arrested, handcuffed, and booked, while creating alternative mechanisms to address the root causes of their behaviors. Youth who are arrested, he said, will still be processed through central intake at Philadelphias Juvenile Assessment Center, known as the JAC, a facility he previously had said would close. He views it as a natural follow-up to the diversion program he launched a decade ago as the safety chief for the School District of Philadelphia, which once saw more than 1,500 student arrests a year. One of the things I learned in the school diversion program is that I have the power, policing has the power, to make a different decision, he said. Back then, Bethel had been startled to learn that three-quarters of students arrested in schools ended up in diversion programs. Why didnt anyone tell me? he recalled thinking. We could have avoided putting a 10-year-old child in a cellblock for six hours because she came to school with Mace that her mother gave her to protect herself. That diversion program cut in-school arrests by more than 90%, referring many youth instead to Intensive Prevention Services, a series of after-school programs funded by the city Department of Human Services. The Philadelphia police youth diversion program is similar in some ways, but it will start small, with fewer than a dozen trained youth officer specialists, and with a relatively narrow set of qualifying charges. Those charges are separated into three tiers: When police stop kids for the lowest-level offenses, such as disorderly conduct or public drunkenness, officers will be instructed to release them immediately but refer them to a mandatory one-day restorative program. More serious offenses trespassing, vandalism, or thefts (excluding stolen cars) will trigger that same referral, but officers will also drive teens home or to one of the citys Evening Reporting Centers for additional services. The most serious eligible cases involve kids ages 10 to 12 who are arrested for car theft, arson, burglary, or drug possession, or those ages 10 to 17 who are charged with simple assault. They will be arrested and brought to the JAC. From there, a dedicated youth officer specialist will refer the youth to Intensive Prevention Services and conduct follow-up home visits, Bethel said. He thinks officers may uncover issues, such as food insecurity, that they can help find resources to address. A 10-year-old child in a stolen car theres a problem, right? And in lieu of just trying to move that child into the criminal justice system, we want to take an opportunity to see if we can get to the root issue. Bethel had previously said shuttering the JAC was necessary to free up staff for his citywide diversion plan. That alarmed defense lawyers and youth advocates who had fought for years to open the center in late 2023 as an alternative to processing minors through ordinary police booking facilities, where kids were frequently detained for lengthy stretches in violation of state law. The program rolls out at a moment when many police leaders and politicians elsewhere are moving in the opposite direction, calling for tougher responses to youth crime. Serious crime by minors and adults alike has declined in the last decade in Pennsylvania, though a post-pandemic spike in gun violence by and against children has left many with a sense of spiraling crime rates. A shift in culture Mayors in New Jersey, police brass in New York City, and prosecutors in Maryland have pushed for harsher penalties or for the prosecution of younger children, citing recent incidents of gun violence by teens. Bethel said that the egregious incidents making headlines represent a very, very small percentage of cases. The Philadelphia District Attorneys Office already diverts about 20% of juvenile cases and reports rearrest rates that are far lower than for the juvenile justice system overall. District Attorney Larry Krasner said moving cases through that process more quickly, without processing kids in police lockups, makes sense. This is about having a Philadelphia that is safer and that is freer, and an absolute key to that has to be in our efforts to rehabilitate juveniles when they get into trouble, he said. But, he said, its too soon to say how his office might adapt its own diversion programs as low-level cases are removed from the system. Defense lawyers and youth advocates also welcomed Bethels push to keep kids out of the system but said police-led diversion would require a significant cultural shift, particularly if officers are to be welcomed into peoples homes. They dont have a good history dealing with young people and Black people in general, said Reuben Jones, whose organization, Frontline Dads, works with justice-involved youth. Nicole El, chief of the children and youth justice unit at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, said past efforts at police diversion resulted in racial and geographic disparities. How is it going to work logistically? she said. We see a lot of overcharging, so Im concerned about giving officers a lot of discretion to look at a case and decide, Is this a simple assault or an aggravated assault? In Jones view, to make a real impact, diversion programs need to expand. The cars and the gun charges are the two areas the kids need the most help with, Jones said. In 2024, minors in Pennsylvania accounted for 12% of arrests for serious crimes reported to the states Uniform Crime Reporting System but half of arrests for car thefts. The District Attorneys Office has directed dozens of kids accused of car theft to diversion programs, but others are sentenced to state institutions. Bethel said the program and the list of eligible charges will evolve. The culture shift is a work in progress. He said he passes out index cards during trainings, telling officers to write down something theyd gotten away with as teens that they could have been arrested for. Invariably, they write something down, he said. Weve all done some stupid adolescent things. After years of seeing immigrants risk even their childrens lives to enter this country, it is clear no matter how difficult the journey is, they will not be deterred, writes the Editorial Board. Read more Migrants arent the only ones dying more than 5,000 in the last decade because politics has replaced common sense as a way to solve the human crisis occurring daily at the U.S. border with Mexico. Seventeen of the more than 10,000 Texas National Guardsmen unnecessarily deployed at the border since March 2021 have died from various causes, including seven suicides, two accidental shootings, two motor vehicle accidents, and the drowning of a guardsman who tried to save migrants attempting to cross the Rio Grande. Advertisement Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has blamed the guardsmens deaths on the Biden-Harris administrations dangerous open border policies. But hes the one who ordered the guardsmen to the border as part of his Operation Lone Star deployment that has cost Texas taxpayers more than $11 billion since it began nearly four years ago. Some of that money was spent to stretch razor wire across porous sections of the border. Some was spent to bus migrants many of them asylum-seekers to northern cities like Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. Abbotts troop deployments have increased interactions with migrants, but have had no clearly discernible impact on decreased border crossings. READ MORE: Philadelphia to Abbott: Immigrants welcome here | Editorial Federal authorities apprehended 32% fewer people crossing the border without authorization in June, but that was after President Joe Biden issued an executive order that stopped most grants of asylum to migrants. Also playing a role was Mexicos improved efforts in the past year to apprehend and detain migrants before they reach the border. The guardsmens deaths are hard to accept when one considers the futility of their mission. After years of seeing immigrants risk even their childrens lives to enter this country, it is clear no matter how difficult the journey is, they will not be deterred. Many migrants have relatives and friends who have lived in this country for years without proper documentation, yet are able to work and send money back home. Its understandable that they believe all they need to do is get here. Blame that on the other broken part of Americas immigration system the part that is supposed to stop employers from exploiting undocumented migrants by paying them low wages to toil in unhealthy conditions that they dare not complain about in fear of being deported. Since 1996, the federal government has maintained a database that employers may use to verify the legal status of job applicants. But mandating use of the E-Verify system has been left to the states, and most have done a poor job. Thats mainly by choice. Manufacturers and farm businesses that depend on cheap labor have successfully lobbied politicians to limit the systems use. Meanwhile, when federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials do get tough with companies hiring undocumented immigrants, it is the workers rather than their supposedly unwitting employers who typically bear the brunt of any punishment. Local residents still havent gotten over a raid of seven poultry plants near Morton, Miss., five years ago that led to nearly 700 friends, neighbors, and relatives being deported. READ MORE: On immigration, Donald Trump offers only division and disaster | Editorial Much worse can be expected if President-elect Donald Trump fulfills a campaign promise to begin mass deportations of anyone without proper authorization to live in the United States. The prohibitive cost of such a project, estimated at from $86 billion to $315 billion a year, may limit what ICE can do, given its current $230 million budget shortfall, but Trump typically does just enough to claim he kept a promise. Being left out of the conversation is the need to impose higher sanctions not just on employers but other sections of American society that find profit in taking advantage of the undocumented status of migrants. That includes the landlords of substandard housing who rent to people who again dare not complain to public agencies about poor plumbing or no heat in winter months because they dont want to call attention to themselves. Migrants belief that even those aspects of America are preferable to what they left behind is why many wont willingly go back. Most are good members of their new communities. Theyre not taking anyone elses jobs. Many are doing work their employers argue otherwise would not get done. And undocumented workers do pay taxes $35 billion in 2022, according to the latest census data. Twenty years ago, Congress worked on a commonsense path to citizenship that included fines for breaking immigration laws for those who deserve to remain in this country, but politics got in the way. Isnt it time this nation renewed that conversation? Zillow reported the most popular and most unusual home-search terms on its platforms in 2024, from ranch-style homes and garages, to roller coasters and a party barn. Read more Homebuyers looked for the usual and the out-there from homes with garages to ones with spooky vibes as they searched for properties on Zillow in 2024. The company analyzed what people across the country looked for on its platforms last year when they used Zillows AI-powered natural language search feature. The feature allows homebuyers to use everyday language instead of preset filters to search for properties. Advertisement Folks looking on Zillow searched most often for ranch-style homes, seeking their single-story convenience. Searches for lakes, duplexes, cabins, and farms rounded out the top-five searches nationally last year. READ MORE: 2023s top Zillow search terms in Philadelphia Searches for acreage and garages also were popular. Garages were one of the most-sought property features in 46 states. In Pennsylvania, the five most-searched terms were patio, garage, ranch, pool, and loft. Pool was among the top-three search terms in 38 states. Unsurprisingly, searches for pools topped lists in places such as Florida, California, and Texas. Unique searches A few folks were on the hunt for unusual home features in 2024, Zillow found. Pennsylvania was one of the 22 states in which at least one person looked for a haunted property. One Pennsylvania shopper searched for a home with a pony farm. A homebuyer in Colorado searched for a roller coaster. One in Michigan wanted a home with laser tag. And someone in Texas wanted a bowling alley. One Zillow user searched across the country for a party barn. Lifestyle-specific searches Varying searches based on location showed that home shoppers in certain parts of the country were looking for specific lifestyles. Shoppers in Pennsylvania, New York, and Georgia were looking to live in urban areas. Popular search terms in these places included downtown, loft, and high rise. Homebuyers in New Jersey, California, Texas, and Nevada searched for mansions, properties described as luxury, or ones that touted views. Popular search terms in Michigan, Hawaii, Idaho, North Carolina, and Alaska included lake, cabin, and beachfront. Searches for homes characterized as pet-friendly were popular in Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, and Colorado. The tragic reality and far-reaching impacts of extreme weather was evident in every conversation I had that day, whether it was with customers or people who didnt have insurance at all. Sure, one way or another, physical assets can be restored, but the lives of those who live through such horrific events will never be the same, he said. Californias insurance market is heating up both literally and figuratively thanks to an escalating wave of natural disasters that are reshaping the industry. The Franklin Fire, a roaring blaze devouring thousands of acres in Southern California, has thrust the states luxury properties into the spotlight. Among them is Beyonce and Jay-Zs $200 million Malibu mansion, perched in the high-risk Paradise Cove area. Despite its record-breaking value and opulent features think a 30,000-square-foot expanse with oceanfront views and an infinity pool the property now teeters on the brink of devastation. The U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget is a peculiar entity. The committee was established in 1974 in response to President Richard Nixon impounding money allocated by Congress to prevent spending on programs he did not favor. This led to a constitutional crisis, as the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. Congress responded by creating the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act along with the Senate Budget Committee. The committee is officially responsible for drafting budget plans for Congress and for monitoring and enforcing rules surrounding spending, revenue, and the federal budget. During its two years in the 118th Congress (2023-2024), the committee strayed from this mission. It held 43 hearings, only a handful of which focused on the nations budget. Twenty-four of them dealt with climate changes impact on the economy. Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) pointed out in an April 2024 letter that Majority Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) used the committee to conduct an alarmist catastrophizing crusade, abetted by unqualified expert witness testimony. Grassley was responding to a March 2024 letter from Whitehouse to committee Republicans, in which he complained about their complaining. Grassley also indicated in his letter that other committees, such as the Environment and Public Works and Finance committees, have primary jurisdiction over climate change policy. With Republicans taking charge of the Senate on Jan. 3, 2025, a Republican senator will replace Whitehouse as chairman, likely steering the committee in a new direction. Looking back at its hearings in the 118th Congress and ahead to those in the 119th, we humbly offer some suggestions and comments to help the Senate Budget Committee deliver value. After all, there is much to be done to address our countrys $1.8 trillion deficit and $33 trillion debt mountain. Restore focus on the foundational mandate. In 2023-2024, few Budget Committee hearings actually focused on the budget. In addition to the 24 focused on climate change, others dwelled on unrelated topics like reproductive freedom, immigration, and income inequality. Give the other side a chance. There is an ignoble tradition in congressional hearings for the majority to release its testimony just before the hearing. This nasty trick deprives the minority of sufficient time to read and digest what the majority is proposing. The committees Dec. 18 hearing took this abuse to extremes. Two voluminous reports accompanied the hearing: the 36-page Uncovering the Economic Costs of Climate Change report and the 84-page Next to Fall: The Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis Is Hereand Getting Worse Highly technical and rich with data, both reports were released mere hours before the hearing, giving the minority precious little time to get acquainted with their contents. It is hard to deliver a book report on a book you have not had the chance to read. Stop cherry-picking data. The committee has a history of cherry-picking sources and data. For example, it has used arguments and data in reports prepared by Insure Our Future, a broad-based organization whose partners focus on ideology rather than science. One such partner is the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, which describes itself as dedicated to involving the residents of Connecticut in altering the relations of power in order to bring about a more just society. Consult more relevant data. The Dec. 18, 2024 hearing was supposed to focus on the insurance policy non-renewal data requested from insurers on Nov. 2, 2013. It was not clear whether non-renewals included consumer-driven policy shopping, in which case the non-renewal data do not accurately reflect insurer behavior. A more informative analysis would have simply looked at insurer loss and combined ratios by state and smaller subdivisions. The committees premise that non-renewals are leading indicators of climate change-driven insurer exits is therefore faulty, as are conclusions relying on such data. Ease up on hyperbole. The Budget Committee has been the source of unwarranted alarmist rhetoric, declaring the insurance industry on the verge of collapse and in climate change-driven crisis. The committee reported that climate change poses new systemic risks to the U.S. economy; systemic risks that can cascade beyond immediately-affected sectors and inflict widespread economic damage. The primary risks are collapse in the insurance sector impacting mortgage and property markets. The argument is as follows: Climate change is stoking property losses, which drives up insurance premiums and leads insurers to cease providing insurance. Homeowners are abandoning their homes as a result, thereby catalyzing the loss of home values, precipitating a housing crisis, stimulating a massive systemic financial crisis, and crippling our economyespecially if carbon emissions are not immediately brought under control. Report the good news. The committee commented that insurance availability and affordability are especially acute issues in Florida and California. What their analysis failed to report is that these are special cases. Floridas insurance-related woes stem from rampant unmerited litigation, while Californias issues stem from insurance regulation that effectively straitjacketed insurers from pricing policies with risk-adjusted rates. However, the situation in both states has improved. Tort reform measures passed in Florida in 2023 are helping stabilize the insurance market, and California insurance regulators are starting to allow insurers to factor climate trends and reinsurance cost into their pricing. Trim wasteful government programs. The committee missed the opportunity to comment on two climate change-related areas that do impact the budget: government spending on flood losses and massive subsidies awarded to crop insurance buyers. Currently, the governments flood insurance program is $20.5 billion in debt. The federal crop insurance program subsidizes two-thirds of the cost farmers pay for insurance. As a result, flood insurance and crop insurance are sources of enormous disaster payments. The budget could benefit from either slashing these wasteful programs or introducing free-market principles. (Are you listening, Elon and Vivek?) Promote resilient building. The best protection against losses due to natural catastrophes, including those amplified by climate change, is resilient building. Building hardened homes, following building codes, and refraining from building in harms way can all decrease the need for federal disaster relief. Examples of successful programs in action include Strengthen Alabama Homes, whose homes with fortified roofs sell for 7 percent more than those without. Forest resilience bonds effectively introduce private capital to help contain wildfire risk in California. Tell the truth about insurers financial condition. Whereas the Budget Committee maintains insurers are failing and home prices in Florida are tanking, the facts say otherwise. Median Florida home prices have been stable in the past two years, at approximately $400,000 (up from $250,000 in 2020). In this same period, property and casualty insurance industry surplus has risen from $929 billion to $1.13 trillion with a combined ratio of 97.8 percent through Q3 2024the healthiest financial result in the past five years. The Senate Budget Committee has a critical remit. Fingers crossed it comes out of the starting blocks in the 119th Congress with constructive work to bring down our nations crippling debt and deficit. And if it doesnt, you can rely on R Street to egg it on. Topics USA Politics A federal judge in Connecticut refused to dismiss a long-running lawsuit accusing the former Nestle Waters North America of defrauding consumers by labeling its Poland Spring bottled water as spring water. While rejecting some claims in the proposed class action, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer in New Haven called it an open question whether Poland Spring qualified as spring water under the laws of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Poland Spring is now owned by Tampa, Florida-based Primo Brands PRMB.N, following multiple corporate transactions. Consumers sued Nestle Waters, then owned by Nestle NESN.S, in 2017, saying it deceived them into overpaying for Poland Spring with labels declaring it to be Natural Spring Water or 100% Natural Spring Water. The plaintiffs said not one drop of the 1 billion gallons sold annually in the United States came from a natural spring, and that the actual Poland Spring in Maine ran dry two decades before Nestle bought the brand in 1992. In seeking a dismissal, Nestle Waters said geologists and officials in the eight states agreed that Poland Spring complied with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule defining spring water, and each state authorized its sale as spring water. But the judge cited a former Syracuse University earth sciences professor hired by the plaintiffs, who said Nestle Waters appeared to use man-made springs and extracted pond water and other surface water instead of true spring water. Meyer agreed with Nestle Waters that the plaintiffs lacked standing to demand new labels, because they now knew the alleged truth about Poland Spring and could buy other brands of water. In a statement, Primo said it was confident the Maine springs that source Poland Spring comply with the FDA rule. Poland Spring brand bottled water is 100% spring water, the company said. We remain confident in our position and look forward to successfully defending against the remaining claims. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nestle Waters had been Nestles North American bottled water business. Nestle sold it in 2021 to two private equity firms, which renamed it BlueTriton. That company merged in November with the former Primo Water to form Primo Brands. The case is Patane v. Nestle Waters North America Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 17-01381. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Aurora Ellis) Topics Lawsuits Legislation The owner of an oil tanker seized by Finland on suspicion of breaking an undersea power line and four telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea last week is seeking the release of the ship, a lawyer representing the company said on Monday [Dec. 30]. Finnish police and coast guard officials boarded the Cook Islands-registered Eagle S on Thursday [Dec. 26] and brought it to a location near a Finnish port where crew members are being questioned. Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO said on Friday it would boost its presence in the region. Finland Finds Anchor Drag Marks Left by Tanker That Broke Cables Investigators said they believed the Eagle S on Dec. 25 broke the Estlink 2 undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia, and severed or damaged four fiber optic lines by dragging its anchor across the seabed for dozens of kilometers. Finlands president last week said he believed further damage would have occurred on the seabed had the ship not been stopped. Finlands customs service has said it believes the Eagle S is part of a shadow fleet of aging tankers being used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, and has formally impounded its cargo although it is still on board the ship. The owner of the Eagle S, United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, filed a request with the Helsinki District Court on Monday to cancel the seizure of the ship. Finnish lawyer Herman Ljungberg, who filed the documents on behalf of the company, said authorities had not provided any explanation of the legal basis for taking the vessel into custody and boarding it. The Finns have hijacked a vessel, Ljungberg told Reuters. He said the crew had been interrogated by investigators without any legal assistance and that they had been deprived of sleep. A police spokesperson said the seizure of the vessel had taken place according to Finnish law and that crew members had been informed of their rights, including that of legal assistance. They had not been deprived of sleep, the spokesperson added. (Reporting by Essi Lehto in Helsinki, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Andrew Heavens) Photograph: Finnish Coast Guard stopped a small boat which tried to reach the Cook Islands-registered oil tanker Eagle S anchored near the Kilpilahti port in Porvoo, on the Gulf of Finland, Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via AP) South Korean police said on Thursday they had raided Jeju Air and the operator of Muan International Airport as part of their investigation into Sundays crash that killed 179 people in the worst aviation disaster on the countrys soil. Jeju Air 7C2216, which departed the Thai capital of Bangkok for Muan in southwestern South Korea, belly-landed and overshot the regional airports runway, exploding into flames after hitting an embankment. Two crew members, who were sitting in the tail end of the Boeing 737-800, were pulled out alive by rescuers. One of them was still in a critical condition and the other was being treated for injuries, a transport ministry official said. Korea Probes Airport Design as Crash Investigation Turns to Wall The conversion of data from the cockpit voice recorder to audio files, which could provide critical information on the final minutes of the flight, was completed on Thursday, Joo Jong-wan, the deputy transport minister for civil aviation, told a media briefing. Police investigators were searching the offices of the airport operator and the transportation ministry aviation authority in the southwestern county of Muan, as well as the office of Jeju Air in Seoul, the South Jeolla provincial police said in a media statement. Investigators planned to seize documents and materials related to the operation and maintenance of the aircraft as well as the operation of airport facilities, a police official told Reuters. The official also said police had banned Jeju Air chief executive Kim E-bae and another unidentified official from leaving the country, calling them key witnesses potentially facing charges of causing deaths by negligence, which is punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won ($13,600). Jeju Air was cooperating with the police, a director at the airline, Song Kyeong-hoon, told a media briefing. Questions by air safety experts on what led to the deadly explosion have focused on the embankment, designed to prop up the localizer antenna used to guide landings, which they said is too rigid and too close to the end of the runway. This rigid structure proved catastrophic when the skidding aircraft made impact, said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California, adding it was concerning that the navigation antenna was mounted on such a formidable concrete structure, rather than the standard metal tower/pylon installation. Joo said the ministry was still unable to provide clear details on Muan airports upgrade plans that had led to the addition of the structure to support the navigation system. The ministry is conducting a check on localizer equipment at airports throughout the country, Joo said. A probe into the doomed flight is also under way involving South Korean officials and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aircrafts maker, Boeing. It remains unanswered why the aircraft did not deploy its landing gear and what led the pilot to apparently rush into a second attempt at landing after telling air traffic control the plane had suffered a bird strike and declaring an emergency. The aircrafts flight data recorder, which sustained some damage, is being taken to the United States for analysis in cooperation with the NTSB. Joo said on Wednesday it may be difficult to release the audio files from the cockpit voice recorder to the public as they will be critical to the ongoing investigation. Investigators from the NTSB, FAA and Boeing are in South Korea to help the probe. South Koreas acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a disaster management meeting that immediate action must be taken if a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated in the country finds any issues. As theres great public concern about the same aircraft model involved in the accident, the transport ministry and relevant organizations must conduct a thorough inspection of operation, maintenance, education, and training, Choi said. His comments at the start of the meeting were provided by his office. Choi asked that no effort be spared in helping the families of the victims as the remains of those killed are handed over to them. He also asked the police to take action against anyone posting malicious messages and fake news on social media related to the disaster. ($1 = 1,467.2400 won) (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin, Hyonhee Shin and Jihoon Lee in Seoul and Hyunsu Yim in Sejong, writing by Jack Kim; editing by Kim Coghill, Sonali Paul and Mark Potter) Related: Topics Aviation Law Enforcement The worlds biggest climate coalition for financial firms is making adjustments after several high-profile banks, insurers and asset managers opted out. The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which was established in 2021 and operates as an umbrella group for numerous industry-specific climate alliances, will change its relationship with those sub groups, according to a person familiar with the decision who declined to be identified. In practice, it means companies will be able to draw on GFANZ for guidance and assistance, but wont need to align their operations with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the person said. The move comes after net zero alliances lost a number of key members against a backdrop of political backlash and regulatory overlap. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. both quit the Net-Zero Banking Alliance [in December]. Last year, a sub group for insurers was hit by a mass exodus amid litigation threats. And in 2022, an equivalent group for asset managers parted ways with Vanguard Group Inc., the worlds second-largest money manager. Read more: Global Insurers Climate Alliance Relaunches After Member Exodus GFANZ was formed more than 3 1/2 years ago in the run-up to the COP26 United Nations climate conference in Scotland. Back then, it had two aims: to raise the number of financial institutions committing to net zero, and to facilitate industry discussion on the challenges of the low-carbon transition. Going forward, GFANZ will allow any financial institution working to mobilize capital and lower the barriers to financing energy transition to participate, according to a statement from the group. Without private finance, there can be no global energy transition, GFANZ said. For that reason, in 2025 and beyond, GFANZ will redouble its efforts to mobilize private capital. Under GFANZs new structure, companies that arent members of a net zero group will be free to work with the alliance, the person familiar said. The change also may make it easier for companies based in emerging economies that havent set 2050 net zero goals to seek some form of GFANZ affiliation. While GFANZ has grown in prominence it now has more than 700 members it also has become a target of US Republicans who accuse such alliances of functioning as anti fossil-fuel cartels. Such accusations have coincided with an increase in investigations and lawsuits targeting firms perceived to be embracing a pro-climate agenda. With President-elect Donald Trump due to return to the White House in January, the pressure on climate groups is expected to intensify. In addition to bringing together eight sector-specific alliances spanning asset owners to venture capital, GFANZ has been a key actor in efforts to finance the early retirement of coal assets in Asia. Whats more, its provided guidance and insights on topics such as transition planning and portfolio alignment. (GFANZ is co-chaired by Mark Carney, who is chair of Bloomberg Inc. and a former Bank of England governor, and Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.) Photograph: A worker stands in view of The Shard in the 22 Bishopsgate building in the City of London, UK on Monday, April 26, 2021. Photo credit: Jason Alden/Bloomberg Related: Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. Topics Carriers BTW Solutions bills itself as a drug wholesaler and billing service and as a way for physicians to maximize profits on workers compensation and personal-injury-protection patients through the use of topical creams and durable medical equipment. The Benton, Arkansas-based company even produced a brochure that said doctors could add more than $100,000 in annual revenue if just five patients per week were prescribed certain pain creams. Federal prosecutors said it was all part of an illegal scheme that sold physicians drugs at cost then billed the federal Office of Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) at as much as 12 times that cost. BTW would often split the profits with the doctors, according to court records and federal officials. This week, BTW Solutions agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a civil suit that started more than seven years ago with a whistleblower who worked for BTW. This settlement allows the OWCP to recover medical bill payments under the Federal Employees Compensation Act and return these funds to the Employees Compensation Fund, said OWCP Director Christopher Godfrey. It all began in 2015, when Elizabeth Young, now a Florida resident, worked for BTW as an outside sales agent, selling products and services to doctors in Georgia, according to complaints filed in the case. Young knew the business, court documents indicate: She had more than 25 years of experience in the field, managing sales of drugs, creams and medical equipment to doctors offices. After leaving BTW, Young filed a qui tam suit in 2017, alleging that BTW, along with a compounding company and 10 physicians had for years violated anti-kickback statutes and the federal False Claims Act, cheating the federal workers comp program of significant funds. In 2023, the U.S. government intervened in the suit. After initial concerns were raised by some Georgia doctors, BTW reportedly said not to worry, according to court documents. The firms general counsel told them that BTW Does not bill Medicare or Medicaid, and thus does not fall under the STARK Act For this same reason, The Federal Anti-Kickback statutes (AKS) do not apply to the Business Model of BTW This advice was and is wrong, prosecutors wrote in the federal complaint. The AKS applies to all federal health care programs, including OWCP, and BTW knew as much. After months of court filings and negotiations, BTW agreed to settle. The Anti-Kickback Statute protects medical decision-making from being corrupted by improper financial considerations, said Peter Leary, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. I am proud of our offices efforts litigating this unique and difficult case involving an often-overlooked program designed to provide needed healthcare to injured federal workers. The settlement does not include an admission of guilt by BTW, the U.S. Attorney said. Its unclear what fate awaits the accused physicians and the compounding company named in the suit. It also was not included in the prosecutors news release or court records about the share of the settlement that will go to Young, the whistleblower. Most qui tam actions allow the plaintiff to recover 15% to 25% of the award or settlement, according to news reports. Youngs attorneys could not be reached for comment over the holiday period. BTW representatives also could not be reached, but the firms answer to the federal complaint can be seen here. Topics Lawsuits Workers' Compensation State Compensation Insurance Fund in California announced that it will declare a $149 million dividend to qualifying policyholders with policies that took effect between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024. This dividend equals roughly 15% of the estimated annual premium reported during that period. In 2024, State Fund reported roughly $993 million in estimated annual premium and netted $572 million in investment income. State Fund policyholders eligible for the 2024 dividend will begin to receive payments after the expiration date of their individual policies. State Fund, Californias provider of workers compensation insurance, has declared more than $630 million in dividends over the past six years. The not-for-profit is funded by premiums and investment income. Topics California (THE CONVERSATION) On Dec. 30, 2021, a wind-driven wildfire raced through two communities just outside Boulder, Colorado. In the span of about eight hours, more than 1,000 homes and businesses burned. The fire left entire blocks in ash, but among them, pockets of houses survived, seemingly untouched. The owners of these homes may have felt relief at first. But fire damage can be deceiving, as many soon discovered. When wildfires like the Marshall Fire reach the wildland-urban interface, they are burning both vegetation and human-made materials. Vehicles and buildings burn, along with all of the things inside them electronics, paint, plastics, furniture. Research shows that when human-made materials like these burn, the chemicals released are different from what is emitted when just vegetation burns. The smoke and ash can blow under doors and around windows in nearby homes, bringing in chemicals that stick to walls and other indoor surfaces and continue off-gassing for weeks to months, particularly in warmer temperatures. In a new study released three years after the Marshall Fire, my colleagues and I looked at the health effects people experienced when they returned to still-standing homes. We also created a checklist for people to use after urban wildfires in the future to help them protect their health and reduce their risks when they return to smoke-damaged homes. Tests In Homes Found Elevated Metals And Vocs In the days after the Marshall Fire, residents quickly reached out to nearby scientists who study wildfire smoke and health risks at the University of Colorado Boulder and area labs. People wanted to know what was in the ash and causing the lingering smells inside their homes. In homes we were able to test, my colleagues found elevated levels of metals and PAHs polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the ash. We also found elevated VOCs volatile organic compounds in airborne samples. Some VOCs, such as dioxins, benzene, formaldehyde and PAHs, can be toxic to humans. Benzene is a known carcinogen. People wanted to know whether the chemicals that got into their homes that day could harm their health. At the time, we could find no information about physical health implications for people who have returned to smoke-damaged homes after a wildfire. To look for patterns, we surveyed residents affected by the fire six months, one year and two years afterward. Symptoms 6 Months After The Fire Even six months after the fire, we found that many people were reporting symptoms that aligned with health risks related to smoke and ash from fires. More than half (55%) of the people who responded to our survey reported that they were experiencing at least one symptom six months after the blaze that they attributed to the Marshall Fire. The most common symptoms reported were itchy or watery eyes (33%), headache (30%), dry cough (27%), sneezing (26%) and sore throat (23%). All of these symptoms, as well as having a strange taste in ones mouth, were associated with people reporting that their home smelled differently when they returned to it one week after the fire. Many survey respondents said that the smells decreased over time. Most attributed the improvement in smell to the passage of time, cleaning surfaces and air ducts, replacing furnace filters, and removing carpet, textiles and furniture from the home. Despite this, many still had symptoms. We found that living near a large number of burned structures was associated with these health symptoms. For every 10 additional destroyed buildings within 820 feet (250 meters) of a persons home, there was a 21% increase in headaches and a 26% increase in having a strange taste in their mouth. These symptoms align with what could be expected from exposure to the chemicals that we found in the ash and measured in the air inside the few smoke-damaged homes that we were able to study in depth. Lingering Symptoms and Questions There are a still a lot of unanswered questions about the health risks from smoke- and ash-damaged homes. For example, we dont yet know what long-term health implications might look like for people living with lingering gases from wildfire smoke and ash in a home. We found a significant decline in the number of people reporting symptoms one year after the fire. However, 33% percent of the people whose homes were affected still reported at least one symptom that they attributed to the fire. About the same percentage also reported at least one symptom two years after the fire. We also could not measure the level of VOCs or metals that each person was exposed to. But we do think that reports of a change in the smell of a persons home one week after the fire demonstrates the likely presence of VOCs in the home. That has health implications for people whose homes are exposed to smoke or ash from a wildfire. Tips To Protect Yourself After Future Wildfires Wildfires are increasingly burning homes and other structures as more people move into the wildland-urban interface, temperatures rise and fire seasons lengthen. It can be confusing to know what to do if your home is one that survives a wildfire nearby. To help, my colleagues and I put together a website of steps to take if your home is ever infiltrated by smoke or ash from a wildfire. Here are a few of those steps: When youre ready to clean your home, start by protecting yourself. Wear at least an N95 (or KN95) mask and gloves, goggles and clothing that covers your skin. Vacuum floors, drapes and furniture. But avoid harsh chemical cleaners because they can react with the chemicals in the ash. Clean your HVAC filter and ducts to avoid spreading ash further. Portable air cleaners with carbon filters can help remove VOCs. A recent scientific study documents how cleaning all surfaces within a home can reduce reservoirs of VOCs and lower indoor air concentrations of VOCs. Given that we dont know much yet about the health harms of smoke- and ash-damaged homes, it is important to take care in how you clean so you can do the most to protect your health. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/wildfire-smokes-health-risks-can-linger-in-homes-that-escape-burning-as-colorados-marshall-fire-survivors-discovered-245939. Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire We've been reviewing Irish hotels every weekend for a full year at Weekend. Heres what The Hotel Examiner wishes all hotels knew. 1. Never miss an opportunity to impress Leisure guests want to feel welcomed, valued, even impressed when they come to stay. The smallest interaction with staff can leave the biggest impression, and while people often talk about bad experiences, like poor service or an unresolved issue, most of us would much rather share a positive encounter that goes above and beyond. That might be a wonderful check-in experience, a helpful staff member recommending something and then enquiring how it was the next time your paths cross, or something as small as noticing a guest who needs a little extra help with something. 2. Dont skimp on guest room perks Nothing screams mean like a few measly tea bags, coffee sachets and UHT milk. (Note to housekeeping staff: if one kind of tea has been depleted then please replenish the stock with this. If a guest uses up the Barrys Tea they are unlikely to want mint teabags as a replacement.) Kettles and Nespresso machines are almost fairly standard these days in 4- and 5-star hotels, alongside with bottled water. But what about the little extras that we now often find. Some hotel groups offer a masterclass in bedroom snacks, and even though there are usually charges we love to find a selection of quality Irish treats on offer. We also love complimentary Irish biscuits and fresh milk or notes telling us we can ring down for it. 3. Treat everyone like a VIP Guests joining The Hotel Examiner on reviews often wonder whether they will be treated with the same attentiveness the next time they return to the hotel alone. In a well-run property service should be the same across the board but the reality is that it isnt always. We hate nothing more than staff fawning over us while others are paid less attention. Unless the chef or restaurant manager is visiting everyones table we dont want to find them just at ours. Its not a good look. 4. Dont always trust your interior designer Designer lamps might look great but are no use if the light they emit is so dim that guests cant see anything inside their suitcase. This happens far too often for our liking. And what about all those mirrors without a plug socket in sight? Where are guests meant to dry their hair or use a straightener or styler? Most guests want a USB socket near their bed too. All these small things can end up feeling like big deals. 5. Treat breakfast like dinner A good breakfast can start the day so well. And we are not just talking about the food. In a hotel of any size guests should be walked to their table, shown the buffet, if there is one, and told how breakfast service works. Its far more enjoyable if dishes are labelled, right down to the breads and cheeses. Ensure tea or coffee orders are taken promptly. Offer regular refills and to change cups if guests are lingering and may have cold tea in theirs. Lastly, clear tables regularly. Buffets tend to generate extra wash-up, and no one wants to be surrounded by dirty dishes while they are eating. Breakfast is often a guests last encounter before they check-out, so ensure it leaves the right impression. 6. Make it local Ireland offers world class produce, from dairy to seafood, meat to vegetables, spirits to beers. and quality chocolates, snacks and baked goods. If you are going to the trouble of sourcing wonderful Irish ingredients then tell your guests. List provenance on the menu, tell your story on the website. Let guests know that you care. Champion Irish artists or crafts people. Work with locals to offer added value for visitors, whether through off-site activities, in-house promotions or special events. Modern or historic, country house or city hotel, draw on your unique selling point to help guests enjoy a memorable experience. 7. Empower your staff Happy staff make for happy guests. Great hotels look at the strengths team members can bring to the table and allow them to utilise these to spread joy and delight guests. Find the nature lover, the sea swimmer, the amateur historian, the runner etc on your team and see how their expertise can enhance a guests stay. Empower everyone to share their knowledge and chat. Create new experiences like themed talks or trails that feel personal. Most of all, encourage your team everyone from front-of-house to housekeeping to talk to guests and show their true personality. Afford them the time to do so. Hospitality is all about connections and were all more likely to remember a charming staff member than a great bedroom or dinner. Child safety organisations have raised concerns at the sentences imposed for online child sex abuse in Ireland. Their calls follow a 27-year sentence handed down in the North for sextortion. On December 10, David Andrews, aged 55, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for sextortion offences against 46 children and one vulnerable adult. It followed another notorious case in the North. In October, 26-year-old Alexander McCartney received a life sentence for the online sexual abuse of 70 children and the manslaughter of one of them, a 12-year-old girl in the US who took her own life as a result of his blackmail. Last October, Alexander McCartney, 26, received a life sentence in the North for the online sexual abuse of 70 children and the manslaughter of one of them. File picture 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas took her own life rather than comply with the demands of Armagh man Alexander McCartney, 26. Her father Ben, died by suicide a year later. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) said that, from their monitoring of relevant cases in Ireland in recent years, it was of concern that many perpetrators end up with suspended sentences. Hotline.ie chief executive Mick Moran said the recent cases in the North did make sentences in Ireland appear light, though he added that those cases were particularly egregious. He said laws in Ireland need to ensure that there are maximum sentences to suit a similar crime here. Emer ONeill of Cari (Children at Risk in Ireland), a therapy organisation for sexually abused children, said the cases across the border were important examples of crimes like sextortion being treated by the legal system with the seriousness they deserve. The Andrews case In the case of Andrews, he posed as a teen boy on social media and groomed teenagers. He extracted sexually intimate images of them and then used the images to blackmail them. David John Andrews, 55, was sentenced to 27 years in jail in the North after pleading guilty to 130 charges of sexual abuse, involving 47 victims, 46 of whom are children. Picture: PSNI/PA The crime is known as sextortion and catfishing. Andrews has to serve a minimum of 13.5 years initially, with the balance of his term of imprisonment decided by a parole board. ISPCC head of policy and public affairs Fiona Jennings said the term was a significant sentence and reflected the reality that online child sexual abuse and exploitation was nefarious and in the judges words in the case, utterly sickening. She said the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 (Cocos Law) made intimate image abuse punishable, on indictment, by a maximum term of seven years. She said the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 makes the production or distribution of child abuse imagery subject to a maximum term of 14 years. Ms Jennings said a third piece of legislation, the Sexual Offences Act 2017, makes the use of information and communication technology to facilitate sexual exploitation of a child punishable by up to five years. From our monitoring of the sentencing in these cases over the last number of years, it is concerning that many perpetrators end up with suspended sentences, she said. Ms Jennings said this was not a victimless crime: It is about real people children and has real-world consequences. No jail time for blackmail and violent assault In a case last month in Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court, Stephen Seery, aged 22, received a three-year suspended sentence for trying to blackmail a young girl into having sex by threatening to share intimate images that he had extracted from her. This sentence also took into account a violent assault he carried out on a garda when she posed as the girl and went to meet Seery. Stephen Seery (22) of Vilanstown, Gaybrook, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, tried to blackmail a girl into having sex. And violently assaulted a garda when she intervened. Yet he received a suspended sentence upon conviction. Picture: IrishPhotoDesk Mr Moran said the sentences handed down to McCartney and Andrews does make our sentence appear light but said they were particularly egregious cases and that there were aggravating factors. Meanwhile, he said that reports of sextortion to Hotline.ie have risen from 88 cases in 2022 to 274 in 2023. He added: Upping the maximum sentence is something we would get behind, to give the courts the option of similar sentences for when a case of this extreme comes before them. Ms ONeill said sexual abuse of children, including sextortion, have profound and long-lasting effects on victims. She said: The trauma can impact every aspect of their lives, including their mental and emotional wellbeing, relationships, and sense of security. Therefore it is crucial that the legal system addresses these crimes with the seriousness they deserve, ensuring that perpetrators face appropriate consequences. The [Andrews] case in the North, where sextortion was treated with significant legal action, serves as an important example. Stephen Seery (22) of Vilanstown, Gaybrook, Mullingar, Westmeath, tried to lure a girl to this disused train station in Mullingar, and assaulted the garda who intervened. Last month, Seery received a suspended sentence for these crimes. Picture: IrishPhotoDesk She said it is important for laws in Ireland to be kept under review and assess if the penalties are robust enough. However, she said it was essential to not only focus on penalties but to strengthen victim support services, education on consent and online safety and measures to prevent such crimes from occurring in the first place. Ms ONeill said judges and gardai should receive ongoing training to understand the complex nature of sexual violence. Ms Jennings called for a national and multi-agency strategy for responding to child sexual abuse, as previously recommended by the Garda Inspectorate. She urged more resources technical and personnel for gardai. Ms Jennings said while sentencing had a role, that the country wont legislate its way out of this problem. She said: We need proper relationship and sexuality education to teach children about appropriate and inappropriate behaviour from a young age; we need to rethink how we support and engage with those who are thinking about harming children in this way; and we need robust online age verification on platforms [so that an adult cannot portray themselves as a child]. If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, click here for a list of support services. Childline is on 1800 666666, and you can also visit Cari.ie. Some 396 school staff were left unable to perform their duties last year due to a physical injury they suffered in the classroom or on school grounds. Figures released to the Irish Examiner show that more than 1,300 teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) have taken assault leave since 2020 after sustaining a physical injury during their course of their duties. SNAs make up the vast majority of those assaulted while at school; 70% of the staff who required to take leave to recover from their sustained physical injuries were SNAs. The figures are likely to be higher again, as the Department of Education does not collect data relating to teachers and SNAs employed in the ETB sector. It comes as special education teacher Sophie Cole, from Carrigaline, is highlighting gaps in the current assault leave available for those injured at school. Ms Cole has since been diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, acknowledged as one of the worlds most painful conditions for which there is no known cure, following a classroom assault in 2022. Sophie Cole is currently campaigning for assault leave to be amended to provide staff with financial assistance to cover expenses relating to medical bills, therapy sessions and medication. Picture: Dan Linehan Sophie is now working to amend the current assault leave provisions available to those working in classrooms. It was bad enough to suffer a life-changing injury but it was all the parts that followed were just so heartbreaking, she explained. I was left with no one to turn to, I didnt understand assault leave, I didnt understand illness benefit, I didnt understand the social welfare system and I had no one to guide me through it. Although there is evidence to suggest many teachers and SNAs have been left with life-altering injuries from classroom assaults, Sophie believes many do not speak out. For so long I think it was a real taboo subject. Nobody really ever spoke out about this; it is because partly theres this nearly kind of shame attached I think. People are embarrassed by it, people dont want to be seen as causing a fuss, but the lack of support I received after my assault, it was the most isolating experience ever. Ms Cole is currently campaigning for assault leave to be amended to provide staff with financial assistance to cover expenses relating to medical bills, therapy sessions and medication. She is also seeking an amendment to extend assault leave for the duration of school staffs medically certified leave, and for the establishment of a comprehensive support system for educators who become victims of violence in the workplace, ensuring a swift and emphatic response to their needs. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said the leave available under assault leave is 92 days at full pay in a rolling four-year period. In exceptional cases, where a significant period of hospitalisation is required or in situations of a second or subsequent incident of assault, this may be extended for a further period not exceeding 91 days at full pay. This is limited overall, however, to 183 days ay full pay in a rolling four-year period. "Any subsequent absence will be dealt with under the Sick Leave scheme. The terms and conditions of assault leave were agreed with all education partners and are in line with what is currently being applied across the public service, she added. It is intended that the terms and conditions of the Scheme will be further discussed with all Education Partners in 2025. As of November, there were 14 employees on leave of absence following assault. Once the entitlement to this leave has been exhausted and the teacher [or] SNA remains medically unfit to return to work, the teacher[or] SNA can apply for the sick leave scheme. The department does not collect data on the reason for sick leave absences. Snow flurries are to hit parts of the country this weekend before temperatures drop as low as -10C early next week. The early hours of Friday morning are set to see temperatures plummet to as low as 5 as Met Eireann issued a Status Yellow snow/ice warning for the entire country and urged the public to be aware of hazardous travelling conditions and animal welfare issues. Across Munster the temperatures are expected to recover to as high as 5C on Friday. This weekend is then expected to bring very cold conditions, with disruptive and impactful weather likely that could cause travel and service disruption. A Met Eireann advisory issued for the weekend said that we can expect sleet and snow in parts through to Monday. A spell of rain will spread northwards over Ireland during the course of Saturday, turning to sleet and snow in some areas, it said. Rain, sleet and snow will continue for a time on Sunday before clearing eastwards into the Irish Sea. Significant accumulations of snow are likely in some counties. Conditions will become drier towards the start of next week, with a bitterly cold Arctic airmass across the country and bringing temperatures as low as -10C by Tuesday night. Therell be treacherous conditions with some significant accumulations of lying snow along with widespread severe frost and ice, Met Eireann said. "The cold snap of weather will continue to the end of next week, with the likelihood of more persistent falls of rain, sleet and snow, but it's likely to gradually become less cold by the weekend," Met Eireann said. Status Yellow - Low Temperature/Ice warning for Ireland Very cold with widespread frost & ice as temps fall to -3 C or below in many areas. Potential Impacts: Hazardous travelling conditions Animal welfare issues For more information: https://t.co/3041XHjphi pic.twitter.com/NmCx1AmikL Met Eireann (@MetEireann) January 2, 2025 Met Eireann meteorologist Liz Coleman said: Its going to feel much colder than it has recently, with daytime temperatures in the low single figures and night-time temperatures falling below zero in most areas. Widespread frost is expected with some ice, although generally dry conditions will limit ice formation to mainly areas of standing water or run-off. Nevertheless, do take care while out and about. While it will be cold, it will be mainly dry with sunny spells as the high pressure will prevent any significant rainfall. There will be showers at times in the north and west over the weekend, and in the east through next week, but rainfall amounts will be low. So, a lot of dry weather in the forecast. The North A Yellow Ice Warning is in place across Northern Ireland this morning. The UK Met Office has cautioned about icy patches on untreated roads, footpaths, and cycle paths, with a risk of injuries from slips and falls. The warning covers Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone and remains in effect until 10am. - additional reporting by Press Association The best friend of an American nurse who was allegedly killed by an Irishman has said she prays she did not suffer. Mackenzie Michalski, aged 31, and also known as Kenzie, was reported missing on November 5 after she failed to return to her Airbnb in Budapest. A 37-year-old Irishman who cannot be named for legal reasons, was later arrested with authorities saying that he confessed to her killing. Hungarian Police said the man tried to conceal her body in a suitcase in a wooded area more than 140km from Budapest, near Lake Balaton, in November. Authorities said CCTV showed the man met Ms Michalski at a nightclub in Budapest before they went to his rented property. He is due to appear back in court in Hungary on March 10. Rebecca Worden, who has taken part in several appeals for her friend while she her friend was missing, told the Irish Examiner she is heartbroken over her loss. McKenzie was an amazing young woman with a big heart and helped many" she said. I pray for justice for my sweet Kenzie, and I pray she did not suffer. Mackenzie Michalski, a popular nurse from Porland Oregon, had worked in healthcare and wellbeing for most of her career and dozens of tributes have been paid to her online. During the course of their investigation, Hungarian police said they uncovered evidence which "gave rise to the suspicion of murder". Ms Worden added that the Michalski family are deeply private people and that her death has left them shattered. Her comments come ahead of a planned memorial service and celebration of Mackenzies life, which will be held in Buffalo - to mark what would have been her 32nd birthday. In a post on the Find Mackenzie Michalski Facebook page, Makenzie's brother Nicholas said friends and family were due to gather to remember his sister on Saturday January 18, 2025, from 12-4pm, with visitation hours and reception from 1-4pm. The memorial will take place at Asbury Hall, 341 Delaware Avenue, (Corner of Delaware Avenue and West Tupper Street) at Buffalo, NY 14202. The service will also be streamed online he said. An 86-year-old campaigner who threatened to set the dogs on the nuns and gardai when they tried to take her back to a mother and baby home after she escaped, has passed away. Rosie McKinney (nee Furey) revealed in the Irish Examiner last year how she was one of the youngest women to enter the Tuam mother and baby home when she was just 15 years old. The nuns and gardai came to bring me back [when I ran away], but I told them Id set my dogs on them, and they left me alone, she said at the time. Hundreds of people took to social media to commend her bravery for standing up against the Church and gardai at the time. On Thursday, her daughter Mags McKinney said her mother passed away peacefully following a short illness on New Years Day. Rosie McKinney last May at a memorial in St Mary's Cemetery, Carlow, to those buried in unmarked graves who died in mother and baby homes. Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke We were and always will be best friends, said Mags, who campaigned on behalf of her mother at several protests when she was unable to attend in recent years. She was unwell in the past week and went into hospital on Christmas Day and passed away on New Years Day. We kept a vigil by her bedside all week. We are heartbroken; we loved each other, and I tried to do my best for her. I just want to thank everyone who supported Rosie; people really appreciated her honesty, and she always had a smile and a laugh for people. She spoke her mind and everyone who knew her loved her." She said nobody really stood up to the nuns and gardai then, and she was only a teenager at the time. I also want to thank her lifelong friend, former Labour minister Joe Costello, who supported my mother for years when she moved from Galway to Cabra in Dublin." Rosie McKinney was born in 1938 in Dunmore, Co Galway, and was the youngest of nine children. She became pregnant aged 13 and miscarried. Two years later she was one of the youngest women to enter the Tuam mother and baby home, where she gave birth to two children, at 15 and again at 17 years. Both children were taken away by the nuns and Rosie later escaped and ran away. She told the Irish Examiner in March 2024 that she scaled the back wall of the building and went home. I was petrified on the night I went into Tuam, she said. It was a big old building full of women and children. The children were grand; I minded them like the other women in there. I had my son and then my mother and sister got me out of there. The nuns and gardai came to bring me back, but I told them Id set my dogs on them and they left me alone. Rosie also explained that she was in favour of turning the former Sean McDermott St laundry in Dublin into a remembrance site for survivors of Irelands institutions. I fully support the saving of this building, she said at the time. I do understand some people might not agree, but I am glad that it is there for generations to come and that no one forgets what went on. Ms McKinney will be laid to rest next week. Three young people were beaten by two intruders, who burst into their bedrooms in Cork City in an alleged incident last April, and now the case against one of them has been adjourned until January 16. As Judge Mary Horgan remanded the accused in continuing custody until that date at Cork District Court, the accused man, Aidan Cullinane, spoke up by video link from prison: I am in custody since September four months. Up to 500 descendants of the organised emigration of impoverished North Cork families in the 1800s will travel to Ireland from Canada later this year to mark the 200th anniversary of the event. The visit is being organised by regional development company Ballyhoura GLC to commemorate the 1825 "Peter Robinson Experiment". Mr Robinson, a Canadian colonial administrator, was tasked by his superiors with bringing peasant families from North Cork to settle in Ontario. The families sailed from Cobh in nine ships and, after arriving in Canada, the majority settled in the Canadian wilderness and helped create the town of Peterborough which was named in Robinsons honour. More than 2,000 made the journey. His aim was to help alleviate the severe poverty of the Irish families who travelled, while also promoting the settlement of Canada. Most of those who made the journey were part of family groups, and nobody over the age of 45 was eligible. Each emigrant was given 70 acres on arrival for which they had to pay the Canadian government rent of 2p/ac twice a year. Research carried out on both sides of the Atlantic suggests there are roughly 100,000 descendants of the 2,000 who emigrated. Ships records show families left from Doneraile, Mitchelstown, Charleville, and number of villages along the Blackwater Valley. Daily tours Amanda Slattery, a Ballyhoura GLC development manager, who is in charge of the anniversary project, said they're in touch with 1,200 descendants through a Facebook page set up to commemorate the bicentenary of the event. It may be forgotten here, but it's not by their descendants in Canada and the US. About 90% of them live in those two countries, but we have also received contact from ones now living in Belgium, Scotland, and Italy, she said. The interest in the commemoration has been so great that a tour operator has been appointed in Canada to arrange the trip, and she is collaborating with the Ballyhoura group for the event which will take place from September 15-21. A big group has already been booked into the Charleville Park Hotel. Others will be staying at Deerbert House Hotel, in Killmallock, and Springfort Hall in Doneraile. There will also be groups staying at Adare Manor and the Cashel Palace, Ms Slattery said. Four event hubs will be set up for the visitors at Doneraile, Charleville, Mitchelstown, and Kilmallock, and there will be daily tours for them to points of interest associated with their ancestors. Ms Slattery said the visit will be a huge financial boost to the local economy, and it is hoped it will reap further financial dividends in the years to come as plans are in place to enhance the regions tourism with the Canadian connections. A special information evening for people who wish to get involved in the event will be held at Old Creamery building in Kildorrery on January 15 from 7pm-9pm. When the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials in November, the response was all too familiar. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected the warrants for alleged war crimes in Gaza against him and the former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, calling them an antisemitic decision. The ultranationalist national security adviser, Itamar Ben-Gvir, declared that the court had shown, once again, that it is antisemitic through and through. And the transport minister, Miri Regev, chimed in, claiming: This is modern antisemitism in the guise of justice. Bleakly, none of this was a surprise. A year into Israels assault on Gaza which some experts have described as a genocide accusations of antisemitism to counter criticism of Israel have gone in to overdrive. Such claims have been made against protesters crying out for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza and against the UN and aid agencies, which are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe. They have been levelled at global news channels and the International Court of Justice; against actors, artists, pop stars, and even British-Jewish filmmakers. So sweepingly are such claims made by Israels diehard defenders that the term antisemitism is losing its meaning. Blanket misuse has, troublingly, turned the term in to a feature on an Israeli politicians lingo-bingo scorecard And all this is happening precisely at a time when antisemitism is increasing globally, and when Jewish schools and synagogues have been dealing with death threats and desecrations. In the past 18 months, a Jewish woman was stabbed in her home in France, there have been shootings at schools in Canada, and an antisemitic riot in Dagestan, Russia. Meanwhile, the far right is taking advantage of the political crisis brought about by Israels world-changing war, alternately using actual antisemitism and a pretence of caring about antisemitism to advance its bigoted ideology. 'Great replacement' theory For some sections of the far right, antisemitism is the active ingredient powering a racist, migrant, and Muslim-bashing agenda. It echoes the antisemitism that has always been at the core of white supremacism and which has made a comeback with the great replacement theory the conspiracy that Jewish people are secretly plotting to flood Western countries with people of colour. On the other hand, for resurgent far-right parties across Europe, a performative fight against antisemitism has provided a path to political rehabilitation. Extremist leaders from Hungarys Victor Orban to Geert Wilders in the Netherlands present as self-declared champions of Jewish minorities in a supposed clash of civilisations against Islam. All of these factors and a few more besides, just to add to the confusion have collided to turn our conversation on antisemitism in to one characterised by accusations and rebuttals, contortions and misunderstandings, bad faith interpretations and endless blind spots. Its the sort of dissonant mess from which any reasonable person might decide to quietly step away Because what is the uninvolved onlooker supposed to make of it all? While researching my new book on the subject, several people I spoke to told me they were afraid to even ask about antisemitism, for fear that this might itself be construed as antisemitism. This is another sign, if any other were needed, that something has gone badly wrong in the way we talk about the issue. People gather outside the fire-damaged Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, in December. Picture: Con Chronis/AAP Image via AP Untangling these confusions, I found it was possible to identify distinct themes, so that the moving parts of this chaos came in to focus. For starters, there is the way that racism is commonly understood as a colour line. While the invention of black and white is key to understanding the racism that enabled slavery and colonialism, and that still inflicts daily harms today, this doesnt help us to fully comprehend the roots of antisemitism. Studying the histories of racism and antisemitism shows us that one has always influenced the other. The persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages helped create the architecture of racism that underpinned colonisation and enslavement in the Americas, and reveals how the category of whiteness is a fundamentally unstable invention. This is why Jewish people have, in the past, fallen in and out of it, confusing and intensely irritating racists through the ages. Then, there is the grim hypocrisy of our political conversation on antisemitism, which remains hyperfocused on the left. While media cycles spin out over whether the chanting of long-used Palestinian slogans constitutes antisemitism, examples of anti-Palestinian hatred from supporters of Israel get waved along. This is not just about the silencing of voices protesting against Israels carnage in Gaza, although that is bad enough. If antisemitism is so blatantly wielded as a political weapon, it creates the impression of a fundamental unseriousness about the subject Dedicating endless column inches to campus protests over Gaza is shifting the spotlight, not just away from the devastation in the Palestinian strip, but away from the dangerous antisemitism coming from the far right. In her latest book, Doppelganger, Naomi Klein writes about the important political issues that have been discarded by the left, only to then be opportunistically seized and twisted by the right. So, during the pandemic, for instance, peoples reasonable fears about pharma monopolies were commandeered to spew out vaccine conspiracies. 'Wokeism' The same dynamic now applies to the fight against antisemitism, where the right has strategically filled a space vacated over decades by the left. But far from raising awareness of this ancient prejudice, the right has, instead, turned the issue in to a wedge with which to clobber political opponents: Those protesting against Israels multiple aggressions and violations of international law, the Black Lives Matter movement, diversity and equity programmes, or those grouped together under that catch-all irritant wokeism. The effect has been to sow division, derailing progressive movements, thwarting efforts at social, economic and climate justice, and helping an increasingly extreme right wing to win elections around the world. A true understanding of what has gone so wrong with our discussion of antisemitism and how to put it right will not just fortify the left in this urgent political moment. It will also consolidate our anti-racist endeavours. It will yield inclusiveness, moral clarity, and cohesion. And, most of all, it will help us to make sense of the alarming, divisive, and destructive rightwards shift of the world. Only then do we stand a chance of changing it. The world was in a grim spot in 1985. Yet in the shadow of potential nuclear oblivion abroad, the dead hand of a moribund economy at home in Ireland, and the apocalyptic creep of the Aids epidemic everywhere, popular culture threw back the shutters and let the light in. Musically, it was the year of big artists growing into their fame. That May, Bruce Springsteen played his first Irish show to a crowd of more than 60,000 at Slane Castle, Co Meath who each paid 15 for a ticket (less than the Ticketmaster service charge to see a musician of his stature today). Delighted fans at Bruce Springsteen at Slane in 1985. Picture: Eddie O'Hare Springsteens memories of what was, at that point, his largest-ever concert remained vivid for years afterwards. Stepping out under the spotlight and confronted by a huge swell of humanity swaying back and forth, he was gripped with dread only to take heart as he saw his fans looking out for one another. The crowd closest to the stagewere deeply into their Guinness and dangerously swaying from left to right. They were opening up gaping holes amongst themselves as audience members by the dozens fell to the muddy ground, vanishing for unbearable second til righted once again by their neighbours, Springsteen wrote in his 2016 biography, Born To Run. HISTORY HUB If you are interested in this article then no doubt you will enjoy exploring the various history collections and content in our history hub. Check it out HERE and happy reading The crowd settled during the second half of the Slane show and I observed there was a sketchy but ritual orderliness to what appeared from the stage to be pure chaos. The crowd protected one another. If you fell, the nearest person to your left or right reached down, grabbed an arm and pulled you upright. In Cork, soon-to-be-biggest band in the world, U2, played the Lark by the Lee at Lee Fields their surprise nine-song set finishing with Sunday Bloody Sunday. Across the city, Kris Kristofferson headlined Siamsa Cois Laoi at Pairc Ui Chaoimh alongside Don McLean and Loudon Wainwright III. That year also saw Madness bring their Mad Not Mad tour to Cork City Hall while The Damned played Sir Henrys then a dingey rock venue, its days as a beating heart of club culture in Ireland still some time in the future. In April, Man in Black Johnny Cash swept into town for a three-night residency at Cork Opera House. Heady year for music All told, it was a heady year for music. Kate Bush released one of the greatest albums of the decade Hounds Of Love (opening with future Gen Z favourite, Running Up That Hill). Meanwhile, Phil Collins, a balding drummer from Wandsworth, became an international pop star. His third solo LP, No Jacket Required yielded one of his defining smashes with Sussudio a nonsense word he made up in the studio which felt entirely 1980s in its gaudy silliness. He didnt have the middle of the road all to himself. Dire Straits became a million-selling band with their soft-rock phenomenon Brothers In Arms the single Money for Nothing achieving ubiquity thanks to MTVs support. Collins and Dire Straits both performed at Live Aid that July, with Collins going over and above (literally) by singing with Sting during the Wembley leg of the fundraiser. He was then whisked off in a helicopter piloted by Noel Edmonds and took the Concorde to Philadelphia to guest with a reformed Led Zeppelin, who deemed their performance so terrible they continue to this day to veto its release. U2 played Lark by the Lee in Cork in August 1985. If Led Zeppelin were the losers, the winners from Live Aid were Bono who put U2 on the map when he dragged an audience member up to dance with him during Bad and Freddie Mercury, who led Queen through a performance for the ages. When we think of Queen today, we think of Mercury framed by that vast audience an image that has transcended Live Aid to become part of 1980s rock mythology. In Ireland, the year had started with Band Aids Do They Know Its Christmas? topping the charts, only to be displaced by Foreigners I Want To Know What Love Is, followed by I Know Him So Well by Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson. Things were just as wacky come December when Whitney Houstons Saving All My Love For You made way for Dermot Morgans Barry McGuigan parody, Thank You Very Much, Mr Eastwood which riffed on the Clones boxers vocal gratitude to his trainer, Barney Eastwood. If music was a refuge from the darkness of the nuclear age, then cinema held up a mirror to these straitened times. In Rocky IV, Sylvester Stallone tried to reach a detente with Russia by taking his character, Rocky Balboa, to Moscow, delivering a knockout to Dolph Lundgrens Ivan Drago, and then telling Mikhail Gorbachev that peace was possible. If I can change ... and you can change ... Everybody can change, he said. The Cold War was over within five years. A coincidence? Surely not. Elsewhere, America turned again to Stallone as it tried to process its post-Vietnam trauma via cartoonish shoot-em-up Rambo: First Blood Part II. The years second-biggest-grossing movie, it dispatched Stallones former Green Beret John Rambo back to Nam to liberate POWs abandoned to the villainous Viet Cong an excuse for our hero to tote a rocket launcher and clock up an impressive 75 on-screen kills. Rambo II expressed the United States heartfelt wish for a straightforward world of heroes and villains. A similar yearning for simpler times characterised 1985s biggest release, Back to the Future. It sent Michael J Foxs Marty McFly back to small-town post-war America, where the apple pie is delicious, and the worst you have to worry about is a run-in with the school bully (or, in Martys case, being propositioned by your mother). Michael J Fox on the set of 'Back to the Future'. Picture: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images As Marty skateboarded through Hill Valley, Huey Lewiss The Power of Love echoing in his ears, the turmoil of the Reagan era never felt further away. The mid-1980s were a challenging time for Disney, which delivered a one-two of flops with Return To Oz and The Black Cauldron. Both were cautionary examples of what would come to be known as the Dark Disney years when the studio tried to win a new audience by piling on the grit. In the case of Return to Oz, this meant a nightmarish riff on Frank L Baum complete with terrifying wheelers characters. The Dark Cauldron, for its part, was a fantasy saga that secretly wanted to be a Cure album and which immediately vanished in a puff of brimstone. On television, it was a time of new beginnings. Having sniffily watched the rise of Coronation Street, the BBC belatedly lowered itself to making a soap opera, debuting EastEnders that February. The year also witnessed the arrival of T he Golden Girls, MacGyver, and Bruce Williss Moonlighting. But surely, no show captured these ludicrous times better than The Colbys, a spin-off of the hit US soap opera Dynasty that finished with one of its main characters abducted by a UFO. Weird, wacky and more than slightly disturbing it was 1985 in the nuttiest of nutshell. Authorities say the driver of a pick-up truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians gathered in New Orleans bustling French Quarter district early on New Years Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring about 30 other revellers. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism and said it does not believe the driver acted alone. Wednesdays attack unfolded on Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Years Eve parties. Investigators at the scene after a person drove a vehicle into a crowd earlier on Canal and Bourbon Street in New Orleans (Gerald Herbert/AP) Large crowds also gathered in the city ahead of the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game that had been scheduled for later on Wednesday at the nearby Superdome. The game was postponed until Thursday night following the attack. Here is what we know about the attack: What happened? Police said the driver steered around a police blockade and raced through a crowd along Bourbon Street at around 3.15am local time on Wednesday as revellers gathered to celebrate the new year. At least 15 people were killed and about 30 injured. Two police officers wounded in the shootout with the suspect were in a stable condition. Authorities also found potential explosive devices in the French Quarter, the FBI said. Surveillance footage showed three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. Who was the driver and what was his motive? The FBI said the driver was 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a US citizen and army veteran from Texas. Passport photo of Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar (FBI/AP) A flag representing the so-called Islamic State group was found on the vehicles trailer hitch, the FBI said. The bureau is trying to determine if Jabbar was associated with any terrorist organisations. Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs New Orleans field office, said during a news conference that the agency does not believe Jabbar acted alone. Police commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did and he tried to run over as many people as he could. Jabbar enlisted in the army in March 2007, working in both human resources and information technology. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, then transferred into the US army reserve in 2015, the service said in a statement. Jabbar served until July 2020, leaving the military with the rank of staff sergeant. What have authorities found in their investigation? Guns and pipe bombs were found in the suspects vehicle, according to the state police bulletin. The devices were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation with a remote control that was also found in the vehicle, the bulletin said. The FBI investigates in the French Quarter following the attack (Matthew Hinton/AP) Who was in the crowd? Authorities said Bourbon Street was filled with revellers toasting the start of 2025 when the attack occurred. Crowds in New Orleans also ballooned in anticipation of the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game between number two Georgia and number three Notre Dame. That game was postponed until Thursday night. What protections are there for pedestrians on Bourbon Street? City documents show New Orleans has been in the midst of a major project to remove and replace post-like barriers called bollards designed to prevent vehicle attacks along Bourbon Street. That project began in November and involves replacing old bollards with new removable stainless steel bollards. Have there been similar deadly attacks involving vehicles? Wednesdays attack in New Orleans is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence. The trend has alarmed law enforcement officials because such attacks can be difficult to protect against. Last month, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor ploughed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg, killing four women and a nine-year-old boy. Israeli air strikes killed at least 26 people across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, hitting Hamas security officers and an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone. Everyone was taking shelter in their tents from the cold, and suddenly we found the world turning upside down. Why, and for what? said Ziyad Abu Jabal, displaced from Gaza City, after the strike in the seaside humanitarian zone known as Muwasi. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are huddling in Muwasi in damp winter weather. The early morning strike there killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior Hamas police officers. Palestinian children play next to a building destroyed by Israeli army strikes (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP) Israels military said it targeted a senior officer in the Hamas-run police force. It said he was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamass armed wing in attacks on Israeli forces. Another Israeli strike killed at least eight Palestinians in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The men were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike. In southern Gaza, Israels military killed five policemen in eastern Khan Younis. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the strike targeted the head of the Hamas internal security force in southern Gaza. Where did we find him? Where else, but of course hiding in the humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, where Gazans are sheltering from this war, Mr Mencer said. Israel has repeatedly targeted the police in Gaza during 15 months of war, contributing to a breakdown of law and order in the territory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Israel accuses the militant Hamas group of hijacking aid for its own purposes. The Hamas-run government had a police force numbering in the tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war, while also violently suppressing dissent. Now officers have largely vanished from the streets in many areas. A destroyed part of Gaza City as seen from southern Israel (Tsafrir Abayov/AP) Meanwhile, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people walking in the street in Maghazi in central Gaza. Their bodies were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The war was sparked by Hamas-led militants October 7 2023 attack on Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, and at least a third are believed to be dead. Israels offensive in retaliation has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territorys Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the dead. Israels military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gazas population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times. Hunger is widespread. Children, some barefoot or in sandals, waited in line with metal pails or other containers at a food distribution centre in Deir al-Balah on Thursday. An editorial board meeting of The Paper Trail at the CCWF Media Center. The Paper Trail is a newspaper run by inmates that serves womens prisons across the state. Photo by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Today A few clouds. Low near 50F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Tonight A few clouds. Low near 50F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Tomorrow Considerable cloudiness. High 64F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. The Israeli military has intensified its operations in northern Gaza, targeting a suburb of Gaza City, according to medics, and has urged residents in the central region to evacuate areas from which militants are launching rocket fire. Air strikes in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City, resulted in the deaths of at least eight Palestinians, as reported by emergency services. There has been no immediate response from the Israeli military, and it is unclear who the victims of the attack were. In al-Buriej, located in central Gaza, the Israeli army stated that it hit a militant in an area where rockets had been launched the previous day. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that two individuals lost their lives in that strike, with an additional 15 casualties resulting from an airstrike in Jabalia. No immediate confirmation has come from Gaza health officials, while Israels military claims to have targeted Hamas fighters in the operation. Men are mopping up rainwater that flooded the medical tent annex at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. Much of the vicinity surrounding the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of residents and demolished, raising suspicionsdenied by Israelthat it plans to establish a buffer zone in the area after the hostilities conclude. Israel asserts that its nearly three-month-long campaign in northern Gaza aims to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping. The military claims its directives for civilians to evacuate are intended to protect them from harm. Palestinian and United Nations officials argue that no areas are truly safe in Gaza and that such evacuations exacerbate the humanitarian plight of the population. People are queuing to receive food amid heavy rains that have flooded makeshift tents in Deir al-Balah. As per the Palestinian civil defense, over 1,500 tents housing displaced individuals across Gaza were inundated by heavy rain over the past two days, leaving residents vulnerable to the cold and damaging their belongings. Israels military campaign in Gaza has reportedly resulted in the deaths of more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled territory. Most of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the territory have been displaced, and large portions of the coastal strip lie in ruins. The conflict was ignited by Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which claimed the lives of 1,200 individuals and led to 251 people being taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli reports. The Palestinian Authority has temporarily suspended the broadcasting of Qatars Al Jazeera TV for inciting material, as reported by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA. A committee composed of ministers from the culture, interior, and communications ministries decided to halt operations over what they deemed inciting material and deceptive reports that incite discord within the country. This decision is unlikely to be enforced in Hamas-controlled Gaza, where the Palestinian Authority lacks authority. Al Jazeera TV faced criticism from the Palestinian Authority last week due to its coverage of the ongoing standoff between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank. Latest Middle East stories Fatah, the faction in control of the Palestinian Authority, accused the broadcaster of sowing division within our Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular. It encouraged Palestinians to refrain from engaging with the network. In September, Israeli forces issued a military order to Al Jazeera to cease its operations after raiding the outlets bureau in the West Bank city of Ramallah. In the Italian city of Milan, smokers face the risk of being fined for smoking on city streets or in crowded public areas, following the implementation of the countrys strictest ban to date. Individuals who ignore this new ban in the northern Italian city could incur fines ranging from 40 to 240, a measure that has drawn criticism from some members of the community. In my view, the new law is excessive. I understand prohibiting smoking indoors and in close proximity to children or elderly individuals, but an outdoor smoking ban somewhat infringes on personal freedom, stated one local resident. The air quality ordinance in Milan, enacted by the city council in 2020, has led to progressively stricter restrictions on smoking. The new directive, effective immediately, states that the smoking ban applies to all public spaces, including streets, with the exception of isolated areas where individuals can maintain a distance of at least ten meters from others. This ban does not include e-cigarettes. Local authorities indicated that the initiative aims to reduce airborne particulates to enhance the quality of the citys air and safeguard citizens health, including protection against secondhand smoke in public spaces, especially those frequented by children, as stated in an official announcement. Stellina Lombardo, 56, a non-smoker, expressed her support for the stricter smoking regulations. I am in full agreement because smoking contributes significantly to pollution. In this era of climate change, such actions can help mitigate the devastating effects of pollution on our planet, she remarked. The ban, which precedes the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, does not extend to e-cigarettes. Milan, located in the industrial heart of the Po Valley and burdened by heavy traffic, is noted as one of the most polluted cities in Europe regarding air quality. Italys inaugural national smoking ban enacted in 1975 prohibited smoking on public transport, in classrooms, and several other designated areas. This ban was expanded in 1995 to include public administration spaces and in 2005 to all enclosed public areas, positioning Italy as a pioneer in Europe at that time. Approximately 19% of Italians smoke, according to 2023 data from the National Institute of Statistics, which is less than the 24% average across the European Union. Cigarettes in Italy cost around 6 per pack, making them among the most affordable in Europe, where prices of approximately 10 are more typical. In Ireland, a pack of 20 cigarettes is priced around 18. Ireland has implemented some of the strictest smoke-free laws in the EU. The Italian Ministry of Health reports that smoking is responsible for approximately 93,000 deaths annually. Furthermore, smoking accounts for nearly 85% of all lung cancer cases, the deadliest cancer globally, according to the World Health Organization. Within the European Union, 17 countries have adopted smoke-free legislation, with Ireland, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta, Spain, and Hungary enforcing the strictest regulations. In November, a proposal in Britain to phase out smoking among young people successfully passed its initial parliamentary vote, receiving strong support from lawmakers. This legislation would prohibit anyone born after January 1, 2009, from legally purchasing tobacco, gradually increasing the legal age for tobacco sales. The UK government has announced that this initiative aims to create the nations first smoke-free generation. In comparison, Sweden boasts the lowest smoking rates in Europe, with only 8% of the population smoking, while Bulgaria has a rate of 37%. Additionally, Belgium has banned the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes starting today for health and environmental reasons. The Palestinian Authority has ordered the halting of broadcasts by Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based network, throughout the Palestinian territories, alleging that the channel is airing inciting content, according to reports from official media. The specialized ministerial committee, which includes the ministries of culture, interior, and communications, has resolved to suspend broadcasts and cease all activities of the Al Jazeera satellite channel and its office in Palestine, stated the official Wafa news agency. The ruling also includes a temporary freeze on the operations of all journalists, staff, crews, and affiliated channels until their legal status is resolved due to Al Jazeeras contraventions of the laws and regulations in effect in Palestine, the report continued. This ruling is a response to Al Jazeeras persistence in broadcasting inciting content and reports characterized by misinformation, incitement, sedition, and interference in Palestinian domestic affairs, it added. Subsequently, the channel broadcast images showing what appeared to be Palestinian security personnel invading the networks office in Ramallah and delivering the suspension orders. However, there has been no response from the channel regarding the Palestinian Authoritys action. The militant group Hamas has denounced the decision to prohibit the network. This decision fits within a series of recent arbitrary measures taken by the Authority to limit public rights and freedoms, thereby tightening its security control over the Palestinian populace, Hamas stated in a news release. We urge the Palestinian Authority to promptly reverse this decision It is essential to allow media coverage that highlights the occupation and bolsters our peoples resilience, they asserted. Islamic Jihad, which is allied with Hamas in Gaza, also voiced opposition to the decision. We strongly condemn the Authoritys choice to close Al Jazeeras office in Palestine at a time when our people and our cause desperately need to communicate their suffering to the world, the group remarked in a statement. Incitement campaign Tensions between the Doha-based network and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have escalated in recent weeks following the channels reporting on confrontations between Palestinian security forces and militants in Jenin. In late December, the channel criticized what it described as an incitement campaign by Fatah against the network in some regions of the occupied West Bank. This campaign emerged in response to the networks coverage of clashes between Palestinian security forces and resistance fighters in Jenin, it remarked in a statement at that time. Throughout its reporting on the tragic situations in Jenin, Al Jazeera ensured that all voices, including those of resistance fighters and spokespeople for the Palestinian security forces, were included, it added. The security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which has limited control over the West Bank, have been in deadly confrontations with gunmen since early December, spurred by the arrests of multiple militants. They are engaging with members of the Jenin Battalion, most of whom are linked to either Islamic Jihad or Hamas, whose attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, instigated the current Gaza war. The violence in the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of armed groups located in the northern West Bank and a frequent target of Israeli military operations, has resulted in the deaths of 11 individuals, including PA security personnel, militants, and civilians. The Palestinian Authoritys decision follows more than three months after Israeli forces stormed the networks office in Ramallah. The network is already prohibited from broadcasting within Israel due to an ongoing conflict with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, which has further deteriorated during the current war in Gaza. Romania and Bulgaria have officially joined the Schengen zone, growing the borderless area to 29 members and concluding a 13-year waiting period for these two Eastern European nations. This expansion was facilitated when Austria and other members lifted their objections to these former communist countries joining, which took effect at midnight (10pm Irish time), celebrated with ceremonies at multiple border posts. As members of the European Union since 2007, Romania and Bulgaria were partially integrated into the Schengen zone in March, which removed border checks at ports and airports. However, Austria had previously threatened to veto their full entry due to migration concerns, resulting in continued controls at land border crossings. Since its inception in 1985, the Schengen zone will now encompass 25 of the EUs 27 members, alongside Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, accounting for a total population exceeding 400 million people. Ireland and Cyprus remain outside the Schengen area. Romania and Bulgaria have satisfied the technical criteria for Schengen membership since 2011. Yet, as analyst Valentin Naumescu pointed out to AFP, member states objected every time they attempted to gain full membership. This situation became a source of frustration exploited by anti-EU parties, alleging that Romania was treated unfairly, he explained. People from Bulgaria celebrate the occasion at a border point between Romania and Bulgaria. The resentment played a role in Romanias recent presidential elections, where far-right candidate Calin Georgescu unexpectedly secured a first-round victory before the elections were annulled amidst accusations of Russian interference. Now, Mr. Naumescu suggested, that feeling of being second-class citizens is likely to diminish. Leaders from both nations have described the expansion as historic. Austria had long complained about bearing a disproportionate share of undocumented migrants due to inadequately secured external Schengen borders. However, it withdrew its objections to Romania, with a population of 19 million, and Bulgaria, with 6.5 million residents, joining the Schengen area following a border protection agreement signed in November. This agreement includes the joint deployment of guards at the Bulgarian-Turkish border and temporary controls at land crossings for an initial duration of six months. Economists estimate that joining the zone will increase Romanias and Bulgarias gross domestic product by at least one percentage point. Lorry drivers, who have faced waits of up to 20 hours at border crossings, welcomed the announcement. It was a waste of time for drivers, who couldnt even take a break because they had to move their vehicles every ten minutes, remarked Beniamin Lucescu, head of a Romanian transport federation. Nonetheless, inadequate road and rail infrastructure in Bulgaria may restrict the potential benefits. Meanwhile, the tourism industries in both countries anticipate a surge of visitors traveling to nearby Greece. Its fantastic news, said 46-year-old sales manager Ivailo Kirkov, who owns a property in northern Greece. Weve been eagerly waiting, he added. Greek teacher and tour guide Gueorgui Grantcharov forecasted a rush of Romanian and Bulgarian tourists heading to Greece. He noted that without border queues, it takes just over four hours to get from Sofia to Thessaloniki. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) I love New Orleans, and have been known to hit the jazz clubs on Bourbon Street into the wee hours myself. So what happened there is a gut punch, and I want to express my condolences to the families of the victims and to the community there for its trauma. Donald Trump jumped to the conclusion that the New Orleans attacker, who killed 15 people and wounded three dozen more, was a career criminal and recent immigrant. In fact, he was an African-American veteran, born and bred in Beaumont, Texas. His conversion to Islam must have happened before 2004, when he tried to enlist in the Navy under that name. Instead, he ended up in the army, and deployed for a year to Afghanistan (2009-2010), as well as getting the training to become an IT specialist. He remained a reservist after his honorable discharge. He was, in short, a patriotic American who did his part in fighting the war on terror. He was not an immigrant or a member of a foreign criminal gang. That Mr. Trump persists in deploying the politics of hate and bigotry is a bad sign for the U.S. Even if Jabbar had been a immigrant, his actions would have said nothing about immigrants, who have low rates of criminality compared to the native-born population and whose productivity has been one key to American economic success. They dont take jobs from the native-born on the whole, but do jobs that the latter typically wont do. Nor is Jabbars religion a reason to engage in Muslim-hatred. The NY Posts insidious and Islamophobic reporting ominously says that one of his neighbors in the trailer park in which he ended up only spoke Urdu. If that were true it would be because poor people live in trailer parks, including immigrants with limited English. However, it sounds fishy to me, since even poor Pakistanis of the sort who come to the United States tend to know English. It was the colonial language and still an essential language, like French in Tunisia. Then they say ominously that there was a mosque in the area. So what? Mosques are houses of worship where people go for solace when facing rough times. The Post says ominously that Jabbar referenced the Quran, the Muslim scripture. Doh. He was a Muslim. He also referenced the Quran when he was in Afghanistan as part of the US armys fight against the Taliban. The Quran forbids murder and urges believers to forgive and do good to their enemies. See my study of these peace themes in the Muslim holy book at academia.edu. If this guy had been a white Proud Boy found with guns and explosives, would the newspapers imply that it is suspicious that he quoted the Bible and that there is a Baptist church near his house? It is 2024, New York Post. Islamophobia is a disgusting form of racism. (Yes, Muslims are racialized in this country.) I admire the hell out of veterans. I grew up in an army family, just as Jabbars children did. Most veterans are admirable citizens who come back and contribute to their communities, building businesses and providing key services. But the job undeniably can lead to trauma and stresses that a small minority deal with in dysfunctional ways. The suicide rate is tragically high. Ive lost people I knew that way. Some end up homeless. Some are radicalized. It is not an accident that the leadership of the Proud Boys, convicted of sedition, were disproportionately veterans. Jacqueline Sweet was able to screenshot some of Jabbars postings at Twitter / X: In the first posting, from 2021, he says that a scarcity mindset is unhealthy in an environment of abundance, and that if you cant turn off that scarcity mindset it becomes a kind of trauma. In the second, from the same year, he complains about the lack of Black protagonists in films after Marvels The Black Panther (2018) who are not submissive, immoral or immature/ silly. Then in 2022, everything went to hell. His wife divorced him, he went deeply into debt, and The Post says he ended up living in a trailer home with chickens and sheep in the lawn. Everybody goes postal in their own way. White nationalists try to invade the capitol and hang the vice president. Kahanaist Jews in Israel shoot up mosques and commit atrocities in the Occupied Territories. A handful of Muslim Americans have declared themselves ISIL (ISIS, Daesh), even though that organization barely exists and has no command and control. It is like a white supremacist declaring that he is acting in the name of Adolf Hitler even though the Nazi army was long ago defeated and Adolf died in his bunker. It should go without saying that the fact that a tiny number of disturbed individuals act this way does not reflect on the four or five million Muslim Americans, who are our physicians, accountants, and local business people. Tarring a whole group with the actions of a few is the definition of prejudice. Likewise, the Proud Boys dont reflect on all white people. Im not a psychiatrist and dont play one on television. I therefore cannot pronounce on Jabbars state of mind. But I do know that if a white guy lost his family and his business, went tens of thousands of dollars into debt, and ended up living in a trailer home with livestock in his yard, and then went postal, sympathetic white reporters would be eliciting regrets from his white parents that he was suffering from mental problems. As I pointed out over a decade ago, however, the US media treat white terrorists differently. French Quarter, New Orleans, February 2024. Juan Cole. As a reminder, here are my Top Ten Differences between White Terrorists and Others: 1. White terrorists are called gunmen. What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldnt that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, terrorists. 2. White terrorists are troubled loners. Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners. 3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion. 4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed. 5. White terrorists are part of a fringe. Other terrorists are apparently mainstream. 6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies. 7. White terrorists are never called white. But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations. 8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies. 9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane. 10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control wont stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists. By Muhammad Hussein | ( Middle East Monitor ) When Israels far-right extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich acknowledged in October his aim for a Jewish state that encompasses not only all of the Palestinian territories, but also extends to Syria, some speculated about how such a goal would be achieved. In Israels classic strategy of bit by bit, according to Smotrich, Tel Aviv will eventually have to cut further into Syrian territory as it is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus. That ominous admission threw further light on the potential pursuit of the Zionisms Greater Israel project, which would cover Jordan, Lebanon, part of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and part of Saudi Arabia. The occupation state would claim the lands as its own and impose Israeli statehood on the local people, unless they too suffer ethnic cleansing as the Palestinians have. If Israels extremists take Damascus, the region will be destabilised; the regional chessboard will be overturned. They would not simply be taking on resistance groups as is the case in Gaza and Lebanon but they would also need to invade and conquer an independent, sovereign state. The more covert, proxy dynamics in place up until now would be replaced by a full-scale state v state war. Its a risky endeavour. However, the ouster of the Assad regime on 8 December left a security vacuum that enabled Israel to destroy Syrias major military defence capabilities and deploy its armed forces further into Syrian territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights. Israeli forces are now just kilometres from Damascus. Assads supporters have responded with glee, of course, because this strengthens their spurious claims that the dictator was the only one standing in the way of such an Israeli invasion; that the axis of resistance against Israel is now weakened; and that the new Syrian authorities are complicit with the occupation state and even acting as its agent. Such allegations, though, can be dismissed, not least because the Assad regime has been in contact with Israel for years, and never took any action to regain its territory annexed by Israel or otherwise challenge the occupation. Moreover, the Israeli attacks and destruction of Syrias defence capabilities more likely prove that Tel Aviv is extremely wary about its new neighbours in charge of Syria. More than anything, Tel Aviv saw Assad as a useful buffer against any real threat. It knew that his regime would never mobilise against Israeli forces, at least not effectively. Israeli policy towards Assad has for decades been to maintain a Syria that was strong enough to oppress its own people but never strong enough to pose a military threat in the neighbourhood. The new Syrian governments initial attitude towards the Israeli moves into Syrian territory have done little to discredit the allegations of collaboration with the Zionist state as they grapple with this dilemma. Consider, for example, the comments by the governor of Damascus, Maher Marwan, in an interview with NPR, in which he expressed understanding that Israel may have felt fear after the fall of Assad, so it advanced a little, bombed a little, etc. He has, on the face of it, taken what is in effect an invasion of his country very lightly indeed. Damascus aims to have cordial relations with Israel, he claimed, stating that, We have no fear toward Israel, and our problem is not with Israel. He reportedly stressed that, We dont want to meddle in anything that will threaten Israels security or any other countrys security. We want peace, and we cannot be an opponent to Israel or an opponent to anyone. Moreover, a spokesman for HTS avoided the question of Israels 300 air strikes on Syria when questioned by Britains Channel 4 News. Syrias de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad Al-Julani has expressed his willingness to return to the 1974 agreement with Israel and once again have UN peacekeepers deployed within the demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights. We do not want any conflict whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks, Al-Sharaa told the Times in London earlier this month. The Syrian people need a break, and the [air] strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions. The White and Blue over Damascus, by Juan Cole, based on Unsplash images spliced with IbisPaint and processed by Clip2Comic, 2024 Syrias interim government, rather than having any genuine sympathy towards Israel and its actions, seems to understand the fact that Syrian forces have little to no significant military capabilities to counter the Israeli occupation forces, let alone to launch any kind of offensive to recapture occupied territory. Given that Israel is reported to have destroyed around 80 per cent of Syrias air, land and sea defence capabilities, Al-Sharaa is taking a pragmatic approach. His main mission is to stabilise the domestic situation in a number of ways, chiefly by consolidating the security position and striking an agreement among former anti-Assad groups to unite under the Defence Ministry; disarming former regime soldiers; and trying to absorb Kurdish fighters into the new Syrian Army. In terms of government, the new authorities are still organising their administration. The interim cabinet will serve until March 2025, at least, and a National Dialogue Conference is planned to determine the issue of Syrias governance. Al-Sharaa is also making efforts to strengthen Syria on the diplomatic front. He has hosted numerous delegations from the international community over the past three weeks, and secured a number of significant deals covering the rebuilding of Syrias infrastructure and the revival of its aviation systems. He now seeks to have all sanctions lifted so that the Syrian economy can be revived, and to persuade the US and other Western powers to remove the group which he heads, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), from their terrorist lists. Syrias new leader and the people around him know that doing or saying anything against Israel will likely damage their efforts to stabilise their country. With neither the military capabilities nor diplomatic leverage in place, they know that they cannot force the occupation state to the negotiation table. Moving against Israeli forces in south-west Syria despite the obvious security threat that they pose, will block any real chance of the incoming Trump administration and other Western governments delisting HTS and giving formal recognition to the new government in Damascus. Nevertheless, Al-Sharaa has a couple of cards up his sleeve to challenge Israels encroachment on Syrian territory: Turkiye and the Gulf States. Turkiyes involvement in the former opposition offensive and the ouster of Assad is no secret, and it has already expressed support for Syrias new leadership on military, infrastructural and economic terms. Damascus could well utilise that partnership to have Ankara not only strengthen the new administration, but also to serve as a counterbalance to Israel. While that may be tempting, it is an option that would be perceived as aggressive. Senior Israelis, including former army officers as well as media outlets are already expressing concern that Turkiye is taking the place of Iran and Russia in Syria and this, claim some, is limiting Israels freedom of action. The Gulf States, however, provide a more diplomatic option for Damascus. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and even Qatar although Israel would be sceptical of the latter have made overtures to the new Syrian authorities, and they could be expected to invest heavily in Syrias economy and infrastructure in the coming years. Such partnerships could be used to get Damascus and Tel Aviv talking. For now, therefore, Syrias administration is using a diplomatic hand to counter Israeli aggression, in the hope that the occupation state will not see Al-Sharaa and his colleagues as a security threat. The big question is: how will Israel respond? The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment. Muhammad Hussein is an International Politics graduate and political analyst on Middle Eastern affairs, primarily focusing on the regions of the Gulf, Iran, Syria and Turkey, as well as their relation to Western foreign policy. By Heidi Norman, UNSW Sydney (The Conversation) Australia is on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation transformation, as our energy systems shift to clean, renewable forms of power. First Nations peoples, the original custodians of this land, must be central to and benefit from this transition. That is the key message of the federal governments new First Nations Clean Energy Strategy, launched on Friday. The government has committed A$70 million to help realise its aims. I was part of a committee that helped guide the government on the strategy. It involved more than a year of consultation with First Nations communities across Australia, plus input from industry and state and territory governments. Australia has pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Of the renewable energy infrastructure needed to achieve this, about half will be developed on First Nations land. First Nations peoples have cared for Country for 65,000 years. Australias renewable energy transition must be on their terms. The strategy released today will guide this process so lets take a look at what it contains. Image by Torok Toce Tibor from Pixabay 1. Get clean energy into First Nations communities The strategy emphasises the need to establish renewable energy in First Nations communities and make homes more energy-efficient. Electricity supply to these communities is often limited, unreliable and more expensive than elsewhere in Australia. Many remote communities across northern Australia also rely on back-up diesel power for much of the day. This is a highly polluting source of energy and hugely expensive to service. Some remote communities use pre-paid electricity cards to access energy. This is expensive and those who cannot afford to pay often self-disconnect from the supply. And remote First Nations houses many of which are poorly built and insulated can become dangerously hot which causes significant health problems. 2. Enable equitable partnerships Equitable partnerships between First Nations peoples, industry and governments allow First Nations people to consent to projects on their terms. It also reduces risks, costs and delays for proponents. The strategy aims to increase the capacity of First Nations peoples to actively take part in decisions about clean energy projects and policies. First Nations people should have access to culturally appropriate advice and resources. This will arm them to better understand the opportunities and risks of, say, a solar farm proposed near their community. It also means helping First Nations people participate in and benefit from projects for example through skills training or help negotiating agreements. Photo by Joao Romano on Unsplash 3. Ensure First Nations people benefit economically In times of significant economic change, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have usually been left behind. This time, history must not repeat. Acceleration in Australias clean energy industry will create major economic and employment opportunities. First Nations peoples must be supported to seize them. For instance, First Nations peoples comprise just 1.9% of Australias clean energy workforce, which presents an enormous opportunity for increased participation. Actions identified in the strategy include supporting First Nations energy businesses, including ensuring access to financial support. Other measures include developing a First Nations workforce by building on success stories such as the Indigenous Ranger program. Recognition of Aboriginal land rights has led to a vast estate owned or managed by Indigenous people. The majority is in remote areas in northern Australia, far from population centres. But the Indigenous estate in south-eastern Australia is not insignificant and will prove vital in the new clean energy economies. 4. Put Country and culture at the centre The strategy calls for First Nations peoples connection to land and sea Country, and their cultural knowledge and heritage, to be respected during the clean energy transition. It acknowledges that clean energy harnesses the natural elements such as sun, wind and water and First Nations peoples knowledge of Country, developed over millennia, can greatly improve the way projects are designed and implemented. It says governments and the clean energy industry must become more culturally competent so they can work collaboratively with First Nations peoples. Towards autonomy and self-determination Actions in the strategy are designed to complement the Closing the Gap agreement, which aims to close the health and life expectancy gap between First Nations peoples and non-Indigenous Australians. Closing the Gap targets include: realising economic participation and development social and emotional wellbeing access to information and services so First Nations people can make informed decisions about their lives. Several priorities identified in the strategy are already in place, to some degree. For example, the Capacity Investment Scheme under which the government underwrites the risk of investing in new renewable energy projects requires proponents to demonstrate First Nations engagement and commitments. And New South Wales Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap requires energy proponents to meet First Nations targets for employment and procurement. However, much work is needed to translate the new strategy into real benefits on the ground, and to realise the aspirations of First Nations peoples for autonomy and self-determination. A hopeful initiative First Nations peoples are already highly vulnerable to the damaging effects of climate change. It threatens to make their Country unlivable, leading to a new wave of dispossession. For that reason and others, we need the clean energy transition to work. The strategy is an optimistic and hopeful initiative. Done right, it will ensure the continents original custodians benefit socially and economically from the enormous changes ahead. Over the last 60 years, various government policies in Australia have sought to boost First Nations economic development. But the efforts have been stymied by a lack of capacity and resources. If this new strategy is to succeed, further funding and ongoing monitoring is needed to ensure its aims are achieved. As Australia bids to host the United Nations climate change conference in 2026, in partnership with Pacific nations, we must show a commitment to elevating the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples around the world including on home soil. Heidi Norman, Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, Convenor: Indigenous Land & Justice Research Group, UNSW Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. PERTH, AUSTRALIA and VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 2, 2025 / Sarama Resources Ltd. ("Sarama" or the "Company") (ASX:SRR) (TSX-V:SWA) is pleased to advise the appointment of Michael Bohm as Non-Executive Director, effective 1 January 2025. Mr. Bohm is a seasoned Director and Mining Engineer in the resources industry. His career spans roles as a mining engineer, mine manager, study manager, project manager, project director, and managing director. He has played a direct role in numerous mine developments across the gold, nickel, and diamond sectors. He is a current director of ASX listed Riedel Resources and has previously been a Director of ASX listed Perseus Mining Limited, Ramelius Resources Limited, Mincor Resources NL and Cygnus Metals Limited. Sarama also wishes to advise that Steven Zaninovich has resigned as a director of the company due to changing work commitments, effective 31 December 2024. The Board thanks Mr. Zaninovich for his dedication and commitment for the last 4 and a half years and wishes him well in his future endeavours. Sarama's Chairman, Andrew Dinning commented: "We are pleased to welcome Michael Bohm as a director. Michael's extensive experience, including his valuable contributions to Ramelius during its early years, is especially relevant as Sarama is currently rebuilding its operations in Western Australia's prolific Eastern Goldfields. This includes the recent acquisition of the promising Cosmo Gold Project, covering the entire 50 kilometers of the Cosmo Newbery greenstone belt which we believe presents a significant opportunity for the Company. We would also like to sincerely thank Steven Zaninovich for his valuable contribution during what has been a very challenging time for the business and wish him well in his future endeavours." For further information, please contact: Andrew Dinning Sarama Resources Ltd e: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. t: +61 8 9363 7600 This announcement has been authorised by the Board of Sarama Resources. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Thursday, January 2, 2024 - Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects, Dennis Itumbi, has clarified whether Deputy President Kithure Kindiki was slapped by President William Rutos powerful aide, Farouk Kibet, for refusing to toe the line. Since Christmas Day, rumors have circulated that Kindiki was being frustrated by Farouk, forcing him to skip three of President William Rutos events in Western Kenya, including the New Year ushering at Kisii State Lodge on Tuesday. Taking to social media, Itumbi labelled the allegations as baseless, challenging critics to craft lies with more substance. Itumbi reiterated that both Ruto and Kindiki are focused on delivering their administrations promises and that any attempts to drive a wedge between them are futile. He stated that in the New Year, the administrations' successes and projects would do the talking. "Ati DP Kindiki Kithure was slapped by Farouk. uwongo. ati, there is a fallout; please craft uwongo that lasts. "The president and his deputy are busy implementing the plan. This year, the projects and programmes will speak. 2025, we will point out your lies in real time," Itumbi wrote on X The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2024 - There was drama at Bukhungu Stadium on Wednesday after Lugari Member of Parliament Nabii Nabwera reportedly roughed up Kakamega County Governors personal assistant. According to Senator Boni Khalwale, the MP confronted the Governors PA and slapped him during President William Rutos impromptu visit to the Stadium which is under construction. The MP for Lugari, Nabii Nabwera, today shocked us when he slapped a PA to Kakamega County Governor! This was at Bukhungu Stadium when the president took on the contractor, who is the subject for the stalled Bukhungu Stadium! Reason? Will tell,'' Khalwale tweeted. Ruto slammed the contractor, who is alleged to be the Governors PA, for the delayed completion of the stadium. He stated that it was unacceptable that the project was still in its early stages. Wondering why the project had stalled, Ruto told the contractor to be honest if he was unable to complete the work, so the government could consider hiring another contractor. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Thursday, January 2, 2025 - Below is an official statement from renowned blogger Francis Gaitho after DCI said he is a wanted man. Thank you to all for the calls and messages of goodwill. To members of the mainstream media who write DCI press releases copy-paste without verifying details, kindly include that I will be presenting myself at DCI headquarters on Monday 7th January at 10am accompanied by my lawyers. Im not a criminal. Im not a murderer. Im not a capital offender. I just tweet. Freedom of speech is a constitutional entitlement and I exercise it to the best of my ability. Other criminals are walking free out here but mine is political persecution because many of these cases have civil remedies. This latest tweet by DCI is crafted to evoke fear and isolate me from friends and family as they know my lawyers and could have served them directly. We hope you will be there to cover us. In light of all the abductions and enforced disappearances, media coverage will greatly assist in enforcing accountability from law enforcement agencies. Francis Gaitho. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Thursday, January 2, 2025 - A few days ago, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua alleged that a man called Abel, who is a cousin to a high-ranking government official, is leading a secret unit that has been abducting Kenyan youths. It is now emerging that Abel is a cousin to President William Ruto. Renowned social media personality Francis Gaitho shared his photos on X and alleged that his office is based on the Cooperative Bank Building's 21st floor. He is a retired army general and reportedly leads a team of 5 rogue state agents. Check out Gaithos tweet. The Kenyan DAILY POST. Thursday, January 2, 2025 - Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has maintained that a cousin to a senior government official is behind the recent abductions of Kenyan youths. Speaking at a function, Gachagau threatened to release a photo of Abel, claiming that Kenyans will see his uncanny resemblance to the senior government official once his photo is made public. Gachagua further said that the 35-year-old former DCI officer whose photo circulated online recently is not the Abel he was referring to. That is not the Abel. NIS is trying to mislead Kenyans. The Abel I am talking about is a cousin to a senior government official, he said. Watch the video. Hiyo story ya Abel Riggy G aliwageuzia mbaya sana pic.twitter.com/AJJAUYIU1s The Government Critic (@magwaz3) January 1, 2025 The Kenyan DAILY POST. Thursday, January 2, 2025 - Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi has forgiven all the Gen Zs who torched his club in Eldoret. In a statement, Sudi also vowed to seek the release of all those accused of burning and vandalizing his Timba XO club. The legislator stated that as he begins the New Year, he will work to secure the release of suspects arrested for vandalizing his high-end club located along the Eldoret-Nakuru Highway If I have wronged anyone, I ask for forgiveness. Those who wronged me last year have forgiven them. Even those who burnt down my place (the club), I will remove them from prison, Sudi stated. In his statement, Sudi emphasized the importance of forgiveness and moving forward rather than dwelling on past grievances. He articulated that holding onto anger would not benefit him or the community at large. Instead, he believes that forgiveness is a powerful tool that can foster healing and reconciliation within society. Sudi, who is a close ally to President William Ruto, saw his club vandalized and burnt down in the wake of the anti-government protests that had rocked the country in June 2024. On June 25, protesters in Eldoret stormed Sudis club, looted it, and set it ablaze. The establishment had been opened just weeks earlier in a colorful ceremony attended by Sudi and several other MPs Protesters opposing the Finance Bill 2024 marched from Eldoret CBD to the club, where they broke glass walls, windows, and doors. Police had to be called in to try and salvage the looting that had begun as protesters gained entry into the club and made away with some valuable items. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2025 - President William Ruto has reportedly brought on board former Mungiki leader, Maina Njenga, and Meru-based political activist, Mike Macarena, to his government. Maina and Macarena were members of the Azimio One Kenya Alliance during the 2022 election, where they supported former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's presidential bid. As part of his ongoing efforts to unite the nation, Ruto has enlisted Maina Njenga and Macarena to campaign for him in the Mt. Kenya region. In the last election, the Mt. Kenya region overwhelmingly voted for Ruto but with the impeachment of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua last year, the President seems to have lost popularity in the vote-rich region. To boost his chances of re-election in 2027, Ruto has sought the services of Maina Njenga and Macarena to cut the influence of Rigathi Gachagua. The two have been tasked with the job of ensuring Rigathi Gachagua doesnt have any successive gathering or meeting in the region. The two have reportedly been offered millions of shillings in return. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2025 President William Ruto has been forced to go back to the drawing board over his appointments. This follows the High Court's nullification of former President Uhuru Kenyatta's cousin, Captain Kungu Muigai's appointment as Chairperson of the Kenya Cultural Centre Council after barely a year in office The High Court declared the appointment null and void, following a petition filed challenging the same. This followed a petition filed by David Njoe Kithunka, who moved to court seeking orders to declare the appointment unlawful. He argued that the then Cabinet Secretary, Ababu Namwamba, had violated the law in appointing Muigai. The petitioner claimed that Namwamba bypassed the Kenya Cultural Centre Council by appointing Muigai to the position, despite the law vesting the authority to make such appointments in the council. Justice Lawrence Mugambi ruled that the appointment be immediately revoked, terming it as invalid, null, and void. Muigai was supposed to serve as a member of the council and chairperson until January 20, 2025, with the court's ruling however remaining silent on what would be the implication of him having served almost for the whole substantive term. Muigai rose to the position following an appointment done on January 21, 2023, by Namwamba via a gazette notice. Consequently, Justice Mugambi directed the Kenya Cultural Centre Council to elect its new chairperson per the law. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2024 - Youthful activist Morara Kebaso has dismissed claims that he is someone's project. Speaking in an interview with NTV aired on Wednesday, Kebaso said he is an independent leader, only fighting for the interests of Kenyans. I am not anybodys project and I have never thought of being anybodys project. I am my own man, made by the Kenyans who stand with me, he said. Kebaso added that he sees no need to consolidate the youth vote for the purpose of selling it to any candidate, stating that with the young peoples votes, he is as good as a president. He, however, noted that he may have to work with other like-minded leaders, asking them to trust him to make good decisions. He advised his critics, who believe that he is another persons project, to take note of his actions. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2025 - National Assembly Majority leader, Kimani Ichungwah, has dismissed claims of abductions in the country. Speaking on Wednesday, Ichungwah, who is also the Kikuyu Member of Parliament, stated that the Kenya Kwanza Alliance government under President William Ruto has no business abducting young people. The outspoken MP argued that if the government intends to pursue critics of the Kenya Kwanza administration online, there is no need for abductions, as the Misuse of Computers and Cybercrimes Act 2018 provides a legal framework for arrests and charges. "We want to challenge the DCI, the issue of people insulting others on social media. There is a law. And the government of Kenya has no business abducting anyone on the basis of what they say on social media," Ichung'wah said. He further claimed that some individuals reportedly abducted are actually hiding in Airbnbs with their lovers. "I have seen others going to lock themselves inside Airbnbs with their girlfriends. They hide there for three days so that people can say that they have been abducted," Ichungwah added. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2025 - In its end-of-the-year message to its members and Kenyans, Former President Uhuru Kenyattas Jubilee party unleashed a scathing attack on President William Rutos administration. In the statement by Jubilee Secretary-General Jeremiah Kioni, Uhurus party maintained that the Kenya Kwanza administration reeks of corruption, incompetence, and inaction. 2024 laid bare the failures of our healthcare and education systems, systems meant to uplift, protect, and empower us. These failures are not accidents; they are the outcomes of neglect, incompetence, and corruption, Kioni remarked. Corruption has become the hallmark of this administration, and it has stolen the future we owe to the next generation. "It is clear, now more than ever, that this regime is beyond redemption. The party castigated the ruling coalition of police heavy-handedness on peaceful protesters, abductions, and the fatal shooting of several others. Our nation has borne the scars of the senseless killings of peaceful protesters, lives cut short for demanding justice and equality. We endured state-sanctioned abductions that strike fear into the hearts of those who dare to speak truth to power, Kioni observed. Kioni vowed to continue in pursuit of accountability for public and state officers, noting that those found to have abused power in any sector would be brought to face the law. He urged Kenyans to join them in their push for accountability. As we embark on the journey into 2025, we urge Kenyans to remain steadfast, organized and united in our mission to restore our hope and integrity and heal the social fabric of our beloved nation, he appealed. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2024 - Former Mungiki leader, Maina Njenga, has vowed to teach former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua a lesson for undermining President William Ruto in the Mt. Kenya region. Since his impeachment, Gachagua has been traversing the vote-rich region, terming Ruto a traitor, a conman, and a man who doesnt fulfill his promises. Speaking at Kabiruini Grounds on Tuesday, Maina urged the Mt. Kenya residents to rally behind Ruto, emphasizing that he means well for the country. Maina further said it was Gachagua who was impeached and not the entire Mt Kenya region. "This region gave Ruto over 47% of the vote to send him to the State House and we will remain in his administration. "If one person was kicked out it doesnt mean the whole community is out of government," he said, taking a swipe at Gachagua. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2024 - Former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga has urged the Mt. Kenya electorate to support President William Ruto to help him fulfill the promises made during the 2022 presidential campaign. Speaking at Kabiruini Grounds on December 31st, Maina, surrounded by a crowd of young men, rallied hundreds of youth to support President William Ruto and Deputy President Kithure Kindiki. Considered controversial by some quarters, Njenga stated the region must embrace President William Ruto and his Kenya Kwanza Alliance administration. Maina further revealed that he was in contact with key Mt Kenya figures, including former president Uhuru Kenyatta, asserting that the meeting was held with their knowledge. "This region gave Ruto over 47% of the vote to send him to State House and we will remain in his administration. "If one person was kicked out it doesnt mean the whole community is out of government," he said taking a swipe at the former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua. Njenga accused Gachagua of misleading the region by claiming it had been abandoned by the government. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2024 - Kapsaret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi has slammed Kenyan youths, known as Gen Zs, for disrespecting the President and other leaders. Speaking at a public function, Sudi urged parents to instill discipline in Gen Zs, claiming that most of them have poor upbringing. Parents, lets speak to our children. Some of us were taken to Sunday school when growing up and taught how to respect our elders, Sudi said. Sudi added his voice on the current abductions of Kenyan youths disrespecting the President on social media and implied that the abductions were justified. There is no way you can post a photo of the President in a coffin and wish him death and then cry out about abductions, Sudi said. The vocal MP, who is among President Rutos close allies, said he wishes the Interior Ministry docket was assigned to him so that he could deal with those disrespecting the President ruthlessly. Watch video. The Kenyan DALY POST. Thursday, January 2,2025 - Chaos and pandemonium rocked a church in Nyandarua county on Wednesday after police lobbed tear gas canisters in the church after congregants allegedly started chanting 'Ruto must go' The incident happened at PEFA church Miharati when police lobbed tear gas canisters after residents started shouting 'Ruto must go' Congregants screamed as they scrambled to exit the premises. As the smoke intensified, they were seen covering their noses to avoid inhaling the choking fumes. "Wooi, you person, please move," one congregant was heard saying, likely trying to get someone standing in front of him to move. Just when they thought things couldnt get worse, the lights began flickering, causing more panic among congregants. "Wooi, Jesus! Jesus! Can we move backward?" congregants were heard shouting one after another. The incident comes at a time when many Kenyans are demanding accountability from President William Ruto, especially at the height of ongoing abductions in the country. The Kenyan DAILY POST Thursday, January 2, 2025 - The public has been warned about the fraudulent practices of an agency operating under questionable circumstances, which has allegedly defrauded a client of Ksh 170,000 with a fake promise of securing a job opportunity in Dubai. According to the victim, the agency assured a swift process that would take no more than two weeks but after the payment was made, the timelines began to stretch indefinitely with no tangible progress. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the victim requested a refund but repeated follow-ups and requests proved futile. Now, ten months later, no refund has been issued, despite multiple attempts to follow up. Worse still, their offices have become unreachable, with no trace of the operations that once seemed legitimate. The complainant, having taken out a loan to fund the payment, is now left with the burden of servicing a debt for a service that was never rendered. The woman behind the agency is not merely a business proprietor but also an aspiring politician who sought to contest the Nairobi Senatorial seat in 2022 under a political outfit associated with former cabinet secretary Moses Kuria. Kuria is currently a Special Senior Advisor in the Council of Economic Advisors to President William Ruto. "Hi Nyakundi. I would like to bring to light the dishonest practices of an agency called Doxtar Consult Limited, owned by Julie Wanjiru Wahome. I paid them Ksh 170,000 for them to facilitate a Dubai-related job. After making the payment, they assured that the process would take two weeks. However, after the two weeks elapsed, they started giving excuses that eventually stretched into months. Frustrated by the delays, I requested a refund, which they promised to process. Unfortunately, it has now been 10 months, and I have received nothing but empty promises. Despite numerous follow-ups, no refund has been issued. To make matters worse, their offices are no longer operational or accessible I am appealing for your help in exposing this agency so that others can avoid falling victim to their fraudulent actions. I would like to urge them to refund my money. Please hide my identity. I took a loan to facilitate the payment and I'm left servicing a loan that I didn't see the results of. She was vying for the Nairobi Senatorial seat, so she is well connected." The Kenyan DAILY POST. Thursday, January 2, 2025 Kiambu Senator and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachaguas ally, Karungo Thangwa, has questioned the process behind Raila Odingas nomination as Kenyas candidate for the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairmanship In a statement, Thangwa claimed there was no public participation in Railas decision to pursue the AUC Chairmanship. Thangwa underscored the importance of transparency and public participation in matters of such significance. To select Kenyans to represent us at the Olympics, we hold playoffs to identify the best. To select players for the Harambee Stars, we also conduct playoffs to choose the finest. "To select Kenyans to represent us in the EALA Parliament, there is voting, he explained. Thangwa further questioned the criteria used to select Raila as the countrys candidate for the AUC Chairmanship The big question is: as a country, how did we arrive at sending Raila Odinga to vie for the AU Chairmanship? Was there any public participation, playoffs, or consultations? How exactly did we decide? he added. Raila announced his candidacy for the AUC Chairperson position in February 2024. The election to succeed the current Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, is scheduled for February 2025. The Kenyan DAILY POST. China's first energy law officially enforced to ensure national energy security, promote green transition Global Times) 10:04, January 02, 2025 China's first energy law officially came into force on Wednesday. Officials and experts highlighted that, as the world's largest energy producer and consumer, China's first comprehensive energy law fills a critical legislative gap in the sector, which helps ensure national energy security and serves as a cornerstone for promoting a green and low-carbon transition. The law was officially passed on November 8, 2024. It consists of nine chapters, including contents concerning energy planning, energy development and utilization, the energy market system, energy reserves and emergency response, energy technology innovation, supervision, as well as management and legal responsibilities, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA). The energy law explicitly sets the goal of "actively and steadily advancing carbon peak and carbon neutrality" in its legislative purpose. For the first time, it legally stipulates in the general provisions the need to "accelerate the establishment of a dual control system for both total carbon emissions and intensity." Additionally, the energy law specifies the requirements for energy companies and users to be equipped with carbon emission measurement devices. China has announced that it will peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Also, for the first time, the energy law includes hydrogen energy in national legislation, clearly defining hydrogen's role as an energy source, according to CCTV news. It also establishes the legal status of green certificates, encourages users to prioritize the use of renewable energy, and supports the development of new technologies, business models, and innovations such as advanced energy storage, smart microgrids, and more. Currently, the international energy security situation is complex and challenging, while domestic energy development and transition face a range of evolving issues. As China embarks on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects, the nation's energy security faces a series of risks and challenges, an official from the National Energy Administration said in a statement while explaining the law. It takes into account the trend of continued growth in energy demand driven by high-quality economic and social development. It balances both current and long-term needs, as well as traditional and new energy sources, and establishes comprehensive regulations for the development, utilization, production, supply, and consumption of various energy types, the official said. Previously, China had enacted several individual energy laws and regulations, such as the electricity law, coal law, energy conservation law, renewable energy law, and urban gas management regulations. Energy is a unique commodity, much like food, as it is essential to ensure its security, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Wednesday. "It legally recognizes many practices in the market, offering a clear roadmap for ensuring energy security while driving the energy transition," Lin said. China's energy security capacity and green low-carbon development level were further strengthened in 2024, with the energy self-sufficiency rate maintained at over 80 percent, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing head of the NEA Wang Hongzhi. In 2025, the NEA will vigorously promote the development and utilization of wind and solar power, with an additional 200 million kilowatts of installed wind and solar capacity expected for the year. Renewable energy consumption is projected to exceed 1.1 billion tons of standard coal, Wang said. (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) Thursday, January 2, 2024 - Deputy President Kithure Kindiki was reportedly roughed up by President William Rutos personal assistant Farouk Kibet at State House. According to blogger Aoko Otieno, Farouk slapped Kindiki when he complained about frequent arrests and abductions of innocent Kenyan youths, especially in his backyard. Kindiki wondered how he would defend the government while young Kenyans from his backyard were being abducted. Nitawatetea aje na mna abduct their kids?" Kindiki reportedly told Farouk, leading to an altercation. Aoko also claims that Kindikis wife is on medication due to high blood pressure as her husband faces mistreatment from powerful men around President Ruto. Kindiki was conspicuously missing from the New Year celebration at Kisii State Lodge, graced by President William Ruto on Tuesday evening, raising eyebrows. Word on the street is that Kindiki declined to accompany Ruto to Kisii State Lodge due to alleged mistreatment by the Presidents powerful aide, Farouk Kibet. Kindiki has in the last few weeks been complaining of constant harassment and bullying by Farouk Kibet. The Kenyan DAILY POST. James Cox A status yellow low temperature and ice warning has been issued for the entire country. It will begin at 6pm on Thursday evening and remain in place until 11am on Friday morning. Met Eireann is warning of widespread frost and ice, as temperatures fall to minus 3 degrees or lower in many places overnight, while they could fall as low as -5 degrees. The national forecaster warned that the conditions will bring hazardous driving conditions and "animal welfare issues". The forecast for Thursday night reads: "Cold tonight with clear spells and while it'll be dry in most areas, there'll be well scattered showers, mainly in the north and west, some wintry. Lowest temperatures of -5 to 0 degrees with widespread frost and some ice developing. Some fog and freezing fog will form too. Winds will be mostly light west to northwesterly or variable, but will be fresher in northern coastal parts." On Friday morning, fog and frost are forecast. However, the weather will then clear with tempatures of 2 to 6 degrees. The weekend will be very cold, according to the forecaster, with some very disruptive and impactful weather likely. An area of low pressure will dominate the weather, bringing heavy rain, sleet and some disruptive amounts of snow. Temperatures will drop to -3 degrees on Friday night, dropping further to -5 degrees on Sunday night. The cold snap will extend into next week, with lows of -10 degrees expected on Tuesday night. It will be bitterly cold on Wednesday with freezing fog, lying snow and icy conditions. Mainly dry, with just well scattered showers in the north and northwest. Daytime temperatures could be as low as -5 to +2 degrees. Met Eireann meteorologist Liz Coleman said: Its going to feel much colder than it has recently, with daytime temperatures in the low single figures and night-time temperatures falling below zero in most areas. Widespread frost is expected with some ice, although generally dry conditions will limit ice formation to mainly areas of standing water or run-off. Nevertheless, do take care while out and about. While it will be cold, it will be mainly dry with sunny spells as the high pressure will prevent any significant rainfall." In counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry, there is a yellow ice warning in place from the UK Met Office. This warning came into effect on Wednesday, and expires at 10am on Thursday morning. Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue TD, has commended farmers across Ireland, including Kilkenny, for their efforts to protect water bodies and improve water quality, enhance habitats and reduce agricultural emissions. The work being done by farmers as part of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) will have long-term benefits for all of us, Minister McConalogue said. As well as taking actions to protect water courses, for example, landowners have also committed to planting more than 2,000 kilometres of hedgerows and approximately 580,000 native trees. This illustrates some of the hugely positive contributions being made by farmers to the countrys environmental sustainability. We should not underestimate the value farmers are adding to our landscape and our lives, and how important the work that they do is. It goes beyond the tangible benefits of quality food production. As part of ACRES, farmers are helping to conserve breeding waders such as curlews and snipes; maintaining and developing coastal habitats such as dunes and saltmarshes; supporting rough grazing to benefit hen harriers, barn owls and small birds and mammals; and maintaining semi-natural grassland habitats for pollinators, the Minister added. As well as planting hedgerows and native tree species, under ACRES, farmers are also maintaining more than 10,000km of traditional dry stonewalls, installing tens of thousands of owl, bird and bat boxes, and are rejuvenating more than 1,400 kilometres of hedges. Extensive work is also being carried out by farmers in management and protection of approximately 560,000 hectares of upland peatland. Farmers have also committed to a series of actions to control invasive species, improve grazing practices, delay mowing and grazing to protect ground-nesting birds and change vegetation on land, among a range of other agri-environmental actions. I want to thank the more than 54,000 ACRES participants for their commitment to putting the environment at the core of Irish farming. It is particularly encouraging to see strong interest in taking further environmental actions which complement these already extensive efforts, including further tree planting and establishment of additional hedges through the schemes Non-Productive Investments programme. I acknowledge there have been challenges associated with the scale and administration of some elements of the scheme, but I do not want to lose sight of the enormous amount of work already completed and in progress and the positive impact this will have. My Department is working to ensure that remaining issues are resolved early in the new year, Minister McConalogue concluded. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Windy with periods of thunderstorms later in the day. A few storms may be severe. High 77F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming cloudy and windy after midnight. Low 37F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Gusty winds with thunderstorms becoming likely in the afternoon. A few storms may be severe. High 77F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies in the evening followed by cloudy and windy conditions late. Low 37F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. The sighting is crucial to the survival of an endangered Aussie species. Several bushfires have been burning through a national park in Victoria and while authorities scramble to get the blaze under control, rangers have made a heartening discovery from the air. A mob of southern brush-tailed rock wallabies initially believed to have perished after their habitat was destroyed at Grampians National Park (GNP) has been sighted alive and well, and while only four are confirmed alive, rangers are hopeful more may have survived. Authorities are now rushing to provide food for the native animals as they are at a high risk of starvation after large areas of the bush was destroyed. "The critical focus for us is getting in there as quickly as possible to make sure that we've got enough food and supplements for those animals to survive," Charlie Richardson, GNP area chief ranger said. "They can be quite clever in protecting themselves from the initial fire, and then that's why it is so critical to get it to get in there as quickly as possible, to make sure that they have enough food." Chief ranger Charlie Richardson explained their 'first priority' is to ensure the wallabies have enough food to survive. Source: Facebook/Forest Fire Management Victoria Species of wallabies are most endangered mammal in state There are less than 100 southern brush-tailed rock wallabies left in the Victorian wild and the food packages of vegetables, macropod pellets and lucerne hay are vital to maintaining the already endangered mammals. ADVERTISEMENT The species were introduced to the national park in 2008 in a bid to safeguard the species from extinction and it's only one of two in the state, with the recent bushfires casting a devastating blow. "The brush-tail rock wallaby is so endangered largely due to feral pests, predators [such as] foxes, cats that are devastating in the Grampians landscape," Charlie said. "It's a small colony, anywhere from 15 to 50 is estimated at this point, and we've got a monitoring program and a predator control program that's been underway for a number of years." Aussies reacted to the discovery with relief, with one describing the find as "brilliant. Hundreds of bushfires rage during Aussie summer It is common in the summer to have hundreds of bushfires in the country, however, many are often contained and short-lived. However, the bushfire at GNP, which was caused by a lightning strike, is not yet under control and the park remains closed to the public, according to the VicEmergency. The fire has burned through a patch of land estimated to be as large as Singapore. The bushfires have burnt through land the size of Singapore at Grampians National Park. Source: Hamilton Fire Brigade A second blaze became active this week spanning 14 hectares and, as of Monday, there were 35 confirmed property losses. ADVERTISEMENT Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited the area on Saturday and called the bushfires a "devastating fire event". "We live in a country which has harsh conditions," he said. "It has always had fires, it has always had these extreme weather events, but the truth is they are becoming more frequent and more intense." Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Weather Alert ...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON FRIDAY TO 1 AM CDT SATURDAY... * WHAT...South winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph expected. * WHERE...Portions of south central, southwest, and west central Illinois and central, east central, northeast, and southeast Missouri. * WHEN...From noon Friday to 1 AM CDT Saturday. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution. && Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor ("GWM") sold a total of 1,233,292 vehicles in 2024, representing a slight year-on-year growth of 0.21%, according to a post on GWM's WeChat account. Of the vehicles sold last year, the new energy vehicle (NEV) sector contributed sales of 321,795 units, which jumped 22.82% from a year earlier. In addition, GWM reported a sales volume of 453,141 vehicles created by its overseas market business in 2024, showing a 43.39% leap over a year earlier. It is noteworthy that both annual new energy vehicle and overseas sales broke historical records in 2024. Photo credit: GWM GWM also announced that the sales of vehicles priced over 200,000 yuan amounted to 309,588 units last year, displaying a 37.13% jump from a year ago. In December alone, GWM recorded a sales volume of 135,286 vehicles (+20.25%), including 42,265 NEVs. In the month, the automakers overseas sales came in at 41,293 units. Breaking down the full-year sales performance by specific brands, HAVAL ranked highest with 706,234 vehicles sold last year, representing a 1.25% decline from the previous year. WEY brand recorded a sales volume of 54,728 vehicles, which jumped 31.55% over a year earlier. Both Great Wall Pick-up and ORA brands faced a year-on-year drop in their respective annual sales. In addition, TANK sold 231,001 vehicles in the year, gaining a year-on-year leap of 42.12%. Regarding the single-month performance, HAVAL, Great Wall Pick-up, and ORA brands saw their respective vehicle sales decrease over the prior-year period, while both WEY and TANK boasted a two-digit year-on-year jump. Acting President Choi Sang-mok said Thursday the government will consider implementing additional measures to stimulate the economy in the first quarter, if necessary, amid projections of slow growth for the year. "Considering significant domestic and international uncertainties, (the government) will reassess overall economic conditions during the first quarter, including the policy trajectory of the new U.S. administration and the state of the domestic economy, and if necessary, will devise additional measures to bolster economic stability," Choi said. He made the remarks during a meeting with ministers responsible for economic affairs, following the government's announcement that the economy is projected to grow by 1.8 percent this year, lower than earlier estimates. The government has emphasized its primary focus for the year will be on managing risks rather than launching a wide range of new policy initiatives. "Above all, we will dedicate our full efforts to the recovery of people's livelihoods," added Choi, who also serves as deputy prime minister for economic affairs and finance minister. (Yonhap) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have skipped his annual New Year's visit to the mausoleum of his late grandfather and father for the second consecutive year, according to state media on Thursday. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the country's state media, reported that government and party cadres and military commanders visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun the previous day, but Kim was not among those listed. The participants pledged their unwavering determination to advance the country's prosperity under the guidance of Kim Jong-un, the KCNA said. The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang enshrines the bodies of the state founder and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il. Since assuming power in late 2011, the incumbent leader had visited the mausoleum on the first day of every year, except in 2018 and last year. Kim has also appeared to significantly reduce the frequency of his visits to the mausoleum in recent years, having previously visited on key anniversaries, such as those of the birthdays and death of his father and grandfather, as well as the anniversary of the party's establishment. Since 2022, there have been no North Korean reports of him visiting the mausoleum for Kim Jong-il's birthday on Feb. 16 or Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15. An official at the unification ministry said that Kim has shown an irregular pattern of visiting or sometimes skipping visits to the mausoleum on those occasions since 2022, as he has sought to solidify his independent authority. "In the past, (Kim) had an inevitable tendency to rely absolutely on his ancestor leaders in the early phase of his rule, but after 10 years, he has appeared to be seeking to establish his standalone status," the official said. (Yonhap) Acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho held talks with U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg on Thursday and reaffirmed their steadfast bilateral alliance, Seoul's defense ministry said. In the meeting held at the defense ministry in Seoul, both sides noted how the South Korea-U.S. alliance remains strong despite changes in the security and political situation, the ministry said in a release. Kim thanked the outgoing ambassador for his efforts to substantially advance the alliance since taking his post in July 2022 and asked for his continued support in improving the bilateral relationship. In response, Goldberg expressed his country's unchanged support for the ironclad alliance, the ministry said. (Yonhap) Prosecutors on Thursday were questioning National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik as part of their investigation into the short-lived imposition of martial law last month, officials said. The prosecution's special investigation team handling the case called in Shin earlier in the day to question him as a witness over President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3. Shin is expected to be questioned about the promotions of military commanders, allegedly involved during the hourslong martial law incident, when he served as defense minister before taking his current role at the presidential office. The officials include Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyung, head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-keun, chief of the Army Special Warfare Command, and Lt. Gen. Lee Jin-woo, commander of the Capital Defense Command. Prosecutors will also likely question Shin on whether Yoon and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun spoke to him about martial law, considering claims that Shin was aware of the martial law plan since March last year and that he tried to dissuade it. (Yonhap) By KTimes A court ruled that sexual harassment occurring on the way home after a company gathering can be classified as an occupational injury. The decision highlights that incidents outside of regular working hours and spaces can still establish a causal link to work responsibilities. Judge Shim Woong-bi of the Seoul Administrative Court sided with the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by a public servant against the Ministry of Personnel Management, according to legal sources on Thursday. The public servant had challenged the ministry's decision to deny her claim for occupational medical care. The ruling was finalized on Dec. 20 after neither party appealed. The plaintiff, a local government official, reported that she was subjected to unwanted physical contact by her supervisor early last year. The incident occurred on her way home following a dinner organized by her supervisor, who had suggested the gathering to help team members build connections across departments. The Ministry of Personnel Management rejected the plaintiff's claim for occupational care, arguing that the dinner was not an official work-related event and that the supervisor's actions were a personal deviation unrelated to the plaintiff's professional duties. The public servant, who developed post-traumatic stress disorder due to the harassment, filed a lawsuit to challenge the decision. The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff, overturning the Ministry of Personnel Management's decision and recognizing a causal link between workplace harassment and the public servant's occupational duties. The scope of workplace harassment is not limited to the workplace or working hours, Shim said, acknowledging that the stress-induced mental illness suffered by the plaintiff resulted from work-related factors. The court found the ministrys dismissal of the dinner gathering as a nonwork event to be erroneous, citing that the meeting was proposed by the plaintiff's supervisor and included discussions on work-related matters, making it an extension of work. The court said that the gathering was still work-related, and it cannot be excluded solely because the incident occurred after official working hours. Commuting is closely tied to work in terms of labor provision, and harassment by a superior during the return from a department dinner can be deemed work-related, Shim said. The court also noted the circumstances that left the plaintiff unable to decline the invitation as a newly hired employee, as well as the resulting stress she endured while continuing to work after the incident. Mental illness caused by workplace harassment stems from the inherent risks of workplace relationships and thus should be recognized as an occupational injury, Shim said in the ruling. This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. By Anna J. Park The Constitutional Court formed an eight-member bench as two new justices began their six-year terms on Thursday, paving the way for an accelerated impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol. During the inauguration ceremony earlier Thursday, the two new justices Jeong Gye-seon, nominated by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and Cho Han-chang, recommended by the ruling People Power Party (PPP) pledged that they will make every effort to uphold the constitutional order of the country and ensure the protection of people's fundamental rights. Although the appointment of another justice recommended by the DPK, Ma Eun-hyuk, has been delayed, the court now meets the seven-justice quorum required for deliberations. The Constitutional Court Act's Article 23 stipulates that a minimum of seven justices are required to deliberate cases and mandates the approval of six justices for impeachment decisions. Over the past two and a half months, following the retirement of three justices in October, the court temporarily suspended the "seven-member quorum" requirement and operated with a six-member bench. The establishment of an eight-member bench has addressed concerns and legal questions about the legitimacy of a six-member bench making critical decisions, such as a presidential impeachment. Notably, there is precedent for such cases, as the 2017 impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye was decided by eight justices. With the minimum quorum now met, the impeachment trial of Yoon is expected to gain momentum. The courts spokesperson had previously stated that the court would prioritize deliberating Yoon's case over other impeachment cases. The court is set to hold the second preparatory hearing for Yoons impeachment trial on Friday. During the session, representatives from the National Assembly and Yoons defense team are expected to refine the issues at hand further and coordinate the trial schedule. The session will also likely confirm Yoons position on key issues, discuss potential witnesses for future hearings and address requests for the submission of materials from external agencies. During the first preparatory hearing on Dec. 27, Yoons legal team expressed its intention to challenge the procedural legitimacy of the impeachment trial, questioning its admissibility based on the legal requirements for impeachment. They also said that the Constitutional Courts delivery process was improper. Given that the six-year terms of two justices Moon Hyung-bae and Lee Mi-son are set to expire by April 18, it is expected that the Constitutional Court will arrive at the final ruling on Yoon's impeachment case before their terms end. However, some scholars point out that it is possible the timeline could be extended. Chang Young-soo, a professor specializing in constitutional law at Korea University School of Law, told The Korea Times that there is a chance that when the two justices retire in mid-April, the court will return to a six-member bench. "The justices retiring in April were appointed by the president, thus the acting president cannot appoint their replacements. It is both a precedent and the majority opinion among scholars specialized in the field of constitutional law." "If the court cannot reach a conclusion by April 18, the issue of the six-member bench will recur. With only about three and a half months remaining, it remains uncertain whether all the accumulating legal issues can be resolved at the court," Chang said. He also said the impeachment case of Yoon is getting more complicated than expected, with an increasing number of legal issues, including treason charges and disputes over the legality of a Seoul district court's warrant issuance according to the country's criminal procedure law. As a result, delays in the trial can be possible. Since the president intends to fight the case until the end, each related issue is expected to be contested at the court, which will inevitably take more time. Professor Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, does not view this matter as overly complex but also warned that if the impeachment case is not resolved by April, it could stretch into the end of Yoon's term. "If it is not resolved by then, it will not just be a big problem, but it will lead to significant chaos. While impeachment is a domestic political issue, it is externally linked to the possibility of the crisis of the Korean economy," he said, stressing politicians and the judiciary should work toward minimizing this risk. Yoon encourages protesters to block investigators By Kwak Yeon-soo President Yoon Suk Yeol is urging his supporters to "fight together to protect this country against anti-state forces," sparking protests in response to an ongoing investigation into his botched martial law order and subsequent impeachment proceedings. He is also raising questions about the legitimacy of a detention warrant issued against him, while law enforcement authorities are moving to execute it a move believed to be a tactic to delay the investigation. On Thursday, hundreds of Yoon's supporters staged a rally in front of the presidential residence in central Seoul, in an apparent attempt to physically prevent investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) from executing the warrant to detain the president. Later in the day, the police forcibly dispersed dozens of supporters who stepped out onto the road, blocking traffic. Their protest, which had been taking place for weeks, intensified and swelled in size on Wednesday night after Yoon delivered a rallying message to his supporters. He thanked the protesters who "are making efforts to protect free democracy and the constitutional order of this country" in the cold weather, in a message that was delivered to the supporters in front of the residence on a sheet of A4 paper and also made public by Yoon's legal adviser, Seok Dong-hyeon. Korea is currently in danger due to activities of anti-state forces as well as internal and external forces threatening national sovereignty. I will fight until the end to protect this country," he said in the message. Yoon declared, Im watching you on YouTube livestream, prompting conservative YouTubers among the protesters to increase their broadcasts, amplifying coverage of the event. Amid the intensifying protest, concerns are growing over the possibility of physical clashes between the protesters and CIO investigators who plan to detain Yoon. On Tuesday, the Seoul Western District Court issued a warrant to detain Yoon on charges of leading an insurrection and abuse of power regarding his martial law decree on Dec. 3, 2024, which was later lifted by the National Assembly. The warrant is valid until next Monday. This is the first warrant ever issued to detain a sitting president in the nation's history. With the warrant, investigators can detain Yoon for questioning for up to 48 hours. If they want to arrest him, they have to ask the court to issue a separate arrest warrant. The CIO requested the warrant because Yoon ignored all three summons to appear for questioning. It is coordinating with the police over the timing and method to execute the warrant. It also requested the Presidential Security Service (PSS) to cooperate, warning that any attempt to block the proceeding to detain Yoon could amount to abuse of power and obstruction of public duty. However, Yoons attorney Yoon Gap-geun said the CIO has no right to mobilize the police to detain the embattled president. The attempt by the CIO to detain Yoon and search the presidential residence through the support of police is illegal. Arrest and search warrants must be directly executed by prosecutors and investigators of the CIO, the attorney said. He even suggested that police officers attempting to execute the warrant on behalf of the CIO could be detained by the PSS or "any citizen" for abuse of power or obstruction of public duty a statement critics say could incite Yoon's supporters outside the residence to physically block investigators. In previous search attempts, the PSS blocked investigators from entering Yoon's office and residence, citing national security concerns. The president's message angered the opposition, who accused him of inciting his supporters to clash with the authorities. Instead of reflecting on himself, the president is inciting civil war. The joint investigation team of the CIO, the police and the defense ministry's investigation unit should no longer delay executing the warrant and arrest Yoon, the insurrection ringleader, immediately today," said Rep. Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. Rep. Lee Jun-seok of the minor conservative Reform Party, who previously led the ruling People Power Party (PPP) as chairman, said it is unbelievable that Yoon continues to view the world from the perspective of far-right YouTube channels. The last thing Yoon can do for Korea is to immediately resign. I dont care if Im not able to run for the next presidential election. I just hope Korea goes back to its normal state as soon as possible, Lee wrote on his Facebook page. Lee will be eligible to run in a presidential election after March 31 when he turns 40. Yoons message also irked several lawmakers from the ruling PPP. Yoon needs to stop making nonsensical excuses and playing with words, Rep. Kim Sang-wook said in a radio interview. In addition to the ongoing criminal investigation, the embattled president is also undergoing an impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court, accused of abuse of power and insurrection. The Constitutional Court called for the appointment of the last remaining justice Thursday to restore its nine-member bench to deliberate President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial. On Tuesday, acting President Choi Sang-mok appointed two justices to the Constitutional Court, partially meeting the opposition's demand to fill three vacancies on the nine-member panel before a ruling on Yoon's impeachment. "There is no change in our position that we hope for the prompt completion of the Constitutional Court to ensure a quick trial," Chun Jae-hyun, a spokesperson for the Court, said during a press briefing. The two appointed justices formally began their duties on Wednesday, and are expected to be assigned immediately to the case hearings. By law, at least six votes are required to uphold an impeachment motion. Tuesday's appointment of two justices was expected to ease uncertainties over Yoon's impeachment trial. The court has up to six months to decide whether to remove Yoon from office or reinstate him. (Yonhap) Beijing (Gasgoo)- On January 1, Great Wall Motor's TANK brand officially put the TANK 500 Hi4-Z model onto the market, with both two variants priced at 363,800 yuan. The new model is equipped with the brand's latest Hi4-Z longitudinal dual-motor hybrid architecture, combining a 2.0T engine and two electric motors. Photo credit: Great Wall Motor The TANK 500 Hi4-Z retains the design of the TANK 500 Hi4-T, with dimensions of 5,078mm long, 1,934mm wide, 1,905mm tall, with a 2,850mm wheelbase, and a ground clearance of 210mm. The approach and departure angles are 29 degrees and 24 degrees, respectively, making it adept for off-road capabilities. Photo credit: Great Wall Motor The vehicle features a five-seat layout with Nappa leather seats as standard. It includes a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel, a 14.6-inch central control screen, and a 7-inch rear-row display, which integrates with an HUD for four-screen interaction. The onboard Coffee OS 3 system supports multi-zone voice recognition and wireless connectivity through Huawei HiCar and Carlink. Built on an 800V platform, the TANK 500 Hi4-Z is powered by a 59.05 kWh ternary lithium battery. It achieves a combined range of 1,096km and a battery-powered range of 201km. The vehicle supports 163 kW DC fast charging, which allows it to charge from 30%-80% of its battery capacity in 15 minutes, and offers external power discharge up to 6 kW. By KTimes A dog named Pudding, orphaned after losing its family in the recent Jeju Air crash, has been rescued by an animal rights organization. The animal rights group, Care, said Wednesday that it had rescued Pudding, who had been wandering alone in a village in Yeonggwang County, South Jeolla Province. On its official social media account, Care said, "We determined that it was unsafe for Pudding to roam the village without a caretaker. After contacting the grieving family at the funeral, we decided to look after Pudding until a suitable guardian can be found." According to Care, Pudding had lived in the village with the eldest victim of the Jeju Air crash, a 79-year-old man, and his family. The man, who was nearing his 80s, had traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, with his family but tragically perished in the accident on his way back to the country. His wife, daughter and 6-year-old granddaughter were among the nine family members who lost their lives, leaving Pudding without a caretaker. After the tragedy, Pudding wandered between the family home and the village center, observing cars and buses as if searching for its family. Concerned villagers, moved by Puddings plight, began feeding the dog in the absence of its lost caretakers. Care described their encounter with Pudding: "We found Pudding sitting quietly outside the village hall. When we approached, it ran toward us with excitement, as if still waiting for its family." Pudding has since been transported to Seoul and admitted to a veterinary hospital. "Although Pudding seemed a bit uneasy during the car ride, the dog appears to be calm and gentle," Care said. "We are currently conducting health examinations since its vomit contained harmful food like onions and chicken bones." The organization plans to ensure Pudding receives proper care until a new home is found. This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. By KTimes The recent controversies surrounding President Yoon Suk Yeols close inner circle and their alleged connections to shamanistic practices have sparked sharp criticism from Koreas traditional shamans and spiritual practitioners. Accusations of individuals exploiting shamanism for personal and political gain have not only raised ethical concerns but also deeply offended the shamanic community, which argues that such actions distort the essence of their spiritual traditions and tarnish their collective reputation. Revelations about figures from Yoons administration have intensified the controversy, especially Noh Sang-won, a former defense intelligence command leader, who is linked to the 2024 martial law plot. After his 2018 dishonorable discharge for sexual harassment, Noh turned to shamanism, co-founding a fortune-telling business. Kim Hye-sook, a practitioner of "Hwanghae-do Pyeongsan Sonnoreum Gut," a recognized intangible cultural heritage, expressed outrage. Shamans have always been independent of politics, she said in an interview. These individuals have sullied the name of shamanism, making all of us appear complicit. Kim was reacting to reports that former military intelligence commander Noh was involved in fortune-telling activities and provided spiritual readings for political figures. This fueled speculation about the presence of so-called "shadow shamans" influencing the Yoon administration. Shamans distance themselves from accused individuals Traditional shamans emphasize that figures like Noh and Jeon Seong-bae, also embroiled in allegations, are not true representatives of their community. Jeon, also known as Geon Jin, is a self-proclaimed Buddhist monk and shaman who participated in Yoons 2022 presidential campaign and previously advised Covana Contents, the first ladys art company. A real shaman prioritizes the well-being of the nation and the people, Kim said, recalling her role in the 49-day ritual after the 2008 Sungnyemun Gate fire. Kim Yeon-ok, a shaman who has run a shrine in Gyeonggi Province for over a decade, said, They exploited shamanism to serve their greed and political ambitions, which is unacceptable. Nearby shamans operating near Nohs alleged workplace in Ansan also voiced their frustration. That fortune-telling house cared more about attracting customers than practicing genuine spirituality, one practitioner said. Their actions have cast an unfair shadow on all of us. The Korean Kyungsin Federation, the nation's largest association of shamans, is also considering issuing a statement to distance itself from Noh and Jeon. Its director, Lee Sung-jae, said, Shamanism is fundamentally a spiritual practice dedicated to protecting the country. Using it for personal or political gain is sacrilegious. Damage spreads to fortune-telling and traditional practices The controversy has also affected fortune tellers and other spiritual practitioners. Noh, who studied geomancy after his 2018 discharge, even held lectures on divination. However, local fortune tellers have disavowed his activities. Ive never even heard of him, said the owner of a geomancy center in Seocheon. Its incomprehensible to rely on divination for state affairs. Kang Pan-seok, vice president of the Korean Geomancy Association, said, This is the work of amateurs making baseless claims. Their antics harm the reputation of legitimate practitioners. The fallout has not spared long-standing practitioners. Kim Hye-sook noted that she has received calls asking, Is your business doing okay? She described the situation as a significant blow to their work, saying, For rituals to happen, there needs to be hope in the nation, but this scandal has caused tremendous damage. The Korean Federation of Shamanism is now grappling with how best to restore public trust and shield their practices from further harm. This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik on Thursday pressed acting President Choi Sang-mok to fill the one remaining vacancy at the Constitutional Court as Choi appointed two justices, partially meeting the opposition's demand to fill three vacancies before a ruling on President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment. Earlier this week, Choi held off on the opposition-recommended justice Ma Eun-hyuk until the rival parties reach an agreement. In a Facebook post, Woo said the three judges were recommended via agreements between the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). Presenting documents and remarks by the chiefs of two parties, Woo said, "It is confirmed that the ruling and the opposition parties have reached an agreement (on the recommendation of three judges), acting President Choi should swiftly appoint Ma as a Constitutional Court judge." The DPK had demanded former acting President Han Duck-soo appoint the three justices without delay once motions for their appointments passed the opposition-controlled National Assembly. After Han refused last week, the DPK railroaded the motions and impeached Han, suspending him from duty and putting Choi in his place as interim leader. By law, at least six votes are required to uphold an impeachment motion, which means the appointment of three additional justices could improve the chances of Yoon's impeachment being upheld. The PPP voiced strong regret over Choi's appointments, accusing Choi of succumbing to the opposition's pressure and threats that it will also impeach Choi if he refuses to go ahead with the appointments. (Yonhap) By Ko Chan-jin Located at the heart of Southeast Asia, Malaysia is one of the region's largest refugee-hosting countries with around 192,170 refugees and asylum seekers as of November 2024, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Despite this number, refugees in Malaysia still encounter problems of legal recognition as Malaysia remains a nonsignatory of the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention. Without this formal recognition from the government, life for these refugees continues to remain challenging even after seeking refuge. As time passes and the world continues to grapple with the ongoing refugee crisis, Malaysia finds itself at a crossroads, balancing national sovereignty with the growing demand for compassion and humanity. On the surface, Malaysia is a leading nation in aiding refugees. However, Malaysia at its core still holds largely negative views of asylum seekers and refugees. The country's Immigration Act 1959/1963 views these marginalized communities as illegal immigrants, leading to numerous complications in areas including but not limited to education, health care and employment. While it is challenging and inappropriate to definitively determine the reasons behind the reluctance to ratify the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, the Malaysian government may be concerned that granting legal rights to work for incoming refugees could instill fear among local workers, who may worry about job displacement. However, the labor market tells a different story. Since 2022, the Malaysian construction industry has faced a shortage of over 400,000 workers. As such, granting rights to marginalized people to engage in certain sectors may help alleviate the pressure and counter the stark shortage of workers. Again, attempting to help all of the refugees seek employment opportunities may sound infeasible and strain Malaysian resources. Furthermore, there is a significant likelihood that refugees will be restricted to 3D jobs dirty, dangerous and difficult work. This restriction in certain sectors could lead to exploitative environments, resulting in greater harm for these individuals. Nonetheless, if the right policies were to be implemented to ensure less discriminatory jobs, refugees may potentially grow the economy. As it stands, a report published by the Malaysian think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs stated that allowing refugees to work may increase Malaysian GDP by over 3 billion Malaysian ringgit annually. Finally, this report also states that over 4,000 new jobs could be created for Malaysians if refugees were to be granted the right to work. Ultimately, Malaysias concerns to prioritize domestic problems are understandable but when time is running out and lives are sinking, the last thing these people need is for another door of opportunity to be shut. Despite these challenges, Malaysia has become a leading nation in refugee support over the years. The November 2024 UNHCR report on Malaysia concluded that with around 170,360 refugees, close to 90 percent of all refugees seeking help in Malaysia are from Myanmar. This highlights the significant humanitarian role Malaysia has adopted to protect those being persecuted in their home countries. The people of Myanmar have predominantly left to escape the tensions between the numerous religious groups as well as the inhumane treatment from their past rulers. The UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur has worked tirelessly since 1950 to provide essential services. While it is still impossible for these people to receive legal status to work in Malaysia, the UNHCR has taken strides to provide them with identity cards. Although these provide limited protection, they prevent deportations and arrests. Furthermore, they also run clinics to provide medical checkups. However, there is only so much the UNHCR can do, and there is no guarantee they will be able to meet future demands. While Malaysias efforts are commendable, more can be done to ease the lives of underprivileged people. The time to act is fading and every action to help refugees is a light in the dark. Its time for nations to rise together and recognize that the responsibility to protect transcends borders, and call for a united front against indifference. Refugees deserve more than just survival, they deserve a world that stands for their dignity, their dreams and their right to belong. The writer is in the 11th grade at the International School of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Strategic support needed to boost chipmakers, prevent brain drain Despite looming political and economic uncertainties that continue to plague Korea, the nation's exports surged to a record-breaking $683.8 billion in 2024, up 8.2 percent from the previous year. This stellar performance, spearheaded by a boom in semiconductor exports, has been a rare beacon of hope amid a turbulent economic climate. Semiconductors, accounting for 20.8 percent of Korea's total exports worth a staggering $141.9 billion, continue to serve as the backbone of Koreas economy. However, this triumph should not mask the underlying challenges threatening the long-term sustainability of the semiconductor sector. While Korea's export numbers are undeniably impressive, they stand in stark contrast to many other signs of economic distress. Political instability, highlighted by President Yoon Suk Yeol's controversial martial law declaration and the subsequent impeachment proceedings, has led to rising uncertainty. The Korean won has depreciated to levels not seen since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, while the domestic stock market has remained sluggish despite positive global trends. Given these challenges, the resilience of the nation's exports is even more remarkable. However, this should serve as a wake-up call, underscoring the urgent need for long-term strategies to protect the countrys competitive edge in the global semiconductor industry. Semiconductors, particularly memory chips, have been a critical driver of Korea's trade surplus, which reached a six-year high of $51.8 billion in 2024. The sharp rise in sales of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has been a key factor in this growth. However, this booming sector is now faced with looming threats, both external and internal, that could undermine its future prospects. On the global stage, Koreas semiconductor industry is vulnerable to the imposition of protectionist trade policies, particularly by the United States, with the advent of a new administration. As countries around the world double down on supporting their local chip industries Japan, for instance, has allocated $6.8 billion to its foundry chipmaker, Lapidu, while Taiwans TSMC is expanding rapidly in Japan and China is ramping up efforts to bolster its own chipmakers Korea risks falling behind. Korean semiconductor companies are grappling with an environment marked by regulatory hurdles and insufficient government support. The delayed opening of SK hynixs semiconductor cluster in Yongin, which has been under construction since 2019, highlights the critical need for more effective and timely government action. The project has faced significant delays, not because of technological constraints, but due to a lack of coordination between local and central governments, coupled with burdensome regulations that have hampered progress. Moreover, the National Assembly's failure to pass a crucial semiconductor special bill in 2024 is a glaring example of political dysfunction. The bill, which would have allowed research and development employees in the semiconductor sector to work more than 52 hours a week, was blocked primarily by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). This political deadlock undermines efforts to foster a more competitive and agile semiconductor industry, at a time when rivals are ramping up support for their own sectors. If the Korean government and political parties cannot overcome these divisions and recognize the strategic importance of the semiconductor industry, the nations economic backbone will be left exposed to the shifting sands of global trade. Another worrying trend is the outflow of talent from Koreas semiconductor giants. A notable number of engineers from leading firms like Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have been recruited by Chinese companies, such as CXMT, which now employs up to 35 percent of its engineers from Korea. This "brain drain" poses a significant threat to the long-term viability of Koreas semiconductor industry. While countries like the United States have actively extended visas to attract skilled workers in cutting-edge industries, Korea risks losing its competitive edge in the global talent race if it fails to retain its brightest minds. The time for complacency has passed. Koreas semiconductor industry, long a pillar of its economic success, is facing multiple challenges. While the current record-breaking export performance highlights its growth potential and resilience, external challenges, political deadlock, and insufficient government support threaten the future of this vital sector. The government, political parties, and the private sector must collaborate to create a more conducive environment for innovation and growth. The semiconductor special bill must be passed without delay, providing essential support for research and development. Regulatory barriers must be dismantled, and strategic investments should be made to foster innovation. Furthermore, the government must take immediate steps to prevent the outflow of talent, ensuring that Korea remains an attractive destination for the worlds best engineers and scientists. A record-breaking number of Korean companies will take part in CES 2025, showcasing their latest innovations and cutting-edge technologies to a global audience, industry data showed Thursday. A total of 1,031 Korean companies have registered for this year's CES, the world's largest tech exhibition set to open Tuesday (U.S. time) in Las Vegas, up from 772 last year, according to the data by the Korea Information & Communication Technology Industry Association. Korea ranks third in the number of participating companies, following the United States with 1,509 firms and China with 1,339. In total, CES 2025 will feature some 4,800 companies from 160 countries. The participation of Korean companies has grown in recent years, rising from 502 in 2022. Of the 1,031 Korean participants, 641 are startups, many of which will showcase their innovations in Eureka Park, CES's dedicated space for startups and emerging entrepreneurs. (Yonhap) Concerns over maintenance challenges by low-cost carriers (LCCs) have surfaced following the Jeju Air tragedy, according to industry watchers Thursday, with data showing heavy overseas reliance for critical aircraft repairs, such as engine repairs. The apparent landing gear malfunction of the crashed Jeju Air B737-800 on Sunday has raised concerns that the airline might have prioritized operations over sufficient maintenance time, potentially compromising safety. According to data from the transport ministry, maintenance costs spent overseas by domestic airlines totaled 1.99 trillion won ($1.35 billion) in 2023, up 58.2 percent from 1.26 trillion won in 2019. For domestic LCCs, the increase is even more pronounced. Overseas maintenance costs by budget carriers amounted to 502.7 billion won last year, up 63.6 percent during the same period. The rate of repairs by LCCs conducted overseas was recorded at 71.1 percent in 2023. Among Korean airlines, only Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, the country's full-service carriers, have the capability to perform major repairs, including engine overhauls, as they operate their own hangars and possess maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capacities. As LCCs lack these resources and must outsource major repairs, domestic MRO options remain limited, with only Korean Air and Korea Aviation Engineering & Maintenance Service offering such services. Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae has acknowledged the situation during a recent press briefing, stating the company performs some repairs locally and sends the rest to overseas MRO service providers. Experts argue that developing a robust domestic MRO industry is essential for enhancing the maintenance capabilities of LCCs. The global aviation MRO market is projected to grow to $124.1 billion by 2034, but Korea's progress in fostering the industry has been slow. In August 2021, the transport ministry announced a plan to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic aviation MRO industry, aiming to increase the share of local maintenance to 70 percent by 2024. However, it was not until April of last year that the government held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Incheon Airport Advanced Aviation Complex, a dedicated MRO cluster. "Most LCCs rely on overseas specialists for major repairs, which can lead to cost and efficiency issues," said an aviation industry insider, who asked for anonymity. "Improving maintenance quality is critical for aviation safety, and government-level support is essential to addressing this issue." (Yonhap) SPC Group, a Korean food and beverage company, said Thursday it is in the final stage of talks to build a $160 million bakery plant in Texas under plans to expand its business in North and Latin American markets. SPC is fine-tuning with the City of Burleson in Texas over its investment plans and the city government's subsidies worth $10 million for the facility, the company said in a press release. They are expected to finalize the deal, including the timeline for construction, later this month, it added. If built, the U.S. SPC plant will serve as a bakery production facility not only for demand in the U.S. but also for exports to Canada and Latin America, the company said. SPC currently operates a bakery plant in Tianjin, China, with the construction of its second overseas plant set to be completed soon in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. SPC has advanced into 14 countries with the Paris Baguette brand since 2004. Of its 600 overseas Paris Baguette outlets, it has 200 stores in the U.S. and Canada. To meet rising local demand for its bakery products, SPC aims to increase the number of Paris Baguette outlets in North America to 1,000 by 2030, the release said. (Yonhap) Govt needs to focus on nurturing MRO sector, officials say By Lee Min-hyung Koreas low-cost carriers (LCCs) heavily rely on overseas outsourcing for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) due to limited in-house capabilities, according to data and industry officials on Thursday. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, LCCs spent 502.7 billion won ($342.34 million) for overseas aircraft maintenance in 2023, up 63.6 percent from 2019. The portion of aircraft sent to other countries for MRO also increased to 71.1 percent, up 14.3 percent during the same period. This sparks concerns over the shortage of domestic aircraft MRO facilities. Only two companies, Korean Air and the Korea Aerospace Industries Association (KAEMS), operate such facilities. The issue has come under scrutiny following the deadly crash of a Jeju Air passenger jet on Sunday, which left 179 of the 181 people onboard dead. Jeju Air is Korea's largest LCC. Industry officials are urging the government to develop relevant measures to train MRO technicians, as LCCs lack the financial resources to do so, unlike other full-service carriers like Korean Air. It is realistically impossible for LCCs to build their own MRO facilities for financial reasons, an aviation industry official said. The government should make policy wise efforts to back up the growth of the relevant industry here. The head of Jeju Air also said that most of its passenger jets are sent abroad for heavy maintenance. We carry out daily maintenance operations on our own but outsource heavy maintenance to overseas MRO firms, Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae said at a media briefing. KAEMS has only a limited number of maintenance slots, so we sent only a few aircraft to the company, and the rest is outsourced to foreign firms. In August 2021, the land ministry announced a series of measures to boost the domestic aviation MRO industry. At the time, the authority said it would increase the portion of domestic aircraft MRO services to 70 percent by 2025. However, this is highly unfeasible given LCCs growing reliance on overseas MRO providers. Jeju Air reported three aircraft safety incidents last year, second only to Tway Air with eight cases during the same period. The average age of aircraft operated by Jeju Air is the highest among Korean LCCs at 14.4 years, followed by Tway Air at 13 years and Jin Air at 12.7 years, according to Aviation Technical Information System data. By Lee Min-hyung SPC Group is in advanced talks to build its largest-ever overseas bakery factory in Texas, the United States, to supply quality baked products to more regions across America, the company said Thursday. The Seoul-based food and beverage firm is negotiating with local authorities there to establish the facility in Burleson, which will span 150,000 square meters. SPC plans to invest $160 million (234.6 billion won) in the project. Both sides are fine-tuning the details of the investment. They are expected to finalize discussions by the end of January, according to SPC. The factory will be used to supply bakery products for Paris Baguette, a multinational bakery chain operated by SPC, in America. The company operates some 200 Paris Baguette stores throughout the U.S. and Canada. However, the company hopes to expand the supply of its bakery products to central and South American countries by utilizing the relative proximity of its new factory in Texas. The Burleson government will offer a subsidy of $10 million to Paris Baguette in exchange for the investment from SPC. Texas, a major logistics hub in the worlds largest economy, is strategically located near numerous states and Central America, making it an ideal location for the project. Currently, there are around 600 Paris Baguette stores operating in 14 countries worldwide, with the number steadily increasing, particularly in North America. By 2030, SPC aims to open more than 1,000 Paris Baguette stores in the region. We have decided to build the U.S. factory to enhance (the) quality of our products and their smooth supply in the territory, an official from SPC Group said. SPC Group will continue to raise the awareness of Korean bakery products by successfully finishing construction of the facility. Beijing (Gasgoo)- On January 1, VOYAH, Dongfeng Motor's premium new energy vehicle brand, announced that it delivered 12,136 vehicles in December 2024, marking its eighth consecutive month to gain sales growth. For the whole year of 2024, the company achieved a total delivery volume of 85,697 units, representing a 70% surge year-on-year. COURAGE; photo credit: VOYAH On December 24, VOYAH revealed plans to launch over four new or updated models in 2025, setting an ambitious annual sales target of 200,000 units. This underscores the automaker's commitment to accelerating growth and enhancing its competitiveness in the evolving market. To tackle the fierce competition in the new energy vehicle sector, VOYAH continues to innovate in both hardware and software. The company achieved significant advancements such as the mass production of 5C ultra-fast charging technology and 800V silicon carbide high-voltage platform. On the software front, VOYAH introduced cutting-edge technologies like Kunpeng intelligent driving and Xiaoyao smart cockpit systems. By the end of 2024, VOYAH had filed 4,188 patents. VOYAH has also expanded its supercharging network, establishing smart charging stations in Wuhan, Shanghai, Hefei, Hangzhou, Changsha, and Shenzhen cities. The company plans to accelerate the rollout of its charging infrastructure to provide users with convenient, efficient, and reliable energy solutions. A gunman who killed at least 10 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro died from self-inflicted injuries on Thursday after attempting suicide, the country's interior minister, Danilo Saranovic, said. The gunman, identified by police as Aleksandar Martinovic, 45, attempted suicide near his home in the town of Cetinje after being cornered by police. "When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide. He did not succumb to his injuries on the spot, but during the transport to hospital," Saranovic told Montenegro's state broadcaster, RTCG. Saranovic provided no details on the attempted suicide. Martinovic was on the run after opening fire on Wednesday afternoon at a restaurant in Cetinje, a small town located 38 km (23.6 miles) west of Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, where he killed four people. The shooter then moved on to three other locations, killing at least six more people, including two children, police said. Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries. Police said Martinovic had a history of illegal weapons possession. Late on Wednesday, police director Lazar Scepanovic said the suspect was thought to have been drinking heavily before the shooting. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said there had been a brawl before shots were fired. Police said the shooting was not thought to be connected to organized crime. Mass shootings are comparatively rare in Montenegro, which has a deeply rooted gun culture. In 2022, also in Cetinje, 11 people, including two children and a gunman, were killed in a mass attack. Wednesday's incident shocked the country of 605,000 people. Spajic called the rampage a "terrible tragedy" and declared three days of national mourning. President Jakov Milatovic said he was "horrified" by the attack. Despite strict gun laws, the Western Balkans composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, remain awash with weapons. Most are from the bloody wars in the 1990s, but some date back even to World War I. Spajic said authorities would consider tightening criteria for owning and carrying firearms, including the possibility of a complete ban on weapons. (Reuters) Washington's duplicity in its China policy and the looming chaos in American politics could push Sino-American ties into high-risk territory during Donald Trump's second stint in the White House, a Chinese foreign policy expert has warned. Although U.S.-China ties are entering a high-risk period, Beijing will remain hopeful about "win-win cooperation" and peaceful coexistence, according to Shen Yamei, director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, a government-linked think tank in Beijing. In a commentary last week, Shen spoke highly of the U.S.-China detente following an eventful year, especially amid concerns among China watchers that Washington might cause China-U.S. relations to deteriorate during the election year. "However, the contradiction between China and the United States is structural, while the stability currently restored to the relationship is not," she wrote in the biweekly journal World Affairs, which is published by a press controlled by the Chinese foreign ministry. "As the U.S. locks in its strategy of great power competition, China-U.S. ties still face enormous challenges." She credited outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden's administration for adjusting its tactics from "intense competition" to "managing competition," which helped stabilize ties by reopening "more than 20 communication mechanisms." But Washington's focus on countering China by promoting its Indo-Pacific strategy and forging ideological, economic and technological alliances clearly aimed at Beijing have laid bare its containment strategy, according to Shen. "The U.S. has used selective cooperation in 'low politics' fields like the humanities and climate change to manage competition in 'high politics' areas like the economy, technology and geopolitics," Shen said. At the same time, Washington had used "verbal statements on the Taiwan issue to manage tensions caused by escalating U.S.-Taiwan collusion, essentially using competition and confrontation as real moves, and management and cooperation as superficial moves," she added. "This duplicity and utilitarianism in its China policy have been strengthened," she said. Shen went on to blame Washington for its failure to "clarify the nature, goals, content, boundaries, and endgame of its competition strategy with China" and for its frequent "contradictory" messages, which she said prompted questions and doubts about its China policy. With Trump's imminent return to the White House, she said the biggest uncertainty in future bilateral relations would stem from U.S. domestic politics. "American politics is undergoing profound changes. Deep-seated conflicts such as economic inequality, racial conflicts, and culture wars are becoming more acute, and social trends are becoming more conservative," she said. "Diplomatically, the new Trump administration will put more emphasis on 'America first' and be more unilateral and economically nationalistic ... which may push Sino-U.S. relations into a new high-risk period." Despite anticipating bumpy ties ahead, Shen said China would take a long-term view of bilateral relations, improving its own strength while "adhering to win-win cooperation" with the U.S., rather than playing zero-sum games and taking a lead role in global governance. Following Trump's election victory last month, Chinese scholars and officials were generally pessimistic about the future of Sino-American ties despite stabilization earlier this year. China's top diplomat Wang Yi last week called on the incoming Trump administration to "make the right choice and work with China in the same direction to avoid disruptions" amid what he described as "a world of turbulence and conflicts." Chinese President Xi Jinping also delivered a message for Trump during a meeting with Biden in Lima, Peru last month, just days after the U.S. presidential election. "China is ready to engage in dialogue, expand cooperation, and manage differences with the U.S. to sustain the hard-won momentum towards stability" in bilateral ties, Xi said. Pang Zhongying, chair professor in international political economy at Sichuan University in Chengdu, said an inadequate understanding of American politics may hamper Beijing's efforts to seek better ties with the Trump administration. "It is unfortunate but true that most of us do not understand American politics well enough to grasp Trump's rise and his return," he said. Although Beijing has had some experience dealing with the first Trump administration and has closely followed his return to power, it remained unclear if this would put China in a better position to cope with the imminent challenges, he said. Read the full storyat SCMP. MSG Networks logo As the calendar turned from 2024 to 2025, Optimum cable service pulled the plug on MSG Networks. Optimum customers in the New York area will now need to look elsewhere to watch the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils. Reports surfaced earlier this week of a dispute between Altice USA, the parent company of Optimum, and MSG Networks. Per usual, the dispute seems to be over the networks tiering in Optimums cable packages and what price the TV provider will pay MSG per subscriber. Altice would like to place MSG Networks on a more premium and expensive tier, rather than the base tier where the channel resided until going dark. Naturally, MSG Networks is resistant to that change as it would cut its subscriber base considerably, and therefore the carriage fees it collects from Optimum. According to a source familiar with negotiations, Altice has rejected multiple proposals from MSG Networks that would have allowed the channel to remain on the air as the two sides continue negotiations. This type of extension is commonplace during carriage disputes when two sides are negotiating a new deal in good faith. When such an extension isnt reached, it typically signals two sides that are far apart. In other words, it doesnt seem like this dispute will be resolved anytime soon. A source also suggests that MSG Networks was willing to accept a lower carriage fee from Altice than it did in 2024, a proposal that was also declined by the TV provider. In a statement, Optimum suggests that MSG has likewise declined offers that would pay the network its proposed rates but places it on a higher tier. The television provider would like to offer customers optionality in which channels they pay for and which they dont. Given MSG Networks seeming flexibility on price, one could presume the crux of the issue remains tiering. MSG is willing to accept a lower price to stay on Optimums base tier, while Altice has drawn a firm line that the networks must be placed in a more premium package. Optimum customers that would like to continue to receive MSG Networks programming can do so, but at a price. The network offers a direct-to-consumer streaming service, MSG+, for $30 per month. In an effort to help customers impacted by the blackouts, Optimum is offering to help offset and defray the costs of an MSG+ subscription, though exact details of that arrangement were not immediately available in the companys press release. UNDERGROUNDING of overhead cables on Upper Main Street and French Church Street in Portarlington could begin this year but only if funding is available. A cost estimate for the long-awaited work has been prepared but further progress is subject to available sources of funding, according to Laois County Council. The news was greeted with disappointment by Independent councillor Aidan Mullins, who said: Its disappointing, because great work was done on the street upgrade but it seems to be delayed now on French Church Street, which would complete the whole streetscape. At the latest meeting of Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District, cllr Mullins proposed that Laois County Council underground the overhead cables on French Church Street and Upper Main Street, as part of the ongoing street upgrade plan. He pointed out that the proposal, which was seconded by cllr Paschal McEvoy, was similar to one he had put forward at a council meeting last March. In a written response, senior engineer Philip McVeigh said the county council has carried out a survey of these streets, in terms of the extent and routes of existing overhead lines and the underground ducting and footpath works required. The engineer added: A cost estimate has been prepared and this scheme could be progressed, subject to available sources of funding. In the meantime, discussions with the utility providers (ESB and eir) could be progressed to confirm their works requirements. Cllr Mullins said he was a little bit disappointed with the term could be and asked: Are we able to say what the sources of funding will be? Mr McVeigh outlined potential sources such as footpath funding, the active travel programme and the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. Acting director of finance Julie Bergin said that footpath funding would not be available in 2025 but there may be other sources. She added that it would probably be later in 2025 before the undergrounding works could be done. After cllr Mullins asked for a timeline, Mr McVeigh confirmed that it would be possible to start the works in 2025 if funding was secured. He said the works in French Church Street could be done separately to the works on Main Street. Cllr Mullins said the project should be looked at along with the ongoing work on The Square and Market House in Portarlington. Cllr McEvoy was concerned that the undergrounding works were subject to funding, which he described as always a red flag but said he was glad that it appeared that progress could be made. A LIGHT feature marking the centenary of 1916 is still unlit, more than eight years after it was erected in Portarlington. The Starry Plough installed in 2016 remains in darkness, despite repeated appeals to have its seven stars illuminated. The sculpture on the Kilnacourt roundabout cannot be seen at night unless the stars are lit, reflecting the famous Starry Plough flag raised by the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter rising. The light feature was unveiled in May 2016 by Cathal McSwiney Brugha, grandson of patriot Cathal Brugha who was wounded in the Rising. Nearly nine years later, its stars still fail to shine and many locals dont even know its there. Independent Cllr Aidan Mullins highlighted the issue at a council meeting, when he said: I dont like to be bitching but it seems to me that it should be a simple issue to resolve. I have had motions in about this since 2016 and I cannot understand why its so difficult. Cllr Mullins proposed that Laois County Council energise the lights on the Starry Plough on the Kilnacourt roundabout in Portarlington, which was installed as part of the 1916 Centenary Commemoration. The proposal was seconded by Fianna Fails cllr Paschal McEvoy, at the latest meeting of Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District. Cllr Mullins told the meeting: There are seven stars on the old plough there and we have never been able to have the stars energised since. You cannot see it at night. I hope we will get a solution to it. In a written response, senior engineer, Paul McLoughlin said the county council would revisit the request to provide the feature lighting, having previously been unsuccessful with arriving at a suitable and cost-effective solution. The sculpture of the Starry Plough from the original flag, which was commissioned by the Portarlington 1916 Commemoration Committee, was created using a small 100-year-old plough donated by Jim Hyland from Lea. It was installed on a standard on the roundabout at the bottom of Station Road, where it was officially unveiled during the centenary celebrations by Cathal MacSwiney Brugha, grandson of both Terence MacSwiney and Cathal Brugha. THE Midlands LGBT+ Project has been granted more than 88,000 to run services in Laois and three other counties. The project managed by Laois Youth Service CLG, trading as Youth Work Ireland Laois, has been awarded 88,452 in the latest round of funding announced by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The funding will help the Midlands LGBT+ Project to run awareness and support services and events for people in Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Kildare. The grant is part of a 1.39m national fund which will go to 24 LGBTI+ community projects around the country, under the 2024 LGBTI+ Community Services Funding Call and LGBTI+ Youth Fund. Announcing the grants in late December, the department said that funding of up to 100,000 was awarded to successful organisations under the 2024 LGBTI+ Community Services Funding Call, to assist the development of rural community infrastructure to be inclusive and welcoming of LGBTI+ persons, address gaps in LGBTI+ services and support existing LGBTI+ community organisations. Under the LGBTI+ Youth Fund, grants ranging from 20,000 to 75,000 were awarded to projects that make a difference in ensuring LGBTI+ young people are visible, included, treated equally, healthy, and safe in their communities. The department said in a statement: Through this funding, a total of 1,398,916 will be made available to support organisations across Ireland to assist the development of rural community infrastructure to be inclusive and welcoming of LGBTI+ persons, address gaps in LGBTI+ services, support existing LGBTI+ community organisations and initiatives supporting LGBTI+ young people. The funding is part of the governments National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy which was launched in November 2019. The strategys stated aim is to provide a whole-of-Government framework for identifying and addressing issues that may prevent LGBTI+ people from enjoying full equality in Irish society. PNN New Delhi [India], January 2: In the evolving world of reproductive medicine, where cutting-edge expertise meets patient-centred care, Dr. Dhiraj IVF Centre stands tall as a beacon of excellence in infertility treatments. With a perfect blend of innovation, compassion, and a proven track record of success, the centre has redefined the IVF journey for hopeful couples. Also Read | Who Is IAS Dr Raghav Langer? All About Civil Service Official From Jammu and Kashmir Who Got Super Time-Scale Promotion in Uttarakhand. Meva Chaudhary Dhiraj Test Tube Baby Centre, Jhansi, (U.P) & Dhiraj Vansh Fertility Center Dhule, (Maharashtra): A Leading Name in Advanced Fertility Care Founded by an expert embryologist Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat with over 12 years of experience, Meva Chaudhary Dhiraj Test Tube Baby Centre Jhansi, (U.P) has Dhiraj Vansh Fertility Centre Dhule, (Maharashtra) grown into a trusted name in fertility care. Also Read | Mumbai Shocker: Neighbour Rapes 4-Year-Old Girl After Finding Her Alone At Her Home on New Year's Eve, Arrested. A Driving Force of Excellence: Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat The visionary force behind the centre, Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat, has trained over 100 embryologists nationally and internationally. With a relentless pursuit of perfection, Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat specializes in embryology lab audits, SOP development, and lab financial solutions, providing comprehensive fertility solutions across the globe. Beyond clinical expertise, Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat focuses on uncovering embryological challenges, such as improving sperm selection techniques to overcome poor embryo development addressing significant issues in IVF outcomes. Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat, with over 8000 successful IVF cycles, is making it possible for couples in Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities to experience the magic of parenthood, regardless of their location or financial situation. He believes everyone deserves this joy, and is helping people take the first step towards their happy family. Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat believes in a holistic approach to fertility treatments, combining technical excellence with patient education and emotional support. This passion has resulted in unparalleled success rates and trust from couples worldwide. Expanding Horizons Transforming Lives: Two Centre, One Vision 1. Meva Chaudhary Dhiraj Test Tube Baby Centre Jhansi (UP): In the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, the Meva Chaudhary Dhiraj Test Tube Baby Center is built on a foundation of creativity and cutting-edge reproductive technology. The facility is intended to offer a caring atmosphere with an emphasis on patient privacy and comfort and transparency in fertility care. The facility has the newest technology and is run by a committed staff that has received training from Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat. 2. Dhiraj Vansh Fertility Centre Dhule, (Maharashtra): The Dhiraj Vansh Fertility Centre was founded in response to the increasing demand for specialized fertility care in North Maharashtra. By providing premium fertility options and guaranteeing a smooth journey from consultation to conception, Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat's team has made many families happy. Both Centre Share a Unified Goal: To deliver exceptional fertility care while making parenthood achievable for all. We combine advanced reproductive technologies with personalized care to offer a comprehensive fertility treatment experience. Our commitment to excellence, innovation, and patient satisfaction sets us apart as a leading choice for couples seeking fertility solutions. Our fertility centers offer high-quality IVF services at affordable prices, ensuring that more couples can access the care they need to achieve their dream of parenthood. To provide the best possibility of success, Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranwat and his team create a personalized treatment plan based on the unique needs of each couple. State-of-the-Art Technology At both centre advanced embryology labs equipped with cutting-edge technology ensure the highest quality of care. Our laboratory is equipped with advanced embryo culture systems, ensuring optimal conditions for embryo development.we incorporate the latest advancements like Laser-Assisted Hatching to optimize your chances of success. With our experienced embryology team and cutting-edge technology, we are committed to making parenthood possible for every couple. Techniques such as preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) and time-lapse embryo monitoring are employed to increase success rates and provide the highest standard of care. By continuously integrating the latest tools and technologies, the centre maintains their position at the forefront of fertility treatment. Compassionate Care Our dedicated team understands the emotional journey of fertility treatment and provides compassionate support at every step. We offer personalized treatment plans tailored to each couple's unique needs, ensuring a supportive and understanding environment throughout the process. High Success Rate Patients have new hope in their search for parenthood because of the hospital's remarkable success rates, which are a result of the competence of Dr. Dhiraj Singh Ranawat and his committed staff. Affordability without Compromise on Quality We believe that financial considerations should not be a barrier to receiving top-quality fertility care. Our centre offers competitive pricing structures without compromising on the quality of treatments, making advanced fertility solutions accessible to a broader population. Patient Testimonials The experiences of our patients speak volumes about our commitment and success. We are honored to have been part of numerous journeys toward parenthood and are grateful for the trust our patients place in us. Here Are Some of the Testimonials "After years of trying, Dr Dhiraj IVF made our dream come true. The team's expertise and compassionate care were exceptional." "We felt supported and understood throughout our treatment. The state-of-the-art facilities and personalized approach made all the difference." "Choosing Dr Dhiraj IVF was the best decision we made. Their dedication and advanced technology gave us hope and success." Looking Ahead: A Vision for the Future Our vision is to continue advancing in the field of reproductive medicine by embracing new technologies and research. We aim to expand our services, increase accessibility, and maintain our commitment to compassionate, patient-centred care. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, we strive to remain at the forefront of fertility treatment, offering hope and solutions to couples worldwide. Conclusion Meva Chaudhary Dhiraj Test Tube Baby Centre Jhansi (U.P) & Dhiraj Vansh Fertility Centre Dhule, (Maharashtra) is dedicated to providing exceptional fertility care through state-of-the-art technology, compassionate support, and a commitment to affordability and success. Our patient's testimonials reflect our dedication to making parenthood dreams a reality. As we look to the future, we remain steadfast in our mission to offer hope, innovation, and unparalleled care to those on their fertility journey. "Your journey to parenthood begins here" Visit-https://mcdivfjhansi.in/ , https://dvfc.co.in/ (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Top Benefits of Group Health Plans for Employers and Employees PNN Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], January 2: A Group Health Plan includes a group of employees, providing them with financial protection and well-being by covering medical expenses, surgery expenses, hospitalisation, and even post-hospitalisation expenses. It does not exclude pre-existing illnesses, enabling hassle-free access to health benefits. It can be taken for employees and their dependent family members at significantly lower premium costs. Also Read | Syed Naseruddin Chishti, Ajmer Dargah Chief's Successor, Welcomes PM Narendra Modi's 'Chadar', Emphasises Message of 'Sabka Samman'. The important feature of a group health plan is its instant coverage, with no waiting period. It includes medical expenditures, such as illness, maternity benefits, wellness benefits, daycare expenses, etc. Qualifying Criteria to Avail Group Health Plan Also Read | Healthy Indian Snacks: From Baked Samosa to Paneer Tikka, Enjoy Your Evening Tea With These Guilt-Free Snacks. - To buy a group health insurance, a company should have a minimum of 7 employees. - However, sometimes it can also be availed in case of employees fewer than 7. - In such cases, the insurance must be extended to the dependent family members of employees, making a total of 7. Benefits of Group Health Plan for Employees Provided below are the benefits of Group Health insurance for employees: - Timely Consultations: Employees can get timely consultation and advice from doctors and nutritionists, which allows them to manage their health in a more effective manner. Also, it allows them to seek professional advice and support. - Booking Lab tests: Employees can book lab tests at discounted rates, ensuring timely monitoring, early detection, and timely treatment of any illness. - Ordering Medicines: Order medicines at discounted rates promptly due to the insurer's network, hence saving time. - Maternity Benefits with Zero Waiting Period: This health plan provides female staff maternity benefits with no waiting period, enabling immediate financial support. - Coverage for Dependents: This plan covers the dependents of the employees, hence providing them with comprehensive benefits. Benefits of Group Health Plan for Employers Provided are the benefits of Group Health insurance for employers: - Taxation Benefits: Employers can claim taxation benefits against the premium paid for the health insurance taken for employees as a business expense. - People-First Approach: The people-first approach helps create a supportive work environment, hence increasing productivity and job satisfaction. - Lower Premiums: As risk is spread amongst all employees, the premium amount becomes lower comparatively, making them the most affordable ones. - Value and Satisfaction to Employees: It helps attract and retain employees, hence improving satisfaction amongst employees and reducing turnover. - Financial Well-Being: It provides financial well-being to the employees, hence helping them meet medical emergencies and providing mental peace. - Customisable Policies: These policies are customisable according to the budget and requirements of the employees, helping achieve necessary benefits at no added costs. Importance of Group Health Plan - It provides coverage to multiple employees under one plan. - Due to the high level of risk, it provides an affordable premium cost. - It helps employers to attract new and retain old employees. - It helps create a healthy environment, hence decreasing absenteeism. - It includes pre-existing illnesses and no waiting period. - It helps to give financial protection to meet medical expenditures. Conclusion Organisations and Employers can purchase a group health insurance plan for their employees, hence creating employee satisfaction and retention. All types of organisations can rest assured that their manpower is well covered against medical expenses, hence promoting a productive and healthier environment. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Thane, Jan 2 (PTI) Police have arrested three Bangladeshi women staying illegally in Thane city of Maharashtra, an official said on Thursday. The city police on Tuesday conducted raid at a locality in Vartak Nagar and found the three women residing there in a room, he said. Also Read | 'A Fantastic Start to 2025': Diljit Dosanjh Meets PM Narendra Modi in Delhi, Presents Him With Poster of His Dil-Luminati Tour (View Pics). The women, who worked as waiters in hotels, could not produce any valid documents for their entry into India and stay here, the official from Vartak Nagar police station said. The police subsequently arrested the three Bangladeshi nationals, in the age group of 22 to 45 years, and booked them under provisions of the Passport (Entry into India) Act and the Foreigners Act, he said. Also Read | Delhi Weather Update: Dense Fog May Disrupt Flight Operations in National Capital; IMD Predicts Warmer Days Ahead (Watch Video). (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) The BJP on Thursday fired a salvo at the Aam Aadmi Party, claiming its chief Arvind Kejriwal "is in love with bogus voters", and some of his party leaders have dual registration as voters. At a press conference here, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva released a poster titled 'Farzi Voters Se Ishq Hai (in love with fake voters)'. Also Read | Vodafone Idea 5G Launch Plans: Vi To Roll Out 5G Mobile Services in March 2025, May Offer Plans 15% Cheaper Than Jio and Airtel To Capture Market Share, Says Report. Sachdeva claimed the AAP's Sanjay Singh filed an affidavit at the time of joining Rajya Sabha in 2018 that he was a voter from the Hari Nagar Assembly constituency in Delhi although his name also figured in voters' list of municipality in UP's Sultanpur. Singh hails from Sultanpur. Further, Sachdeva said that after the BJP raised the issue of registration of Sanjay Singh's wife Anita as a voter from Sultanpur, the AAP leader claimed application was filed on January 4, 2024 for deletion of her name. Also Read | Latest Government Jobs Notifications: NPCIL Invites Applications for 284 Apprentice Posts, Know Recruitment Process and Other Details. "Sanjay Singh claims that his wife Anita Singh's name was removed from the Sultanpur voter list on January 4, 2024. However, while filing his parliamentary affidavit on January 8, 2024, her name was still registered as a voter in Sultanpur," Sachdeva claimed. Responding to the BJP's charges, Singh said he was ready to come to court and provide proof if they have any allegations regarding him or his wife over the issue. "On January 4, she(his wife) submitted applications for deletion of her vote in Sultanpur. Further, the affidavit was submitted on January 8 and until the process is complete, the address will remain the same. Once the process of removing names from the voter list is completed, the updated address will be recorded as per the procedure, he said. Sachdeva demanded the Election Commission and Delhi Police to take legal action against Singh for the "discrepancy". Sachdeva also claimed, "When we exposed the bogus voter registration of MP Sanjay Singh's wife Anita Singh during a press conference, he hastily filed for vote transfer on December 30." Singh earlier said he has filed defamation cases against BJP leaders including its IT head Amit Malviya and MP Manoj Tiwari, over their claims regarding the voter registration issue related to his wife. Sachdeva took a dig at Singh saying, "What dignity does a person have when he is already out on bail and creates double voter registrations even while serving as a Member of Parliament?" The Delhi BJP president also charged that the wife of Delhi mayor Mahesh Kumar, from AAP, was dually registered as voter in different names from the same address and photo. No immediate reaction was available from the mayor over the charge. Further, Sachdeva said a case was already pending in the HC over a plea on two voter id cards held by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal's wife. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], January 2 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers staged a protest against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against his alleged remarks on Sanatana Dharma. Amid the controversy surrounding Pinarayi Vijayan's alleged remarks against Sanatan Dharma, BJP leader V Muraleedharan raised questions about the Congress party's stance on the matter, pointing out a contradiction within the Congress, as the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly disagreed with the Chief Minister's remarks, while the state Congress president supported them. Also Read | Delhi: PM Narendra Modi To Inaugurate 1,675 Flats for EWS Families at Swabhiman Apartments in Ashok Vihar Area; Beneficiaries Excited and Joyous. Muraleedharan stated that while the Congress leader in Kerala and the Leader of Opposition opposed the Chief Minister's remarks about Sanatan Dharma and the term "saffronization," the state Congress president had endorsed the Chief Minister's statement that Sanatan Dharma represents a return to monarchy and casteism. "Even while the Congress leader of Kerala and the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly disagrees with the Chief Minister's comments on Sanatana Dharma and opposes the term of saffronization, his own party president of Kerala has supported the statement of the Chief Minister that Sanatan Dharma is nothing but bringing back monarchy and bringing back casteism," Muraleedharan said. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi To Inaugurate DU's East Campus, West Campus at Dwarka and Other Projects in Delhi on January 3. The BJP leader asked for clarification on the Congress party's position for the top brass, emphasising that the Kerala Chief Minister's comments were damaging to Hindu philosophy. "I would like to know what Congress stands on this. There is a huge issue that has come up in Kerala where the Chief Minister of the state has tried to malign the Hindu philosophy," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, Vijayan, while addressing the Sivagiri Pilgrimage, stated that attempts to portray social reformer and saint Sree Narayana Guru as a proponent of Sanatana Dharma are nothing but the practice of caste-based Varnashrama Dharma. "Sanatana Dharma is synonymous with or inseparable from Varnashrama Dharma, which is based on the Chaturvarna system. What does this Varnashrama Dharma uphold? It glorifies hereditary professions. But what did Sree Narayana Guru do? He called for defiance of hereditary professions. How, then, can Guru be an advocate of Sanatana Dharma?" the Kerala CM said. "Guru's ascetic life was a constant questioning and defiance of the Chaturvarna system. How can someone who proclaimed, "One Caste, One Religion, One God for humankind," be an advocate of Sanatana Dharma, which is rooted in the confines of a single religion? Guru championed a dharma that opposed the caste system," Vijayan added. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Chandigarh, January 2: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday claimed that the Centre was trying to"bring back" the now-repealed farm laws, referring to the newly announced draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing. The AAP-led Punjab government has termed the newly announced draft policy as an attempt to reintroduce the three central agricultural laws passed in 2020 "through backdoor." After a yearlong protest by farmers, the Centre had repealed the laws. Speaking to reporters here, Mann also stated that the demands of the protesting farmers pertain to the central government, which should hold a dialogue with the farmers. "All the demands of the farmers pertain to the Centre, whether they come from the two forums leading the ongoing agitation at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders or from other farmers' unions. The demands are the same, even though the farm unions may differ," Mann said. Punjab Cabinet Rejig: CM Bhagwant Mann Inducts 5 New Faces; Hardeep Singh Mundian and Ravjot Singh Take Oath As Ministers in Fourth Reshuffle in Two-and-Half Years. "Why does the Centre not invite farmers for a dialogue?" he asked. Farmers, under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13, after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces. They have been protesting with several demands, one of which is a legal guarantee for a minimum support price (MSP) for crops. "These are the two forums with which central ministers Piyush Goyal and the then Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda, along with a team of officers, held many rounds of talks earlier. Decisions have to be made by the farmers' organisations, and I was acting as a bridge (between the farmers and the Centre when talks were held in February)," said Mann. He added that the Punjab government has made numerous efforts in the past that the Centre to talks to the farmers. Arvind Kejriwal Congratulates Bhagwant Mann, AAP Workers for Historic Win in Punjab Civic Body Polls. "The demands of farmers pertain to the Centre. At that time, consensus could not be reached, and later, the country went into general elections. Narendra Modi once again became Prime Minister. After the Lok Sabha election process was over, no effort was made by the Centre to talk to the farmers again or call the stakeholders," he said. Speaking about farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's hunger strike, he said, "Dallewal's fast has entered its 38th day, but they (the Centre) don't care." He further said that the Supreme Court had stated it was the Punjab government's responsibility to take care of Dallewal's health. "We are discharging this responsibility. Fifty doctors are on duty at Khanauri, where Dallewal's dharna is ongoing. Barely 500 meters away, we have set up a makeshift hospital," he said. "The Supreme Court said Dallewal should not face any health problems. I spoke to Dallewal on Tuesday and told him his health is important to all of us. I told him that the agitation may go on for a long time, and it is crucial for him to be at the forefront, so his health is important," Mann said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that two years of escalating "confrontation" in the South China Sea have persuaded the Philippines that "going head-on against Beijing is not viable." "We cannot go toe to toe with China," said Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's National Security Council. "We are not a rising superpower like China who has enormous resources at their disposal, so we have to live with what we have." Do these remarks signal that the Philippines is preparing to adopt a more rational and pragmatic approach on the South China Sea affair? Obviously not. It is merely a trick of playing the victim. Over the past year, it was the Philippines' repeated provocations and the discrepancy between its words and actions that kept the South China Sea situation remained troubled. The Philippines deliberately sailed toward Chinese ships multiple times, and through selective editing and extensive coverage by Western media, it sought to create the false impression that China was "bullying" it. In November, the Philippines even signed the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, which have been protested by relevant countries, including China and Malaysia. Additionally, the Philippines went back on its promises by refusing to withdraw the US Typhon missile system deployed within its borders. It even announced plans to procure and permanently deploy such strategic and offensive weapons, further bringing the risk of geopolitical confrontation and an arms race to the region. The biggest loss for the Philippines, which has repeatedly adopted a confrontational stance on the South China Sea issue, is the deterioration of its relationship with China. "The Philippines' provocative actions in the South China Sea have not gained any substantial benefits, but instead have worsened its economic situation, ultimately leaving the country in an undesirable position," Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times. Moreover, the Philippines' increased military cooperation with external powers has not made the country safer but has turned its territory into a potential battleground. In the meantime, the Philippines has lost its international credibility and is gradually losing support from regional countries. Its clumsy performance in the South China Sea will ultimately become a poorly received one-man show. The actions of the Marcos Jr. administration are a classic case of "shooting oneself in the foot." Song believes that in 2025, the Philippines will likely repeat its past tactics on the South China Sea issue. However, with the change of the US' administration, Manila may find itself in a situation where it lacks the support it once had. "The key factor behind the intensifying provocations of the Marcos Jr. administration on the South China Sea issue was the strong backing from the Biden administration. The incoming Trump administration, however, may reconsider the benefits that supporting the Philippines could bring to the US," Song told the Global Times. China has always advocated resolving disputes through peaceful means, including negotiations and consultations. In 2025, we hope the Philippines will engage less in playing the victim, stop inciting and sensationalizing conflicts, and move toward a more cooperative approach with China regarding the South China Sea issue. If the Philippines continues to exaggerate the "Big China vs small Philippines" narrative to gain sympathy, such tactics will not succeed. Instead, it will only push the Philippines further away from ASEAN and the international community. (Source: Global Times) New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday accepted a report concluding a convict was a minor when he allegedly raped and murdered a 10-year-old girl in 2013 in UP's Faizabad and allowed him to walk free. While upholding the conviction, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar set aside the life imprisonment imposed on the convict by the Allahabad High Court. Also Read | Delhi: PM Narendra Modi To Inaugurate 1,675 Flats for EWS Families at Swabhiman Apartments in Ashok Vihar Area; Beneficiaries Excited and Joyous. A trial court had awarded him death penalty in the case on May 17, 2018. The case was then referred to the Allahabad High Court for confirmation of the capital punishment as mandated under the code of criminal procedure. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi To Inaugurate DU's East Campus, West Campus at Dwarka and Other Projects in Delhi on January 3. The Lucknow bench of the high court commuted the death penalty to life imprisonment without the reprieve of remission. While taking note of the appeals, the top court had asked the Juvenile Justice Board at Faizabad to conduct due verification of the age of the accused and submit a report on the claim of juvenility. On Thursday, the bench perused the report which said records showed the convict was born on July 5, 1995, and was less than 18 years of age on the date of the crime on January 1, 2013. "We may note that the counsel for the state of Uttar Pradesh does not contest the report given by the JJB. We have also examined the said report and the reasons given therein and do not find any good ground and reason to take a different view. The appellant, X, is accordingly directed to be treated as a juvenile on the date of the occurrence/commission of offence, the bench held. The accused spent over a decade in jail before his release was ordered by the apex court. "Accordingly, the conviction of the appellant, X, is upheld but the sentence imposed on him, treating him as an adult as on the date of the occurrence/commission of the offence, is treated as cancelled/waivedThe appellant, X, is directed to be released in accordance with law, if not warranted to be detained in any other matter, it ordered. On January 29, 2013, the victim, failed to return home from school and her body was discovered later in the evening in a sugarcane field, with a scarf wrapped around her neck. An FIR was lodged by her uncle and investigations led to the appellant's arrest. While upholding the conviction, the high court evaluated whether the crime met the "rarest of the rare" threshold required to impose the death penalty. The bench observed while life imprisonment was the rule, death sentence was an exception. Circumstances of both the crime and the offender must be weighed, the high court said, though the crime was heinous, death penalty was not warranted in this case. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], January 2 (ANI): The Gujarat government's scheme, Mukhyamantri Kanya Kelavani, has seen significant results within just three months of launching its auction portal. Over 400 items have been auctioned, leading to the successful sale of 181 items and raising more than Rs36.97 lakh for the Kanya Kelavani Nidhi, according to officials. The primary aim of promoting Mukhyamantri Kanya Kelavani and supporting girls' education in Gujarat inspired the establishment of a meaningful tradition by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat and current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Also Read | Latest Government Jobs Notifications: NPCIL Invites Applications for 284 Apprentice Posts, Know Recruitment Process and Other Details. This tradition involves auctioning gifts and mementoes received by the Chief Minister throughout the year, stored in Toshakhana (treasury). The proceeds from these auctions directly support Mukhyamantri Kanya Kelavani (girls' education). Under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, this initiative has been enhanced through technological advancements. On October 2, the Gujarat Government introduced an online portal to streamline the sale of Toshakhana gifts and mementoes. Also Read | Maha Kumbh Mela 2025: Government Enhances Telecom Network Infrastructure for Smooth Communication for Millions of Visitors in Prayagraj. To build upon the tradition established by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, of transparently selling gifts and mementoes received during public events and visits, and utilizing the proceeds for noble causes such as Kanya Kelavani, the State Government launched an online portal https://cmgujmemento.gujarat.gov.in last year. This portal allows people from across the country to participate in e-auctions and purchase these items from the Toshakhana. Previously, these auctions were conducted at state-level fairs or by district collectors in their respective regions. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the Finance Department introduced necessary amendments to the resolution, paving the way for a streamlined and accessible digital platform. To purchase gifts and mementoes through the e-auction, buyers must first register on the portal and submit a bid. The highest bidder is required to make a payment to the Kanya Kelavani Nidhi via digital payment methods. Once payment is completed, the purchased items are delivered by post through the Gujarat State Handicrafts and Handloom Development Corporation Ltd. (Garvi). The portal, developed by N-Code GNFC, is supported by Garvi and NIFT. NIFT has contributed by photographing the items, categorizing them, and providing detailed descriptions in both English and Gujarati. Since the launch of the portal for selling Toshakhana items, a total of 427 items have been auctioned, with bidding amounting to Rs74,16,937 for 379 items. The sale of 181 items has contributed Rs36,97,376 to the Kanya Kelavani Nidhi through the online platform. This remarkable achievement highlights the success of the transparent auction process. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Chennai, Jan 2 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Thursday confirmed the conviction and sentence of one month simple imprisonment (SI) awarded to actor and BJP functionary S Ve Shekher by a Special Court for sharing a derogatory post on women journalists on his social media page. Justice P Velmurugan confirmed the order of the lower court while dismissing a criminal revision petition filed by Shekher, which sought to quash the order. Also Read | Unnao Boat Capsizes Over Reels Craze: Teenager Dies, 6 Others Rescued As Boat Flips in Lake While Making Social Media Reels In Uttar Pradesh. The special court relating to MPs and MLAs, had in February last convicted and sentenced the actor-politician, holding the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt. On April 19, 2018, Shekher had shared a post on his social media account about women journalists that kicked up a row. Also Read | What Is INR 450 Crore Chit Fund Scam, Probe in Which Brought Shubman Gill and 3 Other Gujarat Titans Players Under Scanner?. Based on a complaint given by the Tamil Nadu Journalists and Protection Association, the Cyber Crime Branch of the City Police registered a case under various provisions of IPC and section 4 of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act. According to the complainant, the actor had shared the post as he was annoyed by a remark made by a woman journalist regarding the then Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit patting her on the cheek during an official meeting. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Ranchi, Jan 2 (PTI) The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) three weeks to file a response to an affidavit filed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The ED had filed a case before the HC seeking to quash an FIR registered by Soren against the agency officials under the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste (Prevention of Atrocity) Act. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi To Inaugurate DU's East Campus, West Campus at Dwarka and Other Projects in Delhi on January 3. Soren had filed the case against ED officials at the SC/ST police station here for conducting searches at his residences in Delhi and Ranchi in January last year. He alleged that the ED's actions were aimed at "humiliating tribals," leading him to register the case. The investigating officer of the case issued notices asking ED officers to appear and explain their innocence. Also Read | Vodafone Idea 5G Launch Plans: Vi To Roll Out 5G Mobile Broadband Services in March 2025, May Offer Plans 15% Cheaper Than Jio and Airtel To Capture Market Share, Says Report. Soren filed the case against ED additional director Kapil Raj, assistant directors Devrat Jha, Anuman Kumar, Aman Patel, and several unknown persons. Kapil Raj and other officials approached the HC to challenge the notice issued against them and the criminal proceedings initiated. During the proceedings, Soren filed an affidavit before the high court, refuting the statements made by ED officials and justifying the FIR. The ED sought time to respond to Soren's affidavit. In the FIR, filed in January last year, Soren alleged that the ED conducted the search operation at his Delhi residence to "harass and malign him and his entire community," according to officials quoting the FIR. "My family members and I have suffered immense mental, psychological, and emotional harm because of the acts committed..." Soren said in the FIR, according to the officials. An ED team had searched Soren's Delhi residence in January last year, where they camped for nearly 13 hours to question him in connection with an alleged money laundering case linked to a land deal in Jharkhand. The FIR was lodged under sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. These include charges related to instituting false, malicious, or vexatious suits or criminal proceedings against a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, as well as insulting or intimidating them "with intent to humiliate" in any public place. The sections also include abusing any SC/ST member by caste name in public view or using written or spoken words to promote feelings of enmity, hatred, or ill-will against them, particularly by "whoever, not being a member of a SC or an ST." (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], January 2 (ANI): BRS Working President K T Rama Rao (KTR) called upon party cadres to intensify their fight against the Congress government in Telangana, accusing it of misgovernance and corruption. In a New Year message, KTR lauded the year-long efforts of party workers in exposing the failures of the Congress regime and pledged to continue the struggle until justice for the people is achieved. Also Read | Tigress Zeenat, That Terrorsied Villagers in West Bengal and Jharkhand, Brought Back to Odisha After Three Weeks; Official Says 'Big Cat in Good Health' (Watch Video). Addressing the cadre as "Gulabi (pink ) soldiers," KTR said, "The relentless spirit you have displayed over the past year has strengthened the party and inspired the leadership. Your unwavering efforts are the backbone of our movement to protect Telangana's interests." Referring to key protests led by the party, KTR highlighted the "corruption in musi project" and the "Lagacharla farmers Struggle," which he said showcased the party's commitment to people of Telangana. He also pointed out how the party's protests led to the reversal of a Rs 100 crore Adani-linked project and compelled the government to abandon plans for an ethanol factory in Nirmal. Also Read | Republic Day 2025: Maharashtra Govt Makes Reading of Constitution Mandatory in Schools on January 26 Amid Verbal Spat Over Samvidhan Between Mahyuti and Opposition Parties in State. "The Congress regime's policies are rooted in deception. Despite wrongful cases and oppression, you have stood firm. Your resolve is historic and extraordinary," KTR remarked. He emphasized the need for unity and coordination within the party to counter Congress' alleged "divisive politics." KTR also reiterated the BRS slogan, "Telangana First," urging cadres to expose and resist what he described as the Congress' betrayal at every step. "Together, we will protect Telangana's self-respect and secure its future," he concluded, extending New Year greetings to all party workers. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai, Jan 2 (PTI) Mumbai Police have arrested the main accused in the robbery of gold and silver items of Rs 1.91 crore at gun-point from a jewellery shop here four days ago, officials said on Thursday. A crime branch team apprehended the accused, identified as Vinod Lakhan Pal, from Madhya Pradesh's Niwadi district on Wednesday night, an official said. Also Read | GATE 2025 Admit Card Date: IIT Roorkee Postpones Release of Hall Ticket, Know Steps to Download At gate2025.iitr.ac.in. While investigating the case, the crime branch got some important clues about the prime accused, following which a police team conducted a late night raid at a farm in Niwadi, an official said. Pal was apprehended from the spot and was being brought to Mumbai, he said. Also Read | Dausa Road Accident: 45 Injured After Bus Rams Into 2 Trucks on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Rajasthan (Watch Video). Pal, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, and another person allegedly robbed the jewellery shop located at Saat Rasta in Agripada area of Mumbai by brandishing a gun and knife after pretending to be customers on December 29. They tied up the shop owner and staff, assaulted them and fled with jewellery valued at Rs 1.91 crore, the official said. Based on the jeweller's complaint, the Agripada police subsequently registered a case of robbery, he said. The crime branch team had also started a parallel probe into the case. The police examined CCTV footage of areas near the crime spot and also sought technical support following which Pal was tracked down to Madhya Pradesh, the official said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) [India], January 2 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh Police has arrested two accused in an ATM robbery case who are suspected to be the members of Mewat Gang, said a top police official. Gwalior Superintendent of Police (SP), Dharamvir Singh on Wednesday stated that they have seized the looted amount and the vehicle which the accused were using to flee from the different spots and Also Read | Navsari Shocker: Man Rapes Minor Girl 3 Times Within 5 Hours After Consuming Sex Enhancement Pills in Gujarat, Sentenced to Life Imprisonment. An ATM robbery incident was reported in the Bahodapur police station area in Gwalior on the night of December 26-27, 2024, the official said. He added that the accused used different number plates continuously during the incident due to which it was a challenging task to catch the criminals. Also Read | 'A Fantastic Start to 2025': Diljit Dosanjh Meets PM Narendra Modi in Delhi, Presents Him With Poster of His Dil-Luminati Tour (View Pics). Speaking to ANI, Gwalior SP said, "Gwalior Police has arrested two main accused of a gang in a very successful operation. An ATM robbery incident was reported in the Bahodapur police station area on the night of 26-27 December 2024...Based on experience, it was speculated that 'Mewat Gang' could be involved in this incident..." "CCTV cameras were scanned in the last 4 to 5 days...This gang also used different number plates continuously during the incident...It was a very challenging task to catch the criminals after the raid...2 accused have been arrested...The vehicle used in the incident has been seized and the looted amount has also been recovered...I would like to congratulate the team as this operation was solved after continuous efforts of 5 days by the whole team..." he added. The official further congratulated the team for combing out the successful operation. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Gorakhpur (UP), Jan 2 (PTI) After spending 16 long years behind bars, Pakistani national Mohammad Masroof, also known as Mansoor Ahmed, is set to return home. The 50-year-old will be released from Gorakhpur District Jail on February 7, when his jail term, began in 2008, ends, officials said Thursday. Also Read | Maha Kumbh Mela 2025: As Preparation for Grand Festival Gains Momentum, Prayagraj Directs Food Stalls To Maintain Hygiene on Railway Station, To Display Rates and Name Plates. Masroof was arrested near the India-Nepal border in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, for illegally entering India without a visa or passport. Charged with espionage, the Allahabad High Court later acquitted him of these charges, convicting him only for immigration violations. Being inside prison for more than 16 years, Masroof has exceeded the prescribed sentence. A release order for him was issued by the Union Home Ministry. Also Read | Karnataka Contractor Suicide Row: BJP Sends Sachin Panchal's Death Note to Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi; Congress Leader Priyank Kharge Says 'Party Set for Humiliation'. Gorakhpur District Jail Superintendent AK Kushwaha said arrangements are being made for Masroof's transfer to Delhi, from where he will be handed over to Pakistani authorities at the Attari border. "The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to facilitate his repatriation, and ongoing reminders from the jail authorities helped expedite the process," Kushwaha added. Masroof was shifted to Gorakhpur Jail from Varanasi Central Prison four years ago. According to the jailer, Masroof has shown good behaviour during his time in custody and is eager to meet his family in Pakistan. "He was very happy when he found out about the upcoming release and is looking forward to going home after so many years," Kushwaha said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Jodhpur (Rajasthan) [India], January 2 (ANI): Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu returned to Jodhpur jail on Wednesday after being released on a 17-day parole. The parole was granted for 17 days, starting from December 18 last month. Also Read | KS Manilal Dies at 86: PM Narendra Modi Condoles Death of Padmashree Awardee, Says 'His Rich Work in Botany Will Continue To Be a Guiding Light for Generations'. The self-styled godman, who had been under treatment in Pune, has been serving a life imprisonment sentence at Jodhpur Central Jail in a sexual assault case. Earlier, Advocate Yaspali Singh Rajpurohit, representing Asaram, spoke to ANI and confirmed that he was lodged in jail as per the High Court's orders. Also Read | Love Triangle Crime in Uttar Pradesh: Woman Kills Husband With Help of Paramour, 3 Arrested. "The High Court had issued an order that stated that Asaram had to return to jail before January 2 otherwise it would be a contempt of court. He was brought back to the Jodhpur jail today itself," he said. According to an official order from the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan at Jodhpur, Asaram was to return to jail as per the conditions of his parole on January 2. Since he was released on a 17-day parole (15 days of parole and 2 days for traveling), he returned to jail on January 1. "The applicant shall surrender himself before the Superintendent of Central Jail, Jodhpur by 5 pm on January 2," said the official order. Earlier on November 22, 2024, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Gujarat government on a plea filed by self-proclaimed godman Asaram Bapu seeking the suspension of the life imprisonment sentence imposed on him by a trial court in a rape case. The bench said that it would issue notice, but would consider only medical conditions. Counsel appearing for Asaram told the bench that he was suffering from serious medical ailments and sought his interim release from jail. A sessions court in Gandhinagar, Gujarat in January 2023 convicted Asaram under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a 2013 rape of a female disciple at a Surat Ashram. In August, while hearing an appeal against the trial court verdict, the Gujarat High Court declined to suspend his life imprisonment sentence. Thereafter, Asaram had moved to the top court seeking release from jail. Asaram was in Indore and brought to Jodhpur for raping a teenage girl in his ashram in 2013. after being arrested. The girl had reported that she was called to his ashram near Jodhpur and assaulted by him on the night of August 15, 2013. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Thane, Jan 2 (PTI) An undertrial prisoner has been found in possession of a mobile phone which he had hidden in his footwear inside the Thane Central Jail in Maharashtra, police said on Thursday. The matter came to light last week on December 30 when a jail sepoy was carrying out the inspection of barrack no. 3 of the new prison section where around 200 prisoners are lodged, an official from Thane Nagar police station said. Also Read | Navsari Shocker: Man Rapes Minor Girl 3 Times Within 5 Hours After Consuming Sex Enhancement Pills in Gujarat, Sentenced to Life Imprisonment. He found one sandal of the prisoner, Hemant Parasmal Sethia (38), lying on the floor, while the other one was missing. After a search, the other sandal was found lying at some distance in the barrack but it was unusually heavy, the official said. On checking, the sepoy found a mobile phone with its screen broken concealed inside the footwear. The phone had certain markings, indicating it belonged to the prisoner, he said. Also Read | 'Yeh Dil Se Baat Nikli Hain': Diljit Dosanjh Shares Glimpses From His 'Memorable' Interaction With PM Narendra Modi in Delhi (Watch Video). A case was registered against the prisoner under relevant legal provisions and a probe was on to find out how he got the mobile phone into the barrack, the official said. The accused was lodged at the prison since September 30, 2023 after being arrested in a criminal case registered with the Kashimira police here, he said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Iran will do whatever it can in the case of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, facing a death sentence in Yemen, a senior Iranian official said on Thursday. Priya, hailing from Kollengode in Kerala's Palakkad district, has been found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen in July 2017. Also Read | Latest Government Jobs Notifications: NPCIL Invites Applications for 284 Apprentice Posts, Know Recruitment Process and Other Details. The 37-year-old nurse is currently lodged in a jail in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital city that is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis. "We will take up the issue. She seems to have been charged with manslaughter. We will do whatever we can in the case on humanitarian grounds," the Iranian official told a group of journalists in Delhi. Also Read | Maha Kumbh Mela 2025: Government Enhances Telecom Network Infrastructure for Smooth Communication for Millions of Visitors in Prayagraj. The Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mahdi, reportedly died from an overdose of sedatives allegedly injected by Priya to retrieve her passport from him. According to reports, Priya was handed capital punishment by a trial court in 2020 while Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023. Yemen's President Rashad al-Alimi approved the death penalty to Priya a few days ago. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Tuesday said India is extending all possible help to explore relevant options in the case. "We are aware of the sentencing of Nimisha Priya in Yemen. We understand that the family of Priya is exploring relevant options," Jaiswal said. "The government is extending all possible help in the matter," he said. Priya's mother, Prema Kumari, currently in Sana'a, has made an emotional appeal to the Indian government to save her daughter's life. In a video message from Yemen, Prema Kumari urged the Centre and other authorities to intervene urgently. "This is my final plea. She has only a few days left. Every member of the action council has worked tirelessly to raise funds. I beg the Centre and the council to do everything possible to save her life," she said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Pakistan], January 2 (ANI): Police clashed with hundreds of local government representatives on Wednesday during a protest outside the provincial assembly, resulting in multiple injuries and arrests, the Dawn reported. The five-hour demonstration was organised by mayors and chairmen of the city, tehsil, village, and neighbourhood councils. They are demanding the release of development funds and the restoration of powers they claim were unjustly curtailed by the provincial government. Also Read | New York Mass Shooting: 10 Injured in Firing Outside Amazura Nightclub in Jamaica (Watch Videos). The Dawn reported that the protest escalated when police used tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd near the assembly building. Several protesters were injured, and others fainted due to the effects of the tear gas. The protesters gathered on the busy Khyber and GT roads, chanting slogans against the provincial administration. They are calling for the disbursement of Rs 120 billion in overdue funds, which they claim have not been released since the establishment of local governments three years ago. Also Read | Chinmoy Krishna Das To Remain in Jail: No Relief for Hindu Spiritual Leader in Bangladesh, Chattogram Court Rejects His Bail Plea. Local Council Association (LCA) president, Himayatullah Mayar, condemned the police's actions, calling the use of force against peaceful demonstrators "unprecedented." "We will not be deterred by tear gas or baton charges. Our fight for funds and powers continues," Mayar told the Dawn. The protesters have been demanding that the provincial government fulfil its legal obligations under the Local Government Act of 2013, which stipulates that 20 per cent of the total Annual Development Programme funds should be allocated to local governments. However, Mayar argued that the government has consistently failed to honour this provision. Taimur Kamal, chairman of Tarkha village council, told the Dawn that local government representatives had previously met with the chief minister and other cabinet members, who promised to address their grievances, but these promises remain unfulfilled. The protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations by local government officials seeking greater autonomy and financial support to empower grassroots communities. Despite the crackdown, Mayar confirmed that the protest would continue, with another march planned for Thursday at 11 am from Jinnah Park to the provincial assembly. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi [India], January 2 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday met with former Iceland President and Chairman of the Arctic Circle Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and discussed the activities of the Arctic Circle. https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1874772048998027325 Also Read | Abdulla Khaleel 3-Day India Visit: Maldives Foreign Minister To Arrive in Delhi Today, Meet With EAM S Jaishankar on Cards. In a post on X, Jaishankar expressed his pleasure in meeting Grimsson and wrote, "Pleased to meet the former President of Iceland and Chairman of @_Arctic_Circle @ORGrimsson. Discussed the activities of the Arctic Circle and the potential for deeper cooperation." https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1874431530472464869 Also Read | Queens Mass Shooting: 10 Wounded After Group of Men Fires 30 Gunshots Into Crowd Outside Nightclub in New York on Same Day as New Orleans Incident, 'Not Terror Attack' Says NYPD (Watch Videos). Earlir, on New Year, the External Affairs Minister shared a year-ender video on X and wrote, "2024 saw a foreign policy that positioned Bharat as a #Vishwabandhu. Here's to another year of new opportunities, deepening partnerships and a steadfast commitment to Bharat First and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam!." Jaishankar hoped that the new year be a steadfast commitment to 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', or the world is one family. In his post, EAM Jaishankar included several meetings, addresses and his swearing-in after the Lok Sabha elections. This included his meeting with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, his address at the Doha Forum and the Quad summit. On the same day, Jaishankar met Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in his first diplomatic engagement this year. Jaishankar said Al Thani and he reviewed their bilateral cooperation. https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1874436378853028160 In a post on X, he said, "Delighted to meet PM and FM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha today. My first diplomatic engagement in 2025. A productive review of our bilateral cooperation. Also a wide-ranging discussion on recent regional and global developments." On December 31, EAM Jaishankar marked the 20th anniversary of the Quad, emphasising its progress from providing a "shared response" to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami into a "vital force stability, progress and prosperity" in the Indo-Pacific region. He further reaffirmed India's commitment, alongside Australia, Japan, and the United States, to addressing the region's needs. Sharing a post on X, Jaishankar wrote, "Two decades ago, the idea of Quad began with a shared response to the Indian Ocean tsunami. Today, the Quad stands as a vital force for stability, progress and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific." "On its 20th anniversary, I join @SenatorWong, FM Takeshi Iwaya and @SecBlinken in reaffirming our commitment to addressing the region's needs together," the post added. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Balochistan [Pakistan], January 2 (ANI): The families of Zaman Jan and Abul Hassan Baloch, two Baloch men allegedly forcibly disappeared by Pakistani security forces, have vowed to block the CPEC road at Hoship indefinitely unless their loved ones are released by tonight, the Balochwarna News reported. This comes despite prior assurances from both the government and local administration regarding their safe recovery. Also Read | Who Is Zhao Lusi? 'Hidden Love' C-Drama Star Reveals Past Abuse From Her Former Boss Amid Mounting Health Concerns After Chinese Actress on Wheelchair Video Goes Viral. The Balochwarna News reported that the two men were reportedly abducted after being summoned to the residence of Hothman Baloch, the Chairman of the District Council of Kech. Following their disappearance, the families staged a sit-in and blocked the key CPEC highway in protest. In discussions with government representatives, they were promised that Zaman Jan and Abul Hassan would be released within two days. However, five days have passed, and no information has been provided about the men's whereabouts, and the families are growing increasingly frustrated. Also Read | New York Mass Shooting: 10 Injured in Firing Outside Amazura Nightclub in Jamaica (Watch Videos). The families have accused the district administration and the government of evading responsibility, subjecting them to delays and false assurances. They stated that their initial protest was called off after receiving promises that their loved ones would be freed within the specified timeframe. With the deadline unmet, the families have resumed their march, reiterating their demand for the immediate release of Zaman Jan and Abul Hassan. In a stern warning to the authorities, the families declared that if their loved ones are not released by tonight, they will continue blocking the CPEC road at Hoship without any set time limit, escalating their protest until their demands are addressed. The situation remains tense as the families seek justice and accountability for the abduction of the two Baloch men. Human rights organizations and activists have long criticized Pakistan for what they describe as a silent genocide in Balochistan. Despite the region's rich natural resources, its population has faced enduring poverty, displacement, and harsh repression for many years. These ongoing injustices have fueled concerns about the treatment of Baloch people, with calls for greater accountability and attention to the region's human rights violations. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Lahore/Aligarh, Jan 2 (PTI) A young Indian man crossed over illegally into Pakistan to meet a Facebook friend he wanted to marry, but instead found himself behind bars. And the woman told the local police she does not want to tie the knot. Badal Babu from the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh was arrested on December 28 in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Pakistan's Punjab province (some 240 kms from Lahore). Also Read | Abdulla Khaleel 3-Day India Visit: Maldives Foreign Minister To Arrive in Delhi Today, Meet With EAM S Jaishankar on Cards. Babu, who is in his 20s, crossed the border to meet the Facebook friend with whom he wanted to marry. Pakistan Police have recorded the statement of Babu's Facebook friend Sana Rani, 21, who said she wasn't interested in marrying him. Also Read | Queens Mass Shooting: 10 Wounded After Group of Men Fires 30 Gunshots Into Crowd Outside Nightclub in New York on Same Day as New Orleans Incident, 'Not Terror Attack' Says NYPD (Watch Videos). "In her statement to police, Sana Rani says that Babu and she have been friends on Facebook for the last two-and-a-half years. But she is not interested in marrying him," a Punjab police officer, Nasir Shah, told PTI on Thursday. He said Babu illegally crossed the border and reached Sana Rani's Maung village in Mandi Bahauddin, where he was arrested by law enforcers. When asked whether Babu met Rani, the police officer said he couldn't confirm this. It is also not independently confirmed whether Rani gave a statement to the police refusing to marry Babu under pressure. However, a source told PTI that officials of a Pakistani intelligence agency quizzed Rani and her other family members over her relationship with Babu. Upon his arrest, Babu narrated his "love story" to the police. Babu was detained under Pakistan's Foreign Act sections 13 and 14 as he was travelling without any legal documents. Later, he was produced before a court, which placed him in judicial custody for 14 days. The next hearing is on January 10. Babu's father Kirpal Singh, who lives in Khitkari village under the Barla police station area in the Aligarh district, told the local media that the family learned of his arrest via social media. "We couldn't believe it. For us, till this moment, we knew that he was working in Delhi, but the next moment, we were shocked to discover that he's in a Pakistani jail. It's like something out of a movie," he said in disbelief. The family has now appealed to the Indian government, particularly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to intervene for Babu's release. "We want our son back. We don't know how to bring him home. We are calling on the prime minister to help us," Babu's mother told local reporters. "He was a simple boy. He never did anything like this before," she added. Aligarh Superintendent of Police (Rural) Amrit Jain confirmed that they had received a memorandum from the family and would be taking the matter up with the Ministry of External Affairs. "We will approach the proper channels to provide whatever assistance is necessary and work towards establishing contact with Babu. Our primary goal is to secure his release from custody in Pakistan," Jain said in a statement. According to family sources, Babu was very active on Facebook, where he reportedly connected with a girl from Pakistan. After informing his parents that he would be heading to Delhi for work, Babu left his village after Raksha Bandhan in August. Just before Diwali, his family received a video call on WhatsApp, in which Babu reassured them that he was safe, had found a job and was using a friend's phone because he could not afford his own. His family later learned that Babu had somehow crossed the international border near Jammu, although these details remain unconfirmed, the Indian sources said. This is not the first time someone from India has crossed into Pakistan to meet a love interest developed through social media. Previously, an Indian woman named Anju travelled to Pakistan to meet her lover. She converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man, Nasrullah. Last year, Seema Haider, a woman from Pakistan, befriended an Indian man through the PUBG game. She crossed into India via Nepal with her four children and later married him. Similarly, last year, 19-year-old Pakistani girl Iqra Jiwani developed a friendship with 25-year-old Indian national Mulayam Singh Yadav through an online game. Iqra and Mulayam later married in Nepal. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Rome, Jan 2 (AP) The UN children's fund urged governments on Thursday to prioritise the safety of migrant children after the latest Mediterranean shipwreck left about 20 people missing and added to a gruesome annual tally. Among the seven survivors of the New Year's Eve wreck off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa was an 8-year-old girl whose mother is among the missing, UNICEF said. Also Read | Abdulla Khaleel 3-Day India Visit: Maldives Foreign Minister To Arrive in Delhi Today, Meet With EAM S Jaishankar on Cards. The agency noted that last month, an 11-year-old girl found floating off Lampedusa was believed to be the lone survivor of a migrant boat that had left Sfax, Tunisia, with about 45 people on board. According to the International Organisation of Migration's missing migrant tracker, 2,275 people were unaccounted for in the Mediterranean in 2024, bringing the total number of people missing since 2014 to 31,180. Also Read | Queens Mass Shooting: 10 Wounded After Group of Men Fires 30 Gunshots Into Crowd Outside Nightclub in New York on Same Day as New Orleans Incident, 'Not Terror Attack' Says NYPD (Watch Videos). The vast majority - 24,466 -- were believed to have died on the perilous central Mediterranean route, which is most often used by smugglers from Libya and Tunisia to ferry desperate people toward Italy. UNICEF called on governments to honour their obligations under international law regarding refugees and to prioritise the safeguarding of children. This includes ensuring safe, legal pathways for protection and family reunification, as well as coordinated search and rescue operations, safe disembarkation, community-based reception, and access to asylum services, the agency said in a statement. Under Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Italy has tried to stem arrivals by cracking down on migrant smuggling operations and deterring would-be refugees with the threat of having their asylum claims processed in Albania. Last year, 66,317 migrants arrived in Italy by boat, fewer than half as many as in the previous year, according to Interior Ministry statistics. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Jerusalem, Jan 2 (AP) Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including three children and two high-ranking officers in the Hamas-run police force, according to Palestinian and hospital officials. One strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter. Also Read | Abdulla Khaleel 3-Day India Visit: Maldives Foreign Minister To Arrive in Delhi Today, Meet With EAM S Jaishankar on Cards. Another strike killed at least eight Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip. The dead were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital confirmed the toll. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes. Also Read | Queens Mass Shooting: 10 Wounded After Group of Men Fires 30 Gunshots Into Crowd Outside Nightclub in New York on Same Day as New Orleans Incident, 'Not Terror Attack' Says NYPD (Watch Videos). The war was sparked by Hamas-led militants' October 7, 2023 attack into Israel. They killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 that day. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials, who say women and children make up more than half the fatalities. The officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally. Here's the latest: Israel says it targeted Hamas official in a strike that killed 9 others JERUSALEM - The Israeli military says it targeted a senior member of Hamas' internal security apparatus in a strike in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian officials say killed nine other people, including three children. The strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter. The military said Hossam Shahwan, a senior officer in the Hamas-run police force in Gaza, was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamas' armed wing in attacks on Israeli forces. Major General Mahmoud Salah, another senior police official, was also killed in the strike. The military says Hamas militants hide among civilians and blames the group for their deaths in the nearly 15-month war, which was ignited by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack into Israel. The Hamas-run government had a police force numbering in the tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war while also violently suppressing dissent. The police have largely vanished from the streets in many areas after being targeted by Israel, contributing to the breakdown of law and order that has hindered the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid. Syrian security forces search for militants who refuse to turn in their weapons DAMASCUS - The forces together with armed vehicles were deployed in the city of Homs on Thursday to look for the militants affiliated with ousted President Bashar Assad, state media reported. SANA, citing a military official, said that the new de facto authorities led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had set up centres in Syria's third-largest city for former soldiers and militants to hand over their weapons, similar to other parts of Syria. In early December, a lightning insurgency took out the decades-long rule of Assad in less than two weeks. HTS has since run much of war-torn Syria under the authority of its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa. Officials who were part of Assad's notorious web of intelligence and security apparatus have been arrested over the past few weeks. Israeli strike kills 8 Palestinian men in central Gaza Strip DEIR AL-BALAH - An Israeli strike has killed at least eight Palestinian men in the central Gaza Strip. The dead were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital confirmed the toll. Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior officers in the Hamas-run police. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes. Israel has repeatedly targeted the police, contributing to a breakdown of law and order in the territory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid for its own purposes. Al Jazeera condemns Palestinian Authority's decision to bar it from operating in occupied West Bank DUBAI - Al Jazeera has condemned the Palestinian Authority's decision to bar it from operating in the occupied West Bank, saying the decision was in line with similar actions taken by Israel. In a statement on Thursday, the Qatar-based broadcaster accused the Western-backed authority of seeking to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps. The Palestinian Authority, which cooperates with Israel on security matters, launched a rare crackdown on anti-Israel militants in the urban Jenin refugee camp last month. The authority has international support but is unpopular among many Palestinians, with critics portraying it as a subcontractor of the Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Authority announced the suspension of Al Jazeera's activities on Wednesday, accusing it of incitement and interfering in Palestinian internal affairs. The Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of being a mouthpiece of Hamas. Israeli strikes have killed or wounded several Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza, and Israel has accused some of them of being militants. Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera's West Bank headquarters last year, but the broadcaster has continued to operate in the territory. Al Jazeera denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage. Its 24-hour reporting from Gaza has focused on the deaths of Palestinian civilians. It has also broadcast Hamas and other militant videos in their entirety, showing attacks on Israeli forces and hostages speaking under duress. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Actress Rakul Preet Singh recently shared a glimpse of her enchanting vacation in London with her husband, actor Jackky Bhagnani. Known for her social media presence, Rakul took to Instagram to offer her followers a peek into their romantic getaway in the British capital. Through a series of pictures and videos, she showcased her fun-filled moments spent with Jackky. One of the photos features the actor posing at a restaurant, where he tagged Rakul and asked, What say? Resharing Jackkys picture on her Instagram story, the Thank God actress simply wrote, Best. Varun Dhawan Takes a Freezing Ocean Dip To Start 2025; Baby John Actors Bold New Year Challenge (Watch Video). On December 25, Jackky Bhagnani celebrated his birthday with his wife. Rakul also penned a heartfelt birthday message for him, calling him the "best gift Santa could have given her." Rakul Preet Singh and Jackky Bhagnanis New Year in London View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rakul Singh (@rakulpreet) In her Instagram post, Rakul shared a series of romantic photos with Jackky and wrote a sweet note: Happppppy bdayyyy babyyyyy!! You are the best gift Santa could have given me!! You are the best son, best brother, best friend, and best husband. May this year bring all the success and joy you deserve. May you keep smiling always and keep me cracking up with your dry sense of humor forever. Loveeeee you to infinity and beyond @jackkybhagnani. In one of the pictures, Rakul was seen planting a kiss on Jackky's cheek, while in another, he sweetly kissed her forehead. Additional photos captured the couple smiling and posing happily together for the cameras. Meanwhile, Jackky Bhagnani hosted a glamorous birthday party in Mumbai, attended by several celebrities, including Aayush Sharma, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Pragya Jaiswal, and more. Riddhima Kapoor Shares Heartwarming Glimpses of Kapoor Familys 2025 New Year Celebration in Thailand (View Pics). On February 21, Singh tied the knot with Bhagnani in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony in Goa. The couple, who made their relationship Instagram-official in October 2021, celebrated their union with Anand Karaj and Sindhi rituals, followed by a glamorous wedding reception. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 02, 2025 10:58 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Television actress Pooja Banerjii has responded to being falsely accused in a money laundering case, expressing her disappointment over the recent allegations. In a heartfelt message shared on social media, Pooja clarified that she had been wrongfully blamed for the case, with her name, picture, and credentials circulated by several media outlets. Mallika Sherawat and TV Actress Pooja Banerjee Questioned by ED in Money Laundering Case Involving Pakistani Betting Website. Banerjii, who was in South Africa with her family when the allegations were made, shared her frustration with how the media handled the situation. She revealed that many media outlets did not cross-check the information with her or her team before publishing the false news. Despite reaching out to several journalists to clarify the truth, Pooja claimed that some ignored her, while others were reluctant to retract the story due to their egos. Pooja Banerjii Breaks Silence on Her Money Laundering Case View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pooja Banerjii (@poojabanerjeee) In a note on her Instagram handle, she wrote, Hello my dear well-wishers, A Very Happy New Year to all of you. I wouldnt have wanted to put this up as my first post of 2025 but sadly the last few days have been rather disappointing and filled with remorse. I was recently falsely blamed for a money laundering case, sadly the news was circulated by almost all the media pages and outlets with my name, picture and my credentials. I wasnt aware of this news as I was in South Africa with my family when the false allegations were made without any comment from me or my team. My family members were extremely distressed with such a huge false allegation being spread all over the news that we have decided to go the legal route in order to clear my standing that no such breach of law was done by me and to all my family, friends and well-wishers Im sorry if this false news has hurt you but I will stand against lies and make sure that this doesnt happen with anyone and the media who still didnt believe me, Definitely do a double cross-check on such baseless reports. I request for everyones support in my cause.. #satyamevajayate to all the media people, you have real power to change the world and I truly believe in it, my request is that the faith of such people shouldnt waiver, the post further read. I Am Single: Mallika Sherawat Confirms Break-Up With French Boyfriend Cyrille Auxenfans. Last month, actress Mallika Sherawat and Kumkum Bhagya star Pooja Banerjii were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding their alleged involvement with a Pakistani betting portal, Magicwin. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 02, 2025 04:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Mumbai, January 2: In yet another case of online fraud, an Elderly woman in Mumbai was allegedly duped of INR 1.51 crore by fraudsters who posed as Delhi cops. Officials of the Mumbai police's cyber wing said that the 78-year-old woman from South Mumbai lost the money to online fraudsters who posed as personnel from the Delhi Police. During the preliminary investigation, cops found that the elderly woman was forced into transferring the amount to fraudsters. It is learned that the fraudsters, who posed as Delhi police officials, told the woman that the parcel which she sent to her daughter in the US on December 5 allegedly contained mephedrone drug and US dollars, reports Indian Express. The incident came to light when the woman approached the police and lodged a complaint after being duped by the "Delhi cops". Mumbai Scam: Senior Manager Tricked Into Transferring INR 95 Lakh by Fraudsters Posing As Company Director on WhatsApp; Case Registered. In her complaint, the victim said that she had sought a courier service from a company in order to send some edible items to her daughter in the United States. However, the elderly woman was first threatened by a "courier firm staff" and later by the so-called Delhi police officials who had video-called her on the pretext of taking legal action. It is also learned that the victim is a relative of a builder in South Mumbai. After opting for a courier service on December 5, the woman received a call the next day from an individual who identified himself as Amit Kumar from the courier company. Kumar claimed that the parcel contained expired passports, Aadhaar card, credit cards, 2,000 grams of mephedrone and USD 2,000 in cash. The fraudsters threatened to arrest the elderly woman in a money laundering case and even sent forged arrest warrants. Mumbai College Admission Scam: 2 Clerks Tamper With Admission Portal, Forge Mark Sheets and Other Documents To Secure Admissions for 50 Students in Somaiya College; Arrested. The scamsters forced the woman to share her bank account details and made her transfer INR 1.51 crore. Meanwhile, the police have launched a probe and are trying to trace the culprits through the bank account details and call data records. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 02, 2025 04:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). China to expand pediatric, mental health services Xinhua) 10:11, January 02, 2025 BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will address gaps in pediatric and mental health services from 2025 to 2027, said health authorities. The supply of pediatric services will be improved to achieve "broad coverage" during this period, the National Health Commission (NHC) revealed on Tuesday in a statement on its website. Notably, the country will ensure that more than 90 percent of these services will be accessible at primary-level healthcare facilities, which include community health stations, township-level health centers, village clinics and outpatient departments. In a breakdown of the resolution in a separate statement released the same day, the NHC said such services should be made available at all general hospitals at secondary and tertiary levels in 2025. Parents have long complained about overcrowding at major hospitals, particularly in winter when respiratory diseases affect children. Regarding mental health, the NHC said the country will establish more state and regional centers for mental disorders and actively develop key clinical specialties in this field. Efforts will be made to ensure that outpatient services for mental and sleep disorders are available at a minimum of at least one hospital in each prefecture and city nationwide by 2025. Authorities will also promote the use of the unified mental health hotline, 12356, throughout of the year, according to the NHC. By May 1, 2025, all similar hotlines will be connected to this unified hotline. Mental health, in particular of children and adolescents, has increasingly come under the spotlight in China in recent years. The prevalence of depression among adolescents stands at around 2 percent in the country, Xie Bin, Party chief of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, said on Dec. 25 at a press conference, citing an authoritative epidemiological survey. By 2025, more than 95 percent of schools in the country are expected to have a full-time or part-time instructor for mental health education, according to a three-year national action plan launched in 2023. The NHC has designated 2025-2027 as the "Years of Pediatric and Mental Health Services." To cultivate more professionals, salaries and treatment could potentially be adjusted to tilt the balance toward pediatric and psychiatric departments in hospitals during this period, it said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) New Delhi, January 2: Apart from inaugurating the East Campus of Delhi University, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will gift projects worth thousands of crores of rupees to the national capital on Friday, said Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva. Sachdeva said that PM Modi will lay the foundation stone for the West Delhi Campus of Delhi University at Dwarka as well as for a new campus at Roshanpura, Najafgarh, and allot 1,675 flats to residents of slum areas in Ashok Vihar. The World Trade Centre at Narouji Nagar will also be inaugurated by PM Modi, who will also lay the foundation stone for the new CBSE Office Complex in Sector 23, Dwarka. Sachdeva added that in the fourth phase of the Metro, the PM will lay the foundation stone for the Rithala-Narela-Kundli corridor and an extension of the Magenta Line between Janakpuri and Krishna Park. PM Narendra Modi To Lay Foundation for 2 New Delhi University Campuses, Savarkar College in Najafgarh on January 3, Say Sources. PM Modi will also lay the foundation for the Central Ayurvedic Research Institute building in Rohini and unveil a project to alleviate traffic congestion, with a focus on the New Ashok Nagar to Sahibabad route of the Namo Bharat train. Sachdeva said India has made unprecedented progress in the last 10 years, and today the entire world acknowledges and salutes the leadership of PM Modi. He highlighted that the Central government has established a network of expressways in Delhi, including the Urban Extension Road (UER) 2, Dwarka Expressway, Meerut Expressway, Eastern-Western Peripheral Expressway, and the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. He also remarked that over 2 lakh people visited Kartavya Path on the very first day of the New Year Day, a testimony to the city's dynamic infrastructure. PM Narendra Modi Lauds First Cabinet Decision of 2025 on Crop Insurance Schemes, Says Proud of Our Farmer Sisters and Brothers Who Work Hard To Feed Our Nation. The Delhi BJP President pointed out key infrastructural landmarks and achievements under PM Modi are the PM Museum, Yashobhoomi, Bharat Mandapam (which hosted the successful G20 Summit), Pragati Maidan Tunnel, and the grand Dr. Ambedkar National Memorial constructed on Alipur Road. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 02, 2025 08:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Garena Free Fire MAX Redeem Codes Today, March 14, 2025 Revealed; Know How To Redeem Codes, Grab Free Rewards Like Diamond, Skins, Weapons and More Android 16 Beta 3 Release Date: Google To Roll Out Update Tomorrow With New Features and Improvements; Check More Details Microsoft To Train 2 Lakh Youth in Partners With Andhra Pradesh Government on AI and Advanced Skills, Says IT Minister Nara Lokesh Puma Layoffs: German Sportwear Brand To Lay Off up to 500 Employees Globally Amid Declining Demand and Poor Performance, Competition From Other Players On 30 December a federal judge in Argentina issued international arrest warrants against Nicaraguas Presidentand Vice-President, as well as other officials, for alleged crimes against humanity. End of preview - This article contains approximately 397 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options On 31 December Brazils Presidentpartially promulgated the 2025 budget guidelines (LDO) but vetoed sections which would have hindered the governments ability to block some costly payments. End of preview - This article contains approximately 399 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options On 31 December Ecuadors defence ministry promised total transparency regarding the murder of four children whose bodies were found on 24 December, more than two weeks after they were arrested by a military patrol on 8 December. End of preview - This article contains approximately 512 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options A person was injured New Years Day when a shot was fired during a dispute at a Bethlehem home, city police said. Bethlehem Police Capt. Nicholas Lechman told lehighvalleylive.com a shot was fired around 7:20 p.m. Wednesday at a home in the 400 block of Hickory Street. The gunfire was the result of a disturbance between two adult family members, he said. The victim was shot in the leg and taken to an area hospital for treatment. Injuries do not appear life threatening, Lechman said. A suspect Wednesday evening was taken into police custody, but later released pending further investigation, Lechman said. Currently, no charges have been filed in the case, police said. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. A Portlaoise family and GAA community have given a fond farewell to a man who lived his whole life loving his town, his family and God. Bachelor Joe Styles, aged 89, had died peacefully on December 30 in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda in the presence of his family, following an incident when he went missing in his car on St Stephen's Day. At his Requiem Mass in St Peter and Pauls Church Portlaoise on Thursday January 2, Monsignor John Byrne, Parish Priest described Joe Styles as a gentle man. He noted that Joes coffin was placed in the shadow of the Christmas tree and crib at the altar of Ss Peter and Pauls church. In the words of that popular Christmas carol, Man will live forever more because of Christmas day. We trust in Gods eternal love today as we commend Joe to his mercy. That God may embrace him in that eternal love. Joe was one of the best known and best loved natives of our town. The town will be poorer for his absence. Placed on the coffin as symbols of Joe Styles life were the actual hurl he used when he helped Portlaoise win the 1965 county final, as well as a toy cattle truck, a toy bike and a bible. No stranger in this church, Joe had his own seat over here daily at 7.30am Mass, worshiping his God, praying for his family and all those he loved. Joe lived out that prayer of worship when he left the church every day, in the bits and pieces of his ordinary life, Monsignor Byrne said. As a young man he was a valued member of the town hurling team, winning junior and intermediate county medals. He remained involved after his playing days were over, a life long supporter of all the towns teams. And every hurlers dream, he even got to play in Croke Park. Even if it was as an umpire. In the 1978 All Ireland, refereed by a Laois man Jimmy Rankin. It was one of Joes proudest moments. Joe worked all his life, driving a truck for Leo Higgins, represented in our symbolic items also. When he retired from that he continued working, helping his brother John at his animal collection service. I think the comment I heard most often in relation to Joe over the past week, during the panic around him being missing, and his death. The comment I heard most often was gentleman. He was that, in every definition of the word, a gentle man. Circumstances leading to Joes death, in our Lady of Lourdes hospital last Monday are just so unfortunate and so sad. But it would be wrong of us to let the regrets and sadness cloud this occasion, when we remember his good, long and happy life. A life spent entirely here in the town he loved so well. A member of a family that he was proud of, and they were proud of him. A family he loved, a family that loved him. And it was appropriate that in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, Joe hung in there until members of the family arrived, accompanying him on his journey into eternal life. He had a great relationship with his family, but a special bond with his niece Helena. It was indeed a grace for him and for her that she was with him as he passed peacefully into eternal life. Joes grandniece Anna Ward gave the eulogy on behalf of the family, in the form of a long poem, including the following lines. Today we gather with heavy hearts, to say goodbye as Joe departs. Born on April 15th, 35, a man who truly lived his life. From hurling fields to quiet lanes, Joe lived with courage, through joy and pains. A champion on the pitch, so true, in 65 his dreams came true. A victory sweet, Portlaoise did cheer, for Joe the hero, year after year. Joe was quiet, a man of few words, his heart spoke louder than anything heard. Though shy by nature, his spirit bright would open up with just the right. A simple walk, a high nelly ride, hed take his time, enjoy the stride. His faith was deep, his heart was pure, in Mass he'd always feel secure. Born into a family large and true, eleven children love did renew. To Elizabeth and George, they gave their best, in a home where love and care could rest. Rest in peace sweet Joe, our friend. Your love and light will never end. Well hold you close in memory dear, and know one day well meet you near. Music at his funeral was performed by James OConnor and Alan Smith. John Styles also played a tune on the mouth organ. A guard of honour was given to Joe by his beloved Portlaoise GAA club at the church and again at St Peter and Pauls cemetery where he was laid to his final rest. Joe Styles from Marian Place was predeceased by his parents, Elizabeth and George; brothers George, Paddy and Liam, and sisters Nell and Elizabeth. His death is deeply regretted by his heart-broken family: brothers, John and Noel; sisters Margaret, Bid and Mary; his niece and best friend Helena; nieces, nephews, grand-niece, grand-nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends. A Status Yellow weather warning for low temperatures and ice has been issued by Met Eireann for Laois with the forecaster warning that Thursday night into Friday morning will be very cold with widespread frost and ice. Temperatures in the county could fall to -3 degrees or below in many areas. The potential impacts include hazardous travelling conditions and animal welfare issues. The yellow warning, which is in place for the entire country, comes into effect from 6pm on Thursday, January 2 and will remain in place until 11am on Friday, January 3. Met Eireann is warning that some very cold with some very disruptive and impactful weather is likely this weekend, with an area of low pressure dominating and bringing heavy rain, sleet and some disruptive amounts of snow. Becoming blustery too. Met Eireann National Forecast issued at 9.40am on January 2 Thursday: Frost and any ice will clear this morning to leave a cold day and it'll be dry and sunny in many areas. There'll be scattered showers though, mainly in Ulster and Connacht, some of hail and sleet. There'll be a few snow flurries too, mainly in the north. Highest temperatures of only 2 to 6 degrees in a light to moderate mainly north to northwest breeze. Cold tonight with clear spells and while it'll be dry in most areas, there'll be well scattered showers, mainly in the north and west, some wintry. Lowest temperatures of -5 to 0 degrees with widespread frost and some ice developing. Some fog and freezing fog will form too. Winds will be mostly light west to northwesterly or variable, but will be fresher in northern coastal parts. Friday: It'll be frosty to begin tomorrow morning with some fog in places too. The frost and fog will clear to leave another cold day, but it'll be dry and sunny again in many areas. However there'll be scattered showers, mainly in the north and some in the west, a few wintry, and with more persistent rain for a time in north Ulster. Highest temperatures of 2 to 6 degrees in mostly light to moderate westerly or variable breezes, the winds fresher for a time in coastal parts of the north and northeast. Staying cold at night and mainly dry with clear spells. There'll be a few well scattered showers near western and northern coasts, the odd wintry one. Lowest temperatures of -3 to +1 degrees, with widespread frost and some ice forming once again. There'll be also be some fog and freezing fog patches. Saturday: The frost and fog will clear on Saturday morning and it'll be dry for a time in many areas with some sunny spells, especially further north. However, it now looks increasingly likely that an area of low pressure to the south of Ireland, will dominate our weather for the rest of the weekend, with rain gradually spreading from the southwest over the course of the day, becoming heavy at times, especially later and as it meets the cold air further inland, it'll turn to sleet and snow. Cold with highest temperatures of just 1 to 6 or 7 degrees, with the higher temperatures along the south and southwest coast, where the precipitation will fall mainly as rain. Winds will be mostly light easterly to begin, but will freshen through the day. The area of low pressure is likely to track eastwards close overnight to or over southern parts of the country on Saturday night, bringing widespread heavy falls of rain, sleet and snow on Saturday night. The precipitation will mainly fall as sleet and snow away from the south and southwest, with some significant accumulations expected. Lowest temperatures of -2 to +1 degrees in moderate to fresh and gusty east to northeast winds, stronger in some coastal parts. Sunday: Sunday will bring further falls of rain, sleet and some further significant snowfall accumulations for a time. It'll gradually become drier from the west later in the day as the area of low pressure moves away eastwards. Feeling very cold with highest temperatures of 2 to 7 degrees and with the added wind chill from fresh and gusty northerly winds, strong at times in some coastal parts. Any remaining rain, sleet and snow will clear eastwards on Sunday night, with clear spells following. Scattered rain, hail, sleet and snow showers will follow too, mainly into the north and west. Very cold with some significant amounts of lying snow, widespread frost and ice. Lowest temperatures of -5 to 0 degrees with the north to northwest winds generally moderating. Monday: Very cold with some bright or sunny spells and scattered showers of rain, hail, sleet and snow, these most frequent in the north and west. Highest temperatures ranging from freezing to 5 degrees in mostly moderate northwest winds, fresher in coastal parts of the north and west. Very cold on Mondaywith some clear spells and further scattered wintry showers, these mainly in the north and west. Lowest temperatures of -7 to -1 degrees with widespread severe, frost, ice conditions. Winds will be mostly light to moderate northwesterly, fresher in coastal parts of the north and northwest. Tuesday: Another very cold day with treacherous icy conditions and lying snow. Overall there'll be a lot of dry bright, sunny weather, but still some scattered showers in the north and west. Highest temperatures of just -1 to +4 degrees in light to moderate west to northwest winds. Apart from a few lingering wintry showers in the north, it'll be dry on Tuesday night with clear spells. Freezing fog will form, becoming dense in places. Extremely cold with temperatures expected to fall to between -10 and -3 degrees in light variable breezes. Wednesday: Bitterly cold on Wednesday with freezing fog, lying snow and icy conditions. Mainly dry, with just well scattered showers in the north and northwest. Daytime temperatures could be as low as -5 to +2 degrees. The cold snap of weather will continue to the end of next week, with the likelihood of more persistent falls of rain, sleet and snow, but it's likely to gradually become less cold by the weekend. Met Eireann has put Ireland on alert for 'very disruptive' weather with significant snow on the cards caused by the freezing artic air that his plunged down over the country. In its outlook for the days ahead as the Christmas and New Year holidays end, Met Eireann warns of what's to come. "It will be very cold with some very disruptive and impactful weather likely this weekend, with an area of low-pressure dominating and bringing heavy rain, sleet and some disruptive amounts of snow," said the forecaster on January 2. Met Eireann says the first of the significant wintry precipitation will hit at the weekend as an area of low pressure from the Atlantic collides with the cold weather over Ireland. "The area of low pressure is likely to track eastwards close to or over southern parts of the country on Saturday night, bringing widespread heavy falls of rain, sleet and snow on Saturday night," says the forecaster. These conditions will persist through the weekend but the wintry precipitation will clear gradually. "Sunday will bring further falls of rain, sleet and some further significant snowfall accumulations for a time. It'll gradually become drier from the west later in the day as the area of low pressure moves away eastwards," said the fore cater. As many return to school and work on Monday, Met Eirenn warns that the cold weather is not going away. "An arctic airmass will bring bitterly cold conditions next week. There'll be treacherous conditions with some significant accumulations of lying snow along with widespread severe frost and ice. "The cold snap of weather will continue to the end of next week, with the likelihood of more persistent falls of rain, sleet and snow, but it's likely to gradually become less cold by the weekend," says Met Eireann in its online forecast on January 2. The forecaster has caused Met Eireann to issue a Weather Advisor for the coming weekend. Read Met Eireann National Forecast issued at 9.40am on January 2 for the coming days below X post. A weather advisory has been issued as sleet and snow are expected in some parts of the country. Valid from: Saturday 04/01/2025 to Monday 06/01/2025 For more information, visit: https://t.co/IMZz9b975Q pic.twitter.com/YxOfm6rtVz Met Eireann (@MetEireann) January 2, 2025 Thursday: Frost and any ice will clear to leave a cold day and it'll be dry and sunny in many areas. There'll be scattered showers though, mainly in Ulster and Connacht, some of hail and sleet. There'll be a few snow flurries too, mainly in the north. Highest temperatures of only 2 to 6 degrees in a light to moderate mainly north to northwest breeze. Cold night with clear spells and while it'll be dry in most areas, there'll be well scattered showers, mainly in the north and west, some wintry. Lowest temperatures of -5 to 0 degrees with widespread frost and some ice developing. Some fog and freezing fog will form too. Winds will be mostly light west to northwesterly or variable, but will be fresher in northern coastal parts. Friday: It'll be frosty to begin with some fog in places too. The frost and fog will clear to leave another cold day, but it'll be dry and sunny again in many areas. However there'll be scattered showers, mainly in the north and some in the west, a few wintry, and with more persistent rain for a time in north Ulster. Highest temperatures of 2 to 6 degrees in mostly light to moderate westerly or variable breezes, the winds fresher for a time in coastal parts of the north and northeast. MORE BELOW PICTURE. Staying cold and mainly dry with clear spells. There'll be a few well scattered showers near western and northern coasts, the odd wintry one. Lowest temperatures of -3 to +1 degrees, with widespread frost and some ice forming once again. There'll be also be some fog and freezing fog patches. Saturday: The frost and fog will clear on Saturday morning and it'll be dry for a time in many areas with some sunny spells, especially further north. However, it now looks increasingly likely that an area of low pressure to the south of Ireland, will dominate our weather for the rest of the weekend, with rain gradually spreading from the southwest over the course of the day, becoming heavy at times, especially later and as it meets the cold air further inland, it'll turn to sleet and snow. Cold with highest temperatures of just 1 to 6 or 7 degrees, with the higher temperatures along the south and southwest coast, where the precipitation will fall mainly as rain. Winds will be mostly light easterly to begin, but will freshen through the day. The area of low pressure is likely to track eastwards close to or over southern parts of the country on Saturday night, bringing widespread heavy falls of rain, sleet and snow on Saturday night. The precipitation will mainly fall as sleet and snow away from the south and southwest, with some significant accumulations expected. Lowest temperatures of -2 to +1 degrees in moderate to fresh and gusty east to northeast winds, stronger in some coastal parts. Sunday: Sunday will bring further falls of rain, sleet and some further significant snowfall accumulations for a time. It'll gradually become drier from the west later in the day as the area of low pressure moves away eastwards. Feeling very cold with highest temperatures of 2 to 7 degrees and with the added wind chill from fresh and gusty northerly winds, strong at times in some coastal parts. Any remaining rain, sleet and snow will clear eastwards on Sunday night, with clear spells following. Scattered rain, hail, sleet and snow showers will follow too, mainly into the north and west. Very cold with some significant amounts of lying snow, widespread frost and ice. Lowest temperatures of -5 to 0 degrees with the north to northwest winds generally moderating. Monday: Very cold with some bright or sunny spells and scattered showers of rain, hail, sleet and snow, these most frequent in the north and west. Highest temperatures ranging from freezing to 5 degrees in mostly moderate northwest winds, fresher in coastal parts of the north and west. Very cold with some clear spells and further scattered wintry showers, these mainly in the north and west. Lowest temperatures of -7 to -1 degrees with widespread severe, frost, ice conditions. Winds will be mostly light to moderate northwesterly, fresher in coastal parts of the north and northwest. Tuesday: Another very cold day with treacherous icy conditions and lying snow. Overall there'll be a lot of dry bright, sunny weather, but still some scattered showers in the north and west. Highest temperatures of just -1 to +4 degrees in light to moderate west to northwest winds. Apart from a few lingering wintry showers in the north, it'll be dry on Tuesday night with clear spells. Freezing fog will form, becoming dense in places. Extremely cold with temperatures expected to fall to between -10 and -3 degrees in light variable breezes. Wednesday: Bitterly cold on Wednesday with freezing fog, lying snow and icy conditions. Mainly dry, with just well scattered showers in the north and northwest. Daytime temperatures could be as low as -5 to +2 degrees. The cold snap of weather will continue to the end of next week, with the likelihood of more persistent falls of rain, sleet and snow, but it's likely to gradually become less cold by the weekend. Newbridge native Nicola Brennan talks to Niamh O'Donoghue about her busy but fulfilling career in the diplomatic service Despite Covid, conflict, and climate change inducing floods and droughts in recent years, Ethiopia has endured and endeavoured to thrive. After four years as Irish Ambassador to the African country, it's clear that Newbridge native, Nicola Brennan's love of this unique place is as strong as ever. As she prepared to take up her new role as Irish Ambassador to Tanzania last August, the County Kildare woman reflected on her time in Ethiopia, and the new chapter ahead. We left for Ethiopia at the end of August 2020, that was when you had to quarantine for two weeks. We did it in our house, so it wasn't too bad. You could say it was an adventure. The restrictions weren't as strict as they were in Ireland at the time, said Nicola. Based at the embassy in the capital, Addis Ababa, it was hard to get things up and running at first. You couldn't get out and about, You couldn't have back to back meetings, an awful lot of the immediate contact with people was done online. That was quite hard. It was okay for initial work relations in terms of getting things done, but it was equally difficult. We had to ensure the whole of Ethiopia was served as well as the main areas with masks, ventilators and equipment. It was difficult, but the embassy staff had a really good network in place. In addition, Ireland took up a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2021 and 2022, where Nicola got the opportunity to engage with the African Union, which is equivalent to the European Union with 55 countries represented, as well as the UN. She stressed this access was hugely beneficial. Initially, the Covid restrictions also impacted on her family's ability to make connections on a social and personal level. Her husband, Professor Ruairi Brugha, a public health specialist with the Royal College of Surgeons, was prominent as an expert commentator on the pandemic, and her son, Louis. was also embracing this new adventure. With 120 million people in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Djibouti, Nicola had a huge region to oversee. A war also erupted in North Ethiopia in November 2020. That was a tough time politically, a sensitive time. Things settled down after the peace agreement was signed in November 2022. Before Nicola finished her term, she had a visit from Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin last July. He met the Prime Minister and President of Ethiopia and other senior cabinet ministers as well as dropping in to see some of the programmes run by Irish Aid. That was one of the highlights of Nicola's time in Ethiopia. It ended on a high. I've made a huge number of friends and colleagues. Our son was born in Ethiopia so we have big connections. He was four years in school there, and he has made lots of friends and we will definitely be coming back because of the personal connection. It's actually only a two and a half hour flight from Tanzania, explained Nicola. When she initially took up the position, she had committed to four years in Ethiopia. As the Newbridge native was coming to the end of her term, she had a choice to apply for other posts as an ambassador, or return to work in Dublin in the Department of Foreign Affairs. When the post for Tanzania came up, Nicola decided to go for it, it was approved, and she was bound for Africa again. My whole career has been in central Africa, and development and diplomacy. The population of Tanzania is 70m so it's not as big as Ethiopia. It's an amazing country, and we are aiming to develop and grow trading links with Ireland. Kerry Group PLC opened up a new manufacturing facility in Dar es Salaam last year. There is also the Newbridge connection with Irish Ropes, which became world-famous during the 1950s and 1960s for its Curragh Tintawn carpets. It sourced sisal from Kenya and Tanzania the fibrous plant used before the introduction of polypropylene plastic to create rope and twine. She outlines how Tanzania, which is a stable country, is broadly evolving and developing all the time. Having this time opted for a three year term, the couple plan to have Louis back in Ireland for Transition Year, to give him time to settle in Ireland. Louis speaks the local dialect very well and really loved his time in Ethiopia. Nicola's husband also plans to continue his work from abroad. There are a lot of connections between HSE and Tanzania and capacity for training between Crumlin Hospital and a children's cancer hospital there. Professor Brugha will also continue to mentor and work with his PHD students. The added bonus of living on the Indian Ocean is also a hugely attractive prospect as well as the countless Safari Parks on the doorstep. One of the key tenets of Nicola's work in Ethiopia was giving the role of women and girls a higher profile in promoting access to education and employment. Looking to Northern Ireland, she used the experience of giving Irish women a voice during the troubles to fuel her ambition to allow the women in North East Ethiopia the same opportunities. In recent times in Ireland, not that long ago, women were not given the same opportunities as men. We didn't recognise the contribution they made to their community and country. People campaigned for a voice in Ireland, there is a lot of experience there that we can share and give women a platform, added Nicola. Other areas, which also come under the embassy are Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Seychelles, which is quite a breath of land. East DRC is a very conflicted area. Ethiopia was my very first role as an ambassador. It was such an honour, I know people say that, but to be your country's representative in that country is amazing. I would like to thank all my colleagues, staff and friends, she said. We are a small country but we are regarded as being strong in our passion and values. Nicola aims to work closely with the Tanzanian Government, UN and NGOs on gender equality, governance and human rights, peace and security, and on addressing humanitarian need. We have a particular priority focus on advancing the rights of women and girls, recognising that they are often left behind in the development process. Nicola is the daughter of Margaret and the late Denis Brennan from Great Connell, and a former past pupil of St Conleths and the Holy Family Secondary School. After studying Economics and Business Studies at Trinity College, she undertook a Higher Diploma in Education with the intention of becoming a teacher. Yet after graduating she went to Indonesia with the charity Voluntary Service Overseas a decision which completely changed her career path. Having spent seven years in Indonesia, Jakarta and Papua New Guinea, Nicola became interested in pursuing a career in international development. With a Masters degree in Development Administration and Management at the University of Manchester under her belt, she joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1996. Postings followed at the Irish embassies in South Africa and Uganda, where Nicola worked as a development specialist; after which she spent a period back home as a senior adviser on Irelands international response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. In a previous interview with the Leinster Leader, Nicola outlined; At that time the Irish Government took a very key position internationally on the AIDS pandemic, and we were recognised as quite a leader in that field, even though we are quite a small country. A posting as the deputy head of mission at the Irish embassy in Zambia followed in 2010. As the Department of Foreign Affairs director of international development policy in the development cooperation and Africa Division, she lead the Irish governments new policy on international development, called A Better World. With such a wealth of experience, there is no doubt Nicola will give her role in Tanzania the same energy, drive and determination. : Provisional road traffic collision figures show that the number of road deaths in 2024 decreased by 4% compared to 2023. A total of 174 people died in 160 fatal collisions in 2024 compared to 181 deaths in 170 collisions in 2023. This represents a decrease of 7 deaths or a 4% drop in road deaths compared to last year. The figures were published by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) today, Wednesday, January 1, 2025, following an analysis from provisional fatal collision reports from An Garda Siochana. They reveal a high proportion of male fatalities, a continuation of 2023s increased level of young fatalities (aged 25 years or less) and a high number of fatalities in the evening between 4pm and 8pm. Dublin (23), Cork (19), Mayo (19) and Donegal (17) were the counties that recorded the highest number of deaths, accounting for 45% of the total fatalities. Minister of State with special responsibility for Road Safety, James Lawless said: Every single one of these deaths on our roads is a tragedy. We extend deepest sympathies to the friends, families and communities affected by these losses. I would also like to pay tribute to the emergency services, first responders, hospital workers and others who do such incredible work helping people on scene and in the aftermath of these events. The work of my Department is focused on making our roads safer for everyone who uses them. In February 2025 the default speed limit on rural local roads will be reduced, following the recommendation of the 2023 Speed Limit Review. This will tackle one of the biggest contributory factors to road collisions - speed. This year we will also be moving into Phase 2 of the Governments Road Safety Strategy, and it is incumbent on all of us to play our part in achieving our goal of halving deaths and serious injuries by 2030. Mr. Sam Waide, Chief Executive, RSA said: With heavy hearts, we mourn the loss of 174 lives to road traffic collisions this year, and our deepest thoughts are with the devastated families left grieving a loved one in 2024, including at Christmas. Despite this profound loss, the reduction in the number of fatalities on Irish roads this year is a very modest but important step in reversing the high number of road deaths we've seen over the past two years. This progress underscores the urgency to intensify our efforts. To truly turn the tide, as part of the Governments Road Safety Strategy, we must harness more technology, deliver impactful awareness campaigns and continue road safety education, to create a safer future for all road users in Ireland. Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman, Roads Policing and Community Engagement, An Garda Siochana, said: This slight reduction in the number of road fatalities on Irish roads, is of no solace to the families and loved ones of each one of the people that were killed in fatal road traffic collisions during 2024. I extend my deepest sympathies to all of those affected and at what must be a devastating time. An Garda Siochana has been working around the clock every day of this year to help keep road users safe. That work spans both education and enforcement. Gardai have delivered our Lifesaver Project to thousands of adults and teenagers nationwide during 2024 in a hope of highlighting the dangers of poor driver behavior, and over the next twelve months we will extend that further. Gardai have conducted more than 100,000 checkpoints on Irish roads this year, half of which were Mandatory Intoxicant Testing. We continue the roll out of safety speed cameras in high-risk locations and are already seeing positive indications that drivers are slowing down in these areas. We also continue to maximise the technology available to us to support data driven roadside policing including Mobility Devices and Automated Number Plate Recognition systems in Garda vehicles. As members of An Garda Siochana we cannot achieve any meaningful reduction in the number of people killed on Irish roads without the publics full support. As we enter a new year, we urge all drivers to drive safely and slow down. Irelands fifth government Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 aims to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads by 50% by 2030. This means that by 2030, we will need to reduce deaths on Irelands roads to 72 or lower and reduce serious injuries on Irelands roads to 630 or lower. The strategy is the first step in achieving the Vision Zero commitment to eliminate all road deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads by the year 2050. Phase 2 of the Road Safety Strategy 2021- 2030 will be launched in 2025 with a formal adoption of the Phase 2 action plan early in the New Year. We're revisiting a story from 2024 about a group of Irish paranormal investigators who believe they caught a ghost on camera at a pub this year. The team at Paranormal Supernatural Investigations Ireland say they caught the 'glaistig' ghost manifesting in a picture taken at a pub in Scotland recently. The group took to social media to share side by side images of the same spot in the pub with one purporting to show the rare ghost. The Irish paranormal group explained: "The glaistig is a ghost from Scottish mythology, a type of fuath. It is also known as maighdean uaine (Green Maiden), and may appear as a woman of beauty or monstrous mien, as a half-woman and half-goat similar to a faun or satyr, or in the shape of a goat. READ NEXT: 'Life does not make sense' - Woman's funeral to take place in same church as wedding "Paranormal Supernatural Investigations Ireland visited the Scottia Bar in Glasgow, reputedly haunted by the Green Lady, and captured this image of her manifesting in the green light of the exit sign. Entities use different mediums as methods to show themselves to us," they added. "The timeline on these photos show clearly this process happening. The image is in the top left showing nothing at 18.43 and the manifesting at 18.47." You can see both of the timestamped images below and make up your own mind below: A Bismarck man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty to murdering a man who refused to give him meth in 2023. Timothy Two Horses, 33, will spend more than 42 years behind bars before he's eligible for parole on the murder charge. The calculation is based on Two Horses serving 85% of his remaining life expectancy, estimated at 50.2 years, according to Burleigh County State's Attorney Julie Lawyer during the sentencing hearing. Two Horses had entered open guilty pleas to three charges -- murder, preventing arrest and theft -- at an October change-of-plea hearing, meaning a judge could sentence him up to the maximum under state law of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The murder charge also carried a mandatory minimum sentence of four years in prison without the possibility of parole because a weapon was used. In delivering the sentence, South Central District Judge Cynthia Feland called Two Horses a "significant risk to the public." Her comment followed Lawyer's sentencing recommendation that called for 30 years in prison followed by supervised probation in connection with the stabbing death of 57-year-old Ernest Ells, who was found April 29 in a Main Street apartment in Bismarck with a stab wound to the chest. Investigators later learned Two Horses had checked into a motel in north Bismarck. The desk clerk cooperated with police when Two Horses called the desk requesting to extend his stay. The clerk told Two Horses that the transaction would have to be completed in person, and officers stationed in the hallway outside of Two Horses' room arrested him on outstanding warrants when he left to go to the front desk. Authorities say Two Horses resisted arrest and officers used a Taser to subdue him. Detectives found a knife, gold coins and a fanny pack containing an undisclosed amount of currency on Two Horses. During an interview with detectives, he allegedly said he visited with Ells in the apartment to drink, according to the affidavit. Two Horses also allegedly asked Ells for meth, and when Ells refused, Two Horses allegedly told Ells he would kill him. Ells then told Two Horses to leave, at which point Two Horses allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Ells once in the left side of his body, according to the affidavit. The knife recovered during Two Horses' arrest was the knife used to stab Ells, the document indicated. "How did you know this person?" Feland asked Two Horses of Ells. "He was my drug dealer," Two Horses replied. "Why 30 years?" the judge asked the prosecutor. Lawyer responded by outlining factors in her recommendation, which included the defendant's apparent admission to the charges and his pleading guilty rather than taking the case to trial. Other factors Lawyer said she considered included his previous criminal history that, while lengthy, doesn't show any violent offenses after a 2021 domestic violence case. "I didn't have the benefit of the PSI with the risk assessments at that point, and so that was the recommendation I had provided," Lawyer said, referring to the pre-sentence investigation report. "He pled guilty to that recommendation, so I was bound by it to give that to the court." Lawyer continued on to say her recommendation also considered the possibility of Two Horses being able to receive necessary treatments for drug and alcohol addictions that were noted by the PSI writer. When making his case, defense attorney James Loraas also recommended that the defendant's addiction issues be considered as mitigating factors, suggesting that the judge not impose a sentence greater than Lawyer's suggested 30 years. At the end of his presentation, Loraas proposed a sentence of 25 years on the murder charge followed by supervised probation. "We do believe that with help, he's unlikely to commit other offenses," Loraas said. Feland seemed to take exception to Loraas' statement by referring to the PSI writer's risk assessment that reportedly showed Two Horses has a 70% chance of reoffending, as well as his previous criminal history that, in her words, has given Two Horses other opportunities to address his alcohol and drug issues. "And yet, in essence, here we sit with escalating behavior that ultimately resulted in somebody's death," Feland said. "So why would I give you an opportunity to be in the public again and potentially put somebody at risk?" The judge's sentence also requires that Two Horses receive a chemical dependency evaluation and complete any recommended treatment, as well as undergo psychological testing and anger management training. "So it's going to be up to the (state) Department of Corrections to decide when you successfully completed sufficient treatment that you no longer pose the risk," Feland said. He was also sentenced to serve 360 days in jail for preventing arrest. That sentence will run after he completes his prison time on the murder charge. Additionally, Two Horses was sentenced to 30 days in jail on the theft charge. Following his release, Two Horses will serve five years of supervised probation. Two Horses will receive credit for the 241 days he's already been in custody. Cygnus and Dore Copper Complete Merger TORONTO, Jan. 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HIGHLIGHTS: ASX-listed Cygnus and TSXV-listed Dore have completed a merger by way of a Canadian statutory plan of arrangement, with Cygnus acquiring 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Dore Merger of equals has created a dual-listed Quebec-focused critical minerals company with two core assets in Quebec: the Chibougamau Copper and Gold Project, and the James Bay Lithium Projects The merged entity has more than A$14m in cash, underpinning the upcoming copper exploration and resource extension program The six-member board is now led by David Southam as Executive Chair; with Ernest Mast as President & Managing Director based in Canada During the period leading up to the closing of the merger, Dore and Cygnus implemented a targeted exploration program with results expected early in Q1 CY2025 Cygnus Metals Limited (ASX: CY5) ("Cygnus" or the "Company") and Dore Copper Mining Corp. (TSXV: DCMC; OTCQB: DRCMF; FRA: DCM) ("Dore") are pleased to announce the successful completion of their merger, resulting in the creation of a critical minerals exploration and development company to be dual listed on the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") and the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"), and expected to be quoted on the OTCQB. This transformative merger establishes Cygnus as a leading player in the critical minerals sector, with a strategic focus on high-grade copper and lithium assets in Quebec, Canada. Cygnus Executive Chair David Southam said: "This merger is an exceptional opportunity to create value for both groups of shareholders. By combining the proven exploration and management skills of the Cygnus team with the high-grade resource and immense upside at the Chibougamau Copper-Gold Project, we have the potential to unlock substantial value. We have worked closely with Dore since the merger announcement to complete a targeted exploration program leading up to Christmas and expect to report results early in this quarter. We will shortly start an aggressive drilling and geophysics program focussed on achieving strong resource growth and testing new targets at a time when the world desperately wants more copper from tier-one locations". Former Dore President & CEO Ernest Mast said: "The Dore team is delighted to work with the Cygnus team to create a critical minerals company and to maximise the value of what we know is an outstanding asset at Chibougamau. This merger will provide the funding, additional expertise and the strategy aimed at generating superior shareholder returns with an exciting exploration program at Chibougamau". OVERVIEW On 31 December 2024, Cygnus acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Dore ("Dore Shares") by way of a Canadian statutory plan of arrangement, finalising the integration of the two companies into a unified, dual-listed critical minerals company. Under the terms of the arrangement agreement, each former Dore shareholder is entitled to receive 1.8297 fully paid ordinary Cygnus shares ("Cygnus Shares") for each Dore Share held immediately prior to the close of the transaction ("Exchange Ratio"). In addition, holders of outstanding Dore options and warrants have been issued equivalent unquoted options in Cygnus, adjusted to the Exchange Ratio. The issued capital of Cygnus following completion of the merger is set out below. The Cygnus Shares are quoted on the ASX and will commence trading on the TSXV under the ticker symbol "CYG" at market open on or about 3 January 2025. Cygnus has also applied for quotation on the OTCQB under the ticker symbol "CYGGF", with quotation subject to Cygnus receiving conditional and final approval of the OTC and satisfying all of the listing requirements imposed by the OTC. Cygnus will maintain its primary listing on the ASX under the ticker symbol "CY5", ensuring strong market access for investors in both Australia and North America. It is anticipated that the Dore Shares will be delisted from the TSXV at market close on or about 2 January 2025 and will cease to be quoted on the OTCQB and FRA shortly thereafter. All registered Dore shareholders are encouraged to complete, sign and return the letter of transmittal, which has been previously mailed and is available under Dore's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca, with accompanying Dore share certificate and/or DRS advice-statement(s) (if applicable) to Computershare Investor Services Inc. as soon as possible, if they have not already done so. Non-registered Dore shareholders are encouraged to contact their broker or other intermediary for instructions and assistance in receiving the Cygnus Shares to which they are entitled. For more information on the merger, see Dore's management information circular dated 13 November 2024, filed under Dore's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca on 19 November 2024. OPPORTUNITY & STRATEGY The completion of this merger brings together Dore's high-grade Chibougamau Copper-Gold Project in Quebec with Cygnus' James Bay Lithium Projects. Together, these assets establish the merged entity as a key contributor to the global critical minerals supply chain. The Chibougamau project boasts Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of 3.6 million tonnes at 3.0% copper equivalent and Inferred Mineral Resources of 7.2 million tonnes at 3.8% copper equivalent.1 Additionally, the project is supported by an existing 900,000 tonnes per annum processing facility, the only such infrastructure within a 250-kilometre radius, along with excellent access to hydropower, transportation networks, and a skilled workforce. The strategic rationale for the merger is supported by a shared commitment to growth and value creation. The merged company will leverage the exploration and development expertise of Cygnus and Dore to expand resources at Chibougamau while advancing the lithium exploration program in James Bay. With Quebec recognised as a leading jurisdiction for critical minerals exploration, the merged entity is well-positioned to benefit from strong government and community support. Cygnus will also benefit from enhanced access to capital markets through its dual listing on the ASX and the TSXV and expected quotation on the OTCQB, which is expected to increase liquidity and broaden its shareholder base. The recent successful A$11 million capital raising announced in October 2024, resulting in existing cash reserves of approximately A$14 million, provide a strong financial platform to fund exploration and development initiatives. The Company aims to prioritise resource growth at Chibougamau, with immediate plans for an aggressive exploration drilling campaign in 2025. Following the completion of the merger, Cygnus will embark on a new phase of growth, focusing on integrating operations, driving exploration success, and progressing towards development milestones. Shareholders are encouraged to monitor updates on the expected TSXV and OTCQB listing and quotation, resepctively, and operational developments as the Company advances its dual strategy of copper and lithium development. MERGED BOARD & EXECUTIVES The newly formed Board of Directors for the merged entity has been carefully structured to ensure balanced representation and expertise from both Cygnus and Dore. The Board now comprises six members, with three directors from each of Cygnus and Dore. David Southam, the Executive Chair of Cygnus, continues in his role as Executive Chair of the merged group, bringing extensive experience in corporate strategy, critical minerals exploration and project development. Ernest Mast, the former President and CEO of Dore, has taken on the role of President and Managing Director of Cygnus, leveraging his deep knowledge of the Chibougamau copper project, exploration, base metal processing, government and community relations, and a strong track record in copper project development. The key terms of Mr Mast's engagement are set out in Appendix B. The remaining board positions include two non-executive directors from each company. Representing Cygnus is Kevin Tomlinson, a Canada-based director with significant experience in mining and capital markets, and Raymond Shorrocks, an Australia-based director with a strong background in corporate finance and governance. From Dore, Mario Stifano, the former Executive Chairman of Dore, and Brent Omland, a seasoned finance executive with extensive commercial experience, have joined Cygnus as non-executive directors, providing continuity and expertise in strategic oversight. Key executives in the merged group are as follows: Duncan Grieve ? Vice President Exploration . Mr Grieve (from Cygnus) will lead all exploration and resource extension programs . Mr Grieve (from Cygnus) will lead all exploration and resource extension programs Nicholas Kwong ? Chief Operating Officer . Mr Kwong (from Dore) is responsible for leading all development study work, baseline studies and safety and environment at Chibougamau . Mr Kwong (from Dore) is responsible for leading all development study work, baseline studies and safety and environment at Chibougamau Carl Travaglini ? Chief Financial Officer & Joint Company Secretary (from Cygnus) (from Cygnus) Maddison Cramer ? Joint Company Secretary (from Cygnus) ISSUED CAPITAL Pursuant to the completion of the merger, 310,662,984 Cygnus Shares were issued to Dore shareholders. Following completion of the merger, the issued capital of Cygnus is as follows: Quoted Securities Total number of securities on issue Ordinary Fully Paid Shares (ASX:CY5) 848,319,650 Unquoted Securities Total number of securities on issue Performance Rights (various expiry dates) 21,278,809 Share Rights (expiring 31 July 2029) 3,513,440 Options (various expiry dates and exercise prices) 25,710,210 EARLY WARNING REPORTING By virtue of Cygnus' acquisition of all of the shares of Dore by way of statutory plan of arrangement, Cygnus is required to file an early warning report pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues. A copy of the early warning report will be filed under Dore's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. A copy of the early warning report may also be obtained from Maddison Cramer, Joint Company Secretary, at +61 8 9220 9030. This announcement has been authorised for release by the Board of Directors of Cygnus. David Southam Executive Chair T: +61 8 6118 1627 E: [email protected] Ernest Mast President & Managing Director T: 418 748 3427 E: [email protected] Media: Paul Armstrong Read Corporate T: +61 8 9388 1474 About Cygnus Metals Cygnus Metals Limited (ASX: CY5, TSXV: CYG) is a diversified critical minerals exploration and development company with projects in Quebec, Canada and Western Australia. The Company is dedicated to advancing its Chibougamau Copper-Gold Project in Quebec with an aggressive exploration program to drive resource growth and develop a hub-and-spoke operation model with its centralised processing facility. In addition, Cygnus has quality lithium assets with significant exploration upside in the world-class James Bay district in Quebec, and REE and base metal projects in Western Australia. The Cygnus team has a proven track record of turning exploration success into production enterprises and creating shareholder value. Forward Looking Statements This document contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" which are based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management of Cygnus believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or include words such as ?expects', ?anticipates', ?plans', ?believes', ?estimates', ?seeks', ?intends', ?targets', ?projects', ?forecasts', or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as ?may', ?will', ?should', ?would' and ?could'. Although Cygnus and its management believe that the assumptions and expectations represented by such information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Cygnus to be materially different from any anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the actual results of current or future exploration, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, changes in laws, regulations and practices, the geopolitical, economic, permitting and legal climate that Cygnus operates in, as well as those factors disclosed in Cygnus' publicly filed documents. No representation or warranty is made as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information, and readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information or rely on this document as a recommendation or forecast by Cygnus. Cygnus does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Qualified Persons and Compliance Statements The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Ms Laurence Huss, the Quebec In-Country Manager of Cygnus, a "qualified person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 ? Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The Company first announced the foreign estimate of mineralisation for the Chibougamau Project on 15 October 2024. The Company confirms that the supporting information included in the announcement of 15 October 2024 continues to apply and has not materially changed. Cygnus confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original announcement and that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the original announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Persons' findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original market announcement. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. APPENDIX A ? Chibougamau Copper-Gold Project ? Foreign Estimate Disclosures as at 30 March 2022 Deposit Category Tonnes (k) Cu Grade (%) Au Grade (g/t) Cu Metal (kt) Au Metal (koz) CuEq Grade (%) Corner Bay (2022) Indicated 2,700 2.7 0.3 71 22 2.9 Inferred 5,900 3.4 0.3 201 51 3.6 Devlin (2022) Measured 120 2.7 0.3 3 1 2.9 Indicated 660 2.1 0.2 14 4 2.3 Measured & Indicated 780 2.2 0.2 17 5 2.4 Inferred 480 1.8 0.2 9 3 2.0 Joe Mann (2022) Inferred 610 0.2 6.8 1 133 5.5 Cedar Bay (2018) Indicated 130 1.6 9.4 2 39 8.9 Inferred 230 2.1 8.3 5 61 8.5 Total Measured & Indicated 3,600 2.5 0.6 90 66 3.0 Total Inferred 7,200 3.0 1.1 216 248 3.8 Notes: Cygnus Metals Ltd cautions that Mineral Resources for the Chibougamau Copper Project, incorporating Corner Bay, Devlin, Cedar Bay and Joe Mann, are reported in accordance with the requirements applying to foreign estimates in the ASX Listing Rules and, as such, are not reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012 Edition). A Competent Person has not yet completed sufficient work to classify the resources as Mineral Resources that satisfy the guidelines provided in the JORC Code (2012 Edition). It is uncertain that following evaluation and/or further exploration work that the Mineral Resources will be able to be reported as Mineral Resources in accordance with the JORC Code (2012 Edition). All resources have been prepared in accordance with CIM Standards. Please refer to Cygnus' announcement on 15 October 2024 for additional technical information relating to the foreign estimate. The Mineral Resource estimates include Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorised as Mineral Reserves. There is also no certainty that Inferred Mineral Resources will be converted to Measured and Indicated categories through further drilling, or into Mineral Reserves once economic considerations are applied. Numbers may not reconcile precisely due to rounding. Mineral resources have been reported at a cut-off grades of 2.6 g/t Au at Joe Mann, 1.3% Cu at Corner Bay, 2.9 g/t Au at Cedar Bay and 1.2% Cu at Devlin. Mineral Resources at Joe Mann are estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1,800/oz Au, and a metallurgical gold recovery of 83%. Mineral Resources at Corner Bay and Devlin are estimated using a long-term copper price of US$3.75 per pound, and a metallurgical copper recovery of 95%. Mineral Resources at Cedar Bay are estimated using a long-term gold price of US$1,400/oz Au, and a metallurgical gold recovery of 90%. Metal equivalents for the foreign estimate have been calculated at a copper price of US$8,300/t, gold price of US$2,000/oz, silver price of US$25/oz and zinc price of $2,500/t. Copper equivalent was calculated based on the formula CuEq (%) = Cu(%) + (Au (g/t) x 0.77472) + (Ag (g/t) x 0.00968) + (Zn (%) x 0.3012). Metallurgical recovery factors have not been applied at this time to copper equivalents calculation due to variance of geology within the camp and lack of available data. It is the Company's view that all elements in the copper equivalent calculations have a reasonable potential to be recovered and sold. APPENDIX B ? Key Terms of Ernest Mast's Engagement Total Fixed Remuneration C$300,000 per annum, plus applicable sales taxes Term/Notice period Ongoing term, with either party able to terminate on 90 days' written notice. The Company may terminte the engagement without notice in certain circumstances. Other Short and Long Term Incentives Subject to approval of the Company's shareholders, the Board of Directors, the TSXV, and the ASX, Mr Mast will be eligible to participate in the Company's omnibus equity incentive plan, as amended from time to time. Termination Benefits Mr Mast is entitled to a bonus payment equal to 12 months' fixed remuneration in the event: (a) services are no longer required or the contract is terminated without cause, or (b) services are no longer required within 12 months of a change of control. Any unvested securities held at the effective date of termination after a change of control shall immediately vest. ____________________ 1 The Mineral Resource estimate at the Chibougamau Project is a foreign estimate prepared in accordance with CIM Standards. A competent person has not done sufficient work to classify the foreign estimate as a mineral resource in accordance with the JORC Code, and it is uncertain whether further evaluation and exploration will result in an estimate reportable under the JORC Code. 1 january 2025 at 17:40 News published onand distributed by: CNOOC Limited Brings On-stream Panyu 11-12 Oilfield / Panyu 10-1 Oilfield / Panyu 10-2 Oilfield Adjustment Joint Development Project HONG KONG, Jan. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CNOOC Limited (the "Company", SEHK: 00883 (HKD Counter) and 80883 (RMB Counter), SSE: 600938) today announces that Panyu 11-12 Oilfield/Panyu 10-1 Oilfield/Panyu 10-2 Oilfield Adjustment Joint Development Project has commenced production. The project is located in eastern South China Sea, with an average water depth of approximately 100 meters. The main production facilities include a new wellhead platform and an unmanned wellhead platform. 15 development wells are planned to be commissioned. The project is expected to achieve a peak production of approximately 13,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2025. The oil property is medium and heavy crude. The new unmanned wellhead platform of the project is equipped with "Typhoon Production Mode" and heavy oil intelligent processing system, which can effectively improve production safety and operation efficiency. In addition, the new wellhead platform is connected to the existing platform of Panyu 10-2 through a trestle bridge, so that the oilfields can share facilities and equipment, thus reduces the development cost. Panyu oilfield has produced more than 380 million barrels of crude oil since it commenced production in 2003. An intelligent oilfield cluster with digital, intelligent and unmanned operation has already been established. CNOOC Limited holds 100% interest in this project and is the operator. ? End ? Notes to Editors: More information about the Company is available at http://www.cnoocltd.com. *** *** *** *** This press release includes forward looking information, including statements regarding the likely future developments in the business of the Company and its subsidiaries, such as expected future events, business prospects or financial results. The words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions and analyses made by the Company as of this date in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Company currently believes are appropriate under the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will meet the current expectations and predictions of the Company is uncertain. Actual results, performance and financial condition may differ materially from the Company's expectations, including but not limited to those associated with macro-political and economic factors, fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas prices, the highly competitive nature of the oil and natural gas industry, climate change and environmental policies, the Company's price forecast, mergers, acquisitions and divestments activities, HSSE and insurance policies and changes in anti-corruption, anti-fraud, anti-money laundering and corporate governance laws and regulations. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company cannot assure that the results or developments anticipated will be realised or, even if substantially realised, that they will have the expected effect on the Company, its business or operations. *** *** *** *** For further enquiries, please contact: Ms. Cui Liu Media & Public Relations CNOOC Limited Tel: +86-10-8452-6641 Fax: +86-10-8452-1441 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Bunny Lee Porda Havas International Finance Communications Group Tel: +852 3150 6707 Fax: +852 3150 6728 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE CNOOC Limited 1 january 2025 at 23:00 News published onand distributed by: JXICC: New Aspirations Cross Oceans-New Zealand Volunteers in China NANCHANG, China, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from Jiangxi International Communication Center(JXICC): In today's increasingly interconnected world, the interactions, exchanges, and integration of different cultures are creating vibrant humanistic bonds. The Jiangxi International Communication Center has produced a news documentary titled "New Aspirations Cross Oceans", which focuses on three volunteers participating in the Exchange Program of receiving youth volunteers from Eastern Bay of Plenty of New Zealand. They are from the international volunteer team to serve in Jiangxi for over three months while covering multiple cities. The experiences they had while working and living in Jiangxi highlight the cultural exchanges between China and New Zealand. Both countries value and appreciate their own beauty as well as that of each other. These experiences serve as vivid examples of the deep connections and shared emotions between the people of China and New Zealand. Bridging Friendship Through Wushu Rangiatea Buchanan, a New Zealand native with a deep passion for Wushu, has formed an inseparable bond with China. During her volunteer service in Jiangxi, she sought guidance on Wushu techniques and built strong friendships with the locals, using the principles of Wushu as a bridge. Her story exemplifies how cultural exchange can foster closeness, demonstrating that people grow closer through mutual respect and understanding. https://youtu.be/y6SP6SQtewM Together Manaia Sorensen, a M?ori dance performer, arrived in Jiangxi filled with curiosity for Chinese culture. During her three-month volunteering, she not only taught M?ori dance and shared aspects of New Zealand's culture but also actively learned about Chinese culture, facilitating a two-way cultural exchange. Her journey vividly illustrates the enlightening impact of cultural exchange, highlighting the mutual learning and flourishing of diverse cultures. https://youtu.be/beaxpA8EbuM I'm Here in Your City From the students at Nanchang Foreign Language School traveling to New Zealand, to the young volunteers from the Eastern Bay of Plenty in New Zealand volunteering in Jiangxi, this series of youth exchange programs has provided a platform for young people of both countries to broaden their horizons and deepen their friendships. More importantly, it has planted seeds of integration in their hearts. The meeting of Xu Chang and Steevie Hunia symbolizes the aspiration for integration, reflecting a bright future that the people of both countries can create together through mutual learning and understanding. https://youtu.be/sAc9vH0R8jU SOURCE Jiangxi International Communication Center(JXICC) 2 january 2025 at 04:44 News published onand distributed by: A speckle of hope for cancer patients COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y., Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fighting cancer can seem like a deadly game of chance. While some patients may respond well to certain treatments, others might not be as fortunate. Doctors and scientists have long struggled to explain why. Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Katherine Alexander and University of Pennsylvania Professor Shelley Berger have found a possible source of this variability in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC)?the most common kidney cancer diagnosed in adults. Alexander has identified two different patterns of cellular structures known as nuclear speckles in kidney tumors. Even more exciting, Alexander's research, conducted in Berger's lab at the University of Pennsylvania, shows a potential correlation between speckle patterns and patient outcomes. Alexander explains: "We found that different therapies are more or less effective depending on how the speckles look. This means potentially if a patient comes in with a normal or aberrant speckle state, they might be more responsive to one drug or another. Of course, more research needs to be done." Discovered over 100 years ago, nuclear speckles are tiny cellular structures that reside in the nucleus. Here, they're thought to intermingle with DNA and help regulate gene activity. Alexander's research reveals that nuclear speckles have two different signatures in ccRCC: normal-like and aberrant. It's a matter of positioning. Normal-like speckles tend to congregate toward the center of the nucleus. Aberrant speckles are more dispersed. "How these signatures affect patient outcomes remains a mystery for now," Berger says. "However, the search for answers may lead to more personalized treatments. This discovery offers a new starting point in ccRCC." Alexander adds: "It's the first suggestion that this would be potentially applicable to giving someone [diagnosed with ccRCC] one drug or another. That's huge because cancer therapy has a lot of horrible side effects. To be able to tell a patient, 'Your tumor looks like this, so we think this drug will work better than this drug,' is something we really need." The team didn't just look at kidney cancer. They analyzed speckles in over 20 different types of cancers, from melanomas to breast cancer. However, only ccRCC showed a correlation between speckle patterns and patient outcomes. What makes this cancer special? Alexander's findings point to HIF-2?, a protein typically overactive in ccRCC. The Alexander lab aims to pursue this lead alongside other researchers at CSHL's Cancer Center. For now, Alexander continues to investigate the mystery of nuclear speckles' role in cancer. Though she's in uncharted territory, the object of her search is clear. Her work seeks to help stack the odds in cancer patients' favor. About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,000 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu SOURCE Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2 january 2025 at 05:00 News published onand distributed by: Production Suspension at JV Inkai Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) was informed by our partner, National Atomic Company Kazatomprom JSC (Kazatomprom), and Joint Venture Inkai LLP (JV Inkai), that as of January 1, 2025, JV Inkai has suspended production activity. On December 31, 2024, JV Inkai formally notified us that it had not received an extension of the timeline to submit its updated Project for Uranium Deposit Development documentation (Project Documentation), an extension that was expected prior to 2024 year-end. We were informed by Kazatomprom that the extension was not received as expected due to the delayed submission of the necessary documentation to the Ministry of Energy. As majority owner and controlling partner of the joint venture, on December 30, 2024, Kazatomprom directed JV Inkai to plan for a halt of operations as of January 1, 2025, to avoid potential violation of Kazakhstan legislation. Based on the information we had been receiving from JV Inkai and Kazatomprom, a process to address the update of the Project Documentation was underway and a positive outcome was expected. Reports received by Cameco as recently as December 26, 2024, made no mention of a production suspension being a risk in relation to this process. We are disappointed and surprised by this unexpected suspension and we will be seeking further clarification on how this transpired, as well as the potential 2025 and 2026 production and financial impacts (including on future dividends), and what Cameco can do to help Kazatomprom and JV Inkai restart mining operations. Kazatomprom holds a 60% interest in JV Inkai, while Cameco owns a 40% share. Caution about forward-looking information This news release includes statements and information about our expectations for the future, which we refer to as forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on our current views, which can change significantly, and actual results and events may be significantly different from what we currently expect. Examples of forward-looking information in this news release include: the timeframe for any required extension of the timeline to submit the Project Documentation or receive approval of the Project Documentation; and whether and when mining operations can be restored. Material risks that could lead to different results include: complexity and uncertainty in the application, interpretation and enforcement of the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan; expropriation or nationalization of JV Inkai's properties or Cameco's interest in JV Inkai; amendments to and uncertainty in the enforcement of government regulation in the Republic of Kazakhstan; termination of JV Inkai's resource use contract by governmental authorities; geopolitical risk in Kazakhstan and surrounding countries; risk of corruption in Kazakhstan and surrounding countries; risk of sanctions and risk of dealing with sanctioned individuals or entities; production variance from JV Inkai's resource use contract; procurement and supply chain issues, including with respect to the availability of sulphuric acid; availability of drilling services and construction services in Kazakhstan; and availability of transportation. Please also review the discussion in the "Risk Factors" section of our current annual information form and the "Other relevant data and information ? Regulatory risks" and "Other relevant data and information ? Production and product delivery risks" sections of our technical report "Inkai Operation, Turkestan Region, Republic of Kazakhstan" dated November 12, 2024 for other material risks that could cause actual results to differ significantly from our current expectations, and other material assumptions we have made. Forward-looking information is designed to help you understand management's current views of our near-term and longer-term prospects, and it may not be appropriate for other purposes. We will not necessarily update this information unless we are required to by securities laws. Profile Cameco is one of the largest global providers of the uranium fuel needed to energize a clean-air world. Our competitive position is based on our controlling ownership of the world's largest high-grade reserves and low-cost operations, as well as significant investments across the nuclear fuel cycle, including ownership interests in Westinghouse Electric Company and Global Laser Enrichment. Utilities around the world rely on Cameco to provide global nuclear fuel solutions for the generation of safe, reliable, carbon-free nuclear power. Our shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. Our head office is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. As used in this news release, the terms we, us, our, the Company and Cameco mean Cameco Corporation and its subsidiaries unless otherwise indicated. 2 january 2025 at 06:35 News published onand distributed by: Battery X Metals Announces Grant of Restricted Share Units NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES Battery X Metals Inc. (CSE:BATX)(OTCQB:BATXF)(FSE:R0W, WKN:A3EMJB)("Battery X Metals" or the "Company") announces that it has granted a total of 1,794,000 restricted share units ("RSUs") to certain directors, officers and consultants of the Company, effective January 1, 2025 (the "Date of Grant"), outside of its Equity Incentive Plan dated May 7, 2024 (the "Plan") The RSUs shall vest as follows: 25% of the RSUs shall vest on May 2, 2025; 25% of the RSUs shall vest on the date that is six (6) months from the Date of Grant; 25% of the RSUs shall vest on the date that is nine (9) months from the Date of Grant; and 25% of the RSUs shall vest on the date that is twelve (12) months from the Date of Grant. The Company confirms that, in accordance with Section 6.5(6)(a)(ii) of Canadian Securities Exchange Policy 6, equity grants issued under the Plan, together with the RSUs granted outside of the Plan, will not be greater than 5% of the issued and outstanding shares at the time of adoption as applying to an individual, or 10% in total in the next 12 months. All securities are subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day from the Date of Grant, in compliance with applicable stock exchange policies. The RSU grants to Massimo Bellini Bressi and Martino Ciambrelli (the "Insider RSU Grants") are "related party transactions" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Insider RSU Grants are exempt from the valuation requirement of MI 61-101 by virtue of the exemptions contained in Section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 as the Company's common shares are not listed on a specified market and from the minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 by virtue of the exemption contained in section 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in that the fair market value of the Insider RSU Grants do not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. As the material change report disclosing the Insider RSU Grants is being filed less than 21 days before the transaction, there is a requirement under MI 61?101 to explain why the shorter period was reasonable or necessary in the circumstances. In the view of the Company, it is necessary to immediately grant the Insider RSU Grants and therefore, such shorter period is reasonable and necessary in the circumstances to provide appropriate incentives for the award recipients. About Battery X Metals Inc. Battery X Metals (CSE:BATX)(OTCQB:BATXF)(FSE:R0W, WKN:A3EMJB) is committed to advancing the global clean energy transition through the development of proprietary technologies and domestic battery and critical metal resource exploration. The Company focuses on extending the lifespan of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, through its portfolio company, LIBRT1, recovering battery grade metals from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, and the acquisition and exploration of battery and critical metals resources. For more information, visit batteryxmetals.com. 1 49% owned Portfolio Company On Behalf of the Board of Directors Massimo Bellini Bressi, Director For further information, please contact: Massimo Bellini Bressi Chief Executive Officer Email: [email protected] Tel: (604) 741-0444 Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's objectives, business strategies, and future plans, including the granting of RSUs, the vesting of such RSUs and compliance with securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Risks include, but are not limited to, changes in market conditions, regulatory risks, the inability to achieve regulatory compliance or approvals, reliance on key personnel, and the risk factors set forth in the Company's filings on SEDAR+. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and Battery X Metals disclaims any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. SOURCE: Battery X Metals 2 january 2025 at 07:30 View the original press release on accesswire.comNews published onand distributed by: Newborn Brain Circuit Stabilizes Gaze Discovery May Guide Future Research into Eye Movement and Balance Disorders NEW YORK, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- An ancient brain circuit, which enables the eyes to reflexively rotate up as the body tilts down, tunes itself early in life as an animal develops, a new study finds. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study revolves around how vertebrates, which includes humans and animals spanning evolution from primitive fish to mammals, stabilize their gaze as they move. To do so they use a brain circuit that turns any shifts in orientation sensed by the balance (vestibular) system in their ears into an instant counter-movement by their eyes. Called the vestibulo-ocular reflex, the circuit enables the stable perception of surroundings. When it is broken ? by trauma, stroke, or a genetic condition ? a person may feel like the world bounces around every time their head or body moves. In adult vertebrates, it and other brain circuits are tuned by feedback from the senses (vision and balance organs). The current study authors were surprised to find that, in contrast, sensory input was not necessary for maturation of the reflex circuit in newborns. Published online January 2 in the journal Science, the study featured experiments done in zebrafish larvae, which have a similar gaze stabilizing reflex to the one in humans. Further, zebrafish are transparent, so researchers literally watched brain cells called neurons mature to understand the changes that let a newborn fish first rotate its eyes up appropriately as its body tilts down (or its eyes down as its body tilts up). "Discovering how vestibular reflexes come to be may help us find new ways to counter pathologies that affect balance or eye movements," says study senior author David Schoppik, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology?Head & Neck Surgery, Neuroscience & Physiology, and the Neuroscience Institute, at NYU Langone Health. Split-Second Tilts To test the long-held assumption that the reflex is tuned by visual feedback, the research team invented an apparatus to elicit the reflex by tilting and monitoring the eyes of zebrafish that were blind since birth. The team observed that the ability of the fish to counterrotate their eyes after tilt was comparable to larvae that could see. Although past studies established that sensory input helps animals learn to move properly in their environment, the new work suggests that such tuning of the vestibulo-ocular reflex comes into play only after the reflex has fully matured. Remarkably, another set of experiments showed that the reflex circuit also reaches maturity during development without input from a gravity-sensing vestibular organ called the utricle. Because the vestibulo-ocular reflex could mature without sensory feedback, the researchers theorized that the slowest-maturing part of the brain circuit must set the pace for the reflex. To find the rate-limiting part, the research team measured the response of neurons throughout development as they gave zebrafish split-second body tilts. The researchers found that central and motor neurons in the circuit showed mature responses before the reflex had finished developing. Consequently, the slowest part of the circuit to mature could not be in the brain as long assumed, but was found instead to be at the neuromuscular junction ? the signaling space between motor neurons and the muscle cells that move the eye. A series of experiments revealed that only the pace of maturation of the junction matched the rate at which fish improved their ability to counter-rotate their eyes. Moving forward, Dr. Schoppik's team is funded to study their newly detailed circuit in the context of human disorders. Ongoing work explores how failures of motor neuron and neuromuscular junction development lead to disorders of the ocular motor system, including a common misalignment of the eyes called strabismus (a.k.a., lazy eye, crossed eyes). Just upstream of motor neurons in the vestibulo-ocular circuit are interneurons that sculpt incoming sensory information and integrate what the eyes see with balance organs. Another of Dr. Schoppik's grants seeks to better understand how the function of such cells is disrupted as balance circuits develop, with the goal of helping the five percent of children in the U.S. wrestling with some form of balance problem. "Understanding the basic principles of how vestibular circuits emerge is a prerequisite to solving not only balance problems, but also brain disorders of development," says first study author Paige Leary, PhD. She was a graduate student in Dr. Schoppik's lab who led the study but has since left the institution. Along with Drs. Schoppik and Leary, study authors from the departments of Otolaryngology?Head & Neck Surgery, Neuroscience & Physiology, and the Neuroscience Institute, at NYU Langone Health included Celine Bellegarda, Cheryl Quainoo, Dena Goldblatt, and Basak Rosti. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health through National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders grants R01DC017489 and F31DC020910, and by National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke grant F99NS129179. The National Science Foundation also supported the study through graduate research fellowship DGE2041775. About NYU Langone Health NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient, Inc., has ranked NYU Langone the No. 1 comprehensive academic medical center in the country for three years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently placed nine of its clinical specialties among the top five in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across six inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 300 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. With $14.2 billion in revenue this year, the system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise with over $1 billion in active awards from the National Institutes of Health. Contact: Gregory Williams, [email protected] SOURCE NYU Langone Health System 2 january 2025 at 15:07 News published onand distributed by: Looking back at crime in North Dakota in 2024, there were a handful of significant convictions, including some that garnered national attention. From shootings involving officers and a single homicide in the Bismarck-Mandan area to fatal drug overdoses and child sex crimes, authorities statewide were working around the clock to catch and prosecute criminals. Single murder, multiple convictions The first and only area death classified as a homicide happened April 29 on Main Street in Bismarck, where police found 57-year-old Ernest Ells dead inside his apartment with a stab wound to the chest. Timothy Two Horses was arrested the next day at a Bismarck motel and subsequently charged with murder, theft of property and preventing arrest. In October, Two Horses pleaded guilty to all charges. He faces life in prison without parole. Sentencing is scheduled Thursday. In late August, a judge sentenced Corbin Lampert, 20, to life in prison without parole after he was convicted of murder in the fatal June 2023 shooting of 16-year-old Taryn Hohbein at an apartment on Ohio Street in Bismarck. Authorities said Lampert, then 18, shot and killed Hohbein during a party that involved alcohol and several teenagers handling a stolen gun. Various teens testified at trial that Lampert was the last person seen handling the 9 mm handgun that belonged to another person at the apartment before Hohbein was shot. Some teens also testified that Lampert and Hohbein had past issues, and argued before the shooting. Jurors convicted Lampert of murder in Hohbein's death at the end of a seven-day trial in April. South Central District Judge Pam Nesvig told Lampert, "Your track record tells me I can't let you out (of prison), and I won't." Senator's son sentenced for deputy's death On Dec. 30, the son of North Dakota U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, Ian Cramer, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in the death of a county deputy during a high-speed chase in December 2023. He previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including fleeing a peace officer, fleeing from a felony offense, preventing arrest and reckless endangerment after a Dec. 6, 2023, incident. Charges were filed against Cramer after a series of incidents led him to Hazen, about 70 miles northwest of Bismarck, where he fled from police and hit speeds over 100 mph on state Highway 200, authorities said. About 3 miles outside of town, a Beulah officer deployed spike strips that flattened the two tires on the driver's side of the Chevy Tahoe that Cramer was driving, according to the affidavit. Cramer continued on and about a half mile down the highway came upon Mercer County Deputy Paul Martin and Beulah Police Chief Frank Senn, who had deployed more tire deflation devices and taken cover behind their vehicles. The Tahoe veered and crashed head-on into Martin's patrol vehicle, causing Martin to be struck and launched 100 feet into the ditch. Former state senator pleads guilty to child sex charges Once one of the state's most powerful lawmakers, former state Sen. Ray Holmberg, was charged with a child sex crime in October 2023. He pleaded guilty to one count of traveling abroad with the intent to have sex with adolescents under the age of 18 through an agreement with prosecutors in August. Holmberg, 80, had been allowed to remain free after pleading guilty on the recommendation of prosecutors and defense attorneys due to his age and health conditions. That was until the U.S. Probation Office reported alleged violations of Holmberg's release conditions to U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland. Part of the conditions included in Holmberg's release included location monitoring, no contact with witnesses or victims, limited internet access and no drugs or alcohol. Officials reported in court filings that Holmberg violated the conditions several times, including by accessing social media sites without prior approval, frequenting an adult novelty store and testing positive for alcohol. Due to those findings, the judge was asked to review Holmberg's release in October. The prosecution also asserted that the medical issues Holmberg had been dealing with during the time of the agreement had since improved. Holmbergs attorney Mark Friese has previously said the allegations by the U.S. Probation Office are inaccurate and that Holmberg still faces numerous medical problems that require him to stay out of custody. He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, but he's more likely to get between three and four years under federal sentencing guidelines. Holmberg resigned from his seat in the North Dakota Senate in 2022 after federal investigators searched his home in late 2021. A sentencing date has not been set. Fentanyl overdose deaths A pair of fentanyl overdose cases, one that started in 2023 and the other in January 2024, resulted in two people dying and five people being sentenced to prison for their roles in those deaths. In October, three men -- Joshua Crowley, Harlan Kastrow and Dustin Sapot -- were each sentenced to 10 years in prison after they pleaded guilty to felony charges filed after the Nov. 30, 2023, death of 30-year-old Brody Seitz. Seitz was found unresponsive in a downstairs bathroom in his parent's home, and investigators linked pills Seitz had purchased to all three men. The sentences, handed down by South Central District Judge James Hill, were double the prison time recommended by prosecutors and came after Seitz's twin sister Alyssa urged the judge to "make an example" out of the drug dealers. In Crowley's case, Hill said the 10-year sentence was appropriate because Crowley preyed on his childhood friend's addiction for profit. The theme of "consequences" was evident on Dec. 23 when Nesvig sentenced Jasmine Charging and Jordan Many Ribs to 12 years in prison for their role's in the January fentanyl overdose death of their 2-year-old son Jasten. When Bismarck police responded to the couple's address on Yorkshire Lane on Jan. 21, they found Jasten unresponsive in a bathroom, with Charging attempting to revive him, according to an affidavit. Charging and Many Ribs had allegedly admitted to using both meth and fentanyl over the weekend. The pair also allegedly admitted to falling asleep at different times, leaving Jasten and their other 4-year-old child unsupervised, authorities said. Defense attorneys Richard Sand and Grant Walker had argued for their clients to receive three-year sentences. Those recommendations were accompanied by statements that the child's death was a tragic but unintentional act, and that both parents had enrolled in drug treatment and sober living programs in an effort to better themselves. "My addiction took everything from me," Charging told the judge. "I do accept the sentence that you give me, though, because I feel like some context needs to be made for what has happened. It wasn't intentional. It was an accident, and I wish I could take it back." Murder-child abuse conviction overturned In May, the North Dakota Supreme Court overturned the murder and child abuse convictions of Rolanda Doyle, whose conviction in April 2023 had her sentenced to life in prison for the 2022 death of her 5-year-old nephew Geremy Doyle. Geremy died about 3 months after his mother brought him and two siblings from Georgia and placed them in Doyle's care. Prosecutors claimed Rolanda Doyle sought home remedies for Geremy's health condition when she should have sought medical interventions. At trial, Burleigh County State's Attorney Julie Lawyer said Doyle's inactions in seeking medical attention for Geremy led to his death. Writing for the court, Justice Douglas Bahr noted a number of objections made by Doyle's defense attorney Matt Arthurs during testimony of former State Forensic Examiner Dr. Barrie Miller. Portions of the trial transcript included in the court's opinion reference a number of observations offered by Miller during her testimony that entered into the realm of expert testimony without proper foundation, according to the court. The opinion stated that Arthurs objected to Miller's testimony about an autopsy report, with his basis centering around the fact that prosecutors never offered proof of Miller's qualifications to testify as an expert. The justices agreed and sent the case back for further proceedings. A new trial is scheduled to begin on April 14. Fatal shootings involving officers There were several fatal shootings involving authorities across North Dakota. Whenever such incidents occur, investigations are required by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the State's Attorney's Office into whether proper procedures were followed, while officers involved are placed on administrative leave. Williston police officer Jason Barten was cleared of any wrongdoing in the fatal Williston shooting in July of 31-year-old Matthew Gullo, who apparently was holding a knife and was a threat to himself and others, prompting Barten to fire his service weapon multiple times. The second fatal shooting happened in September when 43-year-old Nicholas Kirby, of Dickinson, was shot after he led authorities on a pursuit from Bismarck to near New Salem. There was also the fatal October shooting of 39-year-old Michael Bryant, who was the subject of a domestic disturbance in Minot. Also in October, 56-year-old David Bezek was shot and killed by Dickinson authorities who were responding to a report of a domestic when Bezek fired at them. In Fargo, 65-year-old Peter Greco was fatally shot by two officers after he apparently walked out of his home while armed with a weapon during a police interaction in mid-November, the Forum reported. Another shooting involving officers happened in early December in Jamestown when a man was firing rounds from a rifle at a bar. Officers were initially responding to a call about an armed man outside the building, but it escalated to an active shooting, prompting authorities to shoot the suspect. Another fatal shooting took place on Dec. 29, when an officer with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs shot a man who was allegedly driving erratically near the northern North Dakota town of Belcourt. *** READER DISCRETION ADVISED *** A LIMERICK man sexually exploited a vulnerable young person after he met her through Snapchat and entered into a sugar relationship with the girl, a court has heard. Joseph Kiely, aged 39, of Cosgrave Park, Moyross, Limerick pleaded guilty to two counts of defilement - engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 17. They occurred in separate hotels in Limerick on July 8 and July 9 in 2020. Prosecuting barrister John OSullivan, instructed by State solicitor Padraig Mawe, outlined the evidence at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court prior to Christmas. Judge Colin Daly sentenced Mr Kiely the following day. The judge gave a summary of the evidence in which he said the victim told Mr Kiely she was 16 - when she was 14 - after they interacted on Snapchat. He was 35 at the time. During the course of a Snapchat interaction Mr Kiely proposed she enter into a sugar relationship with him, said Judge Daly. A sugar relationship typically involves a mutually beneficial arrangement where one party (sugar daddy or sugar mommy) provides financial support or gifts in exchange for companionship or intimacy from the other party. The judge said some time later the victim was going through a difficult period and in the company of older teenage friends. It appears they were partying and staying in various hotels in and around Limerick city and the environs. The victim then got in touch with Mr Kiely and arranged to meet him in a hotel on July 8, 2020, where they engaged in sexual intercourse in return for which he gave her cigarettes and 80. The next day she contacted him again and they arranged again to meet for sex in return for money. At a different hotel the victim performed oral sex on Mr Kiely and he gave her 90, said Judge Daly. The court heard that on July 11, 2020, the victim gave a full account of events to her mother who reported what occurred to gardai. The victim gave a statement to gardai and Mr Kiely subsequently gave two voluntary interviews with investigating gardai. In assessing the gravity of the offence, Judge Daly said using a child for sexual gratification must be considered to be one of the most serious offences. The judge said children, a 14-year-old in this case, are very vulnerable and all adults have to protect children, keep them from harm, keep them from abuse, and keep them from exploitation. The accused cannot hide behind ignorance of the actual age of consent nor can he hide behind his recklessness in becoming involved with someone for sexual purposes who was so obviously much, much younger than him. The harm done can be identified by the victim impact statement which gives clear insight into the harm this young person has experienced. The victim impact statement is generous in its lack of blame towards the accused. He was reckless to an enormous degree in the exploitation of a vulnerable young person, said Judge Daly. In terms of mitigation, the judge took into account Mr Kielys guilty plea at the earliest opportunity, co-operation with gardai, no previous convictions and that he made no further attempt to contact the victim in the intervening years. READ MORE: Limerick gardai seize high-powered vehicle in Rathkeale Judge Daly imposed a three-year jail sentence with the final year suspended. Mr Kiely was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. Mark Nicholas SC, defending, applied for a stay on the execution of the custodial warrant. Judge Daly granted the application for 21 days. Mr Kiely is to attend at Limerick Prison on January 7. The judge lifted reporting restrictions on naming Mr Kiely but stressed that nothing could be reported that would identify the victim. If you have been affected by this story please contact the 24 Hour Rape Crisis Helpline on 1800 778888 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 LIMERICK IFA will host its traditional Nollaig na mBan or Womens Christmas celebration lunch at the Woodlands House Hotel in Adare on Monday afternoon, January 6 Limerick IFAs farm family committee, chaired by Peggy Cooke, will welcome women - and men! - to the event which marks the twelfth and final day of Christmas. As a reward for their hard work over the Christmas season, Womens Christmas was traditionally a day off from all house work for women and traditional roles were supposed to be reversed in the home: men did the womens work in the house while women rested and gathered together informally. READ MORE: PICTURES: Limerick mart sees out 2024 in great style with festive charity morning According to RTE Brainstorm, the custom was that women made social calls to the homes of their friends and neighbours and enjoyed tea and the last of the Christmas cake. The festivities begin at 12.30pm in the Woodlands with a mulled wine reception. A sumptuous lunch will be served up at 2pm. Tickets are 50 and can be purchased from Peggy Cooke (0877768529) or Mary Breen (0876383060). You dont have to be an IFA member to attend and all are welcome. A new resource has been created to provide guidance to schools, teachers and parents on how to address the impact of online masculinity influencers on children and young people, particularly teenage boys, across Ireland. The resource has been made in response to influencers, such as Andrew Tate, who has attracted huge audiences of young men and teenage boys through sexual and discriminatory language. Teachers and parents in Ireland and the UK have become increasingly concerned about how young people, particularly teenage boys, are engaging with online masculinity influencers who post content on social media platforms on issues relating to men and masculinity. The new guide has been created by Dr Darragh McCashin and Dr Catherine Baker from Dublin City University, alongside Dr Fiona ORourke. The guide sets out how some of the content promotes harmful ideologies, attitudes and behaviours, including restrictive and oppressive forms of masculinity that are predicated on sexual and gender-based abuse, harassment and violence. The resource aims to provide schools, teachers and educators with guidance on how to address the impact of these online masculinity influencers on young people, particularly teenage boys aged 13-18, via educational interventions and initiatives, which include having critical discussions with them about this topic. It also provides information about online masculinity influencers who promote harmful ideologies, attitudes and behaviours, as well as the impact they have on children and teenage boys. Some masculinity influencers have gained significant followings on social media, including Tate, who has amassed several million followers on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, where videos of him have been watched 11.6 billion times. His social media content ranges from general motivational videos to explicitly harmful content that is misogynistic, homophobic, sexist and conspiratory-led. Tate, who is currently facing allegations of abuse, rape, and human trafficking of women, which he denies, has been banned from Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube for his misogynistic comments. Some of his comments include comparing women to dogs, saying women should not be allowed to drive, claiming that men have authority over their female partners and that women rape victims should bear some responsibility for being raped. The report says that online masculinity influencers promote other forms of masculinity, which can have an adverse effect on boys and men. Influencers such as Tate, Myron Gaines and Mike Thurston, promote the idea that young men should manifest specific masculine ideals, such as strength, toughness and physicality, through a muscular physique via fitness and weight-training videos they post online. The guide says this online content reifies deeply entrenched ideas about masculine aesthetics, which can have a negative impact on the mental health of boys who are not able to achieve this physical ideal. Dr Darragh McCashin, assistant professor at the School of Psychology, Dublin City University, said teachers in Irish schools have been crying out for guidance on how to tackle the issue. There has been a rise in traditional masculinity attitudes in the classroom. Theres been some work in Australia by (academic) Stephanie Wescott and colleagues, as well as work done in the UK NGO sector, that have pointed to an uptick in misogynistic and sexist attitudes and behaviours, particularly from pre-teen boys, Dr McCashin said. Higher levels are being observed, and this chimes with the recent Womens Aid report on younger men exhibiting much higher levels of traditionalist masculinity than other generations, which is something that hasnt really been observed before. Normally, its older generations that endorse kind of very traditional views of masculinity as it relates to attitudes about women, sex, sexuality, the role of men in the home. All of that kind of points to the fact that the manosphere online content might be having an adverse impact on boys and men in terms of their progression to very traditionalist notions of what it is to be a man, what masculinity actually means. All of this is potentially having a problematic influence on how were thinking about the opposite sex, how were behaving, how were interacting online. Thats the overall context to the rise in traditional masculinity, as observed by teachers and parents. The 39-page guide provides advice to schools, teachers and parents/guardians on how to address the impact of online masculinity influencers and digital cultures on children and young people, particularly teenage boys, and has been produced in consultation with a number of academics. An appeal for help in locating a man reported missing from his home in Dublin on New Year's Eve has been stood down following the discovery of a body, gardai have confirmed. Gardai had issued a public appeal for assistance in tracing the whereabouts of 65-year-old Patrick Tiernan, who was last seen in the Clonsilla area of Dublin shortly after 3pm on Tuesday. Concerns were expressed for his well-being at the time and in an update, issued this Thursday evening, gardai confirmed the search has now been stood down. "Following the discovery of a body of a male earlier today (Thursday) in west Dublin, our missing person appeal in respect of 65-year-old Patrick Tiernan who was reported missing from his home in Clonsilla, Dublin 15 on Tuesday, December 31 2024, has been stood down," said a spokesperson. READ ALSO: ALERT: Gardai seek assistance in locating missing teenager No further information has been disclosed publicly by gardai who have thanked members of the public and the media for their assistance with the appeal. The Competition Commission of Indias investigation has confirmed anti-competitive practices by Apple Inc. following a probe into the iPhone and iPad makers app store processes, two people familiar with the development said. CCI, which is yet to pronounce its verdict, last week decided to share a confidential version of its investigation report with Apple and Apple Distribution International Ltd to enable them to prepare their defences, these people said. This is the penultimate step before final hearings and adjudication on the case. The CCI director generals investigation report has confirmed a violation of Indias competition law provisions that prohibit abuse of dominance, one of the two persons said. Also read | Google offers to settle smart TV anti-trust matter in test case for CCI CCI ordered the probe into Apples app store practices in December 2021. It had said then that the mandatory need for application developers to use Apples in-app payment solution for paid apps and in-app purchases restricted them from selecting a payment processing system of their choice and was anti-competitive. Mint didnt receive formal responses to its queries emailed to the CCI on 30 December and to Apple on 31 December seeking comments on the development. Together We Fight Society, the non-government organisation taking on big tech firms to promote transparency, and which filed the information with CCI leading to the investigation, declined to offer a comment as the case is pending before CCI for final adjudication. Also read | Mint Explainer: Why CCI is worried about the impact of AI on competition The infomants allegation was that Apple had made it mandatory for application developers to use Apples in-app payment solution, In-App Purchase (IAP), for distribution of paid digital content. The informant also questioned the commission charged by Apple, which it said could be considered as unfair and in violation of Indias competition law. Apple charges a commission of up to 30% for app purchases and in-app purchases. The EU fine Apple has faced regulatory action in the European Union on similar issues. The European Commission in March last year fined Apple over 1.8 billion for abusing its dominant position on the market for the distribution of music streaming apps to iPhone and iPad users through its App Store". The Commission said in a statement that Apple applied restrictions on app developers, preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app, which it said was illegal under EU antitrust rules. CCIs 2021 order initiating the probe quoted Apple as saying that its app store review guidelines were not unfair or arbitrary and were put in place to ensure a safe and secure place for consumers to discover and download apps and purchase digital content. Sonam Chandwani, managing partner at KS Legal & Associates, said sharing the confidential version of the CCI investigation report is rooted in the principles of confidentiality and fairness as prescribed under the Competition Act, 2002 and the CCI (General) Regulations, 2009, and meant to protect trade secrets, proprietary data, and commercially sensitive details. This ensures that while the defendants, such as Apple, are given access to the report for preparing their defence, the information is not misused or made publicly accessible," said Chandwani. Also read | Apples hold on the App Store is loosening, at least in Europe To decarbonise the global economy and build the data centres needed for ever smarter artificial-intelligence models, the world will need lots of minerals. China wants first dibs. Last year its companies ploughed roughly $16bn into mines overseas, not including minority investments. View Full Image China-is-tightening-its-grip-on-the-world-s-minera That is the highest figure in a decade, up from less than $5bn the year before (see top chart). On October 8th a Chinese state-owned enterprise disclosed plans to invest more than$5bn in a copper mine in Afghanistan. The next day Zijin Mining, Chinas most valuable listed miner, said it would spend $1bn on a gold mine in Ghana. On October 14th a group of Chinese firms committed $5bn to Zambian mining over the next five years. Chinalco, another Chinese state-owned company, reportedly wants a stake in the Philippines biggest copper mine. Chinese miners control a large and growing share of the worlds minerals, including about half of nickel and mined lithium, more than two-fifths of cobalt and a fifth of copper. Most of that is dug up abroad (see bottom chart). In the past few years that has led to plenty of hand-wringing but not much meaningful action on the part of Western policymakers. There are signs, though, that is changing. The latest spending spree by Chinese miners has tightened their grip on global minerals. Their focus has been to expand their share of copper, a critical element for electrification. In 2023 the metal accounted for around three-fifths of their overseas investment. Last year MMG, a subsidiary of China Minmetals, a state-owned company, said it would buy a copper mine in Botswana for nearly $2bn and invest $800m to more than double its output. At the same time, Chinese miners have kept investing in the minerals needed for electric-vehicle (EV) batteries. In May Ganfeng Lithium, which owns mines from Argentina to Australia, bought out its partner in one of the worlds biggest lithium mines in Mali. All that investment has lifted a number of Chinas miners into the big leagues. Zijin, which has assets from Serbia to Suriname, last year produced about three-fifths as much copper as BHP, the worlds most valuable miner, and has ambitions to become a top lithium producer, too. Its market value has soared by 500% over the past five years, to more than $60bn, surpassing Vale, a Brazilian mining giant. CMOC, a Chinese state-backed miner that has been acquiring large cobalt projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is now the worlds biggest producer of the metal. Some of what Chinas mining giants dig up abroad stays there, and even finds its way to Western buyers. CMOC, through its metals-trading arm in Geneva, sells cobalt to companies like Electra Battery Materials Corporation, a Canadian firm that is building a refining facility in Ontario. A growing share of Chinas overseas mining output, though, is woven into the countrys expanding foreign supply chain for products such as batteries, EVs and solar panels. And much of the ore is shipped back home. In the first nine months of this year China imported 12% more copper, 21% more cobalt and 20% more bauxite than it did in the same period last year. All this ore feeds Chinas vast production base for industrial metals, which far surpasses any other countrys. When it comes to refined minerals, China accounts for around 60% of the global supply of battery-grade lithium, 65% of nickel, 70% of cobalt and 90% of rare-earth elements such as neodymium. Some Chinese miners have stretched further down the supply chain; Zijin now produces copper foil. These metals are then fed into Chinese factories, which manufacture around half the worlds EVs and four-fifths of its lithium-ion batteries and solar panels. Muddling through As Chinas hold on global mining strengthens, the Westand America in particularis becoming ever more anxious about its deepening reliance on its strategic rival. America imports more than half the minerals it needs, and China is among its most important suppliers. Politicians eager to boost American manufacturing at home realise that their ambitions may be hampered by a lack of access to the metals all those new factories will require. On the campaign trail Kamala Harris has called for a stockpile of minerals to ensure Americas economic and national security", an idea that has won bipartisan support. A stockpile will not do much to relieve Americas reliance on Chinese minerals. Somewhat more usefully, America and a group of its allies, through the Mineral Security Partnership, are trying to co-ordinate their support for critical-minerals projects around the world. Speeding up the construction of new mines at home would be even better. On October 24th Americas federal government approved a big lithium mine in Nevadaonly the fourth new site for critical minerals in America since 2002. That same day it approved tax credits for some mining firms to encourage them to boost the production of critical minerals. That is a start, but more will be needed if America wants to shake its reliance on Chinese minerals. The Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, an industry association, has called for a new federal agency to co-ordinate the various minerals programmes scattered across government departments, replacing the Bureau of Mines, which Congress abolished in 1996. That decision, it says, is one reason for Americas unsustainable dependency on foreign countries" for the minerals it needs. As Chinese miners dig faster and farther afield, their grip will only get harder to loosen. 2025, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com India's cooling consumer electronics market has put a question mark on its lofty aim to achieve annual revenue of $500 billion from electronics manufacturing. While policy and financial measures on way can help, the country is likely to miss the target by a mile, experts said. India's domestic electronics industry may clock a total revenue of just $145 billion this year, the consensus estimate of three market researchers showed. This includes the consumer electronics industry of smartphones ($42 billion); laptops, desktops and tablets ($11 billion); and televisions, cameras, audio and accessories ($12 billion). Home appliances are expected to add $80 billion. In September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for achieving a $500 billion electronics economy by 2030; however, this requires an annual revenue growth of 23%, against the 5% or lower growth in every electronics category since the pandemic outbreak. The current consumer markets show no signs of a turnaround, and enterprises are cautious due to macroeconomic concerns," said an industry executive who works with the Centre on various technology policy affairs. "Overall, Indias growth pace in the electronics economy has largely remained in the low single digit. To reach the promised land of a $500-billion domestic electronics economy, India will need strong double-digit growthwhich is currently entirely lacking in the market," the executive said on the condition of anonymity. Also read | TVS Electronics plans long term EMS play A key reason is India's flatlining smartphone purchases. This is crucial, since smartphones account for nearly 65% of India's entire consumer electronics economy, and 30% of the overall electronics economy. With no visible growth factors, the only hope lies in increasing the domestic value addition in devices, which will then generate additional revenue in the market even amid stagnant consumer sentiment. A recent CII estimate said that India could export electronics worth $60 billion by 2030. Even then, youd need the technology markets to grow at 20% each yearwhich is unlikely even with the premiumization trend that you see today. Overall market saturation, lack of first-time buyers, and narrow growth scopes mean that achieving such a target could be unlikely," a senior technology consultant said. The industry's concerns remain despite the Union electronics ministry considering a $3-billion incentives package to encourage electronics components manufacturing, intellectual property design and creation of homegrown brands. Indias semiconductor manufacturing push is also expected to contribute to the $500-billion target. Also read | Mint Primer: Why is private R&D important in electronics? Emailed queries to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology remained unanswered till the time of publishing. Ajai Chowdhry, an industry veteran and co-founder of HCL, said the electronics economy is lagging in value creation. If you look at most of the electronics sectors, global brands that rule the Indian markets take most of the economic benefits back to their home nations, namely China and the US. If such an economy is allowed to continue, India will fail to generate value even on the back of net market revenue growth," he said. "To do this, immediate action to create brands in strategic industries, as well as building a conducive market for private companies to develop patents and IPs in the country, will be keyelse well clearly fall short of the lofty revenue targets that weve set for ourselves," Chowdhry said. Ashok Chandak, president of India Electronics and Semiconductor Association, concurred. In our assessment, were counting aspects such as the local manufacturing of electronics sub-system components supplied to the automotive industry of India, which in turn will combine with the electronics and appliances markets to create around $400 billion in net industry revenue in the next six years. But, doing this successfully will also depend on in-progress localization policies, a successful import duty revision, rolling out design-linked incentives, and encouraging local brands in markets that are not saturated and matured yet," Chandak added. Also read | New national electronics policy to have renewed focus on creating Indian brands, products Without these added fillips, India's electronics industry, including exports, is likely to reach $250-300 billion, considerably short of target. Industry experts said this puts considerable focus on the importance of policies, since there are no other substitutes. Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC) India, said, There is no organic growth in the domestic smartphones market, and there are no signs that there will be a sudden revival in the coming years, either. 5G has not been a compelling growth factor, and theres little to suggest that there could be any growth in this segment beyond a single-digit annual growth in value, at least in the near term." Emails on growth expectations sent to Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo, Indias top four smartphone brands that account for over half the market, remained unanswered. Other electronics and appliances brands have expressed optimism. Last month, Sunil Nayyar, managing director of Sony India, said the company is likely to continue seeing double-digit growth in near future. Separately, Nilesh Gupta, managing director of multi-brand pan-India electronics retailer Vijay Sales, said consumer demand for electronics is seeing an uptick driven by lucrative exchange and zero-interest financing options. And read | Indias domestic consumer electronics market closes in on $100-bn valuation Most key components in gadgets and appliances, however, continue to be imported. Were pushing for our semiconductor ecosystem to start firing significantly by 2027-28, and talks for technology transfer joint ventures between global and domestic firms are currently ongoing in the components industry. With the right policies and incentives, which the Centre is already working on, revenue generation should see a clear boost in the next three years," a senior government official added, requesting anonymity. For now, though, the electronics economys targets remain a work in progress, quite some distance off its goal. Search firms and companies confirmed increased hiring of chief technology officers (CTOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), chief human resources officers (CHROs), regulatory officers, as well as business leaders for emerging and regulated markets. Indian firms are creating more entrepreneurial, scale-driven opportunities. For a candidate willing to take a three- to five-year horizon, this becomes attractive given skin-in-the-game rewards like restricted stock units and Esops," Sachin Rajan, managing director at executive search and leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates said. Large Indian companies want to differentiate themselves and pivot towards specialized portfolios, as well as focus on enterprise buyers such as hospital chains, and governments, Rajan said. This (requires) leadership both in commercial - business units, sales and marketing functions but also leaders who can enable pivots in functions like regulatory and medical," he said. Sharp rise India's drugmakers hired 40% more CXOs in the first 11 months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, data from executive search firm Accord India shared with Mint showed. Biocon Ltd has hired more top executives in its generics business, Maninder Kapoor Puri, head of human resources said. As Biocon's generics business grows in key markets and secures approvals for niche products in API, oral solid dosages, and injectables, we are recruiting talent in R&D, regulatory, quality, operations, and commercial roles," the spokesperson said. The companys biosimilar arm, Biocon Biologics, has also ramped up hiring for senior executives and CXO roles in operations, science and enabling functions, Puri added. Also read | After intensive care, peoples pharmacy Jan Aushadhi sees healthy sales spike We continue to grow in significant markets of the US, UK, EU and important emerging market countries. These strategic growth initiatives are fuelling the need for top talent across key functions as our strategy is to stay abreast of the latest trends in the industry," Puri said. Mankind Pharma, which listed on the bourses in 2023, hired several executives in the roles of senior general manager, vice-president and above, said Prateek Dubey, global CHRO, Mankind Pharma. "This is a strategic move to support the companys expansion into larger urban centres and growing its chronic disease portfolio. Mankind Pharma aims to strengthen its position in the pharmaceutical industry by focusing on quality, affordability, and accessibility. Bringing in senior talent with a proven track record can provide the expertise needed to implement innovative strategies and maintain a competitive advantage," Dubey said. What is driving growth? 2024 has been a transformational year for Indian pharmademand came back, especially in the US marketsthe sector really bounced back," Tejinder Pal Singh, founder-director and senior partner-lifesciences and healthcare practice at leadership consulting firm Transearch said. India's pharmaceuticals industry which was worth $50 billion in FY24 is poised to grow to $130 billion by 2030, a joint report by EY-Parthenon and the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) showed aided by growing domestic market and exports. Companies are focusing more on innovation, complex generics, biosimilars, and new chemical entities to boost exports, the report noted. Also read | A prescription for speed: How e-pharmacies aim to transform medicine delivery There are significant tailwinds in 2025 as well. Indian contract manufacturing firms (CDMOs) are expected to benefit from the proposed US Biosecure Act barring American companies from engaging with some Chinese biotech firms, at a time companies in the US and Europe try to diversify supply chains away from China. Patents for blockbuster drugs like semaglutide (sold under brand name Ozempic and Wegovy by Novo Nordisk) and Merck's cancer drug Keytruda are set to expire in the next five years, opening new opportunities for Indias generics makers. Talent gap The demand for talent is outpacing availability, Singh of Transearch said. Companies look for candidates who not only meet the required educational qualifications and achievements, but also with a demonstrated track record of leadership and regulatory know-how. As Indian companies look to expand their footprint in regulated markets, candidates who understand regulatory practices, have a proven track record of working with regulators like the US FDA and are aware of good manufacturing practices (GMP) are preferred, Singh said. At the generics business, we value experience in profit and loss management, track record of leading medium to large teams, and expertise in identifying and generating significant business opportunities in targeted markets," Biocons Puri said. Also read | Home remedy: Indian pharma bets on domestic brands to combat US generics slowdown There is a talent gap in functions like manufacturing, quality, engineering, supply chaineven in partnership growth, because Indian companies are getting into a lot more partnerships with the US innovator companies," Singh said. Firms like Russell Reynolds Associates have been hiring executives from other sectors who fit the requirements as well. We have recruited from consumer healthcare, FMCG, even telecom, along with the pharma sector, for these roles," Rajan said. The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has secured an edge over the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in regulating the audit and accounting profession, with the Solicitor General of India backing the former's powers in some respects. ICAI cannot investigate statutory auditors of listed companies and large unlisted businesses governed by NFRA, according to the legal opinion given by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, two persons informed about the development said. The top lawyer also endorsed NFRAs power to make independent recommendations to the government on audit and accounting standards, going beyond merely commenting on ICAI's recommendations. Mehta's backing of NFRA's power to give independent recommendations gives the authority a free hand in rule-making. The Solicitor General also said that once NFRA submits its recommendations, the ministry may not need to consult ICAI again on the matter, and is free to seek more inputs from either of the bodies if it wants. The legal opinion, which follows a request from the authority, comes at a time NFRA and ICAI have differed over harmonizing Indian audit standards with international standards on the norms governing auditing group financial statements. Also read | NFRA Board revises all audit standards despite ICAI dissent on some; likely effective from FY26 NFRA had on 12 November recommended to the ministry of corporate affairs to notify SA 600, an audit standard for group financial statements, making the lead auditor responsible for consolidated financial statements even if subsidiaries are audited by others. However, ICAI is not in favour of this change. NFRA also proposed to the government to notify two standards on quality control at the level of the audit firm as per global practices. Later in the month, it proposed similar changes for audit norms of limited liability partnerships. ICAI, which has regulated the sector for decades until NFRA was formed in 2018, has been of the view that making the principal auditor who audits the holding company responsible for the component auditor, the one who audits the subsidiary, will lead to the concentration of the audit market around big audit firms at the expense of other auditors, Mint reported on 14 November. The corporate affairs ministry is expected to take a final view on this difference in the opinion of the two regulators. Also read | NFRA begins work to overhaul audit norms An ICAI spokesperson said in a statement, "If the government, on the recommendation of NFRA, notifies standard on quality management (SQM) 1 and SQM 2 as auditing standards under Section 143(10) (of the Companies Act), ICAI will fully abide by such notification. However, in the view of ICAI, SQM 1 and 2 are frameworks for quality management at the firm level, providing essential standard operating procedures (SoPs) for firms and are not auditing standards." ICAI did not comment on other points in the Solicitor Generals opinion given to NFRA. Queries emailed to NFRA and to the ministry on Tuesday seeking comments for the story remained unanswered at the time of publishing. NFRA is not a passive body. It is an independent regulator to oversee the audit of public interest entities including listed companies. ICAI has to recognize that there is a government regulatory agency set up to oversee this specific segment of the corporate sector and consequently, the safeguarding of the public interest. Hence, it ought to play an active role and may formulate standards to perform the role envisaged by the law," explained Vijay Kapur, former director at ICAI. Also read | ICAI puts its foot down, informs NFRA of its powers In any case, the NFRA can't be perceived to play the role of postman between the ICAI on one hand and the MCA on the other. Given the defined role of each of the institutions, ICAI has all the powers to regulate its members including more than 90,000 audit firms and oversee the entities coming under it," Kapur added. NFRA having the sole mandate on public interest entities will ensure there are no conflicting rulings by the two regulatory bodies, said one of the two persons quoted above. The public interest entities coming under NFRA's jurisdiction include listed companies, unlisted companies with paid-up capital of not less than 500 crore or having annual sales of not less than 1000 crore, or having outstanding loans and deposits of not less than 500 crore. Insurers, banking companies and power utilities are also under NFRA's oversight. And read | Be harsh when you see serious fudging, NFRA tells auditors Quick commerce has rapidly emerged as a fast-growing segment and a game-changer in Indias retail industry, merging the convenience of e-commerce with ultra-fast deliveries. With promises of delivery within 20 minutes, this segment gained prominence during the pandemic and has since become an integral part of urban lifestyles, offering unparalleled convenience at competitive prices. But as the sector attracts significant investor interest and reshapes the way Indians shop, a pressing question arises: Is q-commerce a sustainable boon or a bubble waiting to burst? Lets delve deeper. What is quick commerce? Quick commerce, or q-commerce, focuses on delivering groceries and essential items within 1020 minutes of placing an order. It merges the convenience of e-commerce with the speed of on-demand delivery, relying on advanced logistics, dark stores, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered systems to optimize inventory placement and delivery times. Typically, q-commerce companies maintain about 10,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) featuring popular items across categories. These SKUs are housed in strategically located dark stores in densely populated areas, enabling rapid order fulfilment. This hyper-local strategy allows companies to concentrate a large volume of orders within a small geographic area, significantly improving delivery efficiency. Indias high demand density gives q-commerce a distinct edge over markets like the US and the UK, where such density is lower. Additionally, lower delivery and labour costs in India make this business model highly attractive and potentially profitable. Key players and market dynamics Indias q-commerce sector is dominated by Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggys Instamart. Blinkit leads with a 46% market share, followed by Zepto (29%) and Instamart (25%), according to reports. The success of these players has spurred the entry of smaller competitors like Big Basket and Flipkart Minutes, with more players eyeing the space. Read this | Can Swiggys Instamart spice it up in quick commerce? The number of dark stores has emerged as a critical factor in this competitive race. Blinkit leads with 639 dark stores, followed by Instamart (500), Zepto (400), and Big Basket. These stores are vital to meeting consumer demands for faster delivery in densely populated areas. The sectors rapid growth reflects its appeal. Q-commerces share in online retail rose from a mere 0.14% in 2018 to 4.8% in 2023. Analysts expect this share to grow annually by 6080%, potentially reaching 1730% of the online retail market by 2028. By then, the market is projected to be valued between 2.32 trillion and 4.24 trillion. This growth is driven by rising urbanization, increased purchasing power, and consumer demands for speed, convenience, and discounts. Q-commerce: A boon for fast-paced lifestyle Quick commerce is reshaping shopping habits across India. Initially fuelled by health concerns during the pandemic, home delivery has now become a cornerstone of urban life. Consumers across age groups and genders prioritize speed and convenience, making q-commerce a natural fit for todays fast-paced society. Beyond rapid delivery, q-commerce attracts consumers with competitive pricing. Q-commerce companies reportedly offer products at 1015% lower prices than local stores. This is achieved by purchasing goods in bulk directly from manufacturers, bypassing traditional supply chain costs. These savings are passed on to consumers, making q-commerce a compelling choice. While q-commerce initially gained traction in major cities, it has steadily expanded into smaller towns like Haridwar and Bathinda, unlocking untapped opportunities in tier-1 and tier-3 markets. This expansion benefits not only consumers and companies but also the broader economy. Job creation: The sector has generated millions of jobs for semi-skilled and unskilled workers, including gig workers, offering employment in a country grappling with high unemployment. Support for local businesses: Q-commerce companies procure products from local suppliers, fostering the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Boost to logistics and transport: Increased demand for last-mile delivery enhances earnings for logistics providers, driving local economic growth. Additionally, the sector has attracted significant foreign direct investment (FDI), with approximately 540 billion already poured into q-commerce, according to the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). Despite its rapid growth and economic contributions, q-commerce faces challenges. Concerns over disruptive pricing practices and potential violations of FDI regulations persist. The sectors aggressive pricing strategies have sparked debates among trade unions and regulatory bodies. A bigger question looms: Can q-commerce sustain its hypergrowth? Comparisons with the recent collapse of the edtech bubble, epitomized by Byjus downfall, highlight the risks of overexpansion and profitability challenges. Is the q-commerce boom a bubble waiting to burst? The q-commerce sector faces mounting challenges and criticisms from various stakeholders, including the government and consumers. Operational issues such as rising competition and persistent lack of profitability add to the uncertainty surrounding its sustainability. Operational hurdles: Q-commerce operates on a high-cost model, requiring significant investment in dark stores, logistics, and maintaining stock-keeping units (SKUs). Compounding these challenges, the average order value remains lowtypically between 300 and 700leading to slim margins. This cash-intensive model leaves companies vulnerable to financial strain, forcing them to burn through capital to sustain operations. To address this, q-commerce firms are diversifying into higher-margin categories such as medicines, electronics, and merchandise. While this strategy aims to mitigate risks and improve profitability, it brings them into direct competition with established e-commerce giants, escalating the stakes. Intensifying competition: Initially, q-commerce players enjoyed a relatively niche market. However, as the sector grew, major e-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart began entering the space. Flipkarts "Minutes" service and Amazons "Tez," both launched in 2024, mark a shift toward faster deliveries. These services, initially rolled out in Bangalore, are expected to scale nationwide, leveraging their extensive delivery networks. Other heavyweights, including Tatas New Flash, Reliance Retail, Nykaa, and Myntra, have also joined the race. This influx of well-funded competitors has triggered intense price wars, potentially leading to predatory pricing that could erode already thin margins and disrupt revenue streams. However, existing players retain a first-mover advantage, enjoying customer loyalty and robust infrastructure. To maintain this edge, companies like Zomato ( 193 billion war chest) and Zepto ($1 billion cash reserves) are doubling down on expanding their dark store networks. Impact on kirana stores and regulatory concerns: The rapid growth of q-commerce has significantly impacted traditional kirana stores. According to news reports, q-commerce platforms have diverted approximately $1.28 billion ( 108.7 billion) in sales from these stores, representing 21% of the combined gross sales of Zepto, Blinkit, Instamart, and Big Basket. Many consumers now prefer q-commerce for its speed and discounts, leaving kiranas struggling to compete. Read this | Racing against time: How offline grocers are adapting to the quick commerce surge Distributors are also feeling the strain. Elara Securities notes that subdued sales have made it difficult for them to recover dues from kirana stores. Trade unions and organizations such as the CAIT have raised concerns about predatory pricing, deep discounts, and exclusive seller deals, alleging violations of the Competition Act. Despite these concerns, the government has so far resisted calls for stringent regulations. In August 2024, Commerce minister Piyush Goyal acknowledged the benefits of online commerce, emphasizing fair play and honesty over intervention. However, he also urged q-commerce players to collaborate with kirana stores for last-mile delivery to ensure long-term sustainability. Conclusion Q-commerce stands at a crossroads, balancing innovation with uncertainty. Its rapid growth and widespread customer acceptance have reshaped Indias retail landscape, but rising operational costs, intense competition, and its disruptive impact on kirana stores cast doubts on its long-term sustainability. The coming years will be pivotal in determining whether q-commerce players can overcome these challenges, achieve profitability, and adapt to potential regulatory pressuresor if the sector will falter under mounting competition and scrutiny. One thing remains certain: q-commerce is set to redefine the future of retail in India, leaving an indelible mark on consumer behaviour and industry dynamics. Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation and should not be treated as such. This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com New Delhi: In little more than a couple of years, quick commerce has turned into the great hope of Indias startup landscape. Zomato, Zepto and Swiggy dominate, even as Big Basket, Amazon and others are trying to muscle in. In this beeline for a slice of retail, whats going to happen to that staple of the Indian streetthe neighbourhood kirana store? When big box stores such as Big Basket entered the Indian market, kirana stores were predicted to be on their way out, mirroring the trend in more developed markets such as the US, where small mom-and-pop shops simply couldnt compete with the scale and pricing power of a Walmart. As of 2023-24, according to data compiled by the National Sample Survey, there were around 22.8 million unincorporated establishments conducting some sort of trade. The vast majority of thesebetween 80% and 90%were specifically in retail trade (kiranas), employing an average of less than two workers. And while the number of such retail outlets grew by about 230,000 in a year between 2022-23 and 2023-24, their count fell by a similar number between 2015-16 and 2023-24. The governments Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (2023-24), the data that was released late last month, covers three broad sectors. These are trade (of which 80-90%, as pointed out earlier, are retail trade shops); manufacturing, and other services (establishments engaged in services sectors other than retail). All these establishments are tiny. On average, they employ barely 1-2 people, including the proprietor. On average, they do 3 lakh to 7 lakh of business a year, depending on whether they are located in rural or urban areas. The survey does not cover construction firms or the agricultural sector. In 2010-11, trade establishments accounted for around 36% of all unincorporated establishments. Five years later, and even as late as 2021-22, that share was relatively constant. But in the two years since that share has declined by about 6.6 percentage points. The declining importance of kiranas in overall retail in India shows up in the macro numbers as well. As of 2015-16, the trade sector, comprising retail and wholesale trade, generated around 13 trillion of GDP (or, more precisely, gross value added). Of this, 34% was accounted for by unincorporated enterprises or kiranas, a share that had risen by 4 percentage points from 2010-11. But by 2023-24, this share had fallen sharply to around 22%. So, are kiranas on the way out? Its too early to say. The unique economics of quick commerce means that the most intense competition is likely to be felt in specific, highly dense and urbanized large cities, at least for now. Quick economics Ultimately, the decline of kiranas may have come about from a combination of factorsfor example, demonetization rather than just quick commerce. But as has been widely pointed out, quick commerce strikes at the heart of the kirana businessgroceries and daily staples. By cutting out not just traditional retailers but also wholesalers and distributors and sourcing directly from manufacturers like ITC or Hindustan Unilever, quick commerce can essentially cannibalize all those juicy margins and still offer prices below that of the traditional retail shop. The extent to which e-commerce, in general, has affected the retail market in India is indicated by the fact that for a company like ITC, digitally enabled sales and modern trade accounted for 31% of the companys fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales in 2023-24, up from 17% in 2019-20. Zomatos quick commerce business, for instance, built on the acquisition of Blinkit, saw its average monthly transacting customers rise from 2.9 million in 2022-23 to 5.1 million in 2023-24. In 2023-24, each of its dark stores averaged a gross order value of about 8 lakh per day. According to a Mint story, a survey by NIQ of 4,500 customers in 16 cities, 31% of urban Indians use quick commerce for their primary grocery shopping. View Full Image A file photo of Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of Blinkit. This is a business driven by cheap labour, especially gig workers. They, in effect, implement the core proposition of quick commercehome delivery of everything from daily groceries to iPhones within 10-15 minutes. At Zomato, for instance, an average of 67,000 delivery workers a month delivered about 203 million orders in 2023-24. What adds to the bottom line and attractiveness to investors is that, in line with other such platforms globally, none of the quick commerce businesses treat such workers as employees. Thus, they avoid the statutory employment benefits. While such workers are called gig workers, they are, in effect, the same as older forms of informal or casual labour, but working for online platforms instead. Kiranas in flux Currently, the economics of quick commerce means the biggest bang for their buck comes in dense, urban areas. Here, quick commerce companies can locate their dark stores to achieve a minimum level of business to be viable. According to the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), which represents FMCG distributors, around 200,000 kirana stores have shut down over the last year, with 45% of those closures being in metros and a further 30% in tier-I cities. View Full Image According to the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation, around 200,000 kirana stores have shut down over the last year. (Rajesh Kumar/Mint) The National Sample Survey (NSS) data on unincorporated enterprises doesnt break down the data by metros. While it does have a rural-urban split, that data has not been released for 2023-24 yet. Between 2015-16 and 2022-23, the previous period, retail outlets in urban areas fell by 9.4%, or 1.15 million outlets. Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, in contrast, such outlets in urban areas rose by close to 20%. Interestingly though, in 2022-23, kiranas in rural areas fell by around 56,000 outlets from a year earlier. What about urban areas across states? Interestingly, the data shows a mixed bag, with both poorer and richer states seeing an increase in kiranas, and a serious decrease as well. Jharkhand, for instance, saw a 21% increase in unincorporated trade establishments between 2015-16 and 2022-23. But so did Gujarat (19%), a much richer state, over the same period. At the other end of the spectrum, its a similar story. Uttar Pradesh, the state with the largest number of such establishments, saw a dramatic decline of 26% over a seven-year period, but so did Karnataka, again a richer state (a 32% decline over the same period). Employment report In the normal course of economic growth, the demise of small stores might be less worrying if the workers employed there find gainful employment elsewhere. Unincorporated trade establishments, such as the one surveyed by the NSS, accounted for 39.7 million workers in 2023-24, about a million more than in 2015-16. So, while their relative importance has declined, the sector is still growing, albeit more slowly. But over the last decade, small enterprises in generalacross manufacturing, trade and other servicessuffered a series of setbacks. It started with demonetization in 2016, which hit a largely cash-driven economy; the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in 2017, and finally the covid-19 crisis in 2020. This is visible in the NSS data. Across all three major sectors covered by the surveytrade, manufacturing and other servicesgrowth in value added for the average establishment between 2010-11 and 2015-16 was 9-13% per year. But in the period after that, the average annual growth in value added fell to around 3-4% per year. Even the post-covid bump to the rest of the economy seems to have given the small enterprises sector a pass. Unincorporated trade establishments, such as the one surveyed by the NSS, accounted for 39.7 million workers in 2023-24, about a million more than in 2015-16. With employment in such enterprises, the story becomes more complex. For trade and small-scale manufacturing, its a similar story as with value added. The trade sector saw employment grow by less than 1 percentage point per annum between 2015-16 and 2023-24, while manufacturing saw a decline of 0.84% per annum. With other services its a different story. In this sector, employment actually fell between 2010-11 and 2015-16 but then rebounded strongly in the eight years after, growing at a relatively healthy 3.2% per annum. Why this contrast? Both trade and manufacturing are struggling in the face of intense competition, one from quick commerce formats, the other from large-scale manufacturing. This competition has always been there, but it has intensified in the last decade or so. In this scenario, other services has become a refuge for businesses and workers who have had to exit the other two sectors and have failed to find employment elsewhere, in larger-scale manufacturing or the more organized services. An optimistic prediction might be that the coming fall in unincorporated sector employment will be offset by the increasing use of gig work elsewhere. For instance, a range of estimates predict a huge jump in employment in the gig economy. A Niti Aayog report in 2022 predicted that the total number of gig workers (which would include workers in non-platform sectors such as construction) would increase from around 6-7 million in 2020-21 to about 23.5 million by 2029-30. Again, gig work is simply another word for workers who are in a more precarious informal labour market with little job security or benefits. View Full Image The number of gig workers is expected to increase from around 6-7 million in 2020-21 to about 23.5 million by 2029-30. (Mint) As the report itself points out, the share of gig workers working in the organized sectorthat is, large enterprises covered by labour laws and required to provide benefits to employeesrose from 26% in 2011-12 to 38% by 2019-20. Thus, there is a persistence of informal work relations in the sector. When we read this along with the trends in the organized sector, it can be seen informal work is now penetrating the organized sector workforce through the gig and platform modes of work." And while the informalization of labour in the organized industry was earlier due to the increasing use of contract labour, the shift is now toward gig or task-based forms of work, even in large industries, according to the report. And as this shift picks up pace, it will affect small enterprises to a greater degree, because the earlier competitive advantage they had, of not being subject to labour laws because they were too small, is now gone. These are all variables that impact the landscape that kirana stores are a part ofand chips away at their foundation. howindialives.com is a search engine for public data I am a newly qualified chartered accountant. I would like to start my own practice, which would focus on audit and advisory services. Would it make sense for me to buy professional indemnity insurance? How would it help? -Name withheld on request Professional indemnity insurance is meant for professionals like you. The policy is meant to protect the professional from lawsuits due to professional negligence. Claims could come from clients or anyone who acted based on her advice or a published report. Such claims aim to recover financial damages suffered by the complainant. During this litigation process, the professional incurs various costs. In case the court decides against the professional, then the damages awarded by the court would be an additional cost. Both these costs are payable under the policy. Also Read: Indias self-employed: Bridging the insurance gap with tech-enabled solutions Often, even if the case does not have merit, the professional still incurs litigation costs. This itself can cause huge financial strain on the professional. So, irrespective of the stage of the firms journey, it is recommended to maintain professional indemnity insurance. You may consider starting with a small sum insured and gradually enhance it based on increase in client exposure. As a company, can I maintain two group health insurance and life insurance policies for my employees? Through one policy, I want to offer an equal sum assured to all employees. Thereafter, for the senior employees, I want to offer an additional sum assured. How would the claim process work in such cases? -Name withheld on request If you want to offer a differential sum assured to employees, you need not maintain two separate policies. Within the same policy, you can offer grade-wise sum assured. For each grade or range of grades, a sum assured can be defined. You would get more efficient pricing if you buy one policy with graded sum assured, rather than separate policies for each grade. Also Read: Insurance ombudsman doesn't allow third party help: A dilemma for policyholders In case, there are two separate policies, then the claim treatment would be different for health and life policies. In the case of life insurance, both policies would get triggered immediately. On the death of an employee, you can claim from both the policies and pay to the nominee. In the case of health, the claim would be admissible only under one policy. Only the residual unpaid bill from one policy can be claimed in the second policy. You can choose to divide a health claim over multiple policies in whichever proportion you desire. However, the same amount cannot be claimed twice. DAMASCUS, SyriaThe people of Syria said good riddance in the past month to the dictatorship that ruled for half a century. They have no idea what is coming next. So when the clock struck midnight, Damascus let rip. People danced into the morning in thumping clubs and others launched fireworks from city squares, where motorcyclists did wheelies while wearing Syrias revolutionary flag as capes. Masked members of the new security forces carrying AK-47s wished people health and good tidings. Couples danced and kissed, friends hugged, DJs played revolutionary songs, and partygoers chanted anti-Assad slogans at the top of their lungs. Syria lives, the regime has fallen!" elated young Syrians standing on chairs chanted in a packed bar near Damascus Old City. They wore shiny, cone-shaped party hats; held revolutionary flags and cursed the old regimes deposed ruler, Bashar al-Assad: A black year for you, Bashar. A sweet year for the revolutionaries!" As they celebrate the fall of the Assad regime, many are anxiously watching the establishment of a new government with uncertain commitment to civil liberties and an unknown level of tolerance for fun. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Sunni Islamist group and al Qaeda offshoot that seized control of much of the country last month, says it will respect Syrias diversity but has said questions about social issues will be addressed later. As the revelers celebrated the New Year, war-hardened, big-bearded officials with the rebel group that toppled the regime met one another in hotel lobbies decorated for Christmas. Syrians are still getting accustomed to freely criticizing the brutal dynasty of the Assad family. The regime criminalized protest music and cracked down hard on dissident gatherings. I am happy to feel like today I can speak freely both publicly and among people in my community without worrying about who is a spy for the regime," said Iman Salman, a 33-year-old who has always lived under the Assads regime, which employed a deep intelligence network that cracked down harshly on even subtle dissent. The regimes record of human-rights abuses included the use of chemical weapons and widespread torture. Hundreds of thousands of people died in Syrias civil war, which began in 2011, and millions were forced to flee their homes. Statues and portraits of the Assads have been toppled and defaced. Unofficial renaming is happening everywhere. The Assad Library is now called the Library of the People. Mr. President Bridge is now Freedom Bridge. Syrians are mournful about all that was lost during those years of war. They are uncertain about what the future holds under HTS. Syria includes a host of religious and ethnic groups, which has sometimes caused divisions within the country and the formation of armed organizations along those lines. They are wary of potential future repression under HTS, including whether speech will be free and alcohol will be allowed to flow. We are enjoying the freedom for now, but we still arent sure if the old regime will be replaced with a new one," Salman said. More than a decade after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings swept the region, countries such as Egypt that ousted their longtime rulers are once again governed by authoritarian leaders. Other countries such as Yemen and Libya remain fractured by post-2011 wars. In some cases, extreme Islamist groups have sought to fill power vacuums. In the weeks after the coalition led by HTS toppled Assad, a bartender near Damascus Old City said an armed man in military fatigues visited the pub where he works and demanded to see an alcohol license. The bartender said patrons were worried. But the militant agreed to put his gun behind the bar when asked, and a video the bartender shared with a Wall Street Journal reporter shows he later joined the dancing to celebrate the end of the regime. On New Years, liquor flowed at that same bar, and there was no sign of weapons or pushback against the partying. Music from Michael Jackson and Eminem to Arabic hits and revolutionary music blared. Bartenders did shots with their customers on the house. Couples kissed. Friends shared emotional bear hugs. Some cried. At another club, lit red in a high-rise hotel in the city center, a staffer showed up around 2:30 a.m. and told the disc jockey to cut the music. There was a chorus of boos, and the disc jockey threw his headphones in frustration. After 10 minutes of negotiations, the staffer returned and asked for silence. Today is a special day," he said, so we are going to allow the party to continue. DJ, turn the music back on!" The bar rang with cheers, and the dance floor filled back up. Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com Indias government recently released the findings of its 2023-24 survey of household consumption expenditure and expressed satisfaction at the seeming narrowing of spending gaps in society at large and between rural and urban populations. Such changes would, of course, be desirable. However, we must not set too much store by the monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) figures of this sample survey. The aggregate consumption computed from these estimates does not add up to the annual private consumption expenditure logged in national income accounts. The shortfall is around 50% of the national income data. While the latter would cover groups excluded from household surveys, such as prisoners and armed forces, that cannot explain the large gap between the two sets of data. There is a simpler explanation. Those at lower income levels tend to be more transparent about their consumption patterns with people who come around with survey questions than people who struggle to find time to fill their Instagram feeds with the destination weddings they have attended or the difference they noticed between the club scenes of Bangkok and Berlin. What the countrys well-off spend cannot be gleaned from the information they deign to give surveyors. Also read: New consumption survey reveals the cracks in the economy The survey found that the top five percentiles of the MPCE distribution have an average MPCE of less than 21,000 in urban India and less than 11,000 in rural areas. With the top percentiles data likely to be the least reliable, we should view these figures as underestimates, given the scale of spending visible at high-end shopping malls, fancy restaurants, jewellery stores, holiday spots, music concerts and other sites of self-indulgence. The top fractiles average MPCE for 2023-24 is a tad lower than in 2022-23. This might reflect a slump, which is plausible in the context of stagnancy observed in some market categories, but the surveys input frailties mean we cannot be sure. Other conclusions are also difficult to draw. For example, the numbers show a reducing gap between urban and rural expenditure, expressed as a proportion of rural spending, but we cannot conclude that the rural-urban income gap is narrowing. Whats more likely is that better-off city folks reveal less than we would like. Yet, these numbers are useful in tracking the direction of change. For instance, a decline in the share of cereals in both urban and rural consumption baskets is notable. The share of food has been declining as well, but more slowly. While the share of cereals has fallen by half, the share of food has come down moderately. Indias free foodgrain scheme may explain some of it, as also homes diversifying away from calorie-dense cereals to superior food for better nutrition. Yet another reliable indicator relates to regional disparities. Some small states like Sikkim and Goa apart, South Indian states lead in per capita consumption. Kerala is notable for both high consumption and a low urban-rural difference. Abysmal levels in Chhattisgarh expose claims of rapid progress. The latest data on imputed consumption, which factors in government transfers, shows a rise in such handouts across rural and urban India in 2023-24 over the previous year. However, the political economy of freebies is inimical to governance if its not supported by an expanded tax base. Overall, household spending still doesnt seem robust enough to spur private investment in consumer-product capacity addition. The state as our big investor seems here to stay. The death of Manmohan Singh last week was followed by a flurry of sentimental obituaries eulogizing the former Indian prime minister, who led the government from 2004 to 2014. His admirers recall a soft-spoken economist who rose from humble beginnings, and they praise him for bringing India closer to the U.S. through a landmark 2008 deal on civilian nuclear cooperation with President George W. Bush. Above all, Singh, who was 92, is remembered for the economic reforms he oversaw in 1991 as finance ministerreforms that opened Indias economy to more market competition and foreign investment. It was the first time since independence in 1947 that India repudiated the socialist policies that had pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy. Backed by then-Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, Singh became the public face of the economic reforms. He devalued the rupee, reduced tariffs and other trade barriers, ended industrial licensing, and welcomed foreign investment. Thanks to liberalization, India is now the worlds fifth-largest economy at market exchange rates and is on track to become the third-largest by 2028. What a contrast to 1991, when India was the worlds second-most-populous country but had only the 17th-largest economy. Yet although Singh deserves some credit for these advancements, a closer look at his career reveals a mixed record. Departing from his legacy as finance minister, as prime minister he put the brakes on market-friendly reforms. India stopped privatizing state-owned companies, launched an expensive rural job-guarantee scheme, and introduced a retrospective tax that spooked foreign investors. Today Singhs political party, the opposition Indian National Congress, has all but turned its back on economic liberalization. The partys leader, Rahul Gandhi, rails against big businesses and champions expanded caste quotas, a form of affirmative action. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party isnt the Thatcherite economic reformer his admirers hoped hed be either. Granted, he has upgraded infrastructure, stanched corruption in welfare programs through digital transfers, somewhat simplified taxation through a national goods-and-services tax, and improved the balance sheets of Indias public-sector banks. But when it comes to politically contentious reforms, Mr. Modi has proved weak. His administration has struggled to privatize state-owned enterprises, enable businesses to hire and fire workers more easily, and allow market forces to play a greater role in agriculture and land acquisition. On these issues, Mr. Modi has either proceeded cautiously or retreated when challenged. Under Mr. Modis leadership, India has also reversed its post-1991 policy of steadily lowering tariffs. The Modi model is a mixture of higher tariffs, spending billions of taxpayer dollars to boost manufacturing in favored industries, and a cozy relationship between the government and large Indian conglomerates such as the Adani Group and the Reliance Group. Dhiraj Nayyar, an economist with Indias Vedanta Group and former adviser to the Modi government, said in a phone interview that Mr. Modi believes in industrial policy and in creating national champions," as South Korea did while it industrialized. The experience of the past 20 yearsSinghs two terms as prime minister followed by Mr. Modis first two termsshows that the appetite for economic reform in India goes only so far. If both Mr. Singh, hailed as the hero of Indias reforms, and Mr. Modi, who enjoyed single-party majorities in his first two terms, were unable to advance the ball meaningfully on free-market reforms, its unlikely that Mr. Modi will do better in his third termespecially since his government now depends on support from coalition partners. What does this mean for India and the world? The good news is that even Indias limited reforms have paid off. In 1990, 46% of Indias 850 million people lived in extreme poverty. Today, the World Bank estimates that only 9% of Indias 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty. Foreign direct investment has risen from less than $100 million in 1990-91 to $28.1 billion last year. Foreign-exchange reserves in 1991 stood at $1 billion, enough to cover roughly two weeks of imports. Theyre now at $644 billion. The bad news: India still punches below its weight. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Indias gross domestic product will cross $5 trillion in 2027 but will still be only a fraction of Americas ($33 trillion) or Chinas ($22 trillion). China isnt the only Asian country that is lapping India. In 1991, Vietnams per capita GDP was about half of Indias; now its nearly double: $4,650 compared with Indias $2,700. Indonesia remains similarly ahead of India in per capita GDP despite weathering the 1997 East Asian financial crisis and a tumultuous transition from dictatorship to democracy. In a budget speech as finance minister, in 1991, Singh famously quoted Victor Hugo: No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come." But if the idea was for India to join the ranks of East Asias prosperous economies, 1.4 billion people are still waiting for its arrival. From a glance at 2024s top business headlines, youd think all companies were pushing return-to-office (RTO) policies, embracing AI and banishing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes. But lets remember that headlines dont always reflect reality. Start with RTO mandates. The media loves a scary back-to-office headline. From the point of view of clicks, a strict five-day-a-week policy is gold. Even better? If that policy applies to tech dweebs. Full points if its a company that once promised to work remotely forever, like X when it was still Twitter. These headlines gain attention because they play to some readers anxietiesand others schadenfreude. But the reality is that most firms do hybrid work. Even Elon Musk had to back off his declarations of full RTO at X; shortly after his initial demands, he conceded thered be exceptions. He also shuttered some of the companys offices, meaning that all staff in those locations had to go fully remote. I expect this duality to ramp up in 2025, with more companies announcing returns to the office even as most quietly shrink office space and retain hybrid arrangements. The bottom line: Badge-in data in the US has been close to flat for the past two years. Among workers whose jobs can be done remotely, hybrid arrangements remain the most common. On to Generative AI. Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene two years ago, weve seen endless speculation about what such technology could do and how workers might use it. Or how general artificial intelligence (AGI) might take over the world and destroy us all. In 2024, 75% of employees used GenAI at work, according to an EY survey; thats much higher than the 49% who said, in 2023, that they anticipated using it in the months to come. But if the last two years have been a bullet train," for AI, as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Parmy Olson wrote recently, we may be heading for a slowdown at the station." (By the way, her book on the subject, Supremacy, was just named the FTs Business Book of the Year.) That slowdown could presage the next, more realistic phase in the hype cycle," a phrase coined by Gartner to describe technological change. First, a new technology triggers a surge in inflated expectations," which is followed by a trough of disillusionment" as the technologys limitations become apparent. Gradually, people figure out how the thing can actually be used, and peoples expectations settle somewhere in between. We may be heading there with text-based generative AI in 2025. But if the new year brings more measured coverage of AI, I expect the opposite is true of DEI. Also read: IT firms let go of employees on bench for over two months to cut costs In the last couple of years, right-wing activists have made a punching bag of diversity, equity and inclusion. And I dont think President-elect Donald Trumps return to the White House is going to convince them to hold their fire. But the reality is messier than the DEI-doomer headlines suggest. Yes, some very large companies, intimidated by activist shareholders and legal threats, have announced changes to diversity schemes. But despite the backlash, many companies remain convinced that it is still important to do the core work associated with DEI programmes: recruit from the largest possible talent pool; assess workers accurately and fairly, without implicit bias; and foster an environment free of overt racial prejudice, gender hostility or sexual harassment. Not least because such discrimination remains illegal and generates a far larger number of lawsuits than any reverse discrimination" claims. But given the vibes, look for companies to approach this work differently. Some will simply call it something elseas my colleague Beth Kowitt points out, Walmart had hired a chief belonging officer rather than a chief diversity officer long before the company was targeted by anti-diversity activist Robby Starbuck. Others will integrate data-driven DEI practices into core managerial functions an approach that could actually yield better results for women and minorities. For example, rather than demanding every finalist pool contain at least one diverse candidate (a backlash-sparking practice that has not resulted in more diverse hiring), HR could insist that managers hire according to clear, objective, consistent criteriaincluding a concrete definition of culture fit." An insurance company that followed this more rigorous approach ended up hiring 46% more minority applicants, according to scholarship by Joan C. Williams. Also read: Making capital costlier in relation to labour may help generate more jobs We might be done with DEI as an acronym. But the practice, whatever we call it, will evolve to fit a new era. Evolving is something that we all have to dobut we cant do it skilfully unless we can cut through the hype. Bloomberg Chinas President Xi Jinping had a message for Taiwan in his New Years speech. We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same family," he said. No one can ever sever the bond of kinship between us, and no one can ever stop Chinas reunification." A year ago, he had called it inevitable" that the Peoples Republic of China and Taiwan, which Beijing views as a rebel province, would unite. So, whats new? The geopolitical context. While US President Joe Biden had signalled a will to defend the autonomy of Taiwan, a major supplier of tech chips, President-elect Donald Trump has kept his policy stance vague. Broadly, though, Trump has telegraphed a disposition to keep the US away from overseas military engagements, which might tempt Beijing to push ahead with plans to integrate the island. Also read: A new intellectual hub for Chinese emigres in Washington As a Quad member committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific, India wouldnt want an upheaval in the East. But its for Beijing to recognize the risks of using force. A world split into rival blocs would be bad for global trade, economic growth and peace prospects. Every rising power must act responsibly and respect the liberties of others. This weeks deadly incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas have thrust Turo, a car rental platform, into the spotlight, after the cars used in both attacks were rented through its marketplace. After a short number of years living in our community on The Green, Lanesboro, the death of Kathleen Fitzgerald at Mullingar Regional Hospital, on Monday, December 16, brought a great sadness to the community. Kathleen, most commonly known as Kay, was born in Kilmore in the county of Roscommon on the Leitrim border. In recent times Kay was a resident of Laurel Lodge Nursing Home in Longford Town. Over the years she was a common sight in and about Lanesboro when she used to regularly visit her late brother Seamus Carroll on the Rathcline Road. Also Read: REVEALED: The most popular names for babies born in Ireland last year Kay was predeceased by her husband Matty. She went to England to train as a nurse, then worked for a time in America before returning to South East London, married in 1968, reared her family and spent her working career there until her retirement in 2006. She specialised in midwifery and was always regarded as a very caring nurse. Kay was big in stature and in heart and her warm and sincere welcome always warmed the coldest of hearts. She moved to Lanesboro in 2015 where she became an integral part of the local community. She was renowned as a precise lady a trait from her nursing profession and it was clearly visible from the way she renovated and kept her recently acquired house on the Green. Kays reposed in Smyths Funeral Home, Roscommon on Wednesday, December 18 and on Thursday, December 19 her remains were removed to St Marys Church for Mass of the Resurrection. Following Mass she was removed to Lakelands Crematorium, Cavan for cremation. To her daughter daughter Catrina, sons Jim and Rob, brother Michael, sister Marie, son-in-law Gary, daughters-in-law Caroline and Donna, grandchildren Tommy, Daisy, Leo, Joe, Conor and Moya, extended family, neighbours and friends we extend our deepest sympathy. Also Read: LIVE: Ireland braces for 'coldest start to January since 2009' amid snow storm threat Local News By Chris Boyle Published: January 02 2025 New York State Paid Family Leave Maximum Weekly Benefit Increasing by More Than $300. Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the new year will bring increased workers compensation and Paid Family Leave benefits for workers, while also delivering savings for businesses. Effective January 1, 2025, the minimum weekly benefit for workers compensation and the maximum weekly benefit for Paid Family Leave will both go up, while the workers compensation assessment rate for employers drops. Hardworking New Yorkers shouldnt have to worry about how theyll buy food or pay rent when they need time off to care for a new child or family member with a serious health condition, or get injured on the job. Likewise, business owners who have their own bills to pay and families to support also need affordable solutions, Governor Hochul said. Im proud that New York State is finding ways to put money back into the pockets of workers and those who employ them so both the economy and the people can thrive. New York State Workers Compensation Board Chair Clarissa Rodriguez said, The Board is honored to join the Governor in celebrating a new year that will start with more money for workers and increased savings for businesses. Serving the people of New York is a privilege and we are proud to have a leader who wants to make this state safer, more affordable, and better for families. New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento said, I applaud Governor Hochul for prioritizing the needs of workers by implementing increases in the minimum workers' compensation benefit, and the maximum paid family leave benefit. Thanks to historic legislation passed by the Legislature and enacted by Governor Hochul last year, the minimum workers' compensation benefit will be increased and indexed so wage replacement benefits for injured workers will never stagnate. Increasing these benefits and lowering assessments shows that our workers' compensation system can better protect workers while reducing employer costs. Paid Family Leave NYS Paid Family Leave provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of job-protected, paid time off to bond with a new child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or to assist loved ones when a family member is deployed abroad on active military service. Starting January 1, 2025, New Yorkers taking Paid Family Leave may receive up to $14,127.84 in total benefits an increase of over $300 from 2024. Employees taking Paid Family Leave receive 67 percent of their average weekly wage, up to a cap of 67 percent of the current New York State Average Weekly Wage (NYSAWW), which is $1,757.19 for 2025. This means the maximum weekly benefit will be $1,177.32, and the total possible benefit to an employee is $14,127.84. Employees will contribute 0.388 percent of their gross wages per pay period to pay for Paid Family Leave in 2025, with a maximum annual contribution of $354.53 (0.388 percent of the NYSAWW). Employees earning less than the NYSAWW will contribute less than the annual cap of $354.53, consistent with their actual wages. Workers Compensation The NYS workers compensation system provides critical financial and medical benefits to workers who are injured or become ill as a result of their jobs, while protecting employers from costly lawsuits. Employers pay an annual assessment to the operating system. Starting January 1, 2025, the minimum workers compensation weekly benefit will increase to $325 per week, in accordance with legislation signed into law by Governor Hochul in September 2023. Thats up from $275 per week in 2024. Prior to January 1, 2024, the minimum weekly benefit had been $150 per week for more than a decade. On July 1, 2026, the minimum weekly benefit will be indexed to the NYSAWW. The institution of annual increases in the minimum weekly benefit, and eventual indexing to the NYSAWW, will ensure the minimum weekly benefit is more equitable to injured workers going forward. Savings for Businesses Additionally, as of January 1, 2025, the workers compensation assessment rate for employers will be 7.1 percent of the standard premium or premium equivalent a 22 percent decrease from 2024 which is expected to save New York State businesses approximately $191 million. The employer assessment rates are determined by the NYS Workers Compensation Boards need and budgeted statewide premium. The rate is calculated by dividing the Boards total estimated annual expenses by a base of total estimated statewide premium. Insurers are required to apply the assessment rate to their premium or premium equivalent. The assessment rate has been steadily declining in recent years, largely due to prudent management in accelerating the runoff of special workers compensation liabilities known as special funds which are funded by the assessments. The 2025 rate of 7.1 percent reflects an over 43 percent decrease since 2019, when the assessment rate was 12.6 percent. More Information Complete details on New York State Paid Family Leave are available at PaidFamilyLeave.ny.gov. There is also a special page with updates for 2025 that includes benefit and deduction calculators, answers to frequently asked questions, and other resources. For more information regarding workers compensation, including benefits and the 2025 assessment rate, visit the NYS Workers Compensation Boards website at wcb.ny.gov. Local News By Chris Boyle Published: January 02 2025 The Ronald McDonald House is a 24-hour home-away-from home for families caring for their sick or injured children. Nassau County Legislator Seth I. Koslow (D Merrick) joined members of the Merrick community on Sunday, Dec. 15 for an annual visit to the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island to deliver donations to the facility during the holiday season. Located just steps away from Cohen Childrens Medical Center in New Hyde Park, the Ronald McDonald House is a 24-hour home-away-from home for families caring for their sick or injured children. It includes 42 bedrooms, laundry rooms, fully stocked kitchens, lounge areas, a media room, gym, and more. Shamsud-Din Jabars passport photo. Jabar killed 15 people and injured dozens in New Orleans on New Years Day. On January 1, 2025, two US citizens conducted separate attacks in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Fifteen people were killed and dozens injured after a terrorist who had declared membership in the Islamic State (IS) rammed a vehicle into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. In a second incident being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, only the driver was killed when he intentionally detonated a vehicle in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, but seven others were injured. Law enforcement officials are investigating if the attacks are linked. At approximately 3 am, Shamsud-Din Jabar, a US citizen from Texas, drove a white truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more. Shamsud, who served in the Army and deployed to Afghanistan, then exited his vehicle and fired upon law enforcement. Jabar was killed, and two police officers were wounded in the exchange. Authorities found an Islamic State flag, weapons, and potential improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in his rented Ford pickup truck. Law enforcement also found other potential IEDs littered throughout New Orleans French Quarter. Law enforcement officials do not believe Shamsud acted alone. Jabar discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join ISIS in videos posted on YouTube that have since been deleted, US officials told CNN. The Islamic State has not claimed credit for the attack at the time of publishing. At 7:50 am on January 2, FBI Houston announced it was conducting law enforcement activity in a Houston neighborhood that was related to the New Orleans attack. The FBI stated it concluded a court-authorized search and cleared the 1200 block of Crescent Peak Drive, declaring the area safe. A few hours after the attack in New Orleans, Matthew Livelsberger, an active duty servicemember stationed in Germany who had taken leave in Las Vegas, detonated a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing himself and mildly injuring seven others. Livelsbergers motivation for the attack is not yet known, but Las Vegas Metropolitan police say the act was intentional. Authorities have not found links between Livelsberger and any terrorist organizations thus far. According to non-corroborated press reports, both Livelsberger and Jabar served at the same military base, Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty), sometime in their careers. However, it is unclear if they served at this facility at the same time. Law enforcement authorities are currently investigating if the attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans are linked, though Jeremy Schwartz, an FBI agent investigating the Las Vegas explosion, stated the FBI believes it was an isolated incident. Will Selber is a retired Middle East Foreign Area Officer who deployed for over four and half years to Iraq and Afghanistan. Will is a contributor to the Bulwark and the co-founder of Grumpy Combat Veteran. Its once again that time of year when outdoor dining is out, and igloo dining is in. Due to colder temperatures, the winter time makes it difficult for diners to eat and drink outdoors. Therefore, many restaurants across Massachusetts break out heated igloos to give guests a chance to sit outside in the comfort of a warm, large plastic bubble. Heres where you can get that experience for yourself. 206 North Spencer Road Black & White Grille has igloos for outdoor dining from now until roughly April 19. The igloos are available daily for lunch and dinner. The igloos fit six people and must be reserved for at least two. Dining is limited to an hour and 45 minutes. Reservations can be made online or by calling the business at 508-885-5018. It costs $30 per party. 2 Mercantile St. Worcesters first rooftop bar has igloos from now until Jan. 31, 2025. The igloos fit six people and can be reserved for up to two hours. The igloos cost $50 per party and are available from 4 to 11:45 p.m. Reservations can be made on OpenTable or by calling 774-389-5180. 260 W Water St. The igloos at Riverhouse Weir Village in Taunton are available Wednesdays through Sundays. It costs $50 to reserve the igloos, which fit up to eight people. The igloos will be available at least until Feb. 28. Reservations must be made by calling the restaurant at 774-501-2003. 70 Sleeper St. Bostons popular rooftop igloos and iceboxes are back at the Rooftop at The Envoy Hotel in Seaport. The igloos, which offer views of Bostons skyline, can fit groups of six to eight people. The igloos also come with fleece blankets for extra warmth. Reservations can be made for two hours at a time online. The phone number is 617-530-1538. 2027 Massachusetts Ave. From November to April, the Inn at Hastings Park in Lexington offers an igloo dining experience called the "INNgloo Wonderland." The igloos fit up to six people and are available for lunch, dinner, Saturday High Tea, Sunday Champagne Brunch or a private event. Each INNgloo features a faux fireplace heater and mini speaker. It costs $120 to rent and reservations can be made by calling 781-301-6655 or online. 973 Providence Highway Mick Morgans in Sharon has 13 igloos available during the winter. The restaurant does not take reservations, so all igloos are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The igloos can fit six people and have no time limit. The igloos are typically available until early spring. The phone number is 781-806-0066 2261 Dorchester Ave, Lower Mills, Dorchester. The Bowery Bar in Dorchester has three heated yurts available for private events during the winter. The yurts can be reserved for lunch, dinner or brunch. The yurts have either a $100, $150 or $200 minimum based on experience. Reservations can be made online. The phone number is 617-698-2261 75 Ferry St. For $5 a person, you can reserve an igloo at The Tipsy Toboggan in Fall River. The restaurant offers igloos for five to eight people and igloo cabins for up to four people. The igloos can be booked for brunch, lunch or dinner. Reservations last up to two hours and can be made online. The phone number is 508-567-0550. 160 Merrimack St. Take in views of the Merrimack River from Haverhills rooftop bar, BOSA Coastal Italian. Guests can order off BOSAs full menu while hanging out in the heated igloos that are decorated with LED lights and blankets. The igloos will be up until spring. The igloos fit 2-4 people and can be reserved Monday through Thursday from 4-10 p.m., Friday from 4 p.m. to midnight, Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling BOSA at (978) 641-3149. Dennis police arrested an individual they say made violent threats online toward students at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. Police received reports from several parents of students on Dec. 25 regarding threats made on social media of gun violence against specific students at the school, according to a post on the Dennis Police Departments Facebook page. Officers and the school resource officers from the Dennis and Yarmouth Police Departments worked with district personnel to identify the individual who created the social media content, the post reads. The individual was interviewed and placed under arrest at the Dennis Police Department. The individual, who is not named in the report, was charged with making a bomb/hijack threat with serious public alarm and was arraigned in Orleans District Court on Dec. 27, 2024. The department wrote in their post that they would not release any information regarding the individual accused of making the threats. A 34-year-old man was arrested Tuesday after police say he fired an air gun toward several tree workers in Marstons Mills. On the morning of New Years Eve, Barnstable police officers went to an area of Tanbark Road for reports of a bullet hole in a home window. Roughly 30 minutes after clearing the scene, the department received a 911 call reporting a man shooting what appeared to be a rifle at tree workers on Tanbark Road, police wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. Arriving officers made contact with Kyle Stacey, 34, of Marstons Mills, who returned to his home. Police say they identified Stacey as the man who had been shooting at the tree workers. Stacey initially refused to exit his home but was eventually taken into custody. After taking Stacey into custody, police searched his home and found .30 caliber projectiles, firearm cleaning tools and several air guns, according to the statement. One of the airguns found in the home has the capability to fire both .25 and .30 caliber lead projectiles with compressed air, police said. Stacey is set to be arraigned Thursday morning on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, vandalism and resisting arrest. He has been held on $15,000 cash bail since his arrest. People wishing to travel to the United Kingdom will soon need a new travel authorization to do so. Starting on Jan. 8, United States citizens including children traveling to or through the United Kingdom for tourism, business or short-term study for six months or less will need an Electronic Travel Authorization, according to the United States Department of State Consular Affairs. The Electronic Travel Authorization is a digital permit that allows travelers to go to the U.K. without a visa, according to Thales. This permit allows the country where a traveler is going to screen them before their arrival, increasing national security. People wishing to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization can do so on the U.K.s ETA app. It takes about 10 minutes to apply and the turnaround decision usually takes about three business days, according to the United Kingdoms government. According to the U.K. government, you dont need an Electronic Travel Authorization if you: Have a visa Have permission to live, work or study in the U.K. Are a British citizen or Irish citizen Are traveling with a British overseas territories citizen passport Live in Ireland and you are traveling from Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man If you have an Electronic Travel Authorization you cant: A teenage boy was arrested Tuesday afternoon after police said he shot someone days before Christmas in 2024. The 15-year-old boy, who was not identified because of his age, was arrested around 2 p.m. near Cummings Highway, according to the Boston Police Department. He was wanted on a warrant issued out of Suffolk County Juvenile Court for unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, armed robbery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, the police said. He was to be arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court. The court said it could not state the date hed be arraigned because of his age. A man who was not identified was shot near Wilbert Road on Dec. 23, 2024, around 12:18 a.m., police said. He left the area in a vehicle and was on Blue Hill Avenue. Officers later found the vehicle he was in and saw that the man was hurt with several gunshot wounds, police said. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Officers canvassed the area of the original call and located ballistic evidence on scene, police said. Massachusetts is always at a high level of alert and awareness, Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday when asked if the Bay State had changed its posture at all in the wake of a deadly truck attack in New Orleans. What happened in New Orleans is horrific. Its a terrible, terrible thing, and my heart goes out to the victims and survivors of that, Healey told reporters after taking part in a joint session of the Legislature on Thursday. And know that were going to continue to make every effort here in the state to make sure that our state and our communities are as safe as possible. A Texas man apparently influenced by the Islamic State group drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning as it was packed with New Years Day revelers, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more before he was killed in a firefight with police, according to The Associated Press. Later Wednesday, a truck loaded with explosives blew up outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas in what authorities have said was an unrelated incident. Asked by a reporter Thursday whether Massachusetts was at a different level of alertness than usual, the governor suggested that the attacks had not altered Massachusetts' security plans. I think were always at a high level of alert and awareness in Massachusetts and around the country. I mean, thats the nature of the times that were in, and its why the continued work that we do between and among state, local, and federal law enforcement is so important, Healey said. Healey did not answer a question about bollards, which are often installed around places of high pedestrian traffic to prevent cars from accessing them intentionally or inadvertently. She said she would have to talk about the issue with state Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy. In what has become a routine event in rural America, a hospital maternity ward closed in 2023 in this small Oregon town about an hour from the Idaho border. For Shyanne McCoy, 23, that meant the closest hospital with an obstetrician on staff when she was pregnant was a 45-mile drive away over a mountain pass. When McCoy developed symptoms of preeclampsia last January, she felt she had the best chance of getting the care she needed at a larger hospital in Boise, Idaho, two hours away. She spent the final week of her pregnancy there, too far from home to risk leaving, before giving birth to her daughter. Six months later, she said it seems clear to her that the health care needs of rural young women like her are largely ignored. For McCoy and others, figuring out how to obtain adequate care to safely have a baby in Baker City has quickly eclipsed concerns about another medical service lacking in the area: abortion. But in Oregon and elsewhere in the country, progressive lawmakers attempts to expand abortion access sometimes clash with rural constituencies. Oregon is considered one of the most protective states in the country when it comes to abortion. There are no legal limits on when someone can receive an abortion in the state and the service is covered by its Medicaid system. Still, efforts to expand access in the rural, largely conservative areas that cover most of the state have encountered resistance and incredulity. Its a divide that has played out in elections in such states as Nevada, where voters passed a ballot measure in November that seeks to codify abortion protections in the state constitution. Residents in several rural counties opposed the measure. In Oregon, during the months just before the Baker City closure was announced, Democratic state lawmakers were focused on a proposed pilot program that would launch two mobile reproductive health care clinics in rural areas. The bill specified that the van-based clinics would include abortion services. State Rep. Christine Goodwin, a Republican from a southwestern Oregon district, called the proposal the latest example of urban legislators telling rural leaders what their communities need. The mobile health clinic pilot was eventually removed from the bill that was under discussion. That means no new abortion options in Oregons Baker County and no new state-funded maternity care either. I think if you expanded rural access in this community to abortions before you extended access to maternal health care, you would have an uprising on your hands, said Paige Witham, 27, a member of the Baker County health care steering committee and the mother of two children, including an infant born in October. A study published in JAMA in early December that examined nearly 5,000 acute care hospitals found that by 2022, 52% of rural hospitals lacked obstetrics care after more than a decade of unit closures. The health implications of those closures for young women, the population most likely to need pregnancy care and their babies can be significant. Research has shown that added distance between a patient and obstetric care increases the likelihood the baby will be admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. Witham said that while she does not support abortion, she believes the government should not legislate it away completely. She said that unless the government provides far more support for young families, like free child care and better mental health care, abortion should remain legal. Conversations with a liberal school board member, a moderate owner of a timber company, members of Baker Citys Republican Party chapter, a local doula, several pregnant women and the director of the Baker County Health Department many of whom were not rigidly opposed to abortion all turned up the same answer: No mobile clinics offering abortions here, please. Kelle Osborn, a nurse supervisor for the Baker County Health Department, loved the idea of a mobile clinic that would provide education and birth control services to people in outlying areas. She was less thrilled about including abortion services in a clinic on wheels. Its not something that should just be handed out from a mobile van, she said of abortion services. She said people in her conservative rural county would probably avoid using the clinics for anything if they were understood to provide abortion services. Both Osborn and Meghan Chancey, the health departments director, said they would rank many health care priorities higher, including the need for a general surgeon, an ICU and a dialysis clinic. Nationally, reproductive health care services of all types tend to be limited for people in rural areas, even within states that protect abortion access. More than two-thirds of people in maternity care deserts all of which are in rural counties must drive more than a half-hour to get obstetric care, according to a 2024 March of Dimes report. For people in the Southern states where lawmakers installed abortion bans, abortion care can be up to 700 miles away, according to a data analysis by Axios. Nathan Defrees grew up in Baker City and has practiced medicine here since 2017. He works for a family medicine clinic. If a patient asks about abortion, he provides information about where and how one can be obtained, but he doesnt offer abortions himself. Theres not a lot of anonymity in small towns for physicians who provide that care, he said. Many of us arent willing to sacrifice the rest of our career for that. He also pointed to the small number of patients requesting the service locally. Just six people living in Baker County had an abortion in 2023, according to data from the Oregon Department of Public Health. Meanwhile, 125 residents had a baby that year. A doctor with obstetric training living in another rural part of the state has chosen to quietly provide early-stage abortions when asked. The doctor, concerned for their familys safety in the small, conservative town where they live, asked not to be identified. The idea that better access to abortion is not needed in rural areas seems naive, the doctor said. People most in need of abortion often dont have access to any medical service not already available in town, the doctor pointed out. The first patient the doctor provided an abortion for at the clinic was a meth user with no resources to travel or to manage an at-home medication abortion. It seemed entirely inappropriate for me to turn her away for care I had the training and the tools to do, the doctor said. Defrees said it has been easier for Baker County residents to get an abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. A new Planned Parenthood clinic in Ontario, Oregon, 70 miles away in neighboring Malheur County, was built primarily to provide services to people from the Boise metro area, but it also created an option for many living in rural eastern Oregon. Idaho is one of the 16 states with near-total bans on abortion. Like many states with bans, Idaho has struggled to maintain its already small fleet of fetal medicine doctors. The loss of regional expertise touches Baker City, too, Defrees said. For example, he said, the treatment plan for women who have a desired pregnancy but need a termination for medical reasons is now far less clear. It used to be those folks could go to Boise, he said. Now they cant. That does put us in a bind. Portland is the next closest option for that type of care and that means a 300-mile drive along a set of highways that can be treacherous in winter. Its a lot scarier to be pregnant now in Baker City than it ever has been, Defrees said. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism. This story also ran on The 19th. It can be republished for free. SPRINGFIELD Springfield Police Department Superintendent Lawrence E. Akers recently commended over a dozen officers for their exemplary performance and service to the community. On Tuesday, Akers commended several officers, including Officers Jorge Caldero, Alexander Rodriguez, Kimberly Ledgister, Aisha Gonzalez and Nashai Quintana, for their lifesaving actions two months ago. DEIRDRE Lawless, a sister of newly-elected Aontu TD Paul Lawless, has been selected to replace him on Mayo County Council. Deputy Lawless became one of the shortest-serving councillors in the history of Mayo County Council when he was elected to Dail Eireann months after winning a council seat in the June elections. Due to the abolition of the dual mandate, Deputy Lawless ceased to be a councillor as soon as he was elected to the Dail. His sister, who is a secondary school teacher based in Claregalway, was selected by Aontu party members to replace him on the council. Two other candidates were also in the running for Deputy Lawlesss old seat - Deputy Lawless himself abstained from the vote. A special meeting of Mayo County Council is due to be convened for the sitting councillors to ratify Ms Lawless. Ms Lawless will be the first councillor to be co-opted to Mayo County Council since Cllr Adrian Forkan (Fianna Fail) replaced Michael Smyth after he retired from politics while a sitting councillor in 2021. She will be Aontus first female elected representative to serve in Mayo and will bring the total number of female councillors in Aras an Chontae to four. Ms Lawless will also be just the second woman to serve as a councillor in the Claremorris Local Electoral Area. She is a past pupil of Knock National School, Loughanemon Gaelscoil and Mount Saint Michael Secondary School in Claremorris. Deputy Paul Lawless expressed his confidence in her appointment, saying; Deirdre is a force to be reckoned witha committed, well-organised leader with a get-it-done attitude. As a seasoned teacher and a proud Gaeilgeoir, she has a deep love for the Irish language, music, and culture. She will bring a restless enthusiasm to her new role. Im also delighted that her selection brings another strong female voice to Mayo County Council, increasing the number of female councillors in the county from three to four. Its particularly significant that the Claremorris LEA now has two women out of its six councillors, showing progress in representation. An LEA that never had a female councillor six months ago now has two, he added. Deirdre Lawless said: Its an honour to step into this role and work hard for the people of the Claremorris Local Electoral Area. Ive stood alongside Paul on countless initiatives, from the cataract bus campaign to grassroots community efforts. This is an exciting new chapter for Aontu in Mayo, as we now have the foundations of a constituency office in Claremorris, where I will work closely with our TD and staff to deliver for the people of Mayo. Im eager to sit down with my fellow councillors and hit the ground runningtheres a lot to do, and Im ready to get started. China makes constant breakthroughs in marine technology 10:18, January 02, 2025 By Liu Shiyao, Wu Yuehui ( People's Daily In recent years, China has made remarkable strides in marine technology, propelling the deep-sea industry to new heights. Jiaolong, China's first independently designed and integrated 7,000-meter-class manned deep-sea submersible, has completed 317 dives since its maiden mission in 2009. It has enabled a total of 900 trips down to the deep sea, providing strong support for deep-sea exploration in China and around the world. Photo shows China's deep-sea manned submersible Fendouzhe (Striver). (Photo from the official website of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited) On Nov. 10, 2020, China's independently developed deep-sea manned submersible Fendouzhe, or Striver, set a Chinese diving record of over 10,000 meters in the Challenger Deep, an 11,000-meter chasm located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. This made China the second country in the world to achieve manned dives to 10,000 meters. As of now, Fendouzhe has completed a total of 329 dives, 25 of which were deeper than 10,000 meters, ranking first in the world in terms of the number of dives and individuals involved in 10,000-meter deep-sea exploration. This achievement signifies that China has reached the world's leading level in deep-sea manned submersible exploration. At a depth of 10,000 meters in the Mariana Trench, the water pressure is close to 1,100 atmospheres, equivalent to the weight of 2,000 African elephants on the back of a person. What enables Fendouzhe to navigate this extreme condition and roam freely at the depths of the ocean floor? The answer lies in the manned capsule. The manned capsule technology was developed by a research team from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Based on thorough investigation, logical reasoning, research and practical tests, they have overcome technological challenges related to materials, forming, welding, and other aspects of manned capsules. "For example, we have produced a novel titanium alloy material that can meet our requirements for strength, toughness, and weldability," said Yang Rui, a member of the research team. Chinese researchers have also made breakthroughs in fiber optic cable control technology, anti-low-temperature design, and the development of solid buoyancy materials, which encompass a wide range of technological domains such as material science, high-precision manufacturing, navigation positioning, and data transmission. A staff member tests the illuminating system of China's manned submersible Jiaolong in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, Aug. 11, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Zhang Jingang) These advancements have not only enhanced China's capacity for deep-sea exploration, but also laid a solid foundation for its deep-sea scientific research, resource development, and international cooperation. The transmission of electromagnetic waves is impeded by the immense depth of the ocean, which can reach thousands of meters. How is it possible to maintain long-distance communication and data transmission underwater? To tackle this challenge, Chinese scientists have dedicated almost a decade to developing the hydroacoustic communication system. By refining signal modulation and anti-interference algorithms, the system can ensure stable data transmission in a deep-sea environment, with the communication range exceeding 10 kilometers. In the pitch-black depths of the ocean, where the terrain is highly complex, precise control systems play a crucial role. Researchers from the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the CAS, have overcome the challenge by enabling Fendouzhe's control system to perform functions such as online intelligent fault diagnosis based on data and model prediction, fault-tolerant control based on online control allocation, and autonomous collision avoidance on the seabed. In the future, with the help of artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and other emerging technologies, deep-sea scientific exploration is poised to achieve more targeted terrain exploration and collection of biological and mineral samples. China's research vessel Deep Sea No. 1, carrying manned submersible Jiaolong, is about to depart from Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, to start an international scientific mission in the Western Pacific Ocean, Aug. 11, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Zhang Jingang) Expanding "circle of friends" in deep-sea exploration China has been expanding international cooperation while delving deeper into deep-sea exploration. From October 2022 to March 2023, the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering of the CAS organized the first international manned deep-sea research mission in the waters around Oceania. The Fendouzhe submersible, aboard the scientific research ship Tansuo-1, traveled for 157 days and sailed more than 22,000 nautical miles, collecting rich samples of deep-sea macroorganisms, rocks, nodules, sediments, and seawater. "In the deep sea, there were many glowing bioluminescent plankton, which looked like shooting stars in the night sky. Though their appearance was fleeting, they were colorful and breathtaking," said Chuar Cheah Hoay, a marine scientist with National University of Singapore, who was unable to contain her excitement. In August, 2024, Chuar joined an international scientific mission in the Western Pacific Ocean organized by the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources, diving into the seabed with China's manned submersible Jiaolong. The biodiversity in seamounts on the seabed is incredibly rich, Chuar remarked, adding that this time, she finally had the chance to observe deep-sea sponge communities and coral reefs underwater, and the impact far exceeded reading literature or watching documentaries. The scientific mission marked the first time that foreign scientists joined their Chinese counterparts to carry out deep-sea scientific research on Jiaolong. Eight foreign scientists and three scientists from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region dived into the depths on Jiaolong for sampling. (Web editor: Chang Sha, Du Mingming) by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, January 1, 2025 Like all industries, automakers have had a fair share of turmoil in 2024. Both the top-read and tenth-most-read automotive stories featured a look at how traditional media television is still a staple for the industry. Automakers Estimated TV Spending Rises In Q3, published in October and Automotive National TV Spending Increases 6.1%, published in September, summarized the top spots both in terms of spending and in impressions and liability, as researched by iSpot.tv. Executive move stories are always a hit, so its no surprise they captured several of the top spots. advertisement advertisement Rivian Hires Meta Exec As Top Marketer, published in February, was the second most-read automotive story last year. Jennifer Prenner is now coming up on her one-year anniversary leading Rivian's marketing activities worldwide, which include continuing to foster loyalty with customers and fans in addition to reaching new audiences. Another personnel story,Volkswagen Global CMO Departs, JLR Adds Marketing Positions, published in February, was the fifth most-read automotive story of the year. Nelly Kennedy left her role as global chief marketing officer at Volkswagen after a year. Her replacement was Susanne Franz, who previously was senior director global brand communications and CX at Audi AG in Germany. Finally, the seventh most-read story rounded up some new marketing executive. General Motors, Maserati Add To Marketing Teams, published in February, detailed the addition of Shenan Reed as GMs global chief media officer, a new position at the automaker. The Maserati portion of the story announced Lindsay Fifelski as the brands new head of marketing. Fifelski has since shifted to another Stellantis brand as head of advertising for Chrysler and Ram and Nicole Longhini assumed the role of Maseratis director of marketing for the region on Nov. 4. GM also made the news during an agency reshuffle, as detailed in the third most-read automotive story, General Motors Chooses New Agency Partners, published in June. The model includes a mix of current and new agencies including Anomaly, Mother, Preacher and 72andSunny. Another agency story, Lucid Motors Taps Giant Spoon, Launches First Brand Effort, published just a few weeks ago in mid-December, was the ninth most-read automotive story of the year. The luxury electric vehicle maker hired Giant Spoon to handle creative and strategic duties in the U.S., with extended support globally. The partnership kicks off with the launch of Lucids first brand campaign, Compromise Nothing, featuring Muhammad Ali, Nina Simone and Neil Armstrong. A story detailing a unique product feature in Ford Motor Co,s luxury division captured attention. The fourth most-read spot was Lincoln Launches Digital Scent Collection, published in February. Available in the 2024 Nautilus, Lincoln Digital Scent allows customers to select and customize three scents for the cabin using the vehicles center screen, which is also used to control the level of scent dispersed. The highly priced Super Bowl ad buys are always of interest, so it was no surprise that the sixth most-read automotive story was BMW, Nissan, Toyota, Kia Reveal Super Bowl Plans, published in February. Finally, the eighth most-read story of the year was Kia's Russell Wager Named Automotive Marketer Of The Year, published in January. MediaPost will be naming another automotive marketer of the year later this month stay tuned! by Ray Schultz , January 1, 2025 The Atlantic has hired two top Washington Post political reporters and is apparently planning to add more journalistic power to its staff. Joining The Atlantic as staff writers in mid-January are Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer. Parker, the Posts senior national political correspondent, is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner. Scherer is a national political reporter, focusing on campaigns and electioins since 2017. He has also worked for Time. Both have distinguished themselves as scoop-driven styliststhey are both relentless, well-sourced reporters with a keen sense of language and narrative, and a deep belief in the importance of accountability journalism, writes Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic. They will make great additions to our already excellent politics team. advertisement advertisement Goldberg adds: As we move into 2025, it is vitally important for us to cover Washingtonthe implementation of the MAGA agenda; the role of money (foreign and domestic) in our politics; the future of the Democratic Party in the most comprehensive and rigorous way possible, and Ashley and Michael will play important roles in helping us meet our goals. The Atlantic passed the 1-million subscriber mark in March, and has added 100,000 since then, The New York Times reports. The publication, which is controlled by billionaire investor Laurene Powell Jobs, announced in October that it is returning to a full 12-month print schedule this month, having reduced the number to 10 in 2002. by Danielle Oster , January 1, 2025 There was a lot to keep up with in 2024 for technology and beverage (mostly non-alcoholic) brands -- which was reflected in this writers most-read stories. Brands employed both time-tested and novel strategies to try to stay ahead of evolving consumer expectations. Topping the list was all-digital wireless network Visible responding to Mint Mobiles widely-advertised Unlimited price promo by calling out that deals limitations and offering consumers a counteroffer the Verizon Value brand says is better. On its heels was a story about the irresistibly cute Cadbury Bunny tryouts. advertisement advertisement Several of the most-read stories this year focused on marketing strategies for big soda brands. Topping the list, Coca-Cola discussed shifting its focus to digital advertising during an earnings call earlier this year. The biggest news on the soda wars front this year was arguably Dr Pepper overtaking Pepsi as the number-two soda brand. For Marketing Daily readers, it was Dr Pepper bringing back its popular Fansville campaign for the seventh straight year that attracted the most attention. Another big story: Coca-Cola released its first permanent addition to its flavor portfolio in three years with the launch of Coca-Cola Spiced back in February. (Ultimately, the release proved to be not so permanent after all, as Coca-Cola announced it was phasing out the newly released flavor by the time October rolled around. Celebrity-powered stories were also popular. Topping the list was news of actress Olivia Culpo making her debut as a spokesperson for Coca-Colas BodyArmor Zero Sugar -- alongside her fiance, 49ers running back Christian McCaffery. Another star-studded campaign attracting readers attention was coffee brand Lavazza reuniting The Office alums Steve Carell and John Krasinski for its ambitious Pleasure Makes Us Human campaign, which kicked off in August. Pedro Pascal is arguably one of Hollywoods biggest stars, so its not surprising that news of Corona naming Pascal as brand ambassador was one of the years most-read stories. Rounding out the celeb-centered stories was another nearly universally loved star: Aubrey Plaza. Plaza starred in Mountain Dews Super Bowl spot, which saw her deadpanning Having A Blast throughout the ad before reuniting with fellow Parks & Rec alum Nick Offerman near the conclusion of the spot. PepsiCos focus on the brand for the Super Bowl followed the companys decision to make the Baja Blast line a permanent, widely available fixture in its flavor portfolio. by Ray Schultz , January 2, 2025 Time has appointed two executive editors, Nikhil Kumar and Lori Fradkin, the company announced on Thursday. Kumar will lead Times AI, climate and health teams, starting January 6. He is returning to Time after stints as deputy global editor at The Messenger and Grid and as CNN bureau chief in New Delhi. He previously was Times South Asia bureau chief and prior to that, a Time senior editor working on international coverage. Kumar will supervise senior editors Mandy Oaklander, Kyla Mandel, and Dayana Sarkisova, along with their reporters. He brings experience in international and business journalism, which hell use to make sure that our AI, Climate, and Health coverage continues to appeal to global audiences and those leading the businesses that shape them, writes Sam Jacobs, editor in chief of Time. advertisement advertisement Fradkin, who has been with Time since 2018, will oversee a team that includes AJ Hess, senior editor of ideas, Belinda Luscombe, editor at large, Sean Gregory, senior correspondent and Eliana Dockterman, senior correspondent. In this expanded role, Lori will continue to edit many of our most experienced reporters as well as work with outside writers on ambitious stories and essays, producing cover stories and features that drive conversation and support our top initiatives, Jacobs says. Jacobs adds that Fradkin oversaw the launch of the lists Closers and Latino Leaders, and will also continue to run and contribute to tentpole projects like Person of the Year. Lori will also be a key connector between the Editorial, Legal, and People Departments. Squid Game season 2 has garnered a lot of attention since its release on December 26, 2024. While some praised the new season with its new characters and plotlines, others were not happy with the way it ended. Many were also disappointed by the makers decision to include a trans character in Squid Game 2, played by Park Sung-hoon. Despite all this, fans have been eagerly waiting for details of season 3 since both seasons were shot together. Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Games director, writer and creator had earlier revealed that he was expecting season 3 to be released in the summer or fall of 2025. However, Netflix might have accidentally revealed the release date for Squid Game Season 3. Netflix A teaser video uploaded to the streaming platforms YouTube channel showed Young-hee, the girl robot, being transported to a new location where she meets a new robot, Chul-soo. This was similar to the post-credits scene of season 2. The video was titled Squid Game Season 3 2025 Release and its description revealed the release date June 27, 2025. The video was immediately deleted by the channel, but by then screenshots had started floating on social media. Take a look at some of the reactions here: Authorities have identified Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, an Army Special Forces soldier, as the renter of the 2024 Tesla Cybertruck who was killed when the vehicle exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day. Livelsberger, who was assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group headquartered at Fort Carson, Colorado, and stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, was at the center Thursday of an ongoing federal investigation, which included a search of a residence near Fort Carson. Livelsberger also owns property in the Cleveland area. Livelsberger's nearly 20-year military career began in 2006 when he enlisted directly into the Green Berets as a Special Forces communications specialist. He served on active duty until 2011, followed by brief stints in the National Guard and Army Reserve before returning to active duty in late 2012. Read Next: New Orleans Attacker Served in Army for More than a Decade, Deployed to Afghanistan Livelsberger died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound before the explosives -- large fireworks and fuel canisters -- detonated and injured seven others, according to authorities. It's unclear what the motivation for the explosion was. He was a combat veteran, deploying to Afghanistan several times and earning numerous awards for valor, including a Bronze Star. Livelsberger's actions came on the same day that another Army veteran committed an act of terrorism thousands of miles away in Louisiana during New Year's celebrations. The perpetrator of the deadly vehicle ramming attack on New Orleans' iconic Bourbon Street, which left at least 14 people dead and scores more injured, was identified as Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas. The FBI said that he also planted two improvised explosive devices along his route that did not detonate. Investigators are still looking into whether the two incidents are related, but there was no evidence connecting the two as of Thursday morning. FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia told reporters that the agency believed Jabbar acted alone, with no accomplices. However, Army officials refused to disclose Jabbar and Livelsberger's full service record, to include what units they previously served in -- which would show whether they crossed paths during their respective service. Those records are accessible and routinely disclosed. "At this point, currently, we do not assess that anyone else was involved in this attack," Raia said at a press conference. Jabbar's 12-year service in the Army was in support roles, as opposed to Livelsberger's combat-focused jobs with Special Forces. Jabbar enlisted in the Army in 2007 and first served as a human resource specialist before becoming an information technology specialist, the Army revealed Wednesday -- neither of which would have exposed Jabbar to any specialized weapons or explosives training. The Army also said that Jabbar deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. His commander during that deployment said on social media that Jabbar "worked quietly and professionally in the S1 shop and as a mail clerk, ensuring the little things that kept us all connected to home were done with care and precision" and described him as "a great soldier, someone who showed discipline and dedication." Jabbar's awards indicate he was a high-achieving soldier but never saw combat. During his Army career, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal three times and the Army Achievement Medal four times. However, public records show that, by the end of his active-duty career, Jabbar was stationed at Fort Liberty -- then known as Fort Bragg -- in North Carolina. A 2013 Facebook post by the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, said that Jabbar, then a staff sergeant, was the information technology team chief for the unit. Army records show that Jabbar also earned a Parachutist Badge, which typically would not be required of someone working as an IT specialist outside of an airborne unit. Jabbar filed for the first of two divorces in 2012, according to North Carolina court records. He ultimately left active-duty service and transitioned to the Army Reserve in 2015, but his first wife told The New York Times on Wednesday that he "struggled with adjusting to civilian life after leaving active-duty military service." Raia told reporters that Jabbar posted five videos to his Facebook account on the morning of Jan. 1 in which he said that "he had joined ISIS before this summer." "In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned that news headlines would not focus on the 'war between the believers and the disbelievers,'" Raia said. Jabbar's attack is likely one of the deadliest Islamic State-inspired assaults on U.S. soil. Editor's note: This story was updated with military award information released by the Army. Related: 'The MARSOC 3 Are Free': Drinking Convictions Dismissed Against Marine Raiders, Ending 6-Year Legal Saga The man who federal officials say was responsible for a ramming attack that killed at least 15 people in the early hours of New Year's Day in New Orleans had served in the Army for more than a decade, according to records from the service. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, was the driver of a rented Ford pickup truck that he managed to steer around a police blockade before barreling down iconic Bourbon Street, according to the FBI. The federal agency said that it found weapons and "a potential IED" in the car, and President Joe Biden said that "hours before the attack, he posted videos to social media indicating that he was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group, expressing a desire to kill." The death toll includes Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with police. Read Next: 'The MARSOC 3 Are Free': Drinking Convictions Dismissed Against Marine Raiders, Ending 6-Year Legal Saga Years prior to this attack, when Jabbar was in his early 20s, he first flirted with joining the Navy before eventually enlisting in the Army. However, based on the records released by the service, Jabbar didn't have any jobs or training that would have taught him the skills necessary to make improvised explosives and it doesn't appear that he would have had close contact with the Islamic State. A Navy spokesperson said Jabbar enlisted in the sea service on Aug. 12, 2004, in Houston and entered into the Delayed Entry Program. However, a month later, on Sept. 13, he was discharged from the Navy and never actually went to boot camp. The Navy did not offer any details as to why he was discharged. Three years later, however, in March 2007, Jabbar enlisted in the Army and first served as a human resource specialist before becoming an information technology specialist, a spokesperson for the service said. Both positions are not considered combat-related and, as such, would not have exposed Jabbar to any specialized weapons or explosives training. The Army also said that Jabbar deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 at a time when newly elected President Barack Obama was surging troops into the country. His commander during that deployment said on social media that Jabbar "worked quietly and professionally in the S1 shop and as a mail clerk, ensuring the little things that kept us all connected to home were done with care and precision" and described him as "a great soldier, someone who showed discipline and dedication." According to data released by the Army on Thursday, Jabbar's awards echo that assessment and paint him as a high-achieving soldier who worked in a supporting role but deployed to Afghanistan without ever seeing combat. During his Army career, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal three times and the Army Achievement Medal four times. However, the Army has yet to offer up details like where Jabbar was stationed or what units he was assigned to -- records that are routinely disclosed. Public records show that, by the end of his active-duty career, Jabbar was stationed at Fort Liberty -- then known as Fort Bragg -- in North Carolina. A Facebook post from 2013, posted by the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, said that Jabbar, then a staff sergeant, was the information technology team chief for the unit stationed at the base. Army records show that Jabbar also earned a Parachutist Badge -- an accomplishment that traditionally would not have been required of someone working as an IT specialist outside of an airborne unit. Years later, in a now-deleted website for a real estate company he founded, Jabbar said he "ran a service desk responsible for support services to thousands of soldiers." Around that same time, in 2012, Jabbar filed for the first of two divorces, according to North Carolina court records. In January 2015, Jabbar left active-duty service, but this transition appeared to be a challenging one for him, with his first wife telling The New York Times on Wednesday that he "struggled with adjusting to civilian life after leaving active-duty military service about a decade ago." It is also not clear when in his life Jabbar became a Muslim, much less radicalized into believing the Islamic State ideology. The terrorist group, also known as ISIS, emerged more than a decade ago, seizing territory in the Middle East, waging deadly attacks on the West including a Paris plot that killed 130 people, and triggering a U.S. military operation in Iraq and Syria that continues to this day. The current husband of Jabbars first wife told several news outlets that Jabbar had converted to Islam and had started to act erratically in the last few months, while his brother told The New York Times that he had been "a Muslim for most of his life." Jabbar moved from active duty straight into the Army Reserve, still working as an IT specialist, until he finally left the Army in July 2020 still a staff sergeant, according to service records. While in the reserves, court records show that Jabbar moved to Texas and remarried in 2017, though that marriage also ended in divorce. Texas records show that Jabbar filed for divorce from his second wife in July 2020 -- the same month he left Army reserves -- in a court just outside of Houston. Days after the filing, his wife was granted a restraining order that said he was not allowed to threaten either her or their child with "imminent bodily injury," make anonymous late-night calls, or destroy their property. His second wife was also subject to the order's restrictions. However, the couple soon agreed to drop the matter. But a year later, Jabbar again filed for divorce. Financial disclosures filed by Jabbar portrayed the couple as relatively impoverished, with most of their bank accounts completely empty despite him having a job with the consulting company Deloitte that paid him a salary of more than $120,000 a year. In his financial statements, Jabbar said that he was spending nearly $9,000 a month -- with around $2,000 of that just on credit card debt and student loans -- while taking home only around $7,500. Meanwhile, his second wife, in her filings, said that Jabbar had been wasting their money, including "excessive cash withdrawals, gifts to paramours, unreasonable and unnecessary spending and the improper accumulation of debt." The divorce was granted in September 2022, and the court ordered that Jabbar have his wages garnished. Jabbar's attack is likely one of the deadliest Islamic State-inspired assaults on U.S. soil and comes just months after the Department of Homeland Security warned that the threat of terrorism was expected to be high, especially due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. "Foreign terrorist organizations, including ISIS and al-Qaida maintain their enduring intent to conduct or inspire attacks in the Homeland," the agency warned in October. Just days after that announcement, the Department of Justice announced it had arrested an Afghan man who was living in Oklahoma for plotting to "conduct a violent attack on U.S. soil in the name of ISIS" on Election Day. Late on Wednesday, the FBI released an update that said it was "conducting a number of court-authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states" as part of its investigation into Jabbar. Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify that Jabbar was among the 15 people killed in the attack. It was also later updated with awards information released by the Army. Related: FBI Finds 150 Homemade Bombs at Virginia Home in One of the Largest Such Seizures, Prosecutors Say DOUMA, Syria Protesters in Syria held a sit-in Wednesday demanding justice for four activists who were forcibly disappeared in 2013 and whose fate remains one of the most haunting mysteries of the country's 13-year civil war. On Dec. 9, 2013, gunmen stormed the Violation Documentation Center in Douma, northeast of Damascus, and took Razan Zaitouneh, her husband Wael Hamadeh, Samira Khalil and Nazem Hammadi. Outspoken and defiantly secular, Zaitouneh was one of Syrias most well-known human rights activists. Perhaps most dangerously, she was impartial. She chanted in protests against then-President Bashar Assad but was also unflinching in documenting abuses by rebels fighting to oust him. There has been no sign of life nor proof of death since she and her colleagues were abducted. Since the ouster of Assad on Dec. 8, protests have erupted across Syria demanding information about thousands of people who were forcibly disappeared under his rule. The new leadership under the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which orchestrated the offensive to oust Assad, has maintained a neutral stance regarding accusations against various armed groups for forcibly disappearing activists. At the same time, HTS has aligned with activists in their efforts to uncover the truth and seek justice. We are gathering here to remind the world of their case, Yassin Haj Saleh, Khalils husband, said Wednesday, adding that the disappearance of activists represents the deepest wounds of Syrias conflict. This is the first opportunity that allows us to be in Douma, and in front of the place that they were kidnapped from, to speak up about the case, taking advantage of the political change that took place in the country. Saleh said they had repeatedly appealed to various armed groups for cooperation in finding the four activists in the years before Assad's ouster but were met with silence. Strong clues had pointed to the Army of Islam, the most powerful rebel faction in Douma at the time, as the perpetrators. The group, made up of religious hard-liners who were pushing out other rebels and imposing strict Shariah rules, long denied involvement. An Army of Islam official, Hamza Bayraqdar, told The Associated Press in 2018 they brought Zaitouneh to Douma to protect her from the Assad government. The Army of Islam repeatedly blamed the Assad government, along with the Nusra Front an al-Qaida-linked group originally founded by the current HTS leader for his wife's disappearance, Saleh said. Zaitouneh was a prominent human rights lawyer and founder of the Violation Documentation Center. She also helped organize networks of activists like the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella network made up of activists who organized protests as part of the Syrian uprising. Her work earned her international recognition, including an International Woman of Courage award presented by U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in 2013. Several of those who spoke to the AP in 2018 said the Army of Islam saw Zaitouneh documenting abuses as a threat and resented her local administration plan as an encroachment on their power. Zaitouneh received a series of threats that friends and activists said traced back to the Army of Islam. The Army of Islam was forced to move north in 2018 after the Assad government retook Douma, leading to the group's weakening and disintegration. Hopes that Zaitouneh and her colleagues would emerge among released prisoners during that time were unmet. Today, the Army of Islam remains an armed faction backed by Turkey. It did not fight alongside the other Islamist factions that led the offensive against Assad and remains excluded from the HTS-led Syrian leadership. Recently, an Army of Islam delegation met HTS leader Ahmad Sharaa to explore integration into the new Syrian system, but no agreement has been reached. Protesters on Wednesday held banners openly accusing the Army of Islam and reading Freedom in English and Traitor who kidnaps a revolutionary in Arabic, alongside posters of the four missing activists. Saleh described the plight of the disappeared as uniquely painful, saying, Those who die are mourned, but the forcibly disappeared are forbidden from both living and being mourned. Their bodies must be found, he said, adding: For Syria to heal, truth and justice must prevail. Wafa Moustafa, whose father was forcibly disappeared separately in 2013, also attended the protest. Justice in Syria cannot be limited to those detained by the Assad regime, she said. For many years, other factions controlled parts of Syria and committed similar crimes of detention, torture and killing. If justice does not include all victims, it will remain incomplete and threaten Syrias future. Syrian delegation arrives in Saudi Arabia A Syrian delegation led by the foreign and defense ministers, along with the head of intelligence, arrived in Saudi Arabia on their first official foreign trip, Syrian state media reported, citing a foreign ministry official. Relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia have long been tense. Many Arab nations cut ties with Assads government after it relied on support from Iran and Russia to suppress uprisings. But the Arab League reinstated Syria in 2023, and regional leaders are increasingly open now to renewing diplomatic ties. ___ Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut, Lebanon. The Angels signed catcher Sebastian Rivero to a minor league contract last month, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. Its unclear if hell be invited to major league Spring Training. Rivero, 26, has two seasons of major league experience. He played in 34 games for the Royals between 2021-22, hitting .167 without a home run over 73 trips to the plate. Kansas City released him after the 22 campaign. The Venezuelan-born catcher has spent the past two seasons in the upper minors, dividing his time between the White Sox and Braves organizations. He hit .186/.239/.249 in 75 games between Double-A and Triple-A in the Atlanta system a year ago. Rivero has been playing winter ball, where hes hitting .182 in 21 games. While theres clearly not a ton of offensive upside, Rivero adds catching depth to the upper levels of the minors. He has started nearly 400 games and caught almost 3500 innings in his minor league career. Rivero has cut down around a quarter of attempted basestealers in each of the last two seasons. Logan OHoppe and Travis dArnaud will divide the catching duties at Angel Stadium. Recent trade pickup Chuckie Robinson projects as the top depth option as the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. They hadnt had any non-roster catchers with major league experience before signing Rivero, who could back Robinson up at Triple-A Salt Lake. The Guardians have signed right-hander Luis Frias to a minor league deal with an invite to big league Spring Training, per a club announcement. Frias, 27 in May, signed with the Diamondbacks out of the Dominican Republic as an amateur and made his pro debut back in 2016. After slowly making his way through the lower levels of the minors in his early years with the club, Frias quickly rose from High-A all the way to Triple-A during the 2021 season. While he struggled to a 4.93 ERA in 23 starts across three levels of the minors that year, that didnt stop Arizona from giving Frias his first big league opportunity down the stretch. He pitched fairly well in that brief cup of coffee, with a 2.70 ERA and three strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings of work, though his five walks represented a clear red flag regarding how his command would play at the big league level. Those control issues manifested in the form of a brutal 2022 season. Friass sophomore campaign in the desert scarcely could have gone worse, as he posted a 10.59 ERA in 17 big league innings of work while once again walking (17) more batters than he struck out (14). His 3.99 ERA at Triple-A offered some level of optimism, though even that was held back by a 12.3% walk rate at the level. Despite his struggles, Friass tantalizing stuff was enough to convince Arizona to keep him in the fold for 2023, and he delivered the best season of his career in return. Though he walked 12.2% of opponents in the majors that year, Frias posted a 4.07 ERA that was 9% better than average by measure of ERA+ in 31 innings of work. His 18.7% strikeout rate was lackluster, but in terms of pure run prevention his results were those of a perfectly adequate middle reliever. Unfortunately, Friass performance went back off the rails in 2024. In 13 MLB appearances split between the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays, the right-hander struggled to a 13.97 ERA and 5.55 FIP while recording just 9 2/3 total innings of work. Things even looked dire at the Triple-A level during his time in Arizona, as he posted a lackluster 4.88 ERA for the clubs affiliate in Reno. Fortunately for Frias, however, he dominated at Triple-A late in the year after being plucked off waivers from the Snakes. He posted a 0.96 ERA and a 27.9% strikeout rate for his new clubs Buffalo affiliate, and while that wasnt enough to convince the Jays to keep him on their 40-man roster this winter it was evidently enough to earn Frias a look from the Guardians this winter. While Frias isnt likely to break camp as part of a crowded Cleveland bullpen, hell now have the opportunity to work with one of the leagues best pitching development organizations in hopes of further harnessing his potential and sorting out his command going forward. In the meantime, hell serve as a non-roster depth option for the Guardians out of the bullpen who could be called upon in the event of an injury. With the rotation market moving more quickly than the rest of free agency, the number of unsigned starting pitchers is dwindling. Jack Flaherty, Nick Pivetta and potential reliever conversion Jeff Hoffman are at the top of the class. Beyond that, teams are evaluating pitchers wholl likely be limited to one- or two-year commitments. Max Scherzer may be the most intriguing of those short-term targets. The future Hall of Famer was limited to nine starts and 43 1/3 innings during his final season with the Rangers. Scherzer has made clear that he has no plans to retire. Hell be back for his age-40 campaign in hopes of a healthier, more productive season. In a live stream for Bleacher Report this afternoon, Jon Heyman suggested that Scherzer is fielding interest from four teams. Heyman indicated that the market is heating up a bit, so its possible that the three-time Cy Young winner could come off the board in the relatively near future. Scherzer opened the 24 season on the injured list as he finished rehab from last Decembers back surgery. Nerve irritation in his throwing hand delayed his return until late June. Scherzer made eight starts before going back on the shelf with shoulder fatigue. That kept him out into September. His season concluded after one additional start because of a strained left hamstring. A pitcher battling multiple injuries, including back surgery, at age 40 is obviously going to raise concerns. Scherzer is only one season removed from starting 30 games and topping 160 innings between the regular season and playoffs. Hed surpassed 170 innings in every full schedule between 2009-21. Until last year, hed been incredibly durable. Scherzer remains productive when hes able to pitch, albeit not at a Cy Young level. He turned in a 3.77 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate between the Mets and Rangers in 2023. Last season, he allowed just under four earned runs per nine with a diminished 22.6% strikeout percentage. Scherzer still got a ton of chases and whiffs on a per-pitch basis though. His 14.6% swinging strike rate ranked fifth among starting pitchers with 40+ innings. Only Blake Snell, Garrett Crochet, Logan Gilbert and Dylan Cease missed bats at a higher rate. Aside from perhaps Flaherty, Scherzer arguably has the highest ceiling for next season alone of any unsigned starter. Theres also significant risk because of the recent spate of injuries. Scherzer will almost certainly be limited to a one-year contract, so the long-term downside is limited, but he should command a strong salary. Alex Cobb landed $15MM from the Tigers coming off a season in which he combined for 23 innings between the regular season and playoffs. He recently turned 37 and doesnt miss bats at anywhere near the rate Scherzer does. It stands to reason that Scherzer and his representation at the Boras Corporation will be aiming to beat Cobb money, perhaps in pursuit of a contract closer to $20MM. Heymans report doesnt specify any of the teams involved in the bidding. Speculatively speaking, the Braves, Orioles, Blue Jays, Cubs, Nationals and Mets are among the teams that could have some spending room and a desire for a short-term upside play. Scherzer isnt going to sign with a team that doesnt have a path to contention, but there are very few truly rebuilding clubs right now. Every team aside from Colorado, Miami and the White Sox may feel they have a path to a Wild Card spot. GAYLORD, MI A 420-acre swath of state forestland will be cleared for a solar farm near Gaylord under a lease agreement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, confirmed a top state official. Officials with the DNR recently assessed 1,200 acres of public trust land in Otsego County near a major power transmission line to decide whether it was suitable for solar arrays. Agency leaders ultimately decided to lease 35% of that land to accompany other adjacent solar projects already in the works. This comes as the DNR faces dwindling revenues from hunting and fishing licenses, and Michigan falls behind building enough renewable energy fast enough to risk not meeting a key state climate goal 100% clean energy by 2040. Leasing 4,000 acres of public land statewide is part of the DNRs plan to help remedy both problems in coming years. Officials said that state solar initiative may begin just west of Gaylord. A map provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2024 shows portions of public land near transmission lines, outlined in blue, being considered for potential lease to a developer of solar energy systems. Crosshatched yellow areas indicate state forest areas not being considered, officials say.Provided by Michigan DNR Forest for the trees A public notice advertising competitive bidding for solar proposals on 420 acres of state land in Otsego Countys Hayes Township is expected to be published in coming days in both the Gaylord newspaper and on the DNR website, confirmed Scott Whitcomb, DNR director of public lands office. He said the DNR will schedule a public hearing if requested by local governments and enough members of the public. MLive filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents and digital files associated with the project on Oct. 21, 2024, which remains pending. State decision-makers know this choice will be criticized, Whitcomb said. Not incredibly popular with everyone. I will be frank about that. Deforesting land for renewable energy has become the focus of recent scientific study. Research done at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York shows the loss of forests for solar installations could result in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions the air pollution which fuels the accelerating climate crisis. Recommendations from Harvard University are that solar installations impacts on forests and farms are part of what is undermining public support for this resource, with many communities now seeking to slow or block new ground-mount projects. Some of the acreage in question near Gaylord was previously clear cut and replanted with red pine seedlings, a favorite in the timber industry. Other parts remain forested and host oil and gas wellheads. Yet the biggest factor at the site remains the nearby high-voltage transmission line. Making a planned 200-megawatt solar farm on adjacent private land larger by 420 acres of less than pristine public land bisected by an existing major powerline would reduce the need to build even more connecting powerlines, Whitcomb said. He argued its a matter of infrastructure logistics for this tract of state forestland that may not be available at other, even more altered land elsewhere. You could have a degraded site and its not close to an interconnect, or if its close to an interconnect, it might not be in a place where the grid can take the electrons, Whitcomb said. He said the DNR had to decide whether it could lose this particular forest at the 45th Parallel in rural Otsego County. I would rather make the development a little bigger here and avoid creating a new development elsewhere that has those same impacts, he said. The trouble is that the Michigan Healthy Climate Plan specifically says to avoid land-use conversion that causes a net increase in (greenhouse gas) emissions and prioritize land uses that reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions in the section about protecting Michigans land and water. Whitcomb said he hopes to mitigate that conflict by using a portion of any future DNR solar leasing revenues to buy other land that may be more beneficial for wildlife habitat connectivity, public access needs and carbon sequestration. But thats not the plan for all the expected solar leasing revenue. We dont give this land away for free, Whitcomb said. That lease revenue can go into natural resources management. So, I wouldnt say its the only reason, but it is something we think about. The bottom line is, we have to pay for the activities of this agency somehow. Editors note: A previous version of this story stated that a loss forests for solar installations would result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, according to Chinese researchers and a Harvard study. The Chinese researchers were using research done at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York which shows the loss of forests for solar installations could result in increased emissions. The story has been clarified. HAMLIN TOWNSHIP, MI Lanterns will give a soft glow, illuminating the snow-dusted path as winter hikes kick off this weekend at this Up North state park. Ludington State Park will host four lantern-lit hikes in January and February, each featuring a bonfire with marshmallows and hot chocolate. Events begin Saturday at the park amphitheater. Heres the schedule: 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 Most of the 4,800-acre park, nestled between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake, closed Sept. 3. The closure includes almost everything north of the entry booth where a $3.2 million construction project is underway. It is expected to reopen July 1 with repaved roads and parking lots, and other improvements. The Friends of Ludington State Park and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources worked together to reroute the winter hikes due to the construction. Guests will follow the lanterns on a lollipop-shaped trail south of the Big Sable River. The route starts and ends at the amphitheater. Limited parking will be available at the Amphitheater/Skyline Trail parking lot south of the parks toll booth; carpooling is encouraged. The park closure includes all campgrounds and campsites, all northern trails, Big Sable Point Lighthouse, the main Lake Michigan beach area and the Hamlin day-use areas, including the beach, Hamlin Dam, the boat launch, and picnic areas along the Big Sable River. Almost everything north of the entry booth is closed while areas south of the booth are open. RELATED: What Ludington State Park will look like after $3M in upgrades The project is part of $250 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan, or ARPA, that was made available to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in 2022 to help address a long list of needs at state parks. RELATED: Whats still open at popular Up North state park during construction? We have a list Ludington State Park is known for its seven miles of sandy Lake Michigan beachfront, an iconic lighthouse and a one-mile stretch of Big Sable River thats popular for fishing, paddling and tubing. The park also features 21 miles of marked trails through wetlands, marshes, dunes and forests, plus two water trails. Hamlin Lake is popular for recreation, including boating, hiking, fishing, paddling and swimming. The park, 8800 M-116 north of Ludington, is especially in demand for camping. It has three modern campgrounds with 352 campsites. The Stray Kids dominATE World Tour is scheduled to begin this May in Seattle. Get tickets to see the band live at one of 10 North American venues in 2025. Shop on SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub, and Ticketmaster. Stray Kids will perform one show in New York City while on their 2025 world tour.Nishma Shah After wrapping up their year-long MANIAC route back in April of 2023, K-pop band Stray Kids are returning to North America this spring as part of their 2025 world tour. Titled Dominate, the trek begins Saturday, May 24 at Seattles T-Mobile Park, and is scheduled to hit Oracle Park in San Francisco, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Arlingtons Globe Life Field, Truist Park in Atlanta, Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Flushing, New Yorks Citi Field, and Wrigley Field in Chicago before heading to Canada on June 29 for a show at Rogers Stadium in Toronto. Stray Kids will host two concerts at both SoFi Stadium and Citi Field. Tickets: SeatGeek | Vivid Seats | StubHub | Ticketmaster Tour schedule: Sat, May 24 T-Mobile Park; Seattle, WA Wed, May 28 Oracle Park; San Francisco, CA Sat, May 31 SoFi Stadium; Inglewood, CA Sun, Jun 1 SoFi Stadium; Inglewood, CA Fri, Jun 6 Globe Life Field; Arlington, TX Tue, Jun 10 Truist Park; Atlanta, GA Sat, Jun 14 Camping World Stadium; Orlando, FL Wed, Jun 18 Citi Field; Flushing, NY Thu, Jun 19 Citi Field; Flushing, NY Mon, Jun 23 Nationals Park; Washington, DC Thu, Jun 26 Wrigley Field; Chicago, IL Sun, Jun 29 Rogers Stadium; Toronto, Canada OAKLAND COUNTY, MI A woman was killed and five others were seriously injured early New Years Day in a three-vehicle crash on I-96 The crash happened around 3:10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, on westbound I-96, east of the South Hill Road overpass in Lyon Township, Oakland County deputies said. The deceased was a 57-year-old Fenton woman. She was a backseat passenger in a 2016 Ford Explorer that slammed into the back of a 2025 Chevrolet Trax that was stopped in the second lane of the expressway with only its hazard lights on, police said. After crashing into the Trax, the Explorer wound up facing east in the westbound lanes and was struck head-on by a 2018 Jeep Compass. The occupants of the Explorer were removed from the vehicle before it caught fire, police said. The Fenton woman, who died at the scene, and her 82-year-old husband were backseat passengers in the Explorer. He was hospitalized in critical condition. The Explorer driver and his 51-year-old wife were hospitalized in serious condition. Both were using seat belts. Its unknown if the backseat passengers were belted. The Jeep Compass was driven by a 75-year-old Leslie, Michigan, woman who was hospitalized in critical condition. She was wearing a seat belt. The driver of the Trax was a 30-year-old Ypsilanti man. It is not known why the Trax was stopped on the expressway, police said. The driver was in stable condition at a hospital, police said. Sheriffs deputies said that alcohol may be a factor in the crash. Investigators used a search warrant for a blood draw from the Ypsilanti man. Test results for potential intoxicants are pending. He used a seat belt, police said. Oakland County Sheriffs Office Crash Reconstruction Unit is investigating. If youre ready to make 2025 a game changer by retiring stale words that are just so cringe, Lake Superior State University can get behind that 100%. And IYKYK. And if you dont? Sorry, not sorry. This college in the Upper Peninsula kicked off the New Year by releasing its quirky annual Banished Words List - a Top 10 compilation of words that are overused, used incorrectly or just generally in need of retirement. Words matter! Old habits can be hard to break and were happy to serve as a resource for the court of public opinion on what should continue to be part of the English language and what needs to be put to rest, said Lake Superior State President David Travis. The tradition behind the list dates back nearly a half century. The credit goes to former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and his colleagues. In 1976, they came out with the first List of Words Banished from the Queens English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. Submissions for the list filter in throughout the year. This years entries included words suggested by people in the U.S., Canada Denmark, Germany, South Africa, India and Australia. Here is the 2025 Banished Words List and the reasons behind the choices, according to LSSU: 1. Cringe While cringe once packed a punch, it has now overstayed its welcome. Overuse has dulled its impact, and ironically, using it might now cause the very reaction it describes. Saying someone caused you to cringe or stating that you cringed at something is a pretty easy and proper way to use the word, writes Ash from Newton, Alabama. Hearing someone say someone is so cringe makes me cringe! 2. Game Changer How many times can a game change before it is no longer recognizable? This phrase, often used to describe anything remotely innovative, is as tired as a well-worn cliche. Nothing is a game changer if everything is a game changer, writes Patrick of Washington, DC. 3. Era Unless you are Taylor Swift, it might be time to leave era behind. The terms overuse has made every fleeting moment feel like it demands a historical marker. Leah of Holland, Michigan submits, Thanks to the name of Taylor Swifts tour, now there is an era for everyone and everything! Hes in his fatherhood era, Shes in her pottery-making era, etc., etc.. Its overused and tiring. 4. Dropped Once edgy and cool, dropped has become more of a letdown. Whether it is an album, a trend, or a product, this term has fallen flat. Books, music, and all kinds of unnecessary things are currently being dropped rather than introduced, released, or offered for sale. Banished for overuse, misuse, abuse, and hurting my head when all that dropping stuff lands on me!, laments Susan of Littleton, CO. 5. IYKYK (If You Know, You Know) Internet slang and texting abbreviations are often fan-favorites of Banished Word submitters each year. Cryptic and exclusionary, this phrase offers little clarity or substance. If you know, you might agree it is time to let this one go. Amy from Redford, MI feels this phrase should go for being both irritating and nonsensical. 6. Sorry Not Sorry A half-hearted apology masquerading as bold honesty, this phrase feels as disingenuous as it sounds. Banished Word enthusiasts recommend just saying what you mean or in at least one case showing a little kindness. Sabrina from Wrenshall, MN writes, It is really tiring to hear, and it is giving people another reason to be jerks to one another. 7. Skibidi This viral word may have resonated with a younger crowd, but for many it is just noise. Agatha from Denmark explains, Nobody cares about a Skibidi toilet, Skibidi fizz, or Skibidi Ohio fanum tax. At this point, nobody even knows what it means and it just annoys people. 8. 100% Is it possible to be over-enthusiastic about retiring the phrase 100%? Absolutely! Its overuse has left no room for nuance or doubt. A phrase predominantly nominated for its overuse, some felt it was simply not applicable. Since when should a percentage be used to describe your agreement in a conversation? asked Stephen from Sudbury, Ontario. 9. Utilize A classic offender, utilize proves that longer is not always better. Why complicate things when use works just fine? Everett from Cumby, Texas encourages readers to Write like you talk, and added, Lord, I hope you dont talk like that. 10. Period Yes, we understand your pointno need to verbally punctuate it. Overuse has turned this into a period we are ready to end. Theresa from Detroit, MI, recommends that we banish this word by putting it in a bottle and sending it out to sea. Want to nominate a word for the 2026 list? Visit the LSSU website here. LAPEER, MI Two people were hospitalized after a blaze erupted at Pines Lapeer West apartments Thursday morning, Jan. 2. Firefighters were dispatched at about 8:07 a.m., reporting to a structure fire to the apartment complex on Village West Drive in Lapeer. The structure is located across Oregon Street from Zemmer Middle School. Fire departments from three counties were on scene for the three-alarm fire. Lapeer firefighters worked quickly to evacuated the apartment building. There were two occupants transported to McLaren Hospital in Lapeer, said Lapeer Fire Chief Mike Vogt. The status is currently unknown, but they are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries, Vogt said. Vogt said the he wouldnt consider the building a total loss, but at least a couple of apartments sustained major damage. The investigation is ongoing. Were still in the initial stages to finding the cause of the fire, Vogt said. Lapeer County emergency management officials and American Red Cross officials also responded, setting up a staging and relocation area at the scene. The emergency management team was able to make contact with everyone inside the building, Vogt said. Oregon Road from Suncrest Drive to Millville Road was closed to through traffic. The first units dispatched to the fire were Lapeer Fire & Rescue and Elba Township Fire, followed by a second-alarm dispatch to Metamora Township, Attica Township and Davison. A third-alarm dispatch was placed to the Davison and Oxford to bring ladder and aerial trucks. Additional units were requested to the fire from the Oxford and Davison-Richfield fire departments that responded with their aerial trucks and manpower. A manpower strike steam was requested by Lapeers fire command for firefighters from the Attica, Almont, Dryden and Imlay City fire departments. On a third-alarm commercial fire, we always prepare for the worst, Vogt said. Its a windy day, and wed rather be safe than sorry. Read more on MLive.com: Dog abandoned in squalor finds forever home for Christmas 25 Detroit Lions photos that will make you even more proud to be a fan Historic moments, big plays highlight 2024 Flint-area sports photos KENT COUNTY, MI Two men have been indicted on drug charges for allegedly bringing 44 pounds of cocaine from Chicago to the Grand Rapids area. Tyrone Munoz and Raul Robledo face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, court records show. Both have pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. The investigation began in early November when a confidential source provided information about a man in Texas who could supply large amounts of cocaine from Chicago to Grand Rapids, Daniel Saldana, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, wrote in a criminal complaint. He said investigators directed the source to order a large amount of cocaine. On Nov. 21, DEA investigators obtained a court-authorized electronic surveillance for the then-unidentified Texas suppliers cellphone and conducted surveillance on I-196 traffic headed toward Grand Rapids. Based on GPS phone pings, investigators focused surveillance on I-196 near M-40 in Holland. A task force officer then saw a white Toyota rental car, with a New Jersey license plate, parked at the Loves Travel Stop on Adams Street in Holland Township, just off the expressway. The officer also saw a red Toyota, with a Texas license plate, that appeared to be traveling with the other rental vehicle. Drug traffickers typically use multiple rental vehicles to transport drugs to thwart police, Saldana wrote. At 8:20 p.m., GPS on the phone pinged near 44th Street and I-196. Both vehicles parked at SpringHill Suites on Parkway Place in Grandville. DEA agents approached. Investigators saw a brick like object wrapped in brown duct tape on the front passenger seat of the red Toyota in plain view, Saldana wrote. Police arrested Robledo, who was alone in the red Toyota. A drug-sniffing dog detected narcotics near the trunk of the other vehicle, driven by Munoz, in a free air sniff, the DEA said. Investigators found 19 similar brick-like objects in brown duct tape in a duffle bag in the trunk of the white car, the DEA agent said. The packages each weighing a kilogram, or 2.2 pounds - tested positive for cocaine, the agent said. The men were taken to the Kent County Sheriffs Office. Munoz initially agreed to talk before demanding an attorney. Robledo, however, told investigators that Munoz, his cousin, met with someone in a Chicago suburb, then told Robledo to follow him to Michigan. Once they reached the Walmart in Grandville, Munoz put one of the kilograms of cocaine in Robledos vehicle and told him to hold it until they met with an unknown man, the DEA agent wrote. Robledo then drove to SpringHill Suites as directed by Munoz, the agent wrote. The DEA said the two men intended to provide the 20 kilograms to an unknown man at the hotel. The defendants were indicted on Dec. 20. Robledo is free on bond while Munoz is jailed. OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- Ottawa County commissioners have elected a Jenison area lawyer as chair of the county board, ending the controversial two-year leadership of an ultra-conservative Hudsonville man. Commissioners, in a split vote, elected John Teeples as chair and Grand Havens Josh Brugger as vice chair. Related: New Ottawa County board faces crucial decisions after far-right groups control ends Former Chair Joe Moss, head of the political faction Ottawa Impact, was nominated as chair but lost in a 7-4 vote. All four remaining Ottawa Impact commissioners voted for Moss. Moss has led the board since January 2023 after he and seven other members linked to Ottawa Impact were elected in November 2022. During his leadership, the Ottawa Impact majority faction of commissioners made numerous controversial moves, including dismantling the countys diversity office, firing then-Administrator John Shay and trying to fire county Health Officer Adeline Hambley. The November 2024 election brought wins for five new commissioners not affiliated with Ottawa Impact, including Teeples in District 7. Most of those who unseated OI candidates are more traditional fiscal conservative Republicans. Moss, in losing the nomination for chair, was cordial and applauded Teeples' election. Teeples, in speaking after the vote, said he hopes board members can work cooperatively. We dont even have to like each other, but the community expects us to get along and work together, Teeples said. The community expects us to be civil, not call each other names. Want more Grand Rapids-area news? Bookmark the local Grand Rapids news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Grand Rapids daily newsletter. JACKSON COUNTY, MI - A lot of New Years resolutions get broken pretty quickly, but if youre in the roughly 25% of people who will stay on target past January, there are resources in the Jackson area to assist you in staying motivated. Whether youre heading into 2025 with a goal of expanding your social circle or focusing on your own mental and physical health, here are some great goals to set for yourself if you live in Jackson County. The exterior at Cafe Fuel in Lean Rocket Lab, 133 W. Michigan Avenue in Jackson. The cafe is known for its sandwiches, soups and coffee drinks. It also sells baked goods from ABC Bakery and Doughnation Bakery. Chloe Miller | MLive.com Support a new local business More than 20 businesses opened their doors to Jackson County residents for the first time in 2024. This list includes both long-awaited retail stores like Burlington and family-owned eateries such as Red Egg Creamery and Love, Pasta. More information and a map of the businesses that opened and closed over the past year can be found here. Related: See the Jackson County businesses that opened and closed in 2024 Community members take an afternoon stroll on the MLK Equality Trail on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. The trail is receiving many improvements between the MLK Center and Prospect Street. Meg Potter | MLive.com Take more walks on Jacksons most popular trail The effort to reconstruct Jacksons MLK Jr. Equality Trail will be fully funded for completion in 2025. Related: Grant will help Jackson complete improvements to popular pedestrian trail in 2025 Thanks to a $300,000 award from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the initiative starting in 2023 to replace and improve Jacksons main pedestrian trail is set to be complete by the end of 2025. Trail sections from Merriman Street to S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and from the Optimist Rest Shelter to Weatherwax Drive will be reconstructed, with deteriorating asphalt replaced with a new 12-foot-wide concrete surface to allow for safer sharing of walking space and more accessibility. An interior look at the Jackson District Librarys Eastern Branch, 3125 E. Michigan Ave., on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. The branch recently reopened after renovations. (J. Scott Park | MLive.com)J. Scott Park | jpark4@mlive.com Read more books at the Jackson District Library The Jackson District Library maintains 13 libraries across Jackson County, including locations in downtown Jackson, Brooklyn, Grass Lake and Concord. Each location is a destination for book lovers and anyone looking to pick up a new hobby this year through the districts many events. Jacksons bookworms can also look forward to a new location for the districts Hanover Branch opening on 137 W. Main St. in early 2025. More information about JDL and its branches can be found on Facebook. People enjoy the porch at Sandhill Crane Vineyards, 4274 Walz Road in Leoni Township near Jackson, on Thursday, June 10, 2021. The winery and cafe offers some food items including charcuterie boards, sandwiches and desserts.J. Scott Park | MLive.com Spend more time with friends, and make new ones Whether you prefer a quiet afternoon surrounded by books and fellow readers or like having a few drinks at a local bar, there are many opportunities in Jackson County to meet friends. Related: 5 great places to socialize, meet friends in Jackson County Those looking to sit back with a cold one or a hot beverage can check out the many breweries and coffee shops scattered throughout the area. Venues like Art 634, 634 N. Mechanic St., also make great places to meet new faces in addition to highlighting local artists, musicians, vendors and performers. Rigatoni Bolognese is served at Love, Pasta, 2003 Horton Road in Jackson, on Thursday, August 29, 2024. The newly opened restaurant features handcrafted pasta dishes and craft cocktails.J. Scott Park | jpark4@mlive.com Eat somewhere new Several new eateries set up shop in Jackson in 2024, offering new spots for pizza, ice cream, burgers and more. Related: 5 great new restaurants in Jackson County that opened in 2024 Whether youre looking for homemade pasta and sauces made daily at Summit Townships new Love, Pasta or a place that helps women gain work experience like the newly-opened SOAR Cafe and Farms, food options in the Jackson area have only gotten better over the past year. Want more Jackson-area news? Bookmark the local Jackson news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Jackson daily newsletter. PORTAGE, MI -- A new book in the fifth-grade curriculum has irked some Portage Public Schools parents who find the book to be too graphic. The novel, The Breadwinner, tells the story of a a young girl in war-torn Afghanistan who has to support her family by selling bones dug up from a mass grave. While the school board ultimately decided to keep using the book, the complaints shed light on the PPS book removal process. RELATED: Graphic book wont be banned from Portage curriculum, district decides The districts policy outlines how parents should approach requesting a book removed from the curriculum. First, a family member should reach out to the building administrator. This allows the principal and their team to address the issue directly while fostering meaningful relationships with families, said Mackenzie Sheahan, PPS director of curriculum and professional development for K-8, in a statement. If concerns continue, the family member can review instructional materials and texts at the PPS Administration Building, 8107 Mustang Drive, alongside a curriculum director. If concerns still arent resolved, parents can submit a formal reconsideration request. The request is reviewed by a district committee made up of educators, administrators, family members and students, Sheahan said. The committee conducts a thorough evaluation of the material, guided by established criteria and open discussion, Sheahan said. After deliberation, the committee votes on whether the material should remain in the curriculum. The Portage school board has the final say. In the case of The Breadwinner, it followed the recommendation of the committee, voting 5-2 to keep the book. A group of district parents, including Lindsay Zerber, want the reconsideration committee to reconsider again but this time with more input from parents. The committee had nine members, eight of whom are employed by the district, according to PPS documents. The individual not employed by PPS was a former Portage Northern High School student who lived in Afghanistan for 15 years, the documents said. Six of the nine members have students enrolled in Portage schools, the committee documents said. The Breadwinner is part of the new Fishtank Curriculum, which the district approved with controversy in 2023. RELATED: A school district diversified its curriculum. Some trustees call it politically skewed The district is currently collecting feedback on the Fishtank Curriculum. A survey is being distributed to teachers, students and families to gather thoughts on the first semester of it. This feedback helps us evaluate and adjust instructional materials to ensure they align with age-appropriateness, engagement and overall student growth, Sheahan said. Want more Kalamazoo-area news? Bookmark the local Kalamazoo news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Kalamazoo daily newsletter. Update: Michigan state police and the Oakland County Sheriffs Office confirmed publicly on Jan. 2 that the remains are those of Kevin Graves. State police said it may take several months to determine a cause and manner of death, but there are no indications of foul play at this time. HOWELL, MI -- For six and a half years, a mother, father and siblings have lived in a painful limbo, wondering what happened to their son and brother. Kevin Graves, 28, vanished in July 2018 while attending the Electric Forest music festival in Oceana Countys Rothbury in west Michigan. His father, Gary Graves, said police are 99 % sure remains discovered on private property near the festival grounds by two hunters on Monday, Dec. 30, are those of Kevin Graves. They said they found his wallet, his phone and he had a (festival) wristband on, Gary Graves told MLive on Jan. 1. They just got to do an autopsy and dental records and everything and then theyll get back with us. The family was not provided a timeline as to how long police believe it may take officials to complete the ID and autopsy. If there is a confirmation that it is indeed (Kevin Graves), we will begin to work on further information to determine how he ended up there from where he was last seen and what was the manner and cause of death, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. Michigan state police are also assisting with the case. Gary Graves, 80, and his 66-year-old wife, Kathy Graves, both of Howell, previously provided detectives samples of their DNA and access to their sons dental records. Kevin Graves would be 34 if alive today. Related: Human remains found in wooded area near Rothbury For several years, Gary Graves, the father of Kevin Graves, has suspected his son died, but said he didnt feel the true impact of that reality until an Oakland County sheriffs official pulled up his driveway about 3:30 p.m. on Monday Dec. 31. Lead detective Sgt. David Bach of the Oakland County Sheriffs Office exited the vehicle and asked to speak with the couple. All of the sudden, he said what he said and my wife collapsed, Gary Graves said two days after the notification. And I grabbed her and then went over and sat on the couch and (Bach) got down on his one knee trying to comfort us and explain what they found. The cause and manner of death havent been determined and are pending the results of an autopsy. Gary Graves said the detective told him hunters were clearing land for a shooting lane when they discovered the remains. Multiple unsuccessful searches were conducted throughout the festival grounds and adjacent properties following the disappearance. With the dogs and everything they claim they had running around there looking, I cant see how we missed him, Gary Graves said. But I cant say for sure until I know exactly where it was at. At the time he was last seen, Kevin Graves worked at a coating company and lived with his then-girlfriend of nearly two years in Oakland Countys Highland Township, where she reported Kevin Graves as a missing person on July 3, 2018. Rumors about what happened to Kevin included everything from him joining and leaving the festival with a cult to heading out West to work at a marijuana farm, Gary Graves previously told MLive. Gary Graves said he was present when a couple who stayed next to Kevin Graves and his former girlfriend in the campgrounds during the 2018 festival were interviewed. They observed Kevin Graves crying and walking away after arguing with his girlfriend, Gary Graves said. Kevin Graves was last seen on July 1, 2018. The festival concluded the following day and the concertgoers left the grounds. The family suspects foul play, but that has not been confirmed by police. Police reports obtained by MLive through a Freedom of Information Act records request indicated police reviewed Kevin Graves cell phone data and the last activity was a call placed to his fathers cell phone on July 1, 2018. The Electric Forest is a four-day festival that began in 2011 with an estimated 40,000 attendees. Its heavily focused on electronic dance music with a reputation for open drug use, most often involving substances like LSD, MDMA, ketamine, marijuana and ecstasy, based on police reports and interviews conducted by MLive. Related: Parents of man who vanished from Electric Forest in 2018 keep hope alive with billboard Kevin Graves parents and other family members attended the festival briefly in 2022, which Kathy Graves described as a modern-day Woodstock. The family has also placed billboards near the festival grounds seeking information from festival goers in recent years. Its been hell, Gary Graves said of the experience. Its been harder on (my wife) than me. I guess I hold things in differently. I mean, I was in the war, so things hit me different. Gary Graves served in the Vietnam War with the U.S. Marine Corps. Kevin Graves has a Marine Corps logo tattooed on his left arm in commemoration of his fathers service. Im hoping that theyre going to find something thats going to help figure out what happened to him, Gary Graves said. We didnt really want that answer. We were hoping one day hed come walking up the driveway. Patients with Aetna health insurance can keep seeing their Trinity Health caregivers at in-network prices in 2025 after the two sides reached an agreement in late December. The same cant be said for those with Humana coverage, as the Jan. 1 deadline came and went without a new agreement reached with the national faith-based health system . Visiting an in-network provider comes with cost savings through your health insurance plan, while out-of-network visits can prove more costly. Trinity Health announced a multi-year agreement with Aetna, a CVS Health company, on Tuesday, Dec. 31. Later that afternoon, the health system announced it would no longer be included in Humanas network, which offers Medicare Advantage plans. Related: Contract disputes may increase costs for some Trinity Health patients in 2025 Trinity Health says it did everything within its power to protect access and remain in network with Humana during several months of discussions. This outcome is deeply disappointing, reads a statement from Diane Benson, manager of internal communications and media relations for Trinity Health West Michigan. "We urge patients to call Humana and tell them how important it is to reinstate their in-network access to Trinity Health and its providers." Humana has accused Trinity Health of making significant financial demands that will drive up patient costs. It says it has engaged in good-faith discussions and put forth proposals that would reimburse Trinity Health at fair and reasonable rates. Trinity is paid fairly for the services it provides, at rates that are commensurate with and in some cases higher than original, fee-for-service Medicare, Humana wrote on its website. Related: Safety grades fell for 15 Michigan hospitals. See how yours scored fall 2024 The previous agreement between the two parties expired at the end of 2024. Without a new deal, more than 100,000 members nationwide will need to switch to new doctors/specialists to maintain in-network benefits. Patients already in the hospital when the current contract expires will continue to be covered at in-network rates through the end of their inpatient stay, Trinity Health said. Patients who are pregnant or are receiving ongoing treatment may still be able to maintain their in-network coverage, according to Trinity Health. For more information, they can call the number on the back of their insurance card. In the event of a medical emergency, Trinity said patients will always have in-network access to its emergency rooms until the patient is stable. Humana said it remains open to renewing a contract if its fair for both sides. For more information, contact your healthcare or insurance provider. Visit Trinityhealthmichigan.org/humana for the latest update, or call Trinitys patient hotline at 734-274-9940. DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers made it clear last month that their 2025 catching tandem was already settled: Jake Rogers and Dillon Dingler will handle duties at the big-league level. But what about the third catcher, typically a veteran stationed at Triple-A Toledo? The Tigers answered that question by signing Brian Serven to a minor-league deal. Serven, 29, has played in parts of three big-league seasons, including a brief stint with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2024. The California native played college ball at Arizona State and was drafted in the fifth round in 2016 by the Colorado Rockies. He made his debut for the Rockies in 2022, played sparingly in 2023, and then bounced around the waiver wire last winter before landing with the Jays. Serven is well-regarded for his defense and pitch-framing skills. While hes been a serviceable hitter in Triple-A (.759 OPS in 693 plate appearances), Serven has struggled to hit consistently at the big-league level. The Tigers needed to bolster their Triple-A catching depth after Liam Hicks, acquired from the Texas Rangers for Carson Kelly in 2024, was selected by the Miami Marlins last month in the Rule 5 Draft. With veteran catcher Anthony Bemboom on the injured list, Hicks joined the Tigers playoff taxi squad in October. He traveled with the team, watched games from the dugout, and participated in victory celebrations but was never activated. Serven will take the spot of Bemboom, who is now a free agent. If Serven is the third catcher, it remains unclear who will slot in as No. 4 on the organizational depth chart. Eliezer Alfonzo, if the Tigers bring him back as expected, is a strong candidate to begin the year at Triple-A Toledo after spending last season with the Double-A Erie SeaWolves. TIGERS NOTABLE MINOR-LEAGUE SIGNINGS By Ernest Scheyder, Eric Onstad (Reuters) -Cobalt miner Jervois Global said on Thursday that one of its lenders will take the company private as part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy, the latest Western miner scrambling to survive as competition from China intensifies. U.S. fund manager Millstreet Capital Management will take control of Jervois as part of the pre-packaged Chapter 11 filing, inject $145 million into the company and convert more than $100 million of loans into equity. Western miners and policymakers are in a precarious position as Chinese-linked companies boost production using safety and environmental practices that are often looser than those expected by many governments and manufacturers. The deal will wipe out all existing shareholders in Jervois, which has not turned a profit in seven years. The company idled its Idaho cobalt mine in 2023, laying off 250 workers, weeks before it was set to open. That site was the only U.S. source of cobalt, used to make electric vehicle batteries, electronics and a range of weapons. "It's been a difficult few years for us," Jervois CEO Bryce Crocker told Reuters. "We needed to restructure." The company has said the Idaho mine would not be viable until cobalt prices rise to about double their current level. Jervois, which has received financial support from the U.S. Department of Defense, began to struggle after China's CMOC Group opened a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023, pushing global production of the metal to an all-time high even as electric vehicle sales have failed to meet bullish forecasts. Cobalt prices have plunged 72% since hitting a peak in April 2022, and shares in Australia-based Jervois have slid. The price of another Jervois product, nickel, has fallen by more than half over the past two years. Millstreet, which loaned $100 million for the Idaho project and $25 million to the company, will convert that debt into equity. That and the injection of $145 million into Jervois will allow the fund manager to take full control of its assets, which include a cobalt refinery in Finland and nickel refinery in Brazil. Jervois had been working with an investment bank on potential funding arrangements since the Idaho site was mothballed. It hosted Millstreet at all three of its sites, Crocker said. Ultimately, Millstreet decided it did not want to partner with other potential investors, a step that helped make negotiations straightforward, he added. "Millstreet didn't want to have other investors in there," said Crocker, a former Glencore executive who joined Jervois in 2017. "There was a willingness on their part to equitize the debt." Budget 2025 Date and Time: Know when Nirmala Sitharaman going to present this year's Union Budget Surabhi Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Bestselling author Nickolas Butler found inspiration for his latest book in an unlikely place the Tomahawk Room bar in Chippewa Falls. While having a beer there one day he witnessed a passionate kiss between two people and overheard their conversation that was so loving, he wrote a whole book about it. Now he is about to release his new book, "A Forty Year Kiss" about a fictitious couple trying to rekindle their love after 40 years. The book takes place in part at the Tomahawk Room and in other locations in Chippewa Falls and beyond. The book is a love story based around two characters Butler invented after hearing that very real couples tender conversation and seeing them engage in a blush-worthy kiss at the downtown drinking establishment. I think all of my books are concerned with love and friendship, he told The Chippewa Herald in December. Some readers are going to call this a romance. I tend to call it more of a love story. The author said he had no idea what would unfold when he walked into the Tomahawk Room that day or that it would inspire a new book. "A Forty Year Kiss: A Novel" will be released Feb. 4 by Landmark Books. Butler will host a reading at the Heyde Center for the Arts at 2 p.m. Feb. 2. I was totally blushing One night, Butler was at the Tomahawk Room working a Sudoku puzzle when he heard an older gentleman say something to the effect of, "I still dream about you. I still dream about kissing you. Can I kiss you? to the person he was sitting with. I have it all written down on my phone, Butler said. I was like, Whoa. I've been in the Tomahawk Room many times and I love that bar, but, you know, you dont often hear that sort of romantic poetry just spilling out of someone's mouth. To this day Butler says he doesn't know who the couple was. In fact, he doesnt even think he would recognize the pair if he saw them but he will always remember the conversation he overheard. I thought, oh well, you know, they're probably just gonna have a polite, chased kiss or something like that, he said. But it was a very passionate kiss. I was totally blushing, and then (they) went on to have this very romantic conversation. After about 15 minutes the couple stood up and walked out of the bar, he said. Butler was at the bar killing time while his kids were at swim practice at the Chippewa Falls YMCA. After you've seen your kids swim, you know, the first 20,000 laps you don't need to hang around for every practice, he said. So I would go to the Tomahawk Room and just have a beer you know, certainly not drink to excess but have a beer while they were at practice. At the time he witnessed the encounter he was trying to write another literary thriller because that's what my last book was, he said. Butler said he was struggling to write the thriller. It just wasn't coming together the way that I wanted it to. Then, overhearing this conversation, I sort of felt like the writing gods had dropped something into my lap, he said. I do think the universe sometimes presents you with opportunities, and you can either pay attention or not. I felt like I'd really been offered something special. After hearing that conversation, he thought, I think I have to write this book. I didn't know those people, but I instantly related to them and empathized with them. Inspiration in the craziest of places Rob Kiefer, who owns the Tomahawk Room said Butler was coming in about once a week when his kids were swimming two years ago. I got to know him a little bit. We chatted a number of times and I read his books, and I love his books, Kiefer said Monday. The bar is well-loved in the area but isnt known as an especially romantic location. Then one day he texted me, like, Hey, I want to talk to you. I wrote a book about your bar a little bit, Kiefer said. I'm like, Well, that's interesting. You can find inspiration in the craziest of places. The first three chapters take place at the Tomahawk Room and then the fourth chapter features the couple walking down N. Bridge Street in Chippewa Falls, Butler said. They sort of walk down Bridge Street towards the dam and then along the river, and they kind of turn around a little past the Sheeley House, and then start to come back towards the Tomahawk, he said. Much of the rest of the book is pretty much situated between Chippewa Falls and Spooner with some other kind of Midwestern stops along the way. Butler gave Kiefer an early copy of the book. I loved it. It was great. It's a very heartwarming, kind of charming story. But it's, you know, very realistic, Kiefer said. It's life, and the places life takes you and what happens. It's a cool love story. Butler said he wanted to make sure this story was both romantic and realistic. A big component of this book is alcoholism, Butler said. I mean we live in a part of the country where alcoholism is really prevalent and it's a different sort of love, right? I mean, these two characters are trying to rekindle a romantic love, but we also, you know, some of us love alcohol, and so it's about that too. Butler said the stage for this book is pretty small. The cast is limited. But he said there is a surprise character revealed in the book. Nickolas Butler is renowned for his Midwestern literature. In 2014, Butler published his debut novel, Shotgun Lovesongs, which was published in over 10 languages, and features the landscape and people of Wisconsin's 93rd Assembly District. He has published five books so far, with "A Forty Year Kiss", arriving in February. Butler was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and raised in Eau Claire. He attended Eau Claire public schools before graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later, the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. In 2024 Butler campaigned in the August primary for the 93rd Assembly District as a Democrat. He lost to Christian Phelps. He presently lives on 16 acres of land in Fall Creek south of Eau Claire adjacent to a buffalo farm. Rajni Pandey is a seasoned content creator with over 15 years of experience crafting compelling stories for digital news platforms. Specializing in diverse topics such as travel, education, jobs, science, wildlife, religion, politics, and astrology, she excels at transforming trending human-interest stories into engaging reads for a wide audience. Rajni Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Republic Day Parade 2025 and Beating Retreat Ceremony Tickets Sale Begins: Check where and how to buy Rajni Pandey is a seasoned content creator with over 15 years of experience crafting compelling stories for digital news platforms. Specializing in diverse topics such as travel, education, jobs, science, wildlife, religion, politics, and astrology, she excels at transforming trending human-interest stories into engaging reads for a wide audience. Rajni Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Saurav Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Khushbu Sundar reveals Raj Kapoor had selected her for Ram Teri Ganga Maili before Mandakini, says, "we did a photoshoot but..." Vaishnavi Gavankar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Ram Charan's fun banter with Prabhas over phone call on Balakrishna's talk show Unstoppable With NBK leaked M Snehanjali USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Paras Bisht USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Armored vehicles rumble through field China Military Online) 10:23, January 02, 2025 A Type 96A main battle tank (MBT) attached to a brigade under the Chinese PLA 71st Group Army rumbles through the field during a maneuver training exercise on December 11, 2024. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Lin Min) An infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) attached to a brigade under the Chinese PLA 71st Group Army kicks up plumes of dust during a maneuver training exercise on December 11, 2024. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Lin Min) Armored vehicles attached to a brigade under the Chinese PLA 71st Group Army march towards the designated area during a maneuver training exercise on December 11, 2024. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Lin Min) (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) Srushti Vaidya USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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SEBI's website and app can now help Asha Menon USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Naina Sood USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Tushar Goenka is a breaking news reporter who focuses on startups. Interested in venture capital, quick commerce, e-commerce, food delivery and D2C. Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Tushar Goenka USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Vivo to launch its first mixed-reality headset in 2025: All the details Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Ankita Chakravarti USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. 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I Accept Sandeep Shrivastwa USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Parimal Peeyush USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Armaan Bhatnagar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept No pressure from PM Narendra Modi or home minister on us: J-K CM Omar Abdullah 101Reporters USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept NSUI asks PM Modi to name college after Manmohan Singh instead of Veer Savarkar Armaan Bhatnagar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept 2024 ended with another enormous loss to music, with Zakir Hussain dying on Dec 15th. Zakir Hussain was born to rhythm and the tabla, being the eldest son of the legendary Ustad Alla Rakha Qureshi. When Alla Rakha first held his son Zakir, he recited Bols--the North Indian vocalization of classical rhythm--into his son's ears. His wife was annoyed at first, as traditionally he should have whispered a prayer, but Alla Rakha said this was how he prayed, with rhythm. Alla Rakha had changed and elevated the status of the tabla in his long career, and Zakir Hussain continued and expanded this legacy. He first performed with his father as a nine year old, and, by the age of 18, he joined Ravi Shankar for a concert in New York City when Alla Rakha, Shankar's usual partner, was unwell. An 18 year old Zakir impressed the audiences as well as Shankar. Zakir moved to the American West Coast where he taught at universities in Seattle and San Francisco. This also exposed Zakir to other music and he became a voracious musical collaborator, with some enduring partnerships with British jazz guitarist John Mclaughlin, Carnatic musicians L. Shankar and T. H. Vinayakram, and drummer and musicologist Mickey Hart for example. I can't count how many albums I have in my collection with Zakir Hussain playing on them. He was also a composer and a producer, and he was active right up to the end. He departed the world with scheduled appearances in 2025, including Canada, which will never be fulfilled. We will hear a few seminal recordings in his illustrious career. Tabla Duet in Tintal Ustad Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain - Tabla Duet - Moment Records Udu Chant Mickey Hart - Planet Drum - Rykodisc The Dancing Sorcerer Mickey Hart - Planet Drum - Rykodisc Song For Everyone Shankar, Jan Garbarek, Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu - Song For Everyone - ECM What Need Have I For This--What Need Have I For That--I Am Dancing At The Feet Of My Lord--All Is Bliss--All Is Bliss Shakti with John McLaughlin - Shakti with John McLaughlin - Columbia What is One Nation One Subscription? All about Centre's game-changer scheme for R&D Armaan Bhatnagar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept C Uday Bhaskar is Director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication. Namrata Agarwal USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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Edit Close Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Zaldy Dandan is a recipient of the Best Editorial Writer Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the CNMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His four books are available on amazon.com/. (L-R) Jack Jensen with Mother Lode Muscle Cars, mobile detailer Mark Emery, recipient Tracy Akins, Nancy Scott of Nancy's Hope, and Phil Hickenbottom View Photos Sonora, CA A group of community businesses joined forces to donate cars to worthy recipients identified by the non-profit Nancys Hope and the Resiliency Village. The first two cars, a 2010 VW Jetta and a 2013 Subaru Crosstrek, will provide vital transportation for a pair of individuals identified by those organizations as deserving recipients. The idea was spearheaded by Phil Hickenbottom, the owner of Sonora Junk Removal. He says, Ive been wanting to give away cars for a long time. There was a big portion of my life where a car would have changed everything for me. Hickenbottom, and several other business leaders, got to work seeking out cars that could be fixed up. They received the first vehicle donation after a post on social media and the second one came from a local work site. Others who played essential roles included Motherlode Muscle Cars, The Tire Shop, Kinland Station, Mark Emery Mobile Detailing, Sierra Focus Media, Maynords Recovery Center, and Flappys Pizza Co. Hickenbottom says, Were grateful to everyone who contributed their time and resources to make this happen. The vehicles will provide much-needed access to transportation, enabling recipients to reach work, appointments, and other essential destinations as they build more stable and independent lives. The first person to receive a car was Tracy Akins, who was selected by Nancys Hope (she received the keys on Wednesday afternoon). Hickenbottom adds that the donations reflect the missions of Nancys Hope and Resiliency Village to uplift and empower individuals in need. Hickenbottom says they hope to expand the program in the future and will be seeking additional donations and business support. Yves here. Many readers will likely take issue with the use of Indias biolabs as the focus of an article worrying about their proliferation. If you want to look at affirmatively reckless implementation, you have to go not further than the US in Ukraine, a weirdly taboo topic, despite having been confirmed by none other than Victoria Nuland in Congressional testimony. As bioscientist GM wrote: Most bioweapon research doesnt make any practical sense, so this is just another one in a very long list. But I am mystified about the whole biolab operation more generally. Why would you possibly have numerous such facilities in Ukraine of all places? From an operational security perspective, there could hardly be a worse choice we are talking thousands of people involved, first, in the middle of Europe, second, in one of the most corrupt societies on the planet, where you cant get even the most minor paperwork done without bribing someone, and third, where nearly everyone has deep and direct personal links with Russia, the US key geopolitical enemy. Nobody is going to leak info, for money or out of carelessness, in that environment? You just cannot secure it. The US could easily run such facilities somewhere in the southwhest deserts or in the Rockies locally on its own territory or in some more remote location elsewhere in the world. Its not as if there arent hundreds of black sites all over the planet where all sorts of horrible things are done. And human guinea pigs can be sourced in many ways. So why in Ukraine? IM Doc answered: The corruption is the reason this could be done there easier than many places. Just a little cash under the table from someone like Hunter and you have permission for the lab. So even though concern about biolab safety is warranted, whinging about India, which is a top producer of off-patent drugs, really is special pleading. By Priyanka Pulla, a freelance science journalist based in Bengaluru, India whose work has been published in Mint, The Hindu, Science Magazine, Mosaic Science, and The BMJ, among other publications, and Michael Schulson, a contributing editor for Undark. His work has been published by Aeon, NPR, Pacific Standard, Scientific American, Slate, and Wired, among other publications. Originally published at Undark Raghunand Tirumalai loves to talk about how well-run his laboratory is. Were very proud of the setup we have here, he said on a Friday afternoon this October, standing in his office on the campus of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad, India. The office was decorated with colorful artwork, including posters about tuberculosis and tiny plastic figurines of deadly bacteria and viruses. Tirumalai joined CCMB in 2008 to study what makes the tuberculosis bacterium so virulent knowledge that can help design better treatments for a disease that kills tens of thousands of people in India every year. This requires his team to work with live tuberculosis bacteria, a high-stakes dance that takes place under rigorous safety protections. To enter the lab, Tirumalai first scans his fingerprint at the door. Next, he passes through two change rooms. In the first, he puts on shoe covers, a hair net, and latex gloves. He also dons a puncture-resistant Tyvek suit, an N95 mask, and safety goggles. In the second room, he snaps a second pair of latex gloves onto the cuffs of his suit so that no skin is exposed. Inside the final door, the fluorescent-lit room has crack-free walls, gleaming steel tables, and smooth epoxy floors, so no pathogens can escape a scrubbing. The air cycles through HEPA filters. To minimize infection risk, researchers handle pathogens inside Class II cabinets, large glass-fronted boxes. In a room above the laboratory, large machines pump day and night to keep the air inside at a lower pressure than the surrounding building, so airborne pathogens wont flow out of the room. Facilities like CCMBs are crucial for pathogen research. They are also at the center of ongoing debates over how to balance the need for lab space with the risks of handling and sometimes re-engineering pathogens. High-containment facilities around the world work with such pathogens. No single authority oversees these labs; no single treaty governs them or ensures high standards; nobody is even sure how many there are. In some countries, the labs are tightly regulated, at least on paper; in others, they are not. Some pathogens and experiments pose broad risks, and even intensive safety protocols can fail. One recent analysis of the global scientific literature identified 94 separate incidents of lab leaks between 2000 and 2021, infecting 309 people and killing eight. Some experts believe that kind of leak, at a lab in China, was responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. Although many other experts strongly disagree with this take, subsequent investigations have uncovered safety lapses at Chinese labs, and set off fierce debates about how to oversee risky research worldwide especially for those rare experiments where a major breach could have global consequences. At the same time, the pandemic has also prompted what some experts describe as a global boom in the construction of such facilities. As countries struggled to respond to the pandemic, many decided that they need more laboratories in order to prepare for future outbreaks. Those tensions are apparent in India, the worlds most populous nation and a global biotechnology powerhouse. According to the Department of Biotechnology, the country has 47 certified research laboratories (including the CCMB facility in Hyderabad) rated to biosafety level 3, meaning they allow scientists to work with highly-transmissible pathogens like coronaviruses or West Nile virus more than almost any other country in the world, although still far behind the U.S. and probably well behind China. India also has one functional facility rated at the highest biosafety level, BSL-4, meaning they can work with lethal pathogens that have no known cure . (Another was reportedly inaugurated in November 2024.) More may be coming: After the first waves of Covid-19, state and national officials in India announced ambitious plans to expand pathogen research. Since then, proposals to build at least 26 new BSL-3 and at least four new BSL-4 laboratories have been announced. More vaccine manufacturing facilities that work with live viruses are also under development although its not clear regulators even know how many of those facilities currently exist in the country. Policymakers introduced new biosafety regulations in 2017, but interviews with more than two dozen scientists and biosafety experts suggest that implementation is still ongoing. Some key government labs have practices on par with international standards, but many others are yet to catch up. The country has a shortage of biosafety professionals, several experts said, and theres sometimes limited awareness of safety protocols: In many labs, my sense is that the scientists dont really fully understand why its important, said Shruti Sharma, a fellow at Carnegie India who has studied pathogen research in the country. Meanwhile, even regulators seem to be uncertain about who if anyone within the government is responsible for monitoring biosafety protocols at vaccine manufacturing facilities. The impact of these gaps is hard to judge, given that Indian regulators are opaque with key data, such as the numbers of biosafety accidents. As such, there remains some disagreement over whether the growth of BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories here represents a global threat, and some Indian scientists at key government labs argue that concerns are overblown. India has far fewer high-containment laboratories than the United States, which has experienced its own share of laboratory safety issues. And researchers in India as in other countries in the Global South appear to be mostly working with pathogens that circulate widely outside laboratory walls. They tend not to perform the kind of research, sometimes called gain-of-function research of concern, which aims to deliberately make pathogens more deadly or more transmissible, and that can provoke intense controversy. Whats clear is that Indias policymakers have ambitious plans for pathogen research. Can safety infrastructure keep up? Its not ALWAYS easy to work with viruses and bacteria without getting infected by them, and building and running a high-containment lab is difficult and expensive. In Hyderabad, the roughly 500-square foot CCMB facility cost around 20 million rupees (around $235,000) when it was built in 2010. Lab workers must get certified before they can enter the lab, and an engineering team needs to be available in case the equipment malfunctions. A BSL-4 lab is even more complex. The facilities are a beast to run, said Chandrabhas Narayana, the director of Keralas Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology. A BSL-4 lab must be either housed in its own designated building or isolated in a restricted zone of a building, and policies to sterilize waste are more stringent than for BSL-3 facilities. Lab workers must change clothes before entry and shower before exit, instead of just putting on masks and suits. The biosafety cabinets are airtight, and when scientists are handling pathogens outside them, they must wear positive-pressure suits, which resemble spacesuits. With each new safety feature, the costs escalate. In 2020, the Rajiv Gandhi Center planned to build a 10,000 square foot BSL-4 lab. Such a facility would have cost an estimated 1 billion rupees (around $11.7 million) to set up, and another 500 million rupees each year to operate, according to Narayana. (Ultimately, the proposed BSL-4 lab wasnt built.) Since the early 2000s, more countries have decided those expenses are worth taking on. The Indian government opened the first BSL-4 laboratory in Asia in 2000 at the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases, or NIHSAD, which works on veterinary pathogens like avian influenza. The next decade also saw the construction of several government-funded BSL-3 facilities, many working with tuberculosis. At the time, India had a skeletal biosafety framework, that was geared heavily towards genetic engineered plants. So, scientists involved in building these early labs relied on biosafety guides from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop their own protocols, said Harshad Murugkar, biosafety officer at NIHSAD today. The published literature suggests that biosafety at some Indian research labs was deficient. A 2002 paper, for instance, linked two polio outbreaks in the country to one or more lab leaks. More BSL-3 labs were constructed in the 2010s, along with the National Institute of Virologys BSL-4 facility in Pune. But by then, the NIHSAD decided to re-classify itself as a BSL-3, given the high costs of upkeep and the increasingly stringent global standards for the highest-security labs. Its unclear when the first Indian BSL-3 vaccine manufacturing facilities were built, although at least two companies claim to run them today. A promotional video for the National Institute of Virology in Pune, India. The NIV built a BSL-4 laboratory, the only one in India at the time, in 2012. Visual: Indian Council of Medical Research/YouTube As high-containment laboratories opened in India and other countries, experts raised concerns about biosafety practices in the Global South. Around 2012, anonymized inspections co-sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association in multiple Asian countries found widespread issues. Around that time, experts at the U.S. National Academies of Sciences conducted multiple workshops on laboratory safety, repeatedly identifying deficiencies in laboratories in South and Southeast Asia. At one 2014 meeting sponsored by the organization, Aparna Singh Shah, a World Health Organization official stationed in New Delhi, described laboratories in the region as poorly monitored, underequipped, and staffed by workers with little training, according to a summary of her remarks. Biosafety and biosecurity awareness and practices are inadequate, the summary warns. In 2014, around the time of the National Academies of Sciences meetings, experts in the U.S. were undergoing their own reckoning on biosafety, after a string of missteps at government labs. And more critics were wrestling with that fact that, for all the high consequences of pathogen research, regulation around the world was often sparse or didnt exist at all. Many countries today oversee pathogen research using a model developed in the U.S. in the 1970s, which permits research institutions working with dangerous pathogens to largely police themselves. Even today, some pathogen experiments in the U.S. are unregulated, or bound only by a set of guidelines, also originating in the 1970s, that allow scientific institutions and their government funders to proceed with limited independent oversight. As was the case in many countries, Indian regulations, which debuted in 1989, took their cue from the American model. They left most lab oversight to local committees of scientists, called Institutional Biosafety Committees (abbreviated in India as IBSCs), who reported to a national committee of expert scientists. Even as recently as 10 years ago, there still was no national framework for what biosafety should look like in the tens of thousands of clinical and diagnostic and research labs and pharma across the country, and that was a bit surprising, said Ryan Burnette, a biosafety and biosecurity expert at Merrick and Company, an engineering firm, who has consulted on laboratory construction and maintenance projects in India. They were well behind the curve a decade ago, and I think theyre still slow to catch up on that. Indian regulators were aware of such concerns, said SR Rao, a senior official in the Department of Biotechnology who retired in 2019. Overseas visitors often complained about glaring biosafety shortcomings, worrying policymakers. There was a serious concern in higher offices, Rao said. In 2017, Raos office revised the countrys biosafety rules. Under a new certification system, BSL-3 labs have to get a certified external agency to test all their equipment each year. The new regulations, and a series of awareness programs that government officials conducted subsequently, led to changes at some facilities. Many labs that had not formed IBSCs did so after 2017. In Mumbai, a nonprofit lab doing tuberculosis research had to extensively rework the building for their BSL-3 facility, after scientists there realized their old plan wasnt in line with regulatory requirements. But even as the new rules went into effect, the country had to grapple with another problem: It didnt have enough laboratories to deal with a crisis. When Covid-19 hit India, researchers there found themselves desperately short of laboratory space to study the virus. The onus of drug testing and research for a country of more than 1.4 billion people fell on Indias few dozen BSL-3 labs. Thats when we woke up and said, look, if this happens to us again, then we have no way of handling it, said Tirumalai, the scientist from the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad. The load is going to be too much for one institute. Even before Covid-19, researchers said, a shortage of laboratory capacity could make it hard for them to deal with emerging threats. For instance, public health researchers in the state of Kerala, which experiences outbreaks of deadly Nipah virus every few years, have to rely, for some research, on the BSL-4 laboratory in Pune, over 800 miles away. The shortage of laboratory space delays important science: Narayana, the director of Keralas Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, said their institute helped developed an antibody treatment for the Nipah virus, but now is waiting to test the treatment in animals at the Pune facility. During the pandemic, policymakers soon rolled out plans to build more labs. In 2021, the Indian governments annual budget included plans for nine new BSL-3 laboratories, as part of a scheme to build new health infrastructure. Two years later, the health ministry disclosed plans for two BSL-4 and four BSL-3 mobile labs as part of the same scheme. Additionally, the National Center for Disease Control was to get its own BSL-4 lab and 11 new BSL-3 labs. Separate from these programs, in November 2024, the Defense Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) reportedly announced the opening of a BSL-4 facility in the central Indian city of Gwalior, intended to focus on early outbreak detection in India and bringing the total number of the highest level of existing biosafety labs in the country to two. DRDE did not respond to Undarks request for comment. States are planning their own facilities, too. Keralas Institute of Advanced Virology has already picked a location for its own BSL-3. A BSL-4 is also in the pipeline, said Eswaran Sreekumar, director of the institute, although the timeline is not clear. Sreekumar said that the Kerala government wanted its own research facilities, given that the state has seen outbreaks from many zoonotic pathogens, including Nipah and West Nile Virus. In Gujarat, the state government has designated 2.2 billion rupees (around $26.4 million) to construct a complex containing a BSL-2 lab, a BSL-3 lab, and a BSL-4 lab to research pathogens like Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, which has caused outbreaks in the state. Its not clear if all these plans will come to fruition. If they do, they would leave India with at least seven BSL-4 laboratories, among the largest number in the world, and more than China likely has today. Overseas, biosafety experts in the U.S. and other countries in the Global North have sometimes greeted those kinds of expansions with a mix of welcome and alarm. For years, the U.S. government through agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency has helped to advise the construction of high-containment laboratories around the world. At times, though, the global growth of high-containment laboratory capacity has also prompted concern. Last year, an investigation in The Washington Post described how governments and private researchers continue building high-containment laboratories to work with the most menacing pathogens, despite a lack of safety standards or regulatory authorities in some countries. In 2023, the Global Biolabs project, an influential collaboration between academic institutions in the U.S. and U.K., raised concerns about the global boom in construction of BSL-4 and BSL-3+ labs, particularly where biorisk management oversight is weak. The report singled out India for having ambitious plans for laboratory growth, while assigning the country low scores on governance, biosafety, and laboratory security policies. (The report, seemingly in error, describes India as lacking biosafety legislation.) In interviews, biosafety experts who have done work in the country say theres a strong commitment to biosafety in top institutions but also persistent issues with implementation. I dont want it to sound like Im casting India, the U.S., or any other countrys biosafety/biosecurity practices in a negative light because thats not the case, wrote Antony Schwartz, an Indian-American biosafety expert, in an email to Undark. The vast majority of research is being conducted safely, he added, noting that theres always room for improvement both here at home and abroad. Schwartz began visiting India in 2023 on U.S.-government-funded trips to help train scientists on biosafety protocols. (In his day job, Schwartz is the top biosafety officer at Duke University; he spoke with Undark outside that capacity.) The rules on paper, he said, are promising. But is it followed consistently, or is it moving at a pace that is equivalent to other places? Not really, he added. Those issues start in individual labs, where researchers may be unaware of biosafety issues, several experts said. Safety and security are sometimes treated as an afterthought, said Aparupa Sengupta, a global biosafety and biosecurity expert. Unlike in the U.S. and Europe, laboratories rarely have full-time officers dedicated solely to biosafety, she noted. Instead, the person responsible for preventing a leak is often handling biosafety on top of another job, sometimes with limited training. They also have to publish, and they also have to present, and they also have to manage people, and they also have to do biosafety, said Sengupta, who works as senior program officer at the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Another problem, some experts said, is a shortage of good Indian training programs for biosafety professionals. One of the risks as India builds more BSL-3 and 4 labs, Murugkar said, is that there wont be enough experts to run them. Theres limited professional support for those tasked with biosafety. Many other countries in the Asia-Pacific region have a national professional association for biosafety. But an organization founded in India in 2008 by NIHSAD scientists fizzled within a few years. (Efforts are underway to restart the organization, Murugkar said.) The new regulations, experts said, also have some gaps. One such area is the lack of biosecurity policy, referring to measures that aim to prevent intentional misuse of pathogen labs and research such as by someone wishing to create a bioweapon. In the U.S., for example, people must register with the federal government and pass background checks before they can access certain pathogens. Few nationwide rules in India govern who can work with dangerous pathogens. I feel like on the biosecurity front, India is largely still very much the Wild West, said Burnette, the consultant. At the national level, current and former members of the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, the chief biosafety regulator to whom the IBSCs report, maintained that Indian regulation had kept up with the expansion of high biocontainment labs in India. We are moving in the right direction, said Vinay Nandicoori, a current RCGM member and the director of CCMB in Hyderabad. And IBSCs, the institutional biosafety committees, provide rigorous oversight, said Tirumalai, who is a member of five IBSCs, including CCMB. Each IBSC has a government nominated member, and its composition is approved by the central regulator. And they take their jobs seriously, Tirumalai said, going over every detail in proposals: Theres no messing around. But, in interviews with Undark, some current or former members of RCGM said that the groups powers of oversight over institutional biosafety committees were limited. The core committee consists of around 20 expert scientists, according to meeting minutes, supported by a small team of full-time staff. This team has multiple other responsibilities, including oversight of genetically modified crops. Lab biosafety is a very small part of the committees job, said Amita Aggarwal, who was an RCGM member until 2022. If IBSCs dont function as they should, the RCGM is limited in what it can do. RCGM cannot check the entire country, said Rakesh Mishra, who served as chairman of the committee. So, the committees policy has been to train IBSCs, and inculcate the importance of biosafety. A lot can escape the radar of such a regulatory system, such as research accidents. Some countries, including the U.S., have systems to report minor lab incidents, such as when a person working in a lab accidentally spills a small amount of culture, but isnt infected. Such incidents serve, in theory, as an early warning system of problems in a laboratory, although they rely on individual scientists and biosafety committees to be forthcoming about their mistakes. In India multiple researchers interviewed by Undark said they did not report minor accidents to the RCGM, and that these were handled internally by the lab and IBSC. And Mishra, the central regulators former chairman, said that even though Indian labs were required to have strong internal reporting and record-keeping systems, this was often not the case in practice. RCGM doesnt share the numbers or details of the accidents that get reported to it, either. The body declined requests under Indias public records law about the number of research accidents reported in the last six years, citing an exemption for information that prejudicially affects the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State. The laboratories working with the highest security protocols, Indias BSL-4 labs, may not be reporting routinely to RCGM at all. In interviews, current and former members of RCGM said they did not know whether it was part of their mandate to review activities at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the just-established BSL-4 lab at the Defense Research & Development Establishment (DRDE). Nitin Jain, a member of the RCGM, said his team does not yet have a certification program in place for BSL-4 labs. (NIV leaders did not respond to interview requests from Undark.) Its also unclear who is overseeing biosafety practices in Indias large vaccine manufacturing industry. At least two vaccine manufacturers claim to have BSL-3 facilities where they manufacture an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and a vaccine for foot and mouth disease, which only affects animals. India also plans to build facilities for manufacturing vaccines against poliovirus, which are required to follow high biosafety standards, comparable in stringency to BSL-3 facilities. Biosafety at such manufacturing facilities is a whole different ballgame compared to research labs, said Raman Rao, CEO at the Singapore-based Hilleman Laboratories, a vaccine research firm. Vaccine manufacturing plants handle far larger amounts of live virus at a time, compared to research labs, Rao said, and are typically regulated by the countrys drug regulator, rather than a research regulator like RCGM. But in India, the regulatory system is unclear. RCGMs Jain said regulation of vaccine manufacturing doesnt fall under the committees purview. And in response to a public records request from Undark, that regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), said it had no data on how many manufacturing facilities in India are certified as BSL-3. CDSCO director Rajeev Raghuvanshi did not respond to a list of questions from Undark. Weak regulation is a theme that runs across many sectors in India, making it a concern for biosafety too, said Satyajit Rath, an immunologist who has served on biosafety committees in India. This is not to do with science. Its not to do with biosafety. Even the drug regulatory regime, revenue governance regulatory regimes, all regulatory regimes in India, are very soft and therefore potentially corrupt in coercive, selective fashion, he said. Thats the basic fact of life that all of us deal with every day. Does pathogen research in India pose widespread risk? After all, lab leaks typically harm laboratory workers, and perhaps their close contacts, but spread no further. And many laboratories in the Global South are working simply to track pathogens circulating in the wild not to conduct kind of higher-risk gain-of-function experiments that have been the subject of recent scrutiny. Some experts invoke the example of China, which announced plans to construct a network of high-containment laboratories in 2004, after the SARS outbreak. By the end of 2013, China had 42 BSL-3 laboratories, with its first BSL-4 under construction in the city of Wuhan. The network, according to papers by Chinese academics, was designed to track and respond to outbreaks. By the late 2010s, though, researchers were performing higher-risk work with the help of U.S. funding, including manipulating coronaviruses at the countrys flagship BSL-4 facility, the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Experts disagree over whether this work may have accidentally sparked the Covid-19 pandemic. But theres a some evidence that biosafety practices in China were deficient. A 2019 paper by WIVs National Biosafety Laboratory director described funding shortfalls at many laboratories, as well as a national shortage of dedicated biosafety experts that made it difficult to identify and mitigate potential safety hazards. A recent report from Republicans in the U.S. Senate describes persistent safety lapses at WIV, including equipment failures and decisions to conduct work on SARS coronaviruses outside high-containment laboratory spaces. The revelations have revived longstanding critiques of pathogen research. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, organized efforts to oppose the expansion of high-containment laboratories in the U.S. in the early 2000s. Proponents said the new laboratories would help the country respond to pandemics and bioterrorism. But Ebright was unconvinced. The boom in new laboratories, he warned, raised the odds that a pathogen would accidentally escape. And it expanded the number of people who had the tools to commit acts of bioterrorism. We believe that increasing the number of institutions and people with access to bioweapons agents will increase the likelihood of their release, he and a colleague wrote in a 2002 correspondence to the journal Nature. Today, Ebright looks askance at the growth of such facilities worldwide. The historical pattern is that the expansion of high-level biocontainment capacity comes first, he said in a recent conversation with Undark. After the facilities are built, they are empty white elephants. In order to justify the costs, Ebright continued, scientists find projects to perform there, which can push them toward research that involves engineering pathogens. If the nation has one BSL-4, and is planning two additional ones, that nation predictably will be doing high risk research at BSL-4 to justify the construction decision and the continuing operational cost decision, he said. Ebright discussed both China and the U.S. as examples of places where expansions of BSL-3 and BSL-4 capacity were followed by scientific experiments that alarmed some outside observers and scientists. It happened, he said, each place new BSL-4s have gone up. Not everyone shares those concerns. Many researchers in India say the work conducted in their laboratories is not especially high risk and some say that, unlike in the U.S. and China, there are few incentives tempting researchers toward riskier work. The true problem, one scientist suggested, lies not in India, but with a research system, rooted in the Global North, that has historically underwritten risky science. Today, some experts said, because Indias high-containment laboratories are principally working to monitor pathogens that circulate in nature and on vaccine development, they pose less risk than facilities doing some other kinds of pathogen research. Labs such as NIHSAD, said Murugkar, are so overwhelmed with outbreak detection and response that they have little time or money for basic research and gain of function experiments. Its too much of hassle, he said. Anurag Agrawal, a researcher and dean at Ashoka University, echoed his point. In India, there is not much manipulation going on of stuff that is unnatural, he said, adding that Indian researchers are mostly occupied collecting what exists in nature. The small scale of Indian biomedical research programs may preclude some of the ambitious experiments that result in pathogens acquiring pandemic potential, said immunologist Rath. Historically, American scientists have been able to create significantly more virulent and transmissible pathogens only after studying the microbes extensively, as part of long-running research programs. I dont think India has that level of large-scale research in any domain, in the life-sciences, said Rath. Agrawal recently served as a member of the Pathogens Project task force, an international consortium of researchers that sought to draw up some basic guidelines for global biosafety, culminating in a presentation at the United Nations earlier this year. Much of the risk, he suggested, comes through the involvement of international funders like the U.S. which, in addition to shaping global biosafety policy, has also funded much, perhaps most, of the worlds higher-risk subset of gain-of-function research. Under the government of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it has become more difficult for scientists to receive funding from government agencies outside of India, including U.S. science agencies. One outcome of such policies, said Agrawal, is that laboratories and their staff arent under pressure to pursue riskier work in order to secure grant funding. If peoples salaries depend on international grants, the pressure is high, Agrawal said. If the peoples salaries are assured by the government, he added, there is no pressure. Those kinds of assurances may offer only partial comfort to biosafety experts. Intentional gain-of-function science is not the only kind of research that carries the risk of outbreaks. Sometimes, researchers can accidentally confer new abilities to pathogens. (In one notable incident, Australian researchers accidentally created a vaccine- and natural-immunity-resistant version of a mouse virus, a result one later described as the kind of thing that science fiction is made of.) And ordinary leaks of pathogens that are not widespread in the community can pose risks. For now, no single organization oversees the expansion of pathogen research worldwide. The World Health Organization publishes influential recommendations on biosafety practice, but it lacks the power to determine whether countries are actually following them. WHO has relatively few tools in its toolbox in terms of how it can be a global enforcement mechanism, said Michaela Simoneau, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In that void, a patchwork of initiatives has sprung up aiming to share knowledge across borders and develop global standards. Those collaborations focus on technical details, but also on intangible qualities like laboratory culture that, some biosafety experts suggest, are just as crucial as Tyvek suits and ventilation systems. The whole crux of this discussion is the culture that you establish within the laboratory, said James Le Duc, who ran the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas, home to a major BSL-4 facility, until his retirement in 2022. (In recent writing, Le Duc and a colleague have argued that strong organizational-level leadership, not just traditional top-down regulations, is crucial for biosafety.) Le Duc traveled to dozens of countries, including several trips to India, to work on laboratory development and build international collaborations. Until 2021, he also oversaw a program that allowed researchers from around the world to travel to Galveston and train in the BSL-4 laboratory there. Getting money for those sorts of programs can be tough, Le Duc said: There hasnt been a source of funding to support this sort of collaboration. And that continues to be an issue. In India, scientists are sometimes distrustful of such outreach efforts, even if they think they may be useful. Murugkar said that American biosafety experts sometimes assume that India is rapidly expanding its lab network in secrecy, although things are different on the ground, where there is a shortage of labs and money. Most of the time, Americans compare India with China, he said, but our situation and their situation is very different, because in a democratic setup, you cant hide things. And the excessive focus on biosecurity and engineered pathogens in American-run biosafety workshops, at a time when many Indian labs arent working on these, has made Indian researchers wary of such outreach, he said. Americans, he added, are a paranoid lot. There are also questions about how effective those collaborative programs are in preventing serious problems when they do arise. In the 2010s, Le Duc played an instrumental role in training scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. His laboratory hosted a scientist from WIV for training in Texas, and he co-published papers on biosafety with the director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory. Just weeks after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, he wrote to that director with questions about safety there and never heard back. In light of the limits of such partnerships, whats the value of the work? I think the more that you work together, Le Duc said, the more opportunity that you have to share best practices, to answer questions as needed and to potentially avoid and help others avoid doing stupid things. For now, its hard to tell where the attempts to expand high-biocontainment research capacity in India will end up. Previous attempts have often hit roadblocks, and Murugkar said funding is a problem at many government labs: Money to build the lab is relatively easy to come by, but maintenance funds are harder to secure. When labs remain underutilized between outbreaks, policymakers tend to question whether the expense is worth it. Hindrances can also be political. The Indian governments wariness for American collaborations has sometimes led it to shut down research whether or not thats warranted. In 2020, for example, The Hindu, a major Indian daily, reportedthat the Indian Council of Medical Research, a government medical research agency, had accused another scientific agency of breaching biosafety protocols while doing research on bat-borne pathogens in northeastern India. Internal documents viewed by Undark revealed that part of the concern arose from the fact that the research was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. Eventually, the group was cleared of the charges, and allowed to resume its work, but stayed away from U.S. funding. The accusations had a freezing effect on other groups studying bat viruses, according to one researcher familiar with the dispute, who requested anonymity in order to avoid jeopardizing future work. Uncertainty around their role in outbreak responses has made some institutions rethink their plans to build high biocontainment labs. Among them is the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, which received a greenlight from the central government to build a BSL-4 lab in 2020. Four years later, though, its director, Chandrabhas Narayana, said they have dropped the idea. The worry, he said, is that the India Council for Medical Research (ICMR), which coordinates research into outbreaks across the country, may not include their lab in outbreak responses, and the expensive facility they develop would remain under-used. (ICMR did not respond to a request for comment.) Schwartz, the Indian-American biosafety expert, also expressed concern about biosafety and regulations of biological research coming to be seen as a roadblock. Speaking on Zoom recently, Schwartz evoked a dynamic that has emerged in conversations about climate change. Wealthy countries, he noted, used fossil fuels to make advancements and now are turning around and telling less wealthy countries to stop emitting greenhouse gases. The perception, he said, is you made advancements and now youre trying to slow us down. The same, Schwartz suggested, could apply to biosafety. Wealthy countries developed their own pathogen research programs during an era of far less attention and global scrutiny. A shortage of high containment facilities made it difficult for India and other countries in the Global South to respond to the virus. Would biosafety restrictions be seen as a valuable tool for public safety, or as another way of hampering progress? You dont want biosafety to be seen as a stumbling block or seen as a way to slow things down, Schwartz said. Murugkar said that finding the balance between high biosafety standards and continuing to do critical diagnostic work is hard in a country like India. Thrusting absolute American standards on Indian diagnostic labs, already struggling with the lack of resources, would stop important public health work, Murugkar said. On the other hand, poor biosafety hurts public health too. Its a challenging trade-off, he added: Where do you draw a line? A butterfly collector in Africa with more than 4.2 million seeks to share them for the future Associated Press (Robin K) The dill of a lifetime? In a nation thats enduring its own sour patch, the pickle dominated 2024 Associated Press (Robin K) Volcanic Activity Beneath Yellowstones Massive Caldera Could Be on The Move ScienceAlert (Chuck L) Chemistry textbooks need rewriting after new Cardiff University discovery Nation Cymru (Robin K). From December, still germane GPS Spoofing: New Electronic Threat in Civilian Airspace IEEE Spectrum (Chuck L) The Hypothalamic Hotspot: Revealing the Brains Secret to Aging SciTech Daily (Chuck L) This Rare Neurological Condition Can Cause an Addiction to Jokes ScienceAlert (Chuck L) Molecular jackhammers good vibrations eradicate cancer cells Rice News. From December, still germane Exercise May Be the Most Potent Medical Intervention Ever Known PBS #COVID-19/Pandemics Climate/Environment China? India Africa South of the Border O Canada European Disunion EU targeting of Orban should worry other member states Thomas Fazi, Unherd Sahra Wagenknecht, Condition of Germany, NLR 146, MarchApril 2024 New Left Review. Robin K: I almost wept as I read this interview. Do we have political leaders in the US, among the states, who can speak with such clarity, based in such thoughtful analysis, and without resorting to sloganeering and pandering? Please, someone point them out. Israel v. The Resistance New Not-So-Cold War National mourning after mass shooting in Montenegro BBC Syraqistan US sends largest convoy into Syria since fall of Assad media RT (Robin K) Iraq and Syria have lost 90% and 80% of their Christians, respectively, since 2003, because of Britain, America, Israel, Turkey, and their ISIS proxies. These are literally some of the 1st Christian communities in the world, too. What is this but ethnic cleansing and genocide? Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) January 2, 2025 Imperial Collapse Watch Trump 2.0 Biden White House Insists Jimmy Carter Is Still Sharp And Focused Behind Closed Doors Babylon Bee. Biden was the winner of Alex Christoforus 2024 Clown World of the Year Award. SEC Writes Off $10 Billion in Fines It Cant Collect Wall Street Journal Our No Longer Free Press AI Class Warfare Antidote du jour (via): And a bonus (Chuck L): BBC crew rescues trapped penguins pic.twitter.com/WK0KoMsdF3 Nature is Amazing (@AMAZlNGNATURE) January 1, 2025 See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. Yves here. We sometimes run articles by Simon Watkins because they epitomize a sadly-common hard-core neocon school of thought in policy circles. Unfortunately, given the number of hawks that Trump has appointed to foreign policy and defense positions, it seems likely that the views Watkins set forth below have a strong following within Team Trump. Here we see Watkins as a true believer who builds his vision of how to beat Russian, China, and Iran on shaky foundations. The first is the depiction of all of them as belligerents. Larry Wilkerson, who has over his long career often had a seat at the table, forcefully disputed that notion in his latest talk on Nimas Dialogue Works. He describes how the US military is so weak that it can attempt to maintain its dominance only through proxies, and that is has been a matter of explicit policy not to allow any competing power to threaten that position. The entire video is very much worth your time, but consider in particular the section that starts at 27:50: The real reason is ee do not want peace! Period. We want everything from the Baltic to the Persian Gulf to be in turmoil and chaos. We want it that way by proxy wars and proxy conflicts so that the power shift is arrested, so that we maintain our American empire imperium and it is not taken over and subjugated by China. Thats what its all about. A second unfathomable reading is Watkins insistence that Russia is economically weak and can be broken by a further tightening of Western sanctions to hurt Russias energy sector to the advantage of US LNG. Has he missed the IMF data that shows Russia having one of the highest GDP growth rates among advanced economies? That since the Special Military Operation started, Russia has advanced to become the fourth largest economy in PPP terms? The sanctions of Russian energy have done far more harm to US allies, particularly in the EU. Since when does weakening your allies make you a stronger power? Well stop our critique here in the interest of encouraging readers to apply their knowledge and analytical skills. However, it does seem that the prevalence of articles like Watkins, that recommend yet more aggressive US action, first and foremost against Russia, provide yet more confirmation of the notion that Trumps end the war plans for Ukraine are dead on arrival. The official information is so polluted that his emissaries, and almost certainly Trump himself if he meets Putin, simply will not believe that Russia is in a position to get its way in Ukraine with respect to the disposition of territory. And they also seem convinced that the Russian economy is flagging and cant keep up the war effort for much longer. The only reason to hope that Trump might still walk away from Project Ukraine is his extreme antipathy towards NATO and other spending that he regards as welfare for Europeanscompounded by the fact that European leaders during his first term and to this date keep making clear that they loathe Trump personally. By Simon Watkins, a former senior FX trader and salesman, financial journalist, and best-selling author. He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for Credit Lyonnais, and later Director of Forex at Bank of Montreal. He was then Head of Weekly Publications and Chief Writer for Business Monitor International, Head of Fuel Oil Products for Platts, and Global Managing Editor of Research for Renaissance Capital in Moscow. Originally published at OilPrice.com Trumps second term aims to counter the Axis of Upheaval. Plans include tightening sanctions on Russias LNG sector and transshipment methods, and extending similar sanctions to Iraq for aiding Irans oil exports. Broader sanctions and measures on Iraq, Iranian proxies, and Chinese financing networks indicate a U.S. strategy to curtail economic and logistical support for adversaries. As Donald Trumps new advisory team prepares for his second term in the U.S.s highest office, the general feeling is that the much-vaunted Axis of Upheaval is at its lowest ebb to date. The aim of this axis driven by Chinese money, Russian military aggression, and the respective destabilising Middle East and Asian presences of Iran and North Korea is to replace the primacy of the U.S. and its key allies influence in global geopolitics with a multipolar version, albeit in reality with Beijing at its centre. However, according to a senior source who works closely with the new presidential team: Chinas finances are failing [with struggling economic growth], Russias military has failed [in Ukraine and Syria], Irans proxies have been incapacitated [Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis et al], North Korea is on the sidelines, and now Trump is back. Consequently, although many observers expect a continuation in Trumps second presidential term of the neo-isolationism evident in several key respects in his first term this is unlikely to be the case. Instead, the Washington-based source exclusively told OilPrice.com, the second term is going to be about reasserting the primary influence of the U.S. and its allies in the world through whatever means necessary in order that Trump can be seen by his voters as keeping his promise to Make America Great Again. In essence, it will be a bold reassertion of the original 1992 Wolfowitz Doctrine. This was modified slightly in 1994 for public consumption, but the original version is the one that Trumps second-term vision will most closely approximate. Top of the Trump teams list of priorities internationally is ending the war in Ukraine, which they are still confident of being able to do relatively quickly through the methodology previously outlined by OilPrice.com. From there, the aim will be to dramatically reduce Russias capability to mount any credible conventional military invasion of further European territories by severely degrading its financial ability to do so. The immediate focus here, according to the Washington source, will be continuing to reduce Russias gas and oil export receipts to as near to nothing as can be managed. As liquefied natural gas (LNG) became and remains the key global emergency energy source following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russias ability to monetise these exports will be the first in Washingtons cross-hairs, to be hit hard not just by the U.S. but by its European allies as well. Early on, the [presidential] team will expand the actions taken in August, with many more key LNG targets hit by new sanctions, said the source last week. In this context, the day before the 24 August commemoration day of Ukraines Declaration of Independence in 1991, the U.S. Treasury and State departments expanded their sanctions-related designation of individuals, companies, projects, and trading and delivery mechanisms involved in developing key energy projects and associated infrastructure including the Ust Luga LNG Terminal, the Vostok Oil Project, and the Yakutia Gas Project, among many others. This aligned with earlier comments from the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt that: Were going to keep tightening the screws [on Russias major LNG sector projects, including the cornerstone Arctic LNG 2 project]. The Trump team has already been busy laying the groundwork with the U.S.s allies in Europe to support this tightening of the screws on Russian energy exports. These arguments are even more forceful now, as the warnings Trumps team made in his first term to key European Union (E.U.) states especially de facto leader, Germany of the political and economic dangers of becoming over-reliant on Russian gas and oil were proven correct with its second invasion of Ukraine in less than 10 years, as analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order. The same E.U. states have already reduced these energy imports considerably, but just over a week ago they agreed the organisations 15th sanctions package against Russia aimed primarily at disabling the ability of Russia to move oil and LNG through a shadow fleet of tankers. According to industry figures, over 80% of Russias seaborne crude exports are currently moved by tankers not flagged, owned or operated by companies based in the G7, the E.U., Australia, Switzerland and Norway, and not insured by Western protection and indemnity clubs. Consequently, the new shipping sanctions greatly expand the number of individuals and entities to the previous sanctions list. These dramatically increase the list of entities not just in Russia but in third-party countries and organisations in Russia that indirectly contribute to Moscows military and technological enhancement through the avoidance of export restrictions. At the same time, similar E.U. sanctions are being introduced to prohibit the transshipment of Russian LNG through E.U. ports as from March, alongside further bans of the import of Russian LNG into terminals not connected to the E.U. gas pipeline network. All these moves and more to come, according to a senior E.U. energy security source exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week are ultimately geared to completely end Russian fossil fuel imports into the E.U. and non-E.U. European countries by 2027. A similar idea of degrading the ability of Axis of Upheaval members to side-step direct sanctions by utilising useful idiot states to help them is also under consideration for Irans key accomplice in this regard Iraq. As highlighted recently by OilPrice.com, the Trump team is considering imposing similar-style sanctions on Iraq as it has in place for Iran, including on individuals and entities connected to the financing, movement, and logistics involved in moving Iranian oil and gas, and the money relating to it. A precedent for this was set in the first Trump presidency when, after Iraq signed a two-year contract gas and electricity import deal with Iran despite pledging to reduce the length of such deals, Washington responded with swingeing targeted sanctions on 20 Iran- and Iraq-based entities. The State Department cited them as being instruments in the funnelling of money to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) elite Quds Force. It added that the 20 entities were continuing to exploit Iraqs dependence on Iran as an electricity and gas source by smuggling Iranian petroleum through the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr and money laundering through Iraqi front companies. And it said that Iraq was continuing to act as a conduit for Iranian oil and gas supplies to make their way out into the worlds major export markets. As nothing whatsoever has changed in this complicity, there is every reason to expect the threat of such sanctions on Iraq early in Trumps second term, according to the Washington source last week, followed by the imposition of further sanctions if the threats are not heeded. Extending such measures on Iraq and increasing their scope would also signal to Iraq, and to other members of the Axis of Upheaval, that a much greater degree of accountability for acts deemed hostile against the U.S. and its allies is in the offing. Again, there is recent precedent here as a year ago the U.S.s Department of Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) applied sanctions against Iran to a broader part of its international support network, especially to those entities and officials involved funding the Islamic Republics proxy terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah. Those sanctions were focused on 20 individuals and entities for their involvement in financial facilitation networks for the benefit of Irans Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and Iranian Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS), and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). Interestingly, among the long-suspected list of names and companies that were sanctioned at that point were companies in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates that were suspected of being part of the network that sells billions of dollars worth of Iranian commodities to customers in Europe and East Asia. It flagged that the U.S. can and will go after the major financing centres that China uses if Washington thinks Beijing is consistently overstepping the line in challenging key areas of strategic interest for the U.S., in addition to the scalable tariff rates to be applied on Chinas critical export flows, the Washington source concluded. Appeals court halts burdensome reporting mandate, delivering victory for small businesses The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit temporarily blocked enforcement of the CTA, which required small businesses to disclose beneficial ownership information starting January 1, 2025, citing constitutional concerns and regulatory overreach. The CTA, part of an anti-money laundering initiative, aimed to unmask shell corporation owners to combat financial crimes. While supported by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, it faced opposition from small businesses and the NFIB, who argued it imposed excessive compliance burdens and costs. A coalition of small businesses and the NFIB sued, claiming the CTA violated constitutional rights. A district court issued a preliminary injunction, calling the law likely unconstitutional, which was later reinstated by the Fifth Circuit after a brief stay. The ruling provides temporary relief for small businesses, sparing them from complex reporting requirements and severe penalties, including daily fines up to $591, criminal fines up to $10,000, and potential prison sentences. The decision reignites debates over balancing regulatory burdens and national security. The Fifth Circuit has expedited the appeal, with a final ruling on the CTAs constitutionality expected by 2025, while legislative efforts to repeal the law, such as the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act, gain momentum. In a landmark decision that has been hailed as a triumph for small businesses across America, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has halted enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), a controversial law requiring small businesses to disclose detailed information about their beneficial owners. The ruling, issued on December 26, temporarily blocks compliance obligations under the CTA, which had been set to take effect on January 1, 2025. For millions of small business owners, this decision represents a much-needed reprieve from what many have called an overreaching and unconstitutional regulatory burden. The CTA, passed as part of an anti-money laundering initiative, mandated that small businesses submit beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the U.S. Treasury Department. Supporters of the law, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, argued that it was necessary to combat financial crimes by unmasking the owners of shell corporations often used for illicit activities. However, opponents, led by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), contended that the law disproportionately targeted small businesses, imposing complex compliance requirements and significant administrative costs. The legal battle began in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, where a coalition of small businesses, the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, and the NFIB filed suit against the Treasury Department and other federal officials. The plaintiffs argued that the CTA violated constitutional rights and placed undue burdens on small businesses. On December 5, U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant issued a preliminary injunction blocking nationwide enforcement of the CTA, calling it likely unconstitutional and a sweeping overreach of federal authority. The government quickly appealed Mazzants decision, and on December 23, a motions panel of the Fifth Circuit temporarily stayed the injunction, allowing the CTAs requirements to remain in effect. However, just three days later, the Fifth Circuit vacated the stay, reinstating the injunction and halting enforcement of the CTA. The court emphasized the need to preserve the constitutional status quo while substantive arguments are reviewed by a merits panel in an expedited process. For small business owners, the ruling is a welcome relief. Many had expressed concerns about the complexity of the reporting requirements and the potential penalties for noncompliance, which included fines of up to $591 per day, criminal fines of up to $10,000, and even prison sentences. Rob Smith, senior attorney of the NFIBs Small Business Legal Center, praised the decision, stating, The courts reinstatement of the nationwide injunction is a welcome sigh of relief for small businesses. Since being told earlier this week that they must urgently submit their BOI reports, our nations small businesses have experienced enormous chaos and confusion. The Fifth Circuits decision has also reignited the broader debate over the balance between regulatory burdens and national security interests. Proponents of the CTA argue that beneficial ownership reporting is crucial to closing loopholes exploited by criminal enterprises. Secretary Yellen has defended the law as a vital tool in the fight against financial crimes, stating, Unmasking shell corporations is the single most significant thing we can do to make our financial system inhospitable to corrupt actors. Undue burden on small businesses, the backbone of America The Fifth Circuits decision has also reignited the broader debate over the balance between regulatory burdens and national security interests. Proponents of the CTA argue that beneficial ownership reporting is crucial to closing loopholes exploited by criminal enterprises. Secretary Yellen has defended the law as a vital tool in the fight against financial crimes, stating, Unmasking shell corporations is the single most significant thing we can do to make our financial system inhospitable to corrupt actors. However, critics of the CTA, including the NFIB, argue that the laws broad scope and heavy-handed approach unfairly target small businesses, which often lack the resources to navigate complex regulatory requirements. The NFIB and other advocates are now pushing for the repeal of the CTA through legislative efforts, such as the proposed Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act. The Fifth Circuit has expedited the appeal, with a final ruling on the CTAs constitutionality expected as early as 2025. In the meantime, small businesses can breathe easier, knowing that they are not required to file BOI reports or face penalties while the injunction remains in effect. This case underscores the importance of protecting small businesses from excessive regulatory burdens and ensuring that any measures aimed at combating financial crimes are both effective and fair. For now, the Fifth Circuits decision stands as a victory for small businesses and a reminder of the critical role they play in Americas economy. As the legal battle continues, one thing is clear: the fight to protect small businesses from overreaching government mandates is far from over. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com ConsumerAfffairs.com CNBC.com Ex-Kiev leaders accused of WAR CRIMES in Donbas In a move that signifies a new front in the ongoing conflict, Russian authorities have announced the indictment of two high-ranking former Ukrainian officials for crimes related to the Donbas conflict. The charges, which carry severe implications for the future of accountability in this conflict, are a stark reminder of the persistent toll the war has taken on civilians. Two former Ukrainian presidential aides, Igor Rainin and Andrey Bogdan, have been charged in absentia with orchestrating attacks in Donbas that led to the deaths and injuries of over 120 civilians. The Russian Investigative Committee accuses Rainin and Bogdan of complicity in attacks that specifically targeted civilian areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics. This comes as part of a broader effort to hold individuals responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity since 2014. Russia charges Rainin and Bogdan from former Ukrainian presidential admin The charges against Rainin and Bogdan, who held senior positions in the Ukrainian presidential administration from 2016 to 2020, are based on allegations of orchestrating indiscriminate artillery attacks that led to significant civilian casualties and destruction. The Russian Investigative Committee cited evidence that their actions directly contributed to the deaths of 11 children and the injury of over 100 people. Additionally, over 390 civilian infrastructure facilities were destroyed in the attacks. Rainin, serving as chief of staff under President Pyotr Poroshenko, and Bogdan, who was briefly in the same position under Volodymyr Zelensky, were also members of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council during their tenures. This positions them at the center of decision-making in the country during the period in question. The Donbas Conflict: Origins: The conflict in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine began in 2014 when pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk declared independence from Ukraine. The roots of the conflict can be traced back to the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014, which led to the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The conflict in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine began in 2014 when pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk declared independence from Ukraine. The roots of the conflict can be traced back to the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv in 2013-2014, which led to the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. International Stances: The European Union and the United States supported the Euromaidan protests and the new government in Kyiv. Russia, however, viewed the events as a Western-backed coup and subsequently annexed Crimea, boosting support for the separatists in Donbas. The Role of Igor Rainin and Andrey Bogdan: Igor Rainin: Served as chief of staff under President Petro Poroshenko (2016-2019). Known for his involvement in government reform and economic policies. Served as chief of staff under President Petro Poroshenko (2016-2019). Known for his involvement in government reform and economic policies. Andrey Bogdan: Briefly served as chief of staff under President Volodymyr Zelensky (2019-2020), known for his efforts in implementing anti-corruption reforms. Briefly served as chief of staff under President Volodymyr Zelensky (2019-2020), known for his efforts in implementing anti-corruption reforms. Charges: Both officials are accused of orchestrating attacks that led to civilian casualties and infrastructure destruction in Donbas. Russian Investigative committee is pursuing over 6,000 cases against Ukrainian officials The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a total of 6,025 cases against Ukrainian officials, nationalists, and military personnel for crimes against humanity since 2014. Of these, 60 individuals have received sentences up to life imprisonment. This ongoing effort to bring perpetrators to justice within the legal framework underscores the gravity of the allegations and the enduring impact of the Donbas conflict. In a statement, the Russian Investigative Committee emphasized its commitment to holding all parties accountable for the indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations in Donbas. This stance has been a cornerstone of Russias stated objectives since it launched its special military operation in February 2022, a move that officially aimed to protect civilians. The international community and human rights organizations have long called for transparent and effective accountability mechanisms for war crimes committed in the Donbas conflict. However, the charged Ukrainian officials, who are out of reach of Russian authorities, are unlikely to face immediate legal consequences in Russia. Nonetheless, the formal charges serve to highlight the gravity of their alleged actions and contribute to the broader narrative of responsibility in the ongoing conflict. Sources include: RT.com Enoch, Brighteon.ai RT.com Operation Choke Point 2.0: The federal governments war on legal businesses The Biden administration has revived Operation Choke Point, a controversial Obama-era initiative, targeting the cryptocurrency sector by pressuring banks to sever ties with disfavored industries, mirroring past regulatory overreach. Originally launched in 2013 to combat fraud, Operation Choke Point was criticized for weaponizing the financial system against lawful businesses like gun dealers and payday lenders. It was ended under Trump but has reemerged under Biden, drawing sharp criticism from lawmakers and industry leaders. The program operates without clear legal authority, allowing unelected bureaucrats to impose ideological agendas on the financial system, threatening free markets, the rule of law, and constitutional separation of powers. A network of left-wing activists and bureaucrats, including Martin Eakes and Mark Pearce, has driven the program, using federal positions to stifle competition and advance political agendas, often benefiting their own organizations. Lawmakers, including Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer, are pushing to end Operation Choke Point through legislation like the End Operation Choke Point Act, aiming to restore accountability and protect lawful businesses from regulatory abuse. In a disturbing echo of the Obama-era regulatory overreach, the Biden administration has resurrected Operation Choke Point, a controversial initiative designed to pressure banks into severing ties with industries disfavored by federal officials. This time, the target is the burgeoning cryptocurrency sector, but the playbook remains the same: Use unelected bureaucrats to weaponize the financial system against lawful businesses. Operation Choke Point was first launched in 2013 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Obama administration. Its stated goal was to combat fraud by targeting industries deemed high-risk by federal regulators. However, its real aim was to cut off banking services to legal businesses such as gun dealers, payday lenders, and cannabis dispensaries that the administration found ideologically objectionable. President Trump ended the program in 2017, but under President Biden, it has reemerged as Operation Choke Point 2.0, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) urging banks to pause all crypto-related activity. This regulatory abuse has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers and industry leaders. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) has called out the Biden administration for its overreach, vowing that a future Trump administration will put an end to such practices. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has described debanking as a privatized sanctions regime, where businesses are denied access to financial services without due process, rules, or appeal. The resurrection of Operation Choke Point is not just a policy issue its a constitutional one. Former FDIC Chairman William Isaac, a veteran of 45 years in banking regulation, has called the program one of the most dangerous he has ever encountered. He warns that it operates without legal authority, guided by a political agenda that allows unelected officials to decide which businesses can access the financial system. The left-wing network behind Operation Choke Point At the heart of Operation Choke Point is a network of left-wing activists and bureaucrats who have used their positions to advance a political agenda. Martin Eakes, founder of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Self-Help Credit Union, has been a key player in this effort. Eakes, who has received over $380 million in federal grants and loans, has used his seat on the FDICs Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion to push for regulations that stifle competition from payday lendersbusinesses that compete with his own credit union. Eakes critics argue that his efforts are less about consumer protection and more about eliminating competition. Studies show that when payday lenders are restricted, businesses like Self-Help Credit Union benefit. For example, after North Carolina banned payday lending in 2001a move Eakes helped orchestrateconsumers turned to more expensive alternatives like overdraft protection and credit card cash advances. The revolving door between Eakes network and federal regulatory agencies has further entrenched this bias. Mark Pearce, former president of the CRL, now serves as the director of the FDICs Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection, where he has pushed for stringent restrictions on payday lending. Emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee reveal that Pearce and his division actively sought to get at payday lending and stop our banks from facilitating the industry. A threat to free markets and the rule of law Operation Choke Point is not just an attack on specific industries its an assault on the principles of free markets and the rule of law. By pressuring banks to cut off services to lawful businesses, the federal government is effectively picking winners and losers in the economy. This Orwellian approach undermines the constitutional separation of powers and allows unelected bureaucrats to impose their ideological preferences on the private sector. The programs targets have included a wide range of industries, from gun stores and tobacco companies to dating websites and rare coin dealers. The DOJ and FDIC claim they are merely advising banks on the risks of doing business with these industries, but the reality is far more insidious. As the House Oversight Committee has noted, Operation Choke Point has den[ied] countless legal and legitimate merchants access to the financial system and deprive[d] them of their very ability to exist. A call to action Congress must act to end Operation Choke Point and restore accountability to the regulatory process. Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) has introduced legislation to counter the program, and hearings on Capitol Hill have shed light on its abuses. The End Operation Choke Point Act of 2014, which creates a safe harbor for banks that serve legal businesses, is a critical step in reining in this regulatory overreach. The stakes could not be higher. If the federal government can use its power to debank industries it dislikes today, whats to stop it from targeting others tomorrow? The same tactics used against payday lenders and cryptocurrency firms could be turned on gun manufacturers, convenience stores, or even family planning clinics. Operation Choke Point is a dangerous precedent that must be stopped. Its time for Congress to choke off this unconstitutional program and protect the rights of lawful businesses to operate in a free and fair economy. Sources include: ActivistPost.com WashingtonFreeBeacon.com TheHill.com Israel lashes out at Vatican after Pope Francis condemns killing of children Israel has summoned the Vatican's ambassador to express outrage over Pope Francis's criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza. Francis denounced Israel's deliberate targeting of civilians, particularly children, calling it "cruelty, not war." The Vatican has consistently criticized Israel's military campaign in Gaza as disproportionate, and condemned civilian casualties to the ire of Israel. Israel has accused the pope of "double standards," claiming that he has ignored Hamas' role in the conflict and the atrocities it has committed while focusing solely on Israeli actions. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Vatican City's ambassador to Israel and Palestine to express its indignation over recent comments made by Pope Francis regarding Israel's actions toward civilians in Gaza. Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, Vatican Apostolic Nuncio to Israel and Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine, met with the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem in talks that underscoring the deepening rift between Israel and any nation, including institutions like the Vatican, which have vocally condemned Israeli abuses against Palestinian civilians. (Related: A record of truth: Israeli historian documents war crimes in Gaza.) Pope Francis, in recent sermons and masses, has denounced the deaths of Palestinian children, accusing Israel of cruelty by targeting schools and hospitals and unleashing violence that has devastated Gaza. His words struck a chord with many, but they also sparked a fierce backlash from Israeli officials. "Yesterday, children were bombed," Francis declared in a recent sermon. "This is cruelty, not war." These words came after an Israeli airstrike killed seven children from a single family, highlighting the devastating impact of the conflict on innocent lives. The pope has consistently used his homilies to condemn what he sees as a humanitarian crisis. The Vatican's criticism of Israel's actions is not new. Back in February, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Petrio Parolin publicly criticized Israel's military campaign in Gaza, calling it disproportionate due to the staggering number of civilian casualties. His comments sparked immediate backlash from Israel, which accused the Vatican of taking sides. Pope Francis, Vatican accused of "double standards" Francis has maintained regular contact with Palestinians in the region and has become increasingly outspoken in his criticism of Israel. His stance has drawn international attention and amplified calls for accountability. Israel has accused the pope of "double standards," arguing that he ignores the broader context of the conflict, including failing to mention Hamas by name or acknowledging the group's atrocities. However, the pope has consistently called for an end to the violence and the release of all remaining Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas. The diplomatic skirmish between the Vatican and Israel underscores the complex and often fraught nature of the conflict in Gaza. As the pope continues to speak out against what he sees as Israeli abuses, Israel maintains that it is fighting a justified war against terrorist threats. The Vatican's criticism has also extended to symbolic gestures, such as the nativity scene in St. Peter's Square that featured a baby Jesus resting on a manger wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, a traditional scarf that has become a symbol of Palestinian nationhood. This display, while praised by many as a message of solidarity and peace, was met with strong backlash from Israel and pro-Zionists. The situation highlights the challenges of maintaining neutrality in a complex conflict. Francis, as the leader of the 1.4 billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides, but he has recently become more vocal about Israel's genocide in Gaza. Watch this video discussing the ongoing war and genocide's effects on the surviving children in Gaza. This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Mike Adams Sermon 66: God will DESTROY ISRAEL for its wickedness. Israel attacks school in Gaza where displaced Palestinians were sheltering as genocide continues. 5,000 civilians dead in a month in Israel's genocidal war in Gaza. Nearly 130,000 children under 10 are trapped in northern Gaza without access to food and medicine. UN committee condemns Israel's actions as "consistent with characteristics of genocide," calls for Israeli officials to be held accountable. Sources include: MiddleEastEye.com TimesOfIsrael.com Brighteon.com Norwegian company claims its ship didnt rescue crew from sinking Russian ship under orders from Spanish authorities The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major sank in Mediterranean waters following a suspected terrorist attack. The ship was carrying cranes under U.S. sanctions and was en route from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. After distress calls, the Norwegian ship Oslo Carrier 3 was accused of refusing to rescue the 14 surviving crew members. Spanish maritime authorities instructed the Norwegian ship not to take on the crew, sparking an international debate over maritime law. Russian officials condemned the Norwegian ship's behavior, viewing it as a potential violation of maritime law and a breach of humanitarian obligations. The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major sank in the waters between Spain and Algeria on Monday, shortly after a suspected terrorist attack blew a hole in its hull in a maritime disaster that led to a potential breach of international law. The vessel, which was carrying two massive cranes to develop port infrastructure in Vladivostok, Russia, left behind a trail of controversy. The 142-meter-long, state-owned Oboronlogistics ship was en route from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, a journey that took an unexpected turn on December 23 when the Ursa Major began sinking. According to the ships operator, the disaster was the result of three explosions in the engine room, indicating a terrorist plot. Two crew members were reported missing as the ship began its fateful descent into the Mediterranean. Spanish maritime rescue services quickly responded to the distress call, sending two vessels and a helicopter to the scene. However, in the early hours of Tuesday, the incident took another twist when the Norwegian ship Oslo Carrier 3, owned by Bulkship Management AS, was accused of refusing to rescue the 14 surviving crew members. In a statement released on Friday, the Norwegian company refuted these claims. They explained that their ship provided assistance by securing the lifeboats of the crew and ensuring they were safe until the rescue boat arrived. However, they strongly emphasized that they were under orders from the MRCC Cartagena, the Spanish maritime authority in charge of rescue operations in the area, not to allow the crew to board their ship. The Spanish maritime authoritys decision to instruct the Norwegian ship not to take on board the distressed crew is a point of contention. This decision raises questions about the handling of the rescue operation and the priorities given to maritime law and safety. Spains decision could be seen as a critical failure to provide immediate assistance to those in peril, despite the Norwegian ships willingness to serve as a temporary sanctuary. Russian officials condemn Norwegian ship for not rescuing crew members Russian officials were swift to condemn the Norwegian ships behavior, calling it outrageous and a potential violation of maritime law. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that if confirmed, such a refusal would warrant universal condemnation. The incident has sparked international debate over maritime law and the obligations of ships to assist those in distress at sea. However, the Norwegian companys stance highlights the complex interactions between international maritime authorities and commercial shipping companies. The companys claim that they were following instructions from the Spanish maritime rescue service challenges the narrative of callousness often associated with shipping companies avoiding difficult decisions. Despite the controversy, the situation remains mired in uncertainty. The exact circumstances that prompted Spains decision to advise against immediate rescue efforts remain unclear. The case of the Ursa Major serves as a stark reminder of the high stakes involved in international maritime operations and the potential consequences when different nations and agencies are called upon to work together in emergencies. The sinking of the Ursa Major, a Russian cargo ship carrying equipment to Vladivostok that was under U.S. sanctions, has left a wake of controversy. Despite the Norwegian ship's apparent willingness to assist, a complex interplay of maritime authorities led to the ship's crew not being immediately rescued. This incident highlights the sometimes murky waters of international maritime obligations and the potential for differing interpretations of the law at sea. Sources for this article include: RT.com Reuters.com CNN.com BBC.com New York Gov. Hochul inks online safety bill, igniting fresh concerns over FREE SPEECH New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a package of laws aimed at curbing "hate speech" and disinformation on social media platforms. The legislation, primarily bill S895B/A6789B, requires social media companies to disclose their terms of service on "hate speech" and submit detailed reports to the state attorney general. Critics argue that the bill could erode free speech protections and lead to arbitrary censorship, similar to a previous law struck down by a federal court last year. Past attempts to regulate online content have been deemed unconstitutional, raising concerns about the new legislation's adherence to the First Amendment. The new bill faces criticism for potentially entrenching tech giants' influence over online discourse, stifling free speech, and imposing a one-size-fits-all standard on diverse communities. Legal battles by free speech advocates are anticipated. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a controversial package of legislation aimed at curbing online "hate speech" and disinformation. While proponents hail it as a crucial step toward "Online Safety," critics are sounding the alarm, warning that the bill is likely to erode free speech protections and usher in an era of arbitrary censorship. At the heart of the legislation is S895B/A6789B, a bill that mandates social media companies to disclose their terms of service regarding "hate speech" and submit detailed reports to the state attorney general. The bill's supporters, including Assemblymember Grace Lee and NY State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, argue that these measures are necessary to combat the proliferation of misinformation and online toxicity. But as the ink dries on this new law, a sense of deja vu is setting in. Just last year, Hochul championed a similar piece of legislation that was swiftly struck down by a federal court. The earlier law, which sought to regulate "hateful conduct," faced a legal challenge from free speech advocates and was ultimately deemed unconstitutional. (Related: NY Gov. Kathy Hochul orders monitoring of social media platforms to flag criticism of Israel as "hate speech.") The parallels between the old and new laws are uncanny. Both attempt to define and regulate what they term "hate speech," a slippery concept that has long been used to justify censorship and suppress dissenting voices. In the previous case, Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. of the Southern District of New York ruled that the law violated the First Amendment, stating that it "compels social media networks to adopt speech policies aligned with the state's definitions, violating their editorial discretion." So, what makes this new legislation any different? Unfortunately not much. The vague and subjective nature of "hate speech" definitions continues to be a major point of contention. Critics argue that these terms can be stretched and manipulated to fit any viewpoint, leaving online discourse vulnerable to arbitrary control by both government and tech corporations. Lee's defense of the new bill rests heavily on the narrative of the "dangers" of unregulated online spaces. During the pandemic, she claims, "hate and disinformation" spread like wildfire, necessitating stricter controls. But this argument, often deployed by those seeking to curb free speech, has a long and slippery history. It's a classic example of using crisis as a pretext for expanded authority and control. Lee's criticism of Big Tech for failing to adequately police content is also a familiar refrain. But it's worth noting that these companies have already become powerful gatekeepers, wielding immense influence over online discourse through their own content moderation policies. Adding the weight of state regulation could further entrench tech giants' ability to police speech, rather than democratize the process. Senator Hoylman-Sigal's framing of the issue around identity-based violence and discrimination adds another layer of complexity. While it's undeniable that the internet has become a breeding ground for harmful content, the proposed solution of stricter regulation feels like a non-starter. It risks imposing a one-size-fits-all standard on diverse communities, potentially stifling nuanced and difficult conversations. NY legislation follows Britain's "Online Safety Bill" The history of free speech regulation in the United States is a cautionary tale. Time and again, efforts to define and limit "unacceptable" speech have backfired, leading to overreach, censorship and the erosion of democratic discourse. In the wake of the U.K.'s Online Safety Bill, which Hochul's office has now explicitly cited as a model, the New York legislation appears to be following a similar path. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and other free speech advocates are already gearing up for a legal battle. Eugene Volokh, a prominent First Amendment scholar, has warned of the bill's chilling effect on protected speech. If the past is any guide, this new law will likely face similar scrutiny and, ultimately, rejection in the courts. As New York embarks on this latest experiment in regulating online speech, the question remains: Will this legislation ultimately enhance online safety or simply create a more oppressive digital landscape? History suggests that the answer is more likely the latter. It's time for citizens to wake up and fight back against these insidious attempts to control our voices and thoughts. Watch the video below that talks about Hochul facing calls for resignation after her response to an NYC subway murder. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Leaked video shows FBI raid on former deputy chief of staff for NY Gov. Hochul, who was just indicted for allegedly being a Chinese spy. NY Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to spend another $2.4B on benefits for illegal immigrants. New York City descends into a police state as Gov. Hochul deploys 1,000 national guardsmen and police in subway system to "mitigate crimes." Sources include: ReclaimTheNet.org Docs.ReclaimTheNet.org Brighteon.com Russia says they stopped a Ukrainian ASSASSINATION plot targeting a military officer and a blogger The recent allegations by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) about a thwarted Ukrainian plot to assassinate a high-ranking Russian officer and a pro-Russian blogger highlight the escalating tensions and covert operations in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine . According to the FSB, a Russian citizen was allegedly recruited by Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency via Telegram to retrieve and plant a bomb concealed in a portable music speaker. The bomb, reportedly equivalent to 1.5 kg of TNT and packed with ball bearings, was intended to target unnamed individuals. This incident follows the December 17 assassination of Russian Lieutenant General Kirillov, chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, which Ukraine's SBU intelligence service claimed responsibility for. Kyiv accused Kirillov of promoting the use of banned chemical weapons, a charge Moscow denies. Russia has vowed retaliation for Kirillov's killing, framing it as an act of terrorism. The atrocities and red lines crossed in the Russia-Ukraine conflict will not be easily forgiven The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine began with Russias full-scale invasion in February 2022, but tensions have simmered since Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014. Ukraine views the war as an existential threat to its sovereignty, while Russia frames it as a "special military operation" to protect Russian-speaking populations and counter NATO expansion. Both sides have accused each other of targeted killings, which have become a hallmark of the conflict. The FSB did not disclose the identities of the officer or the blogger, but pro-Russian bloggers and military officials have frequently been targeted in the past. Ukraine has openly stated that it considers such operations legitimate to weaken Russian morale and punish individuals it deems responsible for war crimes. The atrocities committed and the red lines crossed in the Ukraine-Russia conflict will not be easily forgiven. Recent assassinations in Moscow Darya Dugina (2022): The daughter of Russian nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin was killed in a car bombing near Moscow. Russia blamed Ukraine, while Kyiv denied involvement. General Kirillov (2024): A Russian lieutenant general responsible for nuclear, biological, and chemical protection troops was assassinated in Moscow. Ukraines SBU intelligence service claimed responsibility, accusing him of promoting chemical weapons use. The Kirillov assassination involved a 29-year-old Uzbek citizen allegedly recruited by Ukrainian intelligence. Russia has vowed to retaliate for the assassinations, framing them as acts of terrorism. The FSBs announcement aligns with Moscows narrative of Ukraine as a terrorist state backed by the West. Targeted killings raise ethical questions about the legitimacy of such operations in wartime, particularly when civilians or non-combatants are at risk. The international community remains divided, with some viewing these acts as justified resistance and others condemning them as terrorism. Clashing narratives between Russia's FSB and Ukrain's GUR Russias FSB (Federal Security Service) is the primary domestic security agency and successor to the KGB. It has been actively involved in counterintelligence and counter terrorism operations during the war. Ukraines GUR (Main Intelligence Directorate) and SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) have been credited with high-profile operations, including sabotage and assassinations on Russian soil. Russia sees assassination attempts as terrorism to further justify its military actions against Ukraine. Ukraine, meanwhile, frames these operations as necessary to defend its sovereignty and hold Russian officials accountable for alleged war crimes. The involvement of Western intelligence agencies, though often unconfirmed, is a recurring theme in Russian accusations. The use of biological and chemical weapons allegations adds another layer of complexity, with both sides accusing the other of violating international norms. The FSBs claim of thwarting a Ukrainian assassination plot is part of a broader pattern of escalating covert warfare in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As both sides continue to target high-profile individuals, the war is increasingly characterized by shadowy operations, propaganda battles, and ethical dilemmas. This incident highlights the deepening complexity of the conflict and its far-reaching implications for international security and norms. Sources include: Reuters.com FoxBusiness.com NaturalNews.com Enoch, Brighteon.ai Sara Netanyahu facing witness tampering charges in Israeli PM corruption trial Israeli prosecutors have launched an investigation into Sara Netanyahu over witness tampering allegations. She is accused of instructing a former aide to organize protests and intimidate witnesses. Netanyahu's wife has a history of legal troubles, including a 2019 plea deal for misusing public funds. The Netanyahus are already embroiled in high-profile corruption cases, known as Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000. Critics argue that the investigations highlight the need for political reform and the removal of Netanyahu's influence. Israeli prosecutors have launched an investigation into Sara Netanyahu, wife of embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over allegations of witness tampering during her husband's ongoing corruption trial. The probe, which was ordered by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, follows allegations that Sara Netanyahu attempted to intimidate a witness in her husband's high-profile trial. Sara Netanyahu, who is known for her controversial behavior in the past, has been accused of instructing a former aide to organize protests against Bibi's political opponents and to intimidate a key witness in the case. The allegations have sparked outrage and calls for accountability from across the political spectrum. The issue is not new for Sara Netanyahu, who has had a history of legal troubles. In 2019, she entered a plea deal admitting to the misuse of public funds to cover her private catering expenses. The latest allegations suggest a pattern of behavior that undermines the rule of law and raises serious concerns about the integrity of the Jewish state's current government. A pattern of corruption and lawlessness The investigation is just the latest chapter in a broader narrative of corruption and legal maneuvering related to the Netanyahu family. Benjamin Netanyahu, already facing trial for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, is no stranger to controversy. His three corruption cases, known as Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, have been the subject of intense scrutiny and debate. Case 1000 involves allegations of receiving gifts from foreign businessmen, while Case 2000 centers around Netanyahu's attempts to secure favorable media coverage. The most serious case, Case 4000, accuses Netanyahu of advancing regulatory benefits worth more than $250 million to help a friend, telecommunications CEO Shaul Elovitch. The latest allegations against Sara Netanyahu add another layer of complexity to the ongoing trial. Her actions, if they turn out to be provable, represent not only a personal scandal but also a direct attempt to obstruct justice and manipulate the judicial process. What will it take for Netanyahu to lose his position? The repeated legal issues and allegations of misconduct raise serious questions about the suitability of the Netanyahu family to continue in power. It is clear that their influence has gone unchecked for too long, and it is time for a change in leadership. The way Bibi has conducted himself in leading the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza demonstrates just how morally bankrupt he is. Israel needs a government that upholds the rule of law and operates with transparency and integrity. The ongoing investigations and legal troubles demonstrate that the Netanyahu era has outlived its usefulness. It is high time for Benjamin Netanyahu to be replaced as prime minister and for his family's influence to be reined in. The latest developments serve as a stark reminder of the need for comprehensive reform in Israel's political system. It is time for a fresh start, one that is free from the corrupt practices and political maneuvering that has characterized the Netanyahu era since well before he lost any goodwill he may have still had by conducting a war against civilians in the Gaza Strip. As the investigation into Sara Netanyahu's alleged witness tampering moves forward, one thing is clear: The Netanyahus need to go. The repeated legal troubles, allegations of corruption, genocide, and attempts to obstruct justice cannot be ignored. Sources for this article include: RT.com CNN.com TimesOfIsrael.com Survivors of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 heard loud bangs as if the plane had been struck Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors. Survivors reported hearing loud bangs, experiencing oxygen loss, and chaos before the crash. Preliminary findings suggest the plane may have been mistakenly shot down by Russian air defenses amid heightened drone warfare. The incident underscores the risks to civilian aviation even hundreds of miles from active conflict zones. Azerbaijan Airlines suspended flights to Russian cities, citing "physical and technical external interference" as the cause of the crash. Russia has not confirmed the findings, urging patience for the official investigation. Could drone warfare be involved? Civilian airline becomes collateral in an active conflict zone The skies above southern Russia and Kazakhstan have become a grim reminder of the collateral dangers posed by modern warfare. On Wednesday, December 25, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 crashed in a fiery descent near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors. The tragedy has sparked international concern, with preliminary investigations suggesting the plane may have been mistakenly shot down by Russian air defenses amid a surge in Ukrainian drone strikes. Survivors of the crash recounted harrowing moments before the plane went down. Passengers and crew reported hearing loud bangs, followed by a loss of cabin pressure and oxygen. Subhonkul Rakhimov, a passenger, described the plane as "drunk" and unstable after the initial impact. "After the bang...I thought the plane was going to fall apart," Subhonkul Rakhimov, told Reuters from the hospital. While he was praying, he said, "It was obvious that the plane had been damaged in some way. It was as if it was drunk - not the same plane anymore." Flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov recalled hearing three distinct bangs, with something striking the left wing. The pilot, unable to land in Grozny due to fog, diverted the flight toward Aktau, warning passengers of a hard landing. The crash has raised alarming questions about the safety of civilian aviation in regions adjacent to active conflict zones. While the plane was more than 850 kilometers (530 miles) from the front lines in Ukraine, it was flying through airspace heavily monitored by Russian air defenses. Ukrainian drones have repeatedly targeted southern Russia, prompting Moscow to deploy advanced electronic jamming equipment and anti-aircraft systems. These defenses, designed to neutralize drones, may have inadvertently targeted the civilian airliner. Azerbaijan Airlines suspends flights to Russian cities Azerbaijan Airlines has suspended flights to several Russian cities, citing "physical and technical external interference" as the cause of the crash. Four sources familiar with the preliminary investigation told Reuters that the plane was likely struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system. The U.S. and Canada have expressed concern over the reports, calling for a transparent investigation. Russia has refrained from confirming these findings, emphasizing the need to await the official investigation's conclusions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated it would be "improper to comment" until the inquiry is complete. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan has remained cautious, with officials neither confirming nor denying the possibility of a missile strike. The incident is not the first of its kind. In 2020, Irans Revolutionary Guards shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, killing all 176 on board. In 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was downed by a Russian missile over eastern Ukraine, claiming 298 lives. These tragedies highlight the perilous intersection of civilian aviation and military conflict. The crash of Flight J2-8243 highlights the broader risks posed by the ongoing drone war between Russia and Ukraine. As Ukrainian drones strike deeper into Russian territory, Moscows air defenses have become increasingly active, creating a hazardous environment for civilian flights. Airlines have already rerouted flights around Ukraine and Russia since the 2022 invasion, but this incident demonstrates that even areas hundreds of miles from the front lines are not immune to danger, especially in an era of drone warfare. Sources include: Reuters.com Reuters.com Enoch, Brighteon.ai U.S. THAAD defense system makes first missile interception against Houthi attack in Israel The THAAD system successfully intercepted a missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels, marking its first combat use in Israel. The U.S. sent the THAAD battery to Israel in October in response to threats of retaliatory strikes by Iran as part of an evolving defense strategy to counter Iran and its proxies in the region. The THAAD system consists of a control center equipped with radar and interceptors that are capable of intercepting short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, Israel has been weathering Houthi drone and missile attacks for over a year now, leading to retaliatory anti-Houthi airstrikes on Yemen. Israel has reported the first-ever use of the United States-supplied Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile defense system, neutralizing a missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The strategic deployment of the THAAD battery, which was sent to Israel in October, underscores the escalating tensions in the region and the evolving defense dynamics between Israel and its adversaries. The interception occurred on Dec. 26, marking a significant milestone for the THAAD system, which has been in development since the early 1990s and entered active service with the U.S. Armed Forces in 2008. Video footage released on social media shows the launch of one of THAAD's interceptors, with an American soldier expressing the moment's historic significance: "Eighteen years Ive been waiting for this." The scenario that prompted this intercept began when Houthis launched a medium-range ballistic missile at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. The exact outcome of the intercept is still under review, and it remains unclear whether it was the THAAD or an Israeli system that successfully neutralized the missile. THAAD system boasts a formidable capability to intercept ballistic missiles The THAAD system, which has previously seen limited use in exercises and non-combat situations, boasts a formidable capability to intercept short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The battery in Israeli service, one of seven in the U.S. Army's arsenal, consists of up to nine transporter-erector-launchers, each carrying eight interceptors, along with a long-range AN/TPY-2 X-band radar, a mobile fire control and command center and various supporting equipment. The decision to forward-deploy this THAAD battery to Israel was made following Iran's Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack, an event that raised significant security concerns. Since then, the battery has seen continuous deployment to bolster Israel's defenses against the persistent threat posed by the Houthis and other Iranian-backed proxies. (Related: Pentagon sending THAAD missile defense system and U.S. troops to Israel.) The latest incident marks the fifth Houthi missile attack in eight days, leading to the activation of air raid sirens across central Israel and prompting a response from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF launched multiple airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, including key infrastructure facilities used by the rebels. The use of the THAAD system in this combat scenario highlights the growing demands on the U.S. Army's air defense assets, which are increasingly being stretched across multiple theaters of operation. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth acknowledged the strain on these systems, emphasizing the need for modernization and expansion of capabilities to manage the rising threat landscape. In addition to the THAAD deployment, Israel has bolstered its air defense capabilities with systems like the Arrow 2 and David's Sling, forming a robust layered defense structure. The integration of advanced technologies such as the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) into the Armys Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) network is aimed at enhancing the overall effectiveness of these defensive systems. Follow WeaponsTechnology.news for more news about the THAAD and other missile defense systems. Watch the video below about how THAAD changed global defense forever. This video is from the TREASURE OF THE SUN channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Putins "unstoppable" Oreshnik missile: A dangerous gamble or empty threat? Hypersonic threat: Houthi missile overwhelms Israels defense, raising alarms across the region. Pentagon running low on air-defense missiles as Israel, Ukraine gobble up remaining supplies. Sources include: TWZ.com NYPost.com Brighteon.com WHO Chief Tedros narrowly escapes death in Israeli airstrike on Yemen airport WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus narrowly survived an Israeli airstrike on Sanaa International Airport in Yemen on December 26, which killed six and injured 40, escalating tensions between Israel and the Houthi movement. Tedros, on a humanitarian mission, described the attack as harrowing, with explosions shattering the airport and debris flying dangerously close to his location, leaving him uncertain of survival. The strike targeted the Houthi movement, which has launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with Gaza, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaling potential escalation. Tedros condemned the lack of warning before the attack, emphasizing the need to protect civilian infrastructure, and successfully evacuated a seriously injured UN colleague for medical treatment. The incident highlights the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, with Tedros urging global leaders to address escalating conflicts and protect civilians, warning of a very dangerous state in the world. In a chilling account of survival, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has described narrowly escaping death during an Israeli airstrike on Yemens Sanaa International Airport. The attack, which occurred on December 26, left six dead and 40 wounded, marking a grim escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. Tedros, who was in Yemen on a humanitarian mission, recounted the harrowing experience in vivid detail. As he waited in the departure lounge, a series of deafening explosions rocked the airport, shattering windows and sending debris flying. One blast struck alarmingly close to his location, leaving him unsure if he would survive. I was not sure actually I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were, Tedros told Reuters. A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit. The chaos that followed was overwhelming. People ran in disarray, seeking shelter that did not exist. Tedros and his colleagues were stranded at the airport for over an hour, with drones flying overhead and the constant fear of another attack. Amid the wreckage, they spotted missile fragments, a stark reminder of the violence that had unfolded. The Israeli strikes targeted the Houthi movement, which has repeatedly launched drones and missiles at Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was just getting started with the Houthis, signaling a potential escalation in hostilities. The Houthi-controlled Saba News Agency reported that three people were killed at Sanaa Airport and three others in Hodeidah, with 40 wounded across both locations. Among the casualties were air traffic controllers and airport staff, underscoring the civilian toll of the attack. Incident calls attention to humanitarian crisis in the region Tedros, who had traveled to Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff and address the countrys humanitarian crisis, expressed shock that no warning had been issued before the strike. A civilian airport should be protected, whether I am in it or not, he said, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding civilian infrastructure. Despite the trauma, Tedros remained focused on his mission. He successfully evacuated a UN colleague who was seriously injured in the attack, ensuring the individual received further medical treatment in Jordan. Tedros also expressed optimism about the progress made in negotiations with Yemeni authorities, raising hopes for the release of 16 UN staff and other detainees. Reflecting on his ordeal, Tedros acknowledged the broader implications of the attack. One of my colleagues said we narrowly escaped death. Im just one human being. So I feel for those who are facing the same thing every single day, he said. The WHO chiefs experience highlights the escalating violence in Yemen and the wider region, where conflicts continue to claim lives and destabilize communities. Tedros urged global leaders to work together to end these conflicts, warning that the world is in a very dangerous state. Im worried about our world, where its heading, he said. I have never ... as far as I can remember, seen the world really being in such a very dangerous state. As the dust settles on the Sanaa Airport attack, Tedross story serves as a stark reminder of the human cost of war and the urgent need for peace. His narrow escape underscores the vulnerability of civilians caught in the crossfire and the imperative for international efforts to protect innocent lives. The world watches as tensions in the region continue to rise, with the hope that leaders will heed Tedross call for unity and action to prevent further bloodshed. Sources include: Reuters.com IndiaToday.in BBC.com And even without the fine details, Microsoft is providing a pretty good picture of what its doing. None of the equipment is a secret, just the configuration. And that alone serves as a good example for others. Its a good sustainability story, Howard said. The hyperscalers have impressive sustainability initiatives, and if the leaders are going in a certain direction which is all about being good community stewards and good stewards of natural resources these are the things that kind of turn into trends. Microsofts community pledge The most economical way to cool a facility is through evaporative cooling. Its also the highest consumption method, which is how Microsoft found itself consuming hundreds of millions of liters of water to cool its data centers. Microsoft measures water efficiency through the metric called water usage effectiveness (WUE), which divides total annual water consumption for humidification and cooling by the total energy consumption for IT equipment. In its last fiscal year, Microsoft data centers operated with an average WUE of 0.30 L/kWh, a 39% improvement compared to 2021, when it reported a global average of 0.49 L/kWh. There is a slight trade-off, however. Traditionally, water is evaporated to reduce the power demand for cooling water. Microsoft is replacing evaporative systems with mechanical cooling, which has a slight increase in power draw and thus would increase Microsofts power usage effectiveness (PUE), the metric used to measure the energy efficiency of data centers. Interview: China's visa-free policy paves way for stronger cultural, business ties, says Croatian ex-speaker Xinhua) 10:25, January 02, 2025 ZAGREB, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Former Croatian deputy parliament speaker Davorko Vidovic has welcomed China's decision to expand its visa-free policy to Croatia, expressing optimism that it will enhance bilateral cooperation and foster exchanges. In a recent interview with Xinhua, Vidovic said this policy "can create conditions for serious improvement and increasingly better relations on the economic, cultural and political level between the two countries." Vidovic served as deputy speaker of the Croatian parliament from December 2021 to May 2024, and prior to that, he was minister of labor and social welfare from 2000 to 2003. He has been the president of the Social Democrats, a Croatian center-left political party, since it was founded in 2022. China announced on Nov. 22 that ordinary passport holders from nine more countries -- Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, and Japan -- would enjoy visa-free entry on a one-year trial basis starting Nov. 30. Under this policy, visitors can stay in China without a visa for up to 30 days for purposes such as business, tourism, family visits, exchanges and transit. Calling China "a huge, beautiful country with a fantastic history and beautiful landscapes," Vidovic said: "I think that China ... can be a truly top-notch lure and a world-famous destination for Croatians, and as far as I know, there is great interest in visiting China." Recalling his six visits to China, Vidovic said each time he returned with "incredibly rich new knowledge and experiences with the fascinating development of China in all areas." During his last visit to China in 2023, Vidovic went to the innovation centers in Hefei, provincial capital of Anhui Province. He was greatly impressed by China's rapid developments in the fields of communications and transportation. "We had the opportunity to ride a high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai running at almost 400 km an hour. You cannot see that speed, that progress, anywhere else in the world," he added. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Croatia in 2024 is approaching the record of 300,000 in 2019. Through this tourist exchange, there will be "better connections, better ties between the two countries in all areas," he noted. Vidovic also expects the visa-free policy to significantly facilitate doing business with China and open up the prospect of stronger involvement of business communities, business people and joint investments. Croatia has "good experiences" in cooperation with Chinese investors, he noted, citing the Chinese-built Senj Wind Farm and the Peljesac Bridge as two examples. "Croatia and China have enormous opportunities for cooperation: Croatia can be a hub for a whole range of Chinese products, and space is opening up for cooperation in the fields of technology, science, education and culture," he said. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Bucharest, Jan 1 : Romania and Bulgaria officially joined the Schengen Area on Wednesday, eliminating border checks with neighbouring Hungary and between the two countries. This marks their full integration into Europe's passport-free travel zone, and ceremonies were held at key border crossings, attended by senior officials from both nations. The Romanian Border Police confirmed that 40 border crossing points are now fully operational without checks, streamlining travel and trade across the region. Travellers moving to or from other Schengen states, excluding Cyprus and Ireland, no longer need to stop for document verification. However, authorities will conduct random checks within a 30-km border zone using mobile devices and risk-based assessments, Xinhua news agency reported. In October, Hungary had formally requested an exemption from the European Union (EU)'s asylum and migration regulations. The request was made through a letter written by the country's Minister for European Union Affairs Janos Boka and addressed to European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson. In the letter, Boka stated that Hungary seeks to restore stronger national control over its migration policy, citing national security concerns and the need to curb illegal migration as primary reasons for the exemption. The request comes in the context of a potential future amendment to EU treaties. Hungary "will initiate the necessary procedures to this end," Boka noted, saying it follows the example of the Netherlands. The Dutch government, led by the PVV party, announced on September 18 that it sought an opt-out from the EU's migration rules in case of a renegotiation of the Treaties. The Hungarian minister said the government is committed to taking firm steps to protect its borders and to curb illegal migration, which threatens national security. However, he also reaffirmed Hungary's commitment to the Schengen area. "Hungary remains committed to the Schengen area, which has unfortunately become fragmented due to prolonged and widely implemented internal border controls, triggered by illegal migration and security threats," he said. Warsaw, Jan 1 : Poland took over the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on Wednesday, marking the start of 2025. This is the second time Poland has held the presidency since 2011. Under the motto "Security, Europe," Poland will focus on seven dimensions of security during its enure: external, internal, informational, economic, energy, food, and health. Poland's presidency coincides with the beginning of a new five-year institutional cycle, providing an opportunity to set strategic goals, propose solutions and start processes for the next five years. "Our presidency will therefore be an opening presidency. We won't focus on how many matters we can finalize, but on how many we can set a new tone for," said Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka, deputy minister for EU affairs. Over the next six months, Poland will host more than 300 administrative and ministerial meetings, including 22 informal councils involving EU ministers, Xinhua news agency reported. However, an informal summit of EU leaders is scheduled for February 3 in Brussels, rather than Poland. A ceremonial inauguration of the presidency will take place on January 3 in Warsaw. Poland, together with the three other EU member countries in the Baltics, has accused Russia of orchestrating hybrid attacks including "intimidation, the instrumentalisation of migrants, sabotage, disinformation, foreign information manipulation, and interference". Last month, Russia had announced that it will close the Polish Consulate General in St. Petersburg starting January 10, 2025. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the move was a response to the closure of the Russian Consulate General in Poznan on November 30 by the Polish authorities. Moscow had accused Polish authorities of following an "openly hostile policy" towards Russia in recent years, adding that one of the manifestations of this approach was the closure of the Russian Consulate General in Poznan. On October 22, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski had announced that Warsaw has decided to close the Russian Consulate in Poznan and expel diplomats for alleged sabotage attempts. New Delhi, January 1 : On the eve of New Year 2025, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar all citizens, recognizing the significance of this moment in the nation's journey. As per a release, VP Dhankhar said, "This year marks the beginning of the final quarter of the Constitution's centenary, a milestone symbolizing India's unwavering commitment to constitutional values and its emergence as a global economic hub." "Warm greetings to all citizens as we enter 2025 - a momentous juncture in our republic's journey," he added, highlighting the importance of this year in the country's history. In his message, the Vice President urged the nation to rededicate itself to the vision set by the framers of the Constitution. He emphasized the continued progress toward achieving the goal of 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047. "This year marks our entry into the final quarter of our Constitution's centenary - a profound milestone reflecting our democracy's enduring commitment to constitutional values and emergence as a global economic hub," he remarked. The Vice President also called on citizens to renew their commitment to civic duties, self-reliance, and social harmony, encouraging efforts that would contribute to building a sustainable future. "Let's commit to building a sustainable future reflecting India's unique values," he added. As India enters the new year, the Vice President's message underscored the importance of moving forward with determination, nurturing democratic values, and prioritizing the nation's interests. "Let us move forward with determination, nurturing democratic values with resolve to keep Nation First," the VP said. Wishing all a "Happy and Purposeful New Year," the Vice President's greeting encapsulated both hope and a call to action for the year ahead. Earlier, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla extended greetings to the people of India on the eve of New Year 2025, wishing everyone a year filled with peace, prosperity, and personal growth. In an official release shared by Birla on December 31, he expressed his hope that the coming year would bring joy and enthusiasm to all citizens, along with the fulfilment of their resolutions. "My dear fellow countrymen, I extend my heartfelt greetings and best wishes to all of you for the New Year 2025. May the New Year bring new joys and new enthusiasm into your lives and your loved ones. I hope that all your resolutions for this year will be fulfilled," Birla stated. Puri, January 1 : Odisha-based sand artist Manas Sahoo welcomed the New Year 2025 with a 20-foot-wide sand sculpture at Puri Beach, spreading festive cheer with the message "Happy New Year 2025." The creation, made from 10 tons of sand, took Sahoo seven hours to complete. https://x.com/SandArtistManas/status/1874115955749761390 Sahoo has previously showcased his artistic talents through sand art. On Christmas Eve, he created a sculpture featuring Mother Mary and Santa Claus at Puri Beach, sharing the artwork on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: "My sand art on the occasion of Christmas at Puri Beach near the lighthouse." https://x.com/SandArtistManas/status/1871586813351227738 On December 4, marking Indian Navy Day, Sahoo paid tribute to the Indian Navy with a special sand art. Sharing his creation on X, he wrote, "On the occasion of Indian Navy Day, I dedicate my sand art at Puri Beach to the brave soldiers of the Indian Navy. Saluting their courage, sacrifice, and commitment to protecting our nation. Jai Hind!" https://x.com/SandArtistManas/status/1864140698573795713 Sahoo also made headlines with his sand art celebrating international events. Following the US presidential election, he created a sculpture to congratulate President-elect Donald Trump, stating, "Please extend my sincere congratulations to Donald Trump through my sand art." https://x.com/SandArtistManas/status/1854574077618667696 Meanwhile, in her New Year message, President Droupadi Murmu extended greetings to the people, both in India and abroad. She said, "On the joyous occasion of the New Year, I extend my heartiest greetings and best wishes to all Indians. The coming of the New Year marks the beginning of new hopes, dreams, and aspirations in our lives. Let us welcome the New Year with joy and enthusiasm and continue to progress as a society and nation, moving forward on the path of unity and excellence." Bhopal, Jan 2 : Toxic waste lying at Bhopal's Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) premises for the last 40 years was finally shifted on Wednesday to Pathampur dumping site in Dhar district, around 30 km, from Indore. The convoy of 12 container trucks carrying around 337 metric tonnes of chemical waste moved from Bhopal to Pithampur amid tight security arrangements by the administration and police, late on Wednesday. A green corridor was set up to cover around 250 km between the UCIL and Pithampur. Highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killing at least 5,479 people and leaving thousands with serious and long-lasting health issues. It is considered to be among the worst industrial disasters in the world. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had on December 3 set a four-week deadline to shift the toxic waste, observing that even 40 years after the gas tragedy, the authorities were in a "state of inertia", and warned the government of contempt proceedings if its directive was not followed. More than one hundred people in 30-minute shifts have packed the waste since Sunday. They underwent health check-ups and were given rest every 30 minutes. All 12 specialised containers that carried toxic waste have been designed according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) standards. Each container is leak-proof, fire-resistant, and equipped with GPS tracking for real-time monitoring. "Pithampur's plant is specifically designed for the safe incineration of waste generated by industrial units across the state. In 2015, a trial run for disposing of 10 metric tonnes of waste of UCIL as conducted under CPCB supervision, adhering to all prescribed safety parameters," Director of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, Swatantra Kumar Singh said. He stated that the state-of-the-art treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF) at Pithampur has been safely incinerating waste from various organisations since 2006, similar to the storage and operational processes at UCIL. Singh highlighted that after the 2015 trial run of UCIL waste disposal, emission levels were found to comply with the prescribed national standards. He said the finding also revealed that over the past 10 years in the Pithampur circle village, the cultivation area for soybean and wheat crops has increased. "The results indicated that no harmful elements were detected in the air or water following the disposal process. The remaining residues from incineration were securely disposed of using a double composite liner system to ensure environmental safety," he added. Vilnius, Jan 2 : The number of self-employed foreigners avoiding taxes has been on the rise in Lithuania in recent years, according to the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI). The majority of those failing to meet their tax obligations are taxi drivers and couriers, Xinhua news agency reported quoting local radio broadcaster LRT. According to VMI data, in 2023 there were 15,800 foreigners in Lithuania who registered their individual activity. Of these, 12,400 filed income tax returns, but 2,200 did not fulfill their tax obligations. A further 3,300 foreigners did not file value-added tax (VAT) returns, although they were obliged to do so. While the VMI does not yet have data for 2024, data from previous years show that the number of foreigners in Lithuania who are both self-employed and do not pay income tax is increasing. According to VMI, foreigners who avoid income taxes most often work as couriers, taxi drivers, or in the fields of construction completion and finishing, as well as beauty services. According to Piret Pert, Wolt's Communications Manager for the Baltic States, the company is providing monthly information to VMI on the income of all couriers, restaurants, and other traders operating through its food delivery platform. "Therefore, VMI has up-to-date information on 100 per cent of the revenue generated through Wolt's platform. We have done everything we can to ensure that the relevant Lithuanian authorities have an accurate picture of all the income earned through our platform," Pert told LRT. According to Laimonas Jakstys, Operations Manager for Bolt's ride-hailing services, foreign nationals currently account for around 20 per cent of the drivers who use the platform, with around half of them being Ukrainian. Over 99 per cent of foreigners who provide ride-hailing services via the Bolt platform are not obliged to register for VAT, as the total value of their services per year does not exceed 45,000 euros ($46,825), he noted. "To make it as easy as possible for them to do so, we regularly remind drivers by emails and other means of communication about tax filing deadlines and other important details. In addition, for the last few years, Bolt has been declaring the income of drivers who have used the platform to the tax authorities, making the declaration process easier for drivers," Jakstys told LRT. Linas Mazgeika, a representative of the Courier Association in Lithuania, said platforms, such as Wolt and Bolt, should take more responsibility for controlling partner couriers and drivers and informing them about their tax obligations. Tel Aviv, Jan 2 : Former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has announced his resignation from the Knesset, less than two months after being dismissed from his ministerial role, local media reported. Gallant made the announcement on Wednesday evening, criticising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government for undermining national security. Despite his resignation, Gallant stated that he would remain a member of Netanyahu's Likud party. In a statement reported by Israeli media, Gallant credited himself for his political and military contributions, claiming he had "partially" dismantled the military capabilities of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. As a former defence minister, he also took responsibility for Israel's handling of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and the ongoing war, The Times of Israel reported. Reflecting on his service, Gallant highlighted his 35 years in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), a decade as a Knesset member, and two years as Defence Minister, which he described as "dramatic." He indicated that his political career was far from over and suggested a potential return to challenge for the party leadership. "As a member of the Likud movement, I will continue to fight for the movement's path. My path is the Likud path, and I believe in its principles and trust its members and voters. Since I voted for the Likud party for the first time in my life and was a partner in Menachem Begin's revolution, I have remained loyal to the movement's national and ideological path," Gallant stated. He accused Netanyahu and current Defence Minister Israel Katz of jeopardising national security by endorsing a law that codifies military exemptions for a large portion of the ultra-Orthodox community. Gallant argued that enlisting the ultra-Orthodox was a "military necessity." Gallant also expressed concerns over the government's judicial overhaul, which he called a "clear and immediate danger" to Israel. He mentioned that he had warned of this risk prior to the October 7 attacks. Additionally, he criticised the government for failing to secure the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. "There can be no victory until they are brought back home," he said. Following his speech, Gallant submitted his resignation to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. Since his dismissal by Netanyahu on November 5, Gallant had been absent from several key coalition votes, including a critical budget-related bill passed on Tuesday. Netanyahu had to leave his hospital bed post-surgery to ensure the bill's passage amidst dissent from far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition members. Local media reports also suggest that Gallant is expected to be replaced in the Knesset by Abed Afif, a representative of the Druze minority. Afif, who held the 44th spot on the Likud party list in the 2022 elections, would become the only Druze lawmaker in the governing coalition. -- IANS Chennai, Jan 2 : With a rise in dog bite cases across Tamil Nadu, the state health department has directed district and city health officers to ensure round-the-clock availability of Anti-Rabies Vaccine (ARV). In a statement, the Tamil Nadu Director of Public Health (DPH) instructed health officers to maintain a stock of at least 20 vials of ARV at all times. Officials have been directed to administer the vaccine in all dog bite cases without hesitation, regardless of concerns about wastage. Additionally, no denial or refusal to administer ARV, even during night hours, will be tolerated. The state has witnessed an alarming surge in rabies-related deaths and dog bites in 2024, with 34 human fatalities and 6.42 lakh dog bite cases reported up to October the highest in five years. In comparison, 2023 recorded 18 rabies deaths and 4.41 lakh dog bite cases. Sources in the health department stated that updated data on rabies cases and deaths is being compiled. Rabies remains a significant public health concern, with a 100 per cent fatality rate, a stark contrast to Tamil Nadus zero fatalities from malaria, chikungunya, scrub typhus, leptospirosis, and Japanese encephalitis in 2024. A lack of reliable data on the dog population in many districts exacerbates the challenge of managing rabies. Accurate population estimates are essential for planning vaccination campaigns and sterilisation surgeries under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme. While some districts, such as Chennai and Coimbatore, have conducted dog population censuses, many others lack this critical data. Interestingly, the Nilgiris district has been rabies-free for the past 15 years due to sustained and aggressive vaccination efforts. Sundar Raj, an animal rights activist in the Nilgiris, explained, We carried out door-to-door vaccination. There was resistance initially, but we convinced people. He also highlighted the importance of testing dogs with rabies symptoms. A rabid dog would have bitten many other dogs before dying. These dogs develop rabies within 215 days. If the rabid dog is not tested and ring vaccination is not conducted, the virus keeps spreading, he warned. The DPHs statement also addressed snake bite cases in the state. Tamil Nadu reported 7,310 snake bite cases till June 2024, compared to 19,795 cases in 2023. The health department directed district officials to ensure the availability of anti-snake venom (ASV) at all Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres. A minimum stock of 10 vials of ASV should be maintained at all times. ASV should be administered to all snake bite victims before referring them to tertiary care facilities. The department clarified that performing a test dose is unnecessary before administering ASV. New Delhi, Jan 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday commended the Maharashtra government for its initiatives in driving development in Maoist-affected areas of the state. Taking to social media platform X, the Prime Minister wrote, "I laud the Maharashtra Government's efforts to ensure all-round development in remote and Maoist-affected areas. This will certainly boost the 'Ease of Living' and pave the way for even more progress. A special congratulations to my sisters and brothers of Gadchiroli and the surrounding areas!" The statement comes after 11 Maoists, including a senior leader, surrendered on Wednesday in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who spent New Year's Day in Gadchiroli district. Among the surrendered Maoists were eight women and three men, including two couples. They carried rewards amounting to over Rs 1 crore in Maharashtra, with additional bounties from the Chhattisgarh government. The group included Tarakka, the head of the Dandakaranya Zonal Committee and the wife of Bhupati, a prominent Maoist leader. Tarakka had been part of the Naxalite movement for 34 years. The surrendered individuals also included three division committee members, one deputy commander, and two area committee members. They were provided financial assistance totalling Rs 86 lakh to support their rehabilitation. In the last year, 24 Maoists have been killed and 18 arrested in Maharashtra. Over the past six months, 27 hardcore Maoists have joined the mainstream. CM Fadnavis highlighted that the northern part of Gadchiroli has been freed from Maoism, and efforts are ongoing to eliminate it from the southern region as well. "In the last four years, not a single youth has joined the Maoist movement. As many as 11 villages have banned Naxalites, and the C-60 soldiers have earned the trust of the people," said Fadnavis, stressing that residents now believe in achieving justice through the Indian Constitution rather than Maoist ideology. CM Fadnavis announced that Gadchiroli is on the path to becoming a "Steel City" with support from Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He assured that surrendered Maoists would be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. The Chief Minister inaugurated various development projects during his visit, including a bus service from Aheri to Gardewada, a green mining project, and several initiatives by Lloyds Metals. These projects involve significant investments -- Rs 400 crore worth DII Plant at Konsari will provide 700 jobs; Rs 3,000 crore worth Pellet Plant and Slurry Pipeline will provide 1,000 jobs; Rs 2,700 crore Iron Ore Grinding Plant at Hedri, Etapalli will provide 1,500 jobs; and Rs 20 crore Vanya Garment Unit which will provide 600 jobs. Fadnavis also launched the Lloyds Kali Ammal Hospital and Lloyds Raj Vidyaniketan CBSE School, which will educate 1,200 students. He inaugurated residences for police, a gymkhana, and a kindergarten. Fadnavis interacted with villagers and security personnel in Pengunda, an extremely remote area, reaffirming the government's commitment to bringing development to the region. Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 2 : Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar was sworn in as the 23rd Governor of Kerala on Thursday by Kerala High Court Chief Justice Nitin Madhukar Jamdar. The ceremony took place at the official residence of the Governor in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Speaker A.N. Shamseer, several cabinet ministers, and senior officials. Arlekar succeeds Arif Mohammed Khan, who served as Kerala's Governor for over five years and has now been transferred to Bihar. The two governors effectively swapped positions, with Arlekar previously serving as the Governor of Bihar. A notable moment occurred on Wednesday when Chief Minister Vijayan abruptly ended his press briefing, stating he needed to rush to the airport to receive the incoming Governor. This contrasted with the departure of Khan on December 29, where neither Vijayan nor any cabinet colleagues were present to bid him farewell. After reaching here, Arlekar visited the residence of Goa Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, who is originally from Kerala. Commenting on his new position, Arlekar said, "My job is to assist the Kerala government, and I am not going for any confrontation. I have always adopted such a position. My visit to the Goa Governor was to understand things." The relationship between outgoing Governor Khan and Chief Minister Vijayan was marked by frequent public disagreements. Tensions peaked over Khan's resistance to the Kerala government's efforts to exert influence over state universities. The dispute culminated in Khan refusing to sign several key ordinances and bills, compelling the state government to seek the Supreme Court's intervention. The differences between Khan and Vijayan often played out publicly, with the two barely exchanging glances at official functions. A major flashpoint was Khan's resistance to the Kerala government's attempts to influence the functioning of state universities. The tensions escalated when he refused to sign key ordinances and bills, prompting the state government to approach the Supreme Court for intervention. All eyes are on Arlekar, a seasoned politician from Goa and the Governor of Bihar and though he has made his position clear, time will tell how things pan out between him and the Vijayan government. The first major job for Arlekar is to read out the mandatory Governor's address to the 140-member Kerala Legislative assembly later this month. It must be recalled at the Assembly's first session of the 2024 calendar year when the difference of opinion between Vijayan and Khan was at its peak, he came and ended his address in less than 90 seconds, making it the shortest ever Governor's address. Amaravati, Jan 2 : The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) announced on Thursday that it has provided insurance to its one crore workers. Party's national general secretary and Education Minister Nara Lokesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with insurance companies to provide insurance to one crore party activists. The MoUs were signed with representatives of United India Insurance and Pragmatic Insurance Broking Services. TDP, which is leading the coalition government in Andhra Pradesh, claimed that it has created a history as it is the only political party in the country which is providing insurance security to as many as one crore activists. As per the agreement entered into with the insurance companies, the party paid Rs 42 crore as the first premium for providing insurance to the its activists for one year beginning January 1, 2025. The party will be paying almost an equal amount next year too. As per the MoU, every party activist is eligible for Rs 5 lakh accidental insurance. The party claimed that Lokesh has been taking all revolutionary decisions ever since he took charge as the leader of the party workers' welfare. The party said it has so far spent a whopping Rs 138 crore for the welfare of the cadre. A separate legal wing has been set up to look after the court cases filed against the TDP activists during the YSRCP regime. A separate cell has also been constituted at the TDP central office to immediately come to the rescue of the party cadre if they meet any accidents, it said. On behalf of the NTR Trust, residential schools have been established in Hyderabad and Challapalli in Krishna district to extend free education to the children of deceased party activists. The TDP said that the party activists in both the Telugu States are expressing pleasure over Lokesh's efforts to look after them as his family members. New Delhi, Jan 2 : Indian politicians on Thursday shared their reactions on the "burqa ban" in Switzerland, which came into effect on January 1 and stated that the decision was country's own and should not necessarily be viewed through a religious lens. The prohibition, which bars facial coverings in public spaces, has sparked debates internationally. As per the new Swiss law, those who unlawfully cover their faces in public, they will be imposed a fine of up to 1,000 Swiss francs ($1,144). This includes covering nose, mouth, and eyes, with certain exceptions in private or sacred spaces and on planes or diplomatic premises. BJP national spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that Switzerland might have its reasons for implementing the ban. "Every country has its own rules and laws. They have their own security arrangements, and as per those, they form rules. I do not think there is a need to view this matter from a religious perspective," Naqvi told IANS. Similarly, NCP-SP leader Majeed Memon remarked that the law might not garner support from Muslim-majority nations but would likely have no bearing on India. "Switzerland is a small nation, and its population is nothing compared to India. The Muslim population there is very small. Their government must have taken these steps considering the conditions in their country," Memon said. Drawing a comparison, Memon stated, "India's Muslim population is probably higher than the total population of Switzerland, with over 200 million Muslims residing here. Whatever happens, it will not have any effect on India. It is their matter, and I do not think it is necessary for anyone to intervene." "Many Muslim-dominated countries might criticize this idea. However, in India, where people of all faiths live together harmoniously, I do not think it will have any effect," he further added. The ban, which does not explicitly target Islam, was proposed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) under the banner "Stop Extremism." It also aimed to prohibit violent protesters from wearing masks. In 2021, Swiss people approved the ban, with 51.2 per cent voting in favour and 48.8 per cent against it in a referendum. The Swiss government, however, had opposed the measure, arguing that it was not the state's role to dictate how individuals dress. Switzerland operates under a direct democracy system, where citizens regularly vote on national and regional issues. The "burqa ban" referendum was part of this system, granting people a direct say in their governance. The law includes exceptions for facial coverings in places of worship, during public health emergencies, or for safety reasons in the workplace. Seoul, Jan 2 : South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik on Thursday pressed acting President Choi Sang-mok to fill the one remaining vacancy at the Constitutional Court as Choi appointed two justices, partially meeting the opposition's demand to fill three vacancies before a ruling on President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment. Earlier this week, Choi held off on the opposition-recommended justice Ma Eun-hyuk until the rival parties reach an agreement. In a Facebook post, Woo said the three judges were recommended via agreements between the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the opposition Democratic Party (DP). Presenting documents and remarks by the chiefs of two parties, Woo said, "It is confirmed that the ruling and the opposition parties have reached an agreement (on the recommendation of three judges), acting President Choi should swiftly appoint Ma as a Constitutional Court judge." The DP had demanded former acting President Han Duck-soo appoint the three justices without delay once motions for their appointments passed the opposition-controlled National Assembly. After Han refused last week, the DP railroaded the motions and impeached Han, suspending him from duty and putting Choi in his place as interim leader, Yonhap news agency reported. By law, at least six votes are required to uphold an impeachment motion, which means the appointment of three additional justices could improve the chances of Yoon's impeachment being upheld. The PPP voiced strong regret over Choi's appointments, accusing Choi of succumbing to the opposition's pressure and threats that it will also impeach Choi if he refuses to go ahead with the appointments. Mumbai, Jan 2 : Ahead of the release of his upcoming film Fateh, actor Sonu Sood visited Shirdi to seek blessings. The actor shared his spiritual journey on social media. In the pictures surfaced online, Sonu is seen standing with folded hands at the sacred Shirdi temple, deeply immersed in prayer. Prior to this, he paid his respects at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Fateh marks Sonu Soods directorial debut and also stars Jacqueline Fernandez, Naseeruddin Shah, and Vijay Raaz. In an exclusive interview with IANS, the actor shared how playing the role of an ordinary man with hidden strength and determination provided him with a fresh outlook on personal growth and self-confidence. Sonu shared, I think Fateh was my dream role, one that I always wanted to play: a common man who has a superhero inside him. I believe every individual, every common man, has a superhero within them. You just need to discover that. Im glad that with Fateh, I was able to discover that side of myself. And I hope that when people watch it, they not only get entertained by the script but also get inspired. When asked what Fateh means to him, the Simmba actor stated, I think when you can be someones hope, its not about how rich, famous, or influential you are. We are all those things, but sometimes, when someone becomes a hope, a person leaves their native village in Punjab or Uttar Pradesh with the belief that when they reach out to an individual, their life will change. I think that is true Fatehwhen you can change someones life, thats what real Fateh is. Produced by Umesh KR Bansal of Zee Studios and Sonali Sood of Shakti Sagar Productions, co-produced by Ajay Dhama, Fateh, a gripping tale of courage, resilience, and the fight against cybercrime is slated to release on January 10. Jaipur, Jan 2 : The Cyber Crime Branch of the Rajasthan Police on Thursday launched a special campaign, "Operation Cyber Shield," aimed at tackling cyber crimes, apprehending offenders, and raising public awareness. The campaign will run from January 2 to January 31 under the guidance of Director General of Police (DGP) Utkal Ranjan Sahu. The initiative seeks to dismantle the infrastructure supporting organised cyber-enabled financial crimes in the state and address rising cyber threats. The campaign also emphasises resolving cyber crime cases, addressing public complaints, and promoting awareness about cyber security among citizens. DGP Cyber Crime Hemant Priyadarshi outlined seven key focus areas for the month-long campaign which includes resolving complaints. It shall addressing cases reported through the cyber crime portal and helpline 1930. The first step under the campaign includes blocking suspicious activity for identifying and blocking fraudulent SIM cards and IMEI numbers. The second step is Hotspot Mapping for detecting and monitoring high-risk areas for cyber crimes. The next step is apprehending offenders for arresting individuals with pending warrants and identifying proclaimed offenders, recovering lost devices for retrieving and returning stolen or lost mobile phones to their rightful owners. Promoting Cyber Awareness for conducting campaigns to educate the public about cyber threats and precautions is yet another initiative being identified by the officials under this month-long campaign. The officials said that the seventh step includes building a database and creating a comprehensive database of known cyber criminals. Comprehensive guidelines have been shared with senior police officials across districts and ranges to ensure the campaign's success. Citizens are encouraged to report any suspicious cyber activity to local police, the cyber security helpline (1930), the national cyber crime portal (https://cybercrime.gov.in), or the Rajasthan Police helpline at 0141-2741322. The Rajasthan Police is committed to safeguarding citizens from cyber threats and ensuring a secure digital environment for all, said officials. Operator MTN Uganda says it has secured UGX370 billion (about US$100 million) in committed debt financing from five local banks. This debt financing is described as one of the largest local currency debt transactions in Uganda. The syndicated debt facility from five local banks was 1.6x oversubscribed. MTN Uganda says this deal reflects robust confidence from lenders in the operators long-term potential and focus on expanding its digital and financial services offerings. The financing will be used by MTN Uganda for general corporate purposes including the expansion and improvement of the network. The arrangement was led by Stanbic Bank Uganda, partnering with Absa Bank Uganda, Citibank Uganda, Standard Chartered Bank Uganda and Centenary Rural Development Bank. MTN Ugandas Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Bugembe, says: MTN Ugandas achievement in securing this substantial funding underscores our competitive strength and reflects the growing appetite for premium corporate debt instruments within Ugandas financial sector. MTN Uganda continues to operate with a strong balance sheet, he points out. MTN Uganda serves approximately 21.6 million mobile subscribers as of September 2024. Its main competitor in the market is Airtel Uganda with 15.6 million customers by 30 June 2024. The company is 76% owned by the MTN Group, Africas leading telecommunications company with more than 280 million customers in 17 markets. Reuters notes that in June MTN Uganda sold shares left over from its 2021 Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Ugandan stock exchange, leaving its parent owner controlling 76% of its shareholding. Teacher John Thomas Scopes, 24, of Dayton, Tenn., stands before Judge John T. Raulston during his trial on July 21, 1925, at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, just before he was found guilty of ... what? Delving deep into bat habitats, scientists uncover how coronaviruses evolve, migrate, and cross-species, shedding light on pandemic origins and future risks. Study: Origin and cross-species transmission of bat coronaviruses in China. Image Credit: Carl Allen / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, a group of researchers investigated the evolution, cross-species transmission, and dispersal of bat coronaviruses (CoVs) in China, identified hotspots of evolutionary diversity, and traced the origins of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Background CoVs are Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) viruses causing respiratory and enteric diseases in humans and animals, with all human-infecting CoVs being zoonotic in origin, often from bats. Their large genome size, high recombination rates, and genomic plasticity facilitate cross-species transmission and rapid adaptation, leading to outbreaks such as SARS-CoV, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2. Bats, particularly genus Rhinolophus, host diverse Alpha-CoVs (-CoV) and Beta-CoVs (-CoV), with hotspots in regions like China, where rich bat fauna and unique biogeography amplify spillover risks. The study highlights that these evolutionary traits, combined with the ecological context of Southern and Southwestern China, make these regions particularly important for understanding CoV dynamics. Further research on bat-CoV macroevolution and transmission dynamics is crucial for understanding zoonotic potential and enhancing pandemic prevention through targeted surveillance and preparedness strategies. About the Study Host-Switching Dynamics: The study revealed that alpha-coronaviruses (-CoVs) have a higher propensity for cross-species transmission than beta-coronaviruses (-CoVs), with 7 times more inter-family host-switching events in -CoVs observed over evolutionary time. In the present study, between 2010 and 2015, bat oral and rectal swabs and fecal pellets were collected across Chinese provinces, including Anhui, Beijing, Hainan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and others. Non-lethal sampling was conducted using mist nets, with bats released immediately after collection. Wing punches were taken for Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) barcoding. Bat-handling protocols adhered to Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC) guidelines from Tufts University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Samples were preserved at 80 degrees Celsius. RNA was extracted using the High Pure Viral RNA Kit (Roche), and a one-step hemi-nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) targeted the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene for CoV detection. PCR products were sequenced and confirmed through cloning or barcoding, ensuring data reliability. The dataset included 589 novel sequences and 616 from the Genetic Sequence Database (GenBank) and the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID). Sequences were aligned and analyzed phylogenetically using Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis Sampling Trees (BEAST) software. Based on mammalian diversity, sampling locations were grouped into six zoogeographic regions. Ancestral states for host family, genus, and region were reconstructed, and significant host or region transitions were assessed using Bayes factors. The study acknowledges that relying on partial RdRp sequences, while effective, limits the depth of phylogenetic analysis and may exclude highly divergent CoV variants. Phylogenetic diversity metrics revealed regional and host-specific patterns of CoV diversity, with Mantel tests highlighting correlations between viral genetic differentiation, host phylogeny, and geographic isolation. Study Results A total of 589 partial sequences of the RdRp gene were generated from bat rectal swabs collected across China and combined with 608 bat CoV and 8 pangolin-CoV sequences from public databases, including the GenBank and the GISAID. Two datasets were prepared: one based on host taxa and the other on sampling locations, categorized into six zoogeographic regions reflecting mammalian diversity rather than administrative boundaries. These regions included South Western (SW), Northern (NO), Central (CE), Southern (SO), Central Northern (CN), and Hainan Island (HI). The host dataset contained 676 -CoV sequences from 40 bat species and 503 -CoV sequences from 29 bat species. The geographic dataset included sequences from 21 provinces for -CoVs and 20 provinces for -CoVs. Analyses were also conducted on random subsets of sequences to reduce sampling bias and ensure uniform representation. Phylogenetic Clustering: Strong phylogenetic clustering was identified among bat families, with distinct evolutionary patterns in Southern and Southwestern China. Regions like Hainan Island displayed unique endemic CoV diversity. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis suggested that -CoVs likely originated in rhinolophid (horseshoe bats) and vespertilionid (evening bats) species, while -CoVs were linked to vespertilionid and pteropodid (fruit bats) species. Frequent cross-species transmission events were observed, with -CoVs exhibiting higher rates of inter-family and inter-genus host switching compared to -CoVs. Rhinolophidae and Miniopteridae (long-fingered bats) were the most frequent donors for -CoVs, whereas Rhinolophidae dominated as donors and receivers for -CoVs. Spatiotemporal analyses revealed significant dispersal routes for both -CoVs and -CoVs within China. The SO emerged as a significant hub of CoV migration, with the highest outbound and inbound movements. -CoVs demonstrated higher migration rates than -CoVs, with the SW and HI regions exhibiting distinct endemic diversity. Southern and Southwestern China were identified as refugia during glacial periods, contributing to the long-term persistence and diversification of bat-CoVs in these regions. Phylogenetic clustering, assessed using mean phylogenetic distance (MPD) and mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD), highlighted strong structuring among bat families and zoogeographic regions. The SW and HI regions showed the highest evolutionary distinctiveness for both CoV genera. Mantel tests revealed significant correlations between genetic differentiation and geographic distance for both -CoVs and -CoVs, with -CoVs also showing correlations with host phylogeny. Conclusions The phylogenetic analysis of CoVs from bats sampled in China revealed significant diversity, with 11 out of 17 bat genera hosting both -CoVs and -CoVs. SARS-CoV-2 likely originated from a clade of viruses found in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus spp.), predominantly in Yunnan province. However, the study notes that sampling limitations and the proximity of collection sites to international borders suggest that progenitor viruses could also originate from Myanmar, Laos, or other neighboring countries. The findings highlight the urgent need for targeted surveillance in Southern China and Southeast Asia, especially focusing on Rhinolophus and Hipposideros bats, which are central to cross-species transmission events. The study also emphasizes the importance of understanding the biological characteristics of -CoVs, which show a higher host-switching potential and zoonotic risk than -CoVs. University of Iowa researchers are recommending all patients be surveyed about their physical activity levels, after a new study underscores the link between physical activity and chronic disease. The study, led by Lucas Carr, associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Physiology, examined responses from more than 7,000 patients at University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center who noted their level of physical activity in a questionnaire. From patients' answers to the questionnaire, the researchers found that those who reported the highest level of physical activity - meaning they exercised moderately to vigorously at least 150 minutes per week - were at statistically significant lower risk of having 19 chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and diabetes. The findings further suggest patients who are least active - meaning they reported little to no exercise in a given week - are at increased risk to develop a chronic disease. Based on those results, the Iowa researchers also recommend health care systems provide information on health and wellness services for physically inactive patients who are at most risk. "In our health care environment, there's no easy pathway for a doctor to be reimbursed for helping patients become more physically active," says Carr, the study's corresponding author. "And so, for these patients, many of whom report insufficient activity, we need options to easily connect them with supportive services like exercise prescriptions and/or community health specialists." Most hospitals in the United States do not ask patients about their physical activity, and no hospital system in the Midwest has done so, according to the researchers. In this study, Carr partnered with Britt Marcussen, a family medicine physician in UI Health Care, to offer the questionnaire to patients visiting for annual wellness exam appointments. The study period was from November 2017 to December 2022. The Exercise Vital Sign survey, as the questionnaire is called, asked patients two questions that they answered on a tablet: "On average, how many days per week do you engage in moderate to vigorous exercise (like a brisk walk)?" (0-7 days) "On average, how many minutes do you engage in exercise at this level?" Carr and his team propose making the survey available to all patients. This two-question survey typically takes fewer than 30 seconds for a patient to complete, so it doesn't interfere with their visit. But it can tell us a whole lot about that patient's overall health." Lucas Carr, associate professor, Department of Health and Human Physiology, University of Iowa The researchers also compared results from patients who completed the surveys with more than 33,000 patients who weren't offered the survey in other areas of the hospital. The researchers found patients who took the survey were younger and in better health than the patient population who weren't given the questionnaire, based on analyzing all patients' electronic medical records. While the link between physical activity and reduced risk of chronic disease has been known, the researchers say the study underscores the value of surveying patients about their physical activity levels. "We believe this finding is a result of those patients who take the time to come in for annual wellness exams also are taking more time to engage in healthy behaviors, such as being physically active," Carr says. In a related study, published this month in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, Carr's team found that when healthcare providers billed for providing exercise counseling to patients, those invoices were reimbursed by insurance providers nearly 95 percent of the time. "Our findings suggest the recommended physical activity billing codes are reimbursed at a high rate when providers submit them for reimbursement, which reinforces the idea to make physical activity surveys and counseling services available," Carr says. Cole Chapman, assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, is the first author on the study. Chapman, who joined the Pharmacy faculty in 2019 after earning bachelor's and doctoral degrees at Iowa, collected and analyzed the data from the patients' electronic medical records. Marcussen and Mary Schroeder, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science in the College of Pharmacy, are study co-authors. The study, "Screening Patients for Physical Inactivity Helps Identify Patients at Risk for Cardiometabolic and Chronic Diseases," was published online in Preventing Chronic Disease, a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. UI Health Care Stead Family Children's Hospital funded the research. One or two doses of psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms, may improve the mental health of cancer patients when accompanied by psychotherapy, a new report suggests. A second new study found that treatment with psilocybin resulted in lasting, positive personality changes in patients with alcohol use disorder. The first report's findings were published online Oct. 7 in the journal Nature Mental Health, and the second published online Jan. 1 in a special edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry focused on psilocybin research. In the first study, a team of experts at NYU Langone Health found that psilocybin accompanied by psychotherapy significantly reduced anxiety, depression, obsessive thoughts, anger toward others, and physical symptoms associated with psychological distress, with improvements lasting up to six months. Our findings suggest that the mental health benefits of psilocybin therapy for cancer patients may reach far beyond what we have previously understood." Petros Petridis, MD, study lead author, clinical assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine The study also concluded that the mood-altering psilocybin did not appear to cause any lasting paranoia, psychosis, or deep feelings of fear (phobia). As a result, their analysis adds to the mounting body of evidence that psilocybin can be safely administered under close medical supervision, says study senior author Stephen Ross, MD. Ross is a clinical professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and serves as an associate director of its Center for Psychedelic Medicine. For the study, the researchers analyzed data from two previous clinical trials that used psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to address anxiety and depression in 79 men and women with cancer. In the trials, about half of the participants initially received a large dose of psilocybin while the rest were given either vitamin B3 or a tiny dose of the psychedelic drug as a placebo. Neither the researchers nor the patients were told which medication they were given. After six or seven weeks, depending on the trial, the groups switched treatments. Psychotherapy preceded and followed each dosing session, and the participants completed a questionnaire about mental health symptoms at the beginning of the study and six months after the second dosing. In the second new study, another team, led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, found that psilocybin therapy may also improve mental health for those with alcohol use disorder. Compared to patients receiving a placebo, those treated with psilocybin were found to be significantly less impulsive, depressed, and vulnerable than they were prior to the therapy. At the same time, these patients grew more "open," or more accepting of their thoughts and emotions. These changes were observed seven months after the participants received their second dose of psilocybin. This analysis examined personality changes in men and women participating in a previous clinical trial that used psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to treat alcohol dependence. During the trial, participants randomly received two doses of either psilocybin or an antihistamine placebo, receiving psychotherapy before and after each dosing session. The authors tested 83 of the patients using a standard personality assessment before psychotherapy began and again eight months after the first dose of study medication. "Since impulsiveness has long been linked to both excessive drinking and relapse after treatment, the personality changes brought about by psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy may help those recovering from alcohol dependence remain resilient to internal and external stressors known to trigger relapse," said study lead author Broc Pagni, PhD. Pagni is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Notably, the findings also showed that men were more likely to experience a boost of positive emotions while women were more likely to see an increase in openness. However, further research is needed to understand the reasons behind these differences or what they might mean for any given patient, says study senior author Michael Bogenschutz, MD. Bogenschutz, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the director of its Center for Psychedelic Medicine, adds that the study authors next plan to explore whether the personality changes observed in the current investigation may also occur in psilocybin trials for opioid-use disorder. Bogenschutz cautions that in both studies, most participants were able to correctly guess whether they had received psilocybin or a placebo. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring compound derived from fungi with mind-altering qualities similar to those of LSD and mescaline. Most study participants experience profound alterations in perception, emotions, and sense of self, often including experiences that are felt to be of great personal and spiritual significance. Because the drug raises blood pressure and heart rate and can cause incapacitating and sometimes overwhelming psychological effects, researchers caution that it should only be used in controlled settings and in conjunction with medical and psychological evaluation and careful preparation. Funding for the study in Nature Mental Health was provided by National Institutes of Health grants UL1TR000038 and T32DA007250. Further funding support was provided by the Heffter Research Institute, the RiverStyx Foundation, the Betsy Gordon Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the Usona Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Carey and Claudia Turnbull, W. Linton, R. Barnhart, A. Altschul, K. Fitzsimmons, the McCormick Family, G. Goldsmith, and E. Malievskaia. Funding for the study in The American Journal of Psychiatry was provided by the Heffter Research Institute and individual donations from Carey and Claudia Turnbull, Dr. Efrem Nulman, Rodrigo Nino, and Cody Swift. In addition to Petridis, Ross, Pagni, and Bogenschutz, other NYU Langone researchers involved in the studies are Richard Zeifman, PhD; Brennan Carrithers, MD; Noam Goldway, PhD; and Kelley O'Donnell, MD, PhD. Other coinvestigators include Jack Grinband, PhD, and Connor Kinslow, MD, at Columbia University in New York City; Gabrielle Agin-Liebes, PhD, at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.; Roland Griffiths, PhD, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.; Sarah Mennenga, PhD, at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.; and Snehal Bhatt, MD, at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M. To many, Vice President Kamala Harris's loss in the 2024 presidential election was a sobering reminder of a larger and continuous gender gap across leadership positions in not only government, but also in business, higher education, and the military. A majority of Americans recognize the inadequacy of female representation in leadership, and the news media often portray women's underrepresentation in these roles - but it nonetheless persists. Recognizing that news coverage may have influence in forming attitudes and in driving action, a team of psychology researchers examined, through a series of experiments, whether reframing this gender gap in terms of "men's overrepresentation" - rather than as "women's underrepresentation" - would have an impact on perceptions of the issue and on motivations to address it. Its findings showed that framing the gap as "men's overrepresentation" - as opposed to "women's underrepresentation" - in political leadership elicited more anger at the disparity among women and increased perceptions that the gap is unjust. Moreover, the results showed that anger at the disparity leads women to take action to address it. "While most Americans acknowledge that gender diversity in leadership is important, framing the gender gap as women's underrepresentation may desensitize the public," says Emily Balcetis, an associate professor of psychology at New York University and an author of the paper, which appears in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. "For many, taking the same statistics, like that 29% of Congress is female, but reframing the issue as men's overrepresentation, by saying instead that 71% of Congress is male, elicits stronger emotional responses and spurs people to do something to increase access to leadership for men and women." However, the researchers add that the men's overrepresentation framing had some limitations. One, its impact did not apply to business leadership among both men and women and, two, among men, this messaging did not increase anger at the disparity. Nonetheless, the study's authors, who also included NYU Psychology Professor Madeline Heilman, see the overall findings as a way to address a long-standing issue. Our society benefits when we have women as well as men as leaders in politics and business. It is crucial that we can all be confident that no one is shut out of leadership positions because of their gender." Rachel Godsil, professor at Rutgers Law School, co-founder of Perception Institute, and one of the paper's authors Method In a series of experimental studies, participants read mock news articles that were based on real-world data on the gender gap in politics and in business. The articles were manipulated to adopt different frames: the gap was couched as either women's underrepresentation or men's overrepresentation, with the underlying facts remaining constant. The experiments then measured the participants' responses under each condition. These included expressed anger at the gender gap in business and politics as well as willingness to support a piece of federal legislation - Women's Global Empowerment, Development, and Prosperity Act of 2020 - which was moving through congressional committees in the Senate at the time of the study. Participants also had the option of writing a letter to their congressional representative indicating their reaction to the bill, with the researchers tracking whether or not these letters supported or opposed the legislation. The researchers also measured participants' stated willingness to address this leadership gap more broadly - by writing social-media posts, by taking action despite material or relationship costs (e.g., taking action that could harm future job prospects), or by donating to programs aimed at confronting this discrepancy. In addition, participants had an opportunity to read an article reporting on strategies to reduce gender disparity in leadership - a methodological element designed to gauge interest in this issue. Results The mock stories that framed the gender gap as men's overrepresentation in political leadership elicited more anger at the disparity among women - but not among men - than did those that framed the gap as women's underrepresentation. However, this effect was not found among either women or men for business leadership stories. In addition, women's anger at the disparity - regardless of how the gap was framed in the mock news stories - was associated with several behaviors. These included participants spending more time reading stories on how to change the status quo, writing stronger letters to their congressional representative supporting proposed legislation addressing gender disparity, and a stronger expressed desire to donate to gender-bias reduction programs. "Framing the gender gap in politics as due to men's advantages - in this case, men's overrepresentation - as opposed to women's disadvantages - their underrepresentation - not only affects how women view this concern, but also prompts action to combat it," concludes lead author Usman Liaquat, an NYU doctoral student at the time of the study and now at Cornell University. Air India Becomes The First Airline In India To Launch Free Wi-Fi on Domestic Flights Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 09:34 IST The Wi-Fi service is available on Wi-Fi-enabled devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops (with iOS or Android), and can support multiple devices once the aircraft reaches 10,000 feet. This service is now available on Airbus A350, Boeing 787-9, and select Airbus A321neo aircraft. (Photo: Air India) Air India has become the first airline in India to offer in-flight Wi-Fi services on both domestic and international routes. This new feature is available on their Airbus A350, Boeing 787-9, and select Airbus A321neo aircraft, allowing passengers to stay connected while flying. related stories Whether travelling for work or leisure, passengers can now browse the web, use social media, send messages, or even catch up on work during their journey. Rajesh Dogra, Chief Customer Experience Officer at Air India, said, Connectivity is now an integral part of modern travel. For some, it is about the convenience and comfort of real-time sharing, while for others, it is about greater productivity and efficiency. Whatever be ones purpose, we are confident that our guests will appreciate having the option of connecting to the web and enjoy the new Air India experience on board these aircraft." Key Features of Air Indias In-Flight Wi-Fi Compatible with Wi-Fi-enabled devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Passengers can connect multiple devices at the same time. Works above 10,000 feet, ensuring uninterrupted browsing in the air. Initially launched on select international routes, including flights to New York, London, Paris, and Singapore, the Wi-Fi service is now being offered on domestic routes. For a limited period, passengers can enjoy complimentary access. Air India plans to extend this service to more aircraft in its fleet soon. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all How to Access Air Indias Wi-Fi Turn on Wi-Fi and go to the Wi-Fi settings on your device. Select the network named Air India Wi-Fi. Youll be redirected to the Air India portal via your devices default browser. Enter your PNR and last name. Start enjoying free internet access. First Published: January 02, 2025, 09:34 IST Telangana NEET PG Counselling 2024 Round 1 Seat Allotment Result Released at tspgmed.tsche.in Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 13:17 IST Telangana NEET PG Counselling 2024: Candidates who applied for the round 1 counselling can check and download the merit list from the official website at tspgmed.tsche.in The reporting period is underway from today, November 22 with the deadline day set for November 28.(Representative Image) The Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) has released the Telangana National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) PG 2024 counselling seat allotment results. Candidates who applied for the round 1 counselling can check and download the merit list from the official website at tspgmed.tsche.in. They must enter their roll number and password to download the provisional allotment list. According to the official notice, candidates are required to pay the university fees to download the provisional allotment order. Payment can be made using either a debit card or a credit card. Students need to go through the instruction booklet first and be ready with all the mandatory details. They will have to enter their roll number, rank, mobile number, and registration number to access the merit list. related stories After entering the details, students need to click on Make Payment" button. If everything is entered correctly, they will be directed to the payment gateway website of CC Avenue payment gateway. During the payment process dont click the Back/Refresh buttons or dont close the browser page abruptly. After successful payment through Debit/Credit Card, a Transaction ID" is generated and displayed on the screen," states the official notice. Telangana NEET PG Counselling 2024 Round 1 Seat Allotment Results: Steps to Download Step 1: Visit the official website of Telangana NEET PG tspgmed.tsche.in. Step 2: Click the link for the web counselling seat allotment result on the homepage. Step 3: Pay the university fee Step 4: Enter Roll No, Rank, Mobile No, and Registration No. Submit Step 5: The Telangana NEET PG counselling result will be displayed on the screen. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Step 5: Download and take a print out for further use. Meanwhile, 19 students had filed a petition demanding the release of the answer key, raw marks, and details of the normalisation process used to calculate NEET PG 2024 results. The Supreme Court will resume hearing the NEET PG 2024 result transparency plea on January 7, 2025. Despite repeated requests, the NBE refused to release the answer key, raw marks, and normalized marks, citing confidentiality as a cornerstone of its admission policy. First Published: January 02, 2025, 13:02 IST Although the corruption, deficiencies and lack of independence affecting the Cuban Justice system are well known, in 2024 DIARIO DE CUBA surgically dissected them. The case that best illustrates the Cuban judicial system's subordination to power was revealed in a DIARIO DE CUBA exclusive in October when it released a video of a trial in which the close relationship between a son of the late dictator Fidel Castro, Alejandro Castro Soto del Valle, and alleged drug traffickers, came to light, but was ignored by the Provincial Court of Cienfuegos in 2015. In 2014 Cuban-Americans Enrique Anicio Artiles Mata and Elvis Artiles Martin (father and son) were arrested and charged with drug trafficking in the United States. In Cuba, to which they traveled frequently, they had family and friendship ties to five citizens who a year later were prosecuted for money laundering and forging documents, along with another resident in the United States. At the oral hearing, three of the five defendants described close ties between Artiles Mata and Castro Soto del Valle. Neither the president of the Court, nor the Prosecutor's Office, nor the defense attorneys requested that Fidel Castro's son testify as a witness. As DIARIO DE CUBA legal team member Edel Gonzalez Jimenez pointed out, the crimes in which Castro Soto del Valle may have been involved, such as money laundering and a cover-up of drug trafficking, have not expired, since the 25 years established by law have not elapsed that would protect him from prosecution. Even if before October the president of the Supreme Court of Cuba, Ruben Remigio Ferro, was unaware of the links between Fidel Castro's son and alleged drug traffickers, after the exclusive revelation by DIARIO DE CUBA he is obliged to investigate the member of the Castro family and ensure that he does not go unpunished for probable crimes related to drug trafficking. To date, however, this has not happened. It should not be ruled out that the authorities have blackmailed him, taking into account that he, apparently, guaranteed the impunity of the former president of the Provincial Court of Cienfuegos and former representative Tania Correa Lorenzo, an alleged perpetrator of embezzlement and forgery, as revealed to DDC by sources at the Court's Public Attention Directorate in September. For that case, he was reportedly reprimanded by the then second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), Jose Ramon Machado Ventura. In June former judge and political asylum seeker in the United States Melody Gonzalez Pedraza revealed to DIARIO DE CUBA, in an exclusive interview, that the Supreme Court issued an Instruction, signed by Remigio Ferro and approved by its Governing Council, containing precise instructions regarding the criminal policy to be applied to Cubans imprisoned for participating in the anti-government protests that broke out on July 11, 2021. The main directives were to maintain provisional detention once the case was received by the courts, to impose rigorous sentences entailing confinement, to grant parole only in exceptional situations, and for the convicts to serve most of their time in prison. For those who were lucky enough to be released on parole, "rigorous control" was to be exercised by all the territorial authorities: "Police, Security and political organizations." In February, during the annual review of the Supreme Court held in Havana, Miguel Diaz-Canel demanded that the judges be more severe and intransigent, Gonzalez Pedraza told DIARIO DE CUBA in another exclusive interview. In that exclusive the magistrate explained how the PCC, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Prosecutor's Office challenge judges if they impose sanctions less severe than those requested by the prosecutors. In fact, the judicial system goes easier on perpetrators of femicide and sex offenders than on peaceful protesters. In July DIARIO DE CUBA revealed the Cuban State's responsibility in the femicide of Jessica Castillo. Castillo's assailant had committed a similar murder in 2011, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Having served approximately one-third of his sentence, he received the benefit of probation. This same benefit has been denied to many Cubans convicted for the 11-J protests, who should have already received it. Gonzalez Jimenez explained that when one convicted of a murder or rape is going to be granted parole, "the protocol indicates that the re-educators, together with the prosecutor, who must evaluate the appropriateness of endorsing the parole, have to ask the victim's relatives for their opinions." If the case reaches the court and their opinions have not been requested, the court is obliged to suspend the case and demand that this step be taken, the jurist added. In the case of Emelina's confessed murderer, this step was skipped, such that the requirement was violated, according to a relative of the victim who informed the Gender Observatory of the feminist magazine Alas Tensas (OGAT) and the feminist platform Yo Si Te Creo en Cuba (I Believe You in Cuba), who shared this information with DDC. Gonzalez Jimenez also explained that in Cuba, before the perpetrator of a murder or rape is released on parole, psychological evaluations are not carried out. Another clear example of the regime's lenience towards abusers of women and girls, belying the official rhetoric, was the three-year prison sentence imposed on Maikel Solano Arevalo, found guilty of sexually abusing a minor under four years of age, handed down over a year after the events, and only after an appeal. He was initially sentenced to three years of correctional labor without incarceration. The new sentence, imposed on the sexual aggressor by the Provincial Court of Granma, falls within the sanctioning framework provided for in the Criminal Code for sexual abuse against a person under 12 years of age, which is two to five years of incarceration. If Solano Arevalo demonstrates good conduct, he could be released on parole in one year and six months. Former Cuban judge Maylin Fernandez Suris, an expert in family affairs and gender violence, and a lawyer for the DDC, pointed to the delay in the administration of justice in this case, and the failure to issue a restraining order to protect the minor. The year 2024 also demonstrated the delegitimization and disintegration of part of the Cuban judicial system. Every month there are fewer professional judges and prosecutors willing to be accomplices of Ruben Remigio Ferro and the regime. In January, the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Reinaldo Cruz Rivera, admitted in Ciego de Avila that there are more prosecutors who leave the sector than graduates. In June DIARIO DE CUBA learned that the Municipal Court of Encrucijada, in Villa Clara, had run out of staff. Gonzalez Pedraza, the former judge requesting political asylum in the United States, had worked in that court. UKPSC SI Recruitment 2024: Admit Cards To Be Issued Today, Exam On January 12 Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 14:31 IST UKPSC SI Recruitment 2024: Once out, the UKPSC SI exam admit card will be available on the commission's official websites, psc.uk.gov.in and ukpsc.net.in. The exam will be conducted on January 12 in a single shift from 11 am to 2 pm. (Representational/ PTI Photo) Uttarakhand Public Service Commis (UKPSC) is set to release admit cards for the Sub Inspector (Civil Police/Intelligence), Fire Station Second Officer, and Platoon Commander, Male(PAC/IRB) exam-2024 today, January 2. Once out, the UKPSC SI exam admit card will be available on the commissions official websites, psc.uk.gov.in and ukpsc.net.in. Candidates who have provisionally qualified in the physical efficiency test (PET) will be able to download the admit card for the written exam using their application number. The exam will be conducted on January 12 in a single shift from 11 am to 2 pm. related stories How to Download UKPSC SI Recruitment 2024 Exam Admit Card? Step 1 Visit the official website psc.uk.gov.in. Step 2 On the home page, go to the admit card link. Step 3 Enter your login details such as your application number and password. Step 4 The admit card will be displayed on the screen. Step 5 Download and take a print out for further use. The hall ticket will contain the candidates name, roll number, subject, exam date, address, guidelines, etc. In case of any error in the UKPSC SI admit card, candidates must report to the commission and get it rectified immediately. Uttarakhand Police SI Recruitment 2024: Selection process The recruitment process includes several stages: Physical Measurement Test (PMT): Where the candidates height, chest, and weight measurements are checked. Physical Efficiency Test (PET): In this examination, candidates are tested on their physical fitness through activities like running, high jump, and other physical tasks. Written Examination: Those who pass the physical tests proceed to a written exam that tests their knowledge in various subjects. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Document Verification and Medical Examination: Final checks to ensure candidates meet all qualifications and are medically fit for the job. Candidates who have completed their class 12 examination from a recognised university or equivalent qualification are eligible to apply for the SI recruitment exam. The minimum age at which the applicant can apply is 18 years and the maximum age is 28 years. However, age relaxation is provided for candidates belonging to reserved categories as per government norms. First Published: January 02, 2025, 14:24 IST Why Are BPSC Aspirants Protesting? Everything You Need To Know About The Controversy Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 18:00 IST BPSC Exam Protest: Aspirants protest over irregularities exam, demanding re-examination after alleged paper leak and chaos at exam centers. Aspirants stage a protest, demanding re-examination of BPSC 70th Prelims exam, in Patna. (PTI Photo) BPSC 70th CCE Exam Controversy: Aspirants continue to protest against the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) over the alleged irregularities in the 70th BPSC Combined Competitive Examination (CCE). Aspirants are demanding the scrapping of the examination which was held across the state on December 13, 2024, and a re-examination citing paper leak and other irregularities that allegedly occurred at various examination centres. BPSC 70th CCE Exam Row Timeline related stories December 13, 2024: Chaos broke out at the Bapu Pariksha Parisar exam centre in Patna due to an alleged 45-minute delay in distributing the exam papers. CCTV footage showed people tearing question papers and grabbing exam sheets from other candidates during the test. Hours after the chaos unfolded at the BPSC exam centre in Patna, aspirants sat on protest against the BPSC demanding the cancellation of the exam and urging for re-examination. Several students announced a hunger strike. December 16, 2024: Educator and YouTuber Faizal Khan aka Khan Sir expressed his concerns over the paper leaks and controversies, including the uncertainty around the normalisation process, surrounding the 70th BPSC examination. Speaking to ANI Khan said that such issues create unnecessary anxiety among students preparing for examinations and cause mental trauma" to the students as well as the teachers. December 17, 2024: BPSC Chairman Ravi Manubhai Parmar announced the re-examination for the candidates who were allotted Bapu Pariksha Parisar exam centre in Patna for the exam on December 13, 2024. December 18, 2024: Aspirants continued to protest and demonstrate against the BPSC in Patna demanding a re-examination of the 70th BPSC examination. December 19, 2024: A meeting of the full BPSC bench was held on December 19, 2024, to discuss the re-examination of the cancelled 70th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination, which was originally supposed to take place on December 13, 2024, at the Bapu Examination Complex in Patna. The Commission decided to hold the re-examination on January 4, 2025 (Saturday) at the Bapu Examination Complex. December 21, 2024: BPSC aspirants met Bihar BJP President Dilip Jaiswal at his residence to discuss the irregularities that occurred during the 70th BPSC exam. After meeting the aspirants, Jaiswal said to the media that he heard the demands of the students and advised them to not get into any politics. he further underlined that the BPSC is an independent body and they need to understand the demands of the students. December 24, 2024: Aspirants continued their indefinite hunger strike demanding a re-examination of the 70th BPSC exam. Independent MP Pappu Yadav from Purnia joined the protest and urged the opposition MPs and MLAs to support the students cause. December 25, 2024: Khan Sir, visited the students sitting on the indefinite hunger strike. He urged the BPSC to consider the plight of the aspirants stating that 4-5 students are in critical condition and have been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). December 26, 2024: Bihar Police resorted to a lathi charge after the aspirants intensified their protest. However, the police department issued a clarification, claiming that they used mild force" and denied any injuries to the protesting aspirants. December 27, 2024: The BPSCs Examination Controller, Rajesh Kumar Singh announced that the 70th BPSC Prelims Exam will not be cancelled under any circumstances. He also confirmed that the main exam will be held in April. December 29, 2024: Bihar police lathi-charged and used water cannon to disperse the protesting BPSC aspirants in Gandhi Maidan, Patna. December 30, 2024: Aspirants called for a statewide bandh (shutdown). January 1, 2025: Aspirants continued their protest and indefinite hunger strike amid bone-chilling winter on the first day of January demanding re-examination for the BPSC prelims. Lalu Yadav To Rahul Gandhi: Politicians On BPSC Protest Former Bihar CM and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav termed the lathi-charge on protesting students wrong" and stated that the police should not have resorted to such act. RJD leader and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha called the lathi-charge on students as an unfortunate" incident and said that the government should consider the demands of the students and stop such activities Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi slammed the Bihar government and alleged that the NDA-led government resorted to a lathi-charge on BPSC aspirants to hide its failures." The Congress MP called the action taken against the protesting aspirants extremely shameful." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also condemned the lathi charge on student protesters and accused BJP governments of using force to suppress dissent. On social media platform X, Kejriwal said BJP governments want to suppress every voice of protest with the help of sticks. Lathicharge on peacefully protesting students is a direct attack against democracy." Union minister Chirag Paswan came in support of students and aspirants protesting over the alleged BPSC question paper leak and appealed to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to intervene and resolve the impasse with the students. Condemning the lathi charge and use of water canons on the students, Paswan demanded strict action against the involved in the act. He said that he has never been a supporter of brutal action against the students. First Published: January 02, 2025, 16:25 IST Whats Switzerlands Anti-Burqa Law That Comes Into Effect From January 1? | Explained Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Shilpy Bisht Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 10:52 IST The anti-hijab proposal was put forward by the right-wing Swiss People's Party, which campaigned with slogans such as 'stop extremism'. Official results of a 2021 referendum showed 51.2% voted in favour of the ban Switzerland's Lower House of Parliament in 2023 cemented the burqa ban into federal law and set a fine of up to 1,000 francs for violators. (File Photo: AP) From January 1, Switzerland has officially banned burqas, hijabs or any other face coverings in public. Swiss voters in a 2021 referendum had approved forbidding niqabs and burqas. The Lower House of Parliament in September 2023 cemented the ban into federal law and set a fine of up to 1,000 francs (about $1,100) for violators. related stories Why Has Switzerland Taken This Initiative? The anti-hijab" proposal was put forward by the right-wing Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) which campaigned with slogans such as stop extremism". Official results of the referendum showed 51.2% voted in favour of the ban. In Switzerland, citizens participate in the countrys system of direct democracy by regularly voting on various issues in national or regional referendums. According to research by the University of Lucerne (in German), almost no-one in Switzerland wears a burka and only around 30 women wear the niqab. About 5% of Switzerlands population of 8.6 million people are Muslim, most originating from Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo. Without directly mentioning the word Islam, the referendum was aimed at stopping violent street protesters from wearing masks. The vote was popularly known as burqa ban". It is not the first time Islam has figured in a Swiss referendum. In 2009 citizens went against government advice and voted to ban the building of minarets a proposal also put forward by the SVP which said minarets were a sign of Islamisation. What Does The Ban Say? The new law prohibits covering the nose, mouth and eyes in both public spaces and private buildings accessible to the public, though it does allow for some exceptions. However, there are some exceptions the ban does not apply to facial coverings worn for health reasons, such as medical masks or during cold weather; and coverings are permitted in places of worship, for artistic performances, or in advertising. The law also allows coverings personal protection in cases where face mask is necessary for freedom of expression or assembly, as long as public order is maintained, and the responsible authorities approve such instances. The facial coverings, notably, are still allowed on planes and in diplomatic or consular premises, as well as in certain sacred sites. Controversy Over The Ban Walter Wobmann, chairman of the referendum committee and an SVP lawmaker, had described Muslim face coverings as a symbol for this extreme, political Islam which has become increasingly prominent in Europe and which has no place in Switzerland". After the referendum results were declared in 2021, a leading Swiss Islamic group had called it a dark day" for Muslims. Todays decision opens old wounds, further expands the principle of legal inequality, and sends a clear signal of exclusion to the Muslim minority," the Central Council of Muslims said in a statement, as mentioned in a report by BBC. Amnesty International spoke out against the ban, calling it a dangerous policy that violates womens rights, including to freedom of expression and religion". The wearing of Islamic veils in public has been a controversial topic in other European countries. France banned wearing a full face veil in public in 2011 while the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Bulgaria have put in place full or partial bans on wearing face coverings in public. How Other European Countries Have Forbidden Burqas A European court last year had ruled that member states can prohibit their employees from wearing signs of religious relief. The hearing was of a Muslim employee of the eastern Belgian municipality of Ans who was told she could not wear a headscarf at work. The woman, who works as head of an office and is not in a public-facing role, launched a legal challenge. In 2021, the court ruled that women could be fired from their jobs for refusing to remove their hijab if they work in a job that deals with the public. France has a strict ban on religious signs in state schools and government buildings, arguing that they violate secular laws. The headscarf and other conspicuous" religious symbols were banned in state schools in 2004. In August, the French government said state school pupils would be banned from wearing abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslim women. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy (in some localities), the Netherlands (in public places) and Spain (in some parts of Catalonia) have also banned burqas. Germany, however, remains divided on burqas and niqabs, with some states banning them in schools and public places, and others fearing it could hinder integration. According to a March 2022 report by the Open Society Justice Initiative a group of lawyers advocating for human rights such bans came into force after US policymakers declared a global war on terror in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, giving rise to suspicions around Muslims due to their attire. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The idea that Muslims as a group were the new enemy within, with beliefs and practices reflecting values and norms inferior to those of Europe, acquired legitimacy across the political spectrum," the authors of the report wrote. The report also mentioned that in most EU countries bans and rules on face veils and headscarves have been promoted primarily by nationalist and far-right political parties. The report also noted that five EU states Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Poland and Portugal have never publicly debated bans on head or face coverings. First Published: January 02, 2025, 10:39 IST Will There Be World War 3 In 2025? Whats The Status Of Current Conflicts? Explained Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Shilpy Bisht Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 18:05 IST Russia-Ukraine war refuses to die down with both sides digging their heels in. Israel has devastated Gaza after the October 2023 attack led by Hamas. Syrias civil war took a shocking turn with rebels ousting Bashar al-Assad. A brutal civil war has broken out in... Read More Syrian opposition fighters celebrate after the Syrian government collapsed in Damascus, Syria, on December 8, 2024. (AP Photo) The Ukraine-Russia war that began in February 2022 led to a series of conflicts for various reasons in different parts of the world, including Israel, Gaza, Syria, Sudan and Myanmar, taking a huge toll on not only the stakeholders, but the world at large. Will 2025 continue to witness the rage or will be there an end to this violence? Lets find out. related stories What Is The Status Of The Gaza War? Gaza Strip, which is small territory along the Mediterranean Sea, became the hotbed of violence in October 2023 when Palestinian extremist group Hamas unleashed attacks on Israel, with hundreds of gunmen infiltrating communities in the area. About 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. More than 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in air and artillery strikes carried out by the Israeli military in response, Gazas Hamas-run health ministry said. On January 1, 2025, Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said. Israels military said it eliminated" Hamas fighters. Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned that Hamas will suffer blows of a magnitude not seen in Gaza for a long time" if it doesnt release the remaining hostages and stop firing at Israel. The Israeli military has stated quite often that it only targets militants and has blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army said it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Some 90% of Gazas population of 2.3 million have been displaced, many of them multiple times, due to the war. The US and Arab mediators have spent nearly a year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release, but those efforts have repeatedly stalled. Hamas has demanded a lasting truce, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting until total victory." The International Criminal Court (ICC) in November issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defence chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The war has impacted Israeli citizens. More than 82,000 Israelis moved abroad in 2024 and 33,000 people immigrated to the country, Israels Central Bureau of Statistics said. Another 23,000 Israelis returned after long periods abroad. But there is a chance that the war could end this year. Donald Trump had told Netanyahu that he wanted the conflict to end before he returns to the White House on January 20. After he was declared a winner, Trump had said in his address that he wants all wars to end. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will keep hold of Gaza for the foreseeable future" after the war ends. He also wants the Palestinian Authority to take a role in Gazas administration. Josef Federman, Associated Press news director (Israel-Palestinian territories-Jordan), said there are signs that the war is in its final stages. But even if it ends, I dont see how anybody would want to invest into rebuilding Gaza again, given the history where every three or four years there is another war where all your work gets destroyed. So for them to get investment this time on that the scale thats needed, there are going to have to be some big changes in the way people think." Is Putin Ending The Ukraine Conflict? Experts predict that Russian President Vladimir Putin could up the ante against Ukraine as he would be set to reclaim the territories that were once part of the Soviet Union. Professor Anthony Glees from the University of Buckingham told the Mirror that Putin is unlikely to be satisfied with a peace deal imposed by the West and aim for further expansion, targeting post-1997 NATO states. By 2025, Putin will advance his strategic plan to undermine and force post-1997 NATO states, including Poland, Finland, and the Baltic nations, to leave the alliance," Glees warns. He told the Mirror that this big grab" could cause a global war. With Trump promises his electorate to end the Ukraine war within a day by negotiating a peace deal, reports suggest his plan may embolden Putin rather than deter him. Trump proposed deal includes freezing the current front lines, establishing a buffer zone, and delaying Ukraines NATO membership by 20 years. As per Kyiv Independent, Putin had said Russia would agree to a ceasefire and peace talks only if Ukraine withdrew from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia and disavowed its goal of joining the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Putin has also demanded that Ukraine acknowledge Crimea and Sevastopol as Russian territory. As soon as Kyiv declares readiness for such a decision and begins a real withdrawal of troops, as well as officially abandons its NATO ambitions, we will immediately cease fire and begin negotiations," Putin had said at the time. The Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, and since then, Moscow has made steady gains in eastern Ukraine. Russian troops have taken over 30 square kilometres of Kyivs territory. Ukraine had responded to Russias offensive by using US long-range Army Tactical Missile System. Though experts insist that Kyiv being given permission to use these missiles is not a game changer, Moscow has responded by lowering its threshold for using nuclear weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose term was due to end in May 2024 has been extended due to martial law. He would need to be re-elected for Russia to consider him a legitimate signatory to any deal to ensure it was legally watertight, Putin had said. Samya Kullab, Associated Press correspondent in Ukraine, told the Guardian that the situation is far different from when the war began. The jubilation and the joy from those initial moments has kind of turned into this incredible feeling of gloom and coming to terms with what weve always known that Ukraine is at a terrible disadvantage. I would describe it as being bled out slowly," Kullab wrote. European Union leaders believe Ukraine needs to hold on and maybe placate Trump to open ideas for negotiations with Russia. The EU will have to continue to sanction individuals and companies in Russia. Who Is In Charge In Syria After The Government Collapse? In Syria, protests began against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, who came to power in 2000. Pro-democracy protesters during the peak of Arab Spring in 2011 took to the streets in Syria, calling for the ouster of the dictator. But the movement was crushed by Assads forces, leading to the establishment of small militias and armed opposition groups from the Syrian military. As anti-establishment forces grew, the Syrian allies stepped up support. Irans Revolutionary Guards and Lebanons proxy Hezbollah helped the armed rebel groups, while Russia bolstered the Syrian Air Force with warplanes. Soon, al-Qaeda started taking interest in the cause of Syrias opposition forces. By 2014, extremists, including ISIS swept the country. The US then created the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) comprising Kurdish fighters to eliminate ISIS without confronting the Syrian regime. The SDF fought against the ISIS and ended their territorial existence in Syria. In 2020, Russia and Turkey agreed to a ceasefire in the opposition-held region of Idlib. In 2024, the war was triggered by a coalition of rebel forces calling themselves the Military Operations Command. They swept through the villages outside Aleppothe second largest city in Syria and eventually seized Damascus the capital city. Assad has vowed that Syria will continue to defend its stability and territorial integrity in the face of all terrorists and their supporters". The defence ministry said it was preparing to launch a counteroffensive. Joint Syrian-Russian warplanes" have intensified precise strikes on rebel positions, killing and wounding dozens, it said in a statement. But some experts have already expressed scepticism over Assads chances. Aron Lund of the Century International think tank told CBS, Aleppo seems to be lost for the regime. And a government without Aleppo is not really a functional government of Syria." They cited the fact that Russia was heavily distracted by the war in Ukraine and that Iran and Hezbollah were left weakened by their conflict against Israel. The experts said the rebels had been biding their time for years. This has to do with geopolitics and local opportunity," Emile Hokayem, senior fellow for Middle East security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies told The Washington Post. The rebellion at large had regrouped, rearmed and retrained for something like this." US President Joe Biden had called the fall of Assad a fundamental act of justice" but also a moment of risk and uncertainty," and said rebel groups are saying the right things now" but the US would assess their actions. Experts predict that West Asia could see massive changes in 2025. A US official told CNN that developments in Syria mark the collapse of Irans artifice" across the region. Whatever happens in Syria will have a major impact on its neighbours Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel. In a matter of weeks, Iran lost its pillars in the Axis of Resistance. After the heavy blow that Hezbollah suffered at the hands of Israel, the fall of Assad is a fatal strike on Irans influence efforts in the Middle East," Danny Citrinowicz, a non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Councils Middle East Programs, told Council for Foreign Relations (CFR). Whats The Status Of Civil War In Sudan? The Sudanese civil war between two military factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in September 2024. It started as a power rivalry between the military heads of the SAF and the RSF, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Hamdan Dagalo respectively. What began as a conflict in the capital city of Khartoum has spread to Omdurman, Bahri, Port Sudan, El Fasher and the Port Sudan cities, as well as the Darfur and Kordofan states. The war is taking place as both warring parties are adamant about gaining ground and legitimising their power. The SAF, which came to power through a coup in 2021, claims to be the legitimate government, with the UN just about recognising them. However, the RSF has territorial gains around the capital and other war zones. It opposes the SAFs efforts to represent Sudan internationally, claiming legitimacy. The RSF, a former Arab militia known as Janjaweed, seeks alliances from several Arab countries to support its claim to power. Sudan has been under the UN arms embargo, since the 2004 Darfur crisis, which has been now been extended for another year. However, the embargo has not blocked the flow of weapons. A Human Rights Watch report in July claimed that the warring parties have been using armed drones, anti-tank guided missiles, truck-mounted multi-barrel rocket launchers, and mortar munitions produced by companies registered in China, Iran, Russia, Serbia, and the UAE. Around nine rounds of peace talks led by the US and Saudi Arabia have been held, but all failed in the initial stage. The latest round of US-led peace talks was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on August 14, 2024. But, neither of the warring parties attended. Any new administration ruling Sudan would be a challenge to the internationally recognised and army-led national government which was forced out of Khartoum last year and now operates on the Red Sea coast in Port Sudan. A group of civilian politicians and armed group leaders have agreed to set up a peace government", RSF members told Reuters. They said it would be civilian-led, independent of the RSF and set up to replace the government in Port Sudan which they accused of prolonging the war. The civil has impacted several regions, with more than 2 million people seeking shelter in neighbouring Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia. The refugee camps are overflown and have raised concerns in Europe that many will attempt to reach the continent. In February, dozens of Sudanese drowned when a migrant boat capsized along the Tunisia-Italy route. A lack of law and order has triggered ethnic clashes along the South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea borders. More than 100 deaths were reported in ethnic violence in the Abiey region, a disputed land between Sudan and South Sudan, according to the UN. There is a fear that the military rivals would divide Sudan, leading to a similar situation in Libya. Unlike Ukraine and Gaza, the Sudanese war has not gained international traction, but the repercussions have been the same fatalities, fear and destroyed livelihood. Where Does Myanmar Stand In 2025? The ongoing civil war in Myanmar, since the military toppled the civilian government in 2021, has killed more than 50,000 people and displaced around 3 million. The fighting between the junta and armed resistance groups in the first two years of the war led to a stalemate while 2024 saw the military on the back foot. With the active Ukraine and Middle East wars, violence in Myanmar conflict has been received global attention. In February 2021, the Myanmars military staged a coup to overthrow the civilian governmenton the same day the parliament is set to swear in the winners of the 2020 election, in which Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy won by a landslide. As a result, international condemnation and pro-democracy protests swept across the country, with the junta responding with a brutal crackdown. Nearly 500 were killed in the first two months of the coup. In May 2021, the National Unity Government (NUG), comprising ousted lawmakers, protesters and ethnic minorities, announced its armed wing the Peoples Defence Force (PDF). But in August, Min Aung Hlaing named himself the Prime Minister, and announced a potential extension to the state of emergency. In 2022, resistance forces become more united, with many PDF units and ethnic armies forming partnerships to launch joint attacks against junta troops. In October 2023, the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a coalition of ethnic armies, launched Operation 1027, seizing control of key areas from the military, marking a key victory for the resistance and a turning point in the war. In January 2024, China brokered ceasefire between junta and the Three Brotherhood Alliance. But the junta announced mandatory conscription for all men between 18 and 35 years old and all women between 18 and 27 in February. The embattled military proposed a peace agreement with the resistance in September, urging them to solve political problems politically," but it is widely snubbed by the NUG. Rebels in December took control of the countrys western border with Bangladesh after insurgents of the Arakan Army (AA) drove out the juntas Border Guard Police (PGP5) in northern Rakhine State. The 270 km border with Bangladesh is now governed by the rebels. The AA will likely be the first insurgent group to take complete control of a state in Myanmar, as per BBC. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Myanmars neighbours are tense. Thailand in December held talks to resolve the political crisis. The meeting was attended by foreign ministers and high-level representatives from Myanmar as well as Laos, China, India, Bangladesh and host Thailand. But experts think the approach is unlikely to fructify. David Scott Mathieson, an independent analyst working on conflict and human rights issues on Myanmar, told Deutsche Welle, Unless the Myanmar military is serious about peace, these talks will be extremely limited. You cant approach any diplomacy on Myanmar without a clear understanding that the military is the root cause of all the problems." First Published: January 02, 2025, 18:04 IST Will Work From Home End In 2025? Why Companies Are Insisting That Employees Return To Office | Explained Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Shilpy Bisht Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 13:30 IST Economists point out that hybrid working model is critical for attracting talent. Work from home model has helped many hybrid-friendly companies perform better, with productivity and stocks going up Some CEOs argue that remote work has lived its usefulness and believe office footprint is more critical to a business future than retaining top talent. (Representative image) Hybrid work is here to stay", concluded economists from Harvard Business School and University of Pennsylvania. Shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic, a majority of employees around the world worked from home. But that changed from 2022, when remote work appeared to decline, paving way for hybrid working models. In 2025, many big techs like Amazon, AT&T and Wipro are insisting on working from office five days a week. related stories Why Are Companies Strict About Full-Time Office? With pandemic done and dusted, many executives argue that remote work has outlived its usefulness. CEOs believe office footprint is more critical to a business future than attracting and retaining top talent. Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, told his hundreds of thousands of employees that they need to be back in the office five days a week. His staff arent happy, in fact more than seven in ten have said they are looking for other options to work, according to Fortune. In India, Bengaluru-based IT giant Wipro earlier this year cracked down on work-from-home employees. Mint reported that the company had told employees in September to work from office at least three days a week. It warned that those who did not meet the quota would lose a days leave. LTIMindtree has also done the same. It said it would take away 1.5 days of leave per month in case of violations. According to Fortune, employers say they have spent millions of dollars on high-end offices and thus want them to be used. Others say companies simply want to lay off staff and Return To Office is a way to get employees to quit. Research shows that in-office mandates are costing companies high performers, as pointed out by Nick South, managing director of people and organisation practice at the Boston Consulting Group. In October 2023, 63% of CEOs KPMG surveyed predicted a full return to in-office work by the end of 2026. Why Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay Economists point out that hybrid working model is critical for attracting talent. Work from home model has helped many hybrid-friendly companies perform better, with productivity and stocks going up. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saw this coming. The AI company, which is riding high on an 171% increase in share price this year to date, skipped Return To Office (RTO) mandates entirely, ensuring the company retains the brightest talent in a competitive market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is now the chief of newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Donald Trump government, however, wrote in The Wall Street Journal: Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome. The problem with this method is bosses have absolutely no power over which staff decide to move on because of an RTO mandate. Data from the Flex Index, which analyses employer-provided data from more than 8,000 businesses in the US, found that throughout 2024, the number of businesses offering work location flexibility has stabilised at around 70%. With pandemic now completely gone, employees have been adapted to the hybrid working model for four years. So, of course, its the new normal and taking things away is really irritating for people, especially if you havent told them anything about it or what your goals are," said Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton Business School. What To Know About Remote Work In 2025? About 68% of US companies offer some form of work location flexibility. Only one-third of companies require full-time in-office presence. Approximately 43% of US firms have structured hybrid models. Small businesses have an increased likelihood of providing fully remote work flexibility (70%) than larger established organisations (only 14%). Its important to note that when it comes to implementing the structured hybrid remote work model, most companies (79%) prefer to go for setting a minimum number of days per week, with only a small percentage opting for specific days each week (i.e. come into the office on Mondays and Fridays) or minimum percentage of work time (i.e. 40% of work hours per month should be clocked in at the office). A Gallup survey showed that 6 in 10 employees want hybrid work, while 1 in 3 favour completely remote work. Under 10% want to work from the office. Around 40% of workers say they will look for a new job if no longer given the option to work hybrid or completely remote. Remote work is gaining acceptance in India too. Forbes quoted a CXOToday survey, which said around 60-90 million Indians around 15% of workers will be working remotely in 2025. That figure stands at 12% at present. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Fortune quoted a study from the Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania as saying that employees will quit their job if denied the opportunity to work from home. Raj Choudhury, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, told Fortune, My prediction is eventually every company and every company leader will have to accept [remote work]." First Published: January 02, 2025, 13:25 IST 'All Of Us Should Be Ashamed': Madras HC Says Anna University Sexual Assault Case Being Politicised Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 14:37 IST Madras High Court said that instead of the case being a wake-up call, the incident is being politicised with no real concern. Madras High Court Expressing anguish over the Anna University sexual assault case, Madras High Court said that the incident should serve as a wake-up call but it is instead being politicised with no real concern. Justice P. Velmurugan of the Madras High Court made the remarks when Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) advocate K. Balu made a mention of the State police denied permission for a protest over the issue by the partys womens wing. Responding to the same, the judge said that protests are being used by political parties to attract media attention and not out of genuine concern about the matter. related stories Media also did not act responsibly, he said, adding, Im not saying that media should not report on the issue but definitely not the way in which they are doing." The judge continued, Im ashamed to live in this era when discrimination based on gender, caste, and so on continues. All of us should be ashamed. Strictly speaking, we all are co-accused in such crimes." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The incident occurred on December 23, when a 19-year-old engineering student was allegedly sexually assaulted on the Anna University campus. The victim said that the assailant had attacked her and her male friend, brutally assaulting the latter before dragging her into nearby shrubs where the assault occurred. Earlier, the Madras High Court formed an all-women Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the incident and ordered the state government to pay an interim compensation of Rs 25 lakhs to the survivor. The court also criticized the police for their handling of the case, particularly the leaked FIR, which contained language that blamed the victim. First Published: January 02, 2025, 13:54 IST 'May God Protect Punjab Farmers': Arvind Kejriwal Claims Centre Mulling To Bring Back Farm Laws Published By : PTI Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 14:55 IST In the wake of the ongoing farmers' protest in parts of Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal has said the BJP would be responsible if anything happens to the protesters. Arvind Kejriwal (Photo: PTI) AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the BJP would be responsible if something happens" to the protesting farmers in Punjab who are on an indefinite fast over a set of demands, including a legal guarantee on MSP. Kejriwal, in a post on X, also claimed that the Centre is preparing to implement the now-revoked three farm laws through the backdoor" by calling it a policy". He said copies of the new policy" have been sent to all states for their views on it. related stories Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal has been on an indefinite fast for over a month and has refused medical aid. The AAP-led Punjab government has termed the newly announced draft policy on National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing as an attempt to backdoor entry to the three central agri laws passed in 2020. After a yearlong protest by farmers, the Centre repealed the laws. Kejriwal posted on X that while the farmers were on a fast unto death in Punjab, the BJP, due to its arrogance, was not talking to them. The AAP supremo charged that the BJP-led Centre accepted farmers demands three years ago but is now reneged on it. Why do the BJP have such arrogance that it does not even talk to anyone," Kejriwal asked. May God keep the farmers who are on an indefinite protest safe, but if something happens to them, the BJP will be responsible for it," he said in a long post in Hindi. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, when asked about holding talks with the protesting farmers to end the logjam, said on Wednesday that the government will act as per instructions by the Supreme Court on the ongoing farmers protest at the Punjab-Haryana border. The Supreme Court is hearing a matter against the AAP-led Punjab government for not complying with directions to hospitalise farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal. On Thursday, the apex court pulled up the Punjab government and said its officials and some farmer leaders are creating a false impression in media that attempts are being made to break farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewals fast. Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh denied any such attempt to complicate the situation and said efforts are being made to persuade Dallewal to take medical aid without breaking his fast. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Dallewal has been on an indefinite fast at the Khanauri border between Punjab and Haryana since November 26 to press the Centre into accepting the agitating farmers demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) on crops. Farmers under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces. First Published: January 02, 2025, 14:55 IST Asked To Quit Engineering Over Repeated Failures, Nagpur Student Strangles Mother, Stabs Father Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 16:10 IST An Engineering student was arrested for allegedly killing his parents over differences on his education and career, the police said. Representational Image A third-year Engineering student in Maharashtras Nagpur allegedly killed his parents after they asked him to quit the course following his failure to pass the exam thrice, the police said. The accused was identified as Utkarsh Dhakhole who allegedly committed the crime at their residence in the Kapil Nagar area of the city on December 26 last year. However, the incident came to light on Wednesday morning after neighbours got a foul smell, they added. related stories The deceased were identified as Liladhar Dhakhole (55) and his wife Aruna (55). Accused Student Arrested Utkarsh was arrested after the recovery of the decomposed bodies of his parents, following which he confessed to the crime, DCP (Zone V) Niketan Kadam said. Utkarsh allegedly strangled his mother, a teacher, around noon on December 26 and later stabbed his father, a technician at a power plant and social worker, to death when he returned home around 5 pm. He then left the bodies there," the official said. The police said that the motive appeared to be a dispute over the sons academic performance. Utkarsh failed to clear several subjects during his engineering course. His parents, therefore, wanted him to quit engineering and choose something else. However, he was against their suggestion," Kadam said. What Did Accused Do After Murder? After killing his parents, he took his sister, who is a college-going student and was unaware of the murder, to their uncles residence. He lied to his relatives that his parents had gone to Bengaluru to participate in a meditation programme for a few days. He also stayed at the uncles place along with his sister, the official said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all As the double murder was discovered, he was subsequently arrested, the police said. (With PTI inputs) Location : Nagpur, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 16:10 IST Delhi Police Busts Illegal Immigration Racket, Arrests 4, Including 2 Bangladeshi Nationals Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 21:49 IST The immigrants, guided by the Bangladeshi handlers, crossed the jungle border between Durgapur in Bangladesh and Baghmara in Meghalaya on foot The other two arrested are accused of facilitating the Bangladeshi nationals' unlawful immigration and document fabrication. (PTI file photo) Delhi Police said it has uncovered a large-scale illegal immigration racket involving Bangladeshi nationals and arrested four people, including two persons from the neighbouring country who allegedly entered India illegally, an official said on Thursday. The other two arrested are accused of facilitating the Bangladeshi nationals unlawful immigration and document fabrication. related stories The immigration racket involved handlers in Bangladesh and India who handled transportation and others in India who helped forge fake documents for their stay in India. , Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) January 2, 2025 Police have also seized fake Aadhaar and PAN cards, Indian passport applications, and other documents. Police said they have also discovered donkey routes" via Meghalaya and Assam in the border states that the two foreign nationals used. Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range) Sanjay Kumar Jain said Delhi Police has apprehended two Bangladeshi nationals Bilal Hosen and his wife Sapna along with two Indian nationals Aminur Ishlam and Ashish Mehra. Investigation revealed that a well-organised network facilitated the illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals into India, Jain said. The immigrants, guided by the Bangladeshi handlers, crossed the jungle border between Durgapur in Bangladesh and Baghmara in Meghalaya on foot. Indian handlers then transported them to Krishnai and New Bongaigaon railway stations in Assam before they continued their journey to metropolitan cities like Delhi and Kolkata," the Joint CP said. Police said the immigrants used buses, trains and forged documents to evade detection. Key facilitators provided logistical support, including transportation, fake IDs, and SIM cards. The arrested individuals confessed to charging between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000 per Aadhaar card, they said. Police said Bilal Hosen (28) entered India via the Meghalaya-Assam border in 2022 and settled in Delhi with his wife. He used to run a cosmetic shop and beauty parlour in Gurugram. He allegedly acquired fake Aadhaar and PAN cards to be able to live in India. His 23-year-old wife previously worked in a garment factory in Bangladesh. She crossed the border with Hosen and forged documents to be able to settle in the country. Assam resident Aminur Ishlam (37), police said, allegedly used to facilitate the transportation of illegal immigrants from the border to railway stations. He would allegedly collaborate with Bangladeshi accomplices, and provide transportation and fake documents, police said. Gurugram resident Ashish Mehra (23)is accused of fabricating Aadhaar cards using other fake documents. Mehra worked with an authorised Aadhaar operator and charged fees for the work. Delhi Police has decided to revamp the Bangladeshi Cell in all the police stations of the Southern Range, Joint CP Jain said. In December, Southern Range police arrested 12 Bangladeshi individuals, including seven Bangladeshi nationals who were apprehended at Arjangarh Metro Station on December 28 and deported through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), he said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Hosen was arrested near Aya Nagar signal with forged Indian documents and further interrogation led to the arrests of his wife, Ashish Mehra and Aminur Ishlam. A search of their residences yielded more forged documents and banking materials," he said. Police added that they deported 31 African nationals last year. First Published: January 02, 2025, 21:47 IST 'Feminism Suits Me': Delhi Cafe Owner's Wife Writes About 'Toxicity' On Instagram Days Before His Suicide Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Sumedha Kirti Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 15:43 IST Delhi cafe owner Puneet Khurana's sister claimed that the businessman's account was hacked by his wife. She also abused his parents, and threatened to get them jailed. Manika Pahwa, accused of harassing her husband, posted a cryptic message on social media less than a week before her spouse died by suicide at his residence in northwest Delhis Model Town. Asserting that feminism suits her", Pahwa alleged that she had suffered toxicity and narcissistic" abuse. Pahwas husband, 40-year-old businessman Puneet Khurana, was found hanging in his room in Model Towns Kalyan Vihar area on New Years Eve. The couple, co-owners of the popular Woodbox Cafe in Delhi, were going through a divorce. related stories Several media houses claimed to have accessed her post on her Instagram account, which is now deleted. Well feminism suits me, as idealistic values are my core & feminism means giving & getting mere respect. To one another. No slave treatment, and no stopping some girl to speak her mind," Pahwa reportedly wrote on Instagram six days before Khurana died. Even a house help, guard, rikshawala, a tiny kid deserves respectful treatment. Once a coward fought with me that respect has to be earned. Ufff! What disgrace na? I disagree, respect has to be given to each and everyone. If not then you lost the respect baby. Phew! Maybe thats why in India, we address people with aap, bhaiya, didi to even strangers, isnt it?" NDTV and Republic quoted Pahwas Instagram post. Pahwa further referred to her abusers" as insecure cowards", and said that virtues like kindness and love are more important than money. I just wish these abusers get to see the mirror someday and understand..that kindness, love, understanding, trust,wisdom, affection & care all are true virtues & hold much more importance than money,property & gold. God bless the unkind ones. I know nobody can change, but lets just pray, nobody else should suffer because of some bunch of insecure cowards. My tribe, pray with me..okay? love you all I am free, and the beautiful ruins are part of me," she was quoted. Manika Pahwa Hacked Husbands Account, Threatened To Jail Parents Leena Khattar, Khuranas sister, claimed that the businessmans social media accounts were hacked by his wife. There is a video recording of around 59 minutes, in which Puneet has mentioned details of harassment he faced," she said. A report by Republic Media Network quoted Leena Khattar as saying, His wife hacked his Instagram account and behaved badly, which led my brother to call her at 3 in the morning. When he called her, she responded by asking what do you want." The report further quoted Khattar and stated despite the businessman speaking to Pahwa kindly", she continued to abuse him. She threatened to have his parents jailed and then told him, you always say youll die, but you never do. If youre so bold, then die. She pushed my brother to such an extreme level with her words," Khattar was quoted. The businessmans brother-in-law, Sumit, claimed that Khurana recorded a 59-minute video before taking his life, detailing the alleged harassment. The video has been circulating on social media. A report in Times of India quoted an officer as saying that in the purported audio clip of a conversation between the couple, the man claims that his account was hacked, but the woman denies this. She then asserts that she remains his business partner and demands that he settles the dues. The conversation also touches on other business-related disagreements," the officer was quoted. The report further stated that the woman alleged her husband repeatedly disgraced her and her family, but when confronted, he asked her to specify what she wanted. In another video that surfaced on Thursday morning, Puneet Khurana can be seen speaking to his father-in-law regarding the transfer of Rs 2 crore for a house. According to a report in India Today, the deceaseds father-in-law, Jagdish Pahwa, is seen discussing the transfer of Rs 2 crore for the house. However, Khuranas family claimed that Pahwa later backtracked on his promise. Laws To Protect Women Being Misused? The incident days after AI engineer Atul Subhashs suicide galvanised mens rights activists and started a wider debate around misuse of laws by women. Subhash, the 34-year-old deputy general manager at a private firm, was found dead in his apartment on December 9, leaving a 81-minute video and a 24-page note detailing harassment by his wife and in-laws. In the note prepared by the AI engineer before dying by suicide, he detailed two alleged conversations with his wife Nikita Singhania and mother-in-law Nisha Singhania that drove him to the edge. In one of them, he alleged, his mother-in-law asked, You havent died by suicide yet? I thought I would get the news today." His death sparked a discussion around the tough dowry law in India which was designed to protect women from harassment and even murder. While Singhania accused Subhash and his family of harassing her for dowry, many argued that with cases of divorce steadily rising, the law is now being misused by women to harass their husbands, even forcing them to kill themselves. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all A lot of men want to share audio & video of their wife, in-laws abusing them, not letting them meet their child, demanding huge alimony etcBut most of these men fear getting one more litigation if they speak in public What can be the solution to this?#JusticeIsDue Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj (@DeepikaBhardwaj) January 2, 2025 A report in BBC stated that Indias top court has also weighed in, with one judge describing it as legal terrorism" that was intended to be used as a shield and not as an assassins weapon". First Published: January 02, 2025, 09:11 IST BJP's Scam 2024 Vs AAP's GOAT: Poster War Intensifies As Race For Delhi Polls Heats Up Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 12:38 IST BJP put up in a social media post with a poster of Kejriwal and claimed the former Delhi Chief Minister had launched a "new game in Delhi" to "save power by rigging votes". The posters put up by BJP (left) and AAP. (Pics: X @BJP4Delhi, @AamAadmiParty) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are engaged in a war of words and posters ahead of the Delhi elections, with both parties accusing each other of adding fake voters to manipulate electoral outcomes. BJP put up in a social media post with a poster of Kejriwal and claimed the former Delhi Chief Minister had launched a new game in Delhi" to save power by rigging votes". related stories The post on X alleged: The house owner did not know, yet hundreds of votes were fraudulently created using his home address, primarily from a particular community, with the ages of the new voters ranging from 40 to 80 years." ! ( 40 80 )#AAP___ pic.twitter.com/xt11LKFFPH BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) January 2, 2025 The AAP countered the BJPs accusations by sharing a video of Kejriwal labeled G.O.A.T" (greatest of all time), in an attempt to dismiss the allegations. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal wrote to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday, accusing the BJP of vote deletion and distributing money in Delhi. In his letter, Kejriwal raised multiple questions ahead of the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. The former Delhi Chief Minister asked Bhagwat if the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) endorsed the wrongdoings" committed by the BJP. He asked if the RSS supported money being openly distributed by the BJP leaders to buy votes and large-scale" deletion of Purvanchali and Dalit votes by the saffron party. BJP Accuses AAP Of Conspiracy On Monday, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and former MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma presented documents alleging a deliberate conspiracy to manipulate electoral outcomes in the capital. Sachdeva highlighted discrepancies in the voter list for the New Delhi constituency, pointing out instances where non-existent addresses were used for voter registrations. One address is listed as house number Zero, where 144 votes are registered. Another is marked simply as A, with 30 voters added. Such fraudulent practices clearly reveal the AAPs attempt to undermine the BJPs presence," he said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Verma added that the New Delhi constituency, which has been represented by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal for three terms, has seen a significant drop in the number of voters. In 2020, there were 1,46,000 voters, but today there are only 1,06,000. Over the past five years, 61,000 voters have been removed, while just 22,000 new voters have been added. Shockingly, 1,000 voters are disappearing every month and Kejriwal has never addressed this issue," he claimed reported PTI. First Published: January 02, 2025, 12:17 IST In Manmohan Singhs Honour: Memorial Site Options Being Discussed, Bharat Ratna Soon? Written By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 09:50 IST Homework | Manmohan Singh got the Padma Vibhushan in 1987 for his contribution as a civil servant - which is the countrys second-highest civilian honour. A Bharat Ratna, the countrys highest civilian honour, could be the most deserving now. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with PM Narendra Modi | File Image A government source told CNN-News18 how no one can question the contribution of Manmohan Singh to the country and said he would have achieved even more if he was not constrained by the Congress party in his term as the Prime Minister. Sources pointed to Modis glowing tribute to Singh to underline why Congress charges over Singhs funeral preparations are more political than factual. related stories First, the point about the memorial. Home Minister Amit Shah on December 27 evening had communicated to the top Congress leadership that the government would set up a trust to construct a memorial for Manmohan Singh. The options for the sites for the same have been discussed with the family of Singh subsequently. The three possible options for the site could be the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal, a site located between the memorials of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sanjay Gandhi, or a site near the memorial of Chaudhary Charan Singh. The memorial could be allocated around 1.5 acres of land and could come up within 6 months, with the construction being done by the CPWD. The final decision on the site would depend on the nod of the family. The trust could have as members the government ministers and officials, and representation from the Congress and the family. The Rashtriya Smriti Sthal also has the memorials of former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PV Narsimha Rao. Both were made under the Modi government in fact Rao got a memorial only in 2015, 11 years after his death, as the Congress government chose not to honour its former PM with the same. Hence, on memorials, the Congress in fact has much to answer. Bharat Ratna Speculation The Telangana assembly has passed a resolution last week that the Centre should honour Manmohan Singh with a Bharat Ratna, with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and BRS Working President KT Rama Rao saying the same would honour Singhs legacy. Congress leaders in Delhi are voicing the same demand. It is another matter that the Congress governments never chose to honour former PMs like Atal Bihari Vajpayee or PV Narsimha Rao with a Bharat Ratna. Both these former PMs were given a Bharat Ratna under the Narendra Modi government. The Modi Government also gave a Bharat Ratna to Congress leader and former President Pranab Mukherjee, former PM Charan Singh, LK Advani, and socialist icon Karpoori Thakur. Pranab Mukerjee in his memoir in fact said he recommended a Bharat Ratna for Manmohan Singh in 2013 but it remains a mystery why the UPA government did not confer it then. In fact, it has been one hallmark of the Narendra Modi government, which, since 2015, has blurred the political lines when it comes to conferring the countrys top civilian honour. Merit has overtaken petty politics, with the Modi government not shy to acknowledge its adversaries and going into areas where Congress chose not to dread. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had got Bharat Ratna when they were PMs themselves, and Rajiv Gandhi had got one posthumously. Most former PMs, hence, including Morarji Desai, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Gulzarilal Nanda, have got the Bharat Ratna. Manmohan Singh got the Padma Vibhushan way back in 1987 for his contribution as a civil servant which is the countrys second-highest civilian honour. A Bharat Ratna, the countrys highest civilian honour for Singh the politician, could be the most deserving now. First Published: January 02, 2025, 09:10 IST Train To Kashmir, Delhi-Meerut RRTS, 2 Major Expressways: What India Can Expect In 2025 Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 09:19 IST In the initial few weeks of 2025, train connectivity to Kashmir is likely to begin. Around the same time, commercial services of the RRTS from Meerut to Delhi could also be started A MEMU train during a trial run on Sangaldan-Reasi section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link project. (Image: PTI) The year 2025 is going to be critical when it comes to improving infrastructure and connectivity in India. Starting from a broad-gauge railway connectivity to Kashmir to the Delhi-Meerut RRTS, a series of new projects are lined up for completion this year. In addition, there are several critical national highway projects under the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) some more sections of Delhi-Mumbai expressway and the completion of the Delhi-Dehradun expressway. related stories In the initial few weeks of the new year, train connectivity to Kashmir is likely to begin. Around the same time, the commercial services of the regional rapid transit system (RRTS) from Meerut to Delhi could also be started. News18 has learnt that while the official announcement of the dates for these projects are yet to be made, they are in their final stages. With the RRTS functional in Delhi, those travelling to and from Meerut will have a faster, cheaper and convenient mode of transport. The services, so far, were available between Ghaziabad and Meerut. After a wait of several decades, the broad-gauge railway connectivity to Kashmir will become a reality. This all-weather line will ease the journey to the region. The first train a Vande Bharat sleeper is expected to be flagged off soon. So far, there is no direct train from Delhi or any other major Indian city to Kashmir. While regular train services reach Kashmir, Rameswarams wait will also be over with the unveiling of the Pamban Bridge, which is ready and will be inaugurated this year. For the train to reach Kashmir, commercial operation on the complete Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) section is important. For this, Indias first cable-stayed Anji Khad railway bridge has been built and tests on it are underway. A part of the 326-km rail line connecting Udhampur to Baramulla via Srinagar, this bridge connects Katra and Reasi. Similar to the Anji Khad Bridge, the one in Pamban is also special as it is Indias first vertical lift railway bridge. The 2.05-km bridge connecting Rameswaram to the Tamil Nadu mainland is being executed by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd at a cost of Rs 535 crore. The existing non-operational Pamban rail bridge is more than 100 years old and was originally built in 1914 to connect Mandapam to Rameswaram on the Gulf of Mannar. It was the only link between the two locations until a new parallel road bridge came up in 1988. The new bridge is coming up parallel to the old rail bridge, but with enhanced features of vertical lifting. It will allow the Indian Railways to operate trains at a higher speed as well as increase traffic between the mainland and Rameswaram. ALSO READ | Up To Speed: Train Runs At 90 Kmph On Pamban-Mandapam Broad-Gauge Line, 80 Kmph On New Bridge The bridge is also expected to enhance the areas tourism potential. The Commissioner of Railway Safety has inspected the bridge, and it is expected to be made operational in the next few weeks. While these are the upcoming train connectivity projects, steps are also being taken to enhance air connectivity. Two new airports Jewar and Navi Mumbai will be made operational in 2025. Both the airports are expected to start operations in April. The Noida International Airport in Jewar is designed to handle 12 million passengers annually. This airport will ease flight connectivity to several districts in western Uttar Pradesh, which is being developed as an industrial hub. The Navi Mumbai Airport, when completed, will become one of the largest greenfield international airports in the country. It will have a capacity to handle 60 million passengers and 1.5 million tonnes of cargo annually. NATIONAL HIGHWAY PROJECTS A part of the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, is expected to be flagged off this month. The road between Akshardham and Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) will become operational first, while the remaining section is likely to be opened by March as per the MoRTH deadlines. This road will cut down travel time to Dehradun from around five to six hours to just two to two-and-a-half hours. It will start from Akshardham in East Delhi and will pass through Baghpat, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Similarly, the deadline for the Bengaluru-Chennai expressway is also in 2025. This 262-km expressway costs more than Rs 17,930 crore and will pass through and connect parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The Delhi-Mumbai expressway, which is already the longest in India even before completion, is also expected to be ready this year. Some sections of the project have been opened for use. First Published: January 02, 2025, 09:19 IST 'TMC Not Guarding Borders': Mamata Banerjee Says BSF Allowing Bangladeshi Infiltration, BJP Retorts Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 16:32 IST Mamata Banerjee alleged during an administrative meeting that the BSF, which guards the Bangladesh border, was allowing infiltration into Bengal. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. (PTI file photo) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BSF of allowing infiltration from Bangladesh to destabilise the state, calling it the Centres nefarious blueprint". The CM alleged during an administrative meeting that the BSF, which guards the Bangladesh border, was allowing infiltration into Bengal. The remarks come after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said earlier that infiltration from Bangladesh" was disrupting peace in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee said, The BSF is allowing infiltration from different areas into Bengal and torturing women. The TMC is not guarding the borders. The border is not in our hands, so if someone accuses the TMC of permitting infiltration, I will point out that it is the BSFs responsibility." related stories She added, The police have all the information, and the Centre has it too. I have received information from Rajiv Kumar (DGP) and local sources. I will write a strong letter to the Centre regarding this." Asserting that it is important to maintain peace in West Bengal and have good relations with Bangladesh, Mamata Banerjee said, We have no enmity, but goons are being allowed here. They commit crimes and return across the border. BSF is enabling this, and the Centre has a role in it." Responding to the claims made by the West Bengal Chief Minister, BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar said that she has reached the ultimate level of delusion". The failed Chief Minister of the state, @MamataOfficial, has reached the ultimate level of delusion!Despite not providing land to set up outposts for border surveillance, she used to blame the Border Security Force (@BSF_India ) for illegal infiltration. But now, crossing all pic.twitter.com/Jwzk0oAzwF Dr. Sukanta Majumdar (@DrSukantaBJP) January 2, 2025 The Union Minister and BJP West Bengal chief questioned Mamata Banerjees remarks and said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Despite not providing land to set up outposts for border surveillance, she used to blame the Border Security Force for illegal infiltration. But now, crossing all limits of accusations, she has started blaming her own administrations officials! According to her, the incompetent District Magistrates (DMs) and Superintendents of Police (SPs) under her administration are allowing foreign criminals to infiltrate the border to murder the elected representatives of her party." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Arvind Kejriwal also questioned the BJP on the issue. He asked, Is the central government deliberately allowing infiltration from the Bangladesh border or is the BJP government failing to protect the border?" Location : West Bengal, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 15:15 IST 'Cowardly': PM Modi Condemns Attack On New Year Crowd In New Orleans Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 21:35 IST At least 15 people were killed and 30 others were injured after a truck rammed into a crowd celebrating New Year's Day at New Orleans in the United States. PM Modi condemns New Orleans terror attack (Image: PTI/AFP) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday strongly condemned" the terrorist attack in New Orleans in which at least 10 people were killed and dozens were injured. We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy," PM Modi posted on X. related stories We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 2, 2025 Attack Underlines Why We Must Stand United Against Terrorism: Jaishankar External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar expressed condolences to the victims families and said that the attack underlines why all must stand together in the fight against terrorism. An outrageous attack that underlines why we must stand united in the fight against terrorism. My condolences to the families of the victims and prayers for the early recovery of those injured," Jaishankar posted on X. An outrageous attack that underlines why we must stand united in the fight against terrorism. My condolences to the families of the victims and prayers for the early recovery of those injured. https://t.co/2MCS3XwkD7 Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) January 2, 2025 New Orleans Terror Attack The New Year celebrations turned tragic in the US city as an Army veteran drove a pickup truck with an ISIS flag into the crowd, killing 15 people and leaving at least 30 others injured. He opened fire at the police personnel present on the spot but was shot dead in retaliatory firing. After initial denial, the FBI termed the incident an act of terrorism" and suspected that the driver did not act alone. The investigators also discovered multiple IEDs, and two pipe bombs hidden in coolers and wired for remote detonation. Joe Biden On New Orleans Attack Outgoing US President Joe Biden said that the FBI is leading an investigation to ascertain what happened, why it happened, and whether there was any continuing threat to public safety". To all the families of those who are killed, to all those who are injured, to all the people of New Orleans who are grieving today, I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you," he said. Donald Trump Hints At Illegal Immigrant Behind Attack President-elect Donald Trump described the attack as an act of pure evil" and linked it to illegal immigration. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true," Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!" Trump added. First Published: January 02, 2025, 18:26 IST PM Modi To Inaugurate Several Development Projects In Delhi Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 11:26 IST The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) in a statement said that Modi will visit the newly-constructed flats for the dwellers of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters as part of slum rehabilitation project at Swabhiman Apartments in Delhis Ashok Vihar and hand over keys to the eligible beneficiaries. He will inaugurate 1,675 newly constructed flats, the PMO said, adding the development is in line with the prime minister's housing for all initiative. (Image: PTI/File) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a slew of development measures, including 1,675 flats for the residents of JJ clusters and two urban redevelopment projects in the city on Friday. The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) in a statement said that Modi will visit the newly-constructed flats for the dwellers of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters as part of slum rehabilitation project at Swabhiman Apartments in Delhis Ashok Vihar and hand over keys to the eligible beneficiaries. related stories He will inaugurate 1,675 newly constructed flats, the PMO said, adding the development is in line with the prime ministers "housing for all" initiative. The objective of the project is to provide the residents of JJ clusters in Delhi with a better and healthier living environment equipped with proper amenities and facilities. For every Rs 25 lakh spent on construction of a flat by the Central government, the eligible beneficiaries pay less than seven per cent of the total amount, comprising Rs 1.42 lakh as a nominal contribution and Rs 30,000 for five years of maintenance, it said. The development push from the BJP-led government at the Centre comes ahead of the assembly polls in Delhi expected to be held in February. The BJP has been locked in a bitter political confrontation with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in power in the city since 2013, and is making all out efforts to end its reign. On Friday, Modi will also inaugurate two urban redevelopment projects the World Trade Centre (WTC) at Nauroji Nagar and the General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) type-II quarters at Sarojini Nagar. The World Trade Centre, the statement said, has transformed the area by replacing over 600 dilapidated quarters with state-of-the-art commercial towers, offering around 34 lakh square feet of premium commercial space with advanced amenities. The project incorporates green building practices with provisions such as a zero-discharge concept, solar energy generation and rainwater harvesting systems. The GPRA type-II quarters include 28 towers that house over 2,500 residential units, offering modern amenities and efficient use of space. The projects design incorporates rainwater harvesting systems, sewage and water treatment plants, and solar-powered waste compactors encouraging eco-conscious living, it said. Modi will also inaugurate the CBSEs integrated office complex at Dwarka built at around Rs 300 crore. It includes offices, auditorium, advanced data center and comprehensive water management system among others. The ecofriendly building has been constructed to high environmental standards and was designed as per Platinum Rating standards of the Indian Green Building Council, it said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Among other initiatives, the prime minister will lay the foundation stone of three new projects worth over Rs 600 crore in the Delhi University. It includes an academic block in the Eastern Campus at Surajmal Vihar in East Delhi and an academic block in the Western Campus at Dwarka. It also includes building Veer Savarkar College at Roshanpura, Najafgarh, having state-of-the-art facilities for education, the statement said. First Published: January 02, 2025, 11:26 IST Poll Gift For Delhi: Gadkari Announces 80 Km Of Roads To Fight Traffic, Pollution Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: January 03, 2025, 01:47 IST According to Nitin Gadkari, this infrastructure investment of Rs 12,500 would reduce the pressure of vehicles coming from outside Delhi. It would address the problem of traffic jams and hence reduce air pollution in the national capital Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari. File pic/News18 Delhi, choking with traffic and air pollution, may soon get relief as union minister Nitin Gadkari announced four new roads for the national capital on Thursday, which will have a collective length of close to 80 km. This announcement comes just weeks before the assembly polls in Delhi. related stories Gadkari said his ministry has approved projects worth Rs 12,500 crore to help Delhi in its fight against vehicular traffic and air pollution. The longest among the four projects is a 35-km road between the Delhi-Dehradun expressway and Noida. This will also allow people from western Uttar Pradesh to travel to Delhi and eventually to Dehradun faster. It will also allow commuters from north, northwest, and southwest Delhi to reach Noida through Ghaziabad. This road, costing Rs 4,400 crore, will act as a bypass for east Delhi, which has serious traffic congestion points. Another 20 km road is proposed between UER-II and the KMP expressway (Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway) to the Delhi-Katra expressway. This Rs 2,500 crore road will divert traffic from Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab towards the airport and Delhi-Mumbai expressway. A third road is planned between the Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II) near Alipur and the Delhi-Dehradun expressway. This 17-kilometre road will cost Rs 2,200 crore and will ease the traffic flow for those heading to Dehradun from Rajasthan. Also, those coming from Dehradun will get a dedicated passage to reach the airport in Delhi, UER-II, and Dwarka expressway. The fourth road is an underground tunnel in Delhi between the Shiv Murti interchange of the Dwarka expressway and will end at Nelson Mandela Marg towards the Vasant Kunj end. This five-kilometre tunnel is a long-pending project and will cost Rs 3,500 crore. Passing through the Southern/Morphological Ridge, the road is facing some challenges in clearance. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Gadkari in a statement said: These roads will keep the outside traffic away from the city and will help in the fight against air pollution and traffic." The term of the current assembly in Delhi is ending in February, and elections are likely to be held soon. First Published: January 03, 2025, 01:47 IST No CCTV Cameras At Apartment, Missing Pen Drive: Mystery In OpenAI Whistleblower Suchir Balaji's Death Deepens Reported By : CNN-News18 Edited By: Vani Mehrotra Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 13:12 IST The death of Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI employee, has raised questions after evidence of a ransacked apartment, missing items, and alleged injuries suggest a murder. Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018 (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP) As the investigations into 26-year-old Suchir Balajis death progress, it has now been revealed that there were no CCTV cameras at the San Francisco apartment where his body was found. Some investigative journalists also believe that Suchir was hit on the back of his head, after which he collapsed. Meanwhile, the police are yet to share an official report of Suchirs autopsy but say the former OpenAI employee shot himself and died by suicide on December 14, 2024. related stories A forensic report on the fingerprints found on the gun found at the site was also awaited. Suchir had applied for a gun license earlier, the receipt of which was found on a table at his apartment. His family said they did not have an idea of their son owning a gun. It was believed that Suchirs house was ransacked and his cupboards and drawers were searched. A pen drive was also missing from his place. Speaking to CNN-News18, investigative journalist George Webb, who visited Suchir Balajis apartment with his parents, asserted that it was a murder committed by one person. Webb also shared some videos of Suchirs apartment with CNN-News18. The former OpenAI employee was found wearing an earphone in the washroom. Since the incident happened before Thanksgiving, the cops attempted to conclude the case in a short span of time, it was believed. Months before his death, Suchir Balaji, on October 24, had accused OpenAI of violating laws while developing ChatGPT, Fox News reported. He also expressed his skepticism about the fair use" of generative artificial intelligence products. His death was ruled a suicide after the San Francisco Police Department found no evidence of foul play. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Meanwhile, Poornima Rao, Suchirs mother, claimed that her sons death was a cold-blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide." She also mentioned that a private autopsy report differed from the initial police report. Additionally, she stated that her sons apartment had been ransacked," and there were signs of a struggle in the bathroom that suggested he had been hit. First Published: January 02, 2025, 09:37 IST Telangana To Celebrate Savitribai Phule's Birth Anniversary As 'Women Teacher's Day' Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 23:36 IST Hailing the announcement, state Women and Child Welfare Minister D Anasuya Seethakka thanked Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for the decision Savitribai Phule was not only a reformer but also an accomplished poet and author. (Image: Shutterstock) The Telangana government on Thursday decided to celebrate the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule on January 3 as Women Teachers Day every year to honour the late social reformer and teachers contributions to womens education. State Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari issued a Government Order to this effect. related stories The government declared that the day would be celebrated as a state function. Hailing the announcement, state Women and Child Welfare Minister D Anasuya Seethakka thanked Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for the decision. "It is a matter of pride for all women that the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule will be celebrated as Women Teachers Day," she said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Meanwhile, BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao recalled the contributions of Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai toward the empowerment of women and the welfare of underprivileged sections. The BRS, when it was in power, had introduced many programmes for women empowerment and the education of women, inspired by the Phule couple, he said in a statement. Location : Telangana, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 23:18 IST Future-Proofing the Beauty Industry: Embracing Lifestyle Trends for Sustainable Growth Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 17:16 IST The future of the beauty industry lies in embracing lifestyle trends that prioritize personalization, sustainability, wellness, inclusivity, and proactive regulatory compliance As we look to the future, it is clear that brands must embrace lifestyle trends that prioritize personalization, sustainability, and wellness to thrive in this dynamic landscape The beauty industry is at a pivotal moment, driven by evolving consumer expectations and an urgent need for sustainable practices. As we look to the future, it is clear that brands must embrace lifestyle trends that prioritize personalization, sustainability, and wellness to thrive in this dynamic landscape. Personalization Through Technology related stories Todays consumers are increasingly seeking products tailored to their unique needs. The traditional one-size-fits-all approach is fading, giving way to a demand for personalized beauty solutions. By leveraging technology such as data analytics and artificial intelligence, brands can gain insights into consumer preferences and behaviours. This allows for the creation of custom formulationsfrom skincare regimens to makeup shadesthat resonate deeply with individual customers. Such personalization not only enhances customer satisfaction but also fosters a stronger emotional connection between the brand and its consumers. Commitment to Sustainability Sustainability is no longer just a trend; it is a fundamental expectation among consumers, particularly younger generations who are increasingly eco-conscious. The beauty industry must respond by adopting sustainable practices across all operations. This includes using biodegradable packaging, sourcing ingredients ethically, and committing to transparency in ingredient sourcing. Brands should focus on creating products that are not only effective but also environmentally friendly, reflecting a commitment to reducing their ecological footprint," says Edyta Kurek, Senior Vice President, Oriflame India and Indonesia. Moreover, as consumers become more aware of the environmental impact of their choices, there is a growing demand for clean beauty productsthose that are free from harmful chemicals and made with natural ingredients. Companies must innovate in product development to meet these expectations while ensuring that sustainability is embedded in their ethos and operations. Wellness-Centric Products The modern consumer increasingly views beauty as an extension of overall wellness. Kurek adds, This shift towards wellness-centric products means that beauty brands should develop offerings that enhance not just physical appearance but also mental and emotional well-being. Products infused with natural ingredients known for their therapeutic properties can appeal to this trend, providing consumers with holistic benefits." Additionally, engaging communities through education about wellness and sustainable practices can further strengthen brand loyalty. By positioning themselves as leaders in both beauty and well-being, brands can cultivate a loyal customer base that values their commitment to health and sustainability. Inclusivity and Community Engagement Inclusivity remains a crucial aspect of the beauty industrys evolution. Brands must ensure that their product offerings cater to diverse skin tones, types, and cultural backgrounds. This inclusivity should extend beyond products to encompass marketing strategies that reflect the diversity of consumers," shares Kurek. One powerful way to enhance inclusivity is by turning consumers into advocates and ambassadors for the brand. By fostering communities where customers feel valued and heard, brands can create spaces for dialogue and feedback. Encouraging user-generated contentsuch as testimonials, makeup looks, or skincare routinesallows advocates to share their experiences authentically on social media platforms. This not only amplifies brand visibility but also builds trust among potential customers who resonate with real stories from everyday users. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Brands can further engage these advocates through exclusive events or loyalty programs that recognize their contributions. For instance, hosting virtual masterclasses or providing early access to new products creates a sense of belonging and appreciation among loyal customers. Such initiatives deepen the bond between advocates and the brand while encouraging them to champion the brand within their networks," opines Kurek. In conclusion, the future of the beauty industry lies in embracing lifestyle trends that prioritize personalization, sustainability, wellness, inclusivity, and proactive regulatory compliance. By aligning with these values and empowering consumers as advocates, brands can build lasting relationships with customers in an ever-changing market landscape. The journey ahead will require innovation and commitment, but those who embrace these principles will not only survive but thrive in the beauty industry of tomorrow. First Published: January 02, 2025, 17:16 IST Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolies Divorce Settlement Was Influenced By Ines De Ramon: Report Published By : Trending Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 17:25 IST As per an insider Brad Pitts rumoured girlfriend Ines de Ramon pushed her partner to settle the divorce arrangement with Angelina Jolie because she wanted to build a future with Brad. Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon ignited dating rumours in 2022. (Photo Credit: X) Did Ines de Ramon play a part in her rumoured partner Brad Pitts divorce settlement with Angelina Jolie? Reports have revealed that the answer is positive. After nearly eight months, Brad and Angelina finally settled their divorce battle. They signed the divorce papers on December 30, 2024. According to sources, it was Ines, a jewellery designer by profession, who pushed Brad to legally cut things off from Angelina so that they could start a life together with children in the future." Angelina filed for the dissolution of their marriage in 2016. According to a report by Page Six, Brad Pitt was influenced" by Ines de Ramon to finally settle the divorce matter. Ines wants to have a life together with children in the future without the albatross that was the eight-year War of the Roses," the source added. related stories Another insider claimed that Ines de Ramon is a positive influence" on Brad Pitt. Her perspective on things is believed to be really good." Coming to the divorce paper signing between Brad and Angelina Jolie, the source added that both parties have realised that it was time" they moved on. It was mutually beneficial to get it done with," reported the insider. From a private plane dispute to Angelina Jolie selling her share of their co-owned French winery Chateau Miraval, several factors contributed to the much-public divorce. Angelina accused Brad of physically assaulting her. The actress even claimed that Brad verbally abused their children when they were travelling from France to the US. After the divorce settlement, Angelina Jolies lawyer James Simon of Hersh Mannis told People magazine that his client had left all of the properties" she shared with Brad Pitt. At present, she is focusing on healing and finding peace" with her family and children. Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over," said the lawyer. Their French winery case is however still going on. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon first sparked dating rumours on November 2022. They were spotted enjoying a concert together. Ines was previously married to The Vampires Diaries actor Paul Wesley. They announced their separation in September 2022. First Published: January 02, 2025, 17:25 IST Kapil Sharma Show's Upasana Singh Reveals Why She Lost Maine Pyar Kiya Role: 'I Was Taller Than Salman Khan Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 20:46 IST Upasana Singh reveals she was the first choice for Suman in Maine Pyar Kiya but was rejected for being taller than Salman Khan. Upasana Singh shares that she was initially selected for Maine Pyar Kiya but lost the role due to her height. Maine Pyar Kiya launched Salman Khan and Bhagyashree as leading stars, marking Salmans debut as a hero after a supporting role in Biwi Ho Toh Aisi. While the film became a blockbuster, not many know that actor Upasana Singh was initially considered for the role of Suman, which eventually went to Bhagyashree. In a recent interview, Upasana revealed that she was rejected because she was taller than Salman. In a conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Upasana recalled auditioning for Bhagyashrees role and how director Sooraj Barjatya initially selected her. She shared, He told me everything about the film, my role. And he selected me. After that, he said that you come tomorrow and meet my father but from my end, you are okay. The next day, I met his father and he rejected me. They are very sweet people so he did not say rejected but they did not call me again." related stories Years later, while working on Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon with Rajshri Productions, Raj Kumar Barjatya acknowledged that Upasana had been their first choice for Suman. Sharing an anecdote, she said, He said, did you know who was our first choice for Maine Pyar Kiya? Kareena, Abhishek and Hrithik were all there. I had never told people about it because I lost out the role. Then he said it was Upasana. Everyone was shocked. I said but because of you I didnt get the role. He said, if I selected you, then you would have also left the movies like Bhagyashree." Upasana then revealed the real reason behind her rejection. She shared, He said I am not making an excuse, but you were taller than Salman. That is what I was told. They wanted someone who was a little shorter than Salman, so thats why they didnt cast me. They were not lying." Maine Pyar Kiya became a massive hit, propelling Salman and Bhagyashree to instant stardom. The film was a timeless Bollywood romance that told the story of Prem (Salman Khan) and Suman (Bhagyashree), two young individuals from different social backgrounds who discovered love amidst familial challenges. Suman, a simple village girl, went to stay at the lavish home of her fathers wealthy friend, Kishan (Rajeev Verma). There, she met Prem, Kishans son, a carefree and modern young man. Initially, their interactions were marked by playful banter and budding friendship, but as they spent more time together, their bond deepened into a pure and heartfelt love. However, their romance faced opposition when Kishan disapproved of their relationship, deeming Suman unworthy of their family status. Determined to prove himself and his love, Prem embarked on a journey to earn Sumans fathers respect and approval. Along the way, Prem endured trials and tribulations, showcasing his dedication and sincerity. Directed by Sooraj R. Barjatya, Maine Pyar Kiya was a story of love, loyalty, and perseverance. With its soulful music, iconic dialogues, and emotionally charged narrative, the film beautifully captured the essence of young love and familial bonds. It remained a landmark in Indian cinema and marked the rise of Salman Khan as a leading star. First Published: January 02, 2025, 20:46 IST Keerthy Suresh Says Samantha Ruth Prabhu Knew About Secret Relationship With Antony: 'Thattil Is Media Shy' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 09:17 IST Keerthy Suresh said only her close friends were aware that she was dating Antony Thattil. Samantha Ruth Prabhu is close friends with Keerthy. Baby John actress Keerthy Suresh tied the knot with Antony Thattil in Goa in December last year. Their wedding ceremony was a private affair, much like their relationship. In a new chat with Galatta India, Keerthy said that very few people in the industry knew about her relationship. She said she felt the news would come out before but she remained careful. Keerthy Suresh said, Nobody knew; only close friends of mine knew. And even in the industry, Sam (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) knew, Jagadish (Palanisamy) had been a part of the journey from the beginning, Atlee, Priya, Vijay sir, Kalyani (Priyadarshan), Aishwarya Lekshmivery few people, our friends, from the industry knew." related stories I thought it would come out way earlier, but we somehow managed. We both like to keep our personal things as private as possible. Thattil is media-shywe dont walk around holding hands; were not used to PDAs. Even our first trip abroad together was in 2017 when Jagadish took us to Bangkok. We went on a solo trip for the first time only two years ago," she added. Keerthy and Antony have been together for 15 years as per reports. According to a report by India Times, Antony is a businessman who works from Dubai and his hometown, Kochi, Kerala. He owns a prominent chain of resorts in his hometown and has a couple of businesses registered in Keerthys hometown, Chennai. Despite being an affluent businessman, Antony prefers to keep life away from the media. The couples relationship dates back to their teenage years in 2008-09. Keerthy was still in school, and Antony had just begun college. For over a decade, they kept their romance private, only making their relationship public through a heartfelt social media post by Keerthy on November 27. Celebrating 15 years of togetherness, she wrote, 15 years and counting. It has always been AntoNY x KEerthy." Their wedding in Goa was a warm and intimate affair. Among the close-knit attendees were family members and a few industry luminaries, including superstar Thalapathy Vijay, who shared their joyous moments. Antony and Keerthys enduring love story and now-married life have left fans in awe, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the couple. First Published: January 02, 2025, 09:17 IST SSMB 29: Mahesh Babu Begins Shoot Of Next With SS Rajamouli, Spotted Arriving At Pooja Ceremony | Watch Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 14:11 IST Adding to the excitement, sources reveal that Priyanka Chopra has been locked in as the female lead Mahesh Babu kicks off SSMB 29 shoot Mahesh Babu has begun shooting for his much-anticipated film SSMB 29 to be directed by SS Rajamouli. The duos collaboration has already created immense buzz, and the excitement was palpable as Mahesh was spotted at a grand pooja ceremony marking the films launch. This yet-to-be-titled project is a Pan-World African Jungle Adventure, featuring Mahesh Babu in the lead as an explorer inspired by the characteristics of Lord Hanuman. A paparazzo clicked Mahesh Babu arriving at the venue on Thursday morning, and Mahesh also arrived a few minutes later. Key people from the films team attended the ceremony. The video has gone viral. Adding to the excitement, sources reveal that Priyanka Chopra has been locked in as the female lead, marking her return to Indian cinema after a six-year hiatus. The film is scheduled to go on floors in April 2025. related stories Watch the video here: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kamlesh Nand (work) (@artistrybuzz_) According to insiders close to PinkVilla, Priyanka Chopra was Rajamoulis top choice for the project due to her global appeal. The film is in the final stages of writing and is all set to go on floors in April 2025. SS Rajamouli was looking for a female lead with global presence, and who better than Priyanka to play the lead role. The filmmaker had multiple meetings with PC over the last 6 months, and the energies have aligned for both the stakeholders," shared a source close to the development. Priyanka Chopra is excited to collaborate with a maverick like SS Rajamouli and partner with Mahesh Babu to create an adventure like never before. Its an unchartered territory for her as well, and the character has scope for a lot of action along with the leading man Mahesh Babu. Its a well-crafted role, and Priyanka has already started her prep for the film," the source added. The film will involve extensive shooting until the end of 2026, with a planned release in 2027. Rajamouli is currently negotiating partnerships with major global studios like Disney and Sony to ensure this Pan-World production reaches a global audience. Filming locations include state-of-the-art studios in India and the US, as well as on-location shoots in the African forests. First Published: January 02, 2025, 14:11 IST Twinkle Khanna Shares Glimpse Of New Year Celebrations In Jaipur With Akshay Kumar And Kids | Watch Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 19:38 IST Recently, she revealed her gratitude for her husband, Akshay Kumar, supporting her decision to relocate to London with their daughter, Nitara Twinkle Khanna shares video of her new year celebrations Twinkle Khanna and Akshay Kumar are one of the most powerful couples in Bollywood. Like other celebrities, they also celebrated New Year with kids in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The former actress shared a video on her social media handle and gave fans a glimpse of her celebration. Taking to her Instagram handle, Twinkle Khanna shared a video in which we can see them enjoying desi meal, doing shopping, and enjoying the view. Started the New Year in Jaipur, balancing a shopping spree, a party at the palace with my son and a clock-watching race back to the gorgeous @theleelapalace_jaipur to ring in 2025 in our hotel room with my husband and daughter. Their exceptional hospitality made it all too easy to switch from party mode to cozy family celebrations. Me at 11:59? Cinderella with mascara smudges and a shoe bite. How did your midnight moment lookglamorous or gloriously chaotic?" related stories Watch the video here: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Twinkle Khanna (@twinklerkhanna) Recently, she revealed her gratitude for her husband, Akshay Kumar, supporting her decision to relocate to London with their daughter, Nitara. She candidly admitted that while she was determined to make the move regardless, his approval made the transition much smoother. Speaking at an event hosted by FICCI FLO, Twinkle reflected on her upbringing in an unconventional household where seeking permission wasnt a norm. Recalling Akshays understanding nature, she expressed relief that he was on board with the relocation. Even if he wasnt fine with it, I would have done it anyway," she said, adding that it would have been a far more challenging process. In 2024, at the age of 49, Twinkle made headlines for returning to education full-time. Having dabbled in online courses during the pandemic, she went on to earn a masters degree from Goldsmiths, University of London, graduating in January this year. Following her achievement, Akshay Kumar celebrated her dedication with a heartfelt Instagram post, praising her ability to balance studies, career, and family life. Akshay Kumar has several films lined up in his kitty including Welcome to Jungle, Sky Force, Bhooth Bangla, Jolly LLB 3, Housefull 5. He will also be making Telugu debut in Vishnu Manchus next fantasy drama Kannappa. First Published: January 02, 2025, 19:38 IST Opinion | Debunking The Myth Of Tipu Sultan As A Secular Nationalist Written By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 16:30 IST Tipu Sultan, often hailed as a secular nationalist, was neither. Historical evidence reveals a ruler driven by religious zeal, cruelty, and a desire for regional dominance, not Indian liberation. His nationalism is a myth Tipu was not a freedom fighter. He wanted an alliance with the French, instead of the British. (Image: Shutterstock) An oft-repeated narrative that keeps appearing in the Indian political, academic, and social media arenas is the claim that Tipu Sultan was a nationalist, with great love for this land, and a lover of freedom. There are other similar claims that say Tipu had sacrificed himself for the sake of India, or that Tipu was a connoisseur who had a library of about 2000 books in different languages. Some have even described Tipu as innovative and dynamic, and if he had been ruling Bengal instead of Siraj, the history of India would apparently been quite different. Keeping these eulogies in mind, this article will explore to see if indeed Tipu is worthy of the halo, as the aforementioned writers presented him with. related stories Myth 1: A nationalist and a freedom fighter who fought against the British Reality: Tipu was not a freedom fighter. He wanted an alliance with the French, instead of the British. This is perhaps the biggest fake narrative created to make a nationalist figure out of a regional chieftain, a self-styled autocratic ruler of Mysore (r. 1782-1799). From the various historically documented interactions with foreigners, it is clear that Tipu had no qualms about allowing foreign powers to enter his domain, provided they remained under his control. He was also quite willing to take help from foreign powers to fight the British, whom he detested. Tipu requested the Afghan chieftain Zaman Shah Abdali Durrani to invade north India, because Tipu believed that the Mughal king Shah Alam was a weak Islamic ruler and was being controlled by Mahadji Shinde of Gwalior. Tipu also wanted an alliance with the French in order to expel the British from India, and he had requested for an alliance and a close bond between him and Mauritius (under French colonial rule). Thus, Tipu may have fought the British bravely, but he was certainly not a nationalist or a freedom fighter. He wanted a French alliance to oust the British, thus simply preferring one foreign power over another. Myth 2: Tipu was a great paragon of virtue Reality: Tipu was cruel, a religious bigot, and an autocratic ruler. Tipu was an Islamic bigot, and at best a feudal despot, who placed more importance on personal flattery and regional hegemony, and kept himself surrounded by those courtiers who would fawn over him and applaud all his plans and wild dreams. That his governance had an Islamic overtone was clear with the re-naming of his government as khudadad sarkar (Islamic divine endowment), and in the re-reorganising of his army into ilahi or ahmadi consisting of Muslim converts (Rao, History of Mysore [1399-1799 AD], 1948). His father, Haider Ali, a mercenary soldier looking for a chance to get wealthy, got lucky when he managed to take control of the Mysore area, which was then under a weak Hindu king, Krishnaraja Wodeyar II. While Haider Ali did not declare himself king and kept the Hindu Wodeyar as a puppet ruler, it was he, as the sarvadhikari (chief minister), who held actual control of the kingdom. However, Tipu, who inherited this de-facto cape of kingship, was both ambitious and headstrong and wanted full control. So, he declared himself as the official king in 1782, procured a sanad and a title from the Mughal emperor, and established his Sultanat-e-Khudadad. In the same year, Tipu sent his messengers to Constantinople, seeking confirmation of his royal title for the throne of Mysore from the Sultan of Turkey, whom he referred to as Khondkar, Padshah-i-Ahl-i-Islam, or the King of Muslims. Thus, Tipu was clear about his intentions: he sought an Islamic kingdom, blessed by other more powerful Muslim rulers. Once he declared himself the ruler of Mysore, Tipu issued coins proclaiming the supremacy of Islam, while simultaneously displaying his ingratitude, as the coins omitted the necessary reference to the Mughals, who had granted him the sanad and title. Even in the khutba (sermons) read in the mosques, Tipu had the name of the Mughal king removed, replacing it with his own name as sultan-i-din (prince of the faith), who would work for Islam by helping it spread and gain followers. Tipu had a strong dislike for all non-Muslims and built a mosque in every town, with a muezzin, a moula, and a kazi for each mosque (Mir Hussein Kirmani, History of the reign of Tipu Sultan, being a continuation of the Neshani Hyduri, 1980). That Tipu was an Islamic bigot is undoubtedly evidenced by his own words, when he wrote to Syed Abdul Dulai in 1790 about his Calicut raid (1788): With the grace of Prophet Mohammad and Allah, almost all Hindus in Calicut have been converted to Islam. Only on the borders of Cochin State are a few still not converted. I am determined to convert them soon. I consider this a Jehad to achieve that objective." (Sharma, The real Tipu: A brief history of Tipu Sultan, 1991). In another letter written by Tipu on February 10, 1799, to the head of the army in Constantinople, he stated that nearly five hundred thousand of the infidels of the districts of Calicut, Nuzzuraband, Zufferabaud, and Ashrufabaud have been converted" (Martin, The despatches, minutes and correspondence of Marquess Wellesley, K. G., during his administration, 1837). Tipus stance against the British also had religious motivations, as he himself said it was a Holy War against the English, who had allegedly converted many Muslims, destroyed mosques, and turned Muslim women and children into slaves (Habib, Confronting colonialism: Resistance and modernisation under Haidar Ali & Tipu Sultan, 1999). Tipu destroyed many temples, including the Harihareswara temple at Harihar and the Varahaswami temple at Srirangapatnam. In Kerala and Tamil areas, he was known as a Brahmin-killer and a destroyer of temples (Brittlebank, Tipu Sultans search for legitimacy: Islam and kingship in a Hindu domain, 1997). The Portuguese traveller Fra Paolino da San Bartolomeo (1748-1806) described in great detail Tipus cruelty towards his non-Muslim subjects, evident through innumerable forced conversions and circumcisions, and brutal massacres of Hindus and Christians in the Malabar areas under his direct orders. Tipu was suspicious and superstitious by nature and so fearful of being killed that he slept in a hammock hung from the ceiling to avoid the line of fire from the windows. To protect himself from death, Tipu was also not above wearing Hindu religious trinkets for protection. He even asked Brahmins to offer ceremonial prayers while wearing a gold ring, inscribed with the name of Rama, a gift from the Guru of the Sringeri Math. Myth 3: Tipu was a Sultan or a King Reality: His full name was Tipu Sultan. The Sultan in his name was not a title meaning a king. As discussed in Myth 2, Tipus father had usurped the royal powers of the Wodeyars and became the de facto ruler of Mysore. However, Tipu was not happy with the unofficial ruler tag and decided to declare himself the official king of Mysore. While the Mughal ruler granted him a sanad and the title of a subedar (provincial governor), Tipu was not given any formal sultan title (as in a titled king). Tipus full name was Tipu Sultan, and the sultan in it was simply part of his name, without any special meaning (as in a royal title). It was the fawning courtiers and court historians of Tipu seeking his favours, and later the MarxistIslamist writers post-independence, who misused the sultan in his name to turn him into a king or Sultan. Historically, the Peshwa addressed Tipu Sultan as Futtah Ali Khan (Tippoo)." The French Revolutionary Government addressed him as Citizen Tipu. There are a few historians who still use the expression the Sultan of Mysore for Tipu Sultan. It is proposed to show them that it is incorrect and to suggest that it should no longer find a place in any book." (The Proceedings of Indian History Congress, Vol 7, 1944, pages 484-485). Myth 4: Tipu was an Indian, a Kannadiga, and a son of the soil Reality: Tipu had Arab ancestry. This repeated labelling of Tipu and his father Haider Ali as Indians and Kannadigas, or as sons of the soil is nothing but a historical myth. Tipu and Haider Ali were not Indians at all. They belonged to a nomadic Arab tribe, the Quraish. According to Haider-nama (completed in 1784 and commissioned by Tipu Sultan himself), Haider Alis ancestors were Navayats", a term which referred to the descendants of Arabs settled in the coastal areas of south India. A courtier of Tipu, Mir Hussain Ali Khan Kirmani, in his book Nishan-i-Haideri (1798-1802), also referred to the Arabic Quresh ancestry of Tipu and Haider. In an Arabic and Persian inscription on the north wall of the mosque that Tipu built in the centre of the Shrirangapattana, the Mysore kings eulogy included a line that read: [All] Muslims are dependent on the Muslims of the Quresh", referring to the Arab-Quresh origin of Tipu. Fateh Muhammad, Haider Alis father, originally lived in Punjab, and later moved to Sira (Tumkur district, Karnataka) at a young age. The familys ancestors were Arab mercenaries who came to India by sea, looking for work under local rulers, particularly the Mughals. Conclusion top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The glorification of Tipu and the subsequent distortion of history to portray him as a nationalist figure began in the 1980s90s and gained significant traction in the 2000s, under narratives created by mainly Indian Marxist writers and a few Western writers. The images created by these writerssuch as the Tiger Tipu or a great nationalist freedom fighterwere certainly inaccurate. Tipu did fight the British, but even if he had won, the French would have taken over. At that time in history, it was merely a question of which colonial power would replace the other, and Tipu himself was seeking an alliance with the French. Tipus religious bigotry and wanton cruelty made him an unpopular figure among his citizens, while his vanity and narcissism, fed by his fawning courtiers, and his own uncontrolled ambition ultimately led to his downfall. The author is a well-known travel and heritage writer. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. First Published: January 02, 2025, 16:30 IST Opinion | Welfare Or Bribery? Supreme Court Must End The Freebie Farce Written By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 10:00 IST The Supreme Courts guidelines should not grant excessive latitude. Only education and healthcare should be provided for free. Electricity, water, and bus rides must be paid for by their users When the political system is reluctant to rock its own boat, there is no alternative left for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in 2013 and again in 2022, exhorted the Election Commission (EC) to draft guidelines to differentiate welfare expenditure by governmentsboth Union and statefrom freebies, so as to stop the latter because they are tantamount to indulging in corrupt practices intended to bribe voters, which is illegal under the Representation of People Act, 1951. However, the EC doesnt seem to have made much headway, partly due to apathy and partly out of fear of stoking controversy. On October 15, 2024, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Central government and the EC, seeking their response on why it should not grant the petition filed by one Shashank Sridhara of Bengaluru, who has called for all freebies to be declared as bribes. related stories The governments themselves are not too enthusiastic about taking the lead on this issue, as many political parties are reluctant to shoot themselves in the foot or tie themselves in knots. After all, political parties of all hues are indulging in competitive populism, often showering freebies on specific sections of the electorate, particularly women voters. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which a few years ago opposed freewheeling subsidies and instead reposed faith only in targeted subsidies (to the BPL segment), has now seen the wisdom in joining the freebie bandwagon, lest it is left out in the hustings. The NDA won the recent Maharashtra assembly elections, arguably on the back of the Ladli Behna scheme, under which women over the age of 18 who are not required to pay income tax receive Rs 2,100 per month. The Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu were the harbingers of the freebie culture, offering items such as mixers, grinders, television sets, and what have you. It was not uncommon for people to flock to distribution centres after elections to collect these incentives in kind. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has clearly outdone its southern partner in the INDIA bloc by elevating the art of winning elections on the back of freebies to a fine art. Its rationale is that the directive principles expect governments to operate as a welfare state. Thus, free bus rides for women, free electricity up to 200 units, and 700 litres of free water are all considered acceptable on the facile grounds that a welfare state mustnt shy away from making things and services available for free. Nor should it be bogged down by cold cost-revenue analysis. Touche. The Scandinavian nations, which swear by welfarism and largely provide universal free education and healthcare, fund these services through a 40 per cent income tax levied on high earners. Education is the passport to prosperity. Similarly, the adage health is wealth" holds true. Many Scandinavian countries are small, with some smaller than the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Their populations are also relatively small, making it feasible for them to implement universal subsidies for these two sectorseducation and health. India, owing to its sheer size, must target its subsidies to the poor. European nations have experimented with the idea of universal income support, only to abandon it, with Finland discontinuing a pilot scheme after providing support to 2,000 unemployed youth. One shudders to think what might have happened had Rahul Gandhis NYAY scheme been implemented. It proposed paying Rs 72,000 annually to the poorest segment of society, estimated to be around 20 per cent of the population. Dont give them fish; instead, teach them how to fish" is an old adage, but its message is telling: you provide free food, and the recipients become indolent, in addition to enduring the ignominy of accepting cash or goods in exchange for votes. Instead, give them job opportunities so that there is no need for the government to provide doles. By the way, freebies and subsidies only partially offset the ill effects of GST and fuel taxes on the poor, given that these two taxes are regressive and disproportionately impact the poor. The government should fund its welfare schemes with the proceeds of direct taxes such as wealth tax and estate duty, which were hastily abolished, rather than relying on the proceeds of GST and fuel taxes. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The Supreme Court has often acted suo motu. It needs to intervene again for a laudable and urgent cause, as it did by issuing the guidelines, popularly known as the Vishaka guidelines, to prevent sexual harassment of women in the workplace. Freebies are just as serious an issue. They are a dangerous concoction with the potential to disrupt our electoral process and undermine our democracy. The Supreme Courts guidelines should not grant excessive latitude. Only education and healthcare should be provided for free. Electricity, water, and bus rides must be paid for by their users. Critics may argue that these guidelines amount to judicial activism going too far. However, when the political system is reluctant to rock its own boat, there is no alternative left for the apex court. The writer is a senior columnist. He tweets @smurlidharan. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. First Published: January 02, 2025, 10:00 IST Opinion | Why Pakistan's Relationship With The Afghan Taliban Is On A Collision Course Written By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 13:26 IST The deep fault lines in the Pakistan-Taliban relationship, conflicting interests, and the Talibans assertion of independence and nationalism have transformed their alliance into an adversarial relationship A Pakistani paramilitary soldier, left, and Taliban fighters stand guard on their respective sides at a border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Khyber district, Pakistan. (AP Photo/File) The recent cross-border strikes by Pakistan and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), backed by the Afghan Taliban, have heightened tensions between the two neighbours. Traditionally, before the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Pakistan was a strategic ally of the Taliban. Pakistan provided sanctuary, training, and logistical resources throughout the Talibans power struggle, thereby gaining a strategic foothold in the region. The dynamics post-2021 have changed dramatically, with escalating tensions and inimical relations arising from political, territorial, and strategic security differences. While Pakistan celebrated the Talibans resurgence as a potential strategic win, the fallout has proven otherwise. The deep fault lines in their relationship, conflicting interests, and the Talibans assertion of independence and nationalism have transformed their alliance into an adversarial relationship, drawing the two nations into conflict. related stories Historical Context: Pakistan As An Ally Of The Taliban Pakistan, which played a key role in the Talibans rise in the 1990s, has supported the Sunni Islamist group for years. During the 1980s, Pakistans President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the ISI, aided by the CIA, trained around 90,000 Afghans, including Mullah Omar. Pakistan provided sanctuary, training, weapons, financial support, and logistical assistance to the Taliban during their consolidation of power in their first rule. For over two decades, it played a double game by acting as an American ally in the war on terror while simultaneously backing the Taliban. The vision of achieving strategic depth in Afghanistan, reducing Indias influence, and using the Taliban as a strategic asset was a core foreign policy goal. The collapse of the Afghan government in 2021, following the US withdrawal, marked the return of the Taliban 2.0 to power. Pakistans hope of deepening its strategic influence through a client regime in Kabul, however, backfired. The Talibans takeover rendered Pakistans utility as a counterweight to the government in Kabul obsolete. Ironically, the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan strengthened the TTP, which was viewed as an ideological group adhering to a strident Deobandi interpretation of Sunni Islam. This development became a significant irritant for Pakistan, as the TTP intensified its terror activities within the country unchecked. Prism Of Fractured Relationship The Durand Line Dispute: The Durand Line, a colonial-era demarcation marking the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, remains a significant point of contention. This border divides Pashtun tribes between the two nations and has been disputed by Afghanistan, giving rise to cross-border hostilities. For Pakistan, the Durand Line symbolises its sovereignty and territorial integrity, particularly in regions like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where Pashtun nationalism is deeply entrenched. In response, Pakistan has fortified its Afghan border with fencing to curb cross-border militancy, smuggling, and infiltrationa strategy inspired by its fencing along the Line of Control with India. The Taliban, however, rejected the fencing, viewing it as an infringement on Afghanistans sovereignty and a threat to the unity of Pashtun communities. Clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces along the border have escalated, intensifying cross-border hostilities. The Resurgence of the TTP: The resurgence of the TTP and the rise of radical Islamist terror attacks have caused significant turbulence in Pakistan. Since the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan, the TTP has exploited the situation to regroup and intensify attacks on Pakistani soil, targeting security forces and government assets, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The TTP aims to replicate in Pakistan what the Afghan Taliban achieved in Afghanistan: the establishment of an Islamic emirate. The Taliban-led Afghan governments reluctance to crack down on the TTP, which shares ideological and operational ties with them, has infuriated Islamabad. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing sanctuary to TTP militants and facilitating cross-border terrorism. From the Talibans perspective, pressuring the TTP risks alienating their militant base and undermining their credibility among Pashtun nationalists. The Talibans Shift Toward Independence: The Talibans transformation from an insurgent group to a governing entity has brought heightened sensitivity to Afghan nationalism and sovereignty. Pakistans strategic attempt to position the Taliban as a proxy ally and secure a dominant role is perceived as interference in Afghanistans internal affairs. This nationalist stance forms the cornerstone of the Talibans foreign policy and survival strategy. They have sought to diversify their global relationships, engaging with China, Russia, and even making Track 2 overtures to India. Pakistan, besides shared borders and religious affinity, has little potential in its present state to contribute to the development of Afghanistan. In 2024, the Taliban organised a Regional Cooperation Initiative meeting, which included representatives and envoys from 12 leading stakeholder countries, including India and Pakistan. This region-centric approach aimed to build regional legitimacy and foster constructive engagement between Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. Ironically, it also underscored Afghanistans broader strategic interests, which diminish Pakistans significance in the regional landscape. Emerging Threats: ISKP and Baloch Separatists The role of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and hostilities from Baloch separatists further complicate Pakistans security landscape. The Afghan-based terror group opposes both the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the Pakistani government, which it seeks to overthrow to establish a transnational caliphate. The ISKP continues to pose a significant and ongoing threat to Pakistan. In Balochistan, separatist groups have aligned with the TTP, targeting Chinese investment infrastructure and Pakistani security forces. The failure to cope with these threats exacerbates Pakistans insecurity, particularly in a region critical to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). These vulnerabilities have introduced additional complexities to the Pakistan-China relationship. Pakistans Strategic Dilemma Pakistan faces significant challenges in managing its relationship with the Taliban, compounded by the fragility of its worsening economic and political situation. This limits Islamabads capacity to act against Kabul or risk opening another front. Additionally, the historical inability of major powers like Russia and the US to rein in the Taliban highlights the difficulty of achieving Pakistans strategic depth ambitions. While Pakistan retains some leverage through religious affinity and shared borders, the Talibans nationalist orientation and pursuit of international legitimacy have curtailed Islamabads influence. Meanwhile, China has deepened its ties with the Taliban-led government, maintaining its embassy in Kabul, exploring economic opportunities, and proposing the extension of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into Afghanistan. This has added a new layer of competition, further eroding Pakistans leverage. Implications For India Strained Pakistan-Taliban relations present strategic opportunities for India to engage diplomatically and economically with Afghanistan and gain leverage. However, the challenge remains its policy of non-appeasement with militant organisations. A fine balance, coupled with a discreet diplomatic presence, will be essential for safeguarding Indias strategic interests in the region. India has already invested significantly in Afghan infrastructure and development projects, positioning itself as a dependable partner. A weakened Pakistan-Taliban alliance ought to reduce Islamabads leverage to use Afghanistan as a base for anti-India activities. However, instability in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region carries the risk of spillover effects in India, potentially emboldening Islamist forces and radical groups. Moreover, Chinas expanding influence in Afghanistan, by way of resources and infrastructure projects, adds a layer of complexity to Indias strategic calculus in the region. The Road Ahead The intensification of hostilities between Pakistan and the Taliban has heightened instability in the region. The disputed Durand Line, cross-border terrorism, and Afghan nationalism present complex challenges. For Pakistan, this strained relationship jeopardises both its internal security and its strategic aspirations. For the Taliban, asserting their sovereignty remains a top priority, even at the cost of turning a blind eye to the TTP and alienating its former ally, Pakistan. Its focus continues to be on achieving international legitimacy and securing financial aid for development. Its desire for strategic autonomy further complicates its relationship with Pakistan. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Without a concerted effort to address these pressing issues, the Pakistan-Taliban relationship is likely to remain fractious, fuelling regional instability. Pakistan, on the verge of a survival crisis, can ill afford another front, nor can it be a spectator to the TTPs enlarged footprint and intensified attacks. Ultimately, destiny has boomeranged on Pakistan with a clear message: As you sow, so shall you reap. The author is former Director General, Mechanised Forces. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. First Published: January 02, 2025, 13:26 IST BJP Slams Congress As Rahul Gandhi, DK Shivakumar Ring In New Year Abroad While Nation Mourns Manmohan Singh Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 22:28 IST Amid reports of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi travelling to Vietnam to ring in the new year, Karnatakas deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar travelled to Turkey during the same time Shivakumars Turkey trip comes under the scanner along with Rahul Gandhis Vietnam travel. File pic/PTI The Karnataka BJP has found fresh ammunition against the Congress. It has pointed to the insensitivity" of Congress leaders while the nation was mourning the loss of former Prime Minister and Congress veteran Dr Manmohan Singh. Amid reports of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi travelling to Vietnam to ring in the new year, Karnatakas deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar travelled to Turkey during the same time. related stories Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Karnataka deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan criticised such acts by people in positions of power as displaying their irresponsible behaviour and insensitivity". When they are not in positions of power, they can take such liberties. But being in a position as the deputy CM of a state, at a time when the nation is mourning the loss of a former PM and good leader like Manmohan Singh, it only shows their irresponsible behaviour and insensitivity. Being part of a government, they cannot afford to have such luxuries and good times. The positions they hold do not permit them to have a jolly time like this; they are constrained by their roles and have to perform," said Narayan to News18. Congress leaders defended the travel, saying it was a planned trip that was scheduled six months ago, and since it was already slotted, Shivakumar went. The government is observing the mourning, and we have cancelled all celebrations or other public functions. This trip by the deputy CM was a scheduled trip, and that is how he travelled. Government and party functions have been cancelled for the seven-day mourning. This trip to Turkey was fixed six months ago," said Congress spokesperson AN Natraj Gowda. Shivakumars Turkey trip comes under the scanner along with Rahul Gandhis Vietnam travel. The BJP targeted the Lok Sabha leader of opposition, saying he had gone abroad to party on New Years Eve while the nation was mourning the loss of Dr Singh. Shivakumar skipped the first state cabinet meeting of 2025, which was scheduled for January 2. Leader of the opposition in the state legislative council Chaluvadi Narayanaswamy criticised Shivakumars trip. In a post on social media site X, DK Shivakumar has written: In light of New Year celebrations, I have personally asked BBMP, BESCOM, BWSSB authorities and staff to not take any holiday and proactively continue their service to the people of Bengaluru. All zonal officers of Bengaluru will be performing their duties as required. Ensuring the fulfilment of public needs and maintaining peace and harmony is of utmost importance to us, and we shall continue to work together in the same direction as always." Another BJP leader also raised the issue of how Shivakumar had asked people to observe mourning and instructed government officials to work through December 31 and January 1, but he himself was selfish" enough to take a holiday. He cannot follow his own instructions. If the government is working, he who represents the government should also do so. He should be an example, not have different standards," said the leader, who did not want to be named. The BJP and Congress have been trading barbs over Dr Manmohan Singhs last rites and plans for his memorial. The Congress has alleged that the ruling BJP at the Centre had humiliated Dr Singh by organising the cremation at Nigambodh Ghat and not respecting his legacy. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The BJP countered, saying that the allegations were baseless; rather, the Narendra Modi government had provided a state funeral to the former Prime Minister and done everything required to honour him as the PM of the country. BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla in a statement had said, The country is in mourning. The government has announced seven days of national mourning. As expected from Rahul Gandhi, we have received information that he has left for tourism and to party. You will remember that after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, newspapers had reported how Rahul Gandhi partied all night. And today, he does not care about honouring Dr Manmohan Singh. He just wants to play politics on it." First Published: January 02, 2025, 22:18 IST 'Cheap Politics': Delhi LG Office Accuses AAP Govt Of Approving Demolition Of 9 Temples In 2024 Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 23:13 IST The Raj Niwas issued a statement, asserting that former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal himself had, on February 8 last year, recommended the demolition of nine temples in different parts of Delhi. Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena The office of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Thursday accused the AAP government of approving the demolition of nine temples across the city last year, accusing the ruling party of indulging in cheap politics." This accusation came a day after Delhi Chief Minister Atishi wrote to the lieutenant governor, claiming that a religious committee under his authority had, during its meeting on November 22, ordered the demolition of six religious structures, including Hindu temples and a Buddhist place of worship, in various parts of the city. related stories LG Office Responds The Raj Niwas issued a statement in response, asserting that former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal himself had, on February 8 last year, recommended the demolition of nine temples in different parts of Delhi. According to the statement, Kejriwal and the then-home minister Manish Sisodia had approved the recommendations of the committee for demolishing these temples. Seven of the temples were located in Karawal Nagar, while the remaining two were in New Usmanpur, the statement said, citing documentary evidence. The office of the lieutenant governor also alleged that in 2016, the then-home minister Satyendra Jain had approved the demolition of eight temples in various parts of Delhi. Documents reveal that from 2016 to 2023, 24 Hindu religious structures, including 22 temples, and just one Muslim religious structure were approved for demolition by Kejriwal and his ministers," the statement claimed. Additionally, the LG Secretariat revealed that in 2017, Jain had rejected the recommendations of the committee for the demolition of two unmarked mazaars, citing religious sentiments and sensitivities." This decision was made despite the committee having found no historical significance of these structures, with only five to 10 people visiting them weekly, it said. The removal of these mazaars was deemed essential for the construction of a grade separator from Filmistan Cinema to DCM Chowk, for which land had been transferred from the Northern Railways to the MCD, as per the statement. The office of the Lieutenant Governor demanded that AAP retract its statements and apologise for the allegations made against Saxena. There was no immediate response from AAP regarding these allegations. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all As assembly elections approach, AAP and opposition BJP are locked in a battle over various issues, including the monthly honorarium scheme for temple priests and granthis at gurudwaras. Political allegations and counter-allegations have escalated, leading to accusations between the parties, with AAP alleging that the BJP is planning to demolish temples. First Published: January 02, 2025, 23:13 IST Lalu Prasad's 'Doors Open for Nitish' Fuels Speculation, Bihar CM Reacts Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 17:01 IST This statement from Lalu is particularly noteworthy, given that his son, Tejashwi Yadav, has recently made contrasting remarks. (L-R) RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. File image/PTI Bihar is gearing up for Assembly elections this year, and as the poll season approaches, the political corridors are abuzz with statements and counter-statements. In an interview with a YouTube channel on January 1, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav remarked that doors are open" for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to rejoin the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan). related stories This statement from Lalu is particularly noteworthy, given that his son, Tejashwi Yadav, has recently made contrasting remarks. During the interview, Lalu said, Nitish Kumar can join us and work together." He reiterated that his doors remain open for both the public and Nitish Kumar. If Nitish decides to return, he would be welcomed, with Lalu emphasizing that there would be no issues in working together again. When questioned by reporters, Nitish Kumar responded dismissively, saying, Kya bol rahen hainChodhiye na." (What are you talking about just let it go.) #WATCH | Patna: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar reacts on being asked about Lalu Prasad Yadavs statement. pic.twitter.com/6Gxb9iOZgP ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2025 Responding to Lalus comments, Union Minister Lallan Singh said We are with the NDA and with full firmness. I cannot react to what people say there is freedom of expression, people can say whatever they want." #WATCH | On RJD chief Lalu Yadavs remarks, Union Minister Lallan Singh says, We are with the NDA and with full firmness. I cannot react to what people say there is freedom of expression, people can say whatever they want." pic.twitter.com/xCNBuUWqBn ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2025 Lalu Yadavs son, too, echoed the same, saying: We have already spoken our mind. When journalists ask, Lalu Ji might have said it to cool things down, what is the problem with it?" Patna, Bihar: On RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadavs statement that The door of RJD is open for Nitish Kumar", RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav says, We have already spoken our mind. When journalists ask, Lalu Ji might have said it to cool things down, what is the problem with it" pic.twitter.com/QoyAyM1L17 IANS (@ians_india) January 2, 2025 top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Tejashwi had earlier mentioned that even if Nitish Kumar wishes to return, he would not be taken back. He had further added that bringing Nitish back to would be equivalent to hurting themselves. However, with Lalus latest statement, political speculation in Bihar has once again gained momentum. Notably, during a recent visit to Delhi, CM Nitish Kumar was expected to meet BJP president JP Nadda on Monday. However, by evening, plans changed, and Nitish Kumar returned to Patna without meeting JP Nadda. First Published: January 02, 2025, 14:13 IST Name It After Manmohan Singh: BJP-Congress Political Row Over DUs New Savarkar College Escalates Reported By : CNN-News18 Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 18:59 IST The Veer Savarkar College will be constructed in Roshanpura, Najafgarh, at an estimated cost of Rs 140 crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the project The Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to name the planned Veer Savarkar College after late PM Dr Manmohan Singh instead. File image/X Delhi University (DU) is set to name one of its upcoming colleges after Veer Savarkar, a controversial yet prominent figure in Indias freedom struggle and political history. The decision, stemming from a 2021 approval by DUs executive council, is part of a broader plan to establish three new colleges in Dwarka and Najafgarh, including a law college. However, a swirling political row has erupted over the issue, with the Congresss student wing now demanding the college be named after late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh instead. The Veer Savarkar College will be constructed in Roshanpura, Najafgarh, at an estimated cost of Rs 140 crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the project, along with two other major initiatives for DU an academic block in the eastern campus at Surajmal Vihar in east Delhi and another academic block in the western campus at Dwarka. Combined, these projects represent an investment exceeding Rs 600 crore and aim to provide state-of-the-art facilities for education and research. related stories Political debate The decision has sparked a fierce political debate between the BJP and Congress. Congress has accused the BJP of attempting to legitimise" Veer Savarkars role as a freedom fighter, citing his controversial past and allegations of collaboration with British authorities during the colonial era. Congress MP Naseer Hussain criticised the move, stating, It would have been good if the college was named after freedom fighters who laid down their lives for the country. Those loyal to the British government and who acted as police informers are now being legitimised as freedom fighters by the BJP. But everyone knows the reality." Also, the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to name the college after late PM Dr Manmohan Singh instead. In its letter, the NSUI has also demanded that a central university be named after Dr Singh and include his life journey in the curriculum. Dear @narendramodi Ji,As you inaugurate a college in the name of VD Savarkar, NSUI demands the new DU college be named after Former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji. He established numerous universities and brought the Central Universities Act. A Central University must also be pic.twitter.com/jtghlIjrE6 Varun Choudhary (@varunchoudhary2) January 2, 2025 The BJP, on the other hand, has staunchly defended the decision. Delhi BJP leader Virendra Sachdeva remarked, Only Congress knows which leaders it respects. Veer Savarkar was a freedom fighter. If Delhi University is naming its college in his honour, then we welcome it." Pressure on INDIA bloc members top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Adding to the political drama, BJP sources have questioned the stance of key INDIA bloc members, including Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, both of whom have historically praised Savarkar. BJP leaders have asked whether these allies support the Congresss criticism or stand by their earlier admiration for Savarkar. First Published: January 02, 2025, 18:59 IST Sharad Pawar, Nephew Ajit Reunion On The Cards After Maharashtra Polls? Praful Says 'We'd Be Happy' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 12:47 IST Calls for NCP reunion in Maharashtra: NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari suggested the uncle-nephew duo could reconcile if both made an effort Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar (PTI Image) Calls for NCP reunion in Maharashtra: With the Maharashtra assembly elections done and dusted almost a month ago, both Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) factions and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawars mother Asha Pawar have called for a reunion. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said hed be extremely happy" if the Pawar family came together and called NCP founder Sharad Pawar their deity". Speaking to reporters after visiting the Vithal-Rukmini temple in the temple town of Pandharpur, Ajit Pawars mother Ashatai said she prayed for the reunion of the family on New Years Day. related stories She said she wished that all of Ajit Pawars dreams came true and added that all disputes should end. Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar should reunite," she said. While Ashatais wishes would come as difficult ones for some, she wasnt the only one who vouched for the reunion less than a month after the Maharashtra election results favored Ajit over Sharad Pawar, under whose influence the nephew had long remained and ultimately rebelled against. What NCP Leaders Say Praful Patel, a senior member of the NCP led by Ajit, said, "Sharad Pawar is our deity. We have a high degree of respect for him. If the Pawar family comes together, it will make us extremely happy. I consider myself a member of the Pawar family." NCP MLA Narhari Zirwal expressed that it felt strange to have left Sharad Pawar after the June 2023 split. Many share the same sentiment. Now, I will approach him and encourage both him and Ajit to reunite. Pawar saheb has always worked tirelessly for people from all walks of life, and continues to do so." NCP Spokesperson Flags Roadbocks NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari suggested the uncle-nephew duo could reconcile if both made an effort, but pointed out that figures like Jitendra Awhad (Sharad Pawars key ally) and Rohit Pawar (Sharad Pawars grandnephew) might oppose it. They wont support a reunion, but Asha tais prayers are shared by every karyakarta in both NCP factions. We all hope for unity," Mitkari added. What Sharad Pawars Allies Say When asked, Awhad said the decision was not his to make, and that it was up to the Pawars. If Asha Pawar is advocating for unity, its a family matter for them to resolve. My opinion doesnt matter," he said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule stated the BJP would have no objections if the two Pawars reunite, adding, Its their decision." Ajit Pawar had split from the NCP in June 2023, taking 40 MLAs with him and later aligning with the BJP and Shiv Sena to form the Mahayuti government. First Published: January 02, 2025, 12:45 IST 'Close Aide Murdered': Mamata Banerjee After TMC Leader Shot Dead In Bengal's Malda Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 17:35 IST Mamata Banerjee said that she is shocked and does not know how to convey condolences to the bereaved family. Mamata Banerjee said Dulal Sarkar was with her since the inception of her party. (PTI/File) Trinamool Congress leader Dulal, also known as Babla Sarkar, was shot dead on Thursday in West Bengals Malda district. Sarkar, a TMC councillor from Ward 22 of English Bazar Municipality, died from his injuries after being shot in broad daylight. According to Bengali news website ABP Ananda, local sources revealed that Dulal was on his way to his factory after leaving the Trinamool Congress party office on Thursday morning when the attack took place. related stories Four assailants, riding two motorcycles, approached from behind and fired a total of four rounds. Sarkar was hit by three bullets, with injuries sustained in his shoulder. Reacting to his death, party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed his passing during an administrative review meeting at the state secretariat, Nabanna. The West Bengal CM criticised Malda District Police Superintendent Pradeep Kumar Yadav, holding him responsible for the incident. Our councilor in Malda has been killed today due to the lackadaisical approach of the district police superintendent. He used to have security cover, which was later withdrawn. This is a clear lapse on the part of the police. Babla was with me since the beginning," she said. In a post on X, Banerjee described Sarkar as her close associate" and confirmed that he had been murdered." My close associate, and a very popular leader, Babla Sarkar has been murdered today. From the beginning of the Trinamool Congress, he (and his wife Chaitali Sarkar) worked hard for the party, and Babla was also elected a councillor. I am sad and hugely shocked after knowing about the incident. The culprits must be booked immediately," said Mamata Banerjee in her post on X. My close associate, and a very popular leader, Babla Sarkar has been murdered today.From the beginning of the Trinamool Congress, he (and his wife Chaitali Sarkar) worked hard for the party, and Babla was also elected a councillor. I am sad and hugely shocked after knowing Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) January 2, 2025 Adding to her note, Mamata Banerjee said she is shocked and does not know how to convey condolences to the bereaved family. May God give Chaitali strength to survive and fight the battle," she the Chief Minister added. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Shortly after the incident, Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee urged the police to take swift action, regardless of political affiliations. (With inputs from agencies) Location : Maldah, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 13:22 IST 'As A Vegetarian...': Humans Of Bombay CEO Karishma Mehta To Sell Her Luxury Bags, Shoes For This Noble Cause Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: January 07, 2025, 20:14 IST Karishma Mehta marked the beginning of 2025 with a post revealing how she will be leather free for life. Karishma Mehta founded Humans of Bombay in 2014. (Photo Credits: Instagram) Karishma Mehta, Humans of Bombay founder and CEO, marked the New Year with a very thoughtful action. Mehta, who has over 2.8 million followers on Instagram, revealed how she is approaching the motion leather free for life" from 2025. She is giving up animal-based products in order to promote a sustainable lifestyle. Her initiative is believed to do good to the animal welfare organisations worldwide. Taking to her Instagram handle, Karishma Mehta dropped an inspirational post revealing that she has decided to sell all her luxury leather goods. The Mumbai-based entrepreneur posted photos of herself posing with an array of shoes and bags from luxurious brands such as Gucci, Prada, Yves Saint Lauren (YSL), Louis Vuitton, and Fendi, among others. Alongside it, she wrote a long note, mentioning how growing up, she bookmarked many such dream bags" and dream shoes", which were part of her big dreams". related stories View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karishma Mehta (@karimehta05) However, it was very recently that she realised that terms of materialism rests on a fundamentally flawed premise." Thus, she decided to stop any such further purchase of luxury leather items and sell all of her previous possessions, the proceeds of which will go towards animal welfare NGOs. Supporting her decision, she said in the post, As a vegetarian, I wont eat meat because it doesnt sit right with me to consume a living being. How then can it sit well with me to partake in a market that prides itself on being luxury" by levying their premium-ness on the quality of animals being skinned? It doesnt." The Humans of Bombay CEO concluded by saying, I hope this little action opens your eyes to it- dream still, think of conquering your biggest dream still- relentlessly, equivocal. But do it with heart, do it with kindness. Heres to a kinder 2025 & being leather free for life :)." Karishma Mehta began the Humans of Bombay Facebook page in 2014, taking inspiration from American Photographer Brandon Stantons Humans of New York Facebook page. Gradually, the pages popularity expanded, and even in other parts of the country. By 2021, the Humans of Bombays Facebook and Instagram pages gained over millions of followers. The following year, she launched an interview-based YouTube web series titled How The Hell Did I Do It? top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karishma Mehta (@karimehta05) Over the years, she has interviewed a number of celebrities, including industrialists, politicians and more. The list of notable figures even includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Ratan Tata. Sharing a gratitude-filled post for all the conversations over the years, she made an Instagram post, sharing candid moments with remarkable personalities. Some of our interviews through the years; our body of work represents the relentlessness with which the team operates everyday. A billion stories yet to tell & miles to go before were anywhere near resting!" read her side note. Location : Delhi, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 17:19 IST Delhi Bakery Owner's Father's New Charge At In-Laws: 'Took Rs 1.35 Crore Before Wedding' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 17:33 IST Delhi bakery owner suicide: Victim's father claims that his daughter-in-laws family took Rs 1.35 crore from them before the wedding and later converted the money into property. Delhi cafe owner Puneet Khurana got married to Manika Pahwa in 2016. The couple co-owned the For Gods Cake bakery as well as Woodbox Cafe, which closed sometime back. Puneet Khurana, a 40-year-old businessman, tragically ended his life at his residence in Model Towns Kalyan Vihar area on New Years Eve. His family claims that he left behind a 59-minute-long video, in which he allegedly detailed harassment by his estranged wife and in-laws. While the police investigate the circumstances surrounding his death, Khuranas father, Trilok Nath Khurana, has made new allegations against his in-laws, calling for justice. While speaking to the media, he said that his daughter-in-laws family took Rs 1.35 crore from them before the wedding in the name of business. However, when the couple had a fallout, he converted the money into property. related stories Jagdish Pahwa took Rs 1.35 crore from me before my sons marriage, around 7-8 years ago. Later, I gave him an additional Rs 30 lakh in instalments. He mentioned he was under financial strain and owed money to others but promised to repay the amount with interest," Trilok Nath said. He continued, I had cheques made in their name. However, he kept the cash with him. He told me he would pay me interest. When the marriage was being arranged, we thought they were good people and, since they were saying they were facing financial issues, we agreed to help them. They sold the house. It was sold by these people. They had even built it. After that, they didnt pay the interest. Three to four months later, I arranged my sons wedding." One or two months after the wedding, my sons wife started fighting with him at home. It has been 8 years now, and there has been constant conflict. For the past 3-4 years, they have been living separately. My daughter-in-law started staying at her parents house. They already had a partnership in the bakery, and she would often cause trouble there too. She used to insult and argue. Even after the bakery was transferred to my sons name, she continued visiting the bakery. She would threaten my son, saying that she would get me and my wife out of the house and bring goons to take care of the situation. The harassment she caused was beyond words," the grieving father further said. In a video reportedly from October 2023, Puneet Khurana can be seen talking to his father-in-law, Jagdish Pahwa. Jagdish offers Rs 2 crore in exchange for a house. However, later, Jagdish went back on his statement. According to Puneets family, he was constantly under pressure due to such issues and claimed that his father-in-law often threatened him. Read| CCTV Footage Of Heated Argument Between Delhi Bakery Owner, Wife Goes Viral After His Suicide Family demands justice After Puneets death, the family has demanded justice. For a year, they [Khurana and Pahwa] were fine, but after that, there were frequent issues between the two of them. I even separated them at one point, thinking it would bring them happiness. But even then, she continued to torture my child. My son quietly endured it all," Khuranas mother told ANI. She continued, Sometimes it was about money, sometimes about their joint business, and other times family matters. My son never spoke openly, not to his mother or father. He would think, Why burden my parents with tension? He kept swallowing his sorrow and pain silently, and I dont know what she did yesterday. Earlier, he had recovered, but yesterday, she tortured him so much that he took this step." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Oh God, my child is gone. Please give justice to my son so his soul can find peace," she further expressed, breaking down in tears. This news piece may be triggering. If you or someone you know needs help, call any of these helplines: Aasra (Mumbai) 022-27546669, Sneha (Chennai) 044-24640050, Sumaitri (Delhi) 011-23389090, Cooj (Goa) 0832- 2252525, Jeevan (Jamshedpur) 065-76453841, Pratheeksha (Kochi) 048-42448830, Maithri (Kochi) 0484-2540530, Roshni (Hyderabad) 040-66202000, Lifeline 033-64643267 (Kolkata) First Published: January 02, 2025, 16:39 IST Eat It Or Stuff Your Cushions With It: This Company Is Making 2-in-1 Popcorn Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 10:35 IST The companys manager, Shihoko Wada, was inspired by a person attending a seminar where popcorn was used as a pillow. This gave Wada the idea of creating this create edible, waste-reducing popcorn cushioning The company claims that its popcorn can be used as a cushion and, surprisingly, even eaten. (News18 Hindi) Innovative marketing techniques continually emerge, sometimes defying our expectations. One such strategy, conceived by a Japanese company, involves an unexpected use for a familiar snack: popcorn. While enjoyed worldwide, this food company proposes an entirely new purpose for this treat. One must have used cotton or foam as cushioning material until now, but a Japanese company is offering popcorn as an alternative. The company claims it can be used as a cushion and, surprisingly, even eaten. They propose its use as a replacement for traditional packaging materials like Styrofoam pallets and cardboard. related stories According to a report by Oddity Central, Japanese food company Azechi Foods has employed a novel approach to selling popcorn. The manufacturer and wholesaler, based in Kochi City, Japan, is marketing its popcorn not only as a snack but also as a cushioning material. The companys manager, Shihoko Wada, conceived this idea after attending a seminar where an attendee used a packet of popcorn as a pillow, eliciting laughter from the audience. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Wada explains that this incident inspired her to consider using her companys popcorn as cushioning. The idea was to create a cushion that could be eaten later, thereby eliminating waste. The popcorn is packaged in transparent foil with a Not Edible" warning, indicating that while the popcorn is edible, the foil is not. Images of this innovative product went viral on Japanese social media. Unlike traditional cushion stuffing that ends up in the bin, this popcorn filling can be consumed. Location : Japan First Published: January 02, 2025, 10:35 IST 'He Suffered Silently': Delhi Cafe Owner's Mother Breaks Down In Tears, Demands Justice Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 11:08 IST Delhi suicide case: Puneet Khurana's grieving mother was seen breaking down in tears as she pleaded for justice for her son. Delhi cafe owner Puneet Khurana got married to Manika Pahwa in 2016. The couple co-owned the For Gods Cake bakery as well as Woodbox Cafe, which closed sometime back. A Delhi cafe owner was found dead at his residence in Model Towns Kalyan Vihar area on New Years Eve. Puneet Khurana, 40, reportedly ended his life after enduring alleged harassment and mental distress by his estranged wife. His grieving mother has made a heart-wrenching plea for justice. For a year, they [Khurana and Pahwa] were fine, but after that, there were frequent issues between the two of them. I even separated them at one point, thinking it would bring them happiness. But even then, she continued to torture my child. My son quietly endured it all," Khuranas mother, who was visibly emotional, told ANI. related stories She continued, Sometimes it was about money, sometimes about their joint business, and other times family matters. My son never spoke openly, not to his mother or father. He would think, Why burden my parents with tension? He kept swallowing his sorrow and pain silently, and I dont know what she did yesterday. Earlier, he had recovered, but yesterday, she tortured him so much that he took this step." Read| Delhi Cafe Owners Wife Deletes Instagram Account, Shared Post On Feminism, Respect Oh God, my child is gone. Please give justice to my son so his soul can find peace," she further expressed, breaking down in tears. Watch the video here: #WATCH | Delhi | Deceased Puneet's mother says, "She (Puneet's wife) used to keep torturing himI want justice for him." pic.twitter.com/DHQt9mNU2E ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2025 The couple got married in 2016 and co-owned the For Gods Cake bakery as well as another eatery called Woodbox Cafe, which closed sometime back. The bakery was initially a partnership, but when the first divorce notice was signed in court, it was stated that Puneet would handle For Gods Bakery, while the Woodbox Cafe was given to Manika. The agreements had already been signed for that," Khuranas sister said. Khuranas family claims his wife hacked his social media account Khuranas family claimed that he left a 59-minute-long video alleging harassment by his wife. They further claimed that Pahwa even hacked his social media account. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Manika Pahwa, along with her sister and parents, subjected Puneet to relentless mental torture and harassment," alleged Puneet Khuranas sister. There is a 59-minute video recording where Puneet detailed the harassment he endured. She even hacked into his social media accounts," she claimed, further accusing Pahwa and her family of telling him, You cant do anythingif you dare, die by suicide." This news piece may be triggering. If you or someone you know needs help, call any of these helplines: Aasra (Mumbai) 022-27546669, Sneha (Chennai) 044-24640050, Sumaitri (Delhi) 011-23389090, Cooj (Goa) 0832- 2252525, Jeevan (Jamshedpur) 065-76453841, Pratheeksha (Kochi) 048-42448830, Maithri (Kochi) 0484-2540530, Roshni (Hyderabad) 040-66202000, Lifeline 033-64643267 (Kolkata) First Published: January 02, 2025, 10:51 IST In Bengaluru, 130 Hours Lost Every Year Due To Traffic Jams Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 16:06 IST While London took the top spot for the worst traffic globally, in Asia, Bengaluru ranked 6th and Pune appeared in the 7th position. New Delhi and Mumbai also appear in the list. (File Photo) Traffic congestion continues to be a major nightmare in many Asian cities. According to the 2024 TomTom Traffic Index, which tracks traffic issues from 387 cities across 55 countries on 6 continents," has ranked two Indian cities among Asias Worst Cities for Traffic. While London took the top spot in the global chart, in Asia, Bengaluru ranked 6th, where commuters lose 132 hours annually. Pune came in 7th place, where people spend an average of 27 minutes and 10 seconds in traffic, which is 128 extra hours. Other Indian cities like New Delhi and Mumbai also appear in the list, with 44 and 54 ranks, respectively. Sharing the data on Instagram, Statista wrote, In the first place are Asias worst cities for traffic. In Bengaluru, drivers spend an average of 28 minutes and 10 seconds per 10 km in traffic, totalling about 132 extra hours in rush hour annually, according to the TomTom Traffic Index 2023. Pune, Manila, and Taichung also rank among the slowest city centres in Asia, while London tops the global list with the longest travel times." related stories Reacting to the post, a user wrote, I feel Mumbai is secretly training to be in this list." Another shared, Who is reaching 10kms in 27 minutes in Pune? It takes around 45 minutes now." Ive experienced traffic in Manila, and its something beyond human imagination," a comment read. Another mentioned, As a current Punekar, its sadly true." An individual shared, 28 minutes for 10 km in Bengaluru is a dream, honestly. Generally, its more like 4-5 km in that much time." One more added, Where is Kolkata? Bro never been on a bus from Science City to the Airport on weekdays after office hours." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all According to the ranking, the top 5 cities with the worst traffic are London, Dublin, Toronto, Milan and Lima. TomToms website explains that they analyse cities worldwide based on reasons like average travel time, fuel costs and CO2 emissions." Their goal is to provide helpful, high-quality information that can help drivers, pedestrians, city planners, cars and policymakers in dealing with traffic issues. The data is available for free. Location : Delhi, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 15:43 IST Indians Surpass Brits In London Real Estate Ownership, Internet Calls It Karma Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 14:32 IST A property developer report states that Indians own more property than English in London. Indian buyers are reportedly willing to invest money in one to three-bedroom houses. (Photo Credits: X) Indians are now the largest group of property owners in London, a report by a city-based property developer has revealed. The report, by Barrett London, surfaced online and has since led to parallels with Indias past and colonial history. As shared by the official X handle of BRICS, the Indian property buyers are divided into various categories, including Indian-origin residents who have been in the UK for generations, non-resident Indians (NRIs), foreign investors, and those relocating for educational purposes. Noting Indias not-so-cordial history with Britain, internet users made sarcastic comments, even claiming that at least Indians did it legally. Indians are now the largest group of property owners in London, surpassing the Englishmen themselves," the posts caption reads. related stories Indians are now the largest group of property owners in London, surpassing the Englishmen themselves. pic.twitter.com/UwD1Z4NSea BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) December 30, 2024 One of the users wrote, More than 90 per cent of the artefacts in the British Museum belong to India; they were stolen by Britishers." More than 90% of the artifacts in the British Museum belong to India; they were stolen by Britishers. pic.twitter.com/wmvCSm9SBM World Hall Of Fun (@WorldHallOfFun) December 30, 2024 Another made a sarcastic remark, They once owned half the world and now they own less than half of London." They once owned half the world and now they own less than half of London. Third Railify (@ThirdRailify) December 30, 2024 It is a matter to think that at one time the British became the richest by looting Indias wealth, today the Indians have surpassed them in their own country. Many many congratulations India," a comment read. It is a matter to think that at one time the British became the richest by looting India's wealth, today the Indians have surpassed them in their own country. Many many congratulations India pic.twitter.com/3UQ57vuB01 Anupam mishra (@Anupamjiup46) December 30, 2024 A comment added, Its just karma Brits illegally owned India for 200 years, now Indians are owning Britain legally and that is too in a completely competitive environment." It's just karma Brits illegally owned India for 200 yrs, now Indians are owning Britain legally and that is too in completely competitive environment. QUAD NEWS (@QUADUpdates) December 30, 2024 Another person said, In other words, Indians are taking back something that actually belongs to them." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In other words Indian are taking back something what actually belongs to them. Mayur Jhala (@mayurjhala) December 30, 2024 The report in question states, Indians make up the largest group of property owners in London, represented by those who have lived in the UK for generations, NRIs, foreign investors, students, and families who come to the UK for education," further adding that English and Pakistani people follow next in the list of the largest group of property owners. It explains that Indian buyers are reportedly willing to invest money in properties ranging from 1 to 3-bedroom houses. Location : Delhi, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 14:32 IST A Vietnam Airlines aircraft lands at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, June 15, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran Vietnam Airlines is set to achieve a record pre-tax profit of VND7.32 trillion (US$287.7 million) in 2024, ending four years of losses. Its revenue is expected to reach VND114.7 trillion ($4.5 billion), up 23% from 2023. Speaking at a recent conference, Le Hong Ha, CEO of Vietnam Airlines, said that the projected profit for 2024 is expected to more than double that of the airlines peak years in 2018 and 2019. Ha did not disclose the factors that contributed to this anticipated record profit. Vietnam Airlines is implementing flexible transport capacity management, cost optimization, and discount negotiations while leveraging international travel growth for recovery, according to a press release by Vietnam Airlines. Despite a recovery in the aviation market, Vietnam Airlines faced significant challenges due to Covid-19 restrictions and reported an accumulated loss of over VND35 trillion as of September. By the end of 2023, the airlines negative equity reached around VND17 trillion, primarily due to political instability in some markets, exchange rate fluctuations, and rising operational costs, experts noted. Factors such as political uncertainty, volatile exchange rates, and increased expenses for fuel, maintenance, and aircraft leasing further impede growth in the aviation sector. In a related move, at an upcoming extraordinary meeting, the airline plans to propose a share issuance to increase its charter capital and outline a recovery strategy extending to 2035. Lawmakers last month approved a potential increase in the airlines charter capital by up to VND22 trillion ($868 million) through new share sales to existing shareholders. The national flag carrier is expected to transport 22.7 million passengers in 2024, up 8% from 2023. Cargo volume is projected to rise by 40% to 314,700 tonnes. Each aircraft in the fleet is operating an average of 11 hours daily, a 25% increase. Vietnam Airlines is primarily government-owned, with over 86% of shares held by the government and 5.62% by Japans ANA Holdings, according to the London Stock Exchange data. School Renames Popular Indian Dishes In English, Internet Calls It Racism At Its Finest Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 11:58 IST A Reddit post shows a screenshot of a school message featuring some awkward and funny translations of popular Indian dishes. The school is now facing criticism for unnecessarily westernizing Indian culture. (Photo Credits: Reddit) A schools attempt to rename traditional Indian food in English has led to a heated debate online. A Reddit post, titled Colonial slave mentality is crazy in English medium schools," has gone viral, as it shows a screenshot of a message featuring some awkward and funny translations of popular Indian dishes like Golgappa, Gulab jamun, Aloo tikki, Gajar halwa, Jalebi and Poha, among others. Reportedly, the school shared these English names with students in order to prepare them for a quiz. However, the unknown educational institute is now facing criticism for unnecessarily westernizing Indian culture. As per the post, samosa was called rissole, pulao became pilaf, malpua is fried pancake and gulab jamun was referred to as rose water berry. Other dishes like dosa, golgappa, poha, bhel puri and pakoras were renamed crispy rice pancake, waterball, beaten/flattened rice, puffed rice and fritters, respectively. Even sweets like jalebi, kheer, gajar halwa, kaju katli and ras malai were given English names such as funnel cake, rice pudding, carrot pudding, cashew nut fudge and cheese dumplings. The school also renamed items like vada as fried doughnut, dhokla as steamed gram flour cake, aloo tikki into potato patties and sooji halwa is semolina pudding. related stories Reacting to the post, a user wrote, Even foreigners do not use these names for Indian dishes lol. Like no foreigner will ever call Gulab Jamun as Rose Water Berry, they simply mispronounce it as Gulag Jaymoon or something." Another shared, Whats wrong with this thread, are these people not seeing the problem. The problem isnt using English, the problem is the low quality literal translation of Indian food that foreigners will laugh at." When Japanese feel no need to translate ramen, Italians pizza, French croissant, Koreans Poke, Vietnamese Pho, etc etc etc, why are we the only spineless snobs who need to erase all traces from the origin of our culture? Pathetic," a comment read. Another mentioned, Look at tier 1 city kids with fake American accents. Lol I cringe seeing them. Most middle class Indians are meek submissive and have no self respect. Britishers achieved what they wanted. Our education system still produces slaves." An individual suggested, Internalized racism at its finest. These schools should also translate ravioli to Malai stuffed maida paratha and pizza to tamatar roti." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all One more revealed, I studied in convent school, where even exchange students were there, we didnt have this BS. Those guys even learned the local language along with Hindi. About translation I will call it a pakoda and for their understanding i would rather tell them how it is made, I wont call burger a Vada Pav." Since the post was shared on Reddit, it has garnered over 500 upvotes. Location : Delhi, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 11:58 IST This Country Was Once Available On Rent For One Night, Priced At Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 21:23 IST Located in Europe, this tiny country, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, could be booked for a one-night stay until 2011. Liechtenstein was listed on the popular accommodation platform AirBNB. Renting everyday items like houses, cars, and even air conditioners is quite common today. In fact, in some parts of the world, its even possible to rent boyfriends or girlfriends. But did you know there was once an entire country available for rent? The nation in question is Liechtenstein. Located in Europe, this tiny country, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, could be booked for a one-night stay until 2011. And while that might sound hard to believe, its true. This quaint country, with a population of only about 40,000 people, could be rented out for a hefty price. Before you start picturing a small cottage or an island getaway, consider this: the entire country itself was available for a night. related stories You might be wondering how much it costs to rent a whole country for just one night. The answer is a staggering $70,000 (approximately Rs 60 lakh). To make this unimaginable experience possible, Liechtenstein was listed on the popular accommodation platform AirBNB. This service was offered by a collaboration between a marketing and production company, which launched the rental business as a promotional campaign. Renting Liechtenstein was no ordinary affair. When someone booked the country, their event details were showcased on street signs and throughout the area. Guests were given unrestricted access to some of the most iconic landmarks in the country, including the historic forts. The icing on the cake? The reigning monarch of Liechtenstein himself would personally hand over the keys to the country. Not only did guests get to explore the country at their leisure, but they also enjoyed private events and fireworks displays over the majestic Alps, making for an unforgettable experience. While this unique opportunity might sound like a dream come true, it has unfortunately been unavailable since 2011. A viral video shared on the Instagram account @geoallday recently brought the story back into the spotlight, and many people are now learning about this unusual chapter in the countrys history. Watch the viral video: top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The video also provides more details about the rental experience, stating that guests could attend exclusive private events and enjoy the scenic beauty of the country while the king himself participated in the festivities. Although the service is no longer available, Liechtensteins brief foray into the world of rentals remains a curious and intriguing piece of history. Its a reminder of just how far creative marketing can go, even offering a whole nation to rent for the right price. First Published: January 02, 2025, 21:23 IST This Indian CEO Is The Highest-Paid Employee In The World; This Is His Salary... Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 15:07 IST Jagdeep Singh currently holds the title for the highest annual salary in the world, earning a staggering Rs 17,500 crore annually. Jagdeep Singh founded Quantumscape, a leading electric car battery developer. In a world where the notion of earning a salary has evolved significantly over time, the concept of a job" now encompasses much more than a fixed monthly income. As the landscape of work has shifted, employment has emerged as a primary source of wealth across professions, agriculture, and business. This change is evident in the growing number of people with six-figure salaries today. However, when it comes to one extraordinary individual, the story takes a more astounding turn. His name is Jagdeep Singh, and he currently holds the title for the highest annual salary in the world an eye-watering Rs 17,500 crore. To put this in perspective, Jagdeep Singh earns an average of Rs 48 crore per day. Yes, thats right a daily income that is larger than the annual revenue of some large corporations. His exceptional earnings have quickly become a source of national pride, with Indians sharing this incredible achievement across the globe. Singh, not just a CEO but also the founder of Quantumscape, is a living testament to the saying, Singh is King." His remarkable salary places him at the pinnacle of global wage earners. related stories For many young individuals, the idea of earning a substantial income has often meant securing a lucrative job overseas, with salaries running into lakhs. Yet Jagdeep Singh has raised the bar to an extraordinary level, earning Rs 1,459 crore every month. This makes him not just a successful businessman, but the highest-paid employee worldwide. Jagdeep Singhs rise to such remarkable heights is nothing short of inspiring. A graduate of Stanford University, where he earned his B.Tech, Singh furthered his education with an MBA from the University of California. His professional journey, however, did not begin with the grandeur of multi-crore salaries. In fact, he spent over a decade working in various roles at several companies before making his mark on the world. His breakthrough came in 2020 when he founded Quantumscape, a company that has since become a leader in the development of next-generation technology. The company is at the forefront of designing cutting-edge technology required to manufacture electric cars a sector that is rapidly gaining momentum globally. Under Singhs leadership, Quantumscape is not just another tech firm; it is a company shaping the future of sustainable transportation. Singhs salary reflects the significant role he plays in driving innovations that could transform industries worldwide. Quantumscapes work in battery technology, specifically in the realm of electric vehicles, is seen as a crucial advancement in the push towards cleaner, greener transportation. The companys breakthrough technologies promise to revolutionise the way electric cars are powered, making them more efficient, cost-effective, and widely accessible. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Jagdeep Singhs phenomenal success is not just a reflection of his salary but also of his ability to envision and realise game-changing technological advancements. By founding Quantumscape, he has placed himself at the heart of a global transformation that could define the future of energy and transportation. From being an employee in various companies to becoming the worlds highest-paid employee, Jagdeep Singhs journey exemplifies the power of entrepreneurship, vision, and innovation. His story is not just a source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs, but a reminder that with the right blend of determination, skill, and vision, anything is possible even earning a salary that exceeds the annual revenue of entire nations. First Published: January 02, 2025, 15:07 IST Watch: Influencer Continues Recording After Being Bitten By Rattlesnake Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 11:35 IST A video of an influencer recording himself after getting bitten by a venomous snake has taken the internet by storm. The life-threatening incident will send chills down your spine. (Photo Credits: X) In a bizarre event, a social media influencer has gone viral for recording himself after getting bitten by a snake in Florida. David Humplett is a 25-year-old is an up-and-coming wildlife influencer who was rummaging through some woods off a roadway on Shired Island in Dixie County. Accompanied by his friends, the Gainesville resident searched for snakes on December 18 before a diamondback rattlesnake found him. Once bitten, the young influencer quickly began filming himself. Humplett pulled up his jeans to show his freshly bleeding wound to the camera as his friends watched him in stunned silence. Welp, Im cooked," he said, as per multiple outlets. The incidents clip was later shared by internet personality Collin Rugg on X. NEW: Florida man accepts his fate after being bitten by a diamondback rattlesnake, says he is "cooked" but at least it will make a good meme. Gotta respect his commitment to the meme game. Social media influencer David Humphlett told the snake "good game" (gg) before he was pic.twitter.com/Vmwh4ve3RT Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 31, 2024 related stories David Humplett tried to stay calm during the severe situation. He jokingly complimented the snake after the bite. What a meme dude! Cool snake. Big diamondback. GG (good game)," he said. Humplett, however, acknowledged that he was in some big trouble. He described the diamondback rattlesnake as the worst snake that one can be bitten by in Florida. Humplett tried to be positive about the situation and suggested they should get some photographs. Lets get the pictures of it first. I mean, were already screwed anyways," he said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Following the life-threatening encounter, David Humplett was raised to a Cross City fire station from where he was taken to UF Health Shands by helicopter. Recounting the incident, the influencer claimed he understood the situation was indeed really bad. My reaction was just like dang it, this is really bad. I might lose my leg. It was pretty scary because my whole body went numb head to toe," he said as per WCJB.com. A familiar face was waiting for Humplett at the hospital, his wife Emma Rynear who worked as a UF Health nurse. Speaking about her husbands accident she said, Internally, Im panicking but externally, Im reassuring him, Youre going to be fine." The doctors at the UF Health Shands Hospital had to give David Humplett 88 antivenom injections into his leg. Two weeks after the incident, the young influencer remains in the hospitals Intensive Care Unit. Despite the ordeal, Humplett did not hold any hard feelings against his assailant. The 25-year-old claimed the snake saw him as a threat and was only trying to defend himself. Humplett is now excited to get back into the wild after getting discharged from the hospital. Location : Delhi, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 11:35 IST Bangladesh Rewriting History? New Textbooks To Say Ziaur Rahman Declared 1971 Independence Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 08:55 IST Bangladesh Rewriting textbooks on 1971 war: The new textbooks, with several changes, are being distributed among primary and secondary students starting from January 1 Sixth President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman (left) and first President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Bangladesh Rewriting Textbooks on 1971 War: The Bangladesh interim government has revised textbooks on the 1971 Liberation War to state that Ziaur Rahman declared the countrys independence, replacing the previous text which credited Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with the declaration. According to a Daily Star report, the new textbooks, with several changes, are being distributed among primary and secondary students starting from January 1. related stories What Government Says Chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board Professor AKM Reazul Hassan said the new textbooks for the 2025 academic year will state on March 26, 1971, Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu". The information has been incorporated into the free textbooks where the declaration of independence was previously mentioned, he added. Writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who contributed to the revision of the textbooks, explained that their aim was to remove exaggerated, imposed history" from the materials. Those who revised the textbooks determined that the claim that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message declaring independence while being arrested by the Pakistani army was not based on factual information, so they decided to remove it." Prior Textbook Changes In earlier textbooks for Classes 1 to 10, the attribution of the declaration of independence changed depending on the ruling government. Supporters of the Awami League widely believe that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the declaration, with Ziaur Rahmanwho was an army major and later a sector commander during the Liberation Warsimply reading it out on Mujibs instructions. Conversely, supporters of the BNP argue that their partys founder and former president, Ziaur Rahman, made the declaration. Former NCTB officials recalled that during the Awami Leagues rule from 1996 to 2001, textbooks stated that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the declaration, while Ziaur Rahman read it aloud. When the BNP was in power from 2001 to 2006, however, the textbooks stated that Ziaur Rahman had made the declaration. These officials, however, could not recall what was written in textbooks prior to 1996. Will The Move Spark A Row? Asked whether the revision would ignite new debates given the differing beliefs, Reazul responded, Of course not. This isnt a matter related to Awami League or BNP. This is a national issue. We want to ensure due recognition is given to individuals like Maulana Bhashani and Tajuddin Ahmed, who also played significant roles in the Liberation War. Our focus is on ensuring a consistent, fact-based representation." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Former NCTB officials also pointed out that, although the ruling powers frequently changed the name of the individual who declared independence, the constitution, which names Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the Father of the Nation," includes the telegram of Bangladeshs Declaration of Independence made by Bangabandhu on March 26, 1971, in the sixth schedule. The constitution also includes the Proclamation of Independence of the Mujibnagar Government on April 10, 1971, in the seventh schedule. As part of the revisions, the NCTB has also removed the title Father of the Nation" from references to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Location : Dhaka, Bangladesh First Published: January 02, 2025, 08:38 IST Jailed Hindu Monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Denied Bail, Set To Appeal In Bangladesh High Court Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 13:13 IST Chinmoy Krishna Das, arrested on sedition charges in Bangladesh, was denied bail during a court hearing in the country today. His arrest has sparked concerns over minority rights. Kolkata: Activists of Hindu Jagaran Mancha participate in a rally to protest over arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das (Photo: PTI) A Bangladesh court on Thursday rejected bail to former ISKCON priest Chinmoy Krishna Das, who was arrested in the country on November 25, 2024. The development came as a bench of 11 lawyers of the Supreme Court participated in Chinmoy Krishnas bail hearing today. Following the development, Chinmoy Krishna Prabhu now reportedly plans to approach the High Court, CNN-News18 has learnt. related stories Speaking to news agency ANI, Kolkata ISCKON vice-president Radha Raman Das, said, Its very sad news. We know that the entire world was keeping an eye on this. Everyone was expecting Chinmoy Prabhu will get freedom in the new year but even after 42 days, his bail was rejected in a hearing today. The Bangladesh government should ensure that he gets justice." Led by advocate Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee, the legal team reportedly defended Chinmoy, in a sedition case resulting from allegations of disrespecting Bangladeshs national flag, it stated. We have come to Chattogram under the banner of Ainjibi Oikya Parishad, and we will move for Chinmoy in the court for his bail. I already got the Vakalatnama from Chinmoy. Im a member of both the Supreme Court and Chattogram Bar associations, so I dont need authorisation from any local lawyer to move the case," lawyer Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee had told The Daily Star earlier. Earlier on December 3, 2024, a court in Bangladeshs Chittagong had fixed January 2 for bail hearing as the prosecution submitted a time petition and there was no lawyer to represent Chinmoy. On January 1, ISKCON Kolkata expressed hopes that Chinmoy Krishna Das will receive justice in the court hearing scheduled on Thursday. ISKCON Kolkata spokesperson Radharamn Das said the organisation will hold prayers for Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh on the first day of 2025, as they have been doing over the past month. To get justice, the minimum requirement is proper functioning of the legal system," he said, news agency PTI reported. Chinmay Krishna Das was arrested from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport area of Dhaka in connection with a sedition case filed in Chattogram on November 25. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Bangladeshs minority Hindus, which constitute only about 8 per cent of the 170 million population, have faced hundreds of attacks in 50-odd districts of the country since the fall of Sheikh Hasinas Awami League government on August 5. Das had earlier demanded that the interim government in Bangladesh take strong action against the fundamentalists fomenting trouble in that country and arrest them so as to build confidence among the minorities. First Published: January 02, 2025, 11:17 IST Germany Arrests Hundreds For Attacking Cops, Firefighters With Crackers On New Year's Eve Published By : Associated Press Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 23:36 IST Four hundred people were arrested after 30 police officers and one firefighter were injured in confrontations or attacks during New Year's Eve. Police officers put out the fire in the streets after the fireworks for the New Year's celebrations in Berlin, Germany. (IMAGE: AP PHOTO) The German government on Wednesday condemned a series of incidents on New Years Eve in which police officers and firefighters were attacked and injured, mostly with fireworks. Revellers across the country traditionally ring in the new year by setting off large numbers of fireworks in public places. But the latest celebrations were marred by the use of fireworks against emergency officials. related stories In Berlin, 30 police officers and one firefighter were injured in confrontations or attacks during New Years Eve, leading to 400 arrests, city officials said. Hundreds of police officers from across the country were deployed to the capital to help prevent further violence. Five people were killed and hundreds injured across the country after being hit accidentally by fireworks, German news agency dpa reported. Explosions of very strong, illegal fireworks in Berlin also caused extensive damage in two Berlin neighborhoods and injured numerous people, some of them seriously. According to the citys fire department, powerful detonations severely damaged numerous house facades and broke many windows. Thirty-six apartments are currently uninhabitable, dpa reported. The deployment of strong police forces from the federal states and the federal police and an early and consistent crackdown are the right means against perpetrators of violence and chaos," German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all However, the many arrests in Berlin alone and the renewed attacks on police officers also show that this crackdown was absolutely necessary." She wished all injured officers a speedy recovery and vowed that all perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished with the utmost severity." Location : Berlin, Germany First Published: January 02, 2025, 23:36 IST At Least 11 Shot At New York Nightclub, Cops Rush To Spot Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 11:35 IST Mass Shooting at Amazura Nightclub in New Yorks Queens: The New York Police Department has classified the situation as active, with officers working to secure the area and protect the public Several police personnel have been deployed at the gunfire spot. (Screengrab/X) New York Mass Shooting: At least 11 people have been shot at a mass firing in a nightclub in New York. At least 13 victims have been shot at the Amazura Night Club in Queens. New York. pic.twitter.com/qW9id5nGph Praying Medic (@prayingmedic) January 2, 2025 related stories According to reports, the firing took place at the Amazura Night Club in Queens. An amny.com report citing law enforcement sources mentioned that the gunfire broke out near the Amazura event hall at 91-12 144th Place in Jamaica, within the 103rd Precinct, around 11:45 pm on January 1. According to sources familiar with the investigation, at least three people injured in the shooting arrived at a local hospital for treatment. Multiple NYPD units have gathered near the event hall and set up a significant crime scene. ALSO READ | One Killed As Tesla Cybertruck Explodes Outside Trump Hotel In Las Vegas | Video Reports on the Citizen app suggest that up to two suspects involved in the shooting are still on the loose. The Amazura event hall is located a few blocks from the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station. WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR Around 11:45 pm, multiple gunshots were heard, causing patrons to flee for safety. First responders arrived to find a chaotic scene, with victims both inside and outside the venue. At least 11 people have been confirmed shot, though their conditions are unknown, with some reported to have suffered critical injuries. PROBE ON The New York Police Department (NYPD) has classified the situation as active, with officers working to secure the area and protect the public. Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams have been deployed, and nearby streets have been closed off. Authorities have not yet identified a suspect or determined a motive for the shooting. Witnesses describe a harrowing scene, with gunfire ringing out as the nightclub was crowded with people celebrating the New Year. EMERGENCY RESPONSE Paramedics from the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and other local agencies are on the scene treating victims, while others have been transported to nearby hospitals. Police are conducting door-to-door searches in the area and reviewing surveillance footage to gather more details about the incident. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all PUBLIC SAFETY ALERT Authorities are urging residents to avoid the area and have asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact the NYPD immediately. Mayor Eric Adams has been briefed on the situation and is expected to release a statement soon. Community leaders have expressed shock and sorrow over the violence, calling for unity and swift justice. Location : New York, United States of America (USA) First Published: January 02, 2025, 10:37 IST Netizens Found This Major Blunder In Meghan Markles Instagram Debut Post Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 21:24 IST Meghan Markle kicks off 2025 with an Instagram video, but eagle-eyed fans notice a curious detail in the clip. Royal fans spotted a blunder in Meghan Markle's first Instagram post. (IMAGE: Instagram/@meghan) Meghan Markles latest Instagram video has caught the attention of eagle-eyed critics and UK royal familys fans who pointed out a small blunder in the 28-second clip. The Duchess of Sussex, 43, launched her own Instagram account at the start of 2025, using the username @meghan, with her first post going live on Wednesday. related stories The video was filmed by her husband, Prince Harry, 40, which shows Markle running along the beach in Montecito, California. Dressed in an all-white outfit, Markle writes 2025" in the sand before smiling and running back out of frame. However, fans spotted a continuity error in the video. Markle is seen running toward the water, looking for the ideal spot to write 2025" in the sand but as she passes by, they point out another 2025" already written in the sand, which means that the final take wasnt her first attempt. After returning to social media, Meghan Markles profile got a blue verification tick on Thursday. The former royal already has over 750,000 followers on the platform, even though her first post was just around 21 hours ago. Along with her first post, Meghan Markle updated her accounts profile photo to a black-and-white picture of herself smiling in a white dress. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The New York Post said that Markle kept the account inactive after setting it up in June 2022. Before this, Markle shared an Instagram account with her husband under the handle @sussexroyal. Location : Montecito, California First Published: January 02, 2025, 21:24 IST Radicalisation, Not Religion Reason Behind New Orleans Attack: Terrorist Shamsud-Din's Brother Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 22:04 IST Shamsud-Din Jabbar, US citizen and army veteran, mowed down people in New Orleans, killing 15. He had pledged allegiance to the ISIS in a Facebook video and had an ISIS flag on his truck. New Orleans terror attack terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar (Reuters Image) The brother of the terrorist who rammed the pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans blamed radicalisation" behind the kins carnage that killed 15 people and injured over 30 others on New Years Day. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the Army veteran who drove the vehicle that night, was killed by the police on the spot after he fired shots after crashing his truck into people. related stories His brother Abdur Jabbar told The New York Times that his elder brother converted to Islam at an early age, however, added what Shamsud-Din did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion". Abdur described his brother as a sweetheart, a nice guy, a friend, really smart, caring", The New York Times reported. Shasmud-Din Pledged Allegiance To ISIS The attack, prior to carrying out the deadly rampage, posted videos on his Facebook page in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS", the outlet reported. In one of the videos, he confessed that he planned on murdering his family. The terrorist was divorced twice and had two daughters aged 15 and 20 with ex-wife Nakedra Charrlle, according to The New York Times. Shasmud-Din was driving and recording videos, which authorities suspect were filmed during his journey from his Houston home to Louisiana, sources told the outlet. Federal investigators believe he did not act alone in carrying out the attack in the French Quarter. An Army veteran from Texas, Shasmud-Din drove a rented Ford F-150 Lightning EV pickup with an ISIS flag attached, crashing into a crowd of New Years Day revelers on Bourbon Street. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Georgia State University told news agency AFP that an individual named Shamsud-Din Jabbar attended the university between 2015 and 2017 and graduated with a bachelors degree in computer systems. According to criminal records reported by The New York Times, Shamsud-Din had two prior charges for minor offenses: a theft charge in 2002 and driving with an invalid license in 2005. Location : United States of America (USA) First Published: January 02, 2025, 21:56 IST Malaysia's electric vehicle (EV) market is expected to gain momentum in 2025, driven by localization investments and new models from local automakers, Xinhua news agency said, citing many analysts. An electric car charging. Illustration photo by Pexels It quoted a recent report of Maybank Investment Bank as saying that Malaysia's incentives for completely built-up EVs, including duty exemptions and import restrictions for lower-priced models, will expire at the end of 2025. This will prompt mass premium EV makers to localize assembly to maintain competitive pricing. Malaysia's EV adoption is forecast to reach 3% of total industry volume (TIV) in 2025, while hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) could account for 5%, based on Maybank's TIV projection of 750,000 units for the year. A study by the Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad (MIDF) Research also highlighted the government's focus on promoting Malaysia as a hub for affordable EV production. Although EV still plays a minor role in TIV, CGS International suggested that removing fuel subsidies in mid-2025 and accelerating charging infrastructure could trigger an inflection point for EV adoption. According to CIMB Securities, higher adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as competition intensifies ahead of the 2026 duty exemption expiry for imported models, and domestic assembly will take precedence. Malaysia's national automakers are stepping into the EV market amid the government's EV push. Malaysian automaker Proton recently unveiled its first electric SUV in collaboration with its partner. Meanwhile, Perodua plans to launch a B-segment hatchback EV in late 2025, aiming for initial monthly production of 500 units, positioning the model as Malaysia's most affordable EV. Maybank said that the growing range of EV models in Malaysia could drive investment in public charging infrastructure. Malaysia targets to have 10,000 EV chargers in 2025. At the current rate of 111 installations per month, achieving this goal will require a fivefold increase in deployment. Despite the increasing adoption of EVs, analysts still anticipate a decline in Malaysia's automotive TIV in 2025. While the EV segment shows growth potential, traditional automotive segments continue to face headwinds. CGS International foresees Malaysia's TIV normalizing to 780,000 units in 2025, after three years of record sales. However, it also highlighted opportunities for local automakers to expand export markets and strengthen brand equity as domestic assembly capabilities improve alongside a more skilled labor force. We Will Free Her: Iran Offers Help To Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priya Facing Death Row In Yemen Reported By : News18.com Edited By: News Desk Last Updated: January 03, 2025, 17:50 IST Nimisha Priya case: According to News18 sources, the Kerala nurse was arrested in an area which is not under the rule of the Houthis and other countries are trying to help her Family members and legal representatives allege that the deceased Talal Abdo Mahdi tortured Nimisha Priya under the influence of drugs and withheld her passport. (News18 Malayalam) Nimisha Priya case: Iran has offered to help Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who is facing death row in Yemen for an alleged murder on humanitarian grounds". There is confusion over the location of the arrest of the nurse. While some claim she was arrested in an area that is not under the rule of the Houthis, in which case other countries can try and help her, others say the arrest happened within the Houthi-controlled territory. related stories A senior Iranian official said, On humanitarian grounds, we are willing to do whatever we can." On Nimisha Priyas death row case, a senior Iranian official says, On humanitarian grounds, we are willing to do whatever we can."Kerala nurse, Nimisha Priya is facing a death sentence at the Central prison in Sanaa, Yemen for an alleged murder charge ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2025 All About Nimisha Priya Case Two days ago India said it was extending all possible help" to explore relevant options in the death sentence of Nimisha Priya, a Kerala nurse who was convicted of murdering a Yemeni citizen. Sources said that unless a pardon from the victims family is obtained, the execution will take place in a month. Priya was found guilty of killing Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi and has been in prison since 2017. She was sentenced to death by a trial court in Yemen in 2018 and her family has been fighting for her release since then. According to The New Indian Express, Nimishas 57-year-old mother, Prema Kumari, had reached Yemens capital Sanaa earlier last year and has been staying there to secure a waiver of the death penalty and negotiate the blood money with the victims family. She was provided assistance by the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council comprising NRI social workers based in Yemen, the report added. The publication mentioned that negotiations with Nimishas family reached a dead end in September this year after the lawyer engaged by the Indian Embassy demanded more funds, part of which were raised by the Action council. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all We worked tirelessly to save Nimisha Priyas life, but our efforts ended in vain. We managed to collect 40,000 dollars (around Rs 34,20,000), and were prepared to raise even more to save her. Along with the Action council, the chief minister, the leader of opposition, former union minister and various leaders across political lines joined hands in this effort," Nenmara MLA K Babu was quoted. Nimisha Priya, in 2014, came in contact with Talal Abdo Mahdi, who promised to help her in starting her own clinic as a partnership was required under the Yemeni law. She set up a clinic in 2015, with the help of Mahdi. First Published: January 02, 2025, 15:05 IST Ousted Syrian Leader Bashar al-Assad Allegedly Poisoned In Moscow: Report Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 19:45 IST An alleged poisoning attempt has been made on ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad Unverified reports on social media claimed that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, currently taking refuge in Moscow after being ousted, was targeted in an assassination bid. (IMAGE: AP) An alleged poisoning attempt has reportedly been made on ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, sources claim. The former leader, removed from power by rebels, has been under the protection of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow since December 8 last year. related stories However, according to a social media account, named General SVR, run by a former spy in Russia, Assad fell ill on Sunday. He sought medical help and then began to cough violently and choke". Bashar al-Assad PoisonedDear subscribers and guests of the channel! There is every reason to believe that an assassination attempt was made on former #Syrian President #Bashar_al_Assad. In the afternoon on Sunday, Assad complained to security guards about indisposition https://t.co/XSu3WqzckK pic.twitter.com/j0PqoRXuZg generalsvr_en (@generalsvr_en) December 31, 2024 There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made," the account claimed. Assad was reportedly treated in his apartment, and his condition was said to have stabilized by Monday. Tests conducted on him showed he had poison in his system. There has been no official confirmation from Syria or from Moscow. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all A lightning rebel offensive early in December caught Syrias former ruler Assads clan off guard. President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on December 8, when a rebel alliance led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took Damascus, announcing Assads overthrow after an 11-day offensive. Location : London, United Kingdom (UK) First Published: January 02, 2025, 19:10 IST Pakistani Man Released From Gorakhpur Jail Set To Return Home After 16 Years Published By : PTI Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 20:45 IST Mansoor Ahmed was arrested near the India-Nepal border in Bahraich for entering India without a visa or passport. Mansoor Ahmed is set to return to his home in Pakistan after the Ministry of External Affairs had earlier issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to facilitate his repatriation. (IMAGE: PIXABAY/REPRESENTATIVE) After spending 16 long years behind bars, Pakistani national Mohammad Masroof, also known as Mansoor Ahmed, is set to return home. The 50-year-old will be released from Gorakhpur District Jail on February 7, when his jail term, which began in 2008, ends, officials said Thursday. related stories Masroof was arrested near the India-Nepal border in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, for illegally entering India without a visa or passport. Charged with espionage, the Allahabad High Court later acquitted him of these charges, convicting him only for immigration violations. Being inside prison for more than 16 years, Masroof has exceeded the prescribed sentence. A release order for him was issued by the Union Home Ministry. Gorakhpur District Jail Superintendent AK Kushwaha said arrangements are being made for Masroofs transfer to Delhi, from where he will be handed over to Pakistani authorities at the Attari border. The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to facilitate his repatriation, and ongoing reminders from the jail authorities helped expedite the process," Kushwaha added. Masroof was shifted to Gorakhpur Jail from Varanasi Central Prison four years ago. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all According to the jailer, Masroof has shown good behaviour during his time in custody and is eager to meet his family in Pakistan. He was very happy when he found out about the upcoming release and is looking forward to going home after so many years," Kushwaha said. Location : Gorakhpur, India First Published: January 02, 2025, 20:14 IST 'New Orleans Attacker Joined ISIS, Planted 2 Homemade Bombs': FBI Probe Reveals New Details Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 03, 2025, 09:58 IST The FBI said the New Orleans attacker who rammed into a crowd of New Years acted alone and had joined the ISIS terror group. The FBI also revealed that the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with IS. (IMAGE: AP PHOTO) The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday said Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Years revellers acted alone. It revealed that the US citizen from Texas posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he said that he joined the Islamic State (IS) terror group and swore allegiance to the group. The investigating agency also said that Jabbar planted two home-made bombs. related stories We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the subject youve already been briefed on. This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act," said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBIs counterterrorism division. It also that the deadly truck-ramming in New Orleans and a vehicle explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas do not appear to be linked. At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas," Raia said at a press conference. Authorities recovered an Islamic State black flag from the truck, and President Joe Biden revealed that the FBI informed him about Jabbar posting videos on social media hours before the attack. The videos reportedly showed his motivation by the militant group and his expressed intent to kill. Biden also said that the New Orleans attacker had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that he planted in the ice coolers in the French Quarter before ramming his car into the crown on Bourbon Street. The FBI has recovered the two IEDs that the attacker, Shamsud Din Jabbar, placed in the coolers, CNN reported. Theyve established that the attacker is the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. They assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests," Biden said. Biden has also told reporters gathered in the White Houses East Room that hell try to travel to New Orleans, CNN reported. The rampage killed 15 people and injured dozens as Jabbars pickup truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans bustling French Quarter district early on New Years Day. It is the same place where he planted the two homemade bombs. Wednesdays attack unfolded on Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Years Eve parties. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Jabbar enlisted in the Army in 2007, working in both human resources and information technology. He deployed to Afghanistan in February 2009 for nearly a year, and later transferred into the US Army Reserve, the service said in a statement. Jabbar left the military in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. (with AFP and Associated Press inputs) Location : New Orleans, Louisiana First Published: January 02, 2025, 22:17 IST 'Picked Wrong Vehicle': Elon Musk Reacts As Trump Hotel Video Shows Cybertruck Limited Damage Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 08:02 IST A new video of the blast in front of the Trump Las Vegas Hotel released by the police shows that the exterior part of the cybertruck was mostly intact after the attack The remains of a Tesla Cybertruck that burned at the entrance of Trump Tower, are inspected in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo: Reuters) A Tesla Cybertruck erupted in flames outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on Wednesday, resulting in the death of the driver and injuries to seven others. Videos from the hotel that captured the vehicle bursting into flames as it stood just outside the building have gone viral. A new video of the blast released by the police shows that the exterior part of the cyber truck was mostly intact after the attack. According to sources, the fact that it was a Cybertruck limited the damage inside the valet because most of the blast went up, through the truck, and out. They said the glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken. related stories NEW FOOTAGE: The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet, because it had most of the blast go up, through the truck and out The glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken." pic.twitter.com/XtztqmZAYr America (@america) January 2, 2025 Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared the video on X and wrote, The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken." The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards.Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken. https://t.co/9vj1JdcRZV Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 2, 2025 FBI Probing Terror Angle Authorities stated that the FBI was looking into whether the explosion was an act of terrorism. Witness videos taken both inside and outside the hotel captured the vehicle bursting into flames as it stood just outside the building. This incident took place only hours after a man drove a truck into a crowd of New Years Day celebrants in New Orleans, causing the deaths of 15 people. The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now.Will post more information as soon as we learn anything. Weve never seen anything like this. https://t.co/MpmICGvLXf Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025 Tesla Senior Team Probing Matter: Musk The tech billionaire, in another post on X, said the whole Tesla senior team was investigating this matter right now". He added, Will post more information as soon as we learn anything." The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the Trump Organisation, the company of President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to return to the White House on January 20. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a prominent supporter of Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign, is also an adviser to the incoming president. What Cops Say Obviously, a cybertruck and the Trump hotelthere are many questions we need to address," said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill during a press conference. FBI special agent in charge Jeremy Schwartz later told reporters that it was still unclear whether the explosion was a terrorist act. I know everyone is eager to hear that word and wonder if we can say, This is a terrorist attack. That is our goal, and were working on that," Schwartz explained. He added that the FBI had identified the driver of the vehicle, which had been rented in Colorado, but was not yet prepared to release the drivers name. A person was found dead inside the 2024 Tesla Cybertruck, and seven others suffered minor injuries from the explosion, McMahill confirmed. He also noted that both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack had been rented through the car-sharing service Turo. McMahill stated that the Cybertruck arrived at the Trump hotel at 8:40 am local time (1640 GMT). He mentioned that the police were aware of the earlier attack in New Orleans on the same day. The FBI confirmed that a potential explosive device had been found in the vehicle used in that attack. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Las Vegas firefighters responded four minutes after the fire was reported and managed to extinguish the flames. Two of the injured were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The Trump Hotel was evacuated, and most guests were relocated to another hotel. Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organisation and the son of President-elect Trump, addressed the incident on X, stating, Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochere of Trump Las Vegas," referring to the hotels covered entrance area. Location : New York, United States of America (USA) First Published: January 02, 2025, 07:46 IST US Tech Workers Seek End To Foreign Student Work Permits Amid H-1B Debate, May Impact Indians Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 23:57 IST The US Tech Workers have demanded Donald Trump to scrap the OPT programme, claiming it is being misused to get H-1B visa. They claimed that locals graduates are being subjected to "unfair competition". The US provides a wide array of visa options for Indians Donald Trumps supporters backing his idea of Make America Great Again have taken on the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme which is seen as a gateway for international students, including those from India, seeking an H-1B visa. The OPT programme permits international students to gain work experience in the US after graduation, further paving the way for the grant of an H-1B visa which lets skilled foreign nationals be employed for another six years in America. related stories OPT is popular among students who go to the US for higher education. Indian students make up the largest international community in the country and remain one of the biggest aspirants. US Seeks To End Work Permits For International Students The OPT programme is now under scrutiny as concerns over foreign workers taking up jobs in the US grow. People argue that the OPT programme is being used as a long-term immigration pathway to fill American jobs. Initially intended for short-term skill development, the OPT programme allows foreign students holding F-1 visas to work in the United States for up to three years, provided they possess a STEM degree. The local population have criticised it, claiming that the programme operates without Congressional approval, giving competition to the local graduates in jobs. Some even dubbed it a backdoor" entry into the US job market. US Tech Workers Group Opposes OPT Programme The United States Tech Workers group has come out in open opposition of the programme and said that it was meant to provide short-term" opportunity to international students to work in the US and then go back to their home countries. OPT was originally a 1-year work permit for international students graduating from U.S. colleges to gain U.S. work experience to take back to their home countries. It was never meant as a permanent immigration pathway, but rather a short-term opportunity for skill development," it said in a lengthy thread on X. After STEM-OPT was introduced, the number of international students, particularly from India and China, skyrocketed. Universities actively advertised STEM-OPT to attract these students, seeing them as a lucrative source of revenue," the group added. After STEM-OPT was introduced, the number of international students, particularly from India and China, skyrocketed. Universities actively advertised STEM-OPT to attract these students, seeing them as a lucrative source of revenue. pic.twitter.com/b7i0tN6zmj U.S. Tech Workers (@USTechWorkers) December 30, 2024 It said that the OPT programme is a guest worker scheme disguised as an internship for foreign students". Universities are selling work permits instead of education. Created illegally like DACA, Trump should end OPT to protect American college grads from unfair competition," the post said. Indian students heavily depend on the programme for professional growth and as a pathway to secure H-1B visas. In 2023, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech) challenged the program in court, arguing that it disadvantages American workers. However, a lower courts decision upheld the programs validity. Impact On Indian Students As the OPT programme allows international students who are in the US on F-1 visas to work for up to 12 months in an area directly related" to their area of study, its cancellation may impact those Indians willing to enter the US job market through higher education in the country. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all International students enrolled full-time in the US for at least one academic year are eligible to apply for OPT. Those with a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) can extend their post-completion OPT by an additional 24 months, allowing them to work in the US for a total of three years. The USCIS provides a list of degree programmes eligible for this extension. The US, as an attractive study-abroad destination for Indians, may take a hit if the OPT programme is scrapped by the government. Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: January 02, 2025, 23:57 IST What Is Islamic State & What Attacks Has It Inspired By Offshoots And Lone Wolves? Last Updated: January 02, 2025, 09:10 IST The investigation is expected to look in part at any support or inspiration that driver Shamsud-Din Jabbar may have drawn from that violent Middle East-based group, or from any of at least 19 affiliated groups around the world The Islamic State also is known as both IS and ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. (Representative Image: X) The FBI says it recovered the stark black banner of the Islamic State extremist group from the truck that an American man from Texas smashed into New Years partygoers in New Orleans French Quarter Wednesday, killing 15 people. The investigation is expected to look in part at any support or inspiration that driver Shamsud-Din Jabbar may have drawn from that violent Middle East-based group, or from any of at least 19 affiliated groups around the world. related stories President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI had told him that mere hours before the attack, (Jabbar) posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired" by the Islamic State. Routed from its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq by a US military-led coalition more than five years ago, the Islamic State has focused on seizing territory in the Middle East more than on staging massive al-Qaida-style attacks on the West. But in its home territory the Islamic State has welcomed any chance to behead Americans and other foreigners who come within its reach. And it has had success, although abated in recent years, in inspiring people around the world who are drawn to its ideology to carry out ghastly attacks on innocent civilians. Heres a look at the Islamic State, its current status, and some of the offshoot armed groups and so-called lone wolves that have killed under the Islamic State flag. What is the Islamic State? The Islamic State also is known as both IS and ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. It began as a breakaway group from al-Qaida. Under leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS had seized stunning amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria by 2014. Within territory under its control, it killed and otherwise abused members of other faiths and targeted fellow Sunni Muslims who strayed from its harsh interpretation of Islam. U.S.-led military intervention had driven Islamic State from the last inch of its territory. Al-Baghdadi killed himself, and two children near him, that same year, detonating an explosive vest as US forces closed in on him. Currently, the central Islamic State group is a scattered and much weakened organization working to regain fighting strength and territory in Syria and Iraq. Experts warn that the group is reconstituting itself there. And that ISIS flag? Typically, its a stark black banner with white Arabic letters expressing a central creed of the Islamic faith. Countless Muslims around the world see the coercive violence of the group as a perversion of their religion. Whats the influence of the Islamic State today? Some experts argue the Islamic State is powerful today partly as a brand, inspiring both militant groups and individuals in attacks that the group itself may have no real role in. The Islamic States ruthless credo and military successes have helped spur affiliated groups in Africa, Asia and Europe. Its a greatly decentralized alliance. Many offshoots have carried out lethal attacks, such as a March 2024 attack blamed on an Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Islamic State that killed some 130 people at a Moscow theater. Whats the groups track record for inspiring attacks in the United States? The New Orleans rampage reflects the deadliest Islamic State-inspired attack on US soil in several years. Other attacks over the last decade include a 2014 shooting rampage by a husband-and-wife team who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, and a 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who fatally shot 49 people, pledged his allegiance on a 911 call to al-Baghdadi and raged against the filthy ways of the West." Those attacks coincided with an influx of thousands of Westerners some of them Americans who travelled to Syria in hopes of joining the so-called caliphate. In the aftermath of those killings, the threat from radicalized followers of the group had appeared to wane in the US. Al-Baghdadi was killed in a 2019 US raid in Syria after he was chased into a tunnel with three of his children and set off a vest of explosives, Defense Department strikes have taken out other Islamic State members and the FBI has had significant success in disrupting plots before they come to fruition. But over the last year, FBI officials have warned about a significantly elevated threat of international terrorism following Hamas rampage in Israel in October 2023 and the resulting Israeli strikes in Gaza. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The SITE intelligence group reported IS supporters celebrating in online chat groups Wednesday. If its a brother, hes a legend. Allahu Akbar," or God is great," it quoted one as saying. Location : New York, United States of America (USA) First Published: January 02, 2025, 09:10 IST A view of Kuala Lumpur's skyline in Malaysia, May 30, 2023. Photo by Reuters Malaysia, voted Asia's most-loved country in a survey last year, received 22.5 million foreign tourists excluding excursionists between January and November 2024, reflecting a 26% year-on-year increase. Singapore was the largest source of visitors, contributing 8 million arrivals, followed by Indonesia with 3.2 million and China with 3 million, according to Malaysia's Tourism Statistics. Thailand and Brunei completed the top five sources of tourists. For 2024, Malaysia has set a target of 27.3 million foreign arrivals. To further boost tourism, Malaysia recently extended its visa exemption for Indian nationals until Dec. 31, 2026. Similarly, a visa exemption for Chinese nationals was extended until 2026. Malaysia initially introduced visa waivers for Chinese and Indian tourists in December 2023, allowing them to stay for up to 30 days. Renowned for its rich cultural diversity, Malaysia was named Asia's most-loved country in a June survey by American finance site Insider Monkey. In comparison, Thailand welcomed over 35 million foreign arrivals in 2024, while Vietnam received nearly 16 million as of November. One week after a Swiss International Air Lines flight made an emergency landing due to smoke in the cabin, a flight attendant who was onboard has died. Flight LX1885 took off from Bucharest headed to Zurich on Dec. 23, but instead was forced to land in Graz, Austria. All 74 passengers were evacuated safely after the landing, but 12 passengers received medical care and two crew members were hospitalized, including the one who died Monday, CBS News reports. "Out of respect for the loved ones, we will not provide detailed information about our employee or the cause of death," the airline said in a statement. Swiss Info calls the tragedy the most serious incident in the airline's 23-year history. The airline previously said there was apparently a problem with one of the engines, the New York Post reports. "The focus is on the mechanical parts of the aircraft, such as the engine, but also on the use of protective equipment for the cabin crew, known as Protective Breathing Equipment," the airline's previous statement said. "We are all deeply shocked by the death of our beloved colleague," it said in a further statement following its employee's death. "The news leaves us deeply saddened and stunned. Our thoughts are with the young man's relatives, whose pain must be boundless." All passengers who had been hospitalized have since been released. (More Swiss International Air Lines stories.) The German government has expressed strong disapproval over violent incidents targeting police and firefighters during New Year's Eve celebrations. Traditional fireworks displays in public spaces were overshadowed when fireworks became tools of aggression against emergency personnel. In Berlin, the chaos injured 30 police officers and one firefighter, resulting in 400 arrests, as per city officials. Nationwide, five fatalities and hundreds of injuries were attributed to accidental firework discharges, reported the German news agency dpa. Hundreds of police officers were dispatched to Berlin from across Germany to thwart further disturbances. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser advocated for a robust police presence and swift action against offenders, stating, "The deployment of strong police forces... and an early and consistent crackdown are the right means against perpetrators of violence." She emphasized that the "many arrests in Berlin alone and the renewed attacks on police officers also show that this crackdown was absolutely necessary." Minister Faeser extended wishes for a quick recovery to those injured and committed to ensuring that all individuals linked to the disturbances face severe legal consequences. She affirmed that all aggressors would be "prosecuted and punished with the utmost severity," underscoring the government's resolve to maintain order and protect its citizens and emergency responders. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP) One person was killed and several injured Wednesday when a Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames and exploded near the entrance to the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The victim was in the vehicle, NBC News reports, while the injured were nearby. Two people were treated at a hospital. The 2024 Cybertruck had just pulled up to the hotel's glass doors, in the valet area, when the explosion occurred, per KTNV. Officials released no information about the cause of the fire. At least 66 people have died after a truck plunged into a river in southern Ethiopia, a hospital director said Monday. The accident took place Sunday when an old, overcrowded truck that was contracted by wedding guests fell off the Gelan Bridge, where villagers said traffic crashes have happened before. The medical director at Bona General Hospital in the southern Sidama region, Lemma Lagide, told the Associated Press on Monday that 64 people died on site and two others at the hospital. He said those patients in need of more sophisticated critical care were transferred to a bigger hospital in Hawassa. Delays in rescue efforts in the remote village were blamed for the high number of casualties. Villagers said they tried to save people from the raging river only with sticks. A villager, Serak Boko, told AP that moments before the accident, music was blasting out of the truck and people dressed in suits were dancing and waving. "The area always has regular accidents around the river as it is poorly constructed," said resident Fasil Atara, referring to the road lacking bumps and warnings. It is common for people in rural Ethiopia to hire trucks instead of buses to transport them to social events like weddings because they are more affordable and carry many people. Most of those on the truck were men because they are culturally required to escort the bride from her home to the groom's house. With desolate infrastructure and overcrowded public transportation, Ethiopia has had similar accidents in the past. In August, 38 people died after a bus rolled over in Amhara region. (More Ethiopia stories.) Firework mortars and camp fuel canisters were found stuffed into the back of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel early Wednesday, killing a suspect inside the vehicle and sparking an intense investigation into possible terrorism, the AP reports. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and Clark County Fire Department officials said that a person died inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck and seven people nearby suffered minor injuries. By late Wednesday afternoon, authorities were still working to get the body out of the vehicle and start processing the evidence inside. President Biden was briefed on the explosion. "Our number one goal is to ensure that we have the proper identification of the subject involved in this incident," said Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBI's Las Vegas office, "Following that, our second objective is to determine whether this was an act of terrorism or not." Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, but are not releasing the name until investigators determine if it is the same person who died. Video presented at an afternoon news conference showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters, and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. Neither Trump nor Tesla CEO Elon Musk were in Las Vegas early Wednesday. The New Orleans tragedy hours before, in which a truck plowed into a crowd and killed 15 people, is also being probed as a terrorist attack, and the Hill reports the driver in that attack also rented the vehicle from Turo. Police believe the New Orleans driver did not act alone. "We are absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened in New Orleans as well as other attacks that have been occurring around the world," McMahill said of the Las Vegas blast. "We aren't ruling anything out." In a statement, Turo said it was working with authorities. "We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat," the statement said. (More Las Vegas stories.) In a chilling incident in Cetinje, Montenegro, a shooter killed at least 10 people, including two children, on Wednesday, while four others sustained severe injuries. Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic disclosed that the gunman, identified by his initials A.M., was on the loose, leading to a massive police manhunt. The shooter reportedly unleashed terror in a bar before continuing his deadly rampage elsewhere, with the victims including the bar owner and members of both his family and the shooter's own. President Jakov Milatovic expressed his dismay, stating he was "shocked and stunned" by the event. Prime Minister Milojko Spajic visited the hospital where the wounded were receiving care and declared a three-day mourning period. Describing it as a "terrible tragedy," Spajic highlighted the profound impact on the nation. Authorities urged residents to remain calm and stay indoors, ruling out gang-related violence. This horrific incident marks the second mass shooting in Cetinje in three years. In a similar outburst of violence last year, 10 individuals, including two children, were killed by an attacker who was subsequently taken down by a passerby. The suspect, reportedly named Aco Martinovic, was known for erratic behavior and had a prior arrest for illegal weapon possession. Montenegro, a small nation with approximately 620,000 residents, has a history of gun culture, contributing to the complex backdrop of this latest tragedy. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP) Hundreds apply for restitution for abuse suffered at U.S. Florida reform schools Xinhua) 10:29, January 02, 2025 NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of people who say they suffered physical or sexual abuse at two state-run reform schools in Florida are in line to receive tens of thousands of dollars in restitution from the state, after Florida lawmakers formally apologized for the horrors they endured as children more than 50 years ago. "At its peak in the Jim Crow 1960s, 500 boys were housed at what is now known as the Dozier School for Boys, most of them for minor offenses such as petty theft, truancy or running away from home. Orphaned and abandoned children were also sent to the school, which was open for more than a century," The Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday. In recent years, hundreds of men have come forward to recount brutal beatings, sexual assaults, deaths and disappearances at the notorious school in the panhandle town of Marianna. Nearly 100 boys died between 1900 and 1973 at Dozier, some of them from gunshot wounds or blunt force trauma. Some boys' bodies were shipped back home. Others were buried in unmarked graves researchers recently uncovered. Ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline, the state of Florida received more than 800 applications for restitution from people held at the Dozier school and its sister school in Okeechobee, attesting to the mental, physical and sexual abuse they endured at the hands of school personnel. Last year, state lawmakers allocated 20 million U.S. dollars to be equally divided among the schools' surviving victims. "Allegations of abuse have hung over the Dozier school since soon after it opened in 1900, with reports of children being chained to the walls in irons. When then-Governor Claude Kirk visited in 1968, he found the institution in disrepair with leaky ceilings, holes in walls, no heating for the winters and buckets used as toilets," noted the report. Florida officials closed Dozier in 2011, following state and federal investigations and news reports documenting the abuses, it added. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, defiant against an impending detention for a martial law decree he issued last month, has vowed to "fight to the end" against what he alleges are "anti-state forces." The detainment order from a Seoul court follows Yoon's noncompliance with investigative summonses and resistance against office searches. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials has a week to execute the warrant, though it faces potential resistance from Yoon's security, which might lead to police involvement. Yoon, who was suspended from presidential duties following his impeachment on December 14, expressed gratitude to supporters outside his residence for defending "liberal democracy and constitutional order." The liberal opposition Democratic Party urges for immediate action to enforce the detainment warrant amid concerns that Yoon may rally support to obstruct it. Meanwhile, Yoon's legal team argues the warrant is "invalid," claiming the anti-corruption agency lacks the necessary authority for such actions. As the political drama unfolds, the Constitutional Court, now with two newly appointed judges, is deliberating on whether to uphold Yoon's impeachment, a decision impacting his political fate. The National Assembly also impeached the Prime Minister, Han Duck-soo, for not filling essential court vacancies, leading to Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok's appointment of two new justices. The court's decision could come down to the remaining justices' positions and will significantly influence South Korea's political trajectory. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP) A tragic incident unfolded in Nelson, New Zealand, on New Year's Day when two police officers on foot patrol were struck by a vehicle. Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming was fatally injured, marking the first time a female officer in the country's history has been killed by a criminal act while on duty. Another officer was seriously injured but is expected to recover. This rare and shocking attack occurred in the early hours and has sent ripples through the nation, highlighting the danger officers face in the line of duty. Officials believe the officers were targeted but did not speculate on a motive. The 32-year-old suspect allegedly drove into the officers at speed before ramming a police car. He has been charged with eight criminal offenses, including murder and attempted murder. Police Commissioner Richard Chambers condemned the "senseless act" and noted that the attack seemed unprovoked. Meanwhile, a third officer who was in the police car suffered a concussion, and two civilians were injured, including one who attempted to help the officers. Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon have both expressed their condolences, with Luxon describing it as a "devastating day" for the country. Nelson, home to 55,000 people, had been celebrating New Year's Eve just hours before the incident. The community is mourning the loss of Fleming, who served as a police officer for 38 years and was a respected figure in local netball circles. The suspect is expected to appear in court on Friday, facing charges that could lead to a life sentence if convicted. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP) As twin investigations continue into Wednesday's truck attack in New Orleans and the detonation of a Tesla in Las Vegas, NBC News reports that authorities are investigating whether the suspects in both cases have a military connection. However, authorities stress it's too early to draw any conclusions about a possible link between the two events. One known similarity: Both vehicles were rented through the Turo car-sharing app. Details: The New Orleans suspect, who was killed in a shootout with police, is Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42. Jabbar served about eight years in the Army before an honorable discharge, per the New York Times. Authorities say the US national and Texas resident was flying an ISIS flag from the pickup he drove through a crowd on Bourbon Street. The new House convenes on Friday, with a major question hanging in the balance: Will Mike Johnson remain as speaker? Johnson has the endorsement of President-elect Trump, but he still may not have the necessary votes given the GOP's razor-thin margin. Coverage: The math: The House's first order of business will be to elect a speaker. It would take only two GOP defections to deny Johnson the post, reports the AP. The House's first order of business will be to elect a speaker. It would take only two GOP defections to deny Johnson the post, reports the AP. Massie's push: GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky already has promised to vote against Johnson. The libertarian congressman objects to Johnson's compromises with Democrats on spending plans and aid to Ukraine, among other things, per CNN. And he says Trump's endorsement isn't enough to change his mind. Nearly a dozen others haven't yet committed to backing Johnson, the outlet notes. The violence began with a bar fight and ended with 13 people dead. Authorities have released more details on the New Year's Day mass shooting in the small Balkan country of Montenegro, noting the suspected gunman, Aleksandar Aco Martinovic, died following a search. He'd been drinking at a restaurant-bar in the town of Cetinje for most of the day before getting into an altercation with a patron around 5:30pm local time, the BBC reports, citing police. Martinovic reportedly left the establishment, only to return with a weapon he'd retrieved from his home, police said. The shooter allegedly killed four men at the restaurant-bar, killed four others at a second site, killed two children at a third location, then killed two others at two additional locations, reports the AP. The bar owner and his two children, ages 10 and 13, were reportedly among those killed, along with members of the shooter's own family. Another four people were injured, including one listed in critical condition. Encountering Martinovic hours later, police ordered him to drop his weapon, at which point "he attempted suicide," per CNN, shooting himself in the head, Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic said, noting he died en route to a hospital. Saranovic described the shooting as a "consequence of disturbed interpersonal relations," per the BBC. Lazar Scepanovic, head of the national police force, said the victims were "godfathers" and "friends" of the shooter, per CNN. "This is a terrible tragedy that has affected us all," Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said Wednesday, per the New York Times, adding that Montenegro's Security Council would hold an emergency meeting to discuss new firearm restrictions following Cetinje's second mass shooting in three years. The BBC reports "a complete ban on the possession of weapons" is on the table. (More mass shootings stories.) Ruth. Gehrig. DiMaggio. Mantle. Giuliani? As Rudy Giuliani's life gets stripped for parts to satisfy a $148 million defamation verdict, the former New York City mayor is fighting to keep one gleaming set of sports memorabilia in the family: Yankees World Series rings bestowed to him by the team's late owner, George Steinbrenner. A lifelong Bronx Bombers fan, Giuliani contends that the ringsbejeweled behemoths commemorating the team's four championships in five years while he was mayor now belong to his son, Andrew, and shouldn't be given up, per the AP . In sworn testimony made public this week, ahead of a pair of key court dates, Giuliani described the 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 World Series rings as something of a family heirloom and Yankees good-luck charm. He recounted how he and Andrew would each put one on for "a special Yankee occasion," like the team's last World Series win in 2009. Giuliani testified that when Steinbrenner gave him the rings in 2002, he insisted on paying for them and told the owner, "These are for Andrew." He said he then invited his sona teenager at the timeto take one for himself while he held the others for safekeeping. Giuliani testified that he decided to give the rest to Andrew at a birthday party in 2018. He estimated the rings, the same as the players received, were worth about $27,000. The ex-mayor took his swings at a Dec. 27 deposition, a week before the start of a courtroom doubleheader in a tug-of-war over assets sought by the two former Georgia election workers who sued him over his lies about them in the wake of President-elect Trump's 2020 election loss. A transcript was posted to the court docket on Monday. Lawyers for the former election workers, mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, argue that Giuliani has engaged in a "consistent pattern of willful defiance" of court orders to turn over items. In a Monday filing, lawyer Aaron Nathan said Giuliani's compliance has been spotty, noting that while he finally surrendered a Mercedes previously owned by actor Lauren Bacall, he failed to provide the vehicle's title. More here. (More Rudy Giuliani stories.) Tesla helped drag the market lower after disclosing it delivered fewer vehicles in the last three months of 2024 than analysts expected. The electric-vehicle company's stock slumped 6.1%, the AP reports. Tesla was one of the big winners of 2024, particularly after Donald Trump's election raised speculation that Elon Musk's close relationship with the president-elect could help the company. But some have been warning that prices all across the stock market have run too high, too quickly, and are at risk of a pullback. HB Fuller sank 7.5% after the seller of adhesives, sealants, and other specialty chemical products said it's recently seen a slowdown in sales to a number of its customer categories. On the winning side were companies tied to the energy industry after prices rose for crude oil and natural gas. Constellation Energy jumped 8.4% for the one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 after announcing it won more than $1 billion in combined contracts with the US General Services Administration to supply power and perform energy savings and conservation measures. Some Big Tech stocks also helped limit losses. Nvidia, whose chips are powering the world's move into artificial-intelligence technology, rose 3% after following up its nearly 240% surge in 2023 with a better than 170% jump last year. (More Wall Street stories.) TDT | Manama Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com As the clock struck midnight on New Years Eve, the skies over Manama came alive with a stunning blend of light and innovation. In a dazzling display that embodied Bahrains vibrant spirit, 2,000 drones took to the skies, transforming the night with a breathtaking array of colours and intricate patterns. The sky became a canvas, with national symbols and messages celebrating Bahrains holidays lighting up the atmosphere, beautifully reflecting the heart of the Kingdoms identity. Adding to the spectacle, a brilliant fireworks display lit up the night, infusing even more excitement into the celebrations. As fireworks cascaded across the sky, they delivered the perfect finishing touch, a majestic fusion of tradition and modernity, making the night unforgettable. MILTON, ON, Jan. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - The CWB Foundation is proud to announce the launch of the Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant. Designed to foster innovation and excellence in the field of materials joining, the grant is a collaborative effort led by the CWB Foundation, in partnership with CWB Group (Canadian Welding Bureau) and EWI (Edison Welding Institute). The CWB Foundation is proud to announce the launch of the Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant. Designed to foster innovation and excellence in the field of materials joining, the grant is a collaborative effort led by the CWB Foundation, in partnership with CWB Group (Canadian Welding Bureau) and EWI (Edison Welding Institute). (CNW Group/CWB Welding Foundation) The CWB Foundation is proud to announce the launch of the Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant. Designed to foster innovation and excellence in the field of materials joining, the grant is a collaborative effort led by the CWB Foundation, in partnership with CWB Group (Canadian Welding Bureau) and EWI (Edison Welding Institute). (CNW Group/CWB Welding Foundation) The CWB Foundation is proud to announce the launch of the Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant. Designed to foster innovation and excellence in the field of materials joining, the grant is a collaborative effort led by the CWB Foundation, in partnership with CWB Group (Canadian Welding Bureau) and EWI (Edison Welding Institute). (CNW Group/CWB Welding Foundation) The Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant aims to bridge the gap between academic research and the evolving needs of the industry. By supporting researchers and emerging leaders from Canadian post-secondary institutions, this initiative fosters the development of innovative solutions to address pressing challenges in materials joining in areas such as advanced additive manufacturing, energy transition and sustainability, and more. As industries increasingly rely on advanced materials and precision engineering, encouraging collaboration between academia and industry is essential to maintaining Canada's global competitiveness. This grant equips researchers with the resources to push the boundaries of what is possible in materials joining, ensuring that Canada remains a leader in this critical field. Grant Benefits: Financial support of up to $50,000 CAD per accepted project for a 12-month period CAD per accepted project for a 12-month period Access to leading research from EWI's Columbus, Ohio , and Buffalo, New York locations. , and locations. A chance to engage in multi-year research with renewal opportunities for sustained project development. Opportunities to contribute to global advancements in materials joining technology, positioning recipients as leaders in their field. "In today's rapidly evolving industrial landscape, new problems demand new solutions. Investment in research and education at the post-secondary level is critical to advancing Canada's economy and enhancing the global competitiveness of our industries," says Susan Crowley, Executive Director of the CWB Foundation. "The CWB Foundation Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant is a strategic response to these needs, offering Canadian students and post-secondary faculty the resources they need to explore and develop groundbreaking solutions. By supporting academic research, this grant aims to ensure that Canada remains at the forefront of materials joining research, renowned for excellence and innovation." How to Apply The CWB Foundation invites full-time faculty members from engineering or engineering technology programs at Canadian universities and colleges to apply for this prestigious grant. Applications will be evaluated by the CWB-EWI Research Committee based on the merits of the research proposals received. The committee will consider the potential impact, feasibility, and alignment of the proposed research with industry needs. Those interested can review eligibility and apply on the CWB Foundation website: Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant - CWB Welding Foundation The application period for the Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant is open January 1, 2025 to March 1, 2025. Successful applicants will be notified by April 15, 2025. Please ensure all applications are submitted by the deadline. About the CWB Foundation The CWB Foundation is a national charitable organization dedicated to advancing skilled trades careers, including welding and materials joining. Committed to preparing the future workforce and fostering inclusivity, we collaborate with partners to support the demand for skilled professionals, contributing to North America's economic prosperity. Our mission is to forge partnerships between industry, education, and government, empowering individuals to pursue careers in the skilled trades. Through innovative programs, we reduce barriers and promote awareness and access to career exploration, regardless of identity factors or social and financial status. Contact Information For more information on the Advanced Materials Joining Research Grant and how to apply, please visit the CWB Foundation website or contact the CWB Foundation at [email protected]. SOURCE CWB Welding Foundation Media Contact: Sarah Dingman, Manager, Marketing Communications, CWB Foundation, [email protected], 249-885-3508 VANCOUVER, BC, Jan. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - Libero Copper & Gold Corporation (TSXV: LBC) (OTCQB: LBCMF) ("Libero Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to share a letter from President & CEO Ian Harris, highlighting the Company's 2024 achievements and outlining its vision for 2025. Dear Fellow Shareholders, When 2024 began, Libero Copper was already built on two solid pillars: our unique experience advancing large-scale copper projects and the tremendous Mocoa assetone of the largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum deposits in the world. But we were still missing a third leg to truly stand out in a challenging market. That missing piece came when Frank Giustra and the Fiore Group recognized our potential, providing the strategic sponsorship we needed to propel Libero Copper to the next level. This sponsorship was a resounding endorsement of the work we have been doing to make Mocoa a reality. Before sharing where we are todayand why 2025 will be so importantI want to offer a bit more color on what makes us different. Having worked on some of the largest copper projects globally, and seeing firsthand the lessons learned at places like Mirador and Cobre Panama, our team knows that most copper projects never make it to production. Meaningful local partnershipsfounded on respect, responsibility, and a willingness to do things differentlyhelp us avoid that fate. One key difference at Libero Copper is how we have empowered our employees, the majority of whom come from the communities around Mocoa. This approach has led to stories close to my heart, like the locally produced safety boots and the head-of-household women who sew all our uniformsnow up to 30 women supplying, not just Libero Copper, but now other industries as well. Each success reflects a true collaboration, not a top-down program, and I've seen how it resonates far more deeply than any corporate social responsibility checklist. Yet there is an even fresher example that perfectly illustrates the environment we have created. On a recent site visit, we met with community leaders in Montclair, the closest township to our project. They proudly showed us a new walking bridgea dream for decades, and now completed thanks to joint design, permitting, and construction efforts. Afterward, they led us to their sugarcane facility, where they produce traditional Colombian panela. With big smiles, they handed us energy bars made from panela and said, "These bars are for the climb. It is a tough journey and we want to ensure everyone has the strength they need." That moment captured exactly why I believe in our values-driven strategy. Montclair's people feel part of the project. They see the bridge and the energy bars as their ideas, their work, and their pride. That sense of ownership is precisely what will carry Mocoa forward where other large-scale projects have failed to gain traction. For me, it reaffirms that a strategy grounded in genuine partnerships is essential if we want to unlock the full potential of a deposit this size. Throughout 2024, we have taken these relationships and turned them into tangible project progress. Locally, we've strengthened our credibility so much that Mocoa is now "their" project, not just ours. Regionally, officials recognize that we do things differently, listening first and following through on commitments. Nationally, we were honored in August as one of Colombia's top exploration companies, and the reclassification of the forestry reservea major de-risking milestonedemonstrated the political will we have built for Mocoa's success. By reinforcing our local strength and national reputation, we protect Mocoa's path forward from shifting political dynamics, building the will essential for any large-scale copper project. In other words, 2024 was about laying firm foundations. Now, in 2025, we finally get to see the payoff. We have already drilled Hole MD-44 and Hole MD-45 is in progress. These are just the start of a 14,000-meter (and potentially larger) campaign aimed at demonstrating how truly vast Mocoa can become. We are talking about adding to an already substantial resourcewith an internal goal of surpassing the billion-tonne threshold to place Mocoa in a class with the top global copper deposits. With support from Frank Giustra and the Fiore Group, and with our in-house expertise, we expect 2025 to be a year that puts Libero Copper on the radar of any investor interested in a strong copper story. To each of you who have supported and believed in Mocoa, thank you. Your confidence in our team, strategy, and ability to break the mold has enabled us to build something truly special. With every meter drilled and every community milestone reached, we move closer to unlocking the full potential of this remarkable deposit. I'm confident that 2025 will be a year of transformative news flow and value creation. Together, we have the vision, the asset, and the backing to make Libero Copper one of the standout copper stories of this decade. I cannot wait to show you what's next. Digital Marketing Service Agreement The Company further reports that it has entered into an agreement with Machai Capital Inc. ("Machai") dated January 1, 2025, pursuant to which Machai will provide a digital marketing campaign (the "Machai Agreement"). The term of the Machai Agreement is for three months for a total retainer of $252,000, to be paid upfront. Under the Machai Agreement, Machai will execute a comprehensive digital media marketing campaign for the Company commencing in January 2025 including branding and content creation, data optimization services including search engine optimization, search engine marketing, lead generation, digital marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and brand marketing. Machai is a marketing, advertising, and public awareness firm based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, specializing in advertising and public awareness in the metals & mining, technology, and special situation sectors. Machai and its principal currently hold 75,000 warrants exercisable at $0.50 until March 11, 2027. The payment described herein will come from the Company's general working capital account. Other than as discussed herein, Machai does not have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company or any right or intent to acquire such an interest. Machai is arm's length to the Company and the Machai Agreement remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. About Libero Copper Libero Copper is led by a team with rare experiencehaving advanced projects from post-resource discovery to the path of construction, including some of the few large copper projects built in the last 20 years. This real-world expertise drives Libero Copper's focus on relationships, responsibility, trust, and a relentless commitment to sustainable progress. At the core of Libero Copper's portfolio is the Mocoa copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit in Putumayo, Colombia. Mocoa stands as a cornerstone asset with immense potential for expansion. Now, with the Fiore Group's bold company-building vision behind it, Libero Copper is uniquely positioned to fill a crucial gap in the copper industryadvancing large-scale projects toward construction. Through this approach, Libero Copper is committed to creating lasting value for all stakeholders while positioning itself at the forefront of meeting the growing global demand for copperthe metal driving progress in the modern economy. This news release contains certain statements which constitute forward-looking statements or information under applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements relating to the expected drilling campaign and the results thereof, TSX Venture Exchange approval of the Machai Agreement, the services expected to be received by the Company in connection with the Machai Agreement, and the further business plans of the Company. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those stated, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the forward-looking statements in this news release are reasonable, they are based on factors and assumptions, based on currently available information, concerning future events, which may prove to be inaccurate. As such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, as no assurance can be provided as to future plans, operations, results, levels of activity or achievements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by applicable law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or to revise any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE Libero Copper & Gold Corporation Additional Information : Ian Harris, President & CEO, +1 604 294 9039, [email protected]; Tetiana Konstantynivska, Vice President Investor Relations, +1 778 829 8455, [email protected] Rebranded Platform Delivers Actionable Benchmarks for Safer, Smarter Infrastructure Decisions WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 2025 /CNW/ - Altitude by Geotab , formerly Geotab ITS, has released a groundbreaking study revealing the states with the highest roadway safety risks based on harsh driving events like braking, acceleration, and cornering. These benchmarks empower infrastructure planners to prioritize safety investments with data-driven precision. Altitude will showcase these findings alongside its rebranded platform at the TRB Annual Meeting, January 59, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Key Findings: 2024 Roadway Safety Benchmarks Harsh events per million miles driven for heavy-duty trucks across the United States from January 2024 - November 2024. (CNW Group/Altitude by Geotab) The study analyzed "harsh events" instances of harsh braking, acceleration, or cornering per million miles across all 50 U.S. states. West Virginia and Alaska reported the highest rates of harsh events for heavy-duty trucks, with over 80,000 incidents per million miles. and reported the highest rates of harsh events for heavy-duty trucks, with over 80,000 incidents per million miles. Illinois and Nebraska demonstrated some of the lowest harsh events, with fewer than 2,000 incidents per million miles for light-duty trucks. and demonstrated some of the lowest harsh events, with fewer than 2,000 incidents per million miles for light-duty trucks. Peak hours for harsh events occurred during 7 AM to 9 AM , underscoring trends linked to driver congestion and commute times. These insights provide state and local planners with clear benchmarks to identify risk hotspots, allocate resources effectively, and improve roadway safety outcomes just one example of how the Altitude platform empowers transportation infrastructure planners to tackle a wide range of challenges with data-driven precision. "We're excited to attend TRB 2025 and share how Altitude's state-by-state safety benchmarks can help planners prioritize infrastructure investments," said Nate Veeh, AVP Business Development, Altitude by Geotab. "Our rebranded platform empowers leaders with data-driven tools to help reduce safety risks and drive smarter, more sustainable mobility outcomes." Visit Altitude at the TRB Annual Meeting Visit Altitude by Geotab at booth #1203 to explore our state-by-state road safety benchmarks and learn how connected vehicle data can optimize infrastructure planning. Shweta Shah, AVP Product & Engineering Geotab will host an exciting session, 'Autonomous & Connected Trucks: Generating Actionable Safety Insights,' on January 7, 2025, where she will discuss how harmonized data transforms freight mobility planning. Digital Privacy & Trust Pact: Protecting Insights Through Privacy Altitude is launching its new white paper, " Our Digital Privacy & Trust Pact ," which outlines how mobility data insights are generated with privacy-first principles. "Privacy-first principles will define mobility data used in infrastructure planning," said Shweta Shah, AVP Product & Engineering, Geotab. "Providers embracing privacy-by-design principles lead the way in building trust and delivering actionable, anonymized insights." With this commitment, Altitude ensures decision-makers have the privacy-protected insights they need to create safer, smarter transportation systems. Check out "Our Digital Privacy and Trust Pact" here. The white paper covers: How Altitude anonymizes and aggregates data for millions of vehicles. Compliance with regional privacy laws and employee training. Ethical AI frameworks for trustworthy and transparent data analysis. About Altitude by Geotab Altitude by Geotab is a leading provider of advanced mobility insights and solutions for public and commercial sectors across North America. Headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, the company leverages its expertise in data analytics to help decision-makers gain a comprehensive understanding of road network movements. By delivering reliable and contextualized insights, it enables improved planning capabilities and better financial outcomes, while prioritizing data confidentiality and privacy. Our solutions drive safer, more efficient and sustainable mobility throughout North America. Learn more at altitude.geotab.com and follow us on LinkedIn . SOURCE Altitude by Geotab Media Contact: [email protected] TSXV Trading Symbol: VPI VANCOUVER, BC, Dec. 30, 2024 /CNW/ - Vitality Products Inc. (TSXV: VPI) (the "Company" or "Vitality"), a manufacturer, marketer and distributor of premium vitamins and supplements, is pleased to report its financial results for the third quarter ended October 31, 2024. The financial results of the Company for the three months ended October 31, 2024 show a net loss of $32,225 or $0.00 per share compared to a net loss of $21,025 or $0.00 per share for the same period last year. During the three months ended October 31, 2024, sales were impacted by temporary product stock outs of VITALITY Power Iron + Organic Spirulina (all sizes) due to demand and manufacturing delays. Significantly, Vitality won two alive Awards in October 2024 which recognize the best of the natural health industry in Canada. The Company received an alive Silver Award voted by Retailers for VITALITY Power Iron + Organic Spirulina as Favourite Women's Product. The Company also received an alive Bronze Award for VITALITY Magnesium + Chamomile for Kids as Favourite Children's Product chosen by Consumers. VITALITY is an award-winning line of clean vitamins and supplements, marketed to natural health retailers and health and wellness conscious consumers. Vitality has now received 13 awards in Canada, and two awards in the United States including Consumer and Retailer Choice. The awards include recognition for Best New Supplement, Women's Health and Children's Health. Vitality has won eight industry awards which recognize outstanding product innovation for Power Iron + Organic Spirulina, including one award from Clean Choice Awards and seven alive Awards. Sales of the Company's premium natural health products for the three months ended October 31, 2024 decreased 16% to $194,455 (2023 - $231,816). The Company's gross margin on its sales for the three months ended October 31, 2024 was $135,665 or 70% of sales (2023 - $166,488 or 72% of sales) as the Company continues to have strong gross margins due to the uniqueness of its natural health products. The Company's general selling expenses for the three months ended October 31, 2024 decreased 34% to $27,016 (2023 - $40,870). The Company's general and administrative expenses for the three months ended October 31, 2024 decreased 3% to $137,518 (2023 - $141,960). The Company continues its effort to improve overall operating efficiencies while focused on expanding distribution and growing sales in Canada and the United States. The Company's condensed interim financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 and 2023 are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com. About Vitality VITALITY is an award-winning line of clean vitamins and supplements, marketed to natural health retailers and health and wellness conscious consumers. Manufactured in Canada and currently sold in natural health stores and online, the products are non-GMO and third party tested for quality. Following the proven success of the line through repeat orders and same store sales growth, the Company is focused on expanding distribution and growing sales in-store and online; evaluating, researching and developing new products for future distribution; and exploring new markets for its products. To view our products, visit: www.vitality.ca. On behalf of the Board of VITALITY PRODUCTS INC. "Cheryl A. Grant" (signed) ________________________________ Cheryl A. Grant, President & CEO Forward-Looking Information Information set forth in this news release involves forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with marketing and sale of securities; the need for additional financing; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors with certain other projects; and the volatility of common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE SECURITIES LEGISLATION. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. SOURCE Vitality Products Inc. For further information, please contact: Vitality Products Inc., Cheryl A. Grant, President and CEO, (604) 591-1322, [email protected] Palo Alto, Calif., USA, December 30th, 2024, CyberNewsWire SquareX, an industry-first Browser Detection and Response (BDR) solution, leads the way in browser security. About a week ago, SquareX reported large-scale attacks targeting Chrome Extension developers aimed at taking over the Chrome Extension from the Chrome Store. On December 25th, 2024, a malicious version of Cyberhavens browser extension was published on the Chrome Store that allowed the attacker to hijack authenticated sessions and exfiltrate confidential information. The malicious extension was available for download for more than 30 hours before being removed by Cyberhaven. The data loss prevention company declined to comment on the extent of the impact when approached by the press, but the extension had over 400,000 users on the Chrome Store at the time of the attack. Unfortunately, the attack took place as SquareXs researchers had identified a similar attack with a video demonstrating the entire attack pathway just a week before the Cyberhaven breach. The attack begins with a phishing email impersonating Chrome Store containing a supposed violation of the platforms Developer Agreement, urging the receiver to accept the policies to prevent their extension from being removed from Chrome Store. Upon clicking on the policy button, the user gets prompted to connect their Google account to a Privacy Policy Extension, which grants the attacker access to edit, update and publish extensions on the developers account. Fig 1. Phishing email targeting extension developers Fig 2. Fake Privacy Policy Extension requesting access to edit, update or publish the developers extension Extensions have become an increasingly popular way for attackers to gain initial access. This is because most organizations have limited purview on what browser extensions their employees are using. Even the most rigorous security teams typically do not monitor subsequent updates once an extension is whitelisted. SquareX has conducted extensive research and demonstrated at DEFCON 32, how MV3-compliant extensions can be used to steal video stream feeds, add a silent GitHub collaborator, and steal session cookies, among others. Attackers can create a seemingly harmless extension and later convert it into a malicious one post-installation or, as demonstrated in the attack above, deceive the developers behind a trusted extension to gain access to one that already has hundreds of thousands of users. In Cyberhavens case, attackers were able to steal company credentials across multiple websites and web apps through the malicious version of the extension. Given that developer emails are publicly listed on Chrome Store, it is easy for attackers to target thousands of extension developers at once. These emails are typically used for bug reporting. Thus, even support emails listed for extensions from larger companies are usually routed to developers who may not have the level of security awareness required to find suspicion in such an attack. As per SquareXs attack disclosure and the Cyberhaven breach that occurred within the span of less than two weeks, the company has strong reason to believe that many other browser extension providers are being attacked in the same way. SquareX urges companies and individuals alike to conduct a careful inspection before installing or updating any browser extensions. Fig 3. Contact details of extension developers are publicly available on Chrome Store SquareX team understands that it can be non-trivial to evaluate and monitor every single browser extension in the workforce amidst all the competing security priorities, especially when it comes to zero-day attacks. As demonstrated in the video, the fake privacy policy app involved in Cyberhavens breach was not even detected by any popular threat feeds. SquareXs Browser Detection and Response (BDR) solution takes this complexity off security teams by: Blocking OAuth interactions to unauthorized websites to prevent employees from accidentally giving attackers unauthorized access to your Chrome Store account Blocking and/or flagging any suspicious extension updates containing new, risky permissions Blocking and/or flagging any suspicious extensions with a surge of negative reviews Blocking and/or flagging installations of sideloaded extensions Streamline all requests for extension installations outside the authorized list for quick approval based on company policy Full visibility on all extensions installed and used by employees across the organization SquareXs founder Vivek Ramachandran warns: Identity attacks targeting browser extensions similar to this OAuth attack will only become more prevalent as employees rely on more browser-based tools to be productive at work. Similar variants of these attacks have been used in the past to steal cloud data from apps like Google Drive and One Drive and we will only see attackers get more creative in exploiting browser extensions. Companies need to remain vigilant and minimize their supply chain risk without hampering employee productivity by equipping them with the right browser native tools. About SquareX: SquareX helps organizations detect, mitigate, and threat-hunt client-side web attacks happening against their users in real-time. SquareXs industry-first Browser Detection and Response (BDR) solution, takes an attack-focused approach to browser security, ensuring enterprise users are protected against advanced threats like malicious QR Codes, Browser-in-the-Browser phishing, macro-based malware, and other web attacks encompassing malicious files, websites, scripts, and compromised networks. With SquareX, enterprises can provide contractors and remote workers with secure access to internal applications, and enterprise SaaS, and convert the browsers on BYOD / unmanaged devices into trusted browsing sessions. Contact Head of PR Junice Liew SquareX [email protected] There are 370 SpaceX DTC (Direct to Cellphone) Starlink satellites in orbit now. There could be over 1000 SpaceX DTC satellites by the end of 2025. The @SpaceX team achieved an unprecedented launch cadence, conducting 134 Falcon launches with 89 dedicated to expanding the Starlink constellation. Companies working with SpaceX on Direct to Cellphone service. T-Mobile (U.S.) Rogers (Canada) One NZ (New Zealand) KDDI (Japan) Optus (Australia) Salt (Switzerland) BREAKING: The FCC has officially approved Starlinks license for its Direct-to-Cell program. Starlink Satellites will be able to broadcast direct to your mobiles. There will be no deadzone anywhere in the world for your cell phone. Starlink will save lives. pic.twitter.com/JS4e78HQEg DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) November 26, 2024 Direct to cell went from 0 to 1 in 2024. Now with over 370 satellites, the system is ready for commercial service. Well continue iterating and improving! https://t.co/GuCCT2nUTy Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) January 1, 2025 In 2024, the Starlink team focused on expanding coverage, increasing speeds and lowering latency for our now 4.6M+ customers and counting around the world https://t.co/zR6w4t1qM9 pic.twitter.com/3l9gzInoHX Starlink (@Starlink) December 31, 2024 Fork artists perform in the old city of Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Fei) People visit an art gallery in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Bingjie) People interact with a lion dancer at an ancient cultural street in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) Folk artists perform on stilts at an ancient cultural street in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a winter swimming enthusiast swimming in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a winter swimming enthusiast swimming in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) People watch a New Year parade in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang) Children read at a library in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Shao Rui) Tourists in traditional costumes visit Taohuatan Township, Jingxian County, east China's Anhui Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Cao Li) Folk artists perform on stilts at an ancient cultural street in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue) People visit an art gallery in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Jan. 1, 2025. People across China enjoy themselves in various activities, celebrating the first day of 2025. (Xinhua/Xu Bingjie) Editor: JYZ A Superior Court judge has ruled that a state agency is responsible for finding appropriate housing for juveniles ordered detained on criminal charges in New Jersey. Atlantic County sued the state Juvenile Justice Commission in September, saying the agency ignored its responsibility to manage the statewide housing of juveniles charged with crimes and instead ordered the counties to figure it out. As a result, the county said it experienced overcrowding and riots at its Harborfields youth detention facility in Egg Harbor City, and delays in finding beds for youths ordered detained by judges. Those delays violate laws governing youth detention and resulted in mental health emergencies for some juveniles, the county said. The county wanted a Superior Court judge to clarify whether the state commission or counties are responsible for placements in detention facilities and ensuring a bed can be found for each young person held statewide. The state Juvenile Justice Commission argued the counties, not the commission, are responsible for ensuring they have adequate plans to house detained juveniles. Whether a county operates a facility or relies on other counties to house their detained youth, it remains the counties responsibility to adequately plan for the detention of their youth, a commission spokesperson previously said. In his Dec. 23 ruling, Superior Court Judge Michael J. Blee, assignment judge for Atlantic and Cape May counties, ruled that, The statute is clear that the JJC is responsible for the assignment and placement of detained juveniles in the State of New Jersey. Blee found that Atlantic Countys juvenile detention woes required immediate relief. The juveniles and law enforcement in Atlantic County cannot wait any longer for the determination on who is responsible for placing juveniles, the judge wrote. The injunctive relief is necessary due to the imminent harm that is being caused to the Atlantic County youth and for strong public policy reasons lt is not on any county or agency other than the JJC to determine where the juveniles shall be placed and assigned. By ruling in Atlantic Countys favor, Blee wrote that his decision creates no hardship for the commission, as the court is merely clarifying what the law requires them to do. A representative for the Juvenile Justice Commission declined to comment on the ruling. Given the ongoing litigation, we cannot comment on the merits of the decision, the spokesperson said. Atlantic County officials did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the judges ruling. Atlantic Countys Harborfields facility exceeded its maximum capacity of 20 youths in 2024 and the county has struggled for months to find beds in other youth detention facilities around the state, according to county officials. The county is housing about 15 juveniles in youth detention facilities around the state, but says the precarious situation has resulted in young people chained to benches at police stations for hours as county officials try to find appropriate housing. By law, juveniles cannot be held by police for longer than six hours before theyre either released to a parent or placed in a juvenile detention facility. That six-hour timeframe includes the time it takes to transport a youth to a detention facility, which can take hours if theyre housed out of county. Violations of the standards exposes Atlantic County officials to potential civil rights lawsuits, the county argued in its case against the commission. Claims in Atlantic Countys suit that the commission violated the state Civil Rights Act and breached terms of a contract between the county and the commission should be considered by the state appellate court, Blee ruled. When a judge orders that a juvenile be detained on criminal charges until their case is resolved, the young person must be housed in a dedicated juvenile detention facility. All seven county youth detention facilities in New Jersey the others are located in Bergen, Camden, Essex, Middlesex, Morris and Ocean are owned and operated by the counties where theyre located. Counties without facilities contract with the facilities to house their juveniles. Statewide, the total maximum capacity for the facilities is 332. Harborfields had 24 people in its facility this year, sparking several overcrowding-related problems, according to court documents. The problems included a riot at the facility in late August that resulted in injuries to one juvenile and two Juvenile Justice Commission officers. A second riot occurred days later on Sept. 4, the county said. In highlighting several cases of struggles to find open beds for detained juveniles, the county described a September incident in which a youth was taken to a hospital for a second time for suicidal ideation after 19 hours in police custody. In response to these overcrowding issues, the Juvenile Justice Commission issued a November order prohibiting Atlantic County from exceeding its 20-bed capacity limit and requiring other counties with juvenile detention facilities to house Atlantic youth when its facility is full. The commissions order also required Atlantic County to develop a process for placing youths in facilities operated in other counties when it is at capacity and for addressing the issues leading to regular overcrowding. Atlantic County has yet to furnish such a plan and the commission recently sued the county, asking a judge to assist in getting the county to comply. By issuing that November order, the commission tried to avoid its legal responsibility to make these placement decisions, Blee wrote in his Dec. 23 decision. He said the commission failed to recognize the challenges Atlantic County faces in finding beds for detainees. County officials have been left to scramble, often late at night, to find housing in facilities hours away, with no knowledge of whether those counties are best-suited to take a particular juvenile, according to the judge. How does the hard-working Atlantic County staff know about safety concerns, capacity limits, sex offenders, and gang affiliates in Bergen County? The JJC has this institutional knowledge and must, as a matter of law, make this decision, Blee wrote. Our youth should not be punished by the indecision of the JJC or this unauthorized shifting of responsibilities. Our juveniles, law enforcement, and the judiciary all have the need to have one single person of contact make this critical decision in the middle of the night: the JJC, the judge said. Because of limited space in juvenile detention centers around the state, police are often forced to release youths charged with serious crimes on a summons, which poses a risk to public safety, Blee said. The publics interest is no better served if detained juveniles are held for extended periods in non-compliant settings, then sent hours away to a detention facility, he continued, leading to heightened stress and trauma for the youths and their families. While Atlantic County has attributed an increase in juvenile detentions in the county to a recent spike in serious juvenile crime, the commission argued the root of the problem is the length of time the county detains youths awaiting resolution of their cases. As of November, Atlantic County had the second highest number of youths in detention of any county in the state, and the average length of detention for Atlantic County youths was well above the state average, according to the commission. The average detention for Atlantic County juveniles was 28 days in 2020 and 133 days in 2023, the commission said, noting that the 2023 figure was 85 days longer than the statewide average. Thats what led to Harborfields regularly exceeding its maximum capacity, the commission said, and it told Atlantic County to look at ways to cut that detention period by reducing case processing times and ensuring access to detention alternatives. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. A former cadet enrolled at the Bergen County Police Academy has filed a lawsuit against state and local officials, alleging he was hospitalized due to severe restrictions on water and food consumption during training on hot days. Nicholas Trapani, of Paramus, claims his civil rights were violated in summer 2023 while trying to become a certified officer with the Hackensack Police Department, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Superior Court of Bergen County. Academy administrators and instructors failed to inform cadets ahead of time of military-like training that included limiting hydration to one 32-ounce bottle of water each day, and restrictions on food intake, according to the lawsuit The lawsuit names as defendants the Bergen County prosecutors and sheriffs offices, along with former and current instructors. Trapani is also suing the New Jersey Police Training Commission, claiming they failed in their responsibility to oversee training and instruction. Spokespersons for the county and state declined to comment, citing pending litigation. At the time, Trapani was a 175-pound, 6-foot tall, 21-year-old who passed all medical and psychological exams before training began, according to the suit. The cadets were not informed in advance that their ability to consume liquids and nourishment would be severely restricted, states the lawsuit, filed by attorneys Lawrence and Eric Kleiner of Closter. Food was only given if the trainee did additional exercise. The cadets were required to do pullups to be allowed to eat lunch, the suit alleges. Trapani says he noticed on the first day that he was losing strength throughout his body due to the limits on water. During the time Trapani was enrolled at the academy, outdoor temperatures hovered at 90 degrees or higher and the air quality was unsafe, the suit says. Bergen County officials issued heat advisories on some training days and told residents to stay inside or take advantage of cooling stations, the lawsuit says. Still, instructors required cadets most of whom had consumed small amounts of food and water on those days to continue training that included outdoor running and pullups, the suit claims. Academy instructors and administrators should have known high-intensity training and restrictions on food and water can cause acute dehydration, heat exhaustion and other injuries, including death, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit says Trapani became extremely ill while running during training on July 26, 2023, and was mocked, ridiculed, denigrated, and even criticized when he stopped. Trapani was so ill he could not sip water offered to him, but the instructors failed to take Trapani to a hospital, instead calling the Hackensack Police Department to bring one of their police vehicles for transport, the suit claims. At the hospital, Trapanis condition worsened as his organs were being ravaged by acute heat distress, the suit says. Trapani spent three days in the hospital before he was released on July 29, 2023. Doctors determined the cadet had suffered potentially fatal medical disorder that degraded his muscles and released a protein into his bloodstream called myoglobin. Myoglobin can cause kidney damage, resulting in acute renal injury or kidney failure, the suit states. As a result of Trapanis injuries, the New Jersey Police Training Commission suspended or disciplined multiple workers, including the academys director and a deputy director, whose instructor certifications were revoked, the suit says. A civilian who allegedly mocked Trapani was later found to have been certified erroneously and her license to instruct was discontinued, forcing her out of the academy, the suit says. The lawsuit claims some instructors and administrators were deliberately indifferent to Trapanis medical needs, in violation of state and federal laws. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year message through China Media Group and the internet Tuesday evening in Beijing to ring in 2025. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called on the nation to remain confident in the coming year, saying the world's second-largest economy can overcome challenges and pressure through hard work. Xi made the remarks in his New Year message for 2025 delivered through China Media Group and the internet. Set to fully complete its 14th Five-Year Plan in 2025, China will implement more proactive and effective policies, prioritize high-quality development, promote greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and maintain sound momentum in economic and social development, Xi said. He said the Chinese economy "now faces some new conditions, including challenges of uncertainties in the external environment and pressure of transformation from old growth drivers into new ones." "But we can prevail with our hard work. As always, we grow in the wind and rain, and we get stronger through hard times. We must be confident," Xi said. The Chinese president also vowed to continue the country's reform drive, mentioning a Party plenum held in July that adopted a massive reform master plan. The document outlined key reform tasks for the next five years and proposed over 300 major reform initiatives. "We will march forward in great strides to advance reform and opening up as the trend of our times. We will surely embrace even broader prospects in pursuing Chinese modernization in the course of reform and opening up," he said. An aerial drone photo taken on Dec. 20, 2024 shows a view of the Yangluo Port in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) UPWARD TRAJECTORY Reviewing China's footprint in 2024, Xi said the economy has rebounded and is on an upward trajectory, with the national GDP expected to pass the mark of 130 trillion yuan (about 18.08 trillion U.S. dollars) and the country's grain output surpassing 700 million tonnes. He noted that China has fostered new quality productive forces, and new business sectors, forms and models have kept emerging. For the first time, China has produced more than 10 million new energy vehicles in a year, and breakthroughs have been made in fields including integrated circuit, artificial intelligence and quantum communications. Xi also highlighted government measures introduced to improve people's livelihoods, including raising the basic pension, lowering mortgage rates, and expanding a scheme for cross-province direct settlement of medical bills that has made it easier for people to seek medical treatment across the country. For the coming year, Xi said, "We should work together to steadily improve social undertakings and governance, build a harmonious and inclusive atmosphere, and settle real issues, big or small, for our people. We must bring more smiles to our people and greater warmth to their hearts." Participants of a cross-Strait journalism camp for university students visit Inner Mongolia Museum in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Aug. 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen) Xi also said that no one can ever stop China's reunification, a trend of the times. "We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same family. No one can ever sever the bond of kinship between us," he said. China will unswervingly implement the policy of "one country, two systems" to maintain long-term prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and Macao, he said. An African journalist interacts with a robot at the media center for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Li He) MAINTAINING WORLD PEACE, STABILITY In a world of both transformation and turbulence, China, as a responsible major country, is actively promoting global governance reform and deepening solidarity and cooperation among the Global South, Xi said. Highlighting China's advances in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and success in hosting the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, as well as its participation in bilateral and multilateral forums, Xi said the country has "contributed greatly to the maintenance of world peace and stability." "China will work with all countries to promote friendship and cooperation, enhance mutual learning among different cultures, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. We must jointly create a better future for the world," he said. Editor: JYZ Cumberland County paid a former county jail detainee $50,000 to settle his lawsuit claiming that a fellow prisoner punched him in the face and broke his jaw. William Jackson, of Bridgeton, was in the country jail in 2018 when he was warned by his brother, who was also a prisoner, that detainees in the jails A and C dorms were friends with someone Jackson had been accused of killing, according to Jacksons federal lawsuit. The suit states that Jackson was later cleared in the killing. Jackson, who was in a holding cell at the time, said he informed a corrections officer that he feared for his safety and requested to be placed in an area away from those dorms, according to the suit. The officer allegedly assured him he would not be placed in the A or C dorms, the suit states. Days later, Jackson said he was placed in A dorm and, within 10 minutes of his arrival, was sucker punched by another prisoner and knocked unconscious, according to the lawsuit. He was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a fracture to his right jaw, but, because of improper follow-up care, had to have his jaw re-broken and set, the suit states. Jacksons lawsuit claimed jail staff showed reckless disregard for his safety and demonstrated negligence. In a May 2024 settlement agreement, the county agreed to pay Jackson $50,000, while admitting no liability in the matter. County officials look at cases like these from the standpoint of what it will cost to resolve the matter, as opposed to taking the case to trial, in an effort to be sensitive to the needs of the taxpayers, said Cumberland County Counsel John Carr. The settlement was first reported by open public records advocate John Paff. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. The Delaware woman who drove her car into a New Jersey hospital on New Years Eve had called authorities earlier in the night asking for help, according to police. The 38-year-old woman from New Castle, Delaware, said that she called New Jersey State Police in Seabrook earlier in the night asking to be admitted to the hospital for a crisis after she was upset with her mother-in-law, authorities wrote in a warrant for her arrest. When police responded, the woman declined to be taken to the hospital and stated she did not want to be transported to the hospital, but wanted to drive herself with an escort, according to the affidavit of probable cause. Once state police left, she found the keys to her car and struck two other vehicles in Seabrook before driving to Bridgeton to find help, she told police after she was arrested. The woman told police she saw the Inspira hospital and thinking no one would help her, decided to drive her car through the double door entrance to the emergency room hoping to knock herself unconscious. The incident happened around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday and the womans car reached about 60 feet down a hallway and almost struck a security guard, Bridgeton police said Wednesday. Authorities said the woman exited the car and was taken to another area of the hospital where she waited for authorities to arrive and was uncooperative, according to charging documents. A state police spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday. The hospital security guard suffered a minor injury jumping out of the way of the vehicle, according to an Inspira spokesperson. No one was else was injured, authorities said. The woman was charged with assault by motor vehicle, endangering others and third-degree criminal mischief, according to court documents. The damage to the hospital was estimated at over $135,000 and ambulances were rerouted away from the hospital until about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday to allow authorities to secure the damaged entrance and establish a new temporary entrance, the spokesperson for the hospital said. The woman did not have an attorney listed in court records as of Thursday. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Matt on X Bruce Springsteen has been almost as common a sighting on the set of the upcoming movie Deliver Me from Nowhere as its star, Jeremy Allen White. So what does Springsteen think of the actors work on the movie about him? The Boss issued a glowing endorsement of White in a new interview on SiriusXMs E Street Radio. Host Jim Rotolo asked if it was strange for Springsteen to watch the actor playing him. READ MORE: Bear hug! Bruce Springsteen embraces Jeremy Allen White on N.J. movie set. A little bit at first, but you get over that pretty quick and Jeremy is such a terrific actor that you just fall right into it, said Springsteen (see clip below), 75. Hes got an interpretation of me that I think, A, the fans will deeply recognize and hes just done a great job, so Ive had a lot of fun. Ive had a lot of fun being on the set when I can get there. Deliver Me from Nowhere, a 20th Century Studios film directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, The Pale Blue Eye, Antlers, Black Mass), is based on the 2023 book of the same name by Montclairs Warren Zanes. The film centers on the making of Springsteens searing 1982 album Nebraska, which he recorded in Colts Neck. The title of the book and movie comes from State Trooper, a song from the album. Hey, somebody out there, listen to my last prayer, Springsteen sings. Hiho silver-o, deliver me from nowhere. READ MORE: See Bruce Springsteen, Jeremy Allen White greet Asbury Park for Deliver Me from Nowhere movie When Rotolo mentioned in the interview that White, a two-time Emmy winner for the FX/Hulu series The Bear, also sings as Springsteen in the movie, the real Springsteen continued to praise the actor. He sings well, he said of the 33-year-old actor. He sings very well. You know, and Jeremy Strong and Odessa Young, you know, its a tremendous cast of people. They cast the film beautifully, so its very exciting. Emmy winner Strong (Succession), 46, plays Springsteens manager, Jon Landau, in the movie. READ MORE: See Bruce Springsteen movie filming in N.J. with the Boss love interest Young (The Staircase, The Order), 26, plays Springsteens love interest in the film the two actors were seen kissing on set in Bayonne this past November. Deliver Me from Nowhere continues filming in Jersey this month. Locations used in the film include Springsteens old haunts in Asbury Park and his hometown of Freehold, but also incorporate various parts of Jersey beyond Monmouth County, including Hudson, Bergen, Essex, Union and Morris counties. When Springsteen visited the set in Bayonne in November, he greeted White with a hug. He did the same for actor Stephen Graham (Gangs of New York, Snatch, This is England, Venom: The Last Dance), embracing him on set in Rockaway. The British actor plays his father, Douglas Dutch Springsteen, who died in 1998. Emmy-nominated actor Gaby Hoffmann (Transparent, Girls), plays Adele Springsteen, Springsteens mother, who died in 2024. Emmy winner Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell, Black Bird) plays Mike Batlan, the guitar tech who set up the recording equipment in the Colts Neck home that Springsteen rented during the recording of Nebraska. Johnny Cannizzaro (Nick DeVito in the film adaptation of Jersey Boys) plays E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt. There are also plenty of Jersey connections to be found in the cast. Wyckoff resident David Krumholtz (Oppenheimer) plays Al Teller, a record executive who worked on Nebraska, while Jersey City native Marc Maron (GLOW, To Leslie, the WTF with Marc Maron podcast), who spent some of his youngest years in Wayne, plays Chuck Plotkin, a producer who mastered Nebraska. Thank you for reading. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads. On Dec. 30, Edgewater Police put out a statement saying that Joe Budden had been charged with lewdness. Now his lawyer is fighting back. According to the police statement, first shared by TMZ Tuesday, on the morning of Dec. 4, the officers responded to a call from an Edgewater apartment complex reporting that a naked man was standing outside of someones door. That man, the person told police, was Budden, the New Jersey rapper-turned-podcaster. They said that their doorbell camera recorded a naked Budden attempting to enter a code into the doors keypad several times, then returning to his own apartment across the hall. In a complaint, Buddens neighbor said they had seen Budden naked via live video on their phone, as did their two children. In the statement from Edgewater Police, Chief Donald Martin noted that the charges are merely accusations and that the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Budden, 44, is due in court in January. Nima Ameri, an attorney for Budden, shared a statement on New Years Eve that called the police statement inflammatory and slanderous. It is important to clarify that Mr. Budden was never arrested, and the incident referenced was a result of a well-documented medical condition known as sleepwalking a condition that Mr. Budden has a long and public history of, Ameri said. The lawyer, who called Budden the real victim, noted that his client has filed several criminal cross-complaints, and claimed that the police have have failed to address them in a timely matter. Ameri alleged racial bias was at play in Martins decision to issue a press release about the charge against Budden. Joe Budden performing with Joell Ortiz, a member of his former hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse, in 2012. Johnny Nunez | WireImage Had Mr. Budden not been a prominent Black voice for his community, we do not believe such a press release would have been issued over these mediocre allegations, the attorney said. We are confident that a review of Edgewater Police records will show no precedent for issuing a press release about a white individual charged with a disorderly persons offense before their court date. Budden, who hosts The Joe Budden Podcast, is a New York native who grew up in Jersey City. His self-titled debut album, released in 2003, produced the Grammy-nominated hit song Pump it Up. He released seven other studio albums as a solo artist, plus two albums with the hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse Budden, Royce da 59, Kxng Crooked (formerly Crooked I) and Joell Ortiz who broke up in 2018. Budden has since retired from music. His last album was Rage & The Machine, released in 2016. His popular podcast debuted in 2015 as Ill Name This Podcast Later. Thank you for reading. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads. A popular Jersey Shore bar and restaurant, closed since 2023 after heavy flooding, has officially shuttered for good. The Asbury Festhalle and Biergarten in Asbury Park will not reopen, the biergartens general manager Nick Falco confirmed to NJ Advance Media Thursday. Falco cited a lack of insurance to cover the flooding damages, as well as incoming rent increases, as causes for the permanent closure. The decision was made several months ago. The amount of money its going to take to reopen, it is going to be substantial, because insurance denied every dollar, and we even appealed it, general manager Nick Falco said. The biergarten suffered extensive damage during the flash floods of Sept. 29, 2023, which dumped six inches of rain on the Shore city, leading nearby Wesley Lake to overflow and swamp the biergartens basement. Some kegs of their beer were swept across Wesley Lake and found in neighboring Ocean Grove. The insurance company told the Biergartens owners that the basement was not covered. They really didnt give us concrete answers, Falco said. Falco said the damage would have cost around $1 million to repair, namely replacing the restaurants kitchen equipment, which was completely destroyed. The business also lost nearly $200,000 in inventory the biergarten was fully stocked for Oktoberfest (the bars busiest event of the year) when the flood hit. The flood waters were deemed to be category 3, Falco said, meaning the water contained unsanitary agents from sewage and seawater. That meant the buildings interior walls had to be removed. Some of the walls were just pushed in, but all of them had to be taken out, because that water soaked into them. Falco said. It took about two days just to pump all the water out of the building. Missing Oktoberfest in 2023 followed by the holiday season and then St. Patricks Day in 2024 all key holidays for the biergarten put the business in a deep hole. Making matters worse, the businesss 10-year lease was about to expire, leading to a likely rent increase, Falco said. READ MORE: 25 popular New Jersey restaurants that closed in 2024 Patrons of the Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten in Asbury Park see how long they can hold a mug full of beer in 2015. Many events were held in the space. MaryAnn Spoto Open in late 2014, the spacious, indoor-outdoor Biergarten quickly became a cornerstone of the citys downtown bar and restaurant scene and one of the banner successes of Asbury Parks ongoing cultural revitalization. The rooftop was regularly packed on warm nights or cold ones, where plastic igloos kept diners warm as the slugged down liter-sized beers and ate giant pretzels. While the place was known for its imported beer selection, it also offered a strong culinary program. Their wiener schnitzel was some of the best around. The closing is a significant blow to Asbury Parks thriving night-life scene. The biergarten was ranked No. 2 on NJ.coms list of best Asbury Park bars in 2018. Its just a decision that you know had to be made because of, we can honestly say, bad luck, Falco said. More food and dining coverage Looking for more New Jersey food coverage? Subscribe to the free Jersey Eats newsletter here! Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain. Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook. The Gloucester County Prosecutors Office is investigating the fatal shooting of a man in the Colonial Estates section of Monroe Township on Monday night. Monroe police were summoned to the area around Texas Avenue just after 8 p.m. on a report of a single gunshot. Officers spoke to residents, and with the help of a K-9 unit, found a man with a gunshot wound lying in a backyard, police said. The victim was pronounced dead at Jefferson Hospital. The Gloucester County Prosecutors Office is investigating the death as a homicide, and plans to release the victims identity on Monday, a spokesman said. A man was hospitalized with serious injuries after he was viciously beaten in an unprovoked attack outside the Exchange Place PATH station last weekend. Port Authority police arrested 35-year-old Michael Anthony Perez, of Jersey City, on charges of aggravated assault and he was taken to the Hudson County jail, Port Authority spokeswoman Lenis Valens said. The incident occurred at 6:30 p.m. in the plaza, at the foot of Christopher Columbus Drive. A GoFundMe account established to help pay medical bills said the victim suffered a low-grade brain bleed, as well as orbital, zygomatic arch, and temporal bone fractures. His front teeth are broken, and the eyesight in his right eye is permanently damaged. It couldve been anyone of us who live in this area, minding our own business, according to a Facebook post by a friend. Matt was on his way to meet friends in the East Village when this horrible attack took place. According to the criminal complaint, Perez came up from behind and punched the victim in the back of the head, a witness told police. When the victim turned around, he was punched in the face by Perez and fell to the ground unconscious, the witness said. Provided a description of the assailant, Port Authority police located Perez inside the PATH station, attempting to board a westbound train, the complaint said. A detention hearing in Hudson County Superior Court is scheduled for Friday. Meanwhile, the victim was treated at the scene and then taken to a local hospital. Although he is starting to get better and was released from the hospital (New Years Day), he will have a long road to recovery and will incur large medical bills, the victims friend said in the Facebook post. And without being able to work, monthly bills will become difficult. The GoFundMe account has raised more than $30,000 since Sunday. The assault (outside) the Exchange Place PATH station was horrific and unacceptable, which is why we cant just condemn it, but take steps to make sure attacks like this dont happen, Downtown Council James Solomon said in a statement. Jersey City residents deserve to take the PATH or walk our streets knowing they are safe. My office is pushing for increased patrols at major transit hubs from both JCPD and Port Authority police. My thoughts and prayers are with the victim, and we wish him a speedy recovery. A Florida man investing in Jersey City real estate had eight million reasons to earn back some dividends, but authorities say there was nothing legal about the way he went about it. And Alexander Pavlovsky, who was charged with two counts of creating a nuisance, apparently targeted low-income families and undocumented immigrants. Jersey City Municipal Prosecutor Jake Hudnut said Pavlovsky built more than 20 illegal apartments inside 819 West Side Ave., a former popular restaurant/catering hall (Fiesta Grill) he purchased in 2023 for $8 million. The Miami, Florida, man was arrested by the Jersey City Police Department and the Jersey City Municipal Prosecutors Office, in coordination with the Mayors Quality-of-Life Task Force. Pavlovsky, who owns or has owned numerous properties in Jersey City under the business names West Investments, Beacon Street Development and Harrison Developers, faces up to one year in county jail. Under Mayor (Steve) Fulops leadership, Jersey City has zero tolerance for negligent landlords who exploit and endanger our residents by providing unsafe and unlivable conditions, Hudnut said. This latest action demonstrates our continued commitment to holding bad actors accountable and ensuring every resident has a safe place to call home. Since establishing the Quality of Life Task Force, our ongoing efforts to stand up for vulnerable families is sending a clear message: Abusive slumlords have no place in Jersey City. Pavlovsky is no stranger to the local court system. He has been cited dozens of times and, according to electronic court records, has 23 cases in which he has failed to appear and four open warrants. Pavlovsky is facing multiple lawsuits in New Jersey state courts, most related to the nonpayment of loans. More than 50 residents were relocated by the Office of the Code Compliance and the Division of Community Development. Its clear Pavlovsky, who owns the building under the name West Investments JC, was taking advantage of low-income people and undocumented immigrants, assuming they wouldnt report safety violations, city officials said. On two separate occasions, first in May and again in September, Pavlovsky rented out several illegal apartment units that he built without any approved engendering plans or permits, Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said. Listings posted on various real estate websites show that Pavlovsky was asking approximately $2,300 per month for an apartment. Issues at the building were first reported in October 2023 and a follow-up investigation by the city Division of Quality of Life found in May 2024 that not only did the violations go unresolved, but Pavlovsky had leased the apartments. Wallace-Scalcione said the tenants were relocated and the building boarded up, but by September Pavlovsky had removed the boards and moved more people in. The city them relocated those tenants and took steps to have the building demolished. The West Side Avenue structure, between Montgomery Street and Fairmount Avenue, included an unsecured and unsupported second floor and lacked any operable fire suppression system. The property was deemed an imminent hazard by the citys construction code official prior to Pavlosky advertising the rooms for rent and entering into leases with tenants. The structure has dozens of active summonses issued by from Construction Code, Fire Prevention, Zoning, and the Office of the Code Compliance, Wallace-Scalcione said. As of today, the building is still standing, but is vacant and again boarded up. Pavlovski was sued in federal court in 2023 by Dominion Financial Services, which claims breach of contract, breach of guarantor, and fraud by Pavlovsky, others and more than a dozen associated companies. The lawsuit says Pavlovsky obtained the loans through his companies which Dominion alleges were false shell companies created specifically to further this fraudulent scheme after having inflated purchase prices of the properties with the help of his associate. A state Superior Court judge has rejected a request by a group of New Jersey municipalities to temporarily pause the implementation the states new affordable housing law, according to a court decision issued Thursday. Nine municipalities filed a lawsuit in September alleging the law, designed to create more affordable housing in New Jersey, is an overreach by the state. The bipartisan coalition called Local Leaders for Responsible Planning is led by Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali. Since the lawsuit was filed, the complaint has been amended four times to include more municipal plaintiffs, bringing the total number of towns to 26. With four days until New York plans to start charging a $9 congestion pricing fee to enter Lower Manhattan, New Jerseys attorneys are going back to court to slam the brakes on starting the controversial program. Attorneys filed papers on New Years Eve asking a federal court judge to issue a restraining order to temporarily stop Sundays planned start of congestion pricing on vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street. Congestion pricing, which was made a New York state law in 2019, would the first such program in the nation. A foreign student (1st L) tries block printing at a New Year fair in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The fair opened here on Tuesday, with themed sections showcasing intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative products, folk custom, and folk arts native to Hangzhou. Specialty food and deli are also made available there, adding a festive atmosphere to the city. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) Staff members work at a stall selling traditional food at a New Year fair in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The fair opened here on Tuesday, with themed sections showcasing intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative products, folk custom, and folk arts native to Hangzhou. Specialty food and deli are also made available there, adding a festive atmosphere to the city. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) People in traditional Hanfu attire participate in a parade at a New Year fair in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The fair opened here on Tuesday, with themed sections showcasing intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative products, folk custom, and folk arts native to Hangzhou. Specialty food and deli are also made available there, adding a festive atmosphere to the city. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) Dough sculpture works are presented at a booth at a New Year fair in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The fair opened here on Tuesday, with themed sections showcasing intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative products, folk custom, and folk arts native to Hangzhou. Specialty food and deli are also made available there, adding a festive atmosphere to the city. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) People watch lion dance at a New Year fair in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The fair opened here on Tuesday, with themed sections showcasing intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative products, folk custom, and folk arts native to Hangzhou. Specialty food and deli are also made available there, adding a festive atmosphere to the city. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) A lion dancer interacts with people at a New Year fair in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The fair opened here on Tuesday, with themed sections showcasing intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative products, folk custom, and folk arts native to Hangzhou. Specialty food and deli are also made available there, adding a festive atmosphere to the city. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) A staff member in costumes offers a calligraphy work of Chinese character "Fu", which means "good fortune," to a vendor at a New Year fair in Shangcheng District of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The fair opened here on Tuesday, with themed sections showcasing intangible cultural heritage, cultural and creative products, folk custom, and folk arts native to Hangzhou. Specialty food and deli are also made available there, adding a festive atmosphere to the city. (Xinhua/Xu Yu) Editor: JYZ A New Jersey lawmaker who runs his familys zoo in Sussex County is recovering after being bitten on his finger while feeding mice to rattlesnakes. State Sen. Parker Space said he was bitten by the venomous snake around noon on Monday and received 14 vials of antivenom over the next two days at Newton Medical Center before he was flown on New Years Eve to a New York City hospital specializing in snake bites. It didnt hurt at all to begin with. Then my finger started to swell up. Then it was double the size, Space, a Republican, told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. Space, 56, said that by Wednesday, the swelling of the middle finger on his left hand was subsiding and he was discharged from the hospital. He said he expects to make a full recovery. On Thursday, he was back at Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Wantage and had resumed feeding the snakes, including one that bit him an eastern massasauga rattlesnake, he said. The eastern massasauga rattlesnake, a small pit viper, is usually found in the northern midwest of the U.S. and in Ontario, Canada. It is a species that rarely bites people because it is shy and elusive, according to the. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Its not the snakes fault. Its my fault. I must have let my guard down a little bit, Space said of his bite. Space said he has been feeding snakes at the zoo since he was 12 years old and this was the first time hes been bitten. He wife, Jill Space, said he was feeding little pinky mice to a group of snakes when it happened. It was quite an experience, said Jill Space, a Sussex County commissioner. Parker Space who represents the states 24th legislative district in the state Senate said he drove himself from the zoo to the hospital in Newton. He drove himself to the hospital because he didnt want to tell me, his wife said. State Sen. Parker Space holds a groundhog at his family's zoo, Space Farms Zoo & Museum in Wantage.Jill Space At the hospital, he was given 10 vials of antivenom on Monday and another four vials on Tuesday, his wife said. However, the swelling escalated on his full hand and knuckles, and he said doctors were concerned the finger that was bit might split open from the pressure. On Tuesday night, Space was flown to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, which has a center specializing in snakebites. It was founded in the 1980s, with the assistance of herpetologists at The Bronx Zoo, and treats on average five to 10 people a year with snakebite injuries that are sufficiently serious to require antivenom treatments, according to the hospital. Parker Space said he believes the antivenom administered at the Newton hospital eventually would have worked on its own. Space Farms Zoo and Museum is home to bobcats, tigers and lions, buffalo, hyena, wild ponies, timber wolves, various types of foxes, bears and deer, leopards, monkeys, jaguars, coyotes, llamas and yaks, according to its website. The snakes at the zoo include cobras and vipers, along with the rattlensnakes, Parker Space said. Asked how many snakes he has, Space estimated around 40. Way too many, his wife said. Parker Space said he still has some swelling and bruising but is not concerned. Ill bounce back, he said. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism you rely on and trust. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. The New Jersey Supreme Court will review whether the state attorney general had the authority to take control of the Paterson police last year in a case that could determine the fate of local police departments facing allegations of misconduct and mismanagement. The case centers on Attorney General Matthew Platkins takeover in March 2023 of the Paterson Police Department. Platkin cited a breakdown in leadership, public trust, and safety as justification for the intervention. James Carvillea top Democratic strategistadmitted he was wrong about the 2024 election in a new opinion piece for The New York Times. Carville, a Democratic political consultant, said in his Thursday opinion piece that he was wrong in thinking that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the election over now-President-elect Donald Trump. In the lead up to the election, Carville repeatedly predicted that Harris would clinch the White House. President-elect Donald Trump called for the CIA to interfere as he blasted the Biden administration and law enforcement agencies for virtually nonexistent leadership in the wake of the New Years Eve attack in New Orleans. Trump lambasted President Joe Bidens leadership in a post on Truth Social early on Thursday morning, just about a day after a U.S. Army veteran drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people celebrating New Years Eve in New Orleans. The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism, with officials saying they do not believe the man acted alone. UPDATE: New snow forecast map calls for 3 to 6 inches in parts of state Monday Two shots of snow are in the forecast for New Jersey, with light snow possible for parts of the state Friday and more widespread snow expected on Monday as temperatures plunge. Snowfall totals for central and southern New Jersey Friday afternoon into Saturday morning are expected to be less than an inch, with no snow at all in the forecast for the northeastern parts of the state, according to the National Weather Service. New Jersey could see two shots of snow over the next several days with a dusting expected Friday into Saturday followed by a storm Monday that could bring up to 4 inches to southern counties. Below normal temperatures are also expected.National Weather Service Temperatures on Friday will be in the 30s, with 10 to 15 mph winds making it feel colder. The potential storm for Monday bears more attention. If the storm follows a southern track, wed likely see little to no snow, the weather service said. If it takes a more northern track, up to to 4 inches of snow is possible. For now, forecasters say theres a 60% to 80% chance of more than 1 inch of snow in South Jersey, with a 40% to 50% shot of at least 3 inches. For the rest of the state, those chances drop to a 30% to 50% chance of at least an inch of snow and just a 20% to 30% probability of more than 3 inches, according to the weather service. New Jersey could see two shots of snow over the next several days with a dusting expected Friday into Saturday followed by a storm Monday that could bring up to 4 inches to southern counties. Below normal temperatures are also expected.AccuWeather Thursdays weather will be a cold and blustery with highs in the upper 30s and low 40s with a mix of sun and clouds. Across most of the state, winds of 15 to 20 mph will gust to 35 mph at times, with wind chills in the upper 20s and low 30s. A wind advisory issued by the weather service for the five northeast counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Union and Passaic remains in effect until 10 p.m. Thursday. Westerly winds around 15 to 30 mph could gust as high as 50 mph in those areas of New Jersey. New Jersey could see two shots of snow over the next several days with a dusting expected Friday into Saturday followed by a storm Monday that could bring up to 4 inches to southern counties. Below normal temperatures are also expected.AccuWeather Trees and power lines could be blown down, with power outages possible, forecasters said. Overnight temperatures will fall into the 20s. The weekend forecast calls for cold, dry conditions. Saturday should partly sunny with winds of 15 to 20 mph gusting to 30 to 35 mph. Sunday wont feel nearly as cold, as winds will diminish with highs again in the 30s. Overnight lows over the weekend will dip into the 20s. A gust of 51 mph was reported at Atlantic City International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, while there was a 50 mph gust in Seaside Heights and widespread gusts of more than 40 mph throughout the state, the weather service said. AccuWeather is also tracking a chance for another storm later next week, though uncertainty remains about the track. One scenario projects the storm moving up the East Coast, while another scenario pushes the storm farther south and out to sea. AccuWeather is also tracking the potential for another storm late next week, though uncertainty remains on the track it will take. AccuWeather Current weather radar Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Former New York Yankees first baseman Mike Ford has found a new home. On Thursday, Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported that Ford has signed a minor contract with the Minnesota Twins. The deal includes an invitation to the Twins spring training camp in the Grapefruit League. If he breaks camp with the team, the Twins will be Fords seventh team in six big league seasons. BUY YANKEES TICKETS: STUBHUB, VIVID SEATS, TICKETMASTER Ford is a native of Belle Mead, N.J., and played his college ball at Princeton before joining the New York Yankees as an undrafted free agent in 2012. Fords MLB career began with the Yankees in 2019. Thats where he slugged 12 home runs in 50 games. He saw limited action the following two seasons and was traded in June of 2021 to the Tampa Bay Rays for outfield prospect Aldenis Sanchez. Two months later, Ford was claimed off waivers by the Washington Nationals. The following season he signed with the Seattle Mariners as a free agent. Ford continued meandering throughout the league, spending time with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and Cincinnati Reds. In 251 games over six big-league seasons, Ford is hitting .205 with a .402 slugging percentage, including 37 home runs and 89 RBIs. Ford played 105 games with the Reds Triple-A affiliate, slashing .297/.381/.539 with six home runs in 105 plate appearances. After being cut by the Reds on May 31, 2024, Ford decided to continue his career in in Japans eastern league for the Yokohama Bay Stars. He played in 41 games while there, batting .211 with a .429 slugging, including eight home runs and 21 RBIs. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription. Manny Gomez may be reached at mgomez@njadvancemedia.com. Six-day (Tuesday through Sunday) print subscribers of the Watertown Daily Times are eligible for full access to NNY360, the NNY360 mobile app, and the Watertown Daily Times e-edition, all at no additional cost. If you have an existing six-day print subscription to the Watertown Daily Times, please make sure your email address on file matches your NNY360 account email. You can sign up or manage your print subscription using the options below. This photo taken on Dec. 31, 2024 shows pottery items on display at the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) This photo taken on Dec. 31, 2024 shows a set of jade ware on display at the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) This photo taken on Dec. 31, 2024 shows lacquerware on display at the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) This photo taken on Dec. 31, 2024 shows a set of bamboo slips on display at the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) This photo taken on Dec. 31, 2024 shows bronze mirrors on display at the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) This photo taken on Dec. 31, 2024 shows a bronze drum on display at the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) This photo taken on Dec. 31, 2024 shows a stone sculpture on display at the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) People visit the exhibition "A Panorama of Hubei" in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Dec. 31, 2024. The exhibition opened here on Tuesday, showcasing the history and culture of Hubei in both ancient and modern times. (Xinhua/Wu Zhizun) Editor: JYZ If his ISIS links turn out to be less real than he portrayed them, he would follow in a line of attackers who have cloaked themselves in the flag of extremist groups, but who have acted independently. Moldova is supplied with electricity in sufficient quantity, the press service for the state-owned Energocom company said in a statement on Thursday. The shortage of domestically produced electricity was fully covered over the past 24 hours thanks to a contract signed with Romania, without the need for urgent and emergency purchases during peak hours, the statement said. Hence, local heating plants produced more than 37% of the required electricity on January 1-2, while renewable energy plants produced over 12%. The shortfall of nearly 50% of electricity was imported from Romania. Electricity supplies from the Moldavskaya GRES or MGRES power plant to Transdniestria have been completely halted since January 1, as only two out of the four power units are operating at the plant. Due to the halt to gas supplies, the plant has been switched to coal and generates electricity only for household consumers and life- supporting enterprises in Transdniestria. The right bank of the Dniester river used to buy up to 80% of its electricity from the left bank. It was generated using Russian gas, for which Tiraspol did not pay Gazprom. Electricity-saving measures came into effect in Moldova on January 1. In accordance with the plan adopted by the National Emergency Situations Commission in late December, public and commercial buildings reduced their outside lighting by at least 30% where technically possible. A total switch-off of lights in those premises that are not involved in the operational process has been made mandatory. At the same time, holiday lighting in Chisinau has been halved since January 1. All the electricity produced in Moldova has been directed only to the domestic market since January 1. Exports are possible only on weekends and holidays, while there is a ban on exports at other hours. As previously reported, Gazprom stopped supplying gas to Transdniestria from January 1. Gazprom justified its decision by Moldovagaz failing to meet its contractual obligations, and the fact that the $709 million historical debt has not been repaid. For his part, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean accused Gazprom of failing to comply with its contractual obligations to supply gas. Moldova has no debts under the five-year contract signed on October 29, 2021. The Moldovan authorities do not recognize the "historical debt", referring to the findings of an international audit. Chisinau accused Moscow of "energy blackmail" in order to destabilize the situation in Moldova. At the same time, Moldova has not consumed Russian gas since the end of 2022. The entire volume of gas reaching 5.7 million cubic meters per day, which was delivered by Gazprom, was shipped to Transdniestria. The region has not paid for gas for many years and its debt exceeds $10 billion. The cessation of Russian gas transit through Ukraine will cause Slovakia damage in the amount of almost EUR 500 million per year and will lead to an increase in electricity prices in the EU, in connection with which Bratislava demands the resumption of transit, and otherwise intends to take measures to stop electricity supplies to Ukraine and reduce support for Ukrainian citizens residing in the country, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico said. "On behalf of the Slovak Social Democrats, I declare that we are ready to negotiate and agree in the coalition on the cessation of electricity supplies and a significant reduction in support for Ukrainian citizens located in the territory of the Slovak Republic. I believe that the coalition partners also view the situation around the cessation of gas transit as extremely serious and deserving a sovereign response from sovereign Slovakia," Fico said in a video statement posted on his Facebook page on Thursday. According to him, this is not about gas for domestic consumption in Slovakia, the supply of which is guaranteed for the year and the prices for it will not increase, but about transit through Slovakia. "President Zelenskyy, with his unilateral decision, stopped gas transit from Ukraine to Slovakia to other European partners and will deprive Slovakia of almost EUR 500 million per year from other European partners, which we would receive from transit funds. The entire EU will pay from EUR 60 to 70 billion in higher electricity prices. Russia will suffer practically nothing. Only the United States will benefit from President Zelenskyy's decision, by increasing electricity imports to Europe," the prime minister said. According to him, on Tuesday, the Slovak government delegation took part in negotiations in Brussels, where Ukrainian politicians raised the issue of a possible cessation of electricity supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine, and when this delegation returns from Brussels, he intends to convene the coalition council, and then the government, to discuss retaliatory measures to Ukraine's cessation of Russian gas transit. "The only alternative for sovereign Slovakia is to resume transit or demand compensation mechanisms that will compensate for the deficit in public finances in the amount of almost EUR 500 million," Fico said. As reported, from 07:00 on January 1, the Ukrainian gas transportation system stopped transporting Russian natural gas. The infrastructure of the gas transportation system was prepared in advance for operation in zero transit mode and reliable gas supply to Ukrainian consumers. On the night of January 2 (from 19:00 on January 1), the enemy attacked with 72 Shahed-type attack UAVs and other types of drones from the directions of Bryansk, Orel, Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk (Russia), the Ukrainian Air Force reports. "As of 08:30, the downing of 47 Shahed-type attack UAVs and other types of drones has been confirmed in Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions," the summary states. It is also noted that "due to active counteraction by the Defense Forces, 24 enemy drone imitators were locally lost (without negative consequences). One UAV was in the air." The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units, mobile fire groups of the Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of 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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe In January 2005, The New York Times published the first version of its Places to Go list, with suggestions for dozens of voyages for people itching for new adventures. The 2025 edition marks the 20th anniversary of the list (the index varied in length and name before, in 2014, settling in at 52 Places to Go, in line with the weeks of the year). Over these last two decades, travel has been dramatically transformed. In 2023, there were 1.3 billion international arrivals worldwide, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. That number in 2005: 806 million. A traveler consulting our 2005 list had no smartphone, no Instagram, no Google Maps. Most of them saw the list in the printed paper. They may well have been carrying travelers checks (or, at the very least, currency). Overtourism and sustainability were not part of the conversation. Airbnb was not yet a company, let alone a verb. What hasnt changed? Each year, the central question is, Why now? Why should a destination be included this year? Is there an exciting event? A big anniversary? New infrastructure, new flights, a new atmosphere? Sometimes the absence of a destination like China, which last made the list in 2020, and Russia, which last appeared in 2019, is as telling as whats made it on. We have highlighted hotel and museum openings across Europe, in the Caribbean, in Asia and in Africa; rare natural occurrences like eclipses; and international gatherings like the Olympics. We have included places most of us couldnt really get to, like Space in 2012. On occasion, a destination prompted debates among readers, like the 2017 inclusion of the South Bronx. Predictions can go awry: In 2019, we chose Los Angeles, where the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was supposed to make its debut. It ended up opening in 2021. In 2020, Egypt made the list because the Grand Egyptian Museum was about to open (it partly opened in October 2024). Sometimes the list is sadly accurate: In 2019, we included Hong Kong, noting that dazzling new infrastructure makes travel easier but could threaten independence. By the time Sebastian Modak, that years 52 Places Traveler, who was supposed to visit all the places on our list, made it there, the city was engulfed in protests, and today that independence has been sharply curtailed by Beijing. In total, weve recommended 145 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe. We do choose a No. 1 destination, but the others are not ranked. Weve covered all seven continents, with Antarctica making it onto the 2010 and 2012 lists. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States has appeared the most: 155 times. Italy has appeared 29 times and France has been on 28 times. There are 52 countries we have never recommended. In 2021, The World made the list as people eagerly awaited vaccines and a resurgence of travel after the pandemic. Countries have emerged from conflict as others were engulfed by it; places like New Orleans and Morocco have recovered from natural disasters; and a global pandemic that halted travel in its tracks has given way to a recovery that some called revenge travel. Here, a look at the 20-year journey of the Places to Go list. Liu Liange, former Chairman of the Bank of China, allegedly convinced his son to break up with his fiancee just so he could court and marry her instead. Liu Liange most recently made news headlines in November of last year when he was issued a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve for accepting 121 million yuan ($17 million) in bribes and issuing illegal loans of over 3.32 billion yuan ($450 million) during his tenure Chairman of the Bank of China, but he previously became known for his love of young women. After divorcing his first wife, Liange remarried three times, with people remarking that his wives got younger and more attractive each time, culminating in his controversial fourth marriage to his sons ex-fiancee. Photo: AI Chinese media first wrote about Liu Lianges bizarre fourth marriage back in 2023, shortly after his sudden removal from his position as Party Secretary of the Bank of China and subsequent exclusion from the Communist Party. The story of how he had convinced his son to break up with his girlfriend only to then pursue the same woman himself had long been the subject of gossip in China, but due to his high standing in the Communist Party, news outlets had never officially covered it. 63-year-old Liu Lianges weakness for young, beautiful ladies was never a secret, but no one believed he would go as far as to sabotage his sons romantic relationship just because he wanted the youths girlfriend for himself. One day, when his son brought home his young girlfriend and told Liange that he planned to marry her, the banker became so bewitched by the girls beauty that he started planning a way to steal her from his son. A few days after meeting his soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Liu started pressuring his son into breaking up with her, claiming that she was not from a good family and all she coveted was to benefit from their fortune and influence. The young man tried to convince his father that he was wrong, but Liange was unrelenting and he initially buckled under the pressure, agreeing to end his romantic relationship. To make sure that his son was no longer a threat to his romantic ambitions, Liu Liange set him up with a much more suitable girlfriend, the daughter of an old friend. Then, he used his connections to locate his sons ex-girlfriend and began showering her with gifts, like expensive jewelry and luxury products. It was only a matter of time before the young woman fell in his arms. Six months after breaking up with his fiancee, Liu Liange learned that his former partner would soon become his third stepmother. The news was reportedly so shocking that it plunged the young man into deep depression. At one point, his condition got so bad that he needed to be hospitalized. Unfortunately for Liu Liange, he couldnt enjoy his fourth marriage for very long, as that same year, someone reported him to the Commission for Discipline Inspection, and his legal troubles began. He later had to resign from his position and was eventually tried for corruption. Liu Lianges ruthlessness went viral in China and he was compared to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, who fell in love with Yang Yuhuan (often known as Yang Guifei), the beautiful wife of his son Li Mao. James Foster Fashion retailer Hugo Boss brings on Netflix EMEA head of marketing James Foster as its SVP of global marketing. Before joining Netflix in 2023, Foster was head of global marketing and CMO for IKEA Retail. He also held a variety of positions over a 13-year career at Adidas, including VP Reebok Europe. Foster succeeds Nadia Kokni, who left the company in December. At Hugo Boss, Foster is responsible for further developing the companys customer-centric approach and devising unique customer experiences. Hugo Boss CEO Daniel Greider noted that Foster brings extensive experience at various global companies and will build on the strong foundation we have established over the past few years. Jackelyn Keller Comscore, which measures and analyzes consumer behaviors, appoints Jackelyn Keller as its CMO. Keller has been an advisor to Comscores leadership team since September 2024. She previously served as global head of marketing at Quantcast, an AI powered DSP. Before that, she was head of market intelligence and global product strategy at Samsung Ads. At Comscore, Keller will be tasked with promoting the companys measurement innovations and facilitating collaboration across a range of media companies. Her background in operations, product and revenue strategy, paired with her exceptional talent for positioning and creating accessible branding, exemplifies our unwavering commitment to empowering our clients, said Comscore CEO Jon Carpenter. Evan Day BriteCap Financial, a non-bank lender that works with small businesses, names Evan Day VP of digital marketing. Day was previously head of marketing at CAN Capital and senior marketing manager at software developer SimScale. He is also fractional CMO at fantasy sports app Gridiron AI. Currently pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience, he is experienced in data analytics, marketing automation and lifecycle management. His expertise in digital marketing and lead nurturing will enhance our customer and partner experience, said BriteCap CEO Richard Henderson. Kelsey Eidbo The start of a new year is a prime opportunity for company leaders and marketing teams to brush up on their approach to crisis response. Reputational threats are always changing, so its important to reflect on patterns that emerged over the past year, review your companys crisis performance and identify emerging risks. Engaging in these exercises today can ensure your company has the right people and processes in place to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Organizations lucky enough to have avoided a major crisis in 2024 should not be lulled into a false sense of security. Theres always next year. Now is the time to learn from companies that came under the glare of public scrutiny. Here are just a few headlines that dominated 2024: The CrowdStrike outage: A faulty security software update issued by CrowdStrike caused a historic IT outage that showed nobody is immune to technology issues and put the crisis response of companies around the world to the test. Boeings mechanical failures: The company fell from If its not Boeing, Im not going, to a federal investigation into the safety of its manufacturing practices, showing that consumer trust cant be taken for granted. Labor strikes: After 2023 saw the highest number of major union strikes in over two decades, work stoppages continued in 2024. Companies should take note that employees arent afraid to speak up for what they want and, now more than ever, they have the public on their side. This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Jan. '25 Special Issue on Crisis Communications 2024 presidential election: Numerous companies found themselves in the crosshairs of a particularly contentious U.S. election cycle. When misinformation began spreading online about retailers like Sephora, Kohls and Home Depot making large donations to President-elect Trump, the companies faced threats of widespread boycotts. Each had to act quickly to dispel the rumors and communicate their policies on making political donations. Misuse of AI: A Stanford professor well known for research on lying and technology ironically blamed ChatGPT for lying about citations in a court filing. It underscores the need for corporate AI policies, human review and transparency. And the risks dont stop there when it comes to leveraging AI, as my colleagues have outlined in our AI Reputation Risk Map. A common thread is that people and companies are being held to a higher standard of accountability, whether as employers, service providers or industry experts. Companies must think ahead about their crisis response processes and make sure the right people are in the room to inform an authentic response that doesnt complicate the matter further. Here are five steps to start: Appoint a director of crisis communications A centralized lead makes sure that each team member is collaborating and working toward the same solution. A director of crisis communications oversees the crisis response and serves as the communications point person for each team member, ensuring all efforts align with communications strategy and protocols. This may be a chief marketing officer or other senior communications leader with a strong understanding of the company brand and voice, credibility with leadership and employees and the authority to approve communications on behalf of the company. Follow legal counsels lead (but find a balance in communications to maintain audience trust) Working with legal counsel ensures a crisis isnt made worse by running afoul of regulatory requirements, keeps the team abreast of legal developments and avoids introducing litigation risk. In a situation such as a federal investigation or an employment dispute, legal counsel plays a critical role in providing parameters around what can be said, who should be engaged with and what could be used against a company in legal proceedings. Crisis communicators play a critical role in balancing legal counsels often preferred approach of keeping statements to a minimum and the companys desire to keep clients or employees happy. Walking this line is crucial to maintaining stakeholder trust without introducing or further complicating legal troubles. Monitor media coverage and sentiment to inform your approach A team member should be responsible for closely monitoring news coverage and social media responses, providing summaries and sentiment evaluations to the team. This doesnt just mean following mentions of your company, specifically. In some cases, its critical to follow crises embroiling others in your industry to stay on top of your own potential vulnerabilities. Our research team operated in this role for law firm clients surrounding the 2024 U.S. General Election, compiling a database of news coverage on how the election was impacting the industry. While not yet a crisis per se, scrutiny of the election had the potential to trigger sensitive questions for firms, and keeping close track of coverageincluding donations, likely cabinet picks, legal representations and morekept us informed in real-time on sentiment and evolving news angles around how the election was reaching that specific industry. Activating this type of monitoring during real time crisis response will help the team track how a crisis is evolving, anticipate the next angle, see how statements are being received and determine whether its time to pivot due to public response. Pick the right spokesperson In some cases, it may not make sense to publicly tie an executives name to a crisis, while in others, it is important to show leadership and underscore the human element of the situation at hand. A limited IT outage may be a situation in which a company can get away with providing general updates on impact, timing and where to go for questions. The CrowdStrike outage was different from the start. As it rippled through virtually every aspect of our personal and professional lives, the companys CEO promptly released a statement, though some critics pointed out he didnt apologize quickly enough. This underscores the need to remember the human impact of a technological failure. Update your subject-matter experts based on emerging risks Necessary subject-matter experts are determined based on the nature of the incident and the company itself. These individuals may not be called for every incident but should be aware of their role in crisis response and participate in training exercises as much as the core team. They may include internal leaders or external partners who specialize in IT, operations, human resources, policy, innovative technology, diversity, equity and inclusion, facilities management, supply chain managementor any number of issues, again, depending on the company. This persons responsibilities will vary and could include providing access to certain company information, historical or broader industry context, or technical information to inform communications. Partnering with the communications team and legal team will make sure the information is used effectively without introducing any risk. As new threats emerge, its important to keep this list of experts updated and bring them into crisis communication trainings. AI is a great example: Who on your team can speak to the companys policy and how it came together? How is AI use being monitored and how is the policy being enforced? Who has a good view of the AI-based tools the company is using? Knowing this information now can minimize the likelihood of a crisis occurring related to AI use and expedite the response if one does. While we cant predict what specific crises, well find ourselves in next year, reflecting on the previous year and updating your team and approach is a crucial step to positioning your company for success. *** Kelsey Eidbo is a Vice President with Infinite Global and a member of its crisis and litigation PR team. TWO of the Tullamore Court Hotel's staff members are leading the charge in fundraising and support for local charities. Shauna McGrath and Fiona Egan, put their hearts into initiatives that brightened Christmas for families and children in Tullamore. Shauna partnered with the Tullamore Lions Club for a meaningful food appeal, organising a staff-wide food drive to support local families in need. Fiona took the lead on a toy drive, raising an impressive 786.80 for Barnardo's to purchase toy vouchers, ensuring that children in need in the area had gifts to open on Christmas morning, the team also raised 65 for Down Syndrome Ireland, the iNUA Collections Charity Partner for 2024. We were delighted to work alongside two amazing charities local to Tullamore to help the people and children of our community, said Shauna. The food drive was coordinated by myself, and the toy drive was led by Fiona. We hope these efforts will help many families and bring smiles to childrens faces. Were excited to continue working with these fantastic charities in the future. The team really showed up and came together to help the local community. We were delighted to get involved in the initiatives and to help make a difference to many families this Christmas said Garret O'Neill Regional Operations Manager for the iNua Collection. Tullamore Lions Club and Barnardos play vital roles in supporting those in need in our local area, and were so proud to have contributed to their incredible work this festive season. We want to say a huge thank you to Shauna and the team at the Tullamore Court Hotel for their generous donation which will help many local families this Christmas. With a cost of living crisis there are many families struggling and our aim is to help as many of those as we can. We look forward to working with The Tullamore Court Hotel in the future, a spokesperson on behalf of Tullamore Lions Club said. It was a great amount to get just before Christmas and we are delighted Fiona approached us to help all the families this Christmas a spokesperson for Barnardos said. "At Tullamore Court Hotel, community is at the heart of everything we do. This Christmas, were reminded of the joy that comes from coming together to give back. We look forward to continuing our partnerships with these wonderful organisations and hopefully making a difference for families in Offaly for years to come," said Mr O'Neill Photo: https://mod.gov.ua/news/minoboroni-provelo-demonstraczijnij-pokaz-fpv-droniv-kerovanih-cherez-optovolokno-dlya-zsu The Main Directorate of Defense Innovations of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine held a presentation test of FPV drones controlled via fiber optic cable. "As part of the event, a number of domestic manufacturers presented more than a dozen drone models, some of which are capable of carrying up to 3 kg of payload. Experienced UAV operators - potential users of the latest technology on the battlefield - directly observed the demonstration flights," the press service of the Ministry of Defense reported. According to the head of the unmanned aerial systems department of the Main Directorate of Innovations of the Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant Colonel Yevhen Tkachenko, a number of the means presented at the demonstration are already at the final stage of codification and will soon be supplied to the Defense Forces of Ukraine. "The enemy continues to increase its capabilities for using drone control technologies via fiber optics, so it is imperative to neutralize its advantages in this segment. Domestic manufacturers demonstrate their readiness to quickly adapt to modern warfare challenges and implement the latest developments. Today, as confirmation of this, we see the successful operation of the means and their effectiveness and, no less importantly, the readiness to quickly scale these technologies to meet the needs of the troops," he noted. Chinese emergency relief supplies arrive in Vanuatu Xinhua) 11:13, January 02, 2025 PORT VILA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A batch of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrived in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Thursday. The 35-ton aid includes tents, folding beds, solar lights, food, water purifiers and medical equipment. "We deeply understand that the recent earthquake has caused significant damage," said Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang at the handover ceremony, adding that China will always stand together with Vanuatu to assist the country recovering at an early date. Also attending the event, Vanuatu's caretaker Prime Minister Charlot Salwai expressed the country's appreciation for China's assistance, and said it will support Vanuatu's recovery process going forward. A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Port Vila on Dec. 17, killing at least 14 people, injuring more than 200 and severely damaging the city's infrastructure. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing) Special forces of the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Tuesday, December 31, 2024, for the first time in military history, destroyed two Russian Mi-8 helicopters using Magura V5 attack sea drones equipped with missile weapons, the press service of the Agency reported. "According to updated data, as a result of a successful operation of the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in the Black Sea near the temporarily occupied Crimea on December 31, 2024, special forces of the Group 13 unit destroyed two Russian Mi-8 helicopters using Magura V5 sea drones equipped with missiles," the Main Intelligence Agency said in a message on Telegram on Thursday. According to preliminary information, the crews of the said enemy aircraft were also eliminated. It is reported that another Russian helicopter was hit by fire and managed to land damaged. Zelenskyy signs law on dismissal of serviceman due to death of half-brother or sister Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law restoring the right of a serviceman to be dismissed from service during a war in the event of the death or disappearance of a half-brother or sister. The corresponding note appeared in the bill card on the Verkhovna Rada website. As reported, on November 20, 2024, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a law amending Article 26 of the Law on military duty and military service on restoring the right of servicemen to be dismissed from military service during martial law due to the death or disappearance of their half-brother or sister. The Ukrainian Defense forces have attacked the invaders in Kursk region, and the Russians have suffered significant losses, said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation. "There is a successful hit. The 810th brigade of the Russian Federation suffered significant losses as a result of this strike," he wrote on the Telegram channel on Thursday. Photo: https://www.facebook.com/CinCAFofUkraine President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy listened to a report by Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky on the situation at the front and in the areas of the Kursk operation, and separately discussed the protection of Kherson region. Every day including December 31 and January 1 there are constant Russian assaults in Donetsk region. Most of the assaults per day occur in Pokrovsk and Kurakhove directions, with the intense fighting also in Lyman and Vremivka directions. We separately discussed the defense of the Kherson region, Zelenskyy said in his video address Thursday. According to him, in Kursk region, Ukrainian units continue defending their positions facing more than thirty Russian attacks a day. Zelenskyy thanked all the units that strike at the Russian army and destroy the invader. The Armed forces of Ukraine attacked the command post of the enemy army in Kursk region, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported. "On January 2, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a precision strike on the command post of the Russian occupation army in the village of Maryino, Kursk region," its Telegram channel said on Thursday. It is noted that all necessary measures have been taken to minimize threats to the lives of the local civilian population. "These fire attacks are primarily aimed at weakening the ability and desire of the Russian Federation to commit terrorist acts against the Ukrainian civilian population. The Armed Forces of Ukraine will constantly continue to identify and destroy objects of the military command of the aggressor country," the message says. Homelessness in the United States has surged to alarming levels, with federal data revealing an 18.1% increase in the homeless population over the past year alone. This stark rise highlights the enduring complexity of the issue, shaped by a convergence of economic pressures, housing shortages, and societal challenges. Despite decades of efforts to combat the crisis, homelessness remains a persistent and growing problem. Historically, governments at all levels have attempted to address homelessness through a variety of approaches. In the 1980s, the federal government introduced programs such as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which provided emergency shelters and transitional housing. Over the years, there was a shift toward the "Housing First" model, which emphasized placing individuals in permanent housing without preconditions, followed by supportive services to address underlying issues like mental health and substance abuse. This model gained traction in the early 2000s, showing promising results in cities like Salt Lake City, where chronic homelessness was significantly reduced. In addition to federal efforts, local governments have invested in public housing, rental assistance programs, and initiatives aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing. Nonprofit organizations and community-based programs have also played a vital role, often stepping in where government programs fall short. However, these efforts have struggled to keep pace with the growing demand, as economic inequality, rising rents, and natural disasters continue to displace vulnerable populations. The current surge in homelessness underscores the limitations of existing strategies. While some programs have successfully helped individuals transition off the streets, the systemic issues fueling homelessness-- such as stagnant wages, insufficient mental health services, and a lack of affordable housing-- remain largely unaddressed. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the crisis, with job losses and evictions pushing many into homelessness for the first time. To turn the tide on this crisis, governments and communities must adopt a multi-faceted approach. Expanding the Housing First model nationwide, increasing funding for mental health and addiction services, and implementing stronger tenant protections could provide immediate relief for those at risk of losing their homes. Long-term solutions should focus on increasing the supply of affordable housing through incentives for developers, zoning reforms, and greater investment in public housing infrastructure. Additionally, addressing root causes such as poverty and economic inequality will require comprehensive policy changes, including raising the minimum wage and expanding access to education and job training programs. Homelessness is not merely a housing issue-- it is a reflection of broader societal failures. Addressing it will require coordinated action from governments, nonprofits, businesses, and individuals. While the path forward is challenging, it is not insurmountable. With sustained investment, innovative thinking, and a commitment to equity, the United States can begin to reverse the trend and ensure that everyone has a place to call home. Los Angeles County Voter Turnout: On Tuesday, November 26th the Los Angeles County Clerk released the final update for the 2024 election. While the same strategies were in place this year to encourage participation as in the last presidential election, turnout was 12.59% lower than in 2000. Voter registration increased slightly but 546,155 fewer people voted. The 66.10% turnout rate was the smallest of the Trump era: Charter School Industry operative Michael Trujillo trying to build momentum for his candidate on Twitter. (Image by Carl J. Petersen) Details DMCA Presidential Results: In deep blue Los Angeles, it is no surprise that Kamala Harris easily beat Donald Trump, more than doubling his vote count. However, she underperformed Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden by more than six percentage points. Trump has steadily improved his performance over the past three elections, rising from 22.5% in 2016 to 31.91% this year. In 2020, most of the gain came at the expense of the third-party candidates, but this year, it all came from the Democrats. Third-Party Scraps: Voters in Los Angeles County have four options beyond the two major parties: Green, Libertarian, American Independent, and Peace and Freedom. Combined, these parties have seen a reduced share of the votes during the Trump years. However, all but the Libertarians saw improved results over 2020. The steady decline of the Libertarian party is perplexing. It would seem that a party "strongly oppose[d to] any government interference into their personal, family, and business decisions" would thrive in an election where one of the candidates espouses authoritarian rule. Perhaps they are not "The Party of Principle," but just care about pushing any politician who says they will "cut and eliminate taxes at every opportunity", no matter the cost to our civil liberties. The American Independent Party claims that "it's time for California to declare independence from the antiquated two-party system." They then chose to be represented by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who originally ran in the Democratic primary and later dropped off the ballot in some states to endorse the Republican. Law and Order over Justice? In the wake of the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, Black Lives Matter (BLM) was formed to draw attention to police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. In the subsequent examination of the approach to criminal justice, Californians passed Proposition 47 which revamped criminal sentences and misdemeanor penalties. In Los Angeles County 64.29% of the electorate voted "Yes." The murder of George Floyd in 2020 further drew attention to the inequities in the system. In the aftermath of the resulting protests, including a local incident where the incumbent's husband pulled a gun on BLM protestors, George Gascon was elected District Attorney with 53.53% of the vote. Despite a crime rate in line with what Angelenos have experienced since 2016, the public perception is that crime has skyrocketed out of control. This is driven by media coverage that has magnified crime, especially surrounding smash-and-grab robberies. With fear in control, 64.3% of voters in Los Angeles County voted to repeal Proposition 47. Nathan Hochman will replace Gascon after promising to roll back criminal justice reforms. Hochman earned 59.89% of the vote. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Can An Astute President-to-Be Donald Trump Get Away With stop ge'nocide by Jeanne Menjoulet Attribution (Image by Jeanne Menjoulet) Details DMCA Genocide Denial, We've had Holocaust Denial. Now we have the phenomenon of Genocide Denial in spite of the plethora of photographs and videos of the obliterated cites of the Gaza Strip, of the deliberate demolition of neighbourhoods, cultural sites, and essential facilities" in violation of international law. President-elect Donald Trump has been impressive in his statements and comments since his overwhelming election. He speaks with authority and determination in his voice promising to resolve the nations problems and take the high road morally on all issues. All the more perplexing is Trump's maintaining silence at best, and at worse contradicting reality regarding the genocide in Gaza by saying the judges of the International Court of Justice must be sanctioned for issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister. Netanyahu and his minister of defence. CIA monitored U.S. and Western news and information conglomerates have been consistently focusing telecast time and attention on the October 7, 2023 Hamas led guerrilla attack and capture of hostages (rarely mentioning that the hostages were taken to exchange for some of the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons). Western media initially headlined the most absurd items of macabre killings, 40 babies decapatated, women raped and dragged through the streets even described publicly by U.S. President Biden. ERA Poster (Image by NEA) Details DMCA There are just 18 days left for Biden to publish the ERA, which would Constitutionally ensure equal rights for women before the next administration comes into power. EQUAL MEANS EQUAL is stepping up the pressure, planning a Dune-themed Demonstration at the National Archives on the morning of Friday, January 10th. Equal Means Equal stated, "we want to remember American President, Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, who were unflagging advocates for the Equal Rights Amendment. EQUAL MEANS EQUAL had the privilege to work with the Carters and the Carter Center over the years and while we are saddened about his passing, we celebrate his life as an inspiration and model for those of us who are guided by the desire to work for the public good and leave the world a better place." Jimmy Carter: I do not believe my daughter should have fewer rights than my sons." Rosalynn Carter: "I was a strong advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have written equal rights for women into our Constitution. Of all the projects I worked on, my greatest disappointment was the failure to achieve ratification of the ERA. At the end, there were only 13 legislators who held it up. Jimmy and I tried hard to get them to change their minds. I am glad there is a renewed campaign to pass the ERA called 'EQUAL MEANS EQUAL.' I hope it succeeds this time around." - Rosalynn Carter, March 8, 2016 Equal Means Equal's press release is below. COSTUMED DEMONSTRATION LAUNCHED BY ERA ADVOCATES Washington, D.C. - The movement to secure full constitutional gender equality continues on January 10, 2025, with a dramatic costumed demonstration led by acclaimed actress and director Kamala Lopez of EQUAL MEANS EQUAL in partnership with Virginia-based Vote Equality US. This striking visual event will demand immediate action by President Biden to publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Some details of the January 10 event are embargoed. Media representatives may contact the press coordinator for more information. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Forget Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada--Trump Should Invite Taiwan to Become a U.S. Territory By Joel D. Joseph (Joseph represented sixty members of Congress challenging the constitutionality of the Panama Canal Treaty Donald Trump's ambition to buy Greenland, take over the Panama Canal and add Canada as the 51st state are bound to fail. Greenland and Denmark said that they would not sell the island to the United States or to anyone else. Under the Panama Canal Treaty, Panama has sovereignty over the canal. Canada, with national health insurance and strict gun control laws, does not want to become part of the United States. However, a more important acquisition would be Taiwan. Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are all U.S. territories, and Taiwan could become one. Trump should invite Taiwan to become a U.S. territory and then the people of Taiwan could vote to accept or reject the invitation. The Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 until 1946. The Philippines are 700 miles from Taiwan while Guam is 1700 miles away. Puerto Rico is one thousand miles from the mainland of the United States. Hawaii was a U.S. territory from 1898 until it became a state in 1959. In 1849, the United States and Hawaii concluded a treaty of friendship that served as the basis of official relations between the parties. Taiwan is the world's largest producer of microchips. The United States is very dependent on this source of computer components. Microchips power computers, regulate automobile systems and are part of most modern electronic gadgets. China, of course, will be upset with the U.S. inviting Taiwan to become a part of the United States. China will argue that we would be interfering with their "domestic" concerns. But Taiwan is a democratic nation and should be allowed to make its own independent decisions. China, China, China Of course, if Taiwan becomes a U.S. territory the United States would be bound to defend it. Every U.S. territory has major American military installations. The American Navy virtually controls the Island of Guam. There are also naval bases in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. A July, 2007 Congressional Research Service Report confirmed that U.S. policy has not recognized China's sovereignty over Taiwan. In 1979, China pressured the United States to end diplomatic relations with Taiwan. President Carter caved into massive Chinese pressure. In response, Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act. The Peoples Republic of China continues to view the U.S. Taiwan Relations Act as "an unwarranted intrusion by the United States into the internal affairs of China." However, the United States has continued to supply Taiwan with aircraft and other weaponry and China has continued to protest. China has threatened to invade Taiwan, but has never done so. American Military Bases Pearl Harbor, a massive United States Naval facility, was attacked in 1941 before Hawaii became a state. In the Philippines, the United States had access to nine military bases. Some of these bases were formerly American bases, but now are controlled by the Philippine government. The United States gave the Philippines its independence in 1946 after 48 years as a territory. U.S. territories have non-voting members in Congress. Residents of U.S. territories can easily gain American citizenship. Residents of the U.S. territories-- Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands -- are generally not required to pay federal income taxes on income whose source is within the territory. Congress can establish the rules for admission of Taiwan as a U.S. territory. The law would include rules on citizenship, taxation, military bases, military service and other issues. If Taiwan were to become a U.S. territory, China would most likely not invade the island nation because such an invasion could start World War III. Similarly, if we had invited the Ukraine into NATO twenty years ago Russia would not have invaded. We should learn from the Ukraine War and pre-emptively invite Taiwan to become part of the United States. Photo: https://www.facebook.com/PoroshenkoFoundation The Poroshenko Foundation has come up with a renewed initiative to finance the restoration of the museum of Ukrainian Insurgent Army Cornet General Roman Shukhevych in Lviv, destroyed by Russian Shaheds in early 2024, and suggests that not to raise funds among citizens for this, so as not to delay the start of restoration work. "Exactly one year ago, Russian barbarians destroyed the museum of Ukrainian Insurgent Army Cornet General Roman Shukhevych in Lviv. Unfortunately, during this time, the restoration of the historical monument has not begun... Immediately after the barbaric enemy attack on the Shukhevych Museum, the Poroshenko Foundation offered financial assistance for the speedy restoration of the destroyed monument, and the corresponding letter of guarantee was handed over to the institution's management," a message posted on the Foundation's Facebook page on Thursday reads. The message notes that the idea of restoring the house was supported at a public meeting at the historical museum in Lviv on January 17, 2024, in particular by Roman Shukhevych's daughter Maria Trylevska, Head of the OUN-UPA All-Ukrainian Brotherhood Bohdan Borovych, dissident and public figure Myroslav Marynovych, MPs, deputies of Lviv Regional and City Councils. "However, contrary to the wishes of the Lviv community, the city government ignored the proposal of the Poroshenko Foundation to restore the Shukhevych Museum as soon as possible. But Lviv officials, in the face of the deteriorating economic situation and higher taxes, decided to organize a fundraiser from people. This is a deliberate delay in the process of restoring the museum complex," the message says. The Foundation insists on the speedy restoration of the museum house in the form in which it had been before it was destroyed by the Shaheds. "We do not have the grave of Roman Shukhevych, therefore, for the family and for all Ukrainians, this place is the place of honoring the fallen general. The Museum building is the former underground headquarters of the OUN, where Shukhevych hid for the last years of his life and where he was killed by Soviet KGB in 1950. March 5, 2025, will mark the 75th anniversary of the heroic death of the legendary commander of the UPA. It would be very symbolic, fair and proper to honor Shukhevych's memory not in ruins, but in a rebuilt museum," the Poroshenko Foundation noted, adding that "for Ukraine, the memory of the leaders of the national liberation movement is no less a weapon than drones or shells." "The Poroshenko Foundation urges: in the end, stop talking and delaying the restoration process, hiding behind paperwork, and start work on restoring the Shukhevych Museum," the message concludes. The Foundation noted that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, they have been systematically helping the Defense Forces, providing them with FPV drones, Mavics, electronic warfare and other necessary equipment, and the total amount of assistance to brigades and battalions has already exceeded UAH 6.5 billion. Khamenei (Image by AI image) Details DMCA Khamenei Hates and Blames Israel for Everything Events in Iran are horrible for citizens to tolerate, but it seems that Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme dictator of Iran, is losing his grip on the country. The "Women, Life, and Freedom" movement of a couple of years ago has devolved into a movement toward restrictive regime change. Khamenei's desperation is apparent in his speeches and his psychotic rants. Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen, and Shiites of Iraq and Syria are destroyed. However, he is still declaring that the axis of resistance is alive and he is victorious everywhere. His government has become increasingly brutal and oppressive and has committed excessive acts of brutality in Iran. To understand the factors involved in the current problems in Iran and the Middle East, we must examine this situation from various perspectives: Who is Khamenei? Khamenei is a devout Muslim/Shiite. His entire family is composed of high-level clergymen. Khamenei has been the main leader and supreme dictator of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989, and during his 35-year rule, he has continued to get more outrageous and hysterical regarding his views on Israel. His bizarre outbursts seem to be predicated on his perceptions of ideological and religious motivations, geopolitical rivalry, historical tensions, and political strategy. On 27 June 1981, Khamenei was the object of an assassination attempt. He was unconscious for several hours, lost his right hand, and suffered from Traumatic Brain Injury. I explained the effect of the injury of his brain in my article, "The Leader who does not know that he does not know." Anosognosia is the technical term for this type of post-injury syndrome. This event was very similar to Operation Valkyrie, arguably the most meticulously planned assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler. Any injury affecting the right side of the brain causes the patient to lose their awareness of their deficiency. They become very aggressive and difficult people, believing that they are fine, insisting that there is nothing wrong, and ignoring the advice of medical practitioners. Currently, Khamenei is quite aggressive and brutal. He lacks insight into his behavior or its effect on others. There is no sign of sympathy toward the masses of Iran. For instance, last year, when there was an uprising of women all over the country he ordered chemical poisoning attacks on elementary school girls, causing 150 deaths and an unknown number of serious injuries. Khamenei claims that he is an Ayatollah, but he is not since he never finished his religious studies. He is a student of notorious Ayatollah Khomeini, both of these creatures have declared Israel must be exterminated. Shortly after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran's first Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, established the "day of Ghuds" or Al-Quds Day. All Muslims are supposed to pray for the freedom of Jerusalem on that day to show solidarity with Palestinian resistance. According to Al-Jazeera, "some observers have claimed that the event was initiated by Iran to further its own political interests of using proxies to fight against Israel and western powers." Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). In 1977, Leonard Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, Ronald Arthur Williams and Jack Ross Coler. The charges stemmed from a June 26, 1975 shootout between American Indian Movement (AIM) activists, of which Peltier was one, and the FBI at the Jumping Bull ranch compound on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. This resulted in the deaths of the agents, and also an indigenous man, Joseph Stuntz, whose death remains unsolved and appears to have never been investigated at all. In the aftermath of the shooting, three men, all AIM activists, were eventually arrested in connection with the deaths of the two agents. Two of the men, Robert Robideau and Darrelle "Dino" Butler were acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. In the trials of Robideau and Butler, they were able to argue and show evidence that an atmosphere of violence existed on the Pine Ridge Reservation at the time. Meanwhile, Peltier was not allowed to argue or show the same evidence, and he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. In the decades since, Peltier's conviction has been criticized for its lack of fairness. There is a clear argument that witness coercion, evidence withholding and mischaracterization have occurred leading many individuals and organizations to believe that Peltier was wrongly convicted. As of this time, Leonard Peltier has spent nearly 50 years in prison. (Image by Bettman) Details DMCA Leonard Peltier, American Indian Movement leader, is led across Oakalla Prison to a waiting helicopter, on Dec. 17, 1976, on Burnaby, British Columbia.Bettmann Archive click here So, I came to the issue of Leonard Peltier a little late in life for an indigenous person. Frankly, I was in my mid-twenties before I genuinely thought about or even bothered to look into it. Even now, I cringe at my ignorance. I knew who he was, of course, and in general, knew the story, but just didn't think a whole lot about it, if at all. I was much more into reading and telling stories. Thinking about socioeconomic issues on reservations. About the cultural tornado that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. I grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation, but was bussed off of it to a non-reservation town, Cut Bank, to attend school. My interests always were in telling those kinds of stories. I just didn't really have much interest in the story of Leonard Peltier. My friend Dine' poet Sherwin Bitsui once wrote "I map a shrinking map." In my incognizance, I didn't realize that Leonard Peltier was my shrinking map. In a world where I saw indigenous issues within certain boundaries and then within those boundaries even more boundaries, I neglected to see how related his story was to the ones that I always thought about. Now I don't think Leonard Peltier is all that different of a person than the main characters of novels that I love, like James Welch's "Winter In The Blood" or N. Scott Momaday's "House Made of Dawn." Nor do I see those characters as being much different than each other. These were men who struggled with society. Their conflict was with the outside world. But those are fictional stories. Let's talk real life. I am a reservation Indian, this conflict with the outside world I understand and live with every day, even now. But then, as a young man, it was all fresh to me. I couldn't really see beyond that. AIM was an organization founded by urban Indians, I thought of them more as coming from another world and then into our world, or as someone who left our world, entered another and then eventually came back. It didn't seem the same to me. They were "like" us, but different. They came from another place on that map. But this was not true. They weren't "like" us, they were us. I didn't realize that you never become totally comfortable with the outside world. Not when you are part of a community who has so much conflict and history of conflict with that world. Leonard Peltier was probably at his most comfortable back on a reservation. Supporting and protecting the traditional ways of his people. And, yes, even radicalizing them with regards to their disenfranchisement. This radicalization helped lead to many advancements for indigenous people in the 1970s. Language revitalization, low-income housing, and imperfect yet better health care are examples. And, in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act into law. Ojibwe author, David Treuer wrote "The effect of this act was profound. Younger and urban Indians had a chance to discover and participate in traditions that had been lost to them." Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Elon Musk (Image by dmoberhaus) Details DMCA On December 22 Elon Musk elaborated on his endorsement of the supposedly "far-right" German party Alternative for Germany in an op-ed in the Welt am Sonntag, "a sister publication" of Politico . Why the sister publication would fail to include the full text in English of Musk's piece (651 words) is rather puzzling (nor does @elonmusk post it on his X account), but it is clear that the mainstream German press doesn't want it to get any more attention than it has gotten already from the Welt (which has a subscription firewall). I have only been able to find it on the website of the Junge Freiheit, which is close to the AfD and described (predictably) by Wikipedia in the same negative terms it uses for the AfD itself and the supposedly antipodal "far-left" party BSW . So I will reproduce the Google translation of the German text below. First, however, two important points should be noted. 1. Musk fails to mention the elephant in the room, which continues to be studiously avoided in public debates, also by the AfD and the BSW, although this is the most important point on which the two "extreme" parties agree, in opposition to ALL the other mainstream parties ( CDU , SPD , Greens , FDP ): opposition to military support for Ukraine and to anti-Russian sanctions, including the US sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline (see articles by Seymour Hersh here , here , here , here , here , here , here , here , and here ). The war and the sanctions are the primary reasons for Germany's economic decline. To tweak James Carville, It's the war, stupid . Still, this blatantly obvious fact is the last thing one is likely to hear in public debates, even from the AfD or the BSW, or in the mainstream press. 2. Unfortunately, and unlike the BSW, both Musk and the AfD - as well as Trump - fail to mention the other elephant in the room, which is the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The grossly immoral and recklessly dangerous support of Zionist imperialism (to put it mildly), which in the end will destroy Israel as a state just as US/NATO imperialism (for the last 34 years !) has already destroyed Ukraine, has been repeatedly and abundantly described by many commentators, none of whom are mentioned in the mainstream Western propaganda organs but are (fortunately) easy to find on the internet, e.g. Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer, Douglas Macgregor, Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Philip Giraldi, Chas Freeman, Lawrence Wilkerson, Max Blumenthal, Larry Johnson, Michael Hudson, Richard Wolff and others including some no longer with us like Stephen F. Cohen , arguably the preeminent US scholar on Russia but eschewed by the mass media ever since he started telling the truth about post-Soviet Russia, Putin, and Ukraine: I had been arguing for years [before 2014] - very much against the American political-media grain - that a new US-Russian Cold War was unfolding, driven primarily by politics in Washington, not in Moscow. For this perspective, I had been largely excluded from influential print, broadcast, and cable outlets where I had previously been welcomed ["To My Readers," War With Russia? 2019, p. 7]. With these two important caveats, one can only shake one's head at the obtuseness - feigned or not but in either case unforgivable - of Franz-Walter Steinmeier, the former SPD politician who has used his current "neutral" position as Bundesprasident to do nothing but double down on the coalition government's unquestioning support of Ukraine and Israel, in total subservience to the US, and warn voters against "right-wing extremism", "protest voting" and "foreign influence", always with carefully inexplicit but unmistakable reference to the AfD, the party that is now No. 2 in Germany and stronger than his own (former) party, the SPD. Especially coming from him, his reaction to Musk's endorsement of the AfD is risibly hypocritical: External influence is a threat to democracy. Be it covert (...) or open and blatant, as is currently being practiced particularly intensively on Platform X [see here , orig. German here ]. Here is the full text of Musk's piece (Google translation here , orig. German here ): -- ------- Germany is at a critical juncture - its future teeters on the brink of economic and cultural collapse. As someone who has made significant investments in Germany's industrial and technological landscape, I believe I have the right to speak openly about my political orientation. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country. Here's why: Economic revival: The German economy, once the engine of Europe, is now mired in bureaucracy and overwhelming regulations. The AfD has understood that economic freedom is not only desirable, but necessary. Its approach of reducing government over-regulation, cutting taxes and deregulating the market reflects the principles that made Tesla and SpaceX successful. If Germany wants to regain its industrial strength, it needs a party that doesn't just talk about growth, but also takes political action to create an environment where companies can thrive without heavy government intervention. A nation needs clear borders and identity Immigration and national identity: Germany has opened its borders to a very large number of migrants. Although this was done with humanitarian intentions, it has led to significant cultural and social tensions. The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy that prioritizes integration and the preservation of German culture and security. This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalization. A nation must preserve its core values and cultural heritage in order to remain strong and united. Energy policy as the key to independence Energy and independence: The energy policy pursued by the current coalition is not only economically costly but also geopolitically naive. Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power and instead rely heavily on coal and imported gas, as well as on volatile wind and solar power, without the battery storage on the grid needed to ensure stability of the electricity supply, has left the country vulnerable, especially in terms of power disruptions. The AfD takes a pragmatic approach to the energy issue and advocates a balanced approach. I hope that they will consider expanding safe nuclear energy combined with battery storage to cushion large fluctuations in electricity consumption, because that is the obvious solution. The traditional parties have failed Political realism: The traditional parties have failed in Germany. Their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest and an erosion of national identity. The AfD, even though it is described as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel that their concerns are ignored by the establishment. It addresses the problems of the day - without the political correctness that often obscures the truth. The portrayal of the AfD as far-right is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on! Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). "If, after the inauguration, you find a Cy Vance as Secretary of State and Zbigniew Brzezinski as head of National Security, then I would say we failed. And I'd quit. But that's not going to happen. You're going to see new faces, new ideas. The government is going to be run by people you have never heard of." Hamilton Jordan, President Carter's Chief of Staff Conor Tobin's January 9, 2020 Diplomatic History [1] article titled: The Myth of the 'Afghan Trap': Zbigniew Brzezinski and Afghanistan[2] attempts to "dismantle the notion that President Jimmy Carter, at the urging of National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, aided the Afghan Mujahedin intentionally to lure the Soviet Union into invading Afghanistan in 1979." As Todd Greentree acknowledges in his July17, 2020 review of Tobin's article, the stakes are high because the "the notion" calls into question not just President Carter's legacy, but the conduct, the reputation and the "strategic behavior of the United States during the Cold War and beyond."[3] Central to the issue of what Tobin refers to as "the Afghan Trap thesis," is French journalist Vincent Jauvert's infamous January 1998 Nouvel Observateur interview with Brzezinski in which he brags about a secret program launched by him and President Carter six months before the Soviet invasion "that had the effect of drawing the Russians into the afghan trap-- "According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise." Brzezinski is on record as saying. "Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention."[4] Despite the fact that the secret program had already been revealed by the CIA's former chief of the directorate of Operations for the Near East and South Asia Dr. Charles Cogan and former CIA Director Robert Gates and was largely ignored, Brzezinski's admission brings attention to a glaring misconception about Soviet intentions in Afghanistan that many historians would rather leave unexplained. From the moment Brzezinski's interview appeared in 1998 there has been a fanatical effort on both the left and the right to deny its validity as an idle boast, a misinterpretation of what he meant, or a bad translation from French to English. Brzezinski's admission is so sensitive amongst the CIA's insiders, Charles Cogan felt it necessary to come out for a Cambridge Forum discussion of our book on Afghanistan (Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story)[5] in 2009 to claim that even though our view that the Soviets were reluctant to invade was authentic, Brzezinski's Nouvel Observateur interview had to be wrong. Tobin expands on this complaint by lamenting that the French interview has so corrupted the historiography as to have become the almost sole basis to prove the existence of a plot to lure Moscow into the "Afghan Trap." He then goes on to write that since Brzezinski asserts the interview was technically not an interview but excerpts from an interview and was never approved in the form it appeared and that since Brzezinski has subsequently repeatedly denied it on numerous occasions-- the 'trap' thesis has little basis in fact."[6] Tobin then proceeds to cite official documents to prove "Brzezinski's actions through 1979 exhibited a meaningful effort to dissuade [emphasis added] Moscow from intervening" In sum, a Soviet military intervention was neither sought nor desired by the Carter administration and the covert program initiated in the summer of 1979 is insufficient to charge Carter and Brzezinski with actively attempting to ensnare Moscow in the 'Afghan trap.'" So what does this reveal about a secret U.S. government operation taken six months prior to the Soviet invasion of December 1979 and not bragged about by Brzezinski until January of 1998? To summarize Tobin's complaint; Brzezinski's alleged boast of luring the Soviets into an "Afghan trap" has little basis in fact. Brzezinski did say something but what-- is not clear, but whatever he said, there is no historical record of it and anyway it wasn't enough to lure the Soviets into Afghanistan because he and Carter didn't want the Soviets to invade anyway because it would jeopardize de'tente and the SALT II negotiations. So what's all the fuss about? Tobin's assumption that the President of the United States and his CIA would never intentionally set out to exacerbate the Cold War in the middle of such a hostile environment, may reveal more about Conor Tobin's bias than his understanding of what Brzezinski's strategy of confrontation was all about. To read his article is to step through the looking glass into an alternative universe where (to paraphrase T.E. Lawrence) facts are replaced by daydreams and the dreamers act-out with their eyes wide open. From our experience with Afghanistan and the people who made it happen, Tobin's "valuable service of traditional diplomatic history" (as quoted from Todd Greentree's review) does no service to history at all. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). The millions of Americans who lost their lives unnecessarily due to for-profit health insurance companies' avarice so far hasn't moved the needle. History has repeatedly demonstrated that some of society's most pervasive issues do not get the attention they deserve until an authority figure, someone on the higher rungs of the social ladder, or of some notoriety, dies. Unfortunately, it has come to this: the murder of a health insurance executive re-igniting discussions about the exploitative and dysfunctional American healthcare system. UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's death in front of the midtown Manhattan Hilton earlier this month has precipitated messages of "good riddance" toward Thompson as a symbol of "a universally despised system run by 'heartless vampires' who routinely refuse care in exchange for bloody profit." As Abby Zimet wrote in Common Dreams: The pitiless response by tens of millions of their victims: Wanted posters, judging the shooter "too hot to convict" and grimly declaring, "Thoughts and prayers are out of network." Senator Elizabeth Warren explained, "Violence is never the answer, but people can only be pushed so far." How many more people have to die or be forced into bankruptcy before the United States joins every other industrialized nation in guaranteeing healthcare as a basic human right? This month, following the killing of Brian Thompson, Nation of Change published a piece reporting that trust in the for-profit health insurance industry has hit an all-time low, and that, according to a recent Gallup poll, 62% of Americans favor a national healthcare model. The piece explains: Between 2000 and 2008, a consistent majority of Americans believed it was the federal government's duty to ensure universal healthcare. However, opposition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during the Obama administration caused support to dip, reaching a low of 42 percent in 2013. Ironic considering the ACA ("Obamacare"), often maligned as "government insurance," actually handed more authority to the very same predatory health insurance providers from the which the American people needed protection. However, the piece continues: In recent years, public opinion has shifted back toward supporting government intervention. This year's 62 percent marks a significant increase from 56 percent in 2020. Notably, this growing support spans party lines, with 32 percent of Republicans now favoring government responsibility -- up from 22 percent in 2020 -- and 65 percent of Independents agreeing, an increase of six points. Among Democrats, support remains overwhelmingly high at 90 percent. California Rep. Ro Khanna stated after Brian Thompson's murder: Democrats will regain trust by standing up to special interest insurance companies and fighting for Medicare for All. The current system is broken. As Thom Hartmann, author of The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich, stated: Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). More than 40 years after its release, an exchange in the opening scene of Warren Beatty's Academy Award-winning film Reds floats to the front of my mind whenever I think about war. Master of Ceremonies: "I, for one, see no reason why we here at the Liberal Club shouldn't listen to what Jack Reed has to say. What would you say this war is about, Jack Reed?" Reed, standing, looking a bit confused and annoyed: "Profits." The one-word answer, while correct -- Reed, as a staunch Communist, held to some fairly silly ideas on economics -- was also incomplete. World War One was indeed about profits. It was a clash of declining empires: Empires purpose-built to rake off a share of profits, taken by imperially protected business enterprises from colonized places and peoples, for the benefit of the imperial political classes. World War Two largely killed off the old empires, but created new ones for its victors, the US and the Soviet Union. Eighty years later, the declining remnants of THOSE two empires (and even smaller European remnants of the imperial age) rage against the dying of their light, scrapping over territory and the attached profits in the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and, of course, Ukraine. Nearly three years into the second phase of that war (the first phase involved the 2014 secession from Ukraine of, and subsequent "frozen conflict" over, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea), I've still got friends who want to believe the war is over "democracy" versus "authoritarianism," "protecting ethnic Russians from literal Nazis," etc. In fact, that war is, and always has been, about whether poor, politically corrupt -- but resource-rich, and geographically located in ways that maximize its strategic importance -- Ukraine will go forward as the US/EU/NATO imperial satrapy it became in 2014, or revert to its former status as a Russian imperial satrapy. In other words, it's about profits for Rome on the Potomac versus profits for Constantinople on the Moskva. An odd bifurcation: Whenever I point this fact out on X, I'm accused of being "pro-Russia." Whenever I point this fact out on a site where I frequently comment, I'm accused of being "pro-US/EU/NATO." But I'm going to stick to my guns -- pardon the militaristic turn of phrase -- on this one. There are no "good guys" at the policy level here. The only moral principle at stake is whether it's acceptable for imperial gangs to murder each other's colonial serfs to benefit their own political classes. I say no, but hey, that's just me. Your mileage may vary. If it does, and if you think you must take a "side" in this war other than the side of peace, at least be honest with yourself about what you're supporting. This article was originally published in 2021 by Carolyn Baker, but is still timely. She has recently been working with the rather amazing Andrew Harvey. Both are featured in the video. As everyone reading these words is well aware, 2020 brought us a ghastly pandemic and untold physical and emotional suffering, and as 2021 begins, despite the beginning of vaccine distribution, the tsunami of Coronavirus cases is only widening. In 2020 the word "diagnosis" was ubiquitous because a pandemic had engulfed us, and a majority of us fear being diagnosed with Covid-19. A "diagnosis," of course, implies pathology-- something harmful or unhealthy that needs to be corrected. "The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight." ~Joseph Campbell~ In a culture where rational, left-brain functioning is essentially sacrosanct, mysticism is not only foreign to most individuals but on one level is considered a pathogen from which we need immunity or recovery. Images of underfed, barely-clothed, gurus lying on beds of nails or flagellating themselves appear in our minds when we hear the word "mystic." And yet, a mystical perspective and mystical practices may be the exact emotional and spiritual medicine we need in a time of pandemic horror, climate catastrophe, economic collapse, and the dizzying unraveling of a deeply dysfunctional civilization. On the one hand, mysticism is difficult to define because it defies analysis and classification. It is primarily a right-brain experience, and that reality is frustrating for civilized minds who demand definitions. Yet in reality, even the mystic may be hard-pressed to precisely define the word. Mystical theologian, Matthew Fox, in his book The Coming of The Cosmic Christ, offers 22 characteristics of mysticism and adds, "My approach is nonlinear and best understood as a circle with each definition feeding into it."[1] Moreover, he adds, "everyone is a mystic," meaning that sooner or later, everyone will be "diagnosed" with it. If you consider yourself a mystic, you are in good company. If you do not consider yourself a mystic, you may want to rethink that assumption after reading this article. And yet, the origin of the word "mystic," could not be simpler. A mystic is simply a person who is devoted to the mysteries-- the mysteries of the universe and the mysteries of oneself. These mysteries cannot be limited or owned by any religion, group, or organization. In fact, mysticism has no perimeters; therefore, any attempt to confine it within any tradition is absurd. The characteristics offered by Fox are simply descriptive as opposed to definitive. Ironically, many people who claim to want nothing to do with mysticism could share more of the 22 characteristics than they had imagined . In fact, you could be "diagnosed" as a mystic if you embrace any or all of these characteristics. Experience: The mystic respects discoveries of the rational mind, but they are keen on experience. Mysticism cannot be read about or learned objectively. The mystic trusts implicitly in their own experience which is a trust of the universe and of oneself. The anti-mystic may protest that one's experience is "subjective" and therefore unreliable. The authentic mystic, however, argues that both the right brain and left brain are necessary for comprehending reality. This argument is based on the next characteristic of the mystic which is Nondualism: The mystic seeks unitive experiences. As Fox reminds us, "All mystical experiences share in common the perspective of nonseparation or nondualism." Ultimately, the mystic experiences what mystic and Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn calls Interbeing-- the reality that everything is interconnected. (More on this below.) Compassion: Because the mystic has experienced the interdependence of all living things, they invariably develop compassion for all beings because for them, no being is separate from another. The mystic recognizes that the wellbeing of all must be taken into account. Connection-Making: Because the mystic seeks unity and unitive experiences, they seek to make connections where connections have been lost. Mystics are often found in the so-called "helping professions" in which connection-making is fundamental; however, artists may also be diagnosed as mystics, for they too are essentially connection-makers by way of the imagination. Radical Amazement: Awe is one of the most prized emotions among mystics. Fox describes it as, "a reverential fear based on a realization of the greatness of our existence, of our being included in the amazing twenty-billion-year drama that is the universe."[2] While the mystic respects rational analysis, their psyches are large enough for awe, and they revel in it. Affirmation Of The World As A Whole: The mystic affirms not the world laid waste by human neglect or greed-induced destruction, but a world that is whole and connected. They facilitate and strive to promote human connection and the wholeness of the Earth community. The mystic loves immersing themselves in nature because they experience viscerally and erotically that they are intimately connected with it. Right Brain: The mystic affirms and delights in the qualities of the right brain: Art, music, literature, dancing, and deep embodiment appeal to them instinctively. Intuition is the crown jewel of the right brain, and scientists tell us that intuition may be the highest form of intelligence. Self-Criticism: The mystic is self-critical without being judgmental. They understand the reality of the human shadow and are actively engaged in shadow healing. They are vigilant about projecting their shadow onto others and are willing to take a hard look at their own belief systems. Heart Knowledge: The mystic values heart knowledge and heart break over intellectual knowledge. They have experienced viscerally that to ignore or minimize the heart in favor of reason diminishes their humanity and compassion. A Return To The Source: The mystic may have many names for the Source, but they live their lives with reverence for something greater than the rational mind and human ego. Feminist: To be intimately connected with "the mysteries" is to have moved beyond patriarchal consciousness. Mystical awareness is inherently feminine and honors the feminine in the Earth and in all living beings. As stated above, the mystical inclination is relational; it fosters connection, and helps heal division and separation. Panentheistic: The mystic knows that all life is sacred because the sacred abides within all people and things. Panentheism is not atheism, nor is it the notion that the sacred is somewhere "out there." Most atheism is a rejection of theism which usually celebrates divinity at the expense of the body and the senses. Matthew Fox writes, "I do believe that if the only option I was given by which to envision creation's relationship to divinity was theism, I would be an atheist too."[3] To paraphrase Fox, the "God" you don't believe in is the "God" that I don't believe in. Birther Of Images: Every mystic is an artist because the mystery is found and expressed through images. Images, not complete sentences uttered in linear fashion, most aptly convey what is happening in the inner world. The mystic thinks and feels poetically and values poets, or as James Joyce called them, "priests of the imagination." Silence: Mystics love silence and solitude. While the mystic may be extroverted and enjoy the company of others, they require silence. A left-brain culture, says Fox, is a culture ill-at-ease with silence because it is devoid of mysticism. The mysteries are not ubiquitous in the din of industrial civilization, but rather, in the silence. Nothingness and Darkness: The mystic knows that light is not found in light places, but in the darkness. They understand that they lived nine months in complete darkness before bursting forth into the light of birth. They have experienced firsthand the treasures that darkness holds, and they open to what it may ask of them next. Playfulness: Mystics enjoy fantasy and play. They do not repress their childlike spirit in order to appear mature or reasonable or spiritual. Humor is an essential nutrient for the mystic's wellbeing. Justice and Activism: The mystic is not an apathetic person who is oblivious to the world around them. Because they passionately crave the mysteries, they also crave justice and mercy for all beings. Many Christian mystics, such as St. Francis, Hiledgard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Hellen Keller, and others were also activists and pioneers of social justice movements. Prophetic: The mystic is a prophet-- a word with two distinct meanings. One role of a prophet is foretelling or the ability to see and forecast the future. Another role is forth-telling which is to speak truth to power, to say what is so, and to call out injustice. Being-With-Being: The mystic is committed to being present with other beings-- to fully listening to them and offering presence and acceptance even when nothing else can be done and when disagreement and division seem insurmountable. Cultivation Of The True Self: The mystic understands the difference between the false self or the human ego and the sacred or True Self. Their lives are committed to the painful journey of daily surrender of the false, egoic self to the Sacred Self. Universal Consciousness: The mystic may prefer one tradition over another, but they absolutely honor all traditions. They are committed to inclusivity and acceptance of all beings. Animals: Mystics love and protect animals. Because they honor their own animal bodies and their own animal natures, they befriend and work for the safety and protection of animals. A mystic will almost always have one or more animal companions or be in daily contact with animals in their natural habitat. Using the medical model, we could consider the above characteristics as "symptoms" of the mystical condition. To be a mystic in an industrially civilized culture is to be labeled as "eccentric," "irrational," "living with one's head in the clouds," or "dabbling in New Age nonsense." I find the characteristics offered by Matthew Fox invaluable because they underscore the reality that being a mystic has nothing to do with religion, dogma, or belief in a creed. Even if you have not been formally "diagnosed," you probably carry a number of mystical traits in your psyche. In fact, if you claim one or more of these traits, you may already be certifiably mystical. If you are diagnosed as a mystic no one will be able to identify a specific cause. Some may conclude that you are a product of a dysfunctional family or that you have been traumatized or that you have "lost your way." In fact, these are mystic-making situations because mystics do not normally arise out of comfort, affluence, "normality," or privilege. Sadly for some but happily for others, there is no cure for mysticism. The exception may be a tragic or traumatic experience that feels devastating to the mystic and causes them to forsake their mystical practices and become immersed in addictions or the daily drama of modern culture. These are capable of quashing the mystical impulse or misdirecting it into the false self and other-destructive sensibilities. Many people live contentedly with mysticism for decades, and if you have the condition, it is not recommended that you do anything differently going forward. People can live with mysticism, but only by surrendering to it daily. Resistance to your mystical impulses is contraindicated. Mysticism is a progressive condition, and if you continue your mystical practice, your mystical experiences are likely to increase. There are drugs that slow the progression such as compulsive busyness, refusal to change your living arrangements in order to accommodate reality, attachment to possessions, and attachments to outcomes. There is an upside to the condition, however. Mystics may have a psychological and spiritual advantage in navigating the collapse of industrial civilization and the destruction of ecosystems. In fact, theologian, Karl Rahner, reportedly said that "The time is fast approaching when one will either be a mystic or an unbeliever." A curious quote by Rahner which implies that belief and religious devotion are inadequate for these times. Bangladesh, Saturday, February 3, 2024 - Renowned philanthropist and former clothing manufacturing industry veteran, Chowdhury Remon, has taken a novel approach to continue supporting underprivileged children in the wake of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Having dedicated 15 years of his life to the clothing manufacturing industry in Bangladesh, Remon passionately contributed to education initiatives for over a decade by allocating a portion of his salary towards the Dear Eric: This is in response to the person who lost the love of her life unexpectedly and was not aware of his other romantic interests that were ongoing with other women (Gripped by Grief). This woman should definitely be seen by her gynecologist for possible exposures to STIs. Having worked in an OB/GYN office for 30 years, it was very common that women exposed to multiple partners sexually would have abnormal Pap smears and other sexually transmitted infections. Concerned Reader Dear Reader: This is good advice. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sexually active people with risk factors such as new partners, multiple partners or a partner who has an STI should be tested at least once a year. The letter writer was unknowingly in a relationship with someone with multiple partners, so shed be wise to seek out testing (free and low-cost options can be found at gettested.cdc.gov) and talk with her healthcare provider as soon as possible. Dear Eric: I just wanted to add to the conversation about Gripped with Grief, who found out their partner had multiple girlfriends after the partner died. They are experiencing complex, disenfranchised grief. They could benefit from reaching out to a grief counselor in their area. As a hospice social worker, I know that no amount of talking to friends or family, OR letting people know about her partners lifestyle, will take the place of a true grief counselor when one experiences this type of combined grief, betrayal and disenfranchisement of normal grief. Long Road to Healing Dear Healing: Absolutely. In addition to the testing suggested by a letter above, the letter writer should take the time to process the feelings that are coming with a professional or support group. Many state and local governments have resource pages for finding help. Additionally, there are searchable databases for groups and counselors on PsychologyToday.com. Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com. Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov has announced that the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the Command of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "Events in the Ground Forces have a direct impact on the situation at the front. That is why I support the need for the new commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi, to have a complete picture of the situation. To do this, the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," he wrote on Facebook. According to the minister, this will include an analysis of the organizational structure and powers; assessment of the effectiveness of management processes; verification of compliance with legislation. Based on the results of the audit, the Ministry of Defense will introduce reforms in the management system and personnel policy in the Ground Forces Command. It will optimize management processes; enhance the combat capability of our units with new approaches to training. "This is a step towards a more efficient and strong army," Umerov said. At least two new babies were born in the Portland area in the first hour of New Years Day, according to local hospitals. Kaiser Permanentes Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas announced that a baby boy was born at 12:13 a.m. The family is doing well and wishes to maintain their privacy at this time, Kaiser said in a statement. It was unclear whether the boy was the first Portland-area baby born in 2025. The first baby born at a Providence Health & Services hospital in Portland was born at 12:54 a.m. The baby boy, named Ryan Garcia, was born to parents Sugeyli Perez Silva and Cesar Garcia at Providence Portland Medical Center. A baby girl was born just minutes after midnight, at 12:09 a.m., at Providences hospital in Newberg. Caera Owen of Newberg welcomed Celine, who weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces. Providence said the girl was the health systems first newborn in Oregon. Oregon Health & Science University said the first baby born at OHSU was a baby girl at 4:30 a.m. Legacy Health said it hadnt collected that information from its hospitals. -- Kristine de Leon covers consumer health, retail, small business and data enterprise stories. Reach her at kdeleon@oregonian.com . A coral reef. Thats how Chris Valentin describes Yaquina Nursery, 10 miles east of Yachats in the Yachats River Valley. You walk through the front door and as the door opens, you can see a little bit, he said, describing his first visit to the nursery he and his wife now own. I saw this sea, that looked like a coral reef. The cactus are on one side and the succulents on the other. But it was hard for me to actually stop and pinpoint what I wanted to look at because it was so overwhelming. And its all cactuses and succulents. Chris and his wife and business partner, Renee Taylor Valentin, estimate they have 500,000 plants in their greenhouses and more than 500 varieties. Most of their business comes from sales to other nurseries around the state, but they are open year-round for people interested in seeing the collection or buying a few (or many) of the plants. Roy Foss started the nursery in Newport in 1963. He and his wife, Gerry, moved the business in 2005 to Yachats, where they narrowed their focused to succulents and cactus. They had been looking for a buyer for seven years when they met Renee and Chris in 2020, Renee said. The Fosses had offers for the land, but they wanted a buyer who would continue running the nursery, she said. Chris and Renee were in Eugene with dreams of living near the sea. From the very first conversation that Chris and I ever had together, we both agreed that it was a goal to live on the coast and to be closer to the ocean, Renee said. A friend told them about the nursery. When we walked into the greenhouse, it was absolutely just inspiring and incredible. I mean, you walk in, and you see those plants and its just mind boggling. Like, where do all of these come from? I didnt know that all of these different plants existed even, Renee said, describing their first visit. And we just really fell in love. We fell in love with the plants and the land, she said. They bought the nursery and the surrounding 31 acres in 2021. The main greenhouse, the one with plants for sale, is 200 feet long. Hundreds of thousands of 2- and 4-inch pots fill table after table. Its easy to get lost in the vastness, overwhelmed by the numbers. Chriss advice is to take your time, roam around until you find a plant to focus on. Theyre so intricate in so many ways. Some of them are just big, beautiful, you know, like a rosette, he said. But the other ones are so intricate, when you really start to look at them, especially some of the cactus. It just blows me away. Both are quick to say they arent trained horticulturists. They and their small staff have learned on the job. They cant name all 500 varieties of plants the nursery carries, and they dont always know the answer to the questions customers bring to the nursery. Its about being honest with the customer, Chris said. I think thats huge for people when they come and ask you a question and you say, I dont actually know that, he said. Our priority and our great joy is just stewarding the plants and living in this land and getting to, getting to work with these plants every day, Renee said. I mean, thats our office in there. And not many people get to spend all day on this gorgeous coral reef, she said. So they share what they know and what has worked for them. Its magical, Renee said. Spring and fall are the peak time for flowers, but even in winter some of the plants are in bloom these beautiful little plants that really seem to just smile and they smile throughout the winter, she said. That was the real motivating thing behind all of this. It really felt like this needs to continue to exist. It just brings joy in and of itself, Renee said. She hasnt been there to prove it, but Renees been told that Yaquina Nursery has more cactuses and more varieties of cactuses than plant museums in Arizona that specialize in them, she said. It isnt about the sale for Renee and Chris. We dont expect people to buy anything when they come here, she said. But the joy of interacting with the plants and the joy of being in this remote location and out here in these hills, in the coastal range, theres a real magic here. TIPS The Valentins offer these tips for what to consider when buying and caring for cactuses and succulents Overwatering. Its the No. 1 way people kill their succulents and cactus. Light. Getting enough light in a home can be a challenge. Plants change. The cute little plant you buy in a particular season will evolve over time. Transplanting. Many people kill the plant when transplanting different plants will have different requirements. Experiment. Be flexible. If a plant isnt doing well, try moving it to a different spot, or adjust the watering. IF YOU GO Yaquina Nursery, 9724 Yachats River Road, is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Monday except for holidays. Most 2-inch pots are $4.50 each or three for $12 while most 4-inch pots are $8 each or three for $20. Find more information at yaquinanurseryinyachats.com. Will Yurman, for The Oregonian/OregonLive The sad story of Rowan Shatzers drug overdose death is a clear indicator that access and funds to buy drugs make it easy to stay addicted. It also shows access to mental health treatment doesnt work unless the person is engaged and ready, (Mother asks for leniency for Tigard man who sold her son deadly dose of fentanyl: We do not seek revenge, Dec. 23). As a mental health practitioner, I can appreciate Shatzers parents wish to not seek revenge, but leniency will not make Sean Elsenbachs life whole. It does not restore his lack of moral consciousness or the ethical responsibility he had to not supply lethal drugs to his friend. With misguided compassion, we stop holding people accountable, sending a message to other dealers that they can keep going without risk. The root cause is far more complex than you can fix with leniency. I have cared for patients with serious trauma and unspeakable loss who remain caring and courageous - but who do not choose to sell lethal drugs. Elsenbach needs full mental health services within a prison setting that is firm, consistent, humane and long lasting. The boundaries imposed by incarceration replace earlier intra-family boundaries that were most likely not present. To give him less is to not respect the gravity of his repeated actions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassady Adams did the right thing. Delores Sullivan, Gearhart To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion. On day two of his term as Portlands mayor, Keith Wilson joined Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson to announce the locations for the 200 new shelter beds they pledged to open as early as next week. They selected two Salvation Army properties, one in Old Town and the other in North Portland. The Salvation Army will operate both shelters, using $750,000 paid in equal halves by the city and county governments. Peng Bai, who spent 31 years at Intel including seven years as a top vice president in Hillsboro will take over leadership of one of Chinas largest semiconductor manufacturers. Hua Hong Semiconductor disclosed in a notice to investors Wednesday that Bai is now the companys president on a three-year contract. His predecessor, Junjun Tang, remains chairman of Hua Hong. Based in Shanghai, Hua Hong is Chinas second-largest semiconductor foundry, primarily making chips based on older technologies. Foundries are the industrys term for businesses that contract to manufacture computer chips for other companies. According to Bais biography on a chip industry website, he is originally from Sichuan and joined Intel in 1991 after earning degrees in China, Romania and the United States. At Intel, Bai spent six years in a key role running logic technology development a period when the chipmaker suffered a series of technological setbacks. In 2021, Intel reassigned Bai to oversee its global supply chain and he left the company the following year. Bai, 62, had been CEO of another Chinese chip manufacturer, Rong Semiconductor, since 2022. Ties between U.S. semiconductor companies and Chinese technology businesses have become a source of growing concern to American politicians, and the U.S. government has imposed a number of restrictions governing the sale of semiconductor technology to China. China is investing billions of dollars in its own chip industry, hoping to make it less reliant on technology and equipment from the U.S. and Europe. -- Mike Rogoway covers Oregon technology and the state economy. Reach him at mrogoway@oregonian.com or 503-294-7699. Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe A 17-year-old teen from Texas was accused of poisoning and killing the competition show goat of her rival. Aubrey Vanlandingham, 17, is accused of using a drench gun to forcibly feed Willie, her classmate's show goat, toxic pesticide on October 23. She also allegedly took a video of the goat, which lived at her high school's barn in Cedar Park, and sent it to the owner. Surveillance footage of the incident showed the teen entering the barn at Vista Ridge High School, straddling the goat, and pushing the dredge gun into the animal's mouth three times. She left the barn after feeding the goat the pesticide but returned twice later that day to take photos and videos, according to the Austin-American Statesman. The goat died the next day in the arms of its owner, shaking and convulsing. A necropsy later confirmed that the animal died of organophosphate intoxication from phosmet, which is a toxic pesticide typically used to control external parasites in livestock or as an insecticide for fruit crops, CBS Austin reported. Why Did She Poison the Goat? Speaking to police officers on October 29, Vanlandingham confessed to poisoning her classmate's competition show goat because Willie's caretaker was a "cheater" and that she "does not like cheaters." She did not give further details on how she believed her classmate was cheating. Both she and her classmate appear to have been part of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) program, where students interested in agriculture are given opportunities to compete in related events to win awards and scholarships. In addition to confessing to the incident, Vanlandingham told police that it was not the first time she attempted to kill Willie. The 17-year-old said she had already tried to poison the goat three days earlier. Furthermore, investigators found that she had searched "how much bleach can kill an animal" and "poisoning pets, what you should know" on her phone, per PEOPLE, which obtained a copy of the arrest affidavit. What Are the Charges? Vanlandinghma was arrested and charged with cruelty to livestock animals, jail records showed. She has been released on a $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on January 15. The teen could face up to two years in prison and be fined up to $10,000. Rev. Dr. Jordan B. Cooper is a Lutheran pastor, adjunct professor of Systematic Theology, Executive Director of the popular Just & Sinner YouTube channel, and the President of the American Lutheran Theological Seminary (which holds to a doctrinally traditional Lutheranism, similar to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod). He has authored several books, as well as theological articles in a variety of publications. All my Bible citations are from RSV, unless otherwise indicated. Jordans words will be in blue. This is my 20th reply to Jordan (many more to come, because I want to interact with the best, most informed Protestant opponents). All of these respectful critiques can be found in the Replies to Jordan Cooper section at the top of my Lutheranism web page. Thus far, he hasnt responded to any of my critiques, for reasons that he explained on my Facebook page on 17 April 2024: I appreciate your thoughtful engagement with my material. I also appreciate not being called anti-Catholic, as I am not. Unfortunately, it is just a matter of time that I am unable to interact with the many lengthy pieces you have put together. With teaching, writing, running a publishing house, podcasting, working at a seminary, and doing campus ministry, I have to prioritize, which often means not doing things that would be very much worthwhile simply for lack of time. In an article sent to his readers on 1-2-25 regarding social media (I receive this, too), a further relevant explanation was made: As you may have noticed with my writing, podcasting, and YouTube content, I dont tend to address controversies. Further, those occasional times that I do, I merely use that controversy as a springboard to talk about something more universal. This has all been purposeful, . . . The mystical union will matter to Christians a century from now. Whatever current controversy Doug Wilson is involved in will not. I appreciate the explanations and the expressed principled resolve as to the stewardship of time, but I continue to think we could have some good and constructive and civil discussions. In the meantime, I will continue to try to write what Jordan himself regards as thoughtful and worthwhile responses because the issues we disagree on within the Body of Christ still remain, and Im committed to both defending the Catholic view as long as I continue to adhere to it (no end in sight!) and seeking and following truth as best I can, by Gods grace. But in the final analysis I think interaction and serious dialogue and interaction with serious critiques of our views are crucial and indispensable and not things to be regarded as a low priority or even unnecessary altogether. Both Jesus and Paul vigorously argued and defended their viewpoints and they are our models. ***** See Part I This is a reply to the latter two-thirds of Jordans video, John Henry Newman on Papal Infallibility (12-28-24). St. John Henry Cardinal Newmans words will be in green. 26:03 its not like Newmans the first one to ever talk about any of this [development of doctrine] and there are some arguments that there are some kind of precursors to Newman within the medieval period . . . and in the Bible itself and the Church fathers, as I documented last time. 27:41 when heresy arises we express things with clarity. We come up with new dogmatic categories in order to make things a bit more clear in one way or another. But thats not the same thing as as a development of a new dogma. Exactly, and this is Newmans and the Catholic view. What Protestants often call a new dogma is simply a highly developed version of the earlier more primitive expression, that contains the latter information in a kernel that includes the essential idea. The truly novel doctrinal inventions that are not developments at all are things like the two so-called pillars of the Protestant Revolt: sola fide (faith alone): which is found neither in Scripture nor in the Church fathers, and sola Scriptura: also absent from the Bible and the Church fathers, as I have demonstrated again and again in the greatest depth in my research. 27:53 I would say [that] the elements of the doctrine of justification through faith alone as Luther expressed it are all there in the church fathers; not in every Church father but all of the elements are there somewhere within the tradition of the church. And I would agree with what these two Protestant scholars (the first one being the foremost expert on the history of justification) assert: Whereas Augustine taught that the sinner is made righteous in justification, Melanchthon taught that he is counted as righteous or pronounced to be righteous. For Augustine, justifying righteousness is imparted; for Melanchthon, it is imputed in the sense of being declared or pronounced to be righteous. Melanchthon drew a sharp distinction between the event of being declared righteous and the process of being made righteous, designating the former justification and the latter sanctification or regeneration. For Augustine, these were simply different aspects of the same thing . . . The importance of this development lies in the fact that it marks a complete break with the teaching of the church up to that point. From the time of Augustine onwards, justification had always been understood to refer to both the event of being declared righteous and the process of being made righteous. . . . The Council of Trent . . . reaffirmed the views of Augustine on the nature of justification . . . the concept of forensic justification actually represents a development in Luthers thought . . . . Trent maintained the medieval tradition, stretching back to Augustine, which saw justification as comprising both an event and a process . . . (Alister McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction, 2nd edition, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1993, 108-109, 115) For Augustine, justification included both the beginnings of ones righteousness before God and its subsequent perfection the event and the process. What later became the Reformation concept of sanctification then is effectively subsumed under the aegis of justification. Although he believed that God initiated the salvation process, it is incorrect to say that Augustine held to the concept of forensic justification. This understanding of justification is a later development of the Reformation . . . Before Luther, the standard Augustinian position on justification stressed intrinsic justification. Intrinsic justification argues that the believer is made righteous by Gods grace, as compared to extrinsic justification, by which a sinner is forensically declared righteous (at best, a subterranean strain in pre-Reformation Christendom). With Luther the situation changed dramatically . . . [O]ne can be saved without believing that imputed righteousness (or forensic justification) is an essential part of the true gospel. Otherwise, few people were saved between the time of the apostle Paul and the Reformation, since scarcely anyone taught imputed righteousness (or forensic justification) during that period! . . . . . (Norman Geisler, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences, with Ralph E. MacKenzie, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1995, 502, 85, 222) *** Please Hit Subscribe! If you have received benefit from this or any of my other 5,000+ articles, please follow my blog by signing up (with your email address) on the sidebar to the right (you may have to scroll down a bit), above where there is an icon bar, Sign Me Up!: to receive notice when I post a new blog article. This is the equivalent of subscribing to a YouTube channel. My blog was rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT: endorsed by influential Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Actually, I partner with Kenny Burchard on the YouTube channel, Catholic Bible Highlights. Please subscribe there, too! Please also consider following me on Twitter / X and purchasing one or more of my 55 books. All of this helps me get more exposure, and (however little!) more income for my full-time apologetics work. Thanks so much and happy reading! *** 31:16 [Newman] speaks about the church as this living organism. This language is probably familiar to a lot of you. Its used a lot by Roman Catholics especially today I dont see it as much in, like, Robert Bellarmine [1542-1621] [or] older sources, but Newmans going to say, look any living organism, whether its a person [or] an animal, it is its going to have certain characteristics of life and some of those characteristics of a living thing are that living things grow; living things develop; living things adapt to their circumstances, and so just like a child is not the same as an adult even though they have the same identity the same person but their way of thinking is different . . . the way that their body looks and functions; aspects about their their mental and physical life didnt exist at one point and they do later. And so he says if the church is this living thing, its the the living organism the mystical Body of Christ. If all of this is true, then we should expect the same kind of development that we find within biological phenomena within the ecclesiastical community that is the Roman Catholic Church and so this this development of the church also includes a development of dogma. Matthew 13:31-32 (RSV) Another parable he put before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; [32] it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. * 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. [2] I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, [3] for you are still of the flesh. . . . * Ephesians 4:13-16 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; [14] so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. [15] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. Colossians 2:18-19 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, [19] and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. Various fathers then picked up these sorts of motifs. Hence, Anglican patristic scholar J. N. D. Kelly writes about St. Vincent of Lerins: He admits that it has been the business of councils to perfect and polish the traditional formulae, and even concepts, in which the great truths contained in the original deposit are expressed, thereby declaring not new doctrines, but old ones in new terms (non nova, sed nove). Secondly, however, he would seem to allow for an organic development of doctrine analogous to the growth of the human body from infancy to age. But this development, he is careful to explain, while real, must not result in the least alteration to the original significance of the doctrine concerned. (Early Christian Doctrines, San Francisco: Harper, revised 1978 edition, 50-51) St. Vincent stated, accordingly: The growth of religion in the soul must be analogous to the growth of the body, which, though in process of years it is developed and attains its full size, yet remains still the same. There is a wide diference between the flower of youth and the maturity of age; yet they who were once young are still the same now that they have become old, insomuch that though the stature and outward form of the individual are changed, yet his nature is one and the same, his person is one and the same. An infants limbs are small, a young mans large, yet the infant and the young man are the same. Men when full grown have the same number of joints that they had when children; and if there be any to which maturer age has given birth these were already present in embryo, so that nothing new is produced in them when old which was not already latent in them when children. This, then, is undoubtedly the true and legitimate rule of progress, this the established and most beautiful order of growth, that mature age ever develops in the man those parts and forms which the wisdom of the Creator had already framed beforehand in the infant. Whereas, if the human form were changed into some shape belonging to another kind, or at any rate, if the number of its limbs were increased or diminished, the result would be that the whole body would become either a wreck or a monster, or, at the least, would be impaired and enfeebled. * The Commonitorium [Notebooks, c. 434] [ In like manner, it behoves Christian doctrine to follow the same laws of progress, so as to be consolidated by years, enlarged by time, refined by age, and yet, withal, to continue uncorrupt and unadulterate, complete and perfect in all the measurement of its parts, and, so to speak, in all its proper members and senses, admitting no change, no waste of its distinctive property, no variation in its limits. (c. 434] [ link ], translated by C. A. Heurtley, ch. XXIII. On Development in Religious Knowledge, sections 55-56) 37:51 Newmans ideas really arise through the very specific debates that are going on in his day * To some minor extent this is true, as with any great thinker; however, the essential, central ideas in Newmanian development were already formulated 1400 years earlier by St. Vincent of Lerins. If we want the main influence on Newmans theory, thats where we have to go. And that doesnt fit in at all with the usual tired anti-Newman polemic, that tries to explain his developmental hypothesis by claiming that it sprung from 19th century Hegelian synthesis or Darwinian evolution, etc. (neither of which have the slightest resemblance to it). * 43:15 Newman acknowledges what is just the obvious reality that there was no such thing as papal supremacy in certainly the medieval sense within the early Again, it wasnt as fully developed as it was in the Middle Ages but it was essentially in place by the 4th century, as persecution died out. But Newman refers multiple times to papal supremacy in the patristic period, as I proved last time with copious examples. * 43:41 he essentially acknowledges that the Protestants are right * He did no such thing, as I also proved. The analogies that drove him to become a Catholic out of intellectual necessity and historical honesty, led him to the shocking realization that, analogously, Anglicanism was like Arianism or Monophysitism, whereas the Catholic Church had always been in the same orthodox position or place, in early times all the way to his time. Thats scarcely an argument that Protestants are right over against Catholicism. * 43:53 his system allows him to do it allows him to say well sure Rome does does have all sorts of dogma that wasnt present in the early church, but we dont need to defend it from the early church anymore because we have this notion of dogmatic development * This is the usual misguided caricature of his views, making out that they are ahistorical or historically revisionist. In reality, his views are densely, thoroughly, substantially historical. He would say that we would expect to find, and indeed do find, a small Catholic tree in the patristic period: primitive but essentially the same doctrines, over against finding a small Protestant tree in the same period (as if the fathers were more like Protestants than Catholics). What we universally see is Catholicism in kernel in the early centuries. So we dont get to evade historical analysis and the burden of showing that our views are more in line with the fathers than distinctive (i.e., innovative, novel) Protestant ones. Its the Protestant who in fact has a burden greater than they can bear, once serious examination of the fathers occurs. Thats why Newman famously stated that to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant. * 45:09 Rome continues to to argue for its positions and Newman certainly does from history and from Scripture. But ultimately the dogma doesnt depend on either of those things, and so theoretically you can kind of throw out Scripture you can throw out Tradition and say, okay, maybe Protestants have better arguments in both of those things but it doesnt really matter, because ultimately if the magisterium says something is true, then it is true because that is the instrument that God has chosen to use to to preserve the truths of both Scripture and Tradition and to interpret both Scripture and Tradition . . . . . . Newman really does come to exactly the same place that Manning does in that the magisterium becomes its own justification for itself, because both of them ultimately end up in the same place. Both of them ultimately end up saying that you really cant determine the dogma of the papacy by either history or Scripture and that it is ultimately the papacy or the magisterium that determines how those two things are to be understood. This is merely the silly boilerplate polemics that derive historically from the Anglican anti-Catholic George Salmon, whose logically- and fact-challenged pseudo-arguments I and many others have dismantled and eviscerated at great length. Its an exercise in caricature and refusal to seriously deal with the thing (Newmanian development) as it actually is. Both sides obviously believe things ultimately on faith, because thats what religion necessarily entails, by definition. Its not mere philosophy or historiography or even theology. Protestants exercise faith just as every sort of Christian does, and at some point it goes beyond what reason alone can prove (involving unproven axioms), so its absurd to claim that somehow Catholics ultimately exercise a blind faith disconnected from Scripture and history altogether in a way fundamentally different from what Protestants do, as if we are anti-reason and anti-evidence. Its simply untrue as some sort of grand, sweeping description of how Catholics think and go about things. If anything, its more often that various sorts of Protestants are the ones who downgrade reason and apologetics. 47:01 if youve submitted to the magisterium to have that kind of interpretive authority, that is your authority, so youre not going to contradict the magisterium with Scripture or Tradition, so therefore that does become really your kind of sole primary authority. Everything really does go back to that. What this neglects to take into account is that Protestantism in practice also has theological norms and doctrines that every Protestant must adhere to. They all have their very strong traditions, whether they acknowledge it or not, or non-optional beliefs that they must hold. For the Lutheran its the Book of Concord, with their roots in (which is different from being identical to) the teachings of Luther and his successor Melanchthon. For Calvinists it is various creeds and confessions that they bind themselves to, and Calvins Institutes. I always give the example of a supposed Calvinist going to a traditional, conservative Calvinist / Reformed church and its elders and pastors and deliberately rejecting all five points of TULIP. Will that be accepted? Of course it wont be, and such a person will be thrown out of the denomination. This happened on a wide-scale basis in history such as, for example, after the Synod of Dort. The same accusation could be leveled: someone dared to dissent from the required belief-system. Certain things werent allowed to be believed. Do we then have warrant to claim that Calvinists and Lutherans dont attempt to produce evidences for their theological systems from Scripture and Church history? No! Of course they do, and it would be silly and absurd to claim otherwise. Yet Jordan makes out that this is the case in Catholicism, simply because we have required beliefs, just as every Protestant denomination does. It doesnt follow that we ignore Scripture and Church history as irrelevant. One might argue, of course, that we mistakenly interpret Scripture and/or the teaching of the fathers in particular matters, but one cant claim that we dont do it at all, and that all that matters is blindly believing in whatever the Church declares (sola ecclesia, as the caricature is sometimes called). Jordan even noted in his video the virulent anti-Catholic James Whites use of this derogatory term. We clearly teach that Church, Scripture and tradition are in harmony with each other: a three-legged stool. Thats simply not sola ecclesia. The very analogy of the three-legged stool shows this, since if any of the three legs are removed, the stool cant stand up. A stool representing sola ecclesia wouldnt have three legs, but rather, one huge leg that looks like a tree stump. On the other hand, sola Scriptura is Protestantisms own term for its own rule of faith, not our attempted caricature of it (see my treatment of its definition). Protestants actually believe that, whereas we do not teach sola ecclesia. One doesnt advance any discussion by refusing to accurately accept and acknowledge what ones opponent teaches about his or her own belief system. The first thing one learns in a middle school debate team is to understand the opponents view at least as well, if not better, than the opponent does. Since Jordan has miserably failed in that respect, his argument has no traction or effect. Its a pyrrhic victory and is directed against a straw man rather than Newmans actual theory and how he analyzes history and theology in applying it (and how the Catholic Church views things as well). The Protestant will (in an illusory sense) win the debate every time if what they war against is a huge caricature and miscomprehension of what Catholic teaching is. That is far too often what occurs, which in turn simply reveals how very weak the overall case of Protestantism over against Catholicism is. If it were so strong and superior to our view, then it wouldnt have to desperately descend into caricature and distortion as it proceeds. See Part I * If you want to know what a trip is going to be like, you have to know where youre starting from. A trip to Chicago that begins in New York will look very different from one that begins in Dallas. The same is true when doing divination for a long-term process like a Tarot reading for an entire year. You have to know where youre starting from. Or in my case, you have to accept where youre starting from. If 2024 was a trip to Chicago, I acted like I was starting in Dallas when I was really starting in Mexico City. Or maybe it was Caracas. Some days I think it was Tartarus. Ive talked a lot recently about how difficult last year was. It is my intent that this will be the last time I bring that up. But 2024 ended well. The core message of last years reading (the core of this reading is highly positive. But positive doesnt mean easy) was dead-on right. What I failed to realize is that the circumstances that caused so many problems for me last year were already there when I did last years reading. I made good progress in 2024. But I was starting in a bad place, and then things went down way down before they started getting better. If I had acknowledged where I was starting from and the general trend at the time, I would have been better prepared for the difficult times in the first half of the year. On the bright side, the core message of last years reading gave me the confidence that things would get better in months, not in years. And they did. So now lets move on to our Divination for 2025. As it is every year, the question for this reading is what does the new year hold for me and mine? The closer you are to me, the more this reading applies to you. If you do ritual with me in my back yard, its very relevant to you. If you follow a Pagan polytheist path, it applies a fair amount. If youre a casual blog reader, less so. You must decide how much weight to give this reading in your planning for the coming year. This year Im going back to the Robin Wood Tarot. Robin Wood was my first deck, and part of embracing my witchcraft is beginning again at the beginning (for some things, anyway). Plus Ive had it for over 30 years and it still speaks to me better than any other deck, especially for big questions like this. Im using the Celtic Cross spread because its the best Ive found for broad readings such as this. 2025 will be a year of moving on. Your victories, your heartbreaks, your grand narratives: theyre in the past. They may have been meaningful and helpful at one time but they no longer serve you, your goals, your mission, and your community. Its time to move on its time to create something new. At The Heart of the Matter is the King of Wands. In most decks, this king is seated. Robin Wood drew him standing, to show that hes a man of action as well as inspiration. Inspired action is at the core of 2025. If you take nothing else from this reading, remember this. Crossing it for Good or for Ill is the 3 of Swords the heartbreak card. Combine this with The Tower and the 6 of Wands and its absolutely clear that its time to leave both the good and bad of the recent past behind. Tower Time is still with us, but by now either weve absorbed that imagery and its message into our model of the world or were never going to get it. 2015 isnt coming back, and what we build in future for ourselves and for the wider world is going to look very different. All the 10s are cards of completion. The 10 of Cups in the What You Seek position speaks to me not just of the desire for a happy family (in the broader chosen family sense of the term) but also of the fact that Im in the home stretch of my professional career. Completing that in the coming years (not this year, but hopefully not too many years afterward) opens the door to becoming the full-time Druid and witch Ive always wanted to be. What this card means for you will likely be something different the point is to know what completion means for you and to stay focused on it. The Knight of Swords is in the What is Coming position hes charging off into whatever comes next. Knights tend to scare me theyre impulsive and rush off without proper planning and safety precautions. But thats whats coming, so we best figure out how to deal with it. Robin Wood kept the Judgement name for Major Arcana #20, but she drew it as a phoenix this is a card of rebirth. Its followed by The Magician and all that he brings. Her keyword for this card is creativity add that to the inspiration of the King of Wands and you get another clear message of moving on. The deliberate, planned, and scripted magic illustrated in this card shows the how keep working your magic, keep creating change in accordance with your will. Thats your will, not the will of anyone else, especially not the will of some third-rate politician. The 9 of Wands tells us that 2025 will be difficult. You didnt need me to tell you that, and I didnt need Tarot to figure it out. Remember to rest. If I learned nothing else in 2024 its that theres no substitute for proper sleep. The 2 of Wands in the Final Outcome position says that the overall year will be positive, but that it will not be complete. The person in the 2 of Wands is looking at the people in the 10 of Cups. What he wants most what I want, what you want, what we all want wont be completely manifest in 2025. But because of the work we do in this year, it will be on its way by year-end. Given what we face in 2025, this is about as positive a reading as I could hope for. This is a year of moving on. If you dont know where you want to go, make figuring that out your first priority. If you dont choose a direction someone else will choose for you, and they likely do not have your best interests at heart. Its time to leave the past behind, both the good and the bad. Move on. Use your magic, remember to rest, and keep your eyes on your goal. Want to learn to read Tarot? I have an online, on-demand course in Tarot For Divination. You can take it any time. Details are in this blog post and in this video. It seems like every new laptop lately is a Windows Copilot+ PC. With Intels Lunar Lake and AMDs Ryzen AI 300 CPUs, AI-infused Copilot+ PCs have finally expanded into traditional x86 laptop territory. They arent limited to just Arm-powered laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite hardware anymore. Thats good news for everyone. Along with speedy neural processing units (NPU) that are capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), Copilot+ PCs must have at least 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If thats the new baseline for Windows PCs, thats awesome. It will benefit you even if you dont care about AI. So, your next laptop might just be a Copilot+ PC. But if you ask me, Copilot+ PCs still leave a lot to be desired. While those min specs are great, theres more to a great laptop experience than hardware. If Microsoft wants people to truly care about Copilot+ PCs, there are some serious improvements that need to happen sooner than later. Windows needs to integrate AI better Chris Hoffman / IDG Copilot+ PCs should feel more revolutionary than they currently do. At launch, we got a collection of small little features in apps like Paint and Photos, some webcam effects, and a few other goodies. Its just not a transformative AI experience the way those Copilot+ PC ads promised. When I hear about transformative AI integration in Windows, I imagine Windows rewriting text in any application, or summarizing anything thats on the screen, or noticing that Im performing a repetitive task and offering to automate it for me. What if Windows AI truly understood what you were doing on your PC and could help you get those things done? That would be interesting, but it isnt happening on Copilot+ PCs. Privacy and choice need to be a priority Microsofts Windows Recall feature was supposed to be the impressive new thing that sold everyone on the power of AI PCs, and it was the centerpiece of Microsofts original Copilot+ PC announcement back in May 2024. Recall takes screenshots of your PC activity every five seconds, then lets you search through it all using plain-language AI queries. Of course, it was immediately controversial. While Microsoft insisted it was private and secure, there was severe backlash over privacy concerns so severe, in fact, that the company backed down, pulled the feature, and promised to make changes to address criticism. As we reach the end of 2024, Recall continues to see delay after delay. For people to trust Copilot+ PCs, privacy, control, and user choice needs to be at the forefront. Recall was actually designed in a more private way than the controversy implied for example, those snapshots are stored entirely on your computer and nothing is ever shared with Microsoft. But concerns are still concerns, and its clear that Microsoft didnt take those concerns seriously when originally designing Recall. Future Copilot+ PC features need to be designed in a way that garners user trust from day one, without repeated delays while the company scrambles to rework features after the fact. Its just a bad look. Copilot needs to work offline (somehow) Chris Hoffman / IDG The name Copilot+ PC implies that youll be able to do more with Microsofts Copilot AI chatbot assistant on such PCs. Unfortunately, that isnt true at all. While these PCs do have a Copilot key on the keyboard, that key also exists on many non-Copilot+ PCs, too. You dont actually get any bonus Copilot features. Want Copilot AI features in Microsoft Word and other Office apps? You wont get it with a Copilot+ PC. Instead, you need to shell out for a Copilot Pro subscription. Not the clearest naming scheme! To deliver on the promise of the name, Microsoft should make Copilot work offline in some form, perhaps on Copilot+ PCs to provide speedy AI answers even without an internet connection and without sending any data to Microsoft, which would be a big boon for businesses that want to maintain control over internal data. Ideally, Copilot should still be able to access Microsofts cloud servers for more information when necessary. But all of this really just points to an even bigger problem: Copilot itself might need a big rethink. In my experience, the new Copilot is more focused on friendly chatter than real productivity. I dont want my laptop to be my friend I want it to be a productivity tool! AI image features need to work offline, too The generative image features on Copilot+ PCs are a little sad. For example, Cocreator in Paint can upgrade something you draw, and you can also generate images in Photos. But thats it? On a Copilot+ PC, these features use the systems NPU to perform AI image generation. But they require you sign in with a Microsoft account, and they send your generated image to Microsofts servers for safety checks before showing them to you. In other words, you have to be connected to the internet they dont work offline. Whats the point of using the systems NPU to do image generation locally if it doesnt work offline, requires a Microsoft account, and sends the image to Microsofts servers? You might as well just use cloud-based AI image solutions that do all the work on a cloud server somewhere. Image generation models need to catch up Chris Hoffman / IDG The argument for using cloud-based AI image tools is especially strong because the image generation models on Copilot+ PCs just arent great. Yes, they technically work but theyre far behind the latest AI image generation models you can find elsewhere. Cloud-powered models like OpenAIs DALL-E 3, which is used by Copilot and Microsoft Designer, generate much higher-quality images. Copilot+ PCs need to be more competitive with the latest cloud-powered AI image models that can be used on any device, even phones. Otherwise, whats the point? AI features should support NPUs and GPUs Gaming PCs are being left out of the Copilot+ PC push. Thats a shame because a powerful GPU isnt just for gaming its also the best way to run local AI models with the fastest possible performance. Indeed, while NPUs are getting all the hype, GPUs are still the fastest way to run many local AI applications that do the work on your own PC. NPUs are useful for AI tasks because they provide better performance than a CPU and less energy usage than a GPU. And with Copilot+ PCs being all about long battery life and power efficiency, its clear why NPUs are in the spotlight. But what about when battery life and power efficiency arent so important? GPUs are still the best for that, and that means gaming laptops shouldnt be overlooked for AI tasks. When designing Copilot+ PCs and Windows AI features, Microsoft has ignored GPUs if your computer doesnt have an NPU, it simply cant use those AI features. Thats a mistake. Desktop PCs and gaming laptops should also be Copilot+ PCs Copilot+ PCs are currently limited to thin-and-light laptops. Do you have a desktop? Too bad. It cant yet be a Copilot+ PC. Do you want a gaming laptop with a powerful CPU like Intels Raptor Lake refresh? Also too bad. That cant be a Copilot+ PC either. Qualcomms Snapdragon X Elite hardware is only for laptops, and the company canceled its planned Snapdragon mini PC. Intels Arrow Lake Core Ultra desktop chips include an NPU thats too slow for Copilot+ PC features, and AMDs Ryzen 9000 desktop CPUs dont have an NPU at all. Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm need to release processors for other form factors, not just the thin-and-light laptops that are in vogue. Of course, this will likely happen in time: Qualcomm has said it plans to release its Snapdragon X processors for PC desktops, and Intel and AMD will surely bring faster NPUs to desktops in the future, too. Apps need to use that Copilot runtime Microsofts Copilot+ PC specification isnt just about getting new AI features built into Windows. Its about establishing an entirely new type of app that requires AI-related hardware and a minimum hardware level for developers to target. When Microsoft first announced Copilot+ PCs, it also announced the Windows Copilot Runtime, which is a collection of AI models that are built directly into Windows. Windows applications can take advantage of these AI models but only if youre on a qualified Copilot+ PC. Some companies have told me about how their Windows applications can take advantage of NPUs for AI tasks, but Ive yet to hear about a single application that uses the Windows Copilot Runtime for AI. If the industry wants to sell Copilot+ PCs for their unique features, Windows app devs will need to ship apps that take advantage of that Copilot Runtime. Thats a tall order, though. Most AI applications are being built in a cross-platform way using cloud-based AI processing so they can run on any platform, whether a Windows PC or a Chromebook or an Android phone. Microsoft will have to convince app developers to build AI features that work only on a certain subset of Windows 11 PCs and without proper incentives, its unlikely for any to take them up on that. Bonus: The prices need to come down IDG One final but obvious point: Copilot+ PCs need to come down in price to achieve widespread adoption and they do need to achieve widespread adoption if app developers are going to take them seriously enough to develop specialized software for them. If Copilot+ PCs stay as high-end niche products used only by PC enthusiasts, then theyre going to be easy to ignore. They wont get the software they need to be interesting, and Microsoft wont be moved to release interesting Windows features that only a few can use. Right now, were nearing the end of 2024 and its still hard to get a Copilot+ PC for much less than $1,000. You may be able to save a couple hundred bucks if you catch a Qualcomm Snapdragon X laptop on sale, otherwise youre out of luck. Thats no surprise, though, as those laptops just came out (and Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Ryzen AI 300-powered laptops just started to trickle out at the end of 2024). Were going to need to see the price come way down in the future so that people will happily buy Copilot+ PCs instead of getting last years laptops at half the price. A premium pricing strategy is a good way for hardware manufacturers to make money on their hardware, but a bad way to build an application platform. Fortunately, weve seen some first moves on this, like Qualcomm talking about a cheaper Snapdragon X Plus chip thatll pave the way for $700 Copilot+ laptops. And, of course, if prices do drop, thatll be good for everyone. Whether the AI features are useful or not, I look forward to more affordable laptops with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as the minimum! Photo: https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentalofUkraine An oil slick of about 10 square kilometers has been recorded in the waters near the entrance to the Kerch Strait after the accident of two Russian tankers, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Svitlana Hrynchuk said. "On December 31, the Sentinel-1 satellite received a picture of the area near the Kerch Strait. In the waters near the entrance to the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea, in the area of the settlement of Volna (Krasnodar Krai, Russia), a spot characteristic of oil pollution was recorded, with an area of approximately 10 square kilometers. An additional spot with an area of about three square kilometers was discovered at a distance of 28-30 kilometers south of Cape Opuk. A significant amount of fuel oil reached the southern coast of Crimea," the ministry said in the Telegram channel, citing its minister. According to Hrynchuk, there is currently information about injured birds in the cities of Koktebel, Alushta, Hurzuf and in the Anapa area. On December 15, two Russian tankers, Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239, were reported sinking in the Kerch Strait. There were 13 and 14 people on board the tankers, respectively. Rescuers evacuated 13 crew members of Volgoneft 212, but one of them died. The tankers were transporting fuel oil. An oil spill was also recorded in the sea. On December 17, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Hrynchuk said the preliminary damage as a result of the wreck of two tankers in the Kerch Strait could reach $14 billion. It might be cringeworthy to be an unpaid cheerleader for an electronics company, but as a PC nerd, even I cant deny the appeal of classic electronics framed and presented like pieces of art. Throw in a bit of autographed scarcity and it becomes irresistible. Thats the idea behind Nvidias newest promotion, wherein CEO Jensen Huang will sign framed versions of the companys classic graphics cards. So sayeth a pre-CES tweet from the official GeForce promotional account, showing off the first giveaway. The framed GeForce 256 from 1999 the worlds first GPU bears Huangs John Hancock on the backing. Its artistic and intrinsic value is surely debatable, as is that claim of being the first, but owning a piece of PC gaming history signed by one of the richest people on the planet has to count for a whole lot of bragging rights, at the very least. Nvidia will give away this and four other signed-and-framed cards as part of this promotion, though we dont know which models those following cards will be. Id bet dollars to donuts that the 8800 GTX from 2006 will make an appearance as one of them. It might not be as powerful as the upcoming GeForce RTX 50 series, but it still looms large in the memory of PC gamers even two decades later. If you want to throw your hat in the ring, you can reply to the original tweet with #GeForceGreats to enter. The Colonial Park Mall is open once again. After being forced to close for several days due to a water main leak, the mall, located on the 4600 block of Jonestown Road in Lower Paxton Township, reopened this week. Officials posted on Monday on the malls Facebook page that the mall would be open for business on that day from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. A representative at the Zoomania pet store in the mall confirmed that the mall was open to the public today. The mall shut down on Dec. 28 due to what it said was a water main leak. It stayed closed through Monday, Dec. 30. This was the second instance of the same infrastructure problem this year; the mall also closed in March of last year due to a water main break. The mall was sold last September to a newly formed LLC connected to a Massachusetts-based realtor. It was closed for several days soon afterward because of storm damage that downed trees and flooded a nearby apartment complex. An actor known for his roles in such popular series as Seinfeld and General Hospital has died. John Capodice passed away on Monday at the age of 83. Variety reports that the news of Capodices death was confirmed on the website for Pizzi Funeral Home in Northvale, N.J. John was a US Army Veteran from 1964 to 1966 serving in Korea, the website reads. John appeared on stage, television and in many films. He was an accomplished actor known for his appearances in Ace Ventura, Wall Street, Seinfeld, [and] Ellen, to name just a few. He was also a proud member of the Blauvelt Sons of Italy Rockland Lodge 2176. The Hollywood Reporter continues to report how Capodice who hailed from Chicago, Ill. was also known for two iconic commercial appearances: One for Polly-O String Cheese in which he plays a perplexed pizzeria employee, and the other for giving unsolicited medical advice during a Dimetapp cold medicine ad. I had the pleasure of meeting [John] many times over the years namely cheering his grandsons on at many a swim meet, having a great time eating out with his family where you could tell he was regaling you all with some fabulous story, and countless other times, reads one comment on the website. I could tell how much he loved all of you, and how much you all love him. I did not know until now why he looked so very familiar, he is Aguardo from Ace Ventura! I am so sorry for your loss may your living memories of him bring you peace, comfort, and strength. The funeral home website states that a funeral will be held for Capodice this Sunday, Jan. 12. No cause of death has been given as of the publishing of this report. By TY ONEIL and ANITA SNOW, Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) Firework mortars and camp fuel canisters were found stuffed into the back of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside President-elect Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel early Wednesday, killing a suspect inside the vehicle and sparking an intense investigation into possible terrorism. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and Clark County Fire Department officials said that a person died inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck and seven people nearby suffered minor injuries. By late Wednesday afternoon, authorities were still working to get the body out of the vehicle and start processing the evidence inside. President Joe Biden was briefed on the explosion. Our number one goal is to ensure that we have the proper identification of the subject involved in this incident, said Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBIs Las Vegas office, Following that, our second objective is to determine whether this was an act of terrorism or not. Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, but are not releasing the name until investigators determine if it is the same person who died. A Turo spokesperson did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. McMahill said video captured at Telsa charging stations provided by CEO Elon Musk helped authorities track the vehicles journey, arriving in Las Vegas about 7:30 AM. then driving about an hour later into the valet area of the Trump International Hotel, where it sat 15 to 20 seconds before the explosion occurred. Video presented at an afternoon news conference showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, cannisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides. Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. Musk said in an earlier post on the platform that his entire senior term was investigating the explosion, adding, Weve never seen anything like this. Musk has recently become a member of Trumps inner circle and attended a New Years Eve party at the Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that was not attended by the president elect. This is a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and its the Trump Tower, McMahill said when reporters asked about possible political connections. So theres obviously things to be concerned about and its something we continue to look at. The truck explosion came hours after a driver rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans' famed French Quarter early on New Years Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack and police believe the driver was not acting alone. We are absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened in New Orleans as well as other attacks that have been occurring around the world, said Sheriff McMahill. We arent ruling anything out. In Las Vegas, witness Ana Bruce, visiting from Brazil, said she heard three explosions. The first one where we saw the fire, the second one, I guess, was the battery or something like that, and the third was the big one that smoked the entire area and was the moment when everyone was told to evacuate and stay away, Bruce said. Her travel companion, Alcides Antunes, showed video he took of flames lapping the sides of the silver-colored vehicle. The 64-story hotel is just off the Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall. Eric Trump, a son of the president-elect and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted about the fire on the social media platform X. He praised the fire department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism. Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. Snow reported from Phoenix. By Dave Lieber, The Dallas Morning News (TNS) DALLAS One of the biggest threats to the United States Postal Service is not the ever-growing cost of stamps, long lines at the post office or even delayed mail. The biggest threats to USPS may be the mail handlers themselves. Auditors found that a tiny percentage of them steal. And they steal a lot, according to a stunning federal investigation of a dozen mail sorting facilities across the U.S. In mid-December, federal prosecutors charged two postal workers with stealing more than $1 million in business checks. The two worked at postal facilities in Virginia and North Carolina. But thats not the whole mailbag on the matter. In a stunning finding by the USPS Office of Inspector General, I.G. Tammy L. Hull writes that criminal organizations are targeting, recruiting and colluding with postal employees to move narcotics through the postal network and to steal checks both personal and government-issued checks credit cards and other valuables from the mail. Shocking to everyone Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, told Norfolk TV news station WTKR that postal workers arent getting a job because they want to deliver the mail or they want to sort mail. Theyre getting a job to steal mail. He added, Criminal organizations are recruiting postal workers to infiltrate the postal service. That should be shocking to everyone. USPS spokesperson David Walton told The Watchdog, We have no additional comment aside from management response to the investigation. The auditors suggested a series of improvements including more training of employees, stronger national policy banning personal items from inside the facilities and updating some 18,619 cameras in plants throughout the nation. Many of them no longer work. How do they steal? Its not that hard when you bring bags, backpacks, coats and jackets onto the plant floor. Mail can be transferred from a box to a jacket. With poor training the risk of getting caught is small. A Milwaukee mail clerk under surveillance looked in trays for greeting cards that contained gift cards. The clerk moved them to another tray during their shift, and then placed all the mail in a backpack. The clerk was fired, prosecuted and found guilty, the report said. The clerk was given two years probation and ordered to pay $1,600. In St. Louis, a mail handler stole 55 of 150 packages out of a truck. The mail handlers helped each other as lookouts while stolen items were stashed in their jackets and backpacks. Seven workers either resigned or were fired. One was sentenced to three months in a federal prison. Solutions are not as easy as they sound. Most facilities dont provide lockers for workers. Plus, workers go in and out to get mail out of trucks. They need their jackets on cold days. In the know If you suspect your mail was stolen contact the postal inspector at 877-876-2455. The website is www.uspsoig.gov/. File a complaint at your local post office. Sign up for Informed Delivery. This free service sends you an email early each morning showing photographs of each piece of mail to be delivered that day. Its always safer to mail your items inside the post office, instead of the blue collection boxes. If you havent already, consider paying your bills through online banking rather than mailed checks. Police are asking for the publics help in finding two men who they say are connected to the fatal Christmas Eve shooting at a York County Sheetz. Tivory Bartlett, 23, of Douglassville, died Dec. 24 from multiple gunshot wounds after a 5:12 p.m. shooting outside the convenience store in the parking lot at the 4300 Block of North George Street in East Manchester Township. At the scene, York County Regional police found Bartlett inside a vehicle with gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene after life-saving measures were taken, police said. Officers believe there were multiple assailants who targeted Bartlett. However, police did not elaborate on the relationship Bartlett may have had to the shooter or shooters. Police are looking to question two men in connection with the shooting. Tajai Markeise Robert Scott, 24, of Philadelphia, and Ajanii Lemar Barnes, 19, of York County, are two individuals of interest in the shooting, police said. Police said Scott is about 5 feet, 10 inches, weighs 150 pounds, has brown eyes and black hair. Barnes stands 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighs 150 pounds, has brown eyes, and black hair. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the men should contact your local police department or York County Regional police at 717-741-1259. Tips can be submitted through Crimewatch. Lancaster police are investigating a shots fired call in the area of East Chestnut and North Plum streets. Police were dispatched to the scene at 4:07 p.m. Wednesday after numerous reports of gunfire from residents and other witnesses in the area. Sgt. Austin Krause said that based on preliminary investigation police dont believe anyone was injured in the incident. People jog by a sign celebrating the 200-year anniversary of the Lachine Canal in Montreal, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. Work on the canal began in 1821 and officially opened in 1825. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has refuted the UN conclusions on amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On the protection of the constitutional order in the sphere of religious organizations" as such that distort reality. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has reviewed the 41st periodic report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, released on December 31, 2024. We reject the UN conclusions on amendments to the Law of Ukraine On the protection of the constitutional order in the sphere of activities of religious organizations as such that distort reality," the ministry said in a comment. The Foreign Ministry stressed that the law mentioned in the report does not provide for a ban on any of the existing churches in Ukraine. "It only prevents the subordination of religious organizations in Ukraine to the governing centers that are located in the country that has carried out or is carrying out armed aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupied part of its territory, as well as religious organizations that support armed aggression against Ukraine," the comment says. The ministry also reminded the UN that Russia systematically uses religion as a weapon in the aggressive war against Ukraine. Ukraine stressed that in this context, the Ukrainian state is obliged to protect its citizens from the destructive influence of the aggressor state, in particular through the use of religious organizations that are "merged with the state in the Russian Federation and have explicitly declared their goal to destroy Ukrainian statehood, culture, and identity." "We remind the UN that it is Russia that, during its war of aggression, commits numerous crimes against religious freedoms, including, in particular, the premeditated murders of believers and religious figures, the destruction of religious buildings and holy sites throughout Ukraine, and the persecution of religious communities not belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine," the Foreign Ministry stressed. The ministry also expects that in its reports the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission will continue to provide objective assessments of the real situation with religious freedom in Ukraine and will continue to record Russian crimes against Ukrainian believers, religious communities and leaders, and church property. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. Azerbaijans Ministry of Foreign Affairs has extended its condolences to Montenegro following a tragic incident in the city of Cetinje, Trend reports. In a statement shared on social media, the Ministry expressed its sorrow over the deadly attack: We are deeply saddened by the tragic attack in Cetinje, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wish a swift recovery to the injured. The mass shooting in Cetinje claimed 12 lives and left four others injured. In response, Montenegros government has declared three days of national mourning and canceled all events scheduled for the start of the new year. This is the second mass shooting to occur in Cetinje in the past two and a half years. A similar incident on August 13, 2022, left 10 people dead and six injured. We Are China 136th Rose Parade held in U.S. Ecns.cn) 16:18, January 02, 2025 A float with two pandas atop a wooded forest travels down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, the United States, Jan 1, 2025. (China News Service/Zhang Shuo) Thousands of spectators lined Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena to witness the 136th Rose Parade on New Year's Day. The theme of this year's parade, "Best Day Ever!" was brought to life with every float and band along the 5.5-mile route. A float moves along Colorado Boulevard during the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, the United States, Jan 1, 2025. (China News Service/Zhang Shuo) A float moves along Colorado Boulevard during the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, the United States, Jan 1, 2025. (China News Service/Zhang Shuo) A float moves along Colorado Boulevard during the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, the United States, Jan 1, 2025. (China News Service/Zhang Shuo) A float moves along Colorado Boulevard during the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, the United States, Jan 1, 2025. (China News Service/Zhang Shuo) A float moves along Colorado Boulevard during the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, the United States, Jan 1, 2025. (China News Service/Zhang Shuo) A float moves along Colorado Boulevard during the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, the United States, Jan 1, 2025. (China News Service/Zhang Shuo) (Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing) BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov has sent a letter of condolences to Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic in connection with the armed attack in the city of Cetinje, Trend reports. Ali Asadov said he was saddened by the news of numerous casualties and injuries as a result of the incident, expressed deep condolences to the families and relatives of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured. To note, a mass murder occurred in Cetinje, Montenegro, killing 12 people and injuring 4. The government declared three days of mourning in connection with the mass murder. All events planned for the beginning of the new year in the country have been cancelled. This is the second mass murder committed in Cetinje in the last two and a half years. The incident, which took place on August 13, 2022, left 10 people dead, 6 injured and an armed man killed in a shootout with the police. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. High 74F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds from time to time. Low 57F. Winds light and variable. BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has condemned the attack that killed and injured dozens in New Orleans, United States, the ministry wrote on its X page, Trend reports. "We strongly condemn the heinous car-ramming attack that killed and injured dozens in New Orleans, United States. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. We unequivocally denounce all acts, methods and practices of terrorism, in all their forms and manifestations," the publication said. At least 10 people were killed and more than 35 injured when a driver plowed his car into a crowd in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 1. The Kano State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it arrested 1,345 suspects and seized 8.430.239 kg of illicit substances in 2024. The state commander, Abubakar Idris-Ahmad, made this known on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano. He said that the suspects arrested comprised 1,301 males and 44 females. Mr Idris-Ahmad said the illicit substances seized included hemp, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, codeine, and over five million tablets of tramadol. He said the command also secured 128 convictions for various drug-related offences. In a bid to enhance operational effectiveness, we initiated Operation Hana Maye (Operation Stop Drug Abuse), aimed at combating drug abuse and fostering a safer environment for the citizens of Kano State. We successfully dismantled over 20 drug joints in notorious areas across the state. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later These drug dens are located in Filin Idi, Dan Agundi, Sani Abacha Youth Center, and Sani Abacha Stadium, Idris-Ahmad said According to him, the agency conducted 1,114 drug integrity tests for aspiring candidates for council elections, to promote responsible leadership and good governance. We successfully conducted 207 anti-drug campaigns and 202 visa clearance tests to prevent the trafficking of illicit drugs and protect the countrys reputation, Mr Idris-Ahmad said. He also said that 101 drug addicts were counselled and rehabilitated through the agencys rehabilitation programme, which has helped the individuals to be reintegrated into society. Mr Idris-Ahmad commended the Chairman of the NDLEA, Mohammed Buba-Marwa, for his sustained support and encouragement that contributed to the agencys achievements. He also expressed gratitude to the Kano State Government, sister security agencies, traditional institutions and other stakeholders for their unrelenting support in the ongoing fight against drug abuse. He lauded the officers and men of the command for their tireless efforts, commitment, and professionalism in discharging their duties. The command will continue its efforts, leveraging intelligence-driven operations and community partnerships to dismantle drug trafficking networks and promote a safer, healthier society for all, the commander assured. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Famous American social media influencer, Waoh Vicky, who gained notoriety in 2017 for her controversial content, which included using racial slurs and claiming to be Black despite her Caucasian background, has again incurred the wrath of Nigerians over her insensitive X posts. Over the weekend, Ms Vicky, who spent part of the festive period in Lagos, claimed that she had been kidnapped while in Nigeria and that the perpetrators were asking for $1 million in ransom. After being called out, she claimed it was just a prank in a series of deleted posts saying she was bored. This attempt to downplay the seriousness of her actions further angered many Nigerians. Yet again, she has sparked mixed reactions while writing about her experience post-vacationing in Nigeria on X; she addressed the nations struggles and the need for support. In her tweet, she said her visit exposed her to the high level of poverty and the peoples struggles in Nigeria. Some have considered the post-berating, while others support it. Nigerians react Furthermore, she expressed that it is heartbreaking that those visiting Nigeria only focus on just the nightlife. Its sad to see visitors focusing only on the parties when theres such a clear need for help, she wrote. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Her post has stirred many mixed feelings. Some have applauded and supported her observation, while others have questioned her motives and labelled her post callous. Below are reactions from the post, which range from support for her observation to questioning her motives and labelling her post as callous. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Genre: Romance, Drama Producer: Grace Onyia Director: Great-Valentine Edochie Cast: Timini Egbuson, Bisola Aiyeola, Bimbo Ademoye, Streaming Platform: YouTube Running time: 2 hours 22 minutes Release date: 24 December Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Life often feels like a cycle of chasing dreams, facing setbacks, and regretting decisions. The Homecoming captures that struggle perfectly. It follows Dieko, a young woman caught in the hustle, trying to find her way but constantly hit by lifes challenges. The movie reflects many peoples frustrations when things dont go as planned, and we question our choices. Diekos story is not just hers but a reflection of the struggles many of us face in our own lives. After a year of standout roles and self-released projects on Bimbos YouTube channel, The Homecoming feels perfect for Bimbo to cap off a successful year. She taps into something universalthe pain of disappointment and the triumph of pushing through it. Through Diekos journey, Bimbo reminds us that no matter the setbacks, the real victory lies in finding our way back to ourselves. Plot The movie opens with Dieko Coker (Bimbo Ademoye), a young, ambitious woman aspiring to become an accountant. Orphaned at a young age, she lives with her blind and disabled grandfather, Gbenga (Chris Akwarandu), who is her sole family and most significant source of support. Struggling with financial burdens and her grandfathers mounting medical bills, Dieko relentlessly searches for a well-paying job to provide for them both. After several failed attempts, she applies for an accounting role at Eazzy, a prestigious fashion magazine. However, unable to secure her desired position, she reluctantly accepts a job as a personal assistant to the intimidating and no-nonsense CEO, Uduak (Bisola Aiyeola). Dieko soon finds herself navigating a toxic corporate workplace where Uduaks assistant, Vivian (Osereme Iniegbenebor), subjects her to bullying and blackmail, highlighting the harsh realities of office politics and power dynamics. Despite the challenges, Dieko presses on, but her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she meets Luther (Timini Egbuson), Uduaks brother, during a chance encounter at a bus park. Their meeting is filled with sparks, but Dieko is unaware of his true identity until a work trip to Abuja brings her face-to-face with him again. The realisation of who Luther is complicates her emotions as professional and personal boundaries blur. As Dieko juggles her turbulent work environment and budding feelings for Luther, her world is shattered when she receives devastating news about her grandfathers health. The loss of her beloved grandpa Gbenga forces Dieko to reevaluate her priorities and pushes her to the brink. Left with little choice, she contemplates drastic actions that could ruin her future. Amidst the chaos, Dieko discovers an inner strength she didnt know she possessed. She begins to stand up to her oppressors, including Vivian and Uduak, asserting herself in a way that transforms her life. The confrontation with Uduak becomes pivotal, challenging Dieko to reclaim her dignity and pave her way forward. Character analysis Dieko Coker (Bimbo Ademoye) Dieko is an ambitious woman aspiring to become an accountant but struggling to find stable employment. Orphaned after a tragic fire that killed her parents, she lives with and cares for her disabled and blind grandfather. Despite her challenging circumstances, she remains resilient and determined. Her protagonist role explores themes of perseverance, love, and self-worth as she navigates a toxic work environment, personal tragedy, and unexpected romance. Diekos character represents the struggles of many young Nigerians pursuing their dreams against the odds. Uduak (Bisola Aiyeola) Uduak, played by Bisola, is the CEO of Eazzy Group, a high-profile fashion company where Dieko works as an assistant. As a strict and seemingly ruthless leader, Uduak often comes across as intimidating and unapproachable. Her demanding nature leaves Dieko constantly on edge. However, Uduaks character has layers, with glimpses of vulnerability tied to her family dynamics, particularly her relationship with her brother, Luther. She served as both an antagonist and a catalyst for Diekos growth. Luther (Timini Egbuson) Timinis Luther is a charming and supportive character who meets Dieko unexpectedly. Initially unaware of each others connections, they form a more complex bond when Dieko realises he is Uduaks brother. Luther brings warmth and emotional balance to the story. His relationship with Dieko shows a subplot that contrasts with the harsh realities she faces at work, highlighting themes of love and companionship. Vivian (Osereme Iniegbenebor) Uduaks assistant, Vivian, is a conniving and overbearing character who makes Diekos life at work unbearable. She uses manipulation and blackmail to undermine Dieko, turning the workplace into a hostile environment. Vivians character embodies toxic office culture and challenges Diekos resilience. Despite her antagonistic role, Vivian occasionally aligns with Dieko when it benefits her, showing the complexity of her character. Gbenga (Chris Akwarandu) Gbenga is Diekos blind and disabled grandfather, whom she cares for deeply. Their close relationship motivates Dieko right from the start, as she strives to provide for him despite her struggles. His character represents the familial responsibilities that often weigh heavily on young people. Gbengas eventual death is pivotal in the story, forcing Dieko to reevaluate her life and take bold actions. Critical review The Homecoming is a relatable story of ambition, struggle, and resilience centred on Diekos challenging journey. The plot, while familiar, draws viewers into Diekos world, engaging them in her struggles and triumphs. However, the predictability of certain elements, such as workplace toxicity and a conveniently timed romance, may keep the audience guessing about the next turn of events. Great-Val Edochies direction leans heavily on emotional storytelling, and while it successfully captures Diekos highs and lows, the pacing often feels uneven. Some scenes drag unnecessarily, like the Lagos-to-Abuja journey, while others, such as Uduaks backstory, feel underexplored. The trios performances, however, are the heart of this movie. Bimbo shines as Dieko, bringing raw vulnerability and strength to her character. Bisola Aiyeolas portrayal of Uduak is intense and captivating, while the supporting cast complements the leads well. The chemistry between the characters, the stylish cinematography, and the thoughtful costume choices make the film visually engaging. The films themes are strong points, touching on workplace challenges, resilience, and the importance of self-worth. These elements resonate deeply, even though the story sometimes leans on overused tropes. Despite its flaws, the movies overall message is impactful and relatable, striking a chord with many viewers. Ultimately, The Homecoming delivers an emotional and heartfelt experience with strong performances and polished production. However, predictable storytelling and a lack of narrative polish could prevent it from reaching its full potential. Its safe to say the flaws are permissive for a YouTube movie. For an average hustling Nigerian, Diekos story resonates strongly as a tale of perseverance and hope, reminding them that strength and purpose can be found even in the darkest times. Verdict: 7/10 Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The presiding officers of the National AssemblySenate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, and their deputies, Barau Jibrin and Ben Kalu were allocated N10 billion for rent and furniture in the 2024 supplementary budget of the FCT, PREMIUM TIMES investigation reveals. The budget item, titled Renting and Furnishing of Presiding Officers of the National Assembly, has the classification code 23010309 in the N288 billion supplementary budget President Bola Tinubu transmitted to the National Assembly in September, which was passed within five days by the lawmakers. Under Nigerias bicameral legislative system, there are four presiding officers of the National Assembly: the Senate President, the Speaker, the Deputy Senate President, and the Deputy Speaker. These four are the latest Nigerian government officials to receive lavish accommodation allowances or new housing projects from the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, whose generosity in the last 15 months includes a N21 billion residential mansion for Vice President Kashim Shettima. The Abuja minister also allocated N25 billion for the construction of houses for 40 judges. With the planned rent and furniture budget, Mr Wike appears to have extended his generosity across the three arms of governmentexecutive, judiciary, and legislature. The allocations come amidst the current economic hardships in Nigeria, which experts believe is due to the governments policies of deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector and the devaluation of the naira. Within the last three weeks, dozens of Nigerians have died in stampedes while trying to collect food items. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The current administration has continued what many describe as lavish spending while preaching austerity measures for most Nigerians. Some of these expenditures include a $100 million presidential jet, the botched presidential yacht, luxurious sport utility vehicles for members of the National Assembly, and others. Mr Wike has in the past been accused of using some of this generous spending on institutions as a subtle means of compromising them, but he has denied the allegations. Administration of the FCT and ownership of public buildings According to Section 299 of the 1999 Constitution, the president is the governor of the FCT, while the National Assembly serves as its legislative arm. Also, Section 302 of the Constitution gives the president the power to appoint someone as the Minister of the FCT to act on his behalf. Mr Wike, a prominent member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was appointed by President Tinubu in what observers believe is a reward for the role the former Rivers State governor played during the presidential election in 2023. The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) owns several public buildings in the FCT, including the National Assembly Complex and other structures, through the Department of Public Buildings. Some of the buildings the department lists on its website include the Supreme Court Complex, the Presidential Complex, the Federal Ministry Building, the Assembly Complex, and others. In 2022, the FCT spent over N42 billion to renovate part of the National Assembly Complex despite public outrage by Nigerians over the expenditure. In the past, members of the National Assembly, including the four presiding officers, had their accommodations at the legislative quarters located in the Apo area of Abuja. However, the buildings were sold under the monetisation policy that started under Olusegun Obasanjos administration. Initially, all the buildings were sold except those for the presiding officers. In the 6th Assembly, under the Umar YarAdua administration, the buildings were sold to the four presiding officers: Senate President David Mark, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Speaker of the House of Representatives Dimeji Bankole, and Deputy Speaker Bayero Nafada. In 2011, the government opted to build new houses for the presiding officers on the outskirts of the city in Katampe Extension, behind the Lungi Barracks. However, the lawmakers reportedly rejected the offer. Later, the Goodluck Jonathan administration started another project just for the four presiding officers. The project is located within the Three-Arms Zone, very close to the main gate of the National Assembly. For years, construction on the buildings has stalled despite several deadlines. Despite this, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the government has resorted to renting houses for all the presiding officers of the National Assembly since 2011. According to sources, Senate President Godswill Akpabio lives in a rented apartment in Maitama, a highbrow area of Abuja, while the Speaker lives in the Guzape District. The 2024 supplementary budget Mr Wike, in a letter dated 11 September, and addressed to President Tinubu, requested additional spending of N288 billion as a supplementary budget for the FCT. He listed some of the projects the funds are meant for. Under the capital component, the supplementary budget contains a total of 32 projects. The purpose of this letter is to seek the approval of Your Excellency for the second Supplementary Budget presentation to the National Assembly, a Supplementary Budget to the 2024 Statutory Appropriation Act of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in the sum of N288,000,000,000.00, necessitated with a view to accommodate additional inflows from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and Miscellaneous Revenues in the sums of N8,000,000,000.00 and N280,000,000,000.00 respectively, Mr Wike said in the letter. The request by the minister was approved by the president, who subsequently transmitted the supplementary budget to the National Assembly for approval. This request was approved by the lawmakers and passed. Of the 32 projects, 22 were existing ones that received additional funding, while 10 new projects were introduced into the FCT budget. For instance, the N25 billion earmarked for the construction of houses for judges got an additional N5 billion, increasing the budgetary allocation to N30 billion. In addition to the legislature, the FCT also allocated N20 billion for the renovation of the State Security Service (SSS) headquarters in Abuja. Unanswered questions The N10 billion budgetary provision for the presiding officers is vague and raises a number of questions: What kind of rent? What kind of furniture? Why is the FCT paying the rent of these officers when the National Assembly has its own budget? Why is the FCT spending N10 billion on rents and furnishing when there are existing housing projects for these same officials? The National Assembly has its own budget, and to guarantee the independence of the institution, it receives its funds under the statutory transfer instrument. That is, its budget is given in a lump sum and not broken down. In the past couple of years, the National Assemblys budget has continued to grow despite fiscal constraints. In the current fiscal cycle, the National Assembly has a budget of N344 billion, the highest ever. Ordinarily, one would have expected the federal legislature to use these funds to address all its needs, including the rent for its presiding officers. Why is the National Assembly not paying the rent for its presiding officers despite this record allocation? Also, there is an abandoned housing project for these same officers that has remained uncompleted for close to a decade. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the buildings, located within the Three-Arms Zone, are intended for the Senate President, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and Deputy Senate President. However, these four buildings, which have been roofed and plastered, still remain incomplete over a decade after construction began. Why is the FCT not spending the N10 billion to complete these buildings instead of allocating funds for rent and furniture? To get answers to these questions, this newspaper submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the office of the Minister of the FCT to seek clarification on the planned expenditure, addressing some of the questions raised. However, the ministry ignored the request. This appears to be a recurring pattern under Mr Wikes administration, where the budgets of the FCT are not made public, and requests for information are routinely ignored. PREMIUM TIMES has submitted several FOI requests to the ministry in the past, all of which were disregarded. Similarly, the spokespersons of the Senate and the House of Representatives did not respond to requests for comments. Senate spokesperson Yemi Aderamodu neither answered calls placed to his phone nor responded to a text message sent via WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Akin Rotimi, the spokesperson for the House, initially answered a call placed to his phone and requested that the questions be sent to him via text. However, after the message was sent, he did not answer subsequent calls. Putting the expenditure in context To understand the significance of this N10 billion allocated for the four individuals, it is essential to compare it with other similar expenditures. For instance, in the proposed 2025 budget, the federal government allocated N11.5 billion for the construction of 20,000 housing units under the Renewed Hope Agenda Housing Scheme. While this project could potentially serve 20,000 households, these four individuals are allocated N10 billion for rent. Additionally, in the proposed 2025 budget, the federal governments national housing programme (nationwide) has an allocation of N5.3 billion. This amount is approximately 50 per cent of the N10 billion set aside for the rent and furniture of four individuals. Just before embarking on the end-of-the-year holiday, lawmakers in the lower chamber pooled half of their salaries into a fund to support the government in addressing economic hardship. The total contribution amounted to N704 million, which the House stated would be presented to President Tinubu for distribution to vulnerable members of society. However, this N704 million is just 7.4 per cent of the N10 billion allocated for the rent of Mr Tajudeen and his three colleagues. This allocation to the four presiding officers underscores what many describe as insensitivity and a lack of transparency in the use of public funds. This story was produced with support from Civic Media Lab Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print French troops will soon begin departing from Ivory Coast, the West African countrys President Alassane Ouattara announced in his New Year address. We have decided on a coordinated and organised withdrawal of French troops, said Mr Ouattara in the televised speech. The departure will begin in January, according to the president, who also referred to the modernisation of the Ivorian army. The location of the French naval infantry battalion in Port Bouet would, therefore, be handed over to the countrys own forces, he said. Around 600 French soldiers are currently stationed in Ivory Coast. Several West African states including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger had previously called on France to withdraw its troops. France maintained a military presence in countries in the region even after the end of its colonial rule, being most recently involved in the fight against Islamist extremists. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later When the French troops leave the Ivory Coast, the only remaining French military bases in Africa will be in Gabon and Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. (dpa/NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print People from 103 foreign nations visited and worshipped at the Glory Dome, the 100,000-seater auditorium of the Dunamis International Gospel Centre (DIGC), Abuja, Nigeria, in 2024. Becky Enenche, wife of the churchs senior pastor, Paul Enenche, announced this during the crossover service on Tuesday. The visitors attended the conventions, conferences and other events organised by the church during the year. Mrs Enenche, a pastor, while taking stock of events in 2024, listed some of the countries where worshippers came from, including Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, United States of America, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Grenada, Nepal, and Vietnam. Glory Dome, located along Airport Road, was dedicated in November 2018. The churchs headquarters was previously located in Area 1, Garki District of the nations capital. The former headquarters has since become a branch of the church. Mrs Enenche also said that during the year, DIGC organised several crusades and planted churches worldwide. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later According to her, massive crusades were held in Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Kaduna, Ethiopia, London, Kenya, Canada, Malawi, Gaborone and Francis Town in Botswana, Baltimore, Fort Worth and Houston, Texas in the United States, Locally, crusades were also held in Lagos, Asaba in Delta State, Suleja in Niger State, Sokoto, Adoka and Otukpo in Benue State, Apo in Abuja, and Okpo in Kogi State. Mrs Enenche said DIGC planted new branches in Maitama, Gosa, Utako/Wuye, Sabon Lugbe, Dogon Gada, Zamani, Sauka, and Pigba Kasa, all in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). During these events, thousands of people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. She said apart from the distribution of food items to the needy members of DIGC at its headquarters every Sunday, the church also distributed welfare materials, including foods in Sokoto, Kaduna, Maiduguri in Borno State, Sauka in Abuja, Kuje Correctional Centre, Adoka and Otukpo in Benue State, and Nsaru village in Malawi. During the service, Mr Enenche, senior pastor of DIGC, declared the churchs theme for 2025 as Dominion. Drawing the theme from Genesis 1:28, Mr Enenche said 2025 is when church members would dominate in all spheres of human endeavour. Listing 10 pillars and dimensions of dominion, he said during the year, Gods people will take charge of their domains everywhere, take charge of situations and territories, have it as they want it, experience massive financial domination, increase spiritual authority and influence, and reign and rule in their generation. Mr Enenche also said there would be widespread revival of fire, power and glory, reclaiming and restoring lost glories, influence, relevance and territories, and an increase in spiritual authority and influence. Among the dignitaries at the crossover service were the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in 2023, Peter Obi, and a former president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has appealed to the University of Abuja community to allow peace to reign. The appeal was sequel to the objection of some of the professors to the appointment of Professor Aisha Maikudi as the substantive Vice Chancellor of the institution. Speaking in Lagos on Thursday, the Executive Director of the human rights group, Ishaq Akintola, said only peaceful conduct and respect for law and order by members of the academic community can bring academic excellence and rapid infrastructural growth to the university. Mr Akintola, a professor, said, Some professors have faulted the process that led to the appointment of Professor Aisha Maikudi yesterday, Tuesday, 31st December, 2024 as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja. The exercise had earlier been characterized by a walkout on the joint selection board meeting by one of the professors and an aborted senate meeting on 24th December, 2024. MURIC strongly condemns the manifestation of academic banditry in an environment where differences should be resolved through dialogue, exhibition of maturity and manifestation of mutual respect. We are miffed that the appointment of a candidate who emerged as the best among ten shortlisted candidates and was interviewed by the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board of the University in line with extant regulations governing the appointment of university vice chancellors could generate such hullabaloo among some professors. It is clear that the opposing camp has decided to turn a blind eye to the impeccable pedigree and intimidating curriculum vitae of the new Vice Chancellor to pursue personal agenda. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Seamless transition is often difficult when Campus politics takes the drivers seat. The one term policy for university vice chancellors was adopted by the Federal Government to stem this ugly tide. This is what the aggrieved professors should consider. Every single university professor is a potential vice chancellor. Aisha Maikudi, an eminently qualified professor, has been duly appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja. Let nobody look down upon her for any raison detre under heaven: be it gender, ethnic or creed. University teachers are employed for the purpose of teaching and researching. That is tangential. University leadership and administrative positions are merely peripheral. Unfortunately what is most common among some professors is the dissipation of energy on the peripheral and often inconsequential for material benefits. A vice chancellor has emerged. Let us squarely face the tangential from now on. Allow peace on UniAbuja campus. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print In the exercise of his prerogative of mercy, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has freed seven prison inmates and pardoned one other on parole. Mr Mbahs media aide, Uche Anichukwu, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday. Mr Anichukwu said the decision was communicated to the Comptroller, Nigerian Correctional Service, Enugu State Command, Nicholas Obiako, in a letter dated 31 December, 2024 and signed by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Victor Udeh. The Governor of Enugu State in the exercise of his power (Prerogative of Mercy) under Section 212 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and in consultation with the Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, Enugu State, has granted various forms of Prerogative of Mercy as presented below to the following convicts (of state offences) in the correctional centres in Enugu State, Mr Anichukwu quoted part of the letter. He did not mention the names of the inmates freed by the governor. The media aide said the approval of the seven inmates release was subject to a one-year parole, given that they had spent substantial parts of their jail terms for various offences. He said Governor Mbah granted pardon to one other inmate on one-year parole because he had spent part of his five-year jail term for contempt of court and equally purged himself of the contempt. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The decision was also subject to reports of proven reform in character, ability to reintegrate with the society having possessed or learnt some productive skills, and following a recommendation by the Correctional Services and the Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, chaired by the State Attorney-General and commissioner for justice, Mr Anichukwu said. He said membership of the council comprises representatives of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Carmelite Prisoners Interest Organisation, and the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice and Peace, among other reputable justice sector institutions. READ ALSO: Gov Mbah inaugurates N300million remodelled hospital in Enugu Constitutional provision Mr Anichukwu noted that Mr Mbahs decision was in line with the law, quoting Section 212 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Section 212 (2), however, provides that the powers of the governor under subsection (1) shall be exercised after consultation with an advisory council of the state on the prerogative of mercy as may be established by law of the state, he added. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Nigerian Forest Security Service (NFSS) has expressed its readiness to collaborate with the Anambra State Government to rescue the states forests from gunmen and other criminals. The service vowed to comb all the forests in the state where suspected killers and kidnappers of innocent citizens have their camps and hideouts. The Commander of the NFSS, Anambra State Command, Destiny Jonas, made this known in a statement made available to reporters on Thursday in Abuja. Mr Jonas said their stance became necessary following the recent kidnap of Anambra lawmaker, the abduction of an Anglican bishop and the killing of a Catholic priest in the state. He also referred to the brutal killing of eight people in Chigbonu village in Umuike Ubahuekwem in Ihiala on 30 December 2024 by gunmen. NFSS is ever willing and ready to offer its expertise in securing the forests and bushes for economic and security purposes. Our operations are mostly in the forests and bushes, and we know the terrain very well. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later NFSS will be most obliged to join forces with other security agencies to ensure the success of the Operation Udo Ga Di Na Anambra Security Initiative of the state government intended to rid the hinterlands of criminal elements unleashing terror and mayhem on the people. NFSS can gather intelligence to demobilise any force in the forest. All that is needed is the collaboration of government agencies and the government itself, including recognition of the Nigerian Forest Security Service, he said. The commander expressed concerns that investors were fleeing Anambra because of insecurity. He said that officers and men of the NFSS had been assisting the police and other security agencies to ensure the safety of those who returned to Anambra for the festive season. Mr Jonas emphasised that a lot more has to be done to redeem Anambra forests. According to him, the remote areas like Achala, Igbariam, Nsugbe and others were free of criminals because the NFSS operatives were stationed in those places. Mr Jonas said that NFSS had identified some flashpoints in forests and bushes across the state where it would declare war on criminal camps from January 2025. He said the security outfit only required permission from the authorities to launch operations in the identified black spots. The commander disclosed that the NFSS operatives rescued some kidnapped victims during the Yuletide. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A non-profit organisation, Webfala Digital Skills for All Initiative (WDSFAI), has raised concerns about the rising threat of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in Nigeria. WDSFAI, in an article by its Executive Director, Nafisat Bakare, highlighted the devastating consequences of TFGBV on victims, predominantly women, who often experience psychological trauma, reputational harm, and economic losses. The consequences of TFGBV are profound, noted Ms Bakare. Victims may feel forced to conform to societal expectations, often against their will, to avoid further harassment or stigmatisation. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), TFGBV is an act of violence perpetrated by one or more individuals that is committed, assisted, aggravated and amplified in part or fully by the use of information and communication technologies or digital media, against a person based on their gender. TFGBV encompasses various forms of abuse enabled by technology, such as cyberstalking, online harassment, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, doxxing, and other acts aimed at causing harm, fear, or shame. Prevalence of GBV despite VAPP Act The article cited data showing that between January and May 2024, at least 6,142 cases of gender-based violence were reported across various Nigerian states, despite the existence of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act. Ms Bakare also pointed out that despite the VAPP Act and other legal frameworks, Nigerias response to TFGBV remains inadequate. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later She said, The VAPP Act, while progressive, is not universally adopted across all states, leaving significant gaps in protection for women and girls. Moreover, existing laws often fail to address the unique challenges posed by technology-enabled abuse. For instance, cyberstalking and online harassment laws are either outdated or poorly enforced, and there is a lack of specialised training for law enforcement on handling TFGBV cases. Also, victims often face stigma and blame when reporting incidents, further discouraging them from seeking justice. The digital divide also plays a role, as many women in rural areas lack access to information about their rights or the means to report abuse. Scarcity of data Ms Bakare also identified the scarcity of data on TFGBV in Nigeria as a significant barrier to effective intervention. Comprehensive, localised research is needed to understand the scale and nature of the problem, she said. This data can inform the development of targeted policies, public awareness campaigns, and support services. Collaboration between academia, CSOs, and government agencies is essential to bridge this gap and ensure that interventions are evidence-based. More recommendations According to Ms Bakare, to combat TFGBV in Nigeria, a multi-faceted approach is necessary, involving government, civil society, technology companies, and the public. She said that the government must ensure universal adoption and enforcement of the VAPP Act and other relevant laws, adding that existing legislation should be updated to address the unique challenges of TFGBV, and law enforcement agencies should receive specialised training. She also suggested that technology companies must create safe online spaces by implementing effective content moderation, providing transparent reporting mechanisms, and collaborating with local organisations to address TFGBV. Victims of TFGBV need access to counseling, legal aid, and other support services. Government and CSOs should collaborate to establish and expand these services, ensuring they are accessible to all, regardless of location or socioeconomic status, Ms Bakare added. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. Speaker of Azerbaijans Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova sent a letter of condolence to Speaker of the Parliament of Montenegro Andrija Mandic, following the tragic armed attack in Cetinje, Trend reports. According to the Press and Public Relations Department of the Milli Majlis, Speaker Gafarova expressed her deep sorrow over the incident, which resulted in significant loss of life and injuries. The news of the tragic armed attack in the city of Cetinje, resulting in loss of life and injuries, has deeply saddened us. On behalf of myself and the members of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, I extend heartfelt condolences to you, the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and to your entire nation. I wish a swift recovery to the injured," the letter stated. A Nigerian Catholic priest Joseph Enyiaka has allegedly shot a boy dead after the latter set off firecrackers within a church premises. PREMIUM TIMES learned that the incident happened during a Holy Mass celebration, marking the crossover to the New Year 2025. Sources told this newspaper that the Holy Mass was conducted at St. Colombus Parish Amaimo, a community in Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State, South-east Nigeria. However, PREMIUM TIMES could not confirm the name of the slain victim by the time this report was filed. Investigation and arrest Henry Okoye, the police spokesperson in Imo State, confirmed the development in a message on Thursday. A detailed investigation has been initiated to ascertain the remote facts surrounding the incident, Mr Okoye, an assistant superintendent of police, said. The police spokesperson told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that the police have arrested the Catholic priest over the incident. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Hes currently in our custody, he said of the Catholic priest. PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Okoye about the circumstances of the incident and how the cleric got the rifle. I dont know if the act was intentional. I dont think so. But we are still investigating, he responded. Ban The Nigeria Police Force has banned fireworks, which are often set off during Christmas and New Year celebrations. The Commissioner of Police in Imo State, Aboki Danjuma, had, on 1 December 2024, reiterated the ban on the sale, use, and distribution of firecrackers in the state. This measure, in place for some time, is essential for public safety, preventing injuries, and reducing the risks of fires and accidents caused by fireworks, Mr Danjuma had said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A Dentist, Olufemi Orebanjo, has explained how regular oral checks could help detect underlying diseases that require early treatment. Mr Orebanjo, a former Medical Director of Ajeromi General Hospital in Ajegunle, Lagos State, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview on Thursday. He said oral hygiene is essential to the general well-being of the body. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines oral health as the state of the mouth, teeth, and orofacial structures that allow people to perform essential functions like eating, breathing, and speaking. Oral health is linked to overall health, and poor oral hygiene can increase the risk of other health conditions like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and pneumonia. Mr Orebanjo noted that the mouth is the gateway to the body, hence, whatever happens in other parts of the body has a way of manifesting in the mouth. Diabetes, for example, can be detected through oral check at an early stage that will help such a patient receive early treatment, not to talk of other impacts that the mouth itself can have on the body, he said. So, when you dont take care of the mouth, which is the gateway of the body, the rest of the body will be sick. He advised Nigerians to go for oral check at least twice a year, to maintain good hygiene. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Nigerian government has issued a travel advisory cautioning citizens against traveling to Australia, citing widespread incidents of verbal abuse, harassment, and discrimination targeting foreigners. The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the advisory in a statement on Tuesday, following a similar warning from the Australian government advising its citizens against travelling to Nigeria. According to the ministry, there has been a recent surge in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crimes in Australia that has heightened the risk of violence. It said one such case was the vandalisation of a Jewish neighbourhood in Sydney in December 2024. report by CNN, the vandals set a car on fire and sprayed graffiti with anti-Israel slogans, including a misspelled Kill Israiel in an area considered to be Australias largest Jewish community. According to aby CNN, the vandals set a car on fire and sprayed graffiti with anti-Israel slogans, including a misspelled Kill Israiel in an area considered to be Australias largest Jewish community. The ministry described the incident as a part of a broader increase in both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in Australia. It said it is also coinciding with international conflicts and tensions. Nigerians are therefore advised to be mindful of the prevailing cultural and social dynamics to ensure their safety and comfort. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later To this end, extra vigilance and necessary precautions are strongly recommended. Nigerian travellers and residents of Australia who experience or witness any form of racist attack or harassment should contact the High Commission of Nigeria, the statement read in part. Australian government advisory The advisory issued by the ministry is considered retaliatory as it came after the Australian government warned its citizens against visiting Nigeria due to escalating security concerns. In a statement also issued on Tuesday, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) attributed its travel warning to concerns over terrorism, kidnapping, unsafe consumables, poor health intervention, violent crimes, and the potential for civil unrest. It described Nigerias security environment as both volatile and unpredictable, noting that it could either be indiscriminate or target foreigners. Nigeria has strict laws against same-sex relationships. Avoid public displays of affection and cross-dressing. In Sharia law states, there are harsh punishments for same-sex relationships, adultery or public expression deemed blasphemous or religiously disrespectful, the advisory read. The advisory specifically identified states such as Adamawa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Rivers, Yobe, and Zamfara as do not travel zones due to elevated security threats. Apart from Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory was also classified as high risk. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has invited all aggrieved Private Tour Operators (PTOs) who were not selected for the 2025 Hajj exercise to submit their complaints. According to a statement by its Assistant Director of Information and Publications, Fatima Usara, on Wednesday, the commission said it is now accepting formal grievances against any of the selected 10 operators. It asked the aggrieved companies to come forward with their claim on or before Friday, 3 January. The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) wishes to reassure the public that it will remain neutral in the discharge of its obligations to its stakeholders. In light of recent complaints received after the announcement of the 10 lead Private Tour Operators certified to administer the 2025 Hajj operations under the private sector, the commission wishes to inform the public that it is ready to formally entertain grievances against any lead companies. This is in line with the commissions resolve to address any allegations against its decisions in a just and impartial manner. To this end, NAHCON hereby invites individuals or groups with credible evidence justifying why any or all of the aforementioned companies are not qualified to be among the lead companies to come forward with their claims on or before Friday, 3rd January 2025. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Such evidence will facilitate a review of the selection and thorough re-investigation that would enable the commission to take appropriate action should the allegations be substantiated, the statement said. She also asked the companies to send their written submissions, accompanied by verifiable evidence supporting the claims, which should be addressed to the chairman of NAHCON. Please accept the chairmans assurance that all submissions will be treated with the confidentiality they deserve, and all investigations will be conducted in line with the commissions commitment to fairness. NAHCON appeals for the cooperation and understanding of stakeholders and the public in achieving the aforestated objective, the statement said. Background In December, NAHCON approved 10 out of 118 Private Tour Operators who applied to participate in the 2025 Hajj exercise. While unveiling the 10 lead companies, Mrs Usara noted that the companies went through a rigorous screening process and were selected along three zones namely, Kano (4), FCT Zones (3), and Lagos zones (3). Sequel to application and thorough screening of Tour Operator Companies that applied for the 2025 Hajj and Umrah Operations, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria is happy to announce the list of successful companies approved by the Chairman, Prof Abdullahi Usman, she said. Favouritism However, some tour operators excluded from the list accused the commission of favouritism, claiming that certain selected companies did not meet the requirements. The commission advised the unsuccessful operators to consider merging or partnering with the chosen companies, enabling participation in the 2025 Hajj exercise. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The National Population Commission (NPC) said it has successfully registered more than 10 million children and issued birth certificates across Nigeria. This was made known in a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by the Director Public Affairs Department of NPC, Talibat Oloruntoba, According to the statement, the Chairman of NPC, Nasir Kwarra, during a ceremony in Abuja, emphasised the commissions commitment to ensure every child born in Nigeria was registered and received a birth certificate. Mr Kwarra, represented by the Federal Commissioner from Katsina State, Bala Banya, explained that with the digitisation of the registration system and partnerships with the Primary Health Care Agency, children, no matter where they are born, would be registered. He urged all parents and guardians to take advantage of the free registration service provided by the commission. Similarly, the Director-General of NPC, Telson Ojogun, highlighted the commissions plans to establish more than 4,000 additional registration centres nationwide, making it easier for Nigerians to register their children. He also stressed that the commission was utilising modern technology to ensure each registered child had a unique, irreplaceable identity. Mr Ojogun also expressed gratitude to the First Lady, who was represented by the wife of the Vice President, Nana Shettima, for presenting the certificate to the first baby of the year. He encouraged Nigerians to register deaths with the commission, helping to maintain an accurate and reliable population register. (NAN) Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print An Anglican Bishop who was declared missing in Anambra State has resurfaced. The cleric, Godwin Okpala, is a retired archbishop of the Niger Province and Bishop of Nnewi. Mr Okpala, a professor, went missing alongside his driver on 6 December, the church authorities had announced. The cleric embarked on a journey to Umuchu alongside the driver but failed to return. There were speculations that both men were abducted by kidnappers. The cleric and his driver resurfaced barely one month after they were declared missing. The return The cleric, Mr Okpala, gave an indication of his return in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday morning Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Praise The Lord! he wrote on his Facebook page, apparently indicating his return. Several Facebook users expressed happiness over the return of the cleric. About four hours later, the Anglican Church confirmed the release of the cleric via a post on its Facebook page. Breaking News: Archbishop Godwin Okpala and driver Safely released, the church wrote, suggesting that the cleric was kidnapped and has been released. The church and the wider community are rejoicing over the safe return of Archbishop Godwin Okpala and his driver, a testament to the power of faith, prayer, and community solidarity, the church added. The church said the incident highlighted the need for police reforms and the implementation of state and community policing systems to address the growing threats of abductions and violence in the South-east. Strengthening security measures remains critical to safeguarding lives and restoring peace in the region. As the community celebrates this moment of relief and thanksgiving, the Church urges continued prayers for lasting peace and security across the region, it stated. This event serves as a reminder of the collective responsibility to create a safer and more compassionate society for all. Meanwhile, details of Mr Okpalas whereabouts and return, alongside his driver, remain sketchy as of the time of this report. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Just hours before he rammed a pickup truck through a New Orleans street jammed with New Years Eve revellers, the perpetrators social media posts indicated he was inspired by the terrorist organisation Islamic State, U.S. President Joe Biden said. Mr Biden, citing FBI information, told reporters that the attacker posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing the desire to kill. Mr Biden made his remarks to the press on Wednesday following the car ramming attack in New Orleans early on New Years Day that killed at least 15 and wounded dozens. Biden referred to the Islamic State as ISIS, but it is also called IS, and in the Middle East and many other countries it is known as Daesh. New Orleans police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said that the driver was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. She later added, He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did. Police said the incident occurred at 3:15 am (0915 GMT) in an area of the city known for attracting tens of thousands of visitors during major events. The perpetrator allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers, injuring two of them, before being killed in the confrontation. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The suspect has been identified as 42-year-old US-born Shamsud-Din J from Texas, the FBI said, with the incident being treated as an act of terrorism. The outgoing US president stressed that the investigation showed that the perpetrator was a US citizen. The FBI has reported to me that the killer was an American citizen, born in Texas, Mr Biden told reporters. He served in the United States army on active duty for many years. He also served in the army reserve until a few years ago, he added. Mr Biden also repeated investigators findings that potential explosive devices were found in the pick-up truck, which the man drove into the crowd in New Orleans on New Years morning, as well as outside the vehicle. An Islamic State flag was also found in the vehicle, Mr Biden said, citing the FBI. Hours after the devastating attack, it remains unclear whether the perpetrator, who was killed after his deadly rampage, had accomplices, US media reported on Wednesday. Investigators are examining surveillance footage, according to several media outlets, showing a suspicious group of four people. Initially, it was suspected that they might have placed explosive devices in the affected neighbourhood. However, shortly afterwards, they were reportedly ruled out as suspects. Earlier, FBI investigator Alethea Duncan said that they did not believe the driver was solely responsible. (dpa/NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Oyo State Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Chairman, Happy Adedapo, has appealed to governments to give more incentives to health workers and doctors to reduce japa syndrome in Nigeria. Japa refers to the mass exodus of skilled Nigerians to foreign countries for better living standards. Mr Adedapo made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Ibadan. He remarked that the japa syndrome, which was one of the major challenges of health workers in 2024, would reduce to the barest minimum if the doctors were made comfortable. Its not too much for the government to give car loans to doctors to encourage them and keep them in the system. We appeal to Governor Makinde to pay the doctors working in the state the medical residency training fund. The adjusted consolidated medical salary scale that FG implemented should also be implemented for doctors in Oyo State as well. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later State workers should also enjoy the wage award. Its not too much for the government to give more incentives to the doctors to encourage them. The japa syndrome should be reduced to the barest minimum. Soft car loans can be given to the doctors to keep them in the system and prevent them from leaving Nigeria, he said. Mr Adedapo urged health workers and relevant stakeholders to work in synergy to improve healthcare delivery in Oyo State and Nigeria at large in 2025. The Oyo NMA boss said the association would keep partnering with the state government to deliver the collective goals for the people of Oyo State. We should make synergy our watchword this year. For us to make more progress in 2025, challenges such as poor remuneration, manpower shortage, poor power supply, among others should be looked into. Oyo NMA is doing its best. We have played the roll of whistleblowing, informing relevant government agencies about quackery in the state. We are determined with the government to clear out quackery activities in the state, he said. Mr Adedapo appreciated the workers for contributing their quota toward the sustenance of the health care system. In spite of all the challenges, the key players are still putting in their best to ensure the system does not collapse. Lets all continue to do our best to help the patients, which can be anybody, as we trust God and the government for a better working condition this year, Mr Adedapo said. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Nigerian government has announced the reintroduction of history as a subject in the basic education curriculum. The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this during a recent appearance on Channels Television programme. Mr Alausa said history, a vital part of nation building has been missing in the Nigerian education system for a long time, noting that the subject will now be taught in schools from 2025. We now have people up to 30-year-old totally disconnected from our history. It doesnt happen in any part of the world, he said. He said president Bola Tinubu has mandated that the subject be reintroduced into the curriculum. From 2025 our students in primary and secondary schools will have that as part of their studies. History of failed return History, as a subject was first removed from Nigerias basic education curriculum in 2008, supposedly because students were avoiding it with the claim that there were few jobs for history graduates. It was later merged as part of social studies. While there have been previous efforts to reintroduce history into the curriculum, these attempts failed. In 2018, former minister of education, Adamu Adamu, gave a similar directive, noting that the National Council on Education had approved the reintroduction of history as a standalone subject at the 61st ministerial session in September, 2016. Mr Adamu, at the time directed the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to carry out the disarticulation of history from social studies curriculum. He said the new history curriculum was designed to expose students to a body of knowledge that would enable them appreciate history as an instrument of national integration and nation building in the 21st century and beyond. Four years later in 2022, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) trained 3,700 teachers as part of the move to reintroduce the subject. Welcome development The Chairperson of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), FCT chapter, Stephen Knabayi, said the subject was never introduced. In a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Knabayi attributed the failure to lack of planning and consultation. He, however, commended the move to have it returned to the curriculum. For me, and the union, this is a great development, he said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Kaduna Central Senator, Lawal Usman, on Wednesday, narrowly escaped assassination attempt while visiting his constituency for the New Year celebration. The assailants attacked Mr Usman, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), around Kawu area of Kaduna North Local Government of Kaduna State. Witnesses said the assailants pelted Mr Usmans vehicle with stones and bottles immediately they sighted his convoy moving around the area. Mr Usman, who is the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, confirmed the incident on his verified Facebook account. I have just escaped an assassination attempt by some thugs in Kaduna North, the senator said. Efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to speak with the lawmaker were unsuccessful because his telephone lines were not connecting. However, Ibrahim Mohammed, one of the political allies of the senator in Kaduna, confirmed the incident to this newspaper. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Another political ally of the senatorr, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak, also confirmed the incident, but alleged that the thugs were recruited by the lawmakers political enemies. He explained that there had been criticisms against Mr Usmans performance at the National Assembly for non-performance since his election. He said some of his constituents are not happy with the lawmaker. The ally said before Mr Usman was elected as a senator, he was distributing food items and money to people in many villages under his senatorial district but stopped after he was elected. He also claimed that the action angered the residents and that many people in the senatorial district have vowed to oppose his re-election. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, January 2. President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree titled "On Further Measures to Ensure Equal Conditions for Entrepreneurs and a Fair Constructive Environment", Trend reports. The decree outlines initiatives discussed during a meeting with entrepreneurs on December 20 and aims to sustain economic stability and ease financial burdens for producers and consumers alike. Key measures include maintaining current rates of VAT and corporate tax until 2028, ensuring predictability for businesses. Additionally, the decree extends zero customs duties on 36 categories of goods, including essential food items and other products, until January 1, 2026. The zero-tariff list features a wide range of goods, from meat, dairy, and seafood to fruits, vegetables, and grains. Items like yogurt, cheese, canned fish, eggs, and nuts are included, along with processed goods such as jams, chocolates, and pasta. Household and cosmetic products like sauces, bottled water, hair care items, and childrens clothing also benefit from the exemption. These measures are expected to stimulate the domestic market, support entrepreneurs, and stabilize prices for essential goods. This builds on earlier initiatives, such as the May 2022 presidential decree that removed customs duties on 22 food products. Ultimately, Tchianis allegations are a stark reminder of the dangers of misinformation in a fragile region. They also reinforce the place of truth in the face of propaganda. This phase is an opportunity for Nigeria and Niger to rise above this manufactured discord. Whether through cultural affinity or shared goals, both nations are challenged to counter the divisive narratives that threaten to undermine their longstanding partnership. There could hardly be a more transparent work of fiction than the allegations made by Nigers military leader, Brigadier-General Abdourahmane Tchiani, in his widely discussed Christmas Day interview. In this address, he accused Nigeria of conspiring with France to destabilise his country by allying with militant groups in the Lake Chad region. These unfounded claims have ignited a storm of conspiracy theories, deepened divisions in conversations about peace in West Africa, and drawn ordinary citizens of both nations into a polarising narrative a lamentable farewell to truth. For the discerning observer, General Tchianis interview is a textbook deflection tactic, aimed more at distracting from the state of affairs in Niger than offering a sincere assessment of the geopolitical challenges the country faces. Such diversions are calculated to weaponise public sentiment against imagined enemies, enabling him to rally popular support and extend his grip on power. Nigers prevailing struggles marked by crippling economic sanctions and growing diplomatic isolation provide a clear context for these baseless accusations, which remain devoid of credible evidence. The reason General Tchianis wild tales have even gained traction in Nigeria lies in the toxicity of internal partisan politics. Many who know better or have the means to fact-check the claims have preferred to exploit the story to settle political scores or pursue agendas against the very nation they aspire to lead someday. This marks a low point in Nigerias political discourse, where opportunism trumps reason, and lies are embraced with little scrutiny. General Tchianis allegations could have been easily dismissed as tales by moonlight. Yet, the responses from Nigerian officials have been both strategic and potent. From the Minister of Information, Malam Mohammed Idris, to the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, the Nigerian government has demonstrated that it has nothing to hide. These officials effectively refuted the baseless claims, while underscoring Nigerias longstanding policy of rejecting foreign military bases on its territory. In his BBC Hausa interview, Ribadu posed a compelling challenge: What benefit could Nigeria possibly derive from destabilising Niger in an already volatile region? He reassured that Nigeria would never partake in a conspiracy to harm its neighbours, including Niger, Chad, and Benin Republic. Highlighting the historical, cultural, and diplomatic ties between Nigeria and Niger, he dismissed Tchianis accusations as unfounded. The claim of French military bases in Nigeria is one that Nigers leadership, with its resources for intelligence gathering and access to satellite imaging, could easily verify. Instead, Tchiani, whose nation is renowned for a history of hosting foreign powers on its soil and has merely swapped French presence for another foreign power, opted to unleash innocent journalists on a wild goose chase across purported locations of French military activity. Unsurprisingly, these efforts yielded no evidence to support his claims. The only proof of Tchianis fairytales came from a video shared by Mahdi Shehu, a disreputable social commentator. Shehu alleged that France was training Nigerian soldiers and claimed this as evidence of collaboration to destabilise Niger. However, a fact-check by Daily Trust revealed the video to be from 2013, showing Nigerian troops arriving in Mali as part of an ECOWAS peacekeeping mission alongside French forces. This revelation undermined assertions of Shehu and his co-travellers in his rush to popularise Tchianis narrative. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later In pursuit of evidence, local and foreign journalists, drawn by the allure of a juicy story, visited communities near the Niger-Nigeria border allegedly hosting French military bases. What they found instead was a compelling rejection of Tchianis propaganda. In locations like Ruwa Wuri, Balle, and Gada, residents unanimously denied the existence of foreign military activity. Vox pops and interviews painted a picture that directly contradicted the juntas claims. Even within Niger, General Tchianis allegations have failed to convince many. Nigerien citizens have taken to social media to dismiss his claims as a ploy to deflect attention from his regimes failures. After 17 months in power, following the ousting of democratically elected Mohamed Bazoum, the junta has made little progress in stabilising the country. On the Muduba Mugani podcast, Nigerien commentator, Maidalili Namu, accused Tchiani of resorting to propaganda to evade scrutiny and shift blame for his administrations shortcomings. Tchianis credibility has also been eroded by his inability to address Nigers pressing economic and security challenges. Under his watch, the country has faced an uptick in attacks from militant groups, deteriorating infrastructure, and widespread disillusionment among citizens. Instead of acknowledging these failures, he has chosen to scapegoat Nigeria and other external actors, hoping to unite his fractured base against a fabricated common enemy. Interestingly, many Nigerien commentators acknowledge Nigerias contributions to Nigers development, including projects like the Kano-Maradi Railway, and its consistent advocacy for regional cooperation under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They are also aware of Nigerias principled aversion to foreign military bases, a policy underlined by historical events such as Nigerias diplomatic fallout with France over nuclear testing in the Sahara Desert. This deeply ingrained principle of sovereignty and self-reliance in foreign policy continues to guide Nigerias approach to international relations. Nigerias role as a critical stakeholder in ECOWAS brings to fore its commitment to regional stability. President Tinubu, as ECOWAS chairman, has actively championed initiatives designed to restore peace in the region, including efforts to mediate in Nigers political crisis. It is therefore laughable to suggest that Nigeria, under such leadership, would partake in a conspiracy to undermine its neighbour. The historical, cultural, and economic ties between Nigeria and Niger further highlight the absurdity of Tchianis claims. The two nations share a 1,500-kilometre border and a long history of interdependence, from trade to shared security interests. Communities on both sides of the border are deeply intertwined through kinship, culture, and commerce. Any action to destabilise Niger would inevitably have repercussions for Nigeria, making such an endeavour counterproductive. Nigeria and Niger are bound by a shared destiny that cannot be undone by the ambitions of an individual. This relationship, deeply rooted in history and mutual interests, has endured despite attempts to drive a wedge between the two nations. The path forward lies in strengthening this bond through heightened awareness of divisive tactics. As Nigeria and ECOWAS await Nigers reconsideration of its withdrawal from the regional bloc, it is laughable to suggest that Nigeria, whose president currently chairs ECOWAS, would sabotage Niger at a time when efforts are focused on fostering unity and stability in West Africa. Ultimately, Tchianis allegations are a stark reminder of the dangers of misinformation in a fragile region. They also reinforce the place of truth in the face of propaganda. This phase is an opportunity for Nigeria and Niger to rise above this manufactured discord. Whether through cultural affinity or shared goals, both nations are challenged to counter the divisive narratives that threaten to undermine their longstanding partnership. Abdulrahman Usman Leme, a project management and development consultant, writes from Abuja. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print This new intervention focuses on police trauma and psychological experiences. The programme, which has its origin in UNDPs effort at stabilisation in the North-East of Nigeria, has evolved into a further pilot of ways in which we help the police care for themselves. It recognises that traumatised people, if unhelped, often inflict trauma on others. Our pilot of Psychosocial and Trauma Support and Leadership for the Police is to break this potential cycle. Since 2021, the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany has been providing funding to support the reform agenda for the Nigerian Police Force through the lead of the United Nations Development Programme, with the able partnership of GS Foundation of Germany. This programme was initiated from a meeting between former President Muhammadu Buhari and then German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to provide institutional investment in the development and evolution of the Nigerian Police Force. It continues with the active support of President Bola Tinubus administration. It has been one of my great privileges to lead its focus on Training. In practice, it has led to a major educating exposure to Police Officers and their humanity. Unfortunately, this is the first casualty of Police engagement with the Nigerian Public. The training of police officers has been a catalyst for moving the Nigeria Police Force reform, starting with the improvement of training provision to recruits, especially repositioning this towards Adult Learning and ensuring that tutors become the facilitators, and not just lecturers. We have especially built learning partnerships, rather than just chalk and talk. Over this journey, we have trained at least a thousand facilitators to improve the capacity of the police to evolve in professionalism and become genuine friends of the law-abiding Nigerian people. It is especially true, too, that the NPF has needed to turn the Police Act 2020 into a professional habit in its spirit and letter, making every officer a habitual practitioner of best practices. This goal of translating the Police Act 2020 into the standard for their rank and file remains an ongoing and long-term change process. Hopefully, it will transform the police from simply functioning as the Nigerian Police Force to a police service to and for communities and the wider society. Inevitably, its a journey of continuous improvement, one that requires proper analysis of the strengths and areas that need improvement in policing in Nigeria. It is a never-ending journey of adapting its service, with the governments direction and the peoples consent. Unfortunately for the police, every negative incident that comes out of their interaction with the public is turned into a collective reputational issue that indicts their brand. At no point in time did we seem to see the balance that has to be struck between the strengths of the Nigerian police, the valuable service that they have to deliver and the weaknesses or areas for improvement that are inevitable in the process of serving over 200 million people. In the end of November 2024 and start of December, we piloted or pioneered a new intervention, as we have done with many other activities in training the Police. This new intervention focuses on police trauma and psychological experiences. The programme, which has its origin in UNDPs effort at stabilisation in the North-East of Nigeria, has evolved into a further pilot of ways in which we help the police care for themselves. It recognises that traumatised people, if unhelped, often inflict trauma on others. Our pilot of Psychosocial and Trauma Support and Leadership for the Police is to break this potential cycle. The origin of this work was under Dr Moncef Kartas, who was the leader of the UNDP Stabilisation Project in the North-East, and Dr Paul Turay, of the same team, who specifically guided the initiation and design of a intervention to support our security forces in their relationship with local communities. This work also looked at the experiences of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and that of the officers protecting them. The work started with data from the experiences of IDP and returnees about the security forces and the narrative of their complaints about them in frontline areas. Our work had the desired impact to focus on helping the frontline officers develop standards for engaging local communities positively; ensuring that they maintain the security of their lives, whilst reducing the toxic and traumatising side effects that post-conflict communities face. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Our pilots were done in Maiduguri and Yola. In both places, the workshops evolved as new emergent issues shifted some its elements to increasingly recognise that the security forces were also deeply traumatised. It was a major unplanned effect that an aspect of the workshop that was looking at trauma exposed the depth of experiences of security officers, and how they needed more time and focus. We realised that these officers had a lot of unprocessed traumas that needed to be addressed. The toxicity of traumatised security officers interacting with traumatised communities is a critical contributor to the deepening of toxic relations. With the lead from colleagues from University of Jos, our team built around our multi-disciplinary approach, a programme that will help Police officers work through their trauma and develop coping strategies for themselves and their colleagues. We also built on our customary use of Theatre as an amplifier of issues and giving voice to the dynamics that might be difficult for participants to express. Our delivery team, aside from the Theatre practitioners, included a renowned Police historian, two psychologists, and a lawyer/facilitator. This new idea was dramatically catalysed by the experience of watching a senior military officer break down during the trauma segment, when we opened conversation about their experiences. This singular experience confirmed to us that we are confronting a very deep well of pain and dysfunction. So, we put a proposal to our seniors in the UNDP to look at the possibility of sensitising security officers and later specifically Police officers on their trauma. We wanted to ensure that their painful experiences did not become an obstacle in the discharge of their duties or breeding grounds for further damage to themselves and others. Our proposal for the pilot was also guided by the observation of self-medication that is being carried out, especially through the use and abuse of alcohol and other potentially illicit drugs. We knew that we are dealing with the visible part of a larger challenge. Our pilot looks exclusively at police officers, whose work deals with daily engagement with the worst crimes, in the course of trying to help the society deal with what we now call insecurity. With the lead from colleagues from University of Jos, our team built around our multi-disciplinary approach, a programme that will help Police officers work through their trauma and develop coping strategies for themselves and their colleagues. We also built on our customary use of Theatre as an amplifier of issues and giving voice to the dynamics that might be difficult for participants to express. Our delivery team, aside from the Theatre practitioners, included a renowned Police historian, two psychologists, and a lawyer/facilitator. Our pilot now had an agreed date and location with the support of the NPF Training Directorate. We moved forward with the strategic support of Deputy Inspector General of Police Frank Mba and the direct intervention of Commissioner of Police Rashid Afegbua. They helped identify officers across the North, the North-West, the North-Central and the North-East (our piloting start) who have experienced trauma and could lead others to recover. It was agreed that this pilot would be for over two weeks at the Nigerian Institute of Police Studies in Abuja. Each class would last one week, with 40 participants. I hope this gives our context and explains the journey of the pilot. We invited officers who met our criteria to the pilot workshop. We started on the 25th of November and completed the two week pilot on the 6th of December. It was and has been a very humbling experience. It was two weeks of exploring the pain and challenges that are distressing to many people in their service to our society. For example, we had a Police Inspector whose husband and son have been missing for years after an attack by Boko Haram. We (especially the officer) do not know whether they are alive or dead. Shortly after, she woke up one day to find a side of her body paralysed, without any physical ailment, and it remains till today. She was one of the participants in this course. There was also a Deputy Superintendent of Police whose two sons were killed within a month of each other by insurgents, besides his own wounds and injuries. There was an Inspector whose legs and arms had been amputated at different joints. She could barely stand with one leg because it was half a feet. Her husband, who also suffered the same attack, is totally paralysed and confined largely to his bed. Many individuals, and officers, in the cohort, were victims of kidnapping, with scars. Some of them suffered burns. One had lost an eye. They were all there in the last two weeks, with much more to share. A DSP, in the course of duty, was driving a vehicle and chasing some robbers as part of a wider team of police and soldiers. He was fired at and his vehicle was then hit by another car and it burst into flames. The fire burnt his body, and his hands were disfigured as a result. All these different experiences, without exception, were all in the service of the Nigerian public and to protect lives and property. I pray and hope for a renewal for all of our participants. We thank them, especially for their sacrifice and service to Nigeria, which is rarely ever fully recognised. The NPF has all the spectrum of Nigeria present in its ranks, as it mirrors the rest of our society. In the past four years, I have met and trained close to two thousand officers in various areas of professional improvement. Nothing is more humbling than the sacrifice of many of these people without the basic protection needed to do their jobs effectively. All these individuals are still serving police officers, dedicated to bringing security, enforcing our laws, and maintaining order for our society to function effectively. As if this was not enough, in the course of the second cohort, one of the officers who was there with her trauma got a call in the evening of the second day. Her husband, who was studying for his Masters Degree, had slumped and died while she was at the workshop in Abuja. The many pains and struggles that we have seen amongst the participants are without doubt unprecedented in scope and magnitude. It puts a lie to the simple stereotype that the Nigerian police are just there to make money and are only recognisable for corrupt practices. Suffice it to say, like all humans and institutions NPF has its failings but also its strengths. Not the least being the unheralded sacrifices of its officers. It is obvious and easier to focus on the pain in the room this overwhelming, extraordinary pain that each participant seemed to carry like their uniform. Thankfully, we had such a great facilitator in Ms Utek Ishaku and especially the theatre group from Heart Heartist; Police doctor, Dr Banji, who was there to also work with the participants. With the support of the team, inclusive of the DSP, we worked on identifying their traumas, while expressing ways in which they can manage their pain and reduce the distress they face as a consequence. In due course, we built a bridge for them to move from despair to repair. Additionally, the Psychologist gave them exercises to practice that would give them takeaway skills. These will increase their understanding of themselves and how to care for themselves. Also, they would be able to apply emotional intelligence to work and manage their engagement with members of society and with their colleagues. The officer who was amputated by insurgents captured the hope many had at the end of the training, when she said her thank you. She revisited her husbands paralysis and the pain that it entails, she thanked us because this was now an opportunity to use the breathing exercises as a gift to him in his ongoing battle with his health, and it also allowed her as well to address the pain and the challenges that she was facing as a result of the physical and emotional wounds that have changed her life. I pray and hope for a renewal for all of our participants. We thank them, especially for their sacrifice and service to Nigeria, which is rarely ever fully recognised. The NPF has all the spectrum of Nigeria present in its ranks, as it mirrors the rest of our society. In the past four years, I have met and trained close to two thousand officers in various areas of professional improvement. Nothing is more humbling than the sacrifice of many of these people without the basic protection needed to do their jobs effectively. As we review our last pilot, it is and has been important to ensure we work to encourage the best behaviour from our police and sanction bad choices. We need to do both diligently without ignoring their humanity or else then we will diminish ours. Adewale Ajadi, a lawyer, creative consultant and leadership expert, is author of Omoluwabi 2.0: A Code of Transformation in 21st Century Nigeria. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The contributions of Falola have continued to penetrate the various disciplines known to man. As a watchdog and conscience of the society, he educates us about the invaluable contribution of women to the development of African epistemic legacies and, thus, calls for the reevaluation of the collective stance against women. Females have always been critical to the growth of the continent, and it goes without saying that what they achieve in Nigerian and African history cannot be underwritten. One of the most important yet demanding jobs in life is teaching and writing. Teachers, by virtue of their calling, foster the right to education and shoulder the responsibility of transmitting values and information to the learners who are believed would become the leaders of tomorrow. Teaching is difficult generally because it mandates the teachers to involve themselves in many activities in their efforts to become active and relevant in their engagements and management of the students. Teachers become doctors within the four walls of the classroom because they would have to carry out pedagogical but not surgical operations in the minds of their students who would graduate to become valuable to the project of community development. To, therefore, become successful in this engagement, the teacher is required to have sufficient information that s/he can use to enhance the success of students in all ramifications. At the same time, the teacher is a lawyer, for s/he is expected to defend the students when faced with consuming challenges in life or the process of their development. Again, teachers, irrespective of their disciplines, will have to inconvenience themselves just so that they can become valuable and useful in the lives of their students. There are many other things that teachers must do in the effort to transform the lives of humans and the human society itself, and they often embrace this responsibility with open arms. It is difficult to come across humans making invaluable contributions to the world who have not passed through the tutelage of sound teachers. Interestingly, the responsibilities of a writer are similar to that of a teacher. Meanwhile, the expectations of excellence from teachers and writers are not exclusively for the students; human communities also have high expectations of their teachers and writers for obvious reasons. The teachers and writers in every community are their conscience and even their consciousness. Without them, society may be stuck in a stagnant state for a very long time. Writers especially are believed to undertake the mandate of wrestling the soul of the society from the hands of beasts who want to use it for provincial objectives. Falola belongs to the category of writers who have remained committed to helping their homeland to detoxify its organs of things that could potentially bring about its imminent destruction. He has become the champion of ethics. However, it is not unlikely that the human system will take up behaviours and attitudes that are potentially destructive in very many ways. They often do this not because they are unaware of the destructive consequences or potentials of what they are about to do but because they prioritise personal ambitions beyond collective safety or beyond the common good. The responsibility of detoxification, therefore, rests on the human conscience, to ask them why they think certain actions are to be considered, even despite their knowledge of their possible problems. In a nation, humans are the different organs of the body that take up negative, destructive, and dangerous behaviours because they are calculated to be of immense importance to them, even when it comes to the detriment of society. In the same vein, certain humans are controlled by conscience. In this case, Falola, a writer of international repute, is the conscience of the nation, given his very significant responsibilities. Follow me. In legal parlance, the State is the duty bearer of human rights. This means it is obliged to ensure that citizens enjoy their rights. Yet, for this to happen, sometimes the State needs to be held accountable and reminded to deliver on its commitments to people. As the conscience of the nation, Falola has been at the forefront of intellectual protest examining efforts and policies of African countries, including his country, Nigeria, in a bid to identify the potential benefits associable with them, and where it is nonexistent, he has always spoken his mind to question the moral rectitude of efforts and decisions of the government. Falola became an in-expendable voice of emancipatory advocacy through his continued consistency about the place of language in the preservation and access of resources or historical materials needed for contemporary insights. As I argue in my book on Falolas works, The Complex Interplay between Power, Politics, and African Agency: The Philosophy of Toyin Falola, he contends that the otherwise stereotypic sentiment tying African knowledge production to the marginal space has been sustained because there is an archival problem when it comes to accessing the records of epistemic discoveries associated with past Africans. Of course, people are at the centre of everything in the human world, to the extent that it is their responsibility to create ideas and values that they believe would bring sanity to the world. Once it is apparent, for example, that they are, however, overcome by selfish ambition, they need to be examined in critical ways so that the decisions of the few would not jeopardise the interest of the collective. This is called speaking truth to power, as the well-known Journalist Prof JJ Tabane would say in South Africa. Falola, on many occasions, has subjected to test the policies and interventions of the government not with a view to discrediting the actors in these institutions but to ensure that their contributions are eternally effective to the project of resurgence and emancipation or full enjoyment of human rights. In that case, the writer is conceived as an integral part of society, for s/he offers resourceful contributions to collective issues even when dissatisfied forces threaten his/her position. The sense of right or wrong is not always important to people, especially in situations when they must achieve parochial intentions, but then, if such is allowed without intervention or questioning, it would expose everyone to problems that they could be incapable of solving at some point. Falola has produced knowledge at different phases of his growth, and recently, he has increased his dedication to this mandate, and a couple of them will be examined here. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Falola became an in-expendable voice of emancipatory advocacy through his continued consistency about the place of language in the preservation and access of resources or historical materials needed for contemporary insights. As I argue in my book on Falolas works, The Complex Interplay between Power, Politics, and African Agency: The Philosophy of Toyin Falola, he contends that the otherwise stereotypic sentiment tying African knowledge production to the marginal space has been sustained because there is an archival problem when it comes to accessing the records of epistemic discoveries associated with past Africans. He believes, for example, that the absence of knowledge production linked to Africa has contributed to the emasculation of their intellectual power in the community of intellectuals where ideas are used for the growth of a people. Meanwhile, absence does not signify a lack of existence in this sense; it only showcases that there is a force that challenges its existence in fundamental ways. That force, that is, would be eventually realised as an archival and linguistic barrier that is militating against the recognition of African inputs in the global knowledge economy. Falola reminds his country and the continent at the same time that unless they retrieve knowledge of their ancient time and refine it for contemporary adoption, Africa will continue to be a trashcan for others where they dump ideologically ineffective solutions to the myriad of homemade challenges. For that, there has been a steady reminder to his country that it is important that knowledge mining should start with their conscious efforts to promote Indigenous values so that they can chart new ways to develop in this time and period. as I argue in my book on Falolas philosophy, women in recent African history have not been found wanting. More importantly, they have used their forward-looking ability to project a future through the creation and transmission of knowledge. African women are found in the category of educators who used oral mediums to put across their messages, and they have been very instrumental in creating invaluable knowledge useful for humanity at different points in time. Falola has always been very consistent about the multidimensional nature of Nigerian (and African) leadership problems and has remained with his argument that the nature of power transition has always impeded true growth, especially for Africans. In my examination of power in the works of Falola, I argue that he is unequivocal in showing that the transition of power from the Europeans who took it from African kings and queens but bequeathed them to the elites during independence has been a cringing problem for the potentials of the people. He mentions, for example, that African neocolonial leaders have always been victims themselves, but ones that bask in the surplus of material wealth, which was enough to silence them. This is what he means. Nigerian and African leaders of the current time benefit from the shamble political structures that they inherited from the erstwhile colonial imperialists, and that is the reason for their continued patronage of the system. The structure was dismissive of established and existing indigenous systems, and its survival was built on the onslaught of the latter. The power that was taken from the indigenous leaders was, however, returned to the hands of the elites, who themselves are the very creation of the European colonialists. It goes without saying that the unscrupulous government available in the country and the continent is aware of its relative minimum impact, which is where they should have been giving maximum results. They are content with that slow level of development because they do not share the mandate that the traditional leaders have towards their people. This, therefore, helps to remind politicians that much as they might have the interest of the people at heart, they cannot bring home success if they continue to maintain the structures of despondency that they inherited. This is a clear call for the inclusion of the African indigenous system in the governance of African countries, as requested by His Excellency Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa. The contributions of Falola have continued to penetrate the various disciplines known to man. As a watchdog and conscience of the society, he educates us about the invaluable contribution of women to the development of African epistemic legacies and, thus, calls for the reevaluation of the collective stance against women. Females have always been critical to the growth of the continent, and it goes without saying that what they achieve in Nigerian and African history cannot be underwritten. If anything, they have always been recognised as a very vibrant tool in the making and transmission of knowledge for the benefit of humankind. Beautiful contributions associated with women cannot be overemphasised on the ground that they are not documented in orthographic representation as their male counterparts. And, as I argue in my book on Falolas philosophy, women in recent African history have not been found wanting. More importantly, they have used their forward-looking ability to project a future through the creation and transmission of knowledge. African women are found in the category of educators who used oral mediums to put across their messages, and they have been very instrumental in creating invaluable knowledge useful for humanity at different points in time. For this reason, they do not deserve the marginal space created for them by their male counterparts or through institutions that are erected at different times of human inquiry. Falola ensures that such engagement helps to reiterate the significance of womens rights and gender equality with specific attention to the role of women in building a worthwhile culture and sustaining a civilisation for a very long time. For this, he always reminds society of what they must do in order to make themselves continually relevant and productive. Without a conscience of the nation, the standard of living of people will not improve, and human rights in general will not be worth the paper they are written on. Serges Kamga is the Dean of the Law School, University of the Free State, South Africa. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The path forward demands not just sustained commitment but a radical reimagining of anti-corruption efforts. Recent successes, while encouraging, must not blind us to the need for fundamental institutional reform. The true test lies not in high-profile raids or impressive statistics but in the consistent, impartial application of justice across all strata of society. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has persistently drawn sharp criticism for its glaring lack of proactivity, blatant politicisation of investigations, and troubling predilection for media trials of alleged offenders. This unfavourable perception isnt merely speculative it has been repeatedly validated by the commissions embarrassingly faulty prosecution strategies, resulting in the collapse of seemingly watertight cases, particularly those involving high-profile politicians. While the recent mass arrest of 792 cybercrime suspects might suggest a departure from the organisations historically politicised operations, we must approach this development with measured scepticism. The commissions trajectory since its establishment in 2003 reads like a cautionary tale of institutional manipulation. It has consistently served as a political weapon, wielded with precision by successive presidents against their opponents while conveniently shielding their allies from scrutiny. My personal encounters with the commission first as a witness and later as an accused provide firsthand insight into its selective prosecution patterns. Though I emerged unscathed after brief interrogations and perfunctory statement-writing, these experiences illuminated the deeply entrenched bias within the anti-corruption agency. Yet, despite its profound flaws, we must acknowledge an uncomfortable truth: without the EFCC and its sister agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigerias corruption landscape might be significantly more devastating. The EFCCs history of partisan enforcement reached notorious heights during President Obasanjos administration. Under Nuhu Ribadus leadership, the commission earned a reputation for aggressively targeting political opponents, while turning a blind eye to flagrant corruption within the ruling party. This disturbing pattern didnt merely persist it became increasingly sophisticated through subsequent administrations, with each new government refining the art of weaponising the EFCC for political vendettas. The Buhari administration particularly exemplified this trend, as anti-corruption efforts morphed into a thinly veiled mechanism for opposition harassment, whilst government allies enjoyed virtual immunity. The arrest of former acting chairman Ibrahim Magu on corruption charges in 2020 wasnt merely a scandal it was a damning indictment of the institutions susceptibility to the very corruption it purported to fight. The recent cybercrime crackdown, while impressive in scale, demands rigorous scrutiny. Yes, the operation targeted actual criminal activities rather than political opponents, and the arrest of foreign nationals suggests improved international cooperation. The raid on Victoria Islands hustle kingdom, yielding 792 suspects including 193 foreigners, has generated patriotic fervour in us understandably. However, we must question whether this operation represents genuine institutional reform or merely a strategic shift in targets. Critical inquiries remain insufficiently addressed: What systematic approach exists for investigating established cybercriminal networks within our communities? Why did the Victoria Island operation require such prolonged surveillance, and what triggered the eventual raid? The involvement of foreign nationals in these criminal enterprises raises alarming questions about our national security infrastructure. The pervasive culture of cybercrime in Nigeria, manifested through various yahoo schemes, reveals a profound moral crisis in our society. The phenomenon of overnight millionaires through cybercrime isnt merely a law enforcement challenge its a damning indictment of our collective values. Perhaps most disturbing is the complicity of parents who maintain willful ignorance about their childrens suspicious wealth, highlighting a broader societal decay that transcends individual criminal acts. The EFCCs premature announcement of the Victoria Island operation, before completing thorough investigations, exemplifies the commissions persistent addiction to publicity over procedure. While this raid may temporarily boost the agencys image, particularly following its controversial handling of former Kogi state governor Alhaji Yahaya Bellos case, it raises serious questions about investigative integrity and due process. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Critical inquiries remain insufficiently addressed: What systematic approach exists for investigating established cybercriminal networks within our communities? Why did the Victoria Island operation require such prolonged surveillance, and what triggered the eventual raid? The involvement of foreign nationals in these criminal enterprises raises alarming questions about our national security infrastructure. How have foreigners managed to so easily penetrate our systems, recruit local talent, and establish sophisticated criminal operations on Nigerian soil? The identity and influence of local facilitators demand thorough investigation. The international dimensions of this case present both opportunities and challenges. Nations with stringent cybercrime laws will scrutinise the EFCCs handling of foreign suspects, potentially affecting diplomatic relations and cross-border law enforcement cooperation. The question of extradition looms large, testing Nigerias commitment to international justice protocols. Only when the EFCC and ICPC demonstrate unwavering commitment to prosecuting corruption regardless of political affiliations or social status can we begin to envision the Nigeria of our aspirations a nation where integrity triumphs over impunity, and justice operates without fear or favour. Meanwhile, the ICPCs recent performance statistics, while superficially impressive, warrant deeper analysis. Chairman Musa Adamu Aliyus report of processing 1,187 petitions and securing 18 convictions in 2023, followed by 851 petitions and 13 convictions in 2024, reveals a concerning conviction rate. The recovery of N13 billion within 24 hours in September 2024, while noteworthy, raises questions about the sustainability of such operations and the fate of recovered funds. The fundamental challenges confronting both the EFCC and ICPC extend beyond operational inefficiencies to the very fabric of Nigerian society. Corruption has become so deeply embedded in our national psyche that fighting it requires more than institutional reform it demands a complete reconstruction of our social values. The agencies struggle against corruption resembles an attempt to drain an ocean with a bucket, given the systemic nature of the problem. The path forward demands not just sustained commitment but a radical reimagining of anti-corruption efforts. Recent successes, while encouraging, must not blind us to the need for fundamental institutional reform. The true test lies not in high-profile raids or impressive statistics but in the consistent, impartial application of justice across all strata of society. Only when the EFCC and ICPC demonstrate unwavering commitment to prosecuting corruption regardless of political affiliations or social status can we begin to envision the Nigeria of our aspirations a nation where integrity triumphs over impunity, and justice operates without fear or favour. Zainab Suleiman Okino chairs Blueprint Editorial Board. She is a syndicated columnist and can be reached via: zainabokino@gmail.com Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Its a measure of Israels resilience that, despite the war and disagreements even within Israel about how best to handle the war and the return of the remaining 100 hostages, despite a Hamas information machinery that brooks neither dissent nor filters, Israel is still standing Yet, its long-term security is intrinsically linked to its neighbours, with whom it has been joined by history and geography and must find and negotiate a common ground, one that might reenact Weinbergs legend of the sheikhs from Lebanon. Perhaps three will be the lucky number. After at least two previous failed attempts, a peace deal between Israel and Hamas might be reached by 20 January or in the early days of Donald Trumps second term. Or Its a matter of perhaps, with a big P. Optimism is a rare commodity in a region with the longest-running conflict and the largest river of bad blood. Yet, after over 450 days of war with its predations, traumas and devastations, a bit of optimism is not a bad thing. In that spirit, I accepted the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs invitation for a five-day official visit between 15 and 19 December. To Visit or Not? One week before my trip, Bashar al-Assad fell and fled to Russia. The inheritor of a legacy of hostility toward Israel, his father, Hafez, once demanded the cession of the Golan Heights as a precondition for peace between Israel and Syria. Bashars fall ended over 50 years of the Assad dynasty, leaving in its place an uncertain and dangerous void. With a ceasefire holding by a thread, this was an inauspicious time to visit anywhere in the area, let alone the country at the heart of the renewed conflict. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Yet, after passing up the invitation in January 2023, I decided to go on my first trip to Israel. As our plane, Flight ET 404, descended from Addis Ababa, flying low over the Mediterranean, which bounds Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, at past seven in the morning, I couldnt help imagining the worst. With Hamas launching over 19,000 rockets mainly unguarded missiles against Israel since 7 October, not a few of them targeting Tel Aviv, Israeli airspace has become something of an aviators nightmare. As Flight ET 404, carrying seven African journalists from Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana, among other passengers, approached Ben Gurion one hour behind schedule, I thought, what if a stray rocket hit us? Never Say Never It may sound like the product of an overwrought mind contaminated by familiarity with bad news. But after Hamas killed more than 1,139 people, including women and children, on 7 October and took 364 hostages, many of the victims at a peace party in Nova, southern Israel, overthinking the worst appears to be the standard way of life. The pictures of the victims at the Nova party with their stories written on small boards and hoisted on wooden poles above beds of candles and flowers at the memorial site are also engraved in the hearts of families up and down the country, still struggling to come to terms with what happened on that day. At the Bring Them Back Home Now office, an NGO in Tel Aviv, 82-year-old Itzik Horn, a survivor of two terrorist attacks in his original home in Argentina, shared the story of how his two sons, Yair, 46 and Eitan, 38, were kidnapped from the Nir Oz Kibbutz not far from Nova, the epicentre of Hamas crime scene on 7 October. Eitan had gone to visit his brother Yair for the weekend when Hamas struck. While pro-Palestinian sentiments frame the question as essentially one of decades of oppression and injustice arising from a land grab, several Israeli officials I met on this trip dismissed such sentiments, citing two instances. One, in 1979, Israel ceded the Sinai Peninsula, twice the size of Israel, to Egypt as a peace offering. A Father Cant Forget After the attack, Horn did not hear from his children again for weeks until a Hamas video surfaced showing they had been taken hostage. Ive not heard any news about them again since November (2023), Horn said, hunched over a chair on the verge of a forlorn hope from retelling this story a million times. A father cant just forget his children or give up on them, can he? I want to know what is happening to them. Are they gagged, dead or alive? I want to know. I want them back home, now. I still have, as a keepsake, the felt pen of one of Ela Ben-Zvis three children, scattered among the shards of glass and other household items, strewn on the floor of her vandalised, bullet-ridden home in Kibbutz Beeri, one of the oldest kibbutz in Israel impacted by the attack. Seven Hours in the Bunker Ela, her husband, Eyal, three children, and a dog had lived in Beeri, separated by a wire mesh, only five kilometres from Gaza. On the morning of 7 October, when the bomb alarm went off at 6:20 a.m., she had nine seconds to get to the shelter with her children, aged 8, 5, and 3, and her dog. It was not an unfamiliar drill. Except this one was longer and more harrowing for the retired soldier and her husband, let alone for the children and the dog, who were consigned for seven hours to a relentless siege in a bunker hardly suitable for more than two. The IDF later rescued Ela and her family, but her dog died afterwards. Her neighbour, a 78-year-old woman living alone, was not so lucky. The Hamas attackers murdered her in her bed, one of the reported 102 people killed in Beeri on that day. Some Sheikhs Were Here Upcountry, in the Ramim Ridge of the Naftali Mountains in Upper Galilee, the story of Orna Weinberg from four generations in the Manara Kibbutz, a community described as Israels northern shield, exemplified the paradox of the strife between Israel and Lebanon, its northern neighbour. When this Kibbutz was founded 81 years ago (before the State of Israel), we didnt have water, Weinberg said as we stood overlooking a UN truck on the other side of the border. We used to fetch water from Lebanon, bringing them up here on mules and barrows. When the first water pipes were installed, the sheikhs of these Lebanese villages came to celebrate with us! Israel, they insist, is a victim of duplicitous diplomacy, mainly by Arab countries, that condemn its acts of self-defence in the daytime and, at night, urge it not to spare Shiite extremism, promoted by Iran, the most significant source of regional instability. As we inspected the ruins from the multiple rocket and mortar attacks launched by Hezbollah, the silence only broken by Weinbergs narration and the sounds of our shoes crunching the remnant of mangled metals, twisted glasses, and other household utensils littering the floor inside one of the bombed buildings in Kibbutz Manara, Weinbergs story sounded like a tale from another world. Nowhere To Go! What is left today of that once thriving community of 260 people where Rachel Rabin Yaakov, sister of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, also lived, is a shadow of itself. With at least five older adults dead after the forced evacuations that followed the Hezbollah attacks that affected 70 per cent of the community, Manara is a ghost town sustained by the stubborn spirit of a few like Weinberg, who have stayed back to rebuild. We have nowhere to go. I have nowhere to go, Weinberg said. This is the only place I know. Its the shield of the North, without which Israel will not exist. If Hezbollah prevails, if Iran prevails, not only Israel, but the whole world is in trouble! About Land? While pro-Palestinian sentiments frame the question as essentially one of decades of oppression and injustice arising from a land grab, several Israeli officials I met on this trip dismissed such sentiments, citing two instances. One, in 1979, Israel ceded the Sinai Peninsula, twice the size of Israel, to Egypt as a peace offering. Two, in 1993, even after Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords with Arafat under a deal supervised by US President Bill Clinton to prevent the creation of new settlements and pave the way for a two-state solution, top PLO officials, including Arafat, later described the Accord as a strategic manoeuvre before the great Jihad. Israel, they insist, is a victim of duplicitous diplomacy, mainly by Arab countries, that condemn its acts of self-defence in the daytime and, at night, urge it not to spare Shiite extremism, promoted by Iran, the most significant source of regional instability. Against the Odds Its a measure of Israels resilience that, despite the war and disagreements even within Israel about how best to handle the war and the return of the remaining 100 hostages, despite a Hamas information machinery that brooks neither dissent nor filters, Israel is still standing. Yet, its long-term security is intrinsically linked to its neighbours, with whom it has been joined by history and geography and must find and negotiate a common ground, one that might reenact Weinbergs legend of the sheikhs from Lebanon. Azu Ishiekwene is the Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the new book, Writing for Media and Monetising It. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Traditional banks are struggling to match the pace and creativity of digital platforms in todays rapidly evolving financial services industry. While established banks have a history of reliability and customer confidence, they often face difficulties in adapting to changing customer needs. On the other hand, digital platforms leverage flexible and scalable technology, enabling them to introduce new functionalities quickly. The financial industry is experiencing a monumental change as digital platforms reshape the banking sector at an unprecedented pace. Consumers are placing greater importance on convenience and quick access to services over traditional banking methods. In todays fast-evolving landscape, services like digital wallets, mobile payments, and investment platforms are flourishing. For example, in the realm of trading, people in Nigeria are prioritising finding the best forex trading app in Nigeria for smooth and efficient market access. Transforming the Banking Industry Through Digital Platforms The landscape of finance is evolving with the rise of platforms that are reshaping how individuals manage their money. The surge in popularity of online banks, often referred to as neobanks, can be attributed to their easy-to-use interfaces and cost-effectiveness compared to conventional banks. These platforms operate mainly through applications and online portals rather than brick-and-mortar branches, making banking convenient and accessible around the clock. Digital platforms have become increasingly attractive to tech-savvy users due to features like instant fund transfers, budgeting tools, and AI-powered financial guidance. These services are tailored toward a newer demographic that values time-saving features and customised offerings. Furthermore, digital platforms outperform legacy banking systems in terms of transaction processing and data management efficiency, leveraging advanced technology to stay ahead. The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Financial Industry Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a key player in the evolution of banking. AI-driven tools analyse customer spending patterns and offer personalised suggestions, while also forecasting future financial needs. Chatbots enhanced with AI provide users with real-time assistance, addressing queries and resolving issues without the need for human involvement. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later AI has also made significant strides in fraud detection. Sophisticated algorithms monitor transactions for irregularities, identifying fraudulent activity before it occurs. Such heightened security measures not only safeguard customers but also boost confidence in online banking services. Promoting Accessibility and Financial Inclusion Digital platforms offer a unique advantage in promoting financial inclusion by providing access to individuals who may have been excluded from traditional banking systems. These platforms address challenges like the lack of formal identification or the remoteness of certain locations by offering accounts with minimal paperwork requirements and utilising mobile technology to extend their reach to underserved communities. In regions like Africa, mobile banking applications are bridging the financial divide by allowing individuals to save, invest, and conduct transactions without relying on physical bank branches. The proliferation of mobile money has empowered millions, granting them access to services that were previously out of reach. Cutting Expenses and Boosting Productivity Digital banks have lower operating costs compared to traditional banks, primarily because they dont need to maintain physical branches with all the associated overhead expenses. This cost efficiency allows digital banks to offer competitive rates and reduced fees to their customers while also delivering faster services and lower transaction costs overall. Digital platforms also provide businesses with enhanced payment processing and financial management tools. Entrepreneurs can access up-to-date information, make informed decisions, and streamline their operations through a single platform. This ease of use is particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that may lack the resources to engage with conventional banks. The Competitive Edge of Digital Platforms Traditional banks are struggling to match the pace and creativity of digital platforms in todays rapidly evolving financial services industry. While established banks have a history of reliability and customer confidence, they often face difficulties in adapting to changing customer needs. On the other hand, digital platforms leverage flexible and scalable technology, enabling them to introduce new functionalities quickly. This competitive edge is especially evident in the growth of financial technology firms specialising in specific areas such as lending, payments, and investments. These niche solutions frequently outperform traditional banks in terms of user experience and efficiency, attracting a growing customer base. Navigating Challenges in Digital Banking Despite their numerous advantages, digital platforms face challenges such as cybersecurity risks and regulatory compliance. As more individuals rely on these platforms to manage their finances, prioritising robust security measures becomes essential. Ensuring compliance with evolving regulations is equally critical, as governments worldwide implement stricter guidelines for monitoring financial services. Moreover, digital platforms must work to build trust among customers accustomed to the stability and reliability of traditional banks. Transparent policies, responsive customer support, and consistent service delivery play pivotal roles in fostering confidence in these modern financial setups. The Era of Banking Has Arrived In the evolving landscape of digital platforms, the distinction between traditional banks and tech-driven solutions continues to grow. The future of banking lies in crafting customer-focused experiences powered by technological advancements. By providing tools that cater to diverse needs and facilitate global trading ventures, these platforms are revolutionising the way individuals handle their finances. The continuous development of digital banking showcases the transformative role of technology in shaping the financial industrys landscape. Through a focus on innovation and convenience, digital platforms are not only meeting customer expectations but also redefining them, setting new standards for financial offerings. Fidelis Nwagwu writes from Abuja. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print to build a true nation, we must hand on to our children a banner without stain, from generation to generation. It, therefore, means that we must eschew all anti-nation acts, predilections and tendencies, which suffuse our own dear native land today. The ruckus over a new (which is in fact old) National Anthem has subsided. And as with many other things, Nigerians have moved on. We always do. For those of us who were in school in the 1960s and 70s, Nigeria We Hail Thee was the staple we fed on. It was our very beloved National Anthem. Melodious and inspiring. We felt like doing anything, going anywhere for the country whenever we sang it, as young as we were. But in 1978, they said we were changing to a new Anthem. Arise o Compatriots, Nigerias Call Obey. I was a Class Three student in secondary school then, and willy-nilly, had to learn the new one. I didnt feel it was as good as the former one, but they mouthed things like patriotism, and having a home grown National Anthem, not one composed by a foreigner. We moved, as obedient citizens. For some years, there had been agitation from certain quarters for a return to the old Anthem in the country. It was even a major issue at the 2014 Constitutional Conference convened by President Goodluck Jonathan. Majority of the conferees opted for it. So when the Bola Tinubu administration reverted to Nigeria We Hail Thee some months back, I had no issue with it. A lot of people argued that it was the least of the countrys problem at that time, but to me, Nobody Worry Nobody. I didnt have to relearn the old Anthem. It was firmly stuck in my brain, and I had even taught it to my children when they were younger. Now, to where we are going, as we enter the year 2025. Look at the last two lines of the second stanza of the new (old) Anthem: To hand on to our children, a banner without stain. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Very deep. Fundamental for any entity that would truly be called a nation. We are not a nation yet, but mere conglomeration of ethnic nationalities. Hopefully, we will one day become a true nation. But before we get there, the banner of Nigeria must be without stain, and it must be handed over from generation to generation. To hand on to our children, a banner without stain. I shudder to admit that currently, the banner of Nigeria is filled with stains, and has been so from the beginning. Bloodied. Sullied. Smudged. Besmirched. Pity! When Major Kaduna Nzeogwu led the first military coup in the country, and they shot people from certain parts to ribbons, it was a stain on Nigerias banner. On our unity. When the revenge coup occurred later, and it was also sectional in execution, another smudge on our banner. Eventually, there was a pogrom against an ethnic nationality, which eventually led to an internecine civil war for three years. Over two million people were killed, and it was a huge stain on our banner. Corruption is a sully. Ethnicity is a tarnish. Irredentism, religious intolerance, chauvinism in any form, wanton killings, terrorism, insularity, evil speaking, hatred of people in authority simply because they are not from our clan, negative confessions about our country; all these besmirch our banner as a land and people. But to build a true nation, we must hand on to our children a banner without stain, from generation to generation. It, therefore, means that we must eschew all anti-nation acts, predilections and tendencies, which suffuse our own dear native land today. We must believe in our country, warts and all. William Cowper said: England, with all thy faults, I love thee still. My country. We must also say of our land: Nigeria, with all thy faults, I love thee still. My country. A banner without stain. To be called a nation, we must achieve it, if not in our time, then in the time of our children. Femi Adesina served as special adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The 2024 Christmas revelry envisaged for many families in Nigeria turned into a mourning period. The series of gory bloodied Christmas news commenced in the ancient city of Ibadan when news broke on Wednesday, December 18 of the deaths of minors at a charity event organised to provide support to 5,000 indigent children. Just as the country was grappling with the gory tales of at least 35 children being trampled upon in the rush to gain entry into the venue of the charity event and accounts of desperate parents unwittingly throwing their children over the fence at the venue into death, another sad news broke. On Saturday, December 21, not less than 20 deaths were recorded at another stampede at Okija community in Anambra State while 10 deaths were recorded at the countrys capital city Abuja at a church in the highbrow Maitama. At both venues, people converged to receive food distributions from private institutions and individuals trying to provide succour to the poor. Such charity events are not new and it is on record that the organisers of the events at all three locations are not new to such assemblies. This year tragic incidents occurred due to overcrowding at the three events. On the surface, the insinuation made by both President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at a media chat and another credited to Manzo Ezekiel, a spokesman for Nigerias National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), by AFP that the stampedes showed societal indiscipline, lack of safety and precautionary measures missed the point. The presidents comments made in his media chat in December and a press statement by his aides and the NEMAs spokesperson comments are symptomatic of the countrys officials distance from the realities of the people. The president, his aides and the NEMA official missed the tragic tale of the intersection of poverty, loss of human dignity, and the breakdown of personal safety mechanisms in those stampedes. The three incidents have shown how in recent years the countrys state of poverty has made citizens more vulnerable than ever. From the 1970s through to the 1980s and until present times, media organisations, religious bodies, charities and individuals have always organised similar events as the Ibadan, Okija and Abuja December 2024 events. Despite the limited number of such public support, they were not known to have resulted in such incidents as in recent times. The prevalent socio-economic situation has contributed to heightened desperation for freebies to the extent that events, where handouts are given, are overcrowded. With poverty limiting access to safer, structured events or opportunities for individuals, they are easily pushed into taking risky options for survival. A fleeting chance of accessing free food, monetary support, clothing and other gifts is embraced by people who are often desperate for access to basic resources or opportunities. While the comments by the president, the presidency and the emergency agency may not be easily dismissed in terms of their reasonableness, they are also sad examples of the insensitivity of the Nigerian state and the ruling class to the realities of the people. They showed how the leaders are unaware of the level of financial desperation that would make people go to such lengths in search of handouts or aid, underscoring how survival instincts can lead to compromising personal and childrens safety. What was obvious in the December stampedes was the state of demeaned humanity in the country, from the state, the government, minders of the state and the privileged private citizens and groups. The crowds out there at the three locations represent crowds represent not just poverty but the erosion of human dignity, with people treated as faceless numbers in a chaotic scramble for resources. A gnawing question since the incidents is whether those who organised the events or witnessed them anticipated the risks involved. Another question is that given the amount of publicity that accompanied the events, did any of the agencies, be it NEMA, State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs), the police anticipate the possibility of stampedes? Did they at any time figure in the inherent humanity of the individuals likely to be attracted to such places? Both President Tinubu and Mr. Manzo Ezekiels statements indicate how we sometimes miss the human dignity issues involved and merely respond to what we see as faceless numbers in a chaotic scramble for resources. The reported scenario at Ibadan where parents, amidst the chaos and ongoing stampede, were throwing their children over the fence of the school used as the venue to get them inside indicates how much impact poverty has on the sense of safety. In such desperation to get some little bit of handouts on offer, personal safety becomes secondary when collective desperation takes over, causing individuals to lose agency over their well-being. In this instance, it is not just the organisers of the events, authorities who ought to have intervened, especially when we have had cases of loss of lives earlier in Lagos, Bauchi and Nasarawa, that failed in their responsibilities. The police from all accounts were aware of the events and were invited to provide support. Relevant agencies did not pay attention as they were poor people-targeting events. The Ibada, Okija and Abuja stampedes are wake-up calls to all of Nigerias leadership to admit an annihilating state of poverty in the country. The incidents have put a more believable story behind the National Bureau of Statistics data on poverty in the country. The time is now to design a comprehensive approach to tackling poverty beyond the traditional symbolic, feeble and highly politicised social investment programmes. The government and the state need to begin to steer away from the inhumane, neo-liberal-driven economic policies that have pushed more people into poverty, and show empathy to the mass of the people daily pushed into abject poverty. Tunde Aremu is an Abuja-based rights activist, development communicator and media trainer. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A retired controller of works at the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, AbdulRazaq Ajani, was brutally murdered on New Years Day in Ilorin, moments after returning home with his wife and children from a trip to his hometown, Offa. The incident occurred at about 3 p.m. at Dele Gege Street, off Awolowo Road in the Tanke Area of the Kwara State capital. Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES at the residence about two hours after the incident, family members described how the assassins casually entered Mr Ajanis compound moments after he drove in with his immediate family members. Described as four young men between 18 and 22 years old, it was not clear how they arrived in the area. However, a review of CCTV camera recordings showed two of them standing beside Mr Ajanis gate, one of them sipping water from a plastic bottle, while the two others strolled into the compound. On noticing the young men from one of the two sitting rooms on the ground floor of the one-storey main building, the retired officer reportedly rose to meet them at the main door. They appeared to be engaging him in a discussion until he was suddenly lying face down on the ground, said one of the family members describing what he saw on the CCTV. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The immediate family members reportedly watched in horror as the assassins hacked their father with what looked like small axes. Their gruesome task accomplished, the assassins swiftly fled the scene before the howling of the family members drew the attention of neighbours. When this reporter arrived at the house at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the police had evacuated the body and left. A few mourners and some family members sat in the main sitting room, a few metres from the blood-splattered corridor where the senior citizen was hacked to death by the assassins. A civil engineer, Mr Ajani retired from the Federal Ministry of Works about four years ago but was said to have accepted a contract appointment at the ministry last year. Neighbours in the quiet street spoke highly of him and his wife, who owns a popular confectionery, Reo Cakes, in Ilorin. Toun Ejire-Adeyemi, the police spokesperson in Kwara State, said the police have begun investigations into the incident. Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES on the phone, Thursday morning, Mrs Ejire-Adeyemi said the police replied promptly to a distress call from the residence but the killers escaped before the arrival of officers. We will review the CCTV records and other evidence and bring those involved in the killing to justice, she said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has signed into law the states N1.188 trillion budget for the 2025 fiscal year. Mr Fubara assented to the budget within two working days after presenting it to the three-member Rivers Assembly loyal to him. He presented the budget before the Victor Oko-Jumbo-led faction of the assembly on Monday. This is like a repeat of what happened last year, where Governor Fubara presented the N800 billion 2024 budget before a four-member assembly and assented to it within 24 hours. Lawmakers in the oil-rich Rivers had long split into two factions because of the protracted political crisis in the state; the three-member faction, led by Mr Oko-Jumbo, is loyal to Mr Fubara while Martins Amaewhule leads a 27-member faction loyal to Mr Fubaras predecessor, Nyesom Wike. Messrs Fubara and Wike are at loggerheads over the control of the political structure in the state. The Court of Appeal in Abuja invalidated the 2024 budget following a suit filed against it by the pro-Wike lawmakers, but Governor Fubara appealed the case to the Supreme Court, insisting that the pro-Wike lawmakers were no longer members of the assembly after they defected to the All Progressives Congress. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Amid the expected Supreme Court ruling, Mr Fubara presented the 2025 budget. He signed it into law after it was hurriedly passed by the three-member faction of the assembly. No going back, weve moved on, Fubara insist Speaking after assenting to the 2025 budget, Mr Fubara doubled down on his insistence that the 27 Wikes loyalists were no longer members of the assembly. He insisted that Rivers has only one assembly, which is led by Mr Oko-Jumbo. I want to say this, maybe, for some persons somewhere who are still mixing up issues. We have only one Rivers State House of Assembly, and that Assembly is headed by Rt Hon Victor Oko-Jumbo. Mr Fubaras remark is contained in a statement sent on Thursday to PREMIUM TIMES by the governors spokesperson, Nelson Chukwudi. It is too late. We are not going back. We have moved on, Mr Fubara said, describing Mr Wikes allies as a group of friends who embarked on a Sinbad journey, and halfway into the journey, they decided to return. The governor promised to start implementing the new budget and ensure its performance record surpasses that of 2024. The pro-Wike lawmakers have yet to react to the governors signing of the 2025 budget into law. For now, it is unclear if they will also challenge its validity. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print ASTANA, Kazakhstan, January 2. Kazakhstan is demonstrating leadership in attracting investments for new projects in the North and Central Asia region, according to a report by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) of the UN, Trend reports. The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) of the UN has published a report on investments in the region for 2024. According to the report, Kazakhstan attracted $15.7 billion for new projects, becoming a leader in attracting investments in the North and Central Asia region. The report highlights that the investment climate in the region shows a sustained commitment by international companies to diversify their strategies and support projects in key areas such as green energy, digitalization, and technological innovation. "In this context, the proactive efforts of investment agencies and relevant ministries are particularly important. The success of new directions depends not only on creating favorable policies but also on supporting investors at all stages, including post-investment support," the report notes. To note, according to the results of 2024, Kazakhstan saw an 88 percent increase in investments compared to 2023. Kazakhstan accounts for 63 percent of all attracted investments in the region. Following Kazakhstan, the other countries in the list are: Uzbekistan $4 billion (-49 percent), Kyrgyzstan $2.1 billion (+310 percent), Azerbaijan $1.2 billion (+1 percent), Turkmenistan $339 million, Georgia $126 million, and Armenia $67 million Media City Qatar and Google Cloud partner for groundbreaking 'Qatar ArtBeat' initiative for Qatar National Day 2024 DOHA, Qatar, Jan. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Media City Qatar, a catalyst for next-generation media, in partnership with Google Cloud, has set a new Guinness World Records title for the 'Most people contributing to an AI-generated image' with its groundbreaking initiative, 'Qatar ArtBeat.' With over 15,000 contributions, more than 5.4 million people reached, and in excess of 68,000 engagements from across the country, this historic achievement exemplifies how tradition and technology can merge to unite a community in creating a singular, innovative artwork. Qatar ArtBeat": AI Artwork by Media City Qatar in partnership with Google Cloud Sets Guinness World Record The world record was achieved by the powerful capabilities of Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform, Gemini models, and Google BigQuery data platform seamlessly combining comments to reflect voices, emotions, and aspirations shared by the community. The initiative, which ran from December 9 to 17 on Media City Qatar's social media channels, also incorporated sentiments from broader public conversations about Qatar National Day 2024, ensuring that every voice was represented in the final masterpiece. The resulting artwork co-created by the nation reflects unity, creativity, and shared aspirations, setting a remarkable benchmark in the integration of art, technology, and community engagement. Qatar National Day, celebrated annually on December 18, marks a pivotal moment in the nation's history, honoring unity, progress, and cultural pride. Media City Qatar seized this opportunity to showcase Qatar's ability to blend tradition with modernity. "'Qatar ArtBeat' has been a groundbreaking initiative! And now, as the first-of-its-kind to achieve and set a new world record, recognized by Guinness World Records, it stands as a historic achievement for our nation," said Eng. Jassim Mohamed Al Khori, CEO of Media City Qatar. "This milestone highlights Media City Qatar's leadership in innovation and our ability to bring the community together through creativity and technology for this year's Qatar National Day." "'Qatar ArtBeat' demonstrates how Google Cloud's advanced technology can connect communities to achieve something extraordinary," said Ghassan Kosta, Regional General Manager of Google Cloud. "We are honored to support this project with Media City Qatar, which reflects the potential of technology to celebrate culture and creativityand set a new world record." "This iconic record-breaking moment by 'Qatar ArtBeat' is a truly historic achievement," said Shaddy Gaad, Senior Marketing Manager, Guinness World Records. "Recognizing the 'Most People Contributing to an AI-generated Image' highlights the innovation and collaboration that brought this project by Media City Qatar, in partnership with Google Cloud, to life. It is a testament to Qatar's ability to unite the nation around a creative and groundbreaking initiative." As an emerging global media hub, Media City Qatar embodies its vision of "Where Next Is Made" by offering a supportive regulatory environment, state-of-the-art business facilities, and attractive incentive schemes. These pillars drive the sustained growth and development of Qatar's creative industries, spanning broadcasting, news, gaming, publishing, production, animation, media technologies, social and digital media, and content localization. ABOUT MEDIA CITY QATAR Media City Qatar is an emerging, collaborative global hub for media companies, entrepreneurs, innovators, and creative talent, and a regional leader in the media industry, contributing to Qatar's economic diversification. It accelerates the evolution of regional media to create a powerful and innovative ecosystem where exceptional ideas and content thrive. Media City Qatar was established to streamline necessary regulations, develop businesses, and unlock investment opportunities to support the media ecosystem in Qatar under its regulatory, developmental, and investment mandates. Media City Qatar aims to foster a nurturing environment and a hub for traditional and digital media, technology, communications, research, and development. From broadcasting to traditional and digital newspapers, from gaming to user-generated content, and enabling AI and advanced technologies, Media City Qatar welcomes businesses across different media segments of various scales to join us in Doha. For more information, visit www.mediacity.qa or follow us on https://www.facebook.com/mediacityqa https://www.linkedin.com/mediacityqa https://www.instagram.com/mediacityqa https://x.com/mediacityqa ABOUT GOOGLE CLOUD Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models, and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. ABOUT GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS What's the fastest game bird in Europe? This was the question that inspired the founding of Guinness World Records back in 1955. Starting with a single book published from a room above a gym, GWR has grown to become a global multi-media brand, with offices in London, New York, Miami, Beijing, Tokyo and Dubai. Today, we deliver world-class content, not just through Books, but via TV shows, Social Media and Live Events. Our in-house consultancy works closely with brands and businesses around the world to harness the power of record-breaking and deliver award-winning campaigns and business solutions. Our ultimate purpose is to inspire people - individuals, families, schools, groups, companies, communities and even entire countries to read about, watch, listen to and participate in record-breaking. To join this record-breaking community and find out the answer to that original question visit guinnessworldrecords.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2589306/Approved_Image____Qatar_ArtBeat__AI_Artwork.jpg COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y., Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fighting cancer can seem like a deadly game of chance. While some patients may respond well to certain treatments, others might not be as fortunate. Doctors and scientists have long struggled to explain why. Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Katherine Alexander and University of Pennsylvania Professor Shelley Berger have found a possible source of this variability in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC)the most common kidney cancer diagnosed in adults. CSHL Assistant Professor Katherine Alexander and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have identified two different patterns of cellular structures known as nuclear speckles (red) in the most common form of renal cancer. Theyve also spotted a possible connection between these patterns and patient survival rates. Their work is published in Nature Cell Biology. Alexander has identified two different patterns of cellular structures known as nuclear speckles in kidney tumors. Even more exciting, Alexander's research, conducted in Berger's lab at the University of Pennsylvania, shows a potential correlation between speckle patterns and patient outcomes. Alexander explains: "We found that different therapies are more or less effective depending on how the speckles look. This means potentially if a patient comes in with a normal or aberrant speckle state, they might be more responsive to one drug or another. Of course, more research needs to be done." Discovered over 100 years ago, nuclear speckles are tiny cellular structures that reside in the nucleus. Here, they're thought to intermingle with DNA and help regulate gene activity. Alexander's research reveals that nuclear speckles have two different signatures in ccRCC: normal-like and aberrant. It's a matter of positioning. Normal-like speckles tend to congregate toward the center of the nucleus. Aberrant speckles are more dispersed. "How these signatures affect patient outcomes remains a mystery for now," Berger says. "However, the search for answers may lead to more personalized treatments. This discovery offers a new starting point in ccRCC." Alexander adds: "It's the first suggestion that this would be potentially applicable to giving someone [diagnosed with ccRCC] one drug or another. That's huge because cancer therapy has a lot of horrible side effects. To be able to tell a patient, 'Your tumor looks like this, so we think this drug will work better than this drug,' is something we really need." The team didn't just look at kidney cancer. They analyzed speckles in over 20 different types of cancers, from melanomas to breast cancer. However, only ccRCC showed a correlation between speckle patterns and patient outcomes. What makes this cancer special? Alexander's findings point to HIF-2, a protein typically overactive in ccRCC. The Alexander lab aims to pursue this lead alongside other researchers at CSHL's Cancer Center. For now, Alexander continues to investigate the mystery of nuclear speckles' role in cancer. Though she's in uncharted territory, the object of her search is clear. Her work seeks to help stack the odds in cancer patients' favor. About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,000 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu SOURCE Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ADC Therapeutics SA (NYSE: ADCT), a commercial-stage global leader and pioneer in the field of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), today announced that the Company has made grants of options to purchase an aggregate of 20,000 of the Company's common shares to two new employees on January 2, 2025 (each, a "Grant"). The Grants were offered as material inducement to the employees' employment. The grants were approved by the Compensation Committee of the Company's Board of Directors pursuant to the Company's Inducement Plan to motivate and reward the recipients to perform at the highest levels and contribute significantly to the success of the Company. The Grants were made in reliance on the employment inducement exemption under the NYSE's Listed Company Manual Rule 303A.08. The Company is issuing this press release pursuant to Rule 303A.08. The Grants shall vest and become exercisable 25% on the first anniversary of the grant date, and 1/48th of the aggregate number of shares subject to the award on each monthly anniversary of the grant date thereafter, such that the entire award will be vested as of the fourth anniversary of the grant date, subject to continued employment with the Company. About ADC Therapeutics ADC Therapeutics (NYSE: ADCT) is a commercial-stage global leader and pioneer in the field of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). The Company is advancing its proprietary ADC technology to transform the treatment paradigm for patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. ADC Therapeutics' CD19-directed ADC ZYNLONTA (loncastuximab tesirine-lpyl) received accelerated approval by the FDA and conditional approval from the European Commission for the treatment of relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy. ZYNLONTA is also in development in combination with other agents and in earlier lines of therapy. In addition to ZYNLONTA, ADC Therapeutics has multiple ADCs in ongoing clinical and preclinical development. ADC Therapeutics is based in Lausanne (Biopole), Switzerland, and has operations in London and New Jersey. For more information, please visit https://adctherapeutics.com/ and follow the Company on LinkedIn. ZYNLONTA is a registered trademark of ADC Therapeutics SA. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "would", "expect", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "seem", "seek", "future", "continue", or "appear" or the negative of these terms or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those described. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the expected cash runway into mid-2026 the Company's ability to grow ZYNLONTA revenue in the United States; the ability of our partners to commercialize ZYNLONTA in foreign markets, the timing and amount of future revenue and payments to us from such partnerships and their ability to obtain regulatory approval for ZYNLONTA in foreign jurisdictions; the timing and results of the Company's or its partners' research and development projects or clinical trials including LOTIS 5 and 7, ADCT 602 as well as early research in certain solid tumors with different targets, linkers and payloads; the timing and results of investigator-initiated trials including those studying FL and MZL and the potential regulatory and/or compendia strategy and the future opportunity; the timing and outcome of regulatory submissions for the Company's products or product candidates; actions by the FDA or foreign regulatory authorities; projected revenue and expenses; the Company's indebtedness, including Healthcare Royalty Management and Blue Owl and Oaktree facilities, and the restrictions imposed on the Company's activities by such indebtedness, the ability to comply with the terms of the various agreements and repay such indebtedness and the significant cash required to service such indebtedness; and the Company's ability to obtain financial and other resources for its research, development, clinical, and commercial activities. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements is contained in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and in the Company's other periodic and current reports and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, achievements or prospects to be materially different from any future results, performance, achievements or prospects expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this document. CONTACTS: Investors Marcy Graham ADC Therapeutics [email protected] +1 650-667-6450 Media Nicole Riley ADC Therapeutics [email protected] +1 862-926-9040 SOURCE ADC Therapeutics SA A New Era in Haircare Begins January 3rd at CloudHaircare.com and CVS MIAMI, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Haircare, a new brand poised to transform the haircare industry, is officially launching tomorrow, January 3, 2025. Offering affordable, high-performance, vegan, clean, and salon-quality products, Cloud Haircare will be available at CloudHaircare.com, CVS stores nationwide, and CVS.com. Visionary Behind Its a 10 Haircare Launches New Brand, CLOUD, Bringing Affordable Luxury Haircare to the Masses (PRNewsfoto/CLOUD) The brand is designed to meet the needs of today's consumers with products that prioritize sustainability and ingredient integrity. Crafted with vegan, SLS-free formulations, and packaged up to 94% post-consumer recycled materials, Cloud Haircare aligns with modern values while delivering salon-quality results at an accessible price point. By offering indulgent yet attainable products, Cloud Haircare embodies a new standard in beauty: "Affordable Luxury for Everyone." Cloud Haircare was founded by Carolyn Aronson, best known for her first beauty company, It's a 10 Haircarea brand that has become a professional haircare staple with broad consumer appeal. With Cloud Haircare, Aronson is expanding her portfolio into the mass retail space, aiming to lead the category with innovative products at accessible prices. The brand is also strategically targeting a highly receptive Gen Z audience, who prioritize environmental sustainability and are discerning about the quality of products they use. "This is a dream come true for me," Aronson shared. "Cloud Haircare brings the quality and performance I've always insisted on into a more accessible retail landscape. We're offering consumers products that feel indulgent but are available right where they shop every day." The brand's initial launch includes an expertly curated collection of products addressing diverse hair needs, providing everything, from lightweight hydration to explosive volume and definition. Infused with premium botanicals and science-backed ingredients, each formula reflects Aronson's decades of industry expertise and passion for helping people achieve their best hair. Cloud Haircare's momentum won't stop at CVS. Later in Q1 2025, the brand will expand its reach to Walmart stores nationwide and Walmart.com, solidifying its presence in the mass retail arena. This strategic move ensures that even more consumers can access the revolutionary products that have already begun to generate buzz across the beauty industry. About Cloud Haircare Cloud Haircare is the newest venture by Carolyn Aronson, the visionary behind It's a 10 Haircare. Combining sustainable practices, clean ingredients, and salon-quality results, Cloud Haircare aims to redefine haircare for a new generation. With a focus on affordability and inclusivity, Cloud Haircare is committed to making luxurious haircare accessible to all. MEDIA CONTACT: 5WPR [email protected] 212-999-5585 SOURCE CLOUD BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. In the third quarter of 2024, Azerbaijan solidified its position as one of the key natural gas suppliers to the EU, contributing 4% of the EUs total gas imports, equivalent to 2.7 bcm, Trend reports. While this represents a modest share compared to larger suppliers like Norway and Russia, Azerbaijans steady growth highlights its strategic importance in the EUs efforts to diversify energy sources. Azerbaijans gas exports to the EU in 3Q2024 saw stable performance compared to previous quarters, aligning with the EUs increasing reliance on the Southern Gas Corridor. In 3Q2023, Azerbaijans share also stood at 4%, delivering 2.7 bcm. However, compared to 3Q2022, when Azerbaijan supplied approximately 2.5 bcm (3% of the total imports), this reflects a 8% increase in volumes over two years. In 2Q2024, Azerbaijan exported 2.6 bcm of natural gas to the EU, maintaining consistency as a reliable supplier. The slight increase to 2.7 bcm in 3Q2024 underscores the countrys ability to maintain steady export levels even as overall EU gas demand declines. Azerbaijan has become a cornerstone of the EUs diversification strategy, offering an alternative to Russian gas and contributing to the blocs energy security. The Southern Gas Corridor, a major infrastructure project completed in recent years, has played a critical role in enabling Azerbaijan to export gas directly to European markets. This pipeline network connects Azerbaijans vast Shah Deniz gas field to EU member states. The corridor allows for a capacity of over 10 bcm annually, with room for expansion as demand grows. While Norway, Russia, and the United States dominate the EUs gas imports, Azerbaijan has carved out a niche by offering a stable and politically reliable supply. In Q3 2024: Norway supplied 33% of the EUs total imports (21.3 bcm). Russia accounted for 20% (12.7 bcm). Azerbaijans 4% share places it on par with Qatar and ahead of Nigeria, solidifying its role as a mid-tier supplier. As the EU continues its transition toward cleaner energy, demand for natural gas is expected to decline gradually. However, Azerbaijans strategic position and existing infrastructure ensure it will remain a key player in the medium term. With potential pipeline expansions and increased production capacity, Azerbaijan may grow its market share further, especially as EU member states reduce dependency on Russian energy imports. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Securities Litigation Partner James (Josh) Wilson Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $75,000 In Transocean To Contact Him Directly To Discuss Their Options If you suffered losses exceeding $75,000 in Transocean between October 31, 2023 and September 2, 2024 and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310). [You may also click here for additional information] NEW YORK, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against Transocean Ltd. ("Transocean" or the "Company") (NYSE: RIG) and reminds investors of the February 24, 2025 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company. Faruqi & Faruqi Logo (PRNewsfoto/Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP) Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors since its founding in 1995. See www.faruqilaw.com. As detailed below, the complaint alleges that the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that: (1) the Discoverer Inspiration and the Development Driller III were considered non-strategic assets; (2) the Company's recorded asset valuations were overstated; (3) as a result, the Company would take nearly twice the vessels' sale price in impairment if sold; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. On September 3, 2024, before the market opened, Transocean announced "as part of the Company's effort to dispose of non-strategic assets" it had agreed to sell the Development Driller III and the Discoverer Inspiration and associated assets for an aggregate $342 million. The Company further announced that the sales would result in an estimated third-quarter non-cash charge of up to $645 million associated with the impairment of said assets. Otherwise stated, the Company's expected proceeds from the sale of the Development Driller III and the Discoverer Inspiration, was only approximately half the impairment the Company was required to take for the sale. On this news, the Company's share price fell $0.42, or 8.86%, to close at $4.32 per share on September 3, 2024, on unusually heavy trading volume. The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Transocean's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others. To learn more about the Transocean Ltd. class action, go to www.faruqilaw.com/RIG or call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310). Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, on X, or on Facebook. Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. SOURCE Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP NANCHANG, China, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from Jiangxi International Communication Center(JXICC): In today's increasingly interconnected world, the interactions, exchanges, and integration of different cultures are creating vibrant humanistic bonds. The Jiangxi International Communication Center has produced a news documentary titled "New Aspirations Cross Oceans", which focuses on three volunteers participating in the Exchange Program of receiving youth volunteers from Eastern Bay of Plenty of New Zealand. They are from the international volunteer team to serve in Jiangxi for over three months while covering multiple cities. The experiences they had while working and living in Jiangxi highlight the cultural exchanges between China and New Zealand. Both countries value and appreciate their own beauty as well as that of each other. These experiences serve as vivid examples of the deep connections and shared emotions between the people of China and New Zealand. New Aspirations Cross Oceans: Bridging Friendship Through Wushu New Aspirations Cross Oceans: Together New Aspirations Cross Oceans: I'm Here in Your City Bridging Friendship Through Wushu Rangiatea Buchanan, a New Zealand native with a deep passion for Wushu, has formed an inseparable bond with China. During her volunteer service in Jiangxi, she sought guidance on Wushu techniques and built strong friendships with the locals, using the principles of Wushu as a bridge. Her story exemplifies how cultural exchange can foster closeness, demonstrating that people grow closer through mutual respect and understanding. https://youtu.be/y6SP6SQtewM Together Manaia Sorensen, a Maori dance performer, arrived in Jiangxi filled with curiosity for Chinese culture. During her three-month volunteering, she not only taught Maori dance and shared aspects of New Zealand's culture but also actively learned about Chinese culture, facilitating a two-way cultural exchange. Her journey vividly illustrates the enlightening impact of cultural exchange, highlighting the mutual learning and flourishing of diverse cultures. https://youtu.be/beaxpA8EbuM I'm Here in Your City From the students at Nanchang Foreign Language School traveling to New Zealand, to the young volunteers from the Eastern Bay of Plenty in New Zealand volunteering in Jiangxi, this series of youth exchange programs has provided a platform for young people of both countries to broaden their horizons and deepen their friendships. More importantly, it has planted seeds of integration in their hearts. The meeting of Xu Chang and Steevie Hunia symbolizes the aspiration for integration, reflecting a bright future that the people of both countries can create together through mutual learning and understanding. https://youtu.be/sAc9vH0R8jU SOURCE Jiangxi International Communication Center(JXICC) Parcel Delivery Vehicle Market is Segmented by Type (Light Duty Vehicle, Medium Duty Vehicle, Heavy Duty Vehicle), by Application (Courier Companies, Food Delivery Companies, Fleet Management Companies, Medical Courier Companies). BANGALORE, India, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new survey, the Global Parcel Delivery Vehicle Market is projected to reach USD 184880 Million in 2029, increasing from USD 103450 Million in 2022, with the CAGR of 8.7% during the period of 2023 to 2029. Claim Your Free Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-21A16240/Global_Parcel_Delivery_Vehicle_Market Major Factors Driving the Growth of Parcel Delivery Vehicle Market: The Parcel Delivery Vehicle market is on an upward trajectory, fueled by the continuous growth of e-commerce, advancements in vehicle technology, and the increasing demand for efficient and reliable delivery services. The market is characterized by a diverse range of vehicle types, including light duty and medium duty vehicles, each catering to different operational needs and delivery volumes. Innovations in electric and autonomous vehicles are transforming the landscape, offering sustainable and cost-effective solutions for delivery companies. Furthermore, the integration of advanced fleet management systems and the focus on sustainability are shaping the future of the market. As businesses strive to meet rising consumer expectations and navigate evolving regulatory requirements, the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market is set to expand, driven by the need for scalable and efficient delivery infrastructures worldwide. Unlock Insights: View Full Report Now! https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-21A16240/global-parcel-delivery-vehicle TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE GLOBAL PARCEL DELIVERY VEHICLE MARKET: Light Duty Vehicles (LDVs) are a significant driver in the growth of the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market. LDVs, including vans, pickups, and small trucks, are widely utilized by delivery services for their versatility and efficiency in urban and suburban environments. Their compact size allows for easy navigation through congested city streets, while their fuel efficiency and lower operational costs make them an attractive option for businesses aiming to optimize their delivery fleets. Additionally, the growing demand for last-mile delivery services, particularly in the e-commerce sector, has increased the reliance on LDVs to ensure timely and cost-effective parcel deliveries. The adaptability of LDVs to various cargo sizes and their ability to meet diverse logistical requirements further contribute to their pivotal role in expanding the parcel delivery vehicle market. Medium Duty Vehicles play a crucial role in the expansion of the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market by offering a balance between capacity and maneuverability. These vehicles, which include larger vans and small trucks, are essential for handling higher volumes of parcels and heavier payloads that exceed the capabilities of LDVs. Medium duty vehicles are favored by logistics companies for their ability to efficiently transport a significant number of packages over longer distances, thereby enhancing delivery efficiency and reducing turnaround times. Their robust build and enhanced cargo space allow for the accommodation of a diverse range of products, catering to the growing demands of both small and large-scale businesses. The increasing need for reliable and scalable delivery solutions in response to the booming e-commerce industry drives the adoption of medium duty vehicles, thereby fueling market growth. Courier companies are a major catalyst in the growth of the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market, as they consistently demand reliable and efficient transportation solutions to meet their delivery commitments. These companies rely heavily on a fleet of delivery vehicles to ensure timely and accurate parcel distribution, directly influencing the demand for various types of delivery vehicles. The expansion of courier services, driven by the surge in e-commerce and online shopping, necessitates a steady increase in the number of vehicles to handle the higher volume of deliveries. Additionally, courier companies are increasingly adopting advanced fleet management technologies and investing in eco-friendly vehicles to enhance operational efficiency and reduce environmental impact. This ongoing evolution within the courier industry, coupled with the need for a diverse and adaptable vehicle fleet, significantly propels the growth of the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market. The explosive growth of the e-commerce sector is a primary factor driving the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market. As online shopping continues to surge globally, the demand for efficient and reliable parcel delivery services has intensified. E-commerce businesses require a robust logistics network to manage the increased volume of orders, leading to a higher demand for delivery vehicles that can handle a diverse range of parcels. The necessity for faster delivery times, enhanced customer satisfaction, and the expansion of same-day delivery services have further escalated the need for a larger and more efficient fleet of parcel delivery vehicles. This sustained growth in e-commerce not only boosts the overall demand for delivery vehicles but also encourages innovations in vehicle design and logistics management, thereby supporting the expansion of the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market. Sustainability and environmental regulations are crucial factors propelling the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market. Governments and regulatory bodies are increasingly enforcing stricter emission standards and promoting the use of eco-friendly vehicles to combat climate change and reduce air pollution. This regulatory push encourages delivery companies to adopt electric and hybrid vehicles, which produce lower emissions compared to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. Additionally, consumer awareness and preference for sustainable practices drive businesses to invest in greener delivery options. The emphasis on sustainability not only helps companies comply with regulations but also enhances their brand image and customer loyalty. As a result, the demand for environmentally friendly parcel delivery vehicles continues to rise, fostering the growth of the market. Rising consumer expectations and the demand for faster delivery speeds are driving the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market. In the age of instant gratification, customers expect quick and reliable delivery services, often within the same day or next day. This heightened expectation compels delivery companies to expand and optimize their vehicle fleets to meet the demand for rapid parcel distribution. The need for frequent and timely deliveries requires a larger number of delivery vehicles operating efficiently across various regions. Additionally, the demand for real-time tracking and enhanced service levels necessitates investment in advanced delivery vehicles equipped with the latest technologies. Meeting consumer expectations for speed and reliability not only improves customer satisfaction but also drives the expansion of the Parcel Delivery Vehicle market. Claim Yours Now with 15% Discount! https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-21A16240&lic=single-user PARCEL DELIVERY VEHICLE MARKET SHARE The Parcel Delivery Vehicle market exhibits distinct regional trends influenced by factors such as economic growth, infrastructure development, and technological adoption rates. North America and Europe lead the market due to their advanced logistics infrastructure, high e-commerce penetration, and stringent environmental regulations promoting the use of electric and hybrid delivery vehicles. The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing rapid growth, driven by the expansion of e-commerce, increasing urbanization, and significant investments in logistics and transportation infrastructure. Emerging markets in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa also show promising potential, supported by growing e-commerce activities and improving transportation networks. Regional differences in market dynamics, consumer behavior, and regulatory environments shape the growth prospects and strategies of parcel delivery vehicle providers across various geographies. Key Companies: PDV Companies Toyota Motor Corporation Daimler AG Ford Motor Company General Motors Honda Motor Co Ltd Hyundai Motor Company Tesla Nissan Motor Co Ltd Kia Corporation Renault Group BYD Motors, Inc. Isuzu Motors Limited Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Jeep Mahindra& Mahindra Ltd. MAN Truck & Bus AG Navistar International Corporation Peugeot Iveco Group Purchase Regional Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/QYRE-Auto-21A16240/Global_Parcel_Delivery_Vehicle_Market SUBSCRIPTION We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. Please leave a note in the Comment Section to know about our subscription plans. DISCOVER MORE INSIGHTS: EXPLORE SIMILAR REPORTS! - Electric Parcel Delivery Van Market - Towing Equipment market was valued at USD 9777.8 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 12490 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 3.5% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - Same Day Delivery market was valued at USD 17430 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 58530 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 18.5% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - Courier Franchise Market - Last Mile Autonomous Delivery Market - Last Mile Delivery Market - Intelligent Sorting of Express Parcels market was valued at USD 7356.3 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 12220 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 8.7% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - Last-Mile Delivery Logistics Platform Market - Outdoor Smart Parcel Delivery Locker market was valued at USD 500 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 802.9 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 7.0% during the forecast period 2024-2030. - Packet & Parcel Sorting System market was valued at USD 4228.4 Million in 2023 and is anticipated to reach USD 9928 Million by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 13.1% during the forecast period 2024-2030. DISCOVER OUR VISION: VISIT ABOUT US! Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs. Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs. To achieve a consistent view of the market, data is gathered from various primary and secondary sources, at each step, data triangulation methodologies are applied to reduce deviance and find a consistent view of the market. Each sample we share contains a detailed research methodology employed to generate the report. Please also reach our sales team to get the complete list of our data sources. GET A FREE QUOTE Valuates Reports [email protected] For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225 WhatsApp: +91-9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Blog: https://valuatestrends.blogspot.com/ Pinterest: https://in.pinterest.com/valuatesreports/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@valuatesreports6753 https://www.facebook.com/valuateskorean https://www.facebook.com/valuatesspanish https://www.facebook.com/valuatesjapanese https://valuatesreportspanish.blogspot.com/ https://valuateskorean.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesgerman.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesreportjapanese.blogspot.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg SOURCE Valuates Reports Task order continues QinetiQ US' role in supporting the U.S. Army Integration Directorate at Program Executive Office (PEO) Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (IEW&S) for Army interoperability with the Integrated Sensor Architecture. MCLEAN, Va., Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- QinetiQ US has been awarded a 5-year, $31.5 million task order supporting the U.S. Army Program Executive Office (PEO) Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (IEW&S). This task order continues the design, development and integration activities for the Integrated Sensor Architecture (ISA) program, which aims to help support data sharing of sensors seamlessly across battlefield networks. "The relationship between the Army C5ISR Center, PEO IEW&S and QinetiQ US dates back to 2016, collaboratively building distributed sensor data capabilities for the U.S. Army and other organizations to support sensor interoperability," said Jonathan Riksen, executive vice president and general manager, of QinetiQ US' National & Global Security Solutions. "We look forward to helping PEO IEW&S manage the development, sustainment and procurement of the ISA to enable battlefield sensor systems to collect, disseminate and integrate data for command and control." QinetiQ US will continue working closely with Army PEOs, other defense organizations, and Allied partners to define the future needs for the ISA. QinetiQ's ISA team will work with multiple stakeholders to define new services in a network enhancing sensor management, collection management, data reduction, and intelligent processing. This task order reinforces the company's position as a key partner in advancing the U.S. Army's computing environments and sensor capabilities. By leveraging its expertise in sensor technology and data management, QinetiQ US is poised to make significant contributions to the future of military sensor operations. About QinetiQ US QinetiQ US is a leading defense and national security company providing mission-led, customer-focused engineering and innovative solutions for next-generation ISR, advanced cyber technology, mission operations, and multi-domain autonomous systems to deliver a decisive and actionable information advantage and counter near-peer adversaries. As a provider of secure, technologically advanced services and products to the U.S. Department of Defense, Homeland Security, Intelligence Community, and other national security agencies, QinetiQ US is committed to closely partnering with our customers to enable them to deploy new and enhanced capabilities that protect lives and our nation's vital interests. QinetiQ US operates as the U.S. arm of QinetiQ Group plc (QQ.LSE), a global integrated defense and security company focused on innovation for defense, security, and civil customers around the world. QinetiQ US operates under a Special Security Agreement (SSA) with the U.S. Defense Counterintelligence & Security Agency (DCSA). For more information, visit www.us.QinetiQ.com SOURCE QinetiQ US SINGAPORE, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Genesis Medtech is proud to announce that iReach Omnia, the world's first powered stapler with 90 articulation capability, has been approved for market release in China by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Independently developed by Genesis Medtech, this innovation addresses key challenges in complex laparoscopic surgeries by enabling surgeons with unprecedented precision and access in tight and deep anatomical positions. iReach Omnia with 90 articulation Surgical staplers play a critical role in minimally invasive surgeries by replacing traditional manual sutures, offering more consistent clinical outcomes while reducing infection risk and enhancing surgical efficiency. However, existing staplers, with typical articulation angles from 45 to 60, face challenges in complex procedures such as low anterior resection or single-port thoracic surgery, where restricted anatomical access in the pelvis or chest cavity demands greater flexibility. The iReach Omnia sets a new standard in surgical stapling with its 90 articulation capability, providing surgeons with the maneuverability and precision necessary to perform effective stapling even in the most confined spaces. This innovation potentially reduces the need for multiple stapler firings, minimizes weak points in the staple line, thus lowering the risk of anastomotic leakage. By addressing these critical issues, the iReach Omnia empowers surgeons to deliver better patient outcomes in complex procedures such as colorectal and thoracic surgeries. Colorectal cancer is one of the top three cancers worldwide, affecting millions of people each year.[1] Surgical resection of the tumor remains the primary treatment for low rectal cancer but surgeons face significant challenges in completely removing the tumor, achieving clear margins in confined spaces, preserving sphincter function, and minimizing complications such as anastomotic leakage.[2] The iReach Omnia's 90 articulation capability addresses these challenges by enabling precise vertical cutting and stapling in the low rectal resections, reducing the risk of leakage and ultimately, enhancing long-term patient outcomes. As demand for effective surgical solutions continues to grow globally, Genesis MedTech continues to lead the change in driving innovation. With its industry-leading 90 articulation capability, the iReach Omnia sets a new standard for surgical precision, empowering surgeons and improving patient outcomes. [1] World Health Organization. (2020). Colorectal cancer. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/colorectal-cancer [2] Tsalikidis, C., Mitsala, A., Mentonis, V. I., Romanidis, K., Pappas-Gogos, G., Tsaroucha, A. K., & Pitiakoudis, M. (2023). Predictive Factors for Anastomotic Leakage Following Colorectal Cancer Surgery: Where Are We and Where Are We Going? Current Oncology, 30(3), 3111-3137. https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol30030236 ABOUT GENESIS MEDTECH Genesis MedTech Group is a medical device company headquartered in Singapore. Founded by a group of professionals and entrepreneurs with MedTech experience globally, the company's product portfolio focuses on multi-therapy medical device products for emerging markets with sales and distribution through its established commercial network. Genesis MedTech Group covers the entire industry value chain of research and development, production, quality management, supply chain, marketing, and sales. For more information, visit http://www.genesismedtech.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2589003/iReach_Omnia_90__articulation.jpg RXBAR is asking consumers nationwide to share the New Year B.S. they're saying no to in 2025. Beginning January 7, people across the country can take part by commenting on the RXBAR Instagram (@RXBAR) post with the B.S. they are rejecting in the New Year and sharing the post to their story. In return, participants will receive a discount code redeemable on RXBAR.com, through January 31. RXBAR is also taking a literal stand in New York City. The B.S. Blocker Truck will roam the streets on January 3, outfitted with an ad-blocker designed to shield people from toxic messaging. By texting their B.S. sightings to 646-522-9039, participants can watch the truck roll up to cover the ads in real-time. In addition to the truck activation, RXBAR will take over prime billboard placements across New York City, replacing "New Year, New You" B.S. with encouraging reminders that you're already enough. By swapping out the guilt-driven messages, RXBAR aims to bring a little wit and a lot of honesty to the city's streets, while furthering the campaign's nationwide call to action. "January often brings a flood of narratives that implores people to make unrealistic changes in their lives, and we think that's B.S.," said Eileen Flaherty, Director, Brand Marketing, RXBAR. "Our brand has always been about simplicity, realness and no B.S.and this campaign is an extension of that. We want to help people kick off the year without the guilt or nonsense." To further amplify the campaign, RXBAR has partnered with @dudettewithsign, a beloved content creator known for highlighting everyday B.S. with humor and relatability. With her blunt style and sharp wit, she'll encourage fans to call out the "New Year, New You" B.S. they're walking away from this year. Her direct, unapologetic approach perfectly reflects the RXBAR brand mission to celebrate authenticity. The B.S. Blocker campaign underscores the brand's belief in cutting through the noise and focusing on what truly matters. Just as RXBAR protein bars deliver real, recognizable ingredients, this campaign calls people to strip away the noise and prioritize what is achievable and fulfilling. By promoting confidence and balance, RXBAR hopes to redefine how people approach the New Yearwith less pressure and more purpose. To keep up with what RXBAR has coming next, follow Instagram , TikTok , or visit RXBAR.com. About Kellanova Kellanova (NYSE: K) is a leader in global snacking, international cereal and noodles, and North America frozen foods with a legacy stretching back more than 100 years. Powered by differentiated brands including Pringles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats, RXBAR, Eggo, MorningStar Farms, Special K, Coco Pops, and more, Kellanova's vision is to become the world's best-performing snacks-led powerhouse, unleashing the full potential of our differentiated brands and our passionate people. Our net sales for 2023 were $13 billion. At Kellanova, our purpose is to create better days and ensure everyone has a seat at the table through our trusted food brands. We are committed to promoting sustainable and equitable food access by tackling the crossroads of hunger, sustainability, wellbeing, and equity, diversity & inclusion. Our goal is to create Better Days for 4 billion people by the end of 2030 (from a 2015 baseline). For more detailed information about our commitments, our approach to achieving these goals, and methodology, please visit our website at https://www.kellanova.com. SOURCE Kellanova ENA's 54th president to emphasize advocacy, grow voice of emergency nurses SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The passion for emergency nursing started early for the new Emergency Nurses Association President Ryan Oglesby. From watching medical shows on TV to earning scout badges in first aid and then obtaining EMT certification Oglesby worked his way to a career in emergency nursing that has included ENA for two decades. Ryan Oglesby 2025 Emergency Nurses Association president "It's an honor to be able to lead an organization that has given so much to me," said ENA President Ryan Oglesby, PhD, MHA, RN, CEN, CFRN, NEA-BC. "I'm really looking forward to connecting with members and showing them what is possible that individually and as a group we can make a difference." In his seventh year on the ENA Board of Directors, Oglesby looks to bring the voice of emergency nurses to the forefront during his presidential year. Oglesby brings over 25 years of emergency care to this role, working his way from an EMT to the assistant vice president for HCA Healthcare's South Florida Patient Logistics Center. He has remained active in ENA since 2004, holding various committee positions and president of the North Carolina ENA State Council in 2012. He has also served as ENA secretary/treasurer and most recently, president-elect. "I hope to lead our board and members to continue the great work that has already been done to advance the emergency nursing specialty by providing quality education and resources and advocacy efforts around workplace violence and staffing," Oglesby said. The full 2025 ENA Board of Directors also includes: President-Elect: Dustin Bass , DNP, MHA, RN, CEN, NEA-BC, of North Carolina , DNP, MHA, RN, CEN, NEA-BC, of Secretary/Treasurer: Chris Parker , MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, CFRN, CNL, NRP, TCRN, of Virgina , MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, CFRN, CNL, NRP, TCRN, of Virgina Immediate Past President: Chris Dellinger MBA, BSN, RN, FAEN, of West Virginia Directors: Tyler Babcock , MSN, MBA, RN, CEN, NEA-BC, TCRN, of Pennsylvania Heidi Gilbert , MSN, RN, CEN, SANE-A, TCRN, of Oklahoma Vanessa Gorman , MSN, RN, CCRN, FAEN, FCENA, of Australia Shawntay Harris , DNP, MBA, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, TCRN, CPEN, CEN, CTRN, CFRN, FAEN, of Texas Lauren Plaine , MPS, BSN, RN, CEN, of Washington D.C. Rachael Smith , MSN, RN, CEN, CCRN, CPEN, CNE, NPD-BC, TCRN, of Connecticut Emerging Professional Liaison, Alex Kasmere , BSN, RN, EMT-P, CPEN, TCRN, of Virginia , BSN, RN, EMT-P, CPEN, TCRN, of Chief Executive Officer Nancy MacRae , MS, of Illinois About the Emergency Nurses Association The Emergency Nurses Association is the premier professional nursing association dedicated to defining the future of emergency nursing through advocacy, education, research, innovation, and leadership. Founded in 1970, ENA has proven to be an indispensable resource to the global emergency nursing community. With nearly 50,000 members worldwide, ENA advocates for patient safety, develops industry-leading practice standards and guidelines and guides emergency health care public policy. ENA members have expertise in triage, patient care, disaster preparedness, and all aspects of emergency care. Additional information is available at www.ena.org. ENA Media Contact: Morgan Wietecha Media Relations Strategist 847.460.4038 [email protected] SOURCE Emergency Nurses Association NASHVILLE, TN, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Employers in Tennessee and across the Southeast have a unique, no-cost opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan for integrating neurodiversity into their workplace practices. The UConn Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment, in partnership with Tennessee State University, is delivering full-day neurodiversity employment workshops across the country, and next up is January 15th, 2025 on TSU's Nashville campus. UConn Executive Director Judy Reilly and Wells Fargo Neurodiversity Executive Stephen DeStefani This free workshop is designed for 15 select companies to send small teams for an immersive, action-oriented day focused on neuroinclusive employment practices. Developed by UConn's academic experts and co-led with the Wells Fargo Neurodiversity Program team, the program delivers a day of practical, step-by-step guidance as teams design initiatives that attract and empower neurodivergent employees, including individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other conditions. "We're thrilled to bring this groundbreaking program to Nashville and the Southeast region," said Judy Reilly, Executive Director of UConn's Center. "We are visiting cities across the country to deliver this workshop that provides companies with an actionable, no-cost pathway to understand and design neuroinclusive practices that tap into the strengths of current and potential neurodivergent employees, creating a win-win for employers and employees alike." Systemic barriers often prevent neurodivergent individuals from accessing and retaining career opportunities. Yet, neurodivergent minds offer unique perspectives and potential to organizations. This workshop focuses on dismantling those barriers and helping companies build and implement strategies tailored to their workforce needs that are neuroinclusive. Tennessee State University - a leading HBCU institution - has generously partnered with the UConn Wells Fargo Center to host this event on their Nashville campus from 9:00-5:30 on January 15th. Employers and professionals who support neurodiverse job seekers are encouraged to secure their spot early, as space is limited to 15 companies and 5 university/community partners. To register or learn more, contact: [email protected] About the Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment at UConn The Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment at the University of Connecticut is dedicated to advancing employment opportunities for neurodivergent individuals through research, education, and strategic partnerships. By fostering neuroinclusive practices, the Center empowers organizations to harness the strengths of a diverse workforce. About Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (TSU) is a historically Black university located in Nashville, TN. As a leader in diversity, innovation, and community engagement, TSU is committed to empowering individuals and organizations through education and inclusive excellence. Media Contact: Jessica Leary Associate Director UConn Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity & Inclusive Employment [email protected] - 617-694-8060 SOURCE Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity & Inclusive Employment at UConn NEW YORK, Jan. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global unified endpoint management (UEM) market size is estimated to grow by USD 111.62 billion from 2025 to 2029, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of almost 58% during the forecast period. For comprehensive forecast and historic data on regions,market segments, customer landscape, and companies- Click for the snapshot of this report Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Market 2025-2029 Report Attribute Details Base Year 2024 Forecast period 2025-2029 Historic Data for 2019 - 2023 Segments Covered Component (Solutions and Services), Deployment (Cloud, On-premises, and Hybrid), Geography (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa), Type (Solutions, Services), Organization Size (Large Enterprises, SMEs) and Vertical Key Companies Covered 42Gears Mobility Systems Pvt. Ltd., BlackBerry Ltd., Broadcom Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Cloud Software Group Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Ivanti Software Inc., JAMF HOLDING CORP., Matrix42 GmbH, Microsoft Corp, Mitsogo Inc., Open Text Corporation, ProMobi Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Snow Software, Sophos Ltd., SOTI Inc., Syxsense Inc., VMware Inc.,Zoho Corp. Pvt. Ltd., Citrix, Symantec, CA Technologies Regions Covered North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Region Outlook North America Europe Asia Rest of World 1. North America - North America is estimated to contribute 35%. To the growth of the global market. The Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Market report forecasts market growth by revenue at global, regional & country levels from 2017 to 2027. Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solutions enable Large Enterprises to manage and secure Computing systems across various Verticals, including IT asset tracking for Endpoints such as Laptops, Tablets, Mobile phones, and even IoT Devices. Advanced endpoint models like ChromeOS and Windows 10 are supported, requiring minimal Hardware requirements. UEM caters to Personal devices and Enterprise Employees, providing a Single platform for managing Multiple Configurations of Operating Environments. Endpoint Protection, Access Management, and Data Security are crucial components, ensuring a Operating Environment. UEM Market offers Software Platforms, Consulting Services, Managed Services, and Support Services to cater to diverse Network Components. Emerging Technologies like Remote Work, Employee Productivity, and Data Protection are addressed, making UEM an essential solution for managing Traditional endpoints like PCs, Smartphones, POS devices, and Smart wearables. UEM solutions like Pulseway and AirWatch offer Primary Exploratory and Secondary Desk capabilities, enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is a solution that helps businesses manage and secure all their endpoints, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets, from a single console. UEM simplifies IT management by providing centralized policies, configurations, and applications. It ensures device compliance, enhances productivity, and protects sensitive data. By implementing UEM, businesses can save time, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency. UEM solutions from leading vendors, such as Microsoft, VMware, and IBM, offer advanced features like remote wipe, over-the-air updates, and real-time reporting. For more insights on North America's significant contribution along with the market share of rest of the regions and countries - Download a FREE Sample Segmentation Overview Component 1.1 Solutions 1.2 Services Deployment 2.1 Cloud 2.2 On-premises 2.3 Hybrid Geography 3.1 North America 3.2 APAC 3.3 Europe 3.4 South America 3.5 Middle East and Africa Type Organization Size Vertical 1.1 Fastest growing segment: Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solutions are software platforms that help businesses manage and secure their diverse endpoints from a centralized console. These solutions offer features for streamlined endpoint management, enhanced security, and improved IT efficiency. Key features include device enrollment and provisioning for seamless onboarding of new devices, and configuration management for centralized control of settings, policies, and configurations. UEM solutions also provide essential security features like data encryption, access controls, antivirus management, and patch management. Microsoft UEM, which includes Microsoft Intune, offers end-to-end device management solutions, enabling IT administrators to manage multiple endpoint types from a single console, with features such as device enrollment, application management, security policies enforcement, and endpoint analytics. The increasing adoption of UEM solutions will fuel market growth during the forecast period. Get a glance at the market contribution of rest of the segments - Download a FREE Sample Report in minutes! Research Analysis Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is a modern approach to IT management that enables organizations to secure, manage, and support various computing systems, including laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and even IoT devices, from a single platform. This solution caters to various verticals such as healthcare, education, finance, and retail, among others, by providing IT asset management, advanced endpoint models, and hardware requirements tailored to each device type. UEM supports multiple OS systems, including Windows 10 and ChromeOS, ensuring seamless management and compatibility. With the increasing shift towards remote work, UEM solutions have become essential for ensuring employee productivity and data protection. They offer data security features such as encryption, access controls, and remote wipe capabilities to safeguard sensitive information. UEM solutions are not limited to traditional endpoints like desktops and laptops but also extend to advanced endpoints like POS devices, smart wearables, and mobile banking applications. By integrating UEM into IT departments' workflows, organizations can effectively manage their mobile devices and ensure user satisfaction. Solutions like Pulseway, VMware, AirWatch, and others offer primary and secondary desktop capabilities, making them versatile and adaptable to businesses' evolving needs. Market Overview Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is a modern approach to IT asset management that enables organizations to manage and secure computing systems, including laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and IoT devices, from a single platform. UEM caters to various verticals, including large enterprises, healthcare, education, and finance, among others. The operating environment for UEM supports multiple configurations, including Windows 10, ChromeOS, and various mobile operating systems like Android and iOS. UEM solutions provide advanced endpoint protection, access management, and data security for personal devices used by enterprise employees. UEM also offers consulting, managed, and support services, as well as network components and software platforms like Pulseway, VMware, AirWatch, Workspace ONE, Windows, and Microsoft Intune. UEM is essential for managing emerging technologies such as mobile banking and smart wearables, ensuring employee productivity, and maintaining satisfaction with remote work. Traditional endpoints like PCs, smartphones, POS devices, and smart wearables are all within the scope of UEM. Start exploring market insights by Download a FREE Sample Report in minutes! Key Topics Covered: 1 Executive Summary 2 Market Landscape 3 Market Sizing 4 Historic Market Size 5 Five Forces Analysis 6 Market Segmentation 7 Customer Landscape 8 Geographic Landscape 9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 10 Venodr Landscape 11 Vendor Analysis 12 Appendix About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contacts Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. Baker Hughes, an energy technology company, announced an agreement to provide gas technology equipment for two liquefaction plants in Phase 1 of Woodside Energy Groups Louisiana LNG development, Trend reports. The plants, managed by Bechtel Energy Inc., are designed to produce a total capacity of approximately 11 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). The order includes eight main refrigeration compressors powered by LM6000PF+ gas turbines and eight expander-compressors. These components will leverage Baker Hughes established LNG technologies to support the projects delivery. Paul Marsden, president of Bechtel Energy, emphasized the importance of the development: Louisiana LNG will play a vital role in meeting the worlds increasing LNG demand. Bechtel is proud to collaborate with Baker Hughes to help deliver this critical project. Ganesh Ramaswamy, executive vice president of Industrial & Energy Technology at Baker Hughes, highlighted the companys commitment: We are dedicated to ensuring the LNG industry can meet growing energy demand through our proven technology. This project builds on our 40-year experience in LNG and longstanding partnerships with Bechtel and Woodside. Previously, Baker Hughes was selected to supply electric-powered Integrated Compressor Line (ICL) packages and additional turbomachinery for the associated pipeline connected to the LNG terminal. Woodside aims to finalize investment decisions for the project by the first quarter of 2025. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Oslo, Jan 2 : Norway has introduced new environmental regulations for Svalbard to protect the archipelago's fragile ecosystem, cultural heritage, and wildlife as climate change accelerates and tourism expands. Svalbard, a remote Arctic archipelago situated between mainland Norway and the North Pole, is known for its dramatic glaciers, polar bears, and seabird colonies. Its pristine wilderness attracts adventurers and researchers alike, but the region's delicate environment faces mounting pressures from rising temperatures and increased human activity, Xinhua news agency reported. "We have seen growing pressure from tourism that impacts nature, cultural heritage, and wildlife. At the same time, climate change is unfolding here and now," said acting Minister of Climate and Environment Tore Sandvik in a press release. "To preserve Svalbard's wilderness, we are updating the regulatory framework to address these challenges," he added. Among the key measures is a mandate to maintain stricter distances from polar bears, ensuring minimal disturbance to the vulnerable species. Visitors must now stay 300 metres away from polar bears year-round, with the distance increasing to 500 metres from March to June during the animals' most sensitive period. Drones use near bird cliffs is banned during breeding seasons from April to August to reduce noise and disturbance. Additionally, landing in protected areas will now be tightly regulated, with exceptions for only 43 mapped areas or snow-covered grounds in specific zones. Passenger ships will face new restrictions, allowing no more than 200 passengers in protected areas at a time. The use of drones and underwater vehicles are also banned in protected areas to mitigate environmental disruption. Motorised traffic will see tighter controls, including a permanent ban on driving over sea ice in certain fjords after March 1. However, electric bicycles and pedal bicycles are now permitted on snow and ice in select national parks, promoting eco-friendly exploration. New rules also aim to protect walruses and birds by enforcing speed limits and distance requirements near their habitats. Fast ice-breaking activities are largely prohibited, except for maintaining vital port access and Coast Guard operations. The changes come as Svalbard is warming up five to seven times faster than the global average, with the expansion of tourism into previously untouched and sensitive areas. New Delhi, Jan 2 : Dense fog enveloped parts of Delhi on Thursday morning, causing visibility to plummet and disrupting normal life. The temperature dipped to 10 degrees Celsius at 5:30 a.m., and flight operations at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport faced potential disruptions due to reduced visibility. According to the Delhi Airport authorities, runway visibility ranged between 200 to 500 meters, while general visibility dropped to zero at 6 a.m. Flights equipped for low-visibility operations were able to land, but others were likely to face delays or diversions. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for dense fog in Delhi and neighbouring areas, including Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurgaon, warning residents of poor visibility and challenging commuting conditions. For Thursday, the IMD forecast partly cloudy skies with strong surface winds at speeds of 10-15 km/h. The maximum temperature is expected to reach 17 degrees Celsius, while the minimum could dip to 8 degrees Celsius. Over the past few days, the capital has been gripped by cold conditions. On New Year's Day, the mercury dropped to 7.4 degrees Celsius, with the maximum temperature recorded at 15 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal. A brief respite from the cold is anticipated on January 3 and 4, with maximum temperatures rising to 19-20 degrees Celsius and minimum temperatures around 9 degrees Celsius. However, this relief may be short-lived as a western disturbance originating from Pakistan and Afghanistan is expected to bring heavy rain to Delhi-NCR on January 6. A similar system caused downpours in late December, leading to the current cold wave. Meanwhile, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi stood at 241, categorising it as 'poor.' Residents are advised to exercise caution during the dense fog, particularly while driving, and are urged to stay updated on changes in flight schedules due to the ongoing weather conditions. New Delhi, Jan 2 : The Allahabad High Court is set to hear the petition filed by Samajwadi Party MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq on Thursday, seeking the cancellation of an FIR and a stay on his arrest in connection with the violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. The violence erupted during a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, resulting in the death of five people and injuries to many people including 20 policemen. Barq, who has been named as the primary accused, has denied all allegations, claiming that they are politically motivated. He argues that his arrest would cause him "irreparable loss" and insists that he was not present in Sambhal during the incident. According to Barq, he was in Bengaluru at the time and chose to remain in Delhi upon learning about the FIR to avoid escalation. However, he maintains that he contacted community members over the phone, urging them to maintain peace. The Sambhal police have accused Barq of delivering provocative remarks at the mosque days before the violence, which they claim incited the unrest. The FIR also names Sohail Iqbal, the son of local MLA Iqbal Mehmood, for his alleged involvement in the incident. Barq, in his plea, has labeled the allegations as baseless and a product of political vendetta by the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government. He emphasises that the charges are part of a larger effort to target him and his party. The violence broke out amid heightened tensions following claims that the Shahi Jama Masjid was built over a temple. The situation escalated with stone-pelting and arson, leaving several police vehicles damaged. The Sambhal police are expected to present evidence against Barq in the court on Thursday. New Delhi, Jan 2 : Adaptive cardiac devices are revolutionising heart disease treatment for real-time monitoring and dynamic therapy adjustments, according to a report. The report by GlobalData, a data and analytics company, showed that these devices offer continuous, precise interventions enabling better patient outcomes. These also present a shift toward more effective and responsive management of heart disease. In contrast to traditional devices like pacemakers that deliver consistent outputs, the novel adaptive cardiac technologies leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse heart activity. The adaptive technology also adjusts treatment based on fluctuations in cardiac rhythms, leading to a personalised approach. This ensures that therapy aligns precisely with a patient's evolving condition, providing 24/7 care and better health outcomes. According to GlobalData forecast, the cardiovascular devices market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.20 per cent from $84.8 billion in 2023 to $140 billion in 2033. This growth highlights the increasing demand for advanced diagnostic and therapeutic tools tailored to cardiac care. "The cardiovascular devices market is undergoing rapid expansion and diversification. AI-enhanced solutions exemplify the industry's shift toward precision medicine, aligning with regulatory bodies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prioritising innovative approaches to improve outcomes in cardiovascular disease management," said Cynthia Stinchcombe, Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData. The report projects that advancements in cardiac care, combined with novel therapies, will transform the field, providing new solutions for millions affected by heart disease globally. "The adoption of cutting-edge technologies in cardiovascular care emphasizes the critical role innovation plays in modern healthcare. With these advanced systems, we are moving towards more tailored and effective treatment strategies for heart conditions, improving both quality of life and clinical outcomes," Stinchcombe said. The report also highlights the synergy between wearable cardiac monitors -- such as ECG-enabled smartwatches -- and AI-driven devices. Wearables provide continuous monitoring outside clinical environments, while adaptive implants offer precise therapeutic interventions, creating a comprehensive framework for cardiac health management. "As cardiovascular diseases remain a leading global health concern, the advancements we're seeing offer renewed hope. Emerging technologies are crucial in expanding diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities. With the FDA's support for AI-driven medical devices, these innovations are set to reshape cardiac care, delivering transformative benefits to patients worldwide," Stinchcombe said. BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. The volume of remittances of individuals from Azerbaijan to Uzbekistan amounted to $3.881 million from January through September 2024. The data obtained by Trend from the country's Central Bank shows that this indicator increased by 45.52 percent, or $1.2 million, compared to the same period last year. On that account, the slice of remittances heading to Uzbekistan makes up a mere one percent of the whole pie. According to the results of 2023, the volume of remittances of individuals from Azerbaijan to Uzbekistan amounted to $3.6 million. To note, the volume of remittances of individuals from foreign countries to Azerbaijan amounted to $1.6 billion by the end of 2023. Mumbai, Jan 2 : The NCP-SP and Congress on Thursday took a swipe at Beed police asking whether five new beds have been ordered for the comfort of Walmik Karad, a close associate of NCP minister Dhananjay Munde from Beed, who was wanted in an extortion case linked to the murder of Santosh Deshmukh, who surrendered before the CID in Pune on Tuesday. An extortion case has been registered against Karad who has been remanded in police custody for 14 days by Kej court in Beed district. The police administration subsequently clarified that they were cots for the staff. NCP-SP legislator Rohit Pawar in his post on X said, "There are reports of five new beds being ordered at the police station. Although the administration has clarified that new cots have been ordered for the staff, there are many questions like, how come the beds were suddenly ordered today? If new beds have been ordered for the staff, the same level of promptness should be shown for the staff in all police stations across the state. "In addition, consideration should be given to whether mattresses, pillows, fans, and ACs can also be installed." On the other hand, senior Congress legislator Vijay Wadettiwar took a dig at the MahaYuti government asking whether the five cots ordered for the Beed police station were for Walmik Karad being covered under the 'Ladli Aaropi Yojana (beloved accused scheme)'. "There are not so many coincidences in the movies also as are witnessed in the police administration's move to order five beds when Walmik Karad has been sentenced to 14 days' police custody. "This is the beginning of pampering the accused. Gradually he will get everything like TV, AC, and food from a five-star hotel," remarked Wadettiwar. "Does this government want to take fair action against Walmik Karad? If it wants to, then the investigation should be conducted outside Beed district. Will it investigate the person who has kept the police in its grip till now or will it be a service? The government should either stop pretending to take action against Karad and if it wants to take action, it should be done seriously," said Wadettiwar. "Whether it is the murder of Santosh Deshmukh or a case under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), no case has been registered in Karad yet, which raises questions about this investigation," he commented. The state government on Wednesday formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by IPS officer Basavaraj Teli to investigate the brutal killing of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh from Beed district which took place in December last year. Teli is the head of the Economic Offences Wing of the CID. All the officers in the SIT are from Beed district. The current investigating officer DYSP Anil Gujar will also be in the probe team. Apart from Gujar, the other members of the SIT include Vijay Singh Shivlal Jonwal, assistant police inspector, Local Crime Branch, Beed, Mahesh Vighne, sub inspector, Local Crime Branch, Beed, Anand Shankar Shinde, sub inspector Kej, Tulshiram Jagtap, assistant sub inspector, Manoj Rajendra Wagh, police constable, Chandrakant S Kalkute, police naik, Balasaheb Devidas Akhabare, police naik and Santosh Bhagwanrao Gitte, police constable. The Santosh Deshmukh murder case is currently being investigated by the CID and so far more than 150 people have been questioned in this case. The investigation is being conducted in connection with the links between the extortion of Rs 2 crore and the CID team is checking all the call records, CDRs on a war footing. Mumbai, Jan 2 : Maharashtra's biggest industrial land parcel measuring over 5,286 acres - at a strategic location close to the Navi Mumbai Airport, JNPT and the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link project - has been sold to Reliance Industries Ltd at a valuation of mere Rs 2,200 crore. Mumbai, Jan 2 (IANS) Maharashtraas biggest industrial land parcel measuring over 5,286 acres a" at a strategic location close to the Navi Mumbai Airport, JNPT and the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link project a" has been sold to Reliance Industries Ltd at a valuation of mere Rs 2,200 crore. Anand Jain-promoted Jai Corp Ltd. informed the stock exchange that Urban Infrastructure Holdings Pvt. Ltd., a firm in which his company holds 32 per cent, is convening an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders to approve capital reduction proposed by the company. The company informed the stock exchange that the subsidiary of Urban Infrastructure Holdings Pvt. Ltd., i.e., Dronagiri Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (DIPL), sold its 74 per cent stake in Navi Mumbai IIA Pvt. Ltd. for Rs 1,628.03 crore, valuing the company at Rs 2,200 crore to Reliance Industries Ltd. Mukesh Ambani-led RIL informed the exchanges on December 13, 2024, that pursuant to the waiver of the first right of refusal by the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd. (CIDCO), it has bought 57.12 crore equity shares representing 74 per cent of Navi Mumbai IIA Private Limited (NMIIA), formerly called Navi Mumbai SEZ, at a price of Rs 28.50 per equity share, aggregating Rs 1,628.03 crore, valuing the 5,286-acre project at an equity value of Rs 2,200 crore. After the acquisition, NMIIA became a 74 per cent subsidiary of the company, it said in a disclosure to the stock exchange. NMIIA was incorporated on June 15, 2004, and is engaged in developing the Integrated Industrial Area (IIA) in Maharashtra. Navi Mumbai IIA Pvt. Ltd. in the financial year ending March 2018 was allowed by the Maharashtra government to be converted from an SEZ into an Integrated Industrial Area (IIA). NMIIA has been appointed as the Special Planning Authority for the notified areas of Dronagiri, Kalambol. The Navi Mumbai SEZ was once said to be estimated as having an economic potential of over Rs 1 lakh crore after the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (Atal Setu) and Navi Mumbai Airport get operational. NMIIA is a strategically located industrial zone as it is in close proximity to the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and the Mumbai-Pune Highway. RIL, in its statement, said that the investment is not a related party transaction and none of the companyas promoters, the promoter group, or group companies have any interest in the above transaction. But Urban Infrastructure Holdings Private Ltd. (UIHPL) is owned 33 per cent by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group companies, 32 per cent by Jai Corp Group led by Anand Jain and SKIL Infrastructure, which is currently under NCLT proceedings, held 35 per cent as per its annual report for the financial year ending March 2023, according to credit rating agency Care Ratings, which had rated Navi Mumbai SEZ instruments in March 2021. Urban Infrastructure Holdings Private Ltd. held a 99 per cent stake in Dronagiri Infrastructure, which owns 74 per cent in Navi Mumbai IIA Pvt Ltd. The remaining stake is held by the government agency CIDCO. According to the SKIL Infrastructure website, Navi Mumbai IIA achieved financial closure for 2,140 hectare (approx 5286 acre) and is currently developing the site. It said the company is the lead consortium member for Navi Mumbai IIA Ltd., with the balance of equity held by Reliance Group Investment and Holding Private Ltd., a Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani Group company. Dronagiri Infrastructure was scheduled to convene a shareholder meeting on January 2, seeking approval for reduction of share capital. The Board of Urban Infrastructure, i.e., the owner of Dronagiri, has proposed to reduce 99.76 per cent of its share capital (i.e., equity shares and fully compulsorily convertible preference shares, or CCPS) on a proportionate basis and pay an aggregate consideration of Rs 3,746.87 crore to its shareholders towards such capital reduction on a proportionate basis and considering CCPS on an as is converted basis. Out of this, owners of Urban Infrastructure have already received the promoteras contribution towards equity of Rs 1,597 crore. Dronagiri will distribute Rs 1,492.50 crore along with any interest that has accrued and redeem Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures for Rs 682 crore held by its subsidiary Vinamra Universal Traders Private Limited. Thus, the total funds that UIHPL will receive will be a minimum of Rs 3,772 crore. UIHPL, which held a 99 per cent stake in DIPL, had also issued Compulsorily Convertible Debentures to Reliance (Mukesh Ambani) Group. On the conversion of CCDs, Reliance, along with Jai Corp Group, will hold a substantial equity stake in UIHPL, the rating agency had said. This would have resulted in Reliance Group and Jai Corp Group indirectly having a controlling stake in NMIIA. In addition, the funding requirement of NMIIA is met out of equity and share application money (through UIHPL) as well as deposits from the wholly owned subsidiary of RIL. Till December 31, 2022, NMSEZ received equity capital and share application money of approximately Rs 3,100 crore and deposits to the extent of Rs 6,038, according to Care Ratings. It is not clear what the status of these deposits is since then. As per the 2023-24 balance sheet, Reliance has advanced close to Rs 6,162 crore to its subsidiary Reliance 4IR Realty Development Ltd., which in turn used a portion of the provided loans and invested substantially in the Zero Coupon Unsecured Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures of several SPVs involved in development in the Dronagiri, Kalamboli, and Ulwe areas. The rating agency, though, wrote that since the project has been cleared by the Environment Ministry, the demand for the plots within the area is expected to increase. Furthermore, there is no major capital expenditure left to be incurred in the project, and there has been a significant appreciation in the value of land in the last couple of years. However, this high economic value does not seem to reflect in the cost of acquisition of the project by Reliance Industries. a"IANS sps/na New Delhi, Jan 2 : In line with his commitment to 'Housing for All,' Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Swabhiman Apartments, Ashok Vihar, Delhi, on January 3 at 12.10 p.m. The visit will mark the inauguration of newly-constructed flats for dwellers of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters under the In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation Project. New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS) In line with his commitment to aHousing for All,a Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Swabhiman Apartments, Ashok Vihar, Delhi, on January 3 at 12.10 p.m. The visit will mark the inauguration of newly-constructed flats for dwellers of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters under the In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation Project. During the event, the Prime Minister will inaugurate 1,675-newly constructed flats and hand over keys to eligible beneficiaries. This project represents the second successful In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation initiative by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), aimed at providing a healthier living environment with proper amenities for JJ cluster residents. Under the scheme, while the government spends approximately Rs 25 lakh per flat, beneficiaries contribute a nominal Rs 1.42 lakh, with an additional Rs 30,000 covering five years of maintenance. The Prime Minister will also inaugurate two urban redevelopment projects -- the World Trade Centre (WTC) at Nauroji Nagar and the General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) Type-II Quarters at Sarojini Nagar. The WTC at Nauroji Nagar project replaces over 600 dilapidated quarters with modern commercial towers, offering 34 lakh square feet of premium commercial space. It emphasises sustainable practices, including zero-discharge systems, solar energy, and rainwater harvesting. The GPRA includes 28 towers housing 2,500 residential units with modern amenities, efficient space utilisation, and eco-conscious features like rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment plants, and solar-powered waste compactors. The Prime Minister will also inaugurate the CBSE Integrated Office Complex in Dwarka, constructed at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Designed to IGBC Platinum standards, this eco-friendly complex features advanced facilities such as an auditorium, data centre, and water management systems. Further, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stones for three major projects at Delhi University, worth over Rs 600 crore -- an academic block at the Eastern Campus, Surajmal Vihar, East Delhi; an academic block at the Western Campus, Dwarka; and Veer Savarkar College, Roshanpura, Najafgarh, equipped with state-of-the-art educational facilities. These projects collectively underline the governmentas commitment to urban development, housing, and education in Delhi. Belagavi : , Jan 2 (IANS) A woman in Belagavi district of Karnataka has been arrested for allegedly killing her husband. She claimed it was to protect their daughter from an attempted sexual assault from her husband, the police said here on Thursday. The incident took place in the village Umarani near Chikkodi in Belagavi district. The deceased, identified as Srimantha Itnale, was reportedly killed by his wife, Savithri, after he allegedly tried to rape their daughter. According to the police, Srimantha, who was known for his abusive behaviour and frequent alcohol consumption, attempted to sexually assault his daughter. Unable to bear the situation, Savithri allegedly intervened and attacked him with a heavy object, leading to his death. To dispose of the evidence, she dismembered the body and discarded it in nearby farmland. Police investigations revealed that she tried to mislead authorities by blaming an external group for the crime. Savithri cleaned the scene of the incident and hid the weapon. Villagers discovered the body and informed the police, leading to her arrest. During questioning, she admitted to the crime, stating it was to protect her child. The Chikkodi police have taken Savithri into custody and are investigating further. According to the police, the accused was a drunkard and always quarreled with his wife. He demanded money for liquor and asked her to buy him a bike. Srimantha also forced his wife to sleep with others to make money and the accused had told police that she had to oblige him for the sake of family. Srimantha later attempted to rape his own daughter and not able to put up with it, accused Savithri bludgeoned him to death, the police said. She had also switched off the mobile phone of her deceased husband. She had asked her daughter not to reveal anything related to the incident to anyone. The case has brought attention to the severe domestic issues faced by some families, highlighting the need for accessible support systems and protection measures for women and children in vulnerable situations. Kolkata, Jan 2 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, probing the multi-crore financial irregularities case at state-run R. G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, have video-recorded statements of witnesses, who are colleagues of Sandip Ghosh, the former and controversial principal of the institution. Sources said recording statements of the medicine-procurement committee members of R. G. Kar would play a crucial role in making the case watertight against Ghosh. The committee members, who were questioned as witnesses, informed the investigating officials of how Ghosh forced them to sign procurement-related documents and ignored objections raised regarding several procurements. The source added that the witnesses' statements conform with the contents of several documents seized from the residences of Ghosh and his two trusted suppliers Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra. The investigating officials have identified Ghosh, Suman Hazra and Biplab Sinha as the biggest beneficiaries of the "scam". All three of them are in judicial custody now, though Ghosh has been recently granted "default bail" by a special court in Kolkata in connection with the gruesome rape and murder of a doctor at R.G. Kar in August 2023. Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal were granted "default bail" after CBI could not submit a supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrest in the rape and murder case. Mondal is currently out on bail. The main charges against Ghosh in the financial irregularities are manipulation in the tendering process, getting infrastructure-related work at R.G. Kar done by private outsourced agencies bypassing the state Public Works Department, smuggling bio-medical wastes from the hospital and selling the organs of the unidentified bodies coming to the hospital for autopsy purposes. The CBI filed its first chargesheet in the case on November 29, 2023. Amaravati, Jan 2 : A car, in which Ganja was being allegedly smuggled, ran over policemen at a toll plaza in Andhra Pradesh's Kakinada district. Two police constables were injured in the incident that occurred at Krishnavaram toll plaza in Kirlampudi mandal in the early hours of Thursday. Amaravati, Jan 2 (IANS) A car, in which Ganja was being allegedly smuggled, ran over policemen at a toll plaza in Andhra Pradeshas Kakinada district. Two police constables were injured in the incident that occurred at Krishnavaram toll plaza in Kirlampudi mandal in the early hours of Thursday. As the car approached the toll plaza, police personnel deployed there for checking signalled the vehicle to stop. The policemen were gathering details from the driver of the vehicle coming from Visakhapatnam and heading towards Rajamahendravaram. The driver pretended to cooperate but suddenly accelerated, hitting two police constables. Lovaraju, a constable of Kirlampudi Police Station and another constable who were in front of the vehicle were injured in the incident. They were rushed to a hospital. Alert policemen then chased the car. After travelling some distance the accused left the car at Rajanagaram and escaped. Police seized the car and reportedly found Ganja in it. The accused was later apprehended at Jeelugumilli in West Godavari district. The car with Uttar Pradesh registration number was allegedly transporting Ganja from Visakhapatnam. The police have registered a case and took up an investigation. The identity of the accused and other details were not known. Ganja is cultivated in some pockets of Visakhapatnam and other districts in north coastal Andhra and neighbouring Odisha. In recent months, several peddlers were arrested in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana while transporting Ganja to other states. Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF), Andhra Pradesh has been taking steps to check Ganja smuggling. It recently held a coordination meeting with the Odisha police to discuss strategies to combat the smuggling of narcotics. They also discussed strategies for eradicating ganja cultivation at its source, including the use of advanced satellite imagery and drone technology to identify cultivation areas and plan pre-emptive raids during critical cultivation months. The meeting discussed targeting key individuals involved in cultivation and distribution while promoting alternative crops and sustainable livelihoods to facilitate a transition away from Ganja cultivation. New Delhi, Jan 2 : Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday expressed concern over the plight of farmers in Delhi, accusing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of indifference towards their welfare. In a letter addressed to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, Chouhan slammed the Delhi government for allegedly failing to implement central agricultural schemes, which he claimed has deprived farmers of essential benefits. Chouhan urged that political rivalries should not hinder the welfare of farmers. "I am writing this letter to you with great sorrow. You have never made appropriate decisions in the interest of farmers in Delhi. Your government has also stopped the implementation of the farmer-friendly schemes of the Central Government in Delhi. There is no sympathy for the farmers in your government," he wrote. The Union Minister alleged that the AAP government in Delhi has ignored farmers' needs for the past decade. Referring to Arvind Kejriwal's tenure as the former Chief Minister, he stated, "Instead of taking public welfare decisions, he has always cried about himself. The farmers have been cheated and used for political gains through pre-election promises." Chouhan highlighted several key central schemes that he said have not been implemented in Delhi, including the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and the National Agriculture Development Programme (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana or RKVY). He called this a sign of the AAP government's "irresponsible behaviour," which, according to him, has resulted in farmers losing benefits such as subsidies for mechanisation, micro-irrigation, soil health management, crop residue handling, agroforestry, and crop diversification. The letter also criticised the non-implementation of the Beej Gram Yojana, which aims to improve seed quality and distribution. He said that this negligence has left farmers unable to reap the benefits of seed certification, infrastructure improvements for seed testing, and traditional seed cultivation assistance. "Not only have you not implemented the farmer welfare schemes of the Central Government in Delhi, but your policies have also been anti-agriculture and anti-farmer," Chouhan asserted Further, the minister alleged that essential agricultural equipment, such as tractors and harvesters, are being registered as commercial vehicles in Delhi, forcing farmers to purchase them at higher prices. He also accused the AAP government of setting high electricity rates for farmers, saying, "AAP talks of free electricity, but farmers are being charged commercial rates for irrigation. Connections for irrigation equipment in areas like Gondi near Bamuna have been cut, hindering irrigation and causing crops to dry up." Chouhan stressed the need to prioritise farmers' welfare over party politics. "Political rivalries should not become an obstacle in the welfare of farmers. Farmer welfare is the duty of every government, irrespective of the party politics," he stated, urging the Delhi government to implement central agricultural schemes without delay. He concluded by requesting that the Delhi government rise above political differences and take immediate action to ensure the benefits of central schemes reach the farmers of Delhi. "I request you to ensure that the food producers of Delhi get the benefits they deserve," he wrote. Kolkata, Jan 2 : The officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are conducting raids at multiple locations in West Bengal in connection with an alleged online forgery scam since Thursday morning, sources said. Sources aware of the development said that the raids and search operations are being conducted based on a complaint registered in Chennai about an online forgery case involving over Rs 1,000 crore. Investigations revealed that the rackets extended their activities in some of the eastern Indian states mainly in West Bengal which prompted ED to conduct such raids and search operations. Sources said that currently such operations are being conducted at eight locations in the state including five in and around the state capital, Kolkata. Each team of ED officials is being escorted by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel. The raid and search operations started at a garage at Salt Lake on the northern outskirts of Kolkata where the forgery operations were reportedly conducted. The ED officials detained one person from there and started conducting raids and search operations at the residential flat of a businessman named Sadanand Jha at a posh housing complex at Raghunathpur, also in the northern outskirts of Kolkata. The raids and search operations are still on. Sources said that recently the Kolkata Police arrested a person Tanmay Paul on charges of forgery involving an amount of Rs 60 lakh. However, the investigation revealed that Paul was a part of a similar racket operating nationwide and he had defrauded around 300 people involving an amount of over Rs 60 crore. Later ED also started investigating the case leading to Thursday's raids. Recently several cases of cyber forgery have been reported in West Bengal and in most cases the fraudsters posing as central investigating agency officials or officers of cybercrime divisions of the different state police forces were extorting people of lakhs of rupees and threatening arrests. Hyderabad, Jan 2 : Police have picked up seven suspects for questioning after protests by female students of a private engineering college over alleged video recording in hostel bathrooms. The mobile phones of the hostel workers were seized and were being scanned on Thursday by the police to ascertain if they recorded the videos. CMR Engineering College at Medchal on the outskirts of Hyderabad was rocked by protests late on Wednesday night. Alleging privacy breach, the students staged a protest and demanded action against the accused. They alleged that some hostel workers secretly recorded videos of female students in bathrooms. Leaders of student unions including ABVP also joined the students in the protest which continued past midnight. ABVP leaders demanded action against the management of the college. They alleged that female students were being blackmailed. The protest began after some female students noticed hand imprints on the glass of ventilators in bathrooms. The students also complained of inadequate security at the hostel and said though the issue was brought to the notice of the management, no action was taken. They also alleged that when the warden was informed about the video recording, he made some objectionable remarks. The student leaders warned that if videos recorded in bathrooms surfaced on social media, former minister and BRS MLA Malla Reddy, who owns the college, will have to take responsibility. The protestors smashed the windows of the security room. Police rushed to the college and tried to pacify the protestors with an assurance to take action. The police officials said they would register a case based on the complaints and initiate a thorough investigation into the incident. With no formal complaint being filed, police have not registered an First Information Report (FIR). However, they detained seven hostel workers for questioning. The mobile phones of the workers were seized and were being scanned by the police to ascertain if they recorded the videos. Muan, Jan 2 : South Korean Police on Thursday raided Muan International Airport, the office of Jeju Air and other locations over the airline's deadly crash that killed 179 people, as they stepped up their probe into the worst aviation disaster on the nation's soil. The Jeonnam Provincial Police conducted search and seizure operations at the airport in southwest South Korea, the Seoul office of Jeju Air, and the Muan office of the Busan Regional Office of Aviation, officials said. The search warrant was issued on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, officials said. Police are securing evidence related to the legitimacy of the airport's localiser, a concrete wall housing an antenna array located near the runway at the time, and the communication record between the control tower and the pilot shortly before the plane crash. On Sunday, the Jeju Air passenger jet from Bangkok crashed into the outer wall of Muan International Airport during a belly landing, leaving 179 of the 181 people on board dead. The plane skidded along the ground without its landing gear deployed, crashing into a concrete wall before bursting into flames with a deafening explosion. It marked the deadliest aviation accident ever on the nation's soil. The airport control tower reportedly warned of a bird strike minutes before the pilot declared mayday and landed the plane without its landing gear, according to the Land Ministry. Police investigations will centre around whether there were any problems in the emergency landing process, including the measures taken by the airport tower controller. The identities of all 179 victims have been identified as of Wednesday, and authorities are working to match the damaged body parts with the victims through DNA analysis. As of Thursday morning, the bodies of 24 victims were delivered to their families and the funeral process was underway for 10 of them, officials said. Authorities have also begun delivering some of the victims' belongings collected from the scene to the respective family members. Nearly 158,000 people came by the joint memorial altars set up across the nation to pay their respects to the victims. Meanwhile, the Land Ministry's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board said Thursday it had completed converting the data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder into an audio file. The black boxes, or Flight Data Recorder, retrieved from the crashed plane were to be sent to the US for analysis due to damage sustained from the accident. BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, January 3. In the first half of 2024, the total value of accumulated investments from Central Asian countries in Kyrgyzstan reached $406 million, Trend reports. According to the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), nearly half (48.6 percent) of the regional investments from Central Asia went to Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan remained the primary investor in the country, with Kazakh investors funding seven projects worth $374 million in the same period. Kazakhstan has traditionally been the leader in intra-regional Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Central Asia. By the end of the first half of 2024, Kazakhstans FDI in the region amounted to $671 million, accounting for more than 80 percent of the total FDI in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan received more than half (55.7 percent) of these investments. Since 2016, Kazakhstan has consistently led in capital exports in Central Asia. At that time, the volume of its investments stood at $592 million, and by mid-2024, it had grown by 13.3 percent to $671 million. Currently, Kazakh investors are involved in 18 out of 25 ongoing investment projects in the region. However, Kazakhstans share as the leading investor has been gradually declining due to increasing investment activity from Uzbekistan. In 2018, Kazakhstan's share in regional FDI was nearly 100 percent, but by the first half of 2024, it had decreased to 80.4 percent. As an importer of capital, Kazakhstans activity is less prominent, attracting $127 million in foreign investments. By mid-2024, the accumulated FDI within Central Asia totaled $834 million. Mumbai, Jan 2 : Television actress Pooja Banerjii has responded to being falsely accused in a money laundering case, expressing her disappointment over the recent allegations. In a heartfelt message shared on social media, Pooja clarified that she had been wrongfully blamed for the case, with her name, picture, and credentials circulated by several media outlets. Banerjii, who was in South Africa with her family when the allegations were made, shared her frustration with how the media handled the situation. She revealed that many media outlets did not cross-check the information with her or her team before publishing the false news. Despite reaching out to several journalists to clarify the truth, Pooja claimed that some ignored her, while others were reluctant to retract the story due to their egos. In a note on her Instagram handle, she wrote, "Hello my dear well-wishers, A Very Happy New Year to all of you. I wouldn't have wanted to put this up as my first post of 2025 but sadly the last few days have been rather disappointing and filled with remorse. I was recently falsely blamed for a money laundering case, sadly the news was circulated by almost all the media pages and outlets with my name, picture and my credentials. I wasn't aware of this news as I was in South Africa with my family when the false allegations were made without any comment from me or my team." "My family members were extremely distressed with such a huge false allegation being spread all over the news that we have decided to go the legal route in order to clear my standing that no such breach of law was done by me and to all my family, friends and well-wishers I'm sorry if this false news has hurt you but I will stand against lies and make sure that this doesn't happen with anyone and the media who still didn't believe me, Definitely do a double cross-check on such baseless reports. I request for everyone's support in my cause.. #satyamevajayate to all the media people, you have real power to change the world and I truly believe in it, my request is that the faith of such people shouldn't waiver," the post further read. Last month, actress Mallika Sherawat and Kumkum Bhagya star Pooja Banerjee were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding their alleged involvement with a Pakistani betting portal, Magicwin. New Delhi, Jan 2 : Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Congress MP from Punjab on Thursday hit out at BJP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), labelling them as "anti-farmer" and "B-teams" working against the interests of the farming community. Randhawa also dismissed the letter written by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi as an "election stunt" ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls. In the letter, Chouhan expressed concerns over the condition of farmers in Delhi, accusing the AAP government of neglecting their welfare and failing to implement central agricultural schemes, thereby depriving farmers of essential benefits. Chouhan emphasised that political rivalries should not obstruct farmers welfare. Reacting sharply to his letter, Randhawa told IANS, "Instead of writing to the Delhi Chief Minister, he should have written to the Punjab Chief Minister and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, where farmers are struggling. Since Rakesh Tikait is also part of the farmers' protest, Chouhan should have addressed his letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister." Terming Chouhan's move an election gimmick, Randhawa said, "Writing to the Delhi Chief Minister seems like a mere election stunt." Randhawa also shifted attention to the deteriorating health of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike since November 26 at Khanauri, the border point between Punjab and Haryana. Farmers have been protesting at Delhi borders, demanding long-pending demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP), loan waivers, and agricultural sector reforms. Randhawa criticised both the Punjab and Delhi governments for their lack of action. "Delhi Chief Minister should send the same letter to the Punjab Chief Minister about the bad situation there. Dallewal Sahab has been fasting at Khanauri border, but neither Atishi nor Kejriwal has visited him. They should visit him along with the Punjab CM and urge him to give up fasting," he said. Accusing the BJP and AAP of colluding against farmers, the Congress MP said, "Both of them are B-teams of each other. They meet each other in the evening and set narratives by morning. Both are anti-farmer and ignore the demands of the farming community," he alleged. He urged both parties to come forward and address farmers' issues. "The governments in Punjab and Delhi should work towards fulfilling the farmers' demands instead of engaging in political blame games," he added. Kolkata, Jan 2 : Dulal Sarkar, also known as Babla, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) councilor from Ward 22 of English Bazar Municipality in Malda district, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday afternoon after being shot in broad daylight in the morning. He had been undergoing treatment at Malda Medical College and Hospital after the attack. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed Sarkar's death during an administrative review meeting at the state secretariat, Nabanna. She expressed strong criticism of Malda District Police Superintendent Pradeep Kumar Yadav, holding him accountable for the tragedy. "Our councilor in Malda has been killed today due to the lackadaisical approach of the district police superintendent. He used to have security cover, which was later withdrawn. This is a clear lapse on the part of the police. Babla was with me since the beginning," Banerjee said. The Chief Minister announced that Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim and state Minister Sabina Yasmin would visit Malda to oversee the situation. Sarkar, who suffered a bullet wound to the head, was in critical condition from the outset. Eyewitnesses reported that he was attacked while standing at a busy crossing in the area. Three helmet-clad assailants arrived on a motorcycle, and one of them opened fire. The first two bullets missed, but the third struck Sarkar in the head. Police launched an investigation immediately after the attack, but as of the time of reporting, the assailants remained at large. District police sources stated that the attack appeared to be a premeditated murder, with the perpetrators seemingly aware of Sarkar's movements and location at the time. It is not yet clear whether the murder was due to political reasons or if there is any angle of personal rivalry involved in the matter. Malda District Police Superintendent Pradeep Kumar Yadav is investigating the matter. Bidar : , Jan 2 (IANS) The family of Sachin Panchal, a contractor who committed suicide blaming a close aide of Minister Priyank Kharge, has stated that they have lost trust as they have not been given any update by the Karnataka government in the case and will now write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking justice. Surekha, sister of deceased Sachin, stated in Kattitongov village near Bhalki town in Bidar district, "Not a single update has been given seven days after he ended his life. We have come to know that they are trying to hush up the case." In an angry outburst she claimed, "Today they are claiming that Sachin is not a contractor and tomorrow they will claim that Sachin's office did not exist in Kalaburagi and he did not work in Kalaburagi at all. They will also claim that Sachin never met them. They will also prepare documents to prove that the handwriting in the death note is not his and they will also prove that he did not exist at all. They might even prove that Sachin did not take birth as well." "The details are clearly specified in the death note. The authorities should have questioned the person named in the death note about the case. Instead, the police are questioning us. Let them question the accused first," Surekha demanded. "The authorities have not updated us on whether they got the post mortem report or the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report. As there is absolutely no update on any development in the investigation how are we supposed to trust the government? We will write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is not possible to meet him personally. There is no other option left for us, we will write a letter to the PM," she stated. "There is no trust left in this government. The central government should hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)," she demanded. "My brother had an iPhone. He had mentioned in the death note that his phone was taken away from him. The police have not bothered to investigate," she charged. "The Contractors' Association members had approached us and asked us whether Sachin had a licence. We have been informed that all documents relating to him are in the Kalaburagi office. Already all those documents are destroyed," Surekha alleged. "Earlier as well we maintained that we don't know whether Sachin had a licence or not for carrying out the contract," she clarified. Meanwhile, Jagannath Shegaji, President of the State Contractors' Association stated that he had gathered information from contractors in Bidar district, and Sachin Panchal was not a contractor. "Sachin does not have any contracts or even a licence. Sachin Panchal can only be considered a contractor if he possesses a registered licence under the PWD in Bengaluru," Jagannath stated. He added, "We have enquired with the Chief Engineers of Dharwad and Kalaburagi. No registration was found. It will also be verified at the Bengaluru office. There is no information about any pending bill or tender under the name of Sachin." Sachin, a 26-year-old contractor in Kalaburagi, committed suicide after allegedly facing threats and extortion from Raju Kapanuru, an aide of Priyank Kharge. Sachin's seven-page suicide note blamed Kapanuru for atrocities. Mumbai, Jan 2 : TV actor Arjun Bijlani has expressed his desire to take on a character that seamlessly blends Indian traditions with global appeal. The actor aims to deliver a unique portrayal that resonates with both Indian and international audiences. Speaking about the roles he looks forward to exploring, Arjun shared, "I dream of portraying a character with intense emotional layers, maybe even a biopic or something that blends Indian traditions with global appeal. I am looking to take on more challenging roles and characters that push me out of my comfort zone. Having gained so much experience over the years, I want to challenge myself with roles I've never done before." "I am in talks for an OTT series, and my current focus is on how my character can resonate well with the audience. I believe a character is truly successful when the audience is able to connect with it," he added. The 'Naagin' actor also reflected on his time on Laughter Chef, stating that he had a memorable experience, but fans will not see him in the second season. He explained, "I won't be part of the Laughter Chef or Celebrity Chef. I'm currently focusing on exploring new projects." The actor also expressed gratitude for the past year, noting that 2024 challenged him to grow both personally and professionally. "It was a year filled with valuable lessons, thankfulness, and growth," he concluded. On the professional front, Bijlani was last seen in the shows "Pyaar Ka Pehla Adhyay: Shiv Shakti" and "Laughter Chef." He made his television debut with Ekta Kapoor's show "Kartika" and is best known for his roles in "Left Right Left," "Miley Jab Hum Tum," "Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi," "Naagin," and "Ishq Mein Marjawan." He made his OTT debut with "State of Siege: 26/11" and was seen in "Roohaniyat" in 2022. Lucknow, Jan 2 : In a one-of-its-kind initiative to wipe out Tuberculosis (TB) from Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath kicked off a programme on Thursday to accelerate progress towards this goal. The UP CM has entrusted retired IAS and IPS officers, former Vice Chancellors, educationists, and other senior citizens with the responsibility of 'Nikshay Mitra', a programme aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for a 'TB-free India'. As 'Nikshay Mitras', they will actively contribute to raising public awareness and supporting efforts to eradicate TB. In a meeting with senior citizens on Thursday, the Chief Minister emphasised the importance of their cooperation in the success of the 'TB-Free Uttar Pradesh' campaign. In a special meeting with retired IAS and IPS officers, former Vice Chancellors, and senior citizens, CM Adityanath highlighted Prime Minister Modi's vision of 'TB-Free India' and stated, "A strong India can only emerge from a healthy India, and India will gain true power when it becomes strong." The Chief Minister underscored the urgency of eliminating TB, noting that while the World Health Organization has set 2030 as the global target for a TB-free world, Prime Minister Modi has ambitiously advanced India's goal to 2025. He pointed out that India has the highest number of TB patients globally, and as Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state, its contribution is critical to achieving this national goal. The Chief Minister detailed the significant strides made in Uttar Pradesh towards TB elimination and said, "TB testing rates in the state have quadrupled in recent years, a substantial increase in Nat and X-ray machines has improved diagnostic capabilities, and the success rate of TB treatment has risen from 79 per cent to 92 per cent over the past four years." "Under the Nikshay Poshan Yojana, Rs 775 crore has been disbursed via DBT to the accounts of 27 lakh TB patients to support their nutritional needs and preventive treatment is being provided to individuals living with TB patients to curb the spread of the disease," he added. Emphasising the importance of public participation, the Chief Minister highlighted that over 45,000 Nikshay Mitras have adopted TB patients and 1,372 Gram Panchayats in the state have already been declared TB-free. He called upon the retired officers and educationists to leverage their vast experience and commitment to society by contributing to this national mission. He stressed that every TB patient must receive immediate, accurate, and sustained medical care, along with proper nutrition and family screening, to prevent the disease from spreading further. "TB patients are integral members of society, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure they are treated with respect and dignity. As Nikshay Mitras, you can provide them with guidance, support, and motivation," the Chief Minister said. He also outlined the campaign's primary goals: identifying undiagnosed TB patients, reducing TB-related mortality, and safeguarding healthy individuals from infection. The Chief Minister further reaffirmed the state government's unwavering commitment to achieving a TB-free Uttar Pradesh, stressing the necessity of involving all sections of society in this mission. The retired officers and Vice Chancellors also pledged their full cooperation in this vital initiative. New Delhi/Agartala, Jan 2 : A New Delhi-based rights body -- Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) - on Thursday strongly criticised the denial of bail by a Bangladeshi court to Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das. New Delhi/Agartala, Jan 2 (IANS) A New Delhi-based rights body -- Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) on Thursday strongly criticised the denial of bail by a Bangladeshi court to Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das. RRAG has decided to take up the issue with the United Nations, United States, United Kingdom and all other countries which believe in the rule of law. Arrested on November 25 from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on sedition charges, Das has remained in jail despite widespread demands for his release. The RRAG said that the denial of bail to Das, spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilit Sanatan Jagran Jote, by the Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam after hearing arguments from both sides for around 30 minutes is "nothing but an attempt to silence the Hindu minorities to not press for their democratic rights." RRAG Director Suhas Chakma said that the main crime of Chinmoy Krishna Das was organising a peaceful protest by the Hindu minorities on October 25, 2024 at the historic Lal Dighi ground in Chittagong seeking justice against violations of the rights of the minorities in Bangladesh. "Bangladesh is unable to accept that the Hindu minorities will protest to seek their rights. There is no other reason to arrest and detain in a perverse case of sedition," he said in a statement. According to RRAG, on October 31, 2024, one Md Firoz Khan, former General Secretary of Mohora ward of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, filed a private complaint with Kotwali Police Station, Chattogram, accusing Das and 18 others of disrespecting Bangladesh's national flag during a rally of the Hindu community on October 25. "A perusal of the two-page complaint filed by Md Firoz Khan shows that the entire first page of the complaint pertains to description of the accused. The second page which contains half a page text alleged that 'under the instigation of the accused persons, at New Market Zero Point, Chattogram, unknown persons had put up saffron flags of the ISKCON over the national flags put by the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement,'" the statement said. "It said that putting up the saffron flag is equivalent to challenging territorial integrity of Bangladesh, and creating disturbance and enmity between the communities/groups. The complainant Md Firoz Khan provided no evidence whatsoever to substantiate his allegations," RRAG claimed. It added that "based on this false and fictitious complaint, the Bangladesh Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 124 (a) of the Bangladesh Penal Code relating to sedition punishable with imprisonment for life, Section 150 relating to hiring, or conniving at hiring of persons to join unlawful assembly, Section 109 punishment for abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment and Section 34 relating to common intention." Suhas Chakma said that in the complaint filed by Firoz Khan, there was no allegation that Das and other accused were directly involved in the alleged putting up of the ISKCON flag over the Bangladeshi national flag. "The actual alleged offenders were not identified/named. Most importantly, there is no evidence that those who had put up the alleged flags were even ISKCON activists, and not of any other party or individuals. Even if several flags are put on a pillar, it is natural that the flags move around because of the winds and it can never constitute an offence of sedition," Chakma said. He said this was a case for effective intervention by all the countries which believe in the rule of law and they would approach such nations. Patna, Jan 2 : The political atmosphere in Bihar has intensified following RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav expressing willingness to reconcile with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was a part of the mahagathbandhan at one time. When asked if his door was open for the Bihar Chief Minister, Lalu responded on Wednesday night, "My door is always open. Nitish Kumar should also keep his door open." On whether he would forgive Nitish Kumar if he returned, Lalu stated, "Forgiving has been my job. If he comes back, I will forgive him without any problem. Everyone will work together." These comments hint at the possibility of a renewed alliance, adding intrigue to the already dynamic political landscape of Bihar. The political drama in Bihar has taken a new turn with conflicting statements from the RJD chief and his son, Tejashwi Yadav, regarding the potential reconciliation with Nitish Kumar. Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of the Opposition and the RJDas second-in-command, has always firmly rejected the idea of aligning with Nitish Kumar. Hours after Laluas comments on Wednesday night, Tejashwi Yadav reiterated his earlier stance during the swearing-in ceremony of Biharas new Governor on Thursday. Tejashwi had earlier said, "Our door is closed for Nitish Kumar forever. We do not need him." Tejashwi added, "There is nothing left in Nitish now. The people of Bihar trust me, and this time we will form the government on our own." This indicates Tejashwias confidence in his growing political clout and his belief that the RJD no longer requires Nitish Kumaras support. The contrasting views of Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav highlight a divide within the RJD. While Lalu, a seasoned politician, sees the strategic importance of Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi appears determined to carve out his own path, believing that the peopleas trust in him is sufficient to win the elections. As Bihar gears up for polls, all major parties, including the RJD and the NDA, have intensified their preparations. RJD leaders are actively touring the state, while NDA leaders are engaging directly with voters. New Delhi, Jan 2 : The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it has never directed to end the hunger strike of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on a fast unto death, but is only concerned with his health. "There appears to be a deliberate attempt in the entire media where state government officers (of Punjab) are trying to create an impression that there is a persuasion by this court to Mr. Dallewal to break his fast. Our directions were not to break his fast. We only said that let his health be taken care of and he can continue his peaceful protest even when he is hospitalised," a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant told Punjab's Advocate General (AG) Gurminder Singh. The Bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, said that shifting Dallewal to the hospital should not mean that he will not continue his fast but the medical facilities which will ensure that no harm is caused to his life. In response, AG Gurminder Singh submitted that the state government officials tried to convince Dallewal to take medical aid in terms of the apex court order. However, Dallewal remained firm that he would take medical aid only if the Union government was ready for talks. At this, the Justice Kant-led Bench remarked, "Please don't force us to say many things. Your attitude is that there should be no reconciliation. That is the whole problem". Further, the apex court expressed anguish at the "irresponsible statements" being made by "so-called farmers leaders to complicate things". It cautioned that if the Punjab government keeps failing to implement its order regarding hospitalisation of Dallewal, the apex court will seek intervention of the Centre. The 70-year-old cancer patient has been fasting at Khanauri, the border point between Punjab and Haryana, since November 26 in support of their long-pending demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, loan waiver and reforms to improve conditions in the agricultural sector. The matter will be heard next on January 6. On Tuesday, the top court deferred till January 2 the hearing on a contempt plea seeking action against the Chief Secretary of Punjab over non-hospitalisation of Dallewal. In that hearing, the Punjab government sought additional time to comply with its December 20 decision, where it was directed to ensure the stable health condition of Dallewal. "It is entirely the responsibility of the State of Punjab to ensure the stable health condition of Mr Jagjit Singh Dallewal, for which if he requires hospitalisation, the authorities must ensure to do so. The State Government, therefore, will take a call as to whether Mr Dallewal can be shifted to the makeshift hospital (temporary hospital, which is said to have been set up at a distance of 700 metres from the site) or to any other well-equipped hospital," the SC had ordered. BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. The solar power plant with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts will be built soon in the province of North Khorasan, located in the northeast of Iran, the Minister of Energy of Iran Abbas Aliabadi said today at an event organized on the occasion of the commissioning of a water supply facility in the province of North Khorasan, Trend reports. According to him, the mentioned solar power plant in North Khorasan Province will be built with the financial support of the private sector. Aliabadi noted that North Khorasan Province has great potential for the construction of solar and other renewable power plants. With the installation of sustainable electricity in the province, the consumption of fossil fuels will also be reduced. Meanwhile, the Shirvan district water supply facility was commissioned today in the North Khorasan Province of Iran. A total of 1.35 trillion rials (about $2.37 million) has been expensed on this facility. To note, Iranian President Masoud Pezheshkian visited the Northern Khorasan Province on December 25 with a delegation of ministers. Within the framework of the visit, it is planned to hand over the facilities of many projects. New York, Jan 2 : The pupil of the eye is key to understanding how, and when, the brain forms strong, long-lasting memories, according to a mice study. Researchers from Cornell University in the US found that new memories are being replayed and consolidated when the pupil is contracted during a substage of non-REM sleep. And when the pupil is dilated, the process repeats for older memories. The team explained that the brain prevents "catastrophic forgetting" in which the consolidation of one memory wipes out another one by separating these two substages of sleep. The findings, published in the journal Nature, showed that it could lead to better memory enhancement techniques for humans and may help computer scientists train artificial neural networks to be more efficient. Azahara Oliva, assistant professor at Cornell noted that the study proposes that "the brain has this intermediate timescale that separates the new learning from the old knowledge". In the study, the team equipped mice with brain electrodes and tiny eye-tracking cameras while they indulged in a variety of tasks, such as collecting water or cookie rewards in a maze. One day, the mice learned a new task and when they fell asleep, the electrodes captured their neural activity and the cameras recorded the changes in their pupils. The recordings showed that the temporal structure of sleeping mice is more varied, and more akin to the sleep stages in humans than previously thought. Further, they found that when a mouse enters a substage of non-REM sleep, its pupil shrinks, and it's here the recently learned tasks -- that is, the new memories -- are being reactivated and consolidated while previous knowledge is not. In contrast, older memories are replayed and integrated when the pupil is dilated, the report said. Seoul, Jan 2 : Concerns have grown over a potential clash if investigators proceed with a warrant to detain South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol as the impeached president has vowed to "fight to the end." The state anti-corruption agency is likely to execute the warrant to detain Yoon as early as Thursday after the Seoul Western District Court granted it Tuesday over Yoon's short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3. Yoon has become the first sitting South Korean president to face arrest. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) has since been making preparations to execute the warrant without major disruptions amid concerns that the presidential security service and Yoon's supporters may prevent it from doing so, reports Yonhap news agency. Some 30 supporters were forcibly dispersed by the police after they broke through a police barrier to protest outside the entrance of the presidential residence. The supporters were carried away by their limbs, with some yelling the president's name. Yoon sent a message of solidarity to supporters gathered outside his residence the previous day. "Due to internal and external forces infringing on its sovereignty and the activities by anti-state groups, South Korea is now in danger," Yoon said in the message. "With you, I will fight to the end to protect this country." Yoon's lawyer also claimed Thursday that if police attempt to carry out the warrant on behalf of the CIO, the presidential security service would be able to arrest them on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of official duties. Yoon's legal defence team has filed an injunction to suspend the warrant's effect, calling it "illegal." The CIO requested the warrant after Yoon ignored all three summonses to appear for questioning as part of its joint investigation with the police and the defence ministry's investigation unit over the martial law bid. While warrants are swiftly carried out once issued, the CIO appears to be mindful of how and when it is executed, given that it targets a sitting president. The presidential security service has said it would take security measures in accordance with due process after the warrant was issued, leading observers to believe the security service may maintain its protection for Yoon rather than cooperate with investigators. The CIO has vowed to execute the warrant, which will expire Monday. Along with the detention warrant, the court also issued a warrant for investigators to search the presidential residence, outlining an exception to laws that restrict searches in locations with military secrets or seizing official secrets without consent. The security service had previously prevented investigators from raiding the presidential office on such grounds. An official at the security service told Yonhap News Agency that it has yet to confirm whether the exception is spelt out in the warrant. Oh Dong-woon, the CIO chief, called on the security service Wednesday to cooperate, warning that any attempt to block the execution of the warrants could amount to dereliction of duty and obstruction of official duties. If Yoon is arrested, investigators plan to take him to the CIO's headquarters in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, for questioning before detaining him at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang near the CIO's office. Once detained, the CIO will have 48 hours to either seek another warrant for Yoon's formal arrest for further detention or release him. New Delhi: Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel receives a warm welcome on his first official visit to India. Image Source: IANS New Delhi, Jan 2 : Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel will arrive in New Delhi Thursday evening on a three-day India visit during which he would also be holding discussions with External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar. Khaleel was appointed as Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs on September 30, last year by the country's President Mohamed Muizzu. Prior to the appointment, he was serving as the country's Minister of Health. In the past, he has acknowledged that the "significant contribution" to his tourist-dependent country's fast recovery from the Covid pandemic was from India. In October, Khaleel also accompanied Muizzu on the "landmark" five-day State visit - the first by the Maldivian President since assuming office in November 2023. This visit, he said, was defined by "insightful discussions" and deepened partnership, marking yet another milestone in the enduring friendship between Maldives and India. "Our Commitment to further enhance the Maldives-India partnership remains unwavering, and I look forward to our promising future collaborations for the mutual benefit of our two nations and peoples," Khaleel posted on X on October 10 after the conclusion of the visit. Both countries also adopted a 'Vision for Comprehensive Economic and Maritime Security Partnership' which will guide the bilateral relationship across various sectors, during Muizzu's visit. The Maldives President had expressed gratitude to India for providing continuous financial assistance to the Indian Ocean archipelago during the "landmark" five-day state visit to India During the visit, Muizzu held high-level meetings with President Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and several other senior Indian government officials with discussions centering around strengthening the friendship and development partnership between the Maldives and India. During the high-level talks with PM Modi, Muizzu discussed ongoing initiatives and explored new avenues for cooperation. Thanking India for its consistent support, especially during challenging times, Muizzu had also expressed gratitude for India's financial assistance, including the rollover of T-bills in May and in September 2024 for an additional year with no interest to the Maldives and the additional support of INR 30 billion to $400 million under a bilateral currency swap agreement. "In his remarks at the business forums held in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, Muizzu highlighted the Maldives' significant potential for tourism ventures and outlined opportunities for future collaboration. He emphasised the nation's vision for economic diversification and sustainable growth, mentioning key investment prospects such as special economic zones, luxury private islands, eco-friendly resorts, and integrated tourism projects," his office stated. Khaleel and EAM Jaishankar are expected to discuss progress in various spheres - including areas such as social housing, infrastructure development, agriculture and fisheries, trade and investment, human resource development, healthcare, women's empowerment, renewable energy, and maritime and security cooperation - when they meet at the Hyderabad House on Friday afternoon. Jaipur, Jan 2 : RSS leader and patron of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch Indresh Kumar presented a chadar at the Ajmer Dargah Sharif on Thursday on the occasion of the 813th Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. The 40-foot-long chadar was sent from Delhi with a delegation from the Muslim Rashtriya Manch. Prayers for peace, harmony, and brotherhood in the country were also offered. Indresh Kumar's heartfelt message was read aloud from Buland Darwaza, emphasising the importance of mutual harmony, adopting Khwaja Garib Nawaz's teachings, and spreading his timeless message of love and unity. Khwaja Saheb's annual Urs has been inspiring visitors with an enduring message of brotherhood and humanity, welcoming people from all walks of life to celebrate his legacy. Further, Union Minister for Minority and Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju will present the chadar on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Dargah Sharif on Saturday. Haji Salman Chishti, Chairman Sufi Foundation and Gaddinshin Ajmer Dargah said that PM Modi has been sending chadar to Ajmer Dargah for the last 10 years. "The 813th Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti commenced in Ajmer, Rajasthan, on Wednesday, with the sighting of the moon," he added. He noted that Prime Minister Modi has been sending a chadar to the Dargah annually for the past decade, continuing a tradition that began in 1947. Along with the chadar, the Prime Minister also conveys a message of peace and brotherhood for the nation, with prayers offered for unity and harmony, he added. Union Minister Rijiju is scheduled to arrive at Jaipur airport at 7.15 a.m. on Saturday and travel to Ajmer by road. During this visit, Union Minister Rijiju will also launch the web portal of Dargah Sharif and the 'Garib Nawaz' mobile app, aimed at enhancing convenience for devotees. Tokyo, Jan 2 : Japan's NTT Docomo Inc. said Thursday it suffered a cyberattack that caused a website failure and some service disruptions, local media reported, following a series of similar incidents at major firms in the country recently. Japan's largest mobile carrier said a system glitch started around 5:27 am local time, making it difficult to connect to services due to a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which networks are overwhelmed by data from multiple sources over a short period, Kyodo News reported. The search function for the "d payment" smartphone payment service also experienced problems, although mobile phones and other communication services were not affected, the company added, Xinhua news agency reported. Recently, a series of system failures believed caused by the same type of attack have hit Japanese companies. Japan Airlines experienced a problem with its system used by passengers to check in their baggage on December 26, while MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Resona Bank reported disruptions to online transactions and other problems between late December and Wednesday. Last week, Japan Airlines (JAL) said many of its services were halted temporarily following a network disruption that caused problems with baggage check-ins and delays for more than a dozen flights at several Japanese airports. The airlines had to eventually block the data transmission device that was causing the system failure. JAL told police that it may have been the victim of a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS attack, in which networks are overwhelmed by massive amounts of data from multiple sources over a short period, according to investigative sources. The company said it was working to counteract the cyberattack and determine its source. The rising dependence on increasingly complex and interconnected computer systems in most domains of life is the main factor that causes vulnerability to cyberattacks, since virtually all computer systems have bugs that can be exploited by attackers. Although it is impossible or impractical to create a perfectly secure system, there are many defence mechanisms that can make a system more difficult to attack, making information security a field of rapidly increasing importance in the world today. Phnom Penh, Jan 2 : Cambodia's Ministry of Environment has launched a 'National Roads Without Plastic Waste' campaign to ensure that national roads are free of garbage and plastic waste, said a ministry's press release on Thursday. Environment Minister Eang Sophalleth said the campaign, which started on Wednesday, would contribute to enhancing the cleanliness and appeal of the country's roadways. "The campaign will improve the aesthetic value of cities and towns along national roads, contributing to a more beautiful, hygienic, and environmentally friendly environment," he said. "It will promote clean air, greater orderliness, and attract both tourists and investors to Cambodia, creating more comfortable and livable spaces for residents," he added. Sophalleth called upon all stakeholders, both public and private, as well as local authorities and citizens to organise road cleaning activities in their respective areas, Xinhua news agency reported. He also urged the strengthening of waste management and continued participation in the "Today I Will Not Use Plastic Bags" campaign to reduce plastic use. According to the press release, so far, over 9.7 million people, including students, have participated in the plastic-free campaign since its launch in September 2023. "These efforts are part of a broader strategy to reduce plastic waste and promote responsible waste management," the press release said. In 2024, the plastic-free campaign led to an 80-per cent reduction in plastic imports and a significant decrease in plastic litter on the streets in 11 provinces, with an 80-percent reduction in waste compared to 2023, the press release said. Shimla, Jan 2 : Upper Shimla in Himachal Pradesh is currently witnessing a rare and age-old religious tradition as the revered deity Devta Bakralu hosts the "Bhunda Mahayajna." This grand ceremony believed to take place once in four decades, brings together deities from the Spail Valley, showcasing the region's vibrant cultural heritage. Shimla, Jan 2 (IANS) Upper Shimla in Himachal Pradesh is currently witnessing a rare and age-old religious tradition as the revered deity Devta Bakralu hosts the "Bhunda Mahayajna." This grand ceremony believed to take place once in four decades, brings together deities from the Spail Valley, showcasing the region's vibrant cultural heritage. The event, marked by processions of deities carried in intricately adorned palanquins to the sound of trumpets and drums, is a plea for peace, prosperity, and protection from natural calamities. Devta Bakralu resides in a temple at Dalgaon village in Rohru tehsil, 135 km from Shimla, built in traditional hill architecture using wood and slate. The highlight of the ceremony is the rope-sliding ritual, inaugurated last year by cutting "munji," a grass grown in inaccessible mountain terrains. A "jedi" (a man of the Beda caste) creates a sacred rope of "munji," adhering to strict rituals of celibacy and silence. During the yajna, the divine oil-soaked rope spans 1 km between two hills, crossing a ditch. The jedi, seated on a wooden raft, slides down the rope in a spectacular display. Surat Ram, a veteran performer, will undertake this ritual for the ninth time on January 4. Nearly five lakh people, including Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu, are expected to witness the event. In the last "Bhunda Mahayajna" in 1985, Surat Ram faced difficulty while crossing the "valley of death" on a raft while sliding the rope vertically. Surat Ram told IANS that it took two and a half months to prepare the sacred rope this time. Four people assisted him in this task. While preparing the rope, one has to follow celibacy. After eating at four in the morning, he would eat again the next day. During this time, maximum silence is observed. Panchayat head Visheshwar Banshtu noted that this ceremony was last performed in Dalgaon in 1985. Steps have been taken this year to prevent fatalities during the ritual, ensuring safety for all participants. The Bhunda Mahayajna is a testament to Himachal Pradesh's rich spiritual traditions, often referred to as "Devbhoomi" or the land of gods. Devta Bakralu, the chief deity of Rohru and Rampur, has invited other deities, including Maheshwar, Bondra, and Moharrish, along with three Parshurams from Gumma, Andareyothi, and Khashkandi, believed to be incarnations of Lord Parshuram. These deities, carried in processions, travel only on foot, avoiding modern routes like tunnels. The devotees meticulously follow strict rituals and schedules set by the deities themselves, highlighting a deep connection between the mortals and the divine. "In earlier times, the Bhunda Yajna was performed every 15-20 years, but its frequency has reduced to once in 40-50 years," octogenarian R.P. Manta told IANS. Preparations for this event, estimated to cost Rs 100 crore, have been underway for months. Government officials, led by Subdivisional Magistrate Vijay Vardhan, have deployed adequate police personnel to manage traffic and ensure smooth proceedings. This unique blend of devotion, tradition, and community spirit underscores the enduring faith of the people in their deities. "The Bhunda Mahayajna is being organized for the prosperity. People have great faith in the deity Bakralu Maharaj. These days there is a divine atmosphere in every house in the Spail Valley. CM Sukhwinder Sukhu will also participate in this event," he told IANS. The conduit between the mortals and the deities are the 'gur' -- the traditional shamans, who form the core of the communities' spiritual sustenance. The 'devtas' accept invites of their followers and move to various locations at their wish. Sometimes they decide to undertake a pilgrimage. Some do so after one-two year, others do so after 30 to 40 years and some embark on special pilgrimages after hundreds of years. As per old records, human sacrifice was historically associated with this ritual. Thankfully, such practices have been abolished, reflecting a shift in societal norms while preserving the essence of this remarkable tradition. According to "A reference book on Kullu Devtas" compiled by the Kullu administration, there are 534 "live" gods and goddesses in the picturesque Kullu Valley. The book says the affairs of the Kullu gods are managed by the 'devta' committees that comprise a 'kardar' or manager of the temple, the 'gur' or oracle, musicians and a priest. The 'devta' summons the 'gur' and speaks through him. The oracle goes into a trance and connects with the deity. The deity's wish spreads and its followers are ready to obey the sacred command. One member of each family has to join the deity's procession. The book says the long and tough journeys are to be performed on foot. It takes days, even months. Strict rules and rituals have to be followed. The deity sets the time and pace of the journey. No one can lift the palanquin of the deity if he/she is not willing. Himachal Pradesh's rich cultural tapestry, with over 500 active deities in the Kullu Valley alone, continues to thrive through events like the Bhunda Mahayajna. These traditions not only connect communities with their heritage but also reaffirm their collective faith and resilience. (Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in) Seoul, Jan 2 : South Korea's acting Defence Minister Kim Seon-ho held talks with US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg on Thursday and reaffirmed their steadfast bilateral alliance, Seoul's defence ministry said. In the meeting held at the defence ministry in Seoul, both sides noted how the South Korea-US alliance remains strong despite changes in the security and political situation, the ministry said in a release. Kim thanked the outgoing ambassador for his efforts to substantially advance the alliance since taking his post in July 2022 and asked for his continued support in improving the bilateral relationship, Yonhap news agency reported. In response, Goldberg expressed his country's unchanged support for the ironclad alliance, the ministry said. Last month, Kim Seon-ho and US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo had held discussions and stressed on the importance of trilateral security cooperation with Japan to deter North Korea's threats while vowing efforts to further strengthen such cooperation. Kim and Paparo discussed the issue as they met at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on the sidelines of a change-of-command ceremony marking the inauguration of new US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson on December 20. In their meeting, both sides agreed that the South Korea-US alliance remains "ironclad," and vowed to bolster cooperation and communications to uphold it with an overwhelming combined defence posture, the ministry said. For such a goal, they concurred on the need to smoothly push ahead with pre-planned combined drills, Yonhap news agency reported. Kim was quoted as saying that South Korea's external policy remains unchanged and emphasised that the military remains committed to maintaining a firm combined defence posture under the acting president. The meeting was attended by Brunson as well as US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg and General Kang Shin-chul, Deputy Commander of the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command. Brunson took office as the new commander of US Forces Korea (USFK) on the same day, vowing a continued commitment to upholding the South Korea-US alliance amid persistent threats by North Korea. Brunson replaced General Paul LaCamera to lead the 28,500-strong American troops in South Korea in a change-of-command ceremony held at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometres south of Seoul, attended by top officials from both nations, including acting Defence Minister Kim Seon-ho and US Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo. As USFK commander, Brunson also serves as Commander of the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) and the UN Command. He emphasised the importance of the alliance as well as cooperation with the wider international community in maintaining "collective security" and a "rules-based international order" in responding to potential threats. In his address, the new commander cited a Bible verse that goes: "One may be overpowered. Two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Kolkata, Jan 2 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that she would write to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the alleged involvement of the Border Security Force (BSF) in facilitating illegal infiltration from neighboring Bangladesh. "The state police do not guard the borders, the BSF is responsible for that. At times, they are complicit in aiding such illegal infiltration," Banerjee stated. She added, "Miscreants are crossing the borders illegally, entering the state, and killing innocent people. The state police director general, Rajeev Kumar, has gathered specific intelligence on this issue, along with additional information at the local level. Once I receive all the details, I will formally communicate with the Union government." According to Banerjee, the districts of Malda and Nadia, both sharing international borders with Bangladesh, are the primary entry points for illegal infiltrators. "I have repeatedly cautioned the Union government about this issue in the past. This time, I will be sending a more detailed report," she emphasized. The BSF has not issued a response to the Chief Minister's allegations so far. Earlier, at a public event in Diamond Harbour, South 24 Parganas district, Trinamool Congress General Secretary and Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee expressed similar concerns. He accused the BSF of encouraging illegal infiltration to destabilize peace in West Bengal, leaving the state police to manage the infiltrators. "They [BSF] are enabling illegal crossings, disrupting the peace in the state, and ultimately, the state police are the ones making arrests," Abhishek Banerjee said. The Chief Minister's comments come amidst sharp criticism from the opposition BJP. Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, has accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of promoting illegal infiltration to bolster its dedicated minority vote bank. Patna, Jan 2 : Hours after RJD Chief Lalu Prasad's statement that his "doors are open" for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) leader responded with folded hands. Lalu's remark welcoming CM Nitish to the Mahagathbandhan fold created a flutter in Biharas political circles. When media persons questioned CM Nitish about Lalu's offer, the Chief Minister kept mum. Instead, he smiled and folded his hands, avoiding any clear indication of his intentions. The Chief Minister's gesture, made while standing between Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary, has fueled further curiosity about his political future. However, the BJP leaders have asserted that the NDA remains united. Union Minister Lallan Singh dismissed Lalu's remarks and termed them inconsequential. He said: "India is an independent country, and Lalu has the freedom to say anything. He can say whatever he wants, but we are in the NDA, and it is intact." Following the swearing-in ceremony of Biharas new Governor Khan, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha visited Chief Minister Nitish at his residence. The political atmosphere in Bihar has intensified following Lalu's remarks about his willingness to reconcile with CM Nitish. When asked if his door was open for the Bihar Chief Minister, Lalu responded, "My door is always open; Nitish Kumar should also keep his door open." On whether he would forgive CM Nitish if he returned, Lalu said, "Forgiving has been my job. If he comes back, I will forgive him without any problem. Everyone will work together." However, RJD leader and Lalu's son Tejashwi Yadav has firmly rejected the idea of aligning with CM Nitish. Tejashwi earlier said, "Our door is closed for Nitish Kumar forever. We do not need him." Tejashwi added, "There is nothing left in Nitish now. The people of Bihar trust me, and this time we will form the government on our own." Artisan dedicated to passing on chrysanthemum stone carving People's Daily Online) 09:41, January 02, 2025 Yonghe township, Liuyang city, located about 100 kilometers east of Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, a special kind of stone known for chrysanthemum flower patterns can be found at a river. Skilled artisans in the area carve these stones into sculptures. The tradition of chrysanthemum stone carving in Liuyang dates back over 200 years. Photo shows a section of Chen Jiwu's chrysanthemum stone carving artwork inspired by Buddhism. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Kang Pu) "This is a chrysanthemum stone," Chen Jiwu, an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, explained as he gestured towards a nearly 2-meter-long piece of stone with eight intricate patterns resembling chrysanthemum flowers. An artisan polishes a piece of chrysanthemum stone carving artwork. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Kang Pu) Before carving, one must locate the "flowers" in the stone. "It takes a seasoned artisan to skillfully reveal the flowers through touch and feel, all the while maintaining the integrity of the 'flower pattern,'" Chen said. Designing the sculpture is the most challenging aspect. "Chrysanthemum stones form naturally, so factors like the stone's size and the shape of the 'flower' must be carefully considered to guarantee each piece is unique," explained Chen. Chen Jiwu works on a piece of chrysanthemum stone carving artwork. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee) The initial design must be carefully thought out because once the stone is cut, there's no going back. The following steps, such as carving, polishing, and coloring, follow similar processes to other stone carving methods. Creating exceptional pieces often requires years of meticulous craftsmanship. The most time-consuming creation, which Chen's team spent five years crafting, is inspired by Buddhism. It is hailed as the world's largest chrysanthemum stone carving, measuring 3.64 meters in length, 1.23 meters in width, 0.1 meters in thickness, and weighing 2 tonnes. The artwork features 99 Buddha statues, each with unique expressions, surrounded by 99 blooming chrysanthemum flowers. Chen Jiwu works on a piece of chrysanthemum stone carving artwork. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee) To ensure each design had a solid foundation, Chen delved into numerous professional books on cave temple mural paintings and even made special trips to renowned sites like the Mogao Grottoes, Fahai Temple, and Pilu Temple for study and inspiration. Chen has explored various ways to preserve the art of chrysanthemum stone carving, including developing techniques, making innovations on themes, mentoring apprentices, and promoting stone carving culture among the public. Photo shows a piece of chrysanthemum stone carving artwork by Chen Jiwu. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Kang Pu) Photo shows a section of a piece of Chen Jiwu's chrysanthemum stone carving artwork. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Kang Pu) Chen Jiwu works on a piece of chrysanthemum stone carving artwork. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee) (Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming) BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 3. The GDP value of Iran's agricultural sector grew by 33.6 percent during six months of the current Iranian year (from March 20 through September 21, 2024) compared to the same period of last year (from March 21 through September 22, 2023). The data obtained by Trend from the country's Central Bank showed that the value of GDP in Iran's agricultural sector for six months in current prices amounted to 15.5 quadrillion rials (about $27.4 billion). However, this figure stood at 11.6 quadrillion rials (about $20.5 billion) in the same period last year. The statistics indicate that the share of the agricultural sector in Iran's GDP is 15.6%. Meanwhile, the value of GDP for the six months including crude oil amounted to about 99.6 quadrillion rials (about $177 billion) at current prices. Iran's GDP value for six months, including crude oil, increased by 30.6 percent compared to the same period last year. To note, the Central Bank of Iran announced GDP in statistics in 8-year-old prices (from March 21, 2015, through March 20, 2016), which are considered both current prices and an index for the country. The information contains current prices. Ajmer, Jan 2 : In a gesture symbolising unity and respect for all communities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has continued the tradition of sending a ceremonial 'chadar' to the revered Ajmer Sharif Dargah during the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Syed Naseruddin Chishti, the successor to the Ajmer Dargah chief and the Chairman of All India Sufi Sajjadanashin Council, welcomed the move and highlighted the Prime Minister's commitment to the ideals of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Sabka Samman (solidarity, development, trust, and respect for all). "This tradition, dating back to 1947, has been upheld by every Prime Minister of the country," Chishti stated. "Since assuming office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently sent a chadar as a mark of devotion and respect. This reflects India's deep-rooted culture of honouring all religions, communities, and Sufi saints," he told IANS. PM Modi's chadar will be presented this year by Union Minister for Minority and Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, on January 4. The offering aligns with the annual Urs celebrations, which mark the death anniversary of the revered Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, also known as Khwaja Garib Nawaz. Chishti elaborated on the significance of this gesture, stressing that it represents a positive message for harmony amid attempts to create religious divisions. "India's culture has always been about respecting all. The Prime Minister's act of sending the chadar embodies this spirit, reinforcing the message of inclusivity and mutual respect," he added. The Ajmer Sharif Dargah attracts millions of devotees each year, transcending barriers of caste, creed, and religion. It serves as a unifying symbol of India's pluralistic ethos. Chishti expressed his gratitude towards PM Modi and underscored the importance of this gesture in today's context. "When the chadar arrives, we will personally welcome it with great honour. This act sends a clear message to those who attempt to sow discord in the name of religion. It is a reaffirmation of our shared heritage and collective harmony." He further remarked that the Prime Minister's consistent offering of the chadar is a testament to his commitment to India's secular and inclusive traditions. As the Urs celebrations commence, the chadar sent by PM Modi stands as a reminder of India's cultural unity and its rich tradition of respecting diverse faiths. The event underlines the enduring message of Khwaja Garib Nawaz -- peace, compassion, and universal brotherhood. The Ajmer Sharif Dargah continues to be a beacon of hope and harmony, drawing millions of devotees from across the world. In such times, PM Modi's gesture resonates as a powerful symbol of unity in diversity, affirming India's unwavering commitment to its cultural and spiritual heritage. Bengaluru, Jan 2 : Amid the controversy surrounding the suicide case of a contractor in Karnataka, allegedly involving the role of state Minister Priyank Kharge, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sent the death note of contractor Sachin Panchal to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. A registered copy of the note was also sent to Minister Kharge. However, the latter has said that the BJP will face humiliation in this case. On the other hand, the BJP continues to protest, demanding Minister Kharge's resignation. On Thursday, the BJP held a large-scale protest in Mandya, led by senior party leader Ashwath Narayan Gowda. The BJP has also sent the death note of contractor Sachin Panchal to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. A registered copy was also sent to Minister Priyank Kharge. The BJP claimed that the Congress government is asserting that Minister Priyank Kharge's name is not mentioned in the death note written by Sachin Panchal. "It seems this death note has not yet reached you. Therefore, we are sending it via post. Kindly read it immediately and ensure that Priyank Kharge resigns," the BJP demanded from Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders. Meanwhile, addressing a joint press conference in Bengaluru on Thursday with Congress MLC Ramesh Babu, Priyank Kharge said, "The BJP is using every means to force me to resign and impress their high command. They are conspiring to tarnish the image of AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge." Priyank is the son of Mallikarjun Kharge. Minister Kharge said, "The BJP will face humiliation in this episode -- I can give it in writing. It has been a week since the incident, and no substantial document has been produced yet. The government is responsible for ensuring justice for Sachin's family. The case has been handed over to the special wing CID for investigation." "The family is still in shock. Whenever they are ready, we will stand with them and ensure compensation and justice," he added. Minister Kharge drew a comparison with a similar case, saying, "During the previous BJP government, contractor Santhosh Patil ended his life, leaving a death note clearly blaming the then Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister, K.S. Eshwarappa." "He (Contractor Santhosh Patil) specifically said that Eshwarappa was responsible and should be punished. He even requested support for his family from the Prime Minister, Karnataka Chief Minister, and former CM B.S. Yediyurappa. In this case, has Sachin mentioned my name in any such manner? Is there no difference?" Eshwarappa resigned following the incident. Minster Priyank Kharge said, "The previous BJP government didn't bother to meet Santhosh Patil's family. Their political survival now hinges on taking my name. They can't discuss policies, so they resort to baseless allegations. Moreover, they claim that CM Siddaramaiah lacks the authority to take my resignation. The decision lies with the CM -- who are they to comment?" He also targeted the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, saying, "It appears he is acting as a personal LoP for Priyank Kharge rather than the state. He will remain in that role as long as he attacks me and Mallikarjun Kharge, but he will be sidelined as soon as this episode ends." Minister Kharge directly questioned BJP leaders, including State Party President B.Y. Vijayendra and LoP in Legislative Council Narayanaswamy, saying: "A chargesheet has been filed in the case against BJP MLA N. Munirathna. Do you have the courage to demand his resignation? Are you afraid of being 'infected with a deadly virus' yourselves?" MLA Munirathna is charged with using honeytraps to infect his political opponents with HIV. He also challenged R. Ashoka, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, saying, "Munirathna has insulted women from the Vokkaliga community. What are you doing about it? You chant 'Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao', but is it just for show?" Munirathna is also "anti-Dalit" and "anti-woman", Kharge alleged. R. Ashoka hails from the Vokkaliga community. Minster Kharge also alleged, "Former BJP MLA Kumar Bangarappa has said that the party will get a new state president this year, prompting Vijayendra to rush to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah." "Before coming after me, issue notices to your own leaders -- Kumar Bangarappa, BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, and others -- who openly rebelled against you," said Kharge while criticising B.Y. Vijayendra. Congress MLC Ramesh Babu remarked, "Priyank Kharge challenges the BJP and RSS ideologically, which is why they target him. The BJP has failed to counter him on ideological grounds." He also demanded the resignation of Union Ministers from Karnataka, including Pralhad Joshi, Shobha Karandlaje, and V. Somanna, as well as R. Ashoka, citing allegations against them. Reacting to the BJP's planned protest in Kalaburagi, Kharge's native district, on January 4, Ramesh Babu said, "Let BJP leaders visit Kalaburagi. People know what the BJP stands for -- they are merely playing politics by targeting Priyank Kharge." Srinagar, Jan 2 : J&K Peoples Conference (PC) President and MLA from Handwara, Sajad Lone, has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh in Srinagar, challenging the misuse of the police verification process, a statement said here on Thursday. "The PIL, submitted through Advocate Syed Sajad Geelani, seeks to address the growing misuse of police verifications as a tool of collective punishment, targeting individuals based on the actions or affiliations of their family members," the statement added. Loneas move comes in response to his earlier commitment to protect the rights of citizens, emphasizing that the police verification process should not penalize individuals for factors outside their control, particularly the conduct of their relatives. "The current system has been used to deny citizens their basic rights, such as employment, access to passports and other essential opportunities. The verification process must remain transparent, fair and aligned with legal standards," he said. PC President added that the petition calls for the strict enforcement of the Jammu & Kashmir Civil Services (Validation of Character and Antecedents) Instructions, 1997, along with amendments introduced that mandate clear timelines for police verifications. "These guidelines, which focus solely on an individualas criminal record, are often overlooked, causing unnecessary difficulties. We are committed to ensuring their proper enforcement so no citizen is unfairly punished for the actions of others," Lone asserted. He said the PIL also highlights violations of Articles 14, 19(1)(g), and 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantee equality, the freedom to pursue any profession, and the right to live with dignity. "When police verifications are based on irrelevant factors, such as the actions of a personas relatives, it not only violates their rights but subjects them to undue hardships which remain ethically and constitutionally unjustified," Lone stated. Citing the Supreme Court's "Bulldozer Judgment," which strongly opposed collective punishment, PC President said the petition stresses that police verifications should focus solely on the individual in question. "The Supreme Courtas ruling reinforces the principle that no individual should suffer because of others' actions," Lone noted. "We seek to ensure that every citizen is treated fairly and in accordance with the law." He further clarified that this PIL is not driven by politics but by a commitment to justice, equality, and the protection of constitutional rights. "The petition includes real-life cases that illustrate the severe economic, social, and emotional hardships caused by arbitrary police verification practices. This is about safeguarding the dignity and rights of the people. We will continue to fight for justice for the citizens of Jammu & Kashmir," he affirmed. "The PIL has been submitted to the court registry and is under procedural review. It will be listed for hearing once cleared by the registry," the statement added. Mumbai, Jan 2 : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Minister Dhananjay Munde has dismissed opposition calls for his resignation over the murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh in Beed district. Munde, who holds the portfolio for food, civil supply, and consumer protection, asserted that he has no connection to the crime and emphasized that the investigation is being conducted impartially by the CID. "Why should I resign? I am neither an accused nor linked to this incident," Munde said after a state cabinet meeting and a subsequent interaction with Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule. "There must be some basis for such a demand. I have nothing to do with the case, so the opposition's demand lacks substance," he added. Munde's remarks came a day after his close associate Walmik Karad, wanted in an extortion case connected to Deshmukh's murder, surrendered to the CID in Pune. Karad has since been remanded to 14 days of police custody by the Kej court in Beed district. Munde reiterated that the police and CID are diligently handling the investigation. "The murder of Santosh Deshmukh is a grave crime, and those responsible should face a fast-track trial. I was the first to demand this case be expedited and for the culprits to face the harshest punishment, including the death penalty," he said. Responding to Congress legislator Vijay Wadettiwar's cryptic remark about a "small boss" potentially being targeted to protect a "big boss," Munde dismissed the insinuations. "Wadettiwar is known for making sharp statements, but I fail to understand this talk of bosses. Who is being referred to, and on what grounds?" he questioned. Munde rejected opposition suggestions that he should step down as Beed's guardian minister, claiming such demands were baseless. "I am a Minister. Why shouldn't I continue as the guardian Minister? It is the people of Beed who matter, and our leadership will decide the best course of action," he said. He also took a swipe at NCP legislator Prakash Solanke, who suggested that Munde should be made a minister without portfolio. "Perhaps Solanke should provide a detailed plan on how that would work. Decisions regarding the guardian ministership of Beed will be made by our leader Ajit Pawar," Munde quipped. The government has announced that a judicial commission will oversee the probe alongside the CID investigation. Munde stressed that his cabinet position does not influence the investigation. "The judicial commission and CID are working independently. My position as a Minister does not and will not interfere with the inquiry," he stated. Despite the political uproar, Munde remains firm, labeling the opposition's demands as politically motivated and lacking merit. Hyderabad, Jan 2 : After massive protests by female students of a private engineering college over alleged video recording in hostel bathrooms, police on Thursday registered a case and began investigations. CMR Engineering College at Medchal, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, was rocked by protests on Wednesday night and this continued till 2 a.m. Medchal police registered a case after taking a complaint from the students and picked up five mess workers on suspicion. Assistant Commissioner of Police Srinivas Reddy said they seized 12 mobile phones of these workers. "We have so far found no evidence that they recorded videos. We have not found any obscene videos on their phones. However, we are verifying if any videos were deleted," he said. The ACP said they took a complaint from the students and registered a case. A case of negligence has also been registered against the management of the college as the rooms were given to mess workers next to the bathroom and they had access to the ventilator of the bathroom. "We have found no evidence so far but there is room for suspicion," the ACP said. The police official said a girl saw the shadow of a person and brought the same to the warden's notice but as there was no response from the warden, the students began the protest as they suspected that their videos might have been recorded. The protestors raised slogans of "We want justice". Leaders of student unions, including the ABVP, also joined the students in the protest which continued past midnight. ABVP leaders demanded action against the management of the college. They alleged that female students were being blackmailed. The student leaders warned that if videos recorded in bathrooms surface on social media, former minister and MLA Malla Reddy, who owns the college, will have to own responsibility. The police official said fingerprint experts were called to collect samples from the imprints found on the glass of the ventilator. The experts will ascertain if the imprints match the fingerprints of any of the workers. The ACP appealed to parents not to worry over rumours that 150-300 videos were recorded. The police also questioned the management on employing male workers in women's hostel. The management explained that as the cooking involved lifting huge vessels, they had to employ male workers but for food supply, they engaged women. The mess workers are from outside the state. The ACP said if any evidence was found, criminal action would be taken against them and also management. Bhubaneswar, Jan 2 : The newly appointed Odisha Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati arrived at the Bhubaneswar Airport here on Thursday. Upon arrival at the airport, he was welcomed by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Deputy CM KV Singh Deo, Deputy CM Pravati Parida and other Ministers. A Guard of Honour was offered to the newly appointed Governor at the airport from where he proceeded to the Raj Bhawan, the official residence of the Odisha Governor. Governor Kambhampati later headed to Puri where he will offer prayers to the holy triad at the Jagannath Temple. He will stay overnight at Raj Bhavan in Puri and visit the Srimandir on January 3. He is scheduled to return to Bhubaneswar, where he will take the oath at 10:15 a.m. on Friday. The Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court will administer the oath in a ceremony organised at the Abhishek Hall of Raj Bhavan. President Droupadi Murmu on December 24, 2024, appointed Mizoram Governor Kambhampati as the new Governor of Odisha. He is going to replace Raghubar Das who recently relinquished his post citing personal reasons. The newly appointed Governor Kambhampati holds a B.Tech degree in Electronics and Communications engineering from Andhra University (AU). He has also completed an ME in Electrical and Control Systems and done PhD in Control Systems from Andhra University. He also worked as an associate professor for 24 years in Andhra University Engineering College. Kambhampati also served as the Andhra Pradesh BJP President from 2014-2018. The former Governor of Odisha, Raghubar Das, was in the line of fire of the opposition Biju Janata Dal and Congress over the alleged assault on an Assistant Section Officer by his son in Puri during the Rath Yatra last year. The Opposition also accused Das of turning the Odisha Raj Bhawan into the war room for the Jharkhand Assembly elections. After serving Mizoram for more than three years and five months, Governor Kambhampati left the northeastern state on Thursday to assume the gubernatorial post of Odisha. A ceremonial send-off function hosted by Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma was organised at the state's lone airport in Lengpui, around 30 km from the state capital Aizawl. In his ceremonial send-off function, Kambhampati expressed his gratitude for the warm hospitality and affection he received during his tenure in Mizoram. He acknowledged Mizoram's significant potential for progress and urged collective efforts to advance the state further. Reflecting on his experiences here in the state, he applauded the constructive environment of the state's Assembly proceedings and the electioneering in the state. The outgoing Governor expressed his deep attachment to Mizoram and conveyed his best wishes for the state's future. Chief Minister Lalduhoma thanked Kambhampati for his contributions to the overall development of the state. He wished him success in his new role and extended an invitation to visit Mizoram soon. Kambhampati, a former teacher at Andhra University Engineering College for 24 years, was sworn in as the 22nd Governor of Mizoram on July 21, 2021. After serving for more than three years and five months, he will be heading for Odisha for his new appointment as the new Governor on January 3. The incoming Governor, General (retired) Vijay Kumar Singh, is expected to arrive in Mizoram on January 8 and he will be sworn in as Mizoram's 23rd Governor on the next day (January 9) at Raj Bhavan. Mizoram Assembly Speaker Lalbiakzama, Home Minister K. Sapdanga, Public Works Department Minister Vanlalhlana, Chief Secretary Khilli Ram Meena, Director General of Police Anil Shukla and other dignitaries were present at the send-off function. First lady Jayashree Kambhampati accompanied the outgoing Governor. Meanwhile, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has stepped down as Odisha Governor and President Murmu has accepted his resignation. Mumbai, Jan 2 : It seems like 2024 was all about travel for former beauty queen Namrata Shirodkar. Giving the netizens an insight into her travel diaries she posted a string of pictures on Instagram of the various places she had been to in the year gone by. The list included London, Jaipur, Maldives, New York City, Dubai, Bangkok, Geneva, ST. Moritz, Baden-Baden, Mumbai, and Monaw. Namrata further penned the caption, "Around the world in 365 days-memories made, lessons learned and leaving 2024 behind! Hereas to more adventures in #2025!" For those who do not know, Namrata's sister Shilpa Shirodkar is presently in the 'Bigg Boss 18' house and Namrata and her husband, Mahesh Babu had a very special message for Shilpa. Shilpa's daughter Anoushka recently entered the BB house and shared the message that Namrata and Mahesh Babu had sent for her mother. She revealed, "My aunt and uncle (Mahesh Babu) both are very proud of her. They are sending her lots of love. All of them have said to convey to mom how proud they are of her and how she has conducted herself. Itas incredible she has made it so far in the show. We love her and we canat wait to see her come home with the trophy". Shifting our focus on Mahesh Babu, the Telugu heartthrob has joined forces with 'Baahubali' maker SS Rajamouli for his next. Tentatively titled SSMB 29, the film recently went on floors with a grand pooja ceremony in Hyderabad. If the reports are to be believed, Mahesh Babu is currently working towards a massive physical transformation for his untitled action adventure. However, any further details regarding his character are not available at the moment. The project has also garnered a lot of attention as it is believed that Bollywood beauty Priyanka Chopra is in talks to play the leading lady opposite Mahesh Babu. New Delhi, Jan 2 : The Supreme Court on Thursday reprimanded an advocate for levelling "various scurrilous and unfounded allegations" against the judiciary. A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking quashing of the entire process of designation of 70 lawyers as senior advocates undertaken by the Delhi High Court. The petition, filed by Mumbai-based advocate Mathew J. Nedumpara, said the entire process of designation of lawyers as seniors is vitiated by "favouritism, nepotism, patronage and other illegal and extraneous considerations". "It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a judge, sitting or retired, of the High Court or Supreme Court, who has his offspring, brother, sister or nephew who has crossed the age of forty remaining to be a plebeian lawyer. The judge would have all his kith and kin anointed as seniors (senior advocates) or judges." At this, the Justice Gavai-led Bench said: "Mr. Nedumpara, this a court of law. When you address a court of law, make legal arguments and not the arguments only for the purpose of the gallery." Adjourning the hearing to allow the petitioners to reflect upon the averments made in the petition, the apex court said that "various scurrilous and unfounded allegations have been made against the institution" and if the petition comes up in the same form, action in accordance with law will be taken against all the petitioners. "We grant four weeks' time to Mr Nedumpara and the other petitioners to take whatever steps as they deem fit in the matter," the bench ordered. Further, it granted liberty to several petitioners to withdraw and delete them from the array of parties. In an earlier round of litigation, the Supreme Court had dismissed a plea challenging the designation of senior advocates under the Advocates Act, 1961. A bench of Justices S.K. Kaul (now retired) and Sudhanshu Dhulia said the system of designation of advocates as 'senior' cannot be said to be untenable or be classified as unreasonable under Article 14 of the Constitution. "We dismiss the petition with no orders as to cost," said the bench, adding that the plea has been filed under a "misadventure" by the petitioner-in-person, advocate Nedumpara. Nedumparaas plea had argued that senior designation has created a class of advocates with special rights and "the same has been seen as reserved only for the kith and kin of judges and senior advocates, politicians, ministers, etc". The petition said that the designation of advocates as senior advocates under Sections 16 and 23(5) of the Advocates Act, 1961 as well as under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 creates a "special class of advocates with special rights, privileges and status not available to ordinary advocates" and is unconstitutional being violative of the mandate of equality under Article 14 and the right to practice any profession under Article 19, as well as the right to life under Article 21". New Delhi, Jan 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday strongly condemned the horrifying New Year's Day terror attack in New Orleans that has left at least 15 dead and about three dozen injured. "We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy," PM Modi posted on X. A disturbing series of attacks have shocked the United States with the New Orleans attack now being investigated as an act of terrorism. A man, later identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, intentionally drove a pick-up truck into a crowd of revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter on New Year's Day in a deliberate act of carnage. Jabbar, a US citizen from Texas, reportedly flew a black ISIS flag from the rear bumper of the truck. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell condemned the attack, while President Joe Biden expressed his condolences for the victims and their families, offering federal support. "My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday," Biden said. "There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation's communities." The investigation into the attack is now led by the FBI, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department's National Security Division, and local authorities. President-elect Donald Trump also addressed the tragedy, offering his sympathies to the victims and first responders. "Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department," Trump said in a post on TruthSocial. The New Orleans attack was followed by an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump Las Vegas hotel in which one person was killed and a mass shooting at Amazura nightclub in Queens, New York, early Thursday that left at least 11 people injured. The US authorities are currently investigating the motives behind these violent incidents. BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. The trade turnover between the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran may exceed $12 billion in the near future, the head of the department of special issues of trade regulation of the Department of Trade Policy of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Kira Danilcheva, told Trend. She noted that since 2019, trade between the EAEU member states and Iran has been carried out under the preferential regime established by the Temporary Agreement leading to the formation of a free trade zone between the EAEU and Iran, dated May 17, 2018. "This agreement has a limited commodity coverage, which covers no more than 5 percent of the commodity nomenclature. However, despite this, the trade turnover between the EAEU and Iran has more than doubled during the period of the agreement," Danilcheva said. Danilcheva emphasized that since a temporary agreement can only operate for a limited period of time and the development of trade and economic relations has shown a significant result during its application, the parties have worked to conclude a full-fledged free trade agreement, which was signed in December 2023. According to the EEC representative, the full-format agreement not only greatly increases the range of liberalization (both sides agree to preferential access for almost 90% of the commodity nomenclature), but it also improves the tariff concessions that were set in the interim agreement, which didn't expect Iran's tariff protection to drop below 4%. "There is every reason to believe that under the conditions of a full-fledged free trade regime in the near future, the trade turnover between the EAEU member states and Iran may exceed $12 billion," she said. To note, following the results of the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on December 26, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Iran was granted the status of an observer state at the EAEU. Chairman of the EEC Collegium Bakytzhan Sagintayev at a meeting with Iran's Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade Seyed Mohammad Atabak stated that the EEC expects a full-fledged agreement with Iran to enter into force in the near future. Following the five years of the Temporary Trade Agreement, the trade turnover between the EAEU and Iran has more than doubled from $2.4 billion in 2019 to $5.2 billion in 2023. In the first ten months of this year, the volume of mutual trade grew by 12.8 percent, with exports to Iran increasing by 16 percent and imports by 8 percent. Tunis, Jan 2 : Tunisian Maritime Guards and the Navy have recovered 27 bodies and rescued 83 undocumented immigrants after their boats sank off the southeastern coast of Sfax province, the Tunisian National Guard said Thursday via its Facebook account. The rescue operation was launched on Wednesday following an emergency call about two boats taking on water, said the National Guard. "During the operation, 83 of the migrants were rescued, including 17 women and seven children. 27 bodies were recovered, including a baby," it said, adding the search for the missing is still underway, Xinhua news agency reported. Last month, Tunisian coast guards had retrieved 20 bodies of undocumented immigrants after their boat sank off the coast of the southeastern Sfax province. "The boat sank about 13 nautical miles off the coast of Ellouza village after it had sailed last night at 11 p.m. local time from the coast of Chebba," the National Guard said in a statement on December 18. The boat was carrying immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa who tried to cross the Mediterranean illegally toward the Italian island of Lampedusa, it said, noting that five immigrants were rescued, given necessary aid, and then transported to nearby ports for further medical care, registration, and legal processing. On December 12, the Tunisian coast guards had retrieved 11 bodies of undocumented immigrants after their boat sank off the eastern coastal province of Mahdia. Located in the central Mediterranean, Tunisia is one of the most popular transit points for illegal immigration to Europe. The country has rejected any attempts to turn it into a transit hub or a place of residence for illegal migrants. In November, Tunisia's Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Nafti held a meeting with visiting Director General of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) Michael Spindelegger and underlined the importance of stepping up joint efforts to address the root causes of illegal migration. During their talks, Nafti praised the existing cooperation between Tunisia and ICMPD and also reviewed cooperation programmes in migration governance and border management over the last decade. For his part, Spindelegger had expressed his satisfaction with the "excellent" level of cooperation with Tunisia, stressing ICMPD's readiness to continue strengthening cooperation on migration and border management with all stakeholders. Mumbai, Jan 2 : The Maharashtra Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Thursday, approved the amendments to section 220 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, paving the way for returning about 4,849 acres of fallow lands to farmers. These lands were auctioned due to pending government arrears and deposited with the government. "As per Section 220 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, due to non-payment of tax or similar arrears, such lands are auctioned and deposited with the government as arrears. There is a provision in the law to return such lands to the original account holders if the due amount and interest on it are paid within 12 years. However, there was no provision to return such lands to the original owners after the completion of the 12 years," said the statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO). With the Cabinet's approval for the amendment to section 220 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, such lands can be returned to the original account holders or their heirs by recovering 25 per cent of the prevailing market value. The Bill will be introduced in the upcoming Budget session of the State Legislature. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister on Thursday directed the administration to use artificial intelligence to ensure that citizens, government officers and staff coming to the Mantralaya get easy access without any hassle and thereby security remains strong. Chief Minister Fadnavis gave these directives at the meeting which reviewed the present security at the Mantralaya where citizens from every corner of the state throng to Mantralaya to take up their various works with the ministers and the government officials. Due to this, the number of visitors is increasing day by day putting pressure on the prevailing security staff. The Chief Minister directed the administration to issue security passes with access to Mantralaya and Vidhan Bhavan, especially during the legislative sessions being held. He said that the work of Mantralaya to Vidhan Bhavan subway is underway. Access routes should be provided in this subway for officers and employees going to the Vidhan Bhavan. He also asked the administration to soon complete the installation of security nets on every floor of the Mantralaya. The security nets are installed on every floor in the wake of recent instances where visitors jumped from the nearby floor in the net to stage agitation. He directed that a thorough inspection of the belongings of the visitors should be carried out at the entrance of the Mantralaya. Care should be taken to ensure that no objectionable item is brought into the Mantralaya. Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 2 : Prominent Kerala BJP leader Sobha Surendran has expressed her elation following a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Taking to social media on Thursday, she shared that the interaction with Amit Shah has instilled confidence in her ability to elevate the Kerala BJP to new heights. "After Sardar Patel, Amit Shah has emerged as the most powerful Home Minister. Alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts, Shah has made unparalleled contributions to the nation's security and safety. After my meeting with him, I am confident of taking the Kerala BJP to greater heights," wrote Sobha. At 50, Sobha is renowned for her fiery rhetoric and is a popular figure among the BJP's women supporters in the state. Speculation has been rife that she may soon assume the role of the Kerala BJP president, succeeding the incumbent, K. Surendran. Currently serving as vice president, her recent social media post -- accompanied by a photo with Shah -- has fueled discussions about her potential ascension. Sobha's political journey underlines her popularity and resilience. Her strong performance in the April 2024 Alappuzha Lok Sabha elections garnered nearly three lakh votes -- an increase of over one lakh from the party's 2019 tally -- despite finishing third. Her rapport with Shah was evident when he personally campaigned for her in Alappuzha during the elections. She has also demonstrated formidable results in state elections, securing second place in the Kazhakootam constituency in 2016 and Palakkad in 2021. The Kerala BJP, however, remains divided, with factions led by K. Surendran and former Union Minister V. Muraleedharan on one side, and leaders like P.K. Krishnadas and M.T. Ramesh on the other. Sobha, known for her independent stance, has kept the political landscape unpredictable. Her Thursday post has stirred fresh speculations and is likely to cause unease among some BJP leaders in Kerala. Mumbai, Jan 2 : The Maharashtra Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday gave its approval for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC Pravin Darekar-led Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank (MDCCB) to open salary accounts of government employees and accept investment of surplus funds from government corporations such as City and Industrial Development Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority and Slum Rehabilitation Authority. The state government in October 2023 had already sanctioned similar permission to 14 district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) with criteria that these banks should have "A" class in annual audit for five years and credit reserve ratio at nine per cent. The MDCCB then did not fulfil the criteria as it had received a 'B' class in one of the years and the ratio too had come down from nine per cent. Darekar is the chairman of the bank. Apart from the permission to open salary accounts, the government corporations including the City and Industrial Development Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority and Slum Rehabilitation Authority can now park their excess funds in the MDCCB. In March 2020, the Maharashtra government directed all departments to open salary and pension accounts in nationalised banks only. In August 2020 and later in November 2020, the decision was modified and co-operative sector banks were also allowed for the above-mentioned transactions. The list of cooperative banks gets updated every year based on the criterion of annual audit and credit reserve ratio. The 14 DCCBs allowed in October 2023 are Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Ahmednagar, Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Latur, Akola, Bhandara, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The BJP leader-led MDCC bank was included in this list as a special case in the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. "It was a small technical issue which has been rectified and based on the proposal to grant permission to Mumbai bank was pending. It needed cabinet approval and the proposal was moved today and cleared," said an official from the Finance department. "I thank the government for showing trust in our bank. We are in the 'A' grade and thanks to the trust shown by the government, we will continue to do good work," said Darekar. In the previous government, Darekar-led MDCC bank had received a 2,566.57 square-metre MHADA plot in the prime Sion area (South Central Mumbai). The plot was leased to Mumbai District Central Co-operative Bank, despite negative remarks from the Finance department. Mumbai, Jan 2 : Ahead of the release of his upcoming film "Fateh," actor Sonu Sood visited Shirdi to seek blessings. Mumbai, Jan 2 (IANS) Ahead of the release of his upcoming film "Fateh," actor Sonu Sood visited Shirdi to seek blessings. The actor shared his spiritual journey on social media. In the pictures surfaced online, Sonu is seen standing with folded hands at the sacred Shirdi temple, deeply immersed in prayer. Prior to this, he paid his respects at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. "Fateh" marks Sonu Sood's directorial debut and also stars Jacqueline Fernandez, Naseeruddin Shah, and Vijay Raaz. In an exclusive interview with IANS, the actor shared how playing the role of an ordinary man with hidden strength and determination provided him with a fresh outlook on personal growth and self-confidence. Sonu shared, "I think Fateh was my dream role, one that I always wanted to play: a common man who has a superhero inside him. I believe every individual, every common man, has a superhero within them. You just need to discover that. I'm glad that with Fateh, I was able to discover that side of myself. And I hope that when people watch it, they not only get entertained by the script but also get inspired." When asked what Fateh means to him, the 'Simmba' actor stated, "I think when you can be someone's hope, it's not about how rich, famous, or influential you are. We are all those things, but sometimes, when someone becomes a hope, a person leaves their native village in Punjab or Uttar Pradesh with the belief that when they reach out to an individual, their life will change. I think that is true Fatehwhen you can change someone's life, that's what real Fateh is." Produced by Umesh KR Bansal of Zee Studios and Sonali Sood of Shakti Sagar Productions, co-produced by Ajay Dhama, Fateh, a gripping tale of courage, resilience, and the fight against cybercrime is slated to release on January 10. Phnom Penh, Jan 2 : Eighty-seven per cent of a 17-million population in Cambodia now have access to basic drinking water, while 21 per cent have access to safely managed drinking water, an official said on Thursday. Chreay Pom, Director General of technical affairs at the Ministry of Rural Development, disclosed the figures during a meeting on clean water and sanitation in rural areas. "For sanitation, by 2024, approximately 92 percent of the population have access to basic sanitation, while 51 percent have access to safely managed sanitation," he said. According to the ministry, 14 provinces out of the kingdom's 25 provinces have achieved Open Defecation-Free status, Xinhua news agency reported. Speaking at the meeting, Chhay Rithisen, minister of rural development, said the ministry has planned to declare seven more provinces free of open defecation by the end of 2025. The government has set a goal to ensure that by 2030, all people across the Southeast Asian country will have access to sufficient clean water and 100 per cent sanitation, living in a sustainable environment. Gurugram, Jan 2 : Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said on Thursday that industrial institutions here are contributing to the economic progress of the state. Haryana will have an important role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolution to make India a developed nation by the year 2047. The Chief Minister said this while chairing the pre-budget consultation meeting organised with stakeholders related to the industry and manufacturing sector for the financial year 2025-26 in Gurugram. In the meeting, representatives of various organisations related to the industry and manufacturing units gave their suggestions for the upcoming budget. State Industry and Commerce, Environment, Forest and Wildlife Minister Rao Narbir Singh, Sohna MLA Tejpal Tanwar and Gurugram MLA Mukesh Sharma were also present in the meeting. "In the upcoming budget, meaningful efforts will be made to meet the long-term goals along with the current needs. The upcoming budget is a reflection of our collective ambitions and priorities. For the preparation of the upcoming budget, we must communicate with all sections of the society so that necessary positive efforts can be made to fulfil the needs and dreams of every citizen of Haryana," Saini said. In the last few years, Haryana has made remarkable progress in various fields, including agriculture, industry, education infrastructure and technology, the Chief Minister added. He said that giving priority to the constructive suggestions for strengthening the rural economy, encouraging industrial investment, empowering youth through skill development and social welfare, proper representation will be given in the upcoming budget. He also assured to sympathetically consider the suggestions put forward by the representatives regarding health services in industrial areas, improving public transport, and necessary reforms in industrial policy. In the meeting, Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Rajesh Khullar, said that the Chief Minister has taken a new initiative for the budget this time. This time, along with the state, other citizens can also give their suggestions through online mediums for the upcoming budget of Haryana. He said that suggestions can be given by going to the sector and sub-sector category through the https://bamsharyana.nic.in portal. More than a thousand suggestions have been received so far through this portal. Anurag Rastogi, Additional Chief Secretary of the Finance, Industry and Commerce Department, said that good suggestions have been received in the past through the pre-budget consultation meeting. Based on these suggestions, successful programmes like Harhit Store, Drone Technology, STEM Lab, and Super 30 were created. New Delhi, Jan 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to inaugurate 1,675 newly constructed flats for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) at the Swabhiman Apartments in Ashok Vihar area on Friday. Ahead of the inauguration, a wave of excitement and happiness has gripped the beneficiaries who will receive the house keys and enter their new 'pucca house', equipped with all modern amenities. PM Modi will visit Ashok Vihar area at around 12.10 p.m. on January 3 and inaugurate the newly constructed flats for the dwellers of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters under the in-situ slum Rehabilitation Project by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). With PM Modi set to hand over keys to eligible beneficiaries on Friday, a couple of them shared their joy with IANS and said that their dream is being realized because of the focus and endeavor of the Prime Minister. Some beneficiaries, with their eyes filled with joy, shared that they have already got a peek inside the flats and said that they were looking forward to PM Modi's visit amid them. They said that it is a matter of great pride that whatever the Prime Minister promises, he goes to fulfill it. "We are happy about the change coming in our lives and the benefits that it will bring for our next generation," they said. Fagu Yadav, a beneficiary said that he and his family are very thankful to the Prime Minister and this will bring a decisive change in the lives of his children. "Other leaders including Arvind Kejriwal make big boasts but do nothing. AAP government promised us free electricity but we are still paying the bill every month," he said. Malkhan said: "We consider ourselves very lucky and fortunate that we will be shifting from slums and huts to pucca house. Our dreams are being fulfilled. Nothing could bigger than having a house of our own. We are very grateful to the Prime Minister." Nisha, a woman beneficiary, said this is a new year gift to her family from the Prime Minister. "I am very excited to have a house of my own. It has everything including bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and a drawing room. We are very happy," she said. Notably, for every Rs 25 lakh spent on construction of a flat by the government, eligible beneficiaries pay less than 7 per cent of the total amount, comprising Rs 1.42 lakh as a nominal contribution and Rs 30,000 for five years of maintenance. Kolkata, Jan 2 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday rejected the proposal of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) to introduce the semester system at the primary education level of the state. While chairing the administrative review meeting at the state Secretariat Nabanna, she even reprimanded state Education Minister Bratya Basu for taking the decision without consulting her or Chief Secretary Manoj Pant. On December 27, WBBPE President Goutam Paul announced the decision to introduce the semester system at a press conference and also said that from the next academic year in 2025, there will be two examinations in a year in the primary section as well. The Chief Minister on Thursday, expressed anguish over the decision being conveyed and reported by the media without her knowledge. "All decisions cannot be taken just on the basis of recommendations of a few advisors. I want to relieve the kids of the burden. How is it possible that kids of first and second standards will participate in semesters? What is applicable for college-level examinations is not possible in school-level examinations. So this cannot be allowed," Banerjee said. She also instructed the Education Minister that any decision on education policy should not be conveyed to the media without further consultation. At the same time, she also made it clear no policy decision by any state department should be taken bypassing the Chief Minister's Office and announced to the media. On December 27, the WBBPE said that from the next academic year, there will be a credit-based semester system in primary education from the academic year in 2025. The syllabus at the primary education level would also be modified accordingly to suit the new system. The WBBPE chief also said that examinations in 2025 will be in the old syllabus and the new syllabus will be effective from 2026. On that day, he also claimed that the state School Education Department had already approved the changed system. Brisbane, Jan 2 : World No.1 and top seed Aryna Sabalenka showcased her trademark power and resilience in a challenging third-round encounter, defeating No.15 seed Yulia Putintseva 7-6(2), 6-4 in just under two hours at the Brisbane International WTA event. Sabalenka entered the match as the favourite but was immediately put on the back foot by Putintseva's tactical variety and defensive brilliance. The Kazakhstan playeras speed and court awareness disrupted Sabalenkaas rhythm, forcing uncharacteristic errors and building a 5-3 lead. Putintsevaas defensive highlight came at a spectacular point where she found the lines repeatedly while on the run, earning loud applause from the Brisbane crowd. The World No.29as ability to mix her shots and anticipate Sabalenkaas power plays kept the Belarusian under constant pressure. However, Sabalenkaas mental fortitude shone through in the critical moments. Down 5-3 and two points from losing the set on four occasions, she managed to shorten rallies with pinpoint power, neutralizing Putintsevaas variety. Though Sabalenka missed her first set point at 6-5, she shifted gears in the tiebreak, unleashing her signature power game to dominate 7-2 and seize the momentum. Riding high on the confidence from the first set, Sabalenka broke Putintseva immediately in the second set with a ferocious forehand winner. That game proved decisive. While Putintseva continued to fight, taking Sabalenka to 30-30 on three separate occasions, she was unable to create break-point opportunities. Sabalenkaas serving improved as the match progressed, and her forehand and backhand consistently found the lines. She sealed victory in emphatic fashion, striking a blistering backhand down the line to close out the match in 1 hour and 49 minutes. Sabalenkaas victory improved her head-to-head record against Putintseva to 2-1, adding another chapter to their competitive rivalry. It also sets up a tantalizing quarterfinal clash with Marie Bouzkova, who has been in scintillating form this week. Bouzkova, unseeded in Brisbane, upset No.10 seed and two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in straight sets, adding to her second-round triumph over No.5 seed Jelena Ostapenko. The matchup between Sabalenka and Bouzkova is tied at one win apiece, with Bouzkova emerging victorious in their most recent meeting at the Washington Open semifinals last July, where she triumphed 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Bouzkovaas patient baseline play and counterpunching abilities have proven problematic for Sabalenka in the past, making this encounter another potential thriller. BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 2. Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked the base of the 90th Tank Brigade of the former Syrian army, located near the city of Sasa, 20 km south of Damascus, Trend reports. According to the information, after the air attack, several loud explosions were heard at the military facility. It is reported that pro-Iranian units are stationed at this base, and missile systems and electronic warfare systems are located there. Bengaluru, Jan 2 : The Karnataka BJP on Thursday demanded that the Congress-led government in the state provide a guarantee of life to post-natal mothers instead of offering Rs 2,000 to women under the Gruha Laxmi guarantee scheme, there is a need to prioritise their survival, the party said. Speaking at a press conference in Bengaluru, Opposition leader in Assembly R. Ashoka has criticised Congress leaders for speaking about women's empowerment while neglecting the critical issue of maternal health. "Instead of handing out Rs 2,000, it would have been better if they ensured the survival of women. The government must first provide a guarantee for the lives of post-natal mothers," he insisted. He also called for the resignation of Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and demanded a judicial inquiry into the incidents. Opposition leader Ashoka expressed outrage over the continued deaths of post-natal mothers in the state, stating that 736 mothers had lost their lives due to negligence. He termed it as "state-sponsored murder", holding the government directly responsible. Referring to specific cases, he mentioned a woman in Hubballi who died during childbirth, leading her husband to attempt suicide, and another maternal death in Tiptur town was reported. The women post-pregnancy are dying after administration of the IV fluid supplied to hospitals. He criticised senior Congress leaders for not visiting affected families, even when such incidents occurred during Congress conventions. The government has claimed that everything has been handled appropriately. However, it has been revealed that the Deputy Secretary has issued a notice regarding the errors made by the Drug Controller in connection with the medicines supplied by a pharmaceutical company. Despite this, during the Assembly session, Health Minister Gundu Rao claimed that all necessary measures had been taken, said R. Ashoka. Although the Congress government mentioned conducting a death audit, the report has not yet been released. Ashoka expressed anger, stating that the government's response in the Assembly was only an attempt to deflect criticism, with no stringent action being taken. He said that the IV fluids supplied by the state government, not the Central government, were responsible for the deaths. "The state government is responsible for testing the medicines. These deaths have not been reported in any other state but are occurring only in Karnataka," he said. He also alleged that the state government has acknowledged that 462 medicines were sub-standard, yet the same medicines were supplied to hospitals, which has led to these tragic incidents. The BJP has announced a large-scale protest in Kalaburagi on January 4, demanding the resignation of the State Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Priyank Kharge, he said. The Opposition leader also alleged that Minister Kharge's name appears in the death note of contractor Sachin Panchal and accused Kharge's close aides of being involved in the incident. "However, as the son of the Congress President, Priyank Kharge is being protected, and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is trembling in fear to act," Ashoka claimed. He also alleged that there is a spree of suicides in the state, with officials succumbing to government pressure and committing suicide. "This is a murderous government," he declared. Ashoka also criticised the Congress government for dismantling BJP's initiatives, including cattle protection schemes, and alleged that the current government is misappropriating resources meant for the welfare of cattle. "The BJP will continue its fight against these issues. We have consistently pursued logical conclusions to our protests, and this fight for justice for post-natal mothers will not stop," he said. Mumbai, Jan 2 : Actor Junaid Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who made his debut with the streaming film 'Maharaj', is set to perform a theatre play on Friday coinciding with the song release from his upcoming movie 'Loveyapa'. Mumbai, Jan 2 (IANS) Actor Junaid Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who made his debut with the streaming film aMaharaja, is set to perform a theatre play on Friday coinciding with the song release from his upcoming movie aLoveyapaa. After the announcement of the release date of aLoveyapaa, Junaid is performing for the first time at Prithvi Theatre. aLoveyapaa also stars Khushi Kapoor. This marks Junaidas second film after aMaharaja which was based on journalist and social reformer Karsandas Mulji, who himself was a Hindu. Having studied at the Elphinstone College in Mumbai, Karsandas Mulji, played by Bollywood superstar Aamir Khanas son - Junaid in the film, was a protege of the scholar-leader Dadabhai Naoroji. He was a member of the Gujarati Gnanprasarak Mandalli (Gujarati Society for the Spread of Knowledge), and was a friend of prominent Gujarati reformists such as poet Narmad and educationist Mahipatram Neelkanth. He founded the Gujarati language weekly, aSatyaprakasha in 1855 in order to leverage mass communication for social reform. Six years later, the newspaper was merged with his guruas Anglo-Gujarati newspaper Rast Goftar published from then Bombay, which at that point included parts of Gujarat as Bombay presidency. Mulji wrote on widow remarriage, female education, excessive spending in pompous marriages, indecent songs sung during marriages, the funeral ritual of chest beating, and he stood up for the oppressed, calling for a social reform. Many of the evil practices in the society got abolished because of Mulji, who like his mentor believed in effective functioning of the society by weeding out its evils. He wrote many notable articles. The one that made huge noise at the time was the one titled aGulamikhata. In the article, he criticised the sign campaign and the process of law-making by Vaishnavas which allowed the Maharaj (religious heads) to not have to visit the court owing to their religious status. However, it was the article titled aHinduo No Asli Dharam Ane Atyar Na Pakhandi Matoa (The Primitive Religion of the Hindus and the Present Heterodox Opinions) published by him on September 21, 1890 in aSatyaprakasha. The article criticised Vaishnava Archaryas (Hindu religious leaders) for their behaviour. The article resulted in the Maharaj Libel Case in 1862 on which the Netflix film is based. Meanwhile, on the work front, Junaid Khan also has an upcoming film with Sai Pallavi. Dhaka, Jan 2 : The reciprocal repatriation of 95 Indian fishermen/crew detained in Bangladesh and 90 Bangladeshi fishermen/crew detained in India has begun, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday. All 95 Indian fishermen and crew members, who were held in Bagerhat and Patuakhali district jails, were released on Thursday. The entire process is expected to be completed on January 5 following the Bangladesh Coast Guard's handing over of Indian fishermen and crew members to the Indian Coast Guard and receiving Bangladeshi fishermen and crew members. The ministry also stated that two Bangladeshi fishing vessels detained in India and six Indian fishing boats detained in Bangladesh will also be exchanged between the two Coast Guards. "This repatriation process is being facilitated through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Bangladesh Coast Guard, Bangladesh Police, local administration, and other relevant agencies. After the handing over on 05 January 2025 at the International Maritime Border, the Bangladeshi fishermen/crew, along with their fishing vessels, are expected to return to Chattogram in the afternoon of 06 January 2025," a statement issued by the Bangladesh MFA mentioned. Bangladeshi authorities had detained a total of 95 Indian fishermen and six fishing boats during October and November 2024. On the other hand, a total of 78 Bangladeshi fishermen and crew aboard along with two fishing vessels - FV Laila-2 and FV Meghna-5 - were detained by Indian authorities on December 9. As many as 12 Bangladeshi fishermen and crew members of fishing boat FB Kaushik, who were detained by Indian authorities on September 12, have already been released by India. "The 78 Bangladeshi fishermen/crew members are held in Paradeep, Odisha, India under the supervision of Indian Coast Guard while 12 Bangladeshi fishermen are held in Kakdwip, West Bengal, India," the Bangladesh MFA stated. Sambhal, Jan 2 : While the political showdown over Sambhal's Shahi Jama Masjid survey rages on, the commissioner submitted the survey report of the mosque in Chandausi Court on Thursday. The confidential survey report was submitted by court commissioner Ramesh Singh Raghav, who reached the court and presented it before the Civil Judge. The survey report, running into about 45 pages includes photos from the survey site, which the Hindu side claimed was built over the centuries-old Harihar mandir. The survey of Shahi Jama Masjid was undertaken on November 19 and November 24. As the second round of survey began at the mosque, violence broke out in the area resulting in the death of four individuals. Clashes had erupted between the protesters and police over the court-ordered survey of Shahi Jama Masjid. Later, the Sambhal Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) informed that a total of 50 people were arrested in connection with the violence. The survey was ordered by a Sambhal court via an advocate commissioner after it accepted a plea from the Hindu petitioners, claiming that the mosque was built by Mughal invader Babur in 1526 after demolishing Shri Harihar Mandir. Days ago, an eleven-member delegation from the Samajwadi Party (SP) visited the violence-hit district to meet the families of those killed in violence. The delegation expressed their condolences and provided financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the affected families in the form of cheques. Later, speaking to the press, Mata Prasad Pandey, leader of the opposition in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, slammed the state government and accused it of being 'insensitive and insincere' towards the minorities. "This government has no sympathy for Muslims. Their agenda is to divide people along communal lines, fostering enmity between Hindus and Muslims for political gains," he alleged. The violence in Sambhal had erupted on November 24 when a team of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) visited the Shahi Jama Masjid to examine the Mughal-era mosque. Kolkata, Jan 2 : Framing of charge in the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal, registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here was postponed once again on Thursday as one of the prime accused in the case could not be physically presented at the court because of his hospitalisation. The process of framing of charge was also postponed at the same court on December 30 since accused Sujay Krishna Bhadra was admitted to a state-run hospital on the previous night as he complained of uneasiness. On December 30 evening, he was not only shifted to a private hospital in south Kolkata but also put on ventilator support. However, on Wednesday night, he was brought off the ventilation and was shifted to another private multi-speciality hospital adjacent to the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in east Kolkata, where he is currently under treatment in the ICCU. As per rules, the charge framing process cannot be concluded unless all those named as accused in the case are physically present at the court on the day. The ED had named a total of 29 individuals and 24 corporate entities and trusts as accused in their charge sheets filed at the special court over a period of time. Besides Bhadra, the other heavyweight names mentioned in the chargesheet include the former Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee and ruling party legislator and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education's former President Manik Bhattacharya. Chatterjeeas close aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose twin residences the ED officials recovered a huge amount of cash and gold in July 2022 has also been named in the charge sheet. Another person named in the charge sheet as accused is Chatterjeeas son-in-law Kalyan Moy Bhattacharya. A trust christened Babli Chatterjee Memorial Trust, named after the deceased wife of Chatterjee is also named in the charge sheet as accused. Bengaluru, Jan 2 : The Karnataka government has increased the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) bus fare by 15 per cent and the new fare will come into effect from January 5. Minister for Law H.K. Patil made the announcement in this regard while briefing the media following the Cabinet meeting. Minister Patil stated at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Thursday that the Cabinet has made a decision in this regard and the bus fare of all four transport corporations have been revised. The hike in ticket fare is expected to bring Rs 7.84 crore revenue every day to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). "On January 10, 2015, Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) prices were last revised... marking the first revision in 10 years. Back then, the daily diesel expense for Karnataka's four transport corporations stood at Rs 9.16 crore, which has now surged to Rs 13.21 crore," Minister Patil said. The daily staff expenses for these transport corporations, which were Rs 12.85 crore, have also risen to Rs 18.36 crore, adding an additional burden of Rs 9.56 crore per day. Considering these factors, the fare revision was implemented, Minister Patil stated. All transport corporations, including city buses and luxury buses, have been subjected to a 15 per cent fare increase. This is expected to generate an additional monthly revenue of Rs 74.85 crore, he said. For the "Shakti" free travel for women scheme, Rs 5,015 crore has been allocated in the current financial year, with a monthly grant of Rs 417.92 crore being released to the four corporations, Minister Patil stated. The minister further clarified that this will not burden the state's treasury and emphasized that Karnataka has been implementing excellent financial responsibility. Minister for Transport Ramalinga Reddy reacting to the development stated that a unanimous decision has been taken in the cabinet meeting to hike the bus fare. "Previously, the bus ticket price was increased in 2020. In five years, the diesel fare and expenditures have increased. The staff expenditure has increased by 18 per cent in this period. The KSRTC needs to provide salaries and survive. Though the profit has increased, at the same time expenditures have also gone up," Minister Reddy stated. The Shakti free travel scheme for women in RTC buses across the state has benefitted. The previous BJP government has left thousands of crores of loans. During our tenure, there is no crisis as far as disbursement of salaries are concerned. There was an issue with the previous BJP government regarding salaries of staff. When compared to other states, the ticket price in the state is lesser, Reddy maintained. "Our government has the responsibility of paying the loans taken during the previous regime. The profits have gone up nearly to Rs 1,000 crore. It is not a new year shocker. The hike was impending and we have done it now. The decision is taken to save the organisation," Minister Reddy stated. Condemning the decision to increase ticket fare by 15 per cent in government buses, the BJP has warned that it will raise its voice. State BJP President B.Y. Vijayendra stated: "Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, how can you boast to the people of Karnataka that you have delivered the 'Panchabhagya' schemes? While failing to allocate funds for the Shakti Scheme, you have now caused the state transport corporations to tread a path of losses. "By increasing bus fares by 15 per cent, you have essentially drawn a burden on the people who rely on the public transport system. The slogan now seems to be: "Free for women, but at the cost of men." The Shakti Scheme is comparable to "Buy-1-Get-1" offers displayed in stores to attract customers, a gimmick designed to deceive the people of the state, he slammed. "Congress-led Karnataka government's decision to hike bus fares by 15 per cent is unscientific and anti-people. The BJP will raise its voice against this decision on behalf of the public," Vijayendra said. Leader of the Opposition R. Ashoka said: "Since coming to power, the Congress-led Karnataka government has been relentlessly burdening common people through price hikes and tax increases. The latest blow is a 15 per cent hike in bus fares. "CM Siddaramaiah, every new day brings another price hike under your administration. How much more taxes and price hike must Kannadigas pay to fill the insatiable appetite of your government's greed?" Ashoka wondered. In another major decision, the state Cabinet has decided to bifurcate the Hubballi-Dharwad City Municipal Corporation and establish a separate Dharwad City Municipal Corporation. Dharwad is recognised as the cultural hub of Karnataka. It is the hometown of three Jnanpith awardees and is famously known as "Vidya Kashi" for its rich educational heritage. Following the announcement of a separate city municipal corporation for Dharwad, celebrations took place in front of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation office located in Dharwad. The Dharwad Separate Corporation Struggle Committee marked the occasion by distributing sweets and bursting firecrackers. The demand for bifurcating the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation was first raised in 2014. Dharwad residents had been advocating for a separate corporation due to the city's population surpassing 6.5 lakh. As per norms, a municipal corporation requires a population of over 3.5 lakh. Consequently, the Cabinet meeting has now decided to declare Dharwad as an independent municipal corporation. The minister also informed the media that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will announce the date for the state budget presentation. In total 23 issues discussed and decisions were taken in the cabinet meeting. Minister Patil has also stated that Rs 10.54 crore has been allotted for strengthening of Goshalas. New Delhi, Jan 2 : The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that the Indian government has worked assiduously to secure the release of its fishermen from Bangladesh custody who were arrested by the authorities from the neighbouring country over the past several months for inadvertently crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line. Earlier on Thursday, 95 Indian fishermen were handed over by Bangladesh authorities to the Bangladesh Coast Guard for handing over to the Indian Coast Guard on January 5. On the same day, 90 Bangladesh fishermen will also be released in a mutual release and repatriation operation that will be concluded at sea between the respective Coast Guard authorities. "In recent months, several Indian fishermen have been arrested by Bangladesh authorities when they happened to inadvertently cross the International Maritime Boundary Line and entered Bangladesh waters. Several Bangladesh fishermen have also been apprehended by Indian authorities in similar circumstances," read a statement issued by the MEA. "The Government of India attaches the highest importance to the safety, security and welfare of Indian fishermen. To this end, it has worked assiduously to secure the release of our fishermen from Bangladesh custody. The mutual exchange of fishermen and their vessels has been worked out keeping in mind the primarily humanitarian and livelihood concerns of fishing communities on both sides," the statement added. According to the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, all 95 Indian fishermen and crew members were held in Bagerhat and Patuakhali district jails. The entire process is expected to be completed on January 5 following the Bangladesh Coast Guard's handing over of Indian fishermen and crew members to the Indian Coast Guard and receiving Bangladeshi fishermen and crew members. "This repatriation process is being facilitated through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Bangladesh Coast Guard, Bangladesh Police, local administration, and other relevant agencies. After the handing over on 05 January 2025 at the International Maritime Border, the Bangladeshi fishermen/crew, along with their fishing vessels, are expected to return to Chattogram in the afternoon of 06 January 2025," a statement issued by the Bangladesh MFA mentioned. Bangladeshi authorities had detained a total of 95 Indian fishermen and six fishing boats during October and November 2024. Chennai, Jan 2 : The Tamil Nadu government has announced a special Pongal bonus for its employees, teachers, pensioners, and family pensioners, celebrating Pongal, the state's most significant festival. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin's administration has allocated Rs 163.81 crore for this initiative as a token of appreciation for the tireless work of government employees and teachers in implementing welfare schemes. According to the government's statement, employees and teachers in the C and D groups will receive a maximum bonus of Rs 3,000. Employees on consolidated pay, special temporary allowances, and those who have worked full-time or part-time for at least 240 days in the 2023-24 fiscal year will get a special bonus of Rs 1,000. Pensioners in the C and D groups, family pensioners, former village administrative officers, and other individual pensioners will receive Rs 500 as a Pongal gift. Pongal, scheduled for January 15 this year, is a time of celebration and tradition in Tamil Nadu. As part of the festivities, the state government provides gift hampers to family cardholders, including free dhotis, sarees, and cash. This year's Pongal gift includes Rs 1,000 in cash and a package of 21 essential items, such as rice, sugar, tamarind, and sugarcane. This initiative is designed to ease the financial burden on families, enabling them to celebrate without additional expenses. Last year, the gift hamper consisted of one kg of brown rice, one kg of sugar, a whole sugarcane, and Rs 1,000 in cash. To ensure timely delivery, the government will begin distributing hampers five days before Pongal. The government is considering direct bank transfers for the cash component to ensure that family heads receive the amount directly in their active bank accounts. If bank transfers face challenges, funds will be distributed through ration shops, as in previous years. To avoid overcrowding, special tokens will be issued to ration cardholders. The Tamil Nadu government has also commissioned the production of 1.77 crore dhotis and an equal number of sarees for the 2025 Pongal celebrations. The Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textiles, and Khadi Department has allocated Rs 100 crore for procuring yarn and paying wages to weavers involved in this project. This year, cotton yarn will be used for production, with polyester yarn being introduced in the 2025-26 cycle. The initiative will benefit 63,000 power looms across the state. Compared to last year's production of nearly one crore dhotis and 1.24 crore sarees, this year has seen an increase of 77 lakh dhotis and 53 lakh sarees. These garments will be distributed to ration cardholders and beneficiaries under the Old Age Pension Scheme. Chennai, Jan 2 : Tamil Nadu's School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Thursday clarified that the state government has no plans to privatise 500 government schools. Chennai, Jan 2 (IANS) Tamil Naduas School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Thursday clarified that the state government has no plans to privatise 500 government schools. The statement came amidst criticism from opposition parties and allies, including the CPI-M, over reports suggesting a move to privatise these schools. Addressing reporters here, the minister emphasised that the DMK government is committed to maintaining the integrity of government schools. "Government schools are like our own children; nobody will be allowed to adopt them," he stated. Poyyamozhi said that certain private schools had offered to assist in the development of government schools under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, but this should not be misconstrued as an attempt to privatise these institutions. The Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association also clarified that there is no plan to take over government schools but only to support their improvement through CSR initiatives. The opposition BJP and DMK ally CPI-M have voiced strong objections to the reported move. The CPI-M, in a statement on Wednesday, said that any such plans would endanger the education of children from economically weaker and marginalised backgrounds. It highlighted that Tamil Nadu has over 58,000 schools, including 37,579 government-run institutions. These comprise 24,310 primary schools, 7,024 middle schools, 3,135 high schools, and 3,110 higher secondary schools. Additionally, there are 8,328 government-aided schools in the state. Approximately 46 lakh students are enrolled in government schools. In contrast, the CPI-M noted that private schools, which number around 12,000, educate 65 lakh students. Despite being fewer in number, private schools are perceived to dominate the education sector in Tamil Nadu. The party criticised the disparity in infrastructure and resources between private and government schools, urging the state government to prioritise the development of government schools rather than merging them with private institutions. Meanwhile, Poyyamozhi also criticised the BJP-led Central government for withholding funds earmarked for the stateas education sector. He alleged that the Central government releases funds to Tamil Nadu only if the state government agrees to adopt its policies. The minister reiterated the DMK governmentas commitment to strengthening government schools and refuted any allegations of privatisation or adoption by private entities. --IANS aal/vd Bhopal, Jan 2 : In a reshuffle that came days after the seizure and recovery of assets worth crores from the premises linked to ex-RTO constable Saurabh Sharma, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav-led Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday transferred/reposted three senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, including state Transport Commissioner D.P. Gupta. The 1994-batch IPS officer D.P. Gupta has been appointed as Additional Director General (ADG) police headquarters (PHQ). He was appointed as Transport Commissioner in February 2024. Additional Director General (ADG) of police (PHQ planning) Vivek Sharma, a 1988-batch IPS officer, has been appointed as the new Commissioner of the state Transport Department. Additional Director General (ADG) Yogesh Choudhary has been given additional charge of planning (PHQ). The General Administration Department (GAD) of Madhya Pradesh issued a notification on Thursday. The development came amid questions which were being raised about the state's Transport Department after recoveries worth crores from ex-RTO constable Saurabh Sharma and associates were made by multiple agencies in the past few days. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Income Tax department and the Special Establishment Police (SEP) of the state of Lokayukta carried out separate searches on several premises of Sharma and his associates in multiple locations, including Bhopal and Gwalior. The first recovery took place during a Lokayukta raid last week, where anti-corruption officials discovered that Sharma was in possession of movable assets worth Rs 7.98 crore, including Rs 2.87 crore in cash and 235 kg of silver. Several real estate investment documents and a cash-counting machine were also seized from properties linked to Sharma. Subsequently, the Income Tax Department conducted another raid, uncovering 52 kg of gold bars worth Rs 40 crore and over Rs 11 crore in cash from an abandoned SUV in Bhopal. The vehicle (SUV) was registered in the name of Chetan Singh Gaud, an alleged close associate of Sharma. Officials suspect that the recovery is linked to Sharma, although official confirmation is pending. Following the Lokayukta FIR, the ED has launched a money laundering investigation against Sharma, and raids were held in Bhopal, Gwalior, and Jabalpur last Friday. During the raids, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reportedly seized financial documents, assets, and electronic data from laptops and computers at various locations. Sharma was appointed as a constable in the Transport Department in 2015 on compassionate grounds following the death of his father, a government doctor. He took voluntary retirement in 2023. Officials allege Sharma amassed wealth through corrupt means, including establishing a school and a hotel under the names of his mother, wife, sister-in-law, and close associates Chetan Gaud and Sharad Jaiswal. Documents seized from Sharma's residence and office reveal transactions amounting to crores of rupees, suggesting a substantial cash inflow. However, Sharma may have been concerned about the potential deterioration of large sums of cash over time, leading him to favour precious metals. The matter has triggered a political row as well, with opposition parties alleging corruption. The Opposition raised questions about the ruling BJP's stance on issues and matters related to corruption. However, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has asserted that his government has adopted zero tolerance for corruption. Insiders have revealed who contributed to the end of the litigation between the Hollywood ex-spouses Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, which lasted more than 8 years. The day before, it became known that the stars had finally put an end to the conflict by signing a divorce agreement. According to close sources, the long-awaited progress in the case was facilitated by Pitt's new lover, Ines de Ramon. ADVERTISIMENT According to Page Six, the actor's girlfriend encouraged him to end the divorce battle with Jolie so that they could build a relationship in peace. "Inez influenced him to finally calm down," says the insider, "Inez wants to live together - maybe with children in the future. The businesswoman hinted to her boyfriend that it would be much more pleasant for her to know that this issue was in the past. As a reminder, Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016, and since then, the celebrity couple has been in a fierce custody and real estate battle. However, the endless litigation over their French winery Chateau Miraval is still ongoing. ADVERTISIMENT In 2019, they were both declared legally unmarried, and on December 30, they finally signed divorce papers. Another source tells us: "Inez is a positive influence on Brad. She has a really good way of looking at things. It's sad that it happened this way, but at least it's progress in the right direction." Earlier, insiders revealed an unexpected habit of the actor, which was changed by his beloved. Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about how Ines de Ramon looks like, who stole the heart of Brad Pitt, who is 30 years older. The couple has been dating since 2022, and their relationship is getting stronger and stronger. Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UATelegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! New Delhi, Jan 2 : The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to furnish enquiry reports pertaining to the death of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, including medical reports, to his son Umar Ansari. A bench headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy told Additional Solicitor General K.M. Natraj, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, to provide a copy of reports within a period of two weeks. Seeking inquiry into the death of his father, Umar Ansari claimed that it was not a death simpliciter but the result of slow poisoning in jail and has filed an application calling for an inquiry into it. Umar Ansari alleged that food given to his father in jail was poisoned and he was denied the requisite medical treatment. In an earlier hearing, the top court had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a response within four weeks to the application seeking modification of the prayers. In a writ petition filed before the apex court in December 2023, Umar Ansari apprehended that there was a plan to assassinate his father in Banda jail prior to the 2024 polls and sought the transfer of Mukhtar Ansari to any jail outside UP. The Uttar Pradesh government had assured the Supreme Court that if needed, it would enhance the security of Ansarif to ensure no harm is caused to him within jail precincts. On January 16 last year, after going through a confidential note detailing the security arrangements made by the state authorities, the SC had expressed satisfaction with the steps taken and observed that the security measures appeared "formidable enough". It ordered the matter to be taken up for further hearing in the third week of July 2024. In the meantime, Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at the Rani Durgawati Medical College in Banda district on March 28 last year while serving jail time. His viscera test report confirmed that no poison had been found and the cause of death was found to be heart attack. The post-mortem was conducted by a panel of five doctors in the rank of Chief Medical Superintendent. A recent report by the District Magistrate of Banda reiterated that Mukhtar Ansari died in prison due to a heart attack and not because of slow poisoning. The report, corroborating the findings of the post-mortem report, has been submitted to the state administration. Following protests by the family, the Uttar Pradesh government had announced a magisterial probe into his death. Mukhtar Ansari, a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat was in a Punjab jail since 2005, before being moved to Uttar Pradesh. He had over 60 criminal cases pending against him. He was sentenced in at least eight cases since September 2022 by different courts and was lodged in the Banda jail, where he died. Ansari's son Umar Ansari cried foul over his death, claiming that his father was subjected to "slow poisoning" in prison and demanded his autopsy by AIIMS doctors in Delhi. Chandigarh, Jan 2 : Underlining that all the demands of farmers are related to the Union government, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said the state would oppose any move to once again pass "draconian anti-farmers laws" through the back door. The Chief Minister, in his first media interaction after almost a fortnight, said that for the past few months, the farmers' agitation has been going at the Shambhu and Khanori borders and during last January and February, farmers' groups had detailed parleys with the Centre in which the state government acted as a bridge. He categorically held that the demands of the farmers are primarily concerned with the Union government and Punjab has no role to play in it. Without mincing words, Mann said: "It is unfortunate that after forming the government at the Centre, the Modi-led government has not bothered to show any concern about the farmers." He alleged that now the Union government "is trying to bring back the black laws through the back door". On the fast by farmers leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Mann said, the fast is on but the Union government is giving cold shoulder to it whereas the state has deployed more than 50 doctors to take care of the health of the farmers leader". Mann said he had himself called Dallewal and urged him to end his fast but the Union government has not made any effort to assuage the sentiments of food growers. He said the Union government "wants Dallewal and farmers should be lifted from the protest site irrespective of the fact that they are not creating any law and order problem". The Chief Minister said he was surprised that the Union government "is shying away from talking with the farmers and trying to put the onus on the state government". He said instead of making any effort to redress the grievances of the farmers, the Union government "is trying to fix the responsibility of the farmers". Mann said ironically rather than solving the problems of farmers, the Union government "is again ready to implement the draconian laws". He said the state government "will not support this move which is against the interests of Punjab and its farmers". He said the state "is already implementing the orders of the Supreme Court to save precious lives of the farmers". Patna, Jan 2 : Jan Suraaj Party Chief Prashant Kishor and several Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) candidates on Thursday sat on a hunger strike unto death near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Maidan here. The protesters are highlighting their dissatisfaction with the examination process of the BPSC. The hunger strike was led by Kishor sitting on the hunger strike in severe cold to demand justice. BPSC candidates seek a thorough inquiry into allegations of irregularities in the examination process. "We have demanded a fair re-examination of the 70th combined preliminary examination to ensure justice for all candidates. Hence, I sat on an indefinite hunger strike to support them," Kishor said. Prashant Kishor along with other BPSC candidates and supporters are sitting near the Mahatma Gandhi statue. They are shouting slogans raised against the Bihar government and the BPSC. The tension between BPSC candidates and the administration escalated on December 29, the students were met with cane charges and water cannons as they marched toward the Chief Minister's residence under Kishor's leadership. Several students were injured in the clashes. The controversy began on December 13, when candidates at the Bapu Examination Centre boycotted the BPSC preliminary test due to delayed question papers. Videos of mobile phone use and lack of security during the test further fuelled the protests. BPSC decided to cancel the examination at the Bapu examination centre and reschedule it for December 4, but students demanded cancellation across all centres due to alleged irregularities. On December 30, a delegation of 10 BPSC aspirants met Bihar Chief Secretary Amrit Lal Meena to discuss their concerns. After the meeting, the candidates described the discussion as having taken place in a constructive and positive atmosphere. They reported that the Chief Secretary listened attentively to their grievances and assured them that the government has been actively considering their demands and will make a decision soon. However, neither the Bihar government nor BPSC addressed the issue of candidates and firms taking the examination on January 4. Meanwhile, Pappu Yadav, an Independent MP from Purnea, has announced a Rail Chakka Jam (rail blockade) on January 3 to demand the cancellation of the 70th BPSC Preliminary Test (PT). This protest is aimed at supporting candidates who have raised concerns over the exam's fairness and transparency. Alongside the Rail Chakka Jam, Yadav has also called for the blockade of all national and state highways across Bihar. "I will personally join the protest in Patna on Friday and I urge the youth of Bihar to actively participate in the movement. This action is in the best interest of the students and to ensure justice for the BPSC candidates," Yadav said. The 70th BPSC PT has been under scrutiny, with allegations of irregularities and mismanagement. "Despite we have raised the issue with the Governor, the BPSC has yet to take appropriate action. Instead, the commission is allegedly pressuring students and announced to conduct a re-examination on January 4, limited only to the Bapu Examination Centre in Patna," he added. Yadav has called for a statewide Rail Chakka Jam and the blockade of all national and state highways on January 3, citing the students' interests. He also announced to join the candidates at Gardanibagh, Patna, where students have been on a hunger strike and dharna for 16 days. He will arrive at the site at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday to show solidarity and sit on dharna with the candidates. The protesting students are demanding the cancellation of the entire 70th BPSC PT exam due to widespread allegations of irregularities. They reject the commission's decision to cancel the exam only for the Bapu Examination Centre. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav has also openly backed the students, visited Gardanibagh to interact with them, and declared their demands justified. He also called for the cancellation of the entire examination. The ongoing protest and hunger strike highlight the growing frustration among BPSC candidates, who allege systemic issues and lack of accountability in the examination process. Mumbai, Jan 2 : Digital infrastructure company Black Box stock has an upside potential of 27.3 per cent from the current price of Rs 649 to Rs 826 in the next 24 to 30 months, according to a report by brokerage house Ventura on Thursday. According to the report, despite muted sales growth in FY24, primarily due to delays in project execution and decision-making, Black Box is poised for its next growth phase. The company expects its pipeline to grow to $3 billion and aims for a conversion rate of approximately 25 per cent, up from the current 20 per cent. Black Box has revamped its strategy by focusing on the top 300 customers and exiting less profitable long-tail customers, as they do not contribute to margin growth, the report said. Additionally, the company plans to renew its Go-To-Market strategy by adopting a matrix-based approach comprising industry verticals and product portfolio horizontals. This strategy is designed to deliver industry-specific solutions and enhance customer engagement. Ventura said: "We expect revenues to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent from Rs 6,281.6 crore in FY24 to Rs 7,996 crore by FY27E." "The company plans to concentrate on data centres, primarily in North America and India. With a customer base that includes major hyperscalers like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, which are expected to significantly invest in data centre buildouts, the contribution to revenues from data centres is anticipated to be disproportionately high, growing from Rs 1,256 crore to Rs 1,994 crore by FY27E at a CAGR of 15 per cent." Meanwhile, The Technology Products Solutions (TPS) vertical currently contributes between 12 per cent and 13 per cent to overall revenues and is expected to gain traction, with revenues projected to grow at a 9 per cent CAGR from Rs 758 crore to Rs 982 crore by FY27E. Additionally, the consulting business is expected to supplement the overall growth trajectory, increasing from Rs 106 crore to Rs 112 crore by FY27E at a CAGR of 2 per cent. "On the margin front, the company has set an ambitious target of 10 per cent EBITDA margins, driven by improved negotiations with customers, technology vendor partners, and increased operational efficiency. We expect EBITDA and net margins to expand by 240 basis points from 6.8 per cent to 9.2 per cent and by 250 basis points to 4.7 per cent, respectively," the report stated. Black Box offers a broad range of digital infrastructure solutions, including Connectivity Solutions, Data Centre solutions, Enterprise Networking, Modern Workplace Solutions, Cybersecurity Solutions, Technology Products Solutions, and Consulting Services. Imphal, Jan 2 : A live hand grenade was found on Thursday outside the rented house of Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, a supervisor for a contractor at a military station in Manipur, who remains missing for around 40 days, officials said. A police official said that the hand grenade was found in front of the gate of Singh's house at Loitang Khunou in Imphal West district and immediately, a police team went to the spot to retrieve it and experts defused it. Police also recovered a note along with the grenade. "The note demanded to disband the Joint Action Committee and form a new JAC," the official said. The JAC, along with many other organisations, including Meira Paibis (women vigilantes in Manipur), have been organising agitations to rescue Kamalbabu Singh, who went missing on November 25. The Manipur government last week handed over the "missing" case to the CBI. Defence sources said that around 2,000 soldiers of the Army and Assam Rifles continued their hectic search operation to locate Kamalbabu Singh. The Army officials are constantly interacting with village heads and community elders to gather information to further intensify the search operation, the sources said, adding that the CCTV feeds have been scanned, Kamalbabu Singh's co-workers were being spoken to, and an intense search operation, including with the aid of sniffer dogs, has been continued. Manipur Police also separately conducted the search operation to locate Kamalbabu Singh, a resident of Gossaipur under Cachar district in southern Assam, who was staying at Loitang Khunou village in Imphal West. He had left his residence on November 25 for the Leimakhong military station but went missing. He was working as a supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES) at Leimakhong Military Station of the 57th Mountain Division at Kangpokpi. The JAC and the Meira Paibis have also sought intervention of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to locate the man. The JAC leaders and other agitating organisations' representatives have, on a number of occasions, met Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and discussed the "abduction" of Kamalbabu Singh. The Chief Minister earlier urged the Army to undertake all-out efforts to locate and rescue Kamalbabu Singh and take responsibility for finding him. State Social Welfare Minister Heikham Dingo Singh said that all documents related to Kamalbabu Singh were sent to the Prime Minister's Office as well as the offices of the Defence Minister and Home Minister to take appropriate actions. The Manipur High Court had earlier constituted a four-member committee to conduct an enquiry in connection with the missing man. Leimakhong military station, located 16 km away from the capital Imphal, is surrounded by Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal-dominated areas. After ethnic violence broke out in Manipur in May last year, people belonging to the Meitei community fled the areas near Leimakhong village. Jammu, Jan 2 : As the direct train service from Delhi to Kashmir becomes a reality, the Central government is preparing to establish a new railway division for Jammu. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to virtually inaugurate the office of the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) on January 6, marking a significant milestone. This move will end the dependency of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and the Pathankot region of Punjab on the Firozpur division. Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM) of Jammu, Rajiv Kumar Singh, provided more details, stating that a function would take place outside the platform area of Jammu railway station. The event will be attended by prominent figures, including Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), and Member of Parliament from Jammu, Jugal Kishore Sharma, among others. Talking to IANS, Rajiv Kumar Singh, ADRM Jammu, further explained: "The Railway Board issued a notification yesterday for the establishment of a new railway division in Jammu. A final Detailed Project Report (DPR) will be prepared for the new division, which will then be submitted to the Railway Board. Afterward, a final decision regarding its jurisdiction will be made. In this regard, the virtual inauguration by the Prime Minister is proposed for January 6, which will take place in the circulating area of Jammu railway station. Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Jammu) President Arun Gupta said: "First of all, we would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling the long-standing demand of the Chamber of Commerce. Back in 2012, we had our first discussions with the authorities on this matter, and since then, we have continuously worked towards it. "We also want to thank Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, who facilitated our meeting with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. After our discussions with him, we successfully secured the Jammu Railway Division. The establishment of the Jammu Railway Division will provide a significant boost to tourism." Jammu will become the sixth railway division under the Northern Railways zone, joining Delhi, Ambala, Lucknow, Moradabad, and Firozpur. Railway divisions operate under the broader railway zones, of which there are 19 across India. Each division is overseen by a Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), who is responsible for its operations and maintenance, reporting directly to the General Manager of the zone. Patna, Jan 2 : In a significant development in connection with alleged incidents of sexual assault in the Muzaffarpur girls' shelter home, the district court of Muzaffarpur acquitted all three remaining accused on Thursday. The judgment was delivered on Thursday in the court of Ajay Kumar Mall, who ruled that there was insufficient evidence to convict the accused. The acquitted individuals include Brijesh Thakur, Shaista Parveen (alias Madhu), and Krishna. They were produced before the Special SC/ST Court under heavy police security for the court ruling. Following the court's decision, they were sent back to Tihar Jail in Delhi. The case, which dates back to 2018, involved allegations of abuse and exploitation at a girls' shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The shelter home, managed by Brijesh Thakur, came under scrutiny following reports of serious misconduct and abuse of its residents. Initially, four individuals faced the charges in the case. However, one of the accused, Ramanuj Thakur, died during the proceedings, leaving three defendants to stand trial. The court had originally scheduled the decision for January 2, 2025. The Muzaffarpur shelter home case had drawn widespread attention and outrage, highlighting systemic issues in the management and oversight of shelter homes across the country. In the Balika Grih case, the allegations of the disappearance of 11 women and their four children from the Muzaffarpur shelter home in 2018. Among those acquitted are Brajesh Thakur, Shaista Parveen (alias Madhu), and Krishna, all of whom were earlier serving life sentences in Tihar Jail in this case. Shaista Parveen's advocate, Annu Babu, said that the court, after thoroughly reviewing the evidence presented, found it inadequate to support the charges against the accused. Public Prosecutor Jai Mangal Prasad attributed the acquittal to flaws in the police investigation. "The improper handling of the case by the investigative authorities undermined the prosecution's ability to present a strong case in court. As a result, the court has acquitted all three accused," Prasad said. Agartala, Jan 2 : The Agartala Book Fair began here on Thursday with colourful ceremonies, albeit minus the participation of any booksellers and publishers from Bangladesh -- for the first time -- in view of the unrest in the neighbouring country. Officials said that in view of the unrest followed by the political changes in Bangladesh, no booksellers or publishers from the neighbouring country took part in the Agartala Book Fair, being held at the Hapania international ground on the outskirts of the city. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha inaugurated the 13-day-long 43rd Agartala Book Fair, which would continue till January 14. In his address, Saha urged the people to give a valuable book to their loved one and all concerned instead of any flower or any other gifts during different occasions. A senior official said that the Agartala Book Fair started in 1981 and since then almost every year either publishers or booksellers from Bangladesh participated in the annual semi-trade book festival. Earlier, in some Agartala Book Fairs, publishers or booksellers from Kolkata and other cities sold Bangladeshi books, but this year, no Bangladeshi books would be available in the fair, the official said. Leading publisher Debananda Dam said that in view of the current situation in Bangladesh after the abrupt fall of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, no booksellers or publishers from that country seem to be ready to attend the book fair in Agartala. "Keeping in mind the situation in Bangladesh, even no Indian publishers or booksellers are willing to display or sell Bangladesh-related books in the Agartala Book Fair," Dam told IANS. According to the official, like in previous years, booksellers and publishers from Kolkata, Guwahati, and Delhi participated in this year's book fair apart from local publishing houses. He said that more than 159 stalls, including 42 stalls by outside booksellers and publishers, were set up in this year's fair. The official said that recently protests were organised in some Book Fairs held in a few districts of West Bengal after the Bangladeshi books were displayed there. No Bangladeshi booksellers or publishers would also participate in the upcoming 13-day long 48th International Kolkata Book Fair, which would commence from January 28. In November, a Bangladeshi trader had to close his stall at the trade fair in southern Assam's Silchar after some Hindu activists demanded it in protest against the atrocities on Hindus and other minorities in the neighbouring country. Jaipur, Jan 2 : Rajasthan Governor Haribhau Bagde on Thursday urged the youth to actively participate in achieving the vision of a 'Developed India' by embracing self-reliance and self-employment, as outlined in the National Education Policy (NEP). Speaking at the inauguration of the 59th Devgiri State Conference of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Latur, Maharashtra, on Thursday, Bagde highlighted that youth contribute approximately 34 per cent of the nationas GDP. He called on the ABVP to spearhead efforts to engage young people from various fields in nation-building, fostering the spirit of 'Nation First'. The Governor emphasised the need for unwavering determination to bridge the gap between rural and urban areas, ensuring holistic development across the country. He further stressed the importance of collective efforts under the mantra of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Sabka Prayas" to restore India's status as a global leader. Bagde expressed confidence that when the youth channel their energy and creativity into the nationas progress, significant outcomes will follow. Reflecting on India's education system, the Governor noted that British-era reforms, initiated by Macaulay, aimed to erode the cultural essence of the country. While political freedom was achieved in 1947, he lamented that educational reforms did not follow suit. The introduction of the NEP in 2020, more than three decades after the 1986 policy, marks a pivotal moment, according to Bagde. He highlighted the policy's focus on fostering Indianness, promoting self-employment, and ensuring the comprehensive development of students. Bagde praised the integration of advanced technologies with Indian knowledge traditions in shaping the NEP, urging the youth to dedicate themselves to nation-building. Recalling the history of ABVP, he commended its establishment by Balraj Madhok as a platform for national upliftment and recognized the significance of the Devgiri State Conference. King Frederik X of Denmark and his wife, Queen Mary, hosted their first New Year's Eve dinner. At the gala event, where all members of the royal family were invited, Their Highnesses appeared in impressive images as if from a fairy tale. ADVERTISIMENT According to the Daily Mail, the gala dinner marks a year since Frederick X ascended the throne, as his mother, Queen Margrethe II, officially abdicated the title of monarch. She informed the public of her decision on New Year's Eve. Queen Mary wore a striking look to the gala. The monarch wore a dark green floor-length dress with lace sleeves as an accent. She added some interesting details with the help of massive jewelry, namely a diamond tiara, earrings, and a gold necklace. Her Highness chose nude shades for her makeup. The Queen of Denmark let her hair down and gathered the front strands behind her. ADVERTISIMENT For his part, King Frederick X attended the New Year's Eve dinner in a traditional military costume. He paired a dark tailcoat and pants with golden stripes. The monarch added white gloves to the look. Queen Margrethe II was also present at the gala dinner. She appeared in front of the audience in a long blue dress, complemented by a brown fur coat and heels. Her Highness wore her hair in a bun and added an interesting accent to her hairstyle with a tiara. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! New Delhi, Jan 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday presented a 'Chadar' which will be offered on his behalf at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah. Union Minister Kiren Rijuju mentioned it in an X post on Thursday. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted, "PM Narendra Modi presented the Chadar that would be offered on his behalf at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah on the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti." "This gesture reflects his deep respect for India's rich spiritual heritage and the enduring message of harmony and compassion," Rijiju also wrote in the caption of the post. In a gesture symbolising unity and respect for all communities, Prime Minister Modi has continued the tradition of sending a ceremonial 'chadar' to the revered Ajmer Sharif Dargah during the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Syed Naseruddin Chishti, the successor to the Ajmer Dargah chief and the Chairman of All India Sufi Sajjadanashin Council, welcomed the move and highlighted the Prime Minister's commitment to the ideals of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Sabka Samman (solidarity, development, trust, and respect for all). "This tradition, dating back to 1947, has been upheld by every Prime Minister of the country," Chishti said. "Since assuming office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently sent a chadar as a mark of devotion and respect. This reflects India's deep-rooted culture of honouring all religions, communities, and Sufi saints," he told IANS. PM Modi's chadar will be presented this year by Union Minister for Minority and Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, on January 4. The offering aligns with the annual Urs celebrations, which mark the death anniversary of the revered Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, also known as Khwaja Garib Nawaz. Chishti elaborated on the significance of this gesture, stressing that it represents a positive message for harmony amid attempts to create religious divisions. "India's culture has always been about respecting all. The Prime Minister's act of sending the chadar embodies this spirit, reinforcing the message of inclusivity and mutual respect," he added. The Ajmer Sharif Dargah attracts millions of devotees each year, transcending barriers of caste, creed, and religion. It serves as a unifying symbol of India's pluralistic ethos. Chishti expressed his gratitude towards PM Modi and underscored the importance of this gesture in today's context. "When the chadar arrives, we will personally welcome it with great honour. This act sends a clear message to those who attempt to sow discord in the name of religion. It is a reaffirmation of our shared heritage and collective harmony." He further remarked that the Prime Minister's consistent offering of the chadar is a testament to his commitment to India's secular and inclusive traditions. As the Urs celebrations commence, the chadar sent by PM Modi stands as a reminder of India's cultural unity and its rich tradition of respecting diverse faiths. The event underlines the enduring message of Khwaja Garib Nawaz -- peace, compassion, and universal brotherhood. The Ajmer Sharif Dargah continues to be a beacon of hope and harmony, drawing millions of devotees from across the world. In such times, PM Modi's gesture resonates as a powerful symbol of unity in diversity, affirming India's unwavering commitment to its cultural and spiritual heritage. Kolkata, Jan 2 : Dhiren Ghosh, the eighth and the last to be arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the fake Indian passport racket operating in West Bengal, was also involved with international job rackets besides making fake Indian identity documents, including passports for the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators to the state. Kolkata Police insiders said that investigation had revealed that Ghosh had two sources of income, the first of which was arranging fake Indian identity documents, including passports, for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators once they stepped into the Indian territory. The second source of his income was arranging jobs abroad, which included even some European nations for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators willing to pay hefty amounts for those jobs. City police insiders said that before getting involved in the fake passport racket operating from Behala in the southern outskirts of Kolkata after returning to India, Ghosh had worked for 10 years in Italy as a cook and he had developed links with the key characters of a major international job racket. He returned to India in 2017 and using his links developed in Italy got involved in the twin trades of arranging fake Indian identity documents including passports for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators and subsequently arranging overseas jobs for some of these infiltrators through that illegal route. Ghosh had also developed his own network in neighbouring Bangladesh for arranging illegal crossover of borders to overseas job aspirants there. Since December 15, West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police have arrested seven persons in connection with the fake passport racket. The investigating officials have identified a pattern in the operations of such rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Any infiltrator illegally crossing over to the Indian territory, contacting the local agents and showing willingness to pay out hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents are first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal. Thereafter, the agents arrange for fake ration cards for them which are the first step for making other identity documents. By virtue of the fake ration cards, other identification documents like EPIC, PAN, and Aadhaar cards are acquired. The last step is getting the fake passports on the basis of these other fake identity documents. Bhubaneswar, Jan 2 : The Odisha Government has enhanced the pension given to the Freedom Fighters in the state. Participating in the All-India Freedom Fighters Day here as the chief guest, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday announced that the pension amount of Freedom Fighters of the state who were imprisoned during the Freedom struggle has been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 per month. CM Majhi also declared that the Freedom Fighters, not imprisoned during the struggle, will now get Rs 15,000 per month in place of Rs 9,000 received earlier. The additional allowance of Rs 8,000 per month given to beneficiaries under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman pension scheme of the Central government has now been enhanced to Rs 10,000. Similarly, those revolutionaries who were imprisoned under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) for protesting against the Emergency during 1975 to 1977 are now eligible to receive Rs 20,000 per month. The Chief Minister also noted that the death anniversary of great Odia freedom fighter Utkal Keshari Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab is being celebrated as the Freedom Fighters Festival. Notably, the state government had earlier in November 2024 announced a year-long celebration to mark the 125th birth anniversary of the former CM of Odisha Dr Mahatab. Speaking on the occasion, CM Majhi revealed that a biopic will be made on Dr Mahtab's life to keep his memory alive. His works will be translated in different languages and published by the state government. The government will also build a memorial at Agarpada, the birthplace of Mahatab, in Bhadrak district. The Chief Minister further said that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he started making efforts to give due respect to the unsung heroes whose contributions in the freedom struggle of the country were not acknowledged earlier. He added that PM Modi has recently named the birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas. Similarly, the state government is soon going to start the Shahid Madho Singh Haath Kharcha scheme to honour the sacrifice of the great freedom fighter Shaheed Madho Singh of Bargarh district. Freedom Fighters from across ten states participated in the All-India Freedom Fighters Day festival held here on Thursday. Chandigarh, Jan 2 : The Punjab government has dismissed Gursher Singh Sandhu, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), for "denting the image of the police department" by facilitating a video-interview of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi during his custody at the Central Investigation Agency (CIA), Kharar, in March 2023. The Department of Home Affairs issued the dismissal orders following approval by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), which is the appointing authority for the Punjab Police Service cadre officials. The dismissal orders were issued on Thursday by Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Secretary, the Department of Home Affairs. The orders cited Article 311 of the Constitution of India, which empowers the competent authority to dismiss, remove, or demote an officer without a formal inquiry if deemed not reasonably practicable. The dismissal order stated, "It is not reasonably practicable to hold an inquiry into the chargesheet issued to Gursher Singh Sandhu, PPS (under suspension), given the non-cooperative attitude of the officer." The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, concluded that Sandhu, under suspension since October 25, 2024, facilitated Bishnoi's interview recording while in CIA Kharar's custody. Sandhu had been placed under suspension and issued a chargesheet forwarded to the Commandant of the 9th Battalion, Punjab Armed Police (PAP), Amritsar, for delivery. The dismissal order further stated, "The DGP has apprised that Gursher Singh Sandhu, PPS (under suspension), evaded all attempts to receive the chargesheet. When Sandhu continued to avoid receiving it, the Commandant, 9th Battalion, PAP, Amritsar, arranged for the chargesheet to be affixed at the doorstep of the officeras residence to ensure formal service in compliance with procedural requirements. A detailed report of these efforts was submitted by the Commandant to the DGP, as conveyed in a memo dated November 8, 2024." The order emphasised that Sandhu's misconduct, negligence, and dereliction of duty during Bishnoi's interview in CIA Kharar's custody severely damaged the department's image. The Punjab Public Service Commission, through a memo dated December 26, 2024, concurred with the state governmentas proposal and granted approval to dismiss Sandhu under Article 311(2)(b) of the Constitution. "After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances, the state government is satisfied that Gursher Singh Sandhu has severely dented the image of the Punjab Police through his actions. His failure to perform his duties properly constitutes a gross violation of the Punjab Police's discipline and conduct rules. Therefore, under Article 311 of the Constitution of India, Gursher Singh Sandhu, PPS (under suspension), is dismissed from the post of DSP in Punjab Police," the order said. Sandhu, along with six other officers, had been suspended for their roles in the matter. Following his suspension, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau initiated an inquiry into allegations of disproportionate assets and disputed property dealings against him. Guwahati, Jan 3 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday held a meeting with MPs and MLAs of the BJP and its allies in the state regarding the development of the state. The BJP has two allies -- Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the United People's Party Liberal (UUPL) in Assam. The ministers, MLAs and MPs of these two parties were present at the meeting. The meeting was also attended by BJP ministers in the state. In a post on X, CM Sarma said, "Today in Lok Sewa Bhawan, I had a detailed discussion with NDA MPs, MLAs and Chief Executives of all autonomous councils to ensure that our welfare schemes reach the last mile." The Chief Minister recently credited the double-engine government of the BJP at the Centre and state for the development of Assam. Sarma said: "The Double Engine Govt in Delhi and Dispur is committed to ensuring the growth and development of the people of Assam. With Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji's intervention and Adarniya Shri @AmitShah ji's proactive approach, over 9 lakh people in Assam got their #Aadhaar biometric unlocked in 2024 allowing them to access all Govt services and facilities in a hassle-free manner." Earlier, the Assam Chief Minister said: "There were more than 9 lakh people in Assam who were not getting Aadhaar cards due to locking in their biometrics when the NRC updating procedure was going through in the state. Those citizens were facing issues in getting scholarships and other government benefits. We formed a cabinet sub-committee to study the matter." According to the Chief Minister, the cabinet sub-committee observed that since there was no relation between Aadhaar card and NRC, the 9-lakh people in the state should get their Aadhaar cards. "As the people were facing difficulties, we have taken this issue with the central government and after continuous discussion of two years, the centre has decided to provide them Aadhaar cards. The UIDAI authority was also notified accordingly," he had said, adding that 9,35,642 people would get their Aadhaar cards. Amaravati, Jan 3 : The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Thursday resolved to undertake developmental works in the state capital Amaravati with financial assistance from the World Bank, the HUDCO and German financial assistance. The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu decided to call fresh tenders for developmental works as per the guidelines of these institutions. The Cabinet also gave its approval for two engineering works worth Rs 2,723 crore in Amaravati. Briefing mediapersons on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, the Minister for Information and Public Relations, Kolusu Parthasarathi, said that the Cabinet cleared the proposal on the draft ordinance for amending the Andhra Pradesh Metropolitan Region and Urban Development Authorities (AP MRUDA) Act 2016. Once the MRUDA Act is amended, necessary changes can be made to the capital masterplan, the master infrastructure plans and the zonal area in the capital region, Parthasarathi explained. The Cabinet cleared the decks for setting up AM Green Ammonia (India) Pvt Ltd unit at Kakinada. The Minister said that no industrialist had come forward to invest in the State during the last five years, but now several industrialists are keen to set up their units and this is one among such proposals and the Cabinet cleared it as per the norms of the green energy policy. Stamp duty has been exempted to the company, he added. Proposals for setting up solar and wind battery storage integrated projects at Nandyal and in YSR districts were approved by the Cabinet. Similar projects to be set up at Kakinada and Hosur of Pattikonda mandal in Kurnool district were also cleared. An investment of Rs 2,000 crore is being made through these projects, creating employment to 1,380 people, the Minister said and clarified that the State Government is not allotting any kind of land for these projects. The Cabinet cleared the proposal to allot 40 acres to India Reserve (IR) Battalion at Jangalapalli of Yadamarri mandal in Chittoor district with certain conditions, the Minister said and added that the proposal to allot 6.3 acres at Nadimpalem of Pattipadu mandal in Guntur district to the Director General of ESI Hospitals, New Delhi to construct ESI Hospital and staff quarters was also cleared. The move to upgrade the ESI hospital at Tirupati from 50-beds to 100-beds with an estimated cost of Rs 7.44 crore and to appoint 191 medical and para-medical staff at the hospital was cleared. The Cabinet decided to release the state's share of the Rythu Bharosa as and when the Centre releases the necessary funds. The Cabinet cleared the proposal for 19 additional posts in the newly-formed Pithapuram Area Development Authority for smooth functioning of the administration. Kolkata, Jan 2 : Firhad Hakim, the West Bengal Minister in charge of the Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Department and Kolkata Mayor, said on Thursday that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered the highest level of enquiry in the brutal murder of Trinamool Congress councillor from the English Bazar municipality in Malda district, Dulal Sarkar alias Babla, in broad daylight. "He was a very popular leader in the locality. We demand that the police immediately take the accused in custody, put them in jail and ensure strict punishment. Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already said there will be a highest level of probe in the matter. Whoever is behind this conspiracy will also be exposed and punished. We hope that the police will trace the culprits at the earliest," Hakim said. Earlier on Thursday, while addressing an administrative review meeting at the State Secretariat Nabanna, the Chief Minister criticised Malda District Police Superintendent Pradeep Kumar Yadav and held him accountable for the tragedy. "Our councillor in Malda has been killed today due to the lackadaisical approach of the District Police Superintendent. He used to have security cover, which was later withdrawn. This is a clear lapse on the part of the police. Babla was with me since the beginning," Banerjee said. Sarkar, who suffered a bullet wound to the head, was in critical condition from the outset. Eyewitnesses reported that he was attacked while standing at a busy crossing in the area. Three helmet-clad assailants arrived on a motorcycle, and one of them opened fire. The first two bullets missed, but the third struck Sarkar in the head. District police sources said that the attack appeared to be a premeditated murder, with the perpetrators aware of Sarkar's movements and location at the time. It is not yet clear whether the murder was due to political reasons or if there is any angle of personal rivalry involved in the matter. Jaipur, Jan 3 : Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday conducted a thorough inspection of MBS Hospital, examining the new block, old building, and external arrangements near JK Lone Hospital in Kota. Accompanied by hospital administration, Kota Development Authority (KDA), and municipal officials, the inspection lasted for nearly two hours. Stressing the need to enhance emergency services, Birla suggested adding neurology and cardiology departments to the emergency wing, which currently offers only medicine, surgery, and orthopaedic services. He expressed strong dissatisfaction with the absence of an oxygen line in the medicine ICU of the new block and the lack of air conditioning in the waiting area. He directed the hospital administration to address these deficiencies immediately. The Speaker urged the municipal corporation to improve cleanliness in the hospital premises and ensure regular monitoring. He also directed KDA officials to develop an action plan for underutilised spaces within the hospital complex to make better use of the available infrastructure. Additionally, Birla discussed the new IPD block with Medical Minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar, emphasising the urgent need to address staffing shortages. The Speaker instructed officials to renovate the old wards and corridors, expand the central laboratory, and make other essential upgrades. He emphasised the importance of proper guidance for patients at the OPD counter to prevent confusion and ensure efficient navigation within the hospital. Birla also recommended designating a specific location for stretchers and ensuring immediate arrangements during emergencies. He directed the hospital administration to prepare a proposal for installing an MRI machine at the MBS Hospital. Highlighting the current dependency on the medical college for MRI services, he noted that having the facility within MBS Hospital would provide significant relief to patients and reduce travel burdens. With these directives, Speaker Birla underlined the need for prompt action to improve patient care and hospital efficiency. Bhopal, Jan 3 : A panel of senior BJP leaders comprising the party's joint national general secretary Shiv Prakash and in-charge for Madhya Pradesh, Mahendra Singh, on Thursday held a meeting with the probable candidate selected for the post of district president of the party. The BJP panel also including state BJP President V. D. Sharma and state general secretary (organisation) Hiranand Sharma, conducted one-to-one interaction with the nominees at the party headquarters in Bhopal. The BJP's meeting process is likely to continue on Friday as the candidates selected for the post of district head of its organisation from several districts were yet to attend the meeting. Once the meeting process is concluded, the BJP panel is likely to make a consensus on one final name from each district. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and some other senior ministers are also likely to attend the meeting to make a consensus. Subsequently, the list will be put before the BJP's central leadership for its final approval. New district presidents are likely to be appointed by the end of the first two weeks of the New Year. The state unit of BJP, led by Khajuraho MP V. D. Sharma, following several rounds of meetings over the last four weeks, has prepared a list of three to four names for the 'zila adhyaksh' (district head) post. A total of 60 zila adhyaksh will be appointed in Madhya Pradesh. Notably, after winning the Assembly election in November 2023 and all 29 Lok Sabha seats in 2024 in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has begun restructuring its organisation from the grassroots level to the district and state level. During the ongoing organisational restructuring to strengthen its grassroots cadre, the BJP has completed the elections for its muti-layer 'Booth' and 'Mandal' committees. A 12-member booth committee comprises one president and 11 members. The election process was needed mostly for selecting committees' presidents. The 11 other members include 'WhatsApp Pramukh', 'Labharthi Pramukh', a secretary, 'Maan Ki Baat Pramukh', and a booth-level agent. The 'Labharthi Pramukh' will be tasked to find out beneficiaries of schemes of Centre and state governments and will report to the 'WhatsApp Pramukh' at the booth level, who in turn communicates real-time feedback from the grassroots to the state party headquarters. The 'WhatsApp Pramukh' is responsible for gathering daily feedback from other Pramukhs and relaying this information to the state party headquarters, in addition to planning and executing various organisational programmes. At the age of 84, the life of Swiss socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, who was nicknamed the "Catwoman" after undergoing a large number of plastic surgeries, has ended. Her heart stopped on Tuesday, December 31, due to a pulmonary embolism. ADVERTISIMENT According to the Daily Mail, the tragic news was reported by the billionaire's fiance, designer Lloyd Klein. The woman passed away in her sleep at her estate in Paris. Jocelyn Wildenstein was born into an ordinary Swiss family, but her life changed dramatically when she married French-born American billionaire Alec N. Wildenstein in the 1970s. Her chosen one was the son of the famous art dealer and horse breeder Daniel Wildenstein, and his family headed the Wildenstein & Co. ADVERTISIMENT According to the "cat woman," the couple met at her future husband's family's ranch in Kenya, where she decided to come because she had been fascinated by Africa since childhood. At the time, Alec N. Wildenstein was aiming to kill a lion that was hunting antelope, so the Swiss woman went with him. In one of her interviews, she said that her future husband killed the animal with one shot, after which they rubbed the blood of the mammal on their necks. Jocelyn Wildenstein made headlines during her divorce from her chosen one in 2000. The ex-spouses' versions of the reasons for the breakup differed. Alec N. Wildenstein claimed that he filed for divorce because of the "catwoman's" excessive spending on cosmetic procedures. The billionaire said: "She thought she could fix her face like a piece of furniture. Skin doesn't work like that. But she didn't listen." ADVERTISIMENT For her part, the socialite noted that it was she who put an end to their married life because of her lover's infidelity. At the time, Jocelyn Wildenstein received about $2.5 billion, and her ex-husband was to pay her $100 million annually for 13 years. It is worth noting that despite all the accusations of her ex-husband, the Swiss woman often denied that she had ever been under the knife of a plastic surgeon. Comparing the photos of Jocelyn Wildenstein at a younger and older age, one can see that her eye slit has changed to a cat-like shape, her chin has changed and her cheekbones have enlarged. However, the witness attributed her unusual appearance to her Swiss ancestry. ADVERTISIMENT "I haven't had plastic surgery, I'm afraid of what might happen. I don't like Botox, everyone has their own reaction to it. I've had Botox only twice. I don't know if I'm allergic, but when I had it done, I didn't really like it. I didn't get a good result, and my face was swollen," she said. In 2003, Jocelyn Wildenstein began dating fashion designer Lloyd Klein. Their relationship could hardly be called calm, as the couple broke up and resumed their relationship many times. In 2016, they had a violent quarrel, and the socialite cut her boyfriend's face with scissors, which led to her arrest. A few days later, the same fate awaited Klein, who was accused of robbery and assault after he allegedly tried to take some of his belongings from the woman's apartment. However, the couple eventually reunited. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! In the Smolensk region of the aggressor country Russia, two tanks with gasoline and diesel fuel caught fire on December 31 after a UAV attack on the Yartsevo oil depot. The Russian facility was attacked by 11 drones. ADVERTISIMENT The details of the attack were revealed by the ASTRA Telegram channel. Earlier, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed that the oil depot was attacked by the Special Operations Forces in cooperation with their colleagues from the Unmanned Systems Forces. As the authors of the resource found out, it was the Rosneft Smolensknefteprodukt oil depot in Yartsevo, Smolensk region. According to journalists' sources in the emergency services of the Russian region, the attack by 11 drones damaged two 700-cubic-meter tanks with oil products. One of them contained gasoline, the other diesel fuel. The tanks were allegedly not completely filled and caught fire. ADVERTISIMENT On the morning of December 31, Smolensk Region Governor Vasily Anokhin confirmed the attack, but said that Russian air defense allegedly shot down all Ukrainian UAVs, and "the wreckage of one of the drones fell on the territory of the oil depot." At the same time, the head of the Yartsevsky district, Roman Zakharov, said that the attack on the fuel and energy complex facility allegedly only resulted in fuel spills and the ignition of fuels and lubricants. As reported by OBOZ.UA: - the Main Intelligence Directorate showed the consequences of fires at Russian military facilities in 2024. The fire covered the territory from Moscow to Siberia, damaging the enemy's logistics and communications infrastructure. - The Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, congratulated Ukrainians on the New Year and spoke about the SBU's performance in 2024. According to him, the SBU officers struck dozens of military targets in the Russian rear: airfields, weapons arsenals and oil depots. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Private school choice advocates expect that 2025 will be the year that they finally bring the last big red state, Texas, into the fold. The likely victory would, in turn, pose the next big challenge for the controversial movement: Can it win in enemy territory -- that is, blue states -- too? Randi Weingarten, right, with First Lady Jill Biden, warns school choice will "defund public schools." Top photo: Texas's long campaign for choice appears to be finally won. Inspired by free-market ideology and Christian faith, advocates aim to give families more educational choices by providing them with public funds that they mostly use for private instruction at religious schools. Although the movement now has a foothold in almost all red states, to become an influential force in education, it needs to make deeper inroads into densely populated blue states, where Democrats, teachers unions, and rural Republicans have built a formidable wall of opposition to protect public schools. Once we finish with the low-hanging fruit, Texas and a few other red states, this movement will go to a blue state strategy, said Robert Enlow, CEO of the national advocacy group EdChoice. It has to figure something out. Lets be honest. The political battles over school choice have been fierce, with critics such as American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten claiming that programs will defund public schools. In Nebraska, where voters killed a new program in November, an attack ad from choice opponents depicted supporters dressed in suits storming into a public school classroom and intimidating children, drawing protests from state senators who called it ridiculous and insulting. Intimidating kids: An anti-school choice attack ad in Nebraska used to help defeat reform. Despite the warnings from opponents, most choice programs launched in the last three decades have been too small to significantly threaten enrollment-based school funding. They have been restricted mainly to lower-income parents who may be dissatisfied with lax discipline and lackluster instruction problems exacerbated by the pandemic at their public schools. All told, private choice programs enroll only about 2% of all K-12 students. The stakes are getting higher, however, as the movement national advocacy groups, wealthy donors, and grassroots Christian activists wins legislative battles for universal programs designed to expand enrollment. In universal programs now in 12 red states, all families, rich and poor, are typically eligible for public funds, even for children already in private school. Patrick Wolf, a prominent school choice researcher at the University of Arkansas, says universal programs are a smart strategy for the movement. Advocates hope they will improve upon the earlier programs for disadvantaged kids that produced mixed academic results and failed to build much political momentum even in some red states like Kentucky. Under universal eligibility, families that struggle financially to keep their kids in private school are joining the programs for tuition relief. And wealthier families that participate have added social and political capital to the movement, giving it stronger legs. Strategically the advantage is clear, Wolf said. Universal eligibility creates a bigger tent of beneficiaries. Thats good for the programs and everyone in them. Above, Trump pushing school choice from the White House in 2017. Now the cause has more support and money. But universal programs are even more contentious with Democratic lawmakers because of the costs to pay for private education, essentially creating a second publicly funded school system. While the early restricted programs actually save money since the cost of a choice scholarship is typically much less than a public-school education universal programs create a new taxpayer expense: the funding of students already in private schools. Sen. Jeff Yarbro, Tennessee Democrat: "We are just pushing dollars from one group of people to another. School choice would subsidize some of the wealthiest families in my state who already send their kids to private schools, Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro told RealClearInvestigations in explaining his opposition to a universal bill in his state of Tennessee. Its bad economics because we are not changing activity or improving outcomes. We are just pushing dollars from one group of people to another. In Arizona, the first state to adopt a universal program in 2022, the costs have ballooned. Almost half of the 80,000 students getting funding were already in private school, driving up the price tag of the program to $800 million last year, according to the Department of Education. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs wants to rein in the program that contributed to the states $1.3 billion budget deficit last year, forcing big cutbacks in funding water infrastructure projects to cope with droughts. Its just not possible for these states to fund two separate educational systems, the public and the private, said Professor Josh Cowen, whose new book, The Privateers, is critical of school choice programs. The scholarships are an interest group subsidy that states have to make hard choices to pay for. Hardball Politics in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas: Took off the gloves to defeat rural naysayers of his own party. In Texas, the cost of a universal program, a top priority of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, prompted a revolt among rural Republican lawmakers. The $500 million proposed program would escalate over time, they feared, forcing cutbacks in funding for public schools that also serve as community centers and major employers in rural areas. To win over rural Republicans, the bill contained a large $7 billion increase in public school funding on top of an approved $6 billion boost earlier in 2023. Texas school districts stood to gain far more money than they might lose in per-pupil funding when students left for private schools, says Mandy Drogin, who focuses on school choice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. But rural Republican lawmakers turned down the $7 billion sweetener by voting to kill the universal program, spurring an unbending Abbott to play hardball, targeting his own party members for defeat in March primaries. To fund these efforts, Abbott received a $6 million donation from school choice advocate and billionaire donor Jeff Yass, an example of the big money behind the movement. Hillary Hickland, a pro-school choice GOP newcomer: She claims the "overwhelming support of Texans who have been working to advance school choice for over three decades. Eleven of the challengers Abbott endorsed and funded won in the primaries on a school choice platform and then sailed to victory in November, providing the votes for a universal program this year. One of the newly elected legislators is Hillary Hickland, a stay-at-home mom and conservative Christian activist who, like several other challengers, had never run for public office. The victory of Hickland and the other 10 Republican candidates supported by Abbott underscored the potency of school choice in a state where a recent poll shows 69% of voters support it. A grassroots movement based on issues affecting families propelled several of us who are first-timers to victory, Hickland told RCI. We have the votes in the House to pass it and the overwhelming support of Texans who have been working to advance school choice for over three decades. Shapiros 'Unfinished Business' Advocates say the stars are aligned to turn Pennsylvania into a blue state win. It already has a limited tax credit program to incentivize private donations for choice scholarships. Whats more, Gov. Josh Shapiro is one of the few Democratic state leaders who supports school choice, as do Pennsylvania voters by a wide margin. Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania: one of the few Democratic state leaders who supports private school choice. The issue came to a head in 2023 when a Shapiro-backed non-universal voucher proposal targeting students in low-performing schools was met with stiff opposition from House Democrats and the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the states largest teachers union. Shapiro was forced to line-item veto the voucher proposal to get the budget approved, calling school choice unfinished business. In November, Pennsylvania swung to the right by backing President-elect Donald Trump and sending Republican challenger Dave McCormick to the U.S. Senate. The cheers of school choice advocates were muted because Democrats held on to a one-seat majority in the state House. The fate of another voucher bill expected in 2025 may depend on whether a few Democrats are willing to break with House leadership and risk political payback, according to a veteran of the Pennsylvania battles. Leaders reportedly threatened to take away committee assignments and staff from Democrat Amen Brown, a black representative who crossed the aisle to back the voucher bill. Governor Shapiro has a chance to deliver on his promise to expand educational opportunity for underserved children, said Tommy Schultz, CEO of the advocacy group American Federation for Children. It will require bold leadership to bring House leadership to the table and get it done. EdChoice policy director Ed Tarnowski also sees Virginia as fertile blue state ground after a decade of defeated choice bills, including one in 2023, at the hands of Democrats. Since taking office in 2022, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has been shaking up public education, introducing a system of accountability and higher academic standards lst year while also pushing school choice. Still, advocates will need the support of Democrats who control the General Assembly to create a state-funded program. Grassroots activists with the Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance are using a bottom-up strategy, educating low-income families throughout the state about school choice and encouraging them to pressure lawmakers into backing the program. Its the type of campaign that led to the approval of vouchers in Washington, D.C., says Craig DiSesa, executive director of the alliance. We plan to replicate that model. Illinois Backpedals Illinois shows how fragile school choice laws can be in blue states. Myles Mendoza, a liberal Democrat and former social worker, spearheaded a campaign for a program in Illinois after seeing the personal harm that failing Chicago Public Schools inflicted on students. Myles Mendoza, Illinois reformer: "Currently there are no votes in Illinois to pass school choice. As president of Empower Illinois, he built a coalition of Republicans, moderate Democrats, and trade unions to pass a $100 million tax credit scholarship program for disadvantaged kids in 2017. It was part of a deal that also boosted funding for high-poverty public schools. The program was a hit, with three times more demand than supply of about 10,000 scholarships, many of them awarded to kids in Catholic schools. But the election of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, beating Republican Bruce Rauner with the help of an endorsement by the Illinois Federation of Teachers, shattered the bipartisan coalition behind the program. Pritzker let it sunset in 2023. For school choice to get a permanent foothold in blue states like Illinois, Mendoza says, advocates need to rally more blue-collar, Latino, and Jewish families that are troubled by public schools. These groups could pressure Democrats to support private school choice over time, Mendoza said. But currently there are no votes in Illinois to pass school choice. Professor Wolf also sees external pressures forcing blue states like Illinois to get with the program. With school choice now in a majority of states, he says, Illinois will come under pressure to adopt it or risk losing residents to four of its neighbors with choice programs. Such peer pressure explains why public charter schools are now in 46 states. Illinois is losing population, so Democratic legislators might consider that they could hold on to more of their families if they return to offering at least the low-income ones support for private school enrollment, Wolf said. No Choice of Good Private Schools Politics isnt the only drag on the movements ambitions. Another is academic. Many higher quality private schools dont accept school-choice students because of the state rules, such as reporting test scores, that come with participation in the programs. Josh Cowan, school choice critic: "Many more schools are involved now, some of them located in church basements, and many of them are not interested in academic outcomes." Catholic schools have enrolled most students in many of the programs, with other religiously affiliated schools taking students, too, according to researchers. A study of Washington D.C., Louisiana, and Indiana found that private schools that are smaller, less expensive, and more diverse features associated with a less rigorous education are more likely to participate in programs. An examination of the Milwaukee program underscored the instability of participating schools, particularly startups: 41% of all the schools failed over a 25-year period. It's not surprising, then, that school-choice students are not typically posting stellar academic gains. Wolf says rigorous studies of the early small programs showed some positive academic results on standardized tests, while more recent examinations of bigger programs revealed some negative outcomes. Researchers did find more consistently positive effects for students with graduation rates and college entrance and completion. Wolf calls the results mixed. Professor Cowen, who was optimistic about the programs early on, is now a critic. He says the negative academic results from the larger programs are significant, on par with the learning loss students recently suffered during the pandemic. Twenty years ago, there were only a small number of private schools participating in programs and they were pretty decent, said Cowen. But many more schools are involved now, some of them located in church basements, and many of them are not interested in academic outcomes. Thats not their main mission. Advocates are putting their faith in the expansion of universal programs across the country to raise the academic bar. As more children from wealthier families get scholarships, the theory goes, it will encourage higher-quality private schools to participate in the programs, lifting the performance of all students, including low-income kids. Will Congress Act? Facing uphill battles in blue states, the movement has a Plan B. With Republicans taking control of Congress this year, John Schilling at Invest in Education says advocates are cautiously optimistic about the chances of a federal tax credit bill to privately fund school choice scholarships for students nationwide. Such an approach would provide a wedge into blue states where groups would collect donations to start scholarship programs that otherwise might not get off the ground. John Schilling: Backs federal tax credits to privately fund school choice scholarships for students nationwide. We see this law as creating opportunity in blue states where there is entrenched opposition to school choice, said Schilling. The only way states like New York, California, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts can get school choice now is through a federal tax credit. The Educational Choice for Children Act, which has 180 Republican co-sponsors, is hardly a sure bet. Democrats are solidly opposed to it, and many rural Republicans dont like it either. The bill probably wont get the 60 votes needed in the Senate to avoid a filibuster, which means Republicans may try to push it through budget reconciliation, a difficult undertaking but one that requires only a majority to pass a bill. Cowen at Michigan State University sees hypocrisy in the movements turn to Washington. Republicans are banking on federal legislation while also calling for a reduction in Washingtons influence on education and even the dismantling of the Department of Education. But the chance to open up blue states to school choice is apparently too good an opportunity to pass up. As a retired FBI special agent, I worked to protect my family and the American people in a fair and apolitical way. I understood that the public perception of the agency directly impacted the success of our mission. Moreso, I took to heart the core of that public perception: trust in us by our fellow citizens. After the Parkland shooting, where my daughter survived and I responded as a first responder, I was deeply disheartened by the FBIs mishandling of critical leads that could have prevented the tragedy. One failure stemmed from an agent and their supervisor in the Jackson, Mississippi, FBI Office, while another involved a call-in tip that was mishandled by a contract call taker and their supervisor. The contract employee was fired, the Jackson agent was allowed to retire, yet both supervisors remained in their positions. Our family has always embraced the concept of the FBI Family, a term that embodies the camaraderie, shared mission, and mutual support among agents, staff, and their loved ones. After the shooting, my closest FBI brothers and sisters immediately came to our aid, offering incredible support for which I am deeply and always grateful. However, despite the many years we cherished being part of this family, I found myself expecting more from the headquarters leadership in D.C. Was I disappointed? Yes, I was. Sadly, I am not the only agent or American who feels this way. The trust the FBI took nearly a century to earn has eroded over the past several years as the Bureau has prioritized intelligence gathering and wading into politics over keeping Americans safe. This has critically damaged the Bureau and swift attention to regain and maintain the publics trust is essential to its ability to accomplish its mission. But its not just the publics trust that is impacted by the Bureaus behavior: the men and women putting their lives on the line for you, me, our families, friends, and neighbors, are devastated. Once revered as the worlds premiere law enforcement agency, many citizens now view the agency with disdain, believing it ineffective, corrupted, and weaponized. We are working to restore trust in the FBI by holding it to the highest standards, so that American families are safer, businesses can thrive, and the FBI returns to its status as the global model of justice and accountability something my fellow special agents and I can be deeply proud of. Driven by this goal, I have joined other retired FBI special agents to launch Reform the Bureau (RTB). RTB is a nationwide group of former FBI special agents who are committed to restoring the agency to its core mission: protecting the public, fighting crime, and upholding the rule of law. We believe that our nations law enforcement cannot maintain ordered liberty without a highly capable, nonpartisan, and legally compliant FBI, one that earns and maintains the publics trust. Our mission is to educate policymakers and the public about what is necessary to reform the Bureau and return the FBI to a merit-based law enforcement agency focused on its core mission. We advocate for meaningful, nonpartisan reforms grounded in decades of law enforcement experience to better protect our nation through reestablishing an agency culture of meritocracy and mission-first accountability. Reform in the FBI takes several steps. First, it is essential to streamline the administration to make the Bureau less top-heavy with its overabundance of support staff and senior executives. Next, we prioritize investigative integrity over metrics, then move to decentralizing the FBI decision-making to empower field operations and improve operational effectiveness and response time. In addition, it is necessary to reform the agencys training to focus on merit and proficiency best accomplished by eliminating things like the up-and-out policy prematurely removing supervisors from their roles. Another important step is to strengthen our intelligence functions to increase the Bureaus effectiveness while restoring public trust and accountability in the agency by moving away from politicization. Finally, the Bureau must foster a culture of excellence that flies above the political fray and maintains its focus on merit, proficiency, efficiency, and its overall mission. As we have seen over the past several years, trust in law enforcement has cratered, especially at the federal level. Its been in front of our eyes, but the agency has done nothing to address it. A November 2022 McCourtney Institute for Democracy poll found that 67 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of independents, and 31 percent of Democrats trusted in the FBI to do the right thing only some of the time or hardly ever. A July 2023 NBC poll found 35% of Americans had a negative view of the agency amid the investigations into President Trump, and a March 2023 Rasmussen poll found that nearly two-thirds of voters viewed the agency as politically weaponized. Even in August of this year, the Pew Research Center saw only a downward slope in trust toward the DOJ across Republicans, independents, and Democrats, with only 33 percent of Americans having a favorable opinion of the agency, with 16 percent unsure. We are at a pivotal moment to implement meaningful changes within the agency under the incoming Trump administration. President Trump's selection of Kash Patel to lead the FBI suggests a strong focus on reform. We anticipate his efforts to restore trust, transparency, and integrity back to an agency that has flown too close to the political sun, and he will work with our lawmakers to ensure that the FBI protects all Americans. Richard Stout is a retired FBI Special Agent with 22 years of experience in the FBI Miami Office. He now directs Reform the Bureau (RTB), focusing on FBI reform. He currently lives in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyers guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles. Our reviewers are the backbone of our operation and come from diverse shooting backgrounds: Former law enforcement, military veterans, competitive shooters, seasoned hunters and plain old firearms enthusiasts. Furthermore, were not just gun experts, but dedicated journalists who adhere to the strictest standards of our profession. At RECOIL, editorial independence is the foundation of everything we publish and the cornerstone of reader trust. Our editors, writers and content creators make all editorial decisions independently, free from outside influence. That boils down to: advertisers dont dictate our coverage, the outcomes of our reviews or what we recommend in our buyers guides. First and always, our commitment is to our audienceensuring every review and article is accurate, unbiased, and driven by real-world experience. Whether youre selecting your next firearm, upgrading your gear, or exploring the latest innovations in the shooting world, RECOIL provides the trusted insights you need to make informed decisions. Learn more about our Editorial Standards and how we review products. Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai and MG Motors are gearing up to introduce EVs in India. IMAGE: The MG Cyberster EV will debut in January 2025. Photograph: Kind courtesy MGMotor If SUVs (sport utility vehicles) were the flavour of 2024, EVs (electric vehicles) may turn out to be the big theme for 2025. Automakers are gearing up for some 15 to 20 EV launches in the coming year, doubling from a modest seven to eight in 2024. While industry leaders Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai and MG Motors are getting ready to roll out their wide range of EV models in the new year, luxury car makers are moving in that direction too. Many of these EVs are likely to be SUVs. "With almost every OEM (original equipment manufacturer) coming to the market with an EV lineup, it will definitely double in 2025 compared to 2024," said Kavan Mukhtyar, partner and leader-automotive advisory at consulting firm PwC. Maruti Suzuki India and Toyota, after their successful collaboration in traditional ICE and hybrid models, are set to expand their partnership to the EV segment too. The duo will jointly produce a Suzuki eVX-based SUV, to be sold under the Toyota brand globally. Production is scheduled to commence at the Suzuki Motor Group's Hansalpur, Gujarat facility in the spring of 2025. This marks the first EV launch for both companies in India. In a joint statement, the companies emphasised their intent to bolster EV supply globally, calling the new SUV a 'nimble model' designed with a long cruising range, spacious cabin, and a powerful four-wheel drive system for enhanced drivability. Photograph: Rajesh Karkera/ Rediff.com IMAGE: From left: Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited, Anand Kulkarni, Chief Products Officer, Head of HV Programs and Customer Service, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd and Vivek Srivatsa, Chief Commercial Officer, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd at the Tata Curvv launch. Tata Motors, the EV leader in the country, plans to launch electric versions of its popular SUV range -- Safari, Sierra and Harrier. These vehicles aspire to leverage Tata's architecture, offering real-world ranges of over 500 km and fast-charging capabilities. Mahindra & Mahindra is also set to launch its BE.6 electric SUV, built on its INGLO platform powered by a high-performance 79 kWh battery, delivering 210 kW (282 bhp) of power and a range of over 500 km. The company showcased the car recently in Chennai. In the mid-size SUV segment, Hyundai will introduce the much-anticipated Creta EV, which is expected to deliver a range of 500 km on a single charge, while Kia will focus on its low-cost EV lineup with the crossover sedan EV4. Among others, JSW MG Motor, under its new premium brand channel MG Select, will debut the MG Cyberster -- an electric roadster inspired by the MG B Roadster of the 1960s. The vehicle is scheduled for a grand launch in January. Despite the influx of new launches, EV adoption in India remains slow. According to data from the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), passenger EV sales totaled 82,508 units in 2023. IMAGE: The Mahindra BE 6e. Photograph: Kind courtesy Mahindra In 2024, between January and October, EV sales grew 10 per cent year on year to 74,235 units. EVs are still at a nascent stage in the Indian automotive market. According to Srikumar Krishnamurthy, senior vice-president at ICRA, EVs accounted for around 2 per cent of the passenger vehicle market in FY24 and are expected to rise to 3 per cent in FY25. "While the near-term growth appears gradual, the long-term outlook is promising," he said. The segment is expected to witness a gradual increase in penetration, reaching about 15 per cent by 2030. "Currently, hybrids and EVs together make up 4 per cent of the market. This figure is projected to grow to 15 per cent in the next three to four years, supported by rising incomes, improved supply chains, and growing rural demand. However, challenges such as inventory build-up, especially in entry-level vehicles, will need to be addressed," Krishnamurthy explained. IMAGE: Toyota's 1st electric-SUV to roll out from Maruti's stable. Photograph: Kind courtesy Maruti Suzuki Factors driving the trend include rising disposable incomes, changing customer preferences, and increasing investments in charging infrastructure. Government policies are also expected to encourage adoption. However, near-term challenges such as high vehicle costs, dealer inventory concerns, and elevated ownership expenses remain. For the EV market to scale up, analysts emphasise the importance of sturdy product launches and ecosystem readiness, which are now being actively pursued by leading automakers. In 2024, Tata Motors introduced the all-electric version of its micro-SUV, the Punch EV, offering two battery pack options with a range of up to 421 km. The company also launched the Curvv EV, featuring a range of up to 585 km. In the luxury segment, BMW introduced the i5 electric sedan, offering a WLTP-claimed range of 516 km. Similarly, Kia brought its flagship EV9 SUV to India, while MG Motor launched the Windsor EV. While the Indian EV market is in its early stages, automakers are positioning themselves for the future. Analysts predict that the second half of 2026 will see a significant traction in demand as the market matures and infrastructure improves. In the pipeline M&M: BE 6 SUV Tata Motors: Electric versions of Safari, Sierra, Harrier SUV range Hyundai: Creta EV JSW MG Motor: MG Cyberster Mercedes Benz: EQS 450 SUV Maruti Suzuki India-Toyota: To jointly produce Suzuki eVX-based SUV Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com For centuries, Antarctica has held intrigue due to its unexplored desert landscapes. This year, researchers have identified the top 4 most mysterious discoveries in the icy kingdom. ADVERTISIMENT One of the "wonders" of 2024 was an eerie door in the snow. Researchers have also been thinking for a long time about the solution to the "blood-filled" waterfalls in the icy Antarctic, TheSun reports. Secret doorway An image of Antarctica on Google Maps went viral in October as it revealed a secret passage in the snow southeast of Japan's Showa station. After the photo was posted online, users began to put forward various theories about the strange opening, from theories about Nazi bunkers to a secret city in the Earth's crust. ADVERTISIMENT But it turns out that the mysterious doorway is an iceberg stuck in the snow. Blood flowing down The terrifying "blood falls" in the middle of Antarctica have been a mystery to scientists for over 110 years. Finally, an American research team discovered tiny spheres in the water that turned red when they came into contact with air. And against the background of white snow and ice, it looked really creepy. The nanospheres, consisting of iron, flint, calcium, aluminum, sodium, and other elements, contributed to the transformation of meltwater into a reddish-orange color. The iron in the nanospheres formed iron oxides and hydroxides as soon as water met air, the scientists explained. The high salinity and the presence of chlorine, magnesium, and sodium played an important role in the formation of the yellow-orange iron phases. ADVERTISIMENT A giant hole Giant holes in the Earth are always a source of intrigue. Thus, Polynia, an area of open water surrounded by sea ice, has puzzled scientists since it was first spotted on a satellite image half a century ago. According to scientists, in 1974 the hole was about the size of New Zealand. Then the giant hole was not seen again until 2017, when it suddenly reappeared, about the size of Portugal. In May 2024, experts finally discovered what was forming the hole. A strong current moving around the Maud Rise seamount in the Wendell Sea created violent eddies a reverse current that pushed salt to the sea surface. ADVERTISIMENT When the salt reached the surface, a process called Ekman transport occurred, which moved the water at a 90-degree angle in the direction of the wind, the researchers say. This made it easier for the salt to mix with the heat at the surface and melt the ice, forming a large hole. Ice that sings Thanks to winds that can reach 320 km/h, eerie sounds can often be heard in Antarctica. Scientists have discovered that the 600 km long Ross Ice Shelf sings when the wind blows. When gusts blow through the snow dunes, it creates a vibration that researchers can listen to using seismic sensors. Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Why can't the Indian government propose to the Chinese a corridor circumambulating the Holy Mountain where people from both sides could perform the yatra again? asks Claude Arpi. IMAGE: India's Special Representative and National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval calls on Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in Beijing, December 19, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo On December 18, 2024, the 23rd meeting of the Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China took place in Beijing. The delegations were headed by Ajit Doval, the national security advisor, and Wang Yi, member of the politburo of the Chinese Communist party and minister of foreign affairs. It was the first meeting SR meeting since the Galwan clash of June 2020. The SRs not only reemphasised the implementation of the recent 'disengagement' agreement 'resulting in patrolling and grazing in relevant areas', but they also reiterated 'the importance of maintaining a political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship while seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for settlement of the boundary question.' It is extremely doubtful if a mutually acceptable solution for the boundary can be found in the present conditions, especially with the current turmoil in the Chinese ministry of national defence and the Central Military Commission -- two ministers and one CMC member lost their jobs in the previous two years. Further, the trust is not yet present between the two Asian giants; the SRs could not even issue a joint statement. It is worth noting that Doval called on Han Zheng, vice president of the People's Republic of China, but did not meet President Xi Jinping. However the SRs discussed various measures to maintain peace and tranquility on the border and the Chinese statement even speaks 'of strengthening confidence-building measures (CBMs)'. IMAGE: A view of Taksing Village. Photograph: Claude Arpi What can be done? One of the possible CBMs is through pilgrimage. A lot has recently been written in the Indian media about another example of a pilgrimage, -- the Kartarpur corridor between India and Pakistan; it is a mutual gesture of goodwill agreed upon despite the tough reality and difficulties between both countries. The corridor on the Indian side starts from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district before crossing the international border; the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur is across the border on the banks of the river Ravi. Both governments agreed to the development of a corridor to enable the smooth passage of pilgrims seeking to visit Guru Nanak's final resting place. It is certainly a field to explore on the north-eastern border, as pilgrimage always played an important role in India's relationship with Tibet. It could provide a bridge between both sides of the Himalaya and in the future become a major confidence building measure between China and India. The Panchsheel Agreement between India and China IMAGE: The Subansiri rivers, the southern part of the Rongkor yatra. Photograph: Claude Arpi The Tibet Agreement, also known as the Panchsheel Agreement for its preamble, was signed in April 1954; both nations agreed to put the age-old relation between India and Tibet in a legal framework. It was all about trade and pilgrimage in Tibet. Article III of the 1954 Tibet Agreement says: 'The High Contracting Parties agree that pilgrimage by religious believers of the two countries shall be carried on in accordance with custom.' The Agreement mentioned that for an Indian pilgrim to go on the Kailash pilgrimage (yatra), he just needed a valid passport and a visa from China. After the 1962 War, pilgrimage was temporarily stopped but on June 28, 1981, then Chinese minister of foreign affairs Huang Hua told a press conference in New Delhi: 'The Chinese side has informed the Indian side that it will make temporary arrangements for a certain number of Indian pilgrims to go on pilgrimage to what the Indians call the Kailash Mountain and Mansarovar Lake. As for long term arrangements, we will discuss them with the Indian side through diplomatic channels.' Since then, the pilgrimage has been allowed to take place, with ups and downs (it is completely down since 2020!). One of the SRs' decisions was to reopen the Kailash Yatra. Why not go a step further? IMAGE: A puja for revival of the Nalanda Tradition. Photograph: Claude Arpi The Tsari Yatra In the Tibetan psyche, Tsari has always been synonymous with 'sacred place'. With Mount Kailash and the Amye Machen in eastern Tibet, the pilgrimage around the Dakpa Shelri, the 'Pure Crystal Mountain', has, for centuries, been one of the holiest of the Roof of the World. The latter could be considered as a CBM. The last Rongkor (Ravine Yatra) took place in 1956. I recently visited Upper Subansiri in Arunachal Pradesh and it became obvious that one of the best CBMs would be to reopen the Tsari Rongkor (yatra). After crossing the Tibet-India border, the pilgrimage used to proceed southwards along the Tsari Chu (river) and then turn westwards in the Subansiri Valley. The trek goes up to the last Indian village of Taksing before crossing again in Tibet, taking the direction of Yume, the first Xiaokang (model) village into Tibet (adopted by Xi Jinping in 2017). The southern leg of the Rongkor procession crosses the tribal areas of Upper Subansiri; this was the territory of the Nah and Mra clans of the Tagin tribe who lived downstream the Tsari Chu Valley, around its confluence with the Subansiri at Gelensiniak and in Taksing. IMAGE: Women folk of the local Nah clan. Photograph: Claude Arpi The Pure Crystal Mountain Even the finalisation of the modalities of the pilgrimage could be an exercise to built trust between the two countries. The 'Pure Crystal Mountain' lies at 5,735 metres above the sea in the Tsari area of southern Tibet; the Tsari Yatra used to take place every Monkey Year, often special years (during 1956, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama visited India on the occasion of the 2500th anniversary of the birthday of the Buddha, but it also witnessed a last circumambulation around the Dakpa Shelri). Toni Huber, the foremost scholar on the subject, wrote a great deal about the site of the pilgrimage, located in India and Tibet: 'The large-scale, 12-yearly circumambulation of Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims around the mountain known as the Rongkor Chenmo, had the character of a state ritual for the Ganden Phodrang (the Dalai Lamas government). Pilgrims in this huge procession crossed the McMahon Line below the frontier village of Migyitun in Tsari district,' writes Huber. During the 1914 Simla Conference, Frederick Bailey, who had mapped the area with his colleague Captain Henry Morshead, informed Sir Henry McMahon about the sensitivity of the issue and on their recommendation, a condition was inserted in the border agreement to reassure the Tibetans that the yatra would not be disturbed despite the fact that it was crossing into India's territory; further India always facilitated the smooth continuation of the Tsari pilgrimage on the Indian side of the border, at least till the last Rongkor in 1956 which passed off peacefully. IMAGE: A sacred place visited by Guru Padmasabhava. Photograph: Claude Arpi It was the only place on the north-eastern border where religious considerations (and not the watershed) were accepted as the principle to delineate the boundary. Visiting the area is in itself a great spiritual experience, but also adventurous. Till last year there was no road to Taksing and visitors and defence forces had to walk three to four days from the road head near Limeking village. The dense, almost impenetrable, jungle on both sides of the tumultuous Tsari and Subansiri rivers must have been, the experience of a lifetime for the yatris (for those who survived). IMAGE: The gate to the Dakini land only to be opened by advanced tantric practitioners. Photograph: Claude Arpi Nearly 70 years after the last pilgrimage, driving on the still difficult roads, one wonders how the pilgrims could survive without supply points, medical facilities or basic bridges to cross from one side to the other of the two rivers. The local tribal population (the Nah and the Mra clans of the Tagin tribe) had the reputation of being ferocious and were feared by the Tibetan yatris; today, I found only kind-hearted people; despite the tough conditions, they are extremely hospitable and live simply, though like everyone, they aspire to a better material life. Why can't the Indian government propose to the Chinese a corridor circumambulating the Holy Mountain where people from both sides could perform the yatra again? It is worth thinking about. IMAGE: The road to Taksing. Photograph: Claude Arpi The Shorter Pilgrimage If India and China do not agree to the Tsari Corridor, another solution is immediately feasible; traditionally, there was a shorter pilgrimage around the Holy Mountain, the Kingkor was organised every year, but the route did not cross the Indian border. The British intelligence officer, Captain Frederick Bailey, described thus the Kingkor: 'There was also a Small Pilgrimage ... We visited the temples. The largest was Pagmo Lhakang, down in the valley. It had a golden roof, and the principal image, that of Dorje Pagmo was studded with precious stones. A golden butter lamp was set before it.' A Southern Kingkor, within India's borders, could be organized by the state government with the support of the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. In local mythology, many lakes, passes and peaks have a history which could be highlighted; it would open the area to many more Indian visitors and make known to the world the sacredness of these borders areas ... and they could learn from the local tribes the importance to worship the environment. Claude Arpi is Distinguished Fellow, Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence (Delhi). Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com 'All the big things happening today in economic development have their beginning in Dr Manmohan Singh's ideas.' IMAGE: Dr Manmohan Singh addresses a news conference in New Delhi January 3, 2014. Photograph: Harish Tyagi/Pool/Reuters It is very rare for an IAS officer to work with three prime ministers in his career. T K A Nair had the unique opportunity to work with I K Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh. Mr Nair had earlier told Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier that one couldn't compare Dr Singh with Prime Minister Narendra D Modi. "He didn't want to take credit. He wanted everyone to see them, whether it was MNREGA or the nuclear deal, as the achievements of the country, achievements of a democratic government and not the achievement of one person," recalls Mr Nair who served as principal secretary to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. When he was criticised harshly by the Opposition, Dr Singh said 'History will be kinder to me than contemporary India'. As someone who worked with him closely, do you feel that way? He said it when he was criticised for so many things, but he never showed any ill will or animosity towards those critics of his. They had their own axe to grind. He accepted the criticism as he had the courage and conviction about the actions that he took. Those who have known him not only as the PM but as the finance minister earlier knew that his was a life that was devoted to the service of this country. In recent times, he contributed to the development of the country more than anybody else. In a manner of speaking, he was the father of an economically resurgent India. If Pandit Nehru laid the foundations of modern India, Dr Manmohan Singh laid the foundation of an economically strong, progressive, developing India. The policies and programmes started by him aimed at the common man have been continued under one name or the other today. That in itself is a tribute to the lasting contribution of Manmohan Singh. IMAGE: Then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Dr Singh at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, January 25, 2014. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters Do you feel India can ever forget programmes started by him like MNREGA, RTI, RTE...? Yes.. yes.. so many such programmes! They are only a few as far as schemes are concerned. If you remember one of his first successes was to appoint the Sachar Committee to look into the sad state of affairs of the minority communities. The PMO actually had a special cell to process the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report. He was particularly keen on giving good education to everyone more than occasional relief. He believed in helping youngsters build good careers by providing them good education. He laid great emphasis on that. I remember we had several schemes like giving scholarships to the needy. MNREGA reflects his concern for the rural unemployed. His programmes for the removal of hunger are a major step forward in social welfare schemes. He was a man who knew that the development process has to be integrated with social welfare schemes. You cannot do one at the expense of the other. He was of the view that building the economy is not just building large industries. It has many facets. He had a special concern for small and medium industries. As a matter of fact, we had drawn up a report on the steps to be taken to help them. At the same time, he liberalised the economic regime which facilitated the emergence of Indian multinationals. All the big things that are happening today in the field of economic development have their beginning in Dr Manmohan Singh's schemes and ideas. Take, for instance, the educational institutions, health institutions. They got such a great fillip during his days. It's a good reason they are being carried on even today. All prime ministers are committed to the development of the country. So, they will all carry forward the schemes which are good for the integrated development of India. Was it not unfair to call him a 'weak' prime minister when he was initiating so many things for the development of the country? Is it not unfair to appreciate a person only after his death? Well, it is unfair. But he never complained about criticism because he knew what he was doing, and he knew it was for the good of the country. So, he persisted doing them whether he was criticised or praised. I have heard him saying the same thing -- that history will be a better judge. He never took criticism to the level of animosity towards any section of society including his critics. He was a thorough democrat and was not afraid of criticism as he believed in parliamentary democracy. Above all, he was the most secular minded person in the country. Also, he had special concern for the states which are underdeveloped. He used to tell me that states which are Opposition ruled and states which are in far-flung areas of the country should get special attention. He was very particular that states which are not ruled by the Congress government are given their due share, that they should feel that they are taken care of. IMAGE: Dr Manmohan at Rajghat, October 2, 2013. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters You said he was not bothered by criticism. How did he take applause? Neither was he bothered about criticism nor did he bother about applause. He took both in his stride and stood for what he believed in, which was for the development of the country. That is the greatness of the man. You worked very closely with him. How do you describe him as a person, and also as the prime minister? He is, undoubtedly, one of the best prime ministers India ever had. The economic development of this country, and the way in which the country is progressing in modern times, is only due to him. He did not lay the foundations of modern India because that was done long ago when India became independent. But in the subsequent years, to my mind, he contributed the most as the prime minister of India in response to emerging global trends. India is not an isolated country, it is part of the globe. So, it has to progress as part of the globe in moving forward. As a person, he was above all petty considerations. He never bothered about praise. He made it a point to tell us all the time, please, in your conversation with anybody, don't say this was done by so and so prime minister. He didn't want to take credit for any good thing. He wanted everyone to see them, whether it was MNREGA or the nuclear deal, as the achievements of the country, the achievements of a democratic government and not the achievement of one person. He never believed in a one-man show, he believed in the collective leadership of the country. IMAGE: Dr Singh with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, October 21, 2013. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters He had a humble and saintly disposition all the time. Was he like that? Yes, he was. He was humility personified. Any person, high or low, will never forget his humility; the way he received his visitors, and the way he saw them off at the door. I had been a witness to that many, many, times. He always made it a point to see the visitor off at the door. No one was as humble as he was. We have not heard him use any harsh words against anyone, including his critics. A rare statesman-like quality which we don't see in today's times... Hundred percent. He was above petty politics. He was not influenced by praise. He was also not upset by criticism; he tolerated criticism. He respected Parliament and was present in Parliament during debates. There was no question about his steadfast adherence to a democratic Constitution and democratic principles. Today, everybody talks about his press conferences where he did not evade any question from the media... Every year, he used to have a press conference and the entire media was present. It was live, and he took questions from everybody. It was not in any way doctored. He was not afraid of meeting the press and listening to criticism from them. IMAGE: Dr Manmohan Singh with then Gujarat chief minister Narendra D Modi at the inauguration of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel national museum in Ahmedabad, October 29, 2013. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters What were your personal interactions with him like? I do not know how to describe them. In a matter of speaking, I was a shadow of him. Nothing more than that. He was not a person who liked to talk about himself. I am also not given to that. So, there was no personal matters coming into our conversations. He used to talk to me about what bothered him as far as the country and his programmes were concerned. My main responsibility was to help him in every possible way to make them a success. It was never a show of the prime minister, it was the show of the Cabinet. And he had tremendous respect for his Cabinet colleagues. I still remember he had senior colleagues like Pranab Mukherjee in the Cabinet, and he had great respect for him. Never did he try to overrule them to show that he was the PM. Though UPA1 was a success, UPA2 was marred by several scams and scandals, and it was perceived that he could not control the ministers indulging in corruption. Was he upset in those days? Some of these reports did concern him. I am not very sure whether those concerns were personally conveyed to the ministers or not. But he was not very happy with some of the things that took place. I have a lingering feeling -- I may be right... I may be wrong -- perhaps there were times he was mentally upset and under mental strain. At times, some of the happenings might have caused him concern. Would you say with his death, it is the end of an era? Absolutely. It is the end of an era. It is the end of an era of gentlemanliness, it is the end of an era of real democratic values of give and take, and discussions and conversations being the basis for decision-making. My own personal observation is that UPA1 was the crowning success of Indian democracy at its best. After Pandit Nehru's times, it was the golden period for development, and for the successful functioning of parliamentary democracy in a federal set up. Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said Article 370 sowed seeds of separatism in the minds of the youth of Kashmir and the Narendra Modi government not only ended terrorism in the valley but also the ecosystem of terrorism. Photograph: / Rediff.com IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Shah said Article 370 and Article 35A, both of which were abrogated on August 5, 2019, were the key hurdles in the way of full integration of Kashmir into India. Referring to Kashmir's relations with the rest of India, the home minister said India is the only country in the world which is geo-cultural and whose boundaries are formed by its culture. India can be understood only from the Indian perspective and not from the geo-political perspective, he said here while releasing a book 'Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh: Through the Ages'. From the Silk Route to Central Asia and from Shankaracharya temple to Hemis monastery; and from trade to spirituality, strong foundations of both are present in and of Kashmir's culture, he said. Shah said Article 370 gave the false impression that Kashmir's integration with India was temporary. He also pointed out that Kashmir is often referred to as the land of Kashyap, underscoring its historical and spiritual significance. He noted that Kashmir has always been a land of inclusivity, embracing and nurturing diverse faiths. Whether it is Buddhism, Sufism or Shaivism, each tradition has found the freedom to thrive on Kashmiri soil, he said. "Many people often ask me what is the relation between Article 370 and terrorism. They don't know that Article 370 sowed the seeds of separatism in the minds of the youth of the valley. "There are Muslim populations in many other parts of the country. Why are those areas not affected by terrorism?" he said. The home minister said some people say Kashmir is close to the border with Pakistan and hence, the problem came. "But Gujarat is also close to the border with Pakistan. Rajasthan is also close to the Pakistan border. Why terrorism has not grown there?" he asked. Shah said Article 370 gave the false impression that Kashmir's integration with India is temporary and that sowed the seeds of separatism which later turned into terrorism. Unfortunately, over 40,000 people lost their lives due to terrorism in Kashmir, he said. "The Modi government not only ended terrorism in Kashmir but also the ecosystem of terrorism," he said. The home minister said Kashmir's development was delayed by decades and for years, there was bloodshed in Kashmir and the country had to watch it in silence. "After the abolition of Article 370, there has been 70 percent reduction in incidents of terrorism in Kashmir and it has proved that Article 370 fuelled the fire of terrorism. In 2018, there were 2,100 incidents of stone pelting in Kashmir but in 2024, not a single incident of stone pelting took place," he said. The home minister said people did not want the Article even at the time when it was incorporated (in the Constitution). Even in the Constituent Assembly, the majority did not want Article 370 to be part of the Constitution. However, it became a part of it. Fortunately, some farsighted people thought writing it as a temporary provision was necessary, he said. "But the things which are artificial and not natural don't have long life. Due to the strong will of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on August 5, 2019, Article 370 was abolished. Modi has done the work of ending one of the black chapters of the history of the post-independent India," he said. Since then, he said, the process of development in Kashmir has started like any other part of India. The home minister said local bodies elections successfully concluded in Jammu and Kashmir following which more than 25,000 people got elected as panch, sarpanch or district council members. "There were Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections, which were held peacefully. The highest voting record was registered this year during the polls. "Industries are also coming. About 2.11 crore tourists have visited Jammu and Kashmir," he said. Shah said in 2024 alone, 324 shootings of films or serials have taken place in Kashmir. This was a regular trend in the 1960s and it has again started now, he added. He said night shows are happening in theatres after 33 years. Tazia procession was taken out after 34 years and Krishna Janmashtami yatra has also been witnessed in Lal Chowk in Srinagar, he added. "All these could be seen post-Article 370 abolition -- from 2019 to 2024," he said. This book, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh: Through the Ages, has proved the statement of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee that Jammu and Kashmir is not only a part of India but is also an integral part of the soul of India, he said. Shah said the book is a historical account of continuity and integration. It has broken the myths prevalent in the country and presented history with truth and evidence, he said. "This is a great achievement," he said. The home minister said it is time to get rid of history written to please the rulers and now is the time to write the history of India with facts and evidence and present it to the world. He said the thousands of years old history of every corner of India has enriched the world civilisation, but during the period of slavery, despicable efforts were made to forget it. Shah said the book proves that the culture, languages, scripts, spiritual ideas, art of pilgrimage sites, trade and commerce scattered in every corner of India, were present in Kashmir for 10,000 years and came to the country from there. High nitrate levels have been found in groundwater of 440 districts across India, with 20 per cent of the samples collected exceeding the permissible nitrate concentration, the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has said in a report. Image only for representation. Photograph: Sanjay Sharma/ANI Photo Nitrate contamination is a significant environmental and health concern, particularly in agricultural regions using nitrogen-based fertilizers and animal waste. The 'Annual Groundwater Quality Report - 2024' also revealed that 9.04 per cent of samples had fluoride levels above the safe limit, while 3.55 per cent showed arsenic contamination. A total of 15,259 monitoring locations were chosen nationwide to check groundwater quality in May 2023. Of these, 25 percent of wells (the most at risk per BIS 10500) were studied in detail. Groundwater was sampled at 4,982 trend stations before and after the monsoon to see how recharge affects quality. The report found that 20 per cent of water samples exceeded the nitrate limit of 45 milligrams per liter (mg/l), the threshold set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for drinking water. Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu had over 40 per cent of samples above the limit while there was high contamination in samples from -- Maharashtra at 35.74 per cent, Telangana at 27.48 per cent, Andhra Pradesh at 23.5 per cent and Madhya Pradesh at 22.58 per cent. Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand and Bihar reported lower percentages. In Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, all samples were within safe limits. In states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, nitrate levels have remained stable since 2015. However, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana showed increasing contamination from 2017 to 2023, the CGWB said. High nitrate levels can cause health issues like blue baby syndrome in infants and are unsafe for drinking. Fifteen districts in India have been identified as the most affected by high nitrate levels in groundwater including Barmer and Jodhpur in Rajasthan; Wardha, Buldhana, Amravati, Nanded, Beed, Jalgaon, and Yavatmal in Maharashtra; Rangareddy, Adilabad and Siddipet in Telangana; Villupuram in Tamil Nadu; Palnadu in Andhra Pradesh; and Bathinda in Punjab. High nitrate levels in groundwater can be a result of excessive irrigation which can push nitrates from fertilizers deep into the soil, the report said. Poor management of animal waste in livestock farming adds to the problem, as it releases nitrates into the soil. Urbanisation and population growth increase wastewater and sewage, which often contain high nitrate levels, while leaking septic systems and poor sewage disposal worsen contamination. The report further said fluoride concentrations exceeding the permissible limit are a major concern in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Elevated arsenic levels (more than 10 parts per billion) were found in several states, particularly in the floodplains of the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers. This includes regions of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Manipur, as well as areas in Punjab and Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh. Long-term exposure to fluoride and arsenic contaminants can have severe health consequences, including fluorosis (from fluoride) and cancer or skin lesions (from arsenic). A major concern in the groundwater quality report was also the elevated levels of uranium in several regions. Forty-two per cent of samples with uranium concentrations exceeding 100 ppb (parts per billion) came from Rajasthan, and 30 per cent from Punjab, indicating regional hotspots of uranium contamination, the report said. Chronic exposure to uranium can lead to kidney damage. The report said that groundwater samples with uranium concentrations above 30 ppb were clustered in areas identified as over-exploited, critical and semi-critical groundwater stress zones, such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. "This overlap points to the exacerbating effect of over-exploitation and deepening water levels on uranium contamination in these regions," the CGWB said. Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are the most severely affected by high electrical conductivity values in groundwater. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Border Security Force of letting infiltrators from Bangladesh enter India and charged the BSF with trying to destabilise the state. IMAGE: BSF jawans during the Har Ghar Tiranga bike rally ahead of the 78th Independence Day, in Nadia, West Benga, August 14, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo Stating that she could sense a "blueprint of the central government behind this attitude of the BSF", Banerjee also accused a section of district magistrates and SPs of helping the border guards in their illegal act. "We have got information that the BSF is letting infiltrators enter India through Islampur, Sitai, Chopra and several other bordering areas. The BSF is also torturing women and trying to destabilise the state," she said at an administrative review meeting at the state secretariat Nabanna'. "Border security is not our responsibility and BSF looks after this. Visa is not our matter but that of the central government. We used to get the list of who were taking flights to come here, but now it has been stopped. So, we do not know who all are coming," she said. The Trinamool Congress supremo claimed that it was a conspiracy to blame the TMC for the infiltration issue. "If someone thinks of destabilising the state and blaming it on the Trinamool Congress, I would say that it is not done by TMC as (border) areas are controlled by the BSF and not by the TMC. Some media channels are trying to spread this for the sake of their TRP," she said. Banerjee also alleged that goons are entering the state from across the border, killing people and going back. This is a deep-rooted conspiracy of the BSF and the central government has a blueprint for it. If there was no blueprint of the Centre, it would not have happened, she said. Emphasising that West Bengal has been sharing a cordial relationship with Bangladesh, Banerjee went on to say that people could come to the state for treatment as she is keen to have peace on both sides of the international border. "There is no bad relationship between the two Bengals (West Bengal and Bangladesh). We speak the same language and we follow a similar way of lifestyle. People across the border can come here for treatment. But we should be informed," she stated. The CM asserted that she had told the Centre several times that she would follow whatever decision it would take on the situation in Bangladesh. But if I see that someone is helping terrorism to disturb my state, we will have to protest, Banerjee said adding that she would send a strongly worded letter to the Centre in this regard. "But why didn't you people (DM, SPs) protest this act of the BSF? I will ask DGP Rajeev Kumar to find out through which spots they had entered the state and where these people stay. The police get information of infiltrations. But (a section of) the DMs and SPs have not shared any information with us. They have not carried out their responsibility properly," Banerjee said. The Bengal CM directed the DGP to share a detailed report on the matter as she has planned to send a protest letter to the Centre. "Rajeev Kumar has shared some information and also some inputs from the locals. But I want detailed information on this to understand why this is being done. I will be writing a strong letter (to the Centre). I want to have peace on both sides of the border," she said. A protest broke out at a private engineering college in Medchal, in the vicinity of Hyderabad, after some female students raised suspicions that their videos were being recorded from the hostel washroom, police said on Thursday. Image only for representation. Photograph: Shima Abedinzade/Pixabay.com Members of various student organisations joined the protesting students during demonstrations held on the college premises on Wednesday night and Thursday. Some protesters were seen breaking the lock on the college gate, while others scaled the gate to enter the premises. They raised slogans such as 'We want justice'. Upon being informed of the issue, a police team arrived at the college. A police official told the media on Thursday that the female students expressed suspicions that videos had also been recorded earlier in the girls' washroom. Based on preliminary investigations, some 'negligence' was found on the part of the institute's management, as workers' rooms were constructed behind the girls' hostel. Five suspects were detained, and their fingerprints were collected. Their mobile phones were also analysed, but no videos have been found thus far, police said. A case has been registered and further investigations are underway, police added. A college official said they received a complaint from the female students on Wednesday, alleging that someone had taken videos through the washroom window. The official also mentioned that the college has formed a committee to investigate the matter. The mobile phones of the cooking staff have been handed over to the police, the official added. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday came up with a cryptic response to Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav's offer to return to the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). IMAGE: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and state Dy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha greet newly sworn-in state Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, at Raj Bhavan in Patna on Thursday. Photograph: ANI Photo 'Kya bol rahe hain (What are you saying)' was all the Janata Dal-United boss said in reply to queries from journalists about Lalu's fresh offer. Kumar had aligned twice with the RJD, a constituent of the INDIA bloc, in the last one decade. Lalu's son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, however, sought to downplay the remarks made by his father, in an interview to a local news channel, claiming that the RJD supremo had merely tried to satisfy the curiosity of the prying media. Lalu had said, "Our doors are open (for Nitish). He should also unbolt his gates. This would facilitate movement of people from both sides." The remark, coming in the backdrop of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's stance on projecting the JD-U supremo as National Democratic Alliance's face in the assembly polls due in less than a year, triggered intense speculations in a section of the media Patna. Kumar was approached with queries by journalists at Raj Bhavan, where he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Arif Mohammad Khan as the new governor. Flanked by Khan and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary (Bharatiya Janata Party) on either side, Kumar folded his hands and smiled when his comments were sought on the offer from Lalu. Pressed further, he asked, "What are you saying." When a pointed query was made, as to whether the state government would be able to complete its term, Khan intervened and said, "This is not the occasion for a question of this type. Today is a happy day. Let us only talk about good things." Later, the posse of journalists approached Yadav, a former Deputy CM and the current leader of the opposition, who had also come to attend the function. The young leader, who had on Wednesday declared that the new year will see 'departure' of the NDA government headed by Nitish Kumar, said: "I have already made my stand clear." When probed further, with reference to the utterances of his father, Yadav said, "What would he do if people like you keep coming to him with the same question? Whatever he said must have been aimed at putting an end to curiosity of you journalists." Meanwhile, when questions about Lalu were posed to Union minister and former JD-U president Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan', he snapped. "The NDA is strong. JD-U and BJP are united. It is a free society and anybody can say whatever he pleases. It is for Lalu ji to say more on his own utterances," he said. Lalan was perceived to have grown very close to the RJD supremo when Nitish Kumar was out of NDA. It was rumoured to have been the reason why the de facto JD-U chief chose to take over as the president of the party. A new cyber fraud known as 'pig butchering scam' or 'investment scam' has emerged, targeting unemployed youths, housewives, students, and needy people who are made to lose large sums of money daily, according to the latest annual report of the Union home ministry. Image only for representation. Photograph: Kind courtesy StockSnap/Pixabay.com The report said that cybercriminals have also been using Google services platforms to initiate these crimes. "Google Advertisement platform provides a convenient facility for targeted advertisement from across the border. This scam, known as 'Pig Butchering Scam' or 'Investment Scam' is a global phenomenon and involves large-scale money laundering and even cyber slavery," it said. The pig butchering scam, which is believed to have started in China in 2016, targets gullible individuals with whom cyber criminals build trust over time, ultimately convincing them to invest in cryptocurrency or some other lucrative scheme when their money is stolen. The analogy to pig butchering comes from the fattening of swine before their slaughter. To curb the menace, the home ministry's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has partnered with Google to share the threat intelligence for urgent action periodically. The cybercriminals are using sponsored Facebook to launch illegal lending applications in India, the report said. "Such links are proactively identified and shared with Facebook, along with Facebook pages for necessary action," it said. WhatsApp remains the biggest social media platform that is possibly misused by cyber criminals in India, the report said. The data published in the report on 'cybercrime complaints where Big Tech platforms have been misused' shows that 14,746 complaints were related to WhatsApp, 7,651 against Telegram, 7,152 against Instagram, 7,051 against Facebook, and 1,135 against YouTube till March 2024. "Big techs play an important role in proactive identification and action on cyber criminals. I4C has partnered with Google and Facebook for sharing intelligence and signals for proactive actions," the report said. National Cybercrime Threat Analytical Unit (NCTAU) of I4C analyses the complaints reported on the portal and prepares analysis reports on the latest trends of cybercrime and misuse of services provided by service providers, it said. "These reports are shared with all the concerned stakeholders, i.e., banks, wallets, merchants, payments aggregators, payment gateways, e-commerce and other departments to take preventive measures and mitigate the misuse of their platforms/services," the report said. The ministry has also rolled out a Cyber Volunteer Framework, which enables citizens to enrol as cyber volunteers for reporting unlawful content on the Internet, dissemination of cyber hygiene and as cyber experts to aid law enforcement under which 54,833 volunteers had registered by March 31, 2024, according to the report. The ministry's integrated platform Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS), where all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies of states/Union territories, all major banks and financial intermediaries, payment wallets, crypto exchanges and e-commerce companies, work in tandem. The platform ensures quick, decisive, and system-based effective action to prevent the flow of money from the victim's account to the cyber fraudster's account and the seized money is restored to the victim following due legal process, it said. "Since its launch in April 2021, so far this platform has been able to save more than Rs 16 billion from going into the hands of fraudsters, and thus benefiting more than 5,75,000 victims," it said. The Bombay high court on Thursday discontinued its monitoring of the probe in the 2015 murder of communist leader and rationalist writer Govind Pansare while asking the sessions court to expedite the ongoing trial. Photograph: / Rediff.com IMAGE: CPI supporters hold a Jawab Do protest to mark Comrade Govind Pansare 8th death anniversary, in Mumbai, February 20, 2023. on Monday. Govind Pansare was killed eight years ago in Kolhapur. The trial at the Kolhapur court should be held on a daily basis, the HC directed. A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata said the monitoring of the investigation was no longer necessary, noting that a report submitted by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police indicates that the case has been probed from all angles. As per the report, except the arrest of the two absconding accused, nothing further remains to be investigated, the court said. "According to us, only for the purpose of arrest of the absconding accused, continuous monitoring of the further investigation by this court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is not necessary," the bench said. When the wanted accused are arrested, the investigating agency can report it to the trial court at Kolhapur, the judges said, disposing of a plea filed by one of the accused against the high court's continued monitoring of the probe. Govind Pansare, a Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and writer, and his wife Uma were shot in Kolhapur city of western Maharashtra on February 15, 2015, while on a morning walk. He succumbed to his injuries five days later while his wife survived. The investigation was initially conducted by a Special Investigation Team of the Crime Investigation Department, but later transferred to the ATS in 2022. The high court was monitoring the probe since 2016 with investigation agencies regularly submitting reports about progress in the probe. On a point raised by the victim's family about the delay in the trial, the high court noted that it has already started, and as of December 16, 2024, the prosecution had examined 28 witnesses. The bench directed the sessions court to expedite the trial and conduct daily hearings. Pansare's murder had been preceded by the murder of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in August 2013. The attack on Pansare was followed by the murders of Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi in August 2015, and journalist Gauri Lankesh in September 2017. As per the probe agencies, some of the suspects in all four cases were linked to each other. The police are examining the past record of the arrested men in the sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case and a related case of extortion to decide if the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act should be invoked, sources said on Thursday. IMAGE: Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde's close aide Walmik Karad. Photograph: Video grab In a related development, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he had requested senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam to appear as a special prosecutor in the murder case. "The Crime Investigation Department has sought old case papers and chargesheets against the arrested men," a source said. For pressing charges under the MCOCA, an accused must have a prior case registered against him or her, showing that the person is part of an organised crime syndicate working for pecuniary gain. Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed, was abducted and brutally killed on December 9, allegedly for opposing an extortion bid by some persons who had demanded money from a windmill company. Walmik Karad, an aide of Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde, has been arrested in the extortion case. Beed Police, meanwhile, has put up posters seeking information about whereabouts of Sudarshan Ghule (26), Krushna Andhale (30) and Sudhir Sangle (23), all wanted accused in the murder case. Appropriate reward will be given for the information, the poster said. Talking to reporters in Mumbai, CM Fadnavis said he spoke to BJP MLA from Beed, Suresh Dhas who demanded that Nikam be appointed as special public prosecutor in the case. He has spoken to Nikam who sought a couple of days to decide if he would take up the case, Fadnavis added. Nikam was a special public prosecutor in several high-profile cases, including the 26/11 terror attacks and 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts. Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar claimed that "smaller fish" could be killed in fake encounters to save the "big fish" involved in the Deshmukh murder and extortion cases. Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council Ambadas Danve said the trial in the case should be conducted outside Beed district. NCP leader Dhananjay Munde, who has come under fire after the alleged involvement of his aide Karad in the extortion matter came to light, said those who murdered Santosh Deshmukh should be tried in a fast-track court and "hanged till death." On the Opposition's demand for his resignation to facilitate a fair probe, the food and civil supplies minister said, "There can be no influence from my side as a minister, which is why the probe has been handed over to the CID." The government on Wednesday set up a 10-member SIT to probe the case, headed by Deputy Inspector General -CID Basavraj Teli. For the first time, scientists have managed to perform quantum teleportation via the Internet. The leader of the revolutionary discovery admitted that "no one thought it was possible!" ADVERTISIMENT The quantum state of light was successfully teleported over more than 30 kilometers of fiber optic cable amidst the flow of Internet traffic. The engineering feat, which was once considered unrealistic, was accomplished by researchers from the United States, ScienceAlert writes. Experts emphasize that the quantum teleportation demonstrated by American scientists, unfortunately, cannot transfer a person to work in a matter of seconds, overcoming morning traffic jams. However, the ability to teleport quantum states through existing infrastructure is a monumental step toward creating a quantum communication-related computing network, improved encryption, or powerful new sensing methods, scientists say. ADVERTISIMENT "It's incredibly exciting because no one thought it was possible," said Prem Kumar, a Northwestern University computer engineer who led the study. "Our work shows the way to next-generation quantum and classical networks that share a unified fiber infrastructure. In essence, it opens the door to taking quantum communications to the next level," the scientist added. Bearing a passing resemblance to the transportation systems from the cult movie Star Trek, which instantly move passengers through time and space, teleportation takes the quantum capabilities of an object in one place and, by carefully destroying it, imposes the same balance of capabilities on a similar object elsewhere, the researchers explain. According to the scientists, like a fairy thread in the spring rain, the quantum state of any object is a foggy spot of possibilities that risks dissolving into reality a moment after it is created. ADVERTISIMENT Shielding quantum states inside computers is one thing, experts say. But sending a single photon through optical fibers filled with bank transactions, cat videos, and text messages while protecting its quantum state is much more difficult. To preserve the precious state of a lone photon against a stream of 400 gigabits per second Internet traffic, the research team used a variety of techniques that limited the photon's channel and reduced the likelihood of it scattering and mixing with other waves. "We carefully studied how light scatters and placed our photons at the legal point where this scattering mechanism is minimized. And we found that we can carry out quantum communication without interference from classical channels that are present at the same time," said the leader of the revolutionary discovery. ADVERTISIMENT While other research groups have successfully transmitted quantum information along with classical data streams in simulations of the Internet, Kumar's team is the first to teleport a quantum state alongside a real network stream, experts emphasize. Each additional test indicates that the quantum internet is inevitable, giving computer engineers a whole new set of tools to measure, monitor, encrypt, and compute the world like never before, without having to reinvent the network to do so, the scientists add. According to Prem Kumar, such teleportation has the ability to provide quantum communication securely between geographically distant nodes. "Many people have long assumed that no one would build specialized infrastructure to send light particles. If we choose the right wavelengths, we won't have to build new infrastructure. Classical communication and quantum communication can coexist," the scientist summarized. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Thursday frowned upon questions being raised, in a section of the media, over his meeting with Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav, hours before his swearing in. IMAGE: Newly appointed Bihar Governor Arif Mohammed Khan meets RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in Patna on Wednesday. Photograph: ANI Photo Khan expressed anguish while interacting with journalists in Patna, after he was administered the oath of office by Patna High Court Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran. He was asked about his visit, Wednesday evening, to the residence of Prasad, shortly after the RJD president's son Tejashwi Yadav, who, incidentally, was also present at the swearing in ceremony, had called on him at the Raj Bhavan. "You tell me one thing. If you visit a place and you have old acquaintances, would you not like to meet them? Likewise, would I not like to spend some time with those whom I have known since 1975, once I am in their city? I wonder what is questionable in this matter," Khan said. Urging the media 'not to view all things through the prism of politics', Khan said he looked forward to a great tenure in Bihar, where he has come as a 'sevak' (servant). "Bihar is unparalleled in terms of its glorious history. It also has tremendous potential, if we think in terms of the future," he said. Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor on Thursday began a fast unto death to press the demand for cancellation of an examination recently held by Bihar Public Service Commission. IMAGE: Jan Suraj party chief Prashant Kishor addresses a press conference regarding the police action against students protesting against paper leak in the 70th Integrated Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) 2024, conducted by the BPSC, in Patna, December 30, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo Kishor made the announcement at the historic Gandhi Maidan in the state capital, three days after giving a "48-hour ultimatum" to the Nitish Kumar government for acting on the demand, raised by aggrieved candidates. The administration, however, said the hunger strike at Gandhi Maidan is illegal as it is not the designated site for holding protests. "My primary demand, of course, is cancellation of the exam held on December 13 and conducting a fresh test. I have also heard allegations that posts to be filled by the exam were virtually put on sale. Such corrupt officials must be identified and brought to justice", said Kishor, who was accompanied by a number of supporters. The venue was barely a couple of kilometres from Gardani Bagh where the aggrieved aspirants have been holding a round-the-clock sit-in for nearly two weeks. The 47-year-old former poll strategist, who hopes his fledgling party to make a big impact in assembly polls due in less than a year, also made it clear that the demands he is making were just a few of the things on which he expected the government to act. Striking a populist note, the former Janata Dal-United vice president said he wanted the state's National Democratic Alliance government to "bring in a domicile policy, reserving two thirds of government vacancies for candidates from the state". He added: "The injustice done to the state's youth by the current regime goes long back. Before his ascent to power, the chief minister (Nitish Kumar) had toured the state and promised unemployment doles. Not a single person has got the benefit even after 20 years. The government must start giving unemployment allowance". Kishor also demanded a white paper on several competitive exams held in the last 10 years which were marred by question paper leaks and claimed that the government demonstrated its inability to crack down on the education mafia suspected to be behind the malpractices. The Jan Suraaj leader's aggressive stance comes in the wake of scorn heaped on him by political both ruling and opposition leaders in the state, after a demonstration he staged on Sunday ended in lathi charge and use of water cannons by police. Referring to the police action, Kishor said, "Officials who have converted democracy into the rule by force must be booked". Meanwhile, the district administration in a statement said that the dharna staged by Kishor and his nearly 150 supporters at Gandhi Maidan is illegal. "The Patna high court has clearly ordered that no demonstration is allowed anywhere in the city except the designated spot in Gardani Bagh. Hence, an FIR is being lodged against Kishor and his supporters. They are also being served with a notice to either move to Gardani Bagh or face legal action," the statement added. In a related development, the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist Liberation announced that its students' wing AISA, along with like-minded organizations, will on Friday stage a demonstration in front of the chief minister's residence "to compel Nitish Kumar to break his silence" on the issue. "Thousands of young men and women, from across Bihar, will gather in Patna for tomorrow's protest. The government will have to cancel the exam and order fresh tests, besides taking action against erring officials," said the Left party. Notably, nearly five lakh candidates had appeared for Combined Competitive Exams held on December 13 when hundreds of examinees, all of them at the Bapu Pariksha Parisar in Patna, boycotted the tests alleging question papers had been leaked. This was met with a strong denial from the BPSC, which claimed the allegations were "a conspiracy" to force the exam's cancellation, even as fresh tests were ordered for more than 10,000 candidates who had appeared at Bapu Pariksha Parisar. The candidates have been asked to appear on January 4 at 22 newly designated centres across the city. This has been resented by some of the candidates who hold that such an arrangement militated against the principle of ensuring a "level playing field". On Monday, an 11-member delegation, of which Kishor's party colleague and retired IPS officer RK Mishra was a part, had met chief secretary Amrit Lal Meena, in what appeared to be the government's gesture to end the stalemate. The government has also been maintaining that any decision in the matter would have to be taken by the BPSC, an autonomous body. However, a recent statement from senior minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, a key aide of the chief minister, that there was "no evidence" to show that question papers were leaked on December 13, made amply clear that the government was unwilling to intervene in a manner that would satisfy the protesting candidates. The Supreme Court on Thursday took exception to the "scurrilous and unfounded allegations" made against judges in a plea against the conferment of senior designations to lawyers. IMAGE: The Supreme Court of India. Photograph: ANI Photo "How many judges can you name whose offsprings have been designated as senior counsel?" a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan asked advocate Mathews J Nedumpara, who appeared for the petitioners. Referring to the averments in the plea, the bench observed it had insinuations against the judges. "We find that various scurrilous, unfounded allegations have been made against the institution," it said. The bench referred to the averments made in the plea which read, "It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a judge sitting or retired, of the high court or Supreme Court, who has his offspring, brother, sister or nephew who has crossed the age of 40 remaining to be a plebeian lawyer." The plea filed by Nedumpara and several others, including many practising advocates, raised a grievance against the senior designations conferred to lawyers. During the hearing, Nedumpara, who offered to place certain data before the court, argued the bar was fearful of judges. "Mr Nedumpara, this is a court of law. Not a boat club or Azad Maidan in Bombay (Mumbai) to make speeches. So, when you address a court of law, make legal arguments. Not the arguments only for the purpose of gallery," said Justice Gavai. The court said it was willing to grant him the liberty to amend the petition. "If you do not amend the petition, we may take such steps as we find necessary," it said. The bench said it would have proceeded with the matter, but Nedumpara wanted to reflect on the plea's averments and consult with other petitioners on the future course of action. "Are you going to delete these averments or not?" the bench said, "be very clear whether you are going to carry on with these scurrilous averments or not." The petitioners were granted four weeks' time. The plea alleged the classification of lawyers into two categories and conferring a minority with "favours and privileges" was against the concept of equality and the ethos of the Constitution. "The instant petition challenges Sections 16 and 23(5) of the Advocates Act which creates two classes of lawyers, senior advocates and other advocates which in actual practice has resulted in an unthinkable catastrophe and inequities which Parliament certainly would not have contemplated or foreseen," it said. The plea therefore sought quashing of the Delhi high court's recent conferment of senior designations to about 70 lawyers. An electric vehicle exploded and caught fire outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, according to officials and videos on social media. IMAGE: The remains of a Tesla Cybertruck that burned at the entrance of Trump International Hotel are inspected in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 1, 2025. Photograph: Ronda Churchill/Reuters The Clark County Fire Department confirmed it responded to a vehicle fire in the valet area of the Trump International Hotel at approximately 8.40 am local time. The explosion resulted in one death and seven injuries. The make of the vehicle was initially unconfirmed by local officials, but it was later identified as a Tesla Cybertruck. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Donald Trump's son, Eric Trump, reported the incident on X, emphasising the hotel's commitment to guest and staff safety. 'Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochere of Trump Las Vegas. The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism,' Eric Trump wrote. The incident has drawn national attention due to potential connections with the New Orleans 'terror' attack. President Joe Biden stated on Wednesday that law enforcement is investigating any possible link between the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas and the deadly car attack in New Orleans during New Year's celebrations. Both vehicles involved in these incidents were rented from the car-sharing platform Turo. "We're tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans," Biden said. He assured that every resource is being deployed to ensure public safety. In New Orleans, a suspect rammed a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck into a crowd, killing at least 15 people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation into the New Orleans attack, describing it as an act of terrorism. President Biden revealed that the suspect, Shamsud Din Jabbar, an American citizen and former US Army serviceman, had posted videos inspired by the Islamic State shortly before the attack. Explosives and an ISIS flag were found in Jabbar's vehicle. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also alleged a connection between the Cybertruck explosion and the attack in New Orleans, as both vehicles were rented from the same car rental site, Turo. 'Appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way,' Musk wrote on X. The explosion in Las Vegas killed one person and injured seven others according to a CNN report. The Tesla CEO clarified on X that the explosion was caused by fireworks or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck, not by the vehicle itself. 'We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself,' Musk wrote on X. A young Indian man crossed over illegally into Pakistan to meet a Facebook friend he wanted to marry, but instead found himself behind bars. And the woman told the local the police she did not want to tie the knot. Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters Badal Babu from the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh was arrested on December 28 in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Pakistan's Punjab province (some 240 km from Lahore). Babu, who is in his 20s, crossed the border to meet the Facebook friend with whom he wanted to marry. The Pakistan police have recorded the statement of Babu's Facebook friend Sana Rani, 21, who said she wasn't interested in marrying him. "In her statement to police, Sana Rani says that Babu and she have been friends on Facebook for the last two-and-a-half years. But she is not interested in marrying him," a Punjab police officer, Nasir Shah, told PTI on Thursday. He said Babu illegally crossed the border and reached Sana Rani's Maung village in Mandi Bahauddin, where he was arrested by law enforcers. When asked whether Babu met Rani, the police officer said he couldn't confirm this. It is also not independently confirmed whether Rani gave a statement to the police refusing to marry Babu under pressure. However, a source told PTI that officials of a Pakistani intelligence agency quizzed Rani and her other family members over her relationship with Babu. Upon his arrest, Babu narrated his "love story" to the police. Babu was detained under Pakistan's Foreign Act sections 13 and 14 as he was travelling without any legal documents. Later, he was produced before a court, which placed him in judicial custody for 14 days. The next hearing is on January 10. Babu's father Kirpal Singh, who lives in Khitkari village under the Barla police station area in the Aligarh district, told the local media that the family learned of his arrest via social media. "We couldn't believe it. For us, till this moment, we knew that he was working in Delhi, but the next moment, we were shocked to discover that he's in a Pakistani jail. It's like something out of a movie," he said in disbelief. The family has now appealed to the Indian government, particularly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to intervene for Babu's release. "We want our son back. We don't know how to bring him home. We are calling on the prime minister to help us," Babu's mother told local reporters. "He was a simple boy. He never did anything like this before," she added. Aligarh Superintendent of Police (Rural) Amrit Jain confirmed that they had received a memorandum from the family and would be taking the matter up with the Ministry of External Affairs. "We will approach the proper channels to provide whatever assistance is necessary and work towards establishing contact with Babu. Our primary goal is to secure his release from custody in Pakistan," Jain said in a statement. According to family sources, Babu was very active on Facebook, where he reportedly connected with a girl from Pakistan. After informing his parents that he would be heading to Delhi for work, Babu left his village after Raksha Bandhan in August. Just before Diwali, his family received a video call on WhatsApp, in which Babu reassured them that he was safe, had found a job and was using a friend's phone because he could not afford his own. His family later learned that Babu had somehow crossed the international border near Jammu, although these details remain unconfirmed, the Indian sources said. This is not the first time someone from India has crossed into Pakistan to meet a love interest developed through social media. Previously, an Indian woman named Anju travelled to Pakistan to meet her lover. She converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man, Nasrullah. Last year, Seema Haider, a woman from Pakistan, befriended an Indian man through the PUBG game. She crossed into India via Nepal with her four children and later married him. Similarly, last year, 19-year-old Pakistani girl Iqra Jiwani developed a friendship with 25-year-old Indian national Mulayam Singh Yadav through an online game. Iqra and Mulayam later married in Nepal. A 25-year-old man was killed by some persons on the moving Hyderabad-Delhi Dakshin Express train when he confronted them after they allegedly stole his money on Thursday, police in Nagpur said. Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo The incident took place in Telangana early on Thursday and the Government Railway Police later detained four persons after the train arrived at Nagpur in Maharashtra. The victim, identified as Shashank Ramsingh Raj, resident of Rajapur Kaimhara in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri, was travelling from Secunderabad to Jhansi, they said. Raj and his friends were sleeping near a toilet in the train's general compartment when four persons allegedly stole Rs 1,700 cash from his pocket at around 3.30 am, a Government Railway Police official in Nagpur said. When the thieves stole the mobile phone of another passenger, the latter woke up and snatched it from them. Raj later realised that the money he was carrying was missing and confronted the thieves, demanding that they return it, the official said. A brawl then broke out during which the thieves kicked and punched Raj mercilessly and also assaulted other passengers, he said. Following the fight, Raj vomited blood and fell unconscious, the official said. The train arrived at Nagpur station at 9.15 am following which the railway doctors examined him and pronounced him dead, he said. While two of the accused were caught by the passengers, two others hid in the train. The GRP at Nagpur later detained the four accused, identified as Mohd Fayyaz Mohd Hashimuddin (19), Sayyad Sameer Sayyad Jimal (18), M Shyam Koteshwar Rao (21) and Mohd Amam Mohd Akbar (19), all residents of Hyderabad, the official said. The railway police registered the FIR on charges of murder against the accused and later transferred the case to the GRP at Mancherial in Telangana, he said. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. NEWFANE Vermont EMS Academy is expanding its reach by launching a paramedic program in the new year. Emily Wilson, paramedic program director at VEMSA, said her group's goal always is to "bolster the Vermont workforce because there's a huge need for paramedics in the state." Rescue Inc. opened the academy in Newfane with other class offerings in fall 2022 and submitted information about its intent to start the process for creating the paramedic program in September 2023. Approval from the Committee on Accreditation of Education Programs for the EMS Professions came Nov. 25. Wilson said the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs accredits programs on the recommendation of the committee. "There's still a lot more hoops to jump through in order to get the official accreditation through CAAHEP but it's the first step on the way to being accredited," she said. Rescue Inc. to open Vermont EMS Academy NEWFANE A new academy due to open soon will offer many types of health care and emergency Applications for the paramedic classes will be accepted until Jan. 10. Wilson said the hope is to have six to 15 students in the first cohort. Classes start Feb. 3. They'll be held in person every Monday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for 18 months. Wilson described the program's length and the required 600 clinical hours on top of the classroom time as "pretty standard" for paramedic training. Mark Considine, critical care paramedic at Rescue, will serve as lead instructor of the program. "He's done the bulk of our education events so far," Wilson said. "He's a highly trained critical care paramedic so our students will be learning from the best." Wilson said Considine is "an excellent teacher" and "still active in the field, which is huge because a lot of teachers step away from that." About seven full-time paramedics and nine other staff members who are certified paramedics work for Rescue. Wilson also serves as human resources director for Rescue. Currently, the paramedic program is anticipated to mostly serve Vermonters. Wilson said the longer-term goal is to get participants from "all of New England or farther than that." "We're hoping to have some housing accomodations in the longer term," she said. Vermont has "very few opportunities for EMS providers to go through a paramedic program in state," Wilson said. She cited Vermont State University, which offers a degree program that's more costly, and the University of Vermont, which also has programs but is far away from the southern and central parts of the state. Earlier in her career, she had taken paramedic classes at Greenfield Community College in nearby Western Massachusetts. Drew Hazelton, chief of operations at Rescue, estimated about 40 people have taken paramedic classes in Vermont annually in recent years and about half of them have gone out of state for programs. His hope is to offer classes closer to home. Hazelton said the Vermont Emergency Medical Services Advisory Committee recently hired consultants to conduct an assessment of EMS statewide. He expects them to look at workforce, availability of education and the cost to deliver services. 'Truly clinicians' Paramedics are more highly trained than emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and advanced EMTS (AEMTs). Programs for the latter two typically only run six months, Wilson said. "The big difference with paramedics is they're truly clinicians," she said. "They're doing assessments and diagnostics in the field to find out what's going on with the patient. In addition, they have a very large scope of practice, with a lot of medications they can administer." Paramedics can read electrocardiograms (EKGs) and give cardiac medications to make life-saving differences, Wilson said. "Then they can do a lot of invasive procedures like intubation, so airway control," she said. "It's a commitment for sure. It's not a light program. It's a lot of heavy lifting." With all the procedures and additional medications paramedics can administer, Wilson said, "you really need to have a good baseline of knowledge." Participants in the VEMSA paramedic program will need to at least have their EMT training before taking the classes. At least 50 patient contacts also are required before someone can apply to the program. A high fidelity simulation lab and an ambulance simulator at VEMSA will set the program apart from others, Wilson said. She described the technology as really showing "you what it's like working in the field." For the program, VEMSA partnered with the Windham County Sheriff's Office. They created a consortium, Wilson said. "To become accredited, there's a whole list of ways that you're allowed to be a sponsoring agency and technically, Rescue doesn't really fit any of those bills because we're a private non-profit organization," she said. "You either have to be a post-secondary education institution that can award certification ... or you have to be a government based agency ... or some part of the armed forces." Wilson said the plan is to run more programs in the future and become fully accredited for the paramedic program. In Transnistria, all industrial enterprises, except for food processing, have stopped working due to the lack of gas after the termination of Russian gas transit through Ukraine. Energy reserves will last only 10-20 days, which puts the region on the verge of economic collapse. ADVERTISIMENT This was reported by the Russian media regarding the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development of the TMR (Transnistrian Moldavian Republic), Sergey Obolonik. Due to the termination of transit, as well as Gazprom's refusal to redirect supplies via alternative routes, all industrial enterprises in the region stopped working. How everything stopped On January 1, Ukraine completely stopped the transit of Russian gas through its pipelines. This was announced by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "When Putin was given power in Russia more than 25 years ago, the annual gas pumping through Ukraine to Europe amounted to 130+ billion cubic meters. Today, the transit of Russian gas is 0. This is one of Moscow's biggest defeats," he said. Against this backdrop, "Gazprom" decided not to supply gas to Transnistria via alternative routes, which has led to a large-scale energy shortage in the region. "The crisis is so severe that all industrial enterprises have been shut down, except for those that ensure food security in the region," Obolonik said. Due to the lack of gas: ADVERTISIMENT All industrial enterprises, except for food production, have been completely shut down; centralized heating and hot water supply have been cut off; gas reserves will last only for 10-20 days, depending on the region. To partially compensate for the energy shortage, Moldavian SDPP has switched to coal-fired power generation, but this is not enough to maintain normal operations in the region. Obolonik emphasized that the situation is "manageable," but if the gas problem is not resolved soon, the enterprises may lose the opportunity to resume operations. The energy crisis in Transnistria is also part of a broader problem between Moldova and Russia. "Gazprom" refused to supply gas because of the debts of the Moldovan gas company Moldovagaz, which the Russian side estimates at $709 million. Moldova, for its part, is trying to find alternative solutions: ADVERTISIMENT Moldovagaz and Energocom buy gas on European platforms; and buy gas on European platforms; gas is transported through Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine via the Trans-Balkan corridor; however, these supplies are limited and the possibilities to support Transnistria remain minimal. The situation in Transnistria continues to deteriorate. Currently: the lack of gas and limited electricity generation put the region on the verge of economic collapse; food enterprises operate only to provide minimal food for the population; lack of gas can lead to complete destabilization of the region's life support system. As OBOZ.UA reported earlier, Turkey may replace Russia as a gas supplier to Europe. They believe that they can cope with this because they already supply natural gas to several European countries, and in addition, they have a fairly developed infrastructure. Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Now, its been 15 years. Most of the girls that are coming in here today dont know anything about Jessica, said Debbie Bolognani. But, she Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook. State Sen. Wendy Harrison, D, serves the Windham Senate District. The opinions expressed by columnists and op-ed writers do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media. Vermontitude Episode 95: To RTM or not to RTM, that is the question Turkey could replace Russia as a gas supplier to Europe. They believe they can handle it, as they already supply natural gas to several European countries and have a well-developed infrastructure. ADVERTISIMENT This is reported by Hurriyet. It is noted that gas is currently being supplied from Turkey to Moldova, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and North Macedonia. "The situation between Russia and Ukraine will strengthen Turkey's position as a safe alternative to Russia. Turkey has been a safe gas transportation route for some time now. This is largely due to its geographical location and gas infrastructure," the statement said. In particular, it is emphasized that Russian gas pipelines Blue Stream and Turkish Stream pass through Turkey. As well as from Azerbaijan and Iran TANAP. "If the capacities connecting Turkey with Greece and Bulgaria are strengthened, there will be a potential for exporting large volumes of gas to European markets. Both the gas produced in Turkey and the gas received from other countries. ...Turkey has a very serious gas infrastructure. We can bring gas and supply it. Turkey is one of the most important routes, especially for the countries of Southeastern Europe," the analysts said. ADVERTISIMENT Russia has lost the European market Turkey started talking about replacing Russia in the European market after Ukraine stopped transiting Russian gas through its territory on January 1. This was done because the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz signed before the start of the great war, had expired. According to Reuters, for Ukraine, the termination of transit means a loss of about $800 million in annual revenue from transit fees. Russia, in turn, will lose about $5 billion from gas sales to European consumers. At the same time, European countries have prepared in advance for the termination of gas supplies through Ukraine. In particular: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, and other countries have found alternative routes. Hungary will continue to receive gas through the Turkish Stream pipeline. Since 2022, the European Union has significantly reduced its dependence on Russian gas by increasing energy imports from the United States, Norway, and Qatar. As reported by OBOZ.UA, for his part, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to limit the supply of electricity from his country to Ukraine and visited the Kremlin to meet with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. In response, Zelenskyy said that Putin had instructed Fico to open a second energy front against Ukraine at the expense of the interests of the Slovak people. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Russian forces have carried out more than 2,100 aerial strikes on Ukraine over the past week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on March 9, as Russia has stepped up attacks on its neighbor and reported battlefield gains ahead of Kyiv's high-stakes talks with US representatives in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine Invasion: News & Analysis RFE/RL's Ukraine Live Briefing gives you the latest developments on Russia's invasion, Western military aid, the plight of civilians, and territorial control maps. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. It comes as US President Donald Trump questioned the long-term viability of Ukraine itself. When asked in a Fox Business TV interview whether he was worried that decreased US support for Ukraine could endanger that country's survival, he responded: "Well, it may not survive anyway." "But, you know, we have some weaknesses with Russia -- you know, it takes two," Trump added. Zelenskyy said in a social media post that Russian forces this week deployed 1,200 guided aerial bombs, nearly 870 attack drones, and more than 80 missiles of various types. The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced the recapture of several villages and towns on March 9 in its Kursk region -- as well as new settlements in eastern Ukraine -- with unconfirmed reports that thousands of Ukrainian troops risk being encircled by Russian forces. It comes a day after Russian air strikes killed at least 50 people in the eastern Donetsk region, according to local officials, with at least 11 deaths reported in the city of Dobropillya. "Such strikes show that Russia's goals are unchanged," Zelenskyy wrote on social media late on March 8. "Therefore, it is very important to continue to do everything to protect life, strengthen our air defense, and increase sanctions against Russia. The series of strikes and battlefield pressure represent another setback for Kyiv ahead of crucial talks with the United States next week in Saudi Arabia, where Ukrainian officials will meet with their US counterparts for negotiations around how to end the three-year war. The Institute For The Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that tracks battlefield developments, said Russian forces have "intensified their multidirectional campaign to eliminate the remaining Ukrainian salient in Kursk" in the last two days. According to DeepState, an open-source military tracker linked to the Ukrainian Army, the Russian moves followed a "breach" in Ukrainian defense lines near the town of Sudzha, which remains under Kyiv's control but is facing growing pressure from Russian units. Pro-Russian war bloggers who closely track frontline developments in the war also reported that Russian special forces walked inside a gas pipeline to strike Ukrainian units from the rear in Kursk late on March 8 to gain a foothold outside of Sudzha. According to the reports, the pipeline was used to surprise Ukrainian units and cut off their supply lines as the Kremlin pours more manpower into kicking Kyiv out of Russian territory. RFE/RL was not able to independently verify the accounts, but Ukrainian officials confirmed that Russian "sabotage and assault groups" used the pipeline to get access to Sudzha. "At present, Russian special forces are being detected, blocked, and destroyed. The enemy's losses in Sudzha are very high," Ukraine's General Staff said in a Telegram post on March 8. Ukraine aimed to hit back by launching a drone overnight at an industrial facility in the Russian region of Chuvashia, some 1,300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The strike is one of the deepest yet into Russian territory by a Ukrainian drone, and it hit its target but caused no casualties, according to Russian authorities. Ousting Ukrainian forces from Kursk with the talks in Saudi Arabia approaching looks to be part of Moscow's strategy. In August 2024, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers seized roughly 1,300 square kilometers of Russia's western Kursk region, a move which Kyiv later characterized as an attempt to gain a bargaining chip for future negotiations and draw Russian troops away from the front line in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have managed to claw back large chunks of territory in Kursk, but Ukraine has retained a foothold that now risks being shrunk down further leading into the key talks. Ukraine 'Fully Committed' To US Talks With his attention fixed on the upcoming talks, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is "fully committed" to having a constructive dialogue with US representatives in Saudi Arabia next week over a potential peace settlement. "Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war. Realistic proposals are on the table. The key is to move quickly and effectively," he posted on X. The Ukrainian president said he will travel to Saudi Arabia and meet with Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Salman on March 10. Afterward, a delegation of Ukrainian diplomatic and military representatives will stay for a March 11 meeting with a US negotiating team. "On our side, we are fully committed to constructive dialogue, and we hope to discuss and agree on the necessary decisions and steps," Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy will not be part of the US-Ukraine talks, which will instead be done by a delegation including Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. They will meet with a US delegation that will reportedly include Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and national-security adviser Mike Waltz. Rubio departed for Saudi Arabia late on March 9, the State Department said. In remarks late on March 9, Trump told reporters he expects results from the Saudi talks. "We're going to make a lot of progress, I believe, this week," Trump said. The upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia are the culmination of weeks of tough diplomacy and negotiations spearheaded by Washington since it met with a Russian delegation in Riyadh in February. US-Ukraine ties have since frayed, with tensions culminating in an Oval Office argument in late February between Zelenskyy, Trump, and US Vice President JD Vance that saw the Ukrainian president leave the White House without signing a crucial minerals deal with Washington. Since then, the Trump administration has paused military shipments and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. The full extent of the intelligence cutoff is unclear, but it has sparked fears that it could lead to Ukrainian setbacks on the front lines as Russia looks to press for the advantage. In his March 9 remarks to reporters, Trump said he believed Ukraine would eventually sign a minerals deal with the United States. But -- amid reports he would want even more actions out of Kyiv -- Trump added that "I want them to want peace. They haven't shown it to the extent they should." European countries like Britain and France have stepped up to provide more intelligence sharing with Ukraine but are reportedly still not able to replace the full scope of US capabilities. Waltz suggested on March 5 that Trump may lift the pause on military aid once peace negotiations are arranged and confidence-building measures take place. When asked on March 9 whether he would end the suspension of intelligence-sharing with Kyiv, Trump said, without elaborating, that "we just about have. We just about have." In the days leading up to the talks, Trump offered criticism of Moscow's increased attacks on Ukraine in the lead up to talks and mentioned potential sanctions against the Kremlin. But he also said Russian President Vladimir Putin was doing what anybody would do" and he told reporters in the Oval Office on March 7 that he finds it "easier" to work with Russia than Ukraine and that Putin "wants to end the war." Residents of Cetinje, Montenegro, said they were shocked over the fatal shooting of 12 people in the community on New Year's Day. The suspected shooter, Aco Martinovic, fired upon people in separate incidents before committing suicide, according to police. The Balkan nation declared three days of mourning in the wake of the killings, in which at least four others were seriously wounded. Cetinje also witnessed the fatal shootings of 10 people by a local man in 2022. The outgunned Ukrainian military has relied on Western support to buoy its defensive efforts as Russian forces look to seize more Ukrainian territory. Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden is rushing to deliver more aid to the country before he leaves office in January. But it's unclear how the incoming Trump administration will support Ukraine in 2025. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is preparing to restore diplomatic relations with Syria. This country will join as another reliable partner. ADVERTISIMENT The President announced this on his Telegram channel. He also thanked everyone involved in the results of these negotiations. "The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha and the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitalii Koval have just reported on their talks in Syria and Lebanon with the new Syrian administration, with Lebanese business, and our prospects both security and trade in the region as a whole. This year, we can add more countries to our reliable partners, including Syria," Zelenskyy said. According to him, Ukraine plans to restore diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organizations. The President expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian intelligence for the security basis of these contacts. "I am grateful to all our government officials, diplomats, Ukrainian companies everyone who ensures our ties with the world. And, of course, I want to thank each of our soldiers, all the units that ensure the security of our export routes, especially in the Black Sea. The Defense Forces, the DIU, the Security Service of Ukraine, foreign intelligence absolutely everyone involved thank you," Zelenskyy summarized. ADVERTISIMENT As reported by OBOZ.UA, on December 30, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus, and met with the leader of the "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" Islamist movement, Abu Mohammed al-Julani. The topic of conversation was the restoration of diplomatic relations. Sybiha believes that the resumption of diplomatic presence will allow to increase trade with Damascus, and cooperation in the fields of science, technology, culture, and education. The day before, Zelenskyy announced the shipment of 500 tons of Ukrainian wheat flour to Syria as part of the Grain from Ukraine humanitarian program, emphasizing that the country had fulfilled its promises to the Syrian people. Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! SC directs state officials to convey court's concerns to farmers, seeks compliance report Mehta defended the court-appointed committee, stating, Lets not ridicule the committee established by the court. New Delhi, January 2, 2025: The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard a petition filed by farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal seeking a statutory guarantee for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and addressing pending demands related to the farmers protest. The hearing also covered a contempt petition regarding Dallewals hospitalisation as he continues his hunger strike. Justice J. Kant urged all parties to adopt a conciliatory approach, stating, Madam Gill, you can play a vital role. Please don't think of confrontation. We have a committee of former judges with roots in Punjab who are all learned fellows. The committee is there; we cannot directly have a dialogue with the farmers. Advertisement Solicitor General Tushar Mehta emphasized the Union Governments concern for farmers, noting, Instead of issuing a notice on the fresh petition, they can provide the petition directly to us. Advocate Gill, representing the petitioner, argued that a previous commitment by the government to resolve five pending demands had led to the withdrawal of the farmers' protest. The last lines of the proposal indicated a guarantee to resolve the issues, which was a commitment and a promise, Gill said, adding that multiple committees had been formed without substantive resolution. Mehta defended the court-appointed committee, stating, Lets not ridicule the committee established by the court. Advertisement Addressing Dallewals health, Advocate General Gurminder Singh informed the court that a medical team is onsite. However, Singh highlighted the challenges in convincing Dallewal to accept medical aid, noting his firm stance against breaking his fast. Justice Kant expressed concern about the situation, emphasizing the need for no harm to come to Dallewal, describing him as a leader temporarily unaffiliated with any political group. The court also criticized the role of media and some farmers' leaders for making irresponsible statements. The bench directed state officials to convey the court's concerns and efforts to the farmers while seeking a compliance report by Monday. The court will then take up the Haryana Government's plea alongside the contempt petition against Punjab authorities concerning Dallewals hospitalisation. Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann Blames Centre for Farmers' Protests; Alleges Move to Undermine Mandikaran The farmers protest, ongoing since February 2024, stems from demands largely directed at the Centre, he said. Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann Press Conference Today on Farmers Protest Latest News: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, during his first press conference of the year on Thursday, placed the responsibility for the prolonged farmers' protest squarely on the Centre. He alleged that the Union Government has failed to take meaningful steps to resolve the farmers grievances and is attempting to undermine the state's agricultural framework, particularly the Mandikaran (regulated market) system. The farmers protest, ongoing since February 2024, stems from demands largely directed at the Centre, he said, adding that the Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Arjun Munda have held multiple rounds of discussions with farmers, but no resolution has been achieved. Advertisement Centre Must Respond to Farmers CM Mann criticized the Centre's approach, saying, We mediated between both sides and even brought Union Ministers and farmers together on one platform to find a solution, but no consensus was reached. After the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, which saw the NDAs victory, there has been no effort to continue talks with the farmers. He pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously announced the repeal of the controversial farm laws but accused the government of attempting to reintroduce them through indirect means. Farmers' demands lie entirely within the Centres jurisdiction. Why is the Centre silent? Why havent they invited the farmers for discussions? This lack of initiative is worsening the situation, Mann questioned. Advertisement Jagjit Singh Dallewal's Hunger Strike Referring to the hunger strike by farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, CM Mann assured that the Punjab Government is providing medical assistance as directed by the Supreme Court. He emphasized the peaceful nature of the protest and stated, I have personally spoken to Dallewal and assured him of our support. His health is important, but there is no need for forced hospitalization as the protest remains non-violent. Mann also criticized the Centre's directive to intervene directly, calling it an attempt to shift blame. This is a peaceful protest in Punjab's jurisdiction. A solution can only be reached when all stakeholders come to the table for a dialogue, he said. Allegations Against Centre: Undermining Mandikaran In a sharp rebuke, CM Mann accused the Union Government of trying to dismantle Punjab's regulated market system (Mandikaran), a cornerstone of the state's agricultural economy. We have received a letter from the Centre seeking suggestions, but its clear they are moving towards finishing Mandikaran. Agriculture is a state subject, and we oppose any move that undermines the states interests, he asserted. Advertisement Call for Dialogue CM Mann reiterated his commitment to resolving farmers' issues and called on the Centre to engage in meaningful dialogue. The Centre must take the initiative to meet with the farmers. We have done our part by holding several rounds of discussions. Its time for them to act responsibly and address the concerns of the farming community, he concluded. The farmers protests continue to gain momentum, with the spotlight now firmly on the Centres response to the allegations and demands. Punjab Bandh procured loss of over Rs 100 crores Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has expressed concern over the economic impact of the recent Punjab Bandh, which led to a reported loss of over Rs 100 crores. Addressing the issue, he highlighted the disruptions faced by commuters and businesses alike during the statewide shutdown. Advertisement (For more news apart from Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann Press Conference Today on Farmers Protest Latest News, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman) New York Nightclub Shooting News: Third Major Attack in 24 Hours Eyewitnesses reported scenes of chaos as patrons scrambled for cover amidst the gunfire. New York Nightclub Shooting Attack Firing Latest News Today: In a shocking series of violent incidents, America witnessed its third major attack within 24 hours, as a gunman opened fire at the Amjura Nightclub in Queens, New York, late Tuesday night. The indiscriminate shooting, which occurred at approximately 11:45 PM, has left several people injured, according to local authorities. Emergency services rushed to the scene after receiving distress calls about the attack. Law enforcement officials have cordoned off the area, and an investigation is underway to identify the attacker and determine the motive behind the shooting. Advertisement Eyewitnesses reported scenes of chaos as patrons scrambled for cover amidst the gunfire. "It was terrifying; people were screaming and running everywhere," said one witness who managed to escape unharmed. The incident marks the third major attack in the United States in a single day, raising serious concerns about public safety and the growing threat of gun violence. Authorities have yet to confirm the number of injured or provide updates on their conditions. In response to the spate of attacks, officials are calling for heightened security measures and an urgent review of gun control policies. Advertisement As the nation grapples with the aftermath of these tragic incidents, the Amjura Nightclub shooting underscores the urgent need for effective measures to address gun violence and safeguard public spaces. (For more news apart from New York Nightclub Shooting Attack Firing Latest News Today, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman) January 2, 2025 A roundup of local and international news. Newsflash Newsroom, 02.01.2025, 13:55 Cuts. In Romania, the new year has come with new price hikes and a series of tax measures aimed at cutting budget spending. The latter include a government emergency order to freeze pensions and budget sector salaries, as well as child allowances. A freeze on new hires in the public sector is also in place, and a number of public agencies and institutions will be dismantled or merged. The emergency order also eliminates tax reliefs for the employees in the IT, constructions, agriculture and food industry sectors. The new order also raises dividend tax from 8 to 10% and introduces a new tax on special constructions. The ceiling for small enterprises will be reduced from 500,000 euros at present to 250,000 euros. Students will benefit from discounts on railways tickets only on journeys from home to university. Drugs. More than 1,600 people were detained and 1,400 others held in temporary custody as part of actions carried out by the Romanian police last year to combat drug trafficking. The Romanian Police said it conducted over 3,000 home searches and dismantled 43 organised crime groups numbering hundreds of members. More than 1,000 kilograms of risk and high-risk drugs and more than 1.2 million pills were seized. Trade. German Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to succeed Olaf Scholz as chancellor, told the German news agency dpa that he would support a new attempt at talks on a free trade exchange with the United States, in response to the tougher trade conditions. Europes economy will face difficult conditions under Donald Trumps administration, said Merz in an interview published on Thursday, but the response of Germany and of the entire Europe should be to restore competitiveness, not imposing tariffs. A new Euro-American initiative on free trade could prevent a dangerous spiral of tariff hikes, he added. Trump, who is taking over about a month before federal elections in Germany, suspended talks on a trade exchange between the European Union and the US during his first term in office and opened a series of trade disputes with the EU. Attack. Twelve persons, including two children, were killed by a man who carried out an armed attack in a restaurant in the south of Montenegro, said the prosecutor in charge of the case, quoted by France Presse. The perpetrator then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head while surrounded by the police. The police ruled out the theory of a clash between organised crime groups and said the weapons used are illegal. The government ordered a three-day period of mourning. Weather. An orange code warning for blizzard is in place until Friday morning in the mountain regions in ten counties in Romania, as well as two yellow code alerts for wind in place in the centre, north-west, east and south. In the regions in question, wind speeds are expected to pass 110-120 km/hour, and strong blizzards and low visibility of under 50 metres are forecast. Temperatures today are higher than usual at this time of the year, with highs between 4 and 14 degrees Celsius and 9 degrees in Bucharest at noon. January 2, 2025 UPDATE A roundup of local and international news. Newsflash Newsroom, 02.01.2025, 19:10 Spending. In Romania, the new year has come with new price hikes and a series of tax measures aimed at cutting budget spending. The latter include a government emergency order to freeze pensions and budget sector salaries, as well as child allowances. A freeze on new hires in the public sector is also in place, and a number of public agencies and institutions will be dismantled or merged. The emergency order also eliminates tax reliefs for the employees in the IT, constructions, agriculture and food industry sectors. The new order also raises dividend tax from 8 to 10% and introduces a new tax on special constructions. The ceiling for small enterprises will be reduced from 500,000 euros at present to 250,000 euros. Students will benefit from discounts on railways tickets only on journeys from home to university. Drugs. More than 1,600 people were detained and 1,400 others held in temporary custody as part of actions carried out by the Romanian police last year to combat drug trafficking. The Romanian Police said it conducted over 3,000 home searches and dismantled 43 organised crime groups numbering hundreds of members. More than 1,000 kilograms of risk and high-risk drugs and more than 1.2 million pills were seized. Incomes. 1.8 million Romanian employees will see their salaries go up from 1st January with the increase in the minimum wage to some 810 euros. Fines for traffic offenses were increased, as well, and fuel has become more expensive following the rise in excise duties. The price of underground transport, beer and sparkling wine has also gone up. Travel. Romania is one of the 25 best places to visit in 2025 according to CNN Travel. The list, which entails exotic destinations from Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe, is not a classification, but an account of tourist sites in alphabetical order, from Almaty in Kazakhstan, to Vancouver Island in Canada. There arent many places left in Europe that still have that undiscovered vibe, but Romania comes close, writes CNN Travel, adding: Thats a gift in these days of overtourism for heres a country that has everything, from the beach resorts of the Black Sea to the drop-dead gorgeousness of the Carpathian Mountains, and is reputedly trying to grow visitor numbers sustainably. Yes, theres the Dracula thing at Bran Castle for other gothic medieval treats in wider Transylvania and beyond, try Timisoara, Cluj Napoca, Sibiu, Brasov and Sebes. Capital Bucharest has a charming Old Town, now a bit overloaded with tourist bars and restaurants, but the citys recent history is still a major draw, end of quote. The Romanian countryside is also mentioned, with CNN Travel noting: Theres probably no better way to explore this than the recently launched Via Transilvanica, an 870-mile (1,400-kilometer) hiking trail through rural landscapes and villages seemingly frozen in time. Weather. The weather will become very cold in the next 24 hours, especially in the south-west, west and north-east of the country. On Thursday, an orange code warning for blizzard was issued until Friday morning in the mountain regions in ten counties across Romania, as well as two yellow code alerts for wind in place in the centre, north-west, east and south. In the regions in question, wind speeds are expected to pass 110-120 km/hour, and strong blizzards and low visibility of under 50 metres are forecast. Precipitation, including snow, is expected until Saturday in most regions. Oil prices were moving higher on Thursday, the first day of trade for 2025. The uptrend was supported by expectations that economic stimulus efforts will prompt a recovery in China, the world's second-largest . Benchmark Brent crude futures edged up by 0.4 percent to $74.90 in European trade, while WTI crude futures were up 0.2 percent at $71.84. Investors eye a recovery in China's economy and fuel demand following a pledge by President Xi Jinping to promote growth. China's economy was "overall stable and progressing amid stability," Xi said at a new year event on Tuesday, according to a speech published by the official Xinhua News Agency. Reaffirming the official GDP target of around 5 percent for the full year of 2024, Xi sought to allay fears that the world's second-largest economy would falter over the next 12 months in the face of some new situations, challenges from the uncertainty of the external environment and pressure of transformation from old drivers of growth into new ones. Signs of lower U.S. stockpiles also helped lift oil prices. A report from the American Petroleum Institute showed that nationwide inventories fell by 1.4 million barrels last week. If confirmed by government figures later today, it would be a sixth straight weekly draw. Meanwhile, Ukraine on Wednesday halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network after a pre-war transit deal expired at the end of 2024. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis President Joe Biden said the attacker in New Orleans who killed 15 and wounded dozens on New Year's Day was inspired by the Islamic State group. He said the FBI is taking the lead in the investigation and is investigating this incident as an act of terrorism. FBI said an ISIS flag was located in the Ford pickup truck which the attacker drove into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the early hours of Wednesday. After hitting the crowd, he exited the vehicle and fired upon police. Police returned fire, and the assailant was pronounced dead at the scene. The attacker has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas. FBI said it is working to determine Jabbar's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Addressing the media from Camp David about the latest developments in New Orleans, Biden said the FBI has told him the suspect had uploaded videos to social media "mere hours before the attack" indicating that he was inspired by Islamic State and expressing a "desire to kill." Biden told reporters that there is no link between the New Orleans massacre and the deadly explosion of a cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas within a space of few hours. "I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind," he said in a separate statement. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Flights departing the UK have begun using greener fuels as the government's ambitious Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate officially came into force at the New Year. Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, is made from sustainable sources, such as materials like household waste or used cooking oil and produces an average of 70 percent less carbon emissions than traditional fossil-based aviation fuel. By law, this type of fuel must now make up at least 2 percent of all jet fuel in flights taking off from the UK from 2025, growing year-on-year to 10 percent by 2030 and 22 percent by 2040. These ambitious targets should see around 1.2 million tons of SAF supplied to the UK airline industry each year by 2030 - enough to circle the globe 3,000 times. Being one of the first countries in the world to sign the mandate into law, the UK is at the forefront of decarbonizing air travel. From this moment on, aviation will be a greener, more sustainable form of travel and today marks a significant milestone for the UK SAF industry, said Mike Kane, Minister for Aviation. "With thousands of jobs supporting the UK SAF industry and flying becoming popular than ever, the mandate will help deliver our Plan for Change helping to grow the and giving people the freedom to travel in a more sustainable way." Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, said, UK airlines support the SAF Mandate as both a powerful and practical tool for driving down aviation carbon emissions and a clear signal that the industry is fully committed to a net zero future. "Our priority is ensuring airlines have access to the increasing volumes of SAF required to meet the mandate as global demand soars, at the most competitive price possible for consumers." For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Exactly one year ago, Russian barbarians destroyed the Museum of UPA General Roman Shukhevych in Lviv. Unfortunately, the restoration of the historical monument has not begun since then. ADVERTISIMENT This was reported by the leader of the "European Solidarity" party, Petro Poroshenko. "For the Moscow regime, the names of Roman Shukhevych or Stepan Bandera are like incense for devils. And for Ukraine, the memory of the leaders of the national liberation movement is no less a weapon than drones or shells. As you know, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Poroshenko Foundation has been systematically helping the Defense Forces by providing them with FPV drones, Mavics, electronic warfare equipment, and other necessary equipment. The amount of assistance to brigades and battalions has already exceeded UAH 6.5 billion," Poroshenko wrote. ADVERTISIMENT Immediately after the barbaric attack on the Shukhevych Museum, the Poroshenko Foundation offered financial assistance for the speedy restoration of the destroyed monument, and a letter of guarantee was handed over to the management of the institution. The idea of restoring the house was supported at a public meeting on January 17, 2024, in Lviv, at the Historical Museum, in particular by Roman Shukhevych's daughter Mariia Tryliovska, the head of the OUN-UPA Brotherhood Bohdan Borovych, dissident and public figure Myroslav Marynovych, members of the Ukrainian Parliament, and members of the Lviv Regional and City Councils. "However, contrary to the wishes of the Lviv community, the city authorities ignored the proposal of the Poroshenko Foundation to rebuild the Shukhevych Museum as soon as possible. Instead, in the face of the deteriorating economic situation and rising taxes, Lviv officials decided to organize a fundraiser from the people. This is a deliberate delay in the process of restoring the museum complex," Poroshenko said. ADVERTISIMENT The first and most important thing to be done is to restore this house to the way it was before it was destroyed by the Russian Shaheds. We don't have a grave of Roman Shukhevych, so for the family and for all Ukrainians, this place is a place of honor for the fallen general. The Museum building is the former underground headquarters of the OUN, where Shukhevych hid during the last years of his life and where he was killed by the Soviet KGB in 1950. March 5, 2025, will mark the 75th anniversary of the heroic death of the legendary UPA commander. It would be very symbolic, fair, and right to honor Shukhevych's memory not on the ruins, but in a rebuilt museum. The Poroshenko Foundation urges: finally, stop the chatter and delay in the reconstruction process, hide behind paperwork, and start work on the restoration of the Shukhevych Museum. On the morning of January 2, Russian terrorists attacked a minibus in Kherson. As a result of another war crime by Putin's army, five civilians were injured. ADVERTISIMENT The enemy attacked public transport in the Korabelny district. This was reported by the Kherson Regional Military Administration. According to the regional military administration, three men sustained explosive injuries, contusions, and shrapnel wounds to their legs as a result of the shelling. The injured were taken to hospital and are being treated. The regional prosecutor's office clarified that Russian terrorists attacked the Korabelny district of Kherson around 10:45. The enemy used cannon artillery to strike. One of the Russian shells hit a minibus. The prosecutor's office also clarified that the number of casualties increased to 5 people. Under the procedural guidance of the Kherson District Prosecutor's Office, a pre-trial investigation into the commission of a war crime (Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) has been initiated. Prosecutors together with investigators are making every effort to document the crimes committed by members of the Russian armed forces. ADVERTISIMENT As a reminder, on the morning of January 1, in Kyiv, the defenders of the sky destroyed a number of attack drones used by Russia. The wreckage of the downed targets landed in several neighborhoods, causing fires and damage. Two people were killed and seven injured in the center of the capital. As reported by OBOZ.UA, on the night of December 31 to January 1, Russian occupation forces fired on Zaporizhzhia region. As a result of the enemy attack, a fire broke out in one of the settlements. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine showed exclusive footage of the operation to liberate the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant in Kharkiv region from Russian occupants. The enemy was pushed out of this place at the end of September 2024. ADVERTISIMENT The operation was carried out by fighters of the Timur special forces unit. The video was published on the DIU's Telegram channel on Wednesday, January 1. They emphasized that the storming and clearing of 40 buildings of the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant was one of the most difficult front-line missions of 2024, carried out by the special forces soldiers. The intelligence service noted that they decided to release this footage on Stepan Bandera's birthday, as it shows the armed struggle for freedom that he inspired. ADVERTISIMENT "Independence can be maintained only after a significant struggle, shedding the 'blood of the nation', after which freedom acquires true value. This is what Stepan Bandera said," the message reads. In the video, Ukrainian defenders can be seen conducting assault operations, providing fire support from a 120-mm mortar, capturing Russian occupiers, and working as combat medics. ADVERTISIMENT Fighting for the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant On September 24, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reported that soldiers had liberated the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant from Russian army soldiers. It was the main strategic facility in Vovchansk controlled by the occupiers. They captured it during the offensive in the north of Kharkiv region and turned it into a propaganda "fortress." ADVERTISIMENT The Russians engaged the most motivated and professional units in the defense of the plant The operation to liberate the building was carried out by special groups of the DIU "Stugna", "Paragon", RDC, "Junger", BDK, and "Terror." The fighters engaged in contact battles with the Russian occupiers in dense buildings. Despite the enemy's attempts to stop the assaults with the help of anti-aircraft guns and constant shelling, Ukrainian defenders managed to drive the Russians out. As OBOZ.UA reported earlier, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi named the main achievements of the Ukrainian Defense Forces on the battlefield in 2024. He noted that "war dictates its own difficult realities." Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! In Ukraine, 72 combat engagements were registered in less than 24 hours on January 2 (as of 16:00). Most of them 20 took place in the Pokrovsk sector. ADVERTISIMENT The General Staff of the Armed Forces shared the report. "Russian invaders continue to storm the positions of Ukrainian defenders. Instead, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are disrupting the enemy's insidious plans, causing significant losses in manpower and equipment," the press service said. From the territory of the Russian Federation, the aggressor army fired at the border settlements of Bachevsk and Porozok in the Sumy region, as well as Tymofiivka in the Kharkiv region. Russian planes attacked the areas of Taratutino and Pokrovka in the Sumy region with guided bombs. Ukrainian troops repelled two attacks near the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv sector. ADVERTISIMENT In the Kupiansk sector, the enemy launched three attacks near Zakhidne, Dvorichna, and Kruhliakivka. One firefight ended, and two more (as of 4 p.m. on Thursday) were ongoing. Pishchane and Ivanivka survived the air strikes of the guided bombs. In the Lyman sector, the invading army attacked 10 times near Nadiia, Makiivka, Terny, Hryhorivka, and Serebrianskyi forest. Three battles are still ongoing, and seven were stopped by the Ukrainian Defense Forces. In the Siversk sector, Russian aviation attacked Dronivka, Pazeno, and Siversk using four guided bombs. In the Kramatorsk sector, Ukrainian troops continue to fight the invaders in the area of Chasiv Yar and the direction of Stupochky. In the Toretsk sector, the enemy attacked four times near Toretsk and Shcherbynivka. Two of the battles ended without success for the occupiers, and two more continued. Kostiantynivka was hit by three guided aerial bombs. ADVERTISIMENT In the Pokrovsk sector, the occupants made 20 attempts to push our defenders from their positions near the settlements of Myroliubivka, Lysivka, Novyi Trud, Pishchane, Shevchenko, Uspenivka, Solone, and Novovasylivka. Defense forces held back the attack and repelled 18 attacks, two battles were still ongoing. The Russians attacked Yablunivka with air strikes. In the Kurakhove sector, the enemy attacked 13 times near Kurakhove and Shevchenko. 11 battles were completed, and two more were ongoing. In the Vremivsk sector, the occupants attacked our troops' positions near Yantarne, in the direction of Kostiantynopil and Novosilka 13 times without success. Hostile air strikes took place in the areas of Ulakliv, Andriivka, and Novopil (four guided bombs plus unguided aerial missiles). In the Orikhiv sector, the Russian Armed Forces continue shelling the positions of our troops and civilian infrastructure. The enemy attacked Mali Shcherbaky and Piatikhatky with multiple rocket launchers. ADVERTISIMENT In the Prydniprovsk sector, Russian invaders stormed our positions twice without success. The situation is under control. In the Kursk region of Russia, Ukrainian defenders repelled one attack by the invaders, and two more clashes continued. The Russians launched five air strikes on their own territory, downing five guided bombs. There were no significant changes in the situation on other frontlines. "Support the Ukrainian army! We will win! Glory to Ukraine!" these are the words that the General Staff of the Armed Forces used to end the report. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes! Quadrise announced on Thursday that it has signed an agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) as part of the Seastars consortium. The AIM-traded firm said the consortium, consisting of 17 companies, aimed to achieve at least a 30% reduction in well-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency for marine vessels. It said the Seastars project would integrate emerging marine technologies, including Quadrises Blend-On-Board emulsion technology, into eight vessel designs set to be market-ready by December 2027. The initiative would also produce tailored decarbonisation recommendations for vessel owners and operators. Quadrise said it had been awarded up to 63,500 under CINEA's Horizon grant programme to contribute to the work, which was aligned with its commitment to cleaner energy solutions in the marine sector. Quadrise is delighted to have joined the Seastars consortium, which will demonstrate the benefits of bioMSAR and our Blend-On-Board technology to a much wider audience, whilst our participation in the Horizon project will deepen our combined knowledge in this important area of marine decarbonisation, said chief executive officer Jason Miles. At 1629 GMT, shares in Quadrise were up 6.15% at 7.6p. Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com. Its been an open secret for a couple of weeks, ever since Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal ruled out any new agreement with Gazprom to keep Russian gas flowing to the European Union. His position was confirmed on Wednesday, January 1, when the contract expired and the gas pipeline running through Ukraine from east to west was completely shut down possibly for good. This pipeline, the oldest of its kind with a history of five decades, holds significant symbolic value. While the flow of Russian gas through an Ukraine under siege one of the great paradoxes of the past three years, with Moscow earning additional billions on our blood, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy put it had been very low for months, the end of the supply leaves behind both some certainties and a number of unresolved questions. Moldova, the hardest hit A nation that does not yet belong to the EU, Moldova is ironically the first to feel the effects of the gas cutoff. Although Moldovan authorities had been bracing for this outcome, the search for alternatives has been notably absent. This is especially true in the separatist region of Transnistria, which has a pro-Russian majority. On Wednesday, the first day without gas flowing through Ukraine, locals were forced to endure the harsh winter without two essential supplies: There is no heating or hot water, an employee for the local energy company, Tirasteploenergo, told Reuters. Russian gas company Gazprom has offered to supply gas to Chisinau through other routes outside Ukraine, but it is demanding payment of a large overdue debt, which Moldova does not recognize. In response to this new crisis, Fatih Birol, the director general of the International Energy Agency (IEA), urged European partners on Wednesday to support Moldova a country increasingly divided between pro-European and pro-Russian factions so it can maintain essential supplies to its people during the winter. Slovakia and Hungary forced to look for alternatives The situation has sparked concern in two EU countries with the closest ties to Vladimir Putin Slovakia and Hungary which also received the largest share of gas through the Ukrainian pipeline. While their situation is less urgent than Moldovas, as they have more routes to source fuel from neighboring countries, the end of the contract has cast some uncertainty over their energy future. Being landlocked and unable to directly import liquefied natural gas (LNG) which is transported by ship and far more expensive than pipeline gas Slovakias authorities have confirmed that they will face an additional cost of nearly 180 million ($185 million) in 2025 alone to secure gas through alternative routes, particularly the pipeline connecting Slovakia to Germany via the Czech Republic. Currently there is no threat of a shortage of gas, said Economy Minister Denisa Sakova, who criticized Kyivs unilateral decision and acknowledged that it would harm Slovakias interests. Hungary, meanwhile, plans to double its imports of Russian gas via Turkey, with the TurkStream pipeline, which runs beneath the Black Sea, now the sole land route for Russian gas into the EU. Austria, the third major recipient of Russian gas through Ukraine, cut ties with Gazprom a month ago following a dispute with its energy company, OMV. Like Hungary, Austria is now relying more on imports from Turkey and Germany. Its a big adjustment in the gas flows, from east to west, said Markus Krug, deputy head of the Austrian gas regulator, who has hinted that consumers might face a temporary increase in rates. In Central Europe, this situation can be summed up in one sentence: supply security will be tighter, but nowhere near the levels of panic that gripped the region during the worst months of the energy crisis. The Ukrainian gas pipeline accounted for less than 5% of Europes gas needs a trend that had already been declining. In 2024, only 13% of Europes gas imports will come from Russia, and as Henning Gloystein, chief energy analyst at Eurasia Group, points out, European gas demand has dropped by a fifth compared to pre-invasion levels. Possible retaliation against the Ukrainian electricity system Kyivs refusal to renegotiate the contract with the Kremlin that has been in place since the end of 2019 has particularly upset Bratislava and Budapest, the two EU capitals with the closest ties to Moscow. Hungary has even threatened Ukraine with cuts to its electricity exports crucial for a country whose power generation and distribution infrastructure has been severely damaged by Russian attacks, the latest of which occurred just days ago, around Christmas time. The challenge posed by Robert Ficos government, which recently visited its Russian counterpart, has been partially countered by Poland. The Polish government has announced it will increase electricity deliveries to Ukraine if the country requests it. This episode highlights the growing divide within the EU between governments that are firmly pro-European and pro-Ukrainian, such as that of Donald Tusk, and those that align more closely with Moscows interests, including Hungary and Slovakia. More LNG, also from Russia The end of gas supplies through Ukraine doesnt necessarily mean that the EU will import less gas from Russia. With imports of Russian LNG especially from the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia at an all-time high, its likely that this route will expand even further as a replacement. Maritime imports from the worlds three largest LNG exporters the United States, Qatar, and Australia will also increase, along with supplies from Norway, the major economic beneficiaries of Putins invasion in March 2022. Rising prices While there is no imminent gas supply security risk for the EU, its LNG import needs may rise and may lead to tightening of global gas markets in 2025, the International Energy Agency acknowledged hours after the closure of the so-called Ukraine Transit pipeline. The cessation of these supplies will likely drive up prices in Europe, which ended 2024 at annual highs, Henning Gloystein, head of Energy, Climate & Resources at Eurasia Group, wrote in a special report for clients. However, a price increase as severe as that seen on previous occasions [in reference to 2022] is very unlikely: EU markets and importers have long prepared for this cut, The shift from pipelines to LNG tankers has, in fact, been pushing prices higher for some time. While many factors influence the gas market, the closure of the Ukrainian pipeline has played a significant role in the recent rise in natural gas prices in the EU. The Dutch TTF index, a key benchmark for the region, has surged by 70% over the course of 2024, with a sharp acceleration since the summer. Beyond industry and heating two of the largest demand sectors this price increase has directly impacted the electricity market, where gas-fired power plants still play a dominant role, despite their reduced use in recent years. More strategic use of underground reserves Largely unknown to the general public until the energy crisis hit, Europe boasts an extensive network of underground gas storage facilities that help it manage winter demand peaks. This infrastructure has become especially important in times like these, with overall demand nearing its annual maximum and with the closure of the second-to-last land route for Russian gas. After reaching peak levels at the end of summer and early autumn, European gas storage is currently at 72% of its capacity, with Spain exceeding the average by 10 points. However, France and much of Central Europe are slightly below the average. In most cases, these levels are healthy, but European authorities are keeping a close watch after consumption during November and much of December was higher than in previous years. While theres little doubt that the current reserves are sufficient to comfortably carry Europe through the rest of the cold season, the declining state of storage and the recent closure of the Ukrainian pipeline will likely require additional effort to refill supplies next spring. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition UK stocks are expected to open with tepid gains on Thursday with traders showing caution as the first trading day of 2025 gets underway. Futures on the FTSE 100 were showing gains of around 0.2% by 0728 GMT after settling at a two-week high of 8,173.02 on Tuesday. Nationwide reported that UK house prices rose 4.7% year-on-year in December to 269,426, up 0.7% over the month to sit just below an all-time high recorded in summer 2022. Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said that the housing market "ended 2024 on a strong footing", but volatility is expected across the next few months due to upcoming changes to stamp duty, which will "make it more difficult to discern the underlying strength of the market". With global financial markets closed on Wednesday for New Year's Day, Thursday will be a relatively busy session for economic data, with December manufacturing surveys due out in the eurozone, UK and US, along with US mortgage applications, construction spending and jobless claims. However, Thursday is likely to be a quiet day for blue-chip corporate announcements, with volumes still likely to be low as traders returned to the desks following the festive holidays. Among the few announcements made ahead of the open, Auction Technology Group reported the appointment of Sarah Highfield as its new chief financial officer, succeeding Tom Hargreaves, who was leaving to join a private equity-backed company. It said Highfield would bring over 15 years of senior financial leadership experience, having held roles at companies including Elvie, Costa Coffee, Tesco, and Away Resorts, currently chairing the audit and risk committee at Coats Group. Chrysalis Investments on Thursday said it had reached a settlement with Revolution Beauty over its claim against the troubled AIM-listed cosmetics retailer. Under the terms of the settlement, Revolution Beauty has agreed to pay the former investor a non-material sum, being less than 1% of the company's market capitalisation on Jan 2. All other details of the settlement remain confidential. The Indian Navy is set to commission three major fleet assets Nilgiri, Surat, and Vaghsheer on January 15, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai. This marks a significant development in Indias maritime capabilities and indigenous shipbuilding initiatives. The Nilgiri, the lead ship of the Project 17A stealth frigates, represents an upgrade over the Shivalik-class frigates. The vessel features advanced technology designed to reduce radar signatures. Similarly, the Surat is the fourth and final ship in the Project 15B stealth destroyer class, building on the capabilities of the Kolkata-class destroyers. Both ships were designed by the Indian Navys Warship Design Bureau and equipped with advanced sensors and weapon systems developed domestically or through international partnerships. The Nilgiri and Surat are equipped to operate various helicopters, including Chetak, ALH, Sea King, and MH-60R, for day and night operations. These ships include systems such as the Rail-Less Helicopter Traversing System and a Visual Aid and Landing System to enhance aviation efficiency. Accommodations have also been added to support women officers and sailors, reflecting the Navys policy of expanding combat roles for women. The Vaghsheer is the sixth and final submarine in the Scorpene-class under the Kalvari-class Project 75. It is capable of diverse missions, such as anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, and special operations. It features wire-guided torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, and advanced sonar systems. The submarines modular construction supports potential future upgrades, including Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology. All three platforms were built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai, demonstrating the advancements in indigenous defense manufacturing. These vessels underwent comprehensive trials to ensure operational readiness. New York City is planning to create a new Latino studies curriculum in public schools a push made thanks to a $3 million investment from the City Council, according to a recent report. Gothamist reported that the development of Latino studies is underway. The City Council has partnered with the United Way of New York City, the Hispanic Federation and Columbia Universitys Teachers' College, which are seeking input at community meetings with the public, the media outlet stated. The new curriculum is expected to launch in three years, according to Gothamist. Councilmember Rita Joseph, who chairs the education committee on the City Council, told Gothamist that students want to see themselves in the curriculum. We study Hispanic History Month once a year We want this to be all year round where students are seeing themselves, theyre studying, writing and reading about people before them, and current folks that are in our communities," Joseph told Gothamist. It would be part of the city Department of Educations (DOE) Hidden Voices initiative which has already launched the Black studies, Asian American & Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and LGBTQI+ curriculums. The programs were created in direct response to feedback from educators looking for support to embed content into their lessons that reflect the cultures and diversities of their classrooms. Hidden Voices comes with posters, comics and images with engaging lessons that include strategies for teachers and leaders. According to Gothamist, there are also plans in the works for new curriculums centered on Americans with Disabilities, and Jewish and Muslim American communities. Versions of this story were published in 2019 and 2020. The Paulinskill Viaduct has been a bridge to nowhere since 1978, when the last train rumbled across this majestic crossing 115 feet above the river in Warren County. It is also the definition of an attractive nuisance. Hikers, ATV riders, climbers, graffiti artists even bungee jumpers have been spotted at the crossing in Knowlton over the years. Youre not supposed to go up there, but people do it all the time, said Rene Mathez, whose home is about a quarter-mile from the 110-year-old span. An eastbound freight train crossing the Paulinskill Viaduct en route to Hoboken in March 1952.John Treen, from the collection of Mike Del Vecchio / Tri-State Railway Historical Society No one seems to know what, if anything, the future might hold for the viaduct, which for a time was the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world. For at least two decades, there has been talk of reviving rail service along the Lackawanna Cutoff, which ran for 28 miles between Roxbury in Morris County and Slateford, Pennsylvania, and utilized the viaduct. NJ Transit is lengthening the current line about three miles to Andover Township, in Sussex County, but has not announced any plan to head farther west. NJ Transit officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, which owns the right of way that includes the Paulinskill Viaduct, said public access is prohibited. Aerial view of the century-old Paulinskill Viaduct. The 1,100-foot-long, 115-foot-tall seven arch span was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1910. The tracks were removed in 1982 and the Viaduct abandoned. This photo was taken in Knowlton in 2019.Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Former Knowlton Mayor Adele Starrs, who left office in 2022, had supported incorporating the viaduct into the regions extensive rails-to-trails network. Our main issue is the township of Knowlton does not own the (viaduct). It just passes our land. Its a constant, ongoing problem to get the graffiti off, Starrs said in 2019. In 2016, it took a lengthy rescue to free a 20-year-old woman who fell down a manhole cover and injured her ankle. Our fire and rescue has responded multiple times to people who got stuck up there, Starrs said. Its a landmark of historical significance. This is a treasure and it needs to be kept up, not left to fall into disrepair, Starrs said. Knowltons current mayor did not respond to a request for comment. Mathez, who lives near the viaduct, has resided in a stone house, built in 1789, for 56 years. His property covers 50 acres on both sides of the Paulins Kill River. The river uses a different spelling than the viaduct. Mostly its kids with motor bikes, he said in 2019 when asked what he typically sees on the crossing. Thats nothing compared to bungee jumping, which Mathez said was popular on the span for a time more than a decade or two ago. It was pretty nuts, he said. A rogue entrepreneur set up a horizontal pulley system and was charging $75 per jump, he said. Then somebody was hurt pretty badly and the police put a stop to it, Mathez said. New Jersey State Police have jurisdiction over the viaduct. The nearest road, Station Road, prominently displays no trespassing signs. A State Police spokesperson said in 2019 that troopers respond to complaints and do periodic checks of unattended cars in the area. Chuck Walsh, also of Knowlton, recalled spotting bungee jumpers as far back as the 1980s. They did it over the river, at the highest point. They were jumping off the middle of the bridge on the south side, Walsh said in 2019. Mathez said efforts have been made, to varying degrees of success, to limit access to the viaduct from the woods on either side or at least minimize the potential harm. For a while, viaduct visitors were throwing stones into the Paulins Kill, but sometimes their aim was off and the rocks were landing on Station Road. Officials installed fencing making it difficult to toss anything off the viaduct in that area, he said. That seems to have abated, Mathez said. Around a decade ago, some enormous concrete blocks, about 10 feet long and 3 feet wide, were installed to block ATVs and other vehicles. They did a good job, he said. But it didnt completely solve the issues. I asked one person, are the blocks stopping people? He said, no, theyve put up a ramp, Mathez said. Misuse of the site is distressing to those who respect the viaducts legacy as an engineering marvel of its time. The passenger train known as the "Phoebe Snow" is seen heading west on April 8, 1951, with the Paulinskill Viaduct in the background.John Treen, from the collection of Mike Del Vecchio / Tri-State Railway Historical Society Mike Del Vecchio, president of the Tri-State Railway Historical Society, told NJ Advance Media in 2019 that he wanted to see the Lackawanna Cutoff fully restored. Del Vecchio died in 2023. In an era before interstates, and before automobiles were common, everyone traveled by rail. Rail lines were like todays interstates, Del Vecchio said, adding that restoring the Lackawanna Cutoff would especially benefit commuters from eastern Pennsylvania seeking an alternative to driving on Route 80. Mathez recalled boarding the train in Blairstown, but never actually rode across the viaduct. He said he doesnt favor restoring the rail line. I dont like the idea of having a train through here. Not because of the train itself. The thing I dont like is the impetus for development if the train comes through here, he said. The train itself remains a distant memory, even if the Paulinskill Viaduct aside from the graffiti looks much as it did from more than a century ago. The Mexican government is working fast to get its homework done before January 20, when Donald Trump will be sworn in as president of the United States. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has anticipated the elements of the bilateral relationship that could represent a headache for her Administration. In recent weeks, Mexican officials have been working at full speed in three specific sectors: cleaning up customs agencies, reinforcing Mexican consulates on U.S. territory, and cracking down on illegal trafficking of fentanyl. These three topics have historically proven to be the most sensitive for the U.S. government, regardless of its political orientation. Trumps first messages for Mexico have been heavy-handed. On the one hand, there is the threat of mass migrant deportations. Meanwhile, the Republican politician has also cast doubt on the effectiveness of the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, the USMCA, and has announced that he will seek an early review of the deal. And finally, he has assured that he will take action to intervene more directly in the fight against Mexican drug cartels by declaring them terrorist organizations. Once the cards were on the table, Sheinbaum opted for a proactive approach in which the government is seeking to take charge of each of these issues. The Mexican president has rejected Trumps messages with one of her own: We collaborate, we coordinate, we work together, but we will never subordinate ourselves. Mexico is a free, sovereign, independent country and we do not accept interference. It is collaboration, it is coordination, but it is not subordination. And we are going to build peace, she said in a speech in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, last week. The Mexican government has undertaken in recent weeks a series of measures that could alleviate the crisis between the two countries and, in the best-case scenario, cushion any blows that Trump decides to take against Mexico. Clean customs The U.S. trade war against China has put Mexico in the spotlight. The Mexican territory has become a kind of wild card that manufacturing companies take advantage of due to its proximity to the U.S. and its membership in the free trade agreement, which has proven to be a blessing and a curse at the same time: foreign direct investment has reached historic levels in recent months, while Chinese trade has found a way through Mexico to introduce its products to the American continent, attracting the attention of the U.S.s most protectionist sectors, backed by Trump. The Republicans threat is to evaluate the relevance of the USMCA, previously considered the best tool for trade integration in the West. In Mexico, this threat has resulted in the so-called Operation Clean-up. For more than a month, the Ministry of Economy has undertaken a rigorous inspection of Chinese commerce in Mexico City, later extended to the states of Sonora, Coahuila and Baja California. The Mexican government is confiscating products, mostly of Asian origin, that entered Mexico illegally through customs. What began as simple actions to seize merchandise has become a larger plan to regulate the ports that receive these products. Marcelo Ebrard, the Secretary of the Economy, has taken charge of this mission. In just over a month, he has seized 500 million pesos worth of illegal merchandise and has placed 47 customs agencies under investigation. What we are seeing is an absolute lack of compliance with Mexican regulations. There is no evidence that any of this merchandise was introduced legally into the country. These things cannot be sold in Mexico, Ebrard said last Friday to justify the operation. Agents of the Ministry of Economy confiscate suspected illegal products on December 12 in Hermosillo, Sonora. Secretaria de Economia Safe consulates Migration has been one of the main themes of Donald Trumps presidential campaign. His outright rejection of migration integration has inevitably put the spotlight on Mexico. Trump has assured that he will undertake mass deportations as soon as he takes office, despite the fact that both countries have invested efforts to reduce illegal crossings and are seeking alternatives for migration in various territories in Latin America. Faced with this threat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun to reinforce its 50 consulates in the United States. The largest consular network in the world is prepared to provide legal assistance to thousands of Mexicans, if Trumps words begin to come true in the coming weeks, according to Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente. This effort has required acquiring the services of external lawyers specialized in immigration and the creation of a panic button through an app so that migrants can notify the Mexican government of their detentions. De la Fuente has indicated that the Mexican government trusts in the compliance of U.S. officials with international norms. The appointment of Ron Johnson, a veteran of the CIA, as U.S. ambassador to Mexico has sent a message of toughness in the bilateral relationship and an expectation of difficult times for Mexican diplomacy. Between the universally accepted diplomatic rules, our constitutional principles of foreign policy, and the indications that the president is giving us on specific aspects, I am truly confident that we will achieve with him [Ron Johnson], as with all the other ambassadors, a form of operation that is reasonable, respectful and effective, declared the Mexican foreign minister. Juan Ramon de la Fuente (center) during a visit to the Mexican Consulate in Dallas, Texas, on December 4, 2024. SRE Mexico Fight against fentanyl Thousands of kilograms of fentanyl have been seized in Mexico in recent days: the largest shipment was a ton and a half. The tiny pill has unleashed one of the most severe health crises in recent decades in the US. Trump has also pointed to Mexico, specifically to the drug cartels. The Republicans warning to Mexico has been that he will declare the Mexican cartels terrorist organizations, a tool that would serve to intervene more directly in the fight against them. Mexico has been living with the consequences of the expansion of organized crime in the country for decades. The Sheinbaum administration has made it a priority to find strategies to combat these groups. The president has appointed the Secretary of Security, Omar Garcia Harfuch, as the person in charge of showing the U.S. that Mexico is doing its part. In addition to the large seizures of fentanyl, the Mexican government has arrested more than 6,000 people in connection with drug trafficking in recent weeks. These arrests represent progress towards building peace, because we are convinced that, in order to reduce crimes, those who commit them must also be arrested, Garcia Harfuch said a couple of weeks ago. The arrest in Texas of two of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael El Mayo Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, has unleashed an internal war in the region that has already left 600 dead in the last four months of the year. The clashes in Sinaloa have left little room for the lives of its citizens and doubts about whether Mexicos security strategy will work this time around. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition A Delaware woman was arrested after driving her car through an emergency entrance at Inspira Hospital in Bridgeton just before midnight on New Years Eve, police said Wednesday. At about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Bridgeton police responded to the hospital on Irving Avenue for a report of a vehicle that struck a building, police said. Officers discovered a car had been driven through ambulance bay entrance doors and down a hallway about 60 feet, nearly hitting a security officer, according police. The security officer suffered a minor injury while jumping out of the way of the car, a spokesperson for Inspira Health Network said Wednesday. The 38-year-old driver from New Castle, Delaware remained at the scene. She did not require medical treatment and no one else was injured in the crash, police said in a news release. A spokesperson for the hospital said ambulances were diverted until about 3:30 a.m. while the damaged entrance was secured and an alternate entrance could be set up. The walk-in emergency entrance remained open while authorities secured the scene and patient care was not impacted during the incident, the spokesperson said Wednesday. The woman was arrested and charged with assault by a motor vehicle, endangering another person and third-degree criminal mischief, according to police and online court records. She was being held Wednesday at the Cumberland County Jail pending further court appearances. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Matt on X For 16 years, a suburban New York prosecutors office insisted it had the right man in a notorious 1996 double killing. The office tried him five times, through a series of hung juries and reversed convictions, before he was ultimately acquitted and freed in 2017. On Monday, the offices current leader, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah, said a reinvestigation identified two suspects and no connection to the man her predecessors tried and retried in the deaths of Archie Harris, 79, and home health aide Betty Ramcharan, 35. The statement appears to mark the first time that the DAs office has publicly said guilt lies with anyone other than Selwyn Days, the man jurors eventually acquitted in 2017. At the time, prosecutors said that they were disappointed in the verdict. Days' lawyer, Glenn Garber, said Monday that its time for his client to get vindication. He is truly innocent, and its important to fully put this matter to rest, Garber said, adding that the public also is entitled to a fair and just closure of this heinous case. Rocah took office in 2021 and didnt work in the DAs office when it prosecuted Days. She gave no details about the two people she described as involved in the killings, saying the investigation was ongoing. Her office said the developments were so recent that there was more work to be done before any potential future steps. Rocah is out of time to do that work she leaves office this week after deciding not to run for a second term. It is my hope that these significant developments lead to continuing investigation and action so that justice can be achieved for the families of Mr. Harris and Ms. Ramcharan, she said in a statement Monday. Incoming DA Susan Cacace subsequently pledged to continue to review cases like this double homicide. Both she and Rocah are Democrats. Garber said he was confident Cacaces administration would go on to charge and punish those actually responsible for the killings. Harris, 79, was a recently widowed millionaire who was known around his neighborhood for bragging about keeping lots of cash at his Eastchester home and was known to police for criminal complaints from the aides who cared for him. He was facing charges of forcing one aide Days' mother to perform a sex act, and pointing a gun at a second helper. Yet he turned out to have left all but $19,000 of his estate to Ramcharan, making no provisions for his three children. Her portion ultimately went to his family, however, because Ramcharan died with him on Nov. 21, 1996. Over five years later, authorities charged Days. He gave police a video confession that his lawyers later argued was false and coerced. I didnt commit this crime. I dont know who did. ... I dont know nothing about it, Days told a judge in 2004. Hung juries ended Days first and third trials. His second and fourth trials resulted in murder convictions and 50-year prison sentences. Both convictions were overturned. By the time he was acquitted at his fifth trial, hed served 16 years behind bars. Rocah formed a Conviction Review Unit in 2021 to look into wrongful conviction claims. The unit began examining the Harris and Ramcharan case last year. No contact information could immediately be found Monday for Ramcharans and Harris' relatives. A New Jersey offshore wind project is seeking a second delay, saying it still cant find someone to build crucial equipment for the turbines in the latest patch of turbulence striking the industry. Leading Light Wind had already received one pause on its project from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which acknowledged the difficulty the project has had in finding a manufacturer for the blades that would spin to generate electricity. But that pause ended on Dec. 20. The day before, Leading Light asked the board for an additional stay, this time through May 20. It did not specify an inability to find a blade manufacturer as the reason for needing a second delay, but its most recent request said, The offshore wind equipment market continues to experience significant price volatility and the company has not yet identified a solution to that volatility. The company did not respond to inquiries on Monday and Tuesday about whether a blade manufacturer is at the heart of the second request. This additional time will allow us to continue to navigate ongoing market shifts and supply chain challenges, as we work to advance development of this important project for New Jersey, Wes Jacobs, the project director, said in a statement. The board could not estimate when it might consider the request. The project, from Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE, would be built 40 miles (65 kilometers) off Long Beach Island and would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes. Leading Light was one of two projects the state utilities board chose in January 2024. But just three weeks after that approval, one of three major turbine manufacturers, GE Vernova, said it would not build the kind of turbine Invenergy planned to use in the project, according to a public filing. A turbine made by manufacturer Vestas was deemed unsuitable for the project, and the remaining manufacturer, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, told Invenergy in June that it was increasing the cost of its turbine, Invenergy said. Invenergy said it has invested millions of dollars into the project and remains committed to it. The project must pay $105 million toward the cost of a facility to build monopiles, the tower-like foundations of wind turbines, in Paulsboro. Opponents of offshore wind seized on the new request as more proof the industry is not economically feasible, particularly with Donald Trump, an offshore wind foe, soon to return to the White House. We can only draw one logical conclusion: the Trump administration threatens the lifeblood of the offshore wind industry, namely, large government subsidies and less regulation, the group Protect Our Coast NJ said in a statement. There are currently two other preliminarily approved offshore wind projects in New Jersey. Attentive Energy Two would be built 42 miles (67 kilometers) off Seaside Heights and would not be visible from the shoreline. It is a joint venture between Paris-based TotalEnergies and London-based Corio Generation and would power over 650,000 homes. Atlantic Shores, a joint partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development LLC, would generate enough energy to power 700,000 homes. The federal government says the project would be about 8.7 miles (14 kilometers) from the shore at its closest point. The company has previously said the closest turbines will be at least 12.8 miles (20 kilometers) from shore. Some observers say it might not be easy to completely thwart the industry, particularly projects that are already operating or that have received the required government approvals. Paulina OConnor, executive director of the New Jersey Offshore Wind Alliance, said the industrys future is promising. There is no shortage of challenges to advancing a new industry through market-wide shifts, but the fundamentals of offshore wind in New Jersey remain strong, she said. A 38-year-old New Jersey woman was among three people killed in a head-on crash in upstate New York last month, police said. Sabrina M. Surita, of the Manahawkin section of Stafford, was a rear-seat passenger in an SUV that collided with a pickup truck on Route 34 in Barton, New York State Police said. Surita died of her injuries at an area hospital. Another rear-sear passenger Carlos M. Lorenzo, 41, of the Bronx, New York, and the pickup truck driver, Gary Sinsabaugh, 68, of Athens, Pennsylvania, were pronounced dead at the scene. The SUV was traveling north on Route 34 when it crossed into the southbound lane and struck the pickup truck head-on, authorities said. The driver of the SUV a 42-year-old Bronx man was critically injured while a 56-year-old Bronx man riding in the front seat was treated for injuries considered not life-threatening. The crash took place shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 20, but the identities of the deceased werent disclosed by authorities until days later. Barton is in Tioga County, close to the Pennsylvania border and about a half-hour southeast of Elmira. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Last winter, on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim American Society of Staten Island (MAS-SI) celebrated the grand opening of its new community center at 180 Burgher Ave. in Dongan Hills but the organization said that was only phase one, and construction on its further expansion is now active on a second, adjacent property. A green wooden fence with Work in Progress signs surrounds a large foundation running from the community center to North Railroad Avenue, and a rendering posted outside shows a planned building that will occupy that entire stretch of street front. Were thrilled about the growth of our community center and the new services were adding. From a weekly food pantry to city resources and mental health support, our expansion and phase two of the project will make these programs accessible to even more of our growing community, said Abdullah Akl of MAS-SI. Were excited to always have our doors open to anyone while promoting our vision of creating positive change. Akl previously told the Advance/SILive.com that the original property was purchased in 2010, and the group later acquired the land next door. A sign outside the centers main entrance indicates that when the expansion project is fully completed, it will more than double the capacities of the prayer area, youth programs, Quran Hfiz program, weekend school, adult brothers and sisters programs, ablution/wudu' areaand and outreach programs. Akl previously told the Advance/SILive.com the community went from 10 to 15 people to a community of hundreds, now thousands, creating the need for a larger facility. It first started as a temple in the building we purchased in 2010, then it became used as a multi-user space. The mosque then acquired the land next door, and got together to see what would be built, said Akl. At first we thought a parking lot, a basketball area, and then we sat down with community and figured a community center would be the answer. On the MAS-SI website, fundraising for the center is extremely active. We want to be able to pray together, as one community! We want our kids to learn together under one roof, on the same day! We can do better, lets do better! Lets build our dream center together, reads a fundraising message on the website. The vision is to build an extension with a bigger praying area, youth lounge, more classrooms, gym, parking lot, kitchen, and much more, the website further reads. Akl previously said the finished center will also accommodate new additions for a youth lounge, two banquet halls, an open gym, cafe, library, childcare & daycare, security room, Iman and admin offices, and funeral services. Akl said there are several departments within the new community center, including a youth department, a communications department, and a faith department. MAS-SI provides weekly food pantries, summer programs and social services for the community, including mental health, food assistance, and assistance in applying for benefits, including SNAP and heating and cooling. Akl also noted that the community center is a home very far away from home. I, myself, come here to hang out with friends just because this isnt just a mosque or a community center, but its a place where you can find people you can grow with, and grow in faith. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Once congestion pricing starts, drivers can use E-ZPass to pay the toll, thanks to the series of cameras installed around Manhattan in the last few months. The MTA is advising drivers to make sure their E-ZPass account has their current license plate on file. Anyone without a tag, or with out-of-date information on their account will be charged via Tolls by Mail. Anyone using Tolls by Mail can expect to pay about 50% more when entering Manhattan than drivers with E-ZPass. Passenger vehicles will be charged $13.50 as opposed to $9, and motorcycles will have to pay $6.75 instead of $4.50 if a driver uses Tolls by Mail, for example. Heres what else drivers need to know before congestion pricing is set to begin on Sunday, Jan. 5. Congestion pricing is back?! Yes. In mid-November, Gov. Kathy Hochul officially reinstated congestion pricing for New York City. At the press conference announcing this decision, the governor characterized her initial opposition to the program as a concern over the high cost for working New Yorkers. What is congestion pricing? Congestion pricing refers to using electronic tolling to charge vehicles for entering certain areas of Manhattan the Congestion Relief Zone during peak commuting hours. This aims to reduce traffic congestion and raise money for public transportation upgrades. Revenue generated from the program will be bonded against and to fund around $15 billion worth of capital projects in the citys aging transit systems. What is the Congestion Relief Zone? As part of the $175 billion state budget approved on April 1, 2019, the MTAs Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority will establish the Central District Business Tolling Program. This will charge travelers a fee for driving into Manhattans Congestion Relief Zone, defined as any area south of 60th Street, but excludes certain highways in the area. When will this start? The official start date for the plan, according to Hochul, will be midnight on Sunday, Jan. 5. At that point, the programs myriad cameras will come alive and begin charging drivers a once-a-day fee either through E-ZPass or the Tolls by Mail program. How much will it cost? Drivers entering the Congestion Relief Zone will pay a fee that varies depending on vehicle type and time of day. During the daytime, defined as 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, drivers with E-ZPass will pay the following: Passenger vehicles (once per day): $9 Motorcycles (once per day): $4.50 Small trucks and non-commuter buses: $14.40 Large trucks and sightseeing buses: $21.60 Overnight hours Toll rates will be discounted during overnight hours, which are defined as weekdays from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and weekends from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. Additionally, Hochul said she wants to lower tolls by 75% overnight to encourage more nighttime deliveries in the city. As such, passenger vehicles with E-ZPass will pay $2.25 and motorcycles will pay $1.05 when entering into the Congestion Relief Zone overnight. Crossing credits Drivers entering the Congestion Relief Zone via the Queens-Midtown, Hugh L. Carey, Holland or Lincoln tunnels will be offered crossing credits against the toll. However, due to the lowered toll, drivers will now be getting crossing credits that are reduced by 40% when compared to the original plan. Drivers who come into the Congestion Relief Zone via the Holland and Lincoln tunnels will receive a $3 credit, while drivers who use the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel or Queens-Midtown Tunnel will receive a $1.50 in credit. Discounts & Exemptions Drivers who make under $50,000 per year will receive a 50% discount on the standard toll for all crossings after their first 10 trips each month. As previously required by state law, emergency vehicles and those carrying people with disabilities will be exempt from the program, with tax credits in place for residents living within the Congestion Relief Zone and earning less than $60,000. The MTA will also offer discounts for people disabilities or health conditions that prevent them from using transit. More information on discounts can be found here. Transportation alternatives Hochul said that the MTA will be adding more service to at least 23 bus routes, putting a high priority on adding more frequent trips for the outer boroughs. Four express bus routes on Staten Island were selected earlier this year for expanded service that coincided with the original start date of the program. These include the SIM1C, SIM4C, SIM23 and SIM24. There were also two routes selected in Brooklyn the BM2 and BM5 lines. In December, two local bus routesthe S46/96 and S79 SBS were also selected to get schedule tweaks to shorten wait times and make service more reliable. The funding for these extra buses will come from the transit authoritys Outer Borough Transportation Account, which was created, and fully funded, to provide $50 million a year to improve transportation outside of Manhattan in preparation for congestion pricing. Gov. Kathy Hochul is urging New York residents to exercise caution going into the upcoming weekend amid the forecast for several feet of lake effect snow. Hochul issued the update on Wednesday, warning of the substantial snowfall expected to impact areas upstate through Sunday evening. As the first lake effect storm of the new year moves in, Ive mobilized our State resources in preparation for significant snowfall and strong winds, Hochul said. We are working in close coordination with our local partners, and I encourage everyone to stay alert and monitor their local forecast. Areas in northern Cayuga, northern Oneida, Oswego, Jefferson and Lewis counties are slated to receive up to 4 feet of snow from this weather event. Western and Central New York, the Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley and North Country may receive up to 2 or more feet of snow by the weekend. As of 7 a.m. Thursday, Cattaraugus, a village east of Lake Erie and south of Buffalo, had already reported 8.1 inches of snow on the ground, as shared by the National Weather Service. The worst of this snow is forecast to extend from Friday into the weekend, according to Hochuls office. In addition to snowfall amounts, elevated wind gusts of up to 45 mph are expected to persist through Thursday evening. Residents of upstate New York are asked to avoid travel and prepare for the possibility of downed tree branches and near-whiteout conditions. The National Weather Service has issued a lake effect snow warning for parts of Western New York, the Finger Lakes, Central New York, Mohawk Valley and North Country into the weekend. North Country was also hit with a winter storm warning which will remain in effect through Friday. The devastating war that has raged for more than a year and a half between the government-backed Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, as well as allied armed groups on both sides, has led to the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The tragedy continues to worsen, sinking deeper into an abyss with no end in sight, despite the desperate efforts of local civil society and a few international organizations attempting to stop the cataclysm. Since September, with the end of the countrys rainy season, the war has once again intensified, fueled by increasingly evident foreign interference. The army has started to retake territories previously lost amid a chaotic storm of abuse, destruction, and death. The war is now concentrated on three fronts: the area surrounding the capital, Khartoum; Gezira State in the center; and the capital of North Darfur State, El Fasher, in the west. The humanitarian situation in Sudan is catastrophic due to the sheer scale and complexity of the crisis. The war has caused hundreds of thousands of casualties, including deaths and injuries, while widespread abuses such as sexual violence and torture continue. Conditions incompatible with life extreme malnutrition, a failing health system, and the blockade of aid are pushing mortality rates higher from preventable causes. Despite these challenges, some humanitarian organizations have attempted to seize on the end of the rains to expand their operations in Sudan, according to sources and data consulted by EL PAIS. However, this improvement is still meagre compared to the overwhelming needs. Any increase in aid to Sudan is welcome, but it must be much more than just another drop in the ocean, says Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Multitude of crises Sudan is now home to the worlds largest displacement crisis. Since the war began, more than 8.7 million people have fled their homes in search of safer places, with over 3 million crossing into neighboring countries such as Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, and Libya. Before the current conflict, more than 3.8 million people were already displaced within Sudan, largely due to previous conflicts in peripheral regions such as Darfur and Kordofan. In recent months, one of the main factors driving the increase in displacement has been the rise in violence in the states of Gezira and North Darfur. In these regions, the war has been accompanied by terror inflicted by paramilitaries and indiscriminate bombings by both sides in civilian areas. Amid this crisis, more than 24 million people half of Sudans population are facing high levels of food insecurity. The latest report from the leading international committee of experts on food security, published on December 24, identified famine in at least five areas in the west and south, with predictions that five more regions will experience famine in the coming months. Famine is not only a result of food scarcity, but also the collapse of health systems, livelihoods, local economies, and the social structures of entire communities. Speaking by phone from Sudans largest displaced persons camp in North Darfur, Zamzam, where famine broke out in August, Saddam Abkar Safi, a member of a local volunteer group, describes how conditions had worsened in recent months. It is becoming very difficult, especially in Zamzam and [the neighboring regional capital] El Fasher, due to the siege imposed on us. In Zamzam, many displaced people cannot afford to buy enough to survive for a day, he says. The multiplicity of crises is being compounded by an overwhelmed national health system. In the areas most affected by the fighting, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 70% and 80% of health facilities are either closed or only partially functioning, while in other regions of the country, the figure is around 50%. Since the war began, the WHO has documented more than 120 attacks on medical facilities, services, and personnel, although the actual number is believed to be much higher. This collapse of the national health system, coupled with severe damage to other essential services such as drinking water and electricity, has created a breeding ground for health crises that would normally be preventable. Since the summer, Sudan has been grappling with a concerning outbreak of cholera, triggered by a particularly intense rainy season and widespread flooding. The floods have primarily impacted regions with high population densities and large numbers of displaced people, which were previously little affected by the fighting, such as areas in the east of the country. Limited response Despite the scale of the crisis, humanitarian organizations have faced numerous setbacks and obstacles since the outbreak of the war. These include widespread insecurity and efforts by warring parties to exploit aid. Humanitarian agencies also face constant bureaucratic and logistical challenges, particularly from military authorities, who have been particularly inflexible when they have found themselves on the defensive on the front lines. The arrival of the dry season has facilitated road transport, which is the primary means of moving supplies. This has allowed humanitarian agencies to increase the number of shipments to various parts of the country since October, utilizing cross-border routes and, to a lesser extent, routes crossing territories controlled by different factions of the conflict, according to data from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Much of this increase has been made possible by the World Food Programme (WFP), which announced in late November that it had received permission from the military government to send more than 700 trucks to areas suffering from or at risk of famine. Leni Kinzli, WFPs communications officer, stated that this was part of a broader plan to access isolated areas and continue increasing the regular flow of monthly aid. Kinzli says that the end of the rainy season has allowed more supplies to move by road. Additionally, he says, there have been more authorizations from Sudanese authorities to deliver aid, which coincides with a shift in the dynamics of the conflict since September and the armys first significant advances. This increase [in aid shipments] will allow us to reach more people, especially those at risk of famine who have been difficult to reach, [including] in Darfur, Khartoum, and Gezira, he explains. In the four months between August and November, the number of trucks delivering aid across borders and frontlines in Sudan was fewer than 1,000. By comparison, in October alone, during the period when the least aid entered Gaza, 1,166 humanitarian trucks arrived, according to U.N. data. Cross-border convoys to Sudan are made through two main crossings between Chad and Darfur: Adre, the primary crossing, and Tine. However, their future remains uncertain. The U.N. has only authorized shipments from Chad with the approval of the military government, citing the need to respect the countrys sovereignty. Yet, military authorities are reluctant to send aid to areas outside their control, such as much of Darfur, and continue to deny the existence and risk of famine, despite the overwhelming evidence. In Sudan, we have found ourselves in a situation where the survival of the population has been sacrificed under the pretext of sovereignty, says Lockyear from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), one of the most active organizations in Sudan and one of the few still operating in besieged areas. Much more could have been done, much more can be done, and much more should be done from now on to challenge these restrictions, both practically and politically, he adds. In an implicit acknowledgment of the crisis severity, the military governments Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) announced on December 24 that it would distribute hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid throughout the country likely influenced by concerns over international pressure. However, these supplies will a priori be directed to areas controlled by the army. The HAC has not responded to requests for comment from EL PAIS. Despite the current increase in deliveries, many of the most affected areas are still receiving only the bare minimum of supplies necessary to prevent starvation, and even that is not always enough. According to the WFP, the 700 trucks announced in November could feed about 1.5 million people for one month. However, in Zamzam alone, MSF estimates that around 100 trucks would be needed each month to supply a months worth of emergency rations of approximately 500 calories per day. The challenges faced by humanitarian actors have highlighted the growing significance of local mutual aid initiatives, which are primarily supported by the Sudanese diaspora and have proven highly effective in areas isolated by the ongoing conflict. As I speak to you, I have a WFP delivery that I expect to leave the warehouse tomorrow. We try to distribute aid, even if it is interrupted, not continuous, and not abundant, says Abdallah, part of the emergency response unit in the southern belt of Khartoum, who also assists in a free medical center. However, these grassroots groups are among the most vulnerable to violence, often targeted in attacks, and their continued operations remain uncertain. We are facing great challenges due to indiscriminate bombings that are happing now and the difficulty in providing assistance, says Safi, a member of the emergency response unit in Zamzam. We are calling for humanitarian aid to be provided in all possible circumstances, he adds. For many, what is desperately needed is a far greater political commitment. We are witnessing a global humanitarian failure in terms of collective response, says Lockyear. The presence of the U.N. and international NGOs is very weak, even in areas with relatively easy access, he laments. Lockyear further emphasizes that the supply of humanitarian aid must be increased by all available means, but also stresses that humanitarian response is more than just counting trucks and planes. We need humanitarian personnel on the ground; I was surprised by the lack of humanitarian presence in the places I traveled to in Darfur, he adds. WFPs Kinzli agrees. We continue to search for different ways to get aid or assistance to people, even if we cant get trucks [to certain parts of the country], she says. The needs in Sudan are so immense that one in two people is facing acute levels of hunger, she stresses. This means that basically everyone needs some kind of help. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition Even before the move, Europe had sharply reduced its consumption of Russian gas in response to Moscows invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. Volumes through the Ukrainian transit pipeline had fallen to around a quarter of their prewar levels. Besides Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and several Balkan countries had still used Russian gas delivered through Ukraine, but experts say gas in storage facilities and alternative supplies should prevent any immediate disruptions to electricity and heating in these countries. More vulnerable is Moldova. In December, it declared a state of emergency amid fears that an end to supplies of Russian gas through Ukraine would endanger its main source of electricity, a gas-fuelled power plant in the breakaway Russian-speaking region of Transnistria. Gazprom warned Moldova this week that it would halt all gas deliveries on January 1 even if the pipeline through Ukraine kept working, citing a long-running dispute over unpaid bills. Immediately hit by the shutdown was Transnistria, a sliver of Moldovan territory next to Ukraine that, with support from Moscow, declared itself an independent microstate after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The energy company in the breakaway region told its customers on Wednesday that it would stop supplying gas for heating to private houses in cities, villages and towns. The company will provide gas for cooking until the pressure in the network drops to a critical level, it said in a statement on Telegram. We wont allow them to earn additional billions off our blood Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky That Russia would risk hurting its own proxies in Transnistria, which has been occupied by Russian troops for more than three decades, is a measure of how the war in Ukraine has altered Moscows priorities. Ukraine, too, has faced difficult choices. Struggling to withstand relentless Russian assaults both on the front and directed at its energy grid, Kyiv appears to have decided that an opportunity to deliver an economic blow to the Kremlin by reducing its earnings from gas exports outweighed the potential risks. We wont allow them to earn additional billions off our blood, Zelensky said when he announced the decision in December to shut down the pipeline. Stopping the flow of Russian gas through Ukraine is part of a broader battle being waged over global energy supplies as Kyiv and its allies seek ways to cut into the oil and gas profits at the heart of the Russian economy. It underscores just how much the European political and energy landscape has changed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Bota Iliyas, a senior analyst at PRISM, a strategic intelligence firm, said before the shutdown. Russias invasion of Ukraine is permanently reshaping the global energy markets. Credit: AP Russia spent more than half a century expanding its share of the European market, and the main conduit was the Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline from Siberia to Ukraines border with Slovakia. It brings the Siberian gas via the town of Sudzha which is now under control of Ukrainian military forces in Russias Kursk region. At its peak, Russia supplied nearly 40 per cent of imported gas consumed in Europe. While most European Union nations stopped importing natural gas that arrived by pipeline from Russia immediately after the full-scale invasion, it was only in June that Brussels put in place sanctions aimed at squeezing Russias profits from the sale of liquefied natural gas, which is mostly transported by ship. As of December, the pipeline through Ukraine accounted for only about 5 per cent of the European Unions gas imports, analysts said. An analysis by the EU executive arm, the European Commission, first reported by Bloomberg, found that there were alternative supplies available, and forecasts suggested the impact on prices would be minimal. Loading Targeting Russian energy sales has obvious geopolitical implications as well as economic costs. As Ukraine prepared to stop the flow of gas, Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia travelled to Moscow in December to meet with President Vladimir Putin. The trip was a blow to European unity in keeping the Kremlin isolated and a clear signal that Moscow would use any avenue available to stay connected to the European market. As soon as Fico returned to Bratislava, he threatened to cut Ukraine off from vital energy supplies it needs to sustain its battered power grid, which relies on power imported from the European Union to function after years of Russian bombardment. About 19 per cent of the electricity Ukraine imports from the Europe Union flows through Slovakia, according to Ukrainian officials. Zelensky said Fico was doing Moscows bidding by opening a second energy front in the war. Slovakias populist Prime Minister Robert Fico. Credit: AP We are fighting for lives, Fico is fighting for money, Zelensky said, in perhaps his harshest rebuke of a European leader since the start of the war. Galushchenko, Ukraines energy minister, said that halting electricity supplies to Ukraine would violate European regulations, and Kyiv has issued an appeal to Brussels to block the move. At the same time, Ukraine is negotiating with other European allies, including Poland, to import more power and offset any action Slovakia might take. Ukraines refusal to renew the agreement that allowed for the transit of Russia gas is not expected to have much economic impact on Kyiv, which did not make a significant profit from the transit fees, analysts said. But it was likely to deal another blow to Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled energy giant that recorded a net loss of $US7 billion ($11.3 billion) in 2023, its first annual loss since 1999, largely a result of being driven out of EU gas markets. Clearly, from a Russian perspective, the major argument in favour of sustaining the Ukrainian transit route is that this will permit Gazprom to obtain $US6.5 billion in revenues, Alan Riley, a specialist in energy law and competition, wrote in an analysis for the Estonian Centre for Defence and Strategy, a research institution. Ukraine has been working to decrease its own dependence on Russia to meet its energy needs and recently announced that it had imported liquefied natural gas from the United States, via Greece, for the first time. Neil Young has pulled out of Glastonbury in protest at the BBC exerting corporate control over the festival. The singer said he had been booked to play the festival this summer with his band, The Chrome Hearts, but suggested the BBC had imposed rules that were not to his liking. Neil Young performs at the BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival in California, as seen in a file photo. Credit: AP He wrote on his website: The Chrome Hearts and I were looking forward to playing Glastonbury, one of my all time favourite outdoor gigs. We were told that the BBC was now a partner in Glastonbury and wanted us to do a lot of things in a way we were not interested in. It seems Glastonbury is now under corporate control and is not the way I remember it being. Thanks for coming to see us the last time! The Sheik of Scrubby Creek has ended his reign after more than 70 years. Tributes have begun to flow for Chad Morgan after the Australian country music great with the unmistakable smile died at the age of 91. The larrikin entertainer passed away at Gin Gin hospital north of Brisbane on Wednesday night, drawing the curtain on one of Australias most recognisable stars. Country singer Chad Morgan. The larger-than-life singer and comedian was known for his standout grin and upturned hat fastened by a safety pin. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Armaguard chief executive Matt Caulfield, whose company is responsible for the safe storage and transport of about 90 per cent of the countrys cash, wouldnt mind if he never saw a coin again. Coins are very heavy relative to their value, he says. Our operations, including storing and processing coins, are complex, cumbersome and expensive to operate. Its the 5 piece that costs the country the most. In September 2022, Royal Australian Mint chief executive Leigh Gordon revealed it cost more than 12 to make each 5 coin. In 2022-23, the Mint made more than 110 million Australian coins. In 2023-24, it made about 47 million. Credit: Matt Davidson And despite only 18,700 5 pieces being purchased from the Mint in 2023-24, it made 10 million more 5 coins this year with the image of King Charles. Except for coins locked up in shops and ATMs, or those down the sides of couches and underneath beds, Australias cash sits mostly in Armaguards secure facilities and armoured vehicles. Were like Uber for cash, Caulfield says. But he would much rather have banknotes for passengers than coins. Advertisement While $1 million in banknotes could fit snugly in a briefcase, the same amount in $2 coins would require the space of several bathtubs. If it were up to Caulfield, the 50 piece would be first on the chopping block. 50 pieces are the heaviest and most cumbersome, and their shape is unique, he says, which makes carting them around the nation an expensive and heavy task. Then theres the cost of producing coins. While the Mint declined to reveal more recent cost-of-production data, chief financial officer Amanda Benn says it is largely based on metal prices. The majority of the cost fits within the metal component, she says. There are some additional costs for workers and overheads, including machine maintenance. Advertisement The $1 and $2 coins, made up of 92 per cent copper, generally cost less to produce than 5, 10 and 20 coins, which are 75 per cent copper and 25 per cent nickel. Although the Mint was making a loss on producing 5 coins two years ago, Benn says it has consistently made a profit from its overall coin production. Or to use the parlance of the currency world, it had positive seigniorage (the difference between the cost of making a coin and selling it). But the use of cash is declining, and Caulfield can see that first-hand through Armaguards business. In 2022, cash payments accounted for just 13 per cent of all consumer payments down from 70 per cent in 2007. Caulfield says businesses are sending coins back to Armaguard by the truckload, and millions including the surplus stock stored on behalf of the Mint are piled up in its vaults. These coins may not be used again, he says. The fate of these coins will depend on the Mints guidance. Demand for cash has fallen through the floor since COVID-19, Caulfield says, with the sharpest drop in 5 and 10 pieces. Advertisement While Caulfield might like to see the end of the 50 piece, an ANZ spokesperson says the banks data shows consistent demand for $1 and 50 coins. The bank dishes out more of these than it receives from customers, but has a surplus of 5 and 20 coins. How our customers bank has changed in recent years, particularly since COVID, with more customers using digital banking than ever before, the spokesperson says. Just 1 per cent of the banks transactions are conducted over the counter. Royal rise Since King Charles became monarch, the Mint has made more than 45 million coins with his visage, including 5 million 50 pieces and 10 million 5 pieces. When we do release new effigy coins, we tend to see a little spike in demand for them ... then [people] hoard them. Royal Australian Mint CFO Amanda Benn But even with a new head of state, why is the Mint making so many coins? Production of coins will continue as long as there is some demand out there for them, Benn says, noting some people in the community require coins or prefer to use cash. Advertisement And when theres a new effigy, there tends to be a bit of hoarding. When we do release new effigy coins, we tend to see a little spike in demand for them, she says. People want to get their hands on them, and they like to get them fairly new. Then they hoard them and they dont put them back into circulation. Benn says coins also get lost or end up collecting dust. There has been a drop-off in demand, but we tend to find, anecdotally, that those smaller denomination coins dont necessarily get returned into the pool, she says. Kids pop them into their money boxes, they fall down into couches, and people just forget about them and dont use them. As demand for coins has declined, so has production, Benn says, with the Mints forecasts, based on historical demand, suggesting it will probably shrink further. In 2022-23, the Mint made more than 110 million Australian coins. The year before that, it made more than 134 million. In 2023-24, it made about 47 million. Advertisement The Bulldogs have secured a major new years coup, landing the services of Newcastle prop forward Leo Thompson on a four-year deal from 2026. The Kiwi international, regarded as one of the most improved players in the NRL over the past two years, knocked back a lucrative offer from the Canberra Raiders worth around $3.5 million over four years to accept a deal of lesser value at the Bulldogs. The 24-year-olds decision to leave Newcastle at the end of his current deal means he will leave $200,000 on the table in the form of an upgrade in 2025, which was conditional on extending his contract. Thompson on Thursday informed Canterbury officials of his decision to head to Belmore in 2026. Thompson was swayed by the trajectory of the Bulldogs, who finished in the top six in 2024, and believes they can challenge for premierships over the duration of his deal. You might not realise it, but river cruises operate on some 50 of the worlds rivers. Want somewhere more exciting than Europe? An increasing number of new ships and new itineraries on alternate rivers will entice anyone with a sense of adventure or need for variety. Europe is the heartland of river cruising, but interest is blossoming in rivers on other continents. A 2023 survey by Avalon Waterways showed that the Nile, Mekong and Amazon are the top rivers of interest beyond Europe. Uniworld has reported an almost 50 per cent surge in passengers on the Nile and Mekong, and a significant increase of interest in cruises on the Amazon and Ganges. Wendy Wu Tours too has reported soaring demand for Mekong cruises, with 70 per cent more inquiries this year than last. Nile a new favourite for cruisers The Pyramids at sunset with Avalon Waterways. Credit: Getty Images The Peruvian Amazon might be next. It has long been overlooked, with only niche companies such as Aqua Expeditions and Delfin operating there, although their ships are often chartered to more recognised international companies. Some ocean-going vessels also sail the Brazilian Amazon. After the setback of the Battle of Kyiv in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin evolved the theory of victory in his war against Ukraine. Since then, the Russian theory of victory has been to sustain its war effort through mobilisation, casualty tolerance and collaboration with China, Iran and North Korea until Western populations and politicians tire of the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin. Credit: AP Putin has for some time viewed US President-elect Donald Trumps inauguration on January 20 this year as a kind of finishing line in this effort. It is a line created through the comments of Trump who has described Ukraine as a demolished country and said it should have made concessions before Russias February 2022 invasion and other American conservatives. It is a line that Putin sees as his salvation in a war that has cost much and returned him little. Putin is sprinting to that line. There are several components of his accelerated campaign in Ukraine. First, the Russians have accelerated the number of daily attacks. Despite the huge numbers of casualties suffered by Russia, which Ukraine claims hit 2000 in a single day in late November, its army has been able to replace its losses. It has therefore been able to increase the tempo of its ground combat operations in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Centre for Defence Strategies tracks daily figures about attacks, combat engagements, casualties and many other statistics. According to its figures, this time last year, Russia engaged in an average of fewer than 100 combat actions a day. It now often exceeds 200. In 2024, Russia captured almost 3000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory. One-third of this occurred in the past two months. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old Texas man accused of crashing a truck into New Years Day revellers in New Orleans, killing 15 and injuring dozens of people, served in the US Army for 13 years including a deployment to Afghanistan, the army said. Federal officials and law enforcement in New Orleans said that Jabbar did not act alone and that they were looking for accomplices. The FBI said Jabbar had an Islamic State flag on his truck and consider the attack as a potential act of terrorism. The Islamic State, or ISIS, is a Sunni Muslim militant group that has carried out attacks throughout the world. A passport photo of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man accused of driving into people in New Orleans killing at least 15. Credit: FBI While the investigation continues, so far, no information has surfaced to explain why Jabbar, a US citizen raised in Texas, would carry out the attack. Jabbar died at the scene in a shootout with police, officials said. In a press conference at Camp David, President Joe Biden said he had received a briefing from the FBI about Jabbars background. Just four days after President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria on the night of December 8, the countrys new strongman, Islamist leader Ahmed al-Sharaa also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani was driving through central Damascus with Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkeys National Intelligence Organization (MIT), in the passenger seat. Six days later, the Turkish flag was raised again at the embassy in the Syrian capital, which had been closed for 12 years. And just two weeks after the regimes collapse, Ankaras top diplomat, Hakan Fidan, became the first foreign minister to visit al-Sharaa, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who was seen wearing a suit and tie for the first time. It was all part of a carefully crafted image of a moderate ruler for the head of the militia who, just a month ago, in a lightning 12-day offensive, forced Assad to flee to Moscow after a quarter of a century in power. In the culmination of its neo-Ottoman expansion strategy across part of its former empire, Turkey has quickly staked its claim in Syria. An unprecedented deployment of spies, diplomats, security agents, and bodyguards has been visible on the streets and in hotels of Damascus. Ankara has also sent 120 members of its Ministry of the Interiors rescue teams to search for hidden underground cells in the notorious Saidnaya prison, a symbol of the atrocities committed by the Assad family during half a century of dictatorship. Dozens of Turkish reporters have closely followed these developments, with Turkish media deploying one of the largest international presences in the country, including television broadcasting teams stationed at key points in the Syrian capital. Since becoming Turkeys top political leader in 2002, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had to wait for his gamble on the Syrian opposition and his stance against the Assad regime to pay off, emerging as a winner after more than 13 years of civil strife, destruction, and barbarism. Turkey has worked hard to reverse its course as sidelined power a position the war had relegated it to. The downing of a Russian Su-24 fighter jet by the Turkish air force in November 2015 on the Syrian border, described by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a treacherous attack, led to heightened tensions with Moscow, which retaliated with harsh economic sanctions on Ankara. Erdogan was forced to apologize seven months later and accept Russias dominance and the dominance of its allies in Iran and the Shiite militias on Syrias battlefields. He also agreed to submit to the Astana negotiation process, overseen by Russia with Iranian support in Kazakhstans capital, effectively sidelining the U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva. A leader as direct as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been quick to point out that Turkey now holds the key to what happens in Syria. The Republican leader, who established a close relationship with Turkish President Erdogan during his first term, now seems intent on strengthening it further. Erdogan is somebody I got along with great, said Trump, adding the Turkish leader has built a very strong, powerful army. No other crisis has redefined Turkeys place in regional and international politics as much as the Syrian conflict, states a recent report from the Royal Institute of International Studies in London, better known as Chatham House. The analysis from this British think tank highlights that Erdogans strong support for the Syrian opposition has boosted expectations of his increased influence in Damascus.The fall of Assad will probably have a reverse effect: it will likely put more pressure on Turkeys relations with Russia and Iran while driving Turkey and the West closer, adds the report. During a visit from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who brought an additional 1 billion to ease the burden of Syrian refugees, Erdogan called for a tangible and immediate improvement in relations between Turkey and the European Union. After 25 years of stalled EU membership talks, Ankara is now demanding a new Customs Union agreement to replace the one from 2005 and the elimination of visa requirements for its nationals within the Schengen area. Turkeys influence in Syria seems to have reached its peak with the collapse of the Assad regime. From the outset of his successive terms as both prime minister and president with full executive powers Erdogan championed a neo-Ottoman diplomatic approach in Syria, based on economic interdependence with countries that once formed part of the Ottoman Empire. With a 560-mile border along the historic Silk Road, trade ties, tourism, and cooperation between the two countries thrived until 2011, when Erdogan sided with opposition forces and severed ties with Damascus following the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Syrian refugee families in Turkiye wait at the Cilvegozu border crossing to return to Syria, on December 9. Metin Yoksu (Associated Press / LaPresse) Turkey has specifically supported Islamist militias linked to the political orbit of the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that originated in Egypt over a century ago. These groups later formed the Syrian National Army (SNA), formerly known as the Free Syrian Army. These factions became a key force used by Ankara against Kurdish fighters, who were allied with the United States in the fight against ISIS. The militias also established a presence in the southern part of Syria, along the border with Jordan and the Golan Heights, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Israel has used the regimes collapse as an opportunity to expand its territorial control in the region. Although Turkey initially considered Hayat Tahrir al-Sham a terrorist group due to its Al-Qaeda origins, it has maintained control over border supplies and humanitarian aid entering Idlib, the last significant stronghold of the Islamist opposition in northwestern Syria. Turkish relations with HTS have grown increasingly close. Following the final offensive against Assad in which Ankara denies direct involvement, though it is hard to imagine it occurring without at least tacit approval Turkeys presence and influence in Syria have expanded. And Turkey expected to play a significant role in the future. Amidst the civil conflict, Turkey deployed peacekeeping forces to the Idlib enclave, which had been under siege by the Syrian government and its allies for years. Turkish presence is visible in the newly established Syrian security forces, which emerged from HTS and now patrol areas around Damascus and Homs. Alongside senior officials managing day-to-day local administration, it is common to see political advisers who have returned to their hometowns from Idlib, dressed in the elegant, Italian-inspired fashion of Istanbul. However, to reap the rewards of Syrias reconstruction for its major companies, Turkey will need to invest significant resources while awaiting international aid. The Istanbul Stock Exchange saw gains of up to 10% in the first session after Assads regime fell, reflecting optimism for rebuilding. The Ministry of Transport has already drafted plans to repair roads, bridges, and airports. With only Damascus and Aleppo airports operational (albeit precariously), Turkeys push for Syrian stability is crucial, especially as it hosts over 3.5 million Syrian refugees. An alternative answer to the Kurdish question In the past three weeks, Turkey and its Syrian allies have forced the Syrian Democratic Forces, Kurdish-based militias linked to the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been fighting against Ankaras central government in southeastern Anatolia for over four decades to retreat east of the Euphrates River. The new situation in Syria, now without Assad, has left the countrys Kurds appearing weaker, but it also presents a potential opening for a political solution to Turkeys longstanding Kurdish question. A proposal from ultra-nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli, Erdogans parliamentary ally, to release PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan who has been serving a life sentence since his capture in 1999 is already on the table as a potential first step, provided he orders the cessation of the armed struggle and the dissolution of the guerrilla group. For the first time since the failed 2013 peace process between the Turkish government and the PKK, Kurdish nationalist MPs from Turkey have been allowed to visit Ocalan, who is now 76, at the Imrali prison in the Sea of Marmara. In a note published last Sunday on the website of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Party (DEM), Ocalan stated: I am ready... to make the call [for the dissolution of the PKK]. Incidents in Gaza and Syria demonstrated that the solution to this problem that is being aggravated by external intervention cannot be delayed any longer. The internal Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed around 45,000 lives since it began in 1984. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition China slaps sanctions on US firms over Taiwan arms sales Beijing, Jan 2 (AFP) Jan 02, 2025 China sanctioned 10 US defence firms on Thursday over arms sales to Taiwan, its second round of measures against American companies over the issue in less than a week. Subsidiaries of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon that had "participated in selling arms to Taiwan" were added to China's "Unreliable Entities List", the country's Ministry of Commerce announced Thursday. They will be prohibited from import and export activities or making new investments in China, while their senior managers will be banned from entering the country, the ministry said. Last Friday China announced sanctions on seven US military-industrial companies, including Boeing subsidiary Insitu, also over US military assistance to Taiwan. The self-ruled island is a key point of contention between Beijing and Washington. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has said it will not renounce the use of force to bring it under its control. Washington does not recognise the democratic island diplomatically but is its strategic ally and largest supplier of weapons. In December, US President Joe Biden agreed to provide $571.3 million in defence support to Taiwan. The actions "interfere in China's internal affairs, and undermine China's sovereignty and territorial integrity", a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said at a regular press conference last Friday. China has intensified pressure on Taiwan in recent years and has staged three rounds of major military drills since President Lai Ching-te came to power in May. On Thursday, China's commerce ministry also added 28 US entities, mostly defence firms, to its Export Control List, banning the export of dual-use items to them. General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Boeing Defense, Space & Security were among those added "to safeguard national security and interests, and fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation", the ministry said. Iraqi Kurdish city bans groups accused of PKK links Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, Jan 2 (AFP) Jan 02, 2025 Authorities in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah have banned four organisations accused of affiliation with the Turkish-blacklisted Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), activists said Thursday, denouncing the move as "political". The four organisations include two feminist groups and a media production house, according to the METRO centre for press freedoms which organised a news conference in Sulaimaniyah to criticise the decision. PKK fighters have several positions in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases used to strike Kurdish insurgents. Ankara and Washington both deem the PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey, a terrorist organisation. Authorities in Sulaimaniyah, the Iraqi Kurdistan region's second city, have been accused of leniency towards PKK activities. But the Iraqi federal authorities in Baghdad have recently sharpened their tone against the Turkish Kurdish insurgents. Colonel Salam Abdel Khaleq, the spokesman for the Kurdish Asayesh security forces in Sulaimaniyah, told AFP that the bans came "after a decision from the Iraqi judiciary and as a result of the expiration of the licenses" of these groups. The move to ban the groups has nonetheless sparked anger, with METRO centre director Diyar Mohamed denouncing it as being "the fruit of external pressures". "This decision is political and not judicial, we strongly condemn it," he told AFP. He described the decision as "unjustifiable", adding that none of the groups had been involved in any "partisan activity", according to a statement by METRO. In March, following a visit to Iraq by top Turkish officials, federal authorities in Baghdad quietly classed the PKK as a "banned organisation". By mid-August, Baghdad and Ankara had signed a military cooperation deal to establish joint command and training centres with the aim of fighting the PKK. Tawar Adel, the head of the Gezengi Barbayan production house, said security forces had arrived at their headquarters on Tuesday to order them to stop working. "We were surprised by the ban on our company. Since 2017, we have had the official licence of the Kurdish ministry of commerce and we renewed it in May 2024," she said. Israel says struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon Jerusalem, Jan 2 (AFP) Jan 02, 2025 The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in south Lebanon on Thursday, despite a fragile ceasefire with the militant group. The truce, which took effect on November 27, has been marked by mutual accusations of violations from both sides. The Israeli military said Thursday's strike targeted medium-range rocket launchers in the Nabatieh area. Lebanon's official National News Agency reported at least three Israeli strikes in the area. "Prior to the strike a request was sent to the Lebanese armed forces to neutralise the launchers that posed a threat to Israeli civilians and... troops," the military said in a statement. "The launchers were struck only after the request was not addressed by the Lebanese armed forces." Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period. Hezbollah is to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River -- some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border -- and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south. In late December, the UN peacekeeping force expressed concern at the "continuing" damage done by Israeli forces in south Lebanon. On Thursday, the Israeli military insisted it was acting to remove any threat to Israel "in accordance with the ceasefire understandings". The U.S. federal government recognizes 11 holidays. The latest to be added to the list is Juneteenth, June 19, preceded by Martin Luther King Jr. Day, two important dates for Black American communities. On a federal holiday, most government offices and some private businesses close. Whether or not employees get the day off depends on the employer. Private companies are not required by federal law to give any of the federal holidays off, but many of them offer at least some as paid time off. Below are all the federal holidays in the United States for 2025. New Years Day Date: Wednesday, January 1 Fixed date. Marks the beginning of the Gregorian calendar year. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Date: Monday, January 20 Observed on the third Monday in January. The holiday was established on November 2, 1983, and commemorates the birth and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who led nonviolent resistance to Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination, advancing the civil rights movement. George Washingtons Birthday Date: Monday, February 17 This holiday honors George Washington, founding father and first President of the United States. Originally, it was commemorated on February 22, Washingtons birthdate, but in 1968 it was changed to the third Monday in February, meaning the holiday never falls on his actual birthday. Some call it Presidents Day, since Abraham Lincolns birthday falls on February 12. Memorial Day Date: Monday, May 26 Celebrated on the last Monday in May. This holiday Memorial Day is to honor and mourn U.S. servicemen and women who have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Juneteenth Date: Thursday, June 19 Fixed date. Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved individuals in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas (although some places took longer to end slavery). The first celebrations date back to 1866, and it was established as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. A group of women embrace during an event to commemorate Juneteenth in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ERIC MILLER (Reuters) Independence Day Date: Friday, July 4 Fixed date. This holiday celebrates the adoption in 1776 of the Declaration of Independence of the American colonies from British rule, which established the United States of America. Labor Day Date: Monday, September 1 Celebrated on the first Monday in September, this holiday was established to honor and recognize the American labor movement. Columbus Day Date: Monday, October 13 Celebrated on the first Monday in October. It marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492, which triggered a mass migration from Europe to the new continent. Some commemorate it as Indigenous Peoples Day, honoring the Native Americans who lived on the continent before the arrival of Europeans. Veterans Day Date: Tuesday, November 11 Fixed date. Established as Armistice Day in 1938 to commemorate the end of World War I. In 1954, President Eisenhower signed a bill changing the name of the holiday to Veterans Day to honor all military veterans of U.S. forces (living or dead). Thanksgiving Day Date: Thursday, November 27 American Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving, celebrates the fall harvest on the fourth Thursday in November. The event commonly known as the first Thanksgiving is said to have been celebrated by the Pilgrims with members of the Wampanoag tribe. Some Native American groups call it National Day of Mourning, and commemorate it to raise awareness of the struggles faced by Native tribes. Christmas Day Date: Thursday, December 25 Fixed date. Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated by Christians with religious traditions, but also by non-Christians, who follow secular traditions. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition At the core of this shift is satellite data, offering farmers a birds-eye view of their fields. From monitoring crop health to predicting weather and optimizing resources, satellites provide invaluable insights that drive smarter decisions and reduce waste. This isn't about fancy gadgets or complex formulas; this is about giving farmers the power of making better decisions, minimizing wastage, and growing more with less. This is where agriculture, as old as civilization itself, will meet tomorrow's challenges without compromising the needs of today. Satellite Data in Precision Agriculture In modern farming, using satellite imaging in agriculture has become a cornerstone for smarter and more efficient practices. While it can monitor large areas of farmland from space, satellite imagery provides information to farmers that was otherwise impossible to obtain. From the health of crops to the dampness of the soil to the yield forecast, this is a bird's-eye look at agricultural landscapes for informed decisions and optimization of resources. Satellite data has quite a few key roles in precision agriculture. First, it allows for real-time monitoring of crops, which will help farmers detect problems such as pest infestations, diseases, or nutrient deficiencies before they spread. Second, satellites provide much-needed weather and climate data that allow farmers to plan planting, irrigation, and harvesting schedules more efficiently. Third, satellite imaging of soil moisture will guarantee efficient usage of water resources, reducing waste and allowing sustainable practices. Among the many advantages of satellite technology are high-resolution satellite imagery that enables farmers to perceive field-level information with great clarity. This image can detect minute changes in crop health, soil quality, and irrigation coverage that may not be visible otherwise. With high-resolution satellite images, farmers can, for example, spot the plots that are under drought stress or nutrient deficiency, thus acting fast with targeted intervention methods. This will increase crop yields while decreasing superfluous application of fertilizers, pesticides, and water, thus reducing costs and ensuring environmental sustainability. Moreover, the integration of high-res satellite images with precision farming tools has revolutionized field management. Today, farmers are able to create highly accurate digital field maps that guide machinery to plant, fertilize, and harvest their crops with pinpoint accuracy. These maps allow growers to minimize overlaps and missed spots, thus optimizing efficiency and minimizing resource waste. Furthermore, analyzing satellite data over time lets farmers monitor crop growth patterns, identify problem areas that may recur, and develop informed improvements in field management strategies. Another important application of detailed satellite imagery is yield prediction and risk assessment. By comparing historical data with current field conditions captured through satellite imagery, agronomists can forecast potential yields and optimize resource allocation. This predictive power is invaluable for large-scale farms, where even slight improvements in planning can result in significant financial gains. Additionally, in the event of natural disasters such as floods or droughts, high resolution images can provide evidence for crop insurance claims, reducing disputes and accelerating compensation processes. Looking to the future, the combination of AI-powered analytics with high-resolution satellite imagery will unlock even greater possibilities. Advanced algorithms can process highest quality satellite imagery in real-time, offering instant insights into crop health, disease risks, and even pest infestations. This level of immediacy allows farmers to address problems before they escalate, ensuring crops remain healthy throughout their lifecycle. There are also warnings of ice and snow in the far north, Orkney and Shetland on Thursday and Friday, with the Met Office saying 3-7cm of snow is likely in places, while up to 10cm could fall on higher ground. The Biden administration is deporting migrants at a rapid pace. Federal judges closed almost a million cases in fiscal year 2024, the highest number since 2015, when records began. The outgoing administration is warming up the engines of the great expulsion machinery that Donald Trump wants to set in motion when he returns to the White House on January 20. However, the huge backlog of cases could serve as a dam to the deportation plan that the president-elect intends to carry out. Some 3.5 million files are still pending review in the 71 federal courts in the country. These include 1.7 million cases in which asylum has been requested. Fiscal year 2024 (from October 1, 2023 to September 30) was the busiest year for these courts, which answer to the executive branch, not the judiciary. The 700 immigration judges closed 914,000 cases, 36% more than in fiscal year 2023. There was an average of 58,000 cases closed monthly. May broke all records with 87,000 cases closed. Nearly 850,000 appeals in 2024 involved deportation orders. Most cases were processed in Miami (47,000), followed by New York (45,000), Orlando (36,000), Chicago (32,000) and Dallas (29,000). The highest rate of removal orders was registered in Montana and the lowest in Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country. In November, 2,042 immigrants were granted asylum and about 800 were denied this protection after arguing their case before a judge. Nearly four out of 10 cases that reach these judges result in a deportation order. An analysis by Syracuse University (New York) indicates that, if the trend continues, fiscal year 2025 will break records for decisions on deportation cases. So far this fiscal year (through November 2024), immigration judges had issued removal and voluntary departure orders in 45.4% of completed cases, totaling 64,553 deportation orders. The majority of these individuals had Mexican citizenship. The percentage exceeds the average for fiscal years 2023 and 2024, when it was around 39%. However, removal orders do not guarantee that an immigrant will immediately leave U.S. soil: the Biden administration deported 271,000 people in fiscal year 2024, a figure lower than court decisions that point in this direction. Guatemalan migrants deported from the United States wait for their identification cards after landing at La Aurora International Airport, in Guatemala City, on December 27, 2024. Moises Castillo (AP) In some cases, it can take years to locate, prosecute and expel a person. This delay occurs even in high-profile cases, as recently happened with the Somali war criminal Yusuf Abdi Ali, 71. The U.S. government announced last week that it had finally put on a plane the man who was the commander of the 5th Brigade of the army in northwest Somalia from 1987 to 1988 under President Mohamed Siad Barre. In that position, Ali ordered a number of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial executions, the burning of several villages and the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines against civilians. Ali, who was known to his victims as Colonel Tukeh (The Crow), had been living on the run since the 1990s, when Said Barre was overthrown. A Canadian television network identified him in 1992 when Ali was working as a security guard in Toronto. Canadian authorities deported him shortly after that, and the war criminal entered the United States in 1996, despite the fact that the country had banned him from entering. In 2019, Yusuf Abdi Ali was located once again: he was living in Virginia and working as a driver for Uber, where he had a rating of 4.89. Figures analyzed by Syracuse University indicate that only 0.74% of FY 2025 new cases sought deportation orders based on any alleged criminal activity of the immigrant (other than illegal entry into the United States). President-elect Trump has signaled that his mass deportation drive will begin with criminals or people with criminal records. This is nothing new. People in law enforcement custody are those who are most at risk of early deportation and are removed from the country more quickly. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had about 38,000 people under surveillance as of December 1. Trumps border czar, Tom Homan, will seek to have Congress expand ICEs budget so that it can keep about 100,000 people in custody. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition Police cordons have been set up around the streets of the town, located just 18 miles away from the capital of Podgorica, as investigators look into the deadly incident. The tech tycoon has been given a key role leading a department to improve government efficiency in Trumps incoming administration and it is feared by some that his outspoken criticism of the PM could damage the so-called special relationship between the UK and US. He said: "As well as new powers, we must get the approach right. To do so, the Border Security Command should follow the lead of MI5's approach to tackling terrorists. MI5's priority when operating against terror cells is to stop terrorist attacks from happening." The Prime Minister said his thoughts with were with the victims, their loved ones and the wider US after a vehicle drove into a crowd in the citys popular Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Years Day. An Oldham Council spokesman said: Survivors sit at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation. Whatever happens in terms of future inquiries, we have promised them that their wishes will be paramount, and we will not renege on that pledge. I'm sorry, but ADHD has become a scam that is wildly overdiagnosed and an excuse for poor behaviour I'm sorry, but ADHD has become a scam that is wildly overdiagnosed "This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil," said Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick. She added that the attacker "was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did". Islamic State has been implicated in the attack, with Mr Biden saying that the FBI had found videos of Jabbar saying he was inspired by them. He was also carrying an Islamic State flag during the assault. Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old active duty member of the U.S. Army, was the man who burned to death inside the Tesla Cybertruck he had rented, which exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday. His identity has been confirmed by official sources, according to the Associated Press. The FBI was investigating the incident as a premeditated act, with agents inspecting Livelsbergers residence in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he had driven for over 10 hours to carry out the act. Livelsberger was a member of the U.S. Armys Green Berets, an elite special forces group known for its guerrilla tactics. He joined the Army in 2006, receiving training at the renowned Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina, which specializes in anti-terrorism strategies. Livelsberger was a member of the 10th Special Forces Group. He was in the United States on leave for the Christmas season. He was based in Germany, two Pentagon sources told The Wall Street Journal. He also served in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the Congo. He was awarded a Bronze Star for combat merit and had shown no behavioral problems in his 19 years in the armed forces, both active and reserve. By Wednesday night, more details about Livelsberger began to surface. FBI agents and reporters visited the Colorado Springs address he had used to rent the Tesla Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck produced by Elon Musks company, Tesla, via the Turo app. Authorities were able to track the Cybertruck with assistance from Musk and several Tesla employees, who provided data on the charging stations Livelsberger used during his 745-mile journey, which spanned the state of Utah. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said that Livelsberger entered the city shortly after 7:30 a.m. He drove around the main boulevard several times before heading to the Trump International Hotel, a 64-story tower located north of the Strip, the bustling area known for its casinos and hotels. Livelsberger parked in front of the hotels entrance for approximately 15 seconds, during which smoke began billowing from the Cybertruck. Moments later, the vehicle exploded. On Wednesday, Sheriff McMahill presented photographs of the charred remains of the Cybertruck, known for its angular lines and futuristic design. He noted that the vehicles unique construction likely mitigated the force of the explosion, preventing significant damage to the Trump International Hotel. The blast did not even shatter the hotels windows, despite the vehicle being parked just a few feet from the lobby. Authorities released images revealing that the back of the Cybertruck was packed with gasoline canisters and fireworks mortars. The explosion produced bursts of colored fire, which were captured by the security cameras of the Trump International Hotel. Speculation arose on Wednesday afternoon that the Cybertruck explosion might be connected to the New Orleans attack during New Years Day celebrations, which left 14 people dead. That attack was carried out by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran who had also trained at Fort Bragg. However, military sources told the AP that Jabbar and Livelsberger did not overlap at the base. For now, the FBI has ruled out any connection between the two incidents. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition The United States began 2025 in shock over the countrys deadliest ever attack involving a vehicle as a weapon, which left at least 15 dead in New Orleans; added to this was the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, where one person was killed and at least seven injured. Authorities are investigating both events as potential acts of terrorism, and President Joe Biden indicated that a possible connection between the two episodes is being investigated. Theres nothing to report on that score at this time, he said on Wednesday. The two vehicles involved were rented through the same car-sharing application, Turo, but it is not yet known if there is a direct connection between the two events, which have taken place with less than three weeks to go before Donald Trumps inauguration. The provisional death toll of 15 makes the New Orleans incident the deadliest attack in the United States since a 40-year-old mentally ill man killed 18 people in Maine with a semi-automatic rifle in October 2023, many of them at a bowling alley in Lewiston. However, unlike that shooting, the mass attack in New Orleans has special connotations. The perpetrator, identified as U.S. army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was carrying an Islamic State (ISIS) flag on the truck with which he plowed into the crowd, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He used a procedure that has become standard in Islamist terrorism. The FBI is investigating the attackers possible affiliations with terrorist organizations. Authorities are also actively seeking any possible associates he might have had, said Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs New Orleans field office, at a news conference Wednesday, where she asked for public assistance in pursuing leads. Investigators are reviewing video footage showing three men and a woman apparently placing a homemade explosive device related to the attack, according to a Louisiana State Police bulletin obtained by the Associated Press. Biden noted in his testimony on Wednesday that Jabbar posted videos on social media hours before the attack in which he expressed his desire to kill and indicating that he was inspired by ISIS. Nevertheless, the president stressed that the investigation is in a preliminary phase and that no one should jump to conclusions. The president also alluded to the explosion of a Cybertruck in Las Vegas. The fact that it was a car manufactured by Tesla, the company owned by Elon Musk, Trumps main ally, and that the explosion took place at the door of the Trump International Hotel, seems to indicate that it was not an accident. Biden said that law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this event, as well as any potential ties to the New Orleans truck attack. Authorities are also investigating that explosion as a possible act of terrorism. Elon Musk ruled out the possibility that it was an accidental explosion. The tycoon also assured that the strength of the vehicle prevented greater damage: The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken, he wrote on X. The gravity of the two events is very different. The truck attack in New Orleans left at least 15 dead and dozens injured and caused panic on Bourbon Street, the busiest street in New Orleans and one of the reference points for New Years celebrations and, in general, for the citys nightlife. The explosion in Las Vegas had fewer consequences. However, if both events are connected (beyond the fact that the vehicles were rented on the same platform) or even if they have no direct relationship with each other but are both termed as terrorist acts, they will take on special significance in the midst of the transition of power in the United States. Trump will take office at noon on January 20, as required by the Constitution. The president-elect did not comment on social media about the explosion outside his hotel. He did comment on the attack in New Orleans, but he did so prematurely, when the identity of the perpetrator had not yet been revealed and he suggested that an immigrant was responsible. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, the president-elect wrote on his social network, Truth. However, he remained silent when it emerged that the perpetrator was an American citizen born in Texas and when it emerged that he was carrying an ISIS flag on his electric pickup truck, a Ford F-150 Lighting. The definition of terrorism is broad in the United States, both from a legal and conventional point of view. New York, for example, has brought terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione, the man arrested for murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Hate crimes and similar crimes are also often included under the label of domestic terrorism. The incident in New Orleans would be the terrorist attack with the most fatalities since the massacre at Walmart in El Paso (Texas) in August 2019, with 23 dead (including one who died in 2020 from complications arising from that act). If the Islamic nature of the attack is confirmed, it would also be the deadliest of its kind since Omar Siddique Mateen, an American citizen born to Afghan parents, killed 49 people in June 2016 in an Orlando nightclub popular with the gay community. After that, it would be the second largest terrorist attack since September 11, 2001. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition ST. LOUIS A state appeals court on Thursday upheld a ruling that gives Missouri Gov. Mike Parson the power to appoint the next St. Louis County prosecutor. The ruling came hours after lawyers for state and county leaders again argued the case, this time in front of three judges in the states Eastern District Court of Appeals. At the crux of the case is whether a charter countys prosecuting attorney is an officer of the county or the state. Because the prosecuting attorney performs essential state functions as a state officer, the governor has the constitutional and statutory authority to make the appointment to fill the vacancy, appellate Judge John P. Torbitzky wrote in the ruling. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, who had already named his pick for prosecutor, on Thursday afternoon said he would appeal the ruling, this time to the Missouri Supreme Court. St. Louis County should be able to select its own elected officials, said Page spokesman Doug Moore. Public safety is the number one priority in St. Louis County. While the legal process continues, its important to support the prosecuting attorneys office. The St. Louis County prosecuting attorneys office on Thursday said Parsons pick, Melissa Price Smith, would be sworn in Friday morning. Price Smith is an assistant prosecuting attorney in the county and also a Democrat. Johnathan Shiflett, the governors spokesperson, said they knew Parson had the authority to pick county prosecutor. And our position has now been affirmed twice by the courts, Shiflett said. Gov. Parson looks forward to Ms. Price Smith taking the oath of office tomorrow and her continued work to improve law and order in the region. This appeals process was expedited because of the imminent departure of current county Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, newly elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Bell will also be sworn in Friday in Washington. The ruling came less than two weeks after the circuit court judge issued his opinion. I want to thank the court for Herculean efforts, and the circuit court as well, to get this case heard quickly, Neal Perryman, a private attorney who represented Page and the county, said during Thursdays hearing. It is very much appreciated. I think its the quickest briefing schedule Ive been involved in in three decades. Appellate Judge Lisa Page responded: Ive only been here nine years, counselor, and its the fastest one Ive ever seen, too. During the hearing, Torbitzky said the matter should be determined through analyzing the function of a prosecutor. Perryman said prosecuting attorneys prosecute state laws, much like sheriffs enforce state laws. And like the sheriff, he argued, prosecuting attorneys are county officers. But Parsons attorney, Andrew Crane, reiterated his argument that prosecuting attorneys are carved out of the power of the attorney general and those prosecutors dont answer to the county or represent it. This makes them officers of the state. Ultimately, the judges ruled Thursday that state law unambiguously grants the Governor the authority to appoint a competent person to fill the prosecuting attorney vacancy, and supersedes the Countys charter provision. Perryman pointed out that the ruling will have significant ramifications: It will determine the appointment process for Missouri charter counties, which are home to about 42% of the states population. The legal battle between state and county leaders began in late November when Parson and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, both Republicans, sued Page, a Democrat, to stop him from naming Bells successor. St. Louis County lawyers argued the county charter allows Page to fill the vacancy. Page announced his choice Dec. 3: Cort VanOstran, a former assistant U.S. attorney and a Democrat. About a week later, on Dec. 12, Parson nominated Price Smith. Lawyers for the state and county last month argued in court over who should have the power to appoint a replacement. A few days later, May ruled in favor of Parson. Page appealed that ruling, arguing that other chartered county governments in Missouri have chosen replacements for their mid-term prosecutor vacancies. Air Force Academy Cadet 1st Class K. Emily Jean Foster is seen in this official, undated student photo. Foster passed away on Dec. 31, 2024. (U.S. Air Force Academy) A 23-year-old cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy died this week while at home with her family, the academy said in a Thursday Facebook post. Cadet 1st Class K. Emily Jean Foster died due to complications from brain tumors that were discovered just two weeks before her death, on Dec. 14, 2024. Hailing from Eagle, Idaho, Foster was part of the class of 2025 and majoring in Geospatial Sciences, according to the post. She was an instructor pilot with the 94th Flying Training Squadron and had been selected to receive pilot training after graduation, the post said. She was a stellar cadet, leader, mentor and friend throughout her time here at the Academy and we are shaken by her loss. We will support Emilys family, Cadet Squadron 14, her friends and colleagues and the entire Academy team during this difficult time, said Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, the academys superintendent, in the statement. The post received hundreds of comments expressing condolences. The academys post notes that support services are available for cadets and staff, including from mental health professionals and the academys chaplains. Capt. Raza Muhammad, assigned to Field Artillery Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, pulls the lanyard to fire a M777 howitzer during an exercise at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, Oct. 18, 2024. (Markus Rauchenberger/U.S. Army) GRAFENWOEHR, Germany President-elect Donald Trumps imminent return to the Oval Office is reviving concerns about a Vilseck-based Army brigades future in Germany. The 2nd Cavalry Regiment was among the 12,000 troops designated for withdrawal under an eleventh-hour plan from Trumps first administration that President Joe Biden scrapped before it could be enacted. Army leaders have called the regiment the go-to brigade for quick response within U.S. European Command, and its role on the Continent has been magnified by Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The regiment also leads NATOs multinational battle group in Poland. Army Pvt. Kendrick Harper, assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, searches for enemies during a training exercise in Vilseck, Germany, on Feb. 6, 2024. The regiment is one of NATOs top ground combat options if the need arises for a quick response to a crisis in Europe. (William Kuang/U.S. Army) Trump hasnt said anything publicly about moving troops out of Germany since winning the November election. However, he has called on allies to spend a lot more on defense. In a Dec. 8 interview with NBC News, Trump said the U.S. would absolutely remain in NATO if its members pay their bills. During his first term, Trump hounded allies that fell well short of a defense spending benchmark of 2% of gross domestic product, which was to be reached by 2024. Twenty-three of the alliances 32 members now meet that goal, including Germany. But recently appointed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has acknowledged that the 2% level is no longer enough. And Vice President-elect JD Vance in November singled out Germany for needing to contribute more to military matters. The question with no immediate answer is whether Trump would revive his first-term plan to move U.S. troops if Germany, which is constitutionally prevented from most deficit spending, doesnt pay more for defense. The uncertainty has been a source of anxiety for residents who live around the U.S. Armys sprawling training ranges in northern Bavaria, said Nils Gruender, a federal lawmaker representing Amberg and a member of the pro-business Free Democratic Party. A pullout of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment would be a catastrophe for the entire region, Gruender said in a statement. The bases in Bavaria are surrounded primarily by small towns and forests. The American troops here represent a major economic force, Vilseck Mayor Hans-Martin Schertl said, noting that the soldiers based at the Grafenwoehr Training Area pump $739 million into the economy annually. While there are groups with pro-Russian views and small leftist political parties that shun most defense spending, more domestic investment in the military is popular among many in the area, whether out of self-interest or conviction in the aftermath of Russias 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Harald Rippl, a businessman in neighboring Weiden who rents homes and apartments to American military personnel, said Germany should contribute its fair share. The possibility that Trump might reintroduce a withdrawal plan during his second term is worrisome in Vilseck and surrounding towns, he said. If you go to restaurants, if you see (Americans) at the Christmas markets, if you have American tenants (the impact of losing them) will be huge, Rippl said. The 2nd Cavalry Regiment, a 4,800-strong Army brigade combat team, is headquartered at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany, as seen here on Dec. 30, 2024. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes) Vilseck hosts Rose Barracks, the regiments home, which is connected by a series of secure roads to Tower Barracks and the grounds at Grafenwoehr, the Armys largest and most advanced permanent training area in Europe. In recent years, the U.S. has ramped up operations in Poland, which Trump praised during his first term for its willingness to spend on the military. Poland is expected to lead NATO at 4.7% of GDP spending on defense in 2025, according to budget projections released in October. However, the U.S. would be hard-pressed to quickly replicate the facilities and infrastructure it already has in Bavaria, whether in Poland or in other central and Eastern European countries. Another possibility is having fewer U.S. troops in Europe altogether. Some analysts nominated for key roles in the Trump administration have argued that Americas concerns on the Continent are detracting from the higher priority of deterring China. Jakub Janda, director of the European Values Center for Security Policy in Prague, said that although reducing the American military presence in Europe wouldnt kill NATOs deterrence capabilities, they would be significantly diminished. It would be a very bad signal if we want to negotiate with Russia from a position of strength, Janda said. Withdrawing U.S. troops from Europe in any way would be obviously not very smart during this situation. Russian President Vladimir Putin would likely see a withdrawal as a lack of commitment to European security and try to exploit the move, like when he annexed Crimea in 2014, Janda said. Such a move also could harm American bargaining power during negotiations to end the Ukraine war, he added. American personnel number about 33,000 in Germany and 90,000 in Europe, EUCOM spokesman Charles Prichard said in November. Those figures have fluctuated in recent years as U.S.-based units rotate through the country. But moving permanently based service members in Germany elsewhere whether within Europe, to the U.S. or another continent would send a far stronger signal to allies and adversaries alike. Its pretty much a game of numbers, Janda said. How many and what kind of troops would various allies and the U.S. have ready in close proximity of a potential conflict? Stars and Stripes reporter Marcus Kloeckner contributed to this report. (Jim Schulz/Stars and Stripes) Shuaibah Port, Kuwait, Jan. 28, 2004: Spc. Devel Brook of the 771st Maintenance Company directs a Humvee onto the Northern Lights, a civilian ship docked in Kuwait. The port was running 24-hour operations as the equipment of units ending their deployments headed home, and the gear of incoming units arrived. Between 975,000 and 1.3 million pieces of equipment arrived at the port in 2004 during deployments to Iraq, exceeding the number from 2003, the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Read the 2004 article and check out additional photos here. Panini lovers can indulge their love of Italian cured meats, such as mortadella, ham and salami, and specialty cheeses at All'antico Vinaio in Naples, Italy. The chain-panini shop, based in Florence, Italy, also offers vegetarian and vegan options. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) One of the best ways to get a taste of Naples can be found in a visit to a local salumeria. The neighborhood delicatessens stock prosciutto, ham and Italys much better answer to American bologna mortadella among other cured meats. You can also find a vast selection of local cheeses, including fresh buffalo mozzarella, burrata and provolone. And while its usually not displayed on a menu, if you ask, a salumeria owner will make you a panini, or sandwich, on local bread from meats and cheese freshly cut as you wait. Its a culinary experience that should top any foodies to-do list. Sadly, the options are limited for vegetarians and vegans. That fact and a yen for a panini other than the tomato, mozzarella and basil version typically offered at salumerias led me to Allantico Vinaio. Allantico Vinaio panini shop in Naples Centro Storico neighborhood offers a variety of vegetarian panini options, including the No. 3, which comes with spicy roasted eggplant, smoked provola, roasted potato cream and truffle cream on fresh focaccia for 10 euro. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) The Florence, Italy-based panini maker with worldwide locations, including in New York and Dubai, offers a variety of sandwiches on tasty focaccia, including three specifically tailored for those who dont eat meat, and another for vegans. On a recent early Sunday afternoon, a friend and I visited the shops location in Naples Centro Storico neighborhood not far from the University of Naples Frederico II. Reminiscent of chain sandwich makers in the U.S., diners first see a counter displaying an array of condiments and toppings available for panini. But thats where the similarity ends. You wont find mayonnaise, mustard or vinegar and oil here. There also isnt any shredded iceberg lettuce or pickled jalapeno peppers. The order counter at All'antico Vinaio panini shop in Naples, Italy displays a variety of condiments, including pistachio, roasted potato and truffle creams, and other toppings available for sandwiches. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) The order counter at All'antico Vinaio panini shop in Naples, Italy displays a variety of condiments, including pistachio, roasted potato and truffle creams, and other toppings available for sandwiches. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) Instead, a case displays pistachio, onion, roasted potato, truffle and other creams used to complement the meat and cheese. Roasted eggplant and zucchini, along with arugula, sundried tomatoes and a spicy pork sausage spread also are among the offerings. Diners choose their sandwich from a large menu featured on an adjacent wall that also is available by QR code. Offerings range from classics, such as the San Marco with ham, gorgonzola, truffle cream and fresh tomato to seasonal offerings like The Tasty with rolled pancetta, taleggio cheese and a pumpkin cream. There even are American favorites such as a pastrami sandwich and a smoked turkey, mozzarella, tomato and avocado version called the Venice Beach. The Paradise panini, or sandwich, at All'antico Vinaio in Naples, Italy, comes loaded with thinly sliced mortadella, stracciatella cheese, cream of pistachio and crushed pistachios on fresh focaccia bread. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) Vegans can opt for focaccia with hummus, sundried tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant. Prices range from eight to 14 euros, but the paninis are large and could easily feed two people with smaller appetites. On our visit, my meat-eating companion settled on one of Allantica Vinaios more popular paninis, the Paradise with mortadella, pistachio cream, stracciatella cheese and chopped pistachios. Originating from Bologna, Italy, mortadella is made of ground pork, spices and pistachios. It also includes pork chunks. Depending on the region, the recipe will vary. For example, myrtle berries, cloves or other ingredients can be added to mortadella, which has a smooth texture. My friends sandwich came generously loaded with meat expertly garnished with the pistachio cream and stracciatella, a creamy version of mozzarella that has been torn as part of the stretching process. The combination along with a crispy but not hard, lightly salted focaccia created the perfect mouthful in every bite, she said. Panini makers quickly assemble a variety of sandwiches available at All'antico Vinaio in Naples, Italy, wrapping them up for easy on-the-go noshing, or you can eat them in an adjacent dining room. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) I chose the vegetarian No. 3, roasted spicy eggplant, smoked provola cheese, roasted potato cream and truffle cream. Im not a fan of truffles and asked the panini maker to leave it off, which he did with no hesitation. In fact, diners can individualize their sandwich, adding toppings or condiments for a little as 50 cents to 3 euros extra. The sandwich came stuffed with eggplant with just the right amount of heat and nicely accented by the smoked provola and potato cream. Im embarrassed to say I ate every bit, and wondered what vegetarian offering I would try next time. Allantica Vinaio doesnt offer the cultural experience of a visit to an Italian deli but its imaginative menu and quick, accommodating service make it worth a visit. Panini lovers can indulge their love of Italian cured meats, such as mortadella, ham and salami, and specialty cheeses at All'antico Vinaio in Naples, Italy. The chain-panini shop, based in Florence, Italy, also offers vegetarian and vegan options. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) Allantica Vinaio Address: Corso Umberto I, 28, Naples Hours: 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Friday-Sunday Prices: 8-14 euros for panini; 2-5 euros for water, soft drinks, beer and wine; 18 euros for red or white wine by the bottle Information: allanticovinaio.com Rare-earth oxides, clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium. (Peggy Greb/U.S. Agricultural Research Service) Brazilian miner Serra Verde Group is boosting production of rare earth metals at a time of growing trade friction between the U.S. and China, the worlds dominant supplier of minerals critical to technology. The company, which started commercially producing concentrate in Brazils Goias state about a year ago, plans to deliver 5,000 tons of rare earth oxide annually in 2026, Chief Operating Officer Ricardo Grossi said in an interview. The higher output will come alongside increased capacity, he said Monday, without disclosing numbers. Serra Verde is also mulling strategic partnerships with companies and countries to expand in rare earth metals production and processing, said Grossi, whose closely held firm produces neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium. He sees a chance for the miner to become an alternative supplier to the West for such critical minerals, especially if China expands export controls against the U.S. to more metals. China has a dominant role as a producer and processor of the 17 rare earth elements used in magnets needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels, as well as in critical military hardware. The Asian nation, which controls 70% of the mined material and 90% of refining capacity, produced 240,000 tons of rare earth oxide equivalent in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Such dominance has the U.S. and allies scouring the globe for alternative sources to reduce dependence on China. Serra Verde is backed by Denham Capital and has drawn support from Energy and Minerals Group in the U.S. and the U.K.s Vision Blue Resources Ltd., including a $150 million investment in October. Negotiations for another funding round are ongoing. The investment can be made by a new partner or by our current investors, said Grossi, a mining engineer who has worked for companies such as Vale SA and Anglo American Plc. The company is also assessing the potential for an expansion of its Brazilian operations, which could double output before 2030. Serra Verdes efforts have been recognized by the Minerals Security Partnership a collaboration of 14 countries including the U.S. plus the European Union, which aims to accelerate development of sustainable, secure and diverse supply chains for these critical minerals. While prices for rare earth metals have been hurt by a glut in supplies, Serra Verde is banking on continued appetite for the elements to produce more magnets. Grossi said Asia is currently the main destination for its output. The company sees demand for its products increasing by 8.5% a year until 2035. And thats expected to be a boost to the companys balance sheet. We began showing revenue for the first time after 15 years, which is already a win, Grossi said. The companys financial dynamics are set to change completely from 2026 onwards. A Subaru sedan and a motorcycle involved in a fatal collision Wednesday were parked at the Urasoe Police Station, Okinawa, on Jan. 2, 2025. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes) CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa A Japanese motorcyclist was killed early New Years Day in a two-vehicle collision involving a U.S. Marine, according to Japanese police. The 22-year-old Marine from Camp Foster was northbound on Route 58 in a sedan when he collided with a motorcycle at 5:21 a.m. Wednesday in the Gusukuma district of Urasoe city, an Okinawa Prefectural Police spokesman said by phone Thursday. He declined to identify the Marine, who was not arrested. The motorcyclist, Koji Moriyama, 56, of Urasoe, was declared dead at 6:16 a.m. at a hospital in southern Okinawa, the spokesman said. The Marine was not under the influence of alcohol at the time, a spokesman at the Urasoe Police Station said Thursday. The Marine was not injured in the collision and cooperated with police at the scene, according to an email Thursday from Wes Hayes, a spokesman for Marine Corps Installations Pacific. Personnel from the base Provost Marshals Office also responded to the scene and are working cooperatively with prefectural police on the investigation, he said. Marine Corps Installations Pacific expresses their deep condolences to the family of the individual who lost their life in this tragic accident, Hayes said. The collision occurred just after Moriyama shifted from the third to the second lane of the four-lane highway, the prefectural police spokesman said. A passerby reported the incident to police minutes later, saying that Moriyama was bleeding from his head, the spokesman said. The incident is under investigation, the spokesman said. Some Japanese government officials may speak to the media only on condition of anonymity. By Reito Kaneko, KYODO NEWS - Jan 2, 2025 - 12:14 | All, Japan, World, Feature On a cloudless day off the Philippines coast, Shigetoshi Kaneko held onto floating debris while adrift, clinging to hope after escaping the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Zuikaku before it sank. What began as another mission during World War II -- later known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf -- became a story of survival that the teen naval communications officer would remember for the rest of his life. The battle commemorated its 80th anniversary in 2024 in what is likely to be the last major milestone most veterans will see in their lifetimes. It is still regarded as the largest naval battle in modern history in terms of the number of ships involved. In a bid to remain in control of the Philippines, the Imperial Japanese Navy deployed virtually all its remaining major warships to the fight but was decisively defeated by U.S. naval forces. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was separated into four main battles, with the Zuikaku participating in the Battle off Cape Engano. The aircraft carrier was dubbed the "lucky ship," as it had endured multiple battles during the war without taking much damage and was the last surviving carrier to have been involved in the Pearl Harbor attack. On what would be the ship's last mission in October 1944, the 257-meter aircraft carrier was assigned to be a decoy to draw the U.S. military north of the Leyte Gulf in the central part of the Philippines so that other Japanese battle fleets would be able to strike and to prevent the archipelago from being retaken, according to archives compiled by the National Institute for Defense Studies. Kaneko, then a 16-year-old noncommissioned officer, was not privy to operational details, though he was a member of the naval command attached directly to Vice Adm. Jisaburo Ozawa, who headed the mobile fleet, comprising flagship Zuikaku, light aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers. The overall defeat struck a heavy blow to the Imperial Japanese Navy, which lost many of its main ships, including one of the most powerful battleships, the Musashi, leaving the Combined Fleet decimated. The Battle of Leyte Gulf ultimately achieved its strategic objectives for the Allies but at a heavy cost, with 23,313 American soldiers and sailors losing their lives. Japanese forces suffered a staggering number of casualties, with nearly 420,000 personnel killed or wounded, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. In the Battle off Cape Engano, 843 of those aboard the Zuikaku died, while 866 were rescued, according to the Japanese think tank. On Oct. 25, 1944, the Zuikaku sank following a barrage of attacks by the U.S. military with bombs and torpedoes. In a fateful moment, Kaneko found himself afloat among other survivors. "There were 30 to 50 people floating around me in the ocean, grabbing onto ship wreckage like wood until destroyers and battleships came to pick us up several hours later," Kaneko recounted. "We were grabbing onto whatever we could while waiting for our ships to save us." "While we were holding onto the wreckage, enemy planes would come by and shoot at us," the 96-year-old said while mimicking the sound of the American fighter planes. Before his memory of the incident began to fade due to old age, he told his son, Takeshi, 65, his tale of survival. Takeshi explained that his father and others in his group were rescued because they had not swum too far from the point where the ship sank, where they could have been strafed by U.S. military planes, nor were they so close to the ship that they were caught in the vortex created as it sunk. The veteran recounted how warships would approach groups of dozens of people floating helplessly in the water. The vessels would carefully maneuver to rescue the survivors before moving on to save other groups. "We gathered in a group and waited. A ship would come close to the clusters of people, and we would swim to the ship to be rescued," Kaneko recalled. "I did not know whether the ships would have stopped near us. I feel lucky today that it did," he said. He recollects that while floating, other Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk, but he could see vessels with better maneuverability, such as destroyers, still fleeing from the enemy. "To be honest, I was not scared to die at the moment. Maybe it was because I was a kid then," the veteran said. Born in 1928 in Yokohama during a time of encroaching nationalism, Kaneko was drawn to the Imperial Japanese Navy out of a desire for adventure, viewing naval service as young men's ultimate expression of duty and valor. When he was almost ready to graduate from what was called "higher primary school," which was usually around the age of 14, he saw a recruiting poster at his school and decided to join the navy. "It was a time of war. I had to join," Kaneko said. When recruiting officers came to his home to collect him, his mother burst into tears and tried to stop them. "She did not want me to go to war because my elder brother had already died in the war. She did not want her other son to die, too," he said. The body of his brother, who is believed to have died in a Southeast Asian country, was never recovered. After he joined the military, he learned Morse code for about a year at a naval communications school in Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan, as the need for communications officers surged due to the development of radio communications technology that was increasingly being used in the military. What haunts him more than the day of Zuikaku's demise are the beatings he and other young trainees received from higher-ranking officers who would hit them with wooden planks during the pre-war training. The practice was used as a way of instilling discipline in young recruits. "We were beaten with a piece of wood every day during our time at the communications school," Kaneko recalled, saying that this experience was the most bitter memory of the war. "I even heard at the time that other people had committed suicide because of this." When asked why he thinks Japan lost the war, Kaneko said it was because of that military culture, in which young noncommissioned officers were punished without reason. "I think it was only Japan that did those kinds of things," Kaneko said. Having survived the harsh training environment and the sinking of the Zuikaku, his last active mission in the war, Kaneko returned to civilian life. After the war, he worked for an electrical cabling company where he could utilize his skills as a navy communications officer. He had two children with his wife, to whom he was married for 60 years before her death 10 years ago. After a long life, he can now reflect on the event that could have changed everything. "There were others who died in the battle. I was lucky enough to be saved, but I guess it is fate," he said. (Atsushi Takeda contributed to this report) Related coverage: Man learns of Japanese schoolgirl's piano bringing Dutch POW dad hope Victims of little-known WWII maritime tragedy gone but not forgotten Mr OConnor, of Cluain Fada, New Ross was found unresponsive at his home in Cluain Fada, New Ross on New Years Eve Tributes have been paid to the Wexford man who was found dead at his home in New Ross on Tuesday. John King OConnor, of Cluain Fada, New Ross was found unresponsive at his home in Cluain Fada, New Ross on New Years Eve. A murder investigation was subsequently launched. A man is to appear before the courts on Thursday night in Wexford charged in connection with Johns death. "A man in his 30s arrested as part of this investigation is due to appear before a special sitting of Wexford District Court tonight, January 2nd, 2024, at 10:30pm, where he will be charged in connection with the case, a garda spokesperson said. A second man who arrested in connection with Mr OConnors death has since been released without charge. Mr OConnor was found unresponsive at around 11am on Tuesday by emergency services. A post-mortem examination was carried out by the state pathologist on Wednesday and preliminary results have been provided to the investigating team. Details of these results are not being released for operational purposes. Funeral details for Mr OConnor were announced on Thursday evening, with the community of New Ross struggling to come to terms with the death of a kind and lovely man. Childhood friends and neighbours of Mr OConnor have recently spoken to the Irish Independent about how he adored his mother, with one tribute online describing him as a beautiful man who would give you his last cent, and a bed to lay in anytime, adding he loved his mammy so much. A family member of Mr OConnor also shared a tribute online saying: Rest in peace John. Youre with nanny now. I hope you get the best bed up there, while another person offering their condolences described him as such a good-hearted person. The funeral arrangements for Mr OConnor are as follows: Reposing at Cooney's Funeral Home, New Ross, on Saturday, January 4, from 4 p.m. concluding at 7 p.m.; and removal on Sunday, January 5, at 11:30 a.m. to St. Stephen's Cemetery, New Ross, for burial at 12 p.m. Mr OConnor is predeceased by his mother, Nancy and is sadly missed by his loving children Chloe, Aaron and Kaylee, father Ned, siblings, Eddie, Triona, Deirdre and Paula, and grandchildren, Freya Rose, Paddy and Carson Jax, brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, aunts, uncles, extended family and a large circle of friends. A senior investigating officer is leading the investigation from the incident room at New Ross garda station. A family liaison officer also continues to provide support to the family. Gardai are appealing for witnesses to contact them and are seeking any available camera footage, including dashcam recordings, from those who were in the vicinity of Cluain Fada at the time of the incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact New Ross Garda Station on 051 426030 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. Aleksandra Suchodolksda, from Poland but residing at Nursery Road, Leeds, England, received a two-month suspended sentence today A young mother spent five weeks in a prison cell for trying to smuggle her boyfriend with a fake passport through Dublin Airport while he walked free to apply for international protection, a court heard. Aleksandra Suchodolksda, 24, from Poland but residing at Nursery Road, Leeds, England, received a two-month suspended sentence today. How the cookie crumbles, remarked Judge John Hughes after hearing the facts. Suchodolksdathe brought her Albanian partner from Spain to connect with another flight to England. However, after Dublin Aiport officials quizzed him about his documents, the man took out his real passport and applied for asylum in Ireland as Suchodolksda was arrested and refused bail. The Polish mother of two pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to an offence under the Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Act 2021 for assisting unlawful entry into the State. She had been in custody on remand since being arrested at Terminal 1 by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) on November 27 last. Judge Hughes noted that the DPP directed summary disposal of the case in the District Court rather than sending it to the Circuit Court, which has broader sentencing powers. After hearing an outline of the evidence, he accepted jurisdiction and her guilty plea. Garda Yang Meng told the court the accused and an Albanian man arrived at Dublin Airport as passengers on a Ryanair flight from Barcelona. They presented at passport patrol, and the accused showed her Polish passport. However, the man was questioned when he produced a fake Polish passport. He subsequently produced his Albanian passport and then claimed asylum, Garda Meng said they had met previously in England and had been in an on-off relationship; he returned to Albania in August, but they remained in contact. The GNIB officer said the unnamed man went to Spain in November, And he asked her to meet him in Barcelona and she believed that was her birthday present, you know, a surprise. Suchodolksda flew out on November 26 to meet him and booked flights to return a day later to the UK via a connecting flight at Dublin Airport. The court heard that while she knew the name on his false passport was incorrect, she did not think he would apply for asylum. The court heard he has since been processed for international protection but was never charged and remained at liberty. Meanwhile, Suchodolksda was refused bail because she was a flight risk. Pleading for leniency, defence solicitor Tracy Horan said that her client would end up with a conviction and she was extremely distraught and had not been able to be with her children for Christmas. Ms Horan said her client was in awful turmoil; she had assumed her boyfriend would fly with her, but instead, he applied for asylum in Dublin. Judge Hughes said it was a serious offence but gave her credit for the guilty plea and noted the mitigation, her age and personal circumstances and that she had been incarcerated since the arrest. Suchodolksda hugged her solicitor after the judge finalised her case and she was set free after signing a bond to be of good behaviour. Detectives have urged anyone who has seen Jimmy Connors to get in touch straight away. UK police have launched a manhunt for a suspect with an Irish accent after a burglary in Rugby in England. A spokesman for Warwickshire Police issued an appeal to the public for help to find Jimmy Connors (25) whom they say is wanted in relation to an alleged burglary. According to police, Connors is described as 5ft 8ins tall, of slim build with blue eyes and light brown hair. Officers say he speaks with an Irish accent. Detectives have urged anyone who has seen him to get in touch straight away. "Connors has links to Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Essex," a Warwickshire Police spokesperson. "If you see Connors, call 999 as soon as possible." "If you know where Connors is or can help us locate him, you can make a report through our online web portal by calling 101, or anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111," the police spokesperson said. Many people described her a kind friend and a great mother. Tributes have been pouring in for Croatian woman Mirjana Pap whose body was found in bogland in Co Roscommon two days after she went missing. Gardai launched a murder investigation following the grim discovery in Curraghaleen on Monday afternoon. There have been no arrests so far in the case, but a person of major interest has been identified, its reported. Mirjana Pap Ms Pap, who lived in Athlone, will be laid to rest at a later date, according to a notice on RIP.ie. Originally from Croatia, she has been living and working in the Athlone area for a number of years. Many people have started to pay tribute to her and have sent their condolences to her children. My heart goes out to you, and I wish you nothing but comfort and strength. May happy memories bring you comfort. My families hearts are with you and your family, may your mum rest In peace, one person wrote. "Thoughts are with all family & friends who did love Mirjana. Unbelievable sadness, another said. Another person described her as an amazingly strong lady. "Her presence will be hugely missed in our home. May you always remember all of the happy memories you have had with her. She was a lovely lady kind friend and caring mother. You will be always missed my dear friend. Many people described her a kind friend and a great mother. "A mothers love is trusting and unconditional. Mirjana will receive her reward in Heaven...May they have comfort in the knowledge their mother was much loved. Rest in eternal peace, Mirjana, another said. "She was a lovely lady ,kind friend and caring mother. May she rest in peace. You will be missed forever, one friend said. "We are deeply sorry for your loss. May loving memories of your dear mother help you find peace, another wrote. We previously reported how Gardai believe that Ms Pap may have died at a different location than where her body was found and one line of inquiry is whether her body was transferred to the bog in a car after her death. CCTV footage is being examined which focuses on the movements of two seized vehicles. In an update yesterday, gardai said they are particularly interested in the movements of a silver 08-G-registered Peugeot 207 on Saturday, December 28, between 11am and noon. The car is understood to have travelled from Beechville estate, Athlone, on to the N6 motorway (west-bound) from junction 11 to junction 13 before continuing on the R362 from Monksland to Bealnamulla. Motorists who travelled along these routes within this timeframe are asked to provide gardai with dash-cam footage. A spokesperson previously said gardai in Athlone are continue to investigate the death of a woman in her 50s, whose body was discovered on lands at Curraghaleen, Co Roscommon, on Monday, December 30th, 2024. A post-mortem examination was carried out by the Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Yvonne McCarthy, at Galway University Hospital. Results of the post-mortem are not being released for operational purposes, they said. The deceased has now been formally identified as Mirjana Pap and following a post-mortem examination, An Garda Siochana has commenced a murder investigation. The investigation is being led from the incident room at Athlone garda station by members of the Crime Functional Area in the Meath Westmeath Division under a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO), with assistance from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI). A family liaison officer (FLO) has also been assigned to provide support to the family. Examinations are currently under way at the scene and at a residential property in Athlone by the Garda Technical Bureau. Two cars have also been seized for examination, they added. Police claimed CCTV footage showed Owen McDonagh inflicting a five-inch slash wound on the victim at College Square East A man was stabbed in the neck with a Stanley knife outside a school in Belfast city centre, a court heard today. Police claimed CCTV footage showed Owen McDonagh inflicting a five-inch slash wound on the victim at College Square East in broad daylight. McDonagh, 31, left the city following the alleged attack on June 12 last year and was subsequently arrested in south London. Refusing to grant him bail, District Judge Anne Marshall ruled: There is obviously a risk of re-offending, he is a flight risk and there is a risk of interference with witnesses. McDonagh, with an address at Churchill Road in London, denies charges of possessing an offensive weapon and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Belfast Magistrates Court heard the victim was stabbed in the neck with a box cutter-type knife close to the entrance of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution shortly after 4pm. He sustained a five-inch slice to the neck which required stitches, an investigating detective said. The wounded man named McDonagh as the person who had allegedly stabbed him and then left the scene. CCTV footage obtained from a nearby building shows the incident as described by the victim, according to the detective. Despite repeated attempts to locate the accused, he failed to return to hostel accommodation in the city. McDonagh was detained in the Kingston area of London on August 31 and transferred back to Belfast. During interviews he denied assaulting anyone or carrying a weapon. Questioned by defence counsel Kelly Doherty, police confirmed the victim has yet to participate in a formal identification process. He has not attended, citing mental health concerns at seeing the assailant again, the detective said. But he added: He named him and cooperated in every other way. McDonagh sought release from custody to live at an address in Co Fermanagh. Denying the application, Judge Marshall remanded him in continuing custody until January 30. She said: Im not granting him bail. He went to England after this happened and I dont know the extent of the international record. The 89-year-old has been in psychiatric detention in a high-security unit since he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 Austria's most notorious inmate, Josef Fritzl, has requested that he be given a house with a basement if he is granted release. The 89-year-old has been in psychiatric detention in a high-security unit since he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009. He fathered seven children with his daughter Elisabeth while holding her captive as a sex slave in the basement of their family home in Amstetten. But now he wants to live close to a train connection as he "no longer feels confident driving after so many years without practice, his lawyer has said, adding that the dwelling "must have a basement. His attorney, Astrid Wagner, told local media: "Every day, he dreams of having his own house or apartment." Fritzl who suffers from dementia, says he needs a cellar to store the folders and boxes filled with documents that he has accumulated over the years. He has reportedly said: "You know, I have so many files, documents, and memories." During a parole hearing in January he insisted he was a good father despite having imprisoned his daughter for 24 years. Basement rapist Fritzl In a statement made in a letter to the parole board, he also expressed remorse for his crimes. Fritzl kept his daughter locked in a soundproof dungeon beneath the family home where he raped her more than 3,000 times. While one child died shortly after birth, and was incinerated by the monster, three of the other kids were brought upstairs to live with him and his wife Rosemarie. Fritzl told Rosemarie the children belonged to Elisabeth, and had been left on their doorstep as she was unable to care for them. The three remaining children were kept in the windowless cellar aged five to 19 when released and would first see sunlight in 2008. Fritzls crimes were uncovered when the oldest cellar child, a 19-year-old girl, became seriously ill. Elisabeth begged her dad to take the girl, Kerstin, to hospital, but doctors quickly alerted cops after questioning the teen - who had never been in the outside world before. Fritzl was jailed for life after pleading guilty to murder by negligence over the death of the baby he cremated. The other charges included enslavement, incest, rape, coercion and false imprisonment. Elisabeth Fritzl has not had any contact with her father since he was jailed and lives under a new alias in an unknown part of Austria with the children conceived during the decades her own father brutally raped her. The Regional Court of Krems in Lower Austria decided in 2021 that it would move Fritzl from a special unit for the criminally insane in Krems-Stein prison to the regular prison system. However, the public prosecutor's office immediately appealed the decision. Last year, Fritzl claimed in an interview that he thought his family would "forgive" him for his crimes and he would be "reunited" with them. A neighbour reported that 36-year-old Brad Spafford had lost three fingers on his right hand in 2021 while working with an explosive device Some of the cache discovered by the FBI A two-fingered man caught with largest cache of homemade pipe bombs in FBI history is a hard-working family man, he lawyers have said. An investigation was launched in 2023 after a neighbour reported that 36-year-old Brad Spafford had lost three fingers on his right hand in 2021 while working with an explosive device. According to a federal criminal complaint, the neighbour also claimed Spafford was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition on his 20-acre farm in Virginias Isle of Wight County, south of Washington DC. During a raid on December 17, federal agents arrested Spafford for possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle. They also reportedly located not only the rifle but a stockpile of more than 150 homemade improvised explosive devices, assessed as pipe bombs, the complaint notes Some of the cache discovered by the FBI Prosecutors say most of the explosives were organised by colour in Spaffords detached garage. Some were labelled lethal and others were preloaded into an apparent wearable vest. More pipe bombs were found unsecured in a backpack labelled #nolivesmatter . Feds also recovered tools and materials used to manufacture explosives, a homemade mortar and riot gear, local media reports. Bomb technicians located HMTD, an explosive material so unstable it can be exploded merely as a result of friction of temperature changes, in Spaffords freezer, which was marked with the words Do Not Touch and Dangerous. Federal agents claims that Spafford had expressed anti-government views and used a picture of President Biden for target practice at a local shooting range. They say the defendant poses an extreme danger to the community. Even after losing his own fingers as a result of his homemade explosive materials, he made the apparent remarkable decision to keep an extraordinarily dangerous explosive material in the homes freezer next to food items that could be accessed by the entire family, prosecutors argued in an attempt to keep him jailed. At a hearing on Monday, a federal judge initially denied the governments request to hold Spafford. However, a decision to release him was later put on hold while the judge reviewed additional evidence filed by prosecutors. As for Spafford, his attorneys argued for his release before trial, saying he is not a danger but a hard-working family man with no criminal record. "There is not a shred of evidence in the record that Mr. Spafford ever threatened anyone and the contention that someone might be in danger because of their political views and comments is nonsensical," his lawyers wrote in a filing on Tuesday. "In fact, the evidence proved that Mr. Spafford is not a danger but a hard-working family man with no criminal record." Ireland should be offering refugees a guarantee over their security here, says Fr Tony ORiordan Ireland should take steps to open diplomatic relations with the new regime in Syria, Irish priest Fr Tony ORiordan has said. Fr ORiordan had been living in the Middle East country until recently and worked as director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, in Aleppo, for three years. He said the fall of the Assad regime had reawakened hope, though millions of people are going meal to meal, day to day. In June, the Jesuit priest left Syria and is now living in Co Armagh, but he maintains daily contact with his former colleagues in Aleppo and Homs, getting updates on the situation. Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said he was really concerned about Irelands move to temporarily pause decisions on asylum applications from Syrians following the end of Bashar al-Assads rule. I was disgusted that we were thinking that way as our first reaction. To create that level of uncertainty for the small pool of Syrians who are in Ireland seeking asylum at the moment, was below the belt and very dubious leadership. The Co Cork native said he believes Ireland should be supportive of Syrians. We should be offering them the necessary legal guarantee that their position in Ireland is secure. I think many of them will be minded to go back to Syria, but it would be easier to contemplate going back if you had the guarantee that you could return to Ireland. We should look at training needs to help them re-establish themselves when they get back to Syria. They are ordinary people who are family-focused, who are experiencing hunger, darkness and cold. They have hopes for their children. Their families are scattered throughout the world. They very much just want to have normality, and are not too ideologically focused on what democratic system they have, once they have fairness and a sense of safety within their country. Fr ORiordan was to the fore of relief efforts around Aleppo following the deadly 2023 earthquake in which almost 6,000 Syrians and over 50,000 people in neighbouring Turkey perished. The priest said he was worried about the crushing humanitarian suffering of Syrians who struggle for sufficient food and the basic necessities, access to healthcare, education for their children, and adequate and dignified shelter after more than a decade of conflict. There has been a huge rise in food insecurity, about 16 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. What is really frustrating is that last year the World Food Programme, which had been active in Syria for many years, had to cease its operations because of a lack of funding. Meanwhile, people with chronic illnesses such as hypertension or diabetes, in the vast majority of cases have to forgo medication in favour of food. One contributory factor is the dramatic collapse of the value of the Syrian pound. The value of peoples income was being slashed day by day, and basic commodities were increasing. But the toppling of Assad has, he believes, reawakened hope. People are relieved Assad is gone and it happened in a miraculous way with no bloodshed. They are happy banks and commerce are beginning to function again and that their work is resuming. In a context where hope was dead, people are beginning to believe there is a way to a better future. That is hugely significant because most Syrians, particularly the ablebodied and the young, had got to the stage where their future lay outside of Syria. Now they are saying maybe they have a future in Syria. But having lived through the last 14 years, Syrians have grounds to be cautious about the de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, and the possibility that the new regime might take things in an oppressive or sectarian way. For Fr ORiordan, what gives him concern is the role of vested interests of outside forces. The attitude and actions of bad actors who want to see the situation develop in a way that suits their interests. The Russians are still active there, the Iranians, the Americans, the European Union and Turkey. These are very powerful, they have the capacity to create huge instability in Syria. The scale of Israels bombing in Syria has been frightening and there has been a land grab in the south of Syria. That has the capacity to threaten a regime with the best of intentions. If Syria was left to itself and was supported, there would seem to be enough resourcefulness amongst the Syrians and enough capacity to work across different religions and identities within Syria to build together. KYODO NEWS - Jan 2, 2025 - 13:45 | All, Japan The number of teachers who took leave due to mental illness at public schools in Japan climbed to 7,119 in fiscal 2023, a record high for the third straight year, a government survey showed, with increased workloads cited as the biggest possible factor. The figure for the year to March 2024 was up 580 from a year earlier, accounting for 0.77 percent of all teachers at elementary, junior high and high schools as well as special needs schools, or 1 in 130 individuals, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. When including teachers who took sick leave for over a month, the number rose to 13,045, or 1.42 percent of the total. The number of teachers taking leave due to mental illness had fluctuated at around 5,000 in recent years but surged in the previous three years. The education ministry said it would implement measures to support teachers' mental health, while working to reduce workloads by increasing teacher numbers. Of those who took leave due to mental illness, 2,786, or 39.1 percent, had returned to work as of the start of the new fiscal year on April 1, 2024, with 2,903 still on sick leave and 1,430 having resigned. The number of teachers who quit after less than a year hit a record high of 788, of whom 269 cited mental illness. Meanwhile, the number of teachers who faced disciplinary action or were reprimanded for sexual crimes or assault also logged a record high of 320 in fiscal 2023, up 79 from the previous year, according to the education ministry. Of them, 61 were punished for "intercourse" and 40 for "indecent conduct." By age, those in their 20s made up the majority at 73, followed by 41 in their 30s. Nineteen individuals were in their 40s and 24 in their 50s or older. The government is planning to launch in fiscal 2026 a system similar to the British government's Disclosure and Barring Service to block convicted sex offenders from being recruited for work involving children. A law that came into force in 2022 allows prefectural education boards to reject the rehiring of former teachers whose teaching licenses expired after they were dismissed for sexual misconduct. Related coverage: School for underserved Koreans marks 30 years of student empowerment Students in need of Japanese language support rise to record 69,000 Teachers on leave for mental illness in Japan hit record high The announcement yesterday marks the resolution of one of the longest running missing person cases UK police have investigated Picture of Sheila Fox from around the time she went missing in 1972 A British woman who disappeared more than half a century ago has finally been found alive after a single blurry photograph of her was released by police. West Midlands Police (WMP) said finding Sheila Fox after she disappeared from Coventry in 1972 solves one of its longest-running missing person investigations. At the end of last month, WMP published a renewed appeal to help find Ms Fox, which included one grainy picture of her from around the time she disappeared that was recently found by officers. Within hours of its release, members of the public got in touch with information that led to finding Ms Fox. Officers who spoke with her confirmed Ms Fox is alive, safe and well. She is now living in another part of England. We searched through every piece of evidence we could find and managed to locate a photo of Sheila The announcement yesterday marks the resolution of one of the longest running missing person cases UK police have investigated. Detective sergeant Jenna Shaw, from WMPs cold case investigation team, said: Were absolutely delighted to have found Sheila after more than five decades. We searched through every piece of evidence we could find and managed to locate a photo of Sheila. We are a small team of officers and Id like to recognise the work of DC Shaun Reeve, who managed to resolve this case with help from the public. Every missing person has a story, and their families and friends deserve to know what happened to them and, hopefully, be reunited with them. Police added that forensic and technological advances enable the team to pursue fresh leads on cases that have remained unresolved for a long time. Its understood that the actor owns a house in the nearby town of Broughty Ferry Barry Keoghan posed with staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre in Dundee Barry Keoghan posed with staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre in Dundee Barry Keoghan posed with staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre in Dundee He may be a Hollywood mega star, but it looks like Barry Keoghan rang in the New Year in the Scottish countryside. The Dublin actor happily posed for photos during a visit to a stables in Dundee, Scotland. The Summerhill native delighted staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre during a surprise visit and spent time chatting and taking photos. The images were later shared on the centres Facebook page with the caption: Not every day your yard gets a visit from a Hollywood star. Its understood that the actor owns a house in the nearby town of Broughty Ferry and previously lived in Dundee during his relationship with Scottish dental nurse Alyson Kierans. The pair later split but have a two-year-old son together, Brando, and while Barry splits his time between Hollywood and London for work, his son is his main priority. Barry Keoghan posed with staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre in Dundee Alyson hails from Dundee and her mother previously spoke to the Daily Mail from her Scottish home where she said the ex partners, who met in 2021, are on good terms for the sake of their little boy. At the time, Barry was in relationship with American superstar Sabrina Carpenter and had been spotted supporting her at concerts around the world, but its reported that the couple are no longer together. Alysons mum Kathy told the publication that Barry had contacted her daughter to tell her about his relationship with Sabrina before anyone else found out. They're on talking terms and need to be for wee Brando. Barry had the decency to give Alyson the heads up about his new girlfriend and we can't fault him for that. Alyson is now focusing on herself and her son. Barry Keoghan posed with staff at the Claverhouse Equestrian Centre in Dundee She remained tight-lipped when asked why Alyson and Barry split up, replying: I'm not getting into that. When asked if the couple were no longer together in a separate interview, Barry said: Shes done a great job and shes an incredible mother. The 32-year-old previously said that being a dad hasnt changed who he is, but it does affect how he chooses his acting gigs and makes him reconsider how long hes prepared to shoot on location away from home. I feel a responsibility. I feel an enormous amount of pressure, which is good. And I cant get the little boy off my mind. Its beautiful. Yknow, its crazy, but when he looks at you, you feel like the most important person in the world. Thats the effect he has on me. He smiles at you and youre like, Wow. Youre smiling at me like that? I dont deserve that, but anyways, thanks. Last month, Barry revealed that he had deactivated his Instagram account as he asked people to be respectful and he hit out at hatred and absolute lies about him online. Barry with ex Alyson In a post to X, he said: I can only sit and take so much. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually dont respond to. I have to respond now because its getting to a place where there are too many lines being crossed. I deactivated my account (on Instagram) because I can no longer let this stuff distract from my family and my work. The messages I have received no person should ever have to read them. Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent and every other inhumane thing you can imagine. Dragging my character and everything I worked extremely hard for and stand for. Talking about how I was a heroin baby and how I grew up and dragging my dear mother into it also. He added: Each and every day I work harder to push myself on every level to be the healthiest and strongest person for that boy (his son). I want to provide opportunities for him to learn, fail and grow. I want him to be able to look up to his daddy, to have full trust in me and know I will have his back no matter what. I need you to remember he has to read ALL of this about his father when he is older. Please be respectful to all. Thank u x. Appearing on the The Louis Theroux Podcast last month, Barry spoke about he has been accused of being an absent father by trolls online. If I didnt have tough skin or the strength to have, I wouldnt be sitting here. Of course, (my childhood is) going to affect me being a father when I had no blueprint to take from, he said. People just read that (as) laziness and go, Oh, thats no excuse to be an absent father. Im not an absent father. But its just, again, people love to use my son as ammunition or whatever. In 2023, Keoghan won the Bafta best supporting actor prize for his role in dark comedy The Banshees Of Inisherin and also received an Academy Award nod for the role. His other film roles include Martin in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (2017) and Dympna in Calm With Horses (2019). He recently wrapped filming alongside Cork star Cillian Murphy on the movie adaption of hit drama Peaky Blinders. A Bay of Plenty music festival that is a fundraiser for mental health is happening for the final time, due to sponsorship drying up. River Sounds festival in Katikati was started to honour a life lost to suicide, and has run four times since 2013, with all proceeds going to local mental health organisations. Jessica Dine, a co-founder of the not-for-profit Everyone Hurts Foundation, said a surge in sponsorship offers after announcing the closure was enough to put on a final show on 15 February. "We have managed to get enough sponsorship across the line to put it on in the first place. We were a bit worried at one point if we were going to have to call it off. But some of our old sponsors pulled through." It had been increasingly difficult to put the festival on, she said, with the amount of work involved becoming difficult to manage, along with cost of living struggles making sponsorship harder to get. "Things change with sponsors, they're not set in stone, and it's been increasingly more difficult to actually get that sponsorship. Obviously there's a recession and things like that - it makes it quite difficult." The festival was started by Dine and Sophie Temperton, after Temperton's brother Ben lost his life to suicide on their family farm. The music festival, held on that very family farm, was a way to honour him and his love of music, she said. "It's been a really special way for her family to heal, as well. Their father, Dave, handcarved a headstone for Ben, which is on the property. And we have a tree of remembrance on the day, so anybody who's lost somebody to mental health, can put something up to remember them by." Temperton is having her first baby after the festival in March, with the due date the same as her brother's birthday. Dine said it is a "goosebumps" moment, and with those lifestyle changes, she said it was the right time to move on. "We made the call as a charity, and also the family, as well, themselves." She said the festival had raised more than $100,000 over its lifetime, for local mental health organisations. "One of the most special things that blows me away every time is the way Katikati and the wider Bay of Plenty community get behind us, and all support it." The festival - involving music, speakers, workshops, and MC'd by comedian Cori Gonzalez-Macuer - has always been a special place, she said, and the project had tried to normalise conversations about mental health in their community. The Foundation will carry on that work in other projects after the final festival. "That was the idea behind setting up the Foundation itself, was to break the stigma and open up the conversation around how can we start normalising some of these words and conversations." "When I myself was a teenager and through my early twenties, it was very uncommon to hear terms like, even suicide really, self-harm, psychosis and things like that." Money raised from the final River Sounds festival is going to Tauranga-based mental health organisation, Te Puna Hauora ki Uta ki Tai. It was expected that between three and four hundred people would be welcomed to the festival in February, with performances from Georgia Lines, Bec Sandridge, and King Kapisi announced. Where to get help: Where to get help: Grief Support Services 07 578 4480 Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7) Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO (available 24/7) Youth services: (06) 3555 906 Youthline: 0800 376 633 Whats Up: 0800 942 8787 (11am to11pm) Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7) Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155 Helpline: 1737 If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111 Yes, the education system is strong It could use some improvement No, there are significant issues The Rotorua Daily Post covered more than 100 court cases throughout 2024 in the Rotorua District Court, High Court and through the New Zealand Parole Board. They include the inside story of an illegally run prostitution ring using teens as young as 13, gang clashes, including a daylight intersection shooting, a stolen patch that turned into a dangerous car chase and the slashing of the legs of a man who wore red shoes. Kelly Makiha takes a look at some of Rotoruas high-profile criminal cases in 2024. Rotorua chapters of the Mongrel Mob and Black Power are no strangers to stoushes, but in 2024, the cases of some of the most violent attacks in Rotoruas history reached conclusions in the local courtrooms. Ben Tihi, 30, was sentenced to five years and five months' jail after he took a machete from one of his Black Power mates and swung it at a man wearing red shoes, slicing the mans leg to the bone and badly cutting his other ankle. Ben Tihi in the Rotorua District Court. Photo / Andrew Warner As the man lay nearly bleeding to death outside a Rotorua home, Tihi and his group stripped the man of his shoes and took them as a trophy. Tihis actions on that day, October 11, 2023, were described in a courtroom as a cowardly daylight gang attack committed by Black Power-affiliated men. Tihi, a 30-year-old patched member of the Black Power Outbackz group, appeared in the Rotorua District Court for sentencing before Judge Anna Skellern in July 2024 last year 2024after pleading guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Just a few hundreds metres up the road, another gang attack generated headlines. On September 19, 2023, Black Power-connected teen Himiona Buffett driving a car from which someone with a pistol opened fire on two utes five times. The utes were occupied by Mongrel Mob members at the Westend traffic lights, on the corner of Malfroy and Old Taupo Rds. Himiona Buffett impressed the judge with the changes he made. Photo / Kelly Makiha The shots shattered a rear window of one of the utes and another bullet travelled through an open window of a member of the publics pubics car parked at the lights, with the bullet lodging in the vehicles interior lining. One of the utes reversed, smashing into the shooters vehicle, and their vehicle spun out. The shooter, a teen who has name suppression, has admitted his role and remains on the run after failing to turn up to his sentencing in September 2024. Buffett, on the other hand, impressed Judge Joanne Wickcliffe with his solid attempt to turn his life around since his arrest. The judge and decided to keep him out of jail and sentenced, instead sentencinghim to nine months community detention. Judge Wickcliffe noted Buffett was once a young teen with a promising overseas sporting career, but it fell away when Covid struck and he lost his sense of belonging instead finding it within the Black Power. In sentencing himShe said: Clearly, you have a lot of potential and you still do. Over Queens Birthday weekend in 2023, a stolen gang patch had rival gang members chasing one another dangerously and at high speed on Rotoruas Te Ngae Rd in what a judge described as wanton lawlessness. Daryll Lay appears in the Rotorua District Court. Mongrel Mob gang members, including Daryll Lay, were hot on Wharekite Te Runas tail because he and his Black Power mates had just stolen one of their gang patches. For 4km, the two gang vehicles weaved in and out of traffic, at times driving on the wrong side of the road during the busy long-weekend traffic about 6pm. Within minutes, the chase ended in a cascade of crashes that left six people injured three of them innocent members of the public and four cars smashed, as well as a broken pole. Despite the casualties, the drivers of the offending vehicles did not stop stopped to offerhelp and instead continued to chase run after one another up Tarawera Rd. Te Runa, 26, was sentenced in 2024 in the Rotorua District Court forto two years, three months and 15 days imprisonment and was disqualified from obtaining or holding a drivers licence for two years and six months. Lay was jailed for 19 months. Teen prostitution ring It was a case that shocked residents girls as young as 13 and 14 were being groomed into prostitution by a Rotorua man who would ply them with hard drugs and alcohol. Clayton Fox, 49, of Rotorua, was the pimp and ran the operation alongside his girlfriend, Wikitoria Pepene. There was a third person involved, Darby Bronson Whareaorere, 29, of Rotorua, but his case was never heard in the Rotorua District Court because he died in prison on April 29, 2024. His death has been referred to the coroner. Among Whareaoreres charges included assisting Awere that he assisted minor in providing commercial sexual services and receiving a cash payment he knew was derived from commercial sexual services provided by a minor. Fox was jailed on 18 charges for eight years and five months and Pepene was jailed for three months. Others, too, were implicated the customers. In November, the Rotorua Daily Post revealed the names of the five men who pleaded guilty to a charge of contracting a 13-year-old for sexual services. The men are Shubham Choudhary, 27, of Hamilton; Felise Falanai, 31, a labourer from Rotorua; Nishanth Parakudiyil Prahladan, 23, of Tauranga; Stephen James Philpott, 42, a heavy tanker driver from Rotorua; and Stephen Graham Shaw, 70, a farmer from Ngakuru. They will be sentenced in February 2025. Three other men have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in 2025. Two men had their charges dismissed and another Rotorua man, who was also charged with contracting a 13-year-old for sex, also died before his case was heard in court. His death has also been referred to the coroner. No parole for teachers killer In 2024, the Rotorua Daily Post brought coverage of a New Zealand Parole Board hearing into one of the countrys most infamous killers. Whetu Te Hiko killed Tokoroa primary school teacher Lois Dear inside her classroom more than 18 years ago. Dear, an adored 66-year-old teacher, had gone into her class early on a Sunday morning to prepare her lessons when Te Hiko, who was still drunk after attending a party the night before, tried to steal her car. Te Hiko was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years. Photo / Stephen Barker She called out to Te Hiko she was going to call police and he responded by confronting her in the classroom, suffocating her with a sweatshirt before leaving her dead body in the classroom. It was revealed at Te Hikos sentencing Dear was found in a position that indicated there had also been sexual offending. Despite being eligible for parole for the first time, Te Hiko told the Parole Board he didnt want to leave jail. He said his heart felt rotten, he was scum, he hated himself and was happy to die in prison. He said he needed to sit with the hurt for longer to respect the pain he inflicted on Dears family when he was a 23-year-old. It was the first time Te Hiko had spoken publicly about why he did what he did. He said things in his head he couldnt get over, including raw anger towards some of his family members. Who was I supposed to talk to? I didnt have anyone to talk to. I thought drugs and alcohol were the answer, but [they werent]. He said he had roamed the streets near Strathmore School all his life and he had never thought of killing someone. And I did. And it tears me apart every day. When asked by a Parole Board member if there was more than just alcohol in his system making him make bad choices, Te Hiko replied in the affirmative. Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues. The irony is not lost on prolific Tauranga author Lee Murray as she casts about for words to describe how she feels about being named in the 2025 New Year Honours. To receive this honour, Im just so proud. I cant find the words. Im supposed to be a wordsmith and just cant get the words out. Murray has been made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature. The independent writer, who has produced works with a New Zealand focus, has been recognised for her work in science fiction, fantasy and horror genres collectively known as speculative fiction. She has written and curated nearly 40 titles since 2007, earned over 25 national and international awards, and received five international Bram Stoker Awards. She is the only Kiwi to have won the Shirley Jackson Award for psychological horror, and has been honoured by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Society and NZ Society of Authors. Last year she received a Prime Ministers Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction. Murray said she felt so grateful and hopes her latest honour brings recognition to the NZ speculative writing community. Its hugely humbling, because why me? I hope it shines a light on the creative community, particularly the speculative community that doesnt get a lot of attention. Murray is an independent writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror, known as speculative fiction collectively, and has produced works with a New Zealand focus. Photo / George Novak Murray described speculative fiction as a new and visionary way of thinking. Weve got lots of thought leaders in New Zealand and speculative is the new black its all the things were frightened about, all the things were concerned about, and where the world is going. So much of how we learn, how we see the world, and how we approach the future is told through speculative fiction. If this honour can shine a little light on those thought leaders and the work theyre doing, then I think thats a brilliant thing. Murray was a scientist by profession but said she had always been a scribbler. My dad was a big storyteller so I have always been interested in stories and am a huge reader. I did keep journals and little riffs of stories that Id been writing kind of all my life. She said her husband pushed her to pursue the writing gig and she started fulltime writing in her 40s. I never looked back since then and Ive been pretty much fulltime writing since I think 2006 or 2007, a while now. Lee Murray's most recent work is inspired by her Asian heritage. Photo / Kaitlyn Morrell As a Chinese New Zealander, Murray had never seen writing that reflected her personal experiences. Her most recent work Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud was inspired by Asian heritage. A lot of my work revolves around Asian storytelling, Asian Aotearoa stories, and about how it is to come and be part of a Western culture when youve got an Asian heritage. Murray is a life member of Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand, and also works with Tauranga Writers, Young New Zealand Writers and the International Horror Writers Association. She had supported more than 100 writers through her work. I think part of my branding is community, mentorship and kindness and Im like a rising tide that lifts all boats. I know thats a cliche but I do my best to help other writers. I have a lot of mentees who are fabulous and doing really exciting things. It makes me so proud to have played a small part in shaping their careers and their futures. It can only help me if other people around me are also doing well. Murray is working on a novel, which she said had been a long time coming and believed there were still many more stories to tell. Im just so grateful to the people that nominated my work and that they thought I was worthy of something like this. Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University. When Taurangas Puhirake Ihaka received a celebratory email to say he would be acknowledged in the 2025 New Year Honours list, he thought it was a scam or joke. I was thinking, is this for real? The Ngai Te Rangi kaumatua and long-standing leader made some calls for confirmation before his worry turned into shock. I was really surprised, to be honest. Humble by nature, the 76-year-old has an impressive portfolio but is quick to point out that his passion stems from a desire to help Maori and our people. He does not like to dwell on accolades. But a snapshot shows he has represented Ngati Tapu on Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi Iwi Trust for 24 years. He undertook extensive research in the preparation of its Waitangi Tribunal Treaty claims and provided leadership throughout the negotiation process. His appointments include the Ngai Te Rangi Settlement Trust and Fisheries Trust, being a foundation member of the Tauranga City Council Tangata Whenua Collective, where he served as the independent chairman for 12 years, and being an Elms Foundation Board of Trustees member. Ihaka was a member of the collective instrumental in the establishment of Tauranga City Councils Maori Relationship Unit and the establishment of a Maori ward. He is chairman of Otamataha Trust, a director of Te Kawai Taumata, Waikari Marae kaumatua and past director of the National Iwi Collective Partnership (commercial iwi fisheries). He is also a life member of Maori education trust Te Matahauariki O Tauranga Moana, where he held chairman and trustee roles before retiring in 2022. Albert Puhirake Ihaka has been made an officer of NZ Order of Merit for services to Maori and governance. Photo / Tessa Chrisp Photography That is only half of it, he says with a laugh. I think I wore about 10 chair hats at one stage. Brought up in Auckland in a Pakeha environment, Ihaka has a post-graduate degree in engineering. In the early stages of his career, he worked for many notable companies and then started his own consultancy business. However, he yearned for Tauranga Moana and in 1995 he packed up everything and returned home with his family. That move back to whanau and his uncle and aunties signalled the beginning of a new era for Ihaka as he learned te reo Maori and became heavily involved with his marae, hapu and iwi. He also embraced and became known by his Maori tipunas name Puhirake on the advice of his uncle, as Rawiri Puhirake was a notable Ngai Te Rangi war chief who led Maori at the battles of Gate Pa and Te Ranga, where he lost his life in 1864. At the time I was part of that drift of urban Maori who were educated and grew up in the big cities and then went back to their roots and turangawaewae. Ihaka said those people bought back their own knowledge and professional skills and he felt blessed to put his expertise to good use. As a consequence, he had many battles with democracy. I represented tangata whenua in the consultation process with council regarding issues around consenting, compliance, regulations and policies. I used to do a lot of advocacy with our people engaging with council on resource consents and that sort of thing. I could engage with them on a very equal footing. I could move well in both worlds. Ihaka fondly remembers spending the first few years after his homecoming building his dream home and learning all about his tikanga Maori and whakapapa from his kaumatua and kuia. This eventually led to his working for the iwi and his first job was writing the Ngai te Rangi newsletter. The rest snowballed as he went from not knowing much about the Treaty of Waitangi to helping spearhead settlement claims processes for his hapu and Ngai Te Rangi, while taking on more positions in the community. Being made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Maori and governance was a proud moment and he wants to acknowledge and thank the tupuna who walked before him and to leave a legacy for the next generations to follow. Being able to give back to my whanau, hapu, and iwi has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. Ko te Manawa Rere Kia u, Kia u. Trembling hearts stand firm, stand firm the war cry of Rawiri Puhirake. Carmen Hall is a communications adviser for Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi Iwi Trust and a former Bay of Plenty Times journalist. Offshore breezes, dislocated shoulders, and silliness in the water have been the lowlights for lifeguards patrolling Bay of Plenty and Coromandel beaches flooded by thousands of holidaymakers. In Whangamata, three kids were on a stand-up paddle board with one paddle between them, Surf Lifesaving NZs Eastern Region lifesaving manager, Chaz Gibbons-Campbell, said. They tried going out to the islands and got stuck out there. Surf Lifesaving NZ warns January is the most dangerous month in the water. In the first water-related death of this year, a man died on Wednesday after being seen struggling in the water off the coast of Omaio, a remote village on the East Coast, police confirmed. Members of the public retrieved him but he could not be revived. The beach is not patrolled. A man died in the water off remote East Coast village, Omaio. On Monday, peak numbers on patrolled Eastern beaches reached an estimated 1700, easing on New Years Eve according to Surf Lifesaving NZ data. But it is busy now, Gibbons-Campbell said on Thursday. There were big numbers on the beaches last few days, New Years Day and today. Between Saturday and Monday, 10 incidents required major first aid. It was mostly dislocated shoulders, but we also had shell cuts and jellyfish stings, Gibbons-Campbell said. There were nine searches, four rescues and eight people assisted in the water along Eastern beaches. It had been calm throughout most of the patrolled beaches, but offshore breezes could catch people off guard, he said. People just need to err on the side of caution. Be prepared if you are going to go out. Have a life jacket or some form of flotation device. He said people had generally been respectful of lifeguards instructions but there was still some silliness happening. Surf Life Saving New Zealand eastern region lifesaving manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell. Photo / Alex Cairns Even today, we had three people in a single-person kayak towing one of those blow-ups you get from The Warehouse with somebody in it. Gibbons-Campbell expected a new batch of holidaymakers to arrive in the next week as other people returned to work and holiday home rentals changed hands. Some disappointing news awaits surfers as there was no surf on the horizon, Gibbson-Campbell said. There is nothing on the long-range forecast. While a day at the beach is a good way to relax, respecting the water was key to ensuring everyone returned home alive, Surf Lifesaving NZ general manager lifesaving Andy Kent said. January is the most dangerous month in the water, so dont muck around with your life or that of your whanau. Kent urges those visiting the beach this month to know how to keep safe. Always swim at a lifeguarded beach between the red and yellow flags. If you get in trouble, turn onto your back and float, dont let children out of your sight, and if in any doubt at all, stay out of the water, he said. KYODO NEWS - Jan 2, 2025 - 11:29 | All, World At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in a suspected terrorist attack when a pickup truck was driven into a crowd in a popular tourism spot in New Orleans, Louisiana, early Wednesday, according to local police and media reports. The suspect, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, died following a shootout with the police after he plowed the vehicle through people who were celebrating New Year's Day on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m., the police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. The FBI said it had found weapons and an explosive device in the suspect's vehicle and other explosive devices were discovered at the scene in the French Quarter. The bureau also said there was a flag of the Islamic State extremist group in the pickup truck and it is "working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations." The identities of the victims were not disclosed. The Japanese Consulate General in Tennessee, which has Louisiana under its jurisdiction, said it had not received reports of Japanese casualties in the attack. In Las Vegas the same day, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded and burst into flames outside the Trump Hotel in a possible terrorist attack, killing one person in the vehicle, according to local media reports. U.S. President Joe Biden said law enforcement authorities and the intelligence community were investigating whether the explosion was linked to the attack in New Orleans. Grammy-nominated rapper Coi Leray is pregnant, she announced on New Years Day. The 27-year-old Players hitmaker said shes expecting her first child with fellow rapper Trippie Redd. according to E! News, she didnt reveal the sex of the child but said shes more than 4 months along. Im a rock star mommy, she wrote on Instagram. We ready for 2025. Leray, the daughter of hip-hop star and reality TV personality Benzino, reportedly first started dating Redd, whose real name is Michael Lamar White IV, in 2019. They later broke up and publicly clashed after White released a song called Leray, but reconciled in August and are still dating. Trippie Redd, 25, is known for hits like Thick Of It, Miss the Rage, Taking a Walk and F--- Love, plus collaborations with Playboi Carti, Juice WRLD, Travis Scott and PARTYNEXTDOOR. Coi Leray is best known for the 2023 hit Players, plus songs with David Guetta (Baby Dont Hurt Me), Nicki Minaj (Blick Blick) and Metro Boomin (Self Love). Coi Leray and Trippie Redd backstage during Revolt World 2024 at Pangaea Studios on September 20, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage)WireImage MORE BUZZ: Diplo admits hes tripping on LSD live on CNNs New Years Eve special ( E! Flight Risk trailer: Mel Gibson directs new Mark Wahlberg thriller ( RS Mariah Carey, 55, dating Anderson .Paak, 38 ( DM Lennon, Harrison wont get Grammys if Beatles win for Now and Then ( BB MrBeast engaged to influencer Thea Booysen ( E! Rhianna says she didnt drink at all in 2024 ( RS Joe Budden charged with lewdness in NJ ( BB Chloe Grace Moretz appears to confirm engagement to Kate Harrison ( DM Popeye, Singin in the Rain enter public domain ( RS Neil Young backs out of corporate Glastonbury festival ( BB Buzz is a daily roundup of entertainment news about movies, TV, music and celebrities. This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here. By Colin Kinniburgh | New York Focus Ever since New York passed its landmark climate law in 2019, a question has dogged its implementation: Who should pay the $15 billion annual cost of slashing emissions? Two years ago, Governor Kathy Hochul offered an answer: corporate polluters. She outlined an economy-wide system, called cap and invest, that would put a price on pollution and drive the steep emissions cuts mandated by law. The program might finally see the light of day in 2025. Regulators are fine-tuning the rules that will structure it; the states initial projections show it could generate $3 billion or more a year for the state to invest in green energy and other climate initiatives. Hochul and the legislature will likely negotiate further elements of the policy in the coming years budget, setting up what could be New Yorks biggest climate fight since 2019. We have to move forward with cap and invest, said state Senator Pete Harckham, chair of the chambers Environmental Conservation Committee. Thats really, I think, the big budget item were all waiting to see. For many advocates, Donald Trumps imminent return to Washington has heightened the urgency for New York to deliver on the program. With a federal rollback of environmental progress anticipated and the need for states to really step up, an ambitious program in New York could really be game changing, both for the state and nationally on climate, said Kate Courtin, senior manager with the state climate team at the Environmental Defense Fund. There are still hurdles to clear as budget season approaches. In recent days, Hochuls office has quietly circulated details about her proposal easing fears among many climate advocates that she might not move ahead with cap and invest at all. But her administration has indicated that shell likely embrace a far less ambitious version of the plan than many would-be supporters want, because of a perception that voters have blamed Democrats for the rising cost of living. We have a responsibility here as New Yorkers. I co-chair the US Climate Alliance, Hochul told New York Focus at a press conference in early December. I take that role very seriously, but Im also looking at affordability and whos paying for these costs, and what we can do to help New Yorkers reduce the cost of everyday living. Some climate hawk legislators plan to push for as rigorous a program as possible, in part because the limited scope Hochul is considering may undermine a core part of the program a cap on emissions. But in the current political context, many climate advocates would be happy just to see the program get off the ground. Once communities start to see the benefits of that funding, and the state starts to see that revenue, making the case for it to get expanded is much easier than this first step, said Stephan Edel, executive director of NY Renews, the coalition that led the charge for the climate law in 2019. In theory, a cap and invest program kills two birds with one stone. It simultaneously puts a limit on the tons of pollution companies can emit cap while making them pay for each ton, funding projects to help move the state away from polluting energy sources invest. New York needs both sides of that equation to meet its climate laws mandates, which it is falling far behind on. Under the law, the state must cut overall emissions by 40 percent of 1990 levels by the end of the decade. But as of 2021, the latest year for which data is available, it had only achieved 9 percent emissions cuts. One reason is that the state still has no dedicated stream of climate funding, even as its own analysis has found that meeting the targets will cost some $15 billion a year this decade, counting both private and public spending. Cap and invest would charge the states biggest emitters for a portion of that expense. High on the list would be electric and gas utilities; waste facilities, including incinerators; and industrial plants, like cement, aluminum, and paper producers. The state projects that the program could bring in between $3 billion and $5 billion in revenue in its first year, increasing to as much as $12 billion in 2030. Like carbon markets around the world, New York plans to use auctions that allow companies to bid for the right to pollute, meaning the price of emissions is in principle determined by what polluters are willing to pay for it. Each ton of greenhouse emissions will be pegged to one allowance that the state sells. If the targeted emissions cuts are steep as New Yorks are and the supply of emissions allowances correspondingly low, then the auction price of those allowances could climb very high. The Hochul administration argues that polluters would pass on high emissions prices to consumers, increasing energy bills and possibly the prices of other everyday items, as energy costs trickle down the supply chain. Analyses of similar programs in California and Washington have found that they have raised gasoline prices about 27 cents per gallon, an indicator that voters tend to be sensitive to. New Yorks solution is to make polluting cheaper. Rather than the auction determining the price of emissions, environmental regulators want to put a ceiling on the price. So far, theyve presented a price ceiling ranging from $14 to $23 per ton of emissions in 2025, and $25 to $54 two years later. (By comparison, the price ceiling in California and Washingtons cap and invest systems will be $95 next year.) At that price point, the state would quickly sell out of emissions allowances, its models show. If that holds true, the state would have to release more carbon allowances, said Molly Robertson, a senior research associate at the think tank Resources for the Future, which has studied cap and trade programs in several states. Basically, now the amount of allowances that are available is determined by how many entities are willing to pay the ceiling price, Robertson said. That leaves some advocates worried that the low price would effectively remove the limit on emissions underpinning the program. The states own modeling shows that, even with the highest price ceiling modeled, 2030 emissions would be roughly 15 percent higher than the legal cap. And discussions in recent days suggest that the price ceiling Hochul will present in January could be lower than that likely no higher than the low-end option of $14 per ton that regulators have presented so far, as Politico first reported. Hochul has framed the underlying dilemma as a tradeoff between climate and affordability. As someone who comes from a cold weather part of our state, Buffalo, Hochul told New York Focus at the December press conference, we have to make sure that people can afford to keep the heat on in the winter time. The states modeling suggests that customers would not actually be paying more across the board for a cap and invest program. A third of the programs revenue will go directly back to New Yorkers as rebates, while the rest will go toward climate-friendly investments. Before the rebates, low- and middle-income households would see immediate cost increases, in the range of $10 to $30 a month. But after rebates, the average low-income household would see net savings with the savings actually increasing as the price ceiling goes up, to a maximum of about $10 a month. Savings would also increase as New Yorkers begin to see the benefits of the investments paid for by the larger portion of the cap and invest proceeds: weatherization and a switch to more efficient appliances. Middle-income families those earning the states median household income of roughly $82,000 would see their net costs go up, though likely by no more than a few dollars in the first two years of the program. For those families, who are more likely to drive and live in larger homes that they heat with fossil fuels, monthly costs would go up with the price ceiling. For the highest ceiling the state has modeled, they could reach roughly $10 a month in 2030. Climate hawks in Albany say Hochuls fear that cap and invest could increase the cost of living doesnt take into account how much New Yorkers are already paying to deal with extreme weather and other climate impacts from home and infrastructure repairs to surging insurance rates to rising food prices. The question is not whether were paying or not, but who you want to be the one paying it, said Assemblymember Anna Kelles of Ithaca. Alongside the Climate Superfund Act, which would force major oil companies to pay for climate damages, Kelles wants New York to move forward with a far more stringent cap and invest program than the one regulators have laid out so far. (She sponsors a bill that would ban trading of allowances and tighten a variety of other restrictions in the program.) When the price ceiling was first introduced last year, climate groups were not happy. But now, getting some version of cap and invest off the ground even with a low price ceiling is their priority. If what we get is revenue for programs and rebates from a carbon price, that would be a great start, said Edel, of NY Renews. The single biggest reason for that change in tone is the governors last-minute suspension of congestion pricing in June, which suggested that Hochul might be willing to walk away from major policies even at risk of breaking the law if they were seen to harm affordability. Many climate advocates began to worry that cap and invest could face a similar fate. If your program is ever going to disappear who cares how ambitious it was in the long run if it just evaporates? said Nicholas Roy, a research associate at Resources for the Future. Asked about the programs status, state climate officials gave an oblique answer. DEC and NYSERDA remain committed to ensuring affordable energy for all New Yorkers while advancing the development of the New York Cap and Invest (NYCI) program, said Department of Environmental Conservation spokesperson Lori Severino. (She did not answer questions about when the state would publish draft rules for the program or the apparent hole in the cap.) Harckham, the state senator, said Hochuls revival of congestion pricing with a 40 percent lower toll than planned might offer a hint as to the direction shell go. If I were a betting man, I would suspect to see something like what the governor did with congestion pricing, he said. Maybe well see a slower start and a ramp up, as opposed to just flooring it right out of the gate. But an economy-wide carbon price could open a far bigger can of worms than adding a toll to enter central Manhattan. Some critics of the price ceiling think the problem runs deeper. The Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscally conservative watchdog group, published a report in October arguing that the fundamental flaw in the program lies in the climate law itself. The states target of reducing emissions 40 percent by 2030 is no longer possible to achieve at a reasonable cost, the group said so regulators are now proposing a workaround that undermines the very foundation of a cap and trade program. Instead, the CBC says, the legislature should recalibrate the 2030 emissions cap to be ambitious yet achievable, so that the program can function as the market-driven system it is meant to be. This could be a great tool if you get it right, said CBC President Andrew Rein. If you get it wrong, you have the lose, lose, lose you shift emissions out of state, you shift jobs out of state, you decrease New Yorks affordability. That aligns with demands from business groups, who have long argued that the laws targets are unrealistic and sent Hochul a letter in July urging the state to revisit its 2030 mandates and how it counts emissions in the first place. Kelles and Harckham both bristle at the idea of revisiting the core tenets of the climate law. That is such a cop out. I mean, drag your feet, drag your feet, then you manifest the reality you want, Kelles said, addressing business groups. While many New York Democrats fear that going too far could fuel a backlash against the program and at the ballot box, others say Novembers election results have only strengthened the case for moving ahead with a strong cap and invest program. Washington voters, faced with the choice to axe theirs, opted by a margin of 24 points to keep it. In New York, climate champions including Harckham and US Representative Pat Ryan won reelection in competitive districts. And with Donald Trump coming back to the White House, some Democrats are feeling the pressure for the state to once again take the reins on climate policy, as it did in passing its climate law during Trumps first term. For Eric Walker, the energy justice senior policy manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, how next years fight will play out, and how it affects future elections, is all about messaging. He says that because cap and invest remains unfamiliar to most New Yorkers, opponents can easily paint it as another unwelcome cost. Do you have a political narrative that talks about how this is going to drive benefits to people in the near term and the long term? And we dont, Walker said. Thats why were on our heels in terms of advocates having to push for an ambitious program of any kind, let alone one that meets the ambition of our peers across the country. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. KYODO NEWS - Jan 2, 2025 - 22:06 | All, World, Japan The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News. ---------- Japan marks 1 year since deadly collision at Tokyo's Haneda airport TOKYO - Japan on Thursday marked one year since a deadly collision at Tokyo's Haneda airport between a landing Japan Airlines jetliner and a coast guard plane taxiing for takeoff, which mistakenly entered the same runway. The collision on the evening of Jan. 2 killed five of the six people aboard the Japan Coast Guard's Bombardier DHC-8-300, while all 379 people aboard the JAL Airbus A350 escaped despite flames engulfing the plane. ---------- At least 15 killed, dozens injured in New Orleans truck attack NEW YORK - At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in a suspected terrorist attack when a pickup truck was driven into a crowd in a popular tourism spot in New Orleans, Louisiana, early Wednesday, according to local police and media reports. The suspect, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, died following a shootout with the police after he plowed the vehicle through people who were celebrating New Year's Day on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m., the police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. ---------- Japan emperor wishes for peaceful year in New Year's address TOKYO - Emperor Naruhito offered greetings Thursday in his New Year's address, expressing hope for a peaceful year while voicing concern for people affected by natural disasters. Accompanied by his wife Empress Masako and other members of the imperial family, the 64-year-old emperor waved to thousands of well-wishers from behind the windows of a balcony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. ---------- Japan's NTT Docomo reports system glitch after cyberattack TOKYO - NTT Docomo Inc. said Thursday it suffered a cyberattack that caused a website failure and some service disruptions, making Japan's largest mobile carrier the latest victim in a series of similar incidents at major firms in the country. The mobile operator said a system glitch started around 5:27 a.m., making it difficult to connect to services, including the "goo" portal site, and that it was caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which networks are overwhelmed by data from multiple sources over a short period. ---------- Tennis: Nishikori moves into Hong Kong Open quarterfinals TOKYO - Japan's Kei Nishikori advanced to the quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Tennis Open by rallying to beat third-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov on Wednesday. Nishikori won 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to secure his return to the top 100 in the world rankings. The former No. 4 will next play Britain's Cameron Norrie. ---------- Record number of Japan teachers on mental illness leave in FY 2023 TOKYO - The number of teachers who took leave due to mental illness at public schools in Japan climbed to 7,119 in fiscal 2023, a record high for the third straight year, a government survey showed, with increased workloads cited as the biggest possible factor. The figure for the year to March 2024 was up 580 from a year earlier, accounting for 0.77 percent of all teachers at elementary, junior high and high schools as well as special needs schools, or 1 in 130 individuals, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Video: Delivery of New Year's greeting cards begin LJP BHPian Join Date: Jul 2023 Location: Kannur Posts: 26 Thanked: 93 Times My Jeep Story : 2004 Mahindra CL 500 MDI Im thrilled to share the story of how I finally got my hands on a Mahindra CL 500 MDI 2004 after years of searching. I managed to find a rugged factory spec gem that I couldnt be happier with. The journey to finding it was as exciting as owning it now. Prices here are extremely high and many of the Jeeps I came across were heavily abused or modified. I surfed the internet relentlessly. Finally, I stumbled upon a listing for a Mahindra CL 500 MDI 2004 in Rajasthan. The photos and description were promising, and I decided to investigate it further. The first step was to make an advance payment so that I will not lose the opportunity. Moreover, since Im currently based in Russia, I couldnt inspect the Jeep myself. At this time my brother kindly stepped in to help. He traveled to Rajasthan, inspected the vehicle thoroughly, and confirmed that it was in excellent condition, and we can move forward with the deal. This Jeep was a factory spec model, not heavily used or abused something I was specifically looking for. It had run 140K as per the meter said. But it can be little bit more since the meter was not working at this time. It had an interesting history as it was previously owned by a DGP, Director General of Police. But something was unusual, the registration was covering the period 2004-2024, which usually should be 2004-2019 (15 years of registration validity). If someone know about the rules for police vehicle registration validity all over India or in Rajasthan please share. The current owner had bought it earlier this year, and we negotiated the price to 2.85 lakh rupees, which I found reasonable. In Kerala, it would cost me around 4.5 to 5.5 lakh rupees. I also sought help from the owner to get it serviced because my brother was planning to drive it all the way. So spent around 20K for it which includes, engine oil, transmission oil, and differential oil replacements. The odometer and speedometer, which were not working, were fixed. All the lights were inspected and repaired to ensure everything was functional. The leaf spring set was restored to its original condition. The wipers and combination switch were replaced with new ones. Once the deal was finalized, my brother embarked on the adventure of driving it all the way from Rajasthan to Kerala. The journey spanned six days, during which he also enjoyed a leisure trip. The transportation costs came to around 40K which included approximately 15K for diesel, 5K for tolls, and other personal expenses. I managed to secure 3474, which matches the numbers on my Toyota Fortuner and Maruti SB308. It was worth every rupee to see that familiar number plate on my new Jeep. The registration process in Kerala, including the number booking, cost me around 18K including agent commission. Now its home, Im overjoyed with my decision to purchase this Jeep. The robust build, unique history, and the work Ive put into it makes it a prized addition to my garage. I cant wait to take it on more adventures and share updates. Id love to hear your thoughts and suggestions, especially on any further enhancements or upgrades I could consider for this beauty. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Jaggu : 30th December 2024 at 11:44 . Reason: Adding paragraph breaks for readability. 14000rpm Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Helsinki Posts: 2,657 Thanked: 7,450 Times View My Garage Av goes to Alfa Romeo Museum in Milan | Nov 2024 Quote: 14000rpm Originally Posted by Day 15. Milan ...The Original original plan included a half day visit to the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese area of Milan and hence I choose a hotel in that vicinity. With a day short, we took it easy and started the day late with the Alfa Museum being the only agenda. Finally I was having my agenda finding a place. Or so I thought. My Italian Colleague, who has lived in Milan all her life, called me and suggested some other shopping destinations near Arese. I started to see my agenda quickly collapsing. My 8 yr old daughter is usually the swing voter in the family. Fortunately she likes cars. Unfortunately, Like the mom, she likes Shopping more than cars. I was forced to drive past the Alfa Museum to the shopping center.. Although I finished my meetings on Day 2, I took my return flight towards EoD of day 3 just so I didn't have to rush through the time I had for myself. Had breakfast, checked out and Uber'd my way to Museo Storico Alfa Romeo. Different folk have different Halo cars in their memory that connects them to certain Brands. The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione happens to be one of my all time favorites just for the way it looks. Simply Gorgeous. The closest I had some to seeing one in-person was in the Motorworld Center in Munich. Being aware that the Alfa Museum had one, I just had to go there and spent some time ogling at it. Alfa did not hide their masterpiece deep inside to find after a Labyrinth of halls like a IKEA center. No No. They put their pride and joy right up front at the entrance. My joy knew no bounds. Spent a lot of time appreciating every single line. Best part, this was even before buying a ticket to the Museum ! 1 of 10 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Racing Edition engineered by Sauber. ..and then, the Museum. 1953 750 Competizione. 1960 Giulietta Sprint 1959 Giulietta Spider Alfa's Aero engines. 1954 AR51 made for the Army inspired by Jeep. Excerpt from my Summer '24 Italian Roadtrip as precursor.After being so close yet so far to the Alfa Romeo Museum last time around, I had decided to make some time during my next work trip to Milan. Got lucky that a 3 day work trip came up in November- sooner than I thought.Although I finished my meetings on Day 2, I took my return flight towards EoD of day 3 just so I didn't have to rush through the time I had for myself.Had breakfast, checked out and Uber'd my way toDifferent folk have different Halo cars in their memory that connects them to certain Brands. The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione happens to be one of my all time favorites just for the way it looks. Simply Gorgeous. The closest I had some to seeing one in-person was in the Motorworld Center in Munich. Being aware that the Alfa Museum had one, I just had to go there and spent some time ogling at it.Alfa did not hide their masterpiece deep inside to find after a Labyrinth of halls like a IKEA center. No No. They put their pride and joy right up front at the entrance.My joy knew no bounds. Spent a lot of time appreciating every single line. Best part, this was even before buying a ticket to the Museum !1 of 10 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Racing Edition engineered by Sauber...and then, the Museum.1953 750 Competizione.1960 Giulietta Sprint1959 Giulietta SpiderAlfa's Aero engines.1954 AR51 made for the Army inspired by Jeep. Last edited by 14000rpm : 31st December 2024 at 12:26 . By Keita Nakamura, KYODO NEWS - Jan 2, 2025 - 10:00 | All, World, Japan Japan, the United States and South Korea have steadily built on their security cooperation amid China's rise and North Korea's belligerence, but the future appears precarious with the unpredictable Donald Trump returning to the White House, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol mired in a crisis that threatens his leadership. Experts in international relations warn the United States will likely pull back from its involvement in East Asian security affairs during Trump's second term starting Jan. 20, with the 78-year-old Republican expected to recommit to his "America First" platform and his related skepticism of multilateralism. A close alignment between Japan and South Korea serves as a key foundation for the development of trilateral ties involving the United States. But direct ties between the two U.S. allies could be challenged if conservative Yoon is ousted and a leftist leader with a hardline stance on Japan is elected to replace him. "We will no longer be able to take U.S. involvement on a global basis for granted" after Trump's inauguration, said Seiko Mimaki, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Global Studies of Doshisha University. During the four years under U.S. President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump in 2021, the United States recommitted to multilateralism and pursued "minilateral" arrangements to address various challenges in the Indo-Pacific, such as through fortified U.S.-Japan-South Korea ties, the U.S.-Japan-Philippines triad and the Quad group made up of the United States, Japan, India and Australia. As for the U.S.-Japan-South Korea partnership, Biden played a pivotal role in widening the scope of three-way cooperation from primarily focusing on North Korea to addressing other realms, such as economic security and emerging technologies. In August 2023, Biden, then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Yoon gathered at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David for their countries' first standalone summit, declaring a "new era of trilateral partnership." Biden administration officials have also worked to "institutionalize" the trilateral framework ahead of Trump's return to the Oval Office. But Mimaki, an expert on U.S. politics and diplomacy, doubted that momentum would be carried forward. The United States is juggling "three different fronts" simultaneously, which many in the public feel is "too much," she said, citing Ukraine, where the Biden administration has offered massive military support since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, the conflict-plagued Middle East, and the intensifying competition with China in the military and economic spheres. Noting that Americans have become "more inward-focused in terms of global security issues," Mimaki said she feels Japan-U.S.-South Korea ties are "very fragile" despite efforts to institutionalize the partnership. Adding to the uncertainty is the political turmoil in South Korea triggered by Yoon's abrupt but short-lived martial law declaration in early December. He insisted his shock move was intended to curb "anti-state" activities by the country's majority-holding opposition party. Yoon, whose presidential powers were suspended after the parliament passed an impeachment vote on Dec. 14, awaits a decision of the country's Constitutional Court on his removal from office. The court has 180 days to decide. Tadashi Kimiya, a professor with expertise in South Korean politics working at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said it is "highly likely" that Yoon will be replaced, and in that case, the presidential election will probably be held no earlier than April even if the court delivers its verdict in two months. "Common sense says (what Yoon did is) considered an abuse of power, to crack down on the opposition and self-destruct the country's order," he said. Lee Jae Myung, leader of South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party, is "decisively holding the party in his grip" and therefore widely viewed as the leading candidate to be the next president for now, he added. But a possible change of government in South Korea could mean a policy "flip" in dealing with Japan, as opposition parties have criticized Yoon's position on wartime issues as too conciliatory, Kimiya said. When Yoon's predecessor Moon Jae In was in power, Tokyo-Seoul relations sunk to their lowest point in decades over issues stemming from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Disputes on trade and defense also heightened tensions. Signs of a thaw emerged after Yoon became president in May 2022 and pledged to take a future-oriented approach toward the relationship with Japan. Yoon has also favored stronger ties with the United States. Yoon rolled out a solution to a conflict with Japan over wartime labor compensation in March 2023, which had been a major sticking point, setting the stage for improvement in bilateral ties as well as the deepening trilateral ties with the United States. The move, however, was an "obvious concession to Japan," Kimiya said. Trump's return, meanwhile, casts a shadow over the Japan-U.S. alliance and highlights his belief that nations hosting U.S. troops do not pay enough for their protection, even though Japan has already set a target of doubling its defense budget to about 2 percent of its gross domestic product in five years through fiscal 2027. Trump has named Elbridge Colby, a China hawk, as the next undersecretary of defense for policy. He is known for advocating that Japan should immediately expand its defense budget to about 3 percent of GDP. Trump could also test ties between Japan and South Korea, Kimiya warned, noting that he may try to "pit" the two allies against one another to compete on which is more loyal to the United States. Trump would likely hope such a situation would allow him to negotiate with both nations to pay more U.S. troop hosting costs. "To hold bargaining powers against the Trump administration, Japan and South Korea need to consult with each other on how to negotiate with Mr. Trump so that they will not be forced to adjust to his pace," the professor said. Related coverage: FOCUS: Under Trump, Japan not to be high on list, but role may grow in Asia South Korea votes to impeach Acting President Han, as Yoon faces trial North Korea declares "toughest anti-U.S. counteraction" strategy: KCNA kirans BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 61 Thanked: 274 Times Solo Ride of 1600 km on a Suzuki V-Strom 250 SX | Bangalore - Kanyakumari The Route and planning To be honest, I should have planned better, but then work and stuff took up too much of my time, and I was very busy until the last day. I just managed to get the VStrom serviced just two days before the trip so that there is fresh oil and everything is checked out. I was in a rush until the end. The rest of the family would travel by train, and I would ride all the way down south and visit a few places along the way. I was able to start planning only after I dropped the family to Sir MV Terminal in Bangalore and had to figure out the route, accomodations and any other things. As bad luck would have it, on the day before travel, my mother who is very old, developed some uneasiness and I was unclear if I would be able to go or not. Due to a delay of a day, I had to cut short some of the places to visit, and have a reduced travel time. The original plan was to go via Thrissur and Kodungallur and reach the final destination and in the return visit Madurai. But as things happened, I had to start one day late and that too only by 9 am from Bangalore. So final plan was changed to visit Madurai Meenakshi temple, stay there overnight and then next day head to Nagercoil and then to final destination. Spend 2.5 days there and on the return visit Srirangam and Grand Anaicut and then return by Sathyamangalam route. I ended up via Male Mahadeshwara hills due to some mistake but this also was a nice route. Day 1: Late start but good progress As I said, I had to start late due to health concerns of my mother who is nearly 80 and has to be alone for the week, but things worked out and I managed to start only by 8.50 AM from home. Luggage was light and consisted of just one saddle bag. I dont like backpacks on long journeys as it strains the shoulders and overall makes the journey tiresome. As it was Monday I expected traffic but thankfully due to the holiday season, traffic was not too bad and I crossed electronics city fly over by 10 am. As soon as I crossed the fly over, some one was waving widly to me from their car pointing to my bag. I looked behind and realized, I had forgotten to strap the bag to the carrier. It was just sitting on the rear seat so far, but leaning heavily to one side. Thanks to the good samaritan, I stopped and secured it properly and resumed the journey. After a while the traffic thinned out and there was a clear empty highway ahead. Securing the luggage near the Toll center. Free highway. After brisk progress especially in Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri ghats, that I thorougly enjoyed due to lack of trucks, I hit the plains and soon crossed Salem. Past Salem, I was quite hungry and stopped at a new Parrotta place. Rejuvenated after hot parrottas and two coffees, I resumed the journey, but by now the heat was quite intense. The section from Salem to Madurai was non stop mostly except some stops for a few photographs and to stretch a little bit. The Kodai range came into view soon, and I took the customary photo of the Kodai range which I have from many years of travelling in this route. I reached Madurai soon and took a while to navigate to the hotel, which happened to be located a stone's throw from the temple. That being a positive, the negative aspect was that it had no parking, and was in the middle of an extremely busy and narrow street. There was an argument between the hotel owner and the neighbouring shop owner about parking and I allowed them to converse without interfering. They had a heated argument about how the bike will block his shop and the hotel owner saying that he cannot accomodate a car if I park my bike in front of his hotel. Then I too joined in the conversation, and after 10 minutes he relaxed and was enquiring about the why I would struggle on a motorcycle while there were so many ample modes of transportation. We carried on a nice discussion and then he removed his own TVS to make room for my bike and promised he will look out for anyone mishandling it while it is parked there. After that I went into the hotel (the hotel owner happily ran off inside as soon as I was talking to the shop owner), and checked in and he said this is the first time that person allowed anyone to park in front of his shop. I told him that he had very clearly been asked if he had inside parking to which he confirmed on the phone, but he said it must have been someone else who answered the phone. Shaking my head, I proceeded to unload my bag and went to the room to a quick shower and head to Temple for darshan. So far I have not said anything about the motorcycle itself. The motorcycle feels fairly steady and there is no feeling of instability even while passing large lorries or buses or when Innovas overtake me at high speeds. The motorcycle feels relaxed between speeds of 85 to 95 km/h after which there is room to go until about 120 km/h for overtaking etc. But the engine does not feel relaxed beyond 95 km/h on the speedometer, and I too feel this is a reasonable speed to maintain. The other complaint I have about the motorcycle is that the height of the windscreen is less and it is not adjustable. If I duck slightly there is excellent reduction of wind buffetting, but at proper sitting position, a few millimeters more of the windscreen would make a big difference. I can say that the Oil cooling system is excellent, and even at continous driving in fairly warm weather, there is not the slightest indication of heating and the engine performance is absolutely fine from start to end. The best feature of the Vstrom 250 has to be its fuel efficiency. At the end of the day the Odometer read 475.9 km and a F.E of 41.9 km/L. This includes the city commute in Bangalore and Madurai, so the highway number should be slightly even better. I use 3M soft earplugs to block road and wind noise and they perform amazingly well. Would recommend this to everyone 100%. My helmet however was quite uncomfortable, and I have yet to find a good helmet that does not cause pain in the ears after a while. Perhaps I should go for the more expensive ones, but that is for the future. This helmet is a regular one from R.E (which is just a R.E branded Vega helmet). The Visor when closed cuts off a lot of wind noise, but at a certain point there is a resonant vibration of the visor which is irritating. I managed to get rid of this by inserting a small piece of paper that wedges the visor tight against the upper helmet body and that eliminated the vibration. I have too many helmets at home, but none are comfortable. * Day 2: Madurai to KK I started around 8:30 AM on day 2 since I did not have much distance to cover. The plan was to reach the destination by lunch time, with a stop or two for refreshments along the way. This part of the ride is very windy as the landscape turns to very flat and one can see the horizon in all directions. Soon we reach the meeting point of east and west where I took a deviation from the highway towards Nagercoil and then further to the destination. With some Nongu sharbat and other refreshments along the way, progress was quick and i reached right on time for lunch. Ramco Cements Factory This seems to be a popular spot for people to pause and have some refreshments. East Meets West Coffee with paws company I spent 2.5 days with the rest of the family enjoying the christmas break and some visits to the beach. Days 3 & 4: Return Journey The return was split into two days, with the first day planned to reach Trichy and visiting Srirangam, Grand Anaicut and Ucchi Pilliyar temples. And the plan was to ride back home via Sathyamangalam route primarily because I enjoy this route. I only managed to start around 9.30 AM after extra heavy breakfast and encountered traffic of about 45 minutes to cross Nagercoil town. Post that, I wanted to stop for a few pictures which I had hoped to take early in the morning, but due to the late start the sun was quite high and the pictures do not do justice to the location. I also managed to spot a train at this location, but for some reason the picture I took with the train seems to be missing. I refuelled at Jio (Reliance) fuels in this route. The ride was quite uneventful but the heat was intense until Dindigul. After I took a deviation towards Trichy, suddenly the sky was overcast and it started to rain. I rode in the rain for about 30 minutes which was thouroughly enjoyable and the scenery was also fantastic. I managed to keep triple digit speeds in this route due to sparse traffic and less side winds except during the rain, and reached the destination earlier than planned. Of course this resulted in a slightly lesser F.E in this stretch. I do not know if this is attributed to Jio Fuel or higher speed, but I will guess it is due to speed. Green fields Nagercoil to KK bypass Rain after Dindigul Srirangam Temple Odo for 2nd stretch In the evening after checking into the hotel and showering, I visited Srirangam temple. It was extremely crowded due to Margali maasam as well as Aiyappan crowd. I spent around 2.5 hours there and reached home a little tired. Next morning I walked to Ucchi Pilliyar temple and climbed the steps and had an excellent Darshan with hardly any crowd and had a wonderful view of Trichy from the top of the hill. I suggest anyone visiting here to go early, which gives good views of the surroundings before the heat haze sets in and also the crowd will be lesser. View of Trichy from top of the hill I started from Trichy around 10 AM only, due to lot of time spent in the temple and this meant I had just 8 hours of sunlight to make it home. I could not take an additional day's break as the rest of the family would be home by train in the morning, and I had to be there to recieve them. Originally I had planned to go via Satyamangalam route, and looked at options in Google maps for fastest route. The ride until Karur was just brilliant with Kaveri river on the right and railway tracks on the left. For anyone wanting a brilliant ride I suggest this (of course early morning is best to avoid traffic). By the time I reached Karur, it was nearly midday and was very hot. My phone overheated and turned off, and I wandered around Karur making several wrong turns. Finally got re-routed by a helpful policeman and was headed in the right direction. I wanted to go towards Erode and then towards Bannari and climb the Sathyamangalam forest ghats. But the confusion in Karur made me go towards Namakkal and I only realized later that I was going off the planned route. I decided then to not spend more time re-routing, and try the Mettur route and cross Male Mahadeshwara hills. Of course, starting late and wasting time in crossing Karur meant that I was way off my schedule. Nevertheless I decided on this route and soon crossed Tiruchengode and reached river Kaveri again at Poolampatti. Mother Kaveri was in full flow here and was a beauty to the eyes. Kaveri at Poolampatti Fields near Poolampatti After non stop riding I reached Mettur dam. I looked for the option to visit the dam, but with time running out and having a very long way yet to go, I decided to skip. Some pictures of the reservoir and backwaters here - The dam Reservoir Soon crossed the border and entered Karnataka, and soon the forst area starts. This section is an absolutely enjoyable one and if you are lucky there will be stretches with no traffic making the forest serene and quiet. Soon I reached Male Mahadeshwara hilltop but could not spend much time there as it was already 3.30 PM in the afternoon. After some tea and biscuits, I resumed the journey. From here onwards the road was a nightmare. They are repairing the roads, but the condtion of the road is pathetic, and with road works being carried out it is a very difficult ride all the way until Thaalu betta point. Perhaps in 2-3 months the roadworks will be completed, but at this time its a pain to ride. Cars have an even worse scenario because there is very little road left, and luckily as a two wheeler I managed to zip past all blockages. Beautiful forests of MM hills Male Mahadeshwara The rest of the journey was quite painful to be honest. There is nothing to see, and I had a long way to go. I wanted to cover as much distance as possible before sunset and kept on riding without any breaks. In hindsight I should have taken a break, but I am averse to riding at night. With no lunch at all, I was very hungry and exhausted by 7 pm. I stopped at the side of a small lake and took a 30 minutes break and had a lunch of snickers bars and orange juice and some biscuits. Again resuming the journey I had to only stop to refuel once near Malavalli and then reached Kanakapura toll gate around 8 PM. Then it was the nightmare of Saturday evening traffic in Bangalore and only managed to reach home around 9.15 PM. By this time I was really exhausted and tired and my bum was quite sore and painful. I had driven 11 hours that day with no lunch and really bad roads. Finally unloaded everything and had a massive dinner at home with my mother being very happy to see me back at home. Final reading Overall the trip was a success, I did not get any backache at all and the ride was very comfortable except for the last day. That was of course my mistake of starting late and missing the routes. That happens and is part of the experience. Ideally I should keep a daily limit of 350 to 400 Km max, which gives ample time to enjoy the journey, stop for photographs and food etc. The last day was very rushed and riding in the night is very uncomfortable. The VStrom headlights are totally inadequate for highway at night, and I dislike white LED lights in highways as they do not penetrate the distance at all. However I am not going to make any changes here, because I do not plan to drive at night. Overall the motorcycle was very comfortable, stable and very fuel efficient. A F.E of 40.3 km/L is very good considering there was a lot of city traffic involved as well and I feel that this is a very strong positive of this motorcycle. The negatives are as I said earlier being limited to 85-95 km/h which is adequate but one could always wish for a little higher cruising speed. However the 250cc motor punches way above its weight and performs excellently with the Oil cooling system. I am satisfied with the motorcycle as it served its purpose and I would not be able to make these times and distances on my bullets and with this F.E. So in that sense I am more than satisfied. Exactly 1 year after getting my VStrom, I wanted to put it to the very use I purchased it for. So far, it was only used for the office commute and a few small rides out of Bangalore, but the main motivation for the VStrom was for the annual year end trip to native place. My bullets are too slow for this distance and also I do not want to abuse them by running at high RPMs for long. Last but not the least, at close to half century in age, and more than a decade since I have embarked on longer rides, I was a little apprehensive about the trip and how my back might tolerate it. But at the end the back was perfectly fine, and the only thing to endure is a sore throat which I probably picked up somewhere along the way.To be honest, I should have planned better, but then work and stuff took up too much of my time, and I was very busy until the last day. I just managed to get the VStrom serviced just two days before the trip so that there is fresh oil and everything is checked out. I was in a rush until the end. The rest of the family would travel by train, and I would ride all the way down south and visit a few places along the way. I was able to start planning only after I dropped the family to Sir MV Terminal in Bangalore and had to figure out the route, accomodations and any other things. As bad luck would have it, on the day before travel, my mother who is very old, developed some uneasiness and I was unclear if I would be able to go or not. Due to a delay of a day, I had to cut short some of the places to visit, and have a reduced travel time. The original plan was to go via Thrissur and Kodungallur and reach the final destination and in the return visit Madurai. But as things happened, I had to start one day late and that too only by 9 am from Bangalore. So final plan was changed to visit Madurai Meenakshi temple, stay there overnight and then next day head to Nagercoil and then to final destination. Spend 2.5 days there and on the return visit Srirangam and Grand Anaicut and then return by Sathyamangalam route. I ended up via Male Mahadeshwara hills due to some mistake but this also was a nice route.As I said, I had to start late due to health concerns of my mother who is nearly 80 and has to be alone for the week, but things worked out and I managed to start only by 8.50 AM from home. Luggage was light and consisted of just one saddle bag. I dont like backpacks on long journeys as it strains the shoulders and overall makes the journey tiresome. As it was Monday I expected traffic but thankfully due to the holiday season, traffic was not too bad and I crossed electronics city fly over by 10 am. As soon as I crossed the fly over, some one was waving widly to me from their car pointing to my bag. I looked behind and realized, I had forgotten to strap the bag to the carrier. It was just sitting on the rear seat so far, but leaning heavily to one side. Thanks to the good samaritan, I stopped and secured it properly and resumed the journey. After a while the traffic thinned out and there was a clear empty highway ahead.After brisk progress especially in Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri ghats, that I thorougly enjoyed due to lack of trucks, I hit the plains and soon crossed Salem. Past Salem, I was quite hungry and stopped at a new Parrotta place. Rejuvenated after hot parrottas and two coffees, I resumed the journey, but by now the heat was quite intense. The section from Salem to Madurai was non stop mostly except some stops for a few photographs and to stretch a little bit. The Kodai range came into view soon, and I took the customary photo of the Kodai range which I have from many years of travelling in this route.I reached Madurai soon and took a while to navigate to the hotel, which happened to be located a stone's throw from the temple. That being a positive, the negative aspect was that it had no parking, and was in the middle of an extremely busy and narrow street. There was an argument between the hotel owner and the neighbouring shop owner about parking and I allowed them to converse without interfering. They had a heated argument about how the bike will block his shop and the hotel owner saying that he cannot accomodate a car if I park my bike in front of his hotel. Then I too joined in the conversation, and after 10 minutes he relaxed and was enquiring about the why I would struggle on a motorcycle while there were so many ample modes of transportation. We carried on a nice discussion and then he removed his own TVS to make room for my bike and promised he will look out for anyone mishandling it while it is parked there. After that I went into the hotel (the hotel owner happily ran off inside as soon as I was talking to the shop owner), and checked in and he said this is the first time that person allowed anyone to park in front of his shop. I told him that he had very clearly been asked if he had inside parking to which he confirmed on the phone, but he said it must have been someone else who answered the phone. Shaking my head, I proceeded to unload my bag and went to the room to a quick shower and head to Temple for darshan.So far I have not said anything about the motorcycle itself. The motorcycle feels fairly steady and there is no feeling of instability even while passing large lorries or buses or when Innovas overtake me at high speeds. The motorcycle feels relaxed between speeds of 85 to 95 km/h after which there is room to go until about 120 km/h for overtaking etc. But the engine does not feel relaxed beyond 95 km/h on the speedometer, and I too feel this is a reasonable speed to maintain.The other complaint I have about the motorcycle is that the height of the windscreen is less and it is not adjustable. If I duck slightly there is excellent reduction of wind buffetting, but at proper sitting position, a few millimeters more of the windscreen would make a big difference.I can say that the Oil cooling system is excellent, and even at continous driving in fairly warm weather, there is not the slightest indication of heating and the engine performance is absolutely fine from start to end.The best feature of the Vstrom 250 has to be its fuel efficiency. At the end of the day the Odometer read 475.9 km and a F.E of 41.9 km/L. This includes the city commute in Bangalore and Madurai, so the highway number should be slightly even better.I use 3M soft earplugs to block road and wind noise and they perform amazingly well. Would recommend this to everyone 100%. My helmet however was quite uncomfortable, and I have yet to find a good helmet that does not cause pain in the ears after a while. Perhaps I should go for the more expensive ones, but that is for the future. This helmet is a regular one from R.E (which is just a R.E branded Vega helmet). The Visor when closed cuts off a lot of wind noise, but at a certain point there is a resonant vibration of the visor which is irritating. I managed to get rid of this by inserting a small piece of paper that wedges the visor tight against the upper helmet body and that eliminated the vibration. I have too many helmets at home, but none are comfortable.I started around 8:30 AM on day 2 since I did not have much distance to cover. The plan was to reach the destination by lunch time, with a stop or two for refreshments along the way. This part of the ride is very windy as the landscape turns to very flat and one can see the horizon in all directions. Soon we reach the meeting point of east and west where I took a deviation from the highway towards Nagercoil and then further to the destination.With some Nongu sharbat and other refreshments along the way, progress was quick and i reached right on time for lunch.I spent 2.5 days with the rest of the family enjoying the christmas break and some visits to the beach.The return was split into two days, with the first day planned to reach Trichy and visiting Srirangam, Grand Anaicut and Ucchi Pilliyar temples. And the plan was to ride back home via Sathyamangalam route primarily because I enjoy this route. I only managed to start around 9.30 AM after extra heavy breakfast and encountered traffic of about 45 minutes to cross Nagercoil town. Post that, I wanted to stop for a few pictures which I had hoped to take early in the morning, but due to the late start the sun was quite high and the pictures do not do justice to the location. I also managed to spot a train at this location, but for some reason the picture I took with the train seems to be missing. I refuelled at Jio (Reliance) fuels in this route. The ride was quite uneventful but the heat was intense until Dindigul. After I took a deviation towards Trichy, suddenly the sky was overcast and it started to rain. I rode in the rain for about 30 minutes which was thouroughly enjoyable and the scenery was also fantastic. I managed to keep triple digit speeds in this route due to sparse traffic and less side winds except during the rain, and reached the destination earlier than planned. Of course this resulted in a slightly lesser F.E in this stretch. I do not know if this is attributed to Jio Fuel or higher speed, but I will guess it is due to speed.In the evening after checking into the hotel and showering, I visited Srirangam temple. It was extremely crowded due to Margali maasam as well as Aiyappan crowd. I spent around 2.5 hours there and reached home a little tired. Next morning I walked to Ucchi Pilliyar temple and climbed the steps and had an excellent Darshan with hardly any crowd and had a wonderful view of Trichy from the top of the hill. I suggest anyone visiting here to go early, which gives good views of the surroundings before the heat haze sets in and also the crowd will be lesser.I started from Trichy around 10 AM only, due to lot of time spent in the temple and this meant I had just 8 hours of sunlight to make it home. I could not take an additional day's break as the rest of the family would be home by train in the morning, and I had to be there to recieve them. Originally I had planned to go via Satyamangalam route, and looked at options in Google maps for fastest route. The ride until Karur was just brilliant with Kaveri river on the right and railway tracks on the left. For anyone wanting a brilliant ride I suggest this (of course early morning is best to avoid traffic). By the time I reached Karur, it was nearly midday and was very hot. My phone overheated and turned off, and I wandered around Karur making several wrong turns. Finally got re-routed by a helpful policeman and was headed in the right direction. I wanted to go towards Erode and then towards Bannari and climb the Sathyamangalam forest ghats. But the confusion in Karur made me go towards Namakkal and I only realized later that I was going off the planned route. I decided then to not spend more time re-routing, and try the Mettur route and cross Male Mahadeshwara hills. Of course, starting late and wasting time in crossing Karur meant that I was way off my schedule. Nevertheless I decided on this route and soon crossed Tiruchengode and reached river Kaveri again at Poolampatti. Mother Kaveri was in full flow here and was a beauty to the eyes.After non stop riding I reached Mettur dam. I looked for the option to visit the dam, but with time running out and having a very long way yet to go, I decided to skip. Some pictures of the reservoir and backwaters here -Soon crossed the border and entered Karnataka, and soon the forst area starts. This section is an absolutely enjoyable one and if you are lucky there will be stretches with no traffic making the forest serene and quiet. Soon I reached Male Mahadeshwara hilltop but could not spend much time there as it was already 3.30 PM in the afternoon. After some tea and biscuits, I resumed the journey. From here onwards the road was a nightmare. They are repairing the roads, but the condtion of the road is pathetic, and with road works being carried out it is a very difficult ride all the way until Thaalu betta point. Perhaps in 2-3 months the roadworks will be completed, but at this time its a pain to ride. Cars have an even worse scenario because there is very little road left, and luckily as a two wheeler I managed to zip past all blockages.The rest of the journey was quite painful to be honest. There is nothing to see, and I had a long way to go. I wanted to cover as much distance as possible before sunset and kept on riding without any breaks. In hindsight I should have taken a break, but I am averse to riding at night. With no lunch at all, I was very hungry and exhausted by 7 pm. I stopped at the side of a small lake and took a 30 minutes break and had a lunch of snickers bars and orange juice and some biscuits. Again resuming the journey I had to only stop to refuel once near Malavalli and then reached Kanakapura toll gate around 8 PM. Then it was the nightmare of Saturday evening traffic in Bangalore and only managed to reach home around 9.15 PM. By this time I was really exhausted and tired and my bum was quite sore and painful. I had driven 11 hours that day with no lunch and really bad roads.Finally unloaded everything and had a massive dinner at home with my mother being very happy to see me back at home.Overall the trip was a success, I did not get any backache at all and the ride was very comfortable except for the last day. That was of course my mistake of starting late and missing the routes. That happens and is part of the experience. Ideally I should keep a daily limit of 350 to 400 Km max, which gives ample time to enjoy the journey, stop for photographs and food etc. The last day was very rushed and riding in the night is very uncomfortable. The VStrom headlights are totally inadequate for highway at night, and I dislike white LED lights in highways as they do not penetrate the distance at all. However I am not going to make any changes here, because I do not plan to drive at night. Overall the motorcycle was very comfortable, stable and very fuel efficient. A F.E of 40.3 km/L is very good considering there was a lot of city traffic involved as well and I feel that this is a very strong positive of this motorcycle. The negatives are as I said earlier being limited to 85-95 km/h which is adequate but one could always wish for a little higher cruising speed. However the 250cc motor punches way above its weight and performs excellently with the Oil cooling system. I am satisfied with the motorcycle as it served its purpose and I would not be able to make these times and distances on my bullets and with this F.E. So in that sense I am more than satisfied. Last edited by kirans : 31st December 2024 at 10:40 . Pancham Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Kolkata/NCR Posts: 1,837 Thanked: 3,125 Times Re: Spiti Snow Drive (2024) in my stock Suzuki Jimny MT Part 3: The trip starts, finally The trip dates were December 21-28 ex-Chandigarh. I had slowly started preparing for the trip. I went to Decathlon to buy a few gears. I had the clothes to endure the cold but my down jacket had worn off. Additionally, I needed layers - so bought a few warm inners, a warm track pant and a cool down jacket. All of these served me very well during the trip. The idea was to layer up as much as possible - something everybody knows - but the magnitude of cold we were about to face in Spiti was something I had never experienced. I had been to the Everest Base Camp in 2017 but this trip in December was going to be even colder. With self-prep done, I decided to turn to my car. I already had some basic equipment - jump start cables, tire inflator, tire puncture kit, etc. I checked for snow chains but since there was no forecast for snow, I decided to skip it (big mistake). I was also going to buy a two rope but OLT2019 told me they will have it so no need to worry. I also carried a lot of food, a sleeping bag and gallons of water - just in case we get stuck and have to spend a night or two in the car. With the basics sorted it was time to leave for Chandigarh. Travel tip: For extreme trips like these, always go prepared. We learned it the hard way (more on this later). Always prepare a list of things to take - (i) clothes, (ii) food and water, (iii) items to prep your car. Preparing for a trip can also be fun. Going over-prepared is always better. Since I was going with a group, I saw a lot of people come to Spiti in this weather without knowing what Spiti was a month back - and hoping to experience something similar to going to Shimla. Also, remember mother nature is a zillion times more powerful than us so do not try to screw around with her - be humble and do not overstep or else she will bite back. Day 0: Gurgaon to Chandigarh With the trip starting on December 21, I had to reach Chandigarh a day earlier. I left Gurgaon at around 12:30pm and reached my AirBnB in Chandigarh at around 7pm (I had to take a work call on my way so stopped for a while). It was a smooth fast drive with minimal traffic despite being a Friday. Chandigarh is one of those cities I love. The city has a strange vibe that somehow manages to pull the right strings in my heart. Not sure what is it about the city - but there is something special. Perhaps an old long-lost love? Who knows? Now back to the trip before I start romanticizing the city. The AirBnB was recommended by a colleague and it was fantastic. Located in Sector 16, an old generation typical house in Chandigarh with dogs and a lawn, it was very cozy. The host was known so we had a great chat for whatever little time I was there. Also, by evening Day 0, I had no clue where the OLT2019 group is meeting. I called up the contact and he asked me to wait. I was a bit worried hoping all this was not a scam. Eventually, they created a group late at night and asked us to meet at 9:30am in Sector 47C next day. Wait, before we start - I was given an interesting assignment. Before we get into the details of the trip, let me share an interesting task I was assigned with for the trip. One of my dear colleagues (senior to me) had visited Spiti back in 2016. He had clicked some wonderful photographs of locals. He requested me to carry some of those photos and see if I could hand them over to them. The interesting bit was that I had to find the people in the photographs. The only clue I had was the file name which denoted the name of the village or location where the photo was taken. These pictures were taken in Kaza, Chicham bridge, Komic, Key Monastery, and so on. Day 1: Chandigarh to Rampur: Getting to know the group The day started with breakfast and me cuddling Duke, one of the several dogs at the AirBnB. Here, Duke is seen inspecting my car before leaving for the trip - he liked what he saw. - 10 guests (6 males and 4 females) + 1 guide/driver/coordinator (named Ajay) - 4 cars: One Jimny owned by yours truly, two rented Thars (HP and CH registered) organized by OLT2019 and one white Fortuner which was the lead car and can also be driven by guests (there were three from Kerala who could drive the car). Important thing to note is: there is only one person - Ajay (good guy) from OLT2019 side. That is it. He will be our guru, guide and driver for the rest of the trip. This was his second trip to Spiti and has never done it in snow. About the Thars: The CH Thar was relatively new and had 26k kms on the ODO. The HP one was 52k Kms run and a little more run down - but both looked pretty good from the outside. The Fortuner was old and was 4X2 (highlighting this for later). Finally, after much delay, we start for Rampur at 11am. We are given walkie-talkies to communicate with the other vehicles. ODO at the start of the trip in Chandigarh. The drive from Chandigarh was initially pretty uneventful. We were confused about whether to go as convoy, or if we could overtake the lead car or should we stay in a pack. We were told not to overtake the lead car for some weird reason. Once we crossed the HP toll where you need to pay cash (like, lol), everyone went on their own. The Thars clearly went ballistic, and overtook all the cars and went ahead. The Fortuner was driven by Akash (from Kerala) and I was in the Jimny pottering behind the cars. Jimny almost ended my trip on Day 1 Just as we were settling in, something very strange happened with me. Neeraj (one in the CH Thar) and I decided to stop at the Starbucks near Solan. He had reached earlier and I reach a little later and was looking for a parking spot. Anyone who has seen this Starbuck outlet would know that you climb up to it and then there is a downward slope exiting to the main road. There was no space to park except for near the exit which was a downward slope. I decided to reverse my way to park in that slope and my Jimny sloped. I stalled the car. Then the worst thing happened. The infamous phenomenon of Jimny brakes becoming hard was experienced by me for the first time. I don't remember the exact sequence of events. I don't remember if I managed to start the car by then - with the brakes hard I started to roll down the slope towards the main road. Within a few seconds I was down without much control. Now, you might ask why didn't I slot it into first gear. This is where my memory fails - did I eventually start the car and slot it into first gear or did I roll down with the engine shut - I cannot recall. I almost crashed into an incoming Scorpio. Thankfully, the Scorpio veered right and saved both of us. I got a few gaalis from the Scorpio driver but I was extremely confused about the brake becoming hard all of a sudden. I had read about it but was not sure it was this bad. I was scarred. This lowered my confidence. Everything happened within a few seconds and I was sure I did whatever I could. I did stop obviously. A bit shaken with what just happened I went inside the Starbucks, ordered my latte and sat down to chill for a bit. Called Bhpian Samba and he gave some useful advice (to check the brakes before starting off) which I conveniently forgot to follow. From Starbucks, we started again and stopped at a small cafe called Stargaze for lunch. This is where we started to get introduced to the other members of the group. We had one couple from Mumbai (CH Thar - this was Team Mumbai), four friends from college from Pune and Hyderabad (HP Thar - this was Team Pune), and three college friends from Kerala (Team Kerala) and myself (Team Calcutta). The team names were assigned for communication over the walkie. We started and again the cars were not together. Team Kerala was way ahead followed by Pune. Mumbai and Calcutta were together. We hit the Shimla traffic and were stuck for a good 1.5 hours. We were very late to Rampur. We decided to take it easy. We stopped a few times but later sped up as our ETA to Rampur was showing 10pm. Pune and Kerala had already reached and since it was Day 1, they were waiting for us to have dinner together. The temperature was falling and the lowest we got was 0 degrees while crossing Narkanda. We got super excited seeing zero degrees. We reached our stay for the night - KC Regency at around 10pm. Rampur, in general is not very impressive. Situated at 1000m above sea level - there is nothing scenic about Rampur. The ghastly site of construction of new houses and building on the side of the mountain visible from the hotel room bothered me. We had a good dinner and slept off early. Ended the day adding 257kms to the ODO. Man! it is getting cold I thought (sigh, little did I know what was in store for us in the days ahead). P.S: This was the last day we could take a bath. The trip dates were December 21-28 ex-Chandigarh. I had slowly started preparing for the trip. I went to Decathlon to buy a few gears. I had the clothes to endure the cold but my down jacket had worn off. Additionally, I needed layers - so bought a few warm inners, a warm track pant and a cool down jacket. All of these served me very well during the trip. The idea was to layer up as much as possible - something everybody knows - but the magnitude of cold we were about to face in Spiti was something I had never experienced. I had been to the Everest Base Camp in 2017 but this trip in December was going to be even colder. With self-prep done, I decided to turn to my car. I already had some basic equipment - jump start cables, tire inflator, tire puncture kit, etc. I checked for snow chains but since there was no forecast for snow, I decided to skip it (big mistake). I was also going to buy a two rope but OLT2019 told me they will have it so no need to worry. I also carried a lot of food, a sleeping bag and gallons of water - just in case we get stuck and have to spend a night or two in the car. With the basics sorted it was time to leave for Chandigarh.For extreme trips like these, always go prepared. We learned it the hard way (more on this later). Always prepare a list of things to take - (i) clothes, (ii) food and water, (iii) items to prep your car. Preparing for a trip can also be fun. Going over-prepared is always better. Since I was going with a group, I saw a lot of people come to Spiti in this weather without knowing what Spiti was a month back - and hoping to experience something similar to going to Shimla. Also, remember mother nature is a zillion times more powerful than us so do not try to screw around with her - be humble and do not overstep or else she will bite back.With the trip starting on December 21, I had to reach Chandigarh a day earlier. I left Gurgaon at around 12:30pm and reached my AirBnB in Chandigarh at around 7pm (I had to take a work call on my way so stopped for a while). It was a smooth fast drive with minimal traffic despite being a Friday. Chandigarh is one of those cities I love. The city has a strange vibe that somehow manages to pull the right strings in my heart. Not sure what is it about the city - but there is something special. Perhaps an old long-lost love? Who knows? Now back to the trip before I start romanticizing the city.The AirBnB was recommended by a colleague and it was fantastic. Located in Sector 16, an old generation typical house in Chandigarh with dogs and a lawn, it was very cozy. The host was known so we had a great chat for whatever little time I was there. Also, by evening Day 0, I had no clue where the OLT2019 group is meeting. I called up the contact and he asked me to wait. I was a bit worried hoping all this was not a scam. Eventually, they created a group late at night and asked us to meet at 9:30am in Sector 47C next day.Before we get into the details of the trip, let me share an interesting task I was assigned with for the trip. One of my dear colleagues (senior to me) had visited Spiti back in 2016. He had clicked some wonderful photographs of locals. He requested me to carry some of those photos and see if I could hand them over to them. The interesting bit was that I had to find the people in the photographs. The only clue I had was the file name which denoted the name of the village or location where the photo was taken. These pictures were taken in Kaza, Chicham bridge, Komic, Key Monastery, and so on.The other small challenge was to get the photos printed in Chandigarh. So I found Capital Studio in Sector 22 and quickly went to get them printed before the shop closed. I printed 12 photographs and headed back to the AirBnB for a good night sleep excited for what lay ahead.The day started with breakfast and me cuddling Duke, one of the several dogs at the AirBnB.Here, Duke is seen inspecting my car before leaving for the trip - he liked what he saw.Given that this was a group trip with a bunch of strangers I did not want to be late. We were given no information about the number of cars, people who were travelling, etc. I had requested for a single sharing room for extra cost which OLT2019 had agreed to. I reached Sector 47C at 9:45am to find nobody. I waited. Then I see a black Thar pull up and a young couple get down. They were from Mumbai. They were also part of the group. We text in the group that we have reached. The coordinator whom we have been talking is based in Kolkata - he was not joining the group. I decided to go fuel up and left to find a gas station. I return after 30 minutes and there was nobody. Finally after sometime we see another black Thar and an old 2010ish white Fortuner turn up. So here is the deal - the group turned out to be as follows:- 10 guests (6 males and 4 females) + 1 guide/driver/coordinator (named Ajay)- 4 cars: One Jimny owned by yours truly, two rented Thars (HP and CH registered) organized by OLT2019 and one white Fortuner which was the lead car and can also be driven by guests (there were three from Kerala who could drive the car).Important thing to note is: there is only one person - Ajay (good guy) from OLT2019 side. That is it. He will be our guru, guide and driver for the rest of the trip. This was his second trip to Spiti and has never done it in snow.About the Thars: The CH Thar was relatively new and had 26k kms on the ODO. The HP one was 52k Kms run and a little more run down - but both looked pretty good from the outside. The Fortuner was old and was 4X2Finally, after much delay, we start for Rampur at 11am. We are given walkie-talkies to communicate with the other vehicles.ODO at the start of the trip in Chandigarh.The drive from Chandigarh was initially pretty uneventful. We were confused about whether to go as convoy, or if we could overtake the lead car or should we stay in a pack. We were told not to overtake the lead car for some weird reason. Once we crossed the HP toll where you need to pay cash (like, lol), everyone went on their own. The Thars clearly went ballistic, and overtook all the cars and went ahead. The Fortuner was driven by Akash (from Kerala) and I was in the Jimny pottering behind the cars.Just as we were settling in, something very strange happened with me. Neeraj (one in the CH Thar) and I decided to stop at the Starbucks near Solan. He had reached earlier and I reach a little later and was looking for a parking spot. Anyone who has seen this Starbuck outlet would know that you climb up to it and then there is a downward slope exiting to the main road. There was no space to park except for near the exit which was a downward slope. I decided to reverse my way to park in that slope and my Jimny sloped. I stalled the car. Then the worst thing happened. The infamous phenomenon of Jimny brakes becoming hard was experienced by me for the first time. I don't remember the exact sequence of events. I don't remember if I managed to start the car by then - with the brakes hard I started to roll down the slope towards the main road. Within a few seconds I was down without much control. Now, you might ask why didn't I slot it into first gear. This is where my memory fails - did I eventually start the car and slot it into first gear or did I roll down with the engine shut - I cannot recall. I almost crashed into an incoming Scorpio. Thankfully, the Scorpio veered right and saved both of us. I got a fewfrom the Scorpio driver but I was extremely confused about the brake becoming hard all of a sudden. I had read about it but was not sure it was this bad. I was scarred. This lowered my confidence. Everything happened within a few seconds and I was sure I did whatever I could. I did stop obviously.A bit shaken with what just happened I went inside the Starbucks, ordered my latte and sat down to chill for a bit. Called Bhpian Samba and he gave some useful advice (to check the brakes before starting off) which I conveniently forgot to follow.From Starbucks, we started again and stopped at a small cafe called Stargaze for lunch. This is where we started to get introduced to the other members of the group. We had one couple from Mumbai (CH Thar - this was Team Mumbai), four friends from college from Pune and Hyderabad (HP Thar - this was Team Pune), and three college friends from Kerala (Team Kerala) and myself (Team Calcutta). The team names were assigned for communication over the walkie.We started and again the cars were not together. Team Kerala was way ahead followed by Pune. Mumbai and Calcutta were together. We hit the Shimla traffic and were stuck for a good 1.5 hours.We were very late to Rampur. We decided to take it easy. We stopped a few times but later sped up as our ETA to Rampur was showing 10pm. Pune and Kerala had already reached and since it was Day 1, they were waiting for us to have dinner together.The temperature was falling and the lowest we got was 0 degrees while crossing Narkanda. We got super excited seeing zero degrees. We reached our stay for the night - KC Regency at around 10pm.Rampur, in general is not very impressive. Situated at 1000m above sea level - there is nothing scenic about Rampur. The ghastly site of construction of new houses and building on the side of the mountain visible from the hotel room bothered me. We had a good dinner and slept off early. Ended the day adding 257kms to the ODO. Man! it is getting cold I thought (sigh, little did I know what was in store for us in the days ahead).P.S: This was the last day we could take a bath. Last edited by Pancham : 1st January 2025 at 11:19 . What just happened? A US Army soldier has been arrested on suspicion that he attempted to sell stolen sensitive customer data belonging to telecommunications companies AT&T and Verizon last year. Twenty-year-old Cameron John Wagenius was arrested on December 20 and charged with two counts of unlawful transfer of confidential phone records information. Cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs wrote that Wagenius went by the name Kiberphant0m online. Shortly after the arrest of Connor Riley Moucka, one of the men accused of stealing sensitive customer data housed by cloud storage service Snowflake, Kiberphant0m posted on BreachForums what he claimed to be the stolen AT&T call logs for President-elect Donald Trump and for Vice President Kamala Harris. He signed the post "#FREEWAIFU." Kiberphant0m threatened to release all government call logs unless AT&T contacted him or someone called Reddinton, whose identity remains unknown. "In the event you do not reach out to us @ATNT, all presidential government call logs will be leaked," Wagenius allegedly threatened. " You don't think we don't have plans in the event of an arrest? Think again." Kiberphant0m also posted sales threads for call logs stolen from Verizon's push-to-talk (PTT) customers, mainly US government agencies and emergency first responders. The Desk reports that Wagenius was detained by federal law enforcement authorities in Waco, Texas, on December 20, two days after a grand jury in Washington state indicted him on two criminal counts related to the unauthorized collection and attempted distribution of confidential phone records. Krebs spoke with Wagenius' mother, Alicia Roen. She said he'd acknowledged being associated with Moucka, a.k.a. "Judische," adding that her son worked on radio signals and network communications at an Army base in South Korea for the past two years, returning to the United States periodically. "I never was aware he was into hacking," Roen said. "It was definitely a shock to me when we found this stuff out." Wagenius is not accused of targeting Snowflake directly, but investigators believe he obtained call records from either Moucka or John Binns, who was also identified as a suspect in the attack, with the direction to distribute them in online hacking forums. Binns and Moucka face 20 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud and abuse, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Both men allegedly demanded ransom payments from victims before eventually selling the data. A Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day left one person dead and seven others with minor injuries. Authorities questioned why the tragic accident happened in the first place. This was confirmed by Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill. What Caused the Tesla Cybertruck Explosion? According to The Verge, authorities said that it was discovered that the rented Cybertruck in Colorado contained canisters of gasoline, camp fuel, and "large firework mortars" in its bed. These, according to investigators, were said to be connected with a detonation system controlled by the driver. Surveillance footage and Tesla's own advanced tracking technology allowed authorities to chart the truck's movement, showing it arriving in Las Vegas as early as 7:30 AM PT. The Cybertruck stopped in front of the Trump hotel for around 15 seconds before the explosion happened. There are several videos that captured the truck engulfed in flames and smoke billowing just outside the hotel's lobby. Tesla's Response: Clearing the Air The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, was quick to react to the incident, claiming that the blast was not related to an issue with the Cybertruck. According to Musk, Tesla's data collected from the vehicle proved that the explosion resulted from an external cause. "We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself," he posted on X. Additionally, the vehicle, rented via Turo, was reportedly locked after the explosion, making it challenging for first responders to access it immediately. However, Musk confirmed that Tesla provided critical assistance to authorities, including video footage from charging stations and technical support for the locked vehicle. Cybertruck blew up in front of Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Those are our luggage by the door and that's where we were when it happened. pic.twitter.com/KaVZXfGLNK ayackle (@kaaaassuu) January 1, 2025 Eyewitness Accounts: Panic and Explosions People took videos of smoke billowing as witnesses described scenes of chaos. Alcides Antunes shot the car fire. He recorded three loud bangs, apparently battery explosions, while others posted their videos from different angles while relating intense heat and vibrations, further stating that even the windows on the 53rd floor in the building are shaking. First Responders Speed Fire teams reached the scene in four minutes and stopped the spreading of the fire within an hour. Sheriff McMahill has assured residents and visitors that the area is now safe. Statements from the Trump Organization While Donald Trump has remained silent so far, Eric Trump took to the media and stated his thanks to the Las Vegas Fire Department and law enforcement forces for their immediate response. He further mentioned that safety and well-being were more than a concernit is something that guests and staff require for the utmost performance. The authorities continue with their investigation regarding the truck and the motive behind the driver. As investigations take place, everyone is asking the question of how much harmful cargo ended up in the middle of Las Vegas. For now, Las Vegas residents and visitors can rest assured that the immediate danger has passed, but there are still unanswered questions. Turo-Rented Cybertruck For those who have no idea what Turo is, it's simply the Airbnb version, but instead of rental spaces, you rent vehicles. According to Business Insider, the company hailed from San Francisco and specializes in offering a lot of options including Tesla, Porsche, Toyota, and more cars. Outside the US, it's operational in France, Canada, Australia, and the UK. According to Turo, they had no control over the actions the guests would do after renting the car. Most of us have an unquenchable thirst for news content available in multiple forms. It is no surprise, either, because listening to news forms our opinions, worldviews, and understanding of what happens around us. The Internet is full of news sources that are full of hoaxes, politically motivated content, state-sponsored news, news controlled by corporations, Clickbaits, and fake stories. Moreover reporters these days are beings forced by media agencies, news outlets, and their editors to report in a way that increases TRP and views, doesnt matter if a few things dont go on to explain things properly. Due to the same reason, we need to consume information from unbiased news sources that report factual news. In this article, we have listed the top 10 best-unbiased news sources you can rely online on to read the news. These news sources have websites and apps for Android and iOS devices. We have selected all these publications based on broad criteria. For instance, the news sources on this list have been in the journalism industry for years. They have also scored considerably high in studies and surveys concerning unbiasedness. These news sites are popular globally including, in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, etc. Most Unbiased New Sources The Associated Press is a New York-based news agency that believes in independent journalism. The news source brings reports from across the globe, making it a definitive platform to know about everything. You can see that the Associated Press website does not involve click-bait or controversial headlines. Instead, the news agency remains maximum neutrality while reporting. It is also one of the few news sources with no political inclination. Therefore, even while reading about sensitive topics like politics, you can get an unbiased experience from the AP. Studies have proven that the Associated Press follows a fact-driven reporting and writing style. It stays away from generalizations, thereby focusing on specifics. In addition, the use of neutral language makes the AP a reliable news source. Reuter is one of the most trusted news sources and a leading name in the journalism industry. As you can guess, this news source does not use click-bait or manipulative headlines. On the other hand, it tells you precisely what you will read. Because it has been a part of the international news culture, Reuters has become the gold standard of classy reporting and unbiasedness. Reuters has kept its comprehensive reporting style even while handling topics like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reuters does not have an ideological bias, unlike some other news publications. It means you can use it as a source for your regular news consumption. You can see that many national newspapers gather news reports from Reuters, which has an ever-expanding global network. BBC, which stands for British Broadcasting Corporation, is another reliable source for unbiased news. It has been an industry leader and offers journalistic coverage across the globe. Even though it is not based in the United States, BBC news covers the different aspects of US politics. The news source goes the extra mile to increase the overall integrity of reportage. For instance, you can find a reality check section that will fact-check popular news articles and debunk them if necessary. BBC News is also known for publishing worth-reading content. Apart from being unbiased, BBC news is also a great source of vital information. For instance, since the start of COVID-19, the publication has offered reliable information to its readers. You can also find a lot of human-interest stories on the platform. The Wall Street Journal is another name you can trust when you need factual reporting and representation. Since its inception, the WSJ has been a source for all sorts of reports. However, this publication seems to have a greater edge while covering the financial sector. Even though corporate ownership is another part of the story, WSJ does not let political inclination affect publishing. The news source also takes a somewhat neutral approach in writing. Therefore, you may not find many controversial reports here. Nevertheless, the content published by WSJ on all platforms adheres to strict ethical and editorial policies. Even their reviews, where a pinch of personal bias would not hurt, are known to be as unbiased as possible in the long run. Another popular news source, Bloomberg, is also based in New York City. Since its start in 1981, Bloomberg has delivered the news, data, analysis, and video content. In recent years, Bloomberg has also enhanced its video coverage. Bloomberg is an unbiased news platform that you cannot ignore regarding the market analysis. It offers a number of business-class services as well. It means Bloomberg excels as a software company, offering a set of advanced options. You can count on Bloomberg reports if you want to know more about commodities, stocks, EFTs, currencies, etc. It also offers impressive coverage on crypto and wealth options. By the way, Bloomberg has a unique space for opinions as well. The New York Times is another comprehensive news platform that you can trust. It has been a great source for all things news for several decades. However, unlike the AP and Reuters, coverage from New York Times is often considered a bit left-leaning. However, it should not stop you from considering the NY Times as a great source. Because of the ethics policy that the publication follows, the reports are checked for facts and specifics. It is also one of the leaders in independent journalism. The New York Times seems to have an edge in the newspaper sector. It is yet to expand to the video content sector, but it will not be late. Over 170 years, the publication has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, indicating its journalistic etiquette and the talent pool inside. Other Unbiased News Sources C-SPAN, which stands for the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is another neutral news source for all the major events in the United States. You can count on its political coverage, including live streams and in-detail reports. It is a non-profit initiative which was created by the cable television industry. It is funded by a fee paid by cable and satellite television providers, and it does not receive any government funding. C-SPAN provides live and recorded coverage of congressional proceedings, as well as other public affairs programming such as White House press briefings and political events. National Public Radio is a great news source in the United States. However, like the New York Times, it has been labeled left-leaning. On the bright side, NPR offers a broad spectrum of content, especially on culture and arts. It was created in 1970, following the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as the primary source of funding for public radio and television. Forbes is not a traditional news source in that it has certain reservations. However, if you like to stay updated on the science and tech sectors, you should check out Forbes. It offers a variety of market analysis content as well. It also features annual lists of the wealthiest people and the most successful companies, as well as profiles of successful individuals and organizations. Although owned by the corporate, NBC News is a trustworthy news source in the United States. Some of its reports favor the left political ideology, but you get facts, nevertheless. This news outlet is very strict when it comes to an ethical framework. What Is an Unbiased News Source? We are talking about publications with journalistic integrity, ethics, and a fact-based reporting style. We will not lie; the internet is filled with fake news, manipulated narratives, and questionable reporting. Therefore, you may have trouble finding the best unbiased news publications. Unbiased News Sources FAQs What is the most reliable form of news? There are multiple opinions on this matter, but many studies underline that newspapers are the most reliable form of news. First, newspapers get a sufficient amount of time to fact-check and refine content before they publish. Second, there is little to no pressure to sensationalize the content. Many surveys conducted in the United States also confirm this idea. How to know if your news is unbiased? An unbiased news source will have a few unique characteristics. For instance, it will use more facts instead of arguments. Similarly, you can find sources to confirm what is published. The news source should not have any moral or political bias either. For instance, there is a reason why Fox News is not on the list of top news sources. Are there any unbiased newspapers? Yes, unbiased newspapers definitely exist. The best example would be the New York Times, which often gets a little criticism for being left-leaning. Nevertheless, the platform does not make changes to what is being published. More importantly, newspapers like the New York Times follow a strict reporting ethics framework to keep things streamlined. The Most Popular News Site In the US The most popular news sites in the United States of America on the basis of traffic are PBS News, CBS News, and NPR. The Most Popular News Site In the UK The most popular news sites in the UK are DailyMail, The Guardian, and BBC. The Most Popular News Sources in Australia The most popular news sources in Australia are nine.com.au, news.com.au, and ABC News. The Most Popular News Sources in Canada The most popular news sources in Canada are CTV News, CBS News, and Daily Hive. The Most Popular News Sources in India The most popular news sources in India are the Times of India, DD News, and Zee News. Conclusion We believe our list of the top unbiased news sources helps you get reliable news content on all matters. Have a look out for fake news that is often difficult to identify in the wave of different unverified sources. Always look for credible and verified sources for every piece of news, and remember that social media posts dont always count. Along with that, we have chosen these publications based on multiple studies and popularity indexes. So, rest assured, you can be confident about what you read or consume from these news sources. Web scraping, also known as web data collection, has grown in popularity as a method of collecting web data. While it is well known for its versatility and flexibility, this new technology has assisted many individuals and corporations retrieve large amounts of data from practically all websites or databases. Web data collection is a technique for extracting massive amounts of data from selected websites to gather business insights, implement marketing plans, develop SEO strategies, or analyze the competition in the market. A proxy is a third-party server that allows you to route your request through their servers while using their IP address. However, various forms of proxies are available on multiple web data platforms, including different proxy applications. What Are The Various Forms Of Proxies? Residential proxies These proxies provide private residence IP addresses and assist you in routing your requests through household networks. These are more difficult to obtain and more expensive. However, because target websites generally do not prohibit home IP addresses, they can provide additional benefits to enterprises. These IPs help you appear to be a genuine website visitor browsing a website. Datacenter proxies Datacenter proxies, the most prevalent proxy, provide IP addresses of servers in data centers. Datacenter proxies are private or personal ones not affiliated with ISPs (ISPs). These IPs are inexpensive and can aid in developing an effective web crawling solution. Mobile proxies These private mobile device IPs are challenging to get and retain lawfully. Due to the lack of effective proxy management skills, data centers and residential proxies produce similar results. Web Data Collection Applications with Proxy Capabilities An IP proxy works well for avoiding website blocks, and one easy method to use an IP proxy is to use web scraping tools that already include proxy functions, such as Octoparse. These tools can be used with IP proxies or IP proxy resources incorporated within the specific tools. Below are the various types of data collection applications with proxy functions: Parsehub Parsehub is a visual web data platform application that supports IP rotation and cloud scraping. When you enable IP rotation for your projects, the proxies used to execute them come from various countries. You may also add your list of selected proxies to ParseHub as a portion of the rotation IP features if you want to view a website from a specific country or prefer to use your proxies rather than the ones it gives for IP rotation. Octoparse Octoparse is a free and robust web scraping program that can scrape nearly any website. Its cloud-based data extraction uses a massive pool of cloud IP addresses, reducing the possibility of being blocked and protecting your local IP addresses. Octoparse 8.5 features numerous country-based IP pools, allowing you to efficiently scrape websites only available to IPs from a given region/country. While running the crawler on your local device, Octoparse will enable you to employ a list of proxies to prevent revealing your real IP address. Apify Apify is a data collection tool that uses online scraping and automation. It provides not only data gathering services but also a proxy service to reduce web scraping blocking. Apify Proxy supports both datacenter and residential IP addresses. You can opt for an inexpensive and fast IP like Datacenter IPs. However, they may be blacklisted by target sites. Residential IP addresses are very costly and more difficult to block. Mozenda Mozenda is also a user-friendly desktop data scraper. It provides users with the option of using geolocation proxies or custom proxies. Geolocation proxies allow you to redirect your crawlers traffic through another area of the world to get information relevant to that region. When normal geolocation does not satisfy your projects needs, you can use custom proxies to connect to proxies from a third-party supplier. Why Use Proxies for Your Web Data Collection? It keeps your IP address safe You may be banned if you do several scraping actions on a target site over a long period. Your access may be restricted in different ways due to your location. If you utilize a reputable proxy, you can solve these problems in the blink of an eye. Your IP address will be concealed and replaced with many rotating residential proxies, thus hiding you from the target websites server. A proxy, on the other hand, will provide you with access to a global network of proxy servers, allowing you to avoid the problem of location. Choose your preferred location, such as the United States or Madagascar, and surf in complete anonymity. Avoid IP restrictions Websites use crawl rate restrictions to prevent scrapers from submitting too many requests. As a result, the sites speed has been lowered. If the proxy pool is large enough, the crawler can avoid rate limits on the target website by making queries from multiple IP addresses. It keeps a steady connection You know that data collection takes time, regardless of your chosen application. Your internet connection falls just as you complete the process, causing you to lose all of your progress and waste valuable time. This could happen if you utilize your server, which may have a poor connection. If you use a reputable proxy, your connection will be more reliable. Security Your server probably wont be able to handle all the potentially dangerous things encountered while scraping data. Backconnect proxies are the most effective solution to this problem. A proxy can assist you with specific fundamentals and requirements, such as disguising your IP address and using a secure and consistent connection to ensure that your operation runs smoothly and successfully, irrespective of the software you intend to use or your experience level. How Does A Proxy Server For Web Scraping Work? Websites typically block the IP addresses used to access them. On the other hand, using a proxy server is a fantastic solution because the server has its own IP address and can protect yours. A proxy pool enables you to scrape a website far more reliably and reduces the likelihood of your crawlers being blocked. Incorporate your proxy pool with a web data extraction tool to safeguard your web data from blocking issues. Why Should Your Organization Utilize Proxies for Web Data Collection? The central question will be why you must go through all of this to hide your companys name. This is the truth. Its a challenging market out there, and if you want to make serious development with your firm, you need this method desperately to beat your competitors. Apart from obtaining competitive analysis, there are various other ins and outs of why your business needs it. It would help if you had quality leads to reach out to potential customers as a business. It is necessary to collect essential data for this reason. This is where ethical web scraping can help with lead generation. It gathers information from competing portals and forums to determine who is doing business with them. You can utilize this information to produce more qualified leads. Conclusion Although using a proxy makes web data collection more effective, keeping the scraping speed under control is crucial and avoids overwhelming your target websites. Living in harmony with websites and not upsetting the equilibrium will allow you to obtain information constantly. SAO PAULO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and several others injured on New Year's Eve in a multi-car crash in southern Brazil, local authorities said on Wednesday. The accident occurred on a state highway near a town in southern Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state, said municipal police in Sao Miguel das Missoes. Two of the vehicles collided head-on, killing two in one car and three in the other. No fatalities were reported in the third vehicle. The five fatal victims included a 3-year-old child, police spokesperson Luciana Cunha told reporters. The passengers were all locals on their way to celebrate the New Year. India clears toxic waste 40 years after Bhopal gas disaster New Delhi, Jan 2 (AFP) Jan 02, 2025 Indian authorities moved hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste remaining more than 40 years after the world's deadliest industrial disaster struck the city of Bhopal, media reported Thursday. Communities have for decades blamed a high level of sicknesses on contamination of the groundwater in the wake of the highly toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory in December 1984. Some 3,500 people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the chemical leak on the night of December 2, 1984, and up to 25,000 are estimated to have died overall. Around a dozen trucks began carrying the 337 tonnes of waste -- sealed inside containers and with a police escort--- in a slow convoy to the disposal site some 225 kilometres (140 miles) away at Pithampur late Wednesday night, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. "The convoy has been fortified with the highest security protocol ever witnessed in the movement of industrial waste in the country," said state gas relief and rehabilitation department director Swatantra Kumar Singh, the Times of India reported. Singh said that the waste will "undergo scientific disposal" through incineration. In 1984, 27 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC), used in the production of pesticides, swept through the city of over two million people after one of the tanks storing the deadly chemical shattered its concrete casing. The order to clear the waste was made in December -- after the 40th anniversary of the disaster -- by the high court in Madhya Pradesh state, which set a one-month deadline. "Are you waiting for another tragedy?" Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait asked the authorities, in an order critical of the "inertia" by cleanup authorities, according to the Times of India and Indian Express newspapers. Testing of groundwater near the site in the past revealed cancer- and birth defect-causing chemicals 50 times higher than what is accepted as safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Communities blame a range of health problems -- including cerebral palsy, hearing and speech impairments and other disabilities -- on the accident and the contamination of the groundwater. Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot Dizangue, Cameroon, Jan 2 (AFP) Jan 02, 2025 Ever since his first hard-won sightings of African manatees, award-winning marine biologist Aristide Takoukam Kamla has been devoted to protecting the little-known and at-risk aquatic mammals. African manatees are found in fresh water along the coast of western Africa, such as in Cameroon's vast Lake Ossa where the researcher first saw them more than 10 years ago. But they are shy creatures -- spotting them requires setting out before dawn when the lake is glassy and tranquil, all the better for following the trails of bubbles and, maybe just maybe, catching two big nostrils taking a quick breath. "I was expecting to see them like on YouTube: in clear water, jumping like dolphins... a completely surreal idea" stemming from publications on manatees in Florida, the 39-year-old Cameroonian recalled, smiling. Their African cousins, however, are very different and the then University of Dschang apprentice researcher had to row for a long time before being rewarded. Thanks to local fishermen, Takoukam Kamla has now learnt how to spot African manatees more easily within the darkened depths of the 4,500-hectare (11,000-acre) Lake Ossa, part of a sprawling wildlife reserve in southwestern Cameroon. They are his "favourite animal", the subject of his doctorate at the University of Florida -- and the reason he won this year's prestigious Whitley Award that recognises groundbreaking biodiversity work by grassroots conservationists. - Endangered habitat, poaching - American scientist Sarah Farinelli was moved to tears after seeing five African manatees, including a female with her calf, while out on the lake with Takoukam Kamla. "It's huge! There are certain places in Africa where it's impossible to see them," said Farinelli, who is in her 30s and studies the marine mammals in Nigeria. Much still eludes researchers about the Trichechus senegalensis -- how many are in Cameroon; how long do they live; when and where do they migrate. African manatees are found between Mauritania and Angola but "it's a very little studied species, around which many mysteries still remain", Takoukam Kamla said. Sometimes known as sea cows, the large marine herbivore is listed as "vulnerable" on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But the Cameroonian scientist thinks that is "an under-estimation of the real status of this species, which is subject to poaching" and whose habitat is "constantly in danger". Takoukam Kamla set up the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organisation which has five laboratories including in the lakeside fishing village of Dizangue. On Lake Ossa, the animal's sole predators are humans -- only a few years ago, manatees were still being served up in the village restaurant. Manatee hunting is now outlawed and the dish has vanished from menus. A blue statue of a manatee has even been erected in their honour. But threats remain. Takoukam Kamla, standing on the shores of the lake, points to an artisanal palm oil refinery whose waste is dumped into the water. Another threat is the positioning of a net across the lake to maximise catches as it could "trap a small manatee in its mesh", he complained, getting into a heated discussion with a fisherman in his dug-out canoe. "We're indigenous, we live off this and we have never had to suffer prohibitions at home," the old man grumbled bitterly. "If you want to impose bans on us, you will have to pay us every month." - Biological combat - Relations between the scientists and the local communities whose fishing traditions have been passed down the generations are tricky. But an environmental threat that struck three years ago brought their two worlds together. Half of the lake's surface became covered by the invasive giant salvinia -- Salvinia molesta -- a free-floating plant that has made the lake uninhabitable for both fish and manatees. To combat it, scientists used a microscopic insect that feeds exclusively on salvinia and called on the fishermen to help. "They used to take the salvinia infested with weevils and put a bit everywhere in the lake," AMMCO researcher Thierry Aviti said. Three years on, the menacing plant has all but disappeared. "At one point, we couldn't cope anymore" but promises were kept, Dizangue fisherman Thierry Bossambo said, marked by the memories of long nights with no fish. The bridges built with the fishermen is something Takoukam Kamla is keen to maintain to avoid "parachute science", a term referring to scientists dropping into local communities from their academic ivory towers to undertake field work. And to counter possible poaching, he wants to develop the area's eco-tourism. It's a "priority", agreed Gilbert Oum Ndjocka, curator of the nearby Douala-Edea National Park, who said "all stakeholders are allies for conservation". Japan's Wajima craftmakers see hope in disaster-hit region Wajima, Japan, Jan 2 (AFP) Jan 02, 2025 Lacquerware maker Takaho Shoji hunches over his desk in the disaster-hit city of Wajima in central Japan, applying another layer of coating to a dark, wooden box. One brushstroke at a time, the 53-year-old is determined to bring life back to his remote community after a devastating New Year's Day earthquake, followed by severe floods. "I need to do whatever I can to move forward with the reconstruction, and to continue this tradition and pass it on to the next generations," said the soft-spoken father of two. "We have to work harder together, otherwise the local lacquerware industry will fade." Wajima, a coastal city with a population of just over 20,000, is a nationally celebrated centre for fine lacquerware. Products made there are known as Wajima-nuri, and a basic soup bowl can command a price of $150 or more. This year brought death and suffering to the city and its surrounding communities at the tip of the Noto Peninsula. As families prepared for their New Year's Day dinners, a terrifying 7.5-magnitude jolt accompanied by powerful aftershocks destroyed houses and businesses. Sweeping fires, a tsunami and landslides engulfed the region and forced most residents and their visiting relatives to flee to evacuation shelters. Then, as they tried to rebuild their lives, torrential rain flooded the city in September, destroying more homes. The disasters also shattered the network of roughly 700 artisans and workers in Wajima's lacquerware industry, which has been losing workers like other fine crafts. Damage to the city has been so extensive that municipal officials are not even certain how many craftspeople are still active. - 'Warmth and wellbeing' - Wajima-nuri is known for its durability and delicate designs and is often used in tableware like bowls and chopsticks. With its understated elegance, the technique is also used to create high-end furniture and home decor. More than 100 steps are involved in the production of Wajima-nuri. The tasks are distributed among specialised artisans, some focusing on lacquer coating and others on carving and shaping. Among the city's lacquerware professionals trying to restore the network of artisans is Taiichi Kirimoto, the seventh-generation proprietor of a Wajima-nuri studio. He and his wife now live at his company's gallery space after they lost their house, but he has wasted little time in moving forward. He worked with renowned architect Shigeru Ban to build temporary work spaces made with cardboard materials, and he has travelled around the country promoting his studio's work and providing places of work for artisans. "Lacquerware provides a sense of comfort and warmth and wellbeing to people. Perhaps this is different from modern convenience," said Kirimoto, who has worked with top brands including Louis Vuitton. "I absolutely do not see a choice to leave this city or to move to another profession." - Uncertain future - Among Kirimoto's staff artisans is Shoji, a specialist in coating. An avid angler, Shoji was alone at a local port late afternoon when the earthquake struck, knocking him onto his back. Sea water roared and receded fast, exposing the seabed before rushing back as a tsunami. With landslides blocking the roads home, he decided to spend the night in his car on higher ground. The next day, he was reunited with his family but his house was unsafe to live in. They moved into an evacuation shelter and he began helping others in his community. Shoji encouraged others to stay in the city after the quake. But after the September floods, he questioned whether it was the right decision. "That's what worries me the most -- when you lose people, it devastates the community," he said. Shoji still believes the Wajima-nuri tradition, a source of local pride, can bring energy back to his home city in its time of dire distress. He is testing new methods, inspired by the centuries-old tradition, to bring lacquerware into the modern era. "Our future is uncertain. But I want to do something to move things forward," he said. Electric cars took 89% of Norway market in 2024 Oslo, Jan 2 (AFP) Jan 02, 2025 Electric cars accounted for 89 percent of the new cars sold in Norway last year, a report said Thursday, pushing the country closer to reaching its goal of going fully electric by 2025. "We need only 10 percent more to reach the objective for 2025," the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said in a statement. Of the 128,691 new car registrations last year, 114,400 were electric, the highest share of any major national car market and up from an 82-percent share in 2023. Despite being a major oil and gas producer, Norway aims for all new cars sold to be "zero emission" starting in 2025, which is 10 years ahead of the goal set by the European Union, of which Norway is not a member. In 2012, electric cars accounted for just 2.8 percent of sales, but they have since exploded thanks to various incentives. Electric cars were exempted from many taxes, making them competitive against heavily taxed internal combustion cars. They have also benefitted from toll exemptions, free parking in public car parks, and the use of public transport traffic lanes. While some tax breaks and incentives have been rolled back over the years, electric cars have become commonplace. "It is crucial to maintain the incentives that favour the purchase of electric cars if the government and parliament are to achieve the goal they themselves set," Oyvind Solberg Thorsen, director of OFV, said in a press release. Tesla is the leading electric car company in Norway, with 19 percent of the market, followed by Volkswagen, Toyota, Volvo and BMW. "In 2025, it will be interesting to see whether new Chinese brands and models will manage to strengthen their position among buyers," said Thorsen. nzg/cbw/gv/jhb Tesla Volkswagen TOYOTA MOTOR Volvo SAO PAULO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll rose to 12 from the collapse of a bridge in northern Brazil on Dec. 22 after two more bodies were recovered from the Tocantins River, the Brazilian Navy said Wednesday. Five people are still missing since the accident occurred on the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge along a highway connecting the states of Tocantins and Maranhao. Navy tactical divers continue to search for the victims, with the help of police and firefighters, according to an official statement from state-run news outlet Agencia Brasil. At least 10 vehicles, including three trucks carrying 25,000 liters of pesticides and 76 tons of sulfuric acid, plunged into the river when the bridge collapsed. The National Water Agency said their tests of water samples indicate no chemical substances spilled into the water. The National Directorate of Transport Infrastructure has launched an investigation on the cause of accident. Many Mexican business leaders assert that their companies are positioned to thrive during another Trump administration. So long as he proceeds with his promise to increase tariffs on Chinese imports, that will amplify the need for alternative places to manufacture goods. Trump hates China more than he hates Mexico, said Isaac Presburger, whose family apparel business outside Mexico City has long exported to the US. This is a huge opportunity. Trump cant do what he wants to do on China without Mexico. Emmanuel Loo, Nuevo Leon For now, uncertainty reigns. Mazda, a Japanese car maker, is holding off on future investments in Mexico until Trumps plans take shape. Honda has told investors that tariffs on Mexican-made vehicles could force it to consider shifting production elsewhere. If I was a member of a corporate board or a CEO, Id think hard right now about investing in Mexico until you get more clarity, said Shannon K ONeil, a Latin America expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The nearshoring boom has been bountiful in Monterrey, a metropolis of more than 5 million people sprawling across a desert valley framed by the jagged peaks of the Sierra Madre. The capital of Nuevo Leon state, Monterrey lies within three hours of the US border by truck. It has a reputation for relative security along with luxurious hotels and restaurants. That combination has attracted foreign investment. Pallets of compressor cases at a factory that makes air-conditioning units for the American company Trane, outside Monterrey. Credit: NYT Over the first 11 months of2024, nearly $US23 billion ($36 billion) in foreign investment was committed to more than 100 projects, according to the state government. Swedish company Volvo recently began erecting a truck factory. John Deere is building a plant to make construction equipment. On a recent evening, Emmanuel Loo, Nuevo Leons economy secretary, held court at an outdoor restaurant, serving tacos to a pair of consultants one a former executive at Intel, the American computer chip manufacturer. Loo had retained them to attract investment that could make the state a hub for the semiconductor industry. He expressed confidence that the Trump administration would not disrupt those plans. He said he had taken assurances from meeting with Donald Trump Jr, the president-elects eldest son, in Houston just before the election. Trump cant do what he wants to do on China without Mexico, Loo said. Mexicos role as an alternative to China has in recent years propelled a construction boom in Monterrey. Wisdom Digital Logistics, which operates warehouses and arranges trucking for businesses on both sides of the border, recently opened a fourth warehouse in the area and is already looking for a fifth. An aerial view of the early construction work on a Volvo car factory in Monterrey. Credit: NYT Were getting calls from all over the place the French, the Germans, the Italians, said the companys chief executive, Edgar Pereda. They want to know how to guarantee their supply chains, and theyre trying to establish a presence in Mexico. German home-appliance giant Bosch has shifted some production from China to Mexico, opening a factory in Monterrey in July. That has generated business for local suppliers. Loading In recent years, Chinese companies have constructed factories in Mexico, making use of a North American free-trade pact to gain access to the US market. So long as they satisfy so-called rules of origin requirements that certain percentages of parts and raw materials are drawn from North American suppliers their products are treated as Mexican made. They qualify for duty-free access into the US. Last year, Chinese companies made 42 investments in Mexico totalling $US3.77 billion, more than tripling the volume in the years before 2020, according to the Rhodium Group, an independent research organisation. A single industrial park on a former cattle ranch north of Monterrey is home to 40 Chinese companies that have built factories. Developers recently acquired acreage nearby for an expansion. Within the US political sphere, Chinese investment in Mexico is frequently described in nefarious terms as the forging of a backdoor into the US. But one of the developers of the industrial park, Cesar Santos, argued that the presence of Chinese brands represented a triumph of the North American trading bloc. Chinese companies are employing Mexican workers while buying parts and materials from suppliers as far away as the US and Canada. The terms of the North American bloc were negotiated by Trump, who called it the largest, most significant, modern and balanced trade agreement in history. If Trump imposes indiscriminate tariffs on Mexican exports, he will effectively be renouncing his own deal, Santos said. The pact, known as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is due for a formal review in 2026. Some experts see Trumps tariff threat as a way to force the Canadian and Mexican governments to agree to an earlier renegotiation of its terms. He could seek to add rules making it harder for Chinese companies to use Mexico as an entry point to the American market. The vehicle industry will almost certainly command special focus in any renegotiation. Under current terms, Chinese car makers can set up factories in Mexico and sell cars into the United States free of duty, provided that parts and materials from the region make up at least 75 per cent of the value of the finished vehicles. Seeking to prevent that possibility, Trump has threatened tariffs as high as 200 per cent on all cars made in Mexico. Vehicle industry leaders in Mexico note that such a policy would sharply increase costs for Americans. Its not that Trump wants to make a commercial war with Mexico because that would be a war with the United States itself, said Manuel Montoya, chief executive of a vehicle industry trade association in Monterrey. Rather, he said, Trump is likely to press to alter details of the North American trade agreement in a way that constrains Chinese companies. With that prospect in mind, Mexican businesses well beyond the vehicle industry are seeking to limit their dependence on components from China while lining up North American substitutes. Cordova, who oversees the Trane plant, now spends much of his time seeking out Mexican manufacturers that can produce the electronics and motors he has long imported from China. He figures that will limit the companys vulnerability to any policies coming from Trump. One of the many former phone booths in Britain that found new life as community libraries. Credit: Getty Images A library thats 85 kilometres long; a library that will stand when everything else falls down; a library that may not exist; and a library where nobody is allowed to read the books. This isnt something out of a Borges story or the Harry Potter books. These are real libraries (past or present) and you can read about them in a lavishly illustrated book that is a wonderful testament to the power and endurance of the written word. Hidden Libraries: The Worlds Most Unusual Book Depositories by D. C. Helmuth lives up to its title. Here are 50 libraries, all of them extraordinary. Some are truly secret, others just not well known. But as librarian Nancy Pearl says in her introduction, they all began because someone, or a group of people, recognised a certain need in their community. That super-long library is the Vatican Apostolic Archive, property of the Pope. It contains 12 centuries worth of priceless documents, including the record of Galileos trial and Henry VIIIs letter asking the Pope for permission to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Ann Boleyn. (The Pope said no, which, as we know, led to the founding of the Anglican Church.) The vaults of the library were opened in 2011, but only highly vetted scholars are allowed access. Advertisement Eating outEating out From drinks with a view to the hot and new: The Good Food guide to Coffs Harbour and surrounds Heading to the NSW Mid North Coast these holidays? Heres your essential guide to the best places to eat and drink in Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Sawtell and beyond. Nina Rousseau January 2, 2025 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share Its been an energising two years for the Mid North Coasts food scene, which continues to bloom in confidence and consistency, and this fresh crop of eateries are no exception. This time were largely focusing on Bellingen and Coffs Harbour, with a mix of new places and those soon-to-open, plus a couple of old faves for good measure. Stef & Co, Coffs Harbour. Supplied For drinks with a view Stef & Co is a chic Coffs Harbour waterfront bakery, cafe and downstairs bar from the former owner of the Jettys beloved Fiasco restaurant. Hidden away in the Promenade complex, the restaurant juts directly above Coffs Creek with cool breezes blowing off the green water stuck with mangroves. Hot drinks are from the health playbook medicinal mushroom-laced cacao, for example while the booze list is a tight collection of Italian and Australian wines and tasty cocktails. A Euro-leaning menu lists plenty of snackable, shareable options for casual dining, and the pizza oven fires out simply topped classics. Hot news: a Sicilian osteria by the same owners is due to open next door in early 2025. Advertisement 319-321 Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour, stefandco.com.au For coffee Longtime coffee roasters Amelia Franklin (co-founder of the International Womens Coffee Alliance Australia) and Toby Smith (founder of Tobys Estate) formed Amelia + Toby in 2024, roasting organic Fairtrade beans each week and starting a collaboration with smart-casual favourite Fiume. What that means is inhabiting the restaurants veranda and bar area and brewing up excellent coffee daily. They use quality alternative milks, and have organic loose-leaf teas, sticky chai and a solid range of wellness-boosting beverages. 58 Hyde Street, Bellingen, ameliaandtoby.com.au North Beach General Store in Mylestom after its latest refurb. Alice Payne Photography Advertisement For fish, chips and burgers While not exactly new the riverfront shop has mostly been in business since the 1800s a change of ownership has seen a stylish refit at North Beach General Store. This place pumps hard during holidays, with a netted river pool and kids playground across the road, sparkling water views, and the magnificent, wild ocean of North Beach one block away. Roll up for battered fish tacos, burgers, and old-school chips cooked traditionally in lard. Dogs are welcome. 16 George Street, Mylestom, northbeachgeneral.com.au For beer and pizza Whats happening at the Brewery? is the question on locals lips who are missing the staple local watering hole which has been mostly shut since COVID. Set to open in early 2025, Bellingen Brewerys proud new owners are brothers Nick and Charlie Boshier. Will there still be organic, sourdough pizzas? Yes. The wood-fired oven has been walled-in and theres a new prep kitchen upstairs with plans to expand the menu. Nine taps pour local beers (including four house-made brews), and there are top-notch cocktails with local gins and vodkas. Will there still be live touring bands and DJs? Absolutely. Advertisement 3/5 Church Street, Bellingen, instagram.com/bellingenbrewingco Aanuka Beach House, Coffs Harbour. Supplied For the whole gang Aanuka Beach House received an injection of glam in 2024 with a takeover by Sydney hospitality group Tilley & Wills. Theyve gone all out to let the good times roll: happy hours, bottomless brunches, sundowner spritzes, movie nights, seafood buffets and DJs Aanuka knows how to party and how the botoxed groups dressed to the nines love it. Out the back, a massive grassy expanse rolls gently to the sheltered Diggers Beach. Here, its more of a towel-and-thongs vibe with family-friendly games. Whos up for a quick round of quoits? 11 Firman Drive, Coffs Harbour instagram.com/aanukabeachhouse Advertisement For smart-casual dining Run by Fiona Richardson and chef Megan Black, Fiume had a complete rebrand in 2024 loosening the formality for a more casual vibe and moving from an Italian menu to a modern Australian offering. Perhaps a tuna crudo with celeriac puree or pork belly with zucchini and capers? Always showcased are Nambucca oysters served natural with an eschalot mignonette, and seafood is fresh-that-day off the Coffs trawlers. In other news, Fiume now does brunch Friday to Sunday, too. 58 Hyde Street, Bellingen fiumebellingen.com.au Mountain views at The Lodge in Bellingen, home to The Three Blue Ducks. Supplied For hotel dining Advertisement After a slightly rocky start, Three Blue Ducks has settled nicely into The Lodge. The renovated hotel-motel boasts 16-acres and stellar mountain views of Dorrigo National Park, and theres plenty of space in the no-expenses-spared dining room (with capacity for 200 guests, weddings are a big hit). Its best suited for a long, lazy lunch, and on Sundays theres a full roast with all the trimmings. 1381 Waterfall Way, Bellingen threeblueducks.com/bellingen For low-key French You could easily miss Miquette, a natty French cafe in a low-key strip of downtown Coffs. Views there arent, but this is the place if youre into French vibes owners Edouarde and Jade Deschamps met while working at famed Paris restaurant Bistrot Paul Bert. Expect buttery pastries, filled baguettes, and texturally splendid crepes. On Friday, Miquette stays open until 8pm for drinks and food (and live music on the first Friday of each month). 214 Harbour Drive, Coffs Harbour, miquette.com.au Advertisement Croissants at Hearthfire Bakery in Bellingen. Supplied For pastries, pies and bread New creations are paramount at Peaches Patisserie, the two-year-old patisserie where owner Beth OLoughlin bakes seasonal treats. In summer, you can try a blueberry pastry then head to Boss Blueberries where the fruit is grown and pick some yourself. Start the day with cold brew from local micro-roaster Full Spectrum at Supply Coffee in Coffs, throw in a waterfall sighting and Dorrigos mountain-town charm, and its a tops country outing all round. Back down the hill, Hearthfire bakes incredible organic, woodfired sourdough loaves and made-from-scratch pies. Peaches Patisserie, 53 Hickory Street, Dorrigo; Boss Blueberries, 24 Emersons Road, Bostobrick; Supply Coffee, 15 Orlando Street, Coffs Harbour; Hearthfire, 73 Hyde Street, Bellingen and 9A First Avenue, Sawtell Highlights from The Sydney Morning Herald 2025 Good Food Guide Advertisement Brunos A subtle scent of smoking timber lingers behind the easy-to-miss door of this eatery off Bellingens beaten path. Where theres smoke, theres fire, and here its blazing licking salty, plump king prawns later drenched in fermented chilli butter; hunks of zucchini teamed with house-preserved lemon; and a preposterously juicy pork chop that comes with smoked fennel and velvety apple sauce. Banquette seating is the best spot to watch the action, but its the shady tables on the verandah that really make this polished Mediterranean restaurant feel like home. 2 Oak Street, Bellingen brunosbellingen.com.au Summer outdoor dining at Bar Que Sera. Supplied Bar Que Sera Advertisement Snack-sized options suit the small dining room of this cheery bar and restaurant, with its wood floors and vintage tiles, and super-fluffy sourdough flatbread with sumac-whipped labne and burnt butter is something of a signature. Meanwhile, crunchy, buttery crumpets are paired perfectly with Balmain bug, lemon mayonnaise and chives, while the intensity of wild boar rillettes is cut with mustard and pickled onions. Kicking off next door with a local lager at Que Seras dive-style sister bar Mortys Joint is a fine idea (and Mortys fried chicken is pretty banging, too.) 61 First Avenue, Sawtell, bar-que-sera.com Charlies at Church This green-toned, warm-lit Italian is the place to be on a Friday night in Bellingen. Beneath pendant lights, seating is comfortably spaced, with room for friendly staff to dance between tables. Pepperoni and pesto sourdough pizza is a highlight, pulled at the precise second from a raging fire, and humming with honey and spice. Dorrigo lamb stars in a rich ragu clinging to ribbons of mafalde pasta, and you can expect a solid selection of weekly specials, often headlined by rib-eye dry-aged in house. Good food to put you in a great mood. 7 Church Street, Bellingen, charliesbellingen.com.au Advertisement Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up ISTANBUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkiye intercepted 55,726 illegal immigrants attempting to cross into European countries via its seas in 2024, according to the latest data released on Thursday. The Turkish Coast Guard reported on its website that 2,011 irregular migration incidents occurred across all Turkish seas in 2024, with August reporting the highest number at 245 cases. It also said 45 migrants lost their lives, mostly by drowning, in maritime incidents while attempting the perilous journey, an upsurge from 20 in 2023. According to the data, 484 suspected human traffickers have been arrested as part of the ongoing efforts to combat illegal immigration and human smuggling last year, a significant increase from the 169 arrests made in 2023. The Aegean Sea has been an important route for migrants trying to reach Europe via Turkiye. As one of the world's foremost destinations for refugees, Turkiye currently hosts over 4 million migrants, with the majority being Syrians, according to the Presidential Directorate of Communications. She is said to be excited to return to social media and will use it as a means to reconnect with communities around the world as well as sharing updates on her impactful projects. Before meeting Prince Harry, Meghan ran her own lifestyle blog, The Tig, and had her own private social media profiles. The Duke described in his memoir, Spare, how she had given it all up. Shed also shut down her website and abandoned all social media, again at the behest of the Palace comms team, he wrote. Since then, both the Duke and Duchess have railed against social media, warning that children are force-fed mindless content by powerful tech companies that refuse to change. Meghan, however, is said to be committed to promoting a joyful and thoughtful approach to online engagement that inspires positivity. While she recognises that there is still work to be done, she is confident that by returning to Instagram, she can lead by example in demonstrating how it can be used for good, a source said. Her first post is an unfiltered video filmed by Harry on a public beach and as such is considered a reflection of the wonderful, supportive community that surrounds them both. When the Duke and Duchess created their own separate royal household in 2019, they planned to use the newly created @SussexRoyal handle to communicate with the public on social media. Barely a year later, however, they left their official public roles and moved to the US, bidding farewell to their nine million followers. Duke and Duchess plotting future direction Since then, they have both robustly campaigned against the perils of social media, last year setting up the The Archewell Foundation Parents Network to support those whose children have experienced online harm. The Duchesss @Meghan handle quietly appeared on Instagram in the summer of 2022, initially with a previously unseen childhood photograph that was later switched to a pink dahlia the symbol adopted by members of Harry and Meghans Sussex Squad of online devotees. In an interview with The Cut magazine at around the same time, she declared: Im getting back on Instagram. Allison P Davis, the writer of the article, noted at the time that the Duchess delivered a nothing with such gravitas. However, the Duchess later clarified that she was no longer sure she would actually return to Instagram. Her re-emergence on social media took another 18 months and will now form a critical part of her new public persona as she promotes a domestic idyll in a bid to sell a plethora of household items through American Riviera Orchard. The Duchesss Instagram account now features a new profile picture of her laughing in an elegant white dress. Have we turned into a nation of prudes when it comes to public nudity? After a 1700-kilometre drive from Melbourne to northern NSW, my partner and I were looking forward to a dip in a long-time favourite nude swimming spot just north of Byron Bay, the tea-tree lakes and beach at Tyagarah Nature Reserve. A special exception for nudity: the Sydney Skinny, at Cobblers Beach at Mosman, boasts that it is the worlds biggest annual nude swim race. Credit: Edwina Pickles We parked the car and walked in through a gap in the red lilly-pilly, green-leaved rose walnut and other trees that make up these stunning coastal marsh and swamp sclerophyll forests, stripped off and dived into the warm, tea-coloured lake. We were immediately approached by a group of locals in swimming gear who informed us that nudity is no longer allowed in Tyagarah. Not wishing to cause a problem and feeling suddenly self-conscious, we apologised and moved to a quieter part of the lake. Byron Shire Council approved the area as clothing-optional in 1998 and in 2018 rejected plans to abolish it despite complaints about lewd behaviour. However, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which only recently discovered that it had jurisdiction over the land, closed it down last August following a community campaign. The authorities set to decide on the proposed redevelopment of Howard Smith Wharves have demanded more information on whether any negative impacts can be adequately mitigated. Three months ago, plans were lodged for a new nine-storey hotel with a theatre hall in the popular precinct, and a separate hospitality and function area featuring a pool deck extending over the Brisbane River. In mid-December, the State Assessment and Referral Agency issued Urbis, acting on behalf of HSW Nominees and developer Artemus Group, with a 10-page list of questions about transport, heritage, community, environmental and community impacts of the proposed redevelopment. A render of the proposed development at Howard Smith Wharves submitted to Brisbane City Council in September 2024. The proposed hotel is in the centre of the image, rising to the top of the cliffs. Credit: Artemus SARA found the application submitted to Brisbane City Council failed to demonstrate accessibility, on an already constrained site, for a hotel complemented by significant function/event space that will be heavily reliant on public passenger transport and active transport. A child has been killed in a caravan fire in north-central Victoria. Victoria Police said emergency services were called to reports a caravan had caught fire in Lake View Street, Boort, about 5.50pm on Thursday. Fire crews extinguished the blaze and a deceased child was located inside, police said in a statement. The arson and explosives squad has been notified, and an arson chemist will attend the scene to determine the cause of the fire. Officers are aware of the impact that such a tragic incident has on family, community members and first responders and will ensure that welfare services are in place. Underworld kingpin Kazem Kaz Hamad is extorting nearly $1 million a month from the states illicit tobacco shops after waging a nearly two-year campaign of firebombings and shootings in a bid to take control of the black-market cigarette trade. Police and underworld sources estimate Hamads criminal syndicate now controls several hundred underground tobacco retailers, representing about a quarter of the estimated 1300 legitimate and black-market shops selling cigarettes across the state. Underworld kingpin Kazem Kaz Hamad (inset) is extorting nearly $1 million a month from the states illicit tobacco shops. Credit: Matt Davidson Each shop in Hamads turf is forced to pay $2000 a month in cash, a kind of tax to be allowed to operate and sell the cheap illicit cigarettes being smuggled in by the gang. Those who refuse are threatened, and if they fail to fall into line, their shops may be firebombed. Its huge money Kaz is pulling in every week. The business is so big its become a monster, an underworld source said. Police are appealing for the publics help to identify a man who indecently assaulted a 15-year-old girl in Aubin Grove on Sunday. Detectives from the child abuse squad are investigating the attack, which happened about 8am on December 29, when the girl stopped for a break on a park bench as she ran through the Banksia Eucalypt Woodland Park. Detective Senior Sergeant Chantal Langthorn, officer in charge of the child abuse squad, with an identikit of the man sought by police. Credit: Rebecca Peppiatt Detective Senior Sergeant Chantal Langthorn said a man approached the teenager and sat beside her before indecently touching her. She broke free and contacted police, giving them details of her attacker that have been used to create an identikit of the man. Another 14 people were injured in 800 public housing fires over the five-year period, which caused a combined $60 million in damage. Almost half the fires were accidents, 8 per cent were deliberately lit and another 25 were suspicious. The rest were listed as unknown. Stoves and other cooking appliances accounted for more than a quarter of the fires. Faulty electrical appliances or wiring, smoking and candles were among other common causes. Hoarding, chronic illness, old age, and mental and physical disability were also factors. Victorian Public Tenants Association chief executive Katelyn Butterss said she was not surprised by the data, given the state of public housing. What we see is the most vulnerable people most often put through public housing, which is in an older, less maintained condition than a lot of the new community housing stock, she said. The publicly managed properties often do not comply with new minimum rental standards, which are triggered only when a home is re-let, because of the low turnover rate in public housing. The panel recommended a date be nominated to bring the homes into line with the rules, which the government supported in principle. Community Housing Industry Association Victoria acting chief executive Jason Perdriau said the not-for-profit sector upheld fire safety obligations and that safety was its top priority. The association welcomed the recommendation to improve records for social housing fires. Fire Rescue Victoria said the service was working to improve safety for at-risk groups. Credit: Paul Rovere A state government spokesman said work had already been done to enhance resident voices in decision making and improve the liveability of existing social housing. Everyone has the right to live in safe and secure housing and thats why weve taken steps to improve the fire safety of social housing, including the removal of combustible cladding and retrofitting fire detection and sprinkler systems. Greens public and affordable housing spokeswoman Gabrielle de Vietri said the fire statistics were disturbing and exposed the state governments abdication of its duty of care to public housing residents. Labor should be ashamed of themselves, she said. Opposition Leader Brad Battin said Labor needed to explain why the tenants lost their lives in preventable fires at such a disproportionately high rate. Every Victorian deserves the dignity of a safe, secure and affordable roof over their head. Fire Rescue Victoria said the analysis up to 2021 remained current. A spokesman said the service was working to improve safety for at-risk groups because of the over-representation of public housing tenants in house fire injuries and deaths. They may also meet other at-risk criteria and, of particular concern, is the fact that 62 per cent of people who die in home fires in Australia have a disability, he said. Loading FRV also advocates for fire safety improvements by engaging with government, public and private sectors and by actively supporting better safety requirements in building standards. Londons Grenfell fire in 2017, which started from an electrical fault in a fridge, killed 72 tenants in the 24-storey tower and made fire safety in public housing a global debate. The state government commissioned the review in 2020 as part of its $5.3 billion Big Housing Build commitment to create 12,000 new social and affordable homes, which has been delayed three years and altered to cut costs. Of 44 recommendations, the government supported 20 in full, 20 in principle or in part, rejected three, and deferred its decision on another. Lack of maintenance was the top concern for residents, particularly in relation to mould, broken windows or rotting frames, vermin and disrepair in common areas. But they were often fearful of pushing for repairs. Loading Review panel chair David Hayward, an emeritus professor of public policy and social economy at RMIT University, welcomed the governments response and said the resulting work would centre the needs of vulnerable tenants. Theyre powerless. They have no choices if things go wrong. It would be reasonable for them to not want to complain, Hayward said. Their alternative is homelessness. Into view comes a steep mountainside and below a wide savannah. Soon the sun punches through clouds, to glisten on the lake and print silhouettes of the tiered acacias on the yellow grasses below. The trials of last night are suddenly justified. Our sleep-deprived tour group is now wide awake and reverently silent. This is Ngorongoro Crater, a geological marvel. Twenty million years ago, during the first faulting period, volcanic activity pushed up vast mountains like Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro, once the taller of the two. Then around three million years ago, this immense volcano erupted causing the cap to collapse and sink 600 metres below the caldera to produce the plain before us. Aron stops the vehicle to raise its detachable roof so we are now free to stand and peer out. Back inside, our halting descent is impeded by a jam of 4WDs ahead. There are Masai settlements in and around the Ngorongoro Crater. Credit: iStock The countrys Ministry of Tourism states that nearly 2 million foreign tourists visited the country in 2023, an all-time high, and most come for safari. Aron gestures down to a cluster of thatched roof huts enclosed by a stick fence. That is a Masai settlement. The government has been trying to relocate these people, famous for their red cloaks and colourful jewellery. In 50 years, their population has grown more than tenfold to 93,000 and their cattle compete with wildlife for grazing land. Yet Masai activists claim the true reason is to make room for bigger game parks, to bring in tourists. Competition for resources has always been determined by the law of the jungle. We continue our halting descent. At the crater floor the road becomes gravel while outside is a spectacle of safari glory. Aron points to a kaleidoscope of giraffes. They are far away but their noble plod, the swagger of their midriff and shape are unmistakable. Then a herd of zebra, with their stark coats, cross in front. They look well-fed, says one of my co-tourists. One zebra with fat haunches stops in our path and drops her head to munch grass, indifferent to our presence. Herds of zebra are abundant in the Ngorongoro Crater. Credit: iStock Their stripes are like fingerprints, says Aron and then, paradoxically, if they are chased by a lion, they can hide among the rest, so the lion gets exhausted. We then pass gazelles that peer back, their ears flicking flies. Their beautifully shaped ribbed horns rise to a threatening point. Two leap together through the grass, then drop their heads and clash horns, like high-fiving a passing friend. We approach a body of water with salt-crusted edges. That is Magadi, a soda lake, explains Aron. Beside the waters edge is an animal congress. Knobbly-kneed flamingos stand preening and water buffalo slump in the mud. When one finally raises its massive weight its flanks are briny white. The waters edge is common place for flamingos and water buffalo to congregate. Credit: iStock Water buffalo are one of the Big Five, a checklist for tourists to rate their experience. Everyone sees buffalo. So too elephants. Rarer are lions, then rhinos. Almost nobody ticks off leopards. Less kind are the Ugly Five: hyenas, storks, vultures and warthogs. And Wildebeests. Wildebeests are not smart animals, explains Aron as we pass a herd. They get lost, lose their young, get chased by a lion. Two minutes later they forget, then they come back and watch the lion and get chased again. I tick off wildebeest. Over the radio comes a burst of chatter that includes simba, Swahili for lion. Aron engages the gears. We are on the move. 4WDs stopped at different locations converge, queuing before a black drainage pipe. From raised roofs, occupants ahead are staring, pointing binoculars and taking photos. Safari 4WDs often form a viewing queue when there is a lion sighting. Credit: iStock One by one, each 4WD moves into position, watches for a few minutes then moves on. When our turn arrives, we edge forward. Into view comes an immense lion. Imperial even while asleep, he is stretched out on his stomach, paws like bear traps. His fur looks thick and soft. We stop about 30 metres away. He opens his amber eyes to slits and stares directly at our vehicle and then, assured we present no concern, he rolls over. I feel a flutter of fear in my gut despite being safely encased. He yawns and falls back into sleep. We return to the road and skirt the lake. Then another burst over the radio. Aron accelerates but has to join a long line of khaki 4WDs. It is absurd to be stuck in traffic in the wilderness. Many vehicles have only a few occupants. From the raised roof fingers point into the distance. This is very rare, says Aron, sometimes we go for 15 days and never see this. I aim binoculars in the direction where everyone is looking. Between two white 4WDs, which Aron explains are rangers, is a black rhino and beside her a small, pale, grey four-legged animal poking just above the yellow grass. Looking closely I see it has a tiny horn. Its a baby rhino. The rangers are trying to move them to the forest to protect the baby, says Aron. Black rhinos are endangered with populations vulnerable to poachers. The animals horn is prized for its supposed medicinal qualities throughout Asia. A mothers long gestation of 16 months means extended vulnerability. This, the worlds largest caldera, is a natural feature from which rangers can patrol for poachers from hidden bunkers, making it a refuge for endangered species. Through my binoculars I can see the mother has become irritated with the rangers proximity, their vehicles belching fumes. Suddenly, she charges; the reversing vehicle backs off quickly. Black rhinos are endangered and are frequently moved by rangers to forested areas for their own protection. Credit: iStock For the rest of the afternoon, I feel dazed. Partly this is from fatigue but also I feel moved by the mother and child rhino. I would have once rolled my eyes that a weekend package with airport transfers might provide a profound experience. Yet, I had witnessed a mother protecting its child, an instinct so universal the common heritage between us became momentarily clear and poignant. Loading When we stop for lunch beside a waterhole, American tourists take group shots beneath an acacia, while behind them hippopotamuses lurk in the mud. Aron hands out a survey from a researcher. One question asks if you would volunteer to save the black rhino. I think about it and decide I would. What I had seen is in need of protection. After Ngorongoro Im informed by Aron that my midday return flight tomorrow is a cause of concern. Rather than see the Tarangire National Park and risk missing the flight, we need to return to the city tonight. I receive a partial refund. Given Precision Airs performance last night I have tightened this shoestring to the limit. Details Getting There Major carriers from Europe and the Middle East can get you to Dar es Salaams Julius Nyerere International Airport. From there catch Precision Air, or the more reliable Air Tanzania, to either Arusha or nearby Kilimanjaro. Ideally, leave a days buffer for connecting international flights outward. Seoul: South Korean investigators left the presidents official residence after a nearly six-hour standoff during which he defied their attempt detain him, in the latest confrontation of a political crisis that has paralysed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month. The countrys anti-corruption agency said it withdrew its investigators after the presidential security service blocked them from entering President Yoon Suk Yeols residence for hours due to concerns about their safety. The agency expressed serious regret about the attitude of the suspect, who did not respond to a process by law. Yoon, a former prosecutor, has defied attempts to question him for weeks. The last time he is known to have left the residence was on December 12, when he went to the nearby presidential office to make a defiant televised statement to the nation, declaring he would fight efforts to oust him. Members of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials arrive in front of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeols official residence in Seoul. Credit: Getty Images Investigators from the countrys anti-corruption agency are weighing charges of rebellion after Yoon, apparently frustrated that his policies were blocked by an opposition-dominated parliament, declared martial law on December 3 and dispatched troops to surround the National Assembly. About a year ago, Jabbar moved into a rented home in a Muslim neighbourhood north of Houston. On Wednesday, access to much of the neighbourhood, including its local mosque, was blocked off by law enforcement as FBI investigators searched the area of trailers and small homes. One of Jabbars neighbours, who was blocked from returning home during the search, said Jabbar kept to himself and usually stayed inside his home. The neighbour asked not to be named out of concern for his safety as a Muslim in the aftermath of the attack. Jabbars brother, Abdur Jabbar, 24, said in an interview in Beaumont, Texas, where the brothers grew up, that they had been brought up Christian but that Shamsud-Din converted long ago. As far as I know, he was a Muslim for most of his life, said the younger Jabbar. What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalisation, not religion. He added that his brother, who had a six-year-old son in addition to his older daughters, joined the military not knowing what he wanted to do in life. It was a new outlet to get some sort of discipline, Jabbar said. Loading Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar spent years in the military moving between states, ending up in Fort Bragg in North Carolina at one point, according to court documents, and being deployed once to Afghanistan. He worked mostly as an information technology specialist, according to a US Army statement. He was discharged from the Army Reserve in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. Chris Pousson, 42, a retired Air Force veteran who also lived in Beaumont, said he attended middle school with Sham, as he was known then, and described him as quiet, reserved and really, really smart. He wasnt a troublemaker at all, Pousson said. He made good grades and was always well dressed in button-ups and polo shirts. They reconnected on Facebook after Jabbar got out of active-duty military service in 2015, at which point Pousson noticed that Jabbar had become deeply involved in his Muslim faith. Before, if he was into it, he wasnt open or verbal about it, Pousson said. But at that point, he said, Jabbar was making lots of posts about religion on Facebook. It was never Muslim extremist stuff, and he was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he had gotten really passionate. Still, the attack came as a shock to him. This is a complete 180 from the quiet, reserved person I knew, Pousson said. Loading Jabbar had complained in the past about the challenges of life as a veteran. In a 2015 interview with Georgia State Universitys student paper, Jabbar said the Department of Veterans Affairs had made it difficult to get paid through the GI bill. He attended the university from 2015 until 2017, when he received a bachelors degree in computer information systems, the school said. Its such a large agency, Jabbar explained to a student reporter. One missed signature or sheet of paper could mean slipping through the cracks. He also said he found it challenging to communicate without using military jargon. More recently, Jabbar had tried to sell real estate. In a YouTube video from 2020 that appears to have been posted by Jabbar, he spoke positively about his skills, his lifelong history in Beaumont and his service in the military. Ive been here all my life, with the exception of travelling for the military, he said. On a now-deleted Twitter account, Jabbar wrote in 2021 about his work in real estate and his interest in cryptocurrency. He also expressed an interest in firearms, once writing, Its a shoot-the-guns type of Saturday morning. He later posted a photo of two people standing while a third person fired a gun. An account with an identical username on a classifieds site dedicated to firearms shows that user trying to sell a pistol, ammunition and a shotgun. The posts on that website were made in November and December. Jabbar did not appear to have a history of violence. Criminal records in Texas show charges for minor infractions two decades ago misdemeanour theft in 2002, and driving with an invalid licence in 2005. The vehicle used in the New Orleans attack, an electric Ford pick-up, was registered to a Houston man who made vehicles available for rent on a peer-to-peer car-sharing website. That man, who asked that his name not be made public, said the FBI called him and he explained that he had not been driving the vehicle but had rented it out. He said he had been asked by the federal agents not to discuss the matter publicly. In the midst of his second divorce in January 2022, Jabbar wrote an email to his wifes lawyer in which he described financial problems. I cannot afford the house payment, he wrote. It is past due in excess of $US27,000 ($43,000) and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce. He said in the email that the business corporation he had formed, a real estate company, had lost more than $US28,000 in the previous year and that he had taken on $US16,000 in credit card debt. Loading At the same time, in a court document from later that same year, he said he worked at the accounting firm Deloitte and made about $US120,000 a year. A company spokesperson said Jabbar had served in a staff-level role since being hired in 2021. He was no terrorist to me, said Marilyn Bradford, 70, who lived upstairs from Jabbar in a Houston apartment building where he lived from 2021 until about a year ago. Before he left, she said, he gave her a dryer, a steamer and other household supplies. NEW DELHI, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and five others injured after a boiler exploded inside a steel factory in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, police said Thursday. The explosion took place Wednesday night inside the factory in Tirupati district, about 760 km southwest of Vishakhapatnam, the main city of Andhra Pradesh. Police registered a case and ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the explosion. A bitter Hollywood feud has deepened with claims that Ryan Reynolds accused a director of fat-shaming the actors wife Blake Lively. The accusations, made in a lawsuit against The New York Times on Tuesday, emerged in a row that has pitched Lively against Justin Baldoni, her director and co-star in the film It Ends With Us. Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. Baldonis lawyer says the claims are false. Credit: AP Hours later, Lively filed her own federal lawsuit in New York against Baldoni, 40, and several others associated with the film, alleging harassment and a co-ordinated campaign to attack her reputation because she spoke out about her treatment on the set. The suit filed by Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs claims that Reynolds, the star of huge hits such as Deadpool, accused Baldoni of fat-shaming Lively during a heated encounter at the couples penthouse in New York. An image from a propaganda video released in 2014 by Islamic State, formerly known as ISIL or ISIS. Credit: AFP In the spring and summer of 2014, the group took control of cities across Iraq and Syria, gaining notoriety for kidnappings, sexual enslavement and public executions. It also orchestrated and inspired a series of terrorist attacks across Europe. Former Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by US special forces. Credit: AP In October 2019, then president Donald Trump announced the killing of al-Baghdadi, saying in a speech that he was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organisation anywhere in the world. Trump went on to say: We obliterated his caliphate, 100 per cent, in March of this year. US-allied Kurdish rebels seized the last remnants of Islamic State territory. Today, experts say the group is the weakest it has ever been in Iraq, but shows signs of resurgence in Syria. IS has continued to propagate its radical ideology through clandestine cells and regional affiliates across the globe. Recent attacks Even though they no longer hold major swaths of territory, IS and its affiliates have carried out a spate of deadly attacks over the past year. In January 2024, the groups Afghanistan affiliate, known as Islamic State Khorasan, carried out twin bombings in Iran at a memorial procession for Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general who was killed in a US drone strike four years earlier. More than 80 people were killed and scores were injured. A few months later, US officials blamed the Afghan group for a deadly concert hall attack near Moscow that killed at least 137 people. Russian Rosguardia servicemen secure an area at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, where gunmen burst into a big concert hall in Moscow and fired automatic weapons. Credit: AP In July, IS claimed responsibility for a shooting in Oman that killed six people and injured around 30 more near a mosque. The Iran and Oman attacks specifically targeted Shiite Muslims, who IS considers to be apostates, a position at odds with mainstream Islamic belief. Directed, enabled and inspired Counterterrorism officials have divided IS attacks into three broad categories: Directed: At least five successful attacks in the 2010s are known to have been directed outright by Islamic State, carried out by operatives who trained with the group in Iraq and Syria. These cases were among the deadliest, including the co-ordinated attacks in Paris in November 2015, which killed 130 people, and airport and subway bombings in Brussels in March 2016, which claimed 32 lives. Yet these remain the minority. Loading Enabled: Counterterrorism experts have also identified violence conceived and guided by IS operatives whose only connection to the attacker is through the internet. In Paris in 2015, Amedy Coulibaly was in contact with IS operatives in Syria before storming a kosher supermarket, taking hostages and killing four of them. And in Texas in 2015, two men initially thought to be lone wolves opened fire at a community centre. The FBI later said the attackers were in communication with IS via encrypted texts. Inspired: Finally, there are the so-called lone-wolf attackers, who are radicalised through online propaganda and carry out attacks on their own. In December 2014, Iranian-born Man Haron Monis took 18 hostages at the Lindt Cafe in Sydneys Martin Place and announced that Australia was under attack by the Islamic State. Although he had another Islamic flag with him, he demanded that the IS flag be delivered to the cafe. Two hostages and Monis were killed after a 16-hour standoff. No evidence of Monis having had contact with IS was ever discovered. In 2016 in Nice, France, more than 80 people were killed and hundreds injured when a man drove a 19-tonne truck through a packed crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks. IS claimed responsibility, although investigators said the driver had been self-radicalised, with no evidence linking him directly to the terrorist group. Flowers are left on Westminster Bridge in memory of those who died in the March 2017 Westminster terror attack. Credit: Getty Images In London in 2017, a 52-year-old Briton ploughed a rented Hyundai sport utility vehicle through pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge, killing two and injuring at least 40. A day later, IS described him as a disciple and a hero for the assault carried out in the shadow of Big Ben, but no evidence emerged of a direct link. The Islamic State in Syria and Iraq The 2024 overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad in Syria has given way to fears that the group could regain a foothold in the region. In July, the Pentagon warned that IS attacks in Iraq and Syria were on track to reach double last years count. The demise of the Assad regime has also led to conflict between US-backed Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed rebels, prompting concerns that IS may exploit the instability. More than 9000 IS fighters are housed in more than 20 facilities throughout Syria, according to the US military, which has 2000 American troops in the country and 2500 in Iraq. While Syria is in flux, the United States has continued to target the groups fighters and camps with airstrikes. Regional reach The terrorist groups Afghanistan affiliate has been responsible for some of the recent large-scale terror attacks. It is also fighting Afghanistans Taliban government, which IS-Khorasan deems a nationalist force and therefore incompatible with their vision of a transnational caliphate. Loading A US official said last March that the Taliban had made some progress against the Afghan group but struggled to prevent attacks and dismantle urban cells. US officials have also been monitoring the groups growth in the politically unstable African Sahel region. Last March, IS claimed an attack on Nigers army that reportedly killed 30 soldiers. Elevating Safety, Comfort, and Versatility from Infancy to Early School Years ROCKLAND, Mass., Jan. 2, 2025 -- UPPAbaby launched today the next generation of their convertible car seat, the Rove. Consumers got a first look at the Rove at the 2024 ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas, which generated excitement and buzz amongst attendees and on social media. The new QuickGuard installation system offers an effortless three-step setup. Wrapped in plush fabrics and cushioning and weighing in at just 25.2 lbs., this lightweight seat grows with your child from infancy to early school years. The Rove may be lightweight, but it's packed with the advanced safety features and thoughtful design parents expect from UPPAbaby. FAA-approved for air travel, the Rove is also GREENGUARDO Gold certified, ensuring healthier air quality with low chemical emissions. For added safety, it includes Activated Side Impact Protection Pods and UPPAbaby's signature SmartSecure System making installation quick and reliable every time. The Rove also features a convenient zipper design on the lower seat cushion, allowing for easy fabric removal and washing without needing to uninstall the seat because we know how messy toddlers can be. Key features for this new convertible seat include: Installs in seconds with intuitive, three-step, spring-loaded lock-off doors that secure the vehicle belt without use of the Automatic Locking Retracting System (ALR) with intuitive, three-step, spring-loaded lock-off doors that secure the vehicle belt without use of the Automatic Locking Retracting System (ALR) Lightweight design weighing in at just 25.2 lbs. and FAA-certified for travel weighing in at just 25.2 lbs. and FAA-certified for travel SmartSecure System with tension indicator provides red-to-green visual confirmation to ensure a tight installation with tension indicator provides red-to-green visual confirmation to ensure a tight installation No-rethread harness system and active support headrest that grows with your child and active support headrest that grows with your child Extended rear-facing position up to 50 lbs., and forward-facing up to 65 lbs. up to 50 lbs., and forward-facing up to 65 lbs. Activated Side Impact Protection Pods and energy absorbing EPP foam for the ultimate safety protection and energy absorbing EPP foam for the ultimate safety protection GREENGUARD GOLD Certified to support healthier air quality and low chemical emissions to support healthier air quality and low chemical emissions Fire Retardant-Free throughout the fabrics and foam, featuring DualTech and PureTech fabrics The Rove is available in four fashions: Cody, a Coastal Blue Melange with DualTech fabric, Greyson, a Grey Melange with PureTech fabric, Jake, Black with DualTech fabric and Kavneer, an Almond Melange with DualTech fabric. The PureTech merino wool fabric is hypoallergenic, temperature-regulating, and crafted from materials designed to keep your baby safe in the purest form. The DualTech fabrics are specially woven and designed to eliminate the need for any additional treatment. Consumers interested in purchasing the Rove convertible car seat can head to uppababy.com or visit one of our Hub Service Center & Showroom locations in Boston, MA, Brooklyn, NY, Santa Monica, CA, or Toronto, Ontario. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visits a home appliance store in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 2, 2025. Li made an inspection tour in Jinan on Thursday. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) JINAN, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang has called for efforts to ensure the effective implementation of policies and secure a good start for this year's economic development during his inspection in the city of Jinan in east China's Shandong Province. While conducting this inspection tour on Thursday, Li also stressed the need for efforts to implement policies as early as possible, seek fast progress with projects and ensure that measures yield tangible results. During a visit to a home appliance store, the premier said the government's consumer goods trade-in scheme is of great significance to meet the needs of people for high-quality life, unlock consumption potential, promote industry upgrades and facilitate economic circulation. China will continue to implement this initiative with greater support, Li said, adding that procedures will be optimized to facilitate consumer spending. Li also visited a charging and battery-swapping station in Jinan. Noting that the number of intelligent connected new-energy vehicles has continued to grow in the country, Li encouraged exploratory and innovative efforts in developing charging and battery-swapping services and related areas. Measures should be taken to deepen reform of the energy management system, transform the energy sector and foster new drivers of growth, Li said. While inspecting local infrastructure projects, he stated that stadiums and modern water networks are not only significant infrastructure projects, but also important for public welfare, and called for efforts to strengthen supply of resources such as funds and land. Concerning urban renewal, it is important to stress the planning and layout of drainage networks and maintain strict oversight throughout the entire construction process to ensure that the project quality is able to stand the test of time, Li added. Efforts should be made to attract more private investment to participate in the construction of infrastructure and public services, he said. As a major economically-developed province, Shandong should promote various policy measures and work arrangements to take effect as early as possible, thereby contributing more to the overall development of the country, Li said. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspects the construction site of a stadium in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 2, 2025. Li made an inspection tour in Jinan on Thursday. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) CANBERRA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The 37th edition of Summernats, Australia's biggest specialist car festival, began in Canberra on Thursday with more than 500 cars participating in the traditional city cruise, drawing thousands of onlookers. About 130,000 people are expected to attend the four-day festival at Exhibition Park in Canberra, where over 2,000 cars are set be on display. Summernats co-owner Andy Lopez told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the vehicles registered for the 2025 festival have a combined value exceeding 70 million Australian dollars (43.5 million U.S. dollars). "Every car tells a story, every car means something to the people who built it," he said. He said that the festival generates 40 million AUD (24.8 million USD) every year for the economy of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Organizers have promised the 2025 event will be safe and well-managed after the 2024 festival was marred by a major brawl involving security guards and members of the public. Lopez said that the festival has changed security contractors for 2025. ACT Policing has told attendees to expect an increased police presence around Canberra during the festival. YANGON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A bus with 45 passengers aboard rolled over on Myanmar's Yangon-Mandalay highway, causing one fatality and 32 injuries, according to the highway traffic police force on Thursday. The incident occurred around 3:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday, an official from the highway traffic police force told Xinhua. The accident was caused by the bus driver falling asleep while driving. As a result, the bus hit a road barrier and overturned, he said. Among the 32 injured were nine men, 21 women, and two children, all of whom were hospitalized, he added. Aakar College of Management for Women conducts Avishkar: Research Poster Competition Business Reporter : AAKAR College of Management for Women recently hosted the Aavishkar: Research Poster Competition, Nagpur Zone, organised by SNDT Womens University, Mumbai. The event brought together students from various colleges in the Nagpur Zone, showcasing their innovative research projects. The competition received an overwhelming response with 32 group entries. The programme was inaugurated by Dr Abhay Shende, Principal, JL Chaturvedi College of Engineering, Nagpur, and Pritam Zalke, CEO, Cloudprix Technology Solutions, Nagpur. The judges were impressed by the enthusiasm and quality of work presented by the students. They emphasised the importance of such activities in the current era and guided students on how to convert their projects into successful startups. The judges also informed students about various Government schemes available to support startup initiatives. Dr Pranjal S Bogawar, Principal and Dr Sachin Bogawar, Director expressed gratitude to the Vice Chancellor Dr Ujwala Chakradev, PVC Dr Ruby Ojha, Registrar Dr Vilas Nandavadekar, and Dean Dr H Jadhav for providing the opportunity to host the event. Agritech sector to create 60-80K new job opportunities in next 5 years THE agri-tech sector is expected to create 60,000-80,000 new employment opportunities over the next five years, a senior executive of TeamLease Services said. Agritech addresses every aspect of farming, from water irrigation advancements for seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides to offering access to advanced farm machinery and market linkages for selling produce, TeamLease Services Chief Strategy Officer Subburathinam P told PTI. The sector also empowers farmers with real-time advisory services, such as climatic forecasts, pest and disease predictions, and irrigation alerts, helping them make informed decisions in addition to bridging financial gaps by offering credit, insurance, and digital payment solutions as well, he noted. The agritech sector in India employs approximately 1 lakh people across various roles, including technical, operational, and managerial positions. In the five years, the sector is expected to generate 60-80K new job opportunities. These will span across roles like AI development, technology, supply chain management, and sustainable farming solutions, Subburathinam said. He said, most agritech jobs are not seasonal, as the sector focuses on technological innovation, analytics, and continuous operational support. For roles that may have seasonal peaks, such as crop monitoring or operations during sowing and harvesting, employees are often engaged in other activities like data analysis, equipment maintenance, or upskilling during the off-season, he said. He further said agritech jobs are a mix of hybrid and on-ground roles. While software development, data analytics, and management roles can often be done remotely, positions like machine operators, field technicians, and agronomists require employees to be on the ground to support farmers and monitor field operations directly, Subburathinam noted. These job opportunities are more in agriculture-intensive states like Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, he stated. Additionally, cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Gurugram serve as hubs for agritech startups, offering a significant number of jobs in development and management roles, he added. He said, while advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and IoT contribute to these improvements, the focus remains on delivering practical, user-friendly tools to farmers. By connecting them to better resources and opportunities, agritech is revolutionising agriculture, particularly for smallholder farmers, ensuring higher yields, lower costs, and sustainable growth, he said. According to an EY report, agritech firms in India present a USD 24 billion opportunity, although the market is still largely untapped with only 1.5 per cent penetration, he said. India had around 450 agritech startups in 2022, growing at 25 per cent y-o-y, according to data by NASSCOM, he said. Autopsy reveals murder not suicide, say parents of OpenAI whistleblower SAN FRANCISCO : THE parents of Indian-American techie Suchir Balaji, who was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on December 14, 2024, have rejected the official suicide ruling, alleging that their son was murdered. Suchir, a former OpenAI employee, had made headlines for his whistleblowing revelations about the ethical concerns surrounding generative AI. In an interview with NDTV, his parents claim that the second autopsy report indicates signs of struggle, including a head injury and trauma, which contradict the suicide verdict by the medical examiners office. Suchirs mother, Poornima Ramarao, expressed disbelief at the suicide ruling, citing the absence of a suicide note and the findings of the second autopsy. We have facts with the second autopsy -- head trauma and signs of struggle. This is not a suicide; its a murder, she stated. His father, Balaji Ramamurthi, recounted their last conversation on December 22, when Suchir returned from a trip to Los Angeles in good spirits. He seemed happy, he said. When asked if Suchir picked up another job, his mother said, No, he didnt. They (OpenAI) probably threatened him. They didnt allow him to work somewhere else. He also consulted a copyright attorney and figured out that he was not doing anything wrong and they were just suppressing him. That made him give the New York Times interview and resulted in his death. He was working in the core group of the ChatGPT; he was kind of an architect of the whole thing. He knows a lot of information about ChatGPT. There were some restrictions on him to not work in other AI companies, the father added. His mother mentioned that Suchir was working on personal research which he wanted to get published, in which he explains that modulated answer is not exactly as the information pegged to ChatGPT, giving an example of a black and white cat coming out as a coloured cat. Additionally, the work of artists and journalists were all stolen, which is unethical. This is what we talked about the last time I met him, she mentioned. The parents are demanding an FBI investigation to uncover the truth. There was a struggle; he did not take his life. Now, who and why need to be explored, Poornima said, urging the Indian government to support their cause. They also welcomed Elon Musks support but said they had not reached out to him. Describing Suchir as a caring and brilliant individual, his parents said his death is a loss to humanity and the tech industry. Suchir had worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before resigning over ethical concerns. In an October post on X, he criticised the misuse of copyrighted materials in generative AI, stating, Fair use seems like a pretty implausible defence for a lot of generative AI products. An OpenAI spokesperson expressed condolences, We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today. Our hearts go out to Suchirs loved ones during this difficult time. Suchir, a University of California, Berkeley graduate, was a prominent figure in the tech industry, with his whistleblowing revelations sparking global discussions on AI ethics. CM emphasises on transparency, efficiency in New Year meeting Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai chairing a meeting with senior officers at Mantralaya, Nava Raipur Atal Nagar on Wednesday. Staff Reporter RAIPUR, On the first day of the New Year, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai held a high-level meeting with secretaries and heads of all departments at the Mantralaya in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar. In his address, the Chief Minister emphasized the need for transparency in government functioning and called for the prompt and effective resolution of public grievances. Issuing a stern warning, Chief Minister Sai said, Any laxity in administrative work will not be tolerated. He directed all officers and employees, from senior officials to lower-level staff, to adhere to strict punctuality and fulfil their responsibilities with dedication and efficiency. Highlighting the states vision for development, the Chief Minister urged the officers to work cohesively with a team spirit to achieve the goal of a developed Chhattisgarh. Referring to the fulfilment of major guarantees made by Narendra Modi in 2024, he remarked on the significance of 2025 as the states silver jubilee year. This landmark year requires exceptional enthusiasm and commitment from every officer, he added. The CM instructed officials to conduct special campaigns to clear pending files. He emphasized the smooth implementation of the e-office system across all government offices, including the Secretariat. In a bid to ensure accountability, Sai announced that he would personally review the work of all departments and directed departmental secretaries to conduct monthly virtual reviews and quarterly physical reviews. Officers were asked to address challenges in implementing major schemes promptly and report these to Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary. It is essential to resolve the issues of the common man on time, he said, adding that the administration should focus on improving ease of living and ease of doing business. Praising the Chhattisgarh Industrial Policy 2024-2030, the CM noted its nationwide acclaim and called for ensuring that investors reap its benefits. He also stressed the need to strengthen the law and order situation in the state. Sai highlighted the state governments achievements on the Naxal front over the past year, crediting efforts to establish peace in Naxal-affected areas. Government schemes must reach these areas, especially under the Niyad Nella Naar scheme, he said. He also instructed departments to expedite projects in these regions and ensure the work in newly opened security camps is completed swiftly. The CM directed District In-Charge Secretaries to visit their districts every two months, particularly the interior areas, to gather ground-level information. He stressed the importance of reporting their findings to the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary to ensure effective implementation of schemes. Sai also expressed concern over rising road accidents and called for stringent measures to improve traffic management. He urged officers to launch a campaign to reduce accidents and strictly curb the smuggling of intoxicants from other states into Chhattisgarh. The meeting concluded with a call for administrative tightness and collective effort to make 2025 a transformative year for the state. Let us work together to build a progressive and peaceful Chhattisgarh, the CM said, urging all officers to uphold the highest standards of governance. Many other key issues were discussed in the meeting. Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain, Director General of Police Ashok Juneja, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests V Sreenivasa Rao, Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and other senior officers were present in the meeting. Collector conducts thorough inspection of paddy procurement centres in Sihora, Majholi, Patan, Shahpura areas Collector Deepak Saxena inspecting a warehouse to check proper stocking of paddy crops. Staff Reporter : Collector Deepak Saxena reviewed operations and issued necessary directives to ensure the procurement process remains transparent, systematic, and aligned with procurement policies. The Collector instructed the concerned officials to ensure the immediate lifting of paddy by millers as well as the transportation of procured paddy. Collector Deepak Saxena conducted a rigorous inspection of paddy procurement centres in Sihora, Majholi, Patan and Shahpura areas, on Wednesday. He was accompanied by Additional Collector, Nathuram Goud, Joint Collector, Pushpendra Ahke, SDMs of the respective areas, and officials associated with procurement activities. The visit began with an inspection of the Shiv Kripa Warehouse and procurement center in Sihora. During the inspection, it was found that paddy belonging to Shri Balram Patel, classified as non-FAQ (Fair Average Quality) by the surveyor, was improperly stored in government sacks without proper tagging and was underweight. Taking serious note, Collector Saxena instructed officials to form an inquiry team for a thorough investigation. He directed the committee manager to rectify the issue immediately, warning of disciplinary action for further negligence. He emphasized that acceptance notices for dry paddy, excluding wet paddy, should be issued promptly. The center has procured 38,529.60 quintals of paddy from 591 farmers, of which 34,111.673 quintals have been transported. To date, 57% of the procured paddy at this center has received acceptance notices. At Majholi, Collector Saxena inspected the Jyoti Warehouse under the Lamkana Service Cooperative Society located in Talad. Here, he found that paddy belonging to Shivdayal was rejected as non-FAQ. He instructed the Assistant Supply Controller to ensure only FAQ-compliant paddy is purchased, urging strict attention to quality standards. He also directed the monitoring team to conduct regular inspections of procurement centers. In Patan tehsil, he visited Seth Govind Warehouse under the Sakra Service Cooperative Society located in Banwar. He ordered verification of each farmers procurement details, formation of an inquiry team, and a comprehensive investigation. In Shahpura tehsil, during his visit to the Balraj Warehouse under the Pipariya Kala Service Cooperative Society, it was noted that the warehouse contained paddy belonging to millers. The Collector instructed the concerned officials to ensure the immediate lifting of paddy by millers as well as the transportation of procured paddy. He stressed that acceptance letters should be issued promptly to prevent delays in payments to farmers. He also emphasized the importance of proper storage, ensuring no procured paddy is left in the open. Finally, at the Belkheda Sahajpur procurement center under the Brihat Service Cooperative Society in Shahpura tehsil, Collector Saxena reviewed operations and issued necessary directives to ensure the procurement process remains transparent, systematic, and aligned with procurement policies. Cops bust burglary gang, recover stolen goods worth Rs 16 lakh Staff Reporter : In a major breakthrough, the Ayodhya Nagar Police in Zone-2, Bhopal, have successfully apprehended five members of a burglary gang responsible for several thefts in the city. The police managed to recover stolen gold and silver jewellery, along with other items, valued at approximately Rs 16 lakh. Among the seized items were gold bangles, necklaces, rings, silver anklets, and more, along with weapons such as pistols, knives, rods, and a scooter used in the crimes. The arrested individuals, hailing from Bhopal, Vidisha, Sagar, and Raisen districts, had varied motivations for their crimes, some sought quick wealth, others to satisfy expensive desires, and a few were struggling with financial debts. The gang operated in two teams: one conducted reconnaissance of potential targets, while the other carried out the burglaries. They primarily targeted residential homes during the late hours of the night, taking advantage of the cold winter nights. Acting on intelligence and with guidance from senior officers, the Ayodhyanagar Police managed to apprehend the suspects near Phase-5, Arhedi Road, after a well-planned raid. The suspects confessed to their involvement in five separate burglary incidents in Ayodhyanagar and led the police to the recovery of the stolen goods. The arrested suspects were identified as Shivanarayan Prajapati alias Chaman (32), a resident of Vidisha currently residing in Piplani, Bhopal; Jitendra Rajput alias Jeetu (33), a resident of Sagar currently living in Katara Hills, Bhopal; Rajat Kunde (29), a resident of Piplani, Bhopal; Jaswant Sen alias Golu (25), a resident of Omkara Sevania, Bhopal; and Neeraj Malviya alias Surya (29), a resident of Kolar Road, Bhopal. The accused were involved in a series of burglaries across the city, and the police have registered multiple cases against them. The stolen goods recovered include 4 gold bangles, 1 large gold necklace, 2 gold rings, 1 pair of gold earrings, silver jewellery such as anklets and bangles, as well as three motorcycles used by the gang. Additionally, a pistol, knife, rod, and a Tommy were seized. The total value of the recovered stolen items is estimated at Rs 16 lakh. The suspects were taken into police custody, and further interrogation is underway to gather more details about their criminal activities. The successful operation is credited to the co-ordinated efforts of Ayodhyanagar Police Station, led by Inspector Mahesh Lilhare, along with the support of his team. The police action was carried out under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-2) Sanjay Kumar Agrawal and Assistant Commissioner of Police Akshay Choudhary. The police have also acknowledged the valuable contributions of several officers and staff involved in the operation. The investigation is ongoing, and the police are exploring potential links to other criminal activities. Cyber Crime Branch nabs 4 in multi-lakh online fraud case Staff Reporter : The Cyber Crime Branch of Bhopal arrested four individuals involved in a fraudulent scheme that swindled nearly Rs 7 lakh under the pretext of halting pensions and updating life certificates in bank accounts. The accused were operating from Sakti district in Chhattisgarh, and had been using a methodical approach to deceive victims. According to information, the fraudsters posed as officials from the Treasury, convincing victims that their pensions had been halted. They then offered to help update the life certificate at the bank to resolve the issue. After gaining the victims trust, they tricked them into transferring money to bank accounts controlled by the fraudsters. The accused also sold these bank accounts to cyber criminals, allowing them to use them for fraudulent transactions. The accused included bank account holders who were paid commissions for opening accounts and selling them to the fraudsters. The accounts were then used for transferring money, which was eventually withdrawn via ATMs. In the past 20 days, nearly Rs 50 lakh was transacted using these accounts. The Bhopal Cyber Crime Branch team took swift action based on the victims complaint, which was filed after a fraud of Rs 6,95,100 took place. The investigation revealed that the bank accounts used in the crime were registered to the accused individuals: Durgesh Kumar Tandon, Karan Sonwane, and Rahul Sonwane. The accounts were sold to a middleman, Vishwanath Khunte (also known as Bablu), who facilitated the fraudulent transactions. On December 30, 2024, the Cyber Crime Branch arrested the main accused, including Durgesh Kumar Tandon, Karan Sonwane, Rahul Sonwane, and the middleman Vishwanath Khunte from Sakti district, Chhattisgarh. Three Android mobile phones were also seized from the accused. Further charges under sections 201 and 120(B) of the IPC have been added to the case. Forest Deptt to conserve corridors that reported wildlife movement recently Sub-adult cub of T-22 travelled 500 kms from Tipeshwar to Solapur in search of new territory By Kaushik Bhattacharya : Maharashtra Forest Department is planning to develop forest corridors in the State for wildlife conservation in areas that reported presence and movement of wildlife in recent years. In a recent development, a sub-adult male tiger born in Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal in 2022, travelled approximately 500 kms in search of new territory in Solapur district. It is the third such instance in Maharashtra when a tiger travelled long distance to settle in some other location far from its birth place. Normally, a tiger covers 50-100 kms in a day during migration. As per the sources, in June 2019, a radio-collared tiger named C-1 also from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, travelled the longest distance ever, more than 3,200 kms in search of new territory. During this longest journey, C-1 travelled to Ajanta-Verul in Marathwada and some parts of Telangana and later, settled in Dnyanganga Sanctuary in Buldhana. In the second such case in 2021, another tiger from Tipeshwar migrated to Pusad taluka. Later, it came back to Tipeshwar. In the process, the tiger travelled almost 1,200 kms. Now, the sub-adult cub, which is one of the litters of T-22 tigress of Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, covered a distance of 500 kms to get a good home under his own dominance in Barshi taluka of Solapur district. The young tiger started from Tipeshwar in 2023 and then it crossed through Penganga Wildlife Sanctuary, Nanded forest area, then Latur and now it has settled in Barshi in Solapur, Kushagra Pathak, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Solapur told The Hitavada. Migration of tiger from Tipeshwar to Solapur is a rare event. There is no big cat staying in Solapur forest and if this cub is staying for the last some time in Marathwada, then it is good news and the Forest Department is taking it as a success story, said Vivek Khandekar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife). We have identified the tiger with the help of its stripes and further monitoring is going on. The path it followed to come to Solapur is a matter of study. If tigers are following the same path, then there is a need to corridor conservation in near future. Keeping this development in mind, the department is planning conservation of corridors in State for better wildlife management, added Khandekar. In Solapur district, some farmers alerted Forest Department officials to an increase in cattle attacks over the past weeks. Following these reports, the Department installed camera traps, which revealed the presence of the male tiger. The tiger is also venturing into Yedshi Ramalinga Wildlife Sanctuary in Dharashiv district and this marks the first recorded sighting of a tiger at Dharashiv district as well. India intensifies extradition process of 26/11 Mumbai attacks accused Rana from US NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/NEW YORK : PAKISTANI-Canadian Tahawwur Rana could soon be extradited to India for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed around 175 people, sources in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Mumbai Polices crime branch confirmed on Wednesday. The extradition process had intensified after a federal appeals court in the US had quashed Ranas appeal in August, last year. The California-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld a lower federal court verdict permitting his extradition and ruled that the 1997 extradition treaty between India and the US covered his alleged offences. A three-panel appeals court bench had heard the habeas corpus petition against the Central California District Court judgement allowing Ranas extradition. Judge Milan Smith, who wrote the opinion for the bench, said India provided sufficient competent evidence to support the initial order of a magistrate judges finding of probable cause that Rana committed the charged crimes to allow the extradition. Rana, a Canadian citizen living in Chicago, was arrested in the US in 2009 for plotting to bomb a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, that published a controversial image of Prophet Mohammed. He faced three main charges in a Chicago federal court relating to his involvement in the Danish case, providing support to Lashkar, and conspiring for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. He was acquitted of the Mumbai attack charge, but convicted in the other two and sentenced to 14 years. The appeals court ruled that his acquittal in the Mumbai attack charge did not affect his extradition because in India he faces several different charges. The charges include conspiracy, waging war, murder, terrorism, and forgery, the judgement noted. Rana was released after seven years on compassionate grounds during the Covid pandemic, following which India requested his extradition to face trial there, which the magistrate judge approved. Rana is a former Pakistan Army doctor who set up an immigration service after immigrating to Canada. Ranas extradition would be a partial fulfillment of Indias attempts to get the US-based LeT accomplices face trial in India as Washington had refused to extradite Ranas Pakistani-American accomplice Daood Gilani, who uses the name David Headley. Headley had worked as an informant for the US governments Drug Enforcement Agency and after admitting to 12 terrorism-related charges, made a deal to cooperate with the US government on the condition that he will not be extradited. The judgement mentioned Rana helping Headley get a five-year visa for India under the pretext of setting up a branch of his business there. Headley used the visa to help plot the Lashkar terror rampage by surveilling the Taj Hotel and other targets. Headley had informed Rana about the surveillance activities, the judgement said. Judge Smith also noted in the judgement that Rana commended the terrorists who carried out the attacks and stated that the people of India deserved it. MANILA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines added 37,098 new registered nurses in 2024, a member of the Philippines' House of Representatives said Thursday. Representative Marvin Rillo said that these registered nurses are most likely to work abroad despite the country's shortage of nurses. "Largely due to the pressure to survive, some of them will likely seek immediate employment, even if it means taking on other jobs and not practicing nursing," said Rillo, vice chair of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education. "We are not paying our new nurses enough to encourage them to practice their profession," Rillo said. "We must invest more in our nurses if we want to retain some of them in the local health sector." The Philippines has been confronted with a growing shortage of nurses. According to the World Health Organization, the country now has a shortage of 127,000 nurses. If left unchecked, the shortage is expected to increase to 250,000 by 2030. Militants attack Manipur village IMPHAL : SUSPECTED militants launched fresh attack in the Kadangband area of Manipurs Imphal West district in the early hours of Wednesday, police said. Militants from their hill positions in Kangpokpi district fired several rounds from sophisticated arms and hurled bombs at the low-lying Kadangband area in Imphal West district around 1 am, a police officer said. Village volunteers deployed in the area returned the fire even as additional security forces were rushed to the area to control the situation. No injuries were reported in the firing, the police said. The attack forced several villagers living in Kutcha homes to flee to safer places, they said. Huge cache of arms, ammunition seized: SECURITY forces seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition during search operations in Manipurs Bishnupur and Thoubal districts, police said on Wednesday. From Thongkhonglok village in Bishnupur district, security forces on Tuesday seized one SLR with a magazine, one .303 rifle, one 12 bore single barrel gun, two 9mm pistol with magazine, one anti-riot gun, two INSAS LMG magazine, two INSAS rifle magazine, four hand grenades, one detonator, five anti-riot shell, ammunition and other articles, the statement said. The security forces seized one anti material rifle (AMR) sniper modified with sight scope and magazine, two single bolt action rifle, three 9mm pistol (country made), one hand grenade, four MK-13T, and ammunition from Leishangthem Ikop Pat area of Thoubal district, it said. Meanwhile, police arrested a member of the banned outfit Kangleipak Communist Party (Peoples War Group) involved in extortion from Mantripukhri Bazaar near Bengali crossing in Imphal East district on Tuesday. Much effort made, lot remains to be done, says CM Biren Singh IMPHAL, Jan 1 (IANS) MANIPUR Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Wednesday while referring to the 20-month-long ethnic violence in the state said much effort has been made in this direction and yet much remains to be done. In his New Year message, the Chief Minister said that the start of a new one is always a time for reflection and contemplation and it is so for the Government machinery as well. The year 2024 has been a difficult year for the state. With the law and order situation yet to bring comfort to the mind, thousands continue to seek shelter in relief camps and the homes of friends and relatives. My first and foremost thought goes out to them. Have we met their expectations? Have we succeeded in giving them hope for normalcy and return to the places they once called home? The CM, who also holds the Home portfolio, said much effort has been made in this direction and yet a lot remains to be done. Murders most foul Failing Engineering exam for 6 yrs, youth kills parents Accused Utkarsh Dakhole Deceased Aruna and Liladhar Dakhole. Staff Reporter : A dispute between a father, mother, and their son, who had been failing his engineering exam for the past six years, escalated to the point where the 25-year-old son brutally killed his parents in the Kapil Nagar area. After the killings on December 26, the son went to live at his uncles house with his sister and told his uncle that his parents had gone to Bengaluru for meditation. The incident came to fore on Wednesday morning when neighbours complained to the police about a foul smell emanating from Dakholes house. The police have arrested accused Utkarsh Liladhar Dakhole (25), a resident of New Khasala, for killing his father Liladhar (55) and mother Aruna (50). According to police, Utkarsh was admitted to Yashwantrao Chavan College of Engineering (YCCE) in 2018. However, he had not cleared his first and second-year exams, so far. Utkarsh, in a statement to the police, stated, he had been continuously failing to clear the first-year Physics paper. As he was struggling to clear his subjects, his parents pressurised him to discontinue pursuing engineering, and consider other streams, including ITI. On December 25, Utkarshs parents told him that they would withdraw his name from the college. Heated arguments ensued between the family as it continued forcing Utkarsh to discontinue pursuing engineering. On December 26, when Liladhar, who works as a technician at Koradi Thermal Power Station (KTPS), went to work, Utkarsh had a heated argument with his mother Aruna while she was alone at home. During an argument in the afternoon, in a fit of rage, Utkarsh strangled his mother to death in the bedroom. He then remained alone at home. When Liladhar arrived home a few hours later, Utkarsh attacked him with a sharp-edged weapon and killed him instantly in the drawing room located on the first floor. Police stated that after killing his parents, Utkarsh devised a plan to conceal the murders. As his sister was to return from college, Utkarsh drove his four-wheeler to pick her up. He met her near the house and told her that their parents had gone to Bengaluru for meditation. He then took his sister to his uncles house in Bailwadi area of Godhni, where they began living. The incident came to light on Wednesday when neighbours complained to the police about a foul smell emanating from the house. Soon, Kapil Nagar Police team rushed to the scene and forced their way into the house, only to find the bodies of Liladhar and Aruna. After observing blood spattered in the house and stab wounds on Liladhars body, the police concluded that it was a case of double murder. Liladhars relatives were shocked upon hearing the news of the murders. After conducting panchnama, the police sent the bodies to a hospital for post-mortem. On suspicion, police detained Utkarsh. During interrogation, he confessed to the murders. DCP Zone V, Niketan Kadam, stated that a preliminary investigation of Utkarshs mobile phone revealed no evidence of drug use or association with any suspicious person. Nothing substantial can be said at this point, DCP Kadam added. He kept questioning father while inflicting four stab wounds When Liladhar arrived home, Utkarsh was sitting on the sofa in the drawing room, his eyes filled with rage. Before his father could enter the bedroom, Utkarsh stood up and sought to know, would he force him to discontinue pursuing engineering. To this, his father replied, Yes, this continuous failure in the exam will not be tolerated. Within a fraction of a second, Utkarsh pulled out a knife and stabbed Liladhar in the stomach. He then repeatedly questioned his father while continuing to stab him. The police official who visited the crime scene stated that there were four stab wounds on Liladhars body. SUPERB, but... THE latest report of the Union Home Ministry about waning footprint of the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country begins the New Year on a positive note. It is good to learn that the efforts of Naxalites or Maoists are failing in expanding to new areas. But, there are indications that underline the need for the entire apparatus to be on the alert to face the complex challenges arising out of the changed modus operandi of the LWE operatives, especially in urban areas. Over the past decade, a well-organised response to the LWE activities has restricted the LWE arc of violence to just 25 districts in the country. The security forces and the Intelligence agencies have dealt a heavy blow to the Maoists Central Committee as well as its various armed units. Importantly, soon after demolishing the Maoists anti-people reign of terror from various tribal-dominated, forest and mineral-rich, but developmentally backward areas of the country, the Government has given a boost to development projects, industrialisation, and employment generation. This ensured that the Maoist propaganda failed to enthuse the people in these areas. People also realised that Maoist terror had kept their areas developmentally backward. Resultantly, the Maoists are not finding enough recruits for their units. There are reasons to believe that the Union Home Ministrys plan to ensure that the worst-hit Chhattisgarh gets rid of the Maoist menace by March 2026, will be realised on ground. While acting tough and ushering in development, the Government has also offered an opportunity to the surrendered Maoists to make a fresh start. This is also yielding positive results, and has led to arrest or elimination of some of the LWE leaders in the country. For long, this moment was awaited by the people who did not want to side with the LWE leaders but were forced to join them at gun-point. Now, these people are the most relieved lot. While celebrating the success, however, awareness must not be lost about LWE operatives effort to expand to new areas. Though the Red terrorists are not finding support for their armed activities, there are pointers that facing the reverses the Maoists have changed their strategy. The pointers came out during the Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. Maharashtra Chief Minister Mr. Devendra Fadnavis created ripples when he alleged that Urban Naxals had infiltrated into Bharat Jodo Yatra of the main Opposition Congress party. Maoists trying to infiltrate into legal, mainstream organisations poses a challenge. For, it becomes difficult for the agencies to act against LWE operatives working clandestinely within legal, democratic organisations. Any action may snowball into a political issue. Besides, the Maoists network of academicians, activists, artists carries on subtle propaganda in different walks of life. Government action against such urban operatives may stir a hornets nest. To act against and ensure conviction of such operatives, legal framework needs to be reworked. The agencies have to prove legally that an activist they arrest is actually involved in LWE or Naxal or Maoist armed activity. Mere activism is no crime. As such, Maoist sympathisers gradually get bail or are acquitted of charges. Only a few States like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha have a Special Public Security Act to deal with the Red terrorists. In Maharashtra, a Bill in this regard has been introduced but yet to become a law. Hence, the Union Home Ministry, while celebrating the success in reducing LWE activities, must also start working on a plan to counter the changed modus operandi of the outlaws, especially in urban areas. That plan will have to be in the domains of Intelligence, enforcement, as well as law. A damaged vehicle is seen after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on Dec. 26, 2024. (Photo by Marwan Dawood/Xinhua) JERUSALEM, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stern warning on Wednesday, stating that Israel would intensify its military operations in Gaza if Hamas does not agree to a deal for the release of hostages "soon." In a public statement, Gallant said that should Hamas fail to permit the release of Israeli hostages, the group would face "blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time." He emphasized that Israel's military would "escalate and intensify" its efforts against militant strongholds in Gaza until the hostages are freed and Hamas is "eliminated." Negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States are stalled over key issues, including the continuation of the ceasefire. Hamas seeks to prolong the truce, while Israel insists on the right to resume military action if it perceives a security threat. Another point of contention is Hamas's demand for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which Israel opposes, asserting the need for a continued military presence to maintain security control. The Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, resulted in the kidnapping of approximately 250 civilians and soldiers, of whom around 100 are still believed to be held in Gaza. The subsequent Israeli offensive has had a devastating impact on the Gaza Strip, causing mass destruction, widespread hunger and diseases, and resulting in at least 45,540 deaths, according to Gazan health officials. JAKARTA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12.66 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in the first 11 months of 2024 with an increase of 20.17 percent year-on-year, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported on Thursday. The growth indicates that Indonesia's tourism sector is recovering from the slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said the report. In November, Malaysia contributed the highest number of visitors, followed by Australia, Singapore and China. For 2024, Indonesia has set a target of 14.3 million foreign tourist arrivals. Ushering in the New Year Pub Date:25-01-02 10:08 Source:Xinhua Village Super League, molten iron fireworks display, countdowns... Diverse celebrations were held in various parts of China to usher in 2025. #China #HappyNewYear #NewYearsEve #2025 #Countdown Editor:Qin Shuying Related News Welcome the New Year with Joy and Celebration Dragon Drama: New Year's resolutions GLOBALink | Foreign expats immersed in Chi... HainanOutlook | Ethnic fashion show displa... BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes businesses from across the world to operate in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and share the dividends of both the region's development and the policy of "one country, two systems," a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday. Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks in response to a related query at a daily news briefing. Mao said that with the support of the central government, the HKSAR government in 2024 had forged ahead with a keen sense of responsibility and a pragmatic attitude, remained focused on economic development, strengthened exchanges and cooperation with the outside world, and continued to consolidate its sound momentum of stability and development. The HKSAR was ranked as the world's freest economy and rose to the third place globally in Global Financial Centres Index in 2024, while total assets under management in this region last year had topped 4 trillion U.S. dollars, she said. Mao also revealed that the HKSAR had recorded 44 million tourist arrivals in 2024, up 30 percent year on year. In addition, the HKSAR had attracted around 170,000 talents through its talent admission schemes last year. By the end of 2024, the total number of companies from China's mainland and overseas based in the region had amounted to nearly 10,000 while the number of startups was close to 4,700 -- both hitting new highs. "We have full confidence in a better future for Hong Kong," Mao said. SYDNEY, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A man was shot dead by police at a hospital north of Sydney, Australia, on Thursday after allegedly pointing a gun at officers. Police were called to a street in the small town of Wingham, approximately 250 kilometers north of Sydney, at 12:25 pm local time following reports that a man had fired shots into the air. Officers were deployed to the area and located the man in the car park of a nearby hospital. During the ensuing engagement, police said the man, believed to be in his 30s, was shot after pointing a firearm at the attending officers. The man was taken to the hospital, where he died a short time later. No one else was injured. A critical incident was declared and detectives from the homicide squad would investigate the incident, which would also be subject to an independent review. SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's police special forces were searching the building of the ruling People Power Party in central Seoul after a threat of planting explosives, multiple media outlets said Thursday. It was reported to the police at about 11:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) that the People Power Party received a fax of threatening to install explosives in its building from an unidentified person. The police dispatched special forces and detection dogs to search inside and outside the party's building. Neither an explosive device nor other material had yet to be found. The police were investigating the fax sender and other details. BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's border-check agencies saw over 1.8 million inbound and outbound trips during the New Year holiday on Wednesday, marking a 13.7 year-on-year increase, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA). Of these trips, 869,000 were made by Chinese mainland residents, up 11.1 percent year on year; 749,000 were made by residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 12.8 percent; and 185,000 were made by foreigners, up 33.6 percent, data from the NIA showed Thursday. Border inspection agencies checked 67,000 vehicles, including ships, trains and automobiles on Wednesday, representing a year-on-year increase of 14.7 percent, the NIA said. State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Postal Code This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows flamingos at a salt lake wetland after they arrive for wintering in Yuncheng City, north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo by Xue Jun/Xinhua) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows a flamingo at a salt lake wetland after it arrives for wintering in Yuncheng City, north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo by Xue Jun/Xinhua) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows flamingos resting at a salt lake wetland after they arrive for wintering in Yuncheng City, north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo by Xue Jun/Xinhua) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows flamingos resting at a salt lake wetland after they arrive for wintering in Yuncheng City, north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo by Xue Jun/Xinhua) This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2025 shows flamingos at a salt lake wetland after they arrive for wintering in Yuncheng City, north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo by Xue Jun/Xinhua) MNRF extends New Year greetings | IMPHAL, Jan 2 : On the auspicious occasion of New Year 2025, the Manipur Naga Revolutionary Front (MNRF) has conveyed its warm greetings, goodwill and wishes to the Nagas of Manipur in particular and people of the State in general, who have eagerly awaited the arrival of a new year with merry-making, singing, meditation, prayer and devotional services in various Churches. In a release, the MNRF reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to safeguarding the political rights of the Manipur Nagas and securing their liberty & rightful future. The MNRF appealed to all Nagas of Manipur to awaken, unite, and contribute collectively towards building a stronger and united future for "our" people. "The year 2024 was the most troubled year for the people of Manipur full of killings, bandhs, curfew, economic blockades and gun battles. Amid escalating conflicts and violence in Manipur, the year 2025 has finally come with full of confidence, hope and optimism for the violence-ridden folks of the State", it added. "May the New Year usher in blessing, health, happiness, compassion, peace, prosperity, communal harmony, understanding and wisdom, so that a new Manipur emerges free from conflict, hatred, enmity and violence", said MNRF. Noting public apology from CM Delhi is also culpable | Sorry and forgive and forget mistakes. This was Chief Minister N Biren on the last day of Year 2024 and while there have been different takes on the public apology, it stands that it takes courage and conviction to publicly say sorry. A point which should be read into the decision of the Chief Minister to extend a public apology. While the attention of many have been on the public apology of the Chief Minister, one should not overlook the fact that in the same vein N Biren also talked about the need to forgive and forget mistakes. This very call resonates with the reasoning that 19 months is long enough and the time is now for Manipur to look ahead. This is what The Sangai Express has been batting for, for quite a long time but the moot point is, what mechanisms have been put in place for the people to leave the past behind and start walking the road to normalcy by forgetting the past mistakes ? This is an important question and remember the Sorry and Forgive and Forget mistakes line came against the backdrop of the fact that New Delhi appears to have stripped off the needed powers and authority of the Chief Minister. One cannot help but recall the line, You be in charge of the valley, I will be in charge of the hills, of Union Home Minister Amit Shah sometime after violence erupted on May 3, 2023. Now Manipur is rapidly marching towards the completion of the 2nd year mark of the violence erupting with nothing to show that some efforts have been put in place to restore normalcy in the State. This is where one is tempted to repeat what has been pointed out many times in this column and that is what has happened to the over 60,000 Central armed police personnel who were rushed into Manipur straight after violence erupted on May 3, 2023 ? One of the most militarised States in the country and it is flummoxing to even think that hostages can be abducted from a relief centre at Jiribam and later massacred in the most inhuman way, a relief centre set up just near a security outpost. The Centre has taken note of the arms looted from police armouries mostly located in the valley districts but it is flabbergasting that not a single question has been raised on from where the guns of the Kuki militants have come from. And who is keeping track of the SoO camps where the cadres and the arms are supposed to be deposited ? Last time anything was heard about the designated camps was in the early days of the conflict from the Security Advisor. And it is amid this reality that the Chief Minister has come out with a public apology for the utter failure of the Government to rein in the situation. The Chief Minister is right for the Government has miserably failed to control the situation and this failure is writ large on May 3, 2023 itself. The Chief Minister has already talked about intelligence failure for the eruption of the violence, and reasoned that the Government saw nothing wrong in letting the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023 go ahead as scheduled. This is where there can be different takes, with many asking why the rally was allowed to be staged in the first place, given that Churachandpur was already very tense in the days running into May 3, 2023. This apart it has been a case of the Government unable to say what its left hand is doing from its right hand. The public apology of the Chief Minister should also be seen as the total failure of the men hand picked by Delhi and sent here to rein in things. Remember the Security Advisor, the DGP and the Chief Secretary are all men identified and picked by Delhi to help the State deal with the ongoing clash. Manipur will also still remember the days when the demand that the post of Chairman of the Unified Command be handed back to the Chief Minister was raised, with thousands of students taking to the streets and throwing life in Imphal into chaos. The public apology of the Chief Minister is taken note of, but the need to see it as a failure of not only Imphal but also Delhi cannot be over emphasised. The fact is, Delhi is more concerned with geo-political interests and a pliable Imphal is best suited to its overall agenda. It is against this reality that the public apology from the CM should be understood. Jailed ISKCON monk Chinmoy Krishna Dass Bangladeshi lawyer Rabindra Ghosh is still under medical observation of a team of doctors at SSKM Hospital where he was rushed to on Tuesday evening, showing symptoms of chest pain and dizziness, hours after meeting Trinamul Congress leader Kunal Ghosh. Rabindra Ghosh was scheduled to give legal assistance to Chinmoy Krishna at Chittagang court in Bangladesh on 2 January. Chinmoy Krishna, a spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested in December, 2024 at Dhakas Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while travelling to Chittagong to attend a rally. He was denied bail and sent to jail till 2 January by the court in Bangladesh. Advertisement Sources at the SSKM Hospital, eastern Indias premier government hospital, Mr Ghoshs health condition is little better but he still complains of chest pain. Advertisement He underwent several investigations including ECG, echocardiography since Tuesday night, when he was brought to the hospital. A team of doctors like cardiologists, nephrologists and general medicine experts are keeping a watch on the veteran Bangladeshi lawyer. Mr Ghosh came to West Bengal about 10 days ago for medical treatment and had been staying at his son Rahuls residence in Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas district. Earlier, while speaking to the media, Mr Ghosh had said that he would be there in Chittagong on 2 January to give legal assistance to Chinmoy Krishna. He is fighting alone in Bangladesh as no one is there beside him. Braving my life, I would be there in the court to give legal assistance to him on 2 January. I dont dare to die. The 75 year-old lawyer had told reporters, The situation in Bangladesh is very bad and I have not fled from the country to take shelter in West Bengal. I think Bangladesh is scared of America. Bangladesh is sensing trouble if India and America get close to each other on the diplomatic front, according to Mr Ghosh. Mr Ghosh, who has been actively defending the arrested monk, had acknowledged the risks involved in his work. Wolves in both East and West Burdwan seem to be repeating the Bahraich effect in the jungle patches as the endangered creatures have intensified intrusion into the domestic quarters in recent times. Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh already recorded 53 human deaths caused by wolves since 1996. Advertisement At Debsala village in East Burdwans Ausgram-II block alone, the wolves have frequented twice, unleashing fierce attacks on human settlements between 27-29 December. At Bijra, close to Debsala, a pack of wolves was hounded out by the residents late on Monday evening. Advertisement The forest range officials conducted a mass campaign on Tuesday in Garh Jungle villages, besides the Ajoy river to make locals aware about the wolves with an urge to ensure protection of the roaming packs, said Pranab Kumar Das, the ranger, Panagarh. At Debsala hamlet, an aggressive maljurian male wolf suddenly sneaked in on 27 December early morning and had indiscriminately attacked the residents, leaving 22 locals, including 3 kids critically injured. The panicked but angry residents retaliated shortly and beat the wolf to death. It seems that the matured wolf was a rogue and its mental state deteriorated, possibly due to some viral or bacterial infection. They usually dont stray into human habitats during daytime, Sanchita Sharma, divisional forest officer, East Burdwan, told The Statesman. The forest officials suspect that the wolf either was affected by CDV (canine distemper virus) or Tularemia, a bacterial infection, which affected it psychologically. On 29 December, another wolf strayed into the same Debsala village and picked up two goat calves from the houses of Paresh Ruidas and Kota Ruidas. The breeding season of the wolves range between October and December and a matured maljurian wolf may suffer psychological breakdown during this season, many times. But its not a case of just about the maljurians, so far weve gathered, said Arkajyoti Mukherjee, secretary, WINGS (Wildlife Information & Nature Guide Society)- a WWF India funded organisation working on Indian grey wolf conservation project around West Burdwan district. Weve established villager committees to conserve the Schedule-I protected species and from January, well focus more on intense campaigns, Mukherjee said. Bahraich district in UP this year recorded the highest number of wolf attacks. Between March and September alone, the wandering pack killed 10 persons and left 30 severely wounded. The UP government, considering this killing spree of the wolves launched Operation Bhediya aiming to capture the penetrating wolves and six wolves were identified as responsible for the attacks. Way back in 1996, a lone wolf had killed 43 people across three UP districts including Bahraich. The injured or sick wolves are more likely to attack due to increased vulnerability and potential aggression, said a veteran wildlife officer, adding, Also, when the wolves become more accustomed to human presence due to improper feeding or close proximity, they may lose their fear and approach humans aggressively. In Bengal, the Zoological Survey of India in its wolf abundance report in November 2024 stated that Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore houses a significant population of Indian wolves, a subspecies of grey wolf. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 56.4, down from 56.5 in November showcasing manufacturing activitys weakest growth of 2024 in December. According to the HSBC Final India Manufacturing PMI, compiled by S&P Global, the headline figure was down from 56.5 in November, but remained above its long-run average of 54.1 thereby signalling a robust rate of growth. Advertisement Both output and new orders continued to rise last month but the improvement slowed. The data indicated softer demand in the sector despite easing cost pressures and strong jobs growth. Advertisement Manufacturing PMI declined to a joint 11-month low of 56.5 in November, down from 57.5 in October, indicating a slowdown in manufacturing growth. Despite this deceleration, the PMI remained above the 50-mark, signifying continued expansion in the manufacturing sector. On the employment front, the rate of job creation quickened to the fastest in four months. Around one-in-ten companies recruited extra staff, while fewer than 2 per cent of firms shed jobs. Notably, Indias GDP growth slowed to 5.4 per cent in the second quarter of FY25, marking its weakest performance in nearly two years. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also revised its annual growth forecast to 6.6 per cent from 7.2 per cent, signaling caution over economic momentum. People gather at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) GAZA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. Eight citizens were killed and several others injured in the Israeli bombing of the vicinity of the Al-Ayoun and Al-Lababidi junctions, west of Gaza City, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported, adding that four others were killed as a result of the Israeli bombing in the northern Beach camp, west of the city. In Khan Younis, six people were killed and several others injured as a result of an Israeli raid that targeted a building in the center of the southern city, WAFA said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Thursday that the Air Force conducted an intelligence-based strike on Hamas militants who were operating in a control and command center that was embedded inside the Khan Younis municipality building in the humanitarian area. Earlier in the day, at least 11 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack at tents in the Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run interior ministry. "Major General Mahmoud Salah, director-general of the Gaza police force, and Hassam Shahwan, a senior official at Hamas' interior authorities, were among the deaths," according to the ministry. In a separate statement, the IDF said that overnight, it conducted an intelligence-based strike on the humanitarian area in Khan Younis and killed the head of Hamas Internal Security Forces in the southern Gaza Strip, Hassam Shahwan. Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage. The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 45,581, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Thursday. People transfer a man injured in an Israeli bombing at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua) A man carries a boy injured in an Israeli bombing at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua) People transfer a man injured in an Israeli bombing at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua) People transfer a man injured in an Israeli bombing at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua) People are seen at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) People gather at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) People are seen at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) People are seen at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) People gather at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) People gather at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Jan. 2, 2025. At least 29 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the Gaza police chief, Palestinian sources said. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) Smoke billows following an Israeli bombing on the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel's southern border, on Jan. 2, 2025. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua) Smoke billows following an Israeli bombing on the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel's southern border, on Jan. 2, 2025. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua) Smoke billows following an Israeli bombing on the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel's southern border, on Jan. 2, 2025. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua) The National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a college under the Delhi University (DU) be named after former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who passed away recently. The demand of the Congress student wing comes a day prior to the Prime Minister laying the foundation stone of a college of DU named after Hindu ideologue Veer Savarkar in Delhi. Advertisement In his letter addressed to Mr Modi, NSUI national president Varun Choudhary, while referring to the laying of foundation stone of Veer Savarkar college, wrote, NSUI strongly demands that this institution be named after former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Advertisement Recalling contributions of Singh, who had served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, he said, His passing has left a deep void. The most fitting tribute to his legacy would be to dedicate premier educational institutions in his name. The NSUI chief said Singhs monumental contributions included the Central Universities Act, 2009, Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, and added that these initiatives revolutionised the nations education system, benefiting millions. Dr Singhs legacy as a scholar, economist, and public servant embodies resilience, merit, and dedication to public welfare. Naming institutions after him will inspire generations and honour his transformative vision, he added. Among other demands of the NSUI included inclusion of the former Prime Ministers life journey in academic curriculum. The NSUI chief said the government must act immediately to recognise his unparalleled contributions for the country. Singh, the key architect of Indias economic liberalization,passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the national Capital on 26th December at the age of 92. Pacyon Foundation, a leading foundation, staged their play On Duty Sir which highlighted various issues faced by the police in taking out time for their family and personal lives, getting time off from work (holidays), psychological issues, suicides and suicidal tendencies among the police amongst other problems. Pacyon is an organisation founded by Pradeep Gupta and Rajeev Gupta, that has been reaching out to more and more people through the medium of art, culture, and sport. Advertisement The play On Duty Sir directed by Vipin Kumar and scripted by Saquib Siddiqui was staged on December 15, 2024 at the Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium here. Advertisement This marks a significant milestone in Pacyon Foundations mission to spread awareness, on issues that are socially, politically, economically or culturally relevant, among individuals and communities to sensitise and empower them to take informed decisions with greater awareness. Further bringing improvements and upliftments in the society and its surroundings, to make this world a better place for all. The play On Duty Sir was staged with an aim to humanise the image of the Police. As we know, the Police plays an important role in the society, however their image creates fear in the minds of common people making them apprehensive of any direct contact with them. Although the police is an instrument of the state in enforcing law and order in the society, the Police Personnel are also people living in the same society and are equally human as others. It is pertinent to note that policemen are also human beings. They also have a family like any other citizen of the country and they are also born with the same human rights as any other person in this world, they too can be a victim of something and suffer mental or physical pain. The police can also shed a tear. The play On Duty Sir, broke the one-sided image of the police that was created amongst the general public and presented the humane side of the police to the public, generating comparison among the masses towards them and treating them with more sensitivity and respect. The play was developed under able guidance and inspiration of Dr Muktesh Chander IPS Retd and was attended by eminent personalities, including Amit Lodha, IG Bihar police, Jaspal Singh, Spl Commissioner Delhi Police, Rajkumar Aggarwal, SP UP police. Further, the organisation aims to take this play to different levels to create more and more awareness among people for the Police. The plays done in the past by the organisation like Gandhi tum Zinda Ho, Jan Se Mann ki Jai Ho, Gaddha Gate, Bhagat Singh ek Soch ek baar Phir, and Jallianwala Bagh files, were widely loved and supported by the audience. The organisation also is open for collaboration and Corporation of as many art, theatre and creative enthusiasts for the future. Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh, known for enamoring the audience with his stellar singing and acting skills, on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which he was seen sharing some candid moments with the PM, who praised his journey from being a countryside lad to a widely-acclaimed icon. In a video shared by Diljit on X, the energetic entertainer is seen greeting PM Modi with a bouquet of flowers, with the Prime Minister welcoming him, saying Sat Shri Akal Ji. The music of Diljits superhit musical number Born to Shine in the background brings an added essence to the moment in the video. Advertisement Taking to X, PM Modi also shared pictures of his meeting with the Punjabi superstar. He wrote: A great interaction with Diljit Dosanjh! Hes truly multifaceted, blending talent and tradition. We connected over music, culture and more Advertisement On his part, Diljit wrote: A fantastic start to 2025! A very memorable meeting with PM @narendramodi Ji. We talked about a lot of things including music of course! In the video, the Prime Minister, praising Diljit, says: When an Indian youth from the countryside gets fame in the world, it feels nice. Diljit acknowledges the words of appreciation by PM Modi with folded hands. PM Modi further said: Your family has named you Diljit and you just go on to win over the people. To this, Diljit said: I used to read that India is Great and only when I travelled across the country, I realised why this country is great. His words made the Prime Minister smile, and he said: The vastness of India is indeed a strength. We are a vibrant society. Diljit, in the video, can also be heard describing Yoga as a magic to which PM Modi says: The one who has experienced Yoga is actually aware of its power. The Punjabi superstar also recalled the moments when PM Modi paid an emotional tribute to river Ganga and drew a reference to the mother-son relationship, saying he felt overwhelmed by that. He also sang a few lines in Punjabi, making a soulful mention of Guru Nanak, to which the Prime Minister tapped the table as Diljit was singing. Diljit Dosanjh, with a millions fan following, also appears as a polarising figure to certain sections due to his support for the farmers protests. Many times, he faced trolling due to his personal views, with some even questioning his integrity and loyalty towards India. Diljits meeting with Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday against these backdrops assume significance from a socio-political perspective, as those critical of him might be left wondering how someone being vocal about debatable topics could be appreciative of the PM. The Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni feud has taken a dramatic turn, following reports of Baldoni planning an explosive suit against Lively. Following Blake Livelys suit against her It Ends With Us co-star, Justin Baldoni, he has sued The New York Times. The $250 million lawsuit slams the publication over its article documenting Livelys allegations towards him. The 4000-word piece, titled We can bury anyone: Inside a Hollywood smear campaign outlined Hollywoods smear mechanism. Baldoni claims that the outlet published an incomplete narrative that was misleading and caused considerable harm to his reputation. In his countersuit, Baldoni accuses Lively of public humiliation and even drags her husband, Ryan Reynolds. He has accused the Deadpool actor of an aggressive confrontation. In his suit, Justin Baldoni accuses Blake Lively of banning him and his studio from attending the films premiere. As per the US Weekly, in the court documents, Baldoni alleges that only after significant pressure did Lively reluctantly allow his attendance. However, it was done under degrading conditions, including being segregated from the main cast and excluded from the after-party. Further undermining Baldonis role, Lively initially refused to permit his attendance at the Films premiere. Advertisement Advertisement View this post on Instagram A post shared by Justin Baldoni (@justinbaldoni) Only after significant pressure, did she reluctantly agree to allow Baldoni and the Wayfarer team to attend. But under humiliating conditions. The Wayfarer team and their families, including Baldoni and [producer Jamey] Heath, were segregated from the main cast. They were barred from the exclusive after-party, and forced to organize their own event at additional cost. Moreover, the suit alleges that Lively tried to steal his movie. She deliberately ostracized Baldoni and his family from the films events. The suit reads, Not only had Lively stolen the Film, but she also robbed Baldoni and his team of any genuine opportunity to celebrate their hard work. Also Read: Justin Baldoni plans a shocking countersuit against Blake Lively Additionally, Justin Baldoni claims that Ryan Reynolds drew him into an aggressive confrontation over allegedly fat-shaming Lively. Baldoni states that he was talking only about safety considerations for a stunt involving a lift. He also emphasized his recent back surgery. The confrontation that followed was so aggressive that Baldoni felt compelled to offer repeated apologies. Baldoni, in an effort to avoid further confrontation with Lively and Reynolds and rebuild rapport with his co-star, continued to bend to her will. The actors suit also states, [Livelys] public image suffered as a result of a series of high-profile blunders, which she tried to deflect by blaming Plaintiffs for the publics prying interest into the foibles of an A-list celebrity. This is nothing but an excuse. Fame is a double-edged sword, but Livelys tactics here are unconscionable. Baldoni also alleges that Reynolds influenced his former agency, WME (which also represents Lively and Reynolds), to drop him as a client. However, the agency has denied the accusations. For details on Livelys accusations, Read: Blake Lively sues It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment Actress Zarina Wahab recently shared a heartfelt memory from the making of her Malayalam debut film Madanolsavam, revealing how she faced unexpected challenges despite her vast experience in the industry. In a newly surfaced video, Zarina Wahab opened up about her struggle with the Malayalam language, which she still finds difficult to grasp even after starring in 29 Malayalam films. Advertisement She recalled her first experience on the sets of the film, which turned out to be much more than she had anticipated. Advertisement I didnt know Malayalam at all, even though I had worked in 29 films by then, she confessed. Zarinas first Malayalam film was with the legendary Kamal Haasan, and she was eager to start the project, especially since she had just received her payment. At the time, she was thrilled to be able to contribute to buying a new flat. However, when she sat down to go over her dialogues, things took a turn. The moment I saw the dialogues, I had no idea what they meant, she said, describing how overwhelming the situation felt. I started crying, feeling completely stuck. I thought, I cant do this, I should return the money and leave. Feeling defeated, Zarina locked herself in her room, unwilling to face the situation. Kamal Haasan, sensing her distress, came to her rescue. He asked me what was wrong, and I explained my predicament. Kamal reassured me, saying, Now that youre here, just work for one day. Well help you. You can write your lines down, and well prompt you. Zarina, still emotional, agreed to give it a try. With Kamals support, she managed to complete her first shot, and to her surprise, it turned out better than expected. I was crying, but I did it. And then, there was a romantic scene where I had to hold Kamal and write my lines on his hand. I thought, Now, I could even do a Russian film if someone dubs it! she added with a smile. A special NIA court has convicted 28 in the killing of a youth, Chandan Gupta, during Tringa Yatra in Kasganj on January 26, 2018. Chandan Gupta was killed when he was taking out a Tringa Yatra along with some youths on the Republic Day in Kasganj city. Advertisement Special Additional District and Session Judge Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi, while convicting the 28 accused on Thursday, aquitted two others for insufficient evidence against them. Advertisement The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment tomorrow. The 28 accused have been convicted under Section 302, 307, 147, 124( A) of the IPC along with Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act and the CLA Act. The killing of Gupta took place in the aftermath of the clashes that broke out when around 100 members of the VHP, ABVP, and Hindu Yuva Vahini were passing through the minority-dominated Baddunagar locality on motorbikes with Indian and saffron flags. Following the violence, a week-long curfew was clamped on the area. Initially, the trial was moving at a slow pace. But later, the case was shifted to Lucknow. The Kasganj Police filed the chargesheet in the case in July 2018. Highlighting the importance of the abrogation of Article 370, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday that it is after its revocation under Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership that a new era of development began in the Kashmir valley which was hampered due to terrorism. Shah, while speaking at the launch of a book named Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh: Through the Ages, said people often asked him what was the connection between Article 370 and terrorism, to which he said that they were not aware that it was this status that attempted to sow the seeds of separatism in the minds of the valleys youth. Advertisement He claimed that after the abrogation of Article 370, terror incidents have reduced by 70 per cent. The Union home minister pointed out that in 2018, there were 2100 incidents of stone-pelting while in 2024, no such incident was reported. Advertisement He added that Panchayati Raj has now set its roots deeper in the valley which is evident from the record voting during the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections this time since the past 33 years. Shah also shared that around 324 serials and films were shot in Kashmir during 2024, something similar to what used to happen in the sixties. The HM said while there are minority populations in different parts of the country but none faced terrorism. Responding to the argument that Kashmir faced terrorism because it shared border with Pakistan, he said states like Rajasthan and Gujarat too share border with the same neighbouring country but did not have terrorism. He further said that it was the Article 370 that spread an illusion about the connection between India and Kashmir was temporary which had laid the foundation of separatism that later turned into terrorism. He called it painfully disappointing that around 40,000 lives were lost due to terrorism while the development of the valley was derailed. Anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania has called the investigation into the murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh of the BJP a sham. She was commenting on the developments related to the surrender of alleged killer Valmik Karad, who is known to be close to Ajit Pawar-led NCP leader as well as Food And Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde. Advertisement The development has come after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) vociferously demanded Mundes resignation, alleging that the investigation into Santosh Deshmukhs murder would be compromised if he remained in office. The Opposition alliance had also alleged that the surrender of the accused, Valmik Karad, to the police was stage managed. Advertisement However, the Home Ministry, which oversees the functioning of the police, headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has been trying its best to give the impression that the investigation will be impartial. On Thursday, the anti-corruption activist said in Beed, What is happening in the name of investigation is a sham. It is a laughable thing. The police are not looking for anything. If the CID is not able to do it, then the investigation should be handed over to Shivaji Satam (referring to a popular Marathi TV star who stars in a popular Marathi TV serial as the head of CID).I returned after Valmik Karad was arrested. I got the information about the Mahagenco Thermal Power Plant and studied the huge amount of money being extorted. I studied what is fly ash and what is bottom ash. Some 80% of the fly ash goes to a cement company but the bottom ash is forcibly taken away on pistol point. The superintendents of police who have been transferred in the past should have been sacked. They did absolutely nothing at all despite receiving several letters in this regard from the Mahagenco Thermal Plant management. While the media knew that Valmik Karad was going to surrender, the police purportedly didnt know about it and we are supposed to believe it, said Anjali Damania. She asked, Why did the police take so long to get to Valmik Karad, for around 25 days? (Eknath Shinde-led) Shiv Sena leader Milind Narvekar should have taken a stand against it. Is he close to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis? I studied the government offices of Beed and got to know that they are full of officials from the OBC Vanjari community. They were recruited when Gopinath Munde was part of the Maharashtra government and later brought to Beed. Most government officials in Beed are from this community. So, what justice will they give to others? During the elections, our fingers were inked and we were thrown out. We were not allowed to vote, Damania alleged. Incidentally, an Ajit Pawar-led NCP leader as well as food and civil supplies minister happens to be from the OBC Vanjari community. Anjali Damania posted on her X handle that government officials in Beed favour food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde. There were thinkers like Bhagwan Baba from the Vanjari community who provided educational, social, moral and cultural enlightenment in the rural areas. He coordinated the path of devotion, the path of action and the path of knowledge. By misusing his name and work, some political leaders and people like Valmik Karad are defaming this legacy. Dhananjay Munde has appointed people from his community to favour him and I definitely have my objections about this. Damania shared a list of officials in Parli with their names. All the people from the Vanjari community must wake up and understand that these people (politicians like Munde) are only using them. I am giving a complete list to explain the issue, she tweeted. Ranks and names of officers in Parli in Beed district are, Parli City Police Station Chief Ravi Sanap, Parli Rural Police Station Chief Suresh Chate, Parli Tehsildar Venkatesh Munde, Parli Group Development Officer Vitthal Nagargoje, Parli Co-Group Development Officer S S Munde. The Maharashtra state government should take the right decision in this regard. I am certainly not blaming an entire community, but the truth is that they are being utilised at the moment, Anjali Damania said. Senior BJP leader and Union Minister of Rural Development and Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has written a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, accusing her of being anti-farmer for not implementing centrally-funded schemes for ryots welfare. In his letter, dated January 1, Mr Chouhan said, You have never taken appropriate decisions in the interest of farmers in Delhi. The farmer-friendly schemes of the Central Government have also been prevented from being implemented in Delhi by your government. Your government has no sympathy for farmers. Today, the farmer brothers and sisters of Delhi are troubled and worried. Advertisement He pointed out that due to the non-implementation of many farmer welfare schemes of the Centre by the Delhi Government, the farmer fraternity is being deprived of the benefits of these schemes. Advertisement He said he had earlier also written a letter to her and informed about the problems of the farmers of Delhi, but it is a matter of concern that the AAP government has not resolved these problems. For the last 10 years, he said, AAP has been in power in Delhi but it has always seemed that former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has only cheated the farmer brothers and sisters, and has taken political advantage by making big announcements before the elections. Instead of taking decisions in the public interest, the AAP government has always complained about their problems. Mr Chouhan highlighted that due to the irresponsible attitude of the AAP government, the Integrated Horticulture Development Mission of the Central Government has not been implemented. Due to the non-implementation of the mission, farmers are not able to avail many benefits including supply of planting material, nursery and tissue culture, construction of infrastructure of post-harvest management, poly house and cold chains. The ambitious National Agriculture Development Scheme of the Central Government has also not been implemented by the AAP-led Delhi Government, he added and noted that due to non-implementation of it, schemes like Agricultural Micro Irrigation Soil Health Pashudhan, and Traditional Agriculture Development Scheme have not been implemented. Under the Seed Village Programme of the Central Government, benefits are available like distribution of seeds, seed testing, improvement in infrastructure for laboratories, assistance to seed certification agencies and for traditional varieties of seeds, the minister said, and expressed anguish that it is a matter of concern that the Seed Village Program has not been implemented in Delhi by the AAP government and the farmers here are being deprived of the benefits of the Seed Samachar Program. He also claimed that the AAP policies were anti-agriculture and anti-farmer. The farmers of Delhi have told me that in Delhi, essential agricultural equipment like tractors, harvesters are being registered in the commercial category, due to which farmers have to sell their agricultural equipment at higher prices, the minister stated. He further said, You talk of free electricity but your government in Delhi has fixed high electricity rates for farmers. Commercial rates are being charged for electricity from Vidhan Sabha to Paan in Delhi. Cheap electricity is essential for irrigation and other agricultural works but in Delhi, farmers themselves are being charged a huge amount for agricultural electricity. He said the AAP government has cut the electricity connection to irrigation equipment in villages along the Yamuna, due to which crops are getting destroyed and their livelihood is also in danger. Political rivalry should not become a hindrance in farmers welfare, he stressed and added that the Delhi CM should ensure that farmers take advantage of central schemes. He requested her to take decisions in the interest and welfare of the farmers. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Thursday that the state government has reclaimed 9,000 hectares (equivalent to 74,000 bighas) of land from illegal encroachment over the past three years, restoring it to the forest department. This reclamation of 74,000 bighas is unprecedented in Assams history, he stated on the microblogging platform X, emphasizing the governments commitment to protecting and restoring forested areas. The chief ministers statement comes in the wake of mounting concerns about the states forest cover. Advertisement The Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi recently voiced alarm over the findings of the India State of Forest Report (ISFR), which highlighted a 79 square kilometer decline in Assams forest cover between 2021 and 2023. Advertisement According to the ISFR, human activities, including encroachments, infrastructure development, and deforestation, are significant contributors to the states shrinking forest resources. The report has intensified debates on balancing development and conservation in Assam, a state known for its rich biodiversity and vital forest ecosystems. Environmental activists and opposition leaders have urged the government to prioritize long-term conservation measures to complement these land restoration efforts. President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua meets with Majintha Jayesinghe, Sri Lankan ambassador to China, in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 2, 2025. Both sides expressed their willingness to promote enhanced communication and cooperation between media and think tanks of the two countries through multilateral mechanisms such as the World Media Summit, aiming to tell the stories of the China-Sri Lanka friendship and cooperation, and to strengthen bonds between the two peoples, particularly the youth of the two countries. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Xinhua News Agency looks forward to deepening cooperation with Sri Lankan media and think tanks to promote the development of bilateral ties, Xinhua President Fu Hua said Thursday. Fu made the remarks when meeting with Majintha Jayesinghe, Sri Lankan ambassador to China, in Beijing. Both sides expressed their willingness to promote enhanced communication and cooperation between media and think tanks of the two countries through multilateral mechanisms such as the World Media Summit, aiming to tell the stories of the China-Sri Lanka friendship and cooperation, and to strengthen bonds between the two peoples, particularly the youth of the two countries. About 340 metric tonnes of toxic waste, lying in the Union Carbide factory for 40 years since the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, was finally removed on Wednesday night and it reached its destination Pithampur for incineration at around 4.30 AM on Thursday. The waste was transported in 12 special container trucks that had set out on their 250-km journey to Pithampur near Indore through a specially created green corridor at around 9 pm on Wednesday. Advertisement The MP High Court on 3 December 2024 had set a four-week deadline to shift the toxic waste from the factory. Advertisement According to official figures, about 5,500 people were killed and five lakh injured in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which occurred due to the leak of MIC (Methyl Isocyanate) gas from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984. It is termed to be one of the worlds worst industrial disasters. Bhubaneswar, Odishas Capital city, is poised for a makeover as the preparatory measures to host Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, scheduled from 8 January are in full swing, an official said on Thursday. The three-day mega event marks a significant moment in the countrys celebration of the Indian diaspora and their invaluable contributions to Indias growth. With thousands of overseas Indians expected to attend it, the Odisha government is working tirelessly to ensure a seamless and memorable experience for all participants, the official added. Advertisement Dr. Krushna Chandra Mohapatra, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, conducted a comprehensive inspection from Airport Chowk to Nandankanan and Janata Maidan on Thursday. He reviewed the citys sanitation, road conditions, and beautification efforts, emphasizing that no detail is too small. Traditional Odisha wall paintings now adorn the streets, while roadsides and public areas have been meticulously cleaned and beautified. Advertisement Dr. Mohapatra directed engineers to immediately address any potholes, uneven surfaces, or unkempt areas and ensure the city maintains its aesthetic appeal. He also instructed that trees and fences be painted to enhance the citys visual charm. To provide a unique cultural experience, the city will host a food festival and tribal fair at the exhibition grounds, offering guests a taste of traditional Odia cuisine. Additionally, special arrangements have been made to transport NRIs to Puri in newly introduced double-decker buses for a spiritual visit to the Jagannath Temple, where they will enjoy Jagannath Darshan and partake in the temples sacred offerings. Dr. Mohapatra also urged corporate entities, businesses, and residents to actively participate in the cleanliness drive by maintaining their premises. This collaborative effort is intended to reflect the citys hospitality and community spirit. Senior officials, including BMC Commissioner Rajesh Prabhakar Patil and BDA Vice Chairman Tirumala Nayak, accompanied the Minister during the inspection. Teams from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), and other departments are working round the clock to ensure the city is ready to host this prestigious event. Our goal is to create an unforgettable experience for our overseas guests. Bhubaneswar is not only a city of heritage and culture but also one of warmth and hospitality. I urge all stakeholders to contribute to presenting our city in its best light, the minister said. Satguru Mata Sudiksha Ji Maharaj, the spiritual head of the Sant Nirankari Mission, has said the meaning of the New Year is to make every moment meaningful. Incorporating Nirankar in every action ensures spiritual awakening and true happiness, she said on the occasion of the New Year during a special satsang held at Ground Number 8, Nirankari Chowk, Burari Road in Delhi. Advertisement Thousands of devotees from Delhi, NCR, and other regions attended this satsang. Advertisement Satguru Mata Sudiksha Ji Maharaj said, The New Year is merely a change of number from 2024 to 2025. It is just a concept created by the human mind. Nirankar created time and the universe, where different planets have different concepts of time. Therefore, the meaning of the New Year is to make every moment meaningful. She extended her blessings to all the devotees, wishing them a life filled with happiness, prosperity, and joy. In line with his commitment to Housing for All, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Swabhiman Apartments, Ashok Vihar, Delhi, on January 3 at 12.10 p.m. The visit will mark the inauguration of newly-constructed flats for dwellers of Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters under the In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation Project. During the event, the Prime Minister will inaugurate 1,675-newly constructed flats and hand over keys to eligible beneficiaries. Advertisement This project represents the second successful In-Situ Slum Rehabilitation initiative by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), aimed at providing a healthier living environment with proper amenities for JJ cluster residents. Advertisement Under the scheme, while the government spends approximately Rs 25 lakh per flat, beneficiaries contribute a nominal Rs 1.42 lakh, with an additional Rs 30,000 covering five years of maintenance. The Prime Minister will also inaugurate two urban redevelopment projects the World Trade Centre (WTC) at Nauroji Nagar and the General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) Type-II Quarters at Sarojini Nagar. The WTC at Nauroji Nagar project replaces over 600 dilapidated quarters with modern commercial towers, offering 34 lakh square feet of premium commercial space. It emphasises sustainable practices, including zero-discharge systems, solar energy, and rainwater harvesting. The GPRA includes 28 towers housing 2,500 residential units with modern amenities, efficient space utilisation, and eco-conscious features like rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment plants, and solar-powered waste compactors. The Prime Minister will also inaugurate the CBSE Integrated Office Complex in Dwarka, constructed at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Designed to IGBC Platinum standards, this eco-friendly complex features advanced facilities such as an auditorium, data centre, and water management systems. Further, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stones for three major projects at Delhi University, worth over Rs 600 crore an academic block at the Eastern Campus, Surajmal Vihar, East Delhi; an academic block at the Western Campus, Dwarka; and Veer Savarkar College, Roshanpura, Najafgarh, equipped with state-of-the-art educational facilities. These projects collectively underline the governments commitment to urban development, housing, and education in Delhi. Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar claimed in Nagpur on Thursday that smaller fish could be killed in a police encounter to save the big fish involved in the Santosh Deshmukh murder case, in order to destroy evidence. Though Wadettiwar failed to elaborate about his sensational remark, it is being speculated that smaller fish could be Valmik Karad and his associates while bigger fish could mean food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde. Advertisement Without naming anybody, Wadettiwar claimed, According to reliable sources, smaller fish could be killed in an encounter to save the big fish and asked for whom beds were taken to the police station in Beed. Were those for Valmik Karad, who is in police custody? he asked and demanded an inquiry into it. Advertisement However, when food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde was asked to comment on Wadettiwars statement, Munde said, Vijay Vadettiwar is a smart person when it comes to talking. However, this is the first time I am hearing this. Whose encounter is he talking about? The police administration and CID are investigating the Beed case properly. Santosh Deshmukh was murdered and the case against those who committed this murder should be tried in a fast track court and the accused must be given the death penalty. So this makes no sense because I was the first person to demand that the Beed murder case should be tried in a fast track court. Talking about how the opposition has made serious allegations that the opposition has demanded that Dhananjay Munde must resign as food and civil supplies minister, Munde said, Why should I resign? I have nothing to do with any incident. I am neither an accused in any of these cases, nor do I have any connection with them. So why would anyone want to resign? Commenting about the opposition demand that the post of Guardian Minister of Beed district must not be given to Dhananjay Munde, he said, The media knows what should happen before even we know. Now why should I not be the guardian minister of Beed? It would be more appropriate to ask this question to the people who are opposing it. When asked why MLAs from all parties have united against him, Dhananjay Munde said, I cannot say that it was wrong for them to come together because the Santosh Deshmukh murder incident was very unfortunate. Everyone agrees that whoever is guilty in that incident should be hanged. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday, strongly condemned the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans that has left at least 15 dead. In a post on X, Modi said, We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy. Advertisement Earlier, condolence messages poured in from global leaders, including Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others. Advertisement The leaders denounced the attack, extended sympathies to the victims and their families, and emphasised the need to combat terrorism. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in a post on X wrote, Deeply saddened by the terrorist attack in New Orleans. My heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims. Wishing a swift recovery to the two injured Israeli citizens and all the wounded. He added, I instructed Israels Consul General in Houston immediately deploy a representative to the scene. Terror has no place in our world. Israel stands in solidarity with New Orleans and the United States. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while extending condolences to the families of the victims, said, Horrified by the attack in New Orleans, US, which has claimed innocent lives and left many injured. We trust that those responsible for this terrible act will be brought to justice. Violence, terrorism, and any threats to human life have no place in our world and must not be tolerated. Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and we wish a swift recovery to all those injured. Ukraine stands with the American people and denounces violence, the post added. French President Emmanuel Macron said, New Orleans, so dear to the hearts of the French, has been struck by terrorism. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the injured, as well as with the American people, whose sorrow we share. After the attack, US President Joe Biden said that law enforcement is investigating any possible connection between the New Orleans terror attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The vehicles used in both incidents were rented from a car rental site, Turo, prompting authorities to look for links between the two events. Were tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether theres any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans, Biden said. Biden assured that every resource is being utilised to ensure there is no threat to the American people. A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring seven, hours after the New Orleans attack, in which a car rammed into a crowd during New Years celebrations, killing at least 15 people. The FBI described the attack as an act of terrorism and revealed that the driver, Shamsud Din Jabbar, had an ISIS flag and multiple suspected explosive devices in his vehicle. The FBI also confirmed that the vehicle was rented from a car rental platform called Turo. Indias space programme has once again proven its ingenuity and determination with the launch of its first space docking mission. The Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) represents more than just a technological milestone ~ it underscores the nations aspirations to become a major player in the global space race. This achievement not only cements Indias position among elite nations like the United States, Russia, and China but also opens new doors for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth in the space sector. The development and testing of in-space docking technology signal a significant advancement in Indias capabilities. Space docking is a complex process requiring high precision, and mastering it is critical for missions that involve assembling large structures in orbit or servicing satellites. The technology will also play a pivotal role in the future operations of space stations and potential deep-space explorations. For a country committed to creating indigenous solutions for its ambitious space goals, this is a step in the right direction. This mission underscores Indias growing ability to combine innovation with sustainability, transforming challenges into opportunities. Repurposing space debris as a laboratory highlights a forward-thinking approach that benefits both science and the environment. The ingenuity of this mission is further demonstrated by ISROs decision to repurpose the fourth stage of the launch vehicle as an orbital laboratory. Advertisement Traditionally discarded as debris, this stage has now been transformed into a functional space platform, enabling research institutions, start-ups, and academia to test their technologies in space without requiring dedicated launches. This innovation not only addresses the growing challenge of space debris but also democratises access to space, making it more inclusive for smaller players. Such initiatives will be instrumental in fostering a vibrant ecosystem for space technology development in India. Furthermore, this mission represents a collaboration between Indias public and private sectors. The integration and testing of the satellites by a private company highlight the growing role of private enterprises in the countrys space endeavors. This shift is indicative of a broader trend where the Indian space industry is moving from being solely government-driven to a more collaborative model. Advertisement This approach will enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and attract investments, positioning India as a preferred partner for global space missions. The economic implications of this achievement cannot be overlooked. By demonstrating its ability to execute complex missions, India strengthens its position as a reliable and cost-effective launch partner for international clients. The development of docking technology could also pave the way for India to offer assembly and servicing solutions for global satellites, further boosting its space economy. As India continues to reach for the stars, SpaDeX is a reminder of the nations potential to innovate and lead. With this milestone, India not only showcases its technical prowess but also lays a solid foundation for future endeavors that will shape the global space landscape. The journey ahead is promising, filled with opportunities for collaboration, exploration, and groundbreaking discoveries. The recent discovery of a damaged power cable on the Baltic seabed, linked to a vessel from a shadow fleet, underscores an alarming trend of maritime sabotage targeting critical infrastructure. Alongside previous damage to data cables and pipelines in the region, this incident highlights the pressing need for collective action to protect Europes energy and communication lifelines. The Baltic Sea, a crucial hub for energy transmission and data flow, has increasingly become a focal point for hybrid warfare. The use of unregulated and poorly insured vessels to disrupt underwater infrastructure reflects a growing threat that blends traditional sabotage with geopolitical manoeuvring. These vessels, often part of fleets designed to evade sanctions, pose dual risks: environmental hazards due to their poor condition and their potential use as tools for covert operations. The anchor drag mark linked to a seized vessel illustrates a calculated attempt to interfere with key infrastructure. Such activities follow a troubling pattern of deliberate attacks on undersea systems, vital for energy transfer and digital connectivity. While investigations continue, it is evident that these incidents are not isolated but part of a broader strategy to exploit vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure. This evolving threat demands a robust and multifaceted response. The Baltic Sea, already under heightened tension due to geopolitical conflicts, now requires enhanced security measures. Natos commitment to increasing patrols is a vital step, but a long-term approach must focus on safe guarding underwater assets and deterring future sabotage attempts. As a newly inducted Nato member and a nation sharing a significant border with Russia, Finland finds itself at the forefront of these challenges. Advertisement The countrys swift investigation into the cable damage demonstrates its vigilance. However, Finlands efforts must be supported by a broader regional strategy that emphasises resilience against hybrid threats. Investing in advanced monitoring systems to detect anomalies, enhancing collaboration among Baltic nations, and strengthening international maritime regulations are critical. Furthermore, ensuring that vessels operating in European waters comply with rigorous safety and ownership standards will reduce the risks posed by shadow fleets. This is a defining moment for Europes maritime security. Protecting critical infrastructure demands a collective response that addresses both immediate threats and long-term vulnerabilities. Strengthening intelligence sharing, implementing stricter maritime controls, and investing in technological innovations are essential. The stakes are high. Energy grids, data networks, and environmental safety are interlinked in the Baltic Sea, and any disruption has wide-reaching consequences. Advertisement The recent sabotage attempts are a stark reminder of the need for unity and vigilance. By taking decisive and coordinated action, Europe can safeguard its critical infrastructure and ensure stability in a region that remains vital to its security and prosperity. The lessons learned from these incidents must drive a renewed commitment to resilience in an increasingly complex security landscape. Vikram Sampath on Indian History: Freedom Struggle Beyond Non-Violence VikramSampath, where he discusses the importance of history as a subject and emphasizes his belief that a historian should not act as a judge. He also sheds light on Indian freedom history, challenging the notion that it was a simplistic, linear, and entirely nonviolent movement. As the auspicious time of Amrita Kumbha approaches, the atmosphere is charged with a profound spiritual resonance, calling upon Hindu devotees to fulfil their sacred obligation by attending the grand festival at Allahabad. Monks, yogis and sadhus from different branches and distant lands converge at this holy site, embodying the essence of eternal journeys and renunciation. This gathering represents the pinnacle of asceticism, where the virtues of devotion and self-discipline culminate in a collective celebration of faith and spirituality. While it remains uncertain whether the concepts of Kumbha and Kafka are directly related, Kafkas profound insights resonate with the emergence of an age characterized by scepticism and the dubious generosity often associated with empire. This era casts doubt on our understanding, as a superficial culture ascends to prominence, shaping public perception and influencing minds. The interplay between these themes highlights a critical examination of knowledge in a world where appearances can be deceiving, prompting deeper reflection on the nature of truth and cultural influence. Advertisement Kumbha Mela, however, serves as a profound reminder that the Indian narrative transcends a mere transition from tradition to modernity; it embodies a harmonious coexistence of both realms, illustrating the concept of modernity of tradition that emphasizes deeper enlightenment. This grand festival not only impacts Indian society but also captivates the global audience, a means to inculcate soft power. Thus, over and above the clamour and clatter of crowd, the saintly voice and laconic verbalization of hymns create a mystic atmosphere often perceived as a miracle encapsulated in the phrase thy name is India. The event fosters an environment where devotional chants and meditation intertwine with a polemical worldview, showcasing how spiritual practices can thrive alongside contemporary societal dynamics. Advertisement Thus, Kumbha Mela stands as a testament to Indias rich cultural tapestry, reflecting its ability to integrate age-old traditions with modern sensibilities. In contemporary India, the hiatus between spiritual values and material pursuits is increasingly evident. As Indians navigate a post-secular society, it becomes crucial to remember that beneath every action lies an inner grace that can only be cultivated through unity with the divine. This perspective challenges the notion of a fully transformed society dominated by material hedonism, especially in light of historical disputes between Hinduism and Charvaka materialism. Entering the new millennium, we observe a modernity shaped by neoliberal policies that often neglect the needs of impoverished population. The prevailing attitude suggests that as welfare diminishes, marginalized groups turn to culture for guidance and self-restraint. This cultural engagement offers a satisfying aura amidst the stark realities of socio-economic despair, highlighting how spirituality can provide solace and direction in an increasingly materialistic world. Trapped in the monochrome realm of everyday necessities, humanity is reduced to mere existence, driven solely by the primal urge to sustain life. Weary of the mundane grind, men and women seek to transcend individual existence by merging with the vibrant tapestry of community life, thereby discovering inner joy through shared experience and emotional connections. We should remember that society and festivals are the two pillars of civilization. Festivals were probably born along with the formation of society. Thus, when humans become weary and melancholic due to the monotony of routine life, festivals bring a spark that infuses emotions and enthusiasm into the veins of society, revitalizing and rekindling it. Of course, a festival is not just meant for individual enjoyment, but for the community and the foundation of a festival is unity and liberation. Therefore, the importance of festivals in our social life is immense and profound indeed. Based on the two main categories of festivals (religious and secular), we can classify the Kumbha-Mela as a religious festival of Hindus. Now we may clarify the term Mela. The word Mela, originates from the Sanskrit Mel, which means to meet or to gather. The literal meaning of Mel is union or convergence. And Mela (fair/festival) is a larger convergence ground for human society. In that sense, we can also consider a fair as a festival, especially the great Kumbha Mela. The Kumbha-Mela to be held in January-February 2025, one of the most incredible and iconic Indian events, is around the corner, and will be a spectacular event. Now let us dive into the details of the KumbhaMela by focusing on its origin, Hindu mythological background and historical context. Kumbha Mela is a massive Hindu pilgrimage festival that takes place every 12 years in four different locations ~ Hardwar, Allahabad, Nasik and Ujjain. It is a celebration of spiritual awakening, self-reflection, and communal harmony. It has its roots in Hindu mythology, specifically in the story of Samudra Manthana, or the great churning of the Ocean. According to Amrit Manthan from Vishnu Purana, the gods and demons collaborated to churn the ocean to produce the nectar of immortality, Amrita. As the churning progressed, the divine nectar emerged and it was kept in a sacred pot (Kumbha). It symbolizes the origin of the Amrit Kumbh and its importance in the Mahakumbh festival that commemorates the event when drops of Amrita fell on the earth. Similarly, Bhagavata Purana (Skanda 8, chapter 7) contains a verse that tells us gods churned the Mandara mountain to agitate the ocean and retrieve the elixir of immortality and placed the divine Amrita in sacred vessels. It highlights the cosmic significance of Amrita and its connection to Kumbh. Another verse of Matsya Purana (47.220) tells us that a person who takes a holy dip during the auspicious Kumbh Parva is liberated from all sins and attains a divine abode (Swarga Loka). The Kumbha Mela is believed to have originated in the 7th Century CE, with the first recorded mention of the festival found in the accounts of the Chinese traveler Hieun Tsiang who said that Harsha, the king of northern India distributed to the monks and pilgrims at the Kumbha Mela held in AD 644 the entire wealth of his royal treasury. Now, lets turn to some of the rituals of the Kumbha Mela. The Kumbha is a celebration of spiritual growth, self-purification, and the pursuit of enlightenment. Some of the significant rituals and events during the Kumbha include: a) Shahi Snan (Royal Bath) ~ a grand procession of sadhus and devotees taking a holy dip in the sacred river; b) Ganga Arti ~ a spectacular ceremony where thousands of diyas (earthen lamps) are lit and offered to the Ganges river; c) Yoga and Meditation ~ Mass yoga and meditation sessions are organized, promoting spiritual growth and inner peace, and d) Cultural programmes that encapsulate traditional music, dance and theatre performances showcasing Indias rich cultural heritage. The Kumbha Mela is a massive event that requires extensive infrastructure to support the millions of pilgrims who have already started to pack their bags. The Union and state Indian governments, local municipal authorities, and many NGOs work together to facilitate accommodation (temporary camps and ashrams are set up to provide shelter for pilgrims), transportation (special transportation arrangements are made to facilitate the movement of pilgrims), Sanitation and hygiene (extensive sanitation and hygiene arrangements are provided) and medical facilities. The Kumbha Mela is a peaceful event, but the sheer scale of the gathering requires extensive security arrangements. The government and local authorities work together for security, crowd management and intelligence-gathering to identify threats. Drones are deployed to monitor the crowds. The Kumbha Mela is a complex event that poses humongous challenges. Besides, ensuring the security of pilgrims, preventing stampedes and other accidents is a major challenge. But it is noteworthy that despite these challenges, the Kumbha Mela offers a unique opportunity for spiritual growth, self-realization and communal harmony. The festival showcases Indias rich cultural heritage and promotes national integration and unity. The impact of the Kumbha is farreaching in terms of social, economic, and cultural aspects. If festivals of India become extinct, then the cultures associated with those festivals will also gradually disappear. Folk artists are able to express and sustain their existence through these fairs. In fact, such festivals and fairs can become a powerful panacea against the fast-spreading virus of separatism, communalism, and the scourge of terrorism. They give birth to unity through mutual understanding, tolerance, and exchange. Each of these fairs and festivals attract large numbers of people from various sections of society. As a result, they become ideal places for promoting health, environment, peace, and unity. But in this era of declining values, festivals and fairs are also undergoing distortion, often suddenly. While they promote social unity, their distortion can have counterproductive effects on society. Therefore, the onus lies on every sensible and responsible person in society to take an active interest in preventing the distortion of festivals for the benefit of society. In fine, it may be concluded that the role of festivals and fairs in society is undeniable. They play an effective role in protecting society, carrying cultural heritage from time to time, and uniting people. Thus, society and festivals have become inseparable entities. A society without festivals and fairs is a dead society, a society without a future. The writers are, respectively, Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, West Bengal and Associate Professor (Retd.), Chandernagore Govt. College.) JERUSALEM, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military announced on Thursday that it had killed Hussam Shahwan, identified as the head of Hamas' Internal Security in southern Gaza, in an overnight drone strike on a humanitarian zone. According to a military statement, the strike targeted Shahwan while he was in a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, where displaced Palestinians have sought shelter. Later on Thursday, a rocket was fired from the southern Gaza Strip toward Israeli communities near the enclave, the military said, noting the rocket was intercepted, and there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Fresh off his last months India visit, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Wednesday launched the Clean Sri Lanka national programme, which aims to create a morally and environmentally sustainable nation. As he inaugurated the Clean Sri Lanka programme at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, Dissanayake stated that 2025 marks the start of a new political culture in the island nation. Advertisement Our primary developmental goals include eradicating rural poverty, implementing the Clean Sri Lanka initiative, and building a digital economy. The Clean Sri Lanka initiative, launched alongside the New Year, aims to uplift society to greater heights through social, environmental, and ethical revival, he said. Advertisement Disanayake stated at the event attended by members of the Maha Sangha, religious leaders, ministers, ambassadors, athletes, representatives from various sectors, and government officials that the success of the Clean Sri Lanka initiative depends solely on the active participation of the public. Sri Lanka, he highlighted, faces grave challenges in spite of having been endowed with an exceptionally beautiful and vital environment and strategic geographic location. Restoring our environmental system must become a core focus of the Clean Sri Lanka programme. Our nation and its people need a new value system. We have mistakenly elevated incorrect values to positions of importance, embedding them as the fundamental ethos of our society. It is crucial to establish a new framework of values. The Clean Sri Lanka project, said the Lankan President, goes beyond merely cleaning up the environment. It is essential to heal our society and introduce a new system of values and principles. Under the Clean Sri Lanka Initiative, we aim to establish these new values and systems It aspires to restore the deeply eroded and deteriorated social and environmental fabric of our motherland. We aim to create cleanliness and rejuvenation across all sectors of society, Disanayake stated. The other two top priorities of the Lankan President include initiating economic reforms and embracing digital transformation. The first priority is to rescue our country and its people. Economic reforms are being formulated to ensure that economic benefits reach rural communities, as an economy concentrated in the hands of a small group can never bring stability to society. Such an imbalanced economy fosters instability for the nation and its people. Therefore, achieving economic stability requires extending economic benefits to rural populations, he said. The second goal, he said, is to embrace digital transformation. By establishing a foundation for digitalization, we seek to minimize inefficiency and corruption while enabling citizens to interact seamlessly and effectively with state mechanisms, remarked Dissanayake. Yemens Houthi group said on Wednesday that it has shot down a US-made MQ-9 drone over the central Yemeni province of Marib. The drone was shot down by a locally-made surface-to-air missile while carrying out hostile activities, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV. Advertisement It is the second MQ-9 drone shot down by the group within 72 hours, also the 14th of its type downed since November 2023, according to Sarea. Advertisement The Houthi television said footage of the downed drone would be broadcast in the next hours, Xinhua news agency reported. The US army has not yet commented on the Houthi claim. The drone downing came one day after the US Central Command claimed multiple precision strikes since Monday against Houthi targets in Yemens capital Sanaa and coastal regions, including a command and control facility, weapons production and storage facilities, and a coastal radar site. The Houthi group, which controls much of northern Yemen, has been launching rocket and drone attacks against Israel and disrupting Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023, to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid their ongoing conflict with Israelis. In response, the US-led navy coalition stationed in the area has regularly conducted air raids and strikes against Houthi targets to deter the group, prompting the Houthis to expand attacks to include US targets. In the last 2-3 years, banks in India saw strong double-digit growth in credit, well ahead of deposit growth. One big driver of that growth was a surge in retail lending. Areas like unsecured personal loans and credit cards saw strong traction, so much so that the Reserve Bank of India had to step in and tighten lending norms for retail loans back in November 2023. While that has had its desired effect, with credit growth slowing and aligning more closely to the deposit growth rate in recent quarters, the central bank still sees potential risks. On the face of it, banks' asset quality, even in the retail lending segment, has been good. According to RBI's latest Financial Stability Report (FSR), the gross NPA (non-performing assets) ratio in retail loans stood at 1.2 per cent as of September 2024; it was slightly higher at 1.7 per cent for unsecured lending. While things may seem fine, higher write-offs may perhaps hide the real picture, something the central bank is concerned about. "An area of concern is the sharp rise in write-offs, especially among private sector banks, which could be partly masking worsening asset quality in this segment and dilution in underwriting standards," it said. Small finance banks (SFBs) are seeing larger impairment in their retail lending portfolio, with a GNPA at 2.7 per cent and unsecured loans at a higher GNPA of 4.7 per cent. Credit card receivables, too, have seen a marginal uptick across bank groups, which recorded the highest credit growth within the personal loans segment, and may require careful monitoring, the RBI noted. According to credit ratings agency ICRA, the gross fresh NPA generation for all banks is expected to marginally rise to 1.6 per cent in the current financial year ending March 2025, from 1.5 per cent in 2023-24. "With the retail sector facing increasing stress, the overall fresh slippages are expected to rise, and recoveries/ upgrades are likely to gradually taper," it said on Thursday. Importantly, the FSR has flagged a rise in household debt to GDP. India's household debt to GDP was at 42.9 per cent as of June 2024, which while relatively low compared with other emerging market economies, has gone up in the past three years, the RBI noted. "India is in the midst of a cyclical slowdown, and this evidence of household balance sheet stress chimes with weak income and K-shaped urban consumption demand," pointed out Nomura economist Aurodeep Nandi. According to his analysis, subprime borrowers are primarily taking on consumption loans, while those better-off are taking on leverage to buy assets, which suggests a K-shaped credit market. While the asset quality issues in the retail lending segment will have to be watched out for in the coming quarters, overall credit growth in this segment has come off sharply following RBI's steps to tighten risk management and underwriting standards and banks, in turn, reducing their exposure to unsecured retail and non-bank finance companies. Unsecured retail lending growth, for instance, declined to 15.6 per cent in September 2024, from 27 per cent in September 2021. ICRA estimates overall credit growth to be around 10.5-11.0 per cent in the current financial year ending March 2025, slower than its earlier expectation of 11.6-12.5 per cent. Archer-NG (Next Generation), the advanced Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is all set to take to skies very soon. According to leading aerospace and defence journalist Anantha Krishnan M, the high-speed taxi trials of Archer-NG have been completed. Designed for multiple roles, including intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, tracking, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), as well as precision strike missions, Archer-NG can reportedly carry a payload of over 300kg. Quoting military sources, Anantha Krishnan, in a tweet, said efforts are on to fly the UAV ahead of the Bengaluru Air Show, scheduled for February 10 to 14 at Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru. ALSO READ: Indian Navy set for historic milestone as three combat platforms will join fleet on January 15 "Else, before March Archer-NG will have its first flight," the source has been quoted as saying. Archer-NG, which is capable of operating at altitudes up to 30,000 feet, can carry various weapon systems, including smart anti-airfield weapons (SAAWs) and anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). According to the defence journalist, Archer-NG is expected to meet the specifications of the now-downgraded project TAPAS (earlier R-II). "It will be a weaponized UAV using the same avionics, software, Ground Control Station and Ground Data Terminal developed for TAPAS," he wrote. The Archer- NG said to be armed with laser guided rockets, bombs, and loitering munitions having a range of 100 km. Tri-Services Command (CINCAN) based out of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have shown interest in this new desi UAV, Anantha Krishnan wrote. SAO PAULO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Brazil assumed the rotating presidency of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on Wednesday, with an agenda focusing on strengthening Global South cooperation, the Brazilian government said in a statement. It will also focus on reforming international governance, and creating mechanisms to facilitate trade among its members. "The group is one of the key political and diplomatic forums for Global South countries, focusing on cooperation across various sectors," said the statement. Its key goals include developing payment systems to simplify trade and investment between members, promoting inclusive and responsible governance of artificial intelligence, and improving financing mechanisms to address climate change. The agenda also emphasizes collaborative projects among Global South countries, particularly in public health, and strengthening the institutional structure of BRICS. As the host nation until the end of this year, Brazil will also organize and oversee working group meetings, bringing together representatives from member countries to discuss and implement its priorities. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the powerful custodians of the renowned Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh, will now accept and honour recommendation letters for VIP Darshan issued by Telangana legislators, parliamentarians, and council members. This decision comes after Telangana politicians publicly highlighted the challenges faced by devotees from the state. On December 16, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy wrote to his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, N. Chandrababu Naidu, urging him to revert to the practice from the united Andhra Pradesh era when recommendation letters from the Telangana region were accepted for VIP Darshan. For the past decade, only key officials in the Andhra Pradesh government were authorised to issue such letters. Responding positively, Naidu wrote back to Reddy on December 30, confirming the policy change. From now on, any MLA, MLC, or MP from Telangana can issue up to two recommendation letters for VIP tickets each week. While this is a government-to-government decision, its political implications are under scanner as the TDP seeks to re-establish itself in Telangana. Political analysts see this as a goodwill gesture that could help the TDP regain traction in Telangana. The party currently has no MLAs or MPs in the state and has been inactive politically. However, it has initiated an aggressive membership drive in Telangana, enrolling around 90,000 new members from various districts in recent weeks. To strengthen its organisational structure, the TDP is planning to appoint a new state president with a strong face and former Hyderabad Mayor Teegala Krishna Reddy has emerged as a frontrunner. The party is also reaching out to former leaders and MLAs attempting to bring them back into the fold. Former actor and minister Babu Mohan has rejoined the party during the ongoing drive. The uptick in TDPs activity in Telangana has a clear purpose to prepare for the upcoming local body and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections to be held this year. Hyderabad was once a TDP stronghold and the party hopes to reclaim its influence in the city. The party feels that its success in Hyderabad will act as a gateway to expand its presence across Telangana. The TDP is banking on its historically strong organisational structure which remains sturdy in some pockets of the state. Fresh off its success in Andhra Pradesh, the party sees an opportunity to fill the void left by weakened regional parties like the BRS which performed poorly in the general elections and failed to secure even a single MP seat. While national parties like the Congress and BJP are gaining momentum, the TDP believes there is still room for a regional player to make a strong mark in state politics. Cross-border love stories are not new. Most of them begin and flourish on social media which doesnt have geographical barriers, but later get bogged down when the lovers try to cross the troubled physical borders of their nations. Badal Babu, a twenty-year-old tailor from Nagla Khatkari village of Uttar Pradesh, has been arrested by Pakistan police from Mandi Bahauddin town in Punjab province. During questioning, he failed to produce valid travel documents and was subsequently charged under Sections 13 and 14 of the Pakistan Foreigners Act, 1946. Badal was produced in a court which sent him to 14 days in jail. He is scheduled to appear in court again on January 10. According to Pakistani authorities, Badal confessed during interrogation that he had developed a romantic relationship with a woman from Mandi Bahauddin and, desperate to meet her in person, entered the country without a valid visa or travel documents. Badal reportedly met the woman on social media. Their online friendship blossomed into a romantic relationship, prompting Badal to take the dangerous step of crossing the heavily guarded India-Pakistan border, without a visa or passport, to meet her. His first two attempts failed, but on his third attempt, Badal successfully crossed into Pakistan and reached Mandi Bahauddin, where he reportedly met the woman he had been communicating with online. Pakistani authorities are now investigating whether Badal's illegal entry into the country was purely driven by his romantic relationship with the woman or if there were other motivations. Family in shock Badal was born in a family of daily-wagers at Nagla Khatkari in Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh. He has two brothers and one sister. His elder brother Rup Kishor told THE WEEK that Badal had left for Delhi during the Covid-19 lockdown to work as a tailor at a garments factory in Gandhi Nagar in Dharampura area. Badal used to visit home during festivals like Holi and Raksha Bandhan. Kishore said Badal last made a video call to the family on October 30 at 12.11 noon. His family had no knowledge about his online activities and plans to travel to Pakistan. Badals father, Kripal Singh, said he was a nice boy though he couldn't complete high school. His mother, Gayatri Devi, has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to step in to help bring his son back. According to reports, Badals villagers describe him as a reserved young man while his colleagues in Delhi described him as a diligent person. Aligarh SSP Sanjeev Suman said no official communication from Pakistan or the Indian Embassy had been received on Badals arrest. However, preliminary investigations reveal that Badal has made a video call to his family from a Pakistani number. Badals travel to Pakistan is the latest in a long list of cross-border love tales, including the stories of Pakistani nationals Seema Haider and Iqra Jiwani, who had entered India illegally for love. Indian nurse Nimisha Priya's death sentence was confirmed by Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national, just three days after the final instalment of pre-negotiation money was paid to the Yemeni lawyer acting as a negotiator. Priya is accused of murdering Yemeni citizen Talal Abdo Mahdi by allegedly injecting him with sedatives. Since April 2024, her mother has been staying in Yemen, hoping to convince Talal's family to forgive her. According to Advocate Subhash Chandran, who is representing Priya from India, $40,000 was demanded as pre-negotiation money to be distributed among Yemeni tribal leaders. "The initial installment of $20,000 was paid some time ago, but we received little feedback from Yemen, causing a delay in paying the second instalment," said the advocate. Both installments were transferred to the negotiator via India's diplomatic mission to Yemen. Chandran also noted that no part of the amount has reached Talal's family so far. Priya's journey to Yemen started in 2011 when she relocated to Sana'a to work as a nurse. In 2014, financial struggles compelled her husband and young daughter to return to India, and the ongoing civil war in Yemen kept the family apart. Priya stayed in Yemen and later collaborated with Talal to open a clinic, as required by local laws for foreign nationals. However, her life took a turn when Talal allegedly forged documents to falsely claim marriage to her, and Priya accused him of subjecting her to severe physical and emotional abuse, including torture and threats. She alleged that Talal confiscated her passport and extorted money from her clinic. In 2017, desperate to reclaim her passport and escape the abusive situation, Priya reportedly sought help from a local jail warden, who suggested sedating Talal to render him unconscious. Tragically, the sedative caused a fatal overdose, leading to Talals death and Priya's subsequent arrest and conviction. Also read Hope for Nimisha Priya? Iran offers help on humanitarian grounds for Kerala nurse on Yemen death row Priya was sentenced to capital punishment by a trial court in 2020, and Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023, leaving room for a possible reprieve through blood money. Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi reportedly approved Priya's death sentence on December 30. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated today that the ministry is aware of the sentencing of Nimisha Priya in Yemen and understands that Priya's family is exploring relevant options. He added, The government is extending all possible help in the matter. Advocate Subhash Chandran noted that the lack of bilateral ties between India and the Houthis complicates the situation, as there is no active Indian embassy in Yemen. However, an Iranian official extended support today, stating that Iran is willing to assist on humanitarian grounds. Subhash Chandran commented that Iran's involvement could play a significant role in saving Nimisha Priya. For now, paying the blood money demanded by Talals family remains the only viable option to save her. The family will determine the amount, said the advocate, expressing hope that Nimisha Priya can still be saved. The Supreme Court rapped the Punjab government on Thursday and said the state doesnt wish to solve the impasse. Noting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewals life is precious, the apex court said it never intended to break his indefinite hunger strike, but only wanted to ensure medical aid for the ageing farmer considering his health condition. Hearing a contempt plea against the Punjab government over not ensuring medical assistance for Dallewal, the bench noted that Punjab government officials are deliberately attempting to misrepresent in the media that the Supreme Court is pressuring Dallewal to give up his fast. "There is a deliberate attempt in the media by your state government officers to give an impression that the Court is pressuring Dallewal to break the fast. Our directions were not to break his fast. We just said let his health be taken care of and then his fast can go on, Bar and Bench reported quoting the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan. The bench noted that their concern is about the health of the ailing farmer and that Dallewals life is precious as a farm leader. He is not aligned to any political ideologies, he is only taking the farmers' cause, the bench said. The bench observed few farmer leaders are making irresponsible statements and their bonafides for Dallewal should be looked into. Coming down heavily on the state government, the bench said, Your attitude is that there should be no conciliation, that is the problem. There are people making irresponsible statements and we know the intentions. The Supreme Court will next hear the case on Monday and directed the Punjab chief secretary to file a compliance report in the case. Farmer leader Dallewal, a cancer patient, has been on hunger strike since November at the Khanouri border urging the Centre to fulfil farmers demands. Farmers have been protesting seeking legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price for crops and various other demands. During a previous hearing, the Punjab government informed the apex court that Dallewal was ready to accept treatment if the Centre invited farmer leaders for talks. On Wednesday, a few officials from the Punjab government met Dallewal and persuaded him to take medical aid. The officials also held talks with the farmer leaders. An Iranian official has offered assistance to Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya who is on death row in Yemen. "We are willing to do whatever we can on humanitarian ground," ANI quoted a senior Iranian official as saying. Although the nurse, who has been convicted of murder, was arrested outside the territory controlled by Tehran-backed Houthis, the Iranian official said they will do everything to free her. This comes after the central government said it is extending all possible help to explore relevant options. Nimisha Priya was found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen, Talal Abdo Mahdi, and has been in jail since 2017. She and her husband, Tomy Thomas, wanted to open their own clinic so they partnered with Mahdi as Yemeni laws required a local partner. However, Mahdi withheld the clinic's earnings and forged documents to claim that Nimisha Priya was his wife. He also confiscated her travel documents and did not allow her to leave the country amid the civil war. In 2017, Nimisha Priya and another nurse, Hannan, tried to sedate Mahdi to get her documents back. But Mahdi died of overdose. Following this, they dismembered his body and hid it in a water tank. Following this, they were arrested. Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death by a trial court in 2020. The verdict was upheld by the country's Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023 and the capital punishment was approved by Yemen President Rashad al-Alimi. The nurse's mother Prema Kumari has been staying in Yemen capital Sanaa to negotiate the blood money with the victim's family. However, the negotiations have reached a dead end in September. The shifting of 377 tons of hazardous waste from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal began on Wednesday, four decades after the Bhopal gas tragedy that killed over 15,000 people. The move comes almost a month after the Madhya Pradesh High Court set a four-week deadline for the authorities to dispose of the toxic waste. The toxic waste filled in 12 specialised container trucks was moved to the Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district, 250 km away from Bhopal. The government's plan to dispose of the waste in Pithampur has irked the activists and residents who have filed a petition in the High Court seeking a stay in the disposal of the waste. The work to move the waste from the factory began on Sunday afternoon when the waste stored in bags inside the factory was packed into jumbo HDPE (high-density polyethylene) non-reactive bags to ensure no chemical reactions during transportation. By Tuesday night, the waste was loaded into containers by 50 labourers who were clad in full PPE. #WATCH | Madhya Pradesh: The toxic waste from Bhopal's Union Carbide Factory is being taken away in containers to Pithampur, to be discarded. pic.twitter.com/7yB8CCWdxC ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2025 #MadhyaPradesh: 40 years after Bhopal gas tragedy, toxic waste lifted from Union Carbide factory for safe disposal.#BhopalGasTragedy pic.twitter.com/F7sCgT17H8 All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 2, 2025 The waste included remnants of Sevin, a pesticide produced at the Union Carbide factory, methyl isocyanate (MIC), the gas that caused thousands of deaths during the disaster, reactor residues, contaminated soil and other chemicals used at the plant. While there are 162 metric tonnes of soil, the Sevin and naphthol residues amount to 92 metric tonnes. There is 54 metric tonnes of semi-processed pesticides and 29 metric tonnes of reactor waste. The labourers were rotated on 30-minute shifts. The labourers were subjected to health checks immediately after they removed their PPE kits. The workers also had access to a temporary medical facility, rest areas, and bathing facilities. The toxic waste is being shifted in 12 sealed container trucks to the Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district, 250 km away from Bhopal. The trucks will embark on a seven-hour journey along the green corridor created for the vehicles. Each truck, with two drivers each, has to move at a speed of 40-50 km per hour, halting briefly at designated points. The trucks will have police escorts, ambulances, fire brigades, and a quick response team accompanying the convoy. The incineration of the waste will happen at the Pithampur unit over a period of 180 days. The moving of the waste from the factory to the unit in the containers will take 20 days. The waste will then be shifted to a blending shed where it will be mixed with regents and then packed into small bags weighing 3-9 kg. The final process of incineration will happen on the 76th day after every government department involved in the incineration gives the nod. This is to ensure the SOP is followed and the disposal does not pollute the air or the soil. "If everything is found to be fine, the waste will be incinerated within three months. Otherwise, it might take up to nine months," Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department Director Swatantra Kumar Singh told PTI. The small portion of the waste will initially be burnt and the residue examined to find whether any harmful elements are left, Singh said. "The smoke from the incinerator will pass through special four-layer filters so that the surrounding air is not polluted," he added. After confirming that there are no traces of toxic elements, the ash will be covered by a two-layer membrane and buried to ensure it does not come in contact with soil and water in any way. The process will happen under the supervision of the Central Pollution Control Board and the State Pollution Control Board officials. The Karnataka cabinet, on Thursday, approved a 15 per cent hike in the bus fare across all four state-run road transport corporations (RTCs). The revised fare will come into effect from January 5. The move has been opposed by the Opposition parties which blamed the guarantee schemes, particularly, the free bus scheme for women for the "sorry state of finances" in the state. Law minister and Parliament Affairs minister H.K. Patil, during a media briefing, said that the bus fares were last revised in 2015 and the current hike was necessary owing to the rising operational costs. The diesel expenses of the corporations which was Rs 9.14 crore per day in 2015 have increased to Rs 13.21 crore now. Meanwhile, salary expenditure has increased from Rs 12.85 crore to Rs 18.36 crore in the last five years. The overall increase in operational costs is Rs 9.56 crore, said Patil. The hike would help the four RTCs Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), North West Road Transport Corporation (NWRTC) Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) mop up an additional monthly revenue of Rs 74.85 crore. The government is raising a loan of Rs 2,000 crore from financial bodies to clear pending salary arrears, PF and DA allowances, informed Patil. The RTU unions had announced an indefinite strike from December 31, 2024, demanding that the government clear all the pending dues. However, the strike was called off following an assurance from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The BJP slammed the Congress government for burdening the common man by hiking the bus fare and alleged the ruling Congress had failed to fund its free bus scheme for women (Shakti) and was now taxing the bus passengers. BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra said, The CM has failed to fund the Shakti scheme and has led the RTCs to suffer huge losses. You have guaranteed free bus travel for women and burdened the men with a fare hike. The decision is unscientific and anti-people. Defending the move, Patil said, The government has allocated Rs 5,015 crore for Shakti scheme for the current financial year and accordingly Rs 417 crore was paid to the corporations each month, said Patil. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy defended the fare hike stating that the RTC unions had been demanding for a fare revision since the last six months. The BMTC had last revised the bus fare in 2014 when diesel cost was Rs 30. The other three RTCs were last revised in 2020. The diesel cost was Rs 60 and now it is Rs 90. Even the salary expenditure has increased over the years and today we have an additional burden of Rs 10 crore per day, said Reddy. The Karnataka High Court issued notice to the state government on a plea to reserve 33 per cent posts for women lawyers in the upcoming elections to the Advocates Association of Bengaluru (AAB). The writ petition was filed by Bengaluru-based advocate Deeksha N Amruthesh seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in the upcoming general body elections to the AAB. The general body (office bearers) of AAB, whose term ended on December 19, 2024, was elected in 2021 and comprises a president, general secretary and treasurer, along with 29 Governing Council (seven from High Court unit, 12 from City Civil Court unit, five from Magistrate Court unit, and five from Mayo Hall unit. ALSO READ: After SC rap, Karnataka HC judge expresses regret over Pakistan remarks Senior counsel Lakshmy Iyengar appeared for the petitioners argued the the writ relies upon the various Supreme Court judgements Supreme Court Bar Council vs BD Kaushik case and the Fozia Rahman vs Bar Council of Delhi and the Delhi High Court Bar Association elections and was in sync with the matters pending before the Supreme Court with regard to the reservation for women in Bar Associations and Bar Council. The petitioner also claimed that not following the apex court order of reserving one-third of executive committee seats for women in the bar association infringed upon the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 15 and 19(1) (g) of the Indian Constitution. ALSO READ: 'Can't call any part of India Pakistan': CJI Chandrachud on Karnataka HC judge's remarks It may be recalled that on May 2, 2024, the apex court passed an order in the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) vs. B.D. Kaushik, directing reservation for women in the executive committee of bar associations - minimum of 1/3rd seats in the executive committee for women; minimum 1/3rd of senior executive members for women; at least one post of office bearer to be reserved for women by rotation; and the post of treasurer for women in the 2024-2025 elections of the SCBA. The petitioners also informed the court that, on December 23, 2024, they had made an appeal to the respondents to make the necessary changes to the bylaw and incorporate 33 per cent reservation for women for the elections scheduled in February this year. Despite these binding judicial pronouncements, the respondents have failed to take any steps to ensure gender-based reservations in the upcoming AAB elections scheduled for February 2025, thereby perpetuating systemic inequities and denying women advocates equitable representation in leadership roles. The Advocates' Association, Bengaluru, established over a century ago, has a storied history of representing the interests of the legal fraternity and contributing to social and legal reforms. However, the governing body of the Association has historically been dominated by male advocates, with minimal representation of women. The Honble Supreme Courts directives aim to address this gender disparity by institutionalizing reservations for women in Bar Association elections, ensuring inclusivity and diversity, said the petitioner. Vacation Judge Justice Suraj Govindraj adjourned the next hearing to January 6, while ordering the notices be issued to Karnataka State Bar Council and AAB. In his first press interaction as chief minister, Omar Abdullah addressed various pressing issues, including governance challenges, land concerns, media freedom, and the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood. He stressed the problems of the dual power structure between Raj Bhawan and the elected government and underscored the importance of fulfilling promises made to the people about restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. "To deliver fully on promises, restoring statehood is important, Abdullah said. Dual systems of power are not useful; authority must rest with a single person for systems to function efficiently. Restoration statehood Abdullah reiterated the importance of restoring Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, calling it essential for fulfilling public aspirations. "The Supreme Court has said it should happen as soon as possible; one year is enough. People voted with fervour, and now they deserve tangible results," he said. "The big responsibility now is to meet the peoples aspirations. Some commitments need changes in status, he said. But we are working on them. People voted in hope, and it is our duty to ensure they see results, Abdullah added. Governance and dual power structure Reflecting on the governance structure, Abdullah admitted the challenges of navigating the roles of the Raj Bhawan and the elected government. "It has been more than two months, and understanding how a Union Territory government acts is a new experience. We are trying to comprehend the responsibilities of the Raj Bhawan and the elected government," he said. He said the people should go wherever their grievances are redressed be it the Raj Bhawan or the elected government. I am nobody to say they shouldnt approach the Raj Bhawan, he said. On controversies like the appointment of the Advocate General (AG) and declaring Sheikh Abdullah's birthday a holiday, the CM said some of these issues are figments of imagination. Sheikh Abdullahs legacy is vast every time a farmer tills his land or a child goes to school, its part of his legacy, he said. Abdullah also expressed concern over the state of media freedom, asserting the need for a free and fair press. "My wish is to see a media free from pulls and pressures. This interaction itself is a step in that direction," he said. Development and land concerns On allegations of land being taken away for satellite colonies, Abdullah reassured the public that development would prioritise non-productive lands. "I understand people's concernsthis is the land that Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah gave to the people, he said. But, development cannot be stopped. We are focusing on non-productive lands like roads and railways. He said alternative sites will be explored if people of a particular area object. Abdullah added that an MLA had expressed willingness to allocate land in his constituency, reiterating the importance of public consent. Protests and local rights Responding to student protests and concerns over local jobs, Abdullah defended democratic rights while stressing the importance of protecting local resources. "Democracy allows protests. Students protested outside my house and I assured them wed address their issues within six months through a subcommittee and court interventions," he said. On local job reservations, he said they will fight to protect our land and jobs". "This fight is crucial for our identity and future, the chief minister said. Article 370 and PoK Responding to the BJP's claims that the abrogation of Article 370 had settled the Kashmir issue, Abdullah countered, "The BJP says the issue is settled, but what about PoK? Has that issue been settled?" Power shortages and load shedding Addressing power shortages, Abdullah outlined his governments strategy to improve energy management. "We hope that the power we generate in summer will be returned to us in winter. Our losses are huge, and we need to reduce them. Unscheduled power cuts are often due to maintenance and we are trying to fix them as soon as possible," he said. Fulfilling poll promises On fulfilling the governments manifesto, Abdullah said, "We have fulfilled resolutions on statehood, reversed the academic calendar, and enhanced public interaction. A report card will be shared after 100 days. Some promises, like statehood, require more time. Deputy Inspector General of Police Basavraj Teli has been appointed as head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that will probe the gruesome murder of Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district. Teli will lead a team of nine officers that will examine all possible angles of the murder, which has caused huge uproar in Maharashtra. Deshmukh was murdered on December 9 when he was kidnapped by a group of men who intercepted his vehicle in two black Scorpios. VIDEO | Maharashtras Beed Sarpanch Murder Case: ... Walmik Karad has surrendered. Police couldnt catch him. This is the truth. Maharashtras good officers should be appointed in SIT, which has been formed to investigate the case, says Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve. pic.twitter.com/JzKsZRg1T6 Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 2, 2025 It is alleged that the men involved in the killing of Deshmukh are close to Valmik Karad, a notorious strongman from Beed and a very close associate of Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde. Munde belongs to Ajit Pawar led NCP. Karad who was referred to as ''Aaka (the main controller)'' of the people involved in the killing by BJP legislator Suresh Dhas, also from Beed district. Valmik Karad surrendered to state CID in Pune a couple of days ago but he has not been charged in the case of murder of Deshmukh. He has been charged with sections related to extortion of money from a wind energy company. Dhas has been alleging that it is Karad who is the mastermind behind the murder. He also hinted that Munde had been protecting Karad all along and hence he also should be probed. Pawar, head of the NCP that is part of the government, has not said a word about the controversy so far. Meanwhile, opposition leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Thursday alleged police could carry out an encounter of Karad in order to protect his higher bosses. Wadettiwar did not name anyone but he clearly had his radar fixed on Munde. The demand for Munde's resignation has been growing. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare on Thursday demanded that Munde should come clean and resign on his own and cooperate with the probe team. Activist Anjali Damania has been camping in Beed to campaign against Karad and Munde. BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland official on Thursday called on people across the Taiwan Strait to make concerted efforts and forge ahead with determination to achieve national reunification and rejuvenation. Song Tao, head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks in a New Year message to Taiwan compatriots. He extended New Year wishes and sincere greetings to people in Taiwan, as conveyed in the message published in the first issue of the "Relations Across Taiwan Strait" magazine in 2025. In 2025, the mainland will thoroughly implement the Party's overall policy for resolving the Taiwan question in the new era, stick to the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and take resolute actions against "Taiwan independence," said Song. Efforts will be made to continue expanding exchanges and cooperation, promote integrated development across the Strait, and enhance understanding and identification, with the aim of jointly promoting the development of cross-Strait relations and advancing national reunification, he added. In 2024, the mainland expanded exchanges with the island and successfully brought the people across the Strait closer. Compatriots across the Strait demonstrated through actions that they are naturally close to each other historically, culturally and by blood, forming a family that goes through thick and thin together, said Song. The mainland also enhanced the well-being of Taiwan compatriots, improved policies and measures to benefit them and Taiwan enterprises, and promoted integrated development across the Strait, he said. Effective efforts were made last year to deter separatists and external forces attempting to interfere, thereby maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait while safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Song said. The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the liberation of Taiwan from Japanese colonial rule and its return to the motherland. Highlighting the importance of the overall interests of the Chinese nation, Song called on compatriots across the Strait to take on historical responsibilities and join hands to work for national rejuvenation and the complete reunification of the country. Shravasti police have raided a madrassa where fake notes were being printed for at least a year. The mastermind behind the operation, madrassa manager Mubarak Ali, told police that he had learnt to print the fake currency on YouTube. Notes totalling Rs 35,400 were recovered from the madrassa in Hardutnagar Girant area, based on leads received from five people that police had arrested earlier. They were in possession of fake notes, pistols and ammunition. This has been an ongoing police investigation and the police have had little success in the past. In the operation on Wednesday evening, police recovered a printer, two laptops, four bottles of ink, a tablet that had three genuine notes fixed on them, five mobile phones and other paraphernalia used for printing fake currency. A countrymade firearm was also discovered. Superintendent of Police Ghanshyam Chaurasia said that the police were investigating how far the network was spread. This recovery from Shravasti is important as it is located just 12 kilometres from the Nepal border. Initial investigations have yielded that Ali has five wives who were using the fake currency in local markets. One of these wives is a teacher in the madrassa. Ali has also told the police that he would scan genuine currency and then print notes from those scans. A cursory search on YouTube does throw up ways to print fake currency. An internet search yields 14 easy steps to do the same. In June 2023, a gang from Shamli (western Uttar Pradesh) were caught with Rs 5.5 lakh of fake currency. The leader of the gang was a goldsmith who said that he had learnt how to print counterfeit currency from Farzi - an OTT series about fake currency. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, in 2018-19, 21,865 million pieces (mpcs) of fake currency notes were detected. It reached its peak at 91,110 mpcs in 2022-23, before slightly declining to 85,711 mpcs in 2023-24. Israel on Wednesday revealed that it was behind a commando raid on an Iranian missile manufacturing facility in Syria months before the rebels ouster Bashar al-Assad. Under Operation Deep Layer, Israeli Air Force's Shaldag unit entered the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (CERS) in Masyaf on September 8. The commandos razed an underground facility used by Iran to manufacture missiles for Hezbollah. The site in Maysaf is located west of Hama, more than 200 kilometres north of Israel. IDF has launched airstrikes on the site several times in the past five years but they could not target the underground facility used by Iran, prompting them to raid it. On September 8, IAF commandos were dropped from helicopters, following which they entered the facility after killing a few guards at the entrance. They then recovered intelligence materials and planted explosives in the underground facility. The troops were able to exit the facility within an hour and the explosives were detonated remotely. Ahead of the raid, IDF ensured safety of the helicopters by targeting roads leading to the facility and killed at least 14 people and injuring 43. The strikes also served as a diversion to disguise the arrival of the helicopters. Reports said the US knew about the operation. The US had earlier alleged that CERS developed sarin gas for chemical attacks. The IDF last month captured the Syrian side of the buffer zone in Golan Heights, calling it a "defensive and temporary" step. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF's aim is to protect the country's border as the 1974 agreement with the Assad regime collapsed with his ouster. The buffer zone was agreed as per the Agreement on Disengagement between the two countries in 1974 following the Yom Kippur war. Bangladeshi Hindu monk and ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari was denied bail by Chattogram court on Thursday after a hearing that was held under tight security. Chinmoy Das was represented by a team of 11 lawyers led by Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee. After the verdict, Bhattacharjee told The Daily Star that they plan to appeal to the High Court for bail. However, the denial of bail came as no surprise to Chinmoy Das's lawyer Rabindra Ghosh, who earlier predicted that it was unlikely that the bail plea hearing would yield a positive verdict for the monk. "The monk will be detained as a symbol of oppression and fear," Ghosh told TMC leader Trinamool Congress state general secretary Kunal Ghosh on Tuesday. Ghosh, who returned to Kolkata from Dhaka, said he did not wish to go to Bangladesh as this could lead to not only his arrest but would also be detrimental to the prospects of the monk's case. Ghosh said he 'briefed' four lawyers from the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and six others from Chittagong court, where the case is being fought. However, he was apprehensive about the hearing. The Hindus in Bangladesh have been facing increased vulnerability amidst the ongoing political turmoil, he added. Chinmoy Das was arrested from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport area of Dhaka in connection with a sedition case filed in Chattogram on November 25. He faces charges of disrespecting the Bangladeshi national flag. However, Kolkata ISKCON has expressed concern and disappointment over the denial of bail. The organisation's vice president Radha Raman Das expressed his disappointment, stating that the world had hoped for his release as the new year began. "It's very sad news. We know that the entire world was keeping an eye on this. Everyone was expecting Chinmoy Prabhu will get freedom in the new year - but even after 42 days, his bail was rejected in a hearing today," Raman Das told ANI. He also urged the government of Bangladesh to ensure that Chinmoy Krishna Das get justice. At least 11 people were shot by unidentified suspects at a nightclub in New York City on Wednesday night. The incident took place at Amazura nightclub at 91-12-144th Place, which comes under the 103rd Precinct, in Queens. The shooting location is is close to the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station. MASS SHOOTING IN NYC: At least 13 victims shot at the Amazura Night Club located at 91-12 144th Pl, Jamaica, Queens. Massive crime scene set up. Unknown conditon of the victims. pic.twitter.com/HDXGhA3HJo Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 2, 2025 Two suspects in the shooting are still at large, according to the Citizen App. Police suspect a grey Infiniti Q50 with a New Jersey number plate was used by the shooters. The victims were transported to nearby hospitals, including the Long Island Jewish Hospital and Cohen's Medical Center. NYPD revealed that the injuries are not critical and all the victims are expected to survive. This comes less than a day after around 15 people were killed on Bourbon Street in New Orleans after a driver rammed a truck through the crowd. The FBI is investigating whether the driver, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was inspired by the Islamic State or 19 other affiliated groups linked to it. More details awaited Russian troops are reportedly advancing into Novovasylivka, a village located south of Pokrovsk in Ukraines Donetsk Oblast. This comes amid reports that Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups have already entered Pokrovsk. Kremlin's men launched assault operations in Novovasylivka simultaneously from the east and south from December 30, according to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence group Deep State. The infantry units are being supported by armoured vehicles and light artillery tanks. DeepState - A difficult situation has developed in Novovasylivka south of #Pokrovsk. In all corners of the village, in one house there may be ours, and in the neighboring ones there may be the enemy. The tactical situation is at the level of chaos. #War_in_Ukraine pic.twitter.com/LmRzQO2hSl #War_in_Ukraine #Facts #Opinions #Trends #Kharkiv (@HarZizn) January 2, 2025 "The situation is such that there are enemy forces in every corner of the village, but this is the same for Ukraines defence forces. If there are our forces in one house, the next one over might have enemy forces in it. The tactical situation is chaotic, but unfortunately, the enemys superiority in manpower can turn out to be a decisive factor," Deep State said in its analysis. Footage shows units of the Russian Tsentr Group Forces liberating Novolenovka (Donetsk People's Republic) in Krasnoarmeysk direction. The Russian army set up the Russian flag in the settlement. Now, they continue to crush Ukrainian militants and liberate more territories. pic.twitter.com/VDyoP1Jkx2 sonja van den ende (@SonjaEnde) December 30, 2024 The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed the intensive Russian attacks in these sectors. They reported a total of 125 combat engagements on January 1. "Over the past 24 hours, the enemy has fired more than 3,000 rounds at Ukrainian positions," Ukrainian sources said. Kremlin's men are also advancing towards Vovkove, Neskuchne, Novoyelyzavetivka, Solone, Vozdvyzhenka, and Kurakhove and its southern outskirts. Two days ago, the Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups have already entered Pokrovsk. The infantry has reached the highway from the Donetsk region to Dnipro, which is a strong blow for Ukrainian defence forces and humanitarian missions in Donbas. Mykola Dovbnya, a deputy of the Druzhkivka city council, termed it one of the toughest battles. Dovbnya said the Russians aimed to cut off the road from Pokrovsk to Dnipro there. "If the occupiers succeed in cutting off this road, we will have to deliver fuel, food, medicine, and other critically necessary items via alternative routes. In fact, many people still remain in the region, including in Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, and Sloviansk. However, people understand that if the situation worsens, they will need to leave immediately, and this will only be possible via the Kharkiv highway," he added. South Korean police on Thursday raided Jeju Air's office and the operator of Muan International Airport as part of the probe into the plane crash, involving the airline, killing 179 people onboard. Jeju Air, Boeing 7C2216, which departed the Thai capital of Bangkok for Muan in southwestern South Korea belly landed and overshot the regional airport's runway, exploding into flames after hitting an embankment. Meanwhile, the deputy transport minister for civil aviation, Joo Jong-wan, on Thursday said that the conversion of data from the cockpit voice recorder to audio files was completed. The data from the voice recorder is likely to provide the crucial information to what really happened during the land minutes of the flight. As part of the ongoing investigation, South Korean police have banned Jeju Air chief executive Kim E-bae from leaving the country, the Yonhan news agency reported. In a media briefing, director at the airline, Song Kyeong-hoon, said that the jeju Air was cooperating with the police. Joo also said that the ministry was still unable to provide clear details on Muan Airport's upgrade plans that had led to the addition of the structure to support the navigation system. Joo said the ministry is checking localizer equipment at airports throughout the country. Officials involving the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aircraft maker Boeing are conducting the probe. The aircraft's flight data recorder, which sustained some damage, is being taken to the United States for analysis in cooperation with the NTSB. "As there's great public concern about the same aircraft model involved in the accident, the transport ministry and relevant organisations must conduct a thorough inspection of operation, maintenance, education, and training," said South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok. The new government in Bangladesh is rewriting school textbooks, claiming it was Khaleda Zia's husband Ziaur Rahman and not Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who declared independence of the country in 1971. The textbooks also removed the Father of the Nation title bestowed on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The old textbooks distributed from 2010 stated that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had declared independence. It claimed that Mujibur sent a wireless message declaring independence before his arrest by the Pakistan army on March 16, 1971. However, the new textbooks that is being released for the 2025 academic year claims it was Khaleda Zia's husband Ziaur Rahman who declared Bangladesh independence on March 26, 1971, according to Daily Star. National Curriculum and Textbook Board chairman AKM Reazul Hassan said Ziaur made another declaration of independence on March 27 on behalf of Mujibur. Writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who was part of the team preparing the new textbooks, said there was no evidence about Mujibur sending wireless message regarding the declaration of independence. He said now the textbooks are free from exaggerated, imposed history. Those who revised the textbooks found that it wasnt fact-based information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message (declaring independence) while being arrested by the Pakistani army, and so they decided to remove it, he was quoted as saying. This is not the first time that the textbooks have been revised regarding the claim about who declared the Bangladesh independence. During Awami League administration from 1996 to 2001, the textbooks claimed that Mujib declared independence while during the reign of the Bangladesh National Party from 2001 to 2006, the textbooks mentioned Ziaur's name. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the Texas man suspected of ramming his truck into the crowd of New Year revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans killing 15 people, left a series of chilling videos wherein he described his plans to kill his family and join ISIS. The videos, which have not yet been verified, were made during nighttime while he was driving from his home in Texas to Louisiana, authorities believe. Jabbar, who was killed in a fire exchange with the police at the scene, says he had plans to gather his family for a "celebration" before killing them. However, he changed his plans. In the recordings, he also talked about having dreams about why he should be joining ISIS, CNN quoted unnamed officials. Jabbar had potential Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and an ISIS flag in the Ford F-150 Lightning truck he drove. The vehicle was rented from a car-sharing company. The US citizen who served in Afghanistan also spoke about his divorce. According to civil records, Jabbar was married twice, the first marriage ending in 2012. It is unclear when he married again, but a petition for a second divorce was initiated in 2021. In 2020, Jabbar's then-wife filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against him. New horrific video of the terrorist attack in New Orleans, look at how fast that SOB was going when he targeted people on the street pic.twitter.com/bYbGGSrxyr Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) January 1, 2025 Army service Jabbar served in the Army for more than a decade, from 2006 to 2015 as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist on active duty. It was during this stint that he was deployed to Afghanistan, between February 2009 and January 2010. After leaving active duty in January 2015, Jabbar served in the Army Reserve until July 2020. He is then said to have ventured into real estate, as evident from a 2020 YouTube video titled 'Personal Introduction' where he describes himself as a "professional real estate agent based in Houston." Jabbar describes himself in the video as a military veteran who "learned the importance of great service and taking everything seriously." "I've taken those skills and applied them to my career as a real estate agent, where I feel like what really sets me apart from other agents is my ability to be able to... be a fierce negotiator," he said. Records also show he took a range of real estate classes on topics such as contract law and finance between 2018 and 2021. Accomplices to the attack? While the attack is being investigated as both a terrorist act and a crime scene, police believe Jabbar was not "solely responsible" for the attack. FBI special agent in New Orleans field office Alethea Duncan told reporters that the agency was aggressively running down all of the leads to identify the possible subjects and associates. Mumbai, Jan 2 (PTI) The Maharashtra government on Thursday gave its nod for opening accounts for the disbursal of salaries and allowances of government employees at the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank, controlled by BJP leader Pravin Darekar. Darekar, chairman of the MDCC Bank, also known as Mumbai Bank, is a member of the state legislative council and considered to be close to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Fadnavis, an official release said. The government also allowed state-run public sector undertakings (PSUs) to use the MDCC Bank for making their deposits. Earlier, the cabinet had greenlighted a proposal to allot land in Mumbai to the bank for the construction of a training centre for the cooperative sector. The cabinet met for the first time in the new year on Thursday. During the meeting, a discussion also took place on the 'E-cabinet' proposal, on the lines of e-office. It contemplates that the drafts of proposals to be placed before the cabinet will be provided on tablets, so that the use of paper is curbed. Another decision taken at the meeting was to allocate a unique identification number to every infrastructure work in the state in order to avoid duplication of work and facilitate better coordination among various agencies. Kolkata, Jan 2 (PTI) Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd, a central public sector undertaking, on Thursday announced an equity funding in NapTapGo, a startup in the affordable hospitality segment, as part of its annual startup fund programme, the company said. The Rs 1 crore investment is aimed at "supporting the startup ecosystem and promoting innovation," a company statement said. No further details of the funding terms were divulged. NapTapGo is a startup that "aims to revolutionise the hospitality industry with its unique concept of affordable yet luxurious 'pod' hotels," the company added. Pod hotels are compact, capsule-like accommodations that offer affordable and efficient stays. "They typically feature basic amenities and are designed for short-stay travelers," the statement added. This concept is gaining popularity worldwide for its unique and space-saving design. The startup will be integrating AI and IoT into its facilities to "enhance hygiene, quality, and customer experience," the PSU said. As part of India's Startup India programme, Balmer Lawrie has partnered with IIM Lucknow EIC, a top-tier incubator, to provide startups with "incubation support, mentorship, and industry connections." "We firmly believe that investing in innovation and supporting emerging entrepreneurs will contribute significantly to nation building," Balmer Lawrie chairman and managing director Adhip Nath Palchaudhuri said. NapTapGo founder Nitin Malhotra said the investment is a testament to the government's commitment to fostering innovation in the tourism sector. On December 31, 2024, a series of events such as "drone shows," "Linquan Intangible Cultural Heritage Acrobatics," and "New Year's Eve Concert" dazzled at Luogang Park, with numerous citizens and tourists welcoming the New Year moment of 2025 together. At 10 p.m. that night, over the south side of the runway in Luogang Park, 1500 drones took off into the sky, shining brightly with themes like "astronauts" and "Happy New Year," lighting up the sky above the park and bringing a visual feast to the citizens and tourists. At the performance site, the drones combined technology and art perfectly, sending the New Year atmosphere to its climax. Each change in the formation of the drones performance elicited gasps of wonder from the audience. "The drone formation performance was so stunning; I watched it from start to finish without blinking an eye. The on-site activities were rich and colorful, and my daughter had a great time too," shared Ms. Guo, a resident of Hefei. She had seen the announcement for the Luogang Park New Year's Eve activities a few days ago and had planned early to bring her daughter to experience it firsthand. In fact, as early as that morning, the park was already filled with excitement and anticipation. At 9 a.m., the Luogang 2025 Shining New Year's Eve Winter Market was ready to go at Hangnan Square, with nearly 200 creative booths lined up featuring various specialty goods, including several "innovation and entrepreneurship market" stalls specifically set up for college students. Behind the warmth of New Year's Eve lies the silent dedication of countless guardians. Transportation, sanitation, medical care, emergency services... Staff and volunteers from all sectors worked overtime to ensure everyone could enjoy a romantic and safe New Year's Eve. Source: Hefei Evening News Chen Borui from Taiwan came to the Chinese mainland many years ago to advance his study at Peking University. Benefiting greatly from the mainland's policies, he's landed a job in a public institution where he realized his dream of becoming a doctor. New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Force Motors Ltd on Thursday said it has bagged an order for supply of 2,429 units of ambulances to Medical Health and Family Welfare Department, Uttar Pradesh. In a regulatory filing, the company said the order is for supply of 2,429 units of BSVI diesel ambulance to the department. The order is to be executed between December 2024 and March 2025, it said without disclosing the value of the order. IHCL inks 186-key resort under Gateway brand in MP's Gwalior Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) on Thursday announced the signing of a 186-key key brownfield resort in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, under the Gateway brand. "Gwalior is emerging as a key destination in central India. This signing reflects our strategy of expanding in key cultural and economic centres across the country. We are delighted to partner with Imperial Hospitality for this project," IHCL Executive Vice President - Real Estate and Development states, Suma Venkatesh said in a statement. With the addition of this hotel, IHCL will have 15 hotels in Madhya Pradesh, including six under development. Ramee Group opens 40-key Ramee Tarang Hotel in MP's Indore Ramee Group of Hotels on Thursday announced the opening of 40-key Ramee Tarang Hotel in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. "We are thrilled to announce the opening of Ramee Tarang Hotel Indore. With its world-class amenities, exquisite dining options, and impeccable service, we are confident that Ramee Tarang Hotel will become the preferred choice for culinary enthusiasts and both business and leisure travellers," Ramee Group Managing Director Rajit V Shetty said in a statement. New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Muted sales growth in FY24 notwithstanding, Black Box is poised for its next growth phase aided by a growing deal pipeline, revamped go-to-market strategy, and focus on data centres, according to a report by brokerage firm Ventura Securities. Black Box, an Essar Group company, is a digital infrastructure integrator. Its portfolio includes data centre solutions, advanced networking solutions, AI-powered analytics and IoT-enabled devices. "Despite muted sales growth in FY24, primarily due to delays in project execution and decision-making, Black Box is poised for next growth phase," it said, adding that the firm has revamped its strategy by focusing on the top 300 customers and exiting less profitable long-tail customers, as they do not contribute to margin growth. Black Box plans to concentrate on data centres, primarily in North America and India, Ventura said. Data centres constitute about 20 per cent of the company's revenues. With a customer base that includes major hyperscalers like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, which are expected to significantly invest in data centre buildouts, it said the contribution to revenues of Black Box from data centres is expected to grow to Rs 1,994 crore by FY27 at a CAGR of 15 per cent. "The anticipated data centre build-out in India over the coming years is substantial, with projections nearing 3,000 megawatts. The typical expenditure for building data centre capacity is estimated between 50 crore and 60 crore per megawatt, indicating significant investment potential," the report said. The company sees India as a hyper-growth market, where they are constructing a strategy to be a significant player, it added. Moreover, Black Box's experience in large-scale operations across North America is expected to give it a competitive advantage in the Indian market. The company intends to collaborate with its global clients who are looking to enter India, while also exploring potential partnerships with local businesses, it said. Black Box reported a 60 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 51.14 crore for the July-September quarter. Its revenue for the quarter under review declined 4.89 per cent to Rs 1,497.2 crore from Rs 1,574.3 crore in Q2 FY24. "We expect revenues to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent from Rs 6,281.6 crore in FY24 to Rs 7,996 crore by FY27. "The company has a strong (deal) pipeline of USD 2 billion, and plans to increase the conversion rate to 25 per cent from current 20 per cent," Ventura said. Black Box caters to five verticals -- banking, finance, healthcare, technology and industrial. It has a network of 75 delivery centres, of which 21 are in the US and 14 in India. Globally, the company has a workforce of over 4,000 across 35 countries. New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Optiemus Unmanned Systems, the drone arm of electronic manufacturing services group Optiemus Infracom, has partnered with German firm LS Spectrum Solutions to market, assemble, and distribute drone-based spectrum analyser solutions in India, according to a joint statement released on Thursday. The partnership will explore developing solutions to detect unauthorised cellular activity, such as illicit communications originating from prisons in India. The drone-based spectrum analysers will support seamless detection and analysis of spectrum usage, enabling improved management of communication frequencies in India, the statement said. "It's truly a milestone for us as through this MoU, we reinforce our commitment to contributing to India's growing technology landscape by introducing sophisticated drone-based spectrum solutions in the country. Through this partnership, we will be also looking at developing solutions to address the issue of unauthorised cellular activity, such as illicit communications originating from prisons in India," LS Spectrum Solutions, director, Prasad Kerkar said. The partnership has the potential to extend beyond drone-based solutions, delving into the market for managing, observing and defence of spectrum through various capabilities like spectrum surveillance, direction finding and geolocation, electronic support measures, signals intelligence, electronic countermeasures, etc, the statement said. "We look at this collaboration as a perfect opportunity to leverage our distribution and localisation capabilities to deliver quality solutions for the Indian defence, homeland security and aviation industry and forging global partnerships to take forward the Make-in-India story," Optiemus Infracom, Chairman, Ashok Gupta said in a statement. New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Following are the top business stories at 2120 hours: DEL27 BIZ-LD-STOCKS * Sensex rallies 1,436 pts to end at 2-week high on gains in financial, auto shares Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex rallied 1,436 points to close at a two-week high on Thursday on buying in financial, auto and IT shares, extending gains to the second day of the New Year. * DEL51 BIZ-LD RUPEE * Rupee falls 11 paise to close at record low of 85.75 against US dollar Mumbai: The rupee depreciated 11 paise to close at a record low of 85.75 against the US dollar on Thursday, as strong dollar demand from importers and foreign fund outflows dented investor sentiments. * DEL19 BIZ-GOYAL-EFTA * India-EFTA trade pact likely to be implemented before end of 2025: Goyal New Delhi: The implementation process of free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the four-nation European bloc EFTA is progressing fast and is expected to come into force before the end of this year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. * DEL8 BIZ-PMI-MANUFACTURING * India's manufacturing growth hits 12-month low in Dec amid softer rise in output, new orders New Delhi: India's manufacturing sector growth fell to a 12-month low in December, as new business orders and production expanded at softer rates, a monthly survey said on Thursday. DCM34 BIZ-STOCKS-WEALTH * Investors richer by Rs 8.52 lakh cr in two days of market rally New Delhi: Investors' wealth surged Rs 8.52 lakh crore in two days of market rally, with the benchmark Sensex climbing nearly 2 per cent on Thursday alone. * DEL36 BIZ-SEBI-ZEEL * Sebi to continue proceedings against ZEEL, issue fresh show cause notice New Delhi: Markets watchdog Sebi on Thursday said it will slap a fresh show cause notice on ZEEL founder chairman Subhash Chandra, and his son Punit Goenka as it vowed to continue the investigation into alleged violation of listing norms against the media baron and his company. DCM58 BIZ-SEBI-LD-KETAN PAREKH * Sebi bans Ketan Parekh, 2 others from securities markets in front-running matter New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday barred three individuals, including Ketan Parekh, from the securities markets with immediate effect for their alleged involvement in a front-running scheme which generated illegal gains of Rs 65.77 crore. DEL39 BIZ-GOLD-PRICE * Gold climbs Rs 330 to Rs 79,720 per 10 gm; silver rises Rs 130 New Delhi: Gold prices climbed Rs 330 to Rs 79,720 per 10 grams in the national capital on Thursday due to persistent buying by jewellers and retailers, according to the All India Sarafa Association. ** New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Claypond Capital, the family investment office of Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai, has roped in former Managing Director of Wipro-GE Healthcare Shravan Subramanyam to lead its medical technology platform, the firm said in a statement. Subramanyam is a physician from Madras Medical College with an MHA from Cornell University, with 20 years of experience in life sciences and medical devices companies including Roche and Novartis, across geographies. "The next decade holds a lot of promise for medical innovation and integration of various technologies, particularly digital solutions. I look forward to working closely with med-tech companies on behalf of Claypond, to scale up their presence in South Asia and overseas," Subramanyam said. He has also served as the president of NATHEALTH (Healthcare Federation of India) and co-chair of Medical Technology for FICCI and CII. "Healthcare delivery is changing profoundly in the post-Covid world, and medical technology has a big role to play in making healthcare accessible and affordable. Innovation will require long term capital and collaboration between industry and academia. We believe the platform approach will address the opportunity for India to participate in the growth of the med-tech sector across regions," Pai said. India's medical devices market was valued at Rs 1.2 lakh crore in 2023-24 and is projected to grow at an 11 per cent CAGR from the financial year 2024-32, the statement said. New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday accused the Delhi government of depriving farmers of benefits under central schemes and urged Chief Minister Atishi to keep political differences aside in matters of farmer welfare. In a letter to Atishi, Chouhan said the AAP government has failed to implement major central initiatives including the Integrated Horticulture Development Mission, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, and the Beej Gram programme. "I am writing this letter in sadness. You have never taken proper decisions in the interest of farmers. Your government has stopped implementation of farmers-friendly central schemes. Your government is not sympathetic towards farmers. Today, farmers in Delhi are upset and worried," Chouhan said in the letter dated January 1. Due to the non-implementation of multiple central schemes, Delhi's farmers are being denied crucial benefits ranging from seed distribution to infrastructure development, he said. The Union minister said the absence of the Integrated Horticulture Development Mission has prevented farmers from accessing benefits for nursery establishment, tissue culture facilities, planting material procurement, and post-harvest infrastructure. The non-implementation of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana has further impacted farmers' access to agricultural mechanization, precision irrigation, soil health initiatives, crop insurance, and the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, he added. Chouhan expressed concern over Delhi's failure to implement the Beej Gram programme, which offers benefits including seed distribution, testing facilities, laboratory infrastructure improvement, and assistance for seed certification agencies. According to Chouhan, Delhi farmers face additional burdens as agricultural equipment like tractors and harvesters are categorized as commercial vehicles, leading to higher purchase costs. Despite the AAP government's free electricity promises, farmers are being charged commercial rates for power, he said, adding that farmers along the Yamuna are struggling after their irrigation equipment's power connections were disconnected. "Your government has been in power for the last ten years, and it appears former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has betrayed farmers after making election promises," Chouhan said. The minister urged the Delhi government to implement central agricultural schemes immediately, stating that political competition should not hinder farmer welfare. "Farmer welfare is the duty of the government, regardless of party affiliations," he added. The Delhi government's response is awaited. Bengaluru, Jan 2 (PTI) The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday decided to increase the borrowing limit of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) from financial institutions from Rs 500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore. Briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said the decision was made because KIADB is acquiring 28,741 acres of land for the development of 24 industrial areas across the state. Patil added that developing these industrial areas would require at least Rs 32,380 crore, including Rs 26,505 crore for land acquisition. The cabinet also decided to bifurcate the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation and create a separate urban local body to govern Dharwad city. Hubballi-Dharwad Mahanagara Palike currently exists. Dharwad is known as Karnataka's cultural centre, the Karmabhoomi of four Jnanpith award winnersD R Bendre, V K Gokak, Girish Karnad, and it is also called Vidya Kashi. Today, the cabinet decided to create a separate Mahanagara Palike for Dharwad, Patil said. "It will be done immediately, following the necessary technicalities and legal procedures," he added. The cabinet also granted administrative approval to strengthen the existing 14 Goshalas, Patil said. We are not cancelling the new Goshalas, but we are allocating Rs 10.5 crore for strengthening the 14 existing ones, he added. According to Patil, work had begun on 35 new Goshalas, of which 14 have been completed. The government is focusing on strengthening these existing ones. The cabinet also decided to cancel the third phase of the white topping of roads within Bengaluru's municipal limits, Patil said. Contracts were awarded, but the project was cancelled because work could not commence, leading to the cancellation of the tenders, the minister added. He further noted that the total cost for white topping 92 roads covering 119 km was estimated at Rs 1,172 crore. Gurugram, Jan 2 (PTI) Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Thursday held a pre-budget consultation meeting with representatives from the industry and manufacturing sector. According to an official statement, during the meeting, the Chief Minister reiterated the state's commitment to an inclusive approach toward prosperity and progress, highlighting the role of industrial institutions in Haryana's economic development. He said that the state will certainly play a pivotal role to realize Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of transforming India into a developed nation by 2047. He said that the budget would not only address immediate needs but also focus on achieving long-term objectives. Describing the budget as a reflection of collective aspirations and priorities, the Chief Minister further stressed the importance of engaging with all sections of society to ensure positive steps are taken to meet the needs and aspirations of every citizen of Haryana. He said that priority will be given to every suggestion shared by the stakeholders for strengthening rural economy, promoting industrial investment, empowering youth through skill development and social welfare, proper representation in the upcoming budget.. He also assured to consider the suggestions put forward by the representatives regarding improving health services, public transport in industrial areas, and necessary reforms in industrial policy. During the meeting, Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rajesh Khullar, shared that the Chief Minister, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister, has introduced a new initiative allowing citizens to submit budget suggestions online. Through the portal https://bamsharyana.nic.in, suggestions can be submitted across various sectors and sub-sectors. Dhaka, Jan 2 (PTI) A court in Bangladesh on Thursday denied bail to a Hindu priest and a former ISKCON leader in a sedition case. Chinmoy Krishna Das was not brought to court for the hearing and appeared virtually. Das, formerly with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), was arrested at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on November 25. At the hearing, the state objected to the bail, saying that it was a sedition case and the highest punishment was life in prison, Nazim Uddin Chowdhury, president of the Chattogram District Bar Association, was quoted as saying by BDNews24.com. Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Saiful Islam rejected the bail plea after hearing arguments from both sides for around 30 minutes, Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan told The Daily Star. Das' lawyer, Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee, said they plan to appeal to the High Court for bail, it added. Now a spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote organisation, Das' bail was rejected on November 26 by Chattogram's 6th Metropolitan Magistrate Kazi Shariful Islam in the sedition case. He was sent to jail. The decision angered members of the Hindu community, who staged a protest around the prison van outside the court leading to violent clashes during which a lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was killed. There have been a series of attacks on Hindu community members and their places of worship after the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus came to power after deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country on August 5 following a student-led protest. Deir al-Balah, Jan 2 (AP) Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike has killed 10 people in the Gaza Strip, including three children and two high-ranking officers in the Hamas-run police force. The strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter. It killed three children, three women and four men, according to the Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Among the dead were Maj Gen Mahmoud Salah, general director of the Gaza police, and his deputy, Brig Gen Hossam Shahwan, according to hospital records. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The Hamas-run government in Gaza included tens of thousands of police who maintained a high level of public order before the outbreak of the war. The police have largely vanished from the streets in many areas after being targeted by Israel, contributing to the breakdown of law and order that has hindered the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid. But residents say plainclothes Hamas security men still patrol much of the territory, and the group has faced no significant internal challenge nearly 15 months into the devastating war sparked by its Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 that day. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials, who say women and children make up more than half the fatalities. The officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally. (AP) NSA NSA BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a New Year gathering in its auditorium in Beijing on the morning of Dec. 31, 2024. Party and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Han Zheng attended the gathering to ring in the year 2025. Also present at the gathering were leading officials of China's non-Communist parties' central committees and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), representatives of personages without party affiliation, leading officials of central Party and state departments, and individuals from various ethnic groups and all walks of life in Beijing. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered an important speech. He stressed that on the journey of Chinese modernization, we will not only enjoy clear skies and gentle breezes, but also encounter high winds, heavy rains, and even dangerous storms. We must maintain strategic resolve, pool the powerful collective force of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation striving in unity to brave winds and waves, and advance the great cause of building a strong country and realizing the national rejuvenation. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, Xi extended New Year greetings to the non-CPC political parties, the ACFIC and personages without party affiliation, to the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, to compatriots in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese, and to friends from all over the world who have shown understanding and support for China's modernization drive. Xi pointed out that 2024 was a crucial year for achieving the objectives and tasks laid down in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). Over the past year, in the face of challenges posed by evolving dynamics at home and abroad, we responded calmly with a full range of steps to successfully accomplish the main targets and tasks of economic and social development for the year, and took new solid strides in advancing Chinese modernization. Our development in the past year has been extraordinary, and the achievements are encouraging. They have strengthened our resolve and confidence in advancing Chinese modernization. Xi stressed that over the past year, the CPPCC has earnestly implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee, performed its duties closely in line with the central tasks, strengthened self-improvement, and made new contributions to the development of the cause of the Party and the country. Xi pointed out that 2025 will see the conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan. We shall adhere to the general principle of pursuing progress while maintaining stability, fully and faithfully implement the new development philosophy on all fronts, accelerate the building of a new development paradigm, firmly promote high-quality development, further deepen reform comprehensively, and expand high-standard opening up. We shall better ensure both development and security, implement more proactive and impactful macro policies, promote sustained economic recovery and improvement, continuously improve people's livelihood, maintain social harmony and stability, fulfill the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan with high quality, and lay a solid foundation for getting the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) off to a good start, he said. Xi emphasized that the CPPCC must ensure the integration of Party leadership, the united front and consultative democracy. He urged that the CPPCC should focus on central tasks while serving the country's overall development, and fully leverage its role as a specialized consultative body. It should also strengthen ideological and political guidance, actively offer suggestions and proposals, garner broader public support, build consensus, draw on collective wisdom and pool strengths. Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC, presided over the gathering. He pointed out that it is imperative to earnestly study and implement the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi's important speech, unswervingly uphold the Party's overall leadership, have a good command of the nature of the CPPCC, focus on the central tasks, serve the country's overall development, and build the CPPCC's capacity for performing its duties in the spirit of reform and innovation. He also called for efforts to strive in unity with greater confidence, pool collective wisdom and strength for achieving China's economic and social development goals and tasks in 2025 in an all-round manner, and work tirelessly to build China into a strong country and advance national rejuvenation on all fronts through Chinese modernization. Hao Mingjin, chairman of the Central Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association, delivered a speech on behalf of the central committees of all non-CPC political parties, the ACFIC and personages without party affiliation. He expressed their commitment to rallying more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, working together with unity and dedication, and unwaveringly striving toward the great goals of building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation. At the gathering, Xi and other leaders met with representatives from various sectors, shaking hands and exchanging warm greetings. Members of the CPPCC National Committee and literary and art workers presented wonderful performances. The gathering concluded with a collective singing of the song "Unity is Strength." The hall was filled with a joyous and harmonious festive atmosphere. Among those attending the gathering were members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and members of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee who were in Beijing; some leaders from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the State Council; and leaders and former vice chairpersons of the CPPCC National Committee who were in Beijing. Lahore, Jan 2 (PTI) A 30-year-old Indian man crossed over illegally into Pakistan to meet a Facebook friend he wanted to marry, but instead found himself behind bars. And the woman told the local police she does not want to tie the knot. Badal Babu from the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh was arrested last week in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Pakistan's Punjab province (some 240 kms from Lahore) for illegal border crossing. Babu attempted to cross the border illegally to meet the Facebook friend with whom he wanted to marry. Police have recorded the statement of Babu's Facebook friend Sana Rani, 21, who said she wasn't interested in marrying him. "In her statement to police, Sana Rani says that Babu and she have been friends on Facebook for the last two-and-a-half years. But she is not interested in marrying him," a Punjab police officer, Nasir Shah, told PTI on Thursday. He said Babu illegally crossed the border and reached Sana Rani's Maung village in Mandi Bahauddin, where he was arrested by law enforcers. When asked whether Babu met Rani, the police officer said he couldn't confirm this. It is also not independently confirmed whether Rani gave a statement to the police refusing to marry Babu under pressure. However, a source told PTI that officials of an intelligence agency quizzed Rani and her other family members over her relationship with Babu. Upon his arrest, Babu narrated his "love story" to the police. Babu was detained under Pakistans Foreign Act sections 13 and 14 as he was travelling without any legal documents. Later, he was presented before a court, which placed him in judicial custody for 14 days. The next hearing is on January 10. This is not the first time someone from India has crossed into Pakistan to meet a love interest developed through social media. Previously, an Indian woman named Anju travelled to Pakistan to meet her lover. She converted to Islam and married a Pakistani man, Nasrullah. Last year, Seema Haider, a woman from Pakistan, befriended an Indian man through the PUBG game. She crossed into India via Nepal with her four children and later married him. Similarly, last year, 19-year-old Pakistani girl Iqra Jiwani developed a friendship with 25-year-old Indian national Mulayam Singh Yadav through an online game. Iqra and Mulayam later married in Nepal. Jerusalem, Jan 2 (AP) Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including three children and two high-ranking officers in the Hamas-run police force, according to Palestinian and hospital officials. One strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter. Another strike killed at least eight Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip. The dead were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital confirmed the toll. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes. The war was sparked by Hamas-led militants' October 7, 2023 attack into Israel. They killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 that day. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials, who say women and children make up more than half the fatalities. The officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally. Here's the latest: Israel says it targeted Hamas official in a strike that killed 9 others JERUSALEM The Israeli military says it targeted a senior member of Hamas' internal security apparatus in a strike in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian officials say killed nine other people, including three children. The strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter. The military said Hossam Shahwan, a senior officer in the Hamas-run police force in Gaza, was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamas' armed wing in attacks on Israeli forces. Maj Gen Mahmoud Salah, another senior police official, was also killed in the strike. The military says Hamas militants hide among civilians and blames the group for their deaths in the nearly 15-month war, which was ignited by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack into Israel. The Hamas-run government had a police force numbering in the tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war while also violently suppressing dissent. The police have largely vanished from the streets in many areas after being targeted by Israel, contributing to the breakdown of law and order that has hindered the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid. Syrian security forces search for militants who refuse to turn in their weapons DAMASCUS, Syria The forces together with armed vehicles were deployed in the city of Homs Thursday to look for the militants affiliated with ousted President Bashar Assad, state media reported. SANA, citing a military official, said that the new de facto authorities led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had set up centres in Syria's third-largest city for former soldiers and militants to hand over their weapons, similar to other parts of Syria. In early December, a lightning insurgency took out the decades-long rule of Assad in less than two weeks. HTS has since run much of war-torn Syria under the authority of its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa. Officials who were part of Assad's notorious web of intelligence and security apparatus have been arrested over the past few weeks. Israeli strike kills 8 Palestinian men in central Gaza Strip DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: An Israeli strike has killed at least eight Palestinian men in the central Gaza Strip. The dead were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital confirmed the toll. Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior officers in the Hamas-run police. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes. Israel has repeatedly targeted the police, contributing to a breakdown of law and order in the territory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid for its own purposes. Al Jazeera condemns Palestinian Authority's decision to bar it from operating in occupied West Bank DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Al Jazeera has condemned the Palestinian Authority's decision to bar it from operating in the occupied West Bank, saying the decision was in line with similar actions taken by Israel. In a statement Thursday, the Qatar-based broadcaster accused the Western-backed authority of seeking to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps. The Palestinian Authority, which cooperates with Israel on security matters, launched a rare crackdown on anti-Israel militants in the urban Jenin refugee camp last month. The authority has international support but is unpopular among many Palestinians, with critics portraying it as a subcontractor of the Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Authority announced the suspension of Al Jazeera's activities on Wednesday, accusing it of incitement and interfering in Palestinian internal affairs. The Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of being a mouthpiece of Hamas. Israeli strikes have killed or wounded several Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza, and Israel has accused some of them of being militants. Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera's West Bank headquarters last year, but the broadcaster has continued to operate in the territory. Al Jazeera denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage. Its 24-hour reporting from Gaza has focused on the deaths of Palestinian civilians. It has also broadcast Hamas and other militant videos in their entirety, showing attacks on Israeli forces and hostages speaking under duress. (AP) NPK NPK Colombo, Jan 2 (PTI) India will provide Sri Lankan Rupees 290 million to develop the Karainagar Boatyard in the Northern Province of the island nation, the Indian High Commission said here on Thursday. The project envisages rehabilitation of Karainagar Boatyard of the Cey-Nor Foundation Ltd, incorporated under the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and operating under the Ministry of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources. An MoU was signed and exchanged by High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha and the then High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Kshenuka Dhireni Senewiratne on December 16, the High Commission said in a release. The project will cover civil works and procurement, including installation of plant, machinery, equipment, material, services etc. Once fully operational, the rehabilitated boatyard will augment livelihood opportunities of local fishermen, create more job opportunities in the area, including through small establishments around the boatyard, and help enhance the supply of quality fisheries products, the release said. With a development cooperation portfolio with Sri Lanka of over USD 5 billion, India has people-centric development assistance initiatives in virtually all major sectors in Sri Lanka, the High Commission said. Notable past projects in the Northern Province include construction and renovation of over 41,000 houses; a state-of-the-art Cultural Centre at Jaffna as a reconciliation project; removal of wrecks and dredging at Kankensanthurai Port; and construction and repairs at numerous schools and hospitals across Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya. These projects also include restoration of Thiruketeeswaram Temple, and distribution of significant quantities of assistance to the agricultural community, as well as the fishing community including boats, nets, outboard motors, freezers, the release added. London, Jan 2 (PTI) The UK on Thursday unveiled tougher laws including travel restrictions and a ban on phone usage to clamp down on vile people smugglers behind organised immigration crime networks. The Home Office said new interim orders will allow immediate action to disrupt and deter suspected serious criminality in a "major upgrade" to the country's Serious Crime Prevention Orders. The changes form part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, with new powers mirroring those which are already used to disrupt other harmful criminality such as knife crime, slavery and trafficking. Dangerous criminal people-smugglers are profiting from undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. They cannot be allowed to get away with it, said UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Stronger international collaboration has already led to important arrests and action against dangerous gangs over the last few months. We will give law enforcement stronger powers they need to pursue and stop more of these vile gang networks, she said. Under the proposals, breaching an interim order could lead to up to five years in prison. Restrictions to be imposed under such orders will vary on a case-by-case basis and could include: travel restrictions on suspects; ban on laptop or mobile phone usage; ban on accessing social media networks, including via a third party; restrictions on whom someone can associate with; restrictions on devices and communications with certain individuals; and restrictions on their finances, helping to prevent criminal proceeds from going under the radar. The Home Office said that currently securing a Serious Crime Prevention Order imposed on suspects, including people smugglers, can be a complex and lengthy process, restricting the use of this powerful tool. Interim orders are intended to go further, speeding up the process for placing restrictions on people under investigation to prevent, deter and disrupt serious and organised crime, including people smuggling. The new interim orders will allow the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA), the police and other law enforcement agencies to apply directly to the High Court to impose immediate restrictions while a full order is considered. The Home Office said: This will strengthen the tools of law enforcement to disrupt these individuals who are operating in the UK, in some cases allowing investigations and prosecutions to continue whilst preventing further serious criminality from taking place. The new orders will form an important part of preventing organised immigration crime while complementing the UKs relentless pursuit of criminal gangs. It comes as the UK signed new agreements with Germany and Iraq to tackle people-smuggling gangs and enhanced cooperation with the Calais Group to clamp down on the problem of migrants illegally crossing the English Channel in dangerous small boats. Home Office provisional data for the New Year showed that 36,816 people arrived in Britain by such small boats in 2024, a quarter more than in 2023 (29,437). People from Afghanistan accounted for the single largest group of arrivals in the first nine months of 2024 at 17 per cent, Iranians were the second-largest group (13 per cent), followed by Vietnamese and Syrians (12 per cent). London, Jan 2 (PTI) Researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham have uncovered a huge expanse of quarry floor filled with hundreds of different dinosaur footprints. In a stunning find, the teams uncovered multiple enormous trackways dating back to the Middle Jurassic Period (around 166 million years ago). The trackways form part of a huge dinosaur highway and include footprints from the nine-metre ferocious predator Megalosaurus, and herbivorous dinosaurs up to twice that size. The excavation will be broadcast on BBC Twos Digging for Britain on January 8 and featured in a new public exhibition Breaking Ground at Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH). These footprints offer an extraordinary window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions, and the tropical environment they inhabited. The dig, carried out at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, uncovered five extensive trackways with evidence of more in the surrounding area. The longest continuous trackway measured more than 150 metres in length. Four of the trackways were made by gigantic, long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs called sauropods, most likely to be Cetiosaurus, an up to 18-metre-long cousin of the well-known Diplodocus. The fifth trackway was made by the carnivorous theropod dinosaur, Megalosaurus which had distinctive, large, three-toed feet with claws. One area of the site shows the carnivore and herbivore tracks crossing over, raising questions about whether and how the two were interacting. Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur worldwide to be scientifically named and described in 1824, and kick-started the last 200 years of dinosaur science. Dr Emma Nicholls, Vertebrate Palaeontologist at OUMNH, explained: Scientists have known about and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found. The footprints were buried under mud but came to light when quarry worker Gary Johnson felt unusual bumps as he was stripping the clay back with his vehicle, in order to expose the quarry floor. At this point, the experts were called in. Working closely with Dewars Farm and Duns Tew Quarry Manager Mark Stanway, and his staff, the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham co-led a team of more than 100 people on a week-long excavation in June 2024. Together, they painstakingly uncovered around 200 footprints and built detailed 3D models of the site using aerial drone photography documenting the footprints in unprecedented detail for future research. Professor Kirsty Edgar, Professor of Micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham, said: These footprints offer an extraordinary window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions, and the tropical environment they inhabited. Mark Stanway and his team at Smiths Bletchington provided an enormous amount of support from the initial discovery through to the full excavation. They were invaluable in providing both their extensive expertise in the local geology, and operating specialist equipment such as excavators and rock saws. The new trackways connect to discoveries made in the area in 1997, where previous limestone quarrying revealed more than 40 sets of footprints, with some trackways reaching up to 180 m in length. At the time, the site provided major new information on the types of dinosaurs present in the UK during the Middle Jurassic Period. The site was recognised as one of the most scientifically important dinosaur track sites in the world and subsequently designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. However, the original site is largely no longer accessible and, since the findings predated the use of digital cameras and drones, there is limited photographic evidence. The new trackways add to the significance of the area, and even though the discoveries are separated by just thirty years, modern techniques and technology mean the prints can be recorded much more comprehensively than ever before. Professor Richard Butler, Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham, said: There is much more that we can learn from this site, which is an important part of our national Earth heritage. Our 3D models will allow researchers to continue to study and make accessible this fascinating piece of our past for generations to come. During the new excavation, more than 20,000 images were created of the prints. These will provide a wealth of material for further study and education and could yield valuable insights into how these dinosaurs walked, including speeds, how large they were, and if and how they interacted. Dr Duncan Murdock, Earth Scientist at OUMNH, said: The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaurs feet squelched in and out. Along with other fossils like burrows, shells and plants we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment the dinosaurs walked through. The BBCs Digging for Britain team filmed the work as part of a new series due to be broadcast next week. Presented by Professor Alice Roberts, who is also the University of Birminghams Professor of Public Engagement in Science, the programme will be available on iPlayer from 7th January, and broadcast on BBC Two on 8th January 2025. The dig will also feature in the exhibition Breaking Ground at OUMNH, which tells the story of major developments in our understanding of the history of life and Earth. Visitors will be able to view the Megalosaurus fossils used in the first description of a dinosaur, see photographs and video footage from the dig site, and learn about the latest techniques used by palaeontologists to study dinosaurs. The excavation was funded by the Geologists Association, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and the University of Birmingham Alumni Fund. Honolulu, Jan 2 (AP) Emergency crews arrived to a chaotic and gruesome scene in a Honolulu neighbourhood after a large New Year's firework tipped over after being lit and ignited a fiery, shrapnel-studded blast that killed three people and injured more than 20 others, several of them critically. Two women died at the scene and a third woman died at a hospital, authorities said Wednesday as they implored people to abandon their New Year's tradition of setting off fireworks across the city. Officials promised tougher penalties for illegal fireworks. Hawaii Gov Josh Green graphically described the deaths in a news conference Wednesday to emphasize the potential danger of fireworks. We're talking about the worst possible, war-zone injuries that took their lives. Some of the more than 20 people taken to hospitals with severe burns and shrapnel wounds included children, said officials who had not yet publicly identified any victims including those killed. Police were investigating whether charges for the person who lit the firework near midnight were warranted, Honolulu Police Chief Arthur Logan said. The blast happened at a three-story home with a bottom-level carport. Piles of debris including bundles of blackened firework mortars could be seen in front of the house in Wednesday's daylight. The explosion broke windows across the street. It happened when a lit bundle of aerial, mortar-style fireworks called a cake tipped over or fell off a table and fired sideways into crates containing additional fireworks, which then exploded. The cake's rounds could be separated but had been lit as a bundle of 50, part of what officials said was tens of thousands of dollars' worth of fireworks at the home. Ambulance crews arrived but had to triage - separate and treat victims with the worst injuries first - several houses away because of parked cars and crowds on the streets, Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director Dr. Jim Ireland said. Some people nearby continued setting off fireworks even as blast victims were being taken to hospitals, officials said. The neighbourhood is near Honolulu's international airport and a joint US Air Force and Navy base and a little more than 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, which honours sailors who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into World War II. I've been in EMS over 30 years and this is probably one of the worst calls I've ever been on as far as the immense tragedy and amount of patients and severity of the injuries, Ireland said in an earlier news conference. A fourth person was killed in a different fireworks explosion elsewhere on Oahu, officials said. At least four other serious injuries occurred in unrelated fireworks accidents overnight. Social media posts overnight showed fireworks being set off across wide areas of Honolulu even though sparklers, fountains and aerial fireworks are illegal and a permit is required to set off firecrackers, according to the Honolulu Fire Department. We're angry, frustrated and deeply saddened at this unnecessary loss of life and suffering. It's a tragic way to start the new year, Mayor Rick Blangiardi said. No one should have to endure such pain due to a reckless and illegal activity. Green said he was looking into whether new penalties including a felony charge for possessing large fireworks are needed to curtail fireworks in Hawaii. (AP) NSA NSA Nagpur, Jan 2 (PTI) Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, had visited a 'shakha' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Maharashtra 85 years ago, the media wing of the Sangh said on Thursday. During his visit, Ambedkar said he viewed the RSS with a sense of affinity despite differences over certain issues. The Vidarbha prant of the Vishwa Samvad Kendra (VSK), the communication wing of the RSS, on Thursday issued a statement in which it gave this information. It said the RSS faced a number of challenges in its journey so far and many accusations were levelled against it, but it proved all these charges wrong and reaffirmed its identity as a social organisation, it said. The RSS was banned three times for various reasons, but it came out unscathed, it said. "There were accusations of RSS being anti-Dalit and misinformation was spread about Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and RSS. But now, a new document about Dr Ambedkar and RSS has emerged, which enlightens the relationship between Dr Ambedkar and RSS," it says. Dr Ambedkar had visited an RSS 'shakha' (local unit) at Karad in Satara district on January 2, 1940, where he also addressed the Sangh swayamsevaks (volunteers), it said. It said that in his address, Dr Ambedkar said, "Although there are differences over certain issues, I look at the Sangh with a sense of affinity." A report had been published on January 9, 1940 in "Kesari", a Marathi daily in Pune, about Dr Ambedkar's visit to the RSS shakha, the VSK said in its statement with a clipping of the news. In the write-up, the report gave the reference of a book titled 'Dr Ambedkar Aur Samajik Kranti Ki Yatra' written by RSS ideologue Dattopant Thengadi, which talked about the relationship between the RSS and Dr Ambedkar. At the beginning of the eighth chapter of the book, Thengadi says that Dr Ambedkar had full knowledge of the RSS. Its swayamsevaks were in regular contact with him and held discussions with them. "Dr Ambedkar also knew that RSS is a pan-India organisation uniting Hindus. He also knew that there was a difference between outfits loyal to Hindutva or those uniting Hindus and the RSS. There was doubt in his mind about the pace of RSS' growth. In this view, Dr Ambedkar and RSS need to be analysed," the VSK quoted the book as saying. The VSK statement also said that the allegation that the Sangh is only for Brahmins have been proven wrong today. It said Mahatma Gandhi had visited the RSS camp at Wardha in 1934, where he realised that there were volunteers of various castes and religions in the Sangh. "He experienced first-hand that no swayamsevak in the camp was interested in knowing his own caste or that of other swayamsevaks. There was only one feeling in everyone's mind - that we were all Hindus. That's why, the volunteers carried out their daily activity spontaneously," it said. "Gandhiji was very surprised to see this. The next day, he held a meeting with (RSS founder) Dr Hedgewar, where he congratulated the latter for the successful implementation of the programme to eradicate untouchability," it added. The VSK also said the allegations faced by the RSS that it did not honour the national flag and does not hoist the tricolour on August 15 and January 26 were not true. According to RSS communication wing, it was alleged that the Sangh swayamsevaks did not participate in the Indian freedom struggle. But when it was told that RSS founder Dr Hedgewar took part in the freedom struggle through 'Jungle Satyagraha' when he was an active worker of Indian National Congress, people and opponents believed, it added. Thane, Jan 2 (PTI) An undertrial prisoner has been found in possession of a mobile phone which he had hidden in his footwear inside the Thane Central Jail in Maharashtra, police said on Thursday. The matter came to light last week on December 30 when a jail sepoy was carrying out the inspection of barrack no. 3 of the new prison section where around 200 prisoners are lodged, an official from Thane Nagar police station said. He found one sandal of the prisoner, Hemant Parasmal Sethia (38), lying on the floor, while the other one was missing. After a search, the other sandal was found lying at some distance in the barrack but it was unusually heavy, the official said. On checking, the sepoy found a mobile phone with its screen broken concealed inside the footwear. The phone had certain markings, indicating it belonged to the prisoner, he said. A case was registered against the prisoner under relevant legal provisions and a probe was on to find out how he got the mobile phone into the barrack, the official said. The accused was lodged at the prison since September 30, 2023 after being arrested in a criminal case registered with the Kashimira police here, he said. Ahmedabad, Jan 2 (PTI) A Russian national was arrested by Gujarat police in connection with a 'digital arrest' case in which a man was duped of Rs 17 lakh, an official said on Thursday. Anatoly Mironov, a resident of Orenburg city in Russia, used to work as a "gatekeeper" for a gang run by a Chinese national and helped in transferring the proceeds of crime into various accounts and converting some of it into cryptocurrency, a release of Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell said. A "gatekeeper" is a middleman hired by international cyber criminals to keep a watch on bank account holders who are hired to receive proceeds of crime, and help in transferring those funds into the gang's bank accounts, explained Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) Hardik Makadia. "Since Mironov, who entered India on a tourist visa last year, was behind bars in a similar case of cheating in Maharashtra's Pune, the Cyber Crime Cell took his custody from a jail there through a production warrant and brought him here on Thursday," Makadia said. The probe began after a city-based businessman approached the Cyber Crime Cell in October claiming some persons posing as Customs and police officials had kept him under 'digital arrest' and extorted Rs 17 lakh. The victim was told by the fraudsters that a parcel in his name, having fake passports, ATM cards and drugs, had been seized by Customs, the release said. "The account into which the victim transferred Rs 17 lakh belonged to Mahefulalam Shah. An agent named Nadim Pathan, who was in touch with the gang, had convinced Shah to give his account on rent for this activity. After their arrest, we learnt about the role of Mironov," said Makadia. "After the victim transferred Rs 17 lakh in Shah's bank account, Miranov had called both of them to a hotel in Mumbai where the Russian national transferred the amount to other accounts, including cryptocurrency, as per the orders of his Chinese boss," said Makadia. At that time, some other bank account holders and their agents were also called to the hotel by Miranov for the same purpose, the ACP said. "Mironov acted like a gate-keeper who keeps an eye on agents as well as bank account holders. He then carries out transactions as directed by the gang leaders, who are sitting outside India," Makadia said. Mumbai, Jan 2 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Thursday discontinued the court monitoring of the probe in the 2015 murder of rationalist and author Govind Pansare, stating that it was no longer necessary. It, however, directed the sessions court in Kolhapur to expedite hearing in the case and conduct it on a daily basis. A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata decided to stop the monitoring of the probe, noting that the report submitted by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) indicates that the case has been probed from all angles. As per the probe agency's report, except the arrest of two absconding accused, nothing further remains to be investigated. It is thus clear that the only aspect remained to be investigated is tracing of the two absconding accused, the court said. "According to us, only for the purpose of arrest of the absconding accused, continuous monitoring of the further investigation by this court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is not necessary," the bench held. It stated that after the accused persons are arrested, the investigating agency can report it to the trial court. The court disposed of the plea filed by an accused against the high court's continued monitoring of the case. Govind Pansare and his wife Uma were shot in Kolhapur city on February 15, 2015, while on a morning walk. He succumbed to his injuries five days later. The investigation was initially conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), but later transferred to the ATS in 2022. The high court has been monitoring the probe in the case since 2016 with investigation agencies regularly submitting reports with respect to progress in the probe. On the point raised by the victim's family about delay in trial, the court noted that it has already commenced and as on December 16, 2024, the prosecution has examined 28 witnesses. The bench directed the trial court to expedite the hearing of the case and conduct it on a daily basis. PHNOM PENH, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has issued a notice, calling on the public to be extra vigilant over counterfeit U.S. dollar banknotes. Signed by Kith Sovannarith, director general of the NBC's Banking Supervision, on Tuesday and publicized on Thursday, the notice said counterfeit U.S. dollars have been circulating in Cambodia. The notice said to prevent the circulation of fake dollars and at the request of the U.S. Secret Service, the NBC allowed banks and financial institutions to confiscate any phony dollar bills from customers without compensation and send them to the U.S. Secret Service for a probe. Sovannarith said banks and financial institutions were required to report the identity of the customer who circulates counterfeit dollars to the NBC. "The public must be extra vigilant and scrutinize U.S. dollar banknotes thoroughly before accepting them," he said. Mumbai, Jan 2 (PTI) Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council Ambadas Danve on Thursday said the trial in the case of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh's murder should be conducted outside Beed district. Talking to reporters, Danve said that when Walmik Karad, a close associate of NCP minister Dhananjay Munde, was produced before a court in Beed after surrendering in an extortion case linked to the sarpanch's murder, the public prosecutor recused himself from the case. The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader sought to know the reason behind the prosecutor's recusal. The opposition has been demanding that Karad be booked for Deshmukh's murder. Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massajog village in Kej tehsil of Beed district, was abducted and brutally killed on December 9, allegedly for opposing an extortion bid by some persons who had demanded money from a windmill company. Karad surrendered before the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Pune in connection with the extortion case on Tuesday, 22 days after the sarpanch's murder, inviting sharp reaction from the opposition. "The trial of the Santosh Deshmukh murder case should be conducted outside Beed," Danve said. The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader also raised doubts over the 10-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the state government to probe Deshmukh's death. "Majority of the officers in the probe team are from Beed. The police personnel who refused to act against Karad are being included in the probe team, everything looks scripted," he claimed. Danve also demanded that the CID make Karad's call records public. The Maharashtra government on Wednesday formed the SIT for the probe into Deshmukh's murder. The SIT will be headed by CID's Deputy Inspector General Basavraj Teli, said an order issued by the state Home department. Earlier, the government had handed over the probe into the murder and related cases of extortion and an assault on a security guard to the CID. During the recently-held winter session of the Maharashtra legislature, the opposition alleged Karad was the "mastermind" of the murder, though he claimed that he was being accused falsely for political vendetta. Imphal, Jan 2 (PTI) A hand grenade was on Thursday found outside the house of Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, who went missing allegedly from the Leimakhong Military Station in November, triggering panic in the area, police said. The grenade was found near the gate of Singh's house at Loitang Khunou in Imphal West district, they said. Police later retrieved the grenade and defused it. A note was also found along with the grenade, stating that the Joint Action Committee formed in response to the man going missing must be disbanded and a new JAC should be constituted. It also said, "No contractors which sells the land can be part of the JAC." The JAC has been spearheading the protests that have been underway since the man went missing on November 25. Last week, CM N Biren Singh, who claimed that Singh had gone missing from the military station, said the case would be handed over to the CBI. Singh, a native of Assam's Cachar district, was a works supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES) in Leimakhong Military Station of the 57th Mountain Division, according to the Army. Police had earlier said that over 2,000 security personnel were deployed to search for Singh, who belongs to the Metei community. Amid protests over his disappearance, state Social Welfare Minister Heikham Dingo had said that all documents related to Singh were sent to the Prime Ministers Office as well as the offices of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah. Patna, Jan 2 (PTI) Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Thursday frowned upon questions being raised, in a section of the media, over his meeting with RJD president Lalu Prasad, hours before his swearing in. Khan expressed anguish while interacting with journalists here, after he was administered the oath of office by Patna High Court Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran. He was asked about his visit, Wednesday evening, to the residence of Prasad, shortly after the RJD president's son Tejashwi Yadav, who, incidentally, was also present at the swearing in ceremony, had called on him at the Raj Bhavan. "You tell me one thing. If you visit a place and you have old acquaintances, would you not like to meet them? Likewise, would I not like to spend some time with those whom I have known since 1975, once I am in their city? I wonder what is questionable in this matter, Khan said. Urging the media "not to view all things through the prism of politics", Khan said he looked forward to a great tenure in Bihar, where he has come as a "sevak" (servant). "Bihar is unparalleled in terms of its glorious history. It also has tremendous potential, if we think in terms of the future, he said. Lucknow, Jan 2 (PTI) The grand inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, a spate of temple-mosque disputes, a series of abandoned temple discoveries and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's slogan of "batenge to katenge" (divided we fall). Does that sum up 2024 for Uttar Pradesh? Yes and no. Yes because these developments grabbed attention and helped set the narrative political or otherwise not just in the country's most populous state but beyond as well. But there was more to the year for the state that witnessed some heart-wrenching tragedies a deadly stampede in Hathras claimed 121 lives in July and 10 infants were charred to death in a fire in Jhansi medical college's neonatal ward in November. On December 8, Allahabad High Court Justice Shekhar Yadav's remarks at a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) event in Prayagraj backing a uniform civil code (UCC) and the "majority" triggered a controversy and criticism from the opposition. He appeared before the Supreme Court Collegium to explain his remarks. However, Adityanath and the VHP supported Justice Yadav's take on the UCC. While Adityanath questioned the critics, VHP chief Alok Kumar told PTI that he wouldn't be apologetic even if the judge had made the remarks about the majority. In a jolt to the BJP, a resurgent Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance limited the ruling party to 33 seats in the May-June Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, down from 63 in 2019. This meant that despite a historic third consecutive win for the BJP-led NDA at the Centre, the ruling party would have to deal with a stronger opposition both inside and outside Parliament. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly byelections in November gave the BJP reason to cheer as it won seven of the nine seats that went to polls, including the Muslim-dominated Kundarki and the OBC-Dalit-dominated Katehari. The Kundarki win found a mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech after the Mahayuti's impressive victory in the Maharashtra polls. Recently, Adityanath cited the "Kundarki-Katehari model" to tell BJP cadres that "if this can happen, then nothing is impossible" in future elections. Up next is the Milkipur assembly bypoll. The assembly segment falls under Faizabad (Ayodhya) Lok Sabha constituency, which the BJP lost to the Samajwadi Party (SP) earlier this year. The shocking loss for the BJP came months after the high-profile consecration ceremony of the Ram temple. The Dalit factor plays a role in Faizabad, which explains why virtually all parties in Uttar Pradesh are currently engaged in Dalit symbolism by talking about community icon B R Ambedkar. This year, the SP strengthened its position by winning 37 Lok Sabha seats, four more than the BJP, while the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) downfall continued. After drawing a blank in the November assembly bypolls, BSP president and four-time chief minister Mayawati declared that her party would not contest bypolls in future until the Election Commission takes measures to prevent "fake voting". Ahead of the bypolls, Adityanath coined the "batenge toh katenge" slogan. It soon became the BJP's go-to slogan in the state and its "spirit" was endorsed by the RSS during its meeting in Mathura in October. The slogan, along with PM Modi's "Ek hain toh safe hain", virtually became a cry for Hindu unity and paid off handsomely for the BJP not just in the bypolls but also in the Haryana and Maharashtra elections, states where the BJP surprised all with its impressive wins. Sambhal also made headlines in November after violence during a court-ordered survey of a historic mosque claimed four lives. It was followed by the discovery of an abandoned temple and a mosque with an "illegal" power generator, and the recovery of broken statues of Hindu idols from closed wells. Soon after, there was a flurry of claims about abandoned temples being made by right-wing groups. They even slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his remarks on temple-mosque disputes. Bhagwat's remarks were an extension of his earlier appeal to right-wing groups to not look for a temple beneath every mosque. In Aligarh, a US-based interfaith couple had to call off their wedding reception in December due to concerns of a communal flare-up voiced by right-wing groups. Bahraich witnessed communal tensions after a man was shot dead during a Durga Puja procession. A daring jewellery store heist in Sultanpur also made news this year. The accused were shot dead in a police encounter, drawing criticism from the opposition which claimed it was a targeted caste-based killing. The government refuted the charge. A humble cobbler in Sultanpur suddenly found himself in the spotlight after Congress leader and Raebareli MP Rahul Gandhi visited him in July. Governor Anandiben Patel claimed in November that an ancient Indian sage invented the airplane and the Wright Brothers had been wrongly credited for it. The governor, who had made the statement during a convocation function in Lucknow, stood her ground during a recent interaction with editors and senior journalists at the Raj Bhavan. Chandigarh, Jan 2 (PTI) The Haryana government is taking stringent measures against illegal mining across the state including inspections and surveillance at mining sites with drones and other advanced technologies to detect illegal activities, an official statement said on Thursday. Apart from registering FIRs against offenders, the government is also imposing hefty fines on those involved in unlawful mining activities, the statement read. The administration has ramped up inspections and surveillance at mining sites with the use of drones and other advanced technologies to detect illegal activities. Moreover, vehicles involved in illegal mining are being seized and perpetrators are being penalized under the law, the statement said. The statement said that reports published in a section of the media about illegal mining in Rawa village, Nuh district, claiming a loss of Rs 2,200 crore to the state, "are entirely baseless". "Similarly, social media claims related to this issue are also without merit. As per available information, mining in the Aravalli region of Gurgaon, Faridabad, and Nuh districts has been prohibited by a Supreme Court order since 2002," it read. "Furthermore, there is an interstate dispute between Haryana and Rajasthan regarding the boundary in this area, which has been exploited by Rajasthan's mining leaseholders to encroach on Haryana's land," it read. "In this context, the Mining and Geology office of Gurugram/Nuh has filed eight FIRs with the Firozpur Jhirka police station and the Haryana State Enforcement Bureau over time," it said. Recent investigations revealed that the landslide in Rawa involved illegal mining of 6,000 metric tons of stone, it said. "During an inspection on December 16, 2024, it was confirmed that the boundary pillar marking Haryana's state line remained intact. Following this, on December 23, 2024, FIRs were filed against Rajasthan's leaseholders at the Ferozepur Jhirka, police station and the Haryana Enforcement Bureau, Nuh," the government statement said. Additionally, regarding the landslide incident, the department's survey team clarified that the hill lies within Rajasthan's territory, and an FIR has already been lodged by Rajasthan authorities. "To address the issue of illegal mining, both Haryana and Rajasthan's Mining and Geology departments are coordinating their efforts," it said. It further said the Haryana Mining and Geology Department has consistently been cracking down on illegal mining activities. "According to the data, in the year 2022-23, the department collected approximately Rs 800 crore in fines related to mining leases, short-term permits, royalties from brick kilns, and fines for illegal mineral extraction and transportation throughout the state of Haryana," it said. Ghaziabad (UP), Jan 1 (PTI) A 25-year-old man was arrested here on Wednesday for allegedly posing as the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission and demanding security from authorities in multiple districts of the state, officials said. The accused, Anas Malik, a resident of Moradabad, had sent "official" letters to the district magistrates of Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Amroha, and Noida for a two-day program on November 8, requesting protection under the protocol, they said. Following suspicions raised by the letters, police launched an investigation and found that Malik was faking his identity. Additional DCP (Crime), Ghaziabad, Sachchidanand said that Malik had faked his identity to manipulate local authorities. "During questioning, Malik said that he had completed only the 10th grade and previously worked as a driver. He claimed to have gradually come into contact with some local leaders, from whom he got the idea of enjoying police protection and official escorts. "He created a fake Human Rights Commission's emblem and falsely presented himself as its chairman," said the officer. Malik also used a fake seal of the Commission, along with forged letters, to demand various services from government officials, the additional DCP said. To add authenticity, he included the names and numbers of staff members and personal secretaries in his communications, police said. Moreover, he would travel with an accomplice dressed in white official attire, the official said. Jammu, Jan 1 (PTI) The BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit on Wednesday hit out at the National Conference for running a "visionless and directionless government" in the Union Territory, accusing it of failing to address critical public issues such as water, electricity and jobs shortages, tourism, and key development projects. The saffron party expressed confidence in its growing popularity and development initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir, asserting that the party would emerge stronger in 2025 and win the upcoming elections, including the urban local body and panchayat polls. "The National Conference is running a government that is both visionless and directionless. The party has failed miserably on all fronts of public importance and not delivered on the poll promises made in its manifesto," the Jammu and Kashmir BJP's chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said. Sethi strongly criticised the government, accusing it of neglecting public issues. "In the past two months, the National Conference government has turned a blind eye to critical public issues such as water, electricity, jobs, tourism, and key developmental projects. Instead of addressing these concerns, the government has resorted to excuses, jeopardising both security and development," he said. Sethi emphasised that despite not being in power, the BJP remained steadfast on the promises made in its election manifesto. "These promises are not mere rhetoric but commitments made after thorough financial and developmental considerations." He accused the National Conference government of lacking leadership and a clear vision, he said. "The chief minister has lost the confidence of senior party leaders and the public alike. Promises made without a roadmap or financial planning are doomed to fail, as seen in Delhi and Punjab. The same fate awaits National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir," Sethi said. He also questioned the role of the deputy chief minister in controversies such as the Katra ropeway project. "The attempts to politicise public issues highlight the failure of governance under National Conference leadership," he added. Highlighting the BJP's development agenda, Sethi said "projects like the Katra-Delhi road and railway expansions are designed to boost tourism and trade in the region. A single train can transform villages, towns, and cities along its route. "The BJP remains committed to improving infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir." Sethi reiterated the BJP's commitment to youth and women empowerment. "We are working with the Union government to create job opportunities and conduct more recruitment drives. Women's socioeconomic welfare is being addressed through a multi-pronged approach," the BJP leader said. "The massive vote share of the BJP in the 2024 elections reflected the trust of the people of in the party's pro-people approach. We are dedicated to strengthening this faith in 2025 and beyond," Sethi said. Nainital, Jan 2 (PTI) There are about 550 ragpickers in Uttarakhand and many of them are taking advantage of state schemes, the government told the high court on Thursday. The high court on December 26 asked the state government to prepare a welfare scheme for ragpickers and submit a report by January 2. The court's direction had come after it took suo motu cognizance of a report of the State Legal Services Authority, which said that ragpickers and their children are not receiving the benefits of government schemes in the state. On Thursday, the Uttarakhand High Court appointed advocate Navnish Negi amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Guhanathan Narendar and Justice Manoj Tiwari directed the amicus curie to meet these people and see if the facilities are being provided to them and submit a report to the court within a week. During the hearing, the director of Urban Development Department appeared before the court through video conferencing. It was submitted before the court that according to a survey, there are 549 ragpickers in the state. Many of them have ration cards, Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, and they are taking advantage of several government schemes, the court was informed. In its survey report, the State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) said that according to the report of District Legal Authorities, the ragpickers are not receiving facilities provided by the state and central governments. Due to this their children have been doing the same work hampering their mental and intellectual development, the SLSA report said. The high court will now hear the matter on January 9. Hyderabad, Jan 2 (PTI) Amid allegations that the ruling Congress is attempting to impose "conditions" on the implementation of the 'Rythu Bharosa' scheme for farmers, a cabinet sub-committee of the Telangana government on Thursday decided, in principle, to extend the benefit to "every ryot cultivating crops." The sub-committee on the 'Rythu Bharosa' investment support scheme will present its views to the state cabinet, which is expected to convene in a couple of days, official sources said. Headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, the sub-committee held a meeting on Thursday. The committee decided to conduct 'Gram Sabhas' for three days starting January 5 to receive applications for the scheme and to extensively promote the programme, sources said. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, BJP floor leader in the Assembly, Alleti Maheshwar Reddy, urged the cabinet to take a decision on the scheme's launch during its upcoming meeting. BRS MLC K Kavitha accused the Congress government of attempting to impose conditions on extending the benefits of the 'Rythu Bharosa' scheme. Addressing a gathering of party workers in Bodhan, she accused Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of adopting "anti-farmer policies" and "betraying" the farming community. She questioned why farmersthe backbone of the countryare "forced to beg for their rightful support" and demanded the unconditional disbursement of 'Rythu Bharosa' funds, "free from bureaucratic hurdles." Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said on December 1, 2024, that his government is committed to implementing "Rythu Bharosa," one of the Congress partys six poll guarantees, after the three-day Sankranti festival (January 13, 14, 15). As part of its six poll 'guarantees', the Congress party promised to provide Rs 15,000 to farmers and tenant farmers, and Rs 12,000 to farm workers under the 'Rythu Bharosa' scheme per acre annually. Kochi, Jan 2 (PTI) The proprietor of Mridanga Vision, which recently organised a mass dance event at a stadium here where Congress MLA Uma Thomas sustained severe injuries after falling from the dais, surrendered before the police on Thursday, officials said. Nigoshkumar M surrendered before the Palarivattom police in connection with a case registered over alleged security lapses during the event held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, they said. Earlier, on Tuesday, the Kerala High Court directed the sole proprietor of Mridanga Vision to surrender before the investigation officer on Thursday. The police also registered a cheating case against four office bearers of Mridanga Vision on various charges, including cheating and criminal breach of trust. "He is being interrogated in both cases," the police said. The cheating case was registered based on a complaint filed by a parent of one of the students who took part in the event. The complainant alleged that the accused persons collected large sums of money from over 12,000 participants by promising them a chance to take part in a Guinness World Records event, causing financial loss. The FIR accuses the accused of accepting money from participants under the pretext of costume, travel, and registration fees, among other charges. The case was registered under various sections of the IPC, including 316(2), 318(4), and 3(5). The mass dance event, organised on Sunday with the aim of setting a Guinness World Record, came under scrutiny after Congress MLA Uma Thomas fell from the dais during the inauguration ceremony. She sustained head and spinal injuries after falling from the 15-foot-high VIP gallery set up at Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium, Kochi, on Sunday evening. The accident occurred as traditional dancers were preparing for a performance. The condition of Thrikkakara MLA has shown slight improvement, though she remains on ventilator support, according to a medical bulletin issued by the hospital. However, due to injury to her lungs, she has developed reactive pleural effusion, a condition in which fluid accumulates around the lungs. While not an immediate cause for alarm, the condition requires proper monitoring and treatment. Efforts are ongoing to wean her off ventilator support, the bulletin said. A government-appointed team led by Dr Jayakumar visited the hospital on Thursday. The team expressed satisfaction with the quality of care and the patients steady progress, the bulletin added. ISLAMABAD, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistan Navy recently carried out a successful anti-narcotics operation in the north Arabian Sea, seizing a large quantity of illegal drugs, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Thursday. The ISPR, the media wing of the Pakistani military, said in a statement that the operation was conducted with the assistance of naval air assets. Pakistan Navy Ship named Moawin intercepted a suspicious vessel and conducted a boarding operation, uncovering drugs concealed within hidden compartments of the vessel, said the ISPR. According to the military, the seized narcotics are valued at approximately one million U.S. dollars in the international market, which were being smuggled to different international destinations. "The Pakistan Navy remains vigilant and committed to preventing all forms of illegal activities in the maritime domain of the region," added the ISPR. Hyderabad, Jan 2 (PTI) A 65-year-old retired government employee from the city, who was duped of over Rs 1.5 crore in a 'digital arrest' scam, has recovered Rs 70 lakh, thanks to the swift action of the city police. The fraudsters posing as Cyber Crime officials from Mumbai kept the woman under "digital arrest" at her home for about 15 days during December 2024, Rachakonda Police said on Thursday. The woman received a call on December 8 and was told that a SIM card linked to her ID card had been used for harassing public and sending objectionable messages. She was further threatened that the number was linked to several other cases. The fraudsters also extracted information related to her bank accounts and she was coerced into transferring Rs 1.58 crore to different bank accounts, in order to avoid legal action. Subsequently, she realised that she had been cheated and approached the Cyber Crime police, who registered a case. Teams were formed and during the course of investigation the police succeeded in recovering part of the fraud money and ensured to return Rs 70 lakh to the victim, which was transferred to a private bank in Moradabad of Uttar Pradesh, police said. Rachakonda Police Commissioner G Sudheer Babu and other senior police officials praised the Cybercrime police team for the swift action. New Yorks much-debated plan to charge drivers to enter the center of Manhattan is set to take effect Sunday, following years of bureaucratic and legal roadblocks. The goals of what is known as congestion pricing are to reduce gridlock and pollution and raise revenue for public transit. Gov. Kathy Hochul said this week that the state will push forward with the plan. Here are some things to know if you plan to come into Manhattan by car after Jan. 5: Will I have to pay the toll? The toll applies to the most congested part of Manhattan, south of Central Park. It will vary depending on the time and whether a car has E-ZPass, which is an electronic toll collection system used in many states. During peak traffic hours thats 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends most cars, SUVs, small vans and pickup trucks during with an E-ZPass will be charged $9, once per day. During the overnight hours, the tolls will go down to $2.25. Drivers without an E-ZPass will receive bills by mail and pay more: $13.50 for peak hours and $3.30 overnight. Motorcyclists will pay half the amount that cars pay during peak. Drivers of buses and trucks, depending on their size, will pay more. There are some exceptions. Certain emergency vehicles, school buses, people with disabilities who cant take public transportation, and the people who transport them are all exempt. Low-income drivers who pay the toll 10 times in a month can apply for a 50% discount on trips they take the rest of the month. Theres also a little break for those who have already paid a toll to enter Manhattan at the Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Queens-Midtown Tunnel or Hugh L. Carey Tunnel during peak hours. They should see a credit on their E-ZPass of up to $3 for passenger vehicles and more for trucks and buses. Still, with tolls for bridges and tunnels from New Jersey set to go up in the new year, a driver coming via the Holland Tunnel during peak traffic could pay $22 even with the credit. What if I take a taxi or Uber? Passengers in taxis and for-hire vehicles will have a per-trip surcharge added to their fares for rides to, from, within or through what is known as the Congestion Relief Zone. That charge is 75 cents for people taking taxis, green cabs and black cars, and $1.50 for Uber or Lyft passengers. Where did this come from? Congestion pricing has long existed in other cities around the globe, including London, Stockholm, Milan and Singapore, but New York is the first U.S. city to adopt it. Its been floated in New York for years. Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested such a scheme in 2007, and state lawmakers approved the concept in 2019. But it has run into opposition and legal challenges from politicians, commuters and commercial drivers. The idea has supporters in environmental and public transit advocates, who say encouraging people to forgo driving in favor of public transportation will reduce air pollution and help pay for the regions subway, bus and commuter rail network. Millions of New Yorkers ride the subway system daily. The plan stalled while awaiting a required federal environmental review during Donald Trumps first presidential administration. It was finally set to go into effect earlier this year with a heftier $15 toll but Hochul, a Democrat, abruptly halted it weeks before the launch, arguing it was too expensive. She put forward latest plan with a lower fee in November, shortly after Trump was elected to another term, with the Republican having vowed to stop it after he returns to office on Jan. 20. (AP) A Hawaiian airlines flight bound for Honolulu was forced to return to the Seattle airport shortly after takeoff due to reports of fumes in the cockpit, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency previously said the crew reported smoke on the flight deck but later changed that to fumes. Hawaiian Airlines Flight 21, an Airbus A330, took off at about 1 p.m. Monday from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport carrying 273 passengers and 10 crew members. It was heading to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu when the crew reported the fumes, airline spokesperson Marissa Villegas told The Associated Press in an email. The captain declared an emergency to obtain priority handling and the Airbus A330 landed at SEA without incident, Villegas said, and fire and medical personnel met the aircraft at the gate as a precaution and everyone onboard safely deplaned. Once the aircraft was cleared, the Port of Seattle Fire Department boarded to investigate and did not find any smoke or smell, airport spokesperson Perry Cooper said via email. Flight 21 left Seattle on Tuesday morning in a new aircraft, according to Villegas. Safety is our priority, and we sincerely apologize for this event, she said. The FAA is investigating. (AP) The FBI has arrested a Virginia man in connection with what the agency is calling the largest stockpile of explosive devices ever recovered in its history. Brad Spafford was taken into custody earlier this month at his farm near Norfolk following charges related to the possession of an unregistered short-barrel rifle. However, newly released court documents reveal the investigation extends far beyond the initial firearms violation. According to filings made public on Monday, federal agents discovered over 150 explosive devices on Spaffords property, stored in a barn and marked with labels such as lethal. Additional pipe bombs were located in a backpack inside his residence, which agents described as unsecured. Investigators also uncovered handwritten instructions for manufacturing explosives. Among the materials seized was hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), an explosive compound notorious for its volatility. The FBI said that HMTD can detonate with minimal friction or temperature change. In one instance, agents found a jar of HMTD stored next to food, bearing handwritten warnings reading Dangerous and Do Not Touch. The sheer scale of the cache led the FBI to assess the seizure as the largest of its kind in the agencys history. The investigation into Spafford began after a neighbor reported his concerning behavior, which included using a photo of President Biden for target practice, endorsing political violence, and promoting conspiracy theories suggesting missing children were abducted by the federal government to be trained as school shooters. The neighbor further disclosed that Spafford lost three fingers in 2021 while apparently handling an explosive device. After relocating to his current farm, Spafford allegedly discussed plans to fortify his property with a rotating turret and booby-trap his driveway to prevent unauthorized entry. Court documents also highlight Spaffords association with the extremist no lives matter ideology, a movement identified by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness as promoting mass violence, criminal acts, and self-harm. The group reportedly coordinates through encrypted platforms. The FBI executed Spaffords arrest and property search on December 17, an operation that required the involvement of numerous agents and bomb technicians. Due to the instability of the explosives, many were detonated on site to ensure public safety. Spafford remains in custody as federal prosecutors seek to prevent his release, citing the significant threat posed by his extensive stockpile and extremist affiliations. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) A fiery explosion outside Trump Las Vegas on Wednesday has ignited a sweeping investigation by authorities, who are treating the incident as a possible act of terror. The explosion, involving a Tesla Cybertruck, rocked the entrance of the iconic hotel, sending shockwaves through the city and raising immediate concerns about safety and security. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department cordoned off the area, urging the public to stay clear of the site as investigators combed through the charred remains of the vehicle. While the flames were extinguished, the unsettling questions surrounding the explosion have only intensified. According to officials, the driver of the Cybertruck pulled into the valet area before the vehicle suddenly erupted into flames. The driver, believed to be the only fatality, died at the scene. Seven bystanders sustained minor injuries from the blasts shockwave, though none were reported to be in critical condition. [Tesla Cybertruck Bursts into Flames Outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Stirring Conspiracy Theories] The cause of the explosion remains a mystery. Investigators are painstakingly analyzing whether the incident stemmed from a malfunction within the electric vehicle or if external forces triggered the deadly blast. An official briefed on the investigation disclosed to ABC News that the Cybertruck was loaded with fireworks-style mortars, heightening fears that the explosion may have been deliberate. Until we can rule out other possibilities, we are treating this as a potential criminal act and a possible terror attack, an official said. Authorities are racing to uncover whether the driver intended to detonate the explosives and, if so, why the Trump property was targeted. Despite the unsettling nature of the incident, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill attempted to reassure the public. We believe everything is safe now, he stated during a press briefing. But we dont know what we dont know. The investigation is far from over. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted: We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo, a car-renting app. Meanwhile, CNN reported that the vehicle was loaded with Explosives including fireworks, gas tanks, and camping fuel. Most disturbing in their report is that they say they were all connected to a detonation system. That sure seems like a straight-up car bombing. Law enforcement currently assesses that the explosion was most likely intentional. Curiously, the Cybertruck was rented through the Turo app the same platform used by the New Orleans terrorist who killed 15 people and injured dozens early Wednesday morning. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Federal agents disrupted an alleged plot to threaten or kill employees of a prominent pro-Israel organization ahead of Chanukah. The suspect, Forrest Pemberton of Gainesville, Florida, faces a federal stalking charge in connection with the incident. Authorities say Pemberton attempted to travel to the South Florida offices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on December 22 and 23 to scout the location. He allegedly planned to return with concealed firearms, intending to harm individuals associated with the organization. While AIPAC is not directly named in the charging documents, an FBI affidavit references an organization with an identical mission statement and address in Plantation, Florida, matching that of AIPAC. The national advocacy group champions Israel-related issues to Congress and the White House. According to the documents, Pemberton was tracked to a hotel near AIPACs Florida office on December 22. By December 25, he had traveled north to Tallahassee, where he was stopped by law enforcement while riding in a rideshare vehicle. Officers discovered three firearms, including an AR-style rifle, and ammunition in the vehicle. During questioning the following day, Pemberton reportedly admitted to agents that he had considered carrying out a mass casualty event followed by suicide. I really dont know if I was gonna end it with my life or not. I hadnt gotten that far yet, Pemberton allegedly told investigators. If caught, that was a way out. Pemberton also acknowledged the firearms were for potential criminal use, stating, They can be used for criminal intent if I wanted to, which was my intention, such as harming another individual. Prosecutors allege Pemberton targeted the organization due to its political influence and his frustration with current affairs. Relatives reportedly found a goodbye note expressing anti-authority sentiments and Pembertons desire to stoke the flames. His AR-style rifle and other firearms were missing from his home when he departed, according to family members. Ultimately, Pemberton told agents he decided against the attack, citing a lack of readiness. I wasnt ready. I gave up, he said. AIPAC spokespersons responded to the incident, affirming their commitment to their mission. We take these threats very seriously and we are working closely with law enforcement concerning this matter. We will not be deterred by extremists in pursuing our mission to strengthen the relationship with Americas valued ally, Israel. We are deeply appreciative of the FBIs work to stop this individual, the spokesperson told CBS News. Pemberton remains in pretrial detention, with a court hearing scheduled for Monday in Gainesville, Florida. The Alachua County Sheriffs Department released his booking photo following the arrest, which was carried out by the FBI. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) A stolen car was set alight in an arson attack on Alexandra Street in Melbourne an area with a large number of Orthodox Jewish families on Thursday night local time. Emergency services responded around 9:10 p.m. after reports of a silver SUV engulfed in flames. Footage captured by a stunned local shows an individual pouring accelerant through the cars window before igniting it, causing a powerful explosion heard blocks away. The suspect is then seen fleeing in a getaway vehicle. The fire damaged a nearby tree and other parked vehicles, but no injuries were reported. The incident occurred in the heart of St Kilda Easts Jewish neighborhood, just steps from a shul and several Jewish schools, raising immediate alarm within the kehilla. Victoria Police insist the attack was not racially, religiously, or politically motivated, but some locals remain unconvinced. Police are investigating a suspicious car fire which occurred in St Kilda East this evening. Fire crews arrived and extinguished the blaze, a police spokesperson said. The incident is not racially, religiously, or politically motivated. Despite these reassurances, the Jewish community is on edge. The arson follows a troubling pattern of antisemitic incidents in Melbourne, including the recent torching of the historic Adas Yisroel shul, which sustained severe damage. This latest attack, occurring in a Jewish neighborhood, has left residents questioning whether the kehilla is being deliberately targeted again. The Australian Jewish Association took to social media, posting that they would continue to monitor to see if there is a connection. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) The bomber who detonated a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas has been identified as 37-year-old Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger, raising concerns about potential links to recent terrorist activity in the United States. Senior law enforcement sources confirmed Livelsbergers identity to KOAA and KTNV, though officials have yet to publicly name him. Livelsberger, who served over 19 years in the Army, including 18 with Special Forces, died in the explosion that rocked the hotels valet area early Wednesday morning. The attack occurred just hours after another high-profile terrorist act in New Orleans, where Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd, killing 15 and injuring dozens. Both attackers had rented their vehicles through an app called Turoan alarming detail that has prompted investigators to explore potential connections between the two incidents. Authorities revealed that Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Colorado Springs through the Turo app before driving to Las Vegas. Surveillance footage shows the vehicle parked outside the Trump International Hotel moments before it exploded at 8:40 a.m., sending debris flying and igniting fears of further attacks. The trucks robust frame is believed to have contained much of the blast, preventing additional casualties. Investigators later discovered fireworks mortars, canisters, and explosive devices packed in the truck bed, though the method of detonation remains under investigation. FBI agents raided a Colorado Springs townhome associated with Livelsberger late Wednesday night, escorting neighbors away from the area as they searched the property. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) assisted in the operation, and authorities assured the public that no ongoing threat remains. Livelsbergers military background has drawn additional scrutiny, as he previously served at the same base as Jabbar, the perpetrator of the New Orleans massacre. Jabbar, a U.S. veteran allegedly linked to ISIS, rammed a pickup truckbearing an ISIS flaginto crowds celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street. Authorities are investigating whether Jabbar and Livelsberger had any prior association. Do I think its a coincidence? I dont know, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a press conference. Were absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans. In New Orleans, authorities found additional explosive devices and firearms at the crash site and believe Jabbar may have had accomplices. FBI field offices across multiple states are pursuing leads to determine whether a broader plot is unfolding. Some officials speculate that Livelsberger may have deliberately chosen a Cybertruckdesigned by Elon Muskto target Trumps hotel, potentially sending a political message. Musks association with President-elect Donald Trump has fueled theories regarding the bombers intent. Its a Tesla truck, we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and its the Trump hotelso theres obviously something to look at, McMahill noted. Trump responded to the attack with characteristic passion, blaming lax border security and ineffective leadership. Our country is a disaster, he posted on Truth Social. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! The car-sharing company Turo, through which both attackers rented their vehicles, expressed heartbreak over the tragedies. We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents, a Turo spokesperson said. We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who has been in exile under Vladimir Putins protection, was reportedly the target of a poisoning attempt, according to claims by a Russian source. The online account General SVR, believed to be operated by a former Russian intelligence officer, alleges that Assad fell seriously ill on Sunday. The 59-year-old reportedly requested medical help after suddenly experiencing violent coughing and choking. The source suggested, There is every reason to believe an assassination attempt was made. Assad was treated at his Moscow apartment, and by Monday, his condition had stabilized. Tests allegedly detected poison in his system, though no official confirmation has come from Russian authorities. Assad and his family fled Syria in December following a swift rebel takeover, ending his 20-year rule. His wife, Asma al-Assad, who was born in London, remains barred from returning to the UK as her passport has expired. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) The FBI announced Thursday that while investigations into the recent attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas are ongoing, no concrete connection between the two incidents has been established. As you know, theres also an FBI investigation in Las Vegas. We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling everything out. However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas, said Christopher Raia, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBIs Counterterrorism Division. Ill preface everything by saying this is still very early in the investigation. The New Orleans attack, which occurred early Wednesday morning on Bourbon Street, was carried out by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a former U.S. Army soldier with ties to ISIS. Jabbar drove a truck into crowds celebrating New Years, killing 14 people and injuring over 30 before being shot dead by police. Initially, the FBI suggested Jabbar may have had accomplices. However, in a reversal of earlier statements, Raia clarified Thursday, We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Jabbar had a history with ISIS, having pledged allegiance to the group earlier in the year. In the months leading up to the attack, he posted five videos on Facebook expressing support for the terrorist organization. The FBI also revealed that Jabbar left behind a will and testimony, indicating premeditation. The FBI said Jabbar had initially planned to target his own family but shifted focus to a public attack to draw attention to the war between believers and disbelievers. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump Hotel on New Years Day, injuring seven people. The driver, Matt Livelsberger a U.S. Special Forces soldier assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group was killed in the blast. According to police, the explosion was triggered by fireworks, gas tanks, and camping fuel in the bed of the truck, detonated by a device controlled by the driver. Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police credited the design and durability of the Cybertruck for preventing more extensive damage to the hotel. The explosion went up and out, McMahill explained. I have to thank Elon Musk, specifically. He gave us quite a bit of additional information regarding how the vehicle was locked after it exploded, as well as video from Teslas charging stations. While both incidents have raised alarms, Raia said that there is no evidence at this time to suggest the attacks are connected. However, authorities are continuing to investigate all potential leads and are not ruling out the possibility of a broader network or shared motive. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) TEHRAN, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranians across the country on Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S. killing of top commander Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani, former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on Jan. 3, 2020. Iran condemned the killing as an act of "state terrorism." Commemorations were held in cities nationwide, including Tehran and Soleimani's hometown of Kerman, honoring him and other "martyrs of the resistance front." In Tehran, a large gathering took place at Imam Khomeini's Mosalla prayer hall, attended by senior officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Also present were military commanders such as IRGC Chief Hossein Salami and Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani, as well as Soleimani's family members. Attendees held pictures of Soleimani and Muhandis, along with other slain commanders of regional groups. Large photographs of Soleimani, Muhandis, the late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh were displayed in the hall. Pezeshkian said Soleimani dedicated his life to defending the oppressed and serving the people. "By sacrificing his life, martyr Soleimani brought disgrace to the oppressors," Pezeshkian said. He also addressed efforts by "enemies" to create discord among Muslims, saying, "Our duty is to make maximum efforts to foil such plots, preventing the foes from capitalizing on the differences among Muslims to advance their evil objectives." In Kerman, thousands of people visited Soleimani's tomb to pay their respects. Israels Population and Immigration Authority has released its annual baby name statistics for 2024, revealing how ongoing conflict has influenced the names Jewish parents are selecting for their newborns. While Avigail retained its top spot for girls and Mohammad remained the most common name overall, significant shifts were seen among Jewish boys names. Ariel was the most popular name for Jewish boys, with 1,013 newborns receiving the name. Its rise to the top reflects a dual significanceAriel is synonymous with Ariel Sharon, the military leader and former prime minister, and also means Lion of G-d in Hebrew. Other names rising in popularity underscore similar themes. Eliya entered the top ten, while names like David, Oz, and Uri also experienced notable increases. The growing preference for such names reflects a broader societal trend of seeking divine protection and resilience through meaningful, powerful names, according to analysts. Notable changes include Yehonatan dropping out of the boys top ten, making way for Eliya. On the girls side, Leah advanced from tenth to eighth place among Jewish babies, while Libi made the same climb in the general rankings. Despite these shifts, familiar names continue to dominate. Mohammad remained the most popular overall name, though slightly fewer boys received it this year (1,740) compared to 1,777 in 2023. Among girls, Miriam saw a remarkable rise, securing second place with 1,015 babies named, up from 867 last year. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) The IDF recently arrested 240 Hamas terrorists in and near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabiliya in northern Gaza after the terror group once again took advantage of a humanitarian site for terror purposes. It was the third time that the IDF carried out a counterterrorism operation in Kamal Adwan Hospital, along with numerous counterterrorism operations in other hospitals, such as Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. This time, the IDF sealed Kamal Adwan off entirely, stating that the hospital has become a Hamas terror base. Predictably, although Hamas use of hospitals, ambulances, schools, and refugee centers in Gaza is a well-known and documented fact, international media outlets immediately began publishing distorted reports about Israel storming the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza and detaining patients and staff, i.e terrorists. A social media campaign was even launched calling for the release of the hospitals director, who was detained by the IDF for alleged terror activities. It should be noted that before the operation, the IDF evacauted hundreds of patients and staff to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. As Jerusalem Post military analyst Seth Frantzman wrote: The multiple battles at this same hospital and the area around it reveal two things. Hamas always returns to these areas. It often returns almost immediately. It knows the IDF comes and goes and it waits and returns. Each time it may lose dozens of men, but it doesnt matter to Hamas. It recruits and returns. Each time it is the same cycle. The clashes around this hospital in the winter of 2023 are the same as in the winter of 2024. Very little has changed. There is little evidence that much will change. The Hamas control of medical facilities is part of the fabric and status quo of Gaza. International organizations never mention the presence of gunmen in and around the hospitals. They never mention how Hamas infiltrates the area. They have an unspoken agreement never to mention the presence of Hamas. This enables Hamas to continue using hospitals. International urban warfare expert John Spencer, one of the few brave non-Jewish individuals who speaks against media outlets constant lies about Israel, told Maariv that Hamas has turned Gazas entire healthcare system into a terror apparatus, saying that according to the research he has conducted from the first day of the war, Hamas did not leave one hospital untouched by terror activities and the phenomenon has only increased since then. Spencer, who is the head of the Urban Warfare Department at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, stressed that the IDFs operations in Gaza hospitals are completely legal as international law explicitly bans the use of hospitals to shield military elements from attack. Spencer added that the IDF uses unique tactics to protect civilians while evacuating patients and staff from hospitals by using advanced facial recognition techniques to nab Hamas terrorists who dress up as patients using crutches or wheelchairs or even disguising themselves as fathers holding sick babies. The IDFs rapid intelligence techniques and operational execution are quite remarkable, Spencer said. Spencer added: The fact that the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and the UN condemn Israel for searches in hospitals while never condemning Hamas for using hospitals in the first place is alarming. This creates a global perception that hospitals are entirely immune to military action, sending a message to terrorist organizations that using hospitals is an effective, albeit illegal, military strategy. (YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem) A delegation from the cult department of Israels Welfare Ministry will depart to Guatemala on Motzei Shabbos to assist local authorities following the raid on the Lev Tahor cult about two weeks ago and the removal of approximately 200 children from the cults compound. The delegation will include senior professionals from the Ministrys cult department who will hold meetings with Guatemalan welfare, mental health, and law enforcement officials and share their expertise. Welfare Minister Yaakov Margi (Shas) said: The professional knowledge accumulated in Israel by welfare services serves as a source and a model of emulation in many places around the world, and we are pleased to share it with other countries, particularly in cases of aid to Jewish and even Israeli communities living within their borders. Such assistance is significant both professionally and politically, as it contributes to strengthening Israels relations with countries around the world. Director-General of the Welfare Ministry Yinon Aharoni said: The Welfare Ministry has been following the Lev Tahor cult case for nearly a decade and works tirelessly to protect the children from Israeli families who are under its control. Sharing our accumulated professional knowledge with the authorities in Guatemala is another important step in our ongoing efforts to assist the victims of the cult and prevent further harm to children. Ilan Sharif, head of the Ministrys cult victims department, stated: This is an extremist cult that has chosen to distance itself from the State of Israel. We are particularly concerned about the harm to children who are in the cult, given our knowledge of the control measures and punishments that are regularly imposed in efforts to control the cult members. The cult victims department in the Ministry has been familiar with the cults issues for ten years and works with various agencies in Israel and abroad in an attempt to reduce the risk to the children in the cult. The Welfare Ministry works in close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, aiming to mitigate the harm to children within the constraints of international law. The Ministry also provides support and professional guidance to Israeli cult members who have returned to Israel. (YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem) The two Israelis who were injured in the New Orleans terror attack on Wednesday are still on ventilators, Elad Shoshan, Israels consul to the U.S. Southwest and deputy consul general, told Ynet on Thursday. Both victims are in serious condition but their lives are not considered in danger. Neither victim is communicating with those around them yet. We hope to speak with them tomorrow, Shoshan said. Israels Foreign Ministry is in contact with the victims families and the staff at the hospitals. A representative from the Israeli Consulate General in Houston was sent to New Orleans on Wednesday, The attack, which was inspired by ISIS, left 15 people dead, and over 30 injured. (YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem) Ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant resigned from the Knesset on Wednesday evening in order to prevent the Likud party from dismissing him from the party, Israeli media reports stated following Gallants announcement. Ynet reported that coalition whip Ofir Katz had begun carrying out steps toward Gallants ouster. It should be noted that Gallant absented himself from the Knesset during the crucial vote on a tax bill on Tuesday evening, which among other factors, forced Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to leave his hospital against doctors advice and a Likud MK to come to the Knesset while sitting shiva. Likud MK Avichay Buaron stated that Gallant was well aware that if he didnt resign, he would be ousted from the Likud party, writing: Yoav Gallant knew that if he didnt resign from the Knesset, the Likud party would have declared him as a defector. In December, Gallant spent one hour and 39 minutes in the Knesset. Gallants conduct since his dismissal [as defense minister] has been tainted by his own interests and sent a clear message: I am not committed to Likud and the coalition even when this means removing the Prime Minister from his sickbed. Gallant needs to leave both the Knesset and Likud. On a personal level several months ago, in light of Gallants conduct as defense minister, which was confrontational towards the cabinet and the Prime Minister, I called on the defense minister: Change your conduct or step down and resign. I received widespread support from my friends in Likud for the call. Likud MK Moshe Saada stated: Yoav Gallant, you were dismissed from your position because 1. You were a weak defense minister of brave soldiers. 2. You undermined the Prime Minister at every opportunity and conducted an independent policy even with the Biden administration, as if you were the Prime Minister yourself. 3. You served as a rubber stamp for the IDF and did not challenge the system even once. 4. You allowed the phenomenon of refusal to grow without ever calling the Chief of Staff and senior IDF officials to order even once. All the other arguments you made this evening are nothing more than the opening of your campaign to lead the left-wing bloc in the next elections. Good luck in your struggle against Lapid, Gantz, and Bennett. Likud MK Tally Gotliv stated: Sir Yoav Gallant. You were removed from your position because you undermined the Prime Minister, who was very patient with you even, when you contemptuously said in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that you arent part of the Prime Ministers victory drumbeats and calls for victory. You were removed because you leaked information to representatives of the Biden administration without permission. You were removed because you expressed a defeatist view regarding the war in the north, contrary to the decisions of the political echelon. You colluded with the IDF Chief of Staff who sought to end the war before achieving all its objectives, and you provided briefings on the matter contrary to the cabinets decisions. You served as a rubber stamp for the Shin Bets requests for administrative detentions of settlers in Yehudah and Shomron. And you were also removed because you acted behind the Prime Ministers back alongside Yuli Edelstein, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, to prevent the legislation of a balanced Chareidi recruitment law all to bring down Netanyahus government! A Defense Minister is not the Prime Minister and is not the right hand of the Chief of Staff. The Defense Minister must be loyal to the government and the cabinet and act to implement their decisions. You had the audacity to come and blame the governments desire to curb the power of the Supreme Court but you werent able to say that encouraging refusal and the call of the pilots and special forces to refuse service are what severely harmed the IDFs readiness. Well, good. Kaplan [Tel Aviv street where leftist protests are held] is by your side. Just so you know, they used you only because they thought you would succeed in toppling the government. Good luck in your future endeavors within the Likud. (YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem) GAZA/CAIRO, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Hamas delegation has visited Egypt's capital Cairo to address challenges surrounding a Gaza ceasefire agreement, Hamas spokesperson Jihad Taha said on Thursday. Taha told Xinhua that the delegation's visit to Cairo was part of ongoing discussions with mediators, including Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye, regarding the situation in Gaza. The visit aimed to address obstacles and conditions "recently imposed" by Israel, Taha said, adding that Hamas is open to any efforts that serve the benefit of Palestinian people and is committed to stopping "the (Israeli) aggression and killings." Taha expressed hope that an agreement could be reached if Israel reverses its recent conditions. Earlier this week, the Israeli state-owned Kan TV reported that Hamas had proposed a one-week ceasefire without a prisoner exchange. Israel rejected the proposal and demanded Hamas provide the list of hostages for release before a ceasefire. A Hamas source revealed that the Hamas delegation's meetings in Cairo with Egyptian officials had resulted in a proposal to postpone certain contentious points hindering a ceasefire deal. The source, speaking anonymously, told Xinhua that the agreements reached with the Egyptian side, including the proposal, would be presented to Israel in a final effort to secure a deal before Jan. 20. Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in a statement that an Israeli delegation will travel to Qatar's Doha to continue Gaza ceasefire negotiations. Also on Thursday, during a meeting with British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty underscored "Egypt's efforts to reach an agreement for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip," according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel have gained momentum in recent weeks to end a nearly 15-month war in Gaza. However, both sides have accused each other of creating obstacles and backtracking on agreements, delaying a ceasefire and the release of hostages. JERUSALEM, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli Air Force struck medium-range rocket launchers belonging to Hezbollah at a military site in southern Lebanon on Thursday evening, the Israeli military said in a statement. Rocket launchers near another military site in the Nabatieh area were also targeted, according to the statement. The military said that, to enforce the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, it had requested the Lebanese Armed Forces to neutralize the launchers before the strike. The launchers, the statement said, posed a threat to Israeli civilians and troops. "The launchers were struck only after the request was not addressed by the Lebanese Armed Forces," the statement said. The military warned that it would continue to target Hezbollah sites in Lebanon if they are perceived as posing "any threat" to Israel. Lebanon and France have accused Israel of carrying out dozens of violations of the fragile ceasefire, which was signed in November last year to end over a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the truck attack in New Orleans, the U.S. state of Louisiana, his spokesperson said late Wednesday. In a statement, the UN chief extended his condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims, and the government and people of Louisiana and the United States. He also wished a swift recovery to those persons injured. A man drove a pickup truck into New Year revelers in New Orleans early Wednesday morning. Officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Thursday that 14 people were confirmed dead. Dozens more were injured. SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Jeju Air CEO Kim E-Bae has been banned from leaving South Korea, local police announced Thursday. Jeonnam National Police Agency, which is investigating the Jeju Airplane disaster, has banned two officials of Jeju Air, including Kim E-Bae, from leaving the country starting from Dec. 31, 2024. The two officials were believed to be "important reference" when the police were investigating allegations of the plane crash accident. The Jeju Air flight 7C2216 from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan airport in southwest South Korea crashed while landing without wheels, killing 179 people onboard with only two crew members survived. PHNOM PENH, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Eighty-seven percent of a 17-million population in Cambodia now have access to basic drinking water, while 21 percent have access to safely managed drinking water, an official said on Thursday. Chreay Pom, director general of technical affairs at the Ministry of Rural Development, disclosed the figures during a meeting on clean water and sanitation in rural areas. "For sanitation, by 2024, approximately 92 percent of the population have access to basic sanitation, while 51 percent have access to safely managed sanitation," he said. According to the ministry, 14 provinces out of the kingdom's 25 provinces have achieved Open Defecation-Free status. Speaking at the meeting, Chhay Rithisen, minister of rural development, said the ministry has planned to declare seven more provinces free of open defecation by the end of 2025. The government has set a goal to ensure that by 2030, all people across the Southeast Asian country will have access to sufficient clean water and 100 percent sanitation, living in a sustainable environment. Local health confronts social media conspiracy impact as preventive care for youngsters seemingly suffers thanks to the strange stuff on their parents' phone . . . Check the data . . . "The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said roughly 9% of all public school kindergarteners in the state did not get the MMR shot to protect against measles, mumps and rubella or the polio vaccine in the 2023-2024 school year. Thats down about 5% compared to the 2019-2020, school year. "St. Louis-area health experts attributed the drop to a variety of reasons, including vaccine weariness and autism misinformation. Dr. Fred Buckhold is a general internist with SSM Health-St Louis University Hospital." Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . . Heavy snowfall is expected in various parts of Ontario today, with some areas north of the GTA expecting to see up to 60 centimetres of snow. The lake effect snow is expected to gradually weaken this afternoon, said Environment and Climate Change Canada in a press release. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Hazardous driving conditions Motorists should expect hazardous winter driving conditions and adjust travel plans accordingly today, the weather watcher said. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow. Take extra care when walking or driving in affected areas. Residents in Guelph, Kitchener, Cambridge, Orangeville, Halton Hills and Caledon can expect to see snowfall of up to five or 10 cm this morning and into the afternoon. Lake-effect snow squalls For areas in the snow belt, including Barrie, Orillia, Collingwood, Washago and Port Carling, lake-effect snow squalls are expected, continuing into Friday morning. Up to 60 cm can be expected there, with poor visibility from blowing and heavy snow. Lake effect snow squalls from Georgian Bay are tracking well inland and will persist today and tonight, said Environment Canada. Lake effect snow is expected for today and tonight before moving south of the area Friday morning. Northwest winds gusting up to 60 kilometres an hour can result in blowing snow and significantly reduced visibility at times. Lake effect snow will return this weekend over some areas. Visibility will be suddenly reduced to near zero at times in heavy snow and blowing snow. Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow. Road closures are possible. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve, Environment Canada said. In places such as Peterborough, Lakefield, Fenelon Falls, up to 25 cm is expected today. In northern communities like Bracebridge, Parry Sound and Gravenhurst, five to 10 cm is anticipated. Weather conditions can change throughout the day. To see the latest weather conditions in your area, visit weather.gc.ca. SHANGHAI, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China Eastern Airlines on Wednesday started using China's domestically-produced C919 jetliner for regular flights between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Flight MU721 carrying 157 passengers took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 8:21 a.m., marking the inauguration of the route operating the aircraft type. It makes China Eastern Airlines the first airline to use the C919 for scheduled commercial flights to Hong Kong. The company plans to conduct daily round-trip flights. Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang (R) and Vanuatu's caretaker Prime Minister Charlot Salwai attend the handover ceremony of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, Jan. 2, 2025. A batch of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrived in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Thursday. The 35-ton aid includes tents, folding beds, solar lights, food, water purifiers and medical equipment. (Xinhua/Long Lei) PORT VILA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A batch of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrived in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Thursday. The 35-ton aid includes tents, folding beds, solar lights, food, water purifiers and medical equipment. "We deeply understand that the recent earthquake has caused significant damage," said Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang at the handover ceremony, adding that China will always stand together with Vanuatu to assist the country recovering at an early date. Also attending the event, Vanuatu's caretaker Prime Minister Charlot Salwai expressed the country's appreciation for China's assistance, and said it will support Vanuatu's recovery process going forward. A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Port Vila on Dec. 17, killing at least 14 people, injuring more than 200 and severely damaging the city's infrastructure. Staff members carry emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government at the airport in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, Jan. 2, 2025. A batch of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrived in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Thursday. The 35-ton aid includes tents, folding beds, solar lights, food, water purifiers and medical equipment. (Xinhua/Long Lei) A plane carrying emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrives in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Jan. 2, 2025. A batch of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrived in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Thursday. The 35-ton aid includes tents, folding beds, solar lights, food, water purifiers and medical equipment. (Xinhua/Long Lei) Vanuatu's caretaker Prime Minister Charlot Salwai speaks at the handover ceremony of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, Jan. 2, 2025. A batch of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrived in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Thursday. The 35-ton aid includes tents, folding beds, solar lights, food, water purifiers and medical equipment. (Xinhua/Long Lei) Staff members unload emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government at the airport in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, Jan. 2, 2025. A batch of emergency relief supplies offered by the Chinese government arrived in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila on Thursday. The 35-ton aid includes tents, folding beds, solar lights, food, water purifiers and medical equipment. (Xinhua/Long Lei) NEW DELHI, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condemned a truck attack which killed 15 people in New Orleans of the southern U.S. state of Louisiana early Wednesday. "We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy," Modi said in a post on X (erstwhile Twitter). The attacker rammed a truck into a crowd and then opened fire indiscriminately, killing 15 people and injuring many others. ROME, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 2,000 refugees died in 2024 while attempting to reach Europe, according to recent data from the United Nations and Italian sources. At least 2,200 refugees and migrants were reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea last year, the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday. Regina De Dominicis, director of UNICEF's Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, highlighted that many of the victims were young people. She urged governments to prioritize the protection of children seeking safety in Europe. Earlier data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) showed 2,368 deaths or disappearances along Mediterranean and Northwest Africa maritime routes in 2024. The UNHCR reported 193,448 arrivals in Europe by Dec. 29, with Italy emerging as the primary landing point for refugees and migrants. Greece and Spain followed closely behind. Students coming from rural populations will now have access to quality engineering education and opportunities following the University of NebraskaLincoln's announcement of the opening of the Nebraska Engineering Inclusive Excellence Center. The center will not just focus on education, but also resource enhancement for students who study engineering and belong to diverse groups such as rural populations. For the University, it's a leap toward filling the increasing gaps found in skilled labor jobs, like engineering. For the initiative to happen, the University's website acknowledged that this was made possible through a two-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Lance C. Perez, dean of engineering, hopes that through these partnerships with schools and communities statewide, it can encourage more students to consider a career in engineering. Read more: Lack of Nearby Community Colleges Worsens Education Gaps in Rural Areas Meeting Workforce Demands As previously stated, the aim is not just to widen access for aspiring Engineering students but also to produce skilled laborers. In fact, the activities of the center will be based on the Complete Engineer program, a ten-year program that combines technical knowledge with necessary non-technical skills such as leadership and teamwork. Key goals will be to develop peer-mentoring programs, relationships with educators, and faculty development in innovative teaching methods. This will ensure students succeed academically while also developing skills for the workforce. The center also intends to review existing student support programs and implement targeted approaches, such as linking students with mentors who have similar experiences. This tailored support system is meant to enable more students to complete their degrees and transition into successful careers in engineering. The new center will be located in the new six-story Kiewit Hall, which opened in January 2024, with the building designed to create stronger faculty engagement. With this initiative, the University of Nebraska is setting a path toward inclusive and comprehensive approaches to engineering education, providing all aspiring Engineers to have tools to succeed in the workforce. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Jan, 2025) H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, today received Ruben Ramirez Lezcano, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay, in Abu Dhabi. During the meeting, both sides discussed ways to strengthen the UAE-Paraguay relationship and expand cooperation in various areas, including economic, trade and investment. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed reaffirmed the UAE's commitment to fostering a strong and prosperous relationship with friendly Paraguay to promote sustainable development for both nations and their peoples. The two sides also addressed key regional and international issues of shared concern and exchanged views on them. Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, attended the meeting. DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Jan, 2025) Dubai Land Department launched the Smart Rental Index 2025, marking a transformative milestone in regulating and developing Dubais real estate sector. This index represents a comprehensive system that integrates the latest technologies and real estate expertise, aiming to provide exceptional services that meet the needs of all stakeholders in the real estate market. It further enhances transparency and fairness in determining rental values, aligning with Dubais Digital Strategy and the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033 objectives. This was announced during a press conference held at the departments headquarters, which was attended by several strategic partners, along with a group of representatives from government entities and real estate companies in Dubai, as well as DLDs CEOs and Directors. The index relies on an advanced building classification system that considers all technical and service-related aspects of properties. Each building is evaluated based on a comprehensive set of criteria, including technical and structural characteristics, the quality of finishes and maintenance, the buildings strategic location and its spatial value, as well as the level of services and facilities available, such as maintenance, cleanliness, and parking management. This mechanism aims to ensure accurate and fair determination of rental values, reflecting each propertys true quality and advantages. During the conference, Majid Al Marri, CEO of the Real Estate Registration Sector at Dubai Land Department, emphasised that the launch of the Smart Rental Index marks a pivotal transformation in the regulation and development of the real estate sector in Dubai. He highlighted that this initiative enhances transparency, builds trust, and provides stakeholders with a balanced and sustainable environment. He stated This index relies on artificial intelligence technologies and a building classification system and provides fair and accurate rental valuations, strengthening Dubais position as a global investment destination. He added, In 2024, the total number of registered rental contracts exceeded 900,000, reflecting an 8 percent growth compared to the previous year. This increase reflects the growing confidence in the Dubai real estate market, enabling all parties in rental agreements to make well-informed, ultimately achieving the aspirations of all parties and enhancing the long-term sustainability of the market. The index is based on unified and clear criteria to ensure transparency in the property valuation process. A precise calculation mechanism was developed that considers all factors influencing rental value, including the real estate market condition; it is characterised by its flexibility due to the continuous updating of standards to keep pace with market changes, ensuring that the expectations of both landlords and tenants are met. The press conference also featured a detailed presentation on the new rental index, delivered by Khalid Al Shaibani, Director of the Rental Affairs Department at Dubai Land Department. Al Shaibani highlighted the advantages of the innovative index and its role in enhancing transparency and developing the real estate sector, contributing to creating a balanced and sustainable environment that serves all relevant stakeholders. Earlier, Dubai Land Department launched a series of initiatives to enhance the sectors efficiency and simplify procedures. These include interactive rental contracts that allow landlords and tenants to register, renew, and cancel contracts seamlessly through the Dubai REST app, as well as interactive property management contracts that enable property owners and management companies to register and modify contracts directly via the smart app, eliminating the need for traditional procedures. Additionally, DLD introduced the Model Tenant Classification system, an innovative tool to classify tenants credit ratings and obtain credit reports through the Ejari system and the smart app for interested parties. In line with its commitment to transparency and fairness, Dubai Land Department applies a clear system for rental increases through the index, in accordance with Decree No. (34) of 2013. The increase percentages are determined based on the difference between the current rental value and the average market rent. Rental increases start at 0 percent for rents that are less than 10 percent below the average market rent and can reach up to 20 percent for rents that exceed the average by more than 40 percent. This system aims to ensure a fair balance, protecting the rights of both landlords and tenants while contributing to the markets stability. The index covers all residential areas in Dubai, including key areas, special development zones, and free zones, ensuring the standardisation of evaluation and pricing criteria across the emirate. It provides landlords with a reliable tool to valuate properties and determine rent increases transparently while offering tenants protection from unjustified increases, thereby enhancing their confidence in the real estate market. DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Jan, 2025) The Yad Al Khair Committee under the Rental Disputes Center in Dubai has received a donation of AED 3 million from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment. The donation reflects the spirit of solidarity and humanity prevailing in the UAE, and aims to promote social cohesionaims to resolve certain humanitarian cases and release individuals detained for rental judgment execution due to their inability to pay. Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita, Director-General of the Dubai Land Department, expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the Rental Disputes Center and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment for their significant role in supporting social causes. He commended the establishment's contribution of AED 3 million to the "Yad Al Khair" Committee, which helps stabilise relations between landlords and tenants, ensuring the sustainability of Dubai's real estate environment. Saleh Zaher Al Mazrouei, Director-General of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment, highlighted that the establishment's contributions reflect the directives of its leader, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to fulfil its humanitarian mission. The initiatives are part of broader plans to extend all possible assistance to community members and strengthen cooperation with other entities to expand the reach of charitable and humanitarian work, ensuring stability and prosperity for families while contributing to the development of the nation. Judge Abdul Qader Mousa Mohammed, Chairman of the Rental Disputes Center, also expressed his heartfelt thanks to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Establishment for their generous support. He emphasised that the donation demonstrates the establishments commitment to improving lives and promoting social justice. He stated, We deeply value the generous support received, which reflects the establishments dedication to social responsibility, an integral part of the UAEs societal fabric. Their charitable efforts aim to foster a cohesive and stable community, reinforcing social solidarity and security across Dubai. On the role of such charitable assistance in alleviating the burdens on families affected by rental disputes, the Chairman added, The Rental Disputes Center, while serving as a judicial body to enforce the law, also upholds humanitarian values. We carefully assess cases of those facing financial hardships and determine the most deserving humanitarian cases based on transparency. Donations provided to the 'Yad Al Khair' Committee help rectify these situations, offering a renewed sense of hope and enabling families to regain their normal lives, fostering social unity and support. Ahmed Khalfan Al Mansoori, board Member of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment, stated that this donation aligns with ongoing efforts to support underprivileged groups and ensure a dignified life for them. He added that the initiative also reinforces social and humanitarian initiatives that promote community cohesion and enhance quality of life. The donation aims to help families struggling to comply with rental judgment executions due to financial difficulties by settling disputes amicably and offering financial aid to those in need. Participants pose for a selfie in Lake Ontario during the Toronto Polar Bear Dip event in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 1, 2025. Hundreds of people braved the chilly waters here on Wednesday to celebrate the first day of 2025 and raise funds for charity. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) Participants wade in Lake Ontario during the Toronto Polar Bear Dip event in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 1, 2025. Hundreds of people braved the chilly waters here on Wednesday to celebrate the first day of 2025 and raise funds for charity. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) Participants rush into Lake Ontario during the Toronto Polar Bear Dip event in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 1, 2025. Hundreds of people braved the chilly waters here on Wednesday to celebrate the first day of 2025 and raise funds for charity. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) Participants rush into Lake Ontario during the Toronto Polar Bear Dip event in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 1, 2025. Hundreds of people braved the chilly waters here on Wednesday to celebrate the first day of 2025 and raise funds for charity. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) Participants rush into Lake Ontario during the Toronto Polar Bear Dip event in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 1, 2025. Hundreds of people braved the chilly waters here on Wednesday to celebrate the first day of 2025 and raise funds for charity. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) Participants rush into Lake Ontario during the Toronto Polar Bear Dip event in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 1, 2025. Hundreds of people braved the chilly waters here on Wednesday to celebrate the first day of 2025 and raise funds for charity. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) Participants rush into Lake Ontario during the Toronto Polar Bear Dip event in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 1, 2025. Hundreds of people braved the chilly waters here on Wednesday to celebrate the first day of 2025 and raise funds for charity. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Jan, 2025) The United Arab Emirates has strongly condemned the shooting incident in Montenegro in an area northwest of the capital, Podgorica, which resulted in multiple deaths and injuries to dozens of innocent people. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) affirmed that the UAE expresses its strong condemnation of these criminal acts and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence aimed at undermining security and stability. The Ministry expressed its solidarity with the government and people of Montenegro, and with the families of the victims of this heinous criminal attack, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Jan, 2025) Saqr Ghobash, Speaker of the Federal National Council (FNC), met with Dr. Andrea Caroni, President of the Council of States of the Swiss Confederation, at the FNC headquarters in Abu Dhabi. During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to strengthen parliamentary relations, exchange expertise and visits, and enhance coordination and consultation on various issues through participation in international parliamentary events. Saqr Ghobash highlighted that this visit reflects the strong bilateral ties between the two friendly nations. He congratulated Caroni on his election as President of the Council of States in early December. He stressed the importance of bolstering parliamentary cooperation to match the strategic partnership between the two countries, noting that bilateral parliamentary collaboration holds promising prospects, supported by a solid foundation of established economic and trade relations. For his part, Dr. Andrea Caroni emphasised his parliaments commitment to strengthening and expanding cooperation with the UAE across various fields. He highlighted the UAEs prominent economic position, remarkable development, and wise policies promoting international security, peace, and stability. (@FahadShabbir) SARGODHA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jan, 2025) Commissioner Sargodha Division, Jahanzab Awan on Thursday presided over a meeting to discuss the outsourcing of the Waste Management Company (WMC). The session was attended by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) SWMC Rana Shahid Imran, Director Local Government Asif Iqbal Malik,Additional Deputy Commissioner (Rtd) Fahad Mehmood,and Deputy Commissioners of Mianwali and Bhakkar, along with Assistant Commissioners with some joining via video link. During the briefing,CEO WMC Shahid Imran outlined the outsourcing system, stating that the company would officially commence cleaning operations in all four districts on January 25. The presentation detailed various initiatives, including manual sweeping, de-silting, mechanical sweeping, Primary waste collection, and door-to-door waste collection plans. The Commissioner reviewed the machinery and human resources and emphasizing the need to align resources with on-ground realities to ensure program's success. He instructed all deputy commissioners to closely monitor all aspects of the waste management operations,with special attention to maintaining regular meetings with contractors and inspections of waste enclosures and dumping sites. "The Clean Punjab Program is a flagship initiative of the government," stated the commissioner, stressing that the administration of all four districts must be thoroughly familiar with the outsourcing system.He directed the CEO of the WMC to provide detailed cleaning operation plans to the deputy commissioners . (@ChaudhryMAli88) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Ali Raza reiterated the Islamabad Police's commitment to resolving public issues on priority during a Khuli Kachehri (open court) on Thursday ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jan, 2025) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Ali Raza reiterated the Islamabad Police's commitment to resolving public issues on priority during a Khuli Kachehri (open court) on Thursday. A public relation officer told APP during the Khuli Kachehri, DIG listened to the complaints of the citizens and marked their applications to the concerned officers for timely action on merit. He also directed them to send reports to his offices in the given time frame. DIG Raza further said that strict action will be taken against officers involved in bribery or corruption and a zero-tolerance policy will be adopted in this regard. Raza emphasized that Islamabad Police would not leave any stone unturned to secure the lives and property of the citizens. Such interaction would be continued in future to provide maximum relief to the citizens. he added. DIG Syed Ali Raza further said that interaction during Khuli Kachehris would help to promote friendly policing and will also ensure self-accountability, immediate resolution of citizens' problems. The protection of life, property and self-respect of citizens comes first, he maintained. APP-rzr-mkz (@FahadShabbir) During an overseas deployment to the Arabian Gulf, Pakistan Navy ships Rasadgar and Azmat, along with Pakistan Maritime Security Agency ship Dasht, visited Port Bandar Abbas, Iran ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jan, 2025) During an overseas deployment to the Arabian Gulf, Pakistan Navy ships Rasadgar and Azmat, along with Pakistan Maritime Security Agency ship Dasht, visited Port Bandar Abbas, Iran. The flotilla was led by Commander 14th Destroyer Squadron, Commodore Muhammad Umair, said a news release issued by Directorate General Public Relations (Pak Navy) here Thursday. Upon arrival at the port, Pakistan Navy ships were warmly received by representatives of Pakistan Embassy and officials from the host Navy. The Mission Commander, along with the Commanding Officers, held meetings with naval leadership of Iran. During these interactions, matters of mutual interest, Navy-to-Navy engagements, and cooperation in maritime security were discussed. The Mission Commander also conveyed well-wishes from Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Naveed Ashraf, for the people of Iran. Following the port call, both PN and PMSA ships conducted a Passage Exercise with an Iranian Navy ship. The exercise at sea aimed to enhance interoperability between the two navies and promote shared learning through coordinated activities. The visit of the PN flotilla to Iran is expected to further strengthen existing diplomatic ties and cordial relations between the two nations. PHNOM PENH, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jan, 2025) Cambodia's Ministry of Environment has launched a "National Roads Without Plastic Waste" campaign to ensure that national roads are free of garbage and plastic waste, said a ministry's press release on Thursday. Environment Minister Eang Sophalleth said the campaign, which started on Wednesday, would contribute to enhancing the cleanliness and appeal of the country's roadways. "The campaign will improve the aesthetic value of cities and towns along national roads, contributing to a more beautiful, hygienic, and environmentally friendly environment," he said. "It will promote clean air, greater orderliness, and attract both tourists and investors to Cambodia, creating more comfortable and livable spaces for residents," he added. Sophalleth called upon all stakeholders, both public and private, as well as local authorities and citizens to organize road cleaning activities in their respective areas. He also urged the strengthening of waste management and continued participation in the "Today I Will Not Use Plastic Bags" campaign to reduce plastic use. According to the press release, so far, over 9.7 million people, including students, have participated in the plastic-free campaign since its launch in September 2023. "These efforts are part of a broader strategy to reduce plastic waste and promote responsible waste management," the press release said. In 2024, the plastic-free campaign led to an 80-percent reduction in plastic imports and a significant decrease in plastic litter on the streets in 11 provinces, with an 80-percent reduction in waste compared to 2023, the press release said. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Gaza Strip, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jan, 2025) Gaza's civil defence agency said on Thursday that an overnight Israeli air strike killed at least 11 people, including the chief of the territory's Hamas-run police force. "Eleven people were martyred, including three children and two women, and 15 were injured after the occupation aircraft bombed a tent housing displaced people in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip," Gaza's civil defence agency said in a statement. Among those killed were the police chief Mahmud Salah and his deputy Hussam Shahwan, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. In a separate statement, the Hamas-run interior ministry condemned the killing of the two police officers, saying "they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people". "By committing the assassination, the occupation continues to spread chaos in the (Gaza) Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens," the ministry said, adding that "the police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens". Nearly 15 months of war have devastated Gaza's infrastructure and institutions leading aid agencies to warn of the breakdown of social order. The ministry said Salah spent 30 years in the police and was appointed its chief six years ago. The Israeli military told AFP that it was looking into the incident. Seoul, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Jan, 2025) South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol remained defiantly in his residence in Seoul on Thursday as investigators probing his ill-fated declaration of martial law sought to detain him for questioning. Investigators have an arrest warrant but Yoon's die-hard supporters, including far-right YouTube personalities, are gathering outside in a bid to protect him, setting up potential clashes with police and anti-Yoon protesters. AFP takes a look at what we know: - What's going on? - Yoon plunged democratic South Korea into political chaos on December 3 with a declaration of martial law that was quickly voted down by lawmakers, prompting an embarrassing U-turn just hours later. He was impeached and suspended from office over the debacle, and he is being investigated on charges of insurrection -- which is not covered by presidential immunity. The suspended leader is defiant, sending his hardline supporters a message claiming the country was "in danger" and vowing to fight along side them "to the very end" -- raising fears of a dangerous stand-off. In that letter, Yoon thanked his far-right supporters for "protecting the constitutional order of liberal democracy". The message "smacks of despair", said Vladimir Tikhonov, Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo. "More than 60 percent of South Koreans want the impeachment to be approved by the Constitutional Court, and this figure includes a significant number of moderate conservatives," he told AFP. Yoon was now appealing to the far right to protect him from legitimate court orders, Tikhonov said, warning it could lead to violence. Small-business owners will have the opportunity to give five-minute presentations about their businesses and raise awareness about their offerings during the Small Business Showcase Thursday, Jan. 23. Kenny Overby and small-business owners will head the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network event from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Cottonwood Room at the Laramie County Library, located at 2200 Pioneer Ave. in Cheyenne. The event is co-sponsored by the Laramie County Library. Businesses interested in presenting must register with the Wyoming SBDC Network and email Overby at koverby@uwyo.edu by Friday, Jan. 10. To register, go here. Registration is free, and the public is invited. Light refreshments and drinks will be provided. The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by the University of Wyoming with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Small Business Showcase will select only one business per category so that a variety of industries can be heard. No items may be sold at the event, but businesses can offer discount codes or coupons to attendees. Overby is the Wyoming SBDC Networks regional director for Goshen and Laramie counties and has 18 years of experience owning and running small businesses. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs demystify small businesses and enjoy the journey of business ownership. For more information, call Overby at (307) 631-7721 or email koverby@uwyo.edu. Four University of Wyoming faculty members working on three separate projects received funding from a grant awarded to UW by the Technology and Innovation Partnerships Directorate of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Po Chen, Debasish Dutta and co-principal investigators John Oakey and Cynthia Weinig are the first UW professors to have projects funded out of an Accelerating Research Translation (ART) grant from NSF that was awarded to UW in February. Each project receives $75,000 out of the grant this year. Chens project on Full 3D-Tomography (F3DT) Software has potential applications in nondestructive ultrasound testing, ultrasound medical imaging and seismic analysis. F3DT has superior capabilities over current techniques because it captures multiple types of physical properties coupled with better spatial resolution. Funding for this project will result in faster data capture, improved spatial resolution and an improved graphical user interface to make the software more commercially viable. Chen is an associate professor of geology and geophysics at UW. Duttas project involves a method for analyzing results of human nasal test swabs using a lateral flow imunoassay device. The proposed device would potentially improve accuracy of conventional rapid influenza diagnostic tests by a couple orders of magnitude. It employs a dissolvable substrate that doesnt require as much liquid for analysis due to an improved novel sensor. Dutta is a UW chemistry professor. The funded project by Weinig, a UW botany professor, and Oakey, a UW professor of chemical and biomedical engineering, explores the feasibility of using hydrogel plant growth substrates with intact microbiomes in controlled environment agriculture. The use of sterile rockwool mats is common as a plant growth substrate, but they lack a critical biotic component that would enhance plant growth. The proposed microbiome growth substrate employs proprietary hydrogel particles or spun fibers to enable plant-microbiome interactions in the root zone that anchor the microbiome and enhance plant growth. Our congratulations go to each of these researchers at UW, says Parag Chitnis, vice president of UWs Research and Economic Development Division and principal investigator for the ART program. These projects competed with 15 other applications under a highly rigorous and competitive review process that used external technology transfer experts as reviewers. We look forward to seeing how Wyoming reaps economic benefit from the translation of the research into real-world applications. UW is just one of 18 institutions nationwide selected to receive a total of $100 million from NSF for the ART program, which is to be used to reengineer an awarded universitys research and commercialization enterprise. UW joins a select group of other universities receiving funding that includes Clemson University, Florida State University, the University of Alabama, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Missouri. President Ed Seidel and Deputy Vice President of Research and Innovation Arundeep Pradhan serve as co-principal investigators of UW ART. UW has two partners to provide mentorship and training for the ART program: CSU STRATA and Apio Innovation Transfer. CSU STRATA is a private, nonprofit corporation and legally separate from the Colorado State University (CSU) System. Founded in 1941, it supports and serves the campuses and affiliates of the CSU System through intellectual property management and technology transfer services. Its staff will serve as mentors for the UW technology transfer office as it seeks to reorganize and reengineer technology transfer at the university. Apio Innovation Transfer will provide training and hands-on commercialization and translational research support to students, faculty and staff. This vibrant image promotes an article titled One Night in Berlin: Germanys Obsession with David Hasselhoff by Tamala Malerk. The design features bold lime green text against a dynamic pink background, with a photograph of a man passionately singing into a microphone. The energetic lighting and abstract brushstroke graphics evoke the excitement of a live concert, capturing the essence of Hasselhoffs enduring popularity in Germany. () The camera focuses on luscious, wavy brown locks sitting upon the collar of a black leather jacket. Suddenly, the jacket lights up with bright white, flashing circles; an electronic beat and the words One morning in June, some 20 years ago blast through the speakers. David Hasselhoff turns to face the camera and belts out his hit, Looking for Freedom on the debris of the fallen Berlin Wall in front of a crowd of one million. Its December 31, 1989, and this moment will cement his status as a German music icon. It is no secret that David Hasselhoff is a popular musician in Germany. Fans of the movie Dodgeball, can recall the scene of the German dodgeball team placing their hands on a signed framed picture of Hasselhoff prior to the match, and then the man himself berating the team in the German language for losing. But how did Hasselhoff become so synonymous with German fame and celebrity? Early in the 1980s, Hasselhoff rocketed to fame in the U.S. with his starring roles in the American television series Knight Rider and later Baywatch. However, in the mid-1980s, Hasselhoff hit some bumps in the road: Knight Rider was canceled, he failed to successfully crossover to the music industry and his marriage ended. In 1987, a fan named Nikki changed everything for Hasselhoff, he recalled in an interview with NPR in 2019. Nikki won a contest to have lunch with Hasselhoff in his home and revealed to the musician that his album Night Rocker, which flopped in the U.S., was number one in her home country of Austria. A few short weeks later, Hasselhoff performed at sold-out concerts across Austria and his album topped the charts in Germany and Switzerland. David Hasselhoff wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and sunglasses strikes a confident pose in front of a vintage jukebox. The scene is set indoors, with walls adorned with colorful posters, including one prominently featuring David Hasselhoff and titled Inferno. The retro aesthetic and playful vibe emphasize a nostalgic and charismatic energy. () In June 1989, Hasselhoff released an album with the same name as the aforementioned hit, Looking for Freedom and a cover of the 1970s German song, Auf der Strasse Nach Suden. This song became emblematic of the fall of the wall, in addition to other pushes for freedom across Europe in 1989, such as the first free elections held in Poland. His album went triple platinum in Germany, and it was not long before Hasselhoff was invited to perform his mega-hit on a popular German Silvester Show (similar to the Dick Clark New Years Eve special), to which Hasselhoff replied, Sure, only if I can sing on the wall. David Hasselhoff in iconic piano scarf (David Hasselhoff (Facebook)) He revealed to TIME magazine in 2019 that he believed there was no way he would be allowed to perform on the crumbled Berlin wall, only to receive the call soon after that he would be placed on a crane above the crowd. When he recalls that night in Berlin, he notes that yes, he still has the light-up jacket, they should have merchandised the now-famous piano scarf he also wore that night and reveals that no one realized he was hit in the leg by a firework. Aside from the slight firework hiccup, the night was one that Hasselhoff will happily never forget. He tells TIME, The whole thing was surreal. It was the greatest celebration of all time. I knew nothing except for having children would ever top this moment. Nothing has. As the song winds down, Hasselhoff repeats the chorus Ive been looking for freedom (looking for freedom) Since I left my hometown (left my hometown) Ive been looking for freedom (been looking for freedom) Still, it cant be found (cant be found) for the large crowd. The music ends and Hasselhoff turns to face the camera quickly before facing the crowd, raising his fist in the air and letting out a triumphant woooo. Hasselhoff performs in Germany and Europe today where he is still very popular. He performed a three-hour concert in Berlin on October 3, 2019, celebrating German Unity Day, yelling at the end, 30 years of freedom! If you missed his iconic performance in 1989, fear not, you can watch the performance on YouTube whenever you want . Attendance at epic moments in Germany featuring Americans: Ronald Reagans Tear down this wall speech: 45,000 JFKs Ich Bin ein Berliner speech: 450,000 David Hasselhoffs Looking for Freedom performance: 1,000,000 Amendments to school textbooks by Syria's new authorities have sparked outrage from parents, educators and rights groups. The changes, announced Wednesday, affect first-to-12th-grade schoolbooks in all Syrian schools, with a focus on history, religion and science textbooks. The Education Ministry under the countrys caretaker government announced the decision following the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assads regime in an Islamist-led rebel offensive just weeks ago. The changes include removing all content glorifying the former Syrian regime, its leaders, symbols, and the Baath party, which had ruled Syria since 1963. The ministrys directive also mandates revisions in subjects such as history, religion and science. For example, any reference to women, love and pre-Islamic gods are to be removed from textbooks. Additionally, the ministry has ordered the removal of an entire unit on human evolution from a science textbook. Fadwa, a mother of two schoolchildren in Damascus who only gave her first name, expressed her disappointment over the revisions. You can remove all mentions of Assad and his regime from all books, but you cannot erase history and obscure science its just wrong, she told VOA via messaging app. This is not a political matter, but it concerns the future of our children and country. Fadwa is deeply concerned about her childrens education, she said, if the amendments are not reversed. The caretaker government, including the Education Ministry, is dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an Islamist militant group that led the offensive leading to the ouster of Assad on Dec. 8. HTS, once considered al-Qaidas Syria branch, formally severed ties with the global terror group in 2016. However, experts note, it continues to uphold a radical Islamist ideology. HTS leaders have pledged to establish an inclusive transitional government that reflects Syrias religious and ethnic diversity. Observers argue, though, that some of the groups actions on the ground contradict these claims. They say all the good things on television, but the reality is that this group is imposing its ideology on Syrians, said Youssif Ahmed, a Syrian educator. They have no legitimate mandate to make drastic changes on such an important issue as education, he told VOA. These matters require patience and expertise, which Im not sure these people have. They are in a rush to make these big changes which, if implemented, will have long-term implications for the education process in this country. Ahmed pointed out as an example the new revisions in which the term Ottoman occupation of Syria has been replaced with Ottoman rule. This is not a move to correct a historical error, but it shows their intention to appease their Turkish allies, he said. Turkey, a key backer of the rebels since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, says it has played a role in supporting the offensive that led to Assads overthrow. Turkish officials have said Ankara will help the new rulers in Damascus rebuild Syrias political and economic structures. While some adjustments such as removing content praising Assad are seen as positive, other revisions raise serious concerns, said Rami Jarrah, a prominent Syrian journalist. These amendments require an inclusive framework that ensures representation from all segments of Syrian society in the decision-making process, he wrote on social media platform X. Without this inclusivity, these unilateral changes risk deepening societal divisions and undermining the principles of shared governance and national unity. In response to growing criticism, Nazir al-Qadri, the caretaker governments minister of education, said the curricula in all Syrian schools should remain as is until specialized committees are formed to review them. We have only directed the deletion of what glorifies the former Assad regime, and we have adopted images of the Syrian Revolution flag instead of the flag of the former regime in all schoolbooks, Qadri said in a statement on Thursday. What has been announced is a modification of some of the incorrect information that the former Assad regime adopted in the Islamic education curriculum, such as explaining some Quranic verses in a wrong way, he said. We have adopted their correct explanation as stated in the interpretation books for all educational levels. One such revision includes adding the terms Jews and Christians to the explanation of a verse in the Quran, the holy Muslim book, about those who angered God. The Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights, a Christian advocacy group based in Sweden, says such amendments pose a danger to religious coexistence in Syria. This action is considered an explicit incitement to religious hatred and the spread of discrimination and exclusion speech, the group said in a statement on Thursday. This interpretation contradicts the principles of religious tolerance and coexistence that have always distinguished the Syrian society. Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, wrote on X that the new Syria school textbooks are moving from a nationalist to Islamist interpretation of Syrian history. This story originated in VOAs Kurdish Service. U.S. President Joe Biden awarded the nations second-highest civilian honor to 20 people at a White House ceremony Thursday evening. "For the final time as president, I have the privilege of bestowing the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of our nations highest honors, on an extraordinary and I mean an extraordinary group of Americans," Biden said in his remarks at the ceremony. "Together, you embody and I mean this from the bottom of my heart an essential truth: Were a great nation. Were a great nation because were good people," Biden later added. The medal recipients include Representative Bennie Thompson and former Representative Elizabeth Cheney, who led a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob seeking to disrupt the certification of Bidens 2020 election win over Donald Trump. Trump, who won the 2024 election for a new term starting later this month, has said Thompson and Cheney should be jailed. Applause appeared to be particularly lengthy and loud for Cheney, who was recognized "for putting the American people over party." A White House statement about Thursdays honorees said Cheney, a Republican, "raised her voice and reached across the aisle to defend our Nation and the ideals we stand for: Freedom. Dignity. And decency." The statement said Thompson was "at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth." Created in 1969, the Presidential Citizens Medal honors citizens "who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens." "President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others," the White House said. "The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice." "Over 50 years, presidents of both parties have awarded this medal to Americans who've met that high calling," Biden said at the ceremony. Also honored Thursday were Mary Bonauto and Evan Wolfson, who worked to legalize same-sex marriage in the United States. Frank Butler is another medal recipient, with the White House highlighting his effort to set standards for the use of tourniquets and saying he "transformed battlefield trauma care for the United States military and saved countless lives." Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi was posthumously honored for her successful legal challenge against the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Others who were honored posthumously include war correspondent Joseph Galloway, civil rights advocate Louis Redding and judge Collins Seitz. Biden honored Eleanor Smeal for her work in leading womens rights protests and fighting for equal pay for women. Medals were also awarded to a former Representative Carolyn McCarthy and a group of former U.S. senators: Bill Bradley, Chris Dodd, Nancy Kassebaum and Ted Kaufman. Other honorees include Diane Carlson Evans, founder of the Vietnam Womens Memorial Foundation, and photographer Bobby Sager. Fulbright University Vietnam founder Thomas Vallely, breast cancer research advocate Frances Visco and Savannah College of Art and Design founder Paula Wallace also received the medal. In his remarks, Biden also paid respect to former President Jimmy Carter, who died earlier this week at the age of 100. "May we all strive to measure up to his highest standard of active citizenship," Biden said. VOA reporter Liam Scott contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. FBI investigators are looking to see if two separate attacks in the U.S. on New Years Day are linked. So far, the FBI says early indications from the investigation into one of the attacks pointed to a scenario U.S. law enforcement and security officials have long feared a plot at least inspired by the Islamic State terror group. We spoke with organized crime expert Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI Special Agent and now CEO of the Brunner Sierra Group. Even before the shock from the deadly New Years Day terror attack in New Orleans could subside, early indications from the investigation pointed to a scenario U.S. law enforcement and security officials have long feared a plot at least inspired by the Islamic State terror group. The FBI Wednesday confirmed reports the suspect had planted an IS flag in the pickup truck he used to plow into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the early hours of Wednesday morning before he was killed during a shootout with police. Late Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said the FBI found the suspect had taken other actions mere hours before the attack to make his loyalty known. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen and former Army reservist, had "posted videos on social media indicating that it was inspired by ISIS," Biden said, using another name for the terror group. "The situation is very fluid, Biden added. "The law enforcement and intelligence community are continuing to look for any connections, associations or co-conspirators," he said. However, that investigation included the execution of search warrants at various locations in New Orleans and other states, an operation by the FBI and other law enforcement officials at a traffic intersection in Houston and questions as to whether there could be any connection to an attempt to blow up a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Regardless of additional conspirators or connections, details of the New Orleans attack itself correspond with tactics long espoused by IS propagandists. What we saw fits in with the common pattern weve seen from the Islamic State for a while, said Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who specializes in jihadism. Theyve been calling for car ramming attacks for years. Every day they put out pushes for supporters, prospective recruits, anyone to do something on their behalf, Zelin told VOA. One of the first IS-linked attacks using a vehicle as a weapon took place in Nice, France, in 2016. A 31-year-old Tunisian-born Frenchman who was divorced and suffered from depression plowed into a Bastille Day celebration, killing more than 80 people. Months later, a 24-year-old Tunisian man used a truck to drive into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people. He, too, posted a video pledging allegiance to IS before carrying out the attack. IS additionally claimed a November 2017 truck ramming attack in New York that killed at least eight people, in which police officials said the attacker followed IS instructions on vehicle attacks almost exactly to a T. Even as the IS terror group retreated from counterterrorism pressure in places like Syria and Afghanistan, its leaders never abandoned the quest to inspire attacks around the world. "In Afghanistan ... ISIS-Khorasan, continues to harbor intent to conduct external operations and maintains Englishlanguage media releases that aim to globalize the groups local grievances among Western audiences," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned in written congressional testimony in October 2023. Even the most recent Homeland Security threat assessment, issued in September, cautioned that IS, with other terror groups such as al-Qaida, maintain the enduring intent to conduct or inspire attacks in the Homeland, rating the threat level as high. The September assessment further warned that IS online media groups also sought to capitalize on the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Middle East to inspire more violent action. FBI Director Christopher Wray has also said repeatedly that the bureaus domestic terrorism caseload remains high, with about 1,000 IS-related investigations each year spanning all 50 U.S. states. According to data compiled by Seamus Hughes, a senior researcher faculty member at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center, or NCITE, more than 250 individuals have been charged with IS-related activities since 2014. Most of those cases, according to Hughes, have resulted in guilty pleas or convictions; Justice Department prosecutors have only lost one case that went to trial. Meanwhile, the FBI has had success in disrupting IS-linked or inspired terror plots. In October, for example, agents arrested a 27-year-old Afghan national in Oklahoma City, charging him and a juvenile co-conspirator with attempting to carry out a mass shooting on Election Day. IS has so far yet to claim the New Orleans terror attack as its own, but the Washington Institutes Aaron Zelin said the attack is already generating excitement among IS supporters on social media. Some U.S. counterterrorism officials worry that excitement will play to the terror groups advantage. "From their view, it's less important that an attack kills large numbers of people than it simply garners a lot of media attention," Brett Holmgren, the acting director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center told a Washington audience in November. Some counterterrorism officials and experts, however, say they worry the attacks could become deadlier. The NCTC has warned IS has been benefiting from improved finances and even set up an external planning unit in Syria, with a focus on carrying out attacks against the U.S. All of last year that there was an uptick in the tempo of Islamic State plots and attacks, Zelin told VOA. We saw five attack plots in the United States last year, whereas in 2023 there were none. That activity may not be limited to America, with some analysts pointing to deadly IS attacks last year in Kerman, Iran, and Moscow. [[ It falls in line to a broader trend that we've seen in the U.S., but also in other parts of the world where, you know, we saw more plots and attacks in Europe, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, Zelin said. Italy's foreign minister on Thursday summoned the Iranian ambassador in Rome to demand the release of journalist Cecilia Sala. Sala is being held in Iran's Evin prison following her arrest in the capital, Tehran, on Dec. 19. The journalist was on assignment in Iran and had a valid journalist visa. Iran accuses Sala of "violating the laws of the Islamic Republic." But others believe her arrest is a retaliatory move after Italy detained a Swiss-Iranian businessman at the request of the U.S. A statement by Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Riccardo Guariglia discussed Sala's case with Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sabouri and requested the journalist's "immediate release." "The government, as it has from the first day of Cecilia Sala's arrest, is working tirelessly to bring her home, and we demand that all her rights be respected," the statement read. "We will not leave Cecilia and her parents' side until her release." Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also called a meeting on Thursday with her foreign and justice ministers and the heads of Italy's intelligence services to discuss Sala's case. Sala is an experienced journalist who has reported on Iran, Afghanistan and Russia's war in Ukraine. She contributes to the newspaper Il Foglio and hosts the "Stories" podcast on Chora Media. Chora Media released a statement late last week after details of Sala's arrest were made public. It confirmed that the journalist was detained one day before she was due to return to Rome. While in Iran, the journalist produced three episodes of her "Stories" podcast. In her last post on X on Dec. 17, Sala linked to a podcast entitled "A Conversation on Patriarchy in Tehran." Sala had been in Iran "to report on a country she knows and loves," Chora Media said. The alarm was raised when the journalist stopped communicating on Dec. 19 and then failed to board her return flight to Rome. Chora Media added that Sala has been "taken to Evin prison, where dissidents are held." Sala was able to speak with her family Wednesday, according to Italian media reports. She is sleeping on a cell floor, she said, and the lights are on permanently. The journalist received a visit from Italy's ambassador to Tehran, but a care package the ambassador left with prison officials had not been passed on to Sala. In his meeting with Iran's ambassador to Rome, Guariglia underscored that Italian Embassy staff in Tehran should be allowed to visit Sala "and provide her with the comfort items that have been denied to date," the Foreign Ministry said. The Iranian Embassy in Rome issued a statement Thursday saying that Guariglia and Sabouri had discussed Sala in a "friendly meeting." The officials also discussed the Swiss-Iranian citizen Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, known as Abedini, who is being held in Milan, the statement said. Abedini was detained just a few days before Sala. He is accused of breaking U.S. sanctions laws and providing support to a foreign terrorist organization, which ultimately led to the deaths of three U.S. service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan, according to the U.S. Justice Department website. The statement from the Iranian Embassy in Rome said Abedini was being held on "false charges." A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department was cited in local media as saying they believe the action against Sala is in retaliation for the arrest of Abedini. Press freedom organizations have condemned the arrest of Sala and called for the international community to pressure Tehran to free her. "We deplore Iran's tactics of imprisoning foreign journalists in order to get something in return," Anthony Bellanger, secretary-general of the International Federation of Journalists, said in a statement. "Our Italian colleague Cecilia Sala, who was in the country on assignment, is the latest victim of this macabre practice." The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that the arrest "serves as a stark reminder of the daily threats faced by journalists in Iran." Iran ranks seventh among the world's top jailers of journalists, according to the media freedom group's data. Thibaut Bruttin, director general of Reporters Without Borders, raised concerns over Sala's conditions in solitary confinement in Evin prison. "Evin prison is notorious as the harsh facility where voices critical of the regime are silenced, and Sala's detention is a blatant attack on press freedom," Bruttin said. The office of the Italian Prime Minister has said that it is handling the case with the utmost seriousness and exploring all possible avenues for dialogue to secure her release. Some information for this report came from tAgence France-Presse. Authorities in northwestern Pakistan announced Wednesday that heavily armed rival Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes in a conflict-prone district bordering Afghanistan have reached a peace deal following recent deadly clashes. A traditional grand assembly of tribal elders mediated the agreement between the warring sides in the Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where years-old land disputes have often led to deadly districtwide sectarian clashes, a provincial government spokesperson said in a late-night statement. Both sides have agreed to demolish their bunkers and surrender their heavy weapons to authorities, Muhammad Ali Saif said in a post on X. He stated that anyone found guilty of violating the pact's terms would be apprehended and punished in line with local traditions. Saif congratulated the nearly 800,000 residents of Kurram on the signing of the pact, assuring them the deal would soon restore calm and security and lead to peace and development in the district. The most recent round of violence erupted in the district on November 21, when gunmen ambushed a convoy of vehicles mainly carrying Shiite community members, killing 52 of them. Although no one claimed responsibility for the massacre, it led to retaliatory attacks by Shiite fighters against the Sunni village where the convoy was ambushed, raising the overall death toll to more than 130. The provincial governments intervention had led to a ceasefire and peace talks between the warring sides, but the persistent tensions compelled authorities to halt all Pakistan traffic to and from the district, disrupting the local populations access to food, fuel, medicine, work and trade. Saif said the peace deal would allow the roads to the district to reopen, noting that stranded convoys of passengers and supplies were scheduled to resume their journeys on Saturday. Pakistani authorities have been ferrying essential commodities such as food and medicine to Kurram by helicopter, citing the insecurity of travel in overland convoys. Residents complained, however, that the air missions were insufficient in addressing the district border crisis. They have also been staging street protests to press the government to reopen the road links to help overcome the shortages. Kurram is the only Pakistani district where Shiites, not Sunnis, make up the majority of the population. Pakistans bilateral and transit trade with landlocked Afghanistan through the Kurram district's Kharlachi border crossing has also been halted because of recent sectarian tensions. The Kremlin is using uncertainty following the ouster of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, and the potential loss of Russias military toehold in Syria, to accuse the United States of sowing instability in the country. On Dec. 29, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signaled that the end of the Assad regime would push Russia to make certain adjustments to Russias military presence in Syria. Lavrov said the continued deployment of Russian forces and the future of its bases could be the subject of negotiations with the new Syrian leadership. Particularly of concern to Moscow are the fates of its Tartus naval base and the Hmeimim air base located on Syria's Mediterranean coast. The naval base established by the Soviet Union during the cold war, and the air base in 2015 as a strategic command post, both served as Russias military hubs in the Middle East. Amid this backdrop, Russian intelligence is pushing conspiracy theories that the U.S. and allies are planning attacks on those facilities and otherwise seeking to destabilize the country. On Dec. 28, Russias Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, accused U.S. and British intelligence agencies of working out plans to stage a series of terrorist attacks on the Russian military facilities in Syria. Those plans, the SVR claimed, without evidence, would involve the use of Islamic State, or IS, militants. Russia has long propagated the false narrative that the U.S. sought the ouster of Assad to destabilize the Middle East and control its oil resources. Despite Russias claim, the U.S. has worked for years to eradicate the IS threat, including with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, in Syrias northeast. The U.S. and SDF defeated IS in its final holdout, Baghuz, near Syrias Iraqi border, in March 2019. That year, U.S. forces killed IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a raid in northwestern Syria. The Kurds oversee prisons housing thousands of IS fighters and their families. Russian forces, by contrast, regularly targeted armed groups who were fighting IS, and did not prioritize fighting IS terrorists during Moscows intervention in Syria. On Dec. 19, the U.S. Defense Department announced an additional 1,100 U.S. personnel had been deployed to Syria, bringing the total to 2,000 U.S. troops, to help stabilize the situation in the post-Assad era. At the same time, the United States Central Command, CENTCOM, has announced multiple airstrikes against IS targets to prevent the terrorist group from reestablishing foothold in the country. One U.S. airstrike on Dec. 19 killed IS leader Abu Yusif and other IS operatives in an area formerly controlled by the Syrian regime and Russians. As stated before, the United States working with allies and partners in the region will not allow ISIS to take advantage of the current situation in Syria and reconstitute, CENTCOM Commander, General Michael Erik Kurilla said in a Dec. 20 statement. ISIS has the intent to break out of detention the over 8,000 ISIS operatives currently being held in facilities in Syria. We will aggressively target these leaders and operatives, including those trying to conduct operations external to Syria, Kurilla said. With Assad gone, there are signs Russia is doubtful about its ability to maintain military presence in Syria. In recent weeks, Russian cargo planes reportedly carrying military equipment have flown from Syria to eastern Libya, much of which is under the control of Khalifa Haftar, described by France 24 as Russias man in the country. Russia also has reportedly shifted military assets to bases in Mali and Sudan, where Moscow maintains a presence of its African Corps formerly Wagner troops. Despite efforts to find alternatives, experts say Russias potential loss of its bases in Syria could seriously dampen Russias ability to project power in the Middle East and throughout Africa. On Dec. 30, Al Jazeera reported that Syrias new government had set up checkpoints around Hmeimim air base. Syrian security forces alleged Russia was harboring Assad loyalists at the facility. The rebel fighters who ousted Assad and many locals view Russian troops as occupiers, and they want Moscow to withdraw its military presence, Al Jazeera reported. That report described Hmeimim as a thorn in the hearts of the Syrian rebels who had recaptured the country earlier that month, citing the destruction Russian airstrikes had subjected them to up until Assads last days in power. As in Syria, Russia previously accused the U.S. and U.K. of supporting Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, in Afghanistan, despite longtime U.S. efforts to eradicate ISIS-K and its leadership there. That allegation fits into the broader conspiracy theory repeatedly spread by Russia and Iran that the U.S. created Islamic State to destabilize the Middle East and serve the foreign policy goals of the U.S. and Israel. Throughout the decade of the civil war, Russia framed its support for Assad and military presence in Syria, including the deployment of long-range bombers to Hmeimim air base, as a stabilizing force in the country. Contrary to that narrative, Russia indiscriminately attacked civilian targets, particularly hospitals, and allegedly killed tens of thousands of people throughout the course of the Syrian civil war. Colorful half-timbered houses in Miltenberg historical medieval Old Town, Bavaria, Germany (atomdruid (123RF)) Along the Main River in Germany lies an adorable Bavarian town called Miltenberg. My husband and I were first introduced to this town on our honeymoon. As young, recent college graduates we splurged on a European river cruise along the Main and Rhein rivers. Other stops included Bamberg, Wurzburg, Heidelberg and Rudesheim. My husband fell in love with Miltenberg, and I never thought we would return. There is nothing like a PCS to Germany to give you the opportunity! For our weekend in Miltenberg, we stayed at the Hotel Brauerei Keller. It was located right within the heart of the Old Town, had parking, was pet-friendly and included breakfast. It was the perfect spot to see all the highlights. Odin statue in the outdoors on a cloudy day (Kristen Thoennes) If you are looking for a historic stay, you may want to consider booking a room at Hotel Zum Riesen. It is the oldest guest house in Germany. Even if you dont stay, you can enjoy a meal in their restaurant. There you will have the opportunity to indulge in a variety of Bavarian dishes and beverages. I ordered the Sweinebraten, which came with very tasty red cabbage and knodels. The knodels reminded me of Thanksgiving stuffing and made my heart really happy. I washed it all down with a Radler from the town brewery which earned a Frankfurt International Trophy for Best German Brewery in 2024. You can visit the Faust brewery shop to pick up cases of their beer and other goodies or enjoy a meal at their Braustuben or Biergarten. Another restaurant we enjoyed in town was Nuvo Sushi. The service was attentive and friendly, and the food hit the spot. I had the Peanut Dream with chicken. However, if youre not a fan of peanut butter this is not the dish for you. Sweinebraten, a gravy-covered meat dish, with red cabbage and knodels (dumplings) (Kristen Thoennes) Aside from walking around the town enjoying the plethora of original timber frame houses, there are a few other things to do while in Miltenberg. We visited the Miltenberg City Museum for a glimpse into the history of the town. The museum was much bigger than I originally thought. Signs throughout are only in German, but the audio guide included with your ticket is in English and will give you all the information you may want while perusing the large collection of historical items within the museum. Since we visited with our dog, walkabouts were a must! There are some nice trails around the Old Town that offer views of the Main River and the village before. One trail had informational signs (in German and English!) about the trees along the trail. Another was a barefoot trail. We traversed on a couple of trails but ended our walk on the Bismarck Trail. At the start of this were wooden carvings of Odin and Frigg, two people from German legend. The trail back to the Old Town was full of switchbacks and was a little precarious at times so if you are not that into hiking, I would not recommend it. Our dog was a huge fan, though! After a little hike, why not enjoy some kaffee and kuchen? There are several cafes in town, but we opted to visit Konditorei-Confiserie Sell. As soon as you enter, your mouth will start watering from the variety of cakes and tasty treats in their dessert case. We had a truffle cake and a nutty cake from their regular menu. Both were delicious! While strolling the town make sure to stop and honor the Jewish residents of Miltenberg that were killed by Nazis. Miltenberg had a thriving Jewish community from very early on. However, since WWII Miltenberg, no longer has an active Jewish community. While walking along Haupstrasse, we saw many Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) commemorating the Jewish people who had lived there prior to being deported and killed. From 2016-2018, 44 stones were installed in Miltenberg. You can find more information about Miltenbergs stumbling stones at https://miltenberg.info/en/stolpersteine-stumbling-stones/. Colorful house in town on a cloudy day (Kristen Thoennes) Other nearby spots to explore Apothecary Museum in Miltenberg Martinskapelle in Burgstadt Mikvah Kleinheubach in Kleinheubach Franconian Red Wine Hiking Trail Baroque palace of the Prince zu Lowenstein For a low-key weekend getaway, consider visiting the small town of Miltenberg. You will be enchanted by the timber frame houses, delicious Bavarian food and gorgeous views of the river. Syrian security forces searched Thursday for former soldiers and pro-Assad militants in the city of Homs who have refused to turn in their weapons, state media said. The SANA news agency cited a military official saying the rebels who ousted longtime President Bashar al-Assad had set up centers in Homs for the soldiers and militants to turn in their arms in a process carried out in other parts of Syria. The report said the new Syrian authorities received reports weeks ago that there were remnants of pro-Assad militias in Homs. A few dozen protesters gathered in the Syrian city of Douma on Wednesday to demand answers in the disappearance of four prominent activists who were abducted more than a decade ago. The demonstrators called on Syrias new rulers the Islamist-led rebels who seized power last month to investigate what happened to them. The activists in question are Razan Zaitouneh, her husband, Wael Hamadeh, Samira Khalil and Nazem Hammadi. On December 9, 2013, unidentified gunmen stormed the Violations Documentation Center in Douma, northeast of Damascus, and abducted the four activists. The center was set up in 2011 to monitor human rights violations in Syria. At the time, Douma was held by rebels. There has been no sign of life or proof of death since they were abducted. Zaitouneh was one of Syrias most prominent human rights activists, in part because she documented abuses by then-President Assads government and rebel groups in equal measure. Zaitounehs work earned her global recognition, including an International Woman of Courage Award presented by then-U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in 2013. At the Wednesday protest, demonstrators held up photos of the missing activists. We are here because we want to know the whole truth about two women and two men who were disappeared from this place 11 years and 22 days ago, said activist Yassin Al-Haj Saleh, whose wife, Khalil, was among those abducted. We are gathering here to remind the world of their case, he added. This is the first opportunity that allows us to be in Douma and in front of the place that they were kidnapped from, to speak up about the case, taking advantage of the political change that took place in the country. Since the Assad government was ousted last month, protests have occurred across the country, calling for information about the thousands of people who disappeared by force under Assads rule. Syrias transitional government led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led the ouster of Assad has been neutral regarding accusations against various armed groups in the enforced disappearance of activists. HTS has also aligned with activists in their efforts to seek truth and justice. We are here because we want the truth. The truth about their fate and justice for them, so that we may heal our wounds, said Alaa al-Merhi, Khalils niece. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but signs point to the Army of Islam, the most powerful rebel faction in Douma at the time. The group has long denied involvement. Zaitouneh had received threats from both the government and rebels before she went missing. Friends and activists have said some of the threats can be traced to the Army of Islam. Protesters on Wednesday held banners accusing the Army of Islam of the abduction. We have enough evidence to incriminate Jaish al-Islam, and we have the names of suspects we would like to see investigated, Haj Saleh said, using another name for the group. He said he wanted the perpetrators to be tried by the Syrian courts. The Army of Islam remains an armed faction backed by Turkey. It is excluded from the HTS-led Syrian leadership. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. European gas prices reached a 15-month high on Thursday after Ukraine blocked the transit of Russian gas across its territory into the European Union. The Russian state-run firm Gazprom is set to lose more than $5 billion a year following the route's closure, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called "one of Moscow's biggest defeats." Kyiv will lose about $800 million in transit fees from Moscow. Despite the rise in gas prices on Thursday, the impact on Europe will likely be limited, said energy analyst Thomas O'Donnell, a global fellow at the Wilson Center based in Berlin. "It was all prepared for. It's basically all priced in. Of course, there's winners and losers to a certain point. Certain countries are more dependent on this than others - Slovakia and Hungary, for example, and Austria," O'Donnell told VOA. "Austria is pretty well prepared. They have alternative supplies lined up from Germany and Italy and others. And Slovakia will not run out of gas. They will have plenty of gas. It's just that they'll have to pay more, like everybody else has all along," he added. Moldova was among the countries most reliant on Russian gas supplied via Ukraine. In the breakaway region of Transnistria, which is controlled by Russian forces, residents lost heating and hot water on Wednesday as authorities urged people to dress warmly and use electric heaters. Ukraine war Ukraine's Zelenskyy indicated last month that he would not renew a five-year contract to allow the transit of Russian gas across his country, which expired on December 31, explaining that he would no longer give Moscow "the opportunity to earn additional billions on our blood." Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Europe has since managed to wean itself off Moscow's gas supplies far more quickly than Russian President Vladimir Putin anticipated, O'Donnell said. "He thought this would force all the European countries that get this gas into a situation where they would capitulate and they would be unwilling to support Ukraine in the war, and unwilling to show their solidarity. He also thought the war would be over in three or four days. But it just didn't work," O'Donnell said. "They've lost their entire European market, essentially. The second-largest gas fields in the world in Western Siberia have no outlet now," he added. "Putin portrays himself as a great Russian nationalist. Well, this great Russian nationalist just lost one of the biggest businesses Russia ever had." In 2023, Gazprom recorded a loss of almost $7 billion, its first annual loss since 1999. Slovakia anger Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who enjoys a close relationship with Putin, has strongly criticized Ukraine's decision. Putin hosted Fico last month in Moscow, where the two leaders reportedly discussed the future of Russia's gas exports. Fico also opposes Western support for Kyiv in its war against Russian invaders. Speaking on Wednesday after Ukraine's termination of the transit deal, the Slovakian leader accused the EU of sacrificing the interests of smaller states. "We must see that selfish national interests of the big [member states] and meaningless geopolitical goals are beginning to dominate this community ... ignoring the needs of smaller ones," Fico said in a televised address. "When the transit of gas through Ukraine is stopped, [it] will have drastic impacts on all of us in the European Union, but not on the Russian Federation." European dependence In reality, the European Union has drastically cut its dependence on Russian gas since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow supplied over 40% of the bloc's gas needs in 2021, but that had fallen to about 8% by 2023, according to EU figures. Europe has found new suppliers, said O'Donnell. "Norway has done all they could to increase their supplies, and that's been extremely helpful. They're now on the scale of what Russia used to be," he said. "Number two, the United States zoomed up its supplies to Europe," he added. "This was very crucial. In 2023, something like 67% of all [liquefied natural gas] that's exported from the U.S., which is a huge amount, was going to Europe. And that supplied 47% of their LNG. I think in 2024, it looks like it supplied about 37%." EU-US trade EU officials have indicated that the bloc will seek to strengthen its energy trade with the U.S. under its next president, Donald Trump. "We are ready to discuss with President-elect Trump how we can further strengthen an already strong relationship, including by discussing our common interests in the energy sector," EU Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on December 20. "And as you all know very well, the EU is committed to phasing out energy imports from Russia and diversifying our sources of supply." Slovakia's Fico, however, has threatened to cut the transit of European electricity to Ukraine in retaliation for Kyiv's decision to cease transiting Russian gas. Imports of Russian gas through Ukraine made up about 5% of Europe's total supplies in 2024. Some of the gas was sent on to Western Europe through Slovakia and that largely explains Fico's concerns, said O'Donnell. "Slovakia was making something like half a billion dollars on transit fees passing the [Russian] gas across their country through their pipeline system onto others so, redistributing the gas," he said. 'Security risk' In a post on the social media site X, Zelenskyy said that Fico's relationship with Putin was a big security issue for Europe because "his key goal is to deal with Russia, and this is what benefits him. Why is this leader so dependent on Moscow? What is being paid to him, and what does he pay with?" Zelenskyy wrote on December 23. Moscow's other supply routes to Europe are limited. The Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus was shut down in 2022 following a payment dispute between Russia and Poland and has not reopened. Months later, the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany was blown up. It remains unclear who was responsible. Russia is still able to supply gas to Hungary, Turkey and Serbia through the TurkStream pipeline. Quantum computing is emerging as a revolutionary technology capable of solving complex problems that traditional computers cannot address. The U.S. leads in quantum innovation, driven by companies like Google and IBM, robust government funding and top-tier research institutions. China, however, has rapidly advanced through massive state-led investments, dominating global quantum patents and establishing specialized research centers. Click here for the full story in Mandarin. Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Prime Video (Coquettishly) Is there a MrsBeast? Not yet, but there will be! MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, proposed to fellow YouTuber Thea Booysen on Christmas Day. Donaldson and Booysen waited to share the news until the new year, with matching his & her social media blasts. Ya boy did a thing , MrBeast captioned his Instagram post. Wearing matching Christmas sweaters, Donaldson got on one knee to pop the question, a much easier physical challenge than anything seen on Beast Games. According to People, Booysen met Beast when the latter was visiting the formers home country of South Africa. Jimmy was coming down to South Africa with Logan Paul and Casey Neistat and they had a video they wanted to film in Antarctica. Everybody got COVID so they had to cancel the video and stay in South Africa a little bit longer, she said. He was super nice, very down to earth and he started asking me a lot of questions. Little did I know he was going off a list because he was looking for a new girlfriend. Booysen is a gamer, owning South African esports org Nixuh. Booysen has defended Donaldson during his recent controversies. In August, old video of MrBeast using homophobic and racist language surfaced. And contestants on Beast Games sued MrBeast, alleging unpaid wages, sexual harassment, and mistreatment. In response to a YouTube comment urging Booysen to dump the Beast, Boysen stood by her man. I appreciate the message. There is so much that is not being said, I wish I could talk more about the situation. Half the things that are said are not true, I wouldnt be with him if they were, she wrote. It is so important to me to be a good person. Hopefully things will be fixed soon, but for now Im focusing on my studies and trying to stay away from everything. Popeye, as introduced in 1929. Photo: King Features Its January 1, which means that another batch of copyrights has expired and given the horror filmmakers of the world the opportunity to transform beloved old characters into potential new murderers. (We havent forgotten what they did to Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh.) This year, the original versions of Popeye the Sailor and Tintin are among the characters entering the U.S. public domain. And some people have clearly been anticipating this moment: Jennifer Jenkins, the director of Dukes Center for the Study of the Public Domain, told NPR last week that there are three Popeye slashers on the way. (Popeye the Slayer Man already put out a trailer last month.) Jenkinss center rounded up works from 1929 and sound recordings from 1924 that are free to use as of 2025. The list includes Walt Disneys The Skeleton Dance, Alfred Hitchcocks Blackmail, Arthur Freeds Singin in the Rain, Ernest Hemingways A Farewell to Arms, Virginia Woolfs A Room of Ones Own, William Faulkners The Sound and Fury, several Salvador Dali pieces, and more. Looking ahead, Betty Boop and Pluto are set to be on the copyright chopping block in 2026. Whats that saying? You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the star of a horror movie. Listen and subscribe to Decoding Retirement on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. The likelihood of requiring long-term care as you age is one of the greatest health-related risks facing retirees. The longer you live, the more likely it is that you'll need care. In fact, about half of Americans turning age 65 today will need some type of long-term care in their lives. However, the need isnt universal, and that makes it super hard to plan for, Sharon Carson, a retirement strategist on the JPMorgan Asset Management Retirement Insights Strategy team, said in a recent episode of Decoding Retirement (see video above or listen below). This embedded content is not available in your region. For those who do require long-term care, its impossible to predict whether the need will be short-term or long-term. According to Carson, about one-third of older Americans require care for less than three years, while another third need it for more than five years. And the expenses people face can vary. Carson stated that about 25% of individuals spend less than $25,000 on long-term care, a cost that may feel manageable for many. However, approximately 30% of people incur expenses exceeding $250,000, which can place a significant strain on financial resources. Given this uncertainty, how can someone effectively plan for long-term care and its associated costs? We think there's not just one answer there's no silver bullet, no one answer is going to be right for everybody, Carson said. It really takes sitting down and looking at your plan in terms of what are all of the things that I might be able to do. I think for a lot of people it's going to be a combination. It's not going to be just one thing. Strategies to pay for long-term care Here are a few approaches Carson said retirees often consider to tackle the unpredictable costs and needs of long-term care in retirement. Support from family and friends Many individuals rely on family members or friends for care, which can significantly reduce costs. That's probably a big one for a lot of people, Carson said. Even if you're going to pay for care, you're probably going to get some help from family and friends. Adjusting spending habits Additionally, when long-term care becomes necessary, other expenses like travel and dining out often decrease, potentially freeing up funds for care, she said. Read more: Retirement planning: A step-by-step guide Insurance options While traditional long-term care insurance can be expensive, Carson suggested exploring combination products that blend life insurance or annuities with long-term care benefits. She also recommended considering policies with longer elimination periods or those that cover only a portion of the costs to make premiums more affordable. What: Five-bedroom Georgian home Where: Elysium House, Ballytruckle, Waterford City How Much: 450,000 Elysium House, Ballytruckle, Waterford City View more on this property at MyHome.ie Elysium House is a striking Georgian property located on Ballytruckle Road, just a five-minute drive from Waterford city centre, with easy access to the Outer Ring Road. Elysium House, Ballytruckle, Waterford City This detached three-bay, two-storey house, built around 1825, exudes the timeless elegance and charm that defines Georgian architecture. This property offers a fantastic opportunity to create a truly impressive family home, with its spacious layout, stunning period features, and incredible potential for transformation. The house retains many original period details, including high ceilings, elegant fireplaces, and original wooden flooring. These classic elements lend the property a unique character that is hard to find in modern homes. Elysium House, Ballytruckle, Waterford City Spread over approximately 3,000sqft of living space, the house is generously proportioned. Upon entering, you are welcomed by a spacious entrance hall with a striking staircase. The ground floor features two large reception rooms, each with open fireplaces, wood flooring, and large windows that bathe the rooms in natural light. These rooms offer versatility, suitable as formal living spaces or family rooms, ideal for both everyday living and hosting guests. The first floor hosts three spacious rooms and two bathrooms. These rooms offer excellent potential for conversion into additional bedrooms, a study, or further living spaces, ensuring the house can adapt to a variety of family needs. Elysium House, Ballytruckle, Waterford City The basement adds even more space and utility. The large kitchen, with French doors leading to a patio area, offers the perfect foundation for creating a modern, well-equipped family space. The basement also includes additional bathrooms and a kitchenette. Elysium House is set on a generous plot with a gated driveway offering plenty of parking at the front. A bike shed at the rear adds further storage, while the private courtyard and patio areas provide attractive outdoor spaces. Elysium House, Ballytruckle, Waterford City This property is truly unique, offering an opportunity to create an extraordinary family home in a highly desirable location. With its incredible traditional Georgian features, vast potential for transformation, and ideal layout for family living, Elysium House is a property that should not be missed. For more information, visit MyHome.ie https://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/elysium-house-ballytruckle-waterford-city-waterford/4886775 Masks will now be required at University Hospital Waterford as a result of "sustained presentations with flu symptoms" at the hospital. Visitors to the hospital must now make an appointment based on "exceptional circumstances" until further notice, the hospital said. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said that there had been "an increase in Flu positive inpatients" to the hospital which had led to the new measures being put in place. There are currently 61 Flu patients at UHW today, Thursday January 2, with a further three COVID-19 cases at the hospital and three patients with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Staff at the hospital have been hit hard by illnesses, with the HSE announcing that a "high volume of staff" are unable to work having presented with flu symptoms. All staff and visitors to the hospital must now wear a surgical mask for the duration of their time at University Hospital Waterford in all areas. Those entering outbreak wards will be required to wear two Filtering Face Piece masks (FFP) to stop the spread of the flu. Masks will be available at all hospital entrances and in each ward. Flu vaccines are also still available daily for all who wish to avail, the HSE said. Visitation to the hospital has been restricted to appointments with the ward only and all patients attending outpatient appointments or entering the emergency department have been asked to attend alone if possible in an effort to minimize footfall to the hospital. The hospital has asked that any necessary bag drop-offs take place at the Dunmore Wing entrance of UHW and has thanked the public for its "ongoing support in the implementation of these measures, in its effort to protect all patients and staff." The HSE said that "the situation will be kept under constant review." The Gardai have launched a murder investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a man in his late 50s who died following an incident in the south east on New Year's Eve. A Garda spokesperson, in a statement to Waterford News & Star, said the investigation is ongoing into the death of a 58-year-old man following an incident in New Ross, Co Wexford, on Tuesday, December 31. A post-mortem examination was carried out by the State Pathologist and the results of that examination were provided to the investigation team, however, the results of the post-mortem are not being made public for operational reasons. However, the Garda spokesperson said: "Following the post-mortem, An Garda Siochana has now commenced a murder investigation." A male aged in his 30s, was arrested in connection with the investigation and was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at a Garda Station in the Eastern Region. A second individual was also arrested on New Year's Eve evening, but was subsequently released from the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act and is no longer being held in connection with this investigation. An examination of the scene by the Garda Technical Bureau is continuing. A senior investigating officer (SIO) is leading the investigation from an incident room at New Ross Garda Station and a family liaison officer (FLO) continues to provide support the family. Gardai are appealing for witnesses to contact them and are seeking any available camera footage, including dashcam recordings, from those who were in the vicinity of Cluain Fada, New Ross, at the time of the incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact New Ross Garda Station on 051 426030 or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111. Investigations are ongoing. 31st Waterford Faithlegg Scout Group have outlined their plans to develop a new community scouts centre in Cheekpoint. The centre will include a communal hall, toilets, meeting room, kitchen, external terrace, storage units, camping facilities, new vehicular entrance and car parking. External facilities include an outdoor terrace/ BBQ area, a fire pit area for campfires, storage containers for camping equipment, along with bicycle parking and a planting zone. 31st Waterford Scout Group outline in planning reports that they plan on making the site available for other groups to take advantage of the facility and the local environs, including the Minaun nature area and walking trails and the Cheekpoint foreshore. Groups using the site would likely be expected to number 30-40 people. Occasionally, there may be two groups using the camp grounds, which would mean 60 to 80 attendees. There are currently no plans to hold jamborees or larger events at the site. Planning reports outline that the proposed location is closely connected to a variety of existing community facilities. The planning application was submitted to Waterford City and County Council last week, with a decision expected before February 22, 2025. Waterford City and County Council have launched the Local Enhancement Programme for 2025. The programme funds community groups and clubs to improve their facilities through minor capital works and the purchase of equipment for community use. Community Administration Officer, Waterford City and County Council Orla Kelly said: The Local Enhancement Programme provides vital support to small Community Groups and organisations to help them carry out invaluable work improving their facilities and purchasing equipment. By administering the 2024 LEP fund, which supported 190 groups, we have seen first-hand how these grants can make a big difference, and we would like to thank all our 2024 successful applicants for the vital work they do for their local communities. The application process is straightforward, and I would encourage all interested groups to visit the Councils website for information on this fund and how to apply. Applications are open to the public until 4pm on January 31, 2025. Capital works may include carrying out necessary repairs and improvements to facilities, accessibility improvements, improving energy efficiency of community facilities, or purchasing equipment for community use. This year, groups will be able to use the funding for costs such as energy costs/bills (electricity costs, refuse charges, heating charges), rental/lease costs or insurance bills. The grants are funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the programme is administered by Waterford City and County Council. A Waterford woman who falsely claimed that she was sexually assaulted in Dungarvan last year was recently sentenced at Waterford Circuit Court. The unfounded claim made by Ms. Tanya Wall in February 2023 caused considerable upset and disruption in Dungarvan, when a Facebook post made by her sister outlined that the woman had been assaulted by non-Irish nationals. A vigilante group was formed in the immediate aftermath of the post, which aimed to address what they perceived as Garda inaction at tackling crime. The false claim made by Wall, fueled racial division and planted hatred into the community of Dungarvan, according to Judge Eugene OKelly. Unfounded claims Earlier this year, Ms. Wall pleaded guilty to a single count of making a false complaint to Gardai on February 19, 2023. On this date, Ms. Wall, with an address at 68 Congress Villas, Dungarvan, presented herself to Dungarvan Garda Station alleging that she had been sexually assaulted. She claimed that she was walking home alone after a night out and was approached by a number of males who dragged her up a laneway, forcibly took off her belt and pulled down her jeans. Wall claimed that the group fled when an unknown woman entered the scene. Ms. Wall was later unable to describe this woman to gardai. After the report was made, gardai attended the scene of the alleged crime with Ms. Wall herself. Nothing of evidential value was found. Gardai then went to the home of Ms. Wall to seize clothing as evidence, along with messages from her phone. A lengthy investigation into the alleged crime was conducted, and upon looking through CCTV footage, gardai noted that there were clear inconsistencies in Ms. Walls allegations and it became evident that her account was false. On March 8, 2023, she was arrested at her home, and subsequently conducted three interviews with gardai. During these interviews Ms. Wall said that her memory of the alleged attack was limited. Vigilante group Ms. Wall informed gardai that after the incident she called her ex-partner and mother to tell them about it. Details of the alleged event were then posted on Facebook by Ms. Walls sister. The deeply offensive, racist message which took aim at foreign nationals living in Ireland, garnered considerable attention from the public. According to gardai accounts, the Facebook post indicated that Ms. Wall had been attacked by foreigners and they should not be left in the country. As a result of the post, gardai received complaints from concerned locals, and they were criticized for their perceived inactivity in addressing crimes committed by non-Irish nationals. In the wake of the claims by Ms. Wall and the post made by her sister, a safety group was setup in Dungarvan. The court heard that the group was formed by locals who believed due to the Facebook post that the assault had in fact occurred, and that gardai were covering up the incident. In reality, house to house enquiries were being made by gardai, CCTV footage was scanned, and five weeks of time and resources were wasted due to the false claim made by Ms. Wall. Hatred and racial division Defense counsel for Ms. Wall, Ms. Sarah-Jane Comerford BL, outlined that her client has severe diabetes, and that high blood sugar and a high level of intoxication on the night could have led to the episode where she made up the false allegation. Ms. Comerford told the court that Ms. Wall knows shes in big trouble, and that she told a lie which completely snowballed and which she was not brave enough to stop. In mitigation, she outlined that her client entered an early guilty plea and has no previous convictions. In a letter of apology to Dungarvan Gardai, Ms. Wall said: I had never meant to cause so much stress, time and work. Judge OKelly was critical of the letter, saying that it made no direct apology to the foreign community. In sentencing Ms. Wall, Judge OKelly said that the incident fueled racial division and planted hatred into the community", causing "alarm and upset. He said that although Ms. Wall was granted the opportunity to retract her false claim, she failed to do so. Her actions resulted in significant criticism of gardai and a lot of hatred being expressed to the foreign community in Dungarvan. She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It is mid-afternoon in London, but Florence Pugh looks ready for bed. The English actor has ditched her socks and shoes and is curled up on a sofa wearing a pair of sleek black pyjamas decorated at the cuffs and hems with white silk poppies. Her bare feet are covered by a small rug which, she informs me, belongs to Billie, the rescue dog she adopted during lockdown with her former partner, the American actor and filmmaker Zach Braff. It is unclear whether Billie is waiting patiently for his mistress in another part of the smart hotel, or if the rug is her way of feeling connected to her absent pet. There are, in any case, more important things to discuss. Hollywood has no shortage of prodigious female talent, but 28-year-old Pugh stands out regardless. Ten years since she was plucked from the sixth form of her Oxford school to star in The Falling, a mystery-thriller about an all-girls school plagued by a fainting epidemic, she has built a storied reputation for playing complicated women whose outward confidence masks deeper fears. The fact shes done so in films ranging from indie hits like 2016s Lady Macbeth a lusty, jaw-droppingly amoral bodice-ripper as one critic called it to blockbusters such as Marvel Studios 2021 caper Black Widow, is the reason shes now breathing the same air as chameleonic A-listers like Emma Stone and Anya Taylor-Joy. We Live in Time stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as a young couple for whom time is running out. Credit: Peter Mountain Today, shes promoting We Live in Time, a film in which she and Andrew Garfield (another actor whose work runs the gamut from cineplex superheroes to intense indie roles) play a pair of young Londoners navigating life, love, parenthood and serious illness. Pugh is Almut, a Michelin-starred chef. Garfield plays Tobias, a strait-laced IT executive at a cereal company. The film, one part Richard Curtis rom-com, two parts heart-wrenching drama, employs a time-hopping narrative to create a patchwork quilt of memories and experiences. The producers call it an exhilarating new take on a classic romance. Everyone else is calling it a weapons-grade weepie that leaves you in bits by the time the credits roll. Pugh has clearly grown accustomed to people telling her the film had them reaching for a hankie. Everyones been wanting to share about the bits of the film that made them feel something and reminded them of their own life, she purrs. Thats been a beautiful thing to hear and its such an honour to know that what we did is working. Advertisement Besides We Live in Time, Pughs recent slate of movies includes the sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two, in which she plays Princess Irulan. A few months back, she finished work on Thunderbolts, a $US150 million ($240 million) Marvel Studios movie in which she reprises her Black Widow role as sardonic Russian superspy Yelena Belova. The difference this time: she wont be playing second fiddle to Scarlett Johansson. Pugh as Princess Irulan in Dune: Part II. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures via AP Well-known actors are often disingenuous about success, but Pugh is disarmingly straightforward. Everything Ive achieved was something I wanted to achieve, she says matter-of-factly. If youd asked me what I wanted 10 years ago, Id have said, I want to get nominated for a BAFTA, I want to get nominated for an Oscar, I want to be working all the time and I want to meet amazing directors. Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself and say, Yeah, youve done that. Youve climbed that mountain. Her international reputation was established in 2019 with a trio of films. In the bonkers-but-brilliant horror flick Midsommar she was drawn into a violent cult in rural Sweden; in Fighting with My Family she played an English wrestler grappling her way to the big time in America. BAFTA and Oscar nominations came courtesy of Greta Gerwigs acclaimed adaptation of Louisa May Alcotts touchstone novel Little Women. In Pughs hands Amy March, the youngest and least likeable of the sisters, became a vulnerable, ultimately loveable soul. Theres already talk that We Live in Time could earn Pugh a second Oscar nod, although in movie circles it can be hard to distinguish real buzz from hype and wishful thinking. Pugh at this years Academy Awards (centre) and (clockwise from top left) in Oppenheimer, Little Women, Midsommar and Black Widow. So, who is she, this 162-centimetre powerhouse? Florence Rose Christobel Mackin Pugh, or Flossie Rose as she sometimes refers to herself on social media, is one of four children born to Clinton Pugh, a restaurateur, and his wife, Deborah, a former ballet dancer. She caught the acting bug at the age of six, when she portrayed Mary in a nativity play and gave Jesus mum a Yorkshire accent to raise a few laughs. Teachers at her private schools, she has said, discouraged her ambition to become an actor. As a child Pugh suffered from a condition called tracheomalacia, which causes the walls of the windpipe to collapse. It was so serious her family moved to Spain for several years in the hope the warmer climate would alleviate her condition. The legacy of her illness is a deep voice and the kind of throaty laugh that used to be the hallmark of a committed smoker. Advertisement In person, shes confident, cool, a bit intimidating; the kind of girl you met at uni who designed her own clothes, rolled her own cigarettes and discovered the Cocteau Twins (insert your own cultural reference here) before everyone else. She wears a gold ring in her septum and theres a bee tattoo on her wrist. Her eyes are the colour of treacle and her heart-shaped face is framed by strands of slicked-back blonde hair that dont quite reach her shoulders. She has a reputation for making bold fashion choices and its easy to imagine her staring down the nipple-shamers who dared to criticise the sheer gown she wore to a Valentino fashion show. Loading She is not impregnable, of course. Trolled over the age gap between her and Braff the Scrubs actor is 21 years her senior - she hit back with a video on Instagram defending her right to make her own choices. Shes also admitted to an insecurity about her lack of formal drama training. When she arrived at a read-through for Richard Eyres 2018 production of King Lear, for example, she was mortified to see the other actors scripts were covered in handwritten notes while hers was pristine. In some ways I dont worry about that kind of thing any more, she says when I mention it. But I do know that when I go and do theatre at some point, Ill have to spend time preparing myself because I never did training for voice and body. Her drama school is the film sets that are her second home. Her tutors are directors including Dune: Part Twos Denis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan, who cast her as J. Robert Oppenheimers mistress, Jean Tatlock, in his 2023 Oscars-sweeping juggernaut. When we shot Oppenheimer it was so fascinating hearing Chris talking about cameras, she says. He knows everything about cameras and producing and making movies. All of this information is there, and if you ask people theyll happily give it to you. Pugh at the New York premiere of We Live in Time, in September. Credit: Getty Images Fear of failure drives her to take difficult roles. Theres invariably a scene in a script that frightens her, makes her wonder if she can pull it off (anyone whos seen Oppenheimer can probably guess which one did the trick in that movie). Its a very risky game because one day I might not be able to do it, she says. And then it will have been recorded and everyone can watch it! She emits a throaty cackle. Advertisement The scene in We Live in Time that got her interest takes place in the toilet of a petrol station. Almut is forced to give birth on its grimy floor when gridlocked traffic prevents her and Tobias getting to a hospital. Its visceral stuff. Pugh crouches half naked while Tobias takes instructions from a midwife on his phone. Id never read anything like that or seen a scene like that on camera, she says. It was one of those scenes that read perfectly, like a transcript of a real-life incident. Knowing all the birthing stories Id heard from my sister, my mum and my gran, I knew it was important to get it right. Pugh wore a prosthetic belly to play the heavily pregnant Almut. It took three hours to go on and two hours to come off. It went all the way round to the back of my body and they painted the seams so they didnt show. It was heavy too which changed the way I moved and obviously helped with the acting. If youre hoping it will resonate with people who live with cancer, I dont think it would be appropriate to wear a bald cap. When she signs up for a film, shes all in. I love giving parts of my body and my soul to roles. In the case of We Live in Time, it was her hair that was sacrificed on the altar of veracity. When Almut is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and requires chemotherapy, she asks Tobias to shave her head as a pre-emptive measure. The films director, John Crowley (best known for the 2015 romantic drama Brooklyn), offered Pugh the option of wearing a bald cap. She cut him off mid-sentence, insisting Garfield run clippers through her real hair. I truly believe I wouldnt have done the movie if I hadnt been allowed to do that, she says. I dont think it would have been appropriate. If youre lending yourself to a story like this and hoping it will resonate with people who live with cancer or have someone they know whos been through chemo, I dont think it would be appropriate to wear a bald cap. One imagines she jumped at the chance to play a successful chef. After all, shes the daughter of a restaurateur and she has a YouTube channel called Cooking with Flo. Her face lights up. Yeah, I understand restaurants because I grew up in that world, she says. I have a passion for food because my family were food lovers and hosts. There was respect for the ingredients and respect for animals all of that. Advertisement Overall, AT&T delivered mixed results on both the top and bottom lines in Q3. The company reported revenue of $30.2 billion, falling short of forecasts by $250 million. Earnings, however, outperformed expectations, with AT&Ts non-GAAP EPS of 60 cents for Q3 exceeding projections by 3 cents per share. Additionally, the company generated $5.1 billion in free cash flow during the quarter. The strong gains in this telecom stock have been bolstered by increases in subscriber numbers. In its last reported quarter, 3Q24, AT&T reported a net gain of 226,000 fiber subscribers, marking 19 quarters in a row with 200,000-plus net fiber adds. This was complemented by strong gains in postpaid phone customers, which totaled 403,000 net adds. Up first is AT&T, a true blue-chip stalwart in the market, a legacy name in the US telecom industry, and one of the worlds most iconic brands. As one of the three largest wireless providers in the US, AT&T boasts a market cap of $162 billion, placing it firmly in the large-cap category and ranking it as the fourth-largest telecom company worldwide. This year, AT&T has also rewarded investors, with the stock rising nearly 36%. The stock analysts at Bank of America are following this reasoning, highlighting such stocks as their top picks for 2025. Well take a closer look at two of these stocks. Theyre undeniably large-cap equities, and, according to the TipRanks database, they carry Strong Buy ratings from the Streets consensus. Lets delve into the details and uncover why BofA considers them top picks for the new year. Think about whats in large-cap value. Its big regulated companies that are going to get a break under a regulatory light administration, Subramanian opined. Savita Subramanian, head of US equity strategy at Bank of America, has been closely monitoring the situation. On the macro picture, Subramanian aligns with BofAs S&P 500 target of 6,666 for 2025, which represents about a 13% increase from current levels. Translating her optimism into actionable advice, Subramanian recommends that investors focus on large-cap value stocks. Theres a lot of bullishness about 2025 and not just because of the 23% gain in the S&P 500 in this outgoing year. Polling has shown a high level of public confidence that the incoming Trump administration will implement pro-business policies, including deregulation and tax cuts, which are anticipated to further stimulate economic growth. Story Continues In addition to bringing in sound subscriber numbers and generating plenty of cash, AT&T is also one of the markets most reliable dividend payers. The companys modern dividend history stretches back to 1984, and the firm declared its 1Q25 payment this past December 12. That payment, set at $0.2775 per common share, annualizes to $1.11 and gives a forward yield of 4.91%. The dividend is scheduled for payment this coming February 3, and will mark twelve quarters in a row at the current rate. In his coverage of AT&T for Bank of America, analyst Dave Barden notes the companys subscriber gains and cash flows as attractive data points, and writes of the firm, Our top large cap telecom pick for 2025 is AT&T. Consistent operational performance is delivering improved financial results that are beginning to be reflected in an improved stock valuation. Steady investment in both wireless and fiber are positioning AT&T to grow subscriber share in both markets. This will drive higher adj. EBITDA and free cash flow that will flow to investors through share buybacks and a steady dividend. We believe there is room for AT&T to outperform its medium-term guidance. Barden goes on to put a Buy rating on T shares, and his price target of $28 suggests a one-year upside potential for the stock of ~23%. (To watch Bardens track record, click here) The Strong Buy consensus rating on AT&Ts stock is based on 18 recent analyst reviews that include 15 to Buy and 3 to Hold. T is currently selling for $22.77 and its average price target, now at $26.65, points toward a gain of 17% in the year ahead. (See AT&T stock forecast) Block, Inc. (SQ) Bank of Americas next pick for 2025 is Block, a leading fintech company founded in 2009 by tech billionaire Jack Dorsey. Formerly known as Square, Block has established itself as a leader in payment processing and continues to successfully operate the Square brand in that niche. Moreover, Block has expanded its portfolio to include the popular Cash App digital payment tool, among others. Prominent among Blocks other apps are the bitcoin wallet Spiral and the online music streaming service Tidal. Turning to operations, Square and Cash App are Blocks largest subsidiaries and its main generators for earnings and revenues. Square approaches the online payment landscape from the merchant end, while Cash App services the segment from the buyers end together giving Block solid product offerings in most aspects of e-commerce transactions. For merchants, Square smooths out the processes of transacting business, providing software that can be accessed from smartphones and tablets, and hardware that can turn these mobile devices into mobile card readers and cash registers. Merchants benefit from flexibility, in both their location and in how they can take payments. Cash App users can streamline their financial accounts, gaining universal access to their money plus a wide range of payment options. The app lets users tap into checking and savings accounts, apply for credit services, and even monitor stock and crypto investments. Getting into financial results, Blocks last reported quarter, 3Q24, saw gross profits of $932 million from Square and $1.31 billion from Cash App, for year-over-year gains of 16% and 21% respectively. Total net revenue in the quarter was $5.98 billion, up 6.4% year-over-year although $280 million below the estimates. At the bottom line, Blocks non-GAAP EPS came in at 88 cents, in-line with expectations. For the 12-month period ending this past September 30, the company had an adjusted free cash flow of $1.5 billion, up 59% year-over-year. This stock caught the eye of Bank of America analyst Jason Kupferberg, who sees the company at the start of a potentially strong performance ramp. Kupferberg writes of Block, SQ is our top Payments pick for 25. As a US-centric re-acceleration story, we believe shares can outperform. The critical Square GPV metric should show modest improvement in 4Q, and more so in 25 as new initiatives take hold. SQ should also benefit from a more robust US SMB backdrop, plus mgmt has provided initial high-level 25 guidance, reflecting a healthy (and we think under-appreciated) combination of topline growth and profitability (best among large-caps). We also think SQ could achieve its Rule of 40 target modestly ahead of schedule. These comments support Kupferbergs Buy rating on SQ, while his $115 price target implies that the shares will gain 35% in the next 12 months. (To watch Kupferbergs track record, click here) All in all, Block has garnered 28 recent analyst reviews, earning a Strong Buy consensus rating based on a breakdown of 23 Buys, 4 Holds, and 1 Sell. The shares are currently priced at $84.99, with an average price target of $100, suggesting an upside potential of ~18% over the one-year horizon. (See SQ stock forecast) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Though the headlines might suggest otherwise pandemics and strikes and delays, oh my! the movie-making machinery of Hollywood has apparently not drawn breath in the last few years. Though very little of the IP is original theres a lot of remakes, reboots and sequels to be found 2025 is shaping up to be a fantastic year at the flicks. WOLF MAN Julia Garner and Matilda Firth star in Wolf Man. Credit: Universal Studios Attempts to rekindle Universals iconic horror catalogue from the 1930s have proven challenging, especially when led by the slightly overcooked top liners, such as Dracula or The Mummy. In 2020, director Leigh Whannell started from a very off-piste entry point The Invisible Man and it paid off. Whannell returns with Wolf Man, a reboot of 1941s The Wolf Man, about a werewolf, minus some of the gimmicks of both the original film and the legend on which it is based. BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY Renee Zellweger returns as Bridget Jones. Credit: A new chapter in the Bridget Jones story, which runs a little bit like the Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That... Youre not quite sure whether theyre making the right choices, but its just lovely to be back. Much fuss will be made of sexy Roxster (Leo Woodall), who is wooing Bridget, but in truth were just relieved to see Bridgets mum Pam (Gemma Jones), Una (Celia Imrie) and her three pals Miranda (Sarah Solemani), Shazzer (Sally Phillips) and Tom (James Callis). Advertisement SNOW WHITE Rachel Zegler in Snow White. Credit: Disney Is it all about timing? On the heels of a tedious culture war over the films casting, Snow White might benefit from a splash of green, delivering a fantastical adventure film into the space vacated by the mega-hit Wicked. Rachel Zegler is Snow White, the prettier-than-pretty young girl who lives with seven short men dont ask and former Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot plays the Evil Queen, whose jealousy of Snow White is ignited when her mirror tells her the younger woman is prettier. Sounds weird when you write it out like that. MICKEY 17 Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17. Credit: Edward Ashtons novel Mickey7 gets a cinematic treatment from Oscar-winning Parasite director Bong Joon-ho. Robert Pattinson, lately The Batman, sheds his cowl here to play Mickey Barnes, who escapes a future Earth by signing up as an expendable, a kind of disposable worker who gets a new body each time the old one breaks. The snag? Mickey 18 is created without anyone realising that Mickey 17 survived. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE THE FINAL RECKONING Advertisement Tom Cruise returns for the eighth Mission Impossible instalment. Credit: Christian Black Here perhaps out of sentiment rather than actual right, the eighth and surely final? Mission: Impossible film lands at a time when it feels cinema storytelling has actually shifted away from the kind of pure action and brain-bending stunts that the Mission: Impossible franchise is best known for. Christopher McQuarrie directs what is essentially a direct sequel to the last film, Dead Reckoning Part One, which finished with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) searching for the stealth submarine, the Sevastopol, and destroying the cyber-weapon, the Entity. SUPERMAN David Corenswet in the new Superman. Credit: Rebooting the reboot-weary and tonally damaged DC Comics movie library was a massive ask, but if the trailer of Superman complete with his four-legged co-star, the super-dog Krypto is any indicator, then James Gunn knows what hes doing. David Corenswet plays Superman (alias mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent), Rachel Brosnahan plays reporter (and love interest) Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult plays supervillain-in-the-making Lex Luthor. THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS Pedro Pascal (seen here at the 2023 Met Gala) will star in the new Fantastic Four film. Credit: Getty Advertisement Its interesting that in a year when there are still some last gasps from what feels like the earlier iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe notably, a Captain America movie the 1960s-vibe retro-future Fantastic Four feels wholly future-focused. The F4 are not Marvel top liners, but thats Marvels cinematic knack, turning B-tier comic book franchises such as Guardians of the Galaxy into something to rival Star Wars. Its also packing star power: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. MICHAEL Late pop star Michael Jackson, seen here in 1988, is the subject of a new biopic. Credit: WireImage One of the most anticipated films of the year. Antoine Fuqua directs the life of pop icon Michael Jackson, with Jacksons nephew Jaafar Jackson in the title role, and Oscar-winning Australian cinematographer Dion Beebe handling the camera. The film promises to span his life from child performer with the Jackson Five to his death in 2009 and the films producer Graham King says the film will not skirt around the sexual abuse allegations that dogged the pop star in the final years of his life. WICKED: FOR GOOD Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will be back for Wicked: For Good before you know it. Credit: I mean, come on, weve only just got our breath back and the sequel is coming? Well, less sequel, and more rest of the film. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will be back on the promo trail, clutching each others fingernails and holding space, whatever that means, as the second half of the biggest half-a-movie in history (or at least, of 2024) lands in an explosion of green and song. Advertisement Advertisement Tips & adviceAsk Alice Stress less in the kitchen with these five totally doable cooking resolutions Keep it real in the kitchen this year with these stress-free cooking wins from food writer Alice Zaslavsky. Alice Zaslavsky January 2, 2025 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share January brings with it the promise of a new year, a new you, and a heck of a lot of insurmountable expectations. So before you overload yourself with too many commitments and throw in the tea-towel, hows about keeping it simple and committing to one of these easy wins for a whole year (nay, life!) of better cooking. Alice recommends a flick of the wrist with some extra virgin olive oil to make your dishes glisten. Jason South Pick one cookbook or food blog and cook something new from it every week The great thing about sticking to one cook or chef to crib from is that youll get to learn their language and start to pick up on patterns that have been hard-won that you can hack into your own cooking. The advantage of a food blog (even picking a cook from the Good Food stable!) is that its online, and there might be bonus functionality such as video tutorials and toggles for calculating measurements up or down depending on the size of your household. Advertisement Collection Here are recipes from 30+ of the best cookbooks of 2024 On the flipside, a cookbook will provide you something physical to stick tabs in, make notes on (welcome and encouraged!) and has usually been through many more tests and edits before it reaches you, so the recipes are more reliable. Get some great gadgets Sometimes a change is as good as a holiday, and if youre done with the drudgery of dodgy tools, then its time to treat yourself to a few new nifty things to relight your fire. A salad spinner living in your mixing bowl will prompt you to turn over a new leaf. Id recommend you buy one that can fit in your cupboard and your fridge so you can soak, chill, then spin as you need (Zyliss is my choice). Advertisement The snackmaker smackdown: The kitchen gadgets you need in your life (and the ones you can skip) A good quality stainless-steel garlic crusher will keep fingers funk-free (Dreamfarm Garject is my fave). Some silicon-tips tongs to toss things about in pans without scratching them, or some sharp kitchen shears. Nows the time to pop into your favourite kitchenware shop and get playful or check online marketplaces and op shops for kitchen bargains too. But! Before you rush out the door to buy a new chefs knife (let alone a knife-block, nooo!), check whether yours might not benefit from some sharpening instead. Youll find your nearest knife sharpener by popping your suburb and knife sharpening into the search engine theyll always do a better job than any gadgetry, and its something youll only need to do once a year or so. Make a habit of setting the timer whenever you take a break from the cooktop or oven. iStock Make friends with your timer (or use your phone) Advertisement If youve resolved to spend more time in the kitchen but time-management gets you in a tizz, make like a MasterChef contestant and get around the kitchen timer. Now, youve probably already got one in the back of the cutlery drawer, but if thats not forthcoming, Im here to tell you that youre probably already staring at one without even realising it your smartphone! Make a habit of setting the timer before you step away from the cooktop or oven, whether its manually tapping into the clock app and scrolling across, or asking Siri to do it for you. Try it now: Hey Siri, set a timer for 4 minutes (about the time itll take to finish reading this!). Magic! From farm gate to plate: How farmers are harnessing technology to bring food to your door Join a CSA Advertisement If this is the year youve resolved to expand your fruit and veg horizons, you need look no further than the farm next door. Joining a Community Supported Agriculture scheme is a total win-win, because you get seasonal, nutrient-dense produce thats come straight from the grower, while they get the certainty of demand that means they can invest more in their supply. Youll be able to find your local by entering your suburb and CSA produce box into a search engine. Browse to find the one that fits the bill. If you think of this as a supplement to your grocery shop rather than the entirety of it, it means youll be prompted to get creative with celeriac or funky with fennel, and because its farm-fresh, itll be at its tastiest too. Just add salt flakes! Eddie Jim Glitter and gloss (always finish with salt flakes, freshly cracked pepper and olive oil) We eat with our eyes, and making a habit of finishing every savoury with twinkly salt flakes from a height, a crack of freshly ground pepper for instant texture and aroma, and the flick of the wrist with some extra virgin olive oil for glossy glisten over the top, is a surefire way to elevate your tomatoes on toast from nice to NICE! Advertisement The best recipes from Australia's leading chefs straight to your inbox. Sign up Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Share License this article More: Ask Alice Alice Zaslavsky is the author of In Praise of Veg, Alices A to Z, The Joy of Better Cooking, and Salad for Days. She is the culinary correspondent for ABC News Breakfast and ABC Radio, and host of A Bite to Eat with Alice on ABC TV. london stock exchange at paternoster square A British car battery company led by former Tesla executives has quit the London stock market less than a month after tapping investors for 500,000. DG Innovate (DGI), which is run by ex-Tesla director Peter Bardenfleth-Hanse, lashed out saying a lack of support for start-ups in the City had prompted the decision to abandon the main market and go private. In particular, the company said red tape around Londons stock listing rules meant it was more difficult to raise money, which has hindered its attempts to grow. However, the company had raised 500,000 from investors in early December, claiming the cash would keep it afloat until February 2025 and support a new joint venture with Indian firm Evage. It also raised 100,000 in September. Once the delisting is complete in early 2025, the business said it would propose a mechanism for existing investors who will retain their stakes to trade their shares privately. Mr Bardenfleth-Hansen was appointed to lead DG Innovate in December 2023, alongside former Tesla executives Christian Eidem and Jochen Rudat. Mr Bardenfleth-Hansen and Mr Rudat previously held senior roles at Teslas European teams. Shareholders in DGI include Mr Eidem a former adviser and classmate of Elon Musk who owns 24pc of the business, and Norways largest bank DNB. Following Tuesdays announcement, the company said: There has been and remains a broad lack of demand for exposure to companies at DGIs current stage of development within the UKs traditional institutional investor base. Bosses added that they did not foresee any obvious near-term catalysts likely to change this backdrop. DGI shares collapsed by 75pc following the announcement, thereby reducing the value of the company to 2.8m from 12m. Although DGI is a small company, the delisting marks a blow to the London stock markets prestige as a place where small companies can access cash to grow. Historically, companies have used the exchange as a means to expand. But three years of outflows from UK equity funds has left listed smaller firms starved of support. A dearth of new listings has also weakened the London market given the surge in companies being taken private by foreign investors. The London Stock Exchange changed its listing rules earlier this year to cut some of the burdens involved with a float, including making it easier to pursue decisions without the need for a shareholder vote. Ironically, DGI took advantage of the latest change in rules to push through the delisting plan without shareholder approval. Based in Wales, DG Innovate is developing batteries made from sodium as an alternative to lithium batteries which are more widely used in electric vehicles (EVs). Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. In recent years, players in the oil and gas industry have progressed from using digital technologies for select use cases to making their entire processes digital. Certain technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) are now part of their daily routine. And these overall digitalisation initiatives could provide long-term benefits to the oil and gas industry, says GlobalData. GlobalDatas thematic report, Digitalization in Oil and Gas, provides an overview of the digitalisation efforts within the industry and its potential in transforming operations. It also highlights the role of major oil and gas companies, such as ADNOC, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies, in the development and adoption of digital tools to solve business problems. Ravindra Puranik, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said: Field personnel are extensively using handheld devices to gather data, make notes, and communicate with their team. These changes are aimed at cutting down inefficiencies in workflows for improved productivity and lower costs. He added that technologies are also aiding in overseeing the vast infrastructure to prevent accidents or unplanned shutdowns. Operational risks are also reduced due to a lesser need for human intervention in hazardous environments, which is a very important benefit of digitalisation. The adoption of digital technologies is also expected to deliver intangible value in the form of emission reductions. A recent poll from GlobalData indicated that companies were deploying digitalisation to lower their operational emissions. With worries over climate change increasing every year, managing emissions has become critical for the industry. Puranik added: Drones are being used to monitor methane emissions in the industry, and AI can be used to determine effective strategies to mitigate methane emissions from daily oil and gas operations. These efforts are in line with the ESG objectives set by international agreements such as the Paris Accord. As digital technologies are not a core area of expertise for oil and gas companies, the challenge of having a workforce with essential skills remains a key concern. Technicians with dual expertise are rare. Moreover, with increased technology deployment, the risk of data security goes up. Incidents, such as the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, are bound to happen if proper security measures are not put in place. Besides, there is cost-benefit uncertainty around retrofitting aging assets with connected technologies. Glencastle and Brackloon National Schools have been named Junior and Senior County Winners respectively of the prestigious national art competition, Someone Like Me. The achievement secures them a place at the national awards ceremony to be held at Dublin City Hall on Tuesday 28th January 2025, where they will join 50 other schools to compete for the much sought-after national senior and junior titles. Now in its ninth year, the Someone Like Me art competition, which is organised by the National Disability Authority, attracted 2,783 entries from national schools across the length and breadth of the country. The competition was created as part of the National Disability Authoritys work to nurture more positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities. To date, it has seen more than 25,000 children take part in lesson plans and pupil activities designed to help them develop an awareness and understanding of visible and non-visible disabilities, drawing on their own personal experiences of disability in a bid to help create a more inclusive society. Congratulating Glencastle and Brackloon National Schools on being named County Winners, Director of the National Disability Authority, Dr Aideen Hartney said that the number of entries this year is a tribute to the commitment of Irelands primary school teachers, who continue to play an important part helping to create an ever-more inclusive Ireland. This years competition is set against the backdrop of a new Autism Innovation Strategy and work ongoing to develop a new National Disability Strategy. These provide the building blocks for a more inclusive society, where disabled people have equality of opportunity when it comes to participating in cultural, social and economic life and where positive attitudes prevail.. The Someone Like Me art competition is an important way of building an acceptance and understanding of all disabilities amongst the primary school community, and developing an autism affirming society. Selecting the county winners was not an easy task for the judges and choosing an overall senior and junior winner will be an even harder job. And, while I know it will be an anxious wait for the pupils and teachers to hear which of the 52 county winners will be awarded the national titles, every pupil should be congratulated for their entries and for coming up with ways to include all people within society. Glencastle and Brackloon National Schools will now go on to compete with 50 other schools from around the country for the overall Someone Like Me junior and senior awards which will be announced at the national awards ceremony to be held at Dublin City Hall on Tuesday 28th January 2025. The competition, which offers a range of prizes, including 500 each for the senior and junior winning schools, was open to all primary school pupils from junior infants to sixth class and more. Entries ranged from posters and collages to large sculptural installations and videos. COMMUNITY NOTES: ERRIS - WESTERN PEOPLE (DECEMBER 31 EDITION) After 22 years of selfless dedication, the Ballyglass Coast Guard unit bid a heartfelt farewell to Michael Hurst, who has retired from his role as officer in charge of Ballyglass Coast Guard Unit. From day one, Michael has been a true pillar of our community, always ready to lend a hand during emergencies, support our teams, and keep our community safe. His commitment, passion, and tireless work have left a lasting impact on all of us. Thank you for your incredible service, Michael. You have been an inspiration to us all, and while we will miss your presence, Ballyglass Coast Guard Unit wish you all the best in your next chapter! Louise Walsh Up to 16 ambulances were waiting with patients outside one of the country's busiest hospitals on Wednesday night, just days after a temporary ambulance bypass was implemented to ease the pressure on the emergency department services. Some of the ambulances lined up outside Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda at about 7pm had been there up to six hours waiting for available beds to hand over patients. The queue of ambulances comes just three days after hospital management were forced to implement a temporary three-hour ambulance bypass while the hospital dealt with a high number of presentations and admissions. Ambulances were diverted to other hospitals in Dublin, Meath and Cavan during this time. The latest situation was described as 'incredible' by Aontu leader and Meath West TD Peadar Toibin who has been campaigning against a long-time planned closure by the HSE of the emergency department at Our Lady's Hospital in nearby Navan. Some ambulances with critical and unstable patients have already been told to bypass Navan's Emergency Department since 2022 as part of HSE reconfiguration plans. "That one of the busiest hospitals in the country has been turned into an ambulance car park is outrageous," he said. "16 ambulances queuing for hours to deliver patients is a threat to the health and wellbeing of patients. Delayed treatment leads to reduced outcomes for patients. Tying up 16 ambulances in Drogheda Hospital also has the effect of taking these ambulances out of commission. It means that these ambulances are simply not available to deal with emergency life and death calls in the region. It means delayed ambulance arrival and again this is a threat to life and health. According to an Aontu Parliamentary Question, ambulance delays are leading to deaths. In 2019 757 people were dead by the time the ambulance arrived, and this figure stood at 927 in 2021. These are devastating figures. The reason Drogheda is under so much pressure is the emergency departments in Dundalk and in Monaghan have been closed by previous governments. "Added to this is the official ambulance bypass of Navan hospital. None of this has happened by accident. It is directly a result of decisions by Ministers for Health and senior HSE officials. But as usual no one is being held to account. Incredibly it is still the government policy to fully close Navan's Emergency Department." he said. "A flu outbreak in Ireland is to be expected at this time of year and the fact that services across the country can't cope with additional demand is wrong and it is dangerous. "The emergency department in Navan should play a significant role in the increased capacity that is needed in health services in the region. Pressure would be eased in Drogheda if a full ambulance service was reinstated there." In a staement the HSE said: "The Emergency Department in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital remains very busy with a high number of presentations and admissions. "It is expected that the pressure will continue over the coming days and we would urge the public to use alternative healthcare services for treatment such as GP, GP Out of Hours, Dundalk Injury Unit and pharmacies when appropriate. But if patients are very sick and in an emergency situation they should of course come to the Emergency Department. "Emergency Departments are always available to treat seriously ill patients and the sickest patients are seen first. People with less severe injuries and symptoms may have to wait to be seen." Allentown, PA (18103) Today Any morning clouds give way to partly sunny skies; a milder afternoon with highs back above the 60-degree mark. . Tonight Becoming cloudy overnight with some patchy fog and drizzle possible late at night. "The Saudi-Chinese relationship keeps growing, and keeps broadening and deepening. We are very optimistic about the relationship and the direction that it is taken," says a Saudi diplomat, who describes the bilateral partnership as "exceptional." #GLOBALink Motorola Solutions is now the leading supplier of public safety equipment and software to police departments and emergency response systems around the nation, including the software underlying most 911 infrastructure in the country; and is making rapid progress in the video security market and advancing AI for public safety as well. This pivot from the consumer sector to public safety and enterprise security has paid off enormously: not only is Motorola stock up 50% this year alone, Brown has achieved over 1,500%+ (and counting) total shareholder returns during his tenure. Over the last 17 years and counting, Brown has pulled off a remarkable repositioning of Motorola, jettisoning its cell phone and cable businesses while building out an industry-leading public safety and enterprise security business from virtually scratch. He led more than 40 acquisitions since the company split in 2011, and the company's total addressable market more than quadrupled. When Greg Brown took over as CEO of Motorola in 2008 after years of control by the Galvin family, he arrived at a particularly tenuous moment. The company was struggling in its legacy cell phone and cable businesses, having seen its erstwhile dominance in those franchises evaporate as new competitors such as Apple , Nokia , and BlackBerry entered the scene. It was unfamiliar territory for the company: after all, Motorola literally invented the worlds first handheld mobile phone in 1973. Nevertheless, these five CEOs stand out to us because not only have they enjoyed remarkable 2024s; but their success comes as the culmination of successful turnarounds, transformations, and reinventions of some of Americas most iconic brands. To us, these five CEOs deserve just as much recognition as the most revered business leaders of our time as household names such as Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Tim Cook, Arvind Krishna, and Larry Fink. This is one year where it is hard to recognize just five outstanding CEOs, with hundreds of companies enjoying record stock prices amidst record profitability. There are some candidates who are almost too obvious such as Nvidias Jensen Huang, whose stock has soared 200% this year amidst the continued AI feeding frenzy; or Teslas Elon Musk, whose stock has doubled since the election with Musks ascension into first buddy stardom. As 2024 comes to a close, it is time once again for our annual CEOs of the Year column in FORTUNE and CNBC. Story Continues 2. Glenn Fogel, Booking Holdings - growth through M&A into becoming the leading online travel agency F500 CEO QA-Glenn Fogel-Booking Merely months after Glenn Fogel originally joined Booking Holdings (then Priceline) in the corporate development department in February, 2000, Priceline's stock imploded, plummeting over 97% within a year as the dot-com bubble burst. But unlike the hundreds of other startups that went bust; Priceline avoided that fate largely because the company embarked on a journey of growth through external M&A, acquiring competitors methodically and building out an multi-platform online travel agency with the scale to compete globally and offering travelers a one-stop shop for booking flights, restaurants, hotels, rides, tour tickets, and everything in between. Under the leadership of Glenn Fogel, the architect of that growth through M&A strategy, Booking Holdings now contains such iconic brands as Booking.com, Priceline, Opentable, Kayak, Agoda, Cheapflights, Rocketmiles, Rentalcar.com, and much more. These brands were originally allowed to grow and flourish on their own, allowing for more creative autonomy by each subsidiarys leadership team while retaining formidable customer brand loyalty and name recognition; but over Fogels eight years as CEO, Booking has been gradually bringing the brands together towards a more coordinated, integrated operation, with centralized processes that did not exist previously and achieving synergistic benefits among the brands. With such a diversified portfolio of brands, Booking Holdings is truly globally diversified, drawing substantially more than half its revenue from outside the US. Booking Holdings stock has tripled since Fogel became CEO in 2017, reflecting an >30% CAGR over a quarter of a century, and is up 50% this year alone as travel growth continues to outpace global GDP growth. 3. Doug McMillon, Walmart - building out Walmart into a digital platform company in addition to continuing to reign supreme in brick-and-mortar superstores LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - JANUARY 09: Walmart Inc. President and CEO Doug McMillon delivers a keynote address during CES 2024 at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas on January 9, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs through January 12 and features about 4,000 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 130,000 attendees. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Doug McMillon has overseen a remarkable transformation of one of America's most iconic and recognizable companies. Known mostly for its brick-and-mortar 'superstores' when McMillon took the reins as CEO in 2014, McMillon has pulled off a remarkable digital pivot, with its revenues from digital advertising now growing faster than that of Amazon. While it may be hard to believe that Walmart is now a trendy magnet for digital advertising dollars, that success has been years in the making. Unlike competitors who have struggled to migrate to an omnichannel shopping experience and who have struggled to build out their e-commerce platforms, Walmart's e-commerce channels are now flourishing after years of sustained investment and international partnerships, including as a pioneer in the use of AI for inventory management. Digital advertising and e-commerce now drive the highest share of revenue growth and profitability growth for Walmart, as profits from digital advertising are much higher-margin than its traditional operations. At the same time, McMillon has sacrificed none of Walmart's supremacy in brick-and-mortar, with same-stores up 4% this year when same-store sales are notably down at many of Walmarts competitors. Walmart superstores have evolved into becoming a true one-stop-shop, offering not only shopping, retail, and grocery; but also financial services, banking and other crucial services facilitated at Walmarts ever-evolving superstores. Not surprisingly, Walmart stock has taken off this year, up 75%, as investors have started to appreciate Walmarts successful digital transition, expecting even higher profitability moving forward from continued acceleration in high-margin digital advertising revenue growth; and the stock has now quadrupled since McMillon became CEO. 4. David Solomon, Goldman Sachs - turning Goldman Sachs back into a 'growth' company speaks onstage at Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - Day 2 on October 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. In recent years, few CEOs have driven more remarkable operating and financial results than David Solomon of Goldman Sachs. Unfortunately, this transformation story seems to have been missed by many in the business media, who have bewilderingly preferred to focus on unsubstantiated personal innuendo which is unjustified and unwarranted. The real story about Solomons leadership of Goldman Sachs they ought to have covered, but missed, is that Solomon has turned Goldman Sachs back into a growth company, driving the stock to record heights in the process. It hasnt always been this way, despite Goldmans historical successes and widely admired prior leadership. When Goldman was a private partnership for 100 years, the primary goal of the firm was to make money for its partners. Growth initiatives had to be funded through partners' capital, which resulted in a long period of low growth into new business lines. Under Solomon; growth, and investing back into the firm, have become capital allocation priorities once again. Over the last six years, Solomon has grown the firm into new business lines, positioning Goldman to reap more resilient, non-cyclical revenues, including lucrative recurring fees from Goldmans burgeoning asset management franchise. That, alongside Goldmans continued dominance in its investment banking and capital markets business lines, has allowed Goldman to deliver return on assets and return on equity which are some of the strongest amongst its peer banks. Solomon has faced much criticism from business media for abruptly pivoting away from the consumer banking business (Marcus), when in reality he was smart to cut bait when he did because of three major but underappreciated changes in the macro environment. First, Goldmans expansion into consumer banking was always going to be dependent on external M&A, but changes in the antitrust enforcement environment made that continued growth impossible; second, the stock market pivoted dramatically from rewarding growth to rewarding profitability right around when the Fed began hiking rates; and third, the regulatory burden became increasingly onerous on scaled consumer banking services. While a rising tide lifts all boats, with all bank stocks among this years top performers thanks to the continued strength of the economy and anticipated deregulation and looser bank capital rules expected in a second Trump Administration, Goldman stands tall among its peers, up 50% this year and having nearly tripled since Solomon became CEO in 2018. 5. Jane Fraser, Citi - delivering on the long-promised turnaround with real results at long last Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup, attends a hearing on Annual Oversight of Wall Street Firms before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Dec. 6, 2023. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua via Getty Images) For years, Citi - the third largest US bank - has been widely seen as the weakest link of any of the largest US banks. Investors avoided its stock, with the bank trading at merely half of book value last year (in stark contrast to peer banks trading at over book value); and with regulators imposing hefty fines in years past for poor/non-existent internal safeguards, such as when junior bankers accidentally wired $900 million Citi couldn't get back. Citi has been promising a turnaround for about just as long, but what has changed now is that Jane Fraser is delivering real results and real returns at long last. Fraser has streamlined Citi's businesses to focus on growth areas and core areas where Citi is a clear market leader, focusing on the lucrative wealth management franchise which brings in recurring fees which are prized by investors and where Citi, with its universally recognized and admired brand, enjoys a tangible moat over upstart competitors. Conversely, Fraser has successfully ditched tertiary business lines where Citi was a laggard, such as municipal bonds and distressed debt; and sold out of complicated international operations, including retail franchises in China, India, South Korea where there was excessive risk and complexity for little return. Fraser is also delivering on the long-promised and much-needed simplification and consolidation of back-office processes, which will make it impossible for gaffes such as Citi's accidental transfer of $900 million to ever repeat. Citi stock is up 35% year to date, which still trails some banking peers - so the job is far from complete and it is too early to declare victory. But at the same time, there can be no question that more and more investors are recognizing that Fraser is finally delivering real results to the long-promised turnaround, and the Citi turnaround story is finally here, and finally real, at long last. **** Of course, these five CEOs faced stiff competition from many other CEOs who enjoyed terrific years amidst remarkable transformation and turnaround stories of their own. If it wasnt for the fact we named Marc Benioff of Salesforce our top CEO on last years list; we wouldve been tempted to recognize him this year amidst his Agentforce 2.0 triumphs; and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and Arvind Krishna of IBM deserve recognition for remarkable transformations of each of their businesses. Our own Yale Legend in Leadership award winners, were soaring success stories as well with Tim Cooks Apple up 40% and Larry Finks BlackRock up 31% on top of track records of value creation over the long-term. But ultimately, these five CEOs Greg Brown of Motorola, Glenn Fogel of Booking Holdings, Doug McMillon of Walmart, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, and Jane Fraser of Citi, stand tall for piloting their enterprises through years-long transformations which are now paying off handsomely. While past performance is no guarantee of future success, we like their chances for continued success for years to come. As Albert Einstein quipped, learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to U.S. criminal fraud charges after being extradited from Montenegro this week. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Thursday unsealed a nine-count indictment charging Kwon, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Kwon, 33, wore an olive green long-sleeved shirt and black sweatpants as his lawyer Andrew Chesley entered the plea at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger in Manhattan federal court. The judge ordered Kwon detained after Chesley said he would not seek bail at this time. Kwon took a copy of the 79-page indictment with him as U.S. marshals led him out of the courtroom. He is expected back in court on Jan. 8. Kwon had agreed last June to pay an $80 million civil fine and be banned from crypto transactions as part of a $4.55 billion settlement that he and Terraform reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In Thursday's indictment, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office alleged Kwon misled investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. Kwon allegedly told investors a computer algorithm known as "Terra Protocol" had restored the coin's value when it slipped below its peg in May 2021, when in fact he arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price. Prosecutors said that false claim and others drove retail and institutional investors to buy Terraform products and boost the value of Luna, a more traditional token developed by Kwon that fluctuated in value but was closely linked to TerraUSD, to $50 billion by the spring of 2022. "Much of this growth followed Kwon's brazen deceptions about Terraform and its technology," the indictment said. When TerraUSD's value began sliding again in May 2022, the trading firm warned that propping it up "wasn't so simple this time," according to the indictment. TerraUSD and Luna crashed that month, dragging down the value of other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, and caused wider havoc in the crypto market. Prosecutors did not identify the trading firm. SEC lawyers said in their civil case that Jump Trading had propped up TerraUSD in May 2021. Jump did not immediately respond to requests for comment. GeoPark Limited GPRK recently announced that it would not be able to move ahead with the planned acquisition of the CPO-9 block in Colombia because Ecopetrol S.A. EC exercised its preemptive rights. Under the Joint Operating Agreement, EC, the operator of the block with a 55% working interest, had the preemptive right to acquire the remaining 45% non-operated interest held by Repsol, S.A. REPYY. GPRKs initial acquisition plan dates back to Nov. 29, 2024, when the company made an announcement to obtain REPYYs upstream oil and gas assets in Colombia. Overview of GPRKs Initial Acquisition Plan As a leading energy company in Latin America, GeoPark, carrying a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present, had announced the acquisition of a 45% working interest in the CPO-9 Block and a 25% working interest in SierraCol Energy Arauca LLC. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Per its ambitious North Star strategy, GPRK had the target to acquire high-valued and advantaged assets in the Llanos Basin to deliver a highly profitable and sustainable portfolio across Latin America. The proposed acquisition was also about boosting the companys production and cash flow levels. However, the invocation of preemptive rights by Ecopetrol, a leading petroleum company focused on identifying opportunities within the eastern Llanos Basin of Colombia,shifts the assets trajectory. Opportunities Still Open in Araucas Llanos Norte Project Although the acquisition of the CPO-9 block has been interrupted by the EC, GPRK retains its option to acquire another venture. The company is still eyeing a 25% stake in SierraCol Energy Arauca LLC, located in the Arauca Department, where the partners are yet to exercise their preemptive rights, leaving an option with GeoPark to proceed with its acquisition. The Arauca acquisition will align with GPRKs strategy to strengthen its presence in Latin Americas dynamic energy sector. With a strong financial structure, the company is well positioned to pursue strategic acquisitions. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ecopetrol S.A. (EC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Repsol SA (REPYY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Geopark Ltd (GPRK) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -GlobalFoundries and IBM said on Thursday they have settled dueling lawsuits in which GlobalFoundries was accused of breaching a contract with IBM and the computer giant was alleged to have misused the chipmaker's trade secrets. The companies said in a joint statement the terms of the settlement were confidential and would allow them to "explore new opportunities for collaboration." GlobalFoundries bought IBM's semiconductor plants in 2015. IBM sued the Malta, N.Y.-based company in New York state court in 2021 for allegedly breaking a $1.5 billion contract to make high-performance chips for IBM. GlobalFoundries, which is majority owned by Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, separately sued Armonk, New York-based IBM in New York federal court in 2023 for allegedly misappropriating its chipmaking trade secrets and sharing them with Intel and Japanese consortium Rapidus during partnerships with the two companies. An Intel spokesperson declined to comment on the settlement. Spokespeople for Rapidus did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Commerce Department awarded GlobalFoundries a $1.5 billion subsidy in November to expand its semiconductor production in New York and Vermont. (Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by David Bario, Mark Porter and Paul Simao) Xac minh 'than y' chua ung thu bang phuong phap 'truyen nang luong' "Than y" Nguyen Van Kien (trai) lam viec voi co quan chuc nang - Anh: Cong an cung cap Ngay 28-2, ong Nguyen Tuong Duy - chu tich UBND xa Hai Yang (huyen ak oa, Gia Lai) - cho hay ang phoi hop cac co quan chuc nang xac minh truong hop nguoi xung... An Giang lien tiep xuat hien mua trai mua Mua bat chot giua cao iem ma kh khien nguoi dn bat ngo. Theo ng Luu Van Ninh, Gim oc i Kh tuong Thuy van tinh An Giang, nguyn nhn cua hien tuong ny l do nhieu ong nhiet oi trn cao trong ieu kien La Nina ket hop cua ra pha Nam khoi khng kh lanh... PARIS French online retailer LException has been acquired by Hong Kong-based asset management firm AA Investments, joining a rapidly growing group that also includes French fashion and home decor e-tailer Smallable and sneaker resale site Wethenew. Founder Regis Pennel revealed the deal in a LinkedIn post Tuesday, adding that he was stepping down with immediate effect. Cecile Roederer, founder and chief executive officer of Smallable, will take over the leadership of the company, he added. More from WWD I am convinced that LException is now in very good hands to continue its development, stated Pennel, who was not available to provide additional details. It caps a rocky year for multibrand e-commerce platforms. Founded in 2011, LException was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, closing its physical store in the Forum des Halles shopping center in 2021 and moving to sustainable fashion accelerator La Caserne the next year. Despite backing from French entrepreneur Jacques Veyrats industrial holding group Impala, LException struggled with a slowdown in demand, high costs and the rise of DTC sales. Specializing in French and European brands with a sustainable bent, the concept store which launched a direct-to-consumer private label mens line in 2018 had recently transformed into a marketplace with a view to finding a buyer. AA Investments, controlled by the Goshayeshi family behind Iranian beauty retail chain Safir, has swept up a raft of distressed assets in recent months, though it has yet to outline the strategy behind the acquisitions. It has also made a bid for Paris-based brand Y/Project, which was placed into receivership in September. A Paris commercial court is due to rule on the matter in early January. Best of WWD Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA) chief executive Elon Musk donated 268,000 Tesla shares to unnamed charities just before the new year, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. Musk, who owns about 12.8% of Tesla, made the donation as part of his "year-end tax planning" to "certain charities" that have "no current intention to sell such stock," the filing showed. The donation follows a similar pattern from 2022, when Musk donated Tesla shares worth $1.95 billion. In 2021, he donated about $5.74 billion to the Musk Foundation, his non-profit organization. The latest donation was worth about $108.2 million, according to the stock's last closing price. The Musk Foundation, of which Musk is president, offers grants for various causes, including the "development of safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity," according to its website. Musk, currently the world's richest person with a net worth of $408.3 billion, according to Forbes, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Rishi Kant in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid) If theres one CEO who embodies the phrase You cant make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, its surely Ryanair boss Michael OLeary. OLeary has defended his outspoken ways in the past. In March, he summarized to the Wall Street Journal: The funny thing weve learned over the years is actually the bad publicity sells far more seats than the good. However, the Ryanair CEO admitted the tactic wasnt without its negatives. OLeary conceded in September that Ryanairs depressed share price in Europe relative to its American depository receipts in the U.S. may have something to do with his public image. In Ryanair theres always some news flow. Were fighting some union or some minister or Im calling some minister an idiot or theyre calling me an idiot. Nevertheless, OLeary didnt pull back in 2024. Here we recap his biggest battles as he fought to return Ryanair to a share price that would secure him his 100 million bonus. Wizz Airs marketing scam OLeary has long used the tactic of name-calling as part of his wide-ranging battle against rival budget airlines. Most recently, he was perturbed by an astute offer rolled out by Wizz Air in August that would allow passengers to take unlimited flights with a 499 annual subscription. There were some loopholes, most notably that flights could only be booked within 72 hours of departure. It prompted OLeary to dismiss the promotion as a bit of a marketing scam. You can fly as often as you like, but you pay 9 every time you book a flight, and you can only book the flight three days before departure, he told Newstalk. Most of the flights will be full; therell be no seat availability. Its an interesting marketing stunt, but thats all it is. OLearys comments sparked outrage from Wizz Airs chief corporate and ESG officer, Yvonne Moynihan. The comments of Mr. OLeary were not only provocative but they were also inaccurate, said Moynihan. Boeing One obstacle OLeary has faced this year is a shortage of planes from Ryanairs supplier Boeing. The plane-making giant was thrown into turmoil at the start of 2024 when an Alaska Airlines Boeing jet suffered a blowout mid-flight, forcing the temporary grounding of 200 737 Max 9s. The blowout caused chaos at Boeing, leading to supply-chain hiccups and regulatory hurdles that had a knock-on effect on Ryanair. Deliveries fell below expectations, prompting OLeary to give some words of advice to Boeings leadership team, namely: Never put a pilot in charge of an airline. In August, OLeary said Boeing management continue to disappoint us as deliveries still lagged. Canadian mineral exploration company Snow Lake Resources, now operating as Snow Lake Energy, has secured over $20m, before costs, in funding to support its activities across its uranium and lithium projects. The proceeds will be used by the company to explore its portfolio of global projects and make strategic acquisitions and investments in the clean energy and next-generation minerals sector. At the Engo Valley uranium project located on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, additional exploration drilling is planned, along with the preparation of a maiden resource estimate compliant with SK-1300 standards. Discovered in 1973, the Engo Valley uranium project in north-west Namibia is considered a top-tier exploration project with historical uranium resources. Snow Lake plans to apply modern exploration techniques and technology to the project in 2025. The companys Black Lake uranium project in Saskatchewan, Canada, will see further prospecting and ground geophysics to confirm and identify potential drill targets. Snow Lake CEO Frank Wheatley said: As we are now well-funded to continue our exploration programmes, our focus for 2025 will be on our two highly prospective uranium projects: our Engo Valley project in Namibia and our Black Lake uranium project in the Athabasca Basin, Northern Saskatchewan. As major technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon pursue their AI ambitions and invest in nuclear power, coupled with global nuclear plant baseload demand growth and sanctions halting Russian exports of uranium to the US, we believe new sources of uranium will be required to underpin the expansion of nuclear power to support those ambitions. For the Shatford Lake LCT project in Southern Manitoba, Canada, prospecting and ground geophysics will continue to identify potential drill targets following initial assay results, the company said. Located adjacent to the Tanco Mine, the project is being explored for caesium, tantalum, and lithium mineralisation. Additionally, the Snow Lake lithium project in Manitoba is set to receive an updated SK-1300 mineral resource estimate incorporating drill results from the 2023 and 2024 drill programmes. The Snow Lake lithium project's updated mineral resource estimate is anticipated for the first half (H1) of 2025. In a press statement, Snow Lake said: As a clean energy minerals company, Snow Lake continues to review globally significant opportunities in the clean energy and next-generation mineral space that have the potential to be commercialised, create shareholder value, and complement its current portfolio of uranium and lithium projects. Jocelyn Wildenstein, the socialite famously nicknamed Catwoman, has passed away. From her dramatic plastic surgeries inspired by big cats to her record-breaking divorce settlement, her story captivated the world, blending high society glamour with personal tragedy, leaving behind a legacy as polarizing as it was unforgettable. Heres all you need to know about the Swiss socialites death. Jocelyn Wildenstein died at the age of 84 Swiss socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, known for her plastic surgeries and high-profile divorce from billionaire Alec Wildenstein, has passed away in Paris at the reported age of 84, according to The Independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her death was confirmed by her longtime partner, Lloyd Klein, who revealed she died peacefully in her sleep on December 31, 2024 (via The Guardian). Reports about her exact age vary, with some sources suggesting she was 79 at the time of her death (via CNN Style). Wildenstein gained international attention for her dramatic cosmetic transformations, reportedly inspired by her love for big cats, as well as her record-breaking divorce settlement of $2.5 billion in 1999, according to People. Her altered appearance led tabloids to nickname her Catwoman. Despite public fascination with her surgeries, Wildenstein claimed her facial features came from her familys genetics. She reportedly stated her cat eyes and high cheekbones were natural traits. Born Jocelyne Perisset in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1940, Wildenstein married Alec Wildenstein in 1978 after meeting on a safari in Kenya. The couple shared two children but divorced amidst allegations of infidelity and lifestyle disputes. Her financial struggles after her divorce led to bankruptcy in 2018. Despite a substantial settlement, legal disputes reportedly cut off her funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wildenstein is survived by her partner Klein and her two children. Originally reported by Vritti Johar on ComingSoon. The post Catwoman Socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein Passes Away appeared first on Mandatory. Snoopy, the beloved beagle in the classic "Peanuts" comics, has one of the best new theme park attractions in America, according to USA TODAY readers. Kings Island's Snoopy's Soap Box Racers ranked No. 10 among the Best New Theme Park Attractions in USA TODAY's 10Best Readers Choice Awards. The roller coaster takes the classic fun of a soap box racing derby to a new level as both parents and kids climb aboard a "Peanuts"-decorated soap box car and are hoisted up a 70-foot hill to the starting line. Riders are then released and launched forward onto a twisty track. Just as riders think they're about to cross the finish line, the soap box cars roll backward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement USA TODAYs 10Best published the results Thursday. Holiday World's Good Gravy! attraction in Santa Claus, Indiana, earned the top spot in the category, followed by the Fire in the Hole at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, and Penguin Trek at SeaWorld Orlando in Orlando, Florida. King's Island's newest Snoopy attraction, the amusement park's first family boomerang coaster, officially opened in May in Camp Snoopy. The 10 finalists for Best New Theme Park Attraction Good Gravy! at Holiday World (Santa Claus, Indiana). Fire in the Hole at Silver Dollar City (Branson, Missouri). Penguin Trek at SeaWorld Orlando (Orlando, Florida). Iron Menace at Dorney Park (Allentown, Pennsylvania). The Dolly Parton Experience at Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee). The Bobcat at Six Flags Great Escape (Queensbury, New York). Catapult Falls at SeaWorld San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas). Whispering Pines Haunted Hotel at Funtown Splashtown USA (Saco, Maine). SpongeBob's Crazy Carnival Ride at Circus Circus (Las Vegas, Nevada). Snoopy's Soap Box Racers at Kings Island (Mason, Ohio). USA TODAY is owned by The Enquirer's parent company, Gannett. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Kings Island coaster makes list of best new theme park attractions Meghan Markle is as regal as ever. The Duchess of Sussex, 43, kicked off 2025 with a clean slate on Instagram. Markle launched her own Instagram account with the username @meghan on Wednesday. Her first post was filmed by her husband, Prince Harry, 40, in Montecito, California, where the pair resides with their kids, Archie and Lilibet. In the video, Markle donned an all-white outfit and ran on the beach, writing 2025 in the sand before smiling and running back off camera. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at the Escuela Tambores de Cabildo during The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Colombia Visit on August 17, 2024 in Cartagena, Colombia. Archewell Foundation via Getty Images Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, attends the Paley Center for Media hosts Paley Honors Fall Gala honoring Tyler Perry at Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel, on Dec. 4, 2024. Getty Images The actress also updated her profile picture to a black-and-white shot of herself smiling and sporting another white look. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Markles return to Instagram comes almost five years after she and Harry made a final post on their joint page, @sussexroyal. Thank you to this community for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world. Harry & Meghan, the couple said in March 2020. In the posts caption, the Suits alum and Duke of Sussex added, While you may not see us here, the work continues. We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Youve been great! Until then, please take good care of yourselves, and of one another. Meghan Markle writes 2025 in the sand. Meghan Markle/ Instagram According to People, Markle is excited to return to the app to reconnect with communities around the world and share updates about the projects shes working on. The duchess wants to lead by example and demonstrate the potential for social media to bring joy and positive connections to others. Markles post comes months after she hinted she wanted to rejoin the app during a conversation with The Cut. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do you want to know a secret? she said in the August 2022 interview. Im getting back on Instagram. Meghan Markle returns to Instagram. Meghan Markle/ Instagram Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later in the interview, Markle relayed she was no longer sure she would actually return to Instagram. However, she had been able to maintain a presence on the platform in the past. Before she and Harry tied the knot in 2018, the American Riviera Orchard founder garnered 3 million followers on Instagram under her name and lifestyle blog, The Tig. In 2017, Markle shut down her successful blog only a few months before she and Harry got engaged. The following January, she deleted her social media pages for good. It was a big adjustment a huge adjustment to go from that kind of autonomy to a different life, she explained to The Cut. After marrying Harry, news about their royal work only appeared on the @KensingtonRoyal accounts, and updates on Prince William and Kate Middleton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stepping into her new role came with strict online and off rules. Meghan Markle runs on the beach in her first social media post. Meghan Markle/ Instagram Theres literally a structure by which if you want to release photos of your child, as a member of the family, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota, Markle said to the outlet last summer, referencing the UKs media pool. The royal added that she questioned why would she release photos of her child to the media before she could share it with the people that love my child? Shortly after, Markle and Harry launched a separate Instagram page, @SussexRoyal, where they shared their own updates separate from those of William and Kate. The @SussexRoyal Instagram account stopped being updated after the couple stepped back from their royal roles in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pair has since lived separate lives from their royal counterparts. Meghan Markle has started her own account separate from that of Prince Harry. Meghan Markle/ Instagram Despite reports they were invited to spend the festive season with relatives in the UK, Markle and Prince Harry enjoyed a quiet Christmas in California. Royal biographer Ingrid Seward told the Mirror: Harry and Meghan were invited for Christmas at Althorp with thrice-married [Princess Dianas brother] Uncle Charles, now Earl Spencer, but decided to stay in California. Meghan says its important for her that Archie and Lilibet can have connective memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas at home and enjoy the traditions like putting out carrots for the reindeer, Seward stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Harry and Markle reportedly enjoyed the day with the actress mother, Doria, at their Montecito home. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the 2024 ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre on July 11, 2024, in Hollywood, Calif. Getty Images for W+P As for Harrys kin, all working members of the royal family congregated in St. Mary Magdalene Church on Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on Christmas Day. King Charles, 76, and Queen Camilla, 77, who have attended morning mass at Sandringham Church annually on Christmas for years, were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The family ended a difficult year as both the king and the princess were diagnosed with cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last February, Buckingham Palace revealed that Charles had been diagnosed with cancer and had started treatment. His diagnosis was discovered in January after he underwent a planned procedure to treat a benign enlarged prostate. In March, Kate revealed that she had also been undergoing cancer treatment for about a month. In September, the Princess announced she had finished her chemotherapy treatment and was cancer-free. A new water-based experience at Wekiva Island helps locals and tourists alike get a full immersion in wild Florida. Wekiva Wild River Tours invites guests on a pontoon boat excursion on the scenic and storied Wekiva River, one of only two designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers in the Sunshine State. On a tour with Capt. Angel Ramos, guests can embark on a journey to see towering trees and keep an eye out for fauna. Its possible to spot alligators, turtles, hawks, belted kingfishers, egrets and great blue herons along the way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On a recent sunny afternoon, Ramos had the boat decorated for the holidays and was offering short Christmas tours, but the experience is offered daily as a private tour for up to six people or a ticketed per-person trip lasting an hour. In the future, Ramos hopes to offer nighttime tours, date nights and fishing options. Setting off from Wekiva Island on a merry and bright December afternoon, Ramos, an Orlando native, took us downstream and recounted how he arrived at this new Central Florida business venture. After building a successful tour company, AMI Escapes, on Anna Maria Island, Ramos decided to focus his attention on his own backyard. After salvaging the pontoons from another boat, he crafted his vessel to give an old Florida feel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I wanted it to look old like the bar does but everything in here is brand new except the pontoon. I built it in my backyard, he said. As we meandered downstream slowly, navigating past fallen trees and shallow spots, our captain remarked on the quiet solace of the Wekiva River. Around the same time, we spotted a hawk perched in a tree. Millions of people live right around us, and you dont hear anything out here, he said. Another sighting served as a reminder that people have been inhabiting Central Florida for thousands of years. Ramos pointed out Shell Island, a Native American shell midden dating back between 5,000-7,000 years. The landmark has been owned by Rollins College for nearly a century and is set aside for archaeological and environmental research. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wekiva Island owner Bill Weinaug said the new tour offering is in line with his businesss ethos. When I purchased this property, I did it with the goal of being one of the only windows to the magnificent Wekiva River for the public, he said in a news release. Im so excited to be able to offer our guests another way to experience this incredible place. Sometimes, a little outing in nature, complete with wind-swept hair and sightings of flora and fauna is all it takes for one to feel centered again. Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com. If you go Wekiva Wild River Tours offers tours leaving daily from 1014 Miami Springs Drive in Longwood. Tours cost $42 for adults and $32 for children. Private tours are also available. Bookings are available at wekivawild.com. In a forgotten corner of Europe, between the Adriatic and the Alps, there stands a beautiful baroque monastery which encapsulates the peculiar identity of this years European Capital of Culture. From this hilltop retreat you look down on a sprawling conurbation medieval on one side, modern on the other. From up here youd never know this city was divided between two separate countries: Gorizia in Italy, and Nova Gorica in Slovenia. Today you can walk across the border between these twin cities without any bother. Its as simple and straightforward as walking from Scotland into England. This wasnt always so. For half a century, this was the boundary between Western Europe and Communist Yugoslavia. The fortified frontier ran through the heart of town, cutting Gorizia in two. So how did this bizarre situation come about? And why is it so different today? The region around Gorizia has always been a no-mans-land a weird, beguiling blend of Romantic, Teutonic and Slavonic cultures. Until 1918, it was part of the Austrian Empire, ruled from Vienna. When Austria was defeated in the First World War, it became part of Italy, ruled from Rome. After Italy was defeated in the Second World War, it was invaded by Yugoslav partisans, then occupied and pacified by the victorious Western Allies. Homes in Gorizia are mostly styled in the elegance of Viennese architecture - Getty For several years, no-one could work out what to do with Gorizia and its hybrid hinterland. For centuries, Slavs and Italians had co-existed here, so Yugoslavia and Italy both claimed it, but in the new postwar divide, between Communists in the East and democrats in the West, these two nations were ideological enemies, so co-operation was now impossible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Finally, in 1947, the western Allies struck a clumsy compromise. They drew a brand-new border down the middle of this contested territory, leaving most of Gorizia in Italy and most of its hinterland in Yugoslavia. Like the Berlin Wall, this crude barrier ripped age-old communities apart. It was a solution which pleased no-one, but it preserved an uneasy peace. The Franciscan monastery where Im standing became a potent symbol of this divide. It ended up in Yugoslavia, but only just, and when Yugoslavia fell apart, in 1991, it wound up in a newly independent Slovenia. When Slovenia joined the EU, and Schengen, that border dwindled into irrelevance. Shut off for half a century, Italy was now a five-minute walk away. During the last century, this tranquil monastery was a sacred refuge from four different regimes: Habsburg Austria, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Communist Yugoslavia. No wonder the EU has chosen Gorizia/Nova Gorica as its first joint European Cultural Capital. Its a place that epitomises reconciliation and rapprochement. But what will visitors find here to see? Gorizia is home to a number of pretty churches - Getty The first thing that strikes you about Gorizia is how quiet and unspoilt it seems. There are no brash chain stores, few modern buildings, remarkably little traffic. Like a lot of border towns, it feels subdued and enigmatic, a good setting for a murder mystery or a film noir. The historic centre is ornate but quite compact you can walk around it in half an hour. There are no stand-out sights, but the antique architecture is attractive, with some ghostly echoes of the Habsburgs a few faded shop signs in German, Germanic churches with onion domes. If youre sick of big cities full of sightseers, its a nice respite, an intriguing and atmospheric place in which to spend a few days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Gorizia is a pleasant surprise, Nova Gorica is a disappointment. The city is almost entirely new, built after the war by the Yugoslavs, in that bleak, brutalist high-rise style beloved by Communists the world over. If youre interested in Cold War history, it has a certain curiosity value, but I doubt youll want to linger here. It reminded me of Croydon. The thing that makes this region special, on both sides of the border, is the rugged, hilly countryside. So peaceful today, a rumpled patchwork quilt of farms and fields and endless rows of vines, its difficult to believe this was one of the bloodiest battlefields of the First World War. The architecture in Nova Gorica, however, is much less inspiring - Alamy This is the setting of Ernest Hemingways masterful novel, A Farewell To Arms, inspired by his service as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. His powerful book really brings that time and place alive. Hundreds of thousands of young men died here, Italians and Austrians, but because the British army wasnt involved, most Britons have never heard of it. Only a few weathered war memorials remain. Its not all doom and gloom. Today these rolling hills are renowned for some of the finest wines in Italy, especially the subtle local white wine, Collio. Winters are a lot harsher here than in southern Italy, and the chalky soil is a challenge, so the grapes must struggle to survive, which does them no harm at all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Local winemaker Matej Fiegl takes me on a bracing hike around his hillside vineyards. Hes still mindful of the bad old days. Our families were divided, our soil was divided, he tells me. In Gorizia, even the cemetery was divided. The border hasnt moved, but now its virtually invisible. Only a road sign tells you that youve passed from Italy into Slovenia. Gorizias old town centre - Alamy Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres an evocative museum beside Gorizias main border crossing, but my favourite spot was that monastery. For some reason, I couldnt stop thinking about it, even after I returned home. The main attraction is its ancient library, but the thing that captured my imagination was the spooky crypt final resting place of Charles X, the last King of France. After he was ousted in 1830, he traipsed all over Europe (he even spent some time in Britain) before finally arriving in Gorizia, where he promptly died of cholera. How incongruous and ridiculous that the last of the Bourbons should end up in this eerie monastery, in this obscure borderland, subsequently shunted between Austria and Italy and Yugoslavia and Slovenia. For me, his tragic, quixotic story seems to sum up the strange appeal of Gorizia, a battleground and then a backwater, and now a crossroads once again. Getting there Fly to Venice from London Heathrow with British Airways, from Gatwick with EasyJet, or from Edinburgh, Luton or Stansted with Ryanair. EasyJet and Ryanair both also fly from Bristol and Manchester. Trains from Venice to Gorizia take between two and three hours from 14.40 each way. Where to eat and drink Like its mongrel population, food in Gorizia is a mix of diverse influences hearty and meaty, like the best Germanic grub, prepared and served with Italianate finesse. All the restaurants I ate in were reasonably priced, refreshingly informal, and full of friendly locals. Try Ristorante Rosenbar or Trattoria Alla Luna. For a glass or two of the local Collio, visit Osteria Vecia Gorizia or Al Chiostro Bistro, but even if you take pot luck you cant go too far wrong. Where to stay When the ailing King Charles X of France pitched up in Gorizia, his vanquished royal entourage was housed in the imposing Palazzo Strassoldo, now called the Grand Hotel Entourage in memory of his regal retinue. The rococo building is very grand indeed, but the fixtures and fittings are pleasantly old-fashioned, and the house style is warm and homely. Room rates are great value, with doubles from 90 including breakfast. Three more divided European cities Frankfurt an der Oder and Subice (Germany and Poland) Before the Second World War, Frankfurt an der Oder was an entirely German city, straddling both banks of the River Oder. However in 1945 this river became the new German-Polish border, leaving the western half of the city in East Germany and the eastern half (renamed Subice) in Poland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1990, German Reunification brought Frankfurt an der Oder into the Bundesrepublik, and in 2004 Poland joined the EU. Consequently, this border is now a lot softer. Today the two cities share various cross-border institutions, most notably the multilingual, international European University Viadrina. German and Polish border agents on the Stadtbruecke bridge between Slubice and Frankfurt an der Oder - PATRICK PLEUL Konstanz and Kreuzlingen (Germany and Switzerland) Most sightseers who cruise around Lake Constance sail past this pretty lakeside port without realising that its shared between two different nations. Its a single conurbation, everyone speaks German, and since both countries are in Schengen you can quite easily wander from Konstanz into Kreuzlingen without even realising youve crossed an international frontier. For modern visitors this distinction is merely a quaint curiosity, but during the Second World War it was of crucial importance, since Kreuzlingen was in neutral, peaceful Switzerland while Konstanz was part of Hitlers Reich. Narva and Ivangorod (Estonia and Russia) Before the First World War this Baltic port was ruled by Tsarist Russia, between the wars it was part of a newly independent Estonia, and after the Second World War it became part of the USSR. The Soviets split it into two cities, Narva on the west side of the river and Ivangorod on the east, so when Estonia regained its independence, in 1991, it was split between Estonia and Russia. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this frontier was fairly porous, but its now a stark divide between Putins Russia and the EU. William Cook travelled to Gorizia and Nova Gorica as a guest of Turismo Friuli Venezia Giulia. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. If there's anything more comforting than a pulled pork sandwich, we don't know what it is. There's something so satisfying about tender, shredded pork that's beautifully seasoned and piled into a soft hamburger bun or slices of white bread. Add some coleslaw and a tangy barbecue sauce, and you pretty much have the perfect meal. Pulled pork sandwiches aren't overly difficult to make at home, but they do take time and a little bit of know-how to get them just right. That's why so many people choose to get their pulled pork fix at barbecue joints where experienced pitmasters create ultra-craveable sandwiches. There are plenty of places to get pulled pork sandwiches in the U.S., but some spots truly stand out for their sublime sandwiches. If you're on a mission to find the perfect pulled pork sandwich, we're here to help. We delved deep into online reviews to find out which restaurants get the most accolades for this classic barbecue creation. According to pulled pork fanatics, these are the spots where you can get the absolute best pulled pork sandwiches in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: 15 Myths About Cast Iron Skillets, Debunked Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ - Multiple Locations A pulled pork sandwich with sweet pickles on a tray from Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ - rodneyscottsbbq / Instagram Rodney Scott is one of the biggest names in barbecue right now due to his mastery of South Carolina-style whole hog cooking. He learned the craft at a young age, working at his family's barbecue restaurant in Hemingway, South Carolina. In 2017, he opened Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ, and one year later he won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast. Now he has five locations in four states, all of which serve pit-cooked meats and tasty sides. Many say the pulled pork sandwich is the star of the menu. The pulled pork at Rodney Scott's starts with butterflied hogs cooked low and slow over coals. As the meat cooks, it's mopped with a sauce made with vinegar, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. When the meat is tender and falling off the bone, it's shredded, seasoned, and piled onto two slices of white bread. The final touch is a sprinkling of crispy pork skin. Not surprisingly, customers are smitten with the dish. rodneyscottsbbq.com Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Multiple locations Skylight Inn BBQ - Ayden, NC A pulled pork sandwich on wax paper from Skylight Inn BBQ - skylightinnbbq / Instagram Skylight Inn BBQ has been serving up classic eastern North Carolina-style barbecue to hungry patrons since 1947. This family-run spot still uses founder Pete Jones' original method of cooking whole hogs over wood and chopping up the meat with bits of crispy skin. The restaurant has earned numerous accolades over the years for its outstanding pork, including a James Beard Award. The pulled pork sandwich is simple but ultra sumptuous with tender chopped meat and crispy skin sandwiched in a soft bun and served with slaw. Customers rave about the pulled pork sandwich at Skylight Inn BBQ, with many saying they would gladly drive for hours just to get their hands on more of that pork. Many say the peppery vinegar-based sauce is also perfection. For those who aren't fans of eastern North Carolina-style sauce, the restaurant also offers a ketchup-based sauce and fiery chile-infused vinegar sauce. skylightinnbbq.com Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (252) 746-4113 4618 Lee St, Ayden, NC 28513 Slap's BBQ - Kansas City, KS A pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw from Slap's BBQ - slapsbbq / Instagram Brothers Mike and Joe Pearce are the driving force behind Slap's BBQ in Kansas City. The duo got their start competing in barbecue competitions, which they still do to this day. They opened Slap's BBQ in 2014 to share their award-winning barbecue with the good folks of Kansas City. The spot is famous for its burnt ends, brisket, and ribs. However, many people say you shouldn't sleep on the slow-smoked pulled pork sandwiches. There are a few different ways you can get your pulled pork sandwich at Slap's. You can go classic with pulled pork tossed in sweet rib sauce and served on a bun. You can also try the 'Southern Comfort' with creamy coleslaw and sweet sauce. If you really want to go all out, 'The Sandwich' includes your choice of pulled pork or brisket with onion rings and Provel cheese. No matter which one you get, many say the pulled pork is to die for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement slapsbbqkc.com (913) 213-3736 553 Central Ave, Kansas City, KS 66101 Jones Bar-B-Q Diner - Marianna, AK A pulled pork sandwich from Jones bar-B-Q Diner opened with coleslaw on aluminum foil - klint42p / Instagram Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There's nothing fancy about Jones Bar-B-Q Diner. This small spot only has a few tables and serves only one thing: pulled pork. However, it's a pretty special place. Opened in 1910, this is the oldest Black-owned restaurant in the country. It was also the first restaurant in Arkansas to earn a James Beard Award. Today, James Harold Jones slow-cooks his pork just like his grandfather and founder of the restaurant Walter Jones did. Jones Bar-B-Q has been in its current location since 1964 and has only changed slightly due to a fire that almost destroyed the spot in 2021. The restaurant opens at 7 a.m. daily to serve its famous barbecue pork, which is chopped fine, tossed in a sweet and tangy vinegar-based sauce, and served on two slices of white bread. You can get it with or without coleslaw. There are two things to be aware of if you want to try one of these famous sandwiches that customers call "deliciously addictive," "best of the best," and "extraordinary" though. First, it's cash only. Second, the restaurant closes when the meat runs out, so you'll want to get there early. facebook.com/JonesBarBQDiner/ (870) 295-3807 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 219 W Louisiana St, Marianna, AR 72360 Lewis Barbecue - Charleston, SC A hand holding a pulled pork sandwich with sausage and pickled onions from Lewis Barbecue - lewisbarbecuechs / Instagram Acclaimed pitmaster John Lewis has helped open some of the most iconic barbecue spots in the United States including Franklin Barbecue and la Barbecue (more on both of those later). In 2016, he opened Lewis Barbecue in Charleston, South Carolina, where he serves Texas-style barbecue. The menu is varied with all manner of smoked and grilled meats like brisket, sausage, turkey breast, and what many say is supremely tasty pulled pork. You can get your pulled pork by the pound or in sandwiches. The classic pulled pork sandwich at Lewis Barbecue includes nearly half a pound of pulled pork served on a soft bun. If you want something more adventurous, try the El Sancho with your choice of pulled pork, brisket, and sausage, or all three. People can't say enough good things about the slow-cooked pulled pork with tangy barbecue sauce. Feeling extra indulgent? Get your sandwich with a side of mac and cheese or crispy beef tallow fries. lewisbarbecue.com Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (843) 805-9500 464 N Nassau St, Charleston, SC 29403 B.E. Scott's BBQ - Lexington, TN A pulled pork sandwich on a plate with potato chips from B.E. Scott's BBQ - zach_bescottsbbq / Instagram Lexington may be a tiny city tucked halfway between Memphis and Nashville, but it draws in barbecue aficionados from far and wide who come for the pulled pork at B.E. Scott's BBQ. The restaurant has been smoking whole hogs over hickory wood since 1962 and still uses the same methods today. The pulled pork sandwiches are the main draw, although you can also get barbecue chicken, nachos, and ribs. Sides include baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, and potato chips. It's hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about the pulled pork sandwich at B.E. Scott's. Customers love that the sandwich is packed with smoky, succulent pork that's chopped ultra-fine and that you can top it with either a mayo-based or vinegar-based slaw. You can also slather your pulled pork in a vinegar-pepper sauce or a sweet barbecue sauce. According to many diners, this is one spot that's worth taking a road trip to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (731) 968-0420 10880 US-412, Lexington, TN 38351 Saw's BBQ - Multiple Locations A pulled pork sandwich with pickles on a plate from Saw's BBQ - sawsbbq / Instagram If you happen to be in Alabama and craving a pulled pork sandwich, many will tell you Saw's BBQ is the place to go. Owner Mike Wilson grew up in North Carolina and worked as a chef after graduating from culinary school. In 2009, he had the opportunity to purchase a barbecue joint, which fit perfectly with his passion for smoked and grilled meats. Over the years, he's expanded the restaurant from the original location in Homewood, Alabama, to five other locations across the state. There are plenty of options on the menu at Saw's BBQ including ribs, smoked, chicken, stuffed taters, and hot dogs. However, if you can only order one thing, it should be the Carolina-style pulled pork sandwich. This hearty handheld meal features tender shredded pork drizzled with a thin sweet and tangy red sauce and topped with crunchy pickles. You can also have your pulled pork on a plate with two sides or in a loaded baked potato. No matter how you get it, customers say the pork is fork-tender, smoky, and pretty much melts in the mouth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement sawsbbq.com Multiple locations La Barbecue - Austin, TX A sandwich with pulled pork, brisket, sausage, and pickled onions from La Barbecue - la_barbecue / Instagram When Ali Clem and her late wife LeAnn Mueller took over a small food trailer in Austin, Texas, it was a rather humble affair. Word soon spread though about the ridiculously good smoked meats the couple were cooking in their custom-built barbecue pit. Today, la Barbecue is one of only four American-style barbecue joints with a coveted Michelin star. Brisket is the star at la Barbecue, but the pulled pork sandwiches also get outstanding reviews. Purists can opt for the classic pulled pork sandwich served in a potato bun with pickled red onions. You can also try the 'la Chopped' with pulled pork and chipotle mayo or the 'El Sancho' with pulled pork and sausage topped with pickled red onions. If you're craving more meat, the 'El Sancho Loco' adds chopped brisket to the 'El Sancho' mix. The line-ups for la Barbecue can be long, but many say it's well worth the wait for pulled pork perfection. labarbecue.com 2401 E Cesar Chavez St, Austin, TX 78702 B's Barbecue - Greenville, NC A pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw on wax paper from B's Barbecue - Chad Pike / Facebook North Carolina has no shortage of spots where you can get a good pulled pork sandwich. If you want one of the best, many say B's Barbecue offers the epitome of eastern North Carolina whole hog 'cue. This Greenville spot opened in an old gas station in 1977 and is still run by the same family today. It officially opens at 9 a.m., but people start lining up as early as 6 a.m. to put in orders. Once the food is gone, B's closes for the day. What makes the pulled pork at B's Barbecue so incredible is the care that goes into making it. The hogs go on the grill between 9 and 10 p.m. and cook low and slow all night. In the morning, the meat is chopped by hand and piled onto plates or packed into sandwiches with a drizzle of vinegar sauce. The sandwich is simple, but people say it's out of this world. 751 State Rd 1204, Greenville, NC 27858 Payne's Bar-B-Q - Memphis, TN A pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw from Payne's Bar-B-Que - johnpaulkeith/ Instagram Memphis is often called the barbecue capital of the world, so narrowing down the top spots to get smoky, grilled meats is no easy task. When it comes to pulled pork, one barbecue joint that consistently gets called out for its stellar offerings is Payne's Bar-B-Q. The family-run spot has been serving barbecue since 1972 and uses the same recipes today to create its much-lauded pulled pork sandwiches. The sandwiches feature succulent, slow-smoked pork that's chopped with crispy bits of skin, piled into a soft bun, and topped with a vibrant mustard-based coleslaw. Read the reviews of Payne's Bar-B-Q and it's pretty clear the pulled pork sandwich blows most people away and that the sauce is drinkable on its own. People say the sandwich is messy, but for many, that's part of its appeal rather than a downside. facebook.com/PaynesBBQMemphis/ (901) 272-1523 1762 Lamar Ave, Memphis, TN 38114 Heirloom Market BBQ - Atlanta, GA A spicy Korean-style pulled pork sandwich from Heirloom Market BBQ - heirloommarketbbq / Instagram If you're looking for a unique twist on pulled pork, make your way to Heirloom Village BBQ in Atlanta, Georgia. Here, chefs Jiyeon Lee and Cody Taylor combine their Korean and Southern United States cooking styles to create barbecue dishes that have earned the spot a Michelin Bib Gourmand award. The restaurant is tiny and only has a few standing tables, but that doesn't stop customers from lining up for the delicious meats that come out of the smokehouse around back. The spicy Korean pork is a must-try at Heirloom Market BBQ. You can get it on a platter or in a sandwich with diced barbecue pork, spicy kimchi slaw, cucumber kimchi, and Korean BBQ sauce. Barbecue Bros called the sandwich a revelation for the smokiness of the pork and the stellar combo of the crunchy slaw and spicy sauce. If you're not a fan of spice, Heirloom Market also offers a regular pulled pork sandwich with that same smoky pork. heirloommarketbbq.com (770) 612-2502 2243 Akers Mill Rd SE, Atlanta, GA 30339 Pappy's Smokehouse - St. Louis, MO A person pouring sauce on a pulled pork sandwich next to a turkey sandwich from Pappy's Smokehouse - pappyssmokehouse / Instagram Opened in 2008, Pappy's Smokehouse is best known for its dry-rubbed ribs that are smoked for hours over apple and cherry wood. You would be remiss to visit Pappy's though and not give the pulled pork sandwich a try. According to diners, this St. Louis spot serves some of the best pulled pork in town. As one Yelp reviewer said, "This was the best pulled pork I think I've ever had. It was juicy, flavorful, and had deliciously crispy ends." The pulled pork sandwich at Pappy's comes on a soft bun and includes your choice of two sides like baked beans, sweet potato fries, or coleslaw. You can also get the pulled pork platter with bread and two sides or buy the meat by the pound. If you want to jazz up your meat, there are four different sauces to choose from, including a Carolina-style vinegar sauce and a sweet barbecue sauce. Just be warned though -- Pappy's tends to sell out fast. If you're visiting later in the day, you may want to call ahead to see if the pulled pork is still available.pappyssmokehouse.com (314) 535-4340 3106 Olive St, St. Louis, MO 63103 Lexington Barbecue - Lexington, NC A pulled pork sandwich with slaw from Lexington Barbecue - remythurston / Instagram Lexington is a city steeped in barbecue history. This is where you'll find the distinctive western North Carolina-style barbecue, which consists of whole pork shoulders smoked low and slow. The meat is typically chopped and served in sandwiches with a sweet and tangy red sauce flavored with ketchup. One of the most famous spots in town to get authentic Lexington-style pulled pork is Lexington Barbecue. Wayne Monk opened the restaurant in 1962, and now his son Rick Monk has taken up the reins. The pork at Lexington Barbecue is cooked for nearly 12 hours over hickory and oak wood. Then it's chopped or sliced and served on platters or in sandwiches with a sweet ketchup-infused barbecue sauce and slaw. You can pair your sandwich with sides like fries, baked beans, and hush puppies. If you really want to go local, wash it down with some Southern Cheerwine soda. 0b6f297.netsolhost.com (336) 249-9814 100 Smokehouse Ln, Lexington, NC 27295 Franklin Barbecue - Austin, TX A pulled pork sandwich with a side of pickles from Franklin Barbecue - rocknrollcasper / Instagram When Aaron and Stacy Franklin opened a small barbecue trailer on the side of an interstate in Austin, Texas, in 2009, they had no idea how huge their venture would become. As word of mouth spread about the delicious barbecue meats the duo were selling, people began flocking to this unassuming spot. Today, it's not uncommon to see line-ups snaking out the door of Franklin Barbecue. Some people have even reported waiting in line for up to six hours just to get their hands on some of this 'cue. Franklin Barbecue offers a variety of smoky grilled meats, including pulled pork, brisket, turkey, and sausages. You can order your meat by the pound or sample it in one of the restaurant's tasty sandwiches. The pulled pork sandwich is a fan favorite, with diners describing it as "absolute heaven," "so delicious," and "life-changing." Diners say the pork is juicy and flavorful with a nice char on the meat. You can amp up the flavor of your sandwich with a variety of sauces, including a spicy, vinegar-based pork sauce or a sweet and peppery Texas-style barbecue sauce. franklinbbq.com (336) 249-9814 100 Smokehouse Ln, Lexington, NC 27295 Read the original article on Chowhound. Britains newest pedigree dog breed has just been announced by The Kennel Club as the Icelandic Sheepdog. The historic dog breed is believed to have existed for more than 1,000 years in the Nordics, having been brought to Iceland by the original Viking settlers and is even mentioned in the second act of William Shakespeares Henry V (Pish for thee, Iceland dog, thou prick-eard cur of Iceland). This national breed of Iceland is characterised by its medium size, dense coat, foxy face, pointed ears, a bushy curling tail, and varying colours including black and white, red and white and smoky grey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new addition from The Kennel Club brings the total number of pedigree dogs in the UK to 224. The first three Icelandic Sheepdogs were imported into the UK from Iceland and Germany in 2017, and numbers have continued to grow thanks to a small group of enthusiasts who run their own breed club. Despite their small numbers so far with only around 20 believed to be in the UK to date the breed is thought to make excellent family pets, due to their friendly nature. Grumpy Cow Studios - Getty Images Owner Wendy Laker, who was part of the group who put forward for the breed to be officially recognised by The Kennel Club, describes them as friendly, active and intelligent as well as vocal because they were originally bred as herding dogs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She added: Theyre medium sized and love to be part of the family, joining in with whatever is going on, but theyre also happy to have some down time relaxing. Theyre really intelligent and easy to train, and make a great pet for the right owners who have taken the time to learn about the breed. "As a Spitz breed, they do need regular grooming and owners who are committed to this, and to keeping their minds and bodies active. 24 indestructible dog toys Photo credit: Getty Images These toys will provide hours of chewing fun How to get rid of mites on dogs Photo credit: getty images Here's what you need to know Can you give your dog Piriton? Photo credit: getty images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We've asked the experts While Bill Lambert, spokesperson for The Kennel Club, commented: We are delighted to recognise the Icelandic Sheepdog as an official pedigree breed from April. The slow but steady growth in the number of pedigree breeds in this country means that people have an even wider choice when trying to find the right dog for them. The process of being recognised as a pedigree breed by The Kennel Club takes several generations of dogs, but once we recognise a breed it means that we know that it has a reliable lineage that will give people a dog with predictable characteristics in terms of temperament, health, exercise and grooming needs, which helps dogs to find homes with the right owners. The Icelandic Sheepdog is the fourth new breed to be recognised in the UK in the last five years, following The Kennel Club adding the Polish Hunting Dog earlier this year, alongside the Smooth Faced Pyrenean Sheepdog in 2021, and the Barbet in 2020. Icelandic Sheepdog facts: Height: 18in (male), 16.5in (female) Weight: 30lb (male), 25lb (female) Lifespan: 12 to 14 years Colours: Red and white; black and white; cream and white; gold and white; grey and white; sable and white; tan and white; white, tan and black Corduroy Dog Bed - Navy Country Living Marketplace 105.00 at Country Living Marketplace Handmade Dog Bandana Scarf Country Living Marketplace 10.00 at Country Living Marketplace Waterproof Dog Bed Ascot Country Living Marketplace 75.00 at Country Living Marketplace Tartan Dress Lead in Scott Green Ancient Country Living Marketplace Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 35.00 at Country Living Marketplace Dog Harness In Blue and Black Stripe Country Living Marketplace 38.00 at Country Living Marketplace Large Tweed Dog Bed In Olive Country Living Marketplace 75.00 at Country Living Marketplace You Might Also Like EL PASO They crossed the U.S.-Mexico border like beggars, tired, hungry and alone. They had no papers or names. That was, until big-hearted border officers took in these destitute immigrants, who found new lives in America as Selma and Lieu, Petunia and Peanut, Cupid, Penelope, Selena and Floyd. This border city, sometimes called the Ellis Island of the Southwest, has long been known for its generosity toward immigrants, and that spirit extends to newcomers on four legs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For 12 years, a Borderland nonprofit called Bridge Pups Rescue has helped foster and adopt these accidental migrants into loving homes in the United States. Founder Ruby Montana rescued her first "bridge pup" after her brother became a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in their hometown more than a decade ago. He noticed strays wandering over the international bridge from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, into El Paso. Ruby Montana, founder of Bridge Pup Rescue in El Paso, rescues a dog found crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Bridge Pups Rescue has so far rehomed around 100 dogs found crossing into El Paso from Ciudad Juarez. "They were usually in terrible condition, starving or limping or covered in fleas and ticks," she said. "He would hide them; I would pick them up and find them fosters. When we got caught, we were scared the other agents were going to be angry, but they were totally on board. It became unofficial protocol." Technically, even dogs need documentation to cross into the U.S. legally. CBP enforces the rules set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Centers for Disease Control. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But if the dog has no human owner, there is often no one to stop a pup who follows his or her nose over the international bridge, or through the shallow water of the Rio Grande, or around the steel bollards of the border fence into U.S. territory. "There is a poster at all the ports of entry," Montana said. "If there is a stray dog or an immigrant family with a pet, the posters say 'Please contact Ruby Montana.'" More: The wonderful 'tail' of Camila the border-crossing wiener dog Montana has saved dozens of migrant animals, finding forever homes first among her own extended family, then throughout the city and the Southwest. Rescue organizations in California and Arizona have pitched in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement El Paso CBP officers have taken in pups, so have Army veterans. El Paso's congresswoman rescued a border dog and called her Rio; with Montana's help, they found her a home. Two former local photographers rescued border-crossing dogs; Lieu is living the good life in Austin, while Gringa has ridden out two hurricanes with his family in Florida. Sometimes there isn't a happy ending. Montana has mourned the pups she's lost to illness or injuries. Her latest rescue, Floyd, is a senior and is suffering from a tumor that might be cancerous. A local veterinarian is evaluating him. She posts "pupdates" to her social media for every rescue. "Sweet, sweet Floyd is back at his comfy foster home after his vet visit," she wrote on Instagram last week. Floyd's comfort with getting into a car, and his habit of "howling" when he needs to relieve himself outdoors, gave Montana reason to believe he was dumped by his owners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Those days of being unwanted are long gone because we're going to keep showing Floyd what love and care truly are!" she wrote. Across the border, Ciudad Juarez is a tough town for a dog without a home. It's a city of extremes, where the wealthiest residents travel with bodyguards and factory workers live hand-to-mouth, scrounging pesos. In the city's scruffy downtown which connects to El Paso's downtown by an international bridge strays compete for territory and food from restaurants or overflowing trash cans. The city doesn't have a catch-and-spay policy, though the municipal government opened an "animal wellness center" in 2023, where people can report mistreatment. Still, local efforts to control the stray population are under-resourced. Sometimes dogs are dumped. Sometimes they go looking for a better life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I dont check dogs' papers before I offer assistance or compassion," Montana said. So can dogs, too, chase the American dream? Maybe the lucky ones. Or the most intrepid. The dog who makes it over the border and into Montana's arms soon finds a cushy bed and doggy snacks waiting on the other side. Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How dogs who cross the US-Mexico border find forever homes in America Palm Beach grabbed the spotlight in 2024 and not just because its most-famous resident won his second term in the White House. Putting President-elect Donald Trump aside if thats even possible the island town saw two of the countrys highest-dollar residential sales of 2024, according to Mansion Globals year-end roundup of deals that closed above $100 million. The most expensive of those Palm Beach transactions clocked in at $150 million for a mega-mansion on Tarpon Island, the towns only private island. The other followed closely behind at $148 million for a landmarked oceanfront estate on North County Road. The pair of deals ranked ranked No. 2 and No. 3 on the list, behind a $210-million sale of an estate in Malibu, California. Mansion Global said it couldnt confirm any details about the Malibu sale, which was reported in June by the Los Angles Times. The top 10 Palm Beach real estate deals in 2024 were led by the sale of private Tarpon Island for a recorded $150 million. The deal is also said to be the most-expensive residential sale of the year in Florida. One other sale on the national list, in Aspen, Colorado, had strong Palm Beach links, thanks to the billionaire buyers, who both have primary homes in Palm Beach. Casino-and-resort mogul Steve Wynn and securities-technology tycoon Thomas Peterffy paid $108 million for the Colorado house in a deal ranked No. 7 by Mansion Global. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although they may not have hit $100 million mark, eight other Palm Beach sales were recorded at $49 million or more. Heres a look at Palm Beachs 10 highest-dollar deals of the year, in descending order of price. The list also includes the priciest condominium sale of the year on the island. The sales were previously reported by the Palm Beach Daily News and reconfirmed in the monthly transaction reports issued by the Rabideau Klein law firm. The sale prices and dates presented here are those recorded with the deeds at the Palm Beach County Courthouse. $150 million, 10 Tarpon Isle The bridge leading from 10 Tarpon Island to the rest of Palm Beach can be seen at the lower left of this aerial photo. The May sale of Tarpon Island and its renovated-and-expanded mansion became 2024s highest-dollar residential deal in Florida. The Estate Section sale also set a new price record in Palm Beach for a home sold on the Intracoastal Waterway without additional ocean frontage. Australian investments tycoon Michael Dorrell was widely reported to be the buyer behind MCI Properties LLC, the limited liability company that bought the 2.3-acre estate. The property was redeveloped by Todd Michael Glaser through his eponymous company. Glasers investors in the project included Jonathan Fryd of Fryd Properties in Miami; developer Scott Robins of Scott Robins Cos. in Miami Beach; and Randall Realty Groups Jim Randall of Manalapan. Real estate agents Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group and Chris Leavitt of Douglas Elliman Real Estate held the listing. Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate also was involved on the sellers side. Agent Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties represented the buyer. With 11 bedrooms, the two-story mansion has 28,618 total square feet of living space, inside and out. The original house was built in the 1930s. $148 million, 455 N. County Road An aerial photograph taken several years ago shows Amado, a landmarked Palm Beach estate at 455 N. County Road, where the tennis court can be seen in the foreground near the swimming pool. The large lot at the far left has been developed with houses since this photo was taken. Private-equity specialist Daren Metropoulos bought the estate for a recorded $148 million in June. This landmarked Palm Beach estate, known as Amado, sold in June in an off-market transaction. Private-equity and branding specialist Daren Metropoulos bought the 3.2-acre oceanfront property from the family of the late Canadian businessman and real estate investor William Pencer. Agent Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties represented the sellers in the deal, negotiating opposite Angle. Designed by first-generation Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner and built in 1919 on the North End, the extensively renovated estate has six bedrooms and 22,741 total square feet, property records show. $85 million, 108 El Mirasol Sold in April for a recorded $85 million, this vacant beachfront lot at 108 El Mirasol on the North End of Palm Beach measures about an acre. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the North End, this vacant lot measuring about an acre with 225 feet of direct beachfront sold privately in April. The sale price for the lot was likely a record-setter for a vacant parcel of its size in Palm Beach. The buyer was a Delaware-registered limited liability company named after the propertys address. The seller was ANK Palm Beach LLC, a Delaware entity managed by New Jersey businessman Anand Khubani. Broker Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented the sellers side, while Corcoran Group agents Paulette Koch and Dana Koch acted on behalf of the buyer, real estate sources confirmed for the Palm Beach Daily News. $81 million, 1446 N. Ocean Blvd. With a modular, contemporary-style design, this house built in 1979 at 1446 N. Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach sold for a recorded $81 million in November 2024. The house was the longtime vacation home of the late Barnes & Noble chief Leonard Riggio and his widow, Louise. Sold in November, this 1970s-era beachfront house was the longtime Palm Beach vacation retreat of Louise Riggio and her late husband, Leonard, the former chairman of the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain and co-founder of videogame retailer GameStop. The sale closed a few months after his death, at 83, in New York on Aug. 26. The buyer was a Delaware limited liability company named 1446-65 N Ocean Way LLC, with a mailing address in care of real estate attorney David Klein of the Rabideau Klein law firm in Palm Beach. The estate measures 1.68 acres with about 205 feet of beachfront, according to property records. The house has seven bedrooms and 11,042 square feet of living space, inside and out. Moens handled both sides of the sale. $74.25 million, 740 Hi Mount Road A lakefront estate in Palm Beach at 740 Hi Mount Road, seen with the red roof in the center, sold privately in March for $74.25 million. Palm Beach entrepreneur and investor Harvey Jones in March used a trust in his name to buy this North End house overlooking about 166 feet of Intracoastal Waterway frontage from one of the highest points in Palm Beach. On a lot measuring an acre, the 1999 Mediterranean-style house has six bedrooms and 15,487 square feet of total living space, property records show. On the sellers side of the off-market sale was a trust in the name of Candida Burnap, known as Candy and the widow of venture capitalist Bartlett Burnap. She was represented by Elliman agents Ashley McIntosh and Leavitt. Agents Todd and Frances Peter of Sotheby's International Realty acted on behalf of Jones. $60.37 million, 130 Banyan Road Extensively renovated and expanded, this 1924 house at 130 Banyan Road in Palm Beach sold in May for a recorded $60.37 million in an off-market deal. Interior designer Victoria Hagan and her media-investor husband, Michael Berman, in May sold this extensively renovated 1924 house via an off-market deal in the Estate Section. The sale likely set a Palm Beach price record for a non-waterfront estate that did not involve a house swap when it sold. The actual amount that changed hands in the deal may have topped $65 million, people familiar with the transaction said. On the buyers side, New York City real estate attorney Steven M. Loeb served as trustee of The Banyan Road Trust. Brown Harris Stevens agents handled both sides of the sale, with Liza Pulitzer and Whitney McGurk representing the sellers and Blair Kirwan acting for the buyer. With five bedrooms and a staff bedroom, the house and its two-bedroom attached guesthouse have a combined 15,700 total square feet, including the basement level, town records show. The lot measures about an acre. $51.63 million, 200 Via Palma An extensively remodeled lakeside estate at 200 Via Palma in Palm Beach's Estate Section changed hands in July for a recorded $51.63 million Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Completely rebuilt by Jeanne S. Siegel and her late husband, investor and businessman Herbert J. Siegel, this 1952 mansion in the Estate Section sold in July to Geats LLC, a Delaware-registered limited liability company. Moens represented Siegel, and Frisbie acted for the buyer. Measuring about nine-tenths of an acre, the lot has 140 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway. The house has nine bedrooms and 12,441 total square feet. $51.25 million, 200 S. Ocean Blvd. Built in 2018, an oceanfront house at 200 S. Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach sold in May for a recorded $51.25 million. Becky Gochman, an equestrian, and husband David H. Gochman, a businessman and investor, in May sold this custom home they built for themselves in 2018. The buyer of the Midtown estate facing the ocean was a Delaware-registered limited liability company named WPB Investments 1 LLC. McCann was the listing agent. Elliman agents Phatavanh Olsen and Derek Olsen represented the buyer. The four-bedroom house and separate two-bedroom guesthouse have 8,948 total square feet. The main lot and its beach parcel total about an acre. $50 million, 940 N. Lake Way A Palm Beach vacant lot fronting the Intracoastal Waterway sold for a recorded $50 million in July at 940 N. Lake Way. Billionaire investor and entrepreneur Harvey Cooper Jones in May sold this vacant lakefront lot for the same price he had paid for the property in 2023. He sold the North End lot to a Delaware-registered limited liability company named after the propertys address. Jones had razed a 1970s house on the lot, which measures four-fifths of an acre. Angle represented the buyer opposite the Peters team at Sothebys International Realty. $49 million, 315 Chapel Hill Road Sold in June for a recorded $49.6 million, a lakefront estate at 315 Chapel Hill Road in Palm Beach includes the main house at the left and the guesthouse at the right. The famous kapok tree on the grounds of the Royal Poinciana Chapel can be seen at the far left. This lakefront house in Midtown was sold in June by the estate and children of the late industrialist and entrepreneur William Bill E. Flaherty. The buyer was a Delaware-registered limited liability company named Ocean Breezes 2 LLC. The buyer soon razed the five-bedroom house and its three-bedroom guesthouse, which had combined 6,438 square feet of living space, inside and out. The Architectural Commission is reviewing the design of new house planned for the double lot, which has about 200 feet of lakefront and measures four-fifths of an acre and includes a narrow strip of land on the west side of the Lake Trail walking path. Angle handled both sides of the sale. Highest-dollar condo sale: $15.7 million, Penthouse A, 101 Worth Ave. Penthouse A can be seen on the corner of the top floor of the Kirkland House, a condominium building at 101 Worth Ave. in Palm Beach. The penthouse sold in September for $15.7 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Recorded in September, the off-market sale of this oceanfront penthouse in Midtowns Kirkland House condominium building set a building price record and was the third-highest dollar sale ever of an oceanfront condo in Palm Beach. Retired Connecticut construction executive and attorney Roderic Rod M. Oneglia was among three trustees who sold the penthouse through a trust in his name. The buyer was longtime Palm Beach resident and investments specialist Nicholas Nick Adams. Sothebys International Realty agents Bobby Goodnough and Raj Shrestha acted on behalf of Adams. Agent Anne Carmichael of Brown Harris Stevens represented Oneglia and the other trustees. The renovated three-bedroom condo facing the ocean on the northeast corner of the sixth floor has 4,630 square feet of total living space, including 800 square feet on its balconies. * Portions of this article appeared previously in the Palm Beach Daily News. * Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly Beyond the Hedges column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Support our journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Here are 2024's top Palm Beach real estate sales, from $150M to $49M Boeing (NYSE: BA) faces ongoing challenges in 2025. Still, it also has opportunities to execute on its existing backlog in its commercial aerospace and defense businesses. Despite the company's difficulties, it closed the year with a major order from Pegasus Airlines that reiterates the underlying demand for Boeing airplanes. To maximize returns for investors, Boeing needs to execute better starting in 2025. In that context, here are three things investors need to look out for from the company in 2025. Boeing's opportunity on the 737 MAX Turkey-based Pegasus Airlines' firm order for 100 Boeing 737 MAX airplanes, with the option to order a further 100, highlights the strength of ongoing demand and Boeing's backlog. As of the end of November, Boeing's total commercial airplane backlog stood at 6,268, with 4,818 of it in the 737 MAX. To put that figure into context, earlier this year, Boeing planned to reach a stable rate of 38 deliveries a month on the Boeing 737 MAX by the end of the year. That equates to 456 a year, a rate implying a 10-year backlog on the 737 MAX. In 2025, Boeing will undoubtedly want to prioritize boosting 737 MAX production. Unfortunately, a combination of self-imposed measures taken to slow production and improve manufacturing quality in light of the Alaska Airlines blowout in early 2024, and industrial action meant Boeing's delivery rate disappointed in 2024. Data source: Boeing presentations. Chart by author. The first step to recovery is reaching the initial target of 38 monthly deliveries on the 737 MAX. It won't be easy. After all, Boeing will need to ensure its suppliers align with its delivery rates, not least because the 38-per-month rate is the start of the ramp-up. Fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems, a company Boeing intends to acquire in 2025, is struggling financially , and CFM International, the GE Aerospace joint venture that supplies 7373 MAX engines, missed its engine production target in 2024 amid ongoing supply chain difficulties. As such, hitting the initial target would be a major positive for the stock, and investors should look out for commentary on the matter. Image source: Boeing. Working through problematic defense programs The following chart indicates the difficulties that Boeing's defense, space, and security (BDS) segment face. Data source: Boeing presentations. Chart by author. Former BDS CEO Ted Colbert left the company in September, after Kelly Ortberg had been appointed Boeing CEO in the summer. The segment's problems stem from cost pressures and overruns on a collection of fixed-price development programs, including the KC-46 tanker, a refueling aircraft; the MQ-25, an aerial refueling drone; the VC-25B, better known as Air Force One; and the T-7 training aircraft. These represent about 15% of its revenue. It's also faced cost issues with its fighter and satellite programs, making up 25% of its revenue. With the new year comes the setting of new goals and dreaming new dreams. For many, the idea of traveling more in the new year is an attractive plan. If you would love to spend time exploring new places in 2025, here are seven cities you can catch a direct flight to out of Oklahoma City, according to flyokc.com. OKC to Seattle, Washington Mar 25, 2023; Seattle, WA, USA; A general overall aerial view of the Space Needle and downtown skyline. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports Hop on a nonstop flight from Will Rogers International Airport to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, with daily nonstop service through Alaska Airlines. OKC to Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina: No. 10 for Thanksgiving Head to Charlotte Douglas International Airport with daily nonstop service from Will Rogers International Airport through American Airlines. OKC to Los Angeles, California Fly nonstop to Los Angeles International Airport from OKC with American Airlines daily, or seasonally with Allegiant. OKC to Chicago, Illinois Jul 15, 2020; Chicago, Illinois, USA; A general view of Chicagos skyline. Mandatory Credit: Quinn Harris-USA TODAY NETWORK Those wanting to take a quick flight from OKC to Chicago have three options: daily nonstop service from Will Rogers to Chicago O'Hare International Airport through American Airlines or United Airlines. Southwest also offers daily nonstop service to Chicago Midway. OKC to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota This August 25, 2011 photo shows the skyline of St. Paul, Minnesota. St.Paul is the capital and second-most populous city in Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the north bank of the Mississippi River, downstream of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city. Known as the "Twin Cities", these two cities form the core of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.5 million residents. AFP PHOTO / KAREN BLEIER (Photo credit should read KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hop on a nonstop Delta Airlines flight from OKC to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. OKC to Salt Lake City, Utah Head west to Salt Lake City International Airport with Delta Airlines nonstop service daily. OKC to Denver, Colorado A view of the downtown Denver skyline Thursday, July 27, 2023. Choose between United Airlines or Southwest to travel nonstop to the Mile High City's Denver International Airport. OKC to Atlanta, Georgia Mar 17, 2019; Atlanta, GA, USA; The Atlanta skyline is shown before the Atlanta Legends host the San Antonio Commanders at Georgia State Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports Fly from OKC to HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport with Delta Airlines daily nonstop service. OKC to Nashville, Tennessee Nashville's "Batman Building" located at 333 Commerce St is a prominent part of the city's skyline. A video game development studio is the office tower's newest tenant. Head to Music City on a nonstop Southwest flight from OKC to Nashville International Airport. (This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.) This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Direct flights out of OKC: Here's 9 destinations for 2025 travel Police in Fiji are investigating an allegation that two Australian airline crew members were sexually assaulted and robbed during New Years Day celebrations. The Virgin Australia crew members, a man and a woman, were celebrating at a tourist spot in Fiji during their layover in the early hours of 1 January, acting commissioner of police Juki Fong Chew said. They had gone to the Bar One nightclub in Nadi and were attacked on the way back to their hotel. Virgin Australia said it was aware of the incident and had sent a team to provide support to the crew members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our focus is on the wellbeing of our team members affected," it said, but did not provide details of the incident. "Unfortunately, two of the crew members were victims of an alleged theft and rape after exiting the nightclub trying to find their way back to the hotel," Mr Chew said, adding the investigation was ongoing. The man was robbed and the woman was assaulted, assistant police commissioner Mesake Waqa said. The man was treated for facial injuries. A spokesperson for Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that they were aware of the incident but could not comment further due to privacy obligations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The crew members remained holed up in their hotel rooms in Nadi until further notice, the Fiji Sun reported. Teri OToole, federal secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia, said they were waiting for official approaches for assistance. I believe these crew were on what we would call an overnight, so they would get to Fiji, wait, and their flight would leave the next day, she told AAP. There was a lot of guesswork about what had happened, she said and urged people not to make assumptions and respect the crew members privacy. This is not a very common thing but its not something thats never happened before either, she said, adding that it was disturbing for the families and colleagues of the crew members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident could further hit Fijis tourism industry which was rocked when seven people, including four Australian tourists, were hospitalised after drinking alcohol at a resort bar on 14 December. The cause of the poisoning was still under investigation as toxicology tests showed no methanol or illicit substances in the drinks, authorities said. SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) San Francisco police are investigating a shooting Thursday in the Bernal Heights neighborhood that left a man dead and a woman and toddler injured. Authorities called the deadly shooting an isolated incident. At 8:12 a.m., emergency crews responded to a residence on the 1000 block of Tompkins Avenue on a report of a shooting. Arriving officers located a woman suffering from gunshot wounds and began to provide aid, the San Francisco Police Department said. A man was also found suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. SF police arrest man suspected in fatal New Years Day shooting Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The man was pronounced deceased at the scene. The woman was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Meanwhile, SFPD learned of a toddler with a gunshot wound who was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said the toddler is connected to the shooting on Tompkins Ave. (KRON4) (KRON4) Police did not reveal the relationship of the three who were shot or their identities. The father of the man who was killed told reporters at the scene that his 24-year-old son killed himself after shooting his childs mother and the child. SFPD has not confirmed those details. The San Francisco Fire Department said multiple streets in the area are closed for the police investigation. There is no estimated time for the local roadways to reopen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, youre encouraged to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. PASSAIC, N.J. (PIX11) A 3-alarm fire wreaked havoc in an apartment building in Passaic, New Jersey. Both firefighters and panicked tenants were out in the pouring rain, just a few hours before the ball drop on New Years Eve. More Local News Firefighters had no choice but to rescue a couple from their first-floor window; a 50-year-old woman who lived in that unit did not survive. City officials say her 66-year-old male companion is barely holding on heavily medicated, and in critical condition at an area hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the tenants, who did not want to be identified, says she had no warning something was wrong in the 25-unit, privately owned building. The alarm didnt go off, said the tenant. That was concerning. I just heard somebody say fire from outside. By the time I opened the door, it was black. It was scary. I basically thought I was going to die. Passaic Mayor Hector Lora, who was on the scene Tuesday night as firefighters worked to put out the fire, says it appears it started in the apartment where the couple lived before it spread to damage two adjacent apartments. New laws in NJ impact minimum wage, data privacy, and reading content Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cause is still under investigation; the mayor adding the city will absolutely investigate the functionality of the buildings fire alarm system. The fire began on the first floor. If the fire alarm is not operating appropriately, the owner of the property will be held accountable for that. A fire alarm that is not working is unacceptable, said Mayor Lora. For a majority of the people who are displaced, their apartments were not damaged by fire. They are scrambling to find a place to stay. Most of them are staying with relatives to start the new year. In total, the fire displaced 59 tenants in the building. Sadly, there is currently no timeline for when they will be able to return home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was definitely something shocking, said displaced tenant Amelany Soriano. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. WARREN COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) Law enforcement reportedly detained a man after another man was injured in a New Years Eve shooting in Warren County, but no charges have been filed in the case. According to the Warren County Sheriffs Office, on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, deputies were dispatched to a report of a shooting along Grove Road just before midnight. MNPD: Teen charged with attempted homicide after wounding his sisters Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When authorities arrived at the scene, they said they found a 50-year-old man lying on the ground with an apparent gunshot wound to his abdomen. While emergency aid was being rendered to the victim, officials said a deputy immediately detained the shooter, a 37-year-old man, without incident. The sheriffs office reported EMS transported the victim to Ascension Saint Thomas River Park, adding that he was later transferred for further treatment. Person found dead after mobile home fire in DeKalb County According to authorities, no charges have been filed against the individual involved in the shooting as of Thursday, Jan. 2. Once the investigation is complete, officials will turn it over to the district attorney general for him to review it and make the ultimate charging decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement may release additional details about this ongoing investigation at a later date. Download the News 2 app to stay updated on the go. Sign up for WKRN email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox. Find todays top stories on WKRN.com for Nashville, TN and all of Middle Tennessee. This is a developing story. WKRN News 2 will continue to update this article as new information becomes available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. CALHOUN COUNTY, Ala. (WIAT) A Piedmont woman is dead following a single-vehicle crash that occurred in Calhoun County Tuesday night, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Cathy L. Stants, 53, was killed when the GMC Envoy she was driving left the roadway, striking an embankment and multiple trees. Stants was not using a seatbelt at the time of the crash, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash occurred around 11:30 p.m. on U.S. 278 near the 151 mile marker, about four miles west of Piedmont. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Troopers with ALEAs Highway Patrol Division are investigating the scene. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) Two people are dead, and several others were hurt in a crash in the southbound lanes of the Kansas Turnpike early Thursday. The crash happened just after midnight south of Wichita in Sumner County near 140th Avenue. It is just south of Kansas Star Casino. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper told KSN News that the crash involved a semi, a Chevy Express van hauling a trailer, and a Jeep. The trooper says the semi hit a van hauling a trailer. The Jeep collided with the overturned van and trailer. Crash on Kansas Turnpike south of the Kansas Star Casino (Courtesy: Mulvane Fire Rescue) Crash on Kansas Turnpike south of the Kansas Star Casino (Courtesy: Mulvane Fire Rescue) Crash on Kansas Turnpike south of the Kansas Star Casino (Courtesy: Mulvane Fire Rescue) The trooper said one person died at the scene, and another died at the hospital. The victims are identified as 58-year-old Ernestina Eumana-Alvarez and infant Christian Gutierrez. Both were from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mulvane Fire Rescue said there were 12 occupants in total. The KHP says that there were nine occupants in the Chevy Express van and three people in the Jeep. Eight people in total were transported to the hospital with serious to minor injuries, and two refused medical treatment: Chevy Express van 67-year-old woman from unknown Suspected serious injuries 64-year-old woman from Minnesota Suspected minor injuries 63-year-old man from Minnesota Suspected serious injuries 55-year-old man from Minnesota Suspected serious injuries 47-year-old man from Minnesota Suspected serious injuries 27-year-old woman from Minnesota Suspected serious injuries 1-year-old boy from Minnesota Suspected minor injuries Jeep 63-year-old man from Rose Hill 61-year-old man from Oklahoma 23-year-old man from Rose Hill Quiet through Friday, weekend winter storm system The semi was hauling cattle, and none of the cattle were injured. The southbound lanes of the Kansas Turnpike were temporarily closed but have since reopened. Mulvane EMS was assisted by Wellington Fire/EMS and Sedgwick County EMS. Derby Fire and Rescue, Sumner County Fire 9 and Sedgwick County Fire District 1 assisted Mulvane Fire Rescue with patient care and extrication of victims. Mulvane police and the Sumner County Sheriffs Office assisted the Kansas Highway Patrol with traffic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) One person has died following a single-vehicle crash that occurred in Bellevue Thursday morning, officials said. According to Metro Nashville Dispatch, the crash was reported just after 6 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2 in the 7100 block of Highway 100. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) said the preliminary investigation shows a Nissan Versa was traveling northeast when, based on evidence at the scene, the driver likely suffered a medical event before the vehicle ran off the roadway near Old Hickory Boulevard and hit a tree head-on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said the driver identified as 78-year-old Orin Odom of Nashville died in the crash. No additional details were immediately released about the crash. Download the News 2 app to stay updated on the go. Sign up for WKRN email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox. Find todays top stories on WKRN.com for Nashville, TN and all of Middle Tennessee. This is a developing story. WKRN News 2 will continue to update this article as new information becomes available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. Ten people were shot after several men opened fire at a group of people waiting outside of a music venue in Queens, New York, the New York Police Department said in a press conference early on Thursday. Officers received reports of several people shot at an event space in Queens at 11:18 p.m. Wednesday evening, Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said. Ninety people were inside the building, which was at capacity, Rivera said. There was a line of about 15 people waiting outside to enter the space when three to four males approached and opened fire. PHOTO: Members of the New York Police Department discuss a shooting in Queens, New York, at a press conference on Jan. 2, 2025. (NYPD) Ten people were shot, all between the ages of 16 and 20, Rivera said. Six of injured are female and four are male, he said. They were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said they believe that at least 30 shots were fired in the direction of the group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The male suspects fled on foot and drove away in a sedan with out-of-state plates, police said. Authorities are investigating whether the shooting was gang related. This was not a terrorist attack, Rivera said. 10 injured in shooting outside Queens music venue, suspects at large, NYPD says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Ten people were injured in a shooting Wednesday night outside a music venue in New York City that was holding a memorial for a teenager who was killed in Brooklyn late last year, The Associated Press reports. ALSO: Court documents show New Orleans terror attack suspect had ties to North Carolina Police told The AP three or four men fired about 30 shots at the crowd of people who were standing outside Amazura Concert Hall in Jamaica, Queens, for the private event before running to a car and driving off. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Six females and four males between the ages of 16 and 20 were taken to hospitals but are expected to recover, police confirmed to The AP. They just wanted to cause destruction, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said of the shooters. READ MORE: 10 people are wounded in a shooting at a memorial for a teenager who was killed in NYC A massive police presence and several ambulances could be seen outside Amazura in footage posted on social media on Thursday. Authorities do not believe this was an act of terrorism. (VIDEO: Investigators hunt for additional suspects in deadly New Orleans attack) Some of the biggest lenders in the US are beating a retreat from a UN-backed bank climate group in the final weeks before a new Trump administration prepares to take office. The latest big bank to announce it was leaving the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) is Morgan Stanley (MS), which confirmed its exit Thursday following recent departures from Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Goldman Sachs (GS). Some, including Morgan Stanley, said the departures dont represent a rejection of their climate goals. "Morgan Stanleys commitment to net-zero remains unchanged," the New York investment bank said in a statement emailed to Yahoo Finance on Thursday. Citigroup also said, "We remain committed to reaching net zero and continue to be transparent about our progress." The Morgan Stanley building in New York. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Reuters / Reuters The NZBA was formed in 2021 as part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, and a number of banks touted their initial membership in the alliance as financial-sector commitments to net zero goals became a focus for Wall Street. Now such affiliations are coming under political attack as the GOP prepares to take over all of Washington in 2025 and ramps up a focus on "woke" investing. In December, the House Judiciary Committee, led by Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, criticized financial environmental alliances, saying they have created what it called "a climate cartel." Another climate coalition formed with an aim to limit greenhouse gases globally, Climate Action 100+, has lost JPMorgan Chase (JPM), State Street (STT), and Pimco as members. BlackRock transferred its participation from BlackRock Inc. to BlackRock International. Last year Jordan called the Climate Action 100+ withdrawals "big wins for freedom and the American economy, and we hope more financial institutions follow suit in abandoning collusive ESG actions." Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) speaks with Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention last July. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon REUTERS / Reuters Banks arent abandoning all climate groups. Citigroup, for example, remains part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, the wider climate initiative that houses NZBA and also includes coalitions of large asset managers and insurers. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, along with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, were founding principals of that alliance. Earlier this week, that alliance shared a statement announcing changes to the organization that loosened the barriers to participation. Under the new guidance, participating firms wont be required to meet goals set out in the Paris Climate agreement, according to a Bloomberg report. The US pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017 during Donald Trump's first term as president and rejoined it in 2021 under President Biden. Ten people waiting in line for a private event at a nightclub in Jamaica, Queens, were injured late Wednesday night in an apparent drive-by shooting, New York City police officials said. Four men approached a group of 15 young people in line outside Amazura Concert Hall and fired about 30 rounds, New York Police Department Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said at a news conference early Thursday. The 10 injured people were taken to area hospitals and all are expected to recover, having suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Rivera said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The assailants drove away in a light-colored Sedan with out of state license plates, Rivera said. The victims shot outside Amazura ranged from 16 to 20 years old, Rivera said, and police are working to determine what kind of event was taking place and whether the venue was operating appropriately. Rivera said the private event was at capacity with 90 people inside, and called on the public for more information. The public has been instrumental in recent weeks in helping us capture dangerous people, he said. Amazura Concert Hall issued a statement on its Instagram account reacting to the shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are deeply saddened by the recent and unfortunate isolated incident that occurred. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this senseless act. We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure a thorough investigation and to help bring those responsible to justice, the account posted. We also want to express our heartfelt gratitude to our patrons, event promoters, and the local community for their overwhelming outpouring of support and concern during this difficult time. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNNs Eric Levenson contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com 10 people were injured during a shooting outside a nightclub in New York City on New Year's Day. Multiple males shot over 30 bullets in the direction of a group standing in front of an event venue at 91-12 144th Place in Queens on Wednesday, Jan. 1 at roughly 11:18 p.m. local time, according to a New York Police Department press conference. "Let me start by saying that there's zero tolerance for these senseless shootings, these horrible acts of violence on our streets, and those responsible for this crime will be apprehended and brought to justice," NYPD Chief Philip Rivera said of the incident. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Police officers at the crime scene after a mass shooting at a nightclub in Queens, New York, United States on Jan. 2, 2025 Police officers at the crime scene after a mass shooting at a nightclub in Queens, New York, United States on Jan. 2, 2025 Related: 6 Injured in N.Y.C. Shooting, Including Mom Used as Human Shield Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police say the venue was at capacity with 90 people inside at the time of the incident, therefore a line of about 15 people formed outside. The venue is named Amazura, according to ABC7, The Guardian and FOX5. "Three to four males then opened fire over 30 times in the direction of the group standing outside the event space, striking multiple victims," Rivera said. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Police officers at the scene of a mass shooting at a nightclub in Queens, N.Y., on Jan. 2, 2025 Police officers at the scene of a mass shooting at a nightclub in Queens, N.Y., on Jan. 2, 2025 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. The suspects fled the scene and were seen getting into a Sedan with out-of-state license plates, according to authorities. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Police officers at the crime scene after a mass shooting at a nightclub in Queens, New York, United States on Jan. 2, 2025 Police officers at the crime scene after a mass shooting at a nightclub in Queens, New York, United States on Jan. 2, 2025 Related: What We Know About Suspect in Deadly New Orleans Attack as New Details Emerge Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police noted that out of the 10 victims, six were females and four were male. All victims were taken to nearby hospitals and "are expected to recover with non-life-threatening injuries," per the NYPD. Rivera encouraged people to speak up if they have any information about the crime, saying, The public has been very instrumental in the recent weeks to help us capture dangerous individuals like these four men." Police are investigating the cause of the crime, though Rivera said it was "not a terrorist attack." ABC7 reports that the gathering was to celebrate the birthday of Tae'arion Mungo, a 16-year-old who was fatally shot in Brooklyn in October 2024. Read the original article on People NEW YORK (AP) Ten people were wounded in a shooting Wednesday night outside a nightclub in New York City that was holding a memorial for a teenager who had been previously been killed in the city. Police said three or four men fired about 30 shots at a crowd of people who were standing outside Amazura Concert Hall in Jamaica, Queens, for the private event before running to a car and driving off. Six females and four males between the ages of 16 and 20 were taken to hospitals but are expected to recover, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said the club was holding a small private event to celebrate the life of a teen who had been killed in Brooklyn late last year. They just wanted to cause destruction, he said of the shooters. In a statement on social media, Gov. Kathy Hochul said a memorial for a teen lost to gun violence turned to horror when gunmen opened fire on the crowd. This cannot be our normal, Hochul wrote. Police have not yet announced any arrests. Images from outside the club after the shooting show debris strewn across the sidewalk and police gathering evidence and taking photographs. Nearby residents described quick bursts of gunfire along with screaming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was bam, bam, bam, bam, Maria Lopez told The New York Times. I thought it was fireworks. I was saying to myself, its too late in the evening for this, too late for it to be New Years celebrations. About 90 people were inside the club while a smaller group of about 15 were standing outside, police said. It lasted about 10 seconds and then there was silence, neighborhood resident Juan Alulema told the New York Post. I saw people screaming. Amazura Concert Hall urged the public to contact police with any information about the shooting. We are deeply saddened by the recent and unfortunate isolated incident that occurred," the venue said in an Instagram post. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this senseless act. QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) At least 10 people were shot outside a Queens night club on New Years Day, according to the NYPD. It happened at Amazura, on 144th Place in Jamaica, around 11:20 p.m., police said. Detectives told PIX11 News that a private event was being held at an upstairs space in the club, which was at capacity with 90 people. More Local News Another 15 people were waiting in line outside, according to authorities. Three or four men walked toward the club and fired more than 30 times, injuring 10 people, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of the victims are under 20 years old, according to authorities. A 16-year-old boy was among those who were shot, police said. Theyre expected to recover, according to authorities. Police are searching for a gray Infiniti with New Jersey license plates in connection to the shooting, sources told PIX11 News. Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). This is a developing story. Please refresh the page for updates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. QUEENS, N.Y. (WPIX) At least 10 people were shot outside a Queens nightclub on New Years Day, according to the New York City Police Department. The shooting happened around 11:20 p.m. at Amazura, located on 144th Place in Jamaica, Queens, police said. Detectives told Nexstars WPIX that a private event was being held in an upstairs area of the club, which was at capacity with 90 people. Another 15 people were waiting in line outside when three or four men walked toward the club and fired more than 30 times, injuring 10 people, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of the victims are under 20 years old, according to authorities. A 16-year-old boy was said to be among those who were shot. Six females and four males were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said. Norovirus cases spiking: What to know A massive police presence and several ambulances could be seen outside Amazura in footage posted on social media. The motive was not immediately known. Rivera said, however, that this incident is not terrorism. Police are searching for a gray Infiniti with New Jersey license plates in connection to the shooting, sources told WPIX. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. NEW YORK Ten young people were wounded in a mass shooting outside a Queens nightclub holding a celebration of life for a teen shot to death three months ago, police said Thursday. At least three gunmen fired more than 30 shots at a crowd of about 15 people waiting outside the t he Amazura concert hall at 144th Pl. near Archer Ave. hoping to get in about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, cops said. The 10 victims, six females and four males between 16 and 20 years old, were taken to various local hospitals, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most of the victims were shot in the legs as they scrambled for cover. One victim was shot in the arm and another suffered a graze wound to the back, cops said. Many of the victims were found bleeding at the scene, waiting for ambulances. At least three showed up at Jamaica Hospital on their own seeking medical care. As the gun smoke cleared, four young men, at least three of whom opened fire, ran off west on 91st St. and jumped into a gray Infiniti sedan with New Jersey plates, cops said. No arrests have been made. This is not a terrorist attack, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said at an overnight press conference at the shooting scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres zero tolerance for these senseless shootings, these horrible acts of violence on our streets, he added. Those responsible for this crime will be apprehended and brought to justice. It wasnt immediately clear if the shooters had been inside Amazura earlier. Clubgoers were taking part in a celebration of life for a teen murdered in October, a police source said. That victim was born on New Years Day, AMNY reported, and the memorial was held to mark his birthday. Cops are trying to determine if the shooting was sparked by tensions between rival gangs. Thats one of the avenues were pursuing but its too early to determine right now, Rivera said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An evening of celebration ended with senseless violence overnight at a venue in Queens, Mayor Adams said Thursday, reiterating the shooting isnt linked to any terror attacks like the one which occurred on New Years Day in New Orleans which left 14 people dead. There is no room for this criminal behavior in our city and we are determined to bring these dangerous individuals to justice and get illegal guns off our streets. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards also condemned the violence. Under no circumstance will we allow any example of gun violence in our borough to go unpunished, Donovan said. Im confident that those who perpetrated this heinous act will be arrested and held accountable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The nightclub can hold up to 4,000 people and usually holds DJ dance parties and raves. DJs who have performed there in the past include Felix Bizarre, Black Daddy, and DJ X-Dream. We are deeply saddened by the recent and unfortunate isolated incident that occurred, Amazuras management wrote on Instagram. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this senseless act. We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure a thorough investigation and to help bring those responsible to justice. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. NEW YORK Ten young people were wounded in a mass shooting outside a Queens nightclub holding a celebration of life for a man murdered three months ago, police said Thursday. At least three gunmen opened fire about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday at a crowd of about 15 people waiting outside the the Amazura concert hall at 144th Pl. near Archer Ave. hoping to get in, cops said. The 10 victims, six females and four males, all in the age range of about 16 to 20, were hospitalized with wounds not considered life-threatening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four young men, at least three of whom opened fire with a barrage of over 30 shots, ran off west on 91st St. and got into a light-colored sedan with out-of-state plates, cops said. They have not been caught. This is not a terrorist attack, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said at an overnight press conference at the shooting scene. Theres zero tolerance for these senseless shootings, these horrible acts of violence on our streets, he added. Those responsible for this crime will be apprehended and brought to justice. It wasnt immediately clear if the shooters had been inside Amazura earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clubgoers were taking part in a celebration of life for someone murdered in October, a police source said. That victim was born on New Years Day, AMNY reported, and the memorial was held to mark his birthday. Cops are trying to determine if the shooting was sparked by tensions between rival gangs. Thats one of the avenues were pursuing but its too early to determine right now, Rivera said. The nightclub can hold up to 4,000 people and usually holds DJ dance parties and raves. DJs who have performed there in the past include Felix Bizarre, Black Daddy, and DJ X-Dream. We are deeply saddened by the recent and unfortunate isolated incident that occurred, Amazuras management wrote on Instagram. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this senseless act. We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure a thorough investigation and to help bring those responsible to justice. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. Eleven families were cast out of the homes by a fire early New Years Day. The American Red Cross is assisting the families after several apartments on Garners Ferry Road were damaged by the fire. Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins told WLTX that 49 people in total, including 17 children, were displaced when the fire damaged 12 units at the Spring Lake Apartments at 4 a.m. No one was injured in the fire that destroyed the buildings roof, and investigators are looking into whether New Years fireworks played a part in the blaze, Jenkins said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Red Cross said that regularly see a 30% increase in home fires in the winter as residents resort to potentially dangerous methods to keep themselves warm. Home fires are a real threat to communities across South Carolina year-round, especially during the winter months, said Yolanda Gainwell, interim CEO for the Red Cross of South Carolina. We at the Red Cross are urging families to take home fire safety steps to keep your family safe this winter. One hundred military veterans will be counted among the 535 lawmakers making up the 119th United States Congress, which convenes Friday. Sixteen veterans are included in Congresss freshman class joining 84 incumbents who have served in the military. They will belong to the largest caucus of military veterans serving in Congress in eight years. But the 119th Congress will only boast triple-digit military veteran numbers for a few weeks. Later this month, Ohio senator JD Vance a former Marine will vacate his U.S. Capitol office when he becomes vice president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, who served in the Armys special forces, will soon be serving as President-elect Donald Trumps national security adviser. No one from Utahs six-member congressional delegation has served in the military. Bumps in the number of veterans in Congress is noteworthy because an increase in members with military backgrounds has only happened four times in the last half-century. Given their backgrounds, veterans serving in the House and Senate are often seen as critical to discussions of military operations and veterans benefits. But the number of veterans in Congress has declined almost steadily since the mid-1970s, as the U.S. military shifted from largely drafted individuals to an all-volunteer force, according to Navy Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the years prior to 1973 when the U.S. military draft ended, only 1 in every 4 members of Congress had never served in the military. This year, about 1 in every 6 members will be veterans. A glance of the incoming veteran congressional class, according to Navy Times. Nine female veterans will serve in Congress in 2025, the largest total in history. The group includes 28 Democrats and 72 Republicans. Congress will have 46 Army veterans, 25 Navy veterans, 16 Air Force veterans and 13 Marine Corps veterans. About one-third (31) began their military careers after January 2000. Twenty-one started before 1980. Twenty veterans will serve in the Senate, and 80 will serve in the House. Texas has the largest caucus of members with military experience (11), followed by Florida (9) and California (7). For Country Caucus: Bipartisanship among vets While partisanship defines much of Congress, military veterans serving on both sides of the aisle are pulling from their shared experiences in uniform to forge unity. Formed in 2019, the For Country Caucus includes both Republicans and Democrats serving in the U.S. House. Were trying to lead by example, both within Congress to show our colleagues that this is possible, but also to America more broadly, Colorado Democrat Jason Crow, who is one of the outgoing co-chairs of the caucus, told The Associated Press. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Crow is a former Army Ranger officer. Fellow caucus member Steve Womack of Arkansas is a Republican and a retired colonel in the Army National Guard. Womack said that bringing military veterans together who share the warrior ethos and a commitment to putting country and mission first marks a starting point to maybe advance some agendas that would be good for the country. The For Country Caucus is proving to be more than a symbolic entity. Since forming, the group has been integral in getting more than 100 bills passed into law. The legislation includes such areas as national security, strengthening the military, veterans issues, national service and supporting military families especially those that have lost loved ones, The Associated Press reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, the caucus was instrumental in getting an increase the first in two decades in payments designed to help military families bear the added financial costs of deployments. The caucus also pushed a provision to allow federal agencies to appoint military spouses to remote work positions, an action that could allow them to keep their jobs despite multiple moves, according to The Associated Press. One of the groups first successes was the effort to establish the Global War on Terrorism Memorial on the National Mall. Its design is underway. We are a small but mighty caucus that punches way above its weight, Crow said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two members of the For Country Caucus are retiring, while the 28 others were reelected. The caucus expects to pick up at least five new members in the 119th Congress, meaning nearly 8% of the House will be part of the caucus, the AP reported. Vets among Utahs historical Congressional ranks While none of the Beehive States current members of Congress have served in the military, several of their predecessors from recent decades were armed forces veterans. The $138 million Powerball jackpot won in Huber Heights last summer has gone unclaimed. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The Ohio Lottery confirmed that the jackpot was not claimed by the Dec. 30 deadline. As previously reported, the owner of the winning ticket had 180 days following the drawing to claim their winnings. TRENDING STORIES: The auto-pick ticket was bought at the Walmart Supercenter located at 7680 Brandt Pike in Huber Heights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ticket matched all five numbers plus the Powerball to win the July 3 jackpot. The winning numbers were 2-26-33-55-57, and the red Powerball number was 22. The Powerplay was 2X. Had the winner come forward, they could have taken the $138 million jackpot in an annuity or taken the cash option prize of $65.8 million. Ohio Lottery officials explained what happens to that unclaimed money. Sales generated in Ohio that contributed to the jackpot go to the unclaimed prize fund which becomes part of lottery profit to help support education in Ohio. Ohio will retain approximately $1.9 million, Ohio Lottery officials said in a press release. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Starbucks stock (SBUX) could percolate later in 2025 as the coffee chain brews better financial performances under new CEO Brian Niccol after a challenging 2024, longtime Starbucks watcher Peter Saleh said. In Saleh's eyes, a focus by Niccol who took over as CEO in September 2024 on faster service times, simpler pricing, and better store operations are the ingredients to reestablish Starbucks shares as a top performer. "We believe that progress against these initiatives in 2025 will set the stage for outsized same-store sales and earnings growth in 2026 and beyond, catalyzing shares as we progress through the year and that recovery trajectory emerges," Saleh, the BTIG restaurant analyst, wrote in a note on Thursday. Saleh named Starbucks one of his top first-half 2025 picks, assigning a $115 price target. The target assumes about 30% upside from current levels. The average sell-side price target on Starbucks is currently $103, Yahoo Finance data shows. "We expect 2025 will be a transition and investment year for Starbucks, as management has suspended guidance, slowed development, and reset operations to engineer a sustainable turnaround," Saleh wrote, hinting Starbucks' rebound won't be smooth sailing this year. That notion is underscored by Starbucks' stretch of less-than-caffeinated financial results. Starbucks' most recent quarter showed a 7% drop in global comparable-store sales as consumers shunned the chain's ever-pricier coffees and long wait times. North America comparable store sales tanked 6%. This embedded content is not available in your region. International sales plunged 9%, and Chinese comparable sales cratered 14%. Non-GAAP operating profit margins fell 380 basis points from the prior year to 14.4%. "I would love to see the foot traffic start to turn around to drive that same-store sales growth. ... That's going to be a key piece of the puzzle for us going forward," Niccol told Yahoo Finance about the US business in a Nov. 4 interview (video above). See more: Why Sweetgreen is using robots to serve food Starbucks shares ended 2024 down 5% compared to a 23% advance for the S&P 500 (^GSPC). McDonald's (MCD) shares finished the year up slightly. A Starbucks coffee shop is seen in Yichang City, Hubei Province, China, on Dec. 27, 2024. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) CFOTO via Getty Images Starbucks shares which for years have traded at relative premiums to competitors trade on a trailing 12-month price-to-sales ratio of 2.87 times. That is below fellow coffee purveyors McDonald's (MCD) at 8.1 times and Dutch Bros (BROS) at 4.1 times, according to Yahoo Finance's stock comparison tool. "They obviously got an amazing pick," Brinker International CEO Kevin Hochman told Yahoo Finance about his former Yum! Brands colleague. "He's going to do his normal Brian Niccol magic. And I can't wait to see what they're going to be about." A 15-year-old boy arrested in connection with a Christmas week shooting that left an adult man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds has become the latest city teen to face serious criminal charges, police said Thursday. The boy, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, was arrested at about 2 p.m. Tuesday in the area of Cummings Highway. Members of the Youth Violence Strike Force and officers made the arrest. The boy was wanted on a warrant issued out of Suffolk County Juvenile Court. He is facing charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, armed robbery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At about 12:18 a.m. Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, officers responded to the area of Wilbert Road for a report of a person shot. Boston Police advised responding officers that the victim had fled the scene in a vehicle and was on Blue Hill Avenue. Officers were able to locate the vehicle and saw an adult male victim suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, police said. The victim was taken by ambulance to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. His condition was not known on Thursday. Officers canvassed the area of the original call and found ballistic evidence on scene. The boy, who is expected to be arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court, is the latest city 15-year-old to face serious criminal charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The district attorney announced this week that a 15-year-old West Roxbury boy was ordered held without bail and two others are being sought in connection with a home invasion and armed robbery. That boy, a West Roxbury teen who was also not identified because he is a juvenile, was held pending a dangerousness hearing on Jan. 10 after he was charged in Dorchester Juvenile Court, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said. Prosecutors allege that in November, the West Roxbury boy and two other males brandished a gun and knives and stole an iPhone and numerous, expensive clothing items from a male victim, including the $300 Spyder pants the victim was wearing. Police are still searching for two other males involved in the incident, Hayden said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW PHILIPPI, W.Va. (WBOY) To ring in the new year, the Barbour River Rats organized the 19th annual Polar Plunge at the Philippi Covered Bridge Wednesday morning where people got to start 2025 off by jumping into the Tygart Valley River for a good cause. The good cause in this case was to raise money for the Barbour County Emergency Squad, with around 30 people attending, the largest turnout to-date. Weve been having some pretty good success in getting donations and support for our local emergency medical squad, said Self Appointed President SAP Sam Muncy. Thats really our reason for doing it, in addition to also just having fun. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WVU professor gives tips on how to make the most of New Years resolutions Muncy described the event as pretty unorganized and pretty hectic, due to the fact that its informal without a lot of rules, but still felt like the event was a positive experience. Its a nice way to get together and celebrate the new year, which is what a few of us decided wed like to do Muncy added. Its a good way to just start the new year off. One participant told with Muncy that they felt if they could do this event at the beginning of the year, there probably wouldnt be anything throughout the rest of the year that they couldnt do. Its kind of an informal gathering of the community and we wanted to select a local charity to help, he added. Muncy stated that the Barbour River Rats chose to help the emergency squad that serves Philippi and the surrounding areas in Barbour County because it helps people participate and it recognizes what our emergency squad does for us. Participants in the event asked friends, family, associates, etc. beforehand to pledge to donate a certain amount to the Barbour County Emergency Squad if they took the plunge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People who attended on Wednesday were also able to make direct donations themselves if desired. According to Muncy, this event pulls in thousands of dollars each year, but they dont have the figures yet for this year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com. DENVER (KDVR) Boulder police were called to shut down some disorderly celebrations after midnight on New Years Day, the agency reported Wednesday. The Boulder Police Department said the second call it received in 2025 was for people reportedly shooting guns in a large open field near Highway 119. After gathering information, officers found the suspects at a nearby residence. Parents die, children hospitalized after single-vehicle rollover crash on US 36 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the agency, a man and a woman are suspected of using a rifle and a handgun to fire over 30 rounds. Police said they did not find anyone with injuries, nor any property damage, but arrested the suspects on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct/discharge of a firearm, and prohibited use of a weapon. Illegal discharge of a firearm, under Colorado law, is defined as knowingly or recklessly discharg(ing) a firearm into any dwelling or any other building or occupied structure, or into any motor vehicle occupied by any person. The Boulder Police Department shared this photo of guns seized after celebratory gunfire was reported after midnight on New Years Day in Boulder. The Boulder Police Department shared this photo of shell casings recovered after celebratory gunfire was reported after midnight on New Years Day in Boulder. The agency took to social media to remind Boulder residents that firing guns in the air horizontally or vertically and after drinking alcohol is never safe and is a risk to everyones safety. Just dont do it. The agency also shared photos of recovered casings and guns. Its unclear how close to other residences the suspects were when reportedly firing the weapons, or if it is illegal to discharge weapons within Boulder city limits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. Jan. 1An 18-year-old Manchester man was charged with attempted first-degree murder in connection with a stabbing outside the Mall at Rockingham Park last week in Salem, police said. Ronald Joseph Marino III, 18, was arrested Tuesday and a 14-year-old boy was arrested Monday, said Capt. Jason Smith of the Salem Police Department. The 14-year-old boy's name and residence were not released because he is a juvenile. On Dec. 26, a 20-year-old man from Windham was stabbed in the abdomen and chest during a robbery around 8 p.m. in an area outside the food court. Police have not released the name of the victim, who was first taken to Lawrence General Hospital in Massachusetts before being flown by helicopter to a Boston hospital with life-threatening injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The man survived surgery, was conscious and in critical but stable condition. The victim knew at least one of the accused attackers and was able to provide details leading to their arrests, Smith said Wednesday. Marino was charged with attempted first-degree murder during a robbery, first-degree assault with serious bodily injury, armed robbery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The 14-year-old was charged with first-degree assault, armed robbery, attempted murder and reckless conduct with a deadly weapon. A short time after the incident, Catholic Medical Center staff reported that a stabbing victim with a knife wound to his arm arrived at their emergency room. The victim was identified as being involved in the incident in Salem, police said. Salem detectives executed a search warrant at a residence in Londonderry overnight related to the investigation. A vehicle seen fleeing the scene at the mall parking lot was found abandoned in Salem. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marino was held without bail at the Rockingham County jail in Brentwood and is scheduled to be arraigned via video Thursday morning in Salem District Court. Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to call Detective James Carlin at 603-893-1911. OLDEN, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) An accident with two vehicles in Olden happened on Tuesday morning. The Ranger Volunteer Fire Department reported the accident happened on December 31, at 8:26 a.m., at Olden on North Access Road and Highway 3363. Firefighters also said that entrapment and injuries occurred in the accident. Police at the scene said that an SUV collided with a van after turning into its path. Both drivers were transported to the hospital, with one being airlifted by helicopter and the other taken by ambulance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No further information is available at this time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. Two men charged in connection to a deadly 2023 shooting have been sentenced after both pleaded guilty to lesser charges. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] >>PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 2 men acquitted of murder charges in connection to deadly shooting in 2023 Lawrence Davis, 23, and Riyadh Pate, 21, were each sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison Monday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, according to court documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both pleaded guilty on Dec. 12 to a lesser charge of one count of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of felonious assault. This was after their September trial ended in a hung jury and both men were acquitted of murder charges, according to a previous News Center 7 report. TRENDING STORIES: Davis and Pate were acquitted of two murder charges and two felonious assault charges in connection to a burglary and deadly shooting in Dayton. Firearm specifications for these charges were also dismissed. As part of their pleas, two counts of aggravated burglary plus weapons charges were also dismissed against both men, court documents indicate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement >>PHOTOS: 1 killed, 4 others shot at Dayton apartment According to a previous News Center 7 report, Pate and Davis went to an apartment in the 300 block of Superior Avenue with Kevin Jones, 38, and a fourth unidentified male on June 4. The men eventually entered the apartment and a shootout occurred. Jones was shot and killed. He was pronounced dead in the hallway outside the apartment, according to a previous News Center 7 report. Four other people were injured in the shooting. Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Dayton police investigate a shooting that left a man dead and sent four others to area hospitals Sunday on Superior Avenue. (Nate Russell/Staff) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] 2021 bomb threat at Trump hotel in Las Vegas meant as a message LAS VEGAS (KLAS) The Cybertruck fire and explosion is the second high-profile incident at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas in recent years. On Aug. 31, 2021, a 44-year-old Michigan man was charged after taking a suitcase to the hotels concierge station and saying, Everybody needs to leave the building. There is a bomb in here, according to Las Vegas police. He called hotel reservations 15 minutes later and said, How are you doing? Bomb, 15 minutes to evacuate the building. Caller ID showed his name, police said. DAndre Lundy of Farmingville, Michigan, got out of a taxi that pulled up to the valet area at around 12:45 p.m. He was wearing an American flag hat, police said. After Lundy was arrested at the Motel 6 on East Tropicana Avenue, he said he wanted to send the former president a message that he is a beast,' police reported. DAndre Lundy. (KLAS) A robot used to examine explosive devices is sent to the front of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on Tuesday. (David Charns / 8NewsNow) On Thursday, the FBI acknowledged the attention to the hotel. President-elect Donald Trump will take office after a Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony. He has stayed at the when he travels to Las Vegas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a bombing that certainly has factors that raise concern. Its not lost on us that its in front of, you know, of the Trump building, that its a Tesla vehicle, but we dont have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology or that, you know, any of the reasoning behind it, Spencer Evans, Special Agent in Charge of the FBIs Las Vegas Division, told reporters at a news conference. Thats the purpose of the investigation that were conducting is to get to the bottom of exactly what happened, why and how, Evans said. Cybertruck driver had gunshot wound to head prior to explosion in front of Las Vegas hotel, police say Video on Thursday from outside Trump Tower in the Midtown Manhattan area of New York City showed beefed-up security. The tower on Fifth Avenue is a mixed-use condominium building that reaches 58 stories. Barricades were in place at the New York building and also Chicagos Trump Tower, according to CBS reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Sept. 9, a South Carolina man was arrested after making comments about blowing up Harry Reid International Airport and Trumps 2024 candidacy. Law enforcement officials said they do not know the motivation behind the Wednesday attack by 37-year-old U.S. Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger. He drove the truck from Colorado after renting it. The use of a Tesla Cybertruck drew attention to Elon Musks connections to Trump. Musks electric car company includes a Gigafactory near Reno that builds batteries for electric cars. In Las Vegas, Musk is behind the Las Vegas Loop, a network of tunnels connecting to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Boring Company, owned by Musk, has big plans to expand the system up and down the Strip, to downtown Las Vegas, Reid International Airport, Allegiant Stadium, and the Las Vegas Medical District. Tesla electric cars are used to transport passengers through the tunnels. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a Tesla truck and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and its the Trump tower so theres obviously things to be concerned about there, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Thursday. Musk posted on social media about six hours after the New Years Day incident confirming reports of the explosion. He said it was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb. He went on to say it was unrelated to the vehicle itself. The FBI is also investigating possible links between the Las Vegas attack and the New Years Eve attack in New Orleans that killed 15 people when a rented truck drove through a crowd on Bourbon Street. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) As Siouxland prepared for winter, a resource for homeless people in Sioux City announced it would be shutting its doors. We keep going back to the same people, so it has to be the entire community that supports us, Bob Sheehan, the president of the board of The Warming Shelter, said. And we have not had that yet, so we just have to close. The Warming Shelter officials said they did not have the funds to be open for the winter season. The decision stirred up a lot of emotions for those who had used The Warming Shelter in their time of need. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I came here and they opened up their doors, opened their arms, said one man who had stayed at the shelter. Pet killed in New Years Day electrical fire in Norfolk Id be dead right now if it wasnt for this place, said another, who traveled several hours to advocate for the shelter when he heard about it closing. Before the end of October, the Warming Shelter was able to rally, and officials announced it was going to be open for the winter. There were also plans to restructure its operations. We were not in a good spot. We were all just very, very sad and hurting, knowing that these people that we cared for were not going to have a safe place to go, The Warming Shelter Executive Director Shayla Moore said. So knowing that we were able to change that outcome with the help of our community and our city and just so many of these gracious donors is just beyond words Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After months of campaigning, the election finally arrived. While the presidential race held national attention, there was a small shake-up in Woodbury County. Auditor Pat Gill lost his seat to his deputy auditor Michelle Skaff. However, there were no hard feelings between the two officials. Im just very, very excited to assume this role. Im thankful to Auditor Gill for appointing me as deputy, and I wish him the best in his future endeavors, Skaff said. I just want to thank the voters of Woodbury County for the 28 years that Ive had here, Gill said. Ive enjoyed every minute of it, and if thats the way it turns out, Im not going to look back. I enjoyed every minute of it, and Ill ride off into the sunset and not look back. How South Dakotas minimum wage increase stacks up Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gill had served Woodbury County for nearly 30 years. In December, Norfolk lost three of their top police officers. The city council agreed to settlements with Chief Don Miller, Captain Chad Reiman, and Lieutenant Josh Bauermeister. All three men agreed they would leave the department on Dec. 31. They had been placed on administrative leave since August while a work environment investigation was conducted. Details of this investigation were not released. While Norfolk residents were displeased with the process, Norfolk police wanted to move on. I want to emphasize the positive momentum in the department, interim chief Brian Tighe said. Officers are showing enthusiasm when coming to work. Im confident, with your guidance, we can formalize the leadership and operational structure needed to keep this positive momentum going. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold a fresh batch of Meta Platforms Inc.s stock last week, according to regulatory filings. - Agence France-Presse/Getty Image Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., has cashed in on the stocks recent record highs by selling about $23 million worth last week, according to security filings. Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares for $21.7 million, according to one filing, and 2,311 shares for $1.4 million, according to a separate one. Most Read from MarketWatch The sales were in accordance with a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by Zuckerberg on Aug. 9, according to a form filed for the companys third quarter. That plan allowed the executive to sell as many as 518,000 Class A Meta shares and 1.7 million Class B shares held by entities created to hold his shareholdings. At the time, the plan was worth $1.3 billion. Metas stock META has gained 67% this year to propel it to a market capitalization of $1.5 trillion, re- joining megacaps Nvidia Corp. NVDA, Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN in the trillion-dollar-market-cap club. The stock closed at a record high of $632.68 on Dec. 11. Rule 10b5-1 plans are set up to automatically execute transactions when certain preset conditions such as price, volume and timing are met. They are used by company insiders to enable them to cash out their stock without appearing to benefit from nonpublic information they are privy to as part of their role. Zuckerberg already sold $153 million of stock in early December. In all, he has sold a record of more than $2 billion of Metas stock this year, according to an analysis conducted by Fortune magazine. Metas stock started the year with a big surprise for investors in the form of its first-ever dividend, which was unveiled with fourth-quarter earnings in February. In 2023, Zuckerberg sold about $400 million worth of stock, breaking a two-year period in which the stock fell sharply as the company attempted a pivot toward the metaverse, an immersive virtual world accessed using virtual reality devices that never fully materialized. The Colorado Capitol on May 9, 2023. (Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline) About one quarter of Colorado legislators next session will be new to the Capitol building. The bulk of them will be representatives stepping into their first term in office. Seven current representatives will also shuffle to the Senate. That includes Democratic Sens.-elect Marc Snyder, Cathy Kipp, Judy Amabile, Lindsey Daugherty and Mike Weissman, and Republican Sens.-elect Lisa Frizell and Marc Catlin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Legislature will begin its next session on Jan. 8. In the House, Democrats will hold a 43-22 majority. In the Senate, they will have a 23-12 majority. Those are similar margins to the partisan balance in the last two years. Republicans in the November election flipped three seats in the House and one in the Senate. Democrats flipped one seat in the Senate. Here is a look at the General Assemblys new faces in 2025. Senate Senate District 13: Scott Bright, Republican Sen.-elect Scott Bright is the only new face in the Colorado Senate. He flipped Senate District 13 and will replace term-limited Democratic Sen. Kevin Priola. He won the general election with about 56% of the vote. Bright runs his familys child care and preschool facilities in Weld County and is the president of the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado. In his candidate survey, Bright said his priority to reduce the cost of living in Colorado. House Cecelia Espenoza, Democrat Rep.-elect Cecelia Espenoza will represent Denvers House District 4, replacing Democratic Rep. Tim Hernandez. Espenoza defeated the more progressive Hernandez in the June Democratic primary with about 53% of the vote and then won the general election by 60 points. She has practiced immigration law and was an appellate immigration judge. Espenoza also vied for the seat during a 2023 vacancy committee process, but lost to Hernandez. She listed gun safety as a top issue in a Colorado Newsline primary candidate survey, potentially in the form of a tax credit for a gun safe purchase. She will serve on the House Judiciary Committee and the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sean Camacho, Democrat Attorney and Air Force veteran Rep.-elect Sean Camcho will represent Denvers House District 6, replacing Democratic Rep. Elisabeth Epps. Camacho won the Democratic primary with about 61% of the vote and won the general election in the heavily Democratic district with 85% of the vote. Though he just won his freshman term in the House of Representatives, Camacho plans to compete in the vacancy committee to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Chris Hansen early this month. If he gets that seat, another vacancy committee will need to meet to replace him in House District 6. During the primary, Camacho said that increasing the housing supply at all price points is his top priority. He will serve on the House Energy and Environment Committee and House Finance Committee. House District 8: Lindsay Gilchrist, Democrat Lifelong Denverite Rep.-elect Lindsay Gilchrist will replace term-limited Democratic Rep. Leslie Herod in Denvers House District 8. She ran unopposed in the primary four other candidates withdrew or were disqualified and won in the general election with 87% of the vote. Gilchrist worked for the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health and at mothers2mothers, an organization that works to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. She then founded her own policy and political strategy group. She will serve on the House Health and Human Services Committee and the House Education committee. House District 16: Rebecca Keltie, Republican Defense contract engineer and Navy veteran Rep.-elect Rebecca Keltie will replace Democratic Rep. Steph Vigil in House District 16, one of three House districts to flip to Republican favor. Keltie won the race by three votes after a mandatory recount in the Colorado Springs district. She is a member of the CSU Extension Advisory Board. She will sit on the House Judiciary Committee and House Business Affairs and Labor Committee in the upcoming session. House District 18: Amy Paschal, Democrat Rep.-elect Amy Paschal will replace Democratic Rep. Marc Snyder in House District 18 in western Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. Snyder is heading to the Senate. Paschal defeated her Republican opponent in the general election by about 7 points. Paschal began her career as a software engineer and then became a stay-at-home mother. She has been politically active for over a decade and has held positions with the Democratic Party in El Paso County and the Colorado Democratic Party. She will be on the House Energy and Environment Committee and the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House District 19: Dan Woog, Republican Rep.-elect Dan Woog flipped House District 19 by defeating Democrat Jillaire McMillan by a bit over 100 votes following an automatic recount in November. The district, which includes Erie and Frederick, is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Jennifer Parenti, who dropped out of her reelection bid over the summer. Woog previously served in the House for one term from 2020 until 2022 and was then replaced by Parenti. He is a small business owner and president of the Aspen Ridge School Building Corporation. In the upcoming session, he will serve as the ranking member of the House Energy and Environment Committee. Members of the Colorado House of Representatives work on the last day of the 2024 legislative session, May 8, 2024, at the Colorado Capitol. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline) House District 20: Jarvis Caldwell, Republican Rep.-elect Jarvis Caldwell will replace outgoing Republican Rep. Don Wilson in House District 20 in northern Colorado Springs. He defeated one primary challenger in June and then won in the general election with about 70% of the vote. Caldwell is an Air Force veteran and has experience in the Legislature as an aide and communications director for the House GOP. He wrote that he wants to protect parents rights in their childrens education. He will serve on the House Education Committee and House Judiciary Committee. House District 24: Lisa Feret, Democrat Arvada City Council member and Rep.-elect Lisa Feret will replace Democratic Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, who is heading to the Senate, in House District 24. Feret defeated her Republican opponent in the general election by about 15 points. She is a former military police officer in the Air Force and currently works on Medicaid and housing policy for the state. She will serve on the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and House Health and Human Services Committee. House District 30: Rebekah Stewart, Democrat Lakewood City Council member and mental health professional Rep.-elect Rebekah Stewart will represent House District 30, replacing term-limited Democratic Rep. Chris deGruy Kennedy. Stewart defeated Kyra deGruy Kennedy, Chris deGruy Kenneys wife, in the Democratic primary and won the general election with about 63% of the vote. She wrote that affordable home ownership is a top priority during the primary. Stewart will serve on the House Finance and House Transportation, Housing and Local Government committees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House District 31: Jacque Phillips, Democrat Rep.-elect Jacque Phillips, an attorney, will replace Democratic Rep. Julia Marvin in Thorntons House District 31. Marvin defeated Phillips during a 2024 vacancy committee process to get her seat, but Phillips then defeated Marvin in the Democratic primary. She won the general election with 56% of the vote. In her primary survey, Phillips said that education access is a top priority for her. She will serve on the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee and House Education Committee. House District 36: Michael Carter, Democrat Aurora Public Schools board member and Rep.-elect Michael Carter will replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Mike Weissman, who won a Senate seat, in House District 36. Carter defeated Bryan Lindstrom in the Democratic primary and then won his seat with 71% of the vote in the general election. Carter is an Army veteran and now works as a public defender and a private criminal defense attorney. He won his school board seat in 2021. Carter will serve on the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and as the vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee. House District 38: Gretchen Rydin, Democrat Littleton City Council member and Rep.-elect Gretchen Rydin will replace outgoing Democratic Rep. David Ortiz, who did not seek reelection, in House District 38. The social worker won the general election with about 55% of the vote. She will sit on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee and House Health and Human Services Committee. House District 45: Max Brooks, Republican Castle Rock Town Council member and Rep.-elect Max Brooks will replace Republican Rep. Lisa Frizell, who is going to the Senate, in House District 45. Brooks worked in radio for two decades and serves on a handful of local boards and commissions. He defeated one primary challenger and won the general election with about 62% of the vote. He will serve on the House Finance Committee and House Business Affairs and Labor Committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House District 48: Carlos Barron, Republican Fort Lupton City Council member and Rep.-elect Carlos Barron will replace Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, who was elected to Congress, in House District 48. He ran unopposed in the general election. Barron works as the general manager of the oil and gas services company started by his father. Barron was born in Mexico and is one of the few immigrants to serve in the Legislature, as his parents moved to the United States when he was a baby. He will serve on the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee and the House Energy and Environment Committee. House District 49: Lesley Smith, Democrat Outgoing University of Colorado Regent and Rep.-elect Lesley Smith will replace Democratic Rep. Judy Amabile in Boulders House District 49. Amabile is moving to the Senate. Smith had one primary challenger and defeated her general election opponent with about 64% of the vote. She has a background as a scientist and educator at the University of Colorado Boulder and sat on the Boulder Valley School Board for eight years. Smith listed climate change as a top priority for her time in office. She will serve on the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee and House Education Committee. House District 50: Ryan Gonzalez, Republican Rep.-elect Ryan Gonzalez flipped House District 50 when he defeated Democratic Rep. Mary Young with about 51% of the vote in the general election. He also ran for the Greeley-based seat in 2022. Gonzalez has a background in banking. He will serve on the House Energy and Environment Committee and the House Finance Committee. House District 52: Yara Zokaie, Democrat Rep.-elect Yara Zokaie will represent House District 52, replacing Democratic Rep. Cathy Kipp. Zokaies background is in tax law and now works as the chief deputy assessor for Larimer County. She had one primary opponent and defeated her general election opponent with about 63% of the vote. She listed tax policy reform specifically to a progressive tax policy structure as a priority during the primary. Zokaie is a founding member of the Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian (MENASA) and Muslim Caucus and will sit on the House Judiciary and House Finance committees. She the first Iranian American elected to the Legislature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House District 50: Chris Richardson, Republican Rep.-elect Chris Richardson will replace Republican Rep. Rod Bockenfeld in House District 50. He is in his second term as an Elbert County Commissioner and sits on the Legislatures Property Tax Commission. Richardson is an Army veteran and worked for two decades at Fort Carson. He won the seat with over 75% of the vote. He will serve as the ranking member of the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee and on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee. House District 58: Larry Suckla, Republican Retired firefighter Rep.-elect Larry Suckla will replace Republican Rep. Marc Catlin in House District 58 as Catlin heads to the Senate. Suckla won the Republican primary by three votes and then defeated his opponent in the general election with 53% of the vote. The Cortez resident will serve on the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee, the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee and the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee. House District 59: Katie Stewart, Democrat Durango School Board member and Rep.-elect Katie Stewart will replace term-limited Democratic Rep. Barbara McLachlan in House District 59. She won the general election with a bit over 51% of the vote. She is a former emergency medical technician. Stewart will serve on the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee and the House Health and Human Services Committee. House District 63: Dusty Johnson, Republican Rep.-elect Dusty Johnson will replace Republican Rep. Richard Holtorf in House District 63. Holtorf ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Johnson is the former Morgan County GOP Chair and has experience working for state legislators. In her primary candidate survey, she said the states urban-rural divide is the districts top issue. She ran unopposed for the seat. She will serve on the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee, the House Education Committee and the House Health and Human Services Committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House District 65: Lori Garcia Sander, Republican Former public school teacher Rep.-elect Lori Garcia Sander will replace Republican Rep. Mike Lynch, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress this year, in House District 65. She beat one primary opponent and won the general election with about 61% of the vote. The LaSalle resident will sit on the House Appropriations Committee, the House Education Committee and the House Health and Human Services Committee. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Nicole Perez, a 27-year-old mother from Metairie, Louisiana, has been confirmed as a victim of the New Orleans attack. During an interview on the Today show Thursday, Jan. 2, Nicoles mother Martha Perez tearfully spoke about her daughters death. I love her and now shes gone and never coming back, she said. Martha also said she had no idea how she was going to break the tragedy to Nicoles 5-year-old son, Melo (Melvin): Her baby, what am I supposed to tell him? I dont know how I can explain it to him." Kimberley Usher-Fall, Nicoles manager and friend, told ABC News that she was a great mother who had recently been promoted at the deli where she worked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "She just was a really exciting little young lady, she added, sharing that Nicole would often bring Melo to the deli, where she would help him learn how to read. Usher-Fall said Nicole was out with her friends for New Year's Eve when she was struck by the truck on Bourbon Street, per ABC News. She was taken to University Hospital in the city but succumbed to her injuries. Its not been a good day for the family, Usher-Fall told New Orleans local news outlet NOLA.com. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Michael DeMocker/Getty Crime scene on Bourbon Street in New Orleans after the attack Crime scene on Bourbon Street in New Orleans after the attack Related: Ex Princeton Wide Receiver Tiger Bech, Brother of TCU Star Jack Bech, Dies in New Orleans Attack: 'Love You Always' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The deli manager has also set up a GoFundMe for Nicole with the aim of raising $50,000 for her son, as well as burial expenses. On the page, Usher-Fall referred to Nicole as so beautiful and full of life. She also noted, Her son Melo is now without his momma, and we are without our friend and dedicated employee. Im hoping to get some help for her burial expenses and to help her son with expenses he will need to transition into a new living situation. The death toll in the attack has now risen to at least 15 people, the FBI announced on Jan. 1. The deceased suspect has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, the FBI said in a news release. The FBI also confirmed the presence of an apparent ISIS flag in the Ford pickup truck used in the attack. Read the original article on People TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) Three children were injured Wednesday in an ATV crash near Lake Wales, according to the Polk County Sheriffs Office. The crash happened at about 2:40 p.m. in the area of Washington Avenue and East Northside Drive, which is just outside of Lake Wales city limits, officials said. The children were on the ATV when it rolled over. All three children were airlifted as a precaution due to their ages, but theyre all expected to be OK, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No other details were immediately available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. A little girl was found dead in Cincinnati two days after Christmas after an apparent dog attack. The Hamilton County Coroners Office confirmed to PEOPLE that it positively identified the victim as 3-year-old Kingsley Renee Wright, who was killed on Dec. 27 while visiting family. I just woke up and my daughter is dead, the 911 caller, who identified himself as Kingsley's father, told police, according to audio obtained by local station WXIX. Theres blood everywhere, I dont know what happened. I dont understand what went on. GoFundMe Kingsley Wright was the victim of an alleged dog attack Kingsley Wright was the victim of an alleged dog attack The caller told officers that his animals were in a cage and not loose when he awoke to find his daughter dead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cincinnati Police officers who initially responded to the call were advised to turn off their body cameras due to the gruesome nature of Kingsley's injuries. I think were going to need animal care to respond here to secure two dogs, an officer is heard saying in footage obtained by local station WLWT5. Kingsleys grieving mother Gina Smith told the station she had no idea her daughter would be subjected to dangerous animals, saying, I would have not allowed my baby around vicious dogs. Why would I do that? I just want to know why and how, Smith said through tears. GoFundMe Kinglsey Wright died on Dec. 27 at age 3 Kinglsey Wright died on Dec. 27 at age 3 Cincinnati Animal CARE confirmed to PEOPLE that they were called to the scene on Dec. 27 to remove three dogs from the home. The animals are now being held at the shelter for the 10-day bite quarantine period, per the legal requirement. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Kingsley's obituary remembers her as a happy girl with a beautiful laugh and smile. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She loved to sing and dance for her family, and always saw the positive and bright side of everything around her, the tribute reads. Kingsley is survived by her mother and two brothers, Devin and Bradley. A GoFundMe page has been set up to benefit Kingsley's family in the aftermath of her death. Read the original article on People JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM Honolulu police chief Arthur Joe Logan reacts today while visiting the aftermath of a fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive that killed at least three people and injured 20 after a lit cake firework tipped onto its side and shot into a nearby garage, igniting a cache of other fireworks and causing a large explosion. 1 /5 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM Honolulu police chief Arthur Joe Logan reacts today while visiting the aftermath of a fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive that killed at least three people and injured 20 after a lit cake firework tipped onto its side and shot into a nearby garage, igniting a cache of other fireworks and causing a large explosion. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM An investigator examines the scene of the deadly fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive in Aiiamanu this morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2 /5 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM An investigator examines the scene of the deadly fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive in Aiiamanu this morning. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green views the scene of the deadly fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive in Aiiamanu this morning. 3 /5 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green views the scene of the deadly fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive in Aiiamanu this morning. GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green speaks at a news conference at HPD headquarters today about the fireworks blast that killed three people and injured over two dozen in Aliamanu around midnight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 4 /5 GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green speaks at a news conference at HPD headquarters today about the fireworks blast that killed three people and injured over two dozen in Aliamanu around midnight. GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green speaks at a news conference at HPD headquarters today about the fireworks blast that killed three people and injured over two dozen in Aliamanu around midnight. 5 /5 GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green speaks at a news conference at HPD headquarters today about the fireworks blast that killed three people and injured over two dozen in Aliamanu around midnight. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM Honolulu police chief Arthur Joe Logan reacts today while visiting the aftermath of a fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive that killed at least three people and injured 20 after a lit cake firework tipped onto its side and shot into a nearby garage, igniting a cache of other fireworks and causing a large explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM An investigator examines the scene of the deadly fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive in Aiiamanu this morning. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green views the scene of the deadly fireworks explosion on Keaka Drive in Aiiamanu this morning. GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green speaks at a news conference at HPD headquarters today about the fireworks blast that killed three people and injured over two dozen in Aliamanu around midnight. GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM Gov. Josh Green speaks at a news conference at HPD headquarters today about the fireworks blast that killed three people and injured over two dozen in Aliamanu around midnight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement UPDATE : 4 :45 p.m. Three women were killed and about two dozen people were injured at an Aliamanu home when a cake bomb filled with illegal aerial fireworks set off massive explosions at 12 :01 a.m. at a large New Years Eve party. At an afternoon news conference at the Honolulu Police Departments headquarters, Gov. Josh Green, Mayor Rick Blangiardi and leaders of city agencies repeatedly used words like horrific, gruesome, and a war zone to describe the chaotic mass casualty event that first responders found when they arrived 4137 Keaka Drive just after midnight. It was a bomb. It was a fireworks bomb. It was a bomb that exploded, Green said. He said a person lit a cake bomb, which contained multiple aerials, that tipped over and fired the explosives into the homes carport, igniting a huge cache of other fireworks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two women were dead at the scene while a third in her early 20s died later at a hospital, officials said. Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said 23 adults and 3 children critical or serious injuries. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. Dr. Jim Ireland, director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, said the transported patients were mostly critical and taken to hospitals across Oahu, while an unknown number of other less-severely injured people self-transported to the hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Green said he expected that there will be one or two children under the age of 10 who will be permanently disfigured or die from their injuries. He later described two children, ages 1 and 3, who were severely injured. A total of 13 city and federal ambulances made 14 trips to hospitals as first responders set up a triage area to prioritize the most seriously injured, Ireland said. The triage area had to be set up several houses away from the home because the street was so clogged with cars that first responders had a hard time accessing the blast site, he said. Im very proud of our team for its life-saving response under difficult circumstances but its a very sad day for me. This didnt have to happen. I never want to see this again, he said. Honolulu Fire Department Chief Kalani Hao said one woman who was found dead at the scene was in the driveway of the home and the other was on the street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It really looked like a war zone and like a bomb dropped right in front of that house, he said. Logan said, Very bad, poor decision-making by members of our community caused this tragedy. This is a systemic problem that is cultural, and police enforcement alone cannot solve it, he said. He also said police recovered tens of thousands of dollars worth of illegal fireworks from the home. No arrests have been made and HPD and HFD are investigating the incident. ATF did assist HPD this morning. We are standing by to support again if requested, Jason Chudy, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justices Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Seattle Field Division, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both Blangiardi and Green expressed frustration with the prevalence of illegal aerial fireworks in Hawaii, and said they are determined to make major changes to curb their use. Enough is enough. This situation is out of control, Blangiardi said, adding, This is horrific. This needs to be a seminal moment for the community to finally deter the use of illegal aerial fireworks. Green echoed the sentiment. The governor, a medical doctor, emphasized that injuries were gruesome and extensive, with organic (brain ) matter splattered on car and house windows across the street from the blast. He said the public needs to understand how gruesome this event was so that changes can be made to cut the use of illegal fireworks in Hawaii. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People were still shooting off aerials several houses down as the medics were driving by to save lives, Green said. I hope people wake up. This is clearly a threat. This is a threat to public safety and health. Green asked people with remaining fireworks from New Years to please pause and not set them off in the coming days. He also said the state will have an amnesty program for people to drop off illegal fireworks. The governor said he will be working with the state Legislature to address curbing illegal fireworks in Hawaii. Penalties are going to have to become very, very severe to deter the use of illegal aerial fireworks, he said, calling for possession of over 50-pounds of illegal fireworks to be elevated to a Class C felony with a 5-year prison term and a $10, 000 fine. In addition to the three deaths at Aliamanu, a fourth person died from fireworks-related injuries in Kalihi overnight. HPD said at 11 :05 p.m., officers and EMS responded to a 20-year-old man with critical fireworks-related injuries. He was treated and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 12 :30 a.m.PREVIOUS COVERAGE By Peter Boylan / pboylan @staradvertiser.com At least three people are dead and over 20 wounded after a fireworks cache exploded around midnight in Aliamanu. Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said personnel responded at 12 :01 a.m.today to Keaka Drive to an explosion with multiple patients injured from an apparent firework blast. Multiple ambulance crews and Field Operations Supervisors responded. Paramedics on scene were able to identify a total of 22 patients. Of the 22 patients, 2 were pronounced dead on scene and 20 were transported in serious or critical condition to various hospitals throughout the island, according to EMS. Mayor Rick Blangiardi issued a written statement this morning saying that at least three people were killed. It is with both frustration and sorrow that I address the tragedy that occurred last night in Salt Lake just after midnight on New Years Eve, he said. A massive explosion caused by what appears to be illegal fireworks claimed at least three lives and left over 20 others critically injured. This incident is a painful reminder of the danger posed by illegal fireworks, which put lives at risk, drain our first responder resources, and disrupt our communities. Honolulu police and firefighters also responded to the explosion. The Honolulu Police Department said in a social media post at 1 :45 am., Major Incident in the Salt Lake area. This is a fireworks-related incident with multiple casualties. HPD, HFD, and EMS are on the scene providing care and security. Please avoid the area, read a tweet from the Honolulu Police Department at 1 :45 am. HPD told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser early this morning that the casualty numbers are not confirmed and investigators remained at the scene on Keaka Drive. Honolulu Fire Department officials said in a news released that they received a 911 call at 11 :59 p.m. and responded to a medical emergency at 4137 Keaka Drive in Aliamanu with one unit and four personnel. The first unit arrived on scene at 12 :07 a.m., at the same time as Emergency Medical Services, to find multiple people injured due to a fireworks explosion at the exterior of the residence. An additional eight HFD units were requested. HFD personnel found that there was no fire, assessed the structure, conducted a search and assisted EMS with patient triage, treatment and transport to the awaiting ambulance units. Tragically, there were two fatalities. HFD said the American Red Cross was contacted to assist the displaced resident and that an investigation has begun to determine the cause of the explosion and to provide damage estimates. In other fireworks-related incidents around midnight, EMS said crews responded :To Lukela Lane in Kalihi at 11 :04 p.m. Tuesday for a 19-year-old man with multiple traumatic injuries, including a severe arm injury, from a suspected firework blast. He was treated and taken in critical condition to a hospital.At 11 :27 p.m. for a patient who suffered a traumatic hand injury from a suspected fireworks blast. The patient had been driven to a Honolulu Fire Department station in Nanakuli where paramedics treated him then took him in serious condition to a hospital.To Linapuni Street in Kalihi at 12 :04 a.m for a male who suffered an extensive hand injury from an apparent firework explosion. Paramedics treated him and transported him in serious condition to a trauma center.At 12 :06 a.m to Kuhia Place in Ewa where a 59-year-old woman and a 72-year-old man suffered minor burn injuries to their legs in a firework-related incident. Paramedics treated the patients and took them in minor condition to a hospital. Darlena Chadwick, the Queens Health Systems executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in a statement today, Our Queens-Punchbowl, West Oahu, and Wahiawa Emergency Departments received and cared for nearly 40 fireworks-related injuries last night and this morning. Our doctors, nurses, and ancillary staff worked tirelessly together last night and this morning to accommodate all patients who needed care. Due to State and Federal privacy laws and regulations we are unable to comment on specific incidents or patients. We express our deepest sympathies to those impacted by these horrible incidents. In his statement, Blangiardi said, Year after year, a minority of individuals recklessly endanger us all. This is absurd and unacceptable. My administration remains committed to working with federal and state agencies to shut down this illegal firework trade once and for all. We will push for stronger enforcement, tougher penalties, new technologies, and a united effort to stop the import of illegal fireworks. Our communities deserve better. We cannot allow this senseless danger to persist, and we will take decisive action to ensure the safety and well-being of Oahu residents. In a separate statement, Gov. Josh Green offered condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed, and expressed his gratitude to EMS, HPD and HFD for acting swiftly and heroically to provide care under extremely difficult circumstances. Because combating illegal fireworks has been a priority, we established the Illegal Fireworks Task Force in 2023 to identify and disrupt supply chains, Green said. It has seized 227, 000 pounds of illegal fireworks to date, but incidents like this remind us of the ongoing challenges we face. We must continue to work together to prevent tragedies. I urge residents to report illegal activity and to prioritize safety. My administration remains committed to protecting our communities and preventing further loss. 461 Comments By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our. Having trouble with comments ? . BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) A barbecue fundraiser in remembrance of former deputy Phillip Campas is scheduled for late January. Phillip Campas is remembered by many in Kern County. The community will gather at Saltys BBQ for the third annual fundraiser that supports youth leadership and Phillip Campas Scholarships. The event will take place at Saltys BBQ banquet room located at 6720 Schirra Court on Jan. 23 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets for this event are only available by pre-sale; no tickets will be able for purchase on the day of the event. If you would like to get tickets, reach out to the PJC Legacy Project on Facebook. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Remembering KCSO Deputy Phillip Campas The fundraiser will be held on Phillips birthday. Organizers say it is a drive-up event only and the pre-sale price of a ticket is $25. Dinner includes tri-tip, chicken, chili beans, salad and a bread roll. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) Rockford Police credited its amplified drunk driving enforcement campaign after a two-week effort resulted in only four DUI arrests. According to police, the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, done in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Transportation and funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, targeted impaired drivers. During the two-week campaign, which ran December 13th, 2024, through January 2nd, 2025, police said officers handed out 161 citations for seat belts, distracted driving, and other traffic offenses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said the impaired driving campaign made the holidays safer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. Authorities found gas tanks, fireworks and fuel in a Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas on New Years Day. The material was connected to a detonation system controlled by the driver inside the truck, they said. FBI special agent Jeremy Schwartz told CNN officials are trying to determine whether it was a terrorist incident. The driver of the truck was shot in the head before the explosion, and police found a gun at the drivers feet that had been purchased by him on Dec. 30, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill. He said authorities believe the driver shot himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The rigged explosion occurred several hours after a supporter of the Islamic State killed 14 and injured 35 in an attack in New Orleans. Heres what we know about the Las Vegas explosion. What we know so far about the driver of the Cybertruck The explosion left the driver dead and seven injured, according to McMahill. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was identified as the vehicles driver. Livelsberger was an active duty master sergeant and a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces who was stationed in Germany. He was on approved leave in Colorado at the time of the attack, according to authorities. CBS contacted two of Livelsbergers relatives, one who said, Livelsbergers wife had not heard from him in several days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Independent reported that Livelsberger graduated summa cum laude from Norwich University in Vermont, studying strategic studies and defense analysis. Where the Cybertruck came from in the Las Vegas attack The vehicle was rented at around 6 a.m. in Colorado through Turo, a car rental app that was also used in the New Orleans attack, which happened several hours earlier. Surveillance footage shows the truck driving past Trump Hotel an hour before the explosion, then circling back, stopping, and exploding around 8:40 a.m., according to CNN. NEW: Video shows Tesla Cybertruck explosion at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. No word yet on the cause pic.twitter.com/tR9UabrsH4 BNO News (@BNONews) January 1, 2025 Are there ties between the New Orleans attack and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas? At this point there are no known ties between the two attacks, authorities say. While both of the individuals involved were members of the U.S. military and served at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and in Afghanistan, and both used trucks rented through Turo, so far authorities say they havent found a direct link, but that it is still under investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said there is no evidence the two men served in the same unit or during the same years at Fort Bragg. At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas, FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia said Thursday, according to CNN. What caused the Cybertruck explosion? The explosion was caused by very large firework and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, per Tesla CEO Elon Musk on X. He added, Tesla vehicles transmit their state of health continuously, allowing him to know the explosion was not a vehicle malfunction. Since Cybertrucks have thicker stainless steel panels than other trucks, Musk posted that the Tesla actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. He wrote, Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill echoed Musk. The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet, because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out, McMahill said. He noted that the glass front doors to the hotel were not broken during the explosion. MASSILLON, Ohio (WCMH) An Ohio school district will pay $450,000 to a middle school teacher who resigned for refusing to address two transgender students by their preferred names and pronouns. Jackson Local School District reached a settlement on Dec. 18 with the teacher, Vivian Geraghty, after she claimed in a 2022 lawsuit her First Amendment rights were violated when she was told to resign from a middle school language arts position. The agreement follows a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in August that said forcing Geraghty to use students preferred names amounts to compelled speech and that the schools pronoun practice was not neutral. Trans healthcare ban, bathroom rules: These Ohio bills shaped LGBTQ+ rights in 2024 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The school tried to force Vivian to accept and repeat the schools viewpoint on issues that go to the foundation of morality and human identity, like what makes us male or female, by ordering her to personally participate in the social transition of her students, said Logan Spena, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that represented Geraghty. The First Amendment prohibits that abuse of power, and Jackson Local School District officials have learned that comes at a steep cost. Jackson Local Schools said in a statement the district remains dedicated to navigating complex and changing legal environments in a manner that prioritizes student safety and well-being. On the first day of the school year in August 2022, a week before Geraghty resigned, two of her students asked that she refer to them using names different from their names on the schools roster. The filing states Geraghty knew these requests were part of the students social transition but disagreed because of her religious beliefs and wanted those students out of her classroom. Geraghty continued to refer to the students using their deadnames, the name a trans person was assigned at birth but that does not align with their gender identity, even after one of the students sent her a follow-up request through email. That student then reached out to a school counselor, writing that one of my teachers dead-naming me all the time in class. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Spectrum: Looking back at 2024 The language arts teacher then met with the middle schools principal, Kacy Carter, to seek an accommodation so that students would not continue to feel uncomfortable. Geraghty told the principal that her religious conviction would not allow her to agree with the students requests, and that she wouldnt be comfortable using preferred names or pronouns because she would know what was behind it. Geraghty was later called into a second meeting with Carter and Monica Myers, a district employee who said if Geraghty wouldnt comply with the students preferred names, it was going to be a problem, the filing states. From this point, the three individuals accounts of the meeting differ but that Geraghty was sent back to her classroom after she reaffirmed that she would not comply. A short time later that day, Geraghty was called back into a third meeting with Carter and Myers. While the suit states the accounts for this meeting also differ, Geraghty said the principal told her if that is your final decision, then we need a letter of resignation effective today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carter and Myers claim Geraghty repeated she would not use preferred names. Myers then said thats going to be problematic and asked the teacher whether she was really prepared to draw that line in the sand. The two claim Geraghty said she didnt think she could work for the middle school anymore and Ill guess Ill resign. Bill to charge Ohio teachers would combat obscene classroom books, lawmaker says Alliance Defending Freedom argued that the school did not propose other possible solutions, like moving the teacher to another classroom or having her address students by their last names. The suit also claimed the district implemented a pronoun policy that is not fairly enforced. Vivian resisted this unconstitutional demand and explained that her Christian faith made her unable to participate in her students social transition, and she has received just vindication for taking this stand, said Spena. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The district at the time said in a statement that it does not have a policy that requires teachers to use the preferred names or pronouns, but it does follow the Department of Educations Title IX ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. BROCKWAY, Wis. (WFRV) A Wisconsin man was arrested after crashing into a wooded area following a high-speed pursuit. According to the release, the Jackson County Sheriffs Office was referred to a traffic complaint about an erratic driver on U.S. 12 in the Township of Brockway shortly after 4 p.m. on New Years Day. Law of the Month: Wisconsin State Patrol reminds drivers about winter road conditions Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A deputy made contact, but the suspect driver fled at a high speed and was pursued further. The suspect, identified as 49-year-old Wayne R. Withers of Black River Falls crashed shortly after in a wooded area. Withers was treated at a hospital for injuries relating to the crash after being taken into custody. He was taken to the Jackson County Jail for the following charges: 6th offense Operating while Intoxicated Recklessly endangering safety Fleeing an officer No more details were provided. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. A credit card sign-up bonus can help you quickly earn valuable rewards as a qualified new cardholder, whether you prefer cash back, points, or miles. Your bonus could be worth up to $750 or more, depending on the offer. Best limited-time credit card sign-up bonuses These limited-time credit card offers provide better deals than the standard offers, but theyre only here for a limited time, so act quickly if one meets your needs. 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Read our full Capital One Venture Rewards review Learn more Discover it Student Cash Back Best for students Annual fee $0 Welcome offer Discover will automatically match all the cash back youve earned at the end of your first year, with no minimum spending requirement or maximum rewards cap Rewards rate 5% cash back in rotating categories (grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, and more) up to the quarterly maximum, then 1% 1% on all other purchases Why we like it: The Discover it Student Cash Back is a dual threat, allowing you to earn valuable rewards while building a positive credit history. If you compare this card with the non-student version, youll find you dont lose out on its high rewards rate or generous welcome offer. Read our full Discover it Student Cash Back Credit Card review Learn more IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card Best for hotels Annual fee $99 Welcome offer Limited time offer Earn 170,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months Benefits Earn a free night on each account anniversary, plus get a fourth night free when you redeem your points for a consecutive four-night stay at IHG properties Receive Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS statement credit of up to $120 every 4 years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to your card Access perks including free upgrades, welcome amenities, and guaranteed room availability when you book at least 72 hours in advance Why we like it: The IHG One Rewards Premier is one of our favorite hotel cards because you get a free anniversary night each year and automatic elite status. The free night benefit alone can offset the annual fee, so any other value you get from rewards and benefits is just icing on the cake. 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Its also an excellent way to boost your Medallion Status yearly, as it boosts Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQD) earnings. Read our full Delta SkyMiles Reserve Amex Card review Learn more American Express Gold Card Best for dining and groceries Rates & fees, terms apply Annual fee $325 Welcome offer Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases in the first 6 months Rewards rate 4x Membership Rewards Points at restaurants worldwide (on up to $50,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1x) 4x Membership Rewards points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1x) 3x Membership Rewards points on flights booked directly with airlines or on AmexTravel.com 2x Membership Rewards points on prepaid hotels and other eligible purchases booked on AmexTravel.com 1x Membership Rewards points on all other eligible purchases Why we like it: The Amex Gold Card is excellent for earning points in the Membership Rewards program on everyday shopping and dining trips. Its also one of our favorite cards for foodies because of its multiple dining-related perks where you can receive statement credits to more than cover the annual membership cost. Read our full Amex Gold Card review Learn more Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Best for premium travel Annual fee $395 Welcome offer Earn 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months Benefits $300 annual credit for travel bookings through Capital One Travel 10,000 annual bonus miles (worth $100 in travel spending; starts on your first account anniversary) Unlimited access for you and two guests to Capital One Lounges and 1,300+ more lounges through partner networks Why we like it: The Capital One Venture X is our pick for a premium travel credit card with a reasonable annual fee. You still get the airport lounge access benefits and an annual $300 travel credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, but you dont have to pay as much as you would with certain competitor cards. Read our full Capital One Venture X review What is a credit card sign-up bonus? A credit card sign-up bonus is a reward you can earn as a new cardholder on a rewards credit card. You usually must meet a spending requirement to earn a welcome bonus, often rewarded as cash back, points, or miles. For example, earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first three months after account opening. How do credit card sign-up bonuses work? The requirements can vary by the welcome offer, credit card issuer, and credit card, but you typically have to spend a certain amount of money on your card within a specific period to earn a bonus. Its common for welcome offer spending requirements to give you a three-month period to earn the bonus, but some periods can last for six months or more. The amount of money you must spend for the bonus can vary, but often ranges from $500 to $4,000. Many business credit card card welcome offers have higher spending requirements, sometimes reaching $15,000 or more in the same amount of time. You won't earn the welcome bonus if you dont meet the spending requirements within the given timeframe. One thing to be aware of is that having any of your expenses credited back because of canceled or returned purchases could affect whether you qualify for a bonus. Types of credit card sign-up bonuses The most common types of credit card sign-up bonuses include rewards in the form of: Cash back Points Miles Cash-back credit cards reward cash back, while travel credit cards reward you with points or miles. Who qualifies for a credit card sign-up bonus? Credit card sign-up bonus requirements can include: Approval: You must apply and be approved for a card to qualify for its welcome offer. This could include having a sufficient credit score to be eligible for approval. Previous bonus requirements: You might not qualify for a bonus offer if youve earned a similar offer recently, such as within the last 24 or 48 months. Similar card requirements: You might not qualify for a bonus offer if you have or have had the same or a similar credit card. Spending requirements: To earn a welcome bonus, you must spend a certain amount on your card within a specific timeframe. What to look for in a credit card sign-up bonus Consider these factors when reviewing credit card sign-up bonuses: Type of reward: Cash back, points, and miles are the most common reward types. If youre interested in travel, consider points or miles. Otherwise, cash back is the recommended option. Rewards value: Not all rewards currencies are the same, so its worth researching the estimated value of a currency when researching different welcome offers. For example, 100,000 points on one card could equal $1,000, but the same number of points on another card might be worth $1,500 toward travel on another card. Your monthly budget: Going beyond your usual spending habits to earn a welcome offer doesn't make sense in most situations. For this reason, you should calculate your everyday expenses, such as buying groceries and filling up at gas stations, to see if your typical budget can help you meet the spending requirements for a bonus. Should I open a new credit card for its sign-up bonus? Its worth looking into the best sign-up bonuses if you have large upcoming purchases. This strategy lets you earn valuable rewards without overspending. However, its also worth considering a cards other perks and benefits to see if they can bring you long-term value. FAQs for credit card sign-up bonuses Are credit card welcome bonus offers taxable? You typically arent taxed for earning a credit card welcome bonus. You might incur taxes if you earned a bonus without spending money or earned rewards in other ways, such as referral bonuses, without spending anything. What credit card gives you money for signing up? These credit cards provide bonus rewards to qualifying new cardmembers: What is the $750 welcome bonus credit card? Multiple credit cards provide welcome bonuses that could be worth at least $750, including: Our methodology We researched nearly all available rewards credit cards with sign-up bonuses from major card issuers to find the best sign-up bonuses. We did not research every available credit card from every credit card company or include business cards in our research. We added over 100 credit cards to a rubric to compare current welcome offers, including their bonus values and spending requirements. We also included card types for each card, such as cash back, travel, and more. We determined which cards had the best sign-up bonuses according to the amount of value you could receive from them, as well as the best sign-up bonuses according to card type. Our final list is based on our rubric, research, and expert opinion. Editorial Disclosure: The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. All opinions belong solely to Yahoo Finance and are not those of any other entity. The details on financial products, including card rates and fees, are accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the banks website for the most current information. This site doesn't include all currently available offers. Credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product. Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times over its story about Blake Lively's harassment claims. The lawsuit claims the Times relied on Lively's narrative and caused Baldoni damage. The Times defended its story as "meticulously" reported. Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times over its bombshell story on his "It Ends with Us" costar Blake Lively's sexual-harassment claims against him. The libel lawsuit, filed Tuesday and reviewed by Business Insider, accused the Times of relying "almost entirely" on what it described as "Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative" and said the newspaper disregarded in its December 21 story "an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives." The suit said Lively embarked on a negative PR campaign against Baldoni and that she falsely accused him of sexual harassment to gain control over every aspect of the production. The lawsuit included screenshots of messages that it said contradicted the Times' reporting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suit is the latest legal action to emerge from the romantic drama, which premiered this past summer. BI asked media lawyers to size up the merits of the case here. A New York Times spokesperson said Wednesday the story was "meticulously and responsibly reported" based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails quoted "accurately and at length in the article." "We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well," the spokesperson said. "We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit." A representative for Lively, who is not named as a defendant in the libel lawsuit, said in a statement Wednesday that "nothing in the lawsuit changes anything" about the claims in her California Civil Rights Department complaint, which the Times story cited, or a federal complaint she filed on Tuesday. The rep said they planned to address the suit's allegations in court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reps for Baldoni; Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds; and others named in the suit did not respond to requests for comment. The suit said the plaintiffs including Baldoni, his publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, and the producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz suffered damages that amounted to at least $250 million. "This lawsuit seeks to hold the Times accountable for its role in this defamation campaign, but plaintiffs are not done," lawyers for Baldoni said in the suit. "There are other bad actors involved, and make no mistake this will not be the last lawsuit." Here's a breakdown of the top takeaways in the suit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baldoni and his fellow plaintiffs claim the Times article missed key context, wrongly bolstering Lively's case Justin Baldoni. Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images Lively's California Civil Rights Department complaint, as reported by the Times, said Baldoni used the public-relations pros Nathan and Abel to spread negative content about Lively with the press, fearing that she would come forward with complaints about Baldoni and Jamey Heath, the lead producer of "It Ends with Us" and the CEO of their production company, Wayfarer Studios. The Times story included a text exchange that was part of Lively's complaint. In the texts, Nathan and Abel discussed a Daily Mail story that described Lively's promotion of the domestic-violence-themed film as "tone deaf." "You really outdid yourself with this piece," Abel wrote, to which Nathan replied: "That's why you hired me right? I'm the best."' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The libel suit said the Times omitted a text from Nathan preceding the exchange where she said she was uninvolved in the story's publication, writing, "Damn this is unfair because it's also not me." The suit said the Times also didn't include Abel's use of the upside-down smiley face emoji when she wrote, "You really outdid yourself." It added that the emoji showed that the writer was being sarcastic. In his statement to the Times, Baldoni's lawyer called the reporting cherry-picked. The suit claimed that the backlash against Lively was due to "her own tone-deaf messaging." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baldoni pushes back on harassment claims Blake Lively as Lily Bloom in "It Ends with Us." Jojo Whilden/Sony Pictures Entertainment The libel suit accused the Times of "uncritically advancing Lively's unsubstantiated claims of sexual harassment against Heath and Baldoni." The Times story said, for example, that Heath had shown Lively a video of his naked wife. The Baldoni suit said the video depicted a home birth that was discussed in connection with a scene in the movie. The libel suit also denied that Baldoni and Heath repeatedly entered Lively's trailer uninvited while she was undressed and while she was breastfeeding, and that she considered certain sex scenes gratuitous, as the Times story reported, citing the Civil Rights Department complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baldoni's suit said Lively breastfed in their presence. It also shared a text message she sent before production suggesting she wasn't in a hurry to meet with the film's intimacy coordinator, in which she wrote: "I feel good. I can meet her when we start :) thank you though!" Baldoni claims he never agreed to a document seeking safeguards Lively as Lily Bloom and Baldoni as Ryle Kincaid in "It Ends with Us." Nicole Rivelli/Sony Pictures Ent. The Times reported that Lively presented a letter to the movie's producers in November 2023 that sought safeguards on the set before shooting began. Baldoni's suit said that the letter wasn't presented to Wayfarer. "No such document was ever presented to Baldoni, the Wayfarer team, or, to their knowledge, anyone else whether during that meeting or at any other time and therefore, could not have been agreed to," the suit said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baldoni alleges Lively's PR launched a negative press push against him Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lively's Civil Rights Department complaint said Baldoni "abruptly pivoted away from the film's marketing plan" days before its release as part of a "multi-tiered plan" using "social manipulation" to ultimately "destroy" her public reputation. Baldoni said it was the other way around. He said in the suit as well as in a statement to the Times that he and his company hired a PR firm to protect him, with Lively's PR going on the attack against him. The libel suit claimed that Lively's PR hire, Leslie Sloane, planted stories critical of Baldoni, including one that said he made Lively uncomfortable on set. Baldoni accuses Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of bullying Reynolds. Getty The libel suit described multiple confrontations between Baldoni and Lively's husband, Reynolds, the star of "Deadpool." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suit said Reynolds "aggressively berated" Baldoni and accused him of "fat shaming" Lively during a meeting at the couple's penthouse in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York. Baldoni's suit said he had asked his trainer about Lively's weight because he had back injuries and wanted to determine if he could safely lift her as directed in a scene. The trainer later shared Baldoni's inquiry with Lively, the suit said. "The confrontation that followed was so aggressive that Baldoni felt compelled to offer repeated apologies, despite his question being entirely reasonable and made in good faith," Baldoni's suit said. In another meeting at the penthouse, the suit alleged, Reynolds "blindsided" Baldoni by berating him over a list of grievances and became "enraged" when Baldoni didn't apologize. Baldoni later called it a "traumatic" encounter and said others left the meeting in "shock," his suit said. Baldoni's suit further claimed that Reynolds pressured Baldoni's agency, WME, to drop Baldoni as a client. Both Lively and Reynolds are repped by WME. In a statement to BI, a WME spokesperson denied that Lively or Reynolds pressured the company to drop Baldoni. "The wielding of power and influence became undeniable," the suit said. "Baldoni and Wayfarer grew increasingly fearful of what Lively and Reynolds were capable of, as their actions seemed aimed at destroying Baldoni's career and personal life." Read the original article on Business Insider Islands dont get much more remote than St Helena. Adrift in the middle of the South Atlantic 1,200 miles from Africa, 1,800 miles from South America this fortress island is about as far away as one can get from the outside world. In fact, at just five miles wide by 10 miles long, its a miracle anyone found it in the first place. Portuguese sailors were the first to land here in 1502, but the island has been British since 1659, when the East India Company installed the first governor a post that still exists today. Alongside the islands rich history, St Helenas natural wonders continue to attract intrepid travellers. Ringed by cliffs, crowned by mountains and cloaked by cloud forest, its an island made for adventure. Here are seven ways to savour every second. 1. Discover diverse landscapes on the islands post box walks St Helena is heaven for hikers, and the islands 21 post box walks offer an excuse to search out its remotest corners. These boxes are tucked away around the island on barren headlands, secluded beaches and cloud-shrouded peaks and each has a stamp to prove youve found it. Ranging from just under one mile to 7.5 miles, the walks are graded out of 10: for hikes hitting the mid-level mark, its a good idea to employ a guide to lead the way. Checking off one or two hikes is straightforward enough, but only the hardiest hikers complete all 21. The Diana's Peak Post Box Walk in Peaks National Park is one of 21 trails located around the island. Photograph by Ed Thorpe 2. Climb Jacob's Ladder from Jamestown St Helenas capital, Jamestown, is surrounded by cliffs, lined with Georgian townhouses and shaded by jacaranda trees. For the best view of this historic city, haul yourself up Jacobs Ladder, the staircase that climbs almost vertically to Ladder Hill Fort. With 699 steps and 640ft of ascent, its a lung-busting, knee-knackering rite of passage. Every year, runners race up the staircase as part of the Ladder Challenge; the current record holder reached the top in an impressive five minutes and 4.19 seconds. 3. Explore Napoleon's place of exile Following Napoleons final defeat at Waterloo, the British decided it was time to be rid of the French emperor once and for all. After a 10-week voyage, Napoleon landed on St Helena on 15 October 1815 and was installed at Longwood House, where he remained in exile until his death in 1821. The house contains fascinating Napoleonic memorabilia, including furniture, maps and letters. Guests can visit his grave, too although Boneys remains were repatriated to France in 1840. 4. Sample one of the worlds rarest coffees Coffee has been grown on St Helena since 1733, when the first trees were imported by East India Company traders. The island specialises in the rare Arabica bean, Green Tipped Bourbon, which has notes of black cherry and dark chocolate. Its highly sought after and fetches eye-watering prices overseas but visitors can taste it without breaking the bank by joining a roastery tour of Rosemary Gate Estate, or at St Helena Coffee Shop in Jamestown. Sunken wrecks off the coast of St Helena are home to some of the island's most impressive marine life. Photograph by St Helena Tourism 5. Discover shipwrecks on a deep-sea dive Some of St Helenas most memorable scenery exists below the surface. Shipwrecks stud the coastline, and their sunken remains support a menagerie of submarine life, from butterfly fish and blennies to devil rays and green turtles. St Helena is also one of the few places in the world where its possible to spot whale sharks swimming just off the coast; the creatures take a detour past the island as they migrate across the Atlantic. 6. Hitch a ride on a 4x4 tour Off-road guides such as Aarons Adventure Tours explore difficult-to-reach parts of the island. Travellers can find themselves steering up palm-filled jungle valleys, juddering down rocky ravines and crawling along wild coastline populated by cacti and prickly pears. En route, explorers might even spot the island's endemic bird, the Saint Helena plover, known locally as the wirebird due to its long, wiry legs. Keep an eye out for the animals distinctive markings a black band runs across its forecrown and around the eyes, while a white stripe circles the head. 7. Meet the islands oldest resident In the grounds of the governors official residence, Plantation House, visitors may come across an elderly gentleman grazing on the grass. His name is Jonathan, hes a Seychelles giant tortoise and hes thought to have hatched in 1832 which, at 192 years of age, makes him not just St Helenas most senior citizen, but also the oldest living land animal on Earth, according to Guinness World Records. Jonathan, a 192-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise, grazes in the grounds of Plantation House, the governor's official residence. Photograph by St Helena Tourism This paid content article was created for St Helena Tourism as a joint initiative with Rainbow Tours. It does not necessarily reflect the views of National Geographic, National Geographic Traveller (UK) or their editorial staffs. To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only). HONOLULU (KHON2) Ray Donnell Worrells, a 74-year-old Waikoloa man, died after being critically injured in a single-vehicle collision in Waikoloa Village Wednesday afternoon. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The incident happened around 5:11 p.m. at the intersection of Eleele Street and Haena Street. According to the Hawaii Police Department, the man was driving a blue 2019 Mercedes-Benz 300 SUV southbound on Eleele Street when he veered over double solid yellow lines, struck a rock wall, and rolled the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shoppers flock to Honolulu malls for Fukubukuro sale Emergency responders rushed him to North Hawaii Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead Thursday morning. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash. The Area II Traffic Enforcement Unit has initiated a coroners inquest investigation. Anyone who witnessed the crash is urged to contact Officer Dayson Taniguchi at (808) 326-4646, ext. 229 or email dayson.taniguchi@hawaiicounty.gov. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. The quick thinking of a Norfolk County Sheriffs Officer and a neighbor helped save a Dedham woman in a potentially dangerous situation. According to the sheriffs office, an 83-year-old Dedham resident and client of the Are you OK? program, a daily telephone reassurance program to check in on individuals, did not answer her automated check-in call on Monday morning. Officer Cheryl Bambery made several calls to the residence to no avail and grew concerned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thinking quickly, Officer Bambery called the womans neighbor, who is also a client of the program, and asked the neighbor to visit the woman. When the neighbor arrived, she found the 83-year-old very weak and unable to use the phone or move, said Sheriff Patrick W. McDermott. The woman was calling out, I need help! I need help! The neighbor called 911 and the woman was transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation. According to officials, she is now back home recovering. The Are you OK? program is a proven lifesaver and I encourage anyone who could benefit from these calls to register with our Are You OK? program, said Sheriff McDermott. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Norfolk County residents interested in signing up for the free program can call 1-866-900-7865. An 80-year-old Canton woman was also rescued by the program in September, according to authorities. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Wednesday marked the eighth and final night of Hanukkah. One last menorah lighting took place at Mendon Town Hall in Honeoye Falls. (WROC/Melanie Sosa) Rabbi Yitzi Hein of the Chabad of Pittsford told News 8 that the eighth night is the culmination of the small acts of light over a period of time. He said, its like doing a good deed and wondering if it actually was good but then seeing the results later on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also spoke of the evolution these menorah lightings have seen. I dont think anybody imagined that the public menorah phenomenon would take off so lightly. One of the senior Chabad Rabbis did it there as a small ceremony and the following year they did it in San Francisco and did it there with a giant 20-foot menorah, said Rabbi Yitzi Hein. Since then, its gone all over the world. Rowe legacy retires with new changes to Scotts Photo by Rowe Thursday at sundown Hanukkah ends. For 2025, Hanukkah will start again Dec. 14 and end Dec. 22. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. REPUBLIC, Mo. It was an event that shook the Ozarks and changed how law enforcement was done across America. Today marks 93 years since the Young Brothers Massacre, a shootout in which six officers were gunned down by accused criminals held up in a farmhouse. While the tragedy happened long ago, the lessons learned that day affect how officers protect and serve us to this day. Its easy to overlook the limestone memorial just outside Greene County Justice Center. The marker recalls the events of January 2, 1932, and includes the names of the six law enforcement officers (three from the Greene County Sheriffs Office and three from the Springfield Police Department) who gave their lives that day. 10 stories that shook the Ozarks in 2021 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An event leading to the Young Brothers Massacre happened in June 1929 when Republics town marshal, Mark Noe, was shot and killed while he made a traffic stop on Main Street. Investigators named local resident Harry Young as the suspect. He and his brother Jennings, known criminals in the area, fled town. Finally, in January 1932, law enforcement got a tip that the brothers were visiting their family for the holidays at a farmhouse off Farm Road 148- in an area that is now within Republic city limits. Records indicate a group of nearly a dozen officers went to arrest them. However, the brothers refused to come out and began firing shots from the windows. A gun battle between the Youngs and officers then ensued. When it was all over, Sheriff Marcell Hendrix, Deputy Ollie Crosswhite, Deputy Wiley Mashburn, Officer Charles Houser, Detective Sid Meadows, and Detective Tony Oliver were dead. Investigators say, during the shootout at the farmhouse on January 2, the officers were caught off-guard. 1932 was a different time and place, and police werent used to encountering ambush situations. They had responded with handguns and didnt have enough ammunition. The event was a shocking wake-up call and unfortunate lesson for law enforcement nationwide. Going forward, police training and preparation were increased to deal with a new breed of criminal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the deadly shootout, Harry and Jennings Young fled to Texas where they later died by suicide during a standoff with police. The Young Brothers Massacre remained the deadliest single event for law enforcement in the U.S. until the events of September 11, 2001. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR - OzarksFirst.com. ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) An Abilene man was arrested in connection with a September 2024 robbery at a DK convenience store on Grape Street, where he allegedly threatened a clerk with a knife and stole cigarettes. In September 2024, police officers responded to a robbery at a DK convenience store located on Grape Street. Upon arrival, they were unable to locate the suspect and went into the store to speak with the victim. Grand Jury: Methamphetamine cases dominate Taylor County Grand Jury list Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim reported that a man had entered the store and attempted to go behind the counter. Court documents state she blocked his path and noticed he was holding a knife. He then allegedly told her he was taking what he wanted and instructed her to move aside, so out of fear, she said she stepped aside, and that the man took three packs of Newport cigarettes before leaving the store. After receiving a picture of the suspect, documents state the officer recognized the man from a criminal trespass incident at a hotel in north Abilene the previous week. Police took the picture to the hotel, where Donald Ray Hunt III was identified as the suspect. Donald Ray Hunt III Courtesy of the Taylor County Jail After discovering that Hunt was in jail, the detectives went to speak with him. According to the documents, after the detective read him his rights and asked about the incident, Hunt exhaled and said, Honestly, then paused and added something along the lines of, I made a mistake. The documents also state Hunt shared he drank at the motel and left when other occupants began to shoot up. He allegedly said he wasnt sure what he drank but claims he woke up in a field near the Northside hotel with cigarettes in his pockets and no shoes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Documents: Suspect says he killed homeless man in Abilene out of self defense Records state that the detective asked Hunt if he was sorry for what happened, to which he nodded and said, She didnt deserve that. Im sorry if I scared her. Donald Ray Hunt III was charged with Aggravated Robbery, Criminal Trespass, Possession of Methamphetamine, and Resisting Arrest. He was booked into the Taylor County Jail on bonds totaling $65,500. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. LONDON (Reuters) - AirBaltic will cancel a number of summer flights owing to inspection and maintenance delays from RTX-owned engine supplier Pratt and Whitney. The airline will cancel 19 routes and reduce flight frequency on 21 others, it said, adding that 4,670 flights will be cancelled in total. AirBaltic and other airlines operating Airbus planes with Pratt and Whitney engines, such as Wizz Air, have had to contend with grounded aircraft because of Pratt and Whitney's engine maintenance issues. British Airways amended some of its routes late last year because of delays to engine parts deliveries from Rolls-Royce. (Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by David Goodman) With over 10,000 stores in 19 countries, Walmart is one the world's largest retailers and odds are, there's a location near you. As a one-stop shop for groceries, home goods, furniture, clothing, personal care items, and more, you may be spending a good chunk of your monthly budget in-store or online. However, you can limit the impact of your spending by using a rewards credit card for your Walmart transactions. Since these are purchases you plan on making anyway, it makes sense to earn cash back, points, or miles that can help offset your overall spending. For frequent Walmart shoppers, weve curated a list of the best credit cards for Walmart shopping. Some of our favorites include the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express, but we think theres something that can work for everyone. Lets compare the details of the best Walmart credit cards and find the right one for you. Best credit cards for Walmart shopping Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Learn more Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express Best for online shopping Rates & fees, terms apply Learn more Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card Best for unlimited cash rewards Learn more Chase Freedom Flex Card Best for rotating categories Learn more Citi Double Cash Card Best for unlimited cash back Learn more U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards Visa Signature Card Best for high rewards rate Learn more Discover it Cash Back Best for rotating categories Learn more Learn more Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card Best for earning travel rewards Annual fee $95 Welcome offer Earn 75,000 miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months, plus a one-time $250 Capital One Travel credit in your first cardholder year thats equal to $1,000 in travel Card type(s) Travel Purchase APR 19.99% - 29.24% variable Recommended credit score Good, Excellent Rewards rate 5x miles on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel 2x miles on all other purchases Benefits Receive up to a $120 statement credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck application fees Receive a $50 experience credit, room upgrades, and early check-in at eligible hotels Access Hertz's Five Star membership tier, offering free upgrades, a wider selection of vehicles, and more Why we like it: The Capital One Venture Rewards makes sense if you want to earn travel rewards on your everyday purchases. Its easy to use and provides a flexible rewards rate that works with any eligible purchase. Thats especially useful because Walmart stores arent typically categorized as a grocery store or supermarket for credit card purchases. Read our full Capital One Venture Rewards review Learn more Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express Best for online shopping Rates & fees, terms apply Annual fee $0 Welcome offer Earn a $200 statement credit after spending $2,000 within the first 6 months Card type(s) Cash-back Introductory Purchases APR 0% on purchases for 15 months Ongoing Purchases APR 18.24%-29.24% Variable Introductory Balance Transfer APR 0% on balance transfers for 15 months Ongoing Balance Transfer APR 18.24%-29.24% Variable Recommended credit score Excellent, Good Rewards rate 3% cash back at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1%) 3% cash back on U.S. online retail purchases (on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1%) 3% cash back at U.S. gas stations (on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1%) 1% cash back on all other purchases Cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit or on Amazon.com at checkout Benefits Generous intro APR on purchases and balance transfers Get a $7 monthly statement credit after spending $9.99 or more on a streaming subscription to the Disney Bundle, plus earn up to $15 in monthly statement credits after purchasing a Home Chef subscription Why we like it: The Blue Cash Everyday is an excellent gas and grocery card, but those types of purchases dont typically apply to Walmart. However, this card also offers 3% cash back on US online retail purchases of up to $6,000 per year, then 1%*. This category includes purchases on Walmart.com. Some reports say that using Walmart Pay in-store could also trigger this spending category. *Cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit or on Amazon.com at checkout Read our full Amex Blue Cash Everyday review Learn more Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card Best for unlimited cash rewards Annual fee $0 Welcome offer Earn a $200 cash rewards bonus after spending $500 within the first 3 months Card type(s) Cash-back Introductory APR 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months, after which the standard APR applies Purchase APR 20.24% - 29.99% variable Rewards rate 2% cash rewards on purchases Benefits Get up to $600 of cell phone protection against damage or theft 0% introductory APR is useful to finance large purchases or transfer a balance from another card Why we like it: The Wells Fargo Active Cash is easy to use because of its unlimited flat earning rate. You can use it at Walmart or any other retailer. The intro APR offer on purchases can be useful if you have large upcoming purchases at Walmart. Learn more Chase Freedom Flex Card Best for rotating categories Annual fee $0 Welcome offer Earn a $150 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months Card type(s) Rewards, Cash-back Introductory APR 0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers, then a variable APR of 19.49% - 28.24% Purchase APR 19.49% - 28.24% variable Rewards rate 5% cash back on up to $1,500 on combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Travel 3% on dining, including takeout and drug stores 1% on all other purchases Benefits Get 5% cash back on Lyft rides through March 31, 2025, plus select DoorDash discounts Enjoy perks like extended warranty protection, trip cancellation insurance, cell phone protection, and auto rental collision damage waiver Redeem your cash back rewards as a statement credit, direct deposit, gift card, on Amazon purchases, or to book travel through Chase Use the introductory 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months, after which the standard APR will apply Why we like it: The Chase Freedom Flex can provide up to 5% cash back on Walmart purchases if you activate the offer while Walmart is one of the current rotating categories. Walmart has been selected as a rotating category multiple times over the years. PayPal is another common Chase Freedom rotating category and an accepted payment method for Walmart.com purchases. Read our full Chase Freedom Unlimited vs. Freedom Flex comparison All information about Chase Freedom Flex has been collected independently by Yahoo Finance. Chase Freedom Flex is no longer available through Yahoo Finance. Learn more Citi Double Cash Card Best for unlimited cash back Annual fee $0 Welcome offer Earn $200 cash back after spending $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months (bonus offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back) Card type(s) Cash-back Introductory APR 0% intro APR on balance transfers for the first 18 months (18.24% - 28.24% variable APR after that) Purchase APR 18.24% - 28.24% variable Rewards rate 5% cash back on hotel, car rentals, and attractions booked on the Citi Travel portal through 12/31/25 2% cash back on every purchase with unlimited 1% cash back when you buy Earn an additional 1% as you pay for your purchases (to earn cash back, pay at least the minimum due on time) Benefits Generous intro APR on balance transfers Why we like it: The Citi Double Cash is a straightforward cash-back credit card that you can easily use as the only card in your wallet. With its simple earning rate, you dont have to worry about different types of spending categories, which is helpful at stores like Walmart. Read our full Citi Double Cash review Learn more U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards Visa Signature Card Best for high rewards rate Annual fee $0 for the first year, then $95 Welcome offer Earn a $250 bonus after spending $2,000 within the first 120 days Card type(s) Cash-back, Rewards Purchase APR 19.74% - 29.74% variable Recommended credit score Good, excellent Rewards rate 6% cash back on the first $1,500 in combined purchases each quarter with two retailers of your choice 5.5% cash back on hotel and car reservations booked directly in the Rewards Travel Center 3% cash back on the first $1,500 in purchases each quarter on one everyday category of your choice (like wholesale clubs, gas and EV charging stations, bills and utilities) 1.5% cash back on all other purchases Benefits Retailers eligible for 6% cash back include Target, Walmart, and Amazon.com Categories eligible for 3% cash back include bills and utilities, gas and EV charging stations, and wholesale clubs Access to ExtendPay Plans, which allow you to pay off balances in fixed monthly payments over time and avoid paying interest charges on eligible purchases More details: For the 6% category, you can choose from retailers like Apple, Amazon, Best Buy, Disney, Home Depot, IKEA, Kohls, Lowes, Macys, Target, Walmart, and more. Why we like it: If you choose Walmart as one of your selected retailers, you can earn 6% cash back on up to $1,500 each quarter. Thats potentially $90 in cash-back rewards per quarter or $360 per year, which isnt a bad return for frequent Walmart shoppers. You can also choose another retailer each quarter if you dont always shop at Walmart. Learn more Discover it Cash Back Best for rotating categories Annual fee $0 Welcome offer Discover will automatically match all the cash back youve earned at the end of your first year, with no minimum spending requirement or maximum rewards cap Card type(s) Cash-back Introductory APR 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months (18.24% to 27.24% variable APR after that; 3% intro balance transfer fee until April 10, 2025, then up to 5%) Purchase APR 18.24% - 27.24% variable Recommended credit score Good to Excellent Rewards rate 5% cash back on everyday purchases at different places each quarter including grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, and more up to the quarterly maximum 1% unlimited cash back on all other purchases Benefits Redeem your rewards for cash at any time Generous intro APR for purchases and balance transfers Why we like it: The Discover it Cash Back Credit Card has provided multiple rotating categories in the past that could be helpful for Walmart purchases: Walmart in Q3 2024 Digital wallets in Q3 2023 Digital wallets in Q4 2022 PayPal in Q3 2022 Check out Discover's current categories for this quarter. Business credit cards to consider for Walmart purchases Learn more The Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express Rates & fees, terms apply Annual fee $0 Welcome offer 15,000 Membership Rewards Points after spending $3,000 in first 3 months Card type(s) Business Introductory Purchases APR 0% on purchases for 12 months from date of account opening Ongoing Purchases APR 17.49% - 27.49% Variable Recommended credit score Excellent, Good Rewards rate 2x points on everyday business purchases such as office supplies or client dinners (applies to the first $50,000 in purchases per year, 1x after that). Terms and limitations apply. Why we like it: The Amex Blue Business Plus provides a flexible earning rate and an intro APR offer on purchases. This makes it an ideal choice for small business owners who dont want to worry about confusing spending categories and might have upcoming significant expenses at Walmart or other retailers. Learn more Ink Business Unlimited Credit Card Annual fee $0 Welcome offer Earn $750 bonus cash back after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months Card type(s) Business, Travel Ongoing Purchases APR 17.49% - 23.49% Variable Introductory Purchases APR 0% Intro APR on Purchases for 12 Months Recommended credit score Good, Excellent Rewards rate 1.5% unlimited cash back on every business purchase Benefits $0 annual fee Generous intro APR on purchases You won't be held responsible for unauthorized charges made with your card or account information Why we like it: The Ink Business Unlimited has a slightly lower earning rate than the Amex Blue Business Plus, but theres no spending cap and you get more redemption options, like flights and hotel stays through the Chase travel portal. This card also provides an intro APR offer on purchases. Read our full Chase Ink Business Unlimited review Learn more Capital One Spark Miles for Business Annual fee $0 for the first year, then $95 Welcome offer Earn 50,000 bonus miles after spending $4,500 within the first 3 months Card type(s) Business, Travel Purchase APR 25.24% variable Recommended credit score Good, Excellent Rewards rate 5x miles on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel 2x miles on all other purchases Why we like it: Earning at least 2x miles on every eligible purchase, with no spending cap, could be an excellent option for many high-spending businesses. Thats especially true if you prefer using your Capital One Spark Miles rewards for travel redemptions, including transfers to over 15 travel partners. Read our full Capital One Spark Miles review How to maximize your shopping at Walmart 1. Have a plan Going shopping without a strategy makes it easier to overspend. List everything your family needs, ordered by importance. So, for the necessities on your list, place those at the top and keep the nice-to-haves at the bottom. 2. Use a rewards credit card The average shopper visits Walmart 67 times each year and spends an average of $54 each time, according to the Capital One Shopping Research. That adds up to $3,618 spent annually at the retailer. Heres how much you could earn in rewards if you were to use a rewards credit card for that amount: Earning $100 or more is a nice savings that can act like a discount on future purchases, whether youre using the rewards for shopping, dining, travel, or something else. Even better, theres no real downside to using credit cards, as long as you only spend what you can afford and always make full and on-time payments. 3. Look for coupons and discounts Walmart doesnt have a coupon program, but you can use manufacturer coupons and offers. You can use paper manufacturer coupons while making in-store purchases at checkout or add offers to your account using the Walmart app or Walmart.com. After successfully using an offer, Walmart Cash is added to your account. You can redeem Walmart Cash to pay for purchases online or in store, or you can cash it out in store. For general savings deals at Walmart, we recommend looking for Rollback and Reduced price tags on Walmart.com. 4. Use Walmart+ Launched in 2020, Walmarts membership program has a lot to offer, including free shipping with no order minimum which can be extremely valuable depending on your situation. With free shipping, you can do all your Walmart shopping without leaving your home. Shopping online can also make it easier to compare prices and search for savings. This could be especially useful on big-ticket items such as laptops and other electronics, where a small (5% to 15%) discount might mean big savings for you. If youre interested in Walmart+, these credit cards can completely cover the subscription cost, including taxes, for you: Read more: Target Circle 360 vs. Walmart+ and Amazon Prime 5. Consider used or refurbished items Buying used or refurbished items, especially for large purchases such as electronics, can help you save money. The Walmart Restored program offers refurbished items from top brands that have been inspected, tested, and cleaned by experts all available at a lower price than what you would typically pay. 6. Track prices If possible, we suggest tracking costs to see if something youve purchased goes down in price. In some cases, you might be able to return an item and repurchase it at a lower price, saving you some cash. From our experience, Walmart has a decent return policy, typically giving you 90 days to return or replace an item. How to choose the best credit card for Walmart Eligibility requirements: The best rewards credit cards typically require a good to excellent credit score, which is at least a 670 FICO Score. Annual fee: Yearly fees immediately detract from a card's value, but depending on your desired rewards and benefits, cards with annual fees could be worth it. Rewards: Most rewards cards earn points, miles, or cash back, and different cards can have different spending categories, such as earning elevated rewards on dining and grocery purchases or earning a flat rate on all eligible purchases. Intro APR offer: A 0% introductory APR offer on purchases is an excellent way to avoid paying interest for a certain period of time. That could be especially helpful if you have upcoming large expenses, such as holiday shopping. Perks and benefits: Some of our favorite card benefits for Walmart purchases include a free Walmart+ membership, purchase protection, and extended warranty protection. This embedded content is not available in your region. Frequently asked questions (FAQs) for Walmart credit cards How do you get 5% cash back at Walmart? The Capital One Walmart Rewards Mastercard previously offered 5% cash back at Walmart.com, but Capital One and Walmart ended their exclusive agreement in May 2024 and the card is no longer accepting new applicants. Here are some other cards with high earning potential at Walmart or Walmart.com: Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card Discover it Cash Back Credit Card U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards Visa Signature Card Which credit card offers free Walmart+? The Platinum Card from American Express and American Express Business Gold Card offer statement credits for monthly Walmart+ memberships. With each card, you must pay for a monthly Walmart+ membership (subject to auto-renewal) to receive up to $12.95 plus applicable taxes as a monthly statement credit. What credit card company does Walmart use? Capital One was the exclusive issuer of Walmart credit cards until the partnership ended in May 2024. Existing Capital One Walmart cardholders can continue using their cards and earning rewards until Capital One makes changes. Our methodology We used existing rubrics for cash-back credit cards, travel credit cards, and business credit cards to compare over 100 products to find the best credit cards for Walmart. These rubrics measured various factors contributing to a final rating, including rewards, fees, and introductory APR offers. We selected the best cards from these rubrics and used our experience, research, and expert opinion to narrow the options. Our final list includes a variety of cards that make sense for different goals and preferences when it comes to shopping at Walmart. This article was edited by Alicia Hahn Editorial Disclosure: The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. All opinions belong solely to Yahoo Finance and are not those of any other entity. The details on financial products, including card rates and fees, are accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the banks website for the most current information. This site doesn't include all currently available offers. Credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product. Passengers on Turkish Airlines flights reportedly found bedbugs nestling in their seats, blankets, and pillows, and crawling along the ceiling of the cabin. When passengers raised those concerns to flight crew and customer service reps, they allegedly got little response. Several Turkish Airlines flights reportedly had bedbugs, according to passengers. First reported in the New York Times, the allegations included bedbugs crawling on seats, in blankets, and nestling on pillows on multi-hour journeys. Passengers on one apparently hellish trip said they saw bedbugs dropping from the ceiling of the cabin. The incidents spanned from March to October of last year on flights from several continents. During a 10-hour journey from Johannesburg to Istanbul, Patience Titcombe, a 36-year-old passenger from Phoenix, said she found a bedbug writhing on her seat when she got up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several of the passengers said that when they alerted Turkish Airlines staff to the presence of bedbugs, their concerns were dismissed. I almost flicked it away, Titcombe told the New York Times. But my friend stopped me and said, Thats a bedbug. Bedbugs are highly transmissibleleaping from person to person and causing itchy weltsand they feed on human blood. The tiny vampiric parasites are mostly active at night and recently wreaked havoc across France. An infestation can be expensive and mentally anguishing to remediate. Chow-Yang Lee, a professor of urban entomology at the University of California, Riverside, wrote last year that bedbugs have infiltrated every tier of society and cost billions annually to treat. As for Titcombe, she reported the bedbug sighting to an attendant on her flight, who, she says, waved away her concerns. When Titcombe followed up with customer service afterward, her warnings fell on deaf ears, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later the same year, two passengers on another flight also discovered bedbugs. Matthew Myers, 28, and his girlfriend were on a 13 and a half hour flight from Istanbul to San Francisco when another passenger alerted them to the presence of bedbugs. In this case, the insects kept dropping from the ceiling of the cabin. Multiple passengers were asking to move seats after discovering bugs, Myers said in an interview with the Times. Myers said he raised the concern to a flight attendant, who told him they filed an official report with the airline. Turkish Airlines said it prioritizes the safety and comfort of its passengers and that aircraft are "regularly cleaned and thoroughly sanitized before every flight," according to a statement from media relations senior vice president Yahya Ustun. The airline added that it took complaints "seriously" and that bedbugs were not out of the ordinary in crowded areas. "Bedbug cases are a general issue occasionally encountered in public spaces, including aircraft," Ustun said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bedbugs thrive in clothes, mattresses, couches, and deep cushy spaces. Because they are as small as apple seeds even when fully grown and live in everyday items, they can spread rapidly. After seeing the bedbugs on her flight, Titcombe took pains to make sure they didnt infest her home and family. I had to strip down at the airport and change clothes because I have kidswhat if I brought bedbugs home? she said. While most often associated with houses and apartments in large cities, they are not entirely uncommon on airplanes either, according to Reuven Noyman, owner of NYC Steam Cleaning, which offers cleaning services for private planes. Theyre more common on planes than people like to admit, Noyman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bedbugs can be extremely difficult to get rid of, often requiring fumigation in order to eliminate an infestation. However, planes cant be easily fumigated because the chemicals that kill bedbugs often come in powder form, which could get stuck in the electrical wiring in the cabin and cause damage, Noyman said. Instead, to get rid of bedbugs on a plane, Noyman noted, its necessary to steam-power wash the upholstery on the chairs. We basically use vapor steamers [so] were able to spray fabric, Noyman said. The low content of moisture lets us use it on a variety of things, even electronics, without damaging it. Based on Noymans estimates, the cost to steam-wash the planes where passengers reported bedbugs could be thousands of dollars. The Johannesburg to Istanbul trip, where Titcombe found the bedbug scuttling on her seat, is made by Airbus A350-900 planes, which seat between 300 to 350, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. Cleaning all the seats on those planes could cost between $10,500 to $12,250, based on estimates. Meanwhile, the Istanbul to San Francisco flight Myers took involves the larger Boeing 777-300ER, which seats around 396 people, per FlightAware, bringing the total estimated cost for that plane to roughly $13,860. Other common insects found on planes are moths, like those that inhabit unopened closets, said Noyman. On rare occasions Noyman said he has found common household pests such as mice and cockroaches, which are attracted to the food found in a planes kitchen. However, when mice manage to escape the cabin and wind up in the hull of the plane, thats when things can get even more unpleasant, according to Noyman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You find mice that are dead, Noyman said. You put a mouse in the bottom of the plane, and its gonna freeze and die. Update, Jan. 3, 2025: This article has been updated to include a statement from Turkish Airlines senior vice president Yahya Ustun. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com A pedestrian was struck and killed by a Metra train on the Union Pacific North line Thursday morning, between Waukegan and North Chicago, a Metra spokesperson confirmed. The age or identity of the person killed has not been released. Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines Train service around Waukegan and North Chicago was impacted, with both inbound and outbound service halted at North Chicago earlier Thursday and Metra advising passengers to expect delays. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Click HERE for updates on Metras website on the status of train service. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. This is an adapted excerpt from the Dec. 11 episode of Alex Wagner Tonight. Just weeks before Donald Trump is set to return to the White House, we got the huge news that FBI Director Chris Wray plans to resign at the end of President Joe Bidens term. For some perspective as to why this is so significant, remember that FBI directors are appointed to 10-year terms precisely to avoid the impact of partisan politics. Moreover, Wray was appointed back in 2017 by Trump himself, after Trump infamously fired the previous FBI director, James Comey. Wrays decision to step down rather than wait for Trump to fire him is a controversy in its own right, but now that Wray has announced he will vacate his office on Jan. 20, the more pressing matter is whom Trump plans to nominate in Wrays place: Kash Patel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you arent particularly familiar with Patel, I dont blame you he was sort of a tertiary character in the first Trump administration. But since the last administration ended, Patel has been loud and proud about exactly what he would do if he were put in charge of an agency like the FBI in a second Trump term: We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media, Patel told Steve Bannon on his podcast in 2023. Yes, were going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. Were going to come after you, whether its criminal or civilly, well figure that out. But yeah, were putting you all on notice. Were going to come after you. Now, on its own, that statement might be seen as a little ambiguous. Patel has since said that he only means people who broke the law. But who exactly does Patel believe fits that description? Whom is he saying he should come after? Well, to answer that question, Patel has already published an enemies list and when I say published, I mean Patel literally printed this list in the back of a book. Last year, Patel published a book called: Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy. In the appendix to that book is a list titled Members of the Executive Branch Deep State. While the list has 60 people on it, the author makes sure to note that its not exhaustive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On that list are people like former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, Hillary Clinton and wouldnt you know it the current FBI director, whom (again) Trump himself appointed, Chris Wray. Its not just Patels enemies list that makes the idea of him running the FBI concerning. Patel is also an avid conspiracy theorist. From 2021 to 2023, he hosted a show for a far-right news outlet called The Epoch Times. NBC News reviewed 79 episodes of that show and found that Patel and his co-host pushed unfounded claims of conspiracies involving government officials, law enforcement agencies, the media and tech companies. All of those claims were about supposed attempts to rig elections, silence conservative voices and undermine Trump. Patel has also engaged with the far-right conspiracy theory known as QAnon, which asserts that there is a deep state within the U.S. government that works to protect a cabal of pedophile elites who secretly traffic children and harvest chemicals from their blood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2022, during his media tour to promote Truth Social, Patel shared what he thinks of the alleged mastermind behind QAnon, who calls himself Q: Whether its the Qs of the world and I agree with some of what he does and I disagree with some of what he does if it allows people to gather and focus on the truth and the facts, Im all for it. NPR reports that Patel has made more than 50 appearances on various podcasts that have either promoted the QAnon movement or shared QAnon-related conspiracy theories. When promoting one of his books, Patel signed 10 copies with a QAnon slogan, as a sort of promotional gimmick sort of like the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but for people who think Hillary Clinton drinks childrens blood. (I should also note that promotion was not for Patels adult book. That was for one of Patels three childrens books, part of his Plot Against the King series. Those books follow a wizard named Kash who sets out to save a king named Donald from characters like Hillary Queenton and Comma-la-la-la.) Instead of buying Patels books, you could just buy one of the bogus Covid vaccine reversal supplements he's promoted, which claim to undo the supposed nefarious effects of the Covid vaccines. Or you could sign up for the right-wing cell service he pushes, which is really just a third-party vendor for companies like AT&T and T-Mobile. Or buy a Fight with Kash branded T-shirt. Or a Patel-branded bottle of wine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On top of his questionable merchandise endeavors, on top of the conspiracies, on top of the enemies list, one of the things we really have to worry about when it comes to Patel are his thoughts on the FBI itself. In September, Patel went on The Shawn Ryan Show and said he would shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day 1 and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. Not only does Patel think the FBI, as it is currently run, is nothing more than the deep state, but when it comes to the biggest case the FBI has handled in the past four years, the prosecution of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Patel thinks that the FBI may have encouraged rioters to commit crimes to entrap Trump supporters for political reasons. Its not like they just said, Hey, Jan. 6 is going down, Congress is, you know, being surrounded. Go, Patel said on his own show in 2022. The question that has to be answered is when did the FBI put those guys in and where? And did those confidential human sources engage people who were not going to conduct criminal activity and convince them to do so? That is the definition of entrapment. To get more of a sense of whom Patel sees as the good guys, and whom he sees as the bad guys when it comes to Jan. 6, all you have to do is listen to that strange mashup of the Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangled Banner that Trump recorded with about 20 people jailed for their actions during the Capitol riot. Do you remember that one? Well, Patel produced that song. That is the man Trump wants to run the FBI. Allison Detzel contributed. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com ALEXANDRIA, Va. (DC News Now) When Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) high school students return from winter break, they will no longer be able to use cell phones or smartwatches in schools not even between classes. Cell phone restrictions were already in place under ACPS policy; however, on Thursday, Dec. 19, the school board voted 8-1 to implement further restrictions on device usage by students in high schools, extending regulations to smartwatches. The regulations come after Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in July to work toward establishing cell phone-free schools by the new year. After this, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released guidelines on how schools should implement regulations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement School districts had to adopt their own policies that align with the VDOEs guidance by Jan. 1. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Parents in favor of keeping cellphones out of Virginia classrooms Specifically, in tandem with the VDOEs guidelines, the ACPS school board voted to implement the following: ACPS permitted teachers to determine if students using cell phones in their class is appropriate to support student learning. Under the guidance of the VDOE, this option is removed from teachers. ACPS permitted elementary students to use a cell phone on school grounds outside the building before and after school; however, the VDOE guidance requires parental permission for an elementary student to do this on school grounds. ACPS permitted high school students to use cell phones during lunch and passing periods; however, under guidance from the VDOE, this is prohibited. ACPS treated cell phones and smartwatches differently; under VDEO guidance, they will be treated the same. ACPS school board member Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi is the only one who voted against adopting the new regulations, questioning why the current ACPS phone policy, which was enacted in June 2023, needed to be changed. We changed the policy about a year and a half ago to what we have now, and now this is driven by the VDOE and the governor, said Elnoubi. How is the current policy working for us? Cause we put a policy that we thought works for us, right? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Student representatives at the meeting also expressed concerns, including how parents can trust administrators to keep parents in the loop when students can not use their phones and how staff and security guards are seen using their devices. DC police to increase security after car rams into New Orleans crowd, killing 10 School board member Meagan Alderton acknowledged the concerns. If we are asking kids to do it, then we cant have security guards or paraprofessionals or whoever sitting in class on their phones, so this is also an opportunity for us to really say, this is what we are asking of students, and staff-you need to behave responsibly as well, she emphasized. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alderton also asserted that she would vote for the new regulations not because of the governor, but to improve the educational environment of ACPS schools. Im not going to say that I am doing this because the governor said we have to do it; Im doing this because I believe it is the right thing to do, said Alderton. This is the right thing to do for children. Superintendent Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt noted that ACPS middle schools began utilizing the bell-to-bell phone policy this year, which prohibits students from using their phones from the first bell of the day until the final bell at dismissal, and that it has been going very well. However, she said that parents must continue to play a role in enforcing school policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ashley Simpson Baird also responded to concerns from students, stating that the new regulations are in their best interest. What we are asking you to do is hard, it would be hard for any of us to not have our phones with us, said Baird. But, I, at least personally, want something better for you, and I think this is an important step in improving your educational environment, at the high school specifically. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. Alina Habba has reacted to claims Attorney General wasnt tough enough in prosecuting her boss, President-elect Donald Trump, insisting the incoming president had it so rough. He wasnt tough enough? Was it not tough enough when we spent three and a half years with indictments, shams and hoaxes with cases? Habba said while speaking to Fox News on Monday. He had it rough. He had it so rough. But he came out on top because America saw what they did. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Justice (DOJ) was tasked with investigating Trumps alleged mishandling of classified documents after a cache of them were found at his Mar-a-Lago home in 2022. The incoming president was hit with 40 criminal counts related to the federal governments case. He pleaded not guilty before the case was dropped shortly after his re-election. Habba, who has been tapped to serve as counsel to the incoming president, told a network host her boss had it so rough but managed to come out on top because America saw what they did. She was referring to the efforts of federal and state prosecutors to convict Trump. Habba, Trumps personal attorney, added that Garland should be ashamed of himself for bringing the federal case forward against the president-elect. President-elect Donald Trump and Alina Habba (right) attend the closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court in January 2024 (Getty Images) It wasnt just about President Trump. It was about our Constitution. It was about the foundation of this country. And they wanted to turn us into a third-world country, she said. And they failed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to The Washington Post, Biden has expressed regret over appointing Garland to his position, stating the DOJ was slow to prosecute Trump but aggressive in pursuing charges against his son, Hunter Biden. Habba said the presidents reported statements were moot. Him saying things like, I could have beat Trump. Its a joke, she said. You couldnt have beat him. You didnt beat him... We won majorly. Trump faced several legal challenges after leaving office in 2020 but its unclear what will happen in the cases. In May, he was convicted of falsifying business records in New York. The judge in that case has upheld the conviction. Georgia prosecutors charged Trump with trying to change the outcome of the 2020 election in the state. He is now asking an appeals court to dismiss the case. The DOJ filed similar charges against Trump in 2023, but the case is not likely to result in a conviction now that Trump will take office at the end of this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Habba, 40, represented Trump in his New York hush money case in which he was convicted of paying off adult film actress Stormy Daniels and then concealing the sum. The attorney began working for Trump after meeting him at his New Jersey resort in 2021. Before joining Trumps legal team, she owned a private practice and spent some time in the fashion industry working for Marc Jacobs. The president would go on to choose her to serve as his most high-profile attorney. Habba will be stepping into some big shoes once she joins Trumps administration. She will serve as presidential counselor, a role previously held by Kellyanne Conway during Trumps first term. Alleged attempted Springfield murder/suicide appears to be domestic DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Wednesday nights shooting in Springfield that left a woman dead and the alleged shooter in the hospital appears to be a domestic situation. According to city officials, the suspect was the victims boyfriend. Springfield Police said the man called 911 himself after the shooting. He then allegedly fled to a nearby grocery. Heavy police presence in Daytons Edgemont neighborhood The suspect allegedly led officers on a chase that ended with his shooting himself and crashing on US 68 near Route 41. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The road was closed for a short time due to the crash but reopened quickly. Police said the victim was found shot on the sidewalk outside Greenlawn Arbor Apartments on Villa Road around 7 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities said the victim died at the scene. A woman who identified herself as the victims sister also called the police, and told them the suspect had made previous threats to shot her. He said that if you she left him, he would shoot her in the head twice, the victims sister told 911 dispatch. The suspect was taken to Springfield Regional Medical Center before he was transported to Miami Valley Hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Detectives have filed a warrant for the suspect for murder. Additional charges are also possible through a grand jury upon his release from the hospital. Springfield Police are handling this investigation and the pending charges in this case. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. U.S. tech giant Amazon will power operations in Greece with three new utility-scale wind farms that also will provide electricity for the grid in three parts of the country. Company officials in November announced Amazon had signed four power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the three projects, as part of AWS (Amazon Web Services) Day in Athens. Amazon officials said the investment in the wind farms is the companys largest in Greece to date. Amazon, like many technology companies, has a goal to power its operations with carbon-free energy. The company said the wind farms will enable that goal in Greece, and also support Greeces goal of utilizing more renewable energy resources. 1. The 44.4-MW Vermio Wind Farm, located across Central and Western Macedonia, features two installationsVermio North and Vermio South. Once operational, the project will contribute to Greeces renewable energy transition and power Amazons operations in the country. Courtesy: Amazon Two of the PPAs are for the 44.4-MW Vermio wind farm, which features two installationsVermio North and Vermio Souththat span the regions of Central and Western Macedonia. The other PPAs are aligned with the 29.5-MW Koukouras and 35.4-MW Mesokorfi wind farms, located in the Peloponnese region. The wind farms are under construction and are expected to enter commercial operation in 2026 (Figure 1). Amazon has signed several PPAs for wind energy. In March 2024, the company signed a PPA with Iberdrola to offtake 159 MW from the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the North Sea. That agreement followed a PPA for energy from Iberdrolas 98.4-MW Juniper IIA wind farm in Oregon. Amazon touted the job creation and economic benefits of the wind farms in Greece for their local communities. Officials said more than 100 construction jobs had been created for the Vermio project, with as many as 300 jobs expected during peak construction, according to Aer Soleir, a Dublin-based developer and owner of sustainability infrastructure across Europe. Aer Soleir developed all three of the Amazon-aligned wind farms. These three new wind farms in Greece mark an important milestone in our carbon-free energy journey across Europe and adds to the growing number of renewable energy projects weve supported in the country, said Lindsay McQuade, director of Energy for EMEA at AWS. AWS EMEA is Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, the Amazon-owned entity that sells AWS services in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With more than 180 wind and solar projects enabled across more than a dozen European countries, we are committed to driving the carbon-free energy transition forward both for our operations and local communities, said McQuade. Aer Soleir officials said the renewable energy projects in Greece are part of Amazons Climate Pledge commitment to achieve net-zero carbon across the companys operations by 2040. The wind farms also support Greeces National Energy and Climate Plan, a strategy to generate more than 80% of electricity in the country from renewable energy resources by 2030. Greece as of 2023 received about 48% of its power from fossil fuels, primarily natural gas along with coal and oil, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). IEA data shows renewable energysolar, wind, and hydroaccounts for just more than 50% of generation. Amazon officials said the wind farms are among more than 500 solar and wind projects the company has supported worldwide. The company also said recently it had achieved its 100% renewable energy goal, years ahead of its original 2030 target. The collaboration between Aer Soleir, the National Bank of Greece, and Amazon is a ground-breaking commitment to Greeces renewable energy future, marked by a transformative investment exceeding $1 billion, said Theodoros Skylakakis, Greeces minister of Energy & Environment, during AWS Day on Nov. 19. Amazon has been steadily increasing its investment in technology and infrastructure across Greece, and this announcement today underscores Amazons pivotal role in supporting sustainable development in the region and their commitment to driving innovation, economic growth, and digital transformation across Greece. As part of its collaboration with Amazon, Aer Soleir has allocated more than 1 million ($1.049 million) for community investments such as infrastructure improvements, donations to schools and emergency services, and economic support for local agriculture and farmers. For the Vermio wind farm, Aer Soleir has also allocated an additional 1.8 million ($1.9 million) earmarked for regional reforestation and biodiversity programs. Quantum is thrilled to support Aer Soleir in their partnership with Amazon in Greece, said Wil Vanloh, founder and CEO of Quantum Capital Group, a Houston, Texasbased private equity firm serving the energy industry. Securing the PPAs with Amazon demonstrates Aer Soleirs success as a renewables development platform and highlights our commitment to advancing sustainable energy solutions across Europe. Quantum invested in Aer Soleir (which means clear air in Irish) in 2021. Andy Kinsella, CEO and founding partner of Aer Soleir, said, Since its inception in 2021, Aer Soleir has been committed to advancing Greeces energy transition. Supported by our investors Quantum Capital Group and 547 Energy, our project finance partners, the National Bank of Greece and the European Unions Recovery and Resilience Facility, and our local development partner Enteka, we are investing more than 500 million [$524 million] in wind projects across Greece. We are proud that our projects are significantly contributing to the Greek Governments renewable energy goals and are delighted to be partnering with Amazon. Amazon officials said that between 2014 and 2022, the companys investments in renewable energy across Europe enabled an estimated 2.4 billion [$2.52 billion] for the regional economy and helped contribute more than 723 million [$758 million] to the regions GDP [gross domestic product]. Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER. A historical marker in Vancouver, Wash., celebrates the civilization of Washington, by white explorers, erasing the presence of Indigenous people who lived in the area for thousands of years. As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, many states are reexamining markers with questionable historical facts or outdated language. (Erika Bolstad/Stateline) Most Revolutionary War history buffs know the story of Francis Marion, the Continental Army officer called the Swamp Fox for his guerrilla-style attacks that bedeviled British forces in South Carolinas backcountry. But volunteers and historians have identified 560 Revolutionary War battle sites and other places of interest with connections to the states role in the nations founding. While we all love Francis Marion, lets talk about some other people, said Molly Fortune, executive director of SC250, the commission charged with restoring the public memory of the states Revolutionary War legacy. To do that, theyre reviving forgotten historical markers as well as installing new ones and making them all easier to find from the highway or online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the United States prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, many states are inventorying, mapping and repairing old historical markers, as well as installing hundreds of new roadside signs, plaques and interpretive panels. In South Carolina, the focus is on sharing lesser-known stories of women, children, Native Americans, enslaved and free Black people and even the Loyalists who sympathized with King George III. Beyond re-engaging with lesser-known stories, many states see the national commemoration, known as America250, as an opportunity to refresh their heritage tourism offerings. But its also an occasion to reexamine markers or monuments with questionable historical facts or outdated language. The renewed interest in the accuracy or cultural sensitivity of the nations historical markers is part of the wider discourse over who or what belongs on a pedestal or a bronze plaque, and where they should be sited. Since the 2020 murder of George Floyd, those efforts have led to the removal of Confederate monuments as well as the toppling of statues honoring Christopher Columbus and artwork that extols westward expansion without telling the story of the effects on the Indigenous people displaced by settlement. Markers that reflect more inclusive stories make history relevant to more people, said Jason Hanson, the chief creative officer of History Colorado, which operates museums around the state and administers Colorados register of historic places. When history is incomplete or told only by those with the money or power, it strips complexity and nuance from the American story, rendering it less accurate and vibrant. The roadside panels and bronze plaques affixed to buildings are how many people encounter the nations history, Hanson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They really are some of the most accessible and valued history lessons that we have, he said. Satanic imps That history can be lopsided, inaccurate or racist, according to an NPR investigation in 2024 that looked at 180,000 historical markers across the nation. For example, the investigation found that about 70% of markers for historic plantation homes failed to mention that its owners bought and sold enslaved people and used their labor to construct the mansions. Among the problematic examples NPR found was a Michigan marker celebrating a woman who successfully defied frenzied Indians who invaded the premises and lapped from the basement floor whiskey which she had emptied from the barrels. In Texas, a marker praises Primus Kelly, an enslaved Black man, for demonstrating loyalty during the Civil War describing him as typical of most Texas Negro slaves. Hundreds went to war with their masters. Many markers, especially those installed by private individuals, stretch the definition of history. A Massachusetts marker, for example, indicates the former site of a mill operated by a wizard who employed satanic imps to run it at night, while a sign in New Hampshire marks the spot where a Portsmouth couple had a close encounter with a UFO in 1961 and experienced two hours of lost time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Colorado, the state found recently that 96% of listings on its state register of historical sites were places connected primarily to the history of white men, Hanson said. To mark the states 150th anniversary in 2026, Colorado will begin adding 150 new sites and markers highlighting the history of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other historically underrepresented communities. The state will ask community groups to nominate who and what should be on the markers. Markers or monuments often were paid for by people who wanted to tell a particular story, meaning that those with money were the only ones leaving a lasting mark. Even now, historical markers are expensive. In Michigan, for example, large markers cost $4,700, before installation. Some states appropriate money for new markers, but often, local communities must find the cash. But an investment in heritage tourism can and does pay off, said South Carolinas Fortune. She and other public historians have persuaded their state legislature not only to fund new markers but also to pay for new highway signs alerting visitors to historic sites. Its an effort she says boosts the rural communities where many markers are located. People want to walk and listen and hear and connect with their ancestors, Fortune said. And so it allows us to find those accidental tourists. Theyre like, Oh, Ive always wondered about that. And then they leave their money, and they go home. Thats basically it. Its a vehicle for economic development. The whole story In 2023, Virginias Department of Historic Resources began adding dozens of historical markers signifying Green Book sites, places that accommodated Black travelers safely during the Jim Crow era. Theyre also adding nine new markers that, among other things, tell the origin story of Mountain Dew soda, the discriminatory racial history of the first heart transplant in the state, and the backstory of lesser-known Virginians who participated in the Lewis and Clark expedition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Washington State Historical Society began taking a closer look at its markers in 2020, identifying 42 as potentially problematic. Most commemorate white settlement and were placed by a handful of individuals who just decided that these were the places that they were going to put monuments up, said Dylan High, the statewide partnerships coordinator for the agency. In recent months, the historical society has hosted public meetings to examine how the markers portray the history of westward expansion. Among those under review is a 1925 marker with a statement asserting that the civilization of Washington started at Vancouver, the site of an 1806 fort on the Columbia River for the Lewis and Clark expedition, and a subsequent Hudsons Bay Company fur trading post. Such statements erase the presence of Indigenous people who lived in the area for thousands of years before the arrival of European explorers. The narratives werent created in consultation with tribal people of the land, said Polly Olsen, who is Yakama and the tribal liaison for the Burke Museum in Seattle. It comes from a settler narrative of the first schools, the first church, these civilized practices or, you know, civilization began here,' Olsen said in an interview with KIRO Newsradio. Let's talk about some other people. Molly Fortune, executive director of SC250 As theyve traveled the state of Washington, High said, theyve found that most people dont want old markers removed. Sometimes, its impractical: The Vancouver marker sits in a traffic island, unnoticed by most passersby, and would be costly to move. Instead, High said, people want to add new interpretive panels or new markers nearby to tell the whole story of the history. Most people are wary of anything that seems as though it is rewriting history, a phrase the state agency tries to avoid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That kind of implies that the history of what happened somehow is somehow changed, High said. What we are really interested in saying is that there is more to the context of that history of what happened than just what that monument represents or implies. And to be very specific about it, High added, what is not represented is very often the tribes perspective and the experience of our tribal communities around the state. Sometimes, states must point out hard truths, Fortune said. She points to Henry Laurens, a wealthy South Carolinian planter who was president of the Continental Congress in 1777 and 1778 and the only American to be held captive in the Tower of London. He was also a partner in a Charleston firm that brokered the sale of more than 8,000 enslaved Africans. Were in the business of telling history the way it was, Fortune said. So it can be good, bad and ugly. Henry Laurens owned slaves. Thats just a fact. Just say its a fact. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A historical marker in Vancouver, Wash., celebrates the civilization of Washington, by white explorers, erasing the presence of Indigenous people who lived in the area for thousands of years. As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, many states are reexamining markers with questionable historical facts or outdated language. (Erika Bolstad/Stateline) Most Revolutionary War history buffs know the story of Francis Marion, the Continental Army officer called the Swamp Fox for his guerrilla-style attacks that bedeviled British forces in South Carolinas backcountry. But volunteers and historians have identified 560 Revolutionary War battle sites and other places of interest with connections to the states role in the nations founding. While we all love Francis Marion, lets talk about some other people, said Molly Fortune, executive director of SC250, the commission charged with restoring the public memory of the states Revolutionary War legacy. To do that, theyre reviving forgotten historical markers as well as installing new ones and making them all easier to find from the highway or online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the United States prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, many states are inventorying, mapping and repairing old historical markers, as well as installing hundreds of new roadside signs, plaques and interpretive panels. In South Carolina, the focus is on sharing lesser-known stories of women, children, Native Americans, enslaved and free Black people and even the Loyalists who sympathized with King George III. Beyond re-engaging with lesser-known stories, many states see the national commemoration, known as America250, as an opportunity to refresh their heritage tourism offerings. But its also an occasion to reexamine markers or monuments with questionable historical facts or outdated language. The renewed interest in the accuracy or cultural sensitivity of the nations historical markers is part of the wider discourse over who or what belongs on a pedestal or a bronze plaque, and where they should be sited. Since the 2020 murder of George Floyd, those efforts have led to the removal of Confederate monuments as well as the toppling of statues honoring Christopher Columbus and artwork that extols westward expansion without telling the story of the effects on the Indigenous people displaced by settlement. Markers that reflect more inclusive stories make history relevant to more people, said Jason Hanson, the chief creative officer of History Colorado, which operates museums around the state and administers Colorados register of historic places. When history is incomplete or told only by those with the money or power, it strips complexity and nuance from the American story, rendering it less accurate and vibrant. The roadside panels and bronze plaques affixed to buildings are how many people encounter the nations history, Hanson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They really are some of the most accessible and valued history lessons that we have, he said. Satanic imps That history can be lopsided, inaccurate or racist, according to an NPR investigation in 2024 that looked at 180,000 historical markers across the nation. For example, the investigation found that about 70% of markers for historic plantation homes failed to mention that its owners bought and sold enslaved people and used their labor to construct the mansions. Among the problematic examples NPR found was a Michigan marker celebrating a woman who successfully defied frenzied Indians who invaded the premises and lapped from the basement floor whiskey which she had emptied from the barrels. In Texas, a marker praises Primus Kelly, an enslaved Black man, for demonstrating loyalty during the Civil War describing him as typical of most Texas Negro slaves. Hundreds went to war with their masters. Many markers, especially those installed by private individuals, stretch the definition of history. A Massachusetts marker, for example, indicates the former site of a mill operated by a wizard who employed satanic imps to run it at night, while a sign in New Hampshire marks the spot where a Portsmouth couple had a close encounter with a UFO in 1961 and experienced two hours of lost time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Colorado, the state found recently that 96% of listings on its state register of historical sites were places connected primarily to the history of white men, Hanson said. To mark the states 150th anniversary in 2026, Colorado will begin adding 150 new sites and markers highlighting the history of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other historically underrepresented communities. The state will ask community groups to nominate who and what should be on the markers. Markers or monuments often were paid for by people who wanted to tell a particular story, meaning that those with money were the only ones leaving a lasting mark. Even now, historical markers are expensive. In Michigan, for example, large markers cost $4,700, before installation. Some states appropriate money for new markers, but often, local communities must find the cash. But an investment in heritage tourism can and does pay off, said South Carolinas Fortune. She and other public historians have persuaded their state legislature not only to fund new markers but also to pay for new highway signs alerting visitors to historic sites. Its an effort she says boosts the rural communities where many markers are located. People want to walk and listen and hear and connect with their ancestors, Fortune said. And so it allows us to find those accidental tourists. Theyre like, Oh, Ive always wondered about that. And then they leave their money, and they go home. Thats basically it. Its a vehicle for economic development. The whole story In 2023, Virginias Department of Historic Resources began adding dozens of historical markers signifying Green Book sites, places that accommodated Black travelers safely during the Jim Crow era. Theyre also adding nine new markers that, among other things, tell the origin story of Mountain Dew soda, the discriminatory racial history of the first heart transplant in the state, and the backstory of lesser-known Virginians who participated in the Lewis and Clark expedition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Washington State Historical Society began taking a closer look at its markers in 2020, identifying 42 as potentially problematic. Most commemorate white settlement and were placed by a handful of individuals who just decided that these were the places that they were going to put monuments up, said Dylan High, the statewide partnerships coordinator for the agency. In recent months, the historical society has hosted public meetings to examine how the markers portray the history of westward expansion. Among those under review is a 1925 marker with a statement asserting that the civilization of Washington started at Vancouver, the site of an 1806 fort on the Columbia River for the Lewis and Clark expedition, and a subsequent Hudsons Bay Company fur trading post. Such statements erase the presence of Indigenous people who lived in the area for thousands of years before the arrival of European explorers. The narratives werent created in consultation with tribal people of the land, said Polly Olsen, who is Yakama and the tribal liaison for the Burke Museum in Seattle. It comes from a settler narrative of the first schools, the first church, these civilized practices or, you know, civilization began here, Olsen said in an interview with KIRO Newsradio. As theyve traveled the state of Washington, High said, theyve found that most people dont want old markers removed. Sometimes, its impractical: The Vancouver marker sits in a traffic island, unnoticed by most passersby, and would be costly to move. Instead, High said, people want to add new interpretive panels or new markers nearby to tell the whole story of the history. Most people are wary of anything that seems as though it is rewriting history, a phrase the state agency tries to avoid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That kind of implies that the history of what happened somehow is somehow changed, High said. What we are really interested in saying is that there is more to the context of that history of what happened than just what that monument represents or implies. And to be very specific about it, High added, what is not represented is very often the tribes perspective and the experience of our tribal communities around the state. Sometimes, states must point out hard truths, Fortune said. She points to Henry Laurens, a wealthy South Carolinian planter who was president of the Continental Congress in 1777 and 1778 and the only American to be held captive in the Tower of London. He was also a partner in a Charleston firm that brokered the sale of more than 8,000 enslaved Africans. Were in the business of telling history the way it was, Fortune said. So it can be good, bad and ugly. Henry Laurens owned slaves. Thats just a fact. Just say its a fact. This article was first published by Stateline, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. A historical marker in Vancouver, Wash., celebrates the civilization of Washington, by white explorers, erasing the presence of Indigenous people who lived in the area for thousands of years. As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, many states are reexamining markers with questionable historical facts or outdated language. (Erika Bolstad/Stateline) This story originally appeared on Stateline. Most Revolutionary War history buffs know the story of Francis Marion, the Continental Army officer called the Swamp Fox for his guerrilla-style attacks that bedeviled British forces in South Carolinas backcountry. But volunteers and historians have identified 560 Revolutionary War battle sites and other places of interest with connections to the states role in the nations founding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While we all love Francis Marion, lets talk about some other people, said Molly Fortune, executive director of SC250, the commission charged with restoring the public memory of the states Revolutionary War legacy. To do that, theyre reviving forgotten historical markers as well as installing new ones and making them all easier to find from the highway or online. As the United States prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, many states are inventorying, mapping and repairing old historical markers, as well as installing hundreds of new roadside signs, plaques and interpretive panels. In South Carolina, the focus is on sharing lesser-known stories of women, children, Native Americans, enslaved and free Black people and even the Loyalists who sympathized with King George III. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Beyond re-engaging with lesser-known stories, many states see the national commemoration, known as America250, as an opportunity to refresh their heritage tourism offerings. But its also an occasion to reexamine markers or monuments with questionable historical facts or outdated language. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The renewed interest in the accuracy or cultural sensitivity of the nations historical markers is part of the wider discourse over who or what belongs on a pedestal or a bronze plaque, and where they should be sited. Since the 2020 murder of George Floyd, those efforts have led to the removal of Confederate monuments as well as the toppling of statues honoring Christopher Columbus and artwork that extols westward expansion without telling the story of the effects on the Indigenous people displaced by settlement. Markers that reflect more inclusive stories make history relevant to more people, said Jason Hanson, the chief creative officer of History Colorado, which operates museums around the state and administers Colorados register of historic places. When history is incomplete or told only by those with the money or power, it strips complexity and nuance from the American story, rendering it less accurate and vibrant. The roadside panels and bronze plaques affixed to buildings are how many people encounter the nations history, Hanson said. They really are some of the most accessible and valued history lessons that we have, he said. Satanic imps That history can be lopsided, inaccurate or racist, according to an NPR investigation in 2024 that looked at 180,000 historical markers across the nation. For example, the investigation found that about 70% of markers for historic plantation homes failed to mention that its owners bought and sold enslaved people and used their labor to construct the mansions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among the problematic examples NPR found was a Michigan marker celebrating a woman who successfully defied frenzied Indians who invaded the premises and lapped from the basement floor whiskey which she had emptied from the barrels. In Texas, a marker praises Primus Kelly, an enslaved Black man, for demonstrating loyalty during the Civil War describing him as typical of most Texas Negro slaves. Hundreds went to war with their masters. Many markers, especially those installed by private individuals, stretch the definition of history. A Massachusetts marker, for example, indicates the former site of a mill operated by a wizard who employed satanic imps to run it at night, while a sign in New Hampshire marks the spot where a Portsmouth couple had a close encounter with a UFO in 1961 and experienced two hours of lost time. In Colorado, the state found recently that 96% of listings on its state register of historical sites were places connected primarily to the history of white men, Hanson said. To mark the states 150th anniversary in 2026, Colorado will begin adding 150 new sites and markers highlighting the history of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other historically underrepresented communities. The state will ask community groups to nominate who and what should be on the markers. Markers or monuments often were paid for by people who wanted to tell a particular story, meaning that those with money were the only ones leaving a lasting mark. Even now, historical markers are expensive. In Michigan, for example, large markers cost $4,700, before installation. Some states appropriate money for new markers, but often, local communities must find the cash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But an investment in heritage tourism can and does pay off, said South Carolinas Fortune. She and other public historians have persuaded their state legislature not only to fund new markers but also to pay for new highway signs alerting visitors to historic sites. Its an effort she says boosts the rural communities where many markers are located. People want to walk and listen and hear and connect with their ancestors, Fortune said. And so it allows us to find those accidental tourists. Theyre like, Oh, Ive always wondered about that. And then they leave their money, and they go home. Thats basically it. Its a vehicle for economic development. The whole story In 2023, Virginias Department of Historic Resources began adding dozens of historical markers signifying Green Book sites, places that accommodated Black travelers safely during the Jim Crow era. Theyre also adding nine new markers that, among other things, tell the origin story of Mountain Dew soda, the discriminatory racial history of the first heart transplant in the state, and the backstory of lesser-known Virginians who participated in the Lewis and Clark expedition. The Washington State Historical Society began taking a closer look at its markers in 2020, identifying 42 as potentially problematic. Most commemorate white settlement and were placed by a handful of individuals who just decided that these were the places that they were going to put monuments up, said Dylan High, the statewide partnerships coordinator for the agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In recent months, the historical society has hosted public meetings to examine how the markers portray the history of westward expansion. Among those under review is a 1925 marker with a statement asserting that the civilization of Washington started at Vancouver, the site of an 1806 fort on the Columbia River for the Lewis and Clark expedition, and a subsequent Hudsons Bay Company fur trading post. Such statements erase the presence of Indigenous people who lived in the area for thousands of years before the arrival of European explorers. The narratives werent created in consultation with tribal people of the land, said Polly Olsen, who is Yakama and the tribal liaison for the Burke Museum in Seattle. It comes from a settler narrative of the first schools, the first church, these civilized practices or, you know, civilization began here, Olsen said in an interview with KIRO Newsradio. Let's talk about some other people. Molly Fortune, executive director of SC250 As theyve traveled the state of Washington, High said, theyve found that most people dont want old markers removed. Sometimes, its impractical: The Vancouver marker sits in a traffic island, unnoticed by most passersby, and would be costly to move. Instead, High said, people want to add new interpretive panels or new markers nearby to tell the whole story of the history. Most people are wary of anything that seems as though it is rewriting history, a phrase the state agency tries to avoid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That kind of implies that the history of what happened somehow is somehow changed, High said. What we are really interested in saying is that there is more to the context of that history of what happened than just what that monument represents or implies. And to be very specific about it, High added, what is not represented is very often the tribes perspective and the experience of our tribal communities around the state. Sometimes, states must point out hard truths, Fortune said. She points to Henry Laurens, a wealthy South Carolinian planter who was president of the Continental Congress in 1777 and 1778 and the only American to be held captive in the Tower of London. He was also a partner in a Charleston firm that brokered the sale of more than 8,000 enslaved Africans. Were in the business of telling history the way it was, Fortune said. So it can be good, bad and ugly. Henry Laurens owned slaves. Thats just a fact. Just say its a fact. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A secured credit card can help you build or rebuild your credit if few other options are available. These cards work the same as traditional credit cards but require you to put down a security deposit. 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With most secured cards, that means if you were to put down a $500 deposit, you would have a $500 credit limit. Unsecured cards are more appealing but often have stricter eligibility requirements. Getting approved for a secured credit card is still possible if you cant qualify for a traditional card because of a limited, poor, or bad credit history. In most cases, you can still use a secured card anywhere credit cards are accepted, and responsible usage can help build your credit history. That means keeping a positive payment history by always making payments by their due date. You could then upgrade to an unsecured credit card (if the credit card issuer offers this option) or apply for a regular credit card from another issuer. Pros and cons of secured credit cards How to choose a secured credit card Consider these factors to find the secured credit card that makes the most sense for your personal finance goals: Eligibility requirements: Generally, secured cards dont require an established credit history for approval. However, many card issuers will still do a hard credit inquiry to determine your creditworthiness. If you want to avoid that, consider cards like the Chime Secured Credit Builder that dont require a credit check. Credit reporting: For most people, the primary reason to get a secured credit card is to build credit. If you want to build your credit effectively, make sure the card issuer reports activity to the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). Minimum security deposit: The minimum required security deposit on most secured cards is around $200 to $300. 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After all, a rewards credit card could still help you build credit while also providing valuable points or cash back. Read more: How to build credit without a credit card This embedded content is not available in your region. Should I open a secured credit card? Secured cards are some of the best credit cards available for credit building if you dont qualify for better options. You can use secured cards like traditional credit cards to make everyday purchases, and as long as the activity is reported to the major credit bureaus and you make on-time payments, you'll likely see your credit score improve over time. You likely dont need a secured credit card if you already have an unsecured credit card or can qualify for one. Both secured and unsecured cards can help you build your credit history, but you dont have to put down a security deposit on an unsecured card. Keep in mind that secured credit cards work the same as unsecured cards, meaning you often have interest rates to worry about. However, if you always pay off your balance on time, youll never have to pay credit card interest. FAQs for secured credit cards What is the best secured credit card? Based on our rankings, some of the best secured credit cards include: Can I get a $1,000 secured credit card? Many secured credit cards, including the Capital One Quicksilver Secured, offer up to a $1,000 credit limit or higher. Keep in mind that secured cards require a security deposit that acts as your credit line. That means you usually must put down a $1,000 security deposit to have a $1,000 credit line. Can secured credit cards build credit? Yes, secured credit cards can help you build credit if you use them to make purchases and then make on-time payments each billing cycle. However, be sure your credit card activity is reported to the major credit bureaus by your card issuer. How does the security deposit work? Secured credit cards require you to put down a security deposit to be eligible for approval. Theres typically a minimum deposit requirement, such as $200 or $300, and the amount you deposit acts as your credit line. Deposits can be held in a bank account, such as a checking account or savings account. You can often have your deposit returned if you close your account or graduate to an unsecured card. What are two downsides of getting a secured credit card? The biggest downside is that you have to put down a security deposit that acts as your credit limit. This ties up money that could be used elsewhere, such as investments or savings. Another downside is that secured cards tend to have fewer perks and benefits, which could include no rewards or welcome bonuses. Our methodology We researched credit cards from various financial institutions, including major credit card companies, credit unions, and other lenders, to find the best secured credit cards. We included dozens of cards in a rubric that rated them according to their features and benefits, including security deposit requirements, annual fees, rewards, credit bureau reporting, and more. We did not include every available card, and omitted cards with minimal information available. Our final list was determined by our rubric ratings, research, and expert opinion. This article was edited by Alicia Hahn *No Minimum Security Deposit: Money added to Credit Builder will be held in a secured account as collateral for your Credit Builder Visa card, which means you can spend up to this amount on your card. This is money you can use to pay off your charges at the end of every month. **To apply for Credit Builder, you must have received a single qualifying direct deposit of $200 or more to your Chime Checking Account. The qualifying direct deposit must be from your employer, payroll provider, gig economy payer, or benefits payer by Automated Clearing House (ACH) deposit OR Original Credit Transaction (OCT). Bank ACH transfers, Pay Anyone transfers, verification or trial deposits from financial institutions, peer to peer transfers from services such as PayPal, Cash App, or Venmo, mobile check deposits, cash deposits, one-time direct deposits, such as tax refunds and other similar transactions, and any deposit to which Chime deems to not be a qualifying direct deposit are not qualifying direct deposits. No Interest: Out-of-network ATM withdrawal and OTC advance fees may apply. View The Bancorp agreement or Stride agreement for details; see back of card for issuer. The secured Chime Credit Builder Visa Credit Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa credit cards are accepted. Please see the back of your card for its issuing bank. Editorial Disclosure: The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. All opinions belong solely to Yahoo Finance and are not those of any other entity. The details on financial products, including card rates and fees, are accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the banks website for the most current information. This site doesn't include all currently available offers. Credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product. As the United States continues to confront the realities and legacy of slavery, Americans continue to challenge myths about the countrys history. One enduring myth is that slavery was a largely male endeavor that, for the most part, the buying, selling, trading and profiting from enslavement were carried out by white men alone. While white women certainly interacted with enslaved people in household management and day-to-day tasks, historians once argued that they werent active owners and had very limited involvement in transactions. This was once widely believed to be a reason why Southern white women supported the institution they were assumed to be blind to its darker side. As an expert in the economic history of slavery, I know the story is far more complex. In fact, slavery was unique in economically empowering women. It was, in essence, an early feminist institution but exclusively for white women. A lasting myth The myth that women didnt profit from slavery has endured for several reasons. First, before the American Civil War, married women generally owned nothing of their own. The legal institution of coverture made the property a woman brought into her marriage into the property of her husband. This also meant that if a husband was in debt, a creditor could claim the wifes property for payment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, there are very few surviving records that show Southern white women discussing the business of slavery. And finally, in cases where women were owners of enslaved people say, through the death of a husband they often used agents or male relatives to handle their affairs. Added together, theres very little to suggest that white women were deeply involved in the slavery business. Researchers have started to challenge this view by moving beyond the traditional archival sources. The innovative historian Stephanie Jones-Rogers has documented how regularly white women were seen in all aspects of American enslavement. Her most compelling evidence comes from interviews with the formerly enslaved people themselves, who noted who they were owned by and explained how belonging to the misses affected every aspect of their life. The white feminism of American slavery Historians have also started grappling with the ways American slavery was uniquely gender-egalitarian at least for white women. While Northern women were trapped in coverture, Southern states were bypassing coverture specifically for the purpose of giving married women rights to own enslaved people. The earliest such act passed in the United States was the Mississippi Married Womens Property Law of 1839. This law explicitly awarded married white women ownership status over enslaved individuals. Slavery was the driver of this change: Four of the five sections of the act refer only to property in enslaved people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similar acts were passed by other Southern states in the antebellum era to shield married women from responsibility of their husbands debts and also to allow women to independently accumulate wealth during marriage. Of course, laws on the books may not reflect how people actually behaved. But new research shows that white women were very involved in the business of slavery. In states where enslaved people were titled property like a house or car today sales were recorded with names of buyers, sellers and the names of the enslaved people in the transaction. White women in states where legislation formally protected their property rights to enslaved property were much more likely to be active in the market. An antebellum print advertisement announces the sale of valuable slaves. Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images Further analysis of these records shows that white women were involved in nearly a third of all transactions, buying and selling in equal proportion. White women were especially likely to buy and sell enslaved women, making up nearly 40% of the people doing the buying and selling. Enslaved women were especially economically valuable because if someone owned an enslaved women, they automatically became the owner of all of her children. For slave owners, owning an enslaved woman was an intergenerational wealth-building activity. A historical irony We are left to confront a deep irony in American history. Slavery gave white women in the South significantly more economic independence than those in the North, and they used this freedom with remarkable regularity. Women in slave states had legal rights to property that was half of the wealth in the southern United States at the time. Women in the North could only dream of such economic independence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While historians once claimed that white women supported the Confederacy because they were blind to the reality of slavery, researchers now know that they could have been motivated by the same economic impulses as their husbands. Slavery was actually a more gender-egalitarian institution than other forms of property or wealth accumulation, so its not surprising that white women would have a vested interest in it. Slavery was white mens and womens business. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Trevon Logan, The Ohio State University Read more: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trevon Logan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) 80% of animals in county shelters were released alive, which is a continuation of improvements over the last few years, according to the SPCA Florida. This year, were looking for 90%, which is a no-kill status in the nation, said Shelley Thayer, SPCA Floridas executive director. Thayer said it was just seven years ago when the live release rate in all of Polk County was just 40%, one of the worst in the nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SPCA Florida is a no-kill shelter and can turn away animals when it reaches staff and kennel capacity, unlike Polk County Animal Control, which is run by the sheriffs office. Animal Control is in the same situation except they cannot say no. Their [situation] is much worse than ours, Thayer said. When they run out of room, they are out of room and then they have no choice but to create room. Rescue Pets alone adopted out 814 cats for us, and the SPCA was right there too with 650 cats and 244 dogs adopted. The Bully Project helped rescue 400 dogs. Heading into the new year, we hope to improve upon those adoption and rescue rates even more, a sheriffs office spokesperson said in a statement. SPCA Florida has worked with Polk County Animal Control on spay and neuter and adoption programs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cat lounges across central Florida have also been used to find forever homes for cats. Thayer said county organizations and animal control are utilizing technology as one way to alleviate overcrowding at the shelters. They are all using Petcos Lost Lost online database to reunite lost pets with their owners. It does facial identification, kind of like the FBI. It picks up NextDoor, RING and Facebook posts, as long as theres a picture of the face, Thayer said. Adoptions at Polk County Animal Control are free every Saturday. SPCA Florida currently has 350 cats and dogs in its shelter. It is open seven days a week for adoptions at 5850 Brannen Rd. S in Lakeland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All animals are vaccinated, spayed and neutered and receive dental care, if needed, before going up for adoption. To learn more about adoptable pets and services at Polk County Animal Control, visit https://www.polksheriff.org/animal-services and https://www.polksheriff.org/animal-services/adoptable-pets. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. For 761 terrifying days, Anne Frank hid in the stifling quarters of a secret annex in Amsterdam, fearing that at any moment the Nazis who occupied the Netherlands during World War II would discover her hiding place. She could never go outside and had to remain quiet to avoid detection. It was in that secret annex where the 13-year-old penned her iconic diary. This month, visitors to a Manhattan exhibit will be able to immerse themselves in a full-scale replica of that hideaway. "Anne Frank: The Exhibition" is based on the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, the site where Anne, her family and four other Jews evaded Nazi capture for two years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The exhibit will debut at the Center for Jewish History near Union Square on Jan. 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The aim is to bring visitors closer to Anne Frank's life during her months in the annex, said Ronald Leopold, executive director of the Anne Frank House. Passport photos of Anne Frank, a part of the exhibition coming to New York City next year. The recreation of the secret annex where the teenager hid from the Nazis will open in late January. "We have an obligation to help world audiences understand the historical roots and evolution of antisemitism, including how it fueled Nazi ideology that led to the Holocaust," he said. Tickets are already available online for the exhibition, which is scheduled to run through April. Why now for Anne Frank exhibit? The Anne Frank House museum, which opened in 1960, is one of the most visited historical sites in Europe, with about 1.2 million people touring the site annually. But not everyone who wants to see it is able to get there, and tickets sell out quickly, Leopold said. The Manhattan exhibit will give more people access to Anne's story, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a time when surveys show that knowledge of the Holocaust is fading among newer generations, the re-creation will help young Americans learn about that dark era of history through the life of perhaps its most well-known young victim. Organizers anticipate reaching over 250,000 students around the country. They have been working with hundreds of school districts in the tri-state area to organize class trips, offering a discounted rate. Philanthropic support, including by actress Barbra Streisand, has made it possible to offer fully subsidized tours to New York City public school students as well as those at underprivileged schools around the country, said Michael Glickman, CEO of jMuse, a principal adviser to the Anne Frank Exhibition. Organizers have also created an educational program and curriculum for teachers to use in concert with the exhibit. Visitors to the Anne Frank Exhibition in Manhattan will be able to walk through a life-size replica of the cramped quarters where Anne and her family hid for two years. With the number Holocaust survivors dwindling, "the mission to spread Anne Frank's story has never been greater," said a director of the Anne Frank House museum. Schools from New York to California have already booked visits, and residents of roughly 40 states have purchased tickets as well, Glickman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The exhibition is designed to travel, and after it closes in New York on April 30, it will make its way to other cities around the country, he added. A schedule will be announced in the spring. The exhibit portrays Anne as more than a Holocaust victim. Visitors will learn about her "through the multifaceted lens of a life as a teenaged girl, as a writer, as a symbol of resilience and strength," Leopold told The Record and NorthJersey.com. Examined through the prism of today's news, her story feels strangely current: Assaults against Jews have climbed since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. More than 10,000 antisemitic incidents have been reported in the U.S. between that day and September of this year, reported the Anti-Defamation League, which fights bigotry and antisemitism. FBI data shows that anti-Jewish hate crimes in the U.S. surged 63% last year, reaching a record high of 1,832. With the number of Holocaust survivors dwindling and hate growing, "the mission to spread Anne Frank's story has never been greater," Leopold said. Anne Frank's story A board game that was used in the secret annex is part of the Anne Frank Exhibition in New York. Organizers have been working with hundreds of school districts in the tri-state area to organize class trips. In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and made it increasingly dangerous for Jews, deporting over 100,000 from the nation to extermination camps. After Anne's older sister Margot received a letter ordering her to report to a work camp in Germany in 1942, the family went into hiding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anne's father, Otto Frank, asked one of the employees of his small jam and jelly company to help hide his family above his company's warehouse. She agreed and, for two years, helped protect and smuggle food to the family in the 450-square-foot space. They were joined by the van Pels family, including their teenage son, and Fritz Pfeffer, who was also trying to escape the Nazis. The group hid in the annex's cramped rooms for two years. Life there was tense and lonely, and Anne passed the time by writing her observations and feelings in a diary. In 1944, the hiding spot was discovered by the Gestapo, the German police, and the group was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. All of them except for Otto Frank died in concentration camps. He published his daughter's diary two years after her death, and it soon became a sensation. Although she died at the Nazis' hands, Anne has become a symbol of hope and resilience. Her diary is now one of the most widely read books in the world, published in over 71 languages. It's been made into a Broadway play and a film. "I keep my ideas, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart," Anne wrote at one point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her account "serves as both a warning and a call to action, reminding us of the devastating impact of hatred," said Gavriel Rosenfeld, president of the Center for Jewish History. "This exhibition challenges us to confront these dangers head-on and honor the memory of those lost in the Holocaust." More: Auschwitz survivor brings 'message of hope' to Bergen in era of growing Holocaust denial How to visit the Anne Frank Exhibition in NYC Tickets are available at AnneFrankExhibit.org. The exhibit is designed for children ages 10 and older and adults. Prices: For adults, $21 for a timed ticket Monday through Friday to $48 for a flex ticket on Sundays and holidays. There's a $5 discount for visitors under 17 years old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Students: Grants, discounts or free tickets are available for certain student groups. More information is available on the website. Address: Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th St., New York, N.Y. Hours: Sunday through Thursday: 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Friday: 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Closed Saturday. Dates: Scheduled to run from Jan. 27 through April 30, 2025. Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Email: yellin@northjersey.com X/Twitter: @deenayellin This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Anne Frank Exhibit in NYC re-creates annex where diary took shape The 77th Minnesota Governor's Fishing Opener will head to Crosslake for the first time, the office of Governor Tim Walz announced on Thursday. The annual opener will take place on May 910, with plans to put Crosslake's "natural beauty, diversity of fish species, and hospitality" on display. I am thrilled to bring the longtime tradition of the Governors Fishing Opener to Crosslake, Governor Walz said in a statement. This region is known for its phenomenal fishing and outdoor recreation. It is also home to an incredible resort community, making Crosslake the perfect place to kick off summer. Crosslake, Minnesota.St. Paul Army Corps. of Engineers, Flickr The Governor's Fishing Opener has been a Minnesota tradition since 1948, founded to highlight and develop the state's recreation and tourism industry. That first event was held at Mille Lacs under the eye of Gov. Luther Youngdahl. Though, as Bring Me The News reported in a history of the event, there isn't any evidence that Youngdahl actually attended that first installment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nonetheless, it has become tradition that the Governor is involved in the event that bears the name of the office. Walz will continue that tradition at the Crosslake event this spring. The area offers great variety for anglers, including walleye, northern pike, and large and smallmouth bass, as well as lesser-known yet prized native rough fish such as greater redhorse and white sucker," MN DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen said. "The area also boasts a number of other outdoor recreation opportunities, including three state parks, a state recreation area, and a wildlife management area. I look forward to fishing and experiencing all the outdoor opportunities the Crosslake area offers. Related: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon postponed due to trail conditions DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A plane had to make an emergency landing at the Dayton International Airport, the second time in just one week. Officials at the Dayton International Airport say a CRJ 200 Air Wisconsin flight was boarded and took off for Philadelphia from Dayton on Wednesday afternoon but was forced to return. Homicide suspect crashes in Springfield after police chase The pilot on board issued the emergency landing due to a mechanical issue, described as vibration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials say the flight was only a ferry flight, with only two people on board to take the plane to its next destination. The flight safely landed back at the Dayton Airport and was taken to the maintenance hangar. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. GREENSBORO, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) Two Anson County men who pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robberies and firearms charges have been sentenced, the U.S. Attorneys Office reported Thursday. Court documents show Wall, of Wadesboro, was sentenced on Oct. 30, to consecutive terms of 138 months imprisonment and 84 months imprisonment, plus five years supervised release. Dunlap, of Morven, was sentenced today to consecutive terms of 110 months imprisonment and 84 months imprisonment, plus five years supervised release. 14-year-old charged after Gastonia teen girl shot and killed on Christmas Eve Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In August, 35-year-old Brandon Drelle Wall, and William Chavis Dunlap Jr., 29, pleaded guilty to robbing a sweepstakes business in Winston-Salem in June 2022, and another in Liberty in August 2022. Each defendant also pleaded guilty to brandishing a firearm during and in furtherance of a crime of violence. Both sentencing hearings were held before United States District Judge William L. Osteen Jr. In addition to prison time, both men were ordered to pay restitution and forfeited their interests in seven firearms plus multiple magazines and rounds of ammunition. The Hobbs Act prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce in any way or degree. Court officials say the suspects stole a phone, a wallet, $1,400 and two guns from the robbery in Winston-Salem. A total of $8,650 was stolen from the robbery in Liberty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Wall was arrested, he allegedly admitted to robbing a gas station in Richmond County, and Dunlap admitted to robbing a discount store in Anson County. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. HOMS, Syria (AP) Syria's new security forces deployed in tanks on Thursday in the city of Homs to search for militia members and former soldiers loyal to ousted President Bashar Assad who have refused to surrender their weapons. Over 100 people were detained. The armed fighters with the Islamist group that led Assad's ouster and now controls much of Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, conducted searches in alleyways and entered homes. They said they were working in coordination with the interim Interior Ministry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The HTS fighters seized weapons and destroyed certificates linked to the Baath party, Assads former ruling faction. Outside, men lined up against walls for identity checks. The HTS fighters, some partially covering their faces, detained suspected Assad loyalists and loaded them onto trucks. Some residents, including children, cheered for the fighters and chanted God is great. Syrias state news agency, SANA, citing a military official, said the HTS-led authorities had established centers in Homs, Syrias third-largest city, to allow former soldiers and militia members to surrender their weapons. This voluntary surrender and handover of weapons has occurred in other parts of the country since Assad fled to Russia in early December. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, Syria's new security forces save arrested officials who under Assad worked with his notorious web of intelligence and security branches. We received information from the residents that there are members of former regime militias here who refused to give up their weapons and were terrorizing the residents, said Abu Muhammad, an official with the General Security Department who did not give his full name in accordance with regulations. Following the instructions of the leadership and the military operations administration, we followed the members, arrested them and transferred them to the relevant departments, he said. It was not immediately clear what would happen to those arrested next. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A resident of the Wadi Al-Dahab neighborhood, Nael Al-Asaad, said the HTS fighters inspected his legally licensed hunting rifles and returned the rifles with full respect. ___ Associated Press writer Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report. AUSTIN (KXAN) The Austin Police Department called a last-minute press conference Thursday afternoon to talk about safety on one of the citys most popular downtown streets. APD Chief Lisa Davis discussed implementing structural changes, such as curbed edges, to the pedestrian areas of Sixth Street that would provide added safety. These structural changes would potentially take up the parking lanes along the 300 and 400 blocks of Sixth Street, according to Davis. Davis added that the City of Austin and APD are looking into new equipment, resources and technology to help ensure safety within the community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will be operating lights, we will have extra traffic enforcement as far as DUI enforcement out to help with this, Davis said. Davis said the goal is to be flexible, when it comes to a point where Sixth Street is hosting large crowds, APD will have plans to close the street completely. This would not allow any traffic through and avoid any vehicle crashes in the area, according to Davis. APDs press conference came just a day after a terror attack in New Orleans that left 15 dead and dozens of others injured when a 42-year-old driver from Texas, drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street. When asked if that recent event has changed Davis perspective on hosting large-scale events in the City of Austin, Davis said she is not worried. I have seen a lot of police departments across this country and what they do for event planning, there are very few if any that compare to what Austin does here. Our event planning unit is top-notch and what they do for event season is nothing short of miraculous, Davis said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An evil act: Louisiana officials, FBI say suspect in NOLA attack acted alone Officials in other major cities across the U.S. have upped safety measures and placed law enforcement sources on high alert following the tragedy. The Sugar Bowl, which was scheduled to take place at New Orleans Caesars Superdome on New Years Day, was also postponed to Thursday. KXANs Brianna Hollis also reported last month that a group of city departments were exploring a pilot program that would open Sixth Street up to vehicle traffic. Opening 6th Street to cars? City working on pilot program Currently, police and barricades block the road from Red River Street to Congress Avenue on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and during special events. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to an email from city staff to Sixth Street stakeholders, the pilot is set to take place during the winter months and wrap up before SXSW, but no official dates have been announced. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) A Missouri appeals court panel ruled Thursday that the state's Republican governor and not St. Louis County's Democratic county executive has the power to appoint a replacement for the county's outgoing prosecuting attorney. The ruling apparently ends the legal dispute between Gov. Mike Parson and County Executive Sam Page. The county announced afterward that Parson's appointee, Melissa Price Smith, will be sworn in on Friday. She will replace Wesley Bell, a Democrat who was elected to Congress in November. Bell will be sworn into Congress on Friday in Washington, D.C. The appeals court ruling upholds a December ruling by a circuit judge. The ruling came hours after lawyers for state and county leaders argued the case in front of a three-judge appeals court panel, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because the prosecuting attorney performs essential state functions as a state officer, the governor has the constitutional and statutory authority to make the appointment to fill the vacancy, appellate Judge John P. Torbitzky wrote. Last month, Parson and Page each appointed different people to fill out the last two years of Bells term, with an election for a full, four-year term in 2026. Parson chose Smith, a 56-year-old assistant prosecutor in St. Louis County who has worked in the office since 2008. Page picked Cort VanOstran, a 36-year-old federal prosecutor for eastern Missouri, who left that job when Page appointed him. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) Just hours after the ball dropped for New Years celebrations, an AR-15 rifle was seized when several gunshots prompted Springfield officers to the area of Westford Circle. In a news release from Springfield police, at around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday officers were called to ShotSpotter activations on Marlborough Street, Westford Circle, Albemarle Street and Norfolk Street within one minute of each other. Upon arrival, officers noticed a vehicle driving away on Marlborough Street and attempted a traffic stop. When the vehicle eventually stopped on Westford Circle, a passenger ran away through the backyard of a home. Police were unable to catch the passenger however, the driver who attempted to walk away was detained. Police seized an AR-15 rifle, a 30-round magazine, a handgun, another magazine, ammunition, and spent shell casings inside the car. Everton Daley An evil act: Louisiana officials, FBI say suspect in NOLA attack acted alone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver, identified as 23-year-old Everton Daley of Springfield was arrested and charged with the following: Carrying a Firearm without a License (Two Counts) Improper Storage of a Large Capacity Firearm (Two Counts) Possession of Ammunition without an FID Card Possession of a High-Capacity Magazine/Feeding Device Carrying an Unloaded Rifle/Shotgun on a Public Way Operating a Motor Vehicle with a Suspended License Failure to Stop for Police Resisting Arrest Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. MoMo Productions via Getty Images If youve recently become the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, you may wonder if the death benefit youll receive is tax-free. The good news is most life insurance proceeds are not considered taxable income by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). However, there are a few situations where a life insurance death benefit could become subject to income tax or other types of taxes like federal estate tax. Lets take a closer look at when you might have to pay taxes on life insurance and how to ensure your loved ones get the full benefit of a life insurance payout. Learn more: What is life insurance? Is life insurance taxable? The short answer is no. Most life insurance proceeds are not taxable. The advantage of life insurance is that the policyholder financially provides for loved ones in the aftermath of a death or permanent disability. A payout from a life insurance company can cover big expenses like funeral costs, paying down debt, and providing financial peace of mind without adding to the beneficiarys gross income. While most term life insurance payouts are exempt from tax liability, there are other types of life insurance policies whose death benefit could become subject to state or federal income tax. Specifically, these include life insurance that has cash value, group life insurance, life insurance distributed in installments or directly to an estate. When are life insurance proceeds taxable? The following situations can have different tax implications and should be considered carefully as part of an estate planning process. When you choose installments instead of a lump sum life insurance payout When a life insurance policy gets distributed in installments instead of a lump sum, its called a life insurance annuity. While the death benefit itself is tax-free, any interest that accrues should be reported on your tax return as income. When more than two people are involved in a life insurance policy The cliche that three is a crowd also applies to life insurance. This particular life insurance tax, sometimes referred to as a Goodman Triangle, happens when three people are involved in a life insurance policy. If the beneficiary, policyholder, and insured are all different people, the IRS views the insurance policy as a gift. As such, if the total benefit amount exceeds the annual gift exclusion limit, it becomes taxable. If you have financial gains when you sell a term life insurance policy If you sell a life insurance policy because you need the cash more than the insurance coverage, be prepared to pay taxes, specifically income and capital gains tax. Any money you recover in the sale that is equal to what you paid in life insurance premiums wont be taxed, but any profits you make in excess of the amount of premiums is taxed as income. When a death benefit triggers estate taxes If your estate is the beneficiary of your life insurance policy, it could trigger some estate taxes. This happens when the death benefit pushes the estates value over a certain threshold. While the estate value threshold is quite high for federal taxes (upwards of $13.9 million for 2024 taxes), be warned that the taxable estate threshold is different for every state. For instance in California, there is no estate or inheritance tax, but New York levies an estate tax on high-value estates above the $6.5 million threshold. If the policy is employer-paid group life insurance exceeding $50,000 If business owners choose to extend group life insurance benefits to employees over $50,000, that payout is regarded as taxable income by the IRS. Even if employees partially pay for this life insurance policy, it can be taxable as long as the employer pays any part of the premium. If your life insurance policies have cash value, such as universal or whole life insurance Permanent life insurance policies such as whole or universal life insurance have cash value, sometimes referred to as surrender value, that follows different tax rules. Generally, policyholders can borrow against a permanent life insurance policys cash value as long as those withdrawals dont exceed the premium payments. However, if the policy loans youre taking out inch over the line of whats paid in premiums, that additional money is considered taxable income. For whole life insurance policies, dividends arent taxable but any interest earned on those same dividends should be reported as income to the IRS. Learn more: What is universal life insurance? 4 ways to minimize tax liability on a life insurance death benefit To ensure your loved ones will receive the full benefit of your life insurance policy, it pays to do the following and consult a tax professional. 1. Choose life insurance payouts in a lump sum It may seem like dolling out life insurance money bit by bit might help a beneficiary stay on budget, but the tax penalties likely offset any of those benefits. Choose lump sum payouts over installments or annuities to avoid tax liability. 2. Review policies and beneficiaries regularly An annual update and review of your life insurance is a great way to check that you havent borrowed more than the policys cash value or paid too much in premiums, and that the beneficiaries of your policy are up to date. 3. When in doubt, use the IRS tool on taxable life insurance proceeds Consulting with a tax professional to conduct estate planning is preferred, but the IRS also has an online tool that can help determine if your life insurance will provide tax-free benefits to your loved ones. 4. Set up an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) One way to avoid estate tax is to set up an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) which ensures that upon death, proceeds of a life insurance policy will be transferred to a trust and be distributed to certain beneficiaries. What are some financially savvy ways to use life insurance proceeds? Looking for a few ways to spend a tax-free windfall responsibly? Financial advisers recommend putting the proceeds toward digging out of high-interest debt first, then focusing on building an emergency fund. If youve already got your financial ducks in a row, you can put a large life insurance payout to work in a high-yield savings account. Learn more: The total guide to life insurance Frequently asked questions about taxes and life insurance 1. Do you have to pay taxes on life insurance? Generally, as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy you are not required to report the proceeds as taxable income to the IRS. However, there are some exceptions, so consult the IRS website if you plan to take the insurance payout in installments, youve sold an insurance policy at a profit, or the proceeds are from a permanent life insurance policy that has cash value. 2. Can life insurance premiums be tax deductible? Life insurance premiums on personal policies are not typically tax-deductible. However, if the policy is a gift to a charitable organization or youre a business owner and you pay premiums for an employee, those premiums may be tax-deductible. Consulting with a tax professional is the best way to decide which tax rules apply to your situation. 3. Do life insurance proceeds pay off estate debt before being distributed to beneficiaries? Life insurance proceeds cannot be used to pay off any estate debts unless the beneficiary of the life insurance policy is the estate itself. This sometimes happens if no beneficiaries are identified or if the policy beneficiaries are no longer alive. In this case, the estate would go into probate and creditors could require the life insurance payout to cover any remaining debts from the deceased. An outbreak of arctic cold is sweeping through the Midwest and East, as well as into the Deep South and this frigid pattern is expected to last into the third week of January. Where the cold is now: The surge of colder air has spread into the Plains, Midwest, Northeast and South behind Winter Storm Blair which departed the East Coast Monday night. You can see that in the current temperature map shown below. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (CURRENT MAPS: Temperatures | Wind Chills) How cold will it get in the South: This latest cold surge will push lows into the teens in Oklahoma and 20s to low 30s into much of Texas this week. In the Southeast, 20s for lows will be widespread into northern Florida, with teens possible in Kentucky, Tennessee and the Appalachians. Central Florida may shiver in the upper 30s or low 40s, while upper 40s or low 50s lows may reach into South Florida. Strong wind gusts could lead to uncomfortable wind chills throughout the South. (MAPS: 10-Day U.S. Forecast Highs/Lows) How frigid will the northern tier become: Typical of January, we expect some subzero lows in the usual frigid parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Coupled with fresh snow cover from Winter Storm Blair, we also expect some lows to flirt with 0 degrees as far south as the Central Plains, mid-Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley. In much of the Midwest, highs in the 20s or 30s may be the warmest seen for several days this week. As alluded to earlier, strong winds could send wind chills plunging into levels that may trigger frostbite on exposed skin in 30 minutes or less. While uncomfortably cold, we aren't expecting this cold snap to threaten many daily record lows for this time of year. That's because the bar for setting records in this core winter month is very high. For example, daily record lows in International Falls, Minnesota, the "Icebox of the Nation", range from the upper 30s to middle 50s below zero. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (MORE: The Most Extreme US Cold Outbreaks) How long will this cold last: According to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, this colder pattern could last into the third full week of January, especially in the Southeast. MORE ON WEATHER.COM: - 5 Weather Wishes We Hope Come True In 2025 - Weather.com's Best Photos Of 2024 - 10 Strangest Things We Saw In 2024's Weather Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina's government said on Thursday it had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against Venezuela for detaining a member of its gendarmerie, a branch of Argentina's security forces, calling it a "forced disappearance." Venezuela's Foreign Minister Yvan Gil rejected the complaint to the ICC, calling it a "pitiful spectacle," in a post on Telegram. Tensions between the two South American countries have risen since Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian, assumed Argentina's presidency in late 2023. Relations worsened after Venezuela's contested presidential election in July, in which incumbent socialist President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last month, Argentina accused Caracas of detaining Nahuel Gallo, a member of its gendarmerie, after he tried to enter Venezuela from a crossing in Colombia to visit family. They demanded his immediate release. "He is not disappeared," Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek Saab said in a message to Reuters on Thursday. "He is detained and being processed before the relevant court." Venezuelan prosecutors have said Gallo is being investigated for alleged links to a group seeking to carry out destabilizing and "terrorist" actions. "Argentina's government will continue to use all legal and diplomatic resources to guarantee the rights of its citizen, Nahuel Gallo," the Argentine foreign ministry said in a statement. (Reporting by Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires, additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota; Editing by Richard Chang and Sonali Paul) The Grand Canyon was named the fifth deadliest national park to visit in the winter, a new study shows. According to the findings, Grand Canyon National Park had 5.45 deaths per 10 million visitors 185% higher than the national average of 2.94 winter deaths per 10 million visitors. John Foy & Associates analyzed mortality data provided by the U.S. National Park Service to determine the number of deaths in parks between November and February from 2007 to 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's what to know about deaths at the Grand Canyon and national parks across the United States. What are the top 10 most dangerous parks during winter in the USA? Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, 12.19 deaths per 10 million visitors. Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, 8.55 deaths per 10 million visitors. Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada, 6.23 deaths per 10 million visitors. Death Valley National Park, 5.87 deaths per 10 million visitors. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 5.45 deaths per 10 million visitors. Yosemite National Park, 5.23 deaths per 10 million visitors. Mojave National Preserve, 4.36 deaths per 10 million visitors. Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina, 4.35 deaths per 10 million visitors. Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Tennessee, 4.24 deaths per 10 million visitors. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan, 4.04 deaths per 10 million visitors. Do you need a Real ID to fly in 2025? What to know about new travel requirements How many people have died at the Grand Canyon? With an average of 5 million visitors per year, the natural wonder experienced a total of 10 guest fatalities in 2023 and 11 the year before. Since the 19th century, over 900 people have died at Arizona's largest tourist attraction, averaging 12 deaths per year. The most common type of death, according to statistics, are airplane and helicopter crashes, followed by falling. The report goes on to state that falls can be both accidental and intentional, with death by suicide occurring more often than the former. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report highlighted environmental deaths such as dehydration and starvation, along with drownings in the Colorado River, as additional factors contributing to the park's mortality rate. How to stay safe in the Grand Canyon Some tips from the Grand Canyon National Park rangers include: Stay on designated trails and walkways, and always keep a safe distance of at least six feet from the edge of the rim. In areas where there is a railing or fence, do not climb over the barrier. Keep an eye on all of the people in your group, especially small children. Make sure that your travel companions have both feet firmly planted on pavement or developed trails at all times. Do not run, jump, or perform physical stunts when near the rim. Do not back up without first looking at where you are going. Arizona's temperature can be deceiving and deadly. Hike when it's cold outside; try early mornings and evenings when there's more shade. Wear proper shoes, clothing, a hat and sunscreen. Hydrate before you go. Have plenty of water, more than you think you need. Turn around and head back to the trailhead before you drink half of your water. Carry a mobile phone and remain in contact with others. Hike with others. If hiking solo, tell someone your start and end times and location. Do you have a medical condition? Asthma, heart problems, diabetes, knee or back problems? Don't push yourself! "Even trained athletes have been caught off guard by getting dehydrated on Arizona trails." Enjoy the Sonoran Desert's beautiful and undeveloped landscape, but please stay on designated trails. Don't be "that person" the one who wasn't prepared, shouldn't have been there for health reasons or ignored safety guidelines. Be the responsible hiker who takes a hike and does it right. Crisis hotlines for Arizonans Services for Arizonans in crisis include: Dial 2-1-1 at any time to reach the free 2-1-1 Arizona information and referral service and connect with free resources available locally throughout the state. Solari Crisis & Human Services offers a free, statewide crisis line 24/7/365 dial 844-534-HOPE (4673). Help is also available 24/7/365 via text by texting hope to 4HOPE (4673). Dial 988 to reach the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Help is available in English and Spanish. It's free and confidential for those in distress who need prevention or crisis resources for themselves or loved ones. La Frontera Empact Suicide Prevention Center's crisis line serves Maricopa and Pinal counties. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why Grand Canyon is among deadliest national parks to visit in winter COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) A woman has been arrested after leading Columbus police on a high-speed chase on the west side of the city Thursday morning. According to police, police detained a woman at around 3 a.m. after a high-speed chase ended near the intersection of Ryan Avenue and West Mound Street in the South Hilltop. LifeWise, Indiana parent reach settlement in copyright infringement lawsuit No injuries were reported, but police said the chase reached speeds of up to 75 and 100 mph. The suspect, who has yet to be identified, was wanted for felonious assault on an officer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) Arson has been determined as the cause of a fire in the latest of a string of blazes on Deshler Street, Buffalo fire officials said Thursday. Crews responded to 19 Deshler Street around 3:20 a.m. Thursday. When crews arrived the home was fully engulfed and crews were able to put the fire out. The property was vacant due to sustaining fire damage in a previous blaze on Sept. 26. There were no injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A nearby home, 23 Deshler, caught fire three times between Sept. 23 and Nov. 17. Thursday marks the eighth fire at a vacant home in a one-mile radius in the past three-plus months. The damages from Thursdays fire are estimated at $75,000. The Buffalo Fire Department is urging the public to report any suspicious activity. The fire is still under investigation. Latest Local News Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. Bianca Tse is among a growing number of artists embracing AI. Its shortened the path between my ideas and my visions, said the 43-year-old, sitting in front of Breathing Room, a photo recently showcased at the Blue Lotus Gallery in Hong Kong. In it, three Chinese men appear to sit comfortably, albeit precariously, on stools atop a narrow tower of derelict flats. This photograph could not exist in real life, she said, but it captures the feel of the citys cramped living conditions, and a distinct Hong Kong flavor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tses work is part fantasy generated from AI and part historical reference, drawing from her own childhood memories and the history of Hong Kongs working class. Many of her images are set in an AI-exaggerated version of the Kowloon Walled City a former Qing dynasty fortress that became the most densely populated place on Earth. Refugees fleeing from mainland China during the Chinese civil war, flooded into then-British ruled Hong Kong and had made the enclave their home. It was demolished in the 1990s but still looms large in the memories of Hong Kong residents. By working with AI, Tse said she has learned not to fear the technology. I think if everyone tried to use AI, theyd know that the role of the artist or designer cannot be replaced, she explained. - Bianca Tse/Midjourney In Overpopulation, a precarious-looking tower of people stand shoulder-to-shoulder. The Kowloon Walled City was not a monstrosity of concrete and steel, Tse said, but rather a complex organism woven with resilient human narratives. - Bianca Tse/Midjourney While she never visited the Walled City, Tse has been fascinated by its history, and sees it as representative of a Hong Kong that is culturally and architecturally disappearing amid ongoing development and gentrification. Through interviews and rare, personal photographs, Tse has been able to expand on some former residents memories in a new way. She has recreated scenes inspired by their lives in the form of short AI-generated videos and pictures. The role of AI in art The use of artificial intelligence to create art has become increasingly controversial, with artists expressing concern that their work can be used to train AI models without compensation. While Tse agrees, she said AI tools like Midjourney have also allowed her to make works that would be otherwise impossible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont need to hire actors, I dont need to set up all the scenes, and, yeah, it saves a lot of time, and mainly money, because nobody is going to invest in me to create all of these (pieces), she said. The technology has opened up a new world for Tse, a freelance advertising creative director, who has been posting her AI experiments on Instagram. The French gallery La Grande Vitrine included her early work in the Rencontres dArles exhibition A State of Consciousness in France in 2023. And more recently, shes shown alongside photographers Greg Girard and Ian Lambot two photographers who famously documented the Kowloon Walled City as part of Blue Lotus Gallerys Voices of The Walls, exhibition about the informal settlement, where an estimated 33,000 people lived within the space of one city block. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tses sense of surrealism is grounded in reality. In her broader depictions of Hong Kong, she focuses on details such as the particular way the paint peels, the concrete walls stain and corrugated metal roofing rusts. These textures might not typically get noticed, and can be overshadowed in the dystopic, cyberpunk depictions of the city found in video games such as Stray and movies like Batman Begins. The people in her images also feel familiar. They include muscular bamboo-scaffolding builders, a woman in a quintessential Hong Kong barbershop with a mountain of metal rollers in her hair, and the aforementioned men in wrinkled shirts sitting hunched on thin-legged stools. One recurring theme Tse explores is how chaos and poverty exists right alongside happiness and hope. Imaginary Friends shows a little girl in a market surrounded by trash bags transformed into stuffed animals, and is actually based on her own childhood memories of waiting for her mother in the rain outside the frozen meat shop where she worked. One recurring theme Tse explores is how chaos and poverty exists right alongside happiness and hope. - Bianca Tse/Midjourney A depiction of muscular bamboo scaffolders in a gravity-defying stance. - Bianca Tse/Midjourney Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was living in temporary housing a metal sheet temporary home with two floors, in Fanling, with two bunk beds. I think (it was) under 100 square feet, she recalled. I only realized I was poor when I grew up, she added. I had a really happy childhood, maybe because of the lack of parental guidance. Because my parents both went to work, I just go about freely, especially after school. An untaken photo By working with generative AI software, Tse has learned not to fear human artists becoming obsolete. I think if everyone tried to use AI, theyd know that the role of the artist or designer cannot be replaced, she said. Prompting with a single word might be easy, she explained, but if you really want to create something close to your vision or something meaningful, it is actually very hard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To illustrate her point, Tse pulls up a string of images of failed prompts she created in Midjourney: a contact sheet of Asian men, women and children with a pile of noodles for hair, comically positioned and that look more like a slapdash Photoshop job than the surreal, polished works of art in her portfolio. To lessen the uncanny valley effect the eerie sensation people feel when faced with something artificial but nearly human Tse does a great deal of post-production work. I dont like generating perfect-looking humans. I like someone who looks more like daily life, Tse said. This was one of the challenges she faced when she collaborated with Girard, on creating a photo that got away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the late 1980s, Girard, who had been photographing the Kowloon Walled City, had seen a Cathay Pacific flight attendant get out of a cab and walk into the City, pulling her luggage behind her. Her elegance and poise were a stark contrast to the gritty surroundings, but he lost her in the maze of alleys before he was able to take a shot. Though he waited around, hoping to see her again, he never did. I didnt get it, and I thought (the image) was gone forever, he said. In this "Untaken Photo" Tse collaborated with photographer Greg Girard on a photo he missed taking in the late 1980s, when he saw a Cathay Pacific flight attendant get out of a cab and walk into the Kowloon Walled City. - Greg Girard and Bianca Tse/Midjourney The outcome was "very close" to how Girard said he remembered it. - Greg Girard and Bianca Tse/Midjourney But with the photographers blessing, Tse fed his photographs and a series of prompts into Midjourney, going through several thousand versions, she said, to make the woman and the photograph look real. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Girard said he was interested to collaborate because Tses work is such a departure from his own. I was curious where she would take it. What won me over was that she (Tse) asked, straight up, for permission, he added in a phone interview. Because so many people just steal it and you discover it later and then go about trying to deal with that. She was very correct and straight out. The outcome was very close to the way Girard remembers it. It felt somehow both a little disorienting but also satisfying, to have someone else make a picture of what was going on inside your own head. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Five Assumption University students and a juvenile are facing Kidnapping and Conspiracy charges for allegedly taking part in a TikTok Challenge gone wrong. Assumption University police say the students, using a Tinder account belonging to an 18-year-old student, tricked a man into meeting up with her on campus. The point of the meetup, according to police, was to record a Catch a Predator-styled video. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On October 1, the man, who was in Worcester to attend his grandmothers funeral, met the female student in a reception area inside Alumni Hall. According to a police report, a large group of mostly male students were hiding in that reception area. They eventually came out of hiding and allegedly confronted the victim and restrained him. The victim got away, but he was chased by a mob of up to 30 people. Someone punched the victim in the back of the head. And out in the parking lot, somebody slammed his car door on him as he tried to get away. After reviewing the video of the incident, Assumption Police allege the entire incident was a setup Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The primary group of conspiratorsexchanged ideas of what to text the subject in order to lead him onto campus. The premeditated gathering and staging of the students in the lounge area to catch this subject was conducted by the use of trickery or deceit to seize, confine or kidnap this person, police said in a report. In a statement, Assumption University said in part: The behavior described in the court filing is abhorrent. This incident highlights the real harm social media can inflict when it promotes dangerous and irresponsible behavior. I briefly spoke to the victims father who told me his son lives out of state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He did not wish to comment further. I reached out to the students charged and did not receive any comment. The students are due in Worcester District Court for arraignment on January 16th. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW While the Atlanta City Council approved a renewed contract with the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative in November, issues with that contract prompted the agreement to temporarily lapse. PAD provides what are known as jail diversion services, which keeps people in Atlanta who face arrest from going to jail and provides resources to help them with social services instead. In November, Channel 2 Action News reported when the city council approved a two-year, $5 million contract to renew PADs services with the city, but those services were temporarily put on hold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Atlanta Mayors Office announced Thursday morning that the agreement had been put on hold due to a conflict over the contracts terms. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The statement from the mayors office reads: After negotiating in good faith, and arriving at a new agreement with PAD, their Executive Director has announced that they are suspending their work with the City of Atlanta, nevertheless. The previous agreement lacked the necessary performance metrics that would ensure taxpayers were getting the services for which they paid. The updated contract, complete with new performance metrics, was agreed to by PAD. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moki Macias, Executive Director of PAD, told Channel 2 Action News that a contract was received by the organization at about noon Thursday, after the mayors office announcement. She said the city councils Nov. 18 contract authorization was a step toward renewal, but that the organization had still not gotten a final version before the citys announcement. Macias said PAD received a contract from the City of Atlanta on Dec. 30 which included new metrics the city requested for performance for the contract. She said PAD responded promptly and was told on Dec. 31 that the city had agreed to revisions, which they agreed to. Before they received the contract on Thursday at noon, PAD had discontinued their month-to-month contract with Atlanta. That discontinuation was why the city said calls to ATL311 would be serviced by the Citys HOPE team until the contract with PAD was finalized and signed. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In anticipation of any potential delays from the signature process, the City offered to extend its ongoing month-to-month contract until this process was complete to ensure PADs work would continue. PAD refused, city officials said. Diversion services will continue to be offered via the Citys HOPE team until a new contract can be finalized with a qualified contractor. Residents can continue to call 311 for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis. A spokesperson for the mayors office told Channel 2 Action News that theyd requested a continuation of the month-to-month service with PAD until the contract was formally signed, due to potential delays during the New Years Eve and New Years Day holiday, but PAD refused. Speaking on background, a spokesperson for the mayors office said the addition of performance metrics to the new PAD contract was to ensure $5 million in taxpayer dollars were being spent as intended. Officials for the City of Atlanta told Channel 2 Action News that ATL311 services had continued with work by city teams in the interim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are hopeful that we can get the contract executed by end of day today, Macias said Thursday afternoon. A spokesperson for the mayors office said they were hopeful the contract would finalize as well, adding that all of the back-and-forth in the past few days was a manufactured controversy. Channel 2 Action News reached out to PAD, but they declined to respond further, only saying that the contract was still not in place. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Attorney General Phil Weiser speaks at the 2022 Denver Metro Chamber candidate forum at the University of Denver, Oct 12, 2022. (Carl Payne for Colorado Newsline) Attorney General Phil Weiser is the first major candidate to formally enter Colorados wide-open 2026 governors race. There are many reasons why Im running to lead this state I love, but the biggest reason is simple: Im committed to fighting for the people of Colorado, Weiser, a Democrat, said in a campaign press release Thursday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, first elected in 2018, is term-limited next year. His landslide reelection victory in 2022 helped cement Colorados reputation as a solidly blue state, and the winner of next years Democratic gubernatorial primary will enter the general election as the heavy favorite. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Other prominent Democrats who could join the governors race include U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Lafayette and Secretary of State Jena Griswold. An early poll of the race released last month showed no prospective candidate with a commanding lead. Neguse received support from 20% of registered voters, trailed by Griswold at 16%. Weiser received 8% support, behind veteran Colorado politico Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and current ambassador to Mexico at 11%. Nearly half of all respondents said they were undecided or planned to vote for another candidate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weiser, a former antitrust lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice and dean of the University of Colorado Law School, was first elected attorney general in 2018, becoming only the second Democrat after Salazar to serve in the position since the 1970s. He was reelected to a second four-year term in 2022. Most recently, his tenure as Colorados top lawyer has included a major state antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons. Weisers office has also joined a federal suit alleging that software company RealPage, used by landlords to set rents, is facilitating an illegal price-fixing scheme. Other accomplishments touted by Weisers campaign announcement include Colorados receipt of nearly $800 million in settlement funds related to the opioid crisis, settlements over hotel junk fees and efforts to address the youth mental health crisis. From day one, Ive met my commitment to you to show up in every county, to listen to you, and to get results, Weiser said in a statement. This campaign will focus on engaging with you and having real conversations, to hear whats on your mind, to learn how our state government can best serve you, and to get your ideas on how we can meet our challenges, together. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE NEW ORLEANS, LA (WDHN) A graduate from Auburn University has been identified as one of the 15 victims killed in the New Orleans French Quarter attack on New Years Day. On Thursday morning, Auburn University President Christopher Roberts posted to the universitys Facebook page, identifying one of the victims as 2023 graduate Drew Dauphin. He grew up and went to school in the Montgomery area. Words cannot convey the sorrow the Auburn Family feels for Drews family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time. Our thoughts are with the Dauphin family and the families of all the victims of this senseless tragedy, said President Roberts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also among those killed in the attack was University of Alabama student Kareem Badawi. Alabama student among those killed in New Orleans on New Years Day Kareem, Drew, and 13 others were killed when a rented Ford truck slammed into a crowd of people at the intersection of the famed Bourbon and Iberville streets at around 3:15 a.m. on New Years. New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell called the incident a terrorist attack during a press conference on Wednesday. FBI officials claimed the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar of Texas, had what appeared to be an ISIS flag on the back of the truck when he allegedly went through the barricades to reach the crowd. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sources tell WDHNs sister station in New Orleans, WGNO, that Jabbar was shot and killed by New Orleans Police after an exchange of gunfire. Following the deadly attack, Alabama politicians and Enterprise natives, Senator Katie Britt and Rep. Barry Moore, called for justice for those killed and called the attack an act of evil. Unbridled evil Alabama politicians call for justice after intentional New Orleans crash kills 15 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com. AUSTIN (KXAN) For decades, Waterloo Records & Video has been a cornerstone of Austins music scene. Now, the business is entering a new chapter with a new location and owners. Caren Kelleher, CEO of Gold Rush Vinyl, confirmed Thursday she and business partner Trey Watson (CEO of Armadillo Records) will be taking over Waterloo Records. The vinyl shop has operated in Austin for more than 40 years, including 35 years at its current location along West Sixth Street and North Lamar Boulevard. Following a 2019 property purchase by Endeavor Real Estate Group, the business faced closure or relocation. Now, Waterloo Records will relocate to 1105 N. Lamar Blvd. in the springtime, according to a Thursday release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kelleher said her appreciation for Waterloo Records dated back 20 years, from when she first visited the store in 2005. In an Instagram announcement, she deemed Waterloo a beacon for music discovery, a champion of artists, and one of the most iconic record stores in the world. Some of my most formative memories in childhood were going to record stores with my dad, and certainly going to Waterloo in 2005, she told KXAN. The magic of a record store is just something really special. And every time I go to Waterloo, and I am there in store and I see a father and daughter walk in, for example, I think, wow, this could be the moment for that child that maybe sparks an interest in creativity and music in a way that it did for me.' Kelleher said the opportunity to co-own Waterloo Records is a lifetime honor, adding she moved to Austin because of its rich music history and scene. To have a chance to both honor the history of Waterloo and its own influences back to the Armadillo World Headquarters and other stores that came before it and then also to think about how the Austin music scene itself is evolving, and how we involve the musicians that are reshaping what this community looks like? I feel really lucky, she said. Im in a unique position with both Gold Rush Vinyl and Waterloo to see that happening and to get to both honor and grow the legacy of Waterloo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Waterloo Records upcoming location will feature more space for in-store events and music performances and expanded parking for customers. A grand opening, along with a community celebration, is set to be held on a yet-to-be-announced date, the release added. Kelleher said she will maintain ownership and continue to serve as CEO of Gold Rush Vinyl, adding her hope is both businesses will help champion local musicians and aid fans in better connecting with the music and artistry they love. It also reflects a watershed moment within the music sector, as physical media like vinyl records have seen a resurgence in popularity and sales. With digital royalties being so thin, she said this shift in purchasing behavior helps create more opportunities for artists to make money off their work while connecting with fans in a more intimate way. I think it speaks to whats going on in society you hear people talk about this epidemic of loneliness thats happening, that as digitally connected as we are in the world, people still crave tangible things, Kelleher said. They crave human interaction, and I think the store environment that Waterloo is facilitates that kind of connection. For you to be able to come in and to get a recommendation on new music that you might not otherwise have found in your algorithmic playlist is really, really important. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Intertwined within that community are the employees who help curate that environment and music-sharing experience. As this transition takes place, she confirmed Waterloo Records staff team will be coming along for the ride. Being an entrepreneur, Kelleher said its critical to both create and preserve jobs within Austins economy, as well as vital to honor the people whose work and craftsmanship have helped make the store what it is. And that honor extends to top leadership; while Waterloo is pivoting to new ownership, Kunz will stay on as chair emeritus of Waterloo Records, the release said. My decades-long hope, dream and endeavor, has been for Waterloo Records & Video to live on forever, continuing to promote Austins vibrant music culture and community. Now with this transition, all of my boxes are checked: a new larger home, just five blocks away; Caren and Trey buy in as my new, talented, local music industry partners; all of my team are retained and they will gain the opportunity for store ownership; all of the Waterloo Records hallmarks and traditions continue on, including innovation; and now as a minority partner and not sole proprietor, I get to work less, and play more. So thank you Austin! Current owner John Kunz said in the announcement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. Two crew members of an Australian airline were allegedly raped and robbed in the Fijian city of Nadi during a night out in the early hours of News Years Day. Juki Fong Chew, Fijis acting commissioner of police, confirmed police were investigating the incidents involving Virgin Australia crew members, a man and a woman, who were on a layover at the popular tourist destination at the time. Fiji police said the woman was allegedly raped and the man was robbed after leaving a nightclub in Nadi. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The man was taken to hospital and treated for facial injuries. It is understood the incidents occurred outside the Bar One nightclub in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, two of the crew members were victims of an alleged theft and rape after exiting the nightclub trying to find their way back to the hotel, Mr Chew said. The crew members were due to fly out of the city the following day. The airline has sent staff to Fiji to provide support to the crew members. Viliame Gavoka, Fijis deputy prime minister and minister for tourism and civil aviation, expressed regret over the alleged incidents and said that a suspect known to the police for the alleged sexual assault had been questioned and that the investigation was ongoing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He reiterated that these were two separate incidents of alleged theft and sexual assault which affected two different Virgin crew members. Mr Gavoka said the crew were in good health and remained at a Fiji hotel in order to assist police with their investigations. They should return home before the end of the week, he said. Our thoughts and concerns are with them and for their health and wellbeing. The South Pacific island nation of Fiji is a popular tourist destination and received 76,845 visitors in November, mostly from Australia, New Zealand and North America, according to the countrys tourism website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware of the reports. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Authorities assessed no "credible threat" to New Orleans' New Year's events prior to an attack early on Wednesday that killed at least 15 people, according to a joint Louisiana and New Orleans police threat assessment obtained by Reuters. The document is dated December 2024 and notes there was no credible threat from international terrorists, homegrown violent extremists or domestic violent extremists. The document notes that unaffiliated lone offenders and homegrown violent extremists are of particular concern because of their ability to remain undetected until operational. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The police departments also say that foreign terrorist organizations and their affiliates continue to call on individuals to conduct independent attacks in the U.S using improvised explosive devices and vehicles. The New Orleans Police Department and the Louisiana State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Erin Banco; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) They drove far from home with murder on their minds to places people usually travel to from around the countryand the worldto let their hair down and have a good time. Both had reportedly served in the U.S. military, possibly at the same base, and packed their vehicles with explosives before driving separately to New Orleans and Las Vegas. Both rented from the same Turo app that allows private owners to lend out their vehicles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And both Americans succeeded in bringing terror to the very people they once swore to protect. Now authorities are investigating a possible military connection between the two suspects, law enforcement sources told NBC News. Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowed his Ford electric pick-up through a crowd of revelers in New Orleans popular French Quarter, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more on New Years Eve, while Matthew Livelsberger blew up a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas a few hours later at 8.40 a.m. on New Years Day, killing himself and injuring seven others. Authorities have not publicly named Livelsberger as the Las Vegas suspect, but his identity was confirmed to multiple media outlets. He was reportedly 37 and associated with several addresses in Colorado Springs, according to Las Vegas KTNV-TV. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators believed within minutes of the New Orleans attack that Jabbar wasnt working alone. It was only after the Cybertruck explosion that they began trying to connect the dots. Both men died in the attacksJabbar was shot dead by police after he opened fire at them amid the carnage he caused on Bourbon Street and Livelsberger died in his blown-up Tesla. Clark County fire vehicles surround the valet area where a Cybertruck exploded at the Trump International Hotel. / The Washington Post via Getty Im President Joe Biden said that law enforcement, the intelligence community are investigating the Cybertruck explosion, including whether there is any possible connection to the attack in New Orleans. I directed my team to make sure every resource is made available to the federal, state, and local law enforcement, to complete the investigation in New Orleans quickly, and make sure theres no remaining threat to the American people, he told reporters at Camp David. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said investigators have not ruled out a connection between the two attacks. Do I think its a coincidence? I dont know, said Sheriff Kevin McMahill. Were absolutely looking into any connections to New Orleans. While Jabbar appears to have supported the ISIS terror group, there is no indication that Livelsberger had any known terrorist links and there is no evidence that the two men were friends. Texas DPS photograph of the suspect / Texas DPS/via REUTERS Matthew Livelsberger was named in local reports as the suspect in the Las Vegas incident. / LinkedIn Federal agents were combing addresses in Colorado Springs linked to Livelsberger on Thursday as it became clear that was where he lived and rented the futuristic vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Texas, where Jabbar was from, the FBI was already building a picture of a twice-married veteran, who had two daughters, as a man with problems, but not so different from many of his countrymen and women. He had brushes with the law, misdemeanor charges for theft and driving offenses, and issues with debts and relationships. Jabbar, who was 42, worked in real estate after the military, where he saw service in Afghanistan. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in March 2007 and specialized in human resources and IT work. He was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 and switched to the U.S. Army Reserve in 2015, serving until 2020 and leaving with the rank of staff sergeant, according to the Associated Press. His 24-year-old brother, Abdur, told the New York Times that Jabbar had long ago converted to Islam and had been radicalized. The Daily Mail is reporting that Livelsberger served in the Special Forces based on a LinkedIn profile, although this information has not been verified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although law enforcement sources have told multiple outlets that the two men served at the same military base, further details have not yet been disclosed. Its not clear if they served at the base at the same time. Both rented vehicles were EVs, fueling speculation that they were linked. A spokesperson for Turo said: We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals. HOUSTON The FBI said the agency and local law enforcement in Texas have searched a location in Houston that is connected to the attack that killed at least 14 people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year's Day. The attacker who rammed a truck into a crowd to carry out his deadly rampage has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Houston, Texas. The FBI said its agents and the Harris County Sheriff's Office completed a court-authorized search Thursday morning of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive, in north Houston. A residence near there is listed as Jabbar's most recent home address, records show. A neighbor confirmed to CBS News Texas that Jabbar lived there for the last year and a half and said he saw Jabbar there on Tuesday. Investigators, however, have not confirmed that Jabbar lived at the location. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was heavy FBI presence in the neighborhood Wednesday and a SWAT team and armored cars were present as authorities were seen focusing on a vehicle and a residence. They were cautious as they approached the home and flew drones over it. No arrests were made, the FBI said, and there was no threat to residents in the area. Authorities search a home connected to the man who killed at least 15 and injured dozens on New Year's Day in New Orleans. / Credit: CBS News On Thursday morning, Harris County Sheriff deputies blocked off a road leading into the small neighborhood in the north side of Houston where the residence is located. Investigators are continuing to search for a motive in the attack. President Biden said in televised remarks that the FBI determined Jabbar "posted videos to social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill," hours before the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attacker drove around barricades and up onto the sidewalk of Bourbon Street, according to New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick. He "was trying to run over as many people as he could," Kirkpatrick said. The FBI initially said that 15 people, excluding the driver, were killed in the attack. The toll was later revised by the New Orleans coroner's office to include the attacker. Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say What's known about possible explosives, suspect after truck slams into New Orleans crowd Donald Trump talks about his presidential campaign and the importance of turning out the vote at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, before the polls open on Nov. 5 2024 (Anna Liz Nichols/Michigan Advance). A divisive election season full of twists and turns is now over. With control of the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the presidency, Republicans look as though they have won in a landslide. How did we get here, and is there more to this victory than meets the eye? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In November 2022, Donald Trump announced that he would be running for re-election. The following April, Biden announced that he, too, would be running for re-election. Despite being an outcome that many did not want, America appeared destined to endure a Trump vs. Biden rematch. In May of 2024, Trump became a convicted felon. In June, Biden stumbled his way through a terrible debate performance. In July, Trump survived an assassination attempt. Later than month, Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Kamala Harris. In September, Trump falsely claimed that immigrants were eating the dogs in Springfield, Ohio. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In October, Biden seemingly referred to Trump supporters as garbage which the White House and Harris later tried to walk back. Then, in November, Trump became the first president in over 100 years to win non-consecutive presidential terms. Trump claims that Republicans won a political victory that our country has never seen before. Is this true? In the House, Republicans won 220 out of 435 seats. In other words, they won about 50.57% of all seats. When you look at the popular vote, the results are similar. As of when this article was written, Republicans have received 74,826,851 votes out of 148,033,237 votes cast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This equates to about 50.55%. Put differently, this means that the percentage of seats that Republicans won in the House is roughly proportionate to the percentage of the total votes Republicans received. As such, you could say that the narrowly divided House reflects how narrowly divided America is at the moment. The same could not be said about the Senate. Recall that senators serve 6-terms and roughly a third of the Senate is up for grabs every two years. After this election, Republicans will control 53 out of 100 seats or 53% of all seats. However, when you look at the popular vote, Republicans received 54,402,269 votes out of 113,998,100 votes cast. This equates to about 47.72%. This means that more than 50% of voters cast their ballot for someone that was not a Republican. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What about the presidential election? Trump claims that his supporters showed up in record numbers to deliver a victory. Trump won 312 out of 538 electoral votes, which comes out to about 57.99% of all electoral votes. So, it is accurate to say that his supporters helped to deliver a victory. However, the part about his supporters showing up in record numbers is not true. Trump received 77,302,164 votes out of 155,477,242 votes cast. This equates to about 49.72%. This means that more than 50% of voters cast their ballot for someone other than Trump. It is also worth pointing out that the number of votes Trump received in 2024 is substantially less than the 81,283,501 votes that Biden received in 2020. In other words, Trumps massive victory was about 4 million votes less that Bidens victory. Prior to Trumps 2016 inauguration, he predicted an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout. A few weeks later, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated that Trumps inaugural ceremony had drawn the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration period both in person and around the globe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Photos from the National Park Service appear to contradict this claim, as do statistics on public transportation ridership, as well as estimates of the number of television viewers. During a Meet the Press interview, Chuck Todd asked Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway why Spicer would attest to such a provable falsehood. Conway responded that Spicer had given alternative facts thereby coining a new term for facts that are not true. In his 2024 victory speech, Trump said that Americans have given Republicans an unprecedented and powerful mandate. In a recent interview with Time magazine, he added that the beauty is that we won by so much. It seems as though the era of alternative facts is not over. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although Republicans won the 2024 election, this victory was neither massive nor unprecedented. Rather, with nearly all votes counted, it looks as though Republicans barely squeaked by with a majority of the popular vote in the House, while in the Senate and at the presidential level, more Americans voted against Republican candidates than for them. Today, American is divided right now the middle, with nearly half of voters supporting Republicans and the other half supporting Democrats. Despite this nearly equal division, thanks to the quirks of our electoral system, Republicans now possess a disproportionally large amount of power. Hopefully they wield it wisely because in less than two years, those in power will have to face voters, as Americans will be back at the polls to vote in the 2026 midterms. Two splitboarders have died in Utah avalanches since December 28, 2024. The Utah Avalanche Center published two reports on December 31, 2024. Both detail separate slides that killed people in two different occasions in the backcountry. The first avalanche occurred at Porter Fork Pass in the Salt Lake regions Mill Creek Canyon on December 28, 2024. Salt Lake County Search and Rescue received a missing person report when a family member failed to arrive as expected. Search and Rescue looked for the lost person for two days, but were unable to get to higher elevation because of high avalanche risk. A good Samaritan found the person who appeared to have been buried in an avalanche just below Porter Fork Pass, the report said. The person appears to have gone into the backcountry alone on Saturday, December 28 and was caught in the avalanche some time that afternoon. SLCOSAR and Lifeflight retrieved the body on Tuesday. The man was a 38 years old, from Quebec, Canada. He has been identified as David Ethier by Global News Canada. The view of a Wasatch backcountry rescue from a helicopter. Photo: Utah Avalanche Center Then on December 31, 2024, a solo splitboarder triggered an avalanche when dropping into Davenport Hill in the Silver Fork Drainage of Big Cottonwood Canyon. He was buried and killed, and found later by a group in the backcountry who noticed a single track into fresh avalanche debris and called Alta Central. Search and rescue teams from AirMed, DPS, Utah Department of Transportation, Salt Lake Search and Rescue, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, Alta Ski Area, and Utah Avalanche Center responded, found the individual with an avalanche transceiver and worked together to excavate the individual, the report said. He was buried approximately 20 feet (6m) from the surface. That man was 54 years old. He was carrying an avalanche transceiver, the report said. The avalanche danger rating is high in four regions in Utah, as of January 2, 2025. Logan, Ogden, the Uintas, and Salt Lake region are all rated high, while Provo and Skyline are considered considerable. Utah Avalanche Danger Ratings as of January 2, 2025. Photo: UAC Splitboarders and others venturing into the backcountry should always be cautious of the current avalanche risk, and make sure to check the danger rating before venturing out alone. They should always go with a partner, no matter what the risk is. It is never our goal to criticize someone involved in an accident, this should serve as a stark reminder to how unstable the snowpack is in the Wasatch right now, and how many resources, time, and risk to personal [safety] a backcountry winter operation in these conditions requires, Salt Lake County Search and Rescue said in a statement. Related: Colorado Sheriff Warns of Increased Ski and Snowboard Thefts Two years on, the consequences of the Texas abortion ban are almost too grim to contemplate: amidst a surge in infant mortality, babies are being found discarded in dumpsters, ditches, curbsides, and garbage trucks, the Washington Post reports. This year, there have been at least 18 cases of abandoned infants in the state, according to Texas Department of Family and Protective Services figures cited by WaPo. That's more than double the number documented ten years ago, the newspaper notes. "There apparently has been... a little bit of an epidemic on this," said a sheriff's official for Houston's surrounding county, where the body of an infant was found in a roadside ditch this summer, as quoted by WaPo. The morbid discovery was made by a landscaping crew. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Texas ban, which went into effect in 2021, is considered the most draconian in the nation. It makes no exceptions even in cases of rape or incest, leaving women with no legal means of stopping unwanted pregnancies. And according to independent research from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, the percentage of women without access to healthcare is the highest in the country, per WaPo. The already desperate circumstances are even worse for pregnant undocumented immigrants, who may avoid going to a clinic to seek care for fear of being deported. "All of these intersectional things could be leading to this," Blake Rocap, a lawyer with the Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told WaPo. The issue is exacerbated by the state's "abysmal" access to prenatal care, he added, "particularly for people without private insurance, particularly for people without immigration status." In addition to the harrowing rise of infant abandonment, Texas currently has the eighth highest rate of teenage births, per US data, with over 20 cases per 1,000 teens aged between 15 and 19, compared to 13.6 nationwide. It also has the 13th worst maternal mortality in the country, with around 28 deaths for every 100,000 live births. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All the while, the state's Republican leadership has slashed funding for women's health and reproductive care. But the problem isn't only the abortion ban and the poor access to care, according to critics. It's also the lack of education on the issue. State lawmakers have continued to cut funding for an awareness campaign that would inform mothers what to do when they decide they can't keep their baby, the WaPo said, despite enjoying a budget surplus well over $30 billion. Texas has "safe haven" laws that let mothers anonymously relinquish newborn babies at designated locations without risk of prosecution measures that are often used to downplay the cruelty of the abortion ban. But little to no effort is being made to let women know that these alternatives exist, let alone fund them. This is plain even to opponents of abortion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Women don't know what to do," Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a former congresswoman and director of The Woodlands township, told WaPo. "We have to educate, to give them more choices, to give them a chance to provide a loving home for their child." More on abortion: Hundreds More Babies Are Dying Since Banning Abortion St. Clair Hospital welcomed its first baby of the year just seconds after the start of the New Year. According to a press release from the hospital, baby William was born ten seconds into 2025. Evan and Frank, residents of Washington, were the proud parents. We were thrilled to help bring the first local baby of the New Year into the world, said Shawndel Laughner, RN, BSN, MHA, Director of Womens & Childrens Services at St. Clair Health. Its a wonderful way to begin the year, and we are honored to be part of such a joyful occasion for this family. They are all doing great! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement William weighed 6 pounds and 9 ounces. Staff put the baby in a celebratory outfit and shared a gift basket with the parents in celebration of the special event. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW After stopping a driver for excessive speed, police said they discovered a baby spider monkey wearing a onesie inside the vehicle. An officer from the California Highway Patrol's Madera office made the discovery during a stop on Monday, Dec. 30, according to a statement from officials. "Last night (December 30, 2024), a CHP Madera officer stopped a Rolls Royce Ghost on northbound SR-99, north of Avenue 17, for excessive speed. The driver was found to be under the influence and placed under arrest for DUI, and possession of cannabis for sale," police wrote. "The driver was also in possession of a Spider Monkey, believed to be 1 month old." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Primates are illegal to own as pets in California," they added. Photos from the stop showed the monkey wearing a pink onesie, while other images from the scene showed five cell phones, along with bags and containers of weed, sitting on the hood of the car. CHP Madera Facebook Scene of incident Scene of incident The driver had a baby monkey attached or clenched on his person. Thats something you dont see every day," Modera CHP spokesperson Sergio Moreno told KSEE. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. A Madera County Sheriff's Office spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE that the driver, identified as 27-year-old Ali Mused Adel Mohamed, has been booked into the Madera County Jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was found to allegedly be under the influence and was placed under arrest and faces "several charges, including possession of an exotic animal," per the CHP statement. PEOPLE has reached out to the CHP for additional comment. CHP Madera Facebook Scene of incident Scene of incident According to The Los Angeles Times, the arresting officer volunteered to take the monkey home and care for it overnight following the incident. He then took it to Madera Countys Animal Services on Tuesday morning, per the outlet. CHP Madera Facebook Scene of incident Scene of incident The shelter went on to make its own social media post from the monkey's time with them. CHP confirmed to PEOPLE that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has since taken the spider monkey to the Oakland Zoo for appropriate care. Read the original article on People DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) A court in southeastern Bangladesh on Thursday rejected a plea for bail by a jailed Hindu leader who led large rallies in the Muslim-majority country demanding better security for minority groups. Krishna Das Prabhu, 39, faces sedition charges after he led huge rallies in the southeastern city of Chattogram. Hindu groups say there have been thousands of attacks against Hindus since early August, when the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown. Prabhu didn't appear at the hearing, during which Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Saiful Islam rejected the bail plea, according to Public Prosecutor Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan. Security was tight, with police and soldiers guarding the court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He faces serious charges like sedition and others involving the security and sovereignty of our country," Bhuiyan told The Associated Press by phone. "We argued in the court that if he gets bail it could create anarchy as we saw in the past that he triggered violence on the court premises by calling thousands of his supporters to protest. "So, we moved against his bail plea as we believed that he could misuse his bail. Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee, a lawyer representing Prabhu, said that they would appeal the decision. The court rejected an earlier request for bail made while Prabhu didn't have lawyers. Lawyers who sought to represent him at that hearing said they were threatened or intimidated, and many of them are facing charges related to the death of a Muslim lawyer during clashes outside the court when Prabhu appeared there shortly after being arrested in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, in November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Thursday's hearing, 11 lawyers traveled from Dhaka, arriving and leaving with a security escort. Hindu groups and other minority groups in Bangladesh and abroad have criticized the interim government led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus for undermining their security. Yunus and his supporters said that reports of attacks on Hindus and other groups since August have been exaggerated. Prabhus arrest came as tensions spiked following reports of the desecration of the Indian flag in Bangladesh, with some burning it and others laying it on the floor for people to step on. Protesters in India responded in kind. Prabhu is a spokesman for the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatan Jagaran Jote group. He was also associated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known as the Hare Krishna movement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Radharamn Das, vice president and spokesman of the group in Kolkata, the capital of India's West Bengal state, told the television station India Today that Prabhu's health is deteriorating. Das said that the jailed Hindu leader "has become a face of minorities in Bangladesh. The minorities see him as a ray of hope. He represents their voice." Taylor Swift performs on opening night of The Eras Tour at State Farm Stadium in March in Arizona. The word "era" made this year's list of banned words by Lake Superior State University, which said "Unless you are Taylor Swift, it might be time to leave era behind. | Courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management The new year just dropped and Lake Superior State University has announced this years list of banished words and phrases, including dropped, era, cringe and skibidi. In a half-a-century long tradition, the Northern Michigan school has unveiled a yearly list of words that seeks to challenge readers to put more thought into language in 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since the first list of banished words was released in 1976 by former Lake Superior State University Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and his colleagues in a List of Words Banished from the Queens English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness, words and phrases like diva, at the end of the day, talk to the hand and journey have been ejected. Last year rizz, slay and cringe-worthy, were amongst the huddle of words sent to exile. Words matter! Old habits can be hard to break and were happy to serve as a resource for the court of public opinion on what should continue to be part of the English language and what needs to be put to rest, Lake Superior State President, Dr. David Travis said. Here are the 2025 words and phrases selected for banishment, along with the reasons they made the list: Cringe While cringe once packed a punch, it has now overstayed its welcome. Overuse has dulled its impact, and ironically, using it might now cause the very reaction it describes. Saying someone caused you to cringe or stating that you cringed at something is a pretty easy and proper way to use the word, writes Ash from Newton, Alabama. Hearing someone say someone is so cringe makes me cringe! Game Changer How many times can a game change before it is no longer recognizable? This phrase, often used to describe anything remotely innovative, is as tired as a well-worn cliche. Nothing is a game changer if everything is a game changer, writes Patrick of Washington, DC. Era Unless you are Taylor Swift, it might be time to leave era behind. The terms overuse has made every fleeting moment feel like it demands a historical marker. Leah of Holland, Michigan submits, Thanks to the name of Taylor Swifts tour, now there is an era for everyone and everything! Hes in his fatherhood era, Shes in her pottery-making era, etc., etc.. Its overused and tiring. Dropped Once edgy and cool, dropped has become more of a letdown. Whether it is an album, a trend, or a product, this term has fallen flat. Books, music, and all kinds of unnecessary things are currently being dropped rather than introduced, released, or offered for sale. Banished for overuse, misuse, abuse, and hurting my head when all that dropping stuff lands on me!, laments Susan of Littleton, CO. IYKYK (If You Know, You Know) Internet slang and texting abbreviations are often fan-favorites of Banished Word submitters each year. Cryptic and exclusionary, this phrase offers little clarity or substance. If you know, you might agree it is time to let this one go. Amy from Redford, MI feels this phrase should go for being both irritating and nonsensical. Sorry Not Sorry A half-hearted apology masquerading as bold honesty, this phrase feels as disingenuous as it sounds. Banished Word enthusiasts recommend just saying what you mean or in at least one case showing a little kindness. Sabrina from Wrenshall, MN writes, It is really tiring to hear, and it is giving people another reason to be jerks to one another. Skibidi This viral word may have resonated with a younger crowd, but for many it is just noise. Agatha from Denmark explains, Nobody cares about a Skibidi toilet, Skibidi fizz, or Skibidi Ohio fanum tax. At this point, nobody even knows what it means and it just annoys people. 100% Is it possible to be over-enthusiastic about retiring the phrase 100%? Absolutely! Its overuse has left no room for nuance or doubt. A phrase predominantly nominated for its overuse, some felt it was simply not applicable. Since when should a percentage be used to describe your agreement in a conversation? asked Stephen from Sudbury, Ontario. Utilize A classic offender, utilize proves that longer is not always better. Why complicate things when use works just fine? Everett from Cumby, Texas encourages readers to Write like you talk, and added, Lord, I hope you dont talk like that. Period Yes, we understand your pointno need to verbally punctuate it. Overuse has turned this into a period we are ready to end. Theresa from Detroit, MI, recommends that we banish this word by putting it in a bottle and sending it out to sea. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Banking Genius & Civic leader Gene Rainbolt dies at 95 OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Gene Rainbolt, born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma, and known as one of Oklahoma bankings most prominent figures, has passed away at age 95. Gene Rainbolt, Image Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) According to the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS), Gene Rainbolt dedicated the bulk of his career in the banking industry to revolutionizing Oklahomas outdated and backward banking systems. Rainbolt, in his words, staying loyal to Oklahomahis own BancFirsts sloganalways kept others in focus, whether it was his customers or his own workforce, noted OHS. Investing deeply in his staffs care, Rainbolts banks had the most loyal staff in Oklahoma. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New, higher Oklahoma toll prices now in effect Rainbolt attributes his enduring drive to be a blessing to others, saying, Be perpetually curious. Curiosity brings vision. Value persistence and have self-confidence that you can take advantage of the change thats in front of us. And I tell them, You should stay in Oklahoma because you can have more impact here than you can in Texas or a much bigger state. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond made the following remarks regarding Oklahoma businessman and civic leader Rainbolt saying, I am saddened to learn of the death of Gene Rainbolt. One of Oklahomas greatest civic leaders, Gene was a proud Oklahoman, through and througha product of the Dust Bowl who went on to become an innovator in banking, a champion for education and a leading light in philanthropy. His contributions to the state he dearly loved are beyond measure. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. While we grieve his loss, the life of Gene Rainbolt can inspire us all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt and Sen. Carri Hicks issued the following statements on Thursday mourning the loss of Oklahoma business and civic leader Gene Rainbolt. Gene had a tremendous and positive impact on our state. His long-standing work for quality education for all was especially focused on every Oklahoma child having opportunities thats key to helping create a more prosperous future. Oklahoma is better for his life and service, and we join his family and loved ones in mourning his passing. Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. Gene Rainbolt was my constituent and friend. It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of this visionary leader whose unwavering commitment to Oklahoma City transformed our community and state for the better. His legacy of philanthropy, innovation, and dedication to education will continue to inspire future generations to come. Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City. Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, a longtime community banker, issued the following statement on the passing of Gene Rainbolt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gene Rainbolt was an Oklahoma icon, a benevolent civic leader and a banking visionary who set a gold standard for so many of us in the industry, said Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry. I first met Gene over 30 years ago when I started out as a banker. His work to build the largest state-chartered bank in Oklahoma was truly remarkable. Outside of business, his philanthropy and unwavering commitment to better this state helped transform countless towns and cities where he had bank branches. Genes absence will be deeply felt in Oklahomas banking community and beyond. Im praying for the Rainbolt family during this difficult time, but I hope Genes family and friends find solace in knowing that his legacy will live on in Oklahoma for decades to come. Senator James Lankford on X issued the following statement on Gene Rainbolt saying, Cindy and I join Oklahomans to mourn the passing of one of Oklahomas favorite sons, Gene Rainbolt. Gene loved his family, and he loved Oklahoma. Gene is well known for his long-time leadership in banking and for his civic engagement. He never stopped working for the people of Oklahoma. He called himself the Resident Philosopher at BancFirst. He gave his time, wisdom and treasure to make sure any Oklahoman from any background had every opportunity to succeed. He will be missed. In 1999 Rainbolt was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and has received Honorary Doctorates from Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma City University, and Oklahoma Christian University, according to The Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) Barbara J. Pucci, 85, passed away peacefully, Friday evening, December 27, 2024, at Hospice House following a brief illness. Barbara was born December 30, 1938, in Youngstown, a daughter of the late Frank Swartzen and Barbara Kunovich Swartzen. Find obituaries from your high school She was a lifelong resident of the Youngstown area, where she devoted her life to the love and care of her family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barbara was a member of St. Angela Merici Parish. She found joy in the simple pleasures of life, especially the companionship of her dogs and the time spent with her family. Her warmth and kindness touched the lives of all who knew her, leaving behind a legacy of love and cherished memories. She is survived by her daughter, Jenni Lyn Pucci of Fort Mill, South Carolina; her son, Richard A. Pucci, Jr. of Austintown; a brother, Joseph Swartzen of Youngstown; a sister, Rose Parett of Girard; her granddaughter, Emma Eve Bailey of Fort Mill, South Carolina; as well as several nieces, nephews, extended family members and dear friends. Her husband of 31 years, Richard A. Pucci, whom she married June 17, 1971, died August 9, 2002. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An infant brother, Louis Swartzen and two sisters, Frances Strobel and Ann Scirocco also preceded Barbara in death. Family and friends may call from Noon 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 2, 2025, at Kinnick Funeral Home, 477 N. Meridian Road, Youngstown, where a funeral service will be held at 1:00 p.m. Interment will follow at Calvary Cemetery in Youngstown, where Barbara will be laid to rest beside her husband. Barbara will be remembered for her unwavering devotion to her family, her faith, and her compassionate heart. May she rest in eternal peace. To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store. A television tribute will air Friday, January 3 at the following approximate times: 5:17 a.m. on WKBN, 8:39 a.m. on FOX, 5:21 p.m. on WYTV and 6:35 p.m. on MyYTV. Video will be posted here the day of airing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. LOS ANGELES Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough announced a new program Thursday to reduce homelessness among veterans that McDonough said could serve as a national model. Under the new initiative, Los Angeles will work to increase the number of landlords who accept veterans housing vouchers, ease eligibility requirements for them to accept vouchers and speed up processing times within the city and countys housing authorities. When we end homelessness for veterans in Los Angeles, we will have shown America how to do it, McDonough said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The move comes on the heels of an August change to VA benefits that allows veterans to more easily receive both disability benefits and housing assistance, a move officials said would help ensure that thousands of unused housing vouchers allotted to veterans can be used. Previously, some veterans on disability benefits did not qualify for housing assistance because their benefits put them over the income limit for eligibility. In LA, Bass said, more than 2,000 vouchers went unused as a result of the regulation. The move also comes as statistics from the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week showed veterans as a bright spot in worsening national homelessness numbers. While homelessness increased 18 percent overall nationally from 2023-24, to 770,000 people, the share of veterans experiencing homelessness nationwide dropped by 8 percent. That figure dropped even further in California, by 12.1 percent, and in LA by 23 percent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bass nodded to those statistics in her speech Thursday, stressing that Los Angeles has bucked the trend nationally and stands ready to serve as a model for other cities hoping to effectively tackle the issue. No one who has served their country, who has put their life on the line, should be left to live on our streets, she said. Bass led a group of 50 mayors on a trip to Washington, D.C., last year to advocate for federal help in combating homelessness among veterans, and for this federal regulatory change in particular. This is what is possible when you bring all levels of government and the community and business organizations together, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement California, and LA in particular, have seen more promising numbers than the rest of the country. Homelessness across the state rose 3 percent, far lower than the national average. In Los Angeles, where Bass has made tackling the issue a defining feature of her tenure, overall homelessness dropped by 2.2 percent and street homelessness dropped by 10 percent. Throughout history birds have been handy harbingers of storms, with some falling silent or flying close to the ground as bad weather approaches. Now, scientists have discovered bats also change their behaviour ahead of storms, setting off on their migration journeys just before a tumult of wind and rain arrives. But they are not trying to avoid the bad weather, rather they use the storm fronts to surf on and save energy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (IAB) made the discovery after tracking 71 common noctule bats as they travelled 1,000 miles across Europe over three years. Unlike migratory birds, bats do not gain weight in preparation for migration and need to refuel every night, so their migration has a hopping pattern rather than a straight shot. On certain nights, we saw an explosion of departures that looked like bat fireworks, said Dr Edward Hurme, a researcher at the Max Planck IAB. We needed to figure out what all these bats were responding to on those particular nights. Migration waves linked to weather They found that these migration waves could be explained by changes in weather. Bats departed on nights when air pressure dropped and temperature spiked; in other words, they left before incoming storms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tag sensors that measured activity levels showed that bats used less energy flying on the nights ahead of the storms, and were harvesting invisible energy from the environment to power their continental flights. They were riding storm fronts, using the support of warm tailwinds, added Dr Hurme. It was known that birds use wind support during migration, and now we see that bats do too. There is a long tradition of folklore which suggests animals change their behaviour ahead of changes in the weather. Bats do not gain weight in preparation for migration and need to refuel every night - Stone RF Air pressure affects bird flight, and species with sensitive ears, like swallows, will fly as close to the ground as possible when the pressure drops. Low-flying birds are generally considered to be a sign of rain, while an increase of high-flyers indicates fair weather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Seabirds take refuge inland as a storm approaches and birds will start singing when rain is due to stop. Experts believe that the folktale that birds fall silent when storms are approaching is likely caused by the animals flying away ahead of incoming bad weather. The new study was possible because of new lightweight sensors which not only show where bats are, but also record the environment through which they are passing. We dont just see the path that bats took, we also see what they experienced in the environment as they migrated, added Dr Hurme. Its this context that gives us insight into the crucial decisions that bats made during their costly and dangerous journeys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Noctule bats are widespread in Britain and continental Europe and are only one of four species that migrate across the continent. They tend to live in woodland, regularly nesting in rot holes or woodpecker holes in trees, and fly so high up that they are often mistaken for swifts. They are the largest bat in Britain, with a wingspan of up to 15 inches, golden-brown fur with a darker brown face and wings. The new research was published in Science. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. BELOIT, Wis. (WTVO) Responding to the concerns of Beloits undocumented migrant community about President-elect Donald Trumps promised crackdown on illegal immigration, Police Chief Andre Sayles issued a statement on Thursday clarifying the citys policies on cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Weve been made aware of several concerns from our community members, Sayles said. We are aware of fears among families about immigration status and immigration enforcement from the Beloit Police Department (BPD). Our mission is to create safe neighborhoods by reducing crime, fear, and disorder through community collaboration using honorable, progressive policing. Sayles went on to say that an individuals immigration status is irrelevant to our mission, vision, core values. BPD only considers immigration status when an officer has reasonable belief that an individual has committed serious crimes that directly impact public safety. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump promised to carry out mass deportations of people in the U.S. illegally, while on the campaign trail, starting on Day 1 of his incoming administration. Tom Homan will be the federal governments border czar, who said his operation will reinstitute the Remain in Mexico policy, which forces people applying for asylum to wait in Mexico until its approved. Homan told Bradley the administration will detain and deport parents, even if their children are U.S. citizens. Homan has also indicated the Trump administration could bring back workplace raids, looking for people here illegally. According to Sayles, Beloit Police will cooperate with ICE requests under the following circumstances: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The individual is engaged in or suspected of terrorism or espionage; The individual is reasonably suspected of being involved in a criminal street gang; The individual is arrested for any violent felony; The individual is a previously deported felon and there is an independent basis for detaining or arresting them. Officers will not routinely inquire about the immigration status of individuals encountered during police interactions, Sayles said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. Injuries and deaths from powerful fireworks across Germany over the New Year holiday have again prompted debate about new restrictions or even a possible nationwide ban on fireworks. The interior minister for Berlin, Iris Spranger, spoke out on Thursday in favour of a broad prohibition of fireworks in the country that allows for only limited local exceptions, and said the federal government has a duty to act. "I support calls for a general ban on fireworks," Spranger told dpa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under current German law, fireworks are regulated as explosives but are generally allowed, with local governments granted only some limited authority to impose further restrictions. Berlin has been roiled by wild fireworks celebrations in recent years, and Spranger said she'd prefer a new legal framework that would allow the city to restrict fireworks to only a handful of designated "pyro permit zones." Bernie Sanders waded into an ongoing debate between Elon Musk and some on the right over H-1B visas. Musk and the tech right generally support the visas, but some in the MAGA base oppose them. Sanders argued that the system allows corporations to exploit workers and enrich themselves. Sen. Bernie Sanders is wading into the heated debate between Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the MAGA base over high-skilled immigration. In a statement released on Thursday, the Vermont independent and two-time Democratic presidential candidate said Musk is wrong about the H-1B visa, which is designed to bring high-skilled workers from abroad to work in the United States. Musk, Ramaswamy, and others on the "tech right" have argued that the system is necessary to compensate for a shortage of high-skilled workers in America, pitting them against more nationalist Republican voices who see the system as bringing unfair competition upon American workers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanders argued on Thursday that the system is used to exploit foreign workers while enriching corporations. Elon Musk is wrong. The main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire the best and the brightest, but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad. The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make. pic.twitter.com/Mwz7i9TcSM Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 2, 2025 "The main function of the H-1B visa program and other guest worker initiatives is not to hire 'the best and the brightest,' but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad," Sanders said, pointing to the fact that corporations have laid off American workers even as they've hired foreign workers through the H-1B system. "The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make." The Vermont senator called for a series of reforms to the system, including increasing guest worker fees for large corporations, raising the minimum wage for guest workers, and allowing them to easily switch jobs. "The widespread corporate abuse of the H-1B program must be ended," Sanders said. "It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has sided with Musk, saying that he supports the H-1B visa system. That's despite him signing an executive order halting the program in 2020. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sanders has previously signaled a willingness to work with the billionaire businessman on cutting defense spending via the "Department of Government Efficiency" initiative, though he told BI that it remains to be seen how serious Musk is about the issue. Read the original article on Business Insider KENTUCKY (FOX 56) We traveled all over the state to meet people and visit places that define the Spirit of the Bluegrass. Marvin Bartlett visited varied locations, including a cathedral known as Americas Notre Dame, a museum dedicated to the paranormal, and a reindeer farm. Read more Spirit of the Bluegrass stories He interviewed Kentuckians with unique pastimes, such as a diver who challenges himself to find things lost at the bottom of Lake Cumberland and a Lexington man who offers free poetry to anyone who stops by his sidewalk table. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The year also included a hunt for Bigfoot, a UTV ride on a trail of terror, and a visit to a disco restroom in a convenience store. MORE SPIRIT OF THE BLUEGRASS: Weve compiled some of our favorite moments from Spirit of the Bluegrass in 2024, which you can watch above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. A doctor in Beverly Hills charged in the drugging and raping of a woman earlier this year may have additional victims, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced Thursday. Physician Babak Hajhosseini, 42, was arrested in November by Los Angeles police in connection with a sexual assault that occurred on Aug. 18, the DAs Office stated. Details about the incident were not provided but more information was found in the charges filed by the DAs Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hajhosseini was charged with two felony counts of rape by use of drugs; one felony count of rape of an unconscious or asleep person; one felony count of oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance; three felony counts of oral copulation of an unconscious or asleep person; and one felony count of sodomy of an unconscious person. Babak Hajhosseini is seen in an image provided by the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office. Our offices Sex Crimes Division is working diligently to bring justice to the victim in this case, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. The case remains under investigation, and we encourage anyone with information about the defendant or similar incidents to contact the Los Angeles Police Department. Hajhosseini pleaded not guilty to all of the charges on Dec. 27 and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 13. He is currently out of custody after posting a $2.175 million bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If convicted as charged, Hajhosseini faces a maximum sentence of 34 years in prison. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Babak Hajhosseini, 42, who is now charged with sexually assaulting a woman in the city of Los Angeles on August 18, is suspected of having other victims, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Thursday. Our offices Sex Crimes Division is working diligently to bring justice to the victim in this case, Hochman said. The case remains under investigation, and we encourage anyone with information about the defendant or similar incidents to contact the Los Angeles Police Department. Related: A U.S. Army Veteran and Active-Duty Green Beret Connected to Separate New Year's Day Attacks Hajhosseini is charged in the case with two felony counts of rape by use of drugs; one felony count of rape of an unconscious or asleep person; one felony count of oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance; three felony counts of oral copulation of an unconscious or asleep person; and one felony count of sodomy of an unconscious person. Hajhosseini is the founder of the Wound & Burn Center of America and was also a visiting physician at Catalina Island Health, according to its website and investigators. Hajhosseini was arrested on November 26 by the Los Angeles Police Department. At an arraignment on December 27, Hajhosseini pleaded not guilty to all charges. A preliminary hearing setting is scheduled for February 13 in Dept. 50 of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Related: The Most-Read Stories of 2024: A Wild Year in Los Angeles Hajhosseini is currently out on a $2,175,000 bond as investigators urge anyone who knows of other inappropriate contact to come forward. Additional victims or anyone with information are asked to contact Detective Esther Lee, LAPD West Bureau, at (213) 473-0447. With just over two weeks until he cedes the reins of the executive branch to Donald Trump, President Joe Biden says the 235 judges confirmed to the federal bench during his four years in office will serve as a bulwark against abuses from the executive and legislative branches and will represent what he described as the best in America. Joined by Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader soon to be Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Biden spoke of the record number of judicial confirmations at an East Room ceremony attended by staff and supporters to mark the milestone, which the Democratic-led upper chamber reached late last month before recessing and ending legislative work for the year. The 235 judges, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the highest court in the land, are the most confirmed during any four-year presidential term since Jimmy Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. The total confirmed to the bench under Biden is just one judge more than the number confirmed by a Republican Senate majority during Trumps first term. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman on the highest court in the land (Getty Images) Unlike Trumps overwhelmingly white and male nominees, the Biden administration has taken pains to increase the number of non-white, female and LGBT+ nominees to the federal bench during his time in office. A fact sheet released by the White House on Thursday described his nominees as having transformed the federal bench with a judiciary that looks like the community it serves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking from the East Room not long after he was briefed on the New Years Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, Biden described the judges as highly qualified people whove had distinguished legal, judicial and academic careers. He said their backgrounds matter because judges spend their days shaping the everyday lives of Americans, protecting our basic freedoms when American institutions are in jeopardy. These judges will be independent, theyll be fair, and theyll be impartial. All these appointees understand the role of a judge and are committed to the rule of law, the institutional safeguards building our constitution that upholds the rights and guarantees of the Constitution, he said. These judges also are a vital check in the excesses of other branches of government, including Congress and the executive branch, when they overreach and run afoul of the constitutional institutional safeguards, Biden continued before adding that he was proud of the legacy he will leave in the form of the judges hes put on the bench because they will continue to uphold our nation's founding principles of liberty, justice, equality, and do it for decades to come. Joe Biden reportedly discussed plans to strike Irans nuclear sites in the event Tehran moved closer to building a nuclear bomb before Donald Trumps inauguration on Jan 20. The US president, who has just weeks left in office, was presented with a range of scenarios by Jake Sullivan, the White Houses national security adviser, in secret talks which took place last month, US officials told Axios. The purpose of the meeting was not for Mr Biden to reach a definitive decision but rather to engage in prudent scenario planning, one of the sources said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It comes after Mr Sullivan said last month he had briefed Mr Trump on the risk of Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons. Mr Biden is said to have engaged in discussions about how the US should respond if Iran took specific steps towards building a nuclear bomb before Jan 20, including by enriching uranium to 90 per cent purity. The president reportedly asked whether Iran had taken any such steps that would justify an urgent military response just weeks before Mr Trump took office and which would risk handing over a fresh conflict for him to deal with. Mr Biden did not reach a definitive conclusion and there are no active discussions inside the White House about taking military action against Iran, the US officials reportedly said. Jake Sullivan, the White Houses national security adviser, reportedly took part in the secret talks with the US president last month - ABIR SULTAN/via REUTERS Mr Sullivan warned in December last year that there was an increased risk that Iran might abandon its promise not to build nuclear weapons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a risk we are trying to be vigilant about now. Its a risk that Im personally briefing the incoming team on, Mr Sullivan said, adding that he had consulted with US ally Israel. He said that given Irans weakened state, Mr Trump could also persuade Iran to commit to dismantling its nuclear capacity. The president-elect is reportedly considering airstrikes on Irans nuclear facilities when he returns to the White House later this month. Mr Trump has told Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, in recent calls that he is concerned about Iran achieving nuclear capability, The Wall Street Journal reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, Mr Trumps nominees for secretary of state and national security adviser, have consistently taken hardline stances on Iran. Mr Netanyahu has long called for Irans nuclear programme to be stopped in its tracks but has faced resistance from Israeli military officials and Washington. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. The appeals court believed it better to answer whether the plaintiff actually acted in self-defense, rather than decide how Colorado law applies to self-defense in the workplace Outgoing President Joe Biden will award the second-highest civilian medal to two of Donald Trumps political foes, in a final affront to the president-elect before he takes office. Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson will be honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal for their work in leading the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters tried to block the certification of Bidens presidential victory. Biden's actions will irk Trump. / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images This will rattle Trump, who previously claimed the pair deleted and destroyed testimony they collected for the Jan. 6 committee and even called for them to be jailed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Biden sees it differently. The White House released a statement ahead of a ceremony Thursday where Cheney and Thompson will be honored alongside 18 others. President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice, it said. A marriage equality and gun safety campaigner, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and a womens rights activist are among the other people due to receive the medal, which is second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a civilian honor. Biden last year honored 12 people involved in defending the Capitol during the insurrection, and safeguarding the will of voters in the 2020 presidential election. Trump previously called for Cheney and Thompson to be jailed. / JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images Trump will be particularly jarred by this years award for Cheney, who was a Republican representative from Wyoming before she declared she would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential raceand even campaigned with her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This, of course, didnt sit well with Trump. In an interview with NBCs Meet the Press, Trump said: Cheney did something thats inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps, claiming without evidence that they deleted and destroyed testimony they collected. Honestly, they should go to jail, he added. Biden has reportedly considered bestowing pre-emptive pardons to Cheney, and others that Trump has threatened. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that ongoing investigations into a deadly New Year's Day attack in New Orleans are "fluid," and that law enforcement is probing whether the French Quarter massacre was related at all to the explosion of a Tesla truck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel. No such connection has yet been uncovered, the president said. Biden pledged to keep Americans updated "contemporaneously" as the investigation progresses. The suspect identified by the FBI in the New Orleans attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, rammed into a crowd of Bourbon Street pedestrians driving a Ford pickup truck, killing 15 people and injuring more than 30 victims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden issued a statement Wednesday morning announcing that the FBI is leading the investigation and examining the incident as a terrorist attack. In a statement, the FBI said that Jabbar had an Islamic State flag, weapons and an improvised explosive device in his vehicle. Officials are working to determine how the suspect obtained the vehicle, which appears to be rented, and if the suspect is associated with terrorist organizations. According to the FBI, potential IEDs were found elsewhere in the French Quarter in New Orleans. The Pentagon confirmed that Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with New Orleans police, was in the Army as a human resource and information technology specialist from March 2007 until Jan. 2015, after which he became an IT specialist in the Army Reserve in 2015 for five years. Jabbar was deployed to Afghanistan from Feb. 2009 to Jan. 2010, and left the military as a staff sergeant. Biden said the FBI reported to him that hours before the attack, the suspect posted videos on social media that he was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group with the desire to kill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the president, the FBI is actively looking for connections and anyone who may have been involved in the attack. Biden said Wednesday evening that he had no additional information to report. Law enforcement, the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there is any possible connection to the attack in New Orleans, the president said of the truck explosion outside Trump's Las Vegas hotel. I directed my team to make sure every resource is made available to the federal, state, and local law enforcement, to complete the investigation in New Orleans quickly, and make sure there's no remaining threat to the American people. During the press conference, Biden said the driver was an American citizen born in Texas, refuting Trumps suggestion earlier Wednesday that the attack was related to criminals coming in to the U.S. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump wrote on Truth Social. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden concluded saying New Orleans is a city with a rich culture that brings people together from around the world, and it will "never be defeated." "New Orleans is a place unlike any other place in the world, a city full of charm and joy. So many people around the world love New Orleans because of its history, its culture and above all its people," Biden said. "The spirit of New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated." The perpetrator behind the attack in New Orleans said on social media that he was inspired by the terrorist organization Islamic State, US President Joe Biden says, citing FBI information. "He posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing the desire to kill," Biden said in remarks made to the press following the car ramming attack in New Orleans early on New Year's Day that killed at least 15 and wounded dozens. Biden referred to the Islamic State as ISIS, but it is also called IS, and in the Middle East and many other countries it is known as Daesh. Biden, citing the FBI, said an ISIS flag was found in the man's vehicle. Just hours before he rammed a pickup truck through a New Orleans street jammed with New Year's Eve revellers, the perpetrator's social media posts indicated he was inspired by the terrorist organization Islamic State, US President Joe Biden said. Biden, citing FBI information, told reporters that the attacker "posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing the desire to kill." Biden made his remarks to the press on Wednesday following the car ramming attack in New Orleans early on New Year's Day that killed at least 15 and wounded dozens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden referred to the Islamic State as ISIS, but it is also called IS, and in the Middle East and many other countries it is known as Daesh. New Orleans police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said that the driver "was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could." She later added, "He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did." Police said the incident occurred at 3:15 am (0915 GMT) in an area of the city known for attracting tens of thousands of visitors during major events. The perpetrator allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers, injuring two of them, before being killed in the confrontation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect has been identified as 42-year-old US-born Shamsud-Din J from Texas, the FBI said, with the incident being treated as an "act of terrorism." Biden: Attacker was a US citizen The outgoing US president stressed that the investigation showed that the perpetrator was a US citizen. "The FBI has reported to me that the killer was an American citizen, born in Texas," Biden told reporters. "He served in the United States army on active duty for many years. He also served in the army reserve until a few years ago," Biden added. Biden also repeated investigators' findings that potential explosive devices were found in the pick-up truck, which the man drove into the crowd in New Orleans on New Year's morning, as well as outside the vehicle. An Islamic State flag was also found in the vehicle, Biden said, citing the FBI. Unclear if man acted alone Hours after the devastating attack, it remains unclear whether the perpetrator, who was killed after his deadly rampage, had accomplices, US media reported on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators are examining surveillance footage, according to several media outlets, showing a suspicious group of four people. Initially, it was suspected that they might have placed explosive devices in the affected neighbourhood. However, shortly afterwards, they were reportedly ruled out as suspects. Earlier, FBI investigator Alethea Duncan said that they did not believe the driver "was solely responsible". Tesla truck explosion outside Trump's Las Vegas hotel The US president also addressed an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, which resulted in one fatality. Tesla is owned by major Trump backer Elon Musk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden said results of a preliminary investigation have not shown a connection between the Tesla explosion in front of Trump's hotel and the New Orleans attack. But he stressed that the investigation is continuing and the FBI and others are looking into whether there is "any connection." Biden called the attack "despicable" and expressed his sympathy for its victims. President Biden on Thursday took a victory lap for the 235 judicial confirmations accomplished during his administration, arguing the judges he appointed to the federal bench would serve as valuable safeguards for democracy as President-elect Trump prepares to retake office. Im proud of the legacy that well leave for our nation as it relates to judges, Biden said. I really think well be proud of these women and men that have been appointed, and I think were going to reestablish the safeguards that are built into the Constitution. Biden was joined at the event by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden noted he has repeatedly warned during his time in office that the nations democratic institutions are in jeopardy, and he argued some court decisions that have come down have made no constitutional sense. He previously criticized Supreme Court rulings that overturned Roe v. Wade, ended affirmative action and granted wide immunity to presidents for official acts. Judges matter, Biden said Thursday. Shaping everyday lives of Americans, protecting our basic freedoms I never thought wed be talking about this defending constitutional liberties. Respecting the idea [of] precedent matters. Democrats have raised concerns about the incoming Trump administration attacking democratic norms and taking advantage of a conservative majority on the Supreme Court to roll back basic rights. Schumer, who introduced Biden, said the judges appointed by Biden and confirmed in the last four years by the Democratic-led Senate would serve as the shield that protects our democracy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The good news is that these judges will be a barrier against attacks on our democratic institutions, Schumer said. At the district level, these judges will have the first and often decisive impact on cases involving voting rights and elections and democracy writ large. The 235 confirmed judges include Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who made history as the first Black woman to be confirmed to the court, as well as 45 court of appeals judges, 187 district court judges and two judges on the Court of International Trade. With the confirmation of his 235th judge late last month, Biden surpassed Trumps mark of 234 judges confirmed during his first term. Trump, however, had the opportunity to appoint three Supreme Court justices, cementing the high courts conservative tilt and paving the way for major decisions on abortion rights, presidential immunity and affirmative action in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Durbin noted in his remarks that Biden faced hurdles in getting so many judges confirmed. The Senate was divided, 50-50, for the first two years of Bidens term, and Democrats only held a 51-49 majority in his second two years. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Even House Republicans who are skeptical about keeping Mike Johnson on as speaker acknowledge they have a persistent problem: Who could replace him? As Johnson faces potentially a dozen holdouts or more going into the speakership vote on Friday, three familiar alternative candidates have come up in internal GOP conversations: Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio and GOP Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota. All three ran for the speakership in October 2023 before Johnson was elected to take the gavel, and all three were forced to drop their bids as it became obvious they couldnt get the near-unanimous support needed from House Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their prospects havent changed a ton since then each still has a faction of the conference that would likely oppose them. Depending on attendance and a possible Matt Gaetz appearance (its still unclear if he could participate in the vote, if he shows up), any Republican who wants to be speaker can only stand to lose two votes. It demonstrates a perennial problem in politics. Voters might want a non-specified someone else (as Johnson detractor Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) put it), but once that becomes a real name, that candidate has issues of their own. Scalise Where he stands: The No. 2 House Republican has worked to build relationships across the conference for years during his tenure in leadership, and he has some die-hard allies. But there are bitter grudges between Scalise and Jordan after the speakership race in October 2023, which extends to their respective allies. And some loyalists to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy werent big fans of the Louisianan, either, though he has made some progress winning over some of them, including Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Max Miller (R-Ohio). The roadblocks: Conservatives who closely aligned with Jordan blocked Scalise from taking the gavel after he won the internal party nomination, only for Scalise allies to then respond accordingly and block Jordan from the speakership afterward. Theres little evidence the groups general feelings toward Scalise have changed. Jordan Where he stands: The conservative darling still holds major sway with the grassroots and some remaining McCarthy allies. Hardliners who dont want Johnson to be speaker have floated his name again, trying to get a feel for whether he could get the votes now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The roadblocks: But Jordan still has some strong resistance from those who blocked him previously, including appropriators who fear a die-hard conservative would throw the spending process into chaos, as well as old bulls and Scalise allies. And we hear there are more than two members who would oppose him as speaker, if he made another bid. Emmer Where he stands: When the Republican whip ran previously, after Scalise and Jordan had withdrawn, Trump personally torpedoed his bid in a social media post, saying Emmer was totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters. Hes worked diligently to smooth over that relationship with Trump, according to allies of the incoming president. The roadblocks: But Emmer has some lingering distrust from the evangelical faction of the party, which took issue with Emmer voting to legalize same-sex marriage. There is another option, of course. When Johnson won the speakership, he was a low-level GOP leader, hardly a top name under consideration. But critically, he came in when the GOP was tired of fighting and he had no enemies to stand in his way. Johnsons allies insist hes making headway on winning over his holdouts. Right now, Massie is the only official no, but others like Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) are stating that they are undecided. Jan. 1Quinn Evans and his wife have been protesting regularly on Saturdays outside the entrance of Bishop's Lodge, a luxury resort perched in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Evans and others say they used to watch trucks haul effluent from the Tesuque resort to a city of Santa Fe wastewater treatment plant. But they no longer see the trucks leave the resort on weekends, driving some speculation Bishop's Lodge is using a new leach field that has raised concerns among residents because of its close proximity to Little Tesuque Creek. "In the last three weeks or so, there have been no trucks. Now, we know people are still flushing their toilets up there," Evans said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for Bishop's Lodge did not address questions Monday about whether it is using the on-site leach field. However, the resort is authorized under a state permit to discharge nearly 15,000 gallons of effluent a day into the leach field following construction of a new water treatment plant. It is seeking a revised permit that would increase its discharge limits. Still, Tesuque residents continue to speak out against the resort's wastewater treatment plans, maintaining the drain field, "immediately adjacent" to the creek, threatens their water quality. "The battle is still continuing," said Mark DeCamp, a Tesuque resident who noted there are now at least 70 protest signs on and around Bishops Lodge Road. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decision to use the leach field came in late August, after the resort changed course in response to community outcry about its previous proposal to send effluent from the new wastewater treatment plant directly into Little Tesuque Creek. Bishop's Lodge representatives argue its plan to use the leach field is environmentally sound and will comply with state and federal environmental standards. The New Mexico Environment Department agrees. In an email Monday, Environment Department spokesperson Jorge Armando Estrada wrote the leach field is about 75 to 100 feet from Little Tesuque Creek. "Considering the site specific details, along with the high quality wastewater, the proximity of the leachfield to Tesuque Creek in this specific situation is not a concern" to the agency's Ground Water Quality Bureau, Armando Estrada wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hearing planned on new permit Armando Estrada confirmed the lodge is permitted to use the new leach field. Its current state permit authorizes it to discharge up to 14,760 gallons per day into two leach fields on its property. It has requested a permit modification and renewal allowing it to discharge 30,000 gallons a day. According to Armando Estrada, a draft permit was issued Sept. 20 and the public notice process for the permit was completed Oct. 21. Members of the community have requested a public hearing on the matter, which is expected to be scheduled in early January. We're not going away," Evans said. "We live in the valley. What's going on now is unacceptable. If they do get permitted to dump into this leach field, it's still not going to be acceptable to us. We will still be making trouble protesting, complaining and taking what legal action is available to us." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An old wastewater treatment plant at Bishop's Lodge, built in the mid-1970s, hasn't functioned properly for years, leading the owners to pump wastewater into trucks and haul it to the city's treatment plant a method that has been described as inefficient and costly. The newly constructed plant can treat wastewater to a "much better" quality, according to a document prepared by the Environment Department. Armando Estrada wrote in an email the agency "reviewed the plans and specification documents prior to construction" and has required the resort to submit documents signed by a "New Mexico Licensed Professional engineer." The Ground Water Quality Bureau "relies upon the Professional Engineer documents for compliance and does not inspect leachfields after construction as it would be impossible to determine compliance once everything is buried and covered up," he wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tesuque resident Rusty Day believes this level of oversight is insufficient. "It's just absurd. This is exactly why we are having a hearing because of NMED's refusal to accept responsibility for regulating, in accordance with the law, what Bishop's Lodge is doing," Day said. 'Justin, you need to pick a side' Bishop's Lodge is a luxury resort with prices nearing $1,000 a night for a room and over $5,000 for a three-bedroom suite. Santa Fe County Commissioner Justin Greene, whose district includes Tesuque, discussed the situation recently in an appearance on Richard Eeds' local radio talk show. His comments drew criticism from opponents of Bishop Lodge's wastewater plans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The county, despite a lot of the work that I did to try to negotiate a good solution to this, we didn't really have a play in this," Greene said on the radio show. "They have done what was asked for with that and are developing a leach field. I don't know if it is open yet but it was supposed to open sometime in the last few weeks or so, so it may be actually active under a temporary permit. And you know, some neighbors are still concerned about that," Greene said on the show, referring to the matter as a "state issue" rather than a county one. Evans to wrote a letter to Greene, signed by about 20 other Tesuque residents, urging the commissioner to stake out a position on the matter. Members of the group Protect Tesuque, which opposes the resort's wastewater treatment plans, also went on Eeds' show recently. "Justin, you need to pick a side, and from your interview it sounds as if you have chosen Bishop's Lodge: tourism over the community, profit over water. Water and our children should be on the VERY top of your agenda," states Evans' letter, which was submitted as an opinion piece to The New Mexican but has not yet been published. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Greene said in an interview Monday, "In general, water is one of the top items in my agenda, and we were able to get Bishop's Lodge to acquiesce to the demands of the neighborhood that was, initially at least, no surface water discharges into the Little Tesuque Creek, and we achieved that." Asked about the opposition to the leach field, he added: "Everybody has a right to protest. I wish that they were taking a more proactive and collaborative approach with the resort to try to really understand what the resort has already planned and is doing and to understand the comprehensive issues the whole valley faces with hundreds of untreated septic systems." Bernadette Romero-Jaramillo, whose family has called the community home since the 1800s, also is opposed to the resort's plan and believes Greene should make his position on the matter clear. "I feel that Commissioner Greene, he's trying to play both sides and be in the middle because he is the commissioner for all of us. He's a commissioner for the residents and also for the businesses," Romero-Jaramillo said. "However, he's only telling one side of the story." She noted the size of Bishop's Lodge. "They're getting away with more than they should for the amount of sewage that they are trying to pump into that area," she said. Administrative buildings which house committees and subdivisions of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) were damaged in a Russian drone attack on Kyiv on 1 January. Source: Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk on Facebook Quote: "The blast wave damaged nearby buildings, including administrative facilities of the Ukrainian parliament where committees and subdivisions of the Verkhovna Rada are located. Law enforcement agencies and special services were working at the scene yesterday to document the aftermath of this barbaric attack. An assessment of the damage is currently underway." The aftermath of the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Photo of Ruslan Stefanchuk on Facebook The aftermath of the attack. Photo of Ruslan Stefanchuk on Facebook Details: Stefanchuk said that despite the damage, the departments affected are making every effort to deal with the consequences of the attack quickly and ensure the uninterrupted functioning of the parliament and its bodies. Separately, the speaker expressed condolences to the family and friends of renowned Kyiv scientists Ihor Zima and his wife Olesia Sokur, who were killed in the drone attack on 1 January. The aftermath of the attack. Photo of Ruslan Stefanchuk on Facebook Background: On the morning of 1 January, debris from a Russian drone fell on a residential building in Kyivs Pecherskyi district, partially destroying the top two floors and causing a fire. Two people were killed and seven more were injured as a result of the attack. Later, it became known that Ihor Zyma and Olesia Sokur, a husband and wife who were both scientists, had been killed in the attack. Rescue workers completed the search and rescue operation on 2 January, and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine described the difficulties they faced. The building of the National Writers Union of Ukraine was also damaged in the attack. Support UP or become our patron! Colorado Politics chief investigative reporter Marianne Goodland showcases 24 awards won by Colorado Politics, The Colorado Springs Gazette and The Denver Gazette at the 146th annual Colorado Press Association convention Saturday at Delta Hotels in Northglenn. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) The Blood Center in New Orleans said blood donors are needed to help the surviving victims in Wednesdays attack in New Orleans. The Life South Community Blood Center in Birmingham is assisting with the request by sending products to help during the wake of the attack. We reached out to the Blood Center in New Orleans this morning to let them know that we are here to offer support, and they did contact us back and asked for some products, said Regional Director of Life South Brian Garrett. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 15 dead, dozens injured after car plows into crowd in New Orleans: Horrific act of violence Garret said blood donations are always needed year-round, especially when tragedies such as this occur. According to Life South and the American Red Cross, blood donations are often low this time of year, therefore having sufficient blood supply when tragedies like this happen is crucial. American Red Cross in need of blood, platelet donors If I asked about 5 people on the street right now if they had even thought to donate during the holidays Im pretty sure it would be low on their list. But it is important for people to continue to donate, because thats what allows us to keep that blood on the shelves for the patients who really are counting on it, said American Red Cross Communications Director Annette Rowland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With over 30 people injured in Wednesdays mass killing in New Orleans, the Blood Center in New Orleans said the need for donations is urgent to help patients. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. BOILING SPRINGS, S.C. (WSPA) An investigation is underway after a reported coyote attack in the Boiling Springs area. An Upstate woman said she rushed to her fenced backyard after she heard her dog scream. Ive had her since she was a puppy, and not knowing originally what happened, I was absolutely terrified, said dog owner Delenah Calvert. So, we took her to the emergency vet, and she had the wounds they said were indicative of a coyote attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Calvert said she knew there was a pack of coyotes prowling around her Boiling Springs neighborhood but never suspected they would attack in broad daylight. Photo of Delilah, a four-year-old Boxer-Pitbull mix, after she was attacked on Dec. 22. You can hear them like every night, but weve never had one come out in the middle of the day, said Calvert. It was literally, about 1 p.m., like it was the middle of the day on Sunday. Photo of Delilah, a four-year-old Boxer-Pitbull mix, after she was attacked on Dec. 22. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said coyotes are most active right before dusk until just after dawn. Coyotes that consume a significant proportion of human-related food items are more likely to become habituated toward people and cause negative interactions, said the SCDNR. These food items include pet food, garbage and discarded food scraps. Neighborhoods should encourage feeding pets indoors as well as the proper disposal of all trash. Food items used for composting should be placed in sealed or closed bins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Calvert said she believed the coyotes were looking for food and thought her dog was food. Stiches that Delilah recieved after the animal attack on Dec. 22. The one thing that the vet told us was that its very normal for coyotes to go for the bottom of whatever theyre attacking, so that is like a tell-tale sign that it was a coyote, said Calvert. My dog was extremely lucky. It was a very well high possibility that she should have died, but we assume that she fought back. So just watch your animals and your kids. Calvert said Delilah is recovering well but will now be leashed whenever she needs to be taken outside. She will also install fence stakes that touch the ground. Coyotes-in-Suburban-and-Urban-Areas-rev-3-2020Download Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Nearly 400,000 people lined the Las Vegas Strip on New Years Eve as thousands of barriers and security measures were in place to protect them. Since 2017, Clark County has installed over 8,000 bollards designed to protect pedestrians and prevent attacks similar to the one that occurred in New Orleans on New Years Day. I feel pretty safe because those bollards will stop vehicles, especially after what happened in New Orleans this morning, Alan Glen, visiting from California, said. Its good to feel a little safe it was a little crazy last night too many people in a small space. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Las Vegas Strip has faced multiple vehicle attacks over the years. The installation of bollards began following a 2015 incident in which Lakeisha Holloway was accused of driving into pedestrians on the Strip, killing one person and injuring more than 30 others. Her case is scheduled to go to trial this March. Woman arrested in deadly Las Vegas Strip crash could stand trial Earlier, in 2005, a California man Stephen Ressa drove through a crowd near Ballys, killing three people and injuring nearly a dozen others. I think we need the pedestrian barriers I feel safer with them up, Susan Combs, visiting from Oklahoma City, said. Theres so many cars and we need all the safety we can get. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tourists are used to the sight of these barriers along with other preventable measures including pedestrian bridges and 4,000 linear feet of barricades. Additional security measures include helicopter, motorcycle, and bicycle patrol units, as well as Metro Polices Community Safety Hub, established outside Resorts World in 2021. These efforts are complemented by the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Fusion Center, which monitors threats both on the streets and online. Casinos also employ private security and security guards. After a recent change to background checks, many Las Vegas resorts experienced a shortage of security guards. To combat this the Nevada Gaming Commission recently approved an amendment allowing new hires to carry a gun as soon as they apply for a concealed carry permit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To report suspicious activity on the Las Vegas Strip click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. FREEDOM TWP., Ohio (WKBN) An Ohio Turnpike service plaza just over the Mahoning County line in Portage County was evacuated for a few hours Thursday morning. Read next: Local man involved in $3.7M identity theft scheme: DOJ A bomb threat was called in at the Portage Service Plaza, according to Portage County Hiram Post. The Portage Service Plaza has since reopened. The plaza closed around 12:20 a.m. A K-9 searched the building and found nothing. The service plaza opened back up just after 3 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Check back here for updates on this developing story. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. (The Hill) Joe Biden will leave office with the legacy of approving the greatest amount of student debt relief of any president, changing the lives of millions of Americans. Many of these borrowers waited for years for the forgiveness while paying down their loans, in some cases sacrificing major life events such as buying a home due to their debt. More Local News While grateful to see their loan balance disappear, borrowers who received forgiveness under Biden lament a system they say is holding back millions of others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I finally got the loans forgiven in December 2023 and received the zero balance letter. How is it affecting me almost a year later? It really set me back over paying on these loans for years. I never built significant savings at all. I dont have anything saved. Im a solo parent, and I do not receive child support, said Christinia Winton, a mother of two and public servant in Arizona who received loan forgiveness on almost $30,000 through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The Biden administration forgave some $180 billion of student loans in total, taking away the debt entirely for almost 5 million Americans. The relief has largely been split up between those on income-driven repayment plans such as PSLF, the borrower defense program that forgives loans to those cheated by their schools and individuals with disabilities. One of Bidens accomplishments in office was fixing some of the problems with PSLF, a program meant to give public service workers such as teachers and police a means to receive student debt relief if they make 120 qualifying payments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden made regulatory improvements on the program and gave a one-time count adjustment of payments to help get borrowers on the right track and shorten their repayment time. Lisa Ansell, an educator from California, was one of the people who got their loans cancelled in 2021 when Biden made those changes, after she was denied eight times. I should have been eligible for public service loan forgiveness in 2017, which would have been the first cohort, because public service loan forgiveness was signed into law in 2007 [] I applied in 2017 and, of course, I was denied, no valid reason. We know that the Department of Education likes to invent reasons to prevent people from receiving their lawful cancelation, said Ansell, the California chapter president for Student Loan Justice. Ansell said she was relieved, but what I felt was anger and resentment because I had been kept in indentured servitude to the Department of Education for close to five extra years, and because of that, I was never able to save up any money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Biden forgave the most student debt of any president, his efforts affected only a small portion of the 45 million borrowers. But not for lack of trying: Biden did attempt to give $10,000 in student loan relief for all borrowers, but it was struck down by the Supreme Court. He also attempted to go through the regulatory process and expand relief to more groups but ran out of time and had to rescind the measure before President-elect Trump returns to office. Those losses were a significant blow to Bidens agenda after he pledged sweeping relief on the campaign trail. There are people that absolutely feel slighted, and sometimes their anger is maybe, maybe misplaced on the Biden administration, said Daniel Collier, assistant professor of higher and adult education at the University of Memphis, when asked about borrowers who missed out on relief. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To be fair to people, though, the Biden administration has done a poor job of communicating with borrowers [what has been accomplished], especially these last few years, especially since the court cases have stalled, he added. From borrowers who did get relief, Collier has heard the forgiveness gave them financial stability, career freedom to change jobs after exiting PSLF and a drop in mental distress over worrying about the debt. The loan forgiveness also takes away a major barrier for young Americans toward purchasing a home. A 2023 report from the Student Debt Crisis Center found more than half of borrowers with defaulted loans said their student debt prevents them buying a home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Hill has reached out to the Biden administration for comment. From Day One of my Administration, I promised to make sure that higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. Because of our actions, millions of people across the country now have the breathing room to start businesses, save for retirement and pursue life plans they had to put on hold because of the burden of student loan debt, Biden said in December. Winton, the current president of the Arizona chapter for Student Loan Justice, had to fight her student loan provider who she said lost her payment history, making it incredibly difficult to receive debt relief through PSLF since the servicer could not produce her 120 qualifying payments history. The delays were costly for her and her children, she said, as they potentially prepare to head to college themselves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The result was never [being] able to save for that on their behalf, she said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. A local mother was in New Orleans to celebrate the New Years holiday with her daughter when it turned somber after what the FBI is investigating as a terrorist attack. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Diana Pearson and her daughter Ayana traveled 12 hours from Butler County to New Orleans for a special mother-daughter New Years Eve celebration, according to our news partner WCPO. RELATED CONTENT: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They visited friends and purchased tickets to this years Sugar Bowl scheduled for New Years Day at the Caesars Superdome in Downtown New Orleans. We actually went to the New Years Eve party on Jackson Square, which is in the French Quarter, said Pearson. We were enjoying the event, enjoying the people. They both walked to their hotel room around 2 a.m. a few blocks away and slept, WCPO reports. Chaos erupted not too far from their room. At least 15 people were killed and dozens more were injured in what the FBI is investigating as a terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Years Day. Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, has been identified as the suspect who drove a car into a crowd of people along Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar was shot and killed by officers after opening fire on them during the attack. Two New Orleans police officers were injured. Pearson told WCPO they slept through it and did not know what transpired. We did not hear any commotion, we did not hear anything, she said. I received a frantic call from a relative in Cincinnati. The mother said she was stunned, shocked, and saddened by the violence. Its just horrific, its just said, she told WCPO. Pearson described the scene in what is normally New Orleans busiest area. Before there was, you know, lots of music, lots of people being just real happy and jovial, and its ... its not that atmosphere today, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pearson said she and her daughter decided to stay an extra day. They plan to attend the Sugar Bowl, rescheduled for 4 p.m. on Thursday. As long as she felt comfortable, Im fine, because I wanted her to have a good time as well. And she wants to stay so Im fine with it, Pearson told WCPO. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] New Orleans plans to reopen Bourbon Street to the public Thursday after the deadly attack on New Years Day. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, rammed a pickup truck down the crowded street early Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring many more. Officials are investigating the incident as an act of terror. Jabbars truck was found to contain explosives and an ISIS flag. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said there is an Airbnb rental tied to the attack. She also stated that the citys Sugar Bowl, which was postponed a day after the incident, should be further delayed because Bourbon Street remains an active crime scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Murrill said the last of the bodies were being recovered after they were mangled from the truck barreling through the area. Still, New Orleans has pressed ahead with its plan to reopen the famous street, The Associated Press reported. An official told the AP the area would reopen to the public at some point later Thursday. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police. He was a U.S. citizen and served in the Army. President Biden shared Wednesday that the FBI said Jabbar shared videos shortly before the attack threatening his family and showing interest in ISIS. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A Green Beret, who authorities said shot himself inside a Tesla Cybertruck on New Year's Day seconds before the vehicle exploded in front of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel in Las Vegas, was a Colorado Springs resident who had spent the majority of his 19-year military career at Fort Carson and on assignment in Germany, according to the U.S. Army and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger was on approved leave from the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, when the electric truck he rented in Denver on Dec. 28 exploded in the valet drive-through of the Trump International Hotel, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday at a news conference. Livelsberger, 37, enlisted in January 2006 as an 18X, or a candidate for Special Forces, a statement from the Army said. He was active duty until 2011 when he joined the National Guard. He spent a little more than a year in the guard, from March 2011 to July 2012, and he served in the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012. Electric-charging station tracking shows Livelsberger charged the vehicle in Monument on Monday and also picked up two semi-automatic handguns that day he had legally purchased . He stopped in Trinidad, Las Vegas, N.M., Albuquerque and Gallup, N.M., on Tuesday to charge the truck. His route took him to Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman, Ariz., before being videoed on Las Vegas Boulevard early Wednesday morning. He pulled into the Trump hotel valet area around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, and within 17 seconds the truck exploded while parked at the valet pull-up, McMahill said. Livelsberger's body was "burnt beyond recognition," the Las Vegas sheriff said, but tattoos on an arm and stomach, surveillance video and electric-charging station tracking shows he was the only driver of the truck. "We still have only ever seen him in this vehicle," McMahill said. "We are not aware of any other subjects involved in this particular case." Investigators found a military ID, a passport, two semi-automatic firearms, an iPhone, a Smart Watch and several credit cards in his name. The Las Vegas coroner's office found one single bullet hole in the head of the body and "a handgun found at his feet inside the vehicle," McMahill said. Authorities believe the fatal wound was self-inflicted, since he was the only person in the vehicle and it occurred prior to the truck blowing up. "Im comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately thereafter," said Spencer Evans, FBI special agent in charge. In the truck bed were fireworks, mortars, arterial shells and accelerants including racing fuel, authorities said. Seven people nearby had minor injuries and several were taken to a hospital, according to officials. Livelsberger's motivation is unknown at this time, and FBI and ATF officials said they are investigating hundreds of tips worldwide. "We are following international and domestic leads with search warrants, witness interviews and investigative activity literally taking place around the globe," Evans said. "We don't believe there's any further threat from this subject or anybody related to that." What we know about the bombing suspect Vehicles with the FBI arrived on Thursday morning at a townhouse complex in northeast Colorado Springs connected to Livelsberger, as the investigation into the Las Vegas explosion continued. At around 7:30 a.m., Gazette reporters saw multiple FBI vehicles at the 5400 block of Carvel Grove, near the corner of Stetson Hills Boulevard and Marksheffel Road. Records show Livelsberger was connected to multiple Colorado Springs addresses, including that residence. He was known as Matt Berg in many places, including an online profile, and as an alias when he appeared in a 2013 war-game TV series, "Ultimate Soldier Challenge," which featured Livelsberger as one of two Green Berets who were pitted against a pair of Norwegian Special Forces commandos. It's unclear whether Livelsberger was an active-duty soldier when he participated in the 43-minute movie, but he was billed as a United States Special Forces soldier. The Norwegians were actually actors playing the part of members of the Forsvarets Spesialkommando, or FSK. In a made-up battle scenario, Livelsberger and his partner shot assault rifles at targets, fought in hand-to-hand combat and went door-to-door in the hunt for combatants in a fake village in what was billed as a "showdown of elite strength and skill." Livelsberger was also a drone hobbyist who posted about his projects in a Facebook group online. The 10th Special Forces Group has been developing small drones in-house to gather information and carry weapons, according to previous Gazette reporting. Since November, Livelsberger has been working as a remote and autonomous systems manager for the Army, his LinkedIn page states. He registered to vote as unaffiliated at his current address in July, according to voter registration records. Comments from people who knew Matthew Livelsberger paint a Jeckyll-and-Hyde picture. Sign Up for free: Military Brief Your weekly local update on local military news and events, sent straight to your inbox. Sign Up View all of our newsletters. Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. View all of our newsletters. One neighbor in the northeast Colorado Springs neighborhood who asked not to be identified described Livelsberger as quiet but polite. Another neighbor, Cindy Helwig, said she's known Livelsberger and his current wife, who recently had a baby, for two years. She said she was shocked to learn the bombing suspect was her neighbor. He seemed like a normal guy, Helwig said Thursday morning. His wife is awesome, too. I never expected anything like that. I would never have thought it would have been him. Helwig describes the neighborhood as usually very quiet and peaceful. This is a good neighborhood; you never have issues, she said. Im a little worried now. I hope things get better. Keni Mac and her fiance, who live directly behind Livelsberger's home, said they were in shock after seeing all the police activity happening overnight and into the morning. She said she would see Livelsberger, his wife and their newborn at HOA meetings. "Just to know if it was that family, if it is, is really heartbreaking," she said. "They seem like good people. They're a normal young couple with a family. They always have their windows open, they're in and out with their dog. Doesn't seem like they're hiding anything." In a different take on the suspect, a close friend of Livelsberger's ex-wife told The Gazette she was stunned when she woke up Thursday to learn that the soldier she knew as "bizarre and unhealthy" was the person who planned and carried out the Las Vegas explosion. Stacie Wilssens, who lives in Manitou Springs, knew Livelsberger through his former wife, Sara Livelsberger. The two women hit it off as friends around 2012 after the Livelsbergers moved to Colorado Springs for Matthew Livelsberger's job with the military. The couple divorced in 2018. Wilssens said that Sara Livelsberger was often alone when her husband was deployed overseas, which left her struggling and depressed. Livelsberger had a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Wilssens mostly hung out with Sara when her husband was not around because Wilssens disliked being around him. The two were "polar opposites," her friend said. "She was trying to get healthy, and he would mock her," said Wilssens. "He preyed on her." Wilssens said she and Sara were staunch Bernie Sanders supporters during the 2016 election, and Matthew Livelsberger, whom she described as a conservative thinker, supported Donald Trump, which she believes was a major ideology disconnect. Wilssens said that she hasn't spoken with Matthew Livelsberger for years. Sara, she said, left Colorado after their divorce and has since remarried. Documents obtained by The Denver Gazette indicate that Sara Livelsberger started divorce proceedings in July 2017, and the couple's split was final almost exactly a year later. "Nothing ever felt stable or steady between the two of them," Wilssens said. As an active-duty soldier, Livelsberger, would have been required to go through an annual mental health screening, according to a 2024 Congressional report. He would have been screened for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol use and suicide risk. The Gazette was unable to confirm on Thursday whether such yearly exams had been conducted. Connection unknown The Las Vegas explosion came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans famed French Quarter early on New Years Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That incident is being investigated as a terrorist attack. Authorities said on Wednesday they did not think he acted alone but updated that statement Thursday, saying they now believe he was a lone attacker. Whether the bombing in Las Vegas and the mass attack by the truck in New Orleans are connected or not is unknown, nor is the question of whether the attacks were politically motivated, authorities said at Thursday's press conference in Las Vegas. "It's not lost on us that it's in front of the Trump building," Spencer Evans, the FBI agent leading the investigation, said during the press conference. "We don't have evidence showing it was because of ideology." There are some similarities between the violent acts, McMahill said. Both suspects, who are deceased, served in the military at Fort Bragg, N.C. However, "We have no record they served in the same unit or even the same years at Fort Bragg," McMahill said. Both served in Afghanistan in 2009, however, "We don't have any evidence they were in the same province, location or even the same unit." Gazette reporters Mary Shinn, Zachary Dupont, Carol McKinley, O'Dell Isaac, Natasha Lynn and Debbie Kelley contributed to this report. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) Lieutenant Rick Dossey with the Bakersfield Police Departments special operations group joined 17 News at Sunrise to discuss crowd safety measures. Lt. Dosseys team helps plan for large scale events such as the unfortunate event that occurred yesterday on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The suspect 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabar reportedly drove around barricades to plow into the crowd on one of the most high-profile streets in the country for people to ring in the New Year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Optimism reigns as 2025 breaks over Bakersfield and the world In situations like this, Lt. Dossey says it important to learn from these types of situations so as to prevent devastation and tragedy. Approaches such as barricading streets, keeping all vehicles away from large public events, and constantly being alert are just a few ways of mitigating predictable and unexpected events. Watch the full interview in the video player above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17. When lawmakers convene the 119th Congress on Friday, the group will boast 100 military veterans among their members, the largest such caucus in eight years. Sixteen new veterans will join 84 incumbent members of Congress with military experience, but that total will drop by two within days of the start of the new legislative term. Thats because two veteran members are headed to the executive branch in the next few weeks. Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance is set to leave his Senate seat to be sworn in as vice president on Jan. 20, and Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz has been tapped to be President-elect Donald Trumps national security adviser. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congress will open next session with more veterans than two years ago Still, even a one-person jump in the number of veterans in Congress is significant, because an increase in members with military backgrounds has only happened four times in the last 50 years. Because of their backgrounds, veterans serving in the House and Senate are often seen as critical to discussions of military operations and veterans benefits. But the number of veterans in Congress has declined almost steadily since the mid-1970s, as the military shifted from an end strength of largely drafted individuals to an all-volunteer force. In 1973, only one in every four members of Congress had never served in the military. In 2025, about one in every six members will be veterans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres a look at the incoming class, by the numbers: Nine women veterans will serve in Congress in 2025, the largest total in history. The group includes 28 Democrats and 72 Republicans. Congress will have 46 Army veterans, 25 Navy veterans, 16 Air Force veterans and 13 Marine Corps veterans. About one-third (31) began their military careers after January 2000. Twenty-one started before 1980. Twenty veterans will serve in the Senate, and 80 will serve in the House. Texas has the largest caucus of members with military experience (11), followed by Florida (9) and California (7). Below is the full list of veterans elected to Congress last fall or returning to incumbent Senate seats that were not up for re-election this cycle: 36,706 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others? 36,706 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others? Bags of broccoli florets sold at Walmart stores in 20 U.S. states are being recalled after random testing found listeria in one sample of the product, according to a notice published earlier this week by the Food and Drug Administration. The recall involves 12-ounce bags of washed, ready-to-eat Marketside Broccoli Florets sourced to Soledad, California-based Braga Fresh and sold at more than 1,000 Walmart stores in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming (See here for the list of store locations.) "The potential for contamination was discovered during random sampling by Texas Health & Human Services from a Texas store location where one of multiple samples yielded a positive test result," Braga stated in its recall notice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The potentially contaminated broccoli is past their best-if-used-by date of December 10, 2024. Although the product is no longer in stores, the company warned that consumers may have have frozen the item for later use. No illnesses have been reported in connection to the recalled product. Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in the young, frail or elderly as well as miscarriages and stillbirths. Short-term symptoms in otherwise healthy people can include fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. California farm Braga Fresh has recalled broccoli florets after one sample tested positive for listeria. / Credit: Food and Drug Administration Image of UPC code on bag of recalled product. / Credit: Food and Drug Administration The recalled produce came in bags with a UPC code 6 81131 32884 5 on the back and lot code BFFG327A6 on the front. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consumers with the recalled broccoli should not consume it but throw it out. Those with questions can call Braga at 877-456-7445 from Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pacific Time or email WeCare@bragafresh.com. Italy's 1000 Miglia road race, where the car is the star Trumps former trade chief on how tariffs affect the economy, why he says the U.S. needs them USAID to merge into State Department with major budget cuts The new year is sadly bringing yet another new recall that could impact your next trip to the grocery store. Bags of broccoli florets sold at Walmart stores in twenty states, of which at least five are in the South, are being recalled for possible listeria contamination. Per a statement from the FDA, Braga Fresh is voluntarily issuing a precautionary advisory of a single production lot of washed and ready-to-eat 12oz Marketside Broccoli Florets with best if used by date Dec 10, 2024. While the used by date has passed, there is concern that people could have frozen bags of this broccoli to use at a later date. The recall was caused by the possibility of contamination from Listeria monocytogenes which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. But to date, no illnesses have been reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are the details to know so you can check your fridge and freezer. If you have purchased Braga brand broccoli florets from Walmart, the products included in the recall will have the following: UPC code 6 81131 32884 5 and lot code BFFG327A6 with a best if used by date of December 10 TODAY reports that these impacted products were specifically sold in Walmart locations in twenty states. So far, five Southern states have been included: Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. While no illness has yet been reported, it is important to know what to look for if you or anyone in your household has already consumed this possibly contaminated product. Listeria can cause fever, muscle aches, fatigue, headaches, stiff neck, loss of balance, seizures, and confusion. It can be very dangerous for pregnant women and cause miscarriage. If you do find you have a product impacted by this recall in your kitchen, throw it out. Read the original article on Southern Living Broccoli packages sold at Walmart stores in 20 states have received an elevated recall status over a Listeria contamination that has potentially fatal consequences. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised the recall on Braga Freshs ready-to-eat 12oz Marketside Broccoli Florets to Class 1, which is a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death, according to the organization. The FDA first announced on December 31 that Braga Fresh was issuing a voluntary recall on the product due to the possibility of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Listeria is a bacteria that can contaminate many foods. Although symptoms can vary, a listeria infection can cause invasive illness and intestinal illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The possible listeria contamination of Braga Freshs broccoli was discovered during random sampling by Texas Health & Human Services from a Texas store location where one of multiple samples yielded a positive test result, the FDA reported. The recalled product was sold in Walmart stores with the UPC code 6 81131 32884 5 on the back of the bag and the Lot Code: BFFG327A6 on the front of the bag. A listeria infection can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections for people with weakened immune systems, according to the FDA (Getty Images) It also has a best-if-used-by date of December 10, 2024. The FDA notes that while the product is no longer being sold in stores, consumers may have frozen the item for later use. Any consumers who have the product in their freezers should not eat it and discard it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 12-ounce bags of broccoli were sold at Walmart stores in 20 states: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. According to the FDA, there havent been any reported illnesses connected to the recalled broccoli. The agency also noted in its release that Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Meanwhile, people with healthier immune systems may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Read More Coca-Cola safety recall in Europe Coca-Cola has issued a safety recall for several of its soft drink products in Europe (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) due to higher-than-normal levels of chlorate. The affected products include Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Minute Maid, and Fuze Tea with specific production codes. Chlorate, a byproduct of chlorine-based sanitizers used in water treatment, can cause iodine deficiency. The UK Food Standards Agency is investigating whether any affected products reached the UK market. Coca-Cola has apologized and advised consumers to return recalled products for a refund, while experts suggest serious health risks are unlikely unless large quantities are consumed. Read the full article here A representative for Walmart previously told The Independent that customers can visit a Walmart store to get a refund on the recalled broccoli. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They added: The health and safety of our customers is always a top priority. While the expiration date for the potentially impacted Marketside Broccoli Florets has past and the product is no longer in stores, we encourage customers who may still have this product in their homes, such as stored in freezers, to not consume and to discard the product. At this time, there have been no reported illnesses associated with this advisory, and we are working with the supplier to investigate. The updated recall comes just days after six different brands of eggs were recalled in Canada due to the possibility of salmonella contamination. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recalled Golden Valley, Compliments, Foremost, IGA, No Name, and Western Family eggs on January 18. The recall applies to different packages and sizes of eggs. Only specific lot numbers of the eggs have been affected. A list of lot numbers is available on the CFIA website. TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) Floridas 42nd Governor Kenneth Hood Buddy MacKay, Jr. has died, Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed on Thursday. He was 91. A U.S. Air Force veteran and lifelong public servant, MacKay was dedicated to our country and our state, DeSantis wrote in a social media post. May he rest in peace. John Capodice, actor who appeared in Ace Ventura, Seinfeld and more, dies at 83 MacKay served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s before attending the University of Florida and earning his law degree, according to the Florida Department of State. FILE Former Florida Gov. Buddy MacKay attends a Florida Law Review lecture series in Gainesville, Fla., on Friday, Oct. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin, File) He spent many of the years following as a state representative, and during his time in Congress, worked to help bring the national budget under control. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1990, MacKay became the states 14th Lieutenant Governor, serving two terms alongside Lawton Chiles. MacKay assumed the governorship after Chiles died suddenly of an apparent heart attack just three weeks before he was set to leave office. According to the Florida Department of State, MacKay filled the role from Dec. 12, 1998, to Jan. 5, 1999. He was married and had four sons. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. Kenneth Buddy MacKay, who as lieutenant governor became Floridas most recent Democratic governor in 1998 on the sudden death of Gov. Lawton Chiles, died New Years Eve afternoon at his home in Ocala. MacKay, whose career included terms in the Florida Legislature, Congress and as a special envoy to the Americas under former President Bill Clinton, was 91. Ron Sachs, a former Chiles spokesman, said Thursday that MacKay died during an afternoon nap at his home. His wife, Anne, and four sons were there, gathered for the holidays. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was certainly Floridas most active and accomplished lieutenant governor, Sachs said. He was the trouble-shooter for the administration on everything from rebuilding Miami-Dade after Hurricane Andrew to righting the financial picture for the city of Miami, to reorganizing the Department of Children & Families. Sachs added, Florida has lost a great leader and statesman in Buddy MacKay. Florida Gov. Buddy MacKay at Gov. Lawton Chiles funeral in 1998. MacKay died Thursday, Jan. 2, 2024, age 91. MacKay was governor just over three weeks MacKay was governor for 23 days, taking office on Chiles death from heart failure at the Governors Mansion on Dec. 12, 1998. MacKay had lost the governors race the previous month to Republican Jeb Bush, who was sworn in as governor in January 1999. Florida has not had a Democrat in the governor's office since MacKay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While his service as chief executive was brief, MacKay had been a durable figure in state politics for decades, since his election to the state House in 1968 from an Ocala-area district. He went on to serve in the state Senate and later did three terms in Congress. In 1988, MacKay and Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack of Cape Coral squared off for a U.S. Senate seat vacated by Chiles. The contest was fierce and while MacKay blasted the Republican as extremist, Mack riddled his rival in TV spots with the catchphrase, Hey Buddy, youre a liberal. Although MacKay was regarded as more of a centrist Democrat, reflecting the kind of politicians who at the time still dominated Florida politics, Macks labeling caused considerable damage. Former Florida Governor and Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay and crowd in 1998. MacKay died Thursday, Jan. 2, 2024, at age 91. 1988 U.S. Senate loss was narrow With Democrat Michael Dukakis trounced badly that year in Florida in the presidential race to Republican George H.W. Bush, MacKay wound up losing the Senate seat by less than one percentage point, after a recount. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not out of politics for long, he teamed with Chiles in 1990 to win the governors office from Republican Gov. Bob Martinez, who had served one term. In Tallahassee, the policy-wonkish MacKay was dubbed Mr. Inside to Chiles Mr. Outside. He became the administrations point man on government reorganization, budget and tax issues, disaster response, education reform, and other complex policy issues. A momentous day in Florida history... Friends, opponents remember Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles 25 years after his death Even during his just over three-week stint as governor, MacKay was active. He made 56 appointments to boards and offices under the governors control and joined with the Florida Cabinet to free six women from prison whose crimes stemmed from alleged abuse at the hands of spouses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chiles and MacKay served two terms together, fending off a tough, 1994 challenge from Bush. But by 1998, when MacKay won the Democratic nomination for governor and faced off against Bush, it was no contest: Bush won by almost 11% of the vote. Governor's race loss ended time in elected office The loss effectively ended MacKays political career in a state in the early shift of a steady march away from Democratic leadership. He never again served in elected office. I retired because the voters got sick and tired of me, MacKay recalled in a 2018 interview. But his life in public service continued. Clinton tapped him as a special envoy to Latin America and MacKay spent two years traveling extensively and working in support of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In retirement, MacKay wrote a memoir, "How Florida Happened," which was published by the University Press of Florida in 2010. Kenneth "Buddy" MacKay, seen here when he was special envoy of President Bill Clinton, speaks during the inauguration of XIX Plenary Reunion of new ways of commerce between Brazil and the US in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sept. 19, 2000. How Florida Happened... They made Florida what the state is today Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis posted Thursday on X that MacKay was a "lifelong public servant ... dedicated to our country and our state. May he rest in peace." Kenneth Hood MacKay was born in 1933 to a citrus-farming family in Ocala. His namesake father also piloted planes, and was killed in a crash in 1963, leaving his son with a wariness about flying. Buddy MacKay, though, had served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and attended the University of Florida, becoming part of the honorary Florida Blue Key and later earning a law degree. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He married Anne Selph in 1960 and the couples four sons include, John, a Tallahassee doctor and Ken, who runs the familys farm. In a 2018 story in Gainesville Magazine, MacKay said he was encouraged by signs that suggested a new spirit of activism and reform was blossoming, spawned at the midpoint of President Donald Trumps first term. Theres room for a lot of humility looking back, MacKay said. All of the changes we made that we thought were forever ... now theyre going to get a chance to be made all over again. Gov. Lawton Chiles seen with Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay outside the old Florida Democratic Party headquarters, circa 1991. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Networks Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on X at @JKennedyReport. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Buddy MacKay, who served as Florida's governor for 23 days, dead at 91 INDEPENDENCE, Mo. An Independence homeowner is wondering if a neighbors celebratory gunfire sent a bullet flying into her home. It happened the first year Blairs Law was in effect, which is aimed at stopping celebratory gunfire. Like many of us, an Independence homeowner heard the sound of fireworks at midnight as 2024 became 2025. About a half hour later, she was standing at her bathroom sink when she heard a crashing sound she first thought was breaking glass. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It took me a long time to figure out oh a bullet came through here when I looked up and saw that hole in the ceiling, the woman, who asked not to be identified, said. The bullet came through the ceiling in the one-story home near East 35th Street and Noland Road and landed in the tub of her shower. Holding it, she describes it as heavy caliber. I was befuddled and startled and really just kind of hurt that people have no consideration that this comes back down, it could have hurt someone, it could have killed someone. In 2011, 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane was killed when someone fired a gun into the air to celebrate the Fourth of July. Her mom pushed for Blairs Law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Governor Mike Parson signed it into law in August making discharging a firearm with criminal negligence punishable with a misdemeanor for a first offense and felony the second time. Kansas City Police say they had 109 calls for sounds of shots fired overnight and 697 rounds fired according to Shot Spotter. Thats compared to 185 calls for sounds of shots fired and 1180 rounds fired according to Shot Spotter last year. Independence Police say they had 27 calls for sounds of shots fired and no injuries. Though we know one woman was just a couple feet from where a bullet landed. I do think people need to be aware of their actions and even just a celebratory something like this could have had mortal consequences for somebody else, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Independence Police made two arrests for unlawful use of a weapon which are thought to be unrelated to the bullet in the bathtub. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. A lawsuit filed by Hillary Whitman of Fairfax, California, claims that the Irvine-based SUPER73 Inc. has been selling e-bikes that can be unlocked via an app, which allows these e-bikes to break the state of Californias speed limit for e-bikes. This loophole is not strictly prohibited by California state law, and a spokesperson for SUPER73 told the Marin Independent Journal that all of SUPER73s bikes are class 2 e-bikes that can change to class 1 or 3 through a SUPER73 application. The lawsuit was filed after the plaintiff, Whitman, purchased a SUPER73 E-bike for her son (age 12) to commute to and from school, under the impression that it was a class 2 e-bike. Under California law, class 2 e-bikes are restricted to a top speed of 20 mph with a throttle. Class 1 and class 3 e-bikes have motors that provide pedal assistance and top speeds of 20 and 28 mph, respectively. Super73 has collaborated with Oracle Red Bull RacingPhoto: Super73 Due to the requirement that you must register all e-bikes with the attended school, Whitman could not register her sons bike. Whitman was told, Super73s are not e-bikes and are illegal to ride. The Central Marin Police Authority later confirmed this claim, Whitman alleges in the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, if she had known that Super73 bikes were illegal, she would not have purchased it in the first place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Super73 sells models with throttles and the ability to be switched from class 1, class 2, and class 3. Via the aforementioned Super73 app, an Off-Road mode can be unlocked for 1,200-watt continuous power and 2,000-watt peak power to reach speeds above 28 mph. According to the lawsuit, state law enforcement has consistently monitored Super73 models going "35 to 38 mph." California law requires e-bikes to meet one of the three classes and clearly states that they cannot have a motor larger than 750 watts to be classified as an e-bike and not a motor vehicle. Striking looks and more moto than bike, if you ask me.Photo: Super73 There are notices on the Super73 website that clearly state that its bikes are For riders 16 years of age and older. So, clearly, Whitman was aware of some risks with her purchase. Bob Mittelstaedt, a Marin County resident, retired trial attorney, and co-founder of the nonprofit E-Bike Access, has continuously advocated for police departments to acknowledge that Super73 and other similar manufacturers are selling products that aren't e-bikes as outlined in California state law. "I compare it to if the law said kids of any age could drive cars as long as cars weren't capable of going more than 10 mph, and Ferrari ships a car in first gear, and they say it never occurred to us that you were going to shift it into sixth and go 180 mph." Said Bob Mittelstaedt in a statement given to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News regarding the lawsuit. Super73 has continuously declined to comment on the lawsuit, slated for a case management conference in May. As of writing, however, Super73 has updated its website to reflect new laws and regulations implemented in 2025. The webpage now states: In light of newly implemented regulations, customers who download and pair the SUPER73 app after January 1, 2025, will not have the ability to access modes other than the Class 2 mode in which the product is sold. New homicide charges have been filed against a man and woman who went missing from Colorado, having been linked to one dead body and the suspicious disappearance of another man. Public records reveal homicide cases have been filed against Johnny Rankin Morris and Hailey Cole, who are connected to the missing person case and a death. Morris' case is in El Paso County while Cole's is in Park County. Morris also has an open homicide case that was filed on Jan. 31, 2024 in El Paso County in which he is listed as a defendant, according to court records. Law enforcement has yet to arrest Morris on charges related to the open case. The arrest affidavit in the 2024 case is sealed. On Monday, law enforcement in Picayune, Miss., the Pearl River County Sheriffs Office and the Picayune Police Department, found and arrested the pair after a call came in about an attempted car break-in. At the time of writing, both remain in custody at the Pearl River County jail and each face a $5 million bond to be released from custody. Morris and Cole faced new charges upon their arrest for both commercial and attempted residential burglary after law enforcement said they were camping in someone's shed. Featured Local Savings According to prior Gazette reporting, both had outstanding Mississippi warrants from the Mississippi Department of Corrections for failure to appear, as well as other county-level charges of receiving stolen property and contempt of court-failure to appear. A third person, Stephen Walker, 37, who went missing from El Paso County at the same time as Morris on Dec. 19, remains missing. He is described as 5-foot-11 and 160 pounds and has black hair, brown eyes and tattoos on his right arm. His family has asked through social media for anyone with any information about his whereabouts or well-being to contact authorities. Police initially filed missing persons reports for Morris and Walker after deputies found large quantities of blood throughout a house associated with the pair. The residence is in the 1800 block of Pima Drive in Cimarron Hills. The case became a death investigation days later on Dec. 24 when a check the welfare call resulted in the discovery of 65-year-old Timmy L. Huston, who was dead upon officer arrival. Public records indicated that Cole and Huston were listed as residents of the same residence. It was not initially clear whether the new homicide charges related to the death of Huston or the potential death of Walker. (KTLA) California has increased leave payments for most workers caring for a new child or a sick family member. Workers earning less than $63,000 a year can now receive up to 90% of their regular pay while on leave. Those who are above that threshold will receive 70% of their wages. The increase applies to new claims filed on or after Jan. 1, 2025. Claims filed in 2024 wont qualify for the new rates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement La Nina is living up to expectations in Southern California The changes stem from Senate Bill 951, authored by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles). The law aims to make it significantly more affordable for workers to take time off for pregnancy, childbirth, recovery from illness or injury, or to care for seriously ill family members, a news release said. SB 951 will ensure every California worker can afford to care for their family and themselves during lifes most important moments. I applaud Governor Newsom for signing my bill into law, which will allow middle and low paid workers to receive up to 90 percent of their wages when out on leave, Durazo said in a statement. This change will benefit millions of workers who have contributed to the program during their careers. This bill, which I was proud to introduce, is part of the historic work California is doing to expand equitable access to paid leave. Before the new changes, most workers only received up to 60% of their income from the states disability insurance program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Jan. 1 (UPI) -- New emergency insurance regulations in California will require home insurance providers write more policies, including in high-risk wildfire-prone areas, to ease the state's insurance crisis. The new state rules, released for the start of the new year, will force insurers to sell policies equal to 85% of their statewide market share, which could send rates soaring up to 40% higher, according to critics. "If we look at what happened in other states, in North Carolina and Florida, we're gonna see rates go up 40%," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, which oversees the Department of Insurance and plans to sue to block the new regulations from going into effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the new regulations, insurers will be required to increase their coverage by 5% every two years until they hit 85% of their market share. California deputy insurance commissioner Michael Soller said the new rules are meant to bring home insurers back to California. "We think that long term, this is gonna help stabilize rates, because right now, people are experiencing ballooning premiums and rate spikes, but they're not getting the benefit of increased competition," said Soller. "Under the reforms we're putting in place, insurance companies, in order to utilize these tools, like modeling, they have to write more policies. That's the change and we'll enforce that through our rate authority," Soller added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new regulations also allow insurance providers to pass the cost of reinsurance on to policyholders to avoid too much exposure with increased risk of natural disasters in California. Insurers have been pulling out of the state to avoid high claims. "Californians deserve a reliable insurance market that doesn't retreat from communities most vulnerable to wildfires and climate change," Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement. Consumer Watchdog accused the commissioner of failing to do "a cost-impact analysis of his plan on consumers." "That's because this plan is of the insurance industry, by the insurance industry and for the industry," Court said. Tweets by GNOFoundation Cameron Jordan has always been a good example for how New Orleans Saints players can be a positive influence in the community, and he's stepping up again in the wake of the Bourbon Street terror attack. Jordan announced that he has joined the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the City of New Orleans to donate $25,000 to the New Year's Day Tragedy Fund, intended to "assist the families of those who lost their lives and those who were severely injured." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He encouraged fans to donate to those impacted. A gunman drove a pickup down the crowded street of revelers celebrating the new year, killing 15 people and sending dozens more to the hospital with injuries, before he died in a shootout with police. Many victims are still recovering and their families and loved ones need support. It's good to see Jordan leading the charge like this. More! Former Saints fan-favorite had poignant reaction to Cameron Jordan's final 2024 home game The Saints may have had this year's biggest Pro Bowl snub Saints were the only team not represented on the NFC Pro Bowl roster Where do Saints players rank in final 2025 Pro Bowl voting counts? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Important things left to watch for in Saints' final game vs. Buccaneers This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Cameron Jordan donates $25,000 to New Year's Day Tragedy Fund, how you can help (Bloomberg) -- Following the high-profile successes of the crypto industry in last years US elections, digital-asset companies in Canada are already applying what theyve learned. Most Read from Bloomberg In November, Donald Trump, a crypto skeptic turned supporter, won the US presidential election and pro-crypto candidates won the majority of their races. Since then, Trump has nominated digital-asset supporters to his administration and Bitcoins price has surged more than 40%, rising above $100,000 for the first time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Crypto became a large topic in the US election due in part to the roughly $135 million the industry spent backing candidates. Cryptos Fairshake political action committee and its affiliated super-PACs were funded by industry heavyweights such as Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Andreessen Horowitz. North of the border, crypto hasnt been as big of a topic among politicians, but the industry hopes that will change. In Canadas political system, companies cant donate to election campaigns and individual donations for 2025 are capped at C$1,750 ($1,213) to each political party and C$1,750 in total for all candidates of each party. Even with these restrictions, the Canadian industry is still making progress since November. Conversations are easier to start today than they were over a month ago, and I think that trend will likely continue regardless of the donations, said Dean Skurka, chief executive officer of Toronto-based WonderFi Technologies Inc. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advocacy organization Stand With Crypto also helped make the topic a prominent US election issue, with industry partners like Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini. The campaign launched in 2023 and endorsed candidates in the US election with the aim of getting its 1.9 million supporters to advocate for pro-crypto policies. Stand With Crypto expanded to Canada in July, but the Canadian branch isnt looking to endorse candidates in the upcoming election. Instead it aims to galvanize communities of crypto advocates and create a grassroots movement of supporters who can speak with other Canadians and their members of parliament. The next Canadian federal election is due by October 2025, but could happen earlier under Canadas parliamentary system. Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Liberal Party holds a minority government and opposition parties are expected to put forward and support a non-confidence motion this year, which would topple the government. Canadas crypto industry would like to see digital assets become a bigger focus in that election, similar to how it was in the US. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were hopeful, but it hasnt quite played out that way in Canada historically, and obviously in the US this is the first time that its really become an election issue, Skurka said. Hopefully the positive response that it has seen the start of will be a signal to Canadian politicians to take it seriously. Canadian Crypto Regulation While crypto may not be a political focus in Canada, the country has played an important role in the industry. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was started in the country and Canada was home to the first Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the world. For a long time, Canada was quite ahead when it came to crypto regulation, said Sophia Cote, head of public policy at Montreal-based crypto trading platform Shakepay Inc. But I think weve now reached a very interesting critical juncture where there are still some areas where we have not yet decided how we want to proceed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Canadian Securities Administrators announced new rules for crypto asset trading platforms in 2023. The guidelines, which took effect on Dec. 31, limit trading platforms ability to list stablecoins and require platforms to file a pre-registration undertaking. The requirements contributed to an exodus of crypto platforms from the country; Gemini was set to leave at the end of 2024 and Binance, Bybit and OKX left in 2023. In Canada right now were still having conversations around how do we regulate stablecoins within our securities framework versus actually having a conversation around the fact that stablecoins around the world are used for payments, Cote said. Some of the other issues that are the focus of crypto-industry lobbying in Canada include allowing exposure to Bitcoin in retirement savings plans and tax-free savings accounts and including crypto in open banking laws. So far no political party in the country has come out in support of the industry, but digital-asset companies have been trying to position crypto as a way to improve affordability a key focus in Canadian politics. Coinbase Canada CEO Lucas Matheson sees it as imperative for the nation to be competitive with crypto, especially with a Trump administration expected to increase its prominence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are significant changes coming in how the US government and citizens in the US take advantage of the digital economy, Matheson said. And its incredibly important that Canadians dont miss out on this and sit on the sidelines and wait until the rest of the world has figured out how to take advantage of digital assets. Since the US election, crypto prices and trading volumes have risen in the US and Canada. WonderFis platform has seen more customer transactions and Coinbase Canada has seen increased customer sign-ups since November. Matheson expects the interest in crypto to continue to grow in Canada. Crypto is here to stay and the US elections cemented crypto in the history books and paved a path for every country around the world to start thinking deeply about how they will advance their own personal strategies, Matheson said. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Two special elections for open seats in a Roseville House district and a Minneapolis Senate district have drawn a number of candidates with control of both chambers at stake. Last month a Ramsey County judge ruled that Curtis Johnson was ineligible to serve for the House District 40B seat he was elected to in November due to residency issues. Johnson has declined to appeal the ruling leaving the seat open. Johnsons GOP challenger in the November election Paul Wikstrom is running for the seat as is DFLer David Gottfried. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kari Dziedzics death last month following a battle with cancer left a vacancy in her Minneapolis Senate seat. Dziedzic, 62, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2023 and stepped down from the role of Senate majority leader earlier last year as she underwent medical treatment. Dziedzic represented Senate District 60 for more than a decade. That race has drawn DFLers Peter Wagenius, Iris Grace Altamirano, Mohamed Jama, Emilio Cesar Rodriguez, Amal Karim, Joshua Preston, Monica Meyer and Doron Clark as candidates. Meanwhile, Republicans Abigail Wolters and Christopher Zimmerman also have filed for the seat. They will all compete in a Jan. 14 primary for the chance to move on to the Jan. 28 election. Gov. Tim Walz called for the special elections last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also in the mix is a contested House race in Shakopee that has gone to trial with a ruling yet to come. Meanwhile, Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, has faced calls for resignation after she was charged with felony burglary last April in connection with a break-in at her stepmothers home in Detroit Lakes. Mitchell, who is scheduled to stand trial later this month, has said she doesnt plan to resign, even as DFL Chairman Ken Martin and DFL Gov. Tim Walz have called for her to step down. The Minnesota Legislature starts its 2025 session on Jan. 14. At that time, Republicans will have a 67-66 majority in the House and the Senate will be tied at 33-33. But the outcomes of the special elections may change who controls each chamber. The close margins for both parties come in a year when lawmakers have to fashion a state budget. Related Articles POTSDAM, N.Y. (WWTI) Canton-Potsdam Hospital has announced its first baby of the New Year. In a release from the hospital, Adrian Ryan Isereau was welcomed into the world on New Years Day at Canton-Potsdam Hospital. He is the son of Marissa Bigelow and Ryan Isereau of Gouverneur, and was born at 10:24 p.m. on January 1. The baby came in at a weight of seven pounds and nine ounces. Team members of the Maternity Unit put a care basket together for the new mom and her baby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWTI - InformNNY.com. Seattle Fire Department crews spent the morning battling a car fire that spread to a home in South Beacon Hill. Luckily, no injuries were reported. Firefighters first responded to the single-family residence structure fire at around 3:30 a.m. on Thursday. They were able to put water on the fire quickly, knocking down the flames. According to SFD crews, the fire had started in a car and extended to the house. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By 4 a.m., firefighters had the blaze under control, and just minutes later, the fire was extinguished. Firefighters monitored for hot spots throughout the morning and reported no injuries following primary and secondary searches of the home. (Bloomberg) -- Some workers on car-rental startup Turo Inc.s trust and safety team have interrupted vacations to monitor and respond to the aftermath of deadly attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans, according to a person familiar with the matter. Most Read from Bloomberg In both incidents, which the FBI has said appear to be unrelated, the drivers used cars they procured on the platform to inflict violence. The attacks, both of which happened Wednesday, highlight how the rental marketplace can be used cheaply and easily to procure large vehicles that can be used as weapons. The incidents are also creating a public relations setback for San Francisco-based Turo, which has had aspirations to sell shares in an initial public offering, and prompted the company to defend its procedures for vetting customers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turo, which launched as RelayRides in 2010, uses a proprietary algorithm to screen drivers for risks and calculate appropriate fees. The Turo Risk Score, which has been in use since 2020, evaluates 50 data points from each driver to determine fees and will be continuously refined with further trips, the company said in a September regulatory filing. Most renters on Turo are approved immediately after entering their drivers license and other information, the companys website says. The San Francisco startup offers 3.5 million users access to 350,000 vehicles. Turos business is similar to other marketplaces like Airbnb and eBay, which dont build hotels or buy merchandise themselves but build tech platforms to connect buyers and sellers. Turo aims to apply the same asset-light business model to the car rental industry in which legacy players own the vehicles the rent to customers. If someone wanted to rent a Tesla Inc. Cybertruck the vehicle used in the Las Vegas attack there are 31 options available in that city next week, from as low as $120 per day. Two Ford F-150 Lightning Trucks the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack are listed in the Houston area where the attacker rented the vehicle. Both cost under $100 per day on Turo. Turo did not respond to Bloomberg News queries about the Turo Risk Scores of each driver involved in the attacks, which killed 15 and injured dozens in New Orleans and Las Vegas on New Years Day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. While Turo has planned to go public, its been waiting years for a more favorable market. The startup raised money from investors at a valuation of more than $1 billion in 2019, making it a sharing economy unicorn. It has raised $528 million from a broad group of investors, according to PitchBook data, including Silicon Valley venture capital firms as well as IAC Inc., American Express Co. and Liberty Mutual Group. Turo had revenue of $722 million in the nine months ending in September, up 8% form the same period in 2023, according to the September regulatory filing. The goal for us is to continue growing the business as fast as possible, Chief Executive Officer Andre Haddad said in a September 2024 CNBC interview. But amid rocky conditions, Turos plans havent yet come to fruition. Last year, its competitor Getaround Inc., which offers a similar service, cut 30% of staff, citing tremendous challenges to its business. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among risks to Turos success as a public company are the activities of its hosts or guests, Turo said in its paperwork to go public. Theft, vehicle damage or other safety and security issues could harm our reputation, increase our operating costs, and materially and adversely affect our business, Turo wrote. --With assistance from Anne VanderMey. (Updates with recent comment from Turos CEO in the ninth paragraph. An earlier version corrected the year in which Getaround cut 30% of staff.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Both vehicles used in two New Years Day attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas were rented through Turo, a car-sharing app. The attacks thrust the San Francisco company that created the app, which relies on a model similar to Airbnb to enable users to rent cars directly from their owners, into the spotlight and raised questions about the ability of such peer-to-peer services to adequately vet users for possible safety issues. In a statement, the company defended itself, saying its committed to the highest standards in risk management. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat, Turo said in a statement Wednesday. We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. In the first attack early Wednesday morning, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowed a Ford pickup truck he rented on Turo into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 14 and injuring many others before being killed by police. Later that day, a man authorities believe to be 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger parked a Tesla Cybertruck he had rented days earlier in Denver in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Seconds later, fuel canisters and fireworks packed into the truck's bed exploded, slightly wounding seven bystanders. The driver's burned body was found with a gunshot wound, leading authorities to conclude Livelsberger shot himself. Founded in 2009 by former Chief Executive Shelby Clark, privately held Turo operates in more than 16,000 cities and serves 3.5 million active guests. The app offers more than 1,600 makes and models of vehicles and has helped vehicle owners earn $4.8 billion since its inception, a company filing said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The app works by connecting renters to car owners seeking to share their vehicle for a profit. Users can search for cars by location and communicate directly with owners to arrange a pickup. Owners set their daily rates, and theres a $15 minimum requirement for each trip. According to the companys website , a user must have a valid drivers license, home address and payment card to rent a vehicle. Turo may also check a potential renters credit report and criminal background, the website says. The company said it was heartbroken by the violence perpetrated and employs world-class trust and safety protocols, including hiring former law enforcement professionals. Turo claims to be the worlds largest car-sharing marketplace and offers an alternative to traditional rental companies such as Hertz and Enterprise. Founded as a venture-capital-backed startup, the company first filed paperwork to make an initial public offering in 2022 but has yet to go public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turo saw a $14.7-million profit in 2023 and $19 million over the first nine months of 2024, according to a filing . It faces some competition in the car-sharing space, including from the rental app Getaround, which uses a similar platform to connect owners and renters. This is not the first time Turo vehicles have been associated with criminal activity. In 2021, a Houston woman was charged with committing a series of robberies, which she allegedly carried out using seven cars rented through Turo. Rentals from Turo and Getaround have also been stolen and involved in drug trafficking, according to NBC News . After investigating a possible connection between the attacks, authorities said they believe the two men acted alone. The Cybertruck explosion was not due to a faulty vehicle, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said. The owner of the pickup used in the New Orleans attack told the New York Times that he recognized his vehicle on the news. He had been renting out five vehicles on Turo as a second income stream but will not use the platform after the attacks, he said. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Social care workers will be trained to undertake simple NHS health checks such as testing blood pressure to help free up hospital beds. Other practices they will be encouraged to perform include tending to wounds, injecting insulin for someone with diabetes and putting in place a mental-health crisis plan. The drive is part of a wider package of reforms to social care that will be unveiled by Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New national standards and guidance are to be drawn up on what modern technology is recommended for use in care homes in an attempt to improve standards. A renewed push to digitise records will allow carers to access patient information online without having to call their GP, thereby freeing up doctor time. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, is set to announce the move as part of a wider package of reforms to social care Mr Streeting said: There is a revolution taking place in health and care technology, and this Government is reforming social care so disabled and older people benefit from the latest cutting-edge tech. By reforming health and care services to work more closely together, patients wont be forced to repeat themselves over and over again, staff will be equipped to deliver the best possible care, and it will help to free up hospital beds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will also outline national standards for care technology so families, carers and providers are able to invest in the best available modern technology to support people. The policy announcements, shared with The Telegraph, are some of the first indications of how the Labour Government plans to reform social care. But the changes are not expected to include an overall new approach to the funding crisis in social care something successive Tory governments pledged to solve without success. Repeated Tory prime ministers expressed support for plans that would see the overall amount of social care costs an individual could spend in their lifetime capped, plus a new floor established for how low the value of someones assets could fall before the state steps in to pay for care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the proposals were delayed by Rishi Sunak and then scrapped by Sir Keir Starmer after taking office in July 2024. It is unclear what Labour will propose to replace the cap and floor plan. The Liberal Democrats have been calling for a non-partisan commission to be established to find a social care funding solution that can be supported across political lines. Labour has also faced criticism for not exempting care providers from the National Insurance increase paid for by companies unveiled in the Budget in October. It is unclear what Sir Keir Starmer and Labour will propose to replace the cap and floor plan - Stefan Rousseau/PA Archive The industry is already facing staffing shortages, with tens of thousands of special visas for social care issued to foreign workers in recent years to fill employment gaps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is unclear exactly how many social care workers will be taught to undertake the basic NHS checks, nor how the training will be administered. A government source said full details of the training approach are being worked up. No new money is expected to be invested, given that extra financial support for social care was announced in the Budget. The move is part of a wider attempt to reduce NHS waiting lists, which soared when Covid-19 hit and have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The new advice on caring technologies will cover innovations such as sensors that help detect when someone has fallen over at home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dr Vin Diwakar, the national director of transformation at NHS England, said: Research shows that digitising social care and linking up records enables people to live independently for longer and families to participate in caregiving, as well as releasing staff from time-consuming administrative tasks to free up more time to care. This new focus will ensure teams are supported to deliver the best possible care and patients can benefit from the latest innovations, helping them stay healthy for longer so relieving pressure on the NHS. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. In an election post-mortem where he admitted that he was "wrong" about Kamala Harris' chances, long-time Democratic strategist James Carville argued that the party needs to present a bold, populist opposition under Donald Trumps upcoming administration. The former advisor to Bill Clinton admitted he was off-base in the lead-up to the Democrats drubbing in November, acknowledging that Harris flat-out lost the economic narrative to Trump in an op-ed shared in the New York Times on Thursday. Carville suggested a change of course to win back voters swayed by Trump's promises of a booming economy. We must focus on revving up a transformed messaging machine for the new political paradigm, Carville wrote. Our central message must revolve around opposing Republicans tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carville asked that Democratic lawmakers bring broadly popular legislation to the floor and force Republicans to oppose us on issues like raising the minimum wage and protecting abortion rights. We must be on the offensive with a wildly popular and populist economic agenda they cannot be for, the campaign strategist argued. Lets start by forcing them to oppose a raise in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Lets make Roe v. Wade an economic messaging issue and force them to block our attempts to codify it into law. The 80-year-old warned Dems to stay focused on economic issues, declaring the stances winners over culture wars and pooh-poohing Trumps criminal record. If we focus on anything else, we risk falling farther into the abyss, Carville wrote. Denouncing other Americans or their leader as miscreants is not going to win elections; focusing on their economic pain will. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The one-time outspoken opponent of progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez further demanded a new creative, popular and bold economic agenda from Democratic Party leadership. Carville also argued the party needs to do a better job of reaching voters by embracing alternative media and nontraditional platforms for messaging purposes after the Trump campaign dominated coverage on podcasts and social media. To Democratic presidential hopefuls, your auditions for 2028 should be based on two things: 1) How authentic you are on the economy and 2) how well you deliver it on a podcast, Carville wrote. Students braves the cold on the first day of classes in the spring 2024 semester at the Community College of Rhode Islands Knight Campus in Warwick. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) A nine-member committee will lead the search for the next permanent president of the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI), with plans to install the new leader by the end of the spring semester, the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education announced Tuesday. Weve assembled a group of nine individuals, representing a variety of perspectives, who have accepted the responsibility of finding the person who will lead CCRI and position it for long-term academic excellence and student success, David Caprio, who chairs the council, said in a statement Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The council hired the same search firm that conducted the search for a permanent president for Rhode Island College (RIC) in 2024. AGB Search was selected after the firm responded to a request for proposals for the CCRI search. AGB received a $75,000 fixed sum for the Rhode Island College search last year, along with $21,000 for search expenses including travel and background checks. While the councils office managed the search process, the school paid the firms costs. Beth Bailey, a spokesperson for the council, said via email Thursday that the contract for the CCRI search is still in negotiations, but that she would share details once its signed. The firm and search committee are expected to begin work as soon as the contract is finalized. CCRI is currently headed by Interim President Rosemary Costigan, the first alum to hold the role. Costigan replaced Meghan Hughes, who served as president from February 2016 through August 2023. Hughes was the first woman to serve as president at CCRI, which is the states only community college, with four campuses and two satellites spread across the state. Costigan had an annual salary of $285,000 in fiscal year 2024, which ended June 30, 2024. For the current fiscal year, 2025, Costigan has a salary of $299,999, according to the states transparency portal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bailey wrote that the salary range for the eventual permanent president wont be discussed until the postsecondary councils Jan. 9 meeting. The search committee includes two chairs: Steve Smith, an educational consultant, and Elizabeth Ortiz, associate justice with the Rhode Island Family Court. The remainder of the search committee is comprised of: Three postsecondary council members: David Caprio, Michael Mello and Marcy Reyes. Kim M. Barker, president of the CCRI Foundation and executive vice president and chief legal officer of Ballys Corporation, the gambling corporation which gave $5 million to CCRI in 2023 and has partnered with the school to offer a table game-dealing curriculum. Jude Tomasino, president of CCRIs Professional Staff Association, and Mazin Adam, an art and design professor who serves as president of the CCRI Faculty Association. Alicia Anthony, an associate with law firm Howe & Garside, Ltd., which has offices in Lincoln and Newport. While the makeup of the search committee is being made public, the public is unlikely to know more about the candidates for the presidency until the spring. The council will continue to share information with the Rhode Island community about the progress in the search while simultaneously protecting the privacy boundaries of the candidates, Caprio wrote in his statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A touch of secrecy is common in executive searches at colleges, even public ones. The results of the RIC search were not announced until only three finalists remained in late January 2024. Jack Warner, who was already serving as interim president, was announced as president about two weeks later. Kellie Ann Myrtle Wright, a spokesperson for CCRI, commented via email Friday morning as to whether Costigan planned to apply for the role. Dr. Costigans focus is on serving CCRI, its students, faculty, staff, and the Rhode Island community, Wright wrote. While any decision regarding the future leadership of CCRI is up to the Council on Postsecondary Education, Dr. Costigan is supportive of the process and remains committed to leading the institution as we begin a new year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX This story was updated to include a comment from Kellie Ann Myrtle Wright, director of marketing and communications at CCRI. COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) This year, health care professionals recommend adding getting a flu vaccine to your New Years resolutions as flu activity peaks between December and February. CDC reports say there have been at least 3.1 million illnesses, 37,000 hospitalizations, and 1,500 deaths from the flu so far this season. This includes five pediatric deaths only a week before Christmas. This brings the total of pediatric deaths to nine this season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pamela Kirkland, the public information coordinator of the West Central Health District says the elderly and young are most susceptible to having complications related to the virus because their immune systems arent as strong. The flu tends to come on quicker than the cold, Kirkland explains. With the flu, youre going to end up having body aches and just feeling miserable. Its going to come on a little bit faster than just a cold. Kirkland says those with medical issues like diabetes, heart disease and COPD should get vaccinated as people with respiratory issues are susceptible to having complications to the Flu virus. The health department in Columbus provides vaccines and a kiosk outside the building where you can self-swab and get results back within 72 for the flu or Covid-19. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. This year marks the first year of a new label for a generation in Generation Beta. SEE THE LIST OF BRAND NEW CENTRAL FLORIDA BETA BABIES Read: FBI finds 150 homemade bombs at Virginia home in one of the largest such seizures, prosecutors say ORANGE COUNTY Winnie Palmer (ORL): Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies proudly welcomed its first baby of the New Year at 1:20am. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baby boy Derek weighed 7lbs9 oz. and measured 19.25 long. Derek is the son of Davina Nguyen and Erik Kim. In honor of this special occasion, the Central Florida Diaper Bank is donating a years worth of diapers (roughly 3,600) to the family. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. LAKE COUNTY AdventHealth (TAV): AdventHealth has delivered Central Floridas first baby of the new year. We are happy to welcome baby boy Travis Michael Morgan, Central Floridas first baby of 2025. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. Read: Expect a chilly start to 2025 with multiple cold fronts and potential winter storm BREVARD COUNTY Health Firsts Viera Hospital: At 12:24 a.m., while most of us were still in the early stages of celebrating the new year, baby Betty-Rose Freeman took her first breath at Viera Hospital - becoming Brevard Countys first baby of 2025. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. VIEW THE FULL GALLERY OF THE FIRST BORNS OF GENERATION BETA At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. At the beginning of every year, we celebrate the first babies born into the new year, but this year, it comes with another label. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A woman from Champaign, Ill. was arrested after Kewanee Police found suspected meth, cannabis, a bludgeon club and cash in her vehicle after a traffic stop. A news release from the Kewanee Police Department says a detective from the Street Crimes Unit conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle in the 500 block of South Main Street on December 31 at about 2:44 p.m. The driver, identified as Rochelle Sampson, 42 f,rom Champaign, Ill., was arrested for driving a motor vehicle on a revoked drivers license. Officers searched the vehicle and found 178 grams (just over 6 ounces) of suspected methamphetamine, packaging materials, scales, cannabis, a bludgeon club and $757 in cash. Rochelle Sampson (Kewanee Police Department) Sampson was taken to the Kewanee Police Department, where she was booked, processed and later taken to the Henry County Jail. She faces preliminary charges of: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Possession of methamphetamine Possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver (100-400 grams) Possession of an open title Unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon Driving with a revoked license (Kewanee Police Department) She is also being held on a parole warrant issued by the Illinois Department of Corrections. The charge of possession of methamphetamine (100-400 grams) is a Class X felony under Illinois law, with a potential sentence of 6 to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. The charge of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver (100-400 grams) is also a Class X felony, punishable by 9 to 40 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. A Petition to Deny Pretrial Release was filed in the case in Henry County Court this morning. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. Charges have been filed against four suspects in connection to an armed home invasion in rural Minnesota that saw a safe containing more than $100,000 in cash stolen with one of the suspects a former employee of the victims. Sherburne County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday that it has arrested three out of the four suspects involved in the Dec. 18 home invasion at a property on 305th Avenue Northwest near the City of Baldwin. The fourth suspect, 22-year-old Brandon Marlon Garcia-Becerril, is believed to have fled to Mexico. He has been charged with 1st-degree burglary along with 31-year-old Yonathan Jose Gamboa Zambrano, of Minneapolis. Yonathan Gamboa ZambranoSherburne County Jail Police say a woman was at home asleep when two men at least one of whom was carrying a gun entered through an unlocked rear garage door and stole a safe containing in excess of $100,000 cash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Security footage from the home showed one of the suspects was wearing a mask and both were wearing gloves, and the male homeowner identified one of the suspects as Garcia-Becerril, who was a former employee of his who had recently asked to borrow money because Garcia-Becerril had just been charged with a gun crime. Further investigation determined Garcia-Becerril had a girlfriend identified as Jennifer Barrera Henriquez, 21, of St. Paul, and had recently been at a Coon Rapids home belonging to Carlos Veloz-Garcia, 21. They have both been charged with aiding and abetting 1st-degree burglary. Investigators learned that a vehicle belonging to Henriquez had visited the Lowe's store in Coon Rapids the day before the burglary, and had then traveled to Enterprise car rentals. Veloz-Garcia then rented a truck at 9 a.m. on Dec. 17, and returned it about 24 hours later, an hour after the burglary, with the amount of miles added to the vehicle similar to the distance between the Enterprise rental lot and the Baldwin area. GPS records confirmed that the truck had been in the vicinity of the victims' home at the time of the burglary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Further examination of video surveillance showed the truck arriving outside Lowe's on the morning of Dec. 18 and items being taken out of it and placed into another vehicle that was parked in the lot, which was registered to Veloz-Garcia's father. While Veloz-Garcia returned the truck to Enterprise, three people were seen "hugging and grabbing each other and making celebratory gestures" before entering the Lowe's store, with two of them identified as Garcia-Becerril and Henriquez. The criminal complaint notes that Garcia-Becerril and the other male suspect later identified as Zambrano were wearing the same clothes as observed on the surveillance footage from the victims' home. After finding evidence that linked Veloz-Garcia to the burglary in his trash, police obtained a warrant to search his home on Dec. 23, and found $2,000 cash in his pocket, and "large amounts of new shopping bags with receipts" that showed the goods had been purchased after Dec. 18. During questioning, Veloz-Garcia admitted he knew the truck he rented was going to be used for the robbery, and that he helped load and transport the safe afterwards. He was then given $30,000 from the safe, of which $23,000 was found on his property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Henriquez was questioned and denied being in a relationship with Garcia-Becerril, claiming he threatened her to get her to take part in the burglary, but police noted inconsistencies in her comments. A combination of evidence from trash pulls, social media, and statements from Henriquez and Veloz-Garcia helped police identify Zambrano as the other burglar, and found him at a home Zambrano and Garcia-Becerril once shared. During questioning, Zambrano admitted Henriquez had been the driver for the burglary, and said Garcia-Becerril was in possession of a firearm but said it was a BB gun. He also said he knew they were at the home to commit a crime, but didn't realize someone as at home. Sherburne County Sheriff's Office says it has so far recovered $36,000 of the stolen money. The investigation continues, with Zambrano being held in custody on a bail of $600,000. An east Charlotte Family Dollar is closed indefinitely after Charlotte Fire says someone intentionally set a fire inside the east Charlotte business on Sunday. In a post on X, Charlotte Fire said this is the third time this business has been targeted by fire in recent months. Charlotte Fire Responds to Intentionally Set Early Morning Fire at The Plaza Early this morning, Charlotte Fire responded to a structure fire at the 6200 block of The Plaza. At 3:22 AM, a 911 call reported fire and smoke visible at the location. Charlotte Fire crews were pic.twitter.com/tJ9DFAAIZC Charlotte Fire Dept (@CharlotteFD) December 29, 2024 The Family Dollar is located at 6212 The Plaza. A spokesperson for the store did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Channel 9 obtained incident reports for the three fires. The first was on November 30, when suspects tried to break into the back door using a grinder. CFD responded because someone reported smoke. The incident report says the suspect cut the hinges from the rear egress door. READ MORE: Charlotte fire investigates intentionally set fire at business in east Charlotte Charlotte Fire returned back to the store just days later when someone set a fire just feet away from the business at a homeless camp. On December 29, Charlotte Fire returned after people broke into Family Dollar through the back door and started a fire between the cash register and safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Firefighters said the arson resulted in about 1.4 million dollars in damages. It took 30 firefighters 38 minutes to control the blaze. No arrests have been made in connection with this case, according to the fire department. Family Dollar agrees to $41M settlement Charlotte Fire remains committed to working with law enforcement to thoroughly investigate these cases and bring those responsible to justice, a spokesperson for CFD said. On Thursday, Channel 9 spotted numerous people attempting to go to the store, unaware of its closure. Neighbor Gerlynn Alford Wright says the arson is robbing community members of a reliable place for cheap food and supplies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I buy everything there, she said. Hopefully I will be able to go back in there soon. The church pews where Francisca Lino and her family had sat for services every Sunday are now empty. Though she once sought sanctuary in the Chicago church to avoid deportation, this time not even that holy space feels safe, she said. Instead, Lino, a mother of six and wife of a U.S. citizen, plans to gather her family in front of a computer to watch a Spanish-language service at Lincoln United Methodist Church virtually every Sunday from now on. My family and I are tired of this, said Lino, whose Christmas was once again overshadowed by the uncertainty of her and her familys future in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the threats from the incoming Trump administration that Chicago will be the epicenter of mass deportations, Emma Lozano, an activist and pastor at Lincoln United Methodist, decided to move its Spanish services online as the church prepares to protect its undocumented immigrant community. The services in English will remain in-person. The Pilsen church, Lozano said, has been vandalized and attacked by right-wing extremists in the past. We must take their threats seriously and prepare for the worst, Lozano said. That fear is beginning to settle in amid the immigrant community in the Chicago area. Advocates and local leaders warn that mass deportations could affect undocumented, mixed-status and new migrant families alike. Even if that is the case, the Mexican community is expected to experience the most deportations, according to Chicago political leaders and immigration advocates. Thats because they make up the largest group of immigrants in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyre coming to our schools, theyre coming to our hospital, theyre coming to our churches and sanctuaries on Sundays, former congressman Luis Gutierrez said at a December news conference at City Hall, where he and other leaders submitted a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson to ask for the communitys protection. Theyve done it before and theyll do it again. No one is safe. President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind a longstanding policy within Immigration and Customs Enforcement that prevents unauthorized arrests of undocumented immigrants in schools, hospitals and places of worship, according to reports. The news of the plan alarmed Lozano because her church is also the headquarters of Centro Sin Fronteras, a nonprofit pro-immigrant-rights organization that has represented many immigrants at risk of deportation, including Lino. Many members of Lincoln United Methodist are also mixed-status families that come together not only to pray but to support each other as they fight deportation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our worship service is going to be virtual now because we are not going to be set up so that they can come into our church and separate the children from their families, Lozano said. Lino, who took sanctuary at a Humboldt Park church in 2017 to avoid deportation during Trumps first term, has a scheduled check-in with immigration authorities Feb. 13, just weeks after Trump takes office again. She said her deepest fear is that she will not be able to avoid deportation this time. Now a grandmother of eight, Lino spends time with her family and does not watch the news. I try not to think about it, she said. We are tired of hiding and living this way, of hiding from the world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lino has no criminal record and has lived and worked in this country for nearly 25 years, said her lawyer, Chris Bergin. She was arrested while crossing the southern border in 1999 and deported back to Mexico. She crossed the border again in 2001 and settled in Bolingbrook, where she married her husband the same year. Lino then applied for legal residency through her husband. She received a work permit and a Social Security number. However, Lino was arrested in 2005 during an interview with immigration authorities because although she admitted to her initial arrest, her application did not include the information, Bergin said. Since then, Lino has been in deportation proceedings but has been allowed to remain in the country by meeting with ICE agents annually. However, at her first check-in under the Trump administration in 2017, she was told she needed to attend her check-in with a flight ticket to Mexico in hand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im afraid this time, I will have to say goodbye to my family. But I hope that the Trump administration keeps their word that only criminals are deported, Lino said. During a brief visit to Chicago in early December, Tom Homan, Trumps so-called border czar, told a group of Illinois Republicans that ICE intended to target the deportation of criminals regardless of Mayor Johnsons support for immigrants. But what will be considered criminal is unknown. Homan also said the administration will verify the status of asylum-seekers. Though Trump also threatened to stop federal funding to sanctuary cities such as Chicago, both Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker vowed to protect the immigrant community. Gov. JB Pritzker promises to protect immigrants, but says those convicted of violent crimes need to go Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the blurred line lies between who and what is considered a criminal and who is not, Lozano said. Weve seen what Trump is capable of. He had a first round and knew how to attack better this time. While advocates believe mass deportations would mostly affect Mexican families because they make up the largest group of the 11 million immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission, Bergin said every immigrant is at risk, even those with an asylum case or temporary protected status and those who have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst with the incoming Trump administration, Bergin said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several pro-immigrant organizations throughout the city have begun to plan know your rights workshops and distribute resources advising community members on how to prepare for possible deportations. Dont open the door and dont sign anything, Gutierrez said. Bergin also advised that those who are here without documentation prepare a power of attorney to protect their children, money and property. Erendira Rendon, vice president of immigrant justice for The Resurrection Project, said her legal team is preparing to take on more deportation cases when the Trump administration takes over. In the meantime, the team is working with the Illinois Venezuela Alliance to process as many applications as possible for asylum and temporary protected status. The Chicago areas Venezuelan community, made up mostly of the approximately 50,000 migrants who have arrived from the southern U.S. border in the last two years, are worried and fearful, said Jose Balboa, president of the alliance. In recent weeks, after Homans visit, the organization has gotten an increasing number of calls from migrants seeking support and guidance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many are afraid to stay in the shelters, parents afraid to take their children to school and others wonder if they should go to work, said Balboa, who also sought asylum in the U.S. from Venezuela. Balboa considers the new migrants at a higher risk of being deported because most are registered in some way with the immigration department, either having filed an asylum case or waiting for a court visit. That means that upon attending their interview with immigration, their applications for asylum, and refugee status or Temporary Protection Status, can be easily denied when Trump takes office, he said. Unlike those who are undocumented, the federal government has a way of tracing the new migrants, Balboa said. In mid-December, nearly 200 new migrants gathered in a prayer circle in Little Village, said pastor Matt De Mateo. He said faith leaders are in conversations about the role the churches can have in protecting people from deportation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, Brandon Lee of the The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said that organization is preparing for Chicago and Illinois to be targeted by creating a plan to connect community members to local rapid-response teams. Everything about how the mass deportations will take place in Chicago or across the country, however, remains unclear. Still, many are preparing, urging each other to rise above the fear. We must prepare but we must not hide, said Dolores Castaneda, a Little Village mother and community leader who has worked alongside undocumented immigrants for many years. For many longtime families in the country without legal permission, the threats of deportation are nothing new, she said. The average undocumented person has been in the country for more than 15 years, and many have learned to live with the fear, she said. There are more than half a million undocumented people in Illinois, according to the latest research, though the number could vary because many go under the radar. During a march Dec. 18, more than a dozen immigrants marched from the Little Village Arch to St. Agnes of Bohemia Catholic Church as a way to raise awareness in the community of the possible deportations and urge immigrants to stay alert. For Belesda Toledo, a mother of four, marching was something she did for herself. It made me feel strong and in community, she said. Im afraid, but I also have faith that God is with us and he protects our future, whatever it may be. Toledo arrived in Chicago two decades ago from Guerrero, Mexico. Her four children are U.S. citizens. She said she and her children are active participants at the church and she cleans houses from time to time. Im not a criminal; the father of my children works to make sure our children go to school and have everything we didnt have, Toledo said. She said she agrees that those who have committed crimes should be deported. She said that if the administration creates a vetting process that could also consider the contributions many, including her and her husband, have made to the country, then they could have an opportunity to stay here lawfully. While Toledo has no plans to stop living her normal life, including going to church at St. Agnes of Bohemia every Sunday, she said things could change come Jan. 20, when Trump takes office. I have faith that we will be able to stay, she said. In the meantime, at Lincoln United Methodist in Pilsen, the pews will remain empty and the church quiet. During the first virtual service the Sunday before Christmas, pastor Cecilia Garcia cried. Her husband was deported nearly a decade ago and the feeling of uncertainty and fear felt familiar, she said. Its happening again and we dont know how many families will be affected. larodriguez@chicagotribune.com China banned the export of dual-use products to over two dozen US defence contractors, targeting top players like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, as it objected to Washingtons latest arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing imposed the ban on 28 US defence contractors, placing 10 of them on an unreliable entities list over weapons sales to Taiwan, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. The decision, based on Chinas export control law and regulation on export control of dual-use items, was taken to safeguard national security and interests and fulfil international obligations including non-proliferation, the ministry said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The targeted firms also included General Dynamics and Boeing. The 10 unreliable entities were engaged in the American weapons sales to Taiwan despite strong opposition from Beijing. The so-called military technology cooperation seriously undermines Chinas national sovereignty and territorial integrity, violates the One China principle and the provisions of the three joint communiques between China and the US, and significantly threatens peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, a ministry spokesperson said. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory and does not rule out the use of force to reunite the island. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The export ban mimics last months sanctions on defence and aerospace entities involved in a previous sale of weapons to Taiwan. The sanctions targeted Insitu, Hudson Technologies, Saronic Technologies, Raytheon Canada, Raytheon Australia, Aerkomm, and Oceaneering International Inc. The firms under the latest ban will be barred from import and export activities in China and from making new investments. Their officials cannot enter the country and their work permits or residency will be revoked. It was not immediately clear how many individuals would be impacted by the decision. Taiwan last month received a batch of 38 advanced Abrams battle tanks from the US in a significant boost to the islands land defence capabilities. Another 42 tanks, considered the heaviest in the world, are due to be delivered this year, and 28 the year after. The island has been upgrading its defence capabilities acquiring F-16 fighter jets, missiles, submarines and artillery systems from the US in the face of increasing military drills by China. Chinese hackers who launched a cyberattack on the US Treasury Department targeted an important department of the agency that deals with sanctions against countries and groups of people imposed by the US government. Source: Washington Post, citing US officials, as reported by European Pravda Details: According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the main target of the cyberattack on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) was data on Chinese organisations that the US government may consider imposing financial sanctions on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials added that the hack also affected the Treasury Department's Office of Financial Research. Current and former officials have noted that even unclassified documents can be very useful to a competitor like China, as they can help hackers understand how the US develops sanctions policy and who is considered as potential targets. A Treasury Department spokesman declined to comment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the hacking claims "baseless" and said that Beijing "has always opposed any form of hacking". Background: Earlier it was reported that the US Treasury Department said that a Chinese-funded organisation was behind the cyberattack that gained access to some of the department's working systems. The incident occurred in December when an attacker hacked into a third-party cybersecurity provider and was able to remotely access the Treasury Department's systems and some unclassified documents, a spokesperson for the department said. Support UP or become our patron! Authorities in the Philippines are examining what appears to be a Chinese ocean glider-type uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) that a fisherman caught earlier this week. At least three similar, if not identical, undersea drones were found in various locations around Indonesia between 2019 and 2020. The design looks to be one ostensibly intended for maritime research use, but it could also have military applications. A fisherman recovered the UUV approximately six miles (nine kilometers) off the coast of the San Pascual municipality in Masbate, an island province in the Philippines that lies in the central section of the archipelago nation, on Dec. 30, 2024. The drone, which is said to be around six and a half feet (two meters) long, was turned over first to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and then to the Philippine Navy. A view of the glider-type UUV in PNP custody. PNP Bicol A map showing the general location of the San Pascual municipality in Masbate province in the Philippines. Google Maps The predominantly yellow-painted UUV has a torpedo-esque main body with a single fin and stinger-like protrusion at the rear end. There are also two larger wing-like fins, which are black, attached to the body. Pictures the PNP has released show HY-119 and HY-L0119 markings on the rear of the drone. The HY-L0119 marking is visible in this picture of the glider-type UUV. PNP Bicol Based on our open-source research in the internet HY-119 refers to a Chinese underwater navigation and communication system, PNP Bicol regional director Brig. Gen. Andre Dizon told AFP. It has an antenna and an eye that can be used for viewing. Based on our research, this can be used for monitoring and reconnaissance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pictures, seen below, do show an aperture or port on top of the nose end of the UUV, as well as what may be rows of smaller ones behind it. There is no obvious propulsion system, which we will come back to momentarily. Another view of the glider-type UUV. PNP Bicol Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PNP Bicol The UUV recovered near San Pascual looks virtually identical, at least externally, to ones that fishermen in Indonesia recovered on at least three separate occasions between 2019 and 2020. The drones found around the Philippines and Indonesia also have very strong similarities to the Chinese Sea Wing ocean glider-type UUV, which the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed more than a decade ago. Underwater drones of this type use an internal system to alter their buoyancy, repeatedly diving and then surfacing to move forward in the water, aided by the fins along the body and at the tail. Past Chinese state media reports have claimed that Sea Wing can operate for up to 30 days and dive down to a depth of nearly four miles. Noted that this is at least the second time Sea Wing UUV found in Indonesia In March 2019, a fisherman made similar findings on Tenggel Island/Village, Riau Islands Laduni & TribunNews https://t.co/3lvZzhdXwIpic.twitter.com/ASxAdWPs6B JATOSINT (@Jatosint) December 29, 2020 Yep, there are the two incidents in the article. @Peatland_Boy just highlighted a third, also a Sea Wing glider H I Sutton (@CovertShores) December 29, 2020 Officially, CAS has used Sea Wings for various underwater research purposes, including measuring the strength and direction of currents and water temperature, oxygen levels, and salinity using acoustic and other sensors. As TWZ has noted in the past, these are common tasks for glide-type drones, which are also in service with the U.S. Navy and other military and civilian organizations globally. Sea Wing unmanned undersea vehicles arrayed in front of a Chinese Academy of Sciences research ship. Chinese Academy of Sciences Glider-type UUVs, in general, are also known to be employed for hydrographic survey work and to otherwise support the creation of underwater maps. Having highly accurate charts detailing the contours of the seabed has obvious military utility, especially for submarine operations. Underwater gliders can be used to support other kinds of military activities, as well. For instance, the U.S. Navy has said in the past that it uses these kinds of UUVs to help service fixed underwater sonar sensor fields. However, UUVs of this type do offer far more limited capabilities overall than more advanced underwater drones that have been and continue to be developed and fielded, including by China, in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is also worth noting that the line between civilian research capabilities and military ones is often muddled in general in China. The countrys state-run civilian scientific and engineering organizations like CAS and its subdivisions have close ties directly to the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). It does remain unknown what the UUV recovered near San Pascual was doing at the time, as well as whether it was operational or had stopped functioning and drifted there from somewhere else. At the same time, as was the case with the ones that fishermen caught around Indonesia years ago, its appearance, especially in waters well within the bounds of the Philippines archipelago, has real potential national security implications. The PNP itself has made this clear. All of this is only further underscored by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navys (PLAN) own brief seizure of a U.S. Navy glider-type underwater drone in the hotly contested South China Sea back in December 2016. A stock picture of a US Navy glider-type UUV. USN The recovery of the HY-119 system has significant implications, as it provides insights into advanced underwater technology and naval capabilities, the statement from the PNPs Bicol office adds. Authorities are closely examining the device as to its origin and to assess its potential impact on national security and maritime operations. The Philippines could well reach out to allies and partners, especially the United States, to further assist with its ongoing investigation. The U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence community have particularly robust so-called Foreign Materiel Exploitation (FME) enterprises that specialize in gleaning a wide variety of information on capabilities and other aspects of captured or otherwise acquired non-American systems. You can learn more about the U.S. governments FME ecosystem in this past TWZ feature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The recovery of the UUV near San Pascual also comes at a time of particularly heightened geopolitical friction between China and the Philippines, primarily over Beijings widely rejected claims to virtually all of the South China Sea. Last year saw especially aggressive actions on the part of the Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia ships over Scarborough Shoal, which an international tribunal affirmed as belonging to the Philippines in 2016. Chinese authorities continue to ignore that ruling. In the meantime, authorities in the Philippines have stressed that if anyone finds any more underwater drones or other similar objects that they should not touch them and immediately contact the PNP. Contact the author: joe@thedrive.com An unticketed passenger arrested on Dec. 24 aboard a Delta flight from Seattle to Honolulu was arrested again at the same airport. The woman was arrested again outside checkpoint 3 on the evening of Dec. 27 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when TSA recognized her. According to Port of Seattle, the woman began walking away from TSA and was promptly arrested by Port of Seattle police. The same unticketed passenger aboard Delta flight 487 from Seattle to Honolulu caused a two-hour delay on December 24, according to Port of Seattle Police and Delta Airlines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident on Christmas Eve occurred around 1:05 p.m. when the passenger was discovered on the Airbus A321neo aircraft as it began taxiing. Nobody knew really what was going on. So we were kind of left in the dark, said passenger Brady Bly. Bly told KIRO 7 he was on Delta flight 487 on Christmas Eve. He says the plane was about to take off when the plane returned to the gate. Getting ready to taxi and they told us wed have to go back for a security breach, Bly explained. Bly said passengers had to de-plane and get rescreened through TSA, which delayed the flight more than two hours. It wasnt until they reboarded that Bly said the captain announced there was an unauthorized passenger on board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its kind of scary if somebody could just sneak on the plane like that through two security checks, he said. The plane returned to the terminal, and the individual left the plane. Port of Seattle Police later located the suspect in a restroom using video surveillance. The person was arrested for criminal trespass and booked into the SCORE facility. As a precaution, the aircraft and all terminal areas accessed by the individual were swept by K9 units. TSA also directed all passengers to deplane and return to the security checkpoint for screening. The flight eventually departed at 3 p.m., approximately two hours and 15 minutes after its original departure time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Further investigation revealed the suspect had passed through a TSA security checkpoint on the evening of December 23 without a boarding pass, though they were properly screened. The individual later gained access to the gate and boarding bridge without presenting a ticket. " I dont think Delta did everything they could to protect people on the flight, Bly added. Getting by two security breaches. I can understand one, maybe, but the second, thats almost impossible. He wishes the airline communicated what was going on instead of having to guess for the next few hours on the flight. Just leaves you to wonder the worst, you know, you dont know whats going on and youre stuck on the plane and you know, what if there was explosives or something, Bly said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delta Airlines confirmed the event, stating, As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and thank them for their patience and cooperation. TSA released a statement, saying: TSA can confirm an individual did go through standard screening and did not possess any prohibited items. The individual bypassed the identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded an aircraft at Seattle/Tacoma International (SEA) without a boarding pass. TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously. TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at Seattle/Tacoma International. Port of Seattle Police are working with TSA and Delta Airlines to investigate how the individual bypassed security measures. Passengers onboard were reported safe, and the flight continued without further issues. A high school science teacher holding a digital tablet and explaining a chemistry model to two of his students during class. (Getty Images.) Ohios schools have students from all kinds of different home situations. With that diversity comes a host of family circumstances, some with plenty of supports for children going to school, and some with barriers and issues that can lead to a student missing school to help make money for the household or to take care of a sibling when a working parent isnt able. It could be everything from a basic need going on, it could be transportation, it could be a family issue, it could be something going on with the student, said Brooklyn Brown, director of community outreach for the nonprofit Communities in Schools of Ohio. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before she was a director, Brown served as a site coordinator for the nonprofit, meaning she was one of dozens of individuals who went to school districts in Ohio to engage with students, and help schools address the many needs of students inside and outside of traditional educational subjects. It is everyones responsibility to make sure that the students in Ohio are thriving, Brown said. Were in the schools every day, just like a teacher, and were consistent so that the students have that. Much of the focus for site coordinators is at a basic level: creating a space for students to want to come to school in the first place, to avoid chronic absenteeism, a problem Ohio has been battling for years, even before the pandemic closed schools. Brown said she created attendance groups, checked in with parents, and had one-on-one meetings with students to check in on their outside life and ensure their school life didnt suffer because of it. We motivate them until they are intrinsically motivated, Brown said. An employee of Communities in Schools of Ohio helps a student with an academic assignment. CIS places site coordinators in schools to engage with students and, among other things, address chronic absenteeism, an issue Ohio has pledged to reduce by 50% with in the next five years. (Photo courtesy of Communities in Schools of Ohio) Communities in Schools of Ohio partners with 52 schools in the state to help with things like academic assistance, behavioral interventions, college and career prep, mental health services and attendance initiatives. The nonprofit uses attendance data, academic statistics, resource lists and funding for services as measures for the school districts that most need their help. The group said they engaged with more than 35,000 students and 13,000 families over the last school year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attendance has always been something that we work towards, but when we saw those numbers in Ohio, we said we need to do something, Brown said. For the CIS site coordinators, being a school-aged child has been complicated in the past with issues like food insecurity and poverty along with socialization and other normal childhood milestones, but it has only become more complex as the years have gone by. For me, I think its just that we see it now, Brown said. Everything was always here, we just werent paying attention. That includes student mental health, which has come into focus over the years, adding to the workloads of school counselors, social workers and other care teams, including CIS. As a result of COVID, there are further struggles with socialization for kids who may have started out or spent formative years learning online, away from their peers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mental health of students is becoming a lot more challenging to manage, said Adero Robinson, chief executive officer of CIS. Thats why we have to think about how do we find ways to deal with depression, anxiety, cell phones and social media, those types of things. Ohios absence problem Absenteeism is considered chronic if a student misses more than 10% of the instructional hours during a school year, whether or not the absence is excused. That absenteeism can cause negative outcomes for students, and education advocates say it can impact the students future going into adulthood. In addition to chronic absenteeism predicting low academic success, it also predicts which students may eventually drop out of school, according to the American Federation of Teachers. The AFT said patterns of chronic absenteeism reflect common equity issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Students who come from low-income families, students of color, students with disabilities and students involved in the juvenile justice system are more likely to be chronically absent, according to the AFT. Communities in Schools of Ohio Site Coordinator Daniel McIntyre, pictured with two students of Harambee Christian School in Columbus. (Photo courtesy of Communities in Schools of Ohio) Data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) shows chronic absenteeism has gone down slightly in the last two school years, but still sits at 25.6% of all students in the state. That rate is down from 26.8% in the 2022-2023 school year, and even more from the 30.2% of 2021-2022 school year, according to state data. In the 2023-2024 school year, the attendance rate for all students in Ohio stood at 91.3%, but that rate was different depending on the demographics of the student. While students who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander had the highest attendance rate at 94.3%, and white students saw an attendance rate of 92.3%, Black students were recorded at 86.6% and American Indian or Alaskan Native students had an 89.3% attendance rate, the state found. Students considered economically disadvantaged saw an attendance rate of 88.9%, compared to the 94.3% attendance rate for those not considered economically disadvantaged, according to the ODEW. State leaders pledge to fix the problem In October 2024, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and ODEW director Stephen Dackin pledged to cut chronic absenteeism by 50% over the next five years. The leaders said the state planned to use the recommendations from an attendance task force and Ohios Attendance Guide from May 2024, which lays out the impact of chronic absenteeism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The guide states that increasing attendance and addressing chronic absence requires partnering with students and families to understand and address the challenges that occur outside and inside school and emphasizes prevention and early intervention. Improving attendance comes through changing attitudes and beliefs about attendance and taking a positive, problem-solving approach versus legalistic and punitive approaches, the guide recommends. The attendance task force, who gave the state recommendations in October 2023, called attendance rates a crisis in Ohio, even before the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem. The task force recommended thoughtful refinement of state laws to focus on a local context for solutions to the problem. Policy change can allow for more effective communication with families to support increasing attendance and decreasing absenteeism and continue a statewide mindset shift toward prevention and early intervention, according to the report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the beginning of 2024, two Ohio lawmakers tried to convince their colleagues that the foo-foo stuff (as former Republican state Rep. Bill Seitz called them) like pizza parties and extra playground time that schools used to incentivize school attendance werent working, and the state needed to make bigger moves. With that in mind, Seitz and Democratic Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, proposed a pilot program that would have given $1.5 million over two years to school districts who qualified, funds that would be distributed to the students in either biweekly, quarterly or annual payments. An annual payment to a student under the pilot would have been $500. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The program would have also given an award to graduating students depending on their GPA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite Isaacsohn emphasizing the urgency of the problem and the need for the legislature to act, he and Seitzs bill, House Bill 348, never made it past the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee, and the bill died with the end of the 135th General Assembly. Robinson said more funding is always appropriate when it comes to student well-being, but a program like the pilot program may not be sustainable. Programs like CIS that bring site coordinators straight to the schools and keep consistent watch over the students well-being are needed almost as much as anything else. I think that the programs that have access to schools and teachers and parents and counselors that holistic opportunity is a better investment thats measurable, Robinson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robinson said he has had conversations with Ohio legislators about what the priorities in education should be, and has even had a few come to school districts where CIS participates to see the work in action. Its been beneficial for them to hear from site coordinators and students, Robinson said. What Ive been hearing is that the work were doing is very important to schools. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, introduces Sen. Tammy Baldwin at her victory celebration Thursday. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner) The Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, is backing Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler in his bid to lead the national party. In a statement released Thursday, Schumer said he is enthusiastically supporting Ben Wikler to be the next Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Schumer called Wikler a tenacious organizerone of the best organizers in the countrya proven fundraiser, a sharp communicator, and able to reach out to all segments of the Democratic Party. Most importantly, he added, he knows how to win. Wikler assumed leadership of the state party after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers defeated former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2018. Since that time, he has led the party as state Democrats slowly clawed back power, holding the governorship and winning key state Supreme Court races to flip the ideological balance of the court. Those victories led to the elimination of gerrymandered voting maps that had locked in disproportionate Republican control of the state Legislature. In the 2024 election, Democrats flipped 14 previously Republican-held legislative seats, narrowing GOP majorities and, Wikler says, setting Democrats on a path to win control of at least one chamber in 2026 for the first time since 2010. Since becoming the state party chair in 2019, Ben has led Wisconsin Democrats to victory after victory, up and down the ballot, Schumer said. Under his leadership, Wisconsin Democrats have become one of the most formidable fundraising and organizing machines in the entire country. I am confident he will bring that same record of success to the national party. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX An office sits vacant in San Francisco in October 2022. The city is one of several across the country offering incentives to convert unused office space into housing. (Justin Sullivan | Getty Images) Read more Stateline coverage of how communities across the country are trying to create more affordable housing. Nearly a fifth of office space across the country sits empty, a record high vacancy rate thats expected to keep growing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Seeking both to boost their economies and ease their housing shortages, cities are taking steps to encourage the conversion of unused office space into much-needed housing. They include reductions in approval times, exemptions from affordable housing rules and changes in building code requirements. Some cities and states also are providing tax incentives or subsidies to developers. Cities need to focus on making conversions feasible by removing unnecessary regulatory barriers, said Alex Horowitz, project director of the Housing Policy Initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts. The U.S. is short millions of homes, and office vacancy rates are at record highs. It makes all the sense in the world to convert underused commercial space into housing, but the cost per square foot is just too high. Purchasing and converting an office building for residential use costs an average of $685 per square foot. Buying a completed multifamily property costs an average of $600 per square foot, while building a new multifamily development costs about $588 per square foot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regulatory hurdles such as outdated building codes, minimum unit sizes and natural light requirements push up costs. Cities are trying a variety of ways to overcome these obstacles. From coast to coast In September, Minneapolis peeled away several regulations in an effort to encourage conversions, including removing public hearing requirements, requiring less intensive traffic studies, and exempting converted buildings from the typical requirement that 20% to 30% of units be rented at below-market rates. San Francisco has waived certain planning and building code requirements as well as real estate transfer taxes for downtown conversions that are approved before 2030. Seattle in July approved exemptions for commercial-to-residential conversions from certain design development standards and from housing affordability requirements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New York Citys Office Conversion Accelerator program provides a single point of contact for office building owners to streamline conversions, from zoning questions to permitting. And Denver last year launched an adaptive reuse pilot program to make it easier and faster to get conversions approved by the city. Jon Gambrill, managing director of global architecture firm Genslers Denver office, said that converting the top 16 buildings identified by the firm and city leaders into housing could add more than 5,000 units to the downtown area. It makes all the sense in the world to convert underused commercial space into housing, but the cost per square foot is just too high. Alex Horowitz, project director of the Housing Policy Initiative at The Pew Charitable TrustsIt makes all the sense in the world to convert underused commercial space into housing, but the cost per square foot is just too high. Alex Horowitz, project director of the Housing Policy Initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle stand to benefit the most from converting underused offices to housing, according to a June Urban Institute analysis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, conversions have made little dent in the housing crisis so far. Between 2016 and April 2024, office-to-multifamily conversion projects created more than 22,000 apartments, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm. The 169 projects planned or underway are estimated to produce another 31,000 apartments over the next several years. Despite the growth, that total is less than a half-percent of total U.S. apartment inventory. During a June presentation by Seattles Office of Planning and Community Development, city leaders estimated that they expect fewer than a dozen conversion projects to result in 1,000 to 2,000 new housing units over seven years. Money matters Cities and states also are trying to promote conversions by offering incentives and funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New York Citys 2025 budget included a new incentive for conversion of commercial properties to rental housing, offering up to a 90% tax exemption for projects with at least 25% affordable units. Chicago has committed $151 million for developers to transform four office buildings into 1,000 apartments, about a third of which would have affordable rental rates. Washington, D.C., provides 20-year tax abatements for commercial-to-residential conversions through its Housing in Downtown initiative. The District of Columbia led the nation in adaptive reuse from 2021 to 2024, creating 5,820 new housing units from office properties, followed by New York (5,215 units) and Dallas (3,163 units), according to RentCafe, an apartment search website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement California in 2022 approved $400 million for office-to-residential projects. Commercial-to-residential legislation has hit some hurdles. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in October vetoed legislation that would have provided financial incentives for developers, including the option for local governments to allocate up to 30 years of property tax revenue to support affordable housing conversions. It also would have fast-tracked the approval process for conversion of office buildings into residential or mixed-use developments. Newsom objected to changes in labor practices including the issuance of stop-work orders for violations and procedures for contesting violations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And in Colorado, a bill that would have offered refundable tax credits up to $3 million per commercial-to-housing project starting in 2026 failed in the legislature earlier this year. Still, experts expect housing conversion efforts to increase across the country. All Americans, particularly underserved communities, need homes they can afford, said Pews Horowitz. But outdated rules make it harder to create deeply affordable housing. Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar called for early elections in a New Years video address on Jan. 1, citing Prime Minister Viktor Orbans declining popularity and allegations of corruption. Orban has faced mounting criticism domestically and internationally for his pro-Moscow stance, including opposition to EU sanctions on Russia and military aid for Ukraine. "Let there be a new election to return the right of deciding their fate to the people," Magyar said, marking his first public demand for elections before the scheduled 2026 vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He accused Orban of turning Hungary into "the EU's poorest, most corrupt nation." "You've made Hungary the EU's poorest, most corrupt nation." Opposition leader Peter Magyars New Year's video message slamming Viktor Orban's corruption and demanding early elections has gone viral, nearing 2M views on Hungarian social media. Excerpt with English captions. pic.twitter.com/MvzEQo1k8z Szabolcs Panyi (@panyiszabolcs) January 2, 2025 Magyar has taken a nuanced stance to Russia's full-scale invasion, echoing his governments opposition to sending Hungarian troops or weapons to Ukraine, but supporting Kyivs right to self-defense. During a July 2023 visit to Kyiv, Magyar delivered humanitarian aid, and expressed solidarity with Ukraine after a Russian attack. Adding to Orbans challenges, Hungary lost 1.04 billion ($1.08 billion) in EU funding after failing to implement reforms to meet rule-of-law standards, the European Commission confirmed on Dec. 31. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This marked the EU's first action of this kind against a member state. The reforms aimed to address issues in political financing, media independence, and conflict-of-interest laws but were not completed by the end-of-2024 deadline. Orbans 18 years in power have drawn both praise and criticism. While hailed by supporters as a champion of Hungarian conservatism, his tenure has been marred by allegations of authoritarianism, corruption, and democratic backsliding. Magyars call for early elections underscores growing dissatisfaction with Orbans leadership as Hungary grapples with strained EU relations and domestic unrest. Read also: Polish farmers to protest Ukrainian imports, EU policies, in Warsaw on Jan. 3 Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. AUSTIN (KXAN) Over the last year, city leaders in Austin have floated proposals to change some of the most popular streets with heavy pedestrian traffic. That includes re-opening a chunk of Sixth Street while closing parts of Congress Avenue. Keeping it closed is probably for the best, Jeremy Lee said speaking on a proposed pilot plan that would keep Sixth Street open to traffic all the time. RELATED: Whats the latest on a developers 6th Street rejuvenation project Sixth Street is known as the king of bar districts in Austin, but most of the citys biggest alcohol sellers are far from the party strip. (Photo: Austin Business Journal/Arnold Wells) The employee at The Dizzy Rooster sees first-hand what happens along the bar-lined street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just upping the security, if thats the main issue, but having a few police posted keeps it pretty safe, Lee added. As of now, Austin police close Sixth Street between Red River to Congress on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, as well as special events. That new pilot program by the city is expected to happen sometime in the winter months before South by Southwest in March. However, the city has not released when it could happen. On nearby Congress Avenue, the city is expected to release a report early this year on a $130 million plan to revamp it. Areas from Riverside Drive to 11th Street would get upgrades. The city is also eyeing a potential pedestrian-only plaza on Congress between Seventh and 11th streets. RELATED: Austin leaders reimagine Congress Ave. as pedestrian plaza in proposed project Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials have said the main goal of that particular project is to make Congress the Main Street of Texas as it leads to the capitol building. Conceptual renderings of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative (Courtesy Austin Transportation and Public Works Department) Conceptual renderings of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative (Courtesy Austin Transportation and Public Works Department) Conceptual renderings of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative (Courtesy Austin Transportation and Public Works Department) Conceptual renderings of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative (Courtesy Austin Transportation and Public Works Department) Conceptual renderings of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative (Courtesy Austin Transportation and Public Works Department) Conceptual renderings of the Congress Avenue Urban Design Initiative (Courtesy Austin Transportation and Public Works Department) However, not everyone is for the Congress changes including one downtown resident who talked to KXAN earlier this fall. The more you do that restrict the avenues in which you can get around, the more it dissuades people to want to come, he said. RELATED: Downtown homelessness pilot program expanding, receiving city funding Councilman Zo Qadri oversees downtown as part of his district. His office told KXAN because of what happened in New Orleans the proposed street changes are expected to be a topic of discussion when council has its first meeting at the end of January. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On New Years Day, a driver rammed his pickup truck into a crowd, which killed 10 people, before he was shot to death by police, according to authorities. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. CONNECTICUT (WTNH) This new year Connecticut officials have a common resolution: to keep their cities and towns safe. Its a recurring resolution and statistics show major crimes in larger cities appear to be down. In the capital city, data from the City of Hartford through December 14 reveals homicides were down 37 percent with 22 in 2024, compared to 35 people killed in 2023. Robberies and rapes are down while motor vehicle thefts remained steady after seeing a nearly 95 percent increase from 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Connecticut laws take effect Jan. 1: Heres what to know In New Haven, city data through December 22nd shows murder victims are down in Elm City as well with 14 in 2024 compared to 23 the year prior. Its the citys lowest number of homicides in five years. Robberies, rapes and motor vehicle thefts all decreased in 2024 in New Haven. Assault with firearm victims, aggravated assaults and burglaries are all up by at least 15 percent. Waterbury city data ran through November and a similar story, shows homicides are down by over 50 percent, with six in 2024, compared to 18 in 2023. Additional information on other major crimes was not listed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Data in New London and New Britain were not readily available. In the states most populated city, Bridgeport data for the first half of 2024 shows murders, rapes and motor vehicle thefts are all down. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. Why is there not a rating on this post? There's not enough verified evidence for us to definitively confirm or debunk this rumor. Contact us if you have credible information to share. We'll update this post as necessary. For years, internet users have claimed that Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, the mother of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, once called her son "an idiot with zero common sense" and predicted that he would be a "disaster" as a politician. The full quote, as it appeared in posts on social media platforms including X (archived) and Reddit (archived), read: "Yes, he's an idiot with zero common sense, and no social skills, but he IS my son. I just hope he never goes into politics. He'd be a disaster." (X user @TaraLOGrady) We first looked into the authenticity of this quote in 2019 and found no evidence Trump's mother had ever made such a statement. Other publications, such as PolitiFact and Reuters, also fact-checked the quote and found no proof it was real. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because digital archives of newspapers, books, and magazines grow and change over time meaning that it's always possible for new evidence for historical claims to become available we took another look at the quote after it began circulating again in the months during and after Trump's campaign and eventual victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. In short, just as in 2019, we found no compelling evidence to support claims of the quote's veracity at the time of this writing. We ran searches for the full quote as well as the distinctive clauses "he's an idiot with no common sense" and "I just hope he never goes into politics" on Newspapers.com and Gale OneFile, both of which are large databases of periodicals, and found no evidence to support the quote's authenticity. We also searched for the quote on Google Books and the Internet Archive, which likewise returned no evidence that the quote ever appeared with secure attribution in any legitimate publication. A Google search for the quote found no instances of the quote at all before 2019, nearly two decades after Mary Anne MacLeod Trump's August 2000 death. The absence of any evidence of a quote dating within the alleged originator's lifetime is a common red flag for fake or misattributed quotes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One development since 2019 was the emergence of what appeared to be a newspaper clipping showing the quote underneath a photo of Trump and his mother, which appeared (archived) to have first circulated (archived) online in June 2020. Examples of the clipping, which did not include the name of the paper in which it was allegedly published or a date, appeared (archived) in numerous (archived) posts on X (archived) in 2024. (X user @RobertCStern) However, we found no evidence that the clipping was genuine. Although the alleged clipping included a genuine photo of Trump and his mother that was prominently featured in a 2016 New Yorker article titled "Donald Trump's Immigrant Mother," we found no instances of the photo paired with the quote in any real newspaper or magazine. It remains possible that a primary source proving the quote's authenticity exists somewhere for example, in a newspaper archive that had not been digitized by the time of this writing and for that reason we've refrained from issuing a definitive rating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Previously, we looked into the claim that Trump's mother was an undocumented immigrant. Sources: Emery, David. "Here's How to Authenticate Viral Quotes Attached to Historical Figures." Snopes, 5 Dec. 2022, https://www.snopes.com//articles/464027/how-to-authenticate-quotes/. Evon, Dan. "Did Trump's Mom Once Call Him an 'Idiot'?" Snopes, 12 Dec. 2019, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trumps-mom-call-him-idiot/. Fact Check Ratings | Snopes.Com. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check-ratings/. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024. "False Claim: Donald Trump's Mother Said He Would Be a Disaster in Politics." Reuters, 17 Apr. 2020. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/article/world/false-claim-donald-trumps-mother-said-he-would-be-a-disaster-in-politics-idUSKBN21Z29U/. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kasprak, Alex. "FACT CHECK: Was Donald Trump's Mother an Undocumented Immigrant?" Snopes, 30 Jan. 2017, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/donald-trumps-mother-immigrant/. "Mary MacLeod Trump Philanthropist, 88." The New York Times, 9 Aug. 2000, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/09/nyregion/mary-macleod-trump-philanthropist-88.html. Pilon, Mary. "Donald Trump's Immigrant Mother." The New Yorker, 24 June 2016. www.newyorker.com, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trumps-immigrant-mother. Putterman, Samantha. "No Evidence Trump's Mother Called Him an Idiot." @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/dec/18/facebook-posts/no-evidence-trumps-mother-called-him-idiot-zero-co/. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024. The Clayton County Police Department is urging residents to stop celebrating events, like the New Year, with gunfire. According to police, at midnight on New Years Eve, officers responded to reports of celebratory gunfire on Brookview Way. When police arrived, they found someone on the side of the road with a rifle in hand. Thankfully, officers were able to safely identify the shooter and secure multiple firearms, along with the shell casings, without incident, police said. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When they asked, the suspect admitted that he performed the same dangerous behavior every year on New Years Eve. Police said celebratory gunfire is extremely unsafe and that while it may seem fun, the risk to people, property and overall public safety are not worth it. Year after year, unwitting residents wake up on New Years Day to discover damage to their homes and vehicles from falling bullets, Clayton County police said. In Georgia, offenses against public safety such as reckless discharge of a firearm can lead to criminal charges and fines. The department also urged residents to be mindful and think about their neighbors before firing guns into the air. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Find a safe, responsible way to ring in the New Year. Lets make 2025 safer for everyone! police said. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, joins Andrea Mitchell Reports to weigh in on the investigation into the attack in New Orleans as well as the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. The FBI says there is "no definitive link" between the two incidents. Renderings of Clemson University veterinary school facilities (Provided by LS3P + Flad) Clemson University has broken ground on South Carolinas first veterinary college with more than $230 million in funding from the state Legislature. But getting the new school started on time in fall 2026 goes beyond the physical buildings. It requires recruiting a team of faculty that will train students and conduct research, as well as passing muster for national accreditation at a time when a flurry of other schools also are vying to open. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Until recently, new veterinary colleges were a rarity. For one, theyre expensive to establish. Steven Marks, left, the founding dean of Clemson Universitys veterinary college, shakes hands with attendees at the schools groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 22, 2024. (provided by Clemson University) There are schools that have tried. Clemson has wanted to do this for quite some time, Steven Marks, the founding dean of Clemsons vet school, told the SC Daily Gazette. Theres a fair price tag to start this up. South Carolinas expected return on its investment: Producing the next generation of veterinarians that can serve the state, Marks said. For these schools, the cost of facilities and faculty add up. Yet they serve a limited number of students accepted into programs compared to other career fields. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When it comes to construction, Colorado State University, which has been training veterinarians for more than a century, is spending $230 million to build a new vet school complex. The project is scheduled to open in 2026. The cost of starting a vet school with a teaching hospital at Murray State University in Kentucky is estimated at about $240 million. And when it comes to operating costs, the vet school at Auburn University, the oldest vet school in the South, has $93 million in annual expenses. It is expected to operate at a loss, according to the latest budget documents. Thats a cost of about $180,000 per student, compared to the $25,000 per student the school spends on its large engineering program. Operating expenses at North Carolina State Universitys vet school are between $115 million and $120 million, or nearly $300,000 per student, documents show. But recently, an anticipated need for more veterinarians has spurred a multitude of new and proposed veterinary colleges. Proposed new veterinary schools Arkansas State University Chamberlain University in Stockbridge, Georgia Clemson University Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana Lincoln Memorial University-Orange Park in Florida Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Illinois Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky Rowan University in Mullica Hill, New Jersey Utah State University University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, Maryland Rocky Vista College in Billings, Montana Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Source: American Veterinary Medical Association Clemson is one of a dozen nationwide seeking to open a new vet school, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, which accredits them. The University of Arizona, Long Island University and Texas Tech University enrolled their first classes in 2020 and 2021. And both Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee and Midwestern University in Arizona enrolled inaugural classes in 2014. Before that, it had been nearly three decades since the association accredited a new school. If all of them are successful, that would bring the total number of accredited vet schools in the U.S. to 45. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, estimates on the need for more veterinarians vary. Clemson, in its feasibility study, cited a report from Banfield Pet Hospital, the nations largest practice with more than 1,000 locations, including clinics inside PetSmart stores. It predicts a shortage of 15,000 vets in 2030. South Carolina has more than 2,700 licensed veterinarians and more than 900 technicians, according to the state licensing board. Thats up from more than 1,700 vets and 380 technicians a decade earlier. Theres been a shortage of veterinarians for a long time. So, now the profession is trying to catch up, Marks said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet a 2024 study commissioned by the American Veterinary Medicine Association shows that graduates from existing U.S. veterinary colleges are likely enough to meet demand through 2035. And while demand surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased retirements and more people buying pets, those rates have since returned to normal. The study predicts the population of veterinarians nationwide is now likely to grow faster than pet-owning households if all proposed schools become accredited. So, it will be up to Clemson to set itself apart. Renderings of Clemson University veterinary school facilities (provided by LS3P + Flad) Marks hopes to accomplish that in a number of ways. Traditional veterinary schools have a teaching hospital. Clemson will use whats known as a partially distributed model, sending the majority of students to work with community veterinarians throughout South Carolina for clinical training. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want our students to be trained a little bit differently than veterinarians have been trained in the last 20 years, Marks said. I think Clemson has an opportunity to be a unique training program that will fit what this generation is looking for. Marks also hopes to motivate more students to work in rural areas treating livestock. The typical vet student tends to want to work with household pets and live in an urban area. And the field is dominated by women, Marks said. Meanwhile, in 2024 the U.S. Department of Agriculture had designated shortages in two rural service areas, covering 12 of South Carolinas 46 counties. They are located along the Georgia border and in the Upstate, including the counties that are home to Clemson University. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We would like to attract a more diverse set of students. The goal will be to reach out to these underserved areas and recruit students from those areas, Marks said. While enrolled, students will work stints in a mobile veterinary clinic run by the school, as well as in a school-run clinic serving lower-income families that may not be able to afford vet services for their pets. Marks would like to work with Clemsons nursing school, deploying the mobile vet hospital alongside the nursing colleges community health events. In theory, taking care of people and their animals simultaneously, Marks said. Marks said students can also expect to work hands-on with animals much earlier in their college career than has been traditionally done at other, existing veterinary colleges. The students will start out handling animals kept at Clemsons agricultural college facilities horses, dairy and beef cattle, sheep and poultry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Finally, Marks would like to involve Clemsons program for intellectually disabled students, known as Clemson Life, with the vet school, offering training that would allow them to become veterinary assistants. For now, Clemson is in the process of recruiting staff and undergoing accreditation. Marks has two associate deans and a department chair and is interviewing for six other positions, including admissions, an anatomist and a physiologist. I have people contacting me asking if there are jobs available, he said. So, people are knocking on our door. At most existing veterinary schools, if you go to work there, you get plugged into a pre-existing machine. You get plugged into a slot. This is an opportunity to have a clean slate and to come in do innovative teaching, innovative research, Marks added. We are a new school with new ideas and a new vision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The college is awaiting a date for a site visit from the American Veterinary Medical Association as part of the accreditation process. Marks did not yet know how far out that visit might be scheduled. If it goes well, Clemson could receive whats called a letter of reasonable assurance, allowing the school to begin recruiting and enrolling students. Full accreditation could take four more years beyond that, based on timelines of the most recently accredited schools. Marks expects to enroll 80 students 60 South Carolinians and 20 from other states to begin classes in fall 2026. The state has contracts for up to 46 new students each year to attend veterinary colleges at the University of Georgia, Mississippi State and Tuskegee University in Alabama at an in-state rate. Last school year, the state spent upwards of $5 million for 150 South Carolinians to enroll or re-enroll. Officials at Clemson estimate 200 more South Carolina students pay full price to attend other vet schools across the country. That funding will be phased out once the new school opens, Marks said. A few days before winter break, Lynda McGee, a college counselor at Downtown Magnets High School in Los Angeles Unified, got an unexpected visit from a student's father. The man, a warehouse worker who emigrated from Guatemala 28 years ago, wanted to make sure that McGee knew his wishes firsthand. "My daughter going to college is more important than my risk of deportation," he said in Spanish as the student, a high school senior, translated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He insisted that McGee help the teen, a U.S.-born citizen, fill out the FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is used by college-bound students to calculate all-important financial aid packages. But the application asks for parents' Social Security numbers, which the father does not have because he is not a legal resident. A missing number could be a red flag about the father's immigration status ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to track down and deport undocumented immigrants. "Unfortunately, I have dozens of students in this same situation," McGee said. "They have to choose between their future and that of their parents." Submitting financial aid forms this college application season has become a potentially life-altering family decision for California high school seniors with undocumented parents a predicament also faced by many college students because FAFSA forms generally must be submitted annually to determine ongoing aid. Read more: 'Time is running out.' University unions rush to organize before the Trump White House Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Education, which administers the FAFSA used to calculate Pell Grants, federal loans and other aid for students, typically does not share immigration status data with other government agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But college counselors and financial aid support groups have recently told students from mixed-status families, many of whom are lower-income and could benefit the most from federal aid, that there's still risk. A recent notice from the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit student advocacy group, noted that the Higher Education Act "prohibits the use of data for any purpose other than determining and awarding federal financial assistance." But it said it "cannot assure mixed-status students and families that data submitted to U.S. Department of Education, as part of the FAFSA process, will continue to be protected." Daisy Gonzales, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, the state agency responsible for administering financial aid programs, similarly urged caution. "We cannot speculate on what the incoming federal administration may do," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The anxiety over federal financial aid comes after more than a year of complications involving the FAFSA, which is typically released each October. A shortened version of the 2023-24 FAFSA was supposed to streamline the process but instead gave way to glitches, data entry problems and delays amid mounting frustrations for students and families who had to wait on applying. The Government Accountability Office said the fiasco led to a 9% dip in first-time submissions for the last academic year. A tracker from the National College Attainment Network also shows a 9.6% drop in applications through December compared with the same time last academic year. It is unclear how much of that can be attributed to concerns over immigration status disclosure. In California, about 3.3 million people live in mixed-status households, according to USC's Equity Research Institute. About 1 in 5 are children younger than 18, like the student whose father came to McGee's office at Downtown Magnets High School. One of the top pupils in her class, the student lives with her parents in Koreatown and dreams of one day working in the film industry. She's applied to UCLA, Stanford, Cornell and several Cal State campuses. But she has hit pause on submitting the FAFSA because of fear it could hurt her family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: 'You don't know what's next.' International students scramble ahead of Trump inauguration "Why does Trump getting elected mean I might have to suffer as a citizen for my parents' choice of moving to a better life in America?" said the student, who requested that her name be withheld to avoid identifying her parents. Her father sees things differently. "Filling out the FAFSA might or might not hurt me. But if it can help her, she should do it," he said an in interview. Trump has promised to begin deporting millions of undocumented immigrants on "Day One" of his presidency. In a recent NBC interview, he said U.S. citizens from mixed-status households could also join their relatives in order to avoid "breaking up families." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The remarks, coupled with campaign promises on deportation, have caused widespread distress. Read more: Top Trump advisor warns California cities not to block immigration enforcement Gonzales said information submitted via the FAFSA "can be shared across federal agencies including federal immigration enforcement." She also noted that the California Dream Act Application is available to students from mixed-status families who need aid from the state, such as Cal Grants, to attend the University of California, Cal State and in-state community colleges. But that application doesn't gain students the breadth of cash, including work-study aid, that comes from federal assistance, Los Angeles-area high school college counselors explained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The best way to get the most aid is to apply to everything a student is eligible for," said Jacqueline Villatoro, a college counselor at Linda Marquez High School in Huntington Park whose students include several U.S. citizens with undocumented parents. "But Trump's election has thrown a wrench in things," she said. "How do we provide our families with accurate information but also avoid creating fear? A lot of us are just in a wait-and-see mode." "Some parents say they file taxes anyway, so the government already has the information about their immigration status, and they want their kids to apply for aid," Villatoro said. "Others come to us and are scared." Federal financial aid is not available to students without U.S. citizenship or other government authorization to reside in the United States. Although the FAFSA does not explicitly ask for the immigration status of students' parents or guardians, those without Social Security numbers must go through extra steps on the application. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement California colleges and universities generally recommend that students apply for state and federal aid by March 2. That gives parents and students 41 days after Trump's inauguration to consider whether and how immigration enforcement may affect their families. "It's a waiting game that is anxiety-inducing," said another student at Downtown Magnets High School, a senior who is applying to UC and Cal State campuses, as well as Wellesley College. The student, an American citizen, requested that her name be withheld to avoid identifying her mother and father, who are undocumented immigrants from Puebla, Mexico. She aspires to become a neonatal nurse practitioner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's already a stressful process navigating how to get into college and how to pay for it as a first-generation student who is doing mostly all of this on your own," she said. "But with this FAFSA confusion and wait, it feels like my wings are being clipped." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Colorados Cheyenne Mountain Zoo announced on Tuesday, December 31, that it welcomed a baby sloth. According to the zoo, the sloth was born on December 18. The mom, a nine-year-old Hoffmans two-toed sloth named Aysan, was brought to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on a breeding recommendation by the Hoffmanns Two-Toed Sloth Species Survival Plan. The baby did not yet have a name and was bonding with mom Aysan out of public view. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I love the way it lifts its head out of her chest fur and slowly looks around, just kind of taking it all in, Scutes Family Gallerys lead keeper Amber Callen-Ward said in a statement. Aysan has been a great first-time mom, grooming the baby by licking its face, which is so sweet. She and the baby have been bonding well. The zoo said that it will let guests know once Aysan and her baby are able to be viewed by the public. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. GATE CITY, Va. (WJHL) Having a police officer break your door down may not seem like an ideal scenario, but it certainly was for Daniel McMurray when his home caught on fire while he and his family were asleep. This weeks Community Hero is Gate City Sgt. Cody Johnson. Hes credited with saving three lives during a Dec. 23 house fire. Im glad he come on in, McMurray told News Channel 11 on Christmas Eve. Thats why I said Cody Johnson with Gate City Police Department, he really saved our life, I guess. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WATCH: Honor Flight of the Appalachian Highlands Mission 10 McMurray and his partner, Angelina Roberts, had spent most of the wee hours Dec. 23 wrapping presents and preparing Christmas for their 3-year-old daughter Leanne inside the home theyd recently rented. The pair were fast asleep in a bedroom, along with Leanne, when a passerby called 911 around 10 a.m. regarding smoke coming from the home. Johnson, a 14-year law enforcement veteran, arrived at the home on West Jackson Street around the same time as the first of three responding fire departments, whose personnel were busy connecting equipment. That left Johnson to check on potential occupants, and while some neighbors said they believed the home was empty and loud knocks on the door hadnt roused anyone Johnson saw a vehicle in the yard and wasnt satisfied with the efforts hed made. Daniel McMurray, his partner and their daughter were asleep in this home as smoke began to fill the first floor Dec. 23, 2024 in Gate City, Va. Police Sergeant Cody Johnson broke the door open and awakened the family. (Photo: WJHL) I looked in the best that I could. I didnt see anyone but that vehicle being in the back of the yard just concerned me, Johnson said inside Gate Citys town hall on Christmas Eve morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was smoke in the house where there was such a large fire upstairs. I was more or less worried about the ceiling collapsing. Knowing each minute would count if the house was occupied, Johnson forced the door open. There was light smoke on the main floor, Johnson said. A lot of times tragedy comes from smoke inhalation when people are asleep. Flames were beginning to break out on one side of the main floor, but Johnson noticed a bedroom at the opposite end of the home. There he discovered McMurray, Roberts and the child fast asleep. Region AHEAD raises $800k in flood recovery grants I was able to get them up and get them out, he said. He added that he counts the experience as a career highlight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im just glad God put me there Thats exactly where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing. It goes in my book of really meaningful things that Ive really got to help someone and change their lives. Within hours of the young family making their way to McMurrays dads, the Red Cross, first responders, local businesses and others had responded to the news with an outpouring of gifts and help. Johnson humbly told News Channel 11 that this outcome wouldnt have been possible without the help of the greater community. The big story here, and I dont want to leave it without saying, is our community, Johnson said. Southwest Virginia, Northeast Tennessee, the Appalachian community always comes together when were in a time of need. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather. This story was originally published on Utility Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Utility Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: Two affiliated New York utilities are soliciting at least 310 MW of utility-scale energy storage resources across multiple smaller portfolios that can connect to the state grid by the end of 2030 on contracts of up to 15 years, according to a Dec. 16 request for proposals. The joint solicitation by the Consolidated Edison Co. of New York and Orange & Rockland Utilities calls for systems that can achieve maximum discharge for at least four hours and are located entirely within the utilities respective service territories. The solicitation meets the requirements of a 2022 New York State Public Service Commission order requiring Con Edison to procure 300 MW and O&R to procure at least 10 MW of energy storage by 2030, the utilities said. Dive Insight: The joint solicitation moves New York closer to meeting its goal of deploying 6 GW of energy storage by 2030. Announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, in early 2022, the 6-GW roadmap represents a doubling of the states previous 2030 goal of 3 GW of energy storage. It calls for 3 GW of new utility-scale storage, 1.5 GW of new retail storage and 200 MW of new residential storage to complement about 1.3 GW of existing energy storage on New Yorks grid as of mid-2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Con Edison and O&R join other New York utilities, such as Central Hudson Gas & Electric, in issuing RFPs to meet the requirements of the NYPSC order. The Dec. 16 solicitation invites proposals from distribution- or transmission-connected individual projects or multi-project portfolios with greater than 5 MW of dispatchable capacity. Portfolios may include as many as 10 individual projects of at least 2 MW dispatchable capacity, provided all projects within the portfolio are located within the same New York Independent System Operator zone, commit to commencing commercial operation within the same year and hold the same contract duration, among other requirements, the utilities said. Downstate New York presents unique challenges for developers looking to place projects on the grid, such as permitting and siting, said Allan Drury, spokesperson for Con Edison. Con Edison believes that providing a way for smaller distribution-connected projects to participate in the program can boost such development by providing potential economies of scale. Con Edison could give preference in contracting and compensation to projects or portfolios proposed to be operational by specified service dates in certain preferred locations it identified within its service territory, according to the RFP: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By the end of 2027 in the Cooper Square, Flatbush, Richmond Hill, Crown Heights or Ridgewood networks; By the end of 2028 in the Grasslands networks; By the end of 2029 in the West Bronx network; and By the end of 2030 in the Southeast Bronx, Fresh Kills or Willowbrook networks. Though all proposed projects will be subject to the same timelines and requirements, those in preferred locations have more potential to proactively align with future grid needs, Drury said. O&R did not identify any preferred locations within its service territory. The RFP set four hours as the minimum [duration] because we want to provide an opportunity for longer-duration battery systems if they can meet the performance needs of the program and remain economically competitive with other proposed projects, Drury said. It is not restricted to lithium-ion systems, he added. Con Edison and O&R aim to notify successful bidders by July 31, 2025, and execute contracts by the end of 2025. The total capacity of projects selected through the RFP may exceed the target set out in NYPSCs storage order [depending] on the competitiveness of the bids, the utilities said Recommended Reading NEW JERSEY (PIX11) New Jersey lawmakers, including Rep. Josh Gottheimer, are holding a news conference on Thursday to reaffirm the states legal fight over congestion pricing. The toll is set to take effect in New York City on Sunday. Cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street will be charged $9 between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays. More Congestion Pricing News A federal judge in New Jersey declined to issue an injunction on Monday, which would have definitively paused the plan, after deciding the MTA took the necessary steps to implement it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opponents, including Gottheimer, said the toll legally remains locked in limbo. The MTA, on the other hand, insisted the judges decision has no impact on the Jan. 5 rollout. The event will be held on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge at 11:30 a.m. Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) For some, starting the new year off on the right foot means hitting the hiking trail. Sixteen Connecticut State Parks offered special hikes Wednesday as part of a program called First Day Hikes. 10 kid-friendly hikes in Connecticut The state wants people to start the year by hitting the trails out in its parks. The one at West Rock Ridge State Park was guided by Adopt-a-Park volunteer Tom Ebersold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This years hike I designed to be easy, Ebersold said. It just goes around the lake and off the ridge, so its fairly flat. Others chose to hike without a guide, like one group of friends at Sleeping Giant State Park. Its New Years Day, lets kick it off doing something healthy, amongst some friends, and just enjoy this beautiful state park that we have, Meriden resident Denise Eldgridge, who has hiked every trail in Sleeping Giant, said. The idea of First Day Hikes started more than 25 years ago in Milton, Massachusetts. Since then, it has spread to all 50 states. Some choose to hike with family, like the Goiran brothers, Antony and Jeremy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fresh air me and my brother, we do this a lot, Antony said. A couple of my good buddies, we like to get out and hike. Its just good, get a little fresh air and do a little bit of bonding. Jeremy said that he recently lost 130 pounds. We do this for my health, and also his, he said. Then theres Kevin Flaig, who gained a family from hiking. This was actually our first date seven years ago, the Milford resident said. So, two kids, two dogs later, something cooking in 2025 potentially, but well see what happens. Theres no guarantee youll gain a soulmate from hiking, but you will see nature, relax and get exercise at the same time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To get out and see and be active and breathe. Its awesome, Jeremy Goiran said. One percent better than yesterday, man. For more information on hiking in Connecticut State Parks, go to: https://ctparks.com/events Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. As the chair of the Travis County Democratic Party and an Indian American myself, I cannot remain silent while the far-right increasingly targets our communities. Once again, in the debate over immigration, the GOP misses the point choosing to stoke division and scapegoat communities rather than address the real systemic challenges facing our country. At the same time, Vivek Ramaswamys recent comments praising immigrants while attacking American families highlight another dangerous trend: using cultural critiques to distract from the policies that truly impact working families. These distractions prevent us from focusing on the real solutions that families need strong schools, good jobs and leaders who fight for them, not against them. Ramaswamy claims that top tech companies hire immigrant engineers over native Americans because of a cultural failing in America. He argues that American families prioritize the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, value jocks over valedictorians and indulge in reruns of "Friends" rather than fostering academic rigor. Meanwhile, he praises immigrant families for their supposed discipline and focus on excellence, implying this explains their success. At first glance, this might seem like a celebration of immigrant success. But make no mistake this rhetoric is deeply harmful. It perpetuates the model minority myth, which falsely paints immigrants as a monolith of success while dismissing the structural barriers they face. Worse, it fuels division, pitting immigrant communities against working-class Americans instead of addressing the systemic failures that harm us all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The truth is that Ramaswamys critique, like the far-rights growing hostility toward immigrants, is a distraction. The challenges America faces whether in education, economic opportunity, or workforce competitiveness are not cultural but structural. For decades, billionaires and far-right politicians have defunded public education, undermined teacher pay, and pushed school privatization schemes, all while stoking outrage over culture wars. These deliberate policy choices have weakened Americas ability to cultivate the engineers, scientists and innovators our country needs. How can we expect to compete globally when we defund the very institutions designed to support innovation? While countries like India invest heavily in education and technology, America has allowed its schools to crumble under the weight of political gamesmanship. Instead of addressing these systemic failures, Ramaswamy blames American culture and proposes solutions like eliminating the Department of Education that would only make matters worse. Meanwhile, the GOP has spent decades prioritizing corporate profits over the needs of working families. Their tax breaks for billionaires and corporations have drained resources from public schools, healthcare and infrastructure. They have blocked wage increases, gutted union protections and allowed critical industries to be outsourced. Instead of creating pathways for economic mobility, they have trapped working-class families in cycles of stagnant wages and rising costs, all while blaming immigrants and scapegoating marginalized communities.The far-rights hostility toward immigrants feeds a harmful narrative that immigrants are replacing U.S.-born Americans, turning shared struggles into a competition for limited resources. Ramaswamys praise of immigrant families only reinforces this myth, amplifying divisions while ignoring the systemic inequities that harm all working families. The truth is simple: Americas strength lies in its diversity. Immigrants and U.S.-born Americans alike are striving to build better futures for their families. The real problem isnt culture its policy. Decades of disinvestment in education, stagnant wages and a lack of affordable healthcare have made it harder for families to thrive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Democratic Party has consistently fought to address these systemic challenges. We are the party of working people, standing for strong public schools, good-paying jobs and affordable healthcare. We believe every child whether theyre the math Olympiad champ or the prom queen deserves access to a quality education and a fair shot at success. Families across the country have valid frustrations. Theyve seen wages stagnate and opportunities shrink. But their anger is being misdirected at the wrong people and the wrong party. Immigrants didnt cause these problems, and Democrats arent the ones defunding schools. America doesn't need more finger-pointing, divisive rhetoric or myths about immigrant success it needs real solutions. Families are tired of political posturing while nothing changes. Enough is enough. Its time for leaders to stop scapegoating and start rebuilding the systems that will allow all Americans to succeed. Pooja Sethi is the chair of the Travis County Democratic Party. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Recent attacks on immigrants distract from real U.S. issues | Opinion Authorities revealed the first images from inside the burnt-out hull of a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, showing the vehicle was stuffed with fireworks and fuel that almost certainly increased the blast radius when it ultimately went up in flames Wednesday morning. The cars driver was killed and at least seven more were injured during the incident, which the Las Vegas Police Department said it was probing as a possible act of terror. Cops described the explosives in the vehicle as a combination of camping fuel, gas tanks, and large mortars, which are a type of firework. It remains unclear how they were first ignited. Las Vegas Police show images of gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters, and large fire work mortars in the back of the cybertruck that exploded earlier today pic.twitter.com/LWpkRAKMaB Acyn (@Acyn) January 2, 2025 Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of the cars manufacturer Tesla, later claimed that the vehicle itself was not the cause of the explosion. He wrote on X: All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sheriff Kevin McMahill also thanked Musk and the company for providing additional information that shed light on the explosion. He later added that the cars sturdy construction helped to limit the blast and prevent further injuries or damage to the building. It looks like the exterior of that truck is completely intact as it sits there, he said. Most of the blast went up through the truck and outin fact, if you look on the video the front blast doors at the Trump Hotel were not even broken by that blast. Police in Las Vegas release photos of burnt gas cans, fireworks and camping fuel in the trunk of a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. / Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department The electric vehicle was obtained via private rental app Turo, according to a law enforcement source who spoke with the Associated Press. Thats the same app allegedly used by a man who plowed into a crowd of New Years revelers in a truck on New Orleans Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning, killing 15 people and injuring more than 30 others. McMahill said his department was investigating whether the two acts were connected. The remains of a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. / Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department The blast occurred just before 9:00 a.m. One eyewitness, who first posted a video of the scene to social media, said that the car immediately exploded after pulling up to the hotels valet stand, making the windows shake violently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eric Trump, an executive at the Trump Organization, which owns the Las Vegas hotel, thanked first responders for their quick actions. The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority, he added. A 3D-printer constructs a house. An Oklahoma lawmaker is looking at legislation allowing the technology to be utilized in Oklahoma. (Getty Image) (This image cannot be republished unless you have a Getty subscription.) OKLAHOMA CITY A state lawmaker wants to use the same technology that is being considered for use on Mars to help tackle Oklahomas affordable housing crisis. State Rep. Mickey Dollens, D-Oklahoma City, said hes working on legislation that among other things will expand the states housing tax credit to include 3D-printed homes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dollens said the homes can be built from as little as $14 per square foot. One of the reasons this is more affordable is because it requires less components, he said. The homes are constructed by pouring a foundation, printing the floor plan and topping the home off with a traditional roof. Each home can be customized, and proponents said the housing could be a better option for Oklahomas severe weather due to using stronger material and foundations compared to mobile homes. The 3D-printed houses were originally created to be built on Mars since there is no oxygen for builders, and Dollens said he expects these houses will work in a similar way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over a dozen other states already allow such homes to be built, according to Alper Real Estate Group, which has studied the emerging technology. Tyler Ley, an Oklahoma State University structural engineering professor, said that the technology has minimal formwork, saves labor, has faster delivery and less waste, but conventional 3D-printing can cost more than conventional construction. But Ley said that he believes 3D print construction will become standard practice if given time. Ley said at an Oklahoma interim study earlier this year that his goal is to make the technology so easy to use that it will allow anyone to build their own home. Ley built a 30-by-20-foot building with 8-foot walls in 14 hours using four students with no construction experience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said it can also be used to construct agricultural structures, retaining walls, box culvert bridges and water tanks. The National Association of Home Builders warns that the technology is still new and that it could result in disputes over defective construction. The group said this technology requires a concrete building specialist to watch the build. Mighty Buildings, a 3D-printing construction company based in California, also participated in the interim study at the Capitol. Brian Annechino, vice president of sales and business development, said that houses are printed in panels and assembled at the desired location. Panels can cost as low as $20, meaning the average single-family home would cost about $50,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The company uses a stone-like material that is cured and printed with an ultraviolet light. Annechino said material is stronger and lighter than concrete and resistant to mold, water, mildew, and insects and is created to weather a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a Category 5 hurricane. Editors note: This story was produced through a reporting partnership between Oklahoma Voice and the University of Central Oklahomas journalism program. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Mike Johnson is set to face a vote on Friday that will determine whether he remains Speaker of the House, and although he is running unopposed with Donald Trumps support, its unclear if all his conservative colleagues are willing to back him up. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, has faced pushback from some Republicans after he supported a recent spending bill that the president-elect and Elon Musk opposed. That could pose a problem for him this week because Johnson can only afford to lose two Republican votes assuming all Democrats vote against him if he wants to keep the top Congressional job. At least one Republican has already signaled they are not voting for Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of now, Johnson is the only official speaker candidate, in part thanks to Turmps endorsement. However, several other names floated around before Johnsons nomination was made official, providing some potential backups if Republicans have a repeat of last years fiasco. Mike Johnson, the current speaker of the House, has butted heads with the far-right faction of House Republicans over the last year (Getty Images) Who are potential other speaker candidates? Several notable representatives and non-elected officials have been floated as candidates to replace Johnson in December when Republicans split over a crucial spending bill intended to keep the government running over the holidays. Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and now advisor to Trump, was one of the suggested names. Musk, who has turned into a staunch Trump ally, is not a member of Congress but nothing in the Constitution indicates the speaker must be a congressional member. Similarly, Vivek Ramaswamy, the failed presidential candidate who co-chairs the advisory committee with Musk, was another person suggested for the position due to his proximity to Trump. Elon Musk has quickly emerged as a close ally to Donald Trump one that has enough power to sway Congress (Getty Images) Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican in the House, seems like an obvious backup choice for the party if Johnsons bid fails. Scalises name was thrown around as a potential successful last year when far-right members threatened to oust Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, is a staunch Trump ally who has often been one of the suggested speakers. He ascended as a potential candidate during the speaker drama last fall. Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who serves as majority whip, was a named potential candidate. Emmer has been a member of Congress since 2015 and was one of the people who ran for speaker last year but Trump sank his bid by publicly opposing him. Steve Scalise is a representative whose name has often been thrown around as a potential speaker. He is currently the No. 2 republican in the House (Getty Images) Who is Mike Johnson? Johnson, 52, was elected to Speaker of the House somewhat by chance last year when former representative Matt Gaetz suddenly motioned to oust then-speaker Kevin McCarthy. Republicans had a notoriously difficult time agreeing upon a speaker nominee causing multiple rounds of voting that made a mockery of the party. Ultimately, they landed on Johnson, a more conservative figure who is allied with Trump but is not as far-right as some of his colleagues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson advocates for traditional social conservatism but has split from other Republicans on his funding stances. He earned the ire of far-right member Marjorie Taylor Greene last year after pushing for Ukraine aid and made enemies with others for supporting the recent spending bill. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky is the Republican leading the charge against Johnson. Representative Chip Roy, of Texas, has yet to confirm if he will vote for Johnson as well. Despite that, Johnson told FOX & Friends on Thursday morning that hes confident he will survive the vote. I think well get it done, Johnson said. It is thought the first syllable in Watford might derive from the Old English for wet. If so, the Hertfordshire commuter town is living up to its name at the start of the New Year, its streets rain-drenched and dismal. In a Lonely Planet guide book, the place was once described as the sort of town that makes you want to travel. But on a cold and sodden January day, this could probably be said of any urban centre in England. At any rate, the mood in Watford is a little downbeat among those who have ventured outside. And its not just the weather casting a pall over things. Theres a sense among some that, despite the arrival of a new government last summer, neither the country nor their own lives have much improved since. [In] a state of chaos, is how Labour voter Joseph Corcoran describes Britain, from inside The Moon Under Water, a Wetherspoons pub on the high street. The pub chain has its head office in Watford, which may or may not explain why this branch seems to be the only hospitality venue in Watford packed with customers on this most foul of mornings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Corcoran, 82, is a retired postman, butcher, and publican. Although he has always voted Labour, he doesnt seem to rate the partys chances of turning the current situation around. Theres a lot there to change but its too much for them, he says. Matt Turmaine is Labours MP for Watford - Roger Harris Watford, a bellwether seat, is among those constituencies Labour took from the Tories in 2024. For half a century, it has backed the winning party at every general election. So if voters here are already unconvinced by the party they have just put in power, the Government may wish to take heed, especially as support for Reform surges nationally, with polling company Electoral Calculus noting this week that waning enthusiasm for the two main parties gives the smaller party an opportunity to overtake both Labour and the Tories. Not that Starmer and his ministers are likely to be under many illusions about the support theyre enjoying. A YouGov poll for The Times, published this week, found that more than half of voters currently see Labour as incompetent, dishonest and unsuccessful, and dont believe the Prime Minister will achieve the six milestones he has set for his government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While less than a third (31 per cent) of voters professed to be optimistic about the year ahead, 37 per cent said they were pessimistic, and only 40 per cent of those who backed Labour last year felt confident about the future. Perhaps most damningly of all, only 21 per cent told the pollsters they trusted Labour most on the economy, while 24 per cent favoured the Conservatives. A YouGov poll has revealed that more than half of voters currently see Labour as incompetent - Andy Rain/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock On the streets of Watford, it is fair to say there are few signs that Labour voters would go quite so far as to rate the Tories higher on economic competence. Memories arent that short. But thats not to say there isnt a sense of disappointment among many with the party they so recently elected. Mairead Sullivan, 32, is among those feeling let down. I just think theyre very out of touch with people these days, says the account manager, on her way into Sainsburys. Among the six milestones Starmer set out last month, and which his government hopes to meet by 2029, is an aim to end hospital backlogs and ensure 92 per cent of patients in England wait no more than 18 weeks for planned treatment. But Sullivans partner, a nurse in an intensive care unit, suggests the state of the NHS is no better since Labour came to power. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The couple want to buy a house, an ambition that might be aided by Labours target of building 1.5 million homes in England (another of its six milestones). But at the moment, Sullivan does not see how she can realise this dream. Some local voters insist it is still early days. They point out that Labour has only been in power for six months, and that its too early to judge them. Rome wasnt built in a day, and nor will Britain be magically transformed overnight. In his New Years message this week, Starmer promised a year of rebuilding. There are still some who have faith in this becoming a reality. But Sullivan, like many Labour voters in Watford, is sceptical. Ill believe it when I see it, she says. At the moment it seems like words not action. I would like to hope there would be some positive changes in the New Year. If improvements dont come, she admits she might not back Labour again, despite having always done so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charity Oppong, a 33-year-old support worker, cites the ongoing high cost of living as the main reason for her disappointment with the party she helped propel to power. Theres nothing been done on that, she says. I cant see any improvement. Charity Oppong, 33, remains disappointed with Labour because of a rise in the cost of living - Paul Grover Nor can Debbie Crouch, a 63-year-old graphic designer, who feels Labour are doing little for middle-class people. Theyre the ones paying all the bills and they need a bit of help at the moment, she says. Another of Labours milestone targets is the raising of living standards across the UK, as part of its aim to deliver the highest sustained economic growth in the G7. But, argues Crouch, if youre taking away from people paying the bills, theyre not going to be spending, so arent going to get the economy going. Despite having always voted Labour, she would consider switching her allegiance to the Greens or Social Democratic Party if the Government doesnt deliver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Back in The Moon Under Water, Jason Jobling, 54, feels the problem is perhaps one of messaging. The way theyve approached things has been bad PR, says the human resources head. He mentions the controversial removal of the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners; energy - domestic prices of which have just risen again; and inheritance tax, changes to which brought angry farmers onto the streets last year. Theyve scored some own goals, says Jobling, who agrees the winter fuel payment should not be received by every pensioner, but feels the policy has not been well sold. On day one theyve gone out and caused a lot of anger and made enemies, he says. Theyve had a bad start. Jason Jobling, 54, feels Labour has had an issue with bad PR - Paul Grover Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Certainly Labours honeymoon period was over almost as soon as they arrived in office: It lasted a few days, said veteran pollster and Tory peer Robert Hayward this week. The coming year will be a chance for the party to try and win back the support of those who elected them and yet already doubt them. Their 2024 manifesto was simply called Change. Now comes the hard work of proving they can actually make it happen. Only by doing so will they stand a chance of keeping the people of Watford on their side. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) The former Sangamon County Sheriffs deputy charged with the murder of Sonya Massey got a new court date. Sean Grayson is scheduled for a trial call on January 13th, which is a day before the Illinois Supreme Court returns to Springfield for its January term. PREVIOUSLY: IL Supreme Court decides Sean Grayson to stay in jail for now Graysons case is limbo right now as everyone waits to see if the Illinois Supreme Court will take up the case of whether Grayson should be granted pre-trial release or not. Since he was first arrested in mid-July, Graysons lawyers have been fighting to get him out of jail prior to the trial. If the Supreme Court decides not to take the case, then Grayson would be set for release. If they choose to take the case, they would deliberate, and ultimately decide at a later date whether or not he would remain detained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Sangamon County Court that is hearing the trial determined twice that Grayson meets the threshold to be detained under the SAFE-T Act, meaning Grayson would be held in jail until a verdict was reached in the trial. However, the day before Thanksgiving, an Appellate Court overturned the Sangamon County Courts decision. Just days before Grayson was due to be released, that same three-judge panel at the Appellate Court put a delay on their own order, saying that Grayson should not be released until January 2nd, 2025, pending any Supreme Court involvement. That intervention came in early December, when the Supreme Court granted the request from Sangamon County States Attorney John Milhiser and issued this open-ended stay. PREVIOUSLY: States Attorney files appeal on pre-trial detention for Sean Grayson to Illinois Supreme Court Grayson is charged with three counts of first degree murder after he shot and killed Sonya Massey in her home after she called 911. To keep him detained, prosecutors are arguing that his release would be a danger to the public. The defense says that since he is no longer an officer of the law, the prosecutors arguments all fall short. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. INDIANAPOLIS Court records are providing graphic new details about what led to a man being arrested this week for the brutal murder of a woman on Indys south side. Police were able to make an arrest within hours of that homicide with the help of a witness who quickly identified the suspect as the father of the victims unborn child. According to court records, after being arrested that suspect gave a detailed and horrific confession. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The violence took place inside a second story apartment on Ella Dobbs Lane. Thats where a woman returned home early Monday morning and reported finding her pregnant roommate murdered. The victim had been badly beaten with a bag and tape wrapped around her head. That roommate immediately helped identify 22-year-old Regulus Baka as a possible suspect. Court records claim Baka told police he visited the victim because her 20th birthday was on New Years Eve. Baka described a volatile on-again-on-again relationship and claimed the victim would constantly slap him for no reason and repeatedly threatened to kill his family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The morning of the murder, the suspect stated the victim got mad, began hitting him and grabbed a knife. Baka insisted he acted in self-defense because she was threatening to kill him. He could have walked away instead of engaging with her and escalating the fight, said attorney Mario Massillamany. If his family was being threatened, why would he go back when the fight was over? He must not have thought the threats meant anything. Massillamany isnt connected to the case but says Indiana courts only allow people to use deadly force if its deemed reasonable. In this case the affidavit alleges Baka admitted he struck the victim 4 times in the head with a space heater as she was lying on the floor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Is that reasonable force? No. At that point shes on the ground and is no threat to him, said Massillamany. Baka then confessed used a kitchen pan to hit her in the head some more, wrapped tape around her nose so she would stop breathing, while also stabbing her with a knife. Baka said the victim was screaming for help while he beat her, but added I just wanted her dead. That is not reasonable, said Massillamany. As a defense attorney I wouldnt feel comfortable making an argument to a jury that it was self-defense. Police say surveillance and traffic cameras showed the suspect flee the scene of the murder in his brothers car. That helped lead police to Bakas apartment complex in Greenwood where he was arrested following a brief standoff with SWAT officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect is being held without bond pending the filing of formal charges. Hes due in court for an initial hearing later this week. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTTV CBS4Indy. Even with the end of hurricane season, America was once again reminded of the tragic and devastating impact that extreme weather and hurricanes can have on our communities. This hurricane season brought devastation, loss of life, and infrastructure damage comparable with some of historys worst natural disasters. In September, for example, Hurricane Helene caused devastation far beyond the coastal regions of Florida, bringing torrential rains and flooding as far north as North Carolina and Virginia. The Category 4 storm, and the inland damage it caused, was the most lethal hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005, killing more than 200 people, displacing thousands, and leaving millions without power. The challenge for those of us who have dedicated our lives to the energy and utility industry is how to best transform our respective electric systems to provide reliable energy capable of powering the day-to-day lives of billions, while also being resilient enough to withstand extreme weather events. As was poignantly stated by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, an initiative supported by the United Nations, building the resilience of power infrastructure becomes all the more critical to provide reliable and sustainable services. Fortifying Systems With respect to electric infrastructure, the total cost impact of Hurricane Helene, coupled with Hurricane Milton, which followed just over a week later, was estimated to be $50 billion eachand thats just two hurricanes. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum estimates the global cost of climate change damage to potentially reach $16 million per hour by 2050. Making plans today to ready our energy systems for more extreme weather is not only imperative for our societys survival, but also for the ability to shield ourselves from severe economic consequences that follow when highly populated regions are left in the dark. As we brace ourselves for the reality of a future with more powerful storms, the energy industry must focus on two priorities: engineering truly resilient energy systems in every community and addressing the growing global need for the engineers required to make this more resilient future happen. IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES), the worlds leading association of energy engineers, has embraced this call for collective action. Across the industry, engineers, like me, are engaging in unprecedented collaboration to better plan, design, and build climate-resilient power systems. In fact, we are working internationally to develop and adopt higher engineering standards for infrastructure resiliency and to embrace innovative solutions that help engineer the stronger grids of the future for utilities around the world. As a professional community, IEEE PES works to recognize and empower both experienced and emerging engineers making strides for the benefit of humanityand we all must continue to support the growth of these careers. Most of the public may not be aware that the complex energy systems that our societies rely on to power daily tasks are meticulously designed and tested by engineers. As such, building a more climate-resilient energy future across the globe will require a substantial increase in the number of engineering graduates. In their absence, the very pace of progress will dramatically slow. As a result, our nationsand the worldsvery ability to withstand the impact of climate change and better prepare for more extreme weather events will inexorably suffer. Supporting STEM Education IEEE PES has already taken steps to encourage and promote the next generation of engineers. What we do not control, however, is the priority the U.S. places on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, let alone early education, both of which are vital to developing future engineers. For the U.S., bipartisan leadership at the local, state, and federal levels must recognize that all the money in the world dedicated to grid resiliency will still not supplant the need for tens of thousands of new engineers over the next decade who must design and help build these systems. As significant as the work is that IEEE PES does to grow the number of engineers, we remain dependent on policymakers investing in the education of future engineers. Given this importance, we believe the U.S., and every nation, must not simply prioritize STEM at all educational levels, but must also dramatically increase funding and support for STEM education from early education through college. Government and the private sector must work together to help encourage young people from all backgrounds to seek out this rewarding and vital profession. Looking ahead, the work we do today to grow this critical professional field will help determine, in no small way, our worlds ability to overcome the impacts of climate change and ensure our societies continue to function and prosper. This challenge may indeed be great, but given the human, economic, and social damage we are witnessing, caused by climate change and extreme weather impacts on our power systems, it is one we must confront and overcome. Shay Bahramirad, PhD is president of IEEE Power and Energy Society, as well as vice president of Transmission and Distribution Engineering at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). AUSTIN (KXAN) At least 10 people are dead and dozens more are injured after a man drove a truck into a crowd in New Orleans Wednesday morning. The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas, and said it is working to determine Jabbars potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Driver rams New Years revelers in New Orleans, killing 10; FBI doesnt believe he acted alone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was undergoing repairs in preparation for the Super Bowl, which is scheduled to take place there in February. Breach the perimeter Steve Allen is the founder of Crowd Safety, a crowd management and event safety consultancy. Allen said he also works closely with the Pink Bows Foundation, which enhances funding mechanisms that support and bolster training, crowd safety management and tailored protocols specific to outdoor music festivals and large-scale events. Allen said Jabbar was able to breach the perimeter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If that person is hell bent on getting in there, then weve got to make it what we call target hardening,' Allen said. Theyve managed to get through there. Theres a failure somewhere 100%. If youre having vehicle mitigation in place, its like water. If you had a dam built, if you leave a void somewhere, the water is going to travel and get in there. When coming up with a safety plan for a large crowd gathering, Allen said there are several factors he looks at and he starts with a risk assessment. How many thousands of people are we expecting? Whats the dispersal rate? Allen said. Are we anticipating that at midnight, were going to be at full capacity, and then suddenly, data might inform us from previous years, that over a period of an hour or two hours, 60% of the crowd will leave? Sugar Bowl Between Georgia, Notre Dame Postponed After Truck Attack Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Sugar Bowl is being moved back a day after the attack in New Orleans, and the city is also set to host the Super Bowl in February. I would imagine that theres a lot of focus on this now because Louisiana, they cant have a another problem. Im sure, like theyve said, there will be lessons learned. Im sure this is reverberating not just across America, but across the entire world, Allen said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. NEW YORK (AP) South Korean cryptocurrency mogul Do Hyeong Kwon pleaded not guilty Thursday to a freshly unsealed indictment released in time for his first U.S. court appearance. Kwon entered the plea in Manhattan federal court two days after his extradition from Montenegro. The indictment alleges that the man dubbed by some as the cryptocurrency king lied to investors from 2018 to 2022 to fool them into pouring money into Terraform Labs, the Singapore crypto firm he cofounded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities say investors worldwide were harmed by the $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs cryptocurrency. The May 2022 collapse came despite the companys claim that TerraUSD was a stablecoin that could be relied upon. Kwon did not speak during his court appearance, except to acknowledge that he understood English. His lawyer, Andrew Chesley, entered not guilty pleas to two separate versions of the indictment charging him with conspiracy, along with commodities, securities and wire fraud. A money laundering charge was added Thursday. Chesley and another defense lawyer, David Patton, declined comment as they emerged from the courtroom. Their client was returned to a federal jail after the lawyers consented to his detention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The superseding indictment accused Kwon of deceiving investors by telling them that Terraform had developed novel reliable financial technologies enabling it to turn blockchain technology into a self-contained decentralized financial world with its own money, payment system, stock market and savings bank. In fact, the indictment said, Kwon's constructed financial world was built on lies and manipulative and deceptive techniques used to mislead investors, users, business partners, and government regulators about Terraform's business. Behind the scenes, core Terraform products did not work as Kwon advertised, and were manipulated to create the illusion of a functioning and decentralized financial system in order to lure investors, it added. By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - In their New Year predictions, high priests from Cuba's Afro-Cuban Santeria religion told followers on Thursday to watch their health and spending, care for their families, guard against crime and drink less alcohol amid a punishing economic crisis entering its sixth year. "Measures must be taken against increasing delinquency," said the Letter of the Year by high priests, known as Babalawos, from the government-recognized Yoruba Association of Cuba and publicly presented on Thursday in Havana. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The letters are a prophecy of misfortune, disease and other events and how to cope with them, which Santeria followers anxiously await every year. Millions of Cubans practice the ritual-filled religion, which fuses Catholicism with ancient African beliefs brought to Cuba by slaves. "Analyze economic investments and their consequences, eliminate piles of garbage and care for and respect marital and family integrity" the letter continued. The priests' forecasts come five years into an economic crisis that has stricken Cubans with worsening shortages of food, medicine, fuel and other goods amid power and water outages and crumbling public transportation and garbage collection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The island nation's Communist government blames the economic crisis mainly on U.S. sanctions while admitting it has made mistakes in managing the crisis. Over the years a few groups have split from the association, and some now issue their own Letter of the Year. Babalawo Lazaro Cuesta, of the independent Organizing Commission of the Letter of the Year Miguel Febles Padron, said at another press conference a few miles (km) away that its message signaled many of the same dangers ahead, but also the need for the government to let go of a vision and methods dating back to the Cold War. "Attachment to the past does not reveal present solutions or future plans," the letter states as it warns of "crooked paths." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cuesta, a key organizer of the priests, said "crooked paths are the inadequate decisions we make, they are the obsolete ideas we propose, the incorrect way of seeking solutions to the problems that human beings have." (Reporting by Marc Frank; additional reporting by Nelson Acosta and Alien Fernandez; editing by Sandra Maler) Happy new year, and welcome to Eye on AI. In this edition: How cybersecurity training isand isn'tkeeping up with generative AI's new threats; OpenAI beefs up its political lobbying; Nvidia to open-source Run:AI software following acquisition; and AI leadership roles triple in two years. 2024 saw brand new types of generative AI-enabled digital fraud make headlines, from a deepfaked video call that cost a company $25 million to new research on how AI copilots being built into enterprise software can be weaponized as automatic phishing machines. Even classic phishing attacks are getting worse and getting more personal, the Financial Times reported today, thanks to AI bots ability to easily ingest large amounts of data about a company or persons style and tone and then easily replicate it. They can also scrape data from a persons online activity to make phishing emails more personal, and thus more convincing. As generative AI swiftly upends the cybersecurity threat landscape, companies need to ensure employees are aware of the technology, its capabilities, and its risks. To educate employees on how not to fall victim to various types of attacks, most companies turn to cybersecurity training, which typically consists of an informational video or a series of modules and quizzes that employees must complete. So how is this training keeping up with the new threats being posed by generative AI? I checked in with top providers including Huntress, Ninjio, and KnowBe4 and watched their trainings to find out. Gen AI cybersecurity trainings cover some, but not all, new threats Across all the training courses I tested, some of the new threats posed by generative AI were covered thoroughly, in particular how the technology can be used to create more convincing phishing emails and the risks involved with inputting sensitive company information into commercial chatbots. Ninjios AI-related training was the only one I reviewed that didnt cover phishing, though the company says it plans to release a new video on this early this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most of the trainings also covered how generative AI can be used to make convincing deepfakes of someones voice. Some addressed video deepfakes, but they focused on videos that would be distributed to employees or shared online. The trainings from Huntress, notably, did not discuss deepfakes of any sort. None of the trainings, however, discussed the emergence of deepfakes being used in live video callslike the aforementioned instance from earlier this year when an employee at an multinational company thought he was on a call with his executive team, but was actually talking to AI-generated deepfakes created by malicious actors, who deceived him into transfering $25 million of the companys funds. None of the trainings addressed prompt injection, a new type of attack that could be used against companies deploying AI assistants in enterprise software like Microsoft 365. These attacks exploit the AI assistants ability to retrieve documents and can open up companies to data theft and new types of social engineering attacks. For example, a malicious actor could send an email to a victim at a target company that presents the bad actors bank information as that of some trusted entity. If the employee uses Copilot to search for that entitys banking information, Copilot could surface the malicious email, misleading the victim into sending the money to the malicious actor instead. In the same vein, a hacker could send a malicious email to direct someone to a phishing siteall without having to gain access to the employees email. Companies must be proactive about employee education I began looking into how cybersecurity training is addressing the new threats posed by generative AI after watching a training video assigned to a relative. When they told me they had just been assigned a new video specifically talking about generative AI as part of their annual cybersecurity training, I was excited to see how the increasingly important topic was being covered. After watching the video, however, I was shocked and disappointed. The video was just a few minutes long, barely touched on the new types of threats I had reported on this past year, and depicted generative AI as if it were some far-off sci-fi technology. It wasnt until I started diving deeper into the offerings from the cybersecurity industry that I realized that video wasnt the whole story. That video was from KnowBe4, and on its own, I dont think it would be sufficient for informing employees about the risks and threats. I soon discovered that its just one of many AI-focused cybersecurity videos offered by KnowBe4, which turned out to have the largest catalog of AI-focused videos and some of the most informative content out of everything I viewed. KnowBe4 told me company admins are able to preview and assign trainings based on their companys needs. Clearly whoever chose the videos to assign for my relatives company wasnt as thorough as they shouldve been. There were additional videos on deepfakes, CEO fraud, phishing, and the dangers of AI chatbots that together wouldve been much more comprehensive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This made clear that cybersecurity and IT leaders inside companies need to take an active role, familiarizing themselves with the new threats and the training content that exists to inform employees about them. More than ever, cybersecurity education needs to be continuous; a brief video once a year isnt enough. Cybersecurity is an endless cat-and-mouse cycle, with security professionals and IT teams often playing catch-up to whatever innovations the fraudsters and hackers decide to adopt. Huntress said it's in the late stages of developing a training on AI hallucinations and plans to create one on deepfakes this year. Ninjio is still developing trainings on generative AIs impact on phishing and how malicious actors can use AI to automate attacks. KnowBe4 said its working to incorporate information on prompt injection attacks into its trainings. (It was the only provider to directly address my questions about this type of emerging threat.) But the training courses wont do anything unless corporate IT leaders do their job in making sure employees engage in the trainings thoroughly and regularly. And with that, heres more AI news. Sage Lazzaro sage.lazzaro@consultant.fortune.com sagelazzaro.com This story was originally featured on Fortune.com The active-duty Green Beret who was driving a Tesla Cybertruck that blew up outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on New Years Day was a 100 percent patriot, his bewildered uncle said Thursday. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was like a Rambo-type, for lack of a better word, Dean Livelsberger told The Independent. Dean, whose older brother is Livelsbergers father, Roger, himself an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, said his nephew loved the Army. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country, he continued. He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty. Matthew Livelsberger, the man believed to have detonated a Tesla outside Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel, was a Green Beret (LinkedIn) Dean Livelsberger said he was aware of the explosion in Vegas, but had not yet been made aware that Matt, as he called him, had been named as the culprit until The Independent contacted him for comment. At first, Dean assumed the explosion had been caused by one of those big lithium batteries that short-circuited or something, he said. He was relieved that the blast only caused seven minor injuries and didnt kill anyone else. But, he added, the amateurish construction of the explosive device, an array of propane tanks, fireworks and camping fuel, left him with a slew of additional questions. Matt was a very skilled warrior, and he would be able to make if it was him, and if he did this he wouldve been able to make a more sophisticated explosive than using propane tanks and camping fuel. He was what you might call a supersoldier. If you ever read about the things he was awarded, and the experience he had, some of it doesnt make sense, when he had the skills and ability to make something more, lets say, efficient. His skills were enormous from what he had been taught in the military. With Livelsbergers skills, his uncle suggested, his nephew could have fashioned a bomb that would have obliterated half of that hotel if he seriously wanted to hurt others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Think of Oklahoma City, he said. McVeigh was just a normal soldier. Not a Tier 1 operator like Matt. Livelsberger was in the U.S. Army for 19 years, 18 of which were in the elite Special Forces. He was currently stationed in Germany, and was on leave in Colorado Springs when he rented the Cybertruck and drove to Nevada, law enforcement sources said. Livelsbergers Tesla Cybertruck seen driving through Las Vegas before exploding at a Trump hotel (Las Vegas Metro police) The truck blew up just a few hours after Shamsud-Din Jabbar rammed a truck into New Years Day revelers in New Orleans killing at least 15 people. Jabbar, 42, was also an Army veteran who was posted to the same base as Livelsberger, and also served in Afghanistan around the same time that Livelsberger did. Investigators were looking into a possible link between the two men, who both rented their vehicles through the same carshare service, Turo, but so far they have found no direct connection between the two. At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the coroners office found that Livelsberger had sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle. And while the investigation is still ongoing, he believed Livelsbergers actions indicated a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately thereafter, rather than a suicide mission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsbergers military ID and passport were found inside the Cybertruck, as well as a Desert Eagle .50 caliber semi-automatic pistol and an SLR Rifleworks B30. Both weapons, and Livelsberger himself, were burnt almost beyond recognition, according to McMahill. He said investigators also recovered a cache of fireworks, along with an iPhone, a smartwatch, and several credit cards in Livelsbergers name. Burned fireworks found inside Livelsbergers Tesla (Las Vegas Metro police) Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans of the FBIs Las Vegas Division said agents had tracked the vehicle from Denver, through Tesla charging stations in Arizona and New Mexico, before it arrived in Vegas at 7:29 a.m. on Wednesday. Kenny Cooper, assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms San Francisco Division, said it remains unclear how the explosives were detonated. He noted that everything used was consumer-grade, such as the camping fuel and propane tanks, in addition to some explosive targets that can be purchased at any sporting goods store. Both of the firearms in the Cybertruck had been legally purchased two days earlier, on December 30. Cooper also noted, echoing Dean Livelsberger, that the level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience. Livelsberger divorced his first wife, who now lives in South Florida with her new husband, several years ago. Livelsberger shares a newborn with his new partner, and in September posted a picture on Facebook of himself cradling the infant in his arms, according to Dean. Over the past few months, an array of photos Livelsberger posted from Germany, including pictures of himself proposing to his partner, and the ring he gave her, have disappeared, his uncle said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsbergers father, who was unreachable on Thursday, was married several times, and had children with a couple of different women, according to Dean Livelsberger, who has been semi-estranged from his brother for years. At the same time, Dean said, Matt wasnt estranged from the family at all. Everyone thought the world of Matt. The suspect involved in the car explosion at Las Vegas Trump hotel was an Army special operations soldier, military officials said. Local authorities and the Army confirmed Matthew Livelsberger was driving the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded Wednesday in front of the hotel, killing the 37-year-old and injuring seven others. The incident came just hours after another Army veteran, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a car into a crowd in New Orleans on New Years Eve, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more, according to the FBI. Jabbar, 42, died in a shootout with police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger, who appeared to have shot himself before the truck exploded, was on leave from the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany, Las Vegas police said at a Thursday press conference. Both men deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and served at Fort Bragg, now called Fort Liberty, the officials said. But they did not serve in the same province of the war-torn country and were not at the North Carolina Army base at the same time. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command said Livelsberger was on approved leave at the time of his death, according to a statement. The command is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies," it added. Livelsberger enlisted as an infantryman in 2006 and served through 2011. He then spent a year in the National Guard and Army Reserve before returning as an active duty special operations soldier in December 2012, according to the Army. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A highly decorated combat veteran, Livelsberger received the Bronze Star Medal with Valor, suggesting he displayed heroism during combat. He also was awarded the Army Commendation Medal with Valor, indicating extraordinary actions, among other accolades. Army special operations soldiers, many of whom are referred to as Green Berets, perform a variety of missions from combat operations to training local forces around the globe. The Green Berets are often more experienced soldiers who have some language and cultural training to help them better identify and partner with the local forces they're advising. Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox and Friends on Thursday that he had been in contact with current national security adviser Jake Sullivan about the Las Vegas explosion and the New Orleans attack over the last 24 hours. "We're not waiting on what we're just getting from this White House, Waltz said. Everybody has feelers out so we keep President Trump as informed as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Waltz said he hadnt been briefed on whether Jabbar, the New Orleans attacker, had been on the radar of law enforcement and the intelligence community before the attack. Jabbar also served in the Army from 2006 to 2015 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. He was a civilian at the time of this death. Authorities have not released information that would indicate a connection between the two men. While Livelsberger was a special operations infantryman, Jabbar was a human resources and information technology specialist. The FBI said Thursday it believes Jabbar acted alone in the New Orleans attack. We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia with the counterintelligence division said during a news conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Initial reports indicate Jabbar had a black ISIS flag affixed to the hitch of a Ford F-150 Lightning truck, which he rented from the same online car rental company as Livelsberger used to rent his Cybertruck. Jabbar had "posted videos to social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill," President Joe Biden said on Wednesday night. Biden met Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris and his homeland security team to discuss the investigations into both attacks. CONNECTICUT (WTNH) Its officially 2025 and many people are now thinking about their New Years resolutions. You might ask, whats Americas top goal this year? Many people may assume that hitting the gym and getting in shape is the nations top resolution this year, as it is most years, but that is not the case for 2025. Americas top goal heading into 2025 is to save more money, thats according to data company Statista. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Connecticut laws take effect Jan. 1: Heres what to know Exercising and eating healthier werent far behind. Those were the second and third most common resolutions respectively. Spending more time with family and friends rounded out the top five. No matter what your resolution is, there are a few key ways to ensure success. ABC News spoke with Neurologist Dr. Leah Croll. She said that people often set too many goals or goals that are too vague making it seem more daunting. She recommends setting just one or two goals that are really important to you for this year and getting very specific about it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For instance, want to get in shape? Dr. Crolls said to pick a 5K to train for. Want to eat more vegetables? Find tasty recipes that excite you and craft a plan. Most goals are going to take multiple steps to achieve. So really mapping out for yourself what is each step that I need to take over the course of the year to get where I want to get in the end, Dr. Leah Croll said. Theres also something very gratifying on a chemical level in the brain about sort of checking things off your list and feeling like youre already making progress towards your goal. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) January marks the start of a busy month in Washington, D.C. with members of the 119th Congress set to be sworn in, funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Jan. 3 The 119th Congress will begin Friday, Jan. 3 with Republicans holding the majority in both the House and Senate. Republicans hold a narrow 220-215 majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the official swearing in of new members, the House is expected to hold a vote to elect a Speaker of the House. Current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is hoping to hold onto his speaker gavel following an endorsement from President-elect Trump. However, Johnson will need almost every Republican vote to win. Jan. 6 Lawmakers will meet Monday, Jan. 6 during a joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2024 election. It marks the last step in the certification process and will be presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris. Jan. 7 On Tuesday, Jan. 7, former President Jimmy Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. Members of Congress will gather to honor Carter during a special ceremony. The public will also be invited to pay their respects. Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol until his funeral service on Jan. 9. Jan. 9 A funeral service will be held for former President Carter on Thursday, Jan. 9 at the Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden has declared Jan. 9 a National Day of Mourning and has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff. Jan. 14 Cabinet hearings for Trumps nominees are also expected to start in January. On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing for Trumps pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Jan. 19 President-elect Trump is expected to hold a victory rally ahead of Inauguration Day at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Jan. 19. Jan. 20 President-elect Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, Jan. 20, which is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The day will feature several events, including a luncheon at the Capitol and a parade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) January marks the start of a busy month in Washington, D.C. with members of the 119th Congress set to be sworn in, funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Jan. 3 The 119th Congress will begin Friday, Jan. 3 with Republicans holding the majority in both the House and Senate. Republicans hold a narrow 220-215 majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the official swearing in of new members, the House is expected to hold a vote to elect a Speaker of the House. Current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is hoping to hold onto his speaker gavel following an endorsement from President-elect Trump. However, Johnson will need almost every Republican vote to win. Jan. 6 Lawmakers will meet Monday, Jan. 6 during a joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2024 election. It marks the last step in the certification process and will be presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris. Jan. 7 On Tuesday, Jan. 7, former President Jimmy Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. Members of Congress will gather to honor Carter during a special ceremony. The public will also be invited to pay their respects. Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol until his funeral service on Jan. 9. Jan. 9 A funeral service will be held for former President Carter on Thursday, Jan. 9 at the Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden has declared Jan. 9 a National Day of Mourning and has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff. Jan. 14 Cabinet hearings for Trumps nominees are also expected to start in January. On Tuesday, Jan. 14, the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing for Trumps pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Jan. 19 President-elect Trump is expected to hold a victory rally ahead of Inauguration Day at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Jan. 19. Jan. 20 President-elect Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, Jan. 20, which is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The day will feature several events, including a luncheon at the Capitol and a parade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. A 46-year-old Davenport man was in custody Thursday after police found him with a gun, $400 cash and a digital scale after an apparent methamphetamine sale, according to court records. Bryan Wayne faces felony charges of controlled substance violation, dominion/control of a firearm/offensive weapon by a felon, failure to affix a drug stamp, and trafficking in stolen weapons first offense, court records show. Bryan Wayne (Scott County Jail) About 1:45 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of 5th and Taylor streets in Davenport, police investigated Wayne for selling meth and having a gun, according to arrest affidavits, which show Wayne also was wanted for a felon firearm charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police saw him leave his residence and walk to another residence, where he was inside about 20 minutes. After he left, police detained him for the warrant, and Wayne admitted he had a Hi-Point .380 handgun on his person, police say in affidavits. In affidavits, police say the gun was reported stolen out of Davenport in a 2021. After Wayne was read his Miranda Rights, he said he had purchased the gun off the street about a week ago for protection. There were no bullets in the gun, affidavits say. Wayne said he had it more for the threat than anything else. He also had $400 in all $20 bills and a digital scale. Detectives followed up with a search warrant at the residence where Wayne was for 20 minutes and found an ounce of meth with no Iowa drug-tax stamp. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other people provided corroborating statements that the meth was purchased from (Wayne) for $400 which was paid in all $20 bills, police say in affidavits, which show Wayne has a lengthy criminal history with many felony convictions and stated he was aware he is a felon. Wayne, who was being held Thursday in Scott County Jail on a total $30,000 cash-only bond, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Jan. 10 in Scott County Court. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. Jan. 2 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1788, Georgia ratified the Constitution, the fourth of the original 13 colonies to do so, and was admitted to the Union. In 1811, Timothy Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, became the first U.S. senator to be censured after being accused of publicly revealing secret presidential documents. In 1935, Bruno Hauptmann, "The Most Hated Man in the World," went on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., eldest son of famed aviator, Charles Lindbergh. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI British Prince Harry takes part of in an exercise with U.S. military cadets on a firing range at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY., on June 25, 2010. On January 2, 2011, Prince Harry was sent home from military service in Afghanistan after a magazine revealed his presence in the war zone. File Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/Pool In 1942, Japanese forces occupied Manila, forcing U.S. and Philippine forces under U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 1, the first unmanned spacecraft to travel to the moon. Motorists making their way east down the Vandeventer overpass on Highway 40 go slow as one and a half inches of snow fall on the area January 7, 1999. On January 2, 1974, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed a bill requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph or lose federal highway funds. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI In 1967, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as 33rd governor of California. In 1974, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed a bill requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph or lose federal highway funds. Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan is on his third campaign tour through New Hampshire discovers on January 28, 1976. On January 2, 1967, Reagan was sworn in as 33rd governor of California. File Photo by Leighton Mark/UPI Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1981, police in Britain arrested the so-called "Yorkshire Ripper," after five years on the run. Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven more. In 1990, Britain's most-wanted terrorism suspect, Irish Republican Army gunman Patrick Sheehy, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the Republic of Ireland. In 2006, 12 men were killed in a methane gas explosion in a coal mine in West Virginia's Upshur County. One man was found alive after 41 hours trapped underground. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI In 2011, Prince Harry, grandson of England's Queen Elizabeth II, was sent home from military service in Afghanistan after a magazine revealed his presence in the war zone. He later returned to continue training as a gunship pilot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2019, two Indian women entered the Hindu Sabarimala temple, the first to do so since the courts ended a longtime ban on women in 2018. In 2024, Lee Jae-myung, the leader of South Korea's main opposition party, was stabbed in the neck during an appearance in Busan. Lee survived and a real estate worker was arrested and confessed to attempting to assassinate the politician. Police in Washington on Wdnesday said they have upped security measures after the New Years attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans. While there is no known threat to the District of Columbia, out of an abundance of caution, MPD has heightened its security posture across the city in light of recent events, the Metropolitan Police Department posted on the social media platform X. The statement comes as the FBI is leading investigations into the two attacks. In New Orleans, a man drove a pickup truck through busy Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens. In Las Vegas, a Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel, killing one person and injuring seven more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The announcement of upped security also comes ahead of many major events that will happen in the nations capital in January. Over the next few weeks, local authorities must be prepared for former President Jimmy Carters funeral procession, new House members arriving for the 119th Congress, the certification of the election and President-elect Trumps inauguration. As we approach upcoming major events in the District of Columbia, MPD will continue working with our local and federal partners to assess potential threats and make any necessary adjustments to safeguard the community, the D.C. police said. While the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion is thought to be an isolated incident, authorities have said the person who drove a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans was likely not working alone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The lifeless body of a male infant was found in a box for abandoned babies in southern Italy on Thursday, with the local priest saying an alarm meant to alert him failed to trigger. The baby, believed to be about a month old, was found at the church of San Giovanni Battista in Bari, in the Puglia region. The parish priest, Father Antonio Ruccia, told Italian media that when anyone leaves a baby in the cradle, an alarm should immediately send him an alert. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am in Rome, but my cell phone connected to the crib didnt ring, he said. The dead child was discovered by a local funeral home director who was passing the baby box door, which is on the outside of the church to afford privacy, when he noticed it was ajar. He immediately alerted the priest who called local police who made the grim discovery. Once a baby is left in the crib, a heating system is supposed to automatically trigger and a notification is meant to be sent to the priests cell phone. It is unclear if the heating system worked or if the baby was already dead when he was left, according to Bari police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An autopsy will be carried out to determine when and how the baby died, a police spokesperson told CNN. The initial theory is that whoever left the baby did not close the door to the small room that houses the crib, which would have triggered the alarm to the priest, police said. The last time the Puglia baby box was used was in December 2023 when a baby girl later named Maria Grazia was left. There can be no judgment in these events, Ruccia said at the time. No one can imagine the pain behind realizing that you cannot take care of your little one. Baby boxes are found throughout Italy and were introduced in 2006 to help women anonymously leave babies they cannot care for in heated cribs at churches and hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The practice goes back to the 13th century when women left babies in a ruota or wheel embedded into the wall of a church-affiliated childrens home that would allow the mother to anonymously give her child to the church institution. The practice was used until the 1950s when the childrens homes were closed. The practice was replaced by Italian legislation that allows women to give birth anonymously not have her name on the birth certificate and leave their babies at hospitals without facing any legal ramifications. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Another New Year's Eve marked by scores of injuries and five deaths from fireworks explosions across Germany has renewed debate in the country about stricter rules on fireworks or a possible nationwide ban. Even though this year's New Year celebrations were deemed largely peaceful, at least five people were killed in fireworks-related accidents and police arrested hundreds across the country as the nation rung in 2025. In Berlin, where numerous people were injured by fireworks, some of them seriously, some local officials demanded tighter regulations and a crackdown on powerful illegal fireworks brought over the border from Poland or the Czech Republic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike in many other countries, in Germany anyone can purchase fireworks and set them off on New Year's Eve, except in designated banned areas. Age restrictions apply to some pyrotechnics deemed more dangerous. Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner on Thursday said new rules are needed, but nonetheless spoke out against an outright ban. "The vast majority of Berliners celebrated the New Year peacefully. Why should we deny them and their families a happy New Year's Eve with traditional fireworks?" Wegner told dpa. But Wegner, a member of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), said that Germany's federal government should tighten laws around things like flare guns and try to staunch the flow of illegal fireworks into the country from Poland and the Czech Republic through "stricter border controls." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Berlin's interior minister, on the other hand, spoke out in favour of a broad prohibition on fireworks across Germany that allows for only limited local exceptions. The minister, Iris Spranger, told dpa that she'd prefer a new legal framework that would allow the city to restrict fireworks to only a handful of designated "pyro permit zones." One hospital in the German capital - the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (UKB) - reported on Thursday that 42 people remained in treatment there due to fireworks injuries. "More patients are still coming to us from other hospitals," UKB spokeswoman Angela Kijewski told dpa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said that several patients including children had been seriously injured in the hands, face and eyes by powerful illegal fireworks known as "ball bombs." Others had suffered severe hearing damage, including permanent hearing loss, as a result of the explosions, she said. So-called "ball bombs," which are generally banned in Germany because of their potent explosive power, have nonetheless become increasingly popular with revellers who often bring them across the nearby borders. In the Berlin district of Schoneberg, for example, house facades and cars were severely damaged by the shockwaves from the detonations and many windows were broken. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A total of 36 apartments are uninhabitable for the time being, according to city officials. In the town of Kremmen, about 25 kilometres north-west of Berlin, a 21-year-old man was killed by the explosive blast from "ball bomb" fireworks in a field. A local police spokeswoman in Kremmen said the fireworks were powerful enough to require a special certificate to purchase, and that police seized the remnants of the explosives as part of an ongoing investigation into where the fireworks came from. In Berlin, the UKB hospital warned about the dangers of the fireworks in a post on X: "The illegal home-made or imported so-called 'ball bombs' are a horror!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wegner, the mayor, credited Berlin's police and fire brigade for their handling of the chaos over New Year's and said that steps taken in recent years are making progress, including the declaration of "no-fire zones" where fireworks are banned. Berlin police arrested about 400 people during the New Year's celebrations, roughly the same number as a year ago. Some of the suspects allegedly attacked police officers or other people with pyrotechnics, while others had illegal weapons or fireworks with them. Still others were arrested on suspicion of committing acts of violence or arson. "One thing is certain: we will continue to take action against violent criminals in our city with the full force of the rule of law," Wegner said. CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) 2024 was a grim and turbulent time for certain international air carriers. The December 28 crash of a Jeju air flight in South Korea marks the end of a bad year for global airlines. It started last January When a Japan Airlines passenger plane collided on landing with a Japanese Coast Guard turboprop waiting to take off at Tokyo International Airport. While these fatal accidents are currently under investigation, another high-profile incident may soon wrap up, well over a decade after examiners started investigating Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PHOTOS: See the first 2025 babies born at Novant, Atrium hospitals Its considered one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time. To refresh your memory, the Boeing Triple 7 airliner disappeared after it veered off course, traveling from the capital of Malaysia to Beijing. 227 passengers and 12 crew headed off into oblivion without a trace. Satellite data showed the plane deviated to head over the Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed. With no answers and a flurry of conspiracy theories, now, nearly 11 years later, Malaysian officials have green-lighted a private company to potentially unlock the secret of the missing jet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to AV web reports, Malaysia has announced it will resume the search for Malaysian Flight 370, which went missing on March 8, 2014. The country has agreed to a no find, no fee contract with Texas robotics company Ocean Infinity to use its underwater search equipment in an undisclosed area of the Indian Ocean. How does that work? The government will pay Ocean Infinity 70 million dollars if it finds significant wreckage of the lost plane, but it wont pay a cent if the search comes up empty. Have any parts of the plane been recovered? Yes, pieces have washed ashore on the coast of Africa and on some islands in the Indian Ocean, but the main wreck and bodies of the occupants have never been recovered. Previous searches have been unsuccessful in finding the crash site, but Ocean Infinitys CEO recently said he has better data and equipment for the new and improved upcoming search. Any theories regarding what happened? Everything from the plane having an alien UFO encounteror disappearing into a portalto hypoxia to pilot suicide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. A video of President Donald Trump is played during the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol hearing on Thursday, October 13, 2022. Bill Clark via Getty Images WASHINGTON Americans who believe in democracy will have to work even harder in the coming years, as the man who tried to overturn the 2020 election he lost returns the White House this month, advocates warned Thursday. Trump has already demonstrated that he will behave as an autocrat once hes in office, said Tom Joscelyn, a longtime counterterrorism adviser who served on the staff of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. He will abuse the power of the bully pulpit. He will abuse the powers of the presidency. He willl abuse the powers of the executive branch, Joscelyn added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joscelyn was among the Trump critics affiliated with two groups, State Democracy Defenders Action and the Defend Democracy Project, who spoke to reporters ahead of the fourth anniversary of the day that Trumps coup attempt culminated in a violent attack by a mob of his followers. Trump, who at the urging of his White House staff and lawyers denounced the attack the following day in a prepared speech, has over the years come to push a fictional account of Jan. 6 one in which the 2,000 or so people who stormed the Capitol, including hundreds who assaulted police officers, committed no crimes. Trump has said he will pardon them all, although he has sometimes hedged about pardoning those convicted of the most violence. Trump has even tapped Kash Patel, a former aide who has spread the unfounded conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the violence on Jan. 6, to run the bureau during Trumps second term. Those kinds of conspiracy theories have no place with nominees, said Norm Eisen, a former White House lawyer under former President Barack Obama who worked with the House on Trumps first impeachment in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps transition team did not respond to a HuffPost query. Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent and now a lecturer at Yale University, said the FBI is a particularly dangerous place for someone like Patel because it has far-reaching investigative powers with few outside checks. It doesnt take much for a president to declare somebody a group of people, an organization as a national security threat, she said. She pointed out that even its hiring standards are set internally, and Trump and Patel could eliminate existing requirements and replace them with whatever they wanted. Theoretically speaking, I think all of these Jan. 6 people could be pardoned and then handed a badge and a gun, she said. Trump himself was impeached by the House for inciting the attack a week later, though too few Republican senators joined Democrats of finding him guilty of inciting insurrection a finding that wouldve let the chamber ban him from federal office for life. Trump was later indicted by Justice Department prosecutors for his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6. They dismissed the case after Trump won the presidency in November, citing guidelines that prevent the prosecution of a sitting president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Georgia prosecution of Trump based on his efforts to overturn his election loss in that state is tied up in pre-trial appeals, but even if that case goes forward, Trump would be able to postpone proceedings until he is no longer president. Despite all this, Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who worked on the coup attempt impeachment, told reporters Thursday that he continues to have faith American democracy will endure. Democracy is a dynamic process, and we will survive this hit too. We will survive this outrageous sucker punch to the gut that we got, he said. The Constitution, in its brilliance, always has another election around the corner, and we are going to be fighting. Related... Gov. Laura Kelly looks back on the roster of bipartisan tax, education, child welfare, worker compensation and other policy accomplishments during 2024. The Democratic governor will outline her 2025 policy agenda in the State of the State speech to the Kansas Legislature on Jan. 15. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA Gov. Laura Kelly says bipartisan highlights of 2024 include strengthening authority of the states independent advocate for children, overhaul of Kansas worker compensation system and advancement of a blueprint for improving classroom instruction in reading. Kelly, a Democrat in the middle of her second term as governor, said collaboration with the Republican-led Legislature, led to progress during the year on tax relief, K-12 education funding, infrastructure investments, economic development. In 2024, Kelly signed 103 bills that earned bipartisan support in the Legislature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im sort of amazed how much weve been able to get done, Kelly said in an interview with Kansas Reflector. We made promises and weve actually been able to deliver on those promises. Kelly signed legislation in June mandating establishment in law of an independent agency dedicated to advocating for children involved with the state welfare system. The agency is charged with acting on complaints regarding health, safety and welfare of individuals under 18 years of age in custody of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, alleged to be a child in need of care or receiving services from Kansas Department of Corrections. The law, approved 117-3 in the House and 36-3 in the Senate, required the top administrator of the agency to be appointed by the governor subject to confirmation by the Kansas Senate. The child advocate office previously existed under a state executive order signed by Kelly. Rep. Susan Concannon, R-Beloit, said the law offered peace of mind that we will have a future of advocacy for Kansas kids who are in the child welfare system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, the governor said bipartisanship was critical to enactment of the Kansas Blueprint for Literacy. The bill adopted 34-3 in the Senate and 98-22 in the House created a mechanism for updating university teacher education programs to improve K-12 instruction in reading. Existing teachers and university students preparing to become educators will take part in the remodeled programs of instruction. This bill places Kansas at the forefront of nationwide efforts to reform reading instruction, Kelly said. Kelly emphasized approval of a compromise bill amending the states system for compensating workers injured on the job. The law negotiated by labor and business interests and unanimously passed in the House and Senate increased the cap on compensation benefits and added a cost-of-living adjustment beginning in 2027. Under this law, employees and employers involved in a dispute would have the option of settling cases without a formal hearing. They also would exchange medical records in a timely way and restrict use of independent medical examinations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Experienced, level-headed professionals on both sides of this issue were able and willing to work together, said Rep. Sean Tarwater, a Stilwell Republican. During 2024, Kelly and GOP lawmakers fought on specific provisions of tax reform, abortion and transgender rights, election law changes, Medicaid expansion and legalization of medical marijuana. The year was marked by a struggle over the Legislatures two-thirds Republican majority. Kelly wanted to see enough Democrats elected to the House and Senate to deny GOP leadership a supermajority. The opposite occurred: Republicans deepened their bench in both chambers, making the looming 2025 legislation session more difficult for Kelly. Meanwhile, Kelly said it took legislators from both sides of the political aisle to fully fund K-12 education for the sixth year in a row and appropriate $75 million for special education programs in 2024. The state budget dedicated $1.3 billion to the states higher education system. In June, after a special session of the Legislature, the governor signed a robust tax relief bill that responsibly cuts Kansans taxes while preserving the states long-term fiscal health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said it would result in state tax reductions of nearly $2 billion over a five-year period. It moved Kansas to a two-tier income tax, down from three levels of taxation. It eliminated the state income tax on Social Security income and nearly doubled the state tax exemption on residential property to $75,000. In terms of economic development, the Kelly administration reported the state attracted 266 economic development projects that equated to $3.4 billion in new business investment in 2024. The governors office said the initiatives created or sustained 5,100 jobs. Kelly said the Kansas Department of Transportation repaired 1,740 miles of roads and 136 bridges in the fiscal year ending in June. In an effort to narrow the digital divide, the state invested $16.8 million in broadening access to high-speed internet services. The state budget approved by the Legislature committed $35 million annually to water infrastructure, conservation and quality programs in Kansas. Kelly said the state added 1,200 licensed child care slots in 2024. In September, the governor said Kansas would cover the state licensing, background check and fingerprinting fees for child care providers seeking initial licensure or licensure renewal through 2025 or until funding was expended. I am proud of all my administration has accomplished throughout this year, Kelly said. By working with the Legislature, our state agencies, stakeholders and Kansans from across the state, we were able to reach new heights in 2024. I look forward to carrying this momentum into 2025. CHICAGO The migrant crisis in major Democratic-led cities has eased in the year since it was a full-blown emergency. But the problem hasnt gone away. More than a year ago, a surge of border crossings coupled with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott busing people to blue cities led to a massive influx of asylum seekers into Chicago, New York, Boston and elsewhere. They slept in police stations and hospitals. New York Citys mayor proposed housing migrants on a barge. Democratic leaders even publicly blamed President Joe Biden for not doing enough. As the incoming Trump administration vows to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally and even those with temporary protected status Democratic-led cities are still grappling with how to house asylum seekers but are also asking what to do if President-elect Donald Trump chooses to deport them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incoming border czar, Tom Homan, was in Chicago recently railing against local leaders who have vowed not to cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to deport migrants, increasing worries among immigration advocates and Democrats. What we're trying to figure out is how much of it will be bluster, and how much of it will be real, said Democratic Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia, whose congressional district includes Chicago. Officials in some of these cities have gained a measure of control over the crisis, in part by finding alternative housing for thousands of migrants. At the same time, the number of people crossing into the United States at the southern border plummeted. But the dilemma is far from solved. In Massachusetts, costs for the states emergency shelter program came in slightly lower than the nearly $1 billion officials predicted but those costs are still double what the state historically budgets for the still overwhelmed system. In New York, Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to shutter a shelter that can house up to 2,000 people on a former airfield in Brooklyn just one of about 25 facilities the city shut down or is in the process of closing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And Chicago shut down a landing zone where new arrivals received guidance on shelters, food and legal assistance while at the same time merging migrant and homeless shelters into one new system that some say cant accommodate both communities. We're dealing with a crisis that is about to get even worse once the shelters for migrants close, said Antonio Gutierrez, a community organizer with Organized Communities Against Deportations in Chicago. Even before Trump takes office, officials in some states are limiting housing options for asylum seekers. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey late last month announced new restrictions on the state's still overwhelmed emergency shelter system, tightening eligibility criteria for families seeking temporary shelter and announcing plans to lobby the Legislature to approve a new six-month limit on stays. Its the latest round of tweaks to the states shelter guidelines since Healey first capped the states emergency shelter system at 7,500 families last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, her administration has gradually constricted services to counter ballooning costs. Over the summer, she banned families from sleeping on the floor at Bostons Logan Airport and dispatched deputies to the southern border to dissuade new arrivals to the country from trying to make Massachusetts home. The belt-tightening seems to be having the desired effect: Bi-weekly reports from the states Office of Housing and Livable Communities show the cost for the system this fiscal year is expected to come in under initial projections. But advocates warn the pending six-month limit and new eligibility criteria wont give families in the shelter system which includes more than 3,000 families who entered as migrants, asylum seekers or refugees enough time to find stable housing given the states housing crunch. We're concerned that it's just not realistic to expect a majority of families to be able to secure alternative housing or permanent housing in that time frame, Kelly Turley, the associate director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, told POLITICO. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chicago, which just wrapped up a bruising budget session, has pulled back on rental assistance, too. In Chicago, some of the recently arrived migrants have received rental assistance through state and municipal programs that offer security deposits or a few months of paid rent. Some recipients have fallen behind, often because they havent been able to secure work because they dont have a work permit or because of language barriers, said Gutierrez. Compounding the problem, there are still new arrivals who are struggling to find housing just as the city consolidated migrant and homeless shelters into one new system. Those are just some of the realities of what were seeing day to day, he said. When Andrew Jackson won the 1828 presidential election, his victory also set into motion a political shift that would result in a party built to oppose a demagogue: the Whigs. In the wake of Donald Trumps return to power, todays Democrats would do well to study the Whigs rise, with both their successes and stumbles. The parallel is inexact, as historical analogues always are. Jacksons victory was more emphatic, with him winning 68 percent of the Electoral College vote compared to Trumps 58 percent and more than 55 percent of the popular vote compared to Trumps roughly 50 percent. The 1828 election was early in the history of our republic, when political parties were more in flux than they are now. But Trump likes to compare himself to Jackson, a fellow celebrity who led a revolt against the establishment of the time, and the comparison is more compelling now than it was when Trump won in 2016. This is due not only to the fact that Trump won the popular vote this time, but also to how he got there. Like Trump in 2020, Jackson reacted poorly to defeat. He thought himself rightfully elected in 1824 and denounced his exclusion from office as a corrupt bargain between his rivals (he received the highest vote share, but none of the four candidates received a majority of the Electoral College vote and the winner was decided by the House). His 1828 campaign was imbued with a desire to avenge that perceived wrongretribution, you might say. Two of his salient policies were similar to Trumps: a purge of the civil service (to the victor belongs the spoils) and mass deportations (of the Five Tribes). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In both cases, the vengeful demagogue kicked aside opponents whose appeal had become too limited to prevail nationally. Today it was the Democrats (who, ironically, trace their origin to Jackson). In 1828, it was a faction led by incumbent President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay that later became known as the National Republicans. Both election campaigns had been bitter and personal. The defeated parties feared, not without reason, that their victorious rivals would attempt to govern as autocrats. Yet politics continued, and the National Republicans had to figure out how to mount an opposition capable of reclaiming a majority from the surging populists after their 1828 defeat. They flunked their first attempt when Clay ran against Jackson in 1832. The National Republicans largely stuck to the policy mix and rhetoric they were habituated to in the hope that Jacksons 1828 success had been an aberration, and the result was that Clay lost by an even larger margin than Adams had. Jacksons opponents tried a different approach after 1832: expanding their electoral coalition by loosening their ideological bounds. The National Republicans desire for an expansive federal government role had largely confined their appeal to New England and the smaller mid-Atlantic states. To compete in the South and Midwest, as well as in Pennsylvania and New York, they had to make room in their party for states rights proponents and Anti-Masonic populists without alienating too much of their existing base of northeastern merchants and professionals. The Whig Party, organized in 1834 by cobbling together various factions, was therefore an odd bunch. Some of its members, such as Clay, had been lifelong Democratic-Republicans, the party founded by Thomas Jefferson that Jacksons rise had split. Some, like Adams and Massachusetts Sen. Daniel Webster, had ties to the defunct Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton. Others, like New York Rep. Millard Fillmore, were Anti-Masons who disliked that Jackson was a Freemason, but could overlook the fact that Clay was one too. Others still, such as North Carolina Sen. Willie Mangum, were Jacksonian defectors who responded to the Whig founders outreach to Southerners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These factions generally supported infrastructure projects, pro-banking policies and government intervention to support economic recovery in downturns. But they differed widely on slavery and to a greater or lesser degree on a host of other issues: tariffs, temperance, the re-chartering of the Bank of the United States, and the respective roles of the federal and state governments, to name but a few. When they agreed on things, they often did so for different reasons, and it took time for them to cohere, as Michael F. Holt traced step by step in his 1999 book The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party. What the Whigs had from the beginning, however, was a unifying purpose: opposing the populism of Jackson and the drift toward autocracy they believed it exhibited. Their unusual name came from the British (who have a penchant for unusual names). The British Whigs generally aimed to limit the powers of the monarch, and they led the opposition to King George III during the American Revolution. The American Whigs meant to oppose the man they styled King Andrew and his movement, and to keep them within the bounds of the Constitution. Differences in opinion on other matters could be tolerated. The politics of addition is necessarily an uncomfortable and somewhat incoherent business. Gradually, this expansion strategy paid off. The Whigs gained seats in Congress in 1836, 1838, and 1840. They failed to defeat Jacksons anointed successor, Martin Van Buren, in the 1836 presidential election, possibly because they employed the unconventional strategy of fielding several candidates. But they won in a near landslide in 1840 after Van Buren was left holding the bag during the financial panics of 1837 and 1839, crises that were likely exacerbated by Jacksons populist dismantling of the aforementioned national bank. The Whigs were well-positioned to exploit the Jacksonians stumbles because they both offered a contrast and had a political base large enough to mount an effective challenge when the opportunity arose. Whig candidates could stoop to populist gestures, such as William Henry Harrisons log cabin and hard cider campaign theme, but the business-friendly Whigs were not a populist party. They tended to appeal more to the better-off, but they crossed geographic and ideological lines: Their base encompassed East Coast industrialists and Midwestern shopkeepers, Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders. The Jacksonians attempted to attack the Whigs as out-of-touch aristocrats, as they had done successfully against the National Republicans, but the potency of that accusation faded as the Whig coalition broadened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democrats today canand shouldlearn from the mistakes of the National Republicans and the early successes of the Whigs. Thats not to say they should want to be the Whigs, who proved to be a fractious and short-lived party that was plagued by bad luck (both of its elected presidents died not long after assuming office) and made several missteps once in power. Nor is it to say with certainty that the Democrats are doomed unless they make major changes to their political disposition. But there are warning signs from the election, in which once-solid parts of the Democratic coalition shifted toward Trump. Democrats should take seriously the possibility that their 2024 defeat could be a prelude to a harsher beating in 2028 if they do not expand their tent in the way the Whig founders did. The good news is that the victory margins for Trump and congressional Republicans were relatively small, and Trump is ineligible to run again. The Democrats should be able to reclaim the majority much more quickly than Jacksons opponents if they take even a few steps toward broadening their coalition. Of the many steps they could take, dropping woke rhetoric about race and gender is probably the necessary first one. Allowing some internal dissension on abortion could counter Trumps expansion of the Republican tent on that issue and bring more religious voters into the Democratic coalition. An economic pragmatism that promotes ethical competition and eschews fixation on price gouging could woo small and medium business owners and position Democrats for a scenario in which Tariff Man trashes his and the Republicans reputation for economic competence. Those are far from the only options. Party leaders and Democratic voters will have to sort out which new ideas and allies are palatable to them. Perhaps they decide they can play ball with neoconservatives, but libertarians are a bridge too far. So be it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What is necessary is that Democrats offer their would-be fellow partisans more than a place for you in our campaign and stump appearances with conservatives like Liz Cheney. They would need to make concessions in their platform and allow Democratic candidates in different states and counties to hold positions that many in the party now might feel uncomfortable with, and do so without simultaneously condemning them for their positions. The politics of addition is necessarily an uncomfortable and somewhat incoherent business. What could a Whiggish Democratic Party unite around? Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphys recent suggestion of power de-concentration could be a rallying cry if focused not just economically, as he intended, but politically with the aim of restraining the executive branch. Democrats could run in the 2026 midterms on a platform of reclaiming for Congress some of the many powers it has delegated to the president over decades. Such a pitch may have broad appeal if Trump spends his first two years back in office indulging his worst impulses. A big-tent Democratic Party might also rediscover the virtues of federalism and push for decentralization of some decision-making to the states and to local governments within states. These stances could be political winners; they would also be good for the long-term preservation of the republic. In that way, they would hearken back to the best ideals of the American and British Whigs. When faced with an overreaching monarch or a demagogue who gives every indication of wanting to rule in monarchical style, it is healthy to have an anti-monarchical party. For all its faults, the Whig Party blunted the Jacksonian revolution. It also provided a political home for a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. There are far worse examples to emulate. Read more at The Dispatch The Dispatch is a new digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary, informed by conservative principles. Sign up for free. All Democrats are expected to be in the Capitol on Friday for the vote to seat the next Speaker of the House, according to the Democratic whips office. The full participation of Democrats is significant, given the razor-thin margins in the lower chamber and the threat from some conservative Republicans to oppose the bid by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the current Speaker, to keep his gavel in the 119th Congress. Already, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is vowing to vote for someone other than Johnson on the floor on Friday, which means one more GOP defection would deny Johnson the simple majority of voting members needed to secure the Speakership if all Democrats are on the floor and voting for their Speaker preference: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If even one Democrat is absent, Johnson can afford two GOP defections and still win the gavel. If three Democrats do not participate, he could afford three. Those dynamics have made the question of Democratic attendance a topic of great interest in Washington a question fueled by health problems facing a small handful of Democratic lawmakers. That list includes Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who has spent much of the past year undergoing treatment for lung cancer, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who recently had hip replacement surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Germany after suffering a fall in Luxembourg last month. On Thursday morning, Pelosi posted a short message on the social platform X from an airplane, which she said is en route to Washington. And the office of Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip, said party leaders are expecting all members of the caucus to be on hand for Fridays vote. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Supporters of suspended South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol blocked access to his office on Thursday in an attempt to prevent his arrest, the Yonhap news agency reported. It said police had violently broken up a blockade by around 30 supporters who had broken through a barrier near the president's residence in the South Korean capital Seoul. Footage of the demonstrators could also be seen on South Korean television. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yoon had issued a message of solidarity to his supporters on New Year's Day, saying: "Due to internal and external forces infringing on its sovereignty and the activities by anti-state groups, South Korea is now in danger." "With you, I will fight to the end to protect this country," he added. He is being investigated after unexpectedly imposing martial law on December 3 following a budget dispute with the opposition. A South Korean Court issued an arrest warrant for Yoon on Tuesday after he ignored three summonses from the Corruption Investigation Office to appear for questioning, prompting the office to apply for his arrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The prosecution's charges include insurrection and abuse of power. Yoon's defence lawyers have applied for a temporary injunction against the order, describing it as "illegal," Yonhap reported. The arrest warrant is to expire on Monday. Once Yoon has been taken into custody, investigators have 48 hours to decide whether to apply for an additional warrant to detain him for longer or release him, Yonhap reported. South Korea is now in the throes of an acute political crisis. Following his botched attempt to institute martial law, the National Assembly voted to impeach Yoon, and the Constitutional Court has launched the relevant proceedings to make a final decision on whether the assembly's vote is constitutional. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yoon's successor as acting president, Han Duck Soo, was subsequently removed from office, after opposition lawmakers criticized him for failing to fill vacant seats on the Constitutional Court in what they saw as an effort to complicate the impeachment proceedings. Former finance minister and deputy prime minister Choi Sang Mok has been acting president since Friday. Yoon is the first sitting South Korean president to face an arrest, according to Yonhap. DENVER (KDVR) After a chilly start to the new year, milder conditions move into Denvers weather forecast for the end of the week. Weather tonight: Mainly cloudy Wednesday night will stay mainly cloudy and cool. Low temperatures will fall down to the lower 20s, which is close to normal for this time of year. FOX31 Weather: View the latest Denver forecasts, maps and radar In the mountains, snow showers will pick up overnight and into the day on Thursday. Weather tomorrow: Clearing, seasonal There is a slight chance for morning flurries in Denver, followed by clearing clouds and afternoon sunshine. Temperatures will be seasonal and only climb to the mid-40s. In the mountains, snow showers will continue through the afternoon, before tapering off Thursday evening. Because of this, there are winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings in effect until 5 p.m. Thursday for difficult travel due to falling and accumulating snow, as well as blowing snow, which can limit visibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up for weather alerts from the Pinpoint Weather team Looking ahead: Mild end to the week, more snow chances Friday will be mostly sunny and mild with high temperatures in the 50s. By Saturday, temperatures will drop to more seasonal levels in the mid-40s as clouds increase ahead of the chance for some snow showers late Friday into Sunday morning. The chance for snow showers will decrease through the day, but it will be chilly for the Broncos game with temperatures staying in the 30s. Chilly weather continues into the start of next week with a slight chance for snow showers Monday into Tuesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. Editors note: This story has been updated to correct the location when the victim was shot. We regret the error. LONDON, Ky. (FOX 56) In Laurel County, the investigation continues into an officer-involved shooting that killed 63-year-old Douglas Harless. The incident happened two days before Christmas while London police officers tried to serve a search warrant. Now, tension is rising within the community as many are left to wonder if the police followed regulations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont understand why theyre serving a warrant at 12:00 at night with ARs in hand over whats supposed to be a weed eater in the first place, said Tina Asher, a neighbor who caught the shooting on camera. RELATED: Since Dec. 23, people have been asking: Did London police overreact when they opened fire on Harless, and were they even at the right house? Harless reportedly pointed a gun at police before an officer shot him, according to a Dec. 26 news release from the London Police Department. Now people are wondering about the timing of the incident and if London police even had jurisdiction. Thor Eells with the National Tactical Officers Association said there could be multiple explanations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are literally over 21,000 different ways of doing policing in America, said Eells. Read more of the latest Kentucky news Kentucky State Police (KSP) said the shooting happened at 511 Vanzant Rd., which is in the unincorporated community of Lily. However, Eells said London police may still have had jurisdiction to serve a warrant there. Eells explained that officers can have jurisdiction in other areas for several reasons, including when sheriffs departments deputize city officers. So, one city officer can leave their city, go to a different city in the same county, and still have the same full authorities as they would otherwise, Eells said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other reasons include fresh pursuits and intergovernmental agreements between two cities. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: The community is also questioning why the warrant was served so late in the night. According to KSP, investigators were called to the scene at 11:53 p.m. A lot of times, nighttime tends to be a better or more desirable time for the warrant service because people are not necessarily awake; theyre not up, said Eells. They maybe cant arm themselves as quickly. Eells said the timing of warrants often depends on their purpose and the urgency of preserving evidence. Regardless, he said his organization encourages agencies to prioritize safety. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were not only worried about people being present in the structure that were going to but also people that might be present outside or in the immediate vicinity, Eells said. RELATED | London police dispatch audio indicates officers allegedly served warrant at wrong address: KSP investigating While this shooting happened at 511 Vanzant Rd., dispatch audio indicates police were supposed to be at 489 Vanzant Rd. Eells said its possible London police went to the wrong house. He added that the NTOA advises agencies to survey the area in advance before serving warrants. Have you actually put eyes on it? Has someone driven by? Have you seen photographs of it? Have you, you know, used Google Maps? Eells noted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOX 56 News is working to obtain a copy of the search warrant to check the address and determine what police were looking for, but we have not yet heard back from London police. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. FARMERSBURG, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation has announced the appointment of a new director. According to a news release, Brian Baker has been named the new Director of the foundation. Baker brings more than 15 years of experience to the role. During the last two years, Baker served as Development Director for the Buffalo Trace Council, Scouting America, where Baker headed up development work including several charitable campaigns. The Buffalo Trace Council works in 15 different counties in southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois including Knox County, Indiana. Before that Baker served for 22 years at Oakland City University in several leadership positions such as Vice President for University Advancement, and Executive Director/Secretary of the Oakland City University Foundation. During his time in these positions, Baker oversaw three capital campaigns and the performance of more than 120 endowed scholarships. Bakers experience includes a Certificate of Fundraising Management from the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, a bachelors degree in accounting, and a masters degree in management. Baker also has his Indiana Real Estate Brokers License (Referral Status) which has been used to assist with property gifts and retained life estates. He has also held positions as Treasurer of the Evansville Area Fundraising Council, a member of the City of Princeton Redevelopment Authority, and President of the Gibson County Visitors and Tourism Bureau. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Good Samaritan 2025 Budget holds good news Regarding his new role at Good Samaritan, Baker stated, I am honored to continue building upon the legacy of the Good Samaritan Foundation. Our goal is strategic growth of the Foundation, ultimately benefiting the patients and constituencies of Good Samaritan Hospital. My family has a strong tradition in the medical field. My mother was a registered nurse, and my grandfather was a pharmacist. Moreover, my wife is a proud breast cancer survivor. I look forward to bringing a fresh vision and perspective on philanthropy to the Good Samaritan Foundation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com. Stonehenge may have had a second purpose beyond its well-documented astronomical uses. A new study claims that the monument may have been built in part to unify neighboring people groups in and near the area of its construction. This idea comes primarily from the fact that many of the stones used in the construction of Stonehenge hail from various locales around the United Kingdom. Monuments are built for many reasonsboth good and bad. Sometimes, they mark a triumph. Others mark heroic defeats. A few mark horrific acts of violence. But nearly all monuments strive to do one thing: unite a people in some kind of solidarity (no matter how misguided that solidarity may be). Now, a new study from experts at University College London (UCL) and Aberystwyth University suggests that Stonehenge mightve served a similar unifying purpose beyond its well-documented astronomical uses. This breakthrough comes from the discovery reported earlier this year that the six-tonne Alter Stonethe recumbent central megalith at Stonehengeactually originated from Scotland and not Wales, as previously believed. With many of the other stones, including the bluestones and the sarsen stones, also hailing from non-local sourcesall transported without the use of wheels (which had yet to arrive to the British islands around 2500 B.C.)this discovery supports a growing theory that Stonehenge may have been a monument built (or at least remodeled) to unify neolithic Britons. This research was published in the journal Archaeology International on December 20 (fittingly, one day before the Winter Solstice). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fact that all of its stones originated from distant regions, making it unique among over 900 stone circles in Britain, suggests that the stone circle may have had a political as well as a religious purposeas a monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos, Mike Parker Pearson from UCL said in a press statement . On the Winter Solstice, the Sun dips directly below the Alter Stone, between two upright stones (though one has fallen). Ancient Britons traveled to the nearby village of Durrington Walls to participate in these winter events, and some still do today. Weve known for a while that people came from many different parts of Britain with their pigs and cattle to feast at Durrington Walls, and nearly half the people buried at Stonehenge had lived somewhere other than Salisbury Plain, Parker Pearson said. Stonehenge is no stranger to wild theories about its intended purpose. The researchers note that it has been considered a religious temple, an ancient observatory, a solar calendar, and yeseven an alien landing pad. This new political dimension comes with some pretty strong evidence. The 43 bluestones found at the site are believed to have originated from the Preseli Hills in Wales some 140 miles west, the sarsen stones came from a location 15 miles to the northeast, and the Alter Stone originated from Scotland. These disparate locations support the idea that Stonehenge served as possible unification effort of all Britons on the isle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The theory makes sense in a historical context, as well. The Altar Stone likely arrived at the Stonehenge site sometime around 2500 B.C., around when the monument was altered from its original design. This is also the time when Britons were coming into more frequent contact with Europeansparticularly from what is now the Netherlands and Germany. According to the researchers, its possible that this Stonehenge remodel arose from a reaction to these new migrants to the British Isles. The similarities in architecture and material culture between the Stonehenge area and northern Scotland now make more sense, Parker Pearson said. Its helped to solve the puzzle of why these distant places had more in common than we might have once thought. You Might Also Like The NYPDs Internal Affairs Bureau and federal investigators raided the Queens home of disgraced former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey Thursday as a criminal investigation into accusations he swapped sex for overtime was launched, officials said. Search warrants were also executed in other locations as the NYPD officially suspended Maddrey, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement. Maddrey, 53, abruptly resigned and put in his retirement papers on Dec. 20 after bombshell allegations were made by NYPD Lt. Quathisha Epps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She claimed Maddrey, the highest ranking uniformed member of the department, had sexually harassed her and forced her to perform unwanted sexual favors in return for overtime pay. On Thursday morning, federal investigators linked to the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York were seen removing cartons of papers, cardboard boxes and other items from Maddreys home. A large Christmas wreath hung on the front door of his home on 147th Road in Rosedale. At my direction, the Internal Affairs Bureau of the New York City Police Department is working with law enforcement authorities to investigate allegations against former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, Tisch wrote. Maddrey was suspended from the department this morning as law enforcement agents executed search warrants at several locations, including his residence. Any NYPD officer who retires technically stays on the books for 30 days and can be suspended if it has been determined hes violated department rules or committed a criminal act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If fired before he officially retires, Maddrey would still get his pension but wouldnt get an NYPD retiree ID card or a good guy letter, which would indicate to a future employer that he left the department in good standing, police sources said. City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak would not say whether Mayor Adams was given a heads up about the Maddrey raid. Mamelak did say the mayor, who has known Maddrey for decades and elevated him to chief of department, is working with Tisch as the investigation into the former top police official continues. As Mayor Adams has said, the allegations against former Chief Maddrey are deeply disturbing, Mamelak said. The mayor is working in close coordination with Police Commissioner Tisch as the NYPD conducts its investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Daily News report published in November named Epps as the highest-paid member of the NYPD, raking in $406,515 well above the $285,313 former Commissioner Edward Caban made in fiscal year 2024. In her complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Epps alleged Maddrey repeatedly demanded sex in exchange for her getting overtime hours and that when the lieutenant began to reject Maddreys advances he retaliated by adding her name to a much-scrutinized internal list of the departments top overtime earners. Upon Maddreys departure, Tisch began a top to bottom review of the department, particularly when it comes to how overtime is filed and approved, Mayor Adams said Tuesday. Tisch also replaced a large section of the NYPDs Internal Affairs Bureau, including the head of the department, which would have been responsible for investigating any claims against Maddrey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the shakeups continue, Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno, the commanding officer of the chief of departments office and considered Maddreys second in command, was placed on modified assignment Tuesday afternoon. On New Years Eve, John Chell was sworn in as the NYPDs new Chief of Department. An email to Maddreys civilian attorney, Lambros Lambrou, for comment was not immediately returned. Attorney Peter Brill, who is representing Maddrey in the criminal investigation, said his client maintains his innocence as he always has since the Epps accusations were made. We look forward to answering any questions that they may have, Brill said about the federal investigators now looking into the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At this time we have no comment, Epps attorney Eric Sanders said when reached Thursday morning. Sanders wouldnt say if the feds have interviewed Epps regarding her claims against Maddrey. A spokesman for the Southern District would not comment about the raids or the criminal investigation. With Molly Crane-Newman NEW YORK The NYPDs Internal Affairs Bureau and federal investigators raided the Queens home of disgraced former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey Thursday as a criminal investigation into accusations he swapped sex for overtime was launched, officials said. Search warrants were also executed in other locations as the NYPD officially suspended Maddrey, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement. Maddrey, 53, abruptly resigned and put in his retirement papers on Dec. 20 after bombshell allegations were made by NYPD Lt. Quathisha Epps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She claimed Maddrey, the highest ranking uniformed member of the department, had sexually harassed her and forced her to perform unwanted sexual favors in return for overtime pay. On Thursday morning, federal investigators linked to the U.S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of New York were seen removing cartons of papers, cardboard boxes and other items from Maddreys home. A large Christmas wreath hung on the front door of his home on 147th Road in Rosedale. At my direction, the Internal Affairs Bureau of the New York City Police Department is working with law enforcement authorities to investigate allegations against former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, Tisch wrote. Maddrey was suspended from the department this morning as law enforcement agents executed search warrants at several locations, including his residence. Any NYPD officer who retires technically stays on the books for 30 days and can be suspended if its been determined hes violated department rules or committed a criminal act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If fired before he officially retires, Maddrey would still get his pension but wouldnt get an NYPD retiree ID card or a good guy letter which would indicate to a future employer that he left the department in good standing, police sources said. City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak would not say whether Mayor Eric Adams was given a heads up about the Maddrey raid. Mamelak did say the mayor, who has known Maddrey for decades and elevated him to chief of department, is working with Tisch as the investigation into the former top police official continues. As Mayor Adams has said, the allegations against former Chief Maddrey are deeply disturbing, Mamelak said. The mayor is working in close coordination with Police Commissioner Tisch as the NYPD conducts its investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Daily News report published in November named Epps as the highest-paid member of the NYPD, raking in $406,515 well above the $285,313 former Commissioner Edward Caban made in fiscal year 2024. In her complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Epps alleged Maddrey repeatedly demanded sex in exchange for her getting overtime hours and that when the lieutenant began to reject Maddreys advances he retaliated by adding her name to a much-scrutinized internal list of the departments top overtime earners. Upon Maddreys departure, Tisch began a top to bottom review of the department, particularly when it comes to how overtime is filed and approved, Mayor Adams said Tuesday. Tisch also replaced a large section of the NYPDs Internal Affairs Bureau, including the head of the department, which would have been responsible for investigating any claims against Maddrey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the shake ups continue, Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno, the commanding officer of the Chief of Departments office and considered Maddreys second in command, was placed on modified assignment Tuesday afternoon. On New Years Eve, John Chell was sworn in as the NYPDs new Chief of Department. An email to Maddreys civilian attorney, Lambros Lambrou, for comment was not immediately returned. Attorney Peter Brill, who is representing Maddrey in the criminal investigation, said his client maintains his innocence as he always has since the Epps accusations were made. We look forward to answering any questions that they may have, Brill said about the federal investigators now looking into the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At this time we have no comment, Epps attorney Eric Sanders said when reached Thursday morning. Sanders wouldnt say if the feds have interviewed Epps regarding her claims against Maddrey. A spokesman for the Southern District would not comment about the raids or the criminal investigation. With Chris Sommerfeldt and Molly Crane-Newman We asked professors and deans at business schools all over the world to peer into the future and give their predictions for the coming year about the changes coming to business education, yes, but also about shift and disruptions taking place across communities, societies, and the world. One schools faculty really leaned into the challenge: Cambridge Judge Business School. No fewer than half a dozen profs weighed in on their hopes and expectations for 2025, and we share those with you here. Alan Jagolinzer, Professor of Financial Accounting and organizer of the 2nd Cambridge Disinformation Summit to be held 23-25 April 2025 Cambridges Alan Jagolinzer: Bschools have an obligation to support placements in political (not just business) arenas, so our alumni can compete with and counteract the disinformation that plagues our society Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I expect 2025, given political uncertainty in many countries and the delegation of government decision rights to unelected tech and media leaders, to be a year of profound information-polluting chaos as parties maneuver for control over global centers of gravity: data, media, financial, military, policing, and enforcement infrastructures. I think the most resilient and impactful business schools will be those that can help students see through the noise, retain global perspective, and develop new and fluid infrastructure that supplants that which has been corrupted or neutralized by short-sighted and self-serving political actors. I think business and investment will face significant systemic shocks throughout the year, led prominently by forced human migration and organized civil disobedience. There are always opportunities in chaos, so business schools can lead curriculum in this era by leveraging their expertise in health, climate, information, affordability, and geopolitical global risks. Leading business schools also have an obligation to support placements in political (not just business) arenas, so our alumni can compete with and counteract the disinformation that plagues our society. Lucia Reisch, El-Erian Professor of Behavioural Economics & Policy Cambridges Lucia Reisch: As individuals in our many roles as educators, researchers, employees, managers, parents and citizens we should be supporting everything that helps develop trust in good policies Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As we enter 2025, I keep reminding myself of the privilege of living in this peaceful and wealthy part of the world. On average, Europe has decent (or at least, not shameless) political leaders, and while the economy is on a downward trend, we complain on a very high level. Most people in Europe enjoy a comparatively high level of living standard and safety. Where people feel safe for their future, where social inequalities are not extreme and where governments are not corrupt and self-serving, people do trust the important public institutions the base for policy instruments to be effective and societies to resist social polarization. The OECD Drivers of Trust Indicators 2024 report shows that on average worldwide, as little as 39% of people trust their national government. This is alarming. A recent European Commission report shows a similar decline of peoples trust in science. Did misinformation and disinformation win, also over here? I am worried about the announced slashing of U.S. higher education institutions and even more so about an announced attempt to silence climate scientists and other inconvenient voices in the U.S., a former fortress of excellent independent and highly influential science. I am also concerned as we enter this new year about headwinds that hinder progress in sustainability. So 2025 is a good year to roll up our sleeves and work even harder against these headwinds. As individuals in our many roles as educators, researchers, employees, managers, parents and citizens we should be supporting everything that helps develop trust in good policies. Small things count! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Behavioral approaches to behavior change might be a timely help. While they will probably not induce dramatic changes in a short time, incremental yet sustainable changes that can lead to new habits and better structures. Also, nudges and beneficial choice architecture are less salient than new taxes or bans. Hence, they get less targeted by those who want to delay or prevent regulation or financial measures. The year 2025 might be the year of working outside the limelight, harnessing the power of small, less controversial, yet effective and acceptable behavioral tools. Monique Boddington, Management Practice Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Studies in Entrepreneurship Programme Cambridges Monique Boddington: The grand challenges we face today cannot be met by one great innovative idea from the top but will need many solutions and approaches It feels that every year, as we look ahead to the new year, the challenges are greater than ever, and the potential of new technologies is scaling to new heights. Entrepreneurship provides the mechanism to unite these two: the problem and the solution. And, my prediction for the coming year, as we face great uncertainty, is that entrepreneurial endeavours will take centre stage as they are placed to move fast in changing environments. More of the younger generation will be drawn to engage in entrepreneurial activities as more traditional career routes become less desirable and less available. The hype around AI will continue, with companies rising (and many falling as quickly) under the guise of AI Solutions across markets and use cases. We are going to still be talking about blockchain and cryptocurrency, whilst still trying to work out use cases for the technology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of late, though, we have increasingly observed a dark side to entrepreneurship profits over people, valuation over social and environmental impact. And in the coming years, as entrepreneurship becomes an increasing driving force for environmental and social change, entrepreneurs and their activities will have increasing sway. Therefore, alongside the new technology startups, we need more diverse entrepreneurs focusing not just on economic impact but also on social and environmental issues. These are people well-positioned to build start-ups that empower underrepresented groups, work with the community, and innovate at the bottom of the pyramid. The grand challenges we face today cannot be met by one great innovative idea from the top but will need many solutions and approaches, particularly in overlooked and often misunderstood contexts. Therefore, my final prediction is that while we will see new waves of technology startups breaking fundraising records and valuations, we will also see small initiatives across the globe innovating to make real change and provide solutions to social and environmental challenges. Thomas Roulet, Professor of Professor of Organisational Sociology and Leadership The diffusion of Generative AI in the workplace, and of new technologies in general, paradoxically reveal the importance of human resources and people in building a competitive advantage. Those technologies are widely accessible, cheap, and level the playing fields. But with such a fast pace of change, people can make a difference if they are able to reskill, retrain, and shift jobs and tasks with agility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The competition for top talent will continue to intensify and there will be even more variance in how people relate to work while some people will become increasingly disengaged from work due to the erosion of corporate culture and office friendships, others will thrive in environments that are able to re-enchant work. Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cambridges Jaideep Prabhu: By embracing emerging market insights, we can foster more resilient, adaptable, and globally minded leaders As we enter 2025, the importance of emerging markets in global business education cannot be overstated. These markets now account for the majority of global economic activity, growth, and population, yet business school curricula and research remain disproportionately focused on Western economies. My resolution for the coming year is to be at the forefront of a paradigm shift in management education, placing greater emphasis on emerging market phenomena and challenges. In 2025, I envision a transformation in how we approach business education, research, and practice. We must integrate concepts like frugal innovation, jugaad, and its counterparts gambiarra, jeitinho, and jua kali into mainstream business school teaching and research. These ingenious approaches to problem-solving and resource optimization, born out of necessity in emerging economies, offer valuable lessons for global business leaders facing increasingly complex challenges. Furthermore, I commit to expanding our focus on informal businesses, family enterprises, and business groups organizational forms that dominate emerging markets yet receive limited attention in traditional business education. By understanding these structures, we can better prepare our students for the realities of global business landscapes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This shift is not just about diversifying our curriculum; its about equipping our students with the tools and perspectives needed to navigate an increasingly multipolar world. By embracing emerging market insights, we can foster more resilient, adaptable, and globally minded leaders. David Reiner, Professor of Technology Policy The energy system will face its latest stress test in 2025. By most measures, energy supply and demand will be robust shale oil and gas from the U.S., abundant liquefied natural gas and ever-cheaper renewables (and energy storage) will ensure healthy supply; and demand though growing, especially in the Global South, is becoming more flexible. Trade is, however, becoming more fraught and energy and climate lie at the heart of widening disputes. The EUs carbon border adjustment mechanism, due to take effect in 2026, concerns over Chinas dominance in clean energy manufacturing, growing protectionism and the incoming Trump administrations infatuation with tariffs portend potential trade wars, which will harm not just global economic growth but long-term efforts to decarbonize our economies. DONT MISS CAMBRIDGE GETS ITS MAN: JUDGE SCHOOL GOES INSIDE FOR NEW DEAN The post Disinformation, Economic Peril, Systemic Shocks: 6 Cambridge Judge Profs On What 2025 Has In Store appeared first on Poets&Quants. A DJ survived being pushed in the path of a New York subway train by a matter of inches, according to reports. Joseph Lynskey, 45, originally from Miami, has now been able to talk to his family from his hospital bed about his miraculous survival on New Years Eve. He was shoved in front of a moving train at 18th Street subway station, but is understood to have survived because he fell next to rather than under it, meaning he was not struck head-on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He suffered a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a fractured skull. X/@AngryCitizenxx Our main priority right now our sole priority right now is supporting our brother Joe, his sister Eileen Parsons told the New York Times, adding: We are so grateful that he is alive. Hes good, Christopher Lynskey, Mr Lynskeys brother, told the Daily News as he arrived at Bellevue Hospital. Hes busted up a little bit but hes going to make a full recovery. A terrifying video of the attack shows Mr Lynskey standing on the subway platform on New Years Eve when a man wearing a dark coat runs past and pushes him in front of the moving train. Firefighters and paramedics worked to treat Joseph Lynskey at the scene and move him from the tracks before taking him to hospital - X/Violet Paley On Tuesday, Kamel Hawkins, 23, was charged with attempted second degree murder and four counts of assault. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect was arraigned on Wednesday morning and will be held in custody until his next court appearance on Jan 6. Mr Hawkins reportedly has a criminal record, including a 2019 assault charge for attacking a police officer, and an assault and weapons possession charge from October last year. He is facing harassment and assault charges in Brooklyn, where he is accused of throwing bleach on a woman and trying to kick down her door. Kamel Hawkins, 23, seen being led away by police at the subway station, has been charged with attempted murder - X Shamel Hawkins, Mr Hawkinss father, said his son began acting weird recently. Lately hes been going through something, some mental issues, he told the New York Post. We think somebody put something in his weed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The last person known to survive being pushed in front of a moving subway train was a 42-year-old woman who was attacked at Times Square station in 2021. On Thursday, Michael Blount, 29, was indicted on a charge of attempting to murder his ex-girlfriend on Nov 5 at a subway station in Harlem. It is alleged he brutally cut the woman with a razor blade and pushed her on to the subway tracks in front of her teenage daughters. One of the womans daughters managed to pull her off the tracks to safety. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) New Years Day saw many passengers fly back to Reagan National Airport from New Orleans just hours after a deadly attack on Bourbon Street. Its just nuts. Im glad we didnt go out last night, said Emily Olmsted of Anacostia. She rang in the new year with family indoors while in New Orleans. Olmsted woke up to the news about the deadly attack. A bunch of people are texting, asking if we are okay, parents, friends because they all knew we were in New Orleans, Olsted said. And so they wanted to make sure we were okay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DC police to increase security after car rams into New Orleans crowd, killing 10 Many talked about the tragedy with other passengers. Really sad, man. Its quite a shock, said Charlie Powers of Waldorf, Md. He and his stepson returned after they spent holidays along the Gulf Coast, including some time in New Orleans but not on Bourbon Street, where the attack happened during the overnight hours. Things are going to keep happening until we, you know, get control of whats going on, man. Things are out of control, Powers said. The wait for bags can be a bit stressful. But passengers are glad to be out of New Orleans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im happy to be home, excited to get back into everyday life, said Olmsted. Passengers look forward to returning to New Orleans to visit. However, they said they will be a bit more cautious. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) A suspect accused of shooting and killing a man at a homeless encampment in Abilene says he was acting in self-defense. Court documents state Jaylen Shafer claims he shot David Anthony Vasquez in a culvert area outside a convenience store on the 4800 block of S 14th Street the early morning hours of October 28 because Vasquez was behaving aggressively. The documents reveal Shafer says Vasquez had come to a homeless encampment in that area looking for drugs then allegedly began talking about being a gang member and telling Shafer that he had a knife and that he was going to kill him and break his knees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Homeless man charged for overnight murder in Abilene Shafer says he pulled out one gun and fired twice when Vasquez came at him in a threatening manner, according to the documents, which state Shafer also reported he shot with a second gun because Vasquez was still being aggressive. The first gun was recovered behind the gas station where Shafer was arrested, and the second gun was recovered from a friends house, and the documents state this friend told police that Shafer says he shot a man because the man wanted his campsite and was being aggressive and would not back up. Shafer remains held in the Taylor County Jail on a $250,000 bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. A dog found a severed human finger in the south-western German city of Stuttgart that had been blown off the hand of a 33-year-old man by a firecracker on New Year's Eve, police said on Thursday. The dog discovered the severed finger on New Year's Day, and the dog's owner reported the grisly discovery to police, a Stuttgart police spokeswoman told dpa on Thursday. Officers took the finger to the hospital, although it wasn't immediately clear if doctors were still able to reattach the missing digit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Year's celebrations in Germany were marred by scores of injuries and at least five deaths from fireworks explosions. In Leipzig, an eight-year-old boy lost several fingers on New Year's Day after bringing home an unexploded firework he discovered on the ground. According to the hospital where the boy is being treated, the child brought the firework home and lit it, hoping to throw it out the window. It exploded in the child's hand instead. NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) As the city of New Orleans begins to recover from a fatal attack on Bourbon Street on New Years Day, efforts are underway to help victims and their families. On Wednesday, the FBI reported that 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar plowed a pickup truck through Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring dozens. Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, also died in a shootout with police, and two New Orleans police officers were wounded. Stay or go? Sugar Bowl fans must now decide Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Allstate Sugar Bowl was postponed until Thursday afternoon. As the city begins to recover, blood drives and donation funds have been launched. Donation Funds The Greater New Orleans Foundation has opened a New Years Day Tragedy Fund to help the families of victims who have died or were injured in the attack. To donate, visit the Greater New Orleans Foundation website. GoFundMe states that it has launched a centralized hub for verified fundraisers related to the Bourbon Street attack. United Way of Southeast Louisiana has launched a United for New Orleans Relief Fund to offer support to the victims, their families and partnering organizations following the attack. Donations can be made at the United Way SELA website. Donate Blood The Blood Center was requesting donations after the attack, as representatives say the holiday season is typically slow for donations and inventory gets low. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eleven locations in Southeast Louisiana and Mississippi were open Thursday, and two additional locations were to be open in New Orleans and Mandeville, Louisiana. In a post to social media, Ochsner Health stated that it was hosting an emergency blood drive, and all blood bank locations would be open on Thursday to accept donations. To find a donation location, visit the Ochsner Blood Bank website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) has reported that, based on updated information, two Russian helicopters were destroyed by missiles fired from Magura V5 uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) off the coast of Crimea on 31 December, with another helicopter damaged. Source: DIU; an Ukrainska Pravda source in Ukraine's defence forces Quote from DIU: "The record has been broken as two Russian helicopters were destroyed by Magura missiles in the Black Sea. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Based on the updated data, operatives from the Group 13 special forces unit destroyed two Russian Mi-8 helicopters using Magura V5 missile-equipped USVs during a successful operation in the Black Sea near temporarily occupied Crimea on 31 December 2024." Details: Ukrainian intelligence noted that the crews of these Russian aircraft were also killed. Another Russian helicopter was struck, though it managed to land after sustaining damage. An Ukrainska Pravda source clarified that DIU initially had video footage confirming the destruction of one helicopter, with further confirmation from other sources later verifying the destruction of the second one. Background: On 31 December, DIU announced that its operatives had destroyed an aerial target using a Magura V5 USV for the first time in the world. DIU also released a radio interception of Russian communications confirming that a Russian helicopter had been hit by a USV on 31 December. On 1 January, several pro-war Russian milbloggers reported that Russia lost two helicopters, not one. Support UP or become our patron! DENVER (KDVR) The Douglas County Sheriffs Office is asking the community to be on the lookout for a vehicle reportedly involved in a serious rollover crash. According to deputies, on Dec. 29 at 12:15 a.m., the driver of a Dodge Durango left the scene of a rollover crash near Kendrick Castillo Way, formally Lucent Boulevard, and Plaza Drive in Highlands Ranch. The Douglas County Sheriffs Office did not release further information on injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox They are now asking for the communitys help in identifying the suspect vehicle. The car is described as: 20152016 Dodge Durango Red or maroon in color Has silver wheels Front-end damage, possibly missing parts of the front bumper Last seen driving westbound on Plaza Drive towards Creekside Way A Dodge Durango is wanted in a Douglas County hit-and-run crash (Douglas County Sheriffs Office) At this time, deputies said it is unclear if the vehicle is from the Highlands Ranch area. Anyone with information on the vehicle or the crash is asked to contact Deputy Vincent at zvincent@dcsheriff.net or 303-814-5311. Your tips could make all the difference in solving this case, the Douglas County Sheriffs Office said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. At least 27 people have died after two boats carrying migrants sunk off the coast of Tunisia on Wednesday, according to state broadcaster Tunisia TV. The vessels were carrying Africans from sub-Saharan countries, Tunisia TV reported. Some 83 people were rescued three miles off Alataya in Tunisias Kerkennah Islands, where the boats sank, it said. The Red Cross told CNN Thursday that there have been at least four shipwrecks in the area in the last week, claiming 84 lives in total. Of these disasters, three boats set off from Tunisia and one departed from Libya, it said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This comes after UNICEF announced on Wednesday that more than 2,200 people died in the Mediterranean during 2024. This figure includes hundreds of children, who make up one in five of all people migrating through the Mediterranean, the UNICEF statement said. The majority of these children are fleeing violent conflict and poverty, it added. Just hours before midnight on New Years Eve, a boat sank off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy, UNICEF said, leaving more than 20 people missing, including women and children. Among the seven survivors is an 8-year-old child whose mother is unaccounted for, it said. Lampedusa is an Italian island in the Mediterranean, far closer to Tunisias coast than either mainland Italy or the island of Sicily. Many in Northern Africa aiming to reach Europe travel to Lampedusa, as it requires a shorter journey than reaching the mainland continent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total, at least 31,184 migrants have either died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which last updated its figures on December 31, 2024. Most of these incidents took place on the Central Mediterranean route, where migrants attempted to cross from North Africa to Italy or Malta, the IOM said. A total of 66,317 migrants landed in Italy in 2024, the Italian government said on Thursday, down from 157,651 in 2023 and 105,131 in 2022. Most of these migrants were reported to be from Bangladesh, Syria or Tunisia, the report said. Despite this, deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean over the last few years have stayed roughly consistent, according to the IOM. Some 3,155 people died or went missing in 2023, the IOM said, with the same happening to 2,411 people in 2022. Europes borders continue to kill The support service Alarm Phone told CNN on Thursday that over the last days and weeks, many deadly incidents occurred along the migration routes in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While people in Europe and elsewhere enjoy the holiday season and end-of-year festivities, Europes borders continue to kill. We mourn all those who lost their lives and stand in solidarity with their loved ones, a spokesperson for the organization said in a statement. Separately, UNICEF called on governments to prioritize safeguarding children, including through coordinated search and rescue operations, safe disembarkation, community-based reception, and access to asylum services. Governments must address the root causes of migration and support the integration of families into host communities, ensuring childrens rights are protected at every stage of their journey, it said. Italys hard-right administration is trying out a number of ways to reduce the amount of migrants seeking refuge at its shores. In October, 16 migrants that traveled to Italy were sent to centers in Albania for processing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The International Rescue Committee (IRC) called the opening of the centers a dark day for the EUs asylum and migration policies and said it hoped that the Albanian protocol would not be a blueprint for others. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) The driver of a car that crashed early New Years Day said a passenger grabbed the wheel, causing them to lose control, according to a court filing. Police, however, said the driver was determined to be under the influence and theyll send the case to the District Attorneys Office for possible charges. The driver was expected to be discharged from the hospital Thursday. New laws going into effect in California in 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are also evaluating whether any of the passengers contributed to the collision for possible charges, Bakersfield police Sgt. Eric Celedon said in an email. A man was killed and three other occupants suffered serious injuries when a Hyundai sedan traveling west on Ming Avenue veered off the roadway and hit a light pole at Westholme Boulevard, police said. The driver told police a passenger grabbed the steering wheel from the rear of the vehicle, according to a warrant filed in Superior Court. The passenger who died has been identified as Deonte John Brown, 23. Police said the driver and other passengers suffered serious injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) Jeremy King, the gang member who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of 5-year-old Kason Guyton, has been released from jail, according to inmate records. King, 32, was sentenced to six years in custody in November. Hed been in jail since 2019 and had served enough time to be released Thursday. Convicted killer of 5-year-old Kason Guyton will spend the rest of his life behind bars Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement King was listed in custody as of 8 a.m. His name no longer appeared by 9:30 a.m. In September, King accepted a plea deal, the conditions of which included testifying at the trial of Jonathan Knight, his former co-defendant and the man King said fired the shots that killed Kason more than seven years ago. Both Knight and King were members of the West Side Crips street gang. Knight, 35, was found guilty in October of 11 of 12 counts against him including murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to life without parole. Never miss a story: Make KGET.com your homepage On Feb. 23, 2017, King testified, he and Knight were looking for an East Side Crip to shoot in retaliation for an earlier confrontation at Valley Plaza mall. Knight spotted a vehicle driven by a rival gang member, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They followed the car south on S Street and Knight fired as it turned west onto California Avenue, King said. He said they didnt know Kason and his brother, then 7, were seated in the back. Of the 16 rounds fired, one struck Kason in the back and he died a short time later. His brother, then 7, was hit in the leg and survived. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17. The driver suspected of exploding a Tesla Cybertruck left a note saying that his act "was a wake up call." Authorities identified the driver as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado Springs. Livelsberger had been an active-duty Army service member for nearly two decades, the US Army told BI. The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck loaded with explosives behind Wednesday's Las Vegas blast was an active-duty US Army soldier who, a coroner said, committed suicide. In a press release on Thursday, the Clark County coroner identified the driver as Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old man from Colorado Springs, Colorado. The coroner's report said the cause of death was the result of an intraoral gunshot wound by suicide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger was a master sergeant who served as a special-operations soldier, a US Army spokesperson said in a statement provided to Business Insider. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Thursday that the driver appeared to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before the material in his truck exploded. McMahill said authorities found a military ID and credit cards with Livelsberger's name on them inside the Cybertruck. They have also confirmed that he rented the Tesla vehicle in Denver on December 28, driving through parts of New Mexico and Arizona before reaching Las Vegas. Spencer Evans, Special Agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI Field Office, said the bureau has no information about any other suspects. There is no current evidence connecting Livelsberger to any terrorist organization around the world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is also no evidence that the Las Vegas explosion is connected with a deadly attack in New Orleans, McMahill said. Authorities on Thursday said both Livelsberger and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who is suspected of driving a rented truck into a crowd of people in Louisana, both served in the military and spent time together at what was then known as Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty, is one of the nation's largest military bases. There is no evidence that Livelsberger and Jabbar were in the same unit. The LVMPD said in a press release on Friday that two phones were also discovered inside the Cybertruck. After detectives gained access to one of the phones, they are said to have found two "letters" that "include grievances regarding political, social, cultural, personal, and other issues." In one of the letters, authorities said Livelsberger wrote: "This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that the US was "terminally ill and headed toward collapse" and that he had acted in order to "cleanse" his mind of the "brothers I've lost" and to relieve himself of "the burden of the lives I took." "There may be a lot more information that we recover that explains either more or shows a change in mindset at different times," LVMPD Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said at a press conference on Friday. A military background Livelsberger served in active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, the Army spokesperson said. After a stint in the National Guard and service in the Army Reserve, Livelsberger returned to active duty in December 2012. "US Army Special Operations Command can confirm Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on approved leave at the time of his death," the Army spokesperson said. "USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger served in the Army for more than 19 years. A military official told BI he was an operations sergeant assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany but was recently on leave at home in Colorado. The official added that Livelsberger had a clean record, "by all accounts was great," and that this would have been "out of character" for him. The FBI said it was searching a home in Colorado Springs in connected with the incident. "FBI Denver personnel and specialized teams will be on-site for several hours," the bureau said in a statement to BI. "This activity is related to the explosion in Las Vegas on Wednesday; due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information will be provided out of Denver." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Cybertruck had been filled with firework-style mortars and canisters of camping fuel, authorities said Wednesday. The driver was the only person killed. Seven other people were injured. The vehicle explosion occurred hours after an attacker drove a rented pickup truck through crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. That attack left 15 people dead, including the attacker, and injured dozens more. Both vehicles were rented using the Turo app. Authorities in Louisana on Thursday also said the New Orleans attack appeared to be unrelated to the Cybertruck explosion. On X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk praised the Cybertruck for limiting the destruction from the blast. McMahill said Musk has dispatched a team of Tesla officials to assist with the Las Vegas investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Update: The first paragraph of this article has been updated to reflect that the driver of the vehicle containing explosives involved in the Las Vegas blast committed suicide, a coroner said. Additional reporting by Ryan Pickrell and Kevin Tan. Read the original article on Business Insider SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) A new drone program out of the Santa Fe County Fire Department (SFCFD) helped cut down time rescuing a lost hiker this week, joining a long list of local emergency personnel working to advance their response toolbox. We started researching this a number of years ago actually as we saw emerging technology coming out, said Santa Fe County Fire Chief, Jacob Black. SFCFD is now a year into its testing phase on drones. The handful of us that are able to do this are starting to deploy with on these scenes to start seeing how theyre going to best work because you dont know until you try, said Battalion Chief, Sal Caputo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2 hikers rescued from Wheeler Peak Friday night Right now, the department has four people certified to fly three drones. Were also actively behind the scenes getting many more people in our department licensed appropriately through the FAA. This way this can be a much more diverse response, much more capable response cause Santa Fe County is quite a large piece of land, said Caputo. Over this past year, theyve deployed the drone system nearly twenty times. Its been a diverse amount of deployments. Theres been search and rescue, theres been us going out like I said on those wildland incidents to squat for things, theres been many structure fires that weve been able to help ICS with that birds eye view, said Caputo. Their latest deployment was only two days ago when they received a call about a lost hiker. We were able to get a general idea but discovered that we were not in the best area to be able to reach where we believe he was so thats when I went ahead and I was speaking with Captain Bell and they were on a separate call that we figured out was probably going to be related, said emergency management coordinator, Ignacio Dominguez. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AFR responds to New Years Day fire in northeast Albuquerque The hiker had started a small fire to keep warm. Using thermal imaging on the camera and the drones speaker, SFCFD was able to spot him. We were able to set up our drone as well as a secondary monitoring screen that Captain Bell, as well as one of our battalion chiefs, were monitoring so I could focus more on flying and he was actually the one who picked up the initial heat signature from the hiker, said Dominguez. Firefighters on the ground were then able to find the hiker and give them food and water. At the point, it was just another 30 minutes back down and so it definitely turned what could have been an hours-long, all-nighter rescue situation into a quick and really relatively easy situation, said Robert Bell, a captain with the SFCFD. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The department is currently in the process of certifying three more drone pilots. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. Jan. 1HIRAM Deputies arrested a local man on drug trafficking charges Tuesday after executing a search warrant at a Tripptown Road home, according to an Oxford County Sheriff's Office Facebook post. Mark O'Brien, 37, was charged with two counts of aggravated trafficking of schedule drugs, two counts of furnishing schedule drugs, three counts of unlawful possession of schedule drugs, one count of theft by receiving stolen property and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. O'Brien was transported to Oxford County Jail in Paris and is being held on $50,000 bail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputies searched O'Brien's home at 931 Tripptown Road about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday for illegal drugs and stolen property, the post said. The search yielded 143.6 grams of cocaine, 33.1 grams of fentanyl, 2.5 grams of methamphetamines, 59 doses of suboxone and 10 oxycodone pills. Deputies also found items related to manufacturing crack cocaine, seven firearms and a stolen chainsaw. Copy the Story Link Sidney homicide raises question: Why won't authorities release victim's name? Lewiston teen shot during assault in Auburn early Wednesday SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) Alcohol consumption often spikes during the holiday season which leads to many wanting to take a break in the New Year and participate in the trend of Dry January. If youre looking for a sober start to the New Year, Good NAtured in Downtown Sioux Falls could help you out. Arrests made for Skyline gunshot case as more gunshots heard across town on New Years We would be a safe space to come if youre looking to not be around alcohol at all because we only serve non-alcoholic and alcohol-free options, Shannon Ward, owner of Good NAtured, said. Then we also have a lot of other options like soda, hydration drinks, energy drinks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ward stopped drinking alcohol over four years ago. She says Dry January can be a good starting point for anyone looking to extend their sobriety passed the 31 days. Its advertised, people often put mocktails on their menu or places will offer more alcohol-free or non-alcoholic options just because people are doing that, Ward said. So I think it is a good opportunity to try things and to also maybe get that experience of going out without feeling the pressure of having to have something thats alcoholic. She offers these tips for anyone hoping to take on this challenge. Having the thing that you want to substitute instead of going to the thing that you would normally drink and having it always available, Ward said. Taking it when you go to a friends house possibly so that that way you dont fall back into the habit of, oh, I dont have the thing that Im substituting and Ill just have a beer, because then youve kind of forfeited the whole purpose of trying to stay dry for the whole 30 days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although Dry January can be helpful for moderate drinkers, it is not recommended for heavy drinkers men who drink five or more drinks a day and women who drink four or more. Thats according to experts at the Massachusetts General Hospital who say stopping cold turkey like that for heavy drinkers could lead to mild or severe withdrawal symptoms. Resources for people struggling with alcoholism: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. For some, toasting the new year means saying goodbye to alcohol for the month of January. Dry January has been a trend for more than a decade now. State police release New Years Eve DUI numbers The founder of Blind Tiger, which produces non-alcoholic cocktails inspired by the Prohibition era, expects a spike in the trend in 2025. Rebecca Styn said many also practice Damp January, which means cutting back on alcohol consumption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Farewell 2024 Looking back on the regions top stories of the year The trend has actually increased over the years for Dry January. It started in the UK back in 2012. Last year about 16% of the U.S. population participated and its slated might jump up to 25% this year, said Styn. Styn said non-alcoholic offerings in many bars and restaurants in Erie grow in the month of January. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. Gwinnett police are asking for the publics help in identifying two suspects accused of stealing cigarettes from a gas station. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The incident happened on Dec. 8, around 8:53 p.m. Police said two men walked into the RaceTrac on Buford Drive. One of the suspects went into the employee area at the back of the store and cut the lock to the cigarette cage. GCPD said the suspect stole multiple cartons of cigarettes. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspects left the store at 9:03 p.m., driving away in a newer model black Dodge Durango. Gwinnett County police say the duo may have been involved in similar thefts in Athens, Ellenwood and Snellville. Anyone with information can call GCPD detectives at 770-513-5300. Tipsters can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477 or online. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] NEW YORK (PIX11) E-ZPass users are being warned of a scam where theyre sent a text message that asks them to click a link and enter personal information to pay off a toll. The texts have been sent by a contact that refers to itself as NY Toll Services, officials said. E-ZPass New York does not ask customers for their date of birth, Social Security number or other information, according to officials. More Congestion Pricing News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement E-ZPass New York will only refer customers to two websites EZPassNY.com and TollsByMailNY.com, officials said. You can report scam text messages to the FBI through its Internet Crime Complaint Center, which can be found here. The MTA is asking drivers to update or create E-ZPass accounts before congestion pricing goes into effect on Jan. 5. Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. An easyJet flight to London was forced to divert to Italy for an emergency landing after a teenage girl threatened cabin crew and tried to open the plane door, according to reports. Flight EZY8556 left Antalya, Turkey at 11.20pm local time on 27 December for a four-hour journey to London Gatwick, but just over two hours in it was diverted to Bari, Italy, data from FlightAware shows. A passenger who was on the flight claimed that the plane landed in Italy due to security reasons after a teenage girl caused chaos onboard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nadine, 39, a passenger on the flight, told The Sun that this 16-year-old was about four rows behind me and she was sitting next to a little girl who was about 10 started coughing and she told her to stop. The little girl went to the toilet but the older girl followed her to the toilet. "The girl kept having outbursts saying get out of my face, and she wouldnt let her out. Then the mum went down and the teenage girl was shouting in her face, Nadine claimed. The mum and the little girl were crying so the crew walked the girl and her mum down to the to the front of the plane to get away from her." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident escalated after cabin crew asked the teenager to sit back down, but the 16-year-old allegedly started to shout abuse at the crew members, Nadine told the outlet. "She was trying to open the door and she broke the handle. The crew members pulled her away and restrained her, she said, with The Sun adding that she was referring to the plane door at the back of the aircraft. "She was surrounded by all the crew members but one tried to calm her down. She started screaming on the plane and she threatened to stab a crew member. Nadine added that at one point the teenager also took off her shoes at threw them at passengers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said the flight was absolute hell and claimed the airline left passengers without water, the hotel they stayed in when they Bari was a dump and said there has been no compensation from easyJet. The flight crew made the decision to land the plane early in Italy. In a statement to The Independent, easyJet said Flight EZY8556 from Antalya to London Gatwick on 27 December diverted to Bari and was met by police after landing due to a passenger behaving disruptively onboard. EasyJets cabin crew are trained to assess and evaluate all situations and acted quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other passengers was not compromised at any time. Whilst such incidents are rare we take them very seriously and do not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour onboard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always easyJets priority. As the cause of the diversion was a disruptive passenger and was outside of the airlines control, in line with regulations compensation is not due. Easyjet said it did all we could to minimise the impact of the diversion for customers such as arranging hotels and meals for its passengers, and will be advising them that it will reimburse any expenses they may have incurred. The flight was rescheduled to depart the following day. For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calders podcast Members of the Ecuadorian community held a procession for the Virgin Mary through the streets of Albany Park Wednesday, commemorating a religious holiday and a cultural touchstone with special significance for immigrants. The feast of Nuestra Senora Virgen de la Nube, or the Virgin of the Cloud, is celebrated in villages throughout Ecuador and Peru, and marks a once-a-year chance for immigrants here to share their faith with traditional music, dancing and food. More than 1,400 people packed Our Lady of Mercy Church for Mass, before some escorted a statue of Mary outside around the block. Then they gathered in the church basement for traditional rice, pork and empanadas, and dancing to traditional songs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These are all people who immigrated to a new country and brought their faith with them, the pastor, the Rev. Thomas Byrne, said. This is much more than a cultural celebration. While the recent influx of immigrants to Chicago consisted largely of people from Venezuela and Colombia, asylum-seekers from Ecuador have joined the existing community. Through Catholic Charities, the church is helping 13 families live in apartments and get established here, and runs a food pantry. Before Christmas, the parish commemorated the Biblical journey of Jesus parents, Mary and Joseph, trying to find lodging in a foreign land, with obvious parallels to immigrants, Byrne said. Parishioners like Noe and Dora Torres hold prayer meetings throughout the year and help organize the event, their son Carlos Torres said. One favorite tradition is the Vaca Loca, or Crazy Cow, a mock bovine that dances and shoots off fireworks, though for this indoor event, the fireworks were limited to sparklers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another is for women to wear the traditional pollera, or brightly colored skirt and blouse, sometimes with a wool sweater or serape. The event commemorates what the faithful believe was the appearance of the Virgin Mary in the clouds above the town of Azogues, Ecuador, in 1696. The local bishop, who was ill, recovered. The veneration of Mary has been carried on by nuns and Franciscan friars, and believers make annual pilgrimages to the site, similar to commemorations at Fatima, Portugal, and Guadalupe, Mexico, as also celebrated at a shrine in Des Plaines in December. Its an opportunity to pray to our blessed mother, thanking her for her care and love, and asking that she continue to guide us, said parishioner Lucy Arias. It takes months of preparations and donations. With 2024 in the books and 2025 already here, gulp, our city and state find themselves in precarious places. The city of Chicago ended the year with the extraordinarily messy passage of a $17.1 billion budget, featuring repeated City Council rejections of proposed mayoral property-tax hikes. The council battles coincided with the outrageous attempt by Mayor Brandon Johnson and his lame-duck school board to jam through an unaffordable contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, and the remarkable success of Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to obtain a Christmas Eve court ruling staving off the Johnson/CTU power play, at least for now. The state of Illinois returns to work this month facing a projected deficit of more than $3 billion for the coming fiscal year. Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers will grapple with arguably the toughest budget conditions since Pritzker first took office in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We think Johnson and Pritzker ought to look at whats behind and before them, take stock of the November election that featured Donald Trumps surprisingly easy victory, and conclude that they need to change their approaches to governing in order to begin to put Chicago and Illinois back on the right track. In that spirit, were suggesting New Years resolutions for our governor and mayor, as well as some other parties who will play important roles in the coming year. Resolved, for Brandon Johnson: Mr. Mayor, your way isnt working. Your approval numbers in poll after poll are among the lowest ever registered in Chicago. At best, your city is stuck in neutral economically, which is flatlining the revenues needed to keep basic services running, much less finance your progressive ambitions. We suggest you resolve to do more listening than speaking. In particular, you should open your doors to business leaders particularly those who are critics of your approach to date, and theres no shortage of such folks and consider their suggestions for how to revive the private sectors confidence in the citys future. Surely, you must have realized by now (we hope?) that your programmatic dreams will remain just that dreams without a far more robust local economy. Resolved, for JB Pritzker: Governor, the tide is turning. Progressive governance is on the defensive, and for good reason. The results are scanty, and the costs are high. Simply stated, the cost of government in Illinois is exorbitant. You passed a partisan budget last year featuring more than $900 million in tax and fee increases that included an ill-considered requirement that credit-card issuers and networks build new systems in which retailers would pay interchange fees on the price of goods sold and not the sales taxes collected. A federal court already has put that policy on hold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the new year, you ought to do what you havent yet done in six years of governing and bring Republican lawmakers into the policy-making tent. Yes, you enjoy supermajorities in the state House and Senate, but only extreme gerrymandering kept Democrats from losing seats in this past cycle. Trump won 43.5% of the vote in Illinois compared with 40.6% in 2020. Unpleasant choices lie ahead in plugging a budget hole in the billions, and Republicans have been thinking far longer than Democrats in this state about how to cut spending. Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch would be wise to solicit the ideas and ultimately the support of Senate Minority Leader John Curran and House Minority Leader Tony McCombie. Governor, Chicago is going to need you at your best in 2025. We cant emphasize that enough. Resolved, for the Chicago Teachers Union: Back off; read the room. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Chicagoans shockingly elected just three CTU-backed candidates for school board in nine contested races in November, they sent a message. They dont like the unholy and ethically compromised alliance between CTU and the mayor, who was elected with millions in CTU funding and was a lobbyist for the union before winning the prize. They dont support CTU demands that potentially would bankrupt Chicago Public Schools. Accept the generous wage increases already on the table from CPS CEO Martinez, stop the flailing attempts at a socialist transformation of Chicago, and focus on whats supposed to be your actual job teaching Chicagos kids to learn the skills they will need in life. If CTU President Stacy Davis Gates is unwilling to adjust to political reality, and she shows no signs of bending, then CTU rank and file should choose a more reasonable leader in the unions spring elections. A more moderate approach could open some ears now closed to CTUs ideas for improving schools. Resolved, for the City Council: Follow through on your pledges during the stressful budget negotiations to hold the Johnson administration accountable to the citys taxpayers. That means getting started early in 2025 on auditing and scrutinizing each city department for redundancies and bloated management. That means keeping the public abreast on what you learn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And that means having the stomach when the 2025 budget season gets started in earnest for cutting the bloat from a city government that grew fat on federal pandemic aid. Most jaded Chicagoans, were confident, think you were mostly talk during the budget struggles. Prove to them thats not true. Resolved, for the many opponents of Mayor Johnson and his fellow progressives: While the mayors approval ratings are in the midteens for good reason, he will be in office at least another two years. By all means, focus on coalescing around a candidate who can defeat Johnson in 2027. But Chicago needs to begin its revival far sooner than that, for all our sakes. When the Johnson administration proposes constructive policies, give them your input on effective implementation and your assistance, if asked. Seek out areas of agreement. And if this mayor has learned nothing from what hes experienced so far, at least you can say you tried. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We resolve, as always, to give a fair hearing to all who wish to be heard, air our views honestly and clearly, be open to good ideas from unexpected places and to provide ample space in our Opinion pages for those who disagree with us. Heres to a far better year than the last for the city and state we love. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate) Arkansas Republican lawmakers will continue championing Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders policy priorities during the 2025 legislative session, while Democrats hope to secure enough support to pass a wide-ranging agenda despite the ongoing GOP supermajority in both chambers, according to legislative leaders. The Senate will be largely a photocopy of itself in January compared to the 2023 session, said Minority Leader Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville. Republicans will hold 29 Senate seats while Democrats will have six for the second consecutive session; Democrats gained one House seat in November and will have 19 to Republicans 81. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House Democrats presented their four-pronged policy agenda in November, focusing on maternal health care, mental health care, public education and access to voting and direct democracy. House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, has since filed 36 bills and three resolutions addressing aspects of all four priorities. Rep. Denise Ennett, D-Little Rock, is the only other Democrat to have filed legislation. Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate) Our intention is to fight for all of this legislation, but I also think there is value in making clear what we as a caucus stand for, Collins said. Leding said he expects that regardless of topic, any policy proposal with a hefty price tag will be met with opposition by GOP lawmakers. It seems a lot of the discussion right now is on removing or minimizing things that we dont like rather than expanding proactive services, Leding said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans will focus their energy on school vouchers, the correctional system and efforts to regulate minors access to cellphones, said Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs. Hester told Talk Business & Politics that the Legislature should examine the cost and effectiveness of Arkansas Medicaid program. The states expansion waiver at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is up for renewal in 2025. Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate) No matter what weve sent [CMS] in the past, I think we will send something different to this administration, and whatever we send Im confident will get reasonably quickly approved, Hester told the Advocate. Thats one good thing about having a governor that is very close with the president. Sanders was President-elect Donald Trumps press secretary from 2017 to 2019, during his first term. He won reelection last year after losing in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hester told the Advocate lawmakers should ensure Medicaid is serving the most vulnerable rather than people who refuse to work or find it inconvenient. Sanders and the Department of Human Services sought a federal waiver in 2023 requiring work or volunteering for able-bodied adults to receive the full package of Medicaid expansion services. Education The LEARNS Act of 2023, Sanders signature legislation, altered several aspects of Arkansas public education system and passed with solely Republican support. Democrats criticized many facets of the law, particularly the creation of the Education Freedom Account program, which provides state funding for allowable education expenses, including private school tuition. Some Republicans joined Democrats in voting against LEARNS, arguing that directing taxpayer funds to private schools and homeschooling families would hurt public schools. As much as we attempted to make that argument in the discussion about LEARNS, it certainly bears repeating, and were going to have to come back to it because its too important, Collins said. Public schools serve 95% of Arkansas kids, and we cannot undermine them and expect to have good educational outcomes in our state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Collins House Bill 1020 would repeal the Education Freedom Account program and set aside an annual $3,862, multiplied by the number of students with individualized education plans (IEPs), to fund special education statewide. Supporters of school vouchers have said parents of students with disabilities deserve a chance to choose where their children attend school. House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, asks a question about the states biennium budget on Nov. 21, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate) Education Freedom Accounts are set to become available to all Arkansas families in the 2025-26 school year after two years of limited eligibility. The program included help with private school tuition for students with disabilities in its first year. Arkansas fiscal year 2025 budget included a $65 million spending increase for vouchers. Sanders proposed fiscal year 2026 budget raises the hike to $90 million, plus an additional $90 million in set-aside funding to meet an anticipated increase in demand. Since the program is growing even faster than maybe we expected, Hester said, it begs the question of why so many families want to choose private schools or homeschooling over the system they are forced into. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want competition, Hester said. We want our public schools to say, Why are children leaving our schools? Collins also introduced a bill that would reinstate the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, which the LEARNS Act repealed, and one that would create an income tax credit for some early childhood education workers. The LEARNS Act raised K-12 teachers minimum salary from $36,000 to $50,000. Early childhood educators were not included in the policy. Democratic lawmakers proposed teacher pay raises in legislation separate from the LEARNS Act that did not advance in 2023. Sanders has named higher education policy as a priority for the 2025 session but has not shared details. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, has proposed a bill to eliminate required minority recruitment and retention plans and reports from public school districts and higher education institutions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sullivan has criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, calling it state-sponsored discrimination, and sponsored a failed 2023 bill to end affirmative action in Arkansas. The new bill contains much of the same language. Sullivan was the lead sponsor of Act 372 of 2023, which would create criminal liability for librarians who distribute content that some consider harmful to minors and give local elected officials the final say over the availability of challenged materials. Parts of the law were temporarily blocked in federal court in July 2023 and permanently blocked in December 2024. Collins House Bill 1028 would repeal Act 372 and require public libraries to have a written policy prohibiting the practice of banning books or other materials because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval in order to receive state funding. Maternal health and reproductive rights Maternal health has become a bipartisan concern for elected officials due to Arkansas consistently high rates of maternal and infant mortality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last March, an executive order from Sanders created a strategic committee to make plans to improve the states maternal health infrastructure and outcomes. Sanders budget proposes $13 million for Medicaid to support recommendations made by the committee in September. Sanders has said extending Arkansas Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers from 60 days to 12 months after birth would be redundant, citing the states other health insurance options. The task forces report did not recommend this policy, and Arkansas remains the only state that has not adopted this federal option. Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, proposed the same policy in a 2023 bill that did not advance due to cost concerns. In November, he followed through on his promise to reintroduce the bill for 2025. Collins introduced the same proposal in a similarly worded bill, as well as other maternal health policies he said would go further than some of the proposals that have been talked about by the task force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 128-page Restore Roe Act would allow abortion before fetal viability, with limited exceptions following fetal viability for the health or life of the mother or in case of rape or incest perpetrated on a minor. Arkansas bans abortion in all circumstances except for endangerment of the pregnant persons life. The trigger ban went into effect upon the U.S. Supreme Courts 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Collins is also sponsoring bills to protect the right to fertility treatments in Arkansas and require the State and Public School Life and Health Insurance Program to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF). More Democrat-led bills would create a tax credit for dependent children and a tax exemption for menstrual products, diapers and breastfeeding items. Collins said these measures that impact the bottom line of mothers and families should be part of the maternal health policy discussion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I do hope there are enough Republicans that want to see improvement on this issue that we can get some of these over the hump and expand the conversation, Collins said. Since Arkansas abortion ban went into effect, Republicans have doubled down on their support for it and opposition to loosening it. In 2023, House Democrats proposed exceptions for incest, fatal fetal anomalies and to protect the mothers health that Republicans voted down in committee. All three exceptions were included in a proposed state constitutional amendment that received more than 102,000 signatures from Arkansans in more than 50 counties last year. The measure did not go before voters in November because it was disqualified on a technicality. Only 35 hospitals in Arkansas have labor and delivery units, and four units have closed since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Some Arkansas counties have no hospitals at all, according to the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care. Hester said he hopes the Legislature finds solutions to maternal health care deserts, particularly in South Arkansas. He also said physicians who deliver babies need liability protections. Critics of abortion bans have said such laws increase OB/GYNs medical malpractice insurance costs. Additionally, fewer medical students have sought to practice in states with abortion bans since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to a study released in May by the Association of American Medical Colleges Research and Action Institute. This issue directly impacts Arkansas maternal health landscape, Collins said. Mental health Mental health, particularly among children, is another issue that members of both parties have said needs improvement. Republicans, including Sanders, have tied the issue of childrens anxiety and depression levels to their use of cellphones and social media. Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate) Collins expressed support for Sanders proposals to reduce childrens cellphone access last year on X. He said in an interview that he plans to propose the Kids Online Safety Act as state policy in case it doesnt become federal law. As of December, the bill is stalled in the U.S. House. Hester agreed there should be limits to kids access to social media, saying it reduces their life satisfaction. House GOP policy chair Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, added that such limits could reduce online bullying. Ray and Hester both praised a pilot program announced in July that restricts phone use in schools and broadens students access to mental health services. In August, lawmakers allowed the Department of Education to distribute $7 million among school districts to pay for pouches or lockers where students can store their phones during class time. People might look at it as a social media conversation, but its really, in my mind, about trying to improve learning, Ray said. Leding said lawmakers could address the issue of phones as in-class distractions while also addressing the reasons children are facing higher rates of anxiety and depression, such as poverty, climate change and the prevalence of school shootings. Collins House Bill 1033 is a red flag law, which several states have, that would prevent the sale of firearms to someone who poses a threat to peoples safety. House Bill 1030 would require school counselors and school-based law enforcement officers to be trained in youth mental health first aid. Other policy issues Collins is sponsoring several bills meant to make voting and direct democracy easier, such as allowing Arkansans to register to vote online, during early voting and on Election Day. One bill would repeal a 2021 law that in certain circumstances makes it a criminal offense for a volunteer to bring water or food to someone waiting in line to vote, among other things. Another bill would allow no-excuse absentee voting. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers have filed three health-related bills with ties to projected U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s stated agenda: one to repeal Arkansas water fluoridation mandate, one to outlaw certain artificial food dyes and one that would loosen restrictions on the sale of unpasteurized milk. Republicans also continue to focus on criminal justice after overhauling the states parole system in 2023s Protect Arkansas Act. Sanders supports building a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County, where community members have expressed frustration about the plan. We need to build this new prison, and those of us in the Legislature need to be committed to funding it, Ray said. Theres no doubt that building a prison is an expensive undertaking, but whats more expensive than building a prison is not building one. The state purchased 815 acres of Franklin County land for $2.95 million in October. The Legislature has set aside $330 million for the prison project, and theres another $75 million in reserves. Sanders FY 2026 budget includes $50 million for corrections. It also includes proposed pay raises for several hard-to-fill jobs with the state, including correctional officers and nurses. While most of the $102 million commitment for pay raises comes from existing funding sources, mainly departments own budgets, the state budget also proposes $3.15 million to help with this endeavor, Sanders said in November. Leding said he expects Republicans to continue legislative efforts to restrict the activities of transgender Arkansans. Such laws in 2023 focused on the uses of pronouns and bathrooms in public schools and transgender minors access to health care. Leding also said hes been contacted by Arkansans who share his concerns about future attempts to add exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act. Sanders and other Republicans met bipartisan opposition to such an effort in a 2023 special legislative session. Collins and Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, are both sponsoring resolutions proposing constitutional amendments that would restrict the Legislatures ability to change laws pertaining to public records and meetings. The Legislature can refer a maximum of three proposals to the statewide ballot for a public vote. The only legislatively referred ballot measure in 2024 proposed allowing vocational-technical students to access lottery scholarship funds, which voters overwhelmingly approved. Collins said he expects at least one proposed amendment to make it to the ballot but also acknowledged that any legislation can be amended and nothing is guaranteed until session is underway. Ive seen people oppose things that I thought were likely to pass, and Ive seen people support things I thought would have a low chance to pass, Collins said. The 2025 legislative session begins on Jan. 13. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX German lawmakers have lined up to criticize Elon Musk after the U.S. presidential kingmaker waded into the countrys political space weeks before a vital election. Musk, who has been courting populist leaders including Italys Gerogina Meloni and Reform U.K.s Nigel Farage, wrote an op-ed in the German publication Welt am Sonntag that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party represented Germanys last spark of hope. The traditional parties have failed in Germany, Musk wrote. The AfD, even though it is described as far-right, represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are ignored by the establishment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Portraying the AfD as far-right is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the partys leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Come on! Musk said in the piece. The op-ed prompted Welt am Sonntags opinions editor, Eva Marie Kogel, to hand in her resignation. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print, Kogel wrote on Musks X platform. However, the op-ed made bigger waves in the German government, with the countrys most powerful figures using their platforms to respond to Musks comments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a New Years address, without naming Musk directly, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: "What will happen in Germany will be decided by you, the citizens, not the owners of social media. Scholz added that "in our debates, one can sometimes get the impression that the most extreme opinions get the greatest attention. "But it's not those who shout loudest who will decide Germany's future but the broad majority of sensible and respectable people," he added. Musk has stepped up his support of AfD amid plans for fresh elections in February. He has also leveraged an attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market to advocate for anti-immigration candidates. Musk called on Scholz to resign following the Dec. 20 attack, labeling him an incompetent fool. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Germanys vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, was more overt in criticizing Musks comments, suggesting they werent coming from a place of ignorance. "It is logical and systematic. Musk is strengthening those who are weakening Europe. A weak Europe is in the interest of those for whom regulation is an inappropriate limitation of their power," added Habeck. Musks vocal support for AfD follows similar overtures to other right-leaning parties across Europe, following success in influencing the U.S. presidential election. The weight of that influence was felt in November when Musks support for Donald Trump on his platform X proved vital in elevating him to the White House. He also donated $250 million to the Trump campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musks support of Trump helped the worlds richest man secure a spot in Trumps future Cabinet, overseeing the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He has since turned his attention across the Atlantic Ocean. Reports emerged in December that Musk was preparing to donate up to 100 million to Farages Reform party to help it contest future elections. Musk previously said that civil war in the U.K. was inevitable following riots over the summer. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com (Bloomberg) -- Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk called for fresh UK elections in the latest sign of how Donald Trumps incoming US administration could be a thorn in the side of Keir Starmers government. Most Read from Bloomberg Musk, a close and outspoken adviser to Trump, who will take office on Jan. 20, made a string of posts overnight on the X platform that he owns criticizing UK policy. He questioned Starmers record as Britains Director of Public Prosecutions before entering politics, called for the release from prison of the far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and said that only Nigel Farages Reform UK party can save Britain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Responding to one post about a new poll showing a collapse in support for Starmers Labour government which swept to power in a landslide in the countrys July 4 general election Musk called for a fresh vote. The premier, who has a huge parliamentary majority, doesnt need to call one for another 4 1/2 years. Musks volley of social media posts are the latest in a series of attacks hes made on the British government. With Trump giving Musk a key domestic role in his incoming administration leading a department to improve government efficiency, the billionaires repeated attacks on a key US ally threaten to muddy the so-called special relationship between the UK and US. Its not just Starmer whos been in Musks sights: hes also repeatedly criticized the left-leaning German government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, backing the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany ahead of a snap election called for February. The British premier has repeatedly said the relationship between the two countries is bigger than the individuals leading them. Trump hosted Starmer for a two-hour meal at his building in New York in September before securing his second presidential term telling reporters beforehand that he thought Starmer was very nice. However his legal team then used a filing with the Federal Election Commission to accuse Labour of blatant foreign interference and illegal foreign campaign contributions to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musks antagonism began over the summer with criticisms over how Starmer handled a wave of riots fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment after the murder of three girls was wrongly blamed online on an asylum seeker. Hes repeatedly clashed with the government over free speech and economic growth, as well as expressing support for both Farage and Robinson. Robinson was jailed late last year after admitting to contempt of court over repeating false accusations against a Syrian refugee. Several of Musks posts and reposts overnight called for his release including one pinned to the top of his feed and another saying the US should exert economic and diplomatic pressure to force the issue that Musk replied to with a 100 endorsement. Musks posts came even as his company was dealing with the aftermath of an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Trumps hotel in Las Vegas. The billionaire also made repeated posts about that incident, saying the whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now and later posting that the explosion was unrelated to the vehicle itself and was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb. Starmer and his government have so far brushed off Musks attacks and downplayed the threat posed by Reform. Starmer has a large parliamentary majority and there is currently no prospect of him losing a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons, which would be necessary to trigger fresh elections earlier than he wants. Britains next general election is due in 2029. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Starmer spoke with Trump via phone last month, as the British premier tries to solidify the UK-US relationship despite their different political priorities and backgrounds. The pair discussed ongoing support for Ukraine which has been put into doubt by the incoming Trump presidency and securing peace in the Middle East. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Tech billionaire Elon Musk has kicked off the new year with continued public support for far-right groups and attacks on elected politicians in Europe. After recently targeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whom he insulted as a "fool," and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whom he called a "tyrant," he has shifted his focus back to Britain. On Thursday, Musk posted a message on X, the social media platform he owns, that advocates for the currently imprisoned British far-right figure Tommy Robinson by writing: "Free Tommy." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Tesla boss also shared Robinson's account and other posts where the far-right and anti-Islam activist is referred to as a political prisoner. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is Britain's most well-known far-right extremist. Even Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party receives much support from Musk, has in the past distanced himself from 42-year-old Robinson, accusing him of being associated with violent criminals. Musk, who has over 200 million followers on X, is an adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump. He recently expressed his support for the German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the upcoming parliamentary election campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robinson is currently imprisoned for spreading false claims about a Syrian refugee despite a court injunction. He had previously been ordered to pay 100,000 (about $125,000) in damages for defamation. The claims are also repeated in a video made by Robinson, which remains available on his X account with more than a million followers. In addition to his support for Robinson, Musk sharply criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer once again. He accused the Labour politician of remaining inactive in combating criminal rings of abusers mostly consisting of perpetrators with Pakistani roots during his tenure as head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Starmer, who led the CPS from 2008 to 2013, has defended his record by pointing to his role in initiating the prosecution of one of the most high-profile cases. American billionaire Elon Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, has criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and called for new elections in the UK. Source: Musk on X (formerly Twitter), as reported by European Pravda The billionaire posted a series of messages criticising Keir Starmers record as director of public prosecutions, calling for the release of far-right activist Tommy Robinson from prison, and claiming that only Nigel Farages Reform UK party could "save" Britain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to a new poll showing a decline in support for Starmers Labour government, Musk called for a re-vote. Earlier, Musk had publicly endorsed voting for Germanys far-right, even writing a column in support of them for Welt am Sonntag that caused the newspapers editor, Eva Marie Kogel, to resign in protest. Meanwhile, the spokesperson for Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, has revealed that plans are underway for an online meeting between Weidel and Musk. On Tuesday, Germany's Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck criticised Musk for attempting to influence the German elections. Support UP or become our patron! Fresh off a successful political power grab in America, Elon Musk is now making overtures to far-right reactionaries across the pond by demanding the release of imprisoned British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson. Free Tommy Robinson! Musk wrote Wednesday on X. Robinson, whose given name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is currently serving an 18-month sentence for violating a court order by repeating libelous claims against Jamal Hijazi, a young Syrian refugee who Robinson baselessly accused of having attacked two young girls. In 2018, Hijazi was assaulted by a 16-year-old boy at the Almondbury Community School in West Yorkshire. The boy held Hijazi, whose arm had been broken in a previous assault, down by the neck while attempting to waterboard him. Ill drown you, the boy said in a video of the incident. The case drew national attention in the U.K., leading Robinson to falsely claim that Hijazi had previously attacked two girls. In a libel lawsuit brought by Hijazi, Robinson was found guilty and ordered to pay 100,000 in damages, as well as cover the legal fees of the plaintiff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the aftermath of the ruling, Robinson partnered with Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cesspool of defamatory misinformation to produce a documentary about his role in the Almondbury Community School case. The film, titled Silence, repeats the false claims against Hijazi. Robinson describes the legal case against him as the story about how the law is being manipulated and exploited by the far left and Islamists to destroy the lives of anyone who speaks out against the so-called progressive, so-called liberal narrative. Musk today encouraged his followers on X to view the film, promoting it several times on her personal profile. Why is Tommy Robinson in a solitary confinement prison for telling the truth? Musk wrote in one post. He should be freed and those who covered up this travesty should take his place in that cell. Robinson, a prominent British extremist, has long been known for his anti-Muslim views, and his role in founding the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right organization that targeted the Islamic religion and Muslims in the U.K. Robinson was previously a member of the British National Party, a fascist political party that once demanded only white Britons be considered citizens of the United Kingdom. In 2019, Robinson was banned from Facebook and Instagram over his encouragement of followers to make war on Muslims, and promoting content targeting religious minorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musks support for Robinson is not his only recent brush with European extremism. Earlier this week, Musk drew additional backlash after endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the last spark of hope for Germany. The nationalist, anti-immigrant party which is linked to extremists and neo-Nazis has grown in prominence within Germany amid the wave of conservative populism enveloping nations in the post-pandemic era. As federal elections near, German officials are less than pleased at Musks attempts to weigh in on the nations politics. It is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election, Christiane Hoffmann, a German government spokesperson, said on Monday. After all, freedom of opinion also covers the greatest nonsense. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Billionaire Elon Musk responded on social media to the news of a Tesla Cybertruck exploding in front of President-elect Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel on New Years Day. One person, the driver, was killed and seven others were injured. Elon Musk listens as President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (Allison Robbert/Pool via AP) We have confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion, according to the post on Musks X account that was sent out around 2:12 p.m. Wednesday. 1 dead, 7 injured in Tesla fire, explosion at Las Vegas Trump International Hotel; sources say it wasnt an accident Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A few hours earlier, another post on his X account stated The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now. Will post more information as soon as we learn anything. Weve never seen anything like this. A Tesla Cybertruck exploded and caught fire at the entrance of Trump Intl Tower in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (Credit: Alcides Antunes) Musk who owns the social media platform was responding to an image of the Cybertruck in flames that was posted on Musks account by another user. Elon Musk touts safety of Cybertruck following explosion at Las Vegas Trump hotel Musk is the CEO of Tesla and the largest owner of the stock. He strongly supported Donald Trumps run for the presidency and in return, President-elect Trump named him to co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a Tesla truck and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and its the Trump tower so theres obviously things to be concerned about there, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference. Two sources close to the investigation told the 8 News Now Investigators that they believe the explosion was an intentional act and not an accident. Video shows the vehicle parked next to the hotels front doors as it explodes into flames. Sheriff McMahill said he had to thank Elon Musk for help with the investigation. He gave us quite a bit of additional information into how the vehicle was locked after it exploded due to the nature of the force from the explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said Musk was also able to help with capturing all the video from Tesla charging stations around the country and sending it to Metro. According to McMahill, the Cybertruck was rented in Colorado and showed up in Las Vegas Wednesday morning. Trumps son, Eric Trump, also posted on X about the explosion. Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochere of Trump Las Vegas. The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. Is it time to phase out asphalt shingle roofs in Florida? Floridas insurance commissioner hinted at the recent Florida Chamber Insurance Summit that hed like to see their days come to an end. Its probably time to look past asphalt shingles, Michael Yaworksy told a crowd of insurance executives. You know, these products that are guaranteed to last for 30 years. They dont last for 30 years in Florida. They just dont. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But does that mean that asphalt shingle roofs should be written out of the plot? Top roofing industry officials are skeptical. They concede that asphalt shingles only last an average of 20 years in Florida and are more vulnerable than metal or clay and concrete tiles to being damaged or blown off by hurricane-force winds. But they say that if installed correctly, more affordable asphalt shingle roofs can resist wind uplift and protect homes from water intrusion. Related Articles Roof coverage issues have bedeviled insurance companies in Florida since Hurricane Andrew struck the state in 1992. More recently, complaints by many insurers about roofing contractors who ask to perform free roof inspections, find hail damage, then submit insurance claims that secure roof replacements at no cost to homeowners have triggered several reforms. They included repeal of the Florida Building Code rule that required replacement of entire roofs when more than 25% was damaged, and a change in state law to allow insurers to cover the depreciated value rather than full replacement cost of roofs in basic homeowner policies. Insurers must still offer full replacement coverage for a higher premium. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most of the questionable claims involved asphalt shingle roofs because they are most common. Nationwide, an estimated 80% of roofs are covered by asphalt shingles while in Florida, the director of technical services for the Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association says a more accurate estimate is between 60% and 65%. Action on asphalt tiles upcoming Yaworsky told the gathering of insurance executives that they should expect some news around roof surface types in coming years and mentioned that maybe its time to write (asphalt shingles) out of the plot in Florida. Yaworsky provided few details about what he had in mind. Asked if he was interested in expanding on his thinking for this story, Kylie Mason, communications director for the Office of Insurance Regulation, offered this statement that she said could be attributed to her: Floridas building codes are working, and we do not want progress to go backwards. Therefore, there are more resilient roofing types that consumers may want to consider, to not only have their homes hold up better in Floridas weather, but also to possibly receive credit for in their insurance premiums. Insurers are required to charge less after homeowners install a new roof, regardless of the material used, in compliance with the current Florida Building Code. But many offer larger credits for metal or clay and concrete tile coverings because they last longer and are less likely to fail during storms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yaworskys comments piqued the attention of officials of trade associations that represent asphalt shingle roofing manufacturers and installers. Asked about the comments, Reed Hitchcock, executive vice president of the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association, said, Im disappointed that the insurance commissioner would make a statement like that and put that thought into the heads of homeowners that have asphalt shingle roofs. Hitchcock added that many factors determine how asphalt shingle roofs stand up to hurricane-force winds, including the wind rating of the shingles, how they are installed, how the roof structure is attached to the home, and the expertise of the installer. There are a lot of high performance, very good asphalt roof systems out there, he said. And it takes a qualified roofing installer to to walk a homeowner through that and say, This is what you need, this is what you dont need.' What can the commissioner do? While the insurance commissioner cannot prohibit homeowners from installing asphalt shingle roofs without convincing the Legislature to change state law, Yaworsky mentioned revisiting an inspection form that identifies storm hardening features that qualify homeowners for insurance premium discounts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Called the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, it lists opening protections such as impact doors and windows, types of attachments of roof frames to the walls of homes, water resistance barriers under roof coverings, and five types of roof coverings: asphalt or fiberglass shingles, concrete or clay tile, metal, and two flat-roof styles built up or membrane more commonly used in commercial buildings. Yaworsky could ask the Florida Financial Services Commission, which is comprised of the governor and members of his cabinet and oversees the list, to eliminate asphalt or fiberglass shingle roofs as an option. He also could ask that only the most wind-resistant forms of asphalt shingles qualify for discounts. He mentioned that the Office of Insurance Regulation will be probably doing some other stuff on mandatory mitigation credits and whatever our version of the IBHS Fortified program is. The IBHS Fortified program is administered by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. Homes can qualify for additional insurance discounts by meeting the programs construction standards that often exceed state building codes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enhanced roof deck attachments, sealed roof decks, locked-down roof edges, wind and rain resistant attic vents and impact resistant shingles including those made of asphalt are required for homes to be certified as fortified under the program, according to its website. Construction must be verified by an independent evaluator. Some Fortified program standards find their way into state building codes. In 2020, the Florida Building Code adopted the programs sealed roof deck standard, according to the Fortified website. It requires sealing gaps or seams between pieces of the plywood decking to prevent water from flowing into the home if the roof cover is lost. Other standards that made their way into the code strengthen soffits for heavier wind loads, specify thickness of wood structural panels and dictate the size and spacing of ring shank nails used to attach roof decks, the website says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In developing the revisions, the institute works closely with insurers, state regulators, building code committees, and trade associations. Asphalt shingles vs. metal and concrete tiles Mike Slivers, director of technical services for the Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association, says that asphalt shingle roofs have developed a bad reputation among insurers because a majority of homes have them. And that means a larger number will visibly fail in powerful wind-driven storms. These are more likely older roofs that werent installed under the latest codes, and some that were installed by unqualified workers or even the homeowners themselves, he said. Higher quality asphalt shingles installed under todays Florida Building Code are more likely to withstand hurricane-force winds with minimal damage, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think any reasonable observer who goes out and looks at a lot of hurricane damage will tell you that you will see asphalt shingle roofs that look perfect after high-wind events, he said. So its not one-size-fits-all and even though they all pass the same standard, you can find better and worse products. Cost is an important consideration as well, he said. Metal or tile roofs can last 50 years or more but cost two to three times the price of asphalt tile. Most tile roofs sold today are made of concrete, he said. Converting a shingle roof to a concrete tile roof requires reinforcement of the structure because of the additional weight load, Silvers said. In addition, concrete tile absorbs moisture and must be sealed from time to time, according to information on roofers websites. If they develop algae or mold, they must be cleaned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Metal shingles come in a range of styles, grades and costs, Silvers said, and some are vulnerable to corrosion if the home is close to the ocean. The most cost effective, called through-fastened panels, are ribbed or corrugated sheets that overlap each other and are attached using screws and washers that are visible from outside the home. A lot of people dont like the way these look, he said. Metal shingles that are designed to create a more traditional look are growing in popularity, says Todd E. Miller, president of Ohio-based Isaiah Industries and current president of the Metal Roofing Alliance. Miller notes that most roofing materials rely on either gravity or failure-prone adhesives to hold them together while metal roofs, whether made of shingles or panels, stay in place more often because they are interlocked atop roofs. Also, he said, One significant benefit to metal is that it does not lose its wind resistance as it ages. Many other materials, on the other hand, lose strength or become brittle, making them less resistant to wind and hail damage. Roofing industry says asphalt shingle roofs improving Metal or concrete and clay tile roofs are effective for homeowners who can afford them, Silvers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For everyone else, the industry continues to develop ways to improve the wind resistance and lifespan of asphalt shingle tiles, he said. One improvement that he expects to see in the 2025 revision of the Florida Building Code will improve the seal of vertical connections of four-sided hip roofs to prevent separation during hurricanes. Silvers and Hitchcock each said they expect representatives of the asphalt shingle roofing industry to show up and plead their case if and when Yaworsky were to move to write their products out of the plot in Florida. Clearly when it comes to wind performance, were improving every single cycle, and every time we get a storm were seeing more and more evidence of that, Silvers said. Do we have some problems with insurance? Absolutely. Were doing our part as an industry to try to reduce those losses and to keep people in their structures. Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com. Boise didnt get a white Christmas. But it did get a white New Years Day. The area accumulated about 1.3 inches of snow as of 1 p.m. Wednesday and should top off at nearly 2 inches by the end of the day, according to Les Colin, senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in Boise. The record for the day is 6 inches in 1910. On some of the pavement, especially thats been tracked over by lots of vehicles, its not been able to accumulate as much, but on the grass and undisturbed areas its sticking to the ground, Colin said. Children sled at Camels Back Park in the North End on New Years Day. Bogus Basin rang in the new year with fresh powder. The ski hill north of Boise picked up several inches of snow by Wednesday afternoon, with more on the way. Colin told the Idaho Statesman that Bogus could tally up to 10 inches through the night. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The snowstorm marks the first measurable snowfall the Treasure Valley has seen this winter. December was unusually warm and while the area got less than three inches of rain, nearly double the average for the month, it only got a few traces, or flurries, of snow not enough to be measured. Colin said a trace of snow means less than a tenth of an inch. The last trace of snow was on Dec. 16. Snow and fog shroud Bogus Basin Road late Wednesday afternoon. Theres only one occasion on record where Boises first measurable snowfall arrived later than this, on Jan. 9, 1918, according to Colin. The National Weather Service in Boise began collecting the data in 1878. Its only the second time weve gone all the way through December without more than a trace, the meteorologist said by phone. We should have had, by now, 7.5 inches already this winter, and we hadnt even measured a tenth yet, until today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even that wont last long. Temperatures are expected to rise throughout the day and at around sunset Wednesday, or about 5:30 p.m., the snow is forecast to turn to rain. Any snow on the ground should melt or turn to slush. Were not going to get any more snow here for a while, Colin said. It wont be cold enough. Families sled and play in the snow at the foggy Simplot Hill near the corner of Cartwright and Bogus Basin roads in Boise on New Years Day. Over the next few days, temperatures are expected to get warmer, with a high of 45 degrees Thursday and 51 Friday. By Saturday, temperatures are forecast to be back down to the mid-40s. Thats high, Colin said. We shouldnt be out of the upper 30s at this time. Right about now, were near the coldest time of the year, and the normal high for these days is in the upper 30s, so if were in the 50s, were much warmer than normal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By Monday, it could be cold enough to snow again, but the region is slated to dry out, so its unlikely, according to Colin. He expects another inversion to plague the Boise area next week. An inversion occurs when warm air traps colder air beneath it, causing fog in the valley. The inversion should start on Tuesday and hang around for most of the week, until Jan. 11, Colin said. Winter weather woe: Inversion traps air and triggers air-quality advisory in Boise area Boise sees record-high temperature in a century. Another record could be coming Do you know how to read a weather forecast? Heres a cheat sheet, from temps to wind speed As a new year looms ahead, many Erie County residents spent New Years Day savoring long-held traditions in the form of comforting foods. In Asian cultures, many people eat long noodles. They symbolize longevity and prosperity. Al Cabantog was born in the Phillippines and has found the traditional flavors he craves at Saigon Nights in Millcreek Township. For New Years its a tradition in the Philippines to eat long noodles because its a sign of life and longevity. So thats why we come here after a long bike ride in Presque Isle and live the tradition! said Cabantog. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Local divers welcome 2025 with scuba dive into Presque Isle Bay The new year, they feel something like veggies, something like healthy and warm inside. Make them feel healthy energy! said Nga Rastatter, owner of Saigon Nights. Aziana Rivera celebrates her Puerto Rican heritage every New Years Day. Its more of my mother cooking, the empanadas the pollo, all of it is cooked homemade. My mother and my sister cook it every year, said Rivera. Those of Middle Eastern descent looking for traditional New Years sweets found them at Baladi Market in the City of Erie. Dry January trend continues in 2025, popularity could be on the rise Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We wrap up some sugar-coated chickpeas. And its for kids you know. Its a traditional candy. And other soft chew candy also we have, said Hassan Ali, manager of Baladi Market. And for those looking to kick off the new year off with candy trending on social media: The new hot item in the store is this kunafa pistachio, said Moe Silmi, owner of Baladi Market. Its chocolate filled with pistachio inside, dark chocolate with pistachio, its very very sweet. If you like a sweet candy, this is it! Other New Years Eve favorites include collard greens, fish and lentils. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. MILAN An Estonian tech startup has developed a miniature missile designed to counter low-flying drones that it plans to test in Ukraine this month, as Russian drone attacks continue to cause havoc across the war-torn country. The Estonia-based company Frankenburg Technologies announced in December that it will conduct the first trial of its Mark 1 anti-aircraft missile in early 2025 in an unspecified location in Ukraine. The missile is intended to be more affordable than existing counter-drone missiles, and it is designed to use artificial-intelligence software for targeting incoming threats, according to the manufacturer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The companys objective is to create missile systems that are ten times more affordable, a hundred times faster to produce than current industry outputs, per its website. In Ukraine, long guns become desperate defenses against small drones Frankenburg Technologies chief executive Kusti Salm, who previously served as a top official in the Estonian Ministry of Defense, said in an interview with Janes that the missile will be able to counter drones flying at altitudes of up to 2 kilometers, or 1.2 miles. Ukrainian defense analysts have noted that the attack profile of Iranian-made Shahed drones has evolved in recent months, where they are now often reported to fly at low heights ranging between two to five kilometers to avoid being struck by ground defenses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Estonian company has offices in Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine and will soon open another in the United Kingdom, the British government announced on Dec. 16. The rapidly growing company already collaborates closely with the British defense industry, sourcing a significant portion of its subsystems locally, and it will invest 50 million ($52 million) into the U.K. for research and development into low-cost rocket motors, the British prime ministers office said in a statement. The Ukrainian military has largely relied on a mesh network of electronic-warfare sensors, jammers and small arms to shoot down drones at close ranges. However, these options remain last-defense resorts and are not always effective. Other companies have offered similar concepts of small and relatively inexpensive drones, including the Lockheed Martin-made miniature hit-to-kill missiles, a small short-range air defense system able to destroy rockets and artillery, as well as MBDAs small anti-drone missile. NAIROBI (Reuters) -Ethiopia's defence minister travelled to Somalia on Thursday, a senior official in Mogadishu said, the first bilateral visit since relations nosedived a year ago over an Ethiopian plan to build a naval base in a breakaway Somali region. Somalia's state minister for foreign affairs, Ali Omar, confirmed Aisha Mohammed Mussa's visit in a message to Reuters but did not say what she was there to discuss. In a post on the X platform on Friday, Ethiopia's foreign affairs ministry said the two countries had "agreed to collaborate on the #AUSSOM (African Union peacekeeping) mission and strengthen bilateral relations." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ethiopia has up to 10,000 troops in Somalia to fight Islamist militants from al Shabaab, but Mogadishu has threatened to expel them if Addis Ababa did not renounce an agreement it reached a year ago with the breakaway Somaliland region. The preliminary deal called for Somaliland to lease a stretch of coastline for an Ethiopian naval base and commercial port in exchange for possible recognition of Somaliland's independence. Somaliland has had effective autonomy since 1991 but its independence has not been recognised by any other country. Mogadishu considers it an integral part of its territory and called its deal with Ethiopia an act of aggression. After months of escalating rhetoric and inconclusive international mediation efforts, Somalia and Ethiopia agreed on Dec. 11, after talks in Turkey, to work together to resolve the dispute and begin technical negotiations by the end of February. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ethiopian troops in Somalia are there as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission and on a bilateral basis. Regional powers fear their withdrawal would severely weaken the fight against al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate that has been waging an insurgency since 2007. The dispute has also raised concerns about wider instability in the Horn of Africa, with Somalia responding to the Somaliland deal by drawing closer to Ethiopia's traditional rivals Egypt and Eritrea. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Kim Coghill) After Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas to Europe, gas supplies to European Union states have been ensured through alternative routes via Germany and Italy, as well as by withdrawing gas from storage facilities. Source: extraordinary meeting of the EU Gas Coordination Group on 2 January, as reported by European Pravda with reference to the European Commissions press service Details: The European gas infrastructure allowed the replacement of Russian gas previously supplied via Ukraine with gas from pipelines in Germany and Italy, as well as from European gas storage facilities, as reported by the European Commission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "Gas supplies have been secured via alternative routes (Germany, Italy) and through withdrawals from storage. The European gas infrastructure is flexible to accommodate gas of non-Russian origin, aligning with the REPowerEU objectives." As a result, the European Commission confirmed there will be no gas supply issues in 2025. Quote: "31 December 2024 marked the end of the Russian gas transit agreement via Ukraine. In an extraordinary meeting of the Gas Coordination Group held today, the Commission and the Member States from the Central and Eastern Europe took stock of the situation Thanks to efficient preparatory work and coordination in the region and beyond, there are no security of supply concerns." More details: The EUs energy security has also been strengthened by "significant new LNG import capacities since 2022," the European Commission reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Specifically, the level of gas storage in EU facilities currently stands at 72%, which is slightly higher than the average level for this time of year, at 69%. Quote: "The Commission maintains regular monitoring and communication with the Member States and market participants to ensure security of supply to the most affected Member States and avoid speculation." Background: As previously reported, Ukraine ceased the transit of Russian gas on 1 January, which had continued to supply several EU states and the unrecognised Transnistria. Moreover, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made it clear that Ukraine is not considering renewing the transit agreement with Gazprom and has stated that Kyiv will not agree to transport Russian gas disguised as Azerbaijani gas. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico sharply criticised Zelenskyy for these actions and sent a letter to EU leaders expressing dissatisfaction with Ukraine's decisions and threatening to halt Slovakia's electricity supplies. Support UP or become our patron! European gas prices rose by 4.3% to almost 51 euros on the first trading day after Ukraine stopped transiting Russias natural gas to central-Europe, Bloomberg reported on Jan. 2. Ukraine terminated Russian natural gas transit through its territory on Jan. 1, having repeatedly warned it would not extend the agreement when it expired at the end of 2024 because it did not want to finance Russia's war. The rise in gas prices to 51 euros per megawatt-hour is the highest since October 2023, and comes ahead of freezing temperatures forecast across much of Europe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Experts told Bloomberg that the halt in supply will be remedied by tapping stored reserves this winter, but higher demand is expected for natural gas to refill inventories over the course of 2025. Liquified natural gas (LNG) can only partially replace Russian natural gas flows due to the lack of infrastructure for its transport and its higher price. Stopping Russian gas transit through Ukraine is "one of Moscow's biggest defeats," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 1 on his Telegram channel. "When Putin was handed power in Russia over 25 years ago, the annual gas pumping through Ukraine to Europe stood at over 130 billion cubic meters. Today, the transit of Russian gas is 0. This is one of Moscow's biggest defeats," Zelensky said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Turning energy into a weapon and cynical energy blackmail of partners is what deprived Russia of its most attractive and geographically accessible market." According to Zelensky, most European countries "have adapted" to the termination of Russian gas transit. Zelensky added that the allies' common task now is to support Moldova, dependent on Russian supplies, in its energy transformation. Zelensky said he believes that U.S. gas supplies and other partners will make energy market prices more favorable. Read also: Russia has lost over 38,000 troops in Kursk Oblast, Syrskyi says Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Transnistria is facing heating cuts after a halt in piped Russian natural-gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine. The gas halt follows Ukraine's decision not to renew a gas transit contract with Russia. EU countries such as Slovakia still rely on Russian gas, highlighting geopolitical risks. A European region is grappling with freezing temperatures in winter after Russian natural gas stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine. On Monday, the local energy company Tirasteploenergo warned residents in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, that heating and hot water services would be cut from 7 a.m. on Wednesday the first day of 2025. Hospitals and critical infrastructure still received heating, but the situation is precarious for Transnistria's population, which numbered about 475,000 at its last census in 2015. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tirasteploenergo advised residents to take basic measures to keep warm, as temperatures could dip to 23 degrees Fahrenheit in the capital city of Tiraspol in the coming days. "To keep the room warm, seal the cracks in the windows and balcony doors, hang blankets or thick curtains over them. Place all family members in one room, temporarily closing the rest of the rooms," the company told customers. Tirasteploenergo also advised consumers to use electric heaters but to limit energy use. "Dress warmly and take preventive medications for acute respiratory infections and flu," it added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A company employee told Reuters on Wednesday that she didn't know how long the situation would persist. Tirasteploenergo didn't respond immediately to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours. The halt in services followed the termination of a five-year deal regarding Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine, with Kyiv refusing to renew the deal over the war in Ukraine. The pipeline's shutdown marked the end of an era for Russia's oldest gas route to Europe. The cessation of gas supplies is set to hit Transnistria particularly hard since the region has been getting gas free of charge from Russian state-owned giant Gazprom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Transnistria declared a 30-day economic emergency last month ahead of the impending energy crisis. Moldova has also declared a 60-day state of emergency as the landlocked country still gets much of its gas from Transnistria. 'A historic event' Ukraine's energy minister, German Galushchenko, hailed the halt of Russian gas to Europe as a "historic event." "Russia is losing its markets and will suffer financial losses," Galushchenko said in a Wednesday statement. The developments illustrate the region's geopolitical and economic entanglements with Russia, an energy giant. Many European Union countries have weaned themselves off Russian piped gas, which used to account for nearly 40% of the bloc's supply, but some such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic are still reliant on Russian gas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The EU as a whole also still imports seaborne Russian liquefied natural gas. The Czech Republic a landlocked country that cut Russian piped gas imports in the summer of 2023 imported more of the fuel in 2024 because it was cheaper than LNG, Bloomberg reported in November. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico meanwhile appealed to the EU to find a way to keep Russian gas flowing via Ukraine. Slovakia made as much as 500 million euros, or $518 million, a year in Russian gas transit fees and would pay about 90 million euros more a year for alternative gas sources. "Halting gas transit via Ukraine will have a drastic impact on us all in the EU but not on the Russian Federation," Fico said in his New Year's address. Read the original article on Business Insider 2024 will go down as a tough year for property owners. According to the federal government, two dozen weather and climate disasters will each have caused more than a billion dollars in damage. Some homes are at higher risk than others, but it isnt always obvious. Some major players in the real estate industry are now offering an easy way to find out the climate risks for individual homes. Severe flooding in Leominster destroying homes and washed-out beaches threatening property on Cape Cod and the Islands are two local examples of how amplified storms are decimating houses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Historic wildfires out west are another example of weather conditions wreaking havoc on property. Every home has specific risks, said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather, Ph.D. I dont think there is any home that is risk-free, but at least knowing what risks a home faces can help a homebuyer understand what theyre in for when theyre making an offer on a home. Redfin.com along with Zillow.com and Realtor.com are all now adding climate risk assessments for the properties listed on their respective sites. You can look up climate risk scores for that home. These include flood factor, fire factor, heat factor, wind factor, and air quality factor, added Fairweather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement James Heiss, Ph.D., thinks the tools are incredibly helpful. Hes an associate professor at UMass-Lowell and a member of the schools Climate Change Initiative. He particularly likes that these websites are looking forward and making projections, not just regurgitating historical data. Theyre incorporating new data, new climate simulation data, into these flood risk factors to estimate the level of risk that a property might have in 5, 10, 15 years into the future. Boston 25 News asked local residents if they think this information is helpful. I think it would be, said one man in Jamaica Plain. If youre trying to buy you should definitely assess that kind of information, know what youre buying, because, you spend $1 million on a home and after one bad storm next year youre underwater, literally, then you are kind of screwed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A woman along Centre Street didnt think the information was that helpful. I was house hunting for literally over a year and I didnt have too much luck and that is not one of the factors that I was looking into. Emily Clark, president of the Cape Cod and Islands Association of Realtors, said climate change is becoming a bigger factor as people buy and sell real estate in that part of the state. She says more buyers, as well as sellers, are asking questions about climate change and its impact on the housing market. Still, she feels climate risk factors on national websites should only be a starting point for people getting into the market. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can get some general information there, but I would say once youre identifying where you want to be, at that point, you want to get more local information. She says climate risk is not just a one-size-fits-all component but is very property-specific. So, when you identify a property, you want to be able to work with your realtor, you want to work with your local lender, you want to work with your insurance company to really identify the different risks that are relevant to that property. The insurance issue is particularly important because rates have already soared in places like Florida and Texas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even in this region of the country, policies have become pricier in certain areas. Its important to find out what it would cost to insure any property as that can be the difference between a home that is affordable or one that is out of reach. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW Hanukkah is a time for the Jewish community to celebrate their heritage. And Wednesday, Jewish families celebrated the final night of the 8-day holiday. The significance of the last day of Hanukkah is that traditionally its called Zos Hanukkah, which is Hebrew for This is Hanukkah. This is it. said Rabbi Dovie Kivman, Chabad of Erie County. When you light all eight candles on the menorah and Hanukkah comes to this culmination, its like, the light is shining the brightest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kivman said when the lights shine the brightest on the menorah, it delivers a message that everyone should be an ambassador of light and make the world around them a little brighter. Erie residents share their New Years food traditions And Wednesday night that final candle was lit, bringing the menorah to its brightest point. Wednesday was the eighth night of Hanukkah which meant that the final candle on the menorah would be lit. So, the middle candle is used to light all of these other candles on the menorah representing a day in the holiday, but the tradition goes back many years ago and the eight candles represent some significant history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We light the eight candles and are able to celebrate the true meaning of Hanukkah, which is the victory of the Maccabees over the oppressive Syrian Greeks and their ability to rededicate the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem to Jewish worship, said Rabbi Robert Morais, Temple Anshe Hesed. And when the Maccabees found the Jewish temple ransacked by the Syrian Greeks, Morais said they found one jar of oil that was only supposed to last one night but miraculously lit the menorah for eight days. UPMC Hamot welcomes several New Years Day babies And that oil plays a key part in Hanukkah traditions, with oily foods like Jewish donuts and potato pancakes being popular meals during the holiday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And of course, Hanukkah wouldnt be complete without spinning the dreidel before the holiday ends. Hanukkah is actually one of my favorite Jewish holidays, absolutely, top of the chart. Theres something about it. Its not so much mysterious, its more of this aura, this atmosphere of upliftedness. Everythings brighter and better and shinier I guess you could say, said Kivman. And after Hanukkah ends, the Jewish community will be looking forward to Tu BiShvat, which is the beginning of the spring season on the Jewish calendar. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. (Bloomberg) -- Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Wednesday that he would soon resign from parliament, a move likely to make it a bit easier for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to muster majorities in some crucial votes. Most Read from Bloomberg Gallant was fired as defense minister by Netanyahu on Nov. 5, due to what the premier described as significant gaps between the men over the war. They had clashed over pursuing a ceasefire deal with Hamas as well as moves taken by the security cabinet. The former minister, who had kept his seat in parliament, said he would now be taking a time-out after a decade in politics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Netanyahu, Gallants resignation is good news as any replacement would be more likely to support the ruling coalition in parliament. Although on paper the coalition controls 68 of 120 seats, in practice some members have recently rebelled over budgetary and policy issues. As a result, Netanyahu has struggled at times to muster needed votes. On Tuesday, the prime minister was rushed to parliament from a hospital, where he had undergone prostate removal surgery on Sunday, out of fear that a crucial budget law would fail without him. The law passed by a single vote. Gallant abstained. Draft Dispute In his speech Wednesday, Gallant said Netanyahu fired him because Gallant had been pushing to draft Orthodox Jewish men into the military. Such men were automatically exempted from service for decades, but the long war that followed Hamas Oct. 7 attacks has changed some attitudes toward the exception. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, who replaced Gallant, have been pushing against the expanded draft, as some Orthodox politicians have threatened to topple the government if their constituents are forced into military service. The prime minister has several weeks to reach agreements with them, otherwise they may withdraw their support for the 2025 budget, which, if it fails to pass by March 31, would automatically topple the government. Gallant, 66, said in a televised statement that during his time in the defense ministry he led the security establishment to military victories on seven fronts. Throughout the war, I insisted on maintaining and deepening the strategic partnership with our great ally the US. Even in a time of political discord, there is no substitute for this alliance, which provides us with military aid, international support and creates deterrence in the Middle East, he said Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) The attack in New Orleans has law enforcement here in Connecticut on alert. State police say there are no threats to people in Connecticut right now, but experts told News 8 what public safety officials are looking at, and what the average person can to protect themselves and their families. While we have limited information, we take that information and really apply two words, and its called What if?' said Gary McNamara, the former police chief in Fairfield, who is now the director of public safety at Sacred Heart University. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What if someone tried to do what happened in New Orleans here in Connecticut? He said local departments can learn from how the attacker drove around barricades on Bourbon Street. To totally deter it from occurring would mean that you have barriers or something in place that will stop that vehicle in the first place from coming anywhere near a pedestrian, McNamara said. Ken Gray, a lecturer at the University of New Haven who spent years with the FVI, said that warnings were already out, but that everyone is now on alert. Vehicle ramming attacks were a real possibility, he said. The FBI had been warning about this, basically because of the Christmas market attack over in Germany. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least 2 dead, 60 hurt after car drives into German Christmas market in a suspected attack As we step into a new year, our hearts are with the people of New Orleans, Connecticut Public Safety Commissioner Ronnell Higgins wrote in a statement. We must remain vigilant in our pursuit of public safety as we continue to navigate the threat landscape. McNamara said the public can be vigilant, as well. Even online. Because we know this individual posted before the incident occurred, McNamara said. Now, whether it got to everyone or not, somebody saw it. So, we have an obligation, all of us, while were on social media: Report information thats concerning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McNamara added that if you do find yourself at an outdoor event, such as a parade, a festival or a celebration where you feel there might be vehicles coming by, find something solid like a utility pole to stand near so you can get protection if you need it. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A New Orleans celebration to ring in the New Year turned deadly on Wednesday morning after a U.S. Army veteran rammed a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people. Portland hospitals report first babies born in 2025 Oregon The FBI said theyre investigating the attack as a terrorist act and dont believe the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, acted alone. Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, was shot dead by police. Investigators later found guns, an apparent improvised explosive device and a flag of the Islamic State terrorist group in the car. The FBI also found other explosive devices elsewhere in New Orleans French Quarter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Joe Biden spoke on Wednesday evening. He said the FBI uncovered video of Jabbar saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressed a desire to kill. Biden offered his condolences to the families of those who died. Separately, in Las Vegas, a Cybertruck exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday, killing one and injuring seven others. So far, the FBI said that while terrorism hasnt been ruled out, theres currently no sign the incident is connected to the killings in New Orleans. KOIN 6 News talked with Dr. Randall Blazak, a Portland-based sociologist and expert on political extremism. Cure: PNW is the group Blazak leads, partially funded by the Department of Homeland Security, and focused on finding ways to de-escalate political violence. Dr. Randall Blazak (KOIN) He described the New Orleans attack as potentially a classic case of someone who becomes radicalized to commit an act of terror. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blazak stressed the power of early intervention and understanding the psychological triggers behind extremism. Rose Bowl: Oregon falls to Ohio State in rematch When it comes to how the country moves forward, Blazak said the million dollar question revolves around how much of our personal liberties are we willing to surrender for security and how much are we going to give up to to feel safe. Blazak said the country saw a similar push and pull in the aftermath of the terror attacks from September 11, 2001, when the U.S. rolled out the Transportation Security Administration and expanded surveillance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And so this is this balance that were always trying to strike. And theres sort of push on both sides, Blazak said. Blazak warned people against profiling. He said while some factors may raise red flags, its key to avoid stereotyping or oversimplifying groups of people. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. SEOUL, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Tensions ran high near the residence of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol Thursday, as rival protesters clashed and hundreds of supporters formed a blockade to prevent his imminent arrest. A South Korean court authorized a warrant Tuesday for Yoon's arrest on insurrection and abuse of power allegations following his short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3. Conservative supporters have gathered near his residence in Seoul's Hannam-dong neighborhood since the court's decision. Late Wednesday night, Yoon sent a defiant message to the crowd, vowing to "fight to the end to protect this country." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Republic of Korea is now in danger due to the forces of encroachment on sovereignty and anti-state forces both inside and outside the country," Yoon wrote in a letter shared widely on social media. "I will fight to the end to protect this country with you." The opposition Democratic Party, which led the successful impeachment motion, said that Yoon was still trying to complete his "insurrection" and called for his immediate arrest. Supporters gathered near the residence of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday to protest and try to impede his imminent arrest. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI "Yoon Suk Yeol has confirmed that he will not give up the insurrection until the end," party spokeswoman Ahn Gwi-ryeong said in a statement. "He is trying to incite his supporters to plunge the country into division and chaos." The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials has said that it will execute the warrant by Monday, before it expires. Yoon has made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, which his supporters echoed Thursday. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI Yoon claimed that he declared martial law to protect the public from the "pro-North Korea anti-state forces" in the Democratic Party. He has also frequently repeated unsubstantiated election fraud claims and recently said that there was evidence of a North Korean hacking attack on the National Election Commission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Supporters Thursday echoed Yoon's claims, with many carrying "Stop the Steal" signs alongside South Korean and United States flags. A police officer attempts to prevent a crowd of supporters from entering an intersection near Yoon's residence. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI "The Democratic Party has taken all the power and now they declared they are going to arrest President Yoon," rally participant T.S. Choe said. "So people are now recognizing that something is wrong. They're getting mad and they came here to lie down in front of his residence." Protesters shouted at police as officers forcibly removed dozens of supporters who had staged a sit-in to block access to Yoon's residence. Local media also reported on clashes between supporters and counter-protesters. Yoon is the first sitting South Korean president to face arrest. As of Thursday evening, the warrant had not yet been executed. Claim: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is the only U.S. president ever to not attend their successor's inauguration. Rating: Rating: False On Dec. 19, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden sat down for an interview with MeidasTouch News host Ben Meiselas. During the interview, Biden claimed that President-elect Donald Trump was the only president to ever skip the inauguration of a successor, saying: "The only president to ever avoid an inauguration was the guy that's about to be inaugurated." The quote was shared widely on multiple social media platforms. Many users praised Biden in the comments, with one Reddit post title reading "folks, he's still got it!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While it is true that Trump skipped Biden's inauguration in January 2021, he was not the first president to avoid a successor's inauguration. In fact, a handful of other presidents failed to appear at the next swearing-in. John Adams, the second U.S. president, lost to Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 election. According to the White House Historical Association, he left Washington at 4 a.m. on Jefferson's Inauguration Day. However, it may have been that Adams' departure was for security reasons, as tensions that election season were particularly high, with threats of violence from militia groups. John Quincy Adams, John Adams' son, followed in his father's footsteps when his successor, Andrew Jackson, won the bid for president in 1828. He left Washington the day before Jackson's inauguration following a contentious several years between the two Jackson's failure to pay John Quincy Adams the customary visit to him leading up to the inauguration was the final straw. Until Trump, Andrew Johnson was the last president to forego their successor's inauguration for political reasons. The relationship between Congress and Johnson experienced a slow deterioration until he ultimately became the first U.S. president to be impeached in 1868. In a biography of his successor, Ulysses S. Grant, Ron Chernow wrote that Johnson "swore he would not 'debase' himself by going to the ceremony." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of this writing, the details surrounding Martin Van Buren's absence at his successor's inauguration are unclear as to whether it was for personal or political reasons. Two other presidents missed the inauguration of their successor for other reasons: Woodrow Wilson, who was unable to attend his successor's inauguration because of a recent stroke, and Richard Nixon, who resigned amid the turmoil of the Watergate scandal and departed Washington before his vice president, Gerald Ford, assumed power. In sum, there is sufficient evidence showing that Trump was not "the only president to ever avoid an inauguration," as Biden claimed. Therefore, we rate this claim false. Sources: Chernow, Ron. Grant. New York : Penguin Press, 2017. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/grant0000cher. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 'Notably Absent: Presidential No-Shows on Inauguration Day'. WHHA (En-US), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/notably-absent-presidential-no-shows-on-inauguration-day. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024. Rosenthal, Annie. 'The First Time a U.S. President Skipped His Successor's Inauguration'. Politico, 8 Jan. 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/08/president-skip-successor-inauguration-history-jefferson-adams-trump-biden-456684. Sanford, Shannon. '9 Presidents Who Hid Health Issues'. Snopes, 19 Mar. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//list/9-presidents-who-hid-health-issues/. Waxman, Olivia B. '3 Presidents Who Did Not Attend Successors' Inaugurations'. TIME, 19 Jan. 2021, https://time.com/5928537/trump-biden-not-attend-inauguration-history/. - YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJfOAjUleTc. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024. In picking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, President-elect Donald Trump is elevating a small but growing segment of the population that distrusts vaccines and spreads or follows misinformation about them. Kennedy is a long-time vaccine skeptic who founded the major anti-vaccine group Childrens Health Defense and has repeatedly promoted a debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. Although he has recently distanced himself somewhat from this stance, declaring he would not take away anybodys vaccines after Trump was elected, his unorthodox views on medicine are raising concern from medical professionals and some on Capitol Hill. (That includes Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who wrote in a Dec. 13, 2024 statement that efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed theyre dangerous, and anyone seeking the Senates consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennedy has an ally, however, in Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a firm skeptic of COVID-19 vaccines who has promoted vaccine falsehoods. Johnson said on X that he could not be happier about Trump tapping Kennedy, and said he hopes to work very closely with him on exploring issues like vaccine efficacy. Asked on WISN Upfront Nov. 17, 2024, about his praise for Kennedy and false claims about vaccines causing autism, Johnson said he wants to look at uncorrupted science when determining vaccine safety and that people need to have the courage to ask what is causing this explosion in autism and chronic illness. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson makes remarks during the 2024 Republican Party Of Wisconsin State Convention, May 18, 2024 at the Fox Cities Exhibition Center in Appleton In fact, Johnson said, Theres never been a placebo-controlled study on childhood vaccines. Not one. Medical experts say hes wrong on that. Lets dig in. Vaccine skeptics debate meaning of placebo Asked for evidence of his claim, a spokesperson for Johnson sent a tweet from Aaron Siri, an attorney advising Kennedy. Siri shared a chart from the vaccine-skeptical group Informed Consent Action Network showing 17 vaccines that they allege were not licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration based on a long-term placebo-controlled trial, including vaccines for whooping cough; measles, mumps and rubella; HPV; COVID-19 and influenza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnsons office also shared an interview Kennedy did on The Joe Rogan Experience in which he recalled an exchange with Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Kennedy claimed he asked Fauci to present him with evidence that vaccines recommended for Americans had been tested in a placebo-controlled study, and that Fauci could not. Placebo-controlled trials are considered the gold standard for testing the safety and efficacy of a new vaccine, according to experts from the World Health Organization. The reason the placebo exists is to mimic the experience of getting the vaccine so the person receiving it doesnt know which group theyre in. Some groups that are skeptical of vaccine safety take issue with the definition of a placebo. Dr. Paul Offit, a physician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, wrote in a July 1, 2023 post on Substack that ICAN argues that the only true placebos are water and saltwater, which isnt true. Indeed, a wide range of placebos have been used in vaccine trials, Offit wrote. These placebos might contain buffers, stabilizing agents, emulsifying agents, or adjuvants, like aluminum salts. They might contain sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, sucrose or polysorbate-80 all meet the FDA criteria for a placebo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For example, RotaTeq, a vaccine for rotavirus, appears on the ICAN chart, which the group says was not licensed based on a placebo-controlled trial. According to the FDA, the placebo in that trial contained sucrose, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, tissue culture medium and polysorbate 80. When I look at the ICAN report, Im just wondering whether theyre playing with words a little bit, said Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. We often think of a placebo as a comparator group you have one group that receives the vaccine of interest and the other group receives something else. There have been childhood vaccine studies using saltwater placebos Still, even using that narrower definition of a placebo that its a simple saltwater solution Johnson is wrong. Here are a selection of childhood vaccines that went through placebo-controlled trials where the placebo used was a saline solution: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A rotavirus vaccine tested in South African infants and toddlers, as well as adults, between 2016 and 2017 Four live measles vaccines tested in Israeli children in the 1960s A human papillomavirus vaccine tested in adolescent boys and girls between 2003 and 2004 in 10 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Thus, its factually inaccurate for Johnson to say that there has never been a placebo-controlled study on childhood vaccines. Sometimes, new vaccines are tested against old vaccines Where else might these claims come from that vaccines havent undergone a placebo-controlled trial? In some situations, Moss said, the so-called comparator group may receive a previously approved vaccine that targets the same disease to determine whether a new vaccine performs better (or performs the same, and is cheaper to make). Why test a new vaccine against an old vaccine and not an inert placebo? If a vaccine against a disease already exists and is working, Moss explained, its unethical to deprive children of it just to conduct a study. Doing so would put them unknowingly at risk of contracting and getting sick from that disease. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In those cases, Moss said, the vaccine given to the comparator group would be a licensed and approved vaccine that would have gone through all the hurdles it takes to get to that. But as for Johnsons claim, he didnt get into these details. He simply said there has been not one placebo-controlled study on childhood vaccines. And hes wrong on that. Claims like these have the air of being scientific, Moss said. My sense is that this is an approach used by, say, RFK Jr., on calling for transparency in the data and more rigorous assessment of vaccines. Those are good things. I dont think anyone would argue against that. Theyre able to kind of twist it as a way to actually undermine vaccines, or at least induce skepticism. Our ruling Johnson stated that theres never been a placebo-controlled study on childhood vaccines. PolitiFact Truth-o-meter: False Medical experts say the evidence his office provided takes a narrow view of what a placebo is. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But even by that definition, there have been studies of childhood vaccines that were placebo-controlled. We rate this claim False. Sources University of Minnesota, US survey reveals growing distrust of vaccines, embrace of untruths, Nov. 1, 2023 Factcheck.org, What RFK Jr. Gets Wrong About Autism, Aug. 10, 2023 NBC News, After Trump win, RFK Jr. says he won't 'take away anybody's vaccines, Nov. 6, 2024 USA TODAY, Mitch McConnell takes a swipe at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over polio vaccine, Dec. 14, 2024 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 'He doesn't understand medicine is a science': Ron Johnson escalates 'guerrilla war' against medical establishment, May 5, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PolitiFact Wisconsin, Johnson wrong on claim that COVID vaccines are killing athletes on the playing field, Jan. 28, 2022 PolitiFact Wisconsin, What Ron Johnson gets wrong about the COVID-19 vaccines, April 23, 2021 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ron Johnson poised to scrutinize federal agencies, 'work closely' with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dec. 17, 2024 National Library of Medicine, Placebo use in vaccine trials: Recommendations of a WHO expert panel, Aug. 20, 2014 Substack, Paul Offit: The Casual Cruelty of Placebo-Controlled Trials, July 1, 2023 Interview with Dr. William Moss, executive director, International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Lancet, Safety and immunogenicity of a parenteral trivalent P2-VP8 subunit rotavirus vaccine: a multisite, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, July 2020 World Health Organization, A Comparative Study of Four Live Measles Vaccines in Israel, accessed Dec. 27, 2024 National Library of Medicine, PubMed, Safety and persistent immunogenicity of a quadrivalent human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, 18 L1 virus-like particle vaccine in preadolescents and adolescents: a randomized controlled trial, March 26, 2007 This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson claim about placebo-controlled vaccine trials is False By Michael Georgy, Menna AlaaElDin (Reuters) -Islamic State, the militant group that imposed hardline Islamist rule over millions of people in Syria and Iraq for years, has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. On Feb. 1, the media branch of IS's Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), circulated a post calling for lone wolf attacks in America and Europe following a New Year's truck attack in New Orleans, according to SITE Intelligence, which tracks jihadist groups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After a deadly stabbing attack on Saturday in the Austrian town of Villach, Austria's interior minister said the Syrian man suspected of carrying it out was believed to be an IS follower who was radicalised online. Here are some details about IS: RECENT ISLAMIC STATE OPERATIONS The group was implicated in the New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people and injured about 30 on New Year's Day. The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas who once served in Afghanistan, was flying an IS flag during the assault. Former U.S. President Joe Biden said the FBI reported to him that Jabbar had posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by IS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though largely crushed by a U.S.-led coalition several years ago, the group has managed to rebuild and regroup. It carried out an assault on a Russian concert hall in March 2024, killing at least 143 people, and two explosions that killed nearly 100 people in the Iranian city of Kerman in January. It also claimed responsibility for an assault by suicide attackers on a mosque in Oman last year, killing at least nine people. Then U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that IS will try to re-establish capabilities in Syria after the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad but said the United States is determined not to let that happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aside from its bloody operations in the Middle East, the group has also inspired lone wolf attacks in the West. In August 2024, authorities said a 19-year-old Austrian suspected of masterminding a planned attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna had vowed allegiance to the group's leader. HISTORY OF ISLAMIC STATE At the height of its power from 2014-2017, the IS "caliphate" held sway over a wide area of Syria and Iraq, imposing death and torture on opponents. Its fighters repeatedly defeated both countries' armies and carried out or inspired attacks in dozens of cities around the world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its then leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed in 2019 by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria, rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims. The caliphate collapsed in Iraq, where it once had a base only a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria after a sustained military campaign by a U.S.-led coalition. The new leader, known by the pseudonym Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, remains shrouded in secrecy. NEW TACTICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST IS has switched tactics since the collapse of its forces and a string of other setbacks in the Middle East. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once based in the Syrian city of Raqqa and the Iraqi city of Mosul, from where it sought to rule like a centralised government, the group took refuge in the hinterlands of the two fractured countries. Its fighters are scattered in autonomous cells, its leadership is clandestine and its overall size is hard to quantify. The U.N. estimates it at 10,000 in IS heartlands. The movement went underground with sleeper cells that launch hit-and-run attacks, according to an Iraqi government security adviser who helps to track IS. Some foreign fighters fled Iraq for countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan. Most have joined Islamic State's Khorasan branch (ISIS-K), named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is active along Iran's borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sanaullah Ghafari, the 29-year-old leader of the Afghan branch of IS, has overseen its transformation into one of the most fearsome branches of the global Islamist network, capable of operations far from its bases in Afghanistan's borderlands. ISLAMIC STATE ROLE IN AFRICA Islamic State - often called ISIS, ISIL or the pejorative Daesh - has also made its mark in parts of Africa. In Uganda, militants from the IS-connected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) staged a series of attacks including a massacre at a boarding school, the murder of a honeymooning couple and a village raid that killed at least three people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group, which started as an uprising in Uganda, has largely moved operations to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has staged multiple attacks. Several other groups have pledged allegiance to IS in West Africa and across the Sahel. Affiliates have control of large areas of rural Mali, Niger, northern Burkina Faso and into North Africa. In January 2023 the U.S. military carried out an operation that killed a senior IS leader in northern Somalia. The U.N. fears militant groups could exploit the political instability in Sudan, which is gripped by a civil war. OVERALL STRENGTH OF ISLAMIC STATE Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center has said the threat posed by IS and militant group al Qaeda "is at a low point with the suppression of the most dangerous elements". But it went on to warn that half of IS's branches are now active in insurgencies across Africa and "may be poised for further expansion". (Editing by Helen Popper) (Natalie Bencivenga) We head into 2025 with not only a second term for President-elect Donald Trump in front of us but a red wave that unseated longtime Democrats, like Pennsylvanias Sen. Bob Casey after 18 years. So where does this leave the left? Some are saying the Democrats are too liberal, too focused on woke policies and out of touch with the average person. Others say the Democrats leaned too right and didnt focus on issues that mattered to Americans during the November election. Well, I say its time we lean into policies that focus on the two big Hs Healthcare and Housing and recenter the Democratic Party on ideologies that empower everyday people to live their best lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive talked a lot about the inequities facing everyday Americans no matter their political affiliations in these segments and what unites us is the reality that the cost of living is too high. People cant make the rent, they cant afford to buy a house and healthcare has become so out of reach that both the insured and uninsured cant afford to get sick. Democrats in office should be pushing policies that support healthcare for all, housing policies that support renters as well as homeowners, paid leave for all, raising the minimum wage to at least $25 an hour, end the student loan crisis, support sensible gun reform as well as supporting campaign finance reform. Until we repeal Citizens United, and remove super PACs which act as a shadow government where government does corporations bidding, we will never see the policies that support we the people put into place. And that, my friends, is a fact. The family of Kenneth Taylor says the city of Black River Falls and its police department brushed off their concerns when he was reported missing and in the years since his death. (Graphic by Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner, Photos courtesy of City of Black River Falls, U.S. Geological Survey, Joy Taylor) The Wisconsin Examiners Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation On the night of Sept. 9, 2022, 20-year-old Kenneth Taylor called his aunt, Cheyenne Taylor, asking if she could drive three hours south from Hayward to Black River Falls to pick him up something she says happened regularly. Cheyennes boyfriend answered the phone and he said they could come down to get him in the morning from the motel where he was staying. Kenneth, a member of the St. Croix Chippewa tribe, had spent the night hanging out with his girlfriend, who told police theyd been drinking. That night, he posted on Facebook asking for help with his depression. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The couple left Hayward around 8 a.m. but, Cheyenne says, as they got on I-94 near Eau Claire, she got a sick feeling in her stomach because her nephew wasnt answering his phone. Cheyenne spent much of the day driving the unfamiliar streets of Black River Falls looking for him. Soon, other members of the family got involved in the search. During the first day Kenneth was missing, multiple family members turned to the police for help. But Cheyenne and Kenneths stepmother, Joy Taylor, say they were told by an officer that maybe he didnt want to be found, and that as an adult he had the right to choose to disappear. As the family got more desperate, a police report notes that officers werent concerned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kenneth was not entered as missing due to there being little to no evidence to support that he was in immediate danger to himself at that point in time, the report, filed by Black River Falls Police Officer Charles Smart, states. Eventually, the family turned to resources offered by the states missing and murdered indigenous people (MMIP) task force. With that help, Kenneth was finally officially reported missing and search and rescue teams were on the ground in Black River Falls by the morning of Sept. 11 two days after his aunt last heard from him. Around 4:30 p.m. on the same day the search began, Kenneth was found dead, hanging from a tree by his backpack strap in a small patch of woods in Black River Falls. For family members and advocates for missing and murdered indigenous people, the official response in Kenneths case once he went missing and during the investigation into his death exemplify the ways in which a bureaucratic system dismisses the concerns of Native American families even as Wisconsin works to improve its response to these types of cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Families are in a process of grief, taking care of their loved ones, in a state of traumatic shock, they are navigating through a system that is not being supportive of their needs, says Rene Ann Goodrich, a Bad River tribal member who serves on the Wisconsin MMIW Task Force. In the years since Kenneths death, his family has tried to process the grief and trauma while continuing to search for answers about what happened without much help from local officials. Several members of the family remain unconvinced that Kenneths death was a suicide, saying they believe there was foul play involved. Other family members believe the coroner wasnt entirely thorough in her assessment of the scene where his body was found. They also have questions about the results of the autopsy, which was conducted by a lab in Minnesota. Aside from their questions about the conclusions made in Kenneths case, family members told the Wisconsin Examiner they feel as if theyve been brushed off by city officials. Contemporaneous notes taken by MMIP advocates and complaints filed by family members alleging their rights as victims have been violated highlight the familys numerous unsuccessful attempts to speak with Black River Falls officials. The state Department of Justice dismissed the familys complaints against the city because Kenneths death was ruled a suicide and therefore his relatives do not qualify as crime victims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Throughout the death of my son, Black River Falls Police Department has shown little regard for what happened to my son based on the investigation and unwillingness to speak with the family, Kenneth Taylor Sr. wrote in a 2023 letter to the Wisconsin Crime Victims Rights Board. [We] have tried constantly to get answers and meetings. There are many discrepancies in the information the family has received from involved agencies. According to several members of the Taylor family, they were told by multiple Black River Falls law enforcement and city officials that theyd been advised by the city attorney not to speak with them. No one would ever talk to us, Joy Taylor says. They would cancel the appointments. I even went as far as calling the mayor, and he stated that no one was going to talk to me about this case, that they have been advised not to talk to anyone. Why, on a suicide case, would you not talk to someone if it was so cut and dried? Why wouldnt you talk to me? Black River Falls officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story. Black River Falls settles with Wisconsin Examiner in open records lawsuit In the process of reporting this story, the Wisconsin Examiner filed an open records request with the city of Black River Falls seeking the email communications of several city government and police department officials about the case and the Taylor family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city said it would cost $4,400, plus $225 per hour spent reviewing the city attorneys emails, to complete the request, stating that the cost was because the city uses a third party company, Tech Pros, to store its email archives. The city also told the Examiner it has no contract, written agreement or memorandum of understanding with Tech Pros for outsourcing storage of the archive. In emails obtained by the Examiner between Tech Pros and city staff, the company told officials that in order to complete the search for emails, the company would need to purchase 10 Microsoft Purview E-Discovery Licenses at $144 apiece and it would spend 20 hours on the request, billed at $150/hr. After multiple amendments narrowing the initial request in attempts to bring down the cost, the quoted price to obtain the records was $1,200 plus $450 for searching the city attorneys emails. The Examiner filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing that state law only allows governments to charge for the direct costs of searching for records and passing along the cost to have an outside party conduct that search is not direct. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In October, the city provided the requested records and in December, the Examiner reached a settlement with the city in which the city agreed to move its email storage to a single cloud-based server which wouldnt incur the costs associated with outsourcing a third-party to complete the search. Tom Kamenick, the attorney for the Examiner, says the settlement will prevent anyone seeking records from Black River Falls in the future from being charged unnecessarily high fees. This case was not just about getting the records, Kamenick says. It was also about making sure that future requesters wouldnt be overcharged. We would not agree to settle the case until Black River Falls revamped its record storage procedures. Were very pleased that the city agreed to do that, and they now store their records centrally, on the cloud, so that they can more easily be searched by Black River Falls own people instead of an external vendor. Charging exorbitant fees can be just as effective at deterring requests as outright denials. Government records are our records, we cant tolerate these kinds of obstacles. Goodrich, who still has questions about her own daughters death, says its difficult for families when their relatives cause of death is identified as a suicide or overdose because from law enforcements perspective, that ends the case. Yet families still have questions about what led up to their loved ones death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Families need to feel that they are included and at that table in the investigative process, and right now they are not feeling that support, Goodrich says. It doesnt help assure families that justice will be served when theyre told Well, we cant talk to you anymore, we cant share any more information with you, youre going to have to talk to the county attorney. That is closing conversations and the door to families as they are sharing their valid concerns and information. Families really dont need that type of grief as theyre trying to navigate the system and make sense of what happened. This contributes to and creates more trauma. Goodrich adds that what will help state and local governments in Wisconsin better handle MMIP cases is the creation of a new statewide office to help train local law enforcement and coordinate investigations. Kristen Welch, a member of Wisconsins Task Force for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women who worked with the Taylor family, says the government response to Kenneths case fits a pattern. Its a patterned response. So what they experienced, like the delay in filing the initial report, is very common, Welch says, adding that some of that treatment stems from bias against Native Americans but also from a lack of training and standardized practices across law enforcement agencies. [This] sort of really rude treatment, those are all common responses for family members that are just trying to get case information. I dont know why they feel that thats OK, and they could really solve a lot of their own problems if they just sat down with this family, answered questions and shared the case information with them. I think a lot of the frustration would have been put to ease, but it again, is a training and protocol issue within their departments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Welch says that in hearings on MMIP issues that have been held across the state and country, this was a common theme. That was like the common pattern treatment of response and at the federal level too, she says. So that was from Alaska all the way to the Midwest. We held hearings, and you heard the same story from our family members, the mistreatment and just lack of compassion and respect for families who are going through an incredible trauma and carry that, and just want someone to show them a little compassion. In the years since Kenneths death, the family had used the tree where he was found as a makeshift memorial, bringing food, flowers and tobacco to the site. But this year, the whole area was clear cut, adding to the familys distress. It was like where his soul left his body pretty much, Kenneths aunt, Cheyenne, says. And then they went and cut it down. Why? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Cheyenne says shes trying to keep moving forward for her own children, while trying to remember how cheerful and outgoing Kenneth was and how much he loved his kids one of whom never got to meet him. It took me this long to finally accept that hes gone and hes not coming back, she says. He was always there for me, just like I was for him. And there was nothing in this world I would never do for him. And he knew it. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The man killed in a stabbing at a Windom bar on New Year's Eve has been identified by family as 30-year-old Benjamin Matter, a father-of-two who was engaged to his high school sweetheart. The Windom Police Department said Matter and a 31-year-old man were found with stab wounds at the Phat Pheasant Pub shortly before midnight Tuesday. Matter died after being taken to the hospital. A 26-year-old San Diego, California man was arrested in connection with the incident, police said. He was booked into the Cottonwood County Jail after being treated for minor injuries at a local hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A GoFundMe page is raising support for Matter's fiancee, Cara, and his two children, Aria and Brian. Main fundraiser photo In Memory of Ben Matter via GoFundMe. "Ben was [an] outstanding, handsome, smart, caring, generous, hilarious, hardworking, fun to be around man," the fundraiser states. "He would do anything for anyone at anytime, it was just who he was and always cared & helped others even people he did not know." His mother, Sheila Matter Woelfel, shared in a statement that Matter was a "devoted father and son" who died as the victim of a violent crime. "Benjamin was a brave man, and we all love him," she wrote on GoFundMe. Police have not indicated the circumstances surrounding the stabbing, which remains under investigation. Detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department are asking for the publics help in locating an at-risk 51-year-old man missing out of Compton. Richard Gillett was last seen in the 800 block of South Center Avenue at around 1 p.m. on Jan. 1, authorities said in a missing persons bulletin. The 51-year-old is described as a Black male standing just under 5 feet tall, weighing around 100 pounds with brown eyes, curly gray hair and has missing front teeth. Richard Gillett, 51, seen in this undated photo released by the L.A. County Sheriffs Dept. on Jan. 1, 2025. He was last seen wearing white pants, a white jacket with black markings, black shoes and a gold watch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police find woman, 33, dead in her Southern California apartment Mr. Gillett has a moderate intellectual disability and requires medication, the bulletin noted. His family is concerned for his wellbeing and asking for the publics help. Anyone with information on his whereabouts or who may have seen him is urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments Missing Persons Unit at 323-890-5500. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call the L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-222-8477 or leave tips online at www.lacrimestoppers.org. A critically missing or at-risk person is defined as: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A person who has no pattern of running away or disappearing A person in critical need of medical attention The victim of a crime or foul play The victim of a kidnapping or parental abduction A person who is mentally impaired to the extent that such person is unable to care for him or herself or is an immediate danger to his or her own safety or the safety of others Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. ST. LOUIS Clouds are back Thursday, with highs set to be in the low 40s. A small storm system will move across Missouri and Illinois late in the day. This will likely bring some snow closer to the Missouri/Iowa border and into western Illinois. Closer to St. Louis, precipitation chances get spottier, and temps get warmer. So, lets watch for some scattered rain late Thursday afternoon and evening. Well, north of I-70, some snowflakes may mix in. This system is done by midnight, and well see clearing skies. Breezy overnight, wake-up temperatures in the upper 20s. Quiet and cold Friday and Saturday with highs close to freezing. A significant winter storm system arrives late Saturday night and continues Sunday and into Monday. The entire viewing area will be impacted but the exact path and timing of the storm are still in flux. How much snow will St. Louis get this weekend? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of this writing, we have the potential for significant snow north of metro St. Louis and significant icing farther south. Right now, the metro St. Louis area is right on the line between the two and could see things start as snow, switch to an icy mix, then go back to snow. This storm is still way out over the Pacific and well be able to get a better handle on the track once the energy gets over land on Friday. We will be continually updating the forecast with the latest information. This will have significant impacts on post-holiday back-to-school/work Monday. Heads up, things also get very cold behind this storm early next week. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. Investigators are probing whether the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas that killed its driver and injured at least seven others was linked to another attack in New Orleans, in which a suspect drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd of pedestrians. The Cybertruck, driven by a man identified as Matthew Livelsberger, an active duty U.S. Army Special Operations Soldier, was filed with gas canisters, camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars, police say, and detonated on Wednesday morning, hours after the mass killing in New Orleans that claimed 15 lives. Videos posted to social media showed the vehicle aflame in front of the hotel's entrance and people being escorted out of the building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said at a press conference Wednesday that authorities believe this to be an isolated incident, but have not yet ruled out a connection to the New Orleans attack. President Joe Biden confirmed later in the day that law enforcement was searching for any potential links. Law enforcement, the intelligence community are investigating the Las Vegas explosion, including whether there is any possible connection to the attack in New Orleans, Biden said to reporters at Camp David. While there is no indication yet that Livelsberger had any association with ISIS, whose flag was found in the back of the New Orleans pickup truck, the FBI is still investigating whether the explosion was an act of terrorism or not. I know everybodys interested in that word and trying to see if we can say, Hey this is a terrorist attack, said Jeremy Schwartz, the acting FBI special agent responsible for Las Vegas. That is our goal, and thats what were trying to do. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to multiple reports, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the now-dead suspect in the New Orleans case, had become "radicalized" and recorded several videos of himself expounding on dreams that inspired him to join ISIS, which U.S. officials have warned is re-emerging as a potential threat to the homeland. Both Livelsberger and Jabbar obtained their vehicles from Turo, a car rental app. Authorities traced the Cybertruck back to Colorado using surveillance video from charging stations along the driver's route, later confirming the driver's identity as a resident of Colorado Springs. Sheriff McMahill said he believed the Turo connection was nothing more than a "coincidence." A Turo spokesperson told the New York Times that neither Livelsberger nor Jabbar had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. Police block roads after a vehicle exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. - Credit: Noble Brigham/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Local authorities and the FBI are investigating a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas that left one person dead on Wednesday morning. The driver of the car was killed in the blast and at least seven people who were nearby sustained minor injuries, officials said. On Thursday, authorities identified the suspect as Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old resident of Colorado Springs, Colorado. More from Rolling Stone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The truck had pulled up to the hotels front lobby doors around 8:40 a.m., according to officials, and the vehicle soon began smoking from the inside. Seconds later, the car exploded, sending shrapnel flying. In footage circulating on social media, it appeared that fireworks were also coming from the burned-out car. In a video posted on X, a purported guest posted a clip from inside the hotel that shows the truck ablaze and what sounds like numerous fireworks going off. According to the Guardian, Livelsberger served 19 years in the military, including a stint at the same base where Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in the New Orleans terror attack the same day, was stationed. Like Jabbar, Livelsberger also rented the vehicle used in the incident on the Turo app; authorities are investigating whether there is a link between the two suspects and incidents. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, claimed the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion, he wrote on X, later claiming that law enforcement currently believes [the explosion] was most likely intentional. The incident is reportedly being investigated as a possible terrorist act, according to CNN. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to Rolling Stones request for comment. Special agent Jeremy Schwartz said the FBI was deploying additional resources to figure out exactly what happened, noting there were several unanswered questions. Obviously, a Cybertruck, the Trump Hotel theres lots of questions that we have to answer as we move forward, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference. Trump has not issued a statement on the explosion, but his son Eric J. Trump, who is a senior executive of the Trump Organization, said the safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism, he said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The explosion came hours after New Orleans was rocked by a deadly attack on New Years Day in what the FBI has called a terrorist act. At least 10 people were killed and more than 30 others were injured when a truck appeared to purposefully be driven into a crowd on Bourbon Street. A man later emerged from the car and opened fire. Police killed the suspect, who was identified by authorities as Texas resident and army veteran Shamsud Din Jabbar. Were very well aware of what has happened in New Orleans with the event that occurred there, McMahill added. As you can imagine, with an explosion here on an iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe. Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. US security authorities are investigating whether the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas might have been a terrorist attack, FBI lead agent Jeremy Schwartz said on Wednesday at a press conference. The explosion killed the Cybertruck's driver and slightly injured seven, the Las Vegas police said. Schwartz did not provide details about the person killed in the explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters at a separate press conference that authorities do know the name of the person who rented the truck and he acknowledged that a name is floating around social media, but would not comment further. He said it is important that next of kin be notified and that "we have a 100% identification." He did say that the truck was rented in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas around 7:30 am (1550 GMT) on Wednesday and drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before then driving to the hotel. The vehicle stopped directly in front of the glass entrance doors of the luxurious building on Wednesday morning and exploded about 20 seconds after stopping, McMahill said. His office has not yet determined what triggered the explosion, as the vehicle has not yet been processed. He showed surveillance footage showing smoke emanating from the vehicle, which culminated in a powerful detonation. Later, additional drone footage captured the aftermath. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The images revealed the charred remnants of several petrol canisters and fireworks. The electric vehicle was completely destroyed by the fire. Cybertruck in Vegas and pickup in New Orleans rented from same company The vehicle involved in the Trump hotel incident had been rented through the same rental website used by the New Orleans attacker, who drove a pick-up truck into a crowd celebrating on New Year's morning, killing 15 people, McMahill said. A potential connection to the explosion in Las Vegas, which occurred only a few hours later, is being examined, the sheriff said. "We are not ruling anything out." There are currently no indications of a connection to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization, as had been suggested in New Orleans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There was no overt ISIS flag as was seen in New Orleans," McMahill said, but stressed that the investigation is looking at all angles. McMahill said there is no further threat to the community and his office believes any danger to the public from this attack is over. Musk: Cause was large fireworks and/or bomb The Cybertruck is an electric pick-up with a distinctive stainless steel body, built by the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, whose chief executive is Elon Musk. The tech billionaire, who also owns the internet platform X, is considered a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, whose company owns the Las Vegas hotel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk initially announced investigations on X and later posted: "We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself." He did not provide evidence or cite a source for this claim. Later Musk posted, without providing evidence, that the explosion "appears likely to be an act of terrorism." LVMPD Sheriff McMahill did thank Musk for providing details about the Cybertruck and also information from the Tesla charging stations that were used on the truck's trip from its Colorado rental location to Las Vegas. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday said that the perpetrator of the deadly car-ramming attack in New Orleans on New Year's morning acted alone. "As were being transparent, unfortunately, there is some information that we have to go back and correct," Christopher Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, told a press conference. "Were confident at this point that there are no accomplices." The police had previously said they were looking for possible accomplices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI also emphasized that there is currently no connection between the attack in New Orleans and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas, which also occurred on New Year's morning. At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured after the suspect intentionally drove into a crowd of New Year's revellers in New Orleans's French Quarter, a popular nightlife district renowned for its Mardi Gras celebrations. The suspect, who was a US citizen born in Texas, allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers before being killed in the confrontation, investigators said. The FBI categorized the attack in New Orleans as an act of terrorism. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday said that the perpetrator of the deadly car-ramming attack in New Orleans on New Year's morning acted alone. "As were being transparent, unfortunately, there is some information that we have to go back and correct," Christopher Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, told a press conference. "Were confident at this point that there are no accomplices." The police had previously said they were looking for possible collaborators. The FBI also revised the number of people killed in the attack from 15 to 14. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens were injured after the suspect intentionally drove into a crowd of New Year's revellers in New Orleans's French Quarter, a popular nightlife district renowned for its Mardi Gras celebrations. The FBI also emphasized that there is currently no connection between the attack in New Orleans and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas, which also occurred on New Year's morning. The incidents occurred a few hours apart. The suspect, who was a US citizen born in Texas, allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers before being killed in the confrontation, investigators said. The FBI categorized the attack in New Orleans as an act of terrorism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emergency services found possible explosives and a flag from the extremist group Islamic State in the vehicle. The group is categorized as a terrorist organization by several governments. According to the FBI, there were also weapons in the pickup truck. Possible explosive devices were also discovered inside and outside the car. It was also initially unclear whether the perpetrator had accomplices. Lack of security barriers before deadly rampage New Orleans reportedly lacked bollards that could have stopped the driver from going on the deadly rampage, with the perpetrator driving around a police car that was intended to block access, authorities have said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We had patrol cars out there as a hard target," said New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick at a news conference on Wednesday. "This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target." The bollards, which normally block traffic during major events on Bourbon Street, were not in use on New Year's Eve. According to information on the Public Works website of the City of New Orleans, they were to be replaced. Construction began in November and was set to continue until February, when the city is set to host the Super Bowl. A police car was parked at the site as a replacement. Other barriers and police patrols were also deployed to protect pedestrians, authorities said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it," Kirkpatrick said. Exactly how the perpetrator managed to drive a pickup truck past the safety precautions and into the crowd is being investigated. Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas Elsewhere in the US on New Year's morning, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. US investigators had previously been looking into a possible connection between the deadly car-ramming attack in New Orleans and the Las Vegas incident. Seven people suffered minor injuries and the male driver of the exploded vehicle was burnt to death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Las Vegas, investigators found charred remains of petrol canisters and fireworks on the loading area of the burnt Tesla. So far, there is no evidence of a connection to Islamic State in the Las Vegas case and the FBI and police said it appears to be an isolated incident. Both the pickup truck that drove into the crowd in New Orleans and the Tesla Cybertruck had been hired through the major US car hire company Turo, police said. The Cybertruck is an electric pick-up with a distinctive stainless steel body, built by the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, whose chief executive is Elon Musk. The tech billionaire, who also owns the internet platform X, is considered a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, whose company owns the Las Vegas hotel. Investigations are ongoing for both incidents. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday said that the perpetrator of the deadly car-ramming attack in New Orleans on New Year's morning acted alone. "As were being transparent, unfortunately, there is some information that we have to go back and correct," Christopher Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, told a press conference. "Were confident at this point that there are no accomplices." The police had previously said they were looking for possible collaborators. The FBI also revised the number of people killed in the attack from 15 to 14. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens were injured after the suspect intentionally drove into a crowd of New Year's revellers in New Orleans's French Quarter, a popular nightlife district renowned for its Mardi Gras celebrations. The FBI also emphasized that there is currently no connection between the attack in New Orleans and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas, which also occurred on New Year's morning. The incidents occurred a few hours apart. However both the pickup truck in the New Orleans ramming and the Tesla Cybertruck had been hired through the major US car hire company Turo, police said. Las Vegas Sheriff: "I'm comfortable calling it a suicide" In the Las Vegas incident, Las Vegas Municipal Police Department (LVMPD) Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters that the man who drove the Cybertruck bore a gunshot wound to the head and a pistol was found in the footwell of the car. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I'm comfortable calling it a suicide," media quoted McMahill as saying at a press conference on Thursday. It was difficult to identify the person because he was burnt beyond recognition, he said. However, there are numerous indications that it is Matthew Alan L - a US soldier who also served in Germany, according to the sheriff. Final confirmation that he really was the occupant of the car could only be given after a DNA test. Citing security circles, several US media outlets had previously reported that the dead man in the car was the person named by McMahill and that he had also rented the car. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The US Army published information about the man, but made no reference to Las Vegas. According to the information, L was a member of the Green Berets special unit and was on leave at the time of his death. McMahill said the 37-year-old had spent most of his time at the Fort Carson base in the US state of Colorado and in Germany. He had returned from Germany on an authorised leave, he added. L is originally from Colorado Springs. According to the US Army's website, the special Green Berets unit are elite soldiers who specialise in guerrilla warfare and unconventional tactics in foreign missions. However, one of the investigators in the case said that the level of the explosive materials handling was not what we would expect from a person with this kind of military experience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Cybertruck is an electric pick-up with a distinctive stainless steel body, built by the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, whose chief executive is Elon Musk. The tech billionaire, who also owns the internet platform X, is considered a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, whose company owns the Las Vegas hotel. New Orleans suspect was a Texas native In the car-ramming incident in New Orleans, the suspect, who was a US citizen born in Texas, allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers before being killed in the confrontation, investigators said. The FBI categorized the attack as an act of terrorism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emergency services found possible explosives and a flag from the extremist group Islamic State in the vehicle. The group is categorized as a terrorist organization by several governments. According to the FBI, there were also weapons in the pickup truck. Possible explosive devices were also discovered inside and outside the car. It was also initially unclear whether the perpetrator had accomplices. Lack of security barriers before deadly rampage New Orleans reportedly lacked bollards that could have stopped the driver from going on the deadly rampage, with the perpetrator driving around a police car that was intended to block access, authorities have said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bollards were scheduled to be replaced. Construction began in November and was set to continue until February, when the city is set to host the Super Bowl. Apart from the police car parked as a replacement, other barriers and police patrols were also deployed to protect pedestrians, authorities said. "We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it," New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said at a press conference on Wednesday. Exactly how the perpetrator managed to drive a pickup truck past the safety precautions and into the crowd is being investigated. Investigations are ongoing for both incidents. Law enforcement officials said Thursday that Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone when he planted two improvised explosive devices and then sped a truck into a crowd on New Orleans iconic Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Years Day. Fourteen people have died and at least 35 more were injured in what FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia at a news conference called an act of terrorism. Raia said that while an investigation is ongoing, there is no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and a spectacular explosion in Las Vegas that occurred later the same day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In that incident, the driver of a Tesla Cybertruck died after pulling up outside a hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump near the Las Vegas Strip. Authorities said Thursday they believe the man was Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old active-duty soldier on leave from Germany. Investigators believe he shot himself in the head before the vehicle burned, but so far no clear motive has been found. The Associated Press reported that both Jabbar and Livelsberger spent time at Fort Bragg, now called Fort Liberty, although they did not overlap. Both vehicles had also been rented using the car rental app Turo. President Joe Biden reiterated in a news conference that the FBI has found no connection between the two events, but he instructed them to keep looking. Jabbar, 42, had made his intentions clear on social media, according to officials. He wanted to show support for the Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIS, Raia said, noting that Jabbar posted four videos to Facebook shortly before he drove onto Bourbon Street. Jabbar said in one of them that he initially thought about harming his friends and family but worried that if he did so, the media would focus less on what he called the war between the believers and the disbelievers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar claimed to have joined ISIS last summer, according to Raia. Lawmakers in Congress told The New York Post that Jabbar was not on any terror watch lists. Bourbon Street was reopened to the public Thursday morning, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said. The Sugar Bowl, a college football matchup between Notre Dame and Georgia, is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. Central Time on Thursday. We do not believe the public is in any danger, Raia said. Jabbar is believed to have rented the white Ford truck in Houston on Dec. 30 before driving to New Orleans, speeding through the tourist hot spot around 3 a.m. with an ISIS flag hanging off the truck. He got out of the vehicle, opened fire with police and was shot dead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Surveillance footage also captured Jabbar placing coolers containing explosive devices at different spots near Bourbon Street, Raia said, contradicting earlier reports indicating that Jabbar had accomplices and there had been a greater number of bombs. Were confident, at this point, that there are no accomplices, Raia told reporters Thursday. Jabbar had a remote detonator with him in the truck, Biden said from the White House. It is unclear why the devices did not explode. Two laptops and three phones linked to Jabbar are being analyzed. He left behind a will. Authorities are also searching for clues at a house in Mandeville, Louisiana, just north of New Orleans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joshua Jackson, special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed there had been a fire at the Mandeville address, but said that it likely started after Jabbar died. He hypothesized that the fire might have been rigged to start at a certain time. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) likened the nascent investigation to starting a jigsaw puzzle. From yesterday to today, over 1,000 law enforcement agents and officers, men and women, have been poring over countless amounts of data, videos, surveillances, interviews, tracking down every possible lead that came to us, Landry said. Related... (Bloomberg) -- Investigators say they havent found evidence linking separate deadly attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas, as the FBI continues to probe two incidents that rattled Americans as they rang in 2025. Most Read from Bloomberg The tragedies, which occurred just hours apart early on Jan. 1, have prompted heightened concerns over US security less than three weeks before Donald Trump is set to take over as president. Trump, President Joe Biden and congressional leaders have all weighed in on the events and authorities called the New Orleans attack an act of terrorism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At this point there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas, Federal Bureau of Investigation deputy assistant director Christopher Raia told a news conference. Officials at a press conference in Las Vegas added that authorities are still on the lookout for any potential links. Biden at the White House on Thursday said that hes directed authorities to accelerate their investigations into both attacks. Federal law enforcement and the intelligence community are actively investigating any foreign or domestic contacts and connection that could possibly be relevant to the attack, Biden said, adding that as of now they have not found evidence of a link between the suspects in the two attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The New Orleans assault, in which a truck plowed into a crowded French Quarter street during New Years celebrations, left 15 people dead and more than 30 injured. The suspect identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar was killed at the scene after a confrontation with law enforcement. Authorities said they discovered two improvised explosive devices in coolers near the scene of the attack and an ISIS flag in Jabbars vehicle. Investigators believe Jabbar picked up the rented Ford truck in Houston on Dec. 30 before driving to New Orleans the next day. They said he posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming support for ISIS and claiming he had joined the group earlier in the summer. The FBI recovered three mobile phones and two laptops used by Jabbar, which investigators are exploiting for intelligence, Raia said. As a potential motive, Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas who served in the military, posted a video on social media saying there is a war between the believers and disbelievers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Horrific Act However, investigators havent found any evidence at this time showing that ISIS directed the attack, according to a US official who asked not to be identified speaking about details of the investigation. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry condemned the attack as a horrific act of violence and said that more than 1,000 law enforcement officers are analyzing vast amounts of data and surveillance footage. Although the investigation is ongoing, by Thursday US officials had determined that Jabbar acted alone. Raia, the FBI official, told reporters that officials were confident that Jabbar didnt have accomplices. We do not believe the public is in any danger around any of these locations, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel hours later, leaving the driver dead and injuring seven others. The driver, Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, was on leave from the US Army from his post in Germany. Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 and drove to Las Vegas, where the vehicle exploded 17 seconds after he arrived at the hotel valet, according to police. At a press conference on Thursday, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the driver sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound before the explosion, with a handgun found at his feet. The body was burned beyond recognition, and authorities are awaiting medical records or DNA to conclusively confirm his identity. However, tattoos and personal documents, including his military ID, have helped authorities identify him as Livelsberger, said McMahill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two semi-automatic firearms purchased legally on Dec. 30 were also recovered from the scene. While McMahill noted there are very strange similarities between both New Orleans and Las Vegas suspects, officials said theres currently no information linking the suspect to an international terrorist group. --With assistance from Stephanie Stoughton, John Gittelsohn, Hadriana Lowenkron and Skylar Woodhouse. (Updates with comment from Biden in fifth paragraph.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. The FBI has done a 180 on its previous belief that the New Orleans attacker might have had support for the horror New Years Day rampage that killed 14 revelers. The FBI identified Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, as the suspect who drove a truck carrying explosives and an ISIS flag into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring more than 30. He then allegedly opened fire on police and was killed in a shoot-out. BREAKING: FBI confirms the New Orleans truck attacker acted alone, calls it an 'act of terrorism'. -2 IED's were found in coolers near the crime scene. -Surveillance video shows Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar placing the devices, before he carried out the attack on Bourbon Street. pic.twitter.com/5hfJ37qMRt Jake Whittenberg (@jwhittenbergK5) January 2, 2025 FBI assistant special agent Alethea Duncan said Wednesday that the agency did not believe Jabbar was solely responsible and were investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But now, in what Fox called a dramatic shift, the agency is confident that the alleged attacker did indeed act alone. FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia confirmed the agencys pivot on Thursday, calling the incident an act of terrorism and a premeditated and evil act. We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the subject youve already been briefed on, Raia said. Texas DPS photograph of the suspect / Texas DPS/via REUTERS He also said Jabbar, who reportedly claimed he joined ISIS before the summer, had drafted a last will and testament. This comes after FBI special agents and law enforcement partners conducted a number of court-authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agency also confirmed that 14 people were killed in the attack after the local coroners office had reported 15 casualties. After authorities initially floated the possibility that Jabbar had help planning his attack, the theory gained steam in MAGA circles, with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance falsely linking the mass killing to the southern border despite the suspect being a U.S. citizen. Trump said: When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. WATCH FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia on the New Orleans attack: This was an act of terrorismpremeditated and evil At this point, we believe Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone. https://t.co/Z5sdOknWIh pic.twitter.com/tgrQqanS5l Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 2, 2025 That post came mere minutes after Fox News incorrectly reported that the truck driven by the suspect had crossed into Texas from Mexico two days prior. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump then claimed he was right about everything early Thursday morning, even after the Fox report was proven wrong. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was quick to amplify the false claims, too. New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! She failed to retract her comments when the truth came out. Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Texas Republican and US Army veteran, was at it, too. The devastating terror attack in New Orleans has left many Americans asking a sobering question: Has the enemy already already infiltrated our borders due to Joe Bidens incompetence and his failure to secure our homeland? he wrote. Louisiana Republican senator John Kennedy also took heat after he held a press conference where he said he would would raise fresh hell if he is not satisfied with the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennedy said he would chase federal officials like they stole Christmas if they did not reveal the truth about the attack. Tim Speiss, a former senior secret service agent, told Fox News that the agency were probably trying to cover all bases before ruling out the involvement of potential planners and those who may have handled the logistics of the attack. With this person being former military personnel I tend to think that he was very independent, he knew what he needed to do for himself and he knew how to do it, Speiss said. I think that someone like this doesnt want to involve more people because then theres the chance of leaks. A federal appeals court struck down net neutrality on Thursday, ending the widely popular regulatory doctrine that mandated internet service providers to treat all internet traffic equally. The ruling from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ends a federal rule prohibiting broadband providers from throttling internet speeds or blocking traffic to specific sites. The FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies, the judges wrote, overturning what they called the Federal Communication Commissions heavy-handed regulatory regime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pro-consumer policy of net neutrality was implemented by President Barack Obama and gutted during Donald Trump's first term. It was reinstated in April of last year by the Biden administration. The now-defunct policy holds that internet carriers are akin to telecom providers and must comply with common carrier regulations governing those services. Telecom giants like Verizon and AT&T have opposed the policy for nearly a decade, spending big money to back anti-regulation candidates. The ruling, handed down on Thursday from three Republican judicial appointees, cited the Supreme Courts recent overturning of the long-held precedent of "Chevron deference," which asked lower courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretation of the law. Conservative federal courts have spent the last several years rolling back regulatory protections and the administrative state, with cases limiting the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency, pushing back against the Department of Education's authority to cancel student loans and blocking a Biden administration ban on trans healthcare discrimination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the ruling went against the wishes of American consumers and urged legislators to step in. "Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair. With this decision, it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law," Rosenworcel said in a statement. Beyond internet consumer concerns, the ruling is another major blow against regulatory authority to protect American consumers, critics argue. [The ruling] doesn't just kill net neutrality, it delivers the final killing blow to any sort of coherent federal consumer broadband protection, tech commentator Karl Bode said in a post to Bluesky. Federal authorities uncovered new details into the suspected terrorist attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people while probing possible links to a second New Year's Day incident in which a Tesla Cybertruck blew up outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. The timing of both acts of violence, just hours apart, has drawn suspicion. Officials revealed both men in the attacks served for years in the U.S. military, including for a time at the same base. The two men also rented the vehicles used in the attacks through Turo, a platform where people can rent cars directly from vehicle owners. But federal investigators stressed it remains unclear whether there was any coordination or if the perpetrators knew each other. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's an interesting thing during these kinds of investigations that if these turned out to be simply similarities very strange similarities to have so we're not prepared to rule in or rule out anything at this point," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. The incidents left the nation shaken, in part because officials on Wednesday suggested the man who drove through Bourbon Street plowing down pedestrians might have had accomplices. On Thursday, they said that they are now confident he acted alone and that they are not searching for other suspects. Read more: FBI investigating deadly Cybertruck explosion at Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, drove a rented pickup truck bearing a flag of the extremist group Islamic State from Houston to New Orleans on New Year's Eve. Early on New Year's Day, officials say he drove the truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attack killed 14 and injured 35 others, officials said. Police killed Jabbar after he got out of the truck and opened fire on officers, authorities said. Investigators found two explosive devices in coolers in New Orleans' French Quarter. Surveillance video showed Jabbar placing the items in the area several hours before the attack, according to the FBI. Law enforcement sources told The Times that the devices appeared to be homemade pipe bombs with nails. The devices did not go off. A barrier is seen on Royal Street after a vehicle drove into New Year's revelers in New Orleans' French Quarter on Wednesday. (George Walker IV / Associated Press) Jabbar was wearing body armor, law enforcement officials told The Times. Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Driver expressed desire to kill before ramming New Orleans revelers, Biden says; 15 dead in attack Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBIs counterterrorism division, said Thursday that the FBI discovered five videos Jabbar posted online hours before the attack, in which he stated he had joined Islamic State before the summer. In one video, Jabbar explained that he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was "concerned the news headlines would not focus on the war between the believers and the disbelievers," Raia said. "This was an act of terrorism," Raia said. "It was premeditated and an evil act." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a video on YouTube, Jabbar said he was born in Beaumont, Texas, and worked in human resources and information technology while in the Army. He described himself as a property manager and real estate agent. Officials are combing through data on three phones and two laptops linked to Jabbar to determine whether there are any other potential leads. The FBI is also probing the explosion of fuel canisters and firework mortars packed into the bed of a Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trumps property near the Las Vegas Strip that killed the driver and left seven bystanders with minor injuries, officials said. McMahill said authorities believe the driver was 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, but he cautioned that the body was burned beyond recognition so officials have not been able to positively identify him. However, authorities found military identification, credit cards and a passport with Livelsberger's name inside the vehicle, McMahill said at a news conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head before the blast. Two semiautomatic firearms, purchased by Livelsberger on Monday, were also found inside the vehicle, McMahill said. The Cybertruck in the Las Vegas incident and the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup used in the New Orleans attack were rented through Turo. A company spokesman said Turo is working with law enforcement, but that it does not believe that either renter had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Saturday and charged the vehicle at Tesla charging stations in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, McMahill said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A traffic camera recorded the Cybertruck arriving in Las Vegas about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. The truck traveled up and down the Strip for about an hour and spent some time in the parking lot of a business near Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard before pulling into the covered driveway outside the Trump International Hotel. The truck exploded about 17 seconds later, near the glass doors to the hotel's entrance, McMahill said. Read more: What we know about Shamsud-Din Jabbar, accused in deadly New Orleans attack The vehicle was caught on surveillance camera driving past the valet section of the hotel an hour before the incident, authorities said. Investigators have not yet figured out how the fireworks and gas and camping fuel canisters in the back of the vehicle were ignited. Federal officials are trying to determine the motive in the blast. Image from video provided by law enforcement shows items in the bed of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday. (Chase Stevens / Las Vegas Review-Journal via Associated Press) Livelsberger, who was from the Colorado Springs area, was a master sergeant in the Armys elite Green Berets unit, according to an Army statement and his LinkedIn profile. He spent most of his time at Ft. Carson in Colorado and in Germany, where he was serving with the 10th Special Forces Group. He was on leave from Germany at the time of the explosion, McMahill said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The blast did not cause significant damage to the body of the Cybertruck nor did it shatter the glass doors leading to the hotel lobby. Most of the material inside the vehicle was fuel to help cause a greater explosion, according to Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience," Cooper said. Both Livelsberger and Jabbar previously served at the Army's Ft. Bragg, now known as Ft. Liberty, in North Carolina, but it is unclear whether they served at the same time or in the same unit. Both also served in Afghanistan in 2009, though officials say they don't have any evidence they were in the same location in the country or in the same unit, McMahill said. Livelsberger entered active duty in the Army in December 2012 and was a candidate to be a Green Beret after serving in the Army Reserve and the National Guard, according to an Army spokesperson. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he became a remote and autonomous systems manager two months ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Facebook, Livelsberger posted in drone hobby groups showing off his projects. He asked fellow enthusiasts about which parts to use as he put together his own custom machines. He also criticized the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021, calling it on social media the "biggest foreign-policy failure in the history of the United States." The FBI, the ATF and the Colorado Springs Police Department served a search warrant Thursday morning at a home in Colorado Springs in connection with the explosion in Las Vegas. Federal authorities declined to provide additional details. Investigators are looking into whether the driver deliberately targeted one of Trumps properties using a Tesla vehicle. Elon Musk, Teslas chief executive, is a close advisor to the president-elect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There's investigative activity taking place literally around the globe," Las Vegas FBI Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans said. "At this particular time ... we have to focus on what we know and what we don't know. It's not lost on us that it's in front of the Trump building that it's a Tesla vehicle, but we don't have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it's because of this particular ideology or any of the reasoning behind it." Times staff writers Terry Castleman and Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The country decided on Nov. 5 that we'll see a second presidency from Donald Trump. Considered a political outcast following his loss in 2020 and an attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, Trump was elected to another term in a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. His win completes one of the most remarkable comebacks in political history after he was impeached twice, survived two assassination attempts and was convicted of 34 felony counts. Ultimately, the businessman-turned-politician surpassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory, scoring the support of every crucial battleground state and finishing with 312 votes vs. Harris' 226. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around the globe, some are celebrating and some are mourning the return of a president who was known by some as turbulent and unpredictable and others as a firm, dynamic leader. Trump's victory has ushered in praise from some right-wing world leaders and his business allies. It has also generated fear in a number of stakeholders like gun control advocates, LGBTQ+ activists and immigration agencies. The Enquirer wants to hear from you, our Greater Cincinnati readership how are you feeling about a second Trump presidency? Share your thoughts in this short Google form. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Tell us: How are you feeling about a second Trump presidency? Along Red Bird Court in Seminole, theres about two acres of grassy land full of invasive Brazilian pepper trees and a dock leading into the Gulf of Mexico. For years, one neighbor in the quiet subdivision controlled the vacant property. But when Michael Scurry moved in next door and tried to trim some of the trees, all hell broke loose. That dispute escalated into a bitter court battle thats dragged on for nearly six years and forced everyone on the block to choose sides. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case hinges on the piece of waterfront property that runs behind several homes in the Sea Pines subdivision. Scurrys neighbor, Bradley Berg, was able to buy the land from the subdivisions developer. But the neighborhoods founding documents show it never should have been up for grabs. Since the lawsuit was filed, neighbors have made a habit of calling the police on each other. One has set up a surveillance system to document squabbles. Another was driven out of a homeowners association meeting and accused of trespassing. Last year a Pinellas judge ruled that all homeowners should have access to the land. With tensions at an all-time high, the warring neighbors must now work together to manage the property that tore them apart. This is the ninth installment of Housing Horror Stories, an occasional series exploring the unique challenges that come with buying or renting in Tampa Bay. Welcome to the neighborhood From the minute he arrived in the neighborhood, Scurry said he was treated like an interloper. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He recalled how one neighbor gawked at him as he unpacked his moving pod. No one introduced themselves, he said. Perhaps it was Scurrys California license plates. Or that he was the only Black man in Sea Pines. Whatever the reason, he tried not to let it get to him. Then came his first interaction with Berg. Branches and vines from Bergs property spilled into Scurrys backyard, poking holes in his pool screen. The lot spans the length of their quiet street, bordering eight homes including Scurrys and Bergs. Beyond a thick mass of trees lies The Narrows, a waterway that separates the Pinellas peninsula and barrier islands. A boardwalk connects Bergs backyard to a small dock. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scurry approached Berg and asked if he could trim the overgrowth encroaching on his yard. He takes me out to his dock and says, This is my land. You cant go here. Its trespassing, Scurry said. Berg declined to be interviewed. You may be amazed at fabrications you may hear versus the truth in the court documents, he said in a voicemail responding to a call from the Tampa Bay Times. After poring through public records, Scurry discovered that the developer of Sea Pines intended for that land to be shared by all the homeowners. Lewis Thibeault, who moved to Sea Pines 20 years ago remembered a time when the property was used as a shared recreational space. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It wasnt overgrown, you could see water, there was beautiful trees and grass, he said. But after Berg and his wife moved there in 2012, that all changed. They bought the land and only maintained the portion closest to their home, allowing the rest to become overrun by weeds and invasive species, Thibeault said. Scurry said he tried to work out an agreement with Berg but he wouldnt answer his calls and wouldnt come to the door when he knocked. Eventually Berg told him to stop contacting him. Thats when Scurry filed the lawsuit. Rising tensions All Sea Pines homeowners had to be named in the suit, said Scurrys attorney, Charles Gerdes. Everyone was given a choice: sign on as a plaintiff alongside Scurry and argue that the land should be returned to the group or join the defense with Berg and maintain that he should keep control. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four neighbors, including Thibeault, joined Scurry. Twenty took Bergs side. I wanted to give the property back to the community so that everybody has water rights, said Scurry. And the very community that I won it for is fighting against me. Berg said he had been a responsible steward of the land for years after the developer abandoned it. We wanted nothing more than to make it a great place to live, Berg wrote in an email to Pinellas County Code Enforcement that was obtained by the Times through a public records request. Berg said that Thibeault was building campfires, riding go-karts and motorcycles, trapping coyotes and cutting greenery on the land until I got the deed and told him to stop everything as it was to be preserved as natural as possible, he wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the case unfolded, relations between the two sides soured. Both parties have called the police to arbitrate scuffles over flower pots and fences and plant cuttings. Scurry said he felt like the defendants were trying to draw him into a conflict at every turn. He set up security cameras and motion detectors around his property. He and his wife dont walk the neighborhood without wearing body cameras. They dont let their two kids play outside. A critical error The courts analysis shows this whole ordeal may have been avoided if the Sea Pines developer had done its job properly before exiting the neighborhood. Once all the lots were sold in 2003, Sarasota Woods, a now-defunct real estate developer based in Redington Shores, was supposed to transfer the title to the disputed land over to the Sea Pines homeowners association. Thats when the new neighbors would take the reins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That didnt happen. The association never got off the ground. After several years of remaining inactive, it was dissolved when Sarasota Woods failed to pay fees or file an annual report. Taxes on the land went unpaid. Berg and his wife moved to the neighborhood in 2012. They paid the taxes for the land and got Sarasota Woods to transfer the title the following year. Problems like this can lay dormant for years if homeowners dont have a good understanding of the founding documents that govern their neighborhoods, said Amy McPherson, a land use and property rights attorney with the law firm Stearns Miller Weaver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You had all those homeowners for all those years and not one of them ever said...this was supposed to get turned over and we were supposed to own this, she said. It sounds like people were not aware there was this amenity. No government agency could have stopped the sale beforehand, McPherson said. Its up to the other neighbors to enforce the subdivisions rules. Its a private dispute and the only way to resolve it is through litigation, McPherson said. Reaching a resolution Last year, the judge ruled that all homeowners have the right to access and enjoy the land and that everyone is collectively responsible for maintaining it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The defenses motion for an appeal was denied. The court is still deciding whether the defendants will have to cover legal fees for the other side. The Sea Pines Homeowners Association was resurrected and the deed to the property was transferred to the association, as it should have been in the first place. But as the case comes to a close, new conflicts are emerging. In his email to code enforcement, Berg wrote that the defendants have cut vegetation WITH ABANDON, since the judges ruling. ...they now think they have won and they are taking revenge on us. he wrote. Scurry and Thibeault said the defendants, who run the homeowners association board, are using their new positions of power to target them. Thibeault said all the rules the association has passed seem aimed at restricting things that he does washing his boat in the driveway, parking his RV overnight. Thibeault was escorted out of a recent association meeting by a Pinellas County Sheriffs deputy after board members reported him for trespassing. According to the incident report from the Sheriffs Office, Thibeault was asked to leave after he tried to record video at the meeting, which violates the associations bylaws. Scurry and Thibeault have received warnings for violating the rules and failing to pay association dues. But they ignored them. They refuse to recognize the group as a legitimate authority. The Sea Pines Homeowners Association did not respond to requests for comment. In the coming months, all parties must attend mediation to figure out what to do with Bergs boat dock. The meeting will give the neighbors a chance to tie up loose ends and figure out how theyll oversee the land going forward, said Scurrys lawyer, Gerdes. Scurry said he is not confident theyll reach an amicable resolution. Its too hard to cut through all the resentments. Friends and family question why hes stayed and fought over a piece of land in a neighborhood where he doesnt feel welcomed. He admits, he probably wouldnt have moved to Sea Pines if he knew how bad things would get. But for Scurry, the case has become about more than just the land. This is still America, he said. Why should I be run out of this place by these people? Why should they get to do whatever they want? If you have a housing horror story of your own, we want to hear about it. Fill out the form below for an opportunity to be featured in the series. ILLINOIS (WCIA) A new law in Illinois will require recyclable metal dealers to record the vehicle identification numbers (VIN) of a car which has had its catalytic converter removed. House Bill 4589 would also require that any numbers, bar codes, stickers or other unique markers of the catalytic convertor to be recorded. New Illinois law prohibits family caregiver discrimination, begins Jan. 1, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In transactions involving a catalytic converter, the recyclable dealers must also require a copy of the certificate of title or uniform invoice. This is to ensure that the seller actually owns the vehicle. WCIAs partner station WTVO reported that, according to data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), Illinois was one of the top five states in the country for catalytic converter thefts between 2020-2022. HB 4589 passed both Houses in May of 2024. Governor JB Pritzker approved the bill in July of 2024. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2025. For a full list of laws beginning in 2025, click here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finland's national power grid operator said on Thursday it had asked a Helsinki court to seize the Eagle S oil tanker in a bid to secure the company's claim for damages related to the breakdown of the undersea Estlink 2 electricity interconnector. The cable between Finland and Estonia was damaged on Dec. 25 along with four telecoms lines, and Finnish authorities the next day boarded the tanker, which carries Russian oil, on suspicion that it caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed. Baltic Sea nations are on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO said last week it would boost its presence in the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fingrid said in a statement on Thursday it had asked the Helsinki District Court to formally seize the Eagle S to help secure its financial claim. "Further investigations at the damage site are expected to provide more information about the extent of the damages and enable more detailed planning and scheduling of the repair," Fingrid said. The company said last week it expected the cable to come back into service in August this year. A lawyer representing United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, which owns the ship, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The owner has previously asked that Finnish authorities release the vessel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Finland's customs service has said it believes the Eagle S is part of a shadow fleet of tankers used to circumvent sanctions on Russian oil, and has formally impounded its cargo although the cargo is still on board the ship. Moscow has said Finland's seizure of the ship is not a matter for Russia. (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Gareth Jones) Finland's national grid operator Fingrid has asked a court to seize the Eagle S oil tanker in connection with the damage to the Estlink 2 undersea electricity cable, Reuters reported on Jan. 2. The cable, a 170-kilometer (106-mile) critical infrastructure component linking Finland and Estonia, was reported to have been seriously damaged on Dec. 25, prompting an investigation into possible sabotage. Finnish authorities suspect the damage was caused by the Eagle S oil tanker, allegedly part of Moscows so-called "shadow fleet" used to circumvent sanctions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fingrid has filed a claim with the Helsinki District Court to seize the tanker as part of securing financial reparations. "Further investigations at the damage site are expected to provide more information about the extent of the damages and enable more detailed planning and scheduling of the repair," Fingrid said, adding that repairs are expected to be completed by August. NATO is increasing its military presence in the Baltic Sea to bolster situational awareness and deter potential threats. Allies are also exploring measures to protect critical undersea infrastructure, supported by NATO's Maritime Centre for Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure, established in May. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The damaged cable is one of several recent incidents in the Baltic Sea under investigation as possible acts of sabotage. Read also: Russia loses key leverage over Europe after Ukraine halts gas transit, FM Sybiha says Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. HONOLULU (KHON2) An investigation is underway after a fire engulfed a home in Kapahulu New Years morning. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The blaze broke out shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Palani Street. Several severe firework-related injuries reported across Oahu The Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) reported that no one was inside the home at the time of the fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames in less than an hour. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news The cause of the fire is under investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) Firefighters are busy battling a brush fire near Otay mountain on New Years Day that has the potential to spread, Cal Fire reports. Cal Fire San Diego firefighters are on the scene of a brush fire near the Otay Mountain Truck Trail that broke out just before 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Border 1 Fire was burning at 15 acres with a moderate rate of spread as of 7:16 p.m., Cal Fire reports. By 11 p.m., the fire had grown to 25 acres and was 5% contained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The San Diego County Sheriffs Department says they received a call from a man in Chula Vista who reported to authorities he saw a group of vehicles at the top of Otay Mountain that were reportedly setting off fireworks, which may have started the brush fire. The sheriffs department is working to locate suspects. Cal Fire San Diego says firefighters are making good progress and the forward rate of spread has been stopped. Firefighters battling brush fire near Otay mountain that broke out New Years Day (Photo: Cal Fire San Diego) This is developing. Check back for updates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Early Wednesday morning folks gathered to celebrate the New Year by getting outside and enjoying the weather during a First Day Hike at the Genesee Valley Greenway State Park, joining parks across the state. NYS Parks partaking in First Day Hikes One of the amazing things is, everyone needs nature, and nature needs everyone to enjoy it. We all benefit from being outside and the stress relief we get hearing birds and seeing trees and spending time outside. Even just a couple of minutes can make us feel better, said Elliotte Bowerman, director of communications for the Genesee Land Trust. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those young and old joined Genesee Land Trust for their annual First Day Hike with a special hot cocoa toast. The primary reason for celebration, of course, is the New Year. But many people said they were there to celebrate the return of the fisher, a forest-dwelling mammal and key member of the ecosystem. A photo of a fisher put up by the Genesee Land Trust at the Genesee Valley Greenway State Park Wednesday for hikers to view during First Day Hike. (WROC/Alec Richardson.) We see a lot of kids learning about the fisher and having fun. We see families and folks of all ages coming together and uniter around that shared value of loving nature and loving the outdoors, Bowerman said. The walk was about two to four miles long, depending on the path taken. It also allowed participants to move at their own pace, and enjoy the nature preserve. To learn more about the Genesee Valley Greenway State Park, click here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. MISSOURI Flags at all government and public buildings throughout Missouri will be flown at half-staff throughout the entire month of January. President Joe Biden ordered on Monday that flags across the U.S. be at half-staff in honor of the late former president Jimmy Carter. Carter, who died on Sunday at 100 years old, served as the 39th president of the United States. His funeral services will be held in Georgia and Washington beginning Jan. 4 and concluding on Jan 9. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Carter was a man of character, courage, and compassion, whose lifetime of service defined him as one of the most influential statesmen in our history, Biden said in a news release. He embodied the very best of America: A humble servant of God and the people. A heroic champion of global peace and human rights, and an honorable leader whose moral clarity and hopeful vision lifted our Nation and changed our world. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. NEW YORK (PIX11) Flags will fly at half-staff through the end of January across the country to commemorate former President Jimmy Carter. American flags across the country will only be raised halfway until sunset on Jan. 28, 30 days after the 100-year-old died in his Georgia home. This is the longest period possible for the flags to fly at half-staff, reserved for the death of the sitting president or former presidents, according to a proclamation signed in 1954. Jimmy Carter to receive state funeral in January Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Should the sitting vice president, chief justice (current or retired) of the Supreme Court, or the sitting speaker of the house die, flags would be ordered to half-staff for 10 days from the day of death. President Joe Biden ordered flags to fly at half-staff at all public buildings and grounds, including New Yorks government buildings, and all military posts and naval stations. Biden also called a National Day of Mourning on Jan. 9 for the late former presidents legacy. President Carter was a man of character, courage, and compassion, whose lifetime of service defined him as one of the most influential statesmen in our history, Biden said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Flags are flown at half-staff when the country or a state is in mourning, like for the death of a government official, a national tragedy, or a day of remembrance like Memorial Day, according to the U.S. General Services Administration. This story comprises reporting from Nexstar Media Wire. Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter who has covered New York City since 2023 after reporting in Los Angeles for years. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. Hundreds of people were evacuated from homes and hotels in Greater Manchester following severe flooding on New Years Day, police said. Affected areas included Didsbury, Stockport, Trafford, and Wigan, local police said. In Didsbury, 445 people were evacuated from a hotel on Palatine Road, while several residents were evacuated from a block of flats in Stockport. Footage filmed by Instagram user Claire PT shows flooding Stockport. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A yellow warning for ice was in place for north west England on Thursday, with flood warnings and alerts still active in some areas. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. TAMPA On the first day of the fall semester, a group of protesters clustered inside the Marshall Student Center, holding signs calling on the University of South Florida to divest its funds from companies that support Israel. They planned to stage a silent sit-in in the atrium of the building. But they were met by administrators, who reminded them of new policies the university had adopted. The protesters moved outside, where they silently held signs in the August sun as students walked past, most without taking much notice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its just stifling speech, thats what it is, Ria Sanchez, an organizer with the USF Divest Coalition, a student group that has been demonstrating since spring. Because they cant tell you, You cant protest for Palestine, theyre defining the ways in which you can protest in the most narrow ways possible, so that you have the least amount of impact. In the months since pro-Palestine protests on college campuses captured the nations attention, Floridas universities have implemented new rules that some feel target certain viewpoints. While the policies dont explicitly target protests, some are questioning the broader impact of what civic engagement is permitted on colleges. Different schools tended to find a different balance, said Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression program manager Jessie Appleby, who has been involved in defending protesters rights at the University of Florida. Some, like Columbia or UCLA just went more towards, Were not going to enforce any rules, even the ones on the books, and experienced some issues with that, she said. Other schools were much, much more restrictive and at times, violated protesters First Amendment rights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Florida was on the more restrictive side. The fallout on campus In late April, as protests on college campuses across the country took foot, Floridas universities responded with a clear message. Across the state, 37 protesters were arrested. At USF, 13 were arrested and police used tear gas. At the University of Florida, nine protesters were arrested. In the weeks that followed, state leaders reiterated their messages. The governor criticized those joining a chic cause, and state university system chancellor Ray Rodrigues said Florida would respond as a law and order state. In Florida, there will be no negotiations, Rodrigues said in May. There will be no appeasement, there will be no amnesty and there will be no divestment under Gov. DeSantis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While two of the USF cases are still awaiting trial, none of the 13 arrested at USF faced prison time or significant consequences as most cases were diverted through pretrial interventions. Felony charges dropped to misdemeanors, including the individual initially accused of bringing a firearm to campus. That charge was dropped, and the nonstudent protester pleaded guilty to participating in an unlawful assembly and resisting officer without violence. The protester agreed to 100 hours of community service, staying away from the campus or protests, forfeiting firearms and attending a gun safety course. Two students who were not arrested, were suspended. One of those, Joseph Charry, a student from Colombia, was forced to return when USF did not renew his student visa. Charry has since obtained the paperwork to re-enroll at a different college in Tampa and plans to return soon. We know that we have a right to protest, Charry said. We know that theres a First Amendment. We know that theres the Campus Free Expression Act that only limits free speech on campuses in a very limited way. Were gonna keep on putting pressure on them. Were gonna keep on fighting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At UF, legal charges have been dropped on some protesters, but all students who were arrested remain suspended for three years, at which point they would be required to reapply to the university. At USF and Florida State University, the Students for a Democratic Society chapters student organizations that were involved in organizing have been suspended from campus. New College threatened to withhold degrees from protesting students. Each universitys board of trustees has since adopted its own additional set of measures to crack down on how protests will be handled. At USF, that policy meant a host of new rules, including no protests past 5 p.m., no masks to conceal identities and asking for preapproval to host events on campus. It also meant literature cant be handed out without approval. At a demonstration in October, students from the suspended Students for a Democratic Society planned a rally on campus at USF. They were met by police officers and asked to leave. Two were placed on interim suspension and three others faced student conduct charges. The most harsh sanctions were lifted and students were asked to write essays. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, the group has occasionally protested at the intersection of 56th Street and Fowler Avenue, marching to the outskirts of campus and turning around. Recently, the group filed a Title VI complaint with the Department of Education. The complaint alleges a pattern of discrimination at USF, as well as deliberate indifference to and reinforcement of a hostile learning environment for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students, students perceived to be Palestinian or Muslim, and students associated or allied with Palestinians. It points to messages from other student groups who said they did not want to work with the banned group because they feared their group would be targeted for political speech. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ryan Hughes, a spokesperson for the university, said the group had been expelled due to their past conduct. USF has been clear, and will again reiterate, that discrimination, harassment and retaliation will not be tolerated. USF continues to comply with all laws and university regulations. Elsewhere, demonstrations have also been quieter through the fall. At the University of Florida, protesters gathered outside an engineering career fair, where employers including Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin companies they called for the universitys divestment from came to recruit students. They handed out flyers encouraging ethical alternatives. It isnt just protests State Rep. Anna Eskamani said USF has implemented some of the most stringent policies across the state. In August, Eskamanis People Power for Florida embarked on their third annual fall voter registration Dorm Storm on move-in weekend. At USF, they were met by police asking them to leave. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later, on Election Day, U.S. House candidate and former Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp was asked to leave campus, where she was canvassing at 5 p.m., according to USF student newspaper The Oracle. Not all students want to engage in the act of protest, Eskamani said, but she thought the new rules inhibit students from civically engaging in many ways. Its not just censoring one speech, but amplifying the speech they do like, she said. Althea Johnson, a university spokesperson, said a nonstudent group had attempted to hold a voter registration event on the Tampa campus earlier this semester, just outside of the Marshall Student Center and was asked to relocate, which they did without incident, and were able to continue with their activity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new rules havent stifled all political speech on campus. In September, on the day the states Board of Governors met at USF, the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA had a table set up at the weekly campus market with signs propped against their table saying Dump your socialist boyfriend, and Dump your socialist girlfriend. A board behind the table said Im pro-choice. Pick your gun. Any organization is able to apply to table at the market through the universitys website. The university did not have any record of Turning Point registered at a market event, Johnson said. Representatives at the table referred the Times to the national organization, which did not return messages seeking comment. Experts say its not uncommon to see restrictions around speech on campuses, particularly around elections. Appleby, from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said it often stems from a profound misunderstanding of the First Amendment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Appleby said none of the policy changes shes seen in Florida this year are facially unconstitutional, regardless of how they have been applied. They are all within the realm of reasonable time, place and manner rules, even if they are more restrictive than rules were previously, she said. Still, she called the way some Florida schools chose to handle their responses insane, particularly at UF, where she said nonviolent students have been suspended and unable to reapply for three years. I do not envy college administrators over the past year, she said. Its a difficult job balancing the different constituencies as well as the interests of different groups and the schools obligations to, for instance, prevent discrimination while also protecting free speech. Divya Kumar is an education reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, working in partnership with Open Campus. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) When the power goes out, Beacon stays on. Floridas Department of Emergency Management launched a new artificial intelligence alert system ahead of the next hurricane season. As many Floridians know, communication is key before, during, and after storms hit. Now, the state of Florida has rolled out a first-of-its-kind alert system that aims to communicate with the public, even when the lights and power go out. AI has not only worked its way into the workplace and the classroom but now will play a role in disaster preparedness and response. We want to use this as a preparedness tool as we get ready to go into severe weather season, said Kevin Guthrie, Emergency Management Director. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Guthrie has teamed up with the University of Florida for Project Beacon. The system will send real time alerts in both English and Spanish to Floridians across the state, targeting specific counties and providing them with specific needs and information. All of the information that were receiving is actually vetted at the local level or the state level or the federal level. Its coming from the storm weather prediction center. Its coming from local national weather service, Guthrie said. Hurricane Andrew struck in 1992. The survivors of that storm that live south of 122nd St. described it this way. All they knew was, as far as they could walk and as far as they could see, there was no information coming in, Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said. So why radio? Because radio survives even the harshest storms, Fugate said. We went back to what will be there on the worst day when people need information about where to get help, he said. Floridians dont have to wait until the next hurricane season to check out the new system. Beacon can be downloaded now on smart phones. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. A law now gives residents the power to sue their local government for letting people sleep on the street or in public. WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS Governor Ron DeSantis signed the law in March 2024, but as of January 1st, any resident, business owner, or the Attorney General can sue local municipalities for failing to enforce the law and allowing people to camp or sleep on public property. Across the City of Orlando, its not unusual to find those with nowhere else to go seeking refuge under underpasses, on the streets, or in parks, but if that continues it could open both the city and county to legal action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read: 1st meteor shower of 2025, the Quadrantids, is expected to peak tonight: How to watch Since its illegal for you to camp on someones private property and now its illegal for you to camp on public property, theres literally nowhere for you to go, said Eric Gray, CEO of the Christian Service Center. According to the City of Orlando, in January 2024, there were 759 unsheltered persons in Orange County, with just over half located in downtown Orlando, a 24% increase since 2023. Amid the surge, Gray is one of many who have advocated for regional investment in an open access shelter. Read: It hits fast: Highly contagious stomach bug cases are surging in Central Florida Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We know that there are at least 3 to 4 times more people experiencing homelessness on any given night than are existing shelter beds in the community, said Gray. Both the City of Orlando and Orange County have stated they are actively pursuing an open access shelter, but the need is growing. According to the latest data, Orange County alone is more than 900 shelter beds short. Thursday evening, Channel 9 crews watched as some of Orlandos unsheltered population gathered underneath an I-4 underpass, which, according to HB 1365, could lead to a lawsuit. Read: Your air fryer may be spying on you In a statement, The City of Orlando told Channel 9, The City of Orlando uses a services-first approach and engages the HOPE team, Ambassadors and OPDs Homeless Intervention Unit with individuals by providing information about services and shelter available in our community before any enforcement action is taken. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city said it invests more than $4 million annually in services for the homeless, has dedicated more than $58 million in federal funds to address affordable housing and homelessness, and has set a goal of reducing the number of unsheltered people by 50 percent by 2027. Meanwhile, Orlando Police told Channel 9, In 2025, OPD officers will continue to proactively patrol and respond to calls from residents and businesses to keep everyone in the city safe. Read: Friday & Saturday: Cold-weather shelter will open in Flagler County According to OPD, since the law was signed, they created a Homeless Intervention Unit, a specialized team of officers who respond to calls about encampments and actively patrol the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Orlando Police said since the unit was created, less than 2 percent of their interactions have resulted in arrest, with the majority of those arrested charged because of illegal drugs, open containers, or warrants. All of our officers work with community partners to connect unsheltered residents to homeless services and resources while complying with the law. Spokesperson for Orlando Police Department According to the law, the earliest lawsuits could realistically be filed is January 6th. A provision of the law requires plaintiffs to give local governments 5-days to cure a violation. Experts told Channel 9 this is uncharted territory, according to Gray Florida is only the 4th state in the country to enact a law banning public camping. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. OCALA, Fla. (WFLA) A 15-year-old was arrested in connection with an attempted robbery that occurred on Dec 17 after his mother recognized him from an image posted on social media. According to the Marion County Sheriffs Office, around noon on that day, the victim was sitting in his vehicle outside a Qwik King convenience store on Oak Road when the suspect approached him asking for money. Police said the victim refused which prompted the suspect to pull down a ski mask and point a gun at him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Detectives obtained an image of the suspect from security footage which they posted online. They said the suspects mother recognized her son after seeing the photo and brought him to the Sheriffs Office so he could turn himself in. After confessing to the crime, MCSO officers arrested the teen and transported him to the Department of Juvenile Justice. He has been charged with attempted robbery with a firearm. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. A former Florida sheriff's deputy has been identified as the suspect in a store clerk's murder that took place 45 years ago, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said. John Greer has been named not only as the accused killer of the store clerk but also in the death of his wife a few months before that, the sheriff's office said. Deputies also investigated another suspicious death and some reported sexual assaults connected to Greer, but weren't able to gather conclusive evidence on those cases. "I want to be clear that this individual does not represent the overwhelmingly great men and women who have worked for this agency over our century-plus of existence," said Sheriff Bill Prummell said in a statement about the case released earlier this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Endless suspicions, little evidence At around 2 a.m. on Nov. 5, 1979, Greer radioed dispatch to say he discovered a homicide at The Farm Store, in Ridge Harbor, Florida. The victim, 25-year-old Adele Marie Easterly, an assistant manager at the store, had been shot once in the back and once in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun. The killer, the sheriff's deputy said, escaped with approximately $7.34 from the store. Anne Marie Easterly, a 25-year-old store clerk, was killed in Florida in 1979. / Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Investigators interviewed Easterly's friends and acquaintances but not enough evidence or information was developed to establish a solid suspect, the sheriff's office said. No arrests were made. Some deputies were suspicious about Greer, but said they didn't have substantial evidence to connect him to the Easterly case. A few months earlier, on Aug. 27, 1979, Greer had called the sheriff's office to report that his wife, Jackie Greer, had shot herself in their home in Port Charlotte. Investigators had suspicions about the incident, the sheriff's office said, but weren't able to link their concerns with evidence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Greer remained free. More possible victims, but little headway Roughly a year later, on Oct. 3, 1980, Greer resigned from the sheriff's office four days after a female friend of his was found dead. Former Deputy John Greer was identified as the accused killer in a 1979 cold case in Florida. / Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff's Office The sheriff's office suspected she overdosed on pills because empty pill bottles were found in the car and a suicide note was left behind. Her husband, however, told the sheriff's office Greer used to follow her around and attempted to have sexual relations with her. However, there are no records available to substantiate this theory, the sheriff said. The sheriff's office said it followed up on numerous leads in the Easterly case including a friend who said Easterly was having an affair with a married Charlotte County sheriff's deputy but eventually, the case went cold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Greer went to work at other police and sheriff's offices, usually near the west coast of Florida. He was also a pilot and held various aircraft positions. A recent CBS News investigation documented examples of abuses and chronic misconduct in a number of sheriff's offices around the country, including oversight failures that can enable abuses to go unchecked. Although the investigation focused on more recent years and mostly on situations involving use of deadly force, CBS News found misconduct was more prevalent in smaller, more remote communities where deputies typically had less training, fewer resources and limited oversight. In some cases, misconduct continued for years, and even then, sheriffs didn't always face consequences. A break in the case Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2016, the Cold Case Unit released a news statement detailing their suspicions in the case, without giving a name, "to let potential witnesses know a law enforcement officer was potentially involved." Their hope was that someone would come forward with information. And finally, the sheriff's office said, came their break in the case. A former Sheriff's Office Explorer came forward and told investigators Greer had sexually assaulted her and spoken about killing Easterly. She was also working the night the store clerk died and said she saw Greer had blood on his bare hand. The Cold Case Unit developed probable cause to arrest Greer, and in April 2023 investigators traveled to Tennessee, where he was living in an extended care facility in Kingsport. In his interview with investigators, the sheriff's office says Greer admitted to shooting both Easterly and his wife. Greer died at the care center in Tennessee on March 2, 2024. He was 77. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After 45 years, the sheriff's office says the long-unsolved case is now closed. Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say What's known about possible explosives, suspect after truck slams into New Orleans crowd Police in Kissimmee are investigating after a woman died after being struck by a bullet during New Years celebrations, Action News Jaxs Orlando station WFTV9 is reporting. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< Officers said they responded to a home on Gull Court around 12:02 a.m. Wednesday, just minutes into the new year. Police said the victim, 56-year-old Carmen Ochoa, appeared to have been struck by a bullet from celebratory gunfire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ochoa was taken to a hospital, where she died, according to a report. The Kissimmee Police Department said the incident is under investigation. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Read: Firework mortars, gas cannisters stuffed inside Tesla that exploded outside Trumps Las Vegas hotel Read: Texas-based group deploying uniformed patrols to Jacksonville to address gang violence at schools Read: Security ramps up ahead of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Getting too close to first responders on the job in Florida is now illegal if you've been warned. As of Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, the "HALO" law Honoring and Listening to Our Officers went into effect. Under the law, if a first responder such as law enforcement, firefighters and medical personnel asks you to back off in the course of their duties, you must move 25 feet away or face a second-degree misdemeanor charge punishable by up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine. Supporters say the 25-foot buffer zone increases safety, removes distractions, and protects first responders from threats, harassment and physical interference during stressful situations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Critics say the law will be used to prevent anyone from taking videos of law enforcement officers breaking the law or brutalizing people. The ACLU's Florida chapter said the bill was "all about preventing bystanders from being able to observe with their own eyes an officers excessive use of force and record those images with their cellphone or other device for the public to see. Gov. Ron DeSantis when he signed it that it was in support of law enforcement officers and accused news media outlets of warping narratives about police for attention and "clicks." On the same day, DeSantis signed a bill limiting citizen police oversight boards and reestablishing them under law enforcement control. Here's what to know. What does SB 184, Impeding, Threatening, or Harassing First Responders, do? SB 184 makes it illegal, after you have been verbally warned, to approach a first responder or remain within 25 feet while the responder is performing a legal duty with the intent to: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Block or interfere with their ability to perform the duty Threaten the first responders with physical harm Harass the first responder Violations will be a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail. What does SB 184 define as 'harassment'? "Harassment" is defined as an action directed at a first responder that "intentionally causes substantial emotional distress in that first responder and serves no legitimate purpose." "Emotional distress," "legitimate purpose" and which parties may decide if they apply were left undefined. Rep. Angela Nixon, D-Jacksonville, introduced an amendment to clarify that "harass" did not include "asking a first responder questions out of concern, for the health, safety and well-being, of the person that is being responded to" and to stress that a person may still impede a first responder if they are breaking the law or using "unnecessary harm or excessive force." The amendment failed. What does SB 184 define as 'first responders'? First responders are defined here as law enforcement officers, correctional probation officers, firefighters and emergency medical care providers. Are you allowed to record or video police officers in Florida? Yes. SB 184 does not prevent taking video or pictures of law enforcement in the course of their duties, but it does require you, if asked, to move 25 feet away, which can make shooting images or video much more difficult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An amendment from Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee, which would have defined "the peaceful audio or video recording, photographing, or eyewitness observing of a first responder" as a legitimate purpose, failed to pass. So did Nixon's other proposed amendment to change the name of the bill to "The I Don't Want the World to See the Police Kill an Unarmed Innocent Man Like George Floyd Again, So I Want To Protect Bad Cops and Violate Free Speech Act." How did police videos cause the Black Lives Matter protest movement to go worldwide? Davis' amendment referred to the video shot of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a police officer in 2020. The video, and many others shot by bystanders and witnesses, were widely shared online and contributed to the massive widespread Black Lives Matter protests that year by making more Americans aware of incidents of police brutality that otherwise may have gone unnoticed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Darnella Frazier, the then-17-year-old girl who videoed Floyd's murder, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. Why was SB 184 necessary? DeSantis said when he signed the bill that the legislation "recognizes we've got some strange currents going on in our society right now that really seek to delegitimize law enforcement," accusing news media outlets of warping narratives about police for attention and "clicks" and citing media coverage of the controversial police killing of Dexter Reed in Chicago. Officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed during a traffic stop, reportedly over Reed not wearing a seatbelt. A citizen review board questioned both the validity of the stop and the order of events they say it's unclear who shot first and questioned the appropriateness of deadly force in the response. Bodycam footage showed one officer emptying his pistol multiple times at Reed, even after Reed was motionless on the ground. "You shouldn't be in a situation where you're at a traffic stop, you're responding to a call of someone in distress, and then you have people come trying to interdict or trying to harass you from performing your duty," DeSantis said. "We view that as a problem, and now you're going to be held accountable." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Critics questioned the bill, saying it would be open to First Amendment challenges and prevent recordings of police misconduct and brutality. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Halo law in Florida creates buffer around responders. What to know The Florida Supreme Court recently disciplined 13 attorneys disbarring three and suspending 10. Court orders are not final until the time expires for the disciplined attorney to file a motion for a rehearing. The attorneys represent law practices from across the state. Disbarred lawyers may not reapply for admission for five years and are required to undergo a rigorous background check, as well as retake the Bar exam. Attorneys suspended for 91 days and longer must demonstrate that they have been rehabilitated in order to regain their law licenses. Disciplinary revocation is tantamount to disbarment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: Attorney who rear-ended Boca Raton motorcyclist with his Tesla pleads guilty for her death Lake Worth Beach Ryan M. Layton, suspended for one year. Admitted to practice in 2002, Layton neglected a number of his clients cases, failed to keep the clients reasonably informed about their status and failed to diligently progress some of them. Tallahassee Gabriel F. V. Warren, interim felony suspension. Admitted to practice in 2010, Gabriel F. V. Warren pled nolo contendre on June 20 to one count of unlawful use of a two-way wireless communications device to facilitate or further the commission of any felony. Sarah Savannah Warren, Tallahassee, interim felony suspension. Admitted to practice in 2011, Warren pled nolo contendre on June 20 to one count of unlawful use of a two-way wireless communications device to facilitate or further the commission of any felony. Gainesville Najah Nzinga Adams, suspended for 91 days. Admitted to practice in 2008, Adams was hired and paid $3,500 by a client in a paternity case. Soon afterward, Adams stopped responding to the clients text messages or returning their calls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although Adams drafted the pleadings for the paternity action, she never filed them. The client ultimately filed a pro se petition for paternity. The client finalized the case. To date, Adams has never replied to the Bar or the grievance committee investigating her. The client filed a civil suit against Adams in Alachua County small claims court and obtained a final judgment for the return of the fees paid, plus costs. Adams violated the following rules regulating the Florida Bar: 4-1.3 Diligence; 4-1.4 Communication; 4-1.5 Fees and Costs for Legal Services; 4-3.2 Expediting Litigation; and 4-8.4(g) A lawyer shall not fail to respond, in writing, to any official inquiry by Bar counsel or a disciplinary agency. Sarasota Thomas Arthur Chandler, suspended. Admitted to practice in 1995, Chandler pled no contest on Sept. 5 to driving under the influence-third or subsequent conviction, a third-degree felony, in Manatee County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to 30 days in the Manatee County Jail with credit for all time served, including time spent in a residential treatment program, to be followed by five years of probation. Miami Susan Rachel Torres, suspended. Admitted to practice in 2011, Torres failed to file a response to order to show cause dated Oct. 30. Roberto Masud, disbarred with leave to reapply in 10 years. Admitted to practice in 1989, Masud was emergency suspended on June 16, 2022. Masud served as a third-party escrow agent for a purchase and sale agreement, and $864,000 was wired to his trust account to be held in escrow. Per the escrow agreement, the funds could only be disbursed upon the approval of both parties. About two months later, representatives from both companies sent a joint notice of termination of escrow agreement to Masud and requested that the funds be returned to the buyer. However, Masud had already disbursed and/or transferred the entire amount of the funds within three days of receipt. None of the recipients was party to the escrow agreement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jean Gerard Legagneur, Jr., permanently disbarred. Admitted to practice in 2001, Legagneur pleaded guilty on Feb. 16, 2022, to one count of Issuing a false financial statement, a misdemeanor, in New York, which requires an intent to defraud. During his plea colloquy, Legagneur admitted, under oath and with the assistance of counsel, that he was guilty as charged, and affirmed he was entering the plea because he was in fact guilty. Legagneur went on to execute three affidavits of judgment of confession acknowledging the misconduct and unequivocally confessing judgment to specific monetary amounts to the victims. Suzanne DeWitt, suspended for two years. Admitted to practice in 1999, a court order was entered against DeWitt in a civil lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duties related to manipulating corporate structures and providing false information in real estate transactions, which gave rise to the disciplinary proceeding. Orlando Curtis Dee Mendenhall, suspended for 91 days and required to show proof of rehabilitation. Admitted to practice in 1998, Mendenhall was appointed by the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel to represent a female client in a felony case originating in Citrus County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mendenhall made inappropriate sexual remarks to the client, which resulted in a conflict of interest. Mendenhall had a prior public reprimand for similar misconduct. Winter Park Christopher John Atcachunas, suspended for 91 days. Admitted to practice in 2006, Atcachunas engaged in a pattern of neglect and lack of communication in two client matters. In the second client matter, he made misrepresentations to the client that he had filed the lawsuit when he never did. Lutz Mercedes Gonzalez Hale, disbarred, as Hale was already suspended. Admitted to practice in 1992, Hale abandoned her clients legal matters and failed to participate in the disciplinary proceeding. Hale previously received a public reprimand for failure to respond to an official Bar inquiry and was subsequently suspended for the same conduct. Lamont Kirk Bradley Reams, Lamont, interim felony suspension. Admitted to practice in 2010, Reams was convicted of one count of grand theft over $20,000, a second-degree felony, in violation of F.S. 812.014(2)(b)(1). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Founded in 1949, The Florida Bar serves the legal profession for the protection and benefit of both the public and all Florida lawyers. As one of the nations largest mandatory bars, The Florida Bar fosters and upholds a high standard of integrity and competence within Floridas legal profession as an official arm of the Florida Supreme Court. To learn more, visit FloridaBar.org. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Supreme Court disciplined 13 lawyers from across the state (WKBN) The National Fraternal Order of Police regrettably reported that 342 officers were shot in the line of duty in 2024, with 50 killed by gunfire. The FOP reports this is a 9% decrease in shootings but an increase in fatalities from 2023, which saw 378 officers shot and 46 killed. Ten officers were shot in the line of duty in Ohio and 10 were also shot in Pennsylvania. Of those, there were two fatalities in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Euclid Police Officer Jacob Derbin and Officer Jamieson Ritter with Cleveland Division of Police both lost their lives in the line of duty in Ohio this year. Officer Jaime Junior Roman with Philadelphia Police Departments end of watch was Sept. 10. An officer with Youngstown Police Department was also shot and wounded in the line of duty in February. The officer recovered and was able to return to work. The FOP says 79 law enforcement officers were shot in 61 ambush-style attacks, defined as a situation where an officer is struck by gunfire without any warning or opportunity to defend themselves. The FOP says this attack is perhaps most troubling and worrisome. These types of attacks are carried out with an element of surprise and are intended to deprive officers of their ability to defend against the attack, the FOP stated. Premeditated attacks contribute to a worrisome desensitization to evil acts that were once largely considered taboo except by the most depraved individuals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There continues to be concern among law enforcement regarding the rise in targeted violence against police and attackers who are motivated by a desire to kill a law enforcement officer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Jan. 1The Jemez Mountains once acted like a sponge. That was before the 2011 Las Conchas Fire, at the time the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, covering 156,000 acres. More than a decade later, downstream communities are still feeling the effects, said James Calabaza, the Indigenous lands program director for the Colorado-based nonprofit Trees, Water and People. Sediment has been sliding down to Cochiti Dam because of a lack of trees in the area to stop it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A proposed project by Trees, Water and People for restoration work in the Santa Fe National Forest would help mitigate the erosion and improve the watershed. It recently was awarded federal funds to move the effort forward. "Without having a forest cover with the standing trees, the ground is not able to really recharge its underground water system, which then affects the total availability and quality of water in certain ways," Calabaza said. "With the Jemez Mountains being a very important watershed tributary to the Rio Grande, a lot of the downstream communities are annually facing shortages of water because the watershed up top do not have trees to help infiltrate water down into the groundwater system," he added. Calabaza, a member of Santo Domingo Pueblo, started working with the organization about five years ago. Around that time, Trees, Water and People organized an effort with the pueblo, planting Ponderosa pines and Douglas and white firs to help combat erosion and the effects of the fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We started off small, maybe about 6,000 trees," Calabaza said. "We had community members come out and volunteer. From there, 2020 on, we started working with Cochiti and Jemez [pueblos] as well. It was cool, because we didn't necessarily go and outreach those communities. They came knocking on our door." That work is about to expand. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced in December it was issuing 61 new grants through the American the Beautiful Challenge, with $122.5 million for conservation projects nationwide including the one in New Mexico. Trees, Water and People was granted $1.1 million to restore 40 acres in the Jemez Mountains by planting trees and building structures to capture sediment and improve the area's hydrology. The total cost for the five-year project, including staff salaries, travel and project expenses is estimated at $2.3 million, Calabaza said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two agreements between the nonprofit and the Santa Fe National Forest went into effect in October one allocating $125,000 in federal funds to the nonprofit and the pueblos of Santo Domingo, Cochiti and Jemez for Native youth reforestation programs and another establishing a partnership between the national forest and the nonprofit for post-fire recovery. "I am pleased to sign these agreements to formalize the SFNF's partnership with TWP, an important and up and coming conservation organization," Forest Supervisor Shaun Sanchez said in a statement in July, when the agreements were signed. "TWP is already performing significant work here in New Mexico with Native communities. This agreement will augment our collective efforts in this regard." The three pueblos are the primary partners, Calabaza said. Trees, Water and People contracts with each community's tribal forestry crew to work in the Santa Fe National Forest, an agreement Calabaza called "unprecedented" for the Forest Service. "We tap into those individuals who have local expertise and local knowledge of traditional kind of practices of stewardship and conservation," Calabaza said. RALEIGH, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) The New Year means newly-elected state leaders have officially taken office. During his swearing-in ceremony in Raleigh on Wednesday morning, Governor Josh Stein said that he would reject politics of division and that North Carolina will go further when the state works together. Stein took his oath of office in the old Senate Chamber in the State Capitol with his parents, wife, and children in attendance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before the ceremony began, Roy Cooper gave his blessing to his former employee, Stein, who had worked as a deputy AG under Cooper for seven years. I know that you care deeply about the people of this state and that your passion throughout your career has been to make their lives better, said Cooper. In his own remarks, Stein made time to thank family, staff, Cooper, and the people of North Carolina. Stein shared a message that resembled what he said while on the campaign trail, that the time is now to build a safer, stronger North Carolina. Where our economy continues to grow and works for more people. Where our public schools are excellent and our teachers are well paid. Where our neighborhoods are safe and our personal freedoms are protected and of course we must act with urgency to help the people of Western North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene, said Stein. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three hours away, Steins successor, Attorney General Jeff Jackson was sworn into his new role during a private ceremony in Charlotte. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green took his oath in Jamestown. Part of what Ill be doing is spending a lot of time with the General Assembly, particularly the Republicans, to find where those common grounds can be, I believe there are a lot of folks that do believe in public education, he told reporters. New state lawmakers will have their first day of work next week on January 8. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay takes the oath of office to become governor of Florida in 1998. His wife Anne and his son John joined him. Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Wells swears MacKay in at the Capitol. (Photo via State Library of Florida) Former Gov. Buddy MacKay, a long-time Florida politician who became governor for nearly a month following the abrupt death of Gov. Lawton Chiles in late 1998, died in his sleep on Tuesday afternoon surrounded by his adult sons and wife, Anne. A spokesman for the family confirmed his passing at 91. No funeral arrangements has been announced yet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MacKay was the last Democrat to serve as governor in Florida, marking the bridge between two political eras. He had just lost to Jeb Bush in the 1998 governors race when Chiles died in December of that year. Governor MacKays life was dedicated to serving the state of Florida, which he did with honor and distinction, Bush wrote in a social media post on Thursday. MacKay had been a mainstay in Florida politics when he joined Chiles in their challenge to incumbent Republican Gov. Bob Martinez in 1990. MacKay was just two years removed from a bid for the U.S. Senate that he narrowly lost to Connie Mack when he became Chiles running mate. Part of Macks signature line against MacKay was, Hey, Buddy youre a liberal. During his time as lieutenant governor, MacKay took an active role in the Chiles administration and was repeatedly tagged by the governor to shepherd difficult projects, including trying to steer the states troubled child welfare agency, assist with Hurricane Andrew recovery, and help Miami when the citys finances were in turmoil. Under the past two Republican governors, the states lieutenant governor has had a much more limited role. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He had a large role in everything Chiles did, said Ron Sachs, who served as a top aide to Chiles. He was the most active and accomplished lieutenant governor in modern Florida history. MacKay was born in Ocala in 1933 and obtained both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Florida. He spent time in the U.S. Air Force, obtaining the rank of captain. He was first elected to the Florida House in 1968 and then moved on to the state Senate six years later. MacKay was elected to a central Florida congressional seat in 1982. Doug Cook first met MacKay in Washington, D.C., when he worked for then-Sen. Chiles. Cook also worked in the Chiles administration for both terms and was considered one of his closest advisers. A progressive Democrat and policy wonk Gov. Lawton Chiles and Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay stand near the Florida Capitol in 1991. (Photo via State Library of Florida) Cook, who worked in the governors budget office before being named the first secretary of the state Agency for Health Care Administration, remembered MacKay as one of the great Florida politicians of the 20th Century. He described MacKay as a progressive Democrat who was able to win election from conservative Ocala. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He managed to get elected and re-elected because I felt everyone felt like he was a good person and a dedicated public servant and he put the public service and the public interest first, Cook told the Florida Phoenix in a telephone interview. Buddy was a man with a big, positive, thoughtful, and progressive vision for Florida. You know, he really, he really loved the state. Some people pursue power because its fun. You know, its fun to exercise power and that goes into it, but others pursue power to serve. And Buddy came to serve because he loved Florida. Linda Shelley, who worked in the Chiles administration in a variety of capacities before becoming chief of staff, said MacKay and Chiles were an electric combination but had different political points of view as well as personalities. She noted that MacKay was a supporter of a proposed constitutional amendment to assess a penny a pound tax on sugar to help restore the Florida Everglades. She said Chiles didnt support the constitutional amendment, which was rejected by a majority of voters in 1996. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She recalled MacKay as a policy wonk, but said the governor was not. Chiles, you know, he would almost take his hearing aids out and fall asleep if you stuck him in a long, wonky, policy briefing, but not Buddy. Buddy would want to know the impact, not just a little bit, but fully, she told in the Florida Phoenix in a telephone interview Thursday. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged MacKays death on social media. We mourn the passing of Buddy MacKay, who served as the 42nd Governor of Florida. A U.S. Air Force veteran and lifelong public servant, MacKay was dedicated to our country and our state. May he rest in peace. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE This story has been updated to include comment from Gov. Ron DeSantis Former Florida Gov. Kenneth Buddy MacKay, 91, died peacefully during an afternoon nap at his home in Ocala surrounded by his wife and sons on New Years Eve, a family spokesman said Thursday. MacKays decades-long public service career included stints as a state legislator, U.S. representative, lieutenant governor, and briefly governor. MacKay was elected lieutenant governor in 1990 alongside the late Gov. Lawton Chiles. The Democrats were re-elected in 1994. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MacKay ran to succeed Chiles in 1998 but was defeated by Republican Jeb Bush. However, MacKay stepped in as governor shortly before leaving office after Chiles sudden death on Dec. 12, 1998. MacKays tenure as the states chief executive lasted until Bush was sworn in on Jan. 6, 1999. Gov MacKay was one of Floridas greatest leaders and statesmen with a career of service that benefited all the people of Florida, Ron Sachs, who served as communications director in the Chiles administration, said Thursday in a phone call speaking on behalf of the MacKay family. Read: New Orleans attack: Bourbon Street reopens At the time of his death, MacKay was with his wife, Anne, and all four of his adult sons who were visiting during the holidays, according to Sachs. MacKay had a regimen of taking a short afternoon nap most of his adult life, Sachs added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bush and his wife, Columba, offered condolences. Columba and I send our deepest sympathies to Anne and the MacKay family as they mourn the loss of their beloved husband and father, Bush said in a post on the social-media platform X. Governor MacKays life was dedicated to serving the state of Florida, which he did with honor and distinction. MacKay, Chiles and other leaders, such as former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, were part of a bygone era when Democrats controlled the state. Graham died in April at age 87. Read: Seinfeld actor John Capodice dies Sachs credited MacKay with encouraging Chiles, a former U.S. senator and legendary figure in Florida politics, to come off the sidelines and run for governor in 1990. Chiles demonstrated his confidence in his second-in-command by using MacKay as a fixer for a variety of high-profile issues, including overseeing the response to Hurricane Andrew, which tore through Miami-Dade County in 1992. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MacKay also helped resolve the city of Miamis financial woes and temporarily led the troubled Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. Later, the agency was divided into separate agencies to oversee health and human services issues. He came into the job of lieutenant governor as probably the most accomplished person to ever hold the job, and thats why Gov. Chiles gave him so many responsibilities, Sachs said. MacKay, a softspoken Ocala native with a Southern twang and a humble demeanor, was a lawyer who was elected to the Florida House in 1968 and the Florida Senate in 1975, according to information on the Florida Department of State website. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1982 in a district that included all or parts of eight counties and served three terms in Washington. But in 1988, MacKay lost a bruising U.S. Senate race to Republican Connie Mack by less than 35,000 votes out of more than 4 million cast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read: New Orleans, Las Vegas attacks: What is Turo, the car rental app? Two years later, MacKay joined Chiles on the ticket as Democrats won back the governors mansion by unseating Republican Gov. Bob Martinez. Chiles death in the final weeks of his administration shook the state and thrust MacKay into the spotlight. MacKay was the states last Democratic governor. Always thought the true Shakespearean tragedy of Florida politics was this man got to live his dream for 24 days only because his best friend died, Steve Schale, a Democratic consultant who ran former President Barack Obamas Florida campaign in 2008 and earlier worked as a legislative aide, said in a text message. He was very kind to me when I was a pup aide and I always remembered that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details about funeral or memorial arrangements had not been announced early Thursday afternoon. His was a life well-lived, looking out for others in his public and private life, Jon Moyle, a lobbyist who served as legislative affairs director for the Chiles administration, said in a text message Thursday. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) A former Huntsville Police Department officer set to go on trial Jan. 27 for capital murder is asking the court to delay that trial date. Lawyers for David McCoy filed the continuance motion on Dec. 31, telling the court the defense needs more time to locate his military records to assist with their case. 10 dead, dozens injured after car plows into crowd in New Orleans: Horrific act of violence Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McCoy, 31, is charged with killing Courtney Spraggins inside her car, outside the Weston Ranch Apartments on Jan. 7, 2022. Spraggins was pregnant, records show. McCoy was a Huntsville Police Department officer at the time of the deadly shooting. According to testimony from his preliminary hearing, investigators said Spraggins was moving from another state to come live with McCoy. McCoy was living with another woman at the time. The investigators say McCoy shot Spraggins in her car, then went back to his apartment and called 911 asking if there were reports of a gunshot. He met police when they arrived, investigators say, telling them he didnt know the woman and suggesting she must have committed suicide. But the story began to unravel, investigators said, after police found a photo of McCoy in Spraggins car and an ultrasound photo in McCoys vehicle. They later found her cell phone in his closet, along with a gun. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several new Alabama laws going into effect on Jan. 1 The defense argues that military records are necessary for its mitigation efforts. If McCoy is found guilty of capital murder, the case moves into the penalty phase. In the penalty phase, the defense offers mitigation evidence aimed at showing why McCoy shouldnt get a death sentence and prosecutors spell out aggravators, evidence that is intended to persuade the jury death is the right sentence. The court hasnt yet ruled on the request to delay the case. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com. Former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has resigned from parliament two months after his dismissal from government, he said in a speech published on X late on Wednesday evening. "There are moments when you need to stop, assess the situation, and choose the course of action in order to achieve the required goals," Gallant said. He said he wants to nonetheless remain a member of the Likud party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also of the Likud party, dismissed Gallant from the post of defence minister in early November, saying he had lost confidence in him. Later that month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for both Gallant and Netanyahu for alleged war crimes relating to the conflict in the Gaza Strip. In his resignation speech, Gallant cited a bill that the right-wing Israeli government has been working on since his dismissal as the reason for his decision. According to the bill, many ultra-Orthodox men would be exempt from compulsory military service again. "I cannot accept that," Gallant said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel's leadership disagrees with Gallant's account. Gallant said his demand for a fair distribution of the defence burden, including on ultra-Orthodox men, was also one of the reasons for his dismissal by Netanyahu. A decades-long exemption from compulsory military service for strictly religious men in Israel expired last year after the Israeli government failed to pass a law cementing the privileges. Many ultra-Orthodox Jews see military service as a threat to their pious lifestyle, partly because women and men serve together. Israel's Supreme Court finally ruled in June that ultra-Orthodox men are to be drafted into military service. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) After a man drove a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 14 people and injuring 35, the FBI announced its investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. Former FBI Special Agent Jason Pack worked in the Knoxville Field Office until 2024. He said there are certain factors investigators look for when classifying an incident as an act of terrorism. When the FBI or federal law enforcement looks at acts of terrorism, theyre looking for motivations of the suspect and political ideations or motivations, Pack said. So theyre looking to see, was the person working on behalf of a foreign government? Or was influenced by a foreign government? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An evil act: Louisiana officials, FBI say suspect in NOLA attack acted alone Pack, who spent 20 years with the FBI, said evidence gathered early on by investigators in New Orleans pointed toward terrorism. In this particular case in New Orleans, investigators clearly saw the flag on the back of the suspects vehicle, Pack explained. Theyve also discovered that there were some online videos that he posted just before he committed the act. So, those things all go to motivation and ideology. The flag found was an Islamic State flag. The online videos showed the suspect, 42-year-old US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, proclaiming his support for ISIS, and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They concluded a search warrant earlier today in Houston at the persons residence, Pack said. So between the investigators and probably the profilers that are looking into it, theyre going to try to take a look and see if there are any other clues in there as far as ideation or motivation goes. What is the Islamic State group, and what attacks has it inspired? 18 U.SC 2331(5) states the legal definition of domestic terrorism. The law says, the term domestic terrorism means activities that: (a) involve acts dangerous to life in violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any state; (b) appear to be intentional to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or to affect the conduct of a government using mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Federal investigators in the FBI are charged with having to prove that in court, Pack said. So theres a specific legal definition of terrorism that the FBI must prove in order to take their case to the U.S. Attorneys Office to prosecute it under a federal terrorism violation. See more top stories on WATE.com Domestic terrorism is on the rise according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It reports that domestic terrorism-related investigations grew by 357% between 2013 and 2023. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side. A former business lobbyist-turned state House member who played a key role in helping Florida Power & Light secure the largest electric rate increase in state history will sit on an obscure but important panel that can hire and fire a consumer advocate who often serves as a critical check against utilities. Newly elected state Rep. Richard Gentry, a Central Florida Republican, once served as that very consumer advocate: Gentry's 2021 appointment to the role of Public Counsel, an office created by the Florida Legislature to fight for consumers when utilities ask for rate increases, was a controversy in its own right given his long history lobbying on behalf of Florida corporate interests. His tenure was brief and unremarkable save for a single major act that still impacts millions of Floridians bank accounts today: Gentry struck a settlement with Florida Power & Light that guaranteed the electric company to more than $1 billion in additional revenue, paid by ratepayers, through 2025. That settlement proved controversial with consumer groups who often see eye-to-eye with the Public Counsel, and it remains the subject of an ongoing case before the Florida Supreme Court, which has shown remarkable skepticism of the state regulators who signed off on the deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, Gentry whose House campaign contributions reflected big-business backing, including from the Florida Chamber will be part of a joint legislative committee that oversees his successor, Walt Trierweiler. That committee appoints and can fire the Public Counsel, who leads an office that can be a thorn in the side of Florida's powerful investor-owned utilities, which are among the state's most prolific political contributors. Under Trierweiler, the Office of Public Counsel has aggressively pushed back against utilities that have asked for substantial rate increases. The role is an important one because utility companies sometimes will entertain confidential settlement talks with the Public Counsel that can result in a reduction in the proposed rate increases, as was the case with a Duke Energy request earlier this year that Trierweiler settled. But the office's reputation as a fierce advocate for the people suffered under Gentry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In early 2021, Gentry replaced J.R. Kelly as Public Counsel, a controversial switcheroo orchestrated by then-Senate President Wilton Simpson, a known ally of FPL. After a few months on the job, Gentry and Florida Power & Light emerged from confidential negotiations with a settlement in hand that other consumer advocates slammed as even worse than the company's original proposal. "This is a gross miscarriage of justice," a coalition of consumer groups, including Floridians Against Increased Rates, wrote in a Florida Supreme Court appeal of the Public Service Commission's swift approval of that deal. That settlement included a solar program that critics have characterized as a $2 billion subsidy for FPL's largest corporate customers, financed by ordinary Floridians and small businesses. The legality of that program, called SolarTogether, remains uncertain. In oral arguments this fall, Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos G. Muniz needled attorneys representing state regulators and FPL over the program and over the state's more general oversight of such utility companies, a notable development for a deeply conservative court that is broadly skeptical of intervening in regulatory disputes. And that was not a one-off occurrence: Muniz criticized state utility regulators for their lack of transparency during oral arguments in a separate case earlier this month. Gentry's shift from corporate lobbyist to purported consumer advocate was a characteristic story in Florida, with its Wild West campaign-finance laws and a long history of what watchdogs call "captured" regulatory agencies: That is, when, through political contributions and clout, big business is able to influence the agencies that are supposed to be regulating it. Members of the Public Service Commission are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, an arrangement that exposes those commissioners to politics with high stakes for utility companies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The charitable theory about the settlement was that, as a veteran lobbyist, Gentry saw himself more as a deal-maker than a watchdog or adversary, and thus he was perhaps too eager to take a rotten offer that had been put on the table. Either way, the Public Counsel's endorsement of the rates became a key point raised in the litigation: If the consumer advocate was on board, it couldn't be all that bad for customers. FPL, Florida's largest electric utility servicing some 12 million customers, is expected to ask for a rate increase next year, meaning the role of the Public Counsel and the legislative committee overseeing it will hold particular significance. Gentry, in other words, will be serving at an important time. If his appointment isn't to be a Christmas gift to Florida's investor-owned utilities, Gentry will let the Public Counsel do its job next year. Nate Monroe is a Florida columnist for the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU. Email him at nmonroe@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ex-lobbyist tapped to advocate for Florida utility ratepayers GREENE COUNTY, Ohio (WDTN) Greene County has sworn in a familiar face as its new commissioner. According to the Xenia Daily Gazette, former Xenia mayor Sarah Mays officially took on the position during a meeting on Monday. Mays is taking over the position following an election to the role and the retirement of Rick Perales who served in the role for over 20 years. Mays was buoyed by nearly 100 family members and friends in attendance. A number of officials were also present including Will Urschel the new mayor of Xenia following Mays appointment and congressman Mike Turner, among others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mays was appreciative of all who helped with her campaign. They have sacrificed and supported me through all the meetings, events, lunches, etc. I love you all so much, Mays said at the meeting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Former City of Rochester employee Anthony Hall is facing new charges, this time for allegedly assaulting a police officer. Rochester police responded to the 1300 block of East Main Street Thursday morning for reported family trouble and a possible break-in. Officers found Hall in front of the location and they saw a broken screen on the window, but it was unclear who broke it. Officers said they asked Hall to leave multiple times, but he refused and argued with them. After finally agreeing to leave, Hall allegedly shoved an officer in the chest with both hands, knocking him back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hall was taken to the Monroe County Jail and was charged with second-degree assault, resisting arrest, second-degree obstruction of governmental assistance, and second-degree harassment. The officer was hospitalized for an upper body fracture and may be out of work for several months. Hall used to work for the City of Rochester and was the leader of Pathways to Peace, an organization that provides non-violent alternatives and support for local youth. He was arrested last August for allegedly stealing more than $1,000 worth of property from the Coalition of North East Associations. In November, Hall pleaded guilty to fourth-degree grand larceny. He is expected to be sentenced to 1 1/2 to three years in prison on January 21, 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Furthermore, Hall also led the Community Resource Collaborative, which had its funding suspended due to fiscal mismanagement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. A former Round Rock school district teacher faces a charge for intentionally tripping a 4-year-old boy with autism in a classroom, according to an arrest affidavit. Lynn Shin, 42, was charged with assault by contact or threat of an elderly or disabled person. The charge is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine up to $4,000. Shin could not be located for comment. She was arrested Friday and released after posting bail set at $15,000, according to Williamson County Jail records. The incident happened Sept. 26 at 1001 E. Main St. in Round Rock where Head Start provides classes, the affidavit said. Head Start, a federally funded program, provides early learning opportunities to children ages 3-5. Head Start is required to ensure that 10% of its enrollment is made up of children with disabilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: Lakeway woman charged in drowning death of 6-year-old girl in bathtub last year A volunteer in a classroom said the boy, who is nonverbal and has a bleeding disorder, started running across the room because he was "stimming," the affidavit said. Stimming is a behavior that can happen when people with autism are trying to calm themselves. The boy wasn't posing a danger to other children in the classroom, the affidavit stated. Shin told the boy to stop running because it wasn't safe to run and he might fall, the volunteer said to police, according to the affidavit. The volunteer also told police that Shin said, "I swear if that boy runs past me one more time I'm going to trip him," the document stated. The volunteer saw the 4-year-old run past Shin again, and Shin stuck her left foot out and tripped him, the affidavit said. It said the boy fell to the ground and began crying. More: Round Rock educator's 'dynamic classroom' leads to Texas Teacher of Year honor Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The volunteer said she couldn't see any injuries on the boy, the affidavit said. There were no cameras in the classroom, police said. Shin later told police that she tripped the boy because children running in the classroom bothered her, the affidavit said. She said it was a mistake to trip the child, the affidavit said. Shin also told police that she never said that she was going to trip the boy, according to the document. She said she resigned after the incident because "she felt bad and felt as though it was a wakeup call and that the job may be too stressful for her," the affidavit stated. The Round Rock school district hired Shin in August 2024 and assigned her to work at the Head Start campus, according to the affidavit. It said Shin had worked 2023-24 in the Leander school district teaching students with intellectual disabilities from kindergarten through the fifth grade. She quit that job because it was too stressful and she wanted to work with preschoolers, the affidavit said. It said Shin also taught special needs children for several New Jersey school districts from 2015 to 2023. The boy's mother, Amy Venn, said when she picked her son up from school on Sept. 26, she hadn't yet found out what happened and couldn't understand why he was "crying hysterically" when she took him to school the next day, she said. She said she was devastated to find out about the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her son had previously had good experiences at the Head Start program, she said. "Kids were coming up and trying to play with him and include him, and he got to do a lot of things," she said. Children in the classroom got visits from Santa and had staff from the fire and the police departments come to talk to them, Venn said. "I always knew he was going to need a lot of help," she said about her son, "but I don't want him to have a bad life." Venn said her son will not be returning to the Head Start program. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Former Round Rock teacher accused of tripping autistic boy, police say MARLBORO COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) Two former Marlboro County School District administrators are suing their former employer in federal court both saying were treated differently based on their race and then retaliated against when they tried to report it. Jason Bryant, a one-time associate superintendent, and Barbara McCall the districts longtime human resources director filed complaints in early December, citing violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Teacher Employment and Dismissal Act. Bryant and McCall are both white. Their lawsuits were lodged Dec. 2 and 3 in U.S. District Courts Florence division. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McCall had nearly 40 years of service to the district by the time she was fired without given cause on June 29, 2023 joining in 1984, according to her lawsuit. The complaint says McCall was treated less favorably than her coworkers of a different race and gender when it came to salary increases and hiring policies, despite getting positive performance reviews and having no history of disciplinary issues. Marlboro County School District officials could not immediately be reached for comment but have said in the past they dont comment on pending litigation. Bryant and McCall, their lawsuits allege, went to district leaders with job performance concerns of some Black employees, including: a female staff member who received a salary increase while being involved in a special relationship with a supervisor the districts disregard for criminal record checks or pasts of some employees participation in a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigation regarding alcohol on school grounds Both administrators complained to the districts superintendent and school board about unequal treatment, first in a letter of concern and then as a formal grievance. Bryants lawsuit claims he was discharged as associate superintendent on April 25, 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bryants grievance was denied on Nov. 6, and he was terminated after declining to accept a demotion to teacher, the lawsuit says. Bryant also alleges that board members openly spoke about his separation within the community. Other Caucasian employees were dismissed without good cause thus exhibiting a pattern of Defendant of reverse race discrimination, Bryants complaint says. * * * Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. THIS STORY WAS UPDATED ON JAN. 4, 2025, WITH NEWS OF AN ARREST IN THE KILLING OF DIONDRE BITTLE. For Charlotte, the end of 2024 and the start of 2025 brought a rash of grim news. Police reported four homicides in two days on Dec. 29 and 30 adding to the citys heavy toll of gun violence and capping a year when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police investigated more than 100 homicides. Details from police reports are scant but they provide some specifics: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first of the recent homicides happened on Sunday, just before 1 pm. Police found 18-year-old Jordyn Decedric Campbell with a gunshot wound in the 3200 block of Nobles Avenue, just east of Billy Graham Parkway, MEDIC pronounced him dead on the scene. About 10 hours later, police found three people who had been shot in the 7800 block of University City Boulevard, a busy stretch just east of I-85. One of them, 35-year-old Wonah Abu-Baby Konte Jr., was pronounced dead at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center. On Monday, shortly after 9:15 pm, police found 33-year-old Diondre Bittle had been shot to death in the 8200 block of Dave McKinney Avenue just to the south of the previous homicide on University City Boulevard. On Friday, police said they arrested 35-year-old Sabrina Nayeele Roth and charged her with murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in connection with Bittles killing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Less than an hour after responding to that shooting, police discovered a fourth homicide victim 31-year-old Cameron Lackey. Hed apparently been shot in the 10300 block of Old Camden Road, about 17 miles east of uptown Charlotte. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The gunfire continued on New Years Day, with police reporting two west Charlotte shootings that left victims with life-threatening injuries, MEDIC said. One shooting occurred at Mr. Cs restaurant on West Morehead Street, just west of I-77, police say. The other happened on Remount Road, near West Boulevard. The names of those victims have not yet been released. The spate of shootings follow another where an officer shot and killed a man on Saturday outside Coyote Joes nightclub on Wilkinson Boulevard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The officer shot and killed Lucas Armstrong, 28, who worked security at the nightclub. Armstrong had been holding a gun to his head in the moments before police shot him to death, police radio traffic revealed. Police have said the officer who fired perceived an imminent deadly threat, but theyve released few other details so far. EDITORS NOTE: Police ask anyone with information about the recent shootings to call the CMPD Homicide Unit at 704-432-TIPS and speak directly to a detective. Anonymous tips can be offered through Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or http://charlottecrimestoppers.com. Boeing was supposed to soar again in 2024. Airplane deliveries were up, sales revenue was rising, and the storied aerospace companys top executive declared it was making progress in our recovery after severe economic headwinds and investigations of two 737 Max air disasters five years earlier. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just five days into the new year, though, Boeings progress toward better days blew away in an instant. A door panel in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max broke off and flew into the sky 16,000 feet over Oregon, leaving the company struggling to explain how the plane had gone into service missing crucial bolts. No one was killed in the Jan. 5 episode, but it foreshadowed a horrible year for Boeing, one marked by federal investigations, whistleblower complaints, accusations of shoddy workmanship, safety reviews, congressional probes, executive shake-ups, a nearly two-month strike that shut down production, humiliations in spaceflight and crushing financial losses. As a new year begins, Boeings new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, will push forward with his plan for a leaner company more focused on its core mission: building quality airplanes. As part of that, hell need to ramp up production, which resumed last month following the nearly two-month-long machinists strike and rebuild relations with employees. Now that planes are being assembled again, Ortberg also must persuade regulators to remove production caps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is work underway across Boeing to improve our culture, restore trust and deliver for our customers, the company said in a statement. While there is work to do to return Boeing to its former legacy, these actions and the right culture will set the foundation for the future of our company. Heres how a narrowly averted catastrophe presaged Boeings year of struggles. - - - Safety concerns mount Boeing has been grappling for years with the fallout from two crashes of its 737 Max, the first in 2018 in Indonesia and the second in 2019 in Ethiopia, which combined killed 346 people. Investigators said the crashes were caused by a flawed software upgrade that caused the planes to plunge wildly under certain flight conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department was due to expire in January, which would have helped Boeing move beyond the threat of criminal liability in the tragedies. But then the door panel blew out on the Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5, 2024, two days before the agreement was set to expire. A preliminary federal report found that the door plug appeared to have been removed and then reinstalled at a Boeing factory without four bolts needed to keep it attached. That and other revelations led to heightened scrutiny of the companys procedures and unearthed a string of quality issues, culminating this summer in a two-day hearing held by the National Transportation Safety Board. The hours of testimony and documents released by the agency revealed that the companys manufacturing problems persisted for years. Other incidents raised concerns about how Boeing dealt with employees who expressed safety concerns. In March, a whistleblower involved in a long-running lawsuit that alleged Boeing retaliated against him died by suicide. In April, another whistleblower told a Senate committee that the company sidelined him after he flagged safety issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boeing has said retaliation is prohibited and has reiterated its commitment to safety. In a statement, the company said it evaluated whistleblower claims and in some cases made improvements to its factory processes. Boeing said its investigations into whistleblower claims determined none of their claims about airplane safety were valid. Compounding Boeings problems, the companys Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth in September without its two astronauts on board. Issues with failing thrusters and helium leaks forced NASA to decide to leave the two astronauts on the International Space Station for months longer than planned. They are scheduled to return home in March aboard a SpaceX aircraft. On Sunday, a crash in South Korea of a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air killed 179 people. Officials have not determined a cause but reported warnings of a bird strike in the moments before the disaster. - - - Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Government investigations pile up Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters in August that documents and interviews with workers show that Boeing has known for years about problems in its manufacturing program. Why does it take a serious tragedy, which could have been so much more serious, for change to occur? she said. The Justice Department opened a criminal probe into the mid-flight blowout early last year, revealed just weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration told Boeing in February that it had 90 days to come up with a comprehensive plan to improve quality control. Boeing submitted a safety plan in May. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a hearing in June, senators pressed then-CEO Dave Calhoun about safety lapses hours after releasing a committee report that said Boeing eliminated quality inspectors and put manufacturing workers in charge of signing off on their own work. Calhoun apologized at the hearing to the families that lost loved ones in the 2018 and 2019 crashes. In June, federal prosecutors recommended to senior Justice Department officials that Boeing face criminal charges for failing to meet the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement. Prosecutors declined to say whether the Jan. 5 midair blowout factored into their decision that Boeing had breached the terms of the deal. Families of passengers who died in those crashes urged prosecutors to take the case to trial, but officials declined, saying a plea agreement was the best way to hold Boeing accountable. However, in December, a judge rejected a plea deal between Boeing and the Justice Department in which Boeing would have agreed to plead guilty to one count of fraud and pay $243.6 million in penalties, as well as invest $455 million in its safety, quality and compliance program and submit to oversight by an independent monitor for three years. The judges decision left the legal battle over the crashes unresolved. - - - Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Executives step down Calhoun said in March that he would step down as chief executive at the end of the year, retiring after serving in the role for more than four years. Board chair Larry Kellner said at the same time that he would not run for reelection, and commercial airlines CEO Stan Deal retired in March. Ortberg, the former CEO of Rockwell Collins, was named Boeings new leader in July, the same day the company announced a second-quarter net loss of $1.4 billion, more than triple that of a year earlier. Ortbergs appointment was met with optimism from many Boeing employees, who were pleased with his engineering background and decision to be based in Seattle, where most of the companys workforce is located, rather than in its corporate headquarters of Arlington, Virginia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is much work to be done, and Im looking forward to getting started, Ortberg said before officially taking over. His most immediate challenge was attempting to head off a strike by members of Boeings largest employee union. However, the company took a tough negotiating against the unions demands. Workers were not pleased. - - - Boeing workers walk out In an overwhelming vote, 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 and W24 walked off their jobs on Sept. 13, saying an offer that included a 25 percent raise and a commitment to build the companys next new airplane in Seattle couldnt make up for years of stagnant wages and hardball tactics that forced concessions, including the loss of the traditional pension program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Production of some of Boeings best-selling jets ground to a halt. Apart from pay, some machinists said the companys culture had become more focused on profits in recent years than on safety and engineering. These jobs have fed families in this community for generations and generations and generations, and most people now dont want to recommend their kids to go and work there, one worker told The Post. After nearly two months of failed negotiations, Boeing machinists voted to end the strike. The four-year deal included a 38 percent raise over four years and a $12,000 ratification bonus for agreeing to the contract. - - - Production numbers lag After the Alaska Airlines door-plug incident, the FAA imposed a limit on the number of 737 Max jets that Boeing may produce each month, pending a determination that the company is following its own quality-control procedures. This delay, combined with earlier challenges, has affected airlines worldwide. In April, United encouraged pilots to take unpaid time off despite high demand for air travel from passengers. And Southwest Airlines, which flies only Boeing planes, said it would temporarily halt hiring while it assessed its capacity. Boeing said in October that it would delay the launch of its 777X plane, which it will market as the largest twin-engine jet in the world, from this year to 2026. It also announced it would cut about 17,000 jobs - 10 percent of its workforce - as its financial woes deepened. In December, the company said it would expand its operations in South Carolina to help with increased 787 production. - - - Finances take a tumble The company has posted annual losses every year since 2019. It reported a more than $6 billion loss for the quarter ending in September, its largest since airline travel slowed to a crawl in 2020 early in the pandemic. Its stock price has also taken a hit as it weathered crises, plummeting about 30 percent in 2024. When announcing the most recent financial results in October, Ortberg said the company is at a crossroads. His mission, he said, is to turn this big ship in the right direction. - - - Ian Duncan and Aaron Gregg contributed to this report. GRAPHICS https://washingtonpost.com/documents/a02c899e-b743-4ffa-8308-a62b59e47a89.pdf https://washingtonpost.com/documents/05536c1b-a3c7-436d-8757-bfd7bebaba5c.pdf https://washingtonpost.com/documents/459e475b-5011-4c0c-b370-b25fe73ba9ea.pdf Related Content Australia, wary of China, prepares workforce to build nuclear subs In Indias shadow war with Pakistan, a campaign of covert killings The best place to run while traveling? Try the track. Fox News contradicted President-elect Donald Trumps statement that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the terror suspect in the New Years vehicular attack in New Orleans, was a criminal coming in to the country. While reporting on the attack Wednesday, a Fox News White House correspondent says over video edits of Trump: To be clear, Molly and Brian, the suspect was born in the United States. He served in the United States Army. He was a veteran. Earlier, Trump called the attack pure evil in a post on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, Trump wrote. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the city of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! Video clips of the Fox News moment as fact-checking the president-elect is increasingly a rarity on the conservative news network soon circulated online. Watch it below: The FBI has since confirmed that Jabbar was born in the United States, was a U.S. citizen who lived in Texas and had served in the U.S. Army Reserve. The agency has also confirmed that the flag on the truck driven by Jabbar appeared to be an ISIS banner. While Trump and Fox News are usually in sync, the former Apprentice host slammed the network in October when they agreed to interview his rival, Kamala Harris, ahead of the 2024 election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump wrote at the time that Fox has totally lost its way while lashing out at anchors Neil Cavuto, Eric Shawn and Arthel Neville. He claimed that Harris spokesperson, Ian Sams, virtually owns [Fox]. He implied in a subsequent interview with Maria Bartiromo that he would be boycotting the network because it all just averages out into NOTHING, but has continued to make appearances before and after the election. The post Fox News Fact-Checks Trump on New Orleans Terror Suspects Citizenship, Says He Was Born in the US | Video appeared first on TheWrap. FLOWOOD, Miss. (WJTV) Arctic air is expected to move into Mississippi next week, and Mississippians are being encouraged to prepare their homes for the winter weather. Entergy Mississippi said staying warm and comfortable doesnt have to come at the cost of high energy bills. By making a few simple changes around the home, customers can improve its energy efficiency and keep costs down throughout the colder months. Prepare for cold weather Keep heating costs low all season long by taking these tips to improve your homes energy efficiency: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Use solar energy: Open curtains on the south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat the home and close them at night to reduce the chill from cold windows. Insulate drafty windows: Use a heavy-duty, clear plastic sheet on a frame or tape clear plastic film to the inside of window frames and make sure the plastic is sealed tightly to the frame to help reduce infiltration. Adjust the thermostat: When you are home and awake, set the thermostat as low as is comfortable, but when you are asleep or out of the house, turn the thermostat back to save as much as 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills. Find and seal leaks: Seal air leaks around utility cut-throughs for pipes and recessed lights in insulated ceilings, and unfinished spaces behind cupboards and closets. Maintain heating systems: Schedule routine service for home heating systems and replace furnace and heat pump filters once a month or as needed. Reduce heat loss from the fireplace: Keep the fireplace damper closed unless a fire is burning and check the seal on the fireplace flue damper and make it as snug as possible. Entergy Mississippi also offers free comprehensive residential energy audits and rebates to help reduce the upfront cost of installing energy-efficient equipment. 27 tornadoes touched down in Mississippi on Saturday According to Atmos Energy, cold weather may impact the amount of natural gas you use. Here are some tips to help you stay safe and conserve energy this winter: Never use an oven or a gas stovetop to heat your home. Protect natural gas meters. Natural gas meters are weather-proof; however, to help keep the meter working smoothly, remove snow and ice from natural gas meters with a broom or brush. Never kick or chip snow and ice away with a hard object. Call Atmos Energys Emergency Number, 866-322-8667, if you have concerns about your meter. Make sure external vents for dryers and other natural gas equipment are clear. Blocked vents can lead to a dangerous buildup of carbon monoxide gas. If you have questions about proper venting, contact a licensed plumber or qualified contractor. Minimize the risk of frozen pipes. Leave faucets running at a trickle, leave cabinet doors open, and close all doors and windows to keep heat inside. Save money and energy by setting your thermostat to 68 degrees during the day and 58 degrees when you are away from home (where safe to do so). Although natural gas outages are infrequent, if you experience loss of natural gas service or low gas pressure, contact the Atmos Energy emergency line at 866-322-8667. CenterPoint Energy is also preparing for the possibility of winter weather. The pre-winter safety and readiness actions taken by CenterPoint include: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inspecting and testing critical equipment , including all 270 substations, to prepare for high demand and cold temperatures; Hardening electric and natural gas infrastructure across the Greater Houston area, including installing heaters and devices to prevent ice damage or buildup; Maintaining freeze protection equipment and enclosures for cold-weather critical components; Repairing damaged or degraded thermal insulation and water-proofing materials ; and Conducting emergency training for hundreds of operational personnel and contractors to prepare for, mitigate and respond to the impacts of severe winter weather. In Mississippi, the company is positioning Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) trucks to be deployed to supplement the natural gas system, if needed. Technicians will also be on standby. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Weather Forecast Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. The News Ivory Coast said French troops would withdraw from the nation, part of Paris wider retreat from its former colonies. We can be proud of our army, which has now been effectively modernised. It is in this context that we have decided the concerted and organised withdrawal of French forces from Ivory Coast, Ivorian President Alassane Ouatt said in an end-of-year address. Frances forces have also left Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger in recent months, after a series of military coups. SIGNALS Frances military presence in Africa has dramatically declined Sources: El Pais, The New York Times Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frances era of neocolonial interference in Africa saw Paris intervene on around 30 occasions to militarily defend its former colonies newly independent governments against opposition rebels and coups between 1964 and 2012, El Pais noted. That dynamic has changed as many African nations have ramped up criticism of France as infringing on their sovereignty: The African armies of the 1980s and 1990s were fed by French material, doctrine, and even esthetics, but now there are other sources of supply, a market in which Paris is not present, an analyst told the outlet. French forces will remain only in Djibouti and Gabon, a far cry from its many troops that were stationed in the Sahel fighting jihadists just three years ago, The New York Times wrote. Russia has sought to exploit power vacuums in Africa Sources: African Centre for Strategic Studies, Foreign Policy, European Council on Foreign Relations Frances drawback presents an opportunity for Russia, which has used a low-cost, high influence strategy involving mercenaries, disinformation, and other extralegal means to expand its influence across Africa, the US government-backed Africa Center for Strategic Studies argued. Yet despite Moscows considerable influence across the Sahel, Russian forces are struggling to maintain security amid rising jihadist attacks, an Africa expert argued for the European Council on Foreign Relations. Moscows unwillingness to interfere in the fall of Syrias regime may further undermine Russias influence, another expert wrote in Foreign Policy: As the illusion of Russian power in Syria has been definitively shattered, African autocracies are second-guessing Moscows ability to serve as their last line of defense in a moment of crisis. Less than a month after Frisch's Restaurants touted a list of more than 50 Big Boy diners as "here to stay," the company has dropped more than 20 locations described as "open to serve you." Frisch's Restaurants lists 31 locations on its website down from the 52 locations it highlighted to reassure customers that its recent financial difficulties would not disrupt future service. Only a dozen of the remaining stores on the list are located in Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky or southeast Indiana. Among the locations dropped from the list are the historic Mainliner Big Boy in Fairfax, which was ordered to vacated last month in an eviction proceeding in Hamilton County. The Big Boy statue outside Frisch's historic Mainliner restaurant, which is no longer on its "here to stay" list. Early last year, Frisch's had more than 80 locations in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana before trimming five restaurants in spring. As recently as 2015, Frischs Big Boy had 121 locations when it was acquired by the Atlanta-based investment firm for $175 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frisch's officials did not respond to an email seeking comment. In the past three months, Frisch's has seen a wave of closures amid a dispute with its landlord, Orlando-based NNN Reit Inc. On Oct. 23, Frisch's disclosed it would close an unspecified number of restaurants due to "unforeseen circumstances." Court records revealed Frisch's faced "more than 20" properties face eviction in Southwest Ohio alone. Records also showed NNN Reit claims Frisch's owed more than $4.5 million in rent. This story was updated to add a gallery. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Frisch's listing of 'here to stay' Big Boys dwindles Following his passing on December 29, 2024, the funeral arrangements for former President Jimmy Carter went into effect. Carter passed away at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he will ultimately be buried next to former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years. In recognition of his service to Georgia and the United States, public viewings will be held in Georgia and Washington, D.C. (The Carter Center) On January 4, 2025, the former presidents remains will be carried to a hearse by current and former Special Agents in Charge from the United States Secret Service Carter Protective Division. Along with the Carter family, the full motorcade will proceed from the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, Georgia to Plains, Georgia. During a brief pause at the Carter Family Farm, the National Park Service will honor the late 39th president with a salute and ringing of the historic farm bell 39 times. The Georgia State Capitol (Library of Congress) Continuing to Atlanta, Georgia, the motorcade will pause at the State Capitol for a moment of silence by Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Mayor of Atlanta Andre Dickens, members of the Georgia Legislature, and Georgia State Patrol Troopers. Afterward, the motorcade will proceed to the Carter Presidential Center, where the former state senator and governors remains will lie in repose. Following a private service at 4 PM, the public is invited to pay their respects at 7 PM until January 7, 202,5 at 6 AM. Members of the Joint Service Arrival Team place the casket of George H.W. Bush into a hearse on Joint Base Andrews, Md., Dec. 3, 2018. Nearly 4,000 military and civilian personnel from across all branches of the U.S. armed forces, including Reserve and National Guard components, provided ceremonial support during George H.W. Bushs, the 41st President of the United States state funeral. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Michael S. Murphy) A departure ceremony will send Carters remains off to Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, where Special Air Mission 39 will be waiting to fly the former presidents remains and his family to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Upon arrival, Carters remains will be transferred to a hearse and taken to the U.S. Navy Memorial. There, the former Naval officers remains will be transferred to a horse-drawn caisson. At 2:15 PM, the funeral procession will begin down Pennsylvania Avenue, turn into Constitution Avenue, and arrive at the U.S. Capitol, where the late president will be carried by a military detail into the Rotunda. U.S. service members carry the casket of George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, during Bushs state funeral at the U.S. Capitol building Dec. 3, 2018. Nearly 4,000 military and civilian personnel from across all branches of the U.S. armed forces, including Reserve and National Guard components, provided ceremonial and civil affairs support during Bushs state funeral. (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Darren M. Moore/Released) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At 3 PM, Members of Congress will pay their respects during a service in the Rotunda before lying in state opens to the public from 7 PM-midnight. The former president will continue to lie in state with a military honor guard until January 9, 2025; the public is invited to pay their respects from 7 AM on January 8, 2025, until 7 AM on January 9, 2025. That morning, Carters remains will be transported to the Washington National Cathedral via motorcade for the National Funeral Service. Following the service and a departure ceremony, the motorcade will return to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. From there, SAM 39 will fly the late president and his family to Lawson Army Airfield, Fort Moore, Georgia. (Maranatha Baptist Church) At Lawson, Carters remains will be transferred to a hearse, and a motorcade will depart for Maranatha Baptist Church, Plains, Georgia. There, a private funeral service will be held before the motorcade travels through downtown Plains at 4:45 PM. The public is invited to line the motorcade route as Carter makes his final journey through his beloved hometown. At 5:20 PM, the motorcade will arrive at the Carter residence for a private internment. The Navy will conduct a missing man formation flyover in honor of former President Carters naval service and time as commander-in-chief shortly after the motorcades arrival at the residence. A common soil fungus sickened more than 150 Michigan paper mill workers, and killed one, in what health officials called the largest such outbreak in U.S. history, but the exact cause remains elusive, they said this week. The Centers for Disease Control said a 2022-23 outbreak of blastomycosis at Escanaba's Billerud Paper infected at least 162 people from November 2022 to May 2023. Among those infected by the fungus Blastomyces, 18 were hospitalized and one person died. "The mills location along (the Escanaba River) in a wooded area is consistent with Blastomyces habitat; however, the specific environmental factors in or around the mill that led to this outbreak remain unknown," the CDC said in a Jan. 2 report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The CDC, in its weekly morbidity and mortality report, said the outbreak was the first recognized blastomycosis outbreak associated with a paper mill or other industrial worksite. The paper mill sits on 2,200 acres, the CDC said, including indoor mill buildings, outdoor woodyards, water treatment lagoons, and a landfill. Officials surveyed 603 of the estimated 1,000 workers at the plant and, based on testing, about 20% of workers likely were infected. Here's what we know about the fungal outbreak in the UP. What is blastomycosis? Blastomycosis is a fungal disease caused by inhalation of Blastomyces spores that can result in severe pulmonary illness and high hospitalization rates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: As mystery of Escanaba paper mill's blastomycosis outbreak deepens, its victims try to heal Pulmonary illness is the most common form, the CDC said, ranging from mild symptoms to severe, potentially fatal pneumonia. Approximately 25% of cases include such symptoms as skin lesions. Up to half of people infected with Blastomyces remain asymptomatic. What was the previous largest outbreak of the disease? In 1984, an outbreak of the disease was found among children and adults who visited a northern Wisconsin environmental camp. Officials said 48 of 95 people (89 were children) in two groups, contracted the disease during a two-week period in June that year. How were the Michigan mill workers affected by the fungus? Among the 645 workers who took part in the investigation, 162 received a diagnosis of blastomycosis and reported signs and symptoms such as cough (90%), shortness of breath, and fever or chills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Others reported such symptoms as weight loss, fatigue, joint or bone pain, and muscle aches. Among 483 workers without blastomycosis, 294 reported a cough, the CDC said. Can you treat the illness? Diagnostic and treatment delays are common because of clinical similarities with other respiratory infections, although antifungal medication can prevent progression or recurrence of disease in symptomatic patients, the CDC said. What is Blastomyces? Blastomyces is found in moist soil or decaying wood and leaves in the midwestern and southeastern United States, often near rivers and lakes, the CDC said. The fungus generally does not grow indoors, but the mill had many areas where outdoor air was able to enter buildings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The CDC said the fungus is endemic to Michigan and infections happen occasionally. How many people does the fungus infect each year? The CDC said there were 186 cases reported during a 10-year period from 2007-17. In Delta County, where the mill is located, fewer than one blastomycosis case was reported annually. The single non-mill-related case identified during the workplace outbreak was consistent with previous surveillance. Some northern counties in neighboring Wisconsin with similar environments have an annual reported incidence exceeding 20 cases per 100,000 population. What company owns the Escanaba mill? Billerud AB was established in 1883 in Saffle, Sweden. Through expansions and acquisitions of other mills in Varmland, the company steadily grew in the early 20th century, according to its website. The name Billerud persisted despite changes in ownership until 1996, and in 2001, it returned through the merger of the paper mills in Gruvon, Skarblacka, and Karlsborg. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Established in 1891, Escanaba Mill is a major newsprint and coated printing paper manufacturer, the website said. Escanaba Mill was acquired by Billerud AB in 2022. Today, employing 830 people, the mill produces 730,000 tons of paper annually. Steps Billerud Paper took to fight the fungus Beginning April 2023, the paper mill idled production for three weeks for ventilation ductwork cleaning and upgrading filters in all air handling units, the CDC said. Mill managers facilitated training for workers regarding potential hazards and associated safe practices, procedures, and protective measures to reduce exposure and encouraged workers to report potential blastomycosis symptoms to health care providers. This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Escanaba paper mill fungus outbreak report finds no direct cause BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) For the first time in Broome County history, a county executive has been reelected to the position three terms in a row. Broome County Executive Jason Garnar held a swearing-in ceremony this morning on the 18th floor of the state office building and reaffirmed his oath in front of county employees, legislators, friends and family. Judge Cheryl Insinga administered the oath of office as Garnar raised his right hand and placed his left hand on the Bible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Garnar has already served as County Executive for two terms and each term is four years long. Up until now, no Broome executive had ever been elected to a third term. Garnar says one of the most important things hes learned during his time as county executive is how to listen to and work with different opinions to better the entire county. No good idea has a party label. Were at our best when we set aside politics, roll up our sleeves, and focus on whats right for the people of Broome County. So, whether youre a Democrat or a Republican, or anything in between, were all neighbors first, says Garnar. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Garnar reflected on the resiliency of Broome County and its residents over the last four years through the COVID pandemic. He says Broome County has been trending upwards, and that trend wont stop anytime soon. For the next four years, my promise is very simple, Im going to keep listening, keep working, and keep fighting for every corner of Broome County. Were going to keep our kids and grandkids here by building a future theyre excited about. Were going to make sure that our businesses can thrive, our roads and bridges are strong, and our neighborhoods are safe, says Garnar. After Garnar was sworn in, so were the 15 Broome County legislators. You can find a list of all 15 legislators and their email addresses online by visiting BroomeCountyNY.gov Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WIVT - News 34. PLATTSBURGH The national average price of gasoline decreased after three weeks, down 3.0 cents from last week, and stands at $2.98 per gallon, and in New York state, prices are down 1.2 cents from a week ago, standing at $3.08 per gallon Monday according to GasBuddys survey of 6,118 stations in New York. Prices in New York are 4.1 cents lower than a month ago and 24.3 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. According to GasBuddy data, the national average is down 4.9 cents compared to a month ago and 11.8 cents lower than a year ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The average price is $3.19 in Clinton County, $3.18 in Franklin County and $3.19 in Essex County. After a few weeks of rising gas prices, the national average has reversed course, declining as we close out 2024, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said. 2024 will mark the second consecutive year of a decline in the national average. Tomorrow, GasBuddy will release the 2025 Fuel Price Outlook, offering insights into what motorists can expect in the year ahead. In the week ahead, well likely see gas prices fall in some states, while the Great Lakes region may experience another price cycle. Overall, I expect the national average to remain mostly stable. Motorists interested in GasBuddys 2025 Fuel Price Outlook can visit our blog or social media pages on Tuesday for a detailed month-by-month breakdown of gas and diesel prices, along with forecasts for all 50 states. The most common price per gallon encountered by motorists is $2.99, unchanged from last week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The top 10% of stations in the country average $4.07 per gallon and the bottom 10% average $2.46 per gallon. The states with the lowest average prices per gallon are Oklahoma at $2.51, Mississippi at $2.55 and Texas at $2.59. Hawaii, California and Washington remain averaging the highest prices per gallon at $4.47, $4.27 and $3.81 respectively. LOCAL PRICES As of Monday, Dec. 30 these are some gas prices reported from around the North Country: Plattsburgh: Sunoco (NY3) $2.79 Luckys (NY3) $2.85 Sams Club (membership required) $2.89 24 Hour Fuel $2.89 St Armands $2.93 Stewarts Shops (US9) $2.93 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stewarts Shops (Rugar Street) $2.93 Mountain Mart #109 $2.95 Champlain: Sunoco (Cash only) $3.19 Mobil (US11) $3.19 Irving $3.19 Ticonderoga: Stewarts Shops $3.38 Mobil $3.39 Sunoco $3.48 Malone: Mobil (E Main Street) $3.10 Mobil (Spalding Street) $3.10 Saranac Lake: Mobil (Lake Flower Drive) $3.39 Stewarts Shops $3.39 Mobil $3.39 Lake Placid: Stewarts Shops $3.43 Rouses Point: Stewarts Shops $3.19 Wilmington: Mobil $3.29 Port Henry: Stewarts Shops $3.29 Crown Point: Mobil $3.35 Ray Brook: Sunoco (cash only) $3.39 KANSAS CITY, Kan. Mayor Tyrone Garner of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County, along with other Wyandotte County leaders gathered Wednesday for the Gateway to Freedom celebration. The event took place at the Quindaro Ruins Overlook located at 3507 N. 27th Street in KCK. Dozens packed together on the overlook to reflect on the Quindaro Ruins and its significance to many Americans seeking freedom. I love the area, it doesnt matter what other people think of Quindaro. It looks like home to me. It looks like love. It looks like family, Nakia Hope, the Vice President for the Concerned Citizens of the Old Quindaro group shared Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It looks like community. I am always happy to be here. New laws take effect in Kansas and Missouri The special moment was held in honor of those that came from slavery, by way of the Underground Railroad, and into the free state of Kansas. What makes this location so unique, is youve had freed African American slaves, youve had Wyandotte Nation Indians and Caucasian abolitionists that really personified the diversity of Wyandotte County that you see today, Mayor Garner shared. It is a ruin, but it is something that needs to be championed, preserved. Wednesday, a brother of Marvin Robinson shared, When I look back over my shoulder at this site, I understand exactly why he (Marvin Robinson) worked so hard for the preservation of this site. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robinson is a late Kansas State Representative and honoring the Quindaro Ruins and preserving its legacy was an annual tradition of his. In keeping with the annual tradition of late Kansas State Representative Marvin Robinson, as promised, the Office of the Mayor will be championing Kansas City, Kansas as being the historical gateway to freedom for African American slaves that traversed the underground railroad into the free State of Kansas, a release from the Unified Government stated. During this celebration, guests will take time to both reflect and champion the significance of the Quindaro Ruins and its importance to the countless Americans seeking the freedoms found in our nations Declaration of Independence. I was told the story that Quindaro means bundle of twigs. We learned that a single branch will easily break, but when we all come together, as a bundle, we are strong. We are strong here today, not only because of Marvin, because we are continuing the tradition, but we are strong because we all took the time today, Jan 1st, 2025, to say we are committed to perpetuating the dream of the Quindaro Ruins. Helen Boteet, the Board Chair of the Vernon Center Historical Relevance shared. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are all important. We are more important together. Mayor Garner also wanted to note that it was on this day, Jan 1, over 160 years ago, Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. Food donations were also collected as part of the tradition. The non-perishable items will be donated to the Wyandotte County food pantry. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) As we ring in 2025, Eastridge High School is reflecting on all the good their student council was able to achieve for the Irondequoit community during the fall semester. They have more plans for the future! Helping each other out is a core value in the Eastridges student council and their help isnt limited to whom they sit next to in class. Since summer, the students planned around half a dozen events to bring joy to the Irondequoit community, including collecting for Toys for Tots. The teens also raked leaves for local veterans and handed out coffee and hot chocolate throughout the school buildings to lift everyones spirits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We try really, really hard to make sure that the community is always blessed and that includes the children and making sure that theyre blessed with toys during the holiday season, Jazelle said. Some of the students said they could relate to needing that helping hand and wanted to extend theirs to their neighbors. I know how its like to be in that type of position, Majjid explained. When I was younger back in Sudan, I kind of know how it feels like, so it feels nice to give back to people. Their teachers and mentors say they couldnt be more proud of these kids and their drive to come up with new ways to share kindness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just when I met with them this summer, seeing that desire to take a more active role in their building and in their community, that was really cool because we can work with that. It was just a matter of getting out of the way, giving them some leadership, listening to their voice not just giving them a voice, but really listening, letting them move it, and theyve done an amazing job, said John. They bring me ideas all the time, they are go-getters, Elena added. When we do something like this, everyone really rallies together. Everybodys always a helping hand, everybody always wants to support the community. Its one of the things that makes Eastridge special. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. ATLANTA (WJBF) A new year means new laws in Georgia that officially take effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Georgias school voucher program goes into effect this year. The Georgia Education Savings Authority will run the program and provide eligible K-12 students in lower performing schools up to $6500 in annual funding for private tuition, tutoring and other qualified education expenses. Another law involves unhoused or homeless voters who will have to register at the county election office and receive any election related mail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also this year, the Department of Audits and Accounts will review the states tax benefits to see how the incentives are performing and if they are truly beneficial. Homeowners in Georgia will also get more wiggle room for property taxes. Theres also a new push with House Bill 139 to get rural health care access to reform the states Certificate of Need rules for hospitals to help low income and uninsured Georgia families. As legislators we have to continue to improve infrastructure, make sure public safety is at the forefront, that our tax system is competitive and make sure we continue to be a state that has good quality of life that people have come to love, said Lt. Gov Burt Jones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unless stated in a bill, any acts passed after the end of the legislative session will usually go into effect on July 1, unless its a constitutional amendment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF. German prosecutors are commissioning a detailed mental evaluation of the suspected attacker behind a vehicle rampage through the crowded Magdeburg Christmas market that left five dead and more than 230 injured. The suspect, identified as 50-year-old Taleb A, drove his car through the market on December 20 and has been held in custody since the rampage. The man, a physician who is originally from Saudi Arabia, had been known to authorities before the attack. "We will commission an expert opinion on whether and in what way he is mentally ill," a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office told dpa on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The expert opinion is expected to consider whether Taleb A can be held criminally culpable under German law. The public prosecutor's office confirmed to dpa that a will dated on the day of the attack had been found in the suspect's car. Whether the man had written the will himself remains under investigation, the spokesman said. A rapid drug test and subsequently a blood test were carried out after the offence. However, the public prosecutor's office would not comment on the individual results of the investigation. The doctor's home and workplace in the town of Bernburg, about 40 kilometres south of Magdeburg, were searched after the crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation is expected to continue for weeks. In addition to the suspect's actions, the investigation is also expected to review the security plans in place at the Christmas market and whether local police were adequately prepared to respond to an attack. German defence expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann from the liberal Free Democratic Party wants Friedrich Merz, the conservative politician seeking to become chancellor, to overhaul Germany's Ukraine policy if he wins. "Friedrich Merz now has the chance to become a great chancellor if he does the opposite of what [German Chancellor] Olaf Scholz is doing," Strack-Zimmermann from the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) said in an interview for a podcast with the Funke Group. Strack-Zimmermann argued that this opportunity for change extends beyond Ukraine policy, touching on Germany's economic strategy and other critical areas. She expressed her curiosity about whether Merz will have the courage to take bold action, warning that failing to do so could have "historically dramatic" consequences. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement German voters go to the polls on February 23 in an election that will determine who will be the next chancellor. Merz is seen by many as the candidate most likely to become the country's next chancellor. Strack-Zimmermann, who serves as chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence in the European Parliament, has long advocated for more military support for Ukraine, including the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles. However, Chancellor Scholz has resisted this call, unwilling to relax the rules on the use of German weapons in Ukraine's defence against Russia. Scholz had accused Merz of taking a risky line on Ukraine policy, and suggested Merz's stance in favour of delivering long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine risked an escalation with the nuclear power Russia. "I can only say be careful: you don't play Russian roulette with Germany's security," said Scholz. Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's main conservative party and frontrunner to be the country's next chancellor, is advocating for a new attempt at a transatlantic free trade agreement with the US under President-elect Donald Trump. "We need a positive agenda with the US that benefits both American and European consumers equally," Merz told dpa on Thursday. "A new European-American initiative for mutual free trade could prevent a dangerous tariff spiral," Merz added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Negotiations between the EU and the US on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a comprehensive trade and investment agreement, were halted by Trump at the start of his first term in office in 2017 and have been put on ice ever since. Merz also expressed concern about tougher conditions for the European economy under the incoming US administration, which will be inaugurated on January 20. He suggested that Europe may need to prepare for the US, as Trump has announced, potentially imposing high import tariffs. "Our response to this should not be to start imposing tariffs as well," he said. When will the next big snowstorm strike Minnesota? Don't hold your breath, because it might be a while thanks a southerly storm track that will bring a whopper of a snowstorm to parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia late Saturday and through the days on Sunday and Monday. WeatherBell WeatherBell At least moderate winter storm impacts are expected Sunday-Tuesday from the central U.S. all the way to Washington, D.C. You can see where the probabilities are highest for significant winter storm impacts in the graphics below. NOAA The worst conditions for heavy snow along the lines of 8-12 inches are expected in northern Missouri and through central Illinois and Indiana. An ice storm could cripple areas just south of the heaviest axis of snow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the latest European model, the highest snow totals are poised to impact a 1,500-mile stretch of the U.S. on a west-to-east axis. Just look at the donut hole of nothing right over the Twin Cities. WeatherBell Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps more concerning than the stripe of snow is the potential for a major ice storm that could cripple areas just south of the heavy snow band. If the European model is accurate, the freezing rain totals could be significant. WeatherBell What's next for Minnesota? "Despite sunshine this weekend, temps will be cold with wind chills reaching negative teens below zero," says the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities. Bone-dry and freezing-cold. Lovely. If you're looking for a reason to wear wool socks, look no further than the European model's simulated wind chill readings from tonight through Jan. 14. Saturday looks to be the coldest day of the weekend. WeatherBell What about snow? There's nothing in the forecast until next week when it's possible that a clipper system brings some flakes. Here's Sven Sundgaard's latest forecast: Credit: MMartin1202, Pixabay Advertisement Advertisement A 10-year-old girl in Florida was struck and killed by a stray bullet while celebrating New Years Eve with her family, say police. At 12:04 a.m. on Wed., Jan. 1, Yaneliz Munguia was with her family near NW 27th Ave. and NW 21st St. in Northwest Miami when she was hit by celebratory gunfire, the Miami-Dade Police Department said in a statement. This heartbreaking incident serves as a devastating reminder that what goes up must come down, the department said. Bullets fired into the air can take innocent lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police say the little girl was with her family, who were lighting fireworks outside of their apartment when she was struck in the head by the bullet, CBS News Miami reports. When Yaneliz fell to the ground, her parents found the gunshot wound in the back of her head. They then jumped in a car and raced to the hospital while calling for help, according to CBS News Miami. Hialeah Fire Rescue met them on the way and rushed Yaneliz to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after, CBS News Miami reports. While authorities search for the person whose bullet killed Yaneliz, her family is mourning her loss. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Every time I came over, she was always happy to see me and now I can't bear to enter their home and not be able to see her again," her grandfather, Ramon Valdizol, told reporters in Spanish. "It hurts my soul." Yanelizs loved ones started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her funeral and medical expenses. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. In a post on Facebook telling well wishers about the GoFundMe, Estephanie Gomez wrote in Spanish that Every contribution, no matter the amount, will make a huge difference to the family in need of all of us. Please donate and share this post. Together we can unite and show that even in the darkest moments, solidarity and love prevail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The family had raised more than $29,000 by Thursday afternoon. Yaneliz, from Leon, Nicaragua, was full of dreams and joy, Gomez wrote. This tragedy has left our family devastated and facing an extremely difficult situation. Yaneliz was a fourth grade student at Melrose Elementary School, a teacher at the school wrote in another Facebook post. She was such a sweet, quiet little girl who was so nurturing to her little Kindergarten brother," wrote Murenne Philistin. "I can't imagine what her family is going through. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-8477. Read the original article on People An investigator photographs a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel on January 1, 2025, in Las Vegas. - Credit: WADE VANDERVORT/AFP/Getty Images Its not yet known what led to the detonation of incendiary materials in a Tesla Cybertruck on the morning of New Years Day in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, in a blast that killed the driver and injured seven others. So far, law enforcement has only confirmed that the deceased was Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty Army Green Beret they believe rented the truck in Colorado, and that he was a special forces master sergeant on approved leave at the time of his death. He also likely shot himself before the truck ignited, Las Vegas police said. But while the FBI and local officers sift through the wreckage of what appears to be an intentional explosion of gas tanks, camping fuel, and fireworks, and hunt for clues as to Livelsbergers motivation, Cybertruck enthusiasts are looking for a silver lining. More from Rolling Stone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the immediate aftermath of the incident, with video and images of the flaming truck going viral across social media, some in online Cybertruck forums expressed concern about a possible mechanical issue, or a potential connection to the terrorist attack in New Orleans just hours before, in which the driver of a Ford F-150 Lightning truck plowed into a crowd of New Years revelers out late on Bourbon Street, killing at least 14 before he was fatally shot by police. That suspect, like Livelsberger, had an Army background, and both men rented electric trucks from the car-sharing app Turo. The FBI, however, has said that the New Orleans attacker acted alone, and with the Cybertuck itself apparently absolved of any malfunction in the Vegas inferno, the community turned to damage control. They quickly accused the press of spreading FUD, or fear, uncertainty, and doubt, market shorthand for content that is damaging to a brand like Tesla, which counts many customers as avid investors. The media will soon jump on this CT story and spread the FUD, wrote a commenter on the forum Cybertruck Owners Forum. It never ends. Since its release in 2023 following years of delays, the angular, stainless steel-paneled truck has been a favorite of Teslas most devoted fans but an object of ridicule for other motorists, and plagued by breakdowns, recalls, and glaring design flaws all of which have made Cybertruck owners a touch defensive when it comes to their futuristic rides. Once it was reported that an individual had evidently blown up the truck in Vegas on purpose, Cybertruck owners following the story speculated that he had chosen the truck due to media coverage about how challenging it can be for firefighters to put out fires from lithium-ion batteries like those found in Tesla products. Most indicated that they feel such stories are overblown. One forum member described Livelsberger and the New Orleans driver as idiots that thought EVs would explode and cause massive damage since they have been told that by media and other people repeating it. (Incidentally, a Cybertruck on a dealership lot in Georgia was engulfed in flames two days earlier, with fire officials saying they were investigating whether the battery had caused the blaze.) There was even discussion of removing the phrase Cybertruck Explosion from the title of the discussion thread on Cybertruck Owners Forum, with some arguing it was misleading. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, for his part, publicly mused on X (formerly Twitter) that he might sue Business Insider for publishing an accurate headline about a Tesla Cybertruck explosion, and wrote of similar articles: You dont hate the legacy media enough. But the litigious billionaire and his cadre of true believers soon pivoted to another talking point, claiming that unusual build of the Cybertruck prevented a worse outcome. The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack, Musk crowed on X, sharing a video in which police said the truck limited the damage in the surrounding area. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards, he wrote. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Likewise, Cybertruck owners decided that the attack actually made the truck more appealing. That truck absolutely did eat that blast; what a tough machine!! raved one driver. Another was more effusive still: Far as Im concerned, Cybertruck saved lives and property in the real world, they commented. I think its good advertising for Cybertruck. Musk himself also replied to an X post proclaiming that the bomber had launched ad campaign for the truck, writing, Im pretty sure we could get it running again too. Of course, its by no means clear that a Cybertruck would withstand the detonation of stronger explosive materials often used in car bombs. Musk, who has amplified countless conspiracy theories since on his social media site since acquiring it in late 2022, pointed to linkages between Livelsberger and the New Orleans attacker, including the facts that they had both rented through Turo and spent time at North Carolinas Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg). Yet he did not make note of the Cybertruck erupting in flames on the doorstep of a property with President-elect Donald Trumps name on it. Observers have theorized various political messages in the conjunction of the flashy, gilded hotel with a vehicle from the company of the man who spent a quarter of a billion dollars to put Trump back in the White House. Reached by The Independent, Livelsbergers uncle, Dean Livelsberger, said that his nephew loved Trump, further complicating the picture. And while Musk shared updates of Teslas investigation into the Las Vegas explosion throughout New Years Day, he was not immediately forthcoming about the nature of his cooperation with law enforcement. Police revealed in a press conference that Musk had remotely unlocked the vehicle for them and forwarded video footage captured by the truck at charging stations as Livelsberger had driven from Colorado to Nevada, underscoring how Tesla drivers are at the mercy of the company when it comes to their privacy and control of their cars. Amid this chaotic beginning to 2025, Tesla announced Thursday that its annual sales had slightly declined for the first time in company history as new electric vehicle options emerge in the U.S. and around the globe. The news extended a weeklong slide for Tesla stock. Theres evidence that sales of the Cybertruck in particular have stalled even as Tesla has offered cheaper models and other incentives to customers, with unsold inventory piling up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the grand scheme, then, a single torched truck could be the least of Teslas problems this year. As for the Cybertruck line, it remains to be seen whether the Vegas attack convinces anyone besides a few ideologically primed individuals to buy them. Musk did share an X post from Jared Fleming, a former Turning Points USA director who identifies his account his account as anti-woke, in which he vowed to purchase the truck. Thats it. Im buying a Cybertruck, he wrote. In fact, the most pro-American thing you can do is buy a Cybertruck. You could save lives. Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Republican lawmakers are swiftly urging the Treasury Department to provide answers on a recent cybersecurity attack from China that infiltrated various workstations, as outlined in a letter obtained by The Hill. This breach of federal government information is extremely concerning. As you know, Treasury maintains some of the most highly sensitive information on U.S. persons throughout government, including tax information, business beneficial ownership, and suspicious activity reports, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, and House Financial Services Committee Vice Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. This information must be vigilantly protected from theft or surveillance by our foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who seek to harm the United States, they wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chinese state-sponsored actors hacked into the Treasury Department in early December and accessed unclassified documents from its workstations, the agency told lawmakers last week. The hackers stole a key from a software service provider, BeyondTrust, and gained access to the departments workstations. Scott and Hill are requesting a briefing on the breach in eight days with full detail on the information accessed by the hackers, specifics on those responsible for the incident and how it will be prevented in the future, among other requests. In an initial letter issued by the Treasury Department after the attack, the agency noted it is no longer using BeyondTrust and claimed there is no evidence the hackers still have access to the workstations. The Treasury Department originally said it would provide Congress members with an update in 30 days as outlined by the law. However, Scott and Hill said they need answers sooner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds, the agency released in a statement immediately following the incident. Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors, the departments statement reads. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Here's a strange but true fact: One year ago today, the attention of the political world was focused on which Republican presidential candidate would win the Iowa caucuses. A lot happened in 2024 which, for political pundits, meant there were a lot of chances to get things wrong. I don't much like the p-word, but I made my fair share of predictions in 2024, so I suppose I qualify. But at least I have one annual tradition to keep myself honest: Every year around this time, I go through all the predictions I made over the past 12 months that crashed and burned. To me, the price of admission for making political predictions should be to face the music and own up if and when you get them wrong. I think if everyone had to do that, it would lead to better, more thoughtful predictions in the first place. Perhaps for that reason, and perhaps luckily for me, I didn't stake out a position on the biggest political question of the year: who would win the presidential election. (All the polling data pointed to the race being a toss-up, and it was indeed close.) But there were plenty of other big twists and turns on the campaign trail that I failed to see coming most glaringly, President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the race. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even at the beginning of the year, there was idle speculation that Biden wouldn't make it to November because of a medical episode, or a coup within the Democratic Party, or who knows what reason. You'd have to ask one of the people who was making this argument, because I dismissed it as outright preposterous. In a January episode of the 538 Politics podcast, I said, "Joe Biden is almost certainly going to be the Democratic nominee." In February, even after a special counsel report shone a harsh spotlight on Biden's age-related decline, I wrote that the idea of Biden dropping out was "'West Wing'-esque fan fiction." And playing a game of "Buy, Sell, Hold" on the podcast in May, I estimated that there was just a 1 percent chance of Biden dropping out. All of that was defensible, I think, but then I stuck to my guns even after Biden turned in an all-time stinker of a debate performance in June. On July 1, I tweeted that I still thought Biden's chances of being the Democratic nominee were 95 percent. In an article on July 10, I cited the far greater number of congressional Democrats who had publicly expressed support for Biden than had called for him to drop out as evidence that he could ride it out ignoring the fact that what congressional Democrats were doing privately was very different from what they were doing publicly. It wasn't until July 18 after it was reported that Biden's own resolve was softening and just three days before he ultimately withdrew that I finally admitted Biden was likely to drop out. Why was I so stubborn in my belief that Biden would weather the storm? There was no historical precedent for a major party's presumptive nominee to withdraw like Biden did after clinching his party's nomination, and just a few months out from the general election and I doubted that the Democratic Party was strong enough to drive him from the race against his wishes. But I didn't fully appreciate the fact that, sometimes, rarely, unprecedented events do happen especially in the presence of other unprecedented factors, like a presidential candidate running at age 81. And as I discovered at the Democratic National Convention, the ingredients were there for the Democratic Party to act decisively against Biden. That wasn't the only thing I was wrong about in 2024, though. In that same game of "Buy, Sell, Hold" in May, I scoffed at the idea that Biden and former President Donald Trump would agree to hold any debates, arguing that neither candidate had an incentive to agree to them. I followed that up with a tweet at 8 a.m. on May 15 saying, "Yeah, we aren't getting any debates." By noon that same day, though, the two candidates had agreed to circumvent the Commission on Presidential Debates and hold debates in June and September another unprecedented move that, of course, Biden would quickly come to regret. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, that May podcast game was a veritable treasure trove of bad Nathaniel takes. Host Galen Druke, bless his heart, also snuck in a question about whether former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley would endorse Trump by the end of May. I said I didn't understand why she would do so: If she was inclined to endorse Trump quickly, I argued, she would have done it shortly after dropping out in March; otherwise, wouldn't she wait until the fall to maximize the endorsement's impact? Apparently not: She announced her support for Trump on May 22. I must have been distracted in May, because another of my missteps came at the end of that month, when a New York jury convicted Trump of 34 felonies, making him the first former president convicted of a crime. I suggested that the guilty verdict would cost Trump a significant amount of support, at least temporarily, in the presidential race, citing three hypothetical polls that found Trump losing an average of 6 percentage points in head-to-head polls with Biden if he was convicted. In reality, Trump's lead in 538's national polling average barely budged in the weeks following his conviction. My problem here was being too credulous of polls of hypothetical events. As many smarter analysts pointed out at the time, people are bad at predicting how they're going to react to new information; speculative polls asking people how they might vote if a certain thing happens are simply no substitute for actual polls after that thing has actually occurred. (Given how unpredictable the news could be in Trump's impending second term, this will certainly be a lesson I take into 2025.) That wasn't the only one of my expectations that Trump defied. In a March vice-presidential draft, I was utterly convinced that Trump would pick South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his running mate. As I argued back in November 2023, it just made so much sense: As a woman, she offered demographic balance for the ticket, and as a fellow culture warrior and early Trump endorser, she also had unimpeachable MAGA credentials. Alas, fate intervened: Noem shot herself in the foot when she disclosed in her memoir that she had killed a disobedient puppy. Granted, I don't think anyone saw that bizarre controversy coming, but Noem had plenty of other scandals swirling around her even before that. Plus, I shouldn't have been so confident in any one name when Trump had so many other options. To my credit, later in that VP draft, I also picked the man Trump actually chose, Sen. JD Vance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And while it feels like a million years ago, we also have receipts to review from the GOP presidential primaries. While I was always confident that Trump would win the Republican nomination, I was perhaps a little too confident. After his win in the New Hampshire primary, I predicted that Trump would win all 56 presidential nominating contests. He did not Haley won Vermont and Washington, D.C., which just goes to show how hard it is to sweep the presidential primary calendar! Finally, we come to my most embarrassing failure of 2024. In March, producer Tony Chow gave the 538 staff 12 quotes and asked us who said them: Biden, Trump, or someone from ABC's "The Bachelor" franchise. I got only eight of 12 correct a frankly disqualifying performance for this "Bachelor"-cum-politics fan. Ah well there's always next year. What I got wrong in 2024 originally appeared on abcnews.go.com HONOLULU (KHON2) Gov. Josh Green will be in Washington, D.C. to meet with Senate members regarding the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services next week. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You Gov. Green, who is a medical doctor, will use his experience as an ER physician to provide insight into the implications of Kennedys controversial nomination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2019, when Gov. Green was the lieutenant governor, he traveled to Samoa to aid in their widespread measles epidemic. There, he worked to vaccinate thousands of residents, curbing the outbreak and demonstrating the importance of science-based public health responses. Hawaii Gov. Green blasts RFK Jr. nomination Kennedy has been met with opposition from numerous public health experts due to his controversial opinions such as his desire to make raw milk more accessible. His views have even been criticized by some of President-elect Donald Trumps closest allies, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who described Kennedys anti-vaccine efforts not just uninformed theyre dangerous. During Gov. Greens absence, Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke will serve as acting governor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. Experts are slamming unsustainable forestry practices in Australia as a burden to taxpayers and are advocating for changes to the current system. What's happening? As detailed by the Guardian, the native forest logging industry in New South Wales has resulted in consistent financial losses for the state government's forestry corporation, according to an NSW Independent Pricing and Review Tribunal, which reported its findings in its annual report. The review found that increased protections for wildlife like koalas and greater gliders, pushback by community groups, and extreme weather led to more than $72 million down the drain since 2020-21. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Justin Field, part of the Forest Alliance NSW coalition, bluntly called native forestry "a bad deal for taxpayers" and found it shocking people were paying into it. Similar issues led to the suspension of similar programs in Victoria and Western Australia. "This is just another piece of evidence to show that native forest logging in New South Wales is economically unviable," Field said. "We know that it's ecologically unsustainable, and we know that the forestry corporation has been losing money on its hardwood division for the last decade." Why is deforestation troubling? In addition to costing taxpayers money, native foresting in Australia is removing protections and other economic benefits that unspoiled areas provide. Graham Phelan, an economist who dug into NSW's financial data in 2023, explained to the Guardian that native forests can boost tourism, help limit erosion, and mitigate flooding. He also cited one Victoria report that found the financial benefits of keeping the forests far outweighed the perks of harvesting timber by more than $10 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moreover, forests help soak up carbon, a heat-trapping gas that contributes to an overheated planet. Experts agree that phasing out dirty fuels is the best thing to do to bring Earth's temperatures back into balance and combat the uptick of supercharged extreme weather. However, deforestation isn't helping matters. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, one mature tree can capture more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. Do you think gas stoves should be banned nationwide? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind What's being done to protect forests in NSW? Field believes that the tribunal's report offers a prime opportunity for the state government to pivot away from native foresting and toward sustainable plantations, adding that taxpayers were "literally" sending their money to a practice that could reduce their drinking water quality not to mention destroy the habitats of koalas and other creatures. The findings may inspire even more people to take action, including by donating to organizations focused on protecting native forests or by voting for eco-friendly policymakers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For its part, the tribunal recommended that the state government investigate whether native forestry is a worthwhile long-term investment, with wood supply renewal agreements up for review in 2028, per the Guardian. It also laid out price and cost management strategies. The state forestry corporation said it intends to implement the tribunal's price and cost management tactics, but it didn't elaborate further on other potential actions. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. In an encouraging step for wildlife conservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed new habitat protections for the Canada lynx, an elusive wildcat species considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act. According to Colorado Public Radio, these measures would designate almost 7,700 square miles of forests and mountains in Colorado and northern New Mexico. The aim is to provide the lynx with the space and resources it needs to thrive. "This is a significant change and a good one," Matthew Bishop, an attorney for Western Environmental Law Center, told CPR. "They weren't really committing to conserve lynx in Colorado anymore, and now they are." Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind Canada lynx, known for their thick fur and snowshoe-like paws, are predators of the high-altitude forests in the Rocky Mountains. However, their populations have faced steep declines due to habitat loss, the Earth's overheating, and declining prey availability. The newly proposed measures would protect vital forest areas, ensuring lynx have safe places to roam, hunt, and reproduce. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These protections would cover areas critical to the lynx's survival, such as the Southern Rockies, where biologists have identified suitable habitat for the species. The move comes as part of a broader strategy to address the ongoing threats to lynx populations, including preserving their preferred habitat of dense forests and sustaining snowshoe hare populations, their primary prey. By safeguarding these habitats, officials are not only helping this single species but also preserving the ecosystems these wildcats depend on. Providing lynx with uninterrupted pathways to move and adapt to changing conditions will be key to their resilience as rising global temperatures alter the availability of their prey and snowy habitat. The proposal is now open for public comment, giving conservationists, local communities, and other stakeholders a chance to weigh in. Once finalized, these measures could pave the way for more comprehensive approaches to protecting endangered species in the U.S. and set a precedent for prioritizing wildlife conservation amid competing land-use interests. For now, this development offers hope for the Canada lynx and a reminder that thoughtful, science-based action can make a real difference in protecting our planet's biodiversity. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Jan. 1Despite losing his legislative seat in 2024, Greg Nibert will continue serving New Mexicans through state government, this time as a regulator of utilities. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday appointed Nibert to the role at the Public Regulation Commission, an independent state agency tasked with ensuring reliable and safe utility services at reasonable prices. She chose Nibert out of a list of four recommended candidates from the PRC nominating committee and was unable to appoint a Democrat to maintain political diversity at the PRC. Nibert began his six-year term on Wednesday. He said in a statement his duty as a commissioner is to regulate utilities in accordance with laws, "which includes, first and foremost, the Energy Transition Act" legislation passed in 2019 that sets renewable energy standards for utilities in New Mexico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The PRC plays a crucial role in ensuring we meet the renewable energy targets set forth in statute for the betterment of our state," Nibert said. "I look forward to securing New Mexico's energy future for generations to come." Some of his priorities at the PRC could include regional utility organization participation, digital equity and broadband access and technological advancement, according to his commissioner application materials. When asked what the most consequential decision of the PRC in the past 20 years has been, Nibert said the early retirement of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station, which "accelerated the shift toward renewable energy sources" in electricity generation. "My priorities will include ensuring reliable and affordable electric power, positioning New Mexico to leverage its resources, and advocating for legislative changes that facilitate quicker responses to emerging technologies and market opportunities," Nibert said in his September application questionnaire. Nibert is a partner at Hinkle Shanor LLP, specializing in real property, energy and administrative law, according to the Governor's Office. The Republican has been recognized for his work in oil and gas law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "While I have enjoyed a very rewarding career in a private law practice, I am ready for a change and new challenges," Nibert said in his August commission application. "I see the PRC being even more relevant in the future as electrical demand grows at a much higher rate which will require great attention, planning, investment and oversight from the generators of electricity, transmission, utilities, (non-governmental organizations) and the PRC." Nibert succeeds Commissioner James Ellison, a registered independent, appointed last-minute by Lujan Grisham a year ago after her previous appointee, Republican Brian Moore, resigned because he didn't meet the educational qualifications to be a commissioner. Ellison's two-year term ended Dec. 31. No more than two of the three commissioners can be from the same party; Nibert as a Republican balances out the other two serving commissioners, both Democrats. Nibert intended to continue serving at the Legislature, a representative since 2017 who was appointed to serve on the Senate in 2024 following the resignation of another Republican senator. However, Nibert in June lost his primary election race to Patrick Henry Boone IV, who ran uncontested in the general election for the senate seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nibert comes into the state commissioner role two years after an overhaul of the PRC went into effect. Voters in 2020 approved a constitutional amendment that changed the PRC from a five-member elected commission to a three-member appointed commission in 2023. The amendment also changed commissioner terms from four years to six years. The PRC overhaul came after the state agency was repeatedly embroiled in controversy and scandal, which Nibert said seems to have turned around. "It appears to me that the appointed commission is on a good path and is overcoming some of the challenges that were evident with the former elected commission," Nibert said in his application questionnaire. "I hope to contribute to that progress and to contribute to making the PRC a respected institution whose decisions are credible, logical, defensible." Nibert will earn an annual salary of $190,000. His appointment is subject to state Senate confirmation. Jan. 1Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has appointed a former Republican state senator and oil and gas lawyer to a six-year term on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. Greg Nibert of Roswell beat out five other final candidates for the role, including outgoing commissioner James Ellison, who was vying for another term after being appointed by Lujan Grisham in January 2023 to a two-year term. The selection process was overseen by the seven-member Public Regulation Commission Nominating Committee, which advised the governor but did not have final say over the selection. Per state law, the governor had to fill the seat with either a Republican or an independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nibert, 66, was appointed by the governor to a state Senate seat at the beginning of 2024 after representing Roswell in the House of Representatives since 2016. He lost a three-way Republican primary race to challenger Patrick Boone in June 2024; his Senate term ended Tuesday. The Public Regulation Commission was significantly overhauled following a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2020, and three new commissioners appointed by the governor to take office in 2023 were given terms with staggered expiration dates, Ellison's being the soonest. Ellison, a former grid analyst at Sandia National Laboratories, was appointed after Lujan Grisham's nominee Brian Moore quickly resigned following criticism he was unqualified for the position. Nibert's term began Wednesday and will run through 2030. As a commissioner, he will be paid a salary of $190,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement issued by the Governor's Office on Wednesday announcing the appointment, Nibert said he was "honored" to be chosen. "The PRC plays a crucial role in ensuring we meet the renewable energy targets set forth in statute for the betterment of our state," he said. "I look forward to securing New Mexico's energy future for generations to come." Since 1987, Nibert has been a partner at law firm Hinkle Shanor LLP, where, according to the firm's website, he specializes in oil and gas law. He has a law degree from Pepperdine University in California. A campaign website for Nibert describes him as active in the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, which he was president of from 2011 to 2012, and the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michael Jensen, a spokesperson for Conservation Voters New Mexico, said the group was disappointed with Nibert's appointment. "He has a lifetime score on Conservation Voters New Mexico's Conservation Scorecard of just 11 percent (among the lowest in the NM State Legislature), and he voted against the Energy Transition Act in 2019," Jensen said in a text message. "The PRC needs commissioners with a record that prioritizes the health and safety of our communities." During October interviews with the nominating committee, Nibert equivocated about the role renewable energy would play in the state's future. "I have questioned whether or not we can ever get to the point where we are 100% reliant on renewables," he said at the time, adding, "I think it's a mistake for any public policy body to make demands that can't be achieved." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked about addressing climate change, Nibert said it is the commission's responsibility to enforce existing laws. In Wednesday's statement, Nibert said his duty as commissioner "will be to regulate our utilities according to the laws of the land, which includes, first and foremost, the Energy Transition Act," the law setting benchmarks for New Mexico to transition toward renewable energy. Nibert was chosen from a pool of more than 30 candidates, according to a news release. The six finalists included Ellison, Stephen Meyer, Flavious Smith, Blessing Chukwu and Debra Hicks. Meyer and Hicks are owners or CEOs of their own companies, Smith is an oil and gas asset manager for Bank of America and Chukwu is a retired staff member at the Arizona Corporation Commission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Environmental advocacy group Conservation Voters New Mexico publicly advocated for Meyer and Walcavich to be advanced based on their backgrounds in renewable energy. A representative from the organization, and several other New Mexico environmental organizations, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon. State law prohibits the three commissioners from belonging to the same political party. Since the other two commissioners are both registered Democrats, the person appointed to replace Ellison could not been. Nibert and two other finalists were registered Republicans; the others were unaffiliated with a political party. The other sitting commissioners are Chair Patrick O'Connell, who has four years remaining on his term and Gabriel Aguilera, who has two years remaining. BOSTON (SHNS) Massachusetts is always at a high level of alert and awareness, Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday when asked if the Bay State had changed its posture at all in the wake of a deadly truck attack in New Orleans. What happened in New Orleans is horrific. Its a terrible, terrible thing, and my heart goes out to the victims and survivors of that, Healey told reporters after taking part in a joint session of the Legislature on Thursday. And know that were going to continue to make every effort here in the state to make sure that our state and our communities are as safe as possible. A Texas man apparently influenced by the Islamic State group drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning as it was packed with New Years Day revelers, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more before he was killed in a firefight with police, according to the Associated Press. Later Wednesday, a truck loaded with explosives blew up outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas in what authorities have said was an unrelated incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked by a reporter Thursday whether Massachusetts was at a different level of alertness than usual, the governor suggested that the attacks had not altered Massachusetts security plans. I think were always at a high level of alert and awareness in Massachusetts and around the country. I mean, thats the nature of the times that were in, and its why the continued work that we do between and among state, local and federal law enforcement is so important, Healey said. Healey did not answer a question about bollards, which are often installed around places of high pedestrian traffic to prevent cars from accessing them intentionally or inadvertently, and said she would have to talk about the issue with Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has asked for the immediate resignation of regents at Western New Mexico State University after revelations of wasteful spending and failures in financial oversight, according to documents released Thursday. In a year-end letter to the five-member board of regents, Lujan Grisham said new leadership is needed in the spirit of a clean slate to ensure the Silver City-based university can regain its equilibrium and once again serve its students first and foremost. The board's chairwoman resigned Tuesday. The turmoil follows the announced resignation of Joseph Shepard as university president after an investigation by the state auditors office found top school officials and regents failed to uphold their fiduciary responsibilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawmakers started raising questions in 2023 about Shepards spending on international travel and high-end furniture, along with wife Valerie Plame's use of a university credit card. Plame is a former CIA operations officer who ran unsuccessfully for New Mexicos 3rd Congressional District in the 2020 Democratic primary. Regents backed an arrangement for Shepards resignation as president that guarantees him a new faculty job, a six-figure annual salary and a one-time payment of $1.9 million. The package is under scrutiny by the State Ethics Commission, and state Attorney General Raul Torrez announced an inquiry into whether the regents satisfied their fiduciary duty. Shepard and board members have defended their conduct. Faculty at the university backed a no-confidence vote against the board of regents Thursday, also urging state officials to intervene and rescind Shepard's arrangement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is merely a potentially powerful way for the faculty to send a strong public expression of their lack of confidence in their leaders and to make this known publicly, professor and faculty senate president Phillip Schoenberg said. Schoenberg expressed gratitude for the governor's efforts to replace the regents, citing a need for responsive and decisive leadership. The four remaining regents are expected to resign before Friday, he said. University administrators did not respond to phone and email inquires about further possible resignations. Shepard was appointed president in 2011 following a 16-year career at Florida Gulf State University that included several administrative roles. Western New Mexico State's history dates to the 1890s, before statehood, though its name has changed multiple times over the years. GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) A 38-year-old Green Bay man was arrested Wednesday in connection with a reported domestic disturbance that left a 57-year-old woman with stab wounds on New Years Eve. According to the Green Bay Police Department, officers responded to the 1600 block of Harold Street and provided first aid to the victim, who was transported to a hospital for treatment. 49-year-old Wisconsin man arrested for 6th OWI after inducing high speed police chase Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police determined the suspect had fled the scene, but he was later apprehended during a traffic stop in another jurisdiction by the Wisconsin State Patrol. The suspect was brought to the Green Bay Police Department for questioning, arrested, and booked into the Brown County Jail. The identities of those involved have not been released. 4K student in Wisconsin tragically dies after being hit by bus in parking lot of school Authorities stated that charges will be referred to the Brown County District Attorneys Office. The investigation remains ongoing, and no further details have been provided. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Green Bay Police Department at 920-448-3200, referencing case number 24-268256. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. A U.S. Army Green Beret was the driver of a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, officials confirmed to local news outlets. The man, identified by officials as Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, died at the scene. Seven other people sustained minor injuries in the blast, said Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Livelsberger allegedly drove the 2024 Cybertruck to the front of the hotel after 8 a.m. on Wednesday, pulling into a space directly in front of the entrance doors. Smoke started emanating from the truck just before the large blast blew it apart, McMahill said. Firework mortars and camp fuel canisters were found inside the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said Wednesday on X. Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBIs Las Vegas office, said the agency was working to determine whether the blast was an act of terrorism. Livelsberger was a special forces operations sergeant assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group in Stuttgart, Germany, an Army spokesperson said. U.S. Special Operations Command confirmed Thursday he was on approved leave at the time of the Las Vegas explosion. He served a total of 19 years. Livelsberger enlisted in the Army as a special forces candidate in January 2006, an Army spokesperson said. He remained on active duty until March 2011, at which point he joined the Army National Guard. He switched to the Army Reserve in July 2012 and then reentered active duty in December 2012. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger deployed twice to Afghanistan and served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a Combat Infantry Badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Authorities told local news outlets Thursday that Livelsberger was a resident of Colorado Springs. The FBIs Denver office said it was conducting activity at a residential address in the city Thursday, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Colorado Springs Police Department. The FBI said it would be on-site for several hours and that the activity was related to the explosion in Las Vegas. President Joe Biden said in an address Wednesday night that authorities were investigating any potential connection between the blast and a deadly rampage in New Orleans another possible act of terrorism that occurred the same day. A U.S. Army veteran rammed a truck into a crowd of New Years revelers on Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning, killing 15 people. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether theres a possible connection to the attack in New Orleans, Biden said. So far, theres nothing to report on that score. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger spent time at Fort Liberty, formerly named Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to U.S. Special Operations Command. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old Army veteran suspected in the New Orleans attack, also spent time at that base. However, one official said so far there is no overlap in their assignments there. Both Livelsberger and Jabbar rented the vehicles used in the attacks through the app Turo, the company confirmed. Our trust and safety team is actively partnering with law enforcement authorities to share any information that could be helpful in their investigations, Turo wrote in a statement. We do not believe that either renter had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat, and we are not currently aware of any information that indicates the two incidents are related. Authorities dont think the two men knew each other, two law enforcement officials said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) The city of Greenville is looking to continue momentum of growth and innovation from 2024 into 2025. Well, I think its an exciting time to be in Greenville. Theres so many things going on and the future is very bright, Executive Director of Downtown Greenville Partnership Troy Dreyfus said. Well, I dont think its any one thing. Its a number of things that all come together and its good leadership from the city, from the university, from the county. For 2025, they hope the trend can continue, especially with one of the biggest events of the year on the horizon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, I think, you know, were best known for PirateFest, which is voted number one event of the year last year for the state of North Carolina, Dreyfus said. So, were excited to be bringing that back. Were going to be taking some really cool new adjustments to that, itll be Apr. 5th this year, all day at the Town Common. Well be releasing more information about that as time goes on. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. Tahlequah, a mother orca who gained fame in 2018 for carrying her deceased calf on her back, has lost another child and heartbreaking photos and video show her again continuing to carry her dead baby. Researchers said that the calf, born off the shore of Washington state and known as J61, was female. She only lived for around a week and has been dead for a few days. The death of any calf in the Southern Resident killer whale population is a tremendous loss, but the death of J61 is particularly devastating, not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline but also given the history of her mother J35 who has now lost two out of four documented calves both of which were female, the Center for Whale Research wrote in a Facebook post. Tahlequah carries her dead offspring on her head. Previously, she had carried another deceased baby on her back (NOAA Fisheries) After the orca had her calf die in 2018, she carried her babys body on her back for an unprecedented 17 days and over 1,000 miles, garnering international attention and highlighting the complex ways that animals also process grief and death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, Tahlequah, also known as J35, is carrying J61s body on her head. There is no way to tell how long shell carry the calf. Over the last few years, we realized that we have the same neurotransmitters that they have. We have the same hormones that they have. Why shouldnt we also have the same emotions that they have, Joe Gaydos, the chief scientist for the UC Davis SeaDoc Society Program, told reporters at a Thursday press conference. He noted that similar behavior had been observed in other animals, and particularly in long-lived and socially cohesive animals. We dont have the market cornered on emotions. So, I think its fair to say that she is grieving, or mourning, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The researchers have not provided a cause of death, but noted that they, NOAA, and other groups would conduct follow-up observations of Tahlequah and her other new calf, J62, when conditions and movements of the whales allow. J35 carrying her dead baby calf (NOAA Fisheries) Obviously, its a heartbreaking, tragic situation for not just her, but also for the population, NOAA orca researcher Brad Hanson told KUOW. This particular calf was a female, and we need young viable females that recruit into the population in order to be able to recover it. Previously, the team had expressed concern about J61s health based on the behavior of the calf and her mother. An agency that conducts body measurements said they believed the calf was premature and in subnormal body condition in October, the Orca Conservancy noted last month. J61 is seen off the Washington coast last year. Scientists had been conserved about the calf based on her behavior (Center for Whale Research/Facebook) Scientists had worried about Tahlequahs health seven years ago, as well. She is now in her late twenties, and orcas can live between 50 and 90 years in the wild. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dr. Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist with NOAAs Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said Thursday that she may not have had the time to recover from her prior calf. They had hoped that she was able to keep J61 alive through the early days, noting that early life is always dangerous for new calves, with a very high mortality rate in the first year. We are very grateful to our colleagues in Puget Sound who have been conducting fieldwork and sharing their observations with us, the center said. The sex of J62 remains unknown, but has appeared physically and behaviorally normal. J62 travels with the pod. J62 has appeared to behave normally (Center for Whale Research) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unfortunately, baby orcas have what is roughly estimated to be a 50 percent mortality rate, according to Andrew Trite, the director of marine mammal research at the institute for oceans and fisheries in UBCs zoology department, told the Vancouver Sun. Scientists were never able to figure out the cause of death of her other calf in 2018. Experts said Thursday that female orcas with more sons are less likely to successfully produce a calf. The first born has a higher probability of dying, largely due to inexperience, he said. Its about the challenge of nursing. Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux traveled to New Orleans from Gulfport with her cousin and a friend on Tuesday to ring in the New Year on Bourbon Street. But her grieving mother confirmed Wednesday that Dedeaux, 18, was one of the 14 people killed when a man drove a truck down the crowded French Quarter Street in a suspected act of terrorism. I just want to see my baby, Melissa Dedeaux, 40, wept. She was the sweetest person. She would give you anything, anything. Barreling truck About 35 other people were injured when the suspect, identified by law enforcement sources as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, plowed a white pickup truck through the 200 block of Bourbon Street about 3:15 a.m., according to authorities. The man shot two police officers before he was gunned down by law enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cheyenne, as she was known to her family, wasnt supposed to be in New Orleans, according to her mother. She sneaked over with her 18-year-old cousin and their friend, Zion Parsons, 17. Parsons said the trio was leaving Voodoo Chicken & Daquiris on Bourbon near Bienville Street when out of nowhere he heard commotion and banging. Melissa Dedeauxs niece told her gunfire rang out, and they began running. Cheyenne Dedeaux darted into the street and into the path of the barreling truck. She suffered horrific injuries. The Orleans Parish Coroners Office has not officially confirmed Cheyenne Dedeauxs death, but Melissa Dedeaux said she knows her daughter was killed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a mother, when my niece and [Parsons] said they covered her with a sheet, I just knew that was it for my daughter, Melissa Dedeaux said. On Wednesday morning, the family had reunited with Melissa Dedeauxs shaken niece and were searching the French Quarter for the spot where the trio had parked their car the night before. Ball of sunshine Cheyenne Dedeaux was the third oldest of Melissa Dedeauxs six children. She was my favorite, Melissa Dedeaux admitted. She was my child. Cheyenne graduated from Harrison Central High School in Gulfport, Mississippi, in 2024 and was scheduled to begin a nursing program at Blue Cliff College on Jan. 13. She was following the lead of her mother, who is also a nurse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cheyenne was a very smart and outgoing girl, Melissa Dedeaux said. Shes never gotten into any trouble. Known by the nickname Biscuit by friends, Parsons said Cheyenne Dedeaux was never down, or grumpy. He called her a little ball of sunshine who always tried to stay positive, cheering friends if she detected an attitude or negative energy. You know those kinds of people where you cant find a reason to dislike them. She was one of those people, Parsons said. Melissa Dedeaux described her daughter as a popular person who was always sounded by friends. If she wasnt at work, she was sleeping or getting together with her girls. She always had carloads of friends, Melissa Dedeaux said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cheyenne Dedeaux was a momma and a daddys girl, turning to her father, Nicholas Dedeaux, when she was cross with her mother. But those moments never lasted for long, Melissa Dedeaux said. As Melissa Dedeaux awaited word from law enforcement on Wednesday, she urged children and teens to listen to their parents, to share where they are going. I didnt even know she came over here, Melissa Dedeaux said. No matter how good you are, how sweet you are, you can be the one thats buried. Things like this can happen. The MMA community has lost a young talent. Hakaraia Wilson, an MMA fighter from New Zealand, has died at age 26, according to multiple outlets including Te Ao News and The New Zealand Herald. According to Te Ao News, Wilson was in Gisborne, New Zealand, at the time of his death for the Rhythm and Vines Festival. Police told the outlet that they attended to a sudden death on Wednesday, Jan. 1. The death is not suspicious and has been referred to the Coroner, police told Te Ao News in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No cause of death for the athlete was shared. Hakaraia Wilson/Instagram MMA fighter Hakaraia Wilson MMA fighter Hakaraia Wilson Related: Paying Tribute to the Celebrities Who Have Died in 2024 Wilson began his career in 2020 and had a 4-3 pro MMA record, according to The New Zealand Herald. His final fight took place in October, and on Nov. 14, Wilson revealed that hed undergone surgery on his left arm. Surgery done he wrote on Instagram at the time. Be back asap. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories. As news of his death broke, Wilsons peers and fans shared tributes to the late fighter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its with profound sadness that we share the passing of a true pillar of our family and communityour brother, Hakaraia Wilson, the Oliver MMA and Fitness Gym wrote on its Instagram page. There are no words that can truly capture what were all feeling right now." Related: TikTok Humanitarian Dora Moono Nyambe, Who Built School in Zambia, Dies at 32: Extraordinary Woman The caption continued, "Haks, your legacy will live on in each of us your smile, your laughter, your warmth, and your warrior spirit. Rest easy, knowing your time here, though far too short, left a mark that will never fade. The Coconet TV shared a video tribute to Wilson, which showed him stretching on the sand and connecting with nature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A young, talented & wise Hakaraia Wilson the post's caption read. Our heartfelt condolences to the aiga and whanau of Hakaraia Wilson who was a promising young MMA fighter. May you rest with the ancestors you spoke so fondly of. Wrote one fan in a comment on the latter post, "A beautiful human and role model for our rangatahi a role model and someone I know my son will look up to for years to come ." Read the original article on People Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, believes that by halting the transit of Russian gas to EU states, Ukraine has deprived Russia of one of its last tools of influence over Europe. Source: Andrii Sybiha on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda Details: Ukraine's Foreign Minister stated that stopping the supply of Russian gas through Ukraine will reduce Russia's ability to influence Europe and use energy as a weapon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "Ukraine has cut off more than just Russian gas transit. We have cut off some of Putins last remaining leverage over Europe and his use of energy as a weapon. Europe and the world will be safer without Russian gas, oil, and other dependencies, as well as without Russia itself." From 1 January, Ukraine ceased the transit of Russian gas that had been supplied to several EU states and the unrecognised Transnistria. Background: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made it clear that Ukraine is not considering renewing the transit agreement with Gazprom and has stated that Kyiv will not agree to transport Russian gas disguised as Azerbaijani gas. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico sharply criticised Zelenskyy for these actions and sent a letter to EU leaders expressing dissatisfaction with Ukraine's decisions, and threatened to halt Slovakia's electricity supplies. Support UP or become our patron! For some Hampton Roads residents, losing water service is a genuine concern due to financial difficulties. To ease this burden, the Hampton Roads Help 2 Others (H20) water assistance program is stepping in to provide some financial support. The program, administered by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, in partnership with The Salvation Army, provides eligible residents with one-time financial assistance of up to $500 to cover their water and wastewater utility bills. Recipients must live in the service area of a participating Hampton Roads utility and show they have been affected by a personal or family crisis, such as a death, significant illness, or sudden decrease in family income. Program organizers are encouraging local residents and businesses to donate toward the program and adopt a drop to help people keep access to a clean water supply for things like showers, laundry and drinking water. H2O Program Manager Katie Cullipher said the program is year-round, but more of an effort is made to promote it during the holiday season. She says that every contribution no matter how big or small is vital in helping those struggling with payments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People, I think, are in the giving spirit, typically this time of year, Cullipher said. And so its especially important for people to know about the program as they consider charitable giving. We want people to consider this program as it helps the money stays right in Hampton Roads, and every dollar thats donated goes right to the people that get the assistance. Those who need assistance can apply by contacting their local Salvation Army command. Afterward, Salvation Army representatives will screen the applicants to verify eligibility and determine how much money is needed to pay the bills. The Salvation Army sends the requests to the sanitation district, which makes the payment on the customers behalf so that they can keep their water service. A great advantage of the program is that its not income-based, like many other assistance programs, Cullipher said. So it really is, you know, a program for anyone whos just going through a financial hardship of some kind, and we all go through them, maybe they dont have an emergency fund set aside. So this is really to help bridge the gap for people going through a difficult time. She said those applying need to have a photo ID, proof of residency and proof of financial hardship, whether that be a recent pay stub, proof of losing employment or a high medical bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cullipher said customers can only receive up to $500 in a calendar year. After a year has passed, they can apply again if they still need assistance. Cullipher said that Hampton Roads Help 2 Others was first formed in 1999, but became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2011. Last fiscal year, which ended on June 30, the nonprofit distributed $162,000 to 418 families. Salvation Armys Hampton Roads Area Command social services program manager Seth Atkinson, who manages the initial assessment of those applying for relief funds, said in a news release that nearly all of the people served are living paycheck to paycheck and thats crisis like them experiencing a health emergency or a car breaking down can make them fall behind on their payments. Theres hardly enough money to pay the day-to-day expenses, and then this massive bill arrives, Atkinson said. That can be devastating. People can make one-time or recurring donations to H2O through the Facebook page, PayPal, Venmo, credit card or by check. Program leaders say 100% of all contributions apply directly to water or wastewater bills. For more information about the Help 2 Others, visit shareh2o.org. Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com Harlem community champion inspires with acts of kindness and generosity HARLEM, Manhattan (PIX11) A Harlem community champion says he turned his life around in the new year. He took to the streets on the last day of Hanukkah to spread a little cheer. Robert Jackson says he is a man on a mission to help his community not just for the new year, but all year round. Jackson says its his Jewish faith and his love of community that drives him to make it happen. More Monica Makes It Happen Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jackson gave toys out on the sidewalk to children on 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd on the last day of Hanukkah. He says its more than a toy but joy. A small gesture that means so much. Jackson has a personal motto he lives by. Kindness is free. His giving is contagious. Jackson now helps lead a community group called Honor Our Brothers based in Harlem, dozens of members strong. Jackson says he found his purpose through a lot of pain. Suffering Back to back tragedies, losing his mother to cancer and his brother, struck and killed in a hit and run. He battled depression for years. Jackson says what saved him was giving. Helping others he says was medicine for his soul. A big turning point in his life finding his Jewish faith, converting in 2015. If you know a community champion making it happen in their community, reach out to Monica Morales at Monica@pix11.com Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIMEs politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. When Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at the Capitol on Friday to swear-in the new class of Senators, many of the smiling politicians handing her their family Bibles will be the same ones who for months have been telling crowds that she was a threat to the American way of life. At campaign rallies, on social media, and in interviews, some spent months falsely claiming she wanted to ban Christmas from the calendar, bring dog meat to immigrants stoves, or rig the election by inviting undocumented immigrants to flood polling places and cast illegal ballots. Of the four Senators taking oaths on Friday who also spoke at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last year, three of them couldnt be bothered to pronounce her name correctly when they took a moment to ridicule her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its an inelegant reality that every Vice President faces in their role as the President of the Senate, one that is particularly raw for those like Harris, Al Gore, and Richard Nixon who lost their presidential bids but still had to return for a final few weeks of a grind at the Capitol. Former Senators all, they understood that the norms of the Upper Chamber could not be set aside to save their bruised ego, nor would these institutionalists ask to be spared. Standing there with folks who trashed them is just part of the gig. Or at least thats what they have to tell themselves. That doesnt make itor presiding over a Senate on Jan. 6 as it certifies their opponents win in the Electoral Collegeany easier. Just ask former Vice Presidents Mike Pence, Joe Biden, and Dan Quayle how much they enjoyed helping set their political foes on the final glidepath toward replacing them. For Harris, who inherited the Democratic nomination late in the calendar, the day cannot be one of ease. Although she has put forward a strong face in the wake of her convincing defeat and has told her supporters and aides that pity parties are not how they do things, the arrival in Washington this week of some of her fiercestand most creativecritics, now imbued with more power, provides an added sting to the meteoric rise and shocking shortfall she endured over the last six months. Take Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno of Ohio, who was born in Bogata, Colombia and ran an auto empire in Cleveland before unseating Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown by tapping into voters anxieties over immigration in a former industrial powerhouse. Moreno not only helped spread the false allegations that residents of Springfield, Ohio, were eating dogs and cats, he claimed they were the byproduct of Harris role in giving temporary status to legal immigrants, and said Harris and fellow Democrats have put the welfare of illegals ahead of our own citizens. Meanwhile, his campaign inched very close to blaming Harris for a failed assassination attempt against Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen.-elect Jim Banks of Indiana, campaigning for one of the safest seats in the country, stuck with the tried-and-true culture war fodder in saying Harris wanted her war of Christmas. Harris will swear in him too, along with Sen. Ted Cruz, who spent months saying Harris and her allies were coordinating asylum seekers to flood the country with future voters. (For the record: non-citizens cannot vote.) Cruz also said in September the Ukrainian president was using a trip to the United States to campaign as a Harris surrogate. And Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who had eyed the top job in his chamber but did not get it, crassly assessed that Harris was ignoring his states post-hurricane recovery to chase photo-ops. She doesnt care enough about Florida to get her butt down here and say shes going to make sure the federal government is a partner in whats going on right now in our state, Scott said. He also accused her of picking the policies she touted based on racism. And as these newcomers and alumni alike take the oath on Friday, theyll be repeating it from the woman who, at least until Election Day of last year, was considered the standard-bearer of a political party now looking for an identity and a future. Political pros like Harris understand this is just the nature of the performative piece of doing the job. As a former career prosecutor, district attorney, state Attorney General, Senator, Vice President, and presidential nominee, she gets that the folks across the aisle will take every opportunity to amplify and even at times invent daylight between the two parties. She certainly has done it over her career, and theres no indication that the 60-year-old trailblazer is done. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That doesnt mean there is any of that joy heading from the Veeps residence at the Naval Observatory to Capitol Hill as this week ends. Harris and Biden alike are packing up offices that will soon be held by their polar opposites. Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vancewhose Senate seat from Ohio is still an open question that only Gov. Mike DeWine can answerare about as unlikely a pair of heirs as can be expected. The Senate, too, is about to pivot not just from a Democratic majority to a Republican one, but a GOP-led chamber without former Leader Mitch McConnells iron hold over his caucus. That potential chaos in a chamber requiring 60 votes for almost every piece of consequential legislation may be the lone reason Harris can summon comfort as she readies for photo-ops with figures who spent months trashing her, weeks misrepresenting her updated policies, and for years to come will be casting votes in Washington while she plans her next moves. So Harris will grip, grin, and grit on Friday, and for the next 17 days. Just dont expect her to forget the litany of slights they hurled at her. Like all good pols at her level, Harris memory can be stubborn. Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter. Write to Philip Elliott at philip.elliott@time.com. HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) Bishop Timothy Senior of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg chose human trafficking as the topic of his first pastoral letter because he believed its a contemporary and pressing issue but also an issue about which most people could agree. In other words, although different reasonable people might have different specific ideas about how to combat the human trafficking problem, almost all reasonable people agree its a problem. Senior acknowledges theres less societal agreement about other church stances, and he said thats okay and in fact is the churchs role to take stands that dont align with one political philosophy but are, in the churchs view, religiously consistent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps the most famous example? Obviously the commitment to the sanctity of human life in the teachings of the Catholic faith is something everybody is very familiar with, Senior said. That means perhaps most prominently the churchs opposition to abortion, an issue on which it aligns far more closely with Republicans than Democrats. But one of the things Pope Francis has really challenged us to emphasize is that commitment is throughout the entire continuum of human life, Senior said. We believe life begins at conception and ends when God calls someone home natural death. Yes, that means opposition to physician-assisted suicide, which by a narrower margin than the abortion question Republicans are more likely to oppose too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But it also means opposition to the death penalty, an issue where Democrats are far more aligned with the church than Republicans are just within the past week, incoming President Donald Trump strongly criticized outgoing President Joe Bidens decision to commute some federal death sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Other priorities of Senior which resonate with those often verbalized by Democrats? Environmental justice, Senior said. People suffer because of climate change, and if were really committed to human life, we have to be focused on that whole continuum. The shortage of affordable housing, Senior said. I mean, you talk about an assault on the dignity of the human person I believe [housing] is a basic human right. I also believe access to health care quality health care is a basic human right. If Im truly committed to human life, Ive got to look for those opportunities where I can elevate the need for us to work together as a community to respect the dignity of the human person, Senior said. Theres no party platform in the world, probably, thats going to be consistent with all church teachings. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. The Hays school district this month is expected to consider a proposal to call an almost $900 million bond referendum to build a fourth high school and an 18th elementary school, expand or update a handful of other campuses, and purchase new school buses, among other projects. If the board calls for a bond election at that price tag, it would be the largest put before Hays school district voters in at least 20 years and would be the 11th school bond proposal put on the ballot since 2001 in the rapidly expanding district. A committee of board-appointed community members developed the $885.3 million bond package, though the school board could change the projects on the final list. If the board calls an election, voters would decide on the bond package in May. What's proposed? Almost $425 million would be allocated to build a fourth high school, plus $5 million for that campuss stadium, and $78.7 million for a new elementary school, according to the current proposal. Parents and students file into Jim Cullen Elementary in Kyle for the first day of school Aug. 13. The growing Hays district is planning to add an 18th elementary and a fourth high school. Expansions and upgrades to Kyle, Hemphill, Fuentes and Tom Green elementaries as well as to Wallace and Simon middle schools are also included. And improvements to Hays and Johnson high schools are proposed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a Dec. 16 board meeting, some members voiced concern about space constraints at Lehman High School. I have heard of large classrooms being held in the cafeteria because of classroom space, school board member Johnny Flores said. This is just something that Ive heard along with the parking concerns. The bond proposal includes $7 million to purchase 24 new school buses, eight activity buses and other vehicles. In May, a Hays school bus carrying 44 prekindergartners and 11 adults flipped over when a concrete pump truck slammed into the vehicle, killing a child and an adult who was driving in a car behind the bus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2011 Hays bus didnt have seat belts, and the district vowed it would either outfit older vehicles with restraints or replace the buses without seat belts with newer ones that have the safety feature. In an April 12 plan, the district laid out its intent to purchase at least 22 new buses in a bond proposal for 2025. Another $54 million would go toward buying land for future schools. Principal Elizabeth Lara greets Ellie Springer, 5, and her dad, Sean Springer, on Ellie's first day of kindergarten at Cullen Elementary last August. Between 2014 and 2024, student enrollment grew from 17,948 students to 24,343 in the Hays district. By 2034, that number could top 45,000. The Hays school district serves students in the eastern corner of Hays County and has been rapidly growing for a decade. Between 2014 and 2024, student enrollment grew from 17,948 students to 24,343, a 26.3% increase, according to a demographic study the district released in the fall. The districts more than 7,500 high school students have already pushed its three high schools to or beyond capacity, according to the study. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Hays district's enrollment could grow to more than 45,000 students by 2034, according to the study. Voters approved a $315.7 million bond package in 2023 and a $115.6 million plan a year earlier. Voters also approved multimillion-dollar packages in 2021 and 2017. The board is scheduled to meet next on Jan. 15. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Hays CISD could call almost $900M bond vote to expand, build schools PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) The New Year began with a special arrival at HCA Florida Gulf Coast Hospital as the first baby of 2025 was born. That little bundle of joy is Taylor, she was born at 12:57 a.m. weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces, and measuring 20 inches long. Move Over Month enforced every January for road safety Healthcare officials said both the baby and mother are doing wonderfully and the family is overjoyed to welcome the newest member into the world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To commemorate the joyful occasion, the family was presented with a gift basket filled with essential infant care items. This tradition celebrates the first baby of the year at HCA Florida Gulf Coast Hospital and highlights the hospitals commitment to caring for its community, from the very first moments of life. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com. DENVER (KDVR) Denvers chief of police said his agency will take a close look at Louisianas mass casualty incident for its own future events to ensure safety. 10 were killed and dozens of others injured early on New Years Day in New Orleans after a pickup truck plowed through a crowd on Bourbon Street. The Denver Police Department said it will look at this tragedy and see what could make events like last nights NYE celebrations safer. Denver hospitals welcome the first babies born in 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DPD Chief Ron Thomas said any event has vulnerabilities and he knows the New Orleans Police Department took precautions. Our hearts really go out to the New Orleans community, the family, loved ones of the 10 who were killed. Certainly a tragic situation and Im sure they took a number of precautions to make sure that Bourbon Street was safe and so its unfortunate that someone was able to take advantage as some small point of vulnerability, Thomas said. As for Denvers New Years Eve celebrations, DPD said barricades were set up on 17th and 15th surrounding 16th Street on NYE, which Thomas said added to the agencys plan for safety. With any event like this across the nation the department looks at its own similar events to see where that vulnerability might be. We did have a significant amount of barricades keeping people from getting anywhere close to where people were gathered. Whether we used bicycle fencing or other types of barricades, police cars, other heavy equipment. We even used some very large-scale barricades that you cant even run over with a vehicle, Thomas said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Colorado avalanche center: Very large slide triggered near I-70 illustrates current danger Thomas agreed and knows it will be on peoples minds in coming events, but he assured them this is a safe community. I think that its intended to cause fear and so I can understand people in Denver being fearful of going to the next event whether its the Broncos game this Sunday or some other event in the near future, but I would just like to say that we are just as concerned that the community is safe. We do take significant precautions looking at our footprint over and over and over again and making sure that there arent any vulnerabilities that we can see and see if there is a way that we can redouble our efforts here in Denver, Thomas said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. UPDATE: THURSDAY 1/2/2025 8:43 a.m. (COLORADO SPRINGS) The FBI has confirmed the heavy law enforcement presence at a townhome complex in Stetson Hills on Wednesday, Jan. 1 is related to the Las Vegas explosion. According to the FBI, the Denver Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives; and the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) were on scene at a community of townhomes near Stetson Hills Boulevard and Marksheffel Road. The FBI said crews will continue to be on-site on Thursday, Jan. 2 for several hours. This activity is related to the explosion in Las Vegas on Wednesday; an FBI spokesperson told FOX21 News. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information will be provided out of Denver. ORIGINAL TITLE: Heavy law enforcement presence in Stetson Hills WEDNESDAY 1/1/2025 10:53 p.m. There was a heavy law enforcement presence at a townhome complex in Stetson Hills on the evening of Jan. 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOX21s crew on the scene could see a heavy presence of unmarked law enforcement vehicles at a community of townhomes near Stetson Hills Boulevard and Marksheffel Road. Uniformed bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) officers were on scene, according to the FOX21 News crew. FOX21 News reached out to the Colorado Springs Police Department for more information, which said anytime CSPD assists the FBI, we cannot comment on the assistance. FOX21 News has reached out to the FBI Denver office and has not heard back. Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Chris Hernandez Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Chris Hernandez Courtesy: FOX21 News photojournalist Chris Hernandez This is a developing story, FOX21 News will provide updates when more information is available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein visited Asheville Thursday afternoon on his first full day in office to announce his first executive orders. Steins team said the orders will support Helene recovery efforts for businesses and families. ALSO: Josh Stein was sworn in as North Carolinas governor Channel 9s Dave Faherty was in one of the hardest hit communities in Old Fort Thursday where theyre still cleaning up months after the storm hit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he witnessed some of the cleanup efforts firsthand as seven churches from central Georgia are in Old Fort gutting and rebuilding homes. These folks are a Godsend, Taylor said. The Lord works in mysterious ways. These guys have been a blessing to me and my wife. The Federal Emergency Management Agency told Channel 9 earlier this week that there are still more than 5,300 families, using transitional shelters, staying at motels and hotels. Stein signed five executive orders on Thursday. He spoke about the need for the state to help with temporary housing and private roads and bridges. Folks have to have a safe place to live, Stein said. More than 12,000 remain displaced. And as we are in the coldest months of the year. It is urgent that people have warm and safe places to live now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governor announced a limited waiver on regulations so the state can increase the supply of temporary housing on peoples property. He also enlisted emergency management to find ways to fix private roads and bridges. Brent Redfern is part of the church group from Georgia and is glad to hear more assistance is coming from North Carolina. Most people dont have $40-$50,000 just sitting around a bank account that they can tap and just start rebuilding, Redfern said. If he could make funds available to put these homes back together, that would be awesome. Stein also announced the creation of the Governors Recovery Office for Western North Carolina. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Part of its mission will be addressing long-term housing construction and community resilience. Stein was sworn in to office on Wednesday, he spoke about the urgent need to rebuild housing, support small businesses, and restore broken infrastructure. He also talked about the importance of Democrats and Republicans working together to meet the needs in western North Carolina. (WATCH: Hundreds gather for reopening of Boone Walmart damaged by Helene) SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas (KETK) CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital in Sulphur Springs welcomes the first baby born in 2025: Ethan Garcia. Ethan was welcomed into the world on New Years Day and has brought happiness and excitement to his proud parents, Megan Neal and Venancio Garcia, and his older sister. Courtesy of CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances The KETK News team sends a huge congratulations to the newest addition to the family. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. Broward County commissioners at a November meeting kept reeling off many proposals to address homelessness, and up came yet one more idea: Cant we just help the homeless move out of town? Its far from a novel suggestion. Broward County has been doing that already through a philanthropic program thats been in place for decades. Its done on a case-by-case basis, where the county makes sure that a relocated person has someone meeting them at their destination to take them in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The relocation program recently was thrust back into the spotlight as the county grapples for solutions to help the homeless. Heres a look at Browards Family Reunification Program. Helping others For almost 30 years, the county has offered its reunification program, providing free one-way passes for Greyhound bus rides. While the program was criticized in its inception in 1998 as a way to simply bus the homeless out of the county and get rid of the problem, it also has been hailed as the solution to get the homeless the help they need. Pembroke Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo formerly worked for Broward County as director of Human Services in 1998. The reunification program started under his watch, he recalls. There was no money for airplane tickets back then, so the staff turned to Greyhound. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We never gave anybody a ticket and said, get lost,' he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He said homelessness is a personal crisis that requires personal intervention. So efforts started off by making a connection between the homeless and county social workers: So where are you from, Joe? After hearing that the person was from Schenectady, N.Y., for example, staff got to work contacting family and guiding them on how to help. You have to do this, you have to do that. This was a very caringly done thing. It was part of a strategy. If that family agreed, we would give him a sandwich and a couple bucks along with a Greyhound ticket to Schenectady with clear instructions: You call us when you get there. This was by no means handing out a bus ticket and goodbye. Thats unethical, Castillo said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And not everybody needed a ticket at all. Some of them didnt live in New Jersey or Ohio. They lived in Sunrise or Pompano. For the locals who didnt need to travel cross-country, Castillo said the staff worked to get them off the streets, too. The same rules applied: The social workers helped direct families how to get their loved ones help. In some cases, the families required that certain standards had to be met before the homeless person could move back home. And for the chronically homeless that had no one to turn to, who were mentally ill or using substances, commonly both, for them we had to find a placement, Castillo said, which could be homeless shelters or mental-health facilities. The program has drawn scrutiny ever since its inception decades ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Laura Hansen is the CEO of Coalition to End Homelessness, a separate program that provides first, last, and security deposits for families in search of housing. Of the countys relocation program effort, Hansen said it could be perceived as a way of saying, You are not wanted here, go away.' She questioned if it truly fixes anything. There may be times people did get separated and do need help getting back to them. And in that case, it makes sense, she said. But every city is trying to get their homeless population to move someplace else. The net change is not existent. You havent changed the homeless population, you just changed where they live. The efforts to help The Broward reunification programs organizers gauge their triumphs by hearing from people theyve helped through the years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Patrice Paldino is Browards director of the Housing Options, Solutions, and Supports Division. She recalls many instances of the assistance provided. That includes the help given to a single mom, who was stranded at the Spirit baggage area with her teenage son after becoming estranged from family. The pair went home to California in October. In another instance, Paldino said, a single mother with three sons was sent back to Houston in August and reunited with family there. We are told someone is on the other end, our staff makes contact with that family member (who) says, Yes, they are willing to assist,' Paldino said. If we dont make that contact, then we arent going to send that person back to a problem. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Browards program might have started off as just bus passes to send families back home. But over the years it has expanded to include airline tickets, too, Paldino told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Just like at its beginning, the rules havent changed: There must be somebody willing at the other end to receive the homeless person. She said the idea is to make sure they are not going to be homeless when they get there, we arent going to send them to homelessness. If Im homeless in Broward, and my family is in New Jersey, we want to make sure there is a commitment on the other side. Thats traumatic displacing someone from here and certainly it would be more traumatic to send them there (and get) shunned. We want to minimize trauma. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the county program began in 1998, it was the first time taxpayer money had been used for the bus tickets, but not a new idea. In 1996, a now-defunct organization called Love Thy Neighbor founded Homeward Bound to send Browards homeless back home to their families. The families at the time were required to write a letter taking responsibility for the person. Broward reunification program today Today, the homeless are found by various outreach teams, including one assigned to patrol at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Paldino said the county has set aside $50,000 for its reunification program for the upcoming budget year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But there are other funding sources available if that limit is reached. County records show 44 families made up of 57 people were assisted in the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. It cost the county nearly $17,000 for airline tickets and bus passes. Thats more than the year before, when help was provided to 26 families, entailing 38 people, at a cost of nearly $13,000. A tiny homes proposal Like many other communities across Florida, county officials are under pressure to find solutions to homelessness since the start of a new state law, which allows members of the public to sue local governments for not doing enough to enforce violations of outdoor-sleeping bans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One effort that could help the homeless population find housing is creating new, temporary homes. But in recent months, efforts to support a plan for the construction of a village of tiny homes didnt advance. It was during a discussion in November when many county commissioners suggested various ideas, including Commissioner Michael Udine. Is there any other way we can deal with this issue, can we get people out of the area? Udine asked on Nov. 12. Can we send them out? Send them to where? Commissioner Steve Geller asked. I have no idea, get them a bus ticket, get them a plane ticket? Udine asked. Come on, Commissioner Nan Rich remarked. Then a county staff member reminded commissioners that the reunification program already was in place, for a very long time. Of program participants, a lot of times the families have lost track of them, and they are very excited theyve resurfaced and are willing to have them home, Browards Deputy County Administrator Kimm Campbell told commissioners in November. Additional efforts In addition to shelters, there are other county programs to help the homeless. Theres a landlord incentive program, called Project Home Again. The county works with more than 200 landlords to assist with first and last months rent and security deposits in exchange for reasonable rents, Paldino said. Some families get ongoing rent assistance. The benefit for the property owners is landlords know they have rent coming in regularly without an issue. The county also is working with hotels to offer a program thats usually reserved for people who have a definitive housing plan and a lease scheduled to start. The county would consider putting them in a hotel because we know there is an end date for the hotel, Paldino said. The county also is piloting a shared-housing program, matching two people as housemates. That lowers the cost for the resident. The clients would have some type of income, which could be Social Security, to be able to afford a shared housing opportunity. Clients would get county case management services. Paldino said solving homelessness requires out-of-the-box thinking. There is no one solution, no one size fits all. We have to look at the whole array of possibilities because this might be the solution for only five people. But for five people, its life-changing. BEDFORD COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) A high-speed chase in a reportedly stolen car out of Pennsylvania ended on Interstate 99 when the driver stopped in the middle of the road, troopers said. Naeem Omar Albright, 27 (Bedford County Prison) Naeem Omar Albright, 27, of Philadelphia was charged with receiving stolen property, possession of a gun, fleeing, and various traffic offenses after allegedly starting a high-speed chase on New Years Eve. State troopers in Bedford County spotted Albright in a Honda Accord traveling 77 miles per hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone on Dec. 31, according to the criminal complaint. Once stopped, troopers said Albright sped off as they approached the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Troopers said another unit spotted Albright and started a pursuit, reporting they were exceeding speeds of 100 miles per hour. According to charges, Albright made his way onto I-99 and continued the high-speed chase for nearly 14 miles before finally stopping in the middle of the highway. According to the complaint, Albright claimed he bought the Honda, with Virginia tags, off the street from some guy in Maryland. He also told troopers he ran because he didnt have insurance. Troopers noted that while he claimed he didnt drink or smoke marijuana, an odor of marijuana was noticed coming from the car. Charges show that police soon discovered the vehicle was reported stolen out of Montgomery County. According to the complaint, troopers also found a handgun in the center console of the car and noted that Albright did not have a concealed carry permit. It was also discovered he had a suspended license, no insurance and no registration for the Honda he was driving. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Albright was arraigned around 2 a.m. on Jan. 1 and placed in Bedford County Prison with bail set at $400,000. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com. OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) The President and CEO of a metro non-profit assisting Oklahomans experiencing homelessness says diversion efforts will be a critical effort in helping more people in the new year. Data from a December snapshot released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows Oklahoma still has plenty of work to do when it comes to addressing homelessness. The report shows a 17% spike from 2023 numbers compared to 2024 numbers, which meant more than 5,400 Oklahomans were recorded as staying in shelters, temporary housing or risking the elements. The data comes ahead of the first arctic blast of the year expected to arrive in Oklahoma this week. LOCAL NEWS: Ok. County Sheriff seeing positive trend in DUI arrests Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2024-AHAR-Part-1Download In this field were chronically hopeful or we wouldnt come to work every day, said Homeless Alliance President and CEO Meghan Mueller when asked how she and her staff stay optimistic. Mueller says data has helped metro partners adopt interventions locally that have been pivotal over the last few years when it comes to homelessness outcomes. She says partners have been able to improve their outreach when it comes to going into encampments and building trusts with people who need help with their transition from homeless to housed. Mueller says shes also not surprised to see the increase heading into 2025. We typically thinking of homelessness as kind of a lagging indicator of economic health and well-being, said Mueller. Were still attributing many of these increases to pandemic era problems. You know, many people, were right on the fringe and so many people still are living paycheck to paycheck or are one crisis or one difficult circumstance away from finding themselves in a situation where they have to make difficult decisions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mueller says those decisions can often include simple choices a lot of people take for granted like putting food on the table or paying rent. She says trends the Homeless Alliance and metro partners are seeing revolving around young families, teens, or people experiencing serious medical issues who need help to get back on their feet. Mueller says the Homeless Alliances day shelter has also seen a spike in a higher volume of clients theyre serving per day. I think our day shelter right now, were averaging around 400 people a day and that is over, you know, what we would typically see, said Mueller. That census is quite high, and again, thats something that I hear from our other partners, you know, its not just, everyones coming here and our partners are sitting at their agencies not serving anyone. Theyre over capacity too. Mueller told News 4 employees that diversion efforts will be critical in 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LOCAL NEWS: Residents start the new year off on the right foot walking around scissortail park Its diverting people away from the system entirely, said Mueller. Our hope is that as we, as a community, kind of pilot these new models of service delivery, we can catch folks before they really hit and interact with our system. The experience of homelessness is traumatic. Theres a lot of trauma that just simply goes into walking in the doors of a shelter. Mueller says the best way theyll be trying to help people avoid that trauma is by trying to connect with struggling individuals before theyve exhausted all of their resources and are forced into homelessness. She says local partners will be working more closely with individuals in the new year to carry out those types of interceptions. In addition to that goal, Mueller says shes also hopeful about the growing awareness of metro residents to the homeless population, with many asking how they can help instead of complaining. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were coming out of a very generous season and, you know, a season where all Oklahomans and all of our neighbors recognize that people shouldnt be outside, you know, that people should have a home, said Mueller. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WDTN) Several roads in Clark County are closed due to an active scene regarding a recent alleged homicide. Several jurisdictions in Clark County are responding to the area of U.S. Route 68 and Ohio State Route 41 in Springfield where a suspect pursuit ended. Clark County Sheriffs Office told 2 NEWS that a homicide investigation began around 7 p.m. in the 700 block of Villa Road. The suspect reportedly shot his girlfriend before fleeing the scene and contacting 911. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When officers arrived and approached him, the suspect took off, leading police on a pursuit. He was found crashed in the area of US-68 and OH-41 with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The suspect was taken to Springfield Regional for his injuries. Officials told 2 NEWS as of 8:45 p.m., he is now being taken to Miami Valley Hospital. The alleged girlfriend on Villa Road was pronounced dead by investigators. The Clark County Sheriffs Office is actively investigating this incident. Residents are asked to avoid the area of US-68 and OH-41 and Villa Road while both scenes are still active. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This story is developing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. HONOLULU (KHON2) The inauguration ceremony for Mayor Rick Blangiardis second term will be live streamed on KHON2.com at 5 p.m. on Jan. 2. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The inauguration will happen at the Mission Memorial Auditorium next to Honolulu Hale. The inauguration comes after Blangiardi won reelection by 78% back in August. Its a challenge, a responsibility and a privilege of a lifetime rolled into one, Blangiardi said after his victory. So when you get to a moment like this, an overwhelming vote of confidence by the public who perceived the work we have done is good, not only is it validating, its inspiring, so Im pumped. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A Dayton man is facing more than 100 additional counts related to a case involving the alleged abuse of children. Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck, Jr. confirmed Kyle Knox, 38, of Dayton, is facing more than 100 new counts: 74 counts of endangering children sexual matter 20 counts of endangering children cruelly abuse/torture Seven counts of aggravated arson harm to persons Four counts of endangering children abuse (serious physical harm) One count of strangulation serious physical harm Heck also said Kayla Shepherd, 29, of Dayton, faces two additional counts: One count of aggravated possession of drugs One count of drug paraphernalia offense According to Heck, Dayton police officers responded on Nov. 18, 2024, to Arlene Avenue after someone called authorities. When officers arrived, they reportedly located two children walking in the street who allegedly claimed they were seeking help after reportedly being left home alone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the children, an 8-year-old boy, allegedly had significant, visible injuries, but more upon inspection at the hospital, according to Heck. At the hospital, it was discovered the 8yearold boy had significant injuries that were not readily visible at the time police spoke with the two children, said the release. Both Knox and Shepherd were indicted on four charges of endangering children in November 2024. Further investigation revealed the extent of the horrific abuse the children were subjected to, especially as it relates to the 8yearold, said the release. The systemic abuse these children went through is simply unimaginable, said Heck. Thankfully, the children were able to escape from the hell that had become their existence and sought help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both will be arraigned on their new indicted charges on Jan. 9. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. The Horton Fire has grown to 1,352 acres in size but remains 17% contained, as of Thursday evening. In an update posted to the social media platform X, Tonto National Forest reps said four fire crews with 334 personnel were using water tenders, fire engines, a helicopter and a bulldozer to fight the wildfire. The number of people fighting the fire went up to 352, as of Thursday night. They also said the cause of the Horton Fire, burning along the Mogollon Rim in Payson, is under investigation. Authorities believe it may have been human-caused. #HortonFire Update-Acres: 1,164; Containment: 17%; Personnel: 334. Public mtg 6 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Payson, AZ. Livestream & recording on Tonto NF Facebook. Yesterday, crews successfully conducted firing operations on E perimeter of the fire. pic.twitter.com/HB7VgpTRK2 Tonto National Forest (@TontoForest) January 2, 2025 A public meeting was scheduled to be held on Thursday at 6 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, located at 546 West Ashby Apple Drive in Payson. The meeting will be live-streamed on the Tonto National Forest Facebook page and available for anyone who may miss it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tonto Creek Estates, Tonto Christian Camp, Tonto Fish Hatchery and Zane Grey Cabins remain in "set" evacuation status, meaning residents should consider planning and packing in the event an evacuation becomes necessary. According to Tonto National Forest officials, surrounding communities can expect to see crews working around residential areas and along power lines and roadways throughout the week. On Wednesday, crews successfully conducted firing operations along the eastern perimeter of the fire, according to Tonto National Forest. Additional ignitions may occur on the north end of the fire on Thursday to secure Forest Road 76 to the edge of the Mogollon Rim. Above-average temperatures, caused by high pressure overhead, and low humidity in the area contributed to the recent growth of the Horton Fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Horton Fire emergency closure, ordered by the U.S. Forest Service, was revised and will now be in effect until May 30, 2025, at 6 p.m., unless rescinded. It was previously scheduled to end on Jan. 31. Smoke from the Horton Fire will be visible in the surrounding areas for many days. While there are no highway closures currently in effect due to the fire, reduced visibility due to smoke on State Route 260 is possible. *REDUCED VISIBILITY* Be prepared for reduced visibility on State Route 260 east of Payson due to smoke from the #HortonFire. This includes areas between mileposts 267-282. More info on the Horton Fire: https://t.co/kxBZWIHVVD (search for Horton Fire) pic.twitter.com/ptgbLTeR3e Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) January 2, 2025 The Arizona Department of Transportation said drivers using State Route 260 east of Payson may encounter reduced visibility due to smoke. The potential for reduced visibility, in an area that includes Kohls Ranch at milepost 267 and Old Rim Road at milepost 282, depends on wind direction and is expected to be greater during cooler overnight and morning hours, ADOT said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Drivers should slow down, make sure their lights are on and proceed with caution if smoke reduces visibility on the highway. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Horton Fire still burning near Payson with 17 percent containment (COLORADO SPRINGS) The Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSPD) is responding to a two-alarm house fire off East Fillmore Street. CSFD posted about the fire in the 2900 block of Illinois Avenue, east of I-25 and Fillmore, shortly after 8 p.m. on New Years Day. CSFD said there was a heavy body of fire in the backyard that had spread to the home. Courtesy: Colorado Springs Fire Department Courtesy: FOX21 viewer Amber Clinchers Walker About seven minutes later, CSFD said additional resources had been requested to fight the fire. CSFD asked the community to avoid the area, and warned that traffic would be impacted on Fillmore near the fire. Alternate routes are encouraged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Rescue crews in Mecosta County had a chilly start to the new year, jumping into an icy lake to rescue a struggling deer. Officials in Morton Township posted several pictures to social media, explaining how members of the Mecosta County Hovercraft Team and Morton Township Fire Rescue jumped into action on Wednesday. Sign up for the Storm Team 8 daily forecast newsletter Dispatchers sent a crew to Lake of the Clouds in Canadian Lakes. Not only did they want to rescue the doe, which was struggling in the water, but they also wanted to make sure no one else ventured onto the thin ice and put themselves at risk. Members of the Mecosta County Hovercraft Team and Morton Township Fire Rescue pulled a doe out of Lake of the Clouds on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Canadian Lakes. (Courtesy Morton Township) Members of the Mecosta County Hovercraft Team and Morton Township Fire Rescue pulled a doe out of Lake of the Clouds on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Canadian Lakes. (Courtesy Morton Township) Members of the Mecosta County Hovercraft Team and Morton Township Fire Rescue pulled a doe out of Lake of the Clouds on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Canadian Lakes. (Courtesy Morton Township) Members of the Mecosta County Hovercraft Team and Morton Township Fire Rescue pulled a doe out of Lake of the Clouds on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Canadian Lakes. (Courtesy Morton Township) The rescue also allowed the team to train in a live situation in case they are needed to do the same to protect human life in the future, the post read. The doe was safely brought ashore and was wrapped and massaged for warmth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Happy ending: Dog, deer rescued after icy plunge The township also credited Mecosta County Sheriff Brian Miller for ensuring the hovercraft team has the equipment they need to safely conduct rescue missions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Years of civil war and recent natural disasters have left Syrians greatly in need of humanitarian aid, and international relief flights have begun delivering assistance. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have sent planeloads of aid to the Syrian capital of Damascus, with the first Saudi aircraft landing early Wednesday morning, Anadolu Ajans reported. That plane contained food, medical supplies and shelter supplies. The Saudi Arabian shipment is part of an airlift launched by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center for Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quatar also provided a planeload of supplies totaling 16 tons of humanitarian aid from the Quatar Fund for Development, ReliefWeb announced. That aid arrived at the Damascus airport on Monday. "These humanitarian efforts underscore the state of Qatar's commitment to standing in solidarity with the brotherly Syrian people, addressing their urgent needs and accelerating aid delivery to strengthen their resilience and support a prosperous future," ReliefWeb reported. Security personnel stand by while workers transfer humanitarian aid directly onto trucks to provide immediate relief for Syrians on Thursday. Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/UPI The humanitarian aid includes food supplies, medicine, ambulances and technical assistance to help keep the Damascus airport open to accept more relief aid, Xinhua reported. "This step will accelerate the delivery of aid to the beneficiary sectors," said Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad, Qatari minister of state for international cooperation. A Qatari plane carrying aid arrives at Damascus International Airport in Syria on Thursday as part of Qatar's ongoing humanitarian aid relief effort to help suffering Syrians. Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/UPI The need for humanitarian aid in Syria is at an all-time high with 70% of Syrians in need of help, the European Commission said in an online assessment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Syrian crisis started 13 years ago and has worsened over the years due to conflict escalation, epidemics, natural disasters and climate change that has displaced about half of Syria, according to the European Commission. Workers unload humanitarian aid from a Qatari plane at Damascus International Airport in Syria on Thursday. Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/UPI Syria has a population of 23.87 million and has been embroiled in conflict and civil war with opposition forces that opposed the Assad regime, according to the CIA World Factbook. The Russian military in 2015 intervened on behalf of the Assad regime and helped domestic and foreign-aligned military forces recapture large areas of the nation that is about 1.5 times the size of Pennsylvania. Workers unload humanitarian aid from a Qatari plane at Damascus International Airport in Syria on Thursday. Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/UPI Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Much of Syria's northeastern area has been under the control of Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, plus a smaller area controlled by Turkey. A state of civil war with the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham forces that now control Syria resulted in the internal displacement of about 6.7 million Syrians and 14.6 million in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022, according to the CIA World Factbook. The European Commission now reports the number of those in need of assistance at 16.7 million, which partly was made worse due to a magnitude 7.8 earthquake centered in southern Turkey near the northern border with Syria on Feb. 6, 2023. A second earthquake of magnitude 7.5 and centered 59 miles southwest of the first earthquake occurred nine hours later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dual earthquakes damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings in Turkey and more than 10,000 in Syria. At least 56,000 died in both nations, although the actual death toll likely is much higher. The natural disasters exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Syria, where Islamist rebels on Dec. 8 captured the capital of Damascus and overthrew the Assad regime led by former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Assad regime had controlled the Syrian government for 50 years. HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) The Pennsylvania National Guard confirmed they will be sending several hundred service members to the 60th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C. President-elect Donald J. Trumps inauguration is quickly approaching, with just three weeks until he takes the oath of office for the second time, his first since January 20, 2017, after defeating Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now This Week in Pennsylvania In preparation for Trumps second inauguration, the Pennsylvania National Guard will be attending to help provide security. According to State Public Affairs Officer Wayne V. Hall, the Pennsylvania National Guard will be providing more than 750 Soldiers and Airmen to support the District of Columbia National Guard in ensuring the safe execution of the 60th Presidential Inauguration, and associated events. Back in January 2021, former Governor Tom Wolf sent approximately 1,000 PA National Guard members to support the Washington D.C. National Guard for President Joe Bidens presidential inauguration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Nexstars Washington DC Bureau, this years inauguration, which falls on Martin Luther King Dr. Day, will feature several events such as a luncheon at the Capitol and a parade celebration. There is also a victory rally scheduled to take place the day before Inauguration Day at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, January 19. abc27 news will keep you updated as we learn more. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCBD) Hundreds of people gathered on Folly Beach early Wednesday morning for an invigorating dip into the Atlantic Ocean. Its a New Years Day tradition unlike any other people across the country usher in the new year with a quick splash into very cold water. This version, held each year on Folly Beach, invites people to dress as their favorite Bill Murray characters. It was the 11th year for the Bill Murray look-a-like costume contest and polar plunge. Those who braved the cold ocean and spectators gathered beachside near the Tides Hotel before the big run into the water. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was cold. It wasnt unbearable, but it was it was definitely cold, said Charlie Hastings, who participated in the plunge. We live out here on Folly, so its really nice seeing the community come together and do this every single year. It was definitely colder than I like, but as far as polar plunges, we got away pretty, pretty easy, said Sarah Hastings. It felt great, and theres not a lot of wind. The waves arent big. It was a good time. The water temperature on Folly Beach was in the lower 50s Wednesday morning. Kelly Travers, event coordinator for the Folly Association of Business, said the event is a great way to jump in and free yourself of things from the previous year and start anew in 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We bring all the fun with some live music. People dress up just wanting to come out and have a great time, and then into the ocean- then they go back on to Center Street and go to some New Years Day parties that the different businesses are offering, she said. Prizes were awarded for Best Overall Bill Murray, Best Girl, Best Guy, and Best Team/Family Costume. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2. HUTCHINSON, Kan. (KSNW) To decrease the threat of wildfires, the Hutchinson Fire Department will be conducting controlled burn mitigation. They will work with the Kansas Forest Service and Reno County agencies, including the sheriffs office and emergency management in areas just north and east of Hutchinson. The controlled burns will focus on county and city right-of-ways from the road to fence lines. Major winter storm: AAA urges Kansas motorists to prepare Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Starting Jan. 20, controlled burns will be conducted along Plum Street from 69th to 95th Avenue and 82nd Avenue from Plum to Monroe Street north of Hutchinson. On the east side of the city, controlled burns will focus on 69th Avenue along Sandhills State Park, 30th Avenue from Kent to Buhler Road, 4th Street to the 1700 block, and Avenue G from Kent to Buhler Road. Roads may be shut down for safety during controlled burns, but they will reopen by 3 p.m. to accommodate school dismissals and bus traffic. Burning will not be conducted after 5 p.m. Hutchinson Fire expects work will be completed by Feb 20. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV. A Japanese hot spring town popular with tourists is limiting entry to daytrippers during the peak winter season in a bid to tackle overtourism. Japan saw a record number of visitors last year. Ginzan Onsen, a remote town in the mountains of the northern Yamagata region, is known for its hot springs and fairytale winter views. Its also famed for the rows of classically styled Edo-period wooden ryokan, or traditional inns, draped in snow and lit softly by street lamps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The towns idyllic charm and picturesque location have led many to believe it inspired auteur Hayao Miyazakis Oscar-winning film Spirited Awaywhich contributes to the 330,000 visitors Ginzan Onsen sees every year. Onsens are natural geothermal water sources, rich in minerals, that have been utilised in Japan for centuries for their therapeutic health benefits. The popularity of the 300-year-old town has, however, created problems for locals as the once-serene atmosphere is disrupted by the demands of an ever-growing influx of travellers. A significant portion of the problems are attributed to daytrippers, tourists who visit the town for a few hours, usually during peak times, without staying overnight. Ginzan Onsens idyllic charm and picturesque visuals have led many to believe it inspired auteur Hayao Miyazakis Oscar-winning film Spirited Away (Yamagata Prefecture) Altercations over popular photo spots are common, with tourists jostling for prime spots in the small town that was never designed to accommodate crowds of this magnitude. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Traffic jams have sometimes been caused by cars getting stuck in the snow, because travellers were driving with normal tyres instead of snow tyres, Takayuki Saito, head of commerce and tourism for the municipality of Obanazawa, told AFP. According to Ginzan Onsens website, traffic congestion from daytrippers cars has become so severe that ambulances have, at times, been unable to reach emergencies, forcing personnel to run to the scene. The town has imposed strict rules beginning 7 January till the end of March which will limit the number of day trippers during peak hours (Getty Images) Local residents are also regularly subjected to verbal abuse by frustrated visitors, leading the town to make rules to alleviate overcrowding, reduce traffic congestion, ensure the safety of residents and tourists, and preserve the towns tranquil beauty. Many guests became angry over good spots for the purpose of taking pictures, leading to traffic rules being broken, cheating, and making people seek better places and easier ways than others, the town wrote on its website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From 7 January, the Ginzan Onsen association is imposing strict rules limiting the number of daytrippers during peak hours. The rules will remain in place until the end of March. There will be no restrictions on tourists between 9am and 4pm. But between 5pm and 8pm, only 100 day trippers will be allowed in the town, as long as they have a confirmed ticket or a reservation to enter Ginzan Onsen, which can be purchased in advance on the towns website. Failure to produce a ticket will result in the tourist being asked to leave post 5pm, and only tourists staying in a local hotel will be allowed to enter after 8pm. Japan saw 33.38 million foreign visitors between January and November 2024 (AFP via Getty Images) The town is also instituting parking rules starting February. The rules state that daytrippers driving themselves to the town can only park at a designated spot around 2km away from the area with the hot springs and can avail of a paid shuttle bus which will take them to and from the spot for 1,150 (5.87) per person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Japan, onsen tourism plays a crucial role in local economies. Towns and resorts are centred around hot spring facilities that draw millions of visitors, domestic and international, annually. Onsen tourism also provides jobs in hotels, ryokan, restaurants, and other service sectors. A worker installs a barrier to block the sight of Japans Mount Fuji emerging from behind a convenience store to deter badly behaved tourists in the town of Fujikawaguchiko (AFP via Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Japan saw a record number of visitors last year. It received 33.38 million foreigners between January and November, surpassing the previous high of 31.88 million from 2019. The surge has been attributed in major part to a weaker yen which has made Japan more attractive to international tourists. The soaring numbers, however, have sparked concerns about overtourism at popular destinations, leading the country to institute strict measures to protect its cultural and natural heritage. New rules for climbing the iconic Mount Fuji required mountaineers to reserve spots online or in person and pay an increased fee of 2,000 yen (10) each. In Fujikawaguchiko, a town known for stunning views of Mount Fuji, a large black screen was erected in a parking lot to deter tourists from overcrowding the Instagram-popular site. Officials in Kyotos popular Geisha district decided in April to ban paparazzi tourists who harass and trouble the globally recognised Japanese women artists. The Idaho Supreme Court building in downtown Boise. (Courtesy of the Idaho Supreme Court) The Idaho Supreme Court will ask the Idaho Legislature for a significant increase in judges salaries when the states annual legislative session convenes next week. On Thursday, the Idaho Supreme Court released a proposal for increased salaries for Idaho judges and a report on judicial salaries among neighboring states in the West. The report stated salaries for Idaho Supreme Court justices ranked 50th among the United States and its territories in a July 2024 survey published by the National Center for State Courts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Idaho Supreme Court proposes setting salaries for Idaho Supreme Court justices in law at $215,00 per year, up from the current level of $169,508. If approved by the Idaho Legislature, that would represent an increase of nearly 27%. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The proposal calls for setting other judicial salaries based on the salary of an Idaho Supreme Court justice. Based on the salary of Idaho Supreme Court justices, the proposal calls for the following salaries: $207,000 for a Court of Appeals judge, up from $161,508 currently. $201,000 for a district court judge, up from $155,508 currently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement $193,000 for a magistrate judge, up from $147,508 currently. Salaries for judges in Idaho generally rank among the lowest in the nation and well below general market rates for attorneys, even some that are publicly employed, according to an analysis released by the Idaho Supreme Court. Shown here are salaries for district judges in neighboring states around Idaho. (Courtesy of the Idaho Supreme Court) Pay raises may help with recruitment, retention issues for Idaho judges Idaho Supreme Court justices said the proposed pay increases are necessary to address recruitment and retention issues across the state. The Idaho Supreme Court put the proposal forward after analyzing salaries for attorneys and the salaries of judges in neighboring states. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US The Supreme Court does not make these requests lightly, Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice G. Richard Bevan said in a written statement Thursday. Idahos courts use just a small slice of public spending and we find thoughtful ways to stretch public dollars. But to maintain our strong, independent judiciary, we must keep salaries competitive with what experienced attorneys and judges can earn elsewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Salary and pay for state employees and public officials is becoming an issue to watch heading into the new session. In November, the Citizens Committee on Legislative Compensation approved raises of 25% for Idaho legislators, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. The committee called for an increase from $19,913 currently to $25,000 per year for legislators. The Idaho Legislature is a part-time seasonal legislature as opposed to a professional full-time legislative body that is in session for about 80 to 90 days per year. Some Republican legislators have vowed to fight their raises when the legislative session begins. Meanwhile, the Idaho Division of Human Resources is recommending raises of 4% or $1.25 per hour for all permanent state employees, saying state salaries do not keep up with what outside employers pay for the same jobs. Idahos 2025 legislative session begins Monday with Gov. Brad Little delivering the annual State of the State address. Inserts_JudicialCompensation_final SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is surveying the mass mortality of waterfowl at many locations across the state. IDNR is reminding the public to not handle waterfowl that show any signs of illness. In their testing, they have discovered that avian influenza (HPAI) is the main cause in the uptick of deaths. New Illinois law prohibits family caregiver discrimination, begins Jan. 1, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The organization is urging the public to report areas of five or more deceased birds found in a close proximity. There is a high risk of infection, so people are encouraged to keep their pets away from the bird carcasses as well. IDNR is also warning animal control agencies to take the same precautions and dispose of these birds through the guidance of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). A few tips they are offering include making sure to not send potentially sick birds to veterinarians or wildlife refuges. A recommended alternative is to notify a health department or notify IDNR biologists when coming across an area of deceased waterfowl. Anyone who starts to experience flu like symptoms is urged to contact their local health department as soon as possible. In order to be most effective, treatment should be started within two days of the start of the illness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While avian influenza generally poses a low risk to the population, it is essential to take the necessary steps to avoid exposure, and to seek treatment quickly if you are exposed, said IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. IL coroners required to report fentanyl overdose, law begins Jan. 2025 In addition, IDNR urges wildlife rehabilitators to not accept waterfowl and other birds due to the current high risk of HPAI. They also warn hunters to take precautions and thoroughly cook game meat to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be safe. Aside from just wild birds, findings across the country have seen an increase in sickness in poultry as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) encourages poultry owners to be aware of the risk, increase biosecurity measure and prevent contact with wild birds, said Dr. Mark Ernst, IDOA state veterinarian. In addition, we encourage poultry owners to report unusually large mortalities in their flocks and to be aware of IDPHs recommendations regarding exposure to sick birds. For more information on safety regulations regarding waterfowl and poultry, visit Protecting Birds From Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Protect Your Poultry and Pet Birds. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) Starting on January 1st, participants in the Adult Redeploy Illinois program will be reclassified from offenders to justice-impacted individuals. House Bill 4409 amends language in the Illinois Crime Reduction Act to refer to people convicted of a crime as justice-impacted individuals when going through the program, which seeks to find alternatives to prison time. Counties, groups of counties or judicial circuits design and control their own branch of the program. Services offered include substance use disorder treatment, group therapy, problem-solving courts, specialized probation and mentoring. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to the name change, it stipulates that an oversight board for Adult Redeploy Illinois will include two individuals who participated in programs funded by the initiative and adjusts how funding for Adult Redeploy Illinois is allocated. Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Cherry Valley) criticized the bill, saying it disrespects victims of violent crime. I guess in the youll-not-be-surprised category: the same Democrats that passed the no cash bail for criminals just passed legislation that says law enforcement and official records can no longer refer to those who commit crimes as criminals or offenders. We must now refer to them as justice-impacted individuals. Cant make that up, he said on Facebook. HB4409 represents a small change to an incredibly successful diversion program that simply seeks to better reflect the programs intention, said Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-14th Dist.), who co-sponsored the bill. Those who choose to fan the flames of misinformation and fearmongering do all of us a disservice. Focusing on semantics rather than substance is an insult to everyones intelligence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This apologizing for the criminal, the person who chooses to commit crimes to the detriment of our victims, the people who dont choose to be victims of crimes, is absolutely incredible. Crime is up 38% year-to-date since 2019. Crime is up everywhere, said Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield). The Associated Press contributed to this story. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. (This article has been updated with new information.) A large party turned to gunfire and several young adults were detained by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department early Thursday after police found guns and drugs inside a short-term rental near the Fountain Square neighborhood. Ultimately, police arrested 16 people in connection to the early morning incident. One adult was arrested for being a felon in possession of a firearm, while the 15 other adults were arrested for visiting a common nuisance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About 1:20 a.m., police received multiple reports that gunshots had been heard in the 800 block of Spruce Street. Several callers told dispatchers that they had witnessed several people running from the property, many of whom were holding guns, according to police. Officers who were in the area investigating another incident heard the gunshots and headed toward the area, according to Ronald Hicks, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department commander in Southeast District. Within minutes police arrived and found a large gathering inside the residence. Police also saw about 30 people run from the property, according to Hicks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After giving chase, police apprehended one of the people who ran from the property, a gun was found in the person's possession, according to police. While investigating the scene, police found several shell casings outside of the property and ultimately detained about 20 people who were inside the residence. Police initially believed they had detained about 15-20 juveniles, but later determined that a majority of the people detained were young adults, Hicks said. Only three of the people detained were juveniles who were later released to their parents, according to police. (The) juveniles came out of the house and were placed on an IndyGo bus to be interviewed, Capt. John Arvin with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told local media at the scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While investigating the property, which was determined to be a rental, police found marijuana and several weapons including 12 firearms, one machine gun conversion device, and a drum magazine, according to police. One of the guns found at the property was later determined to be a stolen weapon, according to Hicks. After interviewing neighbors, police determined that no one had been injured by stray bullets that may have fallen out of the air, and police did not find significant damage on nearby property by the gunfire, according to Hicks. Police are still investigating the matter. Short-term rentals have been a recurring issue for Indianapolis police in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Indianapolis Police Chief Chris Bailey said this event highlighted the importance of trying to limit these types of parties and commended his officers for their response. When a large party at a short-term rental turned violent, our officers responded to a chaotic scene with professionalism and courage, even as more than two dozen individuals fled," Bailey said. "Their quick actions led to ... the recovery of a dozen firearms. Because of their efforts, those guns are off our streets, and I truly believe lives have been saved as a result." A spate of violent parties at short-term rentals, such as Airbnb and VRBO, in 2023 led police to crack down on the events. The parties are typically promoted on social media and often become magnets for drug dealing, and underage drinking and have led to gun violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Landlords can look for these warning signs for renters who may throw such a party: Same day, last-minute reservation for one day, especially on the weekend. In many cases, the renter claims theyre holding a birthday party. Flyers on social media promoting a party at the property, using terms like BYOB, or listing a cover charge. Congested parking in the neighborhood. In mid-2024 the city approved a registry that goes into effect this year after problem parties became the norm. More: Big parties at short-term rentals becoming tall problem Indy police want you to help solve Contact IndyStar reporter Noe Padilla at npadilla@indystar.com or follow him on X @1NoePadilla. IndyStar reporter Sarah Nelson contributed to this article. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis short-term rental played host to juveniles, gunshots, drugs SEOUL, South Korea (AP) South Korean investigators arrived at the presidential residence with a warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law, but faced resistance from presidential security staff as hundreds of Yoons supporters gathered outside vowing to protect him. Its the latest confrontation in a political crisis that has paralyzed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month. It began on Dec. 3 when Yoon, apparently frustrated that his policies were blocked by an opposition-dominated parliament, declared martial law and dispatched troops to surround the National Assembly. Parliament overturned the declaration within hours in an unanimous vote and impeached Yoon himself on Dec. 14, while South Korean authorities opened a criminal investigation into the events. Yoon has remained defiant, ignoring requests for questioning and vowing to fight to remain in office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four hours after dozens of investigators and police officers were seen entering the gate of the residence in Seoul to execute a warrant for Yoons detention, the dramatic scene appeared to have developed into a standoff. The anti-corruption agency didnt immediately reply to questions about whether investigators successfully entered Yoons residential building, but South Koreas YTN television reported scuffles as investigators and police confronted the presidential security forces. Seok Dong-hyeon, one of several lawyers on Yoons legal team, confirmed that the investigators arrived at the building but said it was unlikely that they would be able to detain the president on Friday. He said the agencys efforts to detain Yoon were reckless and showed an outrageous discard for law. South Koreas Defense Ministry confirmed that the investigators and police officers got past a military unit guarding the residences grounds before arriving at the building. The presidential security service, which controls the residence itself, refused to comment on whether its members were confronting investigators and whether they planned to block the detention attempt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The hourslong standoff prompted the liberal opposition Democratic Party to call on the countrys acting leader, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, to order the presidential security service to stand down. Choi, who also serves as finance minister, didnt immediately comment on the situation. We warn presidential security service chief Park Jong-joon not to further participate in a rebellion. Do not drag the upright staff of the presidential security service and other public officials into the depths of crime, said Jo Seung-lae, a Democratic lawmaker. Choi must remember that swiftly addressing the rebellion and preventing further chaos is your responsibility, Jo said. In a defiant New Years message to conservative supporters rallying outside his residence, Yoon said he will fight to the end against anti-state forces. His lawyers have described the warrant as invalid and illegal, and said that the presidential security force could arrest police trying to execute it. Thousands of police officers gathered at Yoons residence and formed a perimeter around a growing group of pro-Yoon protesters, who braved subfreezing temperatures for hours, waving South Korean and American flags while chanting slogans in his support. There were no immediate reports of major clashes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Seoul court issued a warrant for Yoons detention on Tuesday after he evaded multiple requests to appear for questioning and blocked searches of his office in Seoul, hindering an investigation into whether his ill-conceived power grab on Dec. 3 amounted to rebellion. The warrant is valid for one week, and investigators may make another attempt to detain Yoon if they are unable to do so on Friday. Investigators from the anti-corruption agency were earlier seen loading boxes into several vehicles before leaving their building in the city of Gwacheon early in the morning. Television footage later showed some of those vehicles weaving between police buses that tightly packed and barricaded the streets near Yoons residence. If Yoon is detained, the anti-corruption agency will have 48 hours to either request a warrant for his formal arrest or release him. Yoons defense minister, police chief and several top military commanders have already been arrested over their roles in the period of martial law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yoon Kap-keun, another lawyer representing the president, described the investigators efforts to detain him as illegal and said they would plan to pursue unspecified legal steps against the anti-corruption agency. Yoon Suk Yeols lawyers have argued the courts detainment warrant is invalid, claiming that the anti-corruption agency lacks the legal authority to investigate rebellion charges. They also accuse the court of bypassing a law that says locations potentially linked to military secrets cannot be seized or searched without the consent of the person in charge. The lawyers have said police officers would be exceeding their legal authority if they assist in detaining Yoon, and could face arrest by either the presidential security service or any citizens. They didnt elaborate further on the claim. Critics accused Yoon of inciting his supporters to obstruct attempts to detain him. South Korean law permits anyone to make an arrest to stop an active crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Democratic Party, which drove the legislative vote that impeached Yoon Suk Yeol on Dec. 14 over his imposition of martial law, accused the president of trying to mobilize his supporters to block his detention and called for law enforcement authorities to execute the warrant immediately. Yoon Kap-keun, the presidents lawyer, filed a challenge with the Seoul Western District Court on Thursday to block both the detention warrant for Yoon Suk Yeol and a related search warrant for his residence. The lawyer argued that both warrants violate criminal laws and the constitution. Yoons presidential powers were suspended following a National Assembly vote to impeach him on Dec. 14 over his imposition of martial law, which lasted only hours but has triggered weeks of political turmoil, halted high-level diplomacy and rattled financial markets. Yoons fate now lies with the Constitutional Court, which has begun deliberations on whether to uphold the impeachment and formally remove Yoon from office or reinstate him. To formally end Yoons presidency, at least six justices on the nine-member Constitutional Court must vote in favor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The National Assembly voted last week to also impeach Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who became acting president after Yoons powers were suspended, over his reluctance to fill three Constitutional Court vacancies ahead of the courts review of Yoons case. Facing growing pressure, the new acting president, Choi, appointed two new justices on Tuesday, which could increase the chances of the court upholding Yoons impeachment. Yoons imposition of martial law ended after only six hours when the National Assembly voted 190-0 to lift it despite attempts by heavily armed soldiers to prevent them from voting. Yoon has defended his martial law decree as a necessary act of governance, portraying it as a temporary warning against the Democratic Party, which he has described as an anti-state force obstructing his agenda with its legislative majority. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) An increased number of people in Franklin County are trying to change their name or sex marker on their birth certificate. TransOhio, a statewide trans-led organization, partnered with the Franklin County Probate Court to host their first in-person birth certificate and name change clinic on Dec. 14, when more than 250 applications were processed. The clinic was organized after the court began receiving a 60% increase in year-over-year birth certificate change requests following the November election. The organization has long held virtual birth certificate change clinics on the second Wednesday of every month, but hadnt hosted an in-person event. Now, to meet current community needs that are substantially different from what we usually offer, TransOhio is organizing several pop-up clinics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trans healthcare ban, bathroom rules: These Ohio bills shaped LGBTQ+ rights in 2024 The Ohio Name Change Legal Clinic has helped trans Ohioans with name changes, gender designation corrections, and related legal needs for over a decade, the organization said on social media. Now more than ever, it is essential to provide aid and urgent support to trans people across Ohio. TransOhio is ramping up clinics after the Ohio Supreme Court announced in November it could not reach a decision on whether state law allowed the Clark County Probate court to grant a request from a trans woman named Hailey Adelaide to amend the sex marker on her birth certificate. The court said its up to the General Assembly to decide whether to create any additional opportunities for persons born in Ohio to amend their birth records. Adelaide appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court after the Second District Court of Appeals upheld the Clark County Probate Courts denial of her request. The probate court argued the initial recording of Adelaides marker at birth was not made in error and found there was nothing to be corrected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A majority of states allow trans Americans to correct the sex marker on their birth certificate. However, in Ohio, Adelaides case demonstrates that the process is contingent on how certain judges interpret state law. The Spectrum: Looking back at 2024 A procedure for trans Ohioans to correct their certificate was established by the Ohio Department of Health in 2021, following a federal 2020 ruling that said trans Ohioans have the right to request a change. The ODH uses the same process for trans people to change their sex marker as it uses for other corrections to Ohio birth certificates. Applicants need to request a court-ordered correction of a birth record using a form issued by any one of Ohios 88 probate courts, one in each county. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Franklin County, applicants need to fill out this form and deliver it to the countys probate court at 373 S. High St. Hamilton County applicants need to complete this form and present a letter from a health professional verifying transgender status. TransOhio will be hosting the second in-person installment for those in the Cleveland area at the Cuyahoga County Court House from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 6. Virtual clinics, which are designed to aid about 25 attendees, are continuing on Jan. 8 followed by another on Feb. 12. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. As President-elect Donald Trump and our new elected members of Congress prepare to take office in the coming weeks, all eyes will be on Washington, D.C. While what happens in our nations capital certainly impacts us, theres a lawmaking body that will meet much closer to home with the power to decide how billions of Hoosiers' tax dollars are spent. The 2025 legislative session of the Indiana General Assembly kicks off this upcoming week and lasts until late April. These lawmakers and Gov.-elect Mike Braun will decide how much money your childs school receives, whether Indiana should legalize marijuana (spoiler, it's unlikely) or who deserves a break when it comes to rising property taxes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to our Checks and Balances newsletter for more political news Its the same body that legalized Sunday alcohol sales, regulated professors' speech and banned most abortions. What lawmakers do these next four months has the power to touch every aspect of your lives. Its worth paying attention. Thats where we come in. IndyStar's politics team will be at the Statehouse on behalf of not only Central Indiana readers, but also our sister sites from South Bend to Evansville. We will be keeping a close eye on lawmakers, cutting through the rhetoric and wonky legislative speak to tell you what you need to know about the policy they are considering. We'll also hold legislators accountable by watching for conflicts of interest, the powerful lobbyists driving change and even the occasional unintended consequences legislation could cause. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We'll regularly update a live blog on our website during the first week of session. You can also expect a roundup of where key legislation stands each Monday morning, in addition to our other regular coverage. IndyStar politics editor Kaitlin Lange (from left) poses Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, with Indiana Statehouse reporters Kayla Dwyer and Brittany Carloni and senior government accountability reporter Hayleigh Colombo inside the statehouse in Indianapolis. Meet our team I was hired as the politics and government editor at IndyStar early last year, but this will be my ninth time covering a legislative session in some fashion. I previously was the Statehouse reporter for the Evansville Courier & Press and IndyStar, as well as an investigative reporter covering the Statehouse for State Affairs Indiana. As a brand-new mom, I'll be particularly interested in policy impacting our youngest Hoosiers. I'll oversee our Statehouse coverage, but you'll rarely see my byline this year. Here are the reporters to watch for: Brittany Carloni: This will be Brittany's second Indiana legislative session. Previously she covered government in Hamilton County, which means she has a unique perspective on how the laws passed at the Statehouse impact local governments in general and specifically people in one of the fastest-growing counties in the state. The Milwaukee native is also our go-to on Indiana's elected representatives in Washington, D.C. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kayla Dwyer: Kayla is entering her third legislative session as a Statehouse reporter. Before the Pennsylvania native started keeping a watchful eye on Indiana lawmakers, she covered transportation. That makes her an expert on road spending and the yearly Statehouse fights over IndyGo's public transit, both issues that will likely pop up this year. Hayleigh Colombo: Hayleigh just joined IndyStar's team this summer but is a veteran Indiana journalist. Before reporting for a few years in Ohio, Hayleigh spent seven years covering the Indiana Statehouse, education policy and Indianapolis city government for various outlets, including the Indianapolis Business Journal and Chalkbeat Indiana. As IndyStar's government accountability reporter, she's largely focused on state agencies, but she'll be chipping in on legislative coverage, too. While those three will be focused on Indiana politics and government, part of what makes IndyStar's coverage so unique is the nearly 30 reporters and photographers we have on staff that will also chip in on Statehouse coverage as experts on topic areas such as public safety, the environment and education. How you can get involved with session Want to do more than just read our coverage? You can find out which state lawmakers represent you, and how to contact them, by going to https://iga.in.gov/information/find-legislators. You can also sign up to testify on legislation by filling out the form at https://cap.iga.in.gov/standing_appearance_form. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks in advance for sticking with us all session long. As always, feel free to send us tips or tell us what legislation you think we should cover. Contact IndyStar government and politics editor Kaitlin Lange at Kaitlin.Lange@indystar.com or follow her on X @Kaitlin_Lange. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana's 2025 legislative session nears. How IndyStar will cover it Sergey Obolonik, the so-called first deputy prime minister of the unrecognised republic of Transnistria in Moldova, has stated that the suspension of gas supplies through Ukraine has led to the complete shutdown of all local industry in the region. Source: European Pravda, citing an interview with Obolonik in a Transnistrian media outlet Details: Obolonik said the crisis caused by the suspension of Russian gas supplies through Ukraine was "severe in nature". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "All industrial facilities have been shut down except for those ensuring Transnistria's food security. There is no energy resource available for the industrial sector," he added. Obolonik also reported that nearly 75,000 households in Transnistria have had their gas supply cut off due to the shortage, while another 116,000 households are still receiving gas but in reduced volumes. Quote: "The problem is of such a global nature that if it remains unresolved for a long time, we will face irreversible changes. That is, facilities will lose the capability to resume operations." Background: On 1 January, large-scale gas disconnections began in Transnistria, affecting boiler rooms, houses and apartment buildings with autonomous heating systems. This occurred after Ukraine cut off the transit of Russian gas starting 1 January, which several EU countries and Transnistria had continued receiving. At the same time, Moldova refused to agree to Russia's conditions for continuing gas supplies to Transnistria through an alternative route via the Balkans. Support UP or become our patron! Margaret Behm smiles with her father, Mark Behm, in May 2003 after her graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At the time, Mark Behm had been undergoing procedures for colorectal cancer and he had already had surgery to remove part of his colon. He was going through chemotherapy. His cancer had metastasized to his liver and was spreading to his lung and spine. It is the last photo taken of the pair before Mark Behms death in April 2004. (Courtesy of Margaret (Behm) Stamp) LINCOLN In the summer of 2002, Margaret Stamp returned home to Sarpy County from college four weeks after her 74-year-old grandmother, Phyllis Behm, had died from a short battle with colorectal cancer. Stamp found her dad, Mark Behm, a former northeast Nebraska county attorney and private practice lawyer, wincing in pain on the living room floor. Stamp described him as in shape and thin. She said he looked healthy and didnt drink or smoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But that weekend, Stamps father was doubled over, and he told his daughter, Call your mom. Id never seen him like that, Stamp recalled. Never even remember him getting the flu or sick. Next thing we know, hes in emergency surgery its stage IV [colorectal] cancer, and theres nothing they can do. Margaret Stamp. (Courtesy of Margaret Stamp) Behm grew up in Olde Towne Bellevue and graduated from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1976. He served as the Cedar County attorney from 1977 through 1993 and had a private practice in Wausa for many years, later a private practice with other attorneys in Randolph. Behm was also a 1980 delegate to the Republican National Convention for Ronald Reagan and was president of Out Front Properties, a local property management company where his daughter is now vice president. Stamp said her fathers doctors did what they could to prolong his life and make conditions less painful, and he continued practicing law until about a week before he died in April 2004, at the age of 52. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Twenty years later, Stamp and others have successfully pushed for new state laws that expand insurance coverage for colorectal cancer screenings and associated procedures. The latest law took effect this week. Stamp recalled losing her father as different from cancer deaths she had seen in some movies, where someone closes their eyes and goes to sleep. She said it was awful and that her father said over and over he couldnt breathe, had muscle spasms and felt his body shutting down. To me, anything you can do to stop that is worth every penny, Stamp said. Its worth going in, getting your colonoscopy, even though I know it can be literally a pain in the butt for some people, but you dont want that message, Its too late, because then theres nothing to do but plan the funeral. We can save lives Legislative Bill 829 from State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue took effect Jan. 1. It requires insurance companies to cover each integral part of performing a colorectal cancer screening, including: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Removing polyps (abnormal cell growths in the underlining of the colon or rectum) found as part of a colonoscopy. Any pathology examination of a polyp biopsy. Required specialist consultation prior to the screening. Bowel preparation medications prescribed for the screening. Anesthesia services performed in connection with the preventive colonoscopy. State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue. July 25, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Its adoption followed passage of LB 92 in 2023, which included a provision from State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln that required insurance plans to cover screening colonoscopies, as well as an annual stool-based preventative screening test designed for patients with minimal to average risk of colorectal cancer. Nebraska is ranked in the lower half of states for colorectal cancer screening rates, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Blood told the Nebraska Examiner she came up with the idea for her LB 829 when she was getting a colonoscopy and was handed a release before her procedure saying most insurance companies wouldnt cover part of a colonoscopy should they find something, like a polyp, which can grow into cancer over time. Why would you want somebody to be put under anesthesia and look for something and just leave it there? Blood said. It made no sense whatsoever. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blood said her colonoscopy found something that her insurance didnt cover, which left her on the hook for a procedure that cost $800 to $900. Congress has closed this loophole for people on Medicare and Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act, Blood said, while others with private insurance were told they could just go pound sand. I thought, well, we can save lives with this one tweak, Blood said of her Nebraska law, which passed 41-5 in the spring. What is colorectal cancer? Jungyoon Kim, Ph.D., who does colon cancer screening research at the University of Nebraska Medical Centers College of Public Health and the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, said colorectal cancer develops in the large intestine areas like the colon or rectum that are part of the digestive system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most colorectal cancers start with a polyp, Kim said, most of which are benign. However, some polyps can change into cancer over time, mostly over many years, like 10-15 years. Jungyoon Kim, Ph.D., who does colon cancer screening research at the University of Nebraska Medical Centers College of Public Health. (Courtesy of Jungyoon Kim) Symptoms can include blood in the stool or toilet after a bowel movement, constipation over a long period, abdominal pain or cramping, changes in the shape or size of stool and sudden or unexplained weight loss. If observed, Kim said a doctor should be consulted immediately. One of the most common misconceptions, though, is that people think they must wait to see symptoms before getting screened, Kim said, which gives polyps time to grow. Sometimes, if you see the symptoms and go to the doctor, it might be too late, Kim said. Thats why the United States Preventative Services Task Force recommends to get screening when people become 45, even if they do not have any symptoms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People with a family history or who have previously had cancer should be screened earlier, Kim said, such as in their 20s or 30s. Kim said that when a doctor can find and remove polyps, it stops the growth in its tracks and is like youre preventing cancer before it even becomes cancer cells. If colorectal cancer is detected early, Kim said, the chance of the cancer being cured is about 92%. Some cancers can be prevented by regular screening, which includes breast cancer through mammograms at the age of 40 or other screenings for cervical or lung cancer. Disparities include rural Nebraska According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, early-age colorectal cancer diagnoses are on the rise. By 2030, the cancer is predicted to be the leading cause of death in people younger than 50, according to DHHS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is already the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women combined. Kim said disparities exist among racial minorities, people living in rural areas, people who are low-income or people with limited access to insurance or certain doctors, who cant access screenings. Margaret Stamp, right, meets with State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue to talk about pending legislative proposals, including one of Bloods bills to expand insurance coverage for colorectal cancer screening on Feb. 14, 2024. (Courtesy of Margaret Stamp) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blood noted those disparities as a reason for the bill, as every medical procedure comes with a certain amount of risk, but that for some patients, they had to play Russian roulette with whats in their body and decide whether they could pay or come back later, if needed. That just seems wrong, especially when you look at how much higher colon cancer rates are in our rural areas, Blood said. Kim and Stamp said the new law made sense. Stamp added it will help avoid costlier cancer treatments and help save lives. Importance of prevention Stamp said her father had found some blood in his stool about two years prior to discovering he had cancer. His doctor had said it was probably hemorrhoids but gave him an at-home testing kit just in case, as at the time he didnt have a family history of the disease. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The day after Stamps father found out he had cancer, Stamp said her mother found the at-home test in her fathers drawer at home. Stamp noted that around 2000, colon cancer wasnt talked about as much as it is today. She said some people are still embarrassed to talk about it. Stamp, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln alum who is now 44 and lives in Omaha with her husband and two teenage daughters, got her first colonoscopy at the age of 24. She has had three more colonoscopies since, with a fifth planned in 2026, and encouraged others to get the procedure, which she described as a walk in the park. You are taken such good care of, and it is nothing compared to getting cancer and having to have surgery or chemotherapy or one of those colostomy bags, Stamp said. Stamp said her father missed her getting married about six months after his death and her two daughters being born, all for not realizing he had cancer. It was two quick deaths in the family that got me starting to try to advocate for colon cancer and having colonoscopies, Stamp said. Anything people can do for prevention, it is so worth it, because its one of those things you dont see coming. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) In the summer of 2002, Margaret Stamp returned home to Sarpy County from college four weeks after her 74-year-old grandmother, Phyllis Behm, had died from a short battle with colorectal cancer, the Nebraska Examiner reports. Stamp found her dad, Mark Behm, a former northeast Nebraska county attorney and private practice lawyer, wincing in pain on the living room floor. Stamp described him as in shape and thin. She said he looked healthy and didnt drink or smoke. But that weekend, Stamps father was doubled over, and he told his daughter, Call your mom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Id never seen him like that, Stamp recalled. Never even remember him getting the flu or sick. Next thing we know, hes in emergency surgery its stage IV [colorectal] cancer, and theres nothing they can do. Behm grew up in Olde Towne Bellevue and graduated from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 1976. He served as the Cedar County attorney from 1977 through 1993 and had a private practice in Wausa for many years, later a private practice with other attorneys in Randolph. Behm was also a 1980 delegate to the Republican National Convention for Ronald Reagan and was president of Out Front Properties, a local property management company where his daughter is now vice president. Christmas miracle saves small-town Nebraska newspapers Stamp said her fathers doctors did what they could to prolong his life and make conditions less painful, and he continued practicing law until about a week before he died in April 2004, at the age of 52. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Twenty years later, Stamp and others have successfully pushed for new state laws that expand insurance coverage for colorectal cancer screenings and associated procedures. The latest law took effect this week. Stamp recalled losing her father as different from cancer deaths she had seen in some movies, where someone closes their eyes and goes to sleep. She said it was awful and that her father said over and over he couldnt breathe, had muscle spasms and felt his body shutting down. To me, anything you can do to stop that is worth every penny, Stamp said. Its worth going in, getting your colonoscopy, even though I know it can be literally a pain in the butt for some people, but you dont want that message, Its too late, because then theres nothing to do but plan the funeral. We can save lives Legislative Bill 829 from State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue took effect Jan. 1. It requires insurance companies to cover each integral part of performing a colorectal cancer screening, including: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Removing polyps (abnormal cell growths in the underlining of the colon or rectum) found as part of a colonoscopy. Any pathology examination of a polyp biopsy Required specialist consultation prior to the screening Bowel preparation medications prescribed for the screening Anesthesia services performed in connection with the preventive colonoscopy Its adoption followed passage of LB 92 in 2023, which included a provision from State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln that required insurance plans to cover screening colonoscopies, as well as an annual stool-based preventative screening test designed for patients with minimal to average risk of colorectal cancer. USDA awards Nebraska group $200M to boost clean energy efforts Nebraska is ranked in the lower half of states for colorectal cancer screening rates, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blood told the Nebraska Examiner she came up with the idea for her LB 829 when she was getting a colonoscopy and was handed a release before her procedure saying most insurance companies wouldnt cover part of a colonoscopy should they find something, like a polyp, which can grow into cancer over time. Why would you want somebody to be put under anesthesia and look for something and just leave it there? Blood said. It made no sense whatsoever. Blood said her colonoscopy found something that her insurance didnt cover, which left her on the hook for a procedure that cost $800 to $900. Congress has closed this loophole for people on Medicare and Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act, Blood said, while others with private insurance were told they could just go pound sand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I thought, well, we can save lives with this one tweak, Blood said of her Nebraska law, which passed 41-5 in the spring. What is colorectal cancer? Jungyoon Kim, Ph.D., who does colon cancer screening research at the University of Nebraska Medical Centers College of Public Health, said colorectal cancer develops in the large intestine areas like the colon or rectum that are part of the digestive system. Most colorectal cancers start with a polyp, Kim said, most of which are benign. However, some polyps can change into cancer over time, mostly over many years, like 10-15 years. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe Now KCAU 9 Afternoon Update Symptoms can include blood in the stool or toilet after a bowel movement, constipation over a long period, abdominal pain or cramping, changes in the shape or size of stool and sudden or unexplained weight loss. If observed, Kim said a doctor should be consulted immediately. One of the most common misconceptions, though, is that people think they must wait to see symptoms before getting screened, Kim said, which gives polyps time to grow. Sometimes, if you see the symptoms and go to the doctor, it might be too late, Kim said. Thats why the United States Preventative Services Task Force recommends to get screening when people become 45, even if they do not have any symptoms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People with a family history or who have previously had cancer should be screened earlier, Kim said, such as in their 20s or 30s. Kim said that when a doctor can find and remove polyps, it stops the growth in its tracks and is like youre preventing cancer before it even becomes cancer cells. If colorectal cancer is detected early, Kim said, the chance of the cancer being cured is about 92%. Some cancers can be prevented by regular screening, which includes breast cancer through mammograms at the age of 40 or other screenings for cervical or lung cancer. Disparities include rural Nebraska According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, early-age colorectal cancer diagnoses are on the rise. By 2030, the cancer is predicted to be the leading cause of death in people younger than 50, according to DHHS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is already the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women combined. Kim said disparities exist among racial minorities, people living in rural areas, people who are low-income or people with limited access to insurance or certain doctors, who cant access screenings. What new laws will affect Siouxland in 2025? Blood noted those disparities as a reason for the bill, as every medical procedure comes with a certain amount of risk, but that for some patients, they had to play Russian roulette with whats in their body and decide whether they could pay or come back later, if needed. That just seems wrong, especially when you look at how much higher colon cancer rates are in our rural areas, Blood said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kim and Stamp said the new law made sense. Stamp added it will help avoid costlier cancer treatments and help save lives. Importance of prevention Stamp said her father had found some blood in his stool about two years prior to discovering he had cancer. His doctor had said it was probably hemorrhoids but gave him an at-home testing kit just in case, as at the time he didnt have a family history of the disease. The day after Stamps father found out he had cancer, Stamp said her mother found the at-home test in her fathers drawer at home. Stamp noted that around 2000, colon cancer wasnt talked about as much as it is today. She said some people are still embarrassed to talk about it. Stamp, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln alum who is now 44 and lives in Omaha with her husband and two teenage daughters, got her first colonoscopy at the age of 24. She has had three more colonoscopies since, with a fifth planned in 2026, and encouraged others to get the procedure, which she described as a walk in the park. You are taken such good care of, and it is nothing compared to getting cancer and having to have surgery or chemotherapy or one of those colostomy bags, Stamp said. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KCAU 9 Breaking News Stamp said her father missed her getting married about six months after his death and her two daughters being born, all for not realizing he had cancer. It was two quick deaths in the family that got me starting to try to advocate for colon cancer and having colonoscopies, Stamp said. Anything people can do for prevention, it is so worth it, because its one of those things you dont see coming. Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and X. This story was republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) Federal authorities are investigating a deadly New Years Day attack in New Orleans. a driver drove into a crowd of people, killing 15 and wounding dozens more. President Joe Biden called it an act of terror. President Biden says investigators found an explosive device and the ISIS flag in the suspected killers truck. Its the deadliest ISIS inspired attack on U.S. soil in years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI says its investigating a terror attack on the iconic Bourbon Street in New Orleans where people gathered to ring in the new year. Police say 42-year-old shamus-Din Jabbar, an Army veteran, drove a white pickup truck into a crowd killing 15 and wounding dozens more. They say he got out and fired at the officers. He posted videos on social media indicating he was inspired by ISIS, said Biden. Now the FBI says agents are executing search warrants in New Orleans and other states. Law enforcement in Houston shut off access to a road near one of the homes listed as a recent address of the suspected attacker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Louisiana Senator John Kennedy says the FBI doesnt think Jabbar acted alone. Theyre in the process of trying to catch the other bad guys, said Kennedy. Also, Wednesday morning in Las Vegas police say a Tesla cybertruck exploded outside President-elect Donald Trumps hotel killing the suspect inside. President Joe Biden says authorities are looking into a possible connection with the New Orleans attack. Thus far, theres nothing to report on at this time, said Biden. Police in cities around the world have created concrete barriers and tried to make public spaces safer against these attacks where the attacker uses a vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Less than two weeks ago an attacker drove through a crowd at a Christmas market in Germany. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. (Photo by Clark Kauffman/Iowa Capital Dispatch) The state board that oversees Iowa physicians has reinstated the license of a doctor it previously sanctioned for alleged gross malpractice related to patient deaths caused by drug overdoses. In 2017, the Iowa Board of Medicine accused Dr. Robert Cunard of Missouri Valley of inappropriate prescribing, improper pain management and unethical conduct that contributed to the deaths of an unspecified number of patients through drug overdoses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the board, Cunard had prescribed large quantities of potentially lethal medications to numerous patients between 2011 and 2017, and continued to prescribe those drugs to patients who had exhibited signs of abusing the drugs or diverting the drugs to others. Cunard was also alleged to have simultaneously prescribed sedatives and painkillers to certain patients, placing them at increased risk of harm, including unintentional death, the board alleged. In addition, the board alleged Cunard prescribed methadone and Suboxone to patients who were trying to recover from drug addiction, even though he lacked a federal permit to prescribe the drugs in that manner. Before the board filed those charges, Cunard was sued by the parents of 31-year-old Stephen Cathcart, who allegedly died of a painkiller overdose in 2014. Cathcarts family alleged Cunard had prescribed Cathcart oxycodone, gabapentin and clonazepam, despite Cathcarts documented history of suicidal thoughts and drug abuse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2018, the civil lawsuit was settled out of court and the Board of Medicine suspended Cunards license for an indefinite period and imposed a civil penalty of $5,000. At the time, the board stated that should it ever choose to reinstate Cunards Iowa license. it would be placed on probation that would result in board monitoring of his practice, including audits of his prescriptions. In September 2019, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services issued Cunard a license, subject to probation, to practice medicine and surgery in Nebraska. In a letter to Cunard, the department stated, The reason for offering you a probationary license is the suspension of your license by the Iowa Board of Medicine. Also in 2019, Nebraskas Department of Correctional Services hired Cunard to work for the department as a physician, according to state payroll records. In July 2022, Nebraskas Board of Medicine voted 7-0 to deny Cunards application for early termination of his probationary requirements. Cunards probationary period ended in October 2023, and two months later, in December 2023, the board voted 8-0 to reject Cunards request for removal of unspecified limitations on his license that remained in place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In recently agreeing to reinstate Cunards Iowa medical license, the Iowa Board of Medicine kept in place its prior order that bars Cunard from prescribing or administering controlled substances for the treatment of chronic pain except when dealing with patients in nursing homes and hospice. However, the board stated that because Cunard has already completed probation and monitoring in the state of Nebraska, it will be imposing no additional requirements along those lines. The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Cunard for comment. The Iowa Judicial Building. (Photo and seal courtesy of the Iowa Judicial Branch) An Iowa-licensed attorney is facing a potential suspension of his law license due to sanctions imposed in the state of Arizona. Earlier this year, the presiding disciplinary judge of the Arizona Supreme Court Attorney suspended for six months the Arizona law license of attorney David Joseph Martin of Lakeside, Arizona. Martins license was then placed on probation for two years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court records, Martin represented a teenager who was injured when a struck by vehicle while crossing a street within the crosswalk. With Martin as her attorney, she sued the driver of the car. According to the subsequent findings of the presiding disciplinary judge, after he was hired to represent the girl, Martin displayed a pattern of neglect by failing to respond to the drivers attorney, failing to comply with discovery and disclosures rules, failing to respond to the opposing counsels motion to dismiss the case, which resulted in the case being dismissed by the court, and then by misleading his client into believing the case was still active. As part of the sanctions imposed by the presiding disciplinary judge, Martin will also have to pay the cost of his clients medical treatment at a hospital, estimated at $5,781. Because of the sanctions imposed in Arizona, Martins Iowa law license is now subject to a possible six-month suspension, although he does have the opportunity to argue that such a penalty is unwarranted. Iowa Supreme Court records indicate Martin was first licensed to practice law in Iowa in 1983. In 2002, his Arizona license was placed on probation for one year and Martin was censured, although the reasons for that disciplinary action are not disclosed in Iowa court records. EMMETSBURG, Iowa (KCAU) An Ayrshire, Iowa man who was given a suspended sentence after firing a shotgun at a family member in Aug. 2024 is headed to prison after violating the terms of his probation. According to court documents, Patrick Lynch, 70, is set to serve five years in prison, with credit for time previously served. He reportedly broke several rules under his probation agreement and met with law enforcement officials while drunk. Lynch was given his suspended sentence on Nov. 21, 2024. Then, on Nov. 26, a report of violation was filed, alleging that he was heavily intoxicated in meetings with officials despite being ordered to abstain from using alcohol. He also failed to contact the Iowa Department of Corrections withing five days of his sentencing, with the department unable to contact him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A judge would then officially revoke Lynchs probation on Dec. 18, 2024. Pet killed in New Years Day electrical fire in Norfolk Lynch was initially charged with attempted murder and possession of marijuana after shooting a 12-gauge shotgun at a family member who was bringing Lynchs medication to his residence. Law enforcement officials executed search warrants on the residence and found a substance that tested positive for marijuana in addition to the evidence of the shooting. Lynch pleaded guilty on Nov. 7 to intimidation with a dangerous weapon. As part of the plea agreement, the second charge of possession of marijuana was dismissed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ariel Pokett contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. A doctor explains results of a lung check up from X-ray scan chest on digital tablet screen to patient. (Photo via Getty Images) The Iowa Cancer Registry plans to deliver county-specific reports to all 99 counties in Iowa and meet with communities to point out particular policies or trends that might be driving higher rates of one particular type of cancer. Mary Charlton, director of the Iowa Cancer Registry, said Iowa continues to have increasing cancer figures where other states are seeing steady or declining rates. She said its important for Iowans to know this research and to get involved in pushing for changes that could lower these rates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What were really wanting to make people aware of is: We have a high cancer burden here in Iowa, Charlton said. We have to start getting loud with our elected officials about doing something about it. Cancer in Iowa and county trends Charlton said Iowa stacks up poorly compared to other states. According to Charlton, who is also president of the Iowa Cancer Consortium, breast cancer is a big driver for Iowas increasing cancer rates overall. These rates are higher in urban areas than rural areas in Iowa. Charlton said the registry hypothesizes this because urban areas typically have higher levels of education, which often means women will wait longer to have children and that increases the risk of breast cancer. Iowas rates of melanoma are also on the rise. Charlton said Iowas skin cancer rates are similar to those in Arizona. Researchers are unsure why that is, though the rates are highest in northern counties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charlton said its difficult to point to any one factor that could be causing trends, such as higher rates of prostate cancer in western Iowa, or more colon cancer in rural counties, because the patterns are varied. New cancer report coming Charlton said the newest Cancer Registry report will be released Feb. 25 and the schedule of county presentations will be posted on the website. Its just kind of a complex grouping of factors that were exposed to here in Iowa, Charlton said. I dont see how it could just be one thing, because its so different for each cancer. The 2024 Cancer in Iowa report, released in February, pointed to alcohol consumption in Iowa as a key component to Iowa cancer rates, as alcohol has been linked to breast, liver, colon and other cancers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charlton said thankfully lung cancer rates are declining overall, but said Iowa has made the least progress of any state when it comes to lung cancer, which is still the number one type of cancer in cancer-related deaths in the state. An August 2024 report from Iowa Cancer Registry showed rates of lung cancer for Iowa females was increasing overall, as were rates in several counties. The American Lung Association, in November 2024, labeled Iowa as among the worst in the nation for new lung cancer cases. Map of 2024 estimates of new cancers per Iowa county as part of the Iowa Cancer Registrys Cancer in Iowa report from February. (Map courtesy of Iowa Cancer Registry) Grassroot effort for change Charlton said policies like a higher tobacco tax could improve lung cancer rates in Iowa, since smoking is the biggest driver of lung cancer. She said the last time Iowa increased its tax, in 2007, the percentage of Iowans who smoke declined, but she said without another increase to the tax over the past 18 years, the rate of smokers is close to what it was before the tax increase. We could make a lot of significant gains by doing that again, Charlton said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charlton said while efforts are made at the Statehouse around tobacco laws most years, there isnt enough support to get the bills passed. She hopes that engaging folks at a county level will get Iowans to make some noise on the issue to reach their elected representatives. I can talk all I want, but I need the policymakers to hear it in their own contacts, in their own community, how concerned people are about this and how much this is impacting peoples lives, and that its time to start doing something, Charlton said. Rep. Hans Wilz, R-Ottumwa, said he pushed for quite a few cancer-related bills last year, including issues tied to tanning beds and obesity. Wilz said as he enters his sophomore year in the Legislature, he plans to put his energy into a smaller number of bills that will have a greater chance of passing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We need to find the bills that we can get through, that will get to the finish line and help us continue working and telling the story, Wilz said. Wilz said the first focus will likely be on a radon regulation bill, which passed the House last session and he said has been part of what he has talked with senators about out of session, with a goal of getting it passed in 2025. Other bills, he said, will need to come from a concerted conversation among groups like the Iowa Cancer Registry, the Iowa Cancer Consortium, legislators on both sides of the aisle and everyday Iowans. He said tobacco tax bills, as they have in the past, will likely face the biggest barriers to getting through the legislative process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I wont put a ranking of importance on this at all, but it does come down to, what can we all afford to do, Wilz said regarding opposition in the Legislature. In my opinion, one of your best returns on investment is solving the cancer crisis. Wilz said the 99 counties initiative from the Cancer Registry is a great idea to start more conversations and awareness happening around cancer and across the state. Charlton said the Cancer Registry has already had a meeting with Palo Alto County, which garnered close to 150 participants on the virtual call. The next call will be Jan. 23 for Dickinson County. Charlton said the rest of the schedule will be announced soon. We have very few policies that make it easier to do the healthy thing and harder to do the unhealthy thing, Charlton said. Everybody has an individual responsibility, but thats not working What would be working, I think better is if we had policies and programs in place to help people do the healthier things instead of just letting (our cancer rates) continue to go up without changing any sort of policies in the state. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE In Mountville, South Carolina, chickens are threatening the livelihoods and homes of its longtime inhabitants. What's happening? For years, this tight-knit community enjoyed clean air, pure water, and a peaceful way of life. But those days feel like they're slipping away as large-scale chicken farms move in. As reported by The State, Mountville has become a hotspot for industrial chicken farming over the last two decades. Giant chicken barns, each housing tens of thousands of birds, now dominate the area. The issue came to a head with two proposed farms that plan to raise over half a million chickens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These farms are expected to produce a staggering 3,220 tons of chicken waste every year. Chicken manure poses a big problem it risks polluting waterways, contaminating groundwater, and creating unbearable smells. Locals are worried these changes could lower property values and ruin their peaceful livelihoods. Leading the opposition is Charles Blackmon, a retired bridge contractor and state constable who's rallying neighbors to address the environmental and social problems these farms bring. Mountville's fight reflects a larger challenge for small towns across the country dealing with the rise of industrial farming. "I can't believe we so absolutely ignore our natural resources,'' Blackmon told The State."I mean, how can they do this?'' Why are chicken farms concerning? Poultry farming is a major industry in South Carolina, producing 235 million chickens a year and playing a big role in the economy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, it also poses significant threats to human health and the environment. The Little River, which supplies water for people and wildlife, is already showing signs of contamination from fecal bacteria. If the pollution continues, it could destroy local ecosystems and make well water unsafe to drink for nearby families. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, beyond the fact that "chicken production has devastating consequences on water quality," it also "contributes to global climate change and harms natural habitat," noting that a 5-ounce chicken breast can be seen as responsible for the equivalent of 2.16 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution. Do you worry about air pollution in your town? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind There's also the financial impact. Studies show that homes near chicken farms can lose up to 30% of their value. For Mountville residents, this means not only dealing with pollution but also seeing their hard-earned investments shrink. What's being done about chicken farms? Despite the challenges, Blackmon and his group, South Carolinians for Responsible Agricultural Practices, aren't giving up. They're fighting the permits for the new farms in court, hoping to stop construction before it's too late. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside the legal battle, SCRAP is pushing for stricter state laws to protect the environment and public health. They believe Mountville's struggle could inspire other small towns facing similar problems, turning this local fight into a rallying cry for change across the state. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Musk is right that we should want to get exceptionally gifted people into the country, and the immigration hawks are right that the H1B program, which awards temporary visas to skilled immigrants, is scammy and poorly designed. This was a fascinating ideological and factional fight, but it was also over a relatively small-scale program that awards 85,000 visas a year. Left almost entirely unaddressed was the vast archipelago of the rest of our scandalously stupid immigration system. We give out about 1.1 million green cards a year, and only a slice are awarded on the basis of skills or employment prospects about 16 percent. So here we are, the wealthiest, most dynamic, freest country in the world, one that people nearly everywhere are desperate to come to, and rather than creating a system that allows us to take in the immigrants who are most likely to become net economic contributors to the country, we rely on family connections and sheer randomness instead. It is gigantic missed opportunity, if not an act of self-sabotage. Pew Research noted in a study a few years ago that only 36 percent of immigrants in the United States had college degrees, about the middle of the pack of other advanced, high-immigration countries. The top spots were occupied by Canada and Australia, with 65 percent and 63 percent respectively. Its not an accident that those two countries have merit-based systems. Canada went from 13% of immigrants having a college degree in 1971 shortly after it adopted its system, to 44% in 1981 and climbed from there. (Progressive heartthrob Justin Trudeau the Canadian prime minister, at least for a little while longer foolishly rejected this traditional approach as he opened the floodgates, but thats a story for another day.) The question of educational attainment is so important because it is predictive of how well someone will do economically in the United States. The research of Daniel Di Martino of the Manhattan Institute shows that the average new college-educated immigrant will reduce the budget deficit by more than $300,000 over his or her lifetime, while the average new immigrant without a college degree will be a net fiscal burden. Rather than taking account of this, we overwhelmingly admit immigrants based on family relationships with someone who is already here. (Mass illegal immigration, unsurprisingly, makes the picture worse. Roughly 70 percent of illegal immigrants have no education beyond high school, and about 60 percent of households headed by an illegal immigrant use a welfare program, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.) It is appropriate that our system gives some consideration to family ties. Certainly, spouses and minor children should get preference. If we scotched other family categories, though, that would free up hundreds of thousands of visas that could assuming we want to keep the overall level of immigration the same be awarded based on indicators of success from educational attainment to English proficiency. The so-called diversity lottery should also be on the chopping block. The program grants 50,000 green cards a year to immigrants selected by chance from millions of applicants from countries not already sending large numbers of immigrants. They arent admitted on merit, humanitarian need or connection to the United States. We might as well drop green cards from helicopters over foreign countries. The recent Elon Musk-occasioned discussion of H1Bs aside, the abiding failure of our immigration debate is that too many people take the status quo for granted. They act as if the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus make any rational reconsideration of legal immigration out of bounds. The truth is that who we admit and why are important questions of national policy and should be determined based on the national interest, not sentimentality or inertia. (COMMENT, BELOW) Screams, carnage and a black banner. The attacker in the deadly New Years truck-ramming strike on revelers in New Orleans French Quarter had a black Islamic State flag, the FBI says. Law enforcement says it believes the assailant acted alone, killing at least 15 people in what they are investigating as a terrorist attack. Authorities are also scrambling to establish what inspiration he might have drawn from the Sunni Muslim extremist group, which blazed into the worlds consciousness more than a decade ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By 2014, Islamic State had seized control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria. Under the groups harsh interpretation of Islam, thousands in the region, including minorities such as Yazidis, were persecuted, sexually enslaved and killed. Islamic State's deadly reach spread into Europe and beyond, with Islamic State operatives carrying out audacious bombings and shootings in capitals, including Paris and Brussels. A U.S.-led military coalition crushed Islamic States self-declared caliphate more than five years ago. But territorial losses and the death of its leader did not end attacks carried out by its many offshoots, or by lone wolves embracing its ideology. Here is a look at Islamic State, the strikes in which it was implicated or involved over the years, and the continuing threat it poses. How did Islamic State come into being? It started out as a rebranded faction of Al Qaeda, under the leadership of Abu Bakr Baghdadi, an Iraqi militant cleric and insurgent leader turned self-styled caliph. Those living under its rule in a wide arc of Iraq and Syria particularly members of other religions, or of other sects of Islam faced horrifying punishments: decapitations, crucifixion, torture. During that same era, the group also took Western hostages, killing several, including U.S. journalist James Foley, who was beheaded in 2014, and Arizona aid worker Kayla Mueller, confirmed dead in 2015. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A U.S.-spearheaded military coalition freed Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul, from the groups grip in 2017, and pursued its remnants into eastern Syria. By 2019, with U.S. forces on the brink of capturing him, Baghdadi killed himself in a suicide blast that also killed two children. Donald Trump, who was president at the time, declared the caliphate obliterated. What were some of Islamic States most notorious attacks in Europe? In November 2015, coordinated strikes by its operatives in Paris at a concert hall and outside a stadium killed 130 people, and only four months later, airport and public-transit bombings in Brussels killed 32 people. The group was deemed to have inspired attacks including the 2016 truck rampage in the French Riviera city of Nice, which killed at least 80 people and injured hundreds more on Bastille Day, and a ramming-and-stabbing attack on and near London Bridge in 2017 that killed eight people and injured dozens more. Have there been Islamic State-inspired attacks in the United States? Fourteen people were killed in a 2015 shooting in San Bernardino by a husband-and-wife team who were hailed by Islamic State as supporters. In 2016, a gunman who swore allegiance to Baghdadi shot and killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. What links New Orleans suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar with Islamic State? In addition to the black banner recovered from his truck, the Army veteran had posted videos before the attack indicating he was inspired by the group, according to President Biden. The investigation is continuing. What is Islamic States current status? In the years since its last bastion in eastern Syria was overrun, Islamic State has struggled to mount large operations, with its dwindled forces conducting mostly gang-style attacks and kidnappings in the border between Iraq and Syria. How about elsewhere in the world? Islamic State has had greater success with its decentralized network of affiliates that have sprouted across Africa and parts of Asia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A particularly potent affiliate is Islamic State-Khorasan or ISIS-K which has mounted increasingly daring attacks in the last year, including an assault on a Moscow concert hall in March that killed more than 140 people, and a twin bombing during a funeral procession in Iran that killed about 100 people. ISIS-K was also linked to the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans as the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan. How has the fall of Syrias dictatorship affected the group? The fall of the government of Bashar Assad in Syria has raised fears of an Islamic State resurgence on home turf, with some believing its resurrection is already underway. Despite continuing pressure from the U.S. coalition and local forces, a U.S. Central Command report in July said Islamic State had claimed more attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first six months of 2024 than it had for the entirety of 2023. A U.S. Central Command statement in September warned that a particular focus for the group was to free the roughly 9,000 ISIS detainees held in more than 20 detention facilities across Syria what one U.S. official described as an Islamic State army in waiting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If a large number of these ISIS fighters escaped, it would pose an extreme danger to the region and beyond, Centcom commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla said at the time. What are the most recent strikes by Islamic State affiliates? This week, Islamic State in Somalia said it conducted an attack with 12 militants and two booby-trapped vehicles that killed more than 20 military personnel. It was that ISIS offshoots largest attack to date, experts say. In March, an Islamic State affiliate operating in the West African nation of Niger claimed responsibility for an assault it said killed 30 soldiers. Bulos reported from Beirut and King from Washington. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) The Indiana State Police (ISP) is conducting a death investigation related to a shooting incident that occurred at the ISP Fort Wayne Post parking lot earlier Thursday morning. ISP says at approximately 4:40 a.m., a vehicle pulled into the Fort Wayne Post parking lot on Ellison Road in Fort Wayne. An on-duty Trooper at the post walked out to check on the vehicle. While making his way to the vehicle, he heard what he thought might be a gunshot. The Trooper then noticed one female victim inside the vehicle with what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The victim, a 69-year-old woman from Fort Wayne, was pulled from the car, and the Trooper started first aid. Emergency medical personnel were called and arrived. Proposed bill could add age restrictions to social media in Indiana Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Troopers say the female was transported to a hospital, where officials attempted to save her. The victim did not survive the incident. The family has been notified. Indiana State Police detective and crime scene personnel are completing the investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW). The Israeli army said Thursday it struck Hezbollah medium-range rocket launchers at a military site belonging to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. The army said Hezbollah rocket launchers adjacent to a military site in the area of Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, were also struck. The Israeli army said that as part of understandings between Israel and Lebanon, prior to the strike a request was sent to the Lebanese Armed Forces to neutralize the launchers that posed a threat to Israeli civilians and IDF troops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The launchers were struck only after the request was not addressed by the Lebanese Armed Forces," the Israeli army said. There was no comment by the Lebanese army so far. Lebanese security sources in southern Lebanon said Israeli airstrikes hit hills in the Iqlim al Tuffah region in southern Lebanon and combed areas at the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil. There was no immediate word on casualties. A fragile ceasefire between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia has been in place for over a month. Israel's ground troops are to be gradually withdrawn from Lebanon under the agreement. Both sides are accusing each other of violations. According to Israel, it is still taking military action against threats in the south of the neighbouring country, which is allowed under the ceasefire deal. An Israeli airstrike killed 11 people and injured others in the south of the Gaza Strip early on Thursday morning, according to Palestinian reports. Israeli fighter jets struck a makeshift tent housing displaced persons in the designated humanitarian area in al-Mawasi, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The information could not initially be independently verified. The Israeli military has said it will examine the reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi in the past, saying that its targets are command centres used by the Islamist militant group Hamas. WAFA also reported that several other people had been killed in Israeli attacks in various parts of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The Israeli military maintains that it is fighting Hamas in the coastal strip and that it is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties. According to Palestinian figures, more than 45,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began after the Hamas-led massacre of around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023. An Israeli airstrike killed 11 people and injured others in the south of the Gaza Strip early on Thursday morning, according to Palestinian reports. Israeli fighter jets struck a makeshift tent housing displaced persons in the designated humanitarian area in al-Mawasi, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The Israeli military said the attack targeted and killed the leader of Hamas's internal security forces, who was allegedly hiding in the area, adding that it had taken measures to protect civilians before the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It emphasized that Hamas security forces were responsible for violently interrogating Palestinian residents and persecuting dissidents. The information from both sides could not initially be independently verified. The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi in the past, saying that its targets are command centres used by the Islamist militant group Hamas. WAFA also reported that several other people had been killed in Israeli attacks in various parts of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Israel said on Thursday that extremists in the south of the coastal strip had fired a missile towards Israel, which was intercepted. According to Palestinian figures, more than 45,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began after the Hamas-led massacre of around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023. By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Clauda Tanios CAIRO (Reuters) - Israeli airstrikes killed at least 68 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including at a tent camp where the head of the enclave's Hamas-controlled police force, his deputy and nine displaced people died, Gaza authorities said. Israel said the deputy was the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas' security forces in southern Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attack occurred in the Al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the 14-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza. The director general of Gaza's police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his aide, Hussam Shahwan, who were checking on residents of the camp, were killed in the strike, according to the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry. "By committing the crime of assassinating the director general of police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation is insisting on spreading chaos in the (enclave) and deepening the human suffering of citizens," it added in a statement. The Israeli military said it had conducted an intelligence-based strike in Al-Mawasi, just west of the city of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwan, saying he led Hamas forces in south Gaza. It made no mention of Salah's death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "As the year begins, we got ... another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone let alone a safe zone" in Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said in a post on X. "Everyday without a ceasefire will bring more tragedy." Thursdays death toll was among the highest of recent weeks. Other Israeli airstrikes killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six in the interior ministry headquarters in Khan Younis and others in north Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, the Shati (Beach) camp, central Gaza's Maghazi camp and Gaza City. Israel's military said it had targeted Hamas militants who intelligence indicated were operating in a command and control centre "embedded inside the Khan Younis municipality building in the Humanitarian Area". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked about Thursday's reported death toll, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said it followed international law in waging the war in Gaza and that it took "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm". The Israeli military has accused Gaza militants of using built-up residential areas for cover. Hamas denies this. Hamas' smaller ally Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets into the southern Israeli kibbutz of Holit near Gaza on Thursday. The Israeli military said it intercepted one projectile in the area that had crossed from southern Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to Gaza's health ministry. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the tiny, heavily built-up coastal territory is in ruins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The war was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. (Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Clauda Tanios, Ali Sawafta, Tala Ramadan, Yomna Ehab, Ahmed Tolba and Maytaal Angel; editing by Himani Sarkar, Michael Perry, Mark Heinrich, Kevin Liffey and Cynthia Osterman) South Minneapolis' Italian Eatery will reopen next month, with a trio of Twin Cities chef-owners at the helm. The re-imagined restaurant, to be called ie By Travail, was announced Thursday by Travail Collective. The restaurant group, which operates Robbinsdale's acclaimed Travail Kitchen and Amusements, Nouvelle Kitchen & Brewing, Pig Ate My Pizza, Dream Creamery, Graze Food Hall and Stargazer, is led by James Beard Award semi-finalists Mike Brown, Bob Gerken, and James Winberg. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As passionate chefs, foodies, and enthusiastic members of this vibrant community, we couldnt be more excited to carry on the legacy of the beloved Italian Eatery," Brown shared in a press release. "From the moment we stepped through the doors, we fell in love with the restaurant's warmth and the neighborhood that made Italian Eatery a local favorite. Italian Eatery. Courtesy of Travail Collective. Eric and Vanessa Carrara, who founded Italian Eatery nearly a decade ago, closed the restaurant and its adjoining Sicilian street food spot, un dito, in May. It is with great honor and heartfelt anticipation that we pass the baton of our labor of love to be enjoyed for many more years to come under the talented team at Travail, the Carraras said in a joint statement Thursday. According to Gerken, the Travail team is working to welcome back former Italian Eatery employees ahead of the reopening in February. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Restaurant-goers can expect to find Italian Eatery favorites still on the menu, as well as new dishes to try and a long list of class wines from Italy. ie by Travail is a true celebration of continuity, as we blend the restaurants rich history with our passion for culinary innovation, Winberg stated. As chefs ourselves, we couldnt resist the opportunity to sprinkle in some new magic. Travail Collective has set up a membership program designed to offer perks to early enrollees ahead of the restaurant's opening. More information can be found at italianeaterymsp.com. Related: Minnesota restaurant openings & closings for December 2024 ROME Germanys Rheinmetall has loaned a Lynx tracked vehicle to the Italian army to test, as Italy prepares to sign a half-billion euro contract ($513 million) for a first batch of the vehicles by mid-2025. The Lynx fighting vehicle was shipped on Dec. 30 to the Italian armys Montelibretti testing facility near Rome, where it will be put through its paces by experts from the army and from Italian defense giant Leonardo. Army engineers and testers will get to know the Lynx and carry out a series of evaluations to test the mobility, protection, fire power and interoperability of the vehicle, the Italian army said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The loan shows the speed with which the deal is being managed and is also a sign of goodwill to the Italian army, a source knowledgeable of the arrangement told Defense News. As it replaces old vehicles and keeps up with NATO requirements, Italy plans to acquire 1,050 new fighting vehicles based on Rheinmetalls Lynx in a 15 billion program, with the first to be delivered in two years. The Italian army will also buy 280 tanks based on Rheinmetalls under-development Panther KF51 in an 8 billion euro program with the first tank planned for delivery in two and a half to three years. Iveco to get a piece of Italys massive combat vehicles, tanks program Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In October, Rheinmetall and Italys Leonardo announced a new joint venture through which they will team on development and construction of both vehicles, with the Italian firm contributing armaments and electronics to create Italianized versions of the vehicles. The Lynx KF41 loaned to the Italian army hails from Hungary, which is the only previous buyer of the vehicle. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing ongoing deliberations, told Defense News the joint venture would likely be up and running by the end of January, with the first contract for a first batch of Italy-configuration fighting vehicles the next step. Worth about half a billion euros, the contract could be signed with Italys defense ministry by the summer, the source said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If things move fast, the first contract for tanks could be signed this year, the source added. Leonardo and Rheinmetall have said they see export potential for the Italian-version vehicles, beyond purchases from Rome. In an interview with German publication Borsen Zeitung in December, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger predicted the joint venture would see orders worth 50 billion over the next ten years. ROME (AP) Italy summoned Irans ambassador on Thursday to demand the release of an Italian journalist while Tehran demanded Italy free an Iranian citizen arrested on a U.S. warrant over a drone attack in Jordan that killed three Americans a year ago. The developments reflected an escalation in a sensitive, three-nation diplomatic tangle marked by a series of public barbs. The complicated saga began on Dec. 16, when the U.S. Justice Department announced charges against two Iranian citizens accused of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the suspects, Mohammad Abedini, was detained that day at Milans Malpensa airport on a U.S. warrant seeking his extradition. Three days later, an Italian reporter for the Il Foglio daily, Cecilia Sala, was detained in Tehran. She had arrived in the country on Dec. 13 on a journalist visa and was arrested on charges of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, the state-run IRNA news agency said. The Italian and Iranian governments referred to both cases in their public statements Thursday after the Iranian ambassador was summoned to the Italian foreign ministry. That suggested the cases were very much intertwined as each country seeks the release of its citizen. Both say their detaineed national is being unjustly accused. The Iranian Embassy to Italy described the meeting between Ambassador Mohammadreza Sabouri and the Italian foreign ministrys secretary general, Riccardo Guariglia, as friendly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But in a statement on X, the embassy said Abedini was being held on false charges and demanded his release, in what was believed to be Tehrans first public response to the U.S. case against him. It insisted that Sala was being treated humanely, especially in light of Christmas and New Years holidays, and demanded similar treatment for Abedini. It is reciprocally expected from the Italian government that, in addition to expediting the release of the detained Iranian citizen, he will be provided with the things he needs, the statement said. U.S. federal prosecutors have charged Abedini and a co-defendant with export control violations after FBI specialists analyzed the drone navigation system used in the Jordan attack and traced it to them. U.S. prosecutors said Abedini's Tehran-based company manufactures navigation systems for the military drone program of Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ever since the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis in Iran, in which dozens of U.S. hostages spent 444 days in captivity in Tehran, Iran has frequently used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations. Italian commentators have speculated that that is indeed the case as Tehran seeks Abedini's release by holding Sala, whose fate has dominated Italian headlines for days and even featured in President Sergio Mattarellas end-of-year speech to the nation. The Italian foreign ministry said it summoned Sabouri, the Iranian ambassador, to demand Salas release and ensure dignified detention conditions in full respect of human rights, including consular access and visitation. Later in the day, Premier Giorgia Meloni convened a high-level meeting with the Italian justice and foreign ministers to discuss the Sala and Abedini cases, and met separately with Salas mother. In a statement, Melonis office said the government renewed its call for Salas immediate release and treatment that respects human dignity in the meantime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Concerning Abedini, the government reaffirmed that all are guaranteed equal treatment in compliance with Italian laws and international conventions. Abedinis Italian lawyer, Alfredo De Francesco, had asked the Milan court this week to grant him house arrest. On Thursday, Milans general prosecutor Francesca Nanni argued against the request, saying Abedini was a flight risk especially since the Iranian government owned the residence in Italy that was proposed to house him. The circumstances represented in the request, particularly the provision of an apartment and financial support from Irans consulate do not constitute an adequate guarantee against the danger of flight of the Iranian national whose extradition the U.S. has requested, the adnkronos news agency reported, citing a statement from Nanni that was confirmed by her office. The U.S. Justice Department has declined to comment on the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Salas mother, for her part, said she just wants her daughter to come home and be treated humanely by Iran in the meantime. Speaking to reporters outside of Melonis office after the meeting, Elisabetta Vernoni said her daughter had reported to her on Wednesday their second phone call that she was sleeping on the floor in a cell usually used to punish prisoners. I am a bit like Cecilia, I am a bit of a soldier. I wait and respect the work they are doing, Vernoni said. But prison conditions for a 29-year-old girl who has done nothing must be such that they cannot scar her for life, she added. (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coasts president announced the withdrawal of French troops from the country, joining a growing number of francophone states that have asked the former colonial power to relinquish its military presence in West Africa. Most Read from Bloomberg The downscaling of defense ties comes 10 months before Ivory Coast holds elections in which 83-year-old President Alassane Ouattara may seek another term. A surge in anti-French sentiment across the region helped bring Senegalese opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye to power last year, and has been tapped by military juntas that seized control of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger since 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces from Ivory Coast, Ouattara said in a televised address late on Tuesday. The pullout will begin this month, he said. France has withdrawn forces from at least four West African nations since 2022 Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and most recently Chad. Pariss remaining permanent military bases in Ivory Coast, Senegal and Gabon have become major political vulnerabilities for Paris and for their African host governments, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations. Hostile actors and strategic competitors can easily weaponize them against Frances overall policies towards the continent, Will Brown and Suzanne Tisserand, policy fellows at the thinktank, said in a Dec. 20 note. Second, African countries increasingly perceive permanent foreign military presence as an infringement of their national sovereignty. The military rulers of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have motivated their decision to part ways with the Economic Community of West African States a regional economic bloc by saying the group of nations is being instrumentalized by France. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Faye on Tuesday said Senegals developing a new security strategy involving the end of all foreign military presence in the country from 2025. In addition to cutting security ties with France, the juntas have also severed relations with other Western allies including the US, hampering efforts to contain an Islamist insurgency in the Sahel region. In turn, theyve boosted ties with countries including Russia, Iran and Turkey, though the security situation has deteriorated further with thousands of people killed each year and many more displaced. Ouattaras decision is a blow to President Emmanuel Macrons strategy to redefine French military policy in the region. In November, Macrons personnel envoy to Africa Jean-Marie Bockel submitted a report on the upcoming remodeling of Frances military presence in Africa, which according to Agence France-Presse included cutting its presence to 100 troops from 350 in Senegal and Gabon; to 300 in Chad from 1,000, and 100 in Ivory Coast from 600. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. JAN. 2 KIDS CREATOR CAMPThe Kingsport Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a Kids Creator Camp at the Borden Park Community Center this Winter Break from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Dec. 30 through Jan. 3, 2025, (excluding Jan. 1). Children ages 6 to 12 can register and the cost per child is $80 for city residents and $90 for non-city residents. Participants will receive a 1,000-piece Lego set to use and keep. Staff is asking participants not to bring Lego bricks from home. Creator Camp is an engaging program where children express their creativity through hands-on building activities using Lego bricks. To register, visit https://bit.ly/3Vz74Xa. You can also click on the CivicRec link in the Connect Kingsport app or go to www.kingsporttn.gov and click on the CivicRec link, then search for creator camp in the search bar. For more information, please visit www.kingsportparksandrecreation.org. SULLIVAN COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETINGSThe Sullivan County Board of Education will meet on Thursday, Jan. 2. There will be a work session at 4:30 p.m. in Room 212. A called meeting regarding the Hawn Case will be held at 6 p.m. in the boardroom, and the regular meeting will follow at 6:30 p.m. Agendas will be published at https://bit.ly/41S7QlP on the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 30. Anyone wishing to give public comment must complete Form 1.404.F1. This form will be available at the meeting and should be turned in to the Board Chairman or the Board Secretary before the meeting begins. The meetings will be live streamed at https://bit.ly/41OXRh5. JAN. 3 KIDS CREATOR CAMPThe Kingsport Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a Kids Creator Camp at the Borden Park Community Center this Winter Break from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Dec. 30 through Jan. 3, 2025, (excluding Jan. 1). Children ages 6 to 12 can register and the cost per child is $80 for city residents and $90 for non-city residents. Participants will receive a 1,000-piece Lego set to use and keep. Staff is asking participants not to bring Lego bricks from home. Creator Camp is an engaging program where children express their creativity through hands-on building activities using Lego bricks. To register, visit https://bit.ly/3Vz74Xa. You can also click on the CivicRec link in the Connect Kingsport app or go to www.kingsporttn.gov and click on the CivicRec link, then search for creator camp in the search bar. For more information, please visit www.kingsportparksandrecreation.org. JAN. 4 OLD CHRISTMAS AT FORT WATAUGASaturday, Jan. 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 5, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, 1651 W. Elk Ave., Elizabethton, TN 37643. 423-543-5808. Christmas isnt over yet! For most colonial Americans, Christmas was a 12-day celebration. Visit Fort Watauga to discover the European roots of our modern holiday traditions and learn about the all-but-forgotten holiday known as Old Christmas. Free Admission. NOTE: Outdoor events may be altered or cancelled in the event of significant inclement weather. JAN 5. OLD CHRISTMAS AT FORT WATAUGASaturday, Jan. 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 5, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, 1651 W. Elk Ave., Elizabethton, TN 37643. 423-543-5808. Christmas isnt over yet! For most colonial Americans, Christmas was a 12-day celebration. Visit Fort Watauga to discover the European roots of our modern holiday traditions and learn about the all-but-forgotten holiday known as Old Christmas. Free Admission. NOTE: Outdoor events may be altered or cancelled in the event of significant inclement weather. JAN. 8 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. JAN. 12 NEW SQUID ON THE BLOCKNew Squid on the Block featuring Barefoot Puppet Theatre, Sunday, Jan. 12, 3 p.m., Richlands Middle School Auditorium, Richlands, Virginia. It can be hard to make friends. Especially if you have tentacles. Journey to Antarctica as a curious squid seeks connection in the most unlikely of places. Penguins, orcas, and jellyfish abound in an icy landscape for this heartwarming tale of friendship. Beautifully handcrafted puppets, an original score by Ned Haskins, and a good dose of silliness, combine to create a comedic, wordless performance that celebrates our ability to create connections, despite our differences. For more information and a brochure call: (276) 963-3385 or email: joinCARTtoday@gmail.com Check us out on FACEBOOK. Tickets and memberships may be purchased at the door. JAN. 14 SUICIDE SURVIVORS SUPPORT GROUP OF THE TRI-CITIESNavigating the Ocean of Grief after the Suicide Death of a Loved One, facilitated by Barbara Sims, Ph.D., who lost her son, Christopher Michael Price, to suicide on January 5, 2018. We meet the second Tuesday of each month at the Summit Leadership offices, 3515 Bristol Highway, Johnson City, TN, 6-7 p.m. To get on the contact list for meeting notices or for additional information about this support group, contact Barb Sims at barb@bsims.net. JAN. 15 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. JAN. 17 CONTRA DANCESparta, NC. On Friday, Jan. 17, the Alleghany Arts Council will hold its monthly Contra Dance at the Sparta United Methodist Church, 190 N. Main St, Sparta, NC 28675. The fun begins at 6:30 p.m. with an easy-to-learn beginner lesson followed by the main dance at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be available. These dances will be held the third Friday of the month. Tickets are $10 in advance, $10 at the door, and youth 12 and under are free with an adult. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.alleghanyartscouncil.org/events/contra-dance/. Contra dance is a form of American folk dance. It is the older cousin to the square dance. No fancy footwork needed if you can walk, you can dance! All the dances are taught and called. No need to bring a partner to join our friendly dance community, and it is appropriate for all ages. Lively music will be provided by Old Time Cookin and called by George Segebade. The band will serve up driving string band dance music rooted in the NC and VA Appalachian Mountains and its foothills. Youll hear and feel their passion in the music! JAN. 22 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. JAN. 23 BEGINNING BEEKEEPER COURSEA course for beginning beekeepers will be held in room 240 of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Virginia, on the following Thursdays from 6 until 9 p.m. each evening: Jan. 23, 30, Feb. 6, and 13. A follow-up session in an apiary will be held in the spring to give course participants hands-on experience with hive inspection and handling honeybees, installing packages, installing nucs, and more. The cost of the class is $100 and is limited to 40 participants. Pre-register by sending a check for $100 payable to the VCE Washington County to the Washington County Extension Office, 234 W. Valley St., Suite B, Abingdon, VA 24210. Participants will receive a course notebook, the Beekeeping Basics booklet, a certificate of completion, and a one year membership in the Highlands Beekeepers Association. Call the Washington County Extension Office at 276-676-6309 if you have questions. JAN. 28 VFGC WINTER CONFERENCEJoin the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at the Wytheville Meeting Center, Wytheville, VA, for an in-depth look making, buying, and using quality hay and baleage. Featured speakers include Dr. Chris Teutsch, Extension forage specialist, University of Kentucky, and Dr. Jessica Williamson, hay and forage specialist, AGCO, as well as a local producer speaker. Topics discussed include; updated hay economics, using hay to grow grass, when and how, minimizing hay losses when storing, feeding, making Quality dry hay, using your equipment to its fullest potential, sourcing, purchasing, and evaluating hay, hay buying tips and other considerations, visual evaluation and forage testing., and making and storing quality baleage. The cost is $40 for VFGC members and $50 for non-members if registered by January 15. Register online at VFGC.org or https://vaforages.org. JAN. 29 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. JAN. 30 BEGINNING BEEKEEPER COURSEA course for beginning beekeepers will be held in room 240 of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Virginia, on the following Thursdays from 6 until 9 p.m. each evening: Jan. 23, 30, Feb. 6, and 13. A follow-up session in an apiary will be held in the spring to give course participants hands-on experience with hive inspection and handling honeybees, installing packages, installing nucs, and more. The cost of the class is $100 and is limited to 40 participants. Pre-register by sending a check for $100 payable to the VCE Washington County to the Washington County Extension Office, 234 W. Valley St., Suite B, Abingdon, VA 24210. Participants will receive a course notebook, the Beekeeping Basics booklet, a certificate of completion, and a one year membership in the Highlands Beekeepers Association. Call the Washington County Extension Office at 276-676-6309 if you have questions. JAN. 31 FREE MAGIC SHOWMarion, VA. Appalachian Echoes presents a free magic show featuring Ryan Shaffer at The Lincoln Theatre, 117 E. Main St., Marion, VA 24354, on Friday, Jan. 31, at 1 p.m. Ryan Shaffer is a professional illusionist with more than eight years of experience in the field of magic. Attend this charming display of deception for free no reservation required. Please contact The Lincoln Theatre at lincolntheatremgr@gmail.com, www.thelincoln.org or 276-783-6092, or appalachianechoesdirector@gmail.com for more information. FEB. 5 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. FEB. 6 BEGINNING BEEKEEPER COURSEA course for beginning beekeepers will be held in room 240 of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Virginia, on the following Thursdays from 6 until 9 p.m. each evening: Jan. 23, 30, Feb. 6, and 13. A follow-up session in an apiary will be held in the spring to give course participants hands-on experience with hive inspection and handling honeybees, installing packages, installing nucs, and more. The cost of the class is $100 and is limited to 40 participants. Pre-register by sending a check for $100 payable to the VCE Washington County to the Washington County Extension Office, 234 W. Valley St., Suite B, Abingdon, VA 24210. Participants will receive a course notebook, the Beekeeping Basics booklet, a certificate of completion, and a one year membership in the Highlands Beekeepers Association. Call the Washington County Extension Office at 276-676-6309 if you have questions. FEB. 7 THEOLOGIAN-IN-RESIDENCE: CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDDLE EASTGreeneville, TN. Dr. Ramy N. Marcos, pastor of Erwin Presbyterian Church, will serve as the speaker for the four-session Theologian-In-Residence series in Chalmers Conference Center, inside the Scott M. Niswonger Commons. The dates and times for his presentations are Feb. 7, Feb. 14, Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, all Fridays, at 10 a.m. Each session lasts about two hours, with Dr. Marcos presentation followed by questions from the audience. Feb. 7: A Living Faith, a historical introduction to the emergence of Christianity in the region and its diverse traditions as well as tracing eras like Byzantium and Islamic rule. Registration is required. To register, please visit https://site.tusculum.edu/theologian-in-residence-registration/. Anyone with questions can email Dr. Shumate at cshumate@tusculum.edu. The lectures are free and breakfast items will be provided. The university welcomes donations at any of the lectures or by visiting https://ssl.charityweb.net/tusculum/ and choosing Theologian-In-Residence in the drop-down menu. Checks can be mailed to the Office of Institutional Advancement, P.O. Box 5040, Greeneville, TN, 37745. FEB. 11 SUICIDE SURVIVORS SUPPORT GROUP OF THE TRI-CITIESNavigating the Ocean of Grief after the Suicide Death of a Loved One, facilitated by Barbara Sims, Ph.D., who lost her son, Christopher Michael Price, to suicide on January 5, 2018. We meet the second Tuesday of each month at the Summit Leadership offices, 3515 Bristol Highway, Johnson City, TN, 6-7 p.m. To get on the contact list for meeting notices or for additional information about this support group, contact Barb Sims at barb@bsims.net. FEB. 12 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. FEB. 13 BEGINNING BEEKEEPER COURSEA course for beginning beekeepers will be held in room 240 of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Virginia, on the following Thursdays from 6 until 9 p.m. each evening: Jan. 23, 30, Feb. 6, and 13. A follow-up session in an apiary will be held in the spring to give course participants hands-on experience with hive inspection and handling honeybees, installing packages, installing nucs, and more. The cost of the class is $100 and is limited to 40 participants. Pre-register by sending a check for $100 payable to the VCE Washington County to the Washington County Extension Office, 234 W. Valley St., Suite B, Abingdon, VA 24210. Participants will receive a course notebook, the Beekeeping Basics booklet, a certificate of completion, and a one year membership in the Highlands Beekeepers Association. Call the Washington County Extension Office at 276-676-6309 if you have questions. FEB. 14 THEOLOGIAN-IN-RESIDENCE: CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDDLE EASTGreeneville, TN. Dr. Ramy N. Marcos, pastor of Erwin Presbyterian Church, will serve as the speaker for the four-session Theologian-In-Residence series in Chalmers Conference Center, inside the Scott M. Niswonger Commons. The dates and times for his presentations are Feb. 7, Feb. 14, Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, all Fridays, at 10 a.m. Each session lasts about two hours, with Dr. Marcos presentation followed by questions from the audience. Feb. 14: New Opportunities and Challenges a look at Christianity during modern times, with a focus on the missionary work in the region and the indigenous responses to the missionaries. Registration is required. To register, please visit https://site.tusculum.edu/theologian-in-residence-registration/. Anyone with questions can email Dr. Shumate at cshumate@tusculum.edu. The lectures are free and breakfast items will be provided. The university welcomes donations at any of the lectures or by visiting https://ssl.charityweb.net/tusculum/ and choosing Theologian-In-Residence in the drop-down menu. Checks can be mailed to the Office of Institutional Advancement, P.O. Box 5040, Greeneville, TN, 37745. FEB. 16 JOHN BULLARD AND FRIENDSJohn Bullard and Friends with Banjo, piano, violin and cello, Sunday, Feb. 16, 3 p.m., Richlands Middle School Auditorium, Richlands, Virginia. John Bullard is a classically trained musician who has gained international attention for his work in developing and transcribing classical repertoire for the five-string banjo. He has dedicated his life to the artistic marriage of banjo and classical music. John is joined by Markus Compton on the keyboard, Tressa Gold on the violin, and Schuyler Slack on the cello. The Perfect Southern Art. For more information and a brochure call: (276) 963-3385 or email: joinCARTtoday@gmail.com Check us out on FACEBOOK. Tickets and memberships may be purchased at the door. FEB. 19 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. FEB. 21 CONTRA DANCESparta, NC. On Friday, Feb. 21, the Alleghany Arts Council will hold its monthly Contra Dance at the Sparta United Methodist Church, 190 N. Main St, Sparta, NC 28675. The fun begins at 6:30 p.m. with an easy-to-learn beginner lesson followed by the main dance at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be available. These dances will be held the third Friday of the month. Tickets are $10 in advance, $10 at the door, and youth 12 and under are free with an adult. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.alleghanyartscouncil.org/events/contra-dance/. Contra dance is a form of American folk dance. It is the older cousin to the square dance. No fancy footwork needed if you can walk, you can dance! All the dances are taught and called. No need to bring a partner to join our friendly dance community, and it is appropriate for all ages. Lively music will be provided by Old Time Cookin and called by George Segebade. The band will serve up driving string band dance music rooted in the NC and VA Appalachian Mountains and its foothills. Youll hear and feel their passion in the music! THEOLOGIAN-IN-RESIDENCE: CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDDLE EASTGreeneville, TN. Dr. Ramy N. Marcos, pastor of Erwin Presbyterian Church, will serve as the speaker for the four-session Theologian-In-Residence series in Chalmers Conference Center, inside the Scott M. Niswonger Commons. The dates and times for his presentations are Feb. 7, Feb. 14, Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, all Fridays, at 10 a.m. Each session lasts about two hours, with Dr. Marcos presentation followed by questions from the audience. Feb. 21: Christian-Muslim Relations, an examination of Christian-Muslim relations through shared histories and cooperation in the public sphere and the question How could we understand interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims in the region? Registration is required. To register, please visit https://site.tusculum.edu/theologian-in-residence-registration/. Anyone with questions can email Dr. Shumate at cshumate@tusculum.edu. The lectures are free and breakfast items will be provided. The university welcomes donations at any of the lectures or by visiting https://ssl.charityweb.net/tusculum/ and choosing Theologian-In-Residence in the drop-down menu. Checks can be mailed to the Office of Institutional Advancement, P.O. Box 5040, Greeneville, TN, 37745. FEB. 26 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. FEB. 28 THEOLOGIAN-IN-RESIDENCE: CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDDLE EASTGreeneville, TN. Dr. Ramy N. Marcos, pastor of Erwin Presbyterian Church, will serve as the speaker for the four-session Theologian-In-Residence series in Chalmers Conference Center, inside the Scott M. Niswonger Commons. The dates and times for his presentations are Feb. 7, Feb. 14, Feb. 21 and Feb. 28, all Fridays, at 10 a.m. Each session lasts about two hours, with Dr. Marcos presentation followed by questions from the audience. Feb. 28: The Future of Middle Eastern Christianity, an analysis of the impact of instability, conflict and sectarian violence on Christian communities. Registration is required. To register, please visit https://site.tusculum.edu/theologian-in-residence-registration/. Anyone with questions can email Dr. Shumate at cshumate@tusculum.edu. The lectures are free and breakfast items will be provided. The university welcomes donations at any of the lectures or by visiting https://ssl.charityweb.net/tusculum/ and choosing Theologian-In-Residence in the drop-down menu. Checks can be mailed to the Office of Institutional Advancement, P.O. Box 5040, Greeneville, TN, 37745. MARCH 1 THE UGLY DUCKLINGThe Ugly Duckling featuring Barter Players, Saturday, March 1, 3 p.m., Tazewell Middle School Auditorium, Tazewell, Virginia. The childhood classic story tells of a plain-looking little bird (the Ugly Duckling) born in a barnyard. His brothers and sisters as well as the other birds and animals on the farm tease him for being plain and ugly, so he runs off to live with a flock of wild ducks and geese. As it turns out he discovers his true beauty. For more information and a brochure call: (276) 963-3385 or email: joinCARTtoday@gmail.com Check us out on FACEBOOK. Tickets and memberships may be purchased at the door. MARCH 5 AL-ANONA support group for friends and family of alcoholics and addicts meeting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday in the basement of Lebanon United Methodist Church in Elk Creek, Virginia. For more information, call 276-655-4941. MARCH 11 SUICIDE SURVIVORS SUPPORT GROUP OF THE TRI-CITIESNavigating the Ocean of Grief after the Suicide Death of a Loved One, facilitated by Barbara Sims, Ph.D., who lost her son, Christopher Michael Price, to suicide on January 5, 2018. We meet the second Tuesday of each month at the Summit Leadership offices, 3515 Bristol Highway, Johnson City, TN, 6-7 p.m. To get on the contact list for meeting notices or for additional information about this support group, contact Barb Sims at barb@bsims.net. ALBANY, NY ( WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) New York State Attorney General Letitia James has announced that she is recusing her office from the investigation of the death of Robert Brooks, an inmate at the Marcy Correctional facility. James also announced the appointment of Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick to handle the investigation as a Special Prosecutor. James noted that four of the Corrections Officers involved in the Brooks investigation are currently defendants in other matters and are represented by attorneys in the Attorney Generals office. James did not identify the four COs nor did she say what cases they are involved in. She also did not name the attorneys from her office who are involved in representing the officers. Robert Brooks, of Rochester, was an inmate at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome on December 9, 2024. He was transferred from Mohawk to Marcy Correctional in the evening of December 9th. He was beaten by guards during the transfer process and died at Wynn Hospital early on December 10th. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Governor Kathy Hochul made a statement on the recusal on Thursday, January 2: Now that the Attorney General has appointed the Onondaga District Attorney as special prosecutor, I expect prosecutors will work expeditiously to bring formal charges and make arrests for the killing of Robert Brooks. Too much time has passed without changes being brought against the individuals responsible. The video of this horrific attack demonstrates that crimes clearly were committed, and I believe initial charges can be brought even as more serious charges are considered based on further investigation. While it is outside the power of my office to order arrests or bring charges, my team has offered any necessary resources to help prosecutors move as quickly as possible to ensure that justice is served. The family of Mr. Brooks deserves no further delays. -Governor Kathy Hochul on the recusal Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WUTR/WFXV - CNYhomepage.com. Here is everything you need to know about the strikes: Travellers with weekend plans will suffer the January blues after union bosses announced strike action on the railways. Passengers on Avanti West Coast will have to negotiate turmoil on the tracks as a result of a dispute between the RMT union and the train operator. An initial plan for strike action was briefly halted after the train operator made a revised offer to unions. However, fresh dates in 2025 were later announced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Strike action was held over the New Year period after the two sides were unable to resolve the dispute. When are the strikes going to take place? The RMT union said its members will refuse to work on all Sundays from Jan 12 to May 25. Which routes are affected? Services are expected to be significantly reduced on the strike days, with those that do run likely to be busy. Avanti said it would provide more information on ticket options and its expected service as soon as possible. Can I get a refund? Avanti said that customers who booked tickets to travel with Avanti West Coast on New Years Eve or Jan 2 before the strike action was initially announced on Dec 17 could claim a full refund from where the tickets were bought. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, it has yet to clarify if any tickets bought for the Sunday strikes this year will also be eligible for a refund. Why are RMT members going on strike? Mick Lynch, the unions general secretary, has said 250 is not enough for train guards to work on their days off. Train guards, now known as train managers, have rejected an offer of time and a quarter from bosses because senior Avanti colleagues earn 300 plus their normal wages for the same shifts. Asked how much somebody would make for working an 11-hour shift on a rest day, Mr Lynch, told BBC Breakfast: That would work out at about 250, but a manager working for the shift would get 300 as a bonus and they would get their wages on top of that, so they would earn 500 or 600. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So our members are being offered less than half what a manager works. But some of our members would have to give up their day off to simply earn six hours pay, and thats not good enough. We want some guarantees about what theyre paid and the rate theyre paid it, and we want these managers to stop working these shifts at extortionate rates. An RMT spokesman said: It is wholly unacceptable that replacement managers can be paid around 500 per shift, about double what our Avanti members earn-while not providing the same service for passengers. This kind of destructive approach has been seen time and again across train operating companies and is a hangover from the previous Conservative government, which encouraged practices that reward managers with excessive payouts instead of resolving disputes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reaching a fair settlement would be more cost-effective and make far better use of Avantis resources. At the heart of the problem is a serious staff shortage, which is why theres such a heavy reliance on overtime in the first place. The RMT said up to 400 of its members were involved in the dispute. They voted by 83pc against a suggested deal. What has the train operator said? An Avanti West Coast spokesman said: This strike action will cause significant disruption to our customers making journeys on the West Coast Main Line over an extended period. Were disappointed our train managers who are RMT members have voted to decline the very reasonable, revised offer made to them to resolve the rest day working dispute and avoid inconveniencing our customers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We remain open to working with the RMT to resolve the dispute. What has the Government said? Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, has urged Avanti West Coast to negotiate a solution to planned new years strikes as she defended the Governments approach to industrial action. Asked about the impending industrial action on Friday, Ms Alexander said it was up to Avantis bosses to resume negotiations. She told Sky News: What I want to see happen is for the leadership of Avanti West Coast, which is currently a privately owned train operating company, to get back round the table with the RMT to see what can be done to avoid action happening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ms Alexander defended the Governments deal, saying the proposed Avanti strike was not on the same scale as the action seen under the Conservatives. She said: Let me be clear about the difference between what was happening under the previous Conservative government, who had a scorched earth approach to industrial relations, and we saw strike after strike after strike across the whole of the network. The industrial action that may happen on Avanti West Coast is one train operating company. There are 14 train operating companies, so this just applies to one area. I dont want this strike to happen, nobody wants these strikes to happen, but it is not on the same scale as what we saw under the previous Conservative government. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Vice President-elect JD Vance took to X to call an op-ed by Elon Musk in Die Welt explaining his support for the far-right German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) interesting. Musk shared a post on X by Martin Varsavsky, who posted what he said was the article submitted by Musk to the German paper. The AfD is a far-right populist, eurosceptic party that opposes immigration and has called for mass deportations. The article, entitled Only the AfD Can Save Germany, outlines Musks belief that As someone who has invested significantly in Germanys industrial and technological landscape, I believe I have earned the right to speak candidly about its political direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sharing the article, Vance wrote: Im not endorsing a party in the German elections, as its not my country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. But this is an interesting piece. Also interesting; American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite, but AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis, he claimed. Nineteen percent of German adults have a positive view of the AfD, according to the Pew Research Center. Musk highlighted a number of issues in his op-ed that he claimed Germany must address to avoid economic and cultural collapse. Elon Musk, pictured here with Donald Trump and JD Vance, has expressed his support for the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (Getty Images) A commentary editor at the paper resigned in protest at Musks op-ed and the German government said Monday that Musk was trying to influence the countrys election set for next month, The Hill noted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Germanys ambassador to the U.S., Andreas Michaelis, said on Bluesky that Vances observation was interesting. Historical context can be tricky while some areas you are referring to resisted the Nazi party early on, others did not, or later became strongholds of the regime. Germanys history reminds us how important it is to challenge extremism in all its forms, he said. Musk initially shared his support for the AfD in December and he has called for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to step down. Ahead of the election on February 23, the AfD remains the second most popular party in Germany, but all major parties in the country have rejected the possibility of joining a coalition government with the AfD. Christiane Hoffmann, a spokesperson for the German government said during a briefing Monday that It is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election through his statement. She added that freedom of expression also includes the greatest nonsense. As Republicans try to keep up their populist ruse, big money elites in the party and their big mouths are making the herculean task of making Republicans look like authentic defenders of everyday Americans increasingly difficult. Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk were a prime example of that last week when they faced backlash for appearing to suggest American-born workers are inferior to immigrant workers who come to the United States on H-1B visas. And MAGA-aligned tech billionaire Marc Andreessen faced backlash after a cruel remark he allegedly made about small-town America in 2017 resurfaced on social media this week. The quote comes from an American Prospect article published in April and authored by journalist Rick Perlstein, who recounted a dinner he had with Andreessen in 2017. In the article, Perlstein recollected an alleged discussion with Andreessen about the plight of small-town Americans. He quotes Andreessen as having said something to the effect of: Im glad theres OxyContin and video games to keep those people quiet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perlstein went on to note that he may have misremembered whether Andreessen used the word quiet or another word to indicate small-town Americas futility: Im taking the liberty of putting it in quotation marks, though I cant be sure those were his exact words. Marc, if youre reading, feel free to get in touch and refresh my memory. Maybe he said quiescent, or docile, or maybe powerless. Something, certainly, along those lines. The alleged remark suggests Andreessen carried disdain for people who make up much of the MAGA base. On Monday, Andreessen confirmed Perlstein attended dinner at his house in 2017 but appeared to deny having made the degrading comment about small-town Americans. True to form, he is now slandering me with fake quotes, Andreessen alleged, referring to Perlstein. Perlstein isnt backing down from his reporting. On Tuesday, he encouraged readers to decide for yourself and suggested reporters ask Andreessen to confirm or deny whether he holds the people he grew up with in contempt. With regard to contempt, Andreessen's alleged remark feels similar to Trump's reported rhetoric. It's also reminiscent of the classist depiction of rural America in Vice President-elect JD Vance's 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vance whose venture capital firm was reportedly funded in part by Andreessen leaped to the billionaire investor's defense on Tuesday. I am admittedly biased, but Im biased because Marc is a good dude, Vance posted to X. I dont believe Pearlsteins slander for a second. I am admittedly biased, but I'm biased because Marc is a good dude. I don't believe Pearlstein's slander for a second. https://t.co/PSs4eUpJAs JD Vance (@JDVance) December 31, 2024 The angry quote tweets and replies responding to Vance show he was unsuccessful in totally silencing the backlash, much of which appeared to come from Trump-supporting accounts (including that of conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer). It looks like some members of the MAGA world are beginning to realize their movement exists to serve wealthy elites at everyone elses expense. I dont expect this realization to change their voting behavior writ large. The backlash feels like an isolated moment of resistance rather than a true uprising. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com On January 1, 2023, actor Jeremy Renner, best known for his role as "Hawkeye" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was involved in a severe snow plow accident near his home in Reno, Nevada. As The Blast reported, Renner was operating his PistenBully snowcat, a heavy-duty snow removal vehicle weighing over 14,000 pounds, to clear snow and assist his nephew after a severe winter storm. After successfully freeing the stuck vehicle, the snowcat suddenly began to roll unexpectedly. In a desperate attempt to prevent the massive machine from hitting his nephew, Renner tried to climb back into the vehicle to regain control, but, tragically, he was pulled under the snowcat's tracks and crushed by the immense machinery, resulting in life-threatening injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, two years later, Jeremy Renner is reflecting on that life-changing incident, thanking everyone who helped give him a second chance. The Marvel Star Reflects On The Near-Fatal Snow Plow Accident MEGA On January 1, 2025, two years after his accident, the Marvel star took to social media to express his gratitude. "Happy New Year blessings to you all. Ringing in my second ReBirthday today," the actor began in his lengthy Instagram post. "I send out my love, respect, and gratitude for the army of people that it took to put me back together again." Jeremy Renner Thanks Doctors, Fans, Family, And More MEGA He went on to thank "each and every nurse, doctor, first responder," adding that he "literally owe[s] you my life." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "All my heart goes out to my beautiful, brave nephew and the angels (my neighbors) who jumped to my aid and endured the chaos for 45 long minutes on the icy asphalt New Years morning," he continued. "Im so sorry all the haunting images I imprinted on you all (Ill spare you all from the meat grinding images.)" Body camera footage from first responders documented the chaotic moments immediately following Jeremy Renner's snowplow accident. The videos revealed emergency personnel urgently attending to Renner, who had sustained critical injuries after being run over by his 14,300-pound snowplow near his home in Reno, Nevada. The footage also captured the intense atmosphere as medical teams worked swiftly to stabilize him before rushing him to the hospital for emergency care. Jeremy Renner Says He 'Stands Strong' Renners nephew, Alex Fries, quickly sought assistance from the actors neighbor, Rich Kovach, and Kovach's partner, Barb Fletcher. Together, they sprang into action, working tirelessly to keep Renner alive until paramedics arrived on the scene. "My gratitude list is very long," Renner added in his social media post. "With the amount of love and prayers that flooded in from you all around the world (needing each and everyone of them), my family never leaving my side , with some divine intervention, a bit of luck and a whole lot of miracles I stand strong again. More Open. More Loved. More Connected." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He concluded, "And f-cking BLESSED to take my next step, to take MY NEXT BREATH. Thank you with every fiber and cell in my body. I love you ALL [red heart emoji]. #MyNextBreath." What Happened To Jeremy Renner? MEGA Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two years ago, Jeremy Renner found himself in critical condition after a devastating accident involving a seven-ton snowplow near his property in Reno, Nevada, on January 1st. Following a heavy blizzard, Renner, who had been hosting family for the holidays, took it upon himself to clear the snow and tow his vehicle, which was stuck on an icy road. His nephew, Alex Friesthe son of Renners sister Kymwas in the process of detaching the chain connecting the car to the plow. Concerned for his nephews safety due to limited visibility, Renner leaned out of the vehicle but failed to engage the parking brake. In a split-second moment, he fell out of the snowplow. Realizing the massive machine was rolling towards his nephew, Renner attempted to climb back into the drivers seat but was tragically pulled under the nine-foot-tall vehicle, which ran over him, leaving him with life-threatening injuries. Jeremy Renner Suffered From Life-Threatening Injuries Instagram | Jeremy Renner Jeremy Renner was airlifted to a nearby hospital's intensive care unit (ICU), where he underwent multiple surgeries and received extensive medical care to address his critical condition. The accident left him with life-threatening injuries, including over 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung, blunt chest trauma, and severe orthopedic injuries, particularly affecting his leg and upper body. The fate of New Yorks congestion pricing plan is once again up in the air, as the state of New Jersey has filed for a last-minute injunction to stop the MTA toll set to begin in Midtown and lower Manhattan on Sunday. Attorneys for the administration of N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy have filed an motion seeking to stop the toll pending federal regulators response to an order issued earlier this week by Federal Judge Leo Gordon that was spun by both sides as a win. On Monday, Gordon issued a remand in part of the Federal Highway Administrations approval of congestion tolling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gordon said the administration must account for why New Yorks congestion pricing plan details specific pollution mitigations for the Bronx, but fails to detail such plans for several New Jersey towns even though both regions are expected to see an increase in motor vehicle traffic after the plan goes into effect. New Jerseys request for an injunction comes just days before the MTA has said it will turn the tolling system on drivers have been told to expect a toll starting Sunday morning. A hearing on the motion is expected in Newark Federal Court Friday afternoon. Attorneys for New Jersey are arguing that congestion tolling must wait at least until those explanations are filed, as the partial remand rescinds federal approval for the plan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Jersey respectfully requests that the court clarify that its remand also necessarily vacated the final [federal approvals] pending these further proceedings, attorneys for New Jersey wrote. [D]espite the obvious import of this remand for further review on such a serious deficiency as mitigation, the MTA intends to alter the status quo and try to make congestion pricing a fait accompli starting Jan. 5, they continued. The Murphy administrations suit the first and most serious challenge to New Yorks plan to toll drivers entering Midtown and lower Manhattan argues that changing traffic patterns from trucks and other vehicles seeking to avoid the toll will unfairly impact the air quality in New Jersey. The irreparable harm that New Jersey will suffer once the MTA flips the switch on congestion pricing is manifest, the Garden States lawyers wrote in seeking an injunction against a Sunday start. Beginning on Day One, New Jersey will experience vehicle traffic increases and poorer air quality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The MTAs own environmental assessment of the tolling plan acknowledged that truck traffic and pollution could increase in parts of the Bronx, upper Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey, but argued that all would benefit from a regional decrease in traffic as drivers opted for public transit. The MTA has also repeatedly said New Jersey would be entitled to money toward pollution mitigations, but has not spelled out what those mitigations might be. The MTA has specifically earmarked money in the congestion tolling plan to fund an asthma center in the Bronx, as well as charging hubs for electric trucks and a renovation of the refrigeration system at the Hunts Point market, which is currently reliant on old diesel technology. Gordon also ruled on Monday that the Highway Administration should take the remand as an opportunity to explain why last months decision to phase in the toll at a lower initial rate does not have environmental effects, as well as to elaborate on its assessment of alternative plans since a remand is already in order on the issue of mitigation. Former President Jimmy Carters family issued a new statement on Thursday thanking everyone for the support in days after his death. Carter died Sunday at the age of 100 at his home in Plains, Ga. The outpouring of love and support we have received from around the world confirms what we have known all along Jimmy Carters family extends far beyond blood relatives. We are sincerely grateful for everyones words of comfort and acts of kindness following the passing of such a champion of human rights, justice, and peace, the Carter family said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SPECIAL SECTION: Remembering Jimmy Carter The Carter family, the nation and the world will say their goodbyes to the former president during events and funerals that will span about a week. Events begin Saturday, with the family traveling from Plains to Atlanta, where Carter will in repose at the Carter Presidential Center until Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, the late president and his family will travel to Washington, D.C., where Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol in the Rotunda through Thursday night. The public will be invited to pay their respects until 7 a.m. on Thursday. After the public viewing, a motorcade will carry Carter from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington National Cathedral where a state funeral will be held. The Carter family will then travel from Washington D.C. back to the Carter residence in Plains for a private interment. TRENDING STORIES: [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] New York socialite Jocelyn Wildensteins likely cause of death has been revealed by her longtime partner, after the 84-year-old Catwoman died earlier this week. Lloyd Klein, who was in a two-decade relationship with the Swiss native, told People that Wildenstein suffered from phlebitis, or the inflammation of a vein, prior to her death Tuesday in Paris. The condition, according to Healthline, can be caused by damage to the vein wall or by a blood clot blocking a vein. The latter is called thrombophlebitis, which the Mayo Clinic says often occurs in the legs. Superficial thrombophlebitis, which is more common, occurs near the surface of the skin. Deep vein thrombosis, also known as DVT, occurs within a muscle and can increase the risk of serious health issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because of her phlebitis, the legs were very, very swollen, and the blood was blocked, and there was no oxygen in the brain, Klein said, adding that Wildensteins grandmother also suffered from the condition. We were having a nap and when I wake up, I said, Jocelyn, we have to wake up, we have to get dressed, and she was cold and she was dead. Wildenstein, who was best known for her cat-like features due to extensive plastic surgery, had perfect health days earlier, according to Klein. He said they enjoyed dinner at the Ritz on Sunday. Before that, we had come for Fashion Week at Chanel. Everything was good, Klein said. Of losing Wildenstein just ahead of the new year, Klein said, Its extremely sad to lay down with your other half that I know for 21 years and waiting to celebrate New Years Eve and to find her cold. Klein previously said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that Wildenstein, who was once married to late billionaire Alec Wildenstein, died of a pulmonary embolism. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts echoed Donald Trump while hitting back at critics whove suggested that federal judges may have political biases. In his 2024 Year End report on the federal judiciary, published Tuesday, Roberts conflated violence and intimidation with genuine criticism of the courts decisions. He listed suggestions of political bias among doxxing and disinformation as some of the illegitimate activity that threatens independent judges. Public officials, too, regrettably have engaged in recent attempts to intimidate judgesfor example, suggesting political bias in the judges adverse rulings without a credible basis for such allegations, Roberts wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Within the past year we have also seen the need for state and federal bar associations to come to the defense of a federal district judge whose decisions in a high-profile case prompted an elected official to call for her impeachment, Roberts continued, likely referring to Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who tossed out the classified documents case against the president-elect last year. At every turn of that case, Cannon slowed proceedings, and ultimately defied precedent. Her shocking final decision resulted in the dissolution of charges against a political candidate who then reportedly put her on the short list for attorney general (he would later find even worse candidates). Attempts to intimidate judges for their rulings in cases are inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed, Roberts continued. Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others. Last year, Trump was so persistent in suggesting that New York state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw his hush-money trial, and his family were politically biased that he was landed with a hefty gag order. This, however, earned no mention from Roberts, but probably only because it had to do with a state case, not a federal one. No other reason. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robertss remarks echo those of Trump, who, impossibly, complained about publicly criticizing judges and has suggested it should be illegal to do so. They play the ref, they start screaming about The judge is no good, and This ones no good, and Theyre slow and Theyre lousy judges and The judge should be impeached, and all of this crap, when you have a brilliant judge thats doing the right thing, Trump ranted during an 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting in Concord, North Carolina, in October. I really believe its illegal what they do, and I know theres some great lawyers in there who are gonna look at it, because what they do is so obvious, what theyve done to the Supreme Court, even with the protection of their houses, youre not supposed to be allowed to march in front. They didnt stop it, he continued. Trump has also claimed that judges would often give a bad ruling in an attempt to silence critics, but unsurprisingly gave no evidence to support that claim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In any case, its difficult to imagine how Roberts, terrified of suggestions of political bias, will weather the coming four years under Trump, who intends to utilize the highest court in the land to make sweeping changes to the schema of rights and continue to deregulate the federal government. Trump will likely get away with everything he wantsin many such cases, he already has. Last year, Roberts found himself behind the steering wheel of the most conservative court in a century for the decision in Trumps presidential immunity case. The Supreme Courts ruling in that case single-handedly opened the door for Trumps return to the White House and cemented this courts conservative lean for decades to come. JOHNSON CITY, Texas (KXAN) Reserve Officer Johnny Zamora saw KXANs previous coverage on Johnson Citys search for a reserve officer force, applied, and got the gig. My tenure here just started, but Im really looking forward to the future, he said. The city put out the call for reserve officers over the summer. Pretty large population boom in the last couple of years. And its one of those things where even if we have excellent police coverage, its one of those things where theres almost never enough, said Mayor Stephanie Fisher, adding that there isnt currently funding for another full-time officer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reserve officers work a few shifts per month and on an as-needed basis, like if too many officers call in sick or if theres a big event in town. Zamora used to work at a law enforcement agency in Austin. After almost 20 years as a full-time police officer, I decided to take a different route and go into the private sector, he said. The role gives him a chance to step back into policing. Im big on community policing, so it could be something as simple as waving at someone as youre driving by, walking into a convenience store, getting to know the clerks on a first-name basis, he said. The reserve positions are volunteer roles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. After spending Thursday trying to sway Republican holdouts to back his bid to retain the speaker's gavel, Mike Johnson's future could still come down to a single GOP vote Friday when House holds elects a new leader as the 119th Congress begins. Behind the scenes, President-elect Donald Trump and his top advisers were working to strike a deal with one lawmaker in particular, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, sources told ABC News. Entering the Capitol on Friday, Johnson was asked if he'll get reelected in the first round of voting. "I think so," Johnson told ABC News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump on Friday doubled down on his support for Johnson, saying he's "very close to having 100% support." He again called for Johnson's victory, saying a win for Johnson will be a "big win for the Republican Party." Johnson does appear to have the support of the majority of his conference along with the endorsement of Trump. But there are at least 16 hardliners who won't commit to voting for Johnson and at least one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has said publicly he won't vote for Johnson. MORE: Trump endorses House Speaker Mike Johnson amid Republican infighting Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several members of the House Freedom Caucus, including those who won't commit to backing Johnson, were spotted entering the speaker's office on Thursday, including Republican Reps. Roy, Michael Cloud, Eli Crane, Ralph Norman, Victoria Spartz, Andy Harris, Andy Biggs, Scott Perry, Andrew Clyde and Andy Ogles. PHOTO: House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the media, following a meeting with fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 20, 2024. (Richard Pierrin/AFP via Getty Images) Spartz told ABC News that she will decide on Friday whether she will vote for Johnson. Most of the members leaving the 2 1/2-hour meeting dodged questions from reporters. The few who did talk said they thought they were making progress but none had committed to voting for Johnson. Norman did speak to reporters after the meeting, saying that he was happy with how the meeting went but that the group who convened with Johnson weren't yet committed to voting for him on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked if he was still far from voting for Johnson, Norman said, "No I wouldn't say that." "A day in politics is like a minute. It's always changing, we'll see. I was very happy with the discussions, we'll see," Norman added. "He's listening, Mike is listening, he's a good listener. Are we there yet on everything? No. But we will continue the discussions." MORE: Republicans raising questions about Johnson's reelection as House speaker Asked before the meeting if he and other Republicans are defying Trump by withholding support for Johnson, Norman defended their push for certain concessions from the speaker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We haven't done anything yet. We are discussing it. We are discussing it. Look, the vote will take place," Norman said. "You'll see how it comes out." "Trump's behind him. He does make a lot of difference. Donald Trump says he's his chosen speaker. So, we will see how that goes," Norman added. Roy placed his hand in front of his face when asked after the meeting if he had spoken with Trump about the speaker's vote. Cloud wouldn't answer questions, either, but said later in a post on X that he's still "working to help find a third option" as he thinks Johnson's speakership, or the "status quo," would "undoubtedly fail Trump's agenda" but that any delay in this process would also push back Trump's ability to enact it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson told ABC News the conversations on Thursday were "going well" and he believed the election on Friday is "going to go smoothly." "People are talking through process changes they want and those kinds of things. And I'm open to that. And I think tomorrow is going to go well," he said. Johnson is navigating the speakership battle with a historically narrow House majority. The resignation of former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz in December left the House with 434 members, 219 of whom are Republicans and 215 Democrats. That means if all members are present on Friday, Johnson could afford to lose only one Republican vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is also an all-out push from Trump's advisers to come to an agreement with Roy. The Texas congressman, who posted on X on Wednesday that he was undecided, has spoken to both Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, who are personally involved in striking a deal with Roy, sources told ABC News. In a call on New Year's Day, Trump praised Roy's work in the House but encouraged him to support Johnson, who was also on the call along with Vice President-elect JD Vance. The sources told ABC News that discussions with Roy include making him the chair of the Rules Committee, one of the most powerful committees in the House that can block any legislation from advancing to the House floor. Roy also has indicated privately that he wants a commitment to major cuts in government spending. PHOTO: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson welcomes President-elect Donald Trump onstage at a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) The House will gavel in at noon Friday to embark on the start of the 119th Congress, in which Republicans will have control of both the House and Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first order of business in the House is its constitutional obligation to elect its speaker, a process that has created high drama in recent years as Kevin McCarthy took 15 ballots to ultimately seize the gavel at the beginning of the 118th Congress. McCarthy later became the first lawmaker vacated from the speaker's office after a revolt by a handful of Republican hardliners led by Gaetz. Republicans then took three weeks to decide on a new leader and ultimately settled on Johnson as the 56th speaker of the House in October 2023. The House cannot conduct any business until a speaker is elected, such as certifying Trump's 2024 election victory -- a process set for Jan. 6. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson has expressed confidence that he will be successful, despite at times acknowledging the "numbers game" he faces. Asked about his message to undecided Republicans, Johnson replied: "We need to stay unified so we can save the country. And I think that's an important message." Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, an assistant Republican whip who backs Johnson's bid to remain speaker, said on CNN on Thursday she wouldn't be surprised if the vote goes to multiple rounds. "I don't know if he has the votes right now, but I do believe that he will have the votes," Malliotakis said. "And I'm not sure that it will be on the first round, but I do think by tomorrow we will have a speaker and that speaker will be Mike Johnson." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked what would it say about House Republicans if he were to lose on the first ballot, Johnson said he hopes to have the necessary votes. But if not, Johnson said, "That's the process of Congress with a small majority, that's what that says." Johnson's future as speaker in question despite efforts to sway undecided Republicans originally appeared on abcnews.go.com House Speaker Mike Johnson told Republicans they cannot afford a palace drama Thursday, as his speakership hangs in the balance of a razor-thin re-election vote that he admitted could come down to a one vote margin. During an appearance on Fox & Friends, Johnson conceded that his fate is controlled by a numbers game: the House of Representatives will vote Friday on the speakership and some GOP hardliners, including from the right-wing Freedom Caucus, have suggested they might vote to take the gavel out of his hands. The vote will mark the start of the new Congress, where Republicans will have the narrowest House majority in a century. Johnson acknowledged he can nary afford defections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well have a margin of probably two votes tomorrow during that so can only afford to lose one or two, but I think well get it done, he told the Fox News morning chat show. In a pitch to his fellow Republicans, he pleaded with them to skip protracted infighting in order to move more quickly on President-elect Donald Trumps MAGA agenda. We cannot afford any palace drama here, he said. We have got to get the Congress started, which begins tomorrow and we have to get immediately to work. We have to certify the election of Donald J. Trump on January 6, on Monday, and we have many important things pressing on us now. So theres no time to waste. To that end, Johnson won the complete and total endorsement of Trump, who made his preference known in a Monday post on Truth Social. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president-elect had previously left Johnson blowing in the wind, and the speakers standing in MAGA circles suffered turbulence just before the holidays due to headwinds blown by Trump pal Elon Musk. The MAGA billionaire tanked a bipartisan spending deal Johnson struck with Democrats to avoid a government shutdowna slimmed down agreement was later reached. But Trumps minions have rallied in recent days, looking to ward off a protracted parlor game and line up House support. Punchbowl News reported Thursday that Trumps inner circle is now promising retribution for Republicans who vote against the speaker and, by extension, the president-elects will. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president will take these attention-seeking antics by certain members as a personal slight one that he wont soon forgive or forget, a Trump insider told the news outlet. One prospective rebel, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), already backed a failed effort to oust Johnson last year and survived a primary challenge a month later. He has said he will not vote for Johnson on Friday and has remained withering in his denunciations of the Speaker. Even if he thinks hes going to be the guy who does what Trump wants him to dohes not that good at it, Massie told The Wall Street Journal of Johnson, adding that he lacked either the situational awareness or the bravery to tell the president-elect that his idea to suspend the nations borrowing limit for two yearswhich 38 Republicans voted againstwould suffer a damaging rejection last month. House representatives who remain on the fence about Johnson include Eric Burlison (R-MO), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Andy Harris (R-MD), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Scott Perry (R-PA), and Chip Roy (R-TX). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of the undecideds, Johnson told Fox & Friends hes been in communication with them and expressed confidence the vote will ultimately break in his favor. I think well get it done, Ive talked to every single one of those friends and colleagues over the holidays, he said. The reason theyre going to vote yes is were shifting into a new paradigm that begins tomorrow. We have the White House, the Senate and the House. Its a totally different situation than weve dealt with in the last fourteen months since Ive been Speaker. If Johnson is reelected, he also plans to bring forward a new rules package, unveiled Wednesday, that would make it harder to oust him by requiring the cosign of nine Republican lawmakers to introduce a motion on his control of the gavel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the rules, Democrats in the minority would have no power to force a vote on removing the Speaker. Its a very dark day for democracy in America if this is adopted, said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, in an interview with Axios. MADISON, Ala. (WHNT) The annual Jubilee Day Celebration is recognized in North Alabama. The celebration commemorates the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation into law by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. The signing freed slaves in the United States. Several new Alabama laws going into effect on Jan. 1 The Limestone County NAACP organized the day at New Hope Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Madison to share its meaning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres so much that people dont know about Jubilee Day and the history of Jubilee Day, Flossie Dawson, a member of the Limestone County NAACP. The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation gave black citizens in the United States the opportunity to marry, to seek a decent wage, education and the right to teach their own history. Theres an old adage if you dont remember your past you are doomed to repeat it, said Will Woodruff, President of the Limestone County NAACP. We encourage all of our citizens, especially the Limestone County citizens, to get involved with whats going on in your community. The Latest: Death toll in New Orleans crash rises to 15, coroner says Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens enjoyed a day of music, special recognitions, a history lesson and learned the importance of the continued plight for social justice and equality. We want to encourage people to learn their history so that you will never forget where your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents came from, Dawson explained. We want them to know what they had to endure in order for you to live the life that you are living today. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com. Affordable housing advocates celebrated the ruling and alleged the lawsuit was an attempt by towns to shirk their affordable housing responsibilities. (Courtesy of the Department of Community Affairs) A Superior Court judge declined to pause the implementation of an overhaul of New Jerseys affordable housing system passed last spring, roundly rejecting a challenge from towns that argued they would face harm if a law they claim is unconstitutional was allowed to take effect. Judge Robert Lougy on Thursday found the 26 towns that sued to invalidate the law failed to show they would be irreparably harmed by its enactment and did not demonstrate they were likely to succeed at trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The defendants alleged harms are outweighed by the benefit the law could create for the public writ large, he added. Affordable housing advocates celebrated Lougys ruling and alleged the lawsuit was an attempt by towns to shirk their affordable housing responsibilities. This lawsuit is a thinly veiled political statement attempting to revisit arguments that failed in the legislative process, said Adam Gordon, executive director of the Fair Share Housing Center, which intervened in the case to defend the law. The towns said they would appeal Lougys decision and expand its suit to include a challenge to guidance issued by state court officials that require municipalities affordable housing plans to be reviewed by the Fair Share Housing Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No one court decision will affect our resolve to continue litigating this matter as far as necessary to protect our communities from forced urbanization, Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali said in a statement. The law in question amended the 1985 Fair Housing Act to implement the Mount Laurel doctrine constitutional case law that requires municipalities to provide real opportunities for the creation of affordable housing within their borders and move administration of the states affordable housing system mostly out of the courts purview. The law, which ended the defunct Council on Affordable Housing, requires New Jersey municipalities to file resolutions adopting their affordable housing obligations by Jan. 31, and they must submit affordable housing plans to the state by June 30. It grants towns that meet those deadlines immunity from exclusionary zoning lawsuits that could force development without approval from local governing bodies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its provisions do not require municipalities to participate in the affordable housing program. They could steer clear, Lougy noted, but would then be required to take on the costs of defending against exclusionary zoning suits. The plaintiffs argued that the loss of immunity, legal exposure, and possible loss of planning control effectively requires they participate in the system created by the law, but Lougy disagreed, finding towns that eschew it would be no worse off than they would have been before the laws enactment. Municipalities that decline to participate in or fail to comply with the Acts processes and deadlines are no worse than if the political branches had done nothing, he wrote, later adding, In other words, the consequences flow not from the legislation but from the continuing constitutional command of Mount Laurel. He further found the municipalities lack standing to challenge the law on equal protection grounds central to their claim. They argued a provision that exempts roughly 60 towns called qualified urban aid municipalities from certain future affordable housing obligations is unconstitutional. The economic and demographic conditions that spurred the exemptions creation roughly four decades ago no longer exist, the towns argued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though the list of urban aid municipalities is composed largely of urban centers with relatively low median incomes like Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick, some more affluent towns like Montclair are kept on the list due to language in the state budget. Lougy further found the towns failed to show they are likely to prevail on claims that the laws creation of a court-administered affordable housing dispute resolution program violates the separation of powers by vesting the judiciary with powers that ought to be left with the executive branch. The Constitution does not forbid the Legislature from assigning certain functions to the Judiciary when doing so does not impair the essential integrity of the Executive or Judicial branches of government, he wrote. The case continues despite Lougys decision against pausing the law. The court is due to hear oral arguments on motions to dismiss filed by the state and the Fair Share Housing Center on Jan. 31. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A federal judge in New Jersey sentenced Chaim Eli Puretz to 24 months in prison for his role in a multi-million mortgage fraud scheme. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kirsch cited that Puretz should be treated very differently from his co-conspirator father, and called the younger Puretz a novice swimming in a sharks pool. The judge also considered what Puretzs attorney described as a childhood marked by neglect and abuse, and that he struggled with several unaddressed mental health issues, including obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, depression and a learning disability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sentence was short of the maximum sentence of five years in prison. The judge also permitted Puretz to surrender on or before July 1, to give him time to help his family. Kirsch said he didnt consider Puretz to be a flight risk. Puretz must also pay $20 million in restitution, though he is not solely responsible for that amount. Ahead of the sentencing, Puretz read a prepared speech, his voice breaking with emotion at times. Ive committed an egregious criminal act, he said. I look in the mirror and I dont recognize who I am today. He expressed regret about bringing shame to his family, including his two children and wife. The couple also have a baby due in May. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Puretz pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, connected to a 2020 deal for an office building outside Detroit. Puretz, his father Aron Puretz and Boruch Drillman purchased Troy Technology Park, an office complex in Troy, Michigan, for $42.7 million in 2020. The trio, however, provided the lender with a bogus price of $70 million, which was used to obtain a larger loan of $45 million. A Lakewood, New Jersey-based title insurer, Riverside Abstract, handled closings for both the real price of the property and the inflated one. The case was part of a broadening crackdown against commercial mortgage fraud by the Department of Justice and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This month Kirsch sentenced Aron Puretz to five years in prison, citing what he called a lack of full candor, cooperation, contriteness, and remorse. He was also ordered to pay $22 million in restitution to his lenders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He plans to appeal the ruling. During Thursdays sentencing, the judge summarized letters written in support of Eli Puretz, which described Aron Puretz as cold, rigid and dictatorial and prone to slapping his sons or locking his daughters in closets as punishment. Kirsch said Eli was viewed as the black sheep of the family, the eldest of seven children whose relationship with his father was strained as he struggled to excel in school. An attorney for Aron denied the allegations on his clients behalf, and referred to him and his wife as loving, caring and devoted parents. Elis attorney, Sarah Krissoff, said he struggled with untreated and unrecognized mental health challenges and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which affected his schoolwork. When he was 13, Eli was sent to an out-of-state boarding school in the dead of the night. He was later expelled and sent to another school. Both the judge and Krissoff described the boarding school experience as traumatic. Im not a family court judge. Im not a therapist. What cant be refuted was the trauma that was inflicted, Kirsch said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors originally sought a 60-month sentence, but the sentencing range was downgraded, in part, due to Eli Puretzs lack of a criminal record, his acceptance of responsibility and his willingness to provide financial information to the court. Given the reduced range, trial attorney Siji Moore asked the judge to impose 46 months, and reminded the judge that many defendants face personal hardships but are held accountable for their actions. The judge agreed that the case involved significant fraud and said he was not exonerating Puretz. He said his ruling should deter others from thinking they can get away with similar acts of greed at the expense of others. Kirsch also noted that in every other case hes ever overseen involving a parent and a child, this is the first where a parent has not taken any responsibility for their role in their childs criminal activity. In an unusual move for someone awaiting sentencing on criminal charges, the younger Puretz spoke publicly about his case on Halacha Headlines, a podcast hosted by Lightstone Groups David Lichtenstein. Puretz told Lichtenstein in November that he was almost relieved that he was charged in the Michigan deal, that the experience has changed him for the better. If not for this, I probably would have found myself doing a lot worse, he said on the podcast. Im sure that the consequences after would have been a whole lot worse as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, Kirsch commended Puretz for speaking out and warning others to avoid his mistakes. The judge repeatedly returned to the idea of Puretzs upbringing as part of the Lakewood-based Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood. He said the community had much to be lauded for, springing into action to help others facing poverty or other forms of distress. But he said that while the community was close-knit, it was also insular and did not intercede when it saw a young Puretz floundering. Dirty laundry is not shared, he said. What happens in one familys household is that familys business. Before the sentencing, a dozen family members and friends gathered in a lobby outside the courtroom, some praying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens showed up for the sentencing, filling the courtrooms 14 benches. Puretzs wife could be seen crying in the front row throughout the hearing, as two women on each side of her embraced her, and another seated behind her gently rubbed her back. Puretz would occasionally look back to his wife with a pained look. After the sentencing, one person in the crowd turned to another and said the term was better than expected. Puretz embraced attendees as they left, smiling at some. He declined to speak to TRD about his sentence. He did, however, confirm that he has cut ties with his father. Read more This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. BALTIMORE -- Laura Hutton has taken in everyone from a baby born weighing a pound and a half to a pregnant teenager, children whose needs ranged from feeding tubes to mental health therapy. With a background as a special education teacher, Hutton, 55, has become something of a go-to foster parent for children whose medical, emotional or behavioral issues can sometimes make them hard to place after theyve been removed from their own homes. It kind of just evolved, said Hutton, who teaches at Harford Community College. We didnt go into this thinking wed do it for 24 years. Its just one child at a time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Foster parents like Hutton and her husband Mark, 56, who can accommodate children with extra challenges can be in short supply, say those who work in the field. When you have kids with intensive needs, that requires a lot of time, said Rob Basler, associate vice president with Arrow Child & Family Ministries, among the groups licensed by the state to place youth with more complex medical and behavioral issues. Thats really challenging if all the parents in the home are working. Arrow recently launched an effort to attract more families to provide whats called treatment foster care, a higher level of caregiving for youth with more complicated needs. Through its Enhanced Treatment Foster Care program, Arrow will provide additional training and support, in-home sessions and on-call assistance, and the foster parents will receive a higher stipend of $5,193 a month, compared to the $2,013 that treatment foster care parents get. Across the country, recruiting enough foster parents for children who have been removed from their own homes for reasons of abuse, neglect or any number of family crises became more difficult during the COVID pandemic years, according to those in the child services field. Taking in a non-related child at a time when businesses and schools were shutting down to prevent the diseases spread became an even bigger ask than before, they said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think the pandemic drove part of it, Basler said. We saw a drop-off in new families coming in. During the pandemic it was harder and more challenging. Basler said hes seen the number of interested families recovering in the last year and a half, and the return of some who had stopped taking in children during the pandemic. According to a nationwide comparison, the number of licensed foster homes in Maryland dropped from 3,267 in 2021 to 1,462 in 2023. The number of youth in foster care also dropped, the comparison showed, from 4,679 in 2022 to 4,340 the following year. Currently, the state has about 3,600 children in foster care, according to Lillian Price, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Human Services. Maryland has 1,027 licensed foster homes, with a total of 2,630 approved beds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are other placements for foster children, such as group homes, she said. And, in recent years, the department has sought to built a kin first culture, in which children removed from their homes are ideally placed with families or close friends, and in a foster home only if no kin is available, Price said. We always need more families to help children of all ages across Maryland, she said. While we have beds available, our focus is finding the right mix of families who are willing and able to care for children with complex medical or behavioral health needs. As elsewhere in the country, sometimes foster youth with the greatest challenges end up living in hotels with a caregiver, sleeping in social service office buildings or languishing in hospital emergency rooms waiting for a more appropriate placement to open up. Its just been a struggle to ask people to open up their homes to a foster child, said Steve Acerno, director of family and children supports for The Arc Northern Chesapeake Region. Theres just not enough homes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Acerno, whose group is among those in the recruit, train and support children and parents in the system, said there are a lot of misconceptions about fostering that can hamper recruiting. The biggest misconception, he and others in the field say, is that foster children are bad kids who have committed crimes and are under the supervision of Department of Juvenile Services or DJS. A lot of it is fear of the unknown, Acerno said. We try to break down misconceptions that kids in foster care are bad kids. I think some people equate foster care with DJS. Carl Price, now 51, was one of those foster kids growing up in Baltimore. Not only was he 14 years old when he was taken from his home because of neglect and already more difficult to place than a younger child, he said, he was also diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Being a teenager especially with a medical situation is difficult for placements, he said. Cancer treatments can lead to a lot of doctor appointments. It was overwhelming at times, he said, shuffling through one group home and then four foster homes, even as he dealt with exhausting chemotherapy and radiation treatments and rejection of those who were supposed to care for him. One of the parents stated it was too much for them for me to be in their home, he said. Eventually, a principal of one of his schools took him in, and he went on to college and a stint in the Navy. He now is married, has a daughter in college and works as an infrastructure specialist in Virginia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he tries to serve as a voice for foster children, and an example that not everything has to be doom and gloom for those whose childhoods may have involved trauma and displacement. They just need a home, he said. They just need hope. He volunteers with Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, which represents foster children and helps them access services. Laura Edwards, executive director of CASA of Maryland, said there needs to be a broader awareness campaign because many arent aware of the need for more foster parents or think its something they wouldnt be qualified to do or that their houses wouldnt pass inspection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are resources in the community, said Edwards, herself a former foster parent, such as respite care to give overwhelmed foster parents a break. Laura Hutton said shes been grateful for the support from her agency, The Arc, and groups that will send over a meal or gifts for children to ease the adjustment when she has a new placement. She and her husband, both of whom work full time, have taken advantage of respite care, sometimes just to catch up on sleep. There are any number of ways you can be part of the village, Hutton said. Having grown up the daughter of a man who himself had been adopted as a boy, she knew she always wanted to adopt children as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I just grew up knowing some children for whatever reason didnt have a home, Hutton said. Luckily, when she told her high school sweetheart this, he was from a big family himself and on board with her dream. They married, had three biological children, became foster parents and adopted five kids. Over 24 years with occasional breaks Hutton thinks she and Mark have cared for more than 20 foster children. Some were reunited with their families, some stayed and were adopted. The Huttons, who live in a big Victorian house in Havre de Grace, stay in touch with some, or at least hear updates about them through the Harford County grapevine. Theres one who has been accepted to attend college at Johns Hopkins, another who has a masters degree. Those are the kinds of stories that are gratifying, she said. Theyve been able to make a life for themselves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hutton, who currently has two foster children, said she hopes there will continue to be support, from greater government funding to community volunteers, for the child services system. She said caseworkers can be overburdened, and sometimes there are long waits to access things like therapy for foster children. It is hard work, Hutton said. But its a way to help your community. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Advocates are wondering whats next after a set of bills that would have given sexual assault survivors in Michigan more time to come forward failed to pass the legislature before the end of the year. The Justice for Survivors package, SB 1187 through 1192, would have extended the civil statute of limitations for sexual assault survivors, giving them more time to report after processing what happened. The current statute of limitations for child sexual abuse survivors to bring civil action goes until their 28th birthday, or three years after realizing they were a victim of criminal sexual conduct. The bills would have extended it up to 10 years after the incident, seven years after a survivor realizes they were the victim of a crime or their 52nd birthday, whichever comes latest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why survivors of sexual assault may take time to report For so many survivors, coming to terms with whats happened and being in a position to tell their story and to finally seek justice from a position of healing is so important, said Charisse Mitchell, the CEO of YWCA West Central Michigan, which supports domestic violence and sexual abuse survivors. This package of bills really allowed that time and space for survivors to get to that space, she added. The trauma of sexual abuse, particularly people who have suffered abuse as children, really sometimes doesnt come to light and really doesnt get to a place of understanding until youre an adult when youve had an opportunity to seek therapy. Mitchell said sexual assault survivors relived their trauma as they shared their stories in front of state lawmakers in hopes of getting the bills passed. The bills passed the Senate in a bipartisan vote on Dec. 13. But because of legislative gridlock and stagnation in the weeks that followed during the lame-duck session, the bills never got a vote in the House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fact we missed that opportunity and may have to start this process all over again and tell survivors, Tell us your story one more time, relive that trauma one more time, they shouldnt have to do that, she said. Mitchell said these bills were critical for survivors in their healing journeys, and shes wondering why politics got in the way. Former Boy Scout: Michigan law is keeping abuse victims from full payouts Its just unfortunate we find ourselves in that 11th hour where the stakes are so high for survivors that their lives, their health and wellbeing got caught up in a legislative process, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation would have also opened up a one-year window for survivors to sue for damages even if the statute of limitations had closed. It would have also eliminated the civil statute of limitations entirely when theres a criminal conviction. When youve come to terms with it, when you understand whats happened to you and when youre in a position to actually understand and seek justice, you want to have a justice system, a community system, that allows and participates in that healing for you, Mitchell said. With divided government back in Lansing in 2025, the future for the legislation is unclear. But because it had bipartisan support, Mitchell remains hopeful. 2025 should be the year we finally say all of your hard work, all of your suffering, all of the narrative that you have shared were not in vain, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) State law didnt require a real estate agent who handled the transaction to disclose to the new buyers any existing damages on the commercial portion of a Lawrence County campground they were purchasing, according to the South Dakota Supreme Court. In a decision publicly released on Thursday, the states high court said however that South Dakota law does require the agent to disclose damages on the residential portion of the property. Consequently, the Supreme Court overruled Circuit Judge Jeffrey Connolly on the residential portion of his dismissal and returned it for further action. That was a partial victory for Duane and Melody Remington, who had purchased Wild Bills Campground near Galena in 2017 from Keith Grimm, who had been listing if for sale since 2008 with the assistance of real estate agent Bryan Iverson, a friend of Grimms brother. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Iverson served as a dual agent in the transaction, meaning he represented both Grimm and the Remingtons. The two sides agreed on a purchase price of $899,000 to be paid under the terms of a contract for deed. The agreement and the contract for deed described the property condition as is and the Remingtons didnt complete any inspections of the property and didnt ask to review the campgrounds financial information before executing the deed. After the purchase, the Remingtons began to notice water penetration in the main building and mold growing, so they closed the bar and restaurant. They also discovered the restaurants deck protruded 1.5 feet into an adjacent right-of-way in violation of federal regulations, and which Grimm had been notified to remove in 2016 by the state Department of Transportation. The local fire marshal also began sending letters that the campgrounds fire pits didnt meet county code. The Remingtons also questioned representations about two bridges in the campground and about the campgrounds financial condition. In January 2018, they filed a half-dozen complaints against Iverson, Grimm and Grimms limited liability company. Judge Connolly eventually dismissed the complaints against Iverson, and the Remingtons appealed after agreeing to dismiss their claims against Grimm. The Supreme Court found that South Dakota law doesnt require the seller to disclose damage on commercial property but does on residential property. What hadnt previously been settled was how those two laws applied to property that was both commercial and residential. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Justice Mark Salter wrote the Supreme Courts unanimous decision. While there may be instances where it is difficult to distinguish residential portions of property from its other aspects, we need only apply the correct rules to decide the case before us. And the undisputed material facts establish that the Campgrounds living quarters constituted a single dwelling unit. The living quarters included bedrooms, bathrooms, a living room, and kitchen. The rest of the Campground, however, is much different; the other features and facilities are related to the Campgrounds commercial purpose, and none of the parties argue they constitute a family dwelling unit. As a result, the disclosure form would only apply to the defects associated with the living quarters, which, in this case, means that the water penetration and mold issues should have been disclosed, Justice Salter stated. The Supreme Court ordered that the circuit court reconsider the residential portion of the Remingtons claims. As to the non-residential aspects of the campground, Justice Salter wrote that the Supreme Court agreed with the circuit judge that a sellers disclosure statement was not required. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But, Justice Salter added, the existence and extent of this statutory disclosure obligation was not clear until our decision here, and a remand is necessary to determine whether Iverson breached his duty to the Remingtons under the particular facts of this case. He continued, We affirm the circuit courts grant of summary judgment on the claims of Iversons direct liability. Iverson cannot be liable for his failure to personally disclose alleged material defects relating to the property because the Remingtons have failed to establish that a genuine disputed material fact exists as to Iversons knowledge of the alleged defects. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. Jan. 1A 37-year-old Kalispell woman died in crash early New Year's Day near Creston after another vehicle crossed the center line and struck her vehicle head on, authorities report. The collision occurred on Montana 35 near mile marker 43 at about 1:26 a.m., according to a Montana Highway Patrol report issued Wednesday evening. A 30-year-old Kalispell woman was driving a Subaru Forester westbound on Montana 35 when she crossed into the eastbound lane of traffic and hit the 37-year-old's Kia Rio in the front left corner. The collision caused the Kia to spin and roll onto the driver's side. The Kia driver died at the scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Subaru driver was taken to Logan Health Medical Center with injuries. She was investigated for DUI, according to the report. Speed is suspected as a factor in the crash. Road conditions were listed as dry. Both drivers were wearing seat belts. There were no other occupants in either vehicle. After a politically charged year, it's no surprise that Ohioans searched for ways to express their views. Some of them turned to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. F47 LGB, FK KAMLA and EADMUSK were among 971 proposed license plates the Ohio BMV rejected in 2024, according to a list obtained by this newspaper's statehouse bureau. The agency bans plates that are profane, sexually explicit, refer to excrement, advocate lawlessness or could provoke a violent response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A committee of seven people meets daily throughout the year to review vanity plate requests, according to a BMV spokesperson. The committee sends its recommendations to the registrar's office and other staff for final approval or denial. But the process itself has become political. An Ohio man sued the BMV last year for rejecting his plate of choice F46 LGB and contends the agency's rules are unconstitutional. The plate was a reference to President Joe Biden, the 46th president, and the slogan "Let's Go Brandon." The lawsuit is ongoing. What license plates got rejected in 2024? Last year's rejections displayed plenty of hostility, such as FKMYEX, AH SOLE and G3T BENT. One person was offended enough by the state of New Jersey to try getting FU NJ on their plate. Variations on a common refrain EF CNCER returned in 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ohio also gut burned a couple times with NUKE OH and IH8OH1O. There were people in a hurry IM FNL8, QUK AZ FK, MOO BTCH and plenty of references to bodily functions. Some required an Urban Dictionary translation, but others left little to the imagination such as DOG TURD and HEROIN. You can view the full list below. Haley BeMiller covers state government and politics for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio rejected license plates in 2024 knock Kamala Harris, Elon Musk TOPEKA (KSNT) Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is celebrating the end of the states tax on groceries this week which is estimated to save taxpayers millions of dollars. The Office of the Governor issued a press release on Jan. 2 regarding the end of Kansas sales tax on some food items. The tax was gradually reduced from its original 6.5% number in 2022 down to 0% as of Jan. 1, 2025. The complete elimination of the state sales tax on food is a win for Kansas, Kelly said. By axing the food tax once and for all, the average family of four will save $500 per year on groceries. Im proud that weve put more money back into Kansans pockets thanks to this commonsense legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kelly approved a bill in 2022 to bring the state sales tax rate down under the political slogan Axe the Food Tax. Her office estimates that Kansans will save around $156 million due to the reduction in taxes from 2% in 2024 to 0% in 2025. Misconduct reports prompt calls for change at Haskell Indian Nations University Kansas 6.5% state sales tax applied to food, food ingredients and some prepared food items. Shoppers now can expect to see two tax rates on receipts: one for qualifying purchases and another for all other items. For more Capitol Bureau news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. Kansas CITY, Kan. The Kansas City Kansas Police Department had a record-low number of 22 homicides in 2024. KCK police say that resulted in a 23% decrease in violent crime compared to the year before. When you talk about those numbers, historic lows in violent crime, that is really a good indicator that there is a positive relationship with the community here in Kansas City, Kansas, said KCK Mayor Tyrone Garner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The historic low of 22 homicides is a figure that has only been recorded two other times in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1986 and 2012. What that signifies is the great partnership that our public safety professionals have with our community, and you need that, especially when youre talking about community policing because our public safety professionals are only as good as the information and the support that they get from the community, Garner continued. KCKPD has several initiatives in place to combat and prevent crime, including bi-monthly shoot review meetings where all homicides and non-fatal shootings are discussed. Risk for retaliation assessments are also regularly conducted. In 2024, the police department also opened its Real-Time Intelligence and Crime Center, which gives patrol officers and detectives access to technology that provides instant information to help identify crime patterns and stop crime in real time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So I just want to say thank you to the public safety professionals of the Kansas City Kansas Police Department, the Wyandotte County Sheriffs Department, and our DA for working together with other stakeholders at the state and the federal level to keep this community safe, Garner explained. We have really good public safety professionals here, and I dont want that to get lost in any other conversations. So thank you for your service. We appreciate it, and so many people value it, Garner said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Jolene Davis and her adult son walk in downtown Kansas City. The family has just left a Jackson County courtroom where the son agreed that his mental health issues are substantial enough that she will take over his guardianship (Mary Sanchez for The Independent). The 30-year-old son of Jolene Davis ambles out of the courtroom ahead of her. Hes carrying a backpack containing his clothes and a plastic grocery bag with a blanket. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why you crying? he asks her. Happy tears, she reassures. Her son appeared before a Jackson County Circuit Court judge and agreed his mother should be his guardian. Hes diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, uses meth and other drugs, and has been living in abandoned buildings and alleys in Kansas City for about four years. I would trade places with him if I could, Davis said, standing outside the courthouse in downtown Kansas City. I want him to have a good life but there is a lot of work still to do. Her son admitted using meth a few days prior to the Dec. 17 court hearing and slept on a sidewalk outside a Kansas City shelter the night before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Being houseless is not a crime. But people who are sometimes end up charged under city ordinances for drug possession, theft or property damage. Davis is hopeful that sweeping changes planned for Kansas Citys Municipal Court system can help her, her son and others with co-occurring issues substance use and a mental health disorder. In January, a Wellness Court will open within the Municipal Court, replacing the now separate mental health and drug courts. The two courts had been serving the same populations, but inefficiently, said Presiding Judge Courtney A. Wachal, who will oversee the Wellness Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If youre houseless, you will probably be put in inpatient treatment, Wachal said. And then we will work on your houselessness issue while youre in there. It kind of gives us, like a 30-day cushion to kind of start working on those resources. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The mental and drug courts were part of the specialty or problem-solving courts, portions of the municipal system allowing for voluntary court-supervised programming and treatment, rather than punishment for low level offenses, such as the theft charge that Daviss son once faced. Previously, Municipal Court staff grappled with a chicken and egg scenario. They tried to determine which was primary to jailable charges, a persons mental health issue or their addiction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But accurate assessments are difficult, Wachal said, until a person is stabilized and maintaining sobriety. For example, a person charged with a municipal offense could be initially assigned to the Mental Health Court, but then test positive for fentanyl and be reassigned to the Drug Court. Under the Wellness Court, staff and supporting agencies will be at the same table in meetings, discussing a persons needs. I think it is going to shorten wait lists, put people in available beds and then just make it more transparent about what everybody is doing for the participant, Wachal said. Combining the courts allows for expanded use of funds from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for housing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No longer will a person need a qualifying diagnosis to participate, like depression, bipolar, schizophrenia or PTSD. Were trying to serve everybody, Wachal said. It doesnt matter what your diagnosis is. You could come into Wellness Court. A Womens Court as a track within the Wellness Court will be established in March, overseen by Judge Shayla Marshall. It will be funded by a U.S. Department of Justice grant of $656,925 and will use trauma-informed approaches for people victimized by trafficking or sexual assault. People who have gone through that type of trauma dont typically disclose right away, Wachal said. So its going to be hard for us to identify who should be in that court until we get to know them and build a trust relationship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Houseless Court, potentially able to meet defendants in the community, is also anticipated. Memos of understanding are being signed with major community partners funded by the taxpayer-supported Community Mental Health Fund, whose board agreed to the changes last summer. The levy funded organizations are University Health, Comprehensive Mental Health Services, ReDiscover and Swope Health. Beacon Mental Health, serving Ray, Platte and Clay counties, will also be involved. The new system is a big step in the right direction, said Bruce Eddy, executive director of the more than 40-year-old Jackson County mental health fund, which pays for case management. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eddy praised the decision to make the programming a one-year commitment. If they abide by the courts requirements, then theyll be well-established in treatment and its the judges role to look at dropping the charges, he said. Let us know what you think... The first full team meeting will be January 9, bringing together more than 30 organizations that will likely be involved. Josh Henges, Kansas Citys Houseless Prevention Coordinator, called the changes transformative. When the court system becomes a conduit for support, whether its mental health care, substance use treatment, or housing assistance, its one of the most powerful tools a community can have, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The term wellness court can be found in other cities, but those programs tend to address mental health alone, or are tribal courts. Kansas Citys approach will uniquely focus on co-occurring issues. About 21.5 million U.S. adults have a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder, according to SAMHSAs 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Researchers estimate that about half of the people who experience a substance use disorder will also have a mental health disorder, and vice versa, according to an executive summary for the Wellness and Womens courts. Yet only about 10% of people with co-occurring disorders receive treatment for both conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And women with co-occurring disorders are almost 20 times more likely to be arrested each year than women without a mental health or substance use disorder, the summary said. Carly Mitchell moderated a November panel session where Wachal and two other judges discussed the upcoming changes during Kansas Citys Urban Summit. As a clinical mental health counselor, shes hopeful, but mindful that African Americans often arent treated equally in health or legal systems. We are a population that is either overdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, and its very stigmatized, she said. Often, Mitchell said, Black people are recognized as having a drug problem. But the underlying mental health issue goes undiagnosed and isnt treated. A lot of people use (drugs) to cope, she said. The Wellness Court seeks to be mindful of such disparities. It will have two tiers, as a way of being more responsive and flexible to individual needs. Electives to help solidify health lifestyles will also be offered, a bit like what is required for college completion. Participants can attend church, go to the gym, do yoga, take a meditation course or a smoking cessation class to complete an elective. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Doug Langner, executive director of Hope Faith, a Kansas City shelter for homeless and impoverished people, said many people can and do stabilize their lives, with a bit of assistance. He sees the court changes as a positive step. Oftentimes, people self-medicate through substance abuse, especially the longer theyre on the streets, Langner said. Daviss son knows Hope Faith well. He planned to spend the night there the day he left court. Hope Faith is just one of many organizations listed on the spreadsheet Davis maintains, chronicling her sons life during the last decade. I think the drugs have kind of just been like a pacifier for him, she said. Its like, this is how Im going to cope with whatevers going on inside of my mind and my life. The timeline of his descent into substance abuse is a heart wrenching illustration of the many shelters, sober living spaces and social service agencies that have touched his life. His mother also notes the bad company that he sometimes meets, people who urged him to quit his fast food and other jobs, give him drugs, and those who threaten him with violence. After the guardianship court hearing she explained the new approaches underway for the Municipal Court system to her son, stressing that Wellness Court is designed for people like him. You could be happier if you are not in this lifestyle, she told him. This is just no way to live. Moms going to help you. KANSAS (KSNT) Sometimes murder cases result in convictions despite a body never being found. In a case dating back to the 1800s, a man was executed by hanging but the victim was allegedly found later alive in Kansas. Special Agent Michael Yoder with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports in a 2016 article that when a case doesnt have a body prosecutors must establish several things: That the victim died. That the person was murdered. The approximate time of death. That the likely location of the crime is within the prosecutors jurisdiction. The person responsible for the murder. Investigators look for disruptions in a persons daily routine when someone goes missing. An abrupt, unexpected disappearance when individuals leave behind people they love, valuable items, beloved pets, important electronic devices, secure shelter, clothing and money can indicate something is wrong. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Historic Gem Building for sale at $650,000 in Topeka If investigators suspect foul play, a two-part investigation begins with the second part being the active recovery of the missing person, according to the FBI. However, many missing individuals are located within days of being reported missing. About 1,700 Americans reported missing each day, with around 70% of those reported missing being found or returned within 48 to 72 hours, according to Yoders article. The FBI noted that becoming a voluntarily missing person isnt a crime and any adult can choose to walk away from family, friends, associates and employers. In a historic example of a no-body homicide case, Charles Hudspeth was tried twice for the murder of Rebecca Watkins husband. Hudspeth was found guilty of murder twice and executed by hanging on Dec. 30, 1892, in Arkansas. Later, in June 1893, Hudspeths lawyer reportedly located the alleged victim, George Watkins, alive and well in Kansas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Five people taken to the hospital after Jackson Co. crash Former Federal Homicide Prosecutor Thomas A. (Tad) Dibiase prosecuted hundreds of murder cases over his career and found an interest in no-body murder cases after a murder case he prosecuted in 2006 in D.C. Since then, Dibiase has built a record of no-body murder trials, including several with ties to Kansas. 27 News contacted Dibiase who said hes used many methods to track no-body murder cases including working as a consultant, being sent cases by police and prosecutors, through court cases and Google alerts. According to Dibiases findings, the following no-body cases had Kansas involvement: Suspect Victim Trial Date Location Result Brinkley, Sherrell Gary Everett Bishop June 1992 Kansas City, Kansas The defendant and victim were prisoner inmates together who, upon release, began to commit crimes together. The defendant allegedly killed the victim and put his body in a 55-gallon drum and dumped it into the Missouri River. Richard Grissom Joan Butler, Christine Rusch, Theresa Brown 1990 Johnson County, Kansas Convicted for a June 1989 triple murder. Brandon Howell Tabitha Brewer, 16-years-old 2009 Kansas City, Kansas The victim disappeared in April. The victims purse was found burned in a dumpster. The defendant was acquitted of both murders and later charged in 2014 with three other murders Hudspeth, Andrew aka Charles Hudspeth George Watkins, husband of Hudspeths lover Approximately 1886 Arkansas Charles Hudspeth was tried twice for the murder of his lovers husband and found guilty both times. The lover testified against him and the defendant was executed by hanging on Dec. 30, 1892. The alleged victim was later reported to be found alive in Kansas. There is considerable doubt about whether the victim was really found alive or not. Pyle, Michael Duane Golda Millar, grandmother 1972 (approx.) Kiowa County Convicted of an April 5, 1971 murder and given a life sentence. The case is believed to be the first Kansas no body case. Stott, Samuel Esta Stott, wife/Frank Murphy 1944 x 2 Steuben County, NY The defendant allegedly killed his wife and her lover in 1925 and then fled to Kansas City for 13 years before he was caught. He was eventually convicted of assault and larceny because NY did not permit murder charges without a body after two trials. Trussell, Jerry Franklin Harrod, aka Punky Oct., 2006/ June 2007 El Dorado The Defendant was convicted at the second trial of first-degree murder for the July 29, 1997, murder love triangle where the victims wife wanted her husband killed. The first trial ended in a hung jury despite the testimony of the victim and the defendants wife against the defendant. For more crime news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. TOPEKA (KSNT) The State of Kansas collected 6.3% more taxes than estimated in 2024. The State of Kansas collected $66.7 million more than expected in 2024, according to a press release from the Office of the Governor. The total tax collections were up 8.1% from December 2023. As Ive highlighted before, even though our states revenues are healthy, we must practice fiscal responsibility, Governor Laura Kelly said. That is how we will continue to maintain economic growth and preserve our fiscal stability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both individual income tax collections and corporate tax collections exceeded expectations. Individual tax collections were $31.5 million or 7.5% above the estimate while corporate tax collections were $45.4 million or 19.7% higher than the last reporting period. Kansas no-body murder cases According to the final report made in December 2024, the biggest loss of tax collections came from retail sales and compensating use taxes. According to the General Fund receipts, the State of Kansas collected $48.7 million less from the sales & use taxes from the year prior. For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. Prosecutors in the high-profile Karen Read murder case want testimony from a defense expert on Jennifer McCabes Google searches excluded from the Mansfield womans second trial, according to a new court filing. A motion filed by prosecutors in Dedhams Norfolk Superior Court on New Years Eve seeks to exclude testimony from Richard Green, a digital forensics expert hired by Reads defense team to analyze cellphones that belonged to Read, her Boston police officer boyfriend John OKeefe, and McCabe. During Reads first trial, which ended with a hung jury in July 2024, Green testified that McCabes phone googled how long ti die in cikd or hos long to die in cold at 2:27 a.m. and that a search of her phone indicated user deletions of data. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McCabe previously testified that Read asked her to make the Google search after they found OKeefe dead in the snow outside of 34 Fairview Road in Canton. Jennifer McCabe searches The Commonwealth wants Greens testimony excluded from the retrial, which Judge Beverly Cannone agreed to delay until April 2025. Exclusion is appropriate because both claims lack any evidentiary support, and the claims cannot be made in good faith. Allowing introduction of baseless claims without any scientific, forensic, or factual support would be misleading to the jury and disruptive to the interest of justice, the motion stated. The motion also argued that Green was broad and vague about his training, experience, and lack of digital forensics certifications during cross-examination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John OKeefe with her Lexus SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die after a night of drinking. McCabes sister, Nicole Albert and her husband, fellow Boston police officer Brian Albert, owned the Fairview Road home and she was said to be inside when prosecutors allege Read struck OKeefe. Jennifer McCabe The defense has sought to portray Read as the victim, saying OKeefe was actually killed inside the Albert family home and then dragged outside and left for dead. They have also long suggested that McCabe was part of that coverup. The prosecution has also asked Cannone to block Reads dog expert, Dr. Marie Russell, from testifying at her second trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russell previously testified that the holes found in OKeefes hoodie and the wounds to his arm were from a dog. Reads lawyers have been fighting to dismiss her second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly crash charge for double jeopardy reasons after multiple jurors told them that the jury agreed to acquit on those counts. Double jeopardy is a legal protection that prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for the same crime. The SJC is currently determining if jurors who sat through Reads first trial will be questioned about their deliberations. The SJC will issue a written decision that could take months before it is published. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. Some metro parents are celebrating the new year with a new family member, including one Parkville family who welcomed one of the first babies of 2025. Theyre one of several families with babies born early Wednesday morning. It was news to us, Dad Bryan Diarte said. It was news to you guys, too. Jesse Diarte made his entrance into the world at 1:06 a.m. New Years morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gateway to Freedom celebration held at Quindaro Ruins Diarte said his son Jesse weighs in at six pounds, two ounces. Mom Aleacia Estrada said her son arrived early as he wasnt due until January 4. So, giving birth to one of the first babies in the Kansas City metro in 2025 was a surprise. When we found out, thats just another crazy part, we were still in shock. It was just an unbelievable moment, Diarte said. Just everything going on and thats just the cherry on top. Hospitals across the metro are welcoming their first babies of the year including Advent Health Shawnee Mission. Baby Maeve arrived at 1:39 a.m. on New Years morning, weighing 6 pounds, 8 ounces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At Saint Lukes Hospital, another mom gave birth to a baby girl at 1:41 a.m. this morning. Nearly four hours after midnight Menorah Medical Center welcomed its first baby. Baby girl Londyn is 8 pounds, 8 ounces. We are so grateful for the endless support of family and friends and thankful for the care and compassion we received from the labor and delivery nurses and doctors, parents Mariel and Anthony from Lenexa said. At University Health Lakewood, baby Micah made his entrance just after 9:30 a.m. Hes 7 pounds, 13 ounces. The hospital said his mom got to the hospital just eight minutes before she had Micah. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jesses parents are excited to share their sons incredible birth story as he gets older. That he was famous, and he wasnt even a day old, Diarte said. These new parents said this year, theres a lot to look forward to. Im excited to see what the year has to come, Estrada said. Watching him grow, with our doggies, experiencing this new parenting thing, Diarte said. Hopefully its amazing to us. Everyone says it is. NKC Hospital staff gifted the family a basket of newborn items to celebrate the hospitals first baby of the year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) A Sioux Falls massage therapist is no longer certified in the state of South Dakota after being accused of sexually groping at least three of his clients. This woman, who we will call Kylie, says a massage therapist who worked at Massage Envy on South Louise Avenue touched her inappropriately last summer while getting a massage. I had gone to this massage place dozens of times, but this last visit was completely different than the others I had been to before, Kylie said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robbery at truck stop leaves employee injured Kylie told KELOLAND Investigates shed had previous sessions with the same massage therapist, but a June appointment was different. He was very rough on my chest, he basically cupped both of my breasts with his bare hands, he did the same with my butt and got very close to my underwear line, which had never happened previously, Kylie said. Hes now charged with one count of sexual contact without consent. Kurt Smits first court appearance was back in December. Our cameras were there, but he was not. Because the crime is a misdemeanor, Smits attorney Clint Sargent, who didnt want to talk with KELOLAND Investigates, appeared on his behalf and entered a not guilty plea. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court papers the victim was laying on the massaging table, facing up, with no clothes on, other than underwear, under a sheet. Thats when Kylie says Smit used his bare hand to grab her breasts and started groping her. Kylie also says in court papers at one point, she felt Smits finger touch the exterior of her vagina. The documents go onto say Smit began massaging her buttocks again with his bare hands on her bare skin with no sheet. Kylie says she never said anything at the time. Just because he had said Im doing this because of this muscle and Im doing this because youre a mom and youre bending and I know it hurts, but thats going to make you feel better in the end. Just using big words I didnt really understand and I trusted him, I had him several times and I kind of went with it even though it didnt feel exactly right, Kylie said. Kylie says the longer she thought about it, the more she became suspicious. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I told one of my friends, who is a chiropractor and asked what did he think of that and he said thats definitely not right, Kylie said. When Kylie received a text message about Smit being fired, she realized she needed to report to police what happened. They asked me a bunch of questions, I had to come down to the station and be interrogated in a police room, which was really scary and intimidating, I had to tell my whole story all over again, Kylie said. Police took the report and began an investigation. We realize that sometimes these things are embarrassing people may not want to talk about it, they may not feel comfortable about it, but the best thing they can do is report it to police right away, Sioux Falls Police Department spokesman Sam Clemens said. That gives us a chance to investigate it right away and certainly, there could be the potential for other victims out there and we can reach out to other people. Maybe we can stop things before it continues on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kylie says she felt extremely violated. Oh yeah for sure, when you go some place to relax you know monthly, thats your self care thing and for this to happen. Yeah, it was horrible, Kylie said. I dont want him practicing ever again and I dont want him to touch other women and Im almost positive theres more than me and if they see this I want them to come forward and tell the authorities as well, Kylie said. And they have. Court documents have details from police interviews with two more alleged victims. One woman told investigators, in September, Smit was massaging her upper leg and his thumb came into contact with her vagina three times. She also says Smit was making circles with his bare hands on her bare breast to include her nipples. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another victim told police, during a massage in May, Smits palm or pinky finger rubbed up against her vagina three to four times. Police made contact with Smit by phone they asked him if had ever massaged anyones breasts while working at Massage Envy. He initially declined to answer, then said I cant talk to you right now, I do not massage breasts. We decided to see if he wanted to talk with KELOLAND Investigates to get his side of the story. But when we went to the address listed on his arrest warrant, no one answered the door. Meanwhile, Kylie says shes glad other women have come forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If it doesnt feel right you know say something, tell the manager of the company and dont back down because they will want you to, Kylie said. I mean we have three people theres certainly a good chance there could be others, but at this point we just dont know, Clemens said. Court papers say the other two alleged victims didnt file charges against Smit. One said to police she just wants to make sure Smits license was revoked. The other said she didnt want to be a victim in a criminal case. Smit no longer works at Massage Envy. We checked with the South Dakota Health Department and hes no longer certified in the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We also reached out to Massage Envy for comment. We are still waiting to hear back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) When the clock struck midnight, some new laws took effect in the Bluegrass state. Its not a lengthy list; most newly created laws take effect 90 days after the General Assembly adjourns each year, but for a variety of reasons some get a specific start date, such as allowing more time for implementation. Starting now, the next time Kentucky drivers renew their drivers licenses, a vision screening is required. The law has been on standby since being signed in 2021. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: It was just a good safety measure that has been proven to work in other states. A lot of other states have a similar vision screening requirement, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesperson Naitore Djigbenou told FOX 56 about the new requirement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vision screenings can be done for free at the drivers licensing regional office, or paperwork from a professional can be provided in person or if renewed online. 2025 also marks the official start of Kentuckys medical cannabis program. Patients who have received a physicians certification can now apply for medical cards that will be issued by the state. Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 47, legalizing it in 2023, and passed another bill in 2024 to get the business licensing and growing process started earlier. And thats given us a big head start. But certainly, its going to take a little bit of time, too, to ultimately get the dispensaries open and get that product there, Gov. Andy Beshear explained at the most recent dispensary license lottery on Dec. 16. The program is limited to smokeless products. LATEST KENTUCKY LISTS AND RANKINGS: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What is going up in smoke are non-FDA-authorized vape products. 2024s House Bill 11 banned the sale of any vape product not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Vape shop owners have told FOX 56 it could shut many storefronts down for good. Its going to wipe me out. Im worried, and a lot of store owners are worried because were small business owners. I think the day we pay our bills this way, vape store owner Joe Simaan told FOX 56 News in a prior interview. I really dont care what business goes out because we limit the sale of these products. We dont know whats in this product. But what we do know, weve got kids all over this commonwealth falling down with overdoses, Rep. Ken Upchurch (R-Monticello) said during the bills debate in March. Hybrid vehicles no longer require ownership fees in 2025, but an annual adjustment from an already-existing law, 2023s House Bill 8, means other EV fees will rise by 5%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Voters in Louisville, Kentuckys largest city, will now see non-partisan races on their ballots thanks to House Bill 388 taking effect. And now, thanks to Senate Bill 111s enactment, insurers are required to cover speech therapy as a treatment for stuttering. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. Ann Jeannette Pierce and her daughter, Caroline. (Photo provided) Ann Jeannette Pierce is worried by the unexplained bruises and cuts that periodically pop up on her nonverbal adult daughter. So, the Owensboro woman is asking the Kentucky legislature to make it possible for her and others like her to have cameras in residential facilities such as the one where her daughter, Caroline, lives. Pierces proposal would essentially fast-track the current process, which involves an application to a human rights review committee, whose members then decide if its appropriate to waive privacy protections for that individual. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opponents worry the legislation could create a series of privacy issues that violate the rights of individuals living with disabilities. Caroline is 33, nonverbal and has severe autism, according to her mother. She lives in a residential facility covered by a Medicaid Supports for Community Living (SCL) waiver. Kentuckys waiver gives adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities access to residential supports, vehicle adaptation and more. About six years ago, Caroline started presenting with unexplained injuries, Pierce said, and since then, shes had 106 unexplained injuries. They include bruises on her legs and arms and a cut on the back of her head, according to photos shared with the Kentucky Lantern. Caroline seldom had a bruise growing up, Pierce said, and medical scans rule out reasons to be clumsy. Jeff Edwards, the director of Protection and Advocacy. (Photo provided) Jeff Edwards, the director of Protection and Advocacy, which represents Kentuckians with disabilities legally and through other advocacy, said cameras arent a foolproof way to protect people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone thats living in a Medicaid Supports for Community lLiving waiver slot, they have a team around them, he said. Theres a number of people that are with you constantly, that are all mandatory reporters that have the responsibility, if they feel that a person is being abused or neglected, to report it to the appropriate individuals to see that thats addressed. Protection and Advocacy isnt for or against the legislation, but sees it as unnecessary given the ability to apply for cameras already. I think privacy is paramount for people, Edwards said. I think weve spent a long time (when) people with disabilities have not had a right of privacy, and so anything that protects people and their individual voices are what were going to support. Overreaching: Some worry about privacy, security Pierce feels the current system is failing her family: Ive been trying for six years to get help and cant, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, shes asking the state legislature to expand who can install cameras in the types of facilities in which her daughter lives. She wants a law allowing any people living in SCL residential facilities or their guardians to opt in for record-only cameras in their living spaces. These cameras would not be capable of live streaming or any other virtual monitoring, according to a letter Pierce sent to lawmakers detailing the proposal. Footage would be viewed only if there is an instance of suspected abuse, and footage would be periodically erased from the device. Pierce testified before the Interim Joint Committee on Health Services on Sept. 25 about the legislation Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, plans to sponsor in 2025. During that meeting, several adults with disabilities expressed their concerns about the legislation and its potential to violate privacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Corey Nett with the help of his personal aid, Wendy Cooper called the proposal overreaching. I agree that we need to do everything possible to protect and weed out abuse and neglect cases from our waiver programs, but I must say, I disagree with this bill 100%, Cooper read from Netts prepared remarks. Nett questioned: Whos in charge of the videos? What safeguards were in place to protect the videos if the participant in question is a minor? What about child pornography? Jordan Humphrey testified alongside Nett, saying that having cameras isnt foolproof protection. A lot of times, the only place we do have time to ourselves is in our bedrooms, Humphrey said. If a camera is there, that means that I dont have anywhere I can go to be alone. If someone is going to hurt me, I think that they will find somewhere else to do it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pierce pointed out her and Thomas proposal would not mandate cameras; it would only allow people to opt in to having them if they feel there is a need. The ones that were testifying were verbal, and they could just refuse to have a camera put in their bedrooms, said Marie Allison, a Lexington attorney advocating for the camera legislation alongside Pierce. If theyre verbal and they can give an opinion, then they have the right to refuse. Thomas is keen to address the concerns in his draft. Sen. Reggie Thomas (LRC Public Information) Its at the option of the resident, he told the Lantern. It doesnt require cameras. This is not mandatory legislation. Its optional. Its permissible, not mandatory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the case of individuals who cannot voice their consent, Thomas said, the bill allows guardians to make that call for them. While there are concerns to work out in the language ahead of the 2025 session, Thomas said, theres no downside in protecting disabled children. There have been numerous cases where disabled (people) have been bruised or abused or harmed while inside the facility, and theres no evidence of how those harms or injuries occur, he said. And parents like Miss Ann Jeannette are very concerned about that. An inherent right to privacy The Kentucky Association of Private Providers, which represents facilities and providers serving people with disabilities, does not have a stance on this proposed legislation, according to CEO Amy Staed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cameras are already allowed in Support for Community Living (SCL) residential facilities, Staed said. To get those cameras, the state Human Rights Committee must approve them as they are considered to be a rights restriction, Staed said. A rights restriction is any intervention that restricts a participants movement, access to other individuals, locations, or activities or rights, according to Kentucky statute. Several individuals in SCL residential settings have approved cameras, she said. Because all individuals with disabilities have an inherent right to privacy and cameras are considered to violate the right to privacy, individuals must work with their person-centered team to request a rights restriction to install a camera. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pierce said she has applied for this, but Caroline was not approved. A Cabinet spokeswoman could not say the criteria on which the committee bases its waiver decisions. Documents obtained through an open records request also did not provide a clear picture, though they do say any restrictions on a person must be temporary, have clearly-defined implementation guidelines, be paired with educational elements, be removed once goals are met and be reviewed by the committee at least once a year. The issue of communication While a person being nonverbal can put barriers between them and clear communication, its not impossible, Staed said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think any person who has worked with or loved someone with an intellectual or developmental disability, particularly someone who is nonverbal, will tell you overwhelmingly that being able to speak is not required for effective communication, she said. People with disabilities who are nonverbal know how to communicate. They know how to communicate their wants and their needs. And staff are trained on the care needs of each individual before they start to work with them. Communication can include blinking or moaning and groaning, Staed said. Any staff person working with that person will be trained on that, she said. But people with disabilities do communicate. Caroline has aggressive behaviors if shes misunderstood, Pierce said, and she worries about the ability of staff to care for her through them. If she were not too much for one family, she would be living with me, Pierce said. It is just hard for one person to keep up with her. You have to have help. One of Carolines bruises. (Photo provided). Staff at facilities like the one Caroline is in receive a tremendous amount of training, Staed said. The excessive training includes their employers policies and procedures (which are extensive), medication administration, CPR and crisis training, she said. Staff also complete web-based training on direct support, and are individually trained about the person-centered service plan of the participant they will support. In order to reach this point, Staed said, staff have to pass a thorough background check. They cannot be hired if there is any substantiated allegation of abuse or neglect on their record, she said. Privacy versus safety Its not clear if there is appetite in the General Assembly to modify who can get cameras in their facilities. If it were to pass, Kentucky would be the 15th state to pass such legislation, according to Allison. Thomas is working out issues in the bill to give it a shot. The biggest issue we (have) to work through is how we can limit access to these cameras, because that still hasnt been worked through on this bill, he said. You dont want peeping Toms or voyeurs having access to these cameras. So, we really have to tighten the reins on who can have access to these cameras. Pierce and Allison acknowledged people have privacy concerns. This is a privacy versus safety issue, Allison said. And I think that, when those two things are balancing out, safety should prevail over the privacy. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Kentucky rolls out medical marijuana program, but Tennesseans arent allowed to take part FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKRN) As of Wednesday, the Bluegrass State officially allows another sort of grass: medical marijuana. However, Tennesseans considering crossing state lines might have to think twice. Heres a look at the ins and outs of Kentuckys new law. Our program will begin accepting applications for medical cannabis cards from Kentucky patients on January 1st, 2025, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said during a December update about the new program. Whats allowed under Kentuckys new medical marijuana law, SB 47? If you are over 18 with a doctors permission, you can buy medical cannabis in raw plant, edible, tincture, and for those over 21 vape form. If youre under 18, youll need an adult caregiver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How will a new Kentucky law impact the vaping industry? Im pleased to announce that, as of today, many Kentuckians have already showed an incredible interest, said Beshear. Our goal from the outset is to ensure that everyone who qualifies has access. Our practitioner directory will ensure that Kentuckians can find a nurse or a doctor near them. However, Tennesseans shouldnt get any ideas. The Volunteer State does not allow medical marijuana, and if youre thinking about crossing state lines to get a Kentucky medical marijuana ID, that wont work either. You have to be a resident of the Bluegrass State. Ive been really proud of the work thats gone in. We are going to have a highly-regulated system that is going to ensure that those that qualify are able to get the help that they need, but to prevent any abuses of the system at the same time, Beshear said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hemp industry relieved following temporary pause on new Tennessee regulations SB 47 does not allow felons convicted of certain crimes to take part. In addition, it prohibits Kentuckians from growing their own medical cannabis. Counties and cities are allowed to ban dispensaries, and a few did, including Allen County on Tennessees border. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is warning Kentuckians that, at the federal level, marijuana is illegal. Furthermore, you cannot purchase a gun and also use cannabis, even if its medical. To mitigate these risks could be to just refrain from using marijuana. Some may feel like giving up their firearms is the best option for the time being, or just transferring ownership for a span of time while youre a patient, said Matthew Bratcher with Kentucky NORML. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com Although the medical marijuana program technically starts Wednesday, Jan. 1, the first Kentucky dispensary is not expected to open its doors until well into 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a long time coming, but Im excited that were doing it, Beshear said. In Tennessee, both medical and recreational marijuana are illegal. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. King Charles is kicking off the new year by thinking of others. The King, 76, has made a donation that insiders called a significant, though undisclosed, amount to the humanitarian work being done to help people in Syria. He has given the money to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which is working to aid the country in the wake of the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad. Assads dictatorial reign came to an abrupt end in early December 2024 when he and his family fled to Moscow, Russia in the wake of an uprising by the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charles became patron of the IRC's U.K. branch in 2021, when he was still Prince of Wales. Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty King Charles III and Queen Camilla attending the Christmas Day morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk on Dec. 25, 2024 King Charles III and Queen Camilla attending the Christmas Day morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk on Dec. 25, 2024 In a press release, the IRC said Syria is the fourth-ranked country on its watchlist for 2025 and faces profound humanitarian needs, despite recent political developments. Years of conflict, political instability and widespread displacement have deeply eroded the countrys resilience, leaving millions of people in need of lifesaving support," the release said. The organization added it was immensely grateful to King Charles, and Khusbu Patel, acting executive director of the IRC in the U.K., said in a statement, His Majestys contribution underscores his deep commitment to addressing urgent global challenges and helping people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: King Charles Reflects on Family's Health Struggles and 'Uncertainties and Anxieties of Illness' in Emotional Christmas Speech This assistance will enable us to provide essential services, including healthcare, child protection and emergency cash to those people most in need. His dedication shines a vital spotlight on these pressing challenges, and we hope it inspires others to join in supporting these efforts," Patel continued. Aaron Chown - WPA Pool/Getty King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive to the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace on Nov. 19, 2024 in London, England King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive to the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace on Nov. 19, 2024 in London, England The donation follows Charles recognition in his televised Christmas speech of the devastating effects of conflict around the world. In his address, which marked his third Christmas broadcast since taking the throne in September 2022, he also praised the humanitarian organizations working tirelessly to bring relief." Related: King Charles and Queen Camilla Lead Royal Family Christmas Walk After Challenging Year Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Charles also joined a Catholic congregation supporting a charity helping Christians persecuted across the Middle East and the globe. Donations supporting the IRC work in Syria can be made at its U.S. and U.K. websites. Read the original article on People The Kissimmee community started 2025 with heavy hearts after one of their own was killed at her home apparently by a stray bullet fired to ring in the New Year. The Police Department said in a news release Wednesday it believed Carmen Rosa Neira Ochoa, 56, was struck by a bullet from celebratory gunfire. Such needless tragedies occur every year, with celebratory gunfire also blamed this year for killing a 10-year-old girl in Miami-Dade County. Neira Ochoas son-in-law, Alex Marquez, described the grandmother to WESH as the familys matriarch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was a hard-working mother, very caring, Marquez said. She went out of her way to help out anybody that was in need. She was all about her family. She would do anything to protect her family even me. On Tuesday around 11:50 p.m., Marquez told the station he and his wife had just dropped Carmen off at her home Gull Court after having dinner. Not even 5, 6, 7 minutes later probably 12/midnight, I get a call from my sister-in-law saying my mother-in-law had been shot, he said. Crime scene tape at Neira Ochoas home in the Buenaventura Lakes area of Osceola County was gone Thursday morning and neighbors could see her red door lined with small potted plants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But some residents of the Flamingo Lakes neighborhood are concerned and said this never should have happened. Martha Villacorta, 60, lives two doors down from Neira Ochoa and often waved as the two passed in the cul-de-sac. Villacorta said its been peaceful during the 15 years shes lived in the Buenaventura Lakes area home to over 26,000 residents, a majority of whom are descendants from Puerto Rico, according to the most recent census data. She was home at the time of the incident but not feeling well and said she didnt hear anything. Florida residents gain right to sue local governments for not enforcing ban on public camping Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But then I saw a lot of police walking around and I said Oh God and I mean I was kind of scared because this has never happened before, she said. People should start thinking about others because look what happened to this lady you never expect anything like that to happen. Ahead of every new year, law enforcement agencies routinely remind folks to celebrate responsibly not by firing gunshots in the air since the bullets eventually come down and can cause injuries or death. But reports of celebratory gunfire remain often with disastrous results. According to the Gun Violence Archive, at least 11 people nationwide were documented as being accidentally shot during New Years Day celebrations this year. The only other incident it lists in Florida was the Miami-Dade County shooting of the 10-year-old girl, killed after being struck in the head by a stray bullet while lighting fireworks with her family outside their apartment. The year before saw nearly two dozen reported injuries from accidental gunfire, at least 12 from shots ringing in 2024. Neira Ochoa and the Miami-Dade child identified as Yanelis Munuguia are the only documented accidental deaths so far from this years celebrations, according to the archive. This heartbreaking incident serves as a devastating reminder that what goes up must come down, the group said in a post on X. Bullets fired into the air can take innocent lives. The vehicles used in the New Years Day attack in New Orleans and an explosion in Las Vegas were both rented through the same car-sharing app, authorities said, a connection between two incidents that have been otherwise described as unrelated. The vehicles a Ford F-150 pickup truck that drove through a crowd of New Years revelers, killing at least 14 people, and a Tesla Cybertruck that erupted in flames outside a Donald Trump-owned hotel had been rented by their respective drivers through Turo, a company that bills itself as the worlds largest car-sharing marketplace. The company operates in a similar way to Airbnb, in that users rent cars directly from their owners. Renters can search for a specific car make and model from local owners, who set their own daily rates, and in many cases the renter can pick up a vehicle without any physical contact with the owner, according to the companys website. Police investigators surround the white Ford F-150 pickup truck that crashed into a work lift after driving into a crowd of New Year's revelers in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 1, 2025. MATTHEW HINTON via Getty Images Anyone seeking to rent a car through Turo must have a valid drivers license. The company may also check users credit score or auto insurance score and may conduct a criminal background check, the apps website states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The company was launched in 2010 and late last year reported having more than 350,000 vehicles actively available for rent and 3.5 million active users in more than 16,000 cities. The Turo user who owns the truck used in the New Orleans attack told The New York Times that he recognized his vehicle while watching footage of the ramming incident, which killed and injured dozens along the citys famous Bourbon Street. The owner, who declined to be identified publicly, said he had been renting five vehicles on Turo as a second income but that he planned to stop following the violence. In a statement Wednesday, Turo said it is cooperating with law enforcement and that it doesnt believe that either renter, in Las Vegas or New Orleans, had a criminal background that would have been flagged as a security threat. The company also said it was not currently aware of any information that indicates the two incidents are related. The FBI said they recovered an Islamic State group flag, which is black with white lettering, from the pickup truck. A similar-looking flag is seen on the ground behind the crashed truck. via Associated Press Authorities have branded the New Orleans killings as a terrorist attack and said that the suspect fatally shot by police, 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, was inspired by the Islamic State extremist group and acted alone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of Thursday, officials have not determined a motive in the Cybertruck explosion. The truck was likely driven by 37-year-old Army Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, who shot himself in the head before the truck blew up, police said. President Joe Biden said Thursday that investigators have not found any evidence of a connection between the two events. A Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel early Wednesday is seen burning. Alcides Antunes via AP The Cybertruck had been rented by Livelsberger on Dec. 28 in Denver, before it was driven to Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said at a press conference Thursday. Livelsberger pulled up to President-elect Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel and shot himself, police said. Then the vehicle detonated, leaving seven people nearby with minor injuries. Police said a later search of the vehicles charred remains uncovered firework mortars and camping fuel canisters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those materials, found in the back of the truck, were likely meant to help fuel a greater explosion, but the explosives werent as sophisticated as authorities would have expected from Livelsberger, considering his military background, one federal law enforcement official said. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also said in a statement that his company confirmed that the blast was caused by the explosives and not by the vehicle itself. Related... The car-renting app Turo is in the spotlight after both the cars used in the New Orleans and Las Vegas attacks on New Years Day were rented through the company. In New Orleans, a pickup truck rammed through busy Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens while a Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring seven more. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the truck used in the blast was rented through the app while Turo confirmed to NewsNation that a host vehicle was involved in the New Orleans attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are heartbroken to learn that one of our hosts vehicles was involved in this awful incident. We are actively partnering with the FBI. We are not currently aware of anything in this guests background that would have identified him as a trust and safety threat to us at the time of the reservation, a spokesperson for Turo told News Nation. McMahill said authorities believe the two attacks to be two isolated incidents, calling the use of the app a coincidence, but that investigations are still underway. Turo, according to its website, is a car rental marketplace where individuals can rent cars from trusted hosts in a local area. The app claims to be the worlds largest car sharing marketplace. In order to book on Turo, a person needs to provide a drivers license, be above 18 and provide personal information to get approved by the app. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cars are acquired through pickup, delivery, or some hosts give remote access by keeping the keys in a lock box or using an app. Entrepreneurs can take the wheel of their futures by becoming hosts and building car sharing businesses on Turo, leveraging an established platform to scale their businesses and meet their goals, the app says. With Turo, everyone has the power to get in the drivers seat. The Hill has reached out to Turo for comment. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar, which also owns The Hill. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Police are investigating a possible act of terror in Nevada after a rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of President-elect Donald Trumps hotel in Las Vegas on New Years Day. The driver of the vehicle, who was killed in the blast, has since been named as US Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Several more were injured during the incident on Wednesday morning. The exact cause of the violent explosion is unknown, however, authorities said they were well aware of the deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans and were taking all precautions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Joe Biden said in a Camp David address on Wednesday evening that investigators were trying to establish any links between the New Orleans and Las Vegas incidents. Heres what we know so far: One person has died and several more were injured after a Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning (Reuters) What happened? The explosion occurred around 8.40am on Wednesday morning in the valet area outside of the lobby of Trump International Hotel at Las Vegas Boulevard and Sammy Davis Jr Drive. The 64-story hotel is just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall. Video posted on social media showed different angles of the massive explosion, which appeared to include fireworks. Footage from inside the hotel showed the burning vehicle right outside the entrance, with a series of explosions going off. The 64-story hotel is just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall (Reuters) Guests staying at the hotel and on surrounding properties told FOX5 that they heard several booms which many described as being louder than the New Years Eve fireworks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was shaking the glass, it was so loud, one witness who was staying at the Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip told KLAS. I looked out and saw smoke and me and my wife booked it out of there. Las Vegas County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the hotel was evacuated and guests were taken to Resorts World while police investigated. What was the cause of the explosion? Police initially said that the cause of the explosion was unknown, though Tesla boss Elon Musk wrote online that the companys entire senior team was also assisting with investigations. In a later post on X, Musk said that the incident was not due to a fault with the Cybertruck itself. We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. https://t.co/HRjb87YbaJ Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025 We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All vehicle telemetry [data collection] was positive at the time of the explosion. McMahill later confirmed that authorities had gasoline cannisters and large firework mortars in the back of the truck. Was there a motive behind the incident? McMahill noted during Wednesdays press conference that officials are very well aware of the New Orleans attack in which a man intentionally drove a truck into a crowd of people celebrating New Years Eve just hours earlier, killing 15 people. He said that officials are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe and that they are looking for secondary devices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI is also involved in the investigation. I know you have a lot of questions, Jeremy Schwartz, acting FBI Special Agent in Charge for the Las Vegas office, said at the news conference. We dont have a lot of answers. A police source told ABC that the Cybertruck was carrying a load of fireworks-style mortars, and the incident is being investigated as a possible act of terror (Reuters) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite authorities caution, Musk later posted that the incident appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way, he suggested. President Biden has directed his team to offer any federal assistance needed, the White House said. Who are the victims? One person died inside the vehicle, according to McMahill, and efforts were underway to remove the body. That individual is understood to be Livelsberger. Seven other people were injured in the explosion. Two of the injured were transported to University Medical Center Southern Nevada for treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said all the injuries were minor, and there did not appear to be any further threat to members of the public. Further details on the victims are yet to be released. Justin Baldoni, lead actor and director of It Ends With Us, has sued The New York Times over its reporting of his co-star Blake Livelys sexual harassment allegations against him. Baldoni, 40, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday over the Timess coverage of Livelys lawsuit, in which she accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during filming as well as organizing a smear campaign against her in the months that followed. The lawsuit, reviewed by The Independent, claims the Times relied almost entirely on Livelys unverified and self-serving narrative and disregarded an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baldoni and the other plaintiffs, which include Wayfarer Studios and his PR executives, are suing for $250 million in damages. Heres everything we know about the lawsuit: It Ends With Us actor and director Justin Baldoni has sued The New York Times over its coverage of his co-star Blake Livelys sexual harassment lawsuit against him (Getty Images) Baldoni says the Times cherry-picked evidence, advanced a false narrative Baldonis lawsuit argues the legacy media outlet pushed a false narrative by cherry-picking out-of-context (and in some cases doctored) private communications that werent intended for outside eyes. Baldoni and the plaintiffs claim the Times designed their report to villainize him and manufacture an impression of impropriety where none exists. The Timess story came out after Lively, 37, accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her and organizing a smear campaign against her in the months that followed the filming of It Ends With Us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The film is an adaptation of Colleen Hoovers 2016 novel of the same name. The story centers around a flower shop owner, played by Lively, and her abusive relationship with her partner Ryle Kincaid, played by Baldoni. Lively argued Baldoni and his associates conducted a targeted effort to destroy her and tarnish her reputation in the media, which she says has caused her severe emotional distress. Her lawsuit contained several excerpts from text messages and emails between Baldoni, public relations executive Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. These messages appear to show that the three of them sought to create a plan to deal with social media speculation and provide protection to Baldoni. Baldoni claims both Lively and the Times took the messages out of context. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Times, as with LivelysComplaint, deliberately takes these communications out of context to bolster a fallacious narrative to quash Plaintiffs, his lawsuit states. When viewed in full context, these handpicked, doctored communications lose their manufactured impropriety and disprove Livelys allegations. Blake Lively sued Baldoni last month, arguing he sexually harassed her and conducted a targeted effort to destroy her reputation (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images) Baldoni claims Lively executed a hostile takeover of It Ends With Us Baldoni accused Lively of conducting a hostile takeover of the film in his lawsuit, alleging she tried to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production through strategic and manipulative methods. These actions, the lawsuit claims, resulted in her public image suffering rather than any alleged smear campaign conducted by Baldoni and his team. Her public image suffered as a result of a series of high-profile blunders, which she tried to deflect by blaming Plaintiffs for the publics prying interest into the foibles of an A-list celebrity, the lawsuit reads. This is nothing but an excuse. Fame is a double-edged sword, but Livelys tactics here are unconscionable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alongside the Times, she orchestrated a malicious attack on the reputations, careers, and personal lives of Plaintiffs, subjecting them to public humiliation, threats, and vitriol, the lawsuit continues. This will reportedly not be the only lawsuit Baldoni and his associates file. This lawsuit seeks to hold the Times accountable for its role in this defamation campaign, but Plaintiffs are not done, the lawsuit states. There are other bad actors involved, and make no mistakethis will not be the last lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges Lively conducted a hostile takeover of It Ends With Us (Getty Images for Vital Voices G) What have both sides said about the lawsuit? The Times has defended its reporting and noted the reporters included Baldonis full response to the allegations in their article. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead, a Times spokesperson told The Independent on Tuesday. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error, the spokesperson added. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit. Meanwhile, attorney Bryan Freedman said Baldoni and the other plaintiffs are uniting to take down [the Times] by no longer allowing them to deceive the public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful untouchable Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative, Freedman said in a statement. In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Livelys self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public, he added. The Independent has contacted Livelys representative for comment. With reporting from Kevin E G Perry In the early hours of the New Years Day celebrations on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, the city was attacked when a driver veered a pickup truck into the crowd, killing 14 people and wounding at least 35 others. The suspect was also killed in a gunfire exchange with police. The New Orleans Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations New Orleans field office are conducting an investigation into the attack. In a press conference on Jan. 1, Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs New Orleans field office, announced that the suspect responsible for the attack had been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Jan 4., a vigil was held for the victims on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, with families of some of the deceased in attendance. Pictures of the victims, candles, and flowers lined the street of the memorial, as a brass band played during the moving celebration of life. Prince William and Kate Middleton offered condolences to the family of a British victim, who was known to the royal couple. Meanwhile, the White House has shared that President Joe Biden will travel to New Orleans on Monday, Jan. 6, to grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack. Heres everything we doand dontknow about the attack so far. What happened during the New Orleans attack? At approximately 3:15 a.m. local time, an individual driving a rented Ford pickup truck swerved around a police car protecting crowds celebrating on Bourbon Street, and drove through the festivities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CCTV footage released shows a white, Ford F-150 Lightning vehicle driving on to the pavement, turning sharply before hitting pedestrians. According to a press conference with the FBI on Jan. 2, authorities believe the suspect picked up the Ford on Dec. 30 in Houston. The New Orleans Police Department Public Affairs released an article on the attack later in the day on Jan. 1, chronicling the events. Multiple law enforcement officers responded to a report of a vehicle having driven into a crowd of pedestrians on Bourbon Street, the NOPD public affairs desk wrote. Multiple people were reportedly struck before the vehicle crashed. NOPD and the FBI stated that the suspect, after exiting the vehicle, opened fire on officers who responded at the scenefire which they returned. The suspect was struck by fire and was pronounced dead at the scene. FBI Special Agent Aletha Duncan speaks to the media during a press conference on Jan. 1 Chris GraythenGetty Images NOPD and the FBI reported that those injuredincluding the two NOPD officers who were injured during gunfire exchange with the suspectwere transported to local hospitals via EMS for treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI also confirmed that weapons and potential improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found in the pickup truck, as well as in other areas of the French Quarter. FBI bomb technicians are working to identify and render those devices safe. What do we know about the suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar? The driver and suspect has been identified as Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen, and Army Veteran from Texas. Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, an Army spokesperson is quoted as telling CNN. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. According to the New York Times, Jabbar was married twice. He divorced his first wife, Nakedra Charrlle Marsh in 2012, and was separated from his second wife. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Times also reported that Marshs new husband, Dwayne Marsh, said Jabbar had been acting erratically in recent months, being all crazy, cutting his hair, and that the couple had stopped allowing Jabbar to see his two children with Marsh. The FBI stated that an ISIS flag was located in the vehicle, and they are now working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. In the Jan. 2 press conference, the FBI stated that Jabbar posted five videos on his Facebook on New Years Eve, which showed his support for ISIS. Police investigators surround the white Ford F-150 pickup truck that crashed into a work lift in New Orleans on Jan. 1 Matthew HintonAFP/Getty Images So what I can tell you right now is that he was 100% inspired by ISIS, said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the bureaus Counterterrorism Division. Were diggingwere digging through more of the social media, more interviews, working with some of our other partners to ascertain a little bit more about that connection. Though assistant special agent Duncan previously told the press that the FBI believed Jabbar had help in carrying out his attack, the FBI said on Thursday they thought that Jabbar acted alone in an act of terrorism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a Jan. 3 update from the FBI, the bureau stated that bomb-making materials were found at both Jabbars home on Crescent Peak Drive in Houston, Texas, and at a short term rental home used by Jabbar on Mandeville Street in New Orleans. They determined that at the Mandeville location, Jabbar set a fire in the hallway and strategically placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it and other evidence of his crime, but the fire extinguished itself before spreading to other rooms. Per the FBI, as of Jan. 3, "the FBI has identified 35 known injured individuals" but the "number of injured is expected to rise in the coming days as additional people either take themselves to hospitals with injuries or ask for assistance." Updating the public once again on Jan. 5, during a press conference, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said: We have not seen any indications of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking into potential associates in the U.S. and outside of our borders." Raia shared that the ongoing investigation had revealed that Jabbar had visited New Orleans on at least two occasions before the attack. He had also travelled to Ontario, Canada, and further afield to Cairo, Egypt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our agents are getting answers to where he went, who he went with, and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here," said Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent of the New Orleans Field Office. What do we know about the victims of the attack? All 14 victims of the New Orleans attack have been identified online and mourned publicly by their families and communities throughout the week. Kareem Badawi was identified as a student of University of Alabama in a press release from the schools president. I grieve alongside family and friends of Kareem in their heartbreaking loss, the statement read. Badawis high school, the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, wrote on Facebook that they would be hosting a prayer service for Badawi and another former student who was critically injured in the attack. Martin "Tiger" Bech, was identified by Princeton as a former student and football player at the school. His coach stated that Bech was a ferocious competitor with endless energy, a beloved teammate, and a caring friend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Times reported that recent high school graduate NiKyra Cheyenne Dedeaux was also among the victims. Her mother, Melissa Dedeaux, posted a photo of NiKyra on Facebook, mourning her loss. Reggie Hunter was mourned in a Facebook post by his cousin, Shirell Robinson Jackson, who wrote that Hunter had just texted wishing their family Happy New Year before the attack. Not a threat to anyone...he surely didn't deserve this, none of the victims did, they wrote. CBS reported that Nicole Perez, mother to a 4-year-old son, was among the deceased. Perezs friend and boss at Kimmy's Deli in Metairie, Louisiana, said she was a dedicated worker, smart, happy, and a good-hearted person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Billy Dimao is being honored and mourned on Facebook by his former lacrosse team at Holmdel High School in New Jersey, who called him a remarkable young man on and off the field. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy posted about Dimao on X: Billy DiMaio was a 25-year-old account executive and a former standout lacrosse player at Holmdel High School whose life was cut short by a cowardly terrorist on New Years Day. 25-year-old victim Matthew Tenedorios parents spoke to NBC about their loss. 25-years old, just starting life, had the job of his dreams, said his mother, who had dinner with her son on New Years Eve, just hours before the attack. He was a wonderful son. The New Orleans Saints also posted a tribute to Tenedorio, who worked on the ASM New Orleans video production team, writing that he was young, talented and that he had a bright future. Hubert Gauthreaux was identified as a victim by his former high school Archbishop Shaw, in Marrero, Louisiana, who posted on Facebook to mourn the loss. Drew Dauphin, an alumnus of Auburn University, was described by the lab he worked in as an excellent co-worker and someone who always brought a positive attitude to the lab. Auburn University also released a statement identifying and mourning Dauphin, writing that "Words cannot convey the sorrow the Auburn Family feels for Drews family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time. The family of Bourbon Street terror attack victim Nicole Perez console one another as Jennifer Jones (L) dances to a brass band during a vigil on Canal Street near Bourbon Street on Jan. 4, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Michael DeMockerGetty Images Terrence Kennedy was also publicly identified as a victim and mourned by his sister, who posted a video on Facebook. His sister reportedly told the New Orleans NBC affiliate that he loved sports and had a big heart. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Elliot Wilkinson of Slidell, Louisiana was among the deceased, according to an official list of the deceased reportedly released by the Orleans Parish Coroners Office. Wilkinsons brother, Cecil, posted a tribute on Facebook. To my little brotheryou was loved and you will truly be missed, he wrote. I know life was hard for you at times. But I wasn't expecting to get the phone call this morning [sic] you was one of them that got hit in New Orleans in the French Quarter. Brandon Taylor, 43, was a restaurant cook and rapper, his fiancee Heather Genusa told the Times. Genusa told local outlets she was with Taylor celebrating New Year's Eve at the time of the attack. Genusa posted a tribute to her fiancee on her Facebook page. This tragedy is absolutely heart breaking and I feel absolutely broken, she wrote. My life will never be the same without you Brandon Taylor. I never met another human like you. Unique in every way. A British man by the name of Edward Pettifer is also among the confirmed victims. Pettifer, 31, from London, England, was the stepson of Prince William and Prince Harrys former nanny, Alexandra Pettifermore widely known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke. Catherine and I have been shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Ed Pettifer, Prince William posted on X via the official Kensington Palace account. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Pettifer family and all those innocent people who have been tragically impacted by this horrific attack. LaTasha Polk, a nursing assistant and mother to a teenage boy, was the last victim to be publicly identified. Per NOLA.com, Polk's identity was confirmed by her brother, Raynell Bates, and her aunt, Kim Polk, who both attended the Jan. 4 vigil in New Orleans in her honor. How have President Biden, President-elect Trump, and others responded to the attack? President Joe Biden released a statement on Jan. 1 confirming that he was briefed by law enforcement on the attack, and stating that his heart goes out to the victims. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nations communities, Biden wrote. Biden later discussed the attack in a filmed address to the nation from Camp David, Md. "The FBI is leading the investigation to determine what happened, why it happened, and whether there's any continuing threat to public safety," Biden said. "The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he [the suspect] posted videos on social media, indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill. The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack. Possible explosives were found in the vehicle, as well, and more explosives were found nearby." President-elect Donald Trump responded to the incident via his social media platform, Truth Social, where he wrote that the New Orleans attack was indicative of a wider crime rate problem in the United States. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department, he wrote. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! On Jan. 1, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry issued a State of Emergency in Orleans Parish, which he states will allow for allocation of resources to prepare for large events in the area coming up, including the Super Bowl LIX and Mardi Gras. Contact us at letters@time.com. The 42-year-old behind the deadly New Years Day attack on New Orleans Bourbon Street was a real estate agent in Texas at one time, although his license was expired. Shamsud-Din Jabbar founded a residential and commercial real estate firm called Blue Meadow Properties in Sugar Land, outside Houston. The firm operated in Beaumont, Fresno, Friendswood, Houston, League City, Missouri City, Pearland and Sugar Land, according to an archive of Blue Meadows website from 2021, which named Jabbar the firms president. He often posted blogs, writing advice for property owners on how to secure or evict tenants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbars real estate license was activated in February 2019, and Blue Meadow Properties in January 2020, according to the Texas Real Estate Commission. The website named the Texas Realtors association as well as the Houston Association of Realtors among its partners and memberships. We are deeply saddened to hear about the tragedy in New Orleans, HAR said in a statement. The suspect was apparently a real estate agent previously, but we have no other knowledge about him. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this horrific act. HAR had no information to provide about Jabbar or his firm. Another affiliate listed on Blue Meadows archived website, Sugar Landbased Adriatico Thadhani Investment Groups CORE Realty, did not immediately respond to request for comment. Jabbar, a Beaumont native and military veteran, lived in the Houston suburb of Fresno with his wife, after buying a home there in 2017, county records show. He lost it in their divorce in 2022, a lawsuit says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly after the real estate license for Blue Meadows expired in January 2022, Jabbar said his home payments were $27,000 past due and that he had $16,000 in credit card debt from housing and legal fees, according to a correspondence attached to divorce filings in February 2022 first viewed by The Times-Picayune and nola.com. Jabbars license expired a year later, in February 2023. In the suit, his ex-wife said Jabbar racked up the couples debt from unnecessary spending, excessive cash withdrawals and gifts to paramours, the Times-Picayune reported. Jabbar then lived in north Harris County, where a man was seen surrendering to a SWAT team Wednesday morning outside of his former home. The identity of the man officials apprehended remains unknown. Jabbar told his landlord, Asia Maryam, that he was relocating to New Orleans a month ago the landlord said he never gave her or the neighbors any problems, paid his rent each month and worked from home, but she didnt know what he did for work, she told the Times-Picayune. Jabbar, who had a bachelors degree in business administration from Georgia State University, was hired by Deloitte in 2021 and served in a staff-level role, the firm told FOX Business. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators believe he rented the truck used in the attack on Dec. 30 in Houston. The attacker sped up on Bourbon Street at about 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, plowed through crowds then opened fire before he was killed by police. At least 15 people died in the attack, and dozens more were injured. A flag of the Islamic State was attached to the truck, and investigators who briefed President Joe Biden said Jabbar posted videos online before the attack indicating he had a desire to kill. Investigators believe Jabbar acted alone, and found no connections with an explosive detonated in a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas later Wednesday. This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story. Early New Years Day a man plowed a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 15 people and injuring many more. The driver has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar. The incident is currently being investigated by the FBI as a terrorist attack. Jabbar, who reportedly used the car-renting app Turo to secure the truck, was fatally shot by police after he opened fire on officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attack has also led to heightened security in other areas, including Washington, D.C., and New York City. Heres what we know about Jabbar: U.S. citizenship Jabbar, 42, was a U.S. citizen from Texas. According to a now-removed LinkedIn profile, Jabbar studied at Georgia State University from 2015-17 and graduated with a degree in computer information systems, BBC reported. He had been married and divorced twice and court filings obtained by USA Today show he expressed financial distress during his second divorce, though he listed a gross salary of $120,000 per year working for Deloitte, a global accounting firm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CNN reported his first wife sued him in 2012 over child support and he then filed for divorce. In 2020, a Texas judge granted Jabbars second wife a restraining order during their divorce proceedings. He also previously held a real estate license and had traffic offenses and theft on his record. Jabbar was a legal U.S. citizen, despite many jumping to the conclusion that he was not. President-elect Trump did not explicitly weigh in on Jabbars citizenship status but posted online a similar immigration message that he held while on the campaign trail. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, he added. Trump said his hearts are with the victims and city of New Orleans after the attack. Army record Jabbar enlisted in the Army in 2007, at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an official that spoke with USA Today. He initially served as a human resources specialist which included work on payroll, mail delivery and processing medals. He then became an information technology specialist and would have been trained as a computer-system troubleshooter. Jabbar was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 until January 2015. He was also posted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska and then-Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the outlet reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar joined the Army Reserve after his deployment and served as an IT specialist until July 2020. He left the Army as a staff sergeant and was given an honorable discharge, the official told USA Today. Inspired by ISIS Jabbar was believed to be inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group. He was carrying an ISIS flag on the trailer hitch of the truck he rented for the attack. The FBI said it was working to determine Jabbars potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. The FBIs bomb technicians are working to determine if explosives found in the truck and elsewhere near Bourbon Street were viable. Authorities believe Jabbar was not working alone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Biden, in remarks delivered Wednesday, said Jabbar posted videos on social media hours before the attack that indicated that he was inspired by ISIS and had a desire to kill. The Islamic State group has welcomed any chance to behead Americans and other foreigners who come into its territory, The Associated Press reported. The group has inspired others around the world to carry out attacks on innocent civilians. Jabbars attack reflects the deadliest ISIS-inspired attack in the U.S. in several years, according to the AP. Threats to family members In a series of videos, Jabbar discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that inspired him to join ISIS, officials told CNN. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar was believed to have made the recordings while driving from his home state of Texas to Louisiana for the attack. He said hed planned to first gather his family for a celebration with the intent of killing them. He mentioned his divorce in the videos. Instead, he changed plans and decided to join the Islamic State, officials said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. U.S. Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego will sit on the Homeland Security Committee in the new Congress that begins Friday and comes as the nation confronts the apparent terrorist attack in New Orleans. Gallego, D-Ariz., along with every member of the next Senate and House of Representatives, will be formally sworn in Friday. Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced committee assignments for a slimmed-down Democratic caucus on Thursday. Republicans won control of the House and Senate in the November elections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., kept his posts on the Armed Services, Intelligence and Environment committees.Gallego, who joins the Senate after five terms in the House, is also joining the Banking, Energy and Natural Resources, and Veterans Affairs committees. Arizonans sent me to the Senate to fight for them, and these committee assignments put me and our team directly in the position to do just that, Gallego said in a statement Thursday. Im excited to get to work and deliver solutions to secure Arizonas border, reform our broken immigration system, bring down the cost of housing and energy, and support Arizonas veterans. Homeland Security figures to center on border security matters that played a prominent role in President-elect Donald Trumps campaign message. The New Years attack in New Orleans that killed at least 14 people could add new security measures to the GOP agenda. Gallego was a longtime member of the House Natural Resources Committee. In the Senate, the committee offers an opportunity to advocate for water security in Arizona and the Southwest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gallego will succeed retiring Sen. Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz., who steps down after one term. She was a member of the Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs committees that Gallego will now join. She also was a member of the Appropriations and Commerce committees. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ruben Gallego's Senate committee assignments include Homeland Security KNOXVILLE, Iowa A Knoxville man has been arrested in connection to the death of an infant in September. 30-year-old Jacob Burns was arrested on Tuesday and is charged with child endangerment resulting in death, neglect of a dependent person, and possession of drug paraphernalia. According to court documents, on September 30, 2024, the Marion County Sheriffs Office was called to 1130 180th Avenue on reports of an unresponsive three-week-old infant. Police arrived on scene and made contact with Jacob Burns, 30, and Lacey Eiteman, the biological mother of the infant. Burns and Eiteman were the guardians of the infant. The infant was confirmed dead inside an outdoor shed that had been converted into living quarters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DMPD report 10% increase in calls during New Years Eve The investigation found that Burns and Eiteman were under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine on September 29th, 2024, and into the early morning hours of September 30, 2024. Burns and Eiteman fell asleep in bed with the infant, Burns woke up and found the infant lying between them unresponsive and not breathing. The infant had multiple bruises on their body. Authorities located methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia on the scene. Eiteman admitted she and Burns consumed methamphetamine and alcohol on September 29, 2024. Blood samples taken from Eiteman and Burns tested positive for methamphetamine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Burns is being held at the Marion County Jail on a $35,000 bond. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. (Bloomberg) -- Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon pleaded not guilty to US fraud charges tied to the $40 billion collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin. Most Read from Bloomberg Kwon, 33, entered his plea Thursday before a US Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger in Manhattan. Through his lawyer, Kwon agreed to be held without bail. He faces nine counts, including wire, securities and commodities fraud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The former cryptocurrency moguls New York court appearance capped a nearly two-year drama over whether Kwon would first be prosecuted in the US or his native South Korea. He was extradited to the US earlier this week by authorities in Montenegro, where Kwon was arrested in March 2023 for traveling on a fake passport. Prosecutors in both New York and Seoul have charged Kwon in connection with the implosion of Singapore-based Terraforms TerraUSD, which shook the crypto world in the spring of 2022. The downturn that followed played a role in the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Kwon, who owned 92% of Terraform, will be prosecuted by the Manhattan US attorneys office, which also prosecuted FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other major crypto figures. Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven criminal counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison. According to US prosecutors, Kwon deceived investors about aspects of the Terra blockchain, including its technology and the extent to which it had been adopted by users. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His lawyer had no comment after the hearing. A conference in the case was scheduled for Jan. 8. Kwon had already been a fugitive from South Korean charges for months when he and Terraforms former chief financial officer were caught trying to board a Dubai-bound private jet at the airport in Montenegros capital, Podgorica. Both men were convicted and sentenced to four months in prison for traveling with forged documents. He was charged in New York immediately after his arrest in Montenegro, setting off the tug-of-war with South Korea. Though Montenegros justice minister sought to send him to the US, an important security partner for the tiny Balkan nation, a number of courts ruled in favor of South Koreas request. Kwon himself argued that he should be sent to South Korea, where penalties for financial crimes are typically less severe. While Kwon was confined in Montenegro, a jury in New York last year found him and Terraform liable in a civil fraud suit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. After the verdict, Terraform agreed to pay $4.47 billion to resolve the SEC case, though the company has since filed for bankruptcy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case is US v. Terraform Labs, 23-cr-01346, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). (Updates with plea and background. A previous version of this story corrected the date in the second paragraph.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. From the familiar political book entitled we told you so comes another depressing tale: the impact of reforms and new regulations on the rental market. The war on landlords, which began under the Conservatives, and has been taken up with alacrity by the Labour Government, is having precisely the predicted destructive ramifications. So desperate have ministers been to curry favour with tenants that they have tipped the regulatory balance so far that landlords who bought a house to supplement their income or pension are pulling out of the market rather than be suffocated by the new rules. The Government is about to get rid of assured shorthold tenancies, which let landlords set an end date on rental periods and evict troublesome tenants with two months notice. This removes an important protection for owners that they can get their property back. Landlords will also be required to give an extra months notice, labelled as another months free rent for non-paying tenants. Time limits will be imposed on how long landlords have to fix hazards in homes, giving them 14 days for investigation, and a further seven days to fix the problem. In addition, rental properties will need to meet net-zero energy saving targets by 2030, which could cost up to 10,000 per property. Landlords who have also been taxed more have unsurprisingly lost confidence in the future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Labour may want tenants to get a better deal but if the result is fewer houses to rent this is ultimately a self-defeating strategy pursued for ideological reasons. The exodus of owners from the market will reduce properties for rent, push up prices and worsen homelessness. This is exacerbated by the failure to build enough homes, with few imagining that Labour will be any more successful in this regard than their predecessors. The Government was warned, but didnt listen. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. SAN DIEGO (Border Report) In recent weeks, a new type of migrant has been streaming into the city of Tijuana, and predominately from the Mexican state of Sinaloa. They are university students. Albert Rivera, who runs the Agape Shelter, says he is seeing more and more large groups of college students showing up at his and other facilities seeking refuge from the violence in Culiacan, Sinaloas capital city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are getting more people from Sinaloa, especially university students, said Rivera. Since September, factions within the Sinaloa cartel have been fighting for control and have made cities, such as Culiacan, incredibly dangerous for people out on the streets and roadways. Hundreds have been killed and most people avoid going outside unless it is necessary. Just about every business and restaurant has suffered stifling losses due to the violence, leaving many bankrupt or on the brink of it. Migrants allegedly beat Mexican agent to death The students, like many, have fled. They are having problems and difficulties with the lack of security and safety said Rivera. Most students say they will take classes online as much as they can and dont have intentions of crossing the border into the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rivera admits some of the students are contemplating asking for asylum. Most want to stick it out and see if the situation gets better back home, but if it seems unlikely, they will consider their options including crossing the border. Others, according to Rivera, are arriving in Tijuana to avoid contact with cartels. Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border A lot of the young men are fleeing recruitment by cartels that have been forcing people into their criminal organizations, this is happening throughout Central America and Mexico including Sinaloa, he said. They are taking boys as young as 14 and 15 by force, and that is scaring a lot of families, forcing them to leave. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) The Virginia Beach Police Department said a joint investigation with Homeland Security Investigations agents led to the largest single methamphetamine seizure in department history. Photo courtesy VBPD illustrates the magnitude of this seizure. Also pictured: NDC Luna. They seized 156 pounds of methamphetamine during a November vehicle search in Virginia Beach, police said. On Nov. 7, VBPD officers working with Homeland Security Investigations agents approached 54-year-old Alonzo Harden Jr., of St. Paul, Minnesota. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Narcotics detection canine Luna detected the presence of illegal narcotics in the suspects vehicle that was parked in the 4400 block of Bonney Road, police said. A search of the vehicle led to the discovery of two large bags with approximately 156 pounds of methamphetamine in the trunk, police said, with an estimated street value of $350,000. Very rarely do we get a chance to highlight this type of case on social media, said Michelle Meister, commanding officer of the Virginia Beach Police Departments Special Investigation Bureau. And what I was really impressed with was the response we received from the community. We had citizens thanking us for what we do. Alonzo Harden Jr. (Photo provided by VBPD) Harden Jr. was arrested on the following charges: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Possession with Intent to distribute methamphetamine (3rd offense) Possession of a Schedule I/II controlled substance Possession of a concealed firearm Felon in possession of a firearm Possession of a firearm while in possession of a Schedule I/II substance Transporting a Schedule I/II substance with intent to distribute into the Commonwealth The philosophy behind where our paradigm shift has come with this type of investigation and this type of impact we have on the community, Meister said, were looking at more of a holistic approach. Weve realized in law enforcement and specifically in Virginia Beach, that we cant arrest and incarcerate our way out of this problem. This seizure represents a major step forward in disrupting the methamphetamine distribution networks operating in the Hampton Roads area, said Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate in a news release. The significant quantity of methamphetamine seized during this operation will prevent the distribution of thousands of doses of the dangerous drug, potentially saving lives and protecting the community. Our collaboration with [Homeland Security Investigations agents] was critical in the success of this operation, and we are committed to continuing to work together to keep our community safe from the dangers of illegal drugs. Kai Wah Chan, Homeland Security Investigations Washington, D.C. acting special agent in charge, said the record-breaking seizure demonstrates the power of collaboration between federal and local law enforcement. HSI is committed to disrupting the flow of dangerous drugs into our communities and protecting public safety, Chan said. By working together with our partners at the Virginia Beach Police Department, weve delivered a major blow to a drug trafficking network that threatened the well-being of families in Hampton Roads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Chesapeake Police Department was also involved in this joint investigation. While this is a big win for the department, they are back to work as usual looking to stop more drugs from coming into Hampton Roads. These are major drug trafficking areas that we are proactive of using our interdiction skills and our expertise to get out in front of this and to make sure that we are at least disrupting as much as possible drug trafficking into this area, Meister said. 10 On Your Side reached out to Harden for an interview, but he declined. The investigation remains ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. Above: Oct. 22 from Elizabeth Alvarez for FOX 5 on Las Cuatro Milpas rumored closing. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) A beloved Mexican eatery in Barrio Logan whose rumored closing spurred a frenzy online has been shut down temporarily by county officials after a number of health code violations were uncovered during a routine inspection. Las Cuatro Milpas was ordered closed by health inspectors just before New Years Eve due to the reported presence of vermin and a lack of compliance with standards for plumbing and safe storage of equipment, among other things, county records show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Specifically, the restaurant was knocked for being out of step with standards on nonfood contact surfaces; equipment, utensils, linens storage and use; plumbing; vermin-proofing the premises; and maintenance of floors, walls and ceilings. Border X Brewing facing closure after more than a decade Previous inspections in recent had flagged some of these same issues, but still gave the eatery A scores, according to the county health records. Further details about what exactly health inspectors found when looking at the restaurant were not provided. The humble restaurant has been a mainstay of Barrio Logan since the 1930s, when it was founded by the grandparents of one of the current owners, Sofia Estudillo. Over the years, the joint has become a go-to for many seeking no-frills, old school Mexican food. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The restaurants popularity and tenure in the community gave way to a wave of concern following a report that claimed it was set to close permanently in the New Year. While Estudillo disputed the rumor, its future remains uncertain amid tough financial headwinds. As the San Diego Union-Tribune reported in October, the restaurant was facing a potential property auction due to about $50,000 in delinquent property taxes. The closure due to health code violations could pose another economic obstacle for Las Cuatro Milpas, as it is unclear when the county may allow it to open its doors again. These kinds of compelled closures often only remain in place until the restaurant can rectify the issues found when the first inspection occurred a period of time that could last anywhere from a few days to weeks, depending on the severity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOX 5/KUSI reached out to the daughter of Estudillo for more information on the temporary closure, but did not hear back from the time of publication. San Diego housing prices were down in December compared to 2023 When a FOX 5/KUSI went to the restaurant Thursday, their phone inside could be heard ringing repeatedly. It has obviously been around for so long. Its been a pillar of the community, its a place thats very loved by so many people, a visitor who was disappointed to see Las Cuatro Milpas Thursday after she went to Barrio Logan to try their food told FOX 5/KUSI. However, she chalked the closure up to procedure, rather than bona fide safety concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A long-time patron of the Mexican eatery, Derrick Temple, similarly told FOX 5/KUSI said he was shocked the restaurant was having any issues with health code compliance, but said he plans to return as soon as they are reopened. Ive never had a problem with the food, never gotten sick here or anything, Temple said. Ive been eating here for many, many years off and on, so Ill come back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. (NewsNation) The decorated Army soldier who drove a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel suffered a gunshot wound to the head before the massive blast, officials said Thursday. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man whos been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted. Livelsberger, an Army soldier from Colorado, served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He was active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, according to an Army spokesperson. He then joined the National Guard from March 2011 through July 2012. After that, Livelsberger was in the Army Reserve until December 2012, when he entered active duty as an Army Special Operations soldier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on approved leave at the time of his death. USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations, the spokesperson said. He served at the same military base as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man suspected of intentionally driving into a crowd in New Orleans, killing 15, but the FBI says theres no definitive link between the two. McMahill did acknowledge some of the similarities in both cases, such as the use of the Turo app to rent the vehicles in both incidents. Both subjects served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, McMahill said. What we do know about that is its a very large military base, and we have no record that they served in the same unit or even [during] the same years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both men also served in Afghanistan in 2009, he added, but investigators dont yet know if they were in the same location or the same unit. Matthew Livelsberger identified as driver in Cybertruck explosion Livelsberger died and seven others were injured as a result of the explosion at the entrance of the Las Vegas Trump International Hotel on Wednesday morning. A Tesla Cybertruck caught fire at the entrance of Trump Intl Tower in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (Credit: Alcides Antunes) Police said the act was intentional. Gas canisters, camping fuel and firework mortars were found in the bed of the truck after the fire was extinguished, McMahill said. However, police did not find any devices that would have been used to ignite the explosion, and are unsure at this time how it ignited. What we know about the Cybertruck explosion at Las Vegas Trump Hotel Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge for the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at Thursdays press conference that the initial investigation has determined that the fireworks were consumer grade and there is currently no evidence of any fuel enhancers. The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience, Cooper said. Among other charred items found inside the truck were a second firearm, a number of fireworks, passport, military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch, McMahill said. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally. Investigators have not definitively identified the remains as Livelsberger, but the IDs and tattoos on the body give a strong indication that its him, the sheriff said. Cybertruck explodes outside Trump Las Vegas hotel Video footage of the incident shows the truck parked next to the hotels front doors as it bursts into flames, exploding fireworks visible amid the blast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said Thursday that the force of the explosion sort of vented out and up, and didnt destroy the sides of the vehicle nor the nearby glass doors of the Trump hotel. I also know that theres a number of unexploded pieces of the things that he had inside of that vehicle, and so I just dont think that it was done as well as he was expecting, he added. Authorities said Thursday that Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on December 28. Investigators were able to track his movements using information from Tesla charging stations as the vehicle recharged in Monument, Colorado, on Dec. 30, then in Trinidad, Colorado; Las Vegas; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Gallup, New Mexico Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, the Cybertruck was charged in Arizona at stations in Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman before it was first spotted in Las Vegas at 7:29 a.m. Wednesday. We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families, a Turo spokesperson said in a statement. We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FBI Acting Special Agent-In-Charge Jeremy Schwartz said the car explosion was an isolated incident and that there is no threat to the public. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. The suspected driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded Wednesday outside the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head prior to the blast, officials confirmed in a press briefing Thursday. The Clark County Coroner identified the driver of the vehicle in this incident as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Thursday. His cause of death was as a result of an intraoral gunshot wound by suicide. No one else suffered serious injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prior to his official identification, officials found overwhelming evidence -- including credit cards in his name, similar tattoos, Livelsberger purchasing the weapons in the truck and an ID card -- pointing to him as the individual. The fire and explosion slowed the identification process because of the physical injuries sustained by the driver, officials said. PHOTO: Police shared this photo of Matthew Livelsberger during a press conference. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) An active-duty Army soldier, Livelsberger shot himself in the head prior to the explosion and a gun was found at his feet, according to Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Two guns -- one handgun and one rifle, which were found in the vehicle "burnt beyond recognition" -- had been purchased legally on Monday. MORE: What we know about Cybertruck explosion suspect Matthew Livelsberger Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After renting the vehicle in Denver on Saturday, Livelsberger drove through various cities in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, officials said, noting that his location was tracked through Tesla charging stations. The vehicle first pulled into the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel valet area just after 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. It then left the area, driving along Las Vegas Boulevard, before returning to the valet area at about 8:39 a.m., exploding 17 seconds after his arrival. The driver was the only fatality from the incident. Seven bystanders had minor injuries, authorities said. PHOTO: The remains of a Tesla Cybertruck that burned at the entrance of Trump Tower are inspected in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 1, 2025. (Ronda Churchill/Reuters) Livelsberger served as a Green Beret in the Army and was on approved leave from serving in Germany at the time of his death, a U.S. Army spokesperson said Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He received extensive decorations in combat, including the Bronze Star with a "V" device for valor, indicating heroism under fire. Livelsberger received four more standard Bronze Star medals, according to Army records. He also earned the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with three stars. Each star represents service in a separate campaign in Afghanistan. The Las Vegas incident is not believed to have any direct connection to the New Year's Day truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people -- as well as the suspect -- and injured 35 others, according to the FBI. Like the truck used in the New Orleans attack, the Cybertruck was also rented with the Turo app, officials said. "At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas," the FBI's Christopher Raia said Thursday morning at a press conference on the New Orleans attack. MORE: What we know about Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in the New Orleans attack Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two drivers may have overlapped at Fort Liberty or in Afghanistan, though no evidence suggests the two ever were assigned together or knew each other, McMahill said. President Joe Biden, in remarks Thursday, said federal investigators have not any evidence of a connection between the attacks but said he had directed them to keep looking. Livelsberger was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, an official briefed on the probe told ABC News. His wife, who investigators spoke to in Colorado Springs, said he had been out of the house since around Christmas after a dispute over allegations of infidelity, the official said. PHOTO: Matthew Livelsberger in his LinkedIn profile photo. (LinkedIn) MORE: New Orleans attack latest: Police don't believe any other suspects involved, FBI says Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His wife told officials she did not believe Livelsberger would want to hurt anyone, the official told ABC News. Livelsberger is believed to have told the person he rented the truck from that he was going camping at the Grand Canyon, the official told ABC News. MORE: Las Vegas police looking for links between Cybertruck blast and New Orleans attack Investigators are still looking to determine how the items in the truck were detonated, but with the contents of the vehicle so badly burned, it may be a slow process, according to the official. The sheriff said Tesla CEO Elon Musk helped the investigation by having the truck unlocked after it auto-locked in the blast and by giving investigators video of the suspect at charging stations along its route from Colorado to Las Vegas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said police believe the explosion was an "isolated incident" and that "there is no further threat to the community." He also said police do not believe anyone was helping the Las Vegas suspect. PHOTO: Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. (Alcides Antunes via Reuters) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We believe everything is safe now," McMahill said. Video played at the Las Vegas news conference showed a load of fireworks-style mortars, gasoline cans and camping fuel canisters in the back of the truck. The property is the subject of frequent threats and heightened security given its connection to Trump. Suspect in Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion was Army member on leave originally appeared on abcnews.go.com (COLORADO) The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck which burst in flames outside President-elect Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel has been identified to be a U.S. Army soldier from Colorado, according to News Nation. On Wednesday, Jan. 1, the driver, identified as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, parked his rented Cybertruck next to the hotels front doors which then exploded. The explosion left seven injured and according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), the driver had a gunshot wound prior to the explosion and it is believed to be self-inflicted. Inside the car, police found, gas canisters, camping fuel, and firework mortars after the fire was extinguished. Police also found multiple firearms that were burned beyond recognition according to Kevin McHall, LVMPD Sheriff. Police confirmed the act was intentional, while the FBI said the car explosion was an isolated incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McHall was also able to confirm he drove from Colorado to Las Vegas, making several stops along the way that were tracked with Teslas charging stations. Livelsberger was a decorated Army soldier and had served since 2006 according to an Army spokesperson. Livelsberger was a Master Sergeant enlisted as an 18X, better known as a Special Forces candidate or Green Beret, one of the most highly skilled soldiers per the Armys website. The spokesperson said Livelsberger served active duty until March 2011. Livelsberger then joined the National Guard from March 2011 to July 2012, followed by the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012, the spokesperson said. He entered the active duty Army in December 2012 and was a U.S. Army Special Operations Soldier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the FBI spokesperson, Livelsberger was assigned to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said that he was on approved leave from Germany at the time of his death. USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations, the spokesperson said. Livelsberger owned multiple properties in Colorado Springs, including a condo home off Uintah Street in Colorado Springs, and had a mailing address at an apartment complex near Galley Road and Powers according to the El Paso County Assessor website. Several law enforcement agencies including the Denver Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives; and the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) were also on scene at a community of townhomes near Stetson Hills Boulevard and Marksheffel Road late on Wednesday, Jan 1, and into Thursday, Jan. 2. The FBI confirmed the activity was related to the explosion in Las Vegas. FOX21s crew on the scene confirmed that at around 11 a.m., several vehicles left the scene with what appeared to be an evidence trailer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Neighbors told FOX21 News that Livelsberger had a wife, and a baby. FOX21 News will update this article when more information becomes available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) The driver who set off an explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Years Day was an active duty soldier who shot himself before the detonation, officials said Thursday. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the driver had a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle, adding one of the handguns found was at his feet inside of the vehicle. LVMPD provides a photo from the drivers license for Matthew Alan Livelsberger, the person identified as renting the Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Las Vegas Trump International Hotel on Jan. 1, 2025. (Credit: LVMPD) On Thursday afternoon, officials from the Clark County coroners office confirmed Matthew Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was the driver. The office deemed his cause of death as an intraoral gunshot wound, meaning a gunshot wound that occurs in the mouth. Officials said his manner of death was suicide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Multiple sources identified Livelsberger as a person of interest late Wednesday. He was an active member of the U.S. Armys special forces. During a news conference Thursday morning before the coroners ruling, McMahill said he was awaiting further DNA confirmation before saying Livelsberger was the driver who parked in the front of the hotel with a truck bed full of gasoline canisters and firework mortars. His body is burnt beyond recognition, and I still do not have confirmation 100% that that was the individual inside our vehicle, McMahill said at the time. McMahill acknowledged there was substantial evidence that the driver was Livelsberger because his passport, military identification and credit cards were found in the Cybertruck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are two tattoos, one of which was on the stomach and one of which is on the arm, and we can see bits and places of it as in comparison to what we know he had on his body that has given us a lot of confidence that this is in fact the same person, McMahill said. Later on Thursday, the Coroners office confirmed that Livelsberger, a Green Beret special operations master sergeant who was on approved leave in Colorado Springs according to Army officials, was the driver of the vehicle that exploded at Trump International Hotel on Wednesday. Las Vegas police released a photo of the tattoo on the arm of Matthew Livelsberger that appears to match a tattoo found on the driver of the Cybertruck. (LVMPD) Police said he rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28, 2024. Investigators tracked his movements through Tesla charging stations as he made his way to Las Vegas where he arrived on Jan 1. The truck was first spotted by surveillance video in Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m. Shortly afterward, a camera captured the truck driving through the valet area by the entrance of the hotel and leaving. The Cybertruck was tracked through surveillance video as it moved along the Las Vegas Strip and stopped for some time in a business parking lot at Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard before returning to the hotel around 8:40 a.m. 17 seconds before the explosion. A photo of a gun almost burnt beyond recognition found in the aftermath of the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (LVMPD) A photo of the passport of Matthew Livelsberger, 37, found in the aftermath of the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (LVMPD) A photo of a gun almost burnt beyond recognition found in the aftermath of the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (LVMPD) Photo shows fireworks and other debris found inside the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (LVMPD) Police provided a map showing the Tesla charging stations that Matthew Livelsberger stopped at en route to Las Vegas. (LVMPD) A photo shows the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Fashion Show Drive at around 7:45 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2025. (LVMPD) Security camera footage shows the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas drive through the hotel valet approximately an hour before the explosion on Jan. 1, 2025. (LVMPD) A photo of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (LVMPD) LVMPD provides a photo from the drivers license for Matthew Alan Livelsberger, the person identified as renting the Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Las Vegas Trump International Hotel on Jan. 1, 2025. (Credit: LVMPD) The FBI was working to determine a motive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not lost on us that its in front of the Trump building, that its a Tesla vehicle, FBI Las Vegas Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans said. We dont have information at this point that definitely tells us that it was because of this particular ideology or any of the reasoning behind it. The ATF was working to determine how Livelsberger detonated the explosives amid dying by suicide. McMahill said there were several similarities to the attack in New Orleans on the same day including that both men rented their trucks from Turo, a company that allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles via an app. 1 dead, 7 injured in explosion involving Cybertruck at Las Vegas Trump International Hotel in intentional act Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both of the subjects served at North Bragg, North Carolina, McMahill said. What we do know about that is that its a very large military base and we have no record that they served in the same unit or even the same years. I also know that they served in Afghanistan in 2009. We dont have any evidence they were in the same province, the same location, or the same unit. The FBI asked anyone with information to call them at 800-CALL-FBI. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. Las Vegas police said the suspect who died inside a Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday had sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the explosion that destroyed the vehicle and injured seven people. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill released more information about the explosion in a press conference Thursday, saying that inside the Cybertruck, authorities found fuel, fireworks, two semi-automatic firearms and identification that belonged to 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colo. Now, further complicating this identification of this individual, we also discovered through the coroners office that the individual had sustained a gunshot wound through the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle, McMahill said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the two guns, both of which were registered in Livelsbergers name, was found near the drivers feet in the Cybertruck. McMahill said the individual was burnt beyond recognition but is believed to be Livelsberger, though DNA testing is not yet done. Kenny Cooper the assistant special agent leading the San Francisco Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its too early to tell if the materials inside the Cybertruck were intended to ignite a larger explosion. The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience, Cooper said. Most of the materials inside that Tesla were fuel to help fuel a greater explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An Army spokesperson confirmed to The Hill that Livelsberger was a master sergeant who served active duty in the Army from January 2006 to March 2011. He then joined the National Guard, followed by the Army Reserve. After the explosion, police tracked the rented Cybertrucks movements through Tesla charging stations across Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The investigation is ongoing, and no motive is currently known. The explosion raised concerns of political violence and a potential connection to the terror attack in New Orleans that occurred just hours earlier. A man, identified as Texas-resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar, rammed a pickup truck down Bourbon Street, killing 15 and injuring many more. His truck and the surrounding area had explosives, and he was carrying an ISIS flag. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Las Vegas police confirmed that both men were affiliated with the Army, having been stationed at North Carolinas Fort Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty, and having been deployed to Afghanistan. They both used the rental company Turo to rent the vehicles in the attacks. Police have emphasized that its not known if the two incidents were related or if the men were affiliated with each other. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Guests staying at the Trump International Hotel were forced to evacuate Wednesday morning after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded at the main entrance, killing one person and injuring seven others. Many guests 8 News Now spoke to said they left their belongings behind and complained that there wasnt a clear evacuation plan from hotel staff. Las Vegas Metro Police Department set up an evacuation zone for Trump tower guests near Las Vegas and Genting boulevards. There were several RTC buses parked along Genting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, 8 News Now saw a long line of people rolling luggage and carrying backpacks. The crowd dissipated by 2 p.m. We were actually just sleeping and we just heard two loud explosions and woke up. It basically shook the hotel, Adam Bellman of West Virginia said. 1 dead, 7 injured in Tesla fire, explosion at Las Vegas Trump International Hotel in intentional act Bellman was staying on the 24th floor of Trump International with his girlfriend, and they left their belongings back in the hotel room. We have no information about if we can get back to our hotel room. When we can get back to our room, and thats about it. Were kind of just sitting here waiting, Bellman said. Las Vegas Trump Intl Hotel guests being evacuated following vehicle fire and explosion on Jan. 1, 2025. (KLAS) Bellman wasnt the only one confused about what was next. Other guests said they were rushed out and werent presented with the option to stay at Resorts World. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My dad came in saying there was an article about an explosion at the hotel, and then probably ten minutes later we heard like an alarm saying to evacuate the building and then everyone started freaking out, Simon Fernandez, who is visiting with his family from Houston, said. Angel Anento was visiting from Colombia and hadnt heard the explosion. I feel pretty calm. My mom was very scared. My family was very scared, but I feel all right. I mean they just told us to leave, Anento said. A couple visiting from Germany also left their belongings in their hotel room. The problem was that Wednesday was their wedding day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We couldnt get back in to get our clothing for the wedding and we also dont have our passports, and anything, Ian Rasshofer said. The soon-to-be bride and groom had wedding bells planned for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Bliss Chapel in the Arts District. They revealed in a text message that the wedding did happen as planned. Guests told 8 News Now that they were allowed back into the property around 6 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. Investigators have identified Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, as the suspect who intentionally rammed his vehicle into New Orleans revelers early on New Years Day. Jabbar, a U.S Army veteran from Texas, is accused of plowing a pickup truck into crowds around 3:15 a.m. on Bourbon Street, killing at least 10 people and injuring 35 more. He died during a shootout with police, officials said. Live updates: FBI believes driver in New Orleans attack wasnt solely responsible, IEDs found in vehicle Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials said he drove onto a sidewalk, bypassing a police car that had been parked to block cars from accessing pedestrians celebrating on Bourbon Street, before slamming into a crowd of revelers. Witnesses described a terrifying and bloody scene as people attempted to jump out of the way or take cover in nearby bars. We heard the truck barrel by as more people piled in, said New Orleans resident Jimmy Cothran, who watched the carnage unfold from a nightclub balcony. According to preliminary information, Jabbar had a black flag affixed to the hitch of the pickup truck he allegedly drove into the crowd. Officials are investigating whether that flag is related to the terrorist group ISIS and any connections he had with terrorist organizations. Shamsud Din Jabbar. The incident is being investigated both as a terrorist attack and a crime scene, federal and local officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were leaning in. We will be relentless, and we will do everything that it takes to render real justice, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said during a news conference. New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said Jabbar drove onto the sidewalk and around a hard target which included officers, barriers and a car to carry out the attack. The pickup truck that authorities say he drove into unsuspecting revelers appears to have been a rented F-150 Lightning truck, according to photos from the aftermath of the incident. Car-sharing marketplace Turo said that the vehicle in the attack was rented from its company. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI, which is leading the investigation, said weapons and potential improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were located in the suspects car and in the French Quarter. Officials are looking into at least two improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that may have been planted near the incident area to see if those were actual explosive devices and if they were operable. Investigators do not believe Jabbar was solely responsible for the attack and have asked for the publics assistance. Were aggressively running down all of the leads to identify this, the possible subjects, associates, were working to ensure that there is no further threat, Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs New Orleans field office, told reporters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Texas criminal records, Jabbar had previously been charged in 2002 for a misdemeanor theft and in 2005 for driving with an invalid license. FBI officials said he may have been honorably discharged from the Army. Civil records show Jabbar was married twice, with his first marriage ending in 2012. A petition for a second divorce was initiated in 2021. A woman who identified herself as Jabbars sister-in-law and asked to not be named said relatives in Texas were in shock when they heard the news. It dont make no sense, she said. Hes the nicest person Ive ever known. I really dont know what happened, she added. He was a good man. He takes care of his children and everything. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said some family members were heading from Texas to New Orleans. Federal officials and local law enforcement in New Orleans are investigating if Din Jabbar used a long-gun rifle and fired it into the crowd as he ran people over, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News. Please join me in praying for the victims and their families, as well as our first responders, in the wake of this horrific act of violence on Bourbon Street, said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., in a post on X. This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com. This story is developing. Check back for more updates. This article was originally published on TODAY.com NEW YORK Law enforcement agents raided the home of a former New York Police Department official Thursday, marking the latest instance of federal prosecutors probing a friend and ally of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Early in his tenure Adams tapped Jeffrey Maddrey as the NYPDs chief of department, the highest uniformed position that comes with oversight of the agencys day-to-day activities. Last month, Maddrey abruptly stepped down from his post after explosive allegations he sexually assaulted an underling in exchange for granting her enormous amounts of overtime pay. On Thursday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said officials are now looking into the former cop and that he had been officially suspended. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At my direction, the Internal Affairs Bureau of the New York City Police Department is working with law enforcement authorities to investigate allegations against former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, Tisch said in a statement. Maddrey was suspended from the Department this morning, as law enforcement agents executed search warrants at several locations, including his residence. Tisch directed further questions to the U.S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of New York. A spokesperson, Nicholas Biase, declined to comment on the raids. An FBI New York spokesperson confirmed that agents carried out court authorized law enforcement activity at Maddreys home in Rosedale, Queens on Thursday. The citys Department of Investigation is also involved in the probe, according to a person familiar with the matter, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. Maddreys attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Maddrey has denied he sexually assaulted a woman working for him, saying the relationship was consensual. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, however, City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus distanced the mayor from his longtime friend. As Mayor Adams has said, the allegations against former Chief Maddrey are deeply disturbing, she said. The mayor is working in close coordination with Police Commissioner Tisch as the NYPD conducts its investigation. Maddrey had submitted his resignation and put in for retirement on Dec. 20, but was still going to get paid for 30 days under standard department practice, Mamelak Altus said. His suspension means he will not be paid. The Adams administration has been beset by law enforcement raids for more than a year. And the mayor himself is set to stand trial on federal bribery charges in April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Agents have combed through the homes of many of the mayors closest confidantes and have taken a special interest in his picks to lead the police department. A former commissioner, the former deputy mayor for public safety, Adams senior adviser for public safety and now Maddrey have all left after law enforcement probes into their conduct. That hollowing out of NYPD leadership all of them longtime friends of the mayor who were handpicked for the job comes just as Adams must gear up for reelection after promising to effectively manage the nations largest police department. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) Three people are suing Tennessee government officials over a law that forbids some foreign individuals and entities from owning land in Tennessee. The law in question prevents people, businesses and other groups residing in certain foreign countries considered to be adversarial to the United States, from owning land in Tennessee. If they already own that land, the law forces them to divest themselves of it. Oak Ridge woman found dead in Kingsport Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This law took effect Wednesday January 1. Stephen Misch, Jason Vance, Alessandro Silvestroni, and the company Walton Tennessee, LLC are suing Tennessee officials Jonathan Skrmetti, Tre Hargett and Charlie Hatcher. This law was sparked over concerns of Chinese entities buying land in Tennessee. Tennessee Representative Jason Zachary said that Walton Tennessee LLC is a shell company. Loudon County Mayor Buddy Bradshaw spoke about a particular section of land owned by Walton Tennessee: I think the biggest concern for Loudon County, of course, is our location to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Theres also a dedicated hardline that runs through that property from north to south all the way into Washington D.C. and into New York, the banking district, and so these lands are valuable. Certainly were no friend of China and China is no friend of ours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Walton Tennessee Civil LawsuitDownload Walton Tennessee said this law criminalizes their business model. In their lawsuit, they allege that the new rules unconstitutionally create criminal liability without due process, criminalize previously lawful behavior, and ban owning an interest in agricultural and/or non-agricultural land based on national origin. Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion driver identified as active-duty soldier from Colorado: Sources The lawsuit also alleges that certain parts the law are unconstitutionally vague, and that it unconstitutionally require[s] Prohibited Owners to incriminate themselves and unconstitutionally permits the State to take land through escheatment without just compensation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit also said that the new law is impliedly preempted by federal law. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) A panel of lawmakers whose responsibilities include looking into state government corruption wants to issue a new set of subpoenas ordering top officials at the South Dakota Department of Revenue to meet with them. The 2024 version of the Legislatures Government Operations and Audit Committee decided during a Thursday teleconference to subpoena for a second time Revenue Secretary Michael Houdyshell and the departments division director of motor vehicles, Rosa Yaeger. Robbery at truck stop leaves employee injured Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GOAC members had issued subpoenas to Houdyshell and Yaeger to appear at a December 11 meeting of the committee. But a lawyer from the state Attorney Generals staff filed a motion on behalf of the two officials in circuit court to quash, or block, the subpoenas. The committee then canceled the December 11 meeting. The lawmakers on Thursday voted 9-1 to adopt a recommendation from Republican Sen. David Wheeler that Houdyshell and Yaeger be required to appear before the 2025 version of the committee on April 1, after the conclusion of the 2025 legislative session. Only two of the 10 lawmakers currently on the 2024 version of the committee will be returning as members of the 2025 version. One of them is Republican Rep. Ernie Otten, who chairs the 2024 panel. He won election to the Senate in November. I have no intentions of letting this slide, Otten said on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2025 version of the committee will have House members Marty Overweg, Scott Moore, Julie Auch, Eric Emery and Karla Lems and Senate members Taffy Howard, Red Dawn Foster, Chris Karr, Otten and Wheeler. Howard and Overweg have been assigned as the 2025 versions co-chairs. Wheeler, a private attorney, said the new subpoenas would contain more detail as part of an attempt to counter any future attempt to quash them. Wheeler said he conferred with another lawyer from the state Attorney Generals office, Grant Flynn, who is now representing the Legislature in the matter. The Legislatures current Executive Board is scheduled to meet on Friday and decide whether to ratify that the new subpoenas can be issued. The board had ratified the original subpoenas to Houdyshell and Yaeger. One of the former Revenue employee accused of criminal acts, Lynne Hunsley of Pierre, pleaded guilty in circuit court on Monday to one count of forgery and one count of grand theft by deception. Her sentences of three years and one year in prison were suspended and she was instead ordered to serve three years of probation. She also was ordered to pay a combined fine of $1,000, plus $233 in court costs and $1,200 in restitution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another former Revenue employee, Danielle Degenstein of Pierre, remains charged with misprision of a felony because she allegedly knew a felony crime was being committed but didnt report it. Its a class one misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Republican Sen. Jean Hunhoff asked Wheeler on Thursday how the new subpoenas might be affected by the changing courtroom circumstances. Wheeler said South Dakota case law is scant regarding legislative subpoena authority. Theres not a lot of guidance we have, he said, adding that the matters involving Revenue might not be ripe until after April 1. Wheeler said the Legislature should continue to move forward on its investigation and do its proper role of oversight. That led Hunhoff to ask what happens if the criminal investigations involving Revenue are resolved by April 1. That would all come down to the Department of Revenue and how willing officials there are to voluntarily meet with the committee, Wheeler replied. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wheeler said there might still be a threat of civil litigation against Revenue. Thats possible because of the alleged actions by a third former employee, Sandy ODay, who allegedly was forging titles for fictitious vehicles that were in turn used as collateral for loans she obtained. She is now deceased. Its really up to them if they want to testify before us, Wheeler said. The Legislature established the state Board of Internal Control in 2016 at the request of South Dakotas previous governor, Dennis Daugaard. The board has been gradually working with various state offices and departments on assessing current controls and establishing stronger ones but hasnt yet made it through all of them for the first time. Republican Governor Kristi Noem recently hired a deputy state internal control officer and has requested two additional positions in her December budget proposal to the Legislature. Shes also ordered more training for state government employees. Attorney General Marty Jackley, a Republican, meanwhile has said he plans to ask the Legislature for more laws to enhance accountability, improve transparency, and better protect South Dakota taxpayers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All this comes at a time when Noem is expected to step down as governor in the coming weeks, after her confirmation as the federal homeland security secretary for the incoming administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. The current lieutenant governor, Republican Larry Rhoden, a long-time former legislator, would then become governor. Hunhoff and Democratic Rep. Linda Duba pressed the new GOAC panel to keep looking into how motor-vehicle titles were fraudulently issued, as well as the steps being taken to deter future instances of corruption throughout state government, and for ways that the Legislature can strengthen its subpoena authority. Neither Hunhoff nor Duba will return to the Legislature when the 2025 session starts January 14. I would only hope that this rises to a level that theres greater interest among the Legislature as to what those statutes need to be, so that if there are future occurrences that have occurred, that theres timeliness and access the Legislature has full authority over that process and gets the information, Hunhoff said. Duba said she would hate to see the incoming committee not go forward and needs to focus on the processes that were not in place or didnt work. I want this next committee to understand how the failures occurred and were doing that with this new subpoena, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The issue of process controls, according to Duba, also needs be considered regarding allegations of theft by a former Department of Social Services employee accused of stealing more than $1.7 million from the child protection services account and a former Department of Public Safety employee accused of falsifying inspection reports for the state Department of Health. Just because theyre settling out of court, we should not back away from process investigations. They should occur, Duba said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. CHEYENNE With less than a month until President-elect Donald Trumps second term begins, his campaign promise of eradicating the U.S. Department of Education has been gaining traction nationwide. In his Person of the Year interview with Time magazine, Trump reiterated his intent to virtually close the department, turning the schools back to the states. While many of his supporters responded positively to this campaign promise, the results could be incredibly damaging. The executive action could mean a myriad of things, depending on how successful Trump is in convincing Congress to act, according to several Wyoming lawmakers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a challenging question, first of all, because theres so much federal legislation thats wrapped up with the U.S. Department of Education, state Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, said. As the entity that implements that, I dont know how you just shut it down, and what that actually would mean. Reporting While the funding for things like special education programs comes from the federal government, most of Wyomings reporting in compliance with federal law to access those funds goes through the U.S. Department of Education. Should the department be successfully gutted, its unclear how that funding would be managed or to which department states would report, Wyoming lawmakers say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If tomorrow you just randomly made the U.S. Department of Education vanish, I dont know how those programs would be carried out, Rothfuss said. I dont know who we would report to. I dont know exactly how those funds would come back down to the state. Theres a lot of question marks and uncertainty, but what I do know is that we would still be obligated to follow all of the federal statutes that are in place. Education is already primarily a state and local responsibility in the U.S., according to the departments website. The federal role is to cover the gaps in funding that state agencies cannot handle or to step in when critical national needs arise. Whether the department exists or not, the state is still required to comply with federal statute, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. All this federal legislation that we have to comply with and our counterparts, according to federal statute, are in the U.S. Department of Education, so its not really very plausible to just make it suddenly go away, Rothfuss said. Because none of our obligations, as a state, are obviated by an executive action. We still have to follow IDEA (for example); we have to do it all, or were open to massive lawsuits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An unlikely act of Congress Dismantling the department would require an act of Congress, which is unlikely, several lawmakers told the WTE. I think that the frustration is justified at the federal level, Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, said. It is also not something that was declared in the Constitution, so therefore it should be a states rights issue. But what this also means is (Trump) does have to get congressional approval. Obtaining approval to shut down an entire federal agency will likely prove incredibly difficult, but it is possible. Its not going to be anything that happens anytime soon, Brown said. So it gives us, as a state, a little bit more time to understand what the implications would look like. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has promised a virtual closure. However, shutting the department down through Congress isnt the only way to weaken the department. If you want to accomplish something like that, youre going to have to act through Congress, and a lot of laws are going to have to be rewritten to comport with that reality, Rothfuss said. Now, what he can do, probably, is dramatically reduce the number of personnel and therefore efficiency of the U.S. Department of Education. I would anticipate a great deal of frustration on behalf of the state of Wyoming and all other states where we are obligated to engage with a department that would potentially be completely gutted and dysfunctional. A gutted department would be difficult to work with, according to Rothfuss. The state would not be able to carry out its job regarding special education and other heavily federally influenced programs. The state of Wyoming is going to foot a great big bill, state Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, said. Because we get millions and millions of dollars from the federal government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Freedom or limitation? While some are deeply concerned about the implications of gutting the department, others find the idea appealing, believing it would increase the freedom of the states to dictate educational standards. Regarding federal funding, I am very much looking forward to the Trump administration returning greater authority over education to the states, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder said in a statement. Money and authority in education should flow through directly to states, without edicts from the federal government. Here in Wyoming we already know that Washingtons one-size-fits-all approach doesnt work, Degenfelder continued. With President Trump as our partner, we can prioritize parental involvement, academic excellence and teachers over bureaucratic mandates, ensuring every dollar spent actually benefits the classroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many are frustrated with the state of education in Wyoming and the broader U.S. However, it is unlikely that dismantling the department alone would free states of their federal obligations. We have to comply with that law, whether the Department of Education is there or not, Rothfuss said. So this idea that the Trump administration can make the Department of Education go away and free all of the states from any federal educational requirements is delusional and naive. We follow federal law and are obligated to do so. Those wont go away without Congress taking action, and Congress seldom takes action. It is also unclear whether being free of these obligations would be beneficial to schools in Wyoming. Theres some things we might want to change and because of federal funding and the strings attached, Northrup said. But I think theres so much money thats involved with the federal funding that I dont know if its worth it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like many states, Wyoming receives significant federal funding for education, which is essential for special education programs and equitable education. The state also tends to receive more federal funds than it contributes in tax dollars. Historically, Wyoming always receives more money back than it pays in taxes, Brown said. Thats always been a very, very known fact. That would just be more money that were not getting back out of the taxes that we are paying. It would definitely be a culture shock to the state of Wyoming and the amount of money we receive for educational purposes. There are 23 federal units in the 2025-26 Wyoming Department of Education budget, according to WDE Chief Communications Officer Linda Finnerty. Those units include, but arent limited to, Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, Comprehensive Literacy State Development, Title I and special education funds, the Deaf/Blind Grant, Title III English Language Acquisition, homeless education, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and many more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the Department of Education doesnt determine the amount of federal funds that a state receives, it does help manage the distribution of those funds. It is also responsible for ensuring schools meet the federal standards to be eligible for these funds. Children with disabilities Regardless of the Department of Educations status, federal laws enforce Title I funding, the Every Student Succeeds Act and the IDEA. Parents and guardians of students in special education would likely be heavily impacted by gutting the department, Laramie County School District 1 parent Annie McGlothlin told the WTE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Children with disabilities come from all families, whether youre rich, poor, white, Black, Democrat, Republican, Independent, it doesnt matter, McGlothlin said. Children with disabilities need specific services in order to be able to be educated appropriately within the school system. McGlothlins grandson has dyslexia, and she has had to be incredibly vigilant with his independent education plan to ensure that LCSD1 complies with it, she told the WTE. My concern, obviously, is that there are different states where the services for disabled children are better than others, McGlothlin said. There are certain states where you have to fight more or fight less in order to get an appropriate and meaningful education. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Wyoming is one of those states that you have to (fight more). McGlothlin is concerned that should federal oversight of education be removed, so will the protections for students with disabilities or unique needs in education. Right to education Through case law and the state constitution, Wyoming has uniquely protected the right to education, a right established constitutionally prior to the U.S. Department of Educations creation in 1979. The 1995 Campbell County v. State of Wyoming case solidified the right to education in Wyoming, meaning regardless of Trumps actions, the state is on the hook for quality education to the best of its ability. The Campbell decision pretty much nails it down pretty hard and tells the Legislature what youre going to do with your money, Northrup said. Because it said, to the best of the ability of the state, and when youre putting money in savings, guess what? You certainly have the ability to pay for it. However, just because something has legal precedent behind it doesnt mean no violations of law occur. Education has been a hot topic in the past year, with parents across the state fighting school closures and advocating for several different visions of education through parental rights and book policies. If people have problems with federal education policy, its reasonable to protest those problems to the federal level, Rothfuss told the WTE. Communicate that with our federal delegation and try to get those statutes changed in a way that provides the state of Wyoming with more flexibility in education policy. Thats the rational approach here, Rothfuss said. Thats the non-reactionary approach to managing education concerns at the federal level. We would need Congress to actually make some changes, not just the president giving talking points and then waving a wand. A December 2024 view of the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) After a state department resisted an order requiring its leaders to speak with lawmakers about alleged crimes by former state employees, the lawmakers decided Thursday in Pierre to issue more specific subpoenas. The Legislatures Government Operations and Audit Committee approved the new subpoenas on a 9-1 vote. The committees subpoena motion calls for Department of Revenue Secretary Michael Houdyshell and Division of Motor Vehicles Director Rosa Yaeger to appear before the committee in a closed-door meeting April 1, after the upcoming legislative session. The lone no vote came from Sen. Dean Wink, R-Howes, who did not explain his vote during the meeting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Revenue did not immediately respond to a message Thursday from South Dakota Searchlight. Under the new subpoena language, Houdyshell and Yaeger would be required to answer questions about past and present policies governing employee conduct, document handling, and oversight procedures. Lawmakers also want details on changes made to the DMVs management structure and internal controls since the departure of Sandra ODay, a deceased former employee who allegedly created 13 fake vehicle titles to secure $400,000 in loans. Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, introduced the new subpoena motion. He said the revised language would better withstand judicial scrutiny. Basically, the purpose of this is to provide more detail, more specificity in the subpoena, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement None of the new details appeared in the prior subpoenas, which were brief documents that did little more than command Houdyshell and Yaeger to appear. The Department of Revenue is challenging the previous subpoenas in court. DMV trouble The subpoena motion focused on the operations of the DMV, including its organizational structure, electronic systems, and internal processes. It also calls for details regarding the investigation into ODay. ODay worked for the division for decades. After her death, her family found suspicious financial records that ultimately led the state Division of Criminal Investigation to discover ODays allegedly illegal behavior. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawmakers want to know how the investigation was conducted, any internal controls that ODay violated, any changes made specifically as a result of the investigation, and what documents were in her possession. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The subpoenas do not mention Lynne Hunsley, 64, of Pierre. She used her former position with the department to create a fake vehicle title that helped her avoid some excise taxes. She took a plea deal Monday and was sentenced to three years of probation and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $1,200 in restitution to the state. Nor does the order mention Danielle Degenstein, 51, of Pierre. She is charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly concealing her knowledge of a crime committed by a person identified in court documents only as S.O. a set of initials that matches ODays. Degenstein has pleaded not guilty. Effectiveness questioned At Thursdays meeting, Sen. Jean Hunhoff, R-Yankton, questioned whether scheduling a hearing for April signals a lack of urgency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wheeler said current and future court proceedings including any possible future appeals and lawsuits could take a significant amount of time. Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, listens to testimony during a Senate State Affairs Committee meeting on Jan. 17, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) I also think theres a decent likelihood that the April 1 date probably wont actually be the day that any meeting occurs, Wheeler said. Thats more or less a placeholder to ensure that we can issue a subpoena, that there is a meeting currently set. This is the process we have to go through to make sure we are continuing to move forward on the investigation and we as a legislature are doing our proper oversight duties, he added. The subpoena will be sent to the Legislative Research Council for review, and to the Legislatures Executive Board for final approval Friday. Given the boards unanimous vote on the prior subpoena, Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, R-Watertown, said he anticipates it will be quickly approved. Other cases pending Recently alleged criminal activity by state employees extends beyond the DMV. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In July, former Department of Social Services employee Lonna Carroll, 68, of Algona, Iowa, was accused of embezzling $1.8 million from the state by creating and approving fraudulent financial support orders for children over the course of 13 years. Her case is scheduled for a trial in April. Earlier this month, Attorney General Marty Jackley announced charges against former Department of Public Safety employee Renee Strong, 55, of Springfield, for allegedly forging and falsifying food-service health inspection records for inspections she never conducted. There have been no further proceedings so far in Strongs case. Jackley plans to propose legislation this winter to strengthen protections against state employee fraud. Gov. Kristi Noem recently responded to the string of charges by adding an extra internal control officer position to the executive branch and by ordering state employees to undergo annual training aimed at preventing criminal activity. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE New laws in Oregon that go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025 include drug use on public transit, consumer protections for electronic repairs and reduced prescription costs. (Amanda Loman/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Oregon is kicking off 2025 with new laws to stop drug use on public transportation, reduce the cost of prescription drugs and rein in the price of electronic device repairs. On. Jan. 1, dozens of laws went into effect for Oregonians, affecting health care, consumer rights and public safety. Last years legislative session focused in part on House Bill 4002, which allows counties to start new programs to steer drug users towards recovery programs instead of jail. Those programs and a new misdemeanor penalty for low-level drug possession started in September. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But other laws started this month that aim to address the drug addiction crisis and other issues. Heres a look at the most significant changes: Illicit drug use on public transit: Senate Bill 1553 takes aim at public drug use on transit systems. It expands the crime of interfering with public transportation to include drug use on public transit. That makes it a drug-designated Class A misdemeanor, which allows people convicted of the offense access to state-funded treatment. The new law came in response to rising concerns about open drug use in and around public transportation. TriMet, Oregons largest transit agency which serves the Portland area, reports a 30% drop in riders feeling safe on buses and trains. The Tillamook County Transportation District was forced to close its transit center to the public because of drug use and drug smoke exposures. Right to repair: Senate Bill 1596 is designed to make repairing electronic devices more fair and affordable in Oregon by preventing manufacturers from limiting where consumers go to repair their products. The new law requires original electronic equipment manufacturers to provide repair tools and information to owners and independent repair companies at a fair cost so consumers have more choices for repair options. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Preventing prescription mandates: House Bill 4012 prevents insurers from requiring that physician-administered drugs, like chemotherapy, be dispensed at specialty pharmacies. In the past, physicians could buy-and-bill physician-administered drugs for patients. But there is a trend now of insurers trying to reduce costs by requiring that patients purchase physician-administered drugs from a specialty pharmacy. This practice has concerned providers because it is difficult for them to adjust dosages and can cause delays in care. Prescription drug prices: House Bill 4113 is intended to help Oregonians with high drug costs. The law requires insurers to take account of money paid towards prescriptions when they calculate the enrollees out-of-pocket maximum costs. The law includes payments made through co-pay assistance programs, which some drug manufacturers offer patients. This helps patients reach the out-of-pocket maximums in their policies easier and sooner, bringing down their costs. The federal government also made a change on prescription drugs that affects Oregonians enrolled in Medicare, which covers seniors 65 and older and some people with disabilities. After enrollees reach a $2,000 cap on drug costs, they wont have to pay out of pocket costs and receive catastrophic coverage. Warehouse worker safety: House Bill 4127 offers protections to warehouse workers who face heavy workloads. The law requires employers to be transparent about their requirements for productivity quotes, a factor that advocates say has contributed to injuries in warehouse distribution centers. Under the law, workers are protected from dismissal or discipline if an employer fails to adequately communicate a quota requirement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement School bus safety: House Bill 4147 will allow schools to install cameras on school buses to record when drivers fail to stop for bus safety lights. Under the law, police can use those recordings to cite motorists who fail to stop. School board transparency: Senate Bill 1502 will require the boards of public school districts, community colleges and universities to video record their meetings and post the videos online for the public to view. School districts that lack the internet bandwidth can upload an audio recording as an alternative, and school districts with fewer than 50 students are exempt from the law. Oregon investments: House Bill 4083 directs the Oregon Investment Council and the state treasurer to eliminate the states investments in coal companies. Lawmakers passed the bill in response to the need for clean energy, and it follows similar actions that other states have taken, including New York and California. Under the law, the state can continue to invest in coal companies if they demonstrate they are transitioning to clean energy within a reasonable period of time. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A gunman went on a deadly, 30-minute rampage in Montenegro on New Years Day, killing 12 people in the small Balkan nation, including two children and the shooter's own sister, authorities said. The shooter, identified as Aleksandar Aco Martinovic, 45, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an intense manhunt, Reuters reports. The massacre, considered one of Montenegros deadliest mass shootings, began at a tavern in the city of Cetinje in southern Montenegro, according to RTCG, the countrys national broadcast station. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Martinovic "had consumed alcoholic beverages all day long" when got into an argument with someone at the restaurant, Acting Director of the Police Administration Lazar Scepanovic said, Reuters reports. He went home and retrieved a weapon before returning to kill four people at the restaurant and then going to the other locations, Scepanovic said, according to the BBC. He widened his spree, driving to five other locations, where he shot and killed eight other people, including the two children, prosecutor Andrijana Nastic said, RTCG reports. SAVO PRELEVIC/AFP via Getty Mass shooting in Montenegro Mass shooting in Montenegro All the victims were his godfathers, friends the motive is still unknown, Scepanovic said, Reuters reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the victims was his sister, Zorica Vuletic, according to RTCG. The children he killed were brothers, ages 14 and 9, according to RTCG. The rampage lasted 30 minutes, Scepanovic said, RTCG reports. Police were initially sent to the wrong location, he said, according to the outlet. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. "The location in the town of Bajice was pointed out, where the police were sent at 17:31 and they determined that it was not the scene of the incident, he said. On that occasion, the police were sent to the wrong location. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police located Martinovic near his house, where he shot himself in the head, Scepanovic said, RTCG reports. When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide, he said. He died on the way to the hospital. The gunman was no stranger to law enforcement and has a history of illegal gun possession, police said, RTCG reports. Montenegro is observing three days of national mourning starting on Thursday. Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said the massacre "shrouded our country in black, the BBC reports. The shooting spurred Spajic to call for a review of the country's gun ownership laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the BBC, he said the nations security council would hold an emergency meeting on Thursday, Jan. 2, to "urgently consider all options" to protect the public, including a complete ban on the possession of weapons. Read the original article on People At least 10 people were killed and more than 30 others were injured in New Orleans early Wednesday after a man rammed his pickup truck into a crowd during New Years celebrations and then shot at police officers when he crashed, officials said. Authorities said the suspect, who is now dead, intentionally plowed a Ford pickup truck into a large group of revelers on Bourbon Street about 3:15 a.m. in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism. The FBI identified the suspect as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities found an ISIS flag, weapons and a potential improvised explosive device in the truck, which appears to have been rented, according to the FBI. The agency said it was working to determine the suspects potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could, Anne Kirkpatrick, superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, said at a news conference. He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did. New Orleans mass killing The suspect drove around barricades erected to stop traffic, due to his intentional mindset, Kirkpatrick said. After he crashed his truck, the suspect left the vehicle and shot two police officers, who are in stable condition, according to Kirkpatrick and the FBI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement returned fire, and the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, the FBI said. Jimmy Cothran, who witnessed the carnage from a nightclub balcony, said he saw multiple bodies lying on the street within seconds, including many that were horribly disfigured and one marred by tire tracks. It was unbelievable, he told NBC News Hallie Jackson. It just kept going. Federal investigators and local law enforcement in New Orleans are trying to determine if the suspect used a long-gun rifle and whether he may have fired into the crowd while running people over, according to three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city of New Orleans was impacted by a terrorist attack. The FBI said it was working to investigate the incident as an act of terrorism. Improvised explosive devices were found, the FBI said, though the agency said it was working to confirm if they were viable explosives. President Biden has been briefed on the attack, according to a White House official. The dozens injured were being treated in local hospitals, as were the two injured officers, Kirkpatrick said. Kirkpatrick said it was unclear how many victims were locals, but said that according to preliminary information it seems the majority are locals versus tourists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the incident a horrific act of violence in a post on X and said he was praying for the victims. A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning. Please join Sharon and I in praying for all the victims and first responders on scene. I urge all near the scene to avoid the area. Governor Jeff Landry (@LAGovJeffLandry) January 1, 2025 Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said a statement on X: Many of us woke up this morning to devastating news of the brutal intentional slaughter of innocent people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans. Im praying for the victims and their families and will ensure they get justice for this appalling act. Historic Bourbon Street, in the French Quarter, is a popular tourist area filled with bars and restaurants and was expected to be busy on New Years Eve. Footage shot by onlookers and uploaded to social media showed a huge police presence on Bourbon Street and Canal Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said Tuesday that they expected the city to be busy as locals and visitors rang in the new year. New Orleans Police Department said it would be staffed at 100% and would draft in another 300 officers to help keep the peace. This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com. This article was originally published on TODAY.com At least 10 people, mainly teenagers, were injured in a mass shooting outside a nightclub in Queens on Wednesday night, according to sources and the NYPD. A group of four men fired at least 30 gunshots into a crowd that gathered near the Amazura nightclub in Jamaica just before 11:20 p.m. after a private event at the location, according to cops and the sources. NYPD at the scene of the shooting in Jamaica, Queens, on Wednesday night. Robert Mecea All of the victims were taken to area hospitals. Robert Mecea Six females and four males, ranging in age from 16 to 20, were struck by bullets, NYPD officials said at a Thursday morning press conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police are searching for a light-colored sedan in connection with the shooting. None of the victims are in critical condition and all are expected to survive, according to the NYPD. The victims were transported to area hospitals including Long Island Jewish Hospital and Cohen Childrens Medical Center, according to sources. A massive police and ambulance response outside Amazura was seen in footage posted to Citizen app. Police outside the club on Wednesday night. Juan Gonzalez/NY Post Photos from the scene show NYPD investigators placing dozens of evidence markers on the street and sidewalk near Amazura. Amazura has an expansive interior with a capacity for 4,000 people and regularly hosts DJs and live performances. This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates. To the editor: There is not enough economic room in California for high-speed rail to compete. ("High-speed rail financial crisis could get worse under Trump," Dec. 18) The 2008 Proposition 1A bond measure for high-speed rail requires that rider revenues pay for operating and maintenance costs. Unfortunately, this will never be so. Passenger demand will evaporate at the high fares needed to recover operating costs. A train that has a higher fare than planes and is slower than planes cannot compete with planes. Even if the train is completed, aircraft will still capture a large share of travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Automobiles will capture a large share of this same market, because California's gasoline prices, while higher than elsewhere in the United States, are still lower than other countries that have high-speed rail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The $11 billion the High-Speed Rail Authority reports having spent so far is a sunk cost. These dollars are gone forever. They provide no justification for spending the additional $117 billion the authority estimates it needs to complete this project, which will not have enough riders to cover its costs. James E. Moore II, Los Angeles The writer is a professor emeritus of transportation engineering at USC. .. To the editor: Completing California's high-speed rail project is necessary for our climate, our economy and the nation. Air travel, by comparison, is terribly polluting of the atmosphere. Until electric-powered air travel becomes commercially viable, the high-speed rail alternative will be far more protective of the environment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As your reporting demonstrates, the project has supported more than 14,000 jobs and generated $18 billion in economic benefits to disadvantaged Central Valley communities. Moreover, California's example will be followed if the project is finished. During the Civil War, as the nation's existence was imperiled, work on the first transcontinental railroad began. During the Great Depression, when our economy tanked, California built the San FranciscoOakland Bay and Golden Gate bridges. Hypocritically, Elon Musk, whose Tesla and SpaceX businesses have received billions in government funding, now argues against California's high-speed rail. Completion of the project is a matter of political will. What 25 other nations have done, California will do. Tom Osborne, Laguna Beach This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Jan. 1AUBURN Police are searching for a man with a knife wound after a call Wednesday morning reported a 16-year-old female with a gunshot wound, according to a police Facebook post. Police responded to the Winter and Dennison streets area at 5:11 a.m. Wednesday for a 16-year-old female with a gunshot wound to the leg. When officers arrived, they discovered the female victim and her 17-year-old sister who was also injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An officer applied a tourniquet to the girl's leg and she was transported to the hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening, the post said. The sister had unknown minor injuries. Preliminary investigation showed the sisters were walking on Dennison Street with friends when a vehicle approached, stopped and a black male and white female exited the vehicle and began assaulting the 17-year-old sister. During the assault, a firearm was discharged and the 16-year-old was struck. After interviewing the sisters and witnesses, police learned the 16-year-old stabbed the male assaulter with her pocket knife in an attempt to help her sister who was being assaulted by the male. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The male suspect was seen fleeing toward Turner Street before police arrived. It was not immediately clear who the firearm belonged to or whether the female assaulter fled or was detained. Police ask the public to report any information to Detective Andrew Shute at ajshute@auburnmaine.gov or 207-333-6651, extension 2036. Copy the Story Link Drugs, guns and stolen property seized before Hiram man's arrest Lisbon man gets 10 years for child porn About last year: PolitiFact, the independent fact-checking website run by the Poynter Institute, bestowed another odious distinction on President-elect Donald Trump. The organization dubbed a statement uttered by Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance the "Lie of the Year." PolitiFact has christened a Lie of the Year every year since 2009, and in only two of those years did statements made by Democrats earn the top prize. In 2011, PolitiFact slammed Democrats for claiming that Republicans would vote to end Medicare, and in 2013, the organization concluded that President Barack Obama's solemn promise"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan"was plainly untrue. But in every other year, PolitiFact has singled out right-leaning purveyors of mistruths. This year is no different. In 2024, PolitiFact's Lie of the Year is the claim by Trump that Haitian migrants in an Ohio town were "eating people's pets." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "With a brazen disregard for facts, Donald Trump and his running mate repeatedly peddled a created story that in Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrants were eating pet dogs and cats," observes the organization. The Republican ticket's disregard for the facts in this case was indeed brazen. It was completely untrue that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pet dogs and cats. What happened was that various concerns about migrants supposedly hunting birds in public parks in Springfield, Ohio, got lumped together with an unrelated story of someone killing a pet cat in a completely different town. It's a textbook example of why you shouldn't automatically believe everything you see on social media. Trump and Vance did real harm here, and it's absolutely fair to call them out for smearing the immigrant population of Springfield, Ohio. But was this really the Lie of the Year? Liar, Liar Given recent revelations about the extent to which President Joe Biden's cognitive decline was well-known to his staffand covered up by themat the very onset of his presidency, one might think that repeated statements to the contrary might be worthy of "Lie of the Year." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lie, peddled at the behest of Biden's aides and advisers, and sold by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to a gullible and incurious mainstream media, was that President Biden remained fit for officeand that mounting public concerns about his age-related decline were based on misinformation. Well before Biden's historic collapse at the June presidential debate, a majority of Americans expressed serious reservations about Biden's ability to serve. When reporters pressed Biden's media surrogates about these polls, they insisted that the supposed evidence of the president's decline was being fabricated by his political enemies. Jean-Pierre thunderously attacked conservative media, and Fox News in particular, for circulating what she described as misleading videos that appeared to show Biden out of sorts. At the highest levels of the Biden administration, the official word was: Don't believe your lying eyes. And for the most part, the mainstream media bought it. A recent report by The Wall Street Journalwhich stands apart from other legacy outlets in having exhaustively investigated the liemakes clear that Biden's aides were privately concerned about his age-related decline, not just in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign, but as far back as 2020. The Journal describes Biden being kept away from his Cabinet, and shielded from the American public, because he had both good days and bad, even at the start of his presidency. Aides realized he was often confused in the mornings, so they pushed meetings to later in the day. They also noticed he would lose focus if things went on for too long, so they instructed officials to keep briefings short. This had real-world consequences. Rep. Adam Smith (DWash.) had concerns about Biden's planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, but couldn't get on the phone with him; the president was simply unavailable. It was a bad day, rather than a good day. The botched Afghanistan withdrawal would subsequently be considered one of the most damaging failures of Biden's presidency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In hindsight, many news commentators now agree that Biden's cognitive decline was hideously underscrutinized. CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford admitted as much during a revealing panel on that network: Jan Crawford: Most under-reported story "would be, to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable." Duck chasing meme: WHY WAS IT UNDER-REPORTED? pic.twitter.com/nkgu6lcEzN Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) December 29, 2024 If anything, describing the story as "under-reported" is a considerable understatement. This was the greatest cover-up of a president's limitations since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's reliance on a wheelchair. On the one hand, the media's complicity in that lie would seem almost impossible by today's standards of adversarial coverage; on the other hand, Biden proved that it's possible to keep them in the dark and keep them quiet. For this reason, the fiction that Biden was capable of running for re-election and serving as president for four more years is undoubtedly deserving of Lie of the Year. No questions asked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This Week on Free Media I am joined by Amber Duke to discuss the MAGA movement feud over H-1B visas, the media's dawning realization that Team Biden lied about his fitness for office, and our top media misfires of 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking of Free Media, we are launching our own YouTube channel! The show will remain a part of the Reason family, and is still produced by the talented staff of Reason TVso nothing else is changing. But please visit the new YouTube channel and click the subscribe button. We appreciate it! And be on the lookout for an expansion of Free Media in 2025. We plan to deliver even more content with Amber Duke and other media friends from all across the political spectrum: left, right, center, and elsewhere. Worth Watching It's taken more than a year, but I have finally finished Agatha Christie's entire Hercule Poirot catalog. I've listened to every single Poirot detective story, from The Mysterious Affair at Styles to Curtain: Poirot's Last Case, as audiobooks during my daily gym sessions. Having completed the collection, what I am experiencing is mostly a sense of loss: I feel as if a beloved friend has passed away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have come to treasure Poirot very dearly: his fastidiousness, his boastfulness, his disdain for other detectives who run about gathering clues. Poirot is in many ways the antiSherlock Holmes. He carries no magnifying glass and seldom examines footprints. His modus operandi is to interrogate suspects and use the "little gray cells" to deduce characters' motivations. This usually means that the solution to the mysterytypically revealed by Poirot, in grandiose fashion, during an assembly of all the major suspectsis likely to have been missed by the reader, though I did manage to guess the killer's identity in a handful of cases. The three most famous Poirot novels are Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Orient is somewhat overrated, but the other two deserve their reputations. If you only read one Poirot novel, Death on the Nile is an excellent choice. (I solved it, to boot.) Ackroyd is a fan favorite, but is best consumed after having gained some familiarity with Christie's style; this makes the infamous plot twist in Ackroyd (don't Google it!) much more enjoyable. A few others I really enjoyed were: Peril at End House, Murder in Mesopotamia, Appointment With Death, and After the Funeral. As a new year begins, I have made it my 2025 resolution to be more like Poirotto treat others with outstanding courtesy and kindness, to take pride in a job well done, and to better organize my life using order and method. I invite readers to do the same. The post The Lie of the Year Was Joe Biden's Decline appeared first on Reason.com. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Six months after Hilliard-based religious education group LifeWise sued an Indiana parent for copyright infringement, the case has ended in an agreement. Christian education service LifeWise Academy sued Zachary Parrish in July, alleging copyright infringement after Parrish accessed and distributed copies of LifeWises curriculum without permission. Parrish, who is an administrator of the group Parents Against LifeWise, accessed the then-private curriculum using means he said were legal and LifeWise said were not. Now, the lawsuit has been settled with a mutual agreement freeing both parties from future claims, with neither admitting guilt in the settlement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pickerington narrows options for new school start times We dropped the lawsuit because Parrish has agreed to remove full versions of LifeWise curriculum from Facebook and elsewhere and will not distribute full copies, LifeWise CEO Joel Penton said. According to the settlement agreement, Parrish was responsible for deleting any copy he had of LifeWises curriculum, and requesting anyone else with access to those copies of the curriculum to delete them. Parrish is also not allowed to access the curriculum through any means except for the 48-hour window anyone else can use. LifeWise was responsible for updating their terms and conditions to ensure anyone who agrees to LifeWises terms will be permitted to access the curriculum for 48 hours. Parrish said his lawyers helped LifeWise rewrite the terms of service. Neither party owed the other any money in the settlement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New central Ohio restaurants opening in 2025 Under the new agreement, LifeWise is no longer able to deny access to the materials, which can be viewed for 48 hours once someone has agreed to the online terms. There is no limit to how many times the materials can be requested. Parrish said he saw the settlement as a really big win to keep parents informed, adding he had heard reports that LifeWise was denying some requests, which they are no longer able to do. They keep saying they care about transparency, but if that was the case, it wouldnt have taken all this, Parrish said. LifeWise, which has offered its curriculum online to those who are approved for download since July, several weeks after they filed the lawsuit against Parrish. Penton said the settlement continues the organizations commitment to reasonable review. Under the agreement, users are permitted to take screenshots of up to half of a page at a time, Parrish said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We believe in transparency and have encouraged families and communities to learn more about LifeWise and the positive impact of Bible-based character education, Penton said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. The man who drove a truck into a New Orleans crowd on New Years Day had recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to the FBI. While most ISIS-linked attacks have occurred in the Middle East and Europe, individuals connected to the militant Islamic group have planned or carried out attacks in the U.S. Pulse nightclub shooting The deadliest U.S. attack linked to ISIS was the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, where 49 people were killed and another 53 were injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Omar Mateen was fatally shot after a standoff at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., during which he said he was carrying out the shooting because of American-led efforts to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Shortly before the shooting, Mateen made a 911 call where he swore allegiance to the then-leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. San Bernadino shooting Another shooting linked to ISIS occurred in December 2015, when Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, targeted a Department of Public Health Christmas party and training event. Farook worked as an employee at the department. During the event in a banquet room, Farook and Malik opened fire, killing 14 people and seriously injuring 22. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They also left a backpack containing three explosive devices authorities believe were intended to target first responders. However, the pipe bombs refused to explode. The FBI characterized the couple as inspired by foreign terror groups, including ISIS, but were not formal members of any terror cell or network. The couple had also made a Facebook account pledging allegiance to ISIS and Baghdadi. New York City truck attack On Halloween in 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Sipov drove a pickup truck into people on a bike path along the Hudson River in New York City. Eight people were killed and 13 injured in the attack, six of whom were tourists from outside the U.S. Investigators found documents suggesting Saipov had an allegiance to ISIS inside the truck. Hatchet attack in Queens In October 2014, four New York City Police Department officers were attacked on a sidewalk in Jamaica, Queens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nobody was killed in the attack other than the perpetrator. Two officers were injured along with a bystander who was hit by a bullet fired by police. Zale Thompson was found to have visited websites about designated terrorist organizations but did not have direct ties to any foreign group. New York subway bombing In December 2017, four people were injured after a pipe bomb partially detonated in the New York City Subway system. The attack by Akayed Ullah was described as an attempted terrorist attack by authorities. Ullah reportedly told authorities he was motivated in part by ISIS. Curtis Culwell Center attack The failed attack on the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, in May 2015 came in response to an exhibit that featured cartoon images of the prophet Muhammad. While the Quran does not specifically prohibit drawings of Muhammad, there is a widely held view in Islam that opposes the depiction of human figures, especially prophets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two attackers, Elton Simpson and Nadir Hamid Soofi, were killed during the attack. Nobody else was killed but one officer was injured. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack, the first time it took credit for a U.S.-based attack. U.S. officials, however, say the attack was inspired but not directed by the group. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Lithuanian government has said that the recent failure of the Estlink 2 undersea cable does not affect the planned synchronization of the Baltic states' electricity grid with Western Europe. Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas said in a Lithuanian radio interview aired on Thursday that potential damage to other power lines in the Baltic Sea region would not jeopardize the planned disconnection from the Russian power grid and the integration into Western Europe's energy network, scheduled for February. However, he noted that the disruptions could have "indirect effects" as they would challenge the reserve capacities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia aim to synchronize their power grids with the rest of mainland Europe in February. In response to Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the three EU and NATO countries have ceased their electricity imports from Russia. However, they remain part of a common synchronized power grid with Russia and Belarus for historical reasons the so-called BRELL ring system, which dates back to Soviet times. This connection effectively ties the Baltic states to the grids of their eastern neighbours, which is viewed as a security risk in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. The Estlink 2, a major power connection between Estonia and Finland, was disrupted on Christmas Day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Damage was found on several communication cables. Finnish authorities have indicated sabotage as a likely cause and detained the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S for inspection. Investigators suspect that the crew of the Eagle S deliberately caused the damage by dragging the ship's anchor along the seabed. During the investigation, a kilometre-long drag mark was discovered on the seabed. Underwater images also showed damage to the ship's hull, which police said was caused by the anchor chain. The EU suspects the ship to be part of the Russian "shadow fleet," tankers and other cargo ships that Russia uses to evade sanctions imposed due to its invasion of Ukraine, especially in oil transportation. Finland's criminal police have been investigating on board the Eagle S for some time. On Thursday the Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, planned to initiate a detailed inspection on the ship as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During what is known as port state control (PSC), compliance with international regulations and standards, such as those for safety and working conditions, is checked. This is reportedly a routine procedure that may take several days, according to Traficom. It added that following this, the results of the inspection will be made public. If necessary, the ship could be held until any deficiencies have been rectified. Repairs to the 170-kilometre connection could take several months, according to initial estimates from network operators. Lithuania and other Baltic countries have heightened vigilance and declared a state of alert due to possible acts of sabotage, after problems with several Baltic Sea communication cables in recent months, along with disruptions to power cables and gas pipelines. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has one more day to win over skeptical House Republicans before they vote on whether he keeps the gavel. In the narrow House GOP majority, Johnson can only afford to lose one vote, assuming all lawmakers are present and voting for a candidate and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has already vowed to oppose the Louisiana Republican. Backed by President-elect Trump, Johnson is hoping to convince members of his conference, most prominently Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), to back him and avoid the messy Speakership fight that stalled the House for days in 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time, Louisiana and the nation are reeling from a New Years Day attack in New Orleans that killed at least 14 and injured 30 more. Some lawmakers were being briefed Thursday morning, and law enforcement is ramping up security in New Orleans and Washington, D.C. Follow along for live updates below. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) Security experts in Buffalo said there were security failures ahead of and during the New Years Day attack in New Orleans, where a U.S. Army veteran driving a pickup truck sped down Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring more than 30 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas. President Joe Biden said Wednesday night that Jabbar posted videos to social media hours before the attack and said he was inspired by the Islamic State group. Clearly this was a case of the security plan failed that allowed for something like this to happen, said Jeff Rinaldo, vice president of Tarian Group, a local security and risk management agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rinaldo said the attack in New Orleans, which is being investigated as a terrorist act by the FBI, is not only heartbreaking, but also a glaring example of not enough being done to secure Bourbon Street, since the driver was able to drive around barricades. Any time you have a large gathering in the public street of pedestrians, you have to have hard barricades in place, things that cannot be driven around, things that cannot be defeated, Rinaldo said. For Buffalos ball drop, plow trucks and other heavy equipment were staged outside Roosevelt Plaza. SWAT, bomb teams and K-9s were also on standby, as well as a tethered drone. We work with the sheriffs department, we work with the New York State Police, we work with the FBI on threat pictures, intelligence, again, theres a lot to go to make this a safe and fun and happy event as it should be, said Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Buffalo police said there were very minor incidents involving teens during the citys New Years Eve celebration. Gramaglia called events similar to these, such as Taste of Buffalo, the St. Patricks Day parade and the Buffalo Italian Heritage Festival, soft targets, which he defined as large gatherings those are looking to do harm to and see as easy targets. Look, you cant harden your target enough for every event. You do your best to harden your target the best that you can, he said. Theres always going to be a vulnerability somewhere. When you have that vulnerability, its how you respond to that. WIVB News 4 spoke to Carla Pesono, a former Buffalonian and current New Orleans resident, who is the president of a Bills Backers Club in the city. She compared Bourbon Street to Chippewa Street block parties and said everyone is in mourning. Guards were down. People were just out having a good time and no one thought anything like this could be possible, Pesono said. New Orleans is resilient. I mean, theyre no stranger to horrible devastations with hurricanes and violence, and we just come back stronger and better. Its such a tight-knit community here, just like Buffalo. Buffalo is the city of good neighbors, so is New Orleans. Everyone is just helping each other out and everyones just going to be there for one another. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In New Orleans, the focus is on the suspect. The first thing you want to do is try to establish whether or not this was an individual actor or if there are others involved, said retired special agent in charge Bernie Tolbert of Buffalos FBI Bureau. Security experts also said police will look at what happened in New Orleans and work to fix any failures. You want to learn from this, you want to correct anything that wasnt done that couldve been or shouldve been done, Tolbert said. Gramaglia said the Buffalo Police Department is constantly tweaking protocols to never become complacent and works with partners in the United States and internationally to keep an eye on threats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Having lived and worked through a terrorist attack here in Buffalo, you have a sense of what theyre going through and how theyre feeling, he said. Your heart goes out to that entire community. Latest Local News Jeff Preval is an award-winning anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in December 2021. See more of his work here. Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. The Union County Sheriffs Office enlisted help from the U.S. Marshals to capture a man who escaped to Mexico after he was accused of sexually abusing children. Baldomero Hernandez-Jimenez was arrested last week, and was extradited back to Union County. He had been on the run since 2021. READ MORE: Man wanted for multiple sexual offenses in Union County arrested, deputies say Here in little Union County, you dont think about us expanding our reach that far, but youre not going to get away from us. Ill put it that way, said Lt. James Maye with the Union County Sheriffs Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hernandez-Jimenez was charged in 2020 with multiple counts of rape and indecent liberties with a child. According to court documents, he posted bond and never showed up to court. The sheriffs office said he had been in the U.S. illegally. The agency requested help from the US Marshals. The Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, the task force that unfortunately lost several members earlier this year in Charlotte, the guys are back to work, Maye said. They are doing a phenomenal job. The sheriffs office actually has a deputy assigned to that task force so hes with them every day. Maye explained the process the Task Force uses to track down fugitives. They go off several different types of data, family ties, interviews, collected through possible informants, he said. An extensive amount of resources they use to try and locate these offenders who had fled the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hernandez-Jimenez is in jail under a $300,000 bond. If he does post bond, the sheriffs office said ICE will prevent his release by holding him at their facility in Alamance County. According to a court indictment, Hernandez-Jimenez was accused of raping three children between the ages of 8 and 11 years old. The crimes occurred between 2015 to 2018. The sheriffs office said it wasnt until one of them notified their school, that they started investigating in 2020. Five years later, Maye said those victims now have some peace. The victims are aware of it. They are doing well, Maye said. (They are) following up with resources that are offered by Turning Point Tree House Childrens Advocate Center and the sheriffs office made contact with them. Theyre thankful and they feel safer knowing hes in custody. The sheriffs office the Tree House Childrens Advocacy Center in Union County has been supporting the victims. Channel 9 learned the group has hired more Spanish-speaking staff in recent years to provide victims with more long-term resources. Staff help law enforcement conduct interviews, and provide counseling services in Spanish. NEWTON FALLS, Ohio (WKBN) A Trumbull County firefighter is receiving a first responder award from the V.F.W. Newton Falls Joint Fire District Firefighter Dean Stanley was selected as a statewide winner. A local VFW post nominated him for the award. Stanley is in his 49th year in the fire service, starting when he was just 16 years old. He served four years in the Air Force. He also worked nearly four decades as a Department of Defense firefighter, spending 26 years working as a firefighter at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im just humbled that I have been selected for this honor, Stanley said. Stanley will receive the award at the VFW Mid-Winter Conference in Columbus on January 11. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) North Carolinas next General Assembly will be sworn-in Wednesday, January 8 but one political party will not return to Raleigh with the same amount of power that it had in its last session. Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, finished his second and final term with a major obstacle. Republicans held a super majority in both the state Senate and House which meant the Governors veto pen had little power and Democrats had little sway when it came to legislation. The 2024 election came down to one race that broke that level of control House district 32 which includes Granville and Vance Counties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democrat Bryan Cohn defeated incumbent Republican Frank Sossamon by 228 votes. CBS 17s Russ Bowen spoke with Representative-Elect Cohn about how he won the race and what legislation Cohn believes both parties can agree on. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS17.com. Many songs and famous refrains flooded my mind as we transitioned into 2025. Living on a thin line, Its all over now, baby blue, and Cant find my way home were some of the notable downers. On the flip side (no pun intended), I was uplifted by Land of hope and dreams and Its gonna be a bright sun-shiny day, and the thought that Love [would] reign oer me. Of all, what stood out was Dont dream its over, a hit song written in 1986 by New Zealand-born Neil Finn. It is the most well-known song by his group, Crowded House, and an anthem for many. Finn reflects, I was contemplating the end of things: relationships and the challenges that you face. Its an exhortation to myselfand to anyone whos going through thatto not think its the end, to keep on pushing, keep on believing. Its a song of hope, I think. Yet, like many of Finns songs, there are also strains of melancholia, even hopelessnessfor example, the line In the paper today tales of war and of waste, but you turn right over to the T.V. page. Have we really become so numb to violence that our only solution is to ignore it? Are we helpless to solve the epidemic of violence in America and elsewhere, consigned to simply watching it repeatedly unfoldon television and in the newspaperand flipping a switch or turning the page in resignation? Finn said that, in a sense, Dont dream its over was a private messageto someone who was withdrawing from their world. In an era now dominated by war and where mass casualty incidents are commonplacewhether at a German Christmas market or on New Years Day in New Orleanswithdrawal is the last thing we should do. The temptation to disengage, to retreat from the onslaught of despair that headlines bring, is understandable. Yet, if we withdraw, who will be left to advocate for change? The world does not heal itself passively; it requires action, hope, and effort. Finns refrainThey come to build a wall between us; dont ever let them winreminds us to keep pushing, keep believing, even when the odds seem insurmountable. Governments and countries have the power to tackle the widespread violence through deliberate and coordinated strategies. First, addressing the root causes of violencesuch as poverty, inequality, and lack of educationcan reduce the desperation and resentment that often lead to conflict. Investing in social safety nets, job creation, and equitable economic policies can provide alternatives to violence and foster stability. Second, international cooperation is vital. Institutions like the United Nations must be strengthenednot weakenedto mediate disputes, prevent conflicts, and hold accountable those who perpetuate violence. Diplomatic engagement, peacekeeping missions, and arms control agreements are tools that can curb large-scale violence. Additionally, enforcing stricter regulations on the global arms trade can help limit the availability of weapons in volatile regions. Third, education and community programs that promote tolerance and understanding can undermine the narratives of hate and division that fuel violence. Governments can support initiatives that counter extremist ideologies, empower marginalized communities, and promote peaceful conflict resolution. Finally, addressing the role of the media is essential. While free speech is a cornerstone of democracy, sensationalized coverage of violence can desensitize audiences or amplify fear. Governments and media organizations must work together to promote responsible reporting that informs without inciting. Perhaps this is where Finns message becomes truly universal: hope and despair are not mutually exclusive. The act of dreaming, of striving for better, can coexist with the acknowledgment of difficulty and pain. It is this tension that gives the song its emotional resonance and makes it enduringly relevant. In a modern context, Dont dream its over is not just a statement of personal resilience; its a call to collective action. It challenges us to look at the tales of war and waste and not turn away in apathy. Instead, it dares us to envision solutions, to rebuild broken systems, and to nurture a world where hope is not a fleeting sentiment but a sustainable reality. While its easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the worlds problems, Finns lyrics whisper a quieter truth: each of us has a role to play. Small acts of courage, kindness, and advocacy can ripple outward, creating change in ways we may never fully see or understand. So, let us take to heart Finns exhortation. The challenges we face, though daunting, can be overcome. Dont dream its over. Because as long as there are people willing to dream, to hope, and to act, there is always a chance for something better. And to all who respond negatively to this essay, Youll never see the end of the road while youre traveling with me. Arthur Lazarus is a former Doximity Fellow, a member of the editorial board of the American Association for Physician Leadership, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. He is the author of several books on narrative medicine, including Medicine on Fire: A Narrative Travelogue and Story Treasures: Medical Essays and Insights in the Narrative Tradition. FARMERSBURG, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) Local officials are warning residents to be prepared in the event of inclement weather and offer tips for those who must travel, or become stranded in snow, and tips to prevent frozen water pipes. Indiana State Police (ISP) reminds all Hoosiers to exercise extreme caution. ISP Bloomington District is monitoring weather conditions and will adjust coverage accordingly. Troopers from the Bloomington District will patrol I-69 and major roadways on Sunday and Monday. Public Information Officer, Sgt. Kevin Getz reminds motorists that any abandoned or parked vehicles that could impede INDOTs snow/ice removal will be removed before the arrival of the inclement weather on Sunday or ISP will remove them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Walkers Winter Outlook If you must travel The Bloomington District also requests Hoosiers remain at home unless necessary. If motorists must be out, ISP reminds motorists of the following: Approach bridges and overpasses with extreme caution as they typically freeze first. Allow for increased stopping distances especially when approaching traffic control devices such as lights and stop signs. Maintain a full tank of fuel or full EV charge. Maintain a full cell phone charge. Keep a charge cord in your vehicle. Keep your vehicle stocked with appropriate winter emergency gear/clothing. Monitor local news and weather outlets for updates. Stranded motorists Greene County Emergency Management Director, Roger Axe said, The idea is to survive, and offered the following tips if you get stranded in the snow. Make sure your tailpipe is clear of snow otherwise, carbon monoxide can back up into the passenger area of the vehicle. Run your engine for your heater for only 10 minutes every hour to save fuel. While running the car engine, crack your window to vent any carbon monoxide. You can view the Greene County Emergency Management pdf below about how you can prepare for a winter storm emergency. WINTER-STORM-PHAMPLET-PDF-2Download Preventing frozen water pipes With frigid temperatures on the way, The Crawford County Sheriffs Office took to social media to share tips to help prevent frozen water pipes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Open cabinets regularly to let warm air circulate to pipes Keep garage doors closed Let faucets drip slightly (*this may lead to a slight increase in the water bill, but is less expensive than busted pipes.) Make sure the temperature in the home is at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit when not at home When home, keep the thermostat consistent Open interior doors to keep your home at a constant temperature Purchase pipe insulation for exposed plumbing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com. POLAND, Ohio (WKBN) A Poland woman received a surprise gift this year in the form of Christmas lights. Jeanne Fortunato is now showing her real colors after her Christmas lighting display was modified to help cheer on the Ohio State Buckeyes. The display on North Lima Road includes a singing tree and numerous lights, each shining bright with OSU colors. It was put together by her boyfriend Dante Ludovici, knowing that Jeanne was a huge Buckeyes fan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When you see someone enjoying something that you created, thats the reward. I have this Buckeyes song, Go Buckeyes, that Jeanie loves and really thats the reward at the end of the day, Ludovici said. It was a big surprise to me before the first playoff game, Ohio State vs. Tennessee, we were going out to dinner, we pulled out of the driveway and I was like, Oh my gosh, he changed it, It was a surprise, Fortunato said. The light display will remain on for at least the remainder of the week. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. LONDON, Ky. (FOX 56) A man has been arrested for allegedly stealing a weed eater in London. According to an arrest citation, Hobert Buttery, 49, is accused of stealing a weed eater and heater from a home on Taylor Drive. The home belongs to Laurel County Judge Executive David Westerfield, according to the PVA website. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: Westerfield told police that Buttery, a former employee, recently asked for a job but was turned down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Surveillance video captured a vehicle near the home during the Dec. 23 burglary. Buttery and the vehicle were eventually found in Manchester, where he allegedly admitted to the theft. He allegedly told authorities that he left the weed eater at a home in Lily. LATEST KENTUCKY LISTS AND RANKINGS: Butterys preliminary hearing is set for tomorrow. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) The Green Bay Metro Fire Department is celebrating the career of one of its long-time Captains who will officially retire on Thursday morning. Captain Barry Papa W Wiegert will exit Station 2 on Thursday at 7 a.m. for the final time in his career which spanned multiple decades. HSHS St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay announces first baby of 2025 Captain Wiegert spent 27 years with the Green Bay Metro Fire Department, starting in September 1997 as an Emergency Medical Technician-Basic. Wiegart was previously with the Valders Fire Department, and worked at multiple other stations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the post, Captain Wiegert had multiple moments that defined his career of service, and the post said that hell miss the relationships the most. ThedaCare announces its first born baby of 2025 in Neenah He will miss the camaraderie with his brothers and sisters on the job, the post said. Please help us in congratulating Captain Barry Wiegert on his 27 years of service protecting the citizens and visitors of our great community. No more details were provided. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. Jan. 1A camping ban, panhandling laws, the collapse of Bartlett House. Public outcry, lawsuits, conflict. No single topic dominated Morgantown's public discourse, and therefore headlines, in 2024 like the swirl of topics surrounding a relatively small, but vulnerable, group of citizens. For nearly five months, from July 2 to Nov. 19, the primary topic of discussion in and around Morgantown City Council was the introduction, passage and potentially successful repeal of a citywide camping ban Article 1157. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The topic regularly packed council chambers resulting in pointed commentary from community members, who turned out overwhelmingly opposed to the law, as well as heated debate between members of council. The matter came to a head in the early morning of Sept. 4, when council after hours of public comment voted 4-3 to adopt the law as the main event of a record seven-hour-long meeting. Later that same day, a committee of petitioners representing the Morgantown Coalition for Housing Action (MoCHA) initiated the process of repealing the law. On Nov. 12, the city clerk's office verified the group had collected the 1, 310 signatures (10 % of the registered voters in the 2023 city election) needed to put the law back before city council with a choice either repeal it or put it before the city's voters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Council voted 4-3 against repealing the law on Nov. 19, meaning the voting citizens of Morgantown will write the final chapter of this story when they go to the polls on April 29. And while a law criminalizing sleeping or having "camping paraphernalia " on public property was grinding its way through city council, the agency tasked for decades with providing emergency and long-term housing services to those in need was falling into insolvency. In March, leadership with Bartlett Housing Solutions announced the nonprofit would need to close its triage shelter in Hazel's House of Hope, at least temporarily, due to a lack of funds. In June, the BHS Board of Directors indicated it needed $300, 000 in emergency funding to survive the next 60 days. That same month, Morgantown City Council and the Monongalia County Commission each put up $17, 500 to cover the nonprofit's payroll. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By October, Bartlett Housing Solutions had relinquished operational control of the shelter to Catholic Charities West Virginia and turned over its transitional and permanent supportive housing units on West Run Road to the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness. These are just two in a long list of intertwined topics that kept people talking in 2024. Included in that list is a federal lawsuit that pressured Morgantown to repeal its nearly 20-year old panhandling ordinance back in May. The same organization that filed the suit, Mountain State Justice, filed suit against the Monongalia County Commission earlier this month over the Ordinance Regulating Pedestrian and Vehicle Safety passed by the body in October 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the city's law did specifically target panhandling, which the courts have upheld as constitutionally protected speech, the county maintains its law is content neutral and plans to defend it. East End Village Reclaim Company is in the process of knocking down 58 old homes in the area of Richwood Avenue. It's been four years coming. That soon-to-be-cleared land approximately 10 contiguous acres of downtown-adjacent property represents the most significant new development for the city of Morgantown in a long, long time. The disappearing old houses once contained some 300 bedrooms of student housing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The future of that land, according to Jay Rogers of Omni Architects, will be a mix of housing, retail and dining. "They know the university isn't looking to grow. There's not a need for all these beds. The beds are out there, " Rogers said earlier this year. "They also know there's a need for something affordable for workforce and for young professionals and they know those types of people want to be in an area where they can walk and get coffee or walk and have dinner or go to a tap house or tavern." Late last year, the city rezoned much of property B-1 (neighborhood business), meaning structures must be between two and four stories above street level but cannot be more than 40 feet in height. Structures can be mixed use but cannot be strictly residential. The Monongalia County Development Authority purchased the land from James Giuliani for $11.8 million in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biafora Holdings is the master developer for the project. Plugging in The conversations had been happening for years. They picked up significantly during and immediately following the height of COVID, when kids were sent home from school and America was introduced to remote learning. The lessons learned: One, internet access isn't a luxury in today's world, it's a necessity. Two, access to the internet for much of Monongalia County is poor at best. On May 12, 2021, the Monongalia County Commission invested $250, 657 to begin its efforts to get the county connected. More than three years later, those efforts came to fruition in 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the last six months, the commission has put up just over $8.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to leverage more than $20 million in broadband expansion projects across the county. In June, the county announced a $17.8 million partnership with Comcast that will deliver broadband access to some 2, 175 unserved and underserved homes and businesses across Monongalia County. The project, which will bring customers on line over the next two years, has an emphasis on the difficult-to-connect western end of the county. The commission signed off on a handful of smaller projects earlier this month with both Comcast and Frontier that will target specific dark spots, or "doughnut holes " in coverage. Those include the areas of Stewart's Run, Gandalf Road (Snake Hill), River Road and Gladesville /Halleck road. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the projects rolling out in 2025 will touch every corner of the county, Commission President Sean Sikora said the overall goal of getting everyone connected will need to be a sustained effort. He said the body is considering allocating at least some of the $1.4 million in interest generated by the county's ARPA dollars to a fund that could be utilized to assist with future connection projects. Right around the bend They've been talked to death in recent years. But in the span of about 72 days in late 2024 we learned that the hotly-debated roundabout projects planned for Green Bag Road and the intersection of University Avenue /Collins Ferry Road are not only very much alive, but right around the bend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kingwood-based Mountaineer Contractors will construct both projects. On September 25, the firm was awarded a $2, 091, 104 contract to build a single-lane, oblong roundabout at the angular intersection of University Avenue, Collins Ferry Road and Baldwin Street. Discussion surrounding the intersection began nearly 20 years ago. In 2017, the DOH put forward its oblong roundabout recommendation explaining it would dramatically improve the service level of the intersection. It received letters of support from the MPO, Morgantown City Council and the Monongalia County Board of Educationand immediate pushback from some Suncrest residents and business owners in the immediate area who worry how the traffic circle will impact the surrounding neighborhoods. This is actually the second time the contract has been awarded. It was initially let in December 2019 with a completion date of September 2021, but cancelled due to right-of-way complications. This time around, work is expected to begin in March and be complete in August 2026. Moving our attention about five miles away, the same firm was awarded an $18, 332, 804.40 contract on Dec. 6 to complete a Green Bag Road project that's been on the community's radar in some fashion since 2014. According to DOH Highway Engineer Associate Chad Lowther and Senior Highway Engineer Dirar Ahmad, "the work begins just east of the intersection of Green Bag Road and the Mountaineer Mall entrance and ends at the intersection of Green Bag Road and Jonathan Lane." The road will be widened along that portion and a five-foot sidewalk constructed. More controversially, however, the project will include the construction of two new roundabouts one at the intersection of Green Bag Road and Kingwood Pike /Dosey Avenue, and one at the intersection with Mississippi Street. Construction is expected to begin this coming spring and end in fall of 2027. Long term, this is just the opening phase of work planned for Green Bag Road as local officials aim to make it a more attractive alternative to downtown Morgantown for heavy trucks. Phase II will essentially address the rest of the roadfrom Mississippi Street to Don Knotts Boulevard on one end, and from Lucky Lane to Deckers Creek Boulevard on the other. That project is currently listed at just over $12.4 million. So long, city manager In 2020, when members of Morgantown City Council made the argument for extending city council terms from two to four years and staggering terms so that either four or three seats was on the ballot each election, continuity was among the major talking points. After all, they argued, the potential of city administration having to start over with an entirely new council every two years could be a hindrance to progress. The city's voters agreed and supported the change. But continuity of leadership in Morgantown in recent years has had less to do with the elected members of council than the city managers they're hiring. A little less than two weeks ago, Kim Haws retired as Morgantown's city manager, ending a 40-year career in municipal government and a four-year stint with the city. Prior to that, he spent 20 years as Bridgeport's chief executive. The last time the city of Morgantown had a manager last anywhere near that long was Dan Broroff, who filled that role from 1992 to 2010. Haws' four-year stay was the longest since Boroff and came on the heels of a decade (2010-2020) that saw three city managers Terrence Moore, Jeff Mikorski, Paul Brake choose to leave after average tenures of three years and two months. As Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli will be off on maternity leave, council appointed Engineering and Public Works Director Damien Davis to serve as interim manager until the city's nationwide search is concluded. Council approved a contract with Raftelis, at a base cost of $35, 800, to conduct the search. By way of comparison, City Clerk Christine Wade has explained it costs the city about $40, 000 to hold an election. Syrias new leaders have been criticised after they announced plans to remove poetry about women and love from schools under a new extremist curriculum. Other controversial revisions include describing Queen Zenobias conquering of Egypt which helped transform her realm into an empire almost equal to Rome as fiction. The new curriculum also removes references to gods from ancient history courses, as well as a period of history that saw France rule Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It comes amid concern both in Syria and abroad over the future direction of the country under its new government, led by former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The rebel group, which toppled the previous Bashar al-Assad regime, is a designated terrorist organisation in the UK and US, though there have been tentative steps to engage with its rulers after they promised to create an inclusive society. The countrys interim government downplayed the changes to the curriculum after the proposals were criticised for their religious tone. Rami Jarrah, a Syrian activist and journalist, wrote on social media: Religious studies should be taught to students not to build faith, but to provide a historical understanding of religion from an objective standpoint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Such changes to the curriculum are fundamental changes with far-reaching societal consequences. Such actions go well beyond the duties of a caretaker government. Shiyar Khaleal, another activist and journalist, also warned that education based on extremist ideologies may shape individuals whose ideas threaten regional and international security. The changes were published on the Syrian education ministrys Facebook page on Wednesday, along with a declaration that the countrys nationalist education would be replaced by Islamic or Christian religious teachings. The new curriculum describes the conquering of Egypt by Queen Zenobia, depicted in this painting from 1888, as fiction - Herbert Gustave Schmalz/Bridgeman Art Library Also included in the new curriculum is a claim that Jews and Nasara, a derogatory term for Christians, are the subject of a verse from the Koran about people who had angered God. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Philosophy units on topics such as Chinese thought are also to be deleted, with any remaining content rephrased, as are texts referring to rule by the Ottoman Empire, which was previously described as the brutal Ottoman authority. The amendments further include the removal of content about Assad, something which has been well received, as well as dozens of other changes to the study of science, religion and history. The national anthem has also been cut from textbooks, with the ministry describing it as the [Assad] regimes anthem. Hussam Hammoud, a Syrian journalist, wrote on social media: After reviewing the amendments, its clear that, aside from removing signs of the criminal Assad regime, the rest changes have a distinct religious tone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that some citizens had called for protests against the changes. Syrias education ministry released a statement on Thursday which said the curriculum would remain in place until it was reviewed by a specialist committee. A spokesman added that officials had only directed the removal of content that glorified the defunct Assad regime and that schoolbooks would be updated to include the Syrian revolution flag. They added that other modifications related to incorrect information that had been adopted by the former regime. Content related to Syrias deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad will not be taught in schools, the countrys new education ministry said - AFP The ministry previously announced it would not restrict girls rights to education and that primary schools would remain mixed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joshua Landis, director of Oklahoma Universitys Center for Middle East Studies, said the proposed curriculum suggested a shift from a nationalist to Islamist interpretation of Syrian history. He wrote on social media: Nothing is surprising about these changes to Syrias school textbooks. They are in line with traditional Islamic education The problem is that they will shock secular Syrians and many Christians, not to mention, Alawis, Druze, and Ismailis who are considered to be worse than Christians and Jews and who are not protected within Islamic law. He added: Just as importantly, Western powers and Israel will worry that [Ahmed al-]Sharaas government is educating a new generation to attack Israel. This may delay the lifting of sanctions, which will be so important to the success of the new Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre Mohammed al-Jolani, has sought to assuage the concerns of Syrian minorities, meeting with community leaders and pledging to respect Syrias ethnic and religious diversity. Ahmed al-Sharaa has sought to assuage the concerns of Syrian minorities about his governments plans for the future - AL ARABIYA TV/via REUTERS Following the toppling of the Assad regime almost a month ago, the country is now coming to terms with the widespread destruction left by 13 years of civil war. The new education ministry faces a mammoth task, with half of the countrys schools destroyed or damaged during the war. More than half of Syrias children around 3.7 million are out of school, according to Save the Children. Meanwhile on Wednesday, Syrias new foreign minister, Asaad Al-Shaibani, travelled to Saudi Arabia, marking the transitory governments first official overseas visit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He wrote on social media: Through this first visit in the history of free Syria, we aspire to open a new and bright page in Syrian-Saudi relations, befitting the long shared history between the two countries. Sharaa told Saudi state television last week that the country would certainly have a large role in Syrias future. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. (WSAV) For many, the start of a new year is marked by resolutions, celebrations, and family traditions. for hundreds of Lowcountry residents, however, its a different kind of tradition. One that involves taking a dip into the icy waters of the coast. Every New Years Day, crowds gather along the Lowcountry beaches to take part in the iconic Pelican Plunge at Hunting Island. Its a ritual that never changes. A wild dash from the sand, a deep breath, and then plunging headfirst into the frigid waters. The sensation described by one participant, Not bad, actually! Just numb. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This year marked the 16th Annual Pelican Plunge, where hundreds of people lined the shore to take the plunge and kick off the year in a way thats become a staple of Lowcountry life. For many locals, its an unmissable event. This year, there were also visitors who came from out of town, eager to take on the challenge as part of their own journey into 2025. I thought, you know, theres things you can do, like you can jump out of a plane or go bungee jump. And Im thinking Im going to go into the ocean in cold temperatures. Seems like a doable thing. Small steps, said one participant, who traveled from Columbia, South Carolina to take part in the plunge. Whether its checking off an item from their bucket list or simply wanting to try something different, these participants share a sense of adventure. And the cold waters of the Lowcountry offer the perfect chance to do just that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For those on the other side of the coast, the New Years dive took place at the 2nd annual Pirate Plunge in Port Royal. Brave souls launched themselves into the chilly Beaufort River, celebrating with claps, cheers, and a shared sense of excitement. As one plunger put it, Its good to start the year with a fresh polar plunge in this freezing water. And while the temperatures may be bone-chilling, its the spirit of the event that keeps people coming back for more. I can only hope and pray that this brings good luck to me, said another participant. Whether motivated by tradition, luck, or the thrill of the moment, these plunges represent a shared experience of embracing the new year with enthusiasm and a bit of cold-water shock. Each plunge comes with a cause: funds raised from the Pelican Plunge at Hunting Island go back to supporting the park, while Port Royals Pirate Plunge benefits the CAPA Foundation. While the waters may be cold, the hearts are warm as locals and visitors alike brave the elements for a good cause. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV. Republican officials, candidates and pundits have spent nearly four years trying to rewrite the story of the Jan. 6 attack, often in contradictory ways. Indeed, prominent GOP voices went from telling the public that the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol was a terrible event that should be blamed on Antifa to later asking Americans to believe the riot was a laudable event committed by great patriots. As the anniversary of the insurrectionist violence approaches, its striking to see some in the party continue to rewrite recent history in ways that are literally unbelievable. Take, for example, the line Rep. Eric Burlison presented on Newsmax on Tuesday. The Missouri Republican said: I think we truly had some very disturbing things happen with the FBI and their involvement. They created many entrapment scenarios on American citizens who just simply were patriotic and wanted to express their First Amendment rights. Instead they were enticed and encouraged to, you know, do things that they didnt even know might be illegal. The problem with this bizarre line isnt just that the GOP congressman has no evidence to support his claims. The problem is made worse by Burlisons timing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just a couple of weeks before the Republicans on-air comments, the Justice Departments inspector general, Michael Horowitz, unveiled the detailed findings of a four-year investigation, which concluded that while there were FBI informants at the Capitol, no FBI officials were responsible for instigating the attack. Indeed, the report was devastating to Jan. 6 conspiracy theorists on and off Capitol Hill. To be sure, we already knew from congressional investigations and multiple federal court cases that the theories were baseless, but to the extent that there were still any lingering doubts, the Justice Departments inspector general erased them in unambiguous detail. For some Republicans including Donald Trump it was critically important that Horowitz confirmed that the Jan. 6 mob included some who were confidential FBI informants. But we already knew this. Some even testified during Jan. 6 criminal cases. The reports confirmation of this detail didnt advance our understanding of the broader events in any way. What actually mattered was the degree to which the inspector general took a sledgehammer to the rights conspiracy theory that the FBI was somehow responsible for creating the attack and entrapping Trumps poor, unsuspecting supporters. Horowitzs report discredited this misguided idea once and for all. (The same findings made clear that there were no undercover FBI employees at the Capitol, either.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two weeks after these findings reached the public, Burlison a member of the House Oversight Committee effectively pretended that the inspector generals findings didnt exist. Indeed, the congressman simply repeated the same discredited talking points, as if the absurdities about federal law enforcement still had merit, and Jan. 6 rioters many of whom are in prison after pleading guilty deserve to be seen as victims of underhanded FBI tactics. That was a ridiculous line when far-right conspiracy theorists concocted the idea months ago, and its even worse now. This post updates our related earlier coverage. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com As the 118th Congress reaches its ignominious end, theres no shortage of reasons to see it as an embarrassing failure, though its focus on misguided impeachment efforts is high on the list. This is, after all, the first Congress to ever impeach a sitting Cabinet secretary without cause before also launching an impeachment inquiry against a sitting president without cause. It was also a Congress in which House Republicans introduced impeachment resolutions targeting Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and FBI Director Chris Wray, among others. But there was always one name on the GOPs impeachment list that stood out as odd, not just because he hadnt done anything wrong, but also because his name was unknown to most Americans: Matthew Graves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Graves may have been the least recognized of the Republican Partys impeachment targets, but in some far-right circles, the lawyer was very important, indeed: He was the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, which put him in a position of prosecuting criminal cases against accused Jan. 6 defendants. Its precisely why Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and four other GOP lawmakers introduced an impeachment resolution going after the federal prosecutor. Not surprisingly, the crusade against Graves was largely ignored, and its poised to become a moot point: Like most of the Biden administrations U.S. attorneys, Graves is poised to step down from his position after more than three years on the job. But the prosecutors most rabid Capitol Hill critic isnt prepared to let her preoccupation go. Earlier this week, Greene appeared on a conservative media outlet called Real Americas Voice and declared, [Graves resigned], but this is not the end for him. Because we are about to take over and were going to be in charge, and he should pay for what hes done to [Jan. 6 criminal defendants.] The Georgian added: He doesnt get to resign and run away. He should be held accountable for the absolute misery and lives that have been destroyed from these Jan. 6 defendants and their families. Were talking about marriages have been destroyed, families have been destroyed, careers have been destroyed, and these people have spent time years now in prison. In other words, to hear the GOP congresswoman tell it, a federal prosecutor should be punished for prosecuting criminals, some of whom were found to have committed violent crimes, and many of whom pleaded guilty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a news release issued earlier this week, the Justice Department noted, Because politically motivated violence and destruction rip at the fabric of our society, Mr. Graves made federally prosecuting such crimes a priority. Oddly enough, its also why Greene wants to go after him. Its too soon to say with confidence what, if anything, House Republicans intend to do with regard to Graves in the new Congress, and its at least possible that Greenes interest wont amount to much of anything. After all, her impeachment resolution was ignored. But amid talk of GOP enemies lists and pre-emptive White House pardons, its worth keeping Graves name in mind in the coming weeks and months. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. Just click here. The Treasury Department announced new sanctions Tuesday on Iranian and Russian entities accused of trying to interfere with the U.S. 2024 elections, including by allegedly using artificial intelligence to disseminate false information. In its statement, Treasury said it was imposing sanctions on both a subsidiary of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and an affiliate of Russia's military intelligence agency over their efforts to "stoke sociopolitical tensions and influence the U.S. electorate during the 2024 election." Treasury's statement also said the Russian entity used AI tools to "quickly create disinformation that would be distributed across a massive network" of fake news websites and produced "baseless accusations" about a 2024 vice-presidential candidate, whom Treasury declined to identify. Although the sanctions target relatively minor entities and are unlikely to have major economic effects, they reflect the deteriorating relationship between the United States and two of its chief geopolitical adversaries. President Joe Biden is weighing much more far-reaching sanctions against Russia's energy sector, while President-elect Donald Trump is expected to try to significantly increase economic pressure on Tehran. "The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns," Bradley Smith, Treasury's acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. "The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy." Sanctions were imposed on the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE), a Moscow-based group founded by Aleksandr Dugin, whom Treasury had already sanctioned in 2015. Treasury accused the center of working closely with the Russian military intelligence service that "oversees sabotage, political interference operations and cyberwarfare" against the West. In its statement, Treasury said the intelligence service both directed and provided financial support to the center to influence the 2024 presidential election. With that support, Treasury said, the center maintained a network of "at least 100 websites" for its "disinformation operations," through which it pushed false information. "CGE and its personnel used generative AI tools to quickly create disinformation that would be distributed across a massive network of websites designed to imitate legitimate news outlets to create false corroboration between the stories, as well as to obfuscate their Russian origin," the Treasury statement said. The Russian center also "manipulated a video" to "produce baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice-presidential candidate," Treasury said. Treasury did not identify the video, but The Washington Post and other news organizations reported in October that, according to U.S. intelligence officials, Moscow was behind a faked video and other material smearing Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz with abuse allegations. Separately, Microsoft researchers said this fall that Russian entities had circulated false videos on social media in which an actor accused Vice President Kamala Harris of a nonexistent hit-and-run. The sanctions also target the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, over its "influence operations," according to the Treasury Department. The Justice Department previously charged three men with an alleged hack-and-leak attack against Trump's presidential campaign. I knew hospitals were not taking good care of doctors. But when I became a patient, I experienced it. I have spent nearly half a century in the world of health care leadership, first in management and later as a consultant. Throughout my career, one of my most consistent observations has been that most health care organizations do not treat physicians very well. I knew it because I saw it nearly every day in the hospitals I worked with. But it wasnt until this year that I experienced firsthand how poor treatment of physicians can impact patients. Last summer, I was diagnosed with cancer, which began my exceedingly difficult journey navigating a treatment plan. My first visit with a surgeon at a nationally recognized hospital lasted about five minutes. He walked into the exam room and said, You are not a candidate for surgery, and I am referring you to radiation therapy. You will not have a good outcome. My follow-up appointment with the radiation oncologist at the same hospital lasted maybe four minutes. You are young and healthy, he said. You should have surgery and not get radiation, but I would not have surgery here. Neither physician asked me about my treatment goals nor seemed to want to get a sense of who I am. Neither had any awareness of my medical knowledge, nor did they offer me any comfort. Six second opinions later (but whos counting?), I found myself in an exam room with a surgeon and a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The two physicians had reviewed my studies together before meeting with me, so they were prepared to guide me as a team. They went over my history, and they spent time talking to me to find out my goals for treatment. Ultimately, they helped me make a care plan based on my diagnosis, my individual situation, and my personal goals and preferences. It was a huge change from what I had gone through repeatedly over the previous weeks and the entire experience has made me take a fresh look at the concept of world-class health care. For starters, it made me realize that the fundamentals of patient preference have not changed. What was true 45 years ago when I began working in health care is still true today: Patients choose to get health care where they trust their physicians and feel that their physicians understand and care about them. Unfortunately, the current approach to managing a physician enterprise works directly against that reality. Productivity-based compensation makes it very hard for physicians to give patients the individual attention they need. In addition, the rise of physician employment has led many organizations to view physicians as interchangeable workers. In this environment, physicians feel abused and underappreciated. In many cases, patients end up bearing the brunt of their caregivers frustration. What can be done? I have two suggestions. First, we need to recognize that the way hospitals treat their physicians will eventually be reflected in the way physicians treat their patients. At Memorial Sloan Kettering, physicians are compensated under a salary model that enables them to give their full attention to every single patient they see. This has helped create a healing culture that enables world-class physicians to focus on world-class care delivery. And its not just the medical staff. At Memorial Sloan Kettering, every single employee I encountered from schedulers and clinic managers to nurses and physicians was emotionally engaged. They conveyed an appreciation of my fears and always made me feel they were there to help me. Second, we need to appreciate the leadership skills that physicians bring to the table and give every employed physician a meaningful opportunity to use those skills. Minimally, physicians should have substantial control over how their individual practices are run. Ideally, hospitals should create physician-dominated boards to make key decisions about their employed medical groups. At one organization I recently worked with, this approach not only cut financial losses on employed practices but improved physician engagement along with staff and patient satisfaction. If every health care organization embraced these two suggestions, I believe that my recent world-class care experience would soon become much more common. Today, I am about two months post-surgery and optimistic about my future. And as I said, I have learned more about world-class health care through this journey than in my 45 years in health care leadership. Physicians who are unhappy struggle to show empathy for their patients. If we want to improve patient care, we need to take better care of physicians. Jeffry A. Peters is a health care executive. Madeline Heim gets enthused talking about wetlands or watersheds. Her voice picks up a tone of wonder at the mention of "dark skies." And it carries a bit of an edge on the subject of climate change. That's the best kind of reporter someone who doesn't just "do" a beat, but "speaks" it, and it's why Heim is so good at reporting on the environment, and specifically the Mississippi River basin. Born in Menomonee Falls, educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Heim has a deep appreciation for the state, its resources, and the people who live here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before joining the Journal Sentinel, she covered education at the Winona Daily News, and health and science at the Appleton Post-Crescent. The latter job involved covering the mushrooming COVID pandemic, where she became something of a legend among Gannett Wisconsin editors for the quality and quantity of her work. Since joining the Journal Sentinel, she has contined to bring an authoritative voice to her work. And speaking of voices, she is called upon with some regularity to speak on the environment in public, a task at which she excels. This week, she joins colleague Caitlin Looby in looking at the astonishing impact climate change had on weather in 2024, breaking one record after another. Get to know Journal Sentinel reporter Madeline Heim: What drew you to journalism? Ive loved stories and writing since I was a little kid, and back then, I had aspirations of becoming a bestselling author. When I eventually realized that career path is pretty rare, I asked my high school English teacher what else I could do with a flair for the written word, and she suggested journalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My first reporting experience didnt come until my freshman year of college, working for the Daily Cardinal at UW-Madison. I covered student government meetings every week and conducted all my interviews in the hallway outside our office because I was too nervous to do them in front of my fellow staff members. Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel environmental reporter, is pictured in the Milwaukee newsroom on Dec. 16, 2024. Heim is a Report for America corps member who covers Wisconsin's environmental challenges with a specific focus on the Mississippi River watershed. I liked what I did, but I really fell in love with journalism during a summer internship for whats now the Suburban team of the Journal Sentinel. My editors pushed me out of my comfort zone every day of those three months, assigning me to breaking news, courthouse coverage and even food reviews at the county fair. Near the end, I wrote what would turn out to be an award-winning series about what its like to experience homelessness in one of Wisconsins richest counties. It was never about the award, of course. I found that I had unlocked a deep motivation to make my sources feel seen in my work and more than that, my passion for reporting stories that challenge readers perspectives, humanize their neighbors and teach them something along the way. Thats at the heart of how I approach journalism today. You covered the COVID-19 pandemic. What was that like? Before I came to the Journal Sentinel, I wrote about health and science for the Appleton Post-Crescent and the USA TODAY Network in Wisconsin. In early March 2020, I was wrapping up a journalism conference in Washington, D.C., when my editor called me and said we needed to have a serious conversation when I got home about how we would cover coronavirus. He seemed to see the writing on the wall about what lay ahead, and sadly, he was right. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leading coverage of the pandemic for our network was exhausting and, at times, devastating. Early on, I attempted to make sense for readers of what we knew about COVID-19 (very little). I felt a glimmer of hope reporting on the first vaccines to come to the Fox Valley, and fielded hundreds of calls from people who were confused about their rollout. My hope dulled with the onset of the delta and omicron variants, when I wrote about hospitals so full they were transferring patients for care; the slow discovery of long COVID: and the taxing mental toll the situation was taking on health care workers, many of whom told me they never would have signed up to witness so much dying. Some days I felt like I was drowning in death numbers and reports of dwindling hospital beds, and the stories I wrote made me go to bed crying. On better days, I felt like I was making a difference like when I reported tips about making it through a socially distanced winter from a scientist based at the South Pole, or profiled the first person to die of COVID in Outagamie County, a story his family said brought them peace. Above all, I sought to demonstrate every day that all the numbers that told the story of the pandemic werent just numbers. They were people. Why did you make the switch to covering environmental news? After covering the pandemics onslaught of breaking news for more than two years, I needed a change. I had dabbled in environmental reporting at the Post-Crescent, but when I saw the Journal Sentinel was hiring a reporter to cover western Wisconsin and the Mississippi River basin, I jumped at it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If youve read any of my previous columns, you know about my obsession with the river. (Nowadays, I get texts from friends anytime they cross it, if that tells you anything.) It has been my great honor to inform Journal Sentinel readers about the challenges its facing like dying floodplain forests, excessive flooding thats eroding sacred Indigenous mounds, and how climate change is affecting wildlife habitat and river traditions. My love for people-centric stories at first made the shift to writing about the environment seem daunting. But I soon realized that my favorite types of stories on this beat have been about people who love the environment, and why like a commercial fisherman who knows the Mississippi like the back of his hand, a man who collects thousands of acorns a year to replenish forests or a sweet musical group that writes meaningful river tunes. Next year, I hope to continue this work and marry it with my prior beat, putting a spotlight on the growing ways the environment affects our health. If youve got a story you think should be written, I want to hear from you. What's your favorite part of the job? Especially as an environmental journalist, I find so much joy in getting out in the field and hearing people talk about their favorite wild places and things. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last summer, I stood calf-deep in the Chippewa River watching researchers carefully transfer endangered freshwater mussels to the river bottom in hopes theyd thrive there. Id never thought much about mussels before, but the excitement that day was infectious. My job doesnt always have me on fun field trips, of course, but there are tons of little moments like this. I do my best to soak it all in. What are your interests outside of work? When Im not reporting or writing, Im chipping away at a lengthy to-be-read pile of fiction and nonfiction, going to yoga and dance classes, exploring new state parks and cuddling with my sassy cat, Annie. I also volunteer at Simpson Street Free Press, a Madison-based literacy and writing organization where kids get to see their stories published in a newspaper. Every week, these students challenge me, make me laugh, keep me up-to-date on the latest lingo and remind me that what I get to do is a dream come true. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Madeline Heim is a Report for America corps reporter who writes about environmental issues in the Mississippi River watershed and across Wisconsin. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Get to know Maddy Heim, who covers the environment, Mississippi River Apparently nothing is above politics for Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who chose a terrorism press conference for the deaths of 15 people as an opportune platform to make some jabs at his political foes. The MAGA lawmaker took a swipe at the media during a Wednesday press conference on the New Years Eve attack in New Orleans, quickly reminding Louisianiansin the midst of a national tragedyof the news medias assumed political bent. While identifying which outlets the attending reporters were with, Kennedy referred to NBCs placement on the right of the podium. Thats an unusual position, Kennedy said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the reporter said they didnt understand the comment, Kennedy added, You wouldnt. Reporter: NBC is here on the right Kennedy: Thats an unusual position Reporter: I dont get it Kennedy; You wouldnt pic.twitter.com/wYxDDIz0Gf Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2025 Kennedys comments, which detracted from local and federal authorities sharing details on the attack, were roundly criticized as tone-deaf. The ongoing investigation is rushing to identify the perpetrators of a multipronged domestic terrorism scheme that involved a pickup truck mowing down a crowd of people on New Orleanss Bourbon Street. But the off-color remarks didnt just frustrate members of the media working to share developments in the caseKennedys comments also angered some on the right, including the X account Republicans Against Trump, which lambasted the senator as a disgrace. For these asses its only and always about the politics, wrote former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. An attack on the citizens of his community and Sen. Kennedy think its cute to take a political jab at the press. Early on Thursday, Donald Trump pushed an obviously incorrect theory that the attack was the result of the nations open borders policy. The FBIs suspect for the attack, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is a U.S. citizen born in Texas. Republican Sen. John Kennedy has been slammed as tone deaf after he made a political dig at a reporter while speaking about a terrorist attack in his home state of Louisiana. The controversial quip came as he and other officials took questions about the Wednesday morning attackwhich left at least 15 dead on New Orleans iconic Bourbon Street. A 42-year-old Army veteran named Shamsud-Din Jabbar has been named as the suspect, who was killed by officers who opened fire at the scene. Early on in Tuesdays press conference, a reporter told Kennedy that NBC News was here on the right. The remark was meant to help the 72-year-old identify each journalists affiliation as he geared up to answer a question during an afternoon press conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That prompted the Republican to remark, Oh, thats [an] unusual position. He moved his hands to the right, seemingly suggesting NBC is a left-leaning outlet. Reporter: NBC is here on the right Kennedy: Thats an unusual position Reporter: I dont get it Kennedy; You wouldnt pic.twitter.com/wYxDDIz0Gf Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2025 This appeared to confuse the reporter who had just assisted Kennedy. She called out, I dont get it. Kennedy responded, You wouldnt. He then took over the podium. Democrats were quick to slam Kennedywho has a long history of making bizarre comments to get attentionfor making such a statement mere hours after dozens of his constituents were mowed down on the street as they celebrated the new year. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana is a useless piece of s--t saying all the wrong things at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons, wrote the political pundit Keith Olbermann on X. What a tone deaf, selfish, senile motherf----r. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The timing of Kennedys theatrics also angered some on the right. The Republicans against Trump account on X wrote to its 780,000 followers that Kennedy was a disgrace for making the tragedy about him. That sentiment was echoed elsewhere, but was not just about the senators slight at a reporter. A disheveled-appearing Kennedy also sipped from two red solo cupsinsulated with paper towelsmidway through the news conference. He also promised to raise fresh hell and chase the federal government who are responsible for telling us what happened like they stole Christmas if he is not satisfied with the FBIs findings, despite there already being a trove of information released about Jabbar and his potential motive. Sen. John Kennedy could be seen sipping from a red solo cup during Wednesdays press conference. / WDSU The lawmaker also took a shot at Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, suggesting he doesnt respect the Biden administration official who could soon be replaced by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who is President-elect Donald Trumps choice for the position. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I did talk to the Secretary of Homeland Security a little while ago, and I told him that, with all the respect I could muster, that we expect to put the full force and resources of the federal government behind this investigation. Later, during an interview on Fox News, Kennedy did not deny that there may be a threat to other major American cities by terrorist groups. When asked by host Aishah Hasnie whether citizens should be afraid of a follow-up attack, Kennedy simply said: I cant answer thatI can, but I wont. BREAKING: Response from Senator Kennedy suggests there may be ongoing threats to US cities tonight. pic.twitter.com/g7x5FfYchH Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 1, 2025 Despite the pushback, there were a few fans of Kennedys antics. The conservative political commentator Kimberly Klacik suggested the senator had rightfully taken over the press conference from the FBI special agent Alethea Duncandespite him offering more commentary on the incident than details. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Klacik wrote that the news conference was definitely one of the worst shes witnessed, but pitted that blame on the feds. I can barely take notes, she wrote. They are all over the place. Mary Bonauto, civil rights director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders. (Photo courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation/Creative Commons). A Maine civil rights leader will receive one of the nations highest civilian honors Thursday. President Joe Biden is awarding 20 Americans the Presidential Citizens Medal, including attorney and activist Mary Bonauto, who fought to legalize same-sex marriage in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine before arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges, which established marriage equality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bonauto called the award an astonishing honor, in a quote provided to Maine Morning Star by the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law). The Presidential Citizens Medal represents something fundamental: that we each have a role to play in fulfilling our countrys promises of equality, dignity, and freedom, she said. I stand alongside so many courageous individuals who fought for the right to marry, and others across our nation who share a deep desire that all of our community members be treated with fairness and dignity. Bonauto began practicing law in Maine in 1987 working for a firm with a reputation for pursuing social justice cases. Since 1990, she has been an attorney at GLAD Law, where she now serves as senior director of civil rights and legal strategies. She has done policy work in every New England state, but specifically in Maine Bonauto won Law Courts cases allowing unmarried same-sex couples to be recognized as de facto parents and adopt jointly. Shes also worked on reforms in the juvenile justice, criminal justice and child welfare systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree congratulated Bonauto in a statement Thursday afternoon, saying her relentless dedication to justice and equality has transformed the lives of countless Americans. The Democrat from Maines 1st Congressional District went on to say, Marys work is a testament to the power of courage and perseverance in the face of adversity, and her impact extends far beyond the courtroom. She has made Maine and our nationproud by standing up for the fundamental values of fairness and dignity for all. Bonauto has also worked on recent issues in Maine including childrens behavioral health services and a shield law protecting reproductive and gender-affirming care in the state. A ceremony for the award is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday. It can be watched on the White Houses YouTube Channel or streamed live on the White House website. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Senate President Mattie Daughtry of Brunswick stands as the rostrum of the Maine House of Representatives during a joint session on the first day of the legislative year on Dec. 4, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star) Last session, the Maine Legislature considered proposals on a variety of topics. Despite sparking lengthy debate or, in some cases, being approved by both the Maine Senate and House of Representatives, many did not end up becoming law. Several lawmakers and advocates told Maine Morning Star they plan to raise these issues again in the 132nd Legislature, which begins its work in earnest in the coming weeks. Some have already filed legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are some of the issues that are expected to come up again in 2025: Data privacy Last session, lawmakers spent 12 public meetings and countless hours behind the scenes considering two competing comprehensive data privacy laws. But, the Legislature ultimately ended up killing both. One of the proposals, from former Rep. Maggie ONeil (D-Saco), would have made Maines regulations on companies that collect consumer information online among the strictest in the country. This version was favored by privacy advocates, Maines attorney general and the majority of the Legislatures Judiciary Committee. The other plan, from former Sen. Lisa Keim (R-Oxford), was backed by businesses and technology companies and followed a template that has been increasingly adopted by other states in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The House and Senate both voted against Keims proposal on its first pass but split in their support of ONeils version, with the House in support. ONeils bill bounced back and forth again before ultimately dying after neither chamber would alter its stance. While agreement could not be reached last session, both bill sponsors told Maine Morning Star they hoped their proposals started a conversation that will eventually lead to a comprehensive data privacy law in Maine. ONeil and Keim termed out but said they expect others who had engaged in the extensive debate to continue the work, including Rep. Rachel Henderson (R-Rumford), who worked with Keim on her proposal. Tribal sovereignty For the past several Legislative sessions, leaders of the Wabanaki Nations have worked with lawmakers to try to overhaul a 1980 land settlement agreement that has resulted in the tribes being treated more akin to municipalities than sovereign nations, leaving them with a different relationship to both the state and federal government than the other 570 federally-recognized tribes in the United States. So far, sweeping change has failed, while piecemeal reforms have seen success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last session, the third attempt at sweeping legislation languished, however a pared back version that provides the Wabanaki Nations more authority to prosecute crimes on tribal land became law. Looking ahead to the 132nd Legislature, Wabanaki leaders told Maine Morning Star they plan to take a two-pronged approach: back an omnibus bill aimed to provide comprehensive reform but also back legislation focused on specific parts of the land agreement to ensure momentum continues. Seeking full enforcement of existing laws Maine Human Rights Act This fall, the Maine Permanent Commission on the Status of Women recommended in its 2024 report that the state make sure existing entities dedicated to fighting and tracking gender disparities are adequately funded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As an example, the commission highlighted the Maine Human Rights Commission, which currently enforces anti-discrimination laws outlined by the Maine Human Rights Act. This recommendation comes after other reports have found inadequate staffing and limited resources at the Maine Human Rights Commision. Were not planning to submit any legislation specifically ourselves, but some of the recommendations we lift up have to do with bills that are anticipated to go forward, said Elinor Higgins, executive director of the Commission on the Status of Women. Last session, lawmakers introduced legislation to ensure that the state is fully enforcing existing laws like the Maine Human Rights Act. However, those proposals fell short of passing. Civil Rights A proposal to create a dedicated Civil Rights Unit to enforce violations of the Maine Civil Rights Act, which prohibits violence or threats of violence motivated by bias based on characteristics such as race and gender, passed the Legislature last session. However, this bill also ultimately failed after getting caught up in the funding process. (You can see how it died by looking at LD 2210 here.) Wabanaki studies The Maine Legislature passed a bill last session to create an African American and Wabanaki Studies advisory council, which would be tasked with ensuring that the courses of study already required under Maine law are effectively implemented in schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the bill ultimately failed to become law because it got caught up in the funding process. (You can follow the entire, windy path of the bills demise here.) Forever chemicals Brunswick legislators have already filed bills for the 132nd session to better regulate forever chemical-laden firefighting foam, following the accidental discharge of the toxic material in their town over the summer. Democratic Rep. Dan Ankeles proposed a foam take-back program, similar to one New Hampshire launched this summer. He also filed legislation calling for the immediate removal of the foam from the spill site, Brunswick Executive Airport, as well as a measure to authorize the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to conduct a statewide inventory of the foam, as the exact amounts and locations of the toxic material remain unclear. Meanwhile, Senate President Mattie Daughtry is taking the lead on legislation to address the governance of the residential and business community integrated with the airport, Brunswick Landing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maine has been a leader in establishing protections against per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as forever chemicals. In 2021, Maine was the first state to pass a rule requiring manufacturers to report intentionally added PFAS in their products. Last session, lawmakers considered a reporting exemption for agriculture products with intentionally added forever chemicals but ultimately shot it down. This proposal and others from last session, as well as the foam spill in Brunswick, underscored there are many untapped areas where forever chemical contamination remains unaddressed. (For more on the use of PFAS in and around firefighting in Maine, check out Maine Morning Stars investigation in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center.) Minimum wage for agricultural workers When the 132nd Legislature starts, farmworkers in Maine still wont have the right to state minimum wage. It isnt for a lack of trying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last session, Mills introduced a proposal that would have guaranteed that agricultural workers would be paid at least $14.15 an hour and have the same annual cost-of-living increases provided to other hourly workers. The bill also included expanded recordkeeping requirements for employers. But Mills said the Legislature made changes that left her with no other option than to veto her own bill. It wasnt the first time Mills vetoed a proposal like this. In fact, her proposal was born out of recommendations from the Agricultural Worker Minimum Wage Committee, which Mills formed after vetoing a similar bill in 2023. Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot), who worked on the committee Mills convened and was the Senate chair for the labor committee last session, said this is an issue he plans to continue working on in the coming session. He couldnt specify who, but Tipping, who will again chair the Legislatures labor committee, said he understands that a legislator has submitted a proposal for farmworker minimum wage for the upcoming session. Though he couldnt speak directly to the text of the bill, Tipping said he anticipates it being similar to the recommendations that came from the committee Mills convened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While he appreciates the work from many legislators, members of the agriculture sector and staff of the Mills administration, Tipping said he is disappointed we couldnt get it across that final step. But he said he looks forward to trying again. Child welfare There were multiple attempts to improve the states embattled child welfare system last session. Some suggested structural changes within the Department of Health and Human Services, while others sought to implement greater oversight. However, lawmakers work came to a close with little to show as far as concrete action. The Legislatures Government Oversight Committee did put forth a list of more than two dozen suggested reforms, which were informed by the months they spent learning about the systems failures from caseworkers and others involved with the agency. A recently released federal audit also showed that a vast majority of child abuse cases in the state failed to comply with best practices. But Bobbi Johnson, director of the Office of Child and Family Services, said the agency has made policy and technology updates since she took over in January that would produce better results if a similar audit was completed again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson has updated the Legislature throughout the year about changes within the agency and how she is trying to improve the work conditions for caseworkers and safety for children. Still, Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) has said fixing the child welfare system is a top priority for him in the upcoming session. Taxes Maine is expected to see an overall revenue shortfall in the coming years, and progressives and conservatives both within the Legislature and in the economic policy scene are already floating opposing suggestions for how to close the gap. Taxes are one area. Some progressives see adding new income brackets with higher tax rates for wealthier residents as a solution. However, Mills vetoed a bill last year that would have done just that. Meanwhile, Republicans are generally opposed to raising taxes. When outlining his priorities for the session, Stewart said, We certainly cant raise taxes. That shouldnt be on anyones agenda. He also clarified this includes opposing raising taxes on the wealthy. Rep. Joshua Morris (R-Turner) has already filed legislation related to taxes. His bill aims to repeal the payroll tax funding the new statewide paid family and medical leave program, which he argues will be too much for Mainers. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Death Valley National Park will close a significant canyon road this month as officials continue to work to repair damage from a major 2023 storm. Starting Jan. 6, the park will close Emigrant Canyon Road and keep it off-limits through early March, according to the National Park Service. The closure will mean there will be no road access to the Wildrose area for the duration, including to the Wildrose Campground, Wildrose Charcoal Kilns, the Wildrose Peak Trail, the Thorndike Campground, the Mahogany Flat Campground, and the Telescope Peak Trail. This construction includes armoring to protect the road from flash floods. Climate change is increasing the frequency of severe floods, Mike Reynolds, the parks superintendent, said in a statement. Unfortunately, we need to close the road now so the work can happen. Courtesy of NPS Federal Highway Administration engineers inspecting the damage to Emigrant Canyon Road after Hurricane Hilary Federal Highway Administration engineers inspecting the damage to Emigrant Canyon Road after Hurricane Hilary The road closure is a direct result of damage from 2023s Hurricane Hilary, which slammed California as a tropical storm and dumped more than 2 inches of rain on Death Valley in a day more than the area typically gets in a whole year forcing the park to close. At the time, the rain caused flooding, washed away trails, undercut pavement, and filled collapsed roads with gravel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Emigrant Canyon Road, the National Park Service said flooding extensively damaged infrastructure and left drop-offs of up to six feet deep. The road initially reopened in the spring last year on a temporary basis, but more work needs to be done to future-proof it. As part of the construction, officials will bury concrete barriers and rock-filled gabions in the road shoulders, the National Park Service noted, protecting it from potential future flash floods. Death Valley National Park sits between California and Nevada and is known as both the driest place in North America and the hottest place on Earth. Winter is one of the easiest times to visit since travelers dont have to deal with the extreme heat and crowds tend to thin a bit, while spring brings gorgeous wildflowers. Read the original article on Travel & Leisure Over half of German residents (54%) believe peacekeepers should be sent to Ukraine in case of a ceasefire. Source: Deutsche Welle, a German international broadcaster and media outlet, citing a YouGov poll commissioned by the dpa news agency, as reported by European Pravda Details: The survey also showed that a further 19% of respondents are fundamentally opposed to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, while 25% have not decided on their answer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time, support for Germany's participation in these peacekeeping efforts is much lower: only 23% of respondents are in favour of German soldiers taking part in such a mission. Another 33% of German respondents are against the involvement of German troops. The poll was conducted online from 20 to 23 December, with 2,194 people from all over Germany taking part. Background: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine, aimed at deterring further Russian aggression, was discussed during meetings in Brussels in December. He added that he was already noticing "positive responses" from certain leaders in this regard. In an address to EU leaders, the president expressed support for this idea from French President Emmanuel Macron and called on other partners to join in. Support UP or become our patron! KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's communications regulator said it granted Tencent's WeChat and ByteDance's TikTok licences to operate in the country under a new social media law, but that some other platforms had not applied. The law, aimed at tackling rising cybercrime, requires social media platforms and messaging services with more than 8 million users in Malaysia to obtain a licence or face legal action. It came into effect on Jan. 1. In a statement on Wednesday, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said messaging platform Telegram was in the final stages of obtaining its licence, while Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had begun the licensing process. The regulator said X had not submitted an application because the platform said its local user base did not reach the 8 million threshold. The regulator said it was reviewing the validity of X's claim. Alphabet's Google, which operates video platform YouTube, had also not applied for a licence after raising concerns about the video sharing features of YouTube and its classification under the licensing law, the regulator said. It did not state the concerns or how they relate to the law but said YouTube must adhere. "Platform providers found to be in violation of licensing requirements may be subject to investigation and regulatory actions," the regulator said. Malaysia reported a sharp increase in harmful social media content in early 2024 and urged social media firms, including Meta and short video platform TikTok, to step up monitoring of their platforms. Malaysian authorities deem online gambling, scams, child pornography and grooming, cyberbullying and content related to race, religion and royalty as harmful. The companies do not publish the number of users per country on their platforms. According to independent data provider World Population Review, WeChat has 12 million users in Malaysia. Advisory firm Kepios said YouTube had about 24.1 million users in Malaysia in early 2024, TikTok 28.68 million users aged 18 and above, Facebook 22.35 million users, and X had 5.71 million. (Reporting by Danial Azhar; Editing by Kate Mayberry) UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (PIX11) A 20-year-old man allegedly broke into Gracie Mansion in Manhattan early Wednesday morning and took a Christmas ornament, according to a criminal complaint. Security noticed the intruder hopping a fence around 4:24 a.m. at the New York City mayors residence on East End Avenue, sources told PIX11 News. 10 people shot outside Queens night club on New Years Day: NYPD Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michael Aromando, 20, of the Upper East Side, allegedly made it to the homes second floor before he was arrested, sources said. He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday, court records show. A representative of the mayors office said the mayor was not home at the time of the break-in. The break-in was caught on surveillance camera, according to a criminal complaint. Aromando allegedly showed investigators a video of him taking a Christmas ornament from the home, the criminal complaint details. Aromando also took several other items, according to the criminal complaint. The 20-year-old is due back in court on Monday, court records show. A family member of Aromando declined to comment on the allegations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michael Alcazar, a former NYPD detective and security expert, said there was an unacceptable security breakdown that happened. Theres a security detail assigned to the mayor. And there is also uniformed security assigned at the gate. There are posts over there that are manned 24 hours. There is no reason why anybody should be able to breach Gracie Mansion. Every perimeter should be covered, Alcazar said. Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter who has covered New York City since 2023 after reporting in Los Angeles for years. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. ENCINITAS, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) A man who was riding a bicycle in Encinitas on New Years Day was sent to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after a collision with a car. According to the San Diego County Sheriffs Department, deputies from the North Coastal Sheriffs Station responded to a report of a crash near the intersection of Encinitas Boulevard and Cerro Street Wednesday just before 6 p.m. Two young boys shot on New Years Eve in Escondido: police Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities said a 79-year-old woman was driving a Hyundai Elantra eastbound on Encinitas Boulevard when it collided with the 45-year-old bicyclist. Anyone who witnessed the crash or may have surveillance or dashcam video are asked to contact Sheriffs Sergeant Jeremy Collis at 760-966-3555 or by email at jeremy.collis@SDSheriff.org. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. Alcohol and/or drugs are not believed to be a factor in the crash. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, we sit down with neurologist Lealani Mae Acosta to explore the intersection of beauty standards, professionalism, and gender disparities in medicine. From the impact of COVID-19 on personal appearance routines to the pressures women physicians face to look professional, we dive into how societal expectations shape perceptions and patient interactions. Discover how shifting norms are challenging outdated standards and empowering health care professionals to embrace authenticity. Lealani Mae Acosta is a neurologist. She discusses the KevinMD article, Putting on my daily mascara. Our presenting sponsor is DAX Copilot by Microsoft. 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VISIT SPONSOR https://aka.ms/kevinmd SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast RECOMMENDED BY KEVINMD https://www.kevinmd.com/recommended GET CME FOR THIS EPISODE https://www.kevinmd.com/cme Im partnering with Learner+ to offer clinicians access to an AI-powered reflective portfolio that rewards CME/CE credits from meaningful reflections. Find out more: https://www.kevinmd.com/learnerplus Transcript Kevin Pho: Hi and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast. Today we welcome Lealani Mae Acosta. Shes a neurologist. Todays KevinMD article is Putting On My Daily Mascara. Lea, welcome to the show. Lealani Mae Acosta: Thank you so much for having me. Kevin Pho: All right, lets start by briefly sharing your story and journey. Lealani Mae Acosta: Sure. So, this article that I wrote, Putting On My Daily Mascara, I wrote at the beginning of the pandemic, essentially. I speak a little Spanishenough to be dangerous because of the year I took in collegeand I noticed there were signs up all over the hospital, of course, encouraging us to wear our masks in English and Spanish. The Spanish word for mask on the signs we had in our hospital was mascara, and I thought it was really interesting because I love words. I was an English minor, I do creative writing, so I noticed the similarities between the Spanish word for mask, mascara, and the English word for mascara, which is typically associated with womens makeup. I was going to give a lecture to the neurology residents, and (though were on audio, you may see some video) I dont usually wear a lot of makeup. Im not wearing any makeup nowI usually dont wear any makeup. But sometimes, when Im public speaking, Ill put on a little bit of lipstick or some tinted lip gloss just to look a bit more animated. I was preparing to give this lecture to the neurology residents, looking for my lipstickwhich I dont use very oftenand I thought, Leah, why are you looking for lipstick to put on? Its going to be under your mask that youll be wearing to give a lecture to these residents. Whats the point? It really got me thinking about the daily appearance that we have, not only as physicians but specifically as a woman physicianhow we appear to other people. Why does it matter if I was wearing lip gloss or lipstick? Why do some women really commit to wearing mascara every day, or feel like they need a full face of makeup to look like a doctor? It got me thinking about what it means to look like a doctor, and specifically, as a woman physician, what people expect me to look like as a woman doctor. I thought about not only makeup but also appearance. I have a fairly youthful appearanceId like to thank my Filipino genes for thatand sometimes, when Im attending on the inpatient wards in the hospital or when Im seeing patients in my dementia clinic (Im a behavioral neurology specialist), I get a lot of comments: Oh, you look so young, too young to be a doctor. Sometimes I feel like I have to look older. When I round with my team of residents, I got tired of the male intern being recognized as the attending by the patient, when I was the one who was the supervising physician. So Id wear my white coat, feeling like I had to look a certain way. I wrote this article as a reflection of these expectations that we have to look a particular way in medicine, again specifically for women physicians. At the end of the day, as long as we look professional and act professionally, how we look shouldnt matter so much. Certainly, we should be clean and presentable, but I dont think we all have to look like, for example, Dr. Barbie. Kevin Pho: You talk about those expectations, especially for a female physician. Do you think those expectations come more from patients or more from your colleagues? Lealani Mae Acosta: I would say the majority of those kinds of comments come from patients. Part of this is because I work primarily with an older population, so the comments like, Oh, you look like my child, or, You look old enough to be my grandchildsome of them are meant kindly, but sometimes theres an undercurrent of, I dont know if I can trust you because you look too young. How long have you been doing this? Some of those unspoken questions sometimes arise. Thankfully, I dont really get it as much from colleagues, though I do sometimes wonderthinking about some colleagues who have been doing this much longerDo they take me seriously if they think I havent been doing this for very long? But Ive been an attending for over a decade. So yes, I think the majority of those sorts of expectations come from patients, not as much from colleagues. Kevin Pho: Youve been practicing for a while. Sometimes you hear these comments from patients: Oh, you look so young. How do you feel when you receive those comments? Lealani Mae Acosta: I try to put a positive spin on it, as in, Thanks, I appreciate that compliment. Im grateful as I get older that I still look young, and I do try to take care of myself. At the back of my mind, though, there is that question of, Are they calling into question my authority, my knowledge base, my capacity to serve in this role? So I just underscore that I appreciate the compliment, and emphasize that I have the training and experience to be a well-trained physician to take care of their medical questions. Kevin Pho: Do you talk about this issue among your other female colleagues? Lealani Mae Acosta: It does come up sometimes, especially questions about makeup or, What should I wear to this conference? How does this blazer look? Should I wear a blazer, do I have to wear heels? Those sorts of questions come up not infrequently among me and my colleagues. In the article, I shared a story: even when I was applying for residency programs, my favorite suit was navy blue, and I was stressing because I didnt have matching navy blue shoes. I was complaining about it to a friend who was also in med school, and he said, Why cant you just wear black shoes? and I said, Youre a man, you dont understand. You can wear black shoes with a navy suit, and nobody notices, but if a womans shoes dont match her suit, people see it as not good. Those sorts of conversations do come up more among my female colleagues than with my male colleagues. Kevin Pho: Do you feel that male physicians are scrutinized less for their appearance? Lealani Mae Acosta: To some extent, yes. Based on my personal experience, I havent had many conversations with my male colleagues about fretting over, Is this lipstick the right shade, or Should I highlight my eyes, or Do these colors look good on stage? Not to say my male colleagues dont care about their appearance, but I dont outwardly hear them having the same concerns or actively thinking about it like I do more with my female colleagues. Kevin Pho: How do you feel about the implicit association between a female physicians appearance and her professionalism? What does that say about larger questions of how society perceives men and women in medicine? Lealani Mae Acosta: I think it speaks to an older stereotype that has existed for a long timewomen werent even trained to be physicians historically, so theres a stereotype of the older male doctor, or maybe the female is a nurse or some other health care worker, but not the physician. Some of those stereotypes still persist, even if theyre not explicitly stated. We have to educate people that almost half the students entering medical school now are women, and a lot of departments and hospitals recognize that we need more women to be represented in our fields, that we need to strive for equal paritynot only numerical representation, but also ensuring equal pay and opportunities. Many studies show that women are disproportionately underrepresented in C-suite roles, chair roles, or division head roles. So recognizing the role of women physicians in the health care fields and giving them the recognition and opportunities they havent historically had is important. Kevin Pho: Now, of course, you wrote your article in the midst of the pandemic back in 2020. People arent wearing masks all the time now, theyre not wearing scrubs all the time. Have you noticed any changes in how much scrutiny women physicians face regarding their appearance? Lealani Mae Acosta: I dont think specifically for women. I have noticed some trends in overall physician attire. During the pandemic, I wore scrubs all the time, partly because we didnt know about transmission. Ive transitioned mostly back to my business attire, but I see a lot more physicians comfortable wearing scrubs every day, either in the office or the hospital. Certainly some specialtieslike surgical specialtieswear scrubs more, but now I see even non-surgical specialties doing so. We used to think of scrubs as more casual, but its become more accepted. For me personally, I also appreciate my own perception of how I appear. I dont wear my white coat as often as I used to, originally because of transmission concerns, but also I realized I didnt want to hide behind it. In the past, I wore it in clinic every day. Now, Im not seeing that the Oh, you look too young to be my doctor comments come less often since Im not wearing the white coat. So thats interesting to me. Kevin Pho: Do you think theres a balance between personal self-expressionwhether its fashion or cosmeticsand professionalism? Lealani Mae Acosta: I think so. Theyre not mutually exclusive. People need to be authentic in how they represent themselves, but also keep in mind what it means to look professional. For some women, theyre horrified if their hair starts turning gray, and they rush to dye it because they feel they wont look as professional. Others might be fine letting it go gray. There have been interesting studies about how patients perceive physicians if they look a certain way, especially for women regarding makeup, etc. But generally, as long as youre presenting yourself in a professional way and acting courteously, we have physicians of all shades of the rainbow and all different fashion senses. Be authentic and maintain professionalism. Ill show you one quick prop: I have this knit model of Einsteins brain that I crocheted. It was published in the journal Neurology. I wear it around the hospital because Im a neurologist, and people often recognize it as a brain. When I first made it, I worried that people might not take me seriously, but Ive gotten tons of positive commentsfrom colleagues, hospital staff, even while running errands. One time, I had a conversation with someone at Trader Joes whose mom had dementia. Thats a reminder that theres more to being professional than just how you appear at face value. You can have personal self-expression, and its still within professional boundaries. Kevin Pho: You work at an academic medical center, so you see the next generation of physicians. Are the new physicians carrying the same stereotypes that were talking about? Lealani Mae Acosta: I think theyre not as rigidly adhering to them. Society in general is changingtattoos, for instance, are more common. Some people worry about covering up their tattoos to look professional, but I recall a medical student who bonded with a patient who also had tattoos, so it became a positive instead of a negative. The idea of what a doctor is supposed to look like is looser with the current generation. Kevin Pho: Were talking to Leah Acosta. Shes a neurologist. Todays KevinMD article is Putting On My Daily Mascara. Leah, well end with some take-home messages you want to leave with the KevinMD audience. Lealani Mae Acosta: I hope people feel comfortable expressing their authentic personalities in their appearance and dress, and still maintain a professional appearance with colleagues and patients. We dont need to commit ourselves to a stereotype of what a physician is supposed to look likeespecially for my female colleagues. Kevin Pho: Leah, as always, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and insight, and thanks again for coming on the show. Lealani Mae Acosta: Thank you. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) An 82-year-old man accused of killing his two roommates and who has spent more than a year in a state hospital is unlikely to ever be found competent to stand trial, according to a report discussed in Superior Court. Guadalupe Mojica remains held without bail and his case will be referred to the countys Aging & Adult Services for a conservatorship evaluation, Judge Andrew Kendall said Thursday. Driver in Kason Guyton shooting released from jail Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The results of the evaluation will be considered at a hearing next month to determine the next step in the case. Mojicas criminal case has been suspended but not yet been dismissed since he was found incompetent in August 2023 and sent to Atascadero State Hospital for treatment. In determining competency, a judge weighs evidence including doctors reports to determine whether a defendant understands the charges against them and can assist attorneys in the preparation of a defense. Doctors who treated Mojica issued a report stating they dont believe he can be restored to competency. Never miss a story: Make KGET.com your homepage Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mojica was charged in 2022 with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his roommates at an apartment complex on Decatur Street owned by the California Veterans Assistance Foundation. Both were shot in the head. Mojica had a handgun in his pocket and suspected blood spatter on his clothing when arrested at the GET bus station on Chester Avenue, according to court filings. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A 20-year-old man faces murder charges following the death of a 50-year-old man who was found shot and killed inside a vehicle in what appeared to be a road rage incident back in 2023, according to Las Vegas Metro police detectives. Through the investigation, police identified Jaxsyn Bunker, 20, as the suspect in the case. Bunker was already in custody at the Clark County Detention Center for unrelated charges. On Dec. 21, 2024, police rebooked Bunker on a charge of open murder, according to a police report. The incident took place on Oct. 29, 2023, at around 4 p.m., when officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department responded to a shooting near Escondido Street and Cactus Avenue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Las Vegas police accuse 20-year-old of shooting, killing man in vehicle When officers arrived they found a man later identified by the Clark County Coroners Office as Yilmaz Ogur, 50, unresponsive in the drivers seat of a blue Kia with a gunshot wound to the head. Ogur was later taken to the hospital where doctors told police his injuries were not survivable, according to the report. A 911 caller reported hearing eight to nine gunshots in the area, the report stated. A witness later told police he heard a loud bang from outside as he was sitting in his living room and then two additional loud bangs which caused him to look outside. He told police the loud bangs were gunshots as a white sedan drove north on Escondido Street and a blue SUV was drove behind it. The witness told police he then saw a man in his 20s emerge from the drivers side window of the white sedan, pointed a black pistol at the blue SUV and fired a round eight additional shots, according to the report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The blue SUV then stopped driving in the middle of the street. A witness nearby then told police he could see the blue SUVs drivers side window partially rolled down and bullet holes in the windshield and the driver, later identified as Ogur, had a gunshot to the forehead. The witness called 911 and could hear Ogur gargling as if he had difficulty breathing, according to the report. Evidence at the scene of the incident consisted of nine cartridge cases, bullet fragments, apparent bullet holes in the hood and windshield of the vehicle, and apparent blood inside the drivers seat of the vehicle, according to the report. One day after the shooting, homicide detectives visited Ogurs place of work in Henderson and learned that he had worked an overtime shift the day of the crash. Detectives also plotted out his travel path and determined he had been shot approximately 23 minutes after clocking out of work. Upon reviewing video footage from the area, detectives discovered that the shooting appeared to be the result of road rage. They said Ogur was seen following the white sedan closely along St. Rose Parkway. The white sedan was seen brake checking Ogur and driving slower than reasonable in front of him, according to the report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the shooting, detectives captured the suspect vehicle leaving the area but lost it near Eastern Avenue and Silverado Ranch, according to the report. A forensic lab report later stated that there were two groupings of cartridge casings, indicating two firearms were fired during the incident, according to the police report. On Dec. 16, Las Vegas Metro police received a phone call from a Henderson Police homicide lieutenant who said there was a woman who arrived at their headquarters to report that a person had shot and killed someone a year ago near Cactus Avenue and Saint Rose Parkway. When Las Vegas Metro police arrived to interview the woman she told them Bunker was in custody in Nevada on an unrelated firearms charge where he was caught selling devices that modify semi-automatic handguns online and was set to be released on Dec. 27, according to the report. The woman went on to tell police that someone she had spoken suspected Bunker was involved shooting and that Bunker himself had shown off a news article about the shooting and confessed he and another individual were the shooter, according to the police report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The woman then told police Bunker went on to disclose details about the day of the shooting and that he had since sold the gun used in the shooting. The woman also told police Bunker spoke about the incident as if it was a trophy he had collected and that she was disgusted by it, according to the report. Police went on to interview Bunkers girlfriend as well as Bunker himself regarding the ownership of the vehicle in the shooting. Police later determined the white sedan was Bunkers girlfriends vehicle and that he would occasionally use it to drive her to work and then deliver food as his job, according to the report. When police interviewed Bunker, he denied that he knew anything about the shooting or murder and told police he was not involved and did not have a drivers license so he could not drive, according to the report. When officers showed Bunker photos of the white sedan with a slightly visible profile of a driver he denied it was him and claimed that if it was his girlfriends car someone else was driving it, the report stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bunker was served a search warrant by police where DNA was taken, and cell phones and computers were seized. Police stated that they were able to connect text messages to and from Bunker and his girlfriend from the day of the shooting and seemed to clearly contradict his claim that he was not driving the car on the day of the murder, and that he had no information on it, according to the report. Based on the police investigation, Bunker was then rebooked into the Clark County Detention Center where he faces an open murder charge in the deadly shooting, according to the police report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) Police have arrested a man who allegedly assaulted two people in December 2024. The Simpsonville Police Department said that the assault occurred at a Publix on West Georgia Road. According to the Simpsonville Police Department, Cedric Sweeney was arrested December 23. Warrants accuse Sweeney of using an object to hit one victim in the head, cutting the victims eye. Sweeney also allegedly caused great bodily injury to another victim by hitting them in the head with an object. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victims were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Sweeney, 50, has been charged with one count of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and one count of first degree assault and battery. Bond for Sweeney was set at $40,000. He is lodged at the Greenville County Detention Center. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. Coryell County, Tx (FOX 44) The Texas Department of Public Safety reports one man was arrested following the investigation of a Monday traffic crash that sent a woman and child to the hospital with serious injuries. Coryell County Jail records showed that Michael Robert Delashmutt was booked into the Coryell County Jail following the crash. DPS Sgt. Bryan Washko said the crash occurred shortly after 8:00 p.m. Monday on FM 116 in Coryell County. Troopers reported that a 2014 Dodge Ram pickup was going north and a 2020 Volkswagen was disabled and parked on the shoulder of the roadway. The truck collided with the broken down car that was occupied by a 39-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl who were from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both were transported to a hospital with what were described as incapacitating injuries as a result of the collision. A blood sample was obtained from the driver of the pickup. Man accused of trying to set his brother on fire Jail records showed him to be booked in on a charge of intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury. He posted bond and was released Tuesday. Sgt. Washko said the investigation of the crash is still active and ongoing Thursday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KWKT - FOX 44. The post Man Arrested for Stabbing Fellow Concertgoer Multiple Times at Metalcore Show appeared first on Consequence. A 36-year-old man by the name of John Guerrero has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault stemming from a December 27th incident in which he allegedly stabbed a fellow concertgoer at a metalcore show in San Antonio, Texas. The concert at the venue Paper Tiger featured headliners Life Cycles, along with sets from the bands Fear of Loss, Voracious Contempt, Crossways 3000, and Public Threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to investigators, Guerrero and the 21-year-old victim got into a physical altercation inside Paper Tiger, and police were dispatched to the venue after receiving a call just after 10 p.m. There, they found the younger man outside the venue with multiple stab wounds. The victim was rushed to the hospital, where he was in stable condition and expected to recover. When officers arrived, Guerrero was still at the venue, where he was pointed out by other concertgoers and taken into custody. A police report notes that he was in possession of a knife upon being apprehended. Local news station KSAT reports that Guerrero was booked Saturday morning (December 28th) at Bexar County Adult Detention Center, and later released on $100,000 bond. He is scheduled for a court hearing on March 3rd. A TV news report on the incident can be seen below. Man Arrested for Stabbing Fellow Concertgoer Multiple Times at Metalcore Show Heavy Consequence Staff Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Popular Posts Subscribe to Consequences email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox. NEW YORK (AP) A 20-year-old was arrested after breaking into Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and stealing a Christmas ornament in the early morning hours of New Years Day, authorities said. Shortly before 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, the suspect jumped a fence to the property, a stately residence inside a park on Manhattans Upper East Side, police said. He then made his way to the second floor, where he was found inside a bathroom minutes after entering the residence. During an interview at a local police precinct, the suspect showed detectives a video of him removing a Christmas ornament from a drawer in the house, according to a criminal complaint. The man turned over the ornament and several other items, which were not specified in the complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect, who lives a few blocks from the Upper East Side residence, is due to be arraigned in a Manhattan court on Thursday. A spokesperson for Adams said the mayor was not home at the time of the pre-dawn incident. *Previous coverage above CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio (WJW) The man believed responsible in the bombing outside of Trump Tower in Las Vegas Wednesday has several ties in Northeast Ohio. Authorities in Las Vegas on Thursday identified the man believed responsible for the bombing as Matthew Livelsberger, 37. Hes believed to have detonated explosives inside a rented Tesla truck just after taking his own life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man in Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion had gunshot wound to the head: sheriff Livelsberger has numerous ties to Ohio, graduating from high school in Bucyrus in 2005, the year before he entered the military, where he was serving as a master sergeant assigned to special operations command. This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows an ID belonging to Matthew Livelsberger, found inside a Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP) This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows a passport belonging to Matthew Livelsberger, found inside a Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP) Fox 8 learned he also bought a home here in Cuyahoga Falls in 2019. Its not clear how much time he has spent at the house, but a neighbor said she never met or spoke with him. Summit County property records show that his mother lives in the home, which displays a blue star flag in the front window, a recognition that a family member is in the military. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The same Matthew Livelsberger, who owns the Cuyahoga Falls home, is associated with a property in Colorado Springs, where investigators, including the FBI have focused search efforts related to the bombing since late Wednesday. Court records in Summit County show Livelsberger had no criminal history here, and authorities in Las Vegas say they are not aware of any criminal history either. Another thing they do not know is a motive. Livelsberger, an Army soldier from Colorado, served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He was active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, according to an Army spokesperson. 1 person dies when truck catches fire and explodes outside Trumps Las Vegas hotel Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He then joined the National Guard from March 2011 through July 2012. After that, Livelsberger was in the Army Reserve until December 2012, when he entered active duty as an Army Special Operations soldier. Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on approved leave at the time of his death. USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations, the spokesperson said. He served at the same military base as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man suspected of intentionally driving into a crowd in New Orleans, killing 15, but the FBI says theres no definitive link between the two. Livelsberger died and seven others were injured as a result of the explosion at the entrance of the Las Vegas Trump International Hotel on Wednesday morning. Gas canisters, camping fuel and firework mortars were found in the bed of the truck after the fire was extinguished. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, police did not find any devices that would have been used to ignite the explosion, and are unsure at this time how it ignited. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. DURBIN, W.Va. (WBOY) A man allegedly fired multiple shots at a home in Pocahontas County on New Years Day, killing one of the six people inside. On Jan. 1, troopers with the Pocahontas County detachment of the West Virginia State Police were dispatched to a residence on Oak Drive in Durbin for a call of a shooting, according to a criminal complaint. Jason Brickles When troopers arrived, they learned that Christopher Matheny had died as a result of a gunshot wound to his lower abdomen, and the shooter had been identified by witnesses as Jason Brickles, 47, of Valley Head, troopers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Troopers later viewed surveillance footage of the incident and observed two vehicles pull up, and after a man got out of a utility vehicle, two gunshots can be heard, and then Brickles stated, Whered you go, you piece of s***?, followed by two more gunshots, according to the complaint. Man charged after allegedly threatening multiple people with a gun in Randolph County After that, Brickles walked toward the porch steps with an handgun in his right hand and stated he would kill you next time; officers located two bullet holes in the utility vehicle, one in the side of the residence and a fourth through the front door of the home, troopers said. During the time of the shooting, there were six people inside the home in close proximity of the discharged rounds, including Matheny and two juveniles, according to the complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later that day, deputies with the Randolph County Sheriffs Department located Brickles at his residence in Valley Head; he initially denied any involvement but later told troopers that he had a confrontation with another individual and that he fired rounds into a home that [the individual] ran into and that he did not intend to kill Matheny, troopers said. Brickles has been charged with second-degree murder and six counts of wanton endangerment. He is being held in Tygart Valley Regional Jail on $600,000 bond. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com. ANDESON COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) A man who police say led them on a chase before being shot by officers and forced off the road has been charged. Dylan Phillips, 27, faces multiple charges for Aggravated Assault for using his firearm against officers at the scene according to a release from the District Attorney General of Anderson County. He was also charged with assaulting an Anderson County deputy. Additional charges are expected. Body found in Knoxville remains unidentified after nearly a year and a half Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On December 26, a Campbell County Sherriffs Office deputy initiated a traffic stop in Caryville and saw the driver, Phillips, was armed. Phillips sped away and law enforcements pursued him to Anderson County where he stopped the vehicle and pointed a weapon at the officers, said Dave Clark, District Attorney General of Anderson County. Phillips was then shot at by a Campbell County deputy, the Jacksboro officer, and the Rocky Top officer according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. After being shot, Phillips got back in his vehicle and left the scene. The police continued to chase him until an Anderson County deputy hit and forcibly stopped Phillipss vehicle. District Attorney General Clark commented, I am grateful that officers were not injured, and the Defendant is recovering. We will not have further comment on the new criminal charges. The investigation into the Officer Involved Shooting continues and will likely take several months to complete. Oak Ridge woman found dead in Kingsport Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The TBI is investigating the shooting as is typical with officer-involved shooting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side. A 57-year-old man was charged with vehicular homicide Thursday in connection to a New Years Day crash near University Place, court records show. Todd James Pearson, who authorities say was driving a Dodge Ram and suspected of being impaired, allegedly caused the two-vehicle wreck by losing control of the truck after aggressively attempting to pass a Subaru in front of him on South Orchard Street, according to a Tacoma police report. A not guilty plea was entered on Pearsons behalf at his arraignment Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court. Bail was set at $100,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A number of relatives and friends submitted letters of support for Pearson to the court before the hearing, court records show. The police report, attached in court records linked to the criminal charge, said that Pearson accepted fault for the crash and that a witness observed him speeding. The report didnt reveal specific details about how the incident occurred. Emergency crews responded to the crash in the area of 48th Street West and South Orchard Street just after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Footage from the aftermath, captured by The News Tribune, showed that both vehicles were severely damaged and flipped on their sides in the front yard of a home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver of the Subaru, who is named in court records but has yet to be identified by the Medical Examiners Office, was pronounced dead at the scene, a Tacoma Fire Department spokesperson previously said. Pearson, who had been with his wife, was taken to a local hospital for treatment of apparent non-serious injuries, according to the police report, before being booked into the county jail. Pearson told an officer that he was driving in the left lane near the center lane the direction wasnt specified when he decided to go around the vehicle in front of him, the report said. He estimated that he was driving 45 mph and lost control of the truck, which turned sideways, and then was struck. A nearby street sign indicates the speed limit in the area is 35 mph. He didnt seem to remember exactly how the collision occurred, an officer wrote in the police report. At the scene, Pearsons eyes were very glassy and bloodshot and he appeared disoriented and at times spoke with a slur, the report said. It noted that odors observed by an officer, field sobriety testing and a breath alcohol-concentration test factored into suspicions that Pearson was impaired. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Based on all of (Pearsons) statements about the collision, it appears that (Pearson) attempted to pass the vehicle in front of him in an aggressive manner by quickly accelerating which then caused him to lose traction and control of his truck, an officer wrote in the report. He admitted earlier that the collision was his fault. It is of my opinion that Pearsons level of intoxication contributed to his poor decision making and impulsive driving behavior. Pearson did not face any DUI-specific charges Thursday, but the vehicular homicide charge alleged that he had operated a vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor and/or drugs, or in a reckless manner, or with disregard for the safety of others, court records show. Pearson acknowledged to an officer he had consumed a bloody mary cocktail at 9:30 a.m., roughly three hours prior to the collision, according to the police report. He provided a voluntary breath sample roughly an hour after the crash that returned a .078 blood-alcohol concentration (BrAC), which an officer estimated would have been about .093 at the time of the collision, according to the report. The legal blood-alcohol content (BAC) limit for drivers in Washington state is .08%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An officer also performed field sobriety tests on Pearson and concluded that four of six clues indicated impairment, the report said. After Pearson was taken to a holding cell at Tacoma police headquarters, an officer procured a search warrant for a blood draw, which was performed at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday or about three hours after the crash, according to the report. The result of the draw, which can measure blood-alcohol content, was not included within the report. Pearson was previously convicted in 2014 in connection to a DUI arrest that same year, the police report said. TRAVELERS REST, S.C. (WSPA) Police in Travelers Rest are looking for a man accused of shooting a gun at multiple people after a fight in December. According to the Travelers Rest Police Department, officers were called to a home on West Road for shots fired on December 15. Investigators said Joshua McMorris was involved in a violent fight with his girlfriend before getting a gun and firing at several people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Only minor injuries were reported, police said. Anyone with information on the location of Joshua McMorris is asked to call 911 immediately. Travelers Rest Police said McMorris should be considered armed and dangerous. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. One of two men convicted in what federal prosecutors described as a rug pull blockchain fraud scheme died two weeks ago by suicide, according to his family. Berman Jerry Nowlin died Dec. 21 at his Alabama home. His cause of death was unclear, but his family told the Tampa Bay Times that he took his own life. He was 21. Nowlin was awaiting a January sentencing date after a Tampa jury found him guilty on federal wire fraud and money laundering charges. Prosecutors had alleged that he worked with Devin Rhoden, a senior airman at MacDill Air Force Base who was one of Nowlins childhood friends, in a cryptocurrency scheme that cost investors $135,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although the government labeled him an active participant in a criminal scheme, his family and defense attorney insisted that he was an unwitting accomplice who assisted in the coding and technical aspects of creating the blockchain tokens at the center of the case. They accused Rhoden of being the one largely responsible for the fraud. Nowlin believed the court system would exonerate him, his family said. After his conviction, he became deeply depressed and withdrawn, reluctant to leave home. In his eyes, I dont think he thought he did anything wrong, said Nowlins brother, Daniel Barker. My brother was just a young, naive kid that kind of got taken advantage of. Nowlin had been diagnosed with autism, his family said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His mother, Deanna Ambrose, said a psychiatrist whod examined him found that he was far above average in his intelligence. He did well in school, but had the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old, she said. He was never in trouble. Hes like a little kid in a lot of ways, Ambrose said. Anybody that actually talked to him could tell that he was just special. He wasnt like the rest of us. Autism made Nowlins social interactions difficult; most of his friends were people he knew only online. He taught himself how to write computer code. He spent much of his time playing online games and chatting on platforms like Discord. It was how he met Rhoden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the spring of 2022, Nowlin and Rhoden collaborated to create a series of non-fungible token collections, known as Undead Apes and Undead Lady Apes. The tokens, which they traded on the Solana blockchain, depicted colorful skeletonized primates. Rhoden promoted the collections on the Discord messaging platform and the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. Buzz about them pushed their resale value as high as $360 and made Rhoden and Nowlin a small fortune. Investor excitement surged in April 2022 amid word of a forthcoming third collection known as Undead Tombstone. As anticipation for the new collection grew, the project was suddenly abandoned. Prices plummeted. Investors were left with worthless assets while Rhoden and Nowlin, prosecutors alleged, netted $135,000. Nowlins attorney, J. Jervis Wise, argued at trial that Nowlin had no reason to engage in any kind of fraud scheme. The first two blockchain creations were legitimate, successful and gave people a product they wanted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wise described his client as a behind-the-scenes player in creating the tokens, while Rhoden was responsible for marketing the tokens to potential investors. He knew nothing of plans to engage in the rug-pull scheme, Wise said. Nowlin didnt have any knowledge of what Rhoden was doing, Wise told the Times. Nowlin didnt join in any plan with Rhoden to try to defraud anyone. But federal prosecutors asserted that Nowlin was indeed part of the scheme. They presented evidence that Nowlin used a money laundering technique known as chain hopping to move the fraud proceeds from Solana to the Ethereum blockchain. He then converted the cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars, which he and Rhoden split. Court documents quoted online conversations in which the pair discussed the theft. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of Rhodens fellow airmen led investigators to him. He later pleaded guilty to federal charges and testified in Nowlins trial. Prosecutors credited his cooperation in securing Nowlins conviction. He was sentenced in November to five years of probation. Multiple efforts to reach Rhoden for comment were unsuccessful. Nowlin used a flip phone after his arrest, his mother said, having been barred from accessing the internet. He followed his pretrial restrictions to a T, she said. Technology restrictions prevented him from being able to show some evidence, she said, including records that hed tried to get investors their money back. He tried to do everything right, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wise said it was possible a judge would have given Nowlin probation or some other sentence short of prison time. He also would have been able to appeal for a new trial. Nowlins mother said the prospect of incarceration wasnt what bothered him as much as the stain of a criminal conviction. He believed that he would be unable to work with computers, dashing his goals of working in the technology field. Ambrose said she wants people to know that her son was more than what has been portrayed in court. She remembers the boy who was the first to surprise her with Mothers Day flowers and to cook her breakfast, who helped when her own mother underwent cancer treatment and who could have taken anyone with him when he vacationed in Jamaica, but chose his mom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Beyond his digital world, he liked fishing and traveling and dreamed of a nomadic life. He had plans of setting up a remote work station in a van so he could make money and travel at the same time. He was a beautiful soul, his mother said. Need help? If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, reach out to the 24hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741; or chat with someone online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay can be reached by dialing 211 or by visiting crisiscenter.com. Correction: Berman Jerry Nowlin died Dec. 21. A previous version of this story included an incorrect date. A man died and another was wounded in a stabbing at a bar in Windom, Minnesota on New Year's Eve. Windom PD says the stabbing was reported at the Phat Pheasant Pub at 2370 MN-60 at 11:47 p.m. Tuesday, with officers arriving to find two men aged 30 and 31 with knife wounds. The 30-year-old was taken to Windom Hospital, where he died despite lifesaving measures. Google Streetview Arrested in connection with the death is a 26-year-old man from San Diego, California, who is being held in Cottonwood County Jail after being treated for minor injuries at Worthington Hospital. No information on what led to the stabbing has been released. Note: The details provided in this story are based on law enforcements latest version of events, and may be subject to change. WILLIAMSTON, S.C. (WSPA) With the help of volunteers and donations from across the country, one Upstate man has helped donate hundreds of sheds to Hurricane Helene victims in western North Carolina. Sam Byler lives in Williamston, South Carolina. Byler said when he took a trip up to western North Carolina after the storm, those images weighed heavy on his mind. When people say that videos and pictures do not do it justice, thats the truth, Byler said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Byler has worked in the shed industry for many years. He said after his trip to North Carolina, he wanted to do something to help. I have never seen anything like this, Byler added. We are 90 days past and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Byler took to Facebook, expressing that he wanted to donate 100 sheds to Helene victims. I made a post that said I want to do this. This is my way to do this. To raise awareness for suicide and depression and the shed industry just took it over. I think within 24 hours we had 50 sheds donated, Byler recalled. It literally started without a plan which my friends will tell you, thats the way most of my life goes. Months later, Byler has been able to give away more than 200 sheds and counting. The sheds have been donated to Byler, then Byler and volunteers help deliver to those in need. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Donated by manufacturers, dealers, haulers all over the U.S. Maine, Michigan, to Texas and every state in between. Byler added. We put house doors in instead of shed doors, we put good windows in, instead of shed windows, and insulate them and put a nice floor in them, panel the walls. Sheds Byler has helped deliver to WNC As the nights grow increasingly colder, Byler said the work his is doing stays in the forefront of his mind. I have two families right now that, they are living in cars and have kids. I cant sleep at night I wake up at 2 oclock at night and Im like I got to get them in a shed. So, then I get those two in a shed and get two more the next day, then there is 2 more, Byler added. If by what I do inspires a 100 other people to go do something, go do it. Thats the main thing I want to get out, we can all help. Byler said he is always looking for volunteers. You can volunteer, donate or request help by reaching out to him on his Facebook page. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. Investigators believe that the person in the Tesla Cybertruck that blew up in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday had shot himself. The man bore a gunshot wound to the head and a pistol was found in the footwell of the car, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas police told a press conference on Thursday. "I'm comfortable calling it a suicide," media quoted McMahill as saying at the briefing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was difficult to identify the person because he was burnt beyond recognition, he said. However, there are numerous indications that it is Matthew Alan L - a US soldier who also served in Germany, according to the sheriff. Final confirmation that he really was the occupant of the car could only be given after a DNA test. Citing security circles, several US media outlets had previously reported that the dead man in the car was the person named by McMahill and that he had also rented the car. The US Army published information about the man, but made no reference to Las Vegas. According to the information, L was a member of the Green Berets special unit and was on leave at the time of his death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said the 37-year-old had spent most of his time at the Fort Carson base in the US state of Colorado and in Germany. He had returned from Germany on an authorised leave, he added. L is originally from Colorado Springs. According to the US Army's website, the special Green Berets unit are elite soldiers who specialise in guerrilla warfare and unconventional tactics in foreign missions. However, one of the investigators in the case said that the level of the explosive materials handling was not what we would expect from a person with this kind of military experience. By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania man who previously served in the U.S. Army was indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempting to support Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and of making false statements to the FBI, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. Jack Danaher Molloy, 24, was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland and traveled to Lebanon and Syria in 2024 to attempt to join Hezbollah, which is designated by the U.S. as a "foreign terrorist organization," the Justice Department said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The department said Molloy returned to the U.S. in late 2024 and continued making attempts to join Hezbollah. He had also promoted hatred and violence against Jews, the Justice Department said, adding he was formerly enlisted as an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army from mid-March to late April in 2019. The Justice Department said Molloy lied to the FBI about his intentions to join Hezbollah when questioned upon his return to the United States in late 2024. It said he was arrested on Dec. 6 in Chicago. If convicted, Molloy faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for a material support charge. For false statement charges, he faces a maximum penalty of eight years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. A representative of Molloy could not immediately be contacted. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot) AUSTINTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) A man was taken to the hospital after he was hurt in a firework accident, according to authorities with the Austintown Fire Department. Firefighters were called to the 200 block of South Yorkshire Boulevard in Austintown during the early morning of New Years Day. Crews and authorities did not make it to the scene, as the man was taken to the hospital in a personal vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The condition of the man is unknown. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. The Russians have attacked the town of Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast with guided aerial bombs on the night of 1-2 January, destroying a five-storey building and killing a man. Source: Ivan Fedorov, Head of Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram Quote: "One person was killed as a result of the Russian attack on the Vasylivka district. The enemy struck Stepnohirsk 11 times with guided bombs. A five-storey building was destroyed. A man was killed." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Fedorov added that rescue workers retrieved the man's body from under the rubble. Aftermath of the Russian attack Photo: Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration The search and rescue operation lasted over five hours. Support UP or become our patron! (NewsNation) The decorated Army soldier who drove a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel suffered a gunshot wound to the head before the massive blast, officials said Thursday. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man whos been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted. Livelsberger, an Army soldier from Colorado, served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He was active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, according to an Army spokesperson. He then joined the National Guard from March 2011 through July 2012. After that, Livelsberger was in the Army Reserve until December 2012, when he entered active duty as an Army Special Operations soldier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on approved leave at the time of his death. USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations, the spokesperson said. He served at the same military base as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man suspected of intentionally driving into a crowd in New Orleans, killing 15, but the FBI says theres no definitive link between the two. McMahill did acknowledge some of the similarities in both cases, such as the use of the Turo app to rent the vehicles in both incidents. Both subjects served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, McMahill said. What we do know about that is its a very large military base, and we have no record that they served in the same unit or even [during] the same years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both men also served in Afghanistan in 2009, he added, but investigators dont yet know if they were in the same location or the same unit. Matthew Livelsberger identified as driver in Cybertruck explosion Livelsberger died and seven others were injured as a result of the explosion at the entrance of the Las Vegas Trump International Hotel on Wednesday morning. A Tesla Cybertruck caught fire at the entrance of Trump Intl Tower in Las Vegas on Jan. 1, 2025. (Credit: Alcides Antunes) Police said the act was intentional. Gas canisters, camping fuel and firework mortars were found in the bed of the truck after the fire was extinguished, McMahill said. However, police did not find any devices that would have been used to ignite the explosion, and are unsure at this time how it ignited. What we know about the Cybertruck explosion at Las Vegas Trump Hotel Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge for the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at Thursdays press conference that the initial investigation has determined that the fireworks were consumer grade and there is currently no evidence of any fuel enhancers. The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience, Cooper said. Among other charred items found inside the truck were a second firearm, a number of fireworks, passport, military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch, McMahill said. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally. Investigators have not definitively identified the remains as Livelsberger, but the IDs and tattoos on the body give a strong indication that its him, the sheriff said. Cybertruck explodes outside Trump Las Vegas hotel Video footage of the incident shows the truck parked next to the hotels front doors as it bursts into flames, exploding fireworks visible amid the blast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said Thursday that the force of the explosion sort of vented out and up, and didnt destroy the sides of the vehicle nor the nearby glass doors of the Trump hotel. I also know that theres a number of unexploded pieces of the things that he had inside of that vehicle, and so I just dont think that it was done as well as he was expecting, he added. Authorities said Thursday that Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on December 28. Investigators were able to track his movements using information from Tesla charging stations as the vehicle recharged in Monument, Colorado, on Dec. 30, then in Trinidad, Colorado; Las Vegas; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Gallup, New Mexico Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, the Cybertruck was charged in Arizona at stations in Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman before it was first spotted in Las Vegas at 7:29 a.m. Wednesday. We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families, a Turo spokesperson said in a statement. We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FBI Acting Special Agent-In-Charge Jeremy Schwartz said the car explosion was an isolated incident and that there is no threat to the public. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. A man who rented and drove a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded into the outdoor vestibule of the Las Vegas Trump hotel on New Year's Day has multiple ties to Ohio. Federal authorities identified Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, as the person who rented the vehicle and the sole person in the Cybertruck when it exploded. Livelsberger was an active-duty Green Beret who served in the armed forces for about 20 years, including multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger, who had a current address in Colorado Springs, has several connections to Ohio, according to publicly available records. In September 2011, Livelsberger was given a speeding ticket in Franklin County after being cited for driving 79 mph in a 65 mph zone on Interstate 71. At that time, Livelsberger had a Westerville address, according to the ticket information. Records from the Summit County Auditor show Livelsberger owns a property in Cuyahoga Falls that he bought in 2019. What do we know about Matthew Livelsberger? In 2006, the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum reported that Livelsberger graduated from Army Basic Infantry Training at Ft. Benning in Georgia with sharpshooter status and a platoon leader. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Telegraph Forum is a sister publication of The Dispatch and part of the USA TODAY Network. The newspaper reported Livelsberger was collecting clothes, toys and educational items for children through his mother, who had sent items to her son to give to children during previous tours of duty in the region. The newspaper reported the then-21-year-old Livelsberger was a staff sergeant and a Special Forces soldier. Livelsberger was listed as being a 2005 graduate of Bucyrus High School, where he played football and baseball. Livelsberger enlisted in 2006 after suffering an injury while playing football and worked as a communications officer in the Special Forces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2008, the paper reported that Livelsberger had graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Livelsberger was the youngest in his class at 20 years old. In 2009, the paper reported on Livelsberger's efforts to help children in the province of Afghanistan where he served. In 2010, Livelsberger told a reporter he had received the Bronze Star without valor for his humanitarian efforts. What happened in Las Vegas? Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said a Tesla Cybertruck rented in Colorado arrived in Las Vegas about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. Livelsberger drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before pulling in front of the Trump hotel about 8:40 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Video showed the Cybertruck sitting outside the hotel for about 15 seconds, McMahill said, before it exploded. Gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars were found in the back of the vehicle. Livelsberger was the only fatality. Seven other people were injured. This story has been updated with additional information. bbruner@gannett.com This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Cybertruck that exploded at Trump hotel rented by man with Ohio ties HOMEWORTH, Ohio (WKBN) A feed mill worker was rescued Thursday after falling into a bulk feed hauler in Columbiana County. Emergency crews were called about 10:40 a.m. on reports of the man trapped inside a grain tanker at a facility on Middle Street in Homeworth. Homeworth Fire Chief Brian Baker said the man was doing some work inside the empty hauler, fell off a step stool, injuring himself, and couldnt crawl back out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baker said they called a crew in from Alliance trained in confined rescues, and a firefighter and medic were lowered into the tanker where they secured the man in a harness and lifted him out. Baker said the man was alert and conscious and was taken to a local hospital. Baker said that particular type of rescue was a first for him, but there have been other types of situations his department has handled. Weve had similar things happen. People get stuck and need help out. Not too many confined spaces around here but not uncommon, he said. The rescue took about an hour. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Reports said a man driving an ATV Wednesday in the Sharon Line area of the East Side found a discarded ATM and an abandoned Jaguar. Read next: Woman arrested after stripping and spitting incident Officers were first called to the area of McGuffey Road and Augustine Avenue about 2:10 p.m. by the man who said he was riding in the area of Augustine Avenue, which has been blocked off for years by the city, when he discovered the ATM. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The man told police he first saw the object a few weeks ago but decided to see what it was Wednesday, reports said. The ATM was severely damaged and appeared to have been placed there recently, reports said. Reports said the money tray was on the ground and was empty. A plate with information on the ATM, such as its serial number, was also found inside the ATM, reports said. The ATM was hauled away by a tow truck to be examined by detectives, reports said. Police were called back to the area about 5:20 p.m. to Van Dyke Avenue where the man told them he discovered an abandoned car. The car, a 2005 Jaguar S-Type, was next to a natural gas well and had no wheels, reports said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police found mail in the car with a mans address and went to that address, reports said. Reports said the man told police he had the car stored at the home of a son on Bennington Avenue, who is currently incarcerated, and he thinks he knows who took the car. The car was towed with a hold for police. The Sharon Line is a mostly rural area of the East Side. Several of its streets over the years have been closed off due to a declining population there. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. (DURANGO, Colo.) A man has been sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officer on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in April 2024. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Colorado, the BIA officer responded on April 5, 2024 to a report of a drunk person at the Ute Mountain Ute Casino in Towaoc, within the boundaries of the reservation. The man, identified as 44-year-old Daniel Lehi of Towaoc, lunged at the responding officer and hit him in the face. When additional security officers responded, Lehi continued to fight them until he was subdued. The U.S. Attorneys Office said District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher sentenced Lehi after considering numerous sentencing factors, including Lehis history of assaults on law enforcement officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Assault on a law enforcement officer is a serious offense, and this defendant received a serious sentence for his actions, said Acting United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Matt Kirsch. I want to acknowledge the BIA officer for deftly handling a challenging situation. After release, Lehi will also undergo three years of supervised release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. A 23-year-old man is in custody and facing criminal charges after allegedly shoving a New York City subway rider in front of an oncoming train on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, police say. The man who was pushed, identified as Joseph Lynskey, 45, of Manhattan, survived, but remains hospitalized with serious injuries, including a fractured skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen, The New York Times reports. On Tuesday, just after 1:30 p.m., Lynskey was waiting for the 1 train at the 18th Street station in Chelsea when he was allegedly pushed onto the tracks, the New York Police Department said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lynskey was rushed to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, according to the NYPD. Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Chelsea subway station in Manhattan Chelsea subway station in Manhattan Video footage of the attack obtained by local station ABC7 Eyewitness News shows Lynskey standing on the platform close to the edge, in front of a row of turnstiles. Moments before the train approaches, another man can be seen shoving Lynskey onto the tracks before fleeing. Less than an hour later, police arrested a suspect: Kamel Hawkins of Brooklyn, who is charged with second-degree attempted murder and four counts of assault, according to online court records. He appeared in Manhattan criminal court on Wed., Jan. 1 and pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to the online court records. The judge ordered him to be held in jail until his next court date, scheduled for Monday, Jan. 6, according to The New York Times. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Lynskey, a DJ performing under the name Joe Usher, miraculously survived the push because the train did not hit him head-on and because he fell next to the train and not underneath it, authorities said, The New York Times reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lynskey's friends have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help him defray medical costs. "Somehow, he miraculously survived, and we are all beyond thankful that he is still a part of our lives," wrote fellow DJ Jonjon Battles in the solicitation. "In typical Joe fashion, he is in good spirits and looking forward to getting out of the hospital but he has a long road ahead of him." According to his website, he was born and raised in Miami and began his career in 90s South Beach and the Design District. After moving to Manhattan, he began performing at underground clubs while producing runway soundtracks for some of the biggest names in fashion and DJing events for the likes (of) Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Nike, Target, MoMA and Sothebys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police believe the attack was random, ABC 7 reports. Two months earlier, Hawkins had been charged with harassing a woman and throwing bleach on her, but had been released without bail, the New York Daily News reports. Our main priority right now our sole priority right now is supporting our brother Joe, his sister Eileen Parsons said in a phone interview. We are so grateful that he is alive. Read the original article on People INDIANAPOLIS A man is hospitalized after being shot in an attempted carjacking on the west side on Wednesday night. Police were called to the 4700 block of West 34th St. just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday. When they arrived, they located an adult male with a gunshot wound. He was transported to a hospital in stable condition. According to IMPD Captain John Arvin, the victim was believed to have been shot following an attempted carjacking. It was unclear exactly where the shooting happened, but it was believed to be located very close to where the victim was located. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement IMPD describes the suspects as two males in a black Acura. The car has darked out or tinted windows, a sheriff supporter license plate, and an Apple sticker on the car. Police are checking with nearby businesses for possible surveillance video that may have captured the crime. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTTV CBS4Indy. [See violent crime statistics in the player above.] MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) The man who was shot and killed at a Convenience Food Mart in Maple Heights on New Years Eve has been identified. Antwon Staton, 31, was found shot in the parking lot of the Convenience Food Mart located at 5514 Dunham Road Tuesday night. 1 dead after crash on Interstate 77 Police responded to the scene around 6:30 p.m. after it was reported that two gunshots were fired in the area, according to a Tuesday night news release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers arrived at the scene and found Staton lying in the parking lot with a gunshot wound, according to the release. He was transported to a local hospital, where he died. Holocaust survivor, oldest living Olympic medal winner dies at 103 This shooting is still under investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) The New Orleans Police Department is investigating a deadly shooting that happened early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, in Downtown New Orleans. According to officers, the shooting happened in the 600 block of Convention Center Boulevard. An investigation revealed the shooting stemmed from an argument between the suspect and victim in a parking garage in the area. Multiple dead, injured after car plowed into crowd on Bourbon Street in act of terrorism Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Responding officers arrived and pronounced the victim dead on the scene. The Orleans Parish Coroners Office identified the victim as 41-year-old Percy Baytop, Jr. No further details are available at this time. Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter. Latest Posts Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGNO. A Gainesville man was arrested after surveillance in Tallahassee on Monday after FBI agents said they disrupted his attempts to threaten or kill employees of a pro-Israel organization in South Florida on the first night of Hanukkah, according to federal court records. His plans were thwarted in part because he went to the wrong address. Records show Forrest Pemberton traveled on Dec. 22 and 23 to the former headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Plantation with three guns, including an AR-15 rifle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for AIPAC told CBS News, "We take these threats very seriously and we are working closely with law enforcement concerning this matter. We will not be deterred by extremists in pursuing our mission to strengthen the relationship with America's valued ally, Israel. We are deeply appreciative of the FBI's work to stop this individual." Authorities were first alerted to his plans after his father reported he was missing, and family members found a letter in his room that stated Pemberton wanted to "close the loop," "stoke the flames" and say "goodbye." In an interview with authorities, Pemberton said he walked from Gainesville to Ocala, where he bought a Ford F-150 for $400. He then drove to what he thought was the location of AIPAC's headquarters, but didn't realize they had moved, according to court documents. He then traveled north. On Dec. 25, law enforcement saw him get into a ride-share car with a soft rifle case in Tallahassee. During a traffic stop, they intercepted Pemberton and took his three guns and ammunition, according to records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was unclear what role, if any, the Tallahassee Police Department played in his arrest. The department did receive a heads up at some point that Pemberton might be in town. In a Dec. 26 interview, Pemberton told authorities he visited AIPAC's former Plantation headquarters to "scout" the location. When authorities asked if he was planning a mass killing and then killing himself, Pemberton said, "Um, I really don't know if I was gonna end it with my life or not. I hadn't gotten that far yet. It entirely depended if I ended up getting caught or not. If caught, that was a way out." AIPAC is not named, but, among other things, the complaint says the victim's website promotes policies that strengthen and expand the U.S.-Israel relationship." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pemberton added he was frustrated with the "status quo" and was "see(ing) if he could make a change," according to court documents. During the interview with authorities, Pemberton said that he considered committing violence against AIPAC but decided against it, as "it would have been a one-way ticket in Plantation, I decided I wasn't ready. I gave up." According to the criminal complaint, Pemberton is charged with one count of stalking, which means "with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate another person, uses the mail, any interactive computer service or electronic communication service or electronic communication system of interstate commerce, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to engage in a course of conduct that causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person." A hearing in the case is set for Monday at 10 a.m. before a federal magistrate judge at the U.S. Courthouse in Gainesville, court dockets show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (This story and headline has been updated to reflect a lack of clarity about exactly where Pemberton was taken into custody.) Ana Goni-Lessan is the State Watchdog Reporter for USA TODAY - Florida and can be reached at AGoniLessan@tallahassee.com. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: South Florida terror attempt ends with suspect found in Tallahassee The concept behind a self-driving Waymo taxi can be a bit confusing, but one thing is clear: You don't need to get behind the wheel. That's what one man learned Thursday morning when he was taken into custody in downtown Los Angeles after allegedly trying to drive away in a Waymo, police said. Police responded to a report of an attempted auto theft near the intersection of 5th and Hill streets at 12:26 a.m., LAPD Officer Drake Madison said. The unidentified man entered the vehicle from the front passenger's seat and then moved into the driver's seat, according to police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Video from the stringer service OC Hawk showed a bearded man sitting in the stopped self-driving vehicle, poking his head out and speaking to police. Officers said the suspect appeared to be under the influence. The man refused to get out of the vehicle as police approached behind a riot shield. At least one weapon was drawn. Video from the incident, first reported by news station KTLA, showed a large beverage can on top of the vehicle, but it is unclear if it belonged to the man or if he was the person who called for the Waymo service. The man was released at the scene, according to Madison, and the vehicle was not operational. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Deputies in Georgia need your help finding a man wanted for questioning involving a trespassing incident . [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Burke County deputies said the man trespassed onto church property near Old Waynesboro Road. According to the sheriffs office, the man placed raw field cotton onto the church porch steps. TRENDING STORIES: The church is made of mostly a Black congregation, officials said. Deputies said the man is wanted for questioning for trespassing and littering. No other details were released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone who may recognize the man or have information is urged to contact the Burke County Sheriffs Office at 706-554-2133 or the Investigation Division at 706-554-6633 Callers can remain anonymous. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] A 45-year-old construction worker was killed in a fall while renovating Manhattans famed Waldorf Astoria hotel Thursday, police and the FDNY said. First responders were called to the iconic Park Ave. hotel near E. 49th St. at about 9:30 a.m. where they found the hardhat suffering injuries consistent with a fall from an elevated position, an NYPD spokesman said. The worker died at the scene. His name was not immediately released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Building inspectors determined that the worker was on a catwalk above a third-floor ballroom assisting a master electrician in installing a metal framing system for wiring when he stepped onto a drywall ceiling and fell 40 feet to the floor below. The Department of Buildings has slapped a stop-work order on the project while inspectors determine how the man fell despite extensive safeguards mandated by the city, DOB spokesman Ryan Degan said. The landmarked Waldorf Astoria hotel has been closed since 2017 as it undergoes a massive restoration project. It is expected to reopen this year. The major rebuild included slashing the number of rooms from 1,400 to 375 so that the Waldorf can have some of the largest hotel rooms in the city, as well as provide full-time residences. An email to the Waldorf Astoria for comment about the construction workers death was not immediately returned. SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WDTN) As many are celebrating the start of the new year, a group in Springfield is coming together to celebrate Haitian Independence Day. Inside the Rose Goute Creole Restaurant in Springfield, customers and community joined together for a celebration on the first day of 2025. We are here to celebrate life and freedom, said Samuel, a poet that lives in Springfield. Jan. 1 marks the new year, but it also marks a significant date in Haitian history Independence Day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After 221 years, we are here to just remember that this is not the last. We got to keep fighting for this independence, said Samuel. Along with a full menu of traditional Haitian dishes, Rose Goute served up the symbol of freedom soup joumou. We actually called ahead to make sure theyd have it before we drove up here, said Chelsey Mitilien, who traveled from Portsmouth. The Mitilien family drove two hours all the way from Portsmouth to celebrate Independence Day in Springfield. Windsor Mitilien says he wanted his family to experience his countrys culture and history. We are all here to celebrate Independence Day. W are far away from home, and this is a way to be closer to home, said Windsor Mitilien. That means a lot to me. I just wanted to experience it with my wife and kids. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And for members of the Haitian community in Springfield, this years celebration means a little more. This community in Springfield, in this country that made it possible for us to work, to be ourselves and to have some dreams and accomplish them, said Samuel. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. Wondering when your next day off will be? Dont worry Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be celebrated on Monday, Jan. 20, in 2025. Many companies and businesses take this national holiday off. Here is what we know about Martin Luther King Jr. Day and other holidays in January 2025. When is Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Martin Luther King Jr. Day or MLK Day is celebrated annually on the third Monday of January. MLK Day became a federal holiday in 1994, but has been observed by Americans since January 1986, when it was first officially celebrated, per the Observance Calendar from the Department of Defense Education Activity site. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This day was established to honor the life and legacy of Dr. King, and to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities, per the Department of Defense Education Activity site. In 1994, Congress designated the holiday as a national day of service and marking the third Monday in January every year as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service a Day On, Not a Day Off. Candyce Fly Lee, left, and Treshain Elerson, right, sing "Lean on Me" during a rally in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. in Salt Lake City on Jan. 15, 2024. It was the 40th anniversary of this march. | Marielle Scott, Deseret News What holidays are in January? There are three national holidays in January, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Years Day Monday, Jan. 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Monday, Jan. 20: Inauguration Day What is the National Day of Mourning? In light of former President Jimmy Carters death, President Joe Biden set Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as a National Day of Mourning. I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr., Biden announced, per The White House. I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance. U.S. stock markets will be closed on Jan. 9 in observance of the mourning day, reports The Associated Press. MARYLAND (DC News Now) Maryland State Police (MSP) said the Maryland Car Rally Task Force (MCRTF) broke up four rallies, prevented five from taking place and made three arrests on New Years Eve. MSP said that members of MCRTF learned of a planned illegal car rally taking place from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. that was expected to bring a large crowd from all over the state as well as nearby states. The rally was expected to shut down roads and involve disruptive car-related activities in industrial areas, public streets and parking lots in Prince Georges County as well as the Baltimore area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MCRTF prevented rallies from taking place across Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, Prince Georges counties and Baltimore City. Millipore Sigma office building evacuated after fire in Rockville Police arrested three people in connection to an event at Konterra Drive and Schweitzer Lane in Laurel just after 12:30 a.m. MSP was able to make three arrests by tracking vehicles to the 6900 block of Van Dusen Road. Police arrested and charged Adin Carr, 20, of Rockville, Md., with possession of a stolen firearm, loaded handgun in vehicle and other firearm-related offenses. Carr also had multiple outstanding warrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police also arrested and charged a 16-year-old teen with possession of a stolen firearm and other firearm-related offenses. MPS also tried to stop a person who got into a vehicle and left the area. Police later found the vehicle in the 13600 block of Baltimore Avenue in Beltsville. The driver of the vehicle was identified as Aberon Alem, 23, of Bowie, Md. He was arrested and charged with fleeing and eluding and other traffic-related offenses. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. A mass shooting outside Queens Amazura nightclub in New York on Wednesday night has left at least 10 people injured. The chaotic scene unfolded near the popular Jamaica venue after a private event, with witnesses reporting multiple gunmen firing into a crowd. This incident has left everyone shocked. Authorities are working to uncover the motive behind the attack. In this article, we will delve into the details of the mass incident outside Amazura nightclub in Queens, New York. At least 10 wounded in Queens shooting A mass shooting outside Amazura nightclub in Queens, New York, late Wednesday night left at least 10 people injured, according to police. The incident occurred around 11:20 p.m. in Jamaica, where a group of teenagers and young adults had gathered after a private event. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities report that four suspects approached the crowd on foot. They fired over 30 shots before escaping in a light-colored sedan with out-of-state plates. The victims, ranging in age from 16 to 20, include six females and four males. They were rushed to nearby hospitals, including Long Island Jewish Hospital and Cohens Children Medical Center. Fortunately, none of the injuries are life-threatening and all victims are expected to recover. (via New York Post) Images from the scene show a significant police presence and emergency responders working in the area. Investigators placed dozens of evidence markers along the street and sidewalk near Amazura, a venue known for its live performances and large-capacity events. During a press conference on Thursday morning, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera condemned the shooting, stressing that there is zero tolerance for these senseless shootings. While Rivera confirmed the attack is not being treated as terrorism, the motive remains unclear. Authorities are considering the possibility of gang-related activity and are actively pursuing leads. Police are also appealing to the public for information as they work to uncover the details behind this incident. The post Mass Shooting Outside Queens Amazura Nightclub Shocks New York appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More. Rhode Island Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio signals he may be open to passing stricter gun control measures in the 2025 legislative session. (Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current) In December 2023, the phone calls and emails to House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi came fast and furious, with advocates and lobbyists eager to make their pitches early ahead of the upcoming legislative session. This year: silence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hasbro Inc. has yet to ask for any kind of tax break or policy change that could keep the century-old Ocean State fixture from moving its local headquarters to Massachusetts. No word from the developers of the Superman building, despite news reports of its request for additional funding from the city of Providence for the $220 million project. Not even a peep from the grassroots advocacy groups whose perennial demands for payday lending reform or an assault weapons ban remain unmet. I think even the advocates are getting it this year, Shekarchi said in an interview on Dec. 16. They still want their priorities, yes, but they know we dont have the money. It just doesnt exist. A structural deficit estimated at $330 million in the latest forecasts and revenue reports from state budget-crunchers looms large as the start of the 2025 legislative session approaches, weighing heavily on Shekarchi, who as House Speaker controls the purse strings for the states fiscal 2026 budget. The budget is the number one priority, not even close, Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tough financial times staring down Rhode Island lawmakers are no surprise. A combination of state spending that has outpaced revenue combined with the expiration of the federal pandemic aid that cushioned state coffers in recent years is well-documented. Perhaps the biggest shock when the gavel bangs on Jan. 7, marking the start of the 2025 legislative session, comes from Senate President Dominick Ruggerio. Activists rally at for a proposed assault weapons ban at the State House Thursday, May 11, 2023. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) Ruggerio reinvented? Fresh off a challenge from Sen. Ryan Pearson, his former right-hand man turned political foe, Ruggerio said he is ready to rock and roll in January. Hes still seeing a half-dozen doctors for various illnesses, including cancer and shingles, which kept him away from the State House for large chunks of the 2024 session. My doctors are pleased with my progress, and if theyre pleased with my progress, I am pleased with my progress, he said in a Dec. 17 interview. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gun safety advocates will be pleased that the North Providence Democrat may be more open to a state-level ban on assault-style weapons than in his past four decades as a state lawmaker. Ruggerio has historically deferred to federal policy on assault weapons. This year? Am I supportive of it? I cant say I am, and I cant say I am not, he said. I want to see what the temperature is in the chamber. Ill take a look at it. Ruggerio was quick to dismiss the notion that he was becoming more progressive, but acknowledged he was generally more open. Perhaps its because Gov. Dan McKee has already indicated an assault weapons ban is one of his priorities this year. Or maybe its the influence of Ruggerios new no. 2: Sen. Val Lawson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawson, an East Providence Democrat, was elected by Senate Democrats as majority leader in a November caucus, replacing Pearson. Shes more progressive than Ruggerio or Pearson on some issues, including assault weapons; Lawson co-sponsored the Senate version of an assault weapons ban in 2024, though the bill never advanced out of committee. Ruggerios potential acquiescence on stricter gun measures doesnt translate into support for a tax on the states top earners. He denounced a millionaires tax as foolish, stressing the importance of attracting new residents to the Ocean State, including from Massachusetts, which began a 4% surtax on income over $1 million in 2023. A lot of them are leaving Massachusetts to come here because theyre getting whacked over there, Ruggerio said. I want them to come here, and I think we have an opportunity to do that. Shekarchi maintained he was not ruling anything out, including a Rhode Island version of a millionaires tax. But, he did not anticipate more tax relief on the immediate horizon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think wed be lucky if we can preserve what we already have, Shekarchi said. House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, left, and House Majority leader Christopher Blazejewski outline legislative priorities at the Rhode Island State House. (Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current) Playing games with Hasbro Shekarchi led the charge to keep Citizens Bank rooted in Rhode Island last year, propelling a tax rewrite for the local financial institution through both chambers in the final days of the 2024 session. His approach with Hasbro has been far less aggressive, despite the Pawtucket-based toy and gaming companys ongoing talks with Massachusetts officials to relocate across state lines. My role is a supporting role, Shekachi said. The governor is driving the bus. The key difference between Hasbro and Citizens? Citizens asked for the tax change, submitting legislation and spending $25,000 on an extra lobbyist in the final month of the 2024 session. Hasbro hasnt hired a state lobbyist or made any ask of the state, policy or funding-wise, as of mid-December, Shekarchi said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both he and Ruggerio seemed unsure the state could persuade the global gaming empire to stay. Hasbro is a company thats in transformation, Shekarchi said. Its not the old GI Joe, Monopoly company that it used to be. Hasbro has told us the two biggest things theyre looking for is recruitment and retention of gaming talent, and a lot of these gamers are coming from Singapore, Hong Kong and the West Coast, so they want to be able to have easy access to the West Coast. We dont have easy access through Green [airport]. These younger people want a lot of other amenities that apparently seem to be more available for them in Boston than in Providence. Ruggerios take: I dont think theres anything cast in concrete right now. I think its just throwing ideas out there. But you never know. Tomorrow the whole situation might turn around. It worries me, yes. Ruggerio also frets over the fate of CVS Health, including its Woonsocket headquarters, amid recent, nationwide layoffs and shakeups in company leadership. CVS executives maintained an interest in staying in Rhode Island. Ruggerios not totally convinced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I can read between the lines, he said. Pictured is the entrance to St. Marys Home for Children in North Providence in April 2024. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) Healing a broken health care system Ruggerio is laser-focused on the prospect of a new, state medical school, which a Senate legislative study panel created last year has begun exploring. I think were looking to do something, something concrete with the medical school this session, Ruggerio said. Basically, were trying to find out if its feasible for us to go forward. There are other schools in the vicinity, so were looking to see if thats the right move for us to make, but we need to feel that its very important, especially because we lack primary care providers. Increasing state reimbursement rates for primary care providers also tops Ruggerio and Lawsons 2025 priority list, having already authorized higher rates for certain Medicaid providers in behavioral and mental health care as part of the fiscal 2025 budget. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shekarchi, too, acknowledged the need for more competitive physician pay as a potential solution to the primary care shortage. But hes lukewarm about anything that comes with a big price tag, which both reimbursement rate hikes and a state medical school carry. Everything requires money, so we are going to do our best, said Shekarchi. He suggested easing licensing laws to make it easier for doctors from other countries to practice in Rhode Island, along with loan forgiveness for recent medical school graduates who commit to practice in Rhode Island. As for a state medical school, Shekarchi wants one focused on osteopathic medicine to avoid competing with Brown Universitys Warren Alpert School of Medicine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On both sides of the rotunda, lawmakers agree on the need to bolster state services for Medicaid-eligible children with mental and behavioral health diagnoses. The longstanding crisis came to a head last year, with a series of state and federal investigative reports, and later, a federal class action lawsuit, laying bare the problems of abuse, neglect and lack of local services available for the states most vulnerable children and their families. Concrete policy solutions to the complex, and costly, problem remain hazy, though a pair of judges in Rhode Island Family Court have floated a proposal to buy the now-shuttered St. Marys Home for Children in North Providence, Shekarchi said. Ruggerio, whose district includes St. Marys, said he had not heard of the idea. Lexi Kriss, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Judiciary, was not able to share more details about the proposal as of mid-December. The westbound Washington Bridge which was suddenly closed in December 2023 after engineers discovered the highway was at risk of collapse. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) The road ahead for the Washington Bridge Shekarchi waved away questions about legislative oversight hearings over the December cyberattack on RIBridges, the states public benefits and health insurance marketplace platform, which have potentially compromised thousands of Rhode Islanders personal information. The situation was too early and rapidly evolving to call for oversight hearings yet, Shekarchi said. But within the first month of the year, he wants to call back the transportation officials and contractors involved in the Washington Bridge debacle. A joint oversight hearing was held by both chambers in February 2023, a few months after the westbound highway was abruptly closed due to structural deficiencies. Subsequent chapters of the infrastructure saga include elongating timelines and rising costs in the demolition and eventual rebuild. State officials dont expect to even choose which of the two finalists bidding to rebuild the replacement bridge will get the job until June. Shekarchi wants answers now, specifically on cost and timeline. Senate leaders expressed support for oversight hearings on both the bridge and the cyberattack. These are both issues that impact people personally, Senate Majority Leader Val Lawson said. In both cases, it warrants asking questions. One potential glimmer of good news on the bridge front, at least in terms of paying for it: a Dec. 6 ruling by a federal appeals court suggests the state may be able to restart its truck toll program. Adding gantries to state highways to charge fees to heavy trucks was critical to then-Gov. Gina Raimondos 2016 RhodeWorks transportation plan, generating nearly $100 million in revenue before it was shut down in September 2022. That was when a federal judge ruled the program was unconstitutional in response to a lawsuit filed by trucking groups. Whether the appellate panels December decision will stick, and how to turn the affirmation into a new truck toll program has yet to be decided. But both Ruggerio and Shekarchi want to move full-speed ahead, eager to replenish state coffers with new toll money. And automobile drivers need not fear the state will impose a similar toll on them, at least if Ruggerio has any say over it. Over my dead body, he said. The Providence Public School Departments facade on Westminster Street. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) CRMC & PPSD Other key questions remain open ended. Among them: reforming the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC). Advocates, including Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, want to abolish the politically appointed council, reshaping the agency as an administrative one akin to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM). Shekarchi, who served on the CRMC before he became a lawmaker, wants instead to require council members to have expertise in land use, environmental science, zoning, and other relevant topics. According to Shekarchi, McKee has his own idea: Eliminate the council, and fold the agency into DEM. Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee, said in an email on Dec. 18 that the administration has not finalized its proposal. State lawmakers have mostly stayed out of the escalating fight, and subsequent $15 million settlement, between the city of Providence and the Rhode Island Department of Education over aid to the Providence Public School District. But Providence Mayor Brett Smiley will need legislative permission if he intends to follow through on his proposal to raise city taxes above the states 4% cap next year to afford the agreed-upon payment plan. Shekarchi and Ruggerio both expressed tentative support. As Ive reminded the mayor, were receptive to it, but you have to come here and testify, Shekarchi said. And you need to come with a City Council resolution of support. The state-controlled city school district was the one topic that made House Majority Leader Christopher Blazejewski break his silence while accompanying Shekarchi for the interview. I dont think anyone with a straight face can say that the state takeover has met its promise, Blazejewski, who lives in Providence and whose children attend Providence public schools, said. There were some improvements in attendance, which are important, and its a good thing, but I think the promise was a significant change, and I dont think thats been delivered. Looking ahead to 2026 Despite his ample campaign cash $3.1 million after the Nov. 5 election Shekarchi isnt saying much about a potential run for governor in 2026. He chalked up intrigue over the gubernatorial race, which could include McKee and 2022 gubernatorial challenger Helena Buonanno Foulkes, as a story concocted in the minds of the media. Referring back to advice he received from former Attorney General Arlene Violet, Shekarchi said hes focused on doing the job he already has. I think weve done a pretty good job, Shekarchi said. Im happy and proud of what weve done the last four years. I look forward to another two years. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A person has been taken to the hospital after being hit by a car in north Charlotte Wednesday evening, according to MEDIC. It occurred around 6:45 p.m. on Holt Street near The Plaza. ALSO READ: 11-year-old hit, killed by pickup truck in northwest Charlotte, CMPD says MEDIC said the person was taken to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. It is unclear what led up to this incident. This is a developing story; check wsoctv.com for updates. VIDEO: Juvenile fatally struck by car in northwest Charlotte, CMPD says SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) Two hospitals helped welcome the first babies of the year in Sioux Falls. The first babies born this year at Sanford Health are twins, Archer and Ariyah. Trainers offer tips on keeping New Years resolutions Its definitely exciting, Archer and Ariyahs mom Shasta Weston said. Weve kind of been joking this whole time that theyre, they like to be the center of attention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Archer and Ariyah arent the first kids for parents Kelsey and Shasta Weston, but they are their very first set of twins. We were hoping that if they came on New Years, that we wouldnt have one come like the 31st and one come the first, because that would be a little bit weird and confusing. So, were glad that they held off until New Years Day, Archer and Ariyahs mom Kelsey Weston said. The two arrived less than an hour after the new year began. The Westons said the twins are the perfect complement to their family. Weve got lots of kids at home ready to help out, and theyre all excited to come see them and get them home to help out, Kelsey said. So, theyve been getting the room all ready for them and everything while Ive been here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just a few blocks away at Avera McKennan Hospital, baby Blair also made her holiday arrival early New Years Day morning. We were actually hosting a party for our friends, and I went to move a plant from our bedroom to our living room, and my water broke. So we had to cancel our plans and put the food back in the fridge and head to Sioux Falls, Blairs mom Rachel Ireland said. The sudden surprise that Blair would be arriving soon was exciting and shocking, but her parents say theyve been well taken care of. I was pretty surprised that all the nurses were great and everything just went well. Im so happy about that, Blairs dad Seth Olson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its very special. Its really a fun birthday, Rachel said. This is our first baby, so its very, very special. All three babies, along with their parents, are doing well. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. Dear people of Greenland: Stop attacking Florida. Every summer you send off giant chunks of your ice floe into the Atlantic, knowing fully that they will eventually wage a liquid invasion against the low-lying coastline of Florida. This is an act of war. Scientists have noted that on a particularly active day in 2021, a total of 8.5 billion tons of Greenland ice broke away enough to cover the entire state of Florida in two inches of water. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We wont stand for it anymore. Its time to fight back, to answer your invasion with an invasion of our own. So, prepare to be the recipient of what our good friend and close ally Vladimir Putin calls a special military operation. Dont try to resist or go running to your home nation, Denmark, or your neighbors in Canada, soon to be our 51st state. Resistance is futile. Were coming for your cod and tariffing your seal blubber. Dont try to stop us. This should be nothing new for you. Greenlanders should be used to being overrun by foreign adventurers by now. Just look at it this way: What started in 982 A.D. by Erik the Red is now being continued in 2025 A.D. by Donald the Orange. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In case you havent been following the events here in the United States, we just had a presidential election in which millions of Americans voted for Donald Trump. Trump ran under a simple platform: 1. Make the Arctic Great Again (MAGA). 2. Import college-educated foreigners into the U.S. to do the jobs that Americans are too stupid to do because they watched too many 90s sitcoms like Saved by the Bell. 3. Cure windmill cancer. In retaliation for the harm Greenland has done in perpetuating the global warming hoax while also flooding valuable Florida real estate, we plan to put missile batteries and other military installations in Greenland while creating a new market for American goods, such as Trump-branded Bibles, Teslas and assault rifles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We may eventually come to count on Greenland to solve our affordable igloo crisis. Accept your fate. When our troops roll into Nuuk, you should treat them as liberators, not attackers. It would be a mistake to test our will. If any of our military members are harpooned, trapped, netted or otherwise harmed, we reserve the right to respond with nuclear weapons, if necessary. We may also use our homeland propaganda cable TV operation to blame Greenland for the high price of eggs and for doing business with Hunter Biden which may take years of open-ended investigations in the U.S. House of Representatives to unravel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trust us, we can make the American people believe anything. (Its the upside of those 90s sitcoms.) As for the damage you have already caused in Florida, the people of Greenland will be assessed a special melt tax. The details of this will be handled by one of our brightest America-first leaders, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who got the job, in part, because it will be easy for Trump to remember her name in discussions about Greenland. Furthermore, if you continue to invade Florida in the upcoming summer months with your melted ice floes, the U.S. will consider taking additional steps, including converting Greenland into a penal colony for Democratic lawmakers, disobedient members of the media, and IRS auditors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dont make us do something awful. So far, youre not off to a good start. It has already been noted that you havent reacted very well to our interest in you, which began with the following Trump tweet in December: "For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity," Trump wrote. Instead of just conceding our appropriation of your sovereign territory, you did something stupid. We are not for sale, your Prime Minister Mute Egede said. Opinion: Are we ready for another round of President Trump? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: Please, Mr. Trump: Can you "Guilfoyle" another Floridian for us? | Opinion And then Greenland announced a boost in its defense spending by purchasing two extra ships, some drones and a couple of dog sled teams. Oh, dog sled teams. Now, youve got us scared! And as for allowing us to buy Greenland, that window is closing fast. We dont have to buy our way into Greenland when we can move against you as a defensive response to your ongoing invasion of Florida. Trust us, weve concocted flimsier invasion rationales. (See Iraq circa 2003.) So, fess up, Greenland. Save yourself while you can or risk a nuked Nuuk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, which is part of the USA Today-Network. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Greenland ice is flooding Florida. Trump could have a fix | Opinion LIVE UPDATES: The latest on the deadly New Orleans attack on Bourbon Street MEMPHIS, Tenn. The woman in charge of the police response after a deadly attack in New Orleans is a Memphis native and former police officer who recently worked as a consultant with the Memphis Police Department. This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a press conference Wednesday, after at least 15 people were killed in a rampage on Bourbon Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kirkpatrick is a graduate of the Hutchison School and the University of Memphis, where she received her masters degree in counseling in 1984, according to her resume and local media reports. She began her career as a Memphis Police officer from 1982-85, and has since served as police chief in Oakland, California and Spokane, Washington and bureau chief in Chicago, according to her resume. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Kirkpatrick as her nominee to head the New Orleans Police Department on Sept. 11, 2023. According to a 2017 interview, Kirkpatrick had been recruited for the top police job in Memphis but was already a candidate for the Chicago job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Orleans station WGNO reported that since 2023, overall crime in that city is reportedly down 26%, with murders down 38% and non-fatal shootings down by 44%. Kirkpatrick reportedly had the highest approval rate of any public official in New Orleans, according to a poll conducted by the University of New Orleans. Before moving to the New Orleans Police Department, Kirkpatricks resume states she worked as a consultant for the Memphis Police Department from 2020 to 2023, and was responsible for the public affairs dashboard that went live in 2021, as well as reviewing MPD policies and practices. The early-morning attack during New Years celebrations in New Orleans left 10 people dead and at least 35 injured, and postponed the Sugar Bowl. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, who reportedly flew an ISIS flag from his truck as he plowed into a crowded Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. He was killed in a shootout with police. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. JOPLIN, Mo. Mercy Hospital welcomed New Years babies at two local hospitals within minutes of each other. Yesterday at 1:58 p.m., little Riella Miles was born at Mercy Hospital Joplin, becoming the first baby born there in 2025. Then at 2:46 p.m., at Mercy Hospital Pittsburg, baby De-Azia Jackson was born to Dezarea Hill and Drequirion Jackson. The Mount Carmel Auxiliary created a new arrival basket with items donated from the gift shop valued at one hundred dollars. It included a handmade baby blanket made by a volunteer and a quilt from the Little Balkans Quilt Guild. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com. The Scoop Meta is revamping its global policy team, with President Nick Clegg stepping down and being replaced by Joel Kaplan, his deputy and the companys most prominent Republican, people familiar with the matter said. Kaplan, who was White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush, has been one of the most forceful voices inside Meta against restrictions on political speech, arguing internally that such policies would disproportionately mute conservative voices. Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister and ex-leader of the countrys Liberal Democrats, joined Meta in 2018 to lead its policy and lobbying efforts and was named president in 2022. The shift, three weeks before Donald Trumps inauguration, comes as US companies are embracing the president-elect, courting his inner circle, and backing away from progressive stances many had embraced in recent years. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg whom Trump previously threatened to jail dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November and congratulated the president-elect on his win, one of many big tech executives to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Metas political operation is now well placed for a Republican-dominated Washington: Its just-elevated vice president of global public policy, Kevin Martin, was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by President George W. Bush, and its general counsel, Jennifer Newstead, was the top legal adviser to the Trump State Department from 2017 until joining Meta in 2019. Im grateful for everything youve done for Meta and the world these past seven years, Zuckerberg said of Clegg in a statement. Ive learned so much working with you and our whole team is better for having this opportunity. Youve made an important impact advancing Metas voice and values around the world, as well as our vision for AI and the metaverse. Youve also built a strong team to carry this work forward. Im excited for Joel to step into this role next given his deep experience and insight leading our policy work for many years. Know More Clegg joined Meta in 2018 when the company was still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved the political consultancy inappropriately accessing the profiles of 50 million Facebook users. He became the companys public face, taking over that role from Sheryl Sandberg, who left in 2022. With his understated style, Clegg helped Meta win back goodwill from politicians in several global capitals and was invited to the White House to discuss AI policy. He also expanded the companys influence in Brussels, including when it comes to shaping guardrails around artificial intelligence, and elsewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Clegg also retained his own, center-left public profile and colleagues assumed he would at some point return to a political career in the UK. Last fall, he criticized Elon Musk, one of Trumps closest advisers these days, as a puppet master who had turned X into a one man, sort of hyper-partisan and ideological hobby horse. And he has advocated continuing to police online speech. We unavoidably have to, he said in September when asked about content moderation. Lizs view Kaplan is the right man for the moment. Corporate priorities have changed quickly since Nov. 5, well beyond the token tinkering that often accompanies a change of administration. Executives once on Trumps enemies list have come to Mar-a-Lago bearing gifts Zuckerberg brought a pair of Metas Ray-Ban smart glasses and a major attitude adjustment. In part, thats because they want things out of this administration, and Trumps 180 on visas for high-skilled workers, a priority for Silicon Valley in particular, was an early win for Musk over rival advisers like immigration hawk Stephen Miller. CEOs are also afraid of MAGA retribution and wary of the conservative shift in their own employee and customer bases. Progressive policies around diversity are deeply out of fashion. So is content moderation, as Musks free-for-all version of X has defied its critics. Room for Disagreement The tech industrys turn toward Trump has drawn criticism, and warnings, from Democrats, and some concerns in the industry that they may be overcorrecting as control of the White House seesaws between the parties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eugene Robinson wrote in the Washington Post: Business leaders should remember what it is about our system that has allowed their companies to grow and thrive: the rule of law and the impartiality of justice; immigration policies that welcome brains, talent and ambition from around the world; ample funding for basic research that leads to world-changing breakthroughs. Government shapes this landscape, and Trump threatens to alter it dramatically. Notable Nick Clegg, Metas powerful head of policy and government affairs, is leaving the internet company as it prepares for a major shift in Washington, D.C., as Trump returns to the White House. Clegg, a former U.K. deputy prime minister who joined the company in 2018, will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a veteran Republican party operative who served as former U.S. President George W. Bushs deputy chief of staff. The news, first reported by Semafor, represents a major shakeup on Metas senior leadership team and reflects the companys efforts to adapt to a radically changed political landscape. Meta cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who previously had a strained relationship with Trump, has reportedly met with the President-elect in Florida, and Meta has recently pledged to donate $1 million to Trumps inauguration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta, Clegg said in a string of posts on X on Thursday. My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between 'big tech' and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector. I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politicsworlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe, Clegg wrote. Clegg joined the company in 2018, when it was still called Facebook and was reelling from backlash over a string of user privacy mishaps and its role sharing misinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Clegg helped launch the companys oversight board, a panel of experts that makes decisions and advises Zuckerberg on Meta policies around content moderation, privacy, and other issues. In 2022, Clegg was promoted to president of global affairs, a role that Zuckerberg said at the time elevated the former U.K. politician to the same level as his own, while freeing Zuckerberg to focus on products and strategy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With Trump set to return to the White House in a few weeks, Meta is facing a very different political environment. The President-elect, who once threatened to have Zuckerberg jailed, and his entourage of right-wing supporters are far more concerned about issues of free speech and alleged censorship on social media platforms than they are with curbing misinformation. Clegg said on Thursday that he would leave Meta in the "next few months," after handing over the reins to Kaplan, who he described as "quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time." This story was originally featured on Fortune.com NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) One Metro Councilmember has called for a discussion about additional safety measures on Broadway following what New Orleans, Louisiana mayor Latoya Cantrell called a terrorist attack Wednesday. At least 15 people were killed and dozens were injured after 42-year-old military veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, born in Texas, drove around temporary barriers and through Bourbon Street. New Orleans New Years Day ramming is the latest attack to use a vehicle as a deadly weapon Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Associated Press reported that the bollards protecting Bourbon Street were in the process of being replaced when the attack happened. The superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, Anne Kirkpatrick, told reporters they had temporary barriers up to protect Bourbon Street. We did, indeed, harden those target areas where the bollards are. We had patrol cars out there as a hard target as well as with barriers, Kirkpatrick said. Now, I want to share with yall if you did not know that this particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target where we did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around. Metro Councilmember Jacob Kupin, whose district encompasses downtown Nashville, told News 2 that the attack has prompted him to work to ensure that all possible safety gaps are addressed. As threats evolve, its important for us to evolve, Kupin added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kupin said he feels Broadway is well-monitored and protected through video surveillance and physical barriers, but hes still working with other officials to keep the area as safe as possible. Weve got a lot of steps to prevent something like this from happening, but unfortunately, sometimes it takes a situation like this to find new holes in the system, Kupin said. To that effect, I have already reached out this morning to multiple partners to try to set up a meeting to plan for the new year, look at what happened in New Orleans [and] look at what that would look like here and what we could do to prevent it. An aspiring nurse, football star, single mother and father of 2 killed in New Orleans attack Chief John Drake with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) said in a statement: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am closely watching the evolving investigation surrounding this mornings vehicle attack on persons celebrating in New Orleans French Quarter. My thoughts are with the victims and the wounded members of the New Orleans Police Department. As investigative details and conclusions are made known, we will review those, as we would with any national critical incident, to incorporate any lessons learned into our own public safety planning or protocols. Preparing for special events in our city, such as last nights New Years Eve Big Bash, requires extensive planning by multiple police department components and our public safety partners. We use mobile barriers/gates as a part of those plans. With respect to downtown, the Entertainment District Unit was formed nearly two years ago to provide an additional cohesive, visible police presence Thursday through Sunday to enhance safety and is complemented by sidewalk bollards along Broadway. The FBI is leading this investigation. As of publication, the agency does not believe the suspect acted alone. You are asked to call 1-800-CALL- FBI if you have any information related to the New Orleans attack. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. Local officials including Rep. Shelley Berkley, Metro Sheriff Kevin McMahill, and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford during a briefing on the Cybertruck exploding. (Photo: Dana Gentry/Nevada Current) Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill called the apparently intentional New Years Day explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Pres.-elect Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel an isolated incident, but says law enforcement is investigating any connection with a suspected terrorism incident that killed at least 15 and injured dozens hours earlier in New Orleans. McMahill said at a news conference late Wednesday that he doesnt know if the events in the two tourism capitals are related. But what I can tell you is were absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened with New Orleans, as well as other attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk posted on X that the two vehicles were rented from the same online company. Pres. Joe Biden, in a televised address Wednesday, confirmed officials are investigating a link between the incidents. FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Schwartz said the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is made up of federal and local law enforcement, is working to determine the identity of the driver, and whether the explosion was an act of terrorism. We believe this is an isolated incident, Schwartz said. We do not believe that theres a bunch of folks out there supporting this or helping, and dont believe that theres any other danger to the community right now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement is also investigating whether the type of vehicle rented and the location of the explosion were intentional. Its a Tesla truck, McMahill said at the news conference, where he was flanked by state and local officials, including Attorney General Aaron Ford. We know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and its the Trump Tower. So theres obviously things to be concerned about there. The bed of the Cybertruck was laden with mortar-style fireworks, gas cans and other explosives, according to McMahill, who says hes unaware of how they were detonated. Law enforcement, he said, cannot yet identify the driver with 100% certainty. The individual was killed in the blast, which was captured on hotel security video. He also declined to release the name of the individual who rented the truck in Colorado, pending confirmation and notification of relatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement License plate readers detected the truck in Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, about an hour before it pulled into valet parking at the Trump International Hotel and exploded about 15 seconds later, McMahill said. He thanked Tesla founder Elon Musk for assisting law enforcement by providing information and video from charging stations along the trucks route from Colorado. He also praised the vehicles engineering, which limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because the force of the blast went upward, not outward, and did not break the hotel entrances glass doors. McMahill said a review of security procedures on the Las Vegas Strip, which hosted some 400,000 New Years revelers hours before the blast, is in order. We were very successful the night before, McMahill said.Im surprised this happened, to be quite frank with you, and thats certainly something were going to have to look at and target. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I just want to make sure that our community understands we believe this would be an isolated incident, and it is now over, as far as the danger, he said, but added that out of an abundance of caution hes extending his New Years staffing plan of 1,000 officers in the tourism corridor and the community. Gov. Joe Lombardo, who McMahill succeeded as sheriff, was not at the news conference. His spokeswoman declined via email to say whether Lombardo believes security protocols on the Strip should be reviewed. Note: This story was updated to include Lombardos refusal to respond to the Currents inquiry about security. TOPEKA (KSNT) A new Mexican food restaurant is due to open its doors soon in southwest Topeka this month. 27 News spoke with Alex Johnson, a spokesman for Panchos Mexican Food, who said a new location is set to open in January this year. The restaurant is located at the former Saigon restaurant at 3200 Southwest 29th Street. New Dutch Bros Coffee coming to south Topeka in 2025 Our food is authentic Mexican mixed with California style food, Johnson said. It ranges from shrimp fajitas and Mexican chorizo plates to carne asada, fries, burritos and breakfast burritos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson said the restaurant will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. Topekans will also have the opportunity to try new birria food items like the quesabirria tacos and birria quesadillas. Panchos Mexican Food has locations in Kansas, Utah, Wyoming and Missouri, according to its Facebook page. Three other locations can be found in the Kansas in Overland Park, Salina and Lawrence. Historic Gem Building for sale at $650,000 in Topeka For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. SAN DIEGO (Border Report) Agents with Mexicos Institute of Immigration (INM) are reportedly working with taxi drivers in a scheme to get unlawful migrants into the United States, according to Albert Rivera, head of the Agape Shelter in Tijuana. Since last year, INM agents and members of Mexicos National Guard, have been positioned just south of the border to prevent migrants from approaching the U.S. Rivera says migrants are paying up to $500 per person to cabbies to take them to the border where INM agents are waiting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Migrants allegedly beat Mexican agent to death The migrants settle things with the cab drivers, who then transport them to the agents who provide access to the border, said Rivera. Rivera says he is asking Mexicos federal government to investigate the scheme, since he believes the agents are getting a kickback from the people driving the taxis. Border Reports Top 10 stories of 2024 Im not saying the INM needs to get cleaned up, its only a few bad elements. Were not saying all of them are doing it, its one or two bad apples. Rivera told the El Sol Newspaper of Tijuana that six families, who were then deported, used taxi drivers to connect them with the INM agents who showed them where to cross into the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border The cabbies come by and pick up people who are staying here, they also meet at a nearby plaza then they drive them to an undisclosed location. INM did not return calls when Border Report sought information about these claims made by Rivera involving some agents and the taxi drivers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Many companies and brands have begun shifting to more sustainable practices in recent years. Microsoft has long been leading the charge, pledging to be carbon negative by 2030. And it's now added another tactic in the fight for sustainability: building data centers made of wood and other low-carbon materials. Data Center Dynamics has reported that Microsoft is building two data centers in Northern Virginia with cross-laminated timber. CLT is an engineered wood that has grown in prominence recently because of its flexible, fire-resistant nature. Although it has not been used much in data centers (yet), the material has a variety of benefits ranging from the environment to construction. And with construction causing around 40% of all global carbon emissions, CLT could be an ideal solution to ease the environmental impact. By employing cross-laminated timber in its two new data centers, Microsoft said that it "is expected to reduce the facilities' embodied carbon footprint by 35% compared to conventional steel construction, and 65% compared to typical precast concrete." A study found that a midrise building that used CLT reduced global warming potential by 15%-26%. Do you recycle your old electronics? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind An added perk of CLT is that it is quicker and safer to install than traditional steel and concrete. Steve Kelley, a professor in the department of forest biomaterials at North Carolina State's College of Natural Resources, said that "because you can assemble the CLT layer by layer, you can put it into place pretty easily. That's a huge advantage if you're building in an urban area where you may have to shut down the surrounding street for a year or more. By reducing the time of construction, you're not only saving money but also keeping the community happy." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Microsoft continues to invest in emboldened sustainable projects and initiatives, this latest project demonstrates its dedication to carbon neutrality and climate-friendly solutions. Richard Hage, head of global strategy for data center engineering at Microsoft, sums it up best, per Data Center Dynamics: "A lot of our suppliers are on the same journey as we are. [Everyone is] implementing key initiatives to lower the embodied carbon of their materials and their products." With Microsoft leading the charge on a potentially novel improvement in how data centers are constructed, it shows promise for both commercial and residential properties that use CLT. Move over steel and cement cross-laminated timber is here and can be a more sustainable staple of infrastructure projects. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Babies born on Wednesday are not only the first babies of 2025, but theyre also the first babies of Generation Beta! Hospitals around Middle Tennessee celebrated this milestone by sharing photos of these precious newborns. So far, the earliest birth reported in the region was Willow at 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 1 at TriStar Horizon Medical Center, weighing 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Baby Willow (Courtesy: HCA Healthcare) Shortly afterward came Mason, who was born at 12:36 a.m. at TriStar Summit Medical Center, HCA Healthcare said, adding that he weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces. Baby Mason (Courtesy: HCA Healthcare) A new generation begins in 2025, marking the end of Gen Alpha Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maury Regional Health said the Maury Regional Medical Centers first baby of the year, Jeremiah Mayberry, arrived at 1:20 a.m., weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces, and measuring 19.5 inches long. Baby Jeremiah Mayberry (Courtesy: Maury Regional Health) Up next was Michael, who entered the world at 1:38 a.m. at TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center, according to HCA Healthcare. Baby Michael (Courtesy: HCA Healthcare) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several hours later more specifically, at 7:45 a.m. officials said Dylan was born at TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center, weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces. Baby Dylan (Courtesy: HCA Healthcare) Read todays top stories on wkrn.com Then, at 9:23 a.m., Williamson Health reported its first baby of 2025, Louis Michael, was born to Madi and Brandon of Franklin. He weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces, and was 20 inches long. When it came time to push, everyone who came in had 2025 headbands on, said Madi. We had to pivot quite a bit on our birth plan, but every single person here has been incredible, and weve had a wonderful experience. Since he was the first baby of 2025, Williamson Health presented the family with a special gift basket provided by the Williamson Health Foundation and filled with goodies from the hospital gift shop. Baby Louis and his parents (Courtesy: Williamson Health) At 11:10 a.m., HCA Healthcare said Raphael made his arrival at TriStar Centennial Medical Center, weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and measuring 20.5 inches long. Baby Raphael (Courtesy: HCA Healthcare) Baby Raphael and his family (Courtesy: HCA Healthcare) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This story will be updated as News 2 learns about more New Years babies born in Middle Tennessee. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. House Speaker Mike Johnson faces a tricky fight to retain the gavel on Friday as the Republican leader kicks off the new Congress with a razor-thin majority. Holding only a four-vote edge in the chamber, Johnson likely cannot afford to lose the backing of more than one fellow GOP lawmaker as he seeks a full two-year term as leader of the fractious caucus. The vote will be far from a lay up for the affable Louisiana conservative, even with the endorsement of President-elect Trump, the partys undisputed leader. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Tom Massie (R-Kentucky) has already declared that he wont vote for Johnson, leaving the speaker with no apparent further wiggle room. A handful of fellow hardliners have suggested they may join Massies rebellion, at least until they can squeeze Johnson to make concessions on some of their pet issues as theyve successfully done in the past. An additional wild card could be Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz, a fiscal conservative who has said she will no longer caucus with Republicans and hasnt agreed to back Johnson. Republicans are in a tight spot because they performed unexpectedly poorly in House races during the recent election, underperforming Trumps popular vote and electoral college wins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They won 220 seats compared to 215 for Democrats. But ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) resigned his seat in November in a failed bid to become Trumps attorney general and has said he will not return for the coming Congress. Assuming Gaetz keeps his word and Massie votes against Johnson, that would leave the speaker needing the votes of the remaining 217 other Republicans, plus Spartz, to win the gavel if Democrats as expected all show up and vote against him. If he loses a second GOP vote, Johnson may not have the votes needed to secure a majority, which would send the election to a second ballot. It could continue until either Johnson or some other candidate wins. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said Democrats will not support Johnson, but its possible one or more maverick Democrats might cross party lines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnsons ace in the hole could be Trumps support, especially because the House needs to elect a speaker by Monday to carry out the certification of the presidential election. Trump is sure to want that process to go off without a hitch, particularly after the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters four years ago. In a surprise, Johnson grabbed the speakership in October 2023 after Republicans struggled to replace Kevin McCarthy following his unprecedented removal. Several contenders tried and failed before Republicans settled on Johnson, whod been well-liked across the conference and has a good working relationship with Jeffries. But Johnsons handling of major funding fights, including passage of aid to Ukraine last spring and, most recently, a short-term spending bill, has turned at least a few allies into critics. He has repeatedly had to turn to Jeffries to provide Democratic support to pass crucial spending bills, including a last-minute stopgap spending plan to avert a holiday shutdown before Christmas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The House cannot organize until it selects a speaker because that person effectively serves as the Houses presiding officer and the institutions administrative head. The House can elect a new speaker at any time if the person occupying that role dies, resigns or is removed from office. A speaker is normally elected at the start of a new Congress and serves in the job for the full two-year session. Republicans chose Johnson as their nominee for speaker in a closed-door vote in November. A week later, Democrats unanimously chose the popular Jeffries, a Brooklyn lawmaker, to remain their leader for a second stint. The Brooklyn lawmaker would be in line to become the first Black speaker if Democrats retake control of the House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To become speaker, a candidate needs a majority of the votes from House members who are present and voting. Historically, the magical number has been 218 out of the 435 members of the House. But previous speakers, including McCarthy, have won with fewer votes because members sometimes vote present instead of calling out a name. Every lawmaker voting present lowers the overall tally needed to reach a majority. WASHINGTON House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to avoid the same fate that his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, experienced two years ago: an embarrassing, drawn-out floor fight for the speakers gavel. A small band of right-wing rabble-rousers is threatening to derail Johnsons bid Friday to retain the speakership. It typically would be a difficult task to take on an incumbent speaker. But Republicans hold such a paper-thin majority in the new 119th Congress that just two GOP defectors could block Johnson from winning the top job for another two years. House Speaker Mike Johnson talks to reporters outside of the House Chambers on Dec. 19, 2024. Three days ago, Johnson received a big boost when President-elect Donald Trump publicly gave the Louisiana Republican his Complete & Total Endorsement, arguing that Johnson's election would help the GOP-controlled Congress execute his 2025 agenda. The speaker said he spent New Year's Day with Trump at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, shortly after an explosion in a Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Johnson has already lost one GOP vote; Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, is rallying colleagues on X against Johnson, whom he blames for striking deals on government spending, Ukraine aid and the renewal of a powerful surveillance program known as FISA Section 702. Lawmakers said the unpredictable Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., is also someone to watch; she has not committed to backing the speaker and is seeking some assurances. I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan, Massie wrote on X before the new year. Weve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget. On Thursday afternoon, Johnson hosted a handful of detractors in his office to hear their demands. Spartz was there, along with several members of the House Freedom Caucus: Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md.; past chairmen Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Scott Perry, R-Pa.; and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Norman described it as a good discussion that focused on things like spending cuts but said he remained undecided and wouldn't announce his decision about Johnson until Friday's floor vote, leaving the chamber in suspense. Trump's endorsement "matters a whole lot," Norman said, adding that "people trust Mike Johnson." For his part, Johnson is expressing confidence that hell retain the gavel in the public roll call set for noon Friday the first vote of the new Congress when each House member present must verbally cast their vote for speaker. Democrats are expected to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. And nearly all Republicans are expected to cast their vote for Johnson, who won his partys nomination for speaker shortly after the Nov. 5 election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After his meetings Thursday, Johnson emerged from his office and said he was hopeful he would win the election on the first ballot. "I hope so. That's the plan," he told reporters. In an appearance on "Fox and Friends" earlier in the day, Johnson touted Trumps endorsement and warned that any political games with the speakership could delay Congress certification of Trumps election victory on Monday, Jan. 6. The Louisianan also suggested that the House could not afford to delay organizing itself in the new Congress due to national security threats like the deadly New Years Day attack in New Orleans. No other business can get done until the House chooses its leader. That means House committees can't be organized, bills can't be introduced, and other votes can't happen. We will get this done. Look, the things that were talking about this morning are an illustration that we live in very serious times. We cannot afford any palace drama here. We have got to get the Congress started, which begins tomorrow, and we have to get immediately to work, Johnson said on Fox. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have to certify the election of President Donald J Trump on Jan. 6, on Monday. And we have many important things pressing on us right now, so theres no time to waste. We have to stay unified. Johnson is facing a similar math problem that McCarthy faced just two years ago when a small bloc of conservative rebels led by then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. teamed with Democrats to prevent McCarthy from winning the gavel. It took 15 rounds of voting over multiple days, and personal phone calls from Trump, to convince the Gaetz group to stand down. Because of his own small majority, McCarthy would only narrowly win the speakership. But just 269 days later, Gaetz worked with Democrats again to topple McCarthy, sparking a no-holds-barred battle to succeed him which drew all House business to a standstill for three weeks. In the end, Johnson, then the congenial No. 7 GOP leader in the House with no known enemies, was unanimously elected speaker after more senior-ranking leaders tried and failed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Fox, Johnson acknowledged that he's dealing with a challenging "numbers game." Republicans won a 220-215 majority in November. But Gaetz resigned from office after the election and said he would not be sworn in for the new 119th Congress on Friday, cutting the GOP advantage to 219-215. Johnson would need at least 218 votes a simple majority to win the gavel if all House members are present on Friday. He said he spent the holidays reaching out to every single one of his GOP critics. And, he told Fox, he's making the case that hes the best person for the job and that Republicans who starting later this month will control all the levers of power in Washington cannot afford to delay enacting Trumps legislative agenda, which includes renewing tax cuts and strengthening border security. He recently told Fox News Sean Hannity he had a 45-minute phone call with one of his loudest critics, Spartz. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have unified government that begins tomorrow. We have the White House, the Senate and the House a totally different situation than we dealt with over the last 14 months since Ive been speaker, Johnson said on Fox. So were excited to deliver on the America First agenda. If Johnson manages to secure the gavel, House Republicans are set to quickly vote on a rules change that would make it harder to oust him from the speaker's office midway through his two-year term. Under the current rules, any House member can force a vote to expel the speaker by filing a resolution known as a "motion to vacate." It's how McCarthy was removed from power. But the proposed GOP rules package for the new Congress states that no less than nine lawmakers are needed to trigger a floor vote to oust the speaker and the nine must be members of the majority party in this case, Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The rules change was part of a deal negotiated between the leaders of the far-right House Freedom Caucus and the leadership-friendly Main Street Caucus shortly after the November election. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Update: Massie said Friday morning that if he and just one more Republican vote against House Speaker Mike Johnson, it would likely spark a domino effect that will oust him from the position. Original story: Choosing the next speaker of the House could hinge on the political persuasion of one Republican Kentucky's U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie. But, he'll need to find a political ally soon, someone who is equally unafraid to oppose President-elect Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican party. Trump has endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican. repeatedly over the past few weeks, most recently at a New Year's Eve party in Mar-a-Lago. But Massie won't cast a vote for Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I've decided that life is too short to play along with fake fights and to play along and take votes that people know are wrong," Massie told The Enquirer in an interview Thursday. "Almost all of my colleagues know that Mike Johnson is not equipped to be speaker, but nobody wants to say the emperor has no clothes." In June, Massie's wife of more than 30 years, Rhonda Massie, died. He told The Wall Street Journal recently that his high school sweetheart was probably the "nicest part" of him. I dont know how to say this without cussing, Massie told the WSJ about pressure to adhere to party lines. If they thought I had no F's to give before, I definitely have no F's to give now. Republicans start the session with a slim majority in the House 219 to Democrats' 215 and Johnson can only afford to lose one vote if he wants to be reelected undefined Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Massie, 53, said Thursday he'll be that one vote Jan. 3, though, he's not sure if any other Republicans will join him. 'I will not be voting present' Massie plans to vote for someone other than Johnson for Speaker of the House on Jan. 3. But he won't say who as of Thursday. "I can tell you I will be voting for a person. I will not be voting present," he said. Other GOP lawmakers have not publicly said they will vote against Johnson, but a few are publicly undecided. That includes Reps. Victoria Spartz, of Indiana; Andy Harris, of Maryland; Andy Biggs, of Arizona; and Chip Roy, of Texas. Roy joined Massie on the presidential campaign trail in Iowa this year in support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This week, Roy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "The reason I am still undecided on the Speaker vote (as opposed to hard no) is its not ALL the fault of @SpeakerJohnson & my desire is to give him grace & @realDonaldTrump room to deliver on a strong agenda for which we were elected. But something MUST change." Massie said that while he's been meeting with other GOP lawmakers who are undecided on their vote for speaker, he has not been encouraging people to vote against Johnson. For those wondering, Massie also confirmed he is not vying to be speaker because the firebrand congressman doesn't think he could get enough votes. Why does Massie oppose Johnson? Massie's opposition to Johnson is deeply rooted, but he's narrowed his objection to his colleague down to four main points: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Massie was among a group of Republicans who sided with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene , a Georgia Republican, when she tried and failed to oust Johnson as speaker in May. Massie said, "Most Republican speakers when they don't have enough votes ... they would resign." Instead Johnson "partnered with Democrats" to squash the motion to vacate so that he could remain speaker. Johnson supported $61 billion in aid to Ukraine this spring. Massie said the spending was "opposite of the mandate that Trump was elected on." Johnson supported a controversial government surveillance bill that Massie said allows the government to "spy on Americans domestically." He not only voted in favor of the bill, but Massie said Johnson, "architected the way it was debated and brought to the floor so that it would pass." Massie, who has been known to wear a debt ticker clock on his lapel, opposed the stopgap government spending bill Johnson supported, both the long version at more than 1,500 pages and the shorter 100-page version of the bill that was passed just before Christmas. U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., often wears a ticker that shows the national debt numbers. Massie said his stance against Trump's speaker endorsement is solely aimed at Johnson and not the former president. "The reality is, I do support Trump and Trump's agenda, and I know that Mike Johnson is going to fall short on that measure. So it's not necessarily about being popular today," he said. "For me, it's about being right when it matters, and eventually people will see that I was right. We've got two years between now and my next election." Will he get support from Ohio, KY lawmakers? Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican who represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District, hinted on X this week that he will follow Trump in supporting Johnson. "Congress needs to focus on executing Agenda 47 - the GOP platform and President Trump's plan to Make America Great Again. President Trump wants Speaker Johnson," he posted Thursday. "To quote General Patton: 'A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.'" Congress needs to focus on executing Agenda 47 - the GOP platform and President Trump's plan to Make America Great Again. President Trump wants Speaker Johnson. To quote General Patton: "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." Warren Davidson (@WarrenDavidson) January 2, 2025 The Enquirer reached out to Davidson, and a member of his team sent the X post, as well as Davidson's comments on CNN last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When Donald Trump says he's supporting Mike Johnson, the party's going to support Mike Johnson," he said Dec. 18. "If the play changes, we'll talk about that then." Davidson voted against the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other countries that put Johnson at odds with many House Republicans. Just two days ago, Davidson said "America may be the dumbest empire to ever exist" on X after the U.S. sent billions in economic assistance to Ukraine. Rep. Dave Taylor, the new Republican representative for Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, will be sworn in Friday. Taylor has not said whether he will support Johnson, though he ran his congressional campaign on being closely aligned with Trump. A request for comment Thursday was not immediately returned. Why is Massie a wild card? Massie's represents 21 counties in a district that runs from the suburbs of Louisville, through Northern Kentucky and east to the West Virginia border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His constituents are part of the strong swath of Trump country through the Midwest and South. All the counties he represents voted for Trump in the past two presidential elections. But despite Massie's libertarian leanings, presidential support for DeSantis, and occasional opposition to Trump's positions on political issues, he's stayed popular in the Bluegrass State. Kentuckians have handily reelected him since he took office in 2012. He's easily defeated GOP primary challengers and destroyed Democrat opposition in every election. "I don't think I have a good pithy quote for you right now," he said when asked about his seemingly fearlessness of Trump's political wrath. "I think every time that I've made my case to the people, even if it's been contrary to what the president wanted at the time, it's eventually worked out for me. And so I'm going to stick with doing what I think is right and making my case to the people." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This story was updated to add a video. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Massie won't vote Johnson for speaker. But he has a plan Update: Massie said Friday morning that if he and just one more Republican vote against House Speaker Mike Johnson, it would likely spark a domino effect that will oust him from the position. Original story: Choosing the next speaker of the House could hinge on the political persuasion of one Republican Kentucky's U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie. But, he'll need to find a political ally soon, someone who is equally unafraid to oppose President-elect Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican party. Trump has endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican. repeatedly over the past few weeks, most recently at a New Year's Eve party in Mar-a-Lago. But Massie won't cast a vote for Johnson. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. "I've decided that life is too short to play along with fake fights and to play along and take votes that people know are wrong," Massie told The Enquirer in an interview Thursday. "Almost all of my colleagues know that Mike Johnson is not equipped to be speaker, but nobody wants to say the emperor has no clothes." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In June, Massie's wife of more than 30 years, Rhonda Massie, died. He told The Wall Street Journal recently that his high school sweetheart was probably the "nicest part" of him. I dont know how to say this without cussing, Massie told the WSJ about pressure to adhere to party lines. If they thought I had no F's to give before, I definitely have no F's to give now. Republicans start the session with a slim majority in the House 219 to Democrats' 215 and Johnson can only afford to lose one vote if he wants to be reelected undefined Massie, 53, said Thursday he'll be that one vote Jan. 3, though, he's not sure if any other Republicans will join him. 'I will not be voting present' Massie plans to vote for someone other than Johnson for Speaker of the House on Jan. 3. But he won't say who as of Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I can tell you I will be voting for a person. I will not be voting present," he said. Other GOP lawmakers have not publicly said they will vote against Johnson, but a few are publicly undecided. That includes Reps. Victoria Spartz, of Indiana; Andy Harris, of Maryland; Andy Biggs, of Arizona; and Chip Roy, of Texas. Roy joined Massie on the presidential campaign trail in Iowa this year in support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. This week, Roy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "The reason I am still undecided on the Speaker vote (as opposed to hard no) is its not ALL the fault of @SpeakerJohnson & my desire is to give him grace & @realDonaldTrump room to deliver on a strong agenda for which we were elected. But something MUST change." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Massie said that while he's been meeting with other GOP lawmakers who are undecided on their vote for speaker, he has not been encouraging people to vote against Johnson. For those wondering, Massie also confirmed he is not vying to be speaker because the firebrand congressman doesn't think he could get enough votes. Why does Massie oppose Johnson? Massie's opposition to Johnson is deeply rooted, but he's narrowed his objection to his colleague down to four main points: Massie was among a group of Republicans who sided with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene , a Georgia Republican, when she tried and failed to oust Johnson as speaker in May. Massie said, "Most Republican speakers when they don't have enough votes ... they would resign." Instead Johnson "partnered with Democrats" to squash the motion to vacate so that he could remain speaker. Johnson supported $61 billion in aid to Ukraine this spring. Massie said the spending was "opposite of the mandate that Trump was elected on." Johnson supported a controversial government surveillance bill that Massie said allows the government to "spy on Americans domestically." He not only voted in favor of the bill, but Massie said Johnson, "architected the way it was debated and brought to the floor so that it would pass." Massie, who has been known to wear a debt ticker clock on his lapel, opposed the stopgap government spending bill Johnson supported, both the long version at more than 1,500 pages and the shorter 100-page version of the bill that was passed just before Christmas. U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., often wears a ticker that shows the national debt numbers. Massie said his stance against Trump's speaker endorsement is solely aimed at Johnson and not the former president. "The reality is, I do support Trump and Trump's agenda, and I know that Mike Johnson is going to fall short on that measure. So it's not necessarily about being popular today," he said. "For me, it's about being right when it matters, and eventually people will see that I was right. We've got two years between now and my next election." Will he get support from Ohio, KY lawmakers? Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican who represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District, hinted on X this week that he will follow Trump in supporting Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Congress needs to focus on executing Agenda 47 - the GOP platform and President Trump's plan to Make America Great Again. President Trump wants Speaker Johnson," he posted Thursday. "To quote General Patton: 'A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.'" Congress needs to focus on executing Agenda 47 - the GOP platform and President Trump's plan to Make America Great Again. President Trump wants Speaker Johnson. To quote General Patton: "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." Warren Davidson (@WarrenDavidson) January 2, 2025 The Enquirer reached out to Davidson, and a member of his team sent the X post, as well as Davidson's comments on CNN last month. "When Donald Trump says he's supporting Mike Johnson, the party's going to support Mike Johnson," he said Dec. 18. "If the play changes, we'll talk about that then." Davidson voted against the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other countries that put Johnson at odds with many House Republicans. Just two days ago, Davidson said "America may be the dumbest empire to ever exist" on X after the U.S. sent billions in economic assistance to Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Dave Taylor, the new Republican representative for Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, will be sworn in Friday. Taylor has not said whether he will support Johnson, though he ran his congressional campaign on being closely aligned with Trump. A request for comment Thursday was not immediately returned. Why is Massie a wild card? Massie's represents 21 counties in a district that runs from the suburbs of Louisville, through Northern Kentucky and east to the West Virginia border. His constituents are part of the strong swath of Trump country through the Midwest and South. All the counties he represents voted for Trump in the past two presidential elections. But despite Massie's libertarian leanings, presidential support for DeSantis, and occasional opposition to Trump's positions on political issues, he's stayed popular in the Bluegrass State. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kentuckians have handily reelected him since he took office in 2012. He's easily defeated GOP primary challengers and destroyed Democrat opposition in every election. "I don't think I have a good pithy quote for you right now," he said when asked about his seemingly fearlessness of Trump's political wrath. "I think every time that I've made my case to the people, even if it's been contrary to what the president wanted at the time, it's eventually worked out for me. And so I'm going to stick with doing what I think is right and making my case to the people." This story was updated to add a video. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Massie won't vote Johnson for speaker. But he has a plan WASHINGTON When it meets for the first session of a new Congress on Friday, the House of Representatives has to elect a speaker before it can do anything else. Its not clear if Republicans are up to the task. Current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) projected confidence on Thursday morning that he would be reelected, but allowed that the vote would be close. Well have a margin of probably two votes tomorrow during that, so can only afford to lose one or two, but I think well get it done, Johnson said on Fox & Friends. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has said he wont support Johnson, and several other Republicans, such as Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), have sharply criticized their speaker while not outright promising to vote against him. The stakes are high. Johnson noted that if the House doesnt elect a speaker, then Congress wont be able to certify President-elect Donald Trumps victory in the 2024 election. We cannot afford any palace drama here, Johnson said. We have to certify the election of President Donald J. Trump on Jan. 6, on Monday. Palace drama has been a persistent feature of Republican rule since winning the House in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It took former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) 15 ballots to win the speakers gavel in January 2023. Eight months later, Republicans dumped McCarthy for allowing the House to pass a government funding bill with support from Democrats. For three weeks, the House ceased functioning while Republicans struggled to figure out who could succeed him, ultimately settling on Johnson because he had made the fewest enemies since coming to the House in 2017. Once again, the Republicans who oppose their speaker have no clear alternative. And a prolonged speaker drama could even interfere with the inauguration of the president-elect on Jan. 20. Last month, Trump spoke out against Johnsons plan to fund the government, prompting several days of chaos before Johnson ultimately defied Trumps demand that he include a provision adjusting the federal governments borrowing limit in the bill. But Trump endorsed Johnson for speaker this week. Still, its not clear if Trumps endorsement can sway House hardliners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan, Massie said on social media, referring to another former speaker who fell out with Trump and the rest of the party. Weve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget. Roy also proved impervious to a primary threat from Trump during Decembers funding fiasco. As the vote looms, the Republican infighting could intensify. Chip and Thomas did not receive a mandate from the American people, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said Tuesday on social media. Get on board or get out of the way. MEMPHIS, Tenn. Seniors at Serenity Towers will finally see change with the new year. The Memphis Housing Authority is now in charge, taking over from the troubled Millennia, and residents are set to be relocated. This could have and should have been done long ago, said Tennessee Representative G.A. Hardaway. Meanwhile, we learned Millennia, the Ohio-based company that failed to pay its bills and violated rules, leaving residents in unsafe conditions, is firing back at federal housing regulators, claiming theyre violating the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MHA takes over Serenity Towers amid calls for investigation We asked Representative Hardaway what his thoughts are on the possibility that Serenity or Millennia could sue the city of Memphis or HUD. He responded, I say go ahead. WREGs Alex Coleman posed the question to State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, and the WREG Investigators discovered thats exactly whats happened. Millennia is suing HUD, asking a federal judge for an injunction to stop the federal housing agency from bringing any more administrative proceedings, litigation, or hearings against Millennia and its leader Frank Sinito. Once we get into the courts, then well start gathering information. Id love to see Millennia in a situation where they have to produce documents, said Hardaway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Documents we uncovered with the lawsuit show it stems from HUD reportedly hitting Millennia with millions in fines. According to Millennia, during a less than two-month period last year, HUD filed 16 complaints against the company demanding more than $7 million in civil penalties. HUD says it combed through bank statements and ledgers at one of Millennias Ohio properties and found it made unauthorized distributions of $169,000, then says the same thing happened at 15 other properties. Millennia filed the lawsuit against HUD not long after agents from the Inspector Generals Office for HUD and the USDA raided Sinitos Ohio home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The companys lawyers call HUDs enforcement process unconstitutional and say any claims should be heard before a jury in federal court, instead of HUDs in-house Office of Hearings and Appeals. FOR MORE ON SERENITY TOWERS Millennia also says its being punished with penalties that far exceed the alleged unauthorized distributions. Speaking of money, the lawsuit is just one of the documents we dug up. For nearly a year, weve been waiting for HUD to respond to our request for records about alleged financial mismanagement at Millennia. The companys internal records reveal accusations of millions in missing tax dollars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A letter sent to Sinito and Millennia levels even more serious accusations, saying nearly $5 million is missing or was improperly taken from 19 properties. HUD accuses the company of under-funding tenant security deposit accounts at dozens of properties for a total of more than $400,000, then lists alleged unauthorized distributions totaling $4.5 million. None of the properties listed were in Memphis, but HUD says that was just a sample and suspected the same thing was happening elsewhere. Not long ago, WREG Investigators got off the phone with a long-time Serenity resident who said hes just happy we continue to shine a light on the problems because without it he believes change likely wouldnt be happening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An attorney representing Millennia sent the following statement Thursday: The court action Millennia Housing filed against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development speaks to a principle older than our country itself: where a party seeks to bring a legal action against Millennia, it is entitled to a trial by jury. HUD is not granting that right to Millennia, so it seeks to have the proceeding halted. Beyond this, we will let the filings speak for themselves and we look forward to the courts consideration. Locally, attorneys for Serenity and the City of Memphis head back to Shelby County Environmental Court on January 16. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. The CuMo Exploration Project aims to search for minerals that could lead to a mine years later in mountains outside Boise. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) Mining has played an important role in shaping Idaho, but the Idaho Conservation League is working to raise awareness about the long-lasting environmental damage caused by mining in the Gem State. A new report from the nonprofit, Unearthing Idaho: Mining and Environmental Impacts in the Gem State, provides guidance on balancing the demand for minerals with protecting Idahos environment. It was published to address concerns about new mining projects, increased exploration efforts and issues with abandoned mines, said Josh Johnson, the central Idaho director for the Idaho Conservation League. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson acknowledged the need for mining, noting that resources like cars, cellphones and computers and renewable energy technology rely on mined materials, some of which come from Idaho. Mining is a huge part of Idahos history and in our heritage here, Johnson told the Idaho Capital Sun. We are blessed with a lot of natural resources, and there is a reason for us to use those mineral resources. But I think we need to recognize that this mining is not appropriate everywhere, and it needs to be done the right way. Johnson said the organization looks at mining projects in Idaho on a case-by-case basis, and that it does not generalize mining across Idaho. The report includes a list of best practices that it hopes mining companies will adopt. A look at Idahos mining history Though mining shaped Idahos history, it has created lasting environmental challenges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Idahos mining history dates back to the late 1800s, when the region became part of a late gold rush, historian Troy Lambert told the Idaho Capital Sun. After the discovery of gold in 1860, mining soon became Idahos dominant industry, surpassing agriculture and livestock, according to Idahos 1899 inaugural mining report. The rush for resources didnt stop at gold. Many discovered silver, lead and copper deposits, particularly in North Idahos Shoshone County, which would go on to lead the nation in silver production for decades. The inaugural report from the Idaho State Inspector of Mines, the first state agency tasked with gathering information on mineral extraction and exploration from 1899 to 1974, describes Idaho as abundant in mineral resources. (Screenshot of Report of the Inspector of Mines for the State of Idaho, 1899) For decades, Idaho spearheaded the mining industry, even offering mining programs through the University of Idahos School of Mines, established in 1917 to support the states demand for mining expertise. During World War II, Stibnite Mine near Yellow Pine became the nations leading producer of antimony and tungsten, which were used for bullet production and metal strengthening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. However, Idahos mining industry, like the rest of the nations, began to decline in the late 1900s for several reasons, including the rising costs of extracting deeper resources, the end of World War II mining subsidies and the introduction of environmental regulations like the Clean Air and Water acts from the 1970s, Lambert said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This led to a declining interest in mining. By 2002, the University of Idaho closed its mining school, and many of those courses were restructured into other colleges on campus, university spokesperson Jodi Walker told the Sun. The Clean Air and Water acts, in particular, significantly changed Idahos mining practices. Before these regulations, historical mining projects operated under the idea of dilution as the solution, assuming polluted water would naturally clean itself as it traveled downstream, Lambert said. For a long time it was just a really dirty process, especially the milling process the outhouses over the stream, Lambert said. They poisoned the land, the water and all of that downstream. Those dirty mining practices are still having an impact on how we manage the environment in those areas today. Lambert said mining in Idaho was seen as a very noble profession, where men would risk their lives to work. While mining has died down in Idaho and the U.S. as a whole, Lambert said mining worldwide has not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If we dont mine here, its gonna happen elsewhere in the world, he said, adding that the U.S. has child labor laws and modern environmental standards to ensure more ethical and sustainable practices. Day shift crew of 21 miners and two young children stand outside of Silver King Mine entrance in the Coeur dAlene Mining District circa 1925. (Courtesy of Museum of North Idaho) Report highlights mining projects that left, and could leave scars on Idaho Today, mining makes up for less than 1% of the Gem States economy. There are six operating mines left in Idaho, with three phosphate mines in southeast Idaho and three metal mines in North Idaho. But historical and modern mining projects continue to affect Idahos landscape. From lead contamination from the Bunker Hill smelter to coal mining runoff in British Columbia contaminating the Kootenai River Idahos waterways and wildlife habitats are still suffering from the damage caused by mining, the report says. The report includes a non-exhaustive list of mining projects across Idaho, that the Idaho Conservation League says warrant the attention of Idahoans. Some are mineral exploration projects, such as the CuMo Exploration Project outside of Idaho City, and others are in the permitting process, such as Stibnite Gold Mine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report, Johnson said, argues that while mining is necessary, it must be done responsibly. By offering a list of best practices, the Idaho Conservation League hopes to help mining companies and permitting regulators mitigate the environmental impact of new and ongoing projects. There are still 8,800 abandoned mines in the state, according to the report. However, Johnson said a new federal law signed on Dec. 17 to clean up abandoned mines in the West is a step in the right direction. The law was sponsored by U.S. Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho. The next step to address mining issues would be to reform the General Mining Law of 1872, which Johnson said favors mining over any other use of public land. Were not trying to shut down the mining industry in Idaho, Johnson said. What were trying to do is improve projects and say that some places in Idaho are really special and should be off limits to mining. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Jan. 1In 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made several major decisions to declare New Mexico species endangered or threatened or not. Here's a recap of some of those decisions and a look forward into what 2025 might hold for the state's species. Listed Dunes sagebrush lizard Not a creation of Frank Herbert's imagination, this rare lizard found in southeastern New Mexico's shinnery oak and sand dune ecosystems has experienced a loss of habitat from climate change, sand mining, and oil and gas development. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A majority of the species' range in New Mexico is already under some conservation measures, as some landowners and oil and gas producers have agreed voluntarily to take measures to protect the lizard. Its range makes up just 4% of the Permian Basin. "The Endangered Species Act is an important tool in preventing the extinction of imperiled species like the dunes sagebrush lizard," Amy Lueders, the Fish and Wildlife Service's Southwest Regional Director, said in a May press release. "The Service will continue working collaboratively with Tribes, industry, stakeholders, and private landowners while ensuring protections for the lizard and its habitat." The agency determined setting critical habitat was "prudent" but would handle that in a future rulemaking process. The service has a year to proposed critical habitat locations. Swale paintbrush Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Found only in the southwestern corner of the state, this desert flower was declared endangered in early December. A nectar-producing plant, the swale paintbrush is beloved by pollinators. Once found throughout Hidalgo County and the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range that runs through northwestern Mexico, the plant is now confined to just Hidalgo County. Within the state, the flower has been threatened by trampling, illegal collection, drought and fire, all of which can disrupt the species' life cycle. "Almost everything you love is made of plants," Katie Sandbom, biologist at New Mexico's Ecological Services Field Office, said in a Dec. 4 press release. "They create habitat and support wildlife and pollinators. Rare plants, such as the swale paintbrush, make New Mexico's biodiversity amazing." Penasco least chipmunk Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once found throughout the Sacramento Mountains, the small remaining population of Penasco least chipmunks in the White Mountains has made the species at-risk for extinction. In December, the Fish and Wildlife Service declared the species endangered and established close to 4,400 acres of critical habitat for it in the Lincoln National Forest. Silverspot butterfly (threatened) Found in Colorado, Utah and Northern New Mexico, this subspecies of the silverspot butterfly was declared threatened in February. The butterfly, which can grow up to three inches, is threatened by a drying climate in its habitat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The butterfly needs a moist meadow environment vegetated with the bog violet, which larvae feed on. Fish not listed In 2024, three fish species bearing the name of New Mexico's longest river were passed over for listing as endangered or threatened. The Rio Grande chub, Rio Grande sucker and Rio Grande cutthroat trout were all deemed as not warranting the additional protections provided from listing. Looking forward The Fish and Wildlife Service has found the Pecos pupfish, a small, shiny fish found in Eastern New Mexico and parts of Texas, merits being listed as threatened. Comments on the proposed rule are due Jan. 21. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The monarch butterfly has also been proposed as threatened by the agency this year. The iconic orange and black butterfly species, which migrates through New Mexico, has seen declines in migrating populations between 80% and 95%. The 90-day comment period, which started in December, will conclude March. A man killed 12 people including two children in a shooting rampage in Montenegro before turning the gun on himself. The attacker, identified as 45-year-old Aleksandar Aco Martinovic, initially killed four people when he opened fire at around 5.30pm after a dispute at a restaurant in the small western town of Cetinje on Wednesday afternoon. He then shot dead eight people, including two children, at three other locations, prosecutor Andrijana Nastic said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The restaurant owner and his children were reported to be among the victims, as well as members of the shooters own family. Authorities said the attacker died from self-inflicted wounds on Thursday, ending one of the Balkan nations worst mass killings. Police officers stand guard at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Cetinje - Savo Prelevic/AFP Amid an outpouring of grief, the government declared three days of national mourning from Thursday. Jakov Milatovic, the countrys president, said he was shocked by the loss of innocent lives which had shrouded our Cetinje in black. Our thoughts tonight are with the families who lost their loved ones and the citizens of Cetinje, Mr Milatovic said on X, formerly Twitter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The whole of Montenegro feels and shares your pain. We pray and hope for the recovery of all the wounded. A man, who said he was friends with Mr Milatovic, told local reporters that he heard about the attack by watching television. Its a tragedy, its hell, the elderly man said. He was a good friend, but I dont know [what happened to him] to do something like this. Police said Martinovic had been drinking heavily before the deadly attack and had a history of illegal weapons possession. After an altercation with patrons at the restaurant on Wednesday, he went home and grabbed a weapon, before he returned there and started shooting, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police immediately sealed off the area and began an intense search for the gunman. A view of the door to a bar in Cetinje after one of the worst mass shooting incidents in Montenegros history - Risto Bozovic/AP Danilo Saranovic, the interior minister, told state broadcaster RTCG that Martinovic had tried to kill himself when he was located by police and later died of his injuries on the way to hospital early Thursday. Mr Saranovic said his ministry was looking at emergency measures to try and stop this kind of violence in the future. We, as a society, must no longer allow innocent citizens of Montenegro to suffer because of such individuals, who are ready to brutally take the lives, not only of people they do now know, but also members of their own family, he told MINA news agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Milojko Spajic, the prime minister, called the shooting a terrible tragedy and said the government would consider tightening the criteria for the ownership and possession of firearms, including a total ban on weapons. This is a tragedy after which we must ask ourselves who should be allowed to possess firearms in Montenegro, said Mr Spajic. The prime ministers promise to introduce gun control is likely to face staunch opposition in a country awash with weapons since wars in the region during the 1990s - Stevo Vasiljevic/Reuters Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries during Wednesdays rampage, and one remains in a critical condition, according to Aleksandar Radovic, the director of the Clinical Centre in Podgorica. Authorities said the shootings had no connection with organised crime. Wednesdays shooting was the second deadly rampage in the past three years in the town of Cetinje, 24 miles west of the countrys capital, Podgorica. In 2022, a gunman killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot and killed in a standoff with police. Any attempt to strengthen gun controls is likely to face opposition in Montenegro since it has a deeply rooted gun culture. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo and other Balkan countries the country is awash with weapons from the wars of the 1990s. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Unsafe buildings at Century Village near West Palm Beach continue to cause problems for the community's manager as well as county building officials. In an unusual move, the umbrella organization that oversees the common elements at Century Village, the United Civic Organization, wrote a letter to a county special magistrate complaining that enforcement orders are being ignored. The letter was dated Dec. 13 and signed by Donald Foster, the community's manager under the United Civic Organization. The group also advises the 309 separate building associations that make up the sprawling community, which has nearly 8,000 units and more than 10,000 residents. In August, a special magistrate ordered the Norwich B Association to repair an unsafe stairwell. In its letter to the special magistrate, the civic organization said the repair has not happened despite a five-day deadline given the association to address the issue. The special magistrate order was taken after Foster filed a complaint against the Norwich B building association for failing to do anything about the unsafe stairwell. A water leak that possibly existed for years caused catastrophic damage to a downstairs unit in Century Village in West Palm Beach. It is one of several issues that is causing angst for county building officials. On Monday, Dec. 30, a contractor finally began working to make the stairwell repairs. The issue was first brought to the attention of county officials more than four years ago. The stairwell has been "red tagged," and boards have been installed to prevent anyone from using the stairwell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Norwich B building was designed to have three staircases, according to the managing organization. To allow this Association to permanently maintain only two usable staircases presents a life-safety risk for all second floor residents, and particularly to the the residents living at the westernmost four units, closest to the blocked-off staircase, Foster said in his letter to the special magistrate. The purpose of this letter is to document the unsafe conditions that exist at Norwich B, which extend beyond the closed-off staircase." CENTURY VILLAGE NEWS: La Quinta Inn near Century Village housed homeless veterans during COVID - and nobody knew On July 25, the Building Division issued a Life Safety Violation Notice to the association for failing to fix the stairwell. Efforts to obtain comment from the Norwich B Association were unsuccessful. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Century Village is located off Okeechobee Boulevard near West Palm Beach in an unincorporated area of Palm Beach County. Like other areas of the county, its units have seen a significant increase in value. County officials, though, say there has been too much use of unlicensed contractors to do unpermitted work at the complex. Much of it has been done by investors. Century Village in West Palm Beach Foster, in his reports to the community, noted that a Norwich B board member removed interior walls and installed recessed lighting without obtaining permits. And a Somerset K owner removed a rear screen wall, causing damage to the concrete slab above the unit. The work was also done without obtaining a permit. A county building inspector posted a STOP WORK order but the unit owner still sends workers to this unit, according to reports from United Civic Organization. The association has begun legal action against the unit owner. Meanwhile, poles were installed to keep the second floor from collapsing. County: More code enforcement may be needed at Century Village Illegal work on the downstairs unit in Century Village forced officials to install poles to ensure that the second-floor unit did not collapse. It is one of several unsafe structural issues that county building officials are addressing at the sprawling complex. Kevin Fischer, a spokesman for the county administration, said more secure measures have recently been taken at Norwich B to prevent someone from simply moving a rope to access the stairs. One problem, he said, is many Century Village residents are on fixed incomes and cannot afford to pay for the permanent repairs. He noted that the unsafe structure case is pending along with issues at two units that have also been found to be unsafe. They are unoccupied and will remain so until repairs are made, Fischer said. A code enforcement officer finds a railing on the second floor of a condo building at Century Village in West Palm Beach so deteriorated that a soft bump send a person over the side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As result of Fosters letter, Fischer said that overall building conditions at Century Village are being reviewed. Fosters reports to the community identified other safety issues that included: Somerset J, where building officials discovered in August a second-floor railing deteriorated to the point that a soft bump would force the railing to collapse. Both staircases to the second floor were barricaded with wood. Residents were unable to access their units until the unsafe conditions were resolved. Coventry H, a water leak that may have lasted for years caused catastrophic damage to a ground-floor unit. Pictures Foster took show grass growing through the carpet, dangerous mold growth in all of the rooms in addition to collapsed walls and ceilings. Interior demolition of the downstairs unit has been completed. The association is expected to hire a contractor to make repairs to the upstairs unit. Both owners of the long-vacant units refused to provide keys, forcing the president to call a locksmith to gain access. Supports prevent an upstairs unit from collapsing two years ago after unpermitted work was done to a downstairs unit that resulted in a load-bearing wall being removed. Owners of both units were prevented from residing in the unit for more than three years. The Post reported in May 2022 that Jorge Fernandes, a 12-year resident of Century Village, became homeless after he returned from a trip to Boston to discover that the floor in his second-story apartment had dropped 3 inches. His neighbor below had hired an unlicensed contractor to remodel his kitchen and the work was done without a permit. The contractor removed a load-bearing wall, causing Fernandes' floor above to become unstable so much so that county building officials deemed both units uninhabitable and "red-tagged" them. CENTURY VILLAGE NEWS: Some residents think new Orthodox synagogue in Century Village will divide community Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fernandes was finally allowed to move back in to his upstairs unit in July after repairs were made. He has filed a lawsuit against the downstairs unit owner to recover four years of rental costs. At one point, county officials were considering demolishing both units but eventually decided against it because of the impact on the other 22 units in the condo building. Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and issues impacting homeowner associations. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Century Village: Palm Beach County struggles to cope with unsafe buildings Morgan Stanley on Thursday announced its departure from a coalition of banks that aims to target net-zero emissions through lending and investment, the fifth group to do so in recent weeks. Morgan Stanley has decided to withdraw from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Morgan Stanleys commitment to net-zero remains unchanged. We aim to contribute to real-economy decarbonization by providing our clients with the advice and capital required to transform business models and reduce carbon intensity, a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement. We will continue to report on our progress as we work towards our 2030 interim financed emissions targets. Morgan Stanley is the latest in an exodus of major banks from the compact, following the earlier withdrawals of Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. The bank did not give a reason for leaving the alliance, which the United Nations established through its Environment Programme Finance Initiative in 2021. However, it comes weeks before a Republican trifecta is set to take office in Washington, where environmental and sustainable governance initiatives are likely to be in its crosshairs. In June, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee accused major investment firms of collusion with climate activist groups. Weeks ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) led 11 GOP state attorneys general in a lawsuit against asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street that accused them of conspiring to artificially constrict the coal market through their industry holdings. BlackRock and State Street have called the allegations baseless. As early as last February, however, major banks and asset managing firms have signaled a retreat on climate commitments. That month, Bank of America backtracked on a vow that it would not fund new coal mining, shipping or burning infrastructure, while JPMorgan Chases investment arm exited another investment alliance, Climate Action 100+. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Editors note: This article contains descriptions of child abuse. If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, call the Indiana Department of Child Services' Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-800-5556. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A family's grief and tears over the tragic death of 7-year-old Kayden Gavarrete turned to anger Thursday when a judge ruled the couple charged in his death can be released from jail on bond. But first, Kevin Gavarrete and his girlfriend, Julia Sizemore, will have to post a $100,000 bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both remained in jail as of 3 p.m. Thursday and it's unclear if either can come up with the $10,000 it would cost to secure their bond from a commercial bondsman. During her hearing, Sizemore told the court she was unemployed and didn't have any money in a bank. Gavarrete said he was working and had some money in the bank. As they waited for the cases to be called for their initial hearings, family members related to Kayden by way of his late mother, Tamara "Tammy" Mason, sat in the back whispering their desire for justice to a prosecutor. Judge Marshelle Broadwell sat down at his bench a little before 10 a.m., but the family first had to wait while seven other defendants had their cases addressed. It was a little over an hour before Mason's family saw the two people they hold responsible for Kayden's death. Kevin Gavarrete, the boy's father, and his father's girlfriend, Julia Sizemore, both face six charges including neglect resulting in the Kayden's death. Preliminary pleas of not guilty were entered on their behalf. A picture of Kayden Gavarrete with his mother Tamara "Tammy" Mason before she died in 2022 and he was placed in the care of his father, Kevin Gavarrete and his father's girlfriend, Julia Sizemore. Abused, scared and drinking chemicals. Court docs reveal horrifying details in boy's death Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sizemore entered the courtroom handcuffed. She didn't make eye contact with anyone before sitting down in a seat next to a public defender. Mason's family murmured their disdain from the back of the courtroom while Broadwell addressed her. Sizemore faces charges of neglect resulting in death, criminal confinement, battery, and three neglect of a dependent charges for Kayden and two daughters she shares with Kevin Gavarrete. Broadwell explained that the neglect resulting in death charge resulted from the accusation that Sizemore failed to seek proper medical care for Kayden before he died. He went on to explain the criminal confinement charge came from Sizemore being accused of not feeding and hydrating Kayden, the battery charge came from her physically abusing him, and the three neglect charges came from having drugs around all three children. Bond was given to both adults "I'm going to enter a preliminary plea of not guilty," Broadwell told Sizemore, "You also do have a right to bond in this matter. The bond is set in the amount of $100,000, and if you do post that you would be placed on GPS home detention." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mason's family was visibly upset and a court deputy passed them tissues while Sizemore was taken out of the courtroom. As Kevin Gavarrete then entered the courtroom with his head down, Mason's family moved closer to the front. He's also facing the same six charges as Sizemore. The judge entered a preliminary plea of not guilty and also set his bond at $100,000. Both adults, should they make bond, have a no contact order for their two youngest daughters. Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formally Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Bond set at $100K for father, girlfriend charged in 7-year-old's death MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KRON) A family of six in the South Bay is beginning the new year without a home. Their house caught fire early morning on Wednesday in Mountain View. The fire started around 3:20 a.m. in a Mountain View neighborhood near west El Camino Real. The couple and their four children were inside at the time of the fire. Fortunately, all made it out safely. Pretty rare to see fire engines here, said neighbor Kevin Quinn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 4.7 earthquake in Lake County felt in Bay Area Pieces of tile roofing, wood and other debris lay in piles outside of the Mountain View home. It went up in flames just after 3 a.m. on New Years Day. Arun Shankar, who lives across the street, was awake when the fire trucks came through the neighborhood. I could see like really bright red lights from behind my door, Shankar said. When I stepped out I could see two or three fire engines the street was blocked over there. The homeowners say the fire started inside a trashcan next to the attached garage. The flames then travel to a fence and to the roof of the garage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shankar watched as fire crews cut a hole in the roof. They were using some kind of a chain saw, to cut open the roof to let the heat out, he said. LIST: Bay Area bridge tolls, public transit fares increasing in 2025 The homeowners did not wish to go on camera, but they say there is severe smoke damage inside their home. Theyre able to stay in a hotel tonight thanks to a donation from the California Professional Firefighters Union. Quinn has lived in the neighborhood for 28 years. He lives next door to the family and says the whole neighborhood is sending them well wishes. The homeowners say their focus right is to work with their insurance company to fix the damage, which officials say was about $200,000. The family says they are looking to a brighter new year. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. Scott Eisen/Getty Images When the Supreme Court effectively ended race-conscious college admissions, Jonathan Lam was in a bridge program at Cornell University for students from underrepresented backgrounds. The Court's landmark decision seemed like an affront to this sort of program, which was designed to help first-generation students and students of color, among others, transition into the highly selective Ivy League university system. Devastated by the ruling, Lam began to mobilize with other student activists against what they feel is a more pressing concern in the college acceptance process: the practice of legacy admissions. Legacy preference refers to the boost to a prospective students chances of admission if they are related to an alumnus, often a parent or grandparent. The origin of legacy admissions stems from an antisemitic backlash to rising Jewish enrollment within elite higher education institutions in the 1920s. Advocacy groups have criticized the exclusionary practice for favoring white and wealthy students over students of color and first-generation students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A 2023 study from academics working with the National Bureau of Economic research found that legacy students are far more likely to come from families in the 1% income level. Students from this background are five times as likely to be admitted to elite, highly selective universities as non-legacy applicants with similar test scores, demographic characteristics, and admissions ratings. The practice came under renewed scrutiny after the Supreme Court decision to essentially ban the consideration of race in college admissions. In the wake of that June 2023 ruling, several universities have since reported a decline in the racial diversity of their incoming classes. Steve Stemler, a professor of education studies and psychology at Wesleyan University, describes this backlash as inevitable. If legacy status, which is more or less a proxy to race, is a factor that youre able to count, but race is not, people will start to say theres a logical inconsistency here, Stemler tells Teen Vogue. Now theres a growing movement by state legislatures and institutions to do away with legacy admissions, with California recently becoming the second state, after Maryland, to pass legislation banning the practice at private and public universities. California's decision comes at a time when the American public is increasingly skeptical that legacy admissions should continue to exist. A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that 75% of Americans believe legacy status should not be a factor in college admissions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ending legacy preferences in college admissions also has some bipartisan support in Congress. Theres a strong consensus from every political point of view," Stemler says. "It probably doesnt make sense to have legacy admissions in 2024. Even before that 2023 Supreme Court ruling, a number of higher education institutions had ended the practice of legacy admissions though some university administrators have continued to defend the policy. Proponents of legacy admissions argue that legacy status is a fair consideration in a holistic admissions process and that a ban would impede the autonomy of universities to shape their campus community. In a letter announcing Wesleyans decision to do away with the practice, however, university president Michael Roth wrote, An applicants connection to a Wesleyan graduate indicates little about that applicants ability to succeed at the University. Johns Hopkins University reported an increase in first-generation and low-income students after it eliminated legacy admissions. Since 2013, the percentage of students in our incoming classes who have a family connection has decreased from 8.5% to 1.7%. During the same period, the percentage of first-generation or limited-income students rose from 16.7% to 30.8%, Ronald Daniels, the universitys president, said last year on LinkedIn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this year, Daniels also co-authored an op-ed with Tom Stritikus, the president of Occidental College, in which they urged other universities to eliminate legacy admissions. They argued that ending the practice will expand opportunities for all students, a move they say is increasingly urgent in the wake of affirmative actions demise. Our institutions both ended legacy preferences as a first step to remediating these glaring inequities and repairing rapidly crumbling levels of trust, Daniels and Stritikus wrote for Inside Higher Ed. Others should not simply wait for government to take the initiative, especially when an overwhelming majority of state legislatures have not acted on the issue and federal efforts have languished time and again. Motivated by the Supreme Court's ban on race-conscious admissions, Lawyers for Civil Rights, in representation for several advocacy groups, filed a Title VI complaint against Harvard University for its use of legacy admissions. The July 2023 complaint argues that since nearly 70% of the universitys legacy and donor-related applicants are white, the practice discriminates against students of color. Later that month, the Education Department opened a civil rights investigation into the claim. Weve been in ongoing contact with [the federal government] since," Oren Sellstrom, litigation director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, tells Teen Vogue, "so we know that they are actively investigating the matter. No conclusion has been reached to date, however. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sellstrom calls the California legislation one more step in the right direction of banning legacy and donor admissions as unfair and undeserved. Stanford University and University of Southern California are two highly selective universities that will be impacted by the new law, which will take effect in September 2025. Roughly 14% of the universities 2023 and 2024 entering classes were legacy students, according to the latest available data. Valerie Johnson, the legislative affairs manager of the Campaign for College Opportunity, which helped push the California bill, says, Our young population is hugely diverse. When theyre able to go to college, they dont just represent themselves. This bill is opening doors for them, for their families, for their communities, and thats something Im personally excited about as an impact of our work. Legislators in other states are hopeful that Californias decision will galvanize the movement against legacy preferences elsewhere. Democratic senator Andrew Gounardes of New York is a sponsor of a bill that would end legacy admissions in his state. New York has, by our account, the greatest number of exclusionary college admissions practices," Senator Gounardes tells Teen Vogue. "Seeing California take this step is helpful to our cause. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has been in talks with organizations in California, such as the Campaign for College Opportunity, in hopes of replicating their legislative success. Jake Martinez, deputy director for campaigns and strategy of the Education Policy Center at NYCLU, says public outrage is growing as the consequences of affirmative actions demise become clear. People are outraged by this and they want to do something about it," he tells Teen Vogue. "And the way to do that is to eliminate these unfair practices like legacy admissions, which are counterproductive to ensuring we have these diverse classes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At Cornell University, student Jonathan Lam is working with the NYCLU to advocate for the Fair College Admissions bill by educating other students and lobbying legislators. Whats made this bill very different in comparison to a lot of other state legislation is that our bill has a penalty," Lam explains. "If schools continue to use legacy admissions, a certain percentage of their finances would go into the TAP program, which is a tuition assistance program that would mostly help low-income students be able to attend college. For Lam the movement to end legacy admissions is personal. The son of Vietnamese refugees, he emphasizes how the Southeast Asian community is harmed by exclusionary practices within the college admissions process. Institutions like MIT and Cornell are seeing how the end of affirmative action has impacted their demographics," he says. "I think thats why I feel very connected to this, especially coming from the Southeast Asian American community. A lot of people in our community have not been able to attend college. Lam is optimistic that the bill will help reverse the decline in racial and socioeconomic diversity in New Yorks higher education institutions if it becomes law. Beyond the preliminary step of ending legacy admissions, Lam notes, hes interested in working to address the inaccessibility of the college admissions process more broadly. Lam recalls not having access to SAT and ACT test preparation and private college counseling, which made it more difficult for him to understand the university application process. He credits Thrive Scholars, a nonprofit organization supporting high-achieving and first-generation students of color, for helping him navigate the admissions process. While many universities did suspend their standardized testing requirements during the pandemic, some have since reversed this policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other experts are also hopeful about the future of college admissions and more comprehensive methods for assessing potential students. Stemler, whose research focuses on educational assessment, particularly in college admissions, explains that traditional admission tests have historically favored students with the resources to prepare for them. University admissions, he says, should use other metrics to measure their potential for success. When you measure broader things such as creativity and practical intelligence, you reduce the differences in achievement that you see on traditional tests, Stemler points out. Lam hopes that the Southeast Asian community will become more visible in the greater conversation about inequity. The most frustrating part is when people are just viewing me as a woke Asian student advocating against legacy admissions," he says, "when theres a bigger picture and a bigger community that Im part of that is not part of this higher education process. Whether these efforts pay off remains to be seen in Albany, but Lam is hopeful. In the last legislative cycle, there [were] still a lot of talking points that I feel like werent developed, he says. Once we bring the facts to the table and have these conversations, I believe there will be a different outcome this next time around. Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue Check out more Teen Vogue education coverage: BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) Fire Departments across multiple counties including Blair, Huntingdon and Centre County were called on New Years Day to help fight a commercial building fire. According to the Excelsior Fire Department, crews were called just after 6 a.m. to 2100 Lincoln Avenue in Tyrone Borough for a fire at Phils Auto and Gaming. They added that they arrived on scene to help suppress the fire and remained for around four hours. The Neptune Fire Company also noted that the hydrant system was struggling so they were forced to call for more tankers. Additional tankers came from Pinecroft, Bellwood, Sinking Valley, Alexandria, Warriors Mark, Philipsburg and Greenwood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the fire was too advanced and a demo crew was called to the scene to help them extinguish the fire safely. No one was hurt during this incident. This is a developing story, please check back for updates and download the WTAJ app to receive breaking news notifications. Details about how the fire started are unknown at this time. We will continue to keep you updated as we learn more. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) Two men were stabbed, one fatally, on New Years Eve in Windom, Minn., and the man arrested has pending murder charges. The man who died, according to a GoFundMe organized by a family member, was 30-year-old Benjamin Matter. Sanford Health Plan facing lawsuit from Mayo Clinic for $700K The condition and identity of the other victim has not been provided. According to the Cottonwood County Jail roster, 26-year-old Happy, No Name Given was booked into the jail on January 1, 2025. Happy, mugshot taken Thursday morning Happy, mugshot taken at booking KELOLAND spoke with the Cottonwood County Sheriffs Office, who explained that the mans name is simply Happy, but since he was required to have a first name on his California drivers license, No Name Given was entered as his first name. Happy has the following pending charges: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Murder-1st Degree With Intent While Committing a Felony Murder -1st Degree Premeditated Two counts of Assault-1st Degree-Great Bodily Harm Four counts of Assault-2nd Degree-Dangerous Weapon-Substantial Bodily Harm Arrest of Adult Terroristic Threats-Reckless Disregard Risk Disorderly Conduct Brawling or Fighting The Windom Police Department announced the arrest on Wednesday, noting that officers had been called to a local bar just before midnight. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. The Musk-related cases could languish or be dropped by Trump-appointed agency and department heads, the current and former U.S. officials said. Musk, Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink did not respond to comment requests. Before the election, Musk posted: I have never asked [Trump] for any favors, nor has he offered me any. The inquiries include examinations of the alleged securities violations; questions over the safety of Teslas Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems; potential animal-welfare violations in Neuralinks brain-chip experiments; and alleged pollution, hiring-discrimination and licensing problems at SpaceX. Musks potential to have extraordinary clout with the new administration raises questions about the fate of federal investigations and regulatory actions affecting his business empire, of which at least 20 are ongoing, according to three sources familiar with SpaceX and Tesla operations and the companies interaction with the U.S. government, as well as five current and former officials who have direct knowledge of individual probes into Musks companies. The White House will soon be occupied by Donald Trump whom Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help elect rather than Joe Biden, who appointed Gensler. Trump has already named a new SEC chair to replace Gensler, who plans to resign when Trump is inaugurated. The SEC is not the only investigative agency Musk has defied and accused of political harassment. The billionaire has long railed against government oversight, portraying himself as a victim of bureaucratic zealots stifling his companies potentially life-saving innovations. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment on the incident. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. He added a smiley-face emoji but attached a legal letter condemning the improperly motivated ultimatum: We demand to know who directed these actionswhether it was you or the White House. Musk broke the news himself in a social-media post: Oh Gary, how could you do this to me? he wrote, referring to SEC Chair Gary Gensler. NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Last month, in the waning days of the Biden administration, the SEC set a tight deadline of several days for demanding that Elon Musk pay a settlement or face civil charges relating to alleged securities violations during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022. Story Continues Trumps DOJ picks, for example, include lawyers who defended him in criminal and impeachment trials and a nominee for FBI chief whom Musk vocally supported and who has repeatedly vowed to pursue Trumps enemies, one current and three former DOJ officials said. Lower-level DOJ officials could also exercise prosecutorial discretion to avoid aggressively pursuing Musk companies in light of his relationship with Trump, said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Detroit during the Obama administration who also worked as a federal prosecutor during the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations. "To the extent they want to please the boss, I think they know how to do that. Some legal experts downplayed the risk of political interference from Musk, noting that an investigation's lack of progress could signal insufficient evidence. Its also possible that prosecutors who believe they have strong cases will push forward regardless of Musks role, legal experts said. "I don't think there's as much risk of Musk infiltrating to influence cases, said Robert Frenchman, a white-collar defense lawyer at Dynamis in New York. Most prosecutors bring cases they think they can win. Representatives of the DOJ and all departments and agencies with pending inquiries into Musk or his companies did not comment on the probes or their ability to enforce regulations against Trump allies during his second term. The EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said they would continue fulfilling their legal and regulatory responsibilities. FIRST BUDDY Since the election, Musk has called himself Trump's "first buddy," frequented Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago club, shared Thanksgiving with the president-elect's family and weighed in publicly on his cabinet appointments. Trump appointed Musk to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, a private entity advising on slashing budgets and regulations. It remains unclear what authority the role will carry. Musk has touted his newfound influence and given specific examples of how he might use it. Before the election, Musk said he would seek to use his efficiency-czar post to advance national driverless-vehicle regulations that would almost certainly benefit Tesla and eliminate irrational rules such as one resulting in a pollution fine against SpaceX. NHTSA officials have repeatedly scrutinized Tesla for nearly a decade, at times enraging Musk. During one 2016 call, he screamed profanities at regulators launching the first of several investigations into Teslas Autopilot driver-assistance system after a fatal crash, according to two people familiar with the matter. There are currently five ongoing and open NHTSA probes covering driver-assistance technology and other operations in Tesla vehicles. Tesla has blamed Tesla drivers in defending itself against lawsuits and investigations over accidents involving FSD and Autopilot, saying it had warned drivers to pay attention. A DOJ probe into whether Tesla and Musk exaggerated its vehicles self-driving capabilities is among those where investigators have faced challenges. Prosecutors have grappled with demonstrating that Musk and Tesla crossed a line from legal salesmanship into knowingly making false claims that misled investors and harmed consumers. The probe had stalled before the election in part due to the legal hurdles, a person familiar with the investigation said. Another probe, by the U.S. attorneys office in Manhattan, involves the driving range of Tesla vehicles and followed a Reuters investigation that found the automaker had rigged its in-dash displays to give drivers rosy projections about how many miles they could drive on battery power. It was unclear how far the probe has progressed. "To our knowledge no government agency in any ongoing investigation has concluded that any wrongdoing occurred," Tesla said in quarterly SEC filings. Reuters was the first to report some Trump auto-policy advisors have recommended killing a requirement that automakers report data on crashes involving automated-driving systems, a measure that could cripple NHTSAs ability to investigate and regulate the emerging technologys safety. ROCKETS AND NASA SpaceX already faces little regulatory scrutiny because the government has outsourced much of its space missions to Musk's rocket-and-satellite firm, according to two former SpaceX officials and a current government official familiar with the companys interactions with NASA, the EPA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). During a September summit, Musk labeled insane an EPA inquiry that resulted in SpaceX agreeing to a proposed $148,378 fine for dumping pollutants, which Musk said were actually drinking water. The FAA separately in September proposed fining SpaceX $633,000 for allegedly failing to follow license requirements and not getting approval for changes during two launches in 2023. Musk called for FAA chief Mike Whitaker to resign in September, shortly after the FAA fined SpaceX and delayed one of its launches. Whitaker said last month he would step down before Trump's term. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Three sources familiar with SpaceXs government interactions said any scrutiny into Musks contacts with a U.S. adversary would be unlikely under Trump, who has picked tech billionaire Jared Isaacman to run NASA. Isaacman has financed and joined two private space missions involving SpaceX. NASA declined to comment and Isaacman and a media representative for Isaacman's company did not respond to a request for comment. Musk did not respond to requests for comment regarding his reported contacts with Putin. In one instance, he responded with two laughing and crying emojis to a social-media post on X suggesting that Musk critics were attempting to portray him as a Russian agent. (Reporting by Mike Spector and Chris Prentice in New York and Rachael Levy and Marisa Taylor in Washington. Additional reporting by Chris Kirkham in Los Angeles and David Shepardson in Washington; editing by Anna Driver and Brian Thevenot) BERLIN (Reuters) - Elon Musk looks likely to host the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of Germany's Feb. 23 national election in a live interview on X, his social media platform. In December, the Tesla mogul endorsed the AfD, an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party labelled as right-wing-extremist by German security services, causing consternation in Berlin, where all other parties have ruled out working with a party they regard as dangerous and undemocratic. A spokesperson for the AfD said on Thursday that party leader Alice Weidel was in touch with Musk's office, but said he could give no further details at present. Earlier, newswire dpa reported the two would talk on X, Musk's social media platform, on Jan. 10. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk, the world's richest man, has become vocal in his support for far right and anti-establishment parties in Europe since spending a quarter of a billion dollars to help secure Donald Trump's return to the White House. He called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an "incompetent fool" and said he should resign after a deadly car attack on a German Christmas market. Musk also described German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a "tyrant" for criticising the AfD in a speech. Now frequently seen with Trump, Musk has posted in support of Britain's anti-establishment Reform party as well as the AfD. Both parties are loosely influenced by economic libertarian and anti-immigration ideas. In December, Musk hinted that an online encounter between him and the AfD's Weidel was in the works, posting that "when I and Alice do an X Spaces conversation" critics would "lose their minds". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leaders of other parties have condemned Musk's intervention in German politics. Scholz told voters in a New Year's address that the Feb. 23 election would be decided not by billionaires but by German voters. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Gareth Jones) Elon Musk has called for the U.K. to release far-right activist Tommy Robinson in a flurry of social media posts that also reignited his online feud with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The owner of social platform X, who is a key figure in President-elect Trumps inner circle, said Thursday morning that British authorities should free Tommy Robinson. Robinson, who founded the far-right English Defense League was sentenced in October 2024 to a year and a half in prison for violating a court order barring him from repeating libelous allegations against a Syrian refugee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk also reposted messages claiming that Robinson was a political prisoner The U.K. police blamed Robinsons English Defense League for helping ignite what became a week of rioting across England and Northern Ireland after social media users falsely identified the suspect in a stabbing rampage as an immigrant and a Muslim. The actual suspect in the attack, which killed three young girls in the seaside community of Southport, was a 17-year-old born in the U.K. In subsequent posts, Musk also criticized Starmers past as Britains director of Public Prosecutions, pointing to grooming scandals in the country that were uncovered in 2013. He added that only Nigel Farages Reform U.K. party can save Britain. In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Services [CPS] approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008-2013, Musk wrote on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the director of Public Prosecutions, Starmer in 2013 called for an overhaul of the way that sexual abuse is investigated in the U.K. The Hill has reached out to No. 10 Downing St. and the Home Office for comment. The Labour Party issued a statement Thursday defending its responses to a series of sex abuse scandals that rocked the country in recent decades. Musk has in recent months ramped up his criticism of the U.K. and the Labour government, led by Starmer, calling for fresh elections in the country. However, Starmer, who won a landslide election just six months ago, doesnt need to call one until 2029. The prime ministers office in August last year also hit back at Musks comments over violent unrest in Northern England and pushed back on his statement that civil war is inevitable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk called the U.K. a tyrannical police state as the country grappled with violent unrest. He also said on X that the U.K.s current administration was responsible for stopping cash coming into the country. Musk was spotted alongside Farage at the president-elects Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in December. Farage told journalists that Musk could potentially donate to his Reform U.K. party, which British media reports suggest could be as much as $100 million. However, its not just the U.K. that the billionaire has recently criticized on his social media platform. The Tesla CEO has also recently come under fire by the German government, which on Monday accused the billionaire of trying to influence its February election after he penned an op-ed backing the far-right political party Alternative for Germany. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Associated Press contributed to this report. Updated at 12:37 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned hed consider suing media outlets over their coverage of the Cybertruck explosion that took place outside of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas Wednesday. Musk should consider suing outlets who framed the story like this, conservative activist Robby Starbuck posted on X, along with a screenshot of an article about the incident from Business Insider, which is owned by Axel Springer, POLITICO's parent company. The article's headline, like other reports on the incident, refers to it as a Cybertruck explosion. These headlines are sabotaging @Teslas brand by making people think it caught on fire, Starbuck continued. Theres about 1 Tesla fire for every 130 million miles traveled. Other cars have 1 every 18 million miles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maybe it is time to do so, Musk wrote in response to the suggestion to consider suing. A Business Insider spokesperson declined to comment. The Wednesday morning explosion killed the suspect inside the futuristic-looking Cybertruck, identified as an Army special operations soldier, and wounded seven bystanders. Law enforcement officials found a collection of fireworks, mortars and gas canisters in the trunk of the vehicle. The billionaire CEO with close ties to President-elect Donald Trump has shared multiple posts on X, the social media platform he owns, criticizing media coverage of the incident and defending the vehicles safety. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside the valet because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference this week. Musk reposted a video of the conference, writing: The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken. MYSTIC, Conn. (WTNH) A rehabilitated harbor seal made it back into the ocean for the new year! Officials with the Mystic Aquarium said the release happened at Blue Shutters Beach. Sea turtle at Mystic Aquarium gets prosthetic harness to help him swim The male seal made a full recovery, gaining over 15 pounds since being found in distress in Narragansett, Rhode Island in October. When Linguine made it to Mystic Aquarium, officials said he was in thin body condition, had multiple puncture wounds, and was diagnosed with pneumonia. Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated harbor seal Linguine at Blue Shutters Beach for the new year. Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated harbor seal Linguine at Blue Shutters Beach for the new year. Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated harbor seal Linguine at Blue Shutters Beach for the new year. Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated harbor seal Linguine at Blue Shutters Beach for the new year. Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated harbor seal Linguine at Blue Shutters Beach for the new year. Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated harbor seal Linguine at Blue Shutters Beach for the new year. Mystic Aquarium releases rehabilitated harbor seal Linguine at Blue Shutters Beach for the new year. This release was such a great way for our team to end the year, Animal Rescue Program Manager Sarah Callan of the Mystic Aquarium said. It not only represents a success story for this animal but also highlights the 18 seals and 16 sea turtles that got a second chance at life this year, thanks to the dedication of our team. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Susette Tibus, president and CEO of Mystic Aquarium, said the release marked a celebration with teh community, whose support makes these life-saving efforts possible. We couldnt think of a better way to celebrate the New Year by ending this year with one more success story, Tibus said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. NATO fighter jets conducting air patrol missions in the Baltic States carried out two sorties between 23 and 29 December to detect and escort Russian aircraft violating flight rules. Source: European Pravda; press service for Lithuania's Defence Ministry Details: NATO fighter jets conducted a sortie to intercept an Il-20 aircraft on 23 December. The aircraft was flying in international airspace from the Russian mainland to Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The aircraft was flying without a flight plan, with its radar transponder switched on and in radio contact with the regional area control centre (RFC). NATO jets also took off to identify one IL-76 aircraft. NATO fighter jets took to the skies to identify one An-26 aircraft on 25 December. Background: On 17 December, reports indicated that the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden had scrambled their fighter jets after Russian Tu-22 strategic bombers, escorted by Su-27 fighters, were spotted over the Baltic Sea. Earlier, it was reported that NATO fighter jets patrolling the airspace over the Baltic States had conducted seven sorties to detect and escort Russian aircraft violating flight rules. These violations have become a regular occurrence in recent months. Support UP or become our patron! The subsea cables that underpin the internet are at risk of Russian attack. The West is seeking to defend the cables, but it's a tough task. NATO has a backup plan to reroute some data through space. For decades, a vast network of largely undefended subsea cables has underpinned the internet. It's looking more and more vulnerable. A series of recent mysterious cases of cables severed in the Baltic Sea, blamed by Western officials on Russian sabotage, has highlighted their exposure to attack. On Christmas Day, a Baltic undersea power cable and several telecommunications cables were severed underscoring the threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials in Finland are investigating a Russia-linked tanker, that they say may have severed the cables by dragging its anchor for dozens of miles across the seabed. The incidents have sparked a race to safeguard the infrastructure, whose security many analysts say has been neglected. Planning a HEIST At the forefront is a NATO-funded project: the Hybrid Space/Submarine Architecture Ensuring Information Security of Telecommunications, or HEIST. The initial test project is due to cost some $2 million, including $400,000 from NATO. It is being developed by academics alongside the satellite broadband firms Viasat and SpaceX. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If tests are successful, countries and companies would then buy into the network to fund a much wider rollout. 'Redefine the backbone of the internet' The core idea is simple: To use satellites to transmit some data, making the West less reliant on undersea cables. "Our ultimate ambition is to redefine the backbone of the internet," said Gregory Falco, an engineering professor at Cornell University working on HEIST. "Instead of requiring all of our data to flow through subsea cables (of which 95% of the internet is reliant on) we would like to enable an ecosystem of options," he said. "While one may argue that submarine communication cables are very efficient, they are not very resilient to natural or human-made threats." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Overall, any measures to increase the resilience of our communications architecture is fundamentally needed. The multilayered approach of the HEIST program is a good start," Melanie Garson, Associate Professor in Conflict Resolution & International Security at University College London told BI. Backup and deterrent The plan works by fitting existing cables with sensors to detect disruptions, either from sabotage or natural events and accidents. In an outage, they would automatically re-route the data via a network of satellites. It could act as a deterrent, giving hostile vessels less incentive to approach the cables in the first place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Falco said the tech would be tested in January. From there, the plan is to have "end-to-end functional capability" by December 2026, he said. Fiber optic cables on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. Sybille Reuter via Getty images SpaceX already has its vast network of Starlink satellites beaming internet around the world to commercial customers and some militaries. But the service doesn't feature the rerouting concept HEIST is investigating. "Historically, space-based systems haven't been a realistic alternative to undersea cable due to capacity limitations, but advances in optical connectivity have changed that, and now space-based systems can provide a secure, reliable option for bulk data transmission," Craig Miller, President of Global Space Networks at Viasat, told BI. SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. The threat to the cables is intensifying In the meantime, Russia poses a threat to the cables, and has a motive to damage them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia, analysts say, could seek to punish the West for its support for Ukraine by targeting crucial infrastructure like the cables. Business Insider in August reported that a secret Russian undersea sabotage unit, the GUGI, had been surveilling the cables, which analysts warned that the West is ill-equipped to defend. Space is dangerous, too Though having two methods is better than one, satellites are hardly immune from disruption themselves. Space weather events and collisions with debris (including manmade "space junk") can damage satellites as well as attacks by rival powers like China. Russia, for its part, would likely target satellites if direct fighting were ever to break out between it and the US, experts have warned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response, the race is on to defend satellite systems as well, with the Pentagon seeking to employ anti-jamming technology should they come under attack. Falco told BI a key part of the HEIST project ensuring the backup satellites themselves were secure, too. Priorities And there are formidable technical challenges. A combination of satellites and subsea cables has long been used for communicating highly sensitive data. However, figuring out how to reroute the data is a challenge on a different scale. Falco said that, at first, HEIST would need to focus on the highest-priority data because it would be impossible to transfer everything. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another computer science expert working on HEIST, Professor Henric Johnson of the Blekinge Institute of Technology, agreed that the challenge was substantial. He cited the complexity of integrating the technology into existing infrastructure while staying ahead of quickly evolving threats. "Adversaries are continuously developing new attack vectors, such as exploiting supply chain weaknesses or leveraging advanced AI tools, which require ongoing updates and refinements to the system," he said. Johnson said that HEIST shouldn't be seen as a quick fix but as part of an ongoing process to secure Western infrastructure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's important to acknowledge that security is a continuous process. HEIST is not a one-time solution but part of an evolving strategy to adapt to emerging risks," he said. NATO did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. Read the original article on Business Insider BRISTOL, Va. (WJHL) Becky Nave was reappointed the mayor of Bristol, Virginia on Thursday morning. The Bristol Virginia City Council met at 9 a.m. to decide who would fill the role. THP: Pedestrian killed in I-81 New Years Eve crash in Sullivan Co. Prior to officially appointing the mayor and vice mayor, Nave and council member Anthony Farnum were sworn back into their council seats. Both were re-elected to the council in the last city election. Photo: WJHL The city council unanimously chose to reappoint Nave as mayor for a second term and also chose Jake Holmes to serve a second term as vice mayor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im extremely honored that they wanted me to do it again this year, Nave said. I thought we had a great year in 2024, so I thought going into this smooth transition into 2025, were really excited about it. Nave told News Channel 11 the council still has several ongoing issues to tackle, such as the citys landfill. However, she is optimistic about Bristols economic future, especially since Hard Rock Bristols opening. Photo: WJHL According to Nave, the downtown sector of the city is beginning to see life again following several business closures. Downtown, were starting to see that momentum again, she said. Were starting to see some more excitement down there. I think as time moves on, youll see things come and go over time. But I feel like over the past year, weve seen some new businesses have interest, and we have a lot that are interested. Weve got some vacant buildings that were very open to having opportunities for downtown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mayor is also focused on the recent fire at the former Virginia Intermont College campus. Weve had several conversations about how to handle the VI campus and how to move forward with it, Nave said. It is such a precious jewel for our community that we love dearly, and were all heartbroken by the fire. But we certainly dont want any more fires to happen up there. So weve talked a lot in council about what our options look like, and were still working through those. In addition to choosing the mayor and vice mayor, the city council also reappointed Randall Eads as the Bristol, Virginia City Manager and City Attorney. The council voted 4-1 to reappoint Eads, with council member Micheal Pollard voting against, who said he believes the roles of city manager and city attorney should be separate positions. After naming Nave, Holmes and Eads to their roles, the council went into closed session to make committee appointments. Those appointments were announced when council members returned to regular session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather. MADISON, Wis. (AP) Nearly 200 absentee ballots somehow went uncounted in Wisconsin's liberal capital after the Nov. 5 election, prompting state election officials to launch an investigation Thursday into whether the city clerk broke the law. The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted unanimously to investigate whether Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl failed to comply with state law or abused her discretion. Commission members said they were concerned the clerk's office didn't inform them of the problem until late December, almost a month and a half after the election. Commission Chair Ann Jacobs certified Wisconsin's election results on Nov. 29. Witzel-Behl's office said in a statement that the number of uncounted votes didn't affect the outcome of any race or referendum on the ballots. But Jacobs said the oversight was so egregious that the commission must determine what happened and how it can be prevented as spring elections approach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are the final canvassers," Jacobs said. We are the final arbiters of votes in the state of Wisconsin and we need to know why those ballots weren't included anywhere. Witzel-Behl said in an email to The Associated Press that her office looks forward to working with the commission to determine what happened and how to prevent the same issues in future elections. Its another misstep for Witzel-Behl, who announced in September that her office mistakenly sent out up to 2,000 duplicate absentee ballots. She blamed it on a data processing error. According to election commission documents, the commission learned of the uncounted ballots on Dec. 18, when Witzel-Behl's staff told the commission that they recorded more absentee ballots as received than ballots counted in three city wards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The commission asked Witzel-Behl to provide a detailed statement, which she did two days later. The memo stated that on Nov. 12, the clerks office discovered 67 unprocessed ballots for Ward 65 and one unprocessed ballot for Ward 68 in a courier bag found in a vote tabulating machine. The memo also stated that her office was reconciling ballots for Ward 56 on Dec. 3 when 125 unprocessed ballots were discovered in a sealed courier bag. Reconciliation is a post-election process in which officials account for every ballot created. That work begins immediately after an election. Clerks have 45 days to complete it. The memo does not offer any explanation, saying only that the clerk's office planned to debrief these incidents and implement better processes. The clerk's office issued a statement on Dec. 26 saying it had informed the elections commission and would send an apology letter to each affected voter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway released her own statement the same day saying the clerk's office didn't tell her staff about the problem until Dec. 20. She said her office plans to review the city's election procedures. The mayor issued a new statement Thursday saying she appreciates the election commission's investigation and the city will cooperate with the probe. Wisconsin is a perennial battleground state in presidential elections. Republican Donald Trump won the state this past November on his way to reclaiming the White House, beating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by about 29,000 votes. Madison and surrounding Dane County are well-known liberal strongholds. Harris won 75% of the vote in the county in November. ___ This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl's last name. DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) Hospitals in the Wiregrass and across the state are trying to combat a problem they have had to deal with for over five years, nursing shortages. A recent report from the Alabama Department of Labor shows over 4,000 open nursing jobs. These openings are due to people relocating or leaving the profession, but also due to hospital expansions. One medical expert says even though hospitals are still battling the shortage, the ability to fight it has gotten better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ability to recruit to positions and the desire to be back in health care is now there, Chief Nursing Officer at Southeast Health, Melissa Owens said. She believes that one reason behind the most recent spike in openings is that several hospitals across the state, including Southeast Health, are expanding. This comes as the median age in the United States continues to increase so too has the demand for healthcare and healthcare workers. Our organization is seeing more patients, our ER is busier than ever, so a lot of our growth is going to depend on the need for nurses as well, Owens said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Southeast has 58 nursing job openings that will work on its newly renovated patient floor. This comes after they just hired 45 new grads that are set to start this month, with more positions opening in the coming years. We have an ER expansion that we are looking forward to, as well as adding two additional patient towers, Owens said. Another task for hospitals is keeping their employees or retention. This comes as nurses are taking new jobs, continuing their education, or having to move because their spouse got a new job We pride ourselves in making sure that our number one priority is employee engagement, Owens said. We do a lot every year to every year to make sure our employees are happy where they work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Alabama Board of Nursing is also working to implement a new process for certifying nursing support technicians, a process the board hopes will ease workloads for nurses. As of right now, the program is not required for hospitals Owens says that it will recruit people to the healthcare field and adds that Southeast already has similar programs in place. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com. SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Joe. In case it was lost following the dramatic election cycle, President Joe Biden's last full month of office has served as a grim reminder he was one of the worst leaders this country has had in modern history. His approval rating is a dismal 34%, his worst since taking office. On Monday, Biden announced he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment. That includes a man from Michigan who in 1997 killed a 19-year-old woman who had accused him of rape. Weighted down by cinder blocks with duct tape on her face, she was found by fishermen at the bottom of Oxford Lake, part of a national forest, after disappearing days before the man's trial was set to begin. The woman had an 18-month-old daughter, Shannon, who also disappeared and was never found. Earlier this month Biden also commuted the prison sentences of approximately 1,500 federal inmates, part of the "largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history," as the Biden administration bragged. That includes the remaining time of a former Pennsylvania judge who carried out a "kids-for-cash" scandal in which he sent kids to a private prison he helped build in exchange for kickbacks and dozens of individuals whose cases were initially processed in federal courts in Michigan. Many of those individuals had been involved with drug rings, health care fraud and other embezzlement schemes. But Biden began December with perhaps the biggest whopper lie of his presidency that he would not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, for federal tax and gun convictions. The president said unequivocally before and after the 2024 election that he would not do so, or commute his sentence. Yet on Dec. 1, Biden gave validity to the seeping notion there is a two-tier system of justice in the country by granting Hunter Biden a "full and unconditional pardon," covering the 10-year tenure of his involvement with overseas companies, from which he is suspected to have heavily profited. The move destroyed what dignity was left of the Biden presidency. And underneath Biden's entire term is the question: who was really running the government? A Dec. 19 report by the Wall Street Journal detailed disturbingly how Biden's aides, family and advisors managed his obvious limitations during his entire time in office and then put him up to run for a second term. Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers ground to a halt, as did meetings with important secretaries, such as Defense's Lloyd Austin and Treasury's Janet Yellen. Legislative leaders couldn't talk to the president, including before the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. "Senior advisers were often put into roles that some administration officials and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy," the report says. It all makes perfect sense if you think back to the June debate between Donald Trump and Biden, when his mental decline was laid bare to the entire globe. But it raises questions about his entire tenure. The Biden presidency will go down as one shrouded in dishonesty, corruption and instability a time when American leadership failed the world and our leader failed us. (COMMENT, BELOW) Kaitlyn Buss is assistant editorial page editor at The Detroit News. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been discharged from hospital four days after a prostate operation, his office said on Thursday. According to the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, the surgery under general anaesthetic last Sunday was a success. Two days after the operation, the 75-year-old had briefly left the hospital against the doctors' advice in order to help his government achieve a majority in a parliamentary vote on an important law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This became necessary because Netanyahu's coalition partner, the far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, and allied members of the Knesset parliament had said they would vote against the law. Netanyahu has been hospitalised frequently in the past due to health problems, most recently at the end of March due to a hernia. He was fitted with a pacemaker in the summer of 2023. Guinn and Sandoval didn't even campaign in a uniform, so we have to assume Lombardo's totally got this. (Kenny Guinn photo by Nevada Governor's Office via Getty Images; Brian Sandoval campaign photo from his first run for governor in 2010; Joe Lombardo 2022 campaign photo.) In 2002, no U.S. Senate seat was on the ballot in Nevada and it wasnt a presidential election year, so the only thing approximating a high profile race was the one for governor. And that race was a yawner. All the industries and big shots and their money lined up behind Republican incumbent Kenny Guinn, while the Democratic Reid machine, which would one day be celebrated for its might but wasnt yet, put its muscle behind no one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The venerable state Sen. Joe Neal ended up being the Democratic nominee. Neal campaigned on raising the gaming tax, then as now an act of Nevada political sacrilege. Neal was ignored and snubbed by the Nevada State Democratic Party (then-Sen. Harry Reid, proprietor), and Guinn crushed Neal by 46 percentage points. Twelve years later in 2014, once again no U.S. Senate seat was on the ballot in Nevada and it wasnt a presidential election year, so the only thing approximating a high-profile race was the one for governor. And once again that race was a yawner. All the aforementioned industries/big shots/money once again lined up behind a Republican incumbent, Brian Sandoval. The Reid machine, which by 2014 was regarded nationally as one of the most powerful and sophisticated state party organizations in the country, put its considerable sophistication and muscle behind no one. Reid had determined there was no animal, vegetable, mineral, or Democrat capable of defeating Sandoval, and Reid feared the reelected and popular Sandoval would run against Reid himself in 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So Reid, who may not have been a policy giant but was an enthusiastic conniver, glommed on to the plan wherein maybe a Democrat could be elected lieutenant governor. That would tie Sandoval to his job as governor and prevent him from running for Senate, since a Sandoval Senate victory would mean Nevada would suddenly have a Democratic governor. Is there a confluence of events capable of making voters pay attention to and care about the outcome of a Nevada race for lieutenant governor? We may never know. Democratic voters in 2014, even when (or because?) left with little else to vote for, demonstrated no interest in that office or any others on the ballot, and Nevada Republicans won the LG race and pretty much everything else that year. So Reids plan was foiled. Or it would have been, had there been anything to foil. Reid himself opted not to seek reelection in 2016. And Sandoval seemed more than happy to let Republican Rep. Joe Heck vie for the Senate seat being vacated by Reid. (Heck lost to the Democratic nominee, Catherine Cortez Masto). In 2026 it will have been 12 years since that dopey 2014 debacle. And in 2026 as in 2014, and as in 2002 a dozen years before that no U.S. Senate seat will be on the ballot in Nevada and it wont be a presidential election year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The only thing approximating a high-profile race, that is, a race that the casual voter might take an interest in, will be the one for governor. And as in 2002 and 2014, a Republican incumbent will be seeking reelection. Gov. Joe Lombardos got to be loving this column. But 2026 will differ from 2002 and 2014. Guinn in 2002 was running against an extremely lightly funded opponent who wasnt even actively supported by his own party. Sandoval in 2014 effectively ran unopposed. Nevada Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford last month confirmed what a lot of people assumed after he won reelection in 2022 that hes planning to run against Lombardo in 2026. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ford is a proven fundraiser who has won two statewide elections. But hopefully that, combined with an annoying proclivity among the vestige of the Reid machine to grease the skids for machine-picked entrants, wont deter other candidates from also running in a Democratic primary and wont deter donors from contributing to other candidates. Just because the Nevada State Democratic Party over the years has shown little to no organizational interest in the notion, that doesnt mean voters dont deserve choices. But whether its Ford, or anyone who beats Ford, Lombardo will almost certainly be challenged by a politically viable candidacy, something Guinn and especially Sandoval didnt have to worry about when they were seeking reelection. The 2026 campaign cycle will be different from the 2002 and 2014 cycles in other ways as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2002, the nation was whipped into a post-911 frenzy of enthusiasm for Bush-Cheney military aggression. Democrats (including and especially Reid) countered all that fist-pumping and flag-waving by saying us too. Their surrender to Republican messaging was so thorough that a month before the 2002 election Reid and other Democrats gave the Bush Administration a blank check to go a war-mongering wherever and whenever it wanted. Democrats nationwide having sheepishly slunk off into corners, Republicans picked up seats in both the House and the Senate in 2002, which was an extreme anomaly because the party of the president almost always gets drubbed in midterm elections. In 2014, there was no such anomaly. The party (Democrats) of the president (Barack Obama) got drubbed up and down ballots nationwide in a red wave. In the 2026 midterms, Donald Trump, who purports to be some sort of Republican when it suits him, will be in the White House. Under normal historical patterns that would bode well for Democrats. The 21st centurys hostility to normalcy however is only getting more bizarre with each passing year. Its impossible to know what oddity, predicament, or crisis, whether genuine, imagined, or manufactured, will have lodged in the noggins of a critical mass of the voting public by the time Nevada gets to determine if it wants to stick with Lombardo or go in a different direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And maybe its just in the stars that Nevada Democrats not only lose the governors race (which they almost always do), but every 12 years, they dont even bother to show up for it. Meanwhile, some of you might be thinking hold on a minute history dork, were like two days into 2025 and youre nattering on about 2026. Why you gotta be so rude? Or words to that effect. Understandable. Which is why it is with regret to inform you that one month from tomorrow, on February 3, the longest continuous campaign event of the 2026 Nevada election cycle will begin. In other words, the Nevada Legislature will convene for its last general session before the 2026 election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You may not be thinking about 2026 yet, but Lombardo is. So are Nevada Democrats, who should hope there is not some mysterious cosmic force that turns them to jello every twelfth time the Earth revolves around the Sun. CHICAGO -- The ancient manuscript rested on the shelves of the Newberry Library for more than a century. Little was known about the bound book from colonial Mexico that had been donated to the library in 1911 by Edward Ayer, a collector and a tycoon who made his fortune supplying ties to railroad companies. It was called Ayer 1485 in the librarys catalog. But then, two years ago, pages of the manuscript were projected onto the big screen at a Nahuatl conference at Harvard University where experts of the Aztec language had gathered, their first conference since the pandemic. It was like a family reunion, one attendee remembered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the podium was Ben Leeming, an independent scholar who studies Nahuatl writings used to evangelize Native peoples. While Leeming showed images of the manuscript a collection of sermons by famed Franciscan missionary Bernardino de Sahagun and discussed the significance of the words on its pages, Barbara Mundy became slightly preoccupied with the pages themselves. Of course Im interested in the text, but what really, really drew my attention was the slides of different pages from this manuscript, said Mundy, a Tulane University art history professor. And I said, Ben, could we zoom in on that paper? Because the manuscript, which was a big manuscript, was clearly done on a paper that was not European. Prompted by Mundys hunch, the Library of Congress analyzed the papers this fall and made an astounding discovery. The manuscript was printed on maguey paper, a type made from pounded agave plants that is so rare that only 10 sheets were known to exist: four at the Library of Congress and six at the National Library of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. The Newberrys Librarys manuscript is about 49 sheets long. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the results did come back, it was very exciting, said Kim Nichols, the librarys director of conservation. Its always exciting to see for whatever reason, that something ancient survives. Theres so many reasons why its lost. According to the librarys records, Ayer acquired the manuscript in 1886 from a London rare book dealer. Its first known owner was a Mexican collector and bibliophile, and at least two people owned the manuscript between the Mexican collector and the London dealer, records show. The manuscript, titled A Sequence of Sermons for Sundays and Saints Days and written by Sahagun between 1540 and 1563, was among the roughly 17,000 items related to Native peoples that Ayer, a Newberry trustee, donated to the library. Theories about its pages being made of maguey have existed since at least 2000, when a library staffer speculated it was such in a conservation report from November of that year. In a 2017 report, a staffer placed a question mark in parentheses next to a guess that it was maguey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At first, Mundy believed the manuscript was made of another type of Native paper, amatl paper. Leeming told her he thought the paper was amatl, she said. But he wasnt sure. He hadnt seen much Native paper. Few conference attendees had. Only four amatl and no maguey manuscripts that are definitively pre-Hispanic have survived, according to Mundy. The surviving amatl manuscripts are from the Maya region, which is in the eastern half of Mesoamerica. Most manuscripts from the earliest moments of contact between Europe and the Americas known as colonial-era manuscripts are made out of European paper. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Florentine Codex an encyclopedia of Aztec history and belief written by Sahagun, the main source of what is known about the Aztecs was written on 2,400 pages of paper imported to Mexico from Italy. All surviving maguey manuscripts, including Sahaguns sermons, are colonial-era manuscripts. Sometime after the arrival of Europeans, maguey papermaking stopped and the technology went extinct, according to an International Council of Museums publication. Amatl paper, which is made from the inner bark of fig trees, was more common than maguey paper, which is made from the same plant as tequila. Amatl paper is still being produced today. There are hundreds of surviving colonial-era amatl manuscripts, but most are a single sheet long. In a Newberry article from 2022, when Mundy thought Sahaguns sermons were written on amatl, she wrote that 49 sheets, or 196 pages is a lot of amatl paper, perhaps the largest collation of amatl paper to exist today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the Nahuatl conference, Mundy returned to Washington, D.C., where she had a fellowship at the Library of Congress. She told Mary Elizabeth Haude, a Library of Congress paper conservator, about what she saw during the conference. During the summer of 2022, the pair visited the Newberry to see Sahaguns sermons. Haude said that during the visit, she didnt think the manuscript was made of amatl because of her familiarity with the Huexotzinco Codex the Library of Congress maguey manuscript, which is made of four sheets of maguey and four sheets of amatl. I have also been to Mexico and looked at their manuscripts on maguey, Haude said. As a conservator, I really have an eye for materials. But that being said, I couldnt definitively say it was one paper or another until we did fiber analysis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nichols began working at the library in late 2022, and a bit of time passed before she was up to speed on the inquiry into Sahaguns sermons. This fall, Nichols got out Sahaguns sermons and put drops of deionized water on the manuscript in several spots to make the fibers there more malleable. While using a microscope, she extracted some of those fibers with tweezers. Under the microscope it looks like a chunk, but when you drop it into a little plastic vial with a snap lid, it looked like it just disappeared into the void, Nichols said. She sent several vials to the Library of Congress and Haude, who removed the fibers from the vials, mounted them on microscope slides and peered at the slides. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maguey tends to have this stray fiber spiral thickenings, I think, is what theyre called. And when they become undone, they make this zigzag pattern, and its very, very specific, Haude said. So we saw that right away. It wasnt just that the paper was rare Maguey a Spanish word for agave plants has been used to make everyday items like baskets in Mesoamerica since prehistoric times, according to the International Council of Museums publication. It has been used in rituals, and Aztec religion included a goddess of maguey. The four Library of Congress maguey sheets and five of the six maguey sheets in Mexico City are pictorial, meaning theyre drawings, according to Haude. Some of the Mexico City sheets are genealogies, while the Library of Congress sheets served as testimony in a legal case. In the Harvard classroom, Mundy was transfixed by Sahaguns sermons because of the important role of paper in rituals of Native Mesoamerican peoples, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was used to absorb blood and then burnt in honor of the gods. It was used to make deity costumes. Mundy was astounded that paper that was religiously charged in the eyes of Native people was dragged into the new Christian world, she said. It was a Christian manuscript on Native paper, which carried all of this pre-Hispanic religious significance, Mundy said. Thats what really caught my attention. It wasnt just that the paper was rare. Sahagun arrived in Mexico in 1529, about a decade after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire led by conquistador Hernan Cortes. Sahagun believed that better understanding of Native peoples beliefs and practices would improve efforts to convert them to Christianity, according to the Library of Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the Newberry article, Mundy wrote that while Sahagun worked with Native peoples, he was surrounded by Nahuatl-speaking intellectuals who embraced Christianity, taught Sahagun Nahautl and helped translate Christianity for Native audiences. Because every other surviving Sahagun manuscript was made of European paper, its likely that using maguey paper for the sermons was a choice of Sahaguns Native collaborators, Leeming said. The paper may have not been Sahaguns election, but that of his Native collaborators, who saw fit to set Christian sermons down on the substrate that they regarded most highly, Mundy wrote in the Newberry article. Leeming, who recently produced an English translation of the sermons, said the recent revelation about the manuscript can help correct a lopsided narrative concerning the earliest moments of contact between Europe and the Americas. This discovery helps balance a historical narrative that has long focused on the role of Spanish friars like Sahagun, Leeming wrote in an email to the Tribune, and has relegated the Native people who assisted him to the shadows. Abortion bans don't just kill women. They kill babies. This is evident in the data, which shows a dramatic rise in the state's infant mortality after Texas banned abortion. As the Washington Post documented last week, it's also happening in a viscerally disturbing way, as the number of newborns found abandoned to die has spiked, as well. Babies, mostly dead, are being found in ditches and dumpsters throughout Texas, traumatizing the people who find them and the emergency workers who are called to help. Only the biggest liars in the anti-choice movement and to be fair, there's stiff competition for that award would deny that the state's abortion ban is the main cause of the sharp increase in dead, abandoned babies. The Washington Post also notes that Republicans have repeatedly cut funding for prenatal care and family planning services. In addition, draconian approaches to illegal immigration have led to undocumented women avoiding medical care, for fear of being deported. The result is what one Texas law enforcement official called "a little bit of an epidemic" of infant abandonment. One would think that the "pro-life" movement would be alarmed by all the dead babies, moving heaven and earth to make sure pregnant girls and women in desperate circumstances have safe alternatives to giving birth in secret and throwing the baby away. But that would only be true if anti-abortion activists were, in fact, "pro-life." Instead, the reaction of anti-choice leaders and Republican legislators so far has been a collective shrug, if they bother to acknowledge the problem at all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There's one telling detail in the Post report that underscores how much Republicans don't care the slightest if babies die because of their abortion ban. As Molly Hennessy-Fiske reports, "Republican leaders who control state government have long declined to fund an awareness campaign so that new mothers know where to turn should they decide that they cannot keep their baby." Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only. Texas has a so-called safe haven law that allows women to relinquish babies to the authorities, no questions asked. For years, it was trendy for Republicans to pass these laws to create the illusion of concern for infant life, and to bolster their false claims to be "pro-life." But it was never a sincere effort to allow women in dire circumstances a chance to save a baby's life without getting into legal trouble. The programs are underfunded, barely advertised and subsequently barely used. "Despite the legislative promise that the safe haven laws will increase child safety and legal compliance, the efficacy is suspect as the laws do not appear to protect mothers or their babies," Alexandra Schrader-Dobris explained last year in the Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality. Texas Republicans show no interest in educating people about safe haven laws, however. Instead, as Hennessy-Fiske reports, they allocated $165 million to "alternatives to abortion," mostly so-called crisis pregnancy centers. The goal of a crisis pregnancy center is not to help women in crisis. It's to do whatever it takes to keep her pregnant until it's too late to get an abortion, including through lies, threats, bullying, shaming, and false promises of help. The goal is not "life," but punishing the young woman for perceived sexual transgression, either because she had consensual sex or because she "tempted" a man into raping her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because the goal is punishment, there's no reason for Republicans to invest in safe haven laws, which shield young women from legal consequences for abandoning a newborn. When a young woman throws a baby in a dumpster, however, that's a crime and she can be arrested. More resources into the safe haven program would save lives, but would reduce the number of women that can be thrown in jail. Given a choice between living babies or imprisoned women, Republicans pick the latter. Even the Republican who wrote the state's safe haven law, Rep. Geanie Morrison, explained that she has no interest in making it easier for women to use it. "The problem is, if you do state funding, then youre tied to it," she explained, not even bothering to come up with a more plausible-sounding non sequitur. The reaction to the Washington Post article from anti-abortion activists has been muted. The holidays are a busy time, yet many of them continued to post about what they do think matters. "Fornication and masturbation are self-abuse," wrote Lila Rose, an anti-choice leader and outspoken proponent of the Texas abortion ban, on the day the Post report came out. Two days later, she circled around to the topic again, declaring, "'Sexual compatibility' is a myth," and that only shallow people insist on it before making a lifelong commitment to another person. Sexual compatibility is a myth. Great sex is achieved through mutual love, commitment, emotional intimacy, and practice. Sex is designed for marriage, not an angst-inducing superficial hook up. Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) December 30, 2024 From top to bottom, the Christian right's view of womanhood is a grim one. Even if a woman follows all their rules about waiting for marriage and eschewing birth control, her "reward" is being lectured about how it's immature to want sexual satisfaction within marriage. The vast majority of women take one look at this prescription of a life of thankless service to men and patriarchy and take a pass. That's why the GOP is so focused on abortion bans and other restrictions on sexual health care. If they can't get women to volunteer for lives of meaningless drudgery, at least they can punish them for trying to have something more fulfilling. The unwillingness to prevent infant abandonment is in line with the recent Texas decision to suppress investigations into maternal mortality after the abortion ban went into effect. Such investigations could result in a better understanding by doctors of how to treat pregnant women in a medical emergency, rather than letting them die. But in the GOP-controlled state, they're fine with a passive form of the death penalty for being a sexually active woman. It's unlikely there will be much investigation into the rising number of infant deaths, either. The torture of bringing a baby to term, only to watch it die, is also within the Republican realm of acceptable punishments for women. Sir Nick Clegg has announced he will leave his role at Facebook owner Meta weeks before Donald Trump returns to power. As Silicon Valleys big tech companies seek to align themselves with the incoming Republican administration, the former Liberal Democrat leader said it was the right time to leave. Sir Nick, who spent more than six years at Meta on a reported salary of more than 10m, will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a Meta lobbyist with deep links in the Republican party. In a nod to the incoming US administration, Sir Nick said Mr Kaplan was clearly the right person for the right job at the right time. Mark Zuckerberg is promoting Joel Kaplan, a lobbyist with close ties to Republicans, to take over as Metas president of global affairs - Samuel Corum/Getty Images The former Liberal Democrat leader joined Facebook in 2018 as president of global affairs, the most prominent position at Meta after Mr Zuckerberg. His arrival came as the company was barraged by claims it had helped Mr Trump win the White House by allowing fake news and exposing personal data. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sir Nick, who once said he would march against Mr Trump, was closely involved in the decision to ban the then-president from Facebook and Instagram in 2021 over claims the Republican used the platforms to incite a mob attack on the Capitol in Washington. Although Mr Trump was later reinstated on Metas platforms, he is believed to have remained furious at the slight and last year he threatened to imprison Mr Zuckerberg if he used his position to interfere in Novembers election. Sir Nick, meanwhile, has attacked Mr Trumps close ally Elon Musk, saying he has become a political puppet master and turned X, formerly known as Twitter, into a one-man hyper-partisan hobby horse. His exit from Meta comes as Silicon Valley leaders seek to court Mr Trump ahead of his inauguration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since the election victory, Mr Zuckerberg has travelled to Mar-a-Lago to dine with Mr Trump, donated to his inauguration fund, and expressed an interest in influencing the administrations policies. Mr Zuckerberg said he was grateful to Sir Nick for everything youve done for Meta and the world these past seven years. He added: Im excited for Joel to step into this role next given his deep experience and insight leading our policy work for many years. Announcing his resignation, Sir Nick said: As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as president, global affairs at Meta. It truly has been an adventure of a lifetime! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between big tech and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector. I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe. He added: I am simply thrilled that my deputy, Joel Kaplan, will now become Metas chief global affairs officer He is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time! Sir Nick said he would move on to new adventures after leaving Meta. He said he would spend the next few months handing over the reins to Mr Kaplan, who worked in the Bush administration as the White House deputy chief of staff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sir Nick moved to Silicon Valley but returned to London in 2022 after being promoted, and had been seen by insiders as likely to have less influence in a Republican-dominated Washington. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Nick Clegg, who has led global affairs at Meta since 2018, is stepping down, to be succeeded by his deputy, Joel Kaplan. The changes in Metas public policy and lobbying team come as corporations in general are prepping their shops for the incoming Donald Trump administration and Republican majority. More from Deadline Kaplan, VP of global public policy, was deputy chief of staff for policy under President George W. Bush, and previously served as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. He joined Facebook in 2011. In 2020, The Washington Post reported that Kaplan argued against some content moderation measures, arguing that they would disproportionately harm conservative voices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the UK and leader of the Liberal Democrats, wrote on Facebook, As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta. I am now in my seventh year working at this remarkable company. When I arrived in the Fall of 2018 the company then Facebook was very different to what it is today: it had rapidly established itself as one of the greatest global communication platforms ever invented empowering billions of people to connect with each other and express themselves like never before led by one of the most consequential innovators and business leaders of our times, Mark Zuckerberg. Kevin Martin, FCC chairman under Bush, will move into Kaplans role as VP of global policy. In his message, Clegg wrote that his time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between big tech and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector. I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Semafor first reported on Cleggs exit. Last year, in a book released during the presidential campaign, Trump accused Metas Mark Zuckerberg of plotting against him during the 2020 campaign and threatened to have him spend the rest of his life in prison. Since Trumps election this year, Zuckerberg has dined with the president-elect at Mar-A-Lago, and Meta has reportedly donated $1 million to the upcoming inauguration. In 2023, Meta reinstated Trumps Facebook and Instagram accounts, which were suspended after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Heightened suspension penalties also were removed from the accounts last summer. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. FORT LEE, N.J. (PIX11) Some New Jersey elected leaders, including U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, vowed to keep fighting congestion pricing during a press conference on Thursday. The state sued the MTA back in April, arguing that congestion pricing could have environmental consequences for areas in New Jersey that border New York City. In my view, there should be no congestion tax. But now theyre charging ahead without regard to the health of New Jersey. That makes it extra crazy, said Gottheimer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More Congestion Pricing News Federal Judge Leo Gordon ordered the MTA and Federal Highway Administration for more information on the environmental impact of congestion pricing in a ruling on Monday, but declined to issue an injunction to stop the plan from going into effect on Jan. 5. Both agencies have until mid-January to reply to the federal judges ask. A spokesperson for the MTA issued the following statement in response to the litigations: Nobody in their right mind should take transportation advice from the New Jersey politicians who have woefully failed to manage transit in their statewhile also endorsing higher tolls on their own roads and on Port Authority bridges and tunnels, and higher fares on NJ Transit. Endless litigation over New Yorks program to improve its transit and reduce traffic is the height of hypocrisy. MTA Chief, Policy and External Relations John J. McCarthy Transit advocates are remaining cautiously optimistic. New Jersey is trying to get back on the field after the game is over. But we see through the pandering. They would throw every NJ Transit rider under the bus, said Danny Pearlstein with Riders Alliance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court is scheduled for Friday afternoon before the same judge who issued a ruling Monday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. Jan. 1Disagreements among board members aren't uncommon, but an incident at a February St. Joseph School District meeting took things up a notch, resulting in a criminal charge. Board member Whitney Lanning was charged with a misdemeanor count of second-degree harassment following a Feb. 26 interaction at Troester Media Center with another elected official, Isaura Garcia. Video from district cameras, which did not include sound, showed Lanning approaching Garcia in a doorway as she was leaving, yelling at her, following her through multiple rooms and throwing her own property at a wall. According to Lanning, the incident happened following comments made in a closed meeting that pertained to her child. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "A school board member made a derogatory comment about my 6-year-old child, who is a student of this district," Lanning told News-Press NOW in response to her actions and the resulting legal issues. "My daughter is and always has been the real victim here." Calls for Lanning to resign from the board and a civil lawsuit filed by Garcia followed as the video of the confrontation when viral, in some cases with audio purported to be a recording of the incident added. Following tense months, Lanning ultimately lost her job as executive director at local nonprofit Community Action Partnership and pleaded guilty to the harassment charge in June, being sentenced to probation and an anger management course. Garcia dropped her civil suit against Lanning a few weeks later. "I am pleased that our criminal justice system held Mrs. Lanning accountable for her outrageous conduct when she pled guilty to harassment earlier this month," Garcia said in a statement after the charge was dropped. "While I remain convinced that her actions make her unfit to serve on the Board and believe she should resign, I sincerely hope that we can work together professionally for the remainder of our tenure on the Board." Both women continue to serve on the school board, although Garcia's seat is up for election this spring. One of the most dramatic claims made by those seeking to reverse Brexit is that leaving the EU is costing the UK economy 100bn every year in lost output or 4pc of GDP. Moreover, that would translate into 40bn in lost tax revenues, which happens to be roughly the same as the tax increases in Rachel Reevess first Budget. So, say the Rejoiners, without Brexit there would not have been any need to raise taxes. It is therefore essential to understand where the 100bn comes from and whether it is reliable. Spoiler alert it is not! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One source is the assumptions about the long-term impact of Brexit made by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The analysis from the Governments own fiscal watchdog is potentially most important, but it is also the most widely misunderstood. In a nutshell, the OBR has assumed that UK imports and exports will be 15pc lower than if we had remained in the EU. This fall in the trade intensity of the UK economy is assumed to cause a 4pc reduction in productivity, measured by GDP per head. Finally, though, the OBR has assumed that this drag will build over time, with the full impact felt after 15 years. There is a lot to unpick in this. Note first that the 4pc figure is not an estimate of the impact that Brexit might already have had. The OBR has said that the resulting uncertainty has held back investment in the UK and that this has reduced productivity by 1.5pc. But the watchdog also expects this shortfall to fade as uncertainty clears and investment recovers. The correct takeaway here is that Brexit is a small factor over the five-year forecast horizon which matters most for fiscal policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whats more, the longer-term analysis is looking increasingly shaky. For a start, the OBRs assumptions are weakly supported by the actual data if at all. Most economists agree that UK trade has held up much better than expected after Brexit, with no sign of falls anywhere near as large as 15pc in either exports or imports. At most, the UKs trade intensity might be a few percentage points lower than it would otherwise have been. This is unlikely to make much difference to productivity in a large, advanced economy which remains relatively open. Note too that the 4pc figure itself is an average of the results of 13 external studies, rather than original work by the OBR. These studies, all done before the final shape of the exit agreement was known, used a variety of different models and assumptions, most of which look far too pessimistic. Even then, nine of these studies put the impact at less than 4pc. Last but not least, the OBRs 4pc does not take account of any potential benefits of Brexit, including new trade deals with the rest of the world, smarter policies on immigration and better regulations at home. This omission is partly because the OBR judges that these benefits will be small. But it is mainly because it does not usually incorporate the impacts of policy changes that have not yet been made. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In summary, the OBRs assumption of a 4pc long-term Brexit hit is just that an assumption. It is also nowhere near as important for the Budget as many would have us believe. Other studies have attempted to quantify the impact that Brexit has had to date by comparing the actual performance of the UK economy with those of similar countries. In particular, economists at Bloomberg arrived at the figure of 100bn in 2023, mostly by looking at how the UK had done relative to the rest of the G7. The most sophisticated of these studies rely on a computer algorithm to select a weighted combination of economies whose performance best matched that of the UK before Brexit. The actual performance of the UK economy since Brexit is compared to this control group or doppelganger and the difference taken as a proxy for the impact of leaving the EU. The best work here has been done by John Springford at the Centre for European Reform. At face value, his doppelganger models suggest that Brexit has shrunk the UK economy by at least 5pc, which would be well over 100bn a year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But these results are unreliable, too. It is reasonable to assess the impact of Brexit by comparing the performance of the UK economy to that of its peers. Indeed, almost every claim made by both sides makes some sort of assumption about what would have happened if we had not left. Instead, the fundamental flaw in these studies is that they assume that any divergence in economic performance between the UK and the control group can only be due to Brexit. This is clearly nonsense. It glosses over the impact of other shocks notably the pandemic and the global energy crisis which are bound to have affected different economies in different ways. It also ignores any other national factors notably in fiscal and monetary policy and downplays differences in the economic and political cycles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It makes more sense to narrow the control group to those economies which would have been equally vulnerable to Covid and the energy crisis. My own preference is to look at the euro area, excluding Irelands notoriously suspect GDP data. On this basis, the UK economy has grown by 1pc less in total than its peers in the rest of Europe since 2016. In terms of output per head, Brexit Britain is continuing to track somewhere between France and Germany. Unfortunately, Rejoiners prefer to toss big numbers around for the cost of Brexit with no attempt to understand where they came from, let alone their limitations. The dodgy 100bn is one of many examples. Julian Jessop (@julianhjessop) is an independent economist. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Gov. Kristi Noem presents her annual budget address to lawmakers in the South Dakota State Capitol on Dec. 3, 2024. Behind her, from left, are House Speaker nominee Jon Hansen and Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) Gov. Kristi Noem seems surprised about the amount of state money flowing to public broadcasting. South Dakota has the third highest per capita funding of public broadcasting of any state in the nation, she said during her Dec. 3 budget address. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If she found that shocking, imagine how stunned shell be when she finds out its her fault. She approved the last six state budgets, each of which included an increase for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. The organizations annual state funding went up 27% during that period, from $4.4 million to $5.6 million. With such a strong record of support, Noem probably shouldve been nominated for a Friend of Public Media award. Thats unlikely to happen now that shes proposed a 65% reduction, which will slash public broadcastings state funding to just under $2 million if legislators go along with the plan. The organization gets millions in additional support from private fundraising and the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but the national funding is tied to state matching dollars. So the national funding would decline along with the state funding, and the resulting staff and programming cuts could leave almost nothing left for donors to support, potentially sending the organization into a death spiral. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Noem also wants to cut other parts of state government. Sales tax revenue is the primary funder of the state budget, and its declining, in contradiction to Noems claim that South Dakotas economy is the best in the nation. Why is Noem targeting public broadcasting for one of the harshest cuts? She devoted only a few sentences to it in her budget speech, including her characterization of per capita funding, which is dubious. According to SDPB, South Dakota is one of eight states where a single, statewide public radio and television operation is housed under one umbrella, rendering comparisons to many other states moot. And SDPB says it has the second-lowest funding in that group of eight. Setting that aside, its clear from Noems past statements that she has more than fiscal matters in mind. She was miffed several years ago when SDPB dared to interview scholar and author Ibram X. Kendi after she singled him out for criticism in her campaign against critical race theory. Noem also declined to participate in a debate on SDPB in 2022. She said it was because of a decision by National Public Radios Morning Edition to end its traditional Fourth of July reading of the Declaration of Independence. The show replaced it with a segment on historical and modern interpretations of the documents references to equality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the time, Noem described that as evidence that NPR and SDPB, which airs Morning Edition, were drifting further and further to the left and engaging in a radical effort to rewrite American history and cancel our Founding Fathers. SDPBs Lori Walsh who conducted the earlier Kendi interview and is a Marine veteran responded by reading the Declaration of Independence on her In the Moment radio show, which apparently didnt appease Noem. So it sure looks like the governor has an ideological vendetta against public broadcasting, and shes taking a last swipe at the organization on her way out the door (shes President-elect Donald Trumps nominee to run the Department of Homeland Security). Ironically, most people who watched or listened to Noems criticism of SDPB during her budget address probably saw or heard the speech on SDPBs radio, television or online platforms. SDPB broadcasts the governors budget address and State of the State address every year, along with every committee meeting and floor session of the Legislature. That invaluable work opens up state government to South Dakotans no matter where they live, and it provides a way for media outlets all over the state (including South Dakota Searchlight) to cover state government even on days when they cant be in Pierre. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its worth noting here that Im a former employee of SDPB, where I was given the opportunity to work on projects including a documentary and podcast about the 1972 Black Hills Flood the kind of historically minded project that SDPB is uniquely positioned to support. I also grew up with SDPB, watching Sesame Street and Mister Rogers Neighborhood on an analog television in rural South Dakota where public broadcasting was one of two or three signals our antenna picked up. Like thousands of other South Dakotans, I value the thoughtful discussion of state issues on SDPBs In the Moment and South Dakota Focus. I appreciate the attention and storytelling that SDPB brings to rural communities with Dakota Life, and the extensive coverage of the arts and state high school activities that SDPB makes available to everyone free of charge. Of course, SDPB is in a period of self-reflection like all media. It distributes content on the internet, through a streaming app and on podcast platforms, in addition to broadcasting over the radio and television airwaves. There may come a day when its no longer necessary to maintain such a robust network of statewide broadcast towers, and that may come with budgetary adjustments. But thats a long-term, strategic discussion requiring leaders with maturity, foresight and thoughtfulness qualities Noem might have in greater supply if shed spent more time listening to Fred Rogers and less to Donald Trump. VIRGINIA BEACH A 22-year-old Norfolk man has been charged with fatally shooting another man Monday at a Virginia Beach business. The incident happened shortly after noon at a smoke shop in the 5400 block of Virginia Beach Boulevard, according to Virginia Beach police. Lequan Cherry, 26, of Norfolk, was found dead at the scene. Detectives obtained a description of the suspect and his vehicle, and broadcasted the information, according to a news release. The department searched a license plate reader database for information about the vehicle, and identified locations it had been seen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Norfolk police officer who heard the broadcast found the vehicle in one of its recurring locations and attempted a traffic stop. The driver of the vehicle fled, but was later stopped in Virginia Beach, the release said. Jeremiah Quinones was taken into custody less than an hour after the initial call came in, police said. Quinones has been charged with first-degree murder, malicious wounding and two counts of using a firearm to commit a felony. Hes being held without bond in the city jail. Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com Most airline customers likely pick their favorite airline by whichever one has the cheapest fares or the most attractive loyalty programs, but another important part of the flying experience is when it ends. Some carriers are better than others at making sure that ending happens when its supposed to, and the aviation analytics company Cirium looked through its data to figure out which ones were the very best at getting passengers to their destinations on time throughout 2024. Take a look to see which North American airlines had the best on-time arrival numbers. 10. WestJet A WestJet plane - Photo: oan Valls/Urbanandsport /NurPhoto (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 71% of the time in 2024. 9. Air Canada An Air Canada plane - Photo: Graham Hughes/Bloomberg (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 71.4% of the time in 2024. 8. Frontier Airlines A Frontier Airlines plane - Photo: Graham Hughes/Bloomberg (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 71.6% of the time in 2024. 7. JetBlue Airways A JetBlue Airways plane - Photo: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto (Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 74.5% of the time in 2024. 6. Spirit Airlines A Spirit Airlines plane - Photo: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 76.1% of the time in 2024. 5. Southwest Airlines A Southwest Airlines plane - Photo: Kevin Carter (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 77.77% of the time in 2024. 4. American Airlines An American Airlines plane - Photo: Kevin Carter (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 77.78% of the time in 2024. 3. Alaska Airlines An Alaska Airlines plane - Photo: Kevin Carter (Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 79.3% of the time in 2024. 2. United Airlines A United Airlines plane - Photo: Gary Hershorn (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 80.9% of the time in 2024. 1. Delta Air Lines A Delta Air Lines plane - Photo: Kevin Carter (Getty Images) The carriers flights arrived at their destinations on time 83.5% of the time in 2024. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. North Carolina family reacts after loved ones killer granted clemency; Escaping what was handed down to him WINSTON SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) On Governor Roy Coopers final day in office Tuesday, he commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without possibility of parole. A Winston-Salem family is speaking out after the man convicted in their loved ones case 25 years ago was on that list and granted clemency. RELATED | Gov. Cooper commutes 15 death sentences on last day as North Carolina governor Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michael Millers brother Murray Miller says he and his brother were very close. They were 12 months apart in age. His brother said his family is still hurting from the loss of Michael. Mike was full of energy, full of life, very vibrant, Murray said. Jan. 24 would have been his brothers 58th birthday. He would always pride the fact that we were the same age for six days We would celebrate our birthdays together all the way up into our adult years, Murray said. Michael was 31 years old when he was shot several times at his apartment complex on West First Street in Winston-Salem in Sept. 1998. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was an argument earlier in the night at a pool party at Michaels apartment complex that continued over to his apartment where he was shot. He died 12 hours later at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. My mother called me and told me what happened, and I met everybody at the hospital, and that was the hardest day of my life, Murray said. In 2000, at the age of 21 Cerron Hooks was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death. No executions have been carried out in North Carolina since 2006 due to ongoing litigation. PHOTOS: See the first 2025 babies born at Novant, Atrium hospitals Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The death penalty has been the subject of a number of protests. In the fall of 2024, Hooks mother was surrounded by supporters pleading for a change, asking for her sons life to be spared. On New Years Eve, it was by the governor. Michaels family did know this was coming. Hooks will now serve out his sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Murray said many of his loved ones are hurt by this decision. The court handed down the sentence My sister was upset, and a few other people in the family are upset that Hes escaping what was handed down to him, Murray said. He has this message for his brothers killer: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You are still in prison. Make the most out of it. Reach back to these young men out here in the cities, in the streets, and let them know they dont want to come down that road. Prior to Tuesday, North Carolina had 136 offenders on death row. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) New North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein took several actions on Thursday to help the short- and long-term recovery from Hurricane Helene, with an immediate focus on more temporary housing and repairs to private bridges and roads. Stein, who took his oath of office on Wednesday to succeed fellow Democrat Roy Cooper, traveled to Asheville and with legislators and officials from both parties behind him announced he had signed five executive orders related to the historic flooding in late September in western North Carolina. The needs facing this region are vast and require immediate attention, Stein said at a news conference. I pledge to do everything in my power as governor to accelerate recovery of the rebuilding of a more resilient region for the long haul. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over 100 people died in North Carolina because of Helene, which state officials estimate caused a record $59.6 billion in damages and recovery needs. Billions of dollars from the federal and state government already have been spent or earmarked for the recovery, and Congress last month committed at least another $9 billion in aid. But more must be done this winter to put more people in warm and safe housing on their own property, and to restore vital transportation links between small communities as well as first responders and school buses, Stein said. One executive order allows the state Department of Public Safety to purchase up to 1,000 temporary housing units through the end of next month without going through the usual state procurement and bidding processes. Stein said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is covering the costs of these units. FEMA is already following another regulatory process as it installs similar trailers on its own, he added. Stein also delegated to the Division of Emergency Management the ability to hire repair contractors for private bridges and roads without procurement requirements. It also lets environmental regulators waive rules to speed up permitting and inspections. More than 12,000 western North Carolinians are displaced from their homes due to Helene, which also caused significant damage to more than 8,000 private roads and bridges, Stein's orders said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I have met with affected folks here in the mountains, the need for housing assistance and the repairing of private bridges and roads has come up in nearly every conversation," he said. Western North Carolina I want you to know that I hear you. Another Stein order creates a new Governors Recovery Office for Western North Carolina and establishes within the Commerce Department a Division of Community Revitalization that in part will oversee the rebuilding of homes destroyed or damaged by Helene. The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, which was created during Cooper's administration, will stick to rebuilding homes in eastern North Carolina harmed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018, Stein said. Republicans in charge of the General Assembly have been angry with the pace of the agency's work and a fiscal shortfall for ongoing housing projects. Stein also issued an order giving many state employees more paid leave this year to volunteer for Helene-related recovery efforts, and he agreed to continue a Helene recovery advisory committee that he created after his November election victory. GOP state Sen. Kevin Corbin, who has co-chaired the panel with Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, said Thursday that Stein's actions were bipartisan commonsense solutions." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New State Auditor Dave Boliek, also a Republican, released a statement later Thursday telling Stein that his department would hold Stein's office accountable on how money stemming from the orders gets spent. Given past failures to effectively provide hurricane relief to Eastern North Carolina, it is in the best interest of Hurricane Helene victims that our office takes such action," Boliek said. CARROLL COUNTY, Va. (WFXR) Virginia State Police are investigating a single-vehicle crash in Carroll County that killed a man from North Carolina and seriously injured another on January 1. VSP said just after 1 a.m. on Wednesday, 19-year-old Elijah B. Slavey of Low Gap, North Carolina was driving south with a passenger in a 2013 Nissa Altima on Route 643. Slavey lost control around a curve and went off the left side of the road, collided with a tree head-on, and then hit a second tree. 15 dead, dozens injured after car plows into crowd in New Orleans: Horrific act of violence Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Slavey was not wearing a seatbelt and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to VSP. 19-year-old passenger, Marvin D. Delp III suffered serious injuries and was taken to the hospital for treatment. Delp was wearing a seatbelt, police said. Police said the crash is still being investigated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv. NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) Multiple police officers in North Kingstown were recently honored by the town for acts of heroism. The lives of the many individuals affected by tragic events on these days would have come to very different conclusions had it not been for the bravery of our officers, Town Manager Ralph Mollis said. Each has made the North Kingstown Police Department and the North Kingstown community very proud. The town said officers Julian Varela and Kevin Lyons were recognized for saving a woman who was trapped in her car after a crash on June 8. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sergeant Timothy Daly got honored for saving a woman in a wheelchair who was trapped in her home while it was full of smoke on July 2. Sergeant Michael Bernardo was praised for his detective work in investigating a pharmacy that was robbed in July 2022. Todd Duchala, an officer, was honored for using CPR to save an unresponsive person on Sept. 10. NEXT: New Bedford sued by estate of former fire chief killed after shooting police officer Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. Jan. 2 (UPI) -- The Dec. 29, 2024, plenary session of the Eighth Party Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) was presented as a grand showcase of North Korea's achievements and a roadmap for its future. Under the stewardship of Kim Jong Un, the session ostensibly celebrated remarkable strides in national development and detailed an ambitious agenda for 2025. However, a closer examination reveals the enduring priorities of the Kim family regime: the perpetuation of its authority, the consolidation of ideological control, and the strategic exploitation of external tensions to justify domestic hardships. The plenary session's rhetoric and policies underscore the regime's unyielding focus on survival and dominance at the expense of genuine progress and the welfare of the Korean people in the north. The illusion of progress and stability The plenary report highlighted successes in various domains, including agriculture, industrial production, and housing construction. It emphasized increased production metrics and infrastructure achievements, such as the completion of 10,000 flats in Pyongyang and the construction of rural villages. These accomplishments were framed as evidence of North Korea's resilience and leadership's commitment to improving people's lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet, these proclamations mask the underlying economic struggles, systemic inefficiencies, and inherent contradictions of the mythical "Socialist Workers Paradise." Despite claims of bumper agricultural harvests and industrial growth, the North Korean economy remains hampered by international sanctions, limited access to modern technology, and a lack of foreign investment. The session's insistence on self-reliance and independence, while ideologically significant, continues to isolate the country and exacerbate economic hardships. The focus on symbolic achievements, such as housing projects and modernization initiatives, serves as propaganda to reinforce the regime's image rather than addressing the structural issues afflicting the nation. Militarization and the perpetuation of hostility A central theme of the plenary session was national security and defense, reflecting the enduring prioritization of militarization. Kim Jong Un's rhetoric underscored the need to prepare the North Korean People's Army as a revolutionary force, highlighting advancements in defense technology and military capabilities. The session outlined strategies to enhance deterrence and warfighting capabilities through accelerated progress in defense science and the radical development of the munitions industry. This militaristic posture aligns with North Korea's longstanding strategy of political warfare and blackmail diplomacy. By framing external powers -- notably the United States and its allies -- as existential threats, the regime justifies its emphasis on military readiness and the sacrifices demanded of its population. This narrative also deflects attention from internal failures by externalizing blame and fostering a siege mentality among its citizens. Ideological control and the weaponization of hardship The plenary session reaffirmed the regime's reliance on ideological indoctrination as a tool of governance. Kim Jong Un's emphasis on the "people-first" principle and slogans like" Everything for the people and everything by relying on them" underscores the regime's effort to portray itself as the protector of the Korean people. Simultaneously, the regime uses rhetoric about external threats to justify the population's suffering, portraying sacrifices as necessary for national survival. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This strategy serves to maintain control over a populace burdened by economic stagnation and resource scarcity. By combining ideological reinforcement with promises of eventual prosperity, the regime seeks to sustain its grip on power despite growing internal discontent. The emphasis on ideological work within the military and civil sectors further consolidates loyalty with the intent to suppress dissent and prevent political resistance. This indicates that Kim Jong Un fears the Korea people in the north more than the militaries of South Korea and the U.S. Diplomatic isolation and strategic calculations The session's tone on foreign relations was predictably combative. The WPK identified the United States, Japan, and South Korea as adversaries, characterizing their alliance as a nuclear bloc for aggression. While the plenary report hinted at the possibility of proactive external activities, it is evident that the regime's primary goal is to leverage tensions for political and economic concessions. This approach reflects Kim Jong Un's strategy of "blackmail diplomacy," wherein heightened provocations are used to coerce political and economic concessions through negotiations. However, the regime's miscalculation of its leverage -- particularly in the face of unwavering U.S. and allied positions -- has led to prolonged isolation. Without substantial policy shifts, North Korea is unlikely to achieve meaningful diplomatic breakthroughs, leaving its economy and international standing further strained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not discussed in the report is Kim Jong Un's renewed and growing relationship with Vladimir Putin and North Korean troops fighting for Russia to make money for the regime. Based on estimated Russian payments to North Korea, this enterprise is likely providing Kim with more funds than his global illicit activities and cyber operations. This will help sustain the regime for the foreseeable future or as long as Putin's War in Ukraine continues. Understanding the objectives and strategy of the Kim family regime The December 2024 plenary session of the Eighth Party Congress underscores the Kim regime's unwavering commitment to its core objectives: survival, control, and dominance. While the session's rhetoric celebrates achievements and projects optimism, the reality is one of enduring internal challenges and international isolation. The regime's focus on militarization, ideological indoctrination, and external scapegoating reveals a leadership more concerned with maintaining its grip on power than fostering genuine progress or addressing the well-being of its people. The session provides the world with a clear understanding of the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime and this should inform all future policy and strategy of the ROK/U.S.alliance as well as civil society around the world who desire to support the Korean people in the north and the universal human right of self-determination of government. Conclusion As North Korea enters 2025, the gap between the regime's ambitions and its realities will likely widen, posing significant risks for regional stability and the welfare of its citizens. The international community must remain vigilant, balancing deterrence, pressure, and engagement to address the challenges posed by a regime entrenched in its pursuit of absolute control and ideological purity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The future longevity of the regime cannot be predicted and seven decades of survival appear to indicate a high level of regime resilience. It may continue to muddle through, or it could decide to execute its campaign plan to try to unify the peninsula by force. Or it could be on a path to internal instability and regime collapse which could happen gradually and then all at once, much like we just witnessed in Syria. Regardless of the future of the Kim family regime, there is only one acceptable durable political arrangement that will end the nuclear threats and crimes against humanity and that is a free and unified Korea. This is what the Korean people, with the support of the international community, should focus on: the establishment of a new Korea, a United Republic of Korea (UROK). David Maxwell is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel who has spent more than 30 years in the Asia Pacific region. He specializes in Northeast Asian Security Affairs and irregular, unconventional, and political warfare. He is Vice President of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and a Senior Fellow at the Global Peace Foundation. Following retirement, he was Associate Director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. He is on the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the OSS Society and is a contributing editor to Small Wars Journal. NORTHEAST KANSAS (KSNT) Local county offices are announcing closures following the passing of former President Jimmy Carter in late December 2024. The Riley County and the Shawnee County District Court announced closures for Jan. 9 following the death of Carter. Riley County announced in a press release on Jan. 2 that the Riley County District Court, the Riley County Transfer Station and emergency medical services will still be available during the closure. All other offices will close on Jan. 9 and reopen on Friday, Jan. 10. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Carter embodied the ideals of service, humility, and compassion, said John Ford, chairman of the Riley County Board of County Commissioners. We honor his memory and contributions to our nation by observing this day of mourning and reflection. Lea Welch with the Third Judicial District of Kansas announced in a press release on Jan. 2 that the Shawnee County District Court will be closed for Jan. 9. Her announcement did not include the Shawnee County Courthouse or other Shawnee County offices. Historic Gem Building for sale at $650,000 in Topeka President Joe Biden declared Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning following the 39th presidents death and ordered flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days. Actions were taken by the federal government and Governor Laura Kelly to honor the Carter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kelly announced on Dec. 31 that she signed an executive order declaring Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, to be a Day of Mourning for Carter. State of Kansas offices will be closed for this day. For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) Despite support from friends and receiving services for his mental health, Judge JenniLynn Lawrence wasnt convinced to lower Patrick Egans bail. Egan, 39, is accused of assaulting KKCO/KJCT reporter JaRonn Alex, 22, on Dec. 18. Egan allegedly followed Alex from Delta to Grand Junction before asking Alex at a stoplight, Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trumps America Now. Im a marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you. He later tackled and choked Alex once they were outside the KKCO building, the affidavit said. On Thursday, Egan, who is also charged with bias-motivated crimes and harassment, appeared before Lawrence for a bond hearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The judge said based on Egans allegations, he proposes a significant community safety risk. She also expressed concern about Egans willingness and ability to appear in court. According to Lawrence, he has a history of similar crimes in California. Because of the allegations, his bond did not decrease. The allegations in this case are very concerning, District Court Deputy DA Victoria Fazzino said. The people have victim safety concerns (and) community safety concerns. The fact that he is a marine, we understand that can be a mitigating factor in some ways, but in others, it was part of this offense where he said he was a marine and he has to protect the country. That gives the people concern about community safety. The people feel the bond is appropriate where it is set based on the allegations in this case and his prior history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fazzino said Alex also objected to any modification to the bond, believing the $20,000 cash bond was the correct amount. Also at the hearing, the protection order was set to stay the same meaning Egan is to stay 100 feet from Alex and his place of employment. Egan also cannot be in possession of any firearm. Public defender Ruth Swift said numerous people in the courtroom support Egan including his friend Ben Wilson. Wilson, who spoke before the court, said Egan is like a brother to him. I have five kids and hes like family, he said. When I got the news of what happened, (I thought) Thats not Patrick.' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Swift said those who were supporting Egan in court would be more than willing to support him and consistently reach out to him to help him with his mental health. As a veteran, Egan receives medical services through the VA and a community provider. He has had some ongoing mental health issues for about two decades now, Swift said. Mr. Wilson has seen Egan go through some ups and downs. Hes told me hes usually been able to help intervene before things get to a point to where there was any certain danger to the community or Mr. Egan. Swift said Egan is currently in mental health treatment through a community provider. He has access to mental health therapy every week and emergency crisis services that are readily available, Swift said. Lawrence said she hopes Egan gets treatment for his ongoing behavior. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These are the types of behaviors that we can accept in this community, the judge said. It sounds like you (Egan) have been reaching out for help for the past couple of decades and it sounds like you need that help. I would like to see Mesa County work to help you get those services that you need. Egan is due back in court at 8:15 a.m. on Jan. 16. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com. Free speech is considered elemental to college campuses that time-honored academic privilege to express diverse opinions in pursuit of truth and knowledge without fear of retribution. But a recent report that surveyed over 6,000 faculty members from 55 four-year colleges and universities across the United States including over 200 faculty members from Brigham Young University and the University of Utah reveals that fear and self-censorship are campus realities for many academics. Campus free speech chill, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression survey, appears to be felt most deeply by conservative faculty members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nearly half of conservative faculty (47%) who responded to the survey report feeling unable to voice their opinions because of how others might react. Only a fifth of liberal faculty (19%) reported similar fears. Conservative faculty were much more likely than their liberal and moderate peers to report self-censoring. More than half 55% say they at least occasionally hide their political views in order to keep their jobs, compared to only 17% of liberal faculty. Meanwhile, when asked how well a conservative individual would fit in their department, less than a quarter (20%) responded very/somewhat well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just over 70% responded that a liberal individual would be a positive fit in their respective department. There are very few conservative faculty, said Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions manager of polling and analytics Nathan Honeycutt in response to the findings . If theyre not expressing their views, then students are even less exposed to conservative perspectives than one might expect based on the numbers. Among other findings from the foundations survey: 87% of faculty reported finding it difficult to have an open and honest conversation on campus about at least one hot button political topic. About 1 in 7 faculty members (14%) reported being disciplined or threatened with discipline for their teaching, research, academic discussions, or off-campus speech. 35% reported toning down their written work to avoid controversy. FIRE is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought, according to its website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over 112,00 potential faculty participants were contacted for the FIRE survey. The final sample reflects a 5.57% response rate. The survey included 148 and 89 faculty responses from BYU and the University of Utah, respectively, according to the foundation. Tenure: No immunity to self-censorship Many faculty survey respondents report difficulties having open and honest conversations with several issues of the day including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, racial inequality, transgender rights, affirmative action and the recent presidential election. While tenured faculty were less likely to report campus self-censoring than their non-tenured colleagues, the difference was not substantially large, according to the survey. Between tenured and non-tenured faculty, there was only a 9-percentage-point difference for hiding their political views, and a 5-percentage-point difference for likelihood of self-censoring in emails or during classroom discussions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two-thirds of surveyed faculty also said colleges and universities should practice institutional neutrality by not taking positions on political and social issues, according to a FIRE report. Meanwhile, majorities from all three classification of faculty respondents conservative, moderate and liberal voiced opposition to universities and colleges issuing political statements. Conservative faculty, according to the survey, were also strongly opposed to mandatory DEI pledges (85%), as were a majority of moderate faculty (59%). Liberal faculty were split, with a little under half in favor (47%) of diversity, equity and inclusion pledges, but a third opposed (35%). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Foundation for Individual Rights and ExpressionI report also suggested that faculty are preemptively silencing themselves in their own research and writing. One in five or more faculty reported self-censoring in professional contexts such as academic publications, classroom lectures and discussion and outside talks. The likelihood of such self-censorship, according to the report, is more prevalent among conservative faculty. Self-censoring, the report added, also sometimes stretched into conversations with administrators, other faculty and their students. Cited in the report was this comment from a Texas A&M professor: I am starting (for the first time in my career) to censor myself out of a desire for self-preservation. I say nothing at all in faculty meetings now, if I attend at all. University of Utah: Academic freedom a bedrock principle The University of Utah has called academic freedom the bedrock principle of our scholarly enterprise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last August, the University of Utah posted an online Q&A regarding free speech and academic freedom on campus. The University of Utah is committed to open, free and robust discussion, debate, and exchange of ideas as an indispensable part of its educational mission especially when the ideas expressed are controversial and unpopular, the post noted. The university supports creative, thoughtful, and respectful discourse where conflicting perspectives are vigorously debated and thoroughly discussed. Regarding freedom of expression in the classroom, the universitys report emphasized discussion and expression of all views relevant to the subject matter of a class are recognized as necessary to the educational process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement University of Utah employees, meanwhile, are welcome to weigh in on any issues of public concern although they must make it clear they are not speaking on behalf of the university. Academic freedom is of the utmost importance for faculty at the university. It is recognized as a right of all members of the faculty, whether with or without tenure or continuing appointment, of all administrative officers, and of all students. Jewish leaders slammed a massive crew of anti-Israel protesters who gathered in Times Square on New Years Day to call for intifada revolution on the same day an ISIS-inspired terrorist carried out a deadly car attack in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The protest organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Peoples Forum was led in a chant of There is only one solution: intifada revolution. One angry protester shouted that they were going to send people back to Europe. X/@luketress The woman shouted back and forth with counter-protesters, some of whom jeered Hamas in the background. X/@luketress Were sending you back to Europe, you white bches, one female demonstrator wearing a keffiyeh shouted at counter-protesters outside the event, video posted to social media shows. Go back to Europe! Go back to Europe, she repeated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2024 was a year of struggle against the crime of Zionism, one speaker shouts through a megaphone in the heart of the Big Apple. We will be here every single year for generation after generation until total liberation and return, they said, according to Times of Israel. Protesters carried signs with messages like End All US aid to Israel, End Zionism and No War on Iran. Suspected terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowed a pickup truck bearing an ISIS flag into New Years Eve revelers. Obtained by the NY Post The crowd also chanted, We will honor all our martyrs. The display disgusted many leaders in the Jewish community. Theyre not interested in peace, humanity or facts, Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said.This is the same group of people who marched across Times Square the day after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They blamed Jews for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, which is one of the oldest and deadliest forms of antisemitism, Treyger, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors, told The Post. Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism and former Brooklyn state Assemblyman called the anti-Israel protestors are deeply unwell. These people are supporting the terrorists and the enemies of America plain and simple, Hikind said Thursday. The authorities havent addressed this spewing of hate. Im waiting for Donald Trump to get into office and take antisemitism seriously, Hikind told The Post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wednesdays demonstration happened just hours after a suspected terrorist, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, plowed a pickup truck bearing an ISIS flag into New Years Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 14 people. Jabbar, 42, was shot dead by cops in a gunfight. Three improvised pipe bombs were found nearby in the tourist-drawing French Quarter, including one in Jabbars truck. The horrific attack left at least 14 people dead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Post exclusively reported that Jabbar, a US-born military veteran, lived in a trailer park community in Houston that is home to mostly Muslim immigrants. The rundown home is within walking distance of local mosque Masjid Bilal. Jabbar traveled to Egypt for 10 days last year, officials told The Post. He served active duty in the US Army from March 2007 until January 2015 and was a reservist from 2015 until July 2020. Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, called the protests antisemitism. Their identification with a terrorist organization that publicly advocates to destroy the Jewish people provides compelling evidence of who they are, Potasnik said. A 20-year-old man recorded himself breaking into Gracie Mansion and swiping a Christmas ornament from Mayor Adams home in the early hours of New Years Day, police said Thursday. Michael Aromando climbed over a fence surrounding the mansion at E. 88th St. and East End Ave. on the Upper East Side at about 4:20 a.m. Wednesday, cops said. He was then spotted by a member of the mayors security detail entering the mansion through a door typically used by Adams, police said. The mayor was not home at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mayors security detail, composed of NYPD officers, found Aromando walking around Gracie Mansion and entering at least one bedroom. He recorded his visit to the mayors residence on his cell phone and recorded himself taking a Christmas ornament he found in a drawer, according to prosecutors. Officers grabbed Aromando and charged him with burglary. The ornament was found on him. He lives with family in a doorman building a half mile away and has no prior arrests, police said. Oh my God, I dont know any of this, a relative who asked that her name not be used said upon learning of the arrest. Hes not that kind of kid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement None at all, she said when asked if Aromando has any strong political views. A Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered Aromando held on $5,000 bail during his arraignment Thursday. The judge also set an 11 p.m. curfew for Aromando and ordered him to stay at least a block away from Gracie Mansion at all times. California has consistently been embroiled in drought conditions for years. The last recorded drought was in 2022, when Lake Casitas in Southern California marked a near-record low. This year, the lake is back to full capacity after two years the fastest drought rebound in history. Consistent wetter-than-average winter rain in 2023-2024, along with water conservation efforts throughout the state, are reasons for the comeback. The Casitas general manager, Mike Flood, told VC Star that this was the "fastest rebound in the lake's history." Lake Casitas provides drinking water for the Ojai Valley and parts of Ventura through a reservoir. In 2022, the drinking water supply had dropped under 30%, and the Casitas Municipal Water District facilitated emergency measures in case the conditions did not improve. In April 2024, the reservoir reached full capacity for the first time since 2006, which had not happened previously since 1998. Should the government be allowed to restrict how much water we use? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind "Standing here a year ago, I never would have guessed. Nobody in the world would have guessed," Flood said during a board members' meeting, reported in the VC Star. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Conservation efforts are proven to spur impactful change when it comes to drought conditions. California's substantial conservation efforts achieved the lowest usage of water since the late 1940s, which became a large part of the lake's rebound. California has become a leader in climate action in recent years in part to reduce the frequency of wildfires and rising sea levels that affect the state. "It's one of the most beautiful things of the whole environment around it," Mary Bergen, one of the water district's board of directors, told the SF Gate. "Everyone is excited, including myself." Individual water conservation efforts could be undertaken by anyone interested in saving money and helping to support the world's water supply. Capturing rainwater for the yard, rewilding the yard, or making smart choices when purchasing high-water usage utilities like washing machines are some helpful changes consumers can make. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Jan. 2 (UPI) -- The man who rented the Cybertruck that exploded at the Las Vegas Trump Hotel had a background in the U.S. military and shot himself in the head, officials said Thursday. The suspect was officially identified as Matthew Livelsberger, USA Today and CBS News reported. Livelsberger, 37, shot himself in the head immediately prior to the Cybertruck exploding at 8:40 a.m. Wednesday in the hotel's valet area, Clark County (Nev.) Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference on Thursday Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said investigators still don't know his motive for the incident. Tesla founder and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the Cybertruck was working as designed when it exploded while carrying several fireworks. The suspect had 20 years of service in the Army before dying in the Cybertruck explosion. Photo by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department/UPI Livelsberger was a resident of Colorado Springs, Col., and had 20 years of service in the Army before dying in the Cybertruck explosion, according to USA Today. Livelsberger was a Green Beret master sergeant who enlisted with Special Forces in 2006 and was on active duty with them until March 2011. After a short time in the National Guard and Army Reserve he rejoined active duty as an Army Special Operations soldier. Construction of the truck contained much of the explosion's power, limiting the surrounding damage. Photo by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department/UPI He was on leave when he died in the Cybertruck's Las Vegas explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI is investigating whether the explosion in Las Vegas is terrorism-related. NBC News reported that investigators are also probing a possible military connection between the New Orleans deadly truck attack and the exploding Cybertruck. New Orleans truck attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who died in a gun battle with police, was an Army veteran from Texas who worked in human resources and technology departments for the military from 2006 to 2020. He was also deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. Authorities are looking into possible links between that and the deadly New Orleans truck attack. Both the New Orleans and the Las Vegas trucks were rented through Turo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Turo spokesperson told CNN, "We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat." The Tesla Cybertruck exploded and burned in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas Wednesday, killing one person. Construction of the truck contained much of the explosion's power, limiting the surrounding damage. NBC News, citing Louisiana's attorney general, said investigators suspect the explosives found in the New Orleans truck were made in an Airbnb in New Orleans rented by those involved. Presdent Joe Biden said Wednesday law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating any possible connection between the two incidents. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRoses (R) office has changed declaration forms to help prevent transgender candidates from being disqualified for not disclosing their deadname. The change came after Vanessa Joy, a transgender woman, was disqualified from running as a Democratic candidate for Ohios House District 50 after failing to list all legal names used within the prior five years on her signature petition, WEWS-TV reported. Dead names refer to the former names of transgender people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite legally changing her name and providing her updated birth certificate to the county board, a little-known 1990s law blocked her candidacy when her name was changed. The law requires candidates to list any name changes from the past five years on their signature petitions. Joy expressed frustration about not being informed of this requirement when submitting her petition. According to WEWS, the instructions werent on the petition form and the secretary of states 2024 candidate guide at the time. A revised form now includes instructions to list prior names from the last five years, except those from marriage. Its available on the secretary of states website for 2025 candidates, Dan Lusheck a spokesperson for LaRose told Cleveland.com. Republicans sought to pass legislation addressing the issue in December before the holiday recess. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Bill 71 required candidates to list any name changes within the last five years, but mandated that official forms include a designated space for this information, similar to updates already made by LaRoses office. The bill was amended during the Dec. 18 session to require candidates to list all legal name changes from the past five years on their candidacy petitions. Critics argued these changes disproportionately impacted transgender candidates. The bill failed to pass in the House before the holiday break. In May, Democrats introduced HB 467 to exempt candidates from disclosing name changes within the past five years, but the measure failed to gain traction in the Ohio House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KFOR) For days, law enforcement agencies have been warning residents about being out in full force, working to keep drunk and impaired drivers off the streets after ringing in the new year. New Years Eve is a night dedicated to celebration. For some, that means an occasion fueled by alcohol or even medical marijuana, to ring in the new year. As soon as we pull them over, they roll down the window and this plume of smoke comes out like a Cheech and Chong movie, said Deputy Aaron Brilbeck, with the Oklahoma County Sheriffs Office. If my doctor prescribes morphine to me, I cant drive under the influence of morphine. Very same with medical marijuana. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats why law enforcement across the state was out in full force to keep the roads safe. One DUI arrest is one too many, said Sheriff Tommie Johnson III, of Oklahoma County. One catastrophic incident from a DUI crash affects families on all sides. Sheriff Johnson said his team saturated the area to devote more resources than a typical day. We always have reserve deputies, as well as full time deputies, that come together, said Sheriff Johnson. Wednesday morning, some surprising results were in. Oklahoma County Deputies report arresting three people for DUI. When you see that, youre like, Wow. Like, thats thats something to be proud of,' said Sheriff Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement News 4 check around with other police departments. In Edmond, officers said they arrested four drunk drivers. Moore police only arrested two people on DUI. One county over, in Pottawatomie County, the sheriff said they teamed up with McLoud and tribal police departments. While there were several stops, there were zero DUI arrests. The Oklahoma Highway patrol posted pictures of traffic stops on Facebook. However, so far they dont have their numbers available. For now, Sheriff Johnson is calling this New Years Eve a win. Were trending in the right direction, said the sheriff. News 4 reached out to several police departments. However, they dont have their numbers, because people are off for the holidays. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. Chickens in a Sanderson Farms chicken house. (Stephen Ausmus/Agricultural Research Service, USDA) (Stephen Ausmus/Agricultural Research Service, USDA) The only way to significantly reduce phosphorus levels in Oklahomas eastern waterways is to ban the use of chicken litter as fertilizer, a soil scientist testified last month in a nearly 20-year lawsuit against Tyson Foods and several other poultry companies. To help reverse the phosphorus pollution in the waters of the (Illinois River Watershed), we have to stop making the problem worse. That means we need to stop the land application of poultry waste, wrote Gregory Scott, a scientist with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, in testimony presented by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond to a federal court judge. Nothing else will begin to clean up the problem until the land application of poultry waste stops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Decades ago, as industrial poultry production increased in eastern Oklahoma, chicken litter was increasingly used as fertilizer on area crop farms. Rain washed waste into nearby waterways, elevating phosphorus levels that depleted oxygen, turned water cloudy and strained the nearly 20 utility systems that rely on the Illinois River Watershed for drinking water. In response, then-Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued several poultry companies in 2005, including Tyson, Cargill, Inc., and Simmons Foods. A trial was held in 2009, but it wasnt until 2023 that U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled for the state, agreeing that the poultry companies were to blame for the high phosphorus levels. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. (Photo provided) Since that ruling, Frizzell said he is weighing pollution-control requirements. The poultry companies argue the case should be dismissed because too much time has passed since the 2009 trial. A hearing was held last month to hear arguments on whether the case and its evidence are still relevant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was at that December hearing that Oklahoma Attorney General Drummond presented multiple witnesses, including Scott, who testified water pollution from chicken litter remains a problem. Last year, Drummond asked Frizzell to impose a chicken litter fertilizer limit of 65 pounds of phosphorus per acre, well below the state limit of 300. But Scott testified a ban would be the only way to get phosphorus rates within state water standards. He also recommended using vegetative buffer strips along water edges and planting more hay in phosphorus-rich areas. Haying grass grown in the IRW and physically removing it from the watershed would help deplete the amount of legacy phosphorus, Scott wrote, referring to the Illinois River Watershed. Removing one ton of hay grown in the phosphorus-laden soils of the IRW would remove about 15-20 pounds of phosphorus. Asked about Scotts recommendation that all land applications of poultry waste be stopped, Drummonds office said it isnt an action hes specifically asking for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The testimony reflects the expert opinion of the witness and not the personal opinion of Attorney General Drummond, said Leslie Berger, a Drummond spokesperson. Katie Mendoza, a hydraulic research specialist at Texas A&M, was also presented by Drummond as a witness. She wrote that if all chicken waste fertilizer use were stopped, phosphorus levels would decrease by an average of 5.6% annually. Agreeing with Scott, Mendoza said planting hay and using buffer strips could achieve an even faster rate of decline. In order to reduce the amount of loading that reaches the rivers and Lake Tenkiller, additional management practices are needed beyond the cessation of poultry waste land application, Mendoza wrote, referring to the large lake in the Illinois River Watershed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During last months hearing, poultry company attorneys and witnesses argued that the amount of chicken litter transported out of state has significantly increased. However, at least one of their scientific witnesses acknowledged that the waterways remained impaired based on state standards. Governor, ag secretary urge judge to drop case While Drummond, a Republican, has continued representing the states case, other state officials, including the governor, have criticized the lawsuit and warned that court-imposed restrictions could hurt farmers. In September, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur wrote a letter urging Frizzell not to require additional pollution standards. Respectfully, judicial adjustment of standards and requirements applicable to the poultry industry may circumvent the lawmaking process, which is best left to elected legislators and officials in the executive branch, Arthur wrote in a letter she filed in the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last year, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a bill shielding poultry companies from future lawsuits over pollution caused by chicken litter waste. Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed the bill into law, saying he wanted to stop frivolous lawsuits like the current one against Tyson and other poultry companies. Last month, Stitt more directly criticized the states current lawsuit when he fired Ken McQueen, his secretary of energy and environment, for attending the December hearing. This nearly two-decade-old case is a radical left attempt at backdoor regulation through litigation, Stitt said in a Dec. 3 statement, announcing McQueens firing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stitts office later said the governor had warned McQueen not to participate in the lawsuit. It was made clear to him he should not be engaging in this poultry lawsuit situation, said Abegail Cave, Stitts spokesperson, according to The Frontier. McQueen said he attended the hearing because he wanted to be true to myself and my statutory obligation, The Frontier also reported. In response to Stitts criticism of the lawsuit, Drummonds office said he was doing his job as attorney general. Attorney General Drummond is a rancher and landowner who supports Oklahoma agriculture without fail, a spokesperson for Drummonds office said. The lawsuit was filed by a previous attorney general and maintained by every attorney general since, including Gov. Stitts hand-picked (former) attorney general, who was roundly rejected by rural Oklahoma despite the governors best efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prior to Drummond, John OConnor was attorney general, appointed to the position by Stitt when the seat became vacant mid-term. Like many of the attorneys general before him, OConnor did not ask for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Drummond beat OConnor in a 2022 election. That inaction by many attorneys general since the trial ended has been highlighted by poultry companies, which claim it showed a lack of interest in the case by the state. Six Oklahoma Attorneys General have held that office (since Drew Edmondson, who filed the original lawsuit), but despite bearing the burden of proof, not one of them asked this Court to rule or sought relief from the Tenth Circuit, Tysons attorney wrote in the motion to dismiss last year. Frizzell denied the motion to dismiss. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This article first appeared on Investigate Midwest and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public interest by exposing dangerous and costly practices of influential agricultural corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism. Visit us online at www.investigatemidwest.org Oklahoma's Speaker of the House Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, speaks during a swearing-in ceremony Nov. 20, 2024, in the House chamber of the Oklahoma State Capitol. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY When Oklahoma House Speaker Kyle Hilbert commences the next legislative session, he plans to prioritize three issues the state budget, a school cellphone bill and tackling workforce shortages. In this upcoming session, if we pass two bills, a state budget and a bill reducing the usage of cellphones in public schools, it will be one of the most substantial legislative sessions that Ive experienced, Hilbert, R-Bristow, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A transparent budget process was a priority for House and Senate leadership during the 2024 session, and its something that Hilbert hopes to continue improving upon with the Houses new Transparency Budget Portal. The House opened the portal in December, requesting public comment or complaints on any perceived waste or inefficiency by the state. Reducing use of cellphones in Oklahoma schools also remains a goal of Hilberts as he said phones have become a major distraction for students. Theyre just sitting on cellphones, he said. And I think us, as a Legislature, taking a step to address that moves the needle (and) helps teachers, because I dont think teachers and school administrators want their kids on their phones all the time. And what it looks like could look different in different school districts. Hilbert said solving workforce shortages in Oklahoma will be a third focus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Name the industry, they probably have a workforce shortage, he said. He said teachers, nurses and engineers are among the jobs with critical shortages. Growing a pipeline for these occupations is a goal for session, although the path to do so is unclear as more funding isnt always the solution, he said. I believe in six of my eight years in the Legislature, weve put more money in education than theyve ever had in the history of the state of Oklahoma, and our outcomes have not improved, Hilbert said. So money clearly is not the only factor. There are other factors at play. What are they and what can we do to go fix them and address them? No topics are off limits this session While Hilbert has his own priorities for the session, he said no topics are off limits for House members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At 30, Hilbert will be the youngest speaker in state history. And while he said that means he may not have the historical perspective or movie references of some colleagues, he hopes his youth will bring a new perspective to his position and make him more nimble to needed change. House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, sits at the head of the House chamber with his two daughters during a swearing-in ceremony Nov. 20, 2024, in the state Capitol. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) I think some of the advantages of being young is, Hey, lets go. Lets go do this. I want to see change, he said. I want to see things get better. Just because somethings always been done this way is not a good excuse. Maybe the way weve always done things is good, but if so, lets provide the data and the reasoning on why the way weve always done things is a good idea. The Oklahoma State University graduate was first elected to represent Oklahoma House District 29 in 2016 and was elected by his Republican colleagues to serve as the next speaker in November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The interesting thing about the Legislature is we have 101 members in the House and 48 in the Senate, and all 149 can request a bill about anything they want, Hilbert said. Theres nothing that anyone can do to change that Im not going to sit here as Speaker and say, Oh, that subjects off limits, were not going to talk about it. Special legislative elections are expected in the coming months to fill two vacant Tulsa-area House seats as well as a Senate seat in a district covering eastern Oklahoma. Bills on the topic of abortion have already been introduced by House lawmakers for this session, but Hilbert said he isnt sure what more can be done to legislate this subject. When theres not any reported abortions, I dont know how you further reduce from zero, he said. Weve done a great job of standing up for unborn children in Oklahoma and so I feel confident I know where our laws are. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And, when it comes to raising the minimum wage, Hilbert said he prefers to wait and let voters decide at the ballot box in 2026. Its incredibly problematic and would, in my opinion, lead to businesses leaving the state and people losing jobs, he said. And it is an absolute job killer. So well see. Itll go on the ballot, the voters will speak in 2026, and well see where it goes from there. Better relationships Improving communication and working through disagreements are important to Hilberts leadership style. A few House members have called for investigations into state Superintendent Ryan Walters. While Hilbert said they have this right, he has a different approach to handling conflicts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said while he shares some of the frustrations that other lawmakers have with Walters, he opts to communicate those directly with the superintendent. Before making statements to the media about Walters, Hilbert said he reached out to the superintendent to tell him about it rather than letting him read it in the papers. Its about relationships, he said. I think its really easy to just throw bombs, and thats not something that I want to do at the end of the day. Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, reads a resolution during a Senate special session on July 15, 2024, at the Oklahoma State Capitol. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice) When it comes to working with Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, new leader of the Senate, or Gov. Kevin Stitt, he said they have well-established working relationships. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There will undoubtedly be times as we come down the pipe that were going to disagree on items. Thats normal and frankly, good government, Hilbert said. It would be bad government if we didnt disagree from time to time. Hilbert said he and Paxton have taken unprecedented steps in demonstrating that both chambers have the common goal of improving Oklahoma, despite any differences that will come up during session. Both leaders invited the other to speak at their chambers respective caucus retreat, something Hilbert said he does not think has happened before. When the inevitable disagreements do occur, he said he wants to work them out with face-to-face meetings rather than over a phone call or text messages. The 60th session of the Oklahoma Legislature begins Feb. 3 and must end no later than May 30. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Oklahoma has a housing problem. Faltering local economies and development disagreements are stalling needed housing development in rural areas, while zoning and building codes prevent much-needed small housing statewide. As a result, 41% of Oklahomans are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their incomes on housing expenses. Oklahoma ranks 10th in poverty, with a median household income in the 12th percentile. The new Oklahoma 2024 Housing Needs Assessment shows the states greatest need is for the types of homes that are hardest for builders to accomplish: small and affordable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state recently diverted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars toward builder loans to lessen the housing problem, but several municipal-level housing rules stand between homebuilders and progress. Fewer bedrooms necessary The Oklahoma 2024 Housing Needs Assessment was released in the fall after two years in development. A product of University of Oklahoma students and faculty, the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency commissioned the assessment for $925,000 as a deep dive into the states existing housing, household incomes and size, and housing needs. The assessment shows that in rural and urban areas alike, small dwellings such as studio and one-bedroom homes are the most needed type of housing across all income groups. A worker builds a home in a neighborhood in Oklahoma City, Thursday, April, 6, 2023. Across the nation, an aging population and a decline in births means fewer large units will be needed for families and more units will be needed for single-person and non-family households, an executive summary for the Housing Needs Assessment states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Small homes and low-income homes are the most difficult to build, said Lance Windel, owner of LW Development. He specializes in affordable and low-income housing and innovative building techniques he said allow him to maximize efficiency for cost savings. When building small, the most expensive elements remain the same: a developed plot of land, a kitchen, bathrooms, a roof and permits. Bigger builders, they prefer bigger houses because theres cheap square footage in the living rooms and bedrooms, Windel said. The plumber doesnt care that you put in really nice granite countertops or not, right? His cost is about the same. Thats the problem. More: Construction starting on largest affordable housing development in downtown OKC history Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zoning laws further complicate the process of building studios and one-bedrooms. When residential areas are zoned mostly for single-family homes of a certain lot size, there is little space for multifamily options, tiny homes and other alternative housing. Oklahoma Watch reported in April on Oklahomas exclusionary zoning laws; residential land is disproportionately skewed toward single-family zoning, particularly in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. In Norman, 98% of residential land is zoned for single-family homes; in Oklahoma City, 96% and in Tulsa, 81% of residential land is zoned exclusively for single-family dwellings. Woodward or Duncan, or even the smaller towns like Madill, they all have some zoning and planning requirements, Windel said. Shawn Schaefer suggested easing restrictions, allowing for more accessory dwelling units like granny flats and garage apartments. Schaefer is an associate professor of urban design for the Gibbs College of Architecture at University of Oklahoma and a lead content expert for the Housing Assessment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And then also, could we go with smaller lot sizes, less frontages, so that we could maybe do some lot splits on some of these? he said. I think neighborhoods would be more willing to accept that sort of thing than introducing more high density apartment complexes in their neighborhoods or near their neighborhoods. Allowing more tiny homes and other types of manufactured housing could also help, Schaefer said. More: Peek inside Oklahoma celebrity mansions: From Mike Gundy and Toby Keith to historic homes Housing for speculation The assessment also revealed a rising need for workforce housing, particularly in rural areas. Workforce housing refers to homes priced for households earning 80% to 120% of the area median income. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When lobbying for legislation to create the Oklahoma Housing Stability Program last year, rural lawmakers pointed to the lack of available workforce housing as a deterrent to companies that might otherwise bring economic development to faltering communities, Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said. Population declines in rural areas have led to aging housing in need of updating and replacement, but the assessment showed little and slow movement toward development in many of Oklahomas 77 counties. Oklahoma and Tulsa counties accounted for 90% of building permits during the past decade, the assessment showed in its trend analysis. Cleveland County comes in third. Some counties go years with few permit applications; for example, Beaver County has only recorded nine new building permits since 2010. You dont get a lot of new builders coming in some of these areas to build housing, or landlords may not be upgrading units, or homeowners even may not be able to keep up with maintenance and things, Schaefer said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its even difficult to find skilled workers to build homes in many rural areas, Windel said. Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state. Cart before the horse Before the Housing Needs Assessment was published, the Oklahoma Legislature passed the Oklahoma Housing Stability Act, which created the new Housing Stability Program administered by the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency. The Oklahoma Housing Stability Act is the states largest investment into housing of its kind, with $215 million of taxpayer money directed toward adding more affordable housing in the state, particularly in rural areas. Windel was among the first homebuilders approved for both a Homebuilder Loan and Increased Housing Loan. He said he plans to build homes for resale in Kingfisher and rentals in Ardmore through the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The program is a good first attempt at using state tax dollars to help ease the strain on Oklahoma housing, Windel said, but OHFA didnt factor in the costs associated with developing plats and infrastructure in rural areas when designing the Housing Stability Program parameters. The cost of building skyrockets when those costs are funneled to builders. Windel said he has been put off by the costs of developing his own sites in some areas with especially strict infrastructure standards. Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma real estate: Buyers want smaller, more affordable homes OAKLAND PARK, Fla. Rachel Rodriguez looks around her store, and emotions surface at the sight of her relatives portraits on the walls. Theyre a reminder of a legacy that dates back more than 200 years. Her business, Constantines Wood Center, soon will close in Oakland Park. Itll conclude a chapter in the long-running story of the family business, whose vibrant history centered on mastering cabinetwork and offering a craftsmans headquarters for fine woods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tradition, tracing to New York in the early 1800s, endured with the Oakland Park store, at 1040 E. Oakland Park Blvd. The store lasted as a stable spot for almost 50 years in Broward, but then business waned. Its hard, Rodriguez says at work on a recent Friday, wiping a tear. Its your life. Rachels husband and business partner, Rodolfo Rudy Rodriguez, says the challenges only grew in recent years, particularly during the pandemic. For two years its been rough, he said. But we did everything we could to hold on to it. Today, the stores sign still states, Constantines Wood Center, Serving Satisfied Craftsmen For Over Two Centuries. But now a large banner looms over it, announcing in all capitals, Store Closing. Everything Must Go! Establishing a company The Oakland Park store sign gives a nod to the companys long history, noting its first iteration was established in the early 1800s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A founder was Thomas Constantine, whose family immigrated from England to New York City when he was a child, and then he, as a young adult, went on to become a cabinetmaker, according to a biography about him featured on the U.S. Senates website. Between 1806 and 1812, Constantine apprenticed with New York City cabinetmaker John Hewitt, and then served as a journeyman in the same shop between 1812 and 1814, the biography says. Thomas opened his own cabinet shop in 1815, and in 1817 his firm, T. Constantine & Co., began competing with some of the citys most notable furniture manufacturers. Some of his work would tie into American history: He pitched in with furniture as America recovered from the War of 1812. On Aug. 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops burned the Capitol and almost all other public buildings in Washington, including the Senate building. America called on Constantine: In 1818, the U.S. government hired him to provide furnishings for the Senate, reads an article in The New Yorker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He received a contract to provide the House of Representatives Chamber with carpets, wall hangings, lamps, 192 chairs, and 51 tables, according to the Senate website. The following year, Constantine was awarded a contract to furnish the Senate Chamber with 48 mahogany armchairs and desks, as well as other furnishings, lighting, and textiles. Constantines brother, John, is known to have assisted with the upholstery of the chairs made for both chambers. The Oakland Park shop has some of the family memorabilia, including portraits, and a receipt of sale from the government, which has line items for 48 desks ($34 each) and chairs ($46 each), eight sofas ($150 each) and five committee room tables ($48 each), among other items. There were only 48 desks and chairs because it was the 1800s and since Alaska and Hawaii didnt join the union until 1959. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The work was so famous in its time that a box of Constantines wood samples also is now owned by the National Museum of American History. An old black-and-white photo shows the Constantines store in the Bronx, with a 1950s Buick parked right outside. Visit our display room for craft supplies, reads the sign on the stores exterior. The business closed in 2001. The family said at the time that the New York stores closure may have been hastened by poor access and no adjacent parking and high taxes and the upkeep. A move to Florida When Rachel Rodriguezs father, John Constantine Docherty, moved to South Florida in 1974, he opened J.C. Woodcraft Center on Oakland Park Boulevard in 1975. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Docherty told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2001 that the store lost money over the first eight years until he renamed it Constantines Wood Center, recognizing the value of the family name and noting that South Florida was teeming with New Yorkers. He added and then discarded a power tool line, unable to beat the prices of chains such as Home Depot, and added what became a successful line of decorative moldings. Some of the items neatly arranged on the store shelves have been in their packages for decades, unsold, like a blending stain, still in the envelope marked with their last New York location on Eastchester Road in the Bronx. Other items fly off the shelves and have been the bread-and-butter as high-end customers seek unique lines and colors for their custom charcuterie boards and cutting boards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That includes exotic items of Bubinga wood and zebrawood from Africa, purpleheart wood from Dutch Guiana, and India padauk. There are shelves of basswood sticks, a mainstay for architecture college students who seem to pop in at the same time each year when their midterm 3D models are due. The shop sometimes has had to rush orders to soothe college students in a panic who proclaimed, My project is due in two days! A South Florida family Rudy Rodriguez said hes grateful for what they have had. He and Rachel met when they were students at Northeast High School in Oakland Park, and when he saw her in the hallway, it was love at first sight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But he was just a sophomore and she was a junior, so she rebuked his interest. I was a class above him so I couldnt be bothered with him, she admits. But Rudy was persistent. A love affair blossomed. Then they had two children while still in school, so Rudys relationship with his future father-in-law started off strained, he said. I had to earn my father-in-laws love, he said. We didnt start off on the right foot. At age 20, he was finally hired to paint the warehouse floor and he never left, grateful to his father-in-law for teaching him how to run a business and the sales associates who taught him everything he needed to know about wood, including the right way to color match and how to use a table saw. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2001, Rachel Rodriguezs father made the duo his officers, and when he retired, she and her husband took over in September 2012. Today Rudy Rodriguez is 50 and his wife is 51. The store and its financial success through the years helped them raise three children and buy their starter house, and then the next house. They knew it was a legacy that mattered. I told her dad it wasnt going to close on my watch, Rudy Rodriguez said. I meant it. But we didnt anticipate the pandemic. My dad has given him his blessing, Rachel Rodriguez said in assurance. Its had its run. Definitely the quality One of Constantines loyal customers has been Mike Schneider, owner of Flatface Fingerboards in Andover, Mass. Hes been buying veneer thin wood from them for more than a decade online, from the Constantines website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He uses it to make miniature skateboards, items that are used with fingers instead of feet for tricks and competitions. They are one of my best sources for wood, he said. Definitely the quality over everything else, thats the No. 1 (thing) I look for. Seth Brody tagged along with his father, who was a customer when the younger Brody was a high school student at Nova High in the 1990s. Brodys dad repaired furniture and popped in to buy items such as wheels for an end table. Now Brody lives in Brooklyn, but when he was in South Florida on vacation and saw the closing sign, he had to come by. For old times sake. He bought a veneer pack, packs of 30 wood species that are 3-inch-by-6-inch each, for a planned coffee table. He fondly remembers the days of purchasing wood when customers could see the wood, touch the wood. Even other businesses give them business. Kimberly Transtrum, manager at Builders Direct Kitchen, which shares the building as an adjacent storefront, said she is saddened to see the wood shop close. Because her business is kitchen and bath remodeling, she said they have used Constantines over the years for moldings and decorative trims and stains. She said Builders Direct Kitchen is now in talks with the landlord to take over the wood shops space. Its very sad to see a family-run business go out of business after so many years, she said. Rudy Rodriguez knows many of the regulars by name. Im going to miss the customers, he says. It often was, Hey, John! Hey, Larry! Hey, Bob! Facing change Today, the Rodriguezes say its a different experience to run the store, with spiraling overhead and increasing rent and clamps and fasteners and brushes and glues that can be bought online. Even the luggage locks dont sell any longer. We discovered Amazon has everything, Rachel Rodriguez said. There are items that lay unwanted, such as decorative ornaments for dressers and furniture. We used to not be able to keep these things in stock, she said. But now I cant sell them. Theres not enough sales so not enough capital to buy the products that sell, she said. As customers habits were changing, the COVID pandemic delivered a crushing blow. Suppliers who always used a middleman now pivoted to sell to customers directly or through Amazon, said Rudy Rodriguez. Because of online competitors, customers no longer needed a specialty shop for mainstream items of tools, such as chisels, although the ones sold at Constantines are made of steel and have a wood handle. Rudy Rodriguez said he cant compete against the plastic furniture made from Ikea and the tools sold in hardware stores that are made in China. They think the doors will stay open till the end of January as they try to unload their remaining inventory. Looking ahead There is sweetness in their memories and their legacy, but theres also a pang of regret. Rudy Rodriguez wonders aloud, what if they knew more about marketing? What if they were more tech savvy and knew more about social media? Would that have made any difference? I never thought Id be the one to close the place, he said. Rachel Rodriguez stares at the family portraits on the wall. One of the portraits shows her great-grandfather, Albert Constantine Jr., who at 18 joined his fathers business in 1920, started the Constantine Craft Division and also wrote the book, Know Your Woods. I think theyd say it was something to be proud of, she says. _____ Nearly a quarter of all new cancer cases may have been missed during the Covid pandemic, a World Health Organisation (WHO) study has found. Researchers said lockdown restrictions and pressures on healthcare systems saw diagnoses of the disease drop by 23 per cent globally, suggesting it was not identified in around one million people. The findings come after experts analysed the results of more than 240 different studies, providing the first comprehensive worldwide assessment of the impact of Covid on cancer care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The researchers found there had been a 23 per cent drop in the number of cancer diagnoses made after spring 2020, a 39 per cent decline in cancer screening, a 24 per cent drop in diagnostic procedures and a 28 per cent reduction in treatments. In 2022, approximately 20 million cancer cases were newly diagnosed and 9.7 million people died from the disease worldwide. Writing in the journal Nature Cancer, the studys authors said: Applying this to the estimated number of new cancers diagnosed in 2020, and assuming that the impact was largest during the first three months of the pandemic, about one million cancer cases might have been missed during the pandemic. Many factors might have contributed to this finding, including reduced access to health centres because of lockdowns and suspension of non-urgent care at hospitals, patients and healthcare workers fear of contracting Covid-19 and equipment or medicine shortages due to supply chain disruptions. Impact may only become evident in future years The WHO public health scientists said that although the impact on cancer care from the pandemic was now starting to become clearer, the full toll would not be known for several years. They warned that any subsequent spike in cancer death rates would take longer to show up in data than falls in screening rates and missed cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Disruptions in pathways to diagnosis and treatment could have an impact on survival and ultimately cancer mortality; as such, the full impact of cancer stage shifts (with later cancer diagnoses during the pandemic) may only become evident in future years, they said. A previous study by the University of Oxford found there had been a substantial impact on cancer screening and diagnoses in the UK in 2020 and 2021 caused by the pandemic. It estimated that 18,000 breast, 13,000 colorectal, 10,000 lung, and 21,000 prostate cancer diagnoses were missed from March 2020 to December 2021. The study looked at all types of cancer globally and included data from before the pandemic and afterwards, up until early 2022. The WHO said this was a previous evidence gap that had not been quantified. The scientists said some gaps in the data still existed, especially for poorer countries and in Africa. As a result, the true scale of the damage lockdowns and other aspects of the pandemic caused on cancer cases is likely to be much bigger than one million missed cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prof Lawrence Young, from the University of Warwick, who was not involved with the study, told The Telegraph: It is likely to be an underestimate, particularly as data is poor for underdeveloped countries. We know that cancer screening, diagnostic testing and treatment were severely affected during the height of the pandemic. Its difficult to quantitate the precise number of cancer cases that were missed until we have more data particularly on late diagnosis and treatment outcomes. NHS data show that, in 2020, there was an 11.7 per cent drop in new cancer diagnoses in England compared to 2019. The number of new cases rose in 2021 to surpass the 2019 figure and has continued on an upward trajectory. Cancer is the second biggest killer globally, accounting for about 10 million deaths in 2020, according to the WHO. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The organisations study also found that some cancers were affected more than others. For example, early-stage blood cancers have symptoms that can easily be mistaken for the flu. The researchers said that people with such diseases may have been misdiagnosed with Covid during the pandemic and told to self-isolate by medical experts as a result. The pandemic may also have exacerbated the problem of patients overlooking the symptoms of gynaecological cancers, such as vaginal bleeding or abdominal problems, the authors said. Skin cancer diagnoses also dropped as the virus spread, probably as a result of it being harder to get appointments at GP surgeries, the researchers said. They added that the switch to virtual doctor appointments may also have played a role given its lesser accuracy in diagnosing skin cancers than face-to-face consultations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Breast cancer diagnoses also fell 24 per cent, compared to 22 per cent for brain cancer, 25 per cent for bowel cancer, 32 per cent for prostate cancer and 33 per cent for vaginal cancer. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. A person was left injured after a shooting near Christian Hospital in north St. Louis County overnight Thursday morning. According to the St. Louis County Police Department, officials responded to a call for a shooting at approximately 12 a.m. Thursday morning near Dunn Road and Highway 367. When is the snowstorm expected near St. Louis? At the scene, officers found a wrecked vehicle. The driver of the vehicle suffered from a non-life-threatening gunshot injury and was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is currently no information on whether police have any suspects in the shooting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. Im going to give you a reading test. Ready? Say these words out loud: Chip Hill Jars Bep Fod Glork If youre an adult seeing this, with years and years of reading experience, your brain probably processed the list pretty quickly. You could even pronounce the last few entries, even though they arent real words. Beginning readers need to be taught how to do this. Reading doesnt come naturally, and kids need to be explicitly taught how letters correspond to sounds. If kids dont master this foundational decoding skill, they will likely struggle to read more challenging texts. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Clearly, decoding is an important and fundamental reading skill. So why dont we test for it in the United States? England does. Starting in 2012, the Brits started giving a phonics check to all 6-year-olds. At the end of their first year of school (equivalent to kindergarten), kids are given a list of 40 words to read out loud. Half of them are real words, like chip, and half are nonsense words, like bep. Teachers listen to each student read the words and then score them on how many they decode correctly. Children have to get at least 80% correct to pass. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not that much happens with the results. For example, England doesnt require that kids who fail the phonics check have to repeat a grade. But parents get to see their childs result, and kids who fail the test have to retake it the next year. The results are also shared with officials who use them to evaluate each schools performance. In this light, Englands phonics check is a light-touch intervention with relatively low stakes. But it has driven dramatic increases in student performance. The percentage of kids passing the phonics check on their first try soared from 58% in 2012 to 82% in 2019. (The check was paused in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, and the pass rate fell to 75% in 2022, but it was back up to 80% this year.) Related Which School Districts Do the Best Job of Teaching Kids to Read? Moreover, Englands scores on international assessments have also risen. On the PIRLS test of fourth grade reading, Englands scores rose 6 points from 2011 to 2021, a time when most countries were seeing declines. Scores in France, Finland and Germany, for example, fell 6, 19 and 17 points, respectively. More recently, Englands fourth grade math scores rose 11 points from 2011 to 2023, while performance in the U.S. was falling 24 points. The phonics check isnt responsible for all these gains England has also emphasized a knowledge-rich curriculum and tests specifically aligned to that content but it is a fundamental building block. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Could the U.S. benefit from an England-style phonics check? Sure, we already have plenty of reading tests, some of which give educators a good sense of a students early literacy skills. But there are key differences in how American students are assessed, and we could learn some lessons from the Brits. First is the question of timing and focus. Americas federally mandated English Language Arts tests dont start until third grade and gauge a host of reading skills that are interwoven with the students background knowledge. The national NAEP reading assessment, first delivered in fourth grade, suffers from the same issue. In contrast, Englands phonics check is specifically concerned with one key reading skill decoding and measures it at age 6. Thats earlier and more focused than what were doing here in the States. Second, England makes clear that all students are expected to master decoding, and it communicates to parents whether their child has done so. In the U.S., that benchmark is far from universal, and parents are not always informed. According to ExcelinEd, 16 states have adopted universal screener tests that identify students in grades K-2 who are at risk of having difficulty reading. Nine of those states also require parents to be notified when their child has been flagged with a reading deficiency. But that means 41 states and the District of Columbia are leaving that up to chance and hoping schools are teaching kids to decode. Related Are Students Gaining Ground in Math and Reading? Not Very Much Any school or district could decide to adopt its own version of a phonics check. Its a simple protocol and, because the stakes are low, theres not much to worry about with respect to test security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But state and national policymakers could think even bigger. If a state were to adopt a phonics check and report the results, it would send a strong signal to teachers and school leaders about the importance of making sure all students are taught to decode. At the national level, congressional leaders could consider requiring every state to deliver a phonics check. Or, at the very least, they could include something similar on NAEP. Simply put, Americas third grade reading tests are administered too late to spot and rectify emerging problems. Too many school systems simply pass kids along in the hopes that they will naturally pick up reading skills over time, rather than catching and fixing gaps early. An early phonics check would make sure that all kids are learning to decode letters into sounds. It seems only fitting that a year like 2024 should end with one last bleak milestone. Late last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released the top line numbers from its annual point-in-time homeless count, conducted on a single night last January. The headline makes for grim reading: Homelessness appears to have risen by 18% since last year, to the highest level since HUD began collecting this data in 2007. In other words, Americas already historic homelessness crisis has only become worse over the past several years. Yet, HUD did register one bright spot in the darkness: Homelessness among military veterans has fallen to a record low. The story of how this happened can tell us a lot about what we need to do in order to end the larger crisis. Though public efforts to combat homelessness receive some federal support, they tend to be coordinated at the local or regional level if they are coordinated at all. Not so with efforts to house the homeless veteran population, which are overseen by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA follows an approach known as Housing First, which is exactly what it sounds like: program beneficiaries receive unconditional offers of permanent housing, along with access to voluntary wraparound services such as mental health care and addiction counseling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Housing First is best understood in contrast with older treatment first models that treat permanent housing as a reward for submitting to treatment and exhibiting good behavior. A treatment first program may first transition an unsheltered person who struggles with addiction from the street into a shelter or sobering center, then require that person to demonstrate sobriety and readiness to receive permanent housing. A Housing First program will simply move that individual directly into permanent housing, on the assumption that someone who is stably housed has a better shot at defeating or at least managing their other personal demons. Researchers have studied Housing First programs for decades, and have consistently found that they are effective in getting people stably housed. The success of the VAs housing first programs reinforces this finding. The first of these initiatives, the HUD-VA Supportive Housing program, started out in 1992 as a small program, but Congress significantly expanded its scope beginning in 2008. By 2016, the VA had cut veteran homelessness by nearly half. What happened next further confirmed that the Housing First approach was critical to achieving those reductions. Though federal commitment to Housing First had originally been a bipartisan issue it was under President George W. Bush that housing first became federal policy the Trump administration rejected the approach. Predictably, progress on ending veteran homelessness slowed under Trump: homelessness among veterans fell 35% between 2012 and 2016, according to HUD point-in-time data, but only dropped by 6% between 2016 and 2020. When President Joe Bidens administration revived the Housing First approach, the decline resumed its rapid clip even as nonveteran homelessness rose. The welcome news about veteran homelessness should serve as a reminder that Housing First is the most valuable tool we have for getting individuals back into housing. This is a lesson that many politicians, including many Democrats, seem to have forgotten. California, where I live and do most of my work on housing and homelessness, is a case in point. During the pandemic, buoyed by unexpectedly high income tax revenues and a massive infusion of federal relief aid, the state dramatically expanded its Housing First-aligned efforts to get people housed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All told, California spent roughly $24 billion over the next few years on efforts to combat homelessness, including the widely acclaimed Homekey program that converted empty hotels and other underutilized real estate into homeless housing. In February 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration estimated that Homekey had created over 15,300 units of housing to serve over 167,000 Californians. Needless to say, these investments did not end homelessness in California. Between 2020 and 2024, the states point-in-time counts registered an almost 16% increase in homelessness. This has led a number of observers mostly, but not exclusively, from the right to declare Housing First a failed strategy. That verdict both elides the VAs success and misdiagnoses the real problem with housing and homelessness policy in California and the country as a whole. The challenge is one of scale. Homeless veterans are a relatively small, geographically dispersed population; the overall homeless population is much larger and highly concentrated in a handful of particularly expensive metropolitan areas. If we are going to end Americas modern homelessness crisis, cities and states must learn how to operate much larger Housing First programs at the regional level. The biggest obstacle to expanding Housing First beyond veterans is a lack of, well, housing. Where homes are scarce, like in California, it is more difficult and more expensive to get people off the streets and into housing. To make matters worse, the same housing shortage fuels the homelessness crisis in the first place: scarcity leads to higher rents, which leads to more low-income people running out of housing options they can afford. In cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, the lack of housing means that residents are becoming homeless faster than local Housing First entities can rehouse them. (In 2022, San Franciscos Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing estimated that four households became homeless for every one that it was able to place back in housing.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The VAs experience demonstrates that Housing First works, but Californias failures show that expanding the program on a large scale requires addressing basic market conditions. The United States cannot address its homelessness crisis without simultaneously tackling its housing shortage, particularly in high-cost metropolitan areas. Without significant land use reforms that remove existing barriers to housing development barriers such as restrictive zoning, complicated permitting rules and arbitrary requirements that increase construction costs any large-scale Housing First program will resemble bailing out a sinking ship with a measuring cup. Unless we repair the hole in the hull, were only going to keep sinking. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com In 1940, Martin Luther King Jr. stated that the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. Right now, in Utah, there are numerous discussions regarding the future of higher education for the state. For example, Utah colleges will require fewer general education prerequisite classes to graduate so that students can graduate faster. The pressure that is leading to this and other efficiency decisions is troubling and does not align with the broader purpose of what a college and university experience should be, particularly within our comprehensive and research universities. Utah has a long history of understanding and protecting this broader purpose. In fact, Brigham Young, the first territorial governor of Utah, once stated that education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the worlds work, and the power to appreciate life. He also argued that our education should be such as to improve our minds and fit us for increased usefulness; to make us of greater service to the human family. Notice that he doesnt even allude to the notion that the sole focus of higher education should be to obtain a marketable certificate or degree. A comprehensive education is intended to be so much more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Obviously, there are various types of institutions of higher learning that differ in their goals. For example, the purpose of Utahs eight public technical colleges is to provide hands-on training that is focused on a single trade so that students have the practical skills to immediately enter the workforce to be employed in that specific profession. In addition, Utah has two public community colleges Salt Lake Community College and Snow College that are focused on educational goals and pathways that lead to meaningful employment and successful transfers. Utah also has four public regional comprehensive universities Southern Utah University, Utah Tech University, Utah Valley University and Weber State University that provide a wide range of disciplines and educate students for all life domains, including the workforce, community and home. Utah also has two public research institutions The University of Utah and Utah State University. With a focus on the student experience, a research university also prioritizes research for the purpose of expanding knowledge, answering questions and addressing specific problems for society. Our institutions are well known regionally, nationally and globally for their reputable work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The missions of comprehensive and research universities extend beyond the sole goal of preparing students for paid employment. Instead they encourage students to experience or learn personal growth, civic responsibility, professional development, resilience and lifelong learning for the purpose of succeeding in work and life. Higher education for these institutions is also about transforming students and empowering people to lead successful lives of involvement, innovation and impact, while also engaging students in unsurpassed societal impact. All types of educational experiences, including program-specific and general education courses, are critical to preparing students for all of this. Human growth and development take time. As I have written about previously, the economic benefits of college degrees are well documented, and these financial job-related benefits are important. However, if we narrow the purpose for attending and completing postsecondary education only to the economic benefits, we are missing the boat in Utah. If we short-change our students by removing critical requirements for general education courses and imposing dramatic budget cuts, we are then at risk of offering an education which stops with efficiency. We are better than this. Utahs public institutions of higher education have not lost their way. Each of our university and college administrators and their staff have spent decades studying the latest research and best practices, along with having years of on-the-ground experience, to guide their institutional decisions and actions. It takes decades of immersive work to even scratch the surface of truly understanding and valuing higher educations opportunities, challenges and needs. Through a variety of methods, they also listen extensively to thousands of students, faculty, staff, trustees and community members. We as Utahns must respect and listen to this experience. These professionals are focused on what is best for their students careers and lives. This work is both an art and a science. It may be tempting to want to fast-track degrees. But at what cost? With all the challenges that our college students are facing these days, Utahs rising generations must not be short-changed by decisions that could have both short- and long-term negative consequences. Lets make decisions based on extensive research, proven best practices and decades of experience and not just stop with efficacy. I believe that we can find better ways to improve our students education by working together. Our students must come first! If youre curious about our countrys long history of polarization, look at the term Southland. Most Californians are unaware of exactly how the greater L.A. region wound up with a nickname more commonly associated with the Old South. The story behind this strange juxtaposition provides context for todays crises, because its about Americas regional and political conflicts and how one opportunistic businessman profited from them. The southeastern United States became widely known as the Southland beginning in 1861, when the Confederacy was formed. Before the first shots of the Civil War were ever fired at Fort Sumter, a poem titled The Southland Fears no Foeman was published in Richmonds "Southern Literary Messenger." From there, Confederate verse extolling the Southland flowed freely. Unionists responded with their own verses. Augustine Duganne, a New York legislator, soldier and poet, asked in an 1863 poem: For what hath all this Southland been / But one white sepulchre of sin / So fair without so foul within? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Patt Morrison: Confederate sentiment in Southern California ran deeper than you might know The Civil War ended in 1865, but the nickname and its association with the Confederacy endured. In 1878, a Southland poem recited at the Mississippi Press Assn.'s convention caused a firestorm. The author, Will Kernan, was a well-known extremist who wrote the deeply misanthropic Song of Hate. Although Kernan edited Mississippis Southern States newspaper, he was from Ohio, because then, as now, Americas polarization transcended regional boundaries. In Southland, Kernan attacked the 14th and 15th amendments, which respectively gave citizenship rights to Black Americans and voting rights to Black men: Let the blessing of the ballot by Caucasians be controlled. Iowas Le Mars Sentinel pushed back with a parody of Kernans work: Ho Southland / Sunny Southland /... Land of half-breeds, cross-breeds, bastards, hybrids, Hottentots, brigands, savages / Of raw-boned he-traitors and scrawny she-devils... The Sentinels Southland was reprinted widely, enraging Southerners. In 1880, Mississippis Meridian Mercury called for an end to all cooperation with the North: Above all, love your own sunny Southland...Eschew all slimy hypocrisy about loving the whole country. The New York Times reprinted, and condemned, the Mercurys diatribe. As newspapermen nationwide wielded Southland in rhetorical brawls, Harrison Gray Otis, editor of the new Los Angeles Daily Times, started doing the same. California had its own north/south rivalry, and Otis resented Northern Californians snooty perception of the cow counties south of the Tehachapi Mountains. He used the Times to fight back, commissioning poems like Edward Vincents Southern California: Time, place, opportunity, advantage are thine/ O fairest south-land. Otis rebuffed San Franciscos slights in the same way Lynyrd Skynyrd responded in Sweet Home Alabama to Neil Youngs anti-Southern insults: by singin songs about the Southland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Otis wasnt the first person to call L.A. the Southland, but he was the loudest, brandishing the word in his aggressive boosterism. In the boom/bust year of 1887, when the San Jose Mercury News encouraged central California to lure tourists away from the crowded South, Otis accused the unhappy North of sectional jealousy, deploring its plots against this fair and sunny southland. Read more: How Los Angeles was sold to the world as a paradise Here, southland referenced geography. But one month later the Times accused all Northern California of conspiring against Southland, sending agents to spy out the land and send the tenderfoot northward. In this case, Southland represented a new region. As one Times writer explained: We read much about the New South, referring to the Southern states of our Union. California has a New South, and the world at large is beginning to have a knowledge of it. Increasingly, Californias New South embraced a connection to the old one. On one hand this seemed appropriate, since early L.A. was full of Southern transplants who had supported the Confederacy. Let it never be forgotten, declared the San Francisco Bulletin in 1862, that the county of Los Angeles, in this day of peril to the Republic, is two to one for Dixie and Disunion. But Otis wasnt Southern. He was a Union veteran from Ohio whod fought at Antietam. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Otis promoted Californias Southland, he wasnt expressing the pride of a regional native he was creating a new dominion. He had spent his glory days triumphing over the old Southland, and he replicated that triumph on the West Coast. General Otis borrowed from military vocabulary to call his L.A. mansion the Bivouac and his Times staff the phalanx as he built, and lorded over, a new Southland. Unfortunately, Otis new dominion replicated the worst of the old: It grew into another white oligarchy where the rich got richer and the working class suffered. Otis made a fortune on real estate speculation while his rampant union-busting provoked the 1910 bombing of The Times in which 21 people died. It would take another century for L.A. to build a better Southland. That work, in California and America, remains unfinished. Laura Brodie is a professor of English at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. Her books include Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women. If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Jan. 8 will mark the fifth anniversary of Prince Harry and Meghans sudden decision to step back as senior members of the British royal family. The late Queen Elizabeth II, reportedly caught off guard by the suddenness of their announcement via Instagram, quickly made it clear to her grandson that there could be no half-in or half-out. Yet in reality, Harry is still very much in the two places where it counts most: his position in the royal line of succession, and as a prince regent should it become tragically necessary in the event that King Charles III or Prince William are dead or incapacitated. While it is highly unlikely that Harry will ever become king given that he is presently fifth in the line of succession, he would become regent if his father and brother were to tragically die or lack capacity until Prince George, Williams oldest child, reaches age 18. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement George does not reach maturity until July 22, 2031. Thus, a window of over six years exists for Harry to serve as regent. That should not be allowed to stand. The overarching risk to the United Kingdoms national security and by extension that of the Commonwealth of Nations and the U.S. is potentially far too great. Since Mexit, as it became known, Harry and Meghans agenda has essentially been one of grievance-chasing. They have railed against his family, declared war against the media and in the process become a caricature of themselves. Were Harry to become regent, it is likely he would use his role as the nominal U.K. head-of-state to continue platforming his grievances. Plus, given Harry and Meghans petulance over preventing King Charles from seeing his grandchildren, it is hardly a stretch to argue that Harry would not serve as a good role model for a young Prince George. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consider the damage Harry and Meghan have done to date. Not just to the British royal family, but to the U.K. and the Commonwealth. Simply Finding Freedom, as authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand termed in their book of the same name, was not nearly enough. Harry and Meghan were arguably determined to in effect set up a rival royal court in Montecito and monetize it by attacking Buckingham Palace. Their March 2021 CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey set the tone. Just two months removed as working royals, Harry and Meghan laid down the gauntlet at Elizabeths feet and hinted at what was to come. Meghan implied that a then-unnamed royal family member was racist for having concerns over her son Archies skin color. In a flash, Elizabeths decades of hard diplomacy and advocacy promoting the Commonwealth came under attack. By refusing to identify the royal, Harry and Meghan cast suspicion on the entire family, including the Queens husband, Prince Philip, who died one month later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It only got worse. In the couples eponymous Netflix series released in 2022, the Commonwealth a vital economic alliance that accounts for 10 percent of the U.K.s total foreign trade was described as Empire 2.0. Essentially, as we noted at the time, the documentary argued that Elizabeths Commonwealth legacy was an archetypical manifestation of racism and repression; the unspoken inference was that the British royal family is its chief champion. Wittingly or not (and likely not), Harry and Meghan foolishly played into ongoing Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns throughout the 56-member Commonwealth, and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moscow and Beijing argue the West is not to be trusted in order to erode and supplant British political and military influence across the continent and Harry and Meghan gave them a new argument. Regents must know better. They also must set a personal example for their young charge and the constitutional responsibilities they will face. Harry, as evidenced by his over-the-top revelations in his ghost-written autobiography, is clearly not suited to being a regent. Admissions of drug use, bullying a school matron and a frozen todger are damning enough, but his willingness to put it all out there, including family grievances, in print for profit is disqualifying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Might he do the same to Prince George if a regency is ever needed and Harry and Meghan feel the need for a second exit from the U.K.? As it is, Harry has recklessly cast a pall over the early years of his fathers reign just as he did over Elizabeths last years and has crassly done so while the queen was suffering from a fatal illness and presently while King Charles is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for an unspecified form of cancer. Being regent would thrust Harry onto the global stage which he and Meghan have arguably attempted to crash repeatedly since Mexiting. We first saw it in Jamaica. Then in Nigeria. And then again in Colombia. This will all hopefully be a moot point. Charles, in the best of British tradition, is bravely carrying on with both his royal and head-of-state duties including as the head of the Commonwealth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet we live in precarious times. Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly at war with the West, and the U.K. and continental Europe are exposed. The king in conjunction with Parliament must act. As a father, it will not be easy. But as a head-of-state, it is necessary. Arguably, only working royals should be in the line of succession and eligible to serve as regent should the need arrive. Doing so would require amending the Act of Settlement that was adopted in 1701. It can be amended by act of Parliament as evidenced in 2013 by the Succession to the Crown Act, which ended male primogeniture. In this scenario, if a regency should be required, Prince George and the U.K. would find themselves in the capable hands of Prince Edward, Elizabeths youngest son, and, if needed, Ann, Princess Royal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The days of simply valuing the modern British monarchy by counting royal engagements is over. It is a digital world now and as evidenced by Charless unmatched global convening power and Williams Earthshot prize, the U.K.s long-term economic and national security is best served on the international stage. Harry and by extension Meghan must not be allowed to risk that future by becoming regent. Five years of whining is enough and Meghans Instagram post, filmed by Harry on New Years Day, was a blunt reminder they are not going away on their own. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. In her final weeks as U.S. solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to allow climate lawsuits, particularly one brought by Honolulu, to proceed under state tort law. This stance is ill-advised and inconsistent with the positions taken by past attorneys general, Democrat and Republican alike. Climate change issues, by Supreme Court precedent, are fundamentally regulated by federal law under the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Further, leaving a patchwork of state laws to address this issue will only jeopardize energy security. It is imperative for the Supreme Court to grant certiorari in the Honolulu case to ensure this baseless campaign of climate tort litigation does not undermine U.S. energy policy. Not long ago, there was broad consensus that climate change litigation was a matter of federal law. As recently as 2011, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, rarely considered a friend of the fossil fuel industry, rejected global warming tort claims made by several states in her opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in AEP v. Connecticut decision. President Barack Obamas solicitor general, Neil Katyal, took a similar approach in a 2010 brief: In the context of climate change, a regulatory solution will be far better suited to addressing the scope of the problem and to fashioning an appropriately tailored set of remedies than a potentially open-ended series of common-law suits in far-flung district courts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Likewise, former President Donald Trumps solicitor general, Jeffrey Wall, argued in a 2020 brief that climate change was a matter where federal law should apply. DOJ lawyers later explained that climate change was inherently federal because the alleged harms are caused by emissions from all over the world, and those emissions just cant be subjected to potentially conflicting regulations by every state and city affected by global warming. The top Justice department lawyers from the Obama and Trump administrations were standing on solid precedent. For over a century, the Supreme Court has held that interstate pollution must be governed by federal not state laws. The states have a role to play, to be sure, in setting environmental policies within their boundaries. There are state laws across the country that protect air, water, biodiversity and critical habitats from environmental harm. But the plaintiffs suing U.S. energy companies under state laws are seeking damages for injuries they allege are caused by the cumulative impact of emissions emanating from every state in the U.S. and every country in the world. This far-reaching assertion is itself an admission that the claim is an interstate one, so federal law should reign. Beyond that, energy security is intrinsically linked to national security. As Ive written elsewhere, the U.S. will lose its status as global leader in advanced technologies without dependable energy sources. Europes reliance on Russian energy is a stark warning to those who downplay the importance of national energy independence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If U.S. energy policy is set by piecemeal litigation under state laws, we can expect to rely on more energy imports from foreign sources as domestic energy producers flee hostile jurisdictions. This means both fewer jobs and higher costs to consumers and businesses, something which the attorneys organizing these suits openly admit is one of their goals. The energy companies are not exaggerating when they write in their Supreme Court brief that there are few cases of such extraordinary importance to one of the nations most vital industries. The solicitor generals endorsement of these lawsuits to proceed under state tort law has far-reaching implications. The previous two administrations got it right: Climate change is a federal issue necessitating a coordinated response. The Supreme Court should grant certiorari to settle, once and for all, that when it comes to climate change, federal law applies. Michael Toth is a founding partner of PNT Law, based in Austin, Texas. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher (update links). Uncertainty looms as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to ascend to the highest office in the land for a second time, but many Americans are still processing the results of Election Day, explained The New Abnormal co-host Danielle Moodie. What happened on election night for days I didnt cry, said Moodie. I wasnt filled with rage. I wasnt filled with a sense of grief. I was utterly and completely numb. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That feeling can be described as hopelessness, explained Stanford professor Jamil Zaki, author of Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness. He added, And I think that thats a completely understandable response and one that we should have compassion for if thats what were feeling. In the aftermath of the election, Zaki said he found himself thinking about the differences between optimism and hope, and why it would serve Americans well to understand the nuances of both. Optimism is the belief that the future will turn out well. And generally when people are optimistic, they can be happier, but they can also get pretty complacent if a bright future is on its way, said Zaki, adding, You could just sit on your couch and await its arrival. Hope is the acceptance of uncertainty and how societys push forward, said Zaki. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im not saying that we should be hopeful because everything is fantastic. Im saying that we should remain hopeful because thats how we continue, he said. Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher (update links). It took me 10 years after leaving the military to call myself a veteran. It was an act of reclamation. My enlistment was defined by sexual harassment. More than a decade later, the thinking that caged me then still circulates: Women service members are worth less. As a Marine, I hemorrhaged my own power. I stayed silent at rape jokes and language that made my skin burn. I worked out until I was a sliver of myself. I ate dinners of three multivitamin gummies and a lemon popped into my water bottle. To be more like the guys, I policed other girls, doubting and distrusting them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Calmes: Trump's predatory Cabinet choices are added proof that #MeToo is over Donald Trumps choice for Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, seems to be riding out the waves of criticism generated in November when he said that women should not serve in combat roles because they are not as capable as men. He pivoted . He recently informed Fox News viewers of his newfound revelation that women in the military are some of our greatest warriors. His initial statements, and his refusal to take responsibility for them, brought back what I heard every day as a Marine: The puerile sexualized teasing, the hard edge behind it and the language that normalized a culture that denigrated and distrusted women. Also familiar: the quick disavowment I didnt mean it when called out on it. When I first saw that the cover of my memoir incorporated red poppies, a flower traditionally associated with sacrifice and death on the battlefield, my blood flooded hot. I felt the ghost of an old shame, the feeling that my experience did not deserve the association. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I did what I normally do when I get these flashes of shame. I closed my computer, called my dog and ran into the snowy mountains above my cabin in Alaska until my head cleared. Read more: Abcarian: Trump's Cabinet picks look like revenge of the bros I remembered the incredible women with whom I served. Mighty, determined, doing the exact same work as men under the constant stress of quotidian sexism. They deserve recognition as veterans, and I was among them. As I ran, I felt the familiar dull ache in my right hip, an injury I sustained during my enlistment. Hegseth has disparaged service members who take advantage of the government by seeking medical care, an opinion recently repeated by the Economist . Hegseth has also said advocacy groups encourage veterans toward an artificial dependency on government benefits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This rhetoric is not new. I heard it when I served that to seek care for any reason less than a Purple Heart was not only weakness but selfishness. As if to claim basic healthcare is to elbow past war heroes. Overtraining fractured a bone in my hip, but the same rhetoric Hegseth perpetuates moved me to truly believe that the moral thing to do was shut up and deal with it. Have you been shot? I used to scold myself. Have you deployed? Then what are you limping for? Get it together. Pushing through physical pain felt like the only recourse. I knew what was said about women who sought medical care. Weak and faking it and couldnt hack it lined the path to treatment. My hip did heal. Imperfectly, and only after a decade of yoga and backpacking. I was lucky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Opinion: What will the military do if Trump gives unconstitutional orders? To Hegseth I am surely no veteran. I fought no wars. To him, my incompetent! distracting! enlistment must be meaningless. The physical pain and the lingering distrust of men, the years its taken to be able to breathe in crowds, the restlessness that kept me sleepless for a decade worth nothing. Honoring only those whose enlistments take them to the farthest reaches: what a clever, cinematic way to dismiss the experiences of most male and female service members, the majority of whom never see combat. Weve all served with women, and theyre great , Hegseth said in November, though whether hell stand by the statement remains to be seen. Its just our institutions dont have to incentivize that in places where over human history men are more capable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What Hegseth is implying is this: Women shouldnt be leaders in the military. Barring women from combat hinders their leadership potential. Its more than a calculus of promotion. Its the internal conversation women and men in the military have about whose opinion deserves to matter, whose service deserves respect and whose bodies deserve fair treatment. About who is even a veteran at all. Comments from people in power, as Hegseth may soon be, normalize, exacerbate and preserve a culture that makes it OK to dismiss and even harm women. If Hegseth bounces back from his sexist commentary, it will be sad proof of the incredible leniency that allows men in power to walk away from damage theyve caused. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I started calling myself a veteran again for the sake of other young women I served with. The ones in my company who used to greet each other on Monday mornings with, Make it through the weekend? Meaning, did we make it through without rape. Without abuse. Without having to barricade ourselves in a barracks head, texting a guy we trusted, could he please do something about the guy we did not, who would not leave us alone. We had to laugh. Didnt want to create drama. We had to detach. Didnt want to be those girls the ones who complained. The language we use to speak of women seeps through the ranks. Right now, some female private who with all her heart wants to serve her country is being reminded that her enlistment isnt as important as that of the man next to her. Supposed leaders, who should care about her training, career and retention to say nothing of her well-being believe she is critically incompetent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She is not. Get out of her way. I said yes to the red poppies. Not for me for her. Bailey Williams is the author of Hollow: A Memoir of my Body in the Marines . If its in the news right now, the L.A. Times Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. In his recent opinion piece, Paul Nannis advocates for directing public funds toward newer opioid overdose reversal agents as part of the states response to the overdose crisis, "Wisconsin needs new remedies to combat opioid overdoses," Dec. 4. As a physician specializing in addiction medicine and public health, I agree that overdose reversal drugs are vital in saving lives. However, not all overdose reversal agents are equally effective or cost-efficient. New high-dose naloxone formulations, often twice as strong as the standard 4-mg dose, can cause severe side effects such as vomiting, agitation and pain. A recent study found no difference in overdose rates between recipients of the 4-mg and 8-mg doses. Letters to the Editor: From raw milk and fluoride to false vaccine claims, Kennedy poor health choice Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opinion: Wisconsins opioid crisis complicates an already troubled health care system Nalmefene, another newer agent, has a longer duration than naloxone, which can lead to prolonged and severe withdrawal symptoms. The American College of Medical Toxicology recommends against replacing naloxone with nalmefene as an opioid antidote due to insufficient evidence. Public funds should be invested in overdose reversal agents with strong real-world evidence and cost-effectiveness. At present, there is no evidence to support the widespread use of high-dose naloxone or nalmefene formulations. Elizabeth M. Salisbury-Afshar, MD, MPH, Waunakee Tips for getting your letter to the editor published Here are some tips to get your views shared with your friends, family, neighbors and across our state: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Please include your name, street address and daytime phone. Generally, we limit letters to 200 words. Cite sources of where you found information or the article that prompted your letter. Be civil and constructive, especially when criticizing. Avoid ad hominem attacks, take issue with a position, not a person. We cannot acknowledge receipt of submissions. We don't publish poetry, anonymous or open letters. Each writer is limited to one published letter every two months. All letters are subject to editing. Write: Letters to the editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 330 E. Kilbourn Avenue, Suite 500, Milwaukee, WI, 53202. Fax: (414)-223-5444. E-mail: jsedit@jrn.com or submit using the form that can be found on the on the bottom of this page. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: I'm an addiction doctor. Here's why I'm wary of new OD drugs | Letters BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) Orchestra Noir is coming to the Alabama Theatre on Jan. 17. They are coming with the official Y2K meets 90s Tour and it will feature a new show with new songs. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the concert beginning at 8 p.m. For tickets, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. People camp on the sidewalk near Old Town in Portland. (Lynne Terry/Oregon Capital Chronicle) This is the second in a three-part series on the national rise in local camping bans and restrictions since the Supreme Court ruling on homeless camping. The first story is available here. Chain link fences ring the perimeters of the two designated homeless camping areas in Grants Pass, Oregon. The two sites are the only spots where city officials allow homeless camping after they successfully defended their local camping ordinance before the U.S. Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In June, the nations highest court ruled in favor of Grants Pass, deciding that cities could impose criminal penalties without running afoul of constitutional provisions against cruel and unusual punishment. Since then, city officials have limited where about 600 homeless people can pitch a tent or sleep to just two locations in the city of 39,000. The new limitations have alarmed disability rights advocates and volunteer medical outreach workers who treat the people staying there. We have to stop blaming the people whove been forced to live outside because of this massive housing shortage, not just blaming them, but vilifying them and arresting them and jailing them, said Edward Johnson with the Oregon Law Center who represented the plaintiffs before the Supreme Court. Mayor Sara Bristol said having two sites is intended to keep smaller ones from popping up throughout Grants Pass and provide a temporary location while working toward long-term goals like shelter beds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Broadly, Grants Pass shows how cities across the U.S. are challenged with crafting local camping ordinances that balance the rights of unhoused people with competing interests, from business owners to those with disabilities trying to access a sidewalk without obstacles blocking their way. Whats more, a lack of adequate shelter beds falls far short of the nations growing homeless population, which was 653,104 people in a point-in-time count in January 2023. The system has about 218,000 fewer shelter beds than necessary, that report found. As homelessness becomes more political, rhetoric during elections conflate homelessness with crime, leading candidates to promise to get tough on the issue, Johnson said. Once considered allies, Democratic leaders find themselves under pressure to respond in their communities, with some weighing President-elect Donald Trumps stance of clearing camps and relocating people to land with some social services. But thats not a solution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It may be a short-term solution to getting reelected, but it is not going to end homelessness, he said. Concerns for people with disabilities After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Grants Pass city officials enacted a new policy designating homeless camping to the two lots nearly a mile apart, instead of any city park. Whats more, people can only stay in each spot for seven days. This means they must move between the two locations every week. Violations carry the risk of $50 citations. Disability Rights Oregon, a nonprofit advocacy group granted federal watchdog authority, says the setting runs afoul of federal laws that require access and accommodations for people with disabilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For example, two volunteers carried a homeless woman in a wheelchair across the entrance and into a camp. Large rocks at its entrance prevented her from navigating the terrain in her wheelchair. It is pretty much a barren, totally exposed gravel and dirt lot that still has no running water, still has no shade, said Dr. Bruce Murray, a volunteer physician with Mobile Integrative Navigation Team, or MINT, which provides on-the-ground health services to people camping there. In October, Disability Rights Oregon raised concerns about the homeless camping policy in a letter to city officials. Its been pouring rain down there, said Tom Stenson, deputy legal director of Disability Rights Oregon. Theyre just puddles where people are unable to move. People with disabilities are just stuck. They have no ability to get around. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The largest of the two approved lots, Murray said, has about 100 tents. The other has about 40 tents. Hes identified more than two dozen people who should not have to move between camps because of health reasons, such as heart failure, lung problems and wheelchair use. Murray has issued them paperwork to show police when they face the risk of trespassing, but police still warn them. Chad Patty said he believes he nearly died after moving to one of the sites in September. It had no running water to drink and portable toilets. He said he got sick with diarrhea and dehydration. I had no access to any sort of water, he said. Because of my condition, I was so sick I couldnt even really walk far to begin with. Patty, who lives off $943 monthly Social Security disability check, has health problems including diabetes, arthritis, a lower back injury and lymphedema, a condition that causes fluid to build up in the body. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As he started to get ready on his second day there, Patty, 42, passed out and did not wake up for several hours. Murray, who knew him, provided Patty with water and medicine. The doctor also helped Patty get shelter that led to his recovery and eventually housing in Grants Pass. Patty is no longer homeless and now lives in an apartment in Grants Pass. A MINT supporter purchased a house to offer rentals at discounted prices for homeless people with disabilities. Patty pays $600 a month. City officials, Patty said, need to show more compassion. Its so irresponsible, neglectful and inhumane that theres just no way to put how I feel about it properly, except that they are cruel and heartless, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grants Pass officials have been publicly chastised. At an August council meeting, City Manager Aaron Cubic met withering criticism after he said the city was not legally obligated to provide water at city-designated spots. There is no legal requirement the city do anything more than designate a place to rest or a place to camp, he said at the meeting, adding that other services and amenities could include water and shade. Murray, the 75-year-old retired physician who has worked in public health across the globe, said he was offended to hear water called an amenity. Amenities are chocolate mints left on your pillow at a Hyatt hotel, he said at the meeting. Amenities are extra towels for the pool. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MINT, his organization, has provided hundreds of water bottles at the sites. The city has provided portable toilets and handwashing stations, though not water. Bristol said that balance is necessary to avoid the perception the city is encouraging people to come there. Bristol, whose four-year term ends this year, said the public concerns are understandable, given the requirements to move every seven days. A lot of them have a lot of stuff that even an able-bodied person would have trouble moving around and from a practical standpoint I dont blame them because this is their entire life, Bristol said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cubic did not respond to requests from the Capital Chronicle for comment. Stenson said his organization has not heard from city leaders in the two months since the letter went out. Elsewhere in Oregon Oregon Gov. Tina Koteks budget proposal for the next two years seeks more than $700 million to shelter homeless residents, transition them into stable housing and prevent them from living on the streets. Kotek also wants about $1.4 billion in bonds and infrastructure funding to bolster the states housing supply and chip away at the housing shortage. Around the state, advocates are concerned that unhoused people will face increasingly harsher environments. Democratic officials in cities are being pushed to act on homeless encampments, said Jimmy Jones, executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency in Salem, which provides regional services to combat homelessness and poverty in and around the state capital. At the same time, Jones said its crucial for local leaders to avoid the approach of President-elect Donald Trumps agenda, which calls for cleaning out suburban encampments and putting designated homeless camps on vacant land with social workers and mental health workers. Some Democratic leaders could find the approach attractive amid the pressure they face to address homelessness, he said. Jones said any citys approach needs to be focused on responding to public safety or health concerns and complaints, not randomly forcing a camp to relocate elsewhere. It needs to be a complaint-based system generating the action instead of just chasing one group of people from one part of town or the other, ad nauseam, without any real random reason for doing so, he said. That doesnt help the people youre chasing. It doesnt help the people youre trying to serve. It doesnt help the other constituencies in the community. While disagreements about approaches continue, MINT and Grants Pass officials also collaborate. On Dec. 4, the city council approved a 10-year agreement to provide up to $660,000 for property that the nonprofit will use for a low-barrier shelter that eventually will serve up to 100 people. Cassy Leach, executive director of MINT, said she and her organization want to be part of the solution. In Portland, unhoused people can camp in public right-of-way areas, provided they have no other options like shelters. The city passed the ordinance in May, after homeless people sued the city in 2023 because of restrictions preventing them from camping between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and forcing them to take down their tents and stay on the move throughout the day. With the new ordinance, there also are restrictions for those who pitch tents. They cannot block building entrances or walkways, light fires or pile garbage around their tent. Violators face fines of up to $100, up to seven days in jail, or both. But the goal is to get people into shelter and programs that help them, not jail. The Portland Police Bureau works with the citys Street Services Coordination Center, which does outreach to people who are violating the ordinance. Its really a powerful thing when outreach is there with police and theres that moment of: This is your moment to choose, said Hank Smith, deputy director of Portland Solutions. The city also has a way for the public to report campsites that may be in violation, such as those camped on private property, blocking walkways or with debris piled up. Under state law, notices to move campsites provide at least 72 hours. In Bend, camping is also allowed in right-of-way areas with the goal of avoiding large camps. The city sets a 150-foot distance from one group of up to three homeless campsites vehicles or tents and the next homeless site. The ordinance also allows someone to camp for up to 24 hours in right-of-way areas that have vacant lots on both sides of the street, said David Abbas, Bends transportation and mobility director. First, people get an opportunity to voluntarily move. Afterwards, a 72-hour notice is posted on or near their tent and they have three days to leave. If they dont, the city removes their things and they have 30 days to collect them at a city storage facility. Abbas stressed the goal is voluntary compliance and the city provides information about local shelters. Solutions beyond camping bans For cities to successfully combat homelessness, they need more permanent, affordable housing, Johnson of the Oregon Law Center said. Nationwide, there is a housing shortage that feeds the problem, he said. The other two needs: more protections for people to avoid unnecessary evictions and more temporary shelter space while people are waiting for permanent housing, he said. As for city ordinances that restrict or ban camping, they do not solve the homelessness problem, Johnson said. For one, the restrictions can make it harder for people to stay in touch with providers who can help them find housing, he said. If someone is arrested, jailed and convicted, the criminal record creates another obstacle when they look for employment or housing. Theyre aimed at hiding homelessness, and theyre not very effective at hiding homelessness for a very long period of time, because they actually increase the number of people who are forced to live outside, he said. Despite the loss at the Supreme Court, Johnson said he has reason for optimism as cities look for solutions. In California, Los Angeles city and county officials criticized the ruling, saying the solution is affordable housing and support services, not criminalization. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has focused heavily on expanding affordable housing, with a 2022 executive order that reduced the red tape and waits developers face to get city permits. But newer restrictions that limit where fast-tracked affordable housing development can go in the city, such as historic districts, also raise concerns about how to balance affordable housing growth with neighborhood preservation, according to media reports. Johnson also praised the work of cities that pursue a Housing First model that places people into supportive housing and off the streets as quickly as possible. Major cities are involved: Houston and Austin in Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Madison, Wisconsin. You cant police your way out of this, but we also are not going to be able to litigate our way out of it, he said. Stenson, with Disability Rights Oregon, said he still holds out hope that Grants Pass officials will look beyond their camping ordinance for long-term housing solutions. Maybe the futility of what theyre doing will get them to move around to doing something actually useful, which is to try and find people housing, he said. We have to learn for the 1,000th time that you cant make it illegal to be a person with a problem. You have to actually address the problem. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Oregon lawmakers will enjoy supermajorities this session but they'd be advised to remember that any unpopular policies could hurt them in future elections. (Amanda Loman/Oregon Capital Chronicle) In contrast to the national scene, Democrats in Oregon have moved into a powerful position. Oregons government has returned to something you might call super-control, beyond even whats often called a trifecta: control of the two legislative chambers and the governors office. They dominate all three and even have a supermajority by holding 60% of the seats in the Legislature. That means they can adopt new taxes or raise taxes without Republican support. The Democrats in the Legislature and Gov. Tina Kotek, a former House speaker, are also likely to be aligned on most of the major issues, which could give them broad ability to do as they wish. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their supermajority this year also comes at a time when the Republican ability to stage long-term walkouts to block legislation has been curtailed: A still-new constitutional provision penalizes legislators who have 10 or more unexcused absences by banning them from serving a subsequent term. With few brakes on Democrats in Oregon and with frustrations over the national political scene, they may have an urge to try to fulfill long-standing wish lists. But as the legislators and governor put together their game plan for the next session, they should maintain some discipline and not push their advantage too far because it could backfire. To prevent that, the governor and legislators should ask themselves three questions as they prepare to decide how ambitious to be in the upcoming legislative session and beyond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First, are you leaving enough space to deal with whatever is coming down the road from the new Trump administration? Messages from the president-elect have been mixed and have changed with time. No one, probably including Trump himself, can say exactly what the next year of his administration will bring. But its policies and actions are highly likely to clash with the ideals and plans of the bluer parts of the country. Many people in states like Oregon have begun to prepare, but the effectiveness of their response will depend in part on what resources, time and effort are brought to bear. A legislature and a state administration thats tangled up with extensive internal ambitions may not be well equipped to cope with any national threats. Second, are you sure you can properly manage what youre seeking to do? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oregons state government has been better over the years with its aspirations than with execution. The state in recent years has made major policy decisions often highly defensible which sounded good in theory but fell short in execution. Oregonians could point to the Measure 110 drug initiative, public defender structuring and other efforts as examples. The dissatisfaction registered in many polls about Oregons government often seems to have more to do with how policies were managed than whether the core idea was sound. And a third question, with specifically political implications: To the extent you press new ambitious efforts in this session, are you sure you have the real and effective backing of the people who cast the ballots? Even though Oregon is classed as a blue state, the partisan margins here are tighter than they seem. Kotek, who prevailed in a thin win two years ago, might be among the first to acknowledge that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike some deeper blue states, legislative supermajorities have been fleeting and fragile. In the legislative term before the election just two decades ago, Democrats did not control either chamber of the Legislature. They have grown their leads only slightly and often have been on the edge of losing control in the Senate. In the Senate, Democrats held a supermajority after the 2004 election, then lost it after one term. They regained it in 2008, lost it again after one term and regained it in 2018. But then they lost it after two terms. In the House, Democrats have had the supermajority only in the terms after the 2008 and 2018 election cycle and they lost control of the House in 2010 when the chamber was split. Democrats would be wise not to give Republicans material especially on taxes that they could use to claw back seats in the House or Senate, the latter of which could be slightly more favorable to Republicans in 2026. The biennial agenda Kotek has proposed calls for serious spending, but it does place some guardrails on it. And it has focus: housing and homelessness, education and behavioral health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It does not include all things for everyone, and is a starting point as legislators file their legislative proposals for the next session. They, too, will have their focus and desires. Both Republicans and Democrats have their own priorities and while theyre likely to meet on some issues, theyre certain to diverge on others. Itll be up to Democrats to shape their agenda so that it retains voter support while working through details that result in policy successes. Thats never simple, but in this term, as holders of all the executive and legislative power they need, its on them to do it. The Orlando Police Department is asking for the publics help with locating Jerome Smith III in connection to the shooting of Dexter Rentz Jr. of Ocoee. Read: Gang feuds tied to murders in Orange and Osceola counties, deputies say Rentz, 18, died in the shooting on the evening of April 25, 2020, along Elese Street and Deerock Drive, near Raleigh Street and South Ivey Lane. Three other people were injured in the shooting that happened blocks away from the Universal Orlando Foundations branch of the Boys & Girls Club of Central Florida and the Florida Department of Healths Orange County offices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read: Ocoee High senior recruited by Louisville killed in Orlando shooting that left 3 others injured In March 2024, the Orlando Police Department announced they had arrested another suspect in connection with Rentzs death. Christopher Burke was picked up and charged with second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, according to officers. Read: Orlando police arrest suspect in murder of Ocoee H.S. football star Rentz had committed to play for the University of Louisville. His story had such an impact on the community that Shaquille ONeal offered and paid for the funeral costs for Rentz and his family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Orlando police ask anyone with information about this incident and Smiths whereabouts to call Central Florida Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477) or post their tip anonymously at https://crimeline.org. College football recruit killed in Orlando shooting See a map of the shooting scene below: Download the WFTV news app and watch Channel 9 Eyewitness News for live updates on this developing story, or click here to have updates sent straight to your inbox. New Orleans attack: 2 Florida women among the nearly 3 dozen injured NEW ORLEANS, La. (WFLA) Two Fort Myers women were among those injured after a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street on New Years Day, according to reports by NBC affiliate WESH. Elle Eisele and Steele Idelson, both age 19, were taken to a hospital for treatment after the incident, which is being investigated by the FBI as a terrorist attack. An evil act: Louisiana officials, FBI say suspect in NOLA attack acted alone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of Thursday, Jan. 2, both women were being treated in the trauma ICU, and Idelson was set to undergo surgery, WESH reported. New Years celebrations were just wrapping up in New Orleans French Quarter district when the attack took place. Police said the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar from Texas, slammed into the crowd at 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 1, while driving a rented pickup truck. Jabbar then opened fire on police, injuring two officers, according to reports. He was later killed by law enforcement at the scene. In total, at least 15 people were killed and 35 were injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to WESH, Eisele and Idelson both graduated from Canterbury School in Fort Myers in 2023. Eisele is currently a student at the University of Georgia, while Idelson attends San Diego State University. There was no further word on their conditions Thursday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. A New Year's Day truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans killed 14 people and injured 35 others, the FBI said Thursday. The suspect -- 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who also died in the attack -- was "hell-bent" on killing as many people as possible, driving a pickup truck onto the sidewalk around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians, officials said. Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI, called the attack a premeditated act of terrorism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident marks the latest in a series of vehicle-ramming attacks in recent years, coming just days after a car killed five and injured 200 at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. MORE: New Orleans attack latest: Police don't believe any other suspects involved, FBI says The vehicle-ramming attacks brought renewed focus to some of the security challenges they pose, considering the wide availability of cars, the challenge of protecting crowds with barricades and the difficulty of determining an assailants plans ahead of time. Some experts who spoke to ABC News, however, said a new technology could in theory prevent car-ramming attacks: self-driving cars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Computer systems directing a cars movements could stop it from charging toward crowded areas or striking pedestrians, the experts said. But they noted that self-driving vehicles pose terror risks of their own as potential unmanned bomb-carrying devices or cybersecurity targets. Self-driving cars face technical hurdles and remain far from wide adoption, making them an uncertain fix, experts added. Self-driving cars could make some kinds of attacks impossible. But they can also make other types of attacks possible, Jeffrey Lewis, a lecturer in the International Studies Program for The Ohio State University who studies terrorism, told ABC News. Researchers at San Jose State University counted 184 vehicle-ramming attacks worldwide over almost five decades beginning in 1970. Such attacks became more frequent and lethal starting in 2014, the study said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. government has warned about the terrorist threat posed by car-ramming attacks. Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a Homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice said in a joint memo in 2010. Authorities dont believe any other suspects were involved in the attack in New Orleans on Wednesday, the FBI said. The New Year's attack exemplifies the tall task faced by law enforcement in such cases, since protective barricades were out of use for repairs and a person acting alone offers little opportunity for intelligence gathering, Mia Bloom, a professor of communication and Middle East studies at Georgia State University who examines terrorism, told ABC news. A lone wolf is nearly impossible to detect, Bloom said. PHOTO: Pedestrians exit a Waymo self-driving car in front of Google's San Francisco headquarters, San Francisco, June 7, 2024. (Smith Collection/gado/Gado via Getty Images) At least in theory, a self-driving car could largely render a mass-killing attack of this type impossible, some experts said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2021, the United Nations Office of Counterterrorism published a report positing that self-driving cars could help thwart vehicle-ramming attacks. There are grounds to believe that safety features enabling them to detect and avoid a situation such as a collision with pedestrians, engaging the braking system or setting the vehicle on an alternative course, would frustrate terrorist plots to use such vehicles in this manner, the report said. Even in the absence of barriers, a self-driving car wouldve stopped short of harming the crowd assembled in New Orleans on Wednesday, Missy Cummings, a professor of systems engineering and director of Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University, told ABC News. If passenger cars could get down Bourbon street, the car wouldve gone there but it never wouldve accelerated through a group of pedestrians, Cummings said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, some experts warned of the terrorism risks presented by self-driving cars, including the possibility of a hack that could override the navigation system and send the car into a crowd. A large-scale hack could ensnare a city in traffic or ensure a specific vehicle stands vulnerable, Cummings added. You could put a car in the line of sight of a sniper on a building, Cummings said. MORE: Suspect in Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion was Army member on leave To be sure, the prospect of wide -- let alone mandatory -- adoption of self-driving cars remains uncertain and is at best a long-term consideration, experts said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some companies offer self-driving taxis in select cities, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. But full self-driving cars face restrictions from regulators and skepticism from consumers. For now, the best tactic for stopping a vehicle-ramming attack is a familiar one, Bloom said, noting that even loan-wolf suspects sometimes share plans ahead of time with a friend or relative. If you see something, say something, Bloom said. A self-driving car 'never would've accelerated,' experts say of New Orleans attack originally appeared on abcnews.go.com New Orleans reportedly lacked bollards that could have stopped the driver from going on the deadly rampage on New Year's morning, with the perpetrator driving around a police car that was intended to block access, authorities have said. "We had patrol cars out there as a hard target," said New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick at a news conference on Wednesday. "This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target." At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured after the suspect intentionally drove into New Year's revellers in the French Quarter, a popular nightlife district of New Orleans renowned for its Mardi Gras celebrations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect, who was a US citizen born in Texas, allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers before being killed in the confrontation, investigators said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said the incident is being treated as an "act of terrorism." The bollards, which normally block traffic during major events on Bourbon Street, were not in use on New Year's Eve. According to information on the Public Works website of the City of New Orleans, they were to be replaced. Construction began in November and was set to continue until February, when the city is set to host the Super Bowl. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A police car was parked at the site as a replacement. Other barriers and police patrols were also deployed to protect pedestrians, authorities said. "We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it," Kirkpatrick said. Exactly how the perpetrator managed to drive a pickup truck past the safety precautions and into the crowd is being investigated. New Orleans reportedly lacked bollards that could have stopped the driver from going on the deadly rampage on New Year's morning, with the perpetrator driving around a police car that was intended to block access, authorities have said. "We had patrol cars out there as a hard target," said New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick at a news conference on Wednesday. "This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target." At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured after the suspect intentionally drove into a crowd of New Year's revellers in New Orleans's French Quarter, a popular nightlife district renowned for its Mardi Gras celebrations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect, who was a US citizen born in Texas, allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers before being killed in the confrontation, investigators said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said the incident is being treated as an "act of terrorism." Emergency services found possible explosives and a flag from the extremist group Islamic State in the vehicle. According to the FBI, there were also weapons in the pickup truck. Possible explosive devices were also discovered inside and outside the car. It was also initially unclear whether the perpetrator had accomplices. The bollards, which normally block traffic during major events on Bourbon Street, were not in use on New Year's Eve. According to information on the Public Works website of the City of New Orleans, they were to be replaced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Construction began in November and was set to continue until February, when the city is set to host the Super Bowl. A police car was parked at the site as a replacement. Other barriers and police patrols were also deployed to protect pedestrians, authorities said. "We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it," Kirkpatrick said. Exactly how the perpetrator managed to drive a pickup truck past the safety precautions and into the crowd is being investigated. Investigators probe links between New Orleans, Las Vegas Elsewhere in the US on New Year's morning, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The incidents occurred a few hours apart. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement US investigators are looking into a possible connection between the deadly car-ramming attack in New Orleans and the Las Vegas incident, in which seven people suffered minor injuries and the male driver of the exploded vehicle was burnt to death. There are indications of a possible link between the two drivers through their work for the US military, according to US media reports. It remains unclear whether the times when the men were working in a military area - or any other location - overlapped. The Denver7 channel reported, citing official sources, that the two drivers worked at the same US military base. According to the authorities, this is a potentially important line of enquiry, NBC News reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Las Vegas, investigators found charred remains of petrol canisters and fireworks on the loading area of the burnt Tesla. So far, there is no evidence of a connection to Islamic State in the Las Vegas case and police said it appears to be an isolated incident. Both the pickup truck that drove into the crowd in New Orleans and the Tesla Cybertruck had been hired through the major US car hire company Turo, police said. The Cybertruck is an electric pick-up with a distinctive stainless steel body, built by the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, whose chief executive is Elon Musk. The tech billionaire, who also owns the internet platform X, is considered a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, whose company owns the Las Vegas hotel. Investigations are ongoing for both incidents. A U.S. Army veteran from Texas, driving a truck adorned with a flag of the Islamic State, rammed into a crowd of New Years revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early Wednesday morning, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more. The suspect in the deadly rampage, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was shot dead at the scene during an exchange of gunfire with police. Weapons and a potential improvised explosive device, or IED, were found in Jabbars truck, the FBI said. Other potential IEDs were found around the citys French Quarter. President Joe Biden confirmed Wednesday night that Jabbar had served in the U.S. military. According an Army spokesperson, Jabbar was on active duty from March 2007 until January 2015 as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. A photo of Shamsud-Din Jabbar provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After leaving active duty, Jabbar joined the Army Reserve, where he worked as an IT specialist until July 2020, the spokesperson said. He held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of his military career. During his time in the military, Jabbar was awarded three Army Commendation Medals and four Army Achievement Medals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI is investigating the murders as an act of terrorism and working to learn of Jabbars affiliations with terrorist organizations, Attorney General Merrick Garland said. Hours before the attack, Jabbar posted videos on social media expressing a desire to kill, Biden said during a public address about the attack. The videos indicated he was inspired by ISIS, Biden said. The situation is very fluid, and the investigation is at a preliminary stage, Biden said. The law enforcement and intelligence community is continuing to look for any connections, affiliations or co-conspirators. The rampage adds to a list of extremist attacks carried out by people with military backgrounds since 1990. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START, keeps a database of such attacks. Of the veterans and service members who were driven by extremist ideologies to commit crimes, 15% were connected to foreign Islamist extremist organizations, the data says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Military service key factor in 3 decades of extremist attacks Authorities confirmed Jabbar was born in the United States, after President-elect Donald Trump implied in a social media post Wednesday that the perpetrator was an immigrant. Rich Groen, who says he was Jabbars commander in Afghanistan, posted a statement on X on Wednesday, describing Jabbar as a great soldier who worked quietly and professionally as a mail clerk. To think that the same individual who once embodied quiet professionalism could harbor so much hate, leading to such unspeakable atrocities, is incomprehensible and heartbreaking, Groen wrote. This transformation is a stark reminder of the dangers of unchecked anger, isolation, and hate. The man suspected of carrying out the New Year's attack in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had a checkered marital history punctuated by multiple divorces and financial difficulty, according to court records reviewed by ABC News. The records also show that after his military service, Jabbar worked for two of the nation's largest professional services firms, Ernst & Young and Deloitte, as he aimed to grow his own fledgling real estate business. Jabbar has been identified by the FBI as the suspect in the deadly attack on New Year's revelers. At least 15 people were killed and over two dozen injured after a rented Ford pickup truck was driven through a crowd on Bourbon Street at a high rate of speed early Wednesday, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar, who police said was killed during the attack, was a 42-year-old U.S.-born citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas, according to the FBI. As of 2022, while employed by Deloitte, documents show Jabbar was making close to $125,000 a year -- a salary which was chipped away at by court-ordered payments for his children from a past marriage and weighed down by credit card and mortgage debt. PHOTO: Undated photo of Shamsud-Din Jabbar. (FBI) MORE: What we know about Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in the New Orleans attack In 2012 in Harris County, Texas, ex-wife Nakedra Charrlle Jabbar successfully sued him for child support payments for the couple's two girls, who were eight and three years old at the time, according to court records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four years later, in 2016, Jabbar filed for divorce from another wife, Tiera Symone Jabbar, in Dekalb County, Georgia. The complaint form, filled out in handwriting, says the two married in Sept. 2013 but separated less than two and a half years later in Feb. 2016. Under grounds for divorce, Jabbar checked the box on the form that read "our marriage is irretrievably broken," adding that the pair "can no longer live together and there is no hope that we will get back together." In July 2020, in Fort Bend County, Texas, Jabbar filed for divorce from wife Shaneen Chantil Jabbar, whom he married in Nov. 2017, according to court filings. But the pair jointly sought to dismiss the suit only a month after it was filed, saying they "both no longer desire[d] to prosecute his/her respective suits against the other party" -- a request that the court granted. PHOTO: Police investigators surround a white truck that has been crashed into a work lift in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 1, 2025. (Matthew Hinton/AFP via Getty Images) However, when Jabbar again filed for divorce a year later, his then-wife responded with a counterclaim that sparked a lengthy battle of briefs indicating apparent bad blood between them that may have at least in part stemmed from financial difficulties. In one filing, Shaneen's lawyer accused Jabbar of "flagrant disregard" of his financial duties to their household -- alleging that during their marriage, Jabbar "was entrusted with the management, control, and disposition of substantially all community estate funds." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though Shaneen "trusted and believed" her husband "would faithfully execute" his management, he violated their "fiduciary relationship," his soon-to-be ex's lawyer alleged. Shamsud-Din Jabbar "has intentionally and in flagrant disregard of the duties as manager and trustee of the community funds mismanaged the community estate, all in fraud of" his wife's financial interest, she said. Shaneen's filings also claimed that Jabbar withheld important information from the court about his retirement savings, with one record from July 2022 alleging Jabbar had failed to produce statements showing his participation in the retirement plan at Ernst & Young, where the filing indicates Jabbar worked prior to joining Deloitte. PHOTO: The deceased suspect is seen in the New Orleans attack on Jan. 1, 2025. (Obtained by ABC News) The acrimonious split from Shaneen also featured Jabbar breaking with his own laywer. Attorney Robert Tsai -- who represented Jabbar in his 2012 divorce -- withdrew from the case in Sept. 2021, citing an inability to "effectively communicate" with his client "in a manner consistent with good attorney-client relations." Court records indicate Jabbar represented himself through the remainder of the divorce proceedings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In court records Jabbar laid out some of his financial difficulties as he explained why he sought a divorce settlement that would have the couple selling their house and splitting the proceeds. The property management firm Jabbar founded, Blue Meadow Properties, was failing to produce any revenue and was in fact losing money, per his submissions to the court. "Time is of the essence," he wrote in an email to his wife's lawyer on Jan 6, 2022. "l can not afford the house payment. It is past due in excess of $27,000 and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce. The home was not in default at the time we agreed to the temporary orders. l misunderstood the terms of the loan modification I had applied for at the time." PHOTO: Shamsud-Din Jabbar (FBI) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar's filings in the 2022 divorce from Shaneen show he was already responsible for paying $2,200 in child support per month following his divorce from Nakedra. Ultimately, Jabbar was ordered to pay an additional $1,353 a month in child support to help care for the son he shared with Shaneen, according to the documents. The court ordered Deloitte to withhold the extra child support from his paychecks. His ex-wife Shaneen got the house, despite Jabbar's asking that the asset be sold and the proceeds split, court records show. She received primary custody of their son, though Jabbar got visitation rights, the records said. During their divorce, court records show both Jabbard and Shaneen took four hours' instruction on parenting from the "Texas Cooperative Parenting Course," and each received a certificate indicating they had "successfully completed" the course and were "hereby committed to working with the other parent in the best interest of their child/children." Jabbar's is dated Aug. 20, 2021. Shaneen's is dated Aug. 30, 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ABC News attempted on Wednesday to contact Nakedra, Tiera and Shaneen. Phone calls or text messages were not returned. New Orleans attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar's divorce filings point to financial difficulties originally appeared on abcnews.go.com As law enforcement authorities continue to investigate the New Orleans truck attack, family members of the victims killed in what police say was an act of terrorism are sharing stories about their loved ones. At least 14 people were killed and more than 30 others were injured when a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people celebrating the new year on the city's historic Bourbon Street early Wednesday, authorities said. The driver, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, died in a shootout with police. The FBI clarified in a news conference Thursday that 14 people have died in the attack so far, not including Jabbar. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar was a U.S. Army veteran from Texas who worked at the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte. In a national address Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden said investigators found a flag of the Islamic State terrorist group in the vehicle used in the attack, citing the FBI, and cautioned people against drawing conclusions this early on. The FBI initially said it did not believe Jabbar acted alone, and New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told NBCs TODAY show Thursday morning that they are looking into people of interest related to the attack. However, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said later Thursday that they believe no one else was involved in the attack except Jabbar. Were confident at this point that there is no accomplices, Raia told reporters. Shamsud-Din Jabbar in November 2013 at Fort Johnson (formerly Fort Polk), Louisiana. Two functional improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were recovered in the French Quarter, Raia said, adding that surveillance footage shows Jabbar placing the devices where they were found. Jabbar had targeted Bourbon Street, he added, but investigators dont yet know why. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Raia said Jabbar had posted videos on his Facebook account hours before the attack stating that he initially planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned that media coverage would not focus on what Jabbar described as the war between the believers and the disbelievers. Jabbar also posted videos online proclaiming his support for ISIS, Raia said, and stated that he joined the terror group before the summer. According to Raia, investigators believe Jabbar picked up the truck, which he rented, in Houston on Dec. 30 and drove to New Orleans the next evening. Raia dismissed any definitive link between the attack and a Cybertruck explosion outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, which NBC News reported is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, as well. Authorities have not named the victims in the attack as of Thursday morning, but family members have identified some of them. The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry said two Israeli citizens are among those injured, and the University of Georgia said that one of its students was critically injured in the attack. Law enforcement members work at the attack site Thursday where a man drove a truck into people in New Orleans. Here's what we know about the victims who have been identified: Martin Tiger Bech Bech, 27, was a Princeton University graduate who lived in New York City and worked as a junior bond trader for a Wall Street company, his mother, Michelle Bech, told NBC News. He was also an accomplished athlete. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was living his best life and he knew it, his mother said. It just leaves a huge void in our life. Nicole Perez Perez, 27, managed a deli in Metairie, close to New Orleans, her employer, Kimberly Usher-Fall, told The Washington Post. She had just moved into an apartment with her 4-year-old son, whom she would bring to the deli after school. She was a really good mom, Usher-Fall said, adding that Perezs pregnant sister and mom were admitted to a hospital because of stress after learning of Perezs death. Reggie Hunter Hunter was out with his cousin when he was killed in the attack, his cousin Shirell Jackson said. The 37-year-old Baton Rouge native, who was a warehouse manager, adored his two sons. Jackson said her cousin was an awesome person and a little-bitty guy with a big heart. NiKyra Cheyenne Dedeaux Dedeaux was a recent high school graduate who was out celebrating the new year with her cousin when she was killed, her grandmother Jennifer Smith told The New York Times. Smith said the family did not know Dedeaux was out on Bourbon Street and would have discouraged it had she known her granddaughters plans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her mother, Melissa Dedeaux, posted on Facebook on Wednesday morning, When your parents say dont go anywhere please listen to themthis was an act of terroism and now my baby is gone yall. Kareem Badawi Badawi, a University of Alabama student, was identified as one of the victims of the attack by UA President Stuart Bell. His father, Belal Badawi, wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday that his son died early that morning in the attack. In May, his father had shared photos of their family celebrating Badawis high school graduation on Facebook. The Palestinian Youth Movement identified Badawi as a Palestinian American. Matthew Tenedorio Tenedorio, 25, had a New Years Eve dinner at his brothers house with his family, his mother, Cathy Tenedorio told NBC News. She said she tried to dissuade him from going into New Orleans that night, but he wanted to go to the French Quarter with his friends. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An online fundraiser for Tenedorio said he was an audiovisual technician for the Superdome, the iconic stadium located less than a mile from the site of the attack. Matthew was always the one to lighten the mood, able to laugh off lifes challenges and spread positivity wherever he went, the fundraiser said. Hubert Gauthreaux In a Facebook post Wednesday, Gauthreaux's former school, Archbishop Shaw High School, said the 21-year-old was one of the victims of the attack. It is with great sorrow that we share that alum Hubert Gauthreaux, Class of 2021, was tragically killed in the senseless act of violence that occurred early this morning in the French Quarter, the school said. We are asking the entire Archbishop Shaw family to pray for the repose of Huberts soul, his family and friends during this difficult time, and all those affected by this tragedy. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com The deadly Jan. 1, 2025, attack in New Orleans serves as a reminder of the persistent threat to the U.S. from individuals inspired by extremist Islamist groups. While the investigation is still ongoing, some details about the suspect have been released. Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, was behind the assault in which a truck was driven into a dense crowd in New Orleans French Quarter a few hours after midnight, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Jabbar, who died in a shoot-out with police, had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in online videos posted on Dec. 31, according to the FBI. It represents the first major assault on an American city by an individual purportedly influenced by the Islamic State group, or one of its affiliates, since a 2017 truck assault in New York City that killed eight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The New Orleans attack, like that earlier incident, underscores an important point: While the Islamic State groups territorial caliphate the area in Syria and Iraq in which it assumed both political and religious authority and sought to enforce its interpretation of Islamic law has been dismantled, the groups ability to inspire acts of terror on U.S. soil through online propaganda and ideological influence remains alarmingly potent. As a terrorism expert and a scholar specializing in radical Islamist militant groups, I believe the case of Jabbar an American soldier who was radicalized in the U.S. echoes similar lone wolf attacks in the West over the past decade. With lost territory in the Middle East, the Islamic State group has sought to exploit personal grievances, mental health struggles and ideological vulnerabilities, transforming isolated individuals in the West into deadly instruments of violence. An attack inspired by the Islamic State The New Years Day attack took place in New Orleans famous French Quarter. At about 3:15 a.m., Jabbar plowed his truck into a dense crowd along the popular Bourbon Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the immediate aftermath, investigators discovered a black banner in his vehicle the flag used by many Islamist militant groups, including the Islamic State. While the Islamic State has not yet officially claimed the attack on any of its social media platforms, subsequent reviews of Jabbars online activity revealed videos posted just hours before the incident, in which he pledged allegiance to the group. On Jan. 2, Christopher Raia of the FBIs counterterrorism division said Jabbar was 100% inspired by ISIS, using an alternative name for the group. New Orleans attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group. FBI/AFP via Getty Images Jabbars background adds complexity to the narrative. A 42-year-old veteran, he had no prior known links to extremist networks, according to the FBI, underscoring the challenge posed by self-radicalized individuals who operate outside the scope of traditional terrorist cells. At this early stage of the investigation, it appears the attack was planned independently, driven by an ideological alignment with the Islamic State group rather than at the direction of any of its leaders. This highlights the decentralized and unpredictable nature of the current terrorist threat landscape. The growing threat of lone actor attacks At the height of its power in 2014-2015, the Islamic State group controlled significant territory across Syria and Iraq, establishing a self-declared caliphate. While this physical caliphate was dismantled by 2019, following sustained efforts by the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State, the group continues to operate, conduct and inspire attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lone wolf attacks, inspired by Islamic State group propaganda but lacking direct operational support, have become the hallmark of the post-caliphate era. By inspiring individuals to carry out attacks independently, the Islamic State group aims to create an atmosphere of fear and instability, demonstrating its global influence despite lacking a physical caliphate. It has actively sought to radicalize and mobilize individuals in the U.S. through digital platforms, spreading violent narratives and offering tactical guidance to potential attackers. This strategy allows the group to maintain relevance and project strength despite its physical losses in the Middle East. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The New Orleans incident follows a pattern seen in previous attacks in the West such as the 2016 Nice truck attack in France, the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack and the 2017 London Bridge attack. In each case, individuals were motivated by the Islamic State groups call to action, using readily available means vehicles, knives or firearms to inflict mass casualties. This model of terrorism is not only low cost but also difficult for intelligence agencies to intercept, as it often lacks the logistical trail associated with larger, coordinated plots. Ideological reach and online propaganda A critical component of the Islamic State groups continued influence is its sophisticated use of online platforms to spread propaganda. Even after significant efforts by social media companies to dismantle extremist content, the Islamic State group, al-Qaida and their affiliates have adapted by migrating to encrypted messaging services, dark web forums and niche platforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These digital spaces enable extremist groups to distribute radical content, call for violence and foster a sense of global community among supporters. Jabbars apparent radicalization is, I believe, likely to have been driven by such online materials more will be known when the FBI is through investigating the many phones and laptops agents retrieved after the attack. Such online propaganda frequently blends religious rhetoric with narratives of personal empowerment and martyrdom. The psychological appeal of Islamic State group propaganda lies in its ability to offer disenfranchised individuals a sense of purpose, framing violence as a form of spiritual fulfillment and resistance against perceived oppression. The case of Jabbar also raises broader questions about domestic radicalization within the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Individuals like Jabbar who are not part of any terrorist cell and seemingly have no prior known links to extremism are often able to operate undetected until they commit acts of violence. Police say the driver who plowed into a crowded street in New Orleans acted alone but was inspired by the Islamic State group. Michael DeMocker/Getty Images Islamist militant groups Western strategy The Islamic State groups broader strategy in inspiring lone actor attacks extends beyond mere acts of violence. By inciting terror in Western nations, the group aims to polarize societies, foster anti-Muslim sentiment and provoke overreactions from governments conditions that can fuel further radicalization and recruitment. This cycle of violence and social division serves not just the Islamic State group, but other Islamist militant groups long-term objective of destabilizing the West and reinforcing its narrative of a civilizational clash between Islam and the West. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attacks such as that in New Orleans serve as powerful propaganda tools, demonstrating that the Islamic State groups ideology remains alive despite its territorial losses. Each successful attack amplifies the perception of the Islamic State groups resolve, bolstering the morale of supporters and attracting new recruits. The New Orleans attack is a sobering reminder that the influence of extremist Islamist groups extends far beyond the borders of the Middle East. As the Islamic State group and other radical militant groups evolve and adapt, the threat of lone wolf attacks looms over the U.S. and other nations. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Sara Harmouch, American University Read more: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sara Harmouch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. The Army vet suspected of killing 15 people in a terror attack in New Orleans worked as a senior consultant at Deloitte making six figures, the Wall Street Journal reported. After a 10-year stint with the U.S. Army, Texas native Shamsud-Din Jabbar climbed the corporate ladder at Accenture and Ernst & Young, where he worked as a cloud consulting manager. Texas DPS photograph of the suspect / Texas DPS/via REUTERS In 2021, he was hired at Deloitte as a senior solutions specialist making about $125,000 per year, according to court records cited by the Journal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He worked there until at least the past fall; his internal Deloitte profile listed his clients as the state of Oregon, the National Institutes of Health and Johnson & Johnson. On a personal level, people who knew him describe Mr, Jabbarwho has three children from two failed marriagesas quiet, caring and clever. But the FBI has identified Jabbar, 42, as the suspect who drove a truck carrying explosives and an ISIS flag into a crowd of New Years Eve revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 15 and injuring more than 30. He then allegedly opened fire on police and was killed in a shoot-out. In the days prior to the attack, Jabbar had set an email out-of-office message on Dec. 20 saying he planned to return to work after Jan. 1, the Journal reported. The account has since been deactivated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm. The named individual served in a staff-level role since being hired in 2021, Deloitte said in a statement. Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation. Police on Bourbon Street yesterday after the attack / Michael DeMocker / Getty Images Despite the outward appearances of success, Jabbar had long experienced struggles in his personal life. He was charged with two minor infractions two decades agomisdemeanor theft in 2002, driving with an invalid license in 2005according to criminal records in Texas. He had also been disciplined twice while he was in the Armybetween 2006 and 2015for driving under the influence, according to the Journal. He was married twice and divorced twice, with his first wife eventually cutting him off from their two children and his second wife taking out a restraining order against him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2020 restraining order prohibited both parties from sending threatening and obscene messages, or causing bodily injury to each other or their child. And it prohibited Jabbar from making late-night prank calls, acting abusively, or threatening the womanShaneed Chantil Jabbaror their child, a six-year-old boy. He struggled financially and reportedly communicated this to his second wifes lawyer. I cannot afford the house payment, he wrote to the attorney in 2022, according to the New York Times. It is past due in excess of $27,000 and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce. Jabbar had also been ordered to pay his first wife spousal support and had a mortgage, meaning his monthly expenses often exceeded his income. While working as a consultant, Jabbar was trying to earn money in real estate on the side. But his business was losing money and he was racking up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card and other debts. He let his real estate license expire in early 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a 2015 interview with Georgia State Universitys student paper, Jabbar had expressed frustration with life after the military. He said that the Department of Veterans Affairs had made it difficult to get paid through the G.I. Bill, and that he struggled to readjust to civilian language, often slipping into military jargon. Debris on Bourbon Street after the incident / Marc Weiszer / via REUTERS Jabbars Deloitte profile described his interests as hunting and prayer, and quoted a section of the Quran, according to the Wall Street Journal He reportedly had an interest in guns, writing on a now-deleted X account once that it was a shoot-the-guns type of Saturday morning, the New York Times reported. In recent months, Jabbar had begun acting all crazy, cutting his hair, his first wifes current husband told the same publication. It got so bad the couple decided to prevent Jabbar from seeing his daughters, who are 20 and 15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The girls are a mess, following the attack, their stepfather said. Marilyn Bradford, 70, who lived upstairs from Mr. Jabbar in a Houston apartment building, told the Times he was no terrorist to me. Jabbar gave her a dryer, a steamer and other household supplies before moving out of the building about a year ago, Bradford said, and would often offer to help with carrying her groceries. She said she often saw him hanging out with his kids, the girls from his first marriage, and the young boy from his second. He was an outcast person. I was the only one he really talked to. I used to refer to him as my buddy, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another former friend Chris Pousson, 42, himself a retired Air Force veteran, said Jabbar was quiet and reserved. The pair went to high school in Beaumont together and reconnected on Facebook after they both left the military. He wasnt a troublemaker at all, Mr. Pousson said of their time in school in an interview with the Times. He made good grades and was always well-dressed in button-ups and polo shirts. President Joe Biden has condemned the attack / Ken Cedeno / REUTERS Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that he noticed that Jabbar was making a lot of religious posts on the site after they became friends again around 2015. It was never Muslim extremist stuff, and he was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he had gotten really passionate, he said. Pousson added that the attack was a complete 180 from the quiet, reserved person I knew. Jabbars brother, Abdur Jabbar, 24, said the pair spoke two weeks ago and all seemed well on the surface. A visit to New Orleans was not mentioned, the younger man said. He said they were raised Christian, but his brother converted to Islam. What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion, the brother added. Describing the moment he learned of his brothers alleged attack, Abdur added: I couldnt believe it all. I started crying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Joe Biden on Wednesday said hed been informed by the FBI that the attacker shared videos online indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill. In a separate statement, the president said the bureau is leading the investigation into the attack and is treating it as an act of terrorism. My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday, he said. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nations communities. On Jan. 1, 2025, after a man rammed a pickup into a crowd of New Year's revelers in New Orleans, killing more than a dozen people, a rumor about his origins spread. According to a Fox News report, law enforcement said the man drove the truck into the U.S. from the Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, just days before the attack. The claim spread across social media and was amplified by Texas lawmakers, conservative social media influencers and Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who wrote on X, "New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!! Who did our government bomb lately that is taking it out on innocent Americans?" U.S. President-elect Donald Trump also spread the rumor on his social media website, TruthSocial, suggesting that the suspect was an immigrant: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! An early Fox News report did state the truck had been found to cross the U.S.-Mexico border two days before the attack. However, as more information came to light, the attacker was confirmed to be a U.S. citizen, and the truck was confirmed to be a rental that reentered the country on a different date with a different driver, leading to Fox News retracting the claim. Here is what we know about the rumor and how it spread: Fox News' claims Earlier on New Year's Day, a Fox News host said that, according to "federal sources," the truck, which had a Texas license plate, came through Eagle Pass two days before the attack. Eagle Pass is on the U.S.-Mexico border and has bridges that connect to the Mexican city of Piedras Negras. Fox News reporter David Spunt said on air: We're hearing that the vehicle was traced to coming across from Mexico into the United States at Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago. To be clear, we don't 100% know that this man [] was the person driving that crossed the border. [] This is per two federal law enforcement sources. Aishah Hasnie, another Fox News correspondent, added to the claim on X, "The suspect's citizenship status is not yet confirmed." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Soon after the claim went viral, Hasnie edited the original post on X: "Clarifying - the TRUCK came across the border 2 days ago. We don't know if this suspect was inside this truck. Working to confirm ID of suspect." Just hours later, the network corrected the report and said the truck entered the country in November 2024, earlier than was previously reported, and that the driver of the truck at that time was not suspected in the attack. At some point the truck "changed hands," according to one host. Fox News shared the following update: Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News the truck used by the driver to kill 10 people and injure dozens more crossed over the border into Eagle Pass, Texas, on November 16. The identification of the driver who crossed the border does not appear to be the suspect, sources said. The pickup truck used in the Bourbon Street attack had a Texas license plate. Fox News retracts its earlier claim that the truck used in the New Orleans terror attack crossed the border two days ago, now reporting it entered through Eagle Pass, Texas, on November 16. pic.twitter.com/yT2CrvzOwb Ales Iz Neias (@alesizneias) January 1, 2025 An editor's note on Fox News' webpage with the live updates on the situation stated: "An earlier version of this blog post stated the truck had crossed into Eagle Pass two days ago. Sources tell FOX there was some initial confusion on their end about the date." Attacker rented truck The FBI identified the attacker as a U.S. citizen from Texas. According to an official statement: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today, at approximately 3:15 a.m. CST, an individual drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 10 and injuring dozens of others. After hitting the crowd, he exited the vehicle and fired upon local law enforcement. Law enforcement returned fire, and the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene. Two law enforcement officers were injured and transported to a local hospital. The subject has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas. He was driving a Ford pickup truck, which appears to have been rented, and we are working to confirm how the subject came into possession of the vehicle. An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. The vehicle, according to The New York Times, was rented via Turo, a peer-to-peer rental app that allows car owners to rent out their vehicles online. The owner recognized his vehicle when he saw it on the news. According to the Times, the truck's owner, who did not want his name used, said he had been renting five cars on the app as a second income stream. He added that he would not use the platform again after the attack. Turo released a statement confirming the vehicle was rented on the site. The company referred to both the attack in New Orleans and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas that occurred on the same day: It is with a heavy heart that we confirm that this morning's horrific attack in New Orleans and this afternoon's Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas both involved vehicles rented on Turo. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Our trust and safety team is actively partnering with law enforcement authorities to share any information that could be helpful in their investigations. We do not believe that either renter had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat, and we are not currently aware of any information that indicates the two incidents are related. The FBI also gave a timeline of the New Orleans attacker's actions, including when he picked up the truck. Chris Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said at a news conference: Investigators believe Jabbar picked up the rented F-150 in Houston, Texas, on Dec.30. He then drove from Houston to New Orleans the evening of the 31st and posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming his support for ISIS. There were five videos posted on Jabbar's Facebook account, which were time-stamped beginning at 1:29 a.m. and the last at 3:02 a.m. In the first video, Jabbar explained he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the "war between the believers and the disbelievers." Additionally, he stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. He also provided a will and testament. Raia added that the man was believed to have acted alone, telling reporters: "We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to The Associated Press, Jabbar was a U.S. Army veteran who deployed to Afghanistan for almost a year in February 2009. He left the military in 2020 with a staff sergeant rank. He also had deteriorating finances in 2022 when separating from his then-wife, according to court records. U.S. President Joe Biden said the attacker was "inspired by" ISIS, a militant Islamist group that gained prominence in 2014. Sources: "An Update on Today's Incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas." Turo, Jan. 1, 2025. https://turo.com/blog/news/an-update-on-todays-incidents-in-new-orleans-and-las-vegas/." target="blank">https://turo.com/blog/news/an-update-on-todays-incidents-in-new-orleans-and-las-vegas/.">https://turo.com/blog/news/an-update-on-todays-incidents-in-new-orleans-and-las-vegas/. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Barrett, Devlin, et al. "New Orleans Attacker Was 'Inspired' by ISIS, Biden Says." The New York Times, 1 Jan. 2025. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/01/us/new-orleans-vehicle-crash." target="blank">https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/01/us/new-orleans-vehicle-crash.">https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/01/us/new-orleans-vehicle-crash. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "FBI Statement on the Attack in New Orleans." FBI, 1 Jan. 2025, https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-the-attack-in-new-orleans." target="blank">https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-the-attack-in-new-orleans.">https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-the-attack-in-new-orleans. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Haberman, Maggie. "Trump Falsely Suggested New Orleans Suspect Was an Immigrant." The New York Times, 1 Jan. 2025. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/politics/trump-new-orleans.html." target="blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/politics/trump-new-orleans.html.">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/politics/trump-new-orleans.html. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "Live Updates: New Orleans Attacker Acted Alone in 'evil Act' That Killed 14; Rampage Was '100% Inspired by ISIS', Authorities Say." NBC News, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/live-updates-15-dead-new-orleans-attack-fbi-says-driver-wasnt-acting-a-rcna185955." target="blank">https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/live-updates-15-dead-new-orleans-attack-fbi-says-driver-wasnt-acting-a-rcna185955.">https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/live-updates-15-dead-new-orleans-attack-fbi-says-driver-wasnt-acting-a-rcna185955. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "New Orleans Suspect's Truck Came across Border in Eagle Pass, Texas | Fox News Video." Fox News, 1 Jan. 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366599125112." target="blank">https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366599125112.">https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366599125112. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scherer, Jasper. "Texas Man Identified as Suspect in Deadly New Orleans Truck Attack." The Texas Tribune, 1 Jan. 2025, https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/01/new-orleans-texas-truck-attack-shamsud-din-jabbar-new-years/." target="blank">https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/01/new-orleans-texas-truck-attack-shamsud-din-jabbar-new-years/.">https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/01/new-orleans-texas-truck-attack-shamsud-din-jabbar-new-years/. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "Suspect Identified as FBI Investigates Act of Terrorism after Bourbon Street Attack." Fox News, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/bourbon-street-mass-casualty-incident-new-orleans-live-updates." target="blank">https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/bourbon-street-mass-casualty-incident-new-orleans-live-updates.">https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/bourbon-street-mass-casualty-incident-new-orleans-live-updates. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "The Border Towns of "Lone Star."" Texas.gov. https://gov.texas.gov/film/trail/border-towns-of-lone-star." target="blank">https://gov.texas.gov/film/trail/border-towns-of-lone-star.">https://gov.texas.gov/film/trail/border-towns-of-lone-star. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "Truck Crossed Border Nov. 16, ID of Driver Doesn't Appear to Be Suspect, Sources Say | Fox News Video." Fox News, 1 Jan. 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366600733112." target="blank">https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366600733112.">https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366600733112. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vrentas, Jenny, et al. "Trucks in New Orleans Attack and Las Vegas Explosion Were Rented Using Turo." The New York Times, 2 Jan. 2025. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/turo-new-orleans-attack-vegas-explosion.html." target="blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/turo-new-orleans-attack-vegas-explosion.html.">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/turo-new-orleans-attack-vegas-explosion.html. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "What We Know about the Vehicle Attack on New Year's Day in New Orleans." AP News, 1 Jan. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-car-bourbon-street-1685016388d65039ce62e720aab2ba14." target="blank">https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-car-bourbon-street-1685016388d65039ce62e720aab2ba14.">https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-car-bourbon-street-1685016388d65039ce62e720aab2ba14. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Police and fire trucks are seen outside a house fire on Mandeville Street that may be connected to the mass casualty Bourbon Street attack where at least 14 people were killed when a person drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Year's Day on Jan. 1, 2025 in New Orleans. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images) NEW ORLEANS A fire at a home in the St. Roch neighborhood Wednesday morning is connected to the terror attack that took place just minutes away in the French Quarter, according to Louisianas attorney general. Bomb-making materials were found inside the house, which is a short-term rental property, WVUE-TV Fox 8 reports. The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, local police and firefighters remained at the scene for several hours Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least 15 people were killed and 35 injured when Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas drove a pickup truck around a police barricade across Bourbon Street, striking dozens of pedestrians who had been celebrating the arrival of the New Year. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with law enforcement that wounded two New Orleans police officers. The FBI is investigating the incident as a terror attack and believe multiple people were involved. A flag for the jihadist group Islamic State hung from a pole attached to the trailer hitch of the truck Jabbar drove, authorities said. Authorities have said Jabbar was a U.S. Army veteran from Texas. He graduated from Georgia State University in 2017 with a degree in computer information systems and held a real estate license from 2018-23. The financial services firm Deloitte confirmed that Jabbar was one of its employees. Around two hours after Jabbar plowed through the portion of Bourbon Street, first responders were called to a home in the 1300 block of Mandeville Street, about 2 miles away. Firefighters, police and bomb squad technicians were summoned to the address and reported a small fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorney General Liz Murrill told WDSU-TV that the house fire is connected to the terror attack. It tells us, one, they planned this out, two, they tried to cover this up, Murrill said. Murrill said surveillance video shows an explosive device being placed between a Louisiana State Police vehicle and a state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries unit. Both law enforcement agencies have supplemented local police patrols in New Orleans for the past several months. This report was updated throughout the day with new information. The New Orleans attack suspect carried an ISIS flag and pledged fealty to the group, officials said. The group, best known for global mass killings in 2015-2017, has again been gathering strength. The group was damaged but not defeated by a US-led campaign. Back in 2017, the ISIS militant group's reign of terror appeared to be coming to an end. A US-led coalition ousted its fighters from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, where they had ruled with brutality and inspired a series of harrowing attacks on Western cities. The loss of its bases and the assassination of many of its leaders badly dented its power, and its prominence faded. The attack in New Orleans on Wednesday brought the group back into stark prominence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least 15 people were killed, including the attacker, after the driver of a pickup truck slammed into New Year crowds on Bourbon Street authorities said the man identified as the driver had pledged allegiance to ISIS and flown its flag. Experts and security officials have in recent months issued increasingly urgent warnings of ISIS gathering strength. ISIS has "remained a continuing threat," said Jessica White, a terrorism analyst at London's Royal United Services Institute, even though it "had to adapt after its territorial defeat." "They are a diffuse and networked organisation that has alliances and branches that continue to wield influence, cause terror, and further their goals," she told Business Insider on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI said it was investigating what ties the suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, might have had with the group. Authorities at first said Jabbar likely did not act alone, though in a press briefing on Thursday the agency said it no longer believed anyone else was involved. ISIS renews itself ISIS was little known in 2015, when it shocked the world by seizing swaths of Syria and Iraq and putting them under a severe form of Islamic law. The group became known for atrocities, staging theatrical beheadings of hostages, seizing thousands as slaves, and orchestrating waves of terrorist attacks. Its adherents cumulatively killed hundreds of people in attacks on Western cities, including Paris and San Bernardino in 2015; Berlin, Brussels, Nice, and Orlando in 2016; and London and Barcelona in 2017. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attacks in Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia killed many hundreds more. A US-led military response, launched under President Barack Obama and continued under President Donald Trump, gradually eroded the group with airstrikes supported by allied militias on the ground. It culminated with the assassination of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, by US special operators in 2019. Trump has since boasted of destroying the group, claiming at last year's Republican National Convention that in his first term "we defeated 100% of ISIS." Since then, the US has maintained a small military presence in northern Syria meant to monitor and extinguish any resurgence by the group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Analysts say the group has seized on instability in Afghanistan, where the Taliban regained power after the 2021 US withdrawal, and ongoing chaos in Syria to quietly rebuild its strength. The group's Afghan affiliate, ISIS-K, presents a particularly potent threat, wrote Colin Clarke, the director of policy and research at The Soufan Group, for Foreign Policy in August. "It is both pushing its propaganda to a more global audience and threatening attacks farther afield," he wrote. ISIS-K was linked to the March 2024 attack on a music venue in Moscow where 145 people were killed, as well as an attack on a procession in Kerman, Iran, in January 2024 where 95 were killed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In August, officials foiled a planned ISIS attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. The CIA's deputy director said extremists planned to kill "a huge number" there. Tactics to spread terror One of the main challenges for investigators will be to establish whether the New Orleans attacker took direct instruction from ISIS or was acting on his own volition, Sajjan J. Gohel, the international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, told CNN. Unlike other groups like Al Qaeda, it mostly does not directly train extremists at its bases to carry out attacks. Instead, it largely remotely recruits and directs followers to carry out attacks that don't require much training, such as vehicle ramming or knife attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clarke, the ISIS expert, described this approach in his August article, called it a "virtual entrepreneur" model. "Operatives in Afghanistan or Pakistan make contact with would-be ISIS-K supporters abroad to try to convince them to carry out attacks in the countries where they reside," Clarke wrote. Attacks following that model include the 2016 beheading of a Catholic priest in a church in France, according to reports at the time. The group is now less concerned with recruiting members in Syria and Iraq and more on inciting attacks, said White, the RUSI expert. "While the focus has shifted away from gathering followers to a centralised physical Caliphate, this has transformed the messaging to encouraging devotees to commit attacks whenever, wherever, and by whatever means they can," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The New Orleans attack had "several strategic and symbolic considerations as potentially textbook ISIS," Gohel said. Vehicle rammings have been a feature of many deadly ISIS-linked attacks. The group's sophisticated propaganda is another powerful tool, enabling it to exploit grievances and attract supporters anywhere where there is internet access. In some cases, followers with no direct links to the group have carried out attacks in its name. The 2017 Westminster Bridge attack in London seemed to fit that pattern. The group's use of the internet, and success in radicalizing those with no previous extremist links, make it particularly difficult to tackle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "None of this is new. They just continue to throw it out every single day," Aaron Zelin, an expert on jihadist groups at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told NBC News of the group's methods. "And from their perspective, the hope is that it sticks with somebody." January 3, 2025: This story was updated to reflect a clarification by officials that the previously reported death toll of 15 in the New Orleans attack included the attacker. Read the original article on Business Insider Steel barriers on New Orleanss Bourbon Street had been malfunctioning and bollards on the popular thoroughfare were down for repair ahead of a deadly attack early Wednesday morning, police said. Police had reinforced the area, but a truck was able to get around the additional security and drive into the crowds on Bourbon Street shortly after the city rang in the new year, killing 10 people and injuring dozens more. This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target. We did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The steel barriers, which had been installed in the wake of a similar driving attack in Nice, France, in 2016, had been malfunctioning, prompting concerns they could get stuck and potentially block ambulances and people from getting in and out. We knew these were malfunctioning. So we did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it, Kirkpatrick added. Bollards installed on Bourbon Street were also being replaced ahead of the Super Bowl, which the city is set to host next month, and were not up at the time of the attack. We have been aware of the bollard situation for a long time, Kirkpatrick said. We did indeed harden those target areas where the bollards are we had patrol cars out there as a hard target as well as with barriers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver behind the attack, who has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was killed in a shootout with police. An ISIS flag, weapons and a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) were found in the truck he was driving. More potential IEDs were found in the French Quarter. The FBI said they are investigating whether Jabbar had any associations or affiliations with terrorist organizations and do not believe he acted alone. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. On New Year's Day, a man drove his speeding truck into a crowd of New Orleans partiers in what the FBI is calling a terrorist assault. He killed 15 people and injured more than 30 more before firing at New Orleans police, injuring two before officers shot and killed him. The suspect, who has been preliminary identified by the FBI as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen, Texas resident and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan for six years. Jabbar appeared to be carrying an ISIS flag. Authorities are trying to determine if he acted alone. "An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations," the FBI said in a statement. The agency also found more weapons and a potential explosive in Jabbar's rented pickup truck, and other potential explosives were found in the French Quarter region of the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later Wednesday, FBI special agent Alethea Duncan told reporters the ISIS flag was hanging from the trailer hitch of the rented truck. The suspect's motives are still unknown. Court records obtained by USA TODAY revealed that the twice-divorced Jabbar had been having severe financial difficulties despite holding a $120,000-a-year job. What is the ISIS flag? A wall painting can be seen of the ISIS flag at a former Islamic State base in the Syrian city of al-Bab, Syria September 19, 2017. The Flag of the Islamic State is black. White Arabic letters across the top say La ilaha illa-llah, or There is no god but Allah. Mohammad is the messenger of Allah. This phrase, known as the shahada, is an important declaration of Islamic faith. Below is a white circle with black lettering which translates to "Mohammed is the messenger of God" in an approximation of what's known as the Seal of Mohammed that the prophet is believed to have used on his letters, according to the Independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ISIS has co-opted several elements important to Islamists the color of the flag, an ancient tradition and possibly the color of one of the prophet's banners; the shahada, which has nothing to do with jihadism; and the Seal for their political and theological significance, according to Charlie Winter, senior researcher on Jihadism at the Quilliam Foundation think tank. The flag is also used by Al-Shabab in Somalia and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, among others, Winter said. The ISIS flag has been flown or found at multiple terrorist attacks and several American ISIS allies or sympathizers have been found with them. On the day after the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, someone replaced the American flag outside a Southern UItah school with the ISIS flag. What is ISIS? The Islamic State (IS), also called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), among many other names, is a Salafi jihadist group that promotes an extremist and harsh interpretation of Islamic law. ISIS has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations and has been denounced by mainstream Muslims as a perversion of their faith. The group formed in the 1990s as a breakaway group of al-Quida in protest to the presence of Western military forces in the Middle East and the Wests support for, and the existence of, Israel, according to the CIA's factsheet. At its height in 2015 ISIS had seized a massive area in Iraq and Syria with an estimated population of between 8 and 12 million people although a U.S.-led military intervention drove ISIS out of the last of its territory by 2017. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ISIS is now considered a much weaker insurgency but their tactics have inspired similar groups in Africa, Asia and Europe and they continue to inspire attacks around the world and in the United States. The group is known for brutal tactics, mass executions, political assassinations, torture, public and broadcasted beheadings, rape and sexual slavery, the destruction of cultural icons and antiquities, attacks on public areas where civilians gather, the large number of foreign fighters and a substantial social media presence, the CIA said. Their goal is to replace the world order with a global Islamic state based in Iraq and Syria. Contributing: John Bacon and Josh Meyer, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: ISIS flag displayed by New Orleans attacker. What it looks like FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) The suspect in the deadly New Orleans attack on New Years Day may have ties to central North Carolina, records show. Authorities said Samsud-Din Bahar Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 35. Jabbar was then shot and killed by police. RELATED | NC man feels blessed after being around the corner from New Orleans attack Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Voting records show a 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar is registered in Cumberland County. CBS 17 also found two addresses linked to Jabbar in Fayetteville. One was on Abbotts Park Road and another was on Reilly Road from 2012 and 2013. Jabbar served in the U.S. Army, as confirmed by an Army spokesperson. Islamic State-inspired driver expressed desire to kill before deadly New Orleans rampage, Biden says Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar was in the regular Army as a human resource specialist (42A) and information technology specialist (25B) from March 2007 until January 2015 and then in the Army Reserve as an IT Specialist (25B) from January 2015 until July 2020, the Army spokesperson said in a statement. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. He held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Army did not say if Jabbar was stationed at Fort Liberty. CBS 17 has reached out for more information. The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. The terrorist attack that killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others during a New Years celebration in New Orleans is bringing attention to the security planning for large events in Boston. The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is accused of driving a truck into a crowd in New Orleans French Quarter around 3:15 a.m. on New Years Day. Authorities said mechanical barricades that had been installed around Bourbon Street were not functioning and were being repaired ahead of the Super Bowl in February. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police cars and other barriers were placed on parts of Bourbon Street in their place. Boston 25s Security Analyst Dan Linskey is pointing out some key differences in Bostons approach to keeping vehicles away from crowds. If you could not secure it with one vehicle, you need to make sure that theres no ability to go around a vehicle. Wooden barriers are not going to do that, said Linskey. Linskey, whos the former superintendent-in-chief of the Boston Police Department, said law enforcement agencies across the Boston area are scrutinizing and improving security plans on a regular basis to address every possible scenario. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said authorities are routinely enhancing how, where, and when barriers are laid out to keep vehicles away from crowds and training officers in behavioral detection analysis. Its not about having a perfect plan. Its about having a planning process that can adapt to whatever situation might come your way as youre trying to implement that plan, he said. He said those adapting plans involving multiple agencies sometimes happen with little to no notice, including events like marching protests. We had Boston Police working with the Boston Public Works Department vehicles. They were paralleling streets and making sure while the protest group was moving, there was no vehicle access to that, explained Linskey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The terrorist attack in New Orleans is highlighting how often that additional prevention is happening in Boston, at events both large and small. Not only do we use multiple jurisdictions for law enforcement. We use multiple departments. The city of Boston and other hosting cities will sometimes deploy DPW vehicles to block off roads. We didnt see that in New Orleans, said law enforcement and security expert Todd McGhee. McGhee said the time that the truck rammed into the crowd on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. also shows how tough these types of attacks are to predict and plan for. Id like to think if anything bad was going to happen, itd be right at the height of midnight. Right when the clock strikes. Someone looking for that extra media attention and to get their grievance out to the world, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies warned police around the country that low-tech vehicle ramming was a key area of concern in the weeks leading up to the holidays. A joint intel bulletin told police that they needed to prepare and remain vigilant. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW OLIVE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has selected its next chairperson, a newly elected Republican who is not backed by conservative political action committee Ottawa Impact. Non-Ottawa Impact Republicans win commission majority Thursday morning, the board chose John Teeples, representing District 7, for the role. Teeples was elected to the board in November. This is a wonderful county that everybody should feel that they should be part of, Teeples said. My goal is to make it feel that this is their county. Im just a representative to try and lead us to where we can be better. My decisions will be made on principle, on common sense. It wont be spontaneous. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The position was formerly held by Joe Moss of Hudsonville, who founded Ottawa Impact. Moss was reelected to the board in November, defeating a Democratic challenger but with just three other Ottawa Impact-backed commissioners returning to their seats out of 11 districts, Moss was not selected to serve as chairman again, though he was nominated Thursday and did receive some votes. Board Chair Moss admits mistakes along the way, but says Ottawa Impact stuck to principles I dont think we should just throw out everything that OI stood for the last two years, Teeples said. There is a segment of the community that leans that direction. The more debate, the more discussion, the more views, I think good decisions get made. So, it isnt one side or the other, its a collective effort to make decisions. The board made decisions that werent good for all of us and we will correct those, but we shouldnt just throw the baby out with the bathwater. Moss was also nominated for the position of vice chair Thursday, but the Board of Commissioners ultimately selected Josh Brugger, who represents District 10. Like Teeples, Brugger is a Republican who is not backed by Ottawa Impact. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brugger said during the public comment section, he was struck by the fear that some of our constituents on both sides of the political aisle have about being represented right here in Ottawa County. Rest assured: we hear you. We are going to do our best to find the common ground between different viewpoints and move us forward, he said. Were going to be systematic, transparent, and we are going to try and get back to some good, boring government in Ottawa County. Ottawa County voters in November elected 10 Republicans four of whom are affiliated with Ottawa Impact and one Democrat to the board. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb takes questions during a March 2020 news conference, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo courtesy Holcomb's Flickr) Looking back on two terms in office, outgoing Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb doesnt have regrets or at least not many. The Republican statesman is just days away from bringing his eight years as governor to a close. Hell officially hand the reins to Gov.-elect Mike Braun on January 13. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a sit-down interview with the Indiana Capital Chronicle in December, Holcomb pointed to economic gains like job and wage growth, and an influx of new business developments in the state among his biggest wins. His tenure as Indianas 51st head of state was most notably defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, however. Even so, Holcomb said he hopes to be revered as more than just a COVID governor. I hope people say that we were served at a point in time that while the economy grew we were able to invest and reinvest and modernize things that had been on the shelf gathering dust, understandably, because we didnt have the money and we upgraded so many different facilities that will have a positive impact on peoples lives and give them more opportunities, he said. And then maybe even most importantly, that I was a person that respected everyone, whether I agreed with them or not, or they with me. And that I was kind, even during the most challenging times. Thats enough for me. Holcombs COVID-19 response The Holcomb administrations response to the global pandemic likely earned the governor the most criticism, much of which from conservatives who disapproved of Indianas statewide mask mandate and other COVID-19 restrictions that Holcomb imposed by executive order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Youre never going to please everyone, and you might not even please half of them. But what gave me confidence, actually strength, during it all, was that we were looking at all the information that we could get our hands on and were connected with communities in all 92 counties. We were connected to trade associations, to schools, to hospitals, to local health departments, to all kinds of entities that had an opinion, Holcomb recalled. Gov. Eric Holcomb speaks at the Indiana Global Economic Summit in downtown Indianapolis on Thursday, May 23, 2024. (Leslie Bonilla Muniz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) There was some disinformation and misinformation. And information was changing daily and we were trying, he continued. What gave me strength and confidence is the administration was trying to do the right thing, regardless of the hit that I might take politically. No matter how hard it is or unpopular it is, I have to do the right thing. Ill defend it to the end. But if there is one regret Holcomb has, it came in May 2020, after a photo was posted on Facebook showing the governor posing at the Hobnob Corner Restaurant in Nashville, Indiana, with two other people none of whom were wearing masks. The photo was posted amid rising statewide tensions over Holcombs stay-at-home orders that caused many businesses to shut down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (The woman who wanted a photo) asked, Could I get a picture with our faces? And it was so innocently asked, and I didnt get COVID after it. So, it was almost like, Well, why are you telling us to wear it? I get it, Holcomb said. I wish I wouldnt have done that. Ire was also high among state legislators, some from within Holcombs own party. Throughout the dog days of the pandemic, Holcomb said he was in constant communication with legislative leadership. Although the governor was always asking if lawmakers wanted to come back in session, they never did. In 2021, lawmakers approved a measure that sought to give the Republican-dominated legislature the power to call themselves into special session after the governor has declared an emergency. Holcomb vetoed, claiming it went against the Indiana Constitution, but the General Assembly overrode his veto. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, Holcomb prevailed before the Indiana Supreme Court. He called the debacle an honest disagreement that I didnt lose any friendships over. There were some disagreements among us. You had to make calls like, where does ones individual liberty infringe on another persons individual? Do you believe its airborne-transmitted? Some didnt, I do. And people were also angry that I was promoting getting vaccinated, Holcomb said. With an issue like a global pandemic that was unlike in 1918, where information traveled faster than light and sound, and there were different motivations you just had to try to do the right thing, he added. I know that sounds so cliche, but we tried to balance lives and livelihoods every single opportunity that confronted us. Gov. Eric Holcomb pauses during his final State of the State Address Tuesday Jan. 9, 2024 in the Indiana Statehouse. (Monroe Bush for the Indiana Capital Chronicle) Still, Holcomb emphasized that theres another, far more supportive side of the conversation surrounding his response pandemic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To this day, if we were to go to an MCL or to Hardees or wherever, if you and I went in and we were standing there, inevitably, someone comes up to me and says, Thanks for the way you handled COVID, the governor said. Im almost amazed by I shouldnt be but the lingering positive effect of how we got through it all. The attention has been on the loud, angry disagreers, on the people that protested with guns on their backs and dressed me up as Hitler out here. They wanted attention. They had their own motivation, and some of it was probably pure, and they were afraid of the government taking over their lives, he continued. I know this sounds thin-skinned of me, but we had a (gubernatorial) election after it (in 2020), and the one thing that kind of stifled some of the noise was the people spoke, and it riled up this silent majority that said, Those people are being unfair, and Im going to vote, and Im going to cross over, and Im going to express my support. And then they said, in a record number, keep going. Holcomb said he also wishes he could have done more to improve Indianas infant and maternal mortality rates. Despite significant focus, the state still ranks among the worst in the country for both metrics. The governor said the lack of progress is one of few shortfalls that will haunt me. Were nowhere where I thought we could be after years. Not close. Its not because were not trying. Theres a shortcoming somewhere, because other states are doing a better job than we are, and I dont want to just blame the state it takes two to tango, Holcomb said. Weve got really good corporate partners, great stakeholders who are helping us, trying to provide the education to expecting or new mothers. But we just cannot figure it out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Holcomb cited resistance from the General Assembly as a major inhibitor to achieving better maternal health. Lawmakers, he said, just flat out thought pregnancy accommodations for mothers, for example, amounted to government intervention in the business workplace that was unnecessary. I always thought it was a pro-growth culture that wasnt anti-business, for sure, Holcomb said. It was the opposite to me. Trials and triumphs Holcomb had a breadth of political experience but not governing experience when he assumed office in January 2017. Before he was governor, Holcomb was an advisor to both then-Gov. Mitch Daniels and former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats. He additionally worked for Congressman John Hostettler and as a state chairman of the Indiana Republican Party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Holcombs gubernatorial campaign lasted just 106 days, after former Gov. Mike Pence was tapped as would-be President Donald Trumps vice president in 2016. His biggest surprise over the last eight years has been the amount of turnover in government, media, the judiciary, and other public sectors. Holcomb said the lack of consistency and continuity causes Hoosiers real people to be less connected to elected officials and others whose decisions have impact. Its the amount of change, not just technology, and how its impacting and forcing change on how to govern, or how to cover those governing. The turnover and how that translates to the average citizen who doesnt read (the news), or see every press release I put out, or is just earning a living and trying to get by, or recover from an addiction, or fill in the blank, he said. There is a need for all of us, including me, to be a better storyteller about why we do what we do, and not just assume. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governor said his greatest accomplishment aside from economic development wins was not taking the bait and staying focused on the job despite a lot of upheaval, and a lot of transition, and a lot of new faces, and new motivations, and new competition. People want you to think about running for this. Say you ought to do that. You ought to come out and address the protesters whatever it is to get my attention diverted from the job that I have, Holcomb said. Im not trying to pat myself on the back, but that takes discipline, and a really good team that also stays focused on the job that they have. Looking ahead As the transition of power nears, Holcomb said he has a list of recommendations to hand off to his successor. Included are a number of capital investment deals hell advise Braun to chase, along with possible actions for improving maternal and infant health. Above anything else, Holcomb said Indianas next governor should expect to be learning and learning a lot every day. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its one thing to be convicted, and to have your opinions, and have a good plan, and execute and implement and tweak it, and pivot and scramble, or whatever. Its another thing to just understand that this is the first time any of us ever had the job. Its different from every other job. And Im not saying its harder. Im just saying its a different job, and you have to be aware that youre going to be learning, Holcomb said. And I would say to remain humble, in the sense that youre going to be learning every day about things, and its necessary then to stay in contact with people in every county, okay, and different associations, and all these tentacles that you have. What comes next for the departing state leader is still to be decided, but he and First Lady Janet Holcomb who will move just northwest of Indianapolis after leaving the governors residence plan to lay low and travel a little less, for now. Weve had a busy few months, and just kind of want to exhale, and spend some time with family, initially, and friends that just always seem to kind of take the hit, he said. But I wont go stir crazy. I mean, Ill get busy after a few months, doing something. Its also the more mundane aspects of day-to-day lift that Holcomb said hes looking forward to most, like mowing the lawn with my headphones. I would love to be able to go to CVS or Walgreens and buy Q-tips without having to be followed or without addressing the decision that I just made the other day, Holcomb said, chuckling. Or maybe when I go out to eat and Im sure my mouth is open when Im chewing and I can see (someone coming up to me) out of the corner out of my eye. Its just the anonymity that you had prior will be nice, or not having law enforcement so close every minute of the day. And as for another go at elected office? Not right now, Holcomb said of any possible future political aspirations. Ive not devoted one second to that, and in fact, I need a break. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Editors Note: This article has been updated to provide clarification regarding an individuals usual water consumption. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) A San Angelo man was left surprised after he received a water bill that alleged he had used almost 9 million gallons of water within a month and owed over $117,000 in fees. Sam Williams, a home inspector with Angelo Home Inspection, said that he saw the bill on Dec. 28, 2024, while in a rush to get to a Christmas party. When he opened the envelope, he was shocked by what he saw. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My knee-jerk action was like, Oh my god!' Williams said. After that, I processed it, and I was like, Theres no way. This is so astronomical and so far off that clearly this has to be an error.' The bill, delivered to him for his homes water usage, outlined a fee that totaled $117,483.33 for the use of over 8.9 million gallons of water, causing his overall bill to spike to $117,867.91. He shared that his typical water consumption is between 8,500 gallons and 9,500 gallons. I just started laughing, Williams said. I set it down and went to the party, and we all had a good chuckle about it. San Angelo, Texas, resident Sam Williams was shocked to receive a water bill on Dec. 28, 2024, that alleged that he had used almost 9 million gallons of water. Williams said that he never used that much water, which is enough to fill approximately 13.5 Olympic swimming pools as measured by required pool size standards mandated by water sport organization World Aquatics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its an outrageous number, Williams said. I dont think theres that much water in O.C. Fisher! He took to social media to share what had happened, with two of his Facebook posts published regarding the bill having since garnered 200 comments and 461 reactions. The more people started responding to my post, I started getting a little stressed about it, Williams said. First euthanasia list of 2025 posted Williams contacted the City of San Angelos Water Customer Service, and representatives who spoke with him were also surprised by the numbers listed in the bill. They were like, Oh my god!' Williams said. Then they started laughing, they pulled it up, theyre like, Uh, yeah, no, that is absolutely an error on our part.' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Water Customer Service representative told a Concho Valley Homepage reporter that the error was caused by a glitch in a computer system related to customers water consumption. The representative stated that multiple customers reported similar incidents and that corrected bills were being issued to those affected by the glitch. Williams stated that Water Customer Service has since helped resolve the situation he found himself in. They were super helpful, easy to work with, Williams said. We got a good chuckle about it. Williams said that he has since framed the incorrect bill and plans to keep it in his office, where he hopes it will make for an interesting conversation piece. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Over 300,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap into Panama in 2024, 42% fewer than the record number who made the perilous jungle crossing from South America a year earlier, Panama's migration authorities told Reuters on Thursday. The dangerous Darien Gap connects Colombia with the Central American nation of Panama and increasing numbers of migrants were making the journey north to reach the United States. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino has taken a harder stance on migration since taking office last July, including fencing parts of the Darien with barbed wire, imposing fines and using flights funded by the United States to deport migrants. Officials with Panama's National Migration Service told Reuters 302,203 migrants crossed the Darien last year, down 42% from the record 520,085 in 2023. Some 69% of migrants in 2024 were Venezuelans, they said. Many Venezuelans have been fleeing a prolonged economic collapse in the once-prosperous South American oil-producing nation. "We are working every day to ensure that illegal migration does not reach Panama City or the rest of the country," Mulino said in a speech to lawmakers on Thursday. Mulino added that his government has deported 1,548 migrants on flights arranged through an agreement with the United States. However, 209,000 Venezuelans who crossed the Darien last year were permitted to continue their journey as Panama and Venezuela suspended direct flights after Venezuela's disputed July election. Analysts have warned Panama's measures may not be ultimately successful because they do not tackle the root issues prompting people to migrate, and that they could make the journey even more dangerous. (Reporting by Elida Moreno; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Rod Nickel) KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) The restaurant with a failing grade was closed temporarily because its refrigerator was not working properly. The inspector embargoed over 400 pounds of food. The grade is a 69 at El Parian Mexican Restaurant on Genesis Road, in Crossville. That 69 is a failing score as any grade of 69 and below is considered a failing grade. El Parian Mexican Restaurant, 2565 Genesis Rd, Crossville Grade: 69, Follow-up: 93 To begin with, when the inspector checked inside the refrigerator the temperature read 50 degrees. 41 and below is the proper cool temperature to slow bacteria growth. Many foods were way above temperature. Ground beef was at 68 degrees, and shredded chicken was at 61 degrees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When questioned, the manager told the inspector no logs had been maintained. Theyre required to be. Because there was no other refrigerator at El Parian, 473 pounds of food were thrown away and the restaurant was closed temporarily until repairs were made. Former Knoxville FBI Agent explains terrorism investigation criteria following New Orleans attack Frozen raw beef was being improperly thawed in a container of standing water. Frozen food is best thawed in the refrigerator to prevent the growth of bacteria. When he checked inside the microwave oven, the inspector found spattered food debris. The oven was ordered to be cleaned. Finally, the inspector wrote that the person in charge, the manager, lacked managerial control due to the number of critical violations and the temperature control issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The inspector returned to El Parian Mexican in Crossville. The refrigerator has been repaired. The inspector checked the original violations, and all had been corrected. The new re-inspected grade is 93. Food-For-Thought-1-2Download Top Scores of the Week Oliver Royale, 5 Market Sq. Knoxville 100 Bojangles, 7107 Strawberry Plains Pk, Knoxville 100 Union Station Rocky Hill, 7706 Northshore Dr, Knoxville 99 Cool Beans Bar and Grill, 1817 Lake Ave, Knoxville 99 The Corner Lounge 842 N. Central St, Knoxville 99 Zaxbys, 2024 Cumberland Ave, Knoxville 99 Zaxbys, 6913 Kingston Pk, Knoxville 99 Arbys, 6909 Kingston Pk, Knoxville 99 Little Bangkok, 603 N. Campbell Station Rd, Knoxville 98 Buffalo Mountain Grill, 205 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge 98 Firehouse Subs, 1020 Baker Hwy, Huntsville 98 Thai House Restaurant, 921 Decatur Pk, Athens 98 SECOND HELPING: Miss a Food for Thought segment? See them all here. Inspectors check restaurants every six months, the visits are unannounced. If you have a legitimate complaint mention it politely to the manager, or call your local health department, and an inspector will conduct a surprise visit. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools that permit people to produce online reviews have put sellers, service providers and buyers in unfamiliar territory, public protection groups and researchers say. False, or fake, reviews have long appeared on many popular websites such as Amazon and Yelp. The reviews are often traded on private social media groups between fake review dealers and businesses willing to pay. Sometimes, businesses get good reviews in exchange for offering buyers rewards such as gift cards. But AI tools, popularized by OpenAIs ChatGPT, permit people to produce reviews faster and in greater numbers, technology industry experts say. Where are AI-generated reviews appearing? Fake reviews are found across a wide range of industries, from e-commerce and travel to services such as home repairs, medical care and music lessons. The Transparency Company is a technology company and public protection group that uses software to detect fake reviews. The company said it started to see AI-generated reviews appear in large numbers in mid-2023. The reviews have increased quickly ever since. For a recently released report, The Transparency Company examined 73 million reviews in three areas: home, legal and medical services. Nearly 14 percent of the reviews were likely fake. The company expressed a high degree of confidence that 2.3 million reviews were partly or entirely AI-produced. Last September, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took legal action against the company behind an AI writing tool and content producer called Rytr. The FTC accused Rytr of offering a service that could pollute the marketplace with fake reviews. The FTC, which banned the sale or purchase of fake reviews in 2024, said some of Rytrs buyers used the tool to produce hundreds and perhaps thousands of reviews. The reviews appeared in support of garage door repair companies, sellers of copied designer handbags and other businesses. What are companies doing? Major companies are developing policies for how AI-generated content fits into their systems for removing fake reviews. Some companies already employ special programs and investigative teams to find and remove fake reviews. Still, the companies are giving users some ability to use AI. Spokespeople for Amazon and Trustpilot, for example, said they would permit buyers to post AI-assisted reviews as long as the buyers represent their true experience. Yelp has taken a more cautious approach, saying its rules require reviewers to write their own reviews. The Coalition for Trusted Reviews, which Amazon, Trustpilot, Glassdoor, Tripadvisor, Expedia and Booking.com launched last year, said that even though people may put AI to illegal use, the technology also presents an opportunity to push back against those who seek to use reviews to mislead others. The FTCs rule banning fake reviews, which took effect in October, permits the agency to fine businesses and individuals who take part in fake reviews. Tech companies hosting such reviews are protected from the penalty. This is because they are not legally responsible under U.S. law for the content that outsiders post on their websites. Tech companies, including Amazon, Yelp and Google, have sued fake review dealers they accuse of selling fake reviews on their sites. The companies say their technology has blocked or removed a large number of suspect reviews and suspicious accounts. However, some experts say they could be doing more. Their efforts thus far are not nearly enough, said Kay Dean, a former federal criminal investigator who runs a public protection group called Fake Review Watch. If these tech companies are so committed to eliminating review fraud on their platforms, why is it that I, one individual who works with no automation, can find hundreds or even thousands of fake reviews on any given day? Finding fake reviews Consumers can try to find fake reviews by watching out for a few possible warning signs, researchers say. Overly good or bad reviews are suspect. Highly specialized terms that repeat a products full name or model number are another possible clue. When it comes to AI, research done by Balazs Kovacs, a Yale professor, has shown that people cannot tell the difference between AI-created and human-written reviews. Some AI detectors may also be fooled by shorter texts, which are common in online reviews, the study said. However, there are some AI clues that online shoppers and service seekers should keep in mind. Panagram Labs says reviews written with AI are often longer, highly structured and include empty descriptors. Empty descriptors include general phrases and attributes or characteristics. The writing also often includes overused phrases or opinions like the first thing that struck me and game-changer. I'm John Russell. And I'm Anna Matteo. Haleluya Hadero reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English. ___________________________________________ Words in This Story review -- n. an evaluation or assessment of a product or service opportunity -- n. a good chance for progress mislead v. to lead in a wrong direction or into a mistaken action sue -- v. to seek justice from someone by legal process fraud -- n. intentional changing of truth in order to get another person to part with something of value automation n. automatically controlled operation of a system by and electronic device that takes the place of human labor clue -- n. an idea; a piece of evidence that leads one toward a solution detect-- v. to find or discover the true nature of something; to discover something PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A overturned truck trailer blocked traffic on the highway during rush hour near Woodburn early Thursday morning. Just after 6:30 a.m., officials responded to reports of the incident on the I-5 northbound off ramp near milepost 271. Two dead in fatal crash on I-84, highway closed between Ontario and Baker City According to TripCheck, the traffic was delayed for up to 20 minutes before the ramp reopened at around 9 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No injuries have been reported at this time. KOIN 6 News will have more information later. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. WILLIAMSBURG, Mass. (WWLP) A barred owl was rescued after being struck by a vehicle on New Years Eve in Williamsburg. Cooley Dickinson Hospital welcomed first baby of 2025 The Williamsburg Police and Fire Department stated that a resident brought an injured owl to the Public Safety Complex after it appeared to have been struck by a vehicle on Route 143. Williamsburg Police and Fire Department Williamsburg Police and Fire Department Williamsburg Police and Fire Department The owl was taken to a local veterinary clinic and is expected to make a full recovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barred owls can be found in most of Massachusetts other than the islands, and can be heard calling year-round, according to the Mass Audubon. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) A brazen break-in at a shoe store in Fresno, California, was all for nothing after the owner was already a step ahead of the would-be thieves, he said. Locally owned DripOnDrip was boarded up Monday after what was described as a shocking break-in earlier in the morning. An evil act: Louisiana officials, FBI say suspect in NOLA attack acted alone Seeing the building that youre working out of almost every day just be damaged. Its shocking, said Roman Gonzales, the owner of the shop. (Surveillance image courtesy of Roman Gonzales) Security camera footage from outside of DripOnDrip on Monday morning shows two sedans driving up to the front of the shop just after 3 a.m. One of them rammed through the front of the store. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several people are then seen getting out of both cars and running inside. But they soon become confused and leave the store around 30 seconds later. If they would have looked through the window, they would have saved themselves some time and energy from even trying to break in, said Gonzales. They would have noticed that there is nothing here on the floor for them to take. Roman Gonzales, the owner of DripOnDrip in Fresno, California, says hes developed a routine to thwart potential thievery. (KSEE/KGPE) Gonzales got the idea to remove visible merchandise nightly after thieves broke into his former location last year, taking most of his inventory. He now clears the floor every night and leaves the cash register open, right next to the window, to show that theres no cash inside. The only thing he leaves out at night is a wall of right-foot shoes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres no value once you take this shoe. I mean, you cant just buy a left-foot shoe online either. So youre not going to be able to use that item or even resell it. Its just pointless, Gonzales said. Man who died in Cybertruck explosion was active-duty US Army Green Beret Gonzales said the robbery suspects ended up taking some loose backpacks and a couple of right-foot shoes as well as a few other pairs he had planned to donate to local teens. But he believes the suspects would have taken much more if he hadnt thought ahead. A spokesperson for River Park, a shopping area in Fresno, told Nexstars KSEE/KGPE that they and Gonzales have met to discuss future safety measures. River Park will increase their overnight security staff, they said, while Gonzales mentioned that there are considerations to install traffic safety poles in front of his store to prevent cars from driving on the sidewalk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gonzales added that River Parks security officers and their quick response to Mondays burglary attempt gave him some confidence to continue operating his business there. He plans to open his shop as normal for the rest of the week. Lets hope they get caught and learn from this situation, Gonzales said of the suspects. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. The Palestinian Authority has suspended Al Jazeera from broadcasting and operating in the occupied West Bank. It accused the network of broadcasting inciting materials and misleading reports that provoke strife and interfere in Palestinian internal affairs, Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, said Wednesday. The decision also includes the temporary suspension of all journalists and staff associated with it, as well as the channels under its umbrella, until its legal status is rectified, due to Al Jazeeras violation of the laws and regulations in force in Palestine, the Palestinian news agency said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Al Jazeera condemned the decision, calling it in line with the practices of the occupation against its crews. A video from Al Jazeera shows three Palestinian law enforcement personnel entering a hotel room in Ramallah, in the central West Bank, and handing a letter to journalist Najwan Simri, who then signs it. The letter signed by the Palestinian Authoritys attorney general Akram Al-Khateeb, orders the banning and freezing of all operations of Al Jazeera Satellite channel and its office in Palestine and freezing the work of all journalists working with the station, crews and affiliate channels temporarily until its situation is corrected due to [Al Jazeeras] violation of the provisions of the laws and regulations. CNN has reached out to the Palestinian Authority for details on the reason behind the decision, and how long the ban will be in effect. This marks the first time the network has faced such restrictions from Palestinian officials, including the Palestinian Authority which governs parts of the occupied West Bank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Israeli officials have repeatedly attempted to stifle the news network, shutting down its operations in May, seizing equipment, and stopping broadcasts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government has long complained about Al Jazeeras operations, alleging anti-Israeli bias and accusing the network of being a mouthpiece for Hamas. Al Jazeera has rejected the claims as unfounded allegations. Months after shutting down the networks Jerusalem office, Israeli forces raided and shut down its Ramallah office in the occupied West Bank in September. Al Jazeera said it would continue reporting on the war on Gaza and the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories and the regional escalation. Since then, employees from Al Jazeera have used the title of journalist rather than network correspondent when reporting from the West Bank. Following Mondays announcement by the Palestinian Authority, Al Jazeera reiterated its commitment to continue covering events and developments in the West Bank with full professionalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decision came from the Palestinian Authoritys specialized ministerial committee, which includes the Ministries of Culture, Interior, and Communications, according to Wafa. Lawyers like Muhannad Karajah from Lawyers for Justice an independent Ramallah-based Palestinian group of lawyers have challenged the legality of the order which did not come from a judicial ruling. A controversial operation In its statement on Monday, Al Jazeera said it views the Palestinian Authoritys decision as an attempt to deter it from covering the escalating events taking place in the occupied territories. The closure decision comes in the wake of a continuous campaign of incitement and intimidation from entities sponsored by the Palestinian Authority against our journalists, the news network said. It called the decision an attempt to conceal the truth of events in the occupied territories, especially in Jenin and its camp. The Al Jazeera television network office is seen in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on May 5, 2024. - Zain Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images The Qatari-based news network, which has produced dogged, on-the-ground reporting of Israels war in Gaza, has also extensively covered an operation by Palestinian security forces that began in December, in the occupied West Bank to combat what they describe as extremist outlaws in Jenin. The fighting between the Palestinian Authoritys security forces and Palestinian militant groups aligned with Hamas who accuse the authority of selling out to Israel - has been highly controversial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Al Jazeera was also criticized by the Palestinian Authority following the networks coverage of the killing of Palestinian journalist Shatha Sabbagh, whose family accused Palestinian security forces of shooting her in the head on Saturday during their Jenin operation. In a virtual interview on Sunday with Al Jazeera anchor Ahmed Taha, alongside Sabbaghs mother, the spokesperson for the Palestinian security forces Anwar Rajab said he was not notified he would be on air with the mother. After listening to her for about three and a half minutes, in which she accused the security forces of killing her daughter, Rajab offered his condolences and then accused Al Jazeera of being unprofessional and taking advantage of peoples suffering and pain. After an apology from the anchor for not notifying the spokesperson beforehand, Rajab said the security forces were not responsible for the killing of Shatha Sabbagh and said investigations were ongoing. Following a further heated exchange with the anchor, Rajab accused Al Jazeera of inciting and leading sedition before leaving the interview. Widespread condemnation Al Jazeera said it was astonished by the Palestinian Authoritys decision and said the authority is fully responsible for the safety of the networks staff in the West Bank. The network demanded the authority revoke their decision and allow teams to continue their coverage in the area without intimidation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Others across the Palestinian territories echoed Al Jazeeras calls for rescinding the decision. Independent Palestinian politician and head of the Palestinian National Initiative Mostafa Al Barghouti said the networks Palestinian reporters face continuous assaults from the occupation and said the order against it does not benefit the Palestinian people or their just cause, nor does it benefit those who made this decision. The order also drew condemnation from the Palestinian Journalists Protection Center, a Ramallah-based NGO that called the decision a shameful assault on press freedom. Hamas condemned the decision as illegal and unjustified. Ibrahim Dahman and Kareem Khadder contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Al Jazeeras West Bank operations will be suspended by the Palestinian Authority following coverage of its clashes with terror groups. Wafa, the official news agency of the authority, accused the Qatari-sponsored news network of inciting content and reports characterised by misinformation, incitement, sedition and interference in Palestinian internal affairs. The decision also includes temporarily freezing the work of all journalists, employees, crews and affiliated channels until their legal status is rectified due to Al Jazeeras violations of the laws and regulations in force in Palestine, the statement continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The channel aired images of what appeared to be Palestinian security officers entering the networks office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday and handing over the suspension orders. Responding to the allegations and the closure of its West Bank office, Al Jazeera said it considers the decision nothing but an attempt to dissuade the channel from covering the rapidly escalating events taking place in the occupied territories. The network said it was calling on the authority to immediately retract and cancel the decision and allow its teams to freely cover events in the West Bank without any threats or intimidation. Al Jazeera stresses that this decision will not deter it from its commitment to continue its professional coverage of events and developments in the West Bank, it added. The Palestinian Authority has suspended Al Jazeeras West Bank operations - Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP The move comes after the Palestinian Authority has cracked down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad members in Jenin since early December, leading to several killed on both sides, including a journalist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mohammad Daraghmeh, a Palestinian analyst, told The Telegraph that Al Jazeera is clearly taking a side and that its not hiding it. Al Jazeeras editorial line is clear to everyone. They definitely bring on guests who have the same view. If you say otherwise, they wont host you again as an analyst, he said. Mr Daraghmeh added the PA has its own TV channel which is also biased: So they cant blame others for that. Besides, no one has the right to close any media operation, any media outlet, no matter its coverage. Last month, Hamas called on all movements, factions, tribal gatherings, and human rights organisations to mobilise massively against the PA in Jenin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The terror group later demanded, in a joint statement with Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), that the PA immediately withdraw the forces and members of the security services from (Jenin) and lift the siege. The PA has lost control of many areas in the northern West Bank in recent years, with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other local terror groups controlling places like Jenin. Israel has conducted continuous military campaigns against terror groups in the West Bank since spring 2022, ramping up its arrests and killings of terrorists since October 7. A show for Trump The decision by the PA to launch an operation in Jenin should also be seen in light of Donald Trumps return to power. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Mr Daraghmeh, the PA is trying to show the incoming president that it is in control of the West Bank and can therefore also be trusted to rule post-war Gaza. This is the only reason, he said. Its unclear which position Mr Trump will take on post-war Gaza, but if the PA cant control the northern West Bank its unlikely he will consider it a suitable governor of Gaza. Daraghmeh added with the changes in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, the PA considers it the right time to crack down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both rely on financial and military support from Iran whose position in the Middle East has been significantly weakened following clashes with Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the Israeli government has refused to let the PA govern Gaza, the US has been pushing to revitalise the PA so it can play a role in the enclave after the war. The Israeli government has long accused the PA of supporting terror, mainly through its pay-to-slay programme, which gives money to Palestinian prisoners. According to the think tank Foundation for Defence of Democracies, the PA spends some 238 million annually on stipends for prisoners. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has suspended the Qatari-based Al Jazeera television news channel and its employees from operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, citing repeated violations of Palestinian laws and regulations. All journalists, staff, and associated channels affiliated with Al Jazeera will be suspended until the network rectifies its legal issues and complies with applicable laws and regulations, the PA said, according to a statement cited by the Palestine News & Info Agency WAFA on Wednesday. The move was attributed to Al Jazeera broadcasting inflammatory material and reports that misled the public, sowed discord and interfered in the internal affairs of Palestine, WAFA reported, citing the statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli military had previously closed Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah, the PA's seat, in September. However, teams and reporters from the channel continued to report from all parts of the West Bank. They no longer appeared as Al Jazeera employees but as independent media workers. The Israeli government shut down Al Jazeera's operations in Israel in May 2024. The organization's offices in Israel were closed, broadcasting equipment confiscated, the station removed from cable and satellite television channels and its website blocked. In the West Bank, the widely watched channel initially remained in the favour of the PA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, tensions appear to have shifted following prolonged clashes in the city of Jenin, where armed groups, including members of the Islamist militia group Hamas, have engaged in heavy fighting with the PA's security forces for nearly a month. Al Jazeera has reportedly been criticized by the PA and the Fatah movement, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, for what they perceive as one-sided reporting on the conflict, aligning with armed factions opposing the authority. Jan. 2 (UPI) -- The Palestinian Authority's Ministerial Committee said Wednesday it has temporarily suspended Al Jazeera's broadcast operations in Palestine. The suspension order includes work by all Al Jazeera-associated journalists, staff and channels. It will stay in effect until the network resolves its legal status in Palestine. Al Jazeera said in a statement that it considers this suspension "nothing but an attempt to dissuade the channel from covering the rapidly escalating events taking place in the occupied territories." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This decision comes following the ongoing campaign of incitement and intimidation by parties associated with the Palestinian Authority against Al Jazeera's journalists and correspondents," Al Jazeera said. "The decision to freeze Al Jazeera's work and prevent its journalists from conducting their duties is an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps." The Palestinian Authority Ministerial Committee said the suspension is due to Al Jazeera's alleged repeated violations of Palestinian laws and regulations. Participants hold a poster reading, 'Targeting Journalist is A Crime', together with poster of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed while reporting in Palestine, in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 3, 2024. File photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE It accused Al Jazeera of broadcasting inciteful content, spreading misinformation and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs. Al Jazeera said it is shocked by the decision and added that the network "holds the Palestinian Authority fully responsible for the safety and security of all its employees in the West Bank." Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh (C-L) hugs his daughter during the funeral of his son Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera television network, who was killed in a reported Israeli air strike in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on January 7, 2024. File Photo by Ibrahim Al-Khatib/UPI The Qatar-based media network called on the Palestinian Authority to immediately cancel the suspension decision and retract it. Al-Jazeera's statement said the suspension won't deter the network from its commitment to continue to cover events in the West Bank. There have been several deaths according to Palestinian sources in a new Israeli strike in the south of the Gaza Strip. The target of the airstrike was said to have been a command centre for the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in a city administration building, the Israeli military said on Thursday. Six Palestinians were reportedly killed in the bombardment in Khan Younis, staff at a nearby hospital in the city in the southern Gaza Strip said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Palestinian reports, buildings of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry were also targets of the airstrike. Hamas members in the affected headquarters had allegedly planned and executed attacks on Israel, the Israeli military said. The headquarters are reportedly in an area designated as a humanitarian zone. The military asserted that measures were taken before the attack to protect civilians. Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip reported 28 deaths within 24 hours in the conflict area. These reports can not be independently verified. There have been several deaths according to Palestinian sources in a new Israeli strike in the south of the Gaza Strip. The target of the airstrike was said to have been a command centre for the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in a city administration building, the Israeli military said on Thursday. Six Palestinians were reportedly killed in the bombardment in Khan Younis, staff at a nearby hospital in the city in the southern Gaza Strip said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Palestinian reports, buildings of the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry were also targets of the airstrike. Hamas members in the affected headquarters had planned and executed attacks on Israel, the Israeli military said. The headquarters are reportedly in an area designated as a humanitarian zone. The military asserted that measures were taken before the attack to protect civilians. Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip reported 28 deaths within 24 hours in the conflict area. These reports can not be independently verified. Reports: Israeli airstrike in Gaza humanitarian zone kills 11 Earlier, a separate Israeli airstrike killed 11 people and injured others in the south of the Gaza Strip early on Thursday morning, according to Palestinian reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israeli fighter jets struck a makeshift tent housing displaced people in the designated humanitarian area in al-Mawasi, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The Israeli military said the attack targeted and killed the leader of Hamas' internal security forces, who was allegedly hiding in the area, adding that it had taken measures to protect civilians before the attack. It emphasized that Hamas security forces were responsible for violently interrogating Palestinian residents and persecuting dissidents. The information from both sides could not initially be independently verified. The Israeli military has repeatedly attacked the humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi in the past, saying that its targets are command centres used by Hamas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WAFA also reported that several other people had been killed in Israeli attacks in various parts of the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Israel said on Thursday that extremists in the south of the coastal strip had fired a missile towards Israel, which was intercepted. According to Palestinian figures, more than 45,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began after the Hamas-led massacre of around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023. The figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Relatives of Palestinians, who lost their lives following the Israeli attack on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis, mourn as the bodies are brought to Nasser Hospital for burial process. Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) The Panama City Fire and Police Department are celebrating a local woman who reached a major milestone. Panama City resident Mae Bell Whitfield turned 105 years old on Thursday. She was joined by family and friends as they waited outside for law enforcement to stop by. The Panama City Fire and Police Department stopped by Whitfields house to wish her a happy birthday. Hundreds splash into the New Year at South Walton Fire Districts Polar Bear Plunge Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whitfield said she is grateful for those who stopped by to celebrate her birthday. Its wonderful. People think enough of me to come by and celebrate me like they had. Oh, yeah. Its a blessing and I thank God for everything. Whatever anybody do for me, I thank God for it, because without him, it wouldnt be, Birthday girl Mae Bell Whitfield said. Whitfield was born in Southport and moved to St. Andrews when she was 3 years old. Shes been here ever since, raising four children with her husband, Henry Whitfield. They were married for 59 years until he passed away. Whitfields advice for younger generations is to take care of yourself and do good things. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com. Scientists have used ancient genes to learn more details about contact between Neanderthals and humans tens of thousands of years ago. Results of two recent studies estimate the two groups likely met and began mating about 45,000 years ago. Modern humans also known as Homo sapiens began in Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago and later started spreading to Europe, Asia and other places. Scientists believe that at some point, they met and mated with Neanderthals. The mixing of these groups had a major influence on humans genetic code. However, scientists do not know exactly when or how the two groups interacted. But the two new studies provide some additional details about the timing of this contact. One group of scientists examined genetic material from three female and three male Homo sapiens individuals who lived around 45,000 years ago. Reuters news agency reported that research involved the oldest genes from Homo sapiens ever examined, or sequenced. Some of the genes came from bones found in a cave in the central German village of Ranis. Other material came from a woman believed to have lived at around the same time in a cave in a mountainous area of what is now the Czech Republic. Researchers estimated the period of mixing between Neanderthals and humans at about 49,000 to 45,000 years ago. The findings were recently published in a study in Nature. A second group of researchers examined genetic material from 300 present-day and ancient Homo sapiens. This included 59 individuals who lived between 2,000 and 45,000 years ago. That study, published in the journal Science, estimated the period of mixing at about 50,500 to 43,500 years ago. The scientists said their new findings on the mixing and mating of the groups suggested the activities happened a little more recently than thought in the past. They believe the contact continued over many generations. Priya Moorjani was co-writer of the study appearing in Science. She is an assistant professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She told Reuters, Genetic data from these samples really helps us paint a picture in more and more detail. The team noted that it is difficult to know the exact nature of the interactions between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals based on the examined data. The researchers also could not confirm exactly where the mixing and mating happened. However, they believe it was most likely somewhere in the Middle East. The researchers noted most modern humans still have genetic material from Neanderthals that accounts for an estimated one to two percent of their DNA. They said modern-day genetic traits linked to skin color, hair color and even nose shape can relate back to the Neanderthals. Our genetic makeup also includes links to another group of human ancestors called Denisovans. Moorjani noted that the history of Neanderthals living outside Africa for thousands of years likely gave them a greater ability to deal with climate and diseases in new environments. Some of their genes may have been beneficial to modern humans, she added. Rick Potts is director of the Smithsonian Institutions Human Origins program. He was not involved in the new research. Potts told The Associated Press he hopes future genetic studies can help scientists learn even more details about the interactions of Neanderthals and modern humans. He said, Out of many really compelling areas of scientific investigation, one of them is: well, who are we? Im Caty Weaver. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press, Reuters and Nature. Quiz - Scientists Use Ancient Genes to Estimate Contact Between Humans, Neanderthals Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz _______________________________________ Words in This Story genetic code n. information from DNA or RNA that is used to create an organism's proteins cave n. a large hole in the side of a mountain or underground sample n. a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from trait n. a quality, good or bad, in someones character beneficial adj. helpful or useful compelling adj. demanding attention ALEXANDRIA, Va. (DC News Now) Starting on Monday, students at Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) will no longer be able to wear smartwatches. When students return from winter break, they will be unable to use their smartwatch. Not even in between classes. Phones were already banned at Alexandria City Public Schools but the School Board voted last month to expand the ban to smartwatches. I think its stupid if they dont do it, said Alexandria resident Janet Elridi. The smartwatch does a lot of the same things as the cellphone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This comes after Governor Glenn Younkins executive order of cell phone-free schools by the new year. Its part of an effort to improve education and remove distractions. I think that if theres one distraction thats going to stop someone and it gets taken away, theyre going to find something else to do, said student Ellere Elkins. I think its going to cause kids to be more creative or just stop coming to class which is already an issue. Trump to host victory rally at Capital One Arena day before inauguration But some worry about getting ahold of students during emergencies. As a parent or even as loved ones, its going to be hard to get in touch with people if anything were to happen so I dont necessarily think it should be banned but I do think there should be some sort of regulation or some sort of accountability to make sure the students are paying attention, said Yohana Mammo, who has young relatives in the school system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While some parents didnt have a problem with students having their cellphones or smartwatches. Theyre probably a distraction but in high school the kids are kid of old so they should be able to control that, said parent Asa Elkins. Students caught breaking the rules will face suspension and expulsion, according to the policy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. A travel nightmare for some JetBlue passengers trying to get home to Boston after a holiday vacation in the Turks and Caicos. In all, their flight was delayed about 24 hours and they had nowhere to go. They say they were even kicked out of the airport on the island. To put people out on the streets like animals was definitely something I will never forget for the rest of my life, said Marty, who was on that flight from Turks and Caicos to Boston. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marty says hundreds of JetBlue passengers like himself were told they couldnt stay at the airport in Turks and Caicos when their flight home to Boston was delayed until the next day. His children were exhausted after their flight was already delayed several hours on Saturday, and he says there were no hotel rooms available on the island that night. Just very unsettling, traumatizing experience you have three young kids all looking to you for an answer, a wife looking at you for an answer, for the first time as a husband and as a father and as a man I had no idea how I was going to shelter my family for a night, said Marty. Brett was on this flight too and says the JetBlue employees at the airport forced them to leave when their flight was delayed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We just kept saying where do you want us to go? What are we supposed to do? How are you kicking us to the street like dogs in a foreign country? said Brett. Eventually, Martys travel agent found a small hotel room for his family. Brett found an Airbnb for about a thousand dollars to squeeze in ten people. It was in a horrible, sketchy area, the actual Airbnb itself was okay, but the area was like something out of a horror movie, wild dogs were chasing the cab as we were driving by like very sketchy neighborhood and kids are freaking out like What are we gonna do? said Brett. The next morning when they got back to the airport, they saw dozens of cots had been brought in for the passengers who couldnt find a place to stay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their new flight was also delayed another four hours. Jet Blue sent Boston 25 News the following statement: On Saturday, December 28, JetBlue flight 754, with scheduled service from Turks and Caicos to Boston, experienced a significant delay after the inbound aircraft had to divert to Fort Lauderdale, due to heavy Air Traffic Control (ATC) congestion and extended holding in the area. The flight was delayed until the following day, safely arriving in Turks and Caicos to pick up our customers before completing its flight to Boston. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this delay caused and understand this was a frustrating situation. While the delay was created by circumstances beyond JetBlues control, we understand the impact this disruption had on our customers plans. Given that, weve provided instructions for affected customers to submit reimbursement requests for eligible out-of-pocket expenses in line with our Customer Service Plan. Additionally, as a gesture of goodwill, weve issued $200 in travel credit for future JetBlue flights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This was far beyond a delay, this was sending people to the streets in the wee hours of the night and asking them to fend for themselves with no solutions, said Marty. Many of these passengers hope airlines find a better solution to provide shelter for customers during significant overnight delays. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW Through a cutting-edge heat exchange system, the Museum of Bavarian History in Regensburg, Germany, efficiently heats and cools its building, showcasing a promising solution for urban decarbonization and clean energy strategies. Sustainable design and renewable energy are key to helping municipalities reach ambitious decarbonization goals, and resilient cities are turning over every stone in the hunt for innovative, clean energy technologies. One newly tapped source of low-carbon energy in large cities is the steady temperature of the cities own wastewater, which can be used as a source of energy for both heating and cooling. A Shining Example of Advanced Energy Efficiency The city of Regensburg, Germany, has aggressive climate protection goals to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency. The city heavily promotes the use of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient building practices. The Museum of Bavarian History is an example of this commitment, showcasing the implementation of a heat exchange system that uses the passive heat from city wastewater as a renewable energy source for building heating and cooling. Completed in 2018, the Museum of Bavarian History is a symbol of Bavarias rich cultural heritage, and its construction was a significant milestone in the states history. Located in the historic city center of Regensburg, this project presented unique challenges, including space constraints, a tight construction schedule that needed to culminate with Bavarias bicentennial constitution and centennial statehood anniversary, and energy-efficient goals that depended on advanced energy innovations. Wastewater Provides Clean Energy The museum turned to a hidden and surprising source of energy flowing beneath the city streets: the sewer system. Municipal wastewater typically maintains a temperature of between 50F and 68F (10C and 20C), even in the winter. This stable temperature range makes wastewater an excellent energy source for operating a heat pump that can be used for both heating and cooling. To take advantage of the wastewater heat, an inlet structure extracts 70 liters per second of wastewater from the sewer. The coarse solids are removed from the wastewater and the screened water is pumped to two HUBER RoWin Heat Exchanger units. Here, facilitated by heat pumps, the heat exchange process enables either heating or cooling of the museum building as per seasonal requirements. The self-cleaning feature of the heat exchangers ensures sustained performance, further enhancing operational reliability. Due to the heat exchanger operation in combination with the heat pump, heat is either extracted from the wastewater and introduced into the building (for heating) or heat is extracted from the building and introduced into the wastewater (for cooling). The wastewater is finally returned to the sewer together with the previously separated solids. HUBER supplied the self-cleaning ThermWin system with a heat output of 560 kW and a cooling capacity of 1,000 kW. A Model for Sustainable Development in Cities The significance of ThermWin extends beyond its application in the Museum of Bavarian History. Recognizing its potential as a future-oriented solution amidst energy crises and climate change, Bavarias Minister of Finance and Home Affairs, Albert Furacker, lauded the system as a model for sustainable development (Figure 1). The success of this project paves the way for broader adoption, inspiring similar initiatives globally. In Toronto, Canada, for example, HUBER supplied 16 RoWin wastewater heat exchangers (size 8) in 2023 for what was at the time the largest project of its kind in the world. 1. Pictured here in front of the Museum of Bavarian Historys two HUBER RoWin Heat Exchanger units are Museum Director Dr. Richard Loibl, Bavarias Minister of Finance and Home Affairs Albert Furacker, Regensburg Mayor Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer, HUBER SE CEO Georg Huber, and HUBER Industrial Sector Manager Wolfgang Schnabl. Courtesy: HUBER Technology Inc. In Bavaria, tradition and innovation go hand in hand. This is impressively demonstrated in the House of Bavarian History. The HUBER ThermWin system installed in the state-of-the-art building does justice to this idea of progress: It uses wastewater for heating and cooling and is a future-oriented showcase model in times of energy crisis and climate change. It is impressive to see that what once seemed like a dream of the future is now technically feasible. I hope for many others to follow suit and be inspired by this example, Bavarias Minister of Finance and Home Affairs Albert Furacker said. The integration of HUBERs ThermWin technology in the Museum of Bavarian History exemplifies a paradigm shift in building operations toward sustainability and decarbonization. By harnessing the latent energy in wastewater, this innovative solution reduces environmental impact and sets a precedent for future-centric infrastructure development. As architects, engineers, and building owners seek decarbonization solutions, HUBERs ThermWin emerges as a beacon of sustainable progress, bridging tradition with innovation in the pursuit of a greener future. Nathan Madding is director of Green Building Solutions with HUBER Technology Inc. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) As millions took to the road this holiday season, law enforcement has doubled down in the hope that everyone arrives at their destination safely. Between distracted driving, lack of seatbelt usage, and DUIs, officers across Tennessee have seen it all this year. More than 1.8 million Tennesseans are planning to take a road trip over the holiday period, Megan Cooper, a spokesperson with AAA, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As TN traffic deaths continue to climb, Vision Zeros goal expands into new year Director of the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) Buddy Lewis said even for those staying close to home, crashes can still drastically change the holiday season. We can help reduce traffic crashes and fatalities during this week of the travel season. All were asking for is voluntary compliance, Lewis added. Safety is top of mind for officials across Tennessee. Our goal is to make Tennessee roadways the safest they can be, Jason Head with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police said. While law enforcement focuses on whats speeding alongside them, they said what happens behind the wheel can be the difference between life and death. The phrase Click it or Ticket has taken on new meaning. Wearing a seatbelt is considered one of the first lines of defense and one of the few things you can control. The staggering number of people not wearing a seat belt has worried law enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not wearing your seat belt leads to the severity of crashes, colonel Matt Perry with the THP said. Another contributing factor to roadway incidents happens even before you get behind the wheel. While holidays are filled with celebrations and sometimes alcohol consumption, one drink too many could have a deadly ending. If youre planning on having drinks wherever you go, just plan for a sober ride or to stay the night, Perry said. According to data from the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security and the THP, over the past year, more than 7,000 car crashes have involved a DUI driver. One in three fatal crashes involved someone driving under the influence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Driving under the influence this time of year causes increased property damage and injury or tragedy, loss of life that doesnt need to happen out here on our Tennessee roadways, Head added. Its a lack of awareness: Law enforcement, city leaders look to end pedestrian deaths with Vision Zero initiative Thats why police have urged people to slow down and put safety first as they celebrate the new year. We think mostly we think about distracted driving by cell phone usage, but distracted driving can be anything that takes your attention away from that roadway and what youre doing to drive safely, Lewis said. We just ask that you pay attention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. One of four pedestrians hit by a car on Christmas Day in Londons West End has died in hospital, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed. Aidan Chapman, 25, who suffered serious injuries in the incident on Shaftesbury Avenue, died on New Years Eve, the force said on Thursday. The Met added that it was treating the death as a homicide and a post-mortem examination was scheduled to take place. Police forensic teams at the crash scene on Shaftesbury Avenue on Christmas Day - Jordan Pettitt/PA Were In a tribute, Mr Chapmans parents said: The loss of our beautiful son is a parents worst nightmare. We are utterly devastated with the loss of Aidan, he enriched everyones lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was a loving, kind, funny soul and the world is a darker place without him. We, his parents, have lost the best part of ourselves. Anthony Gilheaney, 30, of Harlow, Essex, appeared in court last week charged with four counts of attempted murder and a number of driving offences in relation to the crash and will next appear at the Old Bailey on Jan 24. The charges against him will be reviewed following the death of Mr Chapman, the Met said. Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Jolley, from the Mets Specialist Crime Command, added: Our thoughts are with the victims friends and family at this difficult time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My team are continuing to conduct inquiries to establish all the facts surrounding the circumstances, however it has been confirmed as an isolated incident which is not terror-related. We would appeal to anyone who holds any CCTV or dash cam or mobile phone footage of the incident to come forward as well as anyone else who might have had contact with the suspect that evening. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. PERRY, Iowa Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting at Perry High School, a national organization has announced a vigil to honor the lives lost in the shooting. A scholarship fund named for one of the young victims of the tragedy has also been established. Five students and three staff members were shot by a 17-year-old student, who died by suicide following the January 4, 2024 shooting. Ahmir Jolliff, 11, died after being shot multiple times. Principal Dan Marburger died 10 days later, from injuries received in the shooting. Story archive: Perry school shooting Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The One In Five Foundation For Kids, formerly The Uvalde Foundation for Kids, has announced a vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of the Perry shooting. The foundation is a non-profit organization that was formed after the deadly May 2022 shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas which resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers. The non-profit is holding a nationwide vigil and a blackout halt to all of its operations on Saturday, January 4 beginning at 7:35 a.m., the reported starting time of the shooting in Perry. Our foundation continues to stand with the Perry School community as we not only remember principal Dan Marburger, but also those lives lost and altered forever following that tragic day. This hero will always be recognized for his ultimate sacrifice to his students and community His very life, stated a news release from One In Five Foundation For Kids. The non-profit also announced a new scholarship fund in remembrance of Ahmir Jolliff, called Ahmirs Hope. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This special scholarship available to Perry HS students will honor, remember and serve as a reminder to this nation of the impact of gun violence and the future hopes it extinguishes such as those of young Ahmir. Ahmir will not be forgotten & deserves as such. The scholarship, named in Ahmirs honor, will be awarded annually every summer to a deserving student who shows promise in academics but moreso, who demonstrate leadership amongst their peers and communities, stated foundation officials. Nominations for the scholarship are open and the fund will only benefit Perry High School students. To learn how to contribute to the scholarship fund you can contact the One In Five Foundation For Kids here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. YARMOUTH, Mass. (WWLP) A person was arrested in Cape Cod for making social media threats at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. Two men charged in deadly Boston shooting The Dennis Police Department received reports from several parents on Christmas Day that threats allegedly referencing gun violence were posted online to specific students, stated NBC Boston. The suspect has been charged with making a threat with serious public alarm. Police have not released any further details. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. Horry County police are investigating a New Years Eve death as a homicide, and a person has been charged related to the death. The Horry County Coroners Office announced on Jan. 1, 2025, that 28-year-old Keenan Blumenschein had died on New Years Eve after a shooting at his home off Hayloft Circle near Conway, South Carolina. A spokesperson for the Horry County Police Department told The Sun News that Kimberly Maggert is charged with murder in Blumenscheins death. The Kyiv Post reported on Dec. 13 that Russia's security service, the FSB, has released its propaganda fundraising calendar, and it's a doozy! The front cover features "art" of an improbably ripped Vladimir Putin giving his best sultry stare while leaning on a big, black compensator vehicle. Meanwhile, the apocalyptic November image depicts an FSB special forces soldier standing before the U.S. Capitol while drones and helicopters attack it. Is this a popular holiday gift in Russia? Who knows. The bigger question: Why does the FSB need to fundraise? [Kyiv Post, 12/13/2023] > < 23:55 Noida: Classes up to 8 suspended until further orders due to cold File image Gautam Buddh Nagar administration in UP on Thursday ordered suspension of classes till 8 in all schools of the district until further orders in view of cold weather conditions. The order, issued by District Basic Education Officer Rahul Panwar, applies to schools across board... Read more > 23:51 TMC councillor shot dead in Bengal Trinamool Congress councillor Dulal Sarkar was shot dead by unidentified miscreants in West Bengal's Malda district on Thursday morning, police said. Sarkar, the TMC councillor from Malda, was shot in his head multiple times from close range by bike-borne assailants at Jhaljhalia More area,... Read more > 23:41 Man beaten up at New Year's eve party at housing complex dies in hospital File image One of the two men beaten up during an argument over playing loud music at a New Year's eve party in Thane's Kashmira area died in a Mumbai hospital on Thursday, a police official said. The incident took place on the night of December 31 at a MHADA housing plex, the Kashimira police station... Read more > 23:26 Blinkit starts 10-minute ambulance service in select areas of Gurugram File image Quick commerce major Blinkit on Thursday launched 10-minute ambulance service in select areas of Gurugram as a pilot project. Users will be able to see the option to call for an ambulance on the Blinkit app, according to a company statement. These ambulances will be stocked with essential... Read more > 22:59 Emergency in China after epidemic outbreak? File image China declared state of emergency following the outbreak of an epidemic in the country five years after the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, according to an X handle known as 'SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). Multiple viruses, including influenza A, HMPV, mycoplasma pneumoniae, and COVID-19, are... Read more > 22:24 Maldives foreign minister begins 3-day visit to India Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel (right) Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel arrived in New Delhi on Thursday on a three-day visit to explore ways to bolster bilateral ties in several key areas including maritime security, trade and investment. Khaleel's trip to India comes nearly three months after Maldives President Mohamed... Read more > 21:46 Bizman in last video blames wife, inlaws for suicide Representational image In a video he recorded before committing suicide, a 40-year-old Delhi cafe owner has alleged he was extremely tortured by his in-laws and wife, and accused them of not respecting court's orders in their divorce case. Puneet Khurana died by suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his... Read more > 21:33 HC grants three weeks' time to ED to respond to Soren's affidavit Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren The Jharkhand high court on Thursday granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) three weeks to file a response to an affidavit filed by Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The ED had filed a case before the HC seeking to quash an FIR registered by Soren against the agency officials under the... Read more > 21:21 Ex-sarpanch attacked by unidentified assailants; suffers severe injuries A former sarpanch suffered severe injuries on his legs on Thursday after being allegedly attacked by unidentified persons in Thane district of Maharashtra, the police said. The victim, Kadam Ugada, who was earlier the sarpanch of Ajanup village near Kasara in Shahapur taluka, was attacked... Read more > 20:53 Sebi bans Ketan Parekh from securities markets Ketan Parekh (right)/File image Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday barred three individuals, including Ketan Parekh, from the securities markets with immediate effect for their alleged involvement in a front-running scheme which generated illegal gains of Rs 65.77 crore. Further, Sebi directed 22 entities, including... Read more > 20:11 Police sub-inspector dies of heart attack during morning walk in Jodhpur The in-charge of the district special team in Jodhpur died of a heart attack while he was out for a morning walk on Thursday morning, the police said. People present on the spot rushed him to AIIMS Jodhpur, where doctors declared him dead, they said. ASP (Rural) Bhopal Singh said that... Read more > 19:58 Empty gas cylinder found near railway tack in Kanpur File image An empty five kilogram gas cylinder was found placed on the railway tracks near the Barrajpur railway station in Kanpur, Government Railway police said on Thursday. In a separate incident, a major accident was averted when a large fragment of a metal was found lying on the railway track near... Read more > 19:49 Sarpanch murder: BJP MLA meets Fadnavis, seeks Nikam's appointment as public prosecutor Renowned lawyer Ujjwal Nikam/File image Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suresh Dhas on Thursday said he had met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and sought the appointment of renowned lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as public prosecutor in the sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh murder case. Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog in Beed,... Read more > 19:20 NSUI urges Modi to name Delhi college after Manmohan instead of Savarkar Former PM Manmohan Singh/File image The Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to name Delhi University's upcoming college after former prime minister Manmohan Singh, instead of Veer Savarkar. Modi is set to lay the foundation stone for Veer Savarkar... Read more > 19:01 HC confirms conviction awarded to actor S Ve Shekher The Madras high court on Thursday confirmed the conviction and sentence of one month simple imprisonment awarded to actor and Bharatiya Janata Party functionary S Ve Shekher by a special court for sharing a derogatory post on women journalists on his social media page. Justice P Velmurugan... Read more > 18:56 Teashop tiff leads to communal violence in UP File image A dispute at a tea shop here escalated into a clash between two groups from different communities, leaving three people injured including two women, police said on Thursday. The incident occurred on Wednesday at Sadhuapur village in Hardi area. A case has been registered under relevant... Read more > 18:12 3,345 Ice Cube Orders An Hour... 296,711 Cake Orders... File image New Year's Eve (NYE) celebrations reached their peak, with consumers turning to quick commerce (qcom) and food delivery platforms, leading to record-breaking order volumes. Executives from several platforms, including Zepto, Blinkit, and Swiggy Instamart, actively shared real-time order... Read more > 17:48 Indian enters Pak to marry FB friend, lands in jail A 30-year-old Indian man crossed over illegally into Pakistan to meet a Facebook friend he wanted to marry, but instead found himself behind bars. And the woman told the local police she does not want to tie the knot. Badal Babu from the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh was arrested... Read more > 17:42 Modi pays tributes to Mannathu Padmanabhan Pillai on birth anniversary Prime Minister Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid tributes to Mannathu Padmanabhan Pillai, a freedom fighter and social reformer who founded the Nair Service Society, on his birth anniversary and lauded him as a true visionary. Remembering Sri Mannathu Padmanabhan on his birth anniversary. He... Read more > 17:08 White-collar hiring up 9% in December: Report White-collar hiring activity in December witnessed a 9 per cent increase compared to the same period of the previous year, driven by high-skill and strategic roles, a report said on Thursday. According to Naukri JobSpeak, the index reached an impressive 2,651 points in December 2024,... Read more > 17:00 Sensex rallies 1,436 pts to end at 2-week high Benchmark Sensex rallied 1,436 points to close at a two-week high on Thursday on buying in financial, auto and IT shares, extending gains to the second day of the New Year. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 1,436.30 points or 1.83 per cent -- its best single-day gain in more than a... Read more > 16:42 Was New Orleans attack ISIS directed or inspired? Update on the New Orleans attack: From CNN: One of the FBI's challenges when investigating the deadly New Orleans attack is determining whether the suspect was inspired by ISIS or directed by the Islamist militant group, a security expert said.The attack had several strategic and symbolic... Read more > 16:16 Indian tycoon attends ex-Pak PM's grandson's shaadi The Jindals have close ties to the Sharifs Indian business tycoon Sajjan Jindal along with his family attended the wedding festivities of the grandson of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, a PML-N leader said on Thursday. Jindal, the managing director of JSW Steel, was among 700 local and foreign guests who... Read more > 16:07 The Yadavs usher in the new year Since Lalu Prasad Yadav is in the news today for his statement 'doors open for Nitish', here's a sweet picture of Rabri Devi wishing her husband on the new year. She captioned the image: Happy new year to my dear saheb @laluprasadrjd. Read more > 16:00 Manu Bhaker, Gukesh among four athletes to get Khel Ratna award The quartet of shooter Manu Bhaker, chess world champion D Gukesh, men's hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and para-athlete Praveen Kumar were on Thursday named recipients of this year's Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award -- the country's highest sporting honour.The 22-year-old Bhaker became... Read more > 15:39 Kerala nurse on death row: Blood money only hope Family members and human rights activists in Kerala are clinging to hope for a last-minute pardon for Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse whose death sentence was confirmed by Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national. She has been imprisoned in a Yemeni jail... Read more > 15:31 Dr Ambedkar visited our shakha in 1940: RSS Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, had visited a 'shakha' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Maharashtra 85 years ago, the communication wing of the Sangh claimed on Thursday. During his visit, Ambedkar said he viewed the RSS with a sense of... Read more > 14:55 BSF allowing infiltrators destabilise Bengal: Mamata West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Border Security Force of letting infiltrators from Bangladesh enter India and charged the BSF with trying to destabilise the state. Banerjee said she could sense a blueprint of the central government behind this attitude of the... Read more > 14:37 India's manufacturing growth hits 12-month low in Dec India's manufacturing sector growth fell to a 12-month low in December, as new business orders and production expanded at softer rates, a monthly survey said on Thursday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index was at 56.4 in December, down from 56.5 in... Read more > 14:35 JDU reacts to Lalu welcoming Nitish: We are with... Reacting to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's statement that alliance doors are always open for CM Nitish Kumar, Union Minister and JDU leader Lallan Singh on Thursday affirmed that his party is with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). ...We are with the NDA and with full firmness. I... Read more > 14:14 Sensex cheers 2025, soars 1300 points Indian stock indices are on a strong footing at the start of 2025. The Sensex and Nifty rallied both on January 1 and January 2. At the time of filing this report, Sensex was at 79,752.03 points, up 1,244.62 points or 1.59 per cent. Experts stated that the upcoming Q3 results season will... Read more > 14:00 Can't influence CID: Munde on sarpanch murder probe Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party minister Dhananjay Munde on Thursday said those who killed Santosh Deshmukh, the sarpanch of a village in Beed district, should be tried in a fast-track court and hanged to death. Talking to reporters after the state cabinet meeting, Munde said the... Read more > 13:18 Tejashwi, Lalu disagree on alliance with Nitish Months ahead of the scheduled Assembly elections in Bihar, speculations are rife over new alliances. Focus is again on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. There are contrasting signals from the father-son duo of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) -- Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav -- regarding a... Read more > 12:40 Who is the 'terrorist' who killed 15 in New Orleans? Police carry a dead body from the site. Pic: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters The FBI has named the assailant as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an Army veteran and US citizen from Texas.A flag associated with the Islamic State (IS) group was found in the vehicle he was driving and the FBI said it was investigating what affiliations Jabbar may have had with terrorist... Read more > 12:21 Will meet when you're better: Kapil Dev tells Kambli Legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev has promised former India batter Vinod Kambli, who walked out of a Thane hospital, to visit him at the earliest. Kambli was admitted in ICU on December 21 due to health complications which included urinary infection and cramps but doctors later said the... Read more > 12:04 Mass shooting outside New York nightclub, 10 injured Representational image At least 10 people have been injured in a mass shooting outside a nightclub in New York's Queens on Wednesday night. The shooting reportedly took place around 11:20 pm near the Amazura nightclub.According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), none of the victims are in critical condition and... Read more > 12:01 Why Raut put a 2026 deadline to Modi govt's survival Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday took a dig at the BJP-led Central government while raising doubts on its longevity, saying that he has doubts in his mind about whether the Union government will survive after 2026 or not.Addressing a press conference, UBT MP Raut further stated that... Read more > 11:52 Suspect in Montenegro shooting dies of injuries Forensics at work. Pic: Stevo Vasiljevic/Reuters A gunman who killed at least 10 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro died from self-inflicted injuries on Thursday after attempting suicide, the country's interior minister, Danilo Saranovic, said.The gunman, identified by police as Aleksandar Martinovic, 45, attempted suicide... Read more > 11:44 NO bail for Bangladesh ISKCON priest A court in Chattogram has refused to grant bail to Chinmoy Krishna Das, the former ISKCON leader, following a hearing held with heightened security today, The Daily Star reported.The bail request was turned down by Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam after about 30 minutes of... Read more > 11:11 WATCH: New Orleans 'terrorist' plows into people The site of the crash that killed 15 people Security camera footage has emerged of suspected terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowing his pickup truck down a packed Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year's Day. The truck had an ISIS flag flying on it.Watch the video here. The death toll is now 15 people in the New Orleans act of... Read more > 10:47 Modi govt won't survive after 2026: Raut Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut says on government and governance: I have doubts in my mind that the union government will survive after 2026 or not. What I think is that Modi will not complete his term and once the union government is unsettled, it will affect Maharashtra also. More on this in... Read more > 10:26 Debates in dressing room should stay there: Gambhir Asserting that debates in the dressing room should not come out in public domain, India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Thursday said he has had some honest conversations with his players as only performance can help them stay in the set-up. Gambhir also side-stepped queries on whether... Read more > 10:07 11 SC lawyers to represent ISKCON priest for bail Eleven Supreme Court lawyers are set to participate in the bail hearing on Thursday of former ISKCON priest Chinmoy Krishna Das, The Daily Star reported.Led by advocate Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee, the legal team will defend Chinmoy, in a sedition case resulting from allegations of disrespecting... Read more > 09:51 New Orleans attacker planned to kill his family Military personnel stand near the site. Pic: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters In a series of videos, the suspect in the deadly New Year's attack in New Orleans discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join ISIS, according to multiple officials briefed on the investigation.Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old man who police... Read more > 09:23 Air India 1st Indian airline to offer wi-fi on domestic flights Deepak Patel/Business StandardAir India announced on Wednesday that it has rolled out Wi-Fi Internet connectivity services on board domestic and international flights operated by its Airbus A350, Boeing 787-9, and select Airbus A321neo aircraft.This makes the Tata-owned airline the first to offer... Read more > 09:07 Accel Secures $650 Million For India Fund Peerzada Abrar/Business StandardAccel, the venture capital firm backing startups like Flipkart and Swiggy, has raised $650 million (Rs 5,500 crore/Rs 55 billion) for its eighth India fund, regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The size of the eighth fund... Read more > Arizona is the birthplace of the man thought to have rented the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded Wednesday in front of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, police revealed in a Thursday morning news conference. Officials showed the passport photo of the man on screen but stopped just short of identifying him as the person whose remains were found in the vehicle. Colorado Springs, Colorado, resident Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, rented the Cybertruck, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters during the news briefing, adding the man found in the vehicle was "burnt beyond recognition." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said Livelsberger's military identification, a credit card and his passport, which lists Arizona as where he was born, were found in the burnt Cybertruck. "I still do not have confirmation 100% that that is the individual that was inside of our vehicle," McMahill said, adding he was waiting for DNA and medical records. However, McMahill said he was confident Livelsberger was the person in the vehicle due to matching tattoos and noted no one else was seen in the Cybertruck. The person found in the vehicle had a self-inflicted gunshot to the head prior to the detonation of the Cybertruck, McMahill said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A handgun was found at the person's feet in the vehicle, the sheriff added. A Desert Eagle semiautomatic pistol was found in the burned Cybertruck, McMahill said. It was unclear if this was the firearm that was found at the person's feet. During the news conference, Kenneth Cooper with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said mortars, aerial shells and fuel enhancers were found inside the Cybertruck along with consumer-use fireworks. The vehicle was rented in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas about 7:30 a.m. PST, McMahill previously said during a news conference. The driver of the vehicle drove the vehicle up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before pulling in front of the Trump hotel about 8:40 a.m. McMahill mentioned that while on its way to the Trump hotel in Las Vegas, the Cybertruck traveled through northern Arizona as indicated by its charging in Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The motivation at this point is unknown, said Spencer Evans, FBI special agent in charge for Las Vegas, during the news briefing. Livelsberger died Wednesday, according to the U.S. Army. He was an active-duty Green Beret and had served in the Army for 19 years, including deployments to Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Republic of Congo and Georgia. He was awarded the Bronze Star. Livelsberger enlisted as a Special Forces candidate in January 2006 and served in the active duty force until March 2011, according to the Army. He then joined the National Guard and Army Reserve from 2011 until December 2012. At that point, he rejoined the active-duty Army as a Special Operations soldier. The vehicle sat there about 15 seconds before the explosion went off, McMahill said. Police later discovered gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters, and large firework mortars in the back of the vehicle. The sole individual in the truck died and seven other people were injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The explosion occurred hours after a deadly attack involving a truck in New Orleans on New Year's Day. On Thursday, FBI officials said the New Orleans attack appeared to be the work of a lone wolf. President Joe Biden previously said federal authorities are investigating whether there may be a link between the two attacks. First unveiled in 2019, the Cybertruck is a battery-powered EV and Teslas first truck. The vehicle gained attention for its post-apocalyptic styling. It was marketed as having a "bullet tough" stainless-steel frame and "basically rock-proof" armored glass, according to previous statements from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBI in Las Vegas, said the incident at the Trump hotel is being investigated through the bureaus joint terrorism task force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Car rental company Turo confirmed Wednesday that the vehicles involved in the Las Vegas explosion and New Orleans attack were rented from the peer-to-peer car rental service. USA TODAY and Reuters contributed to this article. Cybertruck explosion timeline: What was vehicle's path to Las Vegas? This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump hotel Cybertruck explosion's person of interest was born in AZ Police in West Melbourne are investigating after a person was shot overnight. Officers said the shooting happened around 1:15 a.m. Thursday Reserves of Melbourne apartment complex. Officials said they received multiple 911 calls about numerous shots fired in the area of Josh Court and Rocket Lane. Read: New Orleans attack: FBI, police say there are no other suspects Officers said they found evidence of a shooting when they arrived but no victims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A shooting victim was later reported at a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Read: 10 people are wounded in a shooting outside a New York City nightclub Police said they believe the shooting was an isolated and targeted attack. Officers believe there were possibly two gunmen who were wearing masks. Read: Local group finds minivan, remains in 10-year-old Brevard County cold case Investigators are asking residents in the area to check their security cameras for possible footage of the suspects. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call the West Melbourne Police Department. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. A person was rushed to the hospital Wednesday night in critical condition after a shooting in East Boston, according to authorities. Police say they received a call around 6:07 p.m. for a report of a person shot in the area of 213 Marion Street. Arriving officers found one person suffering from life-threatening injuries and transported them to an area hospital. There were no reports of any arrests. Homicide detectives were called to the scene to assist in the investigation. No further information was immediately available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week. The passing of former President Jimmy Carter has given Americans not only the opportunity to reflect upon his faith-driven life, but also on how the country has changed in the nearly five decades since his election. And there is no greater example of how the decency meter has devolved than the reaction to Carters infamous Playboy interview in 1976. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In that interview, Carter confessed to two reporters that, despite his strong marriage, Ive looked on many women with lust. Ive committed adultery in my heart many times. The remark wasnt a calculated attempt to win the favor of Playboy readers, but rather part of a long-winding soliloquy about his religious faith, but the reporters immediately understood that it was a money quote, one that would attract the most attention out of everything Carter had said in a conversation that lasted more than an hour. One of the reporters later wrote, I still feel some chagrin at causing a good man some trouble on his road to the White House. And although the quote today seems downright quaint, it did, in fact, cause Carter trouble, and for a while, many people thought it might cost him the election. In the aftermath of the interview, the Rev. Jerry Falwell told The Washington Post, Four months ago, most of the people I knew were pro-Carter. Today, that has been totally reversed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Falwell was also among people who castigated Carter for even speaking to Playboy, a salacious, vulgar magazine that did not even deserve the time of his day. But the moral outrage of that time eventually gave way to one in which a majority of Americans were willing to overlook not just emotional adultery, but physical infidelity in their leaders. Not, of course, that this hadnt happened before the most famous of the accusations of infidelity involving John F. Kennedy. And yet its clear that the barometer of whats acceptable in terms of moral behavior has tilted precariously and is pointing downward, not heavenward. Largely overlooked in the fury over the Playboy interview is what Carter said right after the adultery in my heart line, standing in the doorway of his home, bidding goodbye to his interviewers, who still had the tape recorder running. Carter said that he didnt think he had it in him to lie, cheat or distort the truth as some of his predecessors did. I think that my religious beliefs alone would prevent that from happening to me. I have that confidence. I hope its justified, he said. Carters religious beliefs, no doubt, were also part of why he apparently never gave in to other temptations, and why his 77-year-long marriage is being celebrated along with his other achievements this week. Some in our society have lost sight of it, but there is, on both a cultural and individual level, virtue and value in having a finely tuned decency meter. The cost of incivility While those of us who bemoan the decline of common decency in culture are often derided as pearl-clutchers, theres new evidence that incivility has societal costs that can be measured in dollars, at least in the workplace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Society for Human Resource Management, better known as SHRM, has been tracking workplace incivility and recently reported that a quarter of U.S. workers plan to leave their jobs because of incivility. While SHRM is largely looking at incivility among coworkers, anyone who works in retail, or knows someone who does, can tell stories of the bad behavior retail workers face every day. The real-life Karens of the world got a bad rap when the name became a synonym for horrible behavior, but the term stuck because it was an easy way to describe customers who make life miserable for workers. In writing about the incivility research, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation noted, A largely untapped antidote to this rising tide of incivility is to openly tap virtues that faith reinforces. Like love, which Thomas Aquinas defined as willing the good of another, civility asks us to treat each other with kindness and respect to ramp up the decency meter, as it were. Our failure to do so is costing businesses billions in unproductivity and absenteeism, according to the SHRM report. Maybe the customer or the coworker isnt always right, but we can still treat them as if they were. The most popular Perspectives of 2024 During the holiday season, weve been looking back at some of the Deseret News best stories, photographs and illustrations. Here are the top 5 Ideas pieces of the year. My church is closing and I dont know what comes next, for me or America, by Ryan Burge Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why the Kamala Harris 60 Minutes brouhaha matters, by Jennifer Graham College volleyball, Blaire Fleming and the flex of the forfeit, by Valerie Hudson The real reason for Ballerina Farms popularity, by L.R. Encinas The young adults who are going no contact with their parents, by Naomi Schaefer Riley The case for the New Year resolution While many people make New Years resolutions, I prefer to call mine New Year ideas, which takes the pressure off, since most people abandon their resolutions by February. Last year, one of my ideas was to go to a service at an unfamiliar church once a month; Kelsey Dallas wrote about this in her State of Faith newsletter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im still pondering this years ideas, but in the meantime, I recommend this excellent essay by Allyson Flake Matsoso, entitled A Christian Defense of New Years resolutions. Maybe Ill call them resolutions after all. And heres a round-up of some of the Deseret News best reads of 2024. Happy new year, and thank you for reading Right to the Point. PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that helps lead to the arrest of whoever is responsible for dumping two small dogs in taped-up cardboard boxes outside of the Giant Eagle in White Oak. On Friday, a good Samaritan noticed the boxes moving and took the two adult female miniature pinschers to White Oak Animal Safe Haven. The two dogs have been named Flora and Fable. The shelter said they are recovering from their trauma and will soon see a vet for an exam and vaccines before being put up for adoption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These vulnerable dogs were boxed up and discarded like unwanted Christmas gifts, and its only luck that a caring person spotted them, says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. There may be other animals in the perpetrators possession, so PETA asks anyone with information to come forward immediatelyother lives may depend on it. Anyone with information is asked to contact White Oak Animal Safe Haven at 412-672-8901. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Happy New Year! We hope you had a restful holiday; If you took a break from keeping up with biotech news, weve got you covered with a brief rundown of the most important updates from the past week and a half. Pfizer wont move forward with asking regulators to approve a gene therapy for hemophilia A and instead will hand back rights to development partner Sangamo Therapeutics in a blow to the California-based biotechnology company. In a Dec. 30 statement, Sangamo CEO Sandy Macrae said his company was surprised and extremely disappointed by Pfizers decision, which comes some five months after the treatment met its goal in a Phase 3 study of people with the inherited bleeding disorder. Sangamo plans to search for an optimal path forward, which could include partnering with another company. Pfizer has steadily retreated from gene therapy, although it sells a hemophilia B gene therapy called Beqvez that it obtained from Spark Therapeutics. Ned Pagliarulo Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roche and Ideaya Biosciences acquired rights to similar, experimental lung cancer drugs in separate deals with China-based biotechnology companies. First, Ideaya on Monday paid Hengrui Pharma $75 million upfront for an antibody-drug conjugate that targets the protein delta-like ligand 3, or DLL3, and is currently in preclinical testing. Roche followed on Thursday by paying Innovent Biologics $80 million for a DLL3-targeting ADC that began a Phase 1 trial last month. Both drugs are being evaluated against small-cell lung cancer, a more aggressive and less common form of the disease. Ben Fidler After many years of effort, Novartis has obtained positive results from a Phase 3 study for a form of its spinal muscular atrophy gene therapy Zolgensma thats delivered via spinal injection rather than intravenous infusion. Data from the study, called Steer, showed treatment improved motor abilities in people with the neuromuscular disease who were two years of age or older and could still sit but had never walked independently. U.S. regulators suspended testing of the intrathecal formulation in late 2019 over safety concerns, but in August 2021 permitted Novartis to begin the Steer study. Novartis plans to share the new data with health authorities to support approval of the gene therapy in a broader range of people with spinal muscular atrophy. Ned Pagliarulo BioNTech will pay the National Institutes of Health $792 million to settle disputes over use of patented technology to develop the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, marketed by Pfizer, according to a securities filing.The payment will consist of $750 million worth of claimed royalties for the years 2020 through 2023 and $42 million for an amended license agreement that sets new royalty terms. Separately, BioNTech said it has settled with the University of Pennsylvania over patents related to technology used to develop Comirnaty, paying up to $467 million to Penn. Pfizer will reimburse BioNTech $365 million related to the NIH settlement and up to $170 million related to the Penn settlement. Jonathan Gardner Axsome Therapeutics intends to ask regulators for approval of a combination drug its developed to treat agitation caused by Alzheimers disease, despite mixed results from the companys latest late-stage trials. In one Phase 3 study, Axsomes drug, called AXS-05, lowered the risk of relapse in agitation versus placebo. However, AXS-05 missed its goal in another trial. Drawing on positive data from two prior studies, Axsome said it will submit a U.S. approval application in the second half of the year, which analysts expect may still be granted. Ned Pagliarulo Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanofi and partner SK Bioscience are expanding their partnership as they begin Phase 3 testing of a next-generation pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in children. The shot is designed to protect against 21 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae and, according to Sanofi, is the first of its type targeting more than 20 to enter a Phase 3 trial in infants. The planned trial program will include over 7,700 infants, children and adolescents. If successful, the companies shot could eventually compete with Pfizers Prevnar 20, which in 2023 received a green light from the Food and Drug Administration for use in infants and children. Sanofi and SK Bioscience will co-fund research and development costs, while SK Bioscience will receive a 50 million euros upfront payment from Sanofi. Delilah Alvarado The Food and Drug Administration has approved Hikma Pharmaceuticals generic version of Novo Nordisks daily GLP-1 shot for diabetes, Victoza. First approved in 2010, Victoza once was the biggest selling drug in the class. But by 2023 its sales had declined to 8.7 billion kroner, or about $1.3 billion, while revenue from the more potent weekly GLP-1 shot Ozempic has grown since its 2017 launch. Teva Pharmaceutical launched an authorized generic of Victoza in June 2024. Jonathan Gardner Recommended Reading DENVER (KDVR) A juvenile was rescued from a missile silo Wednesday afternoon in Arapahoe County, according to first responders. Sable Altura Fire Rescue reported that the juvenile, a male, fell about 40 to 50 feet into what rescue workers determined was an exhaust vent tunnel for a decommissioned Titan Missile Facility. The boy was transported non-emergently with unknown injuries to a local hospital. The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office said the call came into the agency at about 3:50 p.m. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two rescue workers from Sable Altura Fire Rescue entered the silo after they built a rope system, and were able to evaluate the juvenile inside the silo. The silo is located off East Quincy Avenue south of Watkins. After attaching a harness to the boy, Bennett-Watkins and Sable Altura crews, assisted by South Metro Fire Rescue, helped bring the victim and rescue team to the surface. As of 5:30 p.m., the scene was largely cleared. Sable Altura Fire Rescue said the trio of agencies have a fantastic command structure that allowed crews to complete the rescue rapidly. However, Sable Altura had a message for anyone hoping to also explore abandoned missile silos. (T)he military history on the eastern plains of Colorado, is better left to the history books, the agency wrote on Facebook. Please do not think for any moment, that these are safe environments to enter or explore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In early May 2024, several teens were rescued from an abandoned missile silo, also in Arapahoe County. One of the teens was in critical condition after falling 30 feet into the silo. The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Sable Altura Fire Rescue agency responded to a rope rescue in Arapahoe County on Jan. 1 after a juvenile fell into a missile silo vent. (Sable Altura Fire Rescue) The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Sable Altura Fire Rescue agency responded to a rope rescue in Arapahoe County on Jan. 1 after a juvenile fell into a missile silo vent. (Sable Altura Fire Rescue) The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Sable Altura Fire Rescue agency responded to a rope rescue in Arapahoe County on Jan. 1 after a juvenile fell into a missile silo vent. (Sable Altura Fire Rescue) The Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office captured these images of crews rescuing a juvenile from a missile silo in remote Arapahoe County on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. The Sable Altura Fire Rescue agency responded to a rope rescue in Arapahoe County on Jan. 1 after a juvenile fell into a missile silo vent. (Sable Altura Fire Rescue) The Sable Altura Fire Rescue agency responded to a rope rescue in Arapahoe County on Jan. 1 after a juvenile fell into a missile silo vent. (Sable Altura Fire Rescue) According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, there are six former Titan I missile complexes in Colorado and all are east of Aurora although some are more remote than others, as some are located north of Deer Trail and one is located south of Elizabeth. CDPHE said the complexes were decommissioned and all missiles removed in 1965. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. MADISON COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) A swift water rescue team rescued people from a Jeep trapped in rising floodwaters in Madison County on Jan 1. Emergency crews were called to Bluff Hole at 3:55 p.m. after the vehicle was flooded, leaving the occupants stranded, according to a Facebook post by the Huntsville Fire Department (HFD). (COURTESY: Huntsville Fire Department) (COURTESY: Huntsville Fire Department) (COURTESY: Huntsville Fire Department) (COURTESY: Huntsville Fire Department) The Madison County Sheriffs Office and Huntsville Fire Department rescued the individuals, and were assisted by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 9 stories in Northwest Arkansas, River Valley we are following into 2025 No injuries were reported, according to HFD. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. Kenyan officials examine a metallic ring that fell from space. Citizen TV via Reuters Kenyan officials are investigating who owns a mysterious metallic object that fell from the sky. The giant ring fell from space, crash-landing into Mukuku Village in Kenya on Wednesday. No one was hurt, but space debris poses a serious threat to life on Earth and in space. On Wednesday, Mukuku Village in Kenya got an unexpected visitor from space. At about 3 p.m. local time, a large metallic ring weighing about 1,100 pounds and measuring 8 feet in diameter crash-landed in the village, the Kenya Space Agency said in a statement. Space debris like this is designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Citizen TV via Reuters The agency said no one was injured, and that the space debris poses no immediate risk. Maj. Alois Were, an officer with the Kenya Space Agency, told Citizen TV, a Kenyan news station, that the ring-like object is "possibly from a rocket separation stage." Kenya officials collected samples of the debris for additional analysis. Citizen TV via Reuters However, it's unclear whose rocket the ring might belong to. Officials said they had collected pieces from the impact site for further analysis to determine its origins. The debris is under KSA custody. Citizen TV via Reuters Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were said that once they determine the owner, the space agency will use the "existing legal mechanisms under international law" to hold the person or organization accountable. Space debris is usually designed to either burn up in Earth's atmosphere before reaching the ground or land in unpopulated areas, like the ocean. This doesn't always happen, though. For example, in May 2024, a piece of SpaceX debris as large as a car hood crash-landed on a trail at a mountaintop resort just outside Asheville, North Carolina. Debris from the Dragon Capsule landed in the middle of a trail at the Glamping Collective, a mountaintop resort in North Carolina. Photos by Brett Tingley, courtesy of the Glamping Collective If it had landed on a person hiking the trail that day, it would have certainly killed them, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leading space debris expert, told Business Insider in July. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To date, no one has died from space debris raining from the skies. Perhaps the closest call was in March, when a two-pound piece of debris slightly smaller than a soda can fell from the International Space Station, crashing through a family's roof in Florida . The family is suing NASA over the incident. Ever since humans started launching objects into space in the late 1950s, there has been a risk that some might fall back to Earth in an unexpected place. As humans launch more objects into space, however, that risk is growing. Space debris hit the space shuttle Endeavours radiator after one of its missions. The entry hole is about 0.25 inches wide, and the exit hole is twice as large. NASA Between 2008 and 2017, global space organizations launched an average of 82 orbital rockets a year. That number jumped to an average of about 130 launches a year between 2018 and 2022, according to the US International Trade Commission. In 2024, there were about 250 launches a new record. This poses risks on Earth and adds to a long-existing problem in space: space clutter and collisions. There's a lot of trash in space, from dead satellites and astronaut gloves to tiny bits no larger than a grape. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These millions of bits of debris are racing around our planet faster than a bullet. It's gotten so bad that about 1,000 warnings of possible impending collisions are issued daily to satellite operators, physicist Thomas Berger said in a press briefing at December's annual American Geophysical Union meeting. Berger said a major collision could generate "an unstoppable chain reaction of further collisions, ultimately resulting in a completely filled-up space environment." If that happens, it could make space unusable. Read the original article on Business Insider Elon Musk has leaped to the defense of his Tesla Cybertruck after one of the vehicles exploded outside of a Donald Trump-owned luxury hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on New Years Day, leaving one person dead and seven more injured. The driver of the truck, which was rented in Colorado and driven south, was killed in the blast and has since been named by local media as U.S. Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs. The incident came just hours after another vehicle plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, leaving 14 people dead and many more hurt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The worlds richest man, a close ally of the president-elect since the latter stages of last years presidential campaign, initially responded to events in Las Vegas on Wednesday night on X, the social media platform he owns, by saying: The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now. Will post more information as soon as we learn anything. Weve never seen anything like this. In an update approximately 80 minutes later, Musk reported that the explosion had not been the result of a technical fault with the truck. We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, he wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. (Alcides Antunes/Reuters) Half an hour later, he wrote in response to an MSNBC clip covering the story: Appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way. While investigators have said they are looking at possible connections between the two incidents, they have so far found no direct link. A spokesperson for the Turo app alluded to by Musk said in a statement: We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. They continued: We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. Elon Musk praises robustness of his Tesla Cybertrucks structure for ensuring the incident in Las Vegas did not have even deadlier consequences (PA) We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals. Musks final post of the evening regarding the destroyed Cybertuck saw him repost a Fox News clip in which local police praised the robustness of his vehicle for ensuring the incident did not have even deadlier consequences, also noting that it left the Trump hotel largely undamaged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack, the Tesla owner jeered in celebration. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken. Musk has since posted a number of complaints about media coverage of the Las Vegas episode, including branding the Associated Press Associated Propaganda for initially reporting that the truck involved simply caught fire. He has since posted on a number of unrelated subjects via his X account, from the accomplishments of his SpaceX company and politics in El Salvador to campaigning for the release from prison of British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, having seemingly been influenced by a Robinson-approved documentary. Pinellas Countys tourism booster has overhauled its seasonal marketing tactics to publicize that the beaches are back. Officials have spent the last few months focusing its campaign not on the typical Midwest and Northeast cities that drive visitation, but on Canada. In place of pristine white sand beaches displayed at New York City subway stations is a more sober ad featured in Torontos tunnel network depicting the St. Pete Pier, streaked by a glorious sunset and overlaid with the words still shining. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Steve Grimes, chief marketing officer for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, said his agency is betting that its message of resilience will resonate more with Canadians, who represent half of international travel to Pinellas County and 5% of total visitation, with around 600,000 travelers each year. Canadians experienced fewer distractions this fall and less competition for advertising without Election Day and Thanksgiving, Grimes said. And while domestic visitors might book a last-minute trip, Canadian visitors are booking flights for spring getaways now, he said. Methods to reach Canadian visitors vary. There are in-person events in Toronto. An invitation to a Canadian travel writer. Billboards along highways and posters in Torontos tunnels connecting downtown buildings. Sponsored shout-outs to St. Petersburgs mild temperatures during local weather segments. All aim to convince Canadians that the last time they saw Florida in the news with hurtling winds and banks of sand towering over cars doesnt resemble todays reality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve been fighting a little bit the perception that we got completely obliterated by the storms, Grimes said. People tend to remember the things they saw on social media. The agency estimated last month that 80% of beachside destinations are open, though iconic attractions like The Don CeSar hotel remain closed into March. So how do Canadians perceive Florida? Frequent visitors seem largely unperturbed by past hurricanes, said Jim Byers, a travel writer and former editor for the Toronto Star. They often know exactly where theyre going and the extent of the damage months after storms hit. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay likely benefits from first-time visitors vague understanding of hurricanes and their long-term impacts, Byers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think people drill down and say, it was just north of Fort Myers, he said. To the extent that people are worried or think about hurricanes, its really more the state in general. Visit St. Pete-Clearwater hosted Paul Gallant, a Toronto-based travel blogger and editor-in-chief of the LGBTQ+ website Pink Ticket Travel, in November. Gallant said the extent of recovery surprised him and he would note lingering storm damage as an afterthought to readers. Hurricanes aside, some Canadians have other reservations about Florida and Tampa Bay. President-elect Donald Trumps return to power and his public statements belittling Canadas status as an independent country have soured perceptions of the U.S. writ large in Canada, Byers said. Statewide, Gallant said, LGBTQ+ and younger Canadian visitors have voiced concerns about Floridas leadership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But ideological concerns with Florida havent kept Canadians away in practice, Byers said. More of an issue are the rising costs of visiting the state. For snowbirds those who spend months at a time in Florida during the winter in long-term vacation rentals and condos the rising cost of insurance tempts some to leave, said Evan Rachkovsky, director of research and communications for the Canadian Snowbird Association. Of the groups 115,000 members, around 70% migrate to Florida in the winter. A handful of members reported damaged property after the storms, Rachkovsky said. All visitors also must grapple with a weak Canadian dollar. One Canadian dollar is worth less than 70 cents in U.S. dollars, the lowest exchange rate since the pandemic. That discourages those planning high-budget vacations in Florida, such as families at Walt Disney World, Byers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, hes optimistic that those barriers to Canadian visitations amount to a minor blip. Never underestimate the power of a Canadian wanting to get the heck out of winter, he said. The most recent figures released by Pinellas County show that bed tax collections taken from hotel revenue dipped significantly after hurricanes Helene and Milton. Collections were under $4.3 million in October, compared to nearly $6 million the same month last year. Figures for November havent been released yet. Those declines dont extend across Tampa Bay. In October, Hillsborough County, aided by those who fled flood zones, recorded its highest-ever monthly hotel revenue and a higher occupancy rate compared to the same month last year. This year, Grimes said, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater plans a marketing blitz across familiar domestic destinations: New York City, Chicago and Ohio. In advertising, at least, the destination can put once-in-a-century hurricanes in the rearview mirror. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) This was a political year that wont be forgotten. Presidential candidates and their surrogates spent a lot of time campaigning in the battleground state of Michigan. Presidential, VP candidates, surrogates visit W. MI: Battleground state Michigan goes for both Trump and Slotkin: Eight new Michigan laws set to go into effect in 2025 Republicans take control of Michigan House: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the last in a four-part series looking back at trending stories of 2024. Make sure to check out Stories from the Skies: Storm Team 8 Reflects on 2024, Target 8: A year of investigations and Spirit of the Seven: West Michigans stories. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. The FBI and New Orleans police no longer believe there are any other suspects involved in the New Years truck attack on Bourbon Street that killed 15 people and injured dozens more, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. After investigators reviewed all of the surveillance videos more closely, it appears that the suspect, 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, placed explosive devices in the area himself and then changed clothes. Those clothes were found in the vehicle, the sources said.The FBI is still investigating whether there were individuals Jabbar spoke to or messaged with prior to the early Wednesday attack, but no one was in the vicinity to help him do anything, the sources said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar was hell-bent on killing as many people as possible, driving a pickup truck onto the sidewalk around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians, officials said. The suspect mowed down dozens of people over a three-block stretch on the world-famous thoroughfare while firing into the crowd, police said. Jabar then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. He was also armed with a handgun, sources told ABC News. Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, sources said. At least two officers were injured, one by gunfire and the other when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for next months Super Bowl. Althea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in New Orleans, said improvised explosives devices and other weapons were found inside the pickup truck used in the attack. She said two additional IEDs were discovered in the French Quarter and rendered safe. The IEDs found in and around the scene on Bourbon Street were apparently determined to be viable, and investigators were looking for more in the citys French Quarter, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com. WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (ABC4) Police responded to a 911 call Wednesday evening, finding the bodies of two adults and fatally shooting the deceased couples adult son who police believe is the suspect in the alleged homicide. According to the West Valley City Police Department, officers responded to a 911 call from inside a home near 3330 W Enterado Avenue around 5:12 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 1. West Valley City police respond to a 911 call on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, locating the bodies of a male and a female who lived at the residence. (Credit: West Valley City Police Department) West Valley City police respond to a 911 call on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, locating the bodies of a male and a female who lived at the residence. (Credit: West Valley City Police Department) West Valley City police respond to a 911 call on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, locating the bodies of a male and a female who lived at the residence. (Credit: West Valley City Police Department) West Valley City police respond to a 911 call on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, locating the bodies of a male and a female who lived at the residence. (Credit: West Valley City Police Department) When they entered the home, officers located the bodies of a male and a female who lived at the residence. They also encountered the couples adult son who is suspected of killing his parents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roxeanne Vainuku, the WVCPDs public information officer, said an officer fatally shot the suspect during the encounter. The officer-involved shooting is currently being investigated by the Salt Lake County Officer Involved Critical Incident Protocol team. The neighboring Salt Lake City Police Department is leading that investigation. The alleged homicides are also under investigation at this time. Vainuku said they currently do not have a motive for the killings. Police have not released any additional details at this time. This is a developing story. ABC4 will update this post as new information becomes available. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Jan. 1The Albuquerque Police Department is looking for two men reportedly involved in the Dec. 23 shooting death of Steven Keliiaa. Keliiaa was shot and killed near the intersection of Dallas and Menaul, Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers Coordinator Alicia Hernandez said. Francisco Garcia-Franco, 22, and Javier Irigoyen, 22, both of Albuquerque, are charged with an open count of murder, conspiracy, tampering with evidence and shooting at/from a vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their criminal complaints have been sealed, according to court records. A warrant is also out for Garcia-Franco for unrelated charges of aggravated battery on a household member with great bodily harm and false imprisonment, court records state. "Both Francisco and Javier should be considered armed and extremely dangerous," Hernandez said. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers, anonymously at 505-843-STOP (7867), p3tips.com/531 or text "ABQCS" to 738477, Hernandez said. BELOIT, Wis. (WFRV) Officers with the Beloit Police Department have released the identity of the man killed during a late December shooting in southern Wisconsin. According to an update on the Beloit PDs Facebook, officers have identified the victim of the December 26 shooting on Oak Street as 32-year-old Gregory X. Ashford of Beloit. However, the suspect, or suspects, remain at large as the Department continues its active investigation. The release notes that detectives are pursuing all leads and reviewing evidence to ensure that whoever is responsible is brought to justice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Green Bay man arrested following alleged stabbing on New Years Eve The shooting also left a woman injured with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Anyone with relevant information or who may have caught anything on video surveillance is asked to contact Beloit PD or upload a video here. Anyone providing information can also call the Greater Beloit Area Crime Stoppers at (608) 362-7463 or by using the P3 Tips app. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Oklahoma City Police say they are investigating after a suspect broke into several cars and shot a gun at victims who caught him. According to the Oklahoma City Police Department, a man broke into multiple cars in the area of NW 16th St. and Council Rd. LOCAL NEWS: Suspect in custody after being shot by OKC Police Officials say when he attempted to break into another vehicle, he was caught. He allegedly threatened to kill the victims and shot a gun at them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information is asked to contact OKC Crime Stoppers by calling 405-235-7300 or submitting an anonymous tip online. A cash reward may be available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) Police said a man was arrested Thursday after a suspicious vehicle drove onto the sidewalk near the U.S. Capitol in Northwest D.C. Credit: Randi Bass Credit: Randi Bass U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) said that just before 10 a.m., officers noticed a car had driven along the sidewalk near Peace Circle and went into the grassy area near Third Street and Constitution Avenue. Capitol police later said that Hari R. Chanamolu, 26, of Georgia was taken into custody. USCP said he was a telecommunications employee who was going to perform work in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They determined he was not a threat to Congress or the Capitol Grounds. Multi-vehicle crash causes delays on Chain Bridge Road in Arlington Chanamolu was charged with Reckless Driving. U.S. Capitol Police say Washingtonians and visitors can expect to see more officers in and around the Capitol in coming days and weeks. Driving on the sidewalk is never a good idea especially anywhere near the U.S. Capitol Building, said U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger in a news release. I am proud of our officers for their quick reaction. We have already been ramping up security, as planned, ahead of a busy month at the U.S. Capitol with the certification of the 2024 election, the state funeral, and the inauguration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident Thursday morning prompted the blocking of several roads, all of which have since reopened: Constitution Avenue between First Street, NE, and Third Street, NW. First Street NW between Peace Circle, NW, and Garfield Circle, NW. Pennsylvania Avenue between Peace Circle and Third Street, NW Louisiana Avenue between First Street, NW, and Constitution Avenue, NW New Jersey Avenue between C Street, NW, and Constitution Avenue, NW Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) Boardman police are looking for a man accused of punching a store loss prevention employee after she attempted to stop a theft. Read next: Winter weather advisories issued for local counties Boardman police were called to the Walmart location at 1300 Doral Drive last Thursday in reference to a shoplifter who fled the business after assaulting an employee. Reports state the employee told police she observed a man conceal items in the waistband of his pants on the stores video surveillance system, passing all points-of-sale with the unpaid merchandise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The employee told police she approached the man, identifying herself as a member of loss prevention, and asked him to return the merchandise. Reports state the man then punched her in the face, and medics noted the hit left redness and a cut inside her lower lip. The man then fled from the store and got into a vehicle, believed to be a dark blue Alfa Romeo Giulia with silver rims. Reports describe the male as thin, approximately 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and around 30-40 years old with dark facial hair. The employee told police she believed the suspect previously stole from other area stores, according to the report. Twenty-one pairs of Bluetooth headphones were reported stolen during this incident, valued at $417.48. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) Police in York County are asking for the publics assistance in identifying the whereabouts of two persons of interest in connection to the shooting that occurred in a Sheetz parking lot in East Manchester Township on Christmas Eve. On Tuesday, Dec. 24, police responded to a shooting in the 4300 Block of North George Street. Upon arrival at the scene, officers discovered a man in a vehicle with several gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to York County Regional Police. Police said the department has identified two individuals of interest who they believe have information relating to the victims death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police are seeking to identify the whereabouts of Ajanii Lemar Barnes of York and Tajai Markeise Robert Scott, 24, of Philadelphia, per police. Photo from York County Regional Police Photo from York County Regional Police Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the two individuals is encouraged to contact York County Regional Police at 717-741-1259 or on their website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. One person was taken into custody during a standoff in Dayton Thursday. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Our News Center 7 crew spotted a large police response in the 1200 block of Wisconsin Blvd. around 11 a.m. There were multiple Dayton Police cruisers and a SWAT vehicle at the scene. U.S. Marshals were trying to serve an arrest warrant on a wanted person, who Dayton Police Sergeant Creigee S. Coleman said was wanted in connection to a homicide that happened in Dayton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They could not convince him to come out of a home hed gone into, leading to Dayton Police and a SWAT team being called in to assist. News Center 7 was there as police came over a loudspeaker to try and get the man inside to come out. Come out of the house with your hands up, nothing in your hands. This is Dayton Police, the officer said. TRENDING STORIES: After several other attempts at tactics to get the suspect out failed to work, tear gas was deployed. Sometime later, the suspect came out of the house and was taken into custody. While police didnt confirm the name of the man taken into custody, online jail records show that 42-year-old Angelo Champion was arrested in the 1200 block of Wisconsin Blvd. today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Champion was charged with murder, felonious assault, and a weapons charge in November in connection to a homicide that happened on Arlene and Forsythe avenues that same month. As reported on News Center at 5:00, court records show hes accused of shooting and killing Djuan Hall. With the SWAT team and the history of this person, we solved this situation without the use of force, without the use of guns. Everybody is going home safely, Coleman said. Coleman also confirmed that a woman and her young child were in the house when U.S. Marshals arrived. News Center 7s Mike Campbell spoke to a relative of that resident about the standoff. She wished to remain anonymous but said the entire incident became nerve-wracking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He should have come out sooner, she said. If you care about your child, why would you put his house and his mom at risk like that? Champion is currently booked in the Montgomery County Jail. Its unclear at this time if more charges will be filed in connection to Thursdays standoff. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] South Korean police raided the offices of Jeju Air and the operator of Muan International Airport Thursday as they step up a probe into the fatal crash of a Boeing 737-800 that killed 179 people. The flight was carrying 181 passengers and crew from Thailand to South Korea on Sunday when it issued a mayday call and belly-landed before slamming into a barrier, killing all aboard except two flight attendants. Authorities on Thursday carried out search and seizure operations at Muan airport where flight 2216 crashed, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city, and Jeju Air's office in the capital Seoul, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jeju Air's chief executive Kim E-bae has also been banned from leaving the country as the investigation continues, police said separately. "The police plan to swiftly and rigorously determine the cause and responsibility for this accident in accordance with the law and principles," police said in a statement sent to AFP. At Muan airport Thursday, soldiers, police and white-suited investigators were still combing the crash site, as orange-robed monks held prayer ceremonies nearby. Inside the airport, the stairs were covered in colourful post-it notes left by mourners. "Honey, I miss you way too much," one of them said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Even if you faced lonely and painful moments in death, may you now soar like a butterfly," another read. The wreckage of the Jeju Air aircraft that went off the runway and crashed lies at Muan International Airport, in Muan, South Korea, December 30, 2024. / Credit: Kim Hong-Ji / REUTERS Relatives also left flowers and food near the crash site including tteokguk -- rice cake soup traditionally enjoyed in South Korea on New Year's Day -- as they said their goodbyes, many in tears. Star chefs featured in Netflix's megahit cooking competition show "Culinary Class Wars", including Ahn Yu-seong, joined volunteers in Muan this week to prepare meals for the victims' families. And people nationwide were remotely pre-paying for coffee at the airport's cafe so that victims' families, who have been camped out in the lounge since Sunday, waiting for news, could drink for free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More bodies were released Thursday to families to prepare for funerals, the land ministry said. Officials initially pointed to a bird strike as a possible cause of the crash, and have since said the probe was also examining the role of a concrete barrier at the end of the runway. Dramatic video showed the plane colliding with it before bursting into flames. Yonhap reported the Muan airport warrant was approved on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, citing officials. "Police are securing evidence related to the legitimacy of the airport's localizer," Yonhap said, referring to the concrete wall at the end of the runway housing an antenna array. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They are also seeking communication records between the control tower and the pilot shortly before the plane crash, it added. Airports nationwide were being inspected to check other similar localizers, the land ministry said in a statement. Some experts have suggested that the disaster may have been less deadly if the installation not been concrete. "Key to unlocking this mystery" South Korea has also announced it will inspect all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by its carriers, focusing on the landing gear, which appears to have malfunctioned during the Sunday crash. South Korea's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, said Thursday that "immediate action" must be taken if that probe uncovered any issues with the aircraft model. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities have previously said 101 aircraft of the same model were in operation by six different airlines. "As there's great public concern about the same aircraft model involved in the accident, the transport ministry and relevant agencies must conduct a thorough inspection of operation maintenance, education, and training," Choi said Thursday. The accident is the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil. A woman prays at a memorial altar for the victims of the Jeju Air crash at Muan International Airport, at Muan Sports Park in Muan, South Korea, on Dec. 30, 2024. / Credit: Kim Hong-Ji / REUTERS South Korean authorities have completed the initial extraction of data for the cockpit voice recorder, but the flight data recorder was damaged and was to be sent to the United States for analysis, officials said Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators say it was not feasible to locally decode the damaged flight data recorder, which is missing a crucial connector, BBC News reported. "I think the cockpit voice recorder, if they're able to read that out, that will be key to unlocking this mystery," Robert Sumwalt, former chair of the NTSB, told CBS News. Jeju Air said the crash was not due to "any maintenance issues," according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, and aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told BBC News that South Korea's airlines were broadly deemed to follow "industry best practice" and that both the plane and Jeju Air had an "excellent safety record." Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say What's known about possible explosives, suspect after truck slams into New Orleans crowd There has been no evidence found to link two separate New Years Day incidents carried out in Las Vegas and New Orleans by U.S. Army veterans that killed 16 people total and injured dozens more, the FBI said Friday. At a Friday press conference in Las Vegas, police confirmed the identity of the driver of a rented Tesla Cybertruck that exploded on New Years Day outside of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas as Matthew Alan Livelsberger. A former Green Beret, Livelsberger took his own life at the scene, according to police. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, another U.S. citizen and former Army veteran was killed by police in New Orleans after driving a truck into a crowd of people the same day in an apparent act of terrorism inspired by ISIS, killing at least 14 and injuring dozens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just to be clear, there is no evidence that these two events are connected. FBI special agent Spencer Evans said at Fridays press conference in Las Vegas. The only things that we have connecting them are incidental, what we believe to be coincidental similarities in that both vehicles were rented through the same service, that both subjects served in the military, that they both stayed in an Airbnb, things like that. Evans added that there was no record of phone communication between the two men, nor evidence to suggest they had known one another. Police discovered two cellphones one of which they were able to access belonging to Livelsberger, Assistant Sheriff Dory Corin told reporters. Entries found in the phone's Notes app contained messages believed to be written by the suspect. This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call, one message read. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives? Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers Ive lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger served five combat tours, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said, noting that he likely suffered from PTSD. McMahill added that the evidence that police had found so far suggests he had no negative feelings about President-elect Donald Trump, despite the site of the explosion and the vehicle used. On Thursday, McMahill said that officials who searched the truck had recovered a military identification and passport belonging to Livelsberger, as well as an iPhone, smartwatch, multiple firearms and fireworks. The FBI searched a Colorado Springs, Colo., residence Wednesday night associated with Livelsberger, Denver 7 News reported. Agents with the Denver Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Colorado Springs Police Department assisted in the search of the property. The FBI is investigating whether the incident was an act of terrorism and whether there is any connection between Livelsberger, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, another U.S. citizen and former Army veteran who drove a truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans the same day, killing at least 14 and insuring dozens. DNA evidence provided by Livelsberger's family confirmed that the body found in the burned out Cybertruck was his, McMahill said Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres what we know about Livelsberger and the attack so far. The attack Livelsberger rented a Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado using the Turo app and drove it to Las Vegas, stopping along the way to charge the vehicle, according to McMahill. At 8:40 a.m. local time on New Years Day, he detonated the vehicle, which was packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters. It was initially reported that Livelsberger died in the explosion, which also resulted in what have been described as minor injuries to seven other people. However, McMahill said Thursday that the body found inside the vehicle had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head just before the truck was detonated. On Friday, McMahill said police were still investigating the exact timing of the explosion and Livelsberger's self-inflicted gunshot wound. Military background Livelsberger, 37, was a married U.S. Army veteran who, according to his LinkedIn profile, had spent 18 years with the Special Forces. He joined the Green Berets as a communications specialist in 2006. In 2012, he resumed active duty, joining the U.S. Army Special Operations, Axios reported, and was on approved leave when he died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During his military career, Livelsberger served tours in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the U.S. Army confirmed to the Associated Press. He was also a highly decorated soldier, awarded two Bronze Stars, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Coincidental similarities Both Livelsberger, 37, and Jabbar, 42, were stationed at the North Carolina military base formerly known as Fort Bragg, where some Army special operations units are trained. A military official who spoke with the Associated Press said there had been no overlap in the assignments of the two men at the base. Jabbar, who said in a video that he had joined ISIS last summer, served in the U.S. Army from 2006 to 2015, and in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, Defense Department officials told NBC News. Like Livelsberger, Jabar served in Afghanistan during the U.S. troop surge there in 2009. And like Livelsberger, Jabbar also used the Turo app to rent the Ford F-150 pickup truck that he drove from Houston to New Orleans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat, a spokesperson for Turo said in a statement. Both trucks contained explosive materials, though Jabbar, according to the FBI, had planted two improvised explosive devices in coolers: one that was found at the intersection of Bourbon and Orleans streets and one at another intersection about two blocks away from where he rammed his truck into bystanders. Tewksbury police are asking for the publics help locating a suspect who broke into a Kays Hallmark store at the end of December. Police responded to the store around 5:25 a.m. on Monday, December 30, after a back door was left wide open. Officers found several ceiling tiles missing near the entrance and money missing from the cash registers. Investigators believe the suspect entered the building through the roof and traveled down the air ducts into the store. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chintan Gandhi, manager at the shop, told us theyve never seen anything like this in their roughly 30 years in business. Someone knew where to go, he told Boston 25 Thursday. My AC unit was unscrewed and the suspect went through the duct tapes, cut a hole halfway through the store, and shimmied across a pole to come down an exit sign. There was still visible damage to the ceiling Thursday night. Gandhi believes the man got onto the roof by a dumpers or pole in the back. He also claims the suspect disabled his alarm system. He finished, Someone who did it had great strength and agility. Surveillance video from inside the store shows the suspect as a man wearing a black hoodie, black pants, black sneakers, two-toned gray work gloves, and a red ski mask. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tewsksbury police also shared video of a man matching the suspects description walking on Shawsheen Road. Sgt. Ryan Hunt and other Tewksbury police officers walked into the aftermath. He explained, There were some ceiling tiles that were missing towards the front of the store I dont think anyone thought that place would be targeted. Officers were not able to share exactly how much money was missing from the story. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW WINCHESTER, Ky. (FOX 56) According to the Winchester Police Department, Malachi Gibson, 19, was found and lodged in the Clark County Detention Center on Thursday after escaping from the Clark County Courthouse. Previous story: Law enforcement in central Kentucky is searching for an inmate who escaped from the Clark County Courthouse on Thursday. Around 1 p.m. on Thursday, the Winchester Police Department wrote on Facebook that officers were notified Malachi Gibson, 19, escaped from the Clark County Courthouse. Additional law enforcement personnel are reportedly also in the area searching for Gibson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Woman allegedly yelled racial slurs at Lexington Burger King, threatened to kill police Law enforcement described Gibson as 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and was last seen wearing a red hoodie and sweatpants. Police are searching for Malachi Gibson, 19, who escaped from the Clark County Courthouse on Thursday. (Winchester Police Department) Read more of the latest Kentucky news The department said that if you see Gibson, be cautious and do not approach him. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. Police fired a sponge round to take a man armed with a large kitchen knife into custody Tuesday after responding to domestic violence call at a home in South Burlington. Coty Duso, 31, was evaluated at UVM Medical Center after the incident on County Club Drive and jailed on assault and felony unlawful mischief charges. Police were called to the home about 10:20 p.m. for a report that a man with a knife had assaulted a household member and damaged parts of the home. After evacuating other household members, officers called for backup and prepared to communicate with Duso. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Duso then emerged from the house, allegedly armed with the knife and smashed at least one window. Officers described Duso as highly emotional and said he asked the officers to kill him. Police said officers used a non-lethal sponge round to stop Duso, who is being held on $500 bail. If you are experiencing domestic violence please call the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence hotline: 800-228-7395. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44. Homicide detectives in San Bernardino County are investigating the death of a 33-year-old woman found with apparent injuries in her home earlier this week, officials announced Wednesday. Officers with the Upland Police Department responded to an apartment in the 2000 block of West Arrow Route at around 8:20 p.m. after receiving a call from a concerned party. L.A. deputies scramble to respond after dispatch computer system crashes Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reporting party called and said a 33-year-old female did not show up for work and that they were unable to get a hold of her, UPD said in a post to social media. Responding officers located the residence and through a window saw the unidentified and unresponsive victim suffering from visible injuries. 2-fingered man caught with largest cache of homemade pipe bombs in FBI history Officers entered the apartment to render aid, but the female was pronounced dead at the scene, police added. Authorities said that the investigation into the womans death is ongoing and that no further details were available at this time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Polish farmers are planning a large protest in Warsaw to voice opposition to agricultural imports from Ukraine, and EU agricultural policies, Farmer.pl reported on Jan. 2. The protest, which will take place on Jan. 3, follows a series of demonstrations by Polish farmers against Ukrainian agricultural imports since the start of the full-scale war. Farmers argue that cheaper Ukrainian agricultural imports, allowed under the EU's free trade regime with Ukraine, have disrupted Polands domestic market and hurt local producers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Organized by the Union of Agricultural Organizations, the protest will take place in front of the European Commissions office before moving to the National Theater. Tomasz Obszanski, leader of the Solidarnosc Individual Farmers' Union, accused the European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, of imposing policies that he claims threaten the survival of Polish farms. As well as agricultural imports from Ukraine, the farmers say they are trying to highlight several other issues, including the EU's proposed free trade agreement with Mercosur, an economic union in South America, the EUs Green Deal policies, and the perceived decline of Polands economy due to EU policies. Most recently, on Nov. 23, farmers staged a blockade at the Shehyni border crossing with Ukraine, which lasted just over a day and restricted truck traffic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Warsaw has already implemented bans on certain Ukrainian products, such as grain, citing negative impacts on Polish agriculture. The Polish government has expressed support for farmers concerns, highlighting challenges posed by the EUs trade policies while also seeking to maintain solidarity with Ukraine during the ongoing war. Read also: Ukraine downs 2 Russian helicopters in sea drone attack Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. The number of Ukrainians willing to endure the burden of war for as long as necessary is declining. As of December 2024, 57% expressed this readiness, a decrease of 16 percentage points compared to December 2023 and February 2024. Source: a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in December 2024 Quote from the KIIS: "From the start of the invasion until February 2024, the situation remained relatively stable, with 71-73% consistently expressing readiness to endure the war for as long as necessary (and an additional 2-3% willing to persevere for one year). During this period, 18-21% indicated a shorter safety margin, ranging from a few months to six months. However, between February and October 2024, a notable shift occurred, with the share of those willing to endure for as long as necessary dropping for the first time to 63%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Between early October and December 2024, a slight but notable decline was observed in the proportion of Ukrainians willing to endure the war for as long as necessary, dropping to 57%." Graph. Photo: KIIS Details: Sociologists emphasise that the share of Ukrainians who are willing to endure the war for a shorter period (several months to six months) has remained relatively stable, at 21% in December compared to 18% in early October. However, the proportion of those who find it "difficult to say" how much longer they can endure has increased from 12% to 18%. "Thus, between October and December, there was no decrease in the safety margin among Ukrainians, but rather an increase in uncertainty (reflecting high uncertainty due to a combination of external factors, such as the US elections, and internal circumstances)," the KIIS explained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sociologists point out that while the decline in the safety margin between February and early October 2024 was most pronounced in Ukraine's south and especially in the east, by December 2024, regional differences had "levelled off". By the end of the year, the gap between regions became less significant, though the east still had slightly fewer people willing to endure as long as necessary and exhibited higher levels of uncertainty. Graph. Photo: KIIS Sociologists also examined respondents' answers based on their family income. "On the one hand, there is a tendency that the wealthier the respondent's family, the higher the safety margin. On the other hand, it is worth emphasising that even among respondents with low incomes (who are, accordingly, quite vulnerable), 51% said they were ready to endure as long as necessary," the survey says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among middle-income respondents, this figure rose to 58%, and among high-income respondents, it reached 70%. Graph. Photo: KIIS "These data show that the willingness to endure war is only partially related to material living conditions and that other factors have a greater impact on the safety margin," KIIS concluded. The survey was conducted from 2 to 17 December 2024, with 985 respondents aged 18 and over, all residing in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine. Participants were interviewed by telephone through a random sample of mobile numbers. The sample excluded residents of areas temporarily not under Ukrainian control (although some respondents were internally displaced persons from these territories). The survey did not include citizens who left Ukraine after 24 February 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1% for indicators close to 50%, 3.5% for indicators close to 25%, 2.5% for indicators close to 10%, and 1.8% for indicators close to 5%. During wartime, additional systematic deviations may arise, but sociologists believe the results remain highly representative and reliably reflect public sentiment. Support UP or become our patron! A nearly one-mile portion of a major west Charlotte road will close for several months because of construction work on a new taxiway at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. West Boulevard from Piney Top Drive to Steele Creek Road will close on Jan. 3 and be permanently realigned to make room for the taxiway, airport officials said. 2 roads closing, 1 permanently, due to taxiway project at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The work will take about four months to complete. LINK: TRAFFIC MAPS Crews will install traffic signals to ensure traffic flows along the detours. Those detours are: Local traffic detour: Use Byrum Drive to navigate between Steele Creek Road and Yorkmont Road. Local traffic detour: Use Shopton Road to travel between Sandy Porter Road and Beam Road. Extended traffic detour: Motorists traveling from further south should use West Arrowood Road to access Sandy Porter Road and South Tryon Street. Airport officials said the South End Taxiway project is essential to CLTs Fourth Parallel Runway Program and aims to improve safety by eliminating crossings of the center runway. The taxiway will be west of Runway 36C and will allow landing planes to maneuver and circulate around both the new and existing center runways. The portion of West Boulevard is expected to reopen by spring. >>Follow CLTs X account for updates. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A new year marks the end of an era for some local businesses even as new ones are turning to the next chapter. The list of metro-area businesses shutting their doors for good includes Crush Bar one of Portlands oldest LBTQ+ bars, ForeLand Beers Portland Pub, Anna Bannanas Cafe on Northwest 21st Avenue and Beaches Restaurant and Bar in Vancouver. Extremism expert weighs in on terror attack Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While a Federal Reserve study found small businesses in Portland encountered more financial struggles than the national average in 2023, some are managing to stay afloat. For instance, All Burn Wax just renewed its lease and will enter its second year at a prime location in downtown Portland. I opened October of 2023, so over a year now, we are we renewed our lease. So its kind of exciting, said All Burn Wax Owner Diana Aalberg. All Burn Wax Owner Diana Aalberg. January 1, 2025 (KOIN). The small storefront on West Burnside Street is filled with its signature line of candles, as well as other trinkets and products that are all locally made. Were mostly a weekend shop now, but during the weekday, it is a bit slower, Aalberg said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said shes seen small businesses close down for a variety of reasons that dont necessarily always boil down to hardships, lack of foot traffic or low sales. I think a lot of the times, its actually just more a sideways step or just a different direction. Im hopeful. Im Im thinking its going to be OK but thats only because thats just how I survive, Aalberg said. Aalberg said she also thinks downtown Portland isnt all that bad. I think that with Portland, I think people see other things on the news that might scare them. Ask me the situation. But honestly, I love this area, and I would I will continue to stay here, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aalberg said its a tight-knit community of businesses downtown. Top 7 concerts coming to Portland in January Its been OK. I think were going to bounce back, she said. Aalberg also thanked the constant support from the public and her fellow business owners for being able to kick off her second year at the same location across from Powells Books downtown. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. NEW YORK (AP) A postal worker was stabbed to death in a New York City deli Thursday afternoon, and police said they have a person of interest in custody. While on duty, the postal employee was attacked at roughly 2:30 p.m. at a business on Harlem's Lenox Avenue, according to police. The thoroughfare also is called Malcolm X Boulevard. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said the person killed was a letter carrier assigned to Manhattan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said the 36-year-old man was taken to a hospital with multiple stab wounds and was pronounced dead there. No further details were immediately available from police or the Postal Inspection Service, which is aiding the investigation. No working phone number for the deli could immediately be found. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the date of the stabbing was Thursday, not Monday. Nineteen-year-old U.S. Army Pvt. David Lewis set out from Fort Dix on a 50-mile hike with his unit on Feb. 5, 1976. On that bitter cold day, he collapsed and died. Autopsy specimens unexpectedly tested positive for an H1N1 swine influenza virus. Virus disease surveillance at Fort Dix found another 13 cases among recruits who had been hospitalized for respiratory illness. Additional serum antibody testing revealed that over 200 recruits had been infected but not hospitalized with the novel swine H1N1 strain. Officials worried about a repeat of something like the 1918 flu pandemic, which took hold in soldiers and spread globally. PhotoQuest/Getty Images Alarm bells instantly went off within the epidemiology community: Could Pvt. Lewis death from an H1N1 swine flu be a harbinger of another global pandemic like the terrible 1918 H1N1 swine flu pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. government acted quickly. On March 24, 1976, President Gerald Ford announced a plan to inoculate every man, woman, and child in the United States. On Oct. 1, 1976, the mass immunization campaign began. Meanwhile, the initial small outbreak at Fort Dix had rapidly fizzled, with no new cases on the base after February. As Army Col. Frank Top, who headed the Fort Dix virus investigation, later told me, We had shown pretty clearly that (the virus) didnt go anywhere but Fort Dix it disappeared. Nonetheless, concerned by that outbreak and witnessing the massive crash vaccine program in the U.S., biomedical scientists worldwide began H1N1 swine influenza vaccine research and development programs in their own countries. Going into the 1976-77 winter season, the world waited and prepared for an H1N1 swine influenza pandemic that never came. By September 1976, New York State Health Department workers were unloading cartons of swine flu vaccine for distribution. AP Photo/Jim McKnight But that wasnt the end of the story. As an experienced infectious disease epidemiologist, I make the case that there were unintended consequences of those seemingly prudent but ultimately unnecessary preparations. What was odd about H1N1 Russian flu pandemic In an epidemiological twist, a new pandemic influenza virus did emerge, but it was not the anticipated H1N1 swine virus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In November 1977, health officials in Russia reported that a human not swine H1N1 influenza strain had been detected in Moscow. By months end, it was reported across the entire USSR and soon throughout the world. Compared with other influenzas, this pandemic was peculiar. First, the mortality rate was low, about a third that of most influenza strains. Second, only those younger than 26 were regularly attacked. And finally, unlike other newly emerged pandemic influenza viruses in the past, it failed to displace the existing prevalent H3N2 subtype that was that years seasonal flu. Instead, the two flu strains the new H1N1 and the long-standing H3N2 circulated side by side. Here the story takes yet another turn. Microbiologist Peter Palese applied what was then a novel technique called RNA oligonucleotide mapping to study the genetic makeup of the new H1N1 Russian flu virus. He and his colleagues grew the virus in the lab, then used RNA-cutting enzymes to chop the viral genome into hundreds of pieces. By spreading the chopped RNA in two dimensions based on size and electrical charge, the RNA fragments created a unique fingerprint-like map of spots. Researchers were surprised to see the genetic fingerprint for the 1977 H1N1 Russian flu strain closely matched that of an extinct influenza virus. Peter Palese Much to Paleses surprise, when they compared the spot pattern of the 1977 H1N1 Russian flu with a variety of other influenza viruses, this new virus was essentially identical to older human influenza H1N1 strains that had gone extinct in the early 1950s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So, the 1977 Russian flu virus was actually a strain that had disappeared from the planet a quarter century early, then was somehow resurrected back into circulation. This explained why it attacked only younger people older people had already been infected and become immune when the virus circulated decades ago in its earlier incarnation. But how did the older strain come back from extinction? Though called the Russian flu, the virus appears to have been circulating elsewhere before being identified in the Soviet population. Gilbert UZAN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Refining the timeline of a resurrected virus Despite its name, the Russian flu probably didnt really start in Russia. The first published reports of the virus were from Russia, but subsequent reports from China provided evidence that it had first been detected months earlier, in May and June of 1977, in the Chinese port city of Tientsin. In 2010, scientists used detailed genetic studies of several samples of the 1977 virus to pinpoint the date of their earliest common ancestor. This molecular clock data suggested the virus initially infected people a full year earlier, in April or May of 1976. So, the best evidence is that the 1977 Russian flu actually emerged or more properly re-emerged in or near Tientsin, China, in the spring of 1976. A frozen lab virus Was it simply a coincidence that within months of Pvt. Lewis death from H1N1 swine flu, a heretofore extinct H1N1 influenza strain suddenly reentered the human population? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Influenza virologists around the world had for years been using freezers to store influenza virus strains, including some that had gone extinct in the wild. Fears of a new H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 1976 in the United States had prompted a worldwide surge in research on H1N1 viruses and vaccines. An accidental release of one of these stored viruses was certainly possible in any of the countries where H1N1 research was taking place, including China, Russia, the U.S., the U.K. and probably others. Years after the reemergence, Palese, the microbiologist, reflected on personal conversations he had at the time with Chi-Ming Chu, the leading Chinese expert on influenza. Palese wrote in 2004 that the introduction of the 1977 H1N1 virus is now thought to be the result of vaccine trials in the Far East involving the challenge of several thousand military recruits with live H1N1 virus. Although exactly how such an accidental release may have occurred during a vaccine trial is unknown, there are two leading possibilities. First, scientists could have used the resurrected H1N1 virus as their starting material for development of a live, attenuated H1N1 vaccine. If the virus in the vaccine wasnt adequately weakened, it could have become transmissible person to person. Another possibility is that researchers used the live, resurrected virus to test the immunity provided by conventional H1N1 vaccines, and it accidentally escaped from the research setting. Whatever the specific mechanism of the release, the combination of the detailed location and timing of the pandemics origins and the stature of Chu and Palese as highly credible sources combine to make a strong case for an accidental release in China as the source of the Russian flu pandemic virus. The H1N1 influenza virus identified at Fort Dix wasnt the one that ended up causing a pandemic. CDC/Dr. E. Palmer, R.E. Bates, 1976 via Getty Images A sobering history lesson The resurrection of an extinct but dangerous human-adapted H1N1 virus came about as the world was scrambling to prevent what was perceived to be the imminent emergence of a swine H1N1 influenza pandemic. People were so concerned about the possibility of a new pandemic that they inadvertently caused one. It was a self-fulfilling-prophecy pandemic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have no intent to lay blame here; indeed, my main point is that in the epidemiological fog of the moment in 1976, with anxiety mounting worldwide about a looming pandemic, a research unit in any country could have accidentally released the resurrected virus that came to be called the Russian flu. In the global rush to head off a possible new pandemic of H1N1 swine flu from Fort Dix through research and vaccination, accidents could have happened anywhere. Of course, biocontainment facilities and policies have improved dramatically over the past half-century. But at the same time, there has been an equally dramatic proliferation of high-containment labs around the world. Across the globe, researchers work on dangerous pathogens in labs that are part of biocontainment facilities. AP Photo/Michael Probst Overreaction. Unintended consequences. Making matters worse. Self-fulfilling prophecy. There is a rich variety of terms to describe how the best intentions can go awry. Still reeling from COVID-19, the world now faces new threats from cross-species jumps of avian flu viruses, mpox viruses and others. Its critical that we be quick to respond to these emerging threats to prevent yet another global disease conflagration. Quick, but not too quick, history suggests. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Donald S. Burke, University of Pittsburgh Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Donald S. Burke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) President Joe Bidens recent pardon of David Runyon, a man once on death row for his role in a 2007 murder-for-hire plot, has sparked renewed discussion about the use of the death penalty in Virginia and across the country. Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates, including 8 men from Va., N.C. Court documents show Runyon, a former police officer and Army veteran, was convicted of killing Navy officer Cory Voss outside a Newport News credit union. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vosss wife, Catherina Voss, conspired with her lover, Michael Draven, to orchestrate the murder in hopes of collecting Corys $400,000 life insurance policy. Runyon was hired to carry out the crime, shooting Cory in his vehicle late at night. Initially sentenced to death, Runyons punishment was commuted to life in prison following Bidens decision. The decision has drawn praise from death penalty opponents, but outrage from those who believe Runyon deserved the ultimate punishment for his crime. While some in the community advocate for leniency, others argue that certain crimes like the calculated murder of Cory Voss are too heinous to warrant anything less than the death penalty. Virginia abolished the death penalty in 2021, becoming the first Southern state to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. After a rollercoaster year, Prince William has emerged as the royal familys new rock, according to a royal biographer. In a piece for The Independent published Dec. 28, Dr. Tessa Dunlop said that the Prince of Wales, 42, is a reincarnation of his late grandmother [Queen Elizabeth], also calling the future king a steadfast anchor who changed it up with designer stubble, referring to Williams much discussed facial hair throughout the latter half of 2024. The nation fell in love with [Princess] Dianas firstborn all over again, Dunlop wrote, adding that Naysayers who doubted Williams mettle have been forced to rethink. Chris Jackson/Getty President and Founder of the Earthshot Prize, Prince William, Prince of Wales on stage during the 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony on Nov. 6, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa President and Founder of the Earthshot Prize, Prince William, Prince of Wales on stage during the 2024 Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony on Nov. 6, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa Related: Prince William Breaks Silence on 'Brutal' 2024 amid Kate Middleton and King Charles' Cancer Diagnoses: 'Hardest Year in My Life' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dawn of 2025 was no doubt a welcome sight for William, who in November called 2024 brutal: Its been dreadful, he said while in Cape Town, South Africa for the fourth iteration of his Earthshot Prize Awards. Its probably been the hardest year in my life. 2024 saw both his wife, Kate Middleton, and his father, King Charles, diagnosed with cancer; his aunt Sarah Ferguson, too, announced a second cancer diagnosis, and Thomas Kingston, the husband of Lady Gabriella, died suddenly as a result of a traumatic wound to the head at age 45 on Feb. 25. Additionally, his uncle Prince Andrews association with an alleged Chinese spy brought further embarrassment to the monarchy five years after the Duke of Yorks disastrous BBC Newsnight interview did the same. Leon Neal/Getty Catherine, Princess of Wales, (C-L) and Prince William, Prince of Wales, (C-R) during a ceremonial welcome for the Amir of the State of Qatar at Horse Guards parade during day one of The Amir of the State of Qatar's visit to the United Kingdom on Dec. 3, 2024 in London, England Catherine, Princess of Wales, (C-L) and Prince William, Prince of Wales, (C-R) during a ceremonial welcome for the Amir of the State of Qatar at Horse Guards parade during day one of The Amir of the State of Qatar's visit to the United Kingdom on Dec. 3, 2024 in London, England But Dunlop, author of Elizabeth and Philip: A Story of Young Love, Marriage and Monarchy about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, said all was not lost for the royal family last year: Without doubt, the rebirth of the Waleses as the countrys number one couple has moved our monarchy into a new space, she wrote. These days they appear to be a double act, even when apart. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of Kates cancer diagnosis which she announced publicly on March 22 via a video message, following up with another video message on Sept. 9 that she had completed chemotherapy Dunlop added that because of her husbands support, Kate has not walked alone. In the same November interview from Cape Town, William opened up about his royal role and, after being asked about whether it was more restrictive having greater responsibility and importance in the monarchy now that he was Prince of Wales (a title he took on in September 2022), he responded, Its a tricky one. Jason Cairnduff - Pool/Getty Prince William, Prince Of Wales visits Simon Community on Nov. 14, 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland Prince William, Prince Of Wales visits Simon Community on Nov. 14, 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland Do I like more responsibility? No. Do I like the freedom that I can build something like Earthshot? Then yes, he said. And thats the future for me. William added, Its very important, with my role and my platform, that I'm doing something for good. That I'm helping people's lives and I'm doing something that is genuinely meaningful. So, the Earthshot is a culmination, if you like, of all that put together. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In her piece, Dunlop said of Williams presence in the institution that William insists he wants to provide compassionate leadership amid a dangerous new dawn of showy nationalism. To help him perform that onerous task, it is vital the King leans in. Of King Charles, she added, He may never be the star turn his late mother was, or that his son is fast becoming, but Charles could make a name for himself as a monarch who oversees much-needed root-and-branch reform. Chris Jackson - Pool/Getty King Charles III smiles during The King's Foundation's annual 'Crafts at Christmas' at Highgrove Gardens on Dec. 13, 2024 in Tetbury, England King Charles III smiles during The King's Foundation's annual 'Crafts at Christmas' at Highgrove Gardens on Dec. 13, 2024 in Tetbury, England Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: King Charles Cancer Treatment Will Continue into the New Year, Is in a 'Very Positive Direction,' Palace Source Confirms Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! While Kates cancer treatment has ended, the Kings will continue into 2025, with palace sources confirming on Dec. 20 that the treatment is moving in a very positive direction. As the one year anniversary of Charles own announcement about his cancer approaches on Feb. 5, aides have signaled that the King, 76, will continue treatment as a managed condition. Read the original article on People Progressives in Washington are facing an existential crisis like never before as they brace for the incoming Trump administration. Not only are they at odds with their own party, with many Democrats seeking to pin the blame for their November losses on them, but some on the left are also openly fearful that an emboldened GOP will use its influence against their flank. What is it that we can do thats effective when they control everything? said Joseph Geevarghese, who runs the grassroots organizing group Our Revolution. Theyre going to use their state power against us. I think theyre going to target progressives. Its a very challenging moment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Progressives faced their first postelection rebuke last week, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) missed out on a key leadership post on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, a sign to many of their diminished influence. Not only did fellow Democrats reject her policies, but they preferred an older male candidate Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), whose profile resembles that of the congressman, former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), she ousted six years ago. Republicans, including President-elect Trump, publicly mocked her efforts. Really too bad that AOC lost the Battle for the Leadership Seat in the Democrat Party. She should keep trying. Someday, she will be successful! Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. The loss is emblematic of an evolving political landscape that has proven challenging for progressives over the past several cycles. The 2018 surge of energy that helped fuel the formation of the squad has deflated, with some Democrats questioning its future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps rise to victory over Vice President Harris all but extinguished the momentum progressives were hoping would carry them forward on Capitol Hill. Democrats main strategy against Trump was not effective, and progressives failed to differentiate themselves from other anti-Trump voices in the party. While Ocasio-Cortez and her mentor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), each has vast national appeal theyre popular with young people and working-class voters Democrats say they need the most help winning back theres still an open question about what they can tangibly do moving forward. Some allies who have helped lift the progressive lawmakers political careers say members of the left need to look beyond D.C. now for new clout. I think its always about organizing, one former Sanders campaign adviser said. The tangible things that can be done are not just about legislation. Its about building a grassroots network that can affect things at every level. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the discussions I have been having with folks, I think it might be happening organically, the former adviser said. Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have long relied on the use of small-dollar donations to fund their bids, shunning corporate donations and inspiring others to generate support from people with just a few dollars to give at once. Some are now fearful Republicans are beginning to try to weaponize that small-dollar model against them, further stifling their ascent. Elon Musk and [House Speaker] Mike Johnson have their sights on Act Blue, Geevarghese said about the platform progressives and other Democrats use for fundraising. They know thats our money source. Its a signal. Sanders has been critical of Democrats since Trumps win showed key deficiencies in states where many working-class voters reside. He has moved away from the unifying rhetoric most in the party used right before the election and has gone into introspection and even attack mode, urging his own party to change its priorities to focus more heavily on economic concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The economic-first approach is what got many progressives with nontraditional backgrounds elected to Capitol Hill initially. Ocasio-Cortez famously worked as a bartender before taking office, mirroring the trajectories of other squad members: Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) was a nurse, for example, while Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) was a school principal. Both were defeated by more centrist opponents in November. Facing a lack of potency, others on the left are trying a newer strategy that seeks to merge some of their more palatable progressive goals with areas of populism favored by Trump. The handful of members who have tried to make that case, including Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), have been met with interest among some on the opposing side. Many progressives are starting to get on board with that tactic, possibly because there are few great options. Weve got to engage with DOGE, and weve got to point out what we think are the inefficiencies in the system like fossil fuel subsidies, Geevarghese said, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, which is not a formal agency but a project conceived by Trump and Musk that has received much fanfare from conservatives. Thats going to be a major fight next year right around the expiration of the Trump tax cuts. Another example would be Pentagon spending, he said. I think we should engage on that and have a real fight over whether we need to fund certain initiatives. The question is, can we find common cause? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a start, some say, of what could be a step forward for Democrats who have expressed profound discontent with how their leadership, strategists and party apparatus operate. The party needs a reckoning with itself, said Corryn Freeman, a progressive operative and executive director of Future Coalition, an organizing network. Theyre saying it out of their mouths, but their actions are fully aligned with the sameness that has gotten us to the place that we are now, which is powerless. The people are dying for our own I wont say our own Donald Trump and our own Marjorie Taylor Greene, because those people are unhinged but Democrats are dying for people who are willing to stand up, take some assertive action and call things out as they see them, Freeman said. Another progressive strategist encouraged those within the party to reexamine their roots and reclaim the relevant parts of their platform from the GOP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont know exactly when Democrats lost their comfort with populism, but I dont think it was because Trump picked it up, the strategist said. I think Trump picked it up because Democrats gave it up during the Obama years, when they started chasing Silicon Valley money and Obama wanted to appeal to college-educated people who think populism is icky and uneducated. We replaced it with a really prominent condescension, the strategist added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. On the morning of 1 January, a Russian drone attack on Kyiv claimed the lives of two renowned scientists, Olesia Sokur and Ihor Zyma. Source: Ukrainska Pravda. Life, citing Professor Mykola Makarchuk and Andrii Cherninskyi, a lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics Details: The scientist couple worked at the Institute of Biology and Medicine at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, conducting research in various fields of biology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their colleague and friend, Professor Mykola Makarchuk of the Institute of Biology and Medicine, shared his memories of the couple with Ukrainska Pravda. Life. Scientific contributions made by Ihor Zyma and Olesia Sokur Mykola Makarchuk recalled meeting Ihor Zyma at Kyiv University in the late 1970s. They soon got to know each other, as both were studying and doing research at the Department of Human and Animal Physiology. "We both wanted to study higher nervous activity what is now called behaviour, cognitive and mental activity," the professor said. Ihor Zyma and Mykola Makarchuk conducted joint scientific research, starting with studying rats. Their work involved methods that were advanced for the time, including inserting electrodes into the animals brains and using cutting-edge stereotaxic devices produced by the O.O. Bohomolets Institute of Physiology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The researchers successfully guided electrodes into specific parts of the brain to study them. Quote from Makarchuk: "Using certain coordinates on the skull, stereotaxis [a minimally invasive method to access the brain ed.] enabled the electrodes to target specific brain areas, either to destroy them or to record their electrical activity. We studied a brain structure of great importance even today the amygdala. Gradually, we examined how odours affect the electrical activity of the rat's brain." Details: These studies later formed the foundation of their PhD theses. Ten to fifteen years later, their research expanded to human studies without direct bodily intervention. The scientists had a wide range of research interests, initially studying the human brains responses to odours and later exploring the impact of stress factors and emotional behaviour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote from Makarchuk: "This evolved into creating comprehensive electrophysiological studies, which we conducted on humans. Ihor even established an entire laboratory for this, actually founding a scientific school." More details: Taras Shevchenko National University revealed that Ihor Zyma dedicated over 50 years of his life to studying and working at the university, achieving significant milestones in neuroscience and authoring over 360 scientific and methodological publications. Quote from Makarchuk: "There used to be a paradox in science when it was believed that smells and olfaction were rudimentary and insignificant for humans. To be honest, our research 20-30 years ago was not perceived as it is now. Even Covid-19 demonstrated that this is one of the systems that is most affected. Neurodegenerative diseases are extremely complex, but their first symptoms are olfactory dysfunctions." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Makarchuk added that Zyma later continued studying how the brain perceives a range of stimuli, such as facial expressions and speech. These studies became part of the documentary The Nations Code, in which the researcher participated. More details: Olesia Sokur, Ihor Zymas wife, was a biochemist and also worked at the Institute of Biology and Medicine, where the couple first met. She headed the Scientific Research Laboratory of Physicochemical Biology. Olesia Sokur had a PhD in biology and studied processes associated with gastrointestinal tract pathologies. She also possessed "great organisational talent", recalls Mykola Makarchuk. Quote from Makarchuk: "I often interacted with Olesia because she was the deputy director for scientific work. She was absolutely dedicated to her field, and her work ethic was astounding. We would come in the morning and leave in the evening, but she was always in her office, meticulously completing her tasks." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More details: During her scientific career, Olesia Sokur also worked at the Institute of Clinical Radiology of the Scientific Centre for Radiation Medicine at the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, where she defended her PhD thesis on antioxidant systems in territories affected by the Chornobyl disaster. Overall, Olesia Sokur authored nearly 200 publications, earning recognition from the scientific community and making significant contributions to the development of biochemistry. "His students deeply respected and admired him" Mykola Makarchuk recalls that Ihor Zyma also taught a short course in electrophysiology. About five years ago, the scientist defended his doctoral thesis and was promoted to senior lecturer, where he demonstrated exceptional teaching skills, as he greatly enjoyed interacting with students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ihor Zyma taught courses on the biological foundations of brain function and brain disorders for students specialising in medical and neuropsychology. Quote from Makarchuk: "His students deeply respected and admired him. It was especially evident that his courses were based not only on theoretical knowledge, but also on experimental and practical life experience. The students appreciated this approach, as they felt that their lecturer wasnt merely presenting theoretical concepts, but sharing his personal experiences." More details: Andrii Cherninskyi, a lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics who studied and later worked at Taras Shevchenko National University, also shared his memories of Ihor Zyma. Quote from Cherninskyi: "Ihor Zyma was the supervisor of my theses, as well as the inspiration and co-supervisor of my PhD thesis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I joined his lab during my second year because I was interested in studying human brain activity, something I am partially still involved in today. Our team was like a real working family, with Ihor at its core." Details: Yurii Havrylechko, a former student of the Institute of Biology and Medicine, described Ihor Zyma as "a world-class scientist" who even 30 years ago was a renowned expert in the field of neurobiology and a science communicator. Professor Mykola Makarchuk admitted that it is painful for him to speak about his friends in the past tense. "We had been friends since our student years, and Ihor Zyma and I often spent time together in the countryside. We loved fishing, and later hunting. He was one of the people Im closest to. Its hard to believe this," Mykola Makarchuk said with emotion. Support UP or become our patron! PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Providence police said theyve arrested someone accused of trying to rob a woman at knifepoint on Wednesday afternoon. The incident happened just before 3:20 p.m. at the intersection of John Street and Governor Street, according to police. The woman told officers the suspect had a knife and took her purse before going into her car, leaving the purse and then running away The suspect was later arrested at Gano Street Park. There werent any injuries reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NEXT: Woonsocket man charged in connection with Boston homicide Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) A public hearing is being held on the proposal of a new lease space for the Springfield Regional Justice Center set to replace the Roderick Ireland Courthouse. State officials decided to pursue a new courthouse after years of complaints about mold and other health issues associated with the current courthouse, located at 50 State Street in downtown Springfield. In November, the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) issued a request for proposals for properties in the Springfield area that would be a suitable location for a new state-owned courthouse. They received nine different proposals, however after each was evaluated, none was chosen to go forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State now plans to lease space for new Roderick Ireland Courthouse in Springfield State officials changed their plan to solicit proposals from private developers, to either construct a new facility or renovate an existing space that can be used for a courthouse. The state would then take out a long-term lease on the property. According to DCAMM, this could result in a new courthouse being ready two years sooner; meaning a possible six-year timetable, rather than the current eight-year estimate. A news release from Springfield Mayor Sarno stated that he has reviewed the project proposal along with his economic development staff and said that he fully supports it. Mayor Sarno is set to provide comments during the DCAMM public hearing as well as continuing to advocate for a North End riverfront site. The Springfield Regional Justice Center Project public hearing will be held virtually on Thursday at 3 p.m. via Zoom with members of DCAMM and the states Trial Court. Those interested are invited to comment on the proposed project at the public hearing or submit written comments to kendra.howes@mass.gov by January 11th at 4 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayor Sarno states, I have made it very clear; I am in full support of the relocation of a new Roderick Ireland Courthouse to the north riverfront area. This would be a game changer for the City of Springfield. It brings to light development in the north end of our riverfront and most importantly, it brings with it some additional housing to the city, which is desperately needed. Also, this proposal includes restaurants and boutique shops, along with a proposed marina. This project would also create hundreds of construction jobs and a number of permanent jobs. This project also addresses major issues concerning public transportation and parking. Furthermore, this project in the north riverfront could be completed in 3-4 years vs 7-10 years at the current site. I will continue to advocate for the project that is in the best interest for our Springfield. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. Jan. 2 (UPI) -- The Quadrantids meteor shower is expected to reach maximum activity from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., EST on Friday with the best viewing in Alaska, Hawaii, and eastern Asia. Bob Lunsford, of the American Meteor Society, said the best time to see the shower would be before dawn if stargazers are in the Pacific. East Coast skywatchers in North America could see as many as 25 meteors streaking through the sky while West Coast views are likely to see double that because of the later sunshine, Lunsford said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shyam Balaji, an astroparticle physics researcher at King's College of London, said the best time for Brits to see the meteor shower will be from the late-night Friday to dawn on Saturday. "The Quadrantids are known for their bright fireball meteors, which can appear blue," Balaji said, according to The Guardian. "This blue color is due to the high velocity of the meteors and the presence of certain elements like magnesium and iron in the meteoroids, which emit blue lights when they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere." NASA says the Quadrantids have much shorter peak times than most meteor showers, which tend to last up to two days. The space agency said the reason for this is because the shower stream particles are thinner, and the Earth crosses the stream at a perpendicular angle. Quadrantids are known as well for their bright fireball meteors, larger explosions of light and color that can last longer than an average meteor streak. Lucas Tindall is the youngest child of Zara and Mike Tindall. In 2022, he made his first official appearance at his great-grandmother's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, and since, he's made a few appearances with his family. On New Year's Day, little Lucas joined the Tindalls at the New Year's Day Racing Meet at Cheltenham Racecourse, and many online noted that his enthusiasm for the sport took after his grandmother, Princess Anne. Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images Here, everything you need to know about the baby of the Tindall family. Lucas Philip Tindall was born March 21, 2021 to Zara and Mike Tindall. Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images Mike Tindall confirmed the news on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast. "Sunday got even better because a little baby boy arrived at my house," he said, sharing that his son arrived at 6 p.m. on March 21 at their home in Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Arrived very quickly. Didnt make it to hospital. On the bathroom floor," he continued. "So yeah, it was running to the gym, get a mat, get into the bathroom, get the mat on the floor, towels down, brace, brace, brace." He also called his wife "a warrior." Watch here: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lucas Philip was named for his great-grandfather Prince Philip and Mike's father Philip Tindall. He has two older siblings. Joe Giddens - PA Images - Getty Images His older sisters are Mia Tindall and Lena Tindall. Lucas is also Queen Elizabeth's tenth great-grandchild, and he is extremely close in age to two of his cousins, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank and Lilibet Lili Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. He is 24th in line to the British throne. When Lucas's mother Zara was born in 1981, her parents, Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, declined to give her a title. Therefore, Zara's kids also do not have titlesbut remain in the British line of succession. He's currently the last person listed on the line of succession on the royal family's website, however, there are people that follow him. Lucas made his first appearance in April 2022. Lucas joined his family at the fairground to watch Zara compete at the Burnham Market International horse trails at Norfolk. He wore an adorable blue puffy jacket as his dad, Mike, carried him around. Joe Giddens - PA Images - Getty Images Joe Giddens - PA Images - Getty Images He even got to go on one of the rides with his sister Lena: Joe Giddens - PA Images - Getty Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After competing, his mom Zara came over to hold him and give him a big kiss: Joe Giddens - PA Images - Getty Images Joe Giddens - PA Images - Getty Images In August 2022, he joined the rest of his family at another equestrian event. Lucas seemed extremely excited to meet a horse: Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images He also played with his big sister, Mia: Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He joined the rest of the family in the royal box during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant. While he was not in attendance for the entirety of the three-hour affair, Lucas could be seen in overalls and a long sleeve blue polo at the very end of the pageant: Lucas Tindall everyone: pic.twitter.com/vGIN8yUl8b Women of Windsor (@WomenofWindsor) June 5, 2022 He joined his older sister Lena, Princess Eugenie's son August, and Princess Beatrice's stepson Wolfie in making their first official appearances with the royal family. You Might Also Like Multiple gunmen opened fire outside of Queens, NYs Amazura nightclub, leaving 11 people wounded. According to NBC 4 New York, the attack happened on New Years Day (Jan. 1) outside of a private event held at the club on 144th Street. The outlet reports that three to four gunmen unloaded on a group of six females and four males, hitting all of them and leading to varying degrees of injuries. Police alerted the authorities that the victims are expected to make full recoveries. Law enforcement has also stated that they have opened an investigation into the shooting to inquire whether the act was gang-related. The outlet reports that police were phoned shortly after 11 PM on NYE, stating that there had been a shooting at the club. With Amazura at full capacity, there were allegedly 15 people outside of the club waiting to be let in to ring in 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement https://twitter.com/mexicotimes/status/1874685356404015550 Suddenly, three to four males aged in their late teens to early 20s made their way towards the line of people and opened fire on them, letting around 30 shots, resulting in 10 people being shot. As of Thursday (Jan 2), no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. And while the NYPD Chief of Patrol, Philip Rivera, called out the senseless shooting in a statement, he asserted that the attack wasnt an act of terrorism. Theres zero tolerance for these senseless shootings, Rivera said. These horrible acts of violence on our streets, and those responsible for this crime, will be apprehended and brought to justice. In other horrific news, a 42-year-old man drove his pickup truck into a crowd of people celebrating the New Year on New Orleans famous Bourbon Street. This incident was labeled as a terrorist attack by local authorities in Louisiana, leaving 15 people dead while injuring a dozen more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was an army veteran from Texas who had been allegedly radicalized by ISIS in the last couple of years, per ABC. Police killed Jabbar at the scene. Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street after at least ten people were killed when a person allegedly drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Years Day on January 1, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dozens more were injured after a suspect in a rented pickup truck allegedly drove around barricades and through a crowd of New Years revelers on Bourbon Street. The suspect then got out of the car, opened fire on police officers, and was subsequently killed by law enforcement. More from VIBE.com Sign up for Vibe's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A report published in 2022 disclosed that at least 1,000 girls were sexually abused by gangs of Asian men in Telford. Similar crimes have been uncovered in Rochdale, Oldham, Oxford, Rotherham, Peterborough and other towns across the UK. Now there are calls for a public inquiry into the systematic sexual exploitation of children that was allowed to continue because of misplaced sensitivities about race relations. Even the tech billionaire Elon Musk has stepped into the debate after Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister in the Home Office, refused to back an inquiry into what happened in Oldham. It was a matter for the local council, she said. But it clearly isnt. This is a national issue that requires a national response, though whether another lengthy and expensive public inquiry is necessary is arguable. We know what happened because several independent inquiries have already uncovered the sordid details and dozens of men have been jailed after a series of trials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The problem is that no one has been held responsible for the failure to stop what was going on. They include police chiefs who stymied proper investigations until they became impossible to resist and prosecutors who should have been more proactive in seeking convictions. They knew, or at least must have suspected, that this was widespread but held back because they did not want to be accused of racism. The creed of multiculturalism had so permeated the agencies of justice and local government that they declined to uphold the law of the land, or shield vulnerable young people from predatory abusers. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said a full national inquiry into rape gangs was long overdue. Perhaps so, but it would take years to report and during that time more prosecutions may be put on hold. What should happen is to identify those responsible and hold them to account if they are still in positions of authority. Sir Keir Starmer was the chief prosecutor when many of the decisions were being taken, or not taken, about bringing perpetrators to book. The Prime Minister makes much of his time as DPP so he should at least explain his role in this appalling state of affairs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Above all, the country needs assurances that similar crimes are not still being overlooked on racial or religious grounds. If they are, nothing is more guaranteed to foment community tensions. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. As we approach a new year, many individuals are setting their sights on healthier lifestyles for 2025. Recent research from the University of Bristol suggests that smartwatches could play a pivotal role in helping people quit smoking. A study published in the journal JMIR Formative Research reveals that a custom smartwatch application designed specifically to monitor smoking behavior might significantly increase the success rate of those trying to kick the habit. New app detects smoking Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable diseases and early deaths worldwide, adversely affecting nearly every organ and diminishing both quality of life and life expectancy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quitting presents a formidable challenge for many, who often resort to various methods with limited success. The researchers behind this innovative study developed software that leverages the motion sensors embedded in smartwatches to identify the typical hand gestures associated with smoking. The smartwatch has a prevention message. (Credit: Chris Stone When the application recognizes these movements, it promptly sends a relapse prevention message to the wearer, coinciding with the crucial moments of temptation. During this feasibility study, 18 participants eager to quit smoking wore standard Android smartwatches equipped with the custom app over two weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Feedback indicated that the smartwatch intervention heightened their awareness of smoking, prompting them to reflect on their habits and increasing their motivation to stop. Notably, two-thirds of the trial participants 12 out of 18 considered the smartwatch intervention a feasible and beneficial tool in their quit attempt. This marks a significant step as it represents the first entirely smartwatch-based intervention designed to prevent smoking relapse without requiring smartphone pairing. Quit smoking with smartwatches Chris Stone, a senior research associate involved in wearable technology application development within Bristol's Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group and the Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Programme (ICEP), commented on the significance of the approach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For those attempting to quit, experiencing a lapse can be a critical moment that often leads to a complete relapse, he said. Smartwatches are already popular, and the idea of receiving a supportive message right when they are tempted to smoke adds a layer of personalization that could make a real difference. The focus on timely intervention is central to the proposed strategy. By delivering useful messages precisely when the individual is at risk of succumbing to the urge, there's an opportunity to transform these moments into success stories instead of relapses. The research aimed to harness cutting-edge intervention design while minimizing user burden, maximizing engagement, and facilitating meaningful behavior change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alizee Froguel, Cancer Research UKs Prevention Policy Manager, weighed the study's implications. Smoking is the largest contributor to cancer in the UK, and completely quitting is the best decision one can make for their health. While this research highlights the potential of smartwatches as a valuable resource for cessation, further studies are crucial to understanding their effectiveness fully. In addition to innovative technological solutions, Froguel emphasized the importance of accessing support services. There are numerous tools available for assisting individuals in their quit attempts. Engaging with your local free stop smoking service can significantly enhance the likelihood of success. For a smoke-free future, it is essential that the government ensures robust and accessible funding for cessation services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Looking ahead, the research team advocates for a more comprehensive long-term study to evaluate the sustained effectiveness of smartwatch interventions in smoking cessation. This initiative is vital to the Smoking Cessation theme within the Cancer Research UK-founded Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Programme (ICEP), underscoring the commitment to finding new and effective ways to combat smoking-related health issues. (Photo credit: Florida Democratic Party) While Florida Democratic Party (FDP) Chair Nikki Fried has already announced that she is running for a full-four year term following another bad election cycle for the state party, there is now competition for the role of party first vice chair in an election slated for later this month. Jayden DOnofrio, the 20-year-old chair of the Florida Future Leaders PAC, a political committee he created to fund the Florida High School Democrats and the Florida College Democrats, announced his candidacy for the post on Thursday. Jayden DOnofrio via X This past elections results really showed me the importance of building new leadership within the party and some new strategies that we need to implement and make sure that we actually have youth outreach within the party but also just general effectiveness, DOnofrio told the Phoenix. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive had people approach me about wanting to get into the race and talk about getting more youth leadership in the party, talking about building up that future into the party, and building out some of those new strategies that we need to implement and actually make sure that were building gains into the state. Also entering the contest is Duval County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Daniel Henry, 33, who has led that local party since 2019. Hes also a member of the Democratic National Committee. Ive been thinking about running for first vice chair since the November election, Henry said on Thursday. Its something that Ive always thought that I wanted, to make sure that I not only stayed engaged in the state party, because Ive been doing that over the course of the last six years, but I also wanted to see the best ways that I can make an impact. Henry, the son of Haitian immigrants, said he spoke last month with siting Vice Chair Judy Mount (who is not running for re-election) to get a better idea about the position and how much of a difference he could make if elected, and decided shortly afterwards to put my hat in the ring. Student power DOnofrio is a student at Tallahassee State College. His Florida Futures Leaders PAC collected more than $1 million in 2024. He says hes ready for any critique that at the age of 20 hes too young to serve as vice chair for the party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I expect thats going to happen, and what I would say is just watch what I do, watch what weve accomplished already, he responds. When we wanted to build youth organizing in the party and it couldnt happen, what did we do? I created the Florida Future Leaders PAC and raised $1 million among all students. I dont think that theres ever been a PAC or organization all led by students thats ever raised $1 million and put out these historic organizing numbers. But even if you dont want to pay attention to the effort, what Ive done and what our team has done in the past, what I ask you to do is also look towards the future. This my future, this is our future. We have to grow up through whats going to happen in this state and the Republican stranglehold that exists, and we have a level of determination I have a level of determination that I think only youth will be able to rival in this state. Brutal cycle The 2024 election cycle was a brutal one for Florida Democrats, and the following month has only become worse. They failed to break the supermajority enjoyed by the Republican Party in the Legislature and saw Donald Trump and Rick Scott rack up victories in the two biggest contests in the state with 13-point margins of victory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their minority status in the 120-member House of Representatives has taken a blow in the weeks since the election, with two members of their caucus Hillsboroughs Susan Valdes and Palm Beach Countys Hillary Cassel bolting to join the Republicans, reducing their ranks to just 33 members, compared to 87 Republicans. I think some of our [legislative] seats just lacked investment in general, DOnofrio said. We got outspent by huge numbers in some of these seats in some of our Legislature, and thats going to happen because Republicans have so much more resources at their disposal. But for us, we have to be as efficient and effective as we possibly can with our organizing, to be able to make up that gap. And there are certain campaigns where I just didnt see that. Theres certain counties, for example, that lack training and investment from our state party that otherwise, if we were able to do that, wed be able to draw down the margins in some of these places. He added; Our message was faulty at best, and I think that we have a lot of work that we can do there. Gains in Duval As the head of the Duval County Democratic Party, Henry says hes proud that he was part of the local leadership in 2020 when the county flipped to help elect Joe Biden as president, the first time Duval had voted for a Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976. He also takes pride in seeing Democrat Donna Deegan upset the northeast political establishment by winning the Jacksonville mayoral contest in 2023. (Duval did go for Ron DeSantis for governor in 2022 and Trump by two percentage points over Kamala Harris for president.) Duval County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Daniel Henry, via his Facebook page. last year). Jacksonville has shown itself to be a critical part of any candidate that is running on a statewide level on both sides that is necessary in order for them to be able to win, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think that theres lessons that we have seen here locally that can be really exhibited on a statewide level. Especially when it comes to focusing on an economic message. Making sure that people not only identify the party as their right choice but also the candidate as the right choice and really bringing it down to the neighborhood level to understand the stakes of this election. Like DOnofrio, he questions some of the partys messaging in 2024. I think we were too heavily reliant on Amendment 3 and 4 to really push out the vote, Henry said. In order for us to be successful on a statewide level moving forward, I think that we need to go back to the basics of focusing on these local races that not only present an opportunity for us to be able to have that personal relationship and conversation with voters, but allows for us to be able to expand the base of Democratic elected officials that were going to need in order for us to be successful, not only at the top of the ticket when we come to executive like positions like the governor or U.S. Senate, but also when it comes to county mayors races, county commissions, city councils, school board races. Those are the ones that are going to present the best opportunity for us to be able to see short-term gains that will lead to long-term results. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DOnofio is boasting of endorsements from Florida Senate Democratic Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, South Florida state Sen. Tina Polsky, and longtime political strategist Steve Schale. Henry has yet to announce any endorsements, saying that he has a couple that he intends to announce in the near future. In addition to Mount, he notes Jacksonville-area state Sen. Tracie Davis (who will lead the caucus in 2026) as being two great political mentors to me. The election for officers for the Florida Democratic Party will take place on Jan. 25. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE This story originally reported that Jayden DOnofrio was a student at Florida State University. Randal Randy Perkins, the founder of a nationally recognized South Florida disaster relief company that cleaned up New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, among other high-profile disasters, died Saturday. The cause was an apparent heart attack while he was on his daily evening run, according to his family. Although he was most recently living at a North Carolina hotel at a job site, he had come home to Delray Beach for a week for the holidays. He was 60. Perkins was the founder and chairman of AshBritt Inc. since 1992, which he named after his two oldest daughters, Ashley and Brittany. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AshBritt is currently the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor for 25 states covering all hurricane states: every Gulf state from Texas to Florida, and up the east coast to North Carolina. Their territory covers half the population of the United States, said his daughter, Brittany Perkins Castillo. Today, for example, among the the companys jobs sites are the cleanup in New Mexico from floods, and Florida, which is still cleaning from hurricanes Helene and Milton last year. The work speaks to the testament and strength of our company, what he built, his legacy, Perkins Castillo said. He shaped the industry, worked harder than anyone, and he was a force, a relentless person in business. In South Florida, AshBritt helped with the cleanup after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Born on Oct. 6, 1964 in Miami, Perkins graduated from Miami Coral Park High School and briefly attended the University of Miami before transferring to the University of Central Florida. He left college early to support his young family, taking jobs with Yellow Freight and Ryder and working in landscaping, according to his family. He married his high school sweetheart, and created Grasshopper Landscaping, which later evolved into Sunbelt and, finally, AshBritt. But after Hurricane Andrew walloped Miami-Dade in 1992, AshBritt the landscaping company became involved as a subcontractor, introducing Perkins to the disaster response field. Related Articles AshBritt was born into disaster response with just a couple bucket trucks, Perkins Castillo said. Perkins made it work because he found other small businesses in the area and got everyone together. He leveraged as much resources as he could. Then started chasing storms around the United States. His success made him wealthy, and he briefly considered politics. In 2016, after U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy chose not to seek re-election in order to pursue a U.S. Senate bid, Perkins defeated two other candidates in the Democratic primary, but lost his bid to Republican Brian Mast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He wanted to run to support policies he believed in, Perkins Castillo said. He loved politics, he loved engaging in politics, but Im not sure he was interested in running again after that. Perkins was a hands-on presence in the field, according to his family. He often lived in impacted communities for months to oversee recovery and managed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers missions after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Georgia, Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey, and the Kentucky flood cleanup. Although he was semi-retired, he was most recently living at a hotel with the team in Asheville, in the ongoing cleanup from Hurricane Helene, because on site, thats where he found great joy, his daughter said. U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz served as AshBritt for 10 years as general counsel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said Perkins was good at what he did because he was excellent at organizing chaos. He would look at a problem and the wheels would never stop turning. Randy was a force of nature, really one of a kind. He had an unbelievable work ethic, even after his success. The best way to describe Randy, quite frankly, is Randy was the flame and everybody else was the moth. Randy could go into any room and just take over. Even when we were meeting with governors and they were at the table, Randy would still be the center of attention, he said. Perkins career wasnt without controversy. In October 2005, when Hurricane Wilma hit Broward County, portable classrooms were damaged at public schools. District auditors issued a report in June 2009 claiming that AshBritt grossly overcharged the school system. The review found clear signs of coercion and falsified documents by district administrators and staff, as well as overbilling and double billing by the company. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Auditors wrote that AshBritt overbilled the school district $237,580 in increased overhead, profit, mark-up and per-diem labor rates for portable roof repairs, as well as another $528,028 for interior work which was either not performed at all or was double-billed. Perkins told the South Florida Sun Sentinel at the time that the company did nothing wrong, and had not overbilled or overcharged. And in 2021, Perkins paid the FEC a $125,000 settlement after his company contributed to a pro-Trump super PAC, violating a law that bars government contractors from donating to political committees, according to Forbes. AshBritt, Inc. had contributed $500,000 to America First Action in April 2018, but at the time, AshBritt had a $40 million contract with the Defense Department. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 prohibits federal contractors from donating to political committees. His daughter said Perkins considered his life an American dream story, since he started with humble beginnings. He and his wife were even WIC recipients as young parents, qualifying as low-income for the Woman, Infants, Children assistance program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He turned his gratitude for his financial success into becoming a philanthropist for causes he believed in. His contributions included launching the Perkins Initiative for Disaster Response and Global Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and supporting organizations including Best Buddies, The Brett Boyer Foundation, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the Mourning Family Foundation, the Overtown Youth Center, of which he was a legacy supporter and past board member, and the Laurens Kids Foundation, where he served as a board member for more than 15 years. He also made a nearly $1 million contribution to rebuild the Gulf Coast Childrens Advocacy Center in Panama City after it was devastated by Category 5 storm Hurricane Michael in 2018. It now has the name The AshBritt Environmental & Laurens Kids Trauma Therapy House. He also supported Broken Shackle Ranch, a nonprofit youth home for boys ages 16-21 serving Georgias at-risk youth, according to his family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is survived by his wife Saily, of Delray Beach, and their four daughters, Ashley Santiago, of Naples; Brittany Perkins Castillo, of Delray Beach; Sara Perkins, of Delray Beach; and Sam Perkins, of Delray Beach; and four grandchildren. The viewing will be 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at the Glick Family Funeral Home, 3600 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton. The service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Calvary Chapel Boca, 1551 W. Camino Real in Boca Raton, and the viewing will be at 12:15 p.m. Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash At 48, having raised three children now in their 20s, Jeanette Byrd is back in a world of diapers, day care and cartoons. In the last two years, Byrds 3-year-old granddaughter and 1-year-old grandson were placed in her care by the Department of Children and Family Services, and now shes on the path toward permanent guardianship of the children. If I cant, then who will? Byrd said of her decision to take care of her grandchildren. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The kids energetic toddlers who are quick to offer a toy, a hug or one of their tiny Nike sneakers are two of more than 10,000 young people in DCFS care who live with relatives, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. Byrd had to go through a lengthy process to get certified as a guardian for the kids while also holding down a job as a fire inspector and, more recently, studying for her bachelors degree in health care administration online. She went through a background check process she said was similar to what she already had to do for her job, and took hours of classes on parenting to be able to receive support from the state. The state licensing procedure allowed her to receive benefits including about $1,300 a month in financial assistance. Legislation that would make it easier for relatives like Byrd to get licensed as foster parents and receive assistance is expected to be considered in early January by the state House, having already passed through the Senate. Gov. JB Pritzker has said he will sign the measure if it gets to his desk. About 60% of family members caring for children under the auspices of DCFS could gain access to additional financial help through provisions in the bill, according to the Illinois ACLU, which has helped shepherd the bill through the General Assembly. That could bring additional resources to thousands of families statewide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Support for kin, for relatives who have not received the same kind of support that foster parents do, for example I think is a very important component of dealing with the amount of time that a child spends in custody of DCFS, Pritzker said when asked about the Kinship in Demand Act earlier this month. We want to make sure they get back into a home environment as fast as humanly possible. The kin guardianship bill, or KIND Act, last month passed in the Senate without opposition, but if it doesnt pass in its current form in the House during the short lame-duck session scheduled for early January, backers will have to start from scratch after a new General Assembly is sworn in on Jan. 8. With support from the governor and the head of DCFS, people close to the bill expect it to pass. Justice delayed is justice denied, so we dont want to delay or deny, but the hope is that it would be called during the upcoming lame-duck session, said Democratic Rep. Marcus Evans of Chicago, who sponsored the bill along with Democratic Sen. Mattie Hunter of Chicago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch, who will be key in determining whether the bill is called up for a House vote, supported an earlier version of the bill, and House Democrats will review the latest amendment, a spokesperson for Welch said. Proponents of the legislation said keeping kids with family members can reduce trauma, provide a clearer path toward possible reunification with their parents, help make placements more permanent when needed and reduce the number of children that need to be housed by DCFS. Whos gonna stand for these kids? Whos gonna help these kids? And if you have people that are willing to stand for these kids, what are you gonna do to stand and help them? Byrd asked. Early this year, the bill had a number of opponents, including adoption service providers and the Cook County public guardian who said parts of the bill were unclear or had other issues. But much of the opposition disappeared after tweaks were made during the spring legislative session. One amendment clarified how a caregiver would be certified if there was more than one relative who wanted to take in the child, for example. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If theres a need to remove kids from the parents to keep them safe, theyre going to do better with relatives than they are in a foster situation nonrelatives with strangers, Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert said. It makes sense that we can relax some foster care standards if we know that theyre going to a loving aunt or uncle or grandma. DCFS over the last several years has moved toward kinship care, said Loni Wilson, statewide director of foster care at Brightpoint, an Illinois child and family services organization. Many private agencies and the state are now aligned in this mission, she said. The legislation also comes as DCFS has new leadership. Pritzker appointed Heidi Mueller as director of the department earlier this year, and she has been a vocal supporter of kinship care. Her predecessor, Marc Smith, also a Pritzker appointee, had a tumultuous tenure. Problems detailed in a scathing report from the states auditor general last year included delays in reporting abuse to local prosecutors. DCFS has also faced criticism for keeping children in emergency or psychiatric facilities longer than medically necessary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the legislation is not a magic wand that were going to wave and solve the placement crisis overnight, Golbert, the public guardian, said, its a piece of the puzzle. Overall, the new bill would help caregivers who take in family members receive the same financial benefits as other foster parents, even if they dont undergo the same training and approval process. It would eliminate certain requirements for square footage and number of bedrooms for homes taking in children, and change how criminal backgrounds are evaluated with the intention of ensuring that past convictions for minor crimes dont get in the way of a path to guardianship. The definition of relative in the bill includes fictive kin, people unrelated to the child by blood or marriage who are nonetheless close to the child or their family. DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan in a statement highlighted the bills attention to the role that fictive kin play in families and importance of keeping children in their communities with people who already know and love them. The bill has received support from organizations including the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LaTanya Jackson Wilson, vice president of advocacy at Shriver, said if children cant be kept with their parents, placing them with extended family is often the best option. Lynn Morton, an Austin neighborhood resident, took in her nephews when they were about 9 and 10 after their parents separated and cared for them until they had started high school, when their mother came back in the picture, she said. While her nephews werent in DCFS care, Morton has advocated for the KIND Act with Community Organizing and Family Issues, a role informed by her own experience. Taking in her nephews was even more of a struggle without the benefits of state assistance, she said. I was out of work at the time, and I was unable to get food stamps, medical services, anything, I could not get, because I was their aunt, and so it was a struggle, Morton said. And everybody does not have the capacity that I had to have other families step in to help take care of us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The kids, who now live out of state, experienced a lot of emotional turmoil during that time in their lives, she said. They were suspended from school and both eventually went to prison, though they are no longer incarcerated, Morton said. It should be easier for a family member to pass through whatever checks they need to pass through and be able to take their relatives into their home, she said. She added she hopes Springfield will also pass legislation that makes it easier for families who take in children to receive counseling. Mamie L. Cosey of East St. Louis first cared for relatives involved with DCFS decades ago. Cosey cared for her grandchildren for a period after they were taken from her daughters custody, she said. Eventually, the kids were reunited with their mother. Years later, Cosey took in three great-grandchildren who were in DCFS care, she said. Despite having a degree concentration in early childhood, she was required to take classes to get licensed as a foster parent and received financial assistance from DCFS, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her grandchildren are doing well: One is finishing high school, one has graduated from welding school and another is getting ready to go to junior college, she said. Cosey considers her story a testament to the benefits of keeping children with family. The main thing is they were kept in my home, and I am grateful. I am excited about what they have achieved, Cosey said of her great-grandchildren. Coseys daughter has helped out with the kids, and the kids father has kept in touch sporadically, she said. The 83-year-old said she believes this relative stability will help keep the kids now young adults who continue to deal with mental health issues stable after Im gone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Evans, the bill sponsor, said that for both family and strangers, the question as a state is: If youre a person who wants to help a child get a stable home, are we doing all we can? Speaking at her home in west suburban Berkeley earlier this month, Byrd said she was looking forward to giving Christmas gifts to her grandchildren and, in the longer term, helping them have a normal life despite a tumultuous early childhood. The toddlers, fans of Bluey, Spider-Man and Moana, danced to an anime song in the light of their Bluey-themed Christmas tree after the interview with their grandmother. Im gonna make it, Byrd said of her path forward caring for the children. And I just really want to support my grandkids. I want them to know that somebody not to say that their parents dont care, and Im not implying that but somebody loved me enough to say, Hey, I got you. SAGO, WV (WVNS) There are many mine disasters that have occurred in the Mountain State throughout the years. One such disaster is the Sago Mine Disaster that occurred on January 2, 2006 at the the Sago Mine in Upshur County. Remembering the mining disaster that took the lives of dozens of West Virginia coal miners According to the West Virginia Encyclopedia and the Mine Safety and Health Administration website, a methane explosion took place at the Sago Mine in Upshur County at around 6:30 a.m. on January 2, 2006. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The initial blast reportedly killed one person, and 12 others who were trapped by the blast tried to find refuge from carbon monoxide fumes. The West Virginia Encyclopedia and Mine Safety and Health Administration websites stated that by the time rescue teams arrived, 11 of the miners were dead and the remaining survivor was seriously injured. According to the West Virginia Encyclopedia, there was a miscommunication regarding the details about the survivors. Mining officials thought that 12 miners survived and family members were alerted, only to later be informed that there was only one survivor. West Virginias worst mining disasters of the 1900s An investigation later revealed that the explosion was likely caused by a lighting strike igniting the methane within the mine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Sago mine was temporarily reopened before the decision was made to close and seal the mine. The Sago Mine Disaster, as well as other mine disasters in West Virginia, helped influence following rules and regulations in mines. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. Even hours after the devastating attack in the US city of New Orleans, it remains unclear whether the perpetrator, who was killed after his deadly rampage, had accomplices, US media reported on Wednesday. Investigators are examining surveillance footage, according to several media outlets, showing a suspicious group of four people. Initially, it was suspected that they might have placed explosive devices in the affected neighbourhood. However, shortly afterwards, they were reportedly ruled out as suspects. Earlier, FBI investigator Alethea Duncan said that they did not believe the driver "was solely responsible." The 42-year-old US citizen had posted on his social media a few hours before the attack that he was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist organization, US President Joe Biden said at a press conference, citing the FBI. The man, a lifelong Texas resident according to reports, drove his pick-up truck into a crowd of revellers in the popular French Quarter in the early morning hours of New Year's Day, killing at least 15 and injuring dozens. Amanda Zurawski, Josh Zurawski, Kaitlyn Joshua and Hadley Duvall speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill., on Aug. 19, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth for Michigan Advance) Galvanized by a pivotal election almost two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections, patients, doctors, and activists in 2024 fought for renewed and expanded reproductive rights, while others pushed for more restrictions. These are some of the people and organizations that impacted reproductive health law and abortion access this year. Women with wanted pregnancies affected by abortion bans In state legislatures, before Congress, in court, in presidential campaign ads, and on stage at the Democratic National Convention, women all over the country have been reliving some of the worst moments of their lives in an effort to roll back abortion restrictions that have changed reproductive health care in America. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The year after Kentucky banned abortion, Hadley Duvall started talking publicly about how she was raped at 12 by her stepdad, who got her pregnant. She advocated for abortion rights in re-election campaign ads for Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in 2023 and this year appeared in national campaign ads for Democrats. Kaitlyn Joshua, of Baton Rouge, represented many Louisiana women at this years Democratic National Convention, telling whats becoming an increasingly common story of not being able to access miscarriage treatment after the state passed a strict abortion ban. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill subsequently challenged Joshuas story on social media. Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN from Wisconsin, is one of many doctors across the country who have sued over state abortion bans they say have changed medical practice. Lyerly this year participated in a civic engagement experiment in Madison, where strangers came together and shared the life experiences that inform their abortion views. Even when abortion rights were protected under Roe v. Wade, Lyerly said she was almost forced to give birth to a stillborn, in lieu of a less invasive abortion procedure. She also ran a reproductive-rights-focused campaign as a Democrat in a conservative-leaning congressional district, a race she lost. Allie Phillips ran as a Democrat for a seat in the Tennessee legislature after the states abortion ban kept her from terminating a nonviable pregnancy in her home state, leading her to travel to New York City for care. She lost the race but said in November that she plans to continue fighting for reproductive rights, and announced her new pregnancy. Phillips is a plaintiff in an ongoing lawsuit with other affected women and physicians to clarify the states medical health exceptions. A three-judge panel ruled in October that doctors cannot be penalized for performing an emergency abortion to save a patients life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amanda Zurawski developed sepsis in Texas after her water broke at 18 weeks and doctors waited for days to terminate her pregnancy, fearing prosecution under the states strict abortion ban. Shes since become an outspoken abortion-rights advocate. She campaigned heavily for abortion-rights candidates this year and said she wants to continue working in politics. The Charlotte Lozier Institute The high-profile federal lawsuit over medication abortion was made possible in part by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the anti-abortion political powerhouse Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. Data from the institute featured prominently in the plaintiffs case for revoking the federal drug approval of mifepristone and was directly used as part of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryks reasoning for granting the doctor-plaintiffs standing. The researchers found a significant jump in Medicaid-funded emergency room visits following a medication abortion over two decades, which also corresponds with an increase in access to medication abortion overtime. Public health experts told States Newsroom that the researchers inflated their findings, and appeared to conflate all emergency department visits with serious adverse events like sepsis. Their conclusions contradicted a large body of research showing a low rate of serious adverse events after taking mifepristone, prompting further scrutiny from curious scientists, as well as the academic publishing house that published it. In February, Sage retracted three studies produced by Charlotte Lozier researchers and published in the journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology between 2019 and 2022, after a reader-prompted investigation found flaws in the studies methodology and data representation. The team behind the studies included Charlotte Lozier vice president and director of data analytics James Studnicki and longtime anti-abortion researchers, including the then-CEO of one of the plaintiff groups in the medication abortion lawsuit. They sued Sage, saying the retractions were unjustified and politically motivated. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected the abortion medication lawsuit this past summer not on the merits of the case, but on the issue of the doctor-plaintiffs standing. Anti-abortion activists vowed to find a different plaintiff who could potentially persuade the court that abortion pills are too dangerous. After the Supreme Court remanded the case to the lower court, in October, intervening states Idaho, Kansas and Missouri amended their complaint, which no longer cites the retracted studies papers but instead cites a new paper from Studnicki and fellow Charlotte Lozier researchers, making similar claims. The Alabama Supreme Court A common fertility treatment, in vitro fertilization, was thrust into the national spotlight in February after the Alabama Supreme Court decided, 8-1, that frozen embryos should be considered children, in a wrongful death lawsuit over the embryos accidental destruction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lower court had dismissed the claim, ruling that embryos do not meet the legal definition of children. But in the majority opinion siding with the couples who sued the Mobile fertility clinic, Justice Jay Mitchell cited a 2018 state constitutional amendment ensuring the protection of the rights of the unborn child. He also cited an 1872 law allowing for civil lawsuits for the wrongful death of children, and argued that it does not explicitly include an exception for frozen embryos. Mitchell reasoned that the law applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation. Chief Justice Tom Parker, an influential conservative Christian activist, cited biblical texts in his concurring opinion, writing, even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory. Soon after, many IVF clinics in Alabama shut down until the state legislature passed a bill in March that extended criminal and civil immunity to IVF clinics for operations. This created major issues for families spending tens of thousands of dollars on a time-sensitive treatment. Alabamas ruling also created a fear among families struggling to conceive in other states with abortion bans and showed that the fertility treatment is broadly supported by voters from both political parties. Republicans updated their national party platform to include support for IVF access. During his presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump promised: your government will pay or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with I.V.F. treatment something he likely couldnt do without congressional action. Meanwhile, GOP members of Congress have largely opposed IVF protections and access bills. Mark Lee Dickson and Jonathan Mitchell This year, attorney Jonathan Mitchell and pastor Mark Lee Dickson together experimented with ways to prevent out-of-state abortions, using their home state of Texas as the primary testing ground. Mitchell, a former solicitor general of Texas, used a little known state rule to depose abortion funds, doctors, and women who left the state for an abortion. As the Texas Tribune reported, the actions created fear and confusion but have not resulted in charges. Mitchell previously filed a wrongful death lawsuit against women who allegedly helped their friend obtain medication to terminate a pregnancy, which has since been dropped. Through their Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn project, Dickson and Mitchell helped pass approximately 80 ordinances in cities and counties, mostly in Texas, but also in strategically located cities in abortion-access states, like Illinois and New Mexico. Some of the ordinances say a doctor in a state where abortion is legal cannot perform an abortion on a resident who lives in a town that has passed one of these laws. Some of the ordinances ban the use of that towns highways to drive someone to an out-of-state abortion clinic. And some invoke a dormant federal anti-obscenity law known as the Comstock Act, which they say the federal government should enforce to mean that abortion pills cannot be transported through the mail. Just like Texass 2021 six-week abortion ban that Mitchell and Dickson helped design, many of these ordinances are unenforceable by the governments that pass them, instead allowing for private citizens to sue other residents or medical professionals for aiding and abetting an abortion. The activists experienced a major loss on Election Day with the majority of voters in conservative Amarillo, Texas, voting down a ballot measure blocking abortion-related travel on its highly trafficked roads. But just before the end of the year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas resident, which Dickson told States Newsroom is a win for the anti-abortion movement. He said that in 2025 he plans to push for local anti-abortion ordinances in Arizona and Missouri, which reversed their abortion bans in November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A Republican senator known for his antics in front of the cameras made some curious remarks during a press conference on Wednesday where officials updated the public on the investigation into a car attack in New Orleans that left 15 people dead. John Kennedy, appearing alongside law enforcement officials and the state of Louisianas Republican governor, Jeff Landry, used the opportunity to take shots at reporters and outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In one widely-circulated clip, the senator is seen questioning several reporters in the room to determine which outlets they worked for. Then, a woman informs him that reporters for NBC News were to his right. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The senator couldnt resist a shot at the network and its politics: Thats an unusual position. His comment drew chuckles from a few people in the room, and a confused reply from a woman off camera: I dont get it. You wouldnt, he snidely told the reporter. The senators comments about federal support which by all reports is underway were dripping with contempt. Kennedy said hed spoken to Mayorkas, telling reporters: I did talk to the Secretary of Homeland Security a little while ago, and I told him that, with all the respect I could muster, that we expect [him] to put the full force and resources of the federal government behind this investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the friendly arms of a Fox News interview, the senator would go even further, and baselessly suggested that the Biden administration might seek to orchestrate a cover up of the attacker or their motive(s). Senator John Kennedy is known for hamming it up for the cameras, especially during TV interviews and Senate hearings. (Getty Images) I dont want to hear anyone in the federal government claiming they lack resources. They need to saddle up and ride, said the senator, evoking one of his typically folksy quips. We need answers about what happened in New Orleans...No cover ups. You never know what theyre not telling us, he added. But I know how to probe pretty hard. Kennedy is no stranger to spectacle, and has been repeatedly rebuked by everyone from his Democratic rivals to foreign governments for the comments he makes in front of TV cameras. In 2023, the government of Mexico described him as vulgar and racist after the senator suggested that, figuratively speaking, the people of Mexico would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback [Steakhouse] were it not for U.S. foreign aid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee were due to receive a briefing on the New Orleans attack with updated information Thursday morning, according to reports. The situation is being investigated in concert with the response to a Tesla Cybertruck, apparently packed with fireworks and other explosives, in front of a Trump property in Las Vegas, though no connection has been established by law enforcement. At a news conference Thursday morning, FBI officials said the agency believed that the New Orleans attacker acted alone. The deadly car attack in New Orleanss famous French Quarter came as the citys cultural districts were packed with tourists and locals alike for New Years celebrations. Fifteen people are reported dead and dozens more were injured in the attack. FBI officials say a black flag associated with the terrorist Islamic State ideology was found on the pickup truck driven by the New Orleans suspect. The FBI on Wednesday named 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar as the suspect in the New Orleans attack; he died in a shootout with police. Republicans are pushing for swift confirmation of Trump's national security nominees. They say it's even more necessary after this week's deadly New Orleans attack. Some of those nominees are among Trump's most controversial picks. In the wake of the deadly New Orleans attack, top Republicans are calling on the Senate to swiftly confirm President-elect Donald Trump's national security nominees. Fifteen people are confirmed dead after an individual drove a car through a crowd on Bourbon Street early on Wednesday morning. The FBI has identified a suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism. "This is a clear example of why the Senate must get President Trump's national security team in place as quickly as possible," wrote Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the incoming Senate Majority Leader. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While some of Trump's national-security nominees are expected to be easily confirmed by the US Senate, others have faced a variety of controversies. They include defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, FBI director nominee Kash Patel, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's nominee to be director of national intelligence. "The U.S. Senate must confirm President Trump's national security team as soon as possible," wrote Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the incoming majority whip. "Lives depend on it." There is no time to waste. We must confirm these appointees and secure our nation! https://t.co/t4Y7aGvwZl Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) January 1, 2025 "The horrific terrorist attack in New Orleans underscores the urgent need to secure our homeland," Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "The Senate must move swiftly to confirm President Trump's nominees so he and his team can get to work protecting American lives immediately." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hegseth has faced accusations of sexual assault as well as scrutiny of his previous opposition to women serving in combat roles in the military. He has denied those accusations and recently said that he supports women serving in combat roles. "I asked virtually every question under the sun," Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican, told reporters after meeting with Hegseth last month. Gabbard, meanwhile, has faced suspicions over her foreign policy positions and her 2017 visit to Syria, where she met with then-President Bashar Al-Assad. "I've heard that she's not very well prepared," one anonymous GOP senator told The Hill last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Patel has faced little public skepticism from Republican senators so far, but has promoted conspiracy theories and has said he would "come after" journalists. The Senate is expected to consider those nominees, along with the others, in the coming weeks. Hegseth's confirmation hearing is scheduled for January 14. Read the original article on Business Insider The News Republicans roiling debate over the use of visas for highly-skilled workers isnt their biggest immigration quandary its whether to go narrow or big on what could be President-elect Donald Trumps first major piece of legislation. The GOP is preparing to take up an infusion of border security money as soon as this month, but it hasnt settled on how broadly to craft that bill. Theres a twist: To get an immigration bill done without a filibuster, Republicans may need to bend or even break some of the Senate rules. The border spending bill that Trump and congressional Republicans are mulling would devote as much as $100 billion to border security, including barriers, technology and manpower; it would be paid for by new energy leases. To get it to Trumps desk without having to seek Democratic votes or changing Senate precedent, however, the GOP will need to limit any policy changes they add to their bill a central tenet of the filibuster protections they plan to use. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite those guardrails, Republicans are already discussing how to make some immigration policy in their border bill. Their plans are still highly fluid, and the Senate parliamentarian will ultimately rule on what can be included in a filibuster-proof bill. If Republicans dont like that ruling, they could simply vote to overrule or ignore the parliamentarian. That decision would have sweeping consequences, for this Congress and beyond. Ive heard rumors that there is going to be a movement to pressure Senate Republicans to overrule the parliamentarian in order to enact policy in reconciliation, retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., told Semafor. Sinema warned that doing so would be a backdoor elimination of the filibuster, and very dangerous. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the filibuster-proof reconciliation rules are designed to limit bills to fiscal policy only, Republicans have plenty of reasons to want to push the boundaries. Their biggest motivation is the staying power of laws: Trump will have broad sway over many executive actions on immigration, but President Joe Biden dismantled some of Trumps first-term moves, and a future Democratic president could do the same. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., for example, wants to explore codifying the Trump administrations Remain in Mexico policy. It required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as they await their asylum proceedings. President Trump will put that in place on Day One, but thats a policy the next president can change, Hoeven told Semafor last month. If we could do that statutorily, Im all for it now, I dont know if we can, because it comes down to what the parliamentarian determines is eligible. Even after Trump waded into a clash among his supporters over the use of highly-skilled worker visas, its not clear whether Republicans will seek to address the visa issue in the border bill. During Trumps first term, some Republican lawmakers sought to restrict some legal immigration and give preferential treatment to high-skilled immigration. Know More Sinema knows well the pressure that activists can impose on both parties to bend the rules for filibuster-proof reconciliation bills. In 2021 and 2022, she refused to bend to progressive hopes of overruling the parliamentarian to include immigration reform in Democrats party-line agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I took a lot of heat for that, she said late last month. I did repeatedly tell my Democratic colleagues that their attempts to use the reconciliation tool to achieve immigration reform would be against the reconciliation rules, would be ruled out of order and that I would not be willing to overturn. In order to use reconciliation, members of Congress must craft legislative language that has a direct budgetary effect. The parliamentarian, a nonpartisan rules referee, did permit Democrats to include some of their environmental and drug pricing policies, and Republicans believe that ruling gives them a path to follow. Obviously, the Democrats have created some new precedents that we intend to take advantage of when some of these policy matters have a budgetary impact, said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaking generally of the process. After both parties present their arguments to the parliamentarian as they near floor action on the bill, the referee ultimately rules which items are subject to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate and which can avoid a filibuster by the minority party (in this case, the Democrats). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Expect the Democrats to challenge as much of the GOPs plans as they can. The View From House Republicans While senators focus on their strategy for a border bill, House Republicans remain less than totally sold on tackling immigration before a big tax bill. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., is the leading advocate for one big reconciliation bill rather than the border-then-tax agenda that the Senate prefers. Smith argues that taking on both issues in one bill will make it easier to preserve the 2017 tax cuts that expire at the end of this year. But that doesnt mean House Republicans are opposed to packing as much policy change as they can into their reconciliation plans in fact, theyre eager to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The budget reconciliation process is going to be the key of the first 100 days, because in order to fix all the things that weve got to fix, we have to squeeze a lot of policy changes through that process, Speaker Mike Johnson said on Fox News late last month. Burgesss view Theres little risk to Republicans in trying to push the envelope and see what the Senate referee allows in their legislation. But if the parliamentarian doesnt rule their way and overrule the referee with a majority vote, Sinema is correct that they would essentially be watering down the legislative filibuster something Republicans have sworn they wont do. That will set a new, boundary-pushing precedent for how all future Senate majorities wield power, and it would cast real doubt on the future of the legislative filibuster. Bryan Mann, an associate professor at University of Kansas, led research that found growing student diversity in predominantly white suburban schools but more racial isolation among students of color in urban schools from 2000 to 2022. (Screen capture from University of Kansas) TOPEKA Scouring of 2000 and 2020 U.S. Census Bureau reports and national school enrollment data revealed predominantly white suburban districts became more integrated and the isolation of students of color in urban districts intensified during the 20-year span. Researchers at the University of Kansas School of Education and Human Services said the findings could assist professionals or politicians keen to address inequities in educational opportunity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the biggest findings is suburban districts, which are typically viewed as white-flight districts, are clearly seeing more diversity. But students of color in urban districts are seeing more isolation, said Bryan Mann, associate professor of education leadership and policy studies at KU. Typically, conversations about equity and equality focus on urban areas, Mann said. I think its important that we dont just consider inequality as an urban issue. Work by Mann and colleagues showed the proportion of suburban districts with 90% white student enrollment declined from 91.3% in 2000 to 80.2% in 2020. More than 56% of majority-white districts experienced 10% growth among students of color over the two decades. Meanwhile, researchers said, the roster of urban districts with 90% or more students of color expanded from 8.6% in 2000 to 16.7% in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The study, co-written with KU doctoral students Daniah Hammouda and Ryan Fitzpatrick, was published in the journal American Educational Research Association Open. The central objective was to better understand how school demographics and segregation changed in the first two decades of the 20th century. In Kansas and other states, a portion of white families transitioned to suburban districts following the landmark 1954 school desegregation decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. White flight was a direct challenge to the Supreme Courts conclusion that separating children in public schools based on race violated the U.S. Constitution. The KU study explored Census data to compare the demographic makeup of communities with ethnic and racial data from schools. With an assist from geographic information system technology, the KU researchers connected data to a map so it could be analyzed for patterns or relationships. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, the researchers relied on a technique that held school district boundaries consistent during the 20-year period. All data in the KU study was associated with elementary school districts. It didnt include information from Tennessee, Alaska and Hawaii because data to make comparisons wasnt available. Mann said the study could be useful to individuals striving to understand the makeup of U.S. schools and develop policy to help students gain better access to equitable educational opportunities. There are different reasons in different states for changing demographics, but it is happening nearly everywhere, he said. This can motivate more research that can break out the data into more detail. We know these patterns are happening for a lot of reasons, and I think examining them further will be the next big step in educational research. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE VANDALIA, Ohio (WDTN) Two residents were displaced from their residence on Wednesday after a fire. The fire occurred on South Brown School Road minutes before 6:30 p.m., where crews were dispatched on report of a structure fire. Flames were spotted attacking the second floor of the residence. Captain Derek Copp of the Vandalia Division of Fire said that no injuries were reported. We were able to make a quick knock down from outside. We were able to get inside, no one was hurt, no one had to be transported. Currently we have two occupants who are displaced for the evening and the fire is currently under investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Butler Township Fire and Huber Heights Fire Departments assisted at the scene. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. Respiratory illnesses are running high in Indiana and nationally, and Union Health announced visitor restrictions for its hospitals effective Thursday. Also announcing restrictions was Horizon Health in Paris, Illinois. Dr. Darren Brucken, Vigo Countys health officer and director of inpatient medical services at Horizon Health, told the Tribune-Star just about every hospital in Indiana and Illinois is overrun at the moment. People are seeking treatment for Influenza A, COVID-19 and dehydration. This is a bad flu season, Brucken said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Indiana and Illinois, patient transfers arent happening right now because most hospitals are full; everyone needs more staff, Brucken said. As of its update on Dec. 27, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the amount of acute respiratory illness causing people to seek healthcare is high nationally. COVID-19, seasonal influenza, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) continue to increase across the country. The next CDC update is due out Friday, Jan. 3. To see the CDC updates, visit bit.ly/3Pke0Us. Given the spike in respiratory viruses, Union Health has announced temporary restrictions on hospital visitation. Those begin Thursday at Union Hospital Terre Haute and Union Hospital Clinton. The restrictions include: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Visiting hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Visitors must be 18 years of age or older; Number of visitors are now limited, depending on the area of the hospital; As a reminder, Union says self-screening is required by all visitors and employees. For the safety of patients, any visitor or employee experiencing respiratory symptoms should not enter any Union Health facility unless seeking medical treatment. Those symptoms may include, but are not limited to: Fever (100.4 or greater); Shortness of breath; Headache; Sore Throat; Diarrhea; Cough; Muscle or body aches; Loss of taste or smell; Nausea or vomiting; Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unexplained or unusual fatigue; Also, people should not visit if in the past 10 days they have been in close contact with someone known to be positive for respiratory illness or have had symptoms consistent with respiratory illness. Patients experiencing respiratory illness must wear a mask upon presentation to any Union Health facility. Visitors are strongly encouraged to wear a mask, practice proper hand hygiene, cough etiquette and social distance when possible. Similar restrictions were put in place Dec. 30 by Horizon Health for its Paris campus. Those include: Maximum of two visitors allowed at a time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No visitors under the age of 18 permitted. For pediatric patients, visitors are restricted to parents and grandparents only. People also should refrain from visiting if they are experiencing fever, sore throat or cough. Anyone experiencing symptoms who must enter is asked to wear a mask and use the hygiene stations available at entrances to disinfect their hands. Information on any visitor restrictions at Terre Haute Regional Hospital was not available. A phone call late Tuesday afternoon was not returned, and neither Terre Haute Regionals website nor Facebook or X (formerly Twtter) pages showed updates as of Wednesday afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Terre Haute Regionals policy on its website page for visitors included this information: Across all units, patients are limited to just one adult visitor at a time from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. No visitors under the age of 16 are permitted. Hospital staff will prescreen all visitors using standard pre-screening questions. All visitors will be required to wear a mask and identification indicating they have been screened. Individuals with respiratory symptoms or other risk factors for COVID-19, such as direct exposure, will be asked to refrain from visiting. For questions about visitation hours by a specific department, please call (812) 232-0021. LUMA, Puerto Ricos electric power transmission and distribution system operator, has struggled to restore power to some of its customers in the wake of an outage that left the entire island without power on Dec. 31 at 5:30 a.m. local time. The company activated its Emergency Operations Center soon after the event occurred and said it has been working tirelessly to restore power to customers as quickly and safely as possible. By noon on Jan. 1, LUMA said it had restored power to 1.4 million customers (more than 98.3% of the system), but it didnt last. At about 2:00 p.m., it reported a separate issue at Aguirre caused a system-wide event that affected other generating plants. This led to the sudden loss of 550 MW and impacted service for over 600,000 customers. LUMA said its team temporarily stabilized the system to prevent additional service interruptions, and working in collaboration with power generators, it managed to restore service to more than 200,000 customers by the afternoon. At approximately 7:00 p.m. [Jan. 1] and with approximately 73% of our customers in service, another event was reported at the same location [Aguirre], impacting service for customers during peak consumption hours, LUMA President and CEO Juan Saca wrote in a statement issued online to customers. Saca expected the load-shedding event to last until approximately midnight, and that more generation would be available on Jan. 2. However, he said the overall shortfall in generation compared to total demand could still impact service for customers for a day or more. It is important to understand that there is still the potential for generation shortfalls in the coming days, Saca said, noting that the state of the system was fragile. In a separate statement, Saca appealed to customers to limit power usage. Given the fragile nature of the grid, we will need to manage available generation to customer demand which will likely require rotating temporary outages. To minimize impact of these outages, we are urging our customers to please reduce their energy consumption whenever possible, and to use battery storage when and if available. As of 10 a.m. local time on Jan. 2, LUMA reported that service had been restored to 99% of its customers. Three of seven regionsBayamon, Caguas, and San Juanwere reported to have been almost completely restored, while the Mayaguez region had the most customers (4,850) still without service. Saca said in one of his statements that the root cause of the event was still under investigation, but Telemundo reported that a breakdown in an underground power line at the Costa Sur plant caused the initial blackout on Dec. 31. Meanwhile, Reuters reported, Ivan Baez, a spokesperson for power generator Genera, said in a local radio interview that the line believed to have failed was operated by LUMA and brought down plants belonging to Genera, as well as private generators. On Dec. 20, less than two weeks prior to the island-wide blackout, LUMA reported a historic year of progress, saying it had made key improvements to grid reliability, resiliency, customer service, emergency preparedness & renewable energy adoption. Among the improvements it said it has made were: Replacing 20,500 utility poles. Starting or completing 44 equipment upgrades at 22 substations. Trimming 5,400 miles of vegetation from powerlines. Installing more than 9,300 grid automation devices. Nonetheless, some customers are unimpressed by the progress. Many took to social media to complain following the outage and during restoration efforts. One wrote, They are a DISASTER, while another said, They have an encyclopedia of excuses. In his statement, Saca said he recognized how maddening the situation has been for customers. We know and understand how frustrating it has been for our customers to be without service for extended periods of time. Thats why our load-shedding plan includes rotating sectors periodically to minimize the impact on your daily life, he said. Through this process, we have seen the spirit of collaboration between all sectors of the electrical industry and other stakeholders. Our team will continue to be focused and dedicated to restoring service to our customers as more generation becomes available. [Update: LUMA issued a report on Friday, Jan. 3 at 5:00 p.m. local time, saying, "99.94% of customers are in service. However, the system continues to recover following Tuesday's outage. Due to generation constraints, some customers may experience service interruptions between approximately 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. today. We encourage our customers to conserve energy whenever possible and to use their batteries when available. Our teams remain steadfast in their commitment to partner with power generators to restore service to our customers based on available capacity." On Jan. 4 at 6:00 p.m. local time, LUMA's system had an available capacity of 2,396 MW against a load of 2,168 MW, maintaining a 228 MW reserve. LUMA forecasted a minimum reserve of 238.9 MW for the following 24-hour period. By Monday, Jan. 6 at 8:30 a.m. local time, LUMA was reporting load demand of 1,709 MW with a reserve of 1,000 MW. It forecast a peak load for the coming day of 2,100 MW and peak reserve of 728 MW. No additional updates had been released through its social media channels since Friday at 5 p.m.] Aaron Larson is POWERs executive editor (@POWERmagazine). Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and her Republican challenger, Judge Jefferson Griffin. (Courtesy photos) Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs asked a federal judge to deny Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffins request for a preliminary injunction in his election case. Riggs, a Democrat, leads Griffin, a Republican, by 734 votes in the race to retain her seat on the states highest court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A quick resolution to the case is in the public interest, Riggs brief says. Under state law, Riggs keeps her seat until the election is decided. But theres a risk that someone, including Griffin, could argue that decisions are being made by an improperly elected official, the brief says. That risk is particularly unacceptable for election protests that seek to disenfranchise thousands of North Carolina voters by changing the rules after the election concludes. Griffin wants to throw out more than 60,000 votes he says were cast by people who are ineligible. Most of the ballots he objects to were cast by people he claims did not provide drivers license or partial Social Security numbers on their voter registration applications. Republican lawyers argue these voters are not legally registered. He has also challenged overseas and military voters because they did not submit photo IDs with their ballots, and has challenged overseas voters who have never lived in the state but whose parents were eligible North Carolina voters before they left the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The State Board of Elections has rejected all of Griffins protests, but has not yet certified the results. Griffin asked US District Judge Richard Myers II for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Board of Elections from certifying the results, which would mean Riggs reelection. In the brief opposing the preliminary injection, a lawyer for Riggs wrote that those votes Griffin wants to throw out must be counted. Every voter targeted by Judge Griffin complied with settled election law when they voted, the brief says. Judge Griffins effort to throw out their ballots violates both federal and state law. Griffin had asked the state Supreme Court to intervene and throw out the ballots. The court filing said that Griffin anticipates winning if those votes are excluded. Republicans hold a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state Board of Elections moved the case to federal court. Griffin wants it transferred back to state court. Bipartisan support for keeping the case in federal court A bipartisan group of former congressmen oppose moving the case back to state court. In their request to file a friend of the court brief, they said the questions involve federal law, including the Help America Vote Act, which they helped pass. Judge Griffins claim runs directly through these HAVA requirements, their brief said. In order to decide this case, the Court must determine whether an alleged failure by a voter to provide the information required by HAVA results in the vote being discounted. This places the federal question front and center. Last year, Myers partially dismissed a Republican lawsuit that sought to purge 225,000 voters from the rolls, or require them to vote provisionally, based on the issue of incomplete voter registration forms. Myers sent part of the case back to state court, but the State Board of Elections was able to keep it in federal court. North Carolina judges have rejected Republican attempts to block some overseas voters. June Aochi Berk, now 92 years old, remembers the trepidation and fear she felt 80 years ago on Jan. 2, 1945. On that date, Berk and her family members were released by military order from the U.S. government detention facility in Rohwer, Arkansas, where they had been imprisoned for three years because of their Japanese heritage. We didnt celebrate the end of our incarceration, because we were more concerned about our future. Since we had lost everything, we didnt know what would become of us, Berk recalls. The Aochis were among the nearly 126,000 people of Japanese ancestry who had been forcibly removed from their West Coast homes and held in desolate inland locations under Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Approximately 72,000, or two-thirds, of those incarcerated were, like Berk, American-born citizens. Their immigrant parents were legal aliens, precluded by law from becoming naturalized citizens. Roosevelts executive order and subsequent military orders excluding them from the West Coast were based on the presumption that people sharing the ethnic background of an enemy would be disloyal to the United States. The government rationalized their mass incarceration as a military necessity, without needing to bring charges against them individually. In 1983 a bipartisan federal commission found that the government had no factual basis for that justification. It concluded that the incarceration resulted from race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. The commission recommendations resulted in the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Signed by President Ronald Reagan, the law provided surviving incarcerees with an apology for the unjustified government actions and token $20,000 payments. This legislation and various judicial rulings have recognized that the incarceration was an egregious violation of U.S. constitutional principles, a race-based denial of due process. No formal, comprehensive records A key element of this tragic and disgraceful chapter of American history is that nobody ever kept track of all the people who had been subjected to the governments wrongful actions. The Ireicho is in a special space for visitors to view. Japanese American National Museum To reckon with this injustice, the Irei Project: National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration was launched in 2019. This community nonprofit project was originally incubated at the University of Southern California Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture, with a goal to create the first-ever comprehensive list of the names of every individual incarcerated in Americas wartime internment and concentration camps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Taking the project name irei from the Japanese phrase to console the spirits of the dead, the project was inspired by stone Buddhist monuments that the detainees built while incarcerated in Manzanar, California, and Camp Amache, Colorado, to memorialize those who had died while wrongfully detained. The phrase approximately 120,000 incarcerees has often been used by scholars, journalists and the Japanese American community because the exact number of those incarcerated has never been known. By creating an actual list of names, the Irei Project has sought to confirm an accurate count and to restore dignity to each person who experienced some constitutional injustice when the U.S. government reduced them to faceless enemies. With the goal of leaving no one out, a dozen part-time researchers on the Irei team searched records in the National Archives and in the collections of other government institutions. Working with Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, Irei researchers have developed innovative methodologies and protocols to verify identities, the places of detention and, importantly, the accurate spelling of names. More than 100 volunteers assembled and fact-checked the data. As just one example of making sure the historical record is correct, a search through National Archive microfilm records revealed that Baby Girl Osawa was born to a mother incarcerated in the temporary detention facility known as the Pomona Assembly Center. Sadly, the baby lived only a few hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leaving no one out means that this infant is now among the nearly 6,000 additional people that the Irei Project has documented as among those who were incarcerated. As of November 2024, the number is 125,761; as the research continues, the number of documented incarcerees will continue to grow. As a 10-year-old, June Aochi Berk lived in this stable at the Santa Anita Racetrack. Photo courtesy of June Aochi Berk The pain of enduring and remembering Without any means to return to their prewar neighborhood in Hollywood, California, the Aochis went to Denver, Colorado, where friends offered to help them get back on their feet. They and the other incarcerees girded themselves to face prejudice and hostile treatment that had only intensified during the war, to the point of terrorism. After the war, we just had to concentrate on restarting our lives, and we had to put the trauma of the incarceration behind us, Berk explained. For Berk, her fellow incarcerees and their descendants, the Irei Project provides some acknowledgment of the loss of dignity suffered by individuals, families and communities. June Aochi Berk stamps next to her parents names in the Ireicho. Photo courtesy of June Aochi Berk We were taught not to complain, remembers Berk, and yet its painful now to think about the endless ways in which we were mistreated. Do you know what it is like to be forced to live in a horse stable? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the years following their incarceration, survivors would often cite how each incarcerated family was rendered nameless when the government issued them a family number that supplanted their surname. Betty Matsuo, incarcerated at 16 and detained in the Stockton Assembly Center and Rohwer Relocation Center, told the congressional commission, I lost my identity. At that time, I didnt even have a Social Security number, but the (War Relocation Authority) gave me an ID number. That was my identification. I lost my privacy and my dignity. For others, suppressing their anger, frustration and shame at being treated like a criminal when they had not done anything wrong impaired their health and relationships. Mary Tsukamoto, incarcerated at 27 and detained in the Fresno Assembly Center and Jerome Relocation Center, felt powerless after the war as the government actions were continuously held up as justified, even though there was never any factual basis for suspecting the Japanese American community of wholesale disloyalty. In 1986, she testified before a congressional committee that for decades we have lived within the shadows of this humiliating lie. Tsukamoto thought it was important to gain back dignity as a people who can all dream of a (n)ation that truly upholds the promise of (j)ustice for (a)ll. Stamped blue dots next to June Aochis name represent people who have visited the Ireicho to honor her. Photo courtesy of June Aochi Berk Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Healing and reconciliation To see the names of those who were incarcerated in a ceremonial book called the Ireicho, which means record of consoling spirits in Japanese, is to recognize their suffering. The Ireicho has been on display for the past two years at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Any member of the public could make a reservation to place a blue dot stamp beneath the names, symbolically representing the Japanese tradition of leaving stones at memorial sites. Although anyone could stamp names without any relationship to an incarceree, many surviving incarcerees have assembled their descendants and friends together to stamp names of extended family members. The Ireicho has become an iterative form of a monument, drawing visitors as if they are pilgrims to a sacred site, said Ann Burroughs, the museums president and CEO. Members of the Aochi family gathered in December 2024 to stamp June Aochi Berks name and those of her parents in the Ireicho. Photo courtesy of June Aochi Berk Berk was one of the first to stamp the book, choosing to honor her parents, Chujiro Aochi and Kei Aochi. My parents set such a resilient example, and by paying this tribute to them, I am able to do something positive to help overcome all of the difficult memories, Berk explained. For the community, each stamp is a small but meaningful act toward repairing the indignities suffered by each incarceree and reconciling with the past. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ireicho will go on a national tour in 2025 and 2026, with the goal of having each name stamped at least once. Other components of the Irei Project include the Ireizo, an interactive and searchable online archive, and the Ireihi, light sculptures slated to be placed at eight former World War II confinement sites starting in 2026. On Dec. 1, 2024, Berk gathered her five children and eight grandchildren with their partners to stamp her name and to place additional stamps by the names of her parents. She said, My children and grandchildren have a better understanding now of what happened to us during the war. This is a time of history we should never forget, lest our government ever takes such actions again and inflicts this painful experience upon any other person or group. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Duncan Williams, University of Southern California Read more: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Mellon Foundation provides funding to the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture, which is one of Susan Kamei's academic affiliations. She is a member of the Japanese American National Museum. Duncan Williams has previously served as a consultant for the Mellon Foundation, which has provided funding to the USC Shinso Ito Center for the Irei Project. Williams is the Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) has issued another warning for dangerous avalanche conditions across the state. "There's really nothing you could see in a snow pit right now that could tell you that the snowpack is good to go," said CAIC forecaster Jason Konigsberg in a video posted to the CAIC instagram. From the east facing slope Konigsberg was reporting on in Summit Country, a weak facet layer present from early season snowfall experienced heavy loading with an almost 2 foot storm slab on top of it. While the snowpack in other areas of Colorado might differ slightly from the one in the video, evidence such as human triggered slides and roadside avalanche activity have showed conditions across the state are equally as dangerous. In light of the current conditions, CAIC has issued an avalanche warning across the state but specifically the Park, Gore, Tenmile, and Front Ranges for Thursday, January 2nd. According to a social media post, since Christmas, CAIC has received hundreds of reports of avalanches across the state. Most of these reports describe common signs of persistent slab avalanches like remote triggers, rumbling collapse, and shooting cracks. A large slide was remotely triggered on Mt. Trelease, near Loveland Pass on December 31. Thankfully, no one was caught in the slide, but an avalanche of that size (D3) is indicative of just how scary conditions like these can be. Additionally, Utah is experiencing similar avalanche conditions to Colorado and has tragically seen two avalanche-related fatalities in the last week. So what's the best move in conditions like these? Skiers should avoid slopes where the deep persistent weak layer is present, avoid slopes have an angle of more than 30 degrees, and avoid slopes have steep overhead terrain. CAIC also reminds people that places they've traveled safely in the past might not be safe right now, so its best to avoid any travel in avalanche terrain. I might sound like a broken record, but if you are traveling in the backcountry, a beacon, probe, shovel, and partner are essential pieces of gear. Knowledge and understanding of current snowpack and avalanche conditions are key elements to safe and educated decision making in the backcountry. As much as we all probably want to ski powder, we also want to live to ski another day and taking warnings and conditions like these seriously is the very best way to do that. Related: Utah Sees Two Avalanche Deaths in One Week Be the first to read breaking ski news with POWDER. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected with the latest happenings in the world of skiing. From ski resort news to profiles of the worlds best skiers, we are committed to keeping you informed. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) New York State has introduced a digital version of your state-issued ID. With New York Mobile ID, state officials told News 8 Wednesday that the technology aims to enhance identity theft security. Once the ID is loaded onto your smartphone, Lisa Koumjian with the New York State DMV said Mobile ID gives businesses only the information they need when checking an ID. Our lives are going digital. So, it only makes sense to have a very secure digital form of identity to help mirror a lot of the safety and security features that we see all over, Koumjian said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New York is now one of at least 15 other states offering Mobile ID. The DMV said it believes digital IDs are the future when it comes to keeping personal information safe. When you hand over your physical ID to somebody, whether it be a doctors office or a bartender or a bank, you name it, youre giving all of the information, Koumjian said. But when it really comes down to it, a bartender does not need to know your address, they dont need to know your name, they just need to know that youre old enough to consume alcohol. And the same is true for a variety of different use cases. News 8s Gio Battaglia tried setting it up himself. The NY Mobile ID app has you scan your physical drivers license, permit, or non-driver ID, then take a picture of yourself to make sure everything matches. After that, the information stays on that app for easy access to show to a doctors office, a bartender, or a bank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Co-owner of Bad Ending on Monroe Avenue in Rochester, Fred McCoy, said a shift to digital IDs was inevitable. The one thing that people dont forget, which is odd to me, is people dont forget their phone. Their phone is almost always on them. Its convenient in that sense, McCoy said. Also, when someone is trying to get into a bar with a fake ID or without an ID, a lot of the times its, Oh, I left my wallet at home, like, can you let me in anyway? And the answer is No, absolutely not. And this is a good way to kind of curtail that behavior. McCoy and his staff will be able to verify the IDs through a verification app that any business can download. The consumer will generate a QR code on their mobile ID app, the business will scan it, and the app will approve or deny the ID. The plan is to roll that out to our service staff, so our bartenders, our door people, and just making sure that theyve got the app on the phone. And that way, someone can essentially come in and just have their ID scanned by one of our staff. Its super easy. Its honestly no different than the QR code that you have to scan to do karaoke here anyway. So, its something that all of our staff are capable of, McCoy said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for making sure all data transferred is secure, Koumjian said both businesses and consumers are safe. Its as much about protecting consumer information and safeguarding their privacy and their data as it is about protecting businesses and making sure that they have confidence that the ID presented to them belongs to the person theyre doing business with and interacting with, Koumjian said. The New York Mobile ID app is free to download to your smartphones app store. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) A Rockford felon has been arrested on New Years Day after police say officers caught him with a weapon stolen out of Jackson, Mississippi. According to the Rockford Police Department, officers with the Specialized Community Oriented Police Enforcement (SCOPE) team pulled Winfred Harvey, 51, over near S. Main Street and Blackhawk Avenue around 6:25 p.m. During the stop, officers found cannabis and a loaded handgun in the vehicle, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The handgun had a partially defaced serial number and was reported stolen from Jackson, Missouri. Harvey was arrested and charged with Possession of Cannabis, Unlawful Use of a Weapon by a Felon, Possession of a Stolen Firearm, Possession of a Firearm with a Defaced Serial Number, and No Valid Firearm Owners Identification. Harvey has been booked into the Winnebago County Jail awaiting a pretrial detention hearing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) In the heart of Youngstown, Rose Susie Yvonne West graced this world with her vibrant spirit, produced from the union of Bernice Anita Smith Sherman and James Josh Sherman, on November 29, 1957. Rose carried her dreams, hopes, and laughter, and turned them into a life beautifully woven into the tapestry of her family and community. Find obituaries from your high school Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rose was gifted eternal life on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25, 2024, leaving behind a legacy woven with love, strength, and unwavering faith. She embodied the essence of perseverance, much like the words of Langston Hughes in Mother to Son: Life for me aint been no crystal stair. Rose faced lifes challenges with zest and bravery, ever ready for the next adventure. Rose, who attended East High School, was the sole provider and nurturer for her family. Her ability to simply make it happen despite all odds while making it look easy was indicative of her can-do attitude. Throughout her life she worked at various restaurants and retail stores in the area. Rose was known for her love of games of chance a risk-taker at heart who enjoyed life to its fullest. Her unforgettable appearance on Cash Explosion showcased not only her lively spirit but also her magnetic charm. With an infectious laugh and a fearlessness like no other, Rose, with unwavering candor, never shied away from a challenge. Rose also had her alter ego, Susie outfitted with knee highs, who was ready for any conflict or battle life would throw her way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A woman of unwavering faith, Rose was an integral part of the ministry at Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church. She served with gladness as a member of the Gatekeepers Usher Ministry and lovingly embraced the entire pastoral family. Her generous heart extended beyond family and church, often helping those in need at her own sacrifice. A cherished mother, she places the mantel upon the shoulders her beloved children, Derrick (Monique) Sherman, Almain Sherman, James Meatball Sherman, David West and Lisa West, who will forever hold her spirit dear. Roses bond with her siblings, Margie (Willie) Sly, Michael Sherman, and Theresa West, reflects the fierce love and support that ran through her family. Her legacy has been emboldened by her 12 grandchildren, one great-grandson and an abundance of nieces, nephews, cousins, extended family and friends. Now that her faith has become sight, she embraced her Lord after being welcomed by her parents, brother James Pogo Sherman, sister Lisa Lampkin and nieces Tammy Sherman and Laytonya Lenoir. Rose joins her soulmate, Douglas Doug Robbins, in rest, where we trust they continue their dance of joy together. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Sherman-West family encourages everyone, collectively in thoughts and spirit, cherish the fight, spice, and feistiness that Rose embodied throughout her life. Lets honor her legacy by carrying a piece of her courage and love with us always. In accordance with Roses wishes, an intimate private service was held to celebrate the vibrant life she enjoyed. All who knew her are encouraged to immerse themselves in memories of her indomitable spirit and zest for living. May we remember her not just for her struggles but for the love and joy she brought to our lives. At this time of intimate need and personal loss, the beloved family of Rose Susie Yvonne West elected to entrust the Ministry of Comfort & Care, along with Transitional After-Care Arrangements to the J. E. Washington Funeral Services, 2234 Glenwood Avenue, Youngstown Oho 330.782.8500 Mother to Son Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By Langston Hughes Well, son, Ill tell you: Life for me aint been no crystal stair. Its had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor Bare. But all the time Ise been a-climbin on, And reachin landins, And turnin corners, And sometimes goin in the dark Where there aint been no light. So boy, dont you turn back. Dont you set down on the steps Cause you finds its kinder hard. Dont you fall now For Ise still goin, honey, Ise still climbin, And life for me aint been no crystal stair. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. ROME (AP) Rosita Missoni, the matriarch of the iconic Italian fashion house that made colorful zigzag-patterned knitwear high fashion and helped launch Italian ready-to-wear, has died. She was 93. Missoni died peacefully on Wednesday, Missoni SpA and the Missoni family said in a joint statement. Local officials offered condolences on Thursday and recalled Missonis ties to the small northern city of Gallarate where the Missoni brand was born in an artisans shop in 1953. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Born Rosita Jelmini, Missoni grew up in a family that owned a textile factory that produced shawls. When she met and married Ottavio Missoni, they founded their eponymous fashion house in Gallarate that would turn into a fashion dynasty, with the couples three children and their offspring involved in expanding the brand. The Missonis got their first break in 1958, when the Rinascente department store commissioned 500 colorful vertically striped shirt dresses the first to carry the Missoni label. The Missonis first showed their collection in Milan in 1966 and the brand helped turn the city into a fashion mecca. Their signature fashions, with the trademark graphic zigzags, long had a reputation for wearability and for surviving many seasons of changing trends. Family members were often the brand's best models, wearing Missoni graphic creations in everyday life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The founders turned over the business to their children in 1997, though Rosita remained involved in the Missoni home collection. In 2013, as the company celebrated its 60th anniversary, the family endured a double tragedy. The eldest Missoni son and the companys CEO, Vittorio Missoni, died when a plane carrying him and five others disappeared off Venezuela. It took six months to locate the plane wreckage in the seas off the South American country, during which time patriarch Ottavio Missoni died, aged 92. In 2018, the family sold a 41.2%-stake to the Italian investment fund FSI, but maintained majority control of the house. In 2021, the youngest daughter, Angela Missoni, stepped down as creative director after 24 years. There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements. Originally appeared on E! Online Ruby Frankes daughter is ready to tell her story. Nearly a year after the former parenting influencer was given four consecutive one to 15 year sentencesequivalent to four to 60 years in prison, but will be capped at 30 years in the state of Utahfor second-degree aggravated child abuse, her daughter Shari Franke is reflecting on the tragic family situation in an upcoming memoir. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think shell ever fully comprehend or understand what shes done, Shari, now 21, told People in an article published Jan. 2. I just hope that she can get the help she needs. Sharithe eldest of Ruby and ex Kevin Frankes six childrenwent on to detail an argument with Ruby prior to her mothers 2023 arrest in an excerpt of her upcoming memoir, The House of My Mother. Rubys face contorted with anger and hurt. I cant believe you called the police on me, Shari wrote in the excerpt. After everything Ive done for you, after all the sacrifices Ive made. How could you betray me like that, Shari? How could you be so selfish? More from E! Online Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the time, Ruby hadalong with her friend and colleague Jodi Hildebrandtbeen physically abusing her youngest children, then aged 11 and 13, due to what the former YouTuber later called a dark delusion, then-believing they deserved abusive treatment. In her memoir excerpt, Shari explained how she came to understand the toxic web of her upbringing, noting she had told her mother she had called the police for the safety of her younger siblings. One day, Shari, youll come crawling back to me, Shari recounted her mother telling her. Begging for my forgiveness. And itll be hard for me to give it to you, but Ill be gracious. E! News has reached out to attorneys for Ruby but has not yet heard back. Instagram The author continued to describe the altercation with her mother, sharing she felt hot and sticky tears streaming down her face as she remained strong in her conviction to stand up to her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Youve always hated me, Shari recalled her mother telling her. Ever since you were five years old, I could see it in your eyes. The way you looked at me, the way you judged me. Youve never appreciated everything Ive done for you, all the sacrifices Ive made. As for how she responded, Shari recalled saying, Thats not true, I choked. I never hated you, Mom. I was just scared of you. And while Shari is ready to come forward with her story in the memoir, set to release Jan. 7, it has been a tumultuous journey for her since her mother and Jodi received their respective sentences last February. In October, she spoke out against a Lifetime documentary that depicted a version of her familys story. Instagram I saw the trailer suddenly in class and had an anxiety attack, Shari wrote in an Instagram post at the time. This movie is trash, and only hurts my siblings more. Please do not support this movie." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for Ruby, she is currently serving her time at the Utah State Correctional Facility alongside Jodiwho was similarly sentenced to four to 60 years for four counts of second-degree aggravated child abuseand has expressed remorse for her actions. To my babies, you are a part of me, I believed dark was light and right was wrong, Ruby who, along with Jodi, pleaded guilty to her charges said during her sentencing hearing. I would do anything in this world for you. I took from you all that was soft, and safe, and good. Keep reading for a timeline of the case. Aug. 30, 2023: Children Found Malnourished Utah police received a call about a starved child being found, they shared in a press release. The minorwho appeared "emaciated and malnourished" with "open wounds and duct tape around the extremities"was taken to the hospital in "severe" condition. He was later identified as YouTuber Ruby Franke's 12-year-old son, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by NBC News. He had been at the home of Ruby's business partner Jodi Hildebrant and had climbed out of a window before going to a neighbor's house to ask for help, per the document. Police then searched a nearby home, where another child was found "in a similar physical condition of malnourishment" and was also hospitalized, per the press release. Authorities later explained that they discovered Ruby's 9-year-old daughter "petrified" while sitting by herself in an empty closet in Jodi's house, per evidence released by the Washington County Attorney's Office. Aug. 30, 2023: Arrest Ruby was arrested for aggravated child abuse charges in Utah along with Jodi, who in 2007 established a life coaching service called ConneXions, which former clients described to NBC News as a "cult-like" program based on principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aug. 31, 2023: Ruby's Daughter Speaks Out On Aug. 31, E! reported that Shari Franke, Ruby's estranged adult daughter, reacted to the news on her Instagram Story. "Me and my family are so glad justice is being served," wrote Shari, who was born in 2003. "We've been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up. Kids are safe, but there's a long road ahead." Aug. 31, 2023: Ruby's Sisters React to Arrest Ruby's sisters Ellie Mecham, Bonnie Hoellein and Julie Deru spoke out as well, saying the YouTuber's arrest "needed to happen." "For the last 3 years we have kept quiet on the subject of Ruby Franke for the sake of her children," they wrote in a joint Instagram statement. "Behind the public scene, we have done everything to try and make sure the kids were safe. We wouldn't feel right about moving forward with regular content without addressing the most recent events. Once we do, we will not be commenting on it any further." The siblings said Ruby's kids are "now safe, which is the number one priority." Sept. 6, 2023: Charges Filed The former 8 Passengers YouTuber and her business partner Jodi were each formally charged with six counts of felony child abuse by the Washington County Attorney in Utah. Sept. 6, 2023: Kevin Franke Breaks Silence Ruby's husband Kevin Franke came forward to deny involvement in her alleged crimes. His lawyer Randy Kester told Good Morning America the spouses had been living apart for 13 months before the arrest. "He is a good person, he's very gentle," the attorney said. "He's a very gentle guy. And no one has ever made any allegations that he's physically abused those kids or anyone else." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nov. 29, 2023: Kevin Files for Divorce Kevin officially filed for divorce from the Utah influencer, according to a domestic relations injunction obtained by NBC News. Dec. 18: Guilty Pleas E! confirmed Dec. 18 that Ruby had entered a guilty plea for four of her charges. At the time, per the Associated Press, she stated, "With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty." Jodi would also plead guilty to four counts of second-degree felony aggravated child abuse. Feb. 20, 2024: Prison Sentencing Both women were sentenced to four consecutive one to 15 year sentences, which will be capped at the 30-year max in Utah. Feb. 20, 2024: Ruby Apologizes The parent vlogger apologized during her sentencing to her six kids and estranged husband. "For the past four years, I've chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion," she said in court. "My distorted version of reality went largely unchecked as I would isolate from anyone who challenged me." She continued, "To my babies, you are a part of me. I believed dark was light and right was wrong. I would do anything in this world for you. I took from you all that was soft, and safe, and good." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement March 25, 2024: Ruby's Diary Revealed Prosecutors released her chilling journal entries, in which she wrote about her mistreatment of her children, including her "Satanic" tween son. "He slithers & sneaks around looking for opportunities when no one is watching & then he scurries," she wrote in an entry from July 10, 2023, which was her son's 12th birthday. "If he wants to emulate the savior, he needs to be 100% obedient with exactness. No wavering, no hiding." She wrote about punishing her children by beating them and withholding food and water. March 25, 2024: Kevin's Interview With Authorities Becomes Public Prosecutors released audio footage of Kevin talking with investigators after Ruby was arrested, in which he spoke about alleged restrictions he faced in their house. "There were all these rules now placed on me, like I can leave when I want but I couldn't come back until Ruby gave me permission," Kevin said in an audio clip obtained by E!. "I couldn't come into the kitchen to eat until Ruby gave me permission and the upstairs where Jodi was was completely offline. I couldn't go upstairs anymore in my own house. And Ruby would dictate all of the terms of how our interactions would be, when we would talk. And that was hard." For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App Even while at war, Ukraine has been piping gas for Russia to European customers. But that arrangement, which dates back to the fall of the Soviet Union, has now expired. Russia earned an estimated $5 billion from the transits in 2024, with Ukraine getting up to $1 billion. Russia is no longer able to send natural gas to Europe through Ukraine's pipelines after a five-year deal, struck before the war began, expired on Wednesday. It marks the end of a long-standing arrangement that used Ukraine as a conduit for westbound Russian gas an agreement that continued even as full-scale war broke out in 2022. European countries that received that gas, such as Slovakia and Austria, were paying Russia for this energy. Reuters calculated in December that the Russian economy would earn about $5 billion in 2024 alone from piping gas through Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The news agency also estimated that Kyiv stood to receive between $800 million to $1 billion over that year from collecting transit fees. But Ukraine had signaled for months that it planned to let the deal expire on January 1, 2025, and it's now made good on that pledge. "When Putin was presented with the Russian presidency more than 25 years ago, the annual gas transit through Ukraine to Europe totaled more than 130 billion cubic meters. Today, it equals 0," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote. Ukraine's energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said the transit deal ceased because of national security reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Russian gas conglomerate Gazprom confirmed on Wednesday that its energy flows through Ukraine had stopped, citing "repeated and explicit refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements." The now-defunct Ukrainian-Russian deal laid bare the complexities of the war and its political consequences in Europe, with European Union nations struggling to reduce their reliance on Russian energy even as they supplied arms to Ukraine and tried to sanction Moscow. And as thousands died every week amid bitter fighting in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kursk, gas flowing through the same areas allowed both Kyiv and Moscow to profit off each other's goods and facilities. Ukraine has piped Russian gas to Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and energy customers initially expressed concerns that they wouldn't be able to find an alternative supply in time if the deal expired. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, criticized Kyiv's decision in a New Year's address, saying cutting off cheap Russian gas to Europe would create a "drastic impact" on EU nations but not hurt Russia. Austria, on the other hand, cut ties with Gazprom in December, accusing Russia of blackmailing the Austrian gas company OMV by using energy as a bargaining chip over European support of Ukraine. Losing Austria as a customer was yet another blow to Moscow's gas industry as Europe weans itself off its Russian energy supply. The EU said in March that about 8% of its natural gas came from Russia in 2023, down from 40% in 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since the war began, the US and Norway have emerged as two of the biggest winners among natural-gas suppliers. The EU said gas purchases from the US in 2023 had tripled since 2021, filling nearly 20% of the union's gas imports. Some countries on the continent, such as Hungary, an EU member led by a president who keeps close ties with Moscow, still have access to Russian gas through the TurkStream pipeline, which runs along the Black Sea to the Balkans. Moldova, which isn't an EU member state, and its separatist-controlled territory, Transnistria, are expected to be hit hard by the cessation of the Ukraine-Russia deal, with the country's largest power plant historically reliant on Russian gas. Correction: January 2, 2025 An earlier version of this story misstated Robert Fico's title. He's the prime minister of Slovakia, not the president. Read the original article on Business Insider The Russian army targeted Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast with guided bombs, destroying the yellow-and-blue city entrance monument bearing the town's name, on 2 January. Source: Pokrovsk City Military Administration; Pavlo Vyshebaba, a serviceman of the 68th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook Quote: "Pokrovsk woke up to yet another enemy attack this morning. Russian forces targeted the city with guided bombs, causing damage to local infrastructure. Among the destruction was the city entrance monument; the explosion shattered the structure and sent one of its letters flying onto the road." The city entrance monument before destruction, September 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Photo: Bohdan Kutiepov Details: Ukrainian serviceman and signalman Pavlo Vyshebaba shared that he spotted the destroyed monument while heading to a mission. The letter "P" from the word "Pokrovsk" had been thrown onto the road by the blast. Vyshebaba decided to take the letter, placing it in his cars boot, believing such symbols should be preserved as artefacts in a future museum dedicated to the Russo-Ukrainian war. Quote from Vyshebaba: "Wreckages of history like this, in my opinion, belong to the Ukrainian nation and should never be put up for auction. The price paid to keep the city on the map, represented by these yellow-and-blue letters, is far too great." Background: On 8 December, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War suggested that the Kremlin is likely to pursue its attempts to capture the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, despite significant human and material losses. Due to Russias invasion and the escalation of the situation in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, natural gas supplies to the population were cut off. On 2 January, Major Viktor Trehubov, spokesman for the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group, said that Russian forces are not making a frontal assault on the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, but are trying to bypass and encircle the city. Support UP or become our patron! Russian attacks against Ukraine wounded six and killed four people over the past day, regional authorities reported on Jan. 2. Two civilians were killed and six were injured in Kherson Oblast following Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, high-rise buildings, and houses in over 38 of the oblasts settlements, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on his Telegram channel. A Russian attack overnight killed a civilian in the town of Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported on his Telegram channel on Jan. 2. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One person was killed in the city of Mirnohrad in Donetsk Oblast, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported on his Telegram channel. Russia launched 72 drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed ones, against Ukraine overnight on Jan. 2, Ukraine's Air Force reported on its Telegram channel. Ukraine's air defense shot down 47 drones over 12 oblasts, and forced an additional 24 drone-imitations to veer off course without casualties, the Air Force said. One drone was in the air at the time of the publication of the Air Forces report. Civilian infrastructure, buildings and a car were damaged as a result of Russian attacks in Kharkiv Oblast, but there were no civilian injuries, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported on his Telegram channel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Russian drone attack kills 2, injures 6, damages central bank building in Kyiv Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for more cooperation with China to develop artificial intelligence, as both nations try to gain a stronger foothold in the new tech frontier amid pressure from the US. In a Kremlin document dated Monday, Putin ordered the Russian government and the country's biggest lender Sberbank to "ensure further cooperation with the People's Republic of China in technological research and development of artificial intelligence". He also told the government and the bank, which is leading the development of AI in Russia, to consider publishing an international journal to cover advances in artificial intelligence in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Putin assigned the task to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Sberbank chief executive German Gref, with a progress report expected by April. It comes three weeks after the AI Journey tech conference was held in Moscow, when Putin said Russia would work with Brics partners and other nations to develop the technology. "China is making great strides in its technological development and is using vital instruments for its development," Putin said at the conference on December 11. "Artificial intelligence ... is one of these crucial instruments." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China is one of the pioneers in the technology - used in everything from manufacturing to transport - and is vying for dominance with the US. The country's tech giants have also been racing to develop their own generative AI models to catch up in the field after Microsoft-backed OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot in 2022. In an interview with Reuters following Putin's speech at the conference, Sberbank first deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin said Russia lagged behind China and the United States on AI by about six to nine months, but it could close the gap. "I am confident that Russia can significantly improve its current positions in international rankings by 2030 through its own developments and supportive regulation in the field of generative AI," he was quoted as saying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Beijing and Moscow set up an AI working group to coordinate on ethics governance and industrial applications of artificial intelligence in August, after Mishustin met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Moscow. In February, during talks between senior Chinese and Russian officials in Beijing, the two sides agreed to consult and coordinate with each other on military use of the technology. Both Russia and China are struggling to get access to the advanced chips needed for AI technology. Restrictions on advanced semiconductor chips are among the sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. China is also facing trade restrictions from the US that curb its access to the chips. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Washington in December announced new export restrictions on 24 types of chipmaking equipment and three categories of software essential for semiconductor development. China has meanwhile been exploring its own alternatives to imported chips. In September, telecoms giant Huawei Technologies sent AI chip samples it has developed to Chinese clients for testing, the South China Morning Post reported earlier. A report released by a US think tank around that time found that China's strong academic efforts, innovation capacity and state-backed funding has positioned it as a major challenger to the United States in AI technology. China issued the most AI research publications of any country between 2017 and 2022, the report said. It also filed six times as many AI patents as the US did from 2014 to 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. A Russian attack overnight killed a civilian in the town of Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported on his Telegram channel on Jan. 2. The victims body was found under the rubble of a five-story building after a more than five-hours-long search and rescue operation, the governor said, adding that the village of Stepnohirsk was hit 11 times by glide bombs during the attack. Russia has not slowed down its attacks on Ukraine over the holiday period, attacking Kyiv on the first day of 2025 with drones, killing two prominent scientists and injuring six others, including two pregnant women. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attack on the city of Kyiv also damaged the building of the National Bank of Ukraine. Russia conducted a large-scale Christmas attack on Dec. 25, firing 78 missiles and 106 drones against multiple cities. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russia attacks Kyiv on first day of 2025, killing 2, injuring 6 Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russian forces are not making a frontal assault on the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, but are trying to bypass and encircle the city. Source: Major Viktor Trehubov, spokesman for the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group, on air during the 24/7 national joint newscast Quote: "There are no battles in the city, the Russians have not reached the city limits, but they are trying to surround it through neighbouring settlements and villages, penetrate in certain groups, accumulate forces and continue to attack in order to bypass the city. In addition, the active operation of UAVs, the active operation of everything that the Russians have now, is also concentrated in the area of the city of Pokrovsk." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Trehubov explained that the city of Pokrovsk is quite large and fortified, so the Russians do not want to launch a frontal assault. The Russians are also involved in urban battles in other areas, such as Chasiv Yar and Kurakhove. Trehubov added that the Russians were not counting on fighting in Pokrovsk, but were trying to bypass the city and break the infrastructure chains. Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian defenders hampered 38 Russian assaults and offensive actions on the Pokrovsk front, which remains one of the hottest areas of the front line. Background: Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggested in a report on 8 December that the Kremlin was likely to continue its attempts to capture the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, despite significant human and material losses. Due to Russias invasion and the escalation of the situation in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, natural gas supplies to the population were cut off. Support UP or become our patron! Federal officials reviewed 440 reports of alleged discrimination on Rutgers University campuses between July 2023 and June 2024, most against Jewish students. (Daniella Heminghaus for New Jersey Monitor) Rutgers University will review its nondiscrimination policies, analyze discrimination complaints, and launch additional training for campus police and others responsible for investigating alleged bias incidents under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, the department announced Thursday. The agreement comes months after encampments formed on the universitys New Brunswick and Newark campuses to protest the war in Gaza, and it is meant to resolve reports of bias against Jewish and Muslim students spurred amid conflict in the Middle East. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights with the Department of Education, said the agreement will address serious issues of noncompliance with federal law regarding different treatment of students based on stereotypes about the countries students and their families come from. Under the agreement, Rutgers is required to review policies regarding the enforcement of Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on race, color, and national origin. The university will be required to send a list of alleged discrimination incidents during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years and its responses to them to the Department of Educations civil rights office for review. It must also review all students and student groups informed of potential disciplinary violations or who faced such punishments during the 2023-2024 school year and provide training to campus police, workers tasked with investigating reports of discrimination and harassment, and all other employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The nearly 300 complaints of antisemitic and anti-Zionist vandalism, doxing, and harassment investigated by the Department of Education are abhorrent and unacceptable. Rutgers must now make an unequivocal commitment to meaningful reform, which can be achieved without infringing on academic freedom and the right to assemble and protest, said Rabbi David Levy, New Jersey director for the American Jewish Committee. Rutgers will also be required to issue a statement expressing intolerance for discrimination to all students and employees and hold listening sessions with relevant groups. The Department of Education reviewed 440 reports of alleged discrimination on Rutgers University campuses between July 2023 and June 2024, of which 293 were alleged discrimination against Jewish students and 147 against Palestinian, Arab, South Asian, or Muslim students. Among the reports were instances of targeted threats against Jewish students and vandalism against a Jewish fraternity, a Jewish students dorm room, the Bildner Center for Jewish Studies, and a university Center for Islamic Life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Office of Civil Rights also reviewed allegations of doxxing of pro-Palestinian students and the universitys alleged removal of flyers, posters, and flags about Palestine. The Rutgers community stands firmly against discrimination and harassment in all its forms, and the university will always strive to strengthen the policies and practices that protect our students, faculty, and staff. Rutgers is grateful to the Office of Civil Rights for its guidance, the university said in a statement. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX (FOX40.COM) A Sacramento family is safe after staying in a New Orleans hotel, where a Wednesday morning attack took place. The attack left more than a dozen dead and dozens more injured. John Tack said he and his family were on a road trip to pick up their son in Missouri. The family then decided to spend the New Year in New Orleans. When the celebrations were winding down in Jackson Square, the family returned to their hotel room. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Islamic State-inspired driver expressed desire to kill before deadly New Orleans rampage, Biden says Early morning on New Years Day, a man allegedly drove a truck into a crowd along the renowned Bourbon St., leading to the casualties. Tack shared with FOX40.com that his son who is in the Air Force Security Force said that the barricades blocking traffic didnt seem sturdy. Tack said, He made a comment about the barricades walking the streets and they were like half sawhorses. There werent even full horses. And they were flimsy. And he commented I dont feel very safe with those barricades in the intersections.' The hotel where the family is staying is within a restricted area and hours later they continue to see a heavy law enforcement presence. Tack told FOX40.com that his family is set to come back home this week and that their vehicle was luckily outside of the restricted area. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40. NEW SYMRNA BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) A captain is selling his sailboat for $1 after it washed ashore while battling rough waters off Floridas east coast. Allan Askar told NBC affiliate WESH he was headed from St. Augustine to the Dominican Republic, but he didnt make it far before exhaustion set in. FHP trooper goes airborne in chase with suspect: FHP The wind was pushing me downwind and the waves were building up and also going down, meaning I need to surf waves, Askar told WESH. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After 16 hours, Askar anchored the boat in order to get some rest. It ended up washing ashore on New Symrna Beach. It appears Askar has given up on recovering his 1977 sailboat himself, listing it on Craigslist for just $1. It will be operation by land at this point, and it will cost like 20, $25,000 altogether, Askar told WESH. (WESH) The beached boat has become an attraction for locals, who may consider buying it for themselves. I have a dollar. Where is he at, a New Smyrna Beach resident told WESH. I have to talk to my wife to see if were in the market for a sailboat, but a dollar is a pretty good price, another resident said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his quest to find a serious buyer, Askar said hed help cover the cost of removing the boat from the beach. Very good, reliable boat, very solid construction. It will last another 50 years even with abuse its currently taken, Askar told WESH. Askar has just 30 days from the date of the wreck to remove the sailboat from the beach, or he faces hefty fines or jail time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) Saints defensive end Cam Jordan announced that he is donating to support victims impacted by the New Years Day terror attack in the French Quarter. On Thursday, Ja. 2, Jordan announced via social media, a donation of $25,000 to the New Years Day Tragedy Fund. Gov. Landry, state officials to provide latest update on Bourbon Street deadly terror attack The funds are dedicated to assisting victims and survivors of the terrorist attack on Bourbon Street Wednesday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Please consider donating to assist the families of those who lost their lives and those who were severely injured, said Jordan. To donate, visit the Greater New Orleans Foundation website. Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter. Latest Posts Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGNO. Harry Browne's, across the street from the State House in Annapolis, will be the center of gravity in Maryland politics over the next several days. Photo by Brycia James/Getty Images. Thanks to the way the 2025 calendar is aligned, this years General Assembly session is opening on the earliest date possible, Jan. 8 which means the annual pre-session scramble by lawmakers and statewide elected officials to raise money before a three-month fundraising ban goes into effect is more condensed and intense than ever. State legislators and the governor, lieutenant governor, state comptroller and attorney general are prevented from soliciting and collecting campaign cash during the 90-day session. And every year, between New Years Day and the session kickoff, there are a mind-numbing number of fundraising events on tap, mostly in Annapolis, as politicians scurry to fill their campaign coffers just as lobbyists, special interest groups and political donors begin to pay attention to the policymakers work in the State House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the days leading up to the session, a constellation of restaurants and bars near State Circle becomes Ground Zero for Marylands political community, and an enormous amount of cash changes hands. The events are so numerous that no one even blinks anymore, and suggestions that there might be an element of pay-to-play at work have long ago been cast aside. This year, at least 74 fundraisers were scheduled for lawmakers, statewide elected officials and political committees between Thursday and Jan. 7, according to invitations obtained by Maryland Matters and lists of fundraising events provided by lobbying firms, the political parties and political consultants. Purchasing the cheapest ticket for each event would cost a donor a total of $24,365.69 during the course of the week. Before the U.S. Supreme Court lifted many restrictions on political fundraising through its 2010 Citizens United decision, donors in Maryland could give no more than $10,000 collectively to candidates during an election cycle, but those limits no longer apply. Whos raising money between now and next Wednesday? A better question might be: Who isnt? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fundraising solicitations have been fast and furious over the past several weeks. When you give to Wes, you are contributing to a mission that uplifts Marylanders and their surrounding communities, said one recent email solicitation for Gov. Wes Moore (D), who has at least four fundraisers scheduled between Sunday and Tuesday, including one near Richmond, Virginia. Your generosity enables me to continue to advocate for meaningful legislation that improves our community, Del. Kent Roberson (D-Prince Georges) wrote in his holiday greeting to constituents, which included an invitation to his fundraising event on Monday in Annapolis. In an online solicitation, Sen. Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery), chair of the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment, wrote of his forthcoming fundraiser in Annapolis Monday that, Attending this event will be a great opportunity to discuss my priorities and other critical issues facing the General Assembly during this important upcoming session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The post-New Years Day fundraising carousel begins Thursday evening, with an event for Sen. Cory V. McCray (D-Baltimore City) at 16 on the Park in his hometown, an event for Del. Kym Taylor (D-Prince Georges) at The Lab in Bowie, and an event for Del. Andrew Pruski (D-Anne Arundel) at Metropolitan Kitchen and Lounge in Annapolis with House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) as the featured speaker. The presiding officers both have fundraisers on the docket. Jones is raising money at a breakfast Friday at Latitude 38 near the Annapolis waterfront. Ticket prices start at $500. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) has a fundraising dinner on Monday evening in his district, at the trendy Rye Street Tavern in the emerging Baltimore Peninsula neighborhood. Tickets for this event, which appears to be sold out, started at $5,000, according to an online invitation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All four Senate committee chairs have fundraisers scheduled, starting with Budget and Taxation Chair Guy J. Guzzone (D-Howard), with a $500-and-up breakfast on Friday morning at the Calvert House in Annapolis. Feldmans is Monday evening at Harry Brownes in Annapolis, with tickets starting at $250, followed by Senate Judicial Proceedings Chair William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery), who also has an event scheduled Monday evening, at Acqua al 2 in Annapolis, with ticket prices starting at $250. Senate Finance Chair Pamela Beidle (D-Anne Arundel) is raising money Tuesday afternoon at Red Red Wine Bar in Annapolis. Sen. Craig J. Zucker (D-Montgomery), chair of the Capital Budget Subcommittee and chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, also has a fundraiser on Monday evening at Acqua al 2, with ticket prices starting at $250. Republicans are also shaking the tin cup this week. Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore) has a $500-and-up fundraiser scheduled for Monday evening at the Parley Room in Annapolis, while Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready (R-Carroll and Frederick) is raising money that morning with a $250-and-up event at the Calvert House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Five of the six House committee chairs are also raising money in Annapolis this week, starting with Economic Matters Committee Chair C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) at the Federal House Bar and Grill in the Market House along the Annapolis waterfront. Ticket prices start at $250. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE House Ways and Means Chair Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard) has a Monday evening fundraiser scheduled for Harry Brownes, with ticket prices beginning at $250. Environment and Transportation Chair Marc Korman (D-Montgomery) will be greeting guests on Monday evening at the Calvert House, for $250 and up. Appropriations Chair Ben Barnes (D-Prince Georges and Anne Arundel) has a Tuesday evening happy hour at Harry Brownes, with tickets starting at $500. There are two fundraisers for House Health and Government Operations Chair Joseline Pena-Melnyk, (D-Prince Georges and Anne Arundel) this week: One, on Monday evening, is sponsored by the Maryland Hospital Association and taking place at Blackwell Hitch in Annapolis, with tickets starting at $250.The other is Tuesday evening at Harry Brownes, with tickets also starting at $250. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Del. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), who heads the Judiciary Committee, is the only House chair who does not appear to have a fundraiser scheduled this week. Neither do the top House Republicans. But the seven GOP members of the powerful House Economic Matters Committee Christopher Adams (Middle Shore), Steve Arentz (Upper Shore), Mark N. Fisher (Calvert), Seth Howard (Anne Arundel), Jesse T. Pippy (Frederick), April Rose (Carroll) and William Wivell (Washington) are raising money together, at a breakfast event Monday at the Parley Room. Pippy is the House minority whip. The most intense day of fundraising will be on Monday, when at least 32 fundraisers are on the docket, and all but four Fergusons hometown event, a $3,000-a-ticket breakfast for Moore at the Maryland Club in Baltimore, a breakfast for Sen. Michael Jackson (D-Prince Georges) at Rips in Bowie, and a happy hour at Flock in Baltimore for Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-Baltimore City) are in Annapolis. From 8 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., with just a couple of short breaks, lawmakers will be collecting money at every hour of the day. An intrepid individual trying to hit every Annapolis event would have to run this gantlet: Morning 8-9:30 a.m. Sen. Ben Brooks (D-Baltimore County), Harry Brownes 8-10 a.m. House Economic Matters Committee Republicans, Parlay Room 8:30-10 a.m. Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D-Frederick), Harry Brownes 9-11 a.m. Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince Georges), Maryland Inn 9:30-11 a.m. Ready, Calvert House Afternoon Noon-1:30 p.m. Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles), Acqua al 2 Noon-1 p.m. Roberson, The Oaks Inn 1-2:30 p.m. Del. Marlon Amprey (D-Baltimore City), Red Red Wine Bar 3-4:30 p.m. Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City), Red Red Wine Bar Happy hour 4-5:30 p.m. Del. Andrea Fletcher Harrison (D-Prince Georges), Red Red Wine Bar 4:30-6 p.m. House Majority Leader David Moon (D-Montgomery), Game On Bar and Arcade 4:30-6 p.m. Del. Stuart Schmidt (R-Anne Arundel), Parley Room 5-6 p.m. Del. Kris Valderrama (D-Prince Georges), Harry Brownes 5-6 p.m. Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery), chair, Legislative Black Caucus, Harry Brownes 5-6 p.m. Del. Regina T. Boyce (D-Baltimore City), Harry Brownes 5-6 p.m. Del. Stephanie Smith (D-Baltimore City), Harry Brownes 5-6 p.m. Del. Emily Shetty (D-Montgomery), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Harry Brownes 5-6 p.m. Feldman, Harry Brownes 5-6:30 p.m. Attorney General Anthony Brown (D), Harold Black 5-6:30 p.m. Pena-Melnyk, Blackwall Hitch (hosted by the Maryland Hospital Association) 5-7 p.m. House Majority Whip Jazz Lewis (D-Prince Georges), Federal House Bar and Grill Evening 6 p.m. Korman, Calvert House 6-7:30 p.m. Sen. Dawn Gile (D-Anne Arundel), Dry 85 6-8 p.m. Hershey, Parley Room 6-8 p.m. Smith, Acqua al 2 6:30-7:30 p.m. Del. Kevin Harris (D-Prince Georges), Red Red Wine Bar 7-8 p.m. Atterbeary, Harry Brownes 7-8:30 p.m. Zucker, Acqua al 2 Twelve hours later, the money chase starts again. Tuesday afternoon traditionally features a big event for the Maryland Democratic Party in Annapolis, where Moore, Ferguson, Jones and other party luminaries give pep talks. That event begins at high noon at the Westin Hotel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most years, the final fundraiser before session begins is for the Women Legislators of Maryland, which had been, until recent years, a bipartisan organization but is now being boycotted by the Republicans. The womens caucus does have a fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday evening at the Calvert House. But the final event of the pre-session scramble appears to be an event for Del. Dana Stein (D-Baltimore County), the House speaker pro tem. While several lawmaker fundraisers feature guest speakers, Steins features a guest of a different sort: Former Del. Kumar P. Barve, now a member of the state Public Service Commission, who will reprise his role as Kumar the Magnificent a takeoff of Johnny Carsons Carnac the Magnificent, which Barve used to perform at the Maryland Legislative Follies of yesteryear. Which just goes to show that in political fundraising, as the burlesque performers sing in the musical Gypsy: You gotta get a gimmick. This story was updated on Jan. 2 to include two additional events. SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) San Franciscos incoming mayor, Daniel Lurie, announced he created a new public safety czar position, dubbed Chief of Public Safety, on Thursday. The safety czars primary focus will be zeroed-in on neighborhood safety, street behavior, emergency preparedness and response, Luries spokesperson wrote. The Chief of Public Safety will coordinate several city departments. Lurie is just days away from taking over San Franciscos top political post as incumbent Mayor London Breed makes her exit. Daniel Lurie (left), London Breed, and Aaron Peskin attended a mayoral debate at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on June 12, 2024. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Lurie is vowing to restructure the mayors office to enhance effectiveness and accountability. A former San Francisco Police Department commander, Paul Yep, was picked for the new safety chief position, Lurie said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im proud to announce Paul Yep as the first ever Chief of Public Safety. Paul has dedicated his career to keeping San Franciscans safe and there is no one better for this critical job. Together, we will support our law enforcement and ensure that every resident, worker, and visitor is safe in our city, Lurie said. Yep said, I look forward to leveraging my experience to help the mayor-elects team execute his vision for building stronger and safer communities across our city. Yep will coordinate with the following departments: SFPD, adult and juvenile probation, police accountability, emergency management, fire, sheriff inspector general, victim and witness rights. He will also serve as the administrations point of contact with the San Francisco Sheriff, District Attorney, and the Public Defender. Paul Yep is a thoughtful servant leader who is deeply passionate about enhancing safety for every San Franciscan, said Sheriff Paul Miyamoto. I have known Paul personally for over 35 years since before our law enforcement careers. My office looks forward to working closely with Paul and the Mayor-elect to make San Francisco the safest big city in the nation. Paul Yep Thirty-three homicides unfolded in San Francisco in 2024, a 34% percent drop compared to 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last week, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott proclaimed that SF is already one of the safest big cities in the country. Scott said, The SFPD has made tremendous progress in reducing violent crime. I also want to offer my condolences to the families of victims this year. Our officers are working hard to bring you justice as they continue to work diligently to continue this downward trend in violence. San Francisco had a violent start to 2025 when a shooting broke out in the Bernal Heights neighborhood that left a 24-year-old man dead Thursday morning. According to a family member at the scene, the man killed himself after shooting his toddler and the toddlers mother. SFPD has not confirmed those details. Two hours later, at 10 a.m., a shooting happened at 833 Bryant Street in the SoMa neighborhood, firefighters said. Two victims were treated for gunshot wounds and officers arrested a woman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, just 25 minutes into the new year, a man was shot to death at a business on South Van Ness Avenue, police said. The suspected gunman, 29-year-old Jose Rivera Flores, was booked into jail on suspicion of homicide. Yep served as an SFPD commander until his retirement in July of 2023. He was previously a commanding officer for the Central, Northern, and Richmond police stations. Yep also worked in specialized assignments including domestic violence, human trafficking, and community relations. He is an alumni of Lowell High School and San Francisco State University. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The merger between Sanford Health, based in Sioux Falls, and the Marshfield Clinic Health System based in Wisconsin, is now complete. The two organizations now make up a single non-profit health system and will operate as Sanford Health, according to an announcement from Sanford. Todays historic milestone paves the way for us to advance world-class care across the rural Midwest and accelerate vital investments in the communities we have the privilege of serving, said Bill Gassen, president and CEO of Sanford Health. We are thrilled to welcome 13,000 new employees from Marshfield Clinic Health System to our Sanford family and look forward to embracing all of the new possibilities that lie ahead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robbery at truck stop leaves employee injured Brian Hoerneman, the president and CEO of Marshfield, will stay in the position of regional president and CEO of the Marshfield region. The announcement says the integration process is underway. Marshfield served Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan. Together with Sanford, the system now covers 56 hospitals, 270+ clinics and more than 4,500 providers. This completed merger comes more than a year after Sanfords last attempt at expansion petered out when talks with Minnesota-based Fairview Health came to an end. At the time, Gassen said the merger did not have the support of certain Minnesota stakeholders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) The City of Santa Fes director of Public Works and Utilities was arrested for allegedly stealing a checked box full of gifts from the Santa Fe Regional Airports baggage claim area, according to court documents. John Dupuis was booked into the Santa Fe County Detention Center on Dec. 27 and was charged with larceny (over $500 but not more than $2,500). The box belonged to a couple traveling from Denver and contained Christmas gifts including custom canvas paint prints, Lego sets, a custom leather pouch, and other items valued at over $1,000. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to investigators, Dupuis grabbed the repurposed old microwave box with presents inside from the baggage claim area after he claimed his two checked bags. Dupuis waited in the baggage claim area for about 27 minutes, and the airline worker did a last call for bags on the carousel. According to court documents, he then took a picture of the box and claimed it as his own. Dupuis left the airport inside his Ford F150 unmarked work truck, investigators said. Officers arrived at his home and found the box full of gifts sitting in the bed of the truck with its contents scattered around, officers wrote in the statement of probable cause. He told officers that he took a picture of the box at the airport as he believed it belonged to his friend Jeff. However, when he opened the box, he realized the items were not his friends and told police that he planned to return the box in the morning but had not done so yet, court documents stated. Officers wrote in the statement of probable cause that Dupuis provided no proof to support his claims and that he admitted to taking the luggage without confirming with his friend that it was theirs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dupuis was released from the detention center on personal recognizance and has a court status hearing set for Jan 29. The City of Santa Fe released the following statement about Dupuis: The City of Santa Fe placed Director of Public Utilities, John Dupuis, on administrative leave without pay as of Monday. The City will cooperate with any criminal investigation and will also conduct its own administrative investigation. Water Division Director Jesse Roach will assume the Director of Public Utilities role in the interim, City of Santa Fe Communications Director Regina Ruiz wrote in an email to KRQE News 13. Dupuis was selected by former City Manager John Blair for the role of Public Utilities Department Director and started in the position in March 2023. Before that, he served as the Utilities director for Santa Fe County for over five years. He also previously served as the Upper Chama Water Master for NM Office of the State Engineer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) If youve been avoiding rocky roads in your neighborhood, your ride should become smoother this year. The Savannah City Council passed a $4.4 million road improvement plan that will reduce bumpy rides. Savannah streets are getting a much-needed makeover. The city will be rolling out a resurfacing project this year, impacting many roads in all six districts. This project will target several roads across the city, and repair streets that were left off the 2024 repair list. The funding will come from a mix of local grants and SPLOST funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From high-traffic corridors like Bull Street to suburban neighborhoods like Windsor Road, the project will improve driving conditions and boost safety. Residents should be prepared for temporary lane closures and detours during construction. WSAV spoke with residents about how they feel about the road resurfacing project. Im super excited so that when I drive or walk on this road every single day I wont have to trip down or feel like I am walking on something that is unsafe. Its going to look so much better; its going to be better for my car tires. I am so excited, said Jeongin Lee, a Savannah resident. The city is already putting together a list of streets that need the most attention. There are about 90 areas that will be focused on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Crews could start work as soon as a few weeks. This includes Liberty Street, Gwinnett Street and White Bluff Avenue. A full list of streets and updates on closures by the City of Savannah is provided below. District 1: 41st Street. from Harden St to Burroughs St. Berrien Street from Purse Street to Selma Street. Church Street from Millen Lane to Eagle Street. Cynthia Street from Eleanor St to Cloverdale Dr. Golden Street from Millen Lane to Eagle Street. Graham Avenue from Augusta Ave to W Bay Street. Gwinnett St from Railroad Crossing to West Interchange Dr. Hastings St from Gwinnett St to Cornwall St. Millen Street from Augusta Ave to Hudson Street. Patch Street from Lily Street to Tulip St East. Stella Avenue from Gwinnett Ave to Stokes Street. Selma Street from Berrien Street to W Jones Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement District 2: 1st Street from Bull Street to Whitaker St. 42nd Street from Whitaker St to Barnard St. Bull St (Wright Sq) from Oglethorpe Ave to State Street. Duffy Street from Ott Street to Waters Ave. Jones Street from East Broad St to Price Street. Liberty Street from East Broad St to Randolph Street. Maupus Ave from Bull Street to Drayton Street. Oglethorpe Ave from Abercorn St to East Broad Street. Paulsen Ave from Park Avenue to Gwinnett Street. Price Street from Oglethorpe Ave to Hull Street. Price Street from Victory Drive to 39th Street. Randolph Street from President Street to Liberty Street. Seiler Ave from Waters Ave to Live Oak Street. Waters Avenue from 37th Street to Victory Drive District 3: 39th Street from Ash Street to Bee Road. 63rd Street from Springhill Rd to Armstrong Dr. Beech Street from Laura Ave to Nevada Street. Berkshire Court from Berkshire Rd to End. Chisholm Street from Colorado Ave to Shell Road. Clars Ave from Skidaway Road to East End. Duffy Street from Winter Drive to Skidaway Rd. Greenwood St from Nevada St to East End. Jurgensen St from Martha Street to East End. Kerry Street from Bee Road to Dixie Ave. Oakland Drive from 52nd Street to Oakland Ct. Raskin Avenue from Bonaventure Road to 40th Street. Seiler Ave from Waters Ave to Live Oak Street. Texas Avenue from Pennsylvania to Ohio Street. Virginia Ave from Kentucky Ave to Kinzie Ave. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement District 4: 40th Street from Ash Street to Bee Road. 55th Street from Habersham St to Battey Street. 55th Street from Reynolds St to Atlantic Ave. 55th Street from Waters Ave to Paulsen Street. 73rd Street from Abercorn St to White Bluff Ave. Aegean Ave from Montgomery Cross Road to Cranman Drive. Bacon Park Dr from Waters Ave to East End. Battey Street from 55th Street to 56th Street. Cranman Drive from Aegean Ave to Waters Ave. Eisenhower Dr from Shorty Cooper Road to Truman Parkway. Mall Blvd from Abercorn St to Hodgson Memorial. Mall Terrace from Waters Ave to West End. Mclaws Street from Halsey St to Andover Drive. Meadowbrook Road from Queensbury St to Dale Drive. Montgomery Cross Road from Waters Ave to Hayners Creek. District 5: 41st Street from Bull Street to Whitaker Street. 44th Street from Florance Street to Stevens Street. 47th Street from Burroughs Street to Florance Street. 47th Street from Stevens Street to Hopkins Street. 48th Street from Burroughs Street to Florance Street. Berwick Court from Berwick Drive to West End. Caithness Street from Amaranth Ave to 48th Street. Campbell Street from Mitchell Street to Archer Street. Crane Street from 54th Street to 55th Street. Florance Street from Victory Drive to 46th Street. Indigo Circle from Sugarbush Rd to East End. Montgomery Cross Road from Abercorn St to West Station Trail Morekis Drive from Berwick Drive to North Leedsgate Rd. Sugarbush Cr from Sugarbush Rd to East End. Sugarbush Ct from Sugarbush Rd to End. Wild Turkey Ct from Wild Turkey Road to End. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement District 6: Briarcliff Cir from Deerfield Rd to Stillwood Dr. Crown Grant Lane from Stillwood Dr to Cedar Grove Plantation. Cedar Grove Plantation Dr from Crown Grant Lane to North/South End. Royal Inn Ct from Stillwood Dr to Circle End. Indigo Circle from Sugarbush Rd to End Circle. Largo Drive from Hoover Creek to Windsor Road. Northwood Rd from Winwood Pl to Winwood Pl. Rockingham Ct from Rockingham Road to End Circle. Rose Dhu Road from Wau Bun Drive to Rose Dhu Road 90 Curve. Stillwood Dr from Briarcliff Cir to Windsor Road. King Palm Dr from Windsor Road to Willow Road. White Bluff Ave from Coffee Bluff Road to Fell Drive. Whitebluff Rd from Davidson Ave to Austin Drive. Windmill Lane from Holland Park Circle to Holland Park Circle. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV. An MRI image of brain showing area of Alzheimer patient. (Photo by GSO Images via Getty Images) CHARLESTON Working for the Alzheimers Association, Beth Sulkowski has heard the same story many times over the years: People who receive a dementia diagnosis are sent on their way with a prescription and a follow-up appointment in six months. When it comes to something so progressive and so far-reaching in terms of how it impacts day-to-day life, that kind of medical care is not enough to equip families for the journey that theyre going to go on, said Sulkowski, spokesperson for the associations South Carolina chapter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In July, Charlestons Medical University of South Carolina and CareConnectMD, an organization of health care providers focused on elderly and medically complicated patients, will offer an antidote to that problem using a national Medicare program meant to give patients more extensive care by paying for services their insurance previously hadnt covered. In 2021, the most recent data available, nearly 123,000 people in the state had been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease or another form of dementia, according to a report released in September by the Department on Aging. As current residents age and retirees continue flocking to the state, that number is only expected to increase, according to the report. Patients will be able to receive services at MUSCs flagship Charleston hospital, as well as one to-be-determined regional hospital. The program will start by hiring two designated providers, with the goal of helping 500 patients in the first year, chosen based on referrals from primary care doctors who believe their patients would benefit from the program. The care model, called Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience, or GUIDE, changes the way doctors are paid for appointments. Instead of reimbursing the hospital for patient visits, Medicare will pay a lump sum using federal money so that doctors can spend as much time as needed with a patient without worrying about cost, said Nicholas Milano, a neurologist and director of MUSCs SC Alzheimers Network program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Patients pay nothing for the federally funded program. MUSC applied to host it and was one of nearly 400 hospitals and health care groups chosen to implement it nationwide. You have dementia care navigators that arent passively waiting for the patient to call, Milano said. Theyre actually calling the patient and checking in on them on approximately a monthly basis, making sure everything is going smoothly. Caregivers will also receive more support under the program. The GUIDE Model will give hospitals funding to hire patient care navigators, who will walk patients and their families through various questions outside of the diagnosis itself. That includes explaining safety concerns that come with dementia, connecting caregivers with other resources in the community and helping with the emotional burden of caring for someone, Milano said. Thats important for caregivers who are grappling with a major life change, Sulkowski said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nearly a third of the 219,000 people caring for a person with Alzheimers in the state reported experiencing depression this year, according to the Alzheimers Association. I think its going to make it much less stressful to navigate the health care maze, Sulkowski said. Too often, people with Alzheimers and their caregivers pretty much have to fend for themselves in a really complex system where their needs are constantly changing and you dont know what you need until you need it. Under the model, what was once a one-hour evaluation to diagnose a patient and write a prescription will last closer to three hours, Milano said. During that time, a doctor can walk through the medical process and a care navigator can go through the more social and emotional aspects of care, Milano said. Many newly discovered treatments for Alzheimers and other forms of dementia require a doctor to catch the disease early and begin treating it as soon as possible. By making specialists more accessible and having someone to guide families through treatment, this program could help more people get care sooner, Sulkowski said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The more you know and the more that you dont have to go and figure out for yourself, the more families are able to focus on care solutions and quality of life in that really valuable time that they have with their loved ones, Sulkowski said. The program is similar to the South Carolina Alzheimers Network, which MUSC began in August to help people with a range of cognitive impairments. While the GUIDE Model will focus on people diagnosed with dementia, a general term rather than a specific brain disease, the Alzheimers Network is also available for older adults experiencing more mild memory loss and cognitive concerns, Milano said. If a patient receiving care through the Alzheimers Network needs more advanced care, or if their cognitive issues advance to dementia, the doctors can then refer them to the GUIDE Model, he added. This is now raising the bar for dementia care to best practices, Milano said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the pilot program goes well, MUSC hopes to continue expanding both programs, Milano said. Hiring more care navigators could continue to increase the hospital systems capacity, and virtual options offered through the Alzheimers Network could reach people who dont have a hospital nearby. For the time being, MUSC is making plans for the programs launch July 1. Saskia Esken, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, has supported the continuation of telephone talks between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Source: a statement by Esken, quoted by n-tv Details: Esken said that the talks between Scholz and Putin "must be held again and again to find out what can be done to finally put an end to the killings and deaths". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, for the time being, Esken does not believe that a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Scholz is appropriate. "As long as the relations remain as it is, it is enough to talk on the phone," Esken said. Background: On 15 November, it was revealed that Olaf Scholz had spoken with the Kremlin leader for the first time in two years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Scholzs call with Putin as a "Pandoras box". Jurgen Hardt, a member of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) opposition bloc in Germany, believes that Putin will see Scholz's move as "a sign of weakness, not strength". However, Matthias Miersch, Secretary General of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), defended the chancellor's decision. Support UP or become our patron! Rolf Mutzenich, Head of the parliamentary faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDPG), has said that American billionaire Elon Musk had crossed the "boundaries of what is acceptable" in US-German relations with his scandalous statements. Source: Mutzenich in a comment to Spiegel, as reported by European Pravda Details: This is how the SDPG representative reacted to Musk's insulting attacks on German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "Verbal attacks on the federal president are thus directed at all citizens," Mutzenich said. He urged the German government to find out "whether the repeated disrespect, slander and interference in the election campaign were also expressed on behalf of the new US government", as President-elect Donald Trump intends to appoint Musk as head of the US Government Performance and Results. According to Mutzenich, "international challenges can only be solved in free relations between us [Germans ed.] and the United States". Background: The day before, Musk was reported to have written on Twitter: "Steinmeier is an anti-democratic tyrant". This article came in response to Steinmeier's criticism from influencer Naomi Seibt, who is affiliated with the far-right Alternative for Germany. Musk has already publicly advocated for voting for the German far-right and written a column in support of them in the Welt am Sonntag publication. Eva Marie Kogel, the newspaper's editor, resigned in protest. Meanwhile, Alice Weidel, spokesman for Alternative for Germany's leader, stated that solid plans for an online meeting between her and Elon Musk are in the works. On Tuesday, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck criticised Musk and his attempts to influence the German elections. Support UP or become our patron! Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer is endorsing Ben Wikler to lead the Democratic National Committee, a boost for the Wisconsin state party leader in a race that has drawn little attention and few big names. Schumers endorsement shared first with POLITICO comes as Democrats prepare for a month-long campaign to run the DNC, with four candidate forums in January. Following the partys bruising losses in November, members of the committee will elect their new chair on Feb. 1. Schumer, the most prominent Democrat so far to weigh in publicly on the race, called Wikler a tenacious organizer, a proven fundraiser and a sharp communicator in a statement. He emphasized Wiklers work in 2024, when Democrats in Wisconsin held on to their Senate seat and flipped 14 state legislative seats, even though Kamala Harris did not win the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ben has what Democrats need right now proven results and thats why Im backing Ben, Schumer said. Wikler, with progressive credentials dating back to his time as a MoveOn senior adviser, has nevertheless drawn praise from across the political spectrum, from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the progressive caucus chair, to Jonthan Cowan, co-founder of the centrist group Third Way. But this years contest hasnt broken along traditional moderate-verus-progressive lines, with candidates instead largely emphasizing a nuts-and-bolts approach to party rebuilding. And Wikler is running up against a fellow Midwestern state party chair, Ken Martin of Minnesota, who entered the race as the early frontrunner, with endorsements from 100 out of 448 DNC members. Other candidates vying for the post include former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson. Nate Snyder, a former Department of Homeland Security official, and New York state Sen. James Skoufis are also running. Schumer, the Senate majority leader until Friday, when the Republican majority takes over, has endorsed progressive candidates for DNC chair before. He joined Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in backing Keith Ellison in 2017. But Ellison, who now serves as Minnesotas attorney general, lost his bid for DNC chair to Tom Perez, who earned endorsements from then-former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ellison, for his part, is backing Martin, Wiklers chief rival in the election. Schumer, Wikler said in a statement, knows the enormous stakes of this moment. As DNC Chair, I will work closely with leaders across our big-tent party to unite us around our core values and to fight across every state, Wikler said. We will show voters that we are the party of working families everywhere by choosing fights that show who we are for and who Trump and the GOP are for. SDSU student among those injured in deadly New Orleans attack SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) A San Diego State University student is believed to be among those who were injured in a suspected terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in Louisiana Wednesday. The attack took place around 3:15 a.m. when a man, now identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove a pickup truck into a crowd, leaving 15 people dead and dozens of others injured. The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. The family of 19-year-old Steele Idelson, who is currently enrolled at SDSU, shared a statement with Canterbury School, the private school she attended in Fort Meyers, Florida. School officials provided the familys statement noting that a second former student, Elle Eisele, was also injured during the attack. Their comments can be found below: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Eisele and Idelson families are deeply grateful for the outpouring of thoughts, prayers, and offers of support for our daughters following the tragic attack in New Orleans. We are especially thankful for the exceptional care and compassion they are receiving at University Medical Center. We also extend our heartfelt gratitude to the first responders, whose swift actions may have saved our daughters lives. To everyone who has reached out with love and support, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. A media relations officer at the school provided FOX 5/KUSI with comment Thursday morning, confirming that she is currently enrolled at the university. Due to student privacy laws, additional information was not immediately shared. The nature and severity of Idelsons injuries are unknown at this time. Classes are out for winter break at SDSU, but students expressed their grief over Idelsons condition with FOX 5/KUSI Thursday. I hope shes doing all right and I hope she pulls through, said fellow student Ethan Aguila. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its really sad because we are all just so young, said Mackenna Gephardt, who said she felt deeply for her and her family, although she did not know Idelson personally. All my wishes and prayers go out to them. The attack has intensified safety concerns among SDSU students. Its kind of crazy to think about the risks everywhere and what could happen just living your day-to-day life, Gephardt said. When I go out, sometimes I think, Shoot, maybe something might happen, added student Jules Parades. Aguila echoed those fears. It definitely makes me feel like I need to be more aware and cautious. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI, along with Louisiana officials, provided and update on the incident Thursday morning, stating the attacked was premeditated. They say Jabbar had posted several videos professing his support for ISIS to an online platform prior to the attack. The suspect was ultimately killed during a shootout with police. A number of agencies in San Diego County have issued a response to the attack in New Orleans. The San Diego Police Department said, in part, At this time, there are no known threats to our city. We stand ready to respond or assist in any way should information become available. Public safety is a shared responsibility that requires everyones participation. We encourage you to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities or information that comes to your attention. Meanwhile, the chief of Chula Vista Police Department, Roxana Kennedy, said, I want to reaffirm that the partnerships, training and cooperation among our local law enforcement agencies are stronger than ever. These relationships are the cornerstone of our shared mission to prioritize the safety and well-being of all residents and visitors. As we welcome the new year, we are committed to continue working with our communities to ensure that the San Diego region remains a safe and thriving place to live, work and visit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez stated, in part, The recent tragic events in New Orleans and Las Vegas weigh heavily on our hearts. We extend our deepest sympathies to the families, loved ones and communities affected by these horrific incidents. We are grateful for the courage and heroism of the dedicated law enforcement officers and emergency personnel who responded swiftly and courageously. These acts of terror remind us of the vital role community partnerships play in keeping us all safe. FBI San Diego added, All of us at the FBI are committed to protecting the communities we collectively live and serve. While we do not have any information indicating a local threat to the San Diego region, FBI San Diego continues to work closely with our law enforcement partners, sharing information to identify and disrupt any threats to our community. As the United States Attorney, I work with law enforcement across the nation, said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath. And every time I come home, I am struck by the extraordinary public safety partnerships in our district. But safety is not a solo actit is a team effort. We count on our communities and neighbors to stay vigilant. If something does not seem right, please speak up. Together, we can keep San Diego secure and strong. San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan echoed these sentiments. She stated, We also rely on the community to be the eyes and ears to any potential threat. Several destructive threats have been neutralized due to the prompt reporting by a student, parent or community member of suspicious activity including words that threaten harm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center also said it will continue to mitigate threats and mass casualty events through its partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement/public safety agencies. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. A search and rescue operation has been completed at a residential building in Kyiv's Pecherskyi district, which was damaged by wreckage from a Russian drone on 1 January. Emergency recovery efforts are now underway. Source: Interfax Ukraine, citing Pavlo Petrov, a spokesman for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kyiv Quote: "We can now confirm that the search and rescue operation has been completed, and emergency recovery work is ongoing. Rescue workers are currently clearing debris from the roof and the fifth floor, where the damage was most severe. We hope to finish the recovery efforts today." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Petrov reported that 50 rescue workers and 11 units of equipment from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kyiv, along with nearly 30 rescue workers and 9 units of equipment from the Interregional Rapid Response Center, are currently working at the site. He also noted that utility services are at work in nearby buildings, including the administrative building where a fire broke out, and residential buildings. They are removing glass and wreckage, and clearing the roads. Quote: "They're doing everything they can to ensure people can return home as quickly as possible," the spokesperson said. Petrov said that rescue workers faced challenges during the operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "The scale of destruction was unusually large in some areas. We had a collapsed stairwell between the third and fifth floors, but we've already resolved that issue. Now, rescue workers are clearing the roof. Our biggest hindrance is the very heavy structural elements there. They have to be disassembled directly on the roof, and some of them we can't just take apart and get down. We are bringing in large-scale high-altitude equipment to lower these elements," he said. Petrov also said that a headquarters has been established to coordinate assistance for the people who have lost their homes. Quote: "Currently, no one is living in this building. The residents have been relocated," he added. Background: Wreckage from a Russian drone fell on a residential building in Kyivs Pecherskyi district on the morning of 1 January, partially destroying the top two floors and causing a fire. Two people were killed as a result of the attack. Ihor Zyma and Olesia Sokur, a husband and wife who were both scientists, were killed in the Russian drone attack on the city of Kyiv on the morning of 1 January. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated, "Even on New Years Eve, Russia was focused solely on inflicting pain on Ukraine." Support UP or become our patron! CHICAGO Authorities are seeking the publics help in identifying two people wanted in connection with a robbery and stabbing that unfolded on a CTA train in December. According to police, the incident unfolded just before 9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14, on a CTA Green Line train near the 4000 block of West Lake Street in Garfield Park. Authorities said a search for two people who are believed to have been involved is now underway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers said the victim was sitting on the train when one of the offenders approached and engaged in a verbal altercation. Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines The argument turned physical, and police said that was when the individual pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim while masked co-offenders took his wallet. Security guards arrived on the scene following the incident, but police said while they were there, the second individual who is being sought by officers allegedly stole the victims money by deceptive means. On Wednesday, officers provided photos of the two individuals, which were captured by CTA security cameras around the time of the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities described the first offender as a Black male who is believed to be 18 or 19 years old, stands between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-9 and weighs between 150 lbs and 165 lbs. Officers said he had long dreads and was spotted wearing a black t-shirt, light-colored jeans and white gym shoes. Officers described the second offender as a Black female, who is believed to be between 16 and 18 years of age and stands between 5-foot-5 and 5-foot-7. According to police, she had long curly hair and was spotted wearing a black jacket, black pants and black and white Nike gym shoes. LATEST CASES: Missing people in Chicagoland Police advise the public to remain aware of their surroundings and stay free from distractions. According to officers, anyone who is confronted by an assailant should do their best to remain calm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities warn the public never to pursue a fleeing assailant and instead work to remember any unique physical characteristics of the offenders, like scars, acne, teeth or tattoos. Police say those who fall victim or witness a crime should call 911 immediately and provide authorities with a detailed description of the offenders. Anyone with information on the robberies is asked to contact CPD Mass Transit Detectives at 312-745-4447 or dial 911. Those with information that could help detectives in their investigation can also leave a tip at CPDtip.com. Tips can be filed anonymously. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. UPDATE: Smith County officials said the missing mother and daughter were found unharmed on Friday at around 4 a.m. Cameron Freeman, 18 of Bullard. Photo courtesy of the Smith County Sheriffs Office. The sheriffs office said investigators worked on the case throughout the night speaking with a person of interest: Cameron Freeman, 18 of Bullard. Investigators felt he was being untruthful concerning the known whereabouts of the missing individuals, the sheriffs office said. After reaching out to Freeman repeatedly, they finally discovered where he was staying in Chandler and requested to meet him at that location. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Freeman then reportedly admitted that Grimes and her baby were at the residence. They have since been taken back home unharmed, according to the sheriffs office. At 8 a.m. investigators obtained arrest affidavits for Freeman, charging him with the following: Harboring a runaway (Bond of $75,000) False reports to a peace officer (Bond of $75,000) Freeman was also arrested for sexual assault of a child for an unrelated case with a $400,000 bond. SMITH COUNTY, Texas Smith County officials are searching for a mom and daughter that went missing Thursday morning. East Texas police officer arrested for possession of child pornography Officials said that deputies responded to a missing persons call at 56541 County Road 1185 near Tyler around 9 a.m. this morning. Lily Elizabeth Grimes and baby Elizabeth May Johnson. Photo courtesy of Smith County Sheriffs Office. Deputies discovered that Lily Elizabeth Grimes, 15, and her daughter, Elizabeth May Johnson, 6-months-old, were missing from the home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mother of Grimes reported waking up at 7 a.m. to find the back door open with both her daughter and granddaughter missing. She reported that a diaper bag and one bottle was taken but the car seat was still in the house. Wanted Oklahoma man arrested in East Texas Grimes is 59, 150 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing gray pajamas pants with candy cane imprints and a dark colored shirt. Johnson has brown hair, brown eyes, was last seen wearing a long black sleeved shirt with a red bow and black pants with polka dots. Smith County officials said Grimes has a phone but it only works with Wi-Fi and neither Grimes nor Johnson are on medication and have no medical issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials believe that someone picked them up from or near the residence. Deputies have searched the home and the surrounding area but did not find them. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) The Monroe County Sheriffs Office has announced a second arrest in the case of bullying in the Spencerport School District. Deputies said a 13-year-old male has been charged with first-degree harassment and stalking in the fourth degree. No further information is being released due to the suspects age. On Saturday, Greece police charged another juvenile with aggravated harassment in the second degree. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lia Sick is taking legal action with the support of her parents after her family said a group of boys surrounded her at school Nov. 22 and slammed her against her locker. Lia is a student at Cosgrove Middle School. Cosgrove Middle School. WROC file photo. Lia Sick school photo. Provided by the Sick Family. Criminal charge filed in Spencerport school bullying case Parents Shaun and Kim Sick took further legal action after they said the schools response to this incident wasnt enough and did not bring justice to what Lia experienced. We are very grateful to the police. We did have to reach out to them ourselves and get the ball rolling on everything, but we are very, very happy with their response so far and their hard work, and were happy that something has come of their investigation, said Kim. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the initial incident, the family said they all began to receive threats from other students at the school through Facetime calls and on social media. The family said Tuesday evening, Christmas Eve, one of the students accused of making these calls was arrested. The Greece Police Department announced Saturday morning that theyve been charged with aggravated harassment, but did not elaborate on how they were involved. He was part of the phone harassment so Lia is happy about that because that was scary. He threatened our house; he threatened a lot of things, said Kim. Although Shaun and Kim said the juvenile arrested is not one of the boys who allegedly pushed Lia into her locker in November, they called it a step in the right direction. They told News 8 Saturday following the announcement that with everything theyve gone through, they hope it sends a bigger message to kids and families who may be facing a similar situation. Parents and kids that are targeted with this bullying weve had enough, and things need to change, rules need to be changed, punishments need to be changed, Shaun said. But the biggest thing is to speak up, because these kids have no power, the bullies have no power when actions are taken. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kim also emphasized the larger role police played in all of this expressing disapproval for how school leadership has handled the situation. We fear that, if we had not done everything we had done, that three-day suspension would have been all they got and they would have continued on about their days, going to school, playing sports, taunting Lia in the hallway its just not right, Kim Said. Following Saturdays announcement, Spencerport Central School District released a statement saying the arrest speaks to the severity of this bullying incident. The superintendent wrote to Cosgrove families: Dear Cosgrove Families, Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The recent announcement by the Greece Police Department speaks to the severity of this bullying incident and we are appreciative to law enforcement for the response and attention given to this matter. A charge of aggravated harassment in the second degree addresses the most severe behavior, which occurred outside of school. This latter point is important to make, given the complexities of bullying and how it often interconnects between home and school. For the school incident, we have pursued every action within our authority, consulting with law enforcement and conducting a DASA investigation led by a third-party law firm that specializes in school law. This investigation has been submitted to the impacted families and New York State Education Department, and consequences have been administered. Concerning behaviors must be addressed, whether at home or school, and the only way to see change is by collectively working together. Please consider this situation as an opportunity to talk with your children about appropriate behaviors, misuse of social messaging apps, and reporting any bullying or safety issues to a trusted adult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thank you, Ty Zinkiewich, Superintendent of Schools. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. Donald Trump's hand-picked border czar Tom Homan said that a crackdown at the border could have stopped a pair of New Year's Day attacks that appeared to be carried out by U.S. citizens. This countrys in grave danger. We need to secure that border, Homan told Fox News host Sandra Smith on Thursday afternoon. Border patrol continues to release people into this country without proper vetting. "We need to secure that border" -- incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan on a terrorist attack that had nothing to do with the border pic.twitter.com/SBoUfSuvaM Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2025 Homan was discussing a vehicular attack on New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street that killed 15 people and an explosion that rocked a hotel in Las Vegas. Both the man behind the wheel of a Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas outside of Trump Tower, identified as Matthew Livelsberger, and New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar were American-born military veterans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Homan went on to accuse the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden of releasing thousands of immigrants each week despite whats happened in the last two days in Las Vegas, New Orleans. Homans future boss also blamed a supposed laxity at the border for the attack in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday. "When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true," Trump wrote. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. Jabbar was reportedly inspired by the Islamic State group, with officials telling CNN that he shared videos to that effect. Homan added that he expects law enforcement to find a connection between the two incidents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked why he believed the incidents were related, Homan cited a gut feeling. A day earlier, Homan told Fox News the two men were emboldened by the Biden administrations weak stance on border security. You cant have national security if you dont have border security, he said in a Wednesday appearance on Hannity. I dont understand why they dont get that. Welcome to the first regular press conference of the Foreign Ministry in the new year. It is my great pleasure to unveil the logo of Chinas SCO presidency. First, let me invite you to watch a short video clip. (Video clip was shown.) The logo combines the SCO logo with unique Chinese features. It contains Chinas SCO presidency slogan Upholding the Shanghai Spirit: SCO on the Move in Chinese, Russian and English, circled by interlocking traditional Chinese decorative patterns resembling cloud, thunder and dragon found on bronze ware of Chinas pre-Qin period (before 221 BC) to symbolize never-ending hope. The earthy and golden colors of the outer circles indicate that the SCO is solidly rooted and enjoys a golden future, a combination of determination and dynamism. CGTN: You mentioned just now that the slogan of Chinas SCO presidency Upholding the Shanghai Spirit: SCO on the Move is integrated into the logo. Can you brief us on Chinas considerations behind the slogan? Mao Ning: China is the initiator of the Shanghai Spirit and a doer in translating the Shanghai Spirit into action. By making action a key word in the work of Chinas presidency, we are committed to taking more practical steps and being more proactive in further enhancing SCO cooperation in the political, security, economic and people-to-people and cultural domains, improving SCO mechanism, building a SCO community with a shared future and opening up new space for win-win development. As we enter the year of 2025, China is advancing its work of SCO presidency at a faster pace. China will host a SCO summit featuring friendship, solidarity and fruitful outcomes, as well as more than 40 institutionalized meetings. Besides, China will hold major events, including the SCO Political Parties Forum, Forum on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development, Forum on People-to-People Friendship and the Forum on Friendship Cities, and SCO International Investment and Trade Expo, as well as flagship events including the SCO Film Festival, Television Festival, Art Festival, Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, Chinese Calligraphy Competition, Sculpture Tournament and SCO Summer Event. You are welcome to stay tuned and cover the events. Hubei Media Group: Recently, after the earthquake in Vanuatu, China dispatched disaster relief supplies and expressed willingness to offer further relevant support in light of the need of Vanuatu. Could you share more details? Mao Ning: After the earthquake, China immediately extended emergency humanitarian assistance to Vanuatu. To better support Vanuatus disaster relief work, a chartered plane sent by the Chinese government carrying emergency disaster relief supplies arrived in Vanuatus capital city Port Vila today. This shipment, weighing approximately 35 tonnes and 235 cubic meters in volume, includes tents, folding beds, water purification equipment, solar lights, emergency food provisions, medical supplies and so on. Chinese post-disaster assessment engineers have been carrying out intensive work in Vanuatu, providing support to the local government and people of Vanuatu in their efforts to respond to the disaster. China and Vanuatu are good friends, good partners and good brothers that support each other in overcoming difficulties. China will continue to do what we can to help with the relief and reconstruction effort in light of the damage and the need of Vanuatu. We believe the people of Vanuatu will overcome the difficulties and rebuild their homes soon. Kyodo News: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at the end of last year that it is extremely important for the Japanese Prime Minister to visit China. What is Chinas comment? Mao Ning: During their meeting in Lima, Peru, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba agreed to maintain high-level exchanges between the two countries. Recently, the two countries have had continued high-level interactions in various forms and bilateral relations have kept the momentum of improvement and development. China stands ready to work with Japan to continue the dialogue and communication at various levels and in various fields to enhance political mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, properly manage and control differences, and make joint effort to comprehensively advance the strategic relationship of mutual benefit and build a constructive and stable China-Japan relationship fit for the new era. China Review News: In 2024, confronted by a complex and volatile international environment, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) focused on development and demonstrated its unique advantage and great strength. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that Hong Kong has emerged from the COVID pandemic and regained economic vitality. Hong Kongs business environment has continued to improve and the driving force for economic growth is getting stronger. Do you have any comment on this? Mao Ning: In the year of 2024, with the support of the central government, the HKSAR government forged ahead with a keen sense of responsibility and a pragmatic attitude, stayed focused on economic development, strengthened exchanges and cooperation with the outside world, and continued to consolidate the sound momentum of stability and development. Hong Kong was ranked as the worlds freest economy and rose to the third place globally in Global Financial Centres Index, and the total assets under management in Hong Kong topped US$4 trillion. Hong Kong welcomed 44 million tourist arrivals in 2024, up by 30 percent year on year. The city also attracted around 170,000 talents through its talent admission schemes. By the end of last year, the total number of companies from Chinas mainland and overseas based in Hong Kong was nearly 10,000 and the number of startups was close to 4,700, both hitting new highs. We have full confidence in a better future for Hong Kong. We welcome businesses from across the world to operate in Hong Kong and share the dividends of Hong Kongs development and One Country, Two Systems. AFP: In the US, a man drove a car into a crowd of people in New Orleans yesterday. The attack has killed at least 15 people. First, whats your reaction? Second, are any Chinese nationals among the victims? Mao Ning: We are shocked at the violent attack. We express condolences over the lives lost and sympathies to the families of the victims and the injured. China opposes all violent terrorist acts targeting civilians. Based on the information gathered by the Chinese Embassy in the US, no Chinese deaths or injuries have so far been reported. Defined by political crises all over the world, spiralling tensions between the imperialist powers, and revolutions in Bangladesh and Kenya, 2024 was an historic year in the crisis of the capitalist system. But now, with Trump days away from power, Ukraine headed unavoidably towards a humiliating and bloody defeat, and with no end in sight to the complete destabilisation of the Middle East, this new year looks to be even more explosive. At the end of last year, the Assad regime in Syria collapsed. Since then, imperialist powers including Turkey, the USA, and Israel, which has taken the opportunity to occupy even more of Syria have tried to get in on the action. At the same time, the Kurdish enclave of Rojava has come under attack from Turkish backed forces, and Kurdish fighters are now being pressured by the ruling rebel group, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, to disarm. Meanwhile, Germany is in a profound political crisis, as the governing coalition has collapsed, the establishment parties have been discredited, the economy is coming to a screeching halt, and the far-right AFD is on the rise. The same process can be seen all across the world, including in France, Britain, and the USA. In order to explain these developments from a Marxist perspective and to lay out what 2025 has in store for us, Hamid Alizadeh and Fred Weston from the International Secretariat sat down for another episode of Against the Stream. This podcast was streamed live on YouTube. Tune in every Thursday at 3pm GMT, or catch up on Spotify or Apple Music. Articles discussed in this episode: German elections: no matter who wins, war, crisis and austerity remain! In Defence of Marxism The Progressive Moment in Global Politics Is Over The Wall Street Journal TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) In just three weeks, Gasparilla will draw thousands of people onto Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa. Security will be a concern for many following Wednesdays troublesome events in New Orleans. It may be a New Year, but criminologist Alex Del Carmen said threats to our cities and neighborhoods arent going anywhere. We are in the business of trying to predict the very thing that most people could not imagine, Del Carmen said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The chaos in New Orleans was just that. It was the most bizarre thing, you know, like the least expected thing, said a witness at the French Quarter. 15 people are dead and many more were injured after authorities say Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street. The guy in the pickup truck just punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit a pedicab passenger, the witness said. Think about any weekend on 7th Street in Ybor. Or on Bayshore Boulevard during Gasparilla. Barricades and police are there, but will it be enough? Del Carmen said we need to think about if our own sidewalks can be weaponized. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reports out of New Orleans said the barriers malfunctioned, and Jabbar breached the sidewalks to get through. Del Carmen said having that video before hand could have made a difference, and sends advice to agencies everywhere. I would say to improve on the communication, to continue to be vigilant, and to get the public involved. The public plays a crucial role in these attacks whether to prevent them. Or to respond to them quite quickly, Del Carmen said. At the time of this articles publishing, the City of Tampas website does not have updated safety tips for Gasparilla. It is expected to be updated in the coming weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's backing is a boost for Ben Wikler, who has yet to reveal his level of support among the Democratic National Committee members who will actually elect the next chair. ALLISON ROBBERT/Getty Images Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) endorsed Ben Wiklers bid to lead the Democratic National Committee on Thursday morning. In a series of social media posts announcing the endorsement, Schumer cited Wiklers achievements as chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin since 2019. Wikler possesses all the qualities Democrats across the country are looking for in our next DNC Chair, Schumer wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Hes a tenacious organizer, a proven fundraiser, a sharp communicator, & able to reach out to all segments of the Democratic Party. Most importantly, he knows how to win. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a separate post on X, Schumer promoted Wiklers ActBlue fundraising page. Since Wikler took over the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Democrats reelected Gov. Tony Evers; organized a liberal takeover of the state Supreme Court that led to the overturning of gerrymandered legislative maps; and delivered Vice President Kamala Harris her best albeit still losing performance in any of the seven battleground states. Current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison is not seeking another term. The DNCs 447 voting members are set to elect a new chair at a Feb. 1 meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. Wikler is competing against Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party; former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley; and New York state Sen. James Skoufis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Martin, who has chaired his light-blue states Democratic Party since 2011, has said he has pledges of support from 100 DNC members. He touts Minnesota Democrats undefeated record in statewide races during his seven-term tenure. Wikler, a rival for the front-runner spot, has not revealed his level of support within the DNC membership. But Schumers support, along with that of outside groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Third Way, is likely to give Wikler a boost as he seeks to persuade DNC insiders of his viability. Republican and Democratic Party chairmanship elections following a presidential-election defeat have often become the sites of ideological or strategic proxy battles about the future direction of the party. Thus far, though, the DNC chairs race has not been dominated by sweeping debates about policy or ideology, instead centering on which candidates personal qualifications best equip them to lead the party out of the wilderness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All four candidates agree that Democrats have lost voters confidence in the partys ability to improve their financial lot, which has led to the hemorrhaging of working-class support, and that the party must find better ways to communicate in an evolving media environment. Skoufis and OMalley have adopted a more anti-establishment tone, arguing that someone outside the DNC firmament is needed to reform party operations and branding. Related... Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, left, shares a laugh with Sen. David Tikoian during his return to the Senate floor June 6, 2024. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current) State Sen. David P. Tikoian, a Smithfield Democrat and a former Rhode Island State Police major, is slated to become the third highest-ranking state senator when lawmakers return to the State House on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio announced Thursday his decision to appoint Tikoian as Senate majority whip. The whip acts as an enforcer for party policy, seeking compliance from members to vote in line with leadership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senator Tikoian has earned the respect of every member of this chamber, Ruggerio said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. David is a dedicated public servant of the highest integrity and a true statesman. He comports himself in a professional, forthright, genuine and courteous manner in all his interactions. I am pleased to welcome him into this important role in our leadership team. Tikoian would succeed Sen. Valarie Lawson, the East Providence Democrat who will serve as majority leader this session. Lawson was voted into the role in November, the same night Ruggerio squashed a challenge from former majority leader Sen. Ryan Pearson for the presidency. I am grateful for this opportunity, and I look forward to working alongside President Ruggerio, Majority Leader Lawson, and all of my Senate colleagues to make our state an even greater place to live, work, raise a family, operate a business, and enjoy the environment, Tikoian said in a statement. The members of our Caucus bring varied ideas and insights to address the challenges facing our state. My goal as part of this leadership team is to help my colleagues achieve their priorities to improve our state, on behalf of the constituents we serve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tikoian served for 23 years in the Rhode Island State Police and retired as a major and chief administrative Officer in 2015. From 2017 to 2020, Tikoian was chief of the North Providence Police Department and now works as deputy general manager of the Providence Water Supply Board. A member of the Smithfield Town Council starting in 2020, Tikoian relinquished that role when he was elected to the Senate in November 2022, taking office the following January. He ran unopposed in the 2024 election and secured a second term for the District 22 seat, which covers Smithfield, North Providence and Lincoln. The Senate is scheduled to convene at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, in the Senate Chamber of the State House. Per the Rhode Island Constitution, the most senior senator from Newport in this case, Sen. Dawn Euer will briefly preside at the start of the first day of session, during the Pledge of Allegiance, the posting of flags and the election of the president. After that, Ruggerio will return to his post, and Secretary of State Gregg Amore will swear in the new Senate, including six new members elected in November. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A flag waves on Maryland Avenue in Annapolis, near the State House. Photo by Danielle E. Gaines. A memorial service is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 2, for former state Sen. Richard Colburn, who died last Friday, Dec. 27, at University of Maryland Shore Regional Health in Easton. He was 74. Visitation will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday at Open Bible Church in Cambridge, followed by a memorial service at the church, according to information provided by Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home. Burial will be private. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Colburn, an Eastern Shore native, represented Talbot, Dorchester, Caroline and Wicomico counties as a Republican in the General Assembly for the better part of 30 years. Former state Sen. Richard Colburn (R-Middle Shore.) Photo courtesy Maryland State Archives. He served in the House of Delegates from 1983 to 1991, when he lost a GOP primary for Congress to eventual 1st District Republican Rep. Wayne Gilchrest. He would subsequently lose a 2004 intraparty primary challenge to then-Rep. Gilchrest. Colburn was elected to the Maryland Senate in 1994 and served from 1995 to 2015, when he was ousted in the Republican primary by former Sen. Adelaide Eckardt, who was herself unseated in an intraparty challenge in 2022 by Sen. Johnny Mautz (R-Middle Shore). After losing his Senate seat, Colburn was appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R) to serve as an administrative aide to Maryland Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder, a position he held for eight years. Colburns other public service included 24 years as town manager for Federalsburg. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Colburn, a low-profile lawmaker, was a reliable conservative vote who was considered a voice for farmers, watermen and rural interests in the General Assembly. Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st) remembered Colburn in a social media post as a both a friend and a colleague with a passion in fighting for our watermen, farmers, Veterans and first responders. The Maryland Republican Party in a statement called him an accomplished legislator who fought hard for agriculture, conservative values, bi-partisan governance, and Eastern Shore representation. Colburn was born Feb. 9, 1950, in Oxford to Peggy J. and Charles Franklin Colburn Jr. After graduating from Easton High School, he joined the Army, serving in Germany from 1969 to 1972 with the Army Security Agency, a former intelligence branch. He held a top security clearance for the job and was discharged with the rank of sergeant. He worked as a produce manager and checker at the former A&P grocery on his return to the Shore, before taking the job in Federalsburg and entering politics. He retired from the Department of Agriculture in 2022. Colburn is survived by his wife Alma Colburn; his daughter, Johanna Hamilton (Bobby); his granddaughter Saylor; his sister, Marie (John Hoffman); and countless cousins and friends. Seventeen people have been killed and others injured in new Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian media reported on Wednesday. These included 15 people, including children, who died in the shelling of a residential building in northern Jabaliya, according to the WAFA news agency. Two more people were killed when a building in Al-Bureij in the central part of the coastal region was shelled. The information could not initially be independently verified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An Israeli military spokesman said that the reports were being checked. The military as usual emphasized that it is fighting against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties. According to Palestinian reports, more than 45,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war started with the Hamas-led massacre of around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023. Meanwhile, Hamas again fired rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip on New Year's Eve, according to the Israeli military. Two projectiles were launched from the centre of the sealed-off coastal region at the southern Israeli town of Netivot. One was intercepted and the other hit an open area, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There were no reports of casualties in the attack, which Hamas said it staged. Shortly beforehand, warning sirens sounded again in Israel. According to the IDF, a workshop for the manufacture of rockets and weapons had also been discovered and destroyed in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. During the operations over the course of a month, troops also found medium and longer-range rockets there, it said. "As part of their operations, the troops also eliminated terrorists and dismantled Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the area," the military said. Israel conducts 1,400 airstrikes in December alone Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it conducted more than 1,400 airstrikes on targets in Gaza in December alone, marking an average of 45 per day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attacks were carried out by fighter jets, helicopters and drones, the IDF said, based on information provided by ground troops. The targets included Fighters from Hamas and its allies, tunnels, observation and sniper positions and weapons depots, it added. Israel has been criticized internationally for the high number of casualties among the Palestinian civilian population. West Bank car ramming slightly injures one Israeli soldier Meanwhile over in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an Israeli soldier was slightly injured in a car attack in the area of the village of Dayr Qadis, 20 kilometres west of Ramallah, the IDF reported on Wednesday on its Telegram channel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A group of soldiers was in the area when the perpetrator drove a vehicle at high speed towards them, the IDF said. The man then attempted to flee, but the soldiers "neutralized" him with gunshots, the army said. Normally, the term "neutralized" means that the person was killed, but the Times of Israel reported, citing rescue services, that the suspect sustained severe injuries. Twenty North Carolina communities are getting millions of federal funds to improve housing. Many of these towns and countries are in areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene. ALSO READ: FEMA extends deadline to apply for Helene assistance Yancey County is set to receive $4 million, Valdese will receive $1 million, and Boiling Springs is set to receive $950,000. Wadesboro and Norwood will also receive around $1.5 million. The money will be coming from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. VIDEO: FEMA extends deadline to apply for Helene assistance Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that plowed through a crowd on Bourbon Street early Jan. 1, 2025, killing 14 people and injuring 37 more. Jabbar was killed after opening gunfire on police, wounding two officers. (Getty Images/FBI photo) NEW ORLEANS The man the FBI said was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that killed at least 15 people and injured 35 more Wednesday morning on Bourbon Street was a military veteran and former real estate agent from Texas. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was killed when he engaged police in a shootout after steering around a police barricade and striking dozens of people over a three-block stretch of Bourbon Street. Two New Orleans police officers who were wounded in the exchange of gunfire are hospitalized and expected to recover, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are no apparent long-term ties between Jabbar and Louisiana. He recently told his landlord in Houston that he was planning to move to New Orleans, The Times-Picayune reported. Jabbar held a real estate license in Texas from 2018-23, according to a state records database. In a video posted to YouTube, he identified himself as a property manager for the Midas Group Blue Meadow Properties Inc. Online records show Jabbar also worked with Deloitte, the international financial services firm. The FBI confirmed that Jabbar was born in the United States and served in the Army and was in the Army Reserves. He went through basic training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the same site where Matthew Livelsberger trained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities in Las Vegas say Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was the driver of a Tesla Cybertruck that parked near the entrance of Trump International Hotel and exploded, killing him in the blast. Investigators say their ties to Fort Bragg are coincidental, as is the fact both men rented their trucks using the Turo online platform. There was no immediate response from the U.S. Department of Defense to a request for information on Jabbars military background, with the federal government recognizing the New Years Day holiday. An online background search showed Jabbar specialized in data entry, information systems and human resources while in the military. Georgia State University confirmed Jabbar attended school there from 2015-17 and graduated with a bachelors degree in computer information systems. An article from the campus newspaper posted online indicated that his tuition was covered through the GI Bill. An online search of criminal records shows Jabbar was 20 years old and lived in Houston when was arrested in Harris County, Texas, for misdemeanor theft in November 2002. The crime covers offenses involving property valued from $50 to $500. Jabbar pleaded guilty and was placed in a diversion program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Family court records in Texas show Jabbar filed for divorce from his wife in Fort Bend County, Texas in July 2020. A notice of nonsuit to dismiss the case was filed the following month. Jabbar listed a Beaumont, Texas, address on the petition. An Islamic State flag hung from a pole attached to the trailer hitch of the pickup truck Jabbar drove onto Bourbon Street. The FBI is looking into his connections to the jihadist organization or any other terror groups. Authorities have not identified anyone else they believe might have collaborated on the terror attack with Jabbar, nor have they said how many other people they think were involved. Wes Muller contributed to this report. Photo illustration by Louisiana Illuminator. NEW ORLEANS The man the FBI said was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that killed at least 15 people and injured 35 more Wednesday morning on Bourbon Street was a military veteran and former real estate agent from Texas. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was killed when he engaged police in a shootout after steering around a police barricade and striking dozens of people over a three-block stretch of Bourbon Street. Two New Orleans police officers who were wounded in the exchange of gunfire are hospitalized and expected to recover, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are no apparent long-term ties between Jabbar and Louisiana. He recently told his landlord in Houston that he was planning to move to New Orleans, The Times-Picayune reported. Jabbar held a real estate license in Texas from 2018-23, according to a state records database. In a video posted to YouTube, he identified himself as a property manager for the Midas Group Blue Meadow Properties Inc. Online records show Jabbar also worked with Deloitte, the international financial services firm. The FBI confirmed that Jabbar was born in the United States and served in the Army. There was no immediate response from the U.S. Department of Defense to a request for information on Jabbars military background, with the federal government recognizing the New Years Day holiday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Georgia State University confirmed Jabbar attended school there from 2015-17 and graduated with a bachelors degree in computer information systems. An article from the campus newspaper posted online indicated that his tuition was covered through the GI Bill. Court records in Texas show Jabbar filed for divorce from his wife in Fort Bend County, Texas in July 2020. A notice of nonsuit to dismiss the case was filed the following month. Jabbar listed a Beaumont, Texas, address on the petition. An Islamic State flag hung from a pole attached to the trailer hitch of the pickup truck Jabbar drove onto Bourbon Street. The FBI is looking into his connections to the jihadist organization or any other terror groups. Authorities have not identified anyone else they believe might have collaborated on the terror attack with Jabbar, nor have they said how many other people they think were involved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wes Muller contributed to this report. This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. After police showed up to arrest Shari Franke's mother, Utah YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke for aggravated child abuse, the eldest daughter at first jumped to a terrifying conclusion. My initial thought, remembers Shari in an interview with PEOPLE for a story in this week's print issue, is that my siblings are dead. A year earlier, Ruby, a devout Mormon, had disowned Shari and asked her husband and older son Chad to move out after connecting with a therapist, Jodi Hildebrandt, who advocated for strict parental discipline. Ruby, 42, later admitted in a plea agreement to abusing her two youngest children, telling them they were evil and possessed, denying them food and water, handcuffing her sons wrists and ankles and holding his head underwater. Ruby and Kevin Franke and their children On Feb. 20, 2024, she and Hildebrandt, who also pleaded guilty, both received four consecutive sentences of one to 15 years in prison. For more on Shari Franke and her story, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here. Franke, now 21, is sharing her own story in her new memoir The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom, which details the abuse she and her siblings suffered at Rubys hands. I dont think shell ever fully comprehend or understand what shes done, says Shari, who doesn't have a relationship with Ruby today. She declines to talk about her siblings' lives now to protect their privacy. I just hope that she can get the help she needs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Below, in an exclusive excerpt shared with PEOPLE, Shari recounts what happened when she called child protective services in an attempt to protect her siblings. 'The House of My Mother' by Shari Franke Rubys face contorted with anger and hurt. I cant believe you called the police on me, she began, her voice rising. After everything Ive done for you, after all the sacrifices Ive made. How could you betray me like that, Shari? How could you be so selfish? The words hit me like physical blows, but I stood my ground. [I reminded myself] that I wasnt alone, that I had support beyond the toxic web of my family. Selfish? I repeated, finding strength in my voice. I was worried about the kids. They were alone for five days, Mom. Five days! Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Theyre fine, Ruby snapped. Theyre old enough to take care of themselves. This is about you, Shari. Your jealousy, your need for attention. I felt a bubble of hysterical laughter rise in my throat. How could she twist this around, make it about me? But then, wasnt that always her way? MANICPROJECT Shari Franke today Shari Franke today This isnt about me, I said, my voice steadier than I felt. Its about the safety of my siblings. Its about doing whats right. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rubys eyes flashed dangerously. Whats right? You have no idea whats right. Youre just a child playing at being an adult. Your siblings are terrified of you now for calling the police on them. Rubys face hardened, her lips twisting into a sneer. One day, Shari, youll come crawling back to me. Begging for my forgiveness. And itll be hard for me to give it to you, but Ill be gracious. Im not going to apologize for telling the truth, I said, my voice quiet but firm. Related: Inside the Ruby Franke Case: YouTube Mom Kicked Husband Out of House, Spoke to Him '3 or 4 Times In a Year (Exclusive) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I could feel the tears streaming down my face, hot and sticky on my cheeks. Youve always hated me, she whispered. Ever since you were five years old, I could see it in your eyes. The way you looked at me, the way you judged me. Youve never appreciated everything Ive done for you, all the sacrifices Ive made. Thats not true, I choked. I never hated you, Mom. I was just scared of you. From The House of My Mother: A Daughters Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke. Copyright 2025 by Shari Franke. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC The House of My Mother: A Daughters Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke comes out Jan. 7 and is now available for preorder wherever books are sold. Read the original article on People The Islamic State (IS) group maintains a relatively small presence in Somalia compared to the more dominant al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab. However, the United Nations has warned of a growing IS foothold in the country. This latest attack occurred just days after Puntland authorities announced preparations for a significant military operation targeting IS militants believed to be based in the Almis region. On the morning of Tuesday, December 31, attackers detonated an explosives-laden vehicle before engaging in a firefight with Security forces in Dharjaale, a town in Puntland, approximately 200 kilometers from the Port city of Bossaso. Puntlands Government released a statement declaring that the attempted attack, orchestrated by the bloodthirsty Daesh group, had been thwarted. Authorities confirmed that security forces killed all the attackers and displayed the bodies of eight foreign fighters linked to IS. Regional reinforcements arrived at the attack site, believed to be the launch point for the assault, but no further details were provided. Witnesses reported that several government officials were in Dharjaale at the time of the attack. According to one witness, Hassan Madobe, the attackers specifically targeted a residence where the commander of Puntlands armed forces and a member of parliament were staying. The security forces prevented the attackers from reaching their target, he said, adding that he personally saw the bodies of eight attackers. Another witness, Shuceyb Ahmed, noted that some of the fighters were wearing military uniforms. Puntland authorities did not disclose whether there were any casualties among civilians or regional forces during the incident. Ruby Frankes daughter Shari has shared what she said when she called child protective services on her mother, Ruby Franke. Shari reflects on her relationship with her infamous influencer mother in her new memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughters Quest for Freedom. In February 2024, Ruby was sentenced to 30 years in prison for abusing her 12-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter. She and her now ex-husband, Kevin Franke, ran a popular family YouTube Channel 8 Passengers, which accumulated more than two million subscribers. Following her arrest, Ruby and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, including trying to convince Rubys two youngest children that they were evil, possessed by demons, and needed to be punished. Rubys four minor children were taken into the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an excerpt from her memoir shared with People, Shari recounted what happened when she first child protective services in a bid to help her siblings. Rubys face contorted with anger and hurt. I cant believe you called the police on me, she began, her voice rising. After everything Ive done for you, after all the sacrifices Ive made. How could you betray me like that, Shari? How could you be so selfish? Shari wrote. The words hit me like physical blows, but I stood my ground. [I reminded myself] that I wasnt alone, that I had support beyond the toxic web of my family, she continued. Selfish? I repeated, finding strength in my voice. I was worried about the kids. They were alone for five days, Mom. Five days! Ruby Frankes daughter Shari claims her mother acused her of needing attention when Shari called CPS to protect her siblings (@momsoftruth / sharifranke / Instagram) According to Shari, her mother snapped at her and said her children were fine, saying they were old enough to take care of themselves. Ruby accused her daughter of being jealous and needing attention, Shari wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I felt a bubble of hysterical laughter rise in my throat. How could she twist this around, make it about me? But then, wasnt that always her way? This isnt about me, I said, my voice steadier than I felt. Its about the safety of my siblings. Its about doing whats right. Shari who announced her engagement last week went on to detail how her mother responded to her remark, claiming Rubys eyes flashed dangerously. She then told her daughter that she had no idea whats right. Youre just a child playing at being an adult. Your siblings are terrified of you now for calling the police on them, Ruby told Shari, according to the book. Rubys face hardened, her lips twisting into a sneer. One day, Shari, youll come crawling back to me. Begging for my forgiveness. And itll be hard for me to give it to you, but Ill be gracious. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shari said she told her mother she was not going to apologize for telling the truth and began to cry. Ever since you were five years old, I could see it in your eyes. The way you looked at me, the way you judged me. Youve never appreciated everything Ive done for you, all the sacrifices Ive made, Ruby allegedly said. Shari recalled her response, writing: Thats not true, I choked. I never hated you, Mom. I was just scared of you. After Ruby was arrested in 2023, she admitted to several horrific acts, as shown in a statement filed in court to support her guilty pleas, which said she abused two of her children from May 22 2023 until her arrest. She said that she tried to convince two of her children that they were evil and possessed and that the punishments were a form of repentance. She described the abuse as acts of love. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Traumatic details revealed that she forced her son into long physical tasks outside in summer without shoes or adequate water, leaving him with repeated and serious sunburns. He was also denied sufficient food, and when he was given food, they were very plain meals while the rest of the household got more flavourful food, the plea agreement said. In February 2024, Ruby was handed four one to 15-year sentences in prison, one for each of the four counts of child abuse to which she pleaded guilty in December 2023. However, she and Hildebrandt will only serve up to 30 years in prison due to a Utah state law that caps the sentence duration for consecutive penalties. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will consider their behavior while incarcerated and determine how much of that time each will spend behind bars. In October 2024, Shari spoke to the Utah House of Representatives about protecting child influencers. I dont come today as the daughter of a felon, nor a victim of an abnormally abusive mother. I come today as a victim of family vlogging, she told the Business and Labor Interim Committee. It is more than just filming your family life and putting it online. It is a full-time job, with employees, business credit cards, managers, and marketing strategies, Shari said. Some of our most popular videos were when my eyebrow was accidentally waxed off, and the whole world saw a crying teenager who just wanted to mourn in private. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She explained that social media quickly became her familys primary source of income. In terms of the compensation she received, she mentioned a $100 shopping spree for filming an embarrassing moment or going on a family vacation. If I could go back and do it all again, Id rather have an empty bank account now and not have my childhood plastered all over the internet. No amount of money I received has made what Ive experienced worth it, she continued. MEMPHIS, Tenn. After 14 years on the bench, embattled Shelby County Judge Bill Anderson will retire in March. In a letter sent to County Mayor Lee Harris, Anderson wrote, When I was first re-elected in 2022, It was the plan for both my wife and I to retire in 2025 Please accept my resignation from my judicial position in General Sessions Criminal Court Division 7, effective March 1, 2025. Anderson also stated in the letter that he will not run for, or accept an appointment as a judge in the future, noting that March 1 will end his 51-year career in the criminal justice system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At age seventy-one, my work is done, he said. Anderson had come under fire after complaints from some county and state leaders about his methods of setting bail. For months, state Senator Brent Taylor of Memphis had called for Anderon to face disciplinary action. TN House Speaker to review criminal cases of Memphis judge following controversy Taylor noted his elation at the news in a Facebook post Thursday, saying, Thank God and Greyhound that Rogue Judge Anderson is gone. Taylor claimed that the state legislature was likely to take action on Anderson when it reconvened later this month. Rogue Judge Anderson clearly saw the writing on the wall with my latest complaint. He was placing dangerous people back on the streets by misapplying my law requiring safety of the community be the first consideration when setting bail, Taylor wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WREG has reached out to Judge Anderson for comment. Anderson won re-election in 2022 by more than 50,000 votes. The Shelby County Commission will appoint his replacement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. EDITORS NOTE: All information below is sourced from the Fisher County Commissioners Meeting held on December 31, 2024, posted by the Fisher County Courthouse on Youtube. FISHER COUNTY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) Tensions ran high in the Fisher County Courthouse as commissioners convened a special meeting to appoint a new Fisher County Sheriff following the resignation of Tom Pohlman. Although the candidate lacked experience as a peace officer, his military background became a key factor in the decision to appoint John Patrick Dickson to the position. Tom Pohlman appointed as Fisher County Sheriff Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the beginning of the meeting, the court was informed that Sheriff Tom Pohlman and Jarod Smith had turned in their resignations. Afterward, commissioners addressed concerns regarding Dicksons qualifications. While he does not currently hold a peace officers license, he meets the statutory requirements under Veteran status. Dickson acknowledged his lack of direct law enforcement experience but expressed his commitment to protecting the community and fulfilling the responsibilities of the role. We may have people coming in with ill intent, and its up to us to make sure that they do not succeed in whatever their plans are. The second thing is to be a good liaison between the Commissioners Court and the people, and if theres questions or problems, we have to be open about it. We dont need secrets things like that. But being a small community, theres times that you gotta step up, Dickson shared. Big Country law enforcement increases patrols to target DWI during New Years Eve Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Born in Roby and raised in Sweetwater, Dickson spent nearly 18 years in the U.S. Navy, gaining invaluable insights into organizational structures and leadership. Ive been around the world. Ive seen how other places do it. Honestly, if nothing else, you learn what not to do a lot of things. But when it comes to dealing with people and the public, the one thing that I can assure you is that at least I will hear you. I will be open, Dickson promised. If we have anything outstanding on the books, then whatever I can do administratively, I will do that. I will keep the court informed. Whatever reports are going to be necessary. They will be made to the court and the state, and I will do the job to the best of my ability, whether I stink at it or am good at it. Dicksons Veteran status exempts him from the five-year peace officer experience requirement, but he must obtain his license within two years. He plans to enroll in the academy as soon as possible. Due to the special appointment, Dickson must decide by the fall whether to run to retain the office in the next election. After that, it would fall back to the normal election timeline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I believe that if I want to pursue this, then we do it wholeheartedly. I dont want to be halfway here So, as soon as I can meet the requirements for the peace officer license, then I will get it, and hopefully, Im doing a good enough job; I will feel comfortable with putting my name in the hat there come November, Dickson shared. Big Country Wrap 2024: The crime that caught your attention the most Dickson explained that he strives to stay within budget limits strictly, using the budget only for what is necessary because We have to be accountable to the taxpayer. The idea that we could bust the budget on superfluous things or nice-to-have things We will do our job. We will do it by utilizing our resources as best we can and making that money in that budget, going as far as possible, Dickson said. Its not there for toys; Its not there for nice things. If opportunities for training come up and we can afford it, I will make sure our deputies go to training. Its important that we have as good a trained force as we can within the limitations of what we can do. So, that would be my main concern. I dont want shiny new stuff. We dont need shiny new stuff. We just need people who are going to do the job and who are well-trained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the subject of community relations, Dickson stressed the importance of collaboration between law enforcement and community members to foster unity. If you want to knock on my door, its open. Were not above anyone. Were not better than anyone. If you have a legitimate complaint and grievance, then it would be looked into. If its something that requires lawful action, then we will take it. If it is something that is more of a personal matter, we will try to mediate it to the best we can. But it shouldnt be something that continues with friction and turmoil in the community. We shouldnt be part of the friction internally. We should be the ones trying to knock it down a little bit, Dickson said. Before his appointment, Dickson shared that he would meet individually with each employee to understand their perspectives, ideas, and attitudes, ensuring that everyone serves to the best of their ability. I just want to make sure that they have a good attitude toward the public that theyre serving because that is the point: they are serving the public. You see it a lot on the news and everything else. We dont need law enforcement who have an ego We just need people who will go out and say, Hey, heres the law, heres what you did wrong. If we can solve it with a ticket, they need a ticket. You dont have to make an arrest for everything, Dickson explained. Now, people may give you some lip, and itll upset you, you know, itll make you mad, but you cannot resort or go back to their attitude. You have to be professional at all times. The last thing that I would want to hear is that anyone had a problem with my deputy being so aggressive that they feel that theyve been wrong. We dont need that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court officially appointed John Dickson as Fisher County Sheriff on December 31, 2024. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) A new sheriff assumed office in Coke County during the turn of the year after the previous sheriff retired following decades of service. Sheriff Billy Williams assumed the role on Jan. 1 after former Sheriff Wayne McCutchen retired on Dec. 31, 2024, following 36 years of service. A sheriffs office representative shared that McCutchen served exclusively in the Coke County Sheriffs Office throughout the years. In a statement issued via social media on Jan. 1, Williams addressed the public regarding what it means to be sheriff and what he hopes to accomplish while acting in the role. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The job of a sheriff is not just about enforcing the law; its about leading with integrity, fostering trust, and making sure that every citizen, every family, and every visitor to Coke County feels safe and respected, Williams said. I promise to do that with every ounce of dedication and effort I have. Williams said that he intends to focus on three key priorities during his tenure. These priorities and their descriptions are as follows, as per Williams public statement: Community Engagement : The relationship between law enforcement and the public must be based on trust and cooperation. My door will always be open to citizens, and we will engage more with local organizations, schools, and businesses to make sure that we are working together to solve problems before they escalate. Transparency and Accountability : In every action we take, I will ensure transparency. Our department will be held to the highest standards, and I will lead by example. Whether its through community meetings, updates, or the way we handle critical incidents, I am committed to being a sheriff who answers to you the people. Crime Prevention and Response: Public safety will always be my top priority. We will focus not only on responding to emergencies but also on proactive crime prevention through education, outreach, and the responsible use of technology. Williams stated that he, alongside the community, will continue to build on the strong foundation created by McCutchen and other former sheriffs. He also acknowledged the courage, professionalism and commitment of those who work in the sheriffs office, calling the deputies and administrative staff the backbone of this office. Williams called on the citizens of Coke County to assist the agency as he begins to serve as the countys sheriff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To the citizens of Coke County, I ask for your continued partnership, Williams said. Your role in this community is just as vital as mine. Together, we can face any challenge, celebrate every success, and keep Coke County a place we are all proud to call home. To read the entirety of Williams public statement, visit the Coke County Sheriffs Office Facebook page. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Inmates at the Ray County Jail have been moved as officials figure out how to make the facility compliant. Ray County Sheriff Gary Blackwell closed the jail Wednesday for the safety and security of the inmates and staff. Metro power providers prepping for first major storm of 2025 Blackwell toured the jail with Ray County commissioners and determined closing the jail, at least temporarily was the best option. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The current jail has sanitary plumbing issues, to include water lines that freeze in the cold. There are electrical issues, a lack of proper lighting and damages from escape attempts, according to the sheriffs office. While its closed, a portion of the jail will remain open as a 24-hour holding facility. All current jail staff will remain employed at this time. Inmates will be sent to jails in Harrison and Lafayette counties, as well as the Daviess-Dekalb Regional Jail. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android FOX4 has reported on issues at Ray County Jail since 2021. That year, a vote on a half-cent sales tax failed that would have helped purchase a new jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Sen. Chris Cournoyer, right, took the oath of office to serve as Iowa lieutenant governor Dec. 16, 2024 at the Iowa Capitol, led by Iowa Chief Justice Susan Christensen, left. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) The Scott County sheriff says although an Iowa Senate committee has rejected his ethics complaint against the states new lieutenant governor, he intends to pursue the matter. On Dec. 16, Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane filed a sworn ethics complaint against Chris Cournoyer, a former Iowa state senator from LeClaire, with the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee. The complaint accuses Cournoyer of harassment of a citizen, disclosure of confidential information, improper use of confidential information to further her own interests or those of another person, and improperly or illegally obtaining confidential information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Ethics Committee Chair Tom Shipley told the Quad-City Times recently that the committee had rejected Lanes complaint because it was drafted the same day Cournoyer assumed the post of lieutenant governor, leaving nothing for the committee to investigate. Im not going to drop this, I am not going to let this go, Lane said Tuesday. Aside from the specific issues he has with Cournoyers conduct, Lane said, hes concerned that a sheriffs ability to discipline employees could be put at risk if Statehouse politicians align themselves with those workers and then pursue legislation of a retaliatory nature. Lanes ethics complaint focuses on Cournoyers alleged role in handling information tied to the dismissal of a Scott County sergeant, Josh Wall, who has admitted waging an unauthorized investigation into Jennifer McAndrew, Lanes wife. McAndrew supervises probationers for the Iowa Department of Corrections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wall challenged his dismissal from the sheriffs office, which led to a hearing earlier this year before the Scott County Civil Service Commission. According to Lane, Wall testified that he believed McAndrew was violating the rights of a sex offender by monitoring the mans activities after his probation was completed. Although the investigation lasted several weeks and was wrapped up in July 2023, Wall allegedly testified that he didnt produce a report of his findings until March 2024. Lane says Wall admitted that the 2023 investigation into McAndrew was unknown to others within the department and that he kept information related to it on a flash drive stored at his home. Cournoyer accused of sharing information According to Lanes sworn complaint, Wall also testified that after completing his report, he gave a copy of it, along with the contents of his flash drive, to Cournoyer, who is from Scott County, to forward to the office of Attorney General Brenna Bird, but didnt give Cournoyer permission to share the information with anyone else. In his complaint, Lane alleges that it was determined at the Civil Service Commission hearing that Cournoyer had accessed Walls investigative report, made copies of it, and then disseminated the information to others before turning it over to Birds office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Walls firing was upheld by the Scott County Civil Service Commission, which concluded Wall did not follow proper procedures related to investigating, reporting or documenting any concerns he may have had. The commission noted that Wall not only failed to inform the sheriff of his activities, but also the county attorney, attorney general and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. During the 2024 legislative session, Cournoyer introduced Senate File 2014, later renamed Senate File 2277, which provided that when a county sheriff intends to conduct a disciplinary or criminal investigation of an employee who is also an immediate family member, that investigation would have to be handed over to the attorney general or the Iowa Department of Public Safety. The bill failed to advance after being approved by a committee. According to Lanes complaint, he was contacted by an Iowa Capital Dispatch reporter during the legislative session and informed that Cournoyer had said the bill was intended to address an issue within the Scott County Sheriffs Office. Lane stated that he told the reporter he didnt know what that issue might be and noted that Cournoyer hadnt discussed the bill with him. In May 2024, a letter signed by Cournoyer was published in the Quad-City Times. In his complaint, Lane alleges that Cournoyers letter served as an endorsement of Chris Laye, his opponent in the Republican primary race for Scott County sheriff. In her letter, Cournoyer stated that the citizens of Scott County deserve someone who enforces the law (and) who doesnt think he or his family members are above it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cournoyer, Lane alleges, was heavily involved in Layes campaign, and Wall served as the campaigns manager and accountant. Iowa Law Enforcement Academy subpoena In his complaint, Lane alleges that an investigation determined his wife had violated no laws, despite Walls report calling for federal and state criminal charges to be levied against her. He asks for an investigation to determine whether Senate File 2077 was introduced as part of a conspiracy by Wall and Cournoyer to force the DCI to conduct its own investigation of McAndrew. While the bills language pertains to investigations into employees of sheriffs offices rather than DOC workers such as McAndrew, Lane says Cournoyer may have intended to expand the scope of the bill to include investigations into family members of county sheriffs regardless of their employer. Lane said Tuesday that because the Senate Ethics Committee has rejected his request for an investigation, he is considering filing a formal complaint with the Office of Ombudsman, which has the authority to investigate the actions of certain public officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he contacted the attorney generals office but was informed Monday that because that office plays no role in legislative ethics complaints, its not clear what other options Lane might have in pursuing the matter. Lane noted that the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy has subpoenaed information related to the matter in order to make a determination as to whether Walls certification as a police officer is an issue that needs to be considered. Gov. Kim Reynolds communications director, Jen Green, and her deputy communications director, Mason Mauro, did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. Mauro told the Quad-City Times earlier this month that Lanes complaint has no merit and doesnt even make sense. He said Cournoyer acted appropriately when provided information by a whistleblower. Civil lawsuit claims retaliation In March, Tara Chase, a former sex offender registry specialist for the Scott County Sheriffs Office, sued the county for wrongful termination and alleged violations of Iowas whistleblower law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In her lawsuit, Chase claims that in August 2022, she had an appointment with one of McAndrews clients who was a sex offender. During the course of their meeting, Chase alleges, she asked the man whether he was still on probation or parole, and the man said he believed he had been discharged from probation in April 2022 but was still being monitored by McAndrew. Chase alleges she then verified that McAndrew was continuing to improperly supervise the man, partly by maintaining a global-positioning ankle bracelet on him. A year later, the lawsuit alleges, Chase accused Lane of improperly monitoring her emails and was then notified that the offices internal affairs division was investigating her for forwarding work-related information to a personal email account she could access from home. In August 2023, she alleges, she was fired, which she now attributes to retaliation for complaints against Lane and his wife. The county has denied any wrongdoing and noted that Josh Wall, the sergeant who was later fired for his secret investigation of McAndrew, was Chases direct supervisor during the period in question. A trial is scheduled for September 2025. SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) UPDATE (11:11 a.m.): The Sioux City PD provided more details in an overnight stabbing. Police were called to a stabbing at 2:40 a.m. in the 1000 block of Pierce Street. The police said that a 42-year-old transient man was stabbed inside one of the apartments. The victim was taken to a local hospital in serious condition. No arrests have yet been made, and the incident remains under investigation. PREVIOUS: Sioux City law enforcement is currently investigating a stabbing that occurred during the overnight hours downtown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One person is in the hospital Thursday morning with apparent stab wounds. The alleged stabbing happened at the Phoenix Apartments located at 10th and Pierce Street. Police said the call came in at around 2:30 a.m. and that when they arrived at the scene they found a man with stab wounds. The Latest: Death toll in New Orleans crash rises to 15, coroner says The victim was able to be taken to a local hospital. Officials did not provide any information on the severity of the victims injuries. No arrests have been made at this time and the incident is still under investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. Avian influenza continues to spread. (Getty Images) LINCOLN In late December, state and federal agricultural officials identified a sixth Nebraska case from 2024 of highly pathogenic avian influenza. This one was found in a commercial flock of broiler chickens in Johnson County, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture announced on New Years Eve. It was Decembers fifth confirmed case. Johnson County is in southeast Nebraska. The county seat is Tecumseh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Veterinarian Dr. Roger Dudley has said he expects to find more instances of the highly contagious virus because it has circulated in wild birds and commercial and backyard flocks. Before this one, cases were identified in backyard flocks in Sarpy and Lancaster Counties, a commercial flock in Nemaha County and one in a backyard flock in Dodge County. The first case was found in February in a Gage County commercial flock, state ag officials reported. The avian flu spreads easily through nasal and eye secretions, along with food, water and animal waste. State ag officials have asked poultry producers to monitor their birds for symptoms, including drinking less water, eating less, producing fewer eggs, producing soft or oddly shaped eggs, coughing, wheezing, sneezing and diarrhea. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state has a website with more information for poultry producers at nda.nebraska.gov/animal/avian/. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has more at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza. State ag officials asked producers with concerns to call or report them to them at 402-471-2351 or USDA at 866-536-7593. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX While our body shuts down in slumber each day, the brain remains busy at work, filing through the day's recordings and making sense of them with respect to past experiences. Just how fresh memories are processed without blurring into old recollections has never been clear, with scientists hypothesizing different methods of keeping our memories separate while we sleep. Researchers from Cornell University in the US strapped brain-scanning electrodes and tiny eye-tracking cameras to mice, monitoring them as they learned new tasks in the day, such as navigating a maze, and slept during the night. (Fun fact: mice can sleep with their eyes open.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The team found two substages happening during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, that restorative period crucial to forming memories. One replayed new memories, coinciding with a constriction of the pupils. The other substage featured recall of older memories, with the pupils dilated. Each phase occurred in quick succession. Researchers tracked mouse brain and eye activity for a month. (Chang et al., Nature, 2025) The findings help answer the question of why consolidation of new memories doesn't erase old ones; for example, learning to play the piano without forgetting how to ride a bike. A similar analysis will need to be carried out in humans to verify the results, even if we do share a lot of brain similarities with mice. "Our results suggest that the brain can multiplex distinct cognitive processes during sleep to facilitate continuous learning without interference," write the researchers in their published paper. Previous studies have identified links between pupil size and sleep state, and between sleep state and memory formation, but this study adds a whole new level of detail to those connections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before now, there had been plenty of debate over how the brain fitted new memories in amongst the old ones during sleep specifically, just how separated and intentional these processes are. The team also found that blocking sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) known to affect memory storage during contracted pupil stages in the mice limited their capabilities to remember anything new. "It's like new learning, old knowledge, new learning, old knowledge, and that is fluctuating slowly throughout the sleep," says neuroscientist Azahara Oliva, from Cornell University. "We are proposing that the brain has this intermediate timescale that separates the new learning from the old knowledge." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The implications of the study are far-reaching: having a non-invasive means of monitoring brain function may help in the treatment of memory issues or the boosting of memory, for example. The findings also lend weight to hypotheses on how our brains and computer systems have the potential to forget old information on a significant scale. In AI, it's known as catastrophic forgetting, and is one area where the machines are still way behind biology. "This finding provides a potential solution for the long-standing problem in both biological and artificial neural networks of preventing catastrophic interference while also enabling memory integration," write the researchers. The research has been published in Nature. Related News Unionized patrol units from Vail Resorts-owned mountains have shown support for one another, and for the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association (PCPSPA), as their strike against Vail continues. Park City ski patrollers went on an unfair labor practice strike on December 27 following ongoing contract negotiations with Vail Resorts. In the days leading up to the strike, Keystone and Crested Butte, both of whom are also owned by Vail and have unionized patrol units, showed their support for PCPSPA through walk-ins and social media posts. Patrollers from Eldora and Loveland, neither of whom are owned by Vail but have unionized patrol units, picketed outside of Vail's headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado on December 30 to show their support for Park City Patrollers. Due to the strike, Vail has called in scabs, or strikebreaking patrollers from other Vail owned mountains in place of Park City patrol as they picket. PCPSPA expressed their concern over having patrollers with less medical training and who are unfamiliar with Park City's terrain patrolling the mountain, especially during such a busy time of year. On December 30, Park City released a video via social media of their Chief Operation Officer, Deirdra Walsh, addressing the mountain's status to guests amongst the strike. "We are opening the lifts and terrain that we can safely with the people that we have. We have an incredibly talented group of patrollers on the mountain. Leaders from Park City and across our mountain resorts. They are experts and professionals, and safety is their top priority each and every day and there have been no changes to our response protocol as a result of the Union's actions," said Walsh in the video. Tap or click the video below to watch the first clip. Click the right arrow to watch the subsequent clips. The following day, Park City, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, and Keystone's patrol unions sent a letter formally objecting to the creation of a "Patrol Support Team" to Kirsten Lynch, the Chief Executive Officer at Vail Resorts. "Through the company's tactics of pressuring, coercing, and intimidating skilled patrol leaders to travel to Park City to join the "Patrol Support Team," you caused irreparable harm to both your patrol labor force and patrol management across all affected resorts," the letter reads. It continues stating that requiring patrol leaders from other Vail-owned mountains to travel to Utah to work at Park City during the strike is disruptive of their professional and personal lives, and that failing to meet the demands of the parent company threatens the safety of their careers. The letter states that moving forward, the collective patrol unions would like to see transparent and timely communication from Vail to employees, respectful treatment of employees, and work to repair and restore trust between Vail and its employees. They also state demands that Vail ceases to pressure employees to cross the picket line in Park City, and to actively continue to work with PCPSPA to reach a fair contract. Park City Ski Patrollers at a mock strike as they negotiate a contract with Vail Resorts. Photo: Savannah Mccauley In a general theme, the letter urges Vail to evaluate the long-term implications of their actions on their reputation, and where their priorities fall in short term revenue versus investing in their workforce and mountain safety. It closes by saying that the $725M in stock buybacks and $863M in cash dividends over the last three years could be more equitably distributed between Vail investors who accumulate wealth as passive income, and the workforce that keep Vail's mountains open day-to-day. The same evening the letter was sent to Lynch, Park City employees received an email from Walsh thanking those who worked through the holidays and acknowledging the challenges the resort was facing in opening terrain and crowding due to low snowpack and the patrol union strike. "It is also disappointing and exceptionally hard to have members of our ski patrol union on strike right now," said the email. Walsh cited that the mountain would prioritize opening beginner terrain and delay opening expert terrain. She also expressed that Vail was committed to reaching an agreement with the patrol union and that they had resumed mediation and more was slated for later in the week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of January 2, PCPSPA has raised more than $160K from more than 2,000 donors via GoFundMe for their strike fund. Money raised has begun to be distributed amongst more than 200 Park City patrollers to aid with things like groceries, childcare, and rent while they are unable to work without crossing the picket line. POWDER has reached out to Vail for further comment on the letter but has not received response at this time. This piece will be updated as needed. Related: Park City Ski Patrol Continues Fair Wage Fight, "People Are Fed Up" Be the first to read breaking ski news with POWDER. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected with the latest happenings in the world of skiing. From ski resort news to profiles of the worlds best skiers, we are committed to keeping you informed. A military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced 13 soldiers to death for charges ranging from murder to cowardice, in a verdict authorities say will reinforce army discipline following territorial losses to insurgent groups. The trial concluded on Tuesday in Lubero, located in the volatile North Kivu province, where Congolese troops have long battled the Rwanda-backed M23 rebellion and other armed factions. According to local army spokesperson Mak Hazukay, soldiers abandoning their posts have allowed enemy forces to advance, making it necessary to hold an educational trial as a deterrent against further misconduct. Overall, 24 soldiers faced prosecution: 13 received death penalties, four received prison terms between two and ten years, six were acquitted, and one case was postponed for further inquiries. Military prosecutor Kabala Kabundi stated that the process was designed to rebuild trust between local communities and the army, which has struggled to contain insurgencies. All defendants maintained their innocence; they have five days to file appeals, and legal representatives for at least one convicted soldier confirmed that they will do so. Eastern Congo has been mired in conflict for nearly three decades, with dozens of armed groups vying for control over territory and resources. The governments efforts to modernize and professionalize its military have faced obstacles including corruption, poor infrastructure, and limited training. Army officials hope that high-profile trials like this will discourage desertion, looting, and other indiscipline, but critics warn that systemic reforms are still required. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has stated that his government will discuss countermeasures in response to Ukraine's cessation of Russian gas transit. Source: Fico in his address on Facebook, reported by European Pravda Details: Fico described the halt of Russian gas transit through Ukraine to Slovakia as "Zelenskyy's sabotage", claiming that the move will cost Slovakia 500 million annually. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He confirmed that Slovak government representatives will address the gas transit issue in Brussels next Tuesday, 7 January. The prime minister stated that the only solutions for Slovakia are either resuming gas transit or compensating for the "almost 500 million loss in public finances". After the Brussels discussions, Fico plans to convene a coalition council meeting followed by a cabinet session, where coalition partners will deliberate on appropriate measures. Quote: "On behalf of Smer-SD [Fico's party ed.], I declare that we are ready to negotiate and agree within the coalition to halt electricity supplies and significantly reduce support for Ukrainian citizens residing in the Slovak Republic." Background: On 1 January, Ukraine cut off the transit of Russian gas, which had continued to supply several EU countries and the unrecognised republic of Transnistria in Moldova. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico sharply criticised Zelenskyy for these actions and sent a letter to EU leaders expressing dissatisfaction with Ukraine's decisions and threatening to halt Slovakia's electricity supplies. Support UP or become our patron! By Jan Lopatka (Reuters) -Slovakia's coalition government will discuss retaliatory measures to take against Ukraine after it halted the flow of Russian gas through its territory to Slovakia, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday. Fico said in a video message posted on Facebook that his Smer party would consider cutting electricity supplies to Ukraine, lowering aid to Ukrainian refugees, and demanding the renewal of gas transits or compensation for losses he said Slovakia had suffered due to the ending of Russian gas flows. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine came to a halt on New Year's Day, marking the end of decades of Moscow's dominance over Europe's energy markets, as a transit contract between Russia and Ukraine expired. Slovakia has alternative gas supplies but Fico, who has ended military aid to Ukraine and sought warmer relations with Moscow, says Slovakia will lose its own transit revenues and pay additional transit fees to bring in non-Russian gas. He has also said European gas and power prices would rise as a result of Ukraine's actions. Fico said a Slovak delegation would discuss the situation in Brussels next Tuesday and then his ruling coalition would discuss retaliation for what he called "sabotage" by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. "I declare (my Smer-SSD party) are ready to debate and agree in the coalition on halting supplies of electricity and on significant lowering of support for Ukrainian citizens in Slovakia," Fico said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The only alternative for a sovereign Slovakia is renewal of transit or demanding compensation mechanisms that will replace the loss in public finances of nearly 500 million euros." Zelenskiy accused Fico last week of opening a "second energy front" against Ukraine on the orders of Russia. Slovakia's gas transit network operator Eustream, majority owned by the state, had revenue of 158 million euros and after-tax profit of 25 million euros in the six months to Jan. 31 last year, the latest period it reported on its website. State-owned Slovak gas importer SPP, which covers around two-thirds of Slovak demand, said on Wednesday it would face around 90 million euros in additional costs, mainly in transit fees, if it were to replace all Russian gas this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Slovakia, which neighbours Ukraine in the east, exported 2.4 million megawatt hours of electricity in the first 11 months of 2024 to Ukraine, which has suffered shortages due to Russian bombing, according to data from the Slovak grid operator. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague; Editing by Gareth Jones and Hugh Lawson) Slovakia could reduce aid for Ukrainian refugees in response to Ukraines decision to terminate Russian gas transit through its territory, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Jan. 2 While Fico said that Slovak households would not face energy shortages, he said Slovakia stands to lose 500 million ($513 million) annually in transit revenue. Ukraine terminated Russian natural gas transit through its territory on Jan. 1. Kyiv repeatedly warned it would not renew the transit agreement to avoid financing Russias war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fico criticized Ukraine's stance, saying Ukraine "dared to complain about Bratislava's consideration of retaliatory measures." "On behalf of Smer (the ruling party), I announce that we are ready to negotiate and agree in a coalition to cut off electricity supplies and significantly reduce support for Ukrainian citizens staying in the territory of the Slovak Republic," he added. The announcement follows Ficos earlier threats to cut off electricity exports to Ukraine amid escalating blackouts caused by Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure. He also confirmed that Slovak, Ukrainian, and European Commission representatives will meet on Jan. 7 in Brussels to discuss the shutdown, reportedly at Kyivs request. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite EU efforts to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels, Slovakia remains reliant on Russian gas under a long-term contract with Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom. Switching to alternative supply routes could cost Slovakia an additional 220 million ($229 million) in transit fees. Read also: Russia loses key leverage over Europe after Ukraine halts gas transit, FM Sybiha says Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) A new caravan of migrants began walking from southern Mexico on Thursday toward the U.S. border, starting out from the city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala. The majority of the migrants are from Venezuela, but they also include people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru and Ecuador. They've said they are tired of being blocked from crossing Mexico by the government. Though previous caravans have said they intend to reach the border something that was almost never achieved the migrants in the new caravan appear to be less clear about where they were headed. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to prevent migrants from entering the United States and stage mass deportations of those already in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many of the migrants said they were simply tired of being bottled up in Tapachula a city tired of hosting thousands of migrants and one where they cannot find much work. Giscarlis Colmenares, a 29-year-old from Venezuela, has been waiting for almost three months for an asylum appointment through the U.S. CBP One app. Colmenares said her immediate goal was to reach Mexico City to find work, so that we see whether we can get, ahead, or stay here and earn enough money to return to Venezuela. An improvised migrant camp in downtown Mexico City was already full to overflowing with migrants. Some recognized the difficulties involved in reaching the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Douglas Ernesto, from El Salvador, trudged along with the caravan on Thursday, with his wife and 10-year-old son. Our goal is the United States, but if not, we'll stay in Mexico, Ernesto said, acknowledging that getting beyond Tapachula is very difficult. The caravan has little or no chance of making it more than a few dozen miles. In November, Mexican officials broke up two similar migrant caravans not far from Tapchula. Apart from the much larger first caravans in 2018 and 2019 which were provided buses to ride part of the way north no caravan has ever reached the U.S. border walking or hitchhiking in any cohesive way, though some individuals have made it. For years, migrant caravans have often been blocked, harassed or prevented from hitching rides by Mexican police and immigration agents. They have also frequently been rounded up or returned to areas near the Guatemalan border. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Senate President Dominick Ruggerio is installing a close ally in the chambers No. 3 job as he prepares to start the new General Assembly session amid continued dissent over his leadership. Ruggerio announced Thursday that state Sen. David Tikoian, D-Smithfield, will be the new Senate majority whip. He succeeds state Sen. Val Lawson, who was promoted to majority leader last fall after Ruggerio had a falling out with her predecessor in the job, state Sen. Ryan Pearson. Tikoian is one of the Senates newer members, first elected in 2022 and reelected to a second term in November. The 56-year-old previously spent more than two decades in the Rhode Island State Police and later served as North Providences police chief. He currently works at the Providence Water Supply Board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senator Tikoian has earned the respect of every member of this chamber, Ruggerio, D-North Providence, said in a statement. David is a dedicated public servant of the highest integrity and a true statesman. He comports himself in a professional, forthright, genuine and courteous manner in all his interactions. Tikoian said he wants to make our state an even greater place to live, work, raise a family, operate a business, and enjoy the environment. The members of our caucus bring varied ideas and insights to address the challenges facing our state, he said. My goal as part of this leadership team is to help my colleagues achieve their priorities to improve our state, on behalf of the constituents we serve. The Senate has been in turmoil for months as Ruggerio battles cancer and other health ailments, leaving him absent from the chamber and the public eye for extended periods. The frustration culminated in a tense Democratic caucus meeting in November, where critics led by Pearson made an unsuccessful push to replace Ruggerio, who turned 76 last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More changes are expected as soon as next Tuesday, when state lawmakers convene for the first time this year. Ruggerio is preparing to oust multiple committee chairs who broke with him at the caucus, and give their gavels to his own supporters. Ruggerio also told senators Thursday that he plans to create a new Senate Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies during the upcoming session. The committees chair will be state Sen. Victoria Gu, D-Westerly, who is a software engineer. Ted Nesi (tnesi@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesis Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. A multi-year fight over whether Southern Methodist University can separate itself from the United Methodist Church is heading to Texas highest court this month. The Texas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit between the 12,000-student private university in Dallas and the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church on Jan. 15. In 2019, SMU leadership changed its articles of incorporation and declared that its board of trustees was the ultimate authority over the university, not the United Methodist Church. The university's articles of incorporation detail how the university is governed and by whom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The universitys decision to update the documents and assert the boards sole control over the school came during a tumultuous time in the Methodist churchs history. In 2019, members endorsed a ban on LGBTQ+ clergy and prohibited pastors from performing same-sex unions. It sparked a massive clash within the church, prompting thousands of conservative churches who were tired of the fight to disaffiliate and start their own more conservative church, now called the Global Methodist Church. SMU President R. Gerald Turner told The Dallas Morning News at the time the university was trying to break away before the church made any decisions about how to divide so it could continue to educate everybody from all Methodist denominations and from other denominations, and people who dont believe at all. He added that he did not want the universitys Perkins School of Theology to be only associated with one sect of Methodism. Shortly after the boards decision, the Southern Conference of the United Methodist Church sued the SMU, arguing that the university didnt have the authority to update the language in the articles of incorporation and that the conference had to approve the schools departure. The Methodist Church says it founded SMU in 1911 when it designated 133 acres of land for the university. In their original lawsuit, church officials argued that the articles of incorporation permanently grant the church various rights, including the ability to block amendments to the documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Put simply, the trustees of SMU had and have no authority to amend the Articles of Incorporation without the prior approval and authorization of SCJC, the lawsuit stated. The churchs South Central Jurisdiction covers eight states, including Texas. According to its website, it owns SMU, Lydia Patterson Institute, a K-12 school largely serving Hispanic students in El Paso and Saint Paul School of Theology. In 2021, a district judge ruled in favor of SMU, dismissing the churchs claims. In 2023, Texas Fifth Court of Appeals reversed the decision, agreeing with the conference that it was in charge of SMU and had standing to sue. A spokesperson for SMU said the university does not comment on pending litigation. Jeffrey Parsons, a lawyer representing the conference, did not respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this year, the congregations that remained in the United Methodist Church after the split passed measures to remove some of its anti-LGBTQ+ policies, including the ban on LGBTQ+ clergy and a ban on pastors who perform same-sex unions. The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Disclosure: Southern Methodist University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Correction, Jan. 3, 2025 at 10:27 a.m. : An earlier version of this story incorrectly named one of the churches that was created after the United Methodist Church split. It is called the Global Methodist Church. RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) We are still monitoring a storm system that will arrive in central North Carolina late Sunday and early Monday so will it snow? The short answer is likely not this go around. However, a wintry mix is still possible near the Virginia state line early Monday morning. TIMING: late weekend-early next week A winter storm is expected to begin impacting the Central Plains on Saturday night, with heavy snow and icing potential spreading east to the Mid-Atlantic by early next week. Major travel disruptions will be possible starting this weekend in parts of the lower 48 states. Here in the Triangle, we are likely to see just cold rain on Monday night as well be in the warmer sector of the storm system. Uncertainty remains regarding the exact storm track and timing, which could lead to slight changes as the storm develops, but the highest impacts will stay north and west of North Carolina. JANUARY COLD The first month of the year will be very cold with highs in the 30s and 40s through at least January 15th. While the cold will be here, what about the moisture to bring us the snow? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Climate Prediction Center forecasts the next 8 to 14 days to be drier than average. The last measurable snow in the Raleigh area was 1068 days ago. You can count on the CBS 17 Storm Team to keep you posted on if and when well see snow in the Triangle. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Snow and ice warnings are in place after parts of the country were hit by flooding. The yellow Met Office alert indicates there could be some difficult travel conditions across Scotland, Northern Ireland, North Wales and the Midlands until 10am on Thursday. A snow and ice warning is also in place across northern Scotland until 10am, as travel disruption and difficult driving conditions could come from rain turning into snow, the Met Office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The alert comes after a major incident was declared in Greater Manchester on Wednesday when flooding from heavy rain led homes to be evacuated and train lines to be closed. Police said mountain rescue teams were deployed to assist Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in dealing with damaged properties and stranded vehicles. Greater Manchester Police added that the areas of Didsbury, Stockport, Trafford and Wigan were still being monitored. A milk tanker was submerged in water on the A34 as floods hit the North West - UKNIP Around 450 people were evacuated on Wednesday evening from a Didsbury hotel, while a further 400 homes faced a lower risk with no widespread evacuation needed, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Residents were also moved from a block of flats in Meadow Mill, Stockport. Further snow and ice warnings a possibility The North West and Wales experienced heavy rain on Wednesday, with 101.2mm of rainfall in Marsden more than West Yorkshires monthly average for January at 85.1mm and 101.2mm in Capel Curig, Wales, which is just less than a third of the monthly average at 327mm. A number of train routes were disrupted or blocked by flooding on Wednesday, mainly in the North West of England, with some services across Northern, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales and South Western Railway affected. National Highways said a section of the A628 Woodhead Pass between Woolley Bridge and Flouch was closed because of flooding, as was the westbound M56 between Junction 6 for Manchester Airport and Junction 8 for Bowdon. A stranded woman leans from a window in her home as a major incident is declared in Greater Manchester - Xinhua/Shutterstock In Bristol, the council in partnership with homelessness charity St Mungos activated a Severe Weather Emergency Protocol, which will run until Jan 8 and increase the number of outreach shifts and accommodation available. It aims to ensure no-one will be sleeping on the streets during such extreme weather conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Temperatures were forecast to drop on Wednesday evening, possibly reaching minus 7C or minus 8C in Scotland overnight, while the maximum temperatures on Thursday are expected to be low-to mid-single figures, the Met Office said. Marco Petagna, senior Met Office meteorologist, said: Most roads will be treated, theres a chance on untreated roads that ice will still be an issue. On Friday I think we will see further snow and ice warnings issued. A woman takes an early morning stroll in Stanhope, County Durham, amid the sub-zero temperatures - Jordan Crosby Risk of school closures and power cuts A three-day yellow warning for snow has been issued for almost all of England and Wales and parts of Scotland this weekend as the Met Office warned that rural communities could be cut off. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The forecaster said schools would potentially be closed and there was a risk of power cuts, road closures and delays or cancellations to flights and trains. A yellow warning is in place from noon on Saturday until 9am on Monday and covers all regions of England other than the South West, the majority of Wales and parts of southern Scotland. About 5cm of snow is expected widely across the Midlands, Wales and northern England, with as much as 20-30cm over high ground in Wales and/or the Pennines, the forecaster added. Tom Morgan, a Met Office meteorologist, said: At the moment weve issued a very large snow warning for Saturday until Monday but it doesnt mean that everywhere within that warning could see snow, its just a heads-up there could be some impacts. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. SUMMERSVILLE, WV (WVNS) Members of the Summersville Fire Department responded to a snow plow fire on the first day of 2025. According to a post on the Summersville Fire Departments Facebook page, members of the fire department responded to reports of a West Virginia Division of Highways snow plow on fire at around 1:27 a.m. on Wednesday, January 1, 2025. Explore the work of local artists at Carnegie Halls Artwalk Photo Courtesy: Summersville Fire Department Facebook page Photo Courtesy: Summersville Fire Department Facebook page The post stated that the fire was put out by members of the the Summersville Fire Department, and that no further information will be released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain University of Iowa researchers are recommending all patients be surveyed about their physical activity levels, after a new study underscores the link between physical activity and chronic disease. The study, led by Lucas Carr, associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Physiology, examined responses from more than 7,000 patients at University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center who noted their level of physical activity in a questionnaire. The study, "Screening Patients for Physical Inactivity Helps Identify Patients at Risk for Cardiometabolic and Chronic Diseases," was published online in Preventing Chronic Disease. From patients' answers to the questionnaire, the researchers found that those who reported the highest level of physical activitymeaning they exercised moderately to vigorously at least 150 minutes per weekwere at a statistically significant lower risk of having 19 chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and diabetes. The findings further suggest patients who are least activemeaning they reported little to no exercise in a given weekare at increased risk to develop a chronic disease. Based on those results, the Iowa researchers also recommend health care systems provide information on health and wellness services for physically inactive patients who are at most risk. "In our health care environment, there's no easy pathway for a doctor to be reimbursed for helping patients become more physically active," says Carr, the study's corresponding author. "And so, for these patients, many of whom report insufficient activity, we need options to easily connect them with supportive services like exercise prescriptions and/or community health specialists." Most hospitals in the United States do not ask patients about their physical activity, and no hospital system in the Midwest has done so, according to the researchers. In this study, Carr partnered with Britt Marcussen, a family medicine physician at UI Health Care, to offer the questionnaire to patients visiting for annual wellness exam appointments. The study period was from November 2017 to December 2022. The Exercise Vital Sign survey, as the questionnaire is called, asked patients two questions that they answered on a tablet: "On average, how many days per week do you engage in moderate to vigorous exercise (like a brisk walk)?" (0-7 days) "On average, how many minutes do you engage in exercise at this level?" Carr and his team propose making the survey available to all patients. "This two-question survey typically takes fewer than 30 seconds for a patient to complete, so it doesn't interfere with their visit. But it can tell us a whole lot about that patient's overall health," Carr says. The researchers also compared results from patients who completed the surveys with more than 33,000 patients who weren't offered the survey in other areas of the hospital. The researchers found patients who took the survey were younger and in better health than the patient population who weren't given the questionnaire, based on analyzing all patients' electronic medical records. While the link between physical activity and reduced risk of chronic disease has been known, the researchers say the study underscores the value of surveying patients about their physical activity levels. "We believe this finding is a result of those patients who take the time to come in for annual wellness exams also are taking more time to engage in healthy behaviors, such as being physically active," Carr says. In a related study, published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, Carr's team found that when health care providers billed for providing exercise counseling to patients, those invoices were reimbursed by insurance providers nearly 95% of the time. "Our findings suggest the recommended physical activity billing codes are reimbursed at a high rate when providers submit them for reimbursement, which reinforces the idea to make physical activity surveys and counseling services available," Carr says. Cole Chapman, assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, is the first author of the study. Chapman, who joined the Pharmacy faculty in 2019 after earning bachelor's and doctoral degrees at Iowa, collected and analyzed the data from the patients' electronic medical records. Marcussen and Mary Schroeder, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science in the College of Pharmacy, are study co-authors. More information: Screening Patients for Physical Inactivity Helps Identify Patients at Risk for Cardiometabolic and Chronic Diseases, Preventing Chronic Disease (2024). Lucas J. Carr et al, Billing for Exercise Is Medicine: An Analysis of Reimbursement Trends for Physical ActivityRelated Billing Codes, Journal of Physical Activity and Health (2024). DOI: 10.1123/jpah.2024-0499 Journal information: Journal of Physical Activity and Health HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT) With snow projected to fall across large portions of Indiana this weekend, the American Heart Association has provided some tips to help protect shovelers hearts. Shoveling snow can be a very vigorous activity, and youre basically doing it in a freezer, says Dr. William Gill, cardiologist and board of directors president of the AHA in Indianapolis. Those conditions can very quickly lead to stress on the heart. For example, after only two minutes of snow shoveling, participants in a study had heart rates exceeding 85% of maximal heart rate, which is a level more commonly expected during intense aerobic exercise testing. The impact is hardest on those people who are least fit. Research shows that many people may face an increased risk of a heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest after shoveling heavy snow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The AHA suggests the following to make snow removal safer: Give yourself a break. Take frequent rest breaks during shoveling so you dont overstress your heart. Pay attention to how your body feels during those breaks. Dont eat a heavy meal prior to or soon after shoveling. Eating a large meal can put an extra load on your heart. Use a small shovel or consider a snow thrower. The act of lifting heavy snow can raise blood pressure acutely during the lift. It is safer to lift smaller amounts more times, than to lug a few huge shovelfuls of snow. When possible, simply push the snow. Learn the heart attack warning signs and listen to your body, but remember this: Even if youre not sure its a heart attack, have it checked out (tell a doctor about your symptoms). Minutes matter! Fast action can save lives maybe your own. Dont wait more than five minutes to call 9-1-1 Dont drink alcoholic beverages before or immediately after shoveling . Alcohol may increase a persons sensation of warmth and may cause them to underestimate the extra strain their body is under in the cold. Consult a doctor . If you have a medical condition, dont exercise on a regular basis or are middle aged or older, meet with your doctor prior to the first anticipated snowfall. Be aware of the dangers of hypothermia. Heart failure causes most deaths in hypothermia. To prevent hypothermia, dress in layers of warm clothing, which traps air between layers forming a protective insulation. Wear a hat because much of your bodys heat can be lost through your head. The AHA says its critical for people to recognize the signs of a heart attack and to call 911 immediately if one were to experience any signs. I cant stress enough the urgency of getting proper treatment for a heart attack, Dr. Gill says. Dont die of doubt. If youre experiencing symptoms or something just doesnt feel right, go get it checked out. Hospitals offer life-saving treatment. Heart attack warning signs: The AHA says most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort, where people affected often arent sure whats happening and wait too long before getting help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some signs that could indicate a heart attack is happening includeL Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort . Other signs may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW). What was meant to be a quick errand to help support a holiday toy drive turned into a brutal attack and possible kidnapping for one Temecula woman just days before Christmas. The bizarre episode began on Dec. 18 when Temecula resident Erin Quinn got a text message asking her to pick up toys for a Christmas toy drive. That Wednesday morning, Quinn received the text message from an unknown number with a 213 area code who claimed to be an elderly woman named Connie, KTLA 5 reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through text messages, Quinn was told to meet the supposed toy donor in an unincorporated area of Perris, known as Winchester, at a home on Memory Lane. When Quinn arrived at the home, she got out of the car, left it unlocked, and went to the front door but no one answered, ABC 7 reported. She got another text message, from the same number, telling her to wait in the car and the elderly woman's caregiver would take the gifts outside. "I was completely set up [there were no presents] and when I got back into my vehicle, I had no idea someone was waiting for me," Quinn wrote on a GoFundMe page, created by a friend to help raise funds for her medical and mental health bills, in addition to repairs to her damaged car. Quinn did not respond to a Times request for comment before press time. Read more: Convicted kidnapper highlighted in Netflix's 'American Nightmare' faces new charges Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Back in the driver's seat, Quinn was immediately attacked from the back seat by an unidentified woman wearing a blond wig, according to news reports. Quinn said her hair was pulled, she was tased multiple times on her head and forced to drive. During the nearly 30-minute assault, Quinn told KTLA that her attacker threatened to go after her children and mother. In self-defense, Quinn kicked her attacker and "in a complete panic" bit a portion of her finger off, "because I didn't know what else to do," Quinn wrote on the GoFundMe account. Quinn said she tried to get help by getting the attention of anyone in the surrounding area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Several construction workers around the area witnessed what was going on, videotaped and did nothing," she wrote. At one point Quinn crashed into two cars, and while fighting off her attacker, pulled off the wig and identified her assailant as her former housekeeper, Olga Mendez, ABC reported. A bystander finally intervened, pulling Mendez off Quinn, but Mendez fled the scene. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department issued a news release, saying that deputies initially investigated the incident as a domestic dispute but learned quickly that it was a kidnapping attempt and an assault. Responding sheriff's deputies transported Quinn to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Quinn told ABC she and Mendez had parted ways on good terms about four years ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I strongly believe that her plan was to kidnap me and take me to Mexico for either ransom or sale," she said on the GoFundMe page. Authorities identified and arrested 44-year-old Mendez in Paramount, 10 days after the assault. Mendez was booked into Cois Byrd Detention Center for kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats and two unrelated warrants, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Last May, Governor Bill Lee signed the Protecting Children Against Social Media Act, which requires all social media companies operating in Tennessee to verify a users age and get parental permission for those under 18 to use their platforms. Wednesday, Jan. 1, when the law is set to go into effect, News 2 tried to make an account pretending to be an underage user. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts After setting the birthday to January 1, 2010 which would make Wednesday the users 15th birthday some social media platforms did not verify the users age or ask for parental permission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Protecting Children Against Social Media Act does not specify how social media companies are required to verify the ages of their users, only that they comply with the law. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com News 2 reached out to the social media platforms it set up accounts for, and will keep you updated on air and online. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) Every Monday, viewers see Something Good on NBC 6 6 p.m., FOX 33 at 9 p.m., and NBC 6 Today the next morning, here is the year in review. Below is a list of each Something Good by month with a link to view the full segment that aired each Monday. February Alex Meachum and Dan Jovic dance for the girls at Dance Loud studio to help raise funds to send them to nationals. FULL STORY Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement March Joseph a 6 year old from Shreveport was chosen as one of the Childrens Miracle Network Champions. FULL STORY April I hosted the Evergreen Life Services annual fundraiser for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. FULL STORY May My radio co-host and KMJJ personality Pretty Lil Bae honored women in Shreveport by presenting the Phenomenally Unapologetically HER Awards. FULL STORY June A Shreveport woman gifted her new husband a barbershop. FULL STORY July Designer Tasha put on a fashion show for the residents at the Blake an assisted living and memory care facility. FULL STORY Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement October Alex Meachum, Myriam Samake, and I co-hosted the Philadelphia Centers annual auction against AIDS. FULL STORY Seven firefighters from Caddo Fire District 4 traveled to Florida to help with recovery after Hurricane Milton. FULL STORY November Local attorney Jacqueline Scott did her part to make sure everyone had a great Thanksgiving feast. FULL STORY The last year has been full of many stories from the Shreveport-Bossier area and 2025 is sure to bring more good your way. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com. The trouble signs started about a year in. B.J. Olson had opened his medical cannabis dispensary, called Unity Rd., in the summer of 2022, less than a month after medical pot sales became legal in South Dakota. That first month or two, things were fine. Olsons revenue lined up nicely with his projections. Unity Rd., a medical cannabis dispensary in Hartford, closed in November. New bookstore in Aberdeen: Novel Ideas brimming with bestsellers plus games, puzzles and more Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then came the competition. Dispensaries were popping up all over the Sioux Falls metro area, which Olson serviced from his location in Hartford. Every time a new dispensary opened, it would be a little less and a little less, Olson told South Dakota Searchlight in a recent interview. Then it was a race to the bottom on pricing. Unity Rd. is one of at least eight dispensary businesses that had a license from the state Department of Health last winter but no longer does. An archived version of the states medical pot website from February listed 78 dispensaries on its licensing page. The December figure, listed on the current version of that same page, lists 70. Meanwhile, the number of patient cardholders in the state has also been declining, from nearly 14,000 last winter to fewer than 12,000 currently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The negative cardholder trend and a too-fast expansion of dispensaries were part of the problem for Olsons Hartford shop. He said regulations were another part. The states medical cannabis rules prohibit advertising. Social media posts deemed too close to advertising drew warnings from the state, Olson said. The price of an annual dispensary license from the state went up. He had to pay specialty accountants to do his taxes and five times the price of the tax preparation bill he was used to paying in his other business ventures. Cannabis businesses cannot deduct most business expenses like rent or employee wages, but can deduct cost-of-business expenses. Threading that needle takes a tax preparer versed in the frequently shifting regulations on cannabis business rules. It was all the little things that added up, Olson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Beyond messages about errant social media posts, there was the warning about a steel door between Olsons medical cannabis shop and the separate smoke shop business he owned on the other side of his building. Olson called the door impassable, but the state didnt like that it had hinges. He responded by pulling the door out and installing what he described as an eighth-inch piece of plywood in the empty space to prove hed physically closed off his medical pot business from his other shop, thereby complying with state rules. Even though I could literally put my fist through it, that was OK, Olson said. Had Initiated Measure 29 passed on Election Day and legalized the possession of recreational marijuana, Olson said, hed still be in business. But it didnt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was ready to go for the ride, said Olson, who expected it wouldve taken another two years for lawmakers to set up a legal retail market. Instead, Olson announced in November hed be closing both his medical cannabis dispensary and his smoke shop. The market is oversaturated, he said, and its not worth the hassle. Id already put four years into it, Olson said. I wanted to be done with it. Handful of SD cannabis dispensary closures, more expected Joe Stavig, chief financial officer of Dakota Herbs dispensary and cultivation business, has heard about other dispensary closures since the failure of IM 29 at the ballot box in November. Dakota Herb has locations in Aberdeen, Brandon, Huron and Vermillion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stavig is hopeful in one way about the future of the medical marijuana industry in the state. At least some of the people whod held off on seeking medical pot cards in hopes voters would legalize recreational marijuana might apply for cards now. Even so, Stavig said, the dropping patient numbers have already done financial damage to the industry. What were seeing is some of these smaller dispensaries closing down, and even potentially some smaller cultivators shutting down, because of what weve seen over the last six months with the patient card count, Stavig said. Cardholders peaked in February of 2024 at 13,705. This month, that number is 11,635 a 15% drop. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alan Welsh, a Dakota Herb co-founder and former Highway Patrol leader, puts at least some of the blame on the increasing availability of pot alternatives like hemp-derived gummies and smokable flower. Welsh and Stavig like their chances because their company is vertically integrated with cultivation, wholesaling and dispensaries. But Welsh cant see standalone dispensaries competing against smoke shops selling weed-like products with similar effects. Those shops capitalized on a legal loophole in the 2018 federal farm bill to sell products derived from hemp by synthesizing intoxicants found in small amounts in hemp and adding enough to create high-inducing products. The Legislature passed a bill last winter to bar the sale of weed alternatives, but the law is being challenged in court, and Welsh, Stavig and Olson said the law has done little so far to stem the flow of those products. There might be some kind of enforcement coming, but its never been enforced, Welsh said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Olson, for his part, said that by offering those products at his smoke shop, he was competing with his medical marijuana dispensary. All of these smoke shops that are open all throughout the state of South Dakota, myself included, thats selling legal weed, Olson said. Its 100% selling legal weed. Theres no regulation. I can buy product from anywhere in the country, have it shipped to me and sell it. Other things could also be done to boost card numbers, said Stavig, of Dakota Herb. He intends to advocate for expanding the list of qualifying conditions for a patient card, and for the addition of an industry representative to the states Medical Marijuana Oversight Council. Regulation issues shutter one cannabis shop The state Department of Health has yet to respond to a South Dakota Searchlight email regarding cease and desist letters, warnings and enforcement actions against state dispensaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Roy Nielsen, owner of a cultivation facility and dispensaries in Sioux Falls and Yankton, is familiar with at least four of them. The Royzzz license for its Sioux Falls-based dispensary is on hold until a January hearing, Nielsen said, over its alleged violations of cannabis program rules. One of the violations, he said, came when a dispensary employee posted an image of cannabis use to their Snapchat story, which disappeared in 24 hours and was only visible to that employees Snapchat friends. Even though the employee wasnt acting as an employee, Nielsen said, the company caught a cease and desist letter over the post. One administrative program rule prohibits social media posts that depict the use of cannabis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another came because someone at the Sioux Falls shop had jokingly put a Scooby-Doo mask on a mannequin in the entry area between the shops front doors and its cardholder-access-only dispensary area. Another program rule prohibits using cartoons, toys, or other products or images commonly associated with or marketed to individuals under 21 years of age. The state came in and took a picture, said Nielsen, who spent decades selling medication for pets in Iowa before switching to the cannabis business. It was like a cartoon character. Nielsen said shutting down the shop until January put him and his employees in a tough spot for the holidays. I care about my people, Nielsen said. Ive got to figure out how to pay them. Like Stavig and Olson, Nielsen said hes hoping to survive what he expects will be a wave of dispensary consolidations in South Dakota. Hes hired a medical director to help educate patients and anyone else wholl listen about the benefits of well-regulated medical cannabis. But hes also not holding his breath for a more welcoming environment. At this point, hes thinking about Minnesota, a neighboring state in the process of setting up a recreational market. In his previous life as a pet med purveyor, Nielsen said, he grew accustomed to working with regulators on matters of safety, efficacy and drug testing. We dealt with the Department of Ag, the EPA, the FDA, Nielsen said. Nothings been harder for me to navigate than the Department of Health. Olson, the former Hartford dispensary owner who claims to have gone from one of the first dispensaries open to one of the first ones to close, offered a similar sentiment. It wasnt just the tax issues or the competition or the states concerns about how he kept his smoke shop and pot shop separate. South Dakota touts itself as business friendly, but Olson said he never felt that love as a dispensary owner. They were always in our back pocket, always making us fearful of this, that or the other, Olson said. No other industry has to live in fear like that. South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, the nations largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: SD medical marijuana dispensaries decrease SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (WWLP) Over 200 acres of farmland in South Hadley received enough funding to conserve its use for agricultural purposes. In a news release from Kestrel Land Trust, Lauzier Farm located on Alvord Street is the last farm of its size in South Hadley with 205 acres. The farm has provided feed for dairy cows and vegetables for many years. Western Mass land trust organizations receive funding for forest preservation Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With the help of Kestrel Land Trust in partnership with the farm owners, the Town of South Hadley, and the community, an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) was purchased to protect the farmland from housing development. The $1.7 million APR is held by the Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) and was funded by the state, federal, and several other resources. The South Hadley Conservation Commission committed $40,000, residents donated $7,000, and Kestrel raised funds from more than 150 individuals, and local businesses including Route 33 Pizza House, Parkview Financial, and Peoples Bank. The land has been maintained by Barstows Longview Farm and McCrays Dairy Farm owners. Since the announcement of APR, the land is required to remain in active agricultural use, the Barstow family of Hadley is planning to purchase the Lauzier Farm to grow hay and field corn to feed their dairy herd using no-till planting practices to reduce erosion, protect soil health, and boost carbon storage on the land, said Denise Barstow Manz, a family spokesperson. Kestrels Conservation Director, Mark Wamsley said, We are grateful to the landowners for their patience throughout this process, as their decision to permanently protect their land benefits the entire region. And, we thank MDAR as their staff guided this conservation process through various complexities to a successful outcome. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement South Hadleys Planning and Conservation Director Anne Capra said, The Town of South Hadley is thrilled to see this historic farm and landscape preserved forever. The Lauzier Farm has been an important part of the community for decades and we are excited to see a working farm maintained on Alvord Street for years to come. With increasing development pressure and the high price of land, we are grateful that the Lauzier family used the APR program to keep this acreage in agriculture. Agricultural land is important for wildlife habitat, clean air and water, climate resilience, and food security in Western Mass, said Barstow Manz. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. By Hyunsu Yim, Eduardo Baptista and Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's presidential guards and military troops prevented authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday in a tense six-hour stand-off inside Yoon's compound in the heart of Seoul. Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec. 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing stand-off," the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said in a statement. CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Yoon supporters who gathered in pre-dawn hours near his residence on Friday, who adopted the "Stop the Steal" slogans popularised by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's supporters, to block the arrest. Officials from the CIO, which is leading a joint team of investigators, arrived at the gates of the presidential compound shortly after 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday) and entered on foot. Once inside the compound, the CIO and police were outnumbered by cordons of Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel, as well as troops seconded to presidential security, a CIO official told reporters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 200 PSS agents and soldiers blocked the CIO officers and police, he added. While there were altercations and PSS agents appeared to be carrying firearms, no weapons were drawn, he said. Yoon, who has been isolated since he was impeached and suspended from power on Dec. 14, was not seen during the stand-off, he said. South Korea's defence ministry said the troops involved were under the control of the PSS. The CIO called off the effort to arrest Yoon around 1:30 p.m. due to concerns over the safety of its personnel, and said it "deeply regretted" Yoon's non-compliance. The CIO said it would consider its next steps. The police, who are part of the joint investigation team, have designated the PSS chief and the deputy as suspects in a criminal case for obstruction of official duty and issued summons for them to appear for questioning on Saturday, Yonhap news reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. Yoon's arrest warrant, approved by a court on Tuesday after he ignored multiple summons to appear for questioning, is viable until Jan. 6. In a statement after the arrest effort was suspended, Yoon's legal team said the CIO had no authority to investigate insurrection and it was regrettable that it had tried to execute an illegal warrant in a sensitive security area. The statement warned police against supporting the arrest effort. The presidential office filed a criminal complaint against three broadcasters and YouTube channel owners for unauthorised filming of the presidential residence, which it said was "a secured facility directly linked to national security". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The current warrant gives investigators only 48 hours to hold Yoon after he is arrested. Investigators must then decide whether to request a detention warrant or release him. Kim Seon-taek, a Korea University law professor, said targeting the PSS leadership may allow the investigators to sap the service's ability to put up resistance so they can try again to execute the warrant, which is "a rough way" to proceed. A better way, he said, would be for acting President Choi Sang-mok to exercise his power to order the PSS to cooperate. Later on Friday, the CIO said it would ask Choi to give that order. Choi's office issued no comment on the arrest attempt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SURPRISE MARTIAL LAW Yoon sent shockwaves through Asia's fourth-largest economy and one of the region's most vibrant democracies with his late-night announcement on Dec. 3 that he was imposing martial law to overcome political deadlock and root out "anti-state forces". Within hours, however, 190 lawmakers had defied the cordons of troops and police to vote against Yoon's order. About six hours after his initial decree, Yoon rescinded it. He later issued a defiant defence of his decision, saying domestic political opponents were sympathetic to North Korea and citing uncorroborated claims of election tampering. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two South Korean military officials, including the martial law commander during the short-lived declaration, have been indicted on insurrection charges, Yonhap reported on Friday. Kim Yong-hyun, who resigned as Yoon's defence minister after playing a major role in the martial law decree, has been detained and was indicted last week on charges of insurrection and abuse of power. Separate from the criminal investigation, Yoon's impeachment case is before the Constitutional Court to decide whether to reinstate or permanently remove him. A second hearing in that case was held on Friday and the court set the first oral arguments for Jan. 14. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yoon's defence team, in arguing that there was no grounds for impeaching him, in its submission to the court cited a July 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that stated Trump had immunity for actions taken as president, Yonhap news reported. North Korean state media published a detailed report on the political turmoil in the South, including the arrest warrant issued for Yoon, who it said "stubbornly refuses to be investigated, totally denying his crimes with sheer lies". North Korea has been harshly critical of Yoon, citing his hardline policy against Pyongyang as grounds in declaring the South a "primary foe" and announcing it had abandoned unification as a national goal. (Reporting by Joyce Lee, Eduardo Baptista, Hyunsu Yim, Dogyun Kim and Josh Smith; Writing by Josh Smith and Jack Kim; editing by Sandra Maler, Michael Perry, Kim Coghill and Jason Neely) The News South Korean police raided the offices of Jeju Air and the operator of Muan International Airport Thursday, as the investigation into the deadly Dec. 29 plane crash that killed 179 people ramped up. Investigators sought to retrieve documents related to the operation and maintenance of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft involved in the crash, as well information on the operation of the airport, a police official told Reuters. Jeju Airs CEO has also been barred from leaving the country. The probe comes as authorities extracted data from the planes cockpit audio recorder, which could provide vital clues to the moments before the plane landed and overshot the runway before hitting a wall and exploding. Only two crew members survived the crash, in what was one of the deadliest air accidents in years. Police in South Korea have raided the airport of Muan following a deadly plane crash on site that killed almost all passengers aboard the aircraft last weekend, the Yonhap news agency reported Monday. The office of low-cost airline Jeju Air, which operated the crashed Boeing 737-800, was also searched as part of a warrant based on accusations of negligence resulting in death, according to the report. Police have also barred Jeju Air boss Kim E Bae from leaving the country, as they consider him to be a key witness in the case, Yonhap reported separately. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A total of 179 people were killed when the Boeing 737-800 skidded along the runway at Muan airport in south-west South Korea without its landing gear deployed, eventually crashing into a concrete wall and going up in flames. Two crew members survived the crash landing. The aircraft's pilots had reported a bird strike just before the crash. However it remains unclear how the collision could have impacted the plane's landing gear. Apart from two Thai nationals, all aboard the plane, which had been en route from Bangkok to Muan, were Korean citizens. Korean investigators are at the scene to uncover the cause of the accident, aided by US investigators and US aircraft manufacturer Boeing representatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plane's flight recorders have since been recovered and data from the cockpit voice recorder transmitted. The second recorded was damaged in the crash and is to be further examined in the US. Questions have also arisen regarding the concrete barrier at the end of the runway that protects a system that helps pilots land, with some experts saying it had not been necessary and possibly exacerbated the crash. South Korean authorities have also launched an investigation into Boeing 737-800 aircraft used by domestic airlines. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Google DeepMind from Pexels Gender differences define how the human brain ages, and telltale biomarkers in the blood may be strongly suggestive of cognitive impairment and dementia, according to a comprehensive new study involving more than 500 people. Just as skin wrinkles and muscles sag, the human body's massive network of vasculature can be waylaid by the vagaries of age. Indeed, growing older can impact the very process by which healthy new blood vessels are made, resulting in aberrant angiogenesisan abnormal and disordered formation of new vasculature. A team of neuroscientists in the United States and Canada was able to uncover differences in brain aging between men and women by pinpointing biomarkersfragments of blood vessel growth factorsthe remains of aberrant angiogenesis in their blood. These scientists suggest that an ailing angiogenesis system offers a new target for early intervention against neurodegenerative disorders. "Aberrant angiogenesis can contribute to the development of cognitive impairment," writes neuroscientist Dr. Abel Torres-Espin, lead author of a new analysis published in Science Translational Medicine. Many forms of dementia and cognitive impairment are linked to abnormalities in small vessels and capillaries in the brain. Vascular dementia is a prime example of a brain disorder that develops as a direct consequence of blood vessel impairment. But Alzheimer's disease is among a host of others that are also marked by damaged vasculature in the brain. As people age, vessels can lose their tensile strength as well as undergo a decline in density, and this can be accompanied by an overall slowdown in angiogenesis. While these problems do not become pervasive for many people, for some they contribute to irreversible brain disorders. "With aging, numerous pathologies result in abnormal blood vessels across calibers of vessels, from capillaries to large vessels," Torres-Espin stated. "The pathologies present in small blood vessels are among the most insidious and yet most prevalent and detrimental consequences of aging." Still, Torres-Espin and colleagues offer a ray of hope: The task now, they say, is to conduct additional studies to tease out how to exploit aberrant angiogenesis as a druggable target. In the new study, the team studied brain imaging, clinical data, and blood markers of angiogenesis, including the family of VEGF growth factors and their receptors. VEGF stands for vascular endothelial growth factor. VEGF is critically necessary for angiogenesis and plays a central role in stimulating the growth and development of new blood vessels. There are multiple types of VEGF that contribute to angiogenesis, with the most prominent being VEGF-A, but also VEGF-B, VEGF-C and placental growth factor, PlGF. Each has a slightly different role and binding affinity to VEGF receptors. Association of executive function with Aberrant Angiogenesis and vascular health. Credit: Science Translational Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adk3118 The research identified two main pathways to brain abnormalitiesaberrant angiogenesis and sex-specific patterns in the trajectories of VEGF growth factors in the brain. "The trajectories of some markers of angiogenesis are associated with better executive function and less brain atrophy in younger women, but not in men. However, these trajectories reversed at the age of 75, suggesting that both sex and age are critical variables [for future] study," Torres-Espin wrote. "We used unsupervised machine learning and linear mixed effects models and found sexually dimorphic and age-dependent associations between markers of angiogenesis and brain aging outcomes," he continued. The study revealed that angiogenesis markers weren't the only ones that showed differences across a gender divide. For example, about 30% of participants were carriers of the APOE4 genotype with significant differences between men and women. APOE4 is strongly associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. In the study, men represented a higher proportion of APOE4 carriers34.2%compared with 25.6% among women. APOE4 is also linked with elevated cholesterol levels, particularly low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the so-called bad form of the compound, which is additionally associated with obstructed arteries. At the beginning of the research project, the Clinical Dementia Rating scale showed that 73% of participants were considered to be functionally normal with no evidence of cognitive impairment or dementia at first visit. However, by the end of the study, only 66% were considered functionally normal. The average age was 71 at the beginning of the analysis, and 77 by the end of the study. There were statistically significant differences between men and women for Clinical Dementia Rating scores at both first and last visit. A higher proportion of men presented with signs of cognitive impairment at both visits. "Most studies addressing angiogenesis and cognitive impairment focus on model organisms," added Torres-Espin, an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, referring to animal models. The team's newly published research focuses on human subjectsand more of these kinds of studies are needed, the team said. Along with the University of Waterloo, a large collaborative group of medical scientists contributed to the new study from leading research centers, most of them in the United States. Scientists hailed from the University of California, San Francisco; the University of California, Davis, and the Icahn School of Medicine at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, among other institutions. Torres-Espin concluded that the team's research serves as a model for other centers to conduct similar analyses because the "approach we adopted in this study provides a blueprint for the investigation of plasma biomarkers of vascular neurodegenerative disease, with great promise for future diagnostics and clinical trial interventions." More information: Abel Torres-Espin et al, Sexually dimorphic differences in angiogenesis markers are associated with brain aging trajectories in humans, Science Translational Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adk3118 Journal information: Science Translational Medicine 2025 Science X Network SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok said on Thursday immediate action must be taken if a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated in the country finds any issues as authorities ramp up a probe into Sunday's deadly air crash. The conversion of data from the Jeju Air 7C2216 cockpit voice recorder to audio file should be completed by Friday, Choi told a disaster management meeting, which could provide critical information on the final minutes of the doomed flight. All 175 passengers and four of six crew members were killed on Sunday when the Jeju Air jet belly-landed at Muan International Airport in the country's southwest and slammed into an earth-and-concrete embankment, bursting into flames. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two crew members, located near the tail of the Boeing 737-800, survived. "As there's great public concern about the same aircraft model involved in the accident, the transport ministry and relevant organisations must conduct a thorough inspection of operation maintenance, education, and training," Choi said. Choi's comments at the start of the meeting were provided by his office. Questions by air safety experts on what led to the deadly explosion have focused on the embankment designed to prop up navigation equipment that they said may have been built too close to the end of the runway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The aircraft's flight data recorder, which sustained some damage, is being taken to the United States for analysis in cooperation with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Investigators from the NTSB, U.S. Federation Aviation Administration and the maker of the aircraft, Boeing, are in South Korea to help probe the worst air disaster in the country. Choi asked no effort be spared in helping the families of the victims as the remains of those killed are handed over them. He also asked the police to take action against anyone posting "malicious" messages and fake news on social media related to the disaster. (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Sonali Paul) By Hyun Young Yi and Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol told supporters in a letter he will "fight until the end" as he faces an attempt by authorities to arrest him over his short-lived imposition of martial law last month, a lawyer said on Thursday It was unclear when and how police could make the arrest and whether the presidential security service, which has blocked access by investigators with a search warrant to Yoon's office and official residence, would try to stop it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, police scuffled with Yoon supporters who laid down in the road to try to block access to his residence. Police issued dispersal orders and then forcibly removed some protesters, Reuters journalists said. Yoon wrote in the letter late on Wednesday to the hundreds of supporters gathered near his official residence: "I am watching on YouTube live all the hard work you are doing." "I will fight until the end to protect this country together with you," he said in the letter, an image of which was sent to Reuters by Seok Dong-hyeon, a lawyer advising Yoon. The opposition Democratic Party, which has majority control of parliament and led the impeachment of Yoon on Dec. 14, said the letter proved Yoon was delusional and remains committed to complete his "insurrection". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "As if trying to stage insurrection wasn't enough, he is now inciting his supporters to an extreme clash," party spokesman Jo Seoung-lae said in a statement. Yoon shocked the country with a late-night announcement on Dec. 3 that he was imposing martial law to overcome political deadlock and root out "anti-state forces". Within hours, however, 190 lawmakers had defied the cordons of troops and police and voted against Yoon's order. About six hours after his initial decree, Yoon rescinded it. On Tuesday, a court approved a warrant for Yoon's arrest, which potentially would make him the first sitting president to be detained as part of investigations over allegations he masterminded insurrection by trying to impose martial law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading a joint team of investigators that include the police and prosecutors, has until Jan. 6 to execute the arrest warrant. Yoon Kab-keun, a lawyer for the impeached president, has said the arrest warrant was illegal and invalid because the CIO did not have the authority under South Korean law to request a warrant. The lawyer on Thursday warned that police officers would face arrest by "the presidential security service or any citizens" if they try to detain Yoon on behalf of the CIO, saying their authority is limited to crowd control and maintaining public order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Separately, Yoon's trial on impeachment is being heard at the Constitutional Court. The court will hold the second hearing on Friday. Yoon has been suspended from presidential duties and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has taken over as acting president until the outcome of the trial. If the court upholds the impeachment and Yoon is removed from office, a new presidential election will be held within 60 days. The warrant for Yoon's arrest and also a search of his office and residence was issued after the conservative career prosecutor defied repeated summons by investigators to appear for questioning in the criminal investigation separate from the Constitutional Court trial. A former defence minister who officials said recommended Yoon declare martial law has been indicted on charges of insurrection and will go on trial on Jan. 16. Some of the top military officers commanding the defence of the capital, Seoul, have also been indicted for their alleged involvement. (Reporting by Hyun Young Yi and Jack Kim; Additional reporting by Hyunsu Yim, Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith; Editing by Michael Perry and Angus MacSwan) Speaker Mike Johnsons historically narrow majority just shrunk even further, creating a major challenge for congressional Republicans as they seek to enact President Donald Trumps agenda. At the start of the 119th Congress, Johnson was already facing the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years. The margin is now even smaller after Mike Waltz, a Florida Republican, resigned from the House on Monday to serve as Trumps national security adviser, a role that does not require Senate confirmation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That brings the partisan breakdown to 218 Republicans and 215 Democrats, one of the thinnest House majorities in history. And the margin is soon expected to shrink even further. Trump has named GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as his pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, a role that is subject to Senate confirmation. If Stefanik is confirmed as expected, Republicans House majority would drop down to 217 to 215. At that point, House Republicans would not be able to afford a single defection to pass legislation along party lines until the vacancies are filled. Republicans won 220 House seats in the November elections, while Democrats won 215, the most narrowly divided House majority since the outset of the Great Depression, almost a century ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the start of the new session of Congress, however, the partisan breakdown stood at 219 to 215, because former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida opted not to return to Congress. Passing a bill in the House requires a majority of all members present and voting. The magic number is 218 if every member shows up to vote and all 435 seats are filled, but that can change if there are vacancies or absences. A tie vote in the House is a fail. If Republicans arent in lockstep, then House GOP leaders will need Democrats to pass legislation. How the House majority ranks in history The last time a minority in the House held 215 or more seats was after the 1930 elections, when Republicans won 218 seats, Democrats won 216 and the Farmer-Labor Party won one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 72nd Congress which took place in the early years of the Great Depression era officially started in March 1931, but did not actually convene to conduct legislative business until months later, in December 1931. At the official start of that term, in March, the House margin had narrowed even further to 217 seats for Republicans to 216 for Democrats with one seat for the Farmer-Labor party and one vacancy as a result of the death of one Republican. In an unusual turn of events, however, the partisan breakdown changed significantly by the time Congress convened when a series of additional deaths and ensuing special elections flipped control of the chamber to Democrats, though the margin remained narrow. According to House historical records, the 65th Congress had the closest party split in American history, but in that case, the partisan division was so narrow that neither party secured an outright majority in the House based on election results, which left Republicans with 215 seats and Democrats with 214. As a result, a handful of third-party lawmakers played a decisive role when the House convened to elect a speaker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is not yet clear when a confirmation vote for Stefanik will take place, but Senate Republicans have pledged to hold votes on nominations as soon as possible. Vacant seats in the House dont remain vacant forever. Special elections have already been set to fill the Florida congressional seats held by Gaetz and Waltz, but that wont happen immediately and the seats are expected to remain vacant for several months. With Republicans in control of Washington, there will be intense pressure on GOP leaders to swiftly enact Trumps agenda. But the extraordinarily tight margin gives any rank-and-file lawmaker the ability to exert outsized influence by making demands on the speaker. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson has already had to contend with that frequently in the form of pressure from his right flank, a dynamic that now set to intensify. Challenges ahead after speaker election Johnson won the speakership in a nail-biter of a vote at the start of the 119th Congress, a sign of the difficulty of overseeing such a narrow majority with little room for error. To be elected speaker, a candidate needs to win a majority of members who vote for a specific person on the House floor. The election took place with the majority at 219 to 215, which meant that Johnson could only lose a single Republican votes if every lawmaker voted and all Democrats voted against him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the initial roll call vote, Johnson had come up short, with three GOP defections. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky had voted for Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota; Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina had voted for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio; and Rep. Keith Self of Texas had voted for Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida. But after everyone had voted, the vote was held open for an extended period of time meaning that it was not gaveled to an official close as Johnson worked to lock down the votes. Then, in an abrupt turn of events, Self and Norman flipped their votes in support of Johnson, effectively handing him the gavel. This story and headline have been updated with additional developments. CNNs Zach Wolf contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) A Springfield man who is a convicted felon has been arrested after police seized a loaded firearm and cocaine during a traffic stop on Wednesday. In a news release from Springfield police, at around 7:15 p.m. officers observed an unregistered vehicle at a red light on East Columbus Avenue which proceeded to make an improper turn. Officers attempted a traffic stop however, the driver collided with another vehicle before stopping at the intersection of Union Street and East Columbus Avenue. An evil act: Louisiana officials, FBI say suspect in NOLA attack acted alone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The driver, identified as 41-year-old Jason Patterson of Springfield, had a suspended license and was arrested. Patterson told police there was a gun in the car, which was located on the drivers side floor, cocaine was found inside the center console, and $1,500 in cash was seized. Patterson was previously convicted on firearm charges in both Federal Court in Springfield and in Hampden Superior Court, as well as a conviction of cocaine distribution in Springfield District Court. He is now facing the following charges: Carrying a Loaded Firearm without a License 3rd Offense Carrying a Firearm without a License 3rd Offense Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony Firearm Violation with Three Prior Violent/Drug Crimes Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm Possession with the Intent to Distribute a Class B Drug Operating a Motor Vehicle with a Suspended License Unregistered Motor Vehicle Uninsured Motor Vehicle Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. The state panel that investigates misconduct by Florida judges intends to dismiss its case against Jeff Ashton an Orange County judge accused of shouting at an attorney and showing bias against others while on the bench following his November electoral defeat. In addition to Ashton leaving office, the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission cited his agreement to not hold further judicial office or senior judge status as basis for dismissal, according to a single-page notice filed Thursday. Ashton declined comment through an email from his lawyer Thomas Somerville. The action brings an apparent end to a tumultuous public career: Ashton was the prosecutor in the high-profile trial of Casey Anthony, acquitted of the murder of her two-year-old daughter in 2011, and then served a single term as Orange-Osceola State Attorney beginning in 2012 before losing a reelection bid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a judge, Ashton, who won his post in 2018, was accused of a pattern of misconduct by the commission, including a case where he shouted at an attorney and accused him of provoking his angry face, according to filings before the Florida Supreme Court. He was also accused of showing bias against attorneys in multiple cases, which the commission said was evidenced by his facial expressions and overall demeanor. The commission said it previously cautioned Ashton to not allow himself to be provoked into intemperate behavior by what you perceive as unprofessional conduct by attorneys or parties, including one instance where he threatened to charge a plaintiffs attorney with direct criminal contempt. Ashton denied being intemperate with attorneys who appeared in his courtroom. The charges against him were filed Oct. 2, about a month before his Election Day defeat by Alicia Peyton, who got 64% of the vote. Former Florida Gov. Buddy MacKay dead at 91 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sommerville had pushed back on allegations about Ashtons inappropriate conduct in an Oct. 22 filing, denying they amounted to violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct. While the judge admitted he shouted out an attorneys name, he did so to regain that attorneys attention after the lawyer spoke over him and turned his back on Judge Ashton as he was speaking to the attorney, according to the filing. Ashton further admitted to telling the attorney he was provoking his angry face but it was said outside the presence of the jury contrary to what was alleged by the commission. Judge Ashton was careful not to do or say anything to prejudice the litigants in the case, Somerville wrote of the incident. His goal in that particular case, as in all cases, was to make sure both sides had a fair trial. In order to accomplish that goal, he admonished both sides for their inappropriate theatrics during the trial. Ashton further argued his demeanor and facial expressions didnt show bias to either party. He did, however, admit to threatening a lawyer with contempt and acknowledged that was an error. Still, he denies that his behavior was intemperate toward the people appearing before him. The Virginia Capitol (Photo by Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury) Heading into the third year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, states will continue to introduce and consider legislation to expand or restrict access to reproductive health care and abortion as legislative sessions begin. In anticipation of President-elect Donald Trumps return to the White House in January, states with broad reproductive rights protections have introduced bills to shield patients and doctors if the incoming Republican administration overturns protections implemented under President Joe Biden. States with strict bans, meanwhile, have started floating fetal personhood bans, abortion pill punishments and other restrictions. Most legislatures will convene during the second week in January or later and adjourn midway through the year. California tries to protect abortion pills and medical privacy On the campaign trail, Trump insisted he would not sign a federal abortion ban and even criticized some strict state laws. But the fate of a host of federal abortion-related policy and lawsuits now rests with Trump and his appointees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement National anti-abortion groups are lobbying the incoming Trump administration to implement a long list of regulatory measures, including revoking a Biden-era rule that requires emergency health workers to stabilize pregnant patients even if treatment involves an abortion procedure. Anti-abortion leaders told States Newsroom they are especially focused on lobbying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to restrict medication abortion and prohibit its use via telemedicine. Trumps nominee for HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has previously defended abortion rights, but anti-abortion activists are trying to appeal to Kennedys outspoken skepticism of pharmaceuticals, arguing that negative health and environmental side effects of abortion drugs were insufficiently tested, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has disputed. Kennedy recently signaled he is open to restricting the medications. Ahead of the new year, California Democrats introduced several bills to safeguard medication abortion and enforce the states Reproductive Privacy Act, which ensures the right to make reproductive care decisions without government interference. Assembly Bill 40 would include emergency abortion and reproductive health services in the definition of emergency services and care; Assembly Bill 45 would prohibit providers from releasing patients abortion-related medical information to other states; and Assembly Bill 54 would shield abortion-pill manufacturers and distributors and health professionals from legal and professional liability. Bills to restrict abortion drugs In Texas, where abortion was banned in 2021, Republican lawmakers and law enforcement officials have signaled they are cracking down on abortion drugs, which are often mailed from states with so-called shield laws to states with abortion bans. Texas set up an interstate legal battle in December, when Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In November, Republican Texas Rep.-elect Pat Curry introduced House Bill 1339, which would classify mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances, despite the FDA determining the drugs are safe. The bill is similar to a Louisiana law enacted last year, over which health care providers have sued, saying the measure requires stricter storage and documentation that could delay care for patients in emergency situations. It was sponsored by Republican Louisiana Sen. Thomas Pressly, whose pregnant sister was given abortion-inducing medication against her knowledge by her ex-husband. Anti-abortion groups have been building the narrative that more state legislation targeting abortion drugs is needed to address coerced or unwanted abortions. The Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion research think tank behind retracted abortion-pill research, claims unwanted or coerced abortion is a hidden epidemic, based in part on their 2023 study of surveyed women. Their finding that nearly 70% of abortions are coerced, unwanted or inconsistent with womens preferences lumps in women who said their abortion was unwanted or coerced (24%) with women who said their abortions were accepted but inconsistent with their values and preferences (43%). The Heritage Foundation, the conservative group behind a set of policies known as Project 2025, has gathered several examples of abortion pills given to pregnant women without their consent. To combat the problem, they recommend states ban telemedicine and mail-order abortion pills and strengthen or enact laws targeting abortion coercion. Kansas passed a law in 2024 making it a felony to force a woman to end a pregnancy, overriding the governors veto. Lawmakers push bills to establish fetal personhood In 2025, states with abortion bans are expected to push for explicit fetal rights in the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Oklahoma, abortion is banned under a 1910 criminal law that calls for two to five years in prison. House Bill 1008, introduced by Republican Rep. Jim Olsen, would grant protections for fetuses and make abortion a felony crime for health care providers, punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and/or 10 years imprisonment. The proposed bill only allows abortions if the provider judges the birth of the baby to be a threat to the life of the pregnant woman. Tennessee already has a strict abortion ban with some health exceptions. But House Bill 26, introduced by Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso, would take the law much further. It declares human life begins at fertilization, says an unborn child is entitled to the full and equal protection of the laws that prohibit violence against any other person, and makes it a federal crime under the Comstock Act punishable by up to $5 million to mail or deliver abortion pills. Bulso also introduced House Joint Resolution 7, to amend the state constitution to affirm equal protection rights for every human being from fertilization to natural death. Legislation to expand, protect and restrict abortion access following ballot initiatives As ballot initiative organizers have told States Newsroom, beliefs about abortion rights in America dont neatly align with partisan leanings. There was no better demonstration of that phenomenon than during the 2024 presidential election, when voters in states that favored Trump also voted to protect abortion access, some by overwhelming margins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Policy questions related to abortion were on the ballot in 10 states in November, and seven states voted to pass them. The three states where measures failed were Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota. Though 57% of Florida voters favored the side to restore access, the state constitution requires 60% for an amendment to pass. In Nebraska, a competing amendment to keep abortions limited to the first trimester, roughly 12 weeks gestation, triumphed over an amendment that would have protected abortion access until fetal viability in the state constitution. But Nebraskas abortion-rights measure did not fail as miserably as South Dakotas effort to enshrine abortion access in the first trimester, rejected by nearly 59% of the states voters. But in Arizona, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to restore abortion access, and a slim majority in Missouri did the same, although clinics are still waiting for the courts to determine whether they can start offering abortion care again. In Montana, where abortion access has been largely uninterrupted since the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision, the electorate approved a measure spelling out the right to an abortion as part of reproductive health care, prohibiting government interference before viability. Similarly in Nevada, 63% voted to add the right to their constitution, although it wont become official unless voters approve it again in 2026. In all of those states, Trump took the electoral college vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement States that already had broad abortion access, including Colorado, Maryland and New York, passed measures expanding it further. Colorado will require insurers to pay for treatment, Maryland added the right to its state constitution, and New York prohibited discrimination because of pregnancy. At least one state will attempt to qualify an abortion ballot question for the 2026 midterms. Idahoans United for Women and Families launched in April and filed its ballot titles for approval in August. Melanie Folwell, the groups spokesperson, told States Newsroom that signature gathering will likely begin in late January, and the group has already raised $321,000. Folwell said more than 500 people have signed up to volunteer and help collect signatures. Legislation to return some access in states with abortion bans North Dakota is in limbo after a district judge struck down the states abortion ban in a September ruling, calling the law unconstitutional. The state quickly appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which recently heard arguments to determine whether abortions can legally take place while they consider the appeal. The ban made all abortions illegal, with exceptions for serious health risks or cases of rape or incest, but only if the person had been pregnant for less than six weeks. Amid the legal wrangling, medical school professor and Republican state Rep. Eric Murphy proposed a bill that he says would offer a middle ground based in science for abortion access in the state, North Dakota Monitor reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation would allow abortions for any reason through 15 weeks of pregnancy, since most people dont know theyre pregnant for several weeks and should have time to decide whether they want to continue the pregnancy, Murphy said. Between weeks 16 and 26, abortions would be permitted if a committee of three doctors determined it was medically necessary. The bill would allow doctors to perform abortions for emergency health reasons at any time without the committees approval. This type of model is in place in other states such as Alabama, but the exception is rarely utilized by medical professionals for fear of their decision being questioned or prosecuted, threatening their medical license or freedom. Although the Monitor noted a recent poll showed 55% of North Dakotans oppose the states abortion ban, fellow Republican lawmakers say Murphys bill is likely going nowhere in the upcoming legislative session. Efforts to improve maternal health, pregnancy rights While some states remain focused on abortion restrictions, others are turning attention to maternal health care, particularly for people of color and those living in rural areas, and extra protections for individuals in states with abortion access. Lawmakers in Michigans Senate advanced a package of eight bills called Momnibus, a play on omnibus, aimed at improving maternal health outcomes and decreasing racial disparities in health outcomes during pregnancy, Michigan Advance reported. Among them, Senate Bill 819 would require a government agency to take reports of obstetric violence or racism. The legislative body is also pushing through a bill to protect reproductive health care data. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Virginia lawmakers are also preparing to consider maternal health care bills that would include remote monitoring services for some high-risk patients in rural areas, as well as an expansion of Medicaid, according to Virginia Mercury. In Kentucky, a state with a near-total abortion ban, there is also a push to establish special insurance coverage periods two years postpartum, recruiting more people of color to medical teams, hiring more doula workers for care teams and more, Kentucky Lantern reported. In California, theres a proposal to reimburse alternative birth centers under state Medicaid. Texas legislators may also debate passage of a package of proposals aimed at addressing maternal health care in rural areas. Almost half of all Texas counties offer no maternity care services, according to Texas Tribune, and living in a maternity care desert contributes to delayed prenatal care, increased pregnancy complications and worse delivery outcomes. New Jersey Monitor reported a bill that would allow workers to take between seven and 21 days of leave for the death of a child, miscarriage, stillbirth or other related reproductive losses faces one more hurdle in the state senate before it may become law. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Fallout from a resurrected Civil War-era abortion ban and a citizen-led abortion-rights ballot measure have put the issue at the center of many critical races in Arizona. (Gloria Rebecca Gomez/Arizona Mirror) Heading into the third year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, states will continue to introduce and consider legislation to expand or restrict access to reproductive health care and abortion as legislative sessions begin. In anticipation of President-elect Donald Trumps return to the White House in January, states with broad reproductive rights protections have introduced bills to shield patients and doctors if the incoming Republican administration overturns protections implemented under President Joe Biden. States with strict bans, meanwhile, have started floating fetal personhood bans, abortion pill punishments and other restrictions. Most legislatures will convene during the second week in January or later and adjourn midway through the year. California tries to protect abortion pills and medical privacy On the campaign trail, Trump insisted he would not sign a federal abortion ban and even criticized some strict state laws. But the fate of a host of federal abortion-related policy and lawsuits now rests with Trump and his appointees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement National anti-abortion groups are lobbying the incoming Trump administration to implement a long list of regulatory measures, including revoking a Biden-era rule that requires emergency health workers to stabilize pregnant patients even if treatment involves an abortion procedure. Anti-abortion leaders told States Newsroom they are especially focused on lobbying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to restrict medication abortion and prohibit its use via telemedicine. Trumps nominee for HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has previously defended abortion rights, but anti-abortion activists are trying to appeal to Kennedys outspoken skepticism of pharmaceuticals, arguing that negative health and environmental side effects of abortion drugs were insufficiently tested, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has disputed. Kennedy recently signaled he is open to restricting the medications. Ahead of the new year, California Democrats introduced several bills to safeguard medication abortion and enforce the states Reproductive Privacy Act, which ensures the right to make reproductive care decisions without government interference. Assembly Bill 40 would include emergency abortion and reproductive health services in the definition of emergency services and care; Assembly Bill 45 would prohibit providers from releasing patients abortion-related medical information to other states; and Assembly Bill 54 would shield abortion-pill manufacturers and distributors and health professionals from legal and professional liability. Bills to restrict abortion drugs In Texas, where abortion was banned in 2021, Republican lawmakers and law enforcement officials have signaled they are cracking down on abortion drugs, which are often mailed from states with so-called shield laws to states with abortion bans. Texas set up an interstate legal battle in December, when Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In November, Republican Texas Rep.-elect Pat Curry introduced House Bill 1339, which would classify mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances, despite the FDA determining the drugs are safe. Packages of Mifepristone tablets are displayed at a family planning clinic on April 13, 2023 in Rockville, Maryland. (Photo illustration by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) The bill is similar to a Louisiana law enacted last year, over which health care providers have sued, saying the measure requires stricter storage and documentation that could delay care for patients in emergency situations. It was sponsored by Republican Louisiana Sen. Thomas Pressly, whose pregnant sister was given abortion-inducing medication against her knowledge by her ex-husband. Anti-abortion groups have been building the narrative that more state legislation targeting abortion drugs is needed to address coerced or unwanted abortions. The Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion research think tank behind retracted abortion-pill research, claims unwanted or coerced abortion is a hidden epidemic, based in part on their 2023 study of surveyed women. Their finding that nearly 70% of abortions are coerced, unwanted or inconsistent with womens preferences lumps in women who said their abortion was unwanted or coerced (24%) with women who said their abortions were accepted but inconsistent with their values and preferences (43%). The Heritage Foundation, the conservative group behind a set of policies known as Project 2025, has gathered several examples of abortion pills given to pregnant women without their consent. To combat the problem, they recommend states ban telemedicine and mail-order abortion pills and strengthen or enact laws targeting abortion coercion. Kansas passed a law in 2024 making it a felony to force a woman to end a pregnancy, overriding the governors veto. Lawmakers push bills to establish fetal personhood In 2025, states with abortion bans are expected to push for explicit fetal rights in the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Oklahoma, abortion is banned under a 1910 criminal law that calls for two to five years in prison. House Bill 1008, introduced by Republican Rep. Jim Olsen, would grant protections for fetuses and make abortion a felony crime for health care providers, punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and/or 10 years imprisonment. The proposed bill only allows abortions if the provider judges the birth of the baby to be a threat to the life of the pregnant woman. Tennessee already has a strict abortion ban with some health exceptions. But House Bill 26, introduced by Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso, would take the law much further. It declares human life begins at fertilization, says an unborn child is entitled to the full and equal protection of the laws that prohibit violence against any other person, and makes it a federal crime under the Comstock Act punishable by up to $5 million to mail or deliver abortion pills. Bulso also introduced House Joint Resolution 7, to amend the state constitution to affirm equal protection rights for every human being from fertilization to natural death. Legislation to expand, protect and restrict abortion access following ballot initiatives As ballot initiative organizers have told States Newsroom, beliefs about abortion rights in America dont neatly align with partisan leanings. There was no better demonstration of that phenomenon than during the 2024 presidential election, when voters in states that favored Trump also voted to protect abortion access, some by overwhelming margins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Policy questions related to abortion were on the ballot in 10 states in November, and seven states voted to pass them. The three states where measures failed were Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota. Though 57% of Florida voters favored the side to restore access, the state constitution requires 60% for an amendment to pass. In Nebraska, a competing amendment to keep abortions limited to the first trimester, roughly 12 weeks gestation, triumphed over an amendment that would have protected abortion access until fetal viability in the state constitution. But Nebraskas abortion-rights measure did not fail as miserably as South Dakotas effort to enshrine abortion access in the first trimester, rejected by nearly 59% of the states voters. But in Arizona, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to restore abortion access, and a slim majority in Missouri did the same, although clinics are still waiting for the courts to determine whether they can start offering abortion care again. In Montana, where abortion access has been largely uninterrupted since the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision, the electorate approved a measure spelling out the right to an abortion as part of reproductive health care, prohibiting government interference before viability. Similarly in Nevada, 63% voted to add the right to their constitution, although it wont become official unless voters approve it again in 2026. In all of those states, Trump took the electoral college vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement States that already had broad abortion access, including Colorado, Maryland and New York, passed measures expanding it further. Colorado will require insurers to pay for treatment, Maryland added the right to its state constitution, and New York prohibited discrimination because of pregnancy. At least one state will attempt to qualify an abortion ballot question for the 2026 midterms. Idahoans United for Women and Families launched in April and filed its ballot titles for approval in August. Melanie Folwell, the groups spokesperson, told States Newsroom that signature gathering will likely begin in late January, and the group has already raised $321,000. Folwell said more than 500 people have signed up to volunteer and help collect signatures. Legislation to return some access in states with abortion bans North Dakota is in limbo after a district judge struck down the states abortion ban in a September ruling, calling the law unconstitutional. The state quickly appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which recently heard arguments to determine whether abortions can legally take place while they consider the appeal. The ban made all abortions illegal, with exceptions for serious health risks or cases of rape or incest, but only if the person had been pregnant for less than six weeks. Amid the legal wrangling, medical school professor and Republican state Rep. Eric Murphy proposed a bill that he says would offer a middle ground based in science for abortion access in the state, North Dakota Monitor reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation would allow abortions for any reason through 15 weeks of pregnancy, since most people dont know theyre pregnant for several weeks and should have time to decide whether they want to continue the pregnancy, Murphy said. Between weeks 16 and 26, abortions would be permitted if a committee of three doctors determined it was medically necessary. The bill would allow doctors to perform abortions for emergency health reasons at any time without the committees approval. This type of model is in place in other states such as Alabama, but the exception is rarely utilized by medical professionals for fear of their decision being questioned or prosecuted, threatening their medical license or freedom. Although the Monitor noted a recent poll showed 55% of North Dakotans oppose the states abortion ban, fellow Republican lawmakers say Murphys bill is likely going nowhere in the upcoming legislative session. Efforts to improve maternal health, pregnancy rights While some states remain focused on abortion restrictions, others are turning attention to maternal health care, particularly for people of color and those living in rural areas, and extra protections for individuals in states with abortion access. Lawmakers in Michigans Senate advanced a package of eight bills called Momnibus, a play on omnibus, aimed at improving maternal health outcomes and decreasing racial disparities in health outcomes during pregnancy, Michigan Advance reported. Among them, Senate Bill 819 would require a government agency to take reports of obstetric violence or racism. The legislative body is also pushing through a bill to protect reproductive health care data. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Virginia lawmakers are also preparing to consider maternal health care bills that would include remote monitoring services for some high-risk patients in rural areas, as well as an expansion of Medicaid, according to Virginia Mercury. In Kentucky, a state with a near-total abortion ban, there is also a push to establish special insurance coverage periods two years postpartum, recruiting more people of color to medical teams, hiring more doula workers for care teams and more, Kentucky Lantern reported. In California, theres a proposal to reimburse alternative birth centers under state Medicaid. Texas legislators may also debate passage of a package of proposals aimed at addressing maternal health care in rural areas. Almost half of all Texas counties offer no maternity care services, according to Texas Tribune, and living in a maternity care desert contributes to delayed prenatal care, increased pregnancy complications and worse delivery outcomes. New Jersey Monitor reported a bill that would allow workers to take between seven and 21 days of leave for the death of a child, miscarriage, stillbirth or other related reproductive losses faces one more hurdle in the state senate before it may become law. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Weighted cumulative incidence curves over the observation period by clozapine or olanzapine use status. Credit: PLOS Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004457 An inter-departmental research team at the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) has conducted the world's first analytic real-world cohort study on the association of clozapine, a highly efficacious antipsychotic drug, with the incidence of blood cancer. Their findings show that the risk of blood cancer associated with the use of clozapine is very low, with an average increase of less than six cases per 10,000 persons using clozapine for one year. Therefore, the clinical significance of such a risk is plausibly low. While previous preliminary Western studies have shown a potentially significant increase in risk, this study suggests that with stringent blood monitoring measures before and during clozapine use in Hong Kong and around the world, it may not be necessary to further restrict the use of clozapine or issue special warnings by the Department of Health or local drug regulatory authorities, thus facilitating early and effective treatment of mental illness. The study is published in PLOS Medicine. Clozapine is currently the only antipsychotic drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. It is widely known for its high efficacy in reducing symptoms, relapse rate, and all-cause mortality in schizophrenia and is widely regarded as a drug of last resort. Recent Finnish and American studies have suggested that clozapine may be associated with a significantly increased risk of blood cancer. However, due to data restrictions and study design, the additional number of blood cancer cases associated with prior clozapine exposure could not be estimated and remained unclear. The clinical significance of this risk, therefore, had yet to be determined. The research team used territory-wide electronic health records from the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong to comb through 400,000 patient records to construct a retrospective cohort of approximately 10,000 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia between 2001 and 2022 and followed up for a median of seven years since their drug initiation. The team's observations of the patients showed that the absolute risk of blood cancer is very rare. In the cohort of 10,000 patients followed over a period of about seven years, only 39 developed blood cancer. After statistical adjustment, the study estimated that there were fewer than six cases of blood cancer per 10,000 patients using clozapine for one year. The weighted incidence rate ratio of blood cancer in clozapine users versus controls was estimated at 2.22, suggesting that there is a slight association. This observation is consistent with the findings of previous Finnish and American case-control studies. No association was observed for other cancer types. "In response to Western studies suggesting a potential risk of blood cancer after clozapine use, this study provides reliable evidence for patients and health care professionals supporting the safety of the drug. The current blood monitoring measures are very comprehensive. Patients do not need to be overly concerned about the risk of blood cancer caused by clozapine given the rarity of its occurrence demonstrated in this study. "Clinicians should weigh the risks and benefits of the drug, taking into account the rarity of the association between clozapine and blood cancer, and make appropriate arrangements according to patients' needs," said Professor Francisco Lai Tsz-tsun, the project leader and Assistant Professor in both the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy and the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care under the School of Clinical Medicine of HKUMed. "Because of the readily linked and longitudinally available data across all public health care facilities in Hong Kong, we were able to come up with a better study design than those in other countries," said Professor Lai. "This enabled us to make immediate use of big data to better address clinically meaningful health care issues than researchers in many other countries, highlighting the key strengths of Hong Kong's health care big data and its potential application in drug safety monitoring." The research team is currently re-examining a wide range of potential adverse effects of other psychotropic drugs, especially cancer risks, and their overall long-term safety and effectiveness. "Ultimately, through our joint interdisciplinary efforts, we hope to better inform day-to-day clinical decisions and make medication use in patients with mental illness much safer and more effective," Professor Lai added. More information: Yuqi Hu et al, Rare but elevated incidence of hematological malignancy after clozapine use in schizophrenia: A population cohort study, PLOS Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004457 Journal information: PLoS Medicine Anti-abortion and pro-abortion people rally outside of the Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 7, 2024, after the oral argument on the proposed amendment to enshrine abortion-rights in the Florida Constitution. (Photo by Jackie Llanos/Florida Phoenix) Heading into the third year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, states will continue to introduce and consider legislation to expand or restrict access to reproductive health care and abortion as legislative sessions begin. In anticipation of President-elect Donald Trumps return to the White House in January, states with broad reproductive rights protections have introduced bills to shield patients and doctors if the incoming Republican administration overturns protections implemented under President Joe Biden. States with strict bans, meanwhile, have started floating fetal personhood bans, abortion pill punishments, and other restrictions. Most legislatures will convene during the second week in January or later and adjourn midway through the year. California tries to protect abortion pills and medical privacy On the campaign trail, Trump insisted he would not sign a federal abortion ban and even criticized some strict state laws. But the fate of a host of federal abortion-related policy and lawsuits now rests with Trump and his appointees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement National anti-abortion groups are lobbying the incoming Trump administration to implement a long list of regulatory measures, including revoking a Biden-era rule that requires emergency health workers to stabilize pregnant patients even if treatment involves an abortion procedure. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes the stage at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox Aug. 12. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Iowa Capital Dispatch) Anti-abortion leaders told States Newsroom they are especially focused on lobbying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to restrict medication abortion and prohibit its use via telemedicine. Trumps nominee for HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has previously defended abortion rights, but anti-abortion activists are trying to appeal to Kennedys outspoken skepticism of pharmaceuticals, arguing that negative health and environmental side effects of abortion drugs were insufficiently tested, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has disputed. Kennedy recently signaled he is open to restricting the medications. Ahead of the new year, California Democrats introduced several bills to safeguard medication abortion and enforce the states Reproductive Privacy Act, which ensures the right to make reproductive care decisions without government interference. Assembly Bill 40 would include emergency abortion and reproductive health services in the definition of emergency services and care; Assembly Bill 45 would prohibit providers from releasing patients abortion-related medical information to other states; and Assembly Bill 54 would shield abortion-pill manufacturers and distributors and health professionals from legal and professional liability. Bills to restrict abortion drugs In Texas, where abortion was banned in 2021, Republican lawmakers and law enforcement officials have signaled they are cracking down on abortion drugs, which are often mailed from states with so-called shield laws to states with abortion bans. Texas set up an interstate legal battle in December, when Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In November, Republican Texas Rep.-elect Pat Curry introduced House Bill 1339, which would classify mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances, despite the FDA determining the drugs are safe. The bill is similar to a Louisiana law enacted last year, over which health care providers have sued, saying the measure requires stricter storage and documentation that could delay care for patients in emergency situations. It was sponsored by Republican Louisiana Sen. Thomas Pressly, whose pregnant sister was given abortion-inducing medication against her knowledge by her ex-husband. Anti-abortion groups have been building the narrative that more state legislation targeting abortion drugs is needed to address coerced or unwanted abortions. The Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion research think tank behind retracted abortion-pill research, claims unwanted or coerced abortion is a hidden epidemic, based in part on their 2023 study of surveyed women. Their finding that nearly 70% of abortions are coerced, unwanted or inconsistent with womens preferences lumps in women who said their abortion was unwanted or coerced (24%) with women who said their abortions were accepted but inconsistent with their values and preferences (43%). The Heritage Foundation, the conservative group behind a set of policies known as Project 2025, has gathered several examples of abortion pills given to pregnant women without their consent. To combat the problem, they recommend states ban telemedicine and mail-order abortion pills and strengthen or enact laws targeting abortion coercion. Kansas passed a law in 2024 making it a felony to force a woman to end a pregnancy, overriding the governors veto. Lawmakers push bills to establish fetal personhood In 2025, states with abortion bans are expected to push for explicit fetal rights in the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Oklahoma, abortion is banned under a 1910 criminal law that calls for two to five years in prison. House Bill 1008, introduced by Republican Rep. Jim Olsen, would grant protections for fetuses and make abortion a felony crime for health care providers, punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and/or 10 years imprisonment. The proposed bill only allows abortions if the provider judges the birth of the baby to be a threat to the life of the pregnant woman. Tennessee already has a strict abortion ban with some health exceptions. But House Bill 26, introduced by Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso, would take the law much further. It declares human life begins at fertilization, says an unborn child is entitled to the full and equal protection of the laws that prohibit violence against any other person, and makes it a federal crime under the Comstock Act punishable by up to $5 million to mail or deliver abortion pills. Bulso also introduced House Joint Resolution 7, to amend the state constitution to affirm equal protection rights for every human being from fertilization to natural death. Legislation to expand, protect, and restrict abortion access following ballot initiatives As ballot initiative organizers have told States Newsroom, beliefs about abortion rights in America dont neatly align with partisan leanings. There was no better demonstration of that phenomenon than during the 2024 presidential election, when voters in states that favored Trump also voted to protect abortion access, some by overwhelming margins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Policy questions related to abortion were on the ballot in 10 states in November, and seven states voted to pass them. The three states where measures failed were Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Though 57% of Florida voters favored the side to restore access, the state constitution requires 60% for an amendment to pass. In Nebraska, a competing amendment to keep abortions limited to the first trimester, roughly 12 weeks gestation, triumphed over an amendment that would have protected abortion access until fetal viability in the state constitution. But Nebraskas abortion-rights measure did not fail as miserably as South Dakotas effort to enshrine abortion access in the first trimester, rejected by nearly 59% of the states voters. But in Arizona, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to restore abortion access, and a slim majority in Missouri did the same, although clinics are still waiting for the courts to determine whether they can start offering abortion care again. In Montana, where abortion access has been largely uninterrupted since the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision, the electorate approved a measure spelling out the right to an abortion as part of reproductive health care, prohibiting government interference before viability. Similarly in Nevada, 63% voted to add the right to their constitution, although it wont become official unless voters approve it again in 2026. In all of those states, Trump took the electoral college vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement States that already had broad abortion access, including Colorado, Maryland, and New York, passed measures expanding it further. Colorado will require insurers to pay for treatment, Maryland added the right to its state constitution, and New York prohibited discrimination because of pregnancy. At least one state will attempt to qualify an abortion ballot question for the 2026 midterms. Idahoans United for Women and Families launched in April and filed its ballot titles for approval in August. Melanie Folwell, the groups spokesperson, told States Newsroom that signature gathering will likely begin in late January, and the group has already raised $321,000. Folwell said more than 500 people have signed up to volunteer and help collect signatures. Legislation to return some access in states with abortion bans North Dakota is in limbo after a district judge struck down the states abortion ban in a September ruling, calling the law unconstitutional. The state quickly appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which recently heard arguments to determine whether abortions can legally take place while it considers the appeal. The ban made all abortions illegal, with exceptions for serious health risks or cases of rape or incest, but only if the person had been pregnant for less than six weeks. Amid the legal wrangling, medical school professor and Republican state Rep. Eric Murphy proposed a bill that he says would offer a middle ground based in science for abortion access in the state, North Dakota Monitor reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation would allow abortions for any reason through 15 weeks of pregnancy, since most people dont know theyre pregnant for several weeks and should have time to decide whether they want to continue the pregnancy, Murphy said. Between weeks 16 and 26, abortions would be permitted if a committee of three doctors determined it was medically necessary. The bill would allow doctors to perform abortions for emergency health reasons at any time without the committees approval. This type of model is in place in other states such as Alabama, but the exception is rarely utilized by medical professionals for fear of their decision being questioned or prosecuted, threatening their medical license or freedom. Although the Monitor noted a recent poll showing 55% of North Dakotans oppose the states abortion ban, fellow Republican lawmakers say Murphys bill is likely going nowhere in the coming legislative session. Efforts to improve maternal health, pregnancy rights While some states remain focused on abortion restrictions, others are turning attention to maternal health care, particularly for people of color and those living in rural areas, and extra protections for individuals in states with abortion access. Lawmakers in Michigans Senate advanced a package of eight bills called Momnibus, a play on omnibus, aimed at improving maternal health outcomes and decreasing racial disparities in health outcomes during pregnancy, Michigan Advance reported. Among them, Senate Bill 819 would require a government agency to take reports of obstetric violence or racism. The legislative body is also pushing through a bill to protect reproductive health care data. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Virginia lawmakers are preparing to consider maternal health care bills that would include remote monitoring services for some high-risk patients in rural areas, as well as an expansion of Medicaid, according to Virginia Mercury. In Kentucky, a state with a near-total abortion ban, there is a push to establish special insurance coverage periods two years postpartum, recruiting more people of color to medical teams, hiring more doula workers for care teams, and more, Kentucky Lantern reported. In California, theres a proposal to reimburse alternative birth centers under state Medicaid. Texas legislators may a package of proposals aimed at addressing maternal health care in rural areas. Almost half of all Texas counties offer no maternity care services, according to Texas Tribune, and living in a maternity care desert contributes to delayed prenatal care, increased pregnancy complications, and worse delivery outcomes. New Jersey Monitor reported a bill that would allow workers to take between seven and 21 days of leave for the death of a child, miscarriage, stillbirth, or other related reproductive losses faces one more hurdle in the state senate before it may become law. PLATTSBURGH State Sen. Dan Stec (R-Queensbury) pitched his congressional aspirations on national television on Sunday, a move which at least one county Republican chairman in the 21st District questioned the timing of. I am by far the most well-known candidate in the district, Stec said, in a five-minute interview on the television news show Fox & Friends. DOHENY SIGHTING Stecs move comes as the field of candidates seeking the Republican nomination now numbers in the teens, including former three-time regional congressional candidate Matt Doheny. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Doheny, a businessman from Watertown, has not publicly announced his candidacy, but has been speaking with county GOP chairs and national party leaders. I have heard from Matt Doheny, confirmed Clinton County Republican Chairwoman Jerika Manning, on Monday. Doheny lost to former Rep. Bill Owens (D-Plattsburgh) in 2010 and 2012, and lost to Stefanik in a bitter Republican primary in 2014, in which American Crossroads, the political action committee of Karl Rove, spent heavily on primary advertising criticizing Doheny. Warren County Republican Chairman Tim McNulty, contacted later on Sunday, said Stec did a great job on the interview, but may have jumped the gun on taking his campaign public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We all (in Warren County) support Dan, but without a resignation, we dont have an opening, said McNulty, the GOP chairman in Stecs home county. But I think its a little bit premature. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Schuylerville) is expected to resign, most likely at some point in January, to take office as Ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik is not expected to face any significant opposition in the Senate confirmation process. Once she resigns, Gov. Kathy Hochul will schedule a special election, likely sometime in late March or early April, to fill the vacant seat. Manning, the Clinton County chairwoman, said she watched Stecs interview, but would not comment further because she has agreed not to discuss specific candidates until Stefanik resigns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont have anything more to say about that, referring to Stecs interview. At this time the vacancy does not exist. McNulty said it will be interesting to see if Stecs appearance on Fox & Friends triggers others seeking the nomination to take their campaigns public. Up to this point, candidates have mostly kept their campaigns low key, with the exception of Anthony Constantino, a business man from Amsterdam, who has appeared recently in interviews on Fox Business and on the podcast of political consultant Roger Stone, who has close ties with Trump, and has been running digital ads urging Republicans in the district to contact county chairs in support of his candidacy. FIELD GROWING Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Others said to be seeking the Republican nomination include outgoing Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-Catskill), who lost reelection in the 19th District in November; state Assemblyman Chris Tague (R-Schoharie); state Sen. Mark Walczyk (R-Watertown); Assemblyman Robert Smullen (R-Johnstown); Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh (R-Ballston); Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin; and Liz Lemery Joy, a conservative writer and speaker from Schenectady who was the Republican candidate in the 20th Congressional District in 2020 and 2022. Potential candidates continue to surface, including two who just submitted resumes over the weekend, said McNulty, the Warren County chairman. Unlike a regular election, there will be no primary. County Republican chairmen in the 15-county 21st District, will select the nominee, using a weighted voting system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve got a tough job because weve got at least a dozen qualified candidates who are competent and could win, McNulty said. Stec has at least some support in the Conservative party, which will also select a nominee. Although the Conservative Party has not settled on a candidate, and we will not while the seat is occupied by Congresswoman Stefanik, a number of our local leaders have expressed support for Dan Stec, said state Conservative Chairman Jerry Kassar, on Sunday. As of deadline Monday, Stec had not returned voice mail messages left Sunday and Monday seeking comment for this report. In the Fox & Friends interview, Stec emphasized his understanding of the district and his name recognition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My entire 320,000-person Senate district resides within NY 21. I was born and raised and college-educated in this district, he said. Ive lived my entire life in this district, with the exception of the eight years that I served in the United State Navy on active duty as a nuclear engineer. Stec represents the 45th Senate District, which includes all or parts of six of the 15 counties in the 21st Congressional District. He previously was a state assemblyman, and before that Queensbury town supervisor. Stec unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the former 20th Congressional District in 2010. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stec said he supports President-elect Trumps policy proposals. I am 100% on board with the Make America Great and America First agenda. There is no daylight between Donald Trump and me when it comes forward to meeting his agenda. DEM FIELD ALSO GROWING Tague, the Schoharie County assemblyman, remains a candidate, confirmed campaign advisor Vince Casale on Sunday. Assemblyman Tague is seeking the nomination and considered by many as the front runner for the nod, Casale said. Joy, the writer and speaker from Schenectady, who grew up in Glens Falls, confirmed Sunday that she remains a candidate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have personally met with 14 out of 15 County Chairs in the 21st District, and I am still on the list of candidates being considered. I am well qualified having run a very successful congressional race that gained national attention in a deep blue district, she said. I was born and raised in Warren County, where all of my extended family still resides. If I am selected to run, I am committed to securing an additional residence in the Northern quadrant of NY-21. The Democratic party, at this point, has potentially 10 candidates seeking the partys nomination, said Warren County Chairwoman Lynne Boecher, who is heading the candidate selection process, on Monday. Potential candidates which have been publicly disclosed include Assemblyman Billy Jones ( D-Chateauguay Lake); Paula Collins, a cannabis lawyer from Canton who challenged Stefanik in November; Roderick Driscoll, a long-time teacher and principal from Peru; Blake Gendebien, a dairy framer from Lisbon in St. Lawrence County; and Steve Holden, a retired Army officer who lost to Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford), in the 22nd Congressional District in 2020. Fashion designer Stella McCartney has launched a new collection aimed at raising awareness about an under-the-radar issue in her industry: bird cruelty. As detailed by One Green Planet, McCartney is passionate about humanity's connection with the natural world. Her brand has banned fur since its start in 2001. According to the company's website, McCartney soon hopes to introduce a plant-based faux fur to reduce the use of plastic. However, McCartney explained in September that fur isn't the only animal rights issue within fashion, with around 1.5 billion birds dying every year as the industry harvests their feathers. What should the government do about the fast fashion industry? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind "When you see a pretty feather trim, or a puffer jacket with a down filling, I don't think you necessarily register that a bird has been killed. And we all love birds, right?" McCartney said of the launch of her Peace and Dove campaign, per One Green Planet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the report, the show opened with a message delivered by Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren inviting attendees to envision a world without birds. At first blush, one might be sad to imagine a walk in the park devoid of their songs. McCartney noted at her campaign launch that researchers have found birdsong can boost humans' mental health, per Vogue France. As the National Audubon Society highlights, though, a world without birds would lose much more than music. That's because birds are essential for a healthy ecosystem. They fertilize soil with their droppings (helping plant life thrive), eat crop-destroying insects (ensuring our food systems stay intact), act as a cleanup crew (limiting potential disease spread), and more. McCartney's Peace and Dove collection embraces the aesthetic appeal of the winged creatures while forgoing the cruelty associated with using their feathers. Moreover, her designs give Mother Nature an extra assist by repurposing plastic bottles (which mimic feathers) and electronic waste, preventing the items from ending up in landfills or as toxic and hazardous litter. "For me, [birds] represent freedom, purity, and peace, and so I looked at things from a bird's perspective. It's about having a lightness of touch, that femininity, flight, and general weightlessness," McCartney said, according to The Impression. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Stormzy has been banned from driving for nine months after an undercover police officer caught him using a phone behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce in west London. The rapper, named Michael Ebenazer Owuo Junior, 31, pleaded guilty via a letter to driving the Rolls-Royce Wraith while using his device on Addison Road, west Kensington. The undercover officer knocked on his tinted passenger window and said get rid of your tints and get off your phone, Wimbledon Magistrates Court heard on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was sentenced at Wimbledon Magistrates Court for the incident which took place in March 2024. Previously, Owuo admitted driving a Lamborghini Urus which had front windows illegally tinted to only 4 per cent light transmission, violating the 70 per cent requirement. The vehicles use was dangerous and put vulnerable road users at risk, prosecutor Alice Holloway said on Thursday. Owuo was stopped by officers on Coombe Lane, Kingston upon Thames, at about 12.45pm on Oct 17 2023, having previously been warned about the windows. Before Thursdays hearing he had six points on his licence. Andrew Sweet, the district judge, banned the rapper, who was not present in court, from driving for nine months and fined him 2,010. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said Owuos driving record is not good and criticised his dangerous and irresponsible actions. Peter Csemiczky, defending, said Owuo accepts responsibility and apologises. He added that the rapper has removed the tints. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. (WGHP) We will close the week with cool temperatures. Cold temperatures and perhaps a little wintry weather will follow. Mostly cloudy to partly sunny skies on Friday with highs near 50 degrees. A strong cold front moving across the Piedmont could produce wind gusts up to 30 mph. Sunny and cold on Saturday with lows in the lower 20s and highs in the upper 30s. A low-pressure system will move across the mid-south on Sunday. In the Piedmont, clouds will begin to roll in during the day. Lows on Sunday will be in the lower 20s with highs in the lower 40s. Sunday evening, light showers will start to fall. With cold, dry air in place, some sleet and snow flurries could mix in. More moisture will move in as our temperatures in the clouds begin to warm. This will probably cause our wintry mix to change to rain overnight with some pockets of freezing rain. Temperatures on Monday morning will be near 32 degrees. The chance of precipitation from Sunday night into Monday morning is 80%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Warm air aloft on Monday morning will begin to mix down to the surface. If we have any leftover freezing rain, it will switch to plain rain. Showers will end during the day Monday. Theres even a chance we could see a few peaks of sun before sunset. Highs on Monday will be in the low to middle 40s. Chance of rain 70%. Sunny and chilly on Tuesday with lows in the low to middle 20s and highs in the upper 30s. Sunny and cold Wednesday with lows around 20 degrees and highs in the upper 30s. Even colder on Thursday. Mostly sunny with lows in the upper teens and highs in the middle 30s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX8 WGHP. A Kannapolis student is off the hook for posting about shooting up his high school because he said it was a joke. A North Carolina appeals court ruled to dismiss the criminal case against that student. 12-year-old, 11-year-old to face charges as threats reach 40-plus NC schools The case revolves around a Snapchat post by an AL Brown High School student in September of 2022 that said in part, Imma shoot up AL Brown It is a joke. I do not nor have I ever owned a gun. Thank you. Pls dont report me. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Local grandparent Alfreda Richardson said she does not agree with the courts decision. I dont take that lightly, Richardson said. It was not a joke as far as Im concerned. Snapchat flagged the post as containing a threat of mass violence, according to court documents. Police were notified and the state filed a criminal case in juvenile court alleging the student made a false report concerning mass violence on educational property and communicating a threat to commit an act of mass violence on educational property. A trial judge denied the students request to dismiss the case. However, the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the dismissal this week saying the state didnt provide enough evidence to prove it was a credible threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How do we know that youre not serious? Richardson said. And then my grandkids or other kids at risk, that is something that should never be taken lightly on any social media app. Richardson said because of posts like that, she has had talks with her grandkids about reporting social media posts. If they see something, report it, she said. I tell them all the time, dont be afraid. Its your life, and we want you here. So, if you see something, you say something. A Kannapolis City Schools spokesperson said as a general policy, the district does not comment on individual student matters and has no comment on the decision of the court in the case. VIDEO: 15-year-old charged after making school threats, Monroe police say MEMPHIS, Tenn. A fire that caused $4.1 million in damage to a strip of Summer Avenue businesses was caused by arson, the Memphis Fire Department said. MFD said the blaze started at 3:47 a.m. Dec. 23 on the showroom floor of Scooters Plus at 3245 Summer in Highland Heights. Summer Avenue strip mall fire burns for five hours That business is connected to several others in a recently renovated strip shopping center. A new restaurant nearby was temporarily closed due to damage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Businesses nearby had to evacuate and families began to leave out of their homes due to the smoke coming over into the neighborhood. No one was injured. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. Sandra Hale Schulman Special to ICT The hotly awaited 2025 Sundance Film Festival lineup of features and short films has been unveiled for the Jan. 23-Feb. 2 festival to be held in Park City, Utah. This years lineup of 93 selected works was chosen from 15,000 submissions, with many Native and Indigenous filmmakers, artists and storylines. Three Native feature films will be shown. Free Leonard Peltier The ongoing saga of political prisoner Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement who has been in prison for 50 years, is getting the big screen treatment for the first time by an all-Native, award-winning film crew. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Headed up by Emmy winning director Jesse Short Bull (Lakota Nation Vs. The United States) and Jhane Myers (Prey) and with major sponsorship from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Free Leonard Peltier follows a new generation of Native activists committed to winning Peltiers freedom before he dies. Peltiers parole was denied back in June, but there are still paths forward for his release, as explained in the film. It's real exciting. The timing seems to be right and hopefully, build some positive momentum, Short Bull told ICT in a video conference. We were able to get some critical interviews to the story and balance the wealth that we have in the immense archival footage and current correspondence with Leonard. We have his voice. Finding the story beats in all of those is a real credit to our team to put forward a very cinematic and beautiful story that I think we're all immensely proud of. It's bringing Leonard back into the forefront with the power of Sundance Film Festival. There's a lot going on behind the scenes for Leonard with tribal leaders, state, government leaders and elected people that are advocating for clemency on Leonard's behalf while we transition from the current administration to the next. I'm hoping that this motion can lead to something positive, which is having Leonard be free as soon as possible. We don't have any insight on how that's going to turn out, but I feel on a spiritual level that things are going in the right direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The film primarily focuses on the 1975 shootout near Oglala, S.D., in which two FBI agents were killed. Pelter was later convicted of aiding and abetting in the agents deaths. The filmmakers delve into his days as a child of Turtle Mountain forced into the boarding school era that was brutal and violent. He learned activism through his parents, who dealt with policy issues on his home reservation. In boarding school, he resisted assimilation efforts aimed at him and other children. We have clips where he divulges on the American Indian movement, how and why he became involved, Short Bull said. Its Leonard's voice, we got him sprinkled out through the decades from the 70s all the way up. It's so easy to get captivated on a single day in his story, but he's a person, he's a human, he had wants and desires and he wanted to have a better life and create a better world. He's a father. He's a relative. He's a friend. We want people to know that." Parole was denied for Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier who has spent most of his life in prison. (Photo by Amelia Schafer, ICT/Rapid City Journal) This is a time of a perfect storm. You have people that are at the forefront, not just filmmakers, but an Indian collective, tribes who are supporting us, and an impact campaign, Jhane Myers said. The tides are changing. The head of the FBI is resigning at the end of Biden's term. It's the 50th anniversary of that day in June in 1975 (the shooting). Our film is going to be in front of the world's eyes at Sundance. The team is hoping for theatrical release and then streaming. It is already getting notoriety without even a trailer as it was the Gotham Documentary pick in New York. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The right people in the industry are aware of this film, and this film is coming soon. The bottom line is it's about Leonard, Short Bull said. Endless Cookie This unusual surreal animated feature film explores the complex bond between half-brothers Peter and Seth Scriver one Indigenous, one white who travel from the present in isolated Shamattawa to bustling 1980s Toronto. The characters dont look like people, they morph into a cross between Mr. Potato Head and furry vegetables and cookies. The daughter of Peter Scriver said: My father Peter and my Uncle Seth, they are the directors of Endless Cookie, which is playing in the world cinema documentary competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The two brothers embark on making a movie reminiscing on their upbringing in downtown Toronto in the northern Canadian bush. These ruminations oftentimes lead to surreal tangents, which are interrupted and hijacked by my own charismatic family members, basking in their own dreams and reveries. At its heart, Endless Cookie is a surreal portrayal of family, and not only this, but a documentary of the creative process. El Norte This poster promotes "El Norte," a film about Guatemalan siblings who flee their country after their family is murdered by the government during the Guatemalan Civil War. (Photo courtesy of the Sundance Film Institute) After a family is murdered during the Guatemalan Civil War by the government in a massacre, Indigenous siblings Rosa and Enrique flee the country up norte to North America for a shot at survival. But once they get there, life in America is not what they had hoped for. Cast: Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gomez Cruz, Lupe Ontiveros, Trinidad Silva and Alicia del Lago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Short Films in the Festival include: En Memoria In a dystopian future, a mother struggles to finish making her daughters quinceanera dress. Cast: Leslie Martinez, Frederique LaTour, Jennifer Rader. Field Recording A meandering joke about three dreams. Cast: Quinne Larsen, Louie Zong. This poster promotes Inkwo For When The Starving Return, a stop-motion animated short film about Dove, a gender-shifting warrior who uses their Indigenous medicine, Inkwo, to protect their community from an unearthed swarm of terrifying creatures. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Institute) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inkwo For When The Starving Return Dove, a gender-shifting warrior, uses their Indigenous medicine, Inkwo, to protect their community from an unearthed swarm of terrifying creatures in this stop-motion animated short. Cast: Paulina Alexis, Tantoo Cardinal, Art Napoleon. Stranger, Brother. When Adam, a self-absorbed and lonely millennial, wakes one morning to find his estranged half-brother on his doorstep, he must face the family hes been running from. Cast: Tiaki Teremoana, Samson Uili, Charly Thorn, Patrick Livesey. Tiger A portrait of award-winning, internationally acclaimed Indigenous artist and elder Dana Tiger, her family, and the resurgence of the iconic Tiger T-shirt company. Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICTs free newsletter. On Thursday evening, a surfer was attacked by a shark on South Australias Eyre Peninsula. The unidentified victim was surfing Granites when the attack occurred around 7:00pm local time. Following the incident, emergency crews issued a search for the surfer, though at the time of publish, they have yet to find anything. The search is scheduled to continue early on Friday morning. It's not the first time something similar has happened in this region not even close. Theres been a string of surfers attacked by sharks in South Australia in recent months and years. Back in May of 2023, a local, 46-year-old school teacher was killed while surfing Walkers Beach. The only thing that was recovered was a surfboard, a State Emergency Service member told 7NEWS Australia, regarding that incident. Its absolutely tragic for this small community. Related: 15-Year-Old Surfer Khai Cowley Identified As Victim Of South Australia Shark Attack Then, at the end of 2023, 15-year-old up-and-coming surfer Khai Cowley was mauled by a 4m (13 foot) great white shark, some 30 to 40m offshore at Ethel Beach. His body was recovered on the beach. Following the tragedy, a statement from Surfing South Australia said: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Khai was very involved in our surfing community with his passion for surfing stemming from a family with deep surfing roots in SA. He was a happy, kind and respectful kid, very much loved by his surfing peers and he will be greatly missed out in our community and on the water. Shortly after Khais passing, a 64-year-old man was attacked while also surfing on the Eyre Peninsula. He survived the encounter, bleeding profusely, swam himself to shore, climbed up some rocks, and drove himself to the hospitaldespite the serious bite marks to his surfboard, which suggest the incident couldve been much worse. Why so many attacks? Shark expert Andrew Fox told Sky News: In the last year [2023], weve had five attacks with three fatal attacks, which is significantly more than just a couple over the last eight previous years. These anomalies could be due to changes in the prey sources that are migrating through the area. Theres been El Nino and La Nina, and so those environmental factors could change the sharks behavior. Related: Another Surfer, Another Shark Attack In South Australia This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Photo of a wild bird. To the right is a colorized transmission electron micrograph of H5N1 virus particles (purple). H5N1 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide, and in 2024 is causing a multistate outbreak in poultry and U.S. dairy cows. Credit: NIAID and CDC Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza A virus (HPAI H5N1) remains a low risk to the general public, and public health experts in the United States believe that available treatments and vaccines, as well as those in development, are sufficient to prevent severe disease. However, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its federal partners remain focused on monitoring the virus and evaluating changes, according to leading officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. In a commentary published in the New England Journal of Medicine, NIAID Director Jeanne M. Marrazzo, M.D., M.P.H., and Michael G. Ison, M.D., M.S., chief of the Respiratory Diseases Branch in NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, say people should find a balance between enhanced vigilance and "business as usual" with respect to HPAI H5N1. Since 1996, HPAI H5N1 influenza viruses have circulated in at least 23 countries. In late 2021, HPAI H5N1 spread from Europe to North America, causing sporadic infections among wild birds and poultry farms. In 2022, the virus spread to South America, where it devastated birds and marine mammals. In March 2024, USDA scientists identified HPAI H5N1 in U.S. dairy cows, and it subsequently reached herds in 16 states. The virus has been detected in dairy herds in three states over the past 30 days, according to USDA/APHIS. In 2024, the virus has caused 66 confirmed and 7 probable cases of influenza in people in the U.S. and one case in Canada. These human cases have been caused by either the H5N1 type circulating in birds (D1.1) or the type circulating in dairy cows (B3.13). Against this backdrop, Drs. Marrazzo and Ison say there are four keys to controlling the current outbreak. The first imperative is timely, effective collaborations among investigators in human and veterinary medicine, public health, health care, and occupational workers, such as dairy and poultry workers. This involves cultivating trust not only between numerous entities, but with people seeking care for symptoms of concern, including conjunctivitis, the authors write. Fortunately, so far most U.S. cases of HPAI H5N1 have been mild and resolved on their own without the need for treatment. The second key is a focus on the Canadian HPAI H5N1 patient, who developed respiratory failure and required life-saving medical intervention and treatment before recovering. The authors write that mutations found in the virus in this patient highlight an urgent need for vigilant disease surveillance to identify and assess viral changes to evaluate the risk for person-to-person transmission. Effective surveillance, they say, requires that complete genomic sequencing data from animals and people are made rapidly and readily available. Without information pertaining to where and when isolates were collected, the data cannot be linked phylogenetically to other reported sequences, limiting insight into how the virus is spreading, they write. These data would also provide an opportunity for early detection of mutations that might portend avidity for human respiratory epithelium, which may require as little as one mutation in the virus. Third, researchers must continue to develop and test medical countermeasuressuch as vaccines and therapies that eliminate or alleviate diseaseagainst H5N1 and other influenza viruses. Fortunately, current vaccine candidates neutralize the circulating strains, which so far are susceptible to antivirals that could mitigate transmission and severity of illness, they write. Lastly, Drs. Marrazzo and Ison encourage people to take precautions to prevent exposure to the virus and minimize the risk of infection. For example, people who work with poultry and cows should use personal protective equipment and educate themselves about occupational risks when working with birds and mammals, as CDC and USDA have repeatedly recommended. Ideally, following these four steps will help scientists and public health officials investigating HPAI H5N1 to answer the many remaining questions more quickly about how the virus is spreading, evolving, and affecting people, other mammals, and birds. More information: Michael G. Ison et al, The Emerging Threat of H5N1 to Human Health, New England Journal of Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe2416323 Journal information: New England Journal of Medicine The man who allegedly detonated fireworks inside a Tesla Cybertruck in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, was reportedly a supporter of the president-elect. Law enforcement officials identified Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret, as the deceased driver of the Cybertruck in Wednesdays incident, according to CNN. A senior law enforcement official told The Daily Beast Thursday that Livelsberger was a big Donald Trump supporter, a fact that had been uncovered through conversations with Livelsbergers family and loved ones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dean Livelsberger, the uncle of the deceased, told The Independent Thursday that his nephew loved Trump. He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country, said Dean Livelsberger. He loved Trump. He was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty, he added. Livelsberger had served as an operations master sergeant in the Army Special Forces, on active duty in Germany, but was on leave at the time of his death, three officials told CNN. Online, Livelsberger once criticized John Bolton, Trumps ex-national security adviser, who wrote a scathing rebuke of his former boss in his memoir. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bet Bolton got a hefty chunk from the DNC and other slimy donors to put the book out, Livelsberger wrote in a Facebook comment under an article about Bolton, according to The Daily Beast. While the symbolic nature of the incident appears to refer to the partnership between the president-elect and Elon Musk, Livelsbergers motive is still unknown. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill suggested Thursday that the incident, which injured seven people, was likely a suicide. NEW ORLEANS Jeremi Sensky was returning to his hotel after having met friends early on New Years Day when he heard a "massive noise" the last thing he remembers before he ended up face down on the ground with his wheelchair smashed around him. Sensky survived the fatal terrorist attack on Bourbon Street on Wednesday morning, when a Texas man inspired by the Islamic State rammed a truck into a crowd of revelers celebrating in New Orleans' French Quarter. He spoke to NBC News from his hospital room, where he is recovering with two broken legs. "Im assuming I got hit by the truck, but honestly, nobodys ever told me that, so I dont know," Sensky said. "But my wheelchair was completely bashed and the pieces were all over the place, so something hit me." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the FBI, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, made his way to Louisiana from his home in Texas on New Years Eve and posted several videos to social media. Jabbar said in the videos he had originally planned to hurt his family and friends but pivoted to a bigger attack to focus on the war between the believers and the disbelievers. He drove a rented Ford F-150 onto the sidewalk into a crowd swerving through barriers and police before he died in a gunfight with officers. The attack killed 14 people and injured dozens of others. Sensky was right by Jabbar's truck after he plowed into the crowd. Survivor Jeremi Sensky spoke to NBC News from his hospital room, where he is recovering with two broken legs. Everything happened so quickly, he said. One moment he was turning around, and the next he was on the ground in the middle of the sound of gunfire coming in different directions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I just heard screaming and I heard gunfire," he recalled. He couldn't find his phone, so he began screaming for help. "No one would come, and so I pushed myself on my back, and I saw people, and they were taking pictures from the balcony, and I was screaming out for help, and people were just looking at me," Sensky said. A cop named Patrick eventually walked over to him and explained that many people were dead, Sensky said. The officer told him he was lucky to be alive. "I kept asking for someone to help me and get me out of there, and it took a while," Sensky said. "I realized that it was a bad scene." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sensky, who was paralyzed from the waist down before the attack, doesn't believe anyone realized he couldn't walk as they took in the chaos of the scene. Eventually, he was carried to an ambulance and taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery. His right leg was broken in a "million pieces," but he said it saved him. Sensky said the entire experience has been "surreal." He teared up talking about the attack, emotional in his disbelief that anyone could do such a thing. "I love everybody. Everybody," Sensky said. "I cant believe that that would happen." Tom Llamas reported from New Orleans and Doha Madani from New York City. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) There was a brief pre-trial conference at the Springfield District Court Thursday morning for Timothy Scott Joley, 71, the man who was arrested back in October of 2024 in connection to a 1978 cold case. On November 19th, 1978, the bodies of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish were found shot to death outside of Harnishs pick up truck and over a guard rail at the old rest stop on Route 5 in West Springfield. Timothy Joley first appeared in court on December 2nd for his arraignment on two counts of murder and while he was not in court for the pre-trial conference, both sides were able to determine the next steps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bright Nights in Springfield ends Sunday night His defense attorney and the prosecutor were able to agree upon upcoming court dates. The first being next week for a motion for mandatory discovery, which will examine the evidence, the fingerprint match. Back in 1978, police found a partial fingerprint in what they believe to be blood on the passenger vent window of Harnishs truck. Despite running it through the criminal data base and manually checking it against over 70,000 fingerprints, no match was ever made. Then in October of 2024, an anonymous individual contacted the Hampden District Attorneys Office and gave them Timothy Joleys name. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators were able to compare the fingerprint on the truck to Joleys fingerprint on his Springfield taxi cab license application from the year 2000. Hampden County DA, Anthony Gulluni said, each investigator determined that the fingerprint originated from Timothy Joleys left thumb. Investigators also confirmed Joley was living in Springfield and was in possession of a weapon at the time of the murders. An arrest warrant was issued on October 29th and the following day, Joley was arrested at his residence in Clearwater, Florida. Joley is currently being held without the right to bail. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said a suspect was arrested in connection to a fatal shooting that took place in August in Northwest D.C. Police said that on August 23 at about 7 p.m., they responded to the 1300 block of Girard Street for the report of a shooting. Trump to host victory rally at Capital One Arena day before inauguration There, officers found a man who had been shot. The man was transported to the hospital where he died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was identified as 25-year-old Martinez Robinson, of Waldorf, Md. On Jan.1, police arrested and charged 46-year-old Quateze Moore, of Northwest, D.C., with Second Degree Murder While Armed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC. GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) A suspect was arrested on New Years Day after allegedly assaulting a man, barricading himself and starting a fire inside an apartment. The incident occurred around 11:05 a.m., Wednesday when the Grand Junction Police Department responded to an assault in progress at the Grand Manor Apartments, 2828 Orchard Ave. GJPD alleged the reporting party a female resident said the male suspect, in violation of a restraining order, forcibly entered her second-floor apartment and assaulted another man. The suspect reportedly took out a knife before the woman and man fled the apartment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect then allegedly barricaded himself in the apartment as authorities arrived, the police department said. Officers tried to contact the man while a fire was ignited within the residence. The suspect allegedly jumped out of the second-floor window where law enforcement quickly took him into custody. Justin Vicino, 44, was arrested on multiple unrelated warrants and violation of a protection order. Additional charges are pending. The Grand Junction Fire Department extinguished the apartment blaze. GJFD also transported Vicino to the hospital for serious bodily injuries sustained from the alleged fire and fall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The male victim, who was allegedly assaulted by Vicino, also went to the hospital for minor injuries. GJPD said it believes this is an isolated incident with no ongoing danger to the community. The Grand Junction Fire Department was dispatched to an apartment blaze Wednesday morning. (Courtesy Photo/Grand Junction Police Department) Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com. Seattle police arrested a felony suspect after an hourslong standoff inside a Safeway in West Seattle on Wednesday morning. Officers responded at 10:12 a.m. to a report of a violent assault involving a female victim near the 9600 block of 28th Avenue Southwest. According to police, the suspect, reportedly under the influence of methamphetamine, threatened the victim with a dagger. The suspect was found inside the Safeway but refused to comply with officers, prompting a negotiation process. After several hours, he was arrested without further incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police recovered the weapon, and medics treated the suspect before being transported to Harborview Medical Center for evaluation. He is expected to be booked into King County Jail on charges of felony assault, harassment, and indecent liberties. The incident remains under investigation. Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street after at least 10 people were killed when a person reportedly drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Years Day on Jan. 1, 2025, in New Orleans. Dozens more were injured after a suspect in a rented pickup truck allegedly drove around barricades and through a crowd of New Years revelers on Bourbon Street. The suspect then got out of the car, opened fire on police officers, and was subsequently killed by law enforcement. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images) NEW ORLEANS Authorities have identified the man who sped down Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas was killed after a shootout with police once his pickup truck collided with a lift vehicle at the intersection of Bourbon and Conti streets, the FBI has confirmed. He reportedly drove around a police barricade at Canal Street, intentionally striking pedestrians. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Jabbar struck a lift vehicle, the FBI said he shot at law enforcement on the scene and was killed by return fire. Two police officers were wounded in the shootout and taken to University Medical Center, where New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said they were in stable condition. Another 35 people struck by the truck were also injured and taken to local hospitals, with some reported in critical condition. Alethea Duncan, the FBIs assistant special agent in charge for the New Orleans district, said Jabbar is a U.S.-born citizen and an Army veteran. The FBI is leading the investigation into what the agency said is calling a terrorist attack. A potential improvised explosive device (IED) was also discovered at the scene, and a flag for the jihadist Islamic State group was found in the truck, along with other firearms, according to the FBI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two other explosive devices were found in the French Quarter, with controlled detonations heard block away from the area. Duncan said it is believed others were involved with the attack but did not elaborate on how many other people are being investigated. At around 3:15 a.m., the driver of the truck steered around a police barricade at Canal Street meant to keep vehicles off of Bourbon Street and sped into a crowd, Kirkpatrick said. It appears the truck was able to travel three blocks before colliding with a lift vehicle near Conti Street. He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did, the police chief said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Steel bollards that rise from the street were installed along and near Bourbon Street in 2017 to protect pedestrians, but they are in the process of being replaced according to the citys Department of Public Works website. Bomb squad personnel were seen entering the French Quarter, which the FBI said is being scoured for additional explosive devices. Several small booms have been heard blocks away, which City Council members said were controlled detonations to clear possible IEDs. An eight-block stretch of Bourbon Street remains closed to traffic and pedestrians, and some hotels in the French Quarter were evacuated as a precautionary measure. The public is being asked to avoid a large portion of the historic neighborhood, which typically sees crowds larger than typical weekends for New Years Eve. New Orleans is hosting fans of the University of Georgia and Notre Dame for the Sugar Bowl, scheduled for Wednesday night at the Superdome. Representatives with the event have said they are speaking with local, state and federal authorities to keep apprised of developments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hospitality and service industry employees reporting for work Wednesday morning were being turned away from cordoned-off areas. The city will also host Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. Who is the Bourbon Street terror attack suspect? The man the FBI said was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that killed at least 15 people and injured 35 more Wednesday morning on Bourbon Street was a military veteran and former real estate agent from Texas. There are no apparent long-term ties between Shamsud-Din Jabbar and Louisiana. He recently told his landlord in Houston that he was planning to move to New Orleans, The Times-Picayune reported. Jabbar held a real estate license in Texas from 2018-23, according to a state records database. In a video posted to YouTube, he identified himself as a property manager for the Midas Group Blue Meadow Properties Inc. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Online records show Jabbar also worked with Deloitte, the international financial services firm. The FBI confirmed that Jabbar was born in the United States and served in the Army. There was no immediate response from the U.S. Department of Defense to a request for information on Jabbars military background, with the federal government recognizing the New Years Day holiday. Georgia State University confirmed Jabbar attended school there from 2015-17 and graduated with a bachelors degree in computer information systems. An article from the campus newspaper posted online indicated that his tuition was covered through the GI Bill. Court records in Texas show Jabbar filed for divorce from his wife in Fort Bend County, Texas in July 2020. A notice of nonsuit to dismiss the case was filed the following month. Jabbar listed a Beaumont, Texas, address on the petition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An Islamic State flag hung from a pole attached to the trailer hitch of the pickup truck Jabbar drove onto Bourbon Street. The FBI is looking into his connections to the jihadist organization or any other terror groups. Authorities have not identified anyone else they believe might have collaborated on the terror attack with Jabbar, nor have they said how many other people they think were involved. Wes Muller contributed to this report. Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street after at least 10 people were killed when a person reportedly drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Years Day on Jan. 1, 2025, in New Orleans. Dozens more were injured after a suspect in a rented pickup truck allegedly drove around barricades and through a crowd of New Years revelers on Bourbon Street. The suspect then got out of the car, opened fire on police officers, and was subsequently killed by law enforcement. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images) NEW ORLEANS Authorities have identified the man who sped down Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas was killed after a shootout with police once his pickup truck collided with a lift vehicle at the intersection of Bourbon and Conti streets, the FBI has confirmed. He reportedly drove around a police barricade at Canal Street, intentionally striking pedestrians. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Jabbar struck a lift vehicle, the FBI said he shot at law enforcement on the scene and was killed by return fire. Two police officers were wounded in the shootout and taken to University Medical Center, where New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said they were in stable condition. Another 35 people struck by the truck were also injured and taken to local hospitals, with some reported in critical condition. Alethea Duncan, the FBIs assistant special agent in charge for the New Orleans district, said Jabbar is a U.S.-born citizen and an Army veteran. The FBI is leading the investigation into what the agency said is calling a terrorist attack. A potential improvised explosive device (IED) was also discovered at the scene, and a flag for the jihadist Islamic State group was found in the truck, along with other firearms, according to the FBI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two other explosive devices were found in the French Quarter, with controlled detonations heard block away from the area. Duncan said it is believed others were involved with the attack but did not elaborate on how many other people are being investigated. At around 3:15 a.m., the driver of the truck steered around a police barricade at Canal Street meant to keep vehicles off of Bourbon Street and sped into a crowd, Kirkpatrick said. It appears the truck was able to travel three blocks before colliding with a lift vehicle near Conti Street. He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did, the police chief said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Steel bollards that rise from the street were installed along and near Bourbon Street in 2017 to protect pedestrians, but they are in the process of being replaced according to the citys Department of Public Works website. Bomb squad personnel were seen entering the French Quarter, which the FBI said is being scoured for additional explosive devices. Several small booms have been heard blocks away, which City Council members said were controlled detonations to clear possible IEDs. An eight-block stretch of Bourbon Street remains closed to traffic and pedestrians, and some hotels in the French Quarter were evacuated as a precautionary measure. The public is being asked to avoid a large portion of the historic neighborhood, which typically sees crowds larger than typical weekends for New Years Eve. New Orleans is hosting fans of the University of Georgia and Notre Dame for the Sugar Bowl, scheduled for Wednesday night at the Superdome. Representatives with the event have said they are speaking with local, state and federal authorities to keep apprised of developments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hospitality and service industry employees reporting for work Wednesday morning were being turned away from cordoned-off areas. The city will also host Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. This is a developing story that will be updated. (Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.) This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Patient organizations and charities are at risk of aligning their interests with their corporate funders even when this doesn't benefit their members, according to a new study led by the University of Bath in the UK. To combat this, the researchers are calling for action to safeguard the independence of patient groups. The new researchled by Dr. Piotr Ozieranski from the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at Bathfocuses on pharmaceutical industry payments to patient organizations in Poland, comparing the funding model followed by this central European country to those found in Western Europe and North America. Patient organizations in the US and across Europe are increasingly dependent on funding from drug companies. In Europe, this happens against a backdrop of reduced government funding of patient groups and dwindling funding for the health sector more broadly. Explaining why this global trend matters, Dr. Ozieranskiwho studies the transparency of interactions between drug companies, patient organizations and the health servicesaid, "Patient organizations have established themselves as key stakeholders in the health policy domain, playing an important role in raising awareness of diseases and supporting patients with specific diseases, and there's an assumption that they are independent and represent their members' interests alone." "Pharmaceutical companies are eager to fund their work, but this comes with strings attachedthese same companies manufacture drugs designed for the very people who have turned to the patient organization for independent support." Hidden conflict of interest Dr. Ozieranski said this clear conflict of interest between drug companies and patient organizations is not always apparent at first glance. He said, "Companies play the long gamethey don't want anything obvious in return for their funding, but over time, they build closer ties with the patient organizations. As their relationship deepens, the two bodies run shared projects and conferences, and may provide joint testimony to scientific advisory bodies. "In other words, drug companies shape and mold patient organizations over time. This can be concerning as patient organizations should represent the interests of patients, their caregivers and families, which are not necessarily the same as those of product manufacturers." The new study, conducted by the University of Bath together with Lund University, Sweden and Kozminski University, Poland, and published this week in the International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services, adds further nuance to these trends. It does so by providing an in-depth examination of financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and patient organizations in Poland, the largest country in Central Europe. How to make things better Dr. Ozieranski and his collaborators, Dr. Marta Makowska (from the Kozminski Academy) and Dr. Shai Mulinari (from Lund University), propose three core strategies to mitigate the risks of undue influence being exerted on patient groups by drug-company fundersnot only in Poland but also in other countries, including the UK: Create a central shared pool of funding supported by all companies, so patient organizations avoid becoming overly reliant on one, or a small number of, donor corporations to continue their work. This fund would be managed by an independent body responsible for evaluating and approving project proposals from patient organizations, ensuring greater separation and impartiality. Follow the example set by Poland, where taxpayers are invited to allocate 1.5% of their income tax to a specific patient organization, to fund its activities. To qualify, organizations must register as "public benefit organizations," a status that mandates transparent reporting of the funds they receive as well as other activities undertaken. Replace drug company funding with other funding sources whenever possible. Some patient organizations may find it impossible to cut their ties with drug companies entirely. However, every step taken in that direction is valuable, including finding other sources of support or gradually withdrawing from being industry funding, which can start from non-essential, lower-scale activities. All funding collected in a single database There is concern that governments around the world seem to pay little attention to trends in funding for patient group funding, allowing companies to set and execute the rules for disclosing such payments. Essentially, companies are free to "mark their own homework." To bolster the independence of patient groups, Dr. Makowska calls for each country to establish a simple, state-run, state-mandated database of all payments made to patient organizations, doctors and hospitals. She said, "At the moment, there's no such place, and as you might expect, companies are not always truthful about the funding they disclose." Dr. Mulinari added, "Transparency of drug company funding of patient organizations needs improvement. When conducting this study, we had to find and download over 200 disclosure reports published separately by different drug companies. "We then integrated them into a single payments database and painstakingly cleaned the data, which involved ensuring that each patient organization appears under a single name, and not several names used by different companies. This should be the work done by drug companies and not researchers, let alone patients or members of the public. "We have seen this pattern over and over again in many European countries. It is unreasonable to expect this amount of investigative work to be able to achieve even a modest degree of transparency of ties between key actors in today's health care." More information: Marta Makowska et al, Pharmaceutical Industry Payments to Patient Organizations in Poland: Analysis of the Patterns, Evolution, and Structure of Connections, International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services (2024). DOI: 10.1177/27551938241305995 Suspect in Christmas Day fire at former InCahoots bar arrested: police SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of arson in the Christmas Day fire at the abandoned InCahoots Dance Hall & Saloon in Mission Valley, San Diego police said Thursday. Investigators identified the suspect in the fire as 47-year-old Joel Humphrey. He is not believed to have been connected to an earlier fire at the former country dance club back in October, according to SDPD. Authorities had previously described both fire as suspicious, but did not clearly call it a suspected act of arson until the announcement Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SDSU student among those injured in deadly New Orleans attack The first fire occurred at the long-empty building at 5373 Mission Center Rd. on Oct. 26. San Diego Fire-Rescue Department crews responded to the former dance hall around 1:40 a.m. and an hours-long fight to extinguish the flames ensued. The second also occurred in the early morning hours of Christmas Day. More than 50 firefighters and other personnel were on scene to combat the blaze, which had fully engulfed the structure. When crews fully doused the fire, not much of the building was left aside from the charred frame of the building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The origin of both fires remains unclear, as well as the motive of the suspect in the second incident. Humphrey faces a potential charge of recklessly setting fire to a structure in the Dec. 25 incident. He is set to appear in court for an arraignment on Friday, Jan. 3. An investigation by SDPD into the first fire at the former InCahoots bar remains ongoing. Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact the Metro Arson Strike Team at 619-236-6815 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. By Stevo Vasiljevic CETINJE, Montenegro (Reuters) -A man shot dead 12 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro before turning his gun on himself early on Thursday, authorities said, in one of the Balkan nation's worst mass killings. The attacker, named by police as 45-year-old Aco Martinovic, initially shot dead four people at a restaurant in Cetinje on Wednesday afternoon after an altercation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He then shot dead eight people, including two children and his sister, at three other locations, police director Lazar Scepanovic told a press conference in the capital Podgorica. "All the victims were his godfathers, friends ... he killed his own sister, with whom he had good relations and with whom he spent New Year's Eve," Scepanovic said. He said police initially had misleading information about the site of the first shooting and went to a place 3 km (two miles) away. It was the second mass shooting in less than three years in the same town, 38 km (24 miles) west of the capital Podgorica. In August 2022, a gunman killed 10 people, including two children, before being shot dead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After being cornered by officers near his home in the town, Martinovic tried to kill himself, then died of his wounds on the way to hospital in the early hours of Thursday, Scepanovic said. "When commanded by officers to drop his weapon, he turned the gun against his body and fired," he said. Police found an illegally owned handgun and 90 more rounds on Martinovic's body. MONTENEGRO IN MOURNING FOR SECOND GUN RAMPAGE IN 3 YEARS There were few people on the streets in Cetinje on Thursday and all public venues were closed. "It was dreadful. Such uncertainty, such fear among all the families in Cetinje. You didn't dare look through the window," 43-year-old resident Slavica Vusurovic told Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When I ... saw it on TV, I started crying," said Slobo Matic, 64. Police said Martinovic had been drinking heavily. In 2022, police found two airguns and a homemade bomb at his home. He was sentenced to three months in jail but appealed and court proceedings were still ongoing at the time of the shooting. He was also ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. Four other people suffered life-threatening wounds during Wednesday's rampage, and one was in a critical condition, said Aleksandar Radovic, director of the Clinical Centre in Podgorica. Prime Minister Milojko Spajic declared three days of national mourning and scheduled a session of the National Security Council for Friday to discuss the aftermath of the shooting and how to restrict illegal weapons, the government said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The proposals include tighter criteria for owning and carrying firearms, and recruitment of more police officers. However, stricter gun controls would be likely to face stiff opposition. All the Western Balkan countries - Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia - are awash with weapons, mostly from the wars of the 1990s. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Stevo Vasiljevic in Podgorica and Daria Sito Sucic in Sarajevo; Editing by Edward McAllister, Andrew Heavens and Kevin Liffey) TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) The suspect in the shooting of an ATF agent in Riverview last week was denied bond during a hearing Thursday morning. Two witnesses spoke at the hearing: the victims wife and the lead detective in the investigation. Off-duty ATF agent shot outside Riverview bowling alley suffering from paralysis, records show There was a huge showing of support from the ATF who filled up the courtroom, and many were left outside because it was too packed. It was all in support of Special Agent Matt Murray, a nine-year veteran with the ATF, and his family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was like we walked into an ambush, said Courtney Murray, wife of ATF Special Agent Matt Murray. In her ruling, the judge said she is concerned about 18-year-old Christopher Smiths disregard for safety of the community. The victim, agent Matthew Murray, was shot outside of The Alley at Southshore in Riverview on Friday night. During the hearing, surveillance video was played and the agents wife pointed out Smith as the one who shot her husband. She said her husband is in the ICU in critical condition with paralysis. It was automatically them trying to start a fight, Courtney Murray said. My husband was trying to de-escalate right from the start. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators said he was shot in the neck after intervening in a fight in the parking lot. When I came out, I wasnt the first one out, a couple of other people were out first. It was automatically them trying to start a fight, Courtney Murray said. My husband was trying to deescalate it, right away. And it was immediate they were trying to start a fight? Right away, right as we walked out the door. Its like we walked into an ambush. An overnight seven-hour manhunt ended with Smiths arrest. Court records show Smith drove to a home four miles away where he was arrested on multiple felony charges, including attempted first-degree murder. What I can tell you is hes going to be held accountable, said State Attorney Suzy Lopez. Hes 18 years old, but he is facing up to life in prison, including a 25-year mandatory-minimum prison sentence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lopez said the weapon has not yet been recovered, but investigators are searching for it. We have a gun, thats been used to paralyze an ATF agent, still somewhere out on the street, said Lopez. Smiths public defender said the state will have to prove probable cause and did not call any witnesses. Smiths family and friends were in the courtroom for the hearing, but did not speak. It comes as Special Agent Murray is left fighting. Hes in the ICU in critical condition with permanent paralysis, said his wife, Courtney Murray. The lead detective on the case also took the witness stand and said Smith admitted to the shooting. The judge presiding over the case ruled Smith will stay in custody without bond. She said shes concerned about his disregard for safety for the community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Suncoast police benevolent association is raising funds to help Special Agent Murray and his family during his recovery. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. A submarine drone suspected to be from China was recovered in waters off the central Philippines, police said on Thursday, warning of "potential national security implications." Three fishermen found the drone on Monday around six miles off the coast of San Pascual in Masbate province, a police report said. The Philippines and China have for years clashed over maritime rights in the South China Sea as well as possession of reefs and islets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China claims almost the entire sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis. The yellow drone marked "HY-119" was found floating at sea before being turned over to authorities, regional police director Andre Dizon told AFP. It was about six feet long, and torpedo-shaped with fins. "Based on our open-source research in the internet... HY-119 refers to a Chinese underwater navigation and communication system," Dizon said. "It has an antenna and an eye that can be used for viewing. Based on our research, this can be used for monitoring and reconnaissance." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dizon said the drone was not armed, but the police report listed "potential national security implications" as one significance of its recovery. It was turned over by police to the Philippine Navy on Tuesday, Dizon added. The Philippine Navy and the Chinese embassy in Manila have yet to respond to AFP's request for comment. Tensions and military confrontations have escalated in the South China Sea in recent months. In December, Chinese coast guard vessels backed by navy ships fired powerful water cannons and blocked and sideswiped a Philippine patrol vessel. U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, MaryKay Carlson, accused Beijing in a social media post of putting "lives at risk" by disrupting a Philippine maritime operation. In this image taken from a video provided by the Philippine National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS), a Chinese coast guard vessel, right, fires a powerful water cannon at a Philippine bureau of fisheries vessel near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, Dec. 4, 2024. / Credit: Aaron Favila/NTF-WPS via AP Also last month, the Philippine military deployed a navy ship and air force planes to shadow a Russian submarine, which passed through the South China Sea. One official said the navy was surprised to see the vessel because it was a "very unique submarine." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. has warned that it's obligated to defend the Philippines if Filipino forces come under attack in the South China Sea. Truck used in New Orleans attack was flying large black flag from rear bumper, authorities say Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say A flight attendant for Swiss International Air Lines has died one week after a plane made an emergency landing in Austria after smoke filled the cabin of the aircraft, officials said. The man who died was a member of the cabin crew on flight LX 1885 from Bucharest to Zurich, which made an emergency landing in Graz, Austria, on Monday, Dec. 23, the airline said on Monday, Dec. 30. The Airbus A220-300, which was carrying 75 passengers and four crew members, was diverted after engine problems occurred and smoke developed in the cockpit and the cabin, airline officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The flight attendant was hospitalized in Graz, where he died on Dec. 30. A second cabin crew member was also hospitalized. Related: Passenger Dies After 'Medical Emergency' Reportedly Involving Liters of Blood Loss During International Flight Austrias APA news agency reported that the public prosecutors office in Graz has ordered a forensic examination of the flight attendants body, according to the Associated Press and CBS News. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Swiss International Air Lines said they will not be providing any further details about the deceased or the cause of death out of respect for the victims loved ones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: 11-Year-Old Dies After Losing Consciousness on Turkish Airlines Flight Headed to New York Officials want to thoroughly clarify the causes of the smoke and the effects on passengers and crew, according to their statement. "Our teams of experts are working hard over the festive season to evaluate all the facts and findings available, and are in close contact with the authorities," the airline said. CEO Jens Fehlinger and COO Oliver Buchhofer offered the flight attendants family their heartfelt condolences on behalf of the entire SWISS team. Related: Dead Body Discovered in Wheel Well of United Airlines Plane After It Lands in Hawaii Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are devastated at our dear colleagues death, Fehlinger said. His loss has left us all in the deepest shock and grief. Our thoughts are with his family, whose pain we cannot imagine. I offer them my heartfelt condolences on behalf of all of us at SWISS. And we will, of course, be doing everything in our power to help and support them at this extremely difficult time. Airline officials said they have confidence in the Airbus A220, which they described as "a very modern and safe aircraft. However, Buchhofer said the airline has many questions that they want answered. This is the saddest of days for us all, the COO said in his statement. Losing our colleague and fellow member of our SWISS team leaves me distraught and dismayed. But we stand with one another at this truly difficult time; and we will be doing our utmost, together with the relevant authorities, to determine the causes involved. Read the original article on People A Swiss flight attendant who was on a plane that made an emergency landing in Austria due to smoke in the cabin has died, the airline announced. Swiss Air Lines, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, announced with the deepest of sorrow and regret on Monday that a male cabin crew member on flight LX1885 had died in hospital in Graz, Austria. The young cabin crew member was on a flight on 23 December from Bucharest to Zurich that had to make an emergency diversion to Graz after smoke started to seep into the cockpit and cabin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The airline said the smoke was caused by engine problems on the Airbus A220-300 during the flight. Out of respect for his family, Swiss Air Lines said it will not be providing any further details about the deceased or his cause of death to ensure they have the time and the privacy to grieve. Oliver Buchhofer, the COO of Swiss said that the airline will be doing our utmost, together with the relevant authorities, to determine the causes involved. We have many questions, and we want them answered, he said. Our special thanks go to the responsible parties in Graz, particularly the local emergency services, who have given our passengers and our crew members such professional help and support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Losing our colleague and fellow member of our SWISS team leaves me distraught and dismayed. Swiss CEO Jens Fehlinger said: We are devastated at our dear colleagues death. His loss has left us all in the deepest shock and grief. Our thoughts are with his family, whose pain we cannot imagine. I offer them my heartfelt condolences on behalf of all of us at SWISS. And we will, of course, be doing everything in our power to help and support them at this extremely difficult time. The attendant was one of two crew members who were hospitalised after the flight landed, with all 74 passengers aboard the plane evacuated once in Graz. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A special flight was scheduled the following day with the majority of the passengers on board to finish their journey to Zurich. Ten passengers also sought medical attention but have all since released from hospital. Swiss said that various investigations are currently underway and it is in close contact with authorities on the matter. Its initial findings point to a technical problem in one of the engines. SWISS sincerely apologises to the passengers for the inconvenience caused and thanks them for their patience and understanding in this difficult situation, the airline said, adding that a care team is available to passengers and crew members for support. The Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio. (Photo from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.) Ohio environmental advocates are questioning the intent of a state law that adds nuclear power to the states legal definition of green energy. House Bill 308s sponsors say the legislation is meant to signal that Ohio is open for business when it comes to nuclear power research and development, but critics warn the language could have broader implications in the future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Legislators dont just put something into the code unless it has meaning and purpose and value, said Megan Hunter, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of several environmental groups challenging a similar 2022 state law that classified natural gas as a green energy source. Why would you do this if it has no impact or meaning or effect? Critics fear the language could be used to greenwash power plants or divert public funding from renewable energy projects, though the bills sponsors deny that motive. It doesnt promise any incentives or anything beyond simply placing nuclear under the category of green energy in the Ohio Revised Code, said state Rep. Sean Brennan, a Democrat from Parma who co-sponsored the nuclear legislation with Republican state Rep. Dick Stein of Norwalk. The General Assembly passed the nuclear legislation on Dec. 11. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed it on Dec. 19. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brennan said the question of why the language should be in a law instead of just a resolution didnt come up in discussions with Stein, who initially asked him to cosponsor the bill. Stein said the legislation is about sending a signal to the market that Ohio wants to be a partner and wont be an impediment, in contrast to other states that dont want nuclear energy. He said he hopes it will help attract jobs and federal funding, building on last years creation of a state nuclear development authority. Stein would not speculate on follow-up steps lawmakers might take, saying his term in the House of Representatives was ending in December. What the law could do Ohio does not currently have state incentives or policy preferences for green energy. The states renewable energy standard essentially ended in 2019 as a result of House Bill 6, the coal and nuclear bailout law at the heart of the states ongoing corruption scandal. Opponents testifying against the current legislation, though, said they worry the definition will be used to water down future clean energy policies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HB 308 will enable the manipulation of public funds into private, corporate hands, said Pat Marida, a coordinator for the Ohio Nuclear-Free Network, in her December 13 testimony. Also, she said, there is nothing green about nuclear power, referring to radioactive waste, which continues to be stored at power plant sites. Future state programs might offer funding or other advantages for projects that meet the states definition of green energy, for example. And even if the definition doesnt open doors to new government funding, it could provide cover to private companies that want to count gas and nuclear energy toward their climate or clean energy targets, another advocate warned. Insidiously, it does potentially become important, said Nathan Alley, conservation manager for the Sierra Club of Ohio. Many companies have adopted clean energy goals, he noted. This might telegraph to them that they could invest in nuclear energy and achieve the same climate and/or energy goals as if they invest in solar or wind. Ohio lawmakers arent the only ones who want to define natural gas and nuclear power as green energy. Model legislation finalized by the American Legislative Exchange Council this fall does the same thing. ALEC is a Koch-linked group that has long opposed renewable energy and actions to address climate change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ALECs model bill would have its definition apply to all programs in the state that fund any green energy or clean energy initiatives. Another model ALEC bill would define nuclear energy as clean energy and put it on a par with renewable energy. A coalition of environmental groups is currently challenging House Bill 507, Ohios 2022 law that labeled natural gas as green energy, arguing in court that the way in which it was passed violated the state constitution. The groups say last-minute amendments violated provisions that require bills to deal with a single subject the initial two-page bill dealt with chickens and call for at least three hearings in each house of the General Assembly where lawmakers can hear testimony from supporters and opponents. That lawsuit has been briefed and is currently awaiting a decision from Judge Kimberly Cocroft at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. HB 308 should not affect that case, said Hunter and Alley. As with HB 507, though, lawmakers added last-minute amendments to HB 308. One of those would extend lease terms for drilling under state park and wildlife areas from three years to five years. That was unacceptable to Brennan, who voted against the Senate amendments when it came back to the Ohio House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, he supports what he views as the main purpose of the legislation: attracting more nuclear power to Ohio. In his view, solar and wind wont be enough to meet growing energy demands while shifting away from fossil fuels in order to address climate change. I believe nuclear is going to be hugely important for our energy independence, and hopefully Ohio will become an exporter of electricity in the future. Hunter wasnt surprised that lawmakers made last-minute amendments to the bill. For her, it shows the importance of the ongoing litigation over HB 507. Those constitutional protections are there for a reason, she said. And seeing the General Assembly have blatant disregard for them again and again harms Ohioans. It deprives them of these constitutional rights. This article first appeared on Energy News Network and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A high-level delegation from Syria's transitional government visited Saudi Arabia on Thursday, marking their first foreign trip and signalling a warming of ties with the oil-rich monarchy. The team, including Syria's newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, the defence minister and intelligence chief, landed in Saudi Arabia Wednesday night, according to Saudi Arabia's official news agency SPA. On Thursday, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhat received al-Shibani in Riyadh prior to their talks, the Saudi state news television al-Ekhbariya reported without giving further details. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Al-Shibani said on the social media platform X that he hopes the trip would "open a new and bright page" in ties between the two countries. The visit comes less than a month after Islamist-led rebels forced Syria's long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad to flee the country. Saudi Arabia Wednesday launched an airlift of humanitarian assistance to Syria devastated by more than a decade of war. The United Nations estimates that over 16 million people in Syria now rely on humanitarian aid - the highest number since the countrys civil war began in 2011. Since al-Assad's overthrow, there have been signs of rapprochement between Saudi Arabia, a regional heavyweight, and Syria's new rulers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV aired last week, Syria's de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa described Saudi Arabia as an "important regional country" that Syria is interested in cooperating with. Saudi Arabia had initially supported an armed rebellion that followed a 2011 uprising against al-Assad's rule. Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011 in protest against al-Assad government's use of brutal force to quell the pro-democracy uprising. Saudi Arabia cut ties with Syria in 2012. But in 2023, Syria was readmitted to the Arab League and relations with Riyadh were normalized. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Anemia is prevalent among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a study published online Oct. 26 in Cureus. Jamal Shah, M.B.B.S., from Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, and colleagues examined the prevalence of anemia among 330 patients with RA presenting at a tertiary care hospital in 2023. The researchers found that more than half of participants had anemia (54.55%). The mean hemoglobin level among these patients was 11.41 g/dL, and the red blood cell count averaged 4.26 million/L. The Disease Activity Score was higher in patients with anemia (mean of 5.23 versus 4.98 in those without anemia). Most people with anemia had elevated C-reactive protein levels (83.33%; mean C-reactive protein, 28.79 mg/L) and an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (88.89%; mean erythrocyte sedimentation rate, 45.17 mm/hour). There were significant associations observed between anemia and longer disease duration, higher RA severity, and increased inflammatory markers. "These findings underscore the critical importance of routine screening and management of anemia in RA patients, particularly those with severe or prolonged disease, as addressing anemia could enhance overall patient outcomes and quality of life," the authors write. "Future research should focus on elucidating the mechanisms linking RA and anemia, conducting longitudinal studies to better understand these associations over time, and evaluating the effectiveness of anemia treatments in improving patient health." More information: Jamal Shah et al, Prevalence of Anemia in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Presenting at Multi-organization Tertiary Care Hospitals, Cureus (2024). DOI: 10.7759/cureus.72418 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved. The News Syrias foreign and defense ministers visited Riyadh while the countrys new leader met with minority groups, part of efforts to win over groups that will be key to its reconstruction. The Saudi trip comes amid a wider reset of ties since last months overthrow of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was isolated from many other Gulf nations due to Assads human rights abuses during the Syrian civil war. Instead, Damascus relied heavily in later years on Riyadhs regional rival, Iran. Meanwhile, Syrias leaders have also called for foreign sanctions imposed during Assads rule to be lifted to ease its economic woes. SIGNALS Saudi Arabia could help to rebuild Syria Sources: Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Western nations have hesitated to remove sanctions on Syrias new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leaders, Gulf nations have rushed to support the government and provide humanitarian aid: After 13 years of war, Syrias economy and infrastructure have been largely devastated, and the state has depended on Iran for oil and fuel. The visit to the Gulfs wealthiest state could benefit Syrias reconstruction, as well as offer a key investment opportunity for the kingdom. The diplomatic visit was described by one former US diplomat as very significant for both Syria and Saudi Arabia, who will be looking to encourage wider regional stability amid the ongoing war in Gaza and a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon. Western nations should avoid isolating Syria Source: Foreign Affairs Western nations should avoid repeating the same mistakes they made when the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, International Crisis Group analysts wrote for Foreign Affairs. International sanctions had no moderating effect on the new Taliban leadership and instead pushed Afghans further into poverty. Western governments should act quickly to remove sanctions against Syria, the analysts argued, to avoid further instability in the country and wider region. Though Western officials have engaged more deeply with HTS than they did with the Taliban, the West should not drag their heels during a narrow window of opportunity, they wrote. TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's defence ministry said on Thursday that Chinese warplanes and warships had carried out the first "combat patrol" around the island of the New Year, after Taiwan President Lai Ching-te again expressed willingness to talk to Beijing. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, sends its military into the skies and waters near the island on an almost daily basis, and holds what Taiwan calls "joint combat readiness patrols" several times a month. Taiwan's defence ministry said it had detected 22 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets, carrying out a "joint combat readiness patrol" around Taiwan in conjunction with Chinese warships starting on Thursday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It said the Chinese aircraft flew in airspace to the north, west, southwest and east of Taiwan, and that Taiwanese forces were dispatched to keep watch. China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lai, in his New Year's Day news conference, reiterated his desire for exchanges with China. He has repeatedly called for talks but has been rebuffed. Beijing, which held two rounds of war games around Taiwan last year, calls him a "separatist". On Wednesday, China's Eastern Theatre Command, whose area of responsibility includes Taiwan, released a New Year's video on social media of warships and warplanes, and what appeared to be a Chinese fighter jet flying near a P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft that the U.S. sometimes sends through the Taiwan Strait. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The video, set to the song "Chinese" by Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau, also included images of Chinese students visiting Taiwan late last year at the invitation of former President Ma Ying-jeou. Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters in Taipei on Thursday that the video was yet more Chinese psychological warfare. "It is the People's Liberation Army showing its intimidation of Taiwan," he said. Lai and his government say only Taiwan's people can decide their future. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christopher Cushing) Many Floridians who get their power from Tampa Electric and Duke Energy were already bracing for rate hikes this year. But after hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, both utility companies are asking for more. Duke and Tampa Electric filed new requests with state utility regulators on Dec. 27 asking for another surcharge on customers to help cover the costs of the brutal 2024 hurricane season. If approved, these hikes would mean customers pay hundreds more for their electricity this year. Thats a bigger financial hit than the contentious base rate cases that dragged out for months and saw Tampa Electrics CEO grilled on the witness stand. Base rates are part of electric bills used to cover much of the utilities daily operations, including shareholder profits. The latest filings would add a separate charge for storm recovery. Tampa Electric is seeking to collect $464 million over one year starting in March, which would add more than $30 per month to typical residential bills, according to the company. Last years hurricane season has more than exhausted the companys storm reserve money, it said in a news release. Duke Energy Florida asked for $1.1 billion, which the utility said would add about $31 to typical monthly residential bills starting in March. In a news release, the company said about $10 of that charge would be offset by an unrelated seasonal adjustment, but that discount lasts only through November while the storm surcharge will continue through February 2026. Both companies said they already spent these up-front costs during the busy hurricane season and are now seeking to recoup expenses, as is typical procedure for storm charges. The 2024 season saw hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton all knock out power in the Tampa Bay region. Tampa Electrics filings also include costs incurred by Hurricane Idalia in 2023. Both Tampa Electric and Duke identified Milton as the most expensive storm by a wide margin, after that hurricanes high winds toppled thousands of trees into power lines and cut the lights to more than a million homes. Tampa Electric president and CEO Archie Collins said in a news release that the storms left an undeniable mark on our region. We understand the hardship these storms have caused in our community and recognize that this cost increase will be challenging for some customers, Collins added. Tampa Electric will be donating $1 million in shareholder funds to help people pay their bills from the utility, the company announced in the release. Duke Energy Florida president Melissa Seixas said the utility tried to minimize the financial hit of the storms to customers and will keep working to strengthen the grid. (Alan Schein Photograph via Getty Images) Washington Democrats are preparing for a legislative session where new taxes will be a major focus to solve a multi-billion dollar state budget hole. House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, told the Standard last week that they havent settled on which tax legislation might be prioritized, but many ideas revolve around taxing wealthy people and companies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The leaders say they want to scrub the budget for savings first. But they face a gap of around $12 billion or more between the states expected income and expenses over the next four years. This means new revenue will likely be necessary to maintain and expand Democrats priority programs in areas like education, housing and mental health care. We are trying to be as transparent as possible about the fact that this is not likely a budget shortfall that can be solved with cuts alone, Pedersen said. We are trying to get ideas out on the table soon, so we can have a discussion about them and try to figure out collectively whats the best path forward for the state. Republicans see the budget situation differently. Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, and House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, want to focus on trimming instead of adding new revenue. This is a spending problem. We are not in a recession. Theres no decrease in revenue, Braun said. And he sharply disagreed with Jinkins past assertion that the defeat in November of a ballot initiative to repeal the states capital gains tax is a mandate to go do new taxes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think so, he said. Tax proposals Democrats are already discussing a plethora of tax options as the Jan. 13 start date for the session nears. Those include a wealth tax. Outgoing Gov. Jay Inslees proposed budget calls for a 1% tax on an individuals wealth above $100 million. This would cover an array of assets, including cash, bonds and stocks. Inslee estimated the tax could apply to about 3,400 people and bring in about $10.3 billion over the next four years. Washingtons current two-year operating budget is just shy of $70 billion, Inslees plan is around $79.5 billion. These totals do not include transportation programs or construction projects dealt with in separate budgets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Inslee also proposed some increases in the business and occupation tax which would temporarily impose a surcharge for some bigger businesses through the end of 2026 and then raise the tax for all businesses beginning in 2027. Those arent the only ideas on the table for Democrats, who hold wide majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. An email that Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, mistakenly sent to Republican lawmakers in late December outlined other possibilities for increasing revenue. Those included a levy on companies with large payrolls and high-paid employees, modeled on Seattles JumpStart tax. Theres also an excise tax on gun and ammunition sales, a lift of the 1% cap on annual property tax increases, and a sales tax on self-storage unit rentals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frame is vice chair of finance on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax policy. Pedersen emphasized that the ideas shared in the email were put forward by Frame for discussion and are not policies that necessarily have broad support among Senate Democrats. Jinkins said its way too early to know which proposals may be the most viable or necessary this session. Its very hard this far out, before weve scrubbed the budget, to even say what amount of revenue we think will be necessary, Jinkins said. Jinkins also acknowledged that tax legislation often ends up challenged in court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I prefer something that is pretty quick litigation, that we know we can move fairly quickly because we need the money now, she added. Any new tax idea will get pushback from Republicans and even some Democrats could balk. Stokesbary said Democrats have failed to exercise any level of self-control over the past five years with the state budget and new taxes arent going to fix that. The states two-year operating budget has climbed from around $52.4 billion in 2019. Stokesbary said the budget is filled with good ideas that need to be prioritized so the state can live within its means. At one point you have to say no, Stokesbary said. Rent cap bill likely to reemerge As Democratic leaders grapple with the budget shortfall, they will also be trying to balance new ideas and familiar priorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Expanding the supply and affordability of housing in Washington is near the top of this list. That will likely include a proposal from last year that would have capped yearly rent increases at 7% for existing residential tenants. The push for this rent stabilization plan failed twice in the Senate. This year, both caucus leaders recognize many of their members would like to see it revived. Pedersen said voters have elected a Senate that is prepared and interested in passing some form of rent stabilization. But he added the key to getting that proposal through will be passing other bills to increase housing supply and improve affordability. Making as much investment as we can in public schools, maintaining access to child care and improving access to mental health services are among the other leading issues for Democrats this year, Pedersen said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans plan to focus on cost of living, public safety and education. Food, gas, housing, child care, health care, are all increasingly unaffordable. Nothing about the election changed that so far, Braun said. Regarding law enforcement, they expressed hope for a bipartisan push to boost hiring of officers across the state because Washington has the nations lowest number of officers per capita. Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson made this a pillar of his campaign platform. Education is also a priority for Republicans. Weve got a ton of work to do. We still havent recovered from the [pandemic-era] learning loss. Our kids are performing well below standards and were not catching up, Braun said. Preparing for Trump One source of tension between Democrats and Republicans in Olympia could be how the state responds to the next Trump presidency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ferguson has already said hes prepared for showdowns with the incoming Trump administration over issues like immigration, abortion access and LGBTQ rights. Both Jinkins and Pedersen are also bracing for clashes. Well be paying a lot more attention to whats coming down from the federal level and trying to anticipate those things when we can and maybe react to stop bad things from happening in Washington, Jinkins said. Republicans argue that Democrats should stick to state-level issues in the next session rather than straying into federal matters. We understand that we might have different priorities, different methods of achieving goals, Stokesbary said. Well be less disappointed if [Democrats] spend their time on Washington problems. Well be really frustrated if they insist on solving the nations problems when thats not what they were elected to solve. Reading is one of two cities approved for a new Community Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ) created through legislation in Pennsylvanias 2024-2025 budget. (Getty Images) Community leaders in Reading celebrated the citys inclusion this year in a Pennsylvania program to incentivize redevelopment and job creation by reinvesting new tax revenue in the community. The Berks County city is one of two new Community Revitalization and Improvement Zones (CRIZ) created through legislation in the states 2024-2025 budget. Reading and Erie join Bethlehem, Lancaster and Tamaqua, which received their designations more than a decade ago, to bring the number of CRIZs across the state to five. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This designation sends a clear message, Reading Mayor Eddie Moran said in a news conference Thursday. Reading is ready to take its place as a city of opportunity. Ready to attract the kinds of investments and developments that will transform a future. Ready to welcome new businesses, create jobs and foster innovation ready to show that our community is stronger, more resilient and more ambitious than ever before. Established in 2013, the CRIZ program encourages investment in blighted or under-utilized areas of small cities by designating up to 130 acres within their boundaries as areas where developers can access tax-increment financing backed by state and local tax revenue. The program is administered by the state departments of Revenue and Community and Economic Development and the governors budget office. Its similar to the Neighborhood Improvement Zone program, a program unique to Allentown that has attracted about $1 billion in new development since its inception in 2009. Both allow businesses and developers to use tax revenue generated from businesses inside the zones to repay construction loans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Rep. Manny Guzman (D-Berks) was among a group of state lawmakers from Berks and Erie counties who negotiated the reopening of the CRIZ program as part of the budget. In the news conference Thursday, Guzman said Readings new CRIZ was hard-fought and won. So many folks told me, man, this is a pipe dream. Theyre never going to open up the CRIZ program again, Guzman said. State Sen. Judith Schwank (D-Berks) and state Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz (D-Berks) were also instrumental in negotiating Readings designation as a CRIZ, Guzman said. The CRIZ program was based on the Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) in Allentown, which was an initiative of former Lehigh County state Sen. Pat Browne, who is now Gov. Josh Shapiros revenue secretary. Unlike the NIZ, where the program receives all revenue from most state taxes collected in the zone, CRIZs collect only new revenue. The NIZ and Browne faced scrutiny last year after a state Senate committee sought more detailed data about the taxes collected from the zone. Browne declined to provide the information, saying the law that created the program forbids the release of individual taxpayer data. After a months-long standoff and weeks of legal saber rattling, Browne appeared before the Senate and agreed to increase transparency of the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bethlehem and Lancaster received their CRIZ designations in 2013 and Tamaqua was granted a pilot zone in 2014, according to the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). Last year, the program returned nearly $15 million to those communities, according to Gov. Josh Shapiros office. Under the program, the Revenue Department establishes a baseline for tax revenue from businesses in the CRIZ in the first year of the program. Any increases in revenue from existing businesses above the baseline amount and all revenues from businesses established after the first year of the program are transferred to a CRIZ fund for each community, according to a DCED report on the program in 2023. Implementation of the program is overseen by a municipal authority with a board appointed by leaders in each participating municipality. The board determines which projects in the CRIZ should be funded. Guzman said he hopes Reading will emulate the success Allentown, Bethlehem and Lancaster have experienced through their tax-backed financing programs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were at the precipice, here, of something great, Guzman said. I want to be clear, though that while this is an awesome opportunity, this is just the start of a 30-year process. We got us this far, but now we need the community to take us the rest of the way, he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A 17-year-old boy on his way to the first day of school after winter break was shot Thursday in Brooklyn, police and school safety sources said. The teen was outside Dr. Susan S. McKinney Secondary School, which serves grades seven through 12 in Fort Greene, when he was approached by a man asking if he was a specific individual, according to the sources. The student denied being that person but was shot in the stomach anyway at N. Oxford St. and Park Ave. at about 8:25 a.m., the sources said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim ran across the street into the school and collapsed at the safety agents desk. Reps for the school system did not immediately confirm if the victim attends McKinney. Cops described the shooter as a teen in a black jacket who fled on N. Oxford St. The victim was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Brooklyn Methodist in stable condition, sources said. While this incident took place off campus, this display of gun violence is deeply concerning, said Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for the public schools. We are grateful to our dedicated school staff and NYPD school safety agents who provided critical support to this young person. Additional supports are being directed to the school, including school social workers, as well as support for the school community via Project Pivot, Mayor Adams signature anti-violence initiative in public schools, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Students and teachers briefly sheltered within the building, according to school officials. We heard it, but we were working so we didnt see anything, said a worker near the scene, who declined to give his name. I heard one shot. I wasnt 100% sure, but it sounded like it couldve possibly have been a gunshot. The incident occurred just hours after 10 young people were wounded in a mass shooting outside a Queens nightclub on Wednesday night. NEW YORK A 17-year-old boy on his way to the first day of school after winter break was shot Thursday in Brooklyn, police and school safety sources said. The teen was outside Dr. Susan S. McKinney Secondary School, which serves grades seven through 12 in Fort Greene, when he was approached by a man asking if he was a specific individual, according to the sources. The student denied being that person but was shot in the stomach anyway at North Oxford Street and Park Avenue at about 8:25 a.m., the sources said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim ran across the street into the school and collapsed at the safety agents desk. Reps for the school system did not immediately confirm if the victim attends McKinney. Cops described the shooter as a teen in a black jacket who fled on N. Oxford St. The victim was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Brooklyn Methodist in stable condition, sources said. While this incident took place off campus, this display of gun violence is deeply concerning, said Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for the public schools. We are grateful to our dedicated school staff and NYPD school safety agents who provided critical support to this young person. Additional supports are being directed to the school, including school social workers, as well as support for the school community via Project Pivot, Mayor Adams signature anti-violence initiative in public schools, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Students and teachers briefly sheltered within the building, according to school officials. We heard it, but we were working so we didnt see anything, said a worker near the scene, who declined to give his name. I heard one shot. I wasnt 100% sure, but it sounded like it couldve possibly have been a gunshot. The incident occurred just hours after 10 young people were wounded in a mass shooting outside a Queens nightclub on Wednesday night. _____ DENVER (KDVR) The former Jefferson County Chief of Schools was found dead after he was allegedly involved in the possession of child sexual assault material. Chief of Schools David Weiss was terminated on Dec. 19 while a criminal investigation was underway. At the time, Jefferson County Public Schools couldnt share further information as it was an open investigation. However, on Jan. 2, the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office confirmed the nature of the suspected criminal activity was involving child pornography. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Almost two weeks after Weiss was terminated, he died by suicide. The sheriffs office said the Maryland Washington County Sheriffs Office informed them on Jan. 1 that they were conducting a death investigation of Weiss, who was in Maryland with family for the holidays. You never think that thats going to happen in your school district, especially with somebody thats so elevated in a position, JeffCo Schools parent Crystal Marine said. Its disturbing and its shocking. And Im just frankly, Im disgusted. More information about Weiss death is expected to come out from the Washington County Sheriffs Office in Maryland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Jeffco Sheriffs Office said it will continue the criminal investigation as theres still a need to understand what happened, if there are any additional people involved, and if they can identify and care for any additional victims. Were concerned now, because there has been a death, that we wont receive the answers that we need and the details that must come out so that we have a full understanding of what really took place here from somebody who was in the highest position of public trust, Jeff Schools parent Lindsay Datko said. The sheriffs office said theres nothing that leads them to believe the investigation is connected to either case involving a Jefferson County School District social worker or the Lakewood middle school staff member who were arrested for sexual-related crimes against children earlier this year. We have asked for boundaries around that term, person of trust, as its a huge glorification, Datko said. Its used in curriculum. Its used to allow children to freely develop relationships in ways that dont have boundaries. And so now we are giving an absolute demand that this term be eradicated from our district as we now out our chief of schools as someone involved in a child sexual abuse case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Parents told FOX31s Nicole Fierro they are especially concerned because, they say, the district has not communicated anything to parents. FOX31 emailed the district for comment but has not heard back yet. I sent emails to the board in the district begging them to give the community and their employees first and foremost, some information that would help them feel at ease, to help them feel that they are in charge, that they understand this is going to shake up this school community, the entire community, and that they are on top of it, that they will take it seriously, Datko said. And they refuse to answer. The silence is deafening and that this is an opportunity for the district to really lean into that guidance and leadership that they are capable of, but theyre backing down from it, its alarming, Marine said. This person had a great deal of influence on past investigations that have to do with grooming and sexual abuse in our schools, Datko said. And we are going to be demanding that those investigations are looked at again because this person, David Weiss, chief of schools, add influence and power over the decisions made in those cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Further updates wont be released until the investigation is complete. Find mental health resources in Colorado. If you are thinking of hurting or killing yourself: Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Please get help immediately. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. A Tesla Cybertruck exploded and burst into flames Wednesday morning just outside the entrance of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing a person inside the vehicle and injuring several others standing nearby, local officials said. The suspicious blast is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, three senior law enforcement members briefed on the matter told NBC News. A motive has yet to be established. The blast came hours after a driver in a rented pickup truck who was flying an ISIS flag plowed into New Year's Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 15 and injuring more than 30 others before he was shot dead by police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That pickup truck and the Tesla in the Las Vegas explosion were rented from the same company, Turo, said Clark County/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill. "I don't know," McMahill said when asked at a news conference whether the two incidents are connected. "But we are investigating whether there is any connectivity." Turo, in a statement, said the company is actively aiding investigators. "We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat," the company said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill said officials know the Tesla was rented in Colorado but declined to divulge the name of the person who died in the inferno. "We do know who rented this truck," he said, adding they have found no link to ISIS or any other terrorist organization. We believe this is an isolated incident," added Jeremy Schwartz, the FBIs acting special agent in charge of the investigation. McMahill said officials were able to track the route the Tesla took to Las Vegas with the help of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who provided video of the Cybertruck at Tesla charging stations and by having the truck unlocked after it auto-locked in the explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Tesla arrived at 7:30 a.m. in Las Vegas and exploded an hour later, about 15 seconds after it got to the hotel, the sheriff said. McMahill showed video of the explosion at an evening news conference. "So the individual who was in the truck is obviously deceased," he said. Earlier, Musk, who is also a top Trump adviser, insisted on X that the explosion had nothing to do with the vehicle. We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself, Musk declared. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahill confirmed there were gasoline cannisters and large fireworks mortars in the back of the truck. "I dont know how they were ignited," the sheriff said. "We havent been able to process the vehicle yet. McMahill also reiterated that "there does not appear to be any further threat to our community now." Meanwhile, in New York City, extra police officers were assigned to Trump Tower as a precaution and the security perimeter was expanded to keep the public and traffic further away from the building, an NYPD spokesperson said. Security at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago has also been boosted, police there confirmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The explosion outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was reported about 8:40 a.m. local time, police said. "We were told that a 2024 Cybertruck pulled up to the front of the hotel, and, in fact, I can tell you it pulled right up to the glass entrance doors of the hotel," McMahill said at an earlier press conference. "We saw smoke start showing from the vehicle, and then an explosion from the truck occurs." Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Touchstone said that as first responders began to extinguish the fire, they "realized at the same time that there were multiple persons with injuries located around the vehicle." Of the seven people injured, Touchstone said, two were taken to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. But the injuries of all seven people are considered minor, he said. Videos on social media show smoke outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday. In videos circulating online, sirens can be heard in the Trump International Hotel lobby as the vehicle just outside the doors is engulfed in flames. A person on social media said they were near the front door when the vehicle exploded and forced to leave their luggage by the door. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI's Las Vegas office said in a statement that it has personnel on scene to offer assistance to our local partners, who handled the initial response. The remains of a covered Tesla Cybertruck that burned at the entrance of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Trump International Hotel was evacuated, and guests have been moved to Resorts World Las Vegas, officials said at the news conference. In a statement that President-elect Donald Trump's son Eric Trump also shared on X, the Trump Organization acknowledged that a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochere of Trump Las Vegas. A porte cochere is a covered entrance large enough for vehicles to drive through. The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism, the statement read. Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochere of Trump Las Vegas. The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their Eric Trump (@EricTrump) January 1, 2025 Trump International Hotel Las Vegas is owned by the Trump Organization and American businessman Phil Ruffin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In videos of the lobby, loud blasts can be heard as the fire grows larger just beyond the entrance to the hotel, which is embossed with the letter "T" for Trump. Mary Lescano Paguada, 43, who was on vacation in Las Vegas from San Antonio to celebrate the new year at the hotel, said she heard an explosion early Wedenesday. Initially, she did not worry until she started seeing law enforcement officers responding. Paguada said that once she and her husband reached the lobby, they heard screaming and were told by hotel staff to get out and "don't breathe the smoke. Don't stay." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said they were not allowed to return to their rooms. Social media posts showed smoke filling the air around the building. Other videos taken from nearby hotels show first responders appearing to race to the scene. Trump has tapped Musk to co-lead an advisory council, the Department of Government Efficiency, during his second administration, which aims to slash federal regulations and government spending. Musk, who is the worlds richest person, contributed $277 million to back Trumps campaign and other GOP candidates, according to campaign finance records. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com A Cybertruck that exploded Wednesday in Las Vegas was rented on Turo, the car-sharing company said. The app was also used to rent the truck used in the New Orleans attack earlier Wednesday. President Joe Biden said authorities were looking into whether the two incidents were connected. The Tesla Cybertruck that exploded Wednesday in Las Vegas was rented on Turo, the same car-sharing app used to rent the pickup truck used in the New Orleans attack earlier Wednesday. In a statement on its website, Turo confirmed the vehicles involved in both incidents were rented through its service. "Our trust and safety team is actively partnering with law enforcement authorities to share any information that could be helpful in their investigations," the statement read. "We do not believe that either renter had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat, and we are not currently aware of any information that indicates the two incidents are related." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shamsud-Din Jabbar has been identified as the suspect in the deadly New Orleans attack. Jabbar's criminal record, obtained from the Texas Department of Public Safety and viewed by Business Insider, shows two prior arrests in 2002 and 2005. The first was for theft, while the other was for driving with an invalid license. Both were classified as misdemeanors. Celebrity-backed company Turo lets private car owners rent out their vehicles. It's similar to Airbnb or Vrbo but for vehicles instead of homes. The San Francisco-based company offers a wide range of cars, including Toyotas, Porsches, and Teslas, and is active in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and France. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investors include the venture arms of American Express, BMW, and Liberty Mutual and top venture-capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins and GV. Celebrities such as the rapper 2 Chainz and NBA and NFL players have also invested. Turo has close to 1,000 employees and was valued at $1.5 billion in 2020, per PitchBook. The company, which was founded in 2009, registered for an initial public offering in 2021 but hasn't yet gone public. The company had 360,000 cars listed on its platform at the end of 2023, and about 3.7 million people booked cars that year, according to a March 2024 filing. In that filing, Turo said customers' actions that result in criminal activity could affect the company's reputation and create legal liabilities a standard line in these documents. The company wrote that it had no control over or the ability to predict the actions of car renters, who it calls guests. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We cannot conclusively verify the identity of all guests, nor do we verify or screen third parties who may be present during a trip using a vehicle booked through our platform," the March filing said. "Our trust and safety processes focus primarily on guests to reduce the risk of vehicle theft and motor vehicle accidents." The company reported nearly $880 million in revenue in 2023, an 18% year-over-year growth. It posted $14.7 million in profits, a sharp fall from $154.7 million in 2022. Losses and high costs are common for growing tech companies, especially those that aren't yet public. Authorities are investigating whether the incidents are connected In a press conference Wednesday, President Joe Biden said authorities were investigating whether there was any connection between the Las Vegas explosion and the New Orleans attack. Kevin McMahill, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sheriff, said at a press conference that the driver of the Tesla Cybertruck was killed and that seven others were injured after the vehicle exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X that the explosion was "caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb" in the bed of the Cybertruck. "We're very well aware of what has happened in New Orleans with the event that occurred there, and the number of victims there and the additional IEDs," McMahill said, referring to the truck attack Wednesday morning in New Orleans that left at least 15 people dead, including the attacker, and injured dozens of others. "So, as you can imagine, with an explosion here on iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe." January 3, 2025: This story was updated to reflect a clarification by officials that the previously reported death toll of 15 in the New Orleans attack included the attacker. Read the original article on Business Insider This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A lab technician testing for malaria. Priority for malaria funding should be case management, which is crucial for saving lives, especially for children, who need access to treatment within 24 hours of falling ill, says Michael Adekunle Charles. Credit: RBM From fixing open gutters to educating kids about the importance of bed nets, a "whole-of-society" approach is needed to successfully shut down malaria, according to Michael Adekunle Charles, CEO of RBM Partnership to End Malariaa global grouping of more than 500 organizations dedicated to fighting the disease. It comes as the WHO's World Malaria Report 2024 reveals that cases are rising, with sub-Saharan Africa carrying the heaviest burden. The former diplomat and medical doctor tells SciDev.Net that the priority for malaria funding is ensuring that drugs get to hard-to-reach areas, and highlights the risks posed by Anopheles stephensithe urban malaria-transmitting mosquito that can bite during the day. How would you assess the current state of malaria control and elimination as highlighted in the World Malaria Report 2024? The report provides a mix of optimism and challenges. It notes significant progress, with 2.2 billion cases and 12.7 million deaths averted since 2000. However, malaria remains a major threat, particularly in Africa, which bears 95% of the global malaria burden. While we're not progressing as fast as desired, the gains are undeniable. To make further progress, we must approach malaria as a societal issue, not just a health challenge, involving sectors like education, infrastructure, and agriculture. We need to adopt a more optimistic and comprehensive approach to fighting malaria. It's essential to move beyond viewing malaria solely as a health issue. Countries that have successfully eliminated malaria have approached it from a developmental perspective, addressing infrastructure, gender issues, agriculture, and education. Each of these aspects plays a critical role in malaria elimination. For example, educating children in schools encourages them to use mosquito nets at home, while addressing infrastructure challengeslike stagnant water in potholes and open guttersremoves breeding grounds for mosquitoes. In places like Nigeria and other parts of Africa, such environmental factors remain major barriers. If we encourage people to sleep under nets but fail to address the stagnant water and open gutters outside their homes, we won't win the fight against malaria. A whole-of-society approach, involving collaboration across all sectors, is the way forward. The report highlights funding gaps in malaria control efforts. How can this be addressed? Funding remains a critical issue, with only US$4 billion of the US$8.3 billion target achieved in 2023. Engaging the private sector through initiatives like End Malaria Councils [country-led forums to accelerate progress on the disease] has shown promise, raising US$80 million across nine countries. Resource optimization and innovative funding models are essential. Funding is crucial to scaling up malaria control efforts. In countries where we've seen significant success, adequate funding has been a key factor. However, we do not currently have all the resources we need. This is where resource optimization becomes essential. For example, in Kebbi State, Nigeria, rice farming requires swampy water, which is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. Should the Ministry of Health allocate its malaria funds to larviciding (applying a treatment to water to kill larvae) these areas, or should the Ministry of Agriculture contribute instead? By having the Ministry of Agriculture fund such efforts, resources within the Ministry of Health could be freed up and redirected toward other malaria control measures. Similarly, addressing infrastructure issues such as gutters and potholes, which also serve as mosquito breeding sites, would reduce malaria cases, ease the burden on hospitals, and free up additional funds for prevention and treatment. Resource optimization is a key strategy, and every sector must understand its role in malaria control. We also need to explore alternative funding sources. In Nigeria, for instance, the End Malaria Council has been reinvigorated with support from private sector leaders like [Nigerian businessman Aliko] Dangote and [Nigerian economist] Tony Elumelu. Through corporate social responsibility initiatives, the private sector can contribute significantly to malaria control efforts. By linking other sectors to malaria control, we can free up health ministry resources and strengthen the overall fight against the disease. What role does inequity play in malaria outcomes, and how can this be addressed? If we look at malaria, it is clear that children under the age of five and pregnant women are the most affected, which is why we often link malaria with gender issues. Beyond the disease itself, inequity plays a significant role. For instance, in many cases, it is the mother who brings the sick child to the hospital. If the child is admitted, it's the mother who stays by their side. This same mother often has multiple other children at home that she still needs to care for. With the little resources she has, she ends up spending it all on the sick child. This limits her ability to engage in productive activities like farming or trading, which would bring income to the household. In rural areas, this situation is compounded if the man of the household is unable to provide financially. The result is a vicious cycle of poverty and hardship, exacerbated by malaria. Women, already struggling under these pressures, bear the brunt of the burdenspending time and resources on treatment while losing opportunities to sustain their families. This is the inequity we speak of in malaria outcomes, where the disease disproportionately impacts women and children, both directly and indirectly. Is the advent of malaria vaccines the breakthrough we've been waiting for, or just one step in a larger fight? Vaccines are an exciting addition to our toolbox, but they are not a silver bullet. For instance, the malaria vaccine helps reduce severe cases and deaths, but must be used alongside other tools like bed nets and indoor residual spraying. Integration into existing immunization programs is key. Continued innovation is needed to develop vaccines that offer long-term immunity. There are challenges in rollout, especially integrating it into existing vaccination programs like the Expanded Program on Immunization [a WHO vaccine initiative]. The malaria vaccine should be handled by them, but because it's specific to malaria and new, it's often driven [in Nigeria] by the National Malaria Elimination Program. Ensuring seamless rollout is critical. The vaccine is administered to children under two, the most vulnerable age group, to improve survival rates. When used alongside tools like bed nets and indoor residual spraying, it significantly reduces severe malaria cases. We need integration, innovation, and continued development to reach a stage where a single vaccine dose provides long-term protection. For now, it's an important tool, but it must be part of a comprehensive strategy that combines prevention and treatment. How is malaria transmission being affected by climate change? Climate change is exacerbating malaria transmission by altering patterns and increasing the frequency of conditions that favor mosquito breeding. For instance, flooding creates stagnant water, which serves as an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. It's not just about changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, it's also about how these factors create environments where mosquitoes thrive, accelerating malaria spread. To combat this, adaptive measures are essential. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention is a key example, where preventive treatment is provided to children during the rainy season when transmission peaks. This intervention has seen significant scale-up, from reaching 170,000 children in 2012 to 53 million in 2023. By targeting children for three to four months during this high-risk period, we are mitigating the impact of increased malaria transmission due to climate change. What are the emerging challenges in malaria control, such as resistance and new mosquito species? The way the mosquito behaves is constantly evolving. The longer we wait, the more adaptable it becomes, mutating into new strains that frustrate our efforts with existing tools. A prime example is Anopheles stephensi, a mosquito species originally found in Asia, now present in several African countries, including Nigeria. This species is particularly concerning because it thrives in urban areas and bites during the late afternoon and early evening, unlike traditional malaria-carrying mosquitoes that are most active at night. This shift raises critical questions about the effectiveness of our current interventions, such as bed nets, which primarily protect people during the night. It underscores the urgency of securing adequate funding, driving innovation, and plugging knowledge gaps. If we don't act swiftly, we risk losing the significant gains made in malaria control, such as the 2.2 billion cases averted and the 12.7 million lives saved since 2000. Addressing these challenges requires a multifaceted approach, involving improved surveillance, development of new tools, and strengthening the resilience of our malaria control strategies to outpace the adaptability of mosquitoes like Anopheles stephensi. What priorities should guide malaria funding and R&D efforts? As of today, no child should be dying of malaria. The priority for malaria funding should be case managementensuring drugs and treatment reach even the hardest-to-reach areas. This is crucial for saving lives, especially for children, who need access to treatment within 24 hours of falling ill. While research and development, as well as commodities like bed nets, are important, the immediate focus must be on delivering lifesaving interventions quickly. Beyond that, we need to stay ahead of the mosquito's adaptability. Supporting African researchers and building local manufacturing capacity are critical. More than 80% of malaria commodities currently come from outside the continent, which is unacceptable. Investing in local manufacturing will not only create jobs and wealth, but also ensure greater health security for the region. Although it's difficult to prioritize in such a multifaceted fight, the key is balancing immediate life-saving needs with long-term investments in innovation, local capacity, and sustainable solutions. What is RBM Partnership's role in achieving global malaria targets? RBM is a partnership of more than 500 entities, including civil society organizations, countries, private sector players, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and research organizations. Our role is to act as a catalyst for achieving global malaria targets, focusing on four key priorities. First, coordination is vitalbringing together efforts within countries, across regions, and globally. While everyone shares the goal of eliminating malaria, not all work aligns in the same direction, and our job is to streamline these efforts. Second, advocacy is crucial to keeping malaria high on the global health agenda. This involves promoting a whole-of-society approach, addressing the education gap, and ensuring stakeholders understand their roles in fighting malaria. Third, we focus on data systems. Strengthening surveillance, ensuring last-mile delivery of rapid diagnostic tests, and improving data collection and analysis are all essential for understanding and reducing malaria's burden. Lastly, addressing the persistent funding challenges is key. We work to mobilize resources through End Malaria Councils, engaging the private sector, and fostering commitments that supplement traditional funding sources. By improving coordination, advocacy, data, and funding, RBM aims to drive meaningful progress toward the 2030 global malaria targets. Provided by SciDev.Net A Tesla Cybertruck exploded in front of President-elect Trumps Las Vegas hotel Wednesday, killing one person and injuring seven others. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police first received a report of an explosion and fire at Trump International Hotel at around 8:40 a.m. local time. The 2024 Cybertruck pulled up in front of the hotel and was seen emitting smoke before the explosion, police said. The person inside the car was killed, while seven others sustained minor injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two sources close to the investigation told 8 News Now in Las Vegas that investigators believe the incident was an intentional act. Sheriff Kevin McMahill noted that Las Vegas police are well aware of the terror attack that occurred in New Orleans early Wednesday morning, where a truck drove into the crowds on Bourbon Street, killing 10 people and injuring dozens more. A suspected improvised explosive device (IED) was found in the drivers vehicle in New Orleans, and more potential IEDs were found in the French Quarter, according to the FBI. As you can imagine, with an explosion here on iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe, McMahill said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There does not appear to be any further threat to our community here now, he added. According to a law enforcement official, the Cybertruck truck was rented via the Turo app and appeared to have a load of fireworks, per the Associated Press. This app was also used to rent the car used in the New Orleans attack, according to a Turo spokesperson. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a close ally of Trump, said in a post on his social media platform X that the whole Tesla senior team was investigating the incident, adding theyve never seen anything like this. In a later post, he said they had confirmed the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president-elects son and business partner, Eric Trump, noted Wednesday that the safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism, he added on X. The local station in Las Vegas, 8 News Now, is owned by Nexstar, which also owns The Hill The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Originally appeared on E! Online Authorities in Las Vegas are investigating a deadly incident along the citys famed Strip. The Jan. 1 event, which killed one and minorly injured seven bystanders, involved an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck and occurred outside the entrance of the Trump International Hotel, according to authorities. "We were told that a 2024 Cybertruck pulled up to the front of the hotel, and, in fact, I can tell you it pulled right up to the glass entrance doors of the hotel," Clark County/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters. "We saw smoke start showing from the vehicle, and then an explosion from the truck occurs." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Footage of the car fire shared to X (formerly Twitter) shows the truck engulfed in flames while firework-like sounds are heard following multiple explosions. Though a motive has not been determined, law enforcement has deemed the explosion to be intentional and is investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack, according to NBC News. More from E! Online Officials dont currently believe the Cybertruck explosion outside of the Trump International Hotelwhich is owned by the Trump Organization and American businessman Phil Ruffinis connected to the deadly attack that occurred earlier in the day in New Orleans. In that instance, a man, who was in possession of an ISIS flag and explosives, drove into a crowd on the citys famed Bourbon Street, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more. AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images The trucks used in both incidents, however, were rented from the same company. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the deadly event, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the electric car company investigated the situation and that the explosion was not a result of a faulty vehicle. We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck, he wrote in a post to X, and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. President-elect Donald Trumps son Eric Trump also shared a statement from the Trump Organization, acknowledging the events and thanking law enforcement for their work. The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority, the statement posted X read. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.) For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App On Jan. 1, 2025, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, injuring at least seven people. The driver of the vehicle was found dead in the wreckage. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, some social media users erroneously suggested (archived) that the Cybertruck itself had malfunctioned, but it was found to have contained fuel canisters and firework mortars, leading authorities to investigate the incident as a potential act of terrorism. The explosion was not caused by a vehicle defect. Investigation Status As of Jan. 2, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, in collaboration with the FBI, was treating the explosion as a potential terrorist act, though no direct links to organized terror groups have so far been established. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a Jan. 1 news conference, FBI acting Special Agent-in-Charge Jeremy Schwartz said: "Our No. 1 goal is to ensure that we have a proper identification of the suspect involved in this incident; following that our second objective is to determine whether this was an act of terrorism or not." Shcwartz continued: "I know everybody's interested in that word and trying to see if this we can say: 'Hey, this is a terrorist attack.' That is our goal, that's what we are trying to do." "Most importantly, as the sheriff [Kevin McMahill] already mentioned, we believe this is an isolated incident," he added. Authorities are working to uncover the motive behind the explosion and determine whether there are any links to a vehicle attack in New Orleans in which a pickup was driven into a crowd, resulting in multiple fatalities. The New Orleans incident is also being investigated as a potential terrorist attack. As of Jan. 2, the FBI had found "no definitive link" between the two incidents, according to The Associated Press. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We reached out to Tesla, Trump International Hotel and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for comment and will update this article if we receive a response. What We Know About the Suspect At a Jan. 2 news conference, state and federal authorities said they were confident the driver of the Cybertruck was Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, but that a final determination of the man's identity hinged on DNA testing. They reiterated their belief that he acted alone. Officials also disclosed that Livelsberger had rented the electric vehicle from Turo, the same vehicle-sharing service linked to the New Orleans attack, and that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound prior to the explosion. According to The Guardian, Livelsberger served more than 19 years in the U.S. military. Citing two law enforcement officials who requested to remain anonymous, The Associated Press reported that: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger was a member of the Army's elite Green Berets, a special forces unit and guerrilla warfare experts, according to an Army statement. He has served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks, and was on approved leave when he died, the statement said. The Green Berets work to counter terrorists abroad using unconventional techniques. Livelsberger spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to Army special forces command. The New York Times supplied a few more details about Livelsberger's military service: In a statement sent to reporters on Thursday, the Army identified the driver as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an Army master sergeant. According to the Army, Sergeant Livelsberger enlisted as a Special Forces trainee and served on active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, then served in the National Guard from March 2011 to July 2012, and in the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012. He re-entered active duty in December 2012, serving with U.S. Army Special Operations. At the time of the explosion, he had been on approved leave. McMahill noted that the truck's exterior remained "completely intact," explaining that "the fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred" in the hotel's valet area and pointing out the building's front glass doors weren't broken by the explosion. According to McMahill, there is currently "no further threat to the community" in connection with the incident. Suspect's Letters and Manifesto During a Jan. 3, 2025, news conference, McMahill stated that the investigation confirmed the suspect's identity using dental records and DNA provided by family members. The investigators also revealed that the suspect had likely been suffering from PTSD and held no animosity toward President-elect Trump, referring to the incident as a "stunt." Two notes found in a phone app shed light on a possible motive. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) released two of Livelsberger's letters, which "include grievances regarding political, social, cultural, personal, and other issues," according to the LVMPD. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials clarified that the suspect acted alone and lawfully purchased firearms in preparation for the act. Additionally, FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, Spencer Evans addressed speculation about similarities to events in New Orleans by saying there is no evidence of any connection or prior communication between the suspects. On Jan. 7, 2025, McMahill disclosed the discovery of a six-page possible manifesto, in addition to earlier letters. The manifesto has not yet been released due to concerns it may contain classified information. Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren confirmed that new evidence suggests the incident was a suicide and noted the suspect's struggles with mental health issues. Investigators also revealed that the suspect used ChatGPT to assist in planning the attack. When asked if the act is still considered a potential terrorist attack, McMahill stated: "We haven't closed a single door on what the investigation is looking at." Sources: - YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egKkxY3bz8c. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ---. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egKkxY3bz8c. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. ---. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-aOb4qpmwA. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "Driver in Las Vegas Cybertruck Explosion Identified as Colorado Springs Resident: Sources." Denver 7 Colorado News (KMGH), 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/cybertruck-that-exploded-outside-trump-hotel-in-las-vegas-rented-in-colorado. Helmore, Edward. "Driver of Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas Blast Had Spent Years in US Army." The Guardian, 2 Jan. 2025. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/02/cybertruck-explosion-driver-las-vegas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Live Updates: FBI Now Says New Orleans Truck Attacker Acted Alone in an 'Act of Terrorism.'" AP News, https://apnews.com/live/new-orleans-truck-attack-updates. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. "New Details Emerge on the Suspect Involved in the Fatal Las Vegas Cybertruck Explosion." Channel 13 Las Vegas News KTNV, 2 Jan. 2025, https://www.ktnv.com/news/crime/new-details-emerge-on-the-suspect-involved-in-the-fatal-las-vegas-cybertruck-explosion. Police Probe If Blast at Trump Hotel Is Linked to New Orleans Attack. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7qd97eyp0o. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Updates: Jan. 8, 2025: This article was updated to include new information disclosed during LVMPD news conferences held on Jan. 3 and Jan. 7, 2025. Shortly after a rented Cybertruck was engulfed in flames outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Elon Musk ordered Tesla executives to investigate the incident. Using the wealth of data transmitted by the vehicles, Tesla employees and investigators were able to establish the cause of the explosion and where the vehicle had travelled from. Musk said that telemetry information had revealed how the fireball was unrelated to the vehicle itself, saying it was instead the result of an explosive device. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, police were able to retrace the cars journey from Colorado to Las Vegas by using information from Teslas charging stations. Just a few years ago a vehicles manufacturer would have been of little help to law enforcement, particularly once a vehicle had rolled off the production line. However, advanced modern vehicles are able to provide a stream of real-time data that can prove crucial to police investigations. For example, Tesla vehicles have an array of sensors, cameras and mobile transmitters that collect driving footage and diagnostic information. This enables the cars to transmit their state of health continuously, according to a social media post from Musk, who added: All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. Credit: Via TMZ | Alcides Antunes Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The data helped investigators establish that the ignition, which killed a person inside the car, was not the result of a battery fire as might have been suspected but was potentially linked to the terror attack in New Orleans just hours earlier. Teslas privacy policy states that the company collects a trove of readings, including speed information, odometer readings, charging data and location signals. In certain circumstances, cars will also transmit videos from eight or nine cameras built inside the car, which are used by its self-driving software, and to ensure that drivers are paying attention. Tesla says the data is anonymised or encrypted, and largely used to improve its products. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, personal data can be accessed in certain circumstances, as in the case of safety events. Cars will automatically transmit videos of accidents, for example, while a vehicles location can also be identified during an emergency. Tesla lists complying with law enforcement and other government requests as among the reasons it might access personal data. The vehicles also store a record of where they have been recharged on the companys supercharger network, allowing police on this occasion to track the drivers journey to Las Vegas. We do know the truck was rented in Colorado, Kevin McMahill, Vegas sheriff, said on Wednesday. We were able to trace that truck through the Tesla charging stations. Some have questioned how Elon Musks Tesla uses drivers personal data - FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP The Las Vegas explosion is not the first time data recorded by Tesla cars have been used in policework. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Footage from the vehicles sentry mode, which acts as a security camera when the car is locked and parked, has been used in several investigations even if a cars owner has not been willing to give up the clips. Police in Oakland, California, used video captured by a Model X to charge two suspects in a murder investigation last year, although since the video was stored on a USB stick in the car itself, officers had to obtain a warrant and tow the car. Tesla is also collecting video and car usage information as it builds its self-driving vehicle software, with huge collections of real-world data needed to train its systems. However, the companys practices have drawn scrutiny from privacy activists concerned about the personal data being hoovered up by modern vehicles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2023 the non-profit Mozilla Foundation declared that the car industry collected too much personal data about drivers, with Tesla named one of the worst offenders. That could be a blessing for law enforcement, however, as police grow increasingly reliant on modern-day cars to tackle crime. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Dumping industrial chemicals into municipal waterways can wreak havoc on people and the planet. One Texas-based oil refinery is facing legal action accused of doing just that, The Sacramento Bee reported. What's happening? According to the Bee, oil refinery company Phillips 66 has been indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury for allegedly dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater into the California county's sewer system. The incidents were linked to the company's oil refinery in Carson. In November 2020, the refinery allegedly released 310,000 gallons of wastewater containing 64,000 pounds of oil and grease into LA's sewer system, exceeding its permitted limits by over 300 times. In February 2021, the refinery allegedly discharged 480,000 gallons of wastewater containing 33,700 pounds of oil and grease. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the company faces six counts of violating the Clean Water Act, including knowingly discharging pollutants and failing to report the incidents. The federal law aims to reduce water pollution by regulating discharges into rivers, lakes, and other public waterways. Despite violation notices from LA County's sanitation district, Phillips 66 allegedly failed to report the discharges until after the fact. If convicted, the company could face up to $2.4 million in fines and five years of probation for each violation. As U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a case statement: "When companies contaminate, they must be held accountable." Why is this case important? The refinery's illegal discharges highlight how fossil fuel companies continue to put profit over the environment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wastewater filled with oil and grease damages ecosystems and disrupts the functioning of sewer systems, which are not designed to handle such contaminants. Polluted water can harm aquatic life, poison habitats, and seep into drinking water sources, posing health risks to neighboring communities. These alleged violations come as climate change intensifies, placing increased pressure on companies to act responsibly. The refinery's negligence avoids environmental accountability while extreme weather events like flooding and wildfires increasingly threaten vulnerable communities. Do you worry about air pollution in your town? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind What's being done about the dumping? The DOJ and local authorities are holding Phillips 66 accountable with federal charges aimed at enforcing compliance with environmental laws. Public awareness and legal pressure on corporations like Phillips 66 can drive systemic change, pushing businesses to adopt safer, more sustainable practices. Individuals can also take action by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Supporting renewable energy, cutting personal energy use, or switching to electric vehicles helps reduce the demand for polluting refineries. Advocacy groups such as Earthjustice and the Sierra Club continue to fight for cleaner energy policies and environmental protections and can always use more donations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Just like the rest of us, corporations have a duty to follow the law," Estrada said. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Jan. 2The third and final defendant charged in connection to the deadly shooting of Dayton police Detective Jorge "George" DelRio was sentenced to time served earlier this month, according to federal court records. Lionel Combs III pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug premises in February. On Dec. 16, he was sentenced to time served with three years of supervised release, according to U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio documents. Judge Michael Newman ordered Combs to be released immediately. He was to report to the U.S. Probation Office in Dayton before Dec. 20. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In September, Combs' co-defendants, Nathan Goddard and Cahke Cortner, were sentenced to life in prison. "The Dayton Police Department is pleased to see the sentences imposed against Nathan Goddard and Cahke Cortner in the tragic shooting of Detective Jorge DelRio," Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said following the sentencings. "They mark a significant step of closure for Detective DelRio's loved ones, our department and our community." Goddard was found guilty of murder following a trial in March. He and Cortner were also convicted of multiple drug and firearm charges. On Nov. 4, 2019, DelRio was serving a search warrant with other DEA Task Force members at a Ruskin Road house. The task force knocked on the door and entered after no one answered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Combs was reportedly in the basement with Goddard and Cortner when he heard knocking. He went to answer it but was stopped by Goddard and directed away from the basement stairs, according to court records. DelRio was heading down into the basement when Goddard shot him, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio. DelRio died three days later on Nov. 7, 2019, at Grandview Medical Center, now Kettering Health Dayton. Police found 10 kilograms of fentanyl and cocaine, 50 to 60 pounds of marijuana and more than $55,000 in cash in the house, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. DelRio was a 30-year police veteran and was on the DEA Task Force for 18 years. He was the longest serving task force officer in the DEA Dayton Resident Office and the second longest serving task force officer in the Detroit Field Division, Dayton police said. His colleagues described him as light-hearted, funny and someone who would always cheer up others. DelRio was also known for his love for his family, including his wife, four daughters and sons-in-law. Russian forces have struck a city bus in Kherson, leaving three passengers injured. Source: Roman Mrochko, Head of Kherson City Military Administration, on Telegram Quote from Mrochko: "The Russian invaders attacked public transport in the Korabelnyi district [in the city of Kherson] at around 11:00. The bus belonging to a commercial carrier had passengers on board. Three people are reported to have been injured." Details: Mrochko noted that the people injured in the attack were taken to hospital. Support UP or become our patron! Residents of the South Shore have many new options when going out to eat due to restaurants that opened in 2024 or are opening in early 2025. From chains to family-owned restaurants, supper clubs to sundaes, here is a sample of the cuisine that has come or is coming to the area. Want the atmosphere of a traditional supper club? Dot's Supper Club is set to open in South Milwaukee early next year. The traditional menu will feature staples such as prime rib, steaks, and a fish fry. Dots Supper Club is opening in South Milwaukee in early 2025. Located inside the Premier Pickleball Club, 305 N. Chicago Ave., this new restaurant will give visitors that hometown feel, owner Dottie Kieckbusch told the Journal Sentinel in December. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The space was a dance club in the 1970s and later became more of a restaurant bar while the building housed a bowling alley. Its getting a full facelift with new paint, ceiling tiles, flooring and more. Once it opens, Dots Supper Club will offer everything from prime rib to a fish fry and an all-you-can-eat brunch. It will be open from 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The brunch will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays. Kieckbusch said she plans to offer catering both on- and off-site. She hopes to pull in corporate events with the pickleball connection in the space. Kieckbusch is looking for bar staff, wait staff and backroom staff. Anyone interested in applying or wanting to reserve space for an event can reach out to her at dotkieck@gmail.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While it may be unique to host a supper club in a pickleball facility, Kieckbusch said shes worked to reduce the noise in the restaurant space and will continue monitoring if it needs to be further addressed once the supper club opens. Looking for some Polish cuisine? The owners of Wioletta's Polish Market, 3955 S. Howell Ave. in Milwaukee, are looking to open a Polish restaurant in South Milwaukee. When Polonez closed in St. Francis in September 2022 it was hard to find authentic Polish cuisine in the South Shore area, according to Adam Bartoszek. Bartoszek and his wife, Wioletta Bartoszek, own Wiolettas Polish Market, a popular spot in Milwaukee for people to pick up their Polish favorites. The couple are looking to bring authentic Polish food back to the area by opening Wiolettas Polish Kitchen in South Milwaukee. Adam Bartoszek told the Journal Sentinel the idea has been in the works for a while and a lot of customers have asked for it. He said their current space is limited on space and parking so they decided to look elsewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement South Milwaukee right now is kind of doing a reboot on their downtown, he said. The specific location is a secret but it will be along Milwaukee Avenue. The space needed a major remodel, according to Bartoszek. It will seat up to 50 people for dine-in. The restaurant will also offer counter service for takeout. Wiolettas Polish Kitchen is expected to open in spring 2025. Do you want the (barbecue) smoke? Jervel "Mr. Barbecue" Williams operates the Mister Bar-B-Que food truck. Then Community Minded Kitchen presents Mr. Bar-B-Que, which opened in October at 4666 S. Packard Ave. in Cudahy, is for you. Lovers of the food truck of the same name who have enjoyed owner Jervel Mr. Barbecue Williams brisket, rib tips, pulled pork and other barbecue favorites can find them all on offer along with a signature smoked macaroni and cheese bowl which comes with brisket. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not just a takeout buffet of barbecue, Williams is looking to help out some other local food entrepreneurs. The space will hold special events allowing foodmakers to get feedback from the public before they open their own spaces. Visit facebook.com/mrbarbequewilliams and 4diversedining.com for more information on upcoming offerings. Prefer pizza? Marco's Pizza is coming to Franklin, WI on Oct. 14, 2024 and will feature the company's triple pepperoni magnifico with new shredded pepperoni, classic pepperoni and old-world pepperoni for a limited time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Franklin is now home to Marco's Pizza at 6509 S. 27th St. The chain features various pizzas including its Triple Pepperoni Magnifico plus staples like chicken wings, cheezy bread, pizza bowls, Pizzolis and CinnaSquares. Now the third Marcos Pizza in the Milwaukee area, Matt Reynolds, regional director of operations, said the area has a growing population and the franchise was attracted to Franklin by the close-knit community and charming small-town atmosphere. For more information visit marcos.com. Are you more focused on dessert? A new Dairy Queen opened in Franklin on Nov. 4 at 7730 S. Lovers Lane Road. Franklin is now also home to a new Dairy Queen at 7730 S. Lovers Lane Road. Owned and operated by Dharmesh Ghelani and his partner Hailey Patel, the restaurant features all of the DQ classics from ice cream cake and Blizzard treats to grill options like the Signature Stackburgers, chicken strip baskets and more. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As an experienced entrepreneur I am thrilled to open my first Dairy Queen, Ghelani said in a press release about the opening. This brand-new restaurant allows us to bring joy to Franklin and create a welcoming space for the community to enjoy their favorite meals and treats. I cant wait to welcome guests in to celebrate lifes happiest moments. The location employs 30 people, according to a Facebook post from Franklin Mayor John Nelson who had his favorite cherry-dipped ice cream cone at the grand opening event. Dairy Queen features indoor and outdoor seating. Hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week. Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on X @Redheadliner. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Here are new restaurants that have opened in Milwaukee's south suburbs Reports have been circulating about the death of educator, philanthropist, and TikTok celebrity Dora Moono Nyambe, and people want to know whether it is true. The Zambian activist and online personality garnered widespread attention due to her remarkable work with children from rural areas through her organization, Footprints of Hope Mapapa. Here are all the details weve gathered regarding the news of Nyambes sudden passing. Dora Moono Nyambe passes away at 32 Dora Moono Nyambe reportedly passed away in the early hours of December 25, 2024. She was 32 years old at the time of her death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A local outlet called Kalemba News seemingly shed some light on what happened to the TikTok celebrity. They quoted Mubanga Gravies, who is a teacher at Nyambes Mkushi district-based school Footprints Hope, to report that the humanitarian spent time with her team and many of the children until 11 PM on the night before her death. At that point, she never complained of being sick or feeling ill, Gravies elaborated. She only woke up around 02:00 hours in the morning of yesterday and drove herself to the nearby clinic which is about 15 kilometers away from the school, after having passed out on different occasions. Gravies continued, We were only informed by the clinic that she had died around 04:00 hours, stating that she had low Blood Pressure. According to him, Nyambe was the best boss that the school staff could ever have. Dora Moono Nyambe was the daughter of a Zambian father and a South African mother. Born on June 23, 1992, she spent a considerable portion of her childhood in Chibombo, Lusaka, Zambia. Nyambe was a lifelong educator and noticed the terrible state of schools and education in Mapapa, Mkushi, during a visit in 2019. She eventually relocated to Mapapa, where she established Footprints of Hope Mapapa and Footprints Hope. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The philanthropist worked extensively with disenfranchised and vulnerable children. Nyambe helped them with education, teen pregnancies, and access to food, clothing, and housing. She didnt have any biological children but adopted 13 young individuals. Nyambe was laid to rest at her school on December 29. Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on ComingSoon.net. The post TikToker Dora Moono Nyambe Passes Away at 32 appeared first on Mandatory. TOPEKA (KSNT) The City of Topeka is bracing for expected winter weather this weekend. City of Topeka spokesman Dan Garrett said in a press release that the Public Works Department is monitoring weather forecasts for the weekend of Jan. 4-5. He said the path of the storm is still uncertain as of Jan. 2 but work crews are taking steps now to get ready for possible snow and ice. Topeka street crews are producing salt brine mixtures to treat priority roads in the city with pretreatment efforts starting on Jan. 2 and continuing into Jan. 3. Public Works Department staff will also be on standby throughout the weekend as the weather situation changes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Garrett said if the current forecast is accurate, the City of Topeka will activate a full snow response. Work crews will plow and treat roads on alternating 12-hour shifts until the storm passes and roads become safer to travel. New Mexican restaurant coming to Topeka in January The Topeka Rescue Missions Extreme Weather Taskforce will also be preparing for the storm by getting warming stations ready. More information on locations and hours will be released in the near future. For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatovic in connection with the death and injury of people as a result of an armed attack in the city of Cetinje, Azernews reports. "Dear Mr. President, The news of the tragic armed attack in the city of Cetinje, resulting in casualties and injuries, has deeply shaken us. In connection with this tragedy, I share your grief and extend my heartfelt condolences to you, the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and the people of Montenegro on behalf of myself and the people of Azerbaijan. I also wish a swift recovery to those injured," the letter reads. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A person using the custom app. Credit: Chris Stone Whether people decide to make New Year's resolutions or not, they might want to lead a healthier lifestyle in 2025. According to a new University of Bristol-led study, smartwatches could help people give up smoking. The researchers tested a smartwatch fitted with a custom app that used the smartwatch's built-in motion sensors to detect typical smoking movements. The results, published in JMIR Formative Research, showed the technology has the potential to help more than two-thirds of trial participants quit the habit. Smoking is the primary cause of preventable illness and premature death, harming nearly every organ of the body and reducing both quality of life and life expectancy. However, quitting is notoriously difficult, and many people try all sorts of ways to stop smoking, with limited success. In this new feasibility study, researchers developed software that uses smartwatch motion sensors to identify the typical hand movements of cigarette smoking to help detect a smoking lapse. If the app detects the person is smoking, the smartwatch delivers a relapse prevention message, just at the moment it is needed, to help with their quit attempt. Researchers tested the intervention on 18 people who were interested in quitting smoking, and who wore a normal Android smartwatch loaded with the custom app for a period of two weeks. Participants reported that the smartwatch intervention increased their awareness of smoking, which helped with some of the more automatic aspects of smoking behavior and made them think about what they were doing, motivating them to quit. Researchers found that a smoking relapse prevention intervention and the use of a smartwatch as a platform to host a just-in-time behavior change intervention are both feasible and acceptable to the majority of participants (12 out of 18, 66%) as a relapse prevention intervention. The researchers believe this is the first just-in-time intervention for preventing smoking relapse that runs entirely on a smartwatch, so doesn't need to be paired with a smartphone. Chris Stone, Senior Research Associate in Wearable Technology Application Development in Bristol's Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, and Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Program (ICEP), explained why the approach could help people quit smoking. "For those who are trying to give up, an initial lapse is a vulnerable moment, and risks leading to a full relapse to smoking. People like smartwatches. They like the idea of it delivering a message at the point that they smoke. Therefore, if we can identify this point of lapse, and deliver an intervention precisely at that point, we have an opportunity to improve the success of the quit attempt. "In carrying out this project, we have aimed to harness the latest thinking in intervention design, and deliver it in a convenient wearable package with minimal burden to the user and maximum engagement with behavior change; and in doing so, make a difference to people's lives." Alizee Froguel, Cancer Research UK's prevention policy manager, added, "Smoking is the biggest cause of cancer in the UK and stopping completely is the best thing you can do for your health. This study shows that smartwatches could be a useful method to help people quit smoking, but more research is needed to understand how effective they are. "There are many tools available to help people quit, and getting support from your free local stop-smoking service will give you the best chance of stopping successfully. To help create a smoke-free future, the UK government must ensure cessation services are sustainably funded and accessible for all." The research team recommend a longer-term effectiveness trial be carried out as the next step. More information: Chris Stone et al, Presenting and Evaluating a Smartwatch-Based Intervention for Smoking Relapse (StopWatch): Feasibility and Acceptability Study, JMIR Formative Research (2024). DOI: 10.2196/56999 TOPEKA (KSNT) Medical staff at Stormont Vail Health welcomed in their first baby of the year shortly after 2025 began. Taylor Bugg with Stormont Vail Health announced in a press release on Jan. 2 that the first baby born at its hospital in Topeka for 2025 came at 3:07 a.m. on Jan. 1. The baby, August Martell, weighed in at eight pounds and seven ounces, measuring 21 and-a-quarter inches in length. His parents are Kerstin and Ethan Martell. Bugg said Stormont Vails Birthplace offers expecting mothers a compassionate place where they can find high-quality care. Nurses and staff are specialized in labor and delivery to help mothers bring their children into the world. More information on the hospitals Birthplace can be found by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What Kansas counties are under a winter storm watch for this weekend? For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. Jan. 1AUSTIN Texas Parks and Wildlife Department asks hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts in South Texas to monitor for animals affected by New World Screwworm after a recent detection in Mexico. This detection, found in a cow at an inspection checkpoint in the southern Mexico State of Chiapas, close to the border with Guatemala, follows the progressively northward movement of NWS through both South and Central Americas. As a protective measure, animal health officials ask those along the southern Texas border to monitor wildlife, livestock and pets for clinical signs of NWS and immediately report potential cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What is New World Screwworm? New World screwworms are larvae or maggots of the NWS fly (Cochliomyia hominivorax), that cause a painful condition known as NWS myiasis. NWS flies lay eggs in open wounds or orifices of live tissue such as nostrils, eyes or mouth. These eggs hatch into dangerous parasitic larvae, and the maggots burrow or screw into flesh with sharp mouth hooks. Wounds can become larger, and an infestation can often cause serious, deadly damage or death to the infected animal. NWS primarily infests livestock but can also affect humans and wildlife including deer and birds. The parasite was last eradicated from the U.S. in 1966, with costly efforts by federal and state animal health officials, livestock producers and veterinary practitioners. Eradication efforts have continued in Central America, but the pest is considered widespread in Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and South American countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clinical signs of NWS myiasis may include: Irritated or depressed behavior Loss of appetite Head shaking Smell of decaying flesh Presence of fly larvae (maggots) in wounds Isolation from other animals or people Transmission NWS infestations begin when a female NWS fly is drawn to the odor of a wound or natural opening on a live, warm-blooded animal, where she lays her eggs. These openings can include wounds as small as a tick bite, nasal or eye openings, navel of a newborn or genitalia. One NWS female fly can lay up to 300 eggs at a time and may lay up to 3,000 eggs during her lifespan. Eggs hatch into larvae (maggots) that burrow into an opening to feed. After feeding, larvae drop to the ground, burrow into the soil and emerge as adult NWS flies. Adult NWS flies can fly long distances and the movement of infested livestock or wildlife can increase the rate of spread. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prevention When spending time outdoors (especially if traveling abroad to NWS-affected areas), be sure to clean and cover all wounds in addition to applying insect repellant to outdoor clothing to help avoid contact with NWS and other harmful insects. How to Help While in the field enjoying activities such as hunting, hiking or bird watching, hunters and outdoor enthusiasts are asked to report suspected signs of NWS. Any wildlife with suspicious clinical signs consistent with NWS should be immediately reported to a local wildlife biologist. Livestock reports should be made to the Texas Animal Health Commission or U.S. Department of Agriculture. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Those enjoying Texas' natural resources have an opportunity to serve as the first line of defense in protecting wildlife, livestock, and human health," said TPWD wildlife veterinarian J. Hunter Reed. "Their eyes and ears will be critical to quickly responding and managing this threat." Additional information about NWS can be found on TAHC, USDA and the Center for Disease Control NWS webpages. CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) A new year often brings a new resolution for many, but there are numerous unique ways to embrace both tried-and-true and fresh rituals to usher in 2025. Whether you prefer to write down your New Years resolutions or actively drop old habits and lifestyle choices, you may be surprised to learn about the many traditions observed across the globe to welcome the new year. Times Square ball drop, Manhattan, NY, United States Few traditions in America shine brighter than the ball drop in Times Square. Many consider it one of the most iconic New Years Eve events, as millions tune in to witness the crystal ball descend in downtown Manhattan. This moment symbolizes the excitement and optimism that come with the arrival of a new year. Kicking off the new year with black-eyed peas, United States One long-standing tradition in the southern United States involves eating black-eyed peas as the first meal of the year. It is believed that this practice brings good luck to those who partake. Often paired with collard greens and cornbread, this meal is said to attract wealth and prosperity. Twelve grapes at midnight, Spain Looking for a unique way to attract good fortune? In Spain, its a tradition to eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes midnight. Known as Las doce uvas de la suerte, this ritual represents the 12 chimes of the clock and the 12 months of the year ahead. Consuming the grapes is believed to ensure a year filled with prosperity and happiness. Empty luggage stroll, Colombia No airport is necessary for this New Years ritual. In Colombia, locals walk around their neighborhoods carrying empty suitcases to symbolize their desire to travel more in the coming year. This whimsical custom reflects a hope for adventure and a life filled with new experiences. Peppermint pig smash, Saratoga Springs, NY, United States A local tradition in Saratoga Springs, New York, involves breaking a peppermint pig made of hard candy with a small hammer. This custom dates back to the 19th century and symbolizes good luck and communal cheer. Participants share the broken candy pieces with friends and family as a gesture of unity and hope. Polka dots and round fruits, Philippines In the Philippines, polka dots are worn on New Years Eve as a symbol of prosperity. The circular design represents coins and wealth, making polka-dot attire a lucky choice for the occasion. Another tradition involves eating 12 round fruits, such as oranges or grapes, which symbolize abundance and sweetness in the year ahead. Cemetery celebration, Chile, South America In Chile, New Years Eve includes visiting cemeteries to honor deceased loved ones. Families gather to pray, bring flowers, and toast with food and champagne. Far from being somber, this ritual is a heartfelt way to celebrate the lives of the departed and connect with their memory as the new year begins. Sing the classic tune Auld Lang Syne, Scotland The Scots mark Hogmanay, their New Years celebration, by singing the classic tune Auld Lang Syne. This nostalgic anthem, which translates to times long past, is a heartfelt way to bid farewell to the old year while cherishing memories and friendships. It has since become a global tradition, often sung as hands are joined and spirits are lifted at midnight. Wear white and jump waves, Brazil On New Years Eve, Brazilians often dress in white to symbolize peace and purification. At midnight, many head to the beach to jump over seven waves, each representing a wish for the new year. The ritual, dedicated to Lemanja, the Goddess of the Sea, is both a celebration of nature and a spiritual gesture seeking blessings. Burning dolls, Ecuador Ecuadorians say goodbye to the old year by burning effigies, or anos viejos, made to resemble figures from the past year. The flames are thought to cleanse negativity and create space for fresh beginnings. These effigies are often creative and humorous, adding a sense of communal fun to this reflective tradition. Chair jumping, Denmark In Denmark, people literally leap into the new year by standing on chairs and jumping off at the stroke of midnight. This playful tradition is said to bring good luck and symbolize leaving behind the past while embracing the opportunities ahead. The act of leaping represents optimism and a proactive step into the future. Hang your onions, Greece Hanging onions on doors is a Greek New Years custom meant to symbolize growth and renewal. The onion, known for its ability to sprout even after being uprooted, is a metaphor for resilience and new beginnings. Families believe it brings health and longevity, ensuring a prosperous year. First sunrise, Australia In Australia, many people gather at scenic spots like beaches or mountain peaks to watch the first sunrise of the new year. The early morning ritual, often accompanied by picnics or quiet reflection, is a way to embrace new possibilities and start the year with clarity and peace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These traditions highlight the diverse ways people celebrate the new year. Each practice, whether deeply rooted in culture or simply a fun custom, reflects the universal hope for prosperity, joy, and renewal as we welcome the possibilities of a fresh start. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. The cessation of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine has halted all industrial activity in Moldova's Russian-occupied Transnistria, Sergey Obolonik, the first deputy chairman of the Transnistrian administration, said on Jan. 2. Russias state-owned energy giant Gazprom suspended gas supplies to Moldova on Jan. 1, citing unpaid debts by Moldovagaz. Moldovan officials, however, argue that these debts havent been verified by an international audit. Although a deal allowing Russian gas to transit through Ukraine expired on the same day, Gazprom insists the suspension is due to Moldovas outstanding debt, not transit issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The halt has left Transnistria without sufficient energy, resulting in widespread heating outages. Obolonik described the gas crisis as "grave," with shortages cutting supply to nearly 75,000 households and leaving another 116,000 with reduced volumes. He warned that prolonged disruptions could cause irreversible damage to the regions industrial capacity. Moldova has offered to assist Transnistria in purchasing gas through European platforms. Vadim Cheban, head of Moldovagaz, announced that Chisinau is prepared to support Transnistrian authorities in securing energy resources on market terms to address the crisis. Moldovas state-owned energy company, Energocom, will import electricity from Romania and Ukraine to address a shortfall caused by Russias gas supply halt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Starting in January, 62% of Moldovas electricity needs will be met by imports from Romania, while 30% will come from local thermal plants and renewable energy. Energocom plans to import surplus electricity from Ukraines state nuclear operator, Energoatom, during off-peak hours. Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean criticized the Kremlin for using energy as a "political weapon," a concern echoed across Europe as nations reduce dependency on Russian gas. Moldova, an EU candidate aiming for membership by 2030, has heightened security efforts following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russian troops have occupied Transnistria since the early 1990s, after Moscows intervention under the pretext of protecting ethnic Russians. Pro-Western President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of attempting to destabilize her government, as Moldova faces growing regional security threats. Read also: Russia loses key leverage over Europe after Ukraine halts gas transit, FM Sybiha says Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. With the new year comes the setting of new goals and dreaming new dreams. For many, the idea of traveling more in the new year is an attractive plan. If you would love to spend time exploring new places in 2025, here are seven cities you can catch a direct flight to out of Oklahoma City, according to flyokc.com. OKC to Seattle, Washington Mar 25, 2023; Seattle, WA, USA; A general overall aerial view of the Space Needle and downtown skyline. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports Hop on a nonstop flight from Will Rogers International Airport to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, with daily nonstop service through Alaska Airlines. OKC to Charlotte, North Carolina Head to Charlotte Douglas International Airport with daily nonstop service from Will Rogers International Airport through American Airlines. OKC to Los Angeles, California Fly nonstop to Los Angeles International Airport from OKC with American Airlines daily, or seasonally with Allegiant. OKC to Chicago, Illinois Jul 15, 2020; Chicago, Illinois, USA; A general view of Chicagos skyline. Mandatory Credit: Quinn Harris-USA TODAY NETWORK Those wanting to take a quick flight from OKC to Chicago have three options: daily nonstop service from Will Rogers to Chicago O'Hare International Airport through American Airlines or United Airlines. Southwest also offers daily nonstop service to Chicago Midway. OKC to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota This August 25, 2011 photo shows the skyline of St. Paul, Minnesota. St.Paul is the capital and second-most populous city in Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the north bank of the Mississippi River, downstream of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city. Known as the "Twin Cities", these two cities form the core of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.5 million residents. AFP PHOTO / KAREN BLEIER (Photo credit should read KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images) Hop on a nonstop Delta Airlines flight from OKC to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. OKC to Salt Lake City, Utah Head west to Salt Lake City International Airport with Delta Airlines nonstop service daily. OKC to Denver, Colorado A view of the downtown Denver skyline Thursday, July 27, 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Choose between United Airlines or Southwest to travel nonstop to the Mile High City's Denver International Airport. OKC to Atlanta, Georgia Mar 17, 2019; Atlanta, GA, USA; The Atlanta skyline is shown before the Atlanta Legends host the San Antonio Commanders at Georgia State Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports Fly from OKC to HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport with Delta Airlines daily nonstop service. OKC to Nashville, Tennessee Nashville's "Batman Building" located at 333 Commerce St is a prominent part of the city's skyline. A video game development studio is the office tower's newest tenant. Head to Music City on a nonstop Southwest flight from OKC to Nashville International Airport. (This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.) This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Direct flights out of OKC: Here's 9 destinations for 2025 travel (Bloomberg) -- The holiday period is over and Canadian politics is gripped by a single question: when will the country hear from Justin Trudeau? Most Read from Bloomberg The prime minister has largely disappeared from public view since Dec. 16, when Chrystia Freeland his finance minister and once his most powerful ally in cabinet resigned in devastating fashion, with a public letter that criticized him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trudeau spent much of the holidays at a ski resort in western Canada and is not planning any official events or appearances by the end of the week, according to a person familiar with his schedule. He has given no public indication yet of when hell announce a decision about his future. But lawmakers in his Liberal Party keep turning up the pressure on him to quit as the partys polling numbers slide further. A new survey by Nanos Research, taken in late December, has the Conservative Party extending its lead going into an election year. Members of the Liberal caucus of Quebec, Trudeaus home province, have asked the prime minister to step aside, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., following a similar declaration by those in Ontario. Some Liberal members of the House of Commons have gone public, including Toronto lawmaker Rob Oliphant, who posted a letter asking Trudeau to make way for a new leader elected through a robust, open leadership contest. Liberal representatives from the Atlantic provinces said Donald Trumps imminent return to power in Washington makes it more urgent that Trudeau makes a decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The country could face instability, notably from an economic threat in the potential of a 25% US tariff on Canadian imports from the incoming administration, said a letter from Kody Blois, who leads a group of Liberal members from the four easternmost provinces. Simply put, time is of the essence, Blois said, adding that its not tenable for the prime minister to stay. The longer Trudeau waits to address both his party and the country, the more he risks provoking a Liberal rebellion, said Nik Nanos, founder of Nanos Research. Until now it was primarily Justin Trudeaus personal brand that was damaged, said Nanos, referring to the long polling slump. I think now the big issue is how much damage will he inflict on the party brand because he is dragging out what looks like will be his resignation at one point or another. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the Nanos polling number were to hold up in an election, the Liberals would lose most of their 153 seats. The party has now launched pre-election advertising, focusing on concern that Conservatives will cut social programs. But it would be difficult for the Liberals to smoothly transition to new leadership. The Trudeau governments hold on parliament is precarious, with the three largest opposition parties promising to vote no confidence. If they do, it will trigger an election. The House resumes sitting in late January. Politically Wounded A Liberal leadership race may take three months to run under different circumstances, it would take even longer. Even if the Liberals are able to avoid a forced election during a leadership contest, the winner would have a relatively short period of time, maybe only weeks, before being thrown into a national campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To ensure continuity in government, Trudeau could resign but say hes staying in office while a leadership race takes place. But a politically wounded prime minister is not really in a very strong position to negotiate anything with someone like Donald Trump, Nanos said. Regardless, the Liberal Party which has dominated Canadian federal politics since World War II faces a difficult road in 2025. Even with a new leader, the party would need a major turnaround in public opinion just to save most of its seats, much less hold onto government. The Liberals worst showing in any national election was in 2011, when they won 19% of the popular vote, which translated into just 34 of 308 seats. About two years later, they chose Trudeau as their new leader. He took the Liberals out of the wilderness, Nanos said. It very well may be that he will return them to the political wilderness at the end of the next federal election. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2025 Bloomberg L.P. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday suggested radical Islamic terrorism and President Joe Bidens open borders were to blame for the deadly New Orleans truck attack, even though the suspect was an American-born military veteran. Although he did not specifically name the New Orleans killings of 14 New Years revelers, Trump left little doubt that he was referring to the attack allegedly carried out by a Texas man who had pledged allegiance to the radical Islamic State terror group. I said many times that radical Islamic terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe, Trump wrote on his social media site. That time has come, only worse than ever imagined. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump went on to point the finger at President Biden, whom he derided as a complete and total disaster, and Bidens supposed open border policy. It wasnt clear what connection Trump was trying to make between the New Orleans attack and the border or immigration. Suspected attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with police, was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and was not an immigrant. Jabbar, 42, served in the Army on active duty from 2006 to 2015, then in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, according to officials. He served in Afghanistan. He lived in Houston and had worked for the consulting giant Deloitte since 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar spoke about family troubles and declared allegiance to ISIS in a series of videos recorded while driving from Houston to New Orleans to carry out the attack. He allegedly intentionally rammed a rented pickup into revelers around 3:15 a.m. on Bourbon Street in the Big Easys famed French Quarter, killing 14 and injuring at least 35 others. Two police officers were wounded in the shootout that followed. Although Jabbar is now believed to have carried out the New Orleans attack alone, officials are still probing whether there could be any link between his attack and the apparent suicide car bomb that exploded outside a Trump-branded Las Vegas hotel a few hours later. Matthew Livelsberger, a highly decorated active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs, allegedly detonated a rented Tesla Cybertruck packed with explosives on New Years Day after apparently shooting himself in the head. Damage from the blast was mostly limited to the inside of the truck and no one else was seriously wounded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Livelsberger, 37, who was on leave from the Army, was also born in the U.S. No motive for the Cybertruck attack had been identified as of Thursday. While officials say they dont know of any link between the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks, both suspects rented the vehicles they used on Turo, a vehicle-sharing app. They also both served at the Fort Liberty military base in North Carolina, though officials who spoke to the Associated Press said there was no overlap in their assignments at the base. ----- President Joe Biden is handing the second-highest civilian honor to fierce Donald Trump critics Liz Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson for their work leading the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people in a ceremony at the White House Thursday evening. Some of the recipients fought for same-sex marriage, one led the charge in treating wounded soldiers, and two others are close friends of the president: former Sens. Ted Kaufman and Chris Dodd. President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others, the White House said. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The medal, created by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is the second-highest civilian award in the U.S., following the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is given to those who performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. Last year, Biden handed the honor to some of those protecting the Capitol during the attack on democracy by supporters of President-elect Trump, and some of those who defended the vote of the American people when Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. The final report from the committee found that Trump had criminally taken part in a multi-part conspiracy to overturn the election and that he didnt take sufficient action to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. During the 2024 campaign, Cheney said she would back Vice President Kamala Harris and also joined her on the campaign trail. Trump has repeatedly attacked Cheney, leading Biden to consider whether to offer preemptive pardons to her and others the incoming president has targeted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even as hes set to return to the White House on January 20th, Trump is holding firm to his lies that he won the 2020 election. He has also said that he would pardon some of the rioters following his return as president. Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) speaks at a town hall with Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on October 21, 2024 in Royal Oak, Michigan. She will receive the Presidential Citizens Medal Thursday evening (Getty Images) Trump recently appeared on NBCs Meet the Press, saying that Cheney did something thats inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps, He baselessly claimed they deleted and destroyed testimony and added: Honestly, they should go to jail. Evan Wolfson and attorney Mary Bonauto, who both fought for same-sex marriage, will also receive the medal, as will Frank Butler, who set new standards for treating injuries in war, and Diane Carlson Evans, the founder of the Vietnam Womens Memorial Foundation and an army nurse during the Vietnam War. Womens rights and equal pay activist Eleanor Smeal is another honoree. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other recipients include photographer Bobby Sager, academics Thomas Vallely and Paula Wallace, and National Breast Cancer Coalition President Frances Visco. Other former lawmakers are also receiving the award, such as former Sens. Ben Bradley and Nancy Kassebaum, the first woman to represent Kansas, as well as ex-Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who worked on gun safety issues after her son and husband were killed. Biden is set to give the award posthumously to four people former war correspondent Joseph Galloway, Louis Lorenzo Redding, an attorney and civil rights advocate, former Delaware judge Collins Seitz, and Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was detained along with other Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The Associated Press contributed to this report President-elect Donald Trump seized on a Fox News report about the deadly New Year's Day attack in New Orleans to fearmonger about "criminals" coming in from the southern border even though the FBI confirmed that the suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was a Texas native who served in the U.S. military for eight years. By Wednesday afternoon, Fox retracted its report that the suspect's vehicle had crossed from Mexico into Texas two days prior to the attack, but as of Thursday morning, Trump did not pull down his Truth Social post. At least 15 people were killed and over two dozen injured after a rented Ford pickup truck with an ISIS flag plowed through Bourbon Street. Jabbar himself was killed in the subsequent shootout with police. "When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true," Trump wrote on Truth Social. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly after midnight Thursday, Trump followed up with another post inveighing against "OPEN BORDERS" and accusing Democrats and U.S. law enforcement of spending all their "waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself." By the time Fox corrected its reporting, the misinformation fueled by Trump and re-tweeted by Vice President-elect JD Vance had already spread far and wide. "New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, on X. Shut the border down!!! Who did our government bomb lately that is taking it out on innocent Americans? Like Trump and Vance, Greene did not take down her post once Fox admitted its reporting was wrong. Other Republican officials wrote their posts well after the retraction, casting blame on President Joe Biden's border policy and insisting that a sealed border would have stopped the longtime Texas resident from carrying out his attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I HAVE BEEN SOUNDING THE ALARM FOR YEARS, wrote Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas. The devastating terror attack in New Orleans has left many Americans asking a sobering question: Has the enemy already infiltrated our borders due to Joe Bidens incompetence and his failure to secure our homeland? If not now, then when? The New York Times reported that Jabbar had been living in Houston, Texas, after leaving the military, where he reportedly worked in several jobs, including a six-figure position at the accounting firm Deloitte and as a real estate agent. But he struggled to adjust to civilian life, divorcing his first wife and living separately from his second as neighbors and relatives witnessed him descending further into mental instability. Jabbar, who had apparently converted to Islam long ago, became "radicalized," and acted erratically especially in recent months, being all crazy, cutting his hair," people who knew him told reporters. Multiple officials briefed on the investigation told CNN that Jabbar recorded himself discussing dreams that inspired him to join ISIS and plans to kill his family. Police found an ISIS flag on the truck, along with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other weapons. The suspect himself was allegedly armed with an assault rifle and handgun. Sources close to the investigation told news outlets that the Airbnb where Jabbar may have stayed was involved in a fire or detonation earlier in the day, raising concern that the suspect may have further explosives stashed away and still unrecovered. Were it not for a nearly fatal hunting accident in the fall of 1968, countless court cases in Missoula over the past half-century could have taken very different turns. After accidentally shooting himself in the gut, Robert Lewis Deschamps III better known by his nickname, Dusty landed in the hospital for a month and was forced to put off his planned graduation from law school. The delay led to a stint in the Missoula City Attorneys Office, followed by nearly three decades in the Missoula County Attorneys Office and three six-year terms as a Missoula County District judge. I wouldnt have had that experience in the city attorneys office, I probably would have taken a job at some law firm and my life would have taken an entirely different direction, Judge Deschamps said during a recent interview. This month, the 80-year-old judge will relinquish his seat on the Fourth Judicial District bench to Judge-elect Tara Elliott, who will be sworn into office Friday after winning an uncontested election to the seat in November. Its the end of an era for a local legal community in which Deschamps has played a major role since being elected county attorney in 1970. The longtime jurist says he still enjoys the work but felt it was time to step down. Now Im really not ready for a change from the district court, Deschamps said. But its a six-year term, and I cant picture myself going until Im 86. Its just, Id be too damn old. After being elected to seven consecutive terms as county attorney, Deschamps ran for district judge in 2006 to replace outgoing Judge John Henson, who retired that March. Between winning the primary and general elections, he was appointed to fill the vacancy by then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer. He won subsequent elections in 2012 and 2018. But before deciding to run, he hadnt exactly been stoked about the prospect of presiding over court cases. I always thought being a judge had to be one of the most boring jobs in the world, Deschamps said. I always preferred being down in the pit, where the action was. The most powerful guy in the courtroom isnt the judge, its the prosecutor. Because with the stroke of a pen, you can either charge somebody or you can exonerate them. A lifelong Missoulian Born into a prominent Missoula ranching family in 1944, Deschamps graduated from Missoula County High School and earned both a bachelors in liberal arts and and his Juris Doctor from the University of Montana. Ive never been out of Missoula for more than 30 days at a stretch in my entire life, he noted. As an undergrad, Deschamps focused on fine arts, giving him a chance to hone a hobby that started in grade school and continued into his time as a county attorney. He drew cartoons that appeared in the law school newspaper, he said, and sometimes during trials, hed sketch the various characters in the courtroom. He met his wife, Rebecca, while completing his bachelors. They married before his senior year, had four children and remained together until her death in 2019. Not one to shy away from contributing his personal experiences from the bench, hed often refer to his late wifes influence during conversations in the courtroom. I miss her a lot, she was a really important factor in my life, Deschamps said, calling their marriage a symbiotic relationship. In Deschamps telling, his motivations for going to law school were fairly straightforward. I like to argue, and one of the family activities was a big argument every night after dinner, he recalled. Noting that students automatically received a deferment from the draft at the time, he added, I thought, you know, I dont know if I really want to go to Vietnam. After his hunting accident, he took a semester off from law school and accepted a job at the city attorneys office, prosecuting all the criminal cases in Missoulas misdemeanor court. Once Deschamps graduated, he took an open job at the county attorneys office in 1970. He jokes that he may have been the only applicant for a pretty crappy job that only paid $475 per month. Just months later, he decided to run to replace his boss, who was retiring. He fell in love with the job. It gives you a tremendous power over peoples lives, and a responsibility that Im not sure a lot of people appreciate, he said. Reflections on a lengthy legal career Deschamps recently reflected on his career while seated in his office on the third floor of the Missoula County Courthouse, a room appointed with legal tomes and mementos of his lengthy career in law. Theres a photo of him and then-President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office on the day the countrys chief executive signed the 1994 Crime Bill, for which Deschamps helped lobby as president of the National District Attorneys Association. He said that bill kept him in close contact with then-Sen. Joe Biden, one of the controversial bills chief architects. It was Biden, he says, who asked him to get Montanas senior U.S. Senator, Democrat Max Baucus, on board. Noting the checkered reputation the bill earned as a driver of high incarceration rates for Black men in the following years, he said it was also problematic for Baucus because it included the assault weapons ban. There were these bumper stickers all across Montana that said, Ban Baucus and you know it caused him a lot of trouble, he recalled with a laugh. On his offices ceiling-high wooden bookshelf rests a campaign flyer for his sole run for partisan political office, when he was recruited by the Democrats to run in 1998 against incumbent U.S. Rep. Rick Hill for what was at the time Montanas at-large House seat. It was probably the most enjoyable year of my adult life, because I traveled all over the state of Montana, went to places I never would have gotten to otherwise, Deschamps said. After winning seven consecutive elections for Missoula County Attorney, he said he had already decided not to seek a seventh when a friend and local Democrat approached him about running for federal office. I was ready for a change, he said. The phone would never stop ringing, the pile of paper on your desk, it was never going down. It only got higher. Deschamps said he stayed in a hotel just a couple times during that time, spending the rest of his nights on the campaign trail in supporters homes. The only downside was raising money, dialing for dollars, he said. It was drudgery. But the actual running was a lot of fun. It was just a great experience, and thank God I lost. Deschamps next worked as a tribal prosecutor for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. During that time he also worked as a special prosecutor across the state, stepping in on cases where the local attorneys office had a conflict, such as when public officials or police officers were charged with crimes. He continued to work for the tribes until 2006, when he was appointed to the bench of Missoula County District Court. Changes in Missoulas justice system When Deschamps first joined the county attorneys office, in 1970, Missoula had a population of about 30,000. His office included just four prosecutors the county attorney and three deputies. He said the caseloads havent changed too much, relative to population changes, but the local justice system has gotten much more resource-intensive. For one, information was recorded on IBM Selectric typewriters or handwritten reports, and even a homicide case might only amount to a small stack of papers by the time it went to trial. There was no DNA evidence, no social media and cellphone videos to comb through and nowhere near the amount of surveillance data that prosecutors have available today. He said thats one reason there arent nearly as many cases that make it to trial as when he started. Theres a lot more information thats generated and maybe people have a better handle on everything, and it makes it clearer to the attorneys whats going to happen, he said. ... It was easier to go to trial and find out what theyre going to say at trial. Instead of going to trial in a matter of weeks Deschamps said he once tried a case with just 45 minutes' notice a major criminal case can take years to make it to trial in district court today. Part of that is increased risk aversion, he said, but Deschamps also believes that the emphasis on plea agreements in criminal cases means that deals are made that probably arent in the best interest of society. Those who worked with Deschamps over the years credit him with elevating women in a profession that has long been male-dominated particularly in prosecutors offices. As a young woman in the field, there werent a lot of women working in the legal profession at the time, said Kirsten Pabst, a former Missoula County Attorney who Deschamps initially hired into the prosecutors office in the late 90s. He was really good at hiring women, promoting women and giving me and others opportunities. Longtime Missoula defense attorney Lisa Kauffman agreed although she noted with a laugh that she got turned down by the county attorneys office in 1993. She was living out of her car at the time, she said, having moved to Missoula after being a prosecutor in Chicago. Over the years, you know, we became friendly, and I reminded him (about) not hiring me, she recalled. And he said, You were living in a goddamned tent! Despite being passed over, Kauffman came to appreciate Deschamps style, which she described as folksy." I think he was always open to creative solutions that would both satisfy his job, which is to keep the community safe, while also respecting the individual rights of the defendant, Kauffman said. He would often make decisions that were very much based on the humanity of the situation. Despite his initial reservations about becoming a judge, Deschamps said the job has been way more dynamic and active than Id perceived it to be. Except maybe in a trial situation, the guy that does most of the talking in the courtroom is the judge, he said. Hes racked up some controversies, including recently when he offered, in open court several years ago, that embezzlement is a womans crime. Asked about that comment recently, he doubled down. I wouldnt have handled it any bit differently, he said. I just made that remark because its, in my view, true. Deschamps said a large part of his judicial philosophy comes down to accountability. Its why for some offenses seen as lower-level crimes, like driving with a revoked license while on probation, or embezzling money, he often includes jail time in the sentence. I think its a very educational experience to be put in a jail cell, hear it clank behind you and know you cant get out, he said. It gives you an opportunity to think about what you were doing. Like the other district judges, Deschamps has his own court reporter, responsible for taking down in shorthand every word said during every session of open court. Having held that role for nearly all five judges in the district in the past 10 years, Katie Oman said her current assignment to Deschamps court has been unique. He has a good heart, and you can see that when hes doing sentencings, Oman said. You can feel the sympathy he has for situations. While Deschamps less-formal approach to the bench hasnt meshed with everyone whos worked with him, others, like Kauffman, saw it as an attribute. He shoots from the hip, Oman added. Other judges might formulate their thoughts and he just runs with what hes thinking, or tells a story." Deschamps allowed that in 50 years as either a county prosecutor or a judge, hes probably been overly harsh or lax with some defendants. But he also said thats part of the job, and staying in it means not letting the what-ifs eat away at you. When I first started as a prosecutor, Id go home and my stomach would be turning: What am I going to do with this guy, you know? But after thousands and thousands of cases, you make a decision and dont look back. You just make a decision and do the best you can and dont let it get the best of you. Deschamps is stepping down from the bench, but he isnt exactly retiring. He still actively farms and ranches on 160 acres of land thats been in his family for generations, near the original Hellgate town site outside East Missoula. Hes in the process of restoring a house in Philipsburg and hes let it be known that hes still available to cover for judges when they cant be in court. Technically hes still on the bench until Friday, but hell be far away when his successor is sworn in, starting a three-week journey through Antarctica and Patagonia. Continuing to travel is also high on his to-do list after his time as judge. I dont plan to sit home and watch TV, or go fishing a lot, he says. Ill be active. President-elect Donald Trump and his allies in Congress have blamed the deadly New Orleans truck attack on President Joe Biden's border policies even though the attacker was a U.S. citizen. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social as information was still trickling out about the ramming attack on Wednesday morning. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, he wrote. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials later identified the attacker as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, of Texas, a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran. Fox News had reported Wednesday morning that the driver, who was shot and killed by police after he ran over a crowd of people on New Orleanss famous Bourbon Street, had crossed over the border from Mexico earlier this week. The network walked back its reporting later Wednesday, but not before Trump and some of his allies echoed it. Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect's eldest son, posted a news article about the erroneous report, saying, "Bidens parting gift to America migrant terrorists." Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted shortly after the initial segment: New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later Wednesday, Fox News quoted Trump's Truth Social posted and then noted, "To be clear, the suspect was born in the United States." Despite Fox's clarifications, Trump doubled down on his message Thursday in posts on Truth Social, saying that the Biden administration's handling of the nation's borders has led to "a violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy." "With the Biden 'Open Borders Policy' I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe," he wrote in another post. "That time has come, only worse than ever imagined." Other Republicans didnt directly refer to Foxs original report but still seemed to blame the situation at the border for the attack and used the opportunity to push the larger GOP platform of a vulnerable border harming national security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an appearance on Fox News, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Thursday also sought to portray the attack as a border security failure, said that congressional Republicans had been "ringing the alarms" about "the idea that dangerous people were coming here in droves and setting up potentially terrorist cells around the country." Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., wrote in response to images of the dead suspect on X Wednesday that the "open border," the nation's immigration system and Congress' inaction on the issue "have created the perfect storm to endanger Americans." Similarly, Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., shared on X a video of an interview he did Wednesday about the terror attack and wrote, "We must secure the border & guarantee our local enforcement is empowered to enforce the law and protect the American people from these cowards!" NBC News reported earlier this year that about 0.014% of migrants who had tried to cross the border in fiscal year 2024, or fewer than 2 out of every 10,000, were on the terrorist watchlist. The total number who have tried to cross during the Biden administration is just over 1,700. During the Trump presidency, it was 1,400. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Trump spokesperson on Thursday defended the president-elect's remarks surrounding the New Orleans attack. President Trump rightfully highlighted that criminals crossing the border have committed some of the most heinous crimes this country has witnessed in its history," Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, said in a statement. "It is also true that radical Islamic terrorism and its warped ideology have crossed into our country and infected those looking to spread hate and violence. The offices of Greene, Johnson, Gimenez and Crane did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Fox News also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Later this month, President-elect Donald Trump will hold a rally in Washington, D.C., his first there since the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol almost four years ago. His Make America Great Again Victory Rally is scheduled to take place the afternoon of Jan. 19, the day before hes slated to be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. Join President Trump at Capital One Arena for a victory rally youll never forget! a registration page for the event reads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The event could be an indicator that Trump plans to continue holding rallies throughout his presidency, even though hes not eligible for another term in the White House. The arena has a capacity of around 20,000 people. This marks the first time Trump has held a rally in the nations capital since Jan. 6, 2021, when he falsely insisted to a crowd of his supporters that hed defeated President Joe Biden in the election and directed them to march to the U.S. Capitol. Once there, hundreds of his followers stormed the building, assaulting law enforcement officers in an effort to carry out violence against lawmakers and stop the certification of electoral votes. Trump visited Capitol Hill for the first time since the 2021 riot in June, when he met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans. Matt Gaetz, then a Florida congressman and key Trump ally, described it at the time as a pep rally for President Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jan. 19 will also be the first time Trump has headlined a rally since declaring victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in Novembers election. Its not clear who, if anyone, is scheduled to join him on stage at the event. Related... President-elect Donald Trump has insisted that he was right about everything after falsely connecting the New Orleans attack to migrants. Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! Trump said on Truth Social. This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. At least 14 people have been killed and dozens were injured when a truck drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day. Authorities have said that they believe the driver wasnt solely responsible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI has said that the suspect - 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar - is an army veteran from Texas. He died after exchanging gunfire with police. Officials added that the suspect had made videos before the attack in which he said he had joined ISIS. Trump added that federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI, as well as Democrat state and local prosecutors havent done their jobs, going on to call them incompetent and corrupt. The president-elect argued that they shouldnt be focused on attacking him but instead protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself. Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country. The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late, he added. The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING, Trump added in a subsequent post. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump incorrectly linked the New Orleans attack to immigration (Getty Images) On Thursday morning, Trump wrote in yet another post on his social media platform that With the Biden Open Borders Policy I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe. That time has come, only worse than ever imagined. Joe Biden is the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER, he added. What he and his group of Election Interfering thugs have done to our Country will not soon be forgotten! MAGA. Trump incorrectly linked the New Orleans attack to immigration even as authorities said the man responsible was from Texas and a veteran of the U.S. Army. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump said on Wednesday morning on Truth Social. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, he added. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! Trumps outburst came after a Fox News report, which has since been retracted, incorrectly stated the suspects truck had crossed into Texas from Mexico two days before. The truck, which was rented via the site Turo, had entered the U.S. from Mexico on November 16. At the time, it was being driven by a man without any connection to the attack on Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, the authorities said there was no connection between the attack and the U.S.-Mexico border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attorney general, Merrick Garland, noted that the FBI is looking into the attack as an act of terrorism, with the agency saying that an ISIS flag was found on the truck. The FBI said its working to determine the subjects potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Weapons and a potential IED were located in the subjects vehicle. Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter, the federal law enforcement agency added. President-elect Donald Trump claimed he was right about everything early Thursday morning, hours after wrongly trying to link the New Orleans attack to migrants. Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! Trump wrote on Truth Social, shortly after midnight. This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. Donald Trump/Truth Social In a follow-up post, he proclaimed in the third person: TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. Donald Trump/Truth Social Trump reiterated points he made earlier when he was wrong about everything. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, the president-elect wrongly tried to tie the truck attack on Bourbon Streetwhich was carried out by a Texas native and U.S. Army veteran, according to authoritiesto migrants, who he has long targeted with hate-filled political rhetoric. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump wrote. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! Trumps statement followed an erroneous Fox News reportwhich the network has since retractedthat claimed the rental truck used by the suspect in the New Years Day attack crossed into Texas from Mexico two days earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, the vehicle entered the U.S. from Mexico on Nov. 16, driven by a man with no connection to Wednesdays horrific events. The FBI identified US-born Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, as the suspect who allegedly drove the truck into a crowd with deliberate intent, killing 15 and injuring dozens more. Authorities say Jabbar was killed after exchanging fire with police. Officials said Wednesday afternoon there was no evidence tying the attack to the border, though Trumps inflammatory posts trying to make a link between the two remain up. He added to his screed at around 9 a.m. Thursday by specifically attacking President Joe Biden. With the Biden Open Borders Policy I said, many times during Rallies, and elsewhere, that Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe, Trump wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That time has come, only worse than ever imagined. Joe Biden is the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER. What he and his group of Election Interfering thugs have done to our Country will not soon be forgotten! MAGA. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. The FBI said an ISIS flag was located on the vehicle and that the agency is working to determine the subjects potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. The truck attack that killed 15 and injured dozens in New Orleans French Quarter early Wednesday morning has cast a pall over the dawn of the new year but it hasnt deterred President-elect Donald Trump and his sycophants from pushing misinformation to politicize the tragedy. Trump responded to the attack on Wednesday by suggesting that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in the mass murder who was killed by New Orleans law enforcement, was an undocumented migrant. Jabbar, 42, was a U.S.-born citizen and Army veteran, according to federal investigators. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump wrote on Truth Social. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The post followed an erroneous report from Fox News the right-wing propaganda network that consistently attempts to blame migrants and immigration for all manner of violence and social ills that incorrectly asserted that the truck driven by Jabbar had crossed the Texas border from Mexico two days before that attack. The network corrected the claim later that day, noting that the identification of the driver that crossed the border does not appear to be the shooter. By the time the correction was issued, the claim had already been picked up by Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!! Who did our government bomb lately that is taking it out on innocent Americans? Greene wrote Wednesday in an X post that remains live despite the addition of a community note correcting the falsehood. The attacker being identified as an American hasnt stopped Trump and his allies from trying to blame the border, though. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News this morning that it was obvious that the Biden administrations border policies had a role to play in the attack. The Biden administration has a lot to account for here, and we see now in glaring view of everybody that this dereliction of duty has real consequences, Johnson said of the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Trumps pick to be national security adviser, demanded this morning on Fox News that Republicans close the border during a discussion of the attack. The entire world knows that we have an open border, they intend to hit us, and they are pushing people into our interior to do just that, he said. According to a Wednesday report from The New York Times, the truck used in the attack was a rental acquired by Jabbar through the personal car rental app Turo. According to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the suspect rented the truck on Monday. In their desperation to connect the attack to immigration, Fox News claimed to have information from sources indicating that the rental truck had been previously spotted at the border community of Eagle Pass, Texas, in November, and that its presence at border crossings suggested patterns that may be suspicious from human smuggling. The president-elect has also continued to lambast law enforcement agencies and migrants on social media, despite authorities confirming that the attacker was American. Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership. The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job, Trump wrote today in the early morning hours. They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself, he added. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! he wrote minutes later. Authorities have noted that Jabbar flew an ISIS flag from his truck when he carried out the attack. The FBI is working to determine the subjects potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations, weapons, and potential improvised explosive devices, FBI New Orleans special agent-in-charge Alethea Duncan said during a Wednesday news conference. But there is no evidence that the massacre that took place in New Orleans had anything to do with unchecked immigration. It doesnt matter to Trump, though. As the city mourns the attack, the incoming president is more focused on squeezing the victims for his own political gain, even if it means recklessly spreading misinformation. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A MQ-9 Reaper drone keeps watch above the caravan of SUVs as a pair of helicopters a sleek MH-6 Little Bird and a UH-60 Black Hawk shadows the line of trucks as it makes its way out of a Mexican town. The sound of the helicopter engines grows louder as the Little Bird, with commandos perched on benches outside the cockpit, closes in. It descends in front of the caravan, as the Black Hawk hovers in perfect alignment with the lead truck. Theres a sharp crack from a sniper rifle fired from the Black Hawk. Oil splatters across the windshield and smoke pours from the engine block, forcing the caravan to stop. Commandos leap from the hovering Little Bird and race to surround the cartel leaders truck. In a matter of seconds, the cartel leader is in custody or killed, depending on whether the sicarios decide to go to guns, a former tier-one operator who performed missions like the scenario above in Iraq tells me. He says the vehicle interdiction mission would lead to follow-on raids against cartel leaders called HVTs, or high-value targets based on information from captured mobile phones, cyberhacks of computer networks, or from interrogation of captured leaders. This mission cycle would continue until the list of cartel leaders was exhausted. Then the commandos would move on to middle managers and finally foot soldiers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its Iraq all over again, he says, adding his former unit mates have all done this already in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Youre going to find and fix the HVT first, and then start gutting the networks. Take out the key leaders, and then what theyre going to do after that is theyre going to just run the middle management right off the battlefield. Rolling Stone reported in November that Donald Trumps incoming administration is considering a soft invasion of Mexico, in which American special operations would be sent covertly to assassinate cartel leaders. One Trump adviser said Trump believes its necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers. Trumps Cabinet picks, including his choices for secretary of defense, secretary of state, and border czar, have publicly supported the idea. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Trumps pick for national security adviser, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) even co-introduced legislation last year to create an Authorization for Use of Military Force to target Mexican drug cartels. Crenshaw argued the U.S. needs to be on a war footing against the cartels. We must start treating them like ISIS because that is who they are, he said in a statement announcing the legislation. Rolling Stone talked to half a dozen former special operations soldiers and intelligence agents to see what this saber-rattling might look like in practice. On paper, they argued it was an easy operation to dismantle the cartel leadership, something that our military particularly units like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force has mastered after two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. To a man, all said theyd volunteer for the mission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Carolyn Gallaher, a professor studying guerrilla and paramilitary violence at American Universitys School of International Service, calls the idea folly. She researched cooperation between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement in the mid-2000s and says one takeaway from the Mexicans was that it was a mistake to target cartel leaders. All you do is create a succession crisis, she says. And a succession crisis in a drug cartel looks different than a succession crisis in, like, [Rupert] Murdochs empire, right? Its basically settled with violence. Case in point: After Ismael El Mayo Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexicos Sinaloa cartel, was taken into custody in July, rival factions have been clashing in the state of Sinaloa. Trumps proposal is doubling down on a failed strategy, Gallaher says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You have to go back and think of a new strategy, Gallaher tells me. And going and killing capos is not only not a new strategy, but it is the most failed part of the strategy on both sides of the border. Mexico has already said it will not accept an invasion by U.S. forces, with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum describing the strategy as entirely a movie. A former Green Beret who worked with the CIA says incursions would likely come with the Mexican governments blessing, maybe not publicly, but through back channels. I think that its not beyond the possibility that they do invade that sovereignty and go and snatch people, he tells me. I think thats the only way that you can start to defeat the cartels. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Plans presented to Trump have included airstrikes on cartel infrastructure, assassinating cartel leaders, and training Mexican forces, Rolling Stone reported. The scheme would most likely include covert operations and patrols just over the border to stem the flow of drugs across the frontier. That sounds a whole lot like what we did in Afghanistan for 20 years unsuccessfully, says a former Marine officer who worked with special operations in Afghanistan. The former Marine officer says the Hollywood part is attractive, pointing to Harrison Fords Clear and Present Danger as a movie that tickles the imagination. Who doesnt want to throw a satchel charge into an underground drug lab? he says, laughing. Thats super-sexy stuff that we sign up to do. But if youre going to door-kick, you know what people forget is that gunfighting ultimately comes down to guns in the fight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A recent Cato Institute article noted the cartels have extensive tactical training from Mexican military defectors (who have been trained by American special operations), armored vehicles, armed drones, and heavy weapons. Directing American special operations forces against the cartels would put them up against a sizable near-peer competitor in asymmetric warfare, thus putting the U.S. government into a position of little escalatory advantage, wrote Brandan P. Buck, a researcher at the Cato Institute. Such a move would not just force the American military into another quagmire; it would drop them into a morass up to their metaphorical waist. But All Source News, an open-source intelligence analyst who spent the past three years tracking cartel violence, says the idea the sicarios have capabilities similar to U.S. special operations is laughable. Let me make this abundantly clear, he says. Cartel members are not even near peers to the Mexican military. The vast majority of times, cartel members just get whacked. They get rolled over. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cartel sicarios have no tactics. Most use American guns smuggled across the border, he says. They might wear a chest rack and body armor, but they lack heavy weapons, with only a few RPGs. He says one technique is mounting a .50 caliber sniper rifle minus the scope on trucks to use like a machine gun. The real fear is that the violence wouldnt stay confined to south of the border. A Green Beret turned CIA operator says past administrations considered using CIA Ground Branch hybrid intelligence agents and commandos usually made up of former special operations soldiers to combat the cartels, but the fear of cartel retribution against the operators and their families in the U.S. made it too risky. But the bigger danger could be to the estimated 1.6 million U.S. citizens living in Mexico, All Source News tells me. Right now, cartels fear American retribution. After two American tourists were mistaken for Haitian smugglers and murdered in March 2023 in Matamoros, the Gulf Cartel apologized and turned in the culprits. But if the United States declares war on them, that changes. Will the cartels see the 1.6 million Americans in Mexico as targets for terror campaigns? asks All Source News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Marco Rubio Trumps nominee for secretary of state has suggested military deployments would be acceptable if there is cooperation with the Mexican government. Most of the former special operations soldiers and officers argued the best course of action would be working with and through Mexican security forces, by embedding American advisers with the Mexican military, much like it did with Plan Colombia, the U.S.-backed initiative to combat drug trafficking and insurgency in Colombia through military aid, economic assistance, and social programs. Started in 2000, it reduced drug production and weakened insurgent groups like the FARC, but it took more than a decade and $10 billion. All Source News says the fixation on fentanyl and other illicit drugs creates a blind spot to the bigger criminal enterprise. The cartels will make money wherever they can, All Source News tells me. For example, in Michoacan, the cartels are fighting over like avocados and limes. No joke. They traffic avocados, limes, even avocado oil. Theyre also into water, timber, extortion anything they can use to generate income. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If 20 years in Afghanistan taught the military anything, the U.S. cant shoot its way to victory. An all-encompassing strategy that pressures the cartels politically, economically, and militarily might be the only path to success. If its to kill the cartel, how do you know when youve accomplished the mission? the former Marine officer says. Whats the metric that these people are going to use that says, oh yeah, weve achieved a victory? Were not fighting an army. Were fighting poverty. Lets fight desperation. Lets fight hopelessness. That starts with determining an end state something the United States didnt do during its last foreign adventures. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL), who President-elect Donald Trump has tapped as his national security adviser, said Thursday that the incoming administration should respond to the attack in New Orleanswhich was carried out by a U.S. citizen from Texasby closing the border. First and foremost, close our border, Waltz, a former Green Beret, said on Fox & Friends when asked what should be done to protect the nation from further attacks. Trump has made multiple attempts in posts on his Truth Social platform to tie the New Orleans attack to migrants, despite lacking evidence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the early hours of Thursday, Trump insisted he was RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING after his initial, incorrect posts trying to make the attack about one of his political pet issues. Suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Texas, is alleged to have deliberately driven a rented truck into pedestrians gathered on Bourbon Street in the historic French Quarter, killing 15 and injuring dozens more in the early hours of New Years Day. Authorities said he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with police and that the flag of the jihadist group ISIS was on his rented vehicle. The FBI said it is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. Despite the attackers American background, Waltz continued to suggest the incoming Trump administration will respond by restricting border entries. And he suggested hostile groups are sending people to the U.S. to carry out attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I cant emphasize enough, close the border, secure our sovereignty, you know, and that is completely unacceptable, Waltz told Fox & Friends. The entire world knows that we have an open border. They intend to hit us, and they are pushing people into our interior to do just that. Waltz also falsely claimed the U.S. has had over 300 people on the [federal] terrorist watch list traverse our border in recent years. In fact, federal data shows hundreds of people on the list were stopped at the border, not that they crossed it. The 119th Congress is around the corner, and confirmation battles featuring President-elect Trumps slate of nominees are set to take center stage. Since Trumps rapid rollout of choices, two nominees former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general and Chad Chronister to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency have already withdrawn themselves. But a number of his remaining picks are controversial, and Republicans are hoping to avoid further errors as the nominees barnstorm Capitol Hill and move closer to their confirmation hearings and potentially hitting the Senate floor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are the top five confirmation battles to watch. Tulsi Gabbard Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Trumps nominee to be director of national intelligence, meeting with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington on Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Tulsi Gabbard is staring down perhaps the toughest confirmation battle of anyone put forward by the president-elect. Gabbard, a former four-term Democratic lawmaker from Hawaii, has faced skepticism from segments of the Senate GOP conference for numerous reasons. Chief among them were her past remarks about Russias invasion of Ukraine that appeared to echo talking points from Moscow, a 2017 meeting with now-exiled Syrian leader Bashar Assad and her lengthy tenure as a Democrat. Adding to the issues is that she failed to impress multiple Senate Republicans during meetings on Capitol Hill in December, with at least a handful of them prepared to vote no on the floor if her nomination gets that far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shes the most at risk of not being confirmed, one Senate GOP aide told The Hill. There are things that will never change with her, the aide continued, pointing specifically to the Syria and Russia issues. She has policy views that are totally contrary to where the majority of the conference is. Trump allies have maintained she will emerge from her confirmation hearings in solid shape to win a green light from the upper chamber. I havent heard any of that, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said about a report indicating as many as eight Senate GOP members are ready to vote against her. Theres not one single no that is on any of these [nominations] that have said no from the Republican Party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres a lot saying they want to talk to her, but thats part of advice and consent, Mullin added. Pete Hegseth Pete Hegseth, Trumps nominee for Defense secretary, is seen at a photo-op prior to his meeting with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. It was only a few weeks ago that Pete Hegseths nomination to lead the Pentagon appeared done and dusted, with Trump preparing fallback options. While his fortunes appear to have shifted, the toughest step could be yet to come in Hegseths quest to be Defense secretary. His confirmation hearings are around the corner, and the same issues that gave him trouble in December are certain to resurface in a very public setting. The former Fox News host faced questions surrounding a 2017 allegation of sexual assault, his handling of veterans organizations that he led and his own drinking as well as whether his background qualifies him to run the massive operation that is the Defense Department. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But backed by support from Trump allies and, eventually, Trump himself, Hegseth has appeared to win over key Senate Republicans. He held multiple meetings with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), an Armed Services Committee member and the Senates first female combat veteran, who has since warmed to him. The middle of last week, it felt like there was growing momentum against him. I think that has changed markedly, Sen. Ted Cruz. (R-Texas) said Dec. 11. The momentum has shifted considerably in Petes direction. I think Petes going to get confirmed. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trumps nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, arrives at the Capitol in Washington for a meeting Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. Gabbard and Hegseth along with Gaetzs short-lived selection had taken up much of the oxygen in December. But that could change as confirmation hearings for other controversial nominees kick off in short order, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. atop that list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ex-independent presidential candidate, tapped to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has long been a polarizing figure due to his views on vaccines. He remains in solid shape heading into the new year, as there has been little criticism of him from Republicans, who control his fate. But land mines remain. Kennedy has said little to reporters coming in and out of meetings with senators, but made a point to tell them ahead of his first meeting Dec. 15 that he is fully supportive of the polio vaccine. That came only days after a report emerged that Aaron Siri, a Kennedy ally, petitioned the government to reconsider its green light of the polio vaccine in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In between the report coming to light and Kennedys comments, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who battled polio as a child, issued a missive urging all of Trumps nominees to steer clear of skeptical chatter about the polio vaccine. The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed theyre dangerous, McConnell said in a statement. Anyone seeking the Senates consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts. Kash Patel Kash Patel, Trumps nominee for FBI director, is seen during a photo-op prior to his meeting with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist tapped to lead the FBI, has made his sharp opposition to the bureau known. He has created a list of whom he dubs government gangsters headlined by outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland who he says must be held accountable and exposed in 2024. He has also declared he wants to shutter the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. It is possible that few if any Trump nominees have attracted more vocal opposition from Democrats. However, none of this has dissuaded Senate Republicans as they talk up Patels background working for the House Intelligence Committee and as a federal prosecutor. Patel has also done himself favors by impressing members during meetings on Capitol Hill in recent weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes done well in his meetings, the Senate GOP aide said. Very well prepared, emphasizing that hes looking to end bad practices not replicate them. Hes charismatic and knows his stuff. Lori Chavez-DeRemer Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) arrives to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., for the first votes of the week on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) occupies a very exclusive spot on this list, as it is quite possible that she loses more Republican votes than most of the aforementioned nominees yet could end up with bipartisan support, as multiple Democrats have signaled they are open to backing her confirmation. Chavez-DeRemer lost her bid for reelection in a toss-up seat, but was tapped shortly after to become Trumps nominee to run the Department of Labor. However, her selection initially came under fire over her support of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a priority of Democrats and top labor groups. In fact, she was one of only three House Republicans to co-sponsor the bill, boosting Democratic optimism in the process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And as an original author of the PRO Act, Im glad to see Representative Chavez-DeRemer is a cosponsor of the bill I wrote with Representative Scott, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said when DeRemer was selected. But for now, Republicans are holding their fire and are giving Trump deference for the selection. Mullin was the first Senate Republican to meet with her and likened her comments to him about the PRO Act to those of Kennedy regarding abortion, which Kennedy supports being legal up until a certain number of weeks. That shes serving at the will of the president of the United States, and that shell be pushing forth his agenda, Mullin said. Shell be confirmed, too. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Republican President-elect Donald Trump spent the closing months of his campaign trying to distance himself from a blueprint for his second term known as Project 2025. Then, in the days after his victory, Trump picked major architects of the Heritage Foundations vision for key posts in his next administration, setting the stage for them to implement a conservative Christian agenda that has the potential to reshape the federal government and redefine rights long held by all Americans, though likely to disproportionately impact women, LGBTQ+ people and vulnerable populations like the elderly and disabled. One of these architects is Russell Vought, whom Trump has again tapped to lead his Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, an under-the-radar entity to most Americans that wields immense influence over the federal government by crafting the presidents budget. If confirmed by the Senate, a very likely outcome, Vought will be optimally positioned to inject Project 2025s priorities many of which reflect his career-long push to dismantle programs for low-income Americans and expand the presidents authority across the federal agencies and departments that OMB oversees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ben Olinsky, who advised Democratic former President Barack Obama on labor and workforce policy before joining the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress, where he works on issues related to the economy and governance, said that Voughts vision for OMB as presented in Project 2025 is to basically change the plumbing so they can do whatever they want without any meaningful checks and balances during Trumps second term. I think that its important to really make sure [Americans] understand what the plans are for changing the plumbing, Olinsky said. Vought has firsthand knowledge of the OMBs wide-ranging scope. During Trumps first term, he was OMBs deputy director, acting director and, finally, confirmed director. In those roles, he helped then-President Trump craft a plan to jettison job protections for thousands of federal workers and assisted with a legally ambiguous effort to redirect congressionally appropriated foreign aid for Ukraine. In the years since, as Trump staved off legal threats and convictions to build a winning bid to return to the White House, Vought has refined his thinking and strategies about how to best force agencies to come to heel and do what the president has been telling them to do, as he put it in a recent interview. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vought has used two pro-Trump groups he founded the nonprofit Center for Renewing America and its advocacy arm, America Restoration Action to discredit structural racism as a driver for inequality and attempt to stymie diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. In August, he told a pair of British journalists posing as potential donors that the Center for Renewing America is an organization I helped turn into the Death Star, the fictional Star Wars space station that can destroy planets, and it is accomplishing all of the debates you are reading about. The chapter that Vought wrote for Project 2025 details how the Office of Management and Budget could be a vehicle to advance the Christian nationalist agenda he favors and he has not hesitated to talk about it. I think you have to rehabilitate Christian nationalism, Vought told the British journalists at the Centre for Climate Reporting, which released video of the conversation that was recorded using hidden cameras. In an interview with conservative activist Tucker Carlson shortly after Trumps reelection, Vought likened OMB to the nerve center through which a president can ensure their policy directives trickle down to the multitude of federal agencies and a civilian workforce of more than two million people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Properly understood, [OMB] is a Presidents air-traffic control system with the ability and charge to ensure that all policy initiatives are flying in sync and with the authority to let planes take off and, at times, ground planes that are flying off course, Vought wrote in Project 2025. He sees two primary ways to ground wayward planes: by eliminating potential dissent within agencies and withholding money appropriated by Congress for projects and programs the president does not support. Both would clear the way for Trumps next administration to implement many of the priorities detailed in Project 2025, which could essentially redefine rights, systems and cultural norms for all Americans. Some of Project 2025s recommendations include restricting abortion access and supporting a biblically based definition of family, because the male-female dyad is essential to human nature, by replacing policies related to LGBTQ+ equity with those that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also suggests transforming the FBI into a politically motivated entity to settle scores and barring U.S. citizens from receiving federal housing assistance if they live with anyone who is not a citizen or permanent legal resident, which would serve Trumps campaign promise to take extraordinary measures to crack down on illegal immigration. During remarks in September titled Theology of Americas Statecraft: The Case for Immigration Restriction, Vought justified the separation of families and condemned so-called sanctuary cities, or those that pass laws that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Failing to secure the border is a complete abdication of [the governments] God-given responsibility, he said. Olinsky explained that while many of the policies in Project 2025 have been floating around Republican circles in Washington for years without gaining much traction, the document is a detailed roadmap that shows how its authors believe they can finally deliver on key pieces of their conservative Christian agenda. One, it says all of the quiet parts out loud about the full scope of the agenda. And then the second thing, which I think is something folks should really pay attention to, is it says how theyre going to accomplish it, practically, by using executive action, Olinsky said. In many ways, Voughts approach to bending the federal government to a presidents will began taking shape during Trumps first administration. In late 2020, as Trumps first term drew to a close, Vought helped him craft an executive order known as Schedule F, which reclassified thousands of civil servants and, with that, stripped them of their job protections; Vought recommended that close to 90 percent of OMBs workforce be reclassified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Joe Biden rescinded the executive order on his third day in office. Project 2025 recommends reinstating it. Former Trump officials, campaign advisers and others in his orbit have already identified as many as 50,000 federal employees who could be fired, according to published reports. And just last month, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to codify protections for these workers ahead of Trumps and likely Voughts return. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation to protect federal employees, warned of a loyalty-based system that would impede the work of the federal government, expose people to intimidation and bring people into jobs that are not qualified to do them, thus risking the American publics safety and quality of life. Vought is among the Trump loyalists who have been open about their desire to slash the federal workforce as a route to purge critics, improve efficiency or both. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the interview with Tucker, Vought said, There certainly is going to be mass layoffs and firings, particularly at some of the agencies that we dont even think should exist. His language appeared to communicate an effort to ensure obedience and compliance. With the firings and layoffs, Vought said he wants to avoid having really awesome Cabinet secretaries sitting on top of massive bureaucracies that largely dont do what they tell them to do. Trumps transition team did not respond to requests to discuss Voughts selection for OMB or the chapter he wrote for Project 2025 about the agency. The 19th reached out to Vought through his Center for Renewing America, which likewise did not respond to a request for comment. Power of the Purse During Trumps first term, OMB helped find money to begin building a small section of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a key campaign promise Trump made in 2016 because Congress wouldnt give him the ordinary money, Vought told Carlson. Trump also enlisted OMB to withhold $400 million in military aid that Congress approved for Ukraine, as Trump and his associates tried to pressure the country to investigate Biden and his family. The move prompted the abuse-of-power case House Democrats made against Trump during his first impeachment, when Vought defied a subpoena to testify. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog, concluded that the scheme violated the 1974 Impoundment Control Act. Days later, the Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump. (Trump had eventually released the aid.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Trump subsequently nominated Vought to lead OMB in 2020, Democrats opposed him because of his approach to impoundment authority. He was nonetheless confirmed. Voughts path to confirmation is all but certain this time around: Republicans control the Senate, the congressional chamber charged with approving presidential nominations. Very likely to feature in his confirmation hearings is Voughts belief that the OMB can help Trump overcome opposition and implement policy priorities, possibly including those contained in Project 2025, by redirecting or refusing to spend funds appropriated by Congress, which under the Constitution holds the power of the purse. Making Impoundment Great Again! Vought wrote in June on X, riffing on the Make America Great Again slogan that has come to define Trumps movement. Trump spent his campaign insisting that he had not read Project 2025 and did not know its authors. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things theyre saying and some of the things theyre saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal, he wrote in a July post on his Truth Social platform. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But of the more than 350 people who contributed to Project 2025, at least 60 percent are linked to the incoming president, according to a list of contributors and their ties reviewed by The 19th. They range from appointees and nominees from Trumps first administration, like Vought, to members of his previous transition team and those who served on commissions and as unofficial advisers. Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, seized on Project 2025 during their campaigns to highlight the dangers they believe are posed by a second Trump presidency. At 920 pages, it offers a vision of government that is far more detailed and specific than the policy proposals put forward by Trump directly. The Agenda 47 on Trumps campaign website was a list of 20 bullet points that included vague policies like end the weaponization of government against the American people and unite our country by bringing it to new and record levels of success. When Trump announced Vought as his OMB pick, he said Vought knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government. His other selections for OMB leadership posts include anti-abortion activist Ed Martin and Voughts colleague at the Center for Renewing America, Mark Paoletta, whom the president-elect praised as a conservative warrior. One question as Trump takes office on January 20 and Vought, if confirmed, helps him control the governments workforce and purse strings, is which version of the country they will promote and whose rights are and arent protected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The post How Trump nominees could make Project 2025 a reality appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter. On November 5, Donald Trump persuasively defeated Kamala Harris in the presidential election. He will return to the White House in January when he is inaugurated. Here is what to expect. When will Donald Trump be sworn in as president? Donald Trump will be sworn in on January 20 2025 at about midday, after vice-president JD Vance takes the oath of office. Where will he be sworn in? At the US Capitol building in Washington DC which is about 1.2 miles from the White House. What happens on inauguration day? Every four years, thousands of people fill up the National Mall in Washington DC to watch the elected president and vice-president be sworn into office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ceremony at the US Capitol will get under way at midday ET, after which point the transfer of power from the old administration to the new one will be complete. The oath of office repeated by the vice-president dates back to 1884 and involves swearing to defend the Constitution of the United States and to faithfully discharge their duties as president. The president is normally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with John Roberts expected to administer the oath for a fifth time on Jan 20. After being sworn in, the president will issue their inaugural address in which they set forth their goals for the nation. The day also serves as the occasion for the new presidents inaugural speech - Alex Wong/Getty This is followed at 3pm by a military parade called the pass in review, when the new commander-in-chief inspects their troops for the first time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the parade, the president and vice-president lead a procession of regiments, marching bands and floats down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House. The traditional parade, which is watched by millions of Americans, dates back to the first inauguration, when local militias joined George Washingtons procession as he made his way from Mount Vernon, Virginia, to New York City to be sworn into office in 1789. Owing to a calendar quirk, the 2025 inauguration also falls on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr Day. It is just the second time that the state holiday honouring the civil rights leader has fallen on the same day as the inauguration. How many people will attend the inauguration? Turnout proved to be a bone of contention last time Mr Trump won the presidency. Aides claimed at the time that he had drawn the largest audience ever despite aerial photographs appearing to show significantly fewer numbers lining the national mall than had turned out for Barack Obamas inauguration in 2009. Mr Trump caused controversy in 2017 when he suggested his crowd, left, was the biggest ever, despite picture comparisons suggesting the one for Barack Obama, right, was far bigger - Reuters The National Parks Service, which manages the flow of people into Washingtons central thoroughfare, does not take attendance numbers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, reports suggest tens of thousands of people are expected to file into the capital over the weekend preceding the event, both for the inauguration itself and to take part in protests opposing Mr Trumps election victory. How do you get tickets to the presidential inauguration? Tickets to watch the inauguration from the grounds of the US Capitol are free, but are in high demand and must be applied for through local congressional district websites. Those who are unsuccessful can still view the ceremony on large video screens on the National Mall, alongside thousands of other spectators. The inauguration will also be streamed for those wanting to watch from home. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. President-elect Donald Trump said this week he plans to attend former President Jimmy Carter's funeral following a history of mutual criticism. Carter, who died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100, will be honored with a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Jan. 9. President Joe Biden is expected to deliver the eulogy. "I'll be there. We were invited," Trump told reporters on Tuesday night, though he declined to say if he'd spoken with any members of the Carter family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Biden marks Jimmy Carter's death with National Day of Mourning, amid sweeping tributes Trump's attendance at the funeral will come after years of public sniping between Trump and Carter, including Trump's recent jabs at Carter on the 2024 campaign trail. Though after the 39th president's passing, Trump issued a statement praising Carter's service to the country. "The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude," Trump wrote. "Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter Family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers." PHOTO: President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive on New Year's Eve at his Mar-A-Lago Club on December 31, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images) In another post, Trump commended Carter as a "truly good man" and praised his humanitarian work post-presidency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for. He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect," Trump wrote of Carter. "He was a truly good man and, of course, will be greatly missed. He was also very consequential, far more than most Presidents, after he left the Oval Office." But previously, Trump had labelled Carter as the country's "worst president." MORE: Events scheduled around Jimmy Carter's state funeral in Washington Trump also repeatedly criticized Carter as he lashed out at President Joe Biden when the two were opponents in the 2024 race before Biden dropped out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Crooked Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of our country. He's the most incompetent and he's the most corrupt president in the history of our country," Trump said last January as he ramped up campaign events. "And it's not even close. In fact, I said, today, the happiest person alive today is Jimmy Carter because his presidency looks brilliant. Brilliant by comparison." Carter, who had been in hospice care since early 2023, was out of the public eye during the presidential race but his family said he was trying to live until he could cast his ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris -- which he did in mid-October. During the presidential transition, Trump's denounced a signature achievement of Carter's presidency -- the Panama Canal Treaty that gave the Central American nation eventual control of the critical waterway. Trump recently said the U.S. "foolishly" ceded the Panama Canal and suggested his incoming administration might try to regain control of it. PHOTO: Former President Jimmy Carter appears on Good Morning America, Dec. 4, 2001. (Ida Mae Astute/ABC News) During Trump's first term, Carter didn't mince words when discussing what he thought about his presidency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carter told the Washington Post in 2018, "I think he's a disaster." "In human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal," Carter said of Trump. MORE: Jimmy Carter's enduring diplomatic legacy: ANALYSIS Carter also casted doubt at one point on Trump' s 2016 victory, suggesting that a full investigation into Russian election interference would show Trump "didn't actually win." Trump hit back to those comments by saying Cater was "a nice man" but "a terrible president" who was "trashed" by his own party. Though notably the two men spoke in 2019 when Trump called Carter to discuss China and trade negotiations. Prior to the call, Carter had sent a "beautiful" letter to Trump sharing some advice on the diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Beijing, Trump's White House said at the time. Trump says he will attend Jimmy Carter's funeral amid history of mutual criticism originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Donald Trump used the deadly New Years Day attack in New Orleans to bolster his fearmongering about criminals crossing into the U.S. from abroad and did not correct that assertion well after the suspect was identified as a U.S. citizen from Texas. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, the president-elect posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said his incoming administration would fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! Fox News had reported minutes prior to Trumps Truth Social post that the vehicle used by the suspect had crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, from Mexico two days before the attack. Just over an hour later, the conservative network retracted that reporting, saying its sources had advised that the truck crossed the border on Nov. 16 apparently driven by someone else. Later in the afternoon, it was reported that the truck never crossed over from Mexico. The suspect was identified in the early afternoon by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas. The FBI said he drove a rented truck. Jabbar said in a 2020 YouTube video about himself that he was born in Beaumont, Texas, according to CNN. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspect drove the vehicle into a crowded Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Years Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. An Islamic State group flag was recovered from the vehicle and the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the FBI said. The suspect died after exchanging gunfire with police. Trump did not offer any correction to his statement, and later made an additional post attacking OPEN BORDERS and accusing U.S. law enforcement of spending all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself. He posted overnight, TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! He doubled down further on Thursday morning, linking what he called Bidens Open Borders Policy to a rise in Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That time has come, only worse than ever imagined, he wrote. Trumps transition team declined to acknowledge the misleading nature of the president-elects post when HuffPost asked about it. President Trump rightfully highlighted that criminals crossing the border have committed some of the most heinous crimes this country has witnessed in its history, Trumps communications director, Steven Cheung, said in a statement. That is a factual statement, and it is a big reason why Americans overwhelmingly voted for him and gave him a massive mandate, he added. Trump was not the only Republican to use the attack to stoke division and fear about undocumented immigration, a central tenet of his election campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote, After the horrific attack in New Orleans, Alejandro Mayorkas needs to be called to testify before the Senate immediately - BEFORE Biden leaves office. ACCOUNTABILITY, referring to the Homeland Security secretary, whom Republicans unsuccessfully tried to impeach over border issues. Hawley cited news reports that the truck may have recently crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in a letter shared in a second post calling for Mayorkas to testify. Vice President-elect JD Vance shared Trumps statement on X, condemning the heartbreaking violence. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) amplified Fox News initial inaccurate report about the truck, writing, Shut the border down!!! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement None of them acknowledged the mans citizenship in subsequent posts on Wednesday after that information was released. Speaking on Fox News Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson also implied a connection between migration and the New Orleans attack, criticizing the Biden administrations management of the border and saying Republicans had raised obvious concern about terrorism and the wide-open border. We cannot wait. We are 18 days away from President Trump being returned to the White House and us restoring real law and order in this country, he said. Related... An erroneous Fox News report about a potential terrorist attack in New Orleans sparked a rash of anti-immigrant comments from right-wing figures in the hours before a U.S. Army veteran was identified as its suspect. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance were among the Republicans who rushed to link the mass killingwhich left 15 dead, including the suspect, and dozens injured on Wednesdayto the southern border. When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true, Trump posted at 10:48 a.m. to Truth Social. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That post, which was screenshotted and shared by Vance on X, came mere minutes after Fox News incorrectly reported that the truck driven by the suspect had crossed into Texas from Mexico two days prior. JUST IN: Fox News retracts their initial statement, says the truck used in the New Orleans terror attack crossed through Eagle Pass, Texas on November 16. Fox News initially reported that the truck crossed through the border two days ago. The identification of the driver that pic.twitter.com/eTQono5ZZm Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2025 Fox News retracted its reporting by noon, however, after other networksincluding the right-wing Newsmaxconfirmed the truck involved entered the U.S. from Mexico on Nov. 16 and was driven by a man with no connection to Wednesdays attack. Officials said later in the afternoon that it had no evidence tying the attack to the border. The FBI said the terrorist was 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a Texas native who spent eight years in the military. He allegedly gained access to the Ford pickup truck using Turo, an app that works similarly to Airbnb for renting vehicles from private owners. A photo shared by the U.S. Army of Staff Sgt. Shamsuddin Jabbar, then the information technology team chief for the 82nd Airborne Divisions 1st Brigade Combat Team. / 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division The border misinformation had already spread far and wide before Foxs retraction, however. Many in MAGA world had gone full-bore on insisting the tragedy was the result of border failures under President Joe Biden. Among those making that claim was Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! the Georgia lawmaker wrote on X. Shut the border down!!! Who did our government bomb lately that is taking it out on innocent Americans? A community note, used to crowdsource fact-checks on the social media site X, corrected Greene by Wednesday evening. Like both Trump and Vance, she has so far opted to not take her comments down. New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!! Who did our government bomb lately that is taking it out on innocent Americans? pic.twitter.com/EsD2UVuR5J Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) January 1, 2025 In another post linking the attack to the border, Greene suggested the suspect had illegally entered the country. What did we expect would happen with wide open borders and millions of gotaways? she wrote. The problem is no one trust the FBI under the current leadership, so everyone is questioning every detail they can find in their own. What an absolute disaster America is in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some Republicans continued to beat the border drum well after Fox News retracted its initial report. I HAVE BEEN SOUNDING THE ALARM FOR YEARS, wrote Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Texas Republican and U.S. Army veteran. The devastating terror attack in New Orleans has left many Americans asking a sobering question: Has the enemy already infiltrated our borders due to Joe Bidens incompetence and his failure to secure our homeland? If not now, then when? Hillsborough, Windrush, Grenfell: all appalling national scandals that are listed whenever gross institutional failures are discussed. But there is another that is usually conspicuously absent: the deep moral stain of grooming gangs. It is perhaps the greatest racially motivated crime in modern Britain, perpetrated predominantly by men of Pakistani heritage against vulnerable white girls. Even those who mention it tend to tiptoe around the subject. The grooming gang label is deployed euphemistically to sanitise depraved crimes and make them acceptable for public consumption. So we should start by calling it what it truly is. If you read the testimony of the victims and believe me, its tough its clear they were rape torture gangs, perpetrating the most heinous sexual crimes imaginable on an industrial scale. For two decades, the plight of thousands of young girls, barely teenagers, was swept under the carpet. Police forces, councils, charities, and politicians elevated community relations over protecting vulnerable women from monstrous sexual violence. They allowed little girls to be raped rather than risk being accused of racism by highlighting their abuse. Their cowardice should haunt them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the scandal is now back with a vengeance. Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips decision to reject Oldham Councils calls for a government-led inquiry has sparked outrage. On Wednesday, Elon Musk alighted on the scandal, shaming the establishment by taking more interest in bringing these rape gangs to justice in one evening than most of the British establishment has for decades. The impunity has ended because the unvarnished truth is coming out. As recently as last year, the scandal was widely considered on the Left to be a Right-wing conspiracy theory. But the courageous victims and campaigners refused to be silenced. And a handful of brave reporters, like Charlie Peters at GB News, were willing to report what many mainstream media outlets wouldnt. Despite the physical intimidation, threats and false charges of Islamophobia, they kept digging away. What we once thought was confined to a few pockets is now known to have taken place up and down the country, everywhere from Bristol to Glasgow. To protect community relations, the British state has gone to immense lengths to cover it up. Reports have been blocked and deliberately kept out of the public eye. Any connection with ethnicity, immigration, or Islam was downplayed. The reports that have been published have been whitewashed the evidence that British Pakistani men were over-represented among the perpetrators was spiked to avoid uncomfortable truths. But a recent study showed that, in Telford, one in 126 Muslim men were prosecuted between 1997 and 2017, and in Rotherham the figure was one in 73. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am certain that, after all these years, these rape gangs are still destroying lives. Somewhere, as you read this, a girl may be being abused just as despicably as the ones whose fate we now know of. Why? Because the institutions that failed these vulnerable girls are still contaminated with cowardice. Many perpetrators evaded arrest and remain on the streets. Those who were jailed received shockingly lax sentences and are now being released, free to walk the same streets as their victims. And the individuals complicit in cover-up have felt no consequences. In fact, theyve risen even higher in public life. In 2016, Shaun Davies was leader of Telford Council where he signed a letter opposing a further inquiry into the child rape gangs now he is a Labour MP sitting on the Home Affairs Select Committee, tasked with scrutinising the Home Office. In Rotherham, where there were 265 allegations of misconduct involving 47 police officers, not one has been fired. Kemi Badenoch is rightly demanding a full national inquiry. Those complicit in gross misconduct should be publicly disgraced, and prosecutions brought. Jail time and a ban on ever holding public office of any kind should be a bare minimum. But a national inquiry is just the start: we need justice for the victims. To their great credit, Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman established a taskforce to go after the perpetrators. In just a year, hundreds of arrests were made. But such is the scale, many remain at large, with trial dates set way into the future. This work must be expedited and, if convictions are secured, whole life sentences should be handed down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We also need the automatic deportation of foreign nationals found to have carried out these shocking crimes no ifs, no buts. One of the victims of Rochdale came face-to-face with her abuser in Asda, despite him losing an appeal against deportation to Pakistan two years previously. They should not be here. And we need to end mass migration. Not all cultures are equal: importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women, brought us here. And after 30 years of this disastrous experiment, we now have entrenched sectarian voting blocs that make it electoral suicide for some MPs to confront this. For decades, some of the most vulnerable people in society have been betrayed by people in positions of power. Never again can political correctness be allowed to get in the way of justice. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. (NewsNation) Two deadly attacks on New Years Day involved vehicles rented through Turo, a peer-to-peer car rental app. In New Orleans, suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, allegedly used a rented Ford pickup truck to drive through crowds on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people and injuring 30 others. Later that day in Las Vegas, an unidentified driver allegedly detonated an explosive-laden Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump International Hotel, killing one and injuring seven others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why bollards werent in place before New Orleans deadly attack Turo, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2010, operates differently from traditional car rental services. The platform allows private vehicle owners, called hosts, to rent their cars directly to users, called guests, without requiring in-person meetings, per Newsweek. Steve Webb, Turos vice president of communications, said the company is cooperating with FBI investigations. We are heartbroken to learn that one of our hosts vehicles was involved in this awful incident, Webb said, referring to the New Orleans attack. We are not currently aware of anything in this guests background that would have identified him as a trust and safety threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Driver identified in deadly New Orleans attack Law enforcement officials say the Las Vegas Cybertruck contained fireworks and gasoline cans. The platform, which operates in the United States, Canada, Australia and France, markets itself as an alternative to traditional car rental services, allowing users to skip the rental car counter and choose from various vehicles, including luxury and exotic cars, per Newsweek. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. On New Year's Day, a man drove a rented Ford F-150 truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans, killing 15 and injuring more than 30. On the same day, someone parked a rented Tesla Cybertruck filled with fuel and fireworks near the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas where it exploded, killing the driver and injuring seven bystanders. President Joe Biden said federal authorities are investigating whether there may be a link between the two. For one thing, both vehicles were rented through the same online rental company, called Turo, founded in Boston in 2010. "That's another coincidence that absolutely is continuing to bear from our investigation that we have to continue to look into," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference. Turo is working with authorities Turo confirmed Wednesday that the vehicles involved in the Las Vegas explosion and New Orleans attack were rented from the peer-to-peer car rental service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Turo said in a statement. "We are devastated by these horrible incidents, and remain dedicated to helping the authorities however we can." "We do not believe that either renter had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat," Turo said, "and we are not currently aware of any information that indicates the two incidents are related." Turo said its trust and safety team is working with law enforcement to "share any information that could be helpful in their investigations." What is Turo? The San Fransisco-based Turo could be described as Airbnb for vehicles, or a do-it-yourself Uber. The app allows vehicle owners to rent their rides to others as an alternative to using traditional rental companies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Skip the car rental counter and rent anything from daily drivers to pickup trucks, from trusted, local hosts on the Turo car rental marketplace," according to its website. Once users choose a vehicle on the app, which can be anything from convertibles and luxury cars to SUVs, the owners either meet in person to hand over the keys or they provide lockbox ciodes or allow users to unlock the vehicles through the app. A search for Turo rentals in Florida cities found thousands of available vehicles. This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Turo rental car app used in NOLA, Vegas attacks. What that is SAN DIEGO (Border Report) Two Mexican nationals are part of a group injured during a New Years Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, according to Mexicos Foreign Relations office. In that incident, 15 people were killed when an American citizen, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, plowed his truck into revelers along Bourbon Street. Thirty others were injured including the two from Mexico. The FBI has said an ISIS flag was found in Bahar Jabbars truck along with weapons and explosive devices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ISIS, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is a terrorist group based in those countries. 15 dead, dozens injured after car plows into crowd in New Orleans: Horrific act of violence Bahar Jabbar was killed by police after getting into a shootout with officers. Message posted on the X social media platform announcing two Mexican nationals were injured during the terrorist attack in New Orleans early Wednesday morning. Mexicos Foreign Relations office put out a message on the X social media platform announcing that two people from Mexico had been injured in the attack. On Wednesday, Mexicos President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the ambush pledging solidarity with victims families and the people of the United States. Its not clear if the two people from Mexico injured in the attack were tourists or lived in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Ill. Two men were found shot to death inside an apartment in East St. Louis on Wednesday night. According to the Illinois State Police (ISP), officials responded to a call around 11:40 p.m. after a relative found two men dead inside John Deshields Homes, a public housing complex located on Bond Avenue. A neighbor at the scene told FOX 2s Nissan Rogue Runner Brian Howe that a relative went to visit the apartment and discovered the family member and another man both shot dead. Police say Deron Baker, 57, and Kaven Gathing, 59, were both pronounced dead at the scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How much snow will St. Louis get this weekend? FOX 2 spoke with a man who identified himself as the brother of one of the victims. He tells us his loved one was a kind man who had lived in the apartment for some time with the other victim in this case. The man says his brother had no enemies that he knew of and he is simply stunned and saddened over the violence. East St. Louis Police, Housing Authority Police and authorities from ISP have all been at the scene and it appears that ISP will lead in handling this case. There is no information from police about details on the victims or whether there are any potential suspects in the case. This is a developing story; FOX 2 will provide more information once it comes into the newsroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. NEW ORLEANS (WJTV) Two Mississippians were killed during the terror attack in New Orleans. Please join Elee and me in praying for Mississippians Nikyra Dedeaux and Matthew Tenedorio who were tragically killed during the terrorist attack in New Orleans. Mississippi will never forget them, said Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.). Zion Parsons, of Gulfport, had been celebrating New Years Eve on his first night on Bourbon Street when a vehicle appeared and plowed into his friend, Dedeaux, 18. He said Dedeaux had dreamed of becoming a nurse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Orleans attack victims: What we know so far Tenedorio was tragically shot and killed in the devastating terrorist attack in New Orleans, a GoFundMe page verified to NewsNation reads. Matthew was a beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend whose laid-back spirit and infectious laughter brought joy to everyone around him, the description reads. Tenedorio was an audiovisual technician for the Caesars Superdome, located in New Orleans, according to the page. A memorial to the victims of a deadly truck attack is seen on Canal Street in the French Quarter, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/George Walker IV) A memorial to the victims of a deadly truck attack is seen on Canal Street in the French Quarter, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/George Walker IV) An Ole Miss student was also critically injured during the attack. I was deeply saddened to learn that one of our own students was critically injured in the violent attack in downtown New Orleans and is receiving medical care, said University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce. I have spoken directly with the students mother to extend the universitys full support and convey that our campus community is thinking of them during this tremendously difficult time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The student has not been identified. Reeves said Mississippi law enforcement has deployed and is assisting the efforts in New Orleans. We will continue to pray for the victims and their families. We will continue to pray for our law enforcement and first responders all over America! And we will continue to assist our friends in any way we can, the governor said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. Only 37 minutes into the new year and Erie police respond to the citys first shooting of 2025. Two victims are in the hospital Wednesday night, one in critical condition after being shot in the head. Erie Police investigate New Years Day shooting A 20-year-old Erie woman is in critical condition after being shot in the head while leaving a New Years Eve party. City of Erie Police are now investigating an incident that happened in the 900 block of West 19th Street. The department received multiple 911 calls just after 12:30 Wednesday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators were later advised that a 19-year-old male victim was at the hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg as well and has since been released. Calls like this we take extremely serious, said Rick Lorah, deputy chief of police for the City of Erie. We had extra patrols out last night and it was helpful obviously. This was a chaotic situation we had two individuals shot. We had extra patrols out and we were able to gather some information from the scene. State police release New Years Eve DUI numbers A large number of detectives and major crime scene investigators have been dispatched to the area since this shocking incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputy Police Chief Lorah said while they have a lot of surveillance to look at and witnesses to talk to, this seems to be a very concerning case. Were not receiving the level of cooperation that we would normally think of when two individuals were shot like that, he said. Whether or not the shooter had a motive or if this transpired after some sort of disagreement, Deputy Chief Lorah said its too early to tell. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News One resident from the neighborhood who preferred to stay off camera says she was woken up by loud noises. She initially thought were fireworks for the new year but later discovered it was shots fired from this incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the investigation is still on going, the department is requesting the publics help in finding a suspect to put into custody. We have two young victims, one of with is grievously wounded and shot in the head that you would come forward with information in this case because we cant have this in the community, we cant have this in the city and we need to the community and police department to come together and make sure this doesnt happen again, Lorah went on to say. Erie fire officials reminding residents to check their carbon monoxide detector this new year Again, if you have any information you are being asked to contact Detective Sergeant David Madurski or Detective Ronald Pilarski from their major crime unit at 814-870-1229. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. BELCHERTOWN, Mass. (WWLP) Crews were sent to a two-vehicle crash at an intersection in Belchertown Thursday morning. Belchertown fire department puts out building fire on Blossom Lane Belchertown Police Chief Kevin Pacunas told 22News that the two-vehicle crash occurred at the intersection of Route 9 and Bay Road. The crash led to significant traffic congestion due to the time of day and the location of the accident. The traffic has cleared up at this time. Map: Route 9 and Bay Road No injuries were reported. The cause of the crash has not yet been released. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. A Texas-born U.S. Army citizen who plowed a rented pickup truck through the throngs celebrating the new year on Bourbon Street in New Orleans - an attack that the FBI believes may have been inspired by ISIS - is not connected to a cybertruck that exploded outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, officials said. Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a divorced father of two living in Houston, rammed through a crowd of revelers around 3 a.m. New Year's Day, and then opened fire at random, killing at least 15 people in one of the nations worst terror attacks. Jabbar served in the U.S. Army, including a tour overseas in Afghanistan from Feb. 2009 until Jan. 2010, President Joe Biden confirmed after the attack. Related: LAPD Hunts Alleged Shoplifter Who Opened Fire in a Busy DTLA Target Sparking Gun Battle Jabbar was in the regular Army as a Human Resource Specialist and Information Technology Specialist from March 2007 until January 2015 when he joined the Reserves until July 2020, a defense official confirmed to reporters. Jabbar left the military as a Staff Sergeant. It is unclear when he began to radicalize, FBI officials said. "An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations," the FBI said in a statement. "Weapons and a potential IED were located in the subjects vehicle. Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter. The FBIs special agent bomb technicians are working with our law enforcement partners to determine if any of these devices are viable, and they will work to render those devices safe." Related: Close Call at LAX: Charter Jet Carrying Gonzaga Basketball Team Prompts FAA Investigation Hours after that deadly attack, a driver of a rented Tesla Cybertruck was killed and seven others nearby were injured on New Years Day when a combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel in the bed of the vehicle were detonated outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. The vehicle was rented on the same Turo car rental app used by the New Orleans attacker. The Cybertruck was picked up in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m., Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters during a news conference. The driver of the vehicle drove the vehicle up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before pulling in front of the Trump hotel around 8:40 a.m., McMahill said. Active duty Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger died when a rented Cybertruck exploded outside a Trump hotel after he detonated an explosive, counterterrorism officials believe That driver, two sources confirmed to Los Angeles, is an active-duty Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger, 37, who was on leave from a base in Germany and is from Colorado Springs. On Thursday, the FBI said there is no definitive connection between the attack in New Orleans and the explosion in Las Vegas. Livelsberger is a decorated U.S. Army soldier who has served for nearly two decades. At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia with the counterintelligence division said during a Thursday morning news conference. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said the LAPD remains on high alert in the wake of the incidents which led to an uptick in security at the Rose Parade and other events in the city. As so many here in Los Angeles wake up to begin the new year, they will be greeted by the devastating news of terror and violence in New Orleans. The Los Angeles Police Department is coordinating with federal partners to keep Angelenos safe. Local and regional law enforcement https://t.co/zAkEdrW8Rp Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) January 1, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Maxine Dexter celebrates her 3rd Congressional District win along with other Democrats at their celebration at the Portland Hilton on Nov. 5, 2024. (Rian Dundon/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Maxine Dexter could have spent the last few weeks of the year relaxing with loved ones while preparing to represent the congressional district that spans Portland, Hood River and Mount Hood. Instead, after sealing her victory in Oregons 3rd Congressional District in November, she continued to do what shes done for nearly two decades: pulled 10-hour shifts for six days straight in intensive care and tended to patients with lung disease. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dexter, a former state representative, has been a critical care doctor and pulmonologist at Kaiser Permanente for nearly two decades. She chose to work pretty much to the end of the year to support her patients and colleagues. Health care systems arent doing very well right now, so theyre not necessarily able to replace me, Dexter told the Capital Chronicle. And I felt like I needed to get my team or my partners through the holidays. Dexter, who just turned 52, will be sworn into Congress on Friday along with other newly elected members, including Janelle Bynum, who won Oregons 5th Congressional District seat. Both women, Democrats who have served in the majority in Oregons House, will enter the partisan fray in Washington D.C. in the minority, with Republicans in control of the House, Senate and White House. Republicans also controlled the House over the past two years, a time thats been marked by political brawls but scant action. Though they will continue to hold the power in the House, they hold a majority of only five seats, and that could mean more chaos, analysts say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dexter, a progressive who backs easing access to abortions, enacting gun control and moving toward a single-payer health care system, said she will not prejudge any of her congressional colleagues. She said she will work with anyone with whom she can find common ground on an issue. But when pressed about the agenda of the incoming Trump administration and his pledge to deport illegal immigrants and expand fossil fuel drilling, she acknowledged a potentially tough road ahead for a progressive like herself. Im deeply concerned, she said. We are not headed in the right direction. Her two children, both in college, agree, and they dont have much faith in government, she said. Thats one reason she decided to run. In preparing for her new life, she leased an apartment within walking distance to the Capitol, attended orientation sessions with other freshmen and combed through policies and procedures. She also reached out to other physicians in Congress, including Minnesotas Rep. Kelly Morrison, an OB-GYN, and consulted the other Democratic representatives in Oregon: Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Val Hoyle, Andrea Salinas and retiring Rep. Earl Blumenauer, whos 76 and has represented Oregons 3rd District for nearly three decades. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He and his staff have been working closely with Dexter to ease her transition. Shes a very quick study, Blumenauer told the Capital Chronicle. I dont know that Ive seen a new member of Congress get engaged as quickly and as thoroughly as Maxine. I could not be more impressed. Modest background Dexter was not destined for Congress. She grew up with a brother in a working class family in Bothell, Washington, about 20 miles northeast of Seattle. Her father sold car parts, barely making enough to get by. Their home life was tumultuous and her parents got divorced. She had no role models to pursue medicine or politics. Her home had no books, and no one in her family had earned a college degree. But Dexters family life prepared her for becoming a physician. She learned about mental illness from her mother, who struggled with profound issues, Dexter said, and she learned to care for patients from her grandmother, who had diabetes and suffered a series of amputations. Dexter embraced the role of being a nurse and tending to her grandmothers wound care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At school, she impressed her teachers and was assigned to classes for gifted students. One of her favorite teachers introduced her to the idea of college and asked what shed like to be. She decided she wanted to care for people, as she cared for her grandmother, and become a doctor. At 16, she got a job at Albertsons, first working in the bakery, then as a checker and finally as a manager. She also joined the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents grocery store workers. Her earnings helped pay for her college education in Seattle at the University of Washington. Though a pre-med student, she studied journalism and political science as an undergrad because she knew that in med school, shed have little time for liberal arts. She worked as a sportswriter at the school newspaper and even freelanced some stories for the Seattle Times. She also read the New York Times voraciously, helped by the fact that she could buy it for $1 a week as a student. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her college years, as for many, were a time of discovery. It was like the whole world was open to me at the University of Washington, Dexter said. There were so many really interesting things to study. She was interested in the political system, constitutional law and health policy and did a Ford Foundation internship on the subject that laid a foundation for her future path. I knew I was going to work on health policy someday, Dexter said. Dexter also found love at university. She and her husband both earned their medical degrees from the University of Washington. He became a primary care physician and now works at Kaiser Permanente in Portland. She pursued a postgraduate fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at the University of Colorado in Denver because she enjoys responding to an emergency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have always been someone who likes thinking on their feet and being the person who helps in a crisis, Dexter said. As a physician, shes seen people at their worst, and shes cared for many patients whove struggled in their lives. Some have had to decide between buying their medications or paying for child care. At the end of the day, we have got to create a society where people can live dignified, stable lives when theyre working full time, Dexter said. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Portland, listens during a committee meeting in December 2022. (Connor Radnovich/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Two initiatives After caring for patients for more than a decade, Dexter ran in 2020 for a northwest Portland seat in the Oregon House that had been held nearly two decades by then-retiring Democratic Rep. Mitch Greenlick, a former Kaiser Permanente research director and professor at Oregon Health & Science University. Dexter won the primary and was sworn into office that June after Greenlick died in office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dexter served nearly two terms in the state House and supported a range of Democratic issues, from safe gun storage and a ban on undetectable ghost guns to reform in the pharmaceutical industry and an expansion of Medicaid benefits to all low-income immigrants. She also worked on bipartisan packages, including a $100 million drought and water security package in 2023 and a right to repair law which took effect Wednesday and is expected to make it easier and cheaper for consumers to fix their devices. But shes most proud of two initiatives. One stems from a patient in 2022. A young woman who took what she thought was a pain pill overdosed on what turned out to be fentanyl. Dexter said on her website that she worked all night trying to save the womans life. I was the one who had to give their mother, friends and extended family the heart-breaking news, she said. I realized this was a tragedy that could happen to anyones children, even my own. I had to take action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The following year she championed the passage of a package aimed at saving people from overdoses by making the opioid reversal drug, naloxone, more available in restaurants, stores, police departments and schools and other public buildings. The other accomplishment she cites was also in 2023, when Dexter chaired the housing committee. Dexter played a central role in putting together a $200 million housing and homelessness package pushed by Gov. Tina Kotek that included rent assistance and money for shelter beds and to get 1,200 homeless people into housing. A fellow Democrat, state Sen. Kate Lieber, remembered being impressed watching Dexter tackle a new issue, delve into the complexities and shepherd it through. She did a really great job, especially digging into something that she did not have any familiarity with, Lieber said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dexter also helped pass last years $376 million housing package withmoney for shelters, renters and housing. In Congress, she said shell support many of the same issues, but she hopes to move the needle on lowering emissions and expanding use of clean energy to improve air quality, something that affects people with lung disease in particular, and she wants to improve the countrys health care system by working toward an affordable, single-payer system that includes comprehensive behavioral health, vision, dental and prescription drug coverage. As a physician, shes experienced the impact of the high-cost U.S. system on patients, who have motivated her as a lawmaker. She said being a physician also has helped train her to work with other politicians. (As physicians), we take care of people. We dont take care of Democrats and Republicans, she said. We care for them no matter who they are. In the Legislature, she said she developed close working relationships with Rep. Jeff Helfrich, a Hood River Republican who was on the housing committee, and former Rep. Daniel Bonham, who now represents The Dalles in the Senate. Both are in the 3rd District and supported her candidacy as did others. Theres a really long list of Republican colleagues who really encouraged me to run because I have developed trust with my colleagues, she said. We dont talk about abortion. We dont talk about guns. Like there are certain things that youre just never going to agree on. Dexter doesnt always agree with fellow Democrats, either. Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Beaverton, said she sometimes disagreed with Dexter and the two talked it out. Shes not afraid to have the hard conversations, Grayber said. I think thats one of the most special things about Maxine. Dexter said being a physician gives lawmakers a superpower because they have stories of patients to tell about a range of social issues, bringing a face and humanity to the issue. Eventually, shed like to tell those stories on the powerful Energy and Commerce committee, which has jurisdiction over health care, the environment and energy issues. But for her first term, shes asked for Veterans Affairs and Natural Resources. The former is relatively bipartisan, she said, and includes oversight of veterans health care, while the latter, though partisan, has jurisdiction over federal lands, tribal affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency. She said its relevant to the environmental goals she hopes to achieve over time, and time could be on her side. Blumenauer served the Democratic district for 14 terms and likely would have won reelection if he had run again. Blumenauer is optimistic about Dexters future and so are Democrats in the state Legislature. I think shes perfect for Congress, Lieber said. Shes sort of dogged in her pursuit of the issues, which, I think especially for Congress, you need somebody who is just going to be just really pointed in one direction and continues to walk down the path even with obstacles. I would say Maxine is really good at that. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A half dozen years after abandoning Kobani, U.S. forces are reportedly building a base in this northern Syrian city on the Turkish border that has been riven by strife between Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed forces. This all comes as a new Syrian government is trying to establish control over the country after ousting Bashar al-Assad. Several videos and images have emerged on social media claiming to show U.S. troops and equipment heading toward Kobani, reportedly to build a new international coalition base. The U.S. has a presence of about 2,000 troops in Syria, ostensibly deployed to continue the ongoing fight against ISIS. That fight apparently came to the U.S. on Wednesday, when a man claiming ISIS affiliation carried out a deadly attack in New Orleans. JUST IN The U.S. is increasing its support for the Kurds along the Turkish border. Syrian media reports that the U.S. is building a military base in Kobani (Ain al-Arab), a Kurdish city in northern Aleppo near the Turkey-Syria border. pic.twitter.com/dxiejdmvij Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 2, 2025 #US military forces are heading from #Al_Shaddadi and #Al_Hasakah bases towards #Kobani. While cement and logistical equipment are arriving successively. pic.twitter.com/6VZYbm6fpa MOHAMMAD HASAN (@MHJournalist) January 2, 2025 Breaking :US forces start building a military base in the city center of Kobani. pic.twitter.com/YgqXFn65dx Mustafa Al-Ali (@Mustafa_Alali2) January 2, 2025 News of the international coalition establishing a military base in #Kobani amid #Turkish threats pic.twitter.com/aQEYUoPgoW Alan Meis (@alan_maaesh) January 2, 2025 International Coalition establishes military base in Kobani. Military reinforcements head towards city center pic.twitter.com/TraZhuqMtG Hoshang Hasan (@HoshangHesen) January 1, 2025 The US forces of the international coalition against ISIS are reportedly building a base in Kobani. #TwitterKurds pic.twitter.com/rqN4pUwtTX Avashin (@_Avashin) January 2, 2025 Construction work of the international @coalition base in Kobani pic.twitter.com/RTJENvK7Fj Hoshang Hasan (@HoshangHesen) January 2, 2025 U.S. forces brought in a convoy of 50 trucks carrying cement blocks to SDF-controlled areas in north-eastern Syria, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) wrote Thursday morning. SOHR activists have reported seeing the convoy on Al-Hasakah-Al-Raqqah highway, while it was heading to Ain Al-Arab area (Kobani) in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. The convoy was accompanied by a military vehicle of SDF. According to SOHR sources, this comes as a part of US forces efforts to boost their bases and establish a new military base in Ain Al-Arab in light of the growing security and military tension in that region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The international coalition forces brought a convoy of logistic reinforcements including premade chambers, surveillance cameras, cement blocks, fuel tanks and digging machinery towards Kobani, SOHR added. the digging and drilling will start tomorrow and more military reinforcements such as soldiers, weapons, armored vehicles, radars, and anti-aircraft weapons will be brought. This assessment was shared by the pro-SDF North Press media outlet. The U.S.-led Global Coalition began on Thursday establishing a military base in the city of Kobani, northern Syria, the publication reported. North Press correspondent documented trucks transporting concrete blocks to Kobani for the bases construction. The convoy included logistical supplies such as prefabricated rooms, surveillance cameras, trench-digging equipment, concrete blocks, and fuel tanks, North Press added. A hotel has been designated as the central site for the Coalitions base in the city center of Kobani. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The #US-led Global Coalition begins establishing a military base in the city of #Kobani, northern #Syria.https://t.co/7gVSDmNvQR NORTH PRESS AGENCY ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 2, 2025 The War Zone cannot independently verify these claims and has reached out to U.S. Central Command and the White House National Security Council for details. We will update this story with any information provided. After pulling out of the Kobani area, the U.S. military announced that a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles had struck the defunct Lafarge Cement Factory in northern Syria, on Oct. 16, 2019. This facility sits along the highly strategic M4 highway between the cities of Ain Issa and Kobani, and had served as the headquarters of the de facto Defeat-ISIS coalition in Syria, U.S. Army Col. Myles Caggins, chief spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said on Oct. 15, 2019. The base was used extensively to support special operations and included landing pads for multiple helicopters. It is unclear if this is the facility the U.S. is reportedly trying to build up now. After the U.S. departed the facility, Russian forces took it over and remained there until pulling most of its troops out of Syria in the wake of the Assad ouster. You can see that site in a satellite image obtained by The War Zone at the time. The former U.S. base at the defunct Lafarge Cement Factory in northern Syria as of Oct. 22, 2019. U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles attacked the plant after U.S. troops pulled out. (Photo 2019 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission.) At the core of the issue is Turkeys long-standing contention that SDF is functionally indistinguishable from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Both the United States and Turkey have designated the PKK, which has operated in Turkey, northern Syria, and northern Iraq, as a terrorist group. However, the U.S. government insists that PKK and SDF are separate organizations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The claimed U.S. build-up in Kobani comes as fighting continues between the SDF and Turkish-backed forces in northern Syria. Kurdish forces said they repelled an attack near Kobani https://t.co/3YuAOEtSlP Guy Elster (@guyelster) January 2, 2025 Video emerged on social media claiming the SDF downed a Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 drone over the Qarqozak Bridge, south of Kobani. It is claimed to be the third such shootdown in a month. SDF releases the footage of downing the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone in the vicinity of the Qarqozak Bridge, south of #Kobani. According to SDF this is the 3rd drone that was shot down in a month. pic.twitter.com/KkpZxjHcCA Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) January 1, 2025 Turkish-backed forces have reportedly escalated attacks on the Tishreen Dam as well as the Qara Quzak Bridge, both key to logistics in the area. Kurdish journalist Rohat Baran emphasized that these sites are not just vital for the local population but also hold broader regional importance in terms of trade, energy, and military operations. The Qara Quzak Bridge is a pivotal location along the M4 international trade route, a corridor connecting key areas such as Kobani, Raqqa and Manbij, Baran noted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This route is essential for logistics, commerce, and defense in northern Syria, he reported. The Tishreen Dam, meanwhile, supplies electricity to vast parts of northern Syria, including Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, and al-Hasakah. Losing control of these sites could have catastrophic consequences for the regions infrastructure and security. The defense of Tishreen and Qara Quzaq is not merely local but encompasses the security of Kobani, Raqqa, and the broaderregion, Baran continued. Turkish strikes escalate over strategic northern Syria sites Turkeys strikes on Tishreen (Tisrin) Dam and Qara Quzak (Qere Qozaq) Bridge intensify. As Rohat Baran warns, this is about trade, energy, and survival. Read more: #SyriaConflict#TishreenDam#QaraQozaq pic.twitter.com/Yb0dN4QF61 MedyaNews (@medyanews_) January 2, 2025 Fighting between SDF and Turkish-backed forces also continues near the town of Manbij, about 30 miles southwest of Kobani. Just before Christmas, SDF announced a counteroffensive against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army near Manbij. Footage of the destruction of an armored vehicle belonging to Turkish occupation mercenaries east of Manbij by the forces of the Manbij Military Council and the Counter-Terrorism Forces (HAT)#hat #manbij #turkish #kurds #kurdistan #rojava #kobani #kobane pic.twitter.com/SLEzmlu4ye Botin Kurdistani (@kurdistannews24) January 2, 2025 As SDF and the Turkish-backed rebels duke it out in the north, the U.S. and allies continue to bombard ISIS strongholds in central and eastern Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our armies remain engaged in the fight against terrorism in the Levant, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on Twitter Tuesday. They have contributed to the international coalition Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), since 2014 in Iraq and 2015 in Syria. On Sunday, French air assets carried out targeted strikes against Daesh sites on Syrian soil. The defense ministry told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Frances Rafale fighter jets and US-made Reaper drones dropped a total of seven bombs on two military targets belonging to Daesh in central Syria, the French Le Monde news outlet reported. It was the first such strike on the countrys soil since the fall of Assad. Nos armees restent engagees dans la lutte contre le terrorisme au Levant. Elles contribuent a la coalition internationale "Operation Inherent Resolve" (OIR), depuis 2014 en Irak et 2015 en Syrie. Dimanche, des moyens aeriens francais ont procede a des frappes ciblees contre des pic.twitter.com/uwzOmcJDce Sebastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) December 31, 2024 On Dec. 23, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted a precision airstrike on ISIS in the Deir Ezzor Province of central Syria, killing two ISIS operatives and wounding one, the command said on Twitter. The terrorists were moving a truckload of weapons which were destroyed during the strike. This strike occurred in an area formerly controlled by the Syrian regime and Russians. This airstrike is part of CENTCOMs ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel from the U.S., our allies, and our partners throughout the region and beyond. CENTCOM Forces Kill ISIS Operatives, Destroy Truckload of Weapons in Syria Airstrike On Dec. 23, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted a precision airstrike in the Dayr az Zawr Province, Syria, killing two ISIS operatives and wounding one. The terrorists were moving a pic.twitter.com/YxaL8mKxnd U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 24, 2024 The Pentagon continues to maintain that its support for SDF is part of the ongoing fight against ISIS and that it is working with Turkey to stabilize the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement we have been conducting various strikes against ISIS leaders, but in terms of our partnership with SDF, nothing has changed there, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke by phone on Dec. 24 with Turkish Minister of National Defense Yasar Guler to discuss the ongoing situation in Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement. Secretary Austin emphasized that close and continuous coordination is crucial to maintaining the ongoing success of the D-ISIS mission. The Secretary and Minister Guler also discussed the importance of setting the conditions to enable a more secure and stable Syria. Meanwhile, Syrias new leadership is working to solidify its hold on the country since overthrowing Assad nearly a month ago and says it wants to include SDF in that effort. The head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former al-Qaida-linked group that staged the coup against Assad and now runs the country, met with the SDF on Tuesday for the first time since the overthrow. The results of the discussions between SDF and Ahmed al-Sharaa, now the de-facto leader of Syria, were positive, the BBC noted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, confirmed that the transitional administration is in talks with the SDF to resolve the crisis in northeastern Syria, with the aim of eventually integrating the SDF into the national armed forces, the Al Arabiya news outlet reported. He reaffirmed that Kurds are an integral part of Syrias fabric, ruling out any plans for partition. There will be no division of Syria in any way, al-Sharaa told the publication in an interview. Negotiations are ongoing with the SDF to resolve the crisis in northeastern Syria, al-Sharaa explained, adding that the new government would not allow Syria to become a launching pad for PKK attacks. The Kurds are part of our people and we are open to a negotiation path with the SDF, Syrias transitional government leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa tells Al Arabiya News. Read more: https://t.co/l0tDnP7xM1 pic.twitter.com/Mrp6Jzd6RW Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) December 31, 2024 If the U.S. is indeed establishing a new base in Kobani, it comes as the Biden administration is winding down. If the past is prologue, this may be a short-lived move after Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. As we reported at the time, Trump shocked SDF by announcing a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Kobani in 2019. Trump had already stated his intention to eventually pull out all U.S. forces from Syria in December 2018. Despite Trumps wishes, the U.S. kept troops in Syria throughout his first administration. In 2021, White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk noted in the following tweet that Russian troops took over the Kobani facility after the U.S. withdrawal. Post Unavailable As the anti-Assad rebels were advancing across Syria, Trump offered some insight into how he might approach the presence of U.S. troops there in his new administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT, he exclaimed. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED! Post Unavailable Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for the potentially ISIS-related attack in New Orleans, a truck driven by Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar allegedly drove into a crowd, killing at least 15 people. Investigators later found an ISIS flag in that truck. During a press briefing on Thursday, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division Christopher Raia said Jabbar stated in a post on Facebook that he had joined ISIS last summer, CBS News reported. Shortly before the attack, He posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming his support for ISIS, Raia said. He added that at this point, there was no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and the detonation of a Tesla Cybertruck full of fireworks and other explosive material outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas hours later, an event that is being considered a possible act of terrorism. There is no way to know at the moment how this attack will affect Trumps calculus on how many troops should remain in Syria, where they will deploy, or if he will keep the new base in Kobani, if indeed it is established. Regardless, Americas battle against ISIS continues. Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com Sen. Chuck Grassley appeared on "Iowa Press" on Sept. 15, 2023. (Screenshot via Iowa PBS) U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley will retake the position of Senate president pro tempore when Congress convenes Friday. The Iowa Republican, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1981, will take the position that goes to the longest-serving senator in the party that controls the chamber. Grassley also held the position from 2019 through January 2021, before Democrats took control of Congress with a narrow 51-49 majority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, has held the position since 2023, after former U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont retired from Congress. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX When Grassley last held the position, there were concerns about the role the Senate president pro tem would play in counting the Electoral College votes for the election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who lost in 2020 but denied the election results. Grassley had said he would preside over the Electoral College vote counting if then-Vice President Mike Pence did not attend. That did not happen, as Pence presided over the vote counting during the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection. This year, Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in the presidential election, will oversee the 2024 election vote counting set for Jan. 6, 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the November general election, Republicans won a 53-47 majority in the Senate, in addition to winning a 220-215 majority seats in U.S. House elections. In addition to holding the Senate president pro tempore position, Grassley is also set to serve as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he will oversee some appointments to Trumps cabinet, as well as judicial nominees. Grassley said in a December news release that he plans to approach the upcoming session with a focus on issues like passing the farm bill and ensuring federal government is accountable and efficient. In the New Year, Ill hit the ground running to advance legislative efforts to secure the border, lower the price of prescription drugs, pass a five-year Farm Bill and curb wasteful spending, Grassley said. Congress has a long to-do list. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Ukraine intends to increase its exports even further in the approaching fourth year of the war begun by Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday in his daily video broadcast. The country had already succeeded in boosting exports by 15% in 2024, said Zelensky, emphasising that securing export routes across the Black Sea was crucial for foreign trade. The president put the value of last year's exports at more than $41 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the economics ministry in Kiev, Ukraine's main exports include sunflower oil, maize, wheat, soya and iron ore. Due to the Russian occupation of industrial areas in eastern Ukraine in particular, the agricultural sector has long replaced the metallurgical industry as the main export sector. Ukraine has been fending off a full-scale invasion by Russia since February 2022. Previously, in 2021, Ukrainian goods exports totalled the equivalent of almost $70 billion, according to the national statistics office. However, even before the war, Ukraine was the poorest country in Europe in terms of per capita income, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his address, Zelensky described Syria as a new partner and held out the prospect of resuming diplomatic relations with the country following the fall of the al-Assad regime in December. Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha had recently travelled to Damascus together with Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval to hold talks with Syria's new rulers. Trade relations are also to be intensified with Lebanon and African countries, Zelensky said. Two Russian helicopters were downed in a recent strike by the Ukrainian-made Magura V5 naval strike drones, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) reported on its Telegram channel. HUR earlier reported on Dec. 31 that one of its units had downed an aerial target with the Ukrainian-made Magura drone equipped with SeeDragon missiles for the first time, destroying one Russian Mi-8 helicopter and damaging another helicopter. According to an updated statement by HUR published on Jan. 2, two helicopters were downed and one was damaged in the attack. Russian propaganda channels admitted the loss of two helicopters earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify HURs claims. The Magura drone has helped Ukraine push back against Russias Black Sea Fleet by striking dozens of ships this year. They have been in operation since the summer of 2023. The drone is able to cover a distance of more than 800 kilometers (500 miles), reach a speed of 80 km/h (50 mph), and is capable of carrying a 250-kilogram warhead. Each one is 5.5 meters long and costs approximately Hr 10 million ($240,000). In June, HUR announced that the drones had been modified to operate anti-aircraft missiles, presenting a serious threat to the Russian Air Force over the Black Sea. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Ukraine struck hundreds of targets deep inside Russia in 2024. What did they achieve? Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine increased electricity imports by 5.5 times to 4.4 million MWh in 2024. Source: monitoring data of ExPro Electricity Details: Hungary exported the most electricity, accounting for 39%, followed by Slovakia (23%), Romania (18%), Poland (14%), and Moldova (5%). Last year, imports peaked in June, with more than 850,000 MWh supplied. The rise in supplies was driven by lower prices in neighbouring electrical markets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine's power imports increased by 2.6 times in December 2024 compared to November 2024, reaching more than 430,000 MWh. Hungary continues to account for the biggest share of the import structure (35%). Slovakia ranks second, at 25%. Imports from Hungary surged the most this month, quadrupling to 152,000 MWh. Nonetheless, last year's electricity exports were nearly identical to those of 2023, totalling 366,000 MWh. The most electricity was supplied in March, at 154,000 MWh. Background: If Slovakia stopped supplying electricity to Ukraine, Poland could increase its imports by redistributing the capacity among other EU neighbours. Slovakia will consider retaliatory measures against Ukraine, such as cutting off backup electricity supplies after 1 January, if Kyiv is expected to stop transiting Russian gas to Slovakia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico wrote a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which he again complained about Ukraine's refusal to continue transiting Russian gas after 2024. Support UP or become our patron! The expert and fund commission of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine included 11 unique museum items from four museums in the State Register of National Cultural Heritage at a meeting on 30 December 2024. Among them are works by Ukrainian artists Kazymyr Malevych and Illia Riepin [also known as Kazimir Malevich and Ilya Repin due to Russian colonisation ed.]. Source: press service of the Ministry of Culture Details: In particular, the painting Suprematism No. 65 by Malevych from the collection of the Kharkiv Art Museum was recognised as part of Ukraines national heritage. It is a vivid example of the Suprematist style, which Malevych founded in 1915. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also from the collection of the Kharkiv Art Museum, the State Register included a painting by Riepin, Cossacks are Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan. The artist worked on two versions of the painting for almost 20 years, making expeditions to the cities where people from the Zaporizhzhian Sich had settled. Another important piece that was included in the state register is the Aprakos Gospel of 1707 from the collection of the Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum. This is a unique printing masterpiece, an original copy of a rare illustrated large-format Ukrainian Cyrillic old book and one of the most prominent projects in the history of Ukrainian book publishing before the 19th century. The expert and fund commission of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine is a permanent advisory body established to provide recommendations and proposals on the accounting and storage of museum items and museum collections, and the inclusion of unique museum items in the register of national cultural heritage. It consists of museum professionals from all over Ukraine. How world museums recognise Ukrainian artists In February 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York changed the nationality of the Mariupol-born artist Arkhyp Kuindzhi from Russian to Ukrainian in its descriptions. They also added that it was the Russians who destroyed the museum dedicated to the artist in his hometown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just a few days later, the Metropolitan Museum of Art also recognised Illia Riepin and Ivan Aivazovskyi as Ukrainian, not Russian, artists. In particular, the relevant marks appeared in the caption to Riepin's portrait of the writer Vsevolod Harshyn and Aivazovskyi's seascape [both Vsevolod Harshyn and Ivan Aivazovskyi were also subjected to Russian colonisation and their names in the Russian spelling, Vsevolod Garshin and Ivan Aivazovsky, are better known ed.]. In March 2023, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), which has one of the most complete collections of Malevych's works, changed its captions about the abstract artist, calling him Ukrainian. A year ago, in January 2024, Finland's largest art museum, the Ateneum, changed the nationality signature under Riepins name from Russian to Ukrainian. Support UP or become our patron! Ukraine's naval drones fired missiles at and hit three Russian helicopters earlier this week. The first-of-its-kind combat engagement occurred off the coast of Crimea. It's the latest achievement for Kyiv's naval drones, which have been modified to carry missiles. Ukrainian naval drones armed with heat-seeking missiles shot down two Russian helicopters and damaged a third above the Black Sea earlier this week, Kyiv said on Thursday. The unusual combat engagement marked the first known instance of a naval drone firing on and striking an aircraft. The Ukrainian military previously reconfigured its uncrewed boats for sea-based air defense. The milestone combat operation unfolded on Tuesday off the western coast of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. Ukrainian naval drones equipped with missile launchers fired at three helicopters, destroying two of them and damaging a third. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The crews of the destroyed helicopters, identified as Mi-8s, were killed, Ukraine's military intelligence agency, also known as the HUR, said on Thursday. The damaged helicopter managed to land. # Magura V5 https://t.co/Td2vPEy6St pic.twitter.com/UC3SNnp6ah Defence intelligence of Ukraine (@DI_Ukraine) December 31, 2024 The HUR credited the operation to a special forces unit called "Group 13," which fields the Magura V5, one of several naval drones in service with the Ukrainian military. Earlier this week, the HUR said that a Magura V5 drone took down a single Mi-8 with R-73 air-to-air missiles. The R-73 is a decades-old, short-range missile that uses infrared homing technology. Two days later, Ukraine revealed that a second helicopter was destroyed and a third damaged. The HUR published a radio intercept purportedly containing audio from one of the Mi-8 pilots after the Russian helicopter was hit. "There was a water launch," the pilot says in the recording, describing how a missile exploded near the aircraft. Business Insider could not independently verify any of the details of the operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This week's incident is not the first time that Ukrainian naval drones have engaged Russian helicopters in a firefight; last month, Kyiv shared footage showing a similar engagement on the other side of Crimea involving a drone outfitted with a machine gun. However, the downing of an aircraft marks a new chapter in naval drone warfare. Ukraine's multi-purpose Magura V5 naval drone during a demonstration in April. Photo by Pavlo Bahmut/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images Kyiv's domestically produced naval drones have played a key role in its Black Sea operations. In addition to the Magura V5, Ukraine also fields other sea drones, like the Sea Baby platform in service with the Security Service of Ukraine. Ukraine lacks a traditional navy, so it has relied on these naval drones to wage a successful campaign against Russian interests across the Black Sea, using them in attacks against Moscow's warships, aircraft, and infrastructure, like bridges and oil platforms. Through this asymmetrical campaign, Ukraine's drones have effectively driven Moscow's Black Sea Fleet away from its long-held headquarters in Crimea and forced it to relocate across the region to the port of Novorossiysk in southwestern Russia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine has innovated with its naval drones through various modifications that make them more threatening, like adding missile launchers to give them air-defense capabilities. Some of the drones have also been outfitted with rocket launchers, guns, and even other drones. Read the original article on Business Insider The Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted a precision strike on a Russian army command post in Maryino, Kursk Oblast, Ukraine's General Staff reported on Jan. 2. "These attacks are primarily carried out to weaken Russia's ability and willingness to carry out terrorist acts against Ukrainian civilians," the General Staff said, adding that "all necessary measures" were taken to minimize risks to civilians in the vicinity of the strike. It did not specify the type of weapon used in the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strike targeted the 810th Russian Brigade, resulting in significant losses, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraines counter-disinformation center. Local Telegram channels earlier reported shelling in Ivanovskoye in the Rylsk district, with damage to a boarding school, post office, shopping center, residential buildings, and the house of culture. Windows were shattered, and walls were damaged by shrapnel, according to acting Kursk Oblast Governor Alexander Khinshtein. The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims. The strike follows Ukraines surprise incursion into Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, during which Ukrainian forces captured about 1,300 square kilometers of territory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Kyiv has since lost control of half of the initially seized area, fighting in the region remains intense. Ukrainian officials view the occupied territory as a potential bargaining chip in future negotiations with Russia. Read also: Ukraine struck hundreds of targets deep inside Russia in 2024. What did they achieve? Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. For the first time, Ukraine has released an official video, which is embedded below, showing its Su-25 Frogfoot ground-attack jets employing French-supplied Hammer rocket-boosted precision-guided munitions. The compilation, showing multiple launch angles, reinforces the importance of the weapon to the Ukrainian Air Force, especially when it comes to precisely engaging Russian targets, including those located further back from the front lines. The video montage from the Ukrainian Air Force focuses on the Su-25s of the 299th Tactical Aviation Brigade (299 BrTA) as they attack Russian targets in daylight with the Hammer also known by the French name Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM; Modular Air-to-Ground Armament). At least 10 different sorties are shown, with the weapons being released in pairs, although only two individual Su-25s single-seaters with the Bort numbers 28 Blue and 47 Blue can be identified. All the aircraft in the video have blue and yellow identification panels painted on, to help avoid friendly fire incidents, and at least some of the launches are made simultaneous with the release of infrared countermeasures to spoof hostile heat-seeking missiles. A pair of Hammer munitions fall away after launch from a Ukrainian Su-25. Ukrainian Air Force screencap The Hammer is the first Western precision-guided munition of any kind known to be used by the Ukrainian Su-25 its integration on the Frogfoot was revealed by a Ukrainian Air Force official in June 2024, as TWZ reported at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That the Hammer is being used extensively in combat by Ukraine is no surprise after all, France previously committed to supplying Kyiv with up to 50 of the precision-guided bombs every month. In November last year, France said that it would deliver 600 of the munitions to Ukraine by the end of 2024, with the Hammers being sourced from existing, aging stocks, with plans in the works to quickly produce more. The production of AASM bombs must be significantly accelerated in order to renew the [French] stocks with new munitions, the French National Assembly Defense Committee stated. The Ministry of the Armed Forces now aims to produce 1,200 by 2025. The weapons are also used by Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters, and it was on one of these jets that we first got a close-up look at the weapon and its specially adapted launch pylon. The Ukrainian Su-27 Flanker fighter may also use the weapon. A Hammer munition on the specially adapted pylon under the wing of a Ukrainian MiG-29. via X As we have explained in the past, the baseline 250-kilogram (551-pound) version of the Hammer has a standoff range of around 43 miles, putting it roughly on par with the U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER, also used by Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike the JDAM-ER, however, the French munition doesnt only rely on a pop-out wing kit to extend its range but is also fitted with a solid-fuel rocket. It should be noted that Hammer munitions can also be employed in an unpowered mode, providing a much-reduced range if desired. The video compilation doesnt appear to show any of the munitions underway in powered mode, but since they are all seen very soon after release, its likely that their motors simply hadnt yet fired. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As well as the tail-mounted range-extension kit, Hammer adds a nose-mounted guidance section to a NATO-standard dumb bomb. All types of Hammer munitions have a GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) package that is designed to strike specific fixed target coordinates. There also exist multi-mode guidance options that add either imaging infrared or semi-active laser homing, allowing the weapon to engage moving targets as well as enhancing overall accuracy. This also offers alternative guidance options in GPS-denied environments, which would be particularly relevant on the Ukrainian battlefield. A display depicting different guidance options for the Hammer. Safran However, none of the munitions shown in the 299 BrTA video appear to have the transparent nose associated with the imaging infrared or semi-active laser homing options. This is also in keeping with the Hammers that we have previously seen attached to Ukrainian MiG-29s. The bombs shown are also all 250-kilogram weapons, although Hammer can also be used to adapt 125-kilogram (276-pound), 500-kilogram (1,102-pound), and 1,000-kilogram (2,202-pound) bombs. A graphic showing the core components of the Hammer weapon. Safran The bombs seen in the video all show evidence of a thermal protective coating designed to help delay them from cooking off in the event of a fire, something that is otherwise frequently seen on U.S. Navy aircraft ordnance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also noteworthy is the pylon that the Su-25 uses to launch the Hammer. This is the same as previously seen on the MiG-29, which you can read more about here. A closer view of a Hammer munition with its range-extending wings popping out after launch from a Ukrainian Su-25. Ukrainian Air Force screencap Suffice it to say, the pylon is of a specialized type, sharing the same general form as the one Ukrainian MiG-29s have been using together with U.S.-supplied JDAM-ER glide bombs and that is designed to provide GPS-assisted initial positioning data to their guidance systems just prior to launch. These pylons have a prominent protrusion with a GPS antenna at the forward end. As we have noted in the past, mounting this device on a protrusion will help ensure it has a clear line of sight to the GPS satellite constellation and is not shadowed by the aircrafts wing structure. A clearer view of the Hammer pylon under the wing of the Su-25 with the protrusion at the front mounting a capped antenna. Ukrainian Air Force screencap Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not visible in the video are the other changes that will have been made to accommodate the French-made weapon, specifically the cockpit interface. However, we know by now that Ukraine employs Western-supplied precision-guided munitions via an ad-hoc control system that utilizes iPads or similar tablet-like devices installed in the cockpits. A Ukrainian Su-25 pilot prepares for a combat sortie in eastern Ukraine on Aug. 1, 2023. Photo by Libkos/Getty Images A Ukrainian Su-25 pilot prepares for a combat flight on August 1, 2023, in eastern Ukraine. Photo by Libkos/Getty Images The appearance of the new video underscores what we already knew about the Hammer, namely that it provides the Ukrainian Air Force with a valuable option for conducting precision strikes beyond the front lines while reducing risks to the launch platforms. The Hammer needs to be released at higher altitudes to get the most reach, although the weapon drops in the video are from a fairly low altitude, making use of a pop-up maneuver to get more range whether in combination with the rocket booster or in unpowered mode. A graphic provides a highly schematic look at the different employment options for Hammer, including launching it up and over terrain at its target. Safran Based on information from the manufacturer, the Hammer, using its rocket booster, can strike targets at least nine miles away even when released at very low altitudes where the aircraft employing it can better hide from enemy air defenses. The weapon can also be lobbed over terrain, providing a further degree of protection to the launch aircraft. All of this is of particular importance to the pilot of the Su-25, whose mount due to its relatively low speed and limited agility is at particular risk from the ever-present threat of Russian air defenses. As for the booster, as well as additional range, this ensures that the Hammer impacts the weapon with a higher energy state than its glide bomb counterparts, meaning it can penetrate further into certain hardened targets. A video shows a MiG-29 employing Hammer using low-altitude toss-bombing techniques that make good use of the munitions unique design: Footage reportedly showing Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet firing French-supplied AASM-250 Hammer guided bombs at a target in Belgorod Oblast of Russia. Notice the very low altitude from which the munitions are being launched. Geolocated impact point: Nekhoteevka border crossing, pic.twitter.com/mGGuqRAmyK Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (BlueSky too) (@Archer83Able) June 27, 2024 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Su-25 has suffered considerable losses in Ukrainian service (as well as in Russian hands) since the current conflict began. According to the Oryx open-source tracking group, 20 Ukrainian Frogfoot losses can be visually confirmed with the potential for further attrition on top of this. Nevertheless, with a dire need for tactical airpower, Ukraine has continued to make use of the Su-25, including adapting it to use other Western-made weapons, albeit unguided ones. In the past, we have discussed the use of U.S.-supplied 5-inch Zuni air-launched rockets by Ukrainian Su-25s, although there have been reports that the stocks of these older weapons have now been exhausted. Now, the availability of Hammer munitions means that the Frogfoot still has a useful role to play, despite the very high threat level over the battlefield. A series of photos show Zuni unguided rockets being prepared for arming Ukrainian Su-25s. via X By now, Western-provided precision strike weapons are a familiar feature of the arsenals of Ukraines Soviet-era jets, something that would have been almost unthinkable before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. With the F-16 multirole fighter now in Ukrainian service, this might well be the next platform to emerge armed with Hammer. This would have the added benefit of a weapons integration process that is much more straightforward than on Ukraines older combat jets, with their need for specially tailored pylons and weapon interfaces as part of ad-hoc solutions. Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com As Russias invasion of Ukraine inches toward the three-year mark, all eyes are on a potential peace agreement to end the war. If the parameters of any peace deal are likely to remain obscured for months to come, Ukraines ex-Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says one thing is clear Russia is not going to ask for peace. Russia wants to be begged (to engage in the peace talks), Kuleba told the Kyiv Independent in an interview late last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kuleba worked as a minister for over four years through most of Russias full-scale invasion until his resignation in September during the biggest wartime government reshuffle. He is one of the most recognized Ukrainian politicians abroad, known for his impassioned appeals to partners to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Amid news of the latest Russian advances on the front and global talks on how U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will seek to negotiate an end to the war, the Kyiv Independent sat down with Kuleba in Kyiv to discuss a potential peace agreement and a path forward for Ukraine. Editors note: This is a transcript of the video interview with the former foreign minister. It has been edited for clarity. The Kyiv Independent: What do you expect from the next few months? Dmytro Kuleba: I don't think any negotiations will begin before the inauguration of President Trump. We will spend the upcoming months in a whirlpool of news and comments and leaks coming from all corners about the peace talks, but even now, if you put the noise aside and look at the essence of what key stakeholders are saying, they just keep repeating the same speaking point in different ways. Everyone says, We want peace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia has a different stance on this. Russia wants to be begged this is its strategy. It doesnt want to make the first move, it wants others to approach it and beg it to do something. The Kyiv Independent: What do you say to people who want to build friendly ties with Russia again, especially in Europe? Dmytro Kuleba: It's hard to find someone who would openly tell you that they want to build good relations with Russia today, but there are people with the underlying argument that the day will come and there will be good Russia. They don't want to analyze the past in an unbiased way and admit that all attempts to democratize Russia failed. Liberal Russia exists only as a dystopia. It's a classic 19th-century empire. It's a country that wants to be seen and sees itself in terms of the classic 19th-century empire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Liberal Russia exists only as a dystopia. We saw it with Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Japan, and Yugoslavia. And there is only one way to deprive a country of its aggressive instincts. And that is to take it through loss, through defeat. This is the only viable way of ensuring that the war will not repeat and that Russia will not pose a threat to anyone, not only to Ukraine but also to other countries. But the people you are referring to think differently. They come up with traditional foreign policy concepts and game-playing in politics, saying that there should not be a zero-sum outcome for everyone. Russia should get something, (they believe). And then we end up in this messy intellectual and political setting where partners want Ukraine to win, but they don't want Russia to lose. The Kyiv Independent: What would Ukraine winning without Russia losing look like? Dmytro Kuleba: It just doesn't work this way. If you make Ukraine win, but Russia doesn't lose, what you get is revanchism. Russia will immediately undertake another attempt to reach all the goals of what they call the special military operation. Russian guard soldiers carrying the Russian national flag and a red Soviet flag during the march on Red Square in Moscow, Russia on May 9, 2024. (Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP via Getty Images) It will be just a pause before the next war between Russia and Ukraine starts. If you have something in the middle, where diplomats like to say that a good agreement is when either everyone walks out from the negotiating room happy or everyone walks out of the room unhappy, then it was a good deal. But if both Russia and Ukraine walk out of the negotiating room unhappy, this is again an invitation to revanchism for both sides. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine's potential for revanchist policies toward Russia from a mid-term perspective should not be underestimated and written off. The Kyiv Independent: Could you elaborate on potential revanchist policies in Ukraine towards Russia? Dmytro Kuleba: The next generation of Ukrainian politicians will be focused entirely on the recovery of Ukraine after the war. But the generation after them will come to power on the slogans of revanche towards Russia. Retake territories, make Russia finally pay. The moment we are up from our knees economically, you will see these arguments being played out in domestic politics. The Kyiv Independent: There was an idea that sanctions were going to make it too costly for Russia to continue the war and it would stop at some point. We're not seeing it happening now. Is that because sanctions don't work? What can we do to make them work? Dmytro Kuleba: Sanctions, political isolation, support of providing Ukraine with weapons and financial assistance, resolve to deliver a message to Russia that its not going to get what it's looking for when all these pieces come together, strengthening Ukraine and shattering Russia from the inside, then we will have victory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sanctions don't work is a Russian narrative. Sanctions do work. But they serve their function on two conditions: first when you keep introducing new sanctions, stepping up pressure on the sanctioned country. And second, when you continuously and regularly close the loopholes that are used for the circumvention of sanctions. These two things have to work hand in hand. Unfortunately, we see desynchronization. People read headlines in the news like The European Union approved a new set of sanctions. People feel relieved that something is happening. But if you look deeper into the list of what was adopted, this is not really damaging stuff for them. Russia will keep selling its oil. The key to the Russian economy is, of course, revenues from oil. This is fundamental. And it would be a huge help if Russia could be stripped of its oil revenues. But its not the only element that can help Ukraine win. The Kyiv Independent: Does it mean that the countries talking about stopping Russia from getting revenues from oil just can't keep up with the methods that it finds to go around the sanctions, or are they not very resolute in employing the sanctions that will actually make a difference? Dmytro Kuleba: I think so far, oil-related measures were half-measures. They couldnt deprive Russia of its access to oil revenues. And the reason for that is what one could call global energy stability and the balance of power among oil exporters and regulators. Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends the annual televised question-and-answer session and year-end news conference in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 19, 2024. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu via Getty Images) Oil storage tanks stand at the RN-Tuapsinsky refinery, operated by Rosneft, in Tuapse, Russia, on March 22, 2020. (Andrey Rudakov/ Bloomberg via Getty Images) The Kyiv Independent: Western partners believe that if they give Ukraine a lot of weapons, they will cross Russian red lines, and Russia will do something terrible. This is why they are stalling on providing Ukraine with enough military aid. Is this a real thing, Russian red lines? Dmytro Kuleba: Every conversation we had with our partners on weapons started with a no. It's an escalation. It's not what you need. It's too complicated. It's going to take too much time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We turned every no into yes and unlocked these options tanks, Patriots, howitzers, fighting jets. But we still hear the argument of non-escalation. Non-escalation is a very politicized term. When you have a country with nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which attacks its neighbor with a clear goal of destroying it to the ground this is called escalation. When you have a country with nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which attacks its neighbor with a clear goal of destroying it to the ground this is called escalation. But everything the country that defends itself does to exercise its right to self-defense cannot be considered as escalation per se. This country is fighting for its life and survival. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So when anyone says that Ukraine cannot do this or that, because it will be an escalation, they basically invite Russia to finish Ukraine off. All the nice words calls for peace, not feeding to the war, not escalating when it applies to helping Ukraine, this is an invitation for Russia to continue destroying Ukraine. Second, the escalation argument is flawed for another simple reason: We see that Russia keeps escalating at any cost. Russia brought North Korean troops to the front line because it lacked its own resources, not in response to Ukraines actions or to the actions of its partners. Russia is destroying our energy system and our civilian infrastructure not because Ukraine is escalating, but because Russia is committed to achieving its goals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So it's hypocritical for our key partners to think of helping Ukraine in terms of avoiding escalation. The Kyiv Independent: Why should Trump support Ukraine's membership in NATO? Dmytro Kuleba: Because it's the only way to prevent the next war. From a short-term perspective, you can reach a ceasefire without Ukraine's membership in NATO. But a ceasefire is not the end of the war. Once you bargain membership in NATO for a ceasefire, you lose the opportunity to end the war. NATO is the only way to end the war conclusively and prevent future wars for two reasons. NATO is the only way to end the war conclusively and prevent future wars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First, whatever we know of Putin, he will attack NATO only if he defeats Ukraine. If Ukraine comes out of this fight as a winning power and joins NATO, the combined military force of the alliance against Russia will be invincible. Second, in the prospect of maybe 10 years or so, I anticipate the emergence of revenge-driven political forces in Ukraine. It may sound counterintuitive, but the only way to prevent Ukraine from waging a war on Russia will be to have it in NATO, to make it bound by legal obligations of not exposing its allies to the risk of war with Russia. The Kyiv Independent: Does it mean that some Ukrainian territories stay occupied as a result of the deal to end the war? Dmytro Kuleba: No one can tell you now what the parameters of the deal will be. History has many cases when both territories had been occupied for decades and then liberated by their motherland power, like Alsace in France. There are other cases as well. One of the most popular references in Washington these days is the Korean example. Those who lean more towards Ukraine prefer to bring up the West and East Germany example. So there are plenty of cases in the world that you can learn from when it comes to territorial control. If a nation remains resolved and committed to the goal of restoring its territorial integrity, it doesn't matter how many years it will take. Its also a possibility that a nation learns over time how to live without these territories. And we don't know in which direction Ukrainian society will follow. The Kyiv Independent: Is Ukrainian society divided on how it sees victory in war? Dmytro Kuleba: Quite to the contrary, it's united. It set the bar very high. They want the victory that will consist of reaching the borders of 1991. But we are not having any conversation in our society on what other ways of winning are. Is temporary compromise acceptable at all? Or we are going to fight for every square meter of our land, whatever it takes? No one is talking about what could be temporary solutions on the way to the ultimate goal. Society is kind of telling the government, Now you are in charge of it, you show us what you achieved, and then we will decide whether to punish you or to praise you. The Kyiv Independent: What do you think should be the ultimate goal for Ukrainian society? Dmytro Kuleba: If we ever accept in our heads and hearts, in our minds and hearts, the idea that we abandon these lands, the currently occupied territories, this will be the beginning of the end of Ukrainian statehood. Because if you draw a line here, Russia will immediately point out: then why don't we draw it 100 kilometers further? Even today Russia claims that they want full territories of Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts. Now imagine you even engage in a conversation with them about where a temporary line could be drawn. For our partners it's an easy exercise, this is how history works. There is always a shining bright general coming from the West who comes to the land of war, takes the map, draws a red line and says, Be it so. "The Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine," a memorial for Ukrainian soldiers, in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 23, 2024. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images) A local resident walks past "dragon's teeth" fortifications installed by the Ukrainian army on the street in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on Dec. 11, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images) Our own land was divided this way after World War I and we clearly remember it. So it's easy for them to draw these lines, but for us as a nation, this is a swim-or-sink moment. But it doesn't mean that there can be temporary solutions on the way to restoring territorial integrity. As I said, what we have to ensure is that the idea of recovering these territories should be part of our national identity and national idea. The Kyiv Independent: But on the way there, can Ukraine find itself in a situation where it's decided for us what the temporary solution is to end the war? Dmytro Kuleba: I don't think so. I hold the position that no one can send Ukraine down the drain except the Ukrainians themselves. No decision can be imposed on Ukraine if we do not agree that it is imposed on us. When we look at Ukraine from the perspective of today's headlines in the news and social media, we seem weak, bleeding and exhausted. But when we zoom out, we inevitably come to a conclusion that today Ukraine is in the strongest position ever in its history. For the first time in hundreds of years, we have the state, the army, and the leadership. With all discussions taking place in the media and on the streets, we have national unity and clear national and political identities. For the first time, we are united in our attitude towards Russia. And finally, we have partners. We can complain a hundred times about what they've done wrong, but they've done a lot for us. And this is the first time in history that we have partners who actually stand by us despite all of their shortcomings. So in this generation, we have no right to lose this struggle, because we are today in the strongest position possible compared to all the preceding generations of Ukrainians who had fought and lost, unfortunately. We should not repeat their mistakes. And we have all the conditions for that. We dont have the right not to succeed. Stay warm with Ukrainian traditions this winter. Shop our seasonal merch collection. Star shop now Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Key developments on Jan. 2: Ukraine strikes Russian command post in Kursk Oblast, General Staff claims Ukraine downed 2 Russian helicopters in sea drone attack, HUR says Kyiv to conduct review of Ground Forces command, defense minister announces Russian attacks against Ukraine injure at least 6, kill 4 over past day The Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted a precision strike on a Russian army command post in Maryino, Kursk Oblast, Ukraine's General Staff reported on Jan. 2. "These attacks are primarily carried out to weaken Russia's ability and willingness to carry out terrorist acts against Ukrainian civilians," the General Staff said, adding that "all necessary measures" were taken to minimize risks to civilians in the vicinity of the strike. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It did not specify the type of weapon used in the attack. The strike targeted the 810th Russian Brigade, resulting in significant losses, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraines counter-disinformation center. Local Telegram channels earlier reported shelling in Ivanovskoye in the Rylsk district, with damage to a boarding school, post office, shopping center, residential buildings, and the house of culture. Windows were shattered, and walls were damaged by shrapnel, according to acting Kursk Oblast Governor Alexander Khinshtein. The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims. The strike follows Ukraines surprise incursion into Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, during which Ukrainian forces captured about 1,300 square kilometers of territory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Kyiv has since lost control of half of the initially seized area, fighting in the region remains intense. Ukrainian officials view the occupied territory as a potential bargaining chip in future negotiations with Russia. Read also: Ukraine struck hundreds of targets deep inside Russia in 2024. What did they achieve? Ukraine downed 2 Russian helicopters in sea drone attack, HUR says Two Russian helicopters were downed in a recent strike by the Ukrainian-made Magura V5 naval strike drones, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) reported on its Telegram channel. HUR earlier reported on Dec. 31 that one of its units had downed an aerial target with the Ukrainian-made Magura drone equipped with SeeDragon missiles for the first time, destroying one Russian Mi-8 helicopter and damaging another helicopter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to an updated statement by HUR published on Jan. 2, two helicopters were downed and one was damaged in the attack. Russian propaganda channels admitted the loss of two helicopters earlier. The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify HURs claims. The Magura drone has helped Ukraine push back against Russias Black Sea Fleet by striking dozens of ships this year. They have been in operation since the summer of 2023. The drone is able to cover a distance of more than 800 kilometers (500 miles), reach a speed of 80 km/h (50 mph), and is capable of carrying a 250-kilogram warhead. Each one is 5.5 meters long and costs approximately Hr 10 million ($240,000). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In June, HUR announced that the drones had been modified to operate anti-aircraft missiles, presenting a serious threat to the Russian Air Force over the Black Sea. Read also: Ukraine today is in the strongest position ever, ex-foreign minister Kuleba says Kyiv to conduct review of Ground Forces command, defense minister announces Ukraine is to carry out a comprehensive review of the Ground Forces command, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced on Jan. 2, to be conducted by the Defense Ministrys Main Inspectorate. "Victory requires a deep analysis of experience, and an honest understanding of mistakes," Umerov said. The review aims to evaluate management structures, processes, and compliance with legislation to support reforms and enhance battlefield effectiveness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The announcement comes after newly appointed Ground Forces Commander General Mykhailo Drapatyi unveiled plans on Dec. 12 for fundamental reforms to strengthen the branch. Umerov said the analysis would provide Drapatyi with a full picture of the state of affairs in the Ground Forces. "Events in the Ground Forces directly affect the situation on the front," Umerov said, underscoring the strategic importance of the reforms. Based on the findings, the Defense Ministry plans to introduce reforms in personnel policies, optimize management processes, and improve combat capabilities with new training approaches. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Drapatyis proposed changes include revamping the recruitment system, which will have zero tolerance for corruption, enhanced front-line training, and integration of advanced technology into operations. The reforms come amid reported personnel shortages, with slow mobilization efforts leaving some front-line units undermanned. Drapatyi has highlighted the need to reform training curricula and prioritize social support for service members to prepare for modern warfare effectively. Read also: Finland requests seizure of Russian shadow fleet tanker over suspected cable sabotage Russian attacks against Ukraine injure at least 6, kill 4 over past day Russian attacks against Ukraine wounded six and killed four people over the past day, regional authorities reported on Jan. 2. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two civilians were killed and six were injured in Kherson Oblast following Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure, high-rise buildings, and houses in over 38 of the oblasts settlements, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on his Telegram channel. A Russian attack overnight killed a civilian in the town of Stepnohirsk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported on his Telegram channel on Jan. 2. One person was killed in the city of Mirnohrad in Donetsk Oblast, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported on his Telegram channel. Russia launched 72 drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed ones, against Ukraine overnight on Jan. 2, Ukraine's Air Force reported on its Telegram channel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine's air defense shot down 47 drones over 12 oblasts, and forced an additional 24 to veer off course without casualties, the Air Force said. One drone was in the air at the time of the publication of the Air Forces report. Civilian infrastructure, buildings and a car were damaged as a result of Russian attacks in Kharkiv Oblast, but there were no civilian injuries, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported on his Telegram channel. Read also: Citing Orbans corruption, Hungarian opposition leader calls for early elections in video address Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukrainian naval units destroyed over 37,000 Russian drones in the year 2024, the Navy reported on Jan. 1. This includes Russian strike drones, operational and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), first-person-view (FPV) drones, strike UAVs, and Shahed-type attack drones, the Navy said in a Facebook post. Ukrainian naval forces also destroyed five Russian ships and 458 watercraft. Russia's UAV losses included 35,670 destroyed FPV drones and 1,140 strike drones, the Navy said. Ukrainian units also eliminated 192 operational and tactical drones and another 164 Shahed-136/131 drones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russian drone attacks across Ukraine surged to record levels in the last months of 2024, with Moscow aiming to ramp up UAV production in the new year. Drone strikes have targeted Ukrainian residential neighborhoods and critical energy infrastructure. Ukrainian forces in turn have targeted Russian military facilites and equipment, both within Russia and in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. A Ukrainian-made Magura V5 naval strike drone on Dec. 31 destroyed a Russian Mi-8 helicopter for the first time. According to Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Russian forces suffered high losses in 2024. Around 427,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded last year, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Ukraine struck hundreds of targets deep inside Russia in 2024. What did they achieve? Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the 34-month-old war with Russia and help stop Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. Zelenskiy, facing advances by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian television that Trump had told him he would be one of the first to visit Washington after the presidential inauguration this month. Zelenskiy also said a priority was to stabilise the front line early in the new year. Putin, he said, feared negotiations as they would be tantamount to a defeat for Russia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing," Zelenskiy said in a televised interview. "His qualities are indeed there," Zelenskiy said of Trump. "He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this." Zelenskiy has said that achieving a just peace for Ukraine meant receiving solid security guarantees from its allies, joining the European Union and receiving an invitation to join the NATO alliance, a notion rejected by Moscow. "Naturally, any security guarantees without the United States are weak security guarantees for Ukraine," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zelenskiy said he wanted to ensure that any U.S. plan on a settlement took account of Ukraine's views. "It cannot be otherwise. We are Ukraine and it's our independence, our land and our future." He also hoped that Trump's administration could establish quick contact with Russia. Putin has said Moscow is open to talks but they must take account of Russia's gains in the war and its annexation of four Ukrainian regions. With Russian forces capturing village after village on the eastern front in their fastest advance since the February 2022 invasion, Zelenskiy said stabilising the front was critical. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They are putting pressure on our boys, who are exhausted and that is a fact. We will do everything to at least stabilise the front in January," he said. Zelenskiy, elected in 2019, repeated that new elections could not be held as long as a wartime state of emergency remained in place, but said he would consider running again once conditions permitted. "I don't know how this war will end," he said. "If I can do more than I am able, then I will probably view such a decision (seeking a new term) more positively. For now this is not an objective for me." (Reporting by Ron Popeski and Bogdan Kochubey; Editing by Leslie Adler and Rod Nickel) The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has presented fibre-optic cable-controlled FPV drones to the military, among them potential operators of the drones. Source: Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and Defence Innovation Directorate Quote: "A number of domestic manufacturers presented more than a dozen models of drones, some of which are capable of carrying up to three kilogrammes of payload. The demonstration flights were directly observed by experienced UAV operators, as they are potential users of the latest technology on the battlefield." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Lieutenant Colonel Yevhen Tkachenko, Head of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Department of the Defence Ministry's Defence Innovation Directorate, said that most of the UAVs presented at the demonstration were already at the final stage of codification and would be supplied to the Ukrainian defence forces in the near future. He noted that the UAVs would be resistant to electronic warfare. Photo: Ukrainian Defence Ministry Background: In late December, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry codified and authorised the supply of the domestic-produced Shchedryk unmanned aerial vehicle, which can monitor the Russians day and night. In December, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine codified and authorised the use of the Ravlyk robotic platform by Ukrainian troops. Support UP or become our patron! An uncrewed aerial systems battalion from the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanised Brigade has destroyed seven pieces of Russian equipment on the Bakhmut front in Donetsk Oblast over the past 24 hours. Source: Raroh UAV Battalion of the 24th Brigade on Facebook Quote: "Soldiers from the Raroh battalion from the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanised Brigade have used First-Person View (FPV) drones to destroy four T-62 tanks and three BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles on the Bakhmut front over the past 24 hours." Details: The exact date of the Ukrainian forces' actions is not disclosed, as the defence forces typically release sensitive information with a delay. Support UP or become our patron! About 1,700 soldiers from a Ukrainian unit equipped by the West and trained in France went AWOL before firing a shot. At least 50 members of the new 155th mechanised brigade, one of the few to operate the Leopard 2 battle tank, disappeared while elements of the unit were being drilled in France. By the time it entered battle for the first time, at least 1,700 of its troops went absent without leave at numerous points. Some 500 soldiers were still missing, it was reported as recently as November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The exodus came before the brigade was deployed to Pokrovsk, the key logistics hub anchoring Ukraines defence against Russian advances in the eastern Donetsk region. The Anne of Kyiv brigade had spent nine months training in western Ukraine, Poland and France Entering the battle in recent days, it suffered heavy losses, reportedly including some of its tanks and armoured vehicles. It prompted the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigations to investigate the seemingly shambolic formation of the 155th. The brigade, also known as Anne of Kyiv, was meant to have more than 5,800 troops and be equipped with some of the best equipment available, including Leopard tanks and French Caesar 155mm howitzers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines president, and Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart, announced the $900 billion (747 billion) project to much fanfare at an event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing in June last year. Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron announced the $900 billion joint military project last June - Ludovic MARIN/AFP The brigade had spent nine months training in western Ukraine, Poland and France as part of an effort by Mr Zelensky to establish 14 new brigades equipped and prepared by the West. Yuriy Butusov, a Ukrainian war correspondent, wrote: This is indeed a crime, but the crime of not soldiers and officers but the crime of the leaders of the supreme commander-in-chief, the Ministry of Defence and the general staff, who continue to waste their lives and public funds on new projects, instead of strengthening experienced and combat-capable brigades. Analysts observing the conflict have questioned Kyivs strategy of using new recruits and equipment donations to build novice brigades rather than replenish the countrys existing, battle-stricken forces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a report on the formation of the 155th, Mr Butusov observed that it had been riddled with problems from the offset. Recruitment for the brigade began in June last year but was hampered by some 2,500 recruits being plucked to replenish other units before training could begin. The 1,924 volunteers that remained were sent to France, but it emerged that only 51 of them had military experience of more than a year. The majority (1,414) had only enrolled in the Ukrainian military in the two months before they were sent for their overseas training. The brigade was equipped with some of the best equipment including Leopard tanks - Fabian Bimmer/Getty Images As the brigade trained in France, it continued to recruit, with more than 700 of those troops fleeing while remaining on Ukrainian territory between October and November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the 155th was eventually deployed to Pokrovsk, it was not given any drones the main method of battlefield reconnaissance and electronic warfare jammers by the state. Serhii Sternenko, a Ukrainian social media influencer and military fundraiser, said he had recently sent kit to the brigade in the absence of government supplies. The brigade only received cash from Kyiv for drones 10 days after entering the fight. As a result, the brand-new Leopard 2A4 tanks and VAB armoured vehicles suffered losses during the first attempts to use them on the front from enemy drones, Mr Butusov wrote. Colonel Dmytro Ryumshin was sacked as the brigades commander within days of it being sent to the front line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bohdan Krotevych, the chief of staff of Ukraines Azov Brigade, said: Can it be idiocy to create new brigades and equip them with such equipment, having incomplete existing ones? Mr Butusov added: The brigades servicemen became hostages of Zelenskys PR project, which the authorities made no effort to actually implement competently. The brigade has since been effectively disbanded, with its elements spread assigned to battle-hardened brigades already defending Pokrovsk. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. DOTHAN, Ala (WDHN) Fifteen people are dead after a pickup truck crashed into a group of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Years Day, a mass casualty event that two politicians hailing from Enterprise are calling an act of evil. Senator Katie Britt released a statement hours after the deadly crash, which also left dozens injured at around 3:15 a.m. 15 dead, dozens injured after car plows into crowd in New Orleans: Horrific act of violence Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The junior senator wrote: The terrorist attack in New Orleans was an act of unbridled evil. We continue to pray for the victims loved ones and the survivors, as well as the brave law enforcement officers who rushed toward danger in selfless service to their fellow Americans. The American people deserve transparency and accountability as the pursuit of justice proceeds. As Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, I have requested a formal briefing from DHS and FBI and that a briefing be made available to all Senators. With the 119th Congress beginning Friday, we must work nonstop to get President Trumps national security team in place without delay, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell called the incident a terrorist attack during a press conference on Wednesday. The mass casualty event occurred on the corner of the famed Bourbon and Iberville streets. On X, Rep. Barry Moore called for answers. The terrorist attack in New Orleans last night was a horrifying act of evil. The American people deserve answers about what led to this attack. My prayers are with law enforcement, the victims, and their families during this difficult time, Rep. Moore wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FBI officials claimed the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar of Texas, was driving a rented Ford truck with what appeared to be an ISIS flag on the back when he allegedly went through the barricades to reach the crowd. New Orleans barriers to prevent vehicle attacks were in the process of being replaced Sources tell WDHNs sister station in New Orleans, WGNO, that Jabbar was shot and killed by New Orleans Police after an exchange of gunfire. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com. ROME (AP) The U.N. childrens fund urged governments on Thursday to prioritize the safety of migrant children after the latest Mediterranean shipwreck left about 20 people missing and added to a gruesome annual tally. Among the seven survivors of the New Years Eve wreck off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa was an 8-year-old girl whose mother is among the missing, UNICEF said. The agency noted that last month, an 11-year-old girl found floating off Lampedusa was believed to be the lone survivor of a migrant boat that had left Sfax, Tunisia, with about 45 people on board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the International Organization of Migrations missing migrant tracker, 2,275 people were unaccounted for in the Mediterranean in 2024, bringing the total number of people missing since 2014 to 31,180. The vast majority - 24,466 -- were believed to have died on the perilous central Mediterranean route, which is most often used by smugglers from Libya and Tunisia to ferry desperate people toward Italy. UNICEF called on governments to honor their obligations under international law regarding refugees and to prioritize the safeguarding of children. This includes ensuring safe, legal pathways for protection and family reunification, as well as coordinated search and rescue operations, safe disembarkation, community-based reception, and access to asylum services, the agency said in a statement. Under Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Italy has tried to stem arrivals by cracking down on migrant smuggling operations and deterring would-be refugees with the threat of having their asylum claims processed in Albania. Last year, 66,317 migrants arrived in Italy by boat, fewer than half as many as in the previous year, according to Interior Ministry statistics. MEMPHIS, Tenn. The University of Mississippi announced on Thursday that a student was critically injured in what New Orleans officials are calling an act of terrorism on Bourbon Street New Years Day. Chancellor Glenn Boyce said in a post on social media that a student was injured in the violent attack and is now receiving medical care. The Latest: Death toll in New Orleans crash rises to 15, coroner says Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We join the New Orleans community in grief. As we begin the new year with heavy hearts, let us hold our injured student, their family, the first responders, and all those affected by this tragic event close in our thoughts and prayers, said Boyce. The students current condition and identity is unknown. According to the Associated Press, at least 15 people are dead and dozens more are injured after a pickup truck rammed into a crowd of New Orleans revelers on Bourbon Street early on New Years Day. The driver was fatally shot by police. The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street after at least 10 people were killed when a person reportedly drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Years Day on Jan. 1, 2025, in New Orleans. Dozens more were injured after a suspect in a rented pickup truck allegedly drove around barricades and through a crowd of New Years revelers on Bourbon Street. The suspect then got out of the car, opened fire on police officers, and was subsequently killed by law enforcement. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images) A University of Alabama student and an Auburn University alumnus were killed Wednesday in the attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Kareem Badawi was a freshman at UA who graduated from the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge in 2024. Drew Dauphin was a 2023 graduate of Auburn University. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is with great sadness and grief, and with hearts satisfied with Allahs decision and destiny, I announce the death of my son, Karim Bilal Badawi, who died early today in the morning as a result of a tragic accident in New Orleans, his father, Belal Badawi, wrote in a post on Facebook Wednesday night. A message seeking comment was sent to Belal on Thursday morning. Auburn University President Christopher B. Roberts said in a Facebook post Thursday he sends sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of 2023 graduate Drew Dauphin who was taken from us in the New Orleans terror attack. Words cannot convey the sorrow the Auburn family feels for Drews family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time, Roberts wrote in the post. Our thoughts are with the Dauphin family and the families of all the victims of this senseless tragedy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, UA President Stuart R. Bell said in a statement that he learned today that Kareem Badawi, one of our students at The University of Alabama, was killed in the terrorist attack in New Orleans. I grieve alongside family and friends of Kareem in their heartbreaking loss, he said in the statement. Bell encouraged the university community to contact the Office of Student Care and Well Being at 205-348-2461 or bamacares@ua.edu for support. The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge also encouraged the school community in a letter to hold these alumni, their families, and all who are grieving in your thoughts and prayers, according to The Advocate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dauphin worked at the Honda Alabama Auto Plant. Eric Mauk, a spokesperson for American Honda Motor Company, said they are are deeply saddened by the loss of a member of the Honda team, as well as the other victims of this tragedy, and extend our heartfelt sympathy to the Dauphin family, friends and the many Honda associates who worked closely with Drew. Authorities updated the death toll to 15, with another 35 people injured, many critically. Officials said Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas plowed through crowds on Bourbon Street before he was killed in a shootout with police. Weapons and a suspected explosive device were found in the vehicle, along with an Islamic State flag. Investigators initially said Jabbar may not have acted alone, but an FBI official said Thursday that Jabbar did not have any accomplices. Steel bollards being installed for pedestrian protection ahead of the 2025 Super Bowl, scheduled for Feb. 9 in New Orleans, were not in place, which allowed Jabbar to drive into the crowd. Bourbon Street remains closed, and hotels in the French Quarter have been partially evacuated. The Sugar Bowl, which was scheduled for New Years Day in New Orleans, was postponed to Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana declared a state of emergency, deploying National Guard troops to assist law enforcement. Jabbar is believed to have acted alone in the terror attack, an FBI official said Thursday. This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. with news of Drew Dauphin being one of the 15 victims killed in the New Orleans attack. The story was updated at 1:29 p.m. to include news the FBI believes Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone. The story was updated at 3:37 p.m. to include comment from American Honda Motor Company. TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) A University of Alabama student was among the 15 killed after a pickup truck plowed into a group of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early on New Years Day. According to UA President Stuart R. Bell, UA student Kareem Badawi was one of the individuals killed when a pickup truck drove into a crowd of people on New Orleans Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning. 15 dead, dozens injured after car plows into crowd in New Orleans: Horrific act of violence Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I grieve alongside family and friends of Kareem in their heartbreaking loss, Bell said. Our staff have been actively engaged in supportive outreach and the Office of Student Care and Well Being is available at 205-348-2461 or bamacares@ua.edu. Please take a moment to pray for those impacted by this tragedy. According to FBI officials, 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, of Texas, was driving an alleged rented Ford truck with what appeared to be an ISIS flag on the back. The mass casualty incident took place around 3:15 a.m. at the corner of Bourbon and Iberville Streets. After hitting the crowd, FBI agents said Jabbar got out of the truck and fired shots at police officers. Jabbar was shot and killed by NOPD officers in a return of gunfire. He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did, said NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick in a press conference Wednesday. It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. An unlicensed Milwaukee driver who admitted to causing a three-vehicle crash last year that killed a man awaiting the birth of his fifth child will spend the next 18 years behind bars. Police and prosecutors said Jaquon Lee-Lamont Benson, 25, was behind the wheel of a car with a stolen license plate that ran a red light on May 3, slamming into a van on the 2700 block of West Locust Street. Damond Harris, 41, a passenger in the van, was killed in the collision. Harris was anticipating the birth of his fifth child at the time of the crash, according to family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Five others in the van, whose ages ranged from 6 to 57, also were injured. Benson initially was charged with seven felonies, including first-degree reckless homicide; knowingly operating a motor vehicle without a valid license and causing death and three counts of first-degree reckless injury. He pleaded guilty on Dec. 13 to amended charges of second-degree reckless homicide, second-degree reckless injury and possession and transporting machine guns, online court records show. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Michelle A. Havas handed down the sentence on Thursday. She also ordered Benson to serve a total of 13 years of extended supervision when his prison term is completed. Here's how the tragedy unfolded, according to prosecutors A Milwaukee police officer spotted a gray Infiniti G37 run a red light while traveling west near West Center and North 27th streets. The officer and his partner searched the vehicle's license plate and discovered it was stolen and followed the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As they got closer to vehicle, the driver darted out into the intersection of West Elder Wallace Drive and 27th Street, cutting off traffic. The driver turned left in an attempt to travel northbound on 27th, according to a criminal complaint. The officer chased the car and saw it move to the southbound lane to pass five vehicles that were waiting for a red light. The Infiniti ran the red light and struck a white minivan. The impact flipped the van onto its side, where it hit an SUV. The man in the Infiniti, who was later identified as Benson, fled from the crash scene. He was caught after a short foot chase. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A modified automatic handgun was found in the car Benson had been driving, the complaint said. A passenger in the Infiniti also was injured and was treated at a Milwaukee hospital for a fractured right leg. Why did Jaquon Benson run from the police that night? After his arrest, Benson told a police detective in an interview he left a bar on Brady Street at about 9 p.m. and fled from police after he noticed them following him. He said that he purchased the car on Facebook Marketplace for $6,000 and had yet to register it. He also said he didnt have a valid drivers license and did not want to get the car towed. Bensons plan was to get far enough ahead of the squad car so that he could pull over and get out of the car and walk away," the complaint said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Benson, who police found did not have a valid drivers license, admitted to the detective that he knew he was entering a red light and that he ran from police after the car crash. He said the modified automatic handgun was a friends and he was holding on to it for the friend temporarily. Traffic safety continues to be a problem in Milwaukee In all, 88 people have died in crashes on Milwaukee County roads in 2024 as of Sunday, the most updated data by the state Department of Transportation. There were 91 traffic deaths in the county during all of 2023. Statewide, 564 people lost their lives on Wisconsin roads last year. What's next for Jaquon Benson? Havas gave Benson 244 days of pre-trial credit that can be applied to his sentence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Benson has 20 days to appeal. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Unlicensed Milwaukee man gets 18 years for crash that killed father of 5 Why is there not a rating on this post? There's not enough verified evidence for us to definitively confirm or debunk this rumor. Contact us if you have credible information to share. We'll update this post as necessary. Following the deadly Jan. 1, 2025, attack on New Orleans' Bourbon Street, rumors circulated that the attacker had donated to the Democratic Party via ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform. The claim seemingly originated with an X post that said (archived): "Well, well, well. Look who donated to Democrats on ActBlue then drove a truck through a crowd in New Orleans with an ISIS flag," in reference to a flag authorities reportedly found on the vehicle used in the attack. The post included a screenshot from the Federal Election Commission's (FCC) website showing $20 of contributions in 2014 and 2020 via ActBlue under the name "Shamsud-Din Jabbar." The FBI identified the driver, who was killed by police, as someone with the same name Shamsud-Din Jabbar. According to the FBI, he was a 42-year-old Texas resident. (X user @DC_Draino) A similar screenshot supposedly showing political donations by the attacker also circulated on X, and the Daily Wire published the headline, "Alleged New Orleans Terrorist Donated To Democrats." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The screenshots authentically showed contributions to ActBlue by someone with the Jabbar name, according to the FEC's website. However, there was no concrete evidence to link those donations to the attacker specifically. Media reports and a social media page (archived) indicate that person named by the FBI was likely in North Carolina in 2014 and Texas in 2020, as the contributions state. We reached out to the employers listed on the donations to ask whether a person with the "Jabbar" name indeed worked for them and whether that same person was named by the FBI as the driver in the New Year's Day attack. (Federal Election Committee) The first contribution listed by the FEC was a $5 donation made on Aug. 31, 2014, to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee via ActBlue. The DCCC works to elect Democratic candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives. The donor identified as a soldier in the U.S. Army based in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Army said in a statement that the driver in the attack was a veteran. According to the agency, he served as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist from 2007 to January 2015, a period that overlapped with the in-question donation. Citing unidentified court documents, CNN reported he was stationed at Fort Liberty then called Fort Bragg near Fayetteville in November 2014. We reached out to the Army to confirm that reporting. If true, the attacker's location was the same as the person who donated the $5. The second contribution listed by the FEC was a $15 donation made on May 7, 2020, to the "Action PAC - Unlimited" a federal political action committee that's now called the Grassroots Law PAC. The PAC works to elect candidates "committed to reducing mass incarceration and police violence," according to its website. The donor identified as a consultant at EY, a consulting firm, in Fresno, Texas. We have reached out to EY to confirm whether the attacker was employed with them in Fresno in 2020. According to a RocketReach page (archived), Jabbar held a handful of roles at EY in 2020 and 2021. Deloitte, another firm listed on the page as an employer of Jabbar, said in a statement that Jabbar started working there in 2021, per The Associated Press. But reputable sources have not confirmed his alleged employment with EY. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grassroots Law PAC, unlike the DCCC, is not run by the Democratic Party. It was founded by Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer, and Shaun King, a civil rights activist. However, according to Open Research, a research group that tracks the flow of money in U.S. politics, contributions in 2022 supported only Democratic candidates. That was the only election cycle that the PAC had contributed in, as of this writing. Sources: "Browse Individual Contributions." FEC.Gov, https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. @CDRB1987. -. 1 Jan. 2025, https://x.com/CDRB1987/status/1874622068110807295. City of New Orleans. City of New Orleans Provides Public Safety Response Updates Regarding New Year's Mass Casualty Incident. 1 Jan. 2025, https://ready.nola.gov/incident/mass-casualty-event-on-canal-and-bourbon-street/city-of-new-orleans-provides-public-safety-respons/. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement @DC_Draino. "Well, Well, Well." X, 1 Jan. 2025, https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1874532234096730119. FBI. "FBI Update on Bourbon Street Terrorist Attack." FBI, 1 Jan. 2025, https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-update-on-bourbon-street-terrorist-attack. Project, Grassroots Law. Grassroots Law PAC | Grassroots Law Project. 26 Jan. 2022, https://grassrootslaw.org/political-action/. RocketReach. Shamsud-Din Jabbar Email & Phone Number. https://rocketreach.co/shamsud-din-jabbar-email_35898422. Rosiak, Luke. Alleged New Orleans Terrorist Donated To Democrats. 1 Jan. 2025, https://www.dailywire.com/news/alleged-new-orleans-terrorist-donated-to-democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shamsud-Din Jabbar EY Consultant - Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=Shamsud-Din+Jabbar+EY+consultant&sca_esv=c959b87647eb8a0a&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB1138GB1138&ei=yMV2Z86dNPuDhbIP_MaHmAE&start=0&sa=N&sstk=ATObxK44XdeyAz_VZHTB9zCHOuz0pNM3TbDZgIqcbXzg8nv4cTOHXs9U5q3C71R6QOCsY5i_7kkGeHNMhdmovlOnvJTgtNU1FjIuHLV6eVClvRlT9FXrQjdh6T8uGqz5mcZLWfJVVBegv1EtxNITflrtgQnTc1RWNN765BRiz0yAqEBneo6GcELHefpAUwn9Xg&ved=2ahUKEwjOodCbwdeKAxX7QUEAHXzjARM4KBDy0wN6BAgKEAQ&biw=1581&bih=814&dpr=2. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. Tsui, Casey Tolan, Curt Devine, John Miller, Paul P. Murphy, Karina. "An Army Veteran Who Worked in Real Estate and Struggled with Financial Troubles: Here's What We Know about the Suspect in the New Orleans Attack." CNN, 1 Jan. 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/01/us/shamsud-din-jabbar-suspect-new-orleans-attack/index.html. Transnistria, a breakaway Moldovan region, has stopped supplying heating and hot water to households after gas supplies to Europe from Russia via Ukraine were cut off. Source: Reuters Details: The interruption of gas supplies had an immediate impact on the region's population of about 450,000. The region separated from Moldova in the early 1990s during the collapse of the Soviet Union. About 1,500 Russian troops are stationed in the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There is no heating or hot water," an employee of the local energy company Tirasteploenergo told Reuters by phone. She added that she did not know how long the situation would last. Gas supplies were cut off early Wednesday morning following the expiration of a gas transit agreement between the warring neighbours, Russia and Ukraine. The leader of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, explained that the situation was "not an easy one, but on the whole, we were prepared". He noted that supplies were suspended due to a debt payment dispute between Moldova and Russian gas giant Gazprom. "Things will get better. Think about yourself, your family, your loved ones," Krasnoselsky added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russian gas supplies through Ukraine have been cut off after Kyiv refused to extend a transit deal due to the war. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the suspension of gas transit "one of Moscow's biggest defeats". He also stressed that it is now "a common task of Europe" to support Moldova "in this period of energy transformation". Background: On 29 December 2024, the authorities of Transnistria, a separatist region of Moldova, cut off gas supplies to several state institutions due to the end of an agreement that allowed the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. Russia's Gazprom announced it would stop supplying gas to Moldova's Transnistria effective 1 January 2025 due to "failure to fulfil payment obligations". Support UP or become our patron! MANNINGTON, W.Va. (WBOY) New York City has the crystal-encrusted Times Square Ball drop on New Years Eve, but in West Virginia, the city of Mannington has its own version, The Pepperoni Roll Drop which honors the states history with Italian immigrants. For five years now, this unique drop has attracted thousands of visitors from across the area and the nation, to roll in the new year in Mannington. The man behind the roll is local artist Ben Kolb, who came up with the idea to create a giant version of the West Virginia staple after he was approached by Mannington Main Street to begin a new tradition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WVU Medicine celebrates first baby born in 2025 It makes me feel proud, and when youre an artist starting out, usually your community is the ones who are behind you, and theyre the first ones to support you, so then as you grow then, I kind of feel obligated to, you know, help out community as much as I can, Kolb said. Kolb added that the pepperoni roll drop honors the history of the love Italian immigrant mothers put into the dish they created originally. The roll got an upgrade this year, as Kolb took four months to build it three times bigger size-wise, weighing in at around 120 pounds compared to the around 80 pounds of the original roll. The new roll also displayed more details. Original pepperoni roll with new pepperoni roll frame in the back. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. New pepperoni roll for the Mannington Great Pepperoni Roll Drop. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. New pepperoni roll for the Mannington Great Pepperoni Roll Drop. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. New pepperoni roll for the Mannington Great Pepperoni Roll Drop. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. Original and new pepperoni rolls. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. New pepperoni roll for the Mannington Great Pepperoni Roll Drop. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. This one has a different method to drop it, Kolb said. Were going to be using a boom truck instead of the old hand crank, and so its going to be a little bit higher, so this one needs to be bigger and brighter for everyone to see it, and did some enhancements on the diffusing of the light so we can see the color better. Its not just a big white ball when its up there. Courtesy: Ben Kolb Artist Ben Kolb working on new pepperoni roll. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. Old and new pepperoni rolls outside Ben Kolbs art studio. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. Old and new pepperoni rolls outside Ben Kolbs art studio. Courtesy: Ben Kolb. Although the new roll took center stage this year, in the future the OG will still be making the rounds with the crowd to get pictures with it and serve as a backup. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com. A man from Upper Saint Clair has been indicted by a federal grand jury after he was charged with making a false statement about international terrorism to a department or agency. The Department of Justice said Jack Danaher Molloy, 24, lied to FBI agents during an investigation involving international terrorism on Oct. 20. He arrested in Chicago and charged on Dec. 6 and brought back to Pittsburgh on Dec. 30. Molloy, a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, traveled to Lebanon in August with a desire to join Hezbollah (Hizballah), a foreign terrorist organization. He also traveled from Lebanon to Syria in October in an effort to join Hezbollahs Syrian branch, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The affidavit alleges that Molloy also supported and idolized violence and wanted to kill Jews, as evidenced by multiple images and videos on his electronic devices and the names he chose as his monikers for his social media and email accounts, officials said. Molloy returned to the United States and was living in Upper St. Clair, where he continued to engage in conduct consistent with his desire to join Hezbollah. Upon arriving at the Pittsburgh International Airport on Oct. 20, he lied to agents of the FBI when he told them that he had no current or future plans to become involved with Hizballah and he had no business in, nor was he meeting with anyone, in Syria. Federal officials said these statements and representations were false because Molloy knew at that time that he did have current and future plans to become involved with Hezbollah and he travelled to Syria in furtherance of his attempts to join Hezbollah, and while in Syria, set up a meeting with a person there. Federal officials also said while he was residing in Upper St. Clair, Molloy also allegedly visited a website detailing the possible incarceration location of Robert Bowers, who carried out the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As alleged, Jack Molloy, an avowed adherent of Hizballah harboring deep-seated animus against Jews, took many steps over a period of monthsat home and abroadin his effort to join and fight for this deadly foreign terrorist organization, said U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan. This case is yet another sobering reminder of the threat of radicalized violence against Americans. And while the defendant appears to have worked hard to achieve his terrorist goals, todays charges demonstrate that the resolve of our office and our partners in law enforcement is stronger. We will continue working every day to ensure that members of the Jewish community and every other community in this country can live their lives without fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack. Molloy faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000 or both. Each of the false statement charges carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW Fierce fighting continues in the village of Novovasylivka, located south of Pokrovsk in Ukraines Donetsk Oblast. Russian forces are carrying out assault operations with superior forces. Source: DeepState Details: According to DeepState, Russian forces undertook intensive assault operations in Novovasylivka from the east and the south on 3031 December 2024 and 1 January 2025. The attacks are carried out mainly by infantry forces, sometimes with the support of armoured vehicles and light artillery tanks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "The situation is such that there are enemy forces in every corner of the village, but this is the same for Ukraines defence forces. If there are our forces in one house, the next one over might have enemy forces in it. The tactical situation is chaotic, but unfortunately the enemys superiority in manpower can turn out to be a decisive factor." Background: On 27 December, analysts from the DeepState project reported that the Russians were amassing forces in Novoolenivka, Donetsk Oblast, and were preparing to attack Novoielyzavetivka. On the night of 12 January, DeepState reported that Russian forces had advanced near Vovkove, Neskuchne, Novoyelyzavetivka, Solone, Vozdvyzhenka, and Kurakhove and its southern outskirts. Support UP or become our patron! By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday the Federal Communications Commission did not have legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules. The decision is a blow to the outgoing Biden administration that had made restoring the open internet rules a priority. President Joe Biden signed a 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the FCC lacked authority to reinstate the rules initially implemented in 2015 by the agency under Democratic former President Barack Obama, but then repealed by the commission in 2017 under Republican former President Donald Trump. Net-neutrality rules require internet service providers to treat internet data and users equally rather than restricting access, slowing speeds or blocking content for certain users. The rules also forbid special arrangements in which ISPs give improved network speeds or access to favored users. The court cited the Supreme Court's June decision in a case known as Loper Bright to overturn a 1984 precedent that had given deference to government agencies in interpreting laws they administer, in the latest decision to curb the authority of federal agencies. "Applying Loper Bright means we can end the FCCs vacillations," the court ruled. The decision leaves in place state neutrality rules adopted by California and others but may end more than 20 years of efforts to give federal regulators sweeping oversight over the internet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called on Congress to act after the decision. "Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair. With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law," Rosenworcel said in a statement. The FCC voted in April along party lines to reassume regulatory oversight of broadband internet and reinstate open internet rules. Industry groups filed suit and successfully convinced the court to temporarily block the rules as they considered the case. Incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr voted against the reinstatement last year. He did not immediately comment on Thursday. Former FCC Chair Ajit Pai said the court ruling should mean the end of efforts to reinstate the rules, and a focus shift to "what actually matters to American consumers - like improving Internet access and promoting online innovation." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration is unlikely to appeal the decision but net-neutrality advocates could seek review by the Supreme Court. The rules would have given the FCC new tools to crack down on Chinese telecom companies and the ability to monitor internet service outages. A group representing companies including Amazon.com, Apple, Alphabet and Meta Platforms had backed the FCC net-neutrality rules, while USTelecom, an industry group whose members include AT&T and Verizon, last year called reinstating net neutrality "entirely counterproductive, unnecessary, and an anti-consumer regulatory distraction". (This story has been corrected to fix the day from Tuesday to Thursday in paragraph 1) (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Rod Nickel) By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday it is considering new rules that would impose restrictions on Chinese drones that would restrict or ban them in the United States citing national security concerns. The department said it was seeking public comments by March 4 on potential rules to safeguard the supply chain for drones, saying threats from China and Russia "may offer our adversaries the ability to remotely access and manipulate these devices, exposing sensitive U.S. data." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China accounts for the vast majority of U.S. commercial drone sales. In September, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the department could impose restrictions similar to those that would effectively ban Chinese vehicles from the United States and the focus will be on drones with Chinese and Russian equipment, chips and software. She told Reuters in November she hopes to finalize the rules on Chinese vehicles by Jan. 20. A decision to write new rules restricting or banning Chinese drones will be made by the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who takes over on Jan. 20. Washington has taken a series of steps to crack down on Chinese drones over the last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last month, President Joe Biden signed legislation that could ban China-based DJI and Autel Robotics from selling new drone models in the U.S. A unspecified U.S. agency must determine within one year if drones from DJI or Autel Robotics pose unacceptable national security risks. DJI, the world's largest drone manufacturer that sells more than half of all U.S. commercial drones, said if no agency completes the study it would prevent the company from launching new products in the U.S. In September, the House of Representatives voted to bar new drones from DJI from operating in the U.S. In October, DJI sued the Defense Department for adding it to a list of companies allegedly working with Beijing's military, saying the designation is wrong and has caused the company financial harm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DJI told Reuters in October that Customs and Border Protection was stopping imports of some DJI drones from entering the United States, citing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. No forced labor is involved at any stage of its manufacturing, DJI said. U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly raised concerns that DJI drones pose data transmission, surveillance and national security risks, which the company rejects. Congress in 2019 banned the Pentagon from buying or using drones and components manufactured in China. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (Reuters) The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday it is considering new rules that would impose restrictions on Chinese drones that would restrict or ban them in the United States citing national security concerns. The department said it was seeking public comments by March 4 on potential rules to safeguard the supply chain for drones, saying threats from China and Russia may offer our adversaries the ability to remotely access and manipulate these devices, exposing sensitive U.S. data. China accounts for the vast majority of U.S. commercial drone sales. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In September, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the department could impose restrictions similar to those that would effectively ban Chinese vehicles from the United States and the focus will be on drones with Chinese and Russian equipment, chips and software. She told Reuters in November she hopes to finalize the rules on Chinese vehicles by Jan. 20. A decision to write new rules restricting or banning Chinese drones will be made by the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who takes over on Jan. 20. Washington has taken a series of steps to crack down on Chinese drones over the last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last month, President Joe Biden signed legislation that could ban China-based DJI and Autel Robotics 688208.SS from selling new drone models in the U.S. A unspecified U.S. agency must determine within one year if drones from DJI or Autel Robotics pose unacceptable national security risks. DJI, the worlds largest drone manufacturer that sells more than half of all U.S. commercial drones, said if no agency completes the study it would prevent the company from launching new products in the U.S. In September, the House of Representatives voted to bar new drones from DJI from operating in the U.S. New Orleans plans to reopen Bourbon Street as FBI seeks clues about truck attack that killed 15 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In October, DJI sued the Defense Department for adding it to a list of companies allegedly working with Beijings military, saying the designation is wrong and has caused the company financial harm. DJI told Reuters in October that Customs and Border Protection was stopping imports of some DJI drones from entering the United States, citing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. No forced labor is involved at any stage of its manufacturing, DJI said. U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly raised concerns that DJI drones pose data transmission, surveillance and national security risks, which the company rejects. Congress in 2019 banned the Pentagon from buying or using drones and components manufactured in China. Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. The News The US debt ceiling was reinstated, again raising the specter of the worlds biggest economy defaulting on its borrowing, all in the fractious run-up to President-elect Donald Trumps return to office. The Treasury Secretary said that officials will soon have to start taking extraordinary measures to avert such a default, which analysts have warned on the multiple prior occasions the US has neared its debt ceiling could throw the global economy into turmoil. Given Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress, a resolution should be attainable, but as Politico noted, the fiscal time bomb illustrates the struggle Trump and Republican leaders face, as they grapple with whether to court Democrats or acquiesce to harder-line conservative demands. EDITORS NOTE: This report has been corrected to reflect that the incident occurred in West Valley City and not Salt Lake City as previously reported. WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (ABC4) A Utah man is facing several felony charges after being accused of being behind a targeted drive-by shooting at a West Valley City New Years Eve party. Anthony Junior Almaguer, 27, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for 10 counts of third-degree felony aggravated assault, as well as third-degree felony possession of a firearm by a restricted person and felony discharge of a firearm. He also faces several misdemeanor charges related to driving under the influence. Flavored vape restrictions wont go into effect as scheduled Heres why Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court documents, Almaguer drove by a West Valley home three times on New Years Eve, allegedly firing a gun toward the home each time. Police say they found seven seven shell casings on the street in front of the home and bullet holes in the front of the house and in vehicles parked outside. One witness told investigators there was a New Years Eve party being held at the home at the time of the shooting that included multiple children. Police described Almaguers actions as a wanton disregard for public safety. Fortunately, there were no injuries to anyone attending the party. Police believe Almaguer is a known family acquaintance of the victims and had been harassing the family for some time. Almaguer was safely taken into custody by a neighboring agency shortly after when he was involved in a hit-and-run, according to court documents. Police said his eyes appeared watery and red and his speech was thick, slow, and slurred. Despite investigators obtaining a warrant for a blood draw, Almaguer was reportedly verbally escalating and non-compliant, refusing to allow a collection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court records show he has been ordered to be held without bail, pending a pretrial hearing. Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) went after Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Wednesday for his opposition to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) retaking the gavel. Republican infighting has increased in recent days as Johnson seeks to keep the Speakership and President-elect Trump backing his bid. @realDonaldTrump received a mandate from the American people in November. @chiproytx did not. It is the America First Agenda, not the Chip Roy First Agenda. It is Make America Great Again, not make Chip Roy Great. President Trump is fighting for America, Chip is fighting to keep his brand marketable, Van Orden posted on the social platform X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some people apparently need to understand that in order to be a Leader, you have to learn how to follow first. I would love to work with Chip, but he needs to understand he can be part of the Team, but there is no way in hell he is the Captain. The Captain will be moving back into the White House shortly and his 1st Lieutenant is @SpeakerJohnson, he added. The comments come after Roy has remained undecided about his support for another Johnson speakership even after Trumps endorsement. I remain undecided, as do a number of my colleagues, because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the presidents agenda, Roy said Tuesday on Fox Businesss Varney & Co. Opponents of Johnson have raised concerns about his actions involving Ukraine and, more recently, the short-term spending deal that occurred before Christmas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Speakership is a tight race, with Johnson unable to afford many defectors in his own party. Right now, I dont believe he has the votes on Friday, Roy said. Updated Jan. 2 at 9:17 a.m. EST Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Vice President-elect JD Vance took to the social platform X on Thursday to share an op-ed by Elon Musk in which the tech mogul expressed support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany, or AfD. Quoting Musks English version of the opinion piece, Vance said it was an interesting piece. The vice president-elect emphasized that he wasnt endorsing AfD in the upcoming German elections, as it was not his country and we hope to have good relations with all Germans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He further took aim at U.S. media outlets, adding that American media slanders AfD as Nazi-lite, But AfD is most popular in the same areas of Germany that were most resistant to the Nazis. Musk, a key ally of President-elect Trump, wrote the guest opinion piece in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. In his piece, the Tesla CEO touched on a variety of issues that, in his view, Germany needs to address as it nears an economic and cultural collapse. He also claimed in a separate post on X that only the AfD can save Germany. The papers commentary editor resigned in protest of the op-ed, and the German government on Monday accused Musk of trying to influence its February election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to Vances tweet, Germanys ambassador to the U.S. Andreas Michaelis called it an interesting observation in a post on Bluesky. Historical context can be tricky while some areas you are referring to resisted the Nazi party early on, others did not, or later became strongholds of the regime. Germanys history reminds us how important it is to challenge extremism in all its forms, he wrote. Musk, who first backed the AfD in December last year, defended his efforts to get involved in Germanys politics, saying he has the right to do so because he has made significant investments in the countrys technological and industrial sectors. The billionaire has also called for the resignation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Elections in the country are set for Feb. 23. The far-right AfD has continued to maintain its position as the second most popular party in the country. However, all major parties in Germany have ruled out the possibility of a coalition government with it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is indeed the case that Elon Musk is trying to influence the federal election through his statement, German government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said at a Monday media briefing. Hoffmann added that freedom of expression also includes the greatest nonsense. AfD has called for a strong anti-immigration stance and has backed mass deportations from Germany. Musk has been wading into global politics more frequently. He recently criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party-led government. Updated: 4:13 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. DES MOINES, Iowa The Des Moines Police Department is investigating after a driver lost control of their vehicle and crashed into a house early New Years Day. According to the DMPD, in the early hours of Wednesday a car crashed into a home located in the 600 block of East 29th Street. The driver lost control of their vehicle and crashed into the front window of the home. Police say the driver had a brief conversation with the family asking them not to contact police before leaving the scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police say the vehicle was a Lexus. Knoxville man charged in connection with infant death Nobody inside the home was injured during the crash. Two or three months ago the same thing happened to our neighbor where someone went through a T-intersection and plowed into the back of their car, pushed the car into their garage and they had damage, said Jeremy Burke the homeowner. Burke says this incident draws attention to the issue with T-intersections in that area. So, anything we can do to raise awareness that we need to have more, either flashing lights or indicators at T-intersections, said Burke. That you need to stop because the next thing is going to be, people, basically. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities have opened an investigation into the crash and continue the search for the driver. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. (Reuters) -Venezuela opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, who says he resoundingly won a July presidential election but has been living in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest, said on Thursday he will travel to Argentina this weekend. Gonzalez's "international tour" comes days ahead of the planned January 10 inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term. Gonzalez has repeatedly said he plans to return to Venezuela to be inaugurated as president, despite the pending warrant for alleged conspiracy and a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest announced earlier on Thursday by the Venezuelan police investigations unit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gonzalez will meet with Argentine President Javier Milei, who is involved in an escalating diplomatic spat with Maduro's government, at the presidential residence in Buenos Aires, Venezuela's top opposition group said on X. Gonzalez shared the post, adding "our tour of Latin America begins. First stop: Argentina." It was unclear where else Gonzalez planned to travel. Electoral authorities and the country's top court say Maduro won the July contest, but have not published full ballot box-level tallies of votes. Venezuela's opposition, a number of Western countries and some international organizations have decried the election as non-transparent and have called for the full publication of ballots, with some openly labeling the process fraudulent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The opposition published ballot box-level tallies on a public website, saying they show Gonzalez, who left Venezuela for Spain in October, easily won the contest. Argentina's government said earlier on Thursday it had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against Venezuela for detaining a member of its security forces, calling it a "forced disappearance." Venezuelan prosecutors say the man is being investigated for alleged links to terrorism. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb) CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Venezuela's government on Thursday announced a $100,000 reward for information on the whereabouts of Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition candidate who claims to have defeated President Nicolas Maduro in last year's election. The announcement came eight days before Venezuela's next presidential term is set to begin. A $100,000 reward is offered to anyone who provides information about his location, the press office of the countrys Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigations Agency said in the caption of an Instagram post showing a wanted-like bulletin with Gonzalez's photo and instructions to turn him in to authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hours after the government's announcement, Gonzalez's campaign said the former ambassador would kick off an international tour with a visit to Argentina, where he would meet with President Javier Milei on Saturday. Gonzalez left Venezuela in September for exile in Spain after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest as part of an investigation linked to the July 28 presidential election, which the countrys National Electoral Council, stacked with ruling-party loyalists, said was won by Maduro. However, unlike previous presidential elections, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts. Yet, the opposition collected tally sheets from 80% of the nations electronic voting machines, posted them online and said the voting records showed that the factions candidate, Gonzalez, had won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro. Global condemnation over the lack of transparency prompted Maduro to ask Venezuelas high court, also stacked with ruling-party loyalists, to audit the results. The court subsequently reaffirmed his victory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maduro has already received an invitation from the National Assembly for a Jan. 10 swearing in ceremony. Meanwhile, Gonzalez has said he plans to return to the country by that date, but he has not explained how he intends to do so or what his plans are upon arrival. In the days after his arrival in Spain, Gonzalez said that in order to leave Venezuela, Maduro's allies had coerced him into signing a letter effectively recognizing his defeat in Julys presidential election. Milei's government has been a strong supporter of Venezuela's main opposition coalition, including by sheltering five members of the faction since March at the Argentine diplomatic compound in the capital, Caracas. Chris Brown, a newly elected Vermont state representative, said he will not take office later this month in order to support his wife, who was recently diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. In a letter to constituents and fellow legislators, posted to social media, Brown said his family had learned of the diagnosis last week. The disease has spread to her brain, he said. This was shocking news for our family, and it became immediately clear that I cannot take my seat in the Statehouse as planned this January, Brown wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In November, Brown ran unopposed in the Rutland-3 district, which encompasses Castleton, Fair Haven, Hubbardton and West Haven. The seat had previously been held by Rep. Jarrod Sammis, who did not seek reelection. Sanders gets Finance perch to push Social Security, Medicare expansion, tax reform Gov. Phil Scott will appoint someone to take the place of Brown, a Republican. The governors office said Scott is already in the process of interviewing potential candidates to fill the seat. A spokesperson said he hopes to make an appointment announcement very soon. In the letter, Brown said he looked forward to serving district residents with enthusiasm and commitment, eager to do my part in shaping a brighter future for Castleton and Vermont as a whole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And he asked for understanding and prayers. Right now, my priority is to support Andrea, our children, and our family through the challenges ahead, he said. We remain hopeful and determined to seek the best possible outcome. I regret that I will not be able to serve our community in the legislature as I intended. However, I am at peace with this decision, knowing that I must stand beside my wife during this critical time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44. Reposting a message from Union Minister Piyush Goyal on X (formerly Twitter), PM Modi wrote, "ONDC has contributed to empowering small businesses and revolutionising e-commerce, thus playing a vital role in furthering growth and prosperity." https://x.com/narendramodi/status/1874668637891781118?s=46 His remarks highlighted the platform's success in driving growth and inclusivity within the digital marketplace. Union Minister Piyush Goyal, in his post, outlined the government's vision for ONDC and its accomplishments over the past three years. He stated, "Building a robust and inclusive digital marketplace! @ONDC_Official was launched in 2021 by the Modi Government with a vision to democratise e-commerce in India. Over the past 3 years, it has not only achieved numerous milestones but also empowered businesses, especially small enterprises, by creating a level playing field for them on the network. By bridging the gap between sellers and buyers, ONDC continues to revolutionise the nation's e-commerce landscape!" https://x.com/PiyushGoyal/status/1873910140623024522 Since its inception in 2021, ONDC has achieved significant milestones. It has facilitated over 150 million transactions, demonstrating a strong adoption of the platform. The network now boasts more than 200 participants, including sellers, buyers, and service providers, creating a vibrant and competitive marketplace. With 7 lakh sellers and service providers from over 600 cities and towns, ONDC has provided small businesses with unprecedented access to a wider customer base. On the consumer side, buyers from more than 1,100 cities and towns have engaged with the network, highlighting its extensive reach. The platform has also made substantial contributions to empowering farmers. More than 7,000 farmer producer organizations (FPOs), representing 35 lakh farmers, have been onboarded, enabling them to connect directly with buyers and secure better market opportunities. This aligns with ONDC's goal of bridging the gap between rural and urban markets. In addition to supporting farmers, ONDC has placed a strong emphasis on fostering the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through initiatives like the MSME TEAM scheme. This program aims to empower five lakh SMEs, with 50 per cent of its beneficiaries being women-owned enterprises. By supporting women entrepreneurs, ONDC is not only driving economic growth but also promoting gender equality in India's digital commerce sector. (ANI) MEMPHIS, Tenn. A candlelight vigil and march is scheduled to be held in remembrance of Tyre Nichols on the second anniversary of his beating death. National civil rights Attorney Ben Crump, the family of Tyre Nichols, and the Memphis community will come together on January 7 to commemorate the life of Nichols, who was beaten by Memphis Police officers and died a few days later. A march will begin at 4 p.m. at Ross and Raines and proceed to 6727 Castlegate Lane. A candlelight vigil will then be held at the site where Nichols was beaten. Participants are encouraged to bring candles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FOR MORE ON TYRE NICHOLS The event will reflect on the profound loss experienced by Mr.Nichols family and the Memphis community while envisioning a path toward justice, accountability, and rebuilding trust between law enforcement and the citizens they serve as we grapple with the findings of the Department of Justices Pattern or Practice investigation, said a press release. After an investigation into the MPD, the DOJ announced last month that they found officers often violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law. They said the MPD uses excessive force, conducts unlawful stops, searches, and arrests, and unlawfully discriminates against Black people when enforcing the law. See more breaking news, local news and weather from WREG.com for Memphis and the Mid-South. Sign up for WREG newsletters and have the latest top stories sent right to your inbox. The past two years have been a journey of pain, resilience, and advocacy, said RowVaughn Wells, This event is not only about remembering my son Tyres life but also about creating space for conversations on reform and healing that our community urgently needs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a press release, local leaders, clergy, and community members are expected to speak at the vigil. This years anniversary event seeks to continue turning grief into action by advocating for the policies we passed last to be followed so that the community can start to rebuild trust with police, said the media release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. Jan. 1COAL GROVE The Village of Coal Grove will be getting a bit more public space. It recently got a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to turn a piece of land into a little park. "That grant came through the CAO and the county commissioners," said Mayor Andy Holmes. "We were awarded $135,000 to spend at the four-way stop for beautification." The future park site is at the corner of Lane Street and Marion Pike. A couple of years ago, the village bought the land for $20,000 and razed the dilapidated house. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Holmes said the scope of the project includes a gazebo, decorative fencing and some concrete sidewalks. "It's going to be a picturesque little spot, we are calling it a pocket park," Holmes said. "The idea is that teenagers and kids can come there and get their pictures taken before a dance." He added that the park will also honor the village's veterans. The war monument that sits at the old Monitor School is being donated by the owner, Mike Finley, who is also a county commissioner. "He has agreed to donate that stone and war memorial back to the village," Holmes said. "It's almost 100 years old. That monument was erected for a reason and we want to honor that." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said the project is being handled by the CAO and the bid was won by Hemmings Construction. He doesn't expect work to really get underway until spring. "We have been consulting with them and sharing our ideas on how we want it to look," Holmes said. "The work hasn't started yet, but it should start soon. Since there is a lot of concrete work involved, we have to wait for better weather. And we want to work out all the details and make sure we get the most bang for our buck." Fiji police are investigating allegations of theft and sexual assault on two Virgin Australia crew members in the early hours of New Year's Day, the government said Thursday. The alleged attacks took place Wednesday in the nightclub area of the city of Nadi, home to the international airport, Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka said. "The alleged incidents are regrettable," Gavoka said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There were two separate alleged incidents, one being alleged theft and the other being alleged sexual assault, which affected two different crew members," he said. "A suspect known to police for the alleged sexual assault has been questioned. Investigation continues." The crew members are at a local hotel used by the airline for layovers and they are set to return home this week after helping the police probe, the minister said. A Virgin Australia Aircraft at Sydney Airport on September 05, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. / Credit: James Gourley / Getty Images Virgin Australia has sent representatives to Fiji to provide support for the affected staff. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the Reuters news agency it was aware of the reports but declined to comment further. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gavoka, who is also the minister for tourism and civil aviation, said such attacks can happen anywhere and Fiji was not "immune." "We, as always, remind tourists to exercise caution in nightclub areas and late at night," he said. The most recent crime statistics posted by Fiji police in November showed the crime rate for the month of October increased by 6% compared to the same period last year. Fiji relies heavily on its tourism industry, with close to a million visitors a year. Last month, seven foreign tourists, including an American, were hospitalized in Fiji after drinking cocktails at a resort bar. However, authorities later said the tourists were not poisoned by alcohol or illicit drugs, officials said following a toxicology report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Truck used in New Orleans attack was flying large black flag from rear bumper, authorities say Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Its recruitment time for this years shavees to help in the fight against childrens cancers. The St. Baldricks drive is underway for March when people will collect donations from people who want to see them shave their heads. Thirty-two people have already signed up, including five women. The group raised $33,000 last year and has a goal of $50,000 this year. Do it because you have a big heart and you want to help somebody else, and thats why were here. I mean, the Valley has proven we can help other people all of our lives. And this is my thing that Im pushing and Im trying to get others to feel that passion, feel that love, that you did something, said Burton Baird, a recruiter for the event. The shave event will be on March 15 at Penguin City. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Emergency crews arrived to a chaotic and gruesome scene in a Honolulu neighborhood after a large New Years firework tipped over after being lit and ignited a fiery, shrapnel-studded blast that killed three people and injured more than 20 others, several of them critically. Two women died at the scene and a third woman died at a hospital, authorities said Wednesday as they implored people to abandon their New Years tradition of setting off fireworks across the city. Officials promised tougher penalties for illegal fireworks. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green graphically described the deaths in a news conference Wednesday to emphasize the potential danger of fireworks. Were talking about the worst possible, war-zone injuries that took their lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the more than 20 people taken to hospitals with severe burns and shrapnel wounds included children, said officials who had not yet publicly identified any victims including those killed. Police were investigating whether charges for the person who lit the firework near midnight were warranted, Honolulu Police Chief Arthur Logan said. The blast happened at a three-story home with a bottom-level carport. Piles of debris including bundles of blackened firework mortars could be seen in front of the house in Wednesdays daylight. The explosion broke windows across the street. It happened when a lit bundle of aerial, mortar-style fireworks called a cake tipped over or fell off a table and fired sideways into crates containing additional fireworks, which then exploded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cakes rounds could be separated but had been lit as a bundle of 50, part of what officials said was tens of thousands of dollars worth of fireworks at the home. Ambulance crews arrived but had to triage separate and treat victims with the worst injuries first several houses away because of parked cars and crowds on the streets, Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director Dr. Jim Ireland said. Some people nearby continued setting off fireworks even as blast victims were being taken to hospitals, officials said. The neighborhood is near Honolulus international airport and a joint U.S. Air Force and Navy base and a little more than 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, which honors sailors who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into World War II. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive been in EMS over 30 years and this is probably one of the worst calls Ive ever been on as far as the immense tragedy and amount of patients and severity of the injuries, Ireland said in an earlier news conference. A fourth person was killed in a different fireworks explosion elsewhere on Oahu, officials said. At least four other serious injuries occurred in unrelated fireworks accidents overnight. Social media posts overnight showed fireworks being set off across wide areas of Honolulu even though sparklers, fountains and aerial fireworks are illegal and a permit is required to set off firecrackers, according to the Honolulu Fire Department. Were angry, frustrated and deeply saddened at this unnecessary loss of life and suffering. Its a tragic way to start the new year, Mayor Rick Blangiardi said. No one should have to endure such pain due to a reckless and illegal activity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Green said he was looking into whether new penalties including a felony charge for possessing large fireworks are needed to curtail fireworks in Hawaii. Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. John Hanna contributed to this report from Topeka, Kansas. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. Credit: Instagram/dorian.dorii An Albanian convicted burglar who cannot be deported has taunted the Home Office by posting Happy New Year messages from a London nightclub. Dorian Puka, 28, who has been jailed and deported twice for burglaries, posted a picture of himself celebrating the new year in a nightclub while smoking a shisha pipe alongside a belly dancer. Openly using his TikTok account, he closes the three-minute clip with a picture of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament overlaid with the message: Happy New Year everyone!...Wish the best for all! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It comes three months after he posted a series of videos of himself driving a 300,000 Ferrari on the streets of London on his TikTok and Instagram accounts, as well as images of himself with dozens of Rolex watches and other expensive cars. The Home Office is powerless to deport him because he has claimed asylum and officials cannot remove him until his case is fully considered a process that could take months, if not years given the backlog of immigration tribunal appeals. Puka also taunted Nigel Farage by posting a picture of himself at a dinner table eating and drinking with a photoshopped image of the Reform party leader giving the thumbs up. Mr Farage described him as a proper wrong un who was walking all over the UK authorities. He was originally jailed for nine months in 2016 and then deported the following year for attempting to break into a property when the owner spotted him on a webcam while on holiday in France. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet, within a year, he managed to evade border controls and return to the UK where he carried out a string of burglaries in suburban London. Puka has claimed asylum in the UK and is awaiting an immigration tribunal Puka was eventually caught wearing an expensive watch he had stolen when he was spotted by plain clothes officers patrolling Surbiton in south west London. He was jailed for three-and-a-half years and then deported in March 2020. During his time in prison in the UK, he earned notoriety for using an illegal mobile phone smuggled into the jail to post Instagram pictures of himself standing alongside the leader of an organised crime group who was serving a 12-year sentence for conspiracy to supply cocaine and money laundering. After returning to his native Albania for several months, he travelled through Germany, Belgium and Netherlands before beating border checks to enter Britain again in December 2020, according to his Instagram account. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is understood he has lodged an asylum application and has been on immigration bail and subject to an electronic tag since last year awaiting an immigration tribunal to decide on his claim. As well as the video of the Ferrari, he has posted photos and videos of his time on holiday in Carbis Bay Hotel near St Ives in Cornwall, including walking on the beach with the tag on his leg. The Home Office is powerless to deport the 28-year-old until his asylum case has been heard His sources of funding remain unknown, but Albanian reports suggest he has been staying in a 250,000 two-bed terraced flat in Hounslow, west London. A Home Office spokesman said: Foreign nationals who commit crimes should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced. Mr Puka has been deported by the UK before. It is UK law that we cannot deport individuals where there are claims or representations still awaiting decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK, with 3,000 returned since the new government came into power. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: This convicted serial criminal should be immediately deported. Any asylum claim very likely to be completely bogus should be heard on an expedited basis. The highest priority of the Government should be to kick out criminals who are abusing our system. This man is making a mockery of our system. The Home Secretary should intervene to ensure this criminal is kicked out. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. An Ohio father is facing 12 years in prison after he was accused of shaking his 2-month-old son. According to a new investigation from ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, there's ample evidence suggesting that the child's medical collapse could have been caused by complications from a traumatic birth. Even so, two child abuse pediatriciansmembers of a young and controversial medical subspecialitysay that the only reasonable explanation is abuse. In 2023, Nick Flannery was caring for his sons while his wife Felecia was at a doctor's appointment. According to ProPublica reporter Pamela Colloff, Flannery's 2-month-old, identified in the story as "Arlo," suddenly went limp and stopped breathing. Nick called 911, and paramedics soon revived Arlo. At the hospital, a CT scan detected subdural hematoma, or a collection of blood between the brain and the skullone of the symptoms typically associated with "shaken baby syndrome" (SBS), now often called abusive head trauma. Flannery was soon accused of abusing Arlowho has since completely recoveredeven though there were no other signs he had been abused. "He had no bruises, scratches or cuts. No external evidence of head trauma, like a scalp injury or a skull fracture," Colloff writes. "No broken bones. No symptoms of neglect or malnutrition. Nick and Felecia were his sole caregivers, and neither of them had any prior interaction with child protective services or a criminal history." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Further, Arlo's medical history provides a plausible explanation for his subdural hematoma. Arlo's birth was traumatic, "More than 24 hours of laboraugmented with Pitocin, to make contractions strongerhad left a deep hollow above his forehead," Colloff writes. Arlo's head size skyrocketed after his birth, at one point reaching the 99th percentile, and doctors were already monitoring this head growth when he collapsed. Further, Colloff points out that Arlo's own neurosurgeon provided supporting evidence that his hematoma was preexisting. "The blood on the infant's brain was straw-colored, the surgeon had observed," Colloff wrote, "not the pink or red typically associated with acute trauma." Even so, the Flannerys' sons were removed by child protective servicesthough they were later returned, with the Flannerys subject to strict constant supervision with their children. Nick was also charged with assault and child endangerment. The Flannerys aren't alone. SBS is a highly controversial diagnosis. Infants have been shown to suffer some of the "triad" symptoms of SBSsubdural hematoma, retinal hemorrhage, and brain swellingafter short falls or traumatic births, and other studies have shed doubt on the idea that vigorous shaking can even reliably cause these symptoms. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, three dozen people who were convicted of shaken baby syndromerelated crimes have been exonerated. In 2022, a New Jersey judge went so far as to call SBS "junk science." The ordeal has been harrowing for the Flannerys, especially as the state is still attempting to permanently remove their children. "We've asked our caseworker, 'So what comes next?'" Felecia told Colloff. "And the answer is that they are still pursuing custody. They offer us no planjust that we need to say that Nick harmed Arlo." The post Weak Allegations of Shaken Baby Syndrome Keep Tearing Families Apart appeared first on Reason.com. India is now the 6th largest exporter of textiles and apparel in the world, with a global trade share of 3.9 per cent. The sector holds a significant 8.21 per cent of India's total exports, underlining the country's crucial role in the global textile supply chain. India's textile and apparel sector has posted a remarkable growth in exports during the first half of FY 2024-25, with total exports reaching USD 21,358 million, marking a 7 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. According to the Ministry of Textiles, the Ready Made Garments (RMG) category leads the export surge, accounting for 41 per cent of the total textile exports, with a notable export value of USD 8,733 million. Cotton textiles follow closely, contributing 33 per cent (USD 7,082 million), while man-made textiles account for 15 per cent (USD 3,105 million). Major export destinations for Indian textiles include the United States and the European Union, with these regions commanding approximately 47 per cent of India's total textile and apparel exports. The growth in textile exports is largely attributed to the resilient demand for Indian products despite global geopolitical tensions, such as the Red Sea crisis and the Bangladesh crisis, which initially slowed exports in early 2024. However, demand rebounded as the year progressed, especially in key commodities. Export data for April-October 2024 reveals growth across almost all principal textile categories, including a 12 per cent increase in RMG exports, a 1 per cent rise in cotton textiles, and a 5 per cent increase in man-made textiles. But some categories, like wool and handloom products, saw declines. Wool and woollen textiles recorded a 19 per cent drop in exports, while handloom products experienced a 6 per cent decrease. The export of silk products surged by 40 per cent, while carpets saw a robust growth of 12 per cent. India's import of textiles and apparel products saw a decrease of approximately 15 per cent during FY 2023-24, dropping from USD 10,481 million in FY 2022-23 to USD 8,946 million. The decline reflects a growing self-reliance in the textile sector, with India increasingly meeting its domestic raw material requirements for industry use and re-export purposes. In the first half of FY 2024-25, India's total imports of textiles and apparel (including handicrafts) amounted to USD 5,425 million, marking a slight 1 per cent decline compared to the same period in FY 2023-24. Man-made textiles dominated the import share, contributing to 34 per cent of total imports with a value of USD 1,859 million. This category continues to face a demand-supply gap, prompting imports to meet domestic needs. Imports of cotton textiles surged by 13 per cent, mainly driven by the need for long-staple cotton fibres, signalling an uptick in domestic production capacity and rising consumption in India. (ANI) A roller coaster of temperatures will highlight the first few days of 2025 with a chilly Saturday and Sunday before a more prolonged chill is forecast to settle in near the middle of next week. The mercury could dip to near 50 degrees on the mornings of Saturday and Sunday with daytime highs on Saturday struggling to reach 70 degrees in West Palm Beach. Temperatures Sunday will climb to the mid-70s ahead of a warm-up on Monday that should spike the daytime highs to near 80 degrees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement National Weather Service meteorologist Sammy Hadi said feels like temperatures could be as cool as in the 40s near the Palm Beach County coast Saturday morning and into the 30s farther inland and around Lake Okeechobee. Saturday and Sunday will be a little bit cool in spots, said Hadi said. We will continue to have shots of dry air, but as winds shift in response to the next front, it will warm up temperatures. More: Hottest days in Florida vary, but cold fronts still weeks away, or longer By Tuesday, the official NWS forecast calls for a high of 69 degrees in West Palm Beach with an overnight low of 46 degrees. Wednesday is forecast to reach a high of 67 degrees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The normal daytime high temperature in West Palm Beach in early January is 75 degrees. The normal overnight low temperature is 59 degrees. Hadi said there is a significant risk of rip currents along the southeast coast of the state from Saturday through Monday. The NWS may also issue a small craft advisory if northerly winds shift east, stirring up the surf. Overnight temperatures Tuesday Jan. 7 into Wednesday Jan. 8 are forecast to drop into the mid-40s in Palm Beach County. But the real weather news may be the oncoming Arctic chill, which could last until Jan. 12. There is an increasing potential for below-average temperatures next week, Hadi said. For a prolonged cool, you need to have these repeated frontal boundaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cold weather follows the fifth warmest year on record for West Palm Beach, according to preliminary year-end readings by the Southeastern Regional Climate Center. According to the center, which has records dating back to 1901, West Palm Beach's average temperature of 78 degrees last year is two degrees warmer than normal. About 63 inches of rain fell in West Palm Beach in 2024. That's 1.5 inches more than normal. Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: First South Florida cold front of 2025 arrives before longer cold front Jan. 1WESTERNPORT A Westernport woman was charged Tuesday after falsely claiming a juvenile was being held captive at gunpoint at a Front Street residence, the Allegany County Sheriff's Office said. Ashley Nicole Miller, 41, allegedly told authorities that the youth was being held by two people, prompting response of the Allegany County Special Operations Response Team, which consists of deputies and Cumberland Police officers. Tactical medics with the Allegany County Department of Emergency Services and negotiators with the Western Maryland Crisis Negotiations Team also responded. After about two hours, investigators determined Miller's claim was false. Deputies said she was treated by Tri-Towns EMS personnel and transported to UPMC Western Maryland for unspecified reasons. Deputies said she would be charged with falsely reporting an emergency, making a false statement to a police officer and reckless endangerment. The new year will kick off with the Quadrantid meteor shower, which is set to peak early on Friday. The Quadrantids have the potential of 200 meteors an hour under perfect conditions, but most astronomy fans can catch 20-30 meteors an hour under clear, dark skies during the peak, according to NASA. The moon will be a "mere crescent" and set early in the night, which should make for good meteor viewing conditions, according to the space agency. When and where you can see the Quadrantids Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The meteor shower will peak in the early morning hours on Friday, according to NASA. While meteor showers last for days, the per hour rate of meteors will be best during the peak and the highest as dawn approaches. The Quadrantids will be active until Jan. 16, according to the American Meteor Society. NASA advises viewing meteor showers in areas well away from city and street lights. The Quadrantids are best seen from the Northern Hemisphere, and observers in the Northwest and Pacific region will likely have the best viewing opportunities this year. Those heading outside to catch the celestial show should lie flat on their backs with their feet facing northeast and look up. Be prepared to wait about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Viewers should also bring along a blanket or sleeping bag to help with the chilly January weather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What is a meteor shower? Meteors are space rocks that enter Earth's atmosphere. They streak through the sky every night, and when Earth encounters many meteors at once, it's called a meteor shower. The meteors heat up as they pass through the atmosphere, making them look like shooting stars. While most meteor showers originate from comets, the Quadrantids come from asteroid 2003 EH1 a small asteroid that was discovered on March 6, 2003. The Quadrantids are also known for their bright fireball meteors, with larger explosions of light and color that can last longer than an average meteor streak, according to NASA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say What's known about possible explosives, suspect after truck slams into New Orleans crowd Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivers her State of the State address to members of the Michigan Legislature in Lansing on Jan. 24, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer put her signature Monday to legislation aimed at increasing access to housing, updating the process for gathering evidence to prosecute human trafficking and sexual assault and extending a tax exemption for investments into data center equipment. Senate Bills 205 and 206 bar landlords with five or more rental units from discriminating against a tenant or prospective tenant based on their source of income, including housing assistance or veterans benefits, while Senate Bill 207 amends the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, allowing individuals who have faced housing discrimination due to their source of income to file a complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Whitmers office, these new laws are expected to help 34,290 families access housing, and will reduce barriers individuals face when seeking a place to live. Whitmer also signed Senate Bills 515517, which aim to combat human trafficking and bring justice for survivors of sexual assault. Senate Bill 515 creates a hearsay exception allowing statements made by human trafficking survivors to law enforcement to be used as evidence in a criminal case while Senate Bill 516 allows a defendants previous acts of domestic violence, sexual assault, commercial sexual activity or human trafficking to be used as evidence when relevant in prosecuting those crimes. Senate Bill 517 amends the Michigan Penal Code, no longer requiring testimony from a victim when prosecuting human trafficking, while the testimony of a victim who does testify in court does not have to be corroborated. The bill also offers immunity for human trafficking supporters testifying against the perpetrator, ensuring their testimony cannot be used as evidence against them in a criminal case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whitmer also signed Senate Bill 248, which expands the age limit for individuals to have a courtroom support dog from 16 to 18, expanding the range of individuals who can receive support when testifying in cases of child abuse, neglect and physical or sexual assault. Senate Bill 237, which extends the sunset period on a use and sales tax exemption for equipment used in data centers, also received the governors signature. Under the new law, the exemption will remain in place through Dec. 31, 2050, creating the same exemption for enterprise data centers. Data centers constructed on a brownfield or the site of a former electrical power plant will receive the same tax exemption through Dec. 31, 2065. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX An officer in Monmouth County, N.J.has been fired after it was revealed he sent racist slurs in text messages to other police officers. The group wasnt being investigated for racist behavior. The texts surprisingly came to light after a police-involved crash crash exposed cell phone data. Eyewitness News ABC 7 originally reported the news that one officer from the Marlboro Police Department used the N-word when referring to a Black person. Next Ill be cleaning the floors or some sh*t like Im the f***ing hired n***er or something, he wrote in a text. In a different message, a racist remark was made about an Asian person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Look at that g**k, the message stated. The texts also showed that an officer from Freehold Township allegedly texted racist slurs about the Black community. A separate officer from the same department texted: Im not racist. I hate everyone. If anything, Jews is one race I hate. I dont have a problem with Black people. They make there own problems and names. ABC 7 News shared that only one Marlboro officer involved was fired for the text he made. However, there is no record of any formal disciplinary action against the other three officers. The Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago sent a statement to the outlet about the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While I am not able to publicly discuss facts related to specific Internal Affairs matters, I can confirm that when this Office is confronted with evidence of racism displayed by police officers, such allegations are taken extremely seriously and investigated in a thorough manner, Santiago explained. This Office is dedicated to ensuring that those who reside in or visit Monmouth County, are policed only by law enforcement officers who treat everyone they encounter in a fair, unbiased, and impartial manner. Moreover, if allegations of conduct rise to the level of criminality, the appropriate charges are lodged and those individuals are prosecuted. Veteran law enforcement officer and president of the NAACP in Hunterdon County Harrison Dillard told ABC 7 that police need to be thoroughly evaluated to ensure that this behavior isnt happening. We have to police without bias, we have to serve all communities equally, Dillard said. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. WASHINGTON (AP) Mike Johnson is fighting for his political life, again. The Louisiana Republican's hold on the House speaker's gavel and his position as second in line to the presidency will be tested Friday when a new Congress convenes and House Republicans weigh whether to reelect him to the post. The challenge, as always, is that Johnson will need almost every Republican vote to win. Johnson has a singular asset in his favor: President-elect Donald Trump endorsed him for speaker in a social media post at the start of the week. But it's uncertain whether Trump's blessing will be enough to persuade far-right Republicans who have at times grown frustrated with Johnson's leadership and who are prone to demand concessions when their votes become essential. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson, 52, ascended to the speakership in October 2023 almost by accident after Republicans struggled to replace Kevin McCarthy following the unprecedented removal of the California Republican from the job. Several contenders tried and failed before Republicans settled on Johnson, who is well liked across the conference. But Johnson's handling of major funding fights, including passage of aid to Ukraine last spring and, most recently, a short-term spending bill, has turned at least a few allies into detractors. With Republicans holding a narrow 220-215 majority in the House, it would take only two GOP lawmakers voting for other candidates to deny Johnson a majority for the speakership, forcing more rounds of voting. Heres what to know about how the House elects a speaker: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No House without a speaker Electing a speaker is the first order of business for the House after a new session of Congress begins at noon. It's a vote that members take even before being sworn into office. The House cannot organize until it has a speaker because that person effectively serves as the Houses presiding officer and the institutions administrative head. The House can elect a new speaker at any time if the person occupying that role dies, resigns or is removed from office. The speakership has been vacant only 13 times in U.S. history, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. No speaker had ever been removed until eight Republicans joined with Democrats to oust McCarthy. Barring those instances, a speaker is normally elected at the start of a new Congress and serves in the job for the full two-year session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The House clerk presides over the speaker's election. Lawmakers call out the name of their choice for speaker from the floor, a rare and time-consuming roll call that heightens the drama on the floor. Members often liven up the proceedings by shouting or standing when casting their vote. Who can be nominated? Any name can be called out from the House floor. While it has been the tradition for the speaker to be a member of the House, it is not required. In past years, Democratic President Joe Biden, Trump and even a senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, have received votes for House speaker. None received the majority of the vote. And generally, a party's official nominee for speaker is who ends up with the gavel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans chose Johnson as their nominee for speaker in a closed-door vote in November. A week later, Democrats unanimously chose Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to remain their leader despite the party's electoral losses. Lawmakers are not obligated to vote for their partys nominated candidate. And that is why the process can quickly get messy. Let the voting begin Once the House is in a quorum meaning the minimum number of members are present to proceed nominating speeches will be made on behalf of the nominees for speaker. The clerk appoints lawmakers from each party as tellers to tally the votes before the roll call begins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To become speaker, a candidate needs a majority of the votes from House members who are present and voting. Historically, the magical number has been 218 out of the 435 members of the House. But many previous speakers, including McCarthy, have won with fewer votes because members sometimes vote present instead of calling out a name. Every lawmaker voting present lowers the overall tally needed to reach a majority. It remains to be seen whether Johnson will reach a majority to become speaker on the first ballot. Should he come up short, it is likely the clerk will move to start another roll call vote. McCarthy went through a grueling 15 ballots over four days before he gained enough support to become the 55th speaker in January 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Passing of the gavel Once a speaker candidate wins a majority of those present and voting, the clerk will announce the results of the election. A bipartisan committee, usually consisting of members from the home state of the chosen candidate, will escort the speaker-elect to the chair on the dais where the oath of office is administered. The oath is identical to the one new members will take once a speaker is chosen. The outgoing speaker usually joins the successor at the speakers chair, where the gavel is passed as a nod to the peaceful transition of power from one party leader to another. But this time around, given that Johnson is already the speaker, it will likely be Jeffries who would once again hand Johnson the gavel. Jess Phillips is a woman of principle. We know this because she risked her front-bench career when she resigned as shadow domestic abuse and safeguarding minister in 2023 in protest at her leaders stance on Gaza. This went down well in her Birmingham Yardley constituency with its high proportion of Muslim residents, though not well enough to avoid a bit of a scare for Phillips when the ballot boxes were opened in July last year: her majority plummeted from more than 10,000 in 2019 to less than 700. But thems the breaks: any politician of substance will expect to go through rough times for the sake of their principles. For without those principles, what is the point of a career in politics? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some, more cynical, commentators might suggest that Phillips resignation, just a week after Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped their way across southern Israel, provoking a calamitous and inevitable military response, might have been aimed more at securing her electoral base in Birmingham than genuine concern for the benighted people of Gaza who are still paying the price of their leaders barbarism. The Workers Party George Galloways latest Marxist vehicle for opposing everything the West (and Israel) stands for rather than the Conservatives were Phillips main competitor in Birmingham Yardley. After a justified sigh of relief that she had not suffered same fate as a handful of other Labour candidates at the hands of angry Muslim voters, a couple of days later Phillips was back in favour with the new prime minister, taking office as the parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Home Office in charge of safeguarding and violence against women and girls. Given Phillips record and rhetoric on this issue, the job was a good fit. She has made a name for herself as a champion of women and girls in the face of the threat they face from abusive males. It was in this role that she was asked by Oldham council to authorise a government inquiry into historic child abuse in the area. Phillips said no. It was up to the council to decide if it wanted to conduct its own inquiry. The Government would stay out of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To be clear: a self-described feminist who has frequently railed against the injustice of mens violence against women and girls wants no part of an inquiry into the alleged systematic abuse including rape, torture and threats of murder of young, vulnerable working class girls by gangs of men. To give Phillips her due, it is entirely possible that this decision was made at a higher level of government and that she has been given the job by a more senior colleague of taking the media hit for an unpopular and unjustifiable decision. Take it from me an under-parliamentary secretary of state has very little executive authority, especially when it comes to decisions that could impact on the government as a whole, well beyond your own department. But if that were the case, and given Phillips record of resigning when faced with a policy she doesnt support, why is she still in her job? If there were a better political operation inside this government, it would already have been prepared to take this decision out of Phillips hands, given the suspicions, allegations and conspiracy theories that swirl around this controversial issue: media reports constantly focus on the ethnic backgrounds of many of these grooming gangs (more accurately described by J K Rowling as rape gangs). Expecting an MP who is already electorally vulnerable in her largely Muslim constituency to take such a decision is clumsy and politically inept, given that any refusal would provoke inevitable and fierce cynicism regarding her motivations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Naturally there are those who will fear for the future health of community relations if a formal nationwide inquiry is launched into the various examples of rape gangs especially if a significant proportion of their members are identified as Muslim/Pakistani. Remember when Labour MP Naz Shaw reposted a post on Twitter/X that suggested that abused girls in Rotherham and elsewhere needed to shut their mouths For the good of diversity? To be clear, such a public inquiry might conceivably raise difficult questions for some communities, for the Government (and for both parties of government) and for the entire project of multiculturalism. And to be even clearer: that doesnt matter a damn. All that matters is that anyone, including council officials and police officers, who conspired to enable rapists and abusers to carry out their appalling crimes against these young women are identified and held to account. There is a large, angry constituency out there already willing to believe the worst about the motivations of Labour politicians whom they suspect would happily sacrifice the lives and safety of young white girls for the sake of their parliamentary careers. So why on earth play into that drama by allowing Jess Phillips to take this decision? Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. WILBRAHAM, Mass. (WWLP) The Wilbraham Police Department is investigating after suspects stole from the Big Y Express early Thursday morning. Wilbraham police identify witness Wilbraham Police Captain Shawn Baldwin told 22News that at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, officers received a call about a theft in progress at the Big Y Express on Boston Road. When officers arrived, the suspects involved had left in a vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After several interviews and reviewing surveillance video, it was determined that no weapon was used and no threats were made to the store clerk. The suspects stole multiple unknown items from the store before leaving. The Wilbraham Police Department is investigating the incident. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. On Jan. 12, Gov. Brian Kemp. state lawmakers and lobbyists are set to return to Atlanta for the Wild Hog Supper, which serves as the largest fundraiser for Feeding Georgia and as a kick off for the legislative session. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder (2020 file photo) Several new legislators will begin their first legislative session on Jan. 13 as they join returning legislators and leadership for another year of lawmaking inside the Gold Dome. A number of organizations will set the stage for likely bills to watch during the 40-day legislative session that wraps up in early spring. Each winter, a variety of Georgia nonprofits and business interests host breakfasts, suppers and other events to explore some of the issues awaiting lawmakers and to make the case for their legislative priorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An event hosted by Voices for Georgias Children will set the stage for the series of legislative preview events taking place throughout January. On Jan. 8, Voices for Georgias Children hosts Beyond the Hardware: Keeping Kids Safe at School and Beyond event that will feature a light brunch followed by panel discussions with state leaders and stakeholders. On Jan. 12, the eve of the 2025 session, Feeding Georgia will host its annual big fundraiser, the Wild Hog Supper, where lawmakers and lobbyists will be among 1,200 attendees who will dine on barbecue and a smorgasbord of comfort food sides inside the Georgia Freight Depot a short walk from the state Capitol. Other events over the next few weeks through a mix of in-person and virtual options will provide a glimpse into state politics and policies teed up for debate under the Gold Dome, including potential legislation affecting areas such as business, education and health care. The first week of the 2025 session also features a pair of legislative preview breakfasts starting on Jan. 14 with the nonprofit Georgians for a Healthy Future and Georgia Chamber of Commerces Eggs and Issues that attracts a whos who of Georgia politics and business. Calendar: Jan. 8: Voices for Georgias Children will host the Beyond the Hardware: Keeping Kids Safe at School and Beyond. The free event, hosted at the Georgia Freight Depot, will begin with brunch prior to hearing from experts about child advocacy issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jan. 12: Feeding Georgias largest fundraiser returns with another celebration of farming with its long-running pig-picking event to benefit the Farm to Food Bank program. The Wild Hog Supper brings together state lawmakers and agriculture leaders to mingle on the eve of the legislative session. Jan. 13: The Georgia Assembly returns for a new legislative session. Jan 14: Georgians for a Healthy Future will host an event at The Freight Depot in downtown, its annual Health Care Unscrambled event, where a bi-partisan panel of state lawmakers and experts will explore health care policy and public health issues. The 2025 events keynote speaker is Hemi Tewarson, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. Jan. 14: The Georgia Chamber of Commerces Eggs & Issues breakfast usually attracts about 2,500 business leaders, elected officials, lobbyists, and VIPs who network over coffee and Chick-fil-A biscuits and hear the legislative priorities of the governor and other state leaders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jan. 24: The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute is hosting Insights 2025: A Roadmap to Opportunity that will offer a comprehensive dive into the state budget and provide ideas on the best ways for federal policies to improve the lives of Georgians. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX After another New Year's Eve marked by damage and injuries from fireworks explosions across Berlin, some local politicians are calling for other measures to crack down on illegal fireworks. On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, numerous people in Berlin were injured, some of them seriously, by illegal fireworks. Unlike in many other countries, in Germany anyone can purchase fireworks and set them off on New Year's Eve, except in designated banned areas. Age restrictions apply to some pyrotechnics deemed more dangerous. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even though this year's New Year celebrations were deemed largely peaceful, at least five people were killed in fireworks-related accidents across the country as the nation rung in 2025. Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner on Thursday called for stricter regulations and a crackdown on illegal fireworks, but nonetheless spoke out against an outright ban. "The vast majority of Berliners celebrated the New Year peacefully. Why should we deny them and their families a happy New Year's Eve with traditional fireworks?" Wegner told dpa. But Wegner, a member of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), said that Germany's federal government should tighten laws around things like flare guns and try to staunch the flow of illegal fireworks into the country from Poland and the Czech Republic through "stricter border controls." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scores were injured by fireworks in Berlin, with one hospital in the German capital - the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (UKB) - reporting on Thursday that 35 people remained in treatment there alone. "More patients are still coming to us from other hospitals," UKB spokeswoman Angela Kijewski told dpa. She said that several patients including children had been seriously injured in the hands, face and eyes by powerful illegal fireworks known as "ball bombs." A huge fireworks display is set off on Unter den Linden to celebrate the New Year. Joerg Carstensen/dpa By Isa Nuraliyev | AzerNEWS Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have been normalized for some time now, following the tensions that arose following the terrorist attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran in January 2023. Although Iran has always stated its intention to develop relations with Azerbaijan at a high level, for some inadequate reasons, this idea has not been reflected in the behaviour of official Tehran. For example, Iran, which for some time introduced itself with anti-Azerbaijani statements in the Iranian Parliament, biased statements under the guise of support for Armenia, or provocative propaganda, has now begun to expand in a form of a shbby political drama. But behind all these political manoeuvres lies nothing but threats and provocations. As the saying goes, barking dog, seldom bite. Recall that once the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, attracted attention with a post on his X social page: The Zangazur road means the Turkish road. Iran was also expressing its fear by this expression. Tehran, which has long considered Armenia's southern border its "red line", is for some reason not at all worried about the increasing Western military presence in Armenia. Today, the collapse of a regime in Damascus (Syria) has put Tehran in a psychologically awkward position. The Turkish-Azerbaijani brotherhood, which has now become a threat in its eyes, trembles Iranian political circles in every strategic step. The insulting remarks made against Azerbaijan and President Ilham Aliyev on December 29, 2024, at an event in Ardabil with the participation of the representative of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Imam of the Juma of this city, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Ameli, was another blow to Irans diplomatic stance and its true intention to strengthen neighbourly relations with Azerbaijan. Last day, Charge d'Affaires of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Azerbaijan Seyyed Jafar Agayi Maryans summoning to the Azerbaijani MFA was a sign of the gradual erosion of Tehran's trust in Baku. However, Tehran should respect Azerbaijan's right to establish relations with any state as well as cease to interpret Turkiye and Azerbaijans foreign policy as a threat to itself. The visit of the Deputy Head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry to Syria a few days ago is an expression of the intention to further strengthen relations with the new government. It should be noted that during the time of the former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown in December 2024, Azerbaijan also put forward its interests in developing economic and political relations with Syria. However, the fact that the former leadership was more on the side of Armenia during the former Garabagh conflict cast a shadow over the relations. The neutrality of Syria and Iran in the joint convention of the UN Security Council against the occupation of Armenia was a clear manifestation of the insincerity of the former political structure. In addition, the support of Armenia by the Assad regime in the country with a similar political line to Iran and the fake migrants transferred to Karabakh from Syria created an imbalance in political relations. Even during the Second Garabakh War, the militant groups sent from Syria to the occupied region were not only contrary to international law but also an open threat to Azerbaijan. Finally, after 12 years, the Azerbaijani diplomatic delegation visited Syria, which was under the control of the new government. Meanwhile, the restoration of the Azerbaijani embassy in the country indicates a more hopeful and confident approach to future prospects. If official Tehran is truly a partner for peace and stability in the region, then there is no need for them to worry about Turkiye and Azerbaijans political will to develop relations with the new Syrian authorities. NewsVoir Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], January 2: TVS Motor Company recorded monthly sales of 321,687 units in December 2024 with a growth of 7% as against 301,898 units in the month of December 2023. Two-Wheeler Total two-wheelers registered a growth of 8% with sales increasing from 290,064 units in December 2023 to 312,002 units in December 2024. Domestic two-wheeler registered 215,075 units in December 2024 as against 214,988 units in December 2023. Motorcycle registered sales of 144,811 units in December 2024 as against 148,049 units in December 2023. Scooter registered a growth of 30% with sales increasing from 103,167 units in December 2023 to 133,919 units in December 2024. Electric Vehicle The Company sold 20,171 units in December 2024 as against 11,288 units in December 2023, registering a growth of 79%. International Business The Company's total exports grew by 22% increasing from 85,391 units registered in December 2023 to 104,393 units in December 2024. Two-wheeler exports registered a growth of 29% with sales increasing from 75,076 units registered in December 2023 to 96,927 units in December 2024. Three-Wheeler Three-wheeler of the Company registered sales of 9,685 units in December 2024 as against 11,834 units in December 2023. Third Quarter Sales Performance During the third quarter of the current financial year, two-wheelers posted a robust growth of 11% with sales of 11.8 lakh units as against sales of 10.6 lakh units in the third quarter of FY 23-24. Three-wheeler of the Company registered sales of 0.29 lakh units in the third quarter of the current year as against 0.38 lakh units in the third quarter of FY 23-24. Two-wheeler sales include EV sales of 0.76 lakh units in the third quarter of FY 24-25 as against 0.48 lakh units in the third quarter of FY 23-24 with a growth of 57%. TVS Motor Company (BSE:532343 and NSE: TVSMOTOR) is a reputed two and three-wheeler manufacturer globally, championing progress through sustainable mobility with four state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities located in India and Indonesia. Rooted in our 100-year legacy of trust, value, and passion for customers, it takes pride in making internationally accepted products of the highest quality through innovative and sustainable processes. TVS Motor is the only two-wheeler company to have won the prestigious Deming Prize. Our products lead in their respective categories in the J.D. Power IQS and APEAL surveys. We have been ranked No. 1 Company in the J.D. Power Customer Service Satisfaction Survey for four consecutive years. Our group company Norton Motorcycles, based in the United Kingdom, is one of the most emotive motorcycle brands in the world. Our subsidiaries in the personal e-mobility space, Swiss E-Mobility Group (SEMG) and EGO Movement have a leading position in the e-bike market in Switzerland. TVS Motor Company endeavours to deliver the most superior customer experience across 80 countries in which we operate. For more information, please visit www.tvsmotor.com. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) State wildlife officials are investigating Lake Eustis after several fish were found dead. Residents recently complained about the sudden wave of deaths at the popular lake. Channel 9 also investigated the lake and found some dead fish that had washed up along the shore. Watch: Mount Dora home destroyed in New Years Eve explosion, investigators working to determine cause The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they plan on releasing details about their investigation on Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Channel 9 is working to gather more information and will provide updates on Eyewitness News. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Conservatives are somehow blaming the horrific New Years Day attack in New Orleans on DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. On Wednesday, an attacker drove an ISIS flagdecorated truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people before exchanging fire with law enforcement. The suspect has now been identified as U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar. The priority of the last four years has been DEI, not IEDs, New York Republican Representative Dan Meuser told Fox News on Thursday. You talk to anyone whos willing to speak within these agencies, thats what their focus has been. President Trumps a serious guy, hes bringing in serious people. Its not about DEI; its about the safety and security of the American people. Conservative commentator Robby Starbuck, whos been railing against diversity and inclusion for months on X, likewise blamed DEI for the attack: 6 months ago the New Orleans FBI office was doing DEI hiring events. Maybe they should have been more focused on hiring the best people who are good at catching terrorists instead? Hiring solely to increase diversity is a threat to national security for everyone. DEI must end. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson also piled on. An FBI Agent with a nose ring who can barely speak coherent English sentences told the media that a terrorist driving a truck with an ISIS flag killing 10 Americans is NOT a terrorist attack!?! Johnson wrote on X. Seriously. Listen to this. We need Kash Patel NOW! The video in question is of FBI Special Agent Alethea Duncan, who happens to be a Black woman with a nose ring, speaking perfect English as she simply debriefs reporters in New Orleans, noting that the FBI had not classified the attack as a terrorist act yet. The agency did so later as more information came out. These commentators are talking as though DEI hires were the ones to drive a truck through a busy crowd. Theres a clear pattern in the racist dog whistling: delegitimizing and attacking any Black person working in a professional capacity. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Theres cause for concern in this weekends weather forecast. A strong blast of wintertime conditions is expected to arrive by Saturday with the potential of sleet, snow and cold temperatures. FOX4 Meteorologist Karli Ritter said next week includes the possibility of daytime high temperatures in the teens and overnight lows in the single-digit range. Joes Blog: Major winter storm potential increases (WED-2025) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wednesday is a federal holiday, New Years Day, and many people were away from their workplaces, using their free time to prepare for predicted rough weather. Bank on the cold, no matter what, for next week, Ritter said on Wednesday afternoon. Ritter said this could be the coldest weather the Kansas City metro has seen this year. Expected snow totals might become more clear on Thursday and Friday, but cold temperatures are expected to create problems. Youre going to start seeing issues for people who work outside, and school impacts, for travel impacts, especially if theres a fresh coating of sleet or snow on the ground. Thats not going anywhere anytime soon, so that will take a little longer to clear, Ritter said. In Johnson County, Kansas, community leaders want to provide shelter for homeless people during the cold weather stretches. Pastors at Overland Park Christian Church are partnering with United Community Services to open a warming center at the church. Senior Pastor Laura Phillips points out that homeless people in Johnson County have limited places to go, since Project 10 20 accepts clients during the overnight hours only. Were looking at this weather coming up. Of course, were concerned and we want to make sure clients and the people who need help can get it, Pastor Phillips said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pastor Phillips also mentioned this predicted weather also presents concerns for church leaders, who might have to decide when to potentially cancel worship services, and how volunteers and attendees can travel safely. Man killed, another injured in New Years Eve shooting in Kansas City In Wyandotte County, Kansas, seasonal items are in demand at L.A. True Value Hardware in the Auburndale Neighborhood. Shelly Eickhoffs family has owned that popular store for 40 years. She spent New Years Day offering snow shovels, rock salt and tube sand. On the way to the grocery store, they stop by the hardware store, Eickhoff said on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Especially with the storm thats coming in. Were supposed to have some extremely cold weather. They need to bundle up and get some hand warmers too. Many students go back to class on Monday, and employees whove taken the holidays off will be back on the job. These cold temperatures are expected to stretch into next week, and if snow is already on the ground, the weather could present challenges. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Sign for the Wisconsin Elections Comission. (Wisconsin Examiner photo) The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted Thursday to investigate how nearly 200 absentee ballots cast in Madison were overlooked and not counted on Election Night. This was such a serious oversight that I didnt want to wait for a complaint, the commission chair, Ann Jacobs, said at a special meeting the commission held Thursday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation findings will be summarized to commissioners, who will provide further direction at a future meeting. The uncounted ballots didnt affect the outcome of any state or local elections, according to the elections commission staff. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said Thursday that the city welcomed the investigation. I fully support this independent review, and look forward to WECs findings and recommendations, which will inform any changes we make to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future, Rhodes-Conway said in a statement. The Madison City Clerks office told the elections commission in a memo Dec. 20 about the overlooked Nov. 5 ballots in two Madison wards. A bag containing 68 unprocessed absentee ballots from two wards was found Nov. 12 in a tabulator bin, the memo stated. During reconciliation of ballots on Dec. 3, clerk employees found two sealed envelopes contained a total of 125 unprocessed absentee ballots from another ward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mayors office announced the unprocessed ballots Dec. 26. In a public statement the same day, the clerks office said that in future elections, every polling location will receive a list of absentee envelope seal numbers that will be verified as counted on Election Day. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Referencing the article published on Dec. 21, "Medical marijuana likely to come up again in 2025," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is seemingly adamant about not even considering the legalization of recreational marijuana, thus precluding the very obvious benefits of doing so. The potential for substantial tax revenues that would accrue from the legalization of marijuana across the board is not a myth but an established fact as evidenced by the revenues reaped by our neighboring states of Illinois and Michigan, who both made millions last year. Once again Wisconsin lags behind other, more progressive states concerning an issue that a majority of Wisconsin residents support. There are many reasons to legalize marijuana in Wisconsin, not the least of which is "the will of the people." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Susan Gambetta, Greenfield Kristin Brey: Hotboxed Wisconsin must regulate delta-8 and have debate about legalizing pot Opinion: UW-Milwaukee would be demoted by plan to split apart Wisconsin university system Letters to the Editor: Evers is making same historical mistake as Democrats before the Civil War Tips for getting your letter to the editor published Here are some tips to get your views shared with your friends, family, neighbors and across our state: Please include your name, street address and daytime phone. Generally, we limit letters to 200 words. Cite sources of where you found information or the article that prompted your letter. Be civil and constructive, especially when criticizing. Avoid ad hominem attacks, take issue with a position, not a person. We cannot acknowledge receipt of submissions. We don't publish poetry, anonymous or open letters. Each writer is limited to one published letter every two months. All letters are subject to editing. Write: Letters to the editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 330 E. Kilbourn Avenue, Suite 500, Milwaukee, WI, 53202. Fax: (414)-223-5444. E-mail: jsedit@jrn.com or submit using the form that can be found on the on the bottom of this page. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Neighbors made millions in marijuana taxes. Why not WI? | Letters Record low ice on the Great Lakes. Tornadoes in February. A soggy spring that morphed into deepening drought in the fall. 2024 marked an unprecedented series of extreme weather events, and historic highs and lows in Wisconsin. In some way, every season was record-breaking. These extremes are expected to get more frequent and dramatic because of climate change. And although some may like to think of Wisconsin as a "climate haven," the effects are already being seen here, and last year offered just the latest evidence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wisconsins climate is becoming warmer and wetter. Across the state, temperatures have warmed about three degrees and rainfall has increased about five inches, or 17%, since 1950, according to the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts most recent report. The impacts aren't just on the environment. They're economic, too. According to a recent analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, extreme weather events will cost Wisconsin up to $16 billion over the next 15 years. The science is clear that climate change is driven by human activity, largely the use of fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas. These fuels are responsible for 75% of greenhouse gas emissions, which capture heat and warm the planet. Steve Vavrus, Wisconsin's state climatologist, said looking at historical data it's particularly striking how much warmer the state has become a trend people may overlook because of year-to-year variability. Based on available data through the end of November, Vavrus said, last year could be Wisconsin's warmest yet on record. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's like we're gradually warming up the stove, and we don't really notice it's happening," he said. Here's a look back on the unprecedented year of record-breaking highs and lows. More: Wisconsin is not bracing for a hurricane. But the messages sent by Helene, Milton are loud and clear. The Great Lakes ice cover was at record low on January 1, 2024. Tony Cass of Mequon books ice fishing trips on Lake Michigan, but he spent part of the day fishing for brown trout near McKinley Park on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee Wisconsin recorded its warmest winter on record Last winter was Wisconsins warmest-ever on record. According to the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, December 2023 to February 2024 was the warmest winter in the state since it began keeping records in 1895. The average temperature across the state was 28.3 degrees close to 10 degrees warmer than the typical average. The previous record was 26.1 degrees set in 2001 to 2002. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wisconsin was not an outlier. The contiguous United States as a whole experienced its warmest winter on record. Vavrus previously explained that the balmy temperatures were due to the longer-term warming trend with climate change as well as an El Nino event. More: Cold, snowy winters are part of Wisconsin's identity. But are they a thing of the past? A collapsed shed sits atop equipment used for R and K and Sons Construction on North Tolles Road, just north of Highway 14 in Evansville on February 8, 2024, after a tornado and severe storm hit the area. Wisconsin's first February tornado Feb. 8 began sunny and unseasonably warm, with Milwaukee setting a record-high temperature for that date of 56 degrees. But that afternoon, storm clouds rolled in, setting the state up for a bizarre bout of severe weather. In the evening, the first-ever February tornadoes in recorded state history ripped across south-central Wisconsin, causing damage upwards of $2.4 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One tornado touched down in rural Green County. The other struck Evansville, in Rock County. It isnt fully understood how climate change is affecting tornadoes, Vavrus said. But one expected outcome is a longer tornado season. They form when warm, humid air combines with wind shear a change in wind speed or direction over a short distance. Warmer winter temperatures in Wisconsin mean those conditions could occur outside of the typical tornado season, May through August. Evansville Mayor Dianne Duggan said there was a lot of talk and head-shaking about the timing of the tornado, which she said is a climate change issue. I guess we just need to be on our toes all the time now, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total, Wisconsin experienced 45 tornadoes in 2024, the third-highest annual amount in state history. More: Two tornadoes confirmed in Wisconsin, leaving extensive damage in rural Evansville More: Wisconsin has seen far more tornadoes than average this year. Is climate change to blame? The shoreline of Lake Michigan on a frigid cold day at Atwater Park in Shorewood, December 13, 2024. Record-breaking ice season seen in Lakes Michigan, Superior Average ice cover across all five Great Lakes from January to March was 4.3% the lowest on record since scientists began recording it 50-plus years ago. Across the region, it was only the second time that the average ice cover did not reach 5%, with the first occurrence in 2012 of 4.8%, according to ice data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Individually, Lakes Michigan and Superior hit historic lows as well, with average daily ice cover at 4.4% and 2.6%, respectively. December is an especially important month when Arctic air should start to cool the lakes down, setting the stage for how much ice there will be, said Bryan Mroczka, a physical scientist with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. December 2023 was Wisconsin's warmest last month of the year on record, and the first time the states average temperature for the month was above freezing. Last years mid-January cold snap allowed some ice to build, which is when Lakes Michigan and Superior maxed out at about 18% and 12% ice cover, respectively. Overall, ice cover in the Great Lakes has been declining for the past five decades due to climate change, while also swinging from near record highs to near record lows within a few years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will still have those days where you bundle the kids up to go to the bus stop, but it's the duration of these Arctic outbreaks they're in and out in a matter of days, Mroczka said. That keeps the ice from forming. The impacts of low ice cover are far-reaching, impacting ecosystem health, fisheries, recreation and infrastructure. For instance, ice tempers waves during storms, protecting the eggs of Great Lakes fish, like lake whitefish, which overwinter in nearshore areas. Ice can also protect coastal infrastructure and prevent shoreline flooding and erosion. In Madison, iconic lakes Mendota and Monona also had far fewer ice-covered days. Lake Monona froze over Jan. 15 and thawed Feb. 28, its shortest duration of ice cover in recorded history. Lake Mendota had ice cover for its second-shortest period in history. Umbrellas came out when rains appeared at the WIAA 2024 boys state golf championships at Blackwolf Run in June in Kohler. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Soggy spring, drought reversal, third wettest June on record Wetter-than-normal spring conditions led to a dramatic reversal of the states yearlong drought that began in June 2023. In fact, it was Wisconsins third wettest June since scientists began keeping rainfall records in 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. On average, the state saw 7.22 inches of rainfall, more than 2.5 inches higher than normal. More: From drought to rain, Wisconsin had biggest one-year flip-flop from last June to this one The heavy rainfall led to significant flooding and storm damage, especially in the northwestern and south-central parts of the state where communities received upwards of six inches of rain above normal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More local records were set across the state. For instance, Bayfield County had its wettest June on record, and La Crosse saw 24 days of rain that month, breaking the previous record of 22 days set in 1935 and 2013. As river levels rose, the Mississippi River in La Crosse set a flood stage record for the month of June at about 14.2 feet June 28. More: Decades after it disappeared, wild rice is booming again on the upper Mississippi River And while Milwaukeeans got to dry off in June at least compared to the rest of the state the city had its third wettest spring on record, according to Vavrus. A bicyclist pedals across the lift bridge and over the algal boom near the Menasha lock. Algae blooms crop up along Lake Superiors shore In a state beloved for its water resources, many wonder how algae blooms particularly those that release harmful toxins will proliferate in a warmer, wetter climate. In general, warming water temperatures are expected to increase the frequency of harmful algal blooms and their size, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Wisconsin experts say the impact of climate change is not entirely clear, and that the behavior of each lake may differ. Still, there were atypical bloom events last year that may bear climate fingerprints. Across the states inland lakes in 2024, 253 blooms were reported as of early December, according to Gina LaLiberte, the DNRs statewide harmful algal bloom coordinator. About three-fourths of the reported blooms contained cyanobacteria, which can release toxins. Both the total number of reported blooms and the fraction that contained cyanobacteria are up from 2023, which saw 174 blooms with two-thirds containing the potentially harmful bacteria. That may be because people are more aware of how to report blooms, LaLiberte said. Last year, though, there were definitely some reports from lakes where people say theyve never seen the lake like this before, she said, particularly in northern Wisconsin. In those instances, she believes climate change may be at play. Blue-green algae blooms are an emerging problem in Lake Superior, since the first sizable bloom was observed in 2012. Scientists attribute Lake Superior blooms to climate change, as the undeveloped lake lacks the usual ingredients for algae blooms, such as farm runoff. Lake Superior is the second fastest warming lake in the world. There were 11 reports of blooms last year along the shores of Lake Superior and within the St. Louis River Estuary wedged between Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, according to Kait Reinl, a freshwater scientist at the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve. Reinl said that some of the blooms last summer had toxins, but most were under the limits for drinking water and recreation. One bloom neared that limit. While algae blooms are not uncommon in the other Great Lakes, Reinl said Lake Superior should be held to a different standard. If we hold Lake Superior to the lowest common denominator, we have nowhere to go but down, she said. More: Blue-green algae blooms, once unheard of in Lake Superior, are a sign that things are changing experts say More: As Lake Superior wetlands become more vulnerable, tribe fears cultural guideposts could slip away The soil is dried and cracked from lack of rain in a farm field off of West Oakwood Road in Franklin , September 5, 2024. A burst of heavy rains in June, and then long, hot, dry days Junes heavy rains drove Wisconsin to its sixth-wettest summer on record. But that didnt last long. Summer vibes stretched on through September, with multiple cities setting records for the number of consecutive 80-degree days. Throughout the month, daily high temperatures were more than six degrees above normal. It was also exceedingly dry, aside from a powerful burst of rain Sept. 21. Less than 1.5 inches of rain fell across the state throughout the month. It went down as the third-warmest and sixth-driest September on record in Wisconsin a really unusual combination of extremes, Vavrus said. Since 1895, only 2% of months in Wisconsin have experienced a temperature extreme and a precipitation extreme. Unseasonably warm and dry conditions persisted in October. Madison and Green Bay both recorded 80-plus degree days Oct. 29, setting or breaking records for the latest 80-degree day of the year. At the end of the month, a third of the state was in severe drought and two-thirds was in moderate drought the first time in the history of the U.S. Drought Monitor that Wisconsin was completely in drought. (That drought eased in the weeks since.) Smoke and flames fill the air from a wildfire in Puchyan Marsh in Green Lake County October 18, 2024. The fire burned 646 acres. More wildfires hit Wisconsin, and they started earlier More than 1,100 wildfires burned roughly 2,500 acres in Wisconsin last year, about 260 more than the 10-year average. And wildfire season started early, because much of the state was snow-free by February. More: Wisconsin's wildfire season is beginning fast, with risk above normal Typically, fire season starts in the spring and goes south to north as different regions of the state warm up, said Catherine Koele, wildfire prevention specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Last year, fires started in early February. It feels like nothing is cookie-cutter anymore, she said. The warm and dry fall raised wildfire risk again. Further, fires that happen under drought conditions take longer for crews to put out because they tend to smolder, Koele said. An Oct. 18 fire in Green Lake County was the states largest, Koele said, burning 646 acres. We do have fires in the fall, but to have that size of fire, thats a little unusual, she said. By early December, the state had spent $1.1 million on fire suppression, compared to an annual average of $600,000. How can you do your part on climate change? Scientists agree that the ultimate way to slow the impact of climate change is to limit fossil fuel emissions, which requires drastic steps taken by the worlds largest emitters, like the U.S. Climate anxiety or feeling distressed about climate change has become an ever-growing phenomenon, especially among young people. And taking steps as an individual can feel daunting. Here are a few steps that experts say people can take to help: Talk to friends and family members about climate change. Climate concern is more common than people think, and sharing it with others can build bridges. Reach out to local, state and federal lawmakers. Use less energy in your home by reducing heating and cooling use; weatherizing; washing laundry with cold water; hanging clothes and linens to dry. Change energy sources where you can, like switching to LED light bulbs or electric appliances and vehicles. Reduce, reuse and recycle, while staying aware of how microplastics can be shed from plastic sources. Grow native plants and consider using green infrastructure, like rain barrels. Talk to health providers about the ways climate change and extreme weather may impact health. Create a climate-health plan with your provider, including how to get to appointments or safeguard medications during extreme weather events that may cause power outages. More: Caitlin Looby combines scientific expertise, love of outdoors to report on the Great Lakes More: Great Lakes tribes knowledge of nature could be key to navigating climate change. Will enough people listen? Caitlin Looby and Madeline Heim are Report for America corps member who writes about the environment. Caitlin Looby can be reached at clooby@gannett.com. Madeline Heim can be contacted at 920-996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to this reporting effort at jsonline.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Dr, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Climate change causes Wisconsin weather records to fall in 2024 HIGH POINT Carlvena Foster was out shopping at Monkees on N. Main Street a little more than a year ago when she happened to run into local businessman and philanthropist Doug Witcher. He just came up to me and said, I need to give you some money, she said. He said, How about $100,000? The donation was not for Foster herself but for the Carl Chavis branch of the YMCA of High Point, where Foster is the district vice president of operations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And it proved to foreshadow the year ahead for Witcher, who landed in the news repeatedly for making large charitable donations to the tune of more than $40 million combined that sometimes came as a surprise to the recipients. While Witcher has become well known over the years for giving generously of both his money and his time to local charitable causes, the way that kicked into a higher gear in 2024 made his nomination for The High Point Enterprise Citizen of the Year stand out. He just recognizes needs across our city, Foster said. Witcher, 70, grew up in a working-class family in Jamestown his father was a landscaper, and Witcher often worked with him, said Chris Greene, who has known Witcher and his family since Witcher was a child. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking at High Point University last spring, Witcher described growing up on the other side of the tracks, I grew up in an area where I could ride my bicycle a short distance to see what poverty looked like. Fortunately, I was blessed with loving parents, grandparents, along with the belief that my cup was always half-full, as well as possessing an attitude and spirit filled with determination that was fueled by a never-give-up attitude, he said. As a young student, Witcher struggled with the learning disability of dyslexia. He struggled through high school, and many people told him he wasnt cut out to attend college. No one in his family ever had gone to college, but he enrolled at High Point College. I paid my way through with jobs and learned a lot about leadership while I was there as a dormitory director, Witcher said in a 2013 interview. I learned about managing people and got a good education. It was a turning point for me. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Witcher began his career in insurance, he found his small insurance agency essentially was held captive by the one large carrier he represented. When he brought in an additional carrier, the other company, whom he had represented for nearly 10 years, pulled out of his agency. Witcher came up with the idea of an alliance of sorts among his peers, a way for small agents to break into new insurance markets by banding together through his company, Smart Choice, to gain access to sell policies of the big national insurance companies to their clients. It struck many as a risky idea, but today Smart Choice has over 10,000 agencies across the United States as clients. HPU President Nido Qubein calls it a classic story of the American Dream that also illustrates a core element of Witchers nature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His goal was not money, though he became quite successful, Qubein said. His goal was to help others. Though Witcher is known now as a huge backer of local charities, he admitted in a 2013 interview that had not always been the case. I was basically an Ebeneezer Scrooge for many, many years. I ducked from United Way and everything, he said. But the phenomenal growth of his company yielded a new mindset, and Witcher began putting more of Smart Choices profits into philanthropy. But he is not just making donations. Sometimes he seems to be pushing extra money into peoples hands. Leaders of the Bundle of Joy program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist High Point Medical Center, which provides baby essentials and resources to families with newborn babies in the High Point area, asked Witcher for $100,000. He insisted on $125,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He surprised United Way leadership this past year with a $1 million donation. When he learned that the medical centers fundraising campaign in 2024 was $2 million short of its goal, on the spot he decided thats how much he would give. Its a regular occurrence, Greene said. Doug will always do more than his share of anything, she said. He is thinking of ways to help, not waiting to be asked. Greene pointed to a trip Witcher arranged in early 2014 for a team from the United Way of Greater High Point to go to New Orleans for United Way training on how to ask for large donations and increase membership in the Tocqueville Society, which is made up of donors who pledge to provide at least $10,000 a year. Witcher used his private plane to get the four team members to New Orleans, and he paid all of the expenses for the group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Greene credits that trip with the local United Ways success it has close to 80 Tocqueville Society members, about six times more than a United Way in a city the size of High Point might normally expect to have, she said. That trip has certainly paid off for our community, she said. I dont think hes particularly interested in having his name on a building, but hes interested in what goes on in that building to help the community. VMPL Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], January 2: Purely Femme emerges as a noteworthy intimate wear brand in a market driven by synthetic materials and fast fashion. The brand has been redefining the market standards of its customers through its commitment to providing premium quality lingerie that comes with sustainability and women empowerment. Purely Femme connects with modern women searching for stylish and premium lingerie that will also align with their sustainability concerns. Purely Femme achieved a significant milestone in its journey of producing sustainable and accessible quality intimate wear when it received the GOTS or Global Organic Textile Standards certification from International Certification & Inspection UK LTD. (ICI-UK) on 5th December 2024. The company directly secured 78 quintals of organic cotton in the Kharif season of 2024, from the cotton farmers in Haryana that were approved by these international bodies, after meeting them on 21st, November. This validates the efforts of the company towards quality and sustainability. Purely Femme also got its ISO 9001:2015 certification from the International Accreditation Forum on 24th December, further strengthening its reputation for producing excellent quality products while meeting national and international standards. All these efforts have also made them a member of the APEDA, Govt. of India, authorising their import and export of organic cotton on 23, December 2024. The company's 360-degree sustainable model starts from the grassroots level. The company invests in women's empowerment and education programs, such as its initiative in Gujarat's Dhari district on 2nd October, where the brand carried out its sanitary napkin awareness program and skill development campaigns for female cotton thread producers. The founder trio of Debashis, Sangeeta, and Bharti, with their different perspectives and backgrounds, add diverse qualities to the brand. Debashis utilised his expertise to set up the business's e-commerce platform. Sangeeta's knack for design and understanding the demands of female customers allowed her to understand fashion requirements. Lastly, Bharti's life experiences of coming from the tribal region of Ramgarh, Jharkhand and her understanding of the requirements among these communities helped her frame the sustainability initiatives for the brand. Purely Femme includes bras, panties, bikinis, nightwear and other sets made with premium materials like satin, silk, microfibre and organic cotton. The brand promotes environmental sustainability by using biodegradable packaging. Unlike other intimate wear brands, Purely Femme aims to empower women and incorporate social and environmental sustainability initiatives. Its purpose goes beyond producing quality lingerie for women. As co-founder Sangeeta says, "Through Purely Femme, we are building a movement that celebrates women's confidence instead of being just an intimate wear brand." Purely Femme brings about new changes in the intimate wear industry by combining comfort, quality, and elegant designs with social and environmental sustainability. This way, they speak to conscious customers who no longer have to compromise on anything when selecting their favourite lingerie. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) Witness described the horrifying scene after officials say a man intentionally drove a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more. The driver died after exchanging gunfire with police, the FBI said. Witnesses told CBS News reporter Kati Weis that a white truck crashed into people at high speed, leaving a path of carnage and distraught onlookers. Jim and Nicole Mowrer, visiting from Des Moines, Iowa, told CBS News they had watched the city's fireworks display and were enjoying the New Year's Day atmosphere in the French Quarter when they heard crashing noises coming from down the street. They said they then saw a white truck slam through a barricade "at a high rate of speed." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Mowrers said they heard gunshots after the crashing noises and went to try to help people they found wounded, but realized the victims had died. "They just were very clearly deceased and there's nothing we could do," said Jim Mowrer, who said he was an Iraq war veteran and that his goal was to provide first aid. The Mowrers estimated that the truck hit people only about a block away from where they had been walking. "We were in the middle of the road and managed to run off the road onto the sidewalk and into the doorway of a building for cover. We did hear gunfire, saw police running," Jim said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We stayed in the alcove until the gunfire stopped, came out into the street, and came across a lot of several people who had been hit, (we) wanted to see what we could do to help," he said. "People we came across were unfortunately deceased." The Mowrers said the victims they saw had injuries from the truck impact, and they did not see any apparent gunshot wounds. They said several victims were surrounded by emotional loved ones. "It seemed like there were people who were, you know, people who are with those people or friends, and, obviously very, very distraught, because they seem to be people that they knew," Jim said. They said they left the area once emergency responders started arriving. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could," Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. "He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did." The suspect was struck by police fire and declared dead at the scene, the New Orleans Police Department said. The FBI said it is investigating the attack "as an act of terrorism." In a 2017 memo reviewed by CBS News, the city of New Orleans had acknowledged the risk of a mass casualty incident in the crowded, tourist-friendly French Quarter. The memo specifically references vehicle attacks in Nice, France, London, England, and New York City. The city said it planned to establish a camera and surveillance program, a centralized command center and more police patrols in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say What's known about possible explosives, suspect after truck slams into New Orleans crowd CHICAGO A death investigation is underway after a 33-year-old woman was found dead inside a home in the citys West Loop neighborhood. Police said officers responded to a call for service just before 8 p.m. Wednesday on the 1500 block of West Warren Boulevard. Upon arrival, a woman was found unresponsive inside a residence. According to police, the woman appeared to have sustained trauma to the head. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pedestrian struck and killed by Metra train between Waukegan and North Chicago, spokesperson confirms She was pronounced dead on the scene. Area Three Detectives are investigating. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Reports said a woman who was stripping Wednesday and dancing on tables at a South Side bar spit blood in the face of three city police officers. Read next: Winter weather advisories issued for local counties Jaleesa Williams, 34, is charged with felonious assault, a second-degree felony; harassment by an inmate, a fifth-degree felony; and misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, failure to disclose information and public indecency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is unclear when she will be arraigned. She was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center to be examined after she was arrested about 8:10 p.m. by police at a 1418 East Midlothian Blvd. bar. Reports said two officers responded to a 911 call by a bar employee saying a woman later identified as Williams was dancing on tables and taking her clothes off and refusing to leave. When officers arrived, they found Williams, who appeared to be very drunk, and told her she could leave on her own or they would watch the bars surveillance videos of her conduct so they would know what to charge her with. Williams told police to watch the videos, reports said. When an officer went to an office to watch the videos, Williams chased after him. When the other officer tried to stop her, she punched that officer in the face, reports said. Both officers then took her to the ground to try and control her, reports said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two officers tried to take her to a cruiser, but she pushed away from them and then spit blood and saliva in both their faces, reports said. A third officer arrived along with an ambulance and the plan was to put a spit mask on her so she could be transported to St. Elizabeth, reports said. The first two officers distracted her while the third officer tried to put the mask on her from behind, but she turned around and spit in that officers face as well, reports said. Police were able to get the spit shield on and Williams was taken to the hospital. According to records at the Mahoning County jail, she has yet to be booked. The officers were also treated at St. Elizabeth and decontaminated as well, reports said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reports said police watched the bars video system and they could see Williams dancing on people who tried to get away from her and taking her clothes off. She could also be seen on the video punching and struggling with police, reports said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. A Delta flight headed to Sao Paulo had to return to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Wednesday night due to an engine issue. Flight 105 landed safely just after 7 p.m. shortly after it had taken off. A Channel 2 Action News viewer sent video that she said showed what looked like a fire coming from the engine but it quickly went out. Jameelah Asim sent in video of what she said was flames coming from the engine of plane landing at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The viewer said she heard loud explosions come from the plane and visible flames shooting from the engine before it extinguished. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delta confirmed that there was a problem with the left engine. The airline said that plane was met with firetrucks upon landing, and they also sprayed down the planes breaks as a precautionary measure due to the heavier than normal landing weight. TRENDING STORIES: We are working to re-accommodate all 257 passengers on a different aircraft this evening. We apologize to our customers for this delay in their travels, the airline said in a statement. Delta said they hoped to have everyone back in the air by 10 p.m. A Brooklyn woman who was mercilessly stalked by deranged subway shoving suspect Kamel Hawkins said he terrified her for weeks and is grateful she wasnt the one who he eventually put in the hospital. It could have been me, said the woman, who asked not to be identified, told The Post Wednesday. People always say that you gotta read the red flags, and Im glad I did. Its sad she added. I dont wish nothing bad for him. He could have finished school and become an IT tech. He could have left the projects. He could have changed his own story. Kamel Hawkins, 23, is facing harassment charges for allegedly stalking a former Brooklyn gal pal in October. Obtained by the NY Post Instead, Hawkins, 23, was arraigned on attempted murder and assault charges in Manhattan Criminal Court in the horrifying caught-on-vide transit attack on 45-year-old straphanger Joseph Lynskey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hawkins was already facing assault and harassment charges in Brooklyn when he allegedly shoved Lynskey who miraculously survived despite a skull fracture, broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. The victim was listed in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital on Wednesday. According to Hawkins alleged stalking victim, the two met while studying at Brooklyn Job Corps. She said the two started hanging out but the relationship never turned romantic and quickly fizzled out after Hawkins slugged her dog for no reason in the summer. Kamel Hawkins was charged with attempted murder and assault this week for allegedly shoving an innocent bystander in front of a Manhattan subway train. William Farrington Police said Kamel Hawkins was caught on video shoving a straphanger onto the tracks on Tuesday. Paul Martinka I went back in the room, like, Did you just hit my dog? And hes like, Yeah, that na is wilin. Why would you hit my dog? My dog is like my kid, she said. After that I let him know Im not cool with him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the woman said Hawkins didnt get the message, even after she blocked him on her phone. On Oct. 9 he showed up at her apartment. Out of nowhere hes kicking my door. Hes got his ski mask on, she said. She said it continued to happen over the coming days, prompting her to show up at Hawkins fathers apartment at Whitman Houses in Brooklyn to no avail. Kamel Hawkins (middle background) is arrested in Oct. 19, 2024 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kamel Hawkins former gal pal said he threw bleach at her when she tried to stop him from harassing her. Tell your son to stop kicking down my door, its scary,' the woman said she told Shamel Hawkins. Hes sending me sexual text messages. It seemed his dad more wanted us to move away from the door. [Kamel] comes to the door, same ski mask hes wearing in the video, she said. He threw bleach on me and my best friend. It got in my eye. Hes screaming, You bitches is crazy. I dont know you bitches.' She said the harassment reached a fever pitch on Oct. 19. I came outside. I was going to hang out with my boyfriend, and he had the same ski mask, same hoodie from the [subway shove] video, she recalled. I pulled out my pepper spray. I told him Im going to pepper spray you. He picked up a canned drink and threw it at me, You dont got your boyfriend with you, you dont got you uncle with you, Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I sprayed him, but it didnt really do anything, she said. Horrifying video footage shows Joseph Lynskey, center, being shoved in front of a 1 train in Manhattan on Tuesday. Obtained by the NY Post Thats when the woman called the cops and Hawkins was arrested only to be released without bail on Oct. 20 and have his case sent to a more lenient youth court part, where he was qualified to enter a diversion program for young adults. Meanwhile, the frightened woman was forced to request an emergency New York City Housing Authority relocation on Nov. 11 and now lives at a different housing complex. He creeps around, she said of Hawkins. You dont even know where hes at. One time me and my boyfriend was sitting outside, 2, 3 in the morning, and then he was just walking, like thats weird. BOSTON (WPRI) Two men arrested in connection to the shooting death of a 37-year-old man in Bostons Dorchester neighborhood last month have now been charged with murder. 25-year-old Darius Powell of Woonsocket and 25-year-old Daiquan Miller of Dorchester were already in custody for gun-related charges, Boston police said. BACKGROUND: Woonsocket man arrested in connection with Boston homicide Investigators believe both men were responsible for the death of Keith Cousin of Bayonne New Jersey, who was shot on Devon Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police previously said officers arrested the men after a chase when they saw them leaving an alley on Columbia Road. According to police, two firearms were found following the chase. The department are encouraging anyone with additional information to call their homicide unit at 617-343-4470. NEXT: New Bedford sued by estate of former fire chief killed after shooting police officer Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. Jan. 1Workers can get more money per week from a workers' compensation claim, and at the same time businesses are being asked to pay less into the state workers' comp system. Effective Jan 1, New York's workers compensation program is getting rebalanced the minimum weekly benefit for an employee receiving workers' compensation will go up to $325, up from the $150 per week the program has offered for over a decade. Effective in 2026, the maximum weekly benefit will be pegged to the state average weekly wage. At the same time, the businesses that pay into the state workers' compensation program will see a decrease in their responsibility. Effective Jan. 1, the assessment rate for employers will be 7.1% of the standard premium or equivalent, a decrease of 22% from 2024. That's expected to save private businesses $191 million across the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Workers' compensation is an insurance program that eligible private companies are required to pay into it covers costs for employees who are injured or fall ill as a direct result of their occupation, with claims processed by a board of officials nominated by state elected leaders. The state collects an assessment fee, charged by the insurance companies that carry the policies and passed through to the state, to administer the program. Additionally, the paid family leave program that provides up to 12 weeks of job protection and paid time off for employees to care for a new child, a sick family member or assist when a family member is deployed on active military service is getting a boost. Starting Jan. 1, any New Yorker can receive up to $14,127.84 in benefits from the program, a boost of $300 from 2024. The maximum total benefit per week will be $1,757.19, and recipients get 67% of their annual weekly wage from the program up to that cap. "Hardworking New Yorkers shouldn't have to worry about how they'll buy food or pay rent when they need time off to care for a new child or family member with a serious health condition, or get injured on the job," Governor Kathleen C. Hochul said. "Likewise, business owners who have their own bills to pay and families to support also need affordable solutions." WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) Wichita State University will close on Thursday, Jan. 9, in observance of the National Day of Mourning for President Jimmy Carter. Carter died Sunday at the age of 100. The White House announced that Jan. 9 will be a National Day of Mourning and the official state funeral. Then, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued an executive order closing state offices for that day and designating it a paid legal holiday for state employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WSU says all pre-session classes will be canceled for the day. What is the National Day of Mourning all about? The university also observed the legal holidays after the deaths of Presidents Ronald Reagan in 2004, Gerald Ford in 2007 and George H.W. Bush in 2018. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV. YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) Today was more than just New Years Day for one special Midstate veteran. Truman Christian served as a machine gunner in the Battle of the Bulge, and today he walked into a surprise 100th birthday party at VFW Post 537 in Newberry Township, York County. Elected leaders were there on their holiday to wish Christian a Happy Birthday and honor him for his service. Close Thanks for signing up! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Breaking News Alerts I dont feel much different than I did yesterday, said Christian with a laugh. Ive had a lot of them thats for sure. Keep active, and I think thats very importantmaybe inherit a little DNA or something, but you also have to take care of yourself. You actually might remember Truman Christian from a previous story about his cousin, David Christian, who died after being shot down in Vietnam. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. Xcel Energy is proposing rate increases of almost 10% for Minnesota customers this year. On Nov. 1, Minnesota's biggest electricity provider submitted a proposal for new rates to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The proposal calls for a 9.6% rate increase in 2025, marking an average increase of $9.89 on an Xcel customers monthly bill. The proposal goes on to ask for a 3.6% increase in 2026, which translates to an average increase of $3.90 per month for its 1.5 million customers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Xcel, which posted $682 million in 3rd quarter profits in September a rise of almost 4% on a year earlier, claims the new rates will increase the "reliability and resiliency" of its system as well as help pay for its clean energy projects and nuclear plants. While the PUC reviews the request, Xcel has implemented a 5.2% interim increase, which took effect Jan. 1. Xcel Energy at 400 Nicollet Mall. Courtesy of Google Streetview. The PUC is expected to decide on the proposal by the summer. If the actual rate increases are less than the interim rate increases, Xcel says it will refund the difference to customers as a credit on bill statements. Members of the public can submit a comment on the proposal here. VMPL New Delhi [India], January 2: India has one of the largest and most dynamic aviation markets in the world. With a growing population of travelers seeking convenient & affordable air travel options, the domestic aviation industry has witnessed remarkable growth over the years. Domestic airlines in India have become synonymous with connectivity, reliability, & comfort, linking even the remotest corners of the country. Whether you're traveling for business, leisure, or family purposes, India's domestic airlines cater to every need. In this, we will explore the top domestic airlines in India, their features, services, and why they stand out. This guide will also provide insights into the list of domestic airlines in India, their routes, and key facts to help you make an informed decision. Importance of Domestic Airlines in India Domestic airlines play a pivotal role in connecting India's vast & diverse geography. From crowded metropolitan cities to serene hill stations & remote regions, these airlines ensure seamless connectivity. The Indian aviation industry's emphasis on affordability and innovation has made air travel accessible to millions. Moreover, domestic flights India save significant travel time, making them a preferred choice for both short and long distances. With over 15 domestic airlines operating in India, travelers can choose from budget carriers to premium airlines offering luxurious experiences. Let's dive into the top Indian domestic airlines that redefine air travel in the country. Top 4 Domestic Airlines Of India 1. IndiGo IndiGo is India's largest and most preferred airline, known for its punctuality, affordability, and extensive network. Established in 2006, IndiGo has grown exponentially, capturing over 55% of the domestic aviation market share. The airline is particularly popular among business and leisure travelers alike for its no-frills approach and consistent on-time performance. Focuses Of Indigo Airlines - Extensive Network: IndiGo operates over 1,500 daily flights connecting 74 domestic destinations and multiple international routes. -Modern Fleet: The airline boasts a young and fuel-efficient fleet, primarily consisting of Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft. - Low Fare Domestic Flights: IndiGo's competitive pricing strategy ensures affordability without compromising quality. -On-Time Performance: Consistently rated as one of the most punctual airlines in India. Highlighted Services -"6E Prime" packages offer added convenience, such as priority check-in, extra legroom, and meal selection. - IndiGo's user-friendly mobile app and website make booking, managing, and checking flight statuses easy. -Partnerships with hotels and cab services enhance the overall travel experience for customers. Why Choose IndiGo? IndiGo's consistent performance, affordability, and extensive domestic and international network make it the top choice for many Indian travelers. The airline's commitment to customer satisfaction is evident in its high repeat customer rate. 2. Air India Air India, the flag carrier of India, holds a prestigious place in the country's aviation history. Founded in 1932, Air India operates both domestic and international flights, making it one of the most comprehensive airlines in India. Known for its iconic Maharaja mascot, the airline is a symbol of Indian hospitality. Focuses Of Air India Airlines - Legacy Airline: Air India has a rich heritage, serving domestic and international routes for decades. - Extensive Coverage: This Airline Connects major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai to smaller towns and remote regions. - Longest Domestic Flight in India: Air India also Operates the longest domestic flight from Delhi to Port Blair. - In-Flight Experience: Passengers of Air India enjoy complimentary meals, beverages, and a generous baggage allowance. Highlighted Services - Air India Business class passengers can access the luxurious Maharaja Lounge at select airports. - Air India offers Special discounts for students, senior citizens, & military personnel. - Air India's loyalty program, Flying Returns, offers exclusive rewards for frequent travelers. Why Choose Air India? Air India is ideal for travelers seeking a premium experience with extensive route options. It's particularly popular among families and long-haul travelers due to its comfortable seating and in-flight amenities. 3. SpiceJet SpiceJet is a leading low-cost carrier in India, offering affordable travel options without compromising safety and reliability. Launched in 2005, the airline has established itself as a favorite among budget-conscious travelers. Focuses Of SpiceJet - Wide Network: SpiceJet operates flights to over 50 domestic destinations, including tier-2 and tier-3 cities. - Affordable Fares: SpiceJet frequently offers promotional discounts and low-cost tickets. - Fleet: SpiceJet utilizes Boeing 737 and Bombardier Q400 aircraft for short and medium-haul routes. Highlighted Services -SpiceJet service provides extra legroom, priority boarding, and complimentary meals for a nominal fee. -SpiceJet charter services are available for personalized travel experiences. -This Airline has dedicated cargo services that ensure the timely delivery of goods. Why Choose SpiceJet? SpiceJet's affordability and reliable performance make it a top choice for domestic travelers. The airline's commitment to customer satisfaction is reflected in its numerous awards and recognitions. 4. Akasa Air Akasa Air, India's newest airline, began operations in 2022 with a mission to offer a seamless and customer-centric travel experience. Backed by investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and led by aviation veterans, Akasa Air is rapidly gaining popularity in the domestic aviation market. Focuses Of Akasa Airline - Modern Fleet: Akasa Air operates a young fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, ensuring fuel efficiency and reduced environmental impact. - Affordable Travel: This Airline focuses on competitive pricing to attract a wide range of travelers. - Customer-Centric Services: Akasa offers comfortable seating, spacious legroom, and a variety of onboard meal options. Higlighted Services - Dedicated mobile app and website for seamless booking and managing flight details. - Commitment to sustainability, with initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. - Frequent flyer programs to reward loyal customers. Why Choose Akasa Air? Akasa Air is ideal for travelers looking for a fresh and reliable alternative in the Indian domestic aviation sector. Its modern fleet and customer-first approach ensure a pleasant travel experience. What makes Travanya the best choice for your domestic flight booking? Our trip booking site (Travanya) prioritizes transparency, affordability, and exceptional customer service, making us the perfect choice for booking your domestic flights in India. With 24x7 assistance, our travel experts are always available to help you at every step of your journey. We pride ourselves on charging no hidden convenience fees, ensuring a seamless and honest booking experience. Recognized by IndiGo Airlines with a prestigious Thank You Certificate for our outstanding contribution to their sales, we have built strong partnerships based on trust and shared goals. Our commitment to offering competitive fares, personalized travel solutions, and reliable service has earned us the trust of thousands of satisfied customers. Book your domestic flights with Travanya today and experience the convenience and care that set us apart! Exciting Deals & offers 1. Family Trip Deals: Save Rs1200 on round trips or Rs600 on one-way journeys. CODE: FAMILYFUN 2. Budget Fares with IndiGo: Guaranteed savings on IndiGo flights. CODE: Indigo-Offers 3. Travel Smart: Save Rs200 on one-way or Rs400 on round trips. 4. CODE: FLYONE 5. Travel Together: Discounts of Rs400 on one-way or Rs800 on round trips for two. CODE: FLYDOUBLE 6. Easy EMIs: Flexible payment options with HDFC cards. 7.24/7 Assistance: Round-the-clock support for all travel needs. Frequently Asked Questions Q: Are domestic flights operating in india? A: Yes, domestic flights are operating across India, connecting various cities with frequent services. Q: What is domestic airlines? A: Domestic airlines operate flights within a country's borders, providing air travel between cities and regions. Q: How many domestic airlines in india? A: India has several domestic airlines, including IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet, Go First, Vistara, Akasa Air, and Alliance Air. Q: Which domestic flight is best in india? A: IndiGo is considered one of the best domestic airlines in India for its extensive network, affordability, and punctuality. Q: Which are the top Indian domestic airlines?A: The top Indian domestic airlines include IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet, Go First, Vistara, and Akasa Air. Q: What are the best domestic airlines in India?A: IndiGo and Vistara are often considered the best domestic airlines in India due to their service quality and punctuality. Q: What is the longest domestic flight in India?A: The longest domestic flight in India is between Delhi and Port Blair, covering approximately 2,482 kilometers. Q: Are there low-fare domestic flights in India?A: Yes, airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Go First often provide low-fare domestic flights in India. Q: What are the domestic airlines' names operating in India?A: Some domestic airlines in India include IndiGo, SpiceJet, Go First, Vistara, Air India, and Akasa Air. For more information, please contact - Phone: +91-869-999-5345 - Email: info@travanya.com - Website: https://www.travanya.com - Website: https://www.travanya.ae (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) A deadly shooting on New Year's Eve at a north Phoenix apartment has resulted in an arrest. Jose Gonzalez Hernandez, 22, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Edi Ruiz, according to Phoenix police. Around 5 p.m. Tuesday, patrol officers responded to a reported shooting at an apartment complex on North 25th Street and Greenway Road and found Ruiz suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and without a pulse in the hallway of his apartment, according to police and court documents. Ruiz died at the scene, police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Detectives identified Gonzalez Hernandez as the shooter and he was located and booked by Wednesday, police said. Charging documents indicate Gonzalez Hernandez was identified by two of Ruiz's roommates. One roommate said she heard a gunshot and found the victim bleeding before seeing the suspect flee with a black bicycle, court records detail. A second roommate said they saw Gonzalez Hernandez walk to Ruiz's bedroom, knock on the door hearing them speak and then there being the sound of a gunshot before seeing the suspect flee, according to charging records. Police were able to locate Gonzalez Hernandez by tracking his cell phone, according to court records. No suspected motive was shared by police and what, if any, relationship between the victim and the suspect was also not given. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gonzalez Hernandez was booked into a Maricopa County jail and is being held on a $1 million bond, according to jail records. He has a preliminary court hearing set for Jan. 9, court records show. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: North Phoenix shooting leaves man dead, leads to murder suspect arrest Israels former defence minister has resigned from the countrys parliament over the governments intention to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from army service. Yoav Gallant, a senior member of Israels Right-wing Likud Party, said in a televised press conference on Wednesday that the government was advancing an enlistment law that contradicts the needs of the Israeli army and the security of Israel. Mr Gallant was fired from the government by Benjamin Netanyahu in November after months of disagreements over the conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza, but had kept his seat as an elected member of the Knesset. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and women have been largely exempt from army service since the establishment of Israel in 1948, while secular and traditional Jewish men and women must serve for a minimum of 32 and 24 months respectively. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish protest against calls to recruit them to the Israeli army - Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters The government is advancing a bill that promises to draft 4,800 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men only in the first year after the law is passed, according to Haaretz Daily. The total number of eligible ultra-Orthodox men stands at 14,049, which means only 35 per cent would be drafted. The issue has been hotly debated in Israeli politics for decades, even leading to the toppling of Mr Netanyahus government in 2018. Mr Gallant has faced criticism from government ministers over his decision to resign from the Knesset, with Israel Katz, his successor, saying: There should be no cynical political use of an ethical issue such as enlistment to the IDF. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Katz added that the enlistment law being advanced by the government would be a historic turning point and recruit tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox to meaningful service in the IDF. But Mr Gallants decision was supported by Yair Lapid, Israels opposition leader, who said the former defence minister told the simple truth. He was fired in order to pass a shameful draft evasion and refusal law, which is a betrayal of our fighters, the fallen and the wounded, he said. Mr Netanyahus ultra-orthodox coalition partners have threatened to leave the government in recent months over the failure to pass a new law that would exempt their youth from army enlistment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he was preparing to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria, less than a month after the overthrow of the Russia-backed government in Damascus. Zelenskiy spoke after a visit to Syria by his Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, and by Agriculture Minister Vitaliy Koval who said earlier Ukraine had already sent a shipment of food aid. "We are preparing to resume diplomatic relations with Syria and cooperation in international organisations," Zelenskiy said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Syria in June 2022 after the then government in Damascus said it recognised the "independence" of the Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Since rebels overthrew Syria's President Bashar al-Assad last month, Ukraine has been moving to build ties with the new Islamist rulers there. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, was a staunch ally of Assad and has given him political asylum. Kyiv also planned to increase trade with Lebanon and at least double its agriculture exports from $400 million, Zelenskiy added. Zelenskiy previously said that Ukraine would send 500 metric tons of wheat flour to Syria under Kyiv's humanitarian "Grain from Ukraine" initiative in cooperation with the U.N. World Food Programme. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The delivery would provide resources for around 167,000 Syrians for a month, Koval said in a televised interview. He added that the shipment will not be the last and that Syria was also interested in oil, sugar and meat deliveries. "Today, at the level of government dialogue, we clearly understand that support should be sustainable and not a one-off, but rather long-lasting and predictable," Koval said. Moscow has also said it is in contact with the new administration in Damascus, including over the fate of Russian military facilities in Syria. (Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; Editing by David Goodman and Andrew Heavens) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Ukraines defence forces units that continue to repel the fiercest Russian assaults. Source: Zelenskyy on Facebook Quote: "Thank you to all [Ukrainian] units that are striking the Russian army and destroying the occupiers. For their achievements in recent battles, I want to acknowledge the 24th and 100th Separate Mechanised Brigades, which repelled one of the fiercest Russian assaults just before the New Year, as well as the 59th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade and the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade, which are defending Pokrovsk, and the 79th Airborne Brigade, for their exceptional efforts. Well done, soldiers! Thank you all!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: On 2 January, an uncrewed aerial systems battalion of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanised Brigade reported the destruction of seven pieces of Russian equipment on the Bakhmut front in Donetsk Oblast over the past 24 hours. Support UP or become our patron! Ukraine's operation in Russia's Kursk Oblast is a "trump card" for any negotiations and has been hugely significant to the countries of the Global South, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Source: an interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olena Zelenska on the 24/7 national joint newscast on 2 January Quote: "Kursk is a very strong trump card. In all negotiations. Especially with countries that are very important to us. Especially with the countries of the Global South. I never thought it would have such a significant impact on them. But it did." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: The president revealed that the countries of the Global South were impressed by the fact that Ukrainian forces are pushing back on Russian territory and maintaining control, while Russian troops "are increasing their contingents and yet cannot achieve anything". Quote: "Even the fact that they brought in the North Korean contingent has worked against them. Where did they send it? To that very place [Kursk Oblast ed.] again. I think that was a tactical mistake on their part." Background: Evaluating the results of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive in Kursk Oblast, Zelenskyy highlighted the fact that the Kursk Operation has significantly aided Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and has provided one of the largest contributions to Ukraine's prisoner exchange pool. Admiral Robert Bauer, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, said the Ukrainian operation in Russia's Kursk Oblast has created a strategic problem for Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin. Support UP or become our patron! President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that any security guarantees for Ukraine will require United States involvement in order to be effective. Source: an interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olena Zelenska on the 24/7 national joint newscast on 2 January, as reported by European Pravda Details: Zelenskyy mentioned the role of the US in security guarantees as he outlined his vision of a just peace for Ukraine. He believes such peace must include "strong, powerful security guarantees", adding that "NATO is the best option for us". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote: "We are fighting for this and will continue to fight. If not [referring to NATO membership ed.], I would not want to speculate on alternatives. However, any security guarantees without the US are weak security guarantees for Ukraine." More details: Zelenskyy cited Israel as an example. Although not a NATO member, Israel has security guarantees from the US and other nations that have supported it in repelling drone and missile attacks. Quote: "There are many aspects to these security guarantees. So far, no one has proposed such guarantees for Ukraine." The president emphasised that security guarantees are a crucial component of a strong position for Ukraine in any negotiations with Russia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: European Commission President Kaja Kallas has said that Western countries should stop pressuring Ukraine into peace talks and instead ensure their promises of security guarantees to Kyiv are not empty. Support UP or become our patron! Ukraine is preparing to restore diplomatic relations with Syria, where the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was recently overthrown. Source: Zelenskyy on Telegram Quote: "This year, we plan to expand our list of reliable partners, including Syria. We are preparing to restore diplomatic relations with Syria and enhance cooperation with international organisations. Additionally, we aim to boost trade with Lebanon. At present, our agricultural exports to Lebanon total just US$400 million, and we are working to at least double that figure." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Following the fall of Assad's regime, Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that this will "significantly weaken the expansionism of Russia, which for years has used the Syrian territory, its resources and people as a foothold to spread its destructive influence in the Middle East". Quote: "We remind that it is Moscow that prompted the Assad regime to illegally recognise Russia's attempt to annex Crimea, as well as the temporary occupation of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, forcing Ukraine to break diplomatic relations with Assads criminal regime in 2022," Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry stated on 8 December. Background: A Ukrainian delegation led by Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha visited Syria and met with the de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Damascus on 30 December. Sybiha later said that Ukraine is ready to restore diplomatic relations with Syria and hopes that the new leadership will respect the country's territorial integrity. Support UP or become our patron! President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that the deployment of European peacekeepers in Ukraine is possible but should not preclude Ukraines future membership of NATO. Source: an interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olena Zelenska on the 24/7 national joint newscast on 2 January, as reported by European Pravda Details: Zelenskyy said that Ukraine supported French President Emmanuel Macron's initiative to deploy a French contingent in Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote from Zelenskyy: "But France alone is not enough. We would not want it to be one or two countries if it came to this initiative. It should definitely be on our path to NATO membership. This does not mean that the deployment of European forces precludes our future in NATO." More details: Zelenskyy noted that in addition to France, the idea of a contingent might be supported by the United Kingdom "and some other countries that we agreed not to talk about it out loud with they are worried about announcing it in the media now as they are afraid of Russia's influence." The president also mentioned that the idea of European peacekeepers was raised during his meeting with Macron and US President-elect Donald Trump. "I saw that Trump was positive about this idea. But I raised the issue that we have not yet heard which specific countries would be among these forces, and whether the United States would be one of them," Zelenskyy added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: Earlier, Zelenskyy admitted that the idea of deploying a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine as a deterrent against a new Russian attack had been discussed at meetings in Brussels, and said he was already "seeing positive things" from some leaders. Support UP or become our patron! Bollywood actor Sonu Sood on Thursday offered prayer at the Shree Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, ahead of the theatrical release of his directorial debut 'Fateh'. Sonu Sood donned a black t-shirt with his film name 'Fateh' written on it. The actor was surrounded by his fans who left no chance to take a snap with their favourite actor. He greeted his fans and snapped a few photographs with them before leaving in his car. The actor has been visiting several religious places in India for the success of his directorial debut. Sonu Sood recently visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The actor shared a video of his visit to the iconic shrine on social media, along with the caption, "Waheguru ji da Khalsa, Waheguru ji di Fateh." In the video, Sonu can be seen seeking blessings at the shrine, having a hearty talk with his fans and clicking pictures with them. 'Fateh' is slated for release on January 10, 2025. Directed by Sood, the film is a gripping tale that focuses on the fight against cybercrime, inspired by real-life instances during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent statement, Sonu reflected on the emotional and passionate journey of stepping into the director's chair. "Stepping into the director's chair for the first time with Fateh has been a journey of passion and purpose. This action saga calls attention to the unseen battles fought in the shadows of the digital world." The actor expressed excitement over the film's teaser release, adding, "It's a glimpse into a world we've poured our hearts into creating, and I can't wait for viewers to experience the adrenaline, the emotions, and the sheer power of Fateh." Sood described the film as an "ode to every hero who dares to fight back against impossible odds" and expressed his hope that the film would inspire and electrify viewers. Alongside Sood, the film features a star-studded cast including Jacqueline Fernandez, Vijay Raaz, and Naseeruddin Shah. The film promises high-octane action sequences and an engaging narrative. Before his visit to the Golden Temple, Sood had also paid a visit to the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. Reflecting on his spiritual journey, Sood remarked, "When I made the film Fateh, it started with the darshan of Baba Mahakal, and when we are releasing the film on January 10, our promotion begins from here. I pray that with his blessings our film becomes successful." (ANI) Actor Alia Bhatt posted adorable pictures as she welcomed the New Year with her loved ones. On Thursday, the 'Jigra' actor dropped endearing pictures on Instagram and wrote, "2025: where love leads & the rest just follows...!! Happy New Year all." https://www.instagram.com/p/DEU8DUFT2ok/?hl=en&img_index=4 Alia shared a selfie with her husband and actor Ranbir Kapoor where he can be seen kissing Alia while daughter Raha Kapoor can be seen sitting in his lap. In one of the pictures, Alia is enjoying the sunset with Ranbir and Raha on a yacht. She also dropped pictures with family and friends featuring her mother and sister Soni Razdan and Shaheen Bhatt, in-laws Riddhima Kapoor Sahni and Neetu Kapoor and Ayan Mukerji. Alia and Ranbir are currently vacationing in Thailand with their family and close friends. Several pictures from their trip surfaced online. Recently, the latest image that popped up on social media showed the entire family having a fun time on a yacht. Ranbir's sister Riddhima Kapoor Sahni shared the mega fam jam picture on her Instagram feed in which of all them can be seen posing together, dishing out "Hum Saath Saath Hain" vibes. https://www.instagram.com/p/DESJR8Szvoo/?hl=en "Memories made together last a lifetime," she captioned the image. Familiar faces in the picture included Ranbir, Alia, their daughter Raha, Riddhima, Neetu Kapoor, Soni Razdan, Riddhima's husband and businessman Bharat, their daughter Samara. They were also joined by Rohit Dhawan, his Jaanvi wife, and filmmaker Ayan Mukerji among others. https://www.instagram.com/p/DETlH1vyxgU/?hl=en&img_index=1 Neetu Kapoor, too, shared a couple of images. One of the images that stole everyone's heart is of Alia enjoying the sunset with Raha. They all celebrated New Year together in Thailand. From their bash, many videos and pictures went viral. In one of the viral clips, Ranbir can be seen rushing towards Alia as soon as the clock struck midnight, ushering in 2025. The couple wished each other a Happy New Year with a kiss. Ranbir and Alia's romantic reaction was accompanied by the mesmerizing display of fireworks lighting up the night sky. Meanwhile, on the work front, Alia will be seen headlining spy drama 'Alpha' with Sharvari. Directed by Shiv Rawail, 'Alpha' is set to be a notable addition to Yash Raj Films' acclaimed spy universe. On the other hand, Ranbir was last seen in 'Animal' alongside Triptii Dimri and Rashmika Mandanna. The actor has the sequel of 'Animal', titled 'Animal Park'. Apart from this, he has Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Love And War' alongside Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal. He is also a part of Nitesh Tiwari's 'Ramayan'. (ANI) Opposition Tisza leader Peter Magyar said in a new year's message on Wednesday that his party represented a new force that is able to govern Hungary and "give back to the country what has been taken away from it: decency, self-respect, justice, and hope for a better life". In a video on Facebook, he called on Prime Minister Viktor Orban to "hold a new election and give Hungarians back the right to make a decision". "We have no more time to waste, a new election and a new mandate is needed," he said. He called for early election to be held as soon as possible "because we have no more time to waste, Hungarians do not have another year, they cannot retreat further". Magyar said that in 2008 Orban had called for early election, urging the government of the time to move away in the interest of the country. "For the ruling party at the time, its own prosperity was more important than the interests of the country," he said, adding that "you have since become Ferenc Gyurcsany", referring to the prime minister at the time. "Enough of the propaganda of hatred, of warmongering, lies and throwing money around," he said. He said 2025 would be dedicated to hope and "we will claim back our home country from the 3,000 people who currently enjoy the fruits of hatred and division, and who laugh contemptuously from the success of another smear campaign". "We Hungarians will move away from the hatred and division forced upon us, and will show that love is stronger than hate," he said. "With the help of well-meaning and decent Hungarian people, we will be able to build a new Hungary," the Tisza leader added. He said it would be "a country where families are able to make a decent living from their income, where the government is not ruling over the people, where there is no place for abuse of power, and the operation of the government is not based on all-pervasive corruption". He added that it would be a country "where health care, education and state administration again serve the wellbeing of the people, where our children get quality education and still enjoy themselves, where the administration of justice functions again and all offenders will be called to account, where our elderly fellow countrymen can spend their well-deserved old years with their families in a predictable way, with access to quality health services. A country that our Hungarian brothers and sisters from abroad can continue to rely on, where everybody can be proud of their origins, their religion, their cultural heritage, and where everyone can advance regardless of the environment they were born into," he added. "We Hungarians will reach out to each other, to everyone, also to Fidesz supporters, left-wingers, and liberals." he said. Magyar: Tisza Party 'switching to campaign mode' Tisza Party leader Peter Magyar has declared the second half of April as a "realistic" target period to hold an early general election, saying that the opposition party will switch to "campaign mode" from Jan 6. In a statement on Thursday, Magyar said the number of unique views of his New Year's speech had reached 2 million. "Tisza's message has reached the vast majority of our compatriots," he added in the statement. If Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not balk at the initiative, then an early elections "could realistically take place in the second half of April," the statement said. He said Tisza was stepping up the process of selecting 106 individual parliamentary candidates and finalising the party's governing manifesto. "The stakes are huge for the future of our families and our country," he said, appealing to supporters to "contribute financially, as volunteers and as experts, according to their capabilities..." Magyar also said his party would "represent every Hungarian as equals, regardless of origin or party affiliation", adding that: "The homeland comes first." Kocsis: 'Brussels impatient, not Magyar' Mate Kocsis, the group leader of ruling Fidesz, rejected Tisza leader Peter Magyar's call for early elections, adding: "It isn't Peter Magyar who is impatient to hold early elections but his handlers in Brussels." Responding to Magyar's speech on New Year's Eve, Kocsis said that Tisza "can't seriously want early elections, seeing as they can't even run at the by-elections in Dombovar next week". "It is Manfred Weber et al who want to put their hands on Hungary; they are very much bothered by the sovereigntist Hungarian government and by its obstruction of their idiotic and dangerous plans. We are in their way... They're impatient; they are the ones who want to topple the government as soon as possible...", Kocsis said. Kocsis said Hungarian voters in past elections had decided on Hungary's direction and would do so again in 2026. Source: MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881. Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony said in a new year's message on Wednesday that a new city unification must be started to strengthen communities and local ties. He said that on this day 75 years ago, Greater Budapest had been created by merging Ujpest, Csepel, Kispest, Budafok, Pestszenterzsebet, Pestszentlorinc, Rakospalota, and 16 suburban settlements into one city. He added that unification was the basis of Budapest's entire later history, with the merging of Obuda, Buda, Pest and later 23 additional settlements. "City unification is not a finished past but a continuous present," he said. "The culture and style of political debate is at present at an all-time low, and it is Budapest's job to present an example that went against this," Karacsony said. He added that new political players were part of the majority in the new municipal general assembly that was formed in 2024. "Many people thought, suggested and some even threatened that it will not work. But they were wrong. The city has a budget, we have made a large number of important decisions, and we have stood up for Budapest's self-governance," he said. Karacsony cited problems and tasks linked to climate change, housing, air pollution, environmental pollution, and division built on populism. "All of which gives us obligations because we must not leave it to our children to solve the issues that affect our planet, our environment and our cities during our lifetime", he said. The mayor said that the agglomeration and areas located between the old city borders and the settlements that were incorporated into Budapest in 1950 represented a "gold reserve" for Budapest. He said these should be made use of and linked to the life of the city. Karacsony said there was an opportunity to create new residential areas without increasing the congestion of the city. "Political will is needed, and the will to serve public interests as against private interests," he added. The mayor said Budapest already understood this and it was now up to the government to follow suit. "This government or the next one. That Budapest's gold reserves must not be wasted, turned into a mini-Dubai, getting degraded into profits for private investors - we suspect who they are. We have been fighting with all our strength and will continue to do so in 2025 to go against policies that use up resources for the future and sell out the country, our home," Karacsony added. Source: MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881. ********************************* You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoops groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? Then just contact us here. The Kumbh Mela is more than a festivalit is a grand celebration of spirituality, faith, and cultural harmony. In 2025, millions of devotees from across the globe will gather in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, for the Maha Kumbh Mela, one of Hinduism's most revered religious events. Held every 12 years, this sacred gathering has its origins in the ancient myth of the Samudra Manthan, the cosmic churning of the ocean by gods and demons in their quest for the nectar of immortality. Taking place from January 14 to February 26, 2025, the Kumbh Mela provides pilgrims a chance to wash away their sins by performing a ritual bath at the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers. The unique celestial alignments during this period are believed to enhance the spiritual energy of the site, making it an especially auspicious time for prayer, meditation, and self-purification. Purna Kumbh vs Maha Kumbh Purna Kumbh after 12 years, Ardh Kumbh every six years. This is Maha Kumbh because it comes once every 144 years that means after completion of 12 Purna Kumbh and this Maha Kumbh only happens in Prayagraj. Date For Holy Bath In Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 January 13, 2025: Paush Purnima January 14, 2025: Makar Sankranti (First Shahi Snan) January 29, 2025: Mauni Amavasya (Second Shahi Snan) February 3, 2025: Basant Panchami (Third Shahi Snan) February 12, 2025: Maghi Purnima. February 26, 2025: Mahashivratri (Final Snan) These dates hold immense significance, as millions of pilgrims will gather at the Sangam for these holy baths, which are believed to wash away sins and bring spiritual purification. Historical and Mythological Background The Kumbh Mela finds its roots in Hindu mythology, particularly in the tale of the Samudra Manthan, or the churning of the ocean. Ancient scriptures recount this cosmic event as a joint effort between the Devas (gods) and Asuras (demons) to obtain Amrit, the nectar of immortality. During the churning, a kumbh (pot) containing the nectar emerged. To prevent the demons from claiming immortality, Vishnu, in his form as Mohini, took possession of the pot and fled. Along the way, a few drops of the nectar fell at four locations: Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik. These four sites became sacred, hosting the Kumbh Mela on a rotating basis. Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) holds special significance not only because of its association with the myth but also due to its geography. It is home to the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers, considered one of Hinduisms holiest sites, infused with exceptional spiritual energy. The Kumbh Mela follows a 12-year cycle based on the celestial positions of the Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. The 2025 Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj is particularly remarkable, occurring once every 144 years. This rare celestial alignment is believed to make the festival an especially auspicious period for spiritual practices. Pilgrims flock to the rivers to take a holy dip, seeking to cleanse their sins and attain moksha (liberation). Beyond its religious importance, the Kumbh Mela embodies centuries-old cultural heritage, uniting millions in an extraordinary celebration of faith, devotion, and communal harmony. Significance of Ritual Bathing At the core of the Kumbh Mela is the sacred ritual of snan (holy bathing) in the revered rivers. Pilgrims from around the globe gather at the Triveni Sangamthe meeting point of the Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswatito immerse themselves in these spiritually charged waters. This ritual is not merely a physical act but is deeply symbolic, believed to bestow immense spiritual benefits. In Hindu tradition, bathing during the auspicious days of the Kumbh Mela is thought to cleanse one of sins accumulated over countless lifetimes, paving the way for moksha, or liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth. Vinayaka Chaturthi, also referred to as Varad Vinayaka Chaturthi, is an important Hindu festival dedicated to Lord Ganesha. It is observed on the fourth day of every lunar month in the Hindu calendar. This sacred day is celebrated with fasting, prayers, and various rituals. In January 2025, Vinayaka Chaturthi will be observed on January 3, which falls on a Friday, providing devotees with a chance to revere Lord Ganesha and ask for his blessings of wisdom, patience, and the fulfillment of their wishes. Vinayaka Chaturthi January 2025: Dates and Timings According to drik panchang, Date: January 3, Friday Chaturthi Tithi Begins: 01.08 AM Chaturthi Tithi Ends: 11.39 PM Vinayaka Chaturthi: Rituals On Vinayaka Chaturthi, devotees observe fasting and perform specific rituals to honor Lord Ganesha. The key aspects of the rituals include: Ganesha Puja: The central ritual involves offering prayers to Lord Ganesha, asking for his blessings of wisdom, patience, and the removal of obstacles. The puja is usually held in the afternoon during the auspicious time known as the Ganesha Puja Muhurta. Fasting: Devotees fast on this day, which may involve either abstaining from food or consuming only fruits and light meals. The fast is believed to purify the mind and body while deepening the connection with Lord Ganesha. Offerings: Offerings of sweets, particularly modaks (a sweet dumpling thought to be Lord Ganeshas favorite), are made to the deity. Devotees also present flowers, incense, and other traditional items during the puja. Prayers and Mantras: Devotees chant prayers and mantras to seek Lord Ganeshas blessings. A widely recited prayer is the Ganapati Atharvashirsha, a revered Sanskrit text that extols the greatness of Lord Ganesha. Significance of Vinayaka Chaturthi Vinayaka Chaturthi, although observed every month, holds particular significance for those aiming to overcome challenges and achieve success. Lord Ganesha, known as the "remover of obstacles," is believed to bestow his devotees with wisdom, patience, and the strength to tackle life's difficulties. The festival serves as a reminder of the importance of these qualities for personal growth and spiritual advancement. Beyond its spiritual importance, the festival fosters a sense of community and devotion. It encourages people to unite, participate in rituals, and celebrate Lord Ganeshas presence in their lives. Vinayaka Chaturthi is a key occasion for Hindu devotees to honor Lord Ganesha and seek his blessings for wisdom, prosperity, and success. Celebrated on the fourth day of each lunar month, it provides an opportunity for spiritual reflection, fasting, and worship. Whether you observe the festival in January 2025 or at any other time of the year, Vinayaka Chaturthi serves as a reminder of the transformative power of Lord Ganesha's blessings in overcoming obstacles. By following the proper rituals and timings, devotees can ensure they observe this auspicious day with reverence and devotion, deepening their connection with Lord Ganesha and inviting positivity into their lives. Amid the massive crackdown on illegal immigrants and the fake documentation racket in the national capital, the Delhi Police has arrested four people, including two Bangladeshi nationals, DCP South, Ankit Chauhan, said. Speaking on the matter, Joint Commissioner of Police, Sanjay Kumar Jain, said that South District AATS has busted an illegal Bangladeshi immigration racket, and 2 Bangladeshi and 2 Indian nationals have been arrested. The arrested Bangladeshi nationals are a married couple known as Bilal Hussain and Tanya Khan. "South District AATS has busted an illegal Bangladeshi immigration racket. We have arrested 2 Bangladeshi and 2 Indian nationals. The arrested Bangladeshi nationals are a married couple known as Bilal Hussain and Tanya Khan. They entered India in 2022. Their brother Anees Sheikh is the kingpin of their immigration and this racket. Aminul Islam, a resident of Assam has also been apprehended and provided transit facilities to the immigrants. Ashish Mehra, a resident of Gurugram made fake documents for them. Anees Sheikh is still at large and as far as we know, he is not in India... The two arrested Bangladeshis entered India through a donkey route that comes from Meghalaya..." #WATCH | Delhi | Joint Commissioner of Police, Sanjay Kumar Jain says, "South District AATS has busted an illegal Bangladeshi immigration racket. We have arrested 2 Bangladeshi and 2 Indian nationals. The arrested Bangladeshi nationals are a married couple known as Bilal Hussain https://t.co/NYrmJaDqot pic.twitter.com/4fGjc5ocE2 ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2025 A Bangladeshi national who was illegally residing in the national capital was apprehended and deported to Bangladesh following a verification drive launched by the staff of the Vasant Kunj South Police Station in the South West District. Delhi Police has arrested four people including 2 Bangladeshi nationals, in a major crackdown on illegal immigration and fake documentation racket: DCP South, Ankit Chauhan ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2025 The illegal immigrant identified as Md Bablu, a resident of Demra village in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was deported to Bangladesh through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). The authorities acted on a tip-off during an evening patrol on Tuesday regarding an illegal Bangladeshi national in the area. Acting upon the information, the team rushed to the spot and intercepted Bablu, news agency ANI reported, citing officials. In response to rising concerns over the unauthorized stay of migrants, including Bangladeshi nationals, in the capital, the South West District Police have intensified efforts to identify, detain, and repatriate individuals residing without valid Indian documents. A team was deployed to conduct thorough searches and gather intelligence to locate undocumented immigrants. The team was systematically briefed for day and night patrolling, ensuring effective vigilance and proactive measures against illegal activities. Meanwhile, Delhi police have identified more than 25 "illegal" immigrants from Bangladesh and have started the process to deport them to their home country, an official said. Special Commission of Police Law and Order Madhup Tiwari said that the drive to identify "illegal" immigrants from Bangladesh was being carried out on the orders of Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. "Following the LG's direction, we have launched a campaign in which we have started identifying illegal immigrants and deporting them. In Zone 2, the Southern zone, we have identified more than 25 such illegal immigrants so far and have also started the work of deporting them. At the same time, we had a big success in the South district, where we busted a racket in which we not only saw their route to come to India but also caught the people involved in it, who used to make their Aadhar cards here illegally," Tiwari told ANI. Further efforts are being made to identify more illegal migrants. (With ANI Inputs) Actor Ashutosh Rana on Wednesday visited the Delhi Police Library of Greater Kailash - 1 Police Station for underprivileged students and conveyed his surprise and admiration for the innovative idea of a library in a police station. While talking about his visit, the actor Ashutosh Rana said, "This is the first experience of my life so far that I have not seen people filled with self-guilt in the police station, but I have seen students full of hope and joy." He appreciated the cops for encouraging education by starting a library in the police station. He said, " If they are a vigilant watchdog, then this vigilant watchdog is also working to prepare vigilant people somewhere because I can't even imagine that there will be a library in a police station." Asutosh continued, "Any police station will have girls taking skill development courses. Keeping my hopes and expectations in mind in a police station, I will not call them study chariots. Whenever I meet these children, I will call them, children engaged in spiritual practice because they are doing 'sadhana' in such a place which definitely works to cultivate the society somewhere. " Ashutosh Rana also called for the adoption of the same initiative by other police stations and members of the society. "If our whole society starts doing, then we will be a bridge to the society and we will be there for the society as well." Ashutosh Rana will be next seen in the film 'War 2.' Directed by Ayan Mukerji, 'War 2' is scheduled to hit theatres on Independence Day 2025. Recently, Yash Raj Films introduced Hrithik's character in a post-credit scene from the Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer 'Tiger 3,' generating excitement among fans for the upcoming sequel. The film is a sequel to the 2019 action thriller film 'War' which starred Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff and Vani Kapoor in the lead roles. Directed by Siddarth Anand, this high-octane action drama minted Rs 200 crores within seven days of its release in 2019. It's touted to be one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of that year. (ANI) Political parties are going all out, including announcing freebies for the people of the national capital, aiming to secure victory in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls. On Thursday, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari announced that the Union government will execute projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore to change the infrastructure of Delhi. "I promise you that works worth Rs 1 lakh crore will be done in the coming two years; it'll change the face of entire Delhi... Under the Namami Gange scheme, we have some schemes to clean Yamuna; we are working to prevent sewage water from entering Yamuna. But, as the Delhi government is not providing their share of money for the projects, some works are yet to be done." the Union Minister told to ANI. The Union Minister informed that the Ministry of Road and Transport is undertaking a Rs 65,000 crore project, with Rs 33,000 crore worth of work already completed. Gadkari stated that the Ministry of Road and Transport will complete the remaining works of 32,000 crore in the upcoming times. BJP leader further added that the Ministry of Road Construction has taken up and implemented many projects to free Delhi from pollution and to decongest it. Gadkari further stated that the government will try to provide a solution to the pollution in Delhi. He stated, "Our government brought electric buses, cars, and scooters--as 40 percent of Delhi's pollution is caused by fossil fuels--we brought CNG (vehicles) as well...and we will free Delhi from pollution in 5 years." He stated that there has been a 20 per cent decline in stubble burning, which was 200 lakh tonnes burnt in states such as Punjab, Haryana, and nearby areas. Gadkari stated that out of the 400 envisioned projects, 60 plants have already become operational. "There has been a 20 per cent reduction in stubble burning. This is because CNG is now being produced from this stubble, and 400 plants are being set up, with 60 of them already operational. As a result, waste will be converted to wealth, and trucks and buses will run on CNG," he said, ANI reported. The Union Minister highlighted a project initiated in Panipat to produce 1 lakh litres of ethanol from stubble, 150 tonnes of bio-vitamins and 78,000 tonnes of aviation fuel. He stated that this initiative will help reduce pollution in Delhi, lower imports, generate new jobs, and enhance farmers' welfare. Bihar's politics is once again at a crucial juncture, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at the centre of the RJD and BJP dynamics. In the Narendra Modi 3.0, the BJP depends on Nitish Kumar's JDU. In Bihar as well, the government depends on JDU and it's the sole reason that both parties - RJD and the BJP - keep their door open for Nitish Kumar despite his constant flip-flop. Adding spice to ongoing political development, RJD supremo Lalu Yadav has sent a fresh feeler to Kumar. Lalu, Tejashwi Differ On Nitish When asked if his door was open for the Bihar Chief Minister, Lalu responded on Wednesday night, "My door is always open. Nitish Kumar should also keep his door open...Forgiving has been my job. If he comes back, I will forgive him without any problem. Everyone will work together." However, the Leader of the opposition and former Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav did not agree with his father's remark. Hours after Lalu's comments on Wednesday night, Tejashwi Yadav reiterated his earlier stance during the swearing-in ceremony of Bihar's new Governor on Thursday. Tejashwi had earlier said, "Our door is closed for Nitish Kumar forever. We do not need him." Tejashwi added, "There is nothing left in Nitish now. The people of Bihar trust me, and this time we will form the government on our own." BJP, JDU React On the other hand, the BJP and JDU gave their two cents when asked about Lalu Yadav's remark. Bihar BJP leader and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary said that Nitish Kumar knows very well the people who looted the state and won't leave NDA. "Lalu ji's party is scared because NDA has defeated them by a huge margin in the Lok Sabha and NDA will defeat them in the Assembly too. Today the entire Bihar knows how Laluji has looted Bihar," said Choudhary. JDU leader and Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh said that Lalu Yadav is free to make any remark. "We are with the NDA and with full firmness. I cannot react to what people say--there is freedom of expression; people can say whatever they want," he said. Changing Political Dynamics Nitish Kumar is testing the BJP after Union Home Minister Amit Shah did not name Nitish Kumar as NDA leader for upcoming polls. In a recent interview, Shah said that the NDA parties will sit together to decide under whom they will contest the Bihar assembly polls. This irked Kumar who then went silent and even avoided public functions. However, since then, the BJP leaders have been rallying behind Kumar. The recent comments hint at the possibility of a renewed alliance, adding intrigue to the already dynamic political landscape of Bihar. While Lalu, a seasoned politician, sees the strategic importance of Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi appears determined to carve out his own path, believing that the people's trust in him is sufficient to win the elections. As Bihar gears up for polls, all major parties, including the RJD and the NDA, have intensified their preparations. RJD leaders are actively touring the state, while NDA leaders engage directly with voters. Delhi Police's Operation Against Illegal Bangladeshis aims to identify Bangladeshi nationals who entered India illegally. It is also suspected that many such individuals reside in high-rise societies in Delhi NCR. Over the past seven days, Delhi Police has arrested 14 illegal Bangladeshis from various parts of Delhi. Following the arrest, they are now being deported, essentially facilitating their return to their home country. Let me show you some visuals. These pictures are from December 28, when two illegal Bangladeshis were arrested under "Operation Illegal Bangladeshi." During their interrogation, they revealed several crucial details that had been under investigation, particularly about their routes. Illegal Bangladeshis use the "Donkey Route" to enter India. They travel from Bangladesh to Durgapur, where an agent helps them cross the border into Meghalaya. From the Meghalaya border, another agent picks up these illegal Bangladeshis and takes them to Krishna in Assam and from Krishna, they are sent to Kolkata and later board to train to reach Delhi. In Delhi, fake documents were created for them and they started finding work. Watch Today's Full Episode Who Is The Mastermind Anish Sheikh is the mastermind behind this nexus, operating two separate networks. The first network involves human trafficking, with Aminur Islam overseeing the journey of illegal Bangladeshis from the Bangladesh border to Delhi. The second network is run by Anish's wife, Sapna, who takes charge of settling these individuals in Delhi. The past few years have seen an unprecedented rise in electoral politics involving freebies and financial aid. Right from Delhi to Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra, and Himachal Pradesh to Jharkhand, the freebies are helping the political parties win the polls. Be it free electricity or bus, monthly financial aid for women or students, the political parties are coming with one after another scheme to lure voters. However, the burden of these schemes falls on the exchequer and not all the states are ready to bear such a huge additional financial burden. Congress-ruled states like Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh are facing financial crunch and thus are looking for one or another way to generate revenue, that will dent the pockets of the common man. While Himachal Pradesh has decided to do away with free public toilets for men, Karnataka has decided to increase the bust fare by 15%. Interestingly, since buses are free for women in Karnataka as promised by the Congress government, the men will have to pay more to travel in buses. Just a day ago, Shimla Municipal Corporation decided to impose Rs 5 fee for men for using public toilets. The decision came as the state is struggling to meet its expenses due to welfare schemes including freebies. The Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu himself relinquished the free electricity and urged wealthy families to follow suit to lessen the burden on the state finances. Now, the Congress-ruled Karnataka government has decided to increase the bus fares in the state-owned transport corporations by 15 per cent. The decision was taken in view of the substantial hike in operational costs such as increase in spending on fuel prices and staff, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said. The move is expected to generate Rs 74.85 crore monthly and about Rs 784 crore annually. The Minister also underlined that 'Shakti' guarantee will continue. Shakti offers free ride for Karnataka women in state-owned non-luxury buses across the state. In the current fiscal, Rs 5,015 crore has been earmarked for the 'Shakti' scheme, the Minister explained. The BJP and the AAP are also offering many freebies including free financia aid to women voters. A please is already before the Supreme Court challenging the freebies culture. Marking 25 years of the Jamnagar Refinery, Isha Ambani-Piramal, Director of Reliance Industries Limited, delivered a heartfelt address to employees and their families gathered to celebrate the milestone. The event commemorated the journey of one of the world's largest and most complex refineries, a project envisioned by Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani and brought to life by Mukesh Ambani's steadfast leadership. Speaking to the employees and their families gathered to celebrate 25 years of Jamnagar Refinery, Isha Ambani-Piramal shared her personal connection to the refinery and its legacy. "Today as we celebrate 25 years of Jamnagar. I feel my grandfather's presence and miss him dearly. This was his cherished dream, a vision that lived in his heart. He would have been so proud to see what Jam Nagar has become today," she said, evoking nostalgia and pride. Reflecting on her father, Mukesh Ambani, she highlighted his unwavering dedication to fulfilling his father's dream. "I've witnessed my father's absolute dedication to making his father's dream a reality. This is my father Shri Mukeshbhai Ambani, a man of vision, a man of resilience and a man of determination for whom there is no greater duty than reliance, for whom nothing is greater than his own father's dreams, and for whom values are the compass, guiding every decision, every effort and every triumph," she remarked. She added, "You are our inspiration not just as a businessman, but as a son, a father and a human being. Jamnagar and you have shown us that nothing is impossible when we come together with unity, passion and purpose. Jamnagar is paradise and we are so lucky to call it our home." Isha also spoke fondly of the transformation of Jamnagar, calling it a "paradise." Recollecting memories from her childhood, she shared, "I still remember coming here with my mother when she started making this township standing on barren land and watching her work tirelessly to turn it into a green, lush and beautiful township." The Jamnagar Refinery, which began operations in 1999, stands as a testament to Reliance Industries' ability to dream big and execute even bigger. (This article is part of IndiaDotCom Pvt Lts consumer connect initiative, a paid publication programme. IDPL claims no editorial involvement and assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of the article.) Kerala Lottery Results Thursday 02-01-2025 LIVE: The Kerala Lottery Department, on behalf of the Keralan government, announces the "Karunya KN-554" Lucky Draw Result today Karunya KN-554, January 01, 2025. The draw will be held at Gorky Bhavan near Bakery Junction in Thiruvananthapuram. The Kerala Lottery Result 2024 for "Karunya KN-554" will feature 12 series, with changes in series possible each week. A total of 108 lakh tickets are available for purchase weekly. The ticket prices may vary. Check the Karunya KN-554 results right here to see if youre the first-place winner of 80 Lakhs. Stay tuned to this website for the live update of Kerala Lottery Karunya KN-554 results today. Kerala Lottery Result 02-01-2025 January: FULL LIST OF WINNING NUMBERS FOR KARUNYA PLUS KN-554 Draw LUCKY TICKET NUMBER FOR 1ST PRIZE OF RS 80 LAKHS IS: PD 171048 LUCKY TICKET NUMBER FOR 2ND PRIZE OF RS 10 LAKHS IS: PK 119250 LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 3RD PRIZE OF RS 1 LAKHS ARE: 1) PA 637260 2) PB 293280 3) PC 635645 4) PD 746011 5) PE 559959 6) PF 210381 7) PG 236859 8) PH 940319 9) PJ 849836 10) PK 190242 11) PL 665488 12) PM 773450 LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR CONSOLATION PRIZE OF RS 8,000 ARE: PA 171048 PB 171048 PC 171048 PE 171048 PF 171048 PG 171048 PH 171048 PJ 171048 PK 171048 PL 171048 PM 171048 (For The Tickets Ending with The Following Numbers below) LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 4TH PRIZE OF RS 5,000 ARE: 2040 2387 2430 2460 3260 3304 3793 3815 3936 4337 4537 5553 6381 6496 6777 7244 8980 9540 LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 5TH PRIZE OF RS 1,000 ARE: 0057 0058 0097 0180 0278 0332 0592 0787 0967 1258 1539 1570 2836 3477 3523 3997 4072 4148 4554 4788 5435 5803 5846 6446 7139 7521 7545 7551 7662 7680 7792 8073 8810 9419 LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 6TH PRIZE OF RS 500 ARE: 0309 0313 0525 0898 0900 0946 1031 1047 1264 1447 1916 2009 2067 2141 2196 2597 2783 2988 3071 3121 3310 3391 3461 3515 3527 3588 3672 3887 3901 3990 4105 4333 4475 4676 4679 4738 4987 5049 5103 5310 5323 5516 5518 5569 5786 5845 5869 5893 6080 6167 6209 6212 6563 6926 7033 7082 7104 7140 7188 7269 7337 7439 7841 7968 7981 7996 8028 8144 8235 8900 9241 9286 9307 9681 9724 9730 9764 9799 9933 9971 LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 7TH PRIZE OF RS 100 ARE: 0008 0205 0310 0577 0602 0620 0848 0959 1078 1214 1245 1282 1323 1352 1385 1396 1461 1532 1623 1627 1647 1852 1858 2012 2089 2199 2258 2388 2433 2552 2586 2798 3108 3168 3376 3385 3396 3681 3808 3979 4001 4099 4186 4253 4280 4319 4396 4435 4447 4510 4548 4566 4596 4706 4839 4883 4902 4964 5110 5136 5433 5464 5486 5499 5514 5523 5585 5700 5785 5853 5901 5930 5941 5969 6042 6059 6208 6232 6239 6347 6439 6516 6522 7017 7166 7258 7416 7458 7463 7469 7709 7853 7888 7907 7912 7950 8016 8055 8056 8060 8175 8355 8393 8420 8631 8775 8864 9002 9042 9046 9232 9249 9398 9426 9469 9494 9495 9546 9562 9583 9743 9749 9783 9882 9898 9960 KERALA LOTTERY RESULT TODAY 02-01-2025 January: KARUNYA PLUS KN-554 LOTTERY PRIZE DETAILS 1st Prize: Rs 80 Lakhs 2nd Prize: Rs. 10 lakhs 3rd Prize: Rs. 1 Lakh 4th Prize: Rs. 5,000 5th Prize: Rs. 1,000 6th Prize: Rs. 500 7th Prize: Rs. 100 Consolation Prize: Rs. 8,000 (NOTE: Lottery can be addictive and should be played responsibly. The data provided on this page is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as advice or encouragement. Zee News does not promote lottery in anyway.) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah emphasised that despite the passage of time, the Kashmir issue remains unresolved, particularly considering that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) is still under occupation. "The Kashmir issue has not been resolved yet, and I would like to see it resolved," Abdullah stated firmly, highlighting the region's complexities. He added, Has POK been given to Pakistan? No, its still under occupation. So how can we say that the Kashmir issue is resolved? Its not resolved yet, and I would like to see the Kashmir issue resolved. He expressed his commitment to fulfilling the promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, stressing that the restoration of statehood is crucial for effective governance and the well-being of its citizens. During a media interaction with reporters at SKICC, Srinagar, Abdullah acknowledged the limitations faced by a Union Territory Chief Minister, stating, "I can't claim that I am a fully empowered Chief Minister like those in states." He revealed that he has taken steps to seek the restoration of statehood from the Government of India, underscoring that this is essential for addressing many issues that can only be tackled once full statehood is reinstated. Abdullah added, A dual system is not of any help to anyone. Governance systems work better when there is a single command. Reflecting on the recent elections, where citizens turned out in large numbers, Abdullah praised their participation and reiterated the importance of respecting their mandate. "We will abide by our promises, and the biggest responsibility is to respect the people's mandate," he added. The Chief Minister also addressed the dual power structure in the Union Territory, expressing a desire for a unified power system to ensure effective governance. He noted that maintaining a good relationship with the Lieutenant Governor's office ensures public work does not suffer. "So far, we haven't faced any major controversy with the LG office," he remarked. In response to questions about his approach to seeking statehood, Abdullah clarified that he prefers dialogue with the central government over legal battles, stating, "Going to court would be like initiating a fight with the Central Government; my first choice is to achieve statehood through good relations." When asked about the Prime Minister offering a chadar to Ajmer Sharif, Abdullah commented, Religion cant be separated from politics; people get votes in the name of religion. But we hope the Prime Minister will not come under pressure and will send the chadar to Ajmer Sharif. As he concluded his first press interaction since taking office, Abdullah addressed various issues raised by journalists, including land acquisitions and the power crisis, indicating that his government is committed to tackling these challenges head-on. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday strongly condemned the "terrorist attack" in New Orleans, which killed the lives of 15 people and expressed solidarity with the victims and their families. In a post on X, PM Modi wrote, "We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy." After the attack, US President Joe Biden announced that law enforcement is examining potential connections between the New Orleans 'terror' attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion near the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. "We're tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans," Biden said. A Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas claimed one life and injured seven others, just hours after a car rammed into a crowd during New Year's celebrations in New Orleans, killing at least 15 people. The FBI described the attack as "an act of terrorism" and revealed that the driver, Shamsud Din Jabbar, had an ISIS flag and multiple suspected explosive devices in his vehicle. The FBI also confirmed that the vehicle was rented from a car rental platform called Turo. (With ANI inputs) New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will send a ceremonial 'chadar' to the Ajmer Sharif Dargah on Thursday, continuing his yearly tradition. The 'chadar' will be handed over to Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and BJP Minority Morcha President Jamal Siddiqui at 6 PM. They will then offer it at the shrine during the Urs of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Since becoming Prime Minister, Modi has sent a 'chadar' to the Ajmer Sharif Dargah 10 times, with this year marking his 11th participation in the tradition. Last year, during the 812th Urs, the 'chadar' was presented on Modi's behalf by Union Minister Smriti Irani and Jamal Siddiqui, along with a delegation from the Muslim community. The chadar, placed over the shrine of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, represents devotion and respect. During the Urs festival, offering a chadar is seen as a meaningful act of worship to seek blessings and fulfill wishes. Devotees seek blessings Offering a 'chadar' during the Urs festival is seen as a significant act of worship, believed to bring blessings and fulfill wishes. Ajmer Sharif Dargah, a highly revered Sufi shrine, attracts millions of devotees during the Urs, which commemorates the death anniversary of Khwaja Moinuddin Hassan Chishti. The 813th Urs began on December 28, 2024, with devotees from across India and abroad visiting the shrine to pay their respects and seek blessings. The chadar, placed over the shrine of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz, represents devotion and respect. During the Urs festival, offering a chadar is seen as a meaningful act of worship to seek blessings and fulfill wishes. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti controversy The Ajmer Sharif Dargah became a topic of controversy last year after an Ajmer court issued a notice on November 27 regarding a civil suit. The suit, filed by the Hindu Sena, claimed that the dargah of Moinuddin Chishti is actually a Shiva temple. On December 20, the Ajmer Sharif Dargah Committee submitted a five-page application to the Munsif Court in Ajmer, asking for the petition to be dismissed. The next hearing on this matter is set for January 24. Dhar: Forty years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, 377 tons of hazardous waste has been shifted from the defunct Union Carbide factory for its disposal at a unit in Dhar district, officials said on Thursday. The toxic waste was transported at around 9 pm on Wednesday in 12 sealed container trucks via a 'green corridor' from Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal to Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district, located 250 km away. Amid tight security, the vehicles reached around 4.30 am on Thursday at a factory in Pithampur where the waste will be disposed of, Dhar Superintendent of Police Manoj Singh told PTI over phone. The trucks were currently parked on the factory campus in Pithampur, he added. "A green corridor was created for the nearly seven-hour journey of the vehicles to the Pithampur industrial area in Dhar district," Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department Director Swatantra Kumar Singh said on Wednesday. Nearly 100 persons worked in 30-minute shifts since Sunday to pack and load the waste in trucks, he said. "They underwent health check-ups and were given rest every 30 minutes," Singh added. The highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killing at least 5,479 persons and leaving thousands with serious and long-lasting health issues. The Madhya Pradesh High Court on December 3 rebuked authorities for not clearing the Union Carbide site in Bhopal despite directions from even the Supreme Court. The HC set a four-week deadline to shift the waste, observing that even 40 years after the gas tragedy, authorities were in a "state of inertia". The high court bench had warned the government of contempt proceedings if its directive was not followed. "If everything is found to be fine, the waste will be incinerated within three months. Otherwise, it might take up to nine months," Singh said. Initially, some of the waste will be burnt at the disposal unit in Pithampur and the residue (ash) will be examined to find whether any harmful elements are left, he said. The smoke from the incinerator will pass through special four-layer filters so that the surrounding air is not polluted, he added. Once it is confirmed that no traces of toxic elements are left, the ash will be covered by a two-layer membrane and buried to ensure it does not come in contact with soil and water in any way. A team of experts under the supervision of officials of the Central Pollution Control Board and State Pollution Control Board will carry out the process, Singh said. Some local activists have claimed that 10 tons of Union Carbide waste was incinerated on a trial basis in Pithampur in 2015, after which the soil, underground water and water sources in surrounding villages became polluted. But Singh rejected the claim, stating the decision to dispose of the waste at Pithampur was taken only after a report of the 2015 test and all the objections were examined. There would be no reason to worry, he said. A large number of people on Sunday took out a protest march in Pithampur to oppose the disposal of Union Carbide waste in the city, which has a population of about 1.75 lakh. Chief Minister Hemant Soren paid homage to the victims of the Kharsawan massacre of 1948, underlining the sacrifices of the tribal community in preserving their identity and rights. Speaking at the memorial site, Soren said, "We are paying our respects to the martyrs who fought to protect their identity." "This is a historical place of Jharkhand. This martyr's place in Kharsawan has the history of the tribal community, the struggle of our ancestors... how aware and active they have been about their struggle for their rights," the Jharkhand CM added. Highlighting the legacy of the tribal community's resistance, Soren remarked, "When people had not dreamt of the country's independence, since then their attachment towards nature and the history of the tribal community." Soren expressed deep respect for the sacrifices of tribal people, noting the importance of remembering their struggles. "I feel that this day has been celebrated for 77 years, and even today we have our respect for these martyrs and the tribal people of this place, in order to preserve their identity, their rights, and their struggle," he said. He also stated that the memorials in Kharsawan serve not only as reminders of the past but also as inspiration for the future. "We are proud of how great men lived on our beaches, and it is because of their struggle that we are alive here today," Soren added. The Chief Minister then highlighted the importance of honouring the martyrs. "We have been gathering here on a large scale for 23 years every year, and we will move forward with more strength, strengthening our respect for our martyrs," he said. Soren reiterated his pride in the sacrifices made by the tribal community. The Jharkhand CM said,"We are proud of how great men lived on our beaches, and it is because of their struggle that we are alive here today," he declared." (ANI) Less than a week before Delhi cafe owner Puneet Khurana died by suicide, his estranged wife and business partner, Manika Pahwa, shared a cryptic social media post alleging she had endured "toxicity and narcissistic abuse." The post, which also declared her newfound freedom, has come under scrutiny following Khuranas death. Khurana (40), co-owner of the popular Woodbox Cafe, was found hanging in his room in Kalyan Vihar, Model Town, on New Year's Eve. The couple, who were going through a divorce, had a heated conversation on the night of his death, which Khurana recorded. Khurana's family has accused Pahwa of driving him to take his life. His sister alleged to ANI, Manika Pahwa, along with her parents and sister, pressured my brother mentally, saying things like you cant do anything, die by suicide if you dare. The sister further claimed that Pahwa had overstepped an agreed division of their business. It was decided in court that Puneet would manage For Gods Bakery, and Manika would take Woodbox Cafe. Yet, she continued to demand her share in the other business. Khuranas mother echoed these claims, stating that her son endured prolonged mental harassment. He kept his struggles to himself to avoid upsetting us. But the constant torture broke him, she said. In her Instagram post from six days prior, Pahwa alluded to overcoming emotional abuse and claimed she was healing. I am free after all the toxicity and narcissistic abuse. Higher powers will decide whats best for my abusers, she wrote, without naming anyone specifically. She described her abusers as insecure cowards and emphasized that virtues like kindness and trust were more important than material wealth. I just wish these abusers see the mirror someday and understand that virtues like love and trust hold more value than money or property. Pahwa concluded by saying she was ready to move forward, stating, I am free, and the beautiful ruins are part of me. The couple, who married in 2016, had been separated for two years. Their business partnership added further strain to their relationship. Disputes reportedly centered on the division of their businesses during divorce proceedings. The family has filed a police complaint, seeking legal action against Pahwa and her relatives. Investigations are ongoing. Mumbai: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, known for his unconventional storytelling, has sparked fresh controversy with his recent statement about leaving Mumbai and Bollywood behind. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the acclaimed director expressed his dissatisfaction with the current state of the Hindi film industry, calling it stifling and profit-driven. Kashyap candidly revealed his frustrations, saying, Its difficult for me to experiment anymore because filmmaking is now about profit and margins even before a film begins. The joy of filmmaking is completely sucked out. Thats why Ive decided to move out of Mumbai next year and go to the South. I want to work where theres stimulation, or Ill die as an old man. Im disappointed and disgusted by my own industry and its mindset. He also criticized the new generation of Bollywood actors, stating, The first-generation actors and the really entitled ones are very painful to deal with. Nobody wants to actthey all want to be stars. Kashyap contrasted Bollywood with the South Indian film industry, praising directors like Sukumar for creating masterpieces like Pushpa.Bollywood doesnt even understand what filmmaking is. They cant even make something like Pushpa because they dont have the brains or the passion. Kashyaps remarks triggered a wave of reactions online; Many netizens labeled him a C-grade director and accused him of seeking attention. Comments like Hes irrelevant now, so hes ranting for publicity flooded social media. Others sympathized with his views, agreeing that Bollywood has become more commercialized and less creative. As Kashyap plans to move to the South Indian film industry, fans and critics alike are left wondering about the future of his contributions to Indian cinema. While some believe this could lead to a creative resurgence, others dismiss his comments as an attempt to remain in the spotlight. The filmmakers candid remarks have undoubtedly reignited debates about the changing dynamics of Bollywood and the artistic freedom it offers. Mumbai: Nouran Aly, wife of actor Vivian Dsena, has been praised for her poised and mature response to questions about her husbands past marriage to actress Vahbiz Dorabjee. The topic was brought up on Bigg Boss 18 when Sara made comments about Vivians first marriage, sparking discussions both inside and outside the house. When asked about Sara attacking Vivian regarding his first marriage and divorce, Nouran calmly stated, I wasnt there at his first marriage, so I cannot make any comment. When probed further about whether it was frustrating to hear Saras remarks about her husband being called not a good person, Nouran gracefully dismissed any negativity, saying, No, it doesnt affect me. I know who my husband is, so she can say whatever she wants. In a divorce, everyone will not praise the other personthey will praise themselves, right? If she heard it from whoever and came and threw it in the show, then it is her point of view. I know my husband, and he is nothing like they are describing. This response has earned Nouran admiration for her maturity and for standing by Vivian without engaging in unnecessary drama. Recently, Nouran entered the Bigg Boss house with their daughter in a heartwarming moment that left both Vivian and viewers emotional. The touching reunion showcased their strong bond as a family and was lauded by fans of the show. Fans took to social media to applaud Nourans classy handling of the situation, Nourans response shows her strength and confidencewhat a graceful woman! She knows her truth and isnt letting any negativity affect her. Respect! That family reunion was everything. Vivian is lucky to have such a supportive partner. Nourans dignified stance continues to win hearts as Bigg Boss 18 intensifies its drama and controversies. Bengaluru: Kannada star Dr Shivarajkumar, son of Kannada film legend Dr Rajkumar, shared a video from the US on the first day of 2025, detailing his journey of overcoming cancer and assuring fans of his return. In the video, Shivarajkumar conveyed his New Year wishes to everyone and said, I am hesitant to speak as I might get emotional at this moment. Leaving Karnataka was a very emotional experience for me. Under these circumstances, fear is inevitable, but the support of my fans has significantly reduced it. He continued, The way the doctors took care of me gave me immense courage. While shooting for the movie 45, I underwent chemotherapy and even filmed the climax fight scene. As the date to leave for the US for treatment approached, I became anxious. However, my wife Geetha and daughter Nivedita stood by me throughout. Dr Manohar, who treated me, cared for me like a child. My urinary bladder has been replaced, but there is no need for anyone to panic. I am doing well and will be back with double the energy. I thank all my fans for their unwavering support, Shivarajkumar assured. Geetha Shivarajkumar, his wife, who appeared in the video alongside him, stated that all the medical reports had come back negative, and it was officially declared that Shivarajkumar is cancer-free. He recovered because of the blessings of his fans, and I will never forget this, she emphasised. The actor underwent surgery at a hospital in Miami, US, where his cancerous bladder was removed. According to the surgeon, Dr Murugesh Manoharan, an artificial bladder was created using Shivarajkumars intestine. In November, Shivarajkumar had spoken publicly about his illness, acknowledging that he was human like everyone else. While he didnt disclose it was cancer at the time, he said, At the end of the day, I am a human being. I have a health issue and am currently undergoing treatment for it. I have completed a couple of treatment sessions, and a few more are pending. After that, I will undergo surgery, either in India or the US. Mumbai: The long-awaited collaboration between Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu and the legendary filmmaker SS Rajamouli, known for his blockbusters like Baahubali and RRR, has officially kicked off with a grand pooja ceremony in Hyderabad. This marks the beginning of a new chapter in Indian cinema, with fans eagerly awaiting the first-ever union of two of the most prominent names in the industry. The ceremonial event, held at the Aluminium Factory in Hyderabad, was a low-key but significant affair, attended by key members of the films crew, including SS Rajamouli, Mahesh Babu, and Rajamoulis wife Rama. The occasion set the tone for what promises to be an exhilarating journey, as the director and actor embark on a project that fans have been longing for since Maheshs 2010 tweet hinting at a possible collaboration. Mahesh Babu is reportedly undergoing a physical transformation for his role in this high-stakes action adventure, though specifics about the character have been kept under wraps. His fans are eager to see how Rajamoulis direction will bring out a new side of the actor, especially with Mahesh deliberately keeping details of his look and the character secret to heighten anticipation. While details about the plot remain scarce, Rajamouli and his father, writer Vijayendra Prasad, have teased fans by describing the film as an action-packed adventure drama, drawing comparisons to the popular Indiana Jones franchise. A location recce for the film has already taken place in Kenya, confirming that portions of the movie will be shot there. One of the most talked-about aspects of the project has been the rumours swirling around the potential involvement of Priyanka Chopra as the leading lady. In a special screening of RRR in Japan, SS Rajamouli expressed his excitement about introducing Mahesh Babu to a wider global audience. He described Mahesh as very handsome and shared his hopes that once filming wraps up, he would be able to bring Mahesh Babu to international shores for the films release. His name is Mahesh Babu, he is a Telugu actor. He is very handsome. Hopefully, we finish the film a little bit fast, and during the release, I will bring him here and introduce him to you. Im sure you will love him as well, Rajamouli said, hinting at the international appeal of the collaboration. Now only fans are excitedly waiting for the official announcement of Priyanka Chopra joining the film. New Delhi: The Aadhaar card, a 12-digit unique identification number issued by the Government of India has become an essential document for every citizen. It plays a crucial role in daily life, whether for personal identification, address proof or accessing government services. However, with its growing use, losing access to this important ID could lead to several inconveniences which would affect vital government-related tasks. Here's a guide to help you navigate what to do if you lose your Aadhaar card. However, If your Aadhaar card is lost or damaged, there's no need to worry getting a duplicate is quick and hassle-free. You can easily request for a new Aadhar card with the UIDAIs online services from the comfort of your home. Just follow these easy steps to get started: - Visit the UIDAI Website: Go to the official website: uidai.gov.in. - Click on 'My Aadhaar': Find and click the 'My Aadhaar' tab on the homepage. - Select 'Order Aadhaar Reprint': Under 'My Aadhaar,' choose 'Order Aadhaar Reprint' from the list of options. - Enter Aadhaar Number or Virtual ID: Provide your 12-digit Aadhaar number or 16-digit Virtual ID, along with the security code displayed on the screen. - Request OTP: After entering your details, an OTP (One-Time Password) will be sent to your registered mobile number. Enter it to continue. - Verify Details and Make Payment: After OTP verification, review your details. If everything looks good, proceed to pay the reprint charges, which may vary. - Receive Confirmation and SRN: Once payment is successful, youll receive a confirmation along with a Service Request Number (SRN). Use the SRN to track your request. - Download e-Aadhaar: While waiting for the physical card, you can download your e-Aadhaar from the UIDAI website. Its equally valid for use. - Track Aadhaar Status: To track the status, visit the UIDAI website and select 'Check Aadhaar Reprint Status' under the 'My Aadhaar' tab. Enter your SRN and Aadhaar number or Virtual ID. For assistance, contact UIDAI at the toll-free helpline 1947 or email phonehelp@uidai.gov.in. New Delhi: As the New Year begins with renewed spiritis, actor Sagar Wahi kicks off the year as a new face for Sun Neo's 'Chhathi Maiyya Ki Bitiya', celebrated for his roles in the OTT show Madhuri Talkies and the film Panch Kriti: Five Elements, Wahi has joined the ensemble cast as 'Mayur.' Adding a fun twist to the storyline, the actor recently shared intriguing insights about his entry into the show. Talking about his character, Sagar said, I play the role of Mayur in this show, and hes a very entertaining character. While hes serious and highly knowledgeable due to his extensive studies, he approaches life with humor and lightheartedness. No matter the problem, he solves it effortlessly. Mayur is fun-loving, but in real life, I am very different from him. Our personalities are completely opposite, yet Im thoroughly enjoying this role. Describing about this challenging role in Chhathi Maiyya Ki Bitiya, Wahi said, As a theater artist, I love exploring something different, which is why I chose Chhathi Maiyya Ki Bitiyato try something new. Ive also worked in a film where my character was so different that no one recognized it was me. Similarly, Mayur in Chhathi Maiyya Ki Bitiya is a completely distinct role. Sagar Wahi is all set to bring a unique charm as Mayur in the show. The series boasts a talented cast, including Sara Khan, Jaya Bhattacharya, Brinda Dahal, and Ashish Dixit. The show follows the journey of Vaishnavi, an orphan who finds strength and solace in her unwavering faith in Chhathi Maiyya (portrayed by Sneha Wagh), who serves as a maternal figure. Chhathi Maiyya Ki Bitiya, airing every Monday to Saturday at 7 PM on Sun Neo. The United Nations (UN) has adopted a resolution announcing December 21 as World Meditation Day, co-sponsored by India. The sponsor group also includes Sri Lanka, Liechtenstein, Nepal, Mexico, and Andorra. Indias permanent representative to the UN, ambassador Parvathaneni Harish shared a post on X and said, A day for comprehensive well-being and inner transformation! Glad that India, along with other nations of the core group, guided the unanimous adoption of the resolution on the declaration of December 21 as World Meditation Day". A day for comprehensive well being and inner transformation! Glad that India alongwith other nations of the core group guided the unanimous adoption of the resolution on declaration of 21 December as World Meditation Day @UN General Assembly today. Indias leadership in pic.twitter.com/4ARgXw4yXm Parvathaneni Harish (@AmbHarishP) December 6, 2024 He further emphasised that India's dedication to human well-being is deeply rooted in the civilizational principle of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, meaning "the world is one family." Harish pointed out that December 21 marks the beginning of 'Uttarayan' in Indian tradition. "This date holds special significance, particularly for inner reflection and meditation," he noted, adding that it also falls exactly six months after the International Day of Yoga, celebrated on June 21. "21 December marks the Winter Solstice, which in Indian tradition is the beginning of Uttarayana an auspicious time of the year, especially for inner reflection," the post read. "India had taken the lead in the declaration of 21 June, which marks Summer Solstice, as International Day of Yoga by the UN in 2014." he added. He also said that practising yoga and making it part of their daily lives has become a global movement. "In a decade, it has become a global movement which has led to common people across the globe practising yoga and making it part of their daily lives," he said. Bashar al-Assad, the ousted Syrian president, is reportedly the target of an alleged poisoning attempt while in Moscow, where he has been under the protection of Russian President Vladimir Putin since fleeing Syria on December 8, 2024. According to claims made by General SVR, a social media account run by a former Russian spy, Assad became seriously ill on Sunday, experiencing severe coughing and choking before seeking medical assistance. The account detailed the incident, stating, "There is every reason to believe that an assassination attempt was made on former Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad. In the afternoon on Sunday, Assad complained to security guards about indisposition and breathing problems and asked to call for medical help. Almost immediately after the request, he started coughing violently and began choking. Asad was given water and this helped to ease the attack a little, but his breathing still did not return to normal, and headache and abdominal pain were added. By the time the medics arrived, the condition of the former Syria president was deteriorating." Bashar al-Assad Poisoned Dear subscribers and guests of the channel! There is every reason to believe that an assassination attempt was made on former #Syrian President #Bashar_al_Assad. In the afternoon on Sunday, Assad complained to security guards about indisposition https://t.co/XSu3WqzckK pic.twitter.com/j0PqoRXuZg generalsvr_en (@generalsvr_en) December 31, 2024 When the Russian authorities were informed about Assad's connditon, an order was sent to medics to treat him at home if possible and not to place the "patient" in a hospital. "After the first aid was rendered, the medics received "reinforcements" and a treatment room was set up in Assad's apartment. As of Monday evening, according to the attending doctors, Bashar al-Assad's condition is stable and he feels normal," said the general account. "The tests taken from the former Syrian president showed the presence of traces of exposure to poisonous substance in his body. According to the report to the Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev, an investigation is underway, but so far it has not been possible to find out how Bashar al-Assad was exposed to the poison," said the user. There has been no official confirmation from either the Syrian government or Moscow regarding the alleged poisoning. Assad fled to Russia after a rebel alliance, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), captured Damascus following an 11-day offensive. The fall of Damascus marked the end of Assads regime, with the rebels announcing his overthrow shortly after. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stern warning stating that Israel would intensify its military operations in Gaza if Hamas does not agree to a deal for the release of hostages "soon." In a public statement, Gallant said that should Hamas fail to permit the release of Israeli hostages, the group would face "blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time." He emphasised that Israel's military would "escalate and intensify" its efforts against militant strongholds in Gaza until the hostages are freed and Hamas is "eliminated." Negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US are stalled over key issues, including the continuation of the ceasefire, Xinhua news agency reported. Hamas seeks to prolong the truce, while Israel insists on the right to resume military action if it perceives a security threat. Another point of contention is Hamas's demand for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which Israel opposes, asserting the need for a continued military presence to maintain security control. The Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulted in the kidnapping of approximately 250 civilians and soldiers, of whom around 100 are still believed to be held in Gaza. The subsequent Israeli offensive has had a devastating impact on the Gaza Strip, causing mass destruction, widespread hunger and diseases, and resulting in at least 45,540 deaths, according to Gazan health officials. Earlier on December 29, fighters in the Gaza Strip fired about five rockets at southern Israel, the Israeli military said. The rockets on Sunday afternoon triggered air raid warning sirens in the city of Sderot and other communities near the Palestinian enclave. No injuries were reported. In a statement, the military said that two of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket system, while the rest "likely fell in open areas." This marked the second consecutive day of projectile fire from the besieged enclave as the Israeli onslaught continues. The two long-range rockets fired on Saturday from Gaza toward the Jerusalem area were also intercepted. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has rejected the BJP's demand for the resignation of Minister Priyanka Kharge in connection with the suicide of a contractor. He described the demand as an allegation driven by political hatred. "Minister Priyanka Kharge's name is not on the death note of Bidar contractor Sachin, who committed suicide. There is neither any role nor evidence linking her to this case. Hence, the question of resignation does not arise," Siddaramaiah told reporters here. "However, the minister has stated that she is ready for any inquiry. In a similar case, BJP's KS Eshwarappa's name was written on the death note. The investigation into the complaint filed in connection with the case has been entrusted to the CID, and appropriate action will be taken after receiving the report," he added. Responding to the BJP's insistence that the investigation should be handed over to the CBI, the chief minister asked whether the BJP has no faith in the state police. "When the BJP was in power, not a single case was handed over to the CBI. The BJP has no morals to demand that the CBI should investigate," he said. The chief minister further stated that he would discuss the expansion of the cabinet after consulting with party leaders. The BJP had demanded the resignation of Priyanka Kharge, alleging that Sachin died by suicide due to harassment and threats from Minister Priyanka Kharge's close aide, Raju Kapanur. The BJP alleged that contractors have been facing difficulties under the Congress government in the state. It claimed that financial troubles and stress are driving contractors to commit suicide. "Since the day the Congress government came to power, contractors have been facing a very anxious situation. They are in financial trouble and are devastated. Extreme financial stress is driving them to commit suicide. The pressures from officials under the influence of the minister and those close to them are suffocating the contractors," BJP State President BY Vijayendra Yediyurappa wrote on X. (ANI) The New Orleans attacker, who drove into a crowd of New Years Eve revelers, had posted social media videos suggesting he was inspired by ISIS. Authorities are investigating potential connections between this incident and an explosion involving a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump Organization property in Las Vegas, which left several injured. Mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS and expressing a desire to kill, President Joe Biden said during an address from Camp David, where he is spending the week. He emphasized that the situation remains fluid and that the investigation is still in its early stages. President Biden also highlighted the Las Vegas explosion, stating, Additionally, were tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating whether there is any possible connection to the New Orleans attack. The FBI, leading the New Orleans investigation, identified the attacker as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas. An ISIS flag was discovered in the attackers vehicle, and investigators are examining potential links to terrorist organizations. While grappling with the New Orleans attack, where the death toll has risen from 10 to 15, authorities were also confronted with the Las Vegas explosion. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a known Trump ally, hinted at a possible link between the incidents in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way, Musk wrote. Turo is a car-sharing platform similar to Airbnb. In his address, President Biden assured that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies have been directed to allocate every resource necessary to expedite the investigations and ensure public safety. In a setback to former ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das, a court in Bangladesh's Chattogram on Thursday refused to grant him bail following a hearing held with heightened security, according to media reports. The bail request was turned down by Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam after about 30 minutes of hearing both parties' arguments, according to Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizur Haque Bhuiyan. Earlier in the day, 11 Supreme Court lawyers were set to participate in the bail hearing of Chinmoy Krishna Das. While speaking to The Daily Star, lawyer Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee said, "We have come to Chattogram under the banner of Ainjibi Oikya Parishad, and we will move for Chinmoy in the court for his bail. I already got the Vakalatnama from Chinmoy. I'm a member of both the Supreme Court and Chattogram Bar associations, so I don't need authorization from any local lawyer to move the case." Last year in December, the Chittagong court had scheduled the bail hearing for January 2 as the prosecution submitted a time petition and there was no lawyer to represent Chinmoy. The unrest in Bangladesh erupted from the sedition charges filed against Das for allegedly raising a saffron flag above Bangladesh's national flag in Chittagong on October 25. His arrest on November 25 sparked protests, culminating in violent clashes between his followers and law enforcement outside the Chattogram Court Building on November 27, leading to the death of a lawyer. Following additional arrests, the situation worsened in the neighbouring country. According to ISKCON Kolkata, two monks, Adipurush Shyam Das and Ranganath Das Brahmachari, were detained on November 29 after visiting Chinmoy Krishna Das in custody. The organizations vice president, Radha Raman, also claimed that rioters vandalized an ISKCON centre in Bangladesh during the unrest. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had also voiced concern over escalating violence and extremist rhetoric in Bangladesh, emphasizing that it has consistently raised the issue of targeted attacks on minorities with Dhaka. Kolkata ISKCON Reacts Following the courts decision against former ISKCON leader Das, Kolkata ISKCON Vice President Radha Raman Das expressed his disappointment, stating that the world had hoped for his release as the new year began. He further called on the Bangladesh government to ensure justice for Chinmoy Krishna Das. While speaking with ANI, Radha Raman Das said, "It's very sad news. We know that the entire world was keeping an eye on this. Everyone was expecting Chinmoy Prabhu to get freedom in the new year, but even after 42 days, his bail was rejected in a hearing today." He further stated, "After seeing the detailed order, we would get to know the exact reason why his bail plea got rejected. The entire world was looking towards this matterthe British Parliament and American politicians were having discussions on this issue, and everyone was worried because of his arrest." Radha Raman Das further asserted that the Bangladesh government should ensure that Chinmoy Krishna Das should get justice. "The Bangladesh government should ensure that he gets justice. We are hearing that he is not well, but still keeping him in confinement is not correct. We all know that Chinmay became a face of minorities in Bangladesh, and the minorities see him as a ray of hope." On being asked about the next step, he said, "His lawyers, after reading the detailed order, will take steps according to it." (With ANI Inputs) The fire broke out in the administrative wing on the second floor, they said. There was no loss of life reported in the fire incident. The cause of the fire is said to be an electrical leakage, the officer added. Patients were evacuated safely due to the spread of smoke as shown in the pictures. Seven fire tenders were pressed into service to bring the flames under control. The smoke was also cleared frm the room, they said. District Collector Simranjeet Singh Kalon and District Superintendent of Police G Sandish rushed to the hospital and carried out rescue work. The fire has been brought under control, they said. (ANI) Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), General Upendra Dwivedi extended New Year wishes to all the countrymen on behalf of the Indian Army and prayed for happiness, good health and prosperity for all. The Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADGPI), Indian Army, issued a statement on social media platform X on behalf of COAS General Upendra Dwivedi. In a statement issued, General Dwivedi urged the countrymen to dedicate themselves to the service of the nation, adding that collective contribution ensures the security, development and pride of the country. The statement posted by ADGPI of Indian Army on X, reads, "On behalf of the Indian Army, I extend my heartfelt greetings of New Year 2025 to all countrymen. May this year bring happiness, good health and prosperity to you and your family." "On this auspicious occasion of New Year, let us pledge to always dedicate ourselves to the service of the nation. Our collective contribution ensures the security, development and pride of the country. Let us all pledge to take our duties towards the nation to new heights in the year 2025. Jai Hind! General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of Army Staff," it added. https://x.com/adgpi/status/1874641714583122180 Earlier, the Indian Army emphasised the importance of honouring and remembering the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers, particularly those posted along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir as they continue to uphold their duty with perseverance and unwavering dedication. The Indian Army said that the armed forces remain steadfast and resolute in their mission to protect the nation's borders, despite facing extreme weather conditions. "As we welcome the New Year, it's important to take a moment to reflect on the incredible sacrifices made by our soldiers, especially those guarding the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir," the Army said in a statement. "The Indian Army, despite facing extreme weather conditions -- from searing heat in the summer in Rajasthan to bone-chilling cold in the winter in Ladakh, J&K, Himachal, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim -- remains steadfast in its duty," it said. "The rugged, treacherous terrain, often covered in snow or turning into a swamp during the monsoon, presents constant challenges, yet our soldiers persevere with unwavering commitment: Indian Army," it added. (ANI) A canal that draws water from the Alinjachay River and supplies the Beneniyar Reservoir in the Julfa district of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic will be reconstructed, Azernews reports, citing the Unified Internet Portal of State Procurements. The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic State Water Resources Agency has already completed the preparatory work for this project. The agency has entrusted the execution of the work to Hovers Group LLC and has signed a contract with the company. In accordance with the contract, the agency will pay 12.4 million manats to the company for the reconstruction of the reservoir. It is noteworthy that Hovers Group LLC, the company entrusted with the reconstruction work, was registered in 2011. The company's authorized capital is 345,720 manats, and its legal representative is Ilgar Adgozel Zeynalov. Madhya Pradesh Police has arrested two accused in an ATM robbery case who are suspected to be the members of Mewat Gang, said a top police official. Gwalior Superintendent of Police (SP), Dharamvir Singh on Wednesday stated that they have seized the looted amount and the vehicle which the accused were using to flee from the different spots and An ATM robbery incident was reported in the Bahodapur police station area in Gwalior on the night of December 26-27, 2024, the official said. He added that the accused used different number plates continuously during the incident due to which it was a challenging task to catch the criminals. Speaking to ANI, Gwalior SP said, "Gwalior Police has arrested two main accused of a gang in a very successful operation. An ATM robbery incident was reported in the Bahodapur police station area on the night of 26-27 December 2024...Based on experience, it was speculated that 'Mewat Gang' could be involved in this incident..." "CCTV cameras were scanned in the last 4 to 5 days...This gang also used different number plates continuously during the incident...It was a very challenging task to catch the criminals after the raid...2 accused have been arrested...The vehicle used in the incident has been seized and the looted amount has also been recovered...I would like to congratulate the team as this operation was solved after continuous efforts of 5 days by the whole team..." he added. The official further congratulated the team for combing out the successful operation. (ANI) A Bangladeshi national who was illegally residing in the national capital was apprehended and deported to Bangladesh following a verification drive launched by the staff of the Vasant Kunj South Police Station in the South West District. The illegal immigrant identified as Md Bablu, a resident of Demra village in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was deported to Bangladesh through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). According to officials, the authorities acted on a tip-off during an evening patrol on Tuesday regarding an illegal Bangladeshi national in the area. Acting upon the information, the team rushed to the spot and intercepted Bablu. In response to rising concerns over the unauthorised stay of migrants, including Bangladeshi nationals, in the capital, the South West District Police have intensified efforts to identify, detain, and repatriate individuals residing without valid Indian documents. A team was deployed to conduct thorough searches and gather intelligence to locate undocumented immigrants. The team was systematically briefed for day and night patrolling, ensuring effective vigilance and proactive measures against illegal activities. Meanwhile, Delhi police have identified more than 25 "illegal" immigrants from Bangladesh and have started the process to deport them to their home country, an official said. Special Commission of Police Law and Order Madhup Tiwari said that the drive to identify "illegal" immigrants from Bangladesh was being carried out on the orders of Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. "Following the LG's direction, we have launched a campaign in which we have started identifying illegal immigrants and deporting them. In Zone 2, the Southern zone, we have identified more than 25 such illegal immigrants so far and have also started the work of deporting them. At the same time, we had a big success in the South district, where we busted a racket in which we not only saw their route to come to India but also caught the people involved in it, who used to make their Aadhar cards here illegally," Tiwari told ANI. Further efforts are being made to identify more illegal migrants. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday lauded the Maharashtra government's efforts to ensure all-round development in remote and Maoist-affected areas of the state. This comes after 11 Naxalites, who carried a bounty of more than Rs 1 crore surrendered before the police in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli. PM Modi further extended greetings to the locals, stating that this incident will certainly boost 'Ease of Living' and pave the way for even more progress in the region. Taking to X, PM Modi wrote, "I laud the Maharashtra Government's efforts to ensure all-round development in remote and Maoist-affected areas. This will certainly boost 'Ease of Living' and pave the way for even more progress. A special congratulations to my sisters and brothers of Gadchiroli and the surrounding areas!" https://x.com/narendramodi/status/1874668342922924092 On Wednesday, as many as 11 Naxalites, including Vimla Chandra Sidam alias Tarakka, who carried a bounty of Rs 1 crore, surrendered before the police in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli. The 11 Naxalites, including 8 women and 3 men, surrendered at Gadchiroli Police Headquarters. They had bounties totalling more than Rs 1 crore on their heads. Moreover, the Chhattisgarh government had also announced a bounty on them. Among the surrendered was Tarakka Sidam, the head of the Dandakaranya Zonal Committee and wife of Bhupati, who had been involved in Naxalism for 34 years. The surrendered Naxalites included three division committee members, one deputy commander, and two area committee members. Each of them was provided with a financial aid package worth Rs 86 lakh to support their new lives. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was present during the surrender, expressed confidence that Naxalism would soon be eradicated from the state. CM Fadnavis also visited the Pengunda Police Help Center in Gadchiroli. Speaking to ANI, CM Fadnavis highlighted the transformation of the Gadchiroli region, saying, "This area of Gadchiroli, where we are standing, did not even have a road, and the Maoists had complete dominance here. Today, ending that dominance, we have built two big posts and constructed a road and bridge connecting directly to Chhattisgarh." He added, "In a way, after 75 years, the people here will get to see the state transport bus. Therefore, I believe that this is a very important day. We had said that Gadchiroli will not be the last district of Maharashtra, it will be the first district of Maharashtra and we have started that. Now the Maoists do not find new people here, there is no recruitment. Big cadres are surrendering, so it is heading towards an end." (ANI) Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan would embark on a one-day visit to Maharashtra on Thursday. During his visit, the Union Minister will make stops at key religious sites and engage with local farmers to discuss agricultural issues. Shivraj Singh Chouhan will first visit the Sai Baba temple in Shirdi, where he will offer prayers, following which he will be visiting the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar for darshan. In addition to his religious engagements, Chauhan will interact with farmers there to discuss their experiences. He will meet with them at the KVK Baleshwar. As part of his efforts to promote government initiatives, the Union Minister will also brief the farmers about the various farmer-friendly schemes implemented by the Central Government. Earlier on Wednesday, Union Minister Chouhan said that the Union Cabinet has agreed to extend the PM Fasal Bima Yojana till 2026, adding that more than 4 crore farmers benefitted through this scheme in 2024. "Today, the Union Cabinet has agreed to extend the PM Fasal Bima Yojana till 2026. The total budget is Rs. 69,515,071 lakhs. The risk coverage will be from the sowing of the crop to the storage... Last year, more than 8 crore applications from farmers were received, and more than 4 crore farmers benefitted. The farmers received Rs. 1,70,000 crores as a claim... This scheme is going to be extended till 2026," Chouhan said. He further said that the government has decided to store the DAP in advance, and Rs. 3850 crore have been allotted for it. "Another decision is to export rice... The minimum export price on rice has been removed... Today, an MoU has been signed between India and Indonesia regarding the trade of non-basmati white rice. India will export one million metric tonnes of non-basmati white rice," he added. The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26 with an overall outlay of Rs 69,515.71 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The decision will help in risk coverage of crops from non-preventable natural calamities for farmers across the country till 2025-26. (ANI) The Delhi Police team of PS Kishangarh, South West District, had arrested a 35-year-old thief, namely Vipin Kumar, at Karawal Nagar in the national capital. With his arrest, five mobile phones and one auto used in the commission of a crime were recovered from his possession, said officials. According to Delhi Police Keeping in view the New Year 2025 celebrations, on December 31, staff of PS Kishangarh was deployed at various pickets in the area of PS Kishangarh. A strong picket staff was deployed at Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg near the Katwariya Sarai police booth to check suspect vehicles and persons to maintain the law & order situation. During a picket check at about 08:00 PM, an auto was stopped for checking but the auto driver tried to take the U-turn to flee from the spot. The alert picket staff apprehended him and on his cursory search, five mobile phones were recovered from his jacket's pocket. Meanwhile, two complainants reported at PS Kishangarh to lodge their complaints regarding the theft of mobile phones. In the first incident, Ruchi Kalia, a resident of Vasant Kunj, Delhi, reported that on 31.12.2024, at about 04:30 PM, she went to Munirka Market for shopping and when she was purchasing vegetables, an unknown person hit her from the side and ran away. After some time she found that her mobile phone had been stolen from her pocket. She realised that her mobile phone was stolen by the person who hit and crossed her by touching her near the vegetable stall. Accordingly, the statement of complainant Ruchi Kalia was recorded and a case vide FIR No. 01/2025 u/s 303(2)/317(2) BNS was registered, the statement added. In the second incident, complainant Aditya Kumar, a resident of Chhatarpur, Delhi, reported that his mobile phone was stolen by an unknown person after hitting him near Munirka Metro station on December 31 at about 04:30 PM in a similar way as stated in the first incident. He also came to the police station to lodge his complaint, where he also identified the accused, Vipin Kumar, above and his stolen mobile phone was also in the possession of the accused. Accordingly, his statement was also recorded and a case vide FIR No. 02/25 u/s 303(2)/317(2) BNS was registered, said officials. During the course of the investigation of both cases, accused Vipin Kumar was arrested and two stolen mobile phones from both cases have been recovered and seized, while the remaining three mobile phones have also been seized, which are yet to be connected with the cases, the statement added. More updates on the matter are awaited. (ANI) A Bangladeshi national who had been illegally residing in the national capital for the past four years was apprehended and deported by the Delhi Police during a verification drive conducted by the staff of Kapashera Police Station, South West District. The illegal immigrant was identified as Lovely Khatoon Islam, a resident of Shankar Pur, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. She was deported to Bangladesh through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). The drive was launched in response to growing concerns over the unauthorised stay of migrants in Delhi. To address this issue, the South West District Police intensified efforts to identify, detain, and repatriate individuals residing without valid Indian documents. Acting on credible information about illegal migrants in the Kapashera area, the police detained Khatoon Islam, who was found in possession of fake Indian national identity documents, including a PAN card and Aadhaar card. During the verification drive, nearly 200 families were checked, and their documents were collected and verified. The verification drive was led by Station House Officer, Inspector Vikram Dahiya, and included Women Sub-Inspector Amisha, Head Constable Shripal, and others, under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vasant Kunj, Satyajeet Sarin. The team was deployed to conduct thorough searches and gather intelligence to locate illegal immigrants. They were systematically briefed for day and night patrolling to ensure effective vigilance and proactive measures against illegal activities. In an earlier drive launched by the staff of the Vasant Kunj South Police Station another illegally residing Bangladeshi national was apprehended and deported to Bangladesh. The illegal immigrant identified as Md Bablu, a resident of Demra village in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was deported to Bangladesh through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). Meanwhile, Delhi police have identified more than 25 "illegal" immigrants from Bangladesh and have started the process to deport them to their home country, an official said. Special Commission of Police Law and Order Madhup Tiwari said that the drive to identify "illegal" immigrants from Bangladesh was being carried out on the orders of Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. "Following the LG's direction, we have launched a campaign in which we have started identifying illegal immigrants and deporting them. In Zone 2, the Southern zone, we have identified more than 25 such illegal immigrants so far and have also started the work of deporting them. At the same time, we had a big success in the South district, where we busted a racket in which we not only saw their route to come to India but also caught the people involved in it, who used to make their Aadhar cards here illegally," Tiwari said. (ANI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said that once the construction of the proposed capital of the state, Amaravati, was completed, the state would become a prime destination for filmmaking. During an informal interaction with the media at the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) central office in Mangalagiri, CM Naidu discussed the growth of the film industry in Telangana's Hyderabad and its potential future in Andhra Pradesh. Naidu observed that Hyderabad has emerged as a key hub for the film sector, attributing this development to the opportunities created during the previous TDP government's tenure. He also remarked on the expanding overseas market for Indian films and expressed optimism about the future of the industry. "All films will be made in Andhra Pradesh once Amaravati is ready," Naidu said. Earlier, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD), Ponguru Narayana, said that all the developmental works in the capital city of Amaravati would be completed in the next three years with 1.18 lakh Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TIDCO) houses also to be completed by June 12 this year. Briefing media persons on the decisions taken by the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) at its 44th meeting held at the State Secretariat with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, in the chair, the MAUD Minister said that the Chief Minister gave his consent for payment of Rs 102 cr to complete the TIDCO houses, which have remained as non-performing assets. Narayana said that 701,481 TIDCO housing units got sanctioned by the Centre between 2014 and 2019, of which five lakh houses were given administrative sanction while 4,54,706 units have already been grounded. The CRDA also approved the proposal to take up road works in Amaravathi Zone-7 and 10 at a cost of Rs 2,723 cr, Narayana said, and stated that till now the CRDA cleared total works worth Rs 47,288 cr in the capital city of Amaravati. Of the remaining developmental works, some will be cleared by the end of this month and the others by next month, Narayana said, and he added that the tenders will be called before January 15. (ANI) In a significant move towards realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a 'TB-free India,' Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has launched an innovative initiative where retired IAS and IPS officers, along with former vice-chancellors and other senior citizens, will take on the role of 'Nikshay Mitra' to support the state's TB eradication efforts. These senior citizens will work to raise public awareness and assist in the treatment and care of tuberculosis (TB) patients. On Thursday, the Chief Minister held a meeting with everyone in this regard and called for cooperation to make the TB-free Uttar Pradesh campaign successful. In the special meeting, CM Adityanath welcomed the retired IAS, IPS and former vice-chancellors and informed them about the resolution of 'TB-free India' of Prime Minister Modi. CM Adityanath said, "Creation of a strong India is possible only from a healthy India and India will be powerful only when it becomes strong. He said that the World Health Organisation had set a target of making the world TB-free by the year 2030, which the Prime Minister has taken in mission mode and has set a target of 2025 for India." CM Adityanath said that India has the highest number of TB patients in the world and to make India TB-free, TB elimination is essential in Uttar Pradesh, the state with the largest population. CM Adityanath further added about the efforts made in Uttar Pradesh in the last few years towards TB elimination. He said that today the testing of TB patients in Uttar Pradesh has increased four times as compared to earlier. There has been a significant increase in the number of NET and X-ray machines. The success rate of TB treatment in the state has increased from 79 percent to 92 percent in the last four years. CM Adityanath said, "Under the Nikshay Poshan Yojana, an amount of Rs 775 crore has been paid into the accounts of about 27 lakh TB patients through DBT. Similarly, those living with lung TB patients are being given TB prevention treatment so that they do not suffer from TB disease." While discussing the importance of public participation in the TB eradication program, he said that so far more than 45 thousand TB patients have been adopted by the Nishchay Mitras, and 1372 Gram Panchayats of the state have been declared TB-free. CM Adityanath also called for cooperation from all and said that all of you have worked in the society for a long time. All have long experience. Now after retirement, all of you can cooperate in this national mission. He said that it is the shared responsibility of all that no TB patient should be left out and whoever is found to be suffering from TB should be provided with correct and continuous medical treatment immediately. They should be provided additional nutrition and some Nishchay Mitra should join them and become their support. Along with this, the remaining members of their family should also be examined and provided proper medical advice and treatment. CM Adityanath said, "TB patients are a part of society; providing them respect in society should be the priority of all of us. As Nishchay Mitra, all retired IAS/IPS and former vice-chancellors should adopt TB patients, give them information about the treatment, and provide proper help. He said that the main objective of the TB eradication campaign is to find missing TB patients, reduce the TB mortality rate and save healthy people from TB infection." The state government is fully committed to making the state TB-free and the participation of all sections of society is very important to make the state TB-free. All the retired administrative officers and vice chancellors present in the meeting expressed their gratitude for the call of the chief minister and also took an oath for cooperation. (ANI) TMC General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday addressed the ongoing situation against the minorities in Bangladesh and emphasised that the TMC would support any actions taken by the Union Government for the safety and security of those minorities there. Speaking at the inauguration of the mega health camp 'Seba Shray' in Kolkata, the TMC MP from Diamond Harbour expressed concern about the violence and instability in Bangladesh against the minorities. Banerjee called for a response from the Union Government and also reiterated the party's position on this issue. "Everyone knows the kind of atrocity, the kind of anarchy that has been going across Bangladesh, and the silence of the central government is adding to the speculation... We want to see the central government reply, or rather give a befitting reply in the language that perhaps Bangladesh understands. Who is stopping them? From our party's perspective, we have made our stand absolutely clear from day one that it is a Union subject; external or foreign affairs fall under the purview of the Union Government," Banerjee said. "Whatever step the Union Government takes, TMC as a party will completely support the Union Government for the safety and security of every Indian. We want them to reply to the people who are torturing us and showing us their red eye," he added. Banerjee also announced the launch of the large-scale health camp called "Seba Shray" in his parliamentary constituency of Diamond Harbour. The health camp will operate across seven assembly constituencies with the participation of 1,200 doctors. Over 280 camps will be set up at 2,000 booths, aiming to provide healthcare services to more than 23 lakh-plus people in the region. "This mega health camp will be run in seven assembly constituencies with 1200 doctors. 300 camps will be set up, which will cover 2000 booths. This mega health camp will provide health care services to 23 lakh-plus people," the TMC MP said. Banerjee further responded to critics who suggested that the health camp was a political move and stated that his party's focus had always been on serving the people, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. He mentioned that Diamond Harbour had achieved 100 per cent vaccination during the pandemic and that the TMC had been actively working for the constituency's welfare. "Many said that Abhishek Banerjee was doing this for the election. We don't do politics like others do... We have done all possible steps also in the time of Covid. In this constituency we have done 100 per cent vaccination...We always stand with people. Last year, the people of Diamond Harbour helped to to win by a high margin and elected me to the Lok Sabha for the third time," the TMC general secretary said "I am an MP of those who gave a vote to me, also for those people who didn't give me a vote. I am MP of all people. I request all people of Diamond Harbour without any political colour and welcome them in the camp," he added. (ANI) Former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday hit out at the BJP-led NDA government at the centre over the ongoing farmers' protest, accusing them of reneging on what he claimed were 'promises' made to the farmers three years back. In a post on X, the AAP national convenor termed the BJP as 'arrogant.' He also said that the ruling party at the centre will be responsible if anything happens to the farmers in Punjab who are on indefinite hunger strikes. "Farmers in Punjab have been staging sit-ins and indefinite hunger strikes for several days. Their demands are the same ones that the central government agreed to three years ago but has yet to implement. The BJP government has now reneged on its promises. The BJP isn't even talking to the farmers. Engage with them--they are our country's farmers. Why is the BJP so arrogant that it refuses to have a conversation?" he wrote in his post. "The farmers in Punjab who are on indefinite hunger strikes--may God keep them safe. But if anything happens to them, the BJP will be held responsible," Kejriwal's post further reads. He further claimed that the three farm laws that the Centre repealed three years ago due to the farmers' agitation are being prepared for re-implementation through the back door, under the guise of a "policy.". "For the information of farmers across the country, let me clarify that the three black laws that the Centre repealed three years ago due to the farmers' agitation are being prepared for re-implementation through the back door, under the guise of a "policy." A copy of this policy has been sent to all states for their feedback," he claimed in his post. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court granted time to the Punjab government to comply with its December 20 order to provide medical aid and shift to hospital farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a fast-unto-death since November 26. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Sudhanshu Dhulia listed the matter for further hearing on January 2 after Advocate General Gurminder Singh, appearing for the Punjab government, sought more time for compliance with the order. Singh said, "An application has been moved seeking three more days for compliance with the court's December 20 order for providing medical aid and shifting Dallewal to the hospital." (ANI) The main bathing rituals, known as the Shahi Snan (royal baths), will take place on January 14 (Makar Sankranti), January 29 (Mauni Amavasya), and February 3 (Basant Panchami). (ANI) "Prayagraj is fully prepared to fulfil the responsibility of 'Atithi Devo Bhava'. We have made preparations in all the areas of Prayagraj... The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has also visited Prayagraj, and the Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) also keeps coming. In such a situation, everyone's responsibility increases," Maurya told ANI. "I appeal to everyone to definitely come to see the divine, grand, Kumbh of Prayagraj...," he told ANI. As part of the preparations for the Mahakumbh Mela 2025, Uttar Pradesh Police will use underwater drones for enhanced security. The Maha Kumbh 2025 will showcase a vibrant display of India's cultural diversity from January 10 to February 24. The Uttar Pradesh Culture Department is finalising preparations to present the rich folk arts of India during this period, a press release stated. The Culture Department will set up 20 small stages at key locations across Prayagraj, allowing tourists, devotees, and locals to experience the country's diverse cultural heritage over 45 days. Folk dance forms from various states across India will be performed on these stages. Earlier, in preparation for the grand Mahakumbh 2025, North Central Railway introduced special arrangements to ensure the convenience of pilgrims arriving in Prayagraj. Taking a digital leap, the Prayagraj division of North Central Railway has launched an innovative initiative to simplify the ticketing process through modern technology. During the Mahakumbh, dedicated railway personnel from the Commercial Department will be deployed at Prayagraj Junction and other key locations. These personnel will be easily identifiable by their green jackets, which will feature a QR code printed on the back.(ANI) Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has written to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, accusing the AAP governmet in Delhi of blocking the Centre's welfare schemes for farmers in Delhi and called their policies "anti-agriculture" and "anti-farmer." The Union Minister further stated that he had earlier raised the issue of Delhi's farmers' concern, but the Delhi government didn't "resolve these problems." The letter dated January 1, reads, "I am writing this letter to you with great sorrow. You have never taken appropriate decisions in the interest of farmers in Delhi. The farmer-friendly schemes of the Central Government have also been prevented from being implemented in Delhi by your government. There is no sympathy for the farmers in your government." "Today, the farmer brothers and sisters of Delhi are upset and worried. Due to the non-implementation of many farmer welfare schemes of the Center by the Delhi Government, the farmer brothers and sisters are being deprived of the benefits of these schemes. I had earlier also written a letter to you and informed you about the problems of the farmers of Delhi, but it is a matter of concern that your government has not resolved these problems," it added. Shivraj Singh Chouhan called the AAP government's policies "anti-agriculture" and "anti-farmer." "Not only have you not implemented the farmer welfare schemes of the Central Government in Delhi, but your policies have also been anti-agriculture and anti-farmer..." the letter reads. Chouhan further accused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal of "cheating farmers" and taking their "political advantage" before the elections. The letter reads, "For the last 10 years, there is an AAP government in Delhi, but it has always seemed that the former Chief Minister Mr. Kejriwal has only cheated the farmer brothers and sisters and has taken political advantage of them by making big announcements before the elections. As soon as Mr. Kejriwal came to power, instead of taking public welfare decisions, he has always cried about himself." The Union Minister cited various schemes of the Central government such as Integrated Horticulture Development Mission, National Agriculture Development Scheme, Seed Village Program etc. which allegedly has been not implemented in Delhi. Lashing out at their free electricity scheme, Chouhan stated that on one hand they talk about free electricity, but on the other hand, farmers are being charged a huge amount for agricultural electricity, similar to the commercial rates of electricity in Delhi. The letter states, "You talk about free electricity but the AAP government in Delhi has fixed high electricity rates for farmers. Farmers are currently being charged commercial rates for electricity in Delhi. Cheap electricity is necessary for irrigation and other agricultural activities, but in Delhi, farmers are being charged a huge amount for agricultural electricity. Your government has cut off the electricity connections of irrigation equipment in the villages along the Yamuna, due to which they are facing a lot of difficulty in irrigation work. The crops of the farmers are drying up and their livelihood is also in danger." The Union Minister requested CM Atishi to make decisions in the interest of the farmers, adding that political competition should not become an "obstacle" to farmers' welfare. He urged to provide relief to the farmers of Delhi by implementing the schemes of the Central Government. "I request you to take decisions in the interest of the food producers and ensure that the farmers in Delhi get the benefits of the agricultural schemes of the Center. Political competition should not become an obstacle in farmer welfare. Farmer welfare is the duty of every government, irrespective of the party, you should rise above party politics and take decisions in the interest of farmers. You should provide relief to the farmers of Delhi by implementing the schemes of the Central Government," the letter reads. (ANI) As Delhi assembly polls inches closer, both the opposition BJP and ruling AAP are leaving no stone unturned attacking each other over several issues. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP Manoj Tiwari on Thursday hit out at the AAP government in Delhi, calling them the government of 'jhooth and loot.'. "We believe in development. But, unfortunately, we are doing development in an unfavourable situation. Delhi has a govt based on 'jhooth and loot'. Our aim is to avoid their thinking and move ahead and do what we are known as. .....We wanted to listen to the citizens," the BJP MP said in a press conference. Earlier, reacting to the allegations of Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying that the condition of farmers has never been "as bad as" it was during BJP's rule, according to a statement issued from the Chief Minister's office. Sharpening her attack, she further alleged that the "BJP talking about farmers is like Dawood preaching on non-violence." In a statement issued from the Chief Minister's Office, Atishi said, "BJP talking about farmers is like Dawood preaching on non-violence. The condition of farmers has never been as bad as it was during BJP's rule. Farmers in Punjab are on hunger strike; tell Modi ji to talk to them. Stop doing politics on farmers' issues. Bullets and lathis were fired on farmers during BJP rule." This came after Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, accusing the AAP government in Delhi of blocking the Centre's welfare schemes for farmers in Delhi and called their policies "anti-agriculture" and "anti-farmer." The Union Minister further stated that he had earlier raised the issue of Delhi's farmers' concern, but the Delhi government didn't "resolve these problems." The letter dated January 1 reads, "I am writing this letter to you with great sorrow. You have never taken appropriate decisions in the interest of farmers in Delhi. The farmer-friendly schemes of the Central Government have also been prevented from being implemented in Delhi by your government. There is no sympathy for the farmers in your government." "Today, the farmer brothers and sisters of Delhi are upset and worried. Due to the non-implementation of many farmer welfare schemes of the Centre by the Delhi Government, the farmer brothers and sisters are being deprived of the benefits of these schemes. I had earlier also written a letter to you and informed you about the problems of the farmers of Delhi, but it is a matter of concern that your government has not resolved these problems," it added. (ANI) Amid the controversy surrounding Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's alleged remarks against Sanatan Dharma, BJP leader V Muraleedharan on Thursday raised questions about the Congress party's stance on the matter, pointing out a contradiction within the Congress, as the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly disagreed with the Chief Minister's remarks, while the state Congress president supported them. Muraleedharan stated that while Congress leader in Kerala and the Leader of Opposition opposed the Chief Minister's remarks about Sanatan Dharma and the term "saffronization," the state Congress president had endorsed the Chief Minister's statement that Sanatan Dharma represents a return to monarchy and casteism. "Even while the Congress leader of Kerala and the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly disagrees with the Chief Minister's comments on Sanatan Dharma and opposes the term of saffronization, his own party president of Kerala has supported the statement of the Chief Minister that Sanatan Dharma is nothing but bringing back monarchy and bringing back casteism," Muraleedharan said. The BJP leader asked for clarification on the Congress party's position for the top brass, emphasising that the Kerala Chief Minister's comments were damaging to Hindu philosophy. "I would like to know what Congress stands on this. There is a huge issue that has come up in Kerala where the Chief Minister of the state has tried to malign the Hindu philosophy," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, Vijayan, while addressing the Sivagiri Pilgrimage, stated that attempts to portray social reformer and saint Sree Narayana Guru as a proponent of Sanatana Dharma are nothing but the practice of caste-based Varnashrama Dharma. "Sanatana Dharma is synonymous with or inseparable from Varnashrama Dharma, which is based on the Chaturvarna system. What does this Varnashrama Dharma uphold? It glorifies hereditary professions. But what did Sree Narayana Guru do? He called for defiance of hereditary professions. How, then, can Guru be an advocate of Sanatana Dharma?" the Kerala CM said. "Guru's ascetic life was a constant questioning and defiance of the Chaturvarna system. How can someone who proclaimed, "One Caste, One Religion, One God for humankind," be an advocate of Sanatana Dharma, which is rooted in the confines of a single religion? Guru championed a dharma that opposed the caste system," Vijayan added. (ANI) Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar has sharply criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the wake of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's announcement of a Rs 18,000 'Samman Raashi' for Pujaris and Granthis in the capital. In a statement to ANI, Kakkar challenged the BJP to implement similar welfare measures across the 20 states under their governance. "The way Arvind Kejriwal has announced 'Samman Raashi' of Rs 18,000 for the Pujaris and Granthis; BJP should do the same in all those 20 states they are in power," Kakkar said. The AAP spokesperson took a jibe at the BJP, accusing them of underhanded tactics to win the elections. "BJP is rattled as they have no policy or face (for CM) in Delhi. They are filing applications for deletion of votes - even when the Election Commission of India (ECI) has already completed its process and a draft list is already completed," Kakkar alleged. She further expressed confidence that the AAP would not be hindered by the BJP's alleged tactics. "We will not let any of their negative tactics get success in Delhi," Kakkar added. Meanwhile, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla on Thursday questioned as to why the AAP is announcing schemes like Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana and not just giving money without making such declarations. "The PWD under AAP issued a 'fatwa' to demolish two temples during Ram Navami in April 2024. Before that, in 2023, the Delhi High Court exposed your conspiracy to demolish a 50-year-old temple. Gopal Italia called temples - a house of exploitation. Arvind Kejriwal stated that he was sad because of Ram Mandir as the temple has been made by destroying the Babri masjid. Manish Sisodia said that why we need a Ram mandir rather than a school or university must be established in its place. Pinarayi Vijayan criticizes Sanatan, and so does DMK; SP leaders made fun of Shivling, and TMC also made fun of prayers offered at Ujjain Mahakal. AAP is in an alliance with all of them... AAP is in power right now. Why not give money to pujaris and granthis instead of announcing schemes?" said Poonawalla. (ANI) Himachal Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu flagged off the first group of 22 "children of the state" on Thursday, marking the start of a 13-day educational and recreational tour under the Sukh Aashray Yojana. The children departed in a Volvo bus, and the Chief Minister wished them an enriching and memorable journey. CM Sukhu said that the state government enacted a law for orphaned children and had adopted 6,000 children under the scheme. The government had launched the Sukh Aashray Yojana to ensure their welfare and provide for their educational needs. This scheme aims to empower these children and support them in becoming self-reliant. As part of this initiative, children were being taken to places such as Chandigarh, Delhi and Goa for exposure and learning. He further said that the tour comprises 16 girls and six boys. The group would visit Chandigarh from January 2 to 4 and would stay at Himachal Bhawan Chandigarh. They would then travel to Delhi on January 5 aboard the Shatabdi Express, exploring various historical landmarks until January 8, an official release said. On January 9, the children would fly to Goa, where they would stay in a three-star hotel and visit key tourist and historic attractions. The group is scheduled to return to Chandigarh on January 14, 2025. The Chief Minister reiterated that the government acts as both parents for these children and was committed to ensuring their rightful access to state resources. "The government was giving these children the same experiences as those who go on trips with their own families. Such exposure adds to their knowledge and prepares them for future opportunities. These children were the future of the nation and they would definitely play an essential role in the development of the state and nation", he said. Health Minister Dr. (Col.) Dhani Ram Shandil commended the government for its efforts. He said that the government was treating these children like its own family. He highlighted the dedication of the government to addressing their concerns and ensuring their wellbeing, something that had been neglected by the previous government. Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar, Deputy Chief Whip Kewal Singh Pathania, MLA Harish Janartha, Mayor MC Shimla Surinder Chauhan, Principal Advisor to the Chief Minister (Media) Naresh Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner Anupam Kashyap were among those present. (ANI) The Hampi Utsav, also known as the Vijaya Utsava will be held this year for three days, starting from February 28 to March 2, said an official on Thursday. According to Ballari District in-charge and State Housing Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, discussions were held with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday morning and his approval was obtained for the event. The Karnataka Minister Zameer Khan said, "Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will inaugurate the Hampi Utsav on February 28, followed by programs on March 1 and 2. The festival will conclude on March 2." Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan has directed Deputy Commissioner Divakar to begin preparations for the event. The Hampi Utsav is a yearly cultural festival that takes place in Hampi, Karnataka. The festival is organized by the Karnataka government and celebrates the grandeur of the Vijayanagara Empire. The festival is believed to have been celebrated since the time of the empire and is considered one of the oldest festivals in India. Organised annually by the Government of Karnataka, the festival is celebrated over 2 to 3 days with much pomp and gaiety. The festival is reminiscent of the grand Vasantotsava that was celebrated during the time of the Vijayanagara Empire. The ruins of Hampi standing silently by the side of the flowing waters of the Tungabhadra provides the perfect backdrop for the performances that ignite a billion sparks during the Hampi Utsava. The Hampi Utsava is also a wonderful platform where the richness of the folk dances and folk music of Karnataka is showcased. The festival includes a variety of events, such as traditional and free-style art performances, including music, dance, and theatre Competitions like rock climbing, rural sports, and water sports, as well as photography, rangoli, and mehndi competitions, are held at the festival. Fairs are set up featuring local and regional cuisine, and shopping markets for Karnataka's handicrafts and other items, making the festival a popular time to visit Hampi. (ANI) BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Thursday launched a scathing attack on AAP's Sanjay Singh, alleging that the AAP won elections with votes from Bangladeshi infiltrators. Tiwari claimed that Singh and his party will get a "befitting reply" and face punishment after a thorough investigation. He also welcomed the defamation notices sent by Singh, saying it would lead to a thorough investigation. Tiwari's comments come amid a controversy surrounding Singh's wife, Anita Singh, who has been accused of being a dual voter, registered in both Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi. "They will get a befitting reply. Now the culprits are sending defamation notices. I am very happy with this and now a thorough investigation will be done and the culprits will be punished... Wherever elections are held, they become their voters. This is not allowed in democracy... They were winning elections only by taking votes from Bangladeshi infiltrators..," he said. Responding to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) accusation that the Aam Aadmi Party is trying to rig the upcoming Delhi assembly elections by double voting, AAP MP Sanjay Singh on Thursday said that the BJP does nothing but spread lies. "Bharatiya Janata Party has nothing to do except spread lies. My wife has applied with the District Electoral Office, Sultanpur, to delete her name from there on January 4... My mother and my father's names are there on the voter list--except for them, neither my wife's nor my name is there..." said Singh while addressing a press conference in Delhi. "BJP is saying that my name was on the voter list of Sultanpur during the 2018 municipal elections. The list of the municipality is prepared by Chief Minister Yogi Ji's employees. Even after I applied for deletion of my name, if my name was there, then the responsibility lies with the employee who prepared the voter list," the AAP MP added. On his defamation notice to BJP leaders Manoj Tiwari and Amit Malviya, AAP MP Sanjay Singh says, "It cannot be that I take no action when BJP leaders spread lies about me and my wife. They should prove their lies before the court..," he said. (ANI) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami offered prayers at the Surkanda Devi temple in Tehri Garhwal district on Thursday. Chief Minister visited the temple with his two sons and performed rituals. After offering prayers at the temple, CM Dhami interacted with local people and took feedback on the ropeway and other arrangements. Speaking to ANI, CM Dhami said, "Winter Char Dham yatra is a new chapter, it will prove to be a very big scheme for the whole of Uttarakhand. We have started it this year, 35,000 people have visited different places and this number is increasing continuously, we have made all the arrangements for this. This will further increase our economy." In a post on X, CM Dhami said, "I reached Maa Surkanda Devi Temple in Tehri district via ropeway and had darshan of Mata Rani. Due to the construction of a ropeway by our state government, a large number of devotees are able to reach here, as a result of which the livelihood of the local people has increased. On this occasion, after worshipping Maa Surkanda Devi with full rituals, prayers were offered for the happiness and prosperity of all the people of the state and the progress of the state. During this, feedback on facilities was also taken by talking to local people, shopkeepers and devotees." Earlier on Wednesday, on New Year, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday said that Uttarakhand will be the first state to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to give equal rights to every citizen and will show the way to other states. In a post on X CM Dhami said, "With the blessings of the God-like people of Devbhoomi Uttarakhand, we are going to implement a Uniform Civil Code to give equal rights to the citizens of the state, this law will not only promote equality but will also prove helpful in maintaining the original form of Devbhoomi." After the Uniform Civil Code draft committee's final approval of the rules of the Uniform Civil Code Code on October 7, the way has been cleared for the implementation of UCC in Uttarakhand. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday extended greetings on the occasion of the New Year and stated that they will make this year a historic year with new achievements. CM Dhami stated that Uttarakhand state will mark its 25th year this year since its formation in 2000. "All our government departments will also work wholeheartedly in this. We will make this year a historic year with new achievements because we have entered the 25th year and 25-year-old Uttarakhand has become completely young today and the youth will get new momentum with full enthusiasm and zeal," he added. (ANI) The Book of Before and After Catholics at the Chaldean cathedral in Erbil, Iraq, on April 12, 2015. ( Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk) In the 21st century, the ancient Chaldean Catholic Church is a truly global institution. The Eastern Church has spread far beyond its Iraqi homeland, to Europe, Oceania, and North America. The diaspora community's growth poses serious challenges for the transmission of the Church's faith and heritage. A young Chaldean Catholic growing up today in Detroit or San Diego may feel more at home in English than in their paternal language, Chaldean. Fr. Andrew Younan, the first American-born Chaldean Catholic priest, feels a deep responsibility to keep the dialect of Neo-Aramaic alive. At the same time, he wants to introduce English-speakers to the Eastern Church's deep life of prayer. That's why he has published "The Book of Before & After," a groundbreaking English translation of the liturgy of the hours of the Church of the East that was decades in the making. The liturgy of the hours -- also known as the Divine Office or breviary -- are the daily prayers recited at regular intervals by priests, religious, and countless laity worldwide. The Church of the East is the Christian community established to the east of the Roman Empire by St. Thomas the Apostle, with his companions St. Addai and St. Mari, and using Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, in its liturgy. Four present-day communities -- the Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Apostolic Assyrian Church of the East, and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church -- are rooted in the Church of the East. In emails with The Pillar, Fr. Younan, a member of the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St Peter the Apostle, discussed the art of translation, how to begin praying the liturgy of the hours, and the "crisis" facing the Chaldean Catholic Church -- as well as mandolins and misanthropy. You describe the "Book of Before & After" as "an attempt to render into English, for the first time in a form ready for the use of the faithful, the liturgy of the hours of the Church of the East." How did you envisage that Catholics will use the book? We pray morning and evening prayer with earlier editions of this book in several parishes in our eparchy, every day of the week. It's very enriching to a parish to provide access to these prayers, perhaps before a daily (or Sunday) Mass [Divine Liturgy], so that parishioners who can make it to Mass a little early can experience some of the beauty that sanctified their forefathers. Beyond parish usage, these books can easily be used by religious communities, during retreats, or even among friends praying together. It is also quite common for people to pray the liturgy of the hours on their own, and even if they aren't singing by themselves, the words are theologically and spiritually rich, and can help form a deep life of prayer. There's an accompanying website with the book's melodies. Why was it important to offer this as well? The biggest challenge in this translation was to render Aramaic hymns into English that keeps the same (or a similar) syllabic structure, so that the hymns can be sung in English with the same melody they have in Aramaic. There are dozens of different melodies for these hymns, and the music of the liturgy is such an enormous part of its beauty, so we created the website so people everywhere can learn the melodies and sing with the ancient melodies as they use this book for prayer. What is the book's intended audience? It's really for two groups. First, it's for the faithful to be able to pray in this tradition and keep it alive. Second, it's for scholars and readers interested in liturgy and the Eastern Churches, to encourage interest in liturgy (which is often neglected by scholars) and in the Eastern Churches (which are often neglected in general). Are there a lot of English-speaking Chaldean Catholics who are disconnected from the patrimony? There are hundreds of thousands of Chaldeans living in "the West." Some of them speak their paternal language, and I work very hard to produce books and videos to keep the Chaldean-Aramaic language alive. At the same time, the prayers of the Church of the East should not be reserved only for those who know a particular language, so translating as much of it as possible so that English-speaking people have access to them has been a high priority for me for much of my life. In fact, I've observed that praying in their tradition inspires a lot of people to learn their language. What are the consequences of a rise in Chaldeans who only speak English? Is the Chaldean Church changing in some ways as a result? There is a serious crisis on the horizon of the Chaldean Church, which is somewhat hidden because Chaldeans are generally fairly faithful and our churches are pretty full. The crisis is that within a lifetime, the Chaldean Church could very easily disintegrate as its people either stop being religious or go to other churches. The temptation in the West right now is to make short-term "gains" by making ourselves as much like the Latin Church as possible ("latinization"), adopting their style, music, etc. This is, in my experience, an easy way out that will be suicidal in the long run. If the Chaldean Church ends up feeling just like a Latin Church, then why not just go to a Latin Church? The more challenging route is to take our traditions, prayers, music, and spirituality, and make them accessible to the English-speaking faithful. This route is more work and has more social obstacles, but in my view it's the only real way to keep the Chaldean Church alive in the long run. What would your advice be to a Catholic who's interested in starting to pray the liturgy of the hours? Do it. The liturgy of the hours is the official daily prayer of the Church, and will deepen your prayer life immensely. But it takes some discipline, so I'd advise starting with a short and simple morning and evening prayer every day, and giving yourself a few weeks or months to get into the rhythm of it. After that, expand to a longer form of prayer. What I mean by "short" and "long" forms are (for example) what can be found in the Latin Church's "Shorter Christian Prayer," then moving to the more common breviary titled "Christian Prayer," then getting the full four-volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours. In the case of the Church of the East, there are three versions of the liturgy of the hours contained in the new prayer book. You can start with the "shorter" prayers which begin on page 243, then move eventually to the "Emmanuel" prayers which start on page 141, and are really well-suited to parish or individual prayer. The book also has the full traditional set of prayers starting on page 1. I discuss this, and how to use the book, in this video: It's also worth noting that both the shorter versions of the prayers and the Emmanuel versions are available on a very handy and easy-to-use phone app. Would you encourage Latin Catholics to use "The Book of Before & After?" Strictly speaking, no. [Eastern] canon law really prefers people to pray according to their own rite, and forbids people from pressuring others to change rites. On the other hand, if a Latin Catholic finds that they like praying with this book, there's nothing to stop them, and prayer is always a good thing. You also have a new book on the sermons of St. Narsai, a giant of Eastern Christianity. Why do you think he isn't well known among Western Christians? This book was another decades-long dream of mine that happened to come out at the same time as the prayer book. Narsai is a deep, poetic theological thinker that has thankfully been given more attention by scholars in the last decade or two, and I'm part of a group of scholars working on translating all of his works into English. My volume is meant to be an introduction to his thought, more accessible to non-experts, and I hope it helps spark even more interest in him. How did you come to be the Chaldean Catholic Church's first U.S.-born priest? By accident, I think. There just hadn't been very many ordinations before me because the Chaldean community was relatively new in America. Bishop Francis Kalabat was ordained nine years before me and he grew up in America, but was born in Kuwait. There were no ordinations between his and mine in the whole country, while now (thank God) we have newly ordained priests both in the Detroit and the San Diego eparchies basically every year. If you're asking about my vocational calling, it came through a gradually growing love of God and a feeling that I wanted to serve and help my community, and through a special love of my liturgy. As well as being a Chaldean, a priest, a seminary rector, a philosophy professor, a cat owner, and an octave mandolin player, you are also a self-declared misanthrope. Is it hard to fit in misanthropy alongside your many other interests and activities? I need to update my social media bio. My cat Siduri now lives with a nice family due to some allergy issues at the seminary. I'm also now a chorbishop (analogous to a monsignor), and I've never been very good at mandolin but I can pluck away when needed. Misanthropy is both a personality trait and a requirement for me to keep up with everything else I do. Being rector of the seminary is an extremely demanding and mentally taxing ministry, not exclusively because of long hours of work but because of the responsibility that comes with it. Some of the men in my care will end up as priests for the Church, and we who work with them on their formation are responsible for making sure they are the best priests they can be. A small failure on our part, or neglect, or a missed red flag, could be absolutely disastrous for the Church when they end up serving as priests. In comparison, teaching philosophy is a welcome break. I've read that the Chaldean Catholic community in California is thriving. Is that accurate? We have our moments. Our eparchy encompasses the whole western United States, and we have parishes throughout California, as well as in Arizona and Nevada, and a mission in Texas. In many ways we are thriving, yes, and I'm very proud of what our people have accomplished. If I can, I'd like to ask your readers to pray for my bishop and my brother priests here and in the Detroit Eparchy. We live lives of joyful service, but we all need God's grace to make it through the day. What inspired you to begin work on "The Book of Before & After?" I've been working on pieces of this book since I was a deacon more than 20 years ago, and published what I could call a much shorter first draft of it all the way back in 2008, with other editions in the intervening years. I joined the seminary and learned about the liturgy of the hours, and how enriching they are to pray; I then learned the dialect of Aramaic needed to read and pray my own liturgy of the hours -- called the Hudhra, or "Cycle" -- and began praying on my own, and absolutely fell in love. After that, I realized that these prayers were a treasure that should be shared, and that sharing them meant translating them. My first translations were clunky, and I constantly struggle with the feeling that I'm doing violence to something beautiful when I translate, but this latest edition is something that, I hope, gives a real taste of the spirituality of the Church of the East to English-speaking people. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami released the brochure and poster of the 17th Krishi Vigyan Sammelan and Krishi Exhibition at the Chief Minister's residence. The Krishi Maha Kumbh is set to begin from 20 February to 22 February 2025 at Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, which is being jointly organised by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture, a press release said on Thursday. On this occasion, Vice Chancellor of Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Prof. MS Chauhan said that more than 4,000 delegates from more than 50 countries will participate in the 17th Krishi Vigyan Sammelan. At the conference, panel discussions will be held on topics like innovation in agriculture in mountainous areas, promotion of young professionals in the agriculture sector, digital agriculture, climate change, and smart livestock farming. Apart, seminars will also be organised on topics like quality education for new discoveries in science, possibilities of beekeeping, and new measures to get rid of poverty and malnutrition. On this occasion, an agricultural technology exhibition will also be organised in which more than 200 institutions from India and abroad will participate. Meanwhile, CM Dhami offered prayers at the Surkanda Devi Temple in Dhanaulti. "Winter Char Dham yatra is a new chapter, it will prove to be a very big scheme for the whole of Uttarakhand... We have started it from this year, 35000 people have visited different places and this number is increasing continuously, we have made all the arrangements for this...This will further increase our economy ...", CM Dhami said. (ANI) Amid the row over a Dalit girl's suicide in Loharu, and allegations that the victim was pressurised by the college authorities to get into a physical relationship with the Director's son over "unpaid college fee", Haryana Minister Gaurav Gautam said that there should be an inquiry and the state government would serve justice. Gaurav Gautam said, "We stand with the statement made by Krishan Singh Bedi. If the people of Congress are involved in such an incident, then it is condemnable. There should be an inquiry. The government will serve justice." Earlier Haryana Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Krishan Bedi alleged that the college was run by a Congress politician in Fartia Bhima village under the Loharu assembly constituency in the Bhiwani district of the state. Bedi stated that the director of the college, where the girl studied, was a relative of the Congress MLA Rajbir Fartia. He said that Fartia won elections after running "propaganda" that fees won't be taken from SC students and their transport services will be waived. Speaking to ANI, Krishan Bedi said, "In a college run by a Congress politician in village Fartia Bhima under Loharu constituency, a girl from the Dalit community committed suicide because the Director's son Rahul and daughter, and the Principal pressurised the girl to have physical relations with Rahul to get her college fee waived. She was so distressed that she took her life." The Minister further accused Congress leaders Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala for "hiding" these facts and changing the angle of the issue. Referring to the tweets of Congress leaders Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala where they slammed the BJP-led Haryana government for the incident and Surjewala called the incident "shameful", the minister claimed that both Congress leaders have tried to change the angle of the issue. He further demanded the Congress leaders to take down their social media posts and apologise. Bedi said, "Two politicians from Congress hid these facts and instead tweeted that the Haryana government is trying to hide the case of a Dalit girl's suicide due to her inability to pay college fees. The truth is that Congress MLA Rajbir Fartia, a relative of the college's Director, won the Haryana assembly elections after running propaganda that he would not take fees from SC students and give free transport services." "Selja Kumari and Randeep Singh Surjewala should have demanded the arrest of the culprits instead of tweeting... They don't remember the time when under Bhupinder Singh Hooda's government, a Dalit girl and her grandfather from Mirchpur were burned alive in broad daylight... Both Selja and Surjewala should take their tweets down and apologise..." he added. (ANI) Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has responded to Delhi CM Atishi's concerns regarding Delhi farmers' lack of access to central government schemes. In a statement to media, Chouhan clarified that the central government was ready to provide benefits to the farmers, but the Delhi government had failed to submit the necessary proposals for the schemes. Chouhan said that during meetings with Delhi farmers, they had expressed their disappointment at not receiving benefits from the central schemes. "Farmers from Delhi had met me and stated that they are not getting the benefit of various Central schemes. I have mentioned in my letter that the Central government is ready to give the benefit of the schemes to the farmers," he said. He further told the media that the central government "had not received any proposals" from the Delhi government, which was the reason farmers in the capital could not take advantage of these schemes. The Union Minister pointed out that the lack of proposals from the Delhi government had created a barrier for the farmers. "Because proposals for schemes meant for farmers did not come from the Delhi govt, the farmers could not benefit... We have not received any proposal from the Delhi government for the same and that is why the farmers of Delhi couldn't reap the benefits of the schemes," he said. "The central and state governments should work for the benefits of the farmers," he added, highlighting the need for joint efforts to improve the conditions and welfare of farmers in Delhi and across the country. The Union Agriculture Minister Chouhan had written a letter to CM Atishi, accusing the AAP government in Delhi of blocking the Centre's welfare schemes for farmers in Delhi and calling their policies "anti-agriculture" and "anti-farmer." The letter dated January 1 read, "I am writing this letter to you with great sorrow. You have never taken appropriate decisions in the interest of farmers in Delhi. The farmer-friendly schemes of the Central Government have also been prevented from being implemented in Delhi by your government. There is no sympathy for the farmers in your government." "Today, the farmer brothers and sisters of Delhi are upset and worried. Due to the non-implementation of many farmer welfare schemes of the Center by the Delhi Government, the farmer brothers and sisters are being deprived of the benefits of these schemes. I had earlier also written a letter to you and informed you about the problems of the farmers of Delhi, but it is a matter of concern that your government has not resolved these problems," it added. Reacting to the allegations Delhi Chief Minister Atishi launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party saying that the condition of farmers has never been "as bad as" it was during BJP's rule, according to a statement issued from the Chief Minister's office. Sharpening her attack, she further alleged that the "BJP talking about farmers is like Dawood preaching on non-violence." (ANI) VHP National Spokesperson Vinod Bansal on Thursday criticised the rejection of former ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari's bail plea by a Bangladesh court, saying that it is a sign of a "perverted, jihadi, anti-Hindu, and also anti-Bangladesh" mentality. Bansal alleged that the country's lower judiciary is under pressure from "jihadis" accusing the Bangladesh youth of destroying the image of Islam. "Bangladesh has become a haven for separatists... It seems their lower judiciary is working under the pressure of Jihadis... (levelling sedition charges against Chinmoy Das) is a sign of a perverted, jihadi, anti-Hindu, and also anti-Bangladesh mentality... Bangladesh youth has destroyed the image of Islam," he said. Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs expert Robinder Sachdeva said that the Bangladeshi judiciary may be acting under governmental influence or biased assumptions about Hindu minorities. He argued that the charges against Chinmoy are not severe and he deserves bail, adding that the judiciary's actions reflect an attempt to establish Islam as the "primary religion and culture" in the country. "It seems like the Bangladesh judiciary is systematically working on the instructions of the government or the assumptions that elements of Hindu minorities and cases against them have to be dealt with in a certain way. The charges against Chinmoy are not serious. He deserves bail... It seems that the judiciary is adhering to the ideologies of a new Bangladesh where they want to make Islam the primary religion, primary culture in the country," Sachdeva told ANI. Earlier in the day, the bail request of Chinmoy Krishna Das was turned down by Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam after about 30 minutes of hearing both parties' arguments, according to Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizur Haque Bhuiyan. Eleven Supreme Court lawyers were set to participate in the bail hearing of Chinmoy Krishna Das. On December 3, 2024, the Chittagong court had fixed January 2 for a bail hearing as the prosecution submitted a time petition and there was no lawyer to represent Chinmoy. The unrest in Bangladesh stems from the sedition charges filed against Chinmoy Krishna Das for allegedly raising a saffron flag above Bangladesh's national flag in Chittagong on October 25. His arrest on November 25 sparked protests, culminating in violent clashes between his followers and law enforcement outside the Chattogram Court Building on November 27, which resulted in the death of a lawyer. The situation worsened following additional arrests. According to ISKCON Kolkata, two monks, Adipurush Shyam Das and Ranganath Das Brahmachari, were detained on November 29 after visiting Chinmoy Krishna Das in custody. The organisation's Vice President, Radha Raman, also claimed that rioters vandalised an ISKCON centre in Bangladesh during the unrest. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had also voiced concern over escalating violence and extremist rhetoric in Bangladesh, emphasising that it has consistently raised the issue of targeted attacks on minorities with Dhaka. (ANI) As the dust settles after the Assembly polls and the formation of the government in Maharashtra, the Mahayuti alliance has turned its focus to the upcoming local body elections. Shiv Sena, a key alliance partner, has said that the seat-sharing formula for the local body elections should mirror that of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. They emphasized that the seat allocation should be based on the merits of the candidates, with sitting seats remaining with the respective party. Shiv Sena has already begun preparations for the elections and is reviewing several seats in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections, which they believe they can win. Ground-level party workers have been instructed to go door-to-door, engaging with people and informing them about various state and central government schemes. Reviews are also being conducted for potential candidates. Shiv Sena aims to secure at least 35-40 seats out of the total 162 seats in the PMC General Body. In the 2017 election, the United Shiv Sena won 10 seats in the PMC. Shiv Sena Pune city Chief Nana Bhangire said, "The seats-sharing among Mahayuti for civic body elections should be the same as it was for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. While sharing a seat, the elective merits of the particular candidate should be considered, and sitting seats should be given to the respective party. We have already started the preparation for the election and are taking reviews of several seats in the Pune Municipal Corporation election which we believe we can win." "We have asked our ground-level party workers to go door to door and speak with the people and inform them about the various schemes of the state and central government. We have also started taking reviews for the interested candidate. We expect to get at least 35-40 seats out of a total of 162 seats in the PMC general body," he added. Nana Bhangire also mentioned that some leaders from opposition parties are keen to join Shiv Sena ahead of the elections. He added that whether "Mahayuti will contest the elections together or separately will be decided by the top leadership." Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Ajit Pawar, has indicated that their party workers prefer to contest the elections solo. Deepak Mankar, the Pune city President, stated that while the PMC elections are still some time away, the party is always ready to contest. Ajit Pawar has hinted that the NCP might go solo in the upcoming Municipal Corporation elections, but the final decision will be made by the top leadership. The NCP aims to contest every seat in the PMC. (ANI) Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur, has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, urging the government to seek a fresh public mandate. Thakur alleged that the state government failed to fulfill the promises made to the people, delivering a sharp critique of the Congress-led government's performance over the past two years. While addressing a press conference on Thursday, LoP Thakur delivered a sharp critique of the Congress-led state government's two-year tenure. He described the year 2024 as one of political, social, and economic instability, likening the government's functioning to the satirical television program "Ulta Pulta" by comedian "Jaspal Bhatti". "The year 2024, from beginning to end, has been marked by unprecedented instability in Himachal Pradesh. It began with political controversies and ended with severe economic crises. The state witnessed a government whose decision-making process was akin to a comedy show," he said. He criticized the state government for making "illogical and poorly thought-out decisions" that led to "embarrassment and reversals." Referring to controversial taxation policies, including a proposal to tax women for using public toilets, Thakur remarked, "The last year was a blend of bizarre decisions, from discussions on samosas to jungle chickens, culminating in a toilet tax proposal. This absurdity reflects the government's lack of seriousness." Thakur lambasted the government for its failure to deliver on its promises, particularly the guarantee of providing 300 units of free electricity to all households. He highlighted the state government's recent appeal for citizens to voluntarily forgo electricity subsidies. "The Congress government came to power on the basis of guarantees, and now, it is reneging on those promises. This betrayal of public trust calls for the government to resign and seek a fresh mandate," Thakur asserted. Thakur questioned the practicality and revenue impact of the subsidy withdrawal scheme, stating, "There are approximately 26 lakh electricity consumers in Himachal Pradesh. The government hasn't even clarified how much revenue will be generated from this measure." The Leader of the Opposition accused the Congress government of neglecting the education sector. "Over 1,100 primary schools have been shut down, forcing children, especially in tribal and remote areas, to drop out of school. This has disrupted the education of countless students," he said. Thakur also raised concerns about the state's deteriorating law and order situation, citing incidents of shootings and violent clashes. "The state has witnessed an unprecedented decline in governance. From court premises to industrial areas, violence has become rampant under this government," he added. He also alleged corruption in Forest Affairs. Thakur brought attention to illegal deforestation in the Kullu district, alleging political protection for those involved. He stated that a BJP committee was investigating the matter, and further details would be shared after the findings were finalized. Concluding his address, Thakur called on the Congress government to resign, stating, "If you cannot fulfil the guarantees that brought you to power, you have no moral right to govern. The people of Himachal Pradesh deserve better." Thakur also criticized the government's dependency on central aid while simultaneously accusing the Centre of neglect. "Despite their baseless allegations, Himachal continues to receive support from the central government. It's time for the Congress to acknowledge this fact," he said. This press conference marked a strong critique of the state government, with Thakur underscoring the challenges faced by Himachal Pradesh and demanding accountability from the ruling party. (ANI) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against its own officer and conducted and recovered Rs 55 lakh cash, an official claimed on Thursday. As per the officials, the CBI registered a case against its own deputy SP on the allegations of obtaining undue advantage from different individuals who were within the ambit of the investigation being conducted by him. "The accused public servant was utilising the services of different middlemen for transacting the bribe money through a web of accounts and hawala channels," the official claimed. CBI has conducted searches at 20 different places, including Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. The searches have led to the recovery of cash worth rupees 55 lakh, which has been routed through the hawala channel, property papers showing investment of rupees 1.78 crores and book entries showing transactions worth Rs 1.63 crores, besides other incriminating documents, as per the claim made by officials. Further investigation is underway. On December 31, the CBI)Court had sentenced two accused including Rayabharapu Venkata Lakshmi (RVL) Narasimha Rao then Assistant Commissioner Of Central Excise & Customs ((Retired IRS Officer) Kakinada, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh and his wife Rayabharapu Gowri Ratnam to three years imprisonment with a total fine of Rs two lakh in a disproportionate assets case, said a press release from CBI on Monday. CBI had registered the instant case against the accused. It was alleged that during the check period from 01.07.2007 to 04.08.2011, the accused R.V.L. Narasimha Rao, IRS, while working as a public servant with the Department of Customs, had movable and immovable properties in his name and the name of his wife, disproportionate to his known sources of income to the tune of approximately Rs 31.20 lakh (Percentage of DA: 71.81 per cent) which he could not satisfactorily account for R. Gowri Ratnam, by allowing her husband to acquire assets in her name beyond her pecuniary resources, abetted the commission of offence, the release said. The Special Judge Court for CBI Cases, Visakhapatnam ordered CBI to initiate appropriate proceedings to confiscate the properties equal to the disproportionate assets of approximately Rs 27.57 lakh, the release mentioned. (ANI) AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar on Thursday accused the BJP-led central government of either deliberately settling infiltrators in the country or failing to secure the nation's borders. "Either the BJP is deliberately settling the infiltrators in the nation or the central government has failed to secure the borders of the nation..." she alleged. Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that the Border Security Force (BSF) were facilitating militants and infiltrators from Bangladesh to enter the state and further stated that because of this there were disruptions in the region. While addressing the State Administrative Review Meeting at the Nabanna Sabhaghar in Kolkata the Bengal CM stated that if the BSF continues to facilitate such activities, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would protest against them. "Border is guarded by BSF but not TMC... They are sending goons. They are sending people who murder people through the border. It is an inside job of the BSF, and it is a blueprint of the Central Government. If there was not any blueprint from the Central Government, then it would not be possible," the West Bengal CM said. However, Defence Expert Captain Anil Gaur countered West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's statement, alleging that she is a "huge facilitator" in settling illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators in India and ensuring their inclusion in voter lists. Captain Gaur claimed that Banerjee's accusations against the BSF were misplaced and that it was her people who were facilitating the infiltrators. He alleged that Banerjee is making these accusations to appease her voters. "The allegation made by Mamata Banerjee is wrong. She herself is a huge facilitator in settling the illegal infiltrators and Bangladeshis in India and ensuring that they are included in the voter list... She is alleging that BSF facilitates them, but it is her people who do this... She accuses the forces to appease her voters.," he said. (ANI) Ahead of the Maha Kumbh Mela, which is expected to draw around 40 crore people, Indian Railways is preparing to manage the huge influx of pilgrims with extensive planning and infrastructure upgrades. Dilip Kumar, Executive Director of Information and Publicity of the Railway Board, said that the railways would run around 13,000 trains during the Kumbh Mela to accommodate the large number of visitors. "The railways is working with the slogan of 'Divya Kumbh, Bhavya Kumbh, Digital Maha Kumbh'. Around 40 crore people are expected to reach... We have planned to run 13,000 trains during the Kumbh," Kumar said. The extensive train operations are designed to ensure smooth transportation for millions of devotees traveling to the religious gathering, with a focus on convenience and safety. In preparation for the event, railway stations located near key Kumbh Mela venues are seeing significant improvements in passenger facilities. "Passenger facilities at all the prominent stations near the Kumbh have been multiplied... Passenger amenities have been enhanced," Kumar explained, assuring the public that the railways are taking every measure to provide better services. Furthermore, the Railway Police Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) will be deployed in large numbers to ensure the safety and security of the passengers. One of the significant upgrades is the expansion of ticketing services, including a push for digital ticketing to facilitate ease of travel. "The ticketing facility has also been increased... Digital ticketing is being promoted," Kumar stated. Additionally, railway officials will open ticket counters in the Kumbh Mela area itself, ensuring that passengers have easy access to tickets for their travel. In another important development, Dilip Kumar announced the creation of a new rail division for Jammu. Indian Railways has notified Jammu as a new rail division, marking a significant step in strengthening the railway network in Jammu and Kashmir The division will initially cover 721 kilometers, including the Jammu to Srinagar-Budgam section. "Jammu has been notified as a new rail division by Indian Railways. Under this, 721 kilometers have been included initially. This will mainly include the railway section of Jammu to Srinagar-Budgam section," Kumar explained. The establishment of this new rail division is a part of Indian Railways' broader strategy to enhance connectivity in the Jammu and Kashmir region, an area that has long been a priority for infrastructure development. "Areas in and around Jammu and Kashmir are a priority... Indian Railways is trying to expand the railway network in all parts of the country to strengthen it and the trains are properly equipped," Kumar added. Indian Railways is also ramping up its efforts to modernize the network. Over the past decade, the pace of railway infrastructure construction has significantly accelerated. Kumar noted that this includes the completion of new rail lines and the expansion of existing routes. A particularly anticipated development is the soon-to-be-launched operation from Jammu to Srinagar. "Soon, the operation from Jammu to Srinagar will start," Kumar said, highlighting the connectivity this new route will bring to the region. The Jammu rail division was previously part of the Ferozepur division, but Indian Railways has decided to create a separate division for Jammu to ensure better management and faster development of the region's railway infrastructure. "Earlier this area was under the Ferozepur division... Indian Railways has decided to remove the northernmost part from the Ferozepur division and establish it as a new rail division," Kumar stated. (ANI) BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, accusing him of adopting anti-farmer policies and betraying the farming community. She condemned the Congress government's imposition of conditions on the Rythu Bharosa scheme, calling it a grave injustice to farmers who toil to feed the nation. Addressing a gathering of BRS leaders and cadres, MLC Kavitha questioned why farmers--the backbone of the country--are forced to beg for their rightful support. She demanded the unconditional disbursement of Rythu Bharosa funds, free from bureaucratic hurdles. "How many more applications must farmers submit to access the benefits they were promised?" she asked, labelling the Congress government's requirements as "cruel and humiliating." The BRS Leader accused the Congress of failing to honour its election promises, such as monthly financial aid for women and scooters for girls. She emphasized that, within just a year of governance, the Congress has faced massive public opposition due to its inability to deliver on key pledges. Kavitha also warned that the Congress government's anti-farmer stance would have severe consequences in the upcoming local body elections. She urged party cadres to prepare for a decisive victory, asserting, "The Congress has betrayed the trust of the people, and the BRS flag will fly high." Earlier on December 30, K Kavitha hit out at the Congress government in Telangana over the 'increase' in crimes against women. She said that the state government has failed to give attention to the safety of women since there was a 10 per cent increase in the crime rate. There is a rape case every third hour and there is a kidnapping case every fifth hour, the BRS MLC said, adding that this was never the situation in Telangana. "Congress government has not given any attention to the safety of women. We have been highlighting this fact. Unfortunately, there is a 10% increase in crime rate. In Telangana today, every third hour there is a rape case and every fifth hour, there is a kidnap case happening. This is really unfortunate. This was never the situation," Kavitha told ANI. She further said that the BRS government had created a 'She team' that works towards preventing petty crimes against women, which would further stop heinous crimes. However, the Congress government doesn't seem to care about women. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers staged a protest against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against his alleged remarks on Sanatana Dharma. Amid the controversy surrounding Pinarayi Vijayan's alleged remarks against Sanatan Dharma, BJP leader V Muraleedharan raised questions about the Congress party's stance on the matter, pointing out a contradiction within the Congress, as the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly disagreed with the Chief Minister's remarks, while the state Congress president supported them. Muraleedharan stated that while the Congress leader in Kerala and the Leader of Opposition opposed the Chief Minister's remarks about Sanatan Dharma and the term "saffronization," the state Congress president had endorsed the Chief Minister's statement that Sanatan Dharma represents a return to monarchy and casteism. "Even while the Congress leader of Kerala and the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly disagrees with the Chief Minister's comments on Sanatana Dharma and opposes the term of saffronization, his own party president of Kerala has supported the statement of the Chief Minister that Sanatan Dharma is nothing but bringing back monarchy and bringing back casteism," Muraleedharan said. The BJP leader asked for clarification on the Congress party's position for the top brass, emphasising that the Kerala Chief Minister's comments were damaging to Hindu philosophy. "I would like to know what Congress stands on this. There is a huge issue that has come up in Kerala where the Chief Minister of the state has tried to malign the Hindu philosophy," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, Vijayan, while addressing the Sivagiri Pilgrimage, stated that attempts to portray social reformer and saint Sree Narayana Guru as a proponent of Sanatana Dharma are nothing but the practice of caste-based Varnashrama Dharma. "Sanatana Dharma is synonymous with or inseparable from Varnashrama Dharma, which is based on the Chaturvarna system. What does this Varnashrama Dharma uphold? It glorifies hereditary professions. But what did Sree Narayana Guru do? He called for defiance of hereditary professions. How, then, can Guru be an advocate of Sanatana Dharma?" the Kerala CM said. "Guru's ascetic life was a constant questioning and defiance of the Chaturvarna system. How can someone who proclaimed, "One Caste, One Religion, One God for humankind," be an advocate of Sanatana Dharma, which is rooted in the confines of a single religion? Guru championed a dharma that opposed the caste system," Vijayan added. (ANI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday reiterated the right to statehood for J-K and said that if the Bharatiya Janata Party is worried about the Jammu and Kashmir then they should talk about the statehood. "The BJP should talk about the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir if they are so worried about the state. Let's not expect them to do anything else. This is our special status, which is our constitutional guarantee, whatever they contested in the Assembly and opposed it. When the resolution came, the Assembly passed it.," Omar Abdullah said. In November last year, the Legislative Assembly passed a resolution demanding the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370. The resolution was opposed by the BJP, which holds 29 seats in the assembly. Earlier today, Omar Abdullah Mentioning that the Supreme Court has said to restore the statehood "as soon as possible," CM Abdullah stated that one year is enough for this "as soon as possible." Addressing a press conference, the Chief Minister said, "We have been in power for more than 2 months now. It took us some time to understand the functioning of a government in a UT... It was easier than anticipated... We stand by the promises we made before the elections because of which people gave us the mandate to form the government... It will be important to us to change the status of J&K. I hope that the status of UT is a temporary phase for J&K." "The people of J&K participated in the assembly elections in good numbers and they should get something. The central government had promised to restore the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir and we hope it will not take much time. One year ago, even the Supreme Court in its verdict had said that statehood of Jammu and Kashmir should be restored as soon as possible. Now that a year has been completed so we believe that 1 year is enough for this 'as soon as possible'. We are here to serve people and fulfil their expectations of development and governance...." he added. Notably, the restoration of Article 370, the reinstatement of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, and the implementation of the autonomy resolution were key promises in the National Conference's manifesto for the Jammu and Kashmir elections. The first session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, which concluded on November 8, also witnessed uproar over the issue of Article 370. (ANI) Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strong resolve led to the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the BJP-led government not only "controlled terrorism but also demolished the terror eco-system from the Valley". Amit Shah, who was speaking at the book launch of 'J&K and Ladakh Through the Ages' said that Kashmir is and has always been an inseparable part of India. Modi government abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. Home Minister said that Articles 370 and 35A came in the way of full unison of Kashmir with the rest of the country. "PM Modi's strong resolve abrogated Article 370, this began the development of Kashmir along with the rest of the country... Article 370 sowed the seeds of separatism in the valley which later turned into terrorism. Article 370 spread a myth that the connection between Kashmir and India is temporary. There was terrorism for decades and the country kept watching. After the abrogation of Article 370, terrorism has been reduced by 70 per cent. Congress can accuse us of whatever they want... PM Modi released a package of Rs 80,000 crore... We not only controlled the terrorism, but PM Modi government also demolished the terror eco-system from the valley," he said. "To understand Bharat, the facts connecting our country need to be understood. To analyse where Kashmir and Ladakh were by twisting the facts on the basis of who ruled it, who lived here, and what agreements were signed, is pointless...and only historians with a distorted sense, lacking proper sense of history can do this," he added. The Union Minister said the book proves that the culture, languages, scripts, spiritual thoughts, artwork at pilgrim places, trade and commerce that was spread across the country was present in Kashmir for at least 10000 years and spread from there to several other parts of the country. "When 8000-year-old books mention Kashmir and Jhelum, then no one can comment on to whom Kashmir belongs. Kashmir is and has always been an inseparable part of India. No one can separate it using sections of law. Attempts were made to separate it using law but those sections were abrogated in the flow of time and all obstacles were removed," he said. He said India is the only country in the world whose geo-culture and boundaries have been shaped by its culture. India's geopolitical outlook can only be understood only through the country's viewpoint, he noted. Amit Shah said time has come to get rid of history written to please rulers. "It is time to present the country's history through facts and proofs and presenting it to the world..." he said. He expressed his gratitude to PM Modi for giving a new life to the languages of Kashmir. "PM Modi insisted that every language spoken in Kashmir should be given importance and has to be included... This proves how a PM of any country can be sensitive towards the languages of the country," he said. "The historians did what they did but now who can stop us? The nation is free and there is a government that is running according to the country's views... It is our work now to represent the nation with facts and proof and from our point of view," he added. Amit Shah said Kashmir is also known as the land of Kashyap and it is possible that it is named after the sage. He said Kashmir is also part of the Buddhist journey with the religion making its way to many countries of the region including Nepal and Afghanistan. "This book presents all factors in detail. The art in the ruins of old temples proves that Kashmir has been a part of India. Kashmir is also an integral part of the Buddhist journey...the history from Buddhism, to demolished temples, to the use of Sanskrit, to the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, to Dogra reign, to the mistakes made after 1947 and to their rectification, all the 8000 years of history are included in this book," he said. (ANI) Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge has strongly hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following its criticism in the wake of the alleged suicide of Bidar contractor Sachin Panchal. Kharge questioned the BJP's approach, stating that the party needs to "do their homework" before making accusations and undermining the state's leadership. The BJP has raised concerns over the incident and attempted to place blame on the state government. However, Priyank Kharge dismissed these accusations, asking, "Am I an accused?" Kharge alleged that the BJP was more focused on criticizing Karnataka's leadership than addressing the actual issue. "The BJP is trying hard to establish their leadership and give report cards to central leadership about how many times they scolded Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, raised slogans against Priyank Kharge...," he said. Earlier, After Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah rejected the BJP's demand for the resignation of Minister Priyank Kharge, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday said that Siddaramaiah himself is under the "scanner" how can he tell others to resign. "We are not saying that he (Priyank Kharge) is a culprit, he is not an accused at this point of time?... When Mr. Siddaramaiah himself is under the scanner, how can he tell others? This is why he is not able to ask Priyank Kharge to resign... When there was a similar incident, Mr. KS Eshwarappa resigned... In 2009-10 when the then Governor permitted prosecution, BS Yediyurappa resigned... We (BJP) are asking you to follow what we did only," Joshi told reporters in Mangaluru. Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah rejected the BJP's demand for the resignation of Minister Priyank Kharge in connection with the suicide of a contractor. He described the demand as an allegation driven by political hatred. "Minister Priyank Kharge's name is not on the death note of Bidar contractor Sachin, who committed suicide. There is neither any role nor evidence linking her to this case. Hence, the question of resignation does not arise," Siddaramaiah told reporters here. "However, the minister has stated that he is ready for any inquiry. In a similar case, BJP's KS Eshwarappa's name was written on the death note. The investigation into the complaint filed in connection with the case has been entrusted to the CID, and appropriate action will be taken after receiving the report," he added. Responding to the BJP's insistence that the investigation should be handed over to the CBI, the chief minister asked whether the BJP has no faith in the state police. "When the BJP was in power, not a single case was handed over to the CBI. The BJP has no morals to demand that the CBI should investigate," he said. (ANI) Tamil Nadu BJP President K. Annamalai on Thursday attacked the DMK government over the state's deteriorating law and order situation, citing disturbing statistics on rising crimes. Speaking to ANI, Annamalai said, "Child marriages have surged by 55 per cent in just one year, while crimes against women have increased by 8.3 per cent, with rape cases skyrocketing by 31 per cent." "Tamil Nadu has seen a 55% increase in the number of child marriages in the past year... Crime against women has increased by 8.3% according to NCRB 2022 State of Crime Data, rape cases increased by 31%... Crimes against children have increased by 8.5%. The systemic failure is hampering the police from delivering justice to the common public, " he added. Annamalai also criticized the state Education Minister's claim that the Central government's alleged denial of funds has left them unable to pay internet bills for education officers. "Last week our Education Minister said that the Central government is denying funds so they are unable to pay internet bills to the education officers which we proved is wrong... This is a pathetic state of Affairs. The Primary Education Department gets Rs 44,670 crore and is not able to pay internet bill?" he said. Annamalai further questioned why Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin isn't meeting with the press to address concerns about a recent alleged sexual assault case at Anna University. "Why is the Deputy CM not meeting the press and answering our question? He (the accused) is a DMK member and has participated in multiple DMK functions, a known criminal and a former syndicate member of Anna University... The current syndicate member is also a DMK MLA," he said. This comes after a second-year student of Anna University was allegedly sexually assaulted on the Anna University campus on December 23 night, Chennai Police said. One person has been arrested in connection with the case. In her December 23 complaint to police, the student alleged that an unidentified man had threatened and sexually assaulted her when she was talking to her friend on campus on Monday around 8 pm. (ANI) A burst water supply line at Kharghuli area in Assam's Guwahati on Thursday caused major damage, flooding several houses, vehicles, and business establishments. At least 20 families were affected by the incident, prompting a swift response from the police, Fire & Emergency Services, and the district administration to bring the situation under control. Sidheswar Deka, one of the residents told ANI that his family, including his child, was inside their house when the pipeline burst. "It was an unexpected situation. The water inundated my house, damaging many household goods, mobile phones, and a two-wheeler," Sidheswar Deka said. Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, who visited the affected area to assess the situation, called for a thorough investigation into the incident. "It is unfortunate that a similar incident occurred in the same locality last year, where a woman died and more than 40 houses were damaged. At that time, I requested the Human Rights Commission to conduct an inquiry, but I am still unaware of its progress. I believe the Human Rights Commission should take up this issue suo-moto. Many people, including shopkeepers, have faced hardship due to today's incident," Saikia said. He also recalled a previous incident in Ganeshguri where a young school student died after falling into a pit dug to lay a pipeline. "At that time, it was promised that an auto cut-off device would be installed in the control room to alert authorities in case of water leakage. Today, water leakage continued for 45 minutes, causing damage to nearby houses," he added. Saikia urged that if any corruption is involved, it should be brought to light. "People of Guwahati are not getting drinking water, and mishaps continue to occur," he said. Assam Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah, who also visited the site, assured the locals that experts are investigating the cause of the incident. (ANI) Jan Suraj chief Prashant Kishore launched an indefinite hunger strike on Thursday, demanding the cancellation of the Bihar Civil Services (BPSC) examination over the alleged paper leak incident. Kishore joined the aspirants of the BPSC in their protest at Gandhi Maidan on Thursday and criticized Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not meeting the students. "This is against the egoistic government (of Bihar) whose leader CM Nitish Kumar did not consider meeting the students even when the students had agreed to withdraw the movement if the CM said that the exams couldn't be held... The students were beaten up by the authorities... There is only one way for people like us, Hence I am doing an indefinite hunger strike," he said. The protesting students in Patna are demanding the cancellation of the Integrated Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination (CCE) 2024 conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on December 13. Earlier on Tuesday, Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) leaders marched towards Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor over the BPSC issue. As the leader marched towards the Raj Bhawan, the police stopped them. Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan alleged that the Bihar government is unable to provide justice to the students. "The Bihar government is unable to provide justice to the students... If they try to suppress the voice of the students, we will oppose it. The police have stopped us right now," he said. On Sunday, Bihar police lathi-charged and used water cannons to disperse the protesting BPSC aspirants in Gandhi Maidan. Following the incident, Bihar Police registered an FIR against hundreds of individuals, including Prashant Kishore, for unauthorised gatherings, instigating people, and creating law and order issues in Gandhi Maidan. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav condemned the lathi charge on protesting Bihar BPSC aspirants. In a video statement, the former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister said, "It is very painful how BPSC aspirants were beaten up by the police. Many people are badly injured in this... We condemn this. The visuals that have surfaced are painful. I am a youth, and I can understand their situation. Firstly, people were protesting against normalisation..." "On 15-16 December, BPSC announced the cancellation of the exam at one centre. If the paper had been leaked, then why is the exam being cancelled only at one centre? It is a kind of normalisation... That's why students are protesting for a re-examination. I also support this," the RJD leader said. Bihar Education Minister Sunil Kumar said on Monday that the BPSC will probe the complaints raised by the aspirants over the Integrated Combined Competitive Examination (CCE), 2024. Speaking to media persons, Kumar said: "They can say what they want; it is their right, but the Commission will probe this and will take an appropriate decision." (ANI) Hyderabad City Police have arrested 22 people for allegedly selling banned Chinese manja, officials said on Thursday. The action comes after a 40-year-old man was severely injured when a sharp kite string, commonly known as 'china manja', slit his throat while he was riding his two-wheeler vehicle at Ramaram in Bhadradri Kothagudem district. The sleuths of Police Mangalhat PS, Ghoshamahal Division, South West Zone, Hyderabad received credible information regarding the sale of banned Chinese manja made with non-biodegradable/synthetic products which may endanger human lives, flying birds and animals in the limits of Mangalhat police station. M. Mahesh, Inspector of Police and SI's of PS Mangalhat with the assistance of staff/team under the close supervision of K Venkata Reddy, ACP Goshamahal Divison and under the guidance of MD. Ashfaq Addl. DCP South West Zone, Hyderabad and G. Chandra Mohan, DCP South West Zone, Hyderabad City Police conducted a special drive from November 10, 2024, to till date, against the kites selling shops in the limits of PS Mangalhat. G Chandra Mohan, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South West Zone Hyderabad said, "During the ride, we found banned Chinese Manza made with non-biodegradable/synthetic products in various shops on different dates. We have registered a total of 18 cases against the 22 respective accused persons so far, also we have seized a total of 1094 bobbins made with synthetic products/non-biodegradable items, from the possession of the respective accused persons." He said that 22 people were arrested during special drives. "Further we have seriously instructed the shop holders who used to sell kites and Manza in the limits of PS Mangalhat, not to sell the Banned Chinese Manza, if any fails to follow the instructions severe action will be initiated against them," he said. Dy Commissioner of Police further said that they have conducted several meetings in the area with the local people and the customers who used to come to purchase the Manza, regarding proper precautions to be taken during flying kites. For flying kites the building must contain a railing to avoid falling from the building, he said. "We have strictly instructed them not to purchase the Banned Chinese Manza which is made with synthetic products/non-biodegradable items to avoid the cause of harm to human lives/birds/animals. If anyone fails to follow the instructions they must be liable for punishment," he further said. Earlier a 40-year-old man, Krishna Rao, a native of Cherlaguda Mandal, was severely injured when a sharp kite string, commonly known as 'china manja', slit his throat while he was riding his two-wheeler vehicle at Ramaram under Kothagudem Police station limits in Bhadradri Kothagudem district. According to the police, "A 40-year-old man named Krishna Rao, a native of Cherlaguda Mandal, was travelling on his two-wheeler vehicle at Ramaram yesterday evening around 5:30 pm. Suddenly, a 'china manja' came into contact with his throat, causing severe bleeding injuries. Nearby people immediately rushed him to a local hospital, where he is currently out of danger. No complaint has been filed in this matter so far." (ANI) Virendra Vashist, a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and a Supreme Court lawyer, has appealed to the Punjab government and urged them to rename a college in Hoshiarpur in honour of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The appeal follows a recent conversation in which Dr Singh expressed his deep emotional connection to his alma mater in Hoshiarpur, and Vashist has called for further recognition of Singh's extraordinary contributions to India. In a letter addressed to the Punjab Government, Virendra Vashist highlighted the significant role Dr Manmohan Singh has played in shaping the nation's future. Recognising the former Prime Minister's exceptional public service, Vashist proposed that renaming the college in Hoshiarpur after Dr Singh would be a fitting tribute to his enduring legacy and ties to the region. Vashist further suggested the construction of a memorial at the college to honour Dr Singh's transformative role in Indian politics and economics. He said that such a memorial would serve not only as a tribute but as an educational tool to inspire future generations of leaders in Punjab and beyond. Virendra Vashist in his letter said, "I hope this message finds you in the best of health and spirits. I am writing to make a humble appeal to the Punjab Government, following a discussion with Dr Manmohan Singh. It came to light that Dr Singh shares a deep connection with his alma mater in Hoshiarpur, a place that holds great significance in his heart." "Considering his exceptional contributions to the nation, his dedication to public service, and his enduring connection to this place, I kindly request that the Punjab Government consider renaming the college in Hoshiarpur to honour Dr Manmohan Singh. Furthermore, it would be fitting to build a memorial at the college to commemorate his legacy, ensuring that future generations are reminded of his remarkable achievements and the inspiration he continues to provide," his letter said. Adding further, he wrote, "I believe this gesture would not only honour a distinguished son of Punjab but also contribute to preserving his invaluable legacy for the benefit of the people and future leaders of our state. Thank you for your attention and consideration of this request. I look forward to your favourable response." Earlier in the day, the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded to name a college under the University of Delhi after the late former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. "You are set to inaugurate a college named after Veer Savarkar under the University of Delhi, NSUI strongly demands that this institution be named after Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. His recent passing has left a deep void, and the most fitting tribute to his legacy would be to dedicate premier educational institutions in his name," the NSUI wrote in a letter to PM Modi. NSUI National President, Varun Choudhary said that the college or campus should be named after former PM Dr Manmohan Singh."It would be a tribute to his academic journey and contributions to the nation," NSUI National President said. Earlier on December 26, Manmohan Singh passed away at the age of 92 due to age-related medical issues in Delhi. He was cremated with full state honours at Nigambodh Ghat in Delhi's Kashmere Gate in the presence of his family, friends, colleagues, and government dignitaries on December 28. (ANI) "On the night of December 31, 2024, at around 11 pm, there was a road rage incident in Paladhi village. About 100 to 150 people gathered and things spiralled out. At least 20 to 25 people set a few shops and 12 vehicles on fire... Police were deployed and peace was restored," SP Maheswar Reddy told ANI. The police officer said two FIRs were registered in connection with the incident, adding that 7 accused were arrested on the same day of the violent incident. "After the analysis of CCTV footage, eight more persons were identified and they are absconding," he added. Jalgaon District Collector Ayush Prasad said that the administration acted immediately and ensured that the damage was minimal. "Some people were arrested and CCTV footage was examined. All evidence was collected... We contacted the villagers and they agreed that such an incident should not have happened... Restrictions under Section 163 of the Indian Civil Security Code (BNSS) have been lifted," Prasad told ANI. A curfew had been imposed in the village immediately after the incident. NCP-SCP leader Jitendra Awhad had held Minister Gulab Rao Patil "responsible" for the chaos, alleging a political background to the violence. "That also has a political background. Minister Gulab Rao Patil is responsible for that chaos," Awhad had said. (ANI) Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her allegations that the Border Security Force (BSF) was facilitating infiltrators from Bangladesh to enter the state. He said that infiltrators entering the country were her vote bank and TMC was only interested in forming the government. Sukanta Majumdar said, "During 2021 Assembly elections she had instigated people to attack Central forces. If it would have been Pakistan forces then she would have welcomed them. We all know that the terrorists who are entering the country are West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's vote bank. They work to get Muslim votes for Mamata Banerjee. And 10 to 15 percent Hindus vote for her without thinking about their future. They (TMC) are only interested in forming the government, she is not bothered about the country." CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that the Border Security Force (BSF) were facilitating militants and infiltrators from Bangladesh to enter the state and further stated that because of this there were disruptions in the region. While addressing the State Administrative Review Meeting at the Nabanna Sabhaghar in Kolkata the Bengal CM stated that if the BSF continues to facilitate such activities, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would protest against them. Banerjee remarked that the BSF, which is responsible for guarding the borders, was allowing individuals to cross into India from regions such as Islampur, Sitai, and Chopra and questioned the motives behind this and attributed it to a "blueprint" from the central government. She emphasised that the situation would not have been possible without the central government's involvement. "Border is guarded by BSF but not TMC... They are sending goons. They are sending people who murder people through the border. It is an inside job of the BSF, and it is a blueprint of the Central Government. If there was not any blueprint from the Central Government, then it would not be possible," the West Bengal CM said. Banerjee also denied any involvement of the TMC in the alleged infiltration, asserting that the party was not responsible for the actions of individuals crossing the border. She placed the blame squarely on the BSF, which she said was in charge of securing the border areas. Banerjee further accused the BSF of committing atrocities against women. "BSF is allowing people to enter from Islampur, Sitai, Chopra, and many other regions...The border is in the hands of BSF... BSF is also causing atrocities against women...The border is not in our hands; it is in the hands of the BSF... If anyone feels that they will allow infiltrators to come into Bengal and put the blame on TMC, it is not the TMC. TMC is not responsible. It is the responsibility of the BSF," she said. Banerjee also stated that the central government had been repeatedly informed of her concerns, and she made it clear that TMC would follow the government's decision but would oppose any action that allowed militants to disrupt peace and stability in the state. "I have repeatedly spoken to the Central Government that what they decide will be our path, but we will protest against them if they facilitate militants to disrupt the state...We will send a protest letter to the centre also for this," she added. (ANI) Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu on Tuesday chaired a pivotal review meeting with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) at Nirman Bhavan focused on the progress and future plans for ongoing and upcoming urban development projects in Chhattisgarh on Thursday. According to an official press release, there was a detailed review of several key projects under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the meeting. These projects aim to address critical urban issues, enhance sustainable development, and improve the quality of life in cities across Chhattisgarh. The meeting highlighted the AMRUT 2.0 Project for Shallow Aquifer Management in Raipur and Bemetera. This project aims to enhance the management and sustainability of shallow aquifers in Raipur and Bemetera. The objective is to strengthen the capacity of local authorities and stakeholders in managing groundwater resources effectively. The project will focus on translating enhanced knowledge and capacities into actionable on-the-ground initiatives, contributing to long-term water security in the region. The meeting also discussed the CITIIS 2.0 project -Integrated Solid Waste Management and Climate Action, which is the proposal for Integrated Solid Waste Management at the city level in Bilaspur. The proposal is currently under review with the Ministry for further revision by experts assigned to the city. Additionally, as part of CITIIS 2.0's Climate Action Component, INR 9.4 Crores have been allocated to the state of Chhattisgarh. These funds will be utilized to strengthen State Climate Centers, enhance municipal climate data-driven planning, and develop comprehensive climate action plans. The initiative will also support the creation of Climate Data Observatories at both the state and city levels. Swachh Bharat Mission- Dry & Plastic Waste Free Urban and Rural Landscape in Bastar was also discussed during this meeting where as part of the ongoing efforts under the Swachh Bharat Mission, a special focus was placed on the campaign to achieve a dry and plastic waste-free urban and rural landscape in Bastar. The initiative aims to drastically reduce plastic waste and enhance cleanliness across the region. Sahu also highlighted the importance of adopting the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Chhattisgarh. This digital framework will support data-driven urban planning, e-governance, and better delivery of public services across cities in the state. Additionally, a special mention was made for Chhattisgarh's submission on "Mission Clean City - Ambikapur" at the National Urban Conclave in New Delhi, where the state received recognition for its innovative approach to urban cleanliness and waste management. The Centre for Sustainable Urban Livelihoods (CSUL) is providing support to Chhattisgarh in areas including capacity development, data monitoring and evaluation, care work, and the gig economy. These efforts are aligned with the state's broader goals of sustainable urbanization and social equity, with a focus on improving livelihoods in urban areas through inclusive and resilient policies. Looking ahead, Tokhan Sahu emphasized the Ministry's commitment to furthering urban development in Chhattisgarh through continued collaboration with the National Institute of Urban Affairs, local governments, and other stakeholders. The Ministry is committed to fostering smart, sustainable, and inclusive urban growth that benefits all citizens in the state. (ANI) The Chief Minister of Haryana Nayab Singh Saini presided over a pre-budget consultation meeting for the fiscal year 2025-26 in Gurugram with stakeholders from industry and manufacturing sector on Thursday. According to an official press release, during the meeting, the Chief Minister reiterated the state's commitment to an inclusive approach toward prosperity and progress, highlighting the role of industrial institutions in Haryana's economic development. He said that the state will certainly play a pivotal role in realizing Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's vision of transforming India into a developed nation by 2047. Nayab Singh Saini carefully listened to the suggestions shared by stakeholders and assured them that key issues would be considered in the upcoming budget. He said that the budget would not only address immediate needs but also focus on achieving long-term objectives. Describing the budget as a reflection of collective aspirations and priorities, the Chief Minister further stressed the importance of engaging with all sections of society to ensure positive steps are taken to meet the needs and aspirations of every citizen of Haryana. During the meeting, the Chief Minister also shared Haryana's remarkable progress in agriculture, industry, education infrastructure, and technology over recent years. He said that priority will be given to every suggestion shared by the stakeholders for strengthening rural economy, promoting industrial investment, empowering youth through skill development and social welfare, proper representation in the upcoming budget. He also assured to sympathetically consider the suggestions put forward by the representatives regarding improving health services, public transport in industrial areas, and necessary reforms in industrial policy. During the meeting, Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rajesh Khullar, shared that the Chief Minister, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister, has introduced a new initiative allowing citizens to submit budget suggestions online. Through the portal https://bamsharyana.nic.in, suggestions can be submitted across various sectors and sub-sectors. Suggestions can be given by going to the sector and sub-sector category through the portal. Over 1,000 suggestions have already been received through this platform, shared Rajesh Khullar. Additional Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner, Revenue & Disaster Management and Consolidation Department, Anurag Rastogi, said that previous pre-budget consultations had yielded impactful suggestions. Programmes like Harhit Stores, drone technology, STEM labs, and Super 30 were developed based on these suggestions. Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce Department D Suresh, and representatives of NASSCOM Hero MotoCorp, IMT Manesar Association, Faridabad Industries Association, GIA Gurugram, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Reliance Limited, Rewari Chamber of Commerce and Industry, CREDAI, NAREDCO, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and various industrial organizations working in the state were also present during the meeting. Minister for Industries and Commerce, Environment, Forests, and Wildlife, Rao Narbir Singh, Sohna MLA , Tejpal Tanwar, and Gurugram MLA, Mukesh Sharma also attended the meeting. The representatives from various organizations associated with the industrial and manufacturing sectors shared their suggestions for the upcoming budget. (ANI) Israeli forces continued their strikes on Jabalia in Northern Gaza, killing 15 people and injuring 20 others on Wednesday (local time), France 24 reported. The Israeli forces have been continuously targeting the town of Jabalia in recent months. Gaza's civil defence agency stated that an Israeli airstrike targeting a house resulted in the deaths of 15 people. The Israeli military has said it has been conducting these strikes to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping, according to France 24. Earlier in the day, Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon struck a Hezbollah squad transferring arms from a weapons storage facility to a vehicle, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The army released footage showing the terrorists taking weapons to a white van parked outside a building just before Tuesday's strike. The army released footage showing the terrorists taking weapons to a white van parked outside a building just before Tuesday's strike. Identified Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon transferring weapons from a weapons storage facility to a vehicle parked nearby in southern Lebanon. To remove the threat, the IAF struck the weapons storage facility and the vehicle. The IDF identified Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon transferring weapons from a storage facility to a nearby vehicle. To eliminate the threat, the Israel Air Force (IAF) struck both the weapons storage facility and the vehicle. The IDF is operating in line with the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF remains deployed in southern Lebanon and will act against any threat to the state of Israel and its citizens. Under a two-month ceasefire that took effect on November 27, Hezbollah is supposed to withdraw its armed presence from areas of southern Lebanon south of the Litani River. Israeli forces will also withdraw from southern Lebanon in stages, with the Lebanese Armed Forces to be deployed there first, including along the 120 km border with Israel, with monitors from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah is prohibited from operating in southern Lebanon south of the Litani River. (ANI) A court in Chattogram has refused to grant bail to Chinmoy Krishna Das, the former ISKCON leader, following a hearing held with heightened security today, The Daily Star reported. The bail request was turned down by Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam after about 30 minutes of hearing both parties' arguments, according to Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizur Haque Bhuiyan. Earlier today, 11 Supreme Court lawyers were set to participate in the bail hearing of Chinmoy Krishna Das. While speaking to The Daily Star, lawyer Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee had said, "We have come to Chattogram under the banner of Ainjibi Oikya Parishad, and we will move for Chinmoy in the court for his bail. I already got the Vakalatnama from Chinmoy. I'm a member of both the Supreme Court and Chattogram Bar associations, so I don't need authorisation from any local lawyer to move the case." Earlier on December 3, 2024, Chittagong court had fixed January 2 for bail hearing as the prosecution submitted a time petition and there was no lawyer to represent Chinmoy. The unrest in Bangladesh stems from the sedition charges filed against Chinmoy Krishna Das for allegedly raising a saffron flag above Bangladesh's national flag in Chittagong on October 25. His arrest on November 25 sparked protests, culminating in violent clashes between his followers and law enforcement outside the Chattogram Court Building on November 27, which resulted in the death of a lawyer. The situation worsened following additional arrests. According to ISKCON Kolkata, two monks, Adipurush Shyam Das and Ranganath Das Brahmachari, were detained on November 29 after visiting Chinmoy Krishna Das in custody. The organisation's Vice President, Radha Raman, also claimed that rioters vandalised an ISKCON centre in Bangladesh during the unrest. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had also voiced concern over escalating violence and extremist rhetoric in Bangladesh, emphasising that it has consistently raised the issue of targeted attacks on minorities with Dhaka. (ANI) Over the past 24 hours, social media platform X witnessed an intensed debate on the alleged grooming gangs scandal in the UK, with British MPs and social celebs like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, British author JK Rowling sharing their views on the issue. Musk criticised the UK's handling of such crimes, directly calling out former CPS head and current Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In a post on X, Musk wrote, "In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service's approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013." https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1874664089894695221 In another post, he wrote, "Free Tommy Robinson!" https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1874625502323134570 Robinson is a British journalist who had released a documentary on the alleged grooming gangs and alleged rapes of young women. Robinson who is in jail was represented by his team on X that once again raised the subject of alleged rapes in the UK. "Nicole's story. Nicole was raped and pimped at the age of 11 by members of a grooming gang in Telford, one of many, many cases in that area. A man is languishing in solitary confinement in a high security prison because he dared to speak out and tell the truth about this scourge - the industrialised rape, pimping, and molestation of little girls by depraved adult men. That man is Tommy Robinson, " a post on X from Robinson's handle said. https://x.com/TRobinsonNewEra/status/1874590921850798502 Meanwhile, author JK Rowling also condemned the crimes and questioned potential police corruption, describing the revelations as "almost beyond belief," citing an article of Telegraph by journalist Sam Ashworth-Hayes. Rowling wrote on X, "The details emerging about what the rape gangs (why call them 'grooming' gangs? It's like calling those who stab people to death 'knife owners') did to girls in Rotherham are downright horrific. The allegations of possible police corruption in the case are almost beyond belief." https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1874609315690258777 Former UK PM Liz Truss also wrote on X about the alleged grooming scandal. She said, "These appalling rape gang cases of girls as young as 11 shame our country. Not only do the perpetrators need to be punished. So do the authorities who turned a blind eye in the name of not inflaming racial tensions." https://x.com/trussliz/status/1874478696259817522 She added, "The horrific failings on rape gangs show the complete lack of accountability in British criminal justice. The proper role of Lord Chancellor needs to be restored (to its pre-2005 state), and the judiciary should be accountable to them. Ministers should be able to hire and fire senior Home Office Civil Servants. They should also be able to hire and fire senior police officers. Governments are accountable to the people and must be able to change the system. It's the only way to fix this country." Great Yarmouth Reform MP Rupert Lowe wrote, "Reading these transcripts, these graphic descriptions - I am just so furious that our country allowed this to happen to those vulnerable young girls. It's not 'grooming' gangs, it's rape gangs - mass rape gangs. It makes me ashamed to be British, it really does." Calling on for stripping of citizenship to foreign nationals involved in the the alleged scandal, Lowe added, "We must deport all foreign nationals involved in the rape gangs - stripping citizenship from dual nationals, and deporting them too. We must stop harbouring those wicked beasts who have raped and abused vulnerable young British girls. The most haunting question of them all - how many vulnerable British girls are still being exploited, raped and abused? Ignored and silenced, all to prevent 'racial tensions' due to the race and religion of the rapists.How many young British girls continue to be sacrificed?" Newark MP Robert Jenrick said, "As the father of girls the same age, it's hard to comprehend the evil of the grooming gang perpetrators laid bare in these sentencing remarks. I will continue to campaign for whole life sentences. And for the prosecution of all those who covered this up." The alleged Rotherham scandal happened between 1997 and 2013. On September 13, 2024, the Crown Prosecution Service said that seven men were jailed for committing child sex abuse offences against two young girls in Rotherham during the 2000s. The CPS prosecuted Mohammed Amar, 42, Mohammed Siyab, 44, Yasser Ajaibe, 39, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq, 49, Abid Saddiq, 43, Tahir Yassin, 38, and Ramin Bari, 37, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency as part of Operation Stovewood. Operation Stovewood was a major investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation which took place in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, between 1997 and 2013. The two victims in this case were aged just 11 and 15 when the offending began. (ANI) Taiwan's Ministry of Defence (MND) on Thursday detected 22 People's Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighter jets and KJ-500, in Taiwan's territory. The MND noted that 18 of these aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, entering Taiwan's northern, central, southwestern and eastern Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) and conducting joint air-sea training with other Chinese naval vessels. Sharing a post on X, MND wrote, "Overall 22 #PLA aircraft in various types (including J-16, KJ-500, etc.) were detected from 0850 hr today." It added, "Out of which, 18 crossed the median line of the #Taiwan Strait and entered the northern, central, southwestern and eastern ADIZ in conducting air-sea joint training along with other PLAN vessels. #ROCArmedForces have monitored the situation and responded accordingly." https://x.com/MoNDefense/status/1874671991422353713 Earlier in the day, MND reported three Chinese PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating near Taiwan. According to the MND, all three aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ. Sharing a post on X, MND wrote, "3 PLA aircraft and 7 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 3 of the aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ. We have monitored the situation and responded accordingly. On Wednesday, MND had detected two PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating near Taiwan. According to the MND, one of the two PLA aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's northern and southwestern ADIZ. Meanwhile, MND on Tuesday reported five Chinese PLA aircraft and six PLAN vessels operating near Taiwan. Tthree of the five PLA aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's northern and southwestern ADIZ. Recently, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also criticised China's stance. He said, "We need to be clear-eyed about China's ambitions. China is substantially building up its forces, including its nuclear weapons - with no transparency and no limitations. From 200 warheads in 2020, China is expected to have more than 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030. Its space-launch investments are skyrocketing. China is bullying Taiwan, and pursuing access to our critical infrastructure in ways that could cripple our societies." The Taiwan Strait remains a focal point of heightened tensions, with Taiwanese officials repeatedly condemning the increase in Chinese military operations as a direct threat to the island's sovereignty and regional peace. However, China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory, insists on eventual reunification, by force if necessary. (ANI) Amid the unrest in the Middle East, Dr. Takht Ravanchi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, is set to visit India today and engage in discussions with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi. According to a senior Iranian official, the agenda for the talks includes enhancing bilateral trade in both energy and non-energy sectors, improving connectivity and tourism, addressing regional and international security issues, and discussions on the completion of the Chabahar Port project. Iran's state news agency IRNA on Wednesday reported that the Public Relations Office of the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the 19th round of Iran-India political negotiations are set to take place on Thursday and Friday in New Delhi, during Ravanchi's visit to India. India and Iran share a millennia-long history of interactions. India and Iran signed a friendship treaty on March 15, 1950. The visit of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Iran and the signing of the Tehran Declaration in April 2001, followed by the visit of then President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami and the signing of the New Delhi Declaration in 2003 deepened the India-Iran cooperation. The two documents identified areas of cooperation and set the strategic vision for the India-Iran partnership, according to the Embassy of india in Tehran. The bilateral relations were further boosted by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Iran in May 2016. During the visit, a joint statement titled "Civilizational Connect, Contemporary Context" was issued, and 12 MOUs/Agreements were signed. The Trilateral Agreement on Trade, Transport and Transit between India, Iran and Afghanistan was also signed during the visit. President Rouhani visited India in February 2018, during which a joint statement titled "Towards Prosperity Through Greater Connectivity" was issued. The two sides signed 13 MOUs/Agreements during the visit. There have been two Parliamentary speaker-level visits between India and Iran, with Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar visiting Iran in 2011, followed by a return visit by the Speaker of Majlis, Dr Ali Larijani to India in 2013. PM Modi and President Raisi met for the first time on the sidelines of the SCO Heads of State Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in September 2022, during which both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to bilateral cooperation, especially in trade and connectivity. The two leaders also met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in August 2023. (ANI) Retired Army Major Lee Hai-peng has been handed a 12-year prison sentence by the Taiwan High Court for selling state secrets to China, a significantly harsher penalty than the one he received in the same case last year. His sons, former Captain Lee Yu-sheng and former Sergeant Lee Yu-ching, were also found guilty of conspiring with him. Lee Yu-sheng was sentenced to two years and one month, while Lee Yu-ching received a 10-year and six-month sentence, according to the court's ruling on Tuesday. Former Air Force Major Lee Wen-sheng has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for assisting enemy spies. Like Lee Hai-peng, the sentences for Lee Yu-ching and Lee Wen-sheng are significantly longer than the ones handed down in the previous ruling, CNA news reported. All of the verdicts remain subject to appeal. In August 2024, the High Court sentenced Lee Hai-peng to four years in prison for disclosing classified military information he acquired through his position and for gathering national classified data. After the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Taiwan High Court, Lee Hai-peng was found guilty on three counts under the Classified National Security Information Protection Act, including transmitting classified national security information to China, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. According to the report according to the high court's ruling, Lee Hai-peng, now in his 70s, began facilitating meetings between Taiwanese and Chinese officials after his retirement in 1990, during which he was recruited by China to gather intelligence. In 2008, Lee Hai-peng enlisted Lee Wen-sheng, an Air Force officer stationed in Hualien, to collect classified and confidential information. According to the court, Lee Hai-peng informed Lee Wen-sheng that he was assisting China in gathering military intelligence, and Lee Wen-sheng agreed to take part in exchange for financial compensation. The court stated that Lee Wen-sheng provided hard or digital copies of "confidential" or "classified" documents he encountered in his role and gave them to Lee Hai-peng. These materials were subsequently handed over to Chinese intelligence officials in exchange for $10,000 in cash and a paid trip to South Korea. In May 2010, as Lee Wen-sheng was nearing retirement, Lee Hai-peng began asking Lee Yu-sheng and Lee Yu-ching to disclose classified information. The court found that Lee Yu-ching gathered classified data, took it off the base, converted it into digital files, and handed it over to his father. In 2012, Lee Hai-peng and his wife, along with Lee Yu-ching and his girlfriend, were given an all-expenses-paid trip to Malaysia, where they met with Chinese officials, according to the court. The court highlighted that Lee Yu-ching was aware his father was a Chinese spy but continued to gather intelligence for him after returning to Taiwan. Initially, Lee Wen-sheng was sentenced to three years and two months in prison by the Taiwan High Court for the lesser charge under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces for delivering classified military information he had obtained through his position. Lee Yu-sheng and Lee Yu-ching were initially sentenced to two years and two months and two years and four months, respectively, for the same charge as Lee Wen-sheng. However, in the retrial, Lee Yu-sheng was found guilty of the same charge, with his sentence reduced by one month, while Lee Yu-ching was convicted of the more serious offense of aiding enemy spies and received a significantly harsher sentence. (ANI) Following the death sentence handed to Indian nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen, a senior Iranian official has expressed Iran's willingness to assist on humanitarian grounds. The official stated, "On humanitarian ground, we are willing to do whatever we can." On December 31, 2024, Kerala LoP and Congress leader VD Satheesan urged both the central and state governments to take immediate steps to save her. He further asserted that they are putting pressure on the state and central government to take initiative to save her. While speaking with ANI, Satheesan said, "The central government as well as the state government will have to take initiative to postpone this death sentence and save her. We are putting pressure on the state government and the central government to take initiative." Meanwhile, Babu John of Save Nimisha Priya forum emphasised the importance of negotiations with the family of the deceased and said, "There is no time for us... Government has to involve immediately with the Yemen government to stop the execution... We are asking the government of India to intervene and start the negotiation process immediately." The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on December 31, 2024 confirmed its awareness of the death sentence handed to Nimisha Priya and assured that the government is providing all possible assistance. In response to media queries regarding the case of Nimisha Priya, MEA official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We are aware of the sentencing of Ms. Nimisha Priya in Yemen. We understand that the family of Ms. Priya is exploring relevant options. The government is extending all possible help in the matter." Nimisha Priya, who is sentenced to death in Yemen, is a trained nurse and has worked in private hospitals in Yemen for a few years.Her husband and minor daughter returned to India in 2014 because of financial reasons and in that same year, Yemen was gripped by civil war, and they could not go back as the country stopped issuing new visas. Later in 2015, Nimisha joined hands with a Mahdi to set up her clinic in Yemen's capital city Sana. She sought Mahdi's support because, under Yemen's law, only nationals are allowed to set up clinics and business firms. In 2015, Mahdi accompanied Nimisha Priya to Kerala when she came for a month-long holiday. During the visit, he stole a wedding photograph of Nimisha, which he later manipulated to claim that he was married to her. A plea moved by mother of Nimisha Priya had stated, "After a while, Nimisha's clinic began, Mahdi manipulated the ownership documents of the clinic. He also began to take money out of her monthly earnings after telling everyone that Nimisha was his wife Nimisha had alleged that Mahdi had been harassing her and her family for years. Mahdi also seized her passport. This was done to ensure that she would not leave Yemen. He tortured her under the influence of drugs. He threatened her at gunpoint several times. He took all the money from the clinic and her ornaments." The plea further alleged that unable to cope with the torture, Nimisha complained to the police in Sana but instead of taking action against Mahdi, the police arrested her and put her in jail for six days. It was further alleged that on her return from jail, the severity of the torture increased manifold. In July 2017, Nimisha took the help of a warden of a jail located near her clinic. The warden suggested that she should try to sedate him, and then convince him to give her passport. However, sedation did not affect Mahdi, who was a substance abuser. She tried sedating him again, using a stronger sedative in order to retrieve her passport but he died within a few minutes due to a drug overdose. (ANI) In the wake of the tragic terrorist attack in New Orleans, which claimed the lives of 15 innocent individuals and left dozens more injured, Altaf Hussain, the leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has expressed his heartfelt condolences and unwavering solidarity with the victims. In a post on X, Hussain conveyed his sympathy to the people affected by the horrific attack. He addressed President Joe Biden, stating, "It is with a heavy heart that I extend my deepest condolences to all those affected by the horrific terrorist attack in New Orleans." https://x.com/AltafHussain_90/status/1874622341382115400 The MQM leader added that his millions of followers, both in Pakistan and across the world including in the United States stand united with the victim families during this difficult time. Hussain also reaffirmed his long-standing commitment to fighting religious fanaticism and extremism, emphasizing his dedication to the cause over his 46-year-long political struggle. This tragedy was followed by another incident hours later in Las Vegas, where a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel, killing one and injuring seven. The FBI confirmed that the explosion was linked to an act of terrorism, with the suspect, Shamsud Din Jabbar, identified as having ties to ISIS. The FBI further revealed that the vehicle used in the attack was rented from a platform called Turo, and it contained multiple suspected explosive devices. Hussain offered his condolences once again in light of both attacks. He said, "I and my millions of followers around the globe are with the victims, the people of the United States, and the bereaved families who lost their loved ones on the first day of the new year." He prayed for the souls of the victims and wished a swift recovery to the injured, while reiterating MQM's strong condemnation of the cowardly acts of terrorism. "Official MQM stands with all the victims," Hussain added. (ANI) Protests have erupted in the Nagar district of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan in response to the ongoing violence in Parachinar and police actions against protesters in Sindh and Punjab, according to a report by the Pamir Times. In Nagar district, protesters blocked the Karakoram Highway in solidarity with the people of Parachinar. The protestors expressed outrage over the escalating violence in Parachinar, where residents have been demanding justice for victims of ongoing killings and the disruption caused by road blockades in the region. The protest in Nagar was organised by activists and residents who called for an end to the bloodshed and road closures. The Pamir Times reported that the protests also responded to the heavy-handed police action against demonstrators. A protest organised by the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) party turned violent as police used tear gas and shelling to disperse the crowd at Numaish Chowrangi. The MWM had called for nationwide protests to show solidarity with the people of Parachinar, who have been holding sit-ins to highlight their demand for peace and justice. Protesters in the PoGB region condemned the law enforcement response, accusing the government of using force to silence those demanding justice. According to Pamir Times, a protester in Karachi stated, "Protest is the only way left for us to raise our voice against violence and killings. If police use force on peaceful protesters, where can we go to express our concerns?" The protests also targeted Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who was accused of authorising the police crackdown in Sindh and Punjab. The road blockade by the administration in Parachinar has halted medical shipments and led to severe shortages of food and other essential goods, exacerbating the already critical situation in the area. As the situation remains tense, the protest in Nagar district reflects growing anger over the government's handling of regional violence and the suppression of peaceful demonstrations. (ANI) Iran's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Takht Ravanchi is set to visit India on Thursday and discuss key issues between the two countries such as falling trade volumes. Other items on the agenda are increasing bilateral trade in both energy and non-energy sectors, improving connectivity and tourism, regional and international security, and the completion of Chabahar Port. On condition of anonymity, a senior Iranian official told reporters here, "We are extended neighbors and there is a lot of commonality, we can complement each other on many issues including international and regional security". "We used to have good economic ties but they are not same after sanctions, nevertheless there are opportunities to have better traditional energy trade, there are sanctions on Iranian oil however I still lot of interest, Indian refineries which are so used to traditional Iranian oil had to adjust, India is buying Russian oil, however circumstances of sanctions on Iran and India are different," the senior official added. The Iranian senior official said that Iran looks ahead to enhance ties with India in non-energy sectors like agriculture and tourism. He also said that the Indian government should be more forthcoming in issuing visas to Iranian tourists, as Iranians visit other neighboring countries and Europe for vacations and have not been coming to India. "Connectivity is one issue like Chahbahar port has brought India and Iran closer, It is a meeting point of Iran, central Asia and Europe, it is a very strategic route, we have been doing good things for development of Chahbahar," the senior official said. Iran is also very keen to increase cooperation on Chahbahar port which is gateway to central Asia and Europe Speaking about the proposal of world's longest undersea tunnel with Qatar, which would connect Iran's southern port city of Dayyer to Qatar, and play a strategic role, amid the background of the INSTC corridor's construction underway, the Iranian official clarified that the Qatar undersea tunnel is "not competing with other regional corridors but is to improve connectivity". The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is an important initiative taken by India, Russia and Iran by signing an Inter-Governmental Agreement on 12th September 2000, to enhance trade and transport connectivity among countries along its route, the Ministry of External Affairs had answered during a Lok Sabha session earlier. The INSTC is a multi-modal, cost and time effective from India to Northern and Western Europe. It has the potential to enhance India's connectivity with Central Asia and Eurasian Region and vice versa, taking into account the geo-strategic and economic importance of all the involved countries, the MEA said. Iran also believe that there should be strong cooperation to fight the menace of terrorism. Senior Iranian official, while speaking to media, said that Iran has a fragile neighbourhood; with the developments happening in Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, nobody can predict that what will happen to the future of West Asia. The question of Palestine remains the concerning issue for Iran. Commenting on the issue, the official said, "People of Palestine should have their right to self-determination and should be allowed to decide their own future". He added that patience is running out on the level of atrocities being committed by Israel. On the issue of China, the Iranian official said that Tehran welcomes China's increased investments and presence in the region. He indicated Iran and Saudi Arabia are on same page when it comes to increased role of China in the region. (ANI) The chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has acknowledged that restricting internet access falls into a 'legal grey area' and urged the ministries of law and interior to provide clarification on its legality. During a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology on Wednesday, retired Maj-Gen Hafeezur Rehman stated that internet shutdowns have been occurring since 2016, and it is only recently that their legality has been questioned, Dawn reported. He further mentioned that the ministries of law and interior need to issue a conclusive legal opinion on the issue. During the meeting, committee members interrogated the head of the telecom regulator regarding the practice of shutting down internet services, especially when ordered by the Ministry of Interior. Senators Kamran Murtaza and Humayun Mohmand raised concerns about the legal framework surrounding the blocking of internet services and social media platforms. Senator Murtaza questioned the legality of these actions, inquiring about the law that grants the PTA the authority to block the internet. The PTA chairman replied that the rules permit the Ministry of Interior to instruct the regulator to block content or services, but he emphasized that the law does not specifically address the blocking of internet services in any particular region. Senator Murtaza stated that the parliamentary committee should be presented with a clear legal framework for such actions. The committee chairman, Senator Palwasha Khan, also voiced significant concerns about the slow internet speeds throughout Pakistan and the legal uncertainties surrounding internet shutdowns and content blocking. The committee was told that expanding the fiber optic cable network was the sole solution to enhance internet speed. According to the report the committee was informed that it is the government's responsibility to ensure the expansion of fiber networks. Rehman also acknowledged that internet speeds would remain slow unless substantial improvements were made to the digital infrastructure. He stressed that the growth of fiber optic networks referred to as "fiberisation," is crucial for enhancing internet speed. Senator Khan emphasised the immediate need for improved digital infrastructure, especially the expansion of fiber optic networks, to tackle the problem of slow internet speeds. When questioned about restrictions on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), the PTA chairman clarified that he had not authorised their shutdown. He added that the regulator began the process of registering VPN service providers on December 19, and two companies have already applied for licenses. The regulator has introduced a new licensing category for service providers to tackle the issue of what officials refer to as unregistered VPNs. Any proxies not provided by licensed companies would be considered unregistered and blocked. By working with licensed service providers, authorities would be able to monitor VPN traffic, as the anonymity offered by proxy networks has been a major concern for the authorities. The plan proposes that local companies, governed by Pakistan's laws, licensing terms, and regulatory rules, will offer proxy services to users. This will allow the regulator to have greater control over these companies, unlike the current situation where most VPN providers are foreign firms. This will give the regulator more control over these companies, in contrast to the current situation where the majority of VPN providers are foreign-based. The committee was also updated on PTA's efforts to regulate social media content. Mr. Rehman mentioned that the PTA receives approximately 500 complaints daily regarding harmful or illegal content on social media platforms. "We are in constant communication with social media companies to block harmful content, but there is still a considerable gap in enforcement," the PTA chairman stated. The committee also urged the need for clear legal guidelines on internet governance, content blocking, and the roles of government agencies in managing digital services. (ANI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday met with former Iceland President and Chairman of the Arctic Circle Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and discussed the activities of the Arctic Circle. https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1874772048998027325 In a post on X, Jaishankar expressed his pleasure in meeting Grimsson and wrote, "Pleased to meet the former President of Iceland and Chairman of @_Arctic_Circle @ORGrimsson. Discussed the activities of the Arctic Circle and the potential for deeper cooperation." https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1874431530472464869 Earlir, on New Year, the External Affairs Minister shared a year-ender video on X and wrote, "2024 saw a foreign policy that positioned Bharat as a #Vishwabandhu. Here's to another year of new opportunities, deepening partnerships and a steadfast commitment to Bharat First and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam!." Jaishankar hoped that the new year be a steadfast commitment to 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', or the world is one family. In his post, EAM Jaishankar included several meetings, addresses and his swearing-in after the Lok Sabha elections. This included his meeting with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, his address at the Doha Forum and the Quad summit. On the same day, Jaishankar met Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in his first diplomatic engagement this year. Jaishankar said Al Thani and he reviewed their bilateral cooperation. https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1874436378853028160 In a post on X, he said, "Delighted to meet PM and FM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha today. My first diplomatic engagement in 2025. A productive review of our bilateral cooperation. Also a wide-ranging discussion on recent regional and global developments." On December 31, EAM Jaishankar marked the 20th anniversary of the Quad, emphasising its progress from providing a "shared response" to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami into a "vital force stability, progress and prosperity" in the Indo-Pacific region. He further reaffirmed India's commitment, alongside Australia, Japan, and the United States, to addressing the region's needs. Sharing a post on X, Jaishankar wrote, "Two decades ago, the idea of Quad began with a shared response to the Indian Ocean tsunami. Today, the Quad stands as a vital force for stability, progress and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific." "On its 20th anniversary, I join @SenatorWong, FM Takeshi Iwaya and @SecBlinken in reaffirming our commitment to addressing the region's needs together," the post added. (ANI) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced the setting up of "Grain from Ukraine" fund in order to provide security and economic prospects for stabilising Syria. The announcement was made on Thursday. Zelenskyy shared the details on X. "I received a report from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine regarding their visit to Syria. The outcomes of the Damascus talks, along with security and economic prospects. Ukraine will support all efforts to stabilize Syria. We will set up the "Grain from Ukraine" program to cooperate with the Syrian administration and all interested partners. We will engage with the Europeans and America to ensure maximum support. More stability in the Middle East means more peace and trade for all partners." https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1874783004066803921 The first tranche of the grain fund was announced during Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha's visit to Ukraine. On December 30, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha held talks in Damascus with the leadership of the Syrian administration, its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, and Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaybani, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. "We are ready to help the Syrian people, because Ukraine is interested in stable Syria and the development of mutually beneficial cooperation," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had said. During his visit to Damascus which also saw the restoring of diplomatic ties between Ukraine and Syria. https://x.com/andrii_sybiha/status/1873723885201633783 Foreign Minister Sybiha made the announcement of giving to Syria, "500 tons of Ukrainian flour within the framework of the humanitarian program, Grain from Ukraine. This amount of flour will be enough to meet the needs of more than 33 thousand Syrian families or 167 thousand people for a month", the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported. "This is the first delivery of free humanitarian aid. We are ready to deliver more," emphasized the Foreign Minister. (ANI) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced the setting up of the "Grain from Ukraine" fund in order to provide security and economic prospects for stabilising Syria. The announcement was made on Thursday. Zelenskyy shared the details on X. "I received a report from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine regarding their visit to Syria. The outcomes of the Damascus talks, along with security and economic prospects. Ukraine will support all efforts to stabilize Syria. We will set up the "Grain from Ukraine" program to cooperate with the Syrian administration and all interested partners. We will engage with the Europeans and America to ensure maximum support. More stability in the Middle East means more peace and trade for all partners." https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1874783004066803921 The first tranche of the grain fund was announced during Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha's visit to Ukraine. On December 30, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha held talks in Damascus with the leadership of the Syrian administration, its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, and Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaybani, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. "We are ready to help the Syrian people, because Ukraine is interested in stable Syria and the development of mutually beneficial cooperation," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had said. During his visit to Damascus which also saw the restoring of diplomatic ties between Ukraine and Syria. https://x.com/andrii_sybiha/status/1873723885201633783 Foreign Minister Sybiha made the announcement of giving to Syria, "500 tons of Ukrainian flour within the framework of the humanitarian program, Grain from Ukraine. This amount of flour will be enough to meet the needs of more than 33 thousand Syrian families or 167 thousand people for a month", the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported. "This is the first delivery of free humanitarian aid. We are ready to deliver more," emphasized the Foreign Minister. (ANI) A lawyer representing Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das told the Chittagong court during the hearing on his bail plea that the priest respects the motherland like his mother and is not a traitor. A court in Chittagong on Thursday refused bail to Chinmoy Krishna Das, a former ISKCON leader, following the hearing held amid tight security today, The Daily Star reported. The bail request was turned down by Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam after hearing both parties' arguments, according to Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Advocate Mofizur Haque Bhuiyan. Chinmoy Das, who is the spokesperson of Sammilita Sanatani Jagrani Jote, was arrested on November 25 last year in charge of sedition. Speaking to ANI over the phone, Monindro Kumar Nath, general secretary of Hindu Buddaha Christan Unity Council, said they will move High Court for bail. The lawyers representing Chinmoy Das said he has always respected his country, Bangladesh. "Chinmoy Das used to start his speech at any rally or gathering by saying that Mother and motherland are better than heaven," Advocate Apurva Kumar Bhattacharjee told ANI. "The flag that has been accused of desecration was not the flag of Bangladesh. Sedition charge cannot be filed without the permission of the court. State permission was not sought in this case," Bhattacharjee added. India has expressed its concern over incidents of violence against minorities in Bangladesh and has urge the authorities there to ensure the safety and security of Hindus and other minorities. Ministry of External Affairs had in November noted with deep concern the arrest and denial of bail to Chinmoy Krishna Das. "This incident follows the multiple attacks on Hindus and other minorities by extremist elements in Bangladesh. There are several documented cases of arson and looting of minorities' homes and business establishments, as well as theft and vandalism and desecration of deities and temples," MEA had said in its statement. "It is unfortunate that while the perpetrators of these incidents remain at large, charges should be pressed against a religious leader presenting legitimate demands through peaceful gatherings. We also note with concern the attacks on minorities protesting peacefully against the arrest of Das. We urge Bangladesh authorities to ensure the safety and security of Hindus and all minorities, including their right of freedom of peaceful assembly and expression," the statement added. (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday strongly condemned the "cowardly terrorist attack" in New Orleans, which claimed at least 15 lives and expressed solidarity with the victims and their families. https://x.com/narendramodi/status/1874799106021109987 In a post on X, PM Modi wrote, "We strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. May they find strength and solace as they heal from this tragedy." Earlier, Messages of condolences poured in from global leaders, including Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others. The leaders denounced the attack, extended sympathies to the victims and their families, and emphasised the need to combat "terrorism." Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar in a post on X wrote, "Deeply saddened by the terrorist attack in New Orleans. My heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims. Wishing a swift recovery to the two injured Israeli citizens and all the wounded." He added, "I instructed Israel's Consul General in Houston to immediately deploy a representative to the scene. Terror has no place in our world. Israel stands in solidarity with New Orleans and the United States." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while extending condolences to the families of the victims, said, "Horrified by the attack in New Orleans, US, which has claimed innocent lives and left many injured. We trust that those responsible for this terrible act will be brought to justice. Violence, terrorism, and any threats to human life have no place in our world and must not be tolerated." "Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and we wish a swift recovery to all those injured. Ukraine stands with the American people and denounces violence," the post added. French President Emmanuel Macron said, "New Orleans, so dear to the hearts of the French, has been struck by terrorism. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the injured, as well as with the American people, whose sorrow we share." After the attack, US President Joe Biden said that law enforcement is investigating any possible connection between the New Orleans 'terror' attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The vehicles used in both incidents were rented from a car rental site, 'Turo', prompting authorities to look for links between the two events. "We're tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans," Biden said. Biden assured that every resource is being utilised to ensure there is no threat to the American people. A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring seven, hours after the New Orleans attack, in which a car rammed into a crowd during New Year's celebrations, killing at least 15 people. The FBI described the attack as "an act of terrorism" and revealed that the driver, Shamsud Din Jabbar, had an ISIS flag and multiple suspected explosive devices in his vehicle. The FBI also confirmed that the vehicle was rented from a car rental platform called Turo. (ANI) Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited the US Embassy in New Delhi on Thursday to offer his condolences on the passing away of former United States President Jimmy Carter, who visited India in 1978. Carter passed away at the age of 100 on Sunday (local time) at his home in Plains, Georgia, The Washington Post reported, citing his son James E Carter III. https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1874793421488922712 In a post on X, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal wrote, "Foreign Secy Vikram Misri visited the US Embassy @USAndIndia in New Delhi today & offered sincerest condolences on the passing away of former President Jimmy Carter." "Paying his respects, he recalled President Carter's visit to India in 1978 & the signing of the Delhi Declaration which laid the foundation for a strong India-US relationship," the post added. The official state funeral of former US President Jimmy Carter will be held on January 9 in Washington, DC, CNN reported. Biden also declared January 9 as a National Day of Mourning, hours after Carter's death. On December 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed sadness over the passing away of Carter, describing him as a "statesman of great vision." PM Modi said that Carter's contributions to fostering strong ties between India and US leave a lasting legacy. In a post on X, PM Modi stated, "Deeply saddened by the passing of former USA President Mr. Jimmy Carter. A statesman of great vision, he worked tirelessly for global peace and harmony. His contributions to fostering strong India-US ties leave a lasting legacy. My heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and the people of the US." Notably, in 1978, Jimmy Carter travelled to India as US President. He met India's then-President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and then-Prime Minister Morarji Desai. During his visit, he also addressed the Parliament of India. Carter's son confirmed his death but did not provide an immediate cause. According to the Carter Center's statement from February 2023, after a series of hospital stays, Carter decided to stop further medical treatment and spend his remaining time at home under hospice care. In recent years, he had been treated for an aggressive form of melanoma skin cancer, with tumours that spread to his liver and brain. Carter was last photographed outside his home with family and friends on October 1, as he watched a flyover held to mark his 100th birthday, The Washington Post reported. Throughout his lifetime, Jimmy Carter wore many hats. He was a small-town peanut farmer, a US Navy veteran, and the governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He became the first president from the Deep South since 1837 and the only Democrat elected president between Lyndon B Johnson and Bill Clinton's terms in the White House. As the 39th President of the US, Carter is remembered for the signing of the Camp David Accords, which led to the first significant Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the Six-Day War of 1967 and a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that has endured. (ANI) A Taiwan security official has warned Taiwanese citizens that they could face extradition to China if they fail to repay loans taken out in China using a Chinese ID card, Taipei Times reported on Thursday. This warning comes after the release of a YouTube video by Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan and YouTuber "Pa Chiung" on China's "united front" tactics. In the video released last month, Lin Jincheng, head of the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park in Quanzhou in China's Fujian Province which Chen visited, said Taiwanese could apply for a Chinese ID card, register a company in China and start a cross-border e-commerce business, as per Taipei Times. With a Chinese ID card, Taiwanese could purchase property and vehicles in China without a down payment and use them as collateral to apply for bank loans, Lin, who is wanted for fraud in Taiwan, said in the video. However, the video also highlighted a concerning trend where some Taiwanese "entrepreneurs overborrow" from Chinese banks, only to split the funds with intermediaries and Chinese officials before transferring the rest back to Taiwan. Further, an anonymous Taiwanese official stated that Taiwanese would not be able to get away even if they had no intention of going back to China. He added, "You might think a Chinese ID card is the way to a new life, but it could actually be the way to the end of the world." Meanwhile, Some university professors, in hopes of getting a reward, would also organize "exchange" tours to China and encourage students to do so for the sake of convenience as they would have to scan a QR code whenever they pay for anything in China. Intermediaries would say they could help with purchasing flats and cars, applying for bank loans and registering a company, and that there would be no problem with not repaying the loan as long as the applicant does not go back to China, the official said. The worst case would be the personal information being used for dummy accounts for scammers, he said. (ANI) Abu Dhabi [UAE], January 2 (ANI/WAM): The Muslim Council of Elders, led by Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, condemns the car-ramming attack that occurred on the streets of New Orleans and the explosion outside a hotel in Las Vegas, United States, both of which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. The Council unequivocally condemns all forms of violence and terrorism that target innocent individuals, emphasising that such acts starkly contrast with the compassionate teachings of Islam, all sacred laws, and global conventions and norms. The Council reiterates its call for collective action to combat all forms of hatred, violence, and intolerance, and to promote principles of dialogue, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence. The Muslim Council of Elders extends its deepest condolences to the government and citizens of the United States, as well as to the families of the victims, and prays for a swift recovery for those injured. (ANI/WAM) According to statistics from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), total electricity production in Belgium dropped to its lowest level in six years, driven by a decrease in nuclear production and minimal operation of gas-fired power stations. The total consumption in 2024 was 81 terawatt-hours, with 88 per cent sourced from domestic production, down from 98 percent in 2023, while the remaining 12 per cent was imported. Nuclear energy, still the largest source of electricity in Belgium, accounted for 42 per cent of production in 2024, continuing its decline on an annual basis. Meanwhile, the share of wind energy decreased by 11 per cent compared to 2023, due to heavy rainfall and low wind conditions. Solar energy reached a record high, contributing 12 per cent to the overall production. Gas-fired power stations produced at their lowest level in a decade, with electricity imports from France and the Netherlands proving more cost-effective. (ANI/WAM) The Kurram peace deal will be implemented from January 4 with a convoy of passengers set to travel to Parachinar in a security cordon, as reported by Ary News on Thursday. According to Ary News, under the agreement signed during the grand Jirga, all bunkers will be demolished within 15 days, and all types of arms will be collected and handed over to the government. It is expected that the situation will likely be returned to normalcy after the handing over of arms and demolition of bunkers. Despite the announcement of the peace deal, Ary News reported that sit-ins are still continuing in Parachinar and Baggan area of Lower Kurram region with the participants of Parachinar sit-in demanding that the government to ensure security by opening all roads including the main highway. In Baggan, the participants of the sit-in have insisted that they will not end the protest until the handing over of all arms and demolition of bunkers is done. The protesters also demanded compensation for the shops and homes destroyed in Baggan Bazaar. As per Ary News, the three-week-long grand Jirga convened to address the unrest in Kurram and was successfully concluded with both parties signing an agreement. Notably, the Jirga members emphasized that both parties are bound to implement the decisions of the Apex Committee. A 16-member committee, comprising representatives from both sides, will be formed to oversee the process. Additionally, a plan will be devised under government supervision to collect weapons, Ary News reported. According to Ary News, a member of Jrga Abdullah Khan said that bunkers and fortifications from Teri Mangal to Chehri will be dismantled. All roads and routes, including the Tal-Parachinar Road, will be reopened for public use. (ANI) Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel arrived in Delhi on Thursday on a three-day official visit to India. This is his first official visit to India. According to a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement, Maldives Foreign Minister Khaleel will meet Jaishankar on Friday. https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1874829265889636493 In a post on X, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal welcomed the Foreign Minister on his first official visit to India and highlighted the Comprehensive Economic and Maritime Security Partnership, which was discussed during President Mohamed Muizzu's five-day visit to India in October 2024. "Working towards India-Maldives joint vision of a 'Comprehensive Economic & Maritime Security Partnership'. Warm welcome to FM @abkhaleel of Maldives on his first official visit to India," Jaiswal said on X. In October 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Muizzu held extensive bilateral talks, aiming to forge a comprehensive economic and maritime security partnership. Both leaders acknowledged the shared challenges in the Indian Ocean Region. They committed to enhancing maritime and security cooperation, with India pledging to provide expertise, boost capabilities, and engage in joint measures to help the Maldives address both traditional and non-traditional maritime threats. These include piracy, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, drug trafficking, and terrorism within their Exclusive Economic Zone. Both nations also agreed that India would support the timely completion of the Maldives National Defence Force's (MNDF) 'Ekatha' harbour project at Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF). Meanwhile, Muizzu signed the condolence book at the Indian High Commission in the Maldives last Sunday, following the death of former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 26. In his message, President Muizzu praised Manmohan Singh as a great statesman and also reflected on Singh's historic visit to the Maldives in November 2011. "In his message, the President stated that Manmohan Singh was a great statesman and reminisced about the historic visit of Singh to the Maldives in November 2011, which marked a momentous milestone that further cemented the bonds of friendship between India and Maldives," according to Maldives President's office statement. "The message also conveyed sympathies to Singh's family and the government and people of India, on behalf of the Government and people of the Maldives, during this time of profound loss," it added. In response, the High Commission of India in Maldives shared a post on X appreciating or being the first dignitary to sign the condolence book. "We appreciate the thoughtful gesture of HEP @MMuizzu for being the first dignitary to sign the condolence book @HCIMaldives on sad demise of Hon'ble former PM Dr Manmohan Singh. His words of support is truly valued & comforting," High Commission of India in Maldives said on X. Manmohan Singh passed away on Thursday night at the age of 92 at AIIMS Delhi. (ANI) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday (local time) said that the driver behind the New Orleans attack, Shamsud Din Jabba was lone wolf terrorist with no known accomplices and he supported Islamic State (ISIS). Deputy Assistant FBI Director Christopher Raia, in a press conference, informed that the attacker, Shamsud Din Jabbar, had posted videos on social media platforms where he proclaimed his support for ISIS. The attacker was also concerned that if he only harmed his family and friends then the news headline would not focus on "war between the believers and disbelievers." Raia, establishing the timeline before the New Orleans attack, said, "The investigators believe Jabbar picked up rented F-150 in Houston Texas at December 30. He then drove from Houston to New Orleans on the evening of the 31st and he posted several videos to an online platform proclaiming his support for ISIS. There were 5 videos posted on Jabbar's Facebook account. In the first viedo, Jabbar explained that he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned that the news headline would not focus on "war between the believers and disbelievers." Additionally, he stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. He also provided a will and testament." Raia said. An ISIS flag along with the suspected explosives devices was found in the attacker's vehicle. A car rammed into a crowd during New Year's celebrations in Bourbon Street New Orleans, killing at least 14 people, FBI said. Earlier New Orleans Coroner had said that 15 people had died in the attack. According to FBI spokesperson Raia, preliminary evidence suggests that Jabbar was heavily influenced by the Islamic State (IS), underscoring the disturbing trend of radicalization. "This was an act of terrorism," Raia said. "It was premeditated and an evil act." The FBI was still investigating Jabbar's "path to radicalization," but the evidence reviewed so far showed that he was clearly inspired by IS, Raia said. Earlier, US President Joe Biden assured every resource is being utilised to ensure there is no threat to the American people. "I directed my team to make sure every resource is made available to federal, state and local law enforcement to complete the investigation in New Orleans quickly and to make sure there is no remaining threat to the American people." (ANI) NEW YORK - Police are searching for four suspects after they opened fire into a crowd of 15 people standing outside an event space in Jamaica, Queens. Ten teenagers were hurt in the shooting, which happened just after 11:15 p.m. on New Year's Day outside the Amazura Concert Hall on 144th Place. "Last night in Queens, a memorial for a teen lost to gun violence turned to horror when gunmen opened fire on the crowd, including several young people who are now hospitalized. This cannot be our normal. We are working with authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice," Gov. Kathy Hochul said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mass shooting outside Amazura Concert Hall Police said about 90 people were inside the address for a private event. Police sources told CBS News New York they were attending a vigil for 16-year-old Taearion Mungo, who was shot and killed last October. Sources said his mother booked the hall for what would have been his birthday. While the concert hall called it an isolated incident, police sources said officers have been called to the location for previous incidents. Sources also said the shooting appears to be gang-related. The venue was at capacity, and a line of about 15 people were waiting outside. Law enforcement sources say they were waiting to get into a celebration of life ceremony. Police said that's when four men walking down 91st Avenue approached the crowd and fired about 30 shots. They then ran toward 143rd Place, where they got in a light colored sedan with a New Jersey license plate, according to police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Surveillance video shows four people running toward the venue, and then - less than 20 seconds later - it appears the same four can be seen running away. "Zero tolerance for these senseless shooting, these horrible acts of violence on our streets. And those responsible for this crime will be apprehended," NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera. Neighbors said it was so loud they thought people were celebrating the holiday. "A lot of noise, like big fireworks," one person said. "We thought people were celebrating the Happy New Year," said another. "We are deeply saddened by the recent and unfortunate isolated incident that occurred. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this senseless act. We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure a thorough investigation and to help bring those responsible to justice," Amazura Concert Hall said in a statement on social media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Victims of Queens shooting The street was crowded with ambulances waiting to rush the victims to local hospitals. They range in age from 16 to 19 years old and are all expected to survive their injuries. "Officers responded to the multiple 911 calls and found a total of 10 victims six females, four males who were taken to area hospitals. All of the victims are expected to recover with non-life-threatening injuries," Rivera said. Six of the victims were taken to the Jamaica Hospital Trauma Center with injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to the leg, foot, arm and buttocks, to graze wounds to the back. The other four are being treated at New York-Presbyterian Queens, Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Cohen Children's Medical Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said they were also actively canvassing local medical centers for any unaccounted for gunshot victims related to this incident. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. called the shooting a "life-changing ordeal" and shared his thoughts for those impacted. "Ten families woke up this morning to some of the most devastating news one could imagine receiving their loved one had been shot. My thoughts are with the victims and all those impacted as they navigate this life-changing ordeal, and I'm relieved that seemingly no lives will be lost due to this despicable shooting," Richards said in a statement. "I have been in constant communication with law enforcement, and while it does not appear this incident has a Queens nexus, under no circumstance will we allow any example of gun violence in our borough to go unpunished. I'm confident that those who perpetrated this heinous act will be arrested and held accountable for their actions." Investigators noted the public has been instrumental in helping them solve high-profile crimes in recent weeks, and they hope the public will once again help them catch the suspects in this case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via their website. All calls are kept confidential. Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say What's known about possible explosives, suspect after truck slams into New Orleans crowd In a series of videos, the man responsible for the deadly New Years attack in New Orleans discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join ISIS, according to multiple officials briefed on the investigation. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more, posted five videos on Facebook in the hours and minutes leading up to the attack, Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBIs Counterterrorism Division, said at a news conference Thursday. Jabbar, a Texas-born US citizen and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, made reference in the videos to his divorce and how he had at first planned to gather his family for a celebration with the intention of killing them, two officials who had been briefed on the recordings said. But Jabbar said in the videos he changed his plans because he wanted news headlines to focus on the war between the believers and the disbelievers, Raia said. Jabbar stated he had joined ISIS before this summer, Raia added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The videos, which CNN has not reviewed, were posted on Jabbars Facebook page Wednesday between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m., Raia said. Jabbar also planted two improvised explosive devices in the hours before the attack, which took place about 3:15 a.m. Jabbar was killed while exchanging fire with police after ramming the truck through the crowd in the early hours of New Years Day. He had an ISIS flag in the truck he drove, according to local and federal authorities. From military vet to terrorism suspect Now, law enforcement authorities are reviewing the videos, as well as phones and laptops potentially linked to Jabbar, as they rush to piece in details about how he went from a military veteran to a suspect in a deadly rampage. His family is also trying to understand where he went wrong. Jabbar was born and grew up in Beaumont, Texas, and his brother Abdur Jabbar, 24, and his father, Rahim Jabbar, 65, told CNN they couldnt reconcile the attack with the kind, soft-spoken person they knew. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was very well-tempered, slow to anger, Abdur said in an interview in their home in Beaumont. Thats why it was so unbelievable that he would be capable of something like this. Abdur, who spoke with his older brother almost daily over the last year and half, said he thought there must have been a mistake when a relative first told him Jabbar had been identified as the suspect. But then he saw his brothers face plastered on the news. The brothers were raised Muslim and regularly attended a mosque on Friday nights while growing up, but Jabbar never spoke about ISIS or showed any signs of radicalization, Abdur said. Hes never shared anything like that or of that nature with me, Abdur said. He understood what it meant to be a Muslim It wasnt this tragedy. It was the complete opposite. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats whats puzzling us, Rahim added. He wasnt going through something that we knew of. Jabbar served in the Army for more than a decade, an Army spokesperson told CNN. He served as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist on active duty between March 2007 and January 2015, and deployed to Afghanistan once from February 2009 to January 2010, the spokesperson said. After leaving active duty in January 2015, Jabbar served in the Army Reserve until July 2020, when he left service as a staff sergeant. Shamsud-Din Jabbar works in Fort Johnson (formerly Fort Polk), Louisiana, on November 16, 2013. - 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division/Reuters Serving in the military, Jabber said in a 2020 YouTube video pitching himself as a real estate agent, had taught him the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting is and crossing ts to make sure that things go off without a hitch. The video has since been taken offline. In the video, he sat next to a framed poster with the word Discipline in bold, and near a book titled Leadership. Jabbar received an associate degree from Central Texas College in 2010 and a bachelors degree from Georgia State University in 2017, according to an online resume. Both degrees were related to computer science and information technology. He later worked in business development and data engineering at the consulting firms Deloitte and Accenture, according to the resume. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Georgia State University confirmed to CNN Jabbar attended from 2015 to 2017 and graduated with a bachelors of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems. Central Texas College and Accenture did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. In a statement, Deloitte said Jabbar served in a staff-level role since being hired in 2021. The company is assisting in the investigation and we are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm, the statement said. Jabbar obtained in 2019 a real estate license that expired in 2023, according to records from the Texas Real Estate Commission. The records show he took a range of real estate classes on topics such as contract law and finance between 2018 and 2021. He is also listed in public records as having previously registered or being associated with several companies in Texas and Georgia. Contentious divorces and run-ins with the law Jabbar had divorced twice, court documents show. His first wife sued him in 2012 over child support soon after he filed for divorce, and the court ordered him to pay amounts that increased over the years as his income grew. The case was dismissed in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2020, a Texas judge granted Jabbars second wife a restraining order against him during their divorce case. The order mandated Jabbar to refrain from threats, physical harm, or other stipulated behavior against his ex-wife and either of their children. It required her to avoid the same behavior. In a court filing, Jabbars ex-wife stated the marriage had become insupportable because of discord or a conflict of personalities. Jabbar had previously had several run-ins with the law. Harris County court records also show that he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft of between $50 and $500 in December 2002, and served nine months of community supervision. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to charges related to driving under the influence while serving at Fort Bragg, a North Carolina military base, now known as Fort Liberty, according to court records. The documents revealed Jabbar was under the influence of an impairing substance in November 2014 and recorded a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. They also showed that he was driving with an open container of alcoholic beverage after he consumed alcohol. Jabbar was charged with Level 5 DWI the least severe level of the offense in North Carolina. According to the documents, he had his drivers license suspended, was placed on probation for 12 months, fined $200 and complied with 24 hours of community service. The FBI released Shamsud-Din Jabbar's passport photo. - FBI In recent years, Jabbar appears to have struggled with his finances. In a January 2022 email filed as part of his divorce case, he wrote that he could not afford a mortgage payment on his house, which he said was more than $27,000 past due and in danger of foreclosure if his divorce settlement was further delayed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabbar also stated in the email that a business he had formed, Blue Meadow Properties, had lost about $28,000 the prior year, and that other businesses he formed werent worth any money. He added that he had incurred about $16,000 in credit card debt. A rented truck Jabbar rented the truck he used in the New Years attack, a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, on the car rental website Turo, which lets owners rent their vehicles to other people. The trucks owner confirmed to CNN in a text message that it was rented on Turo. Jabbar picked up the truck on December 30 before driving from Houston to New Orleans the following day, Raia said. Mumtaz Bashir, a neighbor of Jabbars in Houston, told CNN he saw Jabbar load up the truck on the morning of December 31, and that Jabbar told him he was moving to New Orleans for a new job. I asked him if he needs hands for moving, help him out, as a neighbor, do you need any help moving things around? He said, Im OK, Bashir said. Jabbar appeared to be loading light, handheld items into the truck, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bashir, who said he was shocked and very saddened by the attack, described Jabbar as a nice but quiet person who minded his own business. Bashir said he never saw any kind of red flag that Jabbar had been radicalized. The rental site was also linked to an incident in Las Vegas involving a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside a Trump Hotel Wednesday. The driver of the Cybertruck died in the explosion, police said. Authorities have not confirmed the name of the dead driver and are investigating whether the incident was a terrorist attack. We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents, a Turo spokesperson told CNN. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families, the statement said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turo disabled the truck linked to the New Orleans attack for renting on Wednesday morning. Before it was disabled, the vehicle was listed as costing $105 a day, excluding taxes and fees, and it was unavailable to rent until 12:30 p.m. central time on Wednesday. CNNs Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Evan Perez and Pamela Brown contributed to this report. Editors Note: This story was updated to include new information on the suspect. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com In 2025, the Middle East will be profoundly transformed by the collapse of Irans 45-year quest to dominate the region. For decades, Irans Axis of Resistance its network of proxy militias and allied governments shaped the regions geopolitics, fueling instability and conflict. With Tehrans influence unraveling, the region faces a new chapter marked by turbulence but also the potential for a more hopeful and constructive future. Irans regional ambitions, realized through proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and various militias in Iraq, have long been a source of regional instability. Tehrans support for groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad further escalated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while Irans growing maritime influence, including the Houthis in Yemen, threatened global security. However, with the collapse of the Islamic Republics hegemonic project, the Middle East is poised for significant changes. What will the immediate fallout be? An anti-Israeli billboard with a picture of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is displayed on a building in Tehran, Iran November 24, 2024. The immediate fallout will be most visible in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, where Irans influence has been most entrenched. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lebanon: In Lebanon, Hezbollahs defeat by Israel in 2024 has severely weakened Irans grip on the country. Hezbollah, once a dominant force, has suffered significant military losses, and its political influence has sharply declined allowing Lebanon to reclaim its sovereignty. This shift enables a resurgence of national identity, which had been undermined by decades of Iranian intervention. Syria: In Syria, the fall of Assads regime marks the end of Irans influence in the country and the loss of a key pillar of Tehrans strategy to control a land corridor stretching from Iran to the Mediterranean. Syria will now need to rebuild its fractured political system and while the process will be difficult, it brings the opportunity for change. Iraq: Iraqs situation is more complex. The weakening of Irans influence in Syria and Lebanon offers a path toward greater Iraqi sovereignty, but deep divisions remain. Iraq has long been an economic lifeline for Iran, and many political factions in Iraq, particularly within the Shiite community, remain loyal to Tehran. A rivalry between pro-Iran Shiite groups and nationalist Shiite factions pushing for greater independence from Tehran could fuel existing tensions between the camps, potentially reigniting violence. The challenge in Iraq will be navigating these competing interests while avoiding a return to civil conflict. Iran: The ripple effects of the collapse of Tehrans hegemonic plan are also being felt within Iran itself. Years of economic mismanagement, political repression, and the cost of supporting proxy groups abroad have led to growing disillusionment. Public anger over the regimes wasted billions on foreign military campaigns, combined with rising economic hardship and political repression, has fueled unrest. This growing dissatisfaction, combined with the threat of new U.S. sanctions, places the regime in its most vulnerable position since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel and Palestine: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, long exacerbated by Iranian support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, will undergo its own transformation. While Hamass military capabilities and governance of Gaza were decimated and dismantled in 2024, it will remain a relevant factor within Palestinian society and politics. In 2025, Palestinians will likely face their own internal reckoning, and it's likely the U.S. and Arab states like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Qatar, will play a significant role in helping to shape a new path forward for Gaza. This regional engagement, which was largely absent during President-elect Donald Trumps first term, marks a shift in Arab states willingness to confront the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and find a more sustainable solution. Opinion: Exempting Palestinians from accountability perpetuates a hopeless future How will Donald Trump address the situation in the Middle East? The shifting regional dynamics present Trump with an opportunity to pursue two key objectives in 2025: using stricter sanctions, instead of miliary strikes to curb Irans nuclear program and reviving his Peace to Prosperity initiative with a more balanced approach toward the Palestinians, leveraging the weakening of Iran's influence and increased Arab involvement to build broader support. The growing cooperation between Arab states and the U.S. could facilitate a potential breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian relations, with the strong possibility of a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. For Israel, the end of Irans hegemonic project represents a strategic victory, but the country faces its own domestic challenges, particularly with the ongoing trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A 2025 conviction for Netanyahu could trigger a new round of elections and a shift in Israeli politics, bringing a pragmatic government to power, one centered on pragmatic Zionist parties instead of the current right wing ultra-nationalist government. Avi Melamed At the same time, the collapse of Irans influence is creating a vacuum for Turkey to assert its own regional ambitions, possibly fueling tensions between Turkey and regional players. President Erdogans increasing assertiveness, especially in northern Syria, already set Turkey and Iran on conflicting path. In addition, Turkey's momentum could resume tensions with key Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE, all are resentful of his desire to lead the Sunni camp. Erdogan likely exploits Israel's rule on the Golan Heights to harvest political points. One thus should expect increasing tension between Turkey and Israel. Moreover, his military operations against Kurdish forces in Syria are straining relations with Washington. Turkeys growing ambitions threaten to revive old rivalries and introduce new sources of instability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2025, the Middle East will experience the ripple effects following the collapse of Iran's hegemony vision, signaling the start of the Middle East's next chapter. Avi Melamed is a former Israeli intelligence official who went on to serve as deputy and then as senior Arab affairs adviser to Jerusalem Mayors Teddy Kollek and Ehud Olmert, operating as a negotiator during the first and second intifadas. He is the author of Inside The Middle East | Entering A New Era, and his latest docuseries, The Seam Line, available on the Izzy streaming platform, focuses on Jerusalems flashpoints and his work during the intifadas. This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Iran Middle East agenda: What comes in 2025? | Opinion North Korea has unveiled a new destroyer equipped with an advanced missile system that will become the largest warship in its growing navy. State media released images of Kim Jong-un, North Koreas leader, inspecting the ship at a facility that analysts believe was the Nampho Dockyard, on the west coast of the country. The images of the unfinished vessel indicate that it will have a beam of around 50ft and is likely to be approximately 330ft from bow to stern. At more than 3,600 tonnes, it will be significantly larger than the 1,360-tonne frigate that is presently the largest in the Norths maritime armoury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A picture of the bow also reveals an empty area directly in front of the main superstructure that is expected to house vertical launch missile systems capable of firing cruise or guided missiles. The ship is likely a destroyer and the largest warship ever constructed in the DPRK [Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea], Joseph Dempsey, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Seoul-based NK News. Weapons-wise, the large aperture immediately forward of the bridge would imply [plans to install a] possible vertical launching system for missiles, although he added that it remains still too early to make firm predictions about its overall capabilities. In the last year or so, Kim has indicated that he intends to step up the development and output of the domestic shipbuilding industry at the same time as strengthening the nations naval capabilities. His comments have included references to obtaining larger warships. State media released images of Kim Jong-un inspecting the new warship - KCTV The new ship comes as North Korea is growing closer to Russia following a new security pact in 2024 that committed both countries to mutual military assistance if the other was invaded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Analysts noted that the new North Korean ship looked similar to the Russian Admiral Grigorovich-class. It could be an attempt by North Korea to significantly strengthen its conventional power, including its inferior naval power as well as nuclear and missile capabilities, through cooperation with Russia, Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told South Korean media. Mr Dempsey also pointed out that Kim toured a Russian naval base and ships during a trip to the Russian far east port of Vladivostok in September 2023. State media reported on Tuesday that Kim has sent a personal letter to Vladimir Putin to mark the new year in which he hails the Russian leader as his dearest friend and comrade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a hint that he hopes to receive even more military and economic assistance in the future, Kim also used the letter to express his willingness to design and push ahead with new projects after the two nations meaningful journey in 2024. An Amnok-class corvette of the North Korean navy fires a cruise missile - KCNA Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In September, during a visit to a new naval base, the North Korean leader said that as the navy was, soon to possess large surface warships and submarines which cannot be anchored at the existing facilities for mooring warships, the construction of a naval base for running the latest large warships has become a pressing task. A report by South Koreas defence intelligence agency said that there were indications that the North has started to construct a new submarine at the Sinpo naval yards. Given the greater size of the vessel in comparison to the rest of the Norths submarine fleet, the intelligence agency suggested the vessel may be nuclear-powered. As far back as 2021, Kim told a meeting of the ruling Workers Party that a nuclear submarine should be among the advanced weapons systems that had to be built. Meanwhile last year, Pyongyang announced that it intended to deter US reconnaissance flights off its coast by constantly deploying a ship loaded with new-type anti-aircraft missiles. Mr Dempsey says there appears little point in North Korea investing heavily in a bigger navy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Beyond the perceived prestige and propaganda value, it is unclear why Pyongyang would benefit from investment in larger warships, he wrote on the IISS web site in October. Historically, there has been little demonstrated will, value or experience in naval-power projection beyond the relative safety of its home waters, including reluctance to even navigate around the peninsula, meaning shipbuilding projects are typically duplicated on each coast. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Editor's note: This is the fifth entry in an eight-part series previewing some of the most impactful legislation coming to the 2025 Mississippi Legislative Session. Whether lawmakers will consider legislation to address the Jackson water system is as of mid-December unclear, and local leaders have no specific plan to take up the issue in 2025 at the state level. During a meeting with the City of Jackson's leadership, the area's local delegation of House and Senate lawmakers were not asked to pursue legislation to put a plan in place for the previously beleaguered water system that was taken over by the federal government in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "That wasn't their top priority," said Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson. "It wasn't on the priority list." At the same time, Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee Chairman, Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch, who filed legislation to set up a water board authority during the past two sessions, is undecided on whether he will again go after such a plan. "I've had probably the most time and effort into understanding the problem," Parker said. "I would hope that you know if any bill were introduced by another member, that that bill gets referred to my committee. Whether I introduce something or not, I plan to stay involved in the process." In mid-December, the city and the local delegation met to discuss what legislation the city wants filed and considered to better the area. The city's water system, now controlled by JXN Water and third-party receiver and manager Ted Henifin, did not come up as an ask from the city, Bell said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Instead, the city has awarded a $45,000 contract to Ice Miller, LLP, a national law firm, which will now assist the city in efforts to modify what happens to the water system after Henifin's receivership ends. The city council voted 5-1 in favor of the contract on Dec. 17, one week after initially voting it down. Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote was the only dissenting vote. Ted Henifin, Jacksons third party water administrator, oversees operations at the O.B. Curtis Plant in Ridgeland. President Biden and the EPA announced Tuesday that the first $115m funds are available for the city of Jackson, namely for finding and repairing leaks in the citys water system. A total of $600m was approved by Congress this year and will be distributed by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act. "(Ice Miller, LLP will) assist in drafting and implementing modifications to any existing consent decrees or stipulated orders between the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Justice, reads the contract, which will also include future governance structures of the water system. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba's office and city spokesperson Melissa Payne did not answer calls seeking the mayor's comments on the contract or on not asking the local delegation to pursue water system legislation. Henifin's office also did not answer calls or messages seeking comment. Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, said he doesn't necessarily think a water system bill this year is the right time to address the issue. He does, however, think the state should have a say in the matter when the time is right. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The current situation will be in place for some time, which I think is an improvement of where we were," Blount said. "Next year is a municipal election year, and (Jackson water system legislation) may potentially complicate Jackson issues." History of Jackson water system issues In 2022, the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant, which treats water for much of Jackson and surrounding cities for drinking, bathing and cooking, completely failed after the Pearl River flooded due to heavy rainfall. The ensuing crisis caused repeated outages for the citys 150,000 residents who went days and weeks without water to drink, cook, bathe or flush toilets. The United States Justice Department, as a result, stepped in and appointed Henifin to oversee the system, and he subsequently created the management organization JXN Water. Currently no concrete timeline exists on when the federal government will relinquish control of the citys water utility, but it is slated to end in 2027. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate, who has overseen the takeover of the water system, will ultimately have the final say on when Henifin leaves and what happens to the water system next. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In July 2023, the DOJ also gave Henifin management of the citys sewer maintenance. Jackson water takeover bill dies: Bill to take over Jackson water system dies in MS House without a vote Jackson water system bill in 2024 During the past year and the year before that, Parker filed legislation to take the Jackson Water System away from the city and place it in the hands of a nonprofit water authority, featuring a leading board comprised of Jackson Metro Area and state representatives. Both measures failed. The bill gave the governor three appointments, the lieutenant governor three appointments, the Jackson City Council two appointments and the mayor one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Henifin in the heat of debate between Parker's supporters and local opposition, voiced support for the bill but did not publicly comment on specifics. Senate passes water bill: MS Senate passes bill that would allow state take over of Jackson water and sewer Parker unsure if authority is still a good idea In an interview with the Clarion Ledger, Parker said there were a few things working against his 2024 proposal beside political opposition. Chief among his concerns is that the water authority, or whatever comes after Henifin, will be saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt the water utility incurred while it was under city-management. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Parker still thinks something should be done with the Jackson water system before Henifin's receivership ends, which in theory, is in 2027. "I don't think that that Ted would want to leave a system that had been repaired with the same governance that it had that maybe began the problem," Parker said. "I think he's been very clear in wanting there to be a future governance that is different before leaving. Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335. This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson lawmakers have no plan for Jackson water system in 2025 The mystery of strange radio signals coming from space may have been solved by scientists. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long pulses of radio waves that are so powerful they can travel billions of light years and be picked up on Earth. They were first discovered in 2007 and theoretical physicists like Prof Avi Loeb, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, have suggested they could emanate from alien civilisations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have pinpointed the origins of one FRB and found it to be suspiciously close to a neutron star an ultra-dense collapsed star that is just the size of a city but has the mass of the Sun. The star is around 200 million light years away and is surrounded by a dense magnetic field that scientists believe is the source of the radio burst. Dr Kiyoshi Masui, associate professor of physics at MIT, said: Around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars, atoms cant exist they would just get torn apart by the magnetic fields. The exciting thing here is, we find that the energy stored in those magnetic fields, close to the source, is twisting and reconfiguring such that it can be released as radio waves that we can see halfway across the universe. Suggestion of alien civilisations Previously, Prof Loeb had suggested that the energy busts could be a powerful radio beam created by alien civilisations and used for military purposes. He said they might be generated to push a light sail to launch cargo close to the speed of light. Prof Avi Loeb had previously suggested the energy busts could be a powerful radio beam created by alien civilisations - Jake Belcher However, many scientists believe they have more natural origins and to find out, researchers studied one particular FRB that was detected in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They determined the precise location of the radio signal by analysing its scintillation similar to how stars twinkle in the night sky. The smaller or the farther away an object is, the more it twinkles. The light from larger or closer objects, such as planets in our own solar system, experience less bending, and therefore do not appear to twinkle. Similarly radio waves twinkle, or scintillate, as they pass through interstellar medium, giving scientists an idea of where they originated. The team estimates that the burst exploded from a region that is very near to a rotating neutron star, around 6,000 miles away less than the distance between London and Chicago and extremely close in space terms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The distance puts it within the stars magnetic field, the first conclusive evidence that a fast radio burst can originate from the magnetosphere. Limits of what universe can produce Kenzie Nimmo, the lead author and a postdoctoral research fellow in MITs Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said: In these environments of neutron stars, the magnetic fields are really at the limits of what the universe can produce. She continued: Theres been a lot of debate about whether this bright radio emission could even escape from that extreme plasma. Since the first fast radio burst, astronomers have detected thousands of FRBs, whose locations range from within our own galaxy to as far as 8 billion light years away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The burst studied by the MIT team was detected in 2022 by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (Chime) radio telescope. The research was published in the journal Nature. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. The City Council of Orange City prior to the 2024 election included, clockwise from bottom left, Frances Darms, Casandra Jones, Kelli Marks, Alex Tiamson, William O'Connor, Mayor Gary Blair and Lisa Stafford. Orange City Vice Mayor Alexander Tiamson who at 10 immigrated from the Philippines to the United States visited many of the states and began traveling the world, most recently witnessing the Northern Lights in Iceland. His journeys ended last week when he died at age 60, the city announced Wednesday. Tiamson, 60, served on the City Council since 2020 and had been reelected to a second term in 2024 when no one challenged him. Alexander Tiamson Tiamson died on Dec. 29, the post stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He died as a result of "an unexpected medical episode,' Dawn Tiamson, his wife, said in an interview Wednesday. 'A better life' in the United States A native of Manilla, Tiamson moved with his parents, two brothers and a sister to San Francisco. Their lives had been comfortable in the Philippines, where they had a driver and a maid. "He remembered fondly that time," Dawn Tiamson said. "He would always say, 'Mom and Pop, we had it so good, why did we come here? Sometimes it's hard here in the United States.' And they would always say, 'We came to the United States for a better life.'" About two years earlier, President Ferdinand Marcos had declared martial law and had become a dictator. Many Filipinos fell into poverty during his 20-year reign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tiamson related to his wife that he found high school "a cruel place," but he found his way into the Marine Corps at 19 and served four years, some of it based in Hawaii. After the military, Tiamson moved to Florida, starting in Pensacola where he became a law enforcement officer. It was a career that lasted 29 years, taking him to Orlando, where he worked on patrol, in specialized units and task forces before being promoted in 2007 to detective. Unlikely romance grows from Orlando police sting He met his wife, a hotel manager, in 1999 when Orlando Police worked with her on a sting operation after guests had complained of items being stolen from their rooms. Alex and Dawn Tiamson toast on New Year's Eve in 2022. Alex, the vice mayor of Orange City, died on Dec. 29. They were introduced and that first glance at each other was different. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was something about our look ... I never will forget, and he said the same thing," Dawn Tiamson said. After that, Tiamson found reasons to visit her at the hotel and the relationship grew from there. They were together as a couple since 2001. Theirs was a blended family. He brought a son and two daughters, while she had a son and a daughter. "My kids call him Dad and Pops," she said. 'Served everyone who was in need' Alex Tiamson was described by people who knew him as a people person who never met a stranger. "If you'd get to talk to Alex, you'd walk away feeling more informed," his wife said. "It felt like you met a friend." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His political career was an extension of his interest in helping others in the community, Dawn Tiamson said. He participated in motorcycle rides to benefit St. Jude's Hospital and veterans. Recently, his wife said, he learned of a veteran who "was in a bad way, suicidal." Tiamson talked with him, even at odd hours, and helped him reunite with his family. Orange City resident Leah Brooks said she met Tiamson when she approached him about a city issue and they became friends. On Wednesday morning, she posted on Facebook a tribute to Tiamson. "You are a man who had his priorities straight. Family first, country & community next, and then self. You poured your love to others and served everyone who was in need. You were chivalrous and protected women, children and the elderly (especially veterans)," Brooks wrote. A trip untaken The couple traveled frequently, to many different states, Mexico and Iceland in October, with plans to go to Tiamsons native Philippines later this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My husband was a curious guy, Dawn Tiamson said. If I told him about a trip or cruise I was looking at, always his response would be: Book it! Tiamson had been studying the best places to visit and eat while visiting the Philippines, his wife said. He had also retained his ability to speak Tagalog, the language he learned as a child. We had lots of plans to travel, she said. We just ran out of time. Dawn Tiamson, who plans to have a memorial service locally, believes her husband deserves one more trip. She wants to bring his ashes to Virginia, for a memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery. It has a waitlist of more than a year, but she believes it to be befitting. This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Remembering Alex Tiamson, Orange City councilman, Orlando detective In the weeks since Bashar al-Assad was ousted as Syrian leader, Russia has launched multiple flights to an airbase in the Libyan desert. Moscows goal appears to be to find an alternative stopover for its growing military involvement in Africa and a way to retain its military presence in the Mediterranean. For nearly a decade, the Hmeimim air base and Tartus naval facility on the Syrian coast have served both purposes. Now the conflict-riven North African nation of Libya is central to Russian efforts to project power into the Mediterranean. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Flight-tracking data analyzed by CNN show more than one flight a day since mid-December by Moscows giant Antonov AN-124 transport planes, as well as Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft from Hmeimim to al-Khadim, a base near Benghazi in eastern Libya. Earlier this month, US and Western officials told CNN that Russia had begun withdrawing a large amount of military equipment and troops from Syria. The equipment transferred may have included advanced Russian air defense systems. CNN saw imagery of these systems waiting to be flown out of Syria shortly before the Russian flights started. On December 28, an Antonov returned to Hmeimim from Libya. A Russian Ilyushin Il-76MD plane flies over Moscow during a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade in May 2022. - Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agencya/Getty Images Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, told CNN there has been an undeniable spike in Russian aircraft landing in Libya from Syria, Russia and Belarus in recent weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hmeimim has been the hub from which Russian mercenary operations in Africa at first in the Central African Republic and later in Sudan, Libya, Mali and Burkina Faso were sustained. By strengthening its presence in Libya, Moscow may retain enough capability to pursue its broader ambitions further south in Africa, absorbing the new costs inevitably associated with Assads downfall, Harchaoui said. Geolocated video shows at least one of the planes that recently arrived at al-Khadim flew on to Bamako in Mali, where Russia has recently supplanted long-term French influence. Russian flights to Bamako via Libya demonstrate that Russia has already turned to Libya as an alternative to its Syrian bases, analysts at the American Enterprise Institutes Critical Threats project said in a briefing note. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The flights are not consistent with the previous pattern of Russian Africa Corps rotations to Bamako, it added. Russias Africa Corps, under the aegis of its defense ministry, is the successor to the Wagner mercenary group in Africa. The Russians have had a foothold at al-Khadim for several years, while supplying mercenary fighters and weapons to support Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the self-declared ruler of much of eastern Libya. The investigative outfit All Eyes on Wagner reported earlier this year that a secure compound had been built near the base for Russian personnel transiting to other parts of Africa. A deputy Russian defense minister, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, has made several visits to Libya to consolidate links with Haftar in the past two years. That relationship may be set to deepen if the Russian navy is eyeing a port under Haftars control as an alternative to its facility at Tartus in Syria. A closer view of the hangars and parking area at al-Khadim on December 28. - Maxar Technologies NATO concerns The prospect is not going down well in NATO capitals. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Italian daily La Repubblica that, Russian ships and submarines in the Mediterranean are always a concern, and even more so if instead of being 1,000 kilometers away they are two steps from us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its no coincidence perhaps that a week ago the Italian militarys chief of staff, Gen. Luciano Portolano, visited Tripoli where Haftars United Nations-backed rivals govern. According to a senior NATO official, the 32-member defensive alliance is monitoring activity in both Tobruk and Benghazi in Libya. A Mediterranean home for Russian warships is critical to Moscow as the Black Sea fleet is not permitted to transit the Bosphorus while Russia is at war with Ukraine. Russia has not deployed naval vessels to Tobruk just yet, which is very smart since such a brazen move could have provoked NATOs mobilization prematurely, Harchaoui said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Haftar is a mercurial and ageing leader in a chronically divided and volatile country. Haftar is often switching allegiances, only controls half of the country and is, at an age of 81, not exactly a youthful figure, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel Program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mali. There is no legal agreement like with Syria, and Haftar could anytime show the Russians the door, Laessing added. He could exploit his position to demand more sophisticated Russian hardware which Moscow can ill afford to spare. In some ways, Libya is a poor substitute for Syria. Transport planes can only practically reach Libya from Russia if they are allowed to overfly Turkey, providing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a handy bargaining chip. The al-Khadim air base in Libya on December 17. - Maxar Technologies Damascus ambivalent Its not clear that Syrias new leadership is determined to kick the Russian military out of Hmeimim and Tartus. Interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview this week that the new government does not want Russia to leave the country in a manner that does not fit its relations with Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But given Syrias uncertain trajectory, Moscow will want to hedge its bets in a region of growing strategic importance. Even if the new rulers allow Russia to keep the Hmeimim air and Tartus naval bases it will have to cut down its troop levels and logistics such as ammunition warehouses in Syria as they are no longer needed to support Assad, Laessing said. Harchaoui agreed, saying that even if Russia maintains some presence in Syria, the level of comfort, logistical ease and security it once enjoyed under Assad will never return. Russian President Vladimir Putin has shrugged off Assads ouster but Laessing said his fall was a real blow to Putins Africa ambitions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement African governments that have leaned towards Moscow for their security may now think twice about its reliability, which will hamper its ability to strike new deals for the Africa Corps mercenaries, said Laessing. It didnt (go) unnoticed in Mali or Niger that Russia did not come to Assads help. Even so, Russia has dragged a coal from the fire of Assads demise, said Harchaoui. Its logistical network has neither been destroyed nor entirely decimated; it has merely been degraded and rendered more costly, more uncertain, and shakier. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com SANDGATE, Vt. Two people are dead and two others were hospitalized with injuries after a house fire in the Bennington County town of Sandgate. The call came in at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday on Chunks Brook Road. Given the location, departments from both Vermont and New York responded. The two people who died were identified as Nicole Grogan, 22, and Oliver Stratton, her 12-day-old son. Police say the two people who were injured were sent to hospitals in New York. The extent of their injuries was not released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Multiple agencies are investigating the cause of the fire, including Vermont State Police detectives. If you know anything, call the Shaftsbury barracks at (802) 442-5421. You can also call the Vermont Arson Tip Award Program, 1-800-32-ARSON. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44. Russian gas is no longer flowing to EU states through Ukraine following the expiration of a five-year deal, closing an energy route that has existed since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the move means Russia can no longer earn billions on our blood. His energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows in the interest of national security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a historic event, he wrote on the social media platform Telegram. Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. The deal had allowed for Russian gas to travel through Ukraines pipeline networks into European countries, primarily Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. Its end will not cut off all Russian gas to Europe, but significantly reduce it. Gas can still travel from Russia to Europe via the Turkstream pipeline, but no longer through Ukraine, cutting gas imports to the EU by around 14 billion cubic metres. The European Commission has said that this volume can be replaced by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline imports from other sources, such as Norway and the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the impact is already being felt in parts of EU candidate country Moldova, which was getting Russian gas via Ukraine. The breakaway Russian-speaking region of Transnistria, home to around 45,000 people, cut supplies to households. There is no heating or hot water, said a worker at energy company Tirasteploenergo. The financial impact Though Ukraine benefitted financially from the now-expired agreement to the tune of $800m (640m) a year, the gas was not imported to Ukraine itself. Latest estimates show that Russia is expected to lose around 5bn (4.14bn) a year from gas transported to Europe via Ukraine. According to its own reports, Gazproms market capitalisation stands at around 22bn (3 trillion roubles). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gazprom is Russias largest company, and has the largest gas reserves in the world. Since the invasion of Ukraine its business has taken several blows. By the end of 2024, Russian gas exported to Europe via the Ukraine pipelines alone has already dropped by 78 per cent since the contract started in 2020. And for the first time since 2001, Gazprom reported a net loss of 5.5bn (629 billion roubles) in 2023, after gas sales plummeted. Up to this point, the gas giant consistently raked in billions each year; including even 14bn (1.9 trillion roubles) in 2022, during the first year of the war. Revenue decreased by around 27 per cent in 2023, to 61bn, while revenue from gas sales in particular fell by 40 per cent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this context, a loss of 4.14bn in gas sales without the Ukraine transit deal could trigger a further 6.7 per cent decrease in revenues for Gazprom and Russia. The Russian oil and gas war chest Russias oil industry is seen as vital to financing its continued war against Ukraine (AP) Gazprom is majority state-owned, which means that the Russian state receives a sizeable sum of its profits. Russia relies on oil and gas business in part to fund its ongoing war in Ukraine; with revenues accounting for 30 to 50 per cent of the Russian federal budget, according to The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES). Other than the EU, Russias biggest pipeline gas exports go to Turkey and Belarus, while LNG exports are largely reliant on sales to China and Japan. According to Bloomberg, Russian gas exports to China are discounted as heavily as -28 per cent compared to European exports, meaning that they are less profitable for Russia overall. But ultimately, the vast majority of Russian state oil and gas revenues come from oil sales, rather than gas sales, according to the OIES. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although the EU has banned oil imports from Russia, numerous reports suggest that Russian oil is still reaching the EU via back channels. A Global Witness investigation found that 130 million barrels of refined products were imported into the EU from refineries that process Russian crude oil in 2023, worth an estimated 1.1bn in tax revenue to the Kremlin. Russia is the largest crude oil supplier to China and India. The UK and EU countries import billions in refined oil from these two countries, part of which is likely originating from Russia despite sanctions. The trouble with Russian gas Russian president Vladimir Putin (L) and Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh shake hands (EPA) Separately to sanctions from the invasion of Ukraine, European countries reliance on Russian gas has been a difficult challenge to address. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russia has historically used its gas pipeline exports to exert political control over dependent countries, from Ukraine to Armenia. As of today, Gazprom is also weaponising the same tactic in Moldova, cutting off gas supplies over an alleged $709m (565m) debt. Yet the decision not to extend gas transit via Ukraine faced some pushback. Slovakias prime minister threatened to cut electricity supplies to Ukraine in retaliation, as he said that ending Russian gas transit would increase energy prices. Nonetheless, gas transit via Ukraines pipelines has now ceased. By Rishav Chatterjee (Reuters) -The Fiji government on Thursday said police were investigating incidents involving two crew members of Australian airline Virgin Australia who were allegedly victims of rape and theft in Nadi in the early hours of New Year's Day. The crew members were in the popular tourist destination on a layover before they were supposed to fly off the following day, Fiji Acting Commissioner of Police Juki Fong Chew said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Virgin, which said it was aware of the alleged incidents, has sent people to Fiji to provide support, but did not provide further details in a statement to Reuters. Fiji police said the investigation so far had found some Virgin crew members had gone to a nightclub in Nadi. "Unfortunately, two of the crew members were victims of an alleged theft and rape after exiting the nite club trying to find their way back to the hotel," Chew said in his written statement. Viliame Gavoka, Fiji's deputy prime minister and minister for tourism and civil aviation, in a statement, clarified that these were two separate incidents of alleged theft and sexual assault which affected two different Virgin crew members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gavoka expressed regret over the alleged incidents and said that a suspect known to the police for the alleged sexual assault had been questioned and that the investigation was ongoing. The South Pacific island nation of Fiji is a popular tourist destination and received 76,845 visitors in November, mostly from Australia, New Zealand and North America, according to the country's tourism website. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Reuters it was aware of the reports but declined to comment further. (Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Sameer Manekar; Editing by Jamie Freed, Michael Perry and Sandra Maler) The Fiji government on Thursday said police were investigating incidents involving two crew members of Australian airline Virgin Australia (IPO-VIR.AX), opens new tab who were allegedly victims of rape and theft in Nadi in the early hours of New Years Day. The crew members were in the popular tourist destination on a layover before they were supposed to fly off the following day, Fiji Acting Commissioner of Police Juki Fong Chew said in a statement. Virgin, which said it was aware of the alleged incidents, has sent people to Fiji to provide support, but did not provide further details in a statement to Reuters. Fiji police said the investigation so far had found some Virgin crew members had gone to a nightclub in Nadi. Unfortunately, two of the crew members were victims of an alleged theft and rape after exiting the nite club trying to find their way back to the hotel, Chew said. Viliame Gavoka, Fijis deputy prime minister and minister for tourism and civil aviation, in a statement, opens new tab, clarified that these were two separate incidents of alleged theft and sexual assault which affected two different Virgin crew members. Gavoka expressed regret over the alleged incidents and said that a suspect known to the police for the alleged sexual assault had been questioned and that the investigation was ongoing. The South Pacific island nation of Fiji is a popular tourist destination and received 76,845 visitors in November, mostly from Australia, New Zealand and North America, according to the countrys tourism website. Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Reuters it was aware of the reports but declined to comment further. By Nkiruka Gloria A Catholic priest has shot and killed a boy for blowing knockouts in church premises during New Year mass, in Imo State. The incident reportedly happened during the New Year Mass held on January 1, 2025, in Amaimo, Ikeduru Local Government Area of Imo State. The shocking and sad incident, which was shared in a post on Wednesday, by For The Love Of Anambra, has sparked outrage from social media users. It noted that according to eyewitness accounts, after the deceased set off the knockouts, the priest, whose identity remains undisclosed, picked up a firearm and fatally shot him. Catholic priest shoots, kills boy for blowing knockouts in church premises The incident has left the community in shock and mourning, with residents expressing outrage and demanding a thorough investigation to uncover the facts behind the unfortunate event. The Imo State Police Command, has however, confirmed the incident, stating that it is aware of the incident. The Commands spokesperson, Henry Okoye, disclosed that an investigation has been launched into the incident. We have launched a detailed investigation to ascertain the remote facts surrounding the incident. Further development on the case will be communicated in due course, please, he stated. Catholic priest shoots, kills boy for blowing knockouts in church premises The identity of the priest and victim, remains unknown as of now. By Oladipo Abiola The 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has visited Nigerias former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, at his residence in Minna, Niger State. Obi, in a post via his X account on Thursday, confirmed that he visited IBB after his visit to Jigawa State Governor, Umar Namadi. The Labour Party chieftain disclosed that the discussions between him and Babangida focused on national issues. According to Obi, he also used the opportunity to wish the former leader a happy new year. Peter Obi Visits IBB, Reveals Details Of Their Discussion (Photos) The former Anambra State Governor described IBB as a wise man whose perspective on issues he is always ready to listen to. From Jigawa state, I travelled to Minna, Niger State to pay a visit to a father figure, elder statesman and leader, the former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, at his residence in Minna, Niger State. The visit was an opportunity to wish him a happy New Year and to exchange thoughts on national issues. General Babangidas wisdom and perspectives remain very important and I always deeply appreciate the chance to visit him and listen to his invaluable advise and words of wisdom. Peter Obi Visits IBB, Reveals Details Of Their Discussion (Photos) A new Nigeria is POssible! Obi wrote. Libya is interested in opening a direct air route and a maritime link with Morocco to boost economic ties, its transport minister Salem Al Shahboubi said. Sahboubi made the remarks during a meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Abdessamad Kayouh on the sidelines of the 29th General Assembly of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization (ACAO) held recently. Direct flights between the two countries have been suspended for security reasons since 2015. The two ministers agreed to intensify cooperation between bilateral technical committees. Re-establishing direct air routes will be very good news for the over 100,000 Moroccans living in Libya. Moroccan expatriates remittances reached 108.67 billion dirhams through November 2024, showing a 2.8% annual increase, according to the latest foreign exchange statistics. The Office des Changes reports that remittances growth maintains its upward trajectory, marking a substantial 77% increase compared to November 2020 levels of 61.25 billion dirhams. The previous year closed at 115 billion dirhams, reflecting a steady 4% growth in overseas transfers. Bank Al-Maghribs latest projections, released in mid-December, anticipate remittances to grow by 4.3% by year-end 2024, with continued annual growth between 3-3.5% expected to reach 128 billion dirhams by 2026. These figures demonstrate the sustained confidence of Moroccan expatriates in their home countrys economy. The tourism sector also recorded a strong performance, indicating a robust recovery in Moroccos hospitality industry, with international visitor spending reaching record levels. However, outbound travel spending by Moroccan nationals has shown equally significant growth, increasing by 20.2% to reach 26.7 billion dirhams compared to the same period in 2023, reflecting increased mobility and economic confidence among domestic travelers. The dual growth in both remittances and tourism revenues reinforces Moroccos position as a key regional economic player, with strong ties to its diaspora community and growing appeal as a global tourist destination. Any return to the pre-conflict status with the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is off the table, Sudans Sovereign Council leader said during the countrys 69th independence anniversary, ruling out the paramilitary groups reintegration into Sudanese society. Calling the RSF murderers and criminals, Al-Burhan blamed the militia for the widespread violence, starvation, and displacement faced by Sudanese citizens, stressing that the situation could not go back to what it was before the outbreak of conflict. There is no going back to the situation before 15 April 2023, nor can we accept the presence of these criminals among Sudanese people, he said in a televised address aired on Sudanese state television on Tuesday (31 December). The ruling Sovereign Council leader, however, expressed his willingness to engage in any genuine initiative that ends the war and ensures the safe return of civilians displaced by the war to their homes. Since the battle for power erupted in April 2023 between the two warring sides Sudans military, led by al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo the humanitarian toll has been devastating, claiming nearly 25,000 lives and displacing over 10 million people, according to the United Nations. Mediation efforts led by countries like the United States and Saudi Arabia have not yet succeeded in securing a ceasefire, with both sides accusing each other of hindering peace talks. Ivorian president has announced the withdrawal of French troops from the countrys territory in January, becoming the latest African nation to weaken military ties with its former colonial master. President Alassane Ouattara of Cote dIvoire said in his end-of-year speech on Tuesday (31 December) that the French military would hand over control of its Port Bouet base in the capital Abidjan in January 2025, marking the end of a decades-long military presence in the West African nation. This move comes after French troops have been forced to depart from coup-hit Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger ruled by military-led governments hostile to the ex-colonial master. The president said Ivorians should be proud of the modernized state of their own armed forces. In this context, we have decided on the coordinated and organized withdrawal of French forces, he added. This move is yet another setback for France that has currently up to 600 soldiers based in the country. French forces have been evicted from a number of West African nations, most recently also from Senegal and Chad, traditionally seen as strong French allies. Chad has been a key ally for Paris in its fight against Islamist militants, serving as its last foothold in the Sahel region. Some countries, most notably Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, have since sought closer relations with China and Russia. French troops are now only present in Gabon and Djibouti. General Mamadi Doumbouya, Guineas transitional president, used his New Years address, to reaffirm a commitment to restore constitutional order. He announced that in the first quarter of 2025, his administration will sign a decree to organize a referendum on a new constitution. This pledge represents the latest milestone in Guineas ongoing transition following the 2021 coup that unseated the previous government. Doumbouya highlighted several key objectives. Chief among them is drafting a fresh constitution that aligns with the aspirations of the Guinean people and ensures transparent, stable governance. He underscored plans to hold presidential, legislative, and local elections later in 2025, emphasizing that these contests should be inclusive, fair, and supported by republican values. The adoption of the new constitution will formally conclude the transitional period and mark the return to constitutional rule. A panel of Guinean experts will review the draft constitution, after which the National Transitional Council will consider it before placing it on the referendum ballot. A revised electoral code is also scheduled for finalization in 2025, setting out regulations for credible campaigning and efficient vote administration. While acknowledging the challenges ahead, Doumbouya underscored the necessity of peace and unity for meaningful progress. He called on citizens to support the transition, warning that further political unrest could hamper the nations path toward stability. Guineans, he said, must work together to foster a modern and prosperous state that upholds the rights of all. Malis Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned on Wednesday Algeria of supporting terrorist groups in the Sahel, of fueling instability in the region, and of interfering in its internal affairs. The Foreign Ministry emphasized in a strongly-worded statement that Mali would not allow external powers to meddle in its sovereignty or act as firefighters while fueling conflicts. The Foreign affairs department expressed its rejection of Algerias attempts to exploit Mali to overcome its international isolation and urged the Algerian regime to address its own internal political issues and contradictions, particularly regarding the Kabyle people, rather than using Mali as a tool to bolster its global position. Commenting on the Malin Foreign Ministrys denunciation of the Algerian regimes support for terrorist movements and its interference in the affairs of its neighbors, Algerian political activist Chawki Ben Zahra described the statement as strong and historic. He accused the Algerian regime of supporting terrorist groups and called Algeria to settle first its own internal problems, especially the issue of independence demands in the Kabyle region. Ben Zahra tweeted on his X platform account that regional isolation has been confirmed, and Algeria has become ostracized in the region due to the absurdities of Algerian diplomacy, the latest of which was the press conference by Attaf (the Foreign Minister), where he attacked Mali and Morocco in a vile manner. This confirms the term diplomatic scum that Colonel Maiga, the head of the transitional government in Mali, attached to both Attaf and Ammar Ben Jamaa. Algeria shares 1,400 km of border with Mali, a landlocked country that has faced a security crisis since 2012 with jihadist and independence insurgencies in northern Mali. The African country is also struggling with political instability since two military coups in 2020 and 2021. Last October, Moroccos Permanent Representative to the UN, Omar Hilale, accused Algeria of being the root cause of all the problems in the Sahel and Sahara. Hilale, who was responding to remarks by Algerias Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, criticized Algeria for harboring terrorists, extremists, and separatists. These find refuge on Algerian soil and threaten regional stability, Hilale said. There is a terrorist, extremist, and separatist threat in the Sahel, and its all because of Algeria, Hilale said, urging Algeria to cease meddling in the internal affairs of neighboring countries and respect their sovereignty. Malis Minister of State, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, echoed similar accusations at the UN, declaring that Mali would no longer adhere to the Algiers Agreement and would respond decisively to any further aggression or insults. . The driver has been identified as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, an active duty U.S. Army sergeant master who was home on leave in Colorado Springs, which is also where the Cybertruck was reportedly rented via the car-sharing app Turo. He served in U.S. Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, and was currently stationed in Germany. Livelsbergers uncle told the Independent that the 19-year-veteran was a supersoldier who loved the army: He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country, he continued. He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. Its one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasnt just one tour of duty. The uncle was also surprised that Livelsberger, with all the skills he learned in the Special Forces, hadnt built a more sophisticated bomb. Livelsbergers wife reportedly hadnt heard from him in several days: News: The wife of the man who rented the Cybertruck that exploded outside Trump hotel had not heard from him in several days. Matthew Alan Livelsberger was an active duty U.S. Army servicemember who was serving in Germany but was on leave in Colorado around holidays. CBS News Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 2, 2025 NBC News spoke to Alicia Arritt, an ex-girlfriend of Livelsberger, who said he contended with a number of physical issues stemming from his military service, including back surgeries from his days serving as a paratrooper. She said he also dealt with headaches and memory loss from a brain injury. We talked about it a little bit, but I think he was ashamed of it, she told the outlet. Ashamed of the memory loss and head injuries. He couldnt seek treatment for it while he was still active duty. He was worried that if he did, then that would impact his career. Another tough hurdle for Mike Johnson. Photo: Nathan Howard/Reuters It would be a vast understatement to say that a lot is going on in Washington this month. The 119th Congress, featuring a Republican majority in both houses, is due to begin on January 3. On January 6, a joint session of Congress is supposed to confirm the results of the 2024 presidential election (a mere quadrennial housekeeping duty until it became the occasion of an attempted insurrection four years ago). On January 20, Donald Trumps inauguration is on tap (the day after, he holds yet another political rally in Washington), and he has promised a host of first-day executive orders and likely pardons to jump-start his avowedly radical second administration. A Trump-directed Republican legislative blitz has also been in the planning stages since Election Day. But the hinge of all this frenetic and consequential activity is the election of a House Speaker, which must take place before House members can be sworn in for the new term and occupy their seats. This is the new Congresss first order of business on January 3, and it should be routine; the majority party has already chosen its candidate for the Speakership in a postelection gathering. But the razor-thin Republican majority in the 119th Congress along with a vacancy and a never-quite-extinguished backbench rebellion against incumbent Mike Johnson has made his formal reelection more than a little iffy despite vocal backing from Trump. The arithmetic of the Speakers election is clear enough. All 215 House Democrats are expected to be in attendance and will vote for Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. Republicans won 220 House seats (down one from their preelection numbers) in November. But one of those seats, belonging to former attorney-general nominee Matt Gaetz, is vacant. Far-right Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who has already survived a Trump-backed primary challenge, has announced repeatedly that he will not vote for Johnson, who needs 218 votes for a majority of elected members. One more defection and the Louisianan simply wont have the votes, leaving the Speakers chair empty. The jam-packed January schedule for Washington will stall until the Speakership is resolved. Will another House Republican join Massie to do in Johnson? Its entirely possible, particularly given the grumbling aimed at the Speaker after his less-than-deft handling of pre-Christmas stopgap spending legislation, which nearly shut down the federal government. More significant, multiple members of the House Freedom Caucus have carped regularly about Johnsons failure to pull off deep domestic-spending cuts in the last Congress along with his willingness to work with Democrats to keep the wheels turning in Washington. The Wall Street Journal has identified three possible Freedom Caucus members who could stick a fork into the incumbents reelection plans: longtime fiscal-hawk gadfly Chip Roy of Texas, who has regularly defied orders from Mar-a-Lago to get into line; Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Harris of Maryland; and the highly eccentric Victoria Spartz of Indiana, whose fury over government spending recently led her to resign her committee assignments and pledge allegiance to the Elon MuskVivek Ramaswamy DOGE initiative to destroy the deep state. Herding all these cats into a vote for Johnson wont be easy, even if Trump personally lobbies them, as he might. He likely has his own issues with the incumbent after Johnson failed to comply with his direct order to include a debt-limit measure in the recent stopgap spending bill. But the last thing he needs is a chaotic beginning to his second term in office, and the absence of any viable alternative to Johnson could produce a sobering effect on would-be rebels. They may, however, drive a hard bargain, particularly in terms of more drastic and publicly enumerated promises to slash absolutely every area of domestic federal spending that hasnt been explicitly placed off-limits by Trump himself (e.g., Social Security and Medicare), adding to the already fraught fiscal math of Trumps agenda. The fiscal hard-liners could also keep their powder dry and move against Johnson later, though the proposed new House rules, which the Freedom Caucus agreed to earlier this year, would raise the number of House members it takes to trigger a motion to vacate the chair (the maneuver that brought down Kevin McCarthy in 2023) from one to nine. If, however, Johnson does not get the votes for reelection, the House and the country could enter unknown territory, as the Journal notes: If no speaker is elected by Jan. 6, Congress likely wont be able to ratify Trumps election or the election of Vice President-elect JD Vance. If there is still no speaker, no functioning House, and no certification by Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, then the new GOP-controlled Senates president pro-tempore, 91-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), would become president, according to the presidential line of succession. The specter of President Grassley should be enough to whip House Republicans into shape sooner rather than later. But no one should assume anything until Johnson has won and the planned rollout of Trump 2.0 begins in earnest. DOL Guidelines Call for Responsible AI Adoption to Ensure Safe Workplaces The U.S. Department of Labor's AI workplace guidelines emphasize transparency, fairness, and worker protection. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released a document containing guidelines to ensure artificial intelligence (AI) is integrated into workplaces ethically and responsibly. The document, titled Artificial Intelligence And Worker Well-Being: Principles And Best Practices For Developers And Employers, outlines best practices that prioritize worker protection, fairness and job quality in the face of rapid technological advancements. These principles emphasize the importance of transparency in AI systems, advocating for clear communication about how these tools affect workers. Human oversight is highlighted as a critical safeguard, ensuring AI tools augment, not replace, human judgment in decision-making. Another cornerstone of the guidelines is the protection of labor rights, emphasizing the use of AI to empower workers and improve job conditions. The DOL urges organizations to mitigate risks such as bias in algorithms and to ensure equitable outcomes for all employees. Additionally, the principles call for businesses to provide support for workers adapting to AI-driven changes, such as retraining opportunities and resources for career transitions. The goal is to strike a balance between leveraging technology and upholding workers rights. By adhering to these best practices, organizations can minimize the risks tied with AI while enhancing workplace safety and efficiency. The full document is available on the DOL website. While Ukraine loses transit fees and Gazprom loses gas sales, the decision aligns with Ukraine's efforts to resist Russia and cut off its funding sources. The European Union has secured alternative energy sources, minimizing the market impact of the halted Russian gas supply. Russia's gas transit through Ukraine to Europe has ended with the expiration of their contract, marking a significant development amid the ongoing war. Russian natural gas supplies to Europe via a pipeline traversing Ukraine are set to end on January 1 with the expiration of a contract signed before Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The pipeline, Russia's oldest gas export route to Europe, was set to shut down at the end of 2024 with the expiration of the contract. Data from Ukraine's gas transit operator on December 31 showed that Russia had not requested any gas flows for January 1. The operator said Russia had begun reducing gas flows through the pipeline hours ahead of the expiration of the contract signed in December 2019 between Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz. The pipeline brought gas from Siberia to the Russia town of Sudzha, which is now under the control of Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. It then flowed through Ukraine to Slovakia, where the Soviet-era pipeline splits into branches going to the Czech Republic and Austria. Ukraine repeatedly said it would not sign a new deal to replace the one expiring due to the war. The decision also aligns with efforts by Ukraine and its allies to cut off the Kremlin's source of funding for the war. Russia used to supply a little under half of the European Union's natural gas, but the European Union drastically reduced its dependency on that supply after the outbreak of the war. Europe has found alternative energy sources, including liquified natural gas (LNG) provided by the United States and Qatar and a piped supply from Norway. The remaining buyers of the Russian gas traversing Ukraine, including Slovakia and Austria, have arranged for alternative supplies, and analysts foresee minimal market impact from the stoppage. Austria's Energy Ministry said the natural gas supply for consumers was guaranteed thanks to purchases made for gas flowing through Italy and Germany and the filling of storage. Slovakia will also not risk a shortage, though it faces an extra 177 million euros ($184 million) in fees for alternative routes, its Economy Ministry said. European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said EU preparations ahead of the end of the contract had included energy efficiency measures, renewable energy development, and a flexible gas system. "The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin to Central and Eastern Europe via alternative routes. It has been reinforced with significant new LNG import capacities since 2022," Itkonen said. The consequences for Ukraine including giving up some $800 million a year in fees from Russia, while Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion in gas sales to Europe. Most Russian gas routes to Europe are now shut, including Yamal-Europe via Belarus and the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic, which were blown up in 2022. Hungary and other countries continue to receive Russian gas from the south via the TurkStream pipeline on the bottom of the Black Sea. Hungary and Slovakia, which maintained close ties with the Kremlin despite the war, had been keen to continue deliveries through the Ukrainian route. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week was outraged when Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and subsequently threatened to cut off Ukraine's emergency power supply during the winter months over Ukraine's decision not to renew the pipeline contract. He accused Fico of taking "orders" from the Kremlin to harm Kyiv and his own people while Russia attacks Ukrainian power plants and its energy grid. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com As Donald Trumps new advisory team prepares for his second term in the U.S.s highest office, the general feeling is that the much-vaunted Axis of Upheaval is at its lowest ebb to date. The aim of this axis driven by Chinese money, Russian military aggression, and the respective destabilising Middle East and Asian presences of Iran and North Korea is to replace the primacy of the U.S. and its key allies influence in global geopolitics with a multipolar version, albeit in reality with Beijing at its centre. However, according to a senior source who works closely with the new presidential team: Chinas finances are failing [with struggling economic growth], Russias military has failed [in Ukraine and Syria], Irans proxies have been incapacitated [Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis et al], North Korea is on the sidelines, and now Trump is back. Consequently, although many observers expect a continuation in Trumps second presidential term of the neo-isolationism evident in several key respects in his first term this is unlikely to be the case. Instead, the Washington-based source exclusively told OilPrice.com, the second term is going to be about reasserting the primary influence of the U.S. and its allies in the world through whatever means necessary in order that Trump can be seen by his voters as keeping his promise to Make America Great Again. In essence, it will be a bold reassertion of the original 1992 Wolfowitz Doctrine. This was modified slightly in 1994 for public consumption, but the original version is the one that Trumps second-term vision will most closely approximate. Related: Carlos Slim Invested $1B In American Oil & Gas Companies In 2024 Top of the Trump teams list of priorities internationally is ending the war in Ukraine, which they are still confident of being able to do relatively quickly through the methodology previously outlined by OilPrice.com. From there, the aim will be to dramatically reduce Russias capability to mount any credible conventional military invasion of further European territories by severely degrading its financial ability to do so. The immediate focus here, according to the Washington source, will be continuing to reduce Russias gas and oil export receipts to as near to nothing as can be managed. As liquefied natural gas (LNG) became and remains the key global emergency energy source following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russias ability to monetise these exports will be the first in Washingtons cross-hairs, to be hit hard not just by the U.S. but by its European allies as well. Early on, the [presidential] team will expand the actions taken in August, with many more key LNG targets hit by new sanctions, said the source last week. In this context, the day before the 24 August commemoration day of Ukraines Declaration of Independence in 1991, the U.S. Treasury and State departments expanded their sanctions-related designation of individuals, companies, projects, and trading and delivery mechanisms involved in developing key energy projects and associated infrastructure including the Ust Luga LNG Terminal, the Vostok Oil Project, and the Yakutia Gas Project, among many others. This aligned with earlier comments from the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt that: Were going to keep tightening the screws [on Russias major LNG sector projects, including the cornerstone Arctic LNG 2 project]. The Trump team has already been busy laying the groundwork with the U.S.s allies in Europe to support this tightening of the screws on Russian energy exports. These arguments are even more forceful now, as the warnings Trumps team made in his first term to key European Union (E.U.) states especially de facto leader, Germany -- of the political and economic dangers of becoming over-reliant on Russian gas and oil were proven correct with its second invasion of Ukraine in less than 10 years, as analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order. The same E.U. states have already reduced these energy imports considerably, but just over a week ago they agreed the organisations 15th sanctions package against Russia aimed primarily at disabling the ability of Russia to move oil and LNG through a shadow fleet of tankers. According to industry figures, over 80% of Russia's seaborne crude exports are currently moved by tankers not flagged, owned or operated by companies based in the G7, the E.U., Australia, Switzerland and Norway, and not insured by Western protection and indemnity clubs. Consequently, the new shipping sanctions greatly expand the number of individuals and entities to the previous sanctions list. These dramatically increase the list of entities not just in Russia but in third-party countries and organisations in Russia that indirectly contribute to Moscows military and technological enhancement through the avoidance of export restrictions. At the same time, similar E.U. sanctions are being introduced to prohibit the transshipment of Russian LNG through E.U. ports as from March, alongside further bans of the import of Russian LNG into terminals not connected to the E.U. gas pipeline network. All these moves and more to come, according to a senior E.U. energy security source exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week are ultimately geared to completely end Russian fossil fuel imports into the E.U. and non-E.U. European countries by 2027. A similar idea of degrading the ability of Axis of Upheaval members to side-step direct sanctions by utilising useful idiot states to help them is also under consideration for Irans key accomplice in this regard Iraq. As highlighted recently by OilPrice.com, the Trump team is considering imposing similar-style sanctions on Iraq as it has in place for Iran, including on individuals and entities connected to the financing, movement, and logistics involved in moving Iranian oil and gas, and the money relating to it. A precedent for this was set in the first Trump presidency when, after Iraq signed a two-year contract gas and electricity import deal with Iran despite pledging to reduce the length of such deals, Washington responded with swingeing targeted sanctions on 20 Iran- and Iraq-based entities. The State Department cited them as being instruments in the funnelling of money to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) elite Quds Force. It added that the 20 entities were continuing to exploit Iraqs dependence on Iran as an electricity and gas source by smuggling Iranian petroleum through the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr and money laundering through Iraqi front companies. And it said that Iraq was continuing to act as a conduit for Iranian oil and gas supplies to make their way out into the worlds major export markets. As nothing whatsoever has changed in this complicity, there is every reason to expect the threat of such sanctions on Iraq early in Trumps second term, according to the Washington source last week, followed by the imposition of further sanctions if the threats are not heeded. Extending such measures on Iraq and increasing their scope would also signal to Iraq, and to other members of the Axis of Upheaval, that a much greater degree of accountability for acts deemed hostile against the U.S. and its allies is in the offing. Again, there is recent precedent here as a year ago the U.S.s Department of Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) applied sanctions against Iran to a broader part of its international support network, especially to those entities and officials involved funding the Islamic Republics proxy terrorist organisations - Hamas and Hezbollah. Those sanctions were focused on 20 individuals and entities for their involvement in financial facilitation networks for the benefit of Irans Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and Iranian Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS), and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). Interestingly, among the long-suspected list of names and companies that were sanctioned at that point were companies in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates that were suspected of being part of the network that sells billions of dollars worth of Iranian commodities to customers in Europe and East Asia. It flagged that the U.S. can and will go after the major financing centres that China uses if Washington thinks Beijing is consistently overstepping the line in challenging key areas of strategic interest for the U.S., in addition to the scalable tariff rates to be applied on Chinas critical export flows, the Washington source concluded. By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Exports of Russian gas via pipelines running through Ukraine finally came to an end on New Year's Day, marking the end of an era of Moscow's dominance over Europe's energy markets. Russia's gas firm Gazprom said it had supplying gas at 0500 GMT on Wednesday after Ukraine refused to renew a transit agreement. Ukraine will lose up to $1 billion a year in transit fees from Russia-- which it hopes to offset by quadrupling its domestic gas transmission tariffs for consumers--while Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion in gas sales. Ukraine gas amounted to 5% of total EU gas imports. However, unlike the situation in 2022, natural gas prices have not been majorly impacted by the cut-off thanks to Europes success at finding alternative supplies. Energy experts had earlier warned that Austria, Hungary and Slovakia are likely to be the hardest hit when the imports are cut off. Thankfully, Slovakia has already secured alternative supplies: Azerbaijans state oil company, SOCAR, has started supplying natural gas to Slovakias Slovensky plynarensky priemysel (SPP), the countrys largest state-owned energy operator. This comes just a month after SPP signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan as it prepared for a possible halt to Russian supplies via Ukraine. SPP has pledged to supply its customers mainly via pipelines from Germany and also Hungary, albeit at additional transit costs. Related: 89% of New Cars Sold in Norway Last Year Were EVs European natural gas futures climbed to 51 per megawatt-hour, the highest since October 2023, before easing to 50 as the Russia-Ukraine deal came to an end. However, the gas rally could gain momentum in the weeks to come: with inventories currently depleting at the fastest pace since 2021, sub-zero temperatures in parts of Europe could drive up heating demand. On the other hand, U.S. natural gas futures dropped 5.7% to $3.71/MMBtu following a surge to a two-year high as traders took profits. However, U.S. gas prices still booked their largest annual gain since 2016, driven by rising exports to meet overseas LNG demand and expectations of higher consumption during winter. U.S. LNG Demand Could Surge The United States is likely to emerge as the biggest winner of the unfolding situation in Europeif recent developments are any indication. Norway and the U.S. have replaced Russia as Europes biggest gas supplier: last year, Norway supplied 87.8 bcm (billion cubic meters) of gas to Europe, good for 30.3% of total imports while the U.S. supplied 56.2 bcm, accounting for 19.4% of total. However, the U.S. is the biggest LNG supplier to Europe: last year, the U.S. accounted for nearly half of total LNG imports by the continent, marking the third consecutive year in which the United States supplied more LNG to Europe than any other country. Whats interesting here is how fast this has happened: the U.S. supplied 27%, or 2.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), of total European LNG imports in 2021; 44% (6.5 Bcf/d) in 2022; and 48% (7.1 Bcf/d) in 2023. Obviously, Russias war in Ukraine has played a big part in growing Europes appetite for U.S. gas. Meanwhile, Europes capacity to accept LNG is increasing. Europes LNG import, or regasification, capacity is on track to expand to 29.3 Bcf/d in 2024, a 33% increase compared with 2021. Currently, Germany is adding the most LNG regasification capacity in Europe, with developers in the country having added 1.8 Bcf/d in 2023 and on track to add another 1.6 Bcf/d in 2024. On a global scale, the United States shipped a record 56.9 million metric tons of LNG during the first eight months of 2024, surpassing 54.3 million tons from Australia and 53.7 million tons from Qatar during that period. That marks the second straight year that U.S. exporters have topped global export rankings. Interestingly, Europe has bought considerably less LNG from the U.S. in the current year, with shipments from January through August dropping by 22% Y/Y. The slowdown has largely been triggered by a sharp climb in European power generation from renewable energy sources, which remain a priority for Europe's power utilities. Solar and wind power's share of electricity generation in Europe jumped from around 16.4% in 2022 to 20.5% so far in 2024 while fossil fuel generation's share dropped from around 44.6% in 2022 to 36.6% so far this year. As you might expect, coal-fired power has taken the biggest hit in Europes energy mix, although natural gas generation's share has also declined, from around 26% in 2022 to 22% so far this year. But with Europe now receiving even less Russian gas, we expect U.S. LNG exports to the region to surge again. The long-term U.S. natural gas outlook is equally bright. According to Morgan Stanley, the U.S. natural gas market is poised to enter a new cycle of demand growth thanks to surging LNG exports and rising electricity demand. Over the past few years, dozens of pundits and industry experts have predicted that the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution will drive unprecedented electricity demand growth in the United States and globally. Last year, the power sector consulting firm Grid Strategies published a report titled The Era of Flat Power Demand is Over, which pointed out that United States grid plannersutilities and regional transmission operators (RTOs)had nearly doubled growth projections in their five-year demand forecasts. For the first time in decades, demand for electricity in the U.S. is projected to grow by as much as 15% over the next decade driven by the Artificial Intelligence (AI), clean energy manufacturing and cryptocurrency boom. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Chinese companies are expanding their presence in Central Asia, particularly in the electric vehicle and technology sectors. The outcome of the war in Ukraine could embolden China to pursue its own territorial ambitions, particularly with regards to Taiwan. The return of Donald Trump as US president in 2025 could significantly impact China's economy and global ambitions. Its another new year and that means its time to look ahead into the coming year for the big stories that will shape Chinas growing role across Eurasia. Heres whats at stake for 2025. Finding Perspective: While each new year brings its own set of questions, 2025 will inject an added layer with the return of Donald Trump as U.S. president in January. Trump has promised to pick up where he left office and raise tariffs on Chinese imports up to 60 percent and keep adding export controls on advanced technology. A tougher relationship with the United States could have wider ripple effects for Beijing. Unlike back in 2018, when Trump first unleashed tariffs on China, the countrys economy is in a two year slump as it grapples with high debt, deflation, and a real estate crisis. Further economic pain brought by Washington could potentially push many of Beijings global ambitions off course, leading to setbacks in tech, lending, and broader influence. But Chinese leader Xi Jinping isnt only facing headwinds as he prepares for Trump 2.0. Xi now has a strengthened partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin as both leaders chase revisions to international borders and the global and regional security order. And while Trump could ramp up pressure on Beijing in areas like the South China Sea, Xi is also sensing opportunity from the incoming U.S. president. Trump has promised to bring changes of his own to the international trading system and Washingtons relationship with its allies and partners. Xi is banking that Trumps policies will alienate other countries from the United States, leading typically U.S.-friendly nations to hedge more toward China and a greater acceptance from others of Beijings vision for the world order. Geopolitical Twins: The biggest test could come early as the incoming Trump administration looks to the ongoing war in Ukraine. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to end the war, and while doing so will be no simple feat, a push to end the conflict is expected and the future of Ukraine will have wider effects across Eurasia and beyond. A perceived Russian victory in Ukraine would resonate particularly in China. One clear possibility is that it would embolden Xi to pursue his own ambitions in Asia. China under Xi has become more nationalistic and more menacing in its behavior toward Taiwan, and Taiwanese officials have warned that a Russian victory would be a signal for Beijing to ramp up pressure on the self-governing island. Why It Matters: Xi has vowed to unify with Taiwan, and to do so by force, if necessary. Some prominent U.S. officials have speculated that Xi has told the military to be ready to conquer the island by 2027. Xi himself has mentioned 2050 in public as a potential date, but many analysts also believe that the Chinese leader would aim to take the island and secure his legacy during his tenure. Already 71 years old, that leaves a short window. President Joe Biden has said several times that Washington is prepared to go to war to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, though Trump has made no such commitment. What to expect from Trump was the topic of most of my conversations during a recent reporting trip to Taiwan in December. Many Taiwanese officials have taken some solace in the China hawks that the incoming president appears to be surrounding himself with, but Trump has also inserted a new level of uncertainty and his campaign rhetoric calling for Taiwan to pay for the United States to come to its aid in a crisis appears to have rattled some in Taipei. Current and former senior Taiwanese officials said that both Taipei and Beijing are already drawing important lessons from the war in Ukraine, but the biggest one could come in 2025 as both countries watch how Kyivs own experience with Western support plays out over time. Three More Stories From Eurasia To Watch In 2025 Chinese Firms Take Hold In Central Asia Chinese companies have been ascendant in Central Asia for many years and that trend looks set to continue in 2025 amid a push from Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers and tech giants. The Details: While mega-projects and investments often get the spotlight when looking at Chinas economic profile in the region, its companies are becoming mainstays of everyday life for many Central Asians. EVs are a large part of this push, especially as Chinese companies eye emerging markets and look to export their overcapacity at home. A factory from BYD, Chinas industry leader, opened this year in Uzbekistan and is looking to ramp up production and expand with a local workforce of employees trained in China. EVs sales continue to climb globally and within Central Asia, with Chinese brands taking up a growing percentage of the market thanks to their combination of affordability and increasing quality. On the tech front, Huawei is also rising in the region despite the company coming under pressure from Washington and other Western nations. Despite some global setbacks, the company remains formidable and has turned its focus outside the West with increasing returns and a renewed focus on emerging tech like AI and semiconductors. The EU's Tightrope 2.0 Brussels is preparing to once again navigate potential tariffs and trade disputes with a Trump-led United States while balancing pressure and opportunities from China. What You Need To Know: In many ways, its deja vu all over again for the EU. During Trumps last term, trade tensions with Washington led the bloc to more strongly balance its ties with the United States with China. By the time that Trump left office, Brussels was preparing to push through a historic EU-China investment deal and had lingering questions about its reliance on America. That trade deal was eventually put on ice and a series of scandals and incidents, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic and culminating with Beijings support for Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have severely damaged Chinas relationship with Brussels. But while there is a new line toward Beijing from the EU, its a familiar balancing act that could leave Brussels in an even worse spot than before as it looks to balance security concerns with economic necessity. Is This The Year For China In Afghanistan? It's been a year of major announcements for Chinas footprint in Afghanistan, but will 2025 be the year when Beijings projects in the country move forward? What It Means: 2024 saw a series of notable developments. In July, Chinese engineers and the Taliban government officially started work at Mes Aynak, a massive project in Afghanistan to mine the world's second-largest deposit of copper. The first train carrying goods from China to Afghanistan arrived in November after crossing through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and Beijing granted tariff free access to Afghan companies in October. That momentum looks set to carry over into the new year. But beyond headlines and flashy groundbreaking ceremonies, will newfound Chinese investment be coming into Afghanistan? That seems uncertain given that Beijing still has lingering security questions about Afghanistan, something that is set to only grow as tensions rise between Kabul and Beijings main regional partner in Islamabad. Across The Supercontinent Russias Car Market: Since Vladimir Putins full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Chinese carmakers have come to dominate the Russian auto market. According to a new study by the Rhodium Group, Russia has also emerged as Chinas most significant automotive export market. Between January and October 2023, China shipped 735,000 vehicles to Russia, accounting for 19 percent of its total passenger vehicle exports. New Lines In Central Asia: At a December 27 ceremony, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov broke ground on a long-planned railway link between China and Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. BRICS Balancing: Kazakhstan officially joins BRICS as a partner state, starting on January 1, 2025. But Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayevs office said that the country does not plan to seek full membership in the organization that comprises economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. One Thing To Watch Xi made his annual New Years speech where he said that no one can stop Beijings desire to take control of Taiwan. "The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family. No one can sever our family bonds, and no one can stop the historical trend of national reunification," Xi said in a televised speech. The Chinese leader also said that the countrys economy is his top priority and was on course to expand, as he looked to rebut concerns that Trumps incoming administration will harm Beijings prospects in the new year. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com The world has watched for decades as U.S. ports have lagged behind their international counterparts. As they have become increasingly plagued by congestion, delays, and rising costs, it becomes increasingly clear that the publicly-owned port authorities are failing to meet the demands of modern global trade. The solution lies in privatization, a much-needed approach that could revitalize our failing ports. The importance of ports to the U.S. cannot be overstated, as demonstrated by the sheer volume of trade passing through American ports. In 2023, over $2.1 trillion worth of goods, more than 40% of all goods entering or leaving the United States, passed through a port. However, despite the importance, American ports continue to lack efficiency. This inefficiency manifests in longer vessel turnaround times, lower crane productivity, poor infrastructure management, and limited use of automation. These issues result in supply chain disruptions and thus increased costs for businesses and consumers. The inefficiency of U.S. ports is illustrated by their poor performance in global rankings. According to the Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), which measures global port efficiency based on various factors, U.S. ports consistently lag behind other developed countries. This inefficiency is particularly evident when examining specific port rankings. For instance, the Port of Houston, which handled over 293 million tons of cargo in 2022, ranked a dismal 327th in the 2023 CPPI. The Port of Los Angeles, one of the busiest ports in the country, ranked 378th, while the Port of Savannah came in at 398th. These low rankings translate into inefficiencies that impact the entire supply chain. U.S. ports experience longer vessel turnaround times and lower crane productivity compared to global competitors, particularly those in East Asia. This inefficiency is further exacerbated by the limited use of automation in U.S. ports. While automation has been widely adopted in ports around the world, U.S. ports have been slow to embrace this technology, resulting in increased costs. This inefficiency is due to the inherent flaws of the publicly-owned port authority model. Under the governments port authority, political considerations often override commercial criteria, leading to poor investment decisions. Insufficient or misplaced investments result in underutilization of existing port assets. Limited competition among ports reduces incentives for efficiency improvements. Privatizing port operations can introduce much-needed efficiency and competitiveness. Private operators have stronger incentives to streamline processes. They are more likely to make timely and appropriate investments in port infrastructure and technology. Competition among private companies can lead to more competitive pricing and reduced costs for port users, addressing a key factor in U.S. port inefficiency. The benefits of privatization are not merely theoretical. Evidence from successful port privatizations around the world demonstrates the potential for significant improvements. For instance, the privatization of the Port of Brisbane in Australia, completed in 2010 for 2.1 billion AUD, successfully achieved the Queensland Governments objectives and overcame challenges associated with transitioning a government-owned monopolistic asset to the private sector. A study published in the NBER Digest found that when private equity funds acquire airports from governments, key performance metrics improve significantly. While airports and seaports are different, this study suggests that private ownership can lead to improved infrastructure management and operational efficiency in transportation hubs. Privatization does not necessarily mean a complete absence of government oversight. Various models of privatization, such as public-private partnerships, can maintain a degree of public involvement while harnessing the efficiency of private sector management. In conclusion, the inefficiency of U.S. ports under public ownership is a significant drag on the nations economy and competitiveness. By embracing privatization, we can unlock the potential of our ports, bringing them in line with global standards of efficiency and productivity. Simply by creating a more competitive port system that benefits businesses and consumers, we can provide a boost to American economic growth, reduce supply chain bottlenecks, and strengthen our position in the global market. By SchiffGold.com via Zerohedge.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Europes benchmark natural gas prices rose on the first trading day for 2025 on Thursday, a day after Russian flows to Europe via Ukraine stopped after decades of pipeline deliveries through the route. Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europes gas trading, surged in Amsterdam by as much as 4% in early trade on Thursday, before giving up some gains and rising by 1% as of 10:00 a.m. Amsterdam time. On December 31, the gas supply deal for Russian gas to Europe transiting Ukraine expired and deliveries stopped on January 1, after Ukraine said it would not pursue an extension of the transit agreement. At 0500 GMT on New Years Day, Russian gas giant Gazprom halted pipeline deliveries, and the last remaining EU members that were still receiving gas from Russia until December 31 Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary lost this source of supply. Hungary will continue to receive Russian gas via the TurkStream gas pipeline via Turkey and the Balkans, while Austria and Slovakia have arranged to have natural gas from other sources supplied. Moldovas breakaway region of Transnistria cut off the supply of heating and hot water to households after Russia suspended the transit of natural gas via Ukraine at the start of the year. Moldova is trying to cut its energy consumption by at least 33% to cope with the end of gas deliveries from Russia. For the country, the only alternative to these are imports from neighboring Romania and, per plans, local wind and solar. The end of the Russian gas supply to central Europe via Ukraine coincided with Western Europe bracing itself for what is expected to be later this week the coldest snap so far this winter. Temperatures in the big European capitals London, Berlin, and Paris are all expected to plummet below freezing and below the average for the past 30 years, according to weather forecasts cited by Bloomberg. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Growth in solar capacity additions in Germany slowed markedly in 2024, with the residential solar sector under a lot of distress amid higher consumer financing costs. The slowdown in demand and the slower pace of installations have thrown several Germany-based solar companies into insolvency over the past year. For example, photovoltaic (PV) systems provider ESS Kempfle filed for insolvency in October. PV project developer Fellensiek, created in 2012, filed for insolvency a month earlier, due to liquidity problems. Solarmax, a provider of residential PV storage systems and inverters, also went under provisional insolvency administration in November. Solarmax could not withstand the plunge in prices as a result of Chinese manufacturers low prices. The German firm had to offer its products at prices below the cost of production, which led to liquidity problems. Other German companies in the solar sector laid off employees amid a collapse in residential solar demand from homeowners, business daily Handelsblatt reported in September. Berlin-based start-up Zolar was forced to cut more than half of the jobs. The years 2022 and 2023 saw a boom in the solar industry, but 2024 would be pretty tough, Zolars boss Jamie Heywood told Handelsblatt in September. The troubles in the German solar industry jeopardize the renewable energy targets of Europes biggest economy, which has phased out nuclear power and relies on a renewables boom to meet its climate targets. The EU residential rooftop market saw strong growth in 2022 and 2023 in the wake of the energy crisis, but the segment started showing signs of slowdown in 2023 and came to a halt in 2024, industry lobby group SolarPower Europe said in a report last month. Demand for residential systems fell sharply by nearly 5 gigawatts (GW) to 12.8 GW in 2024, returning to levels similar to those of 2022. Key markets across the EU, including Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, and Hungary, saw substantial declines in the solar homes segment, SolarPower Europe said. You cannot have a green transition with red numbers. The sector needs to be profitable, SolarPower Europes deputy chief executive Dries Acke told the Financial Times, commenting on the slowdown in the German and EU solar power market. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Majid Takht Ravanchi, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, is on a visit to India to discuss a resumption of energy trade between the two countries. Bilateral trade between Iran and India has plunged since 2019 as Indian refiners pulled out of purchases of Iranian oil for fear of secondary U.S. sanctions. Now Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Irans deputy foreign minister for political affairs, is heading the Iranian delegation for high-level talks in India on January 2 and 3, Indias Hindustan Times reports. Bilateral India-Iran trade plunged from a high of $17 billion in the 2018-2019 fiscal year to just $2.3 billion in 2022-2023, per Hindustan Timess data. It has been unfortunate that the Iran-India trade has plummeted since 2018, Hindustan Times quoted an anonymous senior Iranian official as saying ahead of the talks in New Delhi. Iran understands Indias constraints in respecting the sanctions, the Iranian official said. We need to think how to deal with this issue We need to see how to work out problems, the official added. Until Donald Trump re-imposed sanctions on Irans oil exports in 2018, Iran was a major supplier of oil to India, the worlds third-largest crude oil importer. India, which imports about 85% of the oil it consumes, has relied on cheap crude to lower its oil import bill. But Indian refiners stopped importing Iranian oil in 2018 as they were unwilling to run afoul of the U.S. sanctions and come under secondary sanctions for doing business with Iran. India has now become a large buyer of Russian crude oil, which is being sold at a discount due to the sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. For Iran, the biggest buyer of its crude is China, which also seeks cheaper crude and its independent refiners have so far looked unmoved by the U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Moldovas breakaway region of Transnistria has cut off the supply of heating and hot water to households after Russia suspended the transit of natural gas via Ukraine at the start of the year. The move followed a declaration by the Ukrainian president that the country would not renew the transit deal with Gazprom while the war continues. For Moldova, however, there was a financial aspect to the story: Kishineu owes Gazprom some $700 million for gas deliveries already made. According to a former Moldovan energy minister, Moldova does not owe Gazprom any money because, since 2022, Russia has been exporting gas only to Transnistria. Russia currently exports some 2 billion cu m of natural gas to Transnistria, where the gas is used to generate electricity that is then transmitted to Moldova. Moldova has been trying to fend off Russian influence in the breakaway Transnistria region, a narrow strip of land between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border, which isnt recognized by the international community. Since 2022, however, Transnistria and the central government of Moldova have agreed that all natural gas sent by Russian giant Gazprom to Moldova flows to Transnistria. Following the reports that Ukraine will not renew the transit deal with Gazprom, the Moldovan authorities discussed alternative supply routes with Gazprom, which has agreed to consider these but only after the outstanding debt to Gazprom is paid. According to a Reuters report, Transnistrias government was not unprepared for the situation. The publication cited the leader of the region, Vadim Krasnoselski, as saying Things will get better. Think about yourself, your family, your loved ones. Moldova, meanwhile, is trying to cut its energy consumption by at least 33% to cope with the end of gas deliveries from Russia. For the country, the only alternative to these are imports from neighboring Romania and, per plans, local wind and solar. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com Just a couple of years ago, electric vehicles were among the hottest industries out there. Listings sent their shares through the roof. Everyone wanted in on the electrification of transport. Now, EV makers are going bust left and right, and battery makers are in distress as demand for their product slumps. Yet miners are doing wellat least some of them. A mining startup called KoBold Metals recently raised $537 million from investors including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. That latest funding round valued the company at a respectable $2.96 billion, the Financial Times reported this week, adding that KoBold eyed a key position in the critical minerals industry. What the company does that sets it apart from the crowd is using artificial intelligence to local deposits of metals such as lithium and cobalt, as well as copper and nickelall critical for the energy transition. The company has already made a discovery, too. Earlier this year, KoBold said it had found a massive copper deposit in Zambia. Developing the deposit would cost $2 billion, and it would add some 300,000 tons to global copper production starting in 2030, the company also said. There has been no news about the project since June this year when Zambian officials said KoBold may spend as much as $2.3 billion on developing what reports were dubbing the biggest copper mine in Zambia. That was the case until early December when the White House said it would help finance the construction of a transport corridor across Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. The plan aims to facilitate the extraction of transition-related natural resources from African countries as the West seeks to get an edge in the critical minerals race with China. KoBold seems to be, at least according to its financial backers, a key player in this race. It is not really a traditional mining company, but interest is high, and it plans to go public in two to three years. It also has plans to partner with actual mining companies for the physical extraction of the resources, according to the Financial Times report. Some would argue that the race is doomed. China is years ahead with critical minerals mining and processing. It has pretty much cornered this market, and challenging its position would take a lot of time and money that most investors might not be willing to spend. Yet the ambition is strong with governments in the European Union and the Biden administration in the U.S.and according to the FT, the incoming administration is far from opposed to the idea. Weve had plenty of conversations with people who will be associated with the next administration who are very enthusiastic about KoBolds mission, the founder and chief executive of KoBold Metals told the Financial Times. Kurt House added there was broad bipartisan support for the companys activities based on the perception of critical mineral supply as a matter of national security. Indeed, it is a matter of national security for nations that have made a bet on the electrification of everything. Currently, these nations are completely dependent on China, either directly or indirectly. Diversifying away from the dominant critical mineral market player would make senseas in, better late than never. The problem is that this diversification would be difficult to achieve soon enough to make financial sense for most backers of the transition. Indeed, some investors have realized they will not be making fast profits from the transition and are adopting a longer-term perspective. Yet it seems that lately even the long-term profitability of the transition has grown increasingly uncertain, what with failed EV expectations and battery booms not materializing. KoBold Metals and its peers may prove to be key for the transition. Then again, they may be the next EV industry. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com After struggling for a few seconds, she got up from the mattress she had lain on idly for hours. Downcast and pale, she clutched her crutches and limped to the veranda where The Punch correspondent had waited. On each step she took, Hannah Olugbodi would gaze at the bandage wrapped around her leg and shake her head in disbelief. Once bubbling with life and very ambitious, her plans had been left in shreds since a bullet fired by a policeman shattered the lower part of her legThe 33-year-old mother of two had gone to a shop around Agunbiade Street, Ijesha, Surulere, Lagos State , about 8pm to buy pepper she would use to prepare the food that her children would take to school the following morning. While she was at it, an argument ensued between workers at a hotel located on the street and some policemen, who raided the facility. The operatives, who were said to be from the Special Anti-Cultism Squad of the state police command, resorted to shooting during which a stray bullet hit Olugbodi in the leg. June 6, 2018 was a day I will never forget, the hairdresser said as she sat on a chair at the veranda; regret written all over her face. My husband brought me and my children home from shop that day around 8pm. Shortly afterwards, I went out to buy pepper that I would use to prepare the food that my children would take to school the next day. Some policemen wearing black jackets with the inscription Anti-Cultism Squad demanded money from the hotel workers close to where I was buying pepper but the workers refused to give them. It resulted in an argument and the policemen started shooting. The gunshots caused confusion and people were running helter-skelter. As I wanted to leave where I was buying pepper, a bullet hit me in the leg and that was the last thing I knew until I found myself at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, she added. And that was the beginning of the problem that has shaped the life of the young woman and her family. In the months that followed that ugly incident, she and her husband expended all their savings to salvage her leg from being amputated. Sadly, the police, according to the hairstylist, have done nothing to bring succour to the family by ensuring that the trigger-happy policeman was fished out and punished accordingly. My shop has folded up, she said painfully. I sold everything and spent it on the treatment. The incident disrupted our plans as a family. I have been living in pains and sorrow. Any time I look at the injury and how it has rendered me idle, I cry. The police can fish out the policeman that brought this suffering on me if they want to, she told The Punch, fighting back tears. Revealing the challenges the tragedy forced the family to deal with, the victims husband, Seun Olugbodi, explained that it would take the grace of God to ease the burdens he had been passing through since the incident happened. The commercial bus driver stated that surgeries and other treatments carried out on the leg had gulped about N1.5m so far. A man rushed in to tell me that evening that my wife had been shot, he recalled. When I got to the scene, her leg had broken. We took her to a private hospital but a doctor referred us to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi. When we got there, the doctors said they did not have blood in their bank. We were referred to the Military Hospital in Yaba. The doctors there also told us they did not have blood. We then went to LUTH. We spent about N100,000 that night. Doctors told us that it would require a lot of money to save the leg from being amputated. About one week later, she underwent the first surgery. After some days, the doctors discovered that a hole the bullet left in her leg was not closing up. They said the bone had broken and advised that the part had to be cut off. It was about two inches according to them. They did another surgery to cut it off. Seun disclosed that his wife underwent a third surgery grafting to cover the bone left open by the bullet, stating that she spent about five months on admission before she was discharged. We were asked to pay N450,000 before we could go whereas we had no money again. A woman, whose mother was also a patient in my ward, called a senior police officer in Abuja. The officer contacted the hospital to discharge us. At least, we have spent about N1.5m; that is what I can remember. She is still going for physiotherapy every week, he added. The native of Oyo State stated that he joined a monthly contribution last year with a plan to use the money N300,000 to rent a new apartment, lamenting that when he collected the money in September, he spent it on his wifes injury. He said, As we speak, we owe rent and our landlord has been disturbing us. At a point, we had to drop one of the two rooms we were using. All of us now live in a room. I always paid my children school fees on resumption but since this problem started, I have not been able to pay. The school is giving me the grace of allowing them to be in class based on my past record of prompt payment. The distraught man stated that at the peak of the crisis, he wrote to the Lagos State Ministry of Health for financial assistance but did not get help. The father of two said efforts made to get justice on the life-threatening injury inflicted on his wife by the policeman had not yielded positive results, thereby compounding the pains the family had been going through. He said the woman, who facilitated the release of his wife at the hospital got them a lawyer, adding that they later got a letter from the Federal Government inviting his wife to a meeting at Ikeja High Court. He recalled, When we got there, we met a lot of people who were victims of police brutality. That was in January 2019. The officials that addressed us took the account of each victim and relations of those killed by policemen. They promised to get back to us but we have not heard anything from them since then. Abdulsalami Abubakar, chairman of the National Peace Committee, says his group has presented the grievances of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to his opponent, President Muhammadu Buhari. Abdulsalami, who met with Atiku and some opposition leaders on Thursday, disclosed this to state house correspondents after he and members of the committee met with Buhari. Atiku, who had disagreed with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that Buhari won the election and subsequently vowed to seek redress in court, reportedly listed his grievances with the APC government before the committee. He was said to have demanded: unfreezing of bank accounts belonging to opposition politicians; demilitarisation of subsequent elections; accreditation of voters before voting in subsequent elections; access to the backend server of INEC by all parties who partook in the election. The meeting started at the presidents office around 3pm and ended at 4pm. Matthew Kukah, bishop of Sokoto diocese and John Onaiyekan, bishop of the Catholic archdiocese of Abuja, were in attendance. Also at the meeting were Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the APC, and some stakeholders of the ruling party. (AINA) -- The Assyrian Human Rights Observatory, based in Sweden, has issued a statement regarding the amendments to Syria's education curriculum proposed by the new government. The amendments would inject Islamic beliefs and principles into the curriculum, single out Christians and Jews and remove material which predates Islam. Here is the full statement: These serious modifications, which came to 12 pages, include: Remove references to ancient gods: This action represents a significant part of Syria's civilized history, which spans thousands of years and includes diverse civilizations that contributed to the construction of human civilization. Ignoring these historical roots loses future generations comprehensive understanding of their country's history and identity. Delete prominent Syrian historical figures as Queen Zenobia of Destruction: The marginalization of national figures who played a significant role in Syria's history, such as Queen Zenobia, is a denial of Syria's shared history and rich heritage. Removing "Defending the Homeland" from certificate reasons: This amendment raises serious questions about the patriotic concepts the Ministry seeks to instill in the minds of students. Defending the homeland is a high value that must be encouraged in the minds of young generations. Adding "Jews and Christians" to explain the meaning of "angry against them, misguided" in Surah Al-Fatihah: This action is considered an explicit incitement against religious hatred and a spread of discrimination and exclusion speech. This interpretation contradicts the principles of religious tolerance and coexistence that the Syrian society has always distinguished. The Assyrian Human Rights Observatory states that these amendments are in line with the simplest principles of equal citizenship and human rights, and contradict the statements made by those in power today that emphasize that Syria will be for all Syrians. These actions also contribute to deepening communal divisions and increase the fears and concerns of Syrians about the future of their country, especially in the light of practices that indicate the lack of experience and competence in managing state affairs. Based on the suggestion, the Assyrian Human Rights Observatory calls for immediate withdrawal of these drastic amendments, and the Ministry of Education in the interim government of the Syrian government to withdraw these amendments and a comprehensive review of the educational curriculum, with the participation of representatives from all components of Syrian society. The Observatory also calls for the re-formulation of the curriculum on the national foundations of a university, so that the curriculum is built on foundations that promote the university's national identity, religious tolerance and common living, and instill the values of equal citizenship and human rights. In conclusion, we emphasize that the future of Syria depends on building a civil democratic state that respects the rights of all its citizens and preserves its diverse heritage. These recent amendments to the curriculum are nothing but a real danger to this future, and it calls for a serious ceasefire from all national forces eager to benefit Syria. The Assyrian of Human Rights Observatory January 1, 2025, Sweden This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Cell Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.115063 To stay healthy, plants balance the energy they put into growing with the amount they use to defend against harmful bacteria. The mechanisms behind this equilibrium have largely remained mysterious. Now, engineers at Princeton have found an answer in an unexpected place: the harmlessor sometimes beneficialbacteria that cluster around plants' roots. In an article published in the journal Cell Reports, researchers have shown that some types of soil bacteria can influence a plant's balance of growth and defense. The bacteria produce an enzyme that can lower a plant's immune activity and allow its roots to grow longer than they would otherwise. "This is trying to get at a really big biological question where there are not good answersabout how microbiomes interface with host immune systems," said senior study author Jonathan Conway, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering. "It's a small step in the direction of trying to understand how microbes live on hostseither plants or humans or other animalsall the time and don't activate our immune responses constantly." To search for immune-balancing bacteria, Conway's team turned to plants that were engineered to have heightened immune responses to a protein that makes up the thread-like appendages called flagella that allow bacteria to swim. The protein that makes up flagella, called flagellin, is a potent trigger of immune responses in hosts from plants to humans. The researchers grew seedlings of Arabidopsisa small plant in the mustard family that's commonly used in plant researchfrom a line that was engineered to produce high levels of flagellin-sensing immune receptor in its roots. When grown on plates containing the piece of flagellin that activates this receptor, the seedlings' roots are short and stubby, since their energy is directed toward immunity more than growth. The experiment involved growing the seedlings on plates with flagellin as well as with 165 different bacterial species isolated from the roots of soil-grown Arabidopsis. Of these isolates, 68 (41%) suppressed the stunted growth response by tamping down the plants' immunity and allowing their roots to grow longer. One of the bacterial species that allowed the roots to grow the best was Dyella japonica. Previous work had shown that this species' immune-modulating activity was dependent on a bacterial secretion systema protein complex that can move substances out of bacterial cells and into the environment, including inside plant cells or the spaces between plant cells. A scan of D. japonica's genome revealed a gene encoding a secreted enzyme called a subtilase, with the potential ability to chop flagellin into small pieces and prevent it from activating the immune response. The team used both genetic and biochemical methods to demonstrate that the subtilase enzyme was indeed capable of degrading the specific segment of flagellin that triggers the immune response. The degradation was sufficient to tamp down the immune response and allow for increased growth in Arabidopsis seedlings. The researchers ran into some snags when trying to purify the subtilase enzyme, said Samuel Eastman, a co-first author of the paper and a postdoctoral research associate in Conway's lab. Obtaining pure protein is essential for definitively demonstrating an enzyme's function in a test tube. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. In 2023, Eastman presented a poster on the project at a conference in Providence, Rhode Island, and was approached by Todd Naumann, a chemist at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Peoria, Illinois. Naumann said his experience suggested the enzyme could be purified from yeast cells, rather than bacteria. Within a couple of months, Naumann had purified the protein and shipped it to Princeton. "Now we can do chemistry with it, and we can actually look at this in vitro," said Eastman. "We're able to achieve a level of investigation into this protein that wouldn't have been possible without that collaboration." Naumann is a co-author on the paper, along with eight other Princeton researchers in addition to Eastman and Conway. The process of screening and verifying 165 bacterial isolates was a lengthy team effort, and six undergraduates were integral to this and other aspects of the work, said Conway. Britley Jones, a member of Princeton's Class of 2023, played a key role in screening the bacterial collection as part of her senior thesis. Eastman shares lead authorship of the paper with postdoctoral research associate Ting Jiang and Kaeli Ficco, a 2024 Princeton graduate who is now a Ph.D. student at Cornell University. As part of her thesis, Ficco helped engineer mutant bacterial strains that demonstrated a genetic requirement for the subtilase gene in immune suppression and developed some of the experimental methods herself. "I really liked how discovery-based the project was," said Ficco. "That definitely influenced my trajectory after Princeton." Now, she is beginning studies on the regulation of immunity by the human microbiome. Beyond analyzing the specific enzyme produced by D. japonica, the team found that similar genes are found in many common soil bacteria, and their assays showed that dozens of bacterial isolates could suppress flagellin-induced immunity. Now, they would like to better understand why these enzymes may be advantageous to both bacteria and their plant hosts. One hypothesis is that chopping up the flagella of pathogens prevents them from moving and invading a plant's roots. "So, in that way it could be suppressing pathogens as well as the plant immune system," said Eastman. An alternative hypothesis is that these enzymes are "suppressing the immune system so a pathogen could maybe go undetected and cause more disease than it would otherwise." The latter scenario would be problematic in harnessing this phenomenon to improve growth in agricultural settings, because it could make plants more vulnerable to disease. So, more study is needed, said Eastman. "We don't want to compromise the immune system, but we also want plants to save that immune response for when it matters," he said. "We want them to keep calm and keep growing." More information: Samuel Eastman et al, A type II secreted subtilase from commensal rhizobacteria cleaves immune elicitor peptides and suppresses flg22-induced immune activation, Cell Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.115063 Journal information: Cell Reports This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A study reveals a direct link between storytelling ability and a sense of meaning and quality of life. The study, conducted in Israel and the United States, found that people who are good storytellers enjoy more fulfilling lives, a clearer sense of purpose, and the ability to see the "big picture." The researchers evaluated the participants' storytelling ability using self-assessment, peer feedback, ratings from strangers who listened to the stories, and analyses of recordings of stories by students trained in storytelling. Simultaneously, data was gathered on participants' overall quality of life and their tendency to focus on details versus seeing broader perspectives. The research is published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. We all know that one woman who, the moment she begins to speak, has us completely captivated. She could be recounting something as ordinary as dropping her child off at kindergarten, yet her storytelling draws us in effortlessly. On the other hand, there are those who can tell us about a dramatic life event, yet struggle to hold our attention. Now, this new research reveals that those who excel at storytelling also tend to lead better lives. They feel a profound sense of meaning, possess a clear and lucid understanding of their life's direction, and are better able to see the bigger picture. The study's findings showed a clear connection between storytelling ability and high levels of quality of life and sense of meaning. Even after accounting for other factors, such as the five major personality traits, the effect was found to be particularly pronounced among introverted people, who found storytelling to be a powerful means of self-expression and skill enhancement. These results suggest that storytelling is not only a personal asset but also a valuable tool in professional and organizational contexts. The study has significant implications for managers and organizations. In the modern workplace, where employee engagement, motivation, and well-being are critical to success, nurturing storytelling skills among employees can contribute to team building, effective communication, and a culture of purpose and collaboration. Improving storytelling skills can lead to increased productivity, creativity, and overall job satisfaction. What's more, storytelling has been found to provide a distinct advantage for introverts, enabling them to better integrate and express their unique strengths. By implementing storytelling workshops and training programs, organizations can amplify the voices of diverse team members, encourage innovation, and promote a stronger sense of belonging and inclusion. In an era where artificial intelligence plays an increasingly prominent role, unique human skills like storytelling are becoming more vital than ever. The ability to tell a story is closely tied to seeing the bigger picture and thinking strategicallyskills that are essential for employees and leaders in a rapidly evolving workplace. Storytelling workshops can provide employees with tools to take initiative and develop a long-term vision, while cultivating a deeper sense of purpose in their work. Prof. Ron Shachar, from the Arison School of Business at Reichman University, says, "The research findings highlight that storytelling is not only a tool for personal improvement but also a key to organizational success. The ability to tell a story effectively and compellingly allows people to enjoy a more fulfilling life and helps organizations foster a cohesive, innovative, and inclusive culture, which contributes to their long-term success." The research team included Professors Mario Mikulincer and Shachar of Reichman University, along with doctoral student Haran Einam. More information: Haran Einam et al, Shedding a light on the teller: on storytelling, meaning in life, and personal goals, The Journal of Positive Psychology (2024). DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2024.2431684 Journal information: The Journal of Positive Psychology This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Thick plumes of smoke at times clouded major cities including Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo last year. Brazil's Amazon rainforest experienced its highest number of fires in 17 years in 2024, government data published Wednesday showed, after the vast biome suffered months of a lengthy drought. There were 140,328 fires detected by satellite imaging over the year, according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). That was 42 percent more than the 98,634 fires recorded in 2023and the most since 2007, when 186,463 forest fires were seen. Despite the high number of blazes, however, there were indications that the total area that suffered deforestation could be the lowest in years. In early November, INPE said deforestation in the region in the 12-month period up to August 2024 had fallen by more than 30 percent, year-on-year, and was at the lowest amount in nine years. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made preservation of the Amazon a priority for his government, which in November this year will host the UN's COP30 climate conference in the Amazonian city of Belem. Europe's climate monitor, the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said last month that severe drought had stoked wildfires across South America in 2024. Thick plumes of smoke at times clouded major cities including Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo last year, with choking pollution that lingered for several weeks. Drought has parched the Amazon region since mid-2023, driven by human-caused climate change and the El Nino warming phenomenon. This helped to create conditions for the massive blazes, but experts say that most fires were set deliberately by farmers to clear land for agriculture. Scientists warn that continued deforestation will put the Amazon on track to reach a point where it will emit more carbon than it absorbs, accelerating climate change. 2025 AFP This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: New Glenn during successful integrated vehicle hotfire on December 27. Credit: Blue Origin Blue Origin has achieved an important milestone with its New Glenn NG-1 rocket, successfully completing a 24-second hotfire of the rocket's BE-4 engines in preparation for an expected test flight in the coming days. This was the first time the entire vehicle, including the first and second stages, was tested as a fully integrated system, alongside the ground systems at the launch pad. It gave the engineers a chance to do a dress rehearsal of all the procedures required for launch, and check how well simulation data matches real-world scenarios. Blue Origin confirmed in a press release that "all seven engines performed nominally, firing for 24 seconds, including at 100% thrust for 13 seconds." The pressurization systems for the first and second stages also performed nominally. Although New Glenn has yet to fly, its BE-4 methane engines have already reached orbit. Twice in 2024 ULA's Vulcan rocketthe successor to the Atlas V, which had been ULA's heavy-lift workhorse for two decadesreached orbit using BE-4 engines provided by Blue Origin. In both instances, the engines performed nominally, even demonstrating that they could compensate for eventualities: When one of Vulcan's solid rocket boosters had an anomaly on the second flight, the main engines extended their burn by 20 seconds to keep the rocket on a nominal trajectory. New Glenn, which has been in development since 2013, uses BE-4 engines on its first stage as well. The rocket is expected to have its maiden flight imminently, with liftoff tentatively set for late evening on January 5 (EST). The first stage of the rocket is intended to be reusable, and Blue Origin has playfully nicknamed the first booster So You're Telling Me There's a Chance. It will attempt to land aboard a vessel in the Atlantic following launch. According to Reuters, Blue Origin has received FAA approval for the first flight, and the payload will include equipment related to Blue Ring, a Blue Origin program that will provide maneuverable spacecraft to the U.S. Department of Defense. Upcoming New Glenn launches are expected to carry payloads for NASA, various telecommunications providers, and will also launch Amazon's planned Project Kuiper, a mega-constellation competitor to SpaceX's Starlink. NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE), a two-pronged Mars mission that was expected to launch in Fall 2024, was postponed to Spring 2025, and will now be carried on New Glenn's third flight. The 98-meter-tall rocket has a 7-meter diameter and can carry 45,000km to Low Earth Orbit. With the full stack hotfire test complete, the path to New Glenn's maiden flight is wide open. "This is a monumental milestone and a glimpse of what's just around the corner for New Glenn's first launch," said Jarrett Jones, senior vice president, New Glenn, after the hotfire test. "Today's success proves that our rigorous approach to testingcombined with our incredible tooling and design engineeringis working as intended." This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash (bluewaterglobe). Sea level rise is an ever-pressing concern as climate change melts ice sheets. Coastal flooding is an unfortunate consequence, which can have a devastating impact on the local environment, including an unexpected toll on coastal tourism in North Carolina. A new study, published in Water Resources Research, has identified a direct correlation between the quality of drinking water and the number of tourists staying overnight in accommodations in the area, highlighting increases in tap water salinity. The elevated saltiness of drinking water is caused by the intrusion of saltwater into freshwater aquifers as sea water inundates low-lying areas (particularly the barrier islands), which makes the water undrinkable without processing. As most public water in the area is obtained through the desalinization of sea water and relies upon freshwater from these aquifers to aid the process, the supply of safe, clean drinking water may come under threat. In particular, it is likely to increase the costs of potable water as more desalinization treatment would be required, plus it will impact the taste of water as the saltiness cannot be entirely eliminated. Across North Carolina, the sea level has risen by up to 5 mm per year and is predicted to continue this trend in the decades to come (even within the next eight years it could reach 5 cm), meaning the challenge will only continue. Professor John Whitehead, of North Carolina's Appalachian State University, and colleagues used people's willingness to pay for overnight accommodation with low-salinity tap water to assess the impact of rising sea levels on sustainable freshwater supplies and coastal tourism. They conducted online surveys with more than 430 North Carolina residents who had taken trips to the coast within the preceding three years and posed the question of whether the increasingly salty taste of water in their chosen beach destination would dissuade them from visiting. Logistic regression curves for two models exploring how reduced water quality impacts the probability of a respondent taking a trip and their willingness to pay more for it to obtain potable water. Credit: Water Resources Research (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023WR036440 The team found that tap water that was slightly (barely noticeable compared to usual tap water), moderately (somewhat noticeable) or very (definitely noticeable) salty had a direct impact on the likelihood of tourists staying overnight in their chosen coastal resort, declining by 2%, 8% and 11% respectively. Having said this, 21% of respondents noted that the salinity of drinking water would not be an issue for them and they would continue with their planned beach break, happy to pay additional costs associated with buying bottled water if necessary. Projecting to 2040, the research team estimates that 13% of the 31 studied beaches in North Carolina would no longer have freshwater aquifers, with a further 42% suffering from salinity issues. Twenty years on, the number of beaches without viable aquifers rises to 32%, and by 2080 this could reach 55%, with only 6% of aquifers having no salty-tasting water. Consequently, the researchers estimate that a staggering $232 million could be lost in annual consumer income by 2040 if the low quality of the drinking water continues. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of implementing strategies to help alleviate the degradation of tap water within North Carolina, including new drinking water regulations and technologies. More information: J. C. Whitehead et al, SeaLevel Rise, Drinking Water Quality and the Economic Value of Coastal Tourism in North Carolina, Water Resources Research (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023WR036440 Journal information: Water Resources Research 2025 Science X Network This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Photo Mike Gillam, from Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado4140 Marsupial moles are perhaps Australia's most bizarre mammals. Known as "itjaritjari" to the Indigenous Anangu people and featuring prominently in their tales, the marsupial mole is rarely observed, making any sighting a rare event. Now, our team, led by Dr. Stephen Frankenberg and Professor Andrew Pask, has begun to unearth some of the marsupial mole's deepest evolutionary secrets by studying its genome for the first time. Adapting to a life down under Marsupial moles live in the deep deserts of Australia, making their way not by digging permanent tunnels but by "swimming" through loose sands using specialized forelimbs. This lifestyle is so vital to their existence that they've had to adapt in remarkable ways. They are nearly blind, with only vestigial eyes beneath the skin on their face, and lack a scrotum, keeping their testes in their abdomen. Being marsupials, the females have a pouch, but it has evolved to face backwards to stop it filling with sand. Even breathing is a challenge underground, so marsupial moles have also had to evolve to survive in low-oxygen conditions. Incredibly, many of these adaptations are shared with the "true" moles found in Africa, Eurasia and North America, representing a striking example of convergent evolution. Exploring below the surface By extracting DNA from an incredibly precious preserved tissue sample, our team, along with our collaborators at La Trobe University and the University of Connecticut, mapped nearly all the chemical "letters" that record its evolutionary past and lays out instructions for producing its most distinctive traits. Team members from here and the University of Utah then used this genome to compare marsupial mole genes to those of its distant relatives living above ground. Our findings, now published in Science Advances, were remarkable. By examining eye genes shared among all mammals, we showed that degeneration of the marsupial mole's eyes occurred in stages, with genes important for the lens going first, followed by the "rods and cones"the light-sensing cells found in the retina. We also showed that marsupial moles have an extra gene for hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen around the body in red blood cells and that a key gene in testicular descentRXFP2is "broken" in this species, giving us an explanation for its internal testes. Figuring out the family tree Because of its strange traits and the lack of robust DNA evidence, the marsupial mole's relationships with other marsupials have been extremely difficult to figure out. Our colleagues at the University of Munster employed an innovative approach to resolving this, examining retrotransposonssometimes called "jumping genes." These genes copy themselves repeatedly into different regions of the DNA at random. However, the same gene is very unlikely to jump at random into the same region in two different species. This makes shared transposon insertions a very reliable indicator of shared ancestry. And this meant we could show that marsupial moles' closest relatives turn out to be Australia's bandicoots and bilbies, followed by the carnivorous marsupials like Tassie devils. A species in decline? As part of the same research, collaborators at the University of Munster and La Trobe scanned the marsupial mole genome to learn more about how these processes have influenced genetic diversity in this species. We found it was much more diverse than it is today. Beginning about 70,000 years ago though, the species entered a long, slow decline. Interestingly, this decline seems to have begun more than 5,000 years before the arrival of humans in Australia and at least 30,000 years before they settled in regions near the marsupial mole's habitat. This suggests Aboriginal peoples had little impact on this cryptic species. Rather, we found that this decline corresponds with a period of cooler temperatures and lower sea levels, which implicates climatic changes as the reason. Genetic diversity is vital for a species' health and its ability to adapt in a changing world. Our work shows that just because the marsupial mole is often out of sight, it shouldn't stay out of mind. For its future, we need new efforts to study the population health and stability of this sneaky little Australian mammal. More information: Stephen R. Frankenberg et al, Unearthing the secrets of Australia's most enigmatic and cryptic mammal, the marsupial mole, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado4140 Journal information: Science Advances This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A strontium atomic clock, pictured in a lab at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States. A top-secret lab in the UK is developing the country's first quantum clock to help the British military boost intelligence and reconnaissance operations, the defense ministry said Thursday. The clock is so precise that it will lose less than one second over billions of years, "allowing scientists to measure time at an unprecedented scale," the ministry said in a statement. "The trialing of this emerging, groundbreaking technology could not only strengthen our operational capability, but also drive progress in industry, bolster our science sector and support high-skilled jobs," Minister for Defense Procurement Maria Eagle said. The groundbreaking technology by the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory will reduce reliance on GPS technology, which "can be disrupted and blocked by adversaries," the ministry added. It is not a world first, as the University of Colorado at Boulder developed a quantum clock 15 years ago with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. But it is "the first device of its kind to be built in the UK," the statement said, adding it could be deployed by the military "in the next five years". A quantum clock uses quantum mechanics -- the physics of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic scale -- to keep time with unprecedented accuracy by measuring energy fluctuations within atoms. Accurate timekeeping is crucial for satellite navigation systems, mobile telephones and digital TV, among other applications, and may open new frontiers in research fields such as quantum science. Companies and governments around the world are keen to cash in on the huge potential benefits quantum technology could bring. Google last month unveiled a new quantum computing chip it said could do in minutes what it would take leading supercomputers 10 septillion years to complete. The United States and China are investing heavily in quantum research, and the US administration has imposed tight restrictions on exporting such sensitive technology. One expert, Olivier Ezratty, told AFP in October that private and public investment in such technology had reached $20 billion during the past five years. The defense ministry said future research would "see the technology decrease in size to allow mass manufacturing and miniaturization, unlocking a wide range of applications, such as use by military vehicles and aircraft". 2025 AFP This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: THEIA Concept of Operations. Credit: Bonjinov et al Getting back to the moon is the primary goal of NASA's Artemis program, but what do we do once we get there? That is the challenge tackled by a group of students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who wrote a proposal for a lunar infrastructure module they call the Trans-lunar Hub for Exploration, ISRU, and Advancementor THEIA, after the proposed object that crashed into the Earth that created the moon as we know it today. Their submission was part of the NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems ConceptsAcademic Linkage project, where teams from various academic institutions submitted papers focusing on the theme of Sustained Lunar Evolution for 2024. To be clear, THEIA is not meant to serve as the central hub of NASA's lunar exploration activities. The responsibility would still go to the Artemis base the agency has been working on. It is meant to serve as a hub for four main things that the team believes every long-term lunar mission will need: power, communications, transportation, and In-situ resource utilization (ISRU). The project's mission requirements include providing local positioning, communications, and power to an area surrounding the lunar south pole. Various organizations are developing several pieces of infrastructure to do so. First would be the delivery method to get therelike much of the overall Artemis project, THEIA would rely on delivery from a SpaceX Starship. The team calculated the initial launch requirements to get a basic setup up and running to be around 73 tons, well below the threshold of 100 tons the rocket is expected to be able to carry to the lunar surface. That first set of equipment would include two other vital pieces of infrastructuresome LUNARSABER poles and robots to set them up. We previously did an entire article on the LUNARSABER project from Honeybee Robotics. Still, as a succinct overview, it is an extendable tower with solar panels along its sides to collect energy. Then, it uses a series of transmitters and receivers at its top to broadcast both power and communication signals. They can also bounce signals between two towers, creating a basic mesh network on the lunar surface. A LUNARSABER is essential for supplying power and communications, but the UIUC team needs robotic help to deploy it. They suggest using several robotic rovers, including a multilimbed one designed on NASA's Athlete prototype and a more traditional lunar rover based around the current Lunar Terrain Vehicle contract NASA has outstanding, with several companies still vying to provide the final design. Other essential infrastructure pieces include ground antennas to transmit data and communications back to the Lunar Gateway and habitats that would allow both scientific experiments to operate and, eventually, crew to live. An essential additional part of THEIA's design philosophy is that there should be space for experiments to operate inside a semi-controlled environment. That would still be a long time from now, with original missions to launch THEIA not planned until 2035 and crewed missions to follow years later. However, THEIA was initially drawn up by a group of undergraduates, who presented a technical paper in response to the NASA RASC-AL proposal. It was one of many such proposals that resulted in groups from Virginia Polytechnic, the University of Maryland, and South Dakota University winning prizes. We'll look at some of the other projects submitted by teams shortly, but congratulations to the UIUC team, who made it through the competition as a finalist, for the effort they put into theirs. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: X-ray spectrum (left panel) and pulse profiles in two energy ranges (right panel) of HD 49798/RX J0648.04418. Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2412.18546 In a recent study, an Italian astronomer has investigated the nature of a binary system known as HD 49798/RX J0648.04418. Results of the new research, published Dec. 24 on the preprint server arXiv, yield important insights into the properties of the system, proving that it contains a massive and fast-spinning white dwarf. HD 49798 is a bright blue star in the southern sky, a subdwarf of O spectral type (sdO), located some 1,700 light years away. It is the most luminous known sdO, with an absolute magnitude of 0.24 and a bolometric luminosity of 4,400 solar luminosities. The effective temperature of this star is estimated to be 47,500 K. HD 49798 has been observed for decades and its spectrum was found to showcase prominent helium and nitrogen lines, while the star also experienced radial velocity variations. These findings indicated the presence of a companion object. However, its nature remained elusive. More recent studies have detected soft X-ray emission with a highly significant periodicity from the source designated RX J0648.04418, positionally coincident with HD 49798. This periodicity suggested the rotation of either a neutron star or a white dwarf. Now, a new analysis of the available data conducted by Sandro Mereghetti of the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics of Milano in Italy, provides further evidence supporting the white dwarf scenario. "There are now several arguments indicating that the companion of HD 49798 is a massive white dwarf, with interesting implications for the future evolution of this system," Mereghetti wrote in the paper. The study found that the companion object is a white dwarf with a mass of 1.22 solar masses and a spin period of approximately 13.2 seconds, one of the shortest known among white dwarfs. Mereghetti explained that although the mass and spin period of the companion are also compatible with the neutron star scenario, its X-ray luminosity, spin period evolution and the size of the X-ray emitting region indicate a white dwarf nature. According to the paper, the white dwarf emits pulsed X-rays with a very soft spectrum, powered by accretion from the stellar wind of the subdwarf, which has a radius of about 1.08 solar radii and its mass is around 1.41 solar masses. The orbital period of HD 49798/RX J0648.04418 was measured to be approximately 1.55 days. Mereghetti noted that HD 49798/RX J0648.04418 is the only known accretion-powered X-ray binary in which the mass donor is a hot subdwarf. Moreover, the white dwarf's large mass and high spin frequency, together with the subdwarf's high luminosity, relatively low surface gravity and peculiar chemical abundances, make HD 49798/RX J0648.04418 unusual when compared to similar systems. "These properties make HD 49798/RX J0648.04418 particularly interesting, not only in the context of stellar evolution models, but also for the study of hot subdwarfs and white dwarfs in general," the author of the paper concluded. More information: Sandro Mereghetti, The massive fast spinning white dwarf in the HD 49798/RX J0648.0-4418 binary, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2412.18546 Journal information: arXiv 2025 Science X Network This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Location map of Zavaritskii caldera, Simushir Island, Kurils. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2416699122 The mystery location of a giant volcanic eruption that has puzzled scientists for almost 200 years has finally been solved, thanks to researchers from the University of St Andrews. In 1831, a massive volcanic eruption spewed sulfurous gases into the atmosphere, reflecting sunlight and causing a global cooling of approximately 1C. This cold weather, well-documented worldwide, led to widespread crop failures and devastating famines. The composer Felix Mendelssohn even wrote about the catastrophic weather during his summer journey through the Alps in 1831: "Desolate weather, it has rained again all night and all morning, it is as cold as in winter, there is already deep snow on the nearest hills" The eruption in 1831 is Earth's most recent "mystery eruption." While scientists knew it was a major event that caused climatic change and societal upheaval, the identity of the volcano responsible remained unknown and fiercely debated, until now. New research, led by Dr. Will Hutchison from the School of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of St Andrews, and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on December 30, reveals how the team analyzed ice core records from the 1831 event and identified a "perfect fingerprint match" of the ash deposits. "Only in recent years have we developed the ability to extract microscopic ash shards from polar ice cores and conduct detailed chemical analyses on them. These shards are incredibly minute, roughly one-tenth the diameter of a human hair," explained Dr. Hutchison. Dr. Hutchison and his team were able to accurately date and match the ice core deposits to Zavaritskii volcano on the remote, uninhabited island of Simushir, part of the Kuril Islands. The islands are a disputed territory between Russia and Japan. Currently controlled by Russia, they operate as a strategic military outpost. During the Cold War, in a plotline reminiscent of a Bond film, the Soviets used Simushir as a secret nuclear submarine base, docking vessels in a flooded volcanic crater. "We analyzed the chemistry of the ice at a very high temporal resolution. This allowed us to pinpoint the precise timing of the eruption to spring-summer 1831, confirm that it was highly explosive, and then extract the tiny shards of ash. Finding the match took a long time and required extensive collaboration with colleagues from Japan and Russia, who sent us samples collected from these remote volcanoes decades ago. "The moment in the lab when we analyzed the two ashes together, one from the volcano and one from the ice core, was a genuine eureka moment. I couldn't believe the numbers were identical. After this, I spent a lot of time delving into the age and size of the eruption in Kuril records to truly convince myself that the match was real." This work highlights the Kuril Islands as a poorly studied yet extremely productive volcanic region. The volcano responsible for the 1831 eruption was very remote, yet it had a significant global impact on climate and severe consequences for human populations. Identifying the sources of these mystery eruptions is crucial, as it allows scientists to map and monitor the regions on Earth most likely to produce climate-altering volcanic events. Dr. Hutchison added, "There are so many volcanoes like this, which highlights how difficult it will be to predict when or where the next large-magnitude eruption might occur. "As scientists and as a society, we need to consider how to coordinate an international response when the next large eruption, like the one in 1831, happens." More information: William Hutchison et al, The 1831 CE mystery eruption identified as Zavaritskii caldera, Simushir Island (Kurils), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2416699122 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Criminal group operating Isla Mujeres mainland captured Isla Mujeres, Q.R. Police have arrested who they say is the leader of a criminal group operating the Isla Mujeres mainland. The leader, along with four others, were taken into custody on outstanding warrants for extortion. The State Attorney General (FGE) said Wednesday they arrested five people in flagrante delicto, among them Raul N, alias Guero Palma, leader of the criminal group Guero Palma dedicated to drug sales and extortion in Costa Mujeres on the continental zone of Isla Mujeres. The group of five, the FGE added, are also considered priority targets of the States Criminal Atlas. Raul N, alias Guero Palma, Axel Raul N, Kevin Yahir N, Josefina Candelaria N and Kimberly N were arrested for being related to acts of possible drug dealing and violation of the Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives. All five were taken into custody at the intersection of Arco Vial and Rancho Viejo Avenues in SM 242 of Cancun. They were arrested by elements of the FGE, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, the Secretariat of the Navy, the Secretariat of National Defense, the National Guard and the Secretariat of Citizen Security of the State. During a search of the suspects, authorities seized bags of green, dry marijuana-like plants, as well as a whitish solid substance with the characteristics of the drug known as crystal, a 9mm caliber handgun, a magazine loaded with live cartridges, as well as a Nissan Frontier vehicle with license plates from the state of Yucatan. The five detainees were served with an arrest warrant for their probable participation in extortion crimes, against an individual victim, the FGE reported. At the end of December, three people were arrested in relation to the shooting of a street vendor on a Costa Mujeres beach. According to the Secretary of Citizen Security (SSC), the Sunday shooting victim was a street vendor of Mexican nationality. Police have not said if that shooting is connected to the criminal group they captured Tuesday. Maya Train announces travel packages for national and international tourists Riviera Maya, Q.R. A campaign of Maya Train tourist packages has been released with the trains first year anniversary. The national and international tourist travel packages are being offered in conjunction with Tren Maya companies. Participating companies include Mexican companies Grupo Aeroportuario, Ferroviario, de Servicios Auxiliares y Conexos Olmeca Maya Mexica, S.A. de C.V., the Tulum airport managing company, along with AIFA (Felipe Angeles International Airport) and airline Mexicana de Aviacion. Oscar David Lozano Aguila, the General Director of the Maya Train, announced that the 10 tourist packages offer a memorable and personalized experience to travelers of the Maya Train through the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. Travelers leaving the AIFA on Mexicana de Aviacion will receive preferential air rates. They will also receive discounts in Maya Train hotels in Tulum, Chichen Itza, Calakmul and Edzna. He says the packages will include departures and returns to and from AIFA, flights on Mexicana de Aviacion with a 25 percent discount and flexibility to change dates and times. They include arrival at the airports of Palenque, Campeche, Tulum, Chetumal, Merida and Cancun in addition to Maya Train transfers with a special 50 percent discount for national tourists and preferential prices in 4-star Maya Train Hotels, he said. Oscar David Lozano Aguila described the packages Jewels of Mexican Culture and Route of Wonders, where people will be able to discover the colonial charm of the southeast and one of the seven wonders of the modern world. As an example, he said the prices for those two packages are 14,512.00 pesos and 8,916.00 pesos respectively, which he added, are cheaper than the market prices. He says soon, the packages and services will be accessible from online websites including visitmexico.com, trenmaya.gob.mx, hotelesgafsacomm.com, mexicana.gob.mx and travel agencies. Once integrated, travelers will be able to choose from 10 different Tren Maya travel packages. On December 15, President Claudia Sheinbaum inaugurated the remaining two Tren Maya circuits in the states capital city of Chetumal. That inauguration opened all seven routes, marking the operations of all 1,554 kilometers of the Maya Train. By Vali Kaleji The construction of the first phase of the TurkmenistanAfghanistanPakistanIndia Gas Pipeline (TAPI) gas pipeline constitutes a key component of the Taliban's broader strategy to revive significant energy transfer and transit projects that were suspended following their return to power. The successful implementation of these initiatives is expected to enhance the internal legitimacy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. However, unlike the preceding two decades, the leadership of Pakistan and India have not participated in the construction of the first phase of the TAPI gas pipeline. Adopting a pragmatic and incremental approach, the Taliban leadership has chosen to advance this energy transfer project in collaboration with Turkmenistan in a phased manner. It appears that Pakistan and India have cautiously opted to wait and watch regarding their involvement in the TAPI gas pipeline. BACKGROUND: The transfer of Turkmenistans gas resources to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India has faced numerous challenges over the past three decades and remains unimplemented. This initiative has been referred to by various names over time, including Trans Afghan (1995), Consortium of Central Asia Gas Pipeline, CentGas (1997), Trans-Afghan Gas Pipeline, TAGP (2002), and TAPI (2010). These projects proposed the construction of a 1,814 kilometer pipeline to transport natural gas from the Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan, the worlds second-largest gas field, through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. The Afghan section of the pipeline, spanning 816 kilometers, will traverse the provinces of Herat, Farah, Nimroz, Helmand, and Kandahar. The pipeline will enter from Quetta in Balochistan and pass through Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Fazilka, a city at Indian border 150 kilometers from Multan. From Fazilka, the pipeline will enter India. The pipeline was designed with an estimated annual transmission capacity of 33 billion cubic meters (bcm). It will supply 5 percent of the gas to Afghanistan, 47.5 percent to Pakistan, and 47.5 percent to India during its 30-year operational period. Afghanistan will receive 500 million cubic meters of gas for the first decade, 1 bcm in the second decade, and 1.5 bcm in the third decade. To implement the TAPI pipeline project, Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani, Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and Indias Vice President Hamid Ansari convened in 2015, in Turkmenistans remote Karakum Desert, to inaugurate the proposed pipeline. However, the construction was hindered by several factors, including financial constraints, insecurity in Afghanistan, and the terrorist activities of groups such as the Taliban, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda. Additionally, persistent tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as between Pakistan and India, further obstructed the projects progress. A decade later, on September 10, 2024, the construction of the Serhetabat-Herat section of TAPI was inaugurated on the border of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The ceremony was attended by Turkmenistans President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, as well as the Acting Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammed Hasan Akhund. Unlike the earlier inauguration, the leaders of Pakistan and India were notably absent from this event. The ceremony marked the commencement of TAPIs first phase, spanning from Serhetabat (formerly Gushgy) in Turkmenistan to Herat in Afghanistan. The subsequent three phases are planned to extend the pipeline from Herat to Helmand, from Helmand to Kandahar, and finally from Kandahar to the Pakistan border. Adopting a pragmatic and phased approach, the Taliban leadership has chosen to advance the TAPI project in collaboration with Turkmenistan in four distinct stages. This incremental strategy enables the Taliban regime to demonstrate its political resolve, operational capacity, and ability to ensure the security of the project to Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and India. Over the past two years, the Taliban has achieved significant milestones, including the completion of the first phase of the TAP-500 energy system project (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan), the inauguration of the Herat Noor-ul-Jihad Substation and Turkmenistan electricity transmission project, the opening of a 177-meter railway bridge on the SerhetabatTorghundi railway at the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border, the initiation of the Shatlyk-1 gas compressor station construction at the Shatlyk field in Mary Province, the launch of a fiber-optic communication line along the Serhetabat-Herat route, and the commencement of the 22-kilometer Torghundi-Sanabar railway construction, marking the first segment of the Torghundi-Herat railway. These accomplishments have likely bolstered the Talibans confidence as they proceed with the implementation of the first phase of TAPI. IMPLICATIONS: The project is a critical element of the Talibans broader strategy to revive significant energy transfer and transit projects, including CASA-1000 (the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan electricity transmission line), the Lazorde project (linking Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey), the Chabahar port transit initiative (connecting Afghanistan, Iran, and India), and the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan railway route. These projects, which were suspended following the Taliban's return to power, are expected to generate employment and income for various provinces in Afghanistan, thereby bolstering the Talibans domestic legitimacy. In line with these efforts, the Taliban declared a public holiday in Herat province on September 11, 2024, coinciding with the inauguration of TAPIs first phase. This move appears to reflect a deliberate effort at public diplomacy or propaganda, aimed at showcasing the Talibans commitment to national development and infrastructure revival. If TAPI becomes operational, it will create jobs for over 12,000 Afghans, and the project could generate approximately US$ 1 billion annually in revenue for the country. This gas supply will be crucial for meeting the energy needs of urban and rural areas, as well as supporting industrial and production centers in densely populated and strategically important regions such as Herat, Helmand, and Kandahar. Furthermore, the successful implementation of significant energy transfer and transit projects, such as TAPI, holds the potential to strengthen the Talibans diplomatic and economic ties with neighboring countries. Such developments are particularly critical for the Taliban leadership, given its international isolation. An important aspect of the TAPI project is the decision to construct its four phases without reliance on international financial aid. Both Turkmenistan and the Taliban recognize that, given the lack of international recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, securing financial assistance or loans from institutions such as the Asian Development Bank is not feasible. This constraint likely influenced the decision to proceed with the phased implementation of TAPI exclusively within Afghanistan, excluding the active participation of India and Pakistan at this stage. The construction and operation of the pipeline are overseen by TAPI Pipeline Company Limited (TPCL), based in Dubai. TPCL is a joint venture between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, with each country holding a stake in the project. The state-owned company Turkmen Gas holds a dominant 85 percent share in TPCL, while the remaining 15 percent is equally distributed among Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Consequently, it is anticipated that TPCL will finance the construction of the four phases of the TAPI pipeline within Afghanistan. Should the pipeline be extended to Pakistan and India, the financing strategy would likely involve not only allocating the respective shares of Pakistan and India from TPCL but also securing additional funding through financial institutions such as the Asian Development Bank to support the broader extension. Another significant implication of TAPI, even if limited to its four phases within Afghanistan, is the increased diversification of Turkmenistans gas export destinations and routes. Over the past three decades, Turkmenistan has developed gas export pipelines along three primary routes: northern (Russia), eastern (China), and western (Iran and Turkey). The implementation of TAPI would establish a new southern route, enhancing Turkmenistans gas export network. This diversification is expected to strengthen Turkmenistans position in the regional gas market, providing the country with greater leverage and bargaining power in negotiations. Additionally, Turkmenistan remains attentive to the dynamics of its competitors, particularly Iran. International sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council in the past, along with unilateral sanctions by the U.S. in recent years, have significantly curtailed Irans foreign investment, production, and export capacity. These sanctions have also stalled major gas transmission initiatives, most notably the Peace Pipeline (Iran-Pakistan-India). In this context, the successful implementation of TAPI could position Turkmenistan as a more reliable and influential player in the regional energy market, capitalizing on opportunities that competitors like Iran have been unable to pursue. However, Turkmenistan will need to secure additional foreign investment to expand its gas production capacity to ensure a sustainable supply for its growing base of gas-consuming customers. The countrys ability to meet this challenge will be crucial as it seeks to maintain its role as a reliable energy supplier in an increasingly competitive regional and global market. This challenge will become even more pronounced if Turkmenistan succeeds in implementing the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline project in collaboration with Azerbaijan, Turkey, and the European Union. Such a project, aimed at supplying gas to European markets, would further strain Turkmenistans production capacity. The increased demand would necessitate significant investments in infrastructure and technology to scale production while ensuring the reliability and sustainability of its gas exports across multiple routes and to diverse markets. CONCLUSIONS: The full implementation of TAPI will hinge on several critical factors. These include the political will of the leaders of the four participating countriesTurkmenistan, Afghanistan under Taliban leadership, Pakistan, and Indiaalong with the ability to ensure security throughout all stages of construction and operation. Particular attention must be given to mitigating threats from groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Additionally, effective operation and distribution of gas through rural and urban areas, as well as the mobilization of the substantial financial resources required for this ambitious project (estimated at US$ 7 to 8 billion), are essential for its success. Moreover, the project must remain insulated from the complex and often contentious disputes between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. The successful completion of the current four phases of TAPI is seen as a critical test for the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate in demonstrating its capability to execute such a significant energy transfer initiative after three decades of delay. Pakistan and India are seemingly opting to wait and watch to assess the feasibility and progress of the project under the Talibans stewardship. Should the Taliban successfully implement these initial phases, Pakistan and India can be anticipated to join efforts to extend the project further. AUTHORS BIO: Vali Kaleji, based in Tehran, Iran, holds a Ph.D. in Regional Studies, Central Asian and Caucasian Studies. He has published numerous analytical articles on Eurasian issues for the Eurasia Daily Monitor, the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, The Middle East Institute and the Valdai Club. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Dennis Beaver Practices law in Bakersfield and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to (661) 323-7993, or e-mailed to Lagombeaver1@Gmail.com. Also, visit dennisbeaver.com. It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of James Aubrey "Jamie" Fowler, 70, of Avenue, MD, on December 27, 2024. Jamie died peacefully with his family holding his hand and surrounding him with love. Jamie was born on January 1, 1954, in Washington, D.C. to his loving parents, the late Helen and George Fowler. His family moved to St. George's Island in the 60s, and he attended St. Teresa and Little Flower Elementary Schools and Great Mills High School. Jamie was the youngest of eight siblings, who liked to call him baby brother. Even though he wasn't born here, Jamie was totally a St. Mary's County good old boy. On March 15, 1974, he married the love of his life, Gay Fowler, at Holy Angels Church, and together they celebrated over 50 years of love and happiness. He lived on beautiful St. Catherines Sounds, where he loved looking out over the river and watching all the wildlife. Jamie was the proud father of his loving daughter, Lorrie, and was an awesome Pop to his grandsons, Adam and Aaron. He was always there for every event in their lives. Family was everything to Jamie and he was dearly loved by everyone; his nieces and nephews called him their "cool uncle." In 1977, Jamie started his own painting company and over the years he had many loyal and long-term customers. He had an outstanding work ethic; he took pride in every job and always tried to ensure that every customer received the absolute best that he could provide. Jamie was an avid reader, reading a couple of books a week. He made sure he got his coffee and newspaper every morning and stayed on top of what was happening. Everyone liked to see and talk to Jamie, he was interesting and funny. He kept a great outlook on life and was always cheerful. He loved rock and roll and blues music and was a big fan of the Nighthawks. He was a member of the Bucksnorts and enjoyed attending every party. Jamie had a very strong faith; he was a longtime parishioner at Holy Angels Catholic Church where he was a greeter, welcoming everyone. He also served as an usher and helped out with many church functions. Jamie is survived by his loving wife, Gay Fowler, daughter, Lorrie Fowler, grandsons, Adam Lemoi and Aaron Lemoi, his siblings, Mary Russell, Zoe Ann Vest, and Tony Fowler, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his siblings, Rick Fowler, George "Bitsy" Fowler, Celeste Downs, and Virginia Hughes. There are no words to express our pain at losing Jamie so suddenly and unexpectedly. He will be missed every day. But sadness was not his style, he liked laughter and music, good food, and great conversation. We will honor his memory by doing the things he loved and keeping his spirit close until we meet again. The family will receive friends on Thursday, January 9, 2024, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, with prayers recited at 7:00 PM, in the Mattingley-Gardiner Funeral Home, Leonardtown, MD. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, January 10, 2024, at 11:00 AM in Holy Angels Catholic Church, Avenue, MD with Father William Gurnee officiating. Interment will follow at Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, Bushwood, MD. Serving as pallbearers will be Adam Lemoi, Aaron Lemoi, Chris Sundberg, Mark Vest, Johnny Norris, and Joey Tippett. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the 7th District Volunteer Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 7, Avenue, MD 20609. https://sputnikglobe.com/20250102/2025-off-to-violent-start-with-multiple-dangerous-incidents-across-us-1121336188.html 2025 Off to Violent Start, With Multiple Dangerous Incidents Across US 2025 Off to Violent Start, With Multiple Dangerous Incidents Across US Sputnik International US gets off to a violent start. What happened in New Orleans, New York. 2025-01-02T13:27+0000 2025-01-02T13:27+0000 2025-01-02T13:27+0000 americas us mass shooting new orleans las vegas elon musk trump international hotel fbi new york https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e9/01/02/1121336473_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_8851dbcf55306781f57cec6914d22f75.jpg Several deadly incidents have rattled the US at the start of the new year.Heres whats been happening: New Orleans A Ford pickup truck was intentionally driven into a crowd of New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 15 and injuring dozens. The suspect, identified as 42-year-old US citizen and Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar from Texas, was killed during a firefight with police officers. Investigators revealed an ISIS* flag on the truck's rear bumper, along with weapons and two potential improvised explosive devices in the vehicle. The perpetrator possibly had an accomplice, said the FBI. Las Vegas A Tesla Cybertruck filled with fuel canisters and firework mortars exploded in the valet area of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on January 1, killing the driver and injuring several bystanders. The suspect was identified as 37-year-old US Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger. The truck was rented from Turo car rental, the same as the New Orleans pickup, media reported. Authorities are investigating the blast as a potential act of terror, with a top Tesla team also involved, according to CEO Elon Musk. Both attackers served at the same military base, sources told US media. New York At least 10 people were injured after four men fired at a crowd of people standing outside a nightclub in Queens, New York, according to police. Authorities are investigating whether the shooting was gang related.* Terrorist group banned in Russia https://sputnikglobe.com/20250101/at-least-10-killed-30-injured-after-car-struck-crowd-in-new-orleans-in-us---reports-1121327662.html americas new orleans las vegas new york Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko mass shootings in us, truck rams people in new orleans, cybertruck explodes, cybertruck explosion, cybertruck blast, cybertruck in las vegas, why did the cybertruck explode https://sputnikglobe.com/20250102/captured-polish-mercenary-reveals-ukraine-recruits-foreign-fighters-indiscriminately-1121334377.html Captured Polish Mercenary Reveals Ukraine Recruits Foreign Fighters Indiscriminately Captured Polish Mercenary Reveals Ukraine Recruits Foreign Fighters Indiscriminately Sputnik International The captured Polish mercenary explained to Sputnik that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are recruiting foreign fighters indiscriminately through a dedicated website due to manpower shortages. 2025-01-02T13:09+0000 2025-01-02T13:09+0000 2025-01-02T13:10+0000 russia's special operation in ukraine americans ukraine ukrainian armed forces mercenaries https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/02/1c/1093441622_0:0:3095:1742_1920x0_80_0_0_46845176c8a9aee972fe566cc8caa34d.jpg The captured Polish mercenary explained to Sputnik that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are recruiting foreign fighters indiscriminately through a dedicated website due to manpower shortages.The Polish national was captured in the Donetsk People's Republic by fighters from a Russian volunteer corps. A Russian unit commander said the man had fought alongside Ukrainian forces.Another mercenary from the United Kingdom was captured in the Donetsk Peoples Republic; he told Sputnik that hundreds of Colombians had signed up with Ukraine's International Legion to fight alongside its armed forces.The training that the mercenaries receive while with the Ukrainian Armed Forces depends on the platoon they are placed in, the Briton said."I was heavy guns. We had no heavy guns, so there was no training. We got given two DshKs [heavy machine guns]. No ammo to learn with, to shoot with, nothing like that," Davis added.He complained about Ukrainian commanders ordering the killing of civilians, including women and children. He said a dozen foreign fighters, who were "not happy with command that are happy to allow war crimes to happen," said they wanted to tear up the contract with the Ukrainian military."I was in a position, essentially my job was just a listening post. I personally heard on the radio for someone to kill three men, but I remember hearing one of the commanders saying kill him. A different position somewhere, okay, I don't know which position it was, there was, I'm pretty sure it was a woman and teenage boy. They got killed. All of us that were in the listening post, we'd had enough. There was about 12 people that wanted to break contract at that minute," he said.Davis accused the Ukrainian command of not caring about the military personnel and treating them as if they were meat."Your chain of command do not care about you. They do not care. They will use you as meat. They will say you will be on a listening post for three to five days. They will keep you there for 10, and then send you to a different position. I point-blank refused to go to a different position. There was no information. We did not have the equipment," he said.After Davis left the position, he spent two months hiding in a bunker to avoid what he presumed were Ukrainian drones."Another bloke died because of drones and stuff. One bloke ran away. I stayed behind and just took cover. I ended up getting grenaded again. Not by Russians. I believe it was by Ukrainians. By a drone At that point I decided to find a bunker and I hid in that bunker for nearly two months," Davis said.Davis was captured by Russias Battlegroup Tsentr in the Donetsk People's Republic city of Toretsk. He said staying alive was an exception, as most foreigners died in the clashes. https://sputnikglobe.com/20241028/american-and-nato-mercs-in-ukraine-reveal-heightened-western-role-escalating-tensions-with-russia-1120709662.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20240728/foreign-mercs-say-ukraine-is-hell-and-nightmare-fleeing-country--former-ukrainian-officer-1119542133.html ukraine Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russian special military operation, ukraine, ukrainian crisis, ukrainian conflict, war in ukraine, foreign mercenaries, foreign mercs, how ukraine recruits mercs BACKGROUND: The first Trilateral Steering Committee meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, to implement the intergovernmental Agreement on the Construction of Trans-Afghan gas pipeline was held in Ashgabat, July 9-10. It was welcomed by the American Deputy Chief of Mission and officials of the Asian Development Bank who participated in the meeting as observers. The ADB has agreed to invest in the feasibility study and to provide between 2 to 3 billion dollars for pipeline construction from Turkmenistan's Daulatabad gas fields to the Pakistani port of Gwadar across Afghanistan. BACKGROUND: The first Trilateral Steering Committee meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, to implement the intergovernmental Agreement on the Construction of Trans-Afghan gas pipeline was held in Ashgabat, July 9-10. It was welcomed by the American Deputy Chief of Mission and officials of the Asian Development Bank who participated in the meeting as observers. The ADB has agreed to invest in the feasibility study and to provide between 2 to 3 billion dollars for pipeline construction from Turkmenistan's Daulatabad gas fields to the Pakistani port of Gwadar across Afghanistan. While Japan and some ASEAN member states have already expressed an interest to import Turkmenistani gas in liquefied form, ADB is confident that more investors, including India would be encouraged to participate in the Project. Despite India's ruling Bharatya Janata Party's constantly changing positions on the pipeline and reservations about importing gas through Pakistan, this has been the first time that an Indian official has formally acknowledged an interest. "Not only are we interested in the Project but we shall also do all we can to lend a helping hand toward this Project", said Ambassador M.N. Roy of India in Ashgabat on July 24. However, given the India-Pakistan border tensions and contradictory statements by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani that India is in a state of war with Pakistan, the actual interest of India in TAGP must be taken with caution at least for the time being. Such hostile statements coupled with the August 22 air and land assault by India on Pakistani Administered Kashmir may lead to a change in Pakistan's hitherto unconditional policy on gas transport to India through TAGP or even the alternately proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. In that case, the hopes that the great role TAGP might play in strengthening regional cooperation is likely to suffer at least in South Asia, perhaps causing delays in gas supplies only to India, if not to the Southeast Asia or Japan. IMPLICATIONS: At least since 1991, various Indian leaders have realized that their long-term trade interest in Central Asia and supplies of its natural resources to India would not be possible without Pakistani cooperation. In various high-level meetings, particularly the Nawaz-Vajpayee Lahore and Vajpayee-Musharraf Agra Summits, leaders of both countries have agreed, at least informally, that the mutual interdependence ensuing from re-connecting links to the traditional silk routes and construction of oil-gas pipelines from Central Asia to India through Pakistan are likely to create a conducive atmosphere, enabling both countries to peacefully manage, if not totally resolve their traditional problems. As such, various Pakistani leaders over the last ten years have unconditionally offered electricity (from Tajikistan) and other oil-gas transit routes for India. However, BJP theoreticians, amid the Party's struggle to revive its electoral image appear bifurcated between the conservatives and relatively moderates. The Party line divide appears to have become serious after the Agra Summit, when BJP conservatives openly started attacking the viability of India-Central Asia trade and gas transit routes via Pakistan. BJP conservatives have tried every possible alternate to avoid the Pakistani route, albeit without success. Even the recent proposal on Russia-China-India gas pipeline publicized through India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation-Overseas was found infeasible. Geopolinomical factors prevailed. While the post-September 11 anti-terrorism world political equation may appear to have brought India and United States closer in some areas, it appears to have compounded India's domestic political problems in Gujarat and Kashmir as well. Electoral image problems leading to border tensions with Pakistan have further distanced the urgently needed gas transition routes. On the one hand, India's foreign exchange reserves have reached approximately US$63 billion, on the other hand, it cannot avail the opportunity to satisfy its increasing gas and energy demands. Currently, India consumes approximately 26 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually, not enough to meet the mammoth economic needs and is running at a gap of 6-8 bcm between demand and supply. According to the US Department of Energy estimate, India, which is the home of 20 percent humanity, will need 37 bcm by 2005 rising to 51 bcm by 2010, and 145 bcm by 2025. Should the gas supplies be easily available, the natural gas demand in India could be as high as 77 bcm by 2010. Lacking sufficient natural gas reserves of its own, on the one hand, India's national interest necessitates gas, on the other, domestic party politics tend to hinder the most economically feasible supply options. Under present circumstances, it appears that even the Steering Committee of TAGP has considered constructing the pipeline initially up to Gwadar. It will consider the extension of this pipeline to India via Multan, Pakistan, once the Indian political leadership would demonstrate the acceptance of new actual gross root geopolitical realities and normalization of India-Pakistan relations in that regard. CONCLUSION: The TAGP seems to have attracted worldwide interest. Obviously, Ambassador Roy has translated the Indian national interest in his statement, while the present policy of the BJP government under heavy domestic political pressures explains differently "between the lines". Moreover, some Central Asian diplomats hold the view that TAGP may not materialize unless Russia is offered some stakes in the Project. Russia's interests in the region can be complex. Nevertheless, given the Russia's emerging engagements in Eurasian affairs and a direct interest in the construction of Iran-Pakistan pipeline might have substituted. At this stage, it appears unlikely that India would be able to convince Russia projecting delays in TAGP construction. Briefly, TAGP construction is likely to continue without Indian participation. By the time the pipeline would be in place, India would need 11-14 bcm of additional gas to meet its growing requirements. An earlier participation by India would not only help solve this problem but it will also create a new chapter of interdependence in India-Pakistan relations. AUTHORS' BIO: Professor Aftab Kazi is a researcher at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University and Institute of Political Science, Leipzig University. Mr. Tariq Saeedi is a journalist based in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Copyright 2001 The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst. All rights reserved. https://sputnikglobe.com/20250102/gunman-kills-10-people-including-2-children-in-montenegro---interior-minister-1121332271.html Gunman Kills 10 People, Including 2 Children, in Montenegro - Interior Minister Gunman Kills 10 People, Including 2 Children, in Montenegro - Interior Minister Sputnik International A gunman shot dead at least 10 people, including two children, in the Montenegrin city of Cetinje, Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic said. 2025-01-02T07:08+0000 2025-01-02T07:08+0000 2025-01-02T07:08+0000 world europe montenegro podgorica national security council european union (eu) shooting mass shooting https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/08/0a/1112497303_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_73ba08be35b8f33d83a4c5f7bc84f269.jpg On Wednesday, the Montenegrin police department said that in the afternoon, a man shot several people and then fled. The suspect also killed several members of his own family, the minister added. Later on Wednesday, Saranovic said that the shooter committed suicide. He also added that the number of victims could increase to 12. "[He] attempted to commit suicide, but did not die on the spot. He died on the way to the Clinical Center of Montenegro in Podgorica," Saranovic said. At the same time, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic noted that the National Security Council would consider a ban on gun ownership following the Cetinje shooting and called for tougher penalties for illegal gun ownership. Montenegrin media reported that before the attack, the shooter had an argument with one of the victims, then went home to get a gun, returned to a cafe and killed and wounded several people. After that, he killed the children of the cafe owner and one woman. The shooter is reportedly known for his aggressive behavior and has previously been detained for illegal possession of weapons. montenegro podgorica Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International shooting in montenegro, gunman kills people in montenegro, shooting incident in montenegro, what happened in montenegro https://sputnikglobe.com/20250102/slovak-pm-threatens-to-cut-support-for-ukrainians-in-slovakia-over-gas-transit-dispute-1121339458.html Slovak PM Threatens to Cut Support for Ukrainians in Slovakia Over Gas Transit Dispute Slovak PM Threatens to Cut Support for Ukrainians in Slovakia Over Gas Transit Dispute Sputnik International Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has threatened that his party, Smer-SD, is ready to support reducing assistance to Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia in response to Ukraine's suspension of Russian gas transit. 2025-01-02T18:02+0000 2025-01-02T18:02+0000 2025-01-02T18:02+0000 world robert fico ukraine slovakia russia european union (eu) naftogaz gazprom russian gas https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/08/08/1119678500_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_f8dafba4d3707bb15ad65600c7a1f78f.jpg "On behalf of Smer-SD, I say that we are ready to discuss and agree within the coalition to halt electricity supplies and significantly reduce support for Ukrainian citizens on Slovak territory," Fico stated in a video message posted on his social media.He expressed hope that his government coalition partners would also take the situation of the suspended gas transit through Ukraine seriously. "On Tuesday, a government delegation will take part in negotiations in Brussels, where Ukrainian politicians had the audacity to complain about us for being ready to take reciprocal measures, for example, by stopping electricity supplies to Ukraine. After the delegation returns from Brussels, the coalition and then the government will convene. We will discuss the measures that we will take to adequately respond to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky's sabotage," Fico said. An agreement between Russias Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz was concluded on December 30, 2019 and expired on Tuesday. Earlier in December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out extending the gas transit deal with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 26 that Kiev's lawsuit against Moscow made a new gas deal impossible.Last year, Gazprom supplied about 15 billion cubic meters via the pipeline in Ukraine, which accounted for 4.5% of total EU consumption and supplied Moldova and four EU countries, including Slovakia, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic. https://sputnikglobe.com/20250101/fears-of-new-energy-crisis-rekindled-in-europe-as-russia-ceases-gas-supply-via-ukraine-1121326804.html ukraine slovakia russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International slovakia, robert fico, ukraine, russian gaz, russian gaz transit, gazprom, naftogaz https://sputnikglobe.com/20250102/year-of-turmoil-how-2024-will-be-remembered-in-the-middle-east-1121258366.html Year of Turmoil: How 2024 Will Be Remembered in the Middle East Year of Turmoil: How 2024 Will Be Remembered in the Middle East Sputnik International 2024 proved the old axiom that the Middle East is the perpetual home of instability and strife, with a series of militia vs. state, state vs. state and bloc vs. bloc conflicts plaguing the region, virtually all of them involving Israel. Sputnik asked a pair of top regional affairs experts to sum up 2024, and provide forecasts for the coming year. 2025-01-02T12:00+0000 2025-01-02T12:00+0000 2025-01-04T08:54+0000 analysis mohammad marandi middle east hassan nasrallah bashar assad israel iran hezbollah hamas 2024: year-end wrap-up https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/08/1c/1119941653_0:161:3071:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_9033d8a38814b8ccd23dc1a067f324e3.jpg Israel vs. HamasThe hot phase of the perpetual conflict between Israel and Palestinian militia group Hamas that erupted on October 7, 2023 continued unabated through 2024, with ceasefire talks dragging on, and the conflict continuing to claim lives (over 45,000 mostly civilian deaths in Gaza to date, and hundreds of IDF casualties).Its been going on for almost 15 months now, and the West fully supports it. They continue to provide weapons, ammunition, political cover and media support for these outrageous and barbaric attacks, Marandi said.Israel vs. Hezbollah2024 will also be remembered as the year Israel went aggro on Hezbollah, launching a massive bombing campaign and ground incursion in south Lebanon, targeting militia leaders with boobytrapped pagers and walkie talkies, and murdering Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a September airstrike.It reminds me [of the situation] after the Beirut port explosion which took place in August 2020, Beirut-based political analyst Yeghia Tashjian recalled to Sputnik about the pager attacks. There was panic in the streets. People were not aware of what had happened until late in the night.Israel vs. IranThe past year saw the first-ever direct clash between Iran and Israel, with an attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on April 1, 2024 triggering a massive Iranian drone and missile response, and the murder of Hezbollah, Hamas and IRGC figures later in the year prompting a second retaliatory attack in October, with dozens of missiles finding their targets at Israeli military bases and intel sites.Israel vs. Houthis2024 also saw the continuation and expansion of the David vs. Goliath struggle between Israel and Yemens Houthi fighters, whose campaign of missile and drone attacks in support of Gaza was ramped up to effectively block the Red and Arabian Seas to Israeli-linked shipping, and include numerous strikes on Israel itself.The deployment of vast US military assets to the region and the launch of airstrikes targeting Houthi infrastructure failed to deter the militia, with the indefatigable group only ramping up its strikes, and prompting some pundits to warn that the mighty US Navy is losing to the fighters.Israel vs. SyriaA surprise offensive by militias in northwest Syria in late November quickly overwhelmed defenses, culminating in the collapse of the Assad government. Israel took advantage of the chaos by occupying wide swathes of southern Syria, and wiped out vast stocks of equipment, including the nations once-powerful air defenses.What Does 2025 Have in Store?I think the Middle East to some extent reminds me of 2011, Tashjian said, referring to the transformative but violence-filled year of the so-called Arab Spring.The shockwave, the illusions and delusions to some extent, are huge. It will impact not just the current generation, but the generations to come, the observer emphasized. https://sputnikglobe.com/20241224/israel-demolishing-gaza-residential-areas-building-fortifications-there---reports-1121249640.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20241223/ex-mossad-agents-reveal-grisly-details-of-israeli-pager-terror-attack-against-hezbollah-1121246152.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20241108/iran-showed-israel-only-small-part-of-its-retaliatory-capabilities-in-october-strike-irgc-chief-1120825844.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20241223/houthis-likely-shot-down-us-jet-over-red-sea---former-pentagon-analyst-1121247045.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20241217/syria-will-not-be-used-as-launchpad-for-attacks-on-israel---armed-opposition-leader-1121194412.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230215/from-arab-spring-to-failed-state-winter-how-gaddafis-misplaced-trust-in-the-west-led-to-his-demise-1107470635.html israel iran Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov how will 2024 be remembered in the middle east, was 2024 a good year for the middle east, how did 2024 change the middle east Gerard Demers wrapped up the 2024 racing season in third place for national training wins, securing an impressive 147 victories. Hes now starting 2025 off strong, already making his mark with a training triple on the Jan. 1 card at The Raceway at Western Fair District. Travis Henry joined forces with Demers for all three victories, beginning in Race 6 with Gascoigne Sundae ($3). The heavy 1-2 favourite delivered a dominant wire-to-wire performance, with Henry guiding him to fend off late challengers and cross the finish line in 1:58. Gascoigne Sundae, a seven-year-old Hilarious Halo-Gascoigne Dickie gelding, is owned by La Ferme Tag Inc. Win number two followed swiftly in Race 7 with Hes Got Swagger ($3.50). A bold pocket pull after the first turn proved key, as Henry and Hes Got Swagger pulled away from the field to score a commanding five-length victory in 1:57.3. Hes Got Swagger is a 10-year-old gelding by Vintage Master out of Bubbles Promise. Demers owns the pacer. The training triple was completed in Race 9 with the pacesetting Fern Hill Breeze ($6.30). Leading from start to finish, Fern Hill Breeze and Henry crossed the wire in 2:00.1, capping off a perfect night for Demers. Fern Hill Breeze, an 11-year-old gelding by Articulator out of Talbot Victoria, is owned by Craig Ellis. Demers boasts 1,147 lifetime training wins and career earnings of $10,049,087, with his most successful season coming in 2024. Hes off to a strong start in 2025, already amassing $8,050 in earnings, signalling another promising year ahead. Spooky Lou secured the title of Canadian harness racing's first victor of the 2025 season. Sam Fillion drove the three-year-old grey colt by Dancin Lou out of Paris Freeluck for trainer Thomas Riley, who co-owns with Barry McClennan. Spooky Lou's victory sets the tone for an exciting racing season ahead. Live harness racing at The Raceway at Western Fair District resumes on Friday, Jan. 3. To view Wednesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Wednesday Results - Western Fair Raceway. (Standardbred Canada) Despite the cold and windy conditions, Majorca N sealed the deal, winning the $36,232 Mares Open Pace at Bally's Dover on Wednesday, Jan. 1. Majorca N was launched from post seven by driver Corey Callahan. She quickly took control, leading the field through an opening quarter in :27.2, with the 2-5 favourite Elektra A (Tim Tetrick) settling into the pocket. Maintaining an uncontested lead, Majorca N reached the half in :55.4. Last week's winner, Disturbed Hanover (Barton Dalious), made a bold first-over move up the backstretch, while Factory Girl (Victor Kirby) followed second-over and Lofty Treasure (Trae Porter) was carried into a third-over trip on the rim. However, none of those bids materialized into a serious challenge. Majorca N continued to control the pace, hitting the third quarter in 1:24.4. Elektra A, who had bested Majorca N in their previous matchup, launched a final charge along the pylons, but her bid fell short. Majorca N held strong to take the win, with Elektra A finishing second and Factory Girl crossing the line in third. Majorca N, a 10-year-old mare by Art Major out of Cloudy Beach, won by a measured length in 1:53.2 and paid $7.40 for the victory. She is trained by Dylan Davis, who co-owns with Michael Casalino Jr. from Freehold, New Jersey. There is a $2,111 Pentacecta carryover to the 14th race on Thursday, Jan. 2. Ballys Dover races Monday through Thursday with a 4:30 p.m. post time. (With files from Ballys Dover) The field for Cal Expo's $13,800 USD final of the Will Meyers Memorial Pace is set for Friday, Jan. 3, headlined by elimination winners Sign Of The Times, who has won his three races at the meet by a combined 35 lengths, and Canadian invader Alien Art Form. First post for the Watch and Wager LLC program will be 6:45 p.m. Sign Of The Times is a five-year-old son of Special Forces who has absolutely obliterated the competition in his three appearances at this meet for trainer Rick Bertrand and co-owner Ashlee Glader with Mooney Svendsen along for the ride. He crushed conditioned foes by 13 and 12 lengths in his first two Cal Expo starts then captured his $7,143 Meyers elimination by just shy of 10 lengths in 1:57.3 over the 'good' track conditions last Friday, Dec. 27. Alien Art Form, a four-year-old Alberta-bred son of Outrageous Art, won the other Meyers elimination in his Cal Expo return and timed it just right for owner, trainer and driver Ryan Grundy to hang a half-length decision on 1-2 favourite JK Parcells in 1:59.4 in that affair. Sign Of The Times is the 2-1 morning line favourite and will start from post four in the seventh race Meyers final, with Alien Art Form just one spot over to his right in the nine-horse field. There are three wagers on Friday night with a reduced 16 per cent takeout rate: the 20-cent Pick 5 and the 20-cent early and late Pick 4, with a $15,000 guaranteed gross pool on the Pick 5 and a $20,000 guarantee on the late Pick 4. The Pick 4 is part of the United States Trotting Association's Strategic Wagering Program. Chambers Credits Competition For All Champy Admiration for the popular trotter Pridecrest provided the inspiration for owner Steve Chambers to currently campaign one of the top side-wheelers on the Cal Expo grounds in All Champy. In last Friday's $11,000 Open Trot, the Kathie Plested trainee tracked favourite Lous Lancelot to the stretch, took over when that one made a break and went on to a clear-cut victory in 2:00.3 with Nick Roland in the sulky. It was the 44th lifetime score from 221 starts for the then 10-year-old Explosive Matter gelding. Ive always been a huge fan of Pridecrest, related Chambers. I knew that Gilbert Herrera was planning to retire and I asked him if he could find me a top trotter big enough for me to drive before he left the East Coast racing scene. My dream was to drive in the Open Trot every week against Pridecrest and Gilbert sent us a very big, very classy, but also rather difficult guy, in All Champy. Kathie did an outstanding job getting him to win the Wiseman Trot at Running Aces this summer. It was a highlight of my time as an owner, and he was masterfully handled by Mooney Svensden. After finishing a solid second to Lous Lancelot during opening week in his first start in nearly three months, All Champy was ready to rock and roll last week with Roland doing the honours for the 2-1/4-length victory over stablemate Pridecrest. Kathie said Im not ready to get in the bike yet, but Im pleased we have Nick handling the lines, added Chambers. In other highlights from the weekend, Alexia Kehl recorded her first pari-mutuel driving victory with her trotter Serene Hall winning by five lengths in 2:01.3 on Saturday, Dec. 28. Kehl had just eight prior winning drives at Minnesota and Wisconsin fair tracks. (With files from Cal Expo) After a career of more than 33 years in law enforcement, Scottsbluff Police Chief Kevin Spencer retired this week from his position leading the department to focus on his position leading the city. The Scottsbluff Police Department and its officers honored Spencer at a retirement celebration at the public safety building in Scottsbluff on Tuesday, Dec. 31. This was supposed to be a surprise, he said, laughing. I found out about it (Monday). Field Operations Capt. Lance Kite and Capt. Krisa Brass read Spencers law enforcement history as well as congratulatory letters at the celebration. Spencer started his career as a patrol officer in 1991 in Great Bend, Kansas, where he eventually moved to patrol corporal and then detective, as well as serving on the SWAT team. He also spent time in Pawnee County, Kansas, as a sheriffs deputy. Then he moved to Morrill, where he served as police chief for about a year before joining the Scottsbluff Police Department in March 2001. In Scottsbluff, Spencer served as a rotating investigator from early 2002 until his promotion to sergeant that November. He was promoted to patrol lieutenant in 2004 and then captain in 2006. He was named police chief in May 2013. Spencer is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy Class Number 247, Kite said, which for those not in the business, thats not an easy task to do. As an officer, Spencer received the City of Scottsbluff Excellence in Public Service award, among other accolades. One of the honors he cites as most important to him occurred when the League of Nebraska Municipalities honored him with the Distinguished Service Award in March 2023 for his work with LB 1041 and LB 1241 during the 2022 legislative session, in cooperation with Buffalo County Sheriff Neil Miller. LB 1014 appropriated funds to make significant upgrades at the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center. LB 1241 expedited reciprocity applications for officers transferring from other agencies to support filling vacancies in law enforcement, allowing departments to improve incentives and other offerings to attract and retain certified officers. The two bills were cited as making transformational improvements in training facilities and laws to benefit law enforcement agencies throughout the state. At the time, Spencer was president of the Police Chiefs Association of Nebraska. When he received the award, it was the first time in league history that the award had not been presented to a senator. Among the greater accomplishments during his time as chief, Spencer told the Star-Herald, is the transition to more modern technology and data systems. One of the first projects that Spencer said he undertook was improving the departments records management system. At the same time, he said, he worked with the county to improve the computer-aided dispatch system, not only for the Scottsbluff Police Department but for others as well. It just made sense to me that they were the same or together, and we really accomplished that, he said. We have a system that is shared by everyone in the county, and there are other Panhandle agencies that now use the same system. The department also transitioned to mobile data terminals, which involves each of the officers having a computer in their car that is connected to the records management system. Officers can issue e-citations, look up records and other activities while on patrol. The department has also successfully deployed license plate readers, and other departments in the area have followed in implementing the technology. Today, the Scottsbluff Police Department has 33 sworn officers positions, up from 31 when Spencer began as chief. He added a second school resource officer and then a third who is specifically assigned to the college. He said he believes the department could benefit from additional sworn officer positions and he hopes to see that in the future. Like many departments in the region, state and nation, he said, the department has struggled with keeping all its positions filled. The department is currently staffed at 30 sworn officers, with another round of testing of applicants to fill positions scheduled Jan. 10. Another area he said he focused on during his time as chief was improving professional development opportunities, including changing the departments structure, recognizing the accomplishments of officers and focusing on training opportunities. We went from a department that was doing training in reaction to new mandates to ... having our instructors on our staff. Weve taken professional development very seriously at the department. Spencer also cited the recent partnership with DOVES to have a domestic violence advocate at the department as a positive change made during his tenure. I think ... thats proven to be having a great impact for the police department, the community and the victims of crimes. I think that its been a great program and I hope it continues and grows, he said, saying that he has also been encouraging efforts to partner to have a social worker staffed at the department. While Spencer is retiring his law credentials, he isnt entering a life of retirement. Spencer has served as a city manager since February 2022, named one of two interim city managers after the Scottsbluff City Council dismissed the previous city manager. In October 2022, he was named city manager after being selected from a final pool of three candidates. He has received positive reviews from council members since taking the post. Its new and its exciting to me, he said of the city manager position. Its a great opportunity for someone else to be the chief in Scottsbluff, he said, noting that fresh ideas would be welcome at the department, and his biggest wish is to see the department continue to move forward. He praised the work of current Capts. Lance Kite and Krisa Brass, who he said made it possible for him to serve in dual roles over the last two years. Of course, in his role as city manager, Spencer will continue to work with the police department, like other city departments. Im still going to be working, Im going to be the city manager, he told officers during the retirement party. I would encourage all of you to come in and stop in and see me, visit with me. I like seeing you guys in that building, too. The City of Scottsbluff officially began its search for a police chief six months ago. After struggling to get a good pool of applicants, Spencer told the Star-Herald that four candidates which includes two local candidates are being considered and will be narrowed down to a final pool of three. Garuda Aerospace has signed an agreement with Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments Limited (REIL) to establish a Remote Pilot Training Organisation (RPTO) in Jaipur. This strategic collaboration will address the growing demand for skilled drone operators across diverse sectors by providing comprehensive, DGCA-compliant training programs. The RPTO will offer a robust curriculum encompassing theoretical knowledge, practical flight training, and maintenance procedures, preparing graduates for a wide range of drone applications in industries such as agriculture, infrastructure, surveillance, and logistics. This initiative aims to drive wider adoption of drone technology in Rajasthan, fostering economic growth and innovation by creating new employment opportunities and empowering local talent. The Agreement signifies a strategic collaboration between Garuda Aerospaces expertise in drone technology and training and REILs established infrastructure and reach in Rajasthan. The RPTO will offer comprehensive training programs adhering to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) regulations, By combining Garuda Aerospaces expertise in drone technology and training with REILs established infrastructure and local presence, the RPTO will provide a robust platform for effective training delivery. The collaboration demonstrates Garuda Aerospaces commitment to empowering individuals and modernising industries, contributing to Indias rise as a global drone powerhouse. Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO Garuda Aerospace, said, As we prepare for our IPO, Garuda Aerospace remains deeply committed to building a strong foundation for the Indian drone industry. This partnership with REIL is a crucial investment in that future, focusing on the critical need for skilled drone pilots. By providing high-quality training, we are not only creating job opportunities but also raising awareness about the vast potential of drone technology across various sectors. This is essential for the industrys sustained growth and our own continued success. Shri Dr P N Sharma, Managing Director, REIL added, We are excited to partner with Garuda Aerospace on this important initiative. By combining our resources and expertise, we can create a world-class training centre that will equip aspiring drone pilots with the skills they need to succeed in this rapidly growing industry. We see significant potential for drone technology to benefit various sectors in Rajasthan, and this partnership will play a key role in unlocking that potential. Optiemus Unmanned Systems announced its partnership with LS Spectrum Solutions, a leading provider of advanced drone-based spectrum analyzers and a subsidiary of Germany-based LS Telecom AG for the marketing, assembly, and distribution of LS Spectrums cutting-edge drone-based spectrum analysis solutions within the Indian market. Giving further momentum to its Drone business and Make in India, Optiemus partnership with LS Spectrum will be a game changer for its defence offerings and will provide the company a significant edge in the market. This partnership has the potential to extend beyond drone-based solutions, delving into the market for managing, observing and defence of Spectrum thru various capabilities like spectrum surveillance, direction finding and geolocation, Electronic Support Measures, Signals Intelligence, Electronic Counter Measures, etc. Through this strategic partnership, initially Optiemus will sell the advanced spectrum analyser drones for LS Spectrum. These products are poised to transform spectrum monitoring across multiple sectors especially in defence. LS Spectrum brings to the table its deep expertise in spectrum analysis technology to deliver value to the India Market and meet the objectives of Make In India. These drones will support seamless detection and analysis of spectrum usage, enabling improved management of communication frequencies in India. The partnership reflects a commitment for both the companies to contribute towards the deploying of state-of-the-art telecom and drone-based solutions for the Indian market. Leveraging its local expertise and infrastructure, OUS will cater to a wide range of sectorsincluding telecommunications, defense, homeland security, and civil aviationempowering Indian organizations with cost-effective, precise and innovative solutions tailored for spectrum analysis and monitoring. Mr. Ashok Gupta, Chairman, Optiemus Infracom said, We are excited to expand the portfolio of our products and services being offered by OUS. We look at this collaboration as a perfect opportunity to leverage our Distribution and localization capabilities to deliver quality solutions for the Indian defence, homeland security and aviation industry and forging global partnerships to take forward the Make-in-India story. This partnership will deliver an unmatched offering in the market and we will also explore to further diversify into other products of LS Spectrum Solutions in future to strengthen our proposition. Mr. Prasad Kerkar, Director, LS Spectrum Solutions said, Its truly a milestone for us as through this MoU, we reinforce our commitment to contributing to Indias growing technology landscape by introducing sophisticated, one-of-its kind drone-based spectrum solutions in the country. We aim to increase awareness and adoption of these innovative products across India and work closely with Optiemus. We are upbeat on opportunities in India and will be actively engaging with local stakeholders to showcase the capabilities of our unique solutions. Through this partnership, we will be also looking at developing solutions to address the issue of unauthorized cellular activity, such as illicit communications originating from prisons in India, Mr. Kerkar said. The UAVs will enable real-time monitoring of communication frequencies, which is critical for managing spectrum resources, especially in high-demand areas like telecommunications and civil aviation. Additionally, they will be able to enhance security by allowing defence and homeland security sectors to conduct surveillance and detect unauthorized spectrum activities. By deploying drones for spectrum analysis, organizations can operate efficiently in challenging environments, realizing significant time and cost savings compared to traditional spectrum monitoring methods. As per the recent EY FICCI report titled, Making India the drone hub of the world, the drone and its components industry can significantly strengthen Indias manufacturing potential to US$23 billion approximately by 2030. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Offshore drilling rig. Credit: Jan-Rune Smenes Reite (https://www.pexels.com/) The hydrogen economy promises to transform our energy future, but we face significant challenges in realizing its potentialthe main one among them is energy storage. For us in South Asia, a region blessed with abundant hydrocarbon basins, the geological storage of hydrogen emerges as a promising solution. In current research published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, we explore the technical capacities, economic implications, and strategic advantages of underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, emphasizing its role in addressing the region's growing energy demands and fostering a low-carbon future. Why geologic storage matters for us Hydrogen is often celebrated as the fuel of the future due to its high energy density and clean-burning properties. However, we face challenges in scaling up its use because current storage methodscompressed gas, liquid hydrogen, and emerging technologies like cryogenic and solid-state storageare limited in capacity and cost-effectiveness. Geological hydrogen storage, especially in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, offers us a scalable and economically viable alternative. Porous geological reservoirs are especially attractive due to their established infrastructure, geologic stability, and high capacity. South Asia's hydrocarbon basins, distributed across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, have historically served as energy reserves. Today, they stand poised to play a central role in the transition to hydrogen as a primary energy source. Storage potential: A regional perspective When we assess the storage potential across South Asia, the numbers are staggering. Across 59 porous reservoirs, we find a cumulative hydrogen storage capacity of nearly 29,799 terawatt-hours (TWh). India leads with 75% of this capacity, with major basins like Mumbai Offshore, Krishna Godavari, and Vindhyan offering immense possibilities. Pakistan and Bangladesh also contribute significantly, with 4,718 TWh and 2,274 TWh of storage capacity, while Sri Lanka offers a vital 197 TWh. By considering hydrogen-methane blends, we can further enhance our energy storage potential. For example, a 75% hydrogen blend can store 65% more energy than pure hydrogen in the same basin. This approach allows us to maximize existing natural gas infrastructure, reducing costs and easing our transition to hydrogen-based energy systems. Evaluating costs and challenges The levelized cost of hydrogen storage (LCHS) is a crucial factor for us to evaluate economic feasibility. Across South Asia, these costs vary. For instance, Bangladesh and Pakistan lead with the lowest costs at $1.28 and $1.20 per kilogram, while India and Sri Lanka stand slightly higher at $2.01 and $2.00. These differences reflect variations in well construction costs and reservoir depths. Snow around a ship and platform on the sea. Credit: Vitali Adutskevich (https://www.pexels.com/) Well depth significantly impacts costs in India, where deeper wells increase both capital and operational expenditures. Conversely, compressor costs are the dominant expense in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Despite these differences, South Asia's LCHS is globally competitive, providing a viable foundation for scaling up hydrogen storage. Proximity to renewable energy sources: A strategic advantage Hydrogen production depends heavily on renewable energy, and South Asia offers us unique opportunities. With diverse geographies, we have access to substantial solar and wind capacities. Western and southern India, with high renewable potential, align perfectly with key storage basins like Krishna Godavari and Mumbai Offshore. Similarly, Pakistan's northern and eastern regions, along with Bangladesh's southeastern basins, such as Shabazpur and Sangu, offer strategic locations to minimize transportation costs for green hydrogen. Overcoming risks together While geological hydrogen storage offers tremendous promise, we must address the risks. Reservoir heterogeneity, fluid-rock interactions, and potential fault reactivation need thorough evaluation. Additionally, understanding hydrogen plume behavior, managing microbial activity, and preventing gas leakage are critical to ensuring safe and efficient storage. We also need to manage our expectations regarding capacity. For example, even using a conservative estimate0.1% of India's basin volumecan store approximately 22.6 TWh of hydrogen, a significant capacity to meet our growing energy demands. Building our hydrogen future South Asia's hydrogen storage potential isn't just about energy independence; it's a chance for us to lead the global transition to a low-carbon future. Our hydrocarbon basins can help us address renewable energy intermittency while maintaining a stable energy supply. To seize this opportunity, we need to invest in infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and technological advancements. By working together across nations and forming global partnerships, we can accelerate the adoption of hydrogen as the backbone of our energy systems. This is our moment. By repurposing our hydrocarbon basins for hydrogen storage, we can tackle our energy challenges, drive regional economic growth, and set an example for the world. Together, we can unlock South Asia's hydrogen economy and move toward a sustainable, hydrogen-powered future. This story is part of Science X Dialog, where researchers can report findings from their published research articles. Visit this page for information about Science X Dialog and how to participate. More information: Debanjan Guha Roy et al, Capacity assessment and economic analysis of geologic storage of hydrogen in hydrocarbon basins: A South Asian perspective, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.10.282 Journal information: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy Debanjan Guha Roy is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur. His research interest is in geological energy storage and production, emergent geo-energy solutions, and geological engineering for infrastructure development and protection. You are here: Business A worker conducts static testing on a FAW-Hongqi EH7 new energy vehicle (NEV) at a plant of FAW-Hongqi in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, April 24, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua] Hongqi, a car brand under China's leading automaker FAW Group Co., Ltd., saw its annual sales volume exceed 400,000 units for the first time in 2024. Hongqi sales figures reached a record of 411,777 units last year, representing an increase of 17.4 percent compared with the previous year and marking positive growth for seven consecutive years, according to the company on Wednesday. Notably, new energy vehicle sales soared to 115,000 units -- up 43.7 percent. Hongqi, meaning red flag, is China's iconic sedan brand. Established in 1958, the brand has seen its vehicles used in parades to mark national celebrations. Its producer, FAW Group, was founded in 1953 in the northeastern city of Changchun, Jilin Province, which is regarded as the cradle of China's auto industry. In 2024, the group achieved a total vehicle sales volume of 3.2 million units, with revenue exceeding 550 billion yuan (76.5 billion U.S. dollars). China's decision to gradually raise statutory retirement age took effect Wednesday, the first adjustment in over 70 years as the country proactively addresses population aging. Chinese lawmakers voted to adopt the decision in September. The statutory retirement age for men will be gradually raised from 60 to 63 in the course of 15 years starting Jan. 1, 2025, while that for women cadres and women blue-collar workers will be raised from 55 to 58 and from 50 to 55, respectively. Starting 2030, the minimum year of basic pension contributions required to receive monthly benefits will be gradually raised from 15 years to 20 years at the pace of an increase of six months annually. Meanwhile, people will be allowed to voluntarily retire by no more than three years in advance after reaching the minimum year of pension contributions. The new policies will also allow individuals to postpone retirement to an even later date if they reach an agreement with employers, but such a delay should be no more than three years. Behind the reform are four major changes in China's population structure: increased life expectancy, more years of schooling, deepening aging and a decline in working-age population. The average life expectancy in China has reached 78.6 years, the latest data showed. Official data also showed that China has entered a moderately aging society. There were 297 million people aged 60 or above in the country at the end of 2023, accounting for 21.1 percent of the total population. According to projections, the number of people aged 60 or above in China will surpass 400 million around 2035, accounting for over 30 percent of the total. In line with the retirement reform and the overall demographic trend, China has been making a series of policy adjustments in multiple fields. According to revised regulations that took effect Wednesday, the maximum age limit for applying for a medium or heavy bus or truck driver's license has been raised from 60 to 63. China is also stepping up elderly care initiatives. At a national conference on civil affairs on Monday, officials outlined progress in boosting home-based care, nursing facilities and protection for seniors in 2024 as well as new measures for 2025. In 2024, the central government allocated 300 million yuan (about 41 million U.S. dollars) to support elderly meal assistance programs nationwide while additional initiatives helped set up 358,000 in-home care beds. China's Spring Festival travel volume is expected to reach a record high, with transport authorities meticulously making preparations, including increasing transportation capacity, strengthening transportation coordination, enhancing safety measures and optimizing services, officials said. The Spring Festival travel rush, or chunyun, is set to break historical records this year, with an estimated 9 billion trips expected to be made across the country during the 40-day period from Jan 14 to Feb 22, according to Li Chunlin, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission. This marks a nearly 7 percent increase from 2024, when the number of trips reached 8.4 billion. For many, China's Spring Festival travel rush is not just the beginning of the year, but a journey home a journey filled with reunions, joy and traditions. As the world's largest annual human migration unfolds once again, it not only highlights the sheer scale of this extraordinary feat, but also serves as a powerful testament to the Chinese government's ability to organize, manage and execute such a complex operation. It's a remarkable celebration of homecoming, family and the human spirit, and a resounding verification of China's management capabilities on a global stage. At a national video conference on Tuesday, Li outlined plans to ensure a smooth and efficient Spring Festival travel season. He emphasized the importance of enhancing transportation capacity, improving safety measures and optimizing passenger services. "We are committed to delivering a safe, warm and convenient Spring Festival journey," he said. The 2025 chunyun period will see surges in rail and air travels. The number of rail passenger trips is expected to surpass 510 million, while civil aviation is set to handle 90 million trips, with both numbers reflecting increases over 2024 levels. Self-driving travel will remain the dominant mode of transportation. In preparation, authorities are taking comprehensive steps to accommodate the anticipated passenger flow, including expanding transportation capacity, improving coordination between different modes of transportation and enhancing emergency response capabilities. The Ministry of Transport has also established a team to oversee Spring Festival operations, ensuring smooth integration of rail, road, sea and air transportation services. Li Yang, vice-minister of transport, noted that both overall travel demand and single-day peak travel numbers are expected to hit new records, requiring rigorous planning and resource allocation. The railway network is preparing for two peak travel days Jan 25, before the holiday, and Feb 4, the last day of the holiday. Spring Festival falls on Jan 29 this year and the holiday goes from Jan 28 to Feb 4. To meet the surge in demand, the rail sector plans to increase daily passenger train services to a peak of 14,100 before the holiday and 14,200 afterward. This is a 3.9 percent and 4.3 percent increase, respectively, compared with last year's capacity. High-speed trains on key routes, including from Guangdong province's Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and Shanghai and Beijing, will provide overnight services to meet the demand. Officials are also improving connectivity between different modes of transportation. With an eye on convenience, transport authorities are ensuring smooth transfers for travelers, especially for "first and last mile" connectivity from transport hubs to destinations. Electric vehicles will continue to grow in popularity during the travel rush, with an expected increase in EV usage compared to previous years. According to Li, the vice-minister, the percentage of electric vehicle travel during the National Day holiday in October reached 15.9 percent, and the upcoming Spring Festival holiday is expected to see similar trends. However, the growing demand for charging stations remains a challenge. "Every holiday, the difficulties of finding charging stations and the anxiety over battery range are common problems travelers face," Li said. "To tackle this issue, we're actively working on solutions and making preparations to ensure a smoother journey for everyone." As of November, more than 33,000 charging posts had been installed across China's expressways, an increase of 12,000 from 2023. In addition, about 97 percent of the more than 6,000 service areas on China's expressway network have charging posts. However, during peak periods, some regions still face insufficient charging capacity. The Ministry of Transport is addressing this by deploying mobile charging stations and optimizing the distribution of existing infrastructure based on demand forecasts. Travelers can also check for available charging stations through various apps and on-site displays. Li assured that efforts are underway to further expand charging facilities, with a goal of achieving general coverage of fixed and mobile charging infrastructure by the end of 2025, ensuring that electric vehicle users have a smooth travel experience. In addition to addressing capacity issues, authorities are focused on maintaining safety standards across all transportation networks. Strict safety protocols will be enforced, including enhanced inspections and risk assessments. Special measures will be taken to prevent congestion and ensure smooth traffic flow, particularly at key travel hubs and bottleneck areas. (TBTCO) - Lai suat ngan hang ngay 14/3/2025, tiep tuc chung kien nhieu thay oi manh me. Sau ot ieu chinh lien tuc tu au thang, cac ngan hang a cong bo muc lai suat moi, ac biet la lai suat huy ong cho cac ky han tu 12 - 36 thang. Cac thay oi nay phan anh xu huong giam lai suat huy ong o nhieu ngan hang, nhung cung co nhung ngan hang ap dung cac chuong trinh lai suat ac biet cho cac khach hang co so du gui tiet kiem lon. You have reached a premium content area of Transitions. To read this entire article please login if you are already a Transitions subscriber. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today for access to: Full access to the website, including premium articles videos, country reports and searchable archives (containing over 25,000 articles). Diriyah Company, the developer behind Saudi Arabias 14 sq km landmark cultural and lifestyle destination, Diriyah, has announced its successful deployment of SAP Private Cloud Solutions, marking a significant milestone in its digital transformation journey. This initiative, supported by cloud computing solutions, will significantly enhance services provided to visitors, residents, partners, and employees of Diriyah, said the company in a statement. As one of the largest urban development projects in the kingdom, the deployment of these solutions in Diriyah will provide a 360-degree overview of all operations, streamlining and automating processes to enable data-driven and agile decision-making. The comprehensive SAP-powered transformation ensures that Diriyah Company is equipped with a flexible, scalable, and future-proofed technology infrastructure. The deployment includes the SAP ERP Private cloud solution, which accelerates the secure transition of core business processes to the cloud. Specialised modules for real estate were included, alongside the deployment of SAP SuccessFactors for human resource management. Additionally, the SAP Ariba procurement solution and the SAP Business Technology innovation platform have been deployed, enabling improved application development, data management, planning and analytics, integration, and automation. Group CEO Jerry Inzerillo said: "Our partnership with SAP has been instrumental in achieving this critical phase of our digital transformation. The implementation of SAPs innovative solutions allows us to optimise our operations and enhance our service delivery, ultimately creating a more enriching experience for our stakeholders." CTO Michael Ibbitson said: "Diriyah and SAP have been on a journey since the inception of the project. The deployment of cutting-edge cloud computing solutions marks a major milestone in our collaboration." "Fully hosted in KSA, the flexible, scalable and future-proof infrastructure will enable decision-making that is data-driven and agile, amid the complexities of one of the largest urban development projects in the world," he stated. SAP has been a partner in Diriyah's journey since its inception. This milestone signifies a significant step in Diriyah Companys collaboration with the deployment of the SAP platform, fully hosted within Saudi Arabia. This flexible, scalable, and future-proof infrastructure will empower data-driven and agile decision-making amid the complexities of one of the world's largest urban development projects. Hans-Peter Fulle, Chief Business Officer for SAP EMEA, said: "We are immensely proud to support Diriyah Company on its bold journey toward becoming a global cultural and tourism landmark." "By integrating multiple innovative SAP solutions, Diriyah has significantly elevated operational efficiency and built a future-proof foundation for its visionary development. These transformative achievements align seamlessly with Diriyahs aspiration to stand among the worlds most iconic destinations," he added. Diriyah Company continues to pave the way for a digital-first approach, enhancing its capabilities to manage the expansive scale of its projects effectively and innovatively. This transformation positions Diriyah Company as a premium developer in the Kingdom, ready to meet the demands of its diverse stakeholders and the evolving market landscape.-TradeArabia News Service The Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company (SRC), a PIF company, has signed a MoU with Hassana Investment Company, aimed at achieving the goals of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Housing and Financial Sector Development Programmes, thus aligning with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. The MoU is aimed at deepening and expanding the financial market in the kingdom in addition to enhancing liquidity in the real estate finance sector by introducing an innovative asset class - the first of its kind in the region - through the issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities. These issuances are expected to attract a diverse base of local and global investors in the secondary mortgage market and broaden investment opportunities in the sector. SRC was established by the Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund PIF in 2017 with the aim of developing the kingdom's real estate finance market. Licensed by the Saudi Central Bank to operate in the field of real estate refinancing, SRC plays a pivotal role in achieving the objectives of the Housing Programme under Saudi Vision 2030, which seeks to increase homeownership rates among Saudi citizens. This is accomplished by providing liquidity to financiers, enabling them to offer affordable housing finance to individuals, and working closely with partners to support the Kingdom's housing ecosystem, said a top official. "Our partnership with Hassana marks a significant milestone in supporting the evolution of the housing finance landscape and fostering the development of Saudi Arabias capital markets," remarked its CEO Majeed Al Abduljabbar at the signing ceremony which was also attended by Minister of Municipalities and Housing Majid bin Abdullah Al Hogail and Minister of Finance, Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Jadaan. "Together, we aim to introduce innovative financial solutions that deliver value to both investors and citizens while aligning with Vision 2030s objectives," he stated. Hassana, the investment arm of the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI), said its participation as a leading institutional investor underscores the potential for the investors to align efforts in creating sustainable economic investment opportunities. This stems from its pivotal role as a key investor in mortgage-backed securities issued by SRC, contributing to the sustainability of the real estate financing ecosystem, it added. On the SRC collaboration, Hassana CEO Saad Al Fadhli said it establishes a new standard for partnerships, enabling the development of scalable financial solutions that contribute to the kingdoms economic development goals. "It aligns with Hassanas strategy of diversifying its investment portfolios through long-term partnerships with entities like SRC," explained Al Fadhli. Hassana is firmly committed to delivering sustainable financial returns that drive long-term economic growth. Through strategic investments across a wide range of sectors, it underscores its dedication to securing a prosperous financial future for Saudi generations, he added.-TradeArabia News Service The Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) have signed a MoU for joint collaboration on promoting sustainable, climate-resilient, inclusive, and green urban development in the UAE through a combination of support mechanisms, training, knowledge platforms, and knowledge-sharing events. Leveraging insights from both the public and private sectors, this partnership will address challenges in enhancing the built environment, with a deep focus on green project implementation and thought leadership, said a statement from EmiratesGBC. The agreement aims to enhance green growth efforts and urban sustainability initiatives in the UAE and accelerate the countrys progress towards its Net Zero by 2050 commitments. It was signed by EmiratesGBC Chairman Khaled Bushnaq, in the presence of CEO Abdullatif Albitawi and representatives from the Global Green Growth Institute led by Mahamadou Tounkara, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Region. Representatives from the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MoCCAE) also attended the signing ceremony, underscoring the importance of this partnership for the nation's sustainability agenda. By combining their expertise, networks, and experience, EmiratesGBC and GGGI will work together to drive the UAE's net-zero readiness and develop and implement innovative solutions for green buildings, sustainable infrastructure, and climate-resilient cities. "The collaboration with Global Green Growth Institute marks a significant step forward in translating our shared vision for sustainable urban development into tangible action," remarked Bushnaq. The UAE's Net Zero by 2050 target requires a concerted effort from all sectors, and partnering with GGGI allows us to leverage their global expertise and network to accelerate the adoption of green building practices and drive the transition towards a net-zero built environment. "We are particularly excited about the opportunities for knowledge exchange and capacity building that this MoU will facilitate," he added. Tounkara pointed out that the partnership between EmiratesGBC and GGGI would encompass a range of activities including capacity-building workshops and training programmes to enhance the skills and knowledge of professionals in the built environment sector, and knowledge-sharing platforms and events to facilitate dialogue and collaboration among stakeholders across all sectors. Through pilot projects, the partnership will also demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of green building solutions, he stated. The UAE, he said, has demonstrated strong leadership in the pursuit of sustainable development, and GGGI is proud to support these efforts and advance the nations ambitious Net Zero by 2050 goals through its partnership with EmiratesGBC. "This collaboration reinforces our shared commitment to developing and implementing innovative solutions for green buildings and sustainable infrastructure, and we look forward to empowering stakeholders across the UAE with the tools and resources they need to create a greener, more sustainable built environment," he added. Dubai Land Department launched the Smart Rental Index 2025, marking a transformative milestone in regulating and developing Dubais real estate sector. This index represents a comprehensive system that integrates the latest technologies and real estate expertise, aiming to provide exceptional services that meet the needs of all stakeholders in the real estate market. It further enhances transparency and fairness in determining rental values, aligning with Dubais Digital Strategy and the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033 objectives. This was announced during a press conference held at the departments headquarters, which was attended by several strategic partners, along with a group of representatives from government entities and real estate companies in Dubai, as well as DLDs CEOs and Directors. Smart Rental Index 2025 relies on an advanced building classification system that considers all technical and service-related aspects of properties. Each building is evaluated based on a comprehensive set of criteria, including technical and structural characteristics, the quality of finishes and maintenance, the buildings strategic location and its spatial value, as well as the level of services and facilities available, such as maintenance, cleanliness, and parking management. This mechanism aims to ensure accurate and fair determination of rental values, reflecting each propertys true quality and advantages. The index is based on unified and clear criteria to ensure transparency in the property valuation process. A precise calculation mechanism was developed that considers all factors influencing rental value, including the real estate market condition; it is characterised by its flexibility due to the continuous updating of standards to keep pace with market changes, ensuring that the expectations of both landlords and tenants are met. During the conference, Majid Al Marri, CEO of the Real Estate Registration Sector at Dubai Land Department, emphasised that the launch of the Smart Rental Index marks a pivotal transformation in the regulation and development of the real estate sector in Dubai. He highlighted that this initiative enhances transparency, builds trust, and provides stakeholders with a balanced and sustainable environment. "This index relies on artificial intelligence technologies and a building classification system and provides fair and accurate rental valuations, strengthening Dubais position as a global investment destination," he added. Al Marri said in 2024, the total number of registered rental contracts exceeded 900,000, reflecting an 8 percent growth compared to the previous year. This increase reflects the growing confidence in the Dubai real estate market, enabling all parties in rental agreements to make well-informed, ultimately achieving the aspirations of all parties and enhancing the long-term sustainability of the market. The press conference also featured a detailed presentation on the new rental index, delivered by Khalid Al Shaibani, Director of the Rental Affairs Department at Dubai Land Department. Al Shaibani highlighted the advantages of the innovative index and its role in enhancing transparency and developing the real estate sector, contributing to creating a balanced and sustainable environment that serves all relevant stakeholders. Earlier, Dubai Land Department launched a series of initiatives to enhance the sectors efficiency and simplify procedures. These include interactive rental contracts that allow landlords and tenants to register, renew, and cancel contracts seamlessly through the Dubai REST app, as well as interactive property management contracts that enable property owners and management companies to register and modify contracts directly via the smart app, eliminating the need for traditional procedures. Additionally, DLD introduced the Model Tenant Classification system, an innovative tool to classify tenants credit ratings and obtain credit reports through the Ejari system and the smart app for interested parties.-TradeArabia News Service In a landmark achievement for the Oman's mining sector, Minerals Development Oman (MDO) has announced the export of the first shipment of copper concentrates from the Lasail Mine in the Wilayat of Sohar. This step not only revives copper mining in Oman after nearly 30 years but also underscores the sultanates commitment to economic diversification and sustainability. Nestled in Block 11B in the Wilayat of Sohar, the Lasail Mine is being developed by Oman Mining Company, a subsidiary of Minerals Development Oman. The mine produces high-quality copper concentrates with purity levels ranging from 18% to 22%, positioning Oman as a trusted player in global markets. Annual production from the mine averages 500,000 tons of copper ore, reflecting its robust capacity and significance. Looking ahead, MDO plans to initiate operations at the Al-Baydha Mine in the Wilayat of Liwa by 20252026. Together, these mines boast a combined reserve of approximately 2.78 million tons of copper ore. The first phase of the redevelopment project is expected to span 4 to 5 years, with ongoing exploration efforts in surrounding areas aimed at increasing reserves and ensuring long-term production sustainability. Reinforcing Oman's Global Standing This milestone bolsters Omans reputation on the global stage as a reliable source of copper concentrates, a metal integral to clean energy transition and future technologies, including electric vehicles and advanced battery systems. With global demand for copper expected to surge, the Lasail project represents a strategic investment in Omans economic future. Eng Mattar bin Salim Al Badi, CEO of MDO, remarked: We are pleased to contribute to the rich history of mining in Oman, which has been a centre for copper mining for over 3,000 years. With a legacy pioneered by Oman Mining Company since 1983, today we celebrate the continuation of this heritage with the export of first shipment of copper concentrates from the Lasail Mine. The sector has made remarkable strides in exploration and extraction, enabling us to reopen dormant mines and maximise their value. These advancements not only strengthen the sectors sustainability but also amplify its economic and social contributions. He continued: The export of the first shipment from the Lasail Mine is a testament to our ability to transform challenges into tangible opportunities for growth. We are equally enthusiastic about the forthcoming operations at the Al-Baydha Mine, which will further enhance the value of this project and support the sustainability of Omans mining sector. MDOs vision extends beyond the redevelopment of the Lasail and Al-Baydha mines, the company is actively conducting exploratory studies in nearby regions to boost copper reserves. Furthermore, its ambitious plans include the Mazoon Copper Project, Omans largest integrated copper concentrate production initiative, it said. - TradeArabia News Service By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman Happy New Year! I'm happy to report I hit a milestone goal in 2024: 50% winning selections on Unlocking Winners. Depending on whether or not you count second choices after a few of my top choices scratched, my record for the year ended at either 47-for-94 (50%) or 49-for-97 (50.5%). Thank you for bearing with me as I toured plenty of minor stakes in search of near-certain winners. I hope my 7-for-14 Breeders' Cup tally, with winning longshots Citizen Bull (15-1) and Soul of an Angel (19-1), compensated for the amount of chalky favorites I picked along the way. Chalk notwithstanding, my Breeders' Cup picked ensured that anyone betting an equal amount to win on all my selections in 2024 would have made a profit. Having unlocked an ample supply of winners in 2024, my goal for 2025 is to pursue higher payoffs. I'll start with a non-favored entrant in Saturday's $250,000 Smarty Jones S. at Oaklawn Park, a 1 1/16-mile Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifier that yielded last year's Derby 1-3 finishers Mystik Dan and Catching Freedom. The morning line favorite is #6 Hot Property (8-5), and his credentials are respectable. Trained by Brad Cox (who has won three of the last four editions of the Smarty Jones), Hot Property debuted with victory in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight at Fair Grounds last month. The stoutly bred son of Medaglia d'Oro led all the way to defeat next-out winner Seattle Road by 3 3/4 lengths, earning an 84 Beyer Speed Figure. I should note, however, that Hot Property benefited from setting a slow pace. Fractions of :24.89, :49.65, and 1:14.64 gave him a tactical advantage over Seattle Road, who was attempting to close from last place in a seven-horse field. That's why I'm going to oppose Hot Property with #1 Kale's Angel (2-1), who has shown considerably more early speed. The Smarty Jones is often won in gate-to-wire fashion by sprinters stretching out in distancethink Victory Formation (2023), Gold Street (2020), Gray Attempt (2019), and Mourinho (2018)and I'm confident Kale's Angel can do exactly that. No one would have identified Kale's Angel as a probable Smarty Jones winner based off his first four starts on turf. The son of Champagne (G1) winner Complexity enjoyed relatively little success, winning only a five-furlong maiden special weight while missing the trifecta in a pair of one-mile stakes. But when Kale's Angel switched to dirt for the 5 1/2-furlong Advent S. at Oaklawn last month, he ran out of his skin. Relishing the change in surface, Kale's Angel tracked and pressed fractions of :22.87 and :46.49 before blazing his fifth furlong in about :11.68 and his final sixteenth in :06.21 to draw off and dominate by 5 3/4 lengths in 1:04.40, earning a 93 Beyer Speed Figure. The form of Kale's Angel's runaway win was flattered when runner-up Innovator returned to win a quick six-furlong maiden special weight at Oaklawn last week. The Oaklawn dirt has been playing on the slow side this meet; on the same day Kale's Angel won the Advent, older fillies and mares required 1:12.05 to complete a six-furlong $50,000 allowance optional claimer. Kale's Angel's fast clocking is a sign of serious talent, and I believe his 93 Beyer is well deserved. There isn't much pace in the Smarty Jones field, so I envision Kale's Angel working out an easy pacesetting trip while stretching out in distance. I'm not sure Hot Property has enough early speed to pressure Kale's Angel, so the Advent winner has every chance to become the seventh gate-to-wire Smarty Jones winner in the last nine years. On a related note, the lack of speed in the Smarty Jones could compromise #8 Coal Battle (9-2), the third choice on the morning line and the most accomplished horse in Saturday's field. He's undefeated in three starts on dirt and enters off stretch-running victories in the 6 1/2-furlong Jean Lafitte S. and one-mile Remington Springboard Mile S. The problem is, Coal Battle benefited from a destructive speed duel between the two favorites when charging late to win the Springboard Mile by half a length. The runner-up, Speed King, was one of the early duelers. Coal Battle is bred for speed, so unless he gets a favorable pace setup, I'm concerned his rally may falter in the final furlong over the Oaklawn homestretch. For the minor awards, I'm more inclined to support Churchill Downs maiden winner #5 Mo Quality (5-1) or perhaps #3 Optical (12-1), who recently battled to victory in a $50,000 starter allowance racing one mile at Churchill. Selections 1st: Kale's Angel 2nd: Hot Property 3rd: Mo Quality 4th: Optical Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Smarty Jones Stakes? ***** Want to test your handicapping skills against fellow Unlocking Winners readers? Check out the Unlocking Winners contest pagethere's a new challenge every week! (Please note: older contest entries can be found here.) J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, videographer, voice actor, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. Flash Officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said they were hunting for possible connections of the truck attack in New Orleans of the southern U.S. state of Louisiana early Wednesday morning with terrorist organizations. The FBI is investigating the accident as an act of terrorism, the agency said in a statement, expressing the belief that the suspect, who was shot dead by responding police, might not be "solely responsible" for the ramming. U.S. House representative Troy Carter, a lawmaker from Louisiana, told ABC News that the death toll of the incident had risen to 15 with another 25 people still hospitalized with injuries. However, New Orleans Police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said on Wednesday afternoon she could only confirm 10 had died and among the injured, several people had suffered life-threatening injuries. The suspect has been identified as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen living in Texas, according to the FBI. "We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible," Alethea Duncan, an agent with the FBI's New Orleans field office, said at a news conference. "We don't want to rule anything out," said Duncan. Guns, two improvised explosive devices and corresponding remote control, as well as an Islamic State group flag, were found from the vehicle, according to local media reports. The devices were wired for remote detonation, The Associated Press (AP) reported, adding that other potential explosive devices were also located in the French Quarter. The AP, citing an intelligence bulletin it obtained, said surveillance footage captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices. Jabbar, who had served in the U.S. Army, was shot dead by the police after ramming the truck into New Year revelers, New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) said. "After the vehicle came to a stop, the suspect reportedly opened fire on responding officers, who returned fire," NOPD said. Two police officers were shot and are in stable condition. The truck, reportedly a Ford F-150 Lightning, was with a Texas plate and rent by the suspect through the Turo app, a car sharing company, Rodrigo Diaz, the owner of the truck, told ABC News. The incident happened around 3:15 a.m. (0915 GMT) at the intersection of Bourbon Street and Iberville, the French Quarter, which is one of the most crowded areas of New Orleans and the heart of the city's tourism industry. "Last night we had over 300 officers out here. And because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator who went around our barricades in order to conduct this, he was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did," Kirkpatrick said at a press conference. "It was very intentional behavior," she said. "This man was trying to run over as many people as he could." Editors note: In this piece submitted to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, reader Le Tan Thoi expresses his concern over the use of only English on public trash bins, highlighting how it confuses people and hinders effective waste sorting, as well as emphasizing the need for clear Vietnamese labeling. Thois opinion was translated from Vietnamese to English and edited by Tuoi Tre News for clarity, consistency, and coherence. Public trash bins placed along urban roads, in parks, and on sidewalks help to keep urban areas clean and green. Public awareness of the importance of maintaining cleanliness is growing and these bins are getting more and more use. Some bins feature instructions in both English and Vietnamese, along with visual cues to help people sort waste according to environmental guidelines. However, in certain public areas, bins are esthetically pleasing but only have instructions in English. Trash bins with Vietnamese-English sorting instructions on Nguyen Hue Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: L.T.T. This can confuse people and even cause frustration. I once saw a middle-aged man struggling to decide where to place his trash at a public bin because the instructions were only in English. With my limited English, I helped him sort the trash correctly. As a Vietnamese citizen, I believe we should prioritize using Vietnamese in public unless there is no suitable translation. While knowledge of foreign languages is important in this era of integration, having clear instructions in Vietnamese is essential for making the implementation of regulations effective for everyone. Like us on Facebook or follow us on X to get the latest news about Vietnam! Flash Injured children are seen at a hospital following an Israeli airstrike on the headquarters of the Civil Defense in Gaza City, on Jan. 1, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua] Contrary to aspirations for peace, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip ushered in 2025 amidst renewed casualties resulting from Israeli attacks across the territory. "At least 32 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza today," Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza's civil defense, told Xinhua on Wednesday. "Regrettably, while the world celebrates the New Year, Palestinians are met with further suffering and hardship amidst the ongoing Israeli conflict," Basal stated. Exacerbating the plight of displaced Palestinians in the coastal enclave, heavy rains inundated their tents, leaving children exposed to freezing conditions. For several days, the Gaza Strip has experienced torrential rains and strong winds, causing widespread flooding and damage to makeshift shelters. Displaced residents who spoke to Xinhua expressed their distress at the lack of warmth and adequate shelter during the harsh winter weather. Ibrahim Shukri, a displaced resident in Khan Younis, spent the night battling to remove rainwater that had flooded his tent. "The rainwater has ruined everything inside, and no one is listening. No one understands the suffering of those living in these tents," the 39-year-old father of four lamented. Jihan Ali, another displaced woman residing in a dilapidated tent near Shukri's, described the pervasive leaks. "Neither my children nor I could sleep last night. The rainwater flooded our tent, and we had nowhere else to go," the 45-year-old mother of three said. "These tents are unsuitable for both summer and winter. We, the tent dwellers, are living in hell, and no one comprehends our suffering," she added. Basal reported that approximately 1,400 tents were flooded due to the heavy rainfall, with civil defense workers receiving tens of thousands of distress calls from displaced individuals. "Our capacity to respond is severely limited due to a lack of resources to rescue those affected by the flooding," he explained. The Gaza-based health authorities reported that seven Palestinians, including six infants, have died in the past week due to the severe cold. This humanitarian crisis unfolds against the backdrop of stalled indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel. The two sides have exchanged accusations, each blaming the other for the impasse in reaching a ceasefire agreement. PODGORICA, Montenegro -- A man shot dead 12 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro before dying from self-inflicted injuries early on Thursday, authorities said, in one of the tiny Balkan nation's worst mass killings. The attacker, named by police as 45-year-old Aleksandar Aco Martinovic, initially killed four people when he opened fire after a brawl at a restaurant in Cetinje on Wednesday afternoon. He then shot dead eight people, including two children, at three other locations, prosecutor Andrijana Nastic said. A police officer stands guard in front of a restaurant where a gunman opened fire and killed several people in Cetinje, Montenegro, January 1, 2025. Photo: Reuters Martinovic was cornered by officers near his home in the town and tried to kill himself, then died of his injuries on the way to hospital in the early hours of Thursday, Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic said. "When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide. He did not succumb to his injuries on the spot, but during the transport to hospital," Saranovic told Montenegro's state broadcaster, RTCG. Workers carry a body after a gunman opened fire and killed several people in a restaurant in Cetinje, Montenegro, January 1, 2025. Photo: Reuters The incident is the second shooting in three years in the same town 38 km (24 miles) west of the capital Podgorica. In 2022 a gunman killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot dead. Police said Martinovic had been drinking heavily and had a history of illegal weapons possession. After an altercation with patrons in the restaurant he went home, took a weapon, returned to the restaurant and started shooting, police said. Police members stand on a checkpoint near where a gunman opened fire at a restaurant and killed several people in Cetinje, Montenegro, January 1, 2025. Photo: Reuters Four other people suffered life-threatening injuries during Wednesday's rampage, and one remains in a critical condition, Aleksandar Radovic, the director of the Clinical Centre in Podgorica, said. Police said Wednesday's shooting was not related to organised crime. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic called the rampage a "terrible tragedy" and declared three days of national mourning. President Jakov Milatovic said he was "horrified" by the attack. Police members stand on a checkpoint near where a gunman opened fire at a restaurant and killed several people in Cetinje, Montenegro, January 1, 2025. Photo: Reuters Spajic said authorities would consider tightening criteria for owning and carrying firearms, including the possibility of a complete ban on weapons. That will likely face opposition in Montenegro, which has a deeply rooted gun culture. Despite strict gun laws, the Western Balkans composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, remain awash with weapons. Most are from the wars in the 1990s, but some date back even to World War One. SEOUL -- South Korean police said on Thursday they had raided Jeju Air and the operator of Muan International Airport as part of their investigation into Sunday's crash that killed 179 people in the worst aviation disaster on the country's soil. Jeju Air 7C2216, which departed the Thai capital of Bangkok for Muan in southwestern South Korea, belly-landed and overshot the regional airport's runway, exploding into flames after hitting an embankment. Two crew members, who were sitting in the tail end of the Boeing 737-800, were pulled out alive by rescuers. One of them was still in a critical condition and the other was being treated for injuries, a transport ministry official said. The conversion of data from the cockpit voice recorder to audio files, which could provide critical information on the final minutes of the flight, was completed on Thursday, Joo Jong-wan, the deputy transport minister for civil aviation, told a media briefing. Police investigators were searching the offices of the airport operator and the transportation ministry aviation authority in the southwestern county of Muan, as well as the office of Jeju Air in Seoul, the South Jeolla provincial police said in a media statement. Investigators planned to seize documents and materials related to the operation and maintenance of the aircraft as well as the operation of airport facilities, a police official told Reuters. The official also said police had banned Jeju Air chief executive Kim E-bae and another unidentified official from leaving the country, calling them key witnesses potentially facing charges of causing deaths by negligence, which is punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won ($13,600). Jeju Air was cooperating with the police, a director at the airline, Song Kyeong-hoon, told a media briefing. Questions by air safety experts on what led to the deadly explosion have focused on the embankment, designed to prop up the "localizer" antenna used to guide landings, which they said is too rigid and too close to the end of the runway. "This rigid structure proved catastrophic when the skidding aircraft made impact," said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California, adding it was concerning that the navigation antenna was mounted on "such a formidable concrete structure, rather than the standard metal tower/pylon installation". Joo said the ministry was still unable to provide clear details on Muan airport's upgrade plans that had led to the addition of the structure to support the navigation system. The ministry is conducting a check on localizer equipment at airports throughout the country, Joo said. A probe into the doomed Jeju Air flight is also under way involving South Korean officials and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aircraft's maker, Boeing. It remains unanswered why the aircraft did not deploy its landing gear and what led the pilot to apparently rush into a second attempt at landing after telling air traffic control the plane had suffered a bird strike and declaring an emergency. The aircraft's flight data recorder, which sustained some damage, is being taken to the United States for analysis in cooperation with the NTSB. Joo said on Wednesday it may be difficult to release the audio files from the cockpit voice recorder to the public as they will be critical to the ongoing investigation. Investigators from the NTSB, FAA and Boeing are in South Korea to help the probe. South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a disaster management meeting that immediate action must be taken if a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated in the country finds any issues. "As there's great public concern about the same aircraft model involved in the accident, the transport ministry and relevant organisations must conduct a thorough inspection of operation, maintenance, education, and training," Choi said. His comments at the start of the meeting were provided by his office. Choi asked that no effort be spared in helping the families of the victims as the remains of those killed are handed over to them. He also asked the police to take action against anyone posting "malicious" messages and fake news on social media related to the disaster. ($1 = 1,467.2400 won) Electric taxi drivers in Ca Mau Province, southern Vietnam have been on strike over the past two days in light of a series of controversial new company policies. Pham Hoang Nho, a driver for Bao Gia Ca Mau Joint Stock Company, which operates Nam Thang Ca Mau electric taxis, joined about 100 of his colleagues in demanding changes to the companys policies after a meeting with its director ended abruptly. The director, Ho Hoang Anh, reportedly concluded the meeting after just 15 minutes. In a 37-second video posted to social media, a lawyer can be seen explaining employees rights while Anh suddenly stands up, bangs on the table, and yells, Let me cut it short! If you are not willing to continue your work, then the meeting is dismissed. Over 100 of the company's employees responded to Anhs outburst by going on strike. The meeting was originally held to discuss a new company policy that requires drivers to pay the charging fees for the electric taxis. Contracted drivers have raised concerns about unfair terms, including requirements to drive over 24,000 kilometers before receiving vehicle maintenance, even as some vehicles show signs of corrosion and tire damage. A screenshot of the video capturing the abrupt meeting between Ho Hoang Anh, director of Bao Gia Ca Mau Joint Stock Company, and over 100 electric taxi drivers Another grievance involved the companys revenue targets. Drivers were required to generate VND28 million (US$1,100) in revenue to earn a monthly salary of VND8 million ($314), a goal many found difficult to achieve in a quiet province like Ca Mau where nearly 200 electric vehicles compete with other gasoline-powered taxi services. This high target forced many drivers to work long hours, leading to concerns over unsafe driving practices. Some cabbies also reported being uninsured despite the companys contractual obligations to provide insurance. Many drivers were frustrated by the lack of two-way auto body insurance for many vehicles, leaving them liable for incidents. Anh refused to directly address the issues to Tuoi Tre, responding to a request for comment with Im on a business trip, not at home. Theres no problem, just some agitators. Im out of town and dont know when Ill be back, so I cant meet you. Like us on Facebook or follow us on X to get the latest news about Vietnam! Police in Ho Chi Minh City said on Thursday that they had broken up an illegal gambling ring involving many Vietnamese people at a luxury hotel in District 3, confiscating over US$160,000. Police officers checked Diamond Club, located inside the Ramana Saigon Hotel on Le Van Sy Street in District 3, on December 17, 2024 and found the club was illegally organizing gambling for Vietnamese people. One gambler was even wagering a whopping $725,445. Police officers seized $146,297 and nearly VND420 million ($16,487) in cash, along with many other exhibits. The club got a license to provide reward-based video games to foreigners but illegally organized gambling for Vietnamese nationals. Pham Trinh Phong, 48, the investor of Diamond Club, was identified as the mastermind of the case. Photo: Supplied A preliminary investigation revealed that Pham Trinh Phong, 48, the investor behind Diamond Club, instructed Pham Thi Thanh Hang, 44, the club's deputy general director, along with managers, shift leaders, and receptionists, to recruit and encourage Vietnamese gamblers. On December 31, Ho Chi Minh City police initiated legal proceedings and arrested 12 individuals, including Phong, Hang, and other staff members of Diamond Club, as well as gamblers, on charges of gambling and organizing gambling activities. As the investigation progressed, police detained an additional seven individuals on similar charges. Police burst a gambling ring involving many Vietnamese nationals in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! With one month to go before the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, many supermarkets and retailers in Ho Chi Minh City are rolling out numerous discounts to encourage families to prepare for Tet celebrations despite an ongoing economic downturn. In order to spur shopping during the current period of financial distress, multiple retailers are proactively beefing up the volume of affordable products. A representative of Saigon Co.op stated that over 800 stores nationwide have launched discount and promotional programs to help customers prepare for Tet more affordably. At a Co.opmart supermarket in District 1, Nguyen Thi Lien, 30, said that she was selecting Tet products and gifts at reasonable prices for her relatives and friends. After three years of working in Ho Chi Minh City, she plans to return to her hometown in Thanh Hoa Province, north-central Vietnam to celebrate Tet. Affordable Tet gift baskets are in high demand, selling rapidly. Mai Anh, a realty broker in Ho Chi Minh City, said financial pressures have forced her to cut back on Tet spending this year compared to previous years. Just a few years ago, she spent some VND20 million (US$786) on Tet baskets for her partners and customers. Despite financial difficulties, she still plans to pack her house with Tet products for the upcoming celebration, while tightening her budget. According to the Saigon Co.op representative, the company has teamed up with trade partners to offer discounts of up to 20 percent on Tet gift baskets. The Co.opmart and Co.opXtra store chains have sold over 10 million gift baskets in the two weeks since they hit store shelves. A supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City is full of Tet items. Photo: Nhat Xuan / Tuoi Tre Saigon Co.op began enhancing its promotional program on Thursday with over 3,500 Tet items on sale at a discount. These items include confectionery, traditional sugar-preserved fruits, lap xuong (dry-cured sausage), beverages, clothes, and decorations. Vegetables, eggs, and fresh meat have been marked down by up to 25 percent and products from Xuan Hong, Mondelez Kinh Do, Ba Huan, Vissan, Sapporo, Pepsi, and Coca Cola are also on sale. Saigon Co.ops discount and promotional campaign is meant to help ease customers' financial burden during this period leading up to Tet. Saigon Co.ops supermarket chains such as Co.opmart and Co.opXtra are boosting delivery services as well as lengthening delivery distances to ramp up consumption. Apart from its promotional program at supermarkets, Saigon Co.op is offering discounts in its online stores. Many discounts are available until January 28. Workers will be entitled to a nine-day break for the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday, from January 25, to February 2. Like us on Facebook or follow us on X to get the latest news about Vietnam! To ring in the 2025 Lunar New Year (Tet), Can Tho City in southern Vietnam will host festivities showcasing unique cultural traditions of the southern, central, and northern regions for the first time. The celebrations will take place at Tay Do Square in Cai Rang District from January 17 to 28, or from the 18th to 29th of the 12th lunar month, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade announced at a press briefing on Thursday. Among them, a Tet flower market will feature 200 booths offering ornamental plants, bonsai, and flowers from local growers and cooperatives in Can Tho and other Mekong Delta provinces. All participating vendors will have free access to the booths, electricity, and water. Addressing the press briefing, Nguyen Van Luan, director of the Dong Thap Province Department of Industry and Trade, said that farmers and vendors from Dong Thap, home to the renowned Sa Dec flower village with over 2,000 floral varieties, are eager to promote their products at the flower market. He added that additional vendors had requested to join the event. Ha Vu Son, director of the Can Tho City Department of Industry and Trade, gestures while addressing a press briefing to announce upcoming Lunar New Year festivities in Can Tho City, southern Vietnam, January 2, 2025. Photo: Chi Quoc / Tuoi Tre Nguyen Huu Ai, deputy head of the Hau Giang Province Department of Industry and Trade, commended the spaciousness and accessibility of Tay Do Square, highlighting the need to further promote the event to attract more visitors. Running alongside the Tet flower market, the Tet Tay Do festival will take place between January 17 and 23 at the same venue. Festival-goers can explore Tet traditions from Vietnams three main regions through over 100 cultural and culinary booths representing around 30 provinces nationwide. Highlights at this cultural event include hands-on experiences such as preparing Tet feasts, arranging five-fruit trays, and traditional music performances. Visitors, particularly young people, can learn the significance of traditional customs such as ancestor worship and the unique features of regional Tet dishes, said Ha Vu Son, director of the Can Tho Department of Industry and Trade. Like us on Facebook or follow us on X to get the latest news about Vietnam! Bluey has topped Streaming minutes in the US for a second year running. The Ludo Studios / Disney sensation has been one of the 10 biggest shows in streaming across the United States for 112 consecutive weeks, according to Nielsens streaming data. The Hollywood Reporter notes: The 2024 streaming champion is a show that will likely almost match the record-setting year for Suits in 2023, and one that dominated TV discourse for several weeks earlier in the year. Its also a show aimed at kids under 10. Through late November, Bluey has amassed more than 50 billion minutes of streaming time on Disney+ thats equivalent to more than 95,000 years. It has made Nielsens streaming top 10 for 112 straight weeks dating back to October 2022 and currently holds a roughly 7 billion-minute lead for this year over Greys Anatomy, the only other show that has charted every week. Last month a Bluey movie was confirmed by BBC and Disney while the latter has more experiences planned. Guests on Disney Cruise Line voyages originating from Australia and New Zealand can meet Bluey and her sister, Bingo, plus play an interactive clue-filled game that ends in a dance party. Producers are on a number of special activations for Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. A fourth series is yet to be confirmed. Satish Bhartiya, TwoCircles.net Bhopal: Ken-Betwa Link Project has been touted as a solution to water scarcity in the Bundelkhand region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for this ambitious river-linking initiative on December 25. It was seen as a new era of water security. However, behind the governments vision of progress, a quieter, more painful story is unfolding the plight of tribal communities whose ancestral lands are being swept away in the name of development. As the foundations for the project were laid, the hopes and fears of the tribals living in the affected areas took a back seat. It raised questions related to justice, rights and the true cost of development. Support TwoCircles While the project promises to bring water, irrigation and electricity to millions, it has also brought a wave of protests from the tribals who will lose their land, homes and livelihoods. Their demands for fair compensation, rehabilitation and justice have been largely ignored by the authorities. These protests are not merely a fight for land, but a deeper struggle for their rights, dignity and survival. What is the Ken-Betwa Link Project? The project is a large-scale river-linking endeavor designed to transfer water from the Ken River to the Betwa River. It aims to provide water security to the Bundelkhand region. Approved in 2021 by the Modi government, the project has a hefty price tag of Rs 44,605 crores, with Rs 39,317 crores in central assistance. The project is set to bring about significant changes a 77-meter-high dam on the Ken River, a 221 km canal and the creation of a vast reservoir in Dahodhan, displacing thousands. This reservoir will allegedly submerge nearly 9,000 hectares of land, including crucial sections of the Panna Tiger Reserve. It is also likely to affect 1,913 families across 10 villages. As the land disappears beneath the waters, so too does the livelihood of the tribal people who depend on it. A report by the Central Empowered Committee in 2019 estimated that 23 lakh trees would be felled for the project. It raised serious concerns about the environmental cost of the initiative. Tribals Speak Out While the government has moved forward with the project, the tribals, who are likely to bear the brunt of its consequences, have raised their voices in protest. Their letters and memorandums to officials and the prime minister reflect a deep sense of injustice and a desperate demand for compensation and rehabilitation. Mukesh Gond, a tribal leader from the affected villages, describes the pain felt by his community, The foundation stone of the project may have been laid by Prime Minister Modi, but on that day, people from 8 tribal villages did not light their stoves. No food was cooked in their homes. We, the tribal people, mourned the inauguration as a symbol of our sorrow. He continues, Tribal communities have not received full compensation, rehabilitation, and other facilities. Yet, the project has been inaugurated. What kind of policy is this? What justice is being served? If this project is truly for the welfare of the people, then the affected individuals should first be given their due rights before moving forward. Otherwise, the project will bring devastation to them. The villagers of Panna, who face displacement, share their fears. Sumer Singh Gond, from Bilheta village, says, We will lose our fields, trees, and land due to this project. If proper compensation, employment, and facilities are not provided during the rehabilitation process, the tribal community will never be able to establish itself. Without economic justice, we will never be able to rebuild our lives. Munna Lal Gond, another affected tribal individual, voices his frustration, Before laying the foundation stone, Prime Minister Modi should have understood the pain of the tribal people. We have protested many times, but our demands have not been heard. Our homes, land, and resources are being sacrificed, and the wound of this sacrifice will remain with us forever. These voices are part of a growing chorus calling for fair treatment. In December 2024, the Adivasi Yuva Shakti Sangathan sent a memorandum to the President Dropadi Murmu, highlighting the plight of the 8 villages in Panna district that are directly impacted by the project. The letter emphasises that adequate compensation and rehabilitation plans have not been provided and that the displacement process has been carried out without proper consultation or transparency. Environmental and Legal Concerns Beyond the tribal protests, the Ken-Betwa Link Project also faces significant opposition from environmentalists and legal experts. The projects implications for biodiversity and the environment are profound, especially in an area like Panna, home to the endangered tiger population and diverse wildlife. Expressing concerns, Subhash C. Pandey, an environmentalist, says, The natural structure of rivers should be preserved. Linking two rivers could threaten the existence of aquatic life, plants, and animals. Interfering with the tiger reserve and shifting tigers from their natural habitat could cause aggression and distress among them. Anil Gautam, head of Environmental Quality Monitoring at the Peoples Science Institute, questions the projects basic premise. The Ken River has unused water, while the Betwa is over-utilised. Therefore, claiming that the Ken has more water is completely false. This, along with the environmental destruction caused by the project, raises significant doubts about its long-term sustainability. Advocate Rahul Srivastava also warns, The Ken-Betwa Link Project must consider human rights, wildlife conservation, and environmental protection. The project poses significant risks to biodiversity, with the potential loss of both known and unknown species. The Struggle for Justice The Ken-Betwa Link Project stands as a symbol of Indias ambitious plans for water security and infrastructure development. But for the tribals whose lands are being submerged, it is a stark reminder of the cost of progress. Their fight is not just against the loss of their homes but against a system that they feel has ignored their rights for far too long. As these tribal communities continue to voice their demands adequate compensation, proper rehabilitation, and respect for their rights one question looms large: Will their voices be heard before the waters rise, or will the cost of development drown the hopes of these vulnerable communities? (Satish Bhartiya is an independent journalist) Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa on Thursday exchanged congratulations on the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. China and Ecuador, as comprehensive strategic partners, have maintained a sound momentum for the growth of their relations over the past 45 years, Xi said in a congratulatory message. In recent years, the political mutual trust between the two sides has been strengthened, practical cooperation in various fields has delivered fruitful results, and the China-Ecuador friendship has become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, he said. Notably the China-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement, which has been successfully signed and entered into force, has given a strong boost to upgrading economic and trade cooperation and injected fresh impetus into the development of bilateral relations, the Chinese president said. "I attach great importance to the growth of China-Ecuador relations and stand ready to work with President Noboa to take the 45th anniversary as a new starting point to renew the traditional China-Ecuador friendship and deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields so as to lift China-Ecuador relations to a higher level," Xi said. Depicting the 45th anniversary of bilateral ties as a milestone bearing great significance, Noboa said that over the past 45 years, the two sides have established a comprehensive strategic partnership based on mutual respect and trust, with fruitful outcomes in cooperation in various fields. Ecuador's participation in the Belt and Road Initiative and the entry into force of the Ecuador-China Free Trade Agreement have improved the well-being of the two peoples, Noboa said, voicing readiness to keep working closely with China to deepen friendship, dialogue and cooperation and build a future of common prosperity. Passenger turfed off British Airways Christmas flight at Gatwick as airline gets passport rules wrong again Sunny skies and a Mediterranean breeze: that was what awaited holidaymakers aboard British Airways flight 2616 from London Gatwick to Malta two days before Christmas. Among them was Sue Heath, 64, from Buckinghamshire. But just before the Airbus pushed back from the gate, she was ordered to leave seat 23C on the aircraft. Even though her UK passport is valid for travel to Malta and the rest of the European Union until late March, ground staff wrongly offloaded Ms Heath and then blamed her for having an expired passport, when the document was perfectly valid. I was told my passport was not valid for the EU, said Ms Heath, who has spent much of her working life in travel. ADVERTISEMENT I had to accept their decision and sadly miss my Christmas in Malta. I felt very humble and embarrassed that I had messed up. In fact, British Airways ground staff at Gatwick had once again messed up by denying boarding to a properly documented passenger. On a single day earlier this year, BA turned away two separate passengers from the Sussex airport because ground staff did not understand the rules for their destinations. Since Brexit, a UK passport must meet two conditions for travel to the European Union: No more than 10 years old on the day of entry to the EU. At least three months remaining on the intended day of departure from the EU. Ms Heaths passport comfortably met both of these requirements. But ground staff appeared confused about whether her passport was valid. The gate agent was concerned about my passport not being acceptable, and initially said I could not board the flight, Ms Heath said. She tried to call her office but could not get an answer. She then looked again and said it was OK and checked me back in and boarded me again. ADVERTISEMENT I went on board, but about 10 minutes before departure she came and asked to look at my passport again. She telephoned the office and gave them all my passport details, and my return flight travel information. She then said unfortunately I couldnt travel, as I would have had to be out and back from Malta by 22 December 24. Then she took me off the plane. I came off the flight and was escorted out through passport control and customs into the arrivals hall by a BA agent. I went home and later that day called a BA customer service number, but all they really could say was documentation was my responsibility and to call an embassy if I needed clarification. Welcome sight: Valletta Harbour in Malta, in December (Simon Calder) The post-Brexit rules took effect in 2021. BA, along with other airlines, was informed of them in that year. The majority of passengers flying on British Airways short-haul services from Gatwick are UK passport holders heading for the European Union. ADVERTISEMENT It is not clear why ground staff evidently including the supervisor who was involved by phone should still be unaware of the requirements and invent their own rules for these travellers. A British Airways spokesperson said: We are investigating this particular case to understand why the customer wasnt permitted to travel and are in contact with them directly to resolve it as soon as possible. Under air passengers rights rules, Ms Heath is entitled to 350 in compensation for being denied boarding, as well as her fare refunded. BA is also understood to be meeting the cost of the accommodation in Malta that Ms Heath lost as a result of being taken off the aircraft at Gatwick. What to do if airline staff wrongly turn you away from a flight HA NOI Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hoang Long chaired an online conference with 63 provinces and cities to discuss the implementation and adjustment of the Power Development Plan VIII. Held on December 31, the conference aimed to collect feedback from local authorities to refine the revised plan, which is expected to be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval by February 2025. During the meeting, Vu Van Dien, Vice Chairman of the Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee, emphasised the timeliness of the conference following the Prime Minister's directive to adjust the power plan. Dien proposed increasing wind power capacity from 400 MW to 600 MW, citing the province's significant potential for wind energy projects, which have already undergone surveys and feasibility assessments. Additionally, he highlighted a 1,500 MW LNG power project initiated in 2021, which is now ready for implementation, pending the finalisation of project cost norms. Representatives from Kien Giang province, known for its 200 km coastline and substantial land resources, also shared their recommendations. They proposed adding 20 MW of waste-to-energy capacity, 1,600 MW of wind power and 1,000 MW of solar power from aquaculture zones. They noted that large areas currently used for shrimp farming could be optimised for solar energy projects, maximising both land use efficiency and economic returns. In Lam ong province, Pham S, Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, suggested including pumped-storage hydropower projects on the ong Nai River basin and exploring the potential for floating solar power projects on available water surfaces, including hydroelectric reservoirs. Similarly, Thai Nguyen province proposed an additional 10 MW of waste-to-energy capacity and 200 MW of solar power, highlighting vast unused rooftop space in its industrial zones. Key adjustments and future focus areas Addressing concerns from local groups, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Long stated that the Ministry is finalising a draft decree guiding the development of LNG power projects, addressing key issues such as pricing mechanisms and guaranteed minimum electricity purchases. These measures aim to address obstacles currently hindering the progress of LNG power initiatives nationwide. Regarding the development of rooftop and floating solar power projects, Long noted that after the issuance of Decree No. 135/2024/N-CP, rooftop solar systems in industrial zones have seen substantial growth. The Ministry is actively considering ways to expand the scope of these projects. Floating solar power projects, particularly those using existing hydroelectric reservoirs, will also be prioritised in the revised plan. For waste-to-energy projects, Long emphasised that the Ministry fully supports their expansion and will prioritise proposals from provinces that have detailed implementation plans. The conference also reviewed the broader progress of renewable energy projects nationwide. As part of the adjustments, Viet Nam has identified 123 wind power projects with a total capacity of 7,697.9 MW, 138 small hydropower projects with 1,484.58 MW, 21 biomass power projects with 414 MW, and 34 waste-to-energy projects with 621.1 MW. These initiatives are expected to play a critical role in Viet Nams energy transition strategy. On December 28, 2024, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1682/Q-TTg, approving updates to the implementation plan of Power Development Plan VIII. This decision sets a clear framework for advancing renewable energy initiatives, improving infrastructure and fostering sustainable development. To ensure the successful implementation of the revised power plan, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will collaborate closely with central agencies, local areas and stakeholders. The focus will be on establishing supportive policies, promoting renewable energy technologies, and training a high-quality workforce to meet the demands of the energy sector. Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Long reaffirmed the Ministry's commitment to meeting the February 28, 2025 deadline, as directed by the Prime Minister under Document No. 9600/VPCP-CN. He called on local authorities to provide accurate data and cooperate fully in the finalisation of the revised Power Development Plan VIII. VNS Compiled by Bao Hoa HA NOI Viet Nam has the potential to become a manufacturing hub in the region this year, especially in fields involving technology, as global companies have expressed interest in expanding operations in the country. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Viet Nam reached nearly US$31.4 billion in the first 11 months of 2024, with disbursed FDI estimated at about $21.7 billion, an increase of 7.1 per cent compared to the same period in 2023. The year 2024 was the third consecutive year that the country disbursed over $20 billion in FDI. Viet Nam is among the top 15 developing countries attracting the most FDI globally. The northern province of Bac Ninh led the country with total registered investment capital of nearly $5.04 billion, accounting for 16 per cent of the total national investment capital, more than three times higher than the same period in 2023. The coastal province of Quang Ninh ranked second with $2.29 billion of registered capital, followed by HCM City with $2.28 billion, then Hai Phong, Ha Noi and Binh Duong. Among the 110 countries and territories investing in Viet Nam in the first 11 months, Singapore led with a total investment capital of nearly $9.14 billion, accounting for over 29 per cent of the total investment, a 53.7 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023. FDI trends for 2025 Investments into high-value sectors like electronics, semiconductors and green technology led the amount of FDI into Viet Nam in 2024, and will likely continue to do so this year. Recently, the Government and leading American chipmaker NVIDIA signed an agreement to establish the Vietnam Research and Development Centre and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Centre in Viet Nam. This is a historic milestone for the country, preparing it to become the leading AI research and development hub in Asia and the third globally, after the US and Taiwan (China). From April 1 this year, Singapore-based Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. will transfer the rights and obligations of its advertising partners in Viet Nam to Google Vietnam Company Limited, based in HCM City, marking its first official operations in Viet Nam. During a meeting with Party General Secretary To Lam in New York on September 25, 2024, SpaceXs senior vice president for global business and government affairs Tim Hughes revealed that the American spacecraft provider planned to invest $1.5 billion in Viet Nam. The Trump Organization said it will invest a similar amount in Hung Yen Province. In November, Foxconn, an electronics supplier for Apple, announced an $80 million investment in chip manufacturing in Bac Giang Province, where Mark Zuckerbergs Meta also plans to expand its virtual reality equipment production. Instead of only attracting investment in assembly operations as in previous years, Viet Nam is quickly becoming an important part of the global technology world. This trend is becoming clearer with the potential for significant policy changes under the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump, which could accelerate the shift of production to Viet Nam. The country may experience more sustainable and faster growth, which will lessen its dependence on the real estate sector. Caution with 'origin evasion' investments While acknowledging the benefits of rising FDI, economic experts also stressed the need for caution regarding FDI flows from China, as the US-China trade war is resuming. Although China ranks third in terms of registered capital in Viet Nam, it has the highest number of newly licensed projects, accounting for 28.3 per cent of all projects. This indicates a significant rise in capital-intensive and smaller-scale projects, reflecting the strategy of leveraging geographical proximity, competitive labour costs and Chinas integration into global supply chains via the Vietnamese market. According to Vo Tri Thanh, director of the Institute for Brand and Competitiveness Strategy (BCSI), the deeper Viet Nam integrates into the global market, the greater the pressure for trade defence lawsuits. "We shouldnt wait until FDI flows from China increase to warn about origin fraud. This has been an issue since 2018-19, he said. We need to take strict action against origin fraud that exploits Viet Nam as a transit point for goods exported to third countries. He added that although Chinese FDI projects in Viet Nam in recent years have been of higher quality, given the risk of the escalating US-China trade war, it is highly likely that some Chinese businesses will use Viet Nam as a place for final-stage manufacturing to avoid tariffs. Two important issues therefore need to be taken into consideration when attracting FDI, according to Thanh. First, projects that pose environmental pollution risks or that do not meet safety and environmental standards should be stopped right from the start. Localities competing to attract FDI should be cautious about this element. Second, smaller projects with less investment capital, primarily for importation and simple final-stage manufacturing for export, should be carefully scrutinised. These projects aim to evade origin rules and thus require thorough vetting. To attract quality FDI and minimise the risk of being exploited for origin evasion, we must establish criteria for selecting FDI, Thanh said. Investment monitoring is essential to ensure a transparent investment environment while maintaining strict management." According to Professor Nguyen Thuong Lang, senior lecturer at the National Economics University, foreign investment in sectors that may evade origin rules should be regularly monitored and supervised after licensing. Strict measures should be taken against these projects when origin fraud is detected, he said. VNS HA NOI Viet Nam's stock market started 2025 on a positive note with a modest gain, as the VN-Index approached the 1,270-point threshold. However, liquidity continued to decline, remaining at low levels, while foreign investors resumed net selling, albeit mildly. On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), the VN-Index rose by 2.93 points, or 0.23 per cent, to close at 1,269.71 points. Market breadth leaned positive, with 183 advancing stocks outnumbering 124 decliners. Trading liquidity fell further to approximately VN10.8 trillion (US$424.37 million), with nearly 429 million shares changing hands. Meanwhile, the VN30-Index, which tracks the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation on the HoSE, dipped slightly by 1.55 points, or 0.12 per cent, settling at 1,343.2 points. Within the VN30 basket, 12 stocks rose, 11 fell and seven remained unchanged. The banking sector led the gains, with the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BID) rising by 1.73 per cent, contributing over 1.1 points to the VN-Index, while the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB) climbing by 0.77 per cent and the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank For Industry And Trade (CTG), up 0.79 per cent. Other notable gainers included Hoa Phat Group JSC (HPG) which posted gains of 1.31 per cent and Vietnam Airlines JSC (HVN) which advanced by 1.92 per cent. However, losses in some large-cap stocks limited the overall market's gains. The Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TCB) fell by 1.22 per cent, Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDB) declined by 1.57 per cent and Vietnam Commercial Joint Stock Export Import Bank (EIB) edged down by 2.85 per cent. On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), the HNX-Index rose slightly by 0.11 per cent to close at 227.69 points, with trading value exceeding VN625 billion and over 36 million shares traded. Foreign investors remained net sellers, offloading shares worth more than VN98 billion on the HoSE. At the opening bell to mark the start of 2025's trading year, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang emphasised the importance of enhancing market infrastructure, improving service quality and attracting international investment. He also underscored the need for sustainable market development, transparent operations and smooth trading systems. In 2024, Viet Nam's stock market demonstrated resilience and growth despite global macro-economic headwinds. The VN-Index increased by 12.11 per cent, while the total market capitalisation of listed stocks reached VN7.08 quadrillion, equivalent to nearly 70 per cent of GDP. The number of investor accounts climbed to nearly 9.16 million, a 26 per cent increase compared to 2023. Looking ahead to 2025, the securities sector aims to achieve market reclassification, enhance information technology infrastructure, ensure transparency and security, and focus on investor education to meet international standards and strengthen Viet Nam's integration into the global financial system. VNS NINH BINH The Cuc Phuong National Park in the northern province of Ninh Binh, in collaboration with the Save Viet Nam's Wildlife (SVW), successfully released 12 Javan pangolins (Manis Javanica) back into the wild on Thursday. The two organisations rescued the pangolins by intervening in illegal transportation, hunting, and trading back in the months of October and November. After being rescued and brought to the SVW, they were closely monitored for their health status to assess their recovery progress. This allowed the team to develop plans for subsequent stages of survival skill training, ensuring they are well-prepared to forage and defend themselves in their natural habitat. Pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world. Viet Nam is home to two pangolin species, namely Javan (also known as Sunda) and Chinese (Manis pentadactyla), both listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)s Red List. They are facing the threat of extinction. VNS HCM CITY The HCM City Peoples Committee has announced 83 winning works from an art and literary contest celebrating the 50th anniversary of Southern Liberation and National Reunification (April 30, 2025). Veteran writer Trinh Quang Phus 600-page book Theo Dau Chan Nguoi (Following President Ho Chi Minhs Footprints) won the literature award. The book is a chronicle of the Presidents journey to seek ways for national salvation when he left Viet Nam from Nha Rong Wharf, Sai Gon (former name of HCM City) in 1911 and returned to the country in 1941. Peoples Artist To Nguyet Ngas contemporary dance Thanh Pho Toi Yeu (The City I Love) received the award in the dance category, while cai luong (reformed opera) play Lua Sai Gon (Fire in Sai Gon) by playwrights Pham Duong My and Thu Huyen was named the winner in the theatre category. The award for the film category was given to a movie screenplay entitled ac Cong Rung Sac (Sac Forest Special Forces) by the Giai Phong (Liberation) Film Studio. It is about soldiers in the Sac Forest special military zone in HCM City's Can Gio District, who engaged in nearly 400 major and minor battles during the resistance war. The city also gave awards in music, fine arts, photography, and architecture to composers Tran Mai Xuan Tram and Tran Le Tra Thanh, painters Co Tan Long Chau and o inh Mien, photographers Pham Thi Quynh Nga and Hoang Trung Thuy, architect Nguyen Truong Luu, and several consolation prizes. Addressing the awards ceremony at the HCM City Opera House on Monday night, Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee, said that after the contest, the works would be produced, staged, and popularised among the citys people, contributing to enriching their spiritual and artistic lives and boosting the development of the country and HCM City. Mai also called on writers and artists in the country and abroad to continue creating more works about the city. The contest, with the theme of Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh 50 Nam Tu Hao Ban Anh Hung Ca (HCM City 50 Years of Patriotic Pride), was launched from July 2023 to June 2024. It received 630 entries in the categories of literature, music, theatre, film, photography, fine arts, architecture and dance by 434 authors and artists across the country. All the works highlighted the historical values of the national liberation fight, and the building and development of modern HCM City to promote the quintessence of the progressive Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity. VNS HCM CITY Viet Nams leading book publishers and distributors have released new books featuring stories and literary works about Tet (Lunar New Year) to celebrate the year of the Snake. ong A Books has introduced the Sach Tet At Ty 2025 (Book for the Year of the Snake 2025), which consists of short stories, poems, songs, paintings and illustrations about Tet in the past and the present by various writers and painters. The 296-page book begins with stories of Tet in the past by veteran authors, such as Mo Toang Canh Cua Nam Moi (Welcome the New Year) about preparing for Tet by Trung Sy, and Banh Chung San Va Xem Phim Giua Rung (Square Cassava Cake and Watching Movie in the Forest) about writer Xuan Phuongs memories of celebrating the Year of the Snake 1953 at the Safety Zone in Tuyen Quang Province. The publication features literary works about spring and love by famous Vietnamese writers and poets such as Co Mua Xuan Xanh Tham (Spring Grass) by Ma Van Khang, and Qua Bien (Gift from the Sea) by Le Minh Khue. It also features songs Bai Ca Hy Vong (The Song of Hope) by Van Ky, Mua Xuan Lang Lua Lang Hoa (Spring Comes to Villages) by Ngoc Khue, and at Nuoc Mua Xuan (Homeland in Spring) by Hoang Van. The book has illustrations by Hoang Phuong Vy, ang Xuan Hoa and ao Hai Phong, among others. According to ong A Books, through Sach Tet At Ty 2025, readers can not only travel back to Tet in the past but also feel the breath of spring in todays life, looking forward to the new year of joy and promises. The project of Sach Tet (Book for Tet) was initiated by ong A Books in 2019. It promises to be the spiritual companion of readers when Tet comes. Another publication, En Bay Khap Mien - Tet Ve Binh Yen (Swallows Bring Tet to the Homeland) is a picture book for children about traditional Tet across the country. The 72-page book released by inh Ti Books is written by Thanh at and illustrated by Bich Phuong. The work includes six simple stories about traditional Tet customs in different regions, from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta to coastal and mountainous regions, from urban areas to remote island areas. The book also features stories about signature dishes for Tet such as banh tet (cylindrical glutinous rice cake) and braised pork with egg, and folk games of nem con (throwing a ball through a ring for good luck) and keo co (tug of war). According to inh Ti Books, En Bay Khap Mien - Tet Ve Binh Yen is a meaningful gift for children during the Tet holiday, contributing to educating them about love for the country and national traditions. All the books are available at bookstores nationwide and on e-commerce websites. VNS HA NOI The Singaporean website opengovasia.com has published an article stating that Viet Nam is creating an ideal environment for a thriving digital ecosystem and technological advancements in the tourism sector, thanks to its over 78 million internet users and 73.3 per cent of the population active on social media. According to the article, which was published on December 30, robust digital infrastructure is enabling the country to tap innovative solutions, offering both convenience and efficiency to tourists and service providers. As one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Viet Nam has embraced digital transformation initiatives championed by the government and key stakeholders in the tourism industry. Technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), and big data are revolutionising the sector. These advancements not only optimise visitor experiences but also streamline operations for tourism service providers, aligning with broader goals of sustainable development and fostering stronger collaboration between stakeholders to create a more resilient and adaptable tourism ecosystem. The article also cited a report on the travel habits of Vietnamese people which highlights the widespread use of tools such as digital maps, e-wallets, and online travel agencies (OTAs). These tools have become essential for modern travellers, offering seamless navigation, cashless transactions, and convenient booking options. While more advanced technologies such as e-tickets, virtual assistants, and smart hotel services are still in the early stages of adoption, their growing presence is transforming travel into a more interactive and personalised experience, it said. The article also said that digital applications have been promoted through cooperation efforts between tourism boards, technology providers and local businesses, aimed at providing a connected and seamless travel experience. From smart transportation systems to integrated tourism services, these initiatives are promoting a more dynamic and efficient tourism ecosystem. The article noted that Viet Nams tourism industry has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years. The country welcomed over 15.8 million international tourists in the first 11 months of this year, marking a 41 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023. Popular destinations such as HCM City, Phu Quoc, a Nang, Ha Noi, and Nha Trang continue to attract visitors, thanks in part to their integration of digital tools and platforms that enhance visitor experiences. It believed that the Vietnamese tourism sector is willing to further leverage digital innovation. Continued investment in emerging technologies, combined with a strong focus on improving user experience, will ensure Viet Nam remains competitive in the global tourism market. At the same time, fostering digital literacy and building a resilient technological infrastructure will be key to sustaining long-term growth. The article concluded that with an ambitious target of welcoming 17 to 18 million international visitors by the end of the year, Viet Nam's commitment to digital transformation in tourism serves as a model for other emerging markets. By embracing technology and prioritising sustainable practices, the country is well on its way to becoming a leading travel destination in the digital era, it added. VNA/VNS THU UC CITY A book festival at the Thu uc Book Street, marking the streets first anniversary, opened last weekend to promote the reading habit among the community. A number of book signing events and readings are being organised at the venue in Ho Thi Tu Street of Hiep Phu Commune. Rare books and bestsellers by Vietnamese and foreign writers are displayed. Many children's books and comics, released by the countrys leading publishers such as Kim ong, Phuong Nam and Nha Nam, are offered with 20-40 percent discounts. Traditional games, painting competitions, and book readings are featured. Thu uc City Book Street has become a cultural destination for local people and children after one year of operations, said Dr. Thai Thu Hoai of the HCM City University of Cultures Publishing Faculty. The streets managing board should work more to improve the street's decoration and services. Thu uc City Book Street features dozens of book stalls of Vietnamese publishers. It has earned VN15 billion (US$588,824) in turnover. More than 270,000 books on different topics have been sold, and several thousand people have visited the street. More than 500 book-signing events and cultural exchange programmes and exhibitions have been organised on the street. According to Le Hoang, director of HCM City Book Street and also a manager of Thu uc City Book Street, promoting reading culture is necessary. Thu uc City Book Street should be developed as a tourist site to serve both residents and visitors, he said. "I often visit Thu uc Book Street on the weekends. I love reading at stalls on the street instead of staying home because it brings me closer to nature and people," said Tran Thi Anh Thu, a resident of the Vinhomes Grand Park in District 9. The book streets first anniversary will close on January 5. OVN Flash The Israeli military announced on Thursday that it had killed Hussam Shahwan, identified as the head of Hamas' Internal Security in southern Gaza, in an overnight drone strike on a humanitarian zone. According to a military statement, the strike targeted Shahwan while he was in a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, where displaced Palestinians have sought shelter. Later on Thursday, a rocket was fired from the southern Gaza Strip toward Israeli communities near the enclave, the military said, noting the rocket was intercepted, and there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Quynh Anh* Katrin Kandel, CEO of the charity Facing the World, was the only foreigner among the ten individuals honoured with Viet Nams 2024 National Volunteer Award by the Central Youth Union. The ceremony took place on December 29 in Lao Cai. This award really came out of the blue, said Katrin, an American lawyer who lives in the UK. Recognition like this is fantastic, a great honour. But the real hard work is carried out by the amazing medical staff, both visiting doctors and the fabulous and dedicated Vietnamese surgeons. Really, they are the ones who deserve all the plaudits. Facing the World, a charity established in 2002 in the UK, aims to assist children with facial deformities in developing countries. It embarked on its mission in Viet Nam in 2008, a pivotal moment that marked the start of Katrins enduring bond with the country. Facing the World initially brought Vietnamese children to the UK for complex surgeries, costing an astronomical amount of money per child. Later, it shifted to sending international medical teams to Viet Nam to work with local doctors on these surgeries. Katrin told Viet Nam News: At the beginning, the model was very different and children with severe facial differences were brought from all over the world to the UK for operations. Many children from Viet Nam were referred to the foundation, and when we were then invited by another medical foundation to visit Viet Nams general hospital, we accepted and began to send annual medical missions there. Since then, the model has changed dramatically. We work closely with the government where applicable. We have moved following successful development and a ten-year project to Ha Noi and work with state, military and private. We have a close working relationship with the Ministry of Health. That charity also runs training programmes, sending Vietnamese doctors to leading hospitals and medical schools worldwide to learn facial surgery techniques. The training began in 2015, with hospitals in the UK, Canada, the US and Australia. Their latest mission in November saw UK doctors work closely with staff at Viet uc Hospital. Our focus is very much on the training of the Vietnamese doctors in the applicable specialties needed in the surgical treatment of head and facial disfigurements. This involves many specialties depending on conditions being treated, Katrin said. We have been able to work with the Royal College of Surgeons, and four of our Vietnamese doctors have attained prestigious recognitions of honorary fellowship status from the Royal College of Surgeons, and our three centres have achieved accreditation from them. After 16 years, Facing the World has carried out life-changing facial surgery for thousands of Vietnamese children. Facing the World has also funded $3.12 million worth of telemedicine equipment and technology for surgical centres in Viet Nam. Additionally, it supported the establishment of the countrys first craniofacial and cosmetic surgery centre at the 108 Military Central Hospital in late 2018. In 2024, Facing the World held several initiatives in Viet Nam, including the International Conference on Diagnosis and Treatment of Sinus and Head-Neck Disorders (WAAM) with Hong Ngoc General Hospital. It also led to international consultations, helping Vietnamese doctors access new techniques, improve their skills and gain confidence in handling complex cases. A key initiative of Facing the World, is connecting Vietnamese doctors with global specialists for remote consultations and training. It allows doctors in major cities to assist those in remote areas with child healthcare, offering guidance on treatment and referral decisions. In the years ahead, Facing the World will sponsor 40,000 surgeries by Vietnamese doctors trained through its programme. The organisation also plans to send at least 200 Vietnamese doctors abroad for further training, while continuing to fund medical equipment to support telemedicine services over the next five years. She added: This all shows that the approach is working, and now thousands are being successfully treated at these centres. We are an example of what friendships between countries and people can achieve. I love Viet Nam. The people and the approach to life give the country a lifeblood that is hard to put into words. There is an amazing sense of peace and love in the country coupled with an extraordinary drive to achieve and help. We have many plans to intensify the collaboration and for our journey in Viet Nam to continue to achieve new levels of medical excellence as we are steered by our partners at our three hospitals and the partners at the Ministry of Health and ultimately help more children in Viet Nam. For her efforts in treating and operating on children, Katrin has received several awards, including the LOANI VNUK Global Leadership Inspiration Award (2023), the Vietnam International Award for Creativity (2024), Vietnam's Friendship Medal, the 2021 Certificate of Merit for significant contributions to socio-economic development from the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations, and the UK's Points of Light Award (2017). - VNS. * Additional reporting by Paul Kennedy HA NOI Former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong has been recommended for prosecution on charges of "abuse of power in the execution of official duties". The Ministry of Public Security's Investigative Security Agency has recently issued a supplementary investigation conclusion on a case alleging abuse of power and negligence causing serious consequences at the Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as in local agencies in various provinces and cities. Following its investigation, the agency upheld its recommendation to prosecute twelve defendants on charges of "abuse of power in the execution of official duties" and "negligence causing serious consequences". Among them, the Investigative Security Agency has recommended the prosecution of former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong for "abuse of power in the execution of official duties". The agency also recommended prosecuting Phuong Hoang Kim (former director of the Department of Electricity and Renewable Energy) and seven others on the same charges. Additionally, three defendants from Binh Phuoc Province's Tax Department have been recommended for prosecution on charges of "negligence causing serious consequences". According to the investigation, Vuong and Kim allegedly abused their power in advising the Prime Minister to implement regulations on the eligibility criteria for preferential electricity pricing policies for the Trung Nam - Thuan Nam solar power plant project. Investigators allege their actions caused a financial loss of VN937 billion (US$39.1 million) to the State-owned utility group Viet Nam Electricity (EVN). Seven other defendants were implicated in violations when the Department of Electricity Regulation (under the Ministry of Industry and Trade) issued power operation licences. Meanwhile, Binh Phuoc Province's Tax Department allegedly improperly refunded VAT to Loc Ninh 3 Energy Joint Stock Company. Three former officials from the Binh Phuoc Tax Department have been recommended for prosecution for negligence causing serious consequences in refunding VAT to Loc Ninh 3 Company. In its conclusion, the Ministry of Public Security also recommended administrative and Party disciplinary actions against members of the drafting team for Decision No. 13/2020/Q-TTg, which encouraged the development of solar power projects in Viet Nam. This includes officials from the Department of Electricity and Renewable Energy and individuals involved in appraising and evaluating the draft, as well as those related to granting power operation licences to Loc Ninh 3 Energy Joint Stock Company. VNS HA NOI The Ministry of National Defence on Thursday presented deployment decisions to eight officers selected for United Nations peacekeeping missions in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and South Sudan (UNMISS). The ceremony was presided over by Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, Deputy Minister of National Defence and head of Viet Nam's UN Peacekeeping Steering Committee. Among the officers, six will join the MINUSCA mission. Lieutenant Colonel Bui Thi Minh Nguyet will serve as a training staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Huy Tuan as a logistics staff officer, and Major Duy Van Son as an operations officer. Captain Le Van Chien will be responsible for intelligence analysis, First Lieutenant Nguyen Huyen Anh will oversee communications, and Senior Lieutenant Phung Minh Cuong will work as an intelligence staff officer. Meanwhile, two officers will be deployed to the UNMISS mission: Major Le Thi Ngoc Bich will serve as a staff officer, and Captain Vu Thi Nguyet Anh will take on the role of a military observer. Speaking at the event, Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien commended the officers, emphasising their roles as peace ambassadors, representing Viet Nams values and its international commitment. He encouraged them to approach their missions with professionalism, self-reliance and a collaborative spirit, while maintaining personal safety in regions with complex security situations. He also stressed the importance of teamwork, mutual support and adaptability in overcoming challenges and ensuring strong connections between the officers abroad and their counterparts in Viet Nam. As the officers prepare to deploy just ahead of Viet Nam's Lunar New Year celebrations, Chien called for arrangements to help them enjoy the holiday spirit, even while away from home. Plans include televised connections with the mission sites and traditional Tet celebrations at the UN peacekeeping bases. The deployment also reflects Viet Nams growing focus on increasing female participation in peacekeeping missions, in alignment with the UN Security Council's gender balance strategy. He emphasised the ongoing efforts to train and recruit more female personnel, and to expand Viet Nam's peacekeeping contributions through unit-based deployments and higher-quality training programmes. Since its initial participation in UN peacekeeping, Viet Nam has deployed nearly 1,100 personnel to missions in Africa and at the UN headquarters. According to Major General Pham Manh Thang, director of Viet Nam's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, preparations for the eight departing officers are nearly complete. He also revealed plans to establish Engineering Unit No.4 and Level-2 Field Hospital No.7, which will be deployed later on in 2025. VNS HA NOI Ministries, central and local agencies must prioritise positions in State agencies in order to recruit excellent graduates and talented young scientists. Under a newly issued decree, which came into effect on January 1, the bodies must recruit the best candidates meeting the prescribed standards and conditions for public employees. Decree No 179/2024/N-CP stipulates the policies for employing the best staff to work in agencies and units of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, the State, the Viet Nam Fatherland Front, and other public socio-political organisations. They will take exams to secure those positions with content, form, order and procedures conducted in accordance with the law. Applicable people include excellent graduates, talented young scientists, experts, managers, business administrators and leading scientists who are Vietnamese or foreigners. Norms For public employees, they must have a strong political stance, good political qualities and ethics, a clear background and be healthy enough to perform their duties. They have the desire to contribute and serve the Fatherland and the people, be dynamic, creative, and daring to think, act, and take responsibility. They always take the lead in advising and proposing to competent authorities policies and solutions that bring high efficiency and breakthroughs in performing tasks and public services. They also have research works or proposals that are applied and bring high value in strategic and key sectors of the country or locality. For students, they must meet one of the following conditions: being a valedictorian at a domestic university, or graduate with honours or higher from a prestigious university in the world, within the age specified in Article 1 of the Law on Youth at the time of their application. Priority will also be given to excellent university graduates from domestic universities having personal achievements, including winning third prize or higher in one of the provincial-level excellent students competitions, winning an consolation prize or higher in the national excellent students competitions, or a certificate of merit or higher in the international excellent students competitions in natural sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and informatics) and social sciences (literature, history, geography, foreign languages) during high school. The achievements can be winning third prize or higher in a national or international science and technology competition during high school or university, winning third prize or higher in an Olympic competition in one of the following subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, informatics or other majors during university and recognised by the Ministry of Education and Training. Experts, managers, business administrators, leading scientists, whether Vietnamese or foreigners, need to meet one of the following criteria: hold a doctorate or post-doctorate degree from prestigious training institutions in the world, participating in teaching, scientific research and technology transfer at research institutions, programmes, international cooperation projects on science and technology or research departments of prestigious enterprises abroad, in specialised fields suitable for scientific and technological tasks performed in Viet Nam. Priority policies Every year, based on the prescribed standards, the Party Committee, leaders of agencies, organisations and units employing the workers will have a written recommendation for the public workers who meet the standards and submit to competent agencies for consideration and selection as talented individuals. Heads of the agencies with authority to manage the public employees will establish a talent selection council to examine and evaluate the public employees working results. In addition, the decree regulates that talented workers are entitled to an additional monthly allowance equal to 150 per cent of their current salary from the date of the recognition by the competent authority. Outstanding workers are given priority for appointments to leadership or management or senior expert positions. In special cases, competent authorities will consider and decide on planning, age and duration of holding equivalent positions. They will be sent to study, conduct research and participate in scientific exchanges domestically or abroad related to the assigned expertise and profession at least once a year, with full expenses covered according to regulations during the period of study, research and scientific exchange. VNS HA NOI As Viet Nam looks to revive its Ninh Thuan nuclear power project, developing a skilled workforce, building a strong legal framework, and bolstering nuclear safety and technology will become critical priorities, experts said. Nuclear power is a sector that demands very specific advanced scientific and technical expertise, requiring highly skilled human resources at every stage, from design and technology to infrastructure construction, operation and regulatory management. These resources are not only critical to the success of projects but also essentiual for ensuring long-term operational safety and efficiency. A study by the World Nuclear Association reveals that operating a nuclear reactor at a power plant requires between 400 and 700 full-time personnel, while it takes approximately 12 to 15 years to prepare a nuclear power plant for operation. Now is a critical period for Viet Nam to prepare its human resources, establish a legal framework and enhance its capacity in nuclear technology and safety. Associate Professor Nguyen Xuan Hai, from the Nuclear Research Institute under the Viet Nam Atomic Energy Institute, said that between 2010 and 2015, Viet Nam sent more than 400 students and engineers to Russia, Japan and other countries for training and internships to support the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project. However, since the project was suspended in November 2016, most of these individuals have shifted to other fields. Technological expertise remains a significant challenge, particularly in critical areas such as nuclear reactors, nuclear materials and fuels and accelerators. These fields often lack trained professionals due to the confidentiality of scientific and technological policies. Even when training is available, many specialists opt to remain abroad. This shortage of expertise is a key obstacle hindering the development of Viet Nam's nuclear energy sector. Policies to attract young talent Dr Tran Chi Thanh, Director of the Viet Nam Atomic Energy Institute (VINATOM), said that human resources will be a decisive factor in restarting the Ninh Thuan project and other major energy projects in Viet Nam. Despite the demand, the nuclear energy sector struggles to attract talent due to the complexity of the field, stringent requirements and relatively low income. These challenges highlight the urgent need for training and retraining. Dr Tran noted that the government has previously launched programmes to train nuclear professionals through domestic universities and international partnerships. Hundreds of students and staff were trained in Russia and received short-term training in Japan, France, and Hungary, forming an initial pool of specialists. For example, Japan trained 32 core staff members from Vietnam Electricity (EVN) for the Ninh Thuan 2 plant. These individuals could have become leading experts in the construction and operation of Viet Nams nuclear power plants had the project not been suspended. Dr Tran proposed that Viet Nam focus not only on new training but also on mechanisms to attract previously-trained professionals back into the sector. He suggested offering scholarships to incentivise talented students to pursue nuclear studies. When we restart the project, we must consolidate the existing workforce, provide further training and classify candidates for both long- and short-term training, he told baochinhphu.vn. Establishing a State Steering Committee staffed by proficient nuclear energy managers will also be essential. Dr Tran further stressed the need to build a team of nuclear regulatory experts with practical experience and technical proficiency. These experts should gain hands-on experience at foreign nuclear plants to deepen their understanding of safety issues, be ready to anticipate risks and establish regulations ensuring operational safety. To cultivate top nuclear energy experts, Viet Nam requires a national research programme addressing the challenges of nuclear power. A comprehensive training plan across various levels must also be developed. Currently, the Viet Nam Atomic Energy Institute is building a research team specialising in technology and nuclear safety analysis, along with related fields. This team is expected to evolve into leading experts who will contribute significantly to constructing the Ninh Thuan nuclear power plant. Strengthening international cooperation International collaboration is crucial for Viet Nams nuclear power development, particularly in human resources development. On December 20, in Japan, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien met with Japanese enterprises and universities to promote cooperation in nuclear power. During the meeting, Viet Nam Electricity University and Nagaoka University of Technology signed a Memorandum of Understanding on collaboration to develop nuclear power human resources. This partnership is expected to strengthen Viet Nam-Japan cooperation in training personnel for the Ninh Thuan project. Associate Professor inh Van Chau, Rector of Viet Nam Electricity University, said that despite technological advancements, the lack of expertise, safety awareness and professional ethics among operators poses risks. His university has proposed partnerships with major corporations like Mitsubishi, Hitachi and JINED to create targeted training programmes. Japanese corporations have expressed their readiness to transfer knowledge and expertise to Viet Nam. Similarly, the Russian Ambassador to Viet Nam, G.S. Bezdetko reaffirmed the country's willingness to cooperate on the Ninh Thuan project. Over 300 Vietnamese professionals have bee trained in nuclear power in Russia, laying a foundation for future collaboration. Experts agree that a strong and capable workforce is vital for ensuring the safety and efficiency of nuclear power plant construction and operation. A successful human resource training programme requires the concerted efforts of the Party, the State and the nuclear sector to attract and retain talent. If implemented effectively, the revival of the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project will not only address Viet Nam's energy challenges, but also elevate its position on the global energy map. This is a pivotal moment for Viet Nam to demonstrate its commitment to sustainable energy development and international collaboration, using domestic and foreign resources to realise its vision for nuclear energy. VNS A NANG The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in co-operation with the central city and partners from Japan, has helped build up an awareness in energy saving among community, which will be used as a foundation for sustainable development in the future. JICA said the four-year Improving energy saving for citizens in a Nang project a joint venture between Yokohama National University and the Osumi company, under the JICA Partnership Program (JPP) was aimed at raising public awareness, improving the quality of life and reducing energy consumption across the Son Tra district in 2021-24. The results will be used to build a model which can be replicated across the whole city in the future, a step towards a sustainable a Nang City. Improvements included energy saving solutions for residential and non-residential buildings including hotels and offices, using the transient system stimulation tool (TRNSYS1) simulation software. Local students raised awareness about protecting the environment through energy saving, with special classes and a seminar. JICA reported that the project had supported five households to conduct energy-saving renovations for bedrooms using air conditioners. After the work, electricity consumption was reduced by at least 6.8 per cent in one home and up to 19.1 per cent in another. Simulation results of non-residential buildings also showed that energy consumption for cooling could be reduced by about 10 per cent and 15 per cent, or between 13 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, by improving the insulation of exterior walls and windows. At least a thousand copies of the Energy-saving renovation guidebook had been delivered to people living in Son Tra district during the four-year project, JICA reported. For many decades JICA has supported a Nang across different environmental fields including providing an upgraded and expansion project for sewage treatment stations and drainage systems, improving the city's Lien Chieu water supply plant and working together at the Tien Sa port's second phase. a Nang and Sakai City, Japan, have also agreed to boost cooperation in building a carbon-neutral model for the city, including investment, trade and tourism, which will entail launching a direct flight between them. Yokohama and Sakai have already helped build a carbon neutral model at a Nang Port and working on greening the city's industrial parks. VNS Joseph Low, president of real estate (Vietnam), Keppel Ltd Joseph Low, president of real estate (Vietnam), Keppel Ltd With Vietnam's strong focus on sustainable development, we believe that Keppels solutions can unlock new opportunities for growth in the country. As a leading global asset manager and operator, Keppel is well placed to bring in global financial investors who can contribute capital to fund the development of smarter and greener solutions and assets. We will leverage our strong track record in the development and operation of such assets to provide critical infrastructure and services to Vietnam. In the real estate space, we continue to see many opportunities in Vietnam, where we have successfully established a quality portfolio of residential, office, and retail properties. We are looking forward to advancing Saigon Centre Phase 3 in Ho Chi Minh City and launching Hanoi Centre, our retail development slated to open in 2025. Keppel has also secured several energy-as-a-service (EaaS) contracts in Vietnam to design and retrofit existing cooling systems in clients developments, improving energy efficiency and asset performance. Additionally, we are exploring the implementation of other types of EaaS with various Vietnamese partners. As a leading data centre player with a premier portfolio of 35 data centres across key data hubs in Asia-Pacific and Europe, Keppel is well-positioned to offer integrated data centre solutions to support Vietnams fast-growing digital economy. Edwin Chee, COO, SLP Vietnam Edwin Chee, COO, SLP Vietnam For SLP, 2025 promises to be a year of growth and opportunity. Our focus remains on advancing business development and expanding our footprint in the industrial facilities sector. A key milestone is the launch of a new initiative in Bac Ninh province in Q4 2024, offering state-of-the-art factory and warehouse solutions. While the first half of 2024 presented challenges due to weaker business sentiment and an overall subdued market outlook, we saw positive momentum in the second half. Looking ahead to 2025, we are optimistic about a brighter business landscape and anticipate growing demand in the industrial sector. In line with this, we plan to initiate additional projects that underscore our commitment to supporting customer growth, driving industry advancement, and enhancing our market presence. The industrial real estate market shows encouraging signs of recovery, marked by rising activity and increased investment. These developments provide a solid foundation for expanding our project portfolio in 2025, creating value for our stakeholders and contributing to long-term growth. Ben Ding Khoon Yew, general director, Soilbuild International (Vietnam) Ben Ding Khoon Yew, general director, Soilbuild International (Vietnam) Soilbuild International is looking ahead to 2025 with great enthusiasm and clear goals. Following the successful launch of Spectrum Nghe An, we aim to fill up our Phase 1 of this project by the end of the year, providing businesses with a robust space to thrive. Our strategic vision also includes launching more new projects in Vietnam, namely Spectrum Hung Yen and Spectrum Bac Ninh. The additional locations will offer a wider spectrum of investment choices for our customers, catering to their diverse needs and helping them capitalise on the burgeoning industrial markets in Vietnam. With the uncertainty of Trumps policies on trade and bilateral relations, we hope his new policies will foster a favourable business environment, enhance trade relations, and create more investment opportunities. This will have a direct impact on the Vietnamese economy, particularly in the industrial sector, further solidifying Vietnams position as a global manufacturing hub. Overall, we maintain a positive outlook on Vietnam's prospects. With its strategic location, dynamic workforce, and supportive government policies, Vietnam remains a key focus for our expansion plans. Soilbuild International is committed to leveraging our expertise and resources to drive sustainable development and contribute to the nation's industrial advancement. We look forward to continuing and expanding our collaboration with partners and clients to achieve these goals. Taking this opportunity, Soilbuild International would like to wish VIR and every business a happy and prosperous 2025. More ready-built factories and warehouses are being made available Photo: Le Toan BW Industrial, a logistics property developer aided by Warburg Pincus, is continuing to explore the Vietnamese market with the construction of BW Phu An Thanh Industrial Hub in December, its 13th venture of the year. The ready-built factory spans about 54,000sq.m, making it a convenient site for manufacturers across sectors such as vehicles, electronics, electrical equipment, food and beverages, and machinery. BW Industrial has also unveiled its plan for an initial public offering in Vietnam. COO of BW Industrial Vietnam Fion Ng said the idea was an avenue the company was pursuing, but the timing will depend on market conditions, she told Bloomberg. Leases in 2024 were up by half on 2023 and the company is on track to lease 1.2 million sq.m of industrial and logistics space in 2024. We are looking to keep pace with construction of a million sq.m of industrial leasing land a year and are not slowing our investment, Ng added. BW Industrial was founded in 2018 as a joint venture of Becamex IDC and Warburg Pincus to develop for-rent logistics property in Vietnam. The company has more than 10 million sq.m of land in 12 cities and provinces, according to its website. More registered capital In October, Thantawan Industry Public Co., Ltd., a Thai manufacturer of premium plastic packaging, signed a landmark 30-year lease for a factory in Phuoc Dong Industrial Park (IP) in the southern province of Tay Ninh. The new facility spans more than 43,000sq.m and features a state-of-the-art factory. Purpose-built for advanced virgin plastic packaging production, the facility is designed with a production capacity of 9,000 tonnes annually. Elsewhere, Daiwa House Logistics Trust Company in July completed a deal to acquire Tan Duc 2 in the Mekong Delta province of Long An for $26.5 million, marking its first time owning real estate in Vietnam. Daiwa House Logistics Trust explained that this acquisition is its first outside Japan and will help to diversify its portfolio. Tan Duc 2 is a built-to-suit property developed as a cold storage facility for storage of frozen and chilled food. Such cold storage facilities are currently experiencing a shortage in Vietnam, where demand is bolstered by the demand for high-quality food products driven by Vietnams growing middle-class and improving economy and the strong domestic demand for such food products coupled with a growing e-commerce sector are some of the key drivers for the development of the cold storage sector in Vietnam, Daiwa House said. In May, Tripod Technology Group of Taiwan leased 18ha of land in Chau Duc IP in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, also in the south, with registered capital of $250 million, to build a factory to produce electronic circuit boards. Once operational, the factory expected to be the largest high-tech foreign-invested undertaking in the Sonadezi Chau Duc IP, employing 1,700 workers. Before that, in March, Singaporean fund Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) spent more than $50 million to acquire two Grade A warehouses in Binh Duong and Hung Yen provinces, located adjacent to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The company said the move also included the acquisition of a property in Malaysia for around $117 million. Together, the move would total approximately $174 million, increasing MLTs portfolio in Vietnam by 21 per cent to over 70ha. Before this move, MLTs portfolio in Vietnam included five properties in Binh Duong province and five in the northern province of Bac Ninh. According to Bui Trang, country head of Cushman & Wakefield Vietnam, the total value of real estate merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in Vietnam since 2020 has reached $2.94 billion, of which industrial real estate led the way with a rate of 40 per cent. Only calculating M&As in the first 9 months of 2024, industrial real estate accounts for 91 per cent of the total transaction value of $178 million, Trang added. Domestic firms on board While foreign business groups are promoting M&As to expand available land, domestic businesses are proposing to invest in new IP projects. Viglacera Corporation is preparing for approval of policies to deploy new IPs in localities with advantages in infrastructure and business capabilities. Specifically, it will establish new legal entities and branches to develop Phu Ninh and Bac Son IPs in Phu Tho province, Dong Mai IP in Quang Ninh province, and Tay Pho Yen IP in Thai Nguyen. It is expected that in 2025, Viglacera will record an increase in IP land of 2,000-3,000ha. Meanwhile, urban and industrial developer IDICO said that it aims to add around 2,000ha of IP land to its portfolios soon. In September, the corporation was approved for the expanded My Xuan B1-CONAC IP located in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. In the same month, IDICO was approved to invest in Tan Phuoc 1 IP in Tien Giang province. Meanwhile, Phat Dat Corporation is researching for land and implementing IPs in Quang Ngai, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Dong Thap provinces. Cushman & Wakefield forecasts that industrial real estate supply will grow significantly over the next two years. Specifically, for provinces in the northern and southern key economic regions, the supply of industrial land will increase by over 10,000ha, with a growth rate of 7.5 per cent per year. Meanwhile, ready-built factories and warehouses will increase by 1.9 million sq.m and 2.6 million sq.m of floor space, respectively, growing by 5.9 per cent per year and 10.1 per cent annually. Industrial developers honoured for green transformation strategies 17 industrial infrastructure developers were honored for their green transformation strategies in 2024 at the Vietnam Industrial Property Forum 2024, held on July 30 in Ho Chi Minh City. Industrial property ready for welcoming high-tech FDI wave The industrial property sector, particularly Soilbuild, is enhancing its factories and services to draw in foreign direct investment (FDI) in high technologies Ta Manh Hung, deputy director Drug Administration of Vietnam Ministry of Health Vietnams pharmaceutical industry has made notable achievements in recent times. The total value of the market has increased from $3.4 billion in 2015 to $7.46 billion in 2022, with an annual growth rate of about 12-15 per cent. There are currently over 24,000 drugs with valid marketing authorisation, with over 800 active ingredients. The country is now home to well over 200 factories meeting GMP-WHO standards, of which 17 factories meet GMP-EU standards. The industry has also produced 15 types of vaccines, meeting all expanded vaccination needs and 10 per cent of service vaccination needs. However, there are still many limitations in technology transfer in the pharma industry. Specifically, the proportion of domestically produced drugs meets about 70 per cent in quantity, but only accounts for about 46 per cent of consumption value. Raw materials for drug production are still mainly imported. Moreover, the industry is still focused on producing generic drugs, yet focusing on high-tech or innovative drugs. Technology transferred products are still mostly generic drugs or conventional biologicals, not including breakthrough products or advanced technologies such as mRNA, recombinant technology, or high-tech dosage forms. There are also many other barriers. The industry still faces a lack of investment capital, unsynchronised infrastructure, and limited high-quality people in research and production. Administrative and legal procedures are still complicated. The investment environment is also not attractive enough and preferential policies are not strong enough to attract foreign enterprises. The supporting ecosystem for the pharmaceutical industry is still underdeveloped, causing difficulties in localising production materials and largely depending on imported raw materials for production. Nevertheless, the industry targets to develop Vietnam into a hub for production and technology transfer of original brand name drugs in the ASEAN region. In particular, the specific target is to meet 80 per cent of domestic drug demand by 2030, and add special incentives for projects on research, production of innovative drugs, high-tech drugs, vaccines and biological products. The amended Law on Pharmacy 2024 now adds some improvements. It provides priority mechanisms to shorten the time and procedures for granting marketing authorisations for special drugs such as new drugs, original brand name drugs, rare drugs, vaccines, and high-tech drugs. The new law also regulates the use of funds such as the national technology innovation fund, the national science and technology development fund, and the high-tech venture capital fund to support activities related to research and development, clinical trials, and drug commercialisation in specific cases. The cases include clinical trials, technology transfer, production and commercialisation of ingredients, new drugs, vaccines, biological products, high-tech drugs, the first domestically produced generic drugs, traditional drugs in modern dosage forms, herbal medicines, and others. Regarding investment and development policies, there are commitments to combining state budget investment with socialised resources to develop the industry of producing vaccines, biological products, medicinal herbs and traditional medicines. The amended law also includes procurement incentives, investment incentives and human resources training. Accordingly, the government is responsible for allocating land and funding to support pharmaceutical research and production activities. It will also develop legal documents to ensure effective implementation of policies on resources. The pharmaceutical development strategy sets ambitious targets for domestic drug production to meet domestic demand and increase export value. By 2030, Vietnam aims to produce about 80 per cent of the necessary drugs and increase the market value to 70 per cent. This vision extends to vaccines, with a target of meeting all the demand for the national expanded immunisation programme on and 30 per cent for private vaccination. It also aims to become the regional hub for high-value pharmaceuticals. By 2030, the goal is to attract technology transfer and outsourcing production for at least 100 innovative drugs, vaccines, and similar biologicals, including products not currently available in Vietnam. The strategy also emphasises the importance of complying with GMP. By 2030, Vietnam aims to have 20 per cent of its pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities complying with EU-GMP or PIC/S-GMP standards, demonstrating its commitment to producing high-quality medicines. Pharma to experience robust growth Vietnam healthcare market size is estimated to reach $23.7 billion and grow at an average rate of 7.5 per cent annually from 2023 to 2028. Healthcare expenditure per capita is also projected to increase from $237 to $328 in that time. On December 12, the Public Trust in Tax 2024 report was published by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). The survey covered 26 countries across Asia, Latin America, and Africa, involving over 10,000 respondents from diverse age groups, income levels, and education backgrounds, with an equal gender split. The report, also with the involvement of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), provides detailed insights into public perceptions of Vietnams tax system, highlighting an exceptional level of trust in tax authorities, surpassing many other countries. It focuses on the fiscal contract, the idea that citizens are willing to pay taxes in exchange for efficient public services. ACCA chief executive Helen Brand added, This years survey and report mark the most significant expansion in the initiative since it began in 2017. In the years since, the scope has expanded from G20 countries, plus New Zealand, to include a cross-section of the largest countries by population in the different regions of the world. According to the results, Vietnamese respondents demonstrate remarkably high trust in their tax authorities, surpassing all other surveyed countries. Some 77.2 per cent of those surveyed express trust, indicating a strong public belief in the government's effective and fair management of tax revenue. This high level of trust fosters a culture of voluntary compliance and reduces reliance on expensive enforcement measures. A robust belief in tax equity is prevalent in Vietnam, with 62 per cent of respondents believing that their tax system collects taxes proportionally to the ability to pay. This figure significantly surpasses the global average of 32 per cent, highlighting a strong perception of fairness within the Vietnamese tax system. Vietnamese respondents show a strong commitment to their country's future, with 60.6 per cent acknowledging the crucial role of taxes in sustainable development and expressing a willingness to contribute more to achieve these goals. This underscores a deep sense of collective responsibility and dedication towards national progress. Mirroring global trends, professional tax accountants are the most trusted source for tax information among Vietnamese citizens. This suggests a valuable opportunity for collaboration between tax authorities and accountants to further solidify taxpayer confidence and promote a transparent and reliable tax environment. The survey has highlighted some of the challenges faced by governments and tax authorities. The survey results illuminate the issues that need to be addressed in an ongoing conversation about how to best support trust in tax systems and thereby support sustainable development, said ACCA representatives in the report. It allows engagement with policymakers, tax authorities, civil society and the accountancy profession, among others, to drive evidence-based policy initiatives to support trust. The data in the report also indicates that while Vietnam is among the few countries where trust in politicians outweighs distrust, this trust level has declined compared to 2022. This trend emphasises the need for continued efforts to maintain transparency and accountability in governance, further strengthening public trust in all aspects of the tax system. The findings regarding trust in professional tax accountants remain extremely important, and remind us of the unique role that the accountancy profession plays in the trust ecosystem, said IFAC chief executive Lee White. Manal Corwin, director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, added, As the OECDs work on tax morale has shown, trust is pivotal in establishing effective tax systems, but further work is needed to both measure trust in tax, and understand how to build it. Indeed, all the data presented here is meant to facilitate an ongoing conversation about how to best support trust in tax systems and thereby support sustainable development. New campaign aims to highlight truth about carrying a knife as reports in Wales increase This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jan 2nd, 2025 Young people across Wales are the target of a new campaign to highlight the truth about knife carrying and to encourage reporting of crime 100 per cent anonymously. As reports given to Crimestoppers about knife crime in Wales have increased by 20% in the last six months, the youth service of the charity, Fearless, have launched a campaign this to highlight the facts about knife crime. Two facts are that carrying a knife increases your chances of being hurt and spending five years in prison, even if it isnt used. In a bid to reduce knife crime in the country, young people and the wider community are being informed about knife crime and are encouraged to anonymously report people who carry knives to the charity. Hayley Fry, Wales National Manager for the charity Crimestoppers, said: Asking young people in Wales to speak up about crime anonymously and without fear of retribution is at the heart of Fearless. For this campaign, we particularly want to reach out to young people to challenge common myths around carrying knives, as well as encourage them to report anyone theyre concerned about who may be carrying one. Were also urging adults across Wales who may know someone carrying a knife to make a hard call and report what they know anonymously. Our charity has always kept its promise of anonymity to everyone who contacts us. Young people can share information about crime 100% anonymously at Fearless.org. Adults can also give information by calling our UK Contact Centre on 0800 555 111 at any time or via Crimestoppers-uk.org. Our charity receives information about crime anonymously and ensures that what were told is passed on. Were proud of our independence from the police and our commitment to protecting the anonymity of everyone who contacts us. Fearless gives young people an option of staying 100% anonymous when speaking up about crime. Information can be given via Fearless.org or by calling 0800 555 111 at any time or via Crimestoppers-uk.org. The charity is independent of the police. North Wales Police warn of gift card fraud as 5 million lost to scammers This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jan 2nd, 2025 North Wales Police have issued a warning about gift card fraud after nearly 5 million was lost to scammers during the last festive season. The scam sees fraudsters target victims by posing as authorities and claiming that fines or bills must be paid via gift cards. Others may impersonate friends or family, using hacked accounts to request gift cards. A police spokesperson said: If someone asks you to buy gift cards to send on to them or to pay for something, it is quite likely that you are the target of a scam. Watch out for unsolicited callers claiming that you need to purchase gift cards in order to pay a fine or bill or to claim a prize for example. Also be very cautious if friends or family contact you to ask you to purchase gift cards on their behalf its likely that their online account has been hacked and youll be sending the gift cards to a cybercriminal or online scammer. Please take the time to make sure that your friends and family are all aware that this type of gift card fraud is a favourite with scammers and Cybercriminals. Make sure that they know that someone asking for gift cards should always be treated with caution. More information on how to protect yourself from scammers can be found on the Action Fraud website. The Sparks Police Department and Sparks Fire Department worked together to combat issues with illegal fireworks on New Year's Eve. Throughout the night two Sparks Police officers and Sparks Fire prevention staff patrolled the city and contacted multiple people after fireworks were observed in use or calls for service related to fireworks were made. In a release, Sparks Police say they got 26 calls for service, issued five written warnings, three verbal warnings, and wrote one citation. Throughout the night, 67 fireworks were confiscated. The highly decorated Army soldier inside the Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trumps Las Vegas hotel shot himself in the head before the explosion and likely planned to cause more damage but the explosive was rudimentary and the steel-sided vehicle absorbed much of the force, officials said Thursday. Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man in the driver's seat. The Clark County Coroner's Office has confirmed the identity of the driver to be 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, of Colorado. The cause of death to be from an intraoral gunshot wound, and the manner of death to be suicide. Damage from the blast was mostly limited to the interior of the truck. The explosion vented out and up and didnt hit the Trump hotel doors just a few feet away, the sheriff said. The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience, said Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge for the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Among other charred items found inside the truck were a second firearm, a number of fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch, McMahill said. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally. Investigators have definitively identified the remains as Livelsberger, in an online post LVMPD says that Matthew Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado Springs, CO, has been identified as the driver of the vehicle in the explosion investigation. Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement. McMahill said Livelsberger rented the Tesla electric vehicle in Denver on Saturday and the sheriff displayed a map showing that it was charged in the Colorado town of Monument near Colorado Springs on Monday. On New Years Eve, it was charged in Trinidad, Colorado, and the towns of Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Gallup in New Mexico, along the Interstate 40 corridor. Then on Wednesday, the day of the explosion, it was charged in the Arizona towns of Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman before video showed it on the Las Vegas Strip about 7:30 a.m. The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was conducting law enforcement activity at a home in Colorado Springs related to Wednesday's explosion but provided no other details. The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans famed French Quarter early on New Years Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others. Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty. Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas. Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself." "All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion, Musk wrote. Musk has recently become a member of Trumps inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trumps New Years Eve party at his South Florida estate. (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.) Youre fine one minute, and the next, it hits you: stomach pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Youve got a stomach bug. And while a few different germs could be to blame, chances are its the dreaded norovirus, the most common cause of these symptoms. Each year, norovirus sickens about 20 million Americans and causes around 900 deaths, mostly among adults 65 and older. Members only If it seems like youre seeing more of it now, youre not wrong. Cases surged in November and December of 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And while norovirus outbreaks are most common between the months of November and April, the number of outbreaks recorded during the first week of December, the latest data available, was well above previous years. Common Symptoms of Norovirus Diarrhea Vomiting Nausea Stomach pain The very nature of norovirus makes it hard to dodge. For starters, the intestine-inflaming virus spreads quickly and easily among people; you can also pick it up from contaminated foods and surfaces. Plus, its what University of Maryland infectious disease physician Wilbur Chen describes as a hearty virus. It can survive on surfaces for long periods were talking hours, even days. And it only takes a few virus particles to make you sick. Meanwhile, infected individuals can shed billions. Preventing norovirus Still, experts say there are a few steps you can take to help prevent a bout with the bug. And the most important is the most basic. When talking about norovirus, and really any other virus, the best way to prevent yourself from getting sick is not to touch your eyes, nose or mouth unless youve washed your hands first, says Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic. Theres a cringe factor to how norovirus is transmitted: by tiny particles of feces (poop) or vomit from an infected person. If someone has norovirus and doesnt wash their hands after using the restroom and then goes to touch a doorknob, others can pick it up if they touch the doorknob and then touch their mouth. The same goes if that infected person shakes another individuals hand or handles food. (Food like fruits and vegetables can also get contaminated when washed or grown with contaminated water.) Common Settings of Norovirus Outbreaks Health care facilities, including nursing homes Restaurants/catered events Schools and child care centers Cruise ships Source: CDC And an important note on cleaning your hands: Alcohol-based hand sanitizers don't work so well against norovirus, so washing your hands well with soap and water is critical and important, says Sabrina Assoumou, M.D., an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Soap and water a vigorous scrub for about 20 seconds can break up the virus structure much better than alcohol-based gels and sprays. If someone in your house comes down with norovirus, limit the amount of sharing that happens with food and utensils, Assoumou advises. And clean surfaces frequently and thoroughly. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a list of cleaning products that are effective against norovirus. You can also use a solution of 5 to 25 tablespoons of household bleach per gallon of water (2 percent to 10 percent), the CDC says. Finally, because norovirus is the leading cause of illness from contaminated food in the U.S., its important to wash fruits and vegetables and to cook oysters and other shellfish thoroughly to an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit. The Maha Kumbh Mela, widely considered to be the largest religious gathering in the world, will be held at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh from January 13 to February 26, 2025. Held every 12 years, this massive spiritual event is more than just a religious gathering; it is also a colossal business opportunity, attracting millions of pilgrims from around the globe. As the largest event of its kind, Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 will combine tradition with modernity, offering a platform for technological integration and economic growth. The Spiritual Significance Held every 12 years, the Maha Kumbh Mela is a major pilgrimage event for Hindus, drawing millions to the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Sarasvati rivers at Prayagraj. As per various estimates, over 40 crore devotees are expected to visit Maha Kumbh Mela 2025. Devotees believe that taking a ritual dip in the sacred waters during the Mela will cleanse them of sins and lead to spiritual liberation. The Mela is a celebration of faith, tradition, and cultural heritage, making it a powerful spiritual event that holds deep significance for people from all walks of life. Mega Scale of Maha Kumbh 2025 The 2025 Maha Kumbh promises to be even grander than the previous Kumbh in 2019. Comparative data from the Uttar Pradesh government reveals that the event is set to witness a footfall of over 40 crore (400 million) pilgrims, a significant increase from the 25 crore pilgrims who attended the 2019 edition. Spanning a massive 4,000 hectares, the Mela area has been expanded by 20% compared to 2019. The ground will be divided into 25 sectors to accommodate the larger crowd. The tent city, which has grown in size, will now host 1.6 lakh tents, double the number from 2019. The number of ghats has also increased, with nine pucca ghats (permanent bathing areas) in place of the four from the previous event. Additionally, 30 pontoon bridges will be set up, a notable increase from 22 in 2019. Infrastructure has been significantly upgraded, with 400 kilometers of temporary roads being built, a 35% increase from 2019, and the installation of 67,000 streetlights, compared to 40,000 previously. To meet the energy demands of the Mela, the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited has set up two new substations and 66 transformers. Furthermore, the water supply infrastructure has been revamped, with 1,249 kilometers of new pipelines feeding over 200 water ATMs and 85 water booths, compared to the previous 1,049 kilometers of pipeline and just 10 water ATM booths. These large-scale infrastructure upgrades ensure that the Mela will run smoothly and cater to the needs of millions of pilgrims visiting Prayagraj over the 45 days of the event. Infrastructure and Technological Advancements To cater to the huge influx of pilgrims, the Uttar Pradesh government has allocated Rs 7,000 crore for infrastructure upgrades. The funds will go toward improving basic facilities, transportation systems, and amenities across the vast 4,000-hectare Mela grounds. This move reflects the ambition of the organizers to ensure a smooth, organized, and comfortable experience for all participants. A key feature of the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 will be the integration of advanced technologies to assist pilgrims and enhance their experience. Some of the cutting-edge innovations include: AI-Powered Chatbots: Named SahAIyak, the AI-driven chatbot will provide real-time updates, navigation assistance, and personalized guidance in multiple languages. Pilgrims can access the chatbot via the mobile app or WhatsApp for user-friendly navigation and other helpful features. Digital Navigation: In partnership with Google, the event will offer a specialized navigation system to help devotees locate essential sites, ghats, akhadas, and saints. This is the first time Google has provided navigation services for a temporary event of this magnitude. AI Surveillance: To manage crowd density and ensure safety, AI-enabled cameras and drones will be deployed to monitor real-time data. This will allow authorities to respond proactively to any potential issues, ensuring the smooth flow of people across the vast Mela grounds. Commercial Potential and Branding Opportunities The economic impact of Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 is expected to be substantial, with estimates suggesting a contribution of over Rs 2 lakh crore to Uttar Pradeshs economy. This economic boom will be fueled by spending on transportation, accommodation, food, and other services as pilgrims arrive from every corner of the world. The Maha Kumbh is already boosting local trade with a surge in demand for Maha Kumbh-themed products like diaries, calendars, jute bags, and stationery. According to government sources, sales have increased by up to 25% due to meticulous branding. Blending spirituality, culture, and tradition, Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 offers a unique opportunity for brands and marketers to connect with millions of hearts. Prayagraj Mela Authority has selected a group of vendors to manage the advertisement rights for Maha Kumbh. As per the Maha Kumbh website, Aadhyasree Infotainment holds the rights for advertisements on Hoardings, Gantry/ Box Gate, Electric Poles, Watch Tower/ Media Tower/ Fire Tower, Charging Stand Points, and Sky Advertising Balloon. Crayons Advertising has bagged the OOH advertising rights for Public Accommodations. Vritti Solution holds the advertising rights for LED Screen Vans, while Shreyas Media, a division of Aadhyasree Infotainment, has secured the exclusive rights for advertising and various other activities such as food courts, amusement zones, and vending zones. According to Srinivas Rao, Founder and Chairman of Shreyas Group, the 2025 mega event presents a unique opportunity for brands to engage with a broad and diverse audience. Shreyas Media plans to implement innovative advertising methods, including strategically placed hoardings, media towers, and even sky balloons, offering creative ways for brands to engage with millions of pilgrims. Moreover, as per media reports, Indian companies are expected to invest over Rs 3,000 crore in branding and marketing activities, capitalizing on the unmatched visibility the event offers. This level of investment underscores the significance of the Mela as a platform for brand engagement, with companies planning various activations and promotions aimed at connecting with pilgrims on both emotional and practical levels. A Golden Opportunity for Brands: Innovative Marketing Strategies Maha Kumbh Mela has become a powerful marketing laboratory, offering brands an unparalleled opportunity to engage with a massive and diverse audience. Past editions have seen brands get creative with their activations, offering everything from waterproof sarees for pilgrims to roti reminders that promote hand hygiene. These product activations not only address practical needs but also create memorable brand experiences. In the upcoming Mela, marketers are preparing to test new products and engage with attendees through various innovative strategies. These include offering health services, eco-friendly initiatives, and sponsoring facilities such as sanitation stations. This presents a golden opportunity for brands to connect with attendees in a meaningful way that goes beyond traditional advertising. The sheer scale of the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 makes it a fertile ground for experimentation with new ideas and products. From product sampling to interactive booths, brands can experiment with new concepts in front of a massive, diverse crowd. These experiences will not only make a lasting impression on attendees but also build long-term loyalty and brand equity. As the Maha Kumbh Mela continues to evolve, the 2025 edition will set new benchmarks in both spiritual gatherings and large-scale events. The blend of technology, infrastructure investment, and innovative marketing strategies will help the event retain its cultural significance while embracing modern advancements to accommodate millions of pilgrims. For brands, the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 will offer a twofold return on investment: immediate visibility and long-term customer engagement. It will help brands build goodwill, especially in rural markets, where the event draws a significant number of pilgrims. By providing essential services and aligning their branding with the values of the Kumbh Mela, companies can position themselves as not only market leaders but also contributors to the spiritual and social well-being of the attendees. The Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 promises to be a monumental event that blends spirituality, technology, infrastructure, and commerce. As India gears up to host the worlds largest gathering of pilgrims, this iconic Mela will continue to serve as a platform for brand innovation and meaningful engagement, cementing its place as a truly global event in the years to come. Also Read: Brands to sharpen focus on authenticity and individual identity in 2025: Ayush Nambiar In this interaction with Adgully, Vishal Singh, Country Head - India, Xapads Media, discusses the emerging trends that are expected to dominate the dynamic advertising landscape in 2025. He also speaks about how the advent of AI in 2025 will enrich the advertising landscape, alongside sectors like healthcare, finance, and e-commerce. Looking at the dynamic advertising landscape the following ad trends will likely dominate in 2025: Contextual Advertising: By 2025, spending on contextual advertising is expected to skyrocket to an impressive $295 billion. With rising concerns about privacy and the need for cookie alternatives, the trend has shifted to contextual advertising that focuses on connecting with audiences on an emotional level which is crucial for enhancing customer lifetime value (CLTV). By 2025, spending on contextual advertising is expected to skyrocket to an impressive $295 billion. With rising concerns about privacy and the need for cookie alternatives, the trend has shifted to contextual advertising that focuses on connecting with audiences on an emotional level which is crucial for enhancing customer lifetime value (CLTV). Unified CTV Platforms: In the coming years, brands will increasingly turn to unified CTV platforms to streamline their advertising efforts. These platforms allow advanced targeting and simplified campaign management, making smart, targeted ads more effective, making it essential for brands looking to build a strong brand presence. In the coming years, brands will increasingly turn to unified CTV platforms to streamline their advertising efforts. These platforms allow advanced targeting and simplified campaign management, making smart, targeted ads more effective, making it essential for brands looking to build a strong brand presence. Cross-Channel Integration: As competition in the ad landscape heats up, cross-channel advertising is gaining traction with advertisers looking forward to guiding potential customers down the funnel from awareness to conversion. Also, with a projected growth rate of 13.64% this year, more brands are embracing this strategy to connect with consumers at every opportunity possible. As competition in the ad landscape heats up, cross-channel advertising is gaining traction with advertisers looking forward to guiding potential customers down the funnel from awareness to conversion. Also, with a projected growth rate of 13.64% this year, more brands are embracing this strategy to connect with consumers at every opportunity possible. Programmatic Advertising: Programmatic advertising is on the rise and is anticipated to reach a staggering $779 billion by 2028. It ensures the right ad placements at the right moments powered by A/B testing and automated processes that streamline execution. Moreover, it enables brands to adjust their campaigns on the fly with real-time insights and improve performance. Gearing up for tighter regulations and evolving customer expectations Contextual advertising is gaining traction in light of stringent cookie regulations owing to its cookie-less approach that allows advertisers to connect with the right consumer groups while respecting their privacy. By focusing on context, advertisers can tap into real-time sentiments and the content users are currently engaging with. Additionally, double-filter analysis leveraging likes, dislikes, views and both user-generated and sponsored content ensures that ads are paired with the most suitable videos that align with the offering. This approach not only safeguards brand hygiene by avoiding inappropriate content but also enhances ad relevance, delivering a seamless advertising experience. Its a highly effective strategy for precise targeting. Role of AI, AR, VR in the advertising landscape According to a NASSCOM report, AI is poised to contribute up to $500 billion to Indias GDP, making it a transformative force in 2025 and in the realm of digital advertising. One major transformation would be advanced AI-driven targeting that allows advertisers to deliver ads that resonate with consumer groups in real-time. By tapping into metrics, including device type, context, content, location, and demographic, it ensures delivery of highly personalized ads, appealing directly to consumer interests at just the right moment. Here, AI insights also play a major role by offering crucial information to advertisers based on behavioral history and real-time activities that help them create stories consumers connect with which further enhances campaign effectiveness and user experience. Moreover, AIs role in measurement and attribution models cannot be overstated. With advanced analytics, advertisers gain clearer insights into ad performance leading to more fine-tuned strategies for better returns on investment. This means that well see more informed decision-making in campaigns, improving their overall effectiveness. Another noteworthy benefit of AI will be in the realm of ad fraud detection. With AI-powered tools diligently monitoring for suspicious activities, advertisers can have peace of mind, knowing that potential fraud is being identified and addressed early on. This proactive approach helps safeguard investments and enhance confidence in ad spend. All in all, the advent of AI in 2025 promises to enrich the advertising landscape alongside sectors like healthcare, finance, and e-commerce making it more effective, efficient, and secure. This way it is transforming not just how brands reach consumers, but also how they measure success in a rapidly evolving digital world. Also Read: AI in Contextual Advertising: Delivering Ads Based on Real-Time Situational Awareness Disney+ Hotstar kicks off January with a spectacular lineup of fresh content to start your year with excitement! Swing into action with Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and laugh out loud with the hilarious standup special Roy Wood Jr.: Lonely Flowers. Relive childhood thrills with Goosebumps: The Vanishing and experience high-stakes drama with Gunaah Season 2. With stories to intrigue, inspire, and entertain, Disney+ Hotstar is your perfect companion to beat the January blues. Get ready for an unforgettable start to 2025! INDIAN TITLES Gunaah S2 (January 3) With heightened stakes, Gunaah Season 2 takes viewers on a gripping journey of revenge, betrayal, and love. As Abhimanyu, Tara, Shiva, and JK navigate complex choices, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways, leading to emotional drama and shocking revelations. Directed by Anil Senior and starring Gashmeer Mahajani, Surbhi Jyoti, and Zayn Iqbal Khan, this season promises intense twists and turns. The Secret of the Shiledars (January 31) A tale of valor, loyalty, and unyielding commitment to kartavya. Disney+ Hotstar brings the first-of-its-kind treasure hunt-based series - The Secret of the Shiledars. The series narrates the story of the Shiledars stalwart defenders and trusted stewards whose unwavering dedication shaped the course of an era. All We Imagine As Light (January 3) All We Imagine as Light is a evocative drama that explores the intertwined lives of two Malayali nurses in MumbaiPrabha, a straitlaced woman yearning for her absent husband, and Anu, her outgoing roommate entangled in a forbidden love affair. Through their friendship, the film captures themes of love, identity, and the contradictions of life in the city. MARVEL TITLES Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Season 1) (January 29) (English) "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an animated series that follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming a hero, with a journey unlike we have ever seen and a style that celebrates the characters early comic book roots. HULU TITLES Roy Wood Jr.: Lonely Flowers (January 17) (English) In this stand-up special, Roy Wood Jr explores how lack of connection has sent society spiraling into a culture full of guns, rude employees, self-checkout lanes and why some of us would rather be alone rather than be connected. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TITLES Blink (January 5) (English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu) When three of their children are diagnosed with an incurable disease that leads to severe visual impairment, the Pelletier family embarks on a journey to see the worlds beauty while they still can. As they experience breathtaking destinations and once-in-a-lifetime encounters, their love, resilience and unshakeable sense of wonder ensure that an uncertain future does not define their present. A Real Bug's Life (Season 2) (January 15) (English) Enter an unseen micro-universe where a charismatic cast of miniature heroes use mind-blowing superpowers to survivefrom the fast-legged tiger beetle escaping the heat of Borneos beaches to the magical metamorphosis of a damselfly on a British pond to the Smoky Mountain luna moth whose quest is to grow wings, find love and pass on his genes all in one short night! OTHER TITLES Goosebumps: The Vanishing (January 10) (English) Goosebumps: The Vanishing begins with fraternal twins Devin and Cece adjusting to life with their recently divorced dad, Anthony. When the duo discovers a threat stirring, they quickly realize that dark secrets are among them, triggering a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery. As they delve into the unknown, Devin, Cece and their friends Alex, CJ and Frankie find themselves entangled in the chilling tale of four teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994. Also Read: Anil Senior Directs the Gripping New Season of Gunaah on Disney+ Hotstar Matrimony.com one of Indias leading Wed-Tech Company, has signed veteran actor Anil Kapoor as its brand ambassador to widen the reach of its community-based matrimony services. Elaborating on the collaboration, Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and CEO of Matrimony.com, said, "Anil Kapoor has been in the show business for over 45 years and has won the love of people across the country and the globe. His image as a perfect husband, a caring father, and a doting grandfather inspires millions. To start, we will be releasing TV commercials for four communities - BrahminMatrimony, RajputMatrimony, AgarwalMatrimony, and KayasthaMatrimony featuring Anil Kapoor, right in the middle of the ongoing wedding season. Matrimony.com has planned a 360-degree marketing campaign featuring Anil Kapoor, targeting these communities throughout the year. The campaign will kick off with the release of commercials in January 2025 across all major TV networks. Matrimony.com offers over 200 community-based matrimony services categorized by caste, religion, occupation, and special groups. These services cater to various segments of the population according to their preferences, helping individuals find their ideal life partners. Also Read: Matrimony.com unveils 'Make My Wedding' personalized service The Palestinian Authority has announced a temporary suspension of Al Jazeeras operations in its territories, citing concerns over the network's alleged dissemination of material that fuels division and incitement. The decision, made by the ministries of culture, interior, and communications, was confirmed by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA on Wednesday. Officials accused the Qatari broadcaster of airing content that misrepresents events and stirs unrest, but specific examples of such material were not disclosed. While the suspension is labeled as temporary, no timeline for its reversal has been provided Rising Tensions Over Jenin Coverage The suspension comes shortly after Al Jazeera faced criticism from the Palestinian Authority for its coverage of a standoff between Palestinian security forces and militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Authorities accused the network of portraying the events in a manner that undermined national unity. Al Jazeera Pushes Back In response, Al Jazeera condemned the suspension, describing it as an attempt to suppress reporting on critical issues in the region. The network called on the Palestinian Authority to uphold press freedom and allow its journalists to operate without fear of reprisal. Broader Implications The order is not expected to impact Al Jazeeras activities in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas and falls outside the Palestinian Authoritys jurisdiction. However, it adds to the mounting challenges faced by the broadcaster in the region. Earlier this year, Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating within its borders, citing security concerns. The networks bureau in Ramallah was also raided and shut down by Israeli forces in September, reflecting escalating tensions surrounding its coverage. The Palestinian Authoritys move has drawn attention to the complex dynamics of media, politics, and security in the region, sparking debates about the balance between press freedom and national stability. Prashant Kishor Starts Fast Unto Death to Press Demand for BPSC Exam Cancellation 2 Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor on Thursday announced that he was commencing a fast unto death to press the demand for cancellation of the recently held Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam. Kishor made the announcement at the historic Gandhi Maidan, a couple of kilometres from the spot where several aggrieved candidates have been on a round-the-clock protest for nearly two weeks. My demands include cancellation of the exam and holding of fresh tests. I also seek action against corrupt officials who had allegedly put posts, to be filled by the exams, on sale, Kishor told reporters. On Monday, shortly after a delegation of protesters met Chief Secretary Amrit Lal Meena, Kishor had said he would wait for 48 hours and intensify the stir if the Nitish Kumar government failed to take any action on the alleged paper leak for the Combined Competitive Exams held on December 13 last year. Alabama families can now apply for up to $7,000 in state funds to be used for private school tuition. The CHOOSE Act, a new school choice program passed by the legislature in 2024, allows K-12 students in the state to apply for support if they want to go to a private school. Applications opened Jan. 2. Thousands of parents applied on the very first day the program came online, according to the state. Alabama families can start the new year with a great opportunity for school choice in their communities, Gov. Kay Ivey said in a release. The CHOOSE Act will help our Alabama students receive the highest-quality education possible by giving greater flexibility to families to pursue educational options that meet their individual needs. It is a wonderful opportunity to make the future of Alabama stronger than ever. Families can now apply for state-funded education savings accounts. They will get money for tuition and other education expenses starting in July 2025. The first ESAs will be limited to specific groups of students. All students in the state will be eligible for ESAs at the start of the 2027-28 school year. To apply for an ESA, visit chooseact.alabama.gov . Students participating in a homeschool program will get $2,000 beginning July 1, with a cap of $4,000 per family. What can ESA funds be used for? ESAs can be used for tuition and certain fees at participating schools, as well as the following expenses: Textbooks in approved subjects Fees for after-school or summer education programs provided by a participating school Curriculum and supplemental reading materials Instructional materials (i.e. school supplies) Private tutoring in approved subjects Computers and technological aids Tuition and fees for approved nonpublic K-12 online learning programs Educational software and applications Educational therapies for students with disabilities Fees for standardized and nationally recognized assessments Contracted services provided by a public school district including specific classroom instruction The parent of a student receiving an ESA must agree to pay the remaining amount of tuition or expenses beyond the $7,000 cap. A guide explaining how to use the funds, eligible services and more is available here . Which private schools are participating? Schools and providers must tell the state and follow certain rules to receive money from a childs ESA. Applications for providers are currently open . Schools must meet the following requirements: Be accredited by or in the process of being accredited by an approved accrediting agency named in the bill, Agree to comply with the Alabama Child Protection Act, meaning adults must go through background checks, Provide financial statements to the Alabama Department of Revenue that show their ability to provide educational services to the student, or provide a surety bond, Require students to take a standardized test that meets the requirements, unless the student has a disability that exempts them from being tested, Provide school-level test scores to the Department of Revenue, Tell the Department of Revenue if the student withdraws or misuses the ESA, Participating schools and education service providers cannot discriminate against a student based on race, color or national origin. They are not required to accept any student, however, or provide services for children with disabilities. They also are not prohibited from discriminating against a student with a disability. John Capodice, known for roles in Seinfeld and General Hospital, died Monday at the age of 83. Pizzi Funeral Home in New Jersey shared the actors obituary. No cause of death was given. His break out role came in 1978 when he appeared as Carmine Cerullo in General Hospital. He also had memorable role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Other appearances included shows like Boy Meets World, Ellen, Will & Grace, Law & Order, Knots Landing, Another World, Murphy Brown, Mad About You, The West Wing, Monk and Murder, She Wrote. He was no stranger to the big screen with credits in Independence Day and Enemy of the State. He is survived by his wife Jane, daughters Tessa De Pierro and Cassandra Hansen, as well as four grandchildren. No cause of death was given. In the obit, Capodice is described as a devoted husband, father and grandfather who will be missed by all who had the pleasure to meet him. Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on The Opening Kickoff on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily. A new winner of Miss Americas Teen a national competition thats part of the Miss America organization will be crowned on Saturday in Florida. Ali Mims, Miss Alabamas Teen 2024, is one of 51 young women vying for the national title, which comes with $50,000 in scholarship money and a yearlong reign. (See photos of 51 Miss Americas Teen contestants in the gallery at the top of this post. This years list includes Miss Puerto Ricos Teen, as well as competitors from all 50 states.) Preliminary events for Miss Americas Teen are planned this week in Orlando, along with receptions, interviews, rehearsals, a breakfast, a talent showcase, a fashion show and more for the Miss America pageant. (Think of Miss America as a big sister to Miss Americas Teen, and youll have the general idea.) The finals for Miss Americas Teen are set for 6 p.m. CT on Saturday, Jan. 4, at the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando. The theater, 445 South Magnolia Ave., is part of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Hanley House of North Carolina, Miss Americas Outstanding Teen 2024, will crown her successor at the finale. The teen competition, founded in 2005 as Miss Americas Outstanding Teen, has shortened its name in recent years. A new Miss America will be crowned on Sunday, Jan. 5, also at the Walt Disney Theater. Abbie Stockard of Birmingham, Miss Alabama 2024, is one of 52 women competing for the title of Miss America 2025. Also, online voting is underway for an Americas Choice spot at the Miss Americas Teen competition on Saturday. Votes can be cast for donations of $1 or more. The contestant with the most votes gets a place in the top 11 at the finals event, according to the Miss America website. (Voting for a similar Americas Choice contest for Miss America 2025 can be found here.) Tickets are available for the Miss Americas Teen finals, priced at $120-$200 via the Dr. Phillips Center website. If youre not on scene in Orlando on Saturday, the Miss Americas Teen finals show will stream online, and you can watch it for free at PageantVision.com or the Miss America YouTube channel. (The Miss America finals will stream for free on Sunday at PageantVision.com and the Miss America YouTube channel, as well, starting at 6 p.m. CT.) Theres also a $99.99 streaming bundle at PageantVision.com that allows viewers to see other events this week, including talent for Miss America and Miss Americas Teen. Ali Mims, Miss Hoovers Teen, is crowned Miss Alabamas Teen 2024 during the finale of the competition at Thompson High School, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (Tamika Moore/AL.com) AL.com Mims, from Harpersville, was crowned Miss Alabamas Teen 2024 in March at Thompson High School in Alabaster. She competed as Miss Hoovers Teen, besting 37 other contestants for the state title. Mims performed a soprano aria during the talent competition for Miss Alabamas Teen, singing O Mio Babbino Caro (Oh, my Dear Papa) from Giacomo Puccinis 1918 opera Gianni Schicchi. She attends Chelsea High School, and her philanthropic platform for Miss Alabamas Teen is the Joyful Noise Foundation: Music Education for the Special Needs Community. Its goal is to raise money for musical instruments in special needs classes. READ: Miss Alabamas Teen 2024: Ali Mims of Harpersville wins the crown At the state pageant, Mims said she was inspired by previous contestants for Miss Alabamas Teen, and wanted to be a role model for future contestants. Its my turn to be able to give back to this organization that has genuinely given so much to me, Mims said, but also to inspire girls sitting in the audience right now so that someday, they too can fulfill their dreams of being on stage, just like I am. Mims has been in the spotlight this week during early events for Miss Americas Teen. She was among three winners of the preliminary evening gown competition on Tuesday, earning a $3,000 scholarship for that accolade. Other winners of the evening gown preliminary were Zoe Zuzak, Miss Marylands Teen, and Brooke Bumgarner, Miss Mississippis Teen. Miss Alabamas Teen was founded in 2003 as Miss Alabamaa Outstanding Teen, and has crowned more than 20 winners to date. Two Alabama winners, Marcelle LeBlanc and Jessica Baeder, have moved on to become Miss Americas Outstanding Teen, winning the national competition in 2022 and 2017, respectively. The state competition also has shortened its name, in accordance with guidelines from Miss Americas Teen. A new report found a number of efforts to reduce the power of ethics commissions, legislatively or legally, to investigate the conduct of public officials and gauge misconduct. The report from the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) comes after an attempt in the Alabama Legislature earlier this year to reclassify some ethics offenses and limit the ability of the Alabama Ethics Commission to impose penalties, a proposal that drew criticism from both the Ethics Commission and the Alabama Attorney Generals Office. I think there is a little bit more awareness of ethics commissions and the roles they play, said Delaney Marsco, the CLCs director of ethics. There is also a desire to push back against the accountability that they provide from the regulated community, and from legislators who are scared of ethics complaints getting filed against them. More from Alabama Reflector The report, which draws on news and litigation in assessing challenges to ethics commissions, categorizes them as enforcement authority threats, subject matter jurisdiction threats and existential threats. Many of the threats stem from legal challenges and legislation filed by lawmakers to weaken the role of ethics commissions within the political sphere. While ethics commissions are facing threats from throughout the country, from as far west as Nevada to states such as New York and Maine in the northeast, the report states that more of the challenges are coming areas where Republicans control the executive and legislative branches. Of the 12 states included in the report, the report cited nine, including Alabamas, as challenging ethics commissions, while two, Washington and Vermont, have strengthened ethics commissions. Of the states listed, six were southern states with Republican legislative majorities. The report estimates that about 42% of the challenges were successful. About a third failed and another quarter remains ongoing. There are novel arguments getting made, and there are different ways that are coming to these attacks, Marsco said. In terms of litigation and legislation, these are tried and true tactics that folks who want to undermine ethics commissions have been using for a long time. The Alabama bill cited in the report came from Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne. The bill would have lowered the penalties for some ethics violations and increased them for others. It also would have changed how members of the Alabama Ethics Commission were appointed and required the attorney general to approve any penalties assessed by the commission. Simpson said that the current ethics law made it hard for elected officials and public employees to determine what an ethics violation is and what it isnt. He gave the example multiple times of a local staff member who donated his lawn mower to his municipality after purchasing a new one, but then used the mower after his mower had broken down. That is an ethics violation, Simpson said. But the Ethics Commission and the Alabama Attorney Generals office opposed the bill, saying it could reduce the independence of the commission and weaken the existing laws. The bill died in the waning days of the 2024 session, but the Legislature approved a separate resolution to study the states ethics laws. The expert is to report his findings by the first day of the 2025 legislative session, Simpson said in a statement. Once we get the report back I will have more information. I have worked closely with Senator Sam Givhan, members of LSA, and others on this issue and I look forward to working together to make sure we get a positive solution for our state. Messages seeking comment were sent to the Alabama Attorney Generals Office and the Alabama Ethics Commission. The CLC report categorized Alabamas attempt to change the states ethics laws as an enforcement power threat, citing among other concerns some of the lower penalties, the new appointments, and the reduction of investigative powers. Alexis Scott-Windham, Brandon Whitsett and a group of other Mobile residents, all in their 20s, made their way to Bourbon Street to find something to eat, use a bathroom and start winding down their New Years Eve fun. The night was going really well, said Scott-Windham, 23, a 2019 graduate from Mattie T. Blount High School in Mobile. We saw a group of other Mobile people there, chilling and having a good time. We went into a food place, and it was closing. We were talking before we left and thats when we heard a noise. Scott-Windham had no idea she and her friends were about to narrowly escape death in a terror attack that left 15 dead, 35 injured and shocked the nation as 2025 began. Pictures shared with AL.com showed the group walking down the street near Bourbon Heat, a popular dance club near Bourbon and Orleans streets several blocks away from where a deadly terror attack occurred near Bourbon and Iberville. She described the noise she heard during the tragedy as a bump, bump, bump. He was halfway on the sidewalk and the street, Scott-Windham said of the driver identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42. By the time we looked up, we heard someone shout, Move! He came so fast. I stepped up with my left foot. He hit me on the right foot. She added, I thought he was drunk, driving down the street. When I looked up, he was coming so fast. I didnt realize it was that fast. Brandon was on the side of me. I looked to the left, and Brandon was to the right of me. Scott-Windham said she was shot in the ankle. She recalls limping off Bourbon Street, but noticed her foot was leaking from what she described as a bullet wound. All around, she recalls, bodies were everywhere. The EMS, they were taking too long, Scott-Windham said, adding that she was given a ride to a hospital from a man who was there helping to take others to local emergency rooms. Im thankful for him, she said about the Good Samaritan. He was picking up (victims) who were more complicated (with worse injuries). I dont know anything about him, but he said I can get you (to the hospital). He picked me up and put me in the truck and rushed me to the hospital, Scott-Windam said. She was taken to University Medical Center in New Orleans where she spent Wednesday and was treated for injuries until she was released to her mother. Everyone was calling my phone but I couldnt text back (for hours) to my other friends to let them know we were OK, she said. Whitsett, she said, remains in New Orleans and is in stable condition at Touro Hospital. He suffered injuries when he was struck by the pickup truck, she said. Whitsett, a 2022 alumni of Vigor, posted on Facebook Wednesday saying, Forever thank god that could of been worse. Whitsett is currently recovering in a New Orleans hospital according to a post from his mother, Bernadette Whitsett. Bernadette thanked everyone for their support for her son as he recovers from the terror attack that killed at least 15 people and injured 35. I would like to thank everyone for your prayers, phone calls, text messages, Bernadette said. My son is recovering in the hospital in New Orleans, please continue to pray for him. Thank you all so very much, l really appreciate all the love and support shown. Scott-Windam said she has to go back to the hospital in two weeks to have her fracture re-examined. In the meantime, shes on bed rest and off work from her job at the Amazon facility in Mobile. The FBI said Jabbar drove a pickup truck with an Islamic State flag around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police. The FBI believes Jabbar, a U.S. born citizen and Army Veteran, acted alone in an act of terrorism. Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBIs counterterrorism division, said Thursday that the evidence now shows that Jabbar was solely responsible for the attack and professed allegiance to the Islamic State. Multiple improvised explosive devices were found by investigators according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. Kareem Badawi, a University of Alabama freshman and 2024 graduate of the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, was one of the people killed in the attack. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Alabama state Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, has pre-filed a bill that would require couples to take at least one conflict resolution class before they can get married. Currently, the only requirements to get married in Alabama are to complete a marriage document and pay a recording fee. Under Smithermans bill, SB33, a probate judge would still collect the fee but there would be no requirement to obtain a license or undergo a ceremony to solemnize the marriage. Once a couple had completed their class and turned in documentation listing their names and verification that both parties are 18 or above or 16 with a parents permission, the marriage would be recorded. The bill would also require the Administrative Office of Courts to determine minimum requirements for an acceptable premarital conflict resolution class and to create a form to verify class attendance, it says. Smitherman cited domestic violence figures within the bills text. Efforts to reach Smitherman for comment were not immediately successful. The Legislature finds and declares the following: (1) About one in four women and one in seven men have experienced physical violence by their intimate partner at some point in their lifetimes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it reads. (2) Annually, domestic violence is responsible for over 1,500 deaths in the United States; (3) According to the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, in almost 20 percent of all marriages and intimate partnerships, couples slap, shove, hit, or otherwise assault each other. Emotional abuse, such as verbal threats, degrading remarks, and controlling behavior, is even more common. And (4) Over 15 million children in the United States live in households where intimate partner violence has occurred at least once in the last year. SB33 would only apply to couples getting married after Oct. 1, 2025, and would not affect any other legal aspects of marriage including, but not limited to, divorce, spousal support, child custody, or child support, it says. The bill is currently pending action in the Senate Committee on Judiciary. A Birmingham police officer was fired on Wednesday during a New Years Eve crackdown on celebratory gunfire, exhibition driving and other crimes. The officer and his K-9 partner were patrolling near Center Street and Graymont Avenue about 2:20 a.m. when the officer heard shots fired and believed they came from a nearby vehicle. Our officer didnt think the suspects first shots were fired at the police, said Officer Truman Fitzgerald. Officer got behind the suspects vehicle near the 100 Block of Graymont West. The suspect fired multiple shots at our officer, Fitzgerald said. Our officer fired shots at the suspect. The suspect fled the area and eluded capture. No one was injured, but the shots did damage the police cruiser. Birmingham 911 dispatchers issued a Max Emergency call over the police radio. Responding officers were flagged down in the 500 Block of Center Street on a report of two people shot. Officers then saw two men who were inside a vehicle suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Birmingham Fire and Rescue rushed both victims to UAB Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Homicide and Internal Affairs detectives responded to the scene. Fitzgerald said investigators have not ruled out that the suspect who fired shots at the officer was the suspect in the double shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call Birmingham police at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Four men killed during a violent start to 2025 in Jefferson County including a Dominos deliveryman shot in an apparent robbery - have now been identified. The Jefferson County Coroners Office on Thursday identified the victims as Derek Marcus Burpo, 51, Elijah Mack Jr. 65, Jason Neal Duke, 40, and Ernest Paul Christion Jr., 68. One of the victims was stabbed on New Years Eve, and the other three were fatally shot on New Years Day. The killings happened in Birmingham, Graysville and Bessemer. Just before 9 p.m. Wednesday, Birmingham police were dispatched on a call of shots fired in the 400 block of Roebuck Drive on the citys east side. Officers arrived to find Burpo unresponsive outside of his car in front of a house on a private road. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced him dead on the scene at 9:42 p.m. The victims car contained pizzas he was set to deliver. Officer Truman Fitzgerald said its horrible that a man out trying to make an honest living was killed so violently. This is one of the most heartbreaking homicides we have witnessed, he said. They robbed a family of their loved one. Fitzgerald said its too soon to tell whether the victim was set up to be robbed or if it was a crime of opportunity. Detectives were able to speak with the residents in the home where the victim was killed, and also spoke to surrounding neighbors. Area residents, Fitzgerald said, reporting hearing multiple shots fired. Last week marked 10 years since another Dominos driver, 63-year-old Najeh Masaeid, a Jordanian immigrant, was murdered in an ambush robbery during a delivery at an apartment complex in the popular Summit shopping center off U.S. 280. The Dominos Roebuck location is closed today to give employees time to process their grief. Burpos death came less than 24 hours after Birmingham ended 2024 with 151 homicides, breaking a record for violent deaths set in 1933. Police investigated a deadly Jan. 1, 2025, shooting inside a Bessemer home.(Carol Robinson) Just hours earlier, about 5:30 p.m., Bessemer police responded to a fatal shooting inside a home in the 800 block of 24th Street North. Det. Justin Burmeister said police entered the home and found Mack wounded inside. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 5:47 p.m. A woman was quickly taken in custody. Burmeister said they are not looking for anything other suspects. A motive has not yet been disclosed. The first reported homicide of 2025 in Jefferson County came less than two hours into the new year with a shooting in Graysville. Jefferson County sheriffs deputies responded to the scene at 1:21 a.m. Wednesday in the 300 block of 1st Avenue SW. Duke was pronounced dead on the scene by Graysville Fire and Rescue at 1:51 a.m. Investigators said the deadly shooting appears to be domestic related. The suspect - a 40-year-old man - was questioned and released. Sheriffs spokesman Henry Irby said the case will be presented to the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office to determine if charges will be filed. Birmingham police investigate a homicide at a house in the 2500 block of 15th Street in Ensley.(Carol Robinson) Christion was found dead New Years Eve inside an Ensley home. Just after 7 p.m. Tuesday, Birminghams West Precinct Officers were dispatched to a house in the 2500 block of 15th Street Ensley. Officers entered the house and found Christion unresponsive inside. He was rushed by Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:50 p.m. Investigators spoke with numerous people on the scene but have not yet disclosed a motive. A friend of the victims discovered him wounded and called 911. However, our officers are trying to track down if anyone saw what took place, Fitzgerald said. Anyone with information on the two Birmingham homicides is asked to call detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. One of two men convicted in what federal prosecutors described as a rug pull blockchain fraud scheme died two weeks ago by suicide, according to his family. Berman Jerry Nowlin died Dec. 19 at his Huntsville home. His cause of death was unclear, but his family told the Tampa Bay Times that he took his own life. He was 21. Nowlin was awaiting a January sentencing date after a Tampa jury found him guilty on federal wire fraud and money laundering charges. Prosecutors had alleged that he worked with Devin Rhoden, a senior airman at MacDill Air Force Base who was one of Nowlins childhood friends, in a cryptocurrency scheme that cost investors $135,000. Although the government labeled him an active participant in a criminal scheme, his family and defense attorney insisted that he was an unwitting accomplice who assisted in the coding and technical aspects of creating the blockchain tokens at the center of the case. They accused Rhoden of being the one largely responsible for the fraud. Nowlin believed the court system would exonerate him, his family said. After his conviction, he became deeply depressed and withdrawn, reluctant to leave home. In his eyes, I dont think he thought he did anything wrong, said Nowlins brother, Daniel Barker. My brother was just a young, naive kid that kind of got taken advantage of. Nowlin had been diagnosed with autism, his family said. His mother, Deanna Ambrose, said a psychiatrist whod examined him found that he was far above average in his intelligence. He did well in school, but had the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old, she said. He was never in trouble. Hes like a little kid in a lot of ways, Ambrose said. Anybody that actually talked to him could tell that he was just special. He wasnt like the rest of us. Autism made Nowlins social interactions difficult; most of his friends were people he knew only online. He taught himself how to write computer code. He spent much of his time playing online games and chatting on platforms like Discord. It was how he met Rhoden. In the spring of 2022, Nowlin and Rhoden collaborated to create a series of non-fungible token collections, known as Undead Apes and Undead Lady Apes. The tokens, which they traded on the Solana blockchain, depicted colorful skeletonized primates. Rhoden promoted the collections on the Discord messaging platform and the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. Buzz about them pushed their resale value as high as $360 and made Rhoden and Nowlin a small fortune. Investor excitement surged in April 2022 amid word of a forthcoming third collection known as Undead Tombstone. As anticipation for the new collection grew, the project was suddenly abandoned. Prices plummeted. Investors were left with worthless assets while Rhoden and Nowlin, prosecutors alleged, netted $135,000. Nowlins attorney, J. Jervis Wise, argued at trial that Nowlin had no reason to engage in any kind of fraud scheme. The first two blockchain creations were legitimate, successful and gave people a product they wanted. Wise described his client as a behind-the-scenes player in creating the tokens, while Rhoden was responsible for marketing the tokens to potential investors. He knew nothing of plans to engage in the rug-pull scheme, Wise said. Nowlin didnt have any knowledge of what Rhoden was doing, Wise told the Times. Nowlin didnt join in any plan with Rhoden to try to defraud anyone. But federal prosecutors asserted that Nowlin was indeed part of the scheme. They presented evidence that Nowlin used a money laundering technique known as chain hopping to move the fraud proceeds from Solana to the Ethereum blockchain. He then converted the cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars, which he and Rhoden split. Court documents quoted online conversations in which the pair discussed the theft. One of Rhodens fellow airmen led investigators to him. He later pleaded guilty to federal charges and testified in Nowlins trial. Prosecutors credited his cooperation in securing Nowlins conviction. He was sentenced in November to five years of probation. Multiple efforts to reach Rhoden for comment were unsuccessful. Nowlin used a flip phone after his arrest, his mother said, having been barred from accessing the internet. He followed his pretrial restrictions to a T, she said. Technology restrictions prevented him from being able to show some evidence, she said, including records that hed tried to get investors their money back. He tried to do everything right, she said. Wise said it was possible a judge would have given Nowlin probation or some other sentence short of prison time. He also would have been able to appeal for a new trial. Nowlins mother said the prospect of incarceration wasnt what bothered him as much as the stain of a criminal conviction. He believed that he would be unable to work with computers, dashing his goals of working in the technology field. Ambrose said she wants people to know that her son was more than what has been portrayed in court. She remembers the boy who was the first to surprise her with Mothers Day flowers and to cook her breakfast, who helped when her own mother underwent cancer treatment and who could have taken anyone with him when he vacationed in Jamaica, but chose his mom. Beyond his digital world, he liked fishing and traveling and dreamed of a nomadic life. He had plans of setting up a remote work station in a van so he could make money and travel at the same time. He was a beautiful soul, his mother said. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. 2025 Tampa Bay Times. Visit tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A man shot while apparently being robbed as he delivered pizza in east Birmingham Wednesday night was the citys first homicide victim of 2025. The shooting happened in the 400 block of Roebuck Drive at about 9:45 p.m. The victim was identified as Derek Marcus Burpo, 51, of Birmingham. His car contained pizzas he was set to deliver. Burpo was found on the ground outside of his vehicle near the driveway of a residence and was pronounced dead on the scene. Officer Truman Fitzgerald said its horrible that Burpo was killed so violently while out trying to make an honest living. This is one of the most heartbreaking homicides we have witnessed,' he said. They robbed a family of their loved one. Fitzgerald said its too soon to tell whether Burpo was set up to be robbed or if it was a crime of opportunity. Detectives were able to speak with the residents in the home where Burpo was killed, and also spoke to surrounding neighbors. Area residents, Fitzgerald said, reporting hearing multiple shots fired. While this is Birminghams first homicide of 2025, it is the third fatal shooting of the new year in Jefferson County. Men were shot to death Wednesday in Graysville and Bessemer. The shooting death comes less than 24 hours after Birmingham ended 2024 with 151 homicides, breaking a record for violent deaths set in 1933. Police said they need anyone with information to call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Ten people were wounded in a shooting outside a New York City nightclub while they were waiting to get into a private event, police said. About 15 people were standing outside Amazura nightclub at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday in Jamaica, Queens, when four men on foot approached the group of 16 to 20 year olds. Three or four men opened fire on the group, New York Police Department Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera said during an early Thursday news conference. About 30 shots were fired before the gunmen fled on foot. They were then seen getting into a sedan with out-of-state plates. There is zero tolerance for these senseless shootings, Rivera said. Six females and four males were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, he said. A massive police presence and several ambulances could be seen outside Amazura in footage posted on social media. The motive was not immediately known but Rivera said: This is not terrorism. A freshman at the University of Alabama was among those killed in the New Years Day terror attack in New Orleans. Kareem Badawi was a 2024 graduate of the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge and had this fall started at UA, where he pledged to join the Sigma Chi fraternity. It is with great sadness and grief, and with hearts satisfied with Allahs decision and destiny, I announce the death of my son, his father, Belal Badawi, posted on Facebook. We ask Allah Almighty to shower his mercy on him, and give us patience and strength to overcome. Belal Badawi in May 2024 had posted about his excitement over his sons high school graduation and upcoming move to Tuscaloosa. Efforts to reach Belal Badawi were not immediately successful Wednesday evening. I grieve alongside family and friends of Kareem in their heartbreaking loss, UA president Stuart R. Bell said. Our staff have been actively engaged in supportive outreach and the Office of Student Care and Well Being is available at 205-348-2461 or bamacares@ua.edu. Please take a moment to pray for those impacted by this tragedy. Another 2024 graduate of the Episcopal School, Parker Vidrine, was critically injured in the French Quarter attack that killed at least 15 people and injured roughly 35. As an Episcopal community, we are called to support one another during times of great sorrow. I encourage you to hold these alumni, their families, and all who are grieving in your thoughts and prayers, the school posted on social media. An evening prayer for the two will be held at the schools chapel on Thursday and counselors and chaplains were reportedly available to assist as needed. The FBI said Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, drove a pickup truck with an Islamic State flag around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police. The FBI is investigating whether Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas, had any potential associations with terrorist organizations. We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said at a news conference. Investigators found multiple improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. An 18-year-old aspiring nurse from Mississippi and the brother of Texas Christian University star wide receiver Jack Bech were also among those killed. Also killed were Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge, and Nicole Perez, a single mother to a 4-year-old son who was in her late 20s and was recently promoted to manager at Kimmys Deli in Metarie, Louisiana. The Associated Press contributed to this report. So it begins: a new year, a new presidency, and, for America, a new lease on life. Yet it feels as if weve been here before, doesnt it? Political juggernaut Donald Trump has ascended like a Musk rocket and vanquished the Obama-Clinton-Deep-State machine. Authoritarian members of the medical community are panicking about bird flu and demanding masks, lockdowns, and experimental vaccines. National debt continues to rise, and the rusting, sclerotic Establishment offers only war, climate taxes, and central bank funny money as lead-weighted life buoys to keep the financial system afloat. The people are finding their voices, and because Western authorities somewhat secretly despise free speech, governments and technological powerhouses are all clamoring for more censorship and A.I.-managed algorithms capable of isolating and punishing dissent. Its 2025, but as Yogi Berra would say, its deja vu all over again! Some things are different, though: (1) Hollywood has been mostly silent since President Trumps electoral triumph. Aside from D-list has-been Mark Hamills whiny tantrums over Trumps return (a tired role for a tiny man desperately seeking a spotlight), the opinionated nincompoops have little to say. Did the Democrat Consulting Class forget to write Tinseltown some new lines for this seasons soapy political drama? Or are many stars from the Walk of Fame too busy chasing bit parts in pharmaceutical commercials and Hallmark Christmas movies to risk pissing off whats left of their fan base? What happened to the brave thespians who promised eight years ago that Trump would never assume office? I think they all ended up taking co-hosting gigs on The View. Remember when the forgotten cast from The West Wing and some of Rob Reiners favorite pod people starred in commercials arguing for the Electoral College to ignore the 2016 results and install unlikable Hillary? So very insurrection-y! Such an attack on our fragile democracy! Yet wealthy celebs never got the J6 treatment! Two-tiered justice is (D)ifferent for privileged elites. Although...I hear there are a few new sheriffs coming to town. (2) Some of the worst propagandists on cable news are dabbling in a bit of belated introspection. Shocker, I know! Our national reporters are so dumb and arrogant that I didnt realize they even knew what the word introspection means. Newly self-aware reporters on CNN: Should we have been more honest about Joe Bidens obvious cognitive infirmities? Did our endless gaslighting make us look daft and perhaps expose us as information warfare operatives for the State (which we are fist bump!)? Answer from every sentient American: Duh, you journalistic nitwits; nobody believes anything you say. Learn to code, losers. Do you recall when journalists received so much unsolicited career advice from sensible Americans that they redefined learn to code as hate speech and got people banned on Twitter? Nobody hates the First Amendment as much as the American press corps! In their small, incurious, and easily managed minds, only people who work for big corporations should be allowed to talk! In 2025, the mainstream medias mendacious, dull-witted, and self-aggrandizing reign comes to an end. (3) The same Deep State that gave us the Russia collusion hoax, fake criminal investigations, fake White House scandals, fake news, fake insurrections, fake impeachments, and fake justice (stay strong, J6 political prisoners!) is remaining relatively mum for the time being. I know that our spy agencies are busy overthrowing other elected governments throughout the West (sorry, Romania, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Moldova, and everywhere else the U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development run cover for the CIAs covert political operations), but shouldnt the FBI and its seventeen spooky friends in the domestic espionage business be flooding our communications networks with reasons why Russia stole the 2024 election for Trump and informing us that a super-secret executive order from the days of the Cold War magically reverts all power back to Barack Obama? Thats why Obama has been the only president to keep a residence in D.C. after his time in office, right? Because otherwise, his refusal to leave the capital looks a lot like the action of someone hell-bent on directing a shadow government, undermining constitutional norms, dividing bureaucratic loyalties, and biding his time until he can seize the crown. Im so used to the Intelligence Community overthrowing our elected leaders (read: Kennedy and Nixon) and blackmailing those in office that the looming transfer of power seems too peaceful to feel normal. The Deep State is usually too coup-coup for regime change to respect the outcome of democratic elections, but here we are on the cusp of Trump II, and the powers that be have thus far failed to prevent his return. Even Obamas corrupt, commie-curious director of the CIA, John Brennan, complimented Trumps transition team the other day. Sounds as if someone would rather stay out of prison for fraudulently defending the bogus Steele Dossier, fraudulently labeling the incriminating and authenticated Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation, and undermining both the 2016 and 2020 elections with Intelligence Communitysponsored lies. Heres hoping that we do have regime change this year and transition from a failed Deep State to a functioning constitutional republic. If we are successful, could someone kindly remind King Barack that he has outstayed his welcome in the nations capital? Time for him to sell his D.C. titles, flee to one of his other donor-financed manors, and perhaps pay his fair share. After all, Obama could shelter a lot of illegal aliens with his Kalorama mansion, Marthas Vineyard estate, Chicago retreat, and beachfront plantation on Hawaii. Maybe border czar Tom Homan can help some of Obamas DACA DREAMers find new forever homes. (4) The Antifa domestic terrorists, the Black Lives Matter arsonists, and all the abortion-on-demand, I dont know what a woman is, but no man can tell me what to do, vulva-hat-wearing screechers are AWOL. Shouldnt they be setting fires and murdering people right now or at least annoying those of us with eyes and ears with their rude, shrill, off-putting, and often perverse theatrics? Have they lost their will to resist, or have their billionaire sugar daddies temporarily cut off their allowances? Maybe Kamala Harris burned through all those astroturfing activists Soros cash when she lit two billion dollars on fire for her Make America Obnoxious and Dumb campaign. Im so glad we didnt get MAODed! Im also glad that the toy soldiers who like to playact at revolution have decided to get high and sit out new episodes of The Resistance. Their performance art is tiresome community theater, and Americans deserve better than their Che Guevara cosplay. (5) Finally, Mar-a-Lago has become the unofficial capital of the world. Foreign leaders, tech titans, and Wall Street honchos have lined up to congratulate the president-elect, seek his assistance, or beg forgiveness for their roles in whatever Deep State schemes they might have helped orchestrate when their orders were to sabotage his first term. So much water has flowed under the bridge, right? Surely we should let bygones be bygones and look to the future, correct? Well, if President Trumps past behavior is any indication, he will forgive and move forward. It is rare to see a leader so maligned yet so willing to find common ground with enemies. Perhaps thats the spirit that has made Trump a great builder. It is surely the right spirit for building a stronger, more prosperous America in the years to come. As for the rest of us, we may forgive the backstabbers and saboteurs in time, but we will never forget what they have done to us or our nation. Our eyes are open, and we are watching. We have much to do. This is only the beginning. Image: Trump White House Archived via Flickr, public domain. The only hope leftists have of derailing President Trump through the first two years of his second term when he has the House and Senate (even with thin margins) is to create a MAGA civil war. Do not take the H-1B bait! Either MAGAs (Republican voters) trust Donald Trump or we dont. Either we trust the people Trump has nominated, or we dont. We must understand that in every relationship (from marriage to friendship to coworkers to neighbors), there will be times when we dont agree. But you dont file for divorce, stop being friends, quit your job, or move over occasional differences of opinion. Lets agree that the H-1B program has too many loopholes and has been abused. (OMGa government program that has been abused!) Donald Trump discussed this during his first term. Even when signing an executive order suspending the program in June 2020, as COVID resulted in high unemployment, Trump always said he wanted the H-1B program to focus on merit, not lotto drawings. Image by Grok. Yet, the fact is that many U.S. colleges and universities are not graduating enough STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students. These are the areas where America achieves technological innovation, not when we create a new Starbucks flavor. Another skills gap issue is that not all STEM graduates will pursue a career in these fields. In Why Pushing STEM Majors is Turning Out to Be a Terrible Investment, John D. Skrentny writes: Most STEM graduates dont work in STEM occupations. The Census Bureau reported in 2021 that a paltry 28% of STEM grads are working in these supposedly in-demand, highly paid and important STEM jobs. These include diverse sectors such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and energy, but about half of STEM jobs are in computers, and tech firms typically complain the loudest of STEM shortages. So, even with a STEM degree, some graduates opt to work in non-STEM fields. Companies needing STEM workers wont hire Americans who graduated with ridiculous degrees. (Like the ancient art of finger painting during the Roman Empire) Nor will HR managers find STEM workers at fast-food restaurants, where employees demand a living wage for brewing java or flipping hamburgers. Questions regarding the H-1B program include: 1.Are STEM graduates of most (not all) U.S. colleges and universities on a par with STEM graduates from some foreign countries? 2.Are STEM foreign students studying in America more dedicated to their studies? 3.Does the STEM education curriculum demanded in some foreign nations exceed what is required in the United States? We need an honest conversation on the H-1B program and how to stop/reduce its abuse, such as companies hiring foreign workers at lower wages for positions when there is an abundance of available American workers. Musk, who is a problem solver like Trump, posted on X: Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically. Ive been very clear that the program is broken and needs major reform. The HB-1 program debate leads back to MAGAs either trusting Donald Trump or not. Right now, the Democrat party is in disarray, and their only option is to create warring factions among America First Patriots. Just look at some of the comments from Democrats about their party being in a sinkhole: New York Democrat Representative Ritchie Torres on X: Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like Defund the Police or From the River to the Sea or Latinx. There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling. Lindy Li, former top Democrat fundraiser: Leaving the Democratic Party or even questioning the Democratic Party is like leaving a cult. Its terrifying. I dont want to be a part of this craziness. Democrats have a stench of loser hanging over them. Joe Manchin, outgoing West Virginia Senator (15 years); former Democrat, now Independent; CNN interview: The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of, its just, its toxic. Lis Smith, Democrat Communications Strategist; New York Times: The Democratic brand is in the toilet. Many of the Democrats who succeeded this cycle our best over-performers in House races, for instance are people who ran against the Democratic Party brand. Trump tore down the blue wall in the industrial Midwest, but he also expanded his vote the most in our bluest and most urban areas. Donald Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt on H-B1 and other issues that might not immediately make sense to us. We should be unified around him. Yes, we can respectfully question his position on issues, but an all-out public war attacking him and/or his nominees is just what Democrats want. No, thank you. I have trusted Donald Trump since he came down the elevator in June 2015, and I will continue to trust him. Robin M. Itzler is a regular contributor to American Thinker. She is the founder and editor of Patriot Neighbors, a free weekly national newsletter. Robin can be reached at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com. Recently, a fierce battle over the H-1B Visa Program erupted on X. In one corner, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, a big believer in the program, where tech companies pay less for non-American talent. Indians (dot, not feather) have been primary participants. In the other corner, the MAGA Base, who believe in America First, and to hell with immigration, legal or otherwise. For them, H-1B was just another cog in the Population Replacement wheel. While MAGA folks appreciate Elons desire to cut spending (not to mention his buying and opening up of Twitter), on this issue, their position is non-negotiable America First is the heart and soul of the movement. Evidently, Elon feels equally strong about his position. Does he ever. Trumps Golden Boy fell afoul of the MAGA Base with the following tweet: Take a big step back and F--- YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot comprehend. My goodness! In an impulsive moment of rage (and a number of follow-up tweets), Mr. Musk burned up considerable MAGA trust and social capital. He allegedly went on to play the Twitter censorship game, suspending and limiting accounts deemed undesirable. Remnants of the pre-Musk era? Ha! Was he really a Free Speech Absolutist, or did this mask off moment show him for the globalist he is? How will Trump navigate the impasse? If anyone can do it, Trump can. But certainly, interesting times lay ahead. However, a tangential issue caught my eye: Canada, many people were saying, is a cautionary tale for legal and skilled immigration. The policies championed by its dreadful prime minister have ruined Canada. Are they right? Lets have a look. In my travels in Canada, I come into contact with a great many Indians, some Canadianized, some not, some talented, some not. Regarding laws governing how they got here, how long they stay, I know very little, but I know we have armies of immigration lawyers (many not born in Canada) who will shepherd Indians, Africans, and Asians into our once lily-white country. Its not new. Thus, its no surprise that Canadas demographics has visibly changed. Its been changing since the late 60s, just like America. Ive watched it happen from a front-row seat. In grade 1, there was just one non-white in my class photo. By grade 7, half the class was non-white. These days, white kids at my old elementary school are rare or nonexistent. Indians and Chinese dominate. As the changes occurred, the propaganda kicked in multiculturalism was the buzzword, and it was preached aggressively through my formative years. I realize now that it was early Cultural Marxism, prepping for the full dose, where white kids are taught to hate themselves and their country. Still, in my day, signs of sanity remained. We had just the two sexes, we recited the Lords Prayer every day, and random street violence was vanishingly rare. People had reason for optimism even white people. Fast-forward to 2025, and hoo, boy, things have changed. Walk around Vancouver or Toronto, and youre in a foreign land you feel it in your central nervous system. Any white person who says otherwise is a liar. Go shopping in a mall, and youll see what I mean. Every single person is Indian. Okay, not quite. There are plenty of Chinese, a smattering of blacks and Persians, even a rare sighting of whites. Every nationality known to man, but Indians surely reign supreme. Though Im used to it, of late the disparities have increased dramatically. Its shocking and unsettling when you consider that a few decades prior, we were ninety percent white. Not long before that, ninety-eight percent! Canadas English and French heritage shaped this country it made Canada a highly desirable destination for immigrants. Is that still true? Certainly it is for Indians. Van City and many others have turned brown. Tim Hortons? Every single employee is Indian, ethnically and culturally. Same with gas stations and convenience stores. Even local grocers. Gone is friendly banter with the cashier. Gone is the helpful manager who knows the store inside out and goes out of his way to find an obscure item. Another new feature turbaned Indian men delivering takeout on massive e-bikes, often on pedestrian sidewalks. There must be hundreds of them. Indians fill all public spaces. Even Indians acknowledge that something doesnt feel right. Canada doesnt feel like Canada anymore. Something unnatural is happening, and people must speak up. I hear the economic arguments cheap labor, increased GDP, blah, blah, blah. They dont hold water when you factor in the effect on wages and housing. Or look at the collapse of our free medical system. Or no jobs for young Canadians. But even if massive levels of Indian immigration were economically beneficial theyre not why would I care if I feel like an alien in my own town? When my quality of life has plummeted? This is population replacement. Full stop. Everyone knows it. Back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, the white majority seemed guaranteed. This fact was even coded into our language we called non-whites visible minorities. We still do, and its a laughable snippet of leftover language. Okay, so Canada looks and feels like India now. Brown, crowded, unfriendly, poverty-stricken. Is this a permanent change? I assume it is. I also assume it will look more and more like India as time passes. India has 1.4 billion citizens, and from what Ive been told, its not always a nice place to live. Probably many Indians want out. Many are probably desperate to live in the West. Unfortunately, 1.4 billion is 35 times the population of Canada. They could send 100 million our way, triple our population, and theyd barely feel it. Things are changing fast in the Western world. My prediction for Canada? Sadly, the vast majority may end up poor and unsafe perhaps, similar to Brazil or South Africa, but with our own unique flavor of hell on earth. Destructive migration into Western lands is the biggest story of our age, and were not supposed to notice or talk about it. Unless something changes, all Western countries America included will find their own version of hell. Is there time to turn things around? I have to say yes, because I refuse to swallow the black pill, to admit defeat. Perhaps America can show us the way. K.M. Breakey is the author of All Thy Sons and six other novels. He can be reached at km@kmbreakey.com. Image via Pexels. In the early hours of the New Year, an American-born citizen with a black ISIS flag drove a truck down Bourbon St. in New Orleans, killing fifteen revelers and injuring about three dozen others. His name was Shamsud-Din Jabbar. The New Orleans attack followed hard upon another vehicular incident at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, which led to the deaths of at least five people while injuring 200 more. Vehicular terror events are becoming more common throughout the world. In 2021, a driver rammed into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing at least five people and injuring 48 others. In 2016, a truck driver engineered the killing of 86 people and the wounding of 434 others in Nice, France during a fireworks display. Thirteen died and dozens more were injured at a Berlin Christmas market the same year. The origin of the vehicular terror strategy is unclear, but some years ago, an English-language ISIS magazine called Rumiyah called for vehicle attacks on the West in an article called Just Terror Tactics. Al-Qaeda has made calls for similar attacks, calling trucks the ultimate mowing machine. The article in Rumiyah said: Though being an essential part of modern life, very few actually comprehend the deadly and destructive capability of the motor vehicle and its capacity of reaping large numbers of casualties if used in a premeditated manner Vehicles are like knives, as they are extremely easy to acquire Ordinarily, mass casualty terror events are associated with guns -- one was used by the driver in the New Orleans attack -- but firearms are difficult to come by in most countries. That doesnt mean shooting incidents are completely unknown outside the U.S. You can own a gun in Germany, but must meet several strict requirements: You must be over 18 years old, have no criminal record, pass psychological and safety exams, have a government-issued license, keep mandatory insurance, store it in a locked container, and more. Lets just say its easier to rent a truck. Bombs, another preferred terrorist weapon, require expertise to assemble safely. If you tried to make one, youre more likely to blow yourself up. Owning or renting a vehicle, however, requires little skill to turn into a weapon. Obtaining one elicits no suspicion, and there is no nation that forbids renting one to a licensed driver. Therefore, those willing to cause murder and mayhem have a blueprint that works anywhere. Few pedestrians pay much attention to traffic on walkways unless crossing the street. The speed at which a vehicle can accelerate and turn into a crowd leaves little time for reaction. Hence, the success rate of this type of terror event may surpass even a gunmans ability to cause deaths and injuries. The increasing number of terror events around the world underscores the increasing need for something called situational awareness. Situational awareness is the mindset whereby threats are mentally noted and avoided or abolished. Originally a tool for the military in combat, it is now a strategy for the average citizen in uncertain times. Situationally aware persons are always at a state of Yellow Alert when in crowded public venues. By that, I mean a state of relaxed but vigilant observation of what is happening around them. When an action or behavior occurs that doesnt match the surroundings and situation, its called an anomaly. Lets say a vehicle moves erratically or leaves the normal pattern of traffic: thats an anomaly that requires rapid action. Mentally noting routes of escape whenever youre in a crowd will give you the best chance of getting out of the way. Just as knowing the location of exits in any public venue is good policy, a heightened awareness is important at any outdoor event or public area near roadways. For those who use vehicles to kill, the target will be crowds of people near the street. Their objective is mass casualties, and the pedestrians nearest the curb will bear the brunt of the attack. Consider walking on the fringe of a crowd away from the road to give yourself the most options. In the center, the masses, not your own good judgment, will dictate your movement. Municipalities can and should protect their citizens by constructing barriers, preferably steel, known as bollards. These would discourage vehicles from entering popular pedestrian areas. Today, you can find them outside many government buildings and airport terminals. Expanding the use of bollards to any area that attracts crowds should be an important consideration to avoid future terror events. Roadblocks like these can prevent vehicles from reaching high enough speeds to plow through crowds or even stop them completely. Ill admit that the likelihood youll be in the path of a maniac using a vehicle, or any other weapon, is very small. Panic isnt the answer, but these are troubled times; the more situationally aware you are, the safer youll be. Joseph Alton is a physician, medical and disaster preparedness advocate, and NY Times bestselling author of The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide For When Help Is NOT On The Way and other books. Image: AT via Magic Studio In the wake of the New Orleans terrorist attack, a Tesla Cybertruck reportedly full of "firework-style mortars" exploded in front of the Trump Towers in Las Vegas this morning. Maybe it was some kind of accident, and the whole location was just a coincidence. But it's not hard to think that the idea was to send a message to both Donald Trump, who owns the tower, and to his political ally, Elon Musk, who owns Tesla. Was it an act of terrorism? An assassination threat? Based on the scant information out so far, it seems plausible. Uhh - watch this video of the Cybertruck explosion outside Trump Tower in Vegas. Doesn't look like a simple battery explosion. Why do I see fireworks?pic.twitter.com/squAcWlgpe Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 1, 2025 The cops aren't saying but they have told the press they are investigating it as a potential crime. This tweet shows the different dynamics between a run-of-the-mill electric car battery fire and the explosion seen in front of the tower: WATCH: Tesla Battery Fire vs. Trump Hotel CyberTruck Explosion A Tesla battery is located under the vehicle and is decentralized. When it catches fire a slow moving flame spreads from the undercarriage. Todays intense, centralized CyberTruck blast looks *nothing* like this: pic.twitter.com/OqTNyyTtZ7 Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 1, 2025 It seems reasonable to think that if this were intentional, the perpetrator probably had a 'thing' against both Trump and Musk, who is currently working on domestic policy in regards to cutting the size of our oversized government. That suggests that the perpetrator was more likely a political actor than an overseas terrorist, the latter of which seems to be evident in New Orleans as the FBI fumbles around and says it's not terrorism. Union thugs, of which Las Vegas has many, are known for their violent tactics, but they don't seem too on-the-outs with the incoming Trump team. We haven't heard crazy statements from them. Antifa, given its loathing of Trump and Musk, as well as its willingness to use lawless tactics might have such a motive. The group seems to be the sort of place law enforcement ought to at least look, given the weak penetration of that organization by federal authorities focused on Jan. 6 grannies, angry parents speaking out at school board meetings and Latin Mass goers, rather than domestic terrorists. There could easily be some material there. What's more, whoever did it was stupid: ELON MUSK: Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle. Pretty obviously true! This thing held up incredibly well. pic.twitter.com/ekFQYAhwg5 Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 1, 2025 ... which once again might lead in the direction of antifa, which frequently does foolish things. Or it could be someone else -- a foreign actor looking for 'revenge' perhaps -- but if it were, it's hard to think they would have used a Cybertruck since it's unlikely they want to get Musk. The attack seems dual in its messaging. Whoever did wanted may have wanted the world to think Musk's cars blow up so it's a bad idea to buy them. The whole concept is juvenile, too, which is typical of terrorists: Ooh, look, the Musk car took down the Trump tower and it all fell down! It also could have been a lone wolf activist, or someone with a shadowy network like the two would-be assassins of Trump this past year and that Luigi Mangione character who shot the insurance CEO in the back. We've seen a lot of lone wolves who may not be all that 'lone' this past year. Maybe the pattern holds. Some factors that support the accident theory are that it was New Year's Day, so it's plausible that some fireworks transport might be legitimately happening. We also don't know who the driver was who was killed -- why would he let himself get killed (and identified) if he could just as easily have walked away from the car and let it blow up after him -- was he a dupe for someone else, or was this really an accident? Why did he pick such an expensive and well-armored car if he could have done better with a regular, less-armored Tesla and sent the same dual message? Strangest of all was why the timing. Whoever it was who did this bombing saw his spectacular overshadowed by the far more heinous mass-death event in New Orleans. Terrorists live for publicity, and this one seemingly misfired, given that a bigger story was happening elsewhere. Maybe it was just stupidity and the terrorists are kicking themselves. Or maybe it was an accident. There are so many unanswered questions, but its reassuring to see that the Las Vegas cops and not the feds, are investigating this. Maybe they will get to the bottom here. The sooner they do, and release the results of their probe with full transparency, the better. Even if it was a true accident, the bad guys are going to get ideas and the good guys need to be ready. Image: Twitter screen shot At the time of this writing, 15 are dead and over thirty injured in New Orleans at the beginning of the new year. Meanwhile, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump Hotel entrance in Las Vegas. I suspect that these incidents are connected, but time will tell. Radicalizing former military members appears to be a tactic of the radical Islamists. (Remember Fort Hood.) As the IDF has damaged the elements of the terrorist organizations and the incoming Trump administration will likely be more active in the Middle East than the Biden government, more desperate radical behavior will play out. But what is the connection to the Jewish holiday of Chanukah? First, we should analyze some of the failures. In New Orleans the bollards that would prevent a speeding car or truck from gaining access to the crowds on the sidewalks were being replaced, and inadequate measures were taken. Smart protection would have included large trucks blocking access, but they were not there. We have been warned for months that a terrorist attack was possible, but this attempt was not uncovered despite all the intelligence efforts threatening our privacy. But this person posted his intentions ahead of the attack. Who needs such poor snooping? The cars in NOLA and Las Vegas were rented through Turo. What a coincidence! The popular view of Chanukah is the celebration of the eight days of pure olive oil lights resulting from the miracle after the re-dedication of the holy Temple in 164 BCE. The miracle less mentioned is the defeat of the Seleucid Syrians by a significantly weaker Maccabean army. The two Books of Maccabees, not included in the Jewish Bible or Tanakh but present in the Catholic Bible, do not mention the oil burning for eight days. But the Second Book mentions the lost eight-day holiday of Sukkot. Further, there is mention of fire used to defeat soldiers of the Seleucids in one battle. So the books related horrific battles. The Talmud does mention the lights to provide a miracle less violent. The first mention of the Festival of Lights comes from the Jewish Roman historian Josephus Flavius of the 1st century C.E. Rabbi Joseph Caro mentions that the first day of the holiday celebrates the victory and the next seven days celebrate the miracle of the lights since there was already enough oil for one day. There is controversy about the preparation of oil. In most sources, it is argued that it took eight days to purify olive oil. But this overlooks another issue: the Maccabees had just come from battle. In traditional Torah Jewish practice, contact with death renders the person ritually unclean for seven days. Therefore, these people could not make purified oil until the eighth day. So this might further explain the eight-day holiday. Finally, the prayer during this holiday, Al Hanissim, does mentions not the oil, but the war. So why would this story be confusing? During the period of the Talmud codification, the Romans ruled Judea. After the Jewish wars of 6673, when the Temple was destroyed; the battles of 11113; and the Bar Kokhba revolt of 13033, the Romans exiled Jews from Jerusalem. They dealt with Jewish resistance harshly. As rabbinic Judaism arose, these leaders would have wanted a muted statement that would use a light miracle rather than a battle one. Chanukah is considered a minor holiday. But in later years, it represents a rejection of the diaspora (or exile). With the modern state of Israel, this holiday reminds Jews of the need for vigilance against enemies. Herein lies the connection between Chanukah and terrorism. The radical Islamists represent the threat to the Israeli nation. For over one year, the IDF has fought Hamas, Hezballah, Houthis, and Iran. Chanukah reaffirms the fight for a homeland for Jews and the resistance to millennia of antisemitism. Terrorism is the radical Islamic assault upon Christianity, Judaism, and perceived heretics. The newly found IEDs in New Orleans were placed near police cars and the cathedral located in the French quarter. New Years is a day of obligation, so many Catholics could be in the cathedral if they were detonated, killing and maiming many. This is a tactic of ISIS. For Americans, Chanukah can be seen as a holiday that brings light to the darkness of evil. Image via Pexels. Emboldened by correctly predicting Kamala would get the debate questions in advance (oh, I apologize, ABC, it was just the topics, not the questions, so its all good and you smell like a rose), Im going to go way out on a limb with another prediction: Joe Biden will issue mass pardons to the J6 inmates. Before you say Im crazy, here are numerous reasons why he might do it: It steals Donald Trumps thunder of doing it himself five minutes after the inauguration Many J6 inmates are getting out anyway in a few weeks The J6 insurrection narrative is going to collapse as the evidence comes out Too many Americans know the J6 sentences were way too extreme It is an indirect knock on the DoJ for going after Hunter It generates some much-needed goodwill for the Democrat party It places J6ers and their families in the awkward position of having to thank Joe Biden It allows Biden one last chance to bask in the limelight It will deflect attention from Bidens commutations of murderers and Chinese spies Its a hedge against Bidens pardons being challenged on grounds hes mentally incapacitated It might reduce the desire to go after the actual J6 plotters It can be conveniently worded to include Ray Epps, other operatives, and even plotters Conversely, it could be worded to expose the J6 plotters (such as Nancy Pelosi) who ousted Joe Here are some reasons why he might not do it: Biden hates Trump so much he wouldnt want to concede anything Bidens own personal involvement in, or knowledge of, the J6 plot His handlers wont let him Fear of retribution from the Deep State To me, the reasons he might do it far outweigh the reasons he might not do it. While writing about a potential presidential action can either encourage or deter it, I dont think that matters in this case; whatever Biden does or doesnt do, he wont be swayed by an article he never read, so hell own the action, just as Ill own the prediction. If he does issue the mass pardons, Ill be sure to remind you. If he doesnt, I hope you forget you ever read this. W.A. Eliot is a pseudonym Image: Tyler Merbler Xi's New Year message brings confidence to world amid turbulence Xinhua) 08:01, January 02, 2025 This photo shows the CR450AF bullet train in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 29, 2024. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong) China's determination to advance high-quality development, expand high-level opening up, and comprehensively push forward Chinese modernization reflects China's commitment as a responsible major country, said Stephen Ndegwa, a Kenyan expert on international issues. BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The New Year message delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday demonstrates China's remarkable achievements in pursuing high-quality development in the past year, and injects a sense of confidence into the world amid challenges and turbulence, overseas experts have said. Xi's message also shows China's responsibility as a major country to advance global peace and development and its resolution and action to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, they observed, while expressing their hope to jointly create a better future for the world. INJECT CONFIDENCE INTO WORLD ECONOMY "We have proactively responded to the impacts of the changing environment at home and abroad. We have adopted a full range of policies to make solid gains in pursuing high-quality development. China's economy has rebounded and is on an upward trajectory," Xi said in his New Year message. "China's comprehensive policy measures to address complex domestic and international challenges demonstrate its robust governance and adaptability," said Benjamin Mgana, chief editor of foreign news at The Guardian newspaper in Tanzania. From economic recovery to the production of over 10 million new energy vehicles in a year, these milestones reflect the success of China's high-quality development strategy, Mgana said, noting the advancement of green and low-carbon development and the emergence of new industries and business models underscore China's commitment to sustainable development. "Today China has emerged as a global leader in combating climate change, advancing green and low-carbon development, and setting an inspiring example of sustainable progress," said Hassan Daud Butt, former CEO of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board of Investment in Pakistan. China is innovating at an unprecedented scale, while actively sharing its successes with the world, particularly with developing nations, he added. Impressed by China's breakthroughs in integrated circuit, artificial intelligence, quantum communications and many other fields mentioned by Xi, Hidetoshi Tashiro, chief economist at Japan's Sigma Capital Ltd., said "China has promoted high-quality development through high-level opening-up, which has benefited the world and provided leapfrog development opportunities for developing countries." CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL PEACE, DEVELOPMENT "In a world of both transformation and turbulence, China, as a responsible major country, is actively promoting global governance reform and deepening solidarity and cooperation among the Global South," Xi said in the message. "China is increasingly becoming a key stabilizing force through its advocacy of multilateralism and openness," said Lyazid Benhami, vice president of the Paris Association of French-Chinese Friendship. By driving the reform of global institutions, China will give a voice to those countries long marginalized and strive to ensure their voices are heard, Benhami added. Xi's message showed China's important role as a Global South leader, said Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Cambodia. Through multilateral forums such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, APEC and G20, China has been dedicated to advocating and promoting multilateralism as well as creating an even playing field for all the players, Matthews said. "President Xi's remarks send a message to the world that China is willing to work with each and every country who wants to promote peace and socio-economic development and fight against poverty and unjust global governance system," the expert added. As Xi mentioned in his message, China is making deeper and more substantive advances in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. Ravshan Nazarov, a senior researcher at the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, noted in particular that the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), will fill gaps in the region's cross-border transport network, contributing to the integration of logistics and strengthening the infrastructural and economic connectivity of BRI partners as well as the role of Central Asia in global supply chains. China's determination to advance high-quality development, expand high-level opening up, and comprehensively push forward Chinese modernization reflects China's commitment as a responsible major country, said Stephen Ndegwa, a Kenyan expert on international issues. "China's series of propositions on the concept of regional cooperation and the direction of development will have a positive impact on the maintenance of global stability and the prospects of world economic growth," he said. JOINTLY CREATE A BETTER FUTURE "As changes unseen in a century accelerate across the world, it is important to rise above estrangement and conflict with a broad vision, and care for the future of humanity with great passion," Xi noted in his message, adding China will work with all countries to promote friendship and cooperation, enhance mutual learning among different cultures, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. "We must jointly create a better future for the world," Xi made the call. Gan Tian Loo, vice chairman of the Association of Interaction Malaysia-China, said that the initiative to build a community with a shared future for mankind is actively contributing to global modernization, transcending conflict and confrontation in favor of peaceful development, replacing zero-sum games with win-win cooperation, and preventing civilizational clashes through exchange and mutual understanding. "Multilateralism is the only way to ensure a stable world, cooperation and sharing," Mladen Plese, former editor-in-chief of Croatian daily Jutarnji List, told Xinhua, noting that China's contribution to world peace is "immeasurable." Xi's call for joint efforts to tackle global challenges aligns with the aspirations of developing countries for sustainable development and resilience against climate change, said Balew Demissie, communication and publication consultant at the Policy Studies Institute of Ethiopia. Demissie also noted that Xi's emphasis on multilateral cooperation frameworks contributes to a multipolar world where African countries can assert their interest and benefit from their participation. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Du Mingming) As usual in these cases, FBI officials reportedly originally would not say that the Bourbon Street Massacre was a terror attack. What else would you call it a calm and kindly attack? Was this, perhaps, a hate crime? No, of course not those can be committed only by whites against blacks. It was certainly not a love crime; therefore, it must just have been a regular crime, right? For God's sake, can't anyone in the government-media-complex tell the truth for once? No matter who was responsible for the attack, or why he did it, it was obviously a terrorist attack. However, President Biden tweeted out a hearty Happy New Year well after the attack had taken place. Later, he stated that nobody should jump to conclusions. Had the attack been perpetrated by a so-called far-right extremist, that is all we would be hearing about for days on end in the mainstream news, along with how we must deal with the existential threat these mythical monsters pose. However, attacks perpetrated by Islamist radicals are typically blamed on the weapon they used to carry out the attack. After a December 20 terrorist attack at a German Christmas market, mainstream media headlines such as Car runs over pedestrians and Vehicle kills and injures dozens were rampant. So now another vehicle, not a gas-guzzling SUV, this time, but an electric pick-up, has plowed into revelers celebrating the new year in the Big Easy. Time for a ban on automobiles? I am so sick of these attacks and so sick of the two-tiered way they are portrayed. Combine these with the open borderrelated human-trafficking, sex-trafficking, drug-running, violent crime, and the Venezuelan gangs coming across our border to terrorize a number of our major cities, and it almost appears that our way of life is under sustained assault, doesnt it? Not that anyone in our current government is going to do a thing about it, other than gravely warn us against Islamophobia. These attacks, like all other evils, will never stop as long as we tolerate them. Period. Hopefully, those in the incoming Trump administration will be true to their promises and start dealing with them forcefully and effectively. Shamsud Din Jabbar, the alleged perpetrator of the New Orleans slaughter, was, like Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, a veteran of the U.S. Army. Yet the vehicle he was driving reportedly sported an ISIS flag, not the Stars and Stripes. No word yet as to whether he shouted the ubiquitous Allahu akbar as he mowed down the innocent celebrants. This is what happens when you purge the U.S. military of those who love their country. This is what happens when you purge the military of patriotic Christian extremists. You see, Christian extremists don't routinely drive vehicles over as many innocent people as they can. Christian extremists don't try to kill their fellow citizens. They try to protect and defend them. This in marked contrast to the other type of extremists, the Islamic ones coming out of the U.S. military the Muslim extremists of the Obama-Biden military, to be precise. In conjunction with the recent Islamic terror attacks in places like Belgium and Germany, and the ones before those, and the ones before those, might authorities discern a pattern here? Might they say so publicly? Contra The Big Guy, Im going to jump to a conclusion right now: we have a corrupt government and media establishment, both of whom disdain the American people they are supposed to serve. Whether it's COVID-19, Russian collusion, Hunter Biden's laptop, Joe Biden's mental incapacity, Islamic terror, or drones swarming the skies above us, they prefer to prevaricate. The governments and media of many other Western nations are similarly debased, dishonest, and corrupt. They may believe, a la Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, that we can't handle the truth. But the truth is, as they themselves have proven time and time again that it is they who cannot do so. And it is they who are an existential threat to Bourbon Street, Brussels, and Berlin. Image: Ken Lund via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. The attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, where Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar drove a truck into a crowd, killing several and injuring dozens, stands as a chilling indictment of Americas compromised law enforcement and national security framework. Confirmed as an act of terror, with authorities pointing to the presence of an ISIS flag, the attack underscores how misplaced priorities, porous borders, and failed executive leadership have left the nation vulnerable to both violent crime and extremist ideologies. At some level, the attack highlights the broader threat posed by extremist ideologies. Although there is no public evidence at this time of a direct connection to ISIS, the presence of an ISIS flag suggests that the perpetrator at a bare minimum may have been a sympathizer, an imitator, or otherwise influenced by the groups ideology. This is part of a troubling pattern. From the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack to the 2017 New York City bike path massacre, vehicular terrorism has become a favored tactic of extremist organizations. Now the New Orleans attack serves as another grim reminder that the United States is not immune to this escalating threat. Misplaced Priorities at the FBI Once the gold standard in law enforcement, the FBI has been undermined by politically driven distractions and degraded hiring standards. Jim Jordans recent inquiry revealed that the FBI is no longer recruiting the best and brightest. Instead, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) mandates have driven down hiring standards, relaxing critical qualifications in areas such as physical fitness, financial stability, and mental health. Whistleblowers described current recruits as bread crumbs applicants rejected by other federal law enforcement agencies but hired to meet ideological quotas. This decline in standards coincides with a troubling shift in focus. Resources that should be dedicated to dismantling terror networks and combating violent crime have been diverted to politically motivated investigations, such as targeting parents at school board meetings. The result is a federal law enforcement agency less equipped to address the real threats posed by radicalized individuals and violent criminals. The presence of the ISIS flag in Jabbars truck underscores where real extremism lies. It is not with concerned citizens raising their voices in public forums, but with a terror-linked ideology that thrives on destruction and death. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the FBI has prioritized ideological agendas over its core mission to protect the public, leaving Americans increasingly vulnerable. A Border in Crisis The Biden-Harris administrations open-border policies have compounded these failures. Eagle Pass, Texas, where Jabbars truck was recorded in November, serves as a stark symbol of the administrations neglect. While Jabbar was a U.S. citizen, the porous border has become a gateway for those seeking to exploit Americas vulnerabilities. Drug cartels, with well documented ties to extremist organizations, have turned the border into a critical route for smuggling weapons, money, and personnel. These cartels provide logistical support and resources that enable terror groups to conduct their deadly agendas. The ease with which Jabbar moved from a high-risk border area to New Orleans highlights systemic failures in monitoring and enforcement. For every individual or vehicle flagged, countless others slip through undetected, putting Americans at greater risk. A Plan for Action To restore safety and security, the incoming Trump administration must take decisive steps to address these systemic failures: Deport Unauthorized Individuals, Prioritizing Criminals and Terror Suspects: Launch a nationwide effort to deport those who have entered the U.S. illegally or remain without authorization. The priority must be the removal of those who have committed addittional crimes and individuals with suspected ties to terrorist organizations, ensuring that they face justice in the U.S. before deportation. Target Violent Crime and Terror Networks: Refocus federal law enforcement efforts on dismantling extremist cells and addressing violent crime. Counterterrorism must once again be the FBIs and the DOJs top priority. Rebuild the FBI: Reinstate rigorous hiring standards to ensure that only the most qualified candidates serve as special agents. Redirect resources away from ideological distractions like DIE mandates and back to addressing violent crime and terrorism. Secure the Border: Fortify high-risk areas like Eagle Pass with advanced surveillance, increased personnel, and better intelligence-sharing. Shutting down the routes exploited by drug cartels and terrorist organizations must be a non-negotiable priority. Depoliticize Law Enforcement: Federal agencies must abandon politically motivated initiatives and focus solely on justice and national security. The FBI and DOJ must serve the American people, not partisan agendas. A Nation in Crisis This is not merely a wake-up call it is a crisis of leadership and priorities. The lives lost in New Orleans are a direct consequence of a federal government that has failed to uphold its most fundamental duty: protecting its citizens. Leadership matters. Focus matters. Security matters. Borders matter. Anything less than decisive action to rebuild our institutions and restore safety will leave Americans vulnerable to even greater dangers. Charlton Allen is an attorney and former chief executive officer and chief judicial officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is the founder and editor of The American Salient and the host of the Modern Federalist podcast. Image: J via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. The perpetrator of the second New Years Day 2025 terrorist attack in the USA was yet to be identified until some outlets on the MSM named the key suspect late on January 1, 2025. Newsweek had the most comprehensive article to date, What Matthew Livelsbergers Social Media Reveals About Cybertruck Suspect, first published at 6:32 AM EST on January 2: Matthew Livelsberger has been named in reports as the suspect found dead inside an explosives-filled Tesla Cybertruck that blew up outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel on Wednesday, New Year's Day 2025. Colorado Springs station KOAA and the New York Post have reported that Livelsberger, a 37-year-old former Army veteran, is the suspect, citing unnamed law enforcement sources. The Newsweek article included photos of the suspect from his social media accounts: There are three social media accounts in question: a LinkedIn account linked to Matt Livelsberger, a Facebook account linked to a Matt Berg, and a Facebook account linked to what appears to be a wife or girlfriend of Livelsberger, named Sara Livelsberger. Newsweek has not been able to independently verify the veracity of these accounts. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, where the most outrageous terrorist attack on New Years Day 2025 occurred after 3 AM CST Wednesday, the states attorney general, Liz Murrill, a Republican in her first term, stated during a live interview on FOX News at 6 AM EST Thursday, said that she has not been regularly updated or briefed by the FBI about developments in the investigation. The FBI has taken over control of the investigation of the New Orleans car truck attack, pushing aside local authorities. Various officials on Wednesday have said that the attack on Bourbon Street killed at last count 15 individuals and injured 35+ more. The perpetrator was quickly identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a born-in-the-USA 42 year-old black American U.S. Army veteran who had recently adopted the ideology of the Middle East terrorist group ISIS, according to the FBI and numerous media reports. The Newsweek story on the Las Vegas Tesla cybertruck attack continued: According to the social media profiles which appear to belong to Livelsberger and his partner, he was a former veteran from Colorado Springs. According to the profile on LinkedIn, Livelsberger was an operations director and intelligence manager. He worked in the U.S. Army for over 19 years. He began as a special forces communications specialist, a role he held for nine years. He then became a special forces intelligence and operations specialist, a role he had for seven years. Livelsberger then became a special forces operations manager and team sergeant, a role he held for a little under two years, before becoming a remote and autonomous systems manager in November. He studied at Norwich University in Vermont, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis, and graduated summa cum laude. According to LinkedIn, he received a State Meritorious Honor Award from the Department of State. Livelsberger was active on LinkedIn, and often commented on posts from colleagues in the military. In a comment on one post about student debt, he responded to a question asking who was responsible for debts saying, The govt. The LinkedIn profile also lists that he was interested in human rights and animal welfare. As of this writing, thirty hours after the first of these two terrorist attacks, the first one in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas four hours later, details are changing and being updated hourly, by both the MSM and alternative media sources. As one who was closely and obsessively following the developments after the New Orleans attack in real time on Wednesday morning, on both the MSM and social media, social media had the MSM beat. FOX News was the first outlet to broadcast the news that the truck used in New Orleans had crossed into the U.S. at Eagle Pass, TX, two days before the attack. The identity of the New Orleans perpetrator was identified at least two hours earlier online vs. the broadcast cable news channels, which waited for the FBI to confirm Shamsud-Din Jabbars identity. Meanwhile, I was tweeting and retweeting results I had found at X/Twitter which correctly IDd the evil perpetrator well in advance of the MSM. Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran investigative journalist who has been working for six decades in a variety of media, both mainstream and alternative. On Dec. 23, 2024, Peter was a guest on the BBC World Service program Weekend, debating the question Does Trump plan to prosecute journalists? Audio of the segment is here. Image: Free image, Pixabay license. In the pantheon of American institutions, few have fallen from grace as dramatically as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Once hailed as a bulwark against hate, the SPLC has transmogrified into a partisan juggernaut, weaponizing its once noble mission to target not just hate groups, but any conservative organization that dares to challenge progressive orthodoxy. This op-ed is a clarion call to recognize the SPLC for what it has become: not a watchdog, but a wolf in civil rights clothing. The SPLCs hate map is perhaps its most notorious tool, ostensibly designed to spotlight bigotry. Yet it has devolved into a political hit list, where conservative Christian organizations like the Family Research Council sit uncomfortably alongside neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. This categorization is not just intellectually dishonest; its dangerously misguided. The 2012 attack on the Family Research Council by a would-be shooter, who cited the SPLCs hate map as his reason, underscores the real-world peril of such labeling. The methodology behind the SPLCs designations is as opaque as it is biased. There is a conspicuous absence of left-wing groups on this map despite ample evidence of radical factions on that side engaging in actions that could, by any fair measure, be deemed hateful. From Antifas violent protests to the vitriolic rhetoric of certain progressive activists, the SPLCs selective vision suggests not oversight, but a deliberate strategy to silence opposition. Financially, the SPLCs operations raise eyebrows. With an endowment exceeding half a billion dollars, one would expect a significant portion to go toward direct aid or legal battles against hate. Instead, the organization has been critiqued for its lavish expenditures on itself, including a grandiose headquarters dubbed Poverty Palace by detractors. The contrast between its financial hoarding and its actual impact on poverty alleviation or civil rights victories is stark and telling. Moreover, internal scandals have tarnished the SPLCs moral authority. Allegations of racial and sexual discrimination within the organization itself paint a picture of hypocrisy. How can an institution that claims to fight hate internally harbor such discord? The forced resignation of co-founder Morris Dees amid these controversies was a public admission of systemic issues, yet the SPLC has failed to perform a meaningful mea culpa or reform. The SPLCs influence extends beyond mere categorization; it shapes educational curricula, informs policy, and influences corporate decisions. By branding conservative groups as hate organizations, the SPLC not only stifles debate, but also encourages a culture where dissent is equated with moral turpitude. This chilling effect on free speech is antithetical to American values, where the marketplace of ideas should thrive, not be monopolized by one ideological faction. Lets entertain a thought experiment: if the SPLC were subject to its own criteria for hate groups, wouldnt it qualify? Its actions attack or malign an entire class of people conservatives for their political beliefs. The SPLCs consistent denigration of conservative viewpoints, its failure to apply its standards evenly, and its active role in deplatforming those it disagrees with all point to an organization that has become what it claims to fight. Heres how: 1. Selective Hate Designation : By focusing its hate group labels almost exclusively on the right, the SPLC engages in what can only be described as politically motivated defamation. 2. Encouragement of Violence : The SPLCs rhetoric has directly led to violent incidents, showing a reckless disregard for the safety of those it labels, akin to hate speech. The SPLCs designation of groups as hate organizations has had tangible real-world consequences, as noted above regarding the Family Research Council. 3. Exclusionary Practices : The SPLCs internal culture of discrimination belies its public stance, suggesting a hatred for diversity of thought within its own ranks. 4. Misuse of Funds : The organizations financial practices indicate a prioritization of self-aggrandizement over genuine advocacy, a hallmark of insincere and potentially corrupt operations. 5. Suppression of Free Speech : By silencing conservative voices through branding and social ostracism, the SPLC acts as a censor, a role more befitting a hate group than a civil rights watchdog. Concerning actions against the SPLC or similar nonprofits for misconduct, there are several avenues beyond mere labeling. The most direct would be challenging its tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code, which requires organizations to operate exclusively for charitable, educational, or religious purposes. If theres substantial evidence of political bias or activities not aligning with its mission, complaints can be filed with the IRS for a review of its status. Additionally, while the SPLC primarily relies on donations, any government funding, even indirect through educational institutions using its materials, could be scrutinized or cut if found to support biased or inflammatory content. Legal actions, including defamation lawsuits, have been initiated against the SPLC by groups it has labeled, attempting to hold it accountable for reputational damage. Public pressure, boycotts, and transparency demands from watchdog groups can also compel reform or expose practices that might lead to broader investigations or changes in nonprofit governance. If we are to take the SPLCs mission statement at face value, then its own actions mark it as a prime candidate for inclusion on its notorious map. The call here isnt just for reform, but for a profound re-evaluation of the SPLCs place in our civil discourse. We need organizations that are genuinely committed to fighting hate, not those that have co-opted the mantle to wage political vendettas. For conservative readers, who value liberty, free speech, and the integrity of our political system, the SPLC represents not just a failure, but a betrayal of the principles of justice and fairness it was supposed to uphold. Its time we demand accountability; transparency; and, if necessary, recognition of the SPLC for what it has ironically become: a group that fosters division and hate under the guise of combating it. In closing, the SPLC must reflect on its path. If it cannot, or will not, change, then perhaps we, as a society, should consider moving forward with the actions noted above. Image via Pixabay. Mozzy Clark, a former inmate who was jailed in a Washington state facility, recently filed a lawsuit against the states Department of Corrections, accusing state employees and officials of ignoring her pleas for safety after they allowed a violent, six-foot-four-inch man to be her cellmate all because he said he was a woman; they also reportedly tried to silence Clark by threatening that if she were to press on or go public with her ordeal, she may be guilty of a hate crime. Heres the story, from a report at Fox News: The 35-year-old Christopher Scott Williams, who has not changed his name but identifies as female, received a transfer to the womens prison, where the felon allegedly quickly started harassing and threatening a female cellmate, according to a federal lawsuit against the State of Washington, its Department of Corrections and several prison officials. Referring to the defendant as Mr. Williams in a 13-page civil complaint, the plaintiff is accusing prison officials of depriving her of her constitutional rights, cruel and unusual punishment, and failing to acknowledge the risks of putting a fully intact biological male with a violent history of sex assault in a cage with women. Is the sexually disturbed man with a criminal record of molesting children still a pervert, or is Clark fabricating it? If I had to guess, Id say Mr. Williams is guilty as sin. The victim deserves some serious financial compensationbut the problem with that is we payClarks case is a reminder that we the people need to demand legislation that shifts the financial burden from the taxpayer and onto the government officials who are actually responsible for alleged illegal behavior when lawsuits hit. Clark levies the cruel and unusual punishment accusation against prison officials, but as someone in the comments noted, while theyre cruel, sick and twisted policies are certainly not unusual in places like progressive-dominated Washington. A fitting legacy for the political party that stood by Joe Biden after the revelations in Ashley Bidens diary were made public and despite Tara Reades experience; for the ideologues who decided that catering to the sexual fetishes of mentally ill men was more important than protecting women and girls; for the people who routinely announce love is love and age is only a number. Image: Free image, Pixabay license. According to a new article by Jennifer Hiller at The Wall Street Journal, executives at green energy firms have gone into defense mode now that President Trumps second administration looms on the horizon; Hiller reveals that a number of industry bigwigs recently raced to Washington D.C. to shore up support for their enterprises and the taxpayer handouts they rake in, with a new PR pitch and strategy in tow: In Washington, D.C., the industry has gone into defense mode. Executives traveled to the capital to meet with Republican members of Congress in December, people familiar with the matter say. Advisers have suggested the industry tweak its talking points. Instead of touting projects as clean and affordable, renewables firms are highlighting their projects ability to meet energy needs. This change in strategy insinuates that even the industry itself recognizes that its not clean and affordable which is the lie theyve been selling along. Of course, this was obvious to anyone with a brain: the industry demonizes fossil fuels while remaining completely reliant on them; there is no proper way to dispose of decommissioned/damaged solar panels which results in highly toxic elements leeching into the ground and water tables when theyre just tossed into landfills; and wind turbines are responsible for a shocking number of wildlife deaths and are destroying biodiversity. And, anyone with a brain also knew that these werent affordable ventureswhen, in a competitive and relatively free market, an entire energy sector (a commodity that everyone needs) cannot survive without hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies and tax credits, its obviously not an affordable product. The irony though is that the new pitch is just as fraudulent as the old one, as renewables categorically cannot replace the demands met by coal, gas and oilor they would have already done it. How many progressive nations that jumped the gun on the green transition had to bring back coal for energy security? Well, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom to name a few. How many nations have had to slow, or put their net zero plans on ice, because theyre just not feasible? Too many to count. Heck, even the mainstream media acknowledges that meeting the growing energy demand and meeting emissions reductions targets are mutually exclusive endeavors. Heres a question Id like to pose to Democrats: Can we finally put the fantasy out to pasture and start dealing in facts all together? Beacuase, to be honest, I am getting pretty tired of these people voting away my money. Image: Free image, Pixabay license. For some time now, the United States has been trying to boost the growth of the local production of tech products. One of the segments they have focused on is semiconductor manufacturing. The CHIPS Act was born as a product of that initiative. TSMC, the world leader in chip manufacturing, will start production in the 4nm process at its Arizona plant in H2 2025. The establishment of TSMCs Arizona plant was driven by both the companys efforts and funding from the CHIPS Act. Having the industrys biggest name start manufacturing chips in the United States could create a pull effect for others. Thats exactly what the US government wants, especially since trade tensions with China are rising. TSMC Arizona to produce 4nm chips starting in H2 2025; 2nm projected for 2028 According to reports, TSMC will start producing 4nm chips at its Arizona plant in H2 2025. The project will have multiple phases, with Phase 1 being able to offer a wafer output of 20,000 units per month. TSMC plans to start Phase 2 of the project in 2028 to produce 2nm chips. There is still a lot of work ahead to achieve this, mainly due to issues related to technology transfer between the US and Taiwan. TSMCs Arizona plant will supply big names like Qualcomm, Nvidia, Apple, and AMD. That said, production prices are estimated to be 30% higher than those in Taiwan. This is primarily because the US lacks certain key materials necessary to stabilize yield rates. Maintaining a high yield rate on wafers is especially important to avoid problems like those that Samsung Foundry has been experiencing. So, the company will have to invest extra in obtaining these materials to guarantee production at economically viable levels. The US also doesnt have many dedicated supply chains for chipsets, so TSMC will have to spend money to set up some. Companies that source from TSMC Arizona are likely to see their product prices reflect the increase in production costs. The government could offer incentives to offset the losses and boost the growth of the US supply chain. A big move for TSMC in multiple ways Setting up factories in the US might be a much bigger move for TSMC than it seems. This year, investigators found Huawei using AI chips manufactured by the company. This went against US trade restrictions and raised questions about TSMC. The companys response was to stop the production of AI chips for Chinese companies. The Taiwanese firm also started an investigation into the matter to try to gain the favor of American officials. Also, Donald Trump, the new president of the United States, said that Taiwan stole American chip technology. These allegations would also implicate TSMC. Trump even hinted at the possibility of imposing tariffs on Taiwanese chips. He might change his mind, though, if there are local supply chains that bring in money and jobs for the US. It seems like HONOR had yet another great year behind it. The companys CEO, Zhao Ming, said that HONOR sales grew by over 50% in December 2024, globally. HONOR sales actually grew by over 50% in December 2024, globally The companys profit is actually expected to reach new heights in 2025. Back in mid-2023, the company marked a 400% growth in Europe, 700% growth in Latin America, and a 500% growth in the Middle East & Africa. Since then, HONOR has been constantly growing. Back in February last year, the company announced a 3-year plan to increase global market share by a considerable margin. It seems like everything is going according to plan thus far. The HONOR Magic V3 was a truly successful phone for HONOR in 2024. The companys CEO also mentioned AI during his speech and some other achievements such as the companys laptops. At the very end of his speech, Zhao Ming said: Being named Honor is the luck of Honor Company, but also a heavy responsibility. We must come up with tangible innovative results and live up to the expectations of consumers. Dreams are far away, and the road is under our feet. Let us move forward together, fearless of wind and rain, and look forward to the coming 2025! We have high expectations from HONOR in 2025 Were expecting another interesting year from HONOR. The Magic7 and Magic7 Pro flagship handsets are expected to make a global debut later this month. The same goes for the Porsche Design model. Later in the year, the HONOR Magic V4 or V5 is also expected to make some waves. Do note that the number 4 is considered unlucky in China, so HONOR may go with the Magic V5 name, well see. On top of all that, the companys first tri-fold handset is tipped to make an appearance at IFA 2025 in Berlin. It remains to be seen if theres any truth to that. HONOR is also allegedly working on its first smart ring, which was supposed to launch in 2024, but that didnt happen. Samsung started the megapixel revolution in the smartphone segment years ago. The company first launched 48MP sensors, reaching 200MP today. A while back, Samsung revealed its ambitions to release up to a 500MP camera sensor for smartphones in the future. Well, a recent report suggests that time is drawing near. Samsung Galaxy phones could get 500MP camera sensors soon Currently, Samsungs high-resolution sensors are present in many smartphones across all price ranges. However, Sony continues to dominate the premium segment. Most Android brands rely on big 50MP Sony sensors for their devices main cameras. On the other hand, Samsung bets on its own 200MP camera tech for its Galaxy S Ultra. According to reliable tipster Jukanlosreve, the South Korean giant will continue with its approach and take it further in the future. The X/Twitter report reads that Samsung is already making a 500MP sensor for its Galaxy phones. Currently, the company uses its more advanced 200MP sensors in its Galaxy S Ultra devices, so the new camera will likely be featured in its upcoming Galaxy premium flagship phones. We wont see the new sensor on the upcoming Galaxy S25 series, though. Multiple leaks have confirmed that the company will continue to use a 200MP main sensor on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Megapixels vs sensor size Samsungs bet on high-megapixel sensors has pros and cons compared to the path taken by other brands. Premium mobile devices from rivals opt for large sensors1 inch or close to itbut with a resolution of 50MP. The size of these sensors allows them to capture much more information. However, they take up considerable space in the body of the device, resulting in huge camera bumps. On the other hand, the smaller physical size of Samsungs 200MP sensors enables more discreet designs. However, they require more work at the image processing level. This means that you have to wait longer to get the picture after taking it, which is something that many Galaxy users have complained about. Samsungs Good Lock even lets you speed up the shutter to try to fix this, but the quality of the pictures will suffer. Advanced camera sensors for iPhones reportedly in development too The report also claims that Samsung is developing a new 3-layer stacked image sensor for Apple. Historically, Apple has always used Sony sensors as the main camera for its iPhones. However, the tipster claims that the sensor in development is more advanced than Sonys existing Exmor RS. So, we could see it as the main sensor for future iPhones camera setup. A leak from July claimed that Apple will implement Samsungs new advanced ultra-wide sensor in the iPhone 18 series, replacing Sonys. Samsung has revealed a handful of new monitors ahead of CES this year including the new Odyssey OLED G8, freshening up its suite of gaming monitors for those looking to improve their setup. In addition to the new Odyssey OLED G8, Samsung is also announcing the Odyssey OLED G6, Smart Monitor M9, and a new model of the ViewFinity S8 that comes in a larger size. Its also showcasing the Odyssey 3D monitor that was initially revealed back in August at Gamescom. This is the same version of the monitor that the company announced last Summer, so why highlight it again? It seems that Samsung is finally ready to bring the monitor to market. Although the monitor was supposed to be available in late 2024, Samsung has yet to begin selling it. It now looks like the monitor is finally going to be available later this year. While glasses-free 3D tech is intriguing for the monitor space, Samsungs newly revealed Odyssey OLED G6 and Odyssey OLED G8 are a little more exciting. Mainly because Samsung is claiming theyre industry firsts. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 is the industrys first 27-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor Samsung is no stranger to being an industry leader and for this years CES its introducing another industry-first. The Odyssey OLED G8 gaming monitor, which Samsung is calling the first OLED Gaming monitor to come in a 27-inch size with 4K resolution. The monitor also features 165 ppi (pixels per inch), and in pairing with the 4K resolution on that size of an OLED panel, Samsung is promising unparalleled smoothness for gamers and game creators. It also comes with a 240Hz refresh rate which is pretty darn smooth. If you value smoothness and speed though, the new Odyssey OLED G6 is the monitor to look out for. It features another industry-first in that its an OLED gaming monitor with a 500Hz refresh rate. This is also a 27-inch monitor but instead of 4K, the resolution is QHD. You give up some of the resolution but you gain the refresh rate in the process. And if you play games competitively at a high level, then you might want this. Both monitors come with a response time of 0.03ms, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and NVIDIA G-Sync. Samsung hasnt announced the pricing or availability details of either monitor yet. Samsung brings on-device AI to PC monitors For the non-gamers, Samsung has two new monitors coming that are poised to excite with smart new features. Starting with the Smart Monitor M9, the first monitor to come with on-device AI. The Smart Monitor M9 actually has some gaming features built-in too. Specifically, it can use AI to analyze the type of game being played to provide the best possible visual settings to optimize the play experience. It also uses AI for 4K upscaling. It comes with a 32-inch OLED panel as well, along with Samsungs Easy Setup Stand for simple and convenient placement. Theres also the new ViewFinity S8. This new version has a 37-inch monitor which Samsung says is 34% larger than the previous model. This monitor also features the Easy Setup Stand, and it has a built-in KVM switch. For those who value productivity, the KVM switch might be a game changer. Because it allows for multitasking across several devices using a single mouse and keyboard. Additionally, Samsung says multiple devices can be connected and charged at the same time with a single 90W USB-C cable. Much like the gaming monitors, Samsung hasnt confirmed the pricing or availability details. The BBC has acquired a nature documentary series narrated by Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks. From Planet Earth II executive producer Mike Gunton, and with music by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, The Americas uses cutting-edge technology to highlight wildlife from across North and South America. The 10-part series, which was five years in the making, spotlights locations including, Mexico, the Amazon rainforest, the Andes, the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean. American bison feature in the show (Donald M Jones/NBC/PA) The docu-series was made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit, in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, for US television broadcasting company NBC, and will also air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The head of BBC Factual Acquisition, Jo Lapping, said: The BBC is delighted to bring NBCs remarkable nature epic The Americas to BBC One and iPlayer. From northern Canada to Patagonia, the spectacular beauty and diversity of the American continents has been captured in this mesmerising series from a multi-award winning dream team; Tom Hanks, Hans Zimmer, BBC Studios Natural History and Universal Television Alternative Studio. Hanks, 68, who won leading actor Oscars for his roles in Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994), is also known for voicing character Woody in the Toy Story film series. Clothing magnate John Boden after being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The captain of HMS Diamond has been awarded the OBE, one level lower, for intense combat operations in the Red Sea - Andrew Matthews/PA Military medals are a contentious subject. Given that rewarding the exceptional should be a positive thing, we do manage to extract a certain negativity from it, perhaps in a uniquely British way. I suppose its inevitable: publicly rewarding success sits contrary to whatever is left of our stoic underpinnings. Then add in the potential for injustice, perceived or otherwise, and no honours list passes without criticism. This New Year list was no exception. The anomaly that leapt out at me was the Commanding Officer of HMS Diamond receiving an OBE for the time he and his people spent in the southern Red Sea, deep inside the Houthi missile envelope, in the most intense combat the Royal Navy has seen since World War II even on one occasion shooting down an incoming ballistic missile, something no RN warship had previously done and which was officially not something Diamonds weapon systems were capable of. HMS Diamond and her captain and ships company, in my opinion as a former missile warfare specialist myself, performed entirely in accordance with the highest traditions of the Service and there is no greater praise I can give. To explain why I think this was a strange award, it is worth noting that military medals are grouped into five categories: operational, non-operational, meritorious service, campaign and commemorative. Operational gallantry medals are ranked from level 1 to 4 with the Victoria Cross at the top. Beneath this, there is the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) an operational gallantry award given for highly successful command and leadership during active operations at Level 2, along with the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (CGC) which is similar to the DSO but often without the leadership component. Level 3 has the Distinguished Service Cross (maritime), Military Cross (land) and Distinguished Flying Cross (air) in it. Level 4 is the Mention in Despatches, which is not a medal in itself but signified by the wearing of an oak leaf on the ribbon of the relevant campaign medal. These are awarded for combat operations. The non-operational list of options pretty much mirrors this with the George Cross at Level 1, the Kings Commendation for Bravery at Level 4 and George Medal and Kings Gallantry Medal in between. These medals are awarded for non-combat brave things like explosive ordnance disposal (EOD or bomb disposal). Meritorious service medals are more common as you dont need to get into combat or serious personal danger to get them. They range from the KBE (a knighthood in the Order of the British Empire) down to Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) with the CBE and OBE in between. In days gone by the level of award was determined by ones rank at the time of award. This is less the case now, and rightly so, but the notion hasnt gone away entirely and senior officer medals such as knighthoods and CBEs give ammunition to those who believe the whole system is rigged in favour of officers in the first place. The MBE is the junior medal in this group and is colloquially referred to as My Bloody Efforts. The OBE is one up from this and because it is typically awarded to those of at least Commander rank (or Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, or Wing Commander RAF) is nicknamed Other Buggers Efforts, mostly in jest. Use of the word Empire in the award causes the permanently outraged to stamp their feet and occasionally even refuse to accept one. Mostly though, and certainly in the military, people go to the palace to receive their badge with a mix of extreme pride and gratitude. Campaign and commemorative medals are more common still and do not require individual citations. Our system for awarding these is also good but not flawless the campaign medal for the Arctic convoys was not issued until 2012. However, I will leave this one for another day. Even though there is a clearly articulated system for the proposal of higher level medals, there is still room for manoeuvre, personal bias and even error. First, someone has to see your act of bravery or leadership. One wonders how many extraordinary acts of valour over the years were never rewarded because they were missed, or worse, no one survived. Second, someone senior to you has to write it up. It doesnt actually have to be your own boss there was a famous case in World War II in which a German U-boat captain, after a battle in which his submarine and an attacking Liberator patrol plane were both destroyed, successfully wrote up the Liberator pilot for a posthumous Victoria Cross. However the process does normally involve the possible recipients chain of command. There is an element of sticking your neck out a little as you persuade your chain of command that the person merits it. Some would rather avoid this, particularly if they know the conversation will start from a position of why shouldnt we rather than why should we. Third, if your superiors agree in principle, then you have to decide what type of medal and at what level. Much of this conversation depends on personal views and biases. Fourth, the citation disappears into the system, through multiple levels, and over which you have no control or even awareness. Finally, if youre lucky and have ticked all the right boxes, then the award emerges at the other end and is announced. Its appearance has no direct benefit for the people who did the work to make it happen. Most of the time, the recipient has zero awareness that this is even happening. HMS Diamond returns to Portsmouth after months spent in harms way in the southern Red Sea - LH Alika Mundy/Royal Navy I wrote up five people for medals from a non-operational incident I was involved in, in which the ship then under my command nearly sank due to technical failures but we managed to save her, in large part due to the efforts of the people I wrote up. Nonetheless she was so badly damaged that she was eventually scrapped. Two of my applications were successful but at a lower level than I suggested. It felt to me as though the system was trying to minimise public awareness of the incident, but I have no evidence of that. And theres always an allowance per service; maybe the Navys medals had all been used up. The point is, the proposer is as blind to the process as the recipient and you never find out why your suggestions havent been accepted, you just end up disappointed that they werent. And God forbid anyone complains In other words, its a human system with all the vagaries and imperfections implicit in that. Army friends of mine are clear that during their campaigns in Iraq or Afghanistan, two different units could conduct the same operation back-to-back, expend the same amount of ammunition and sustain the same number of casualties and yet end up with very different medal counts. Some regiments regard all but the most exceptional acts as doing your job. These units, and probably the Royal Navy, default to the leaner end of the spectrum for fear of becoming overdecorated or showy. Banter with American colleagues is strong on this front, as Americans get ribbons for things like being good pistol shots or doing ordinary non-combat deployments. As the old jibe has it: Why dont Americans have medal ribbons all the way down to their belts? Because when they have twenty they can swap them for a lollipop. However, in the case of HMS Diamond, I would argue that the captain of a Type 45 destroyer leading over 200 young men and women into the hottest missile action since the Second World War and successfully engaging more enemy flying things than any ship in the same period, is doing considerably more than just their job. And remember, this was in a Type 45 Destroyer; hardly a paragon of reliability up to this point. All of which makes the decision to award him a non-operational medal the OBE a bit baffling. The captain of HMS Gloucester, whose ship successfully engaged a single lonely enemy missile in the 1991 Gulf War, was awarded an operational medal, the DSC, as were most of the COs of the Falklands War. The Captain of HMS Endurance was a notable absentee from this list, showing the vagaries (or was it spitefulness) of the system were around then, as now. A DSC was also given to a frigate captain for operations up a river in Sierra Leone at the turn of the century no doubt a tricky environment, but not one where a serious maritime threat was present. A gunner from HMS Diamond who shot down one of the drones during this deployment was awarded a Mention in Dispatches. This is excellent. But those who thought he should have got the same award as the Captain dont appreciate that if he had missed, and HMS Diamond had been struck, it would not have been him on trial, it would have been the Captain. The Royal Navy rightly specialises in making Commanding Officers accountable for the performance of the whole ship, and sometimes the line between medal and Court Martial is a fine one. And the fact is, many of us would rather have a Mention in Dispatches than an OBE any day. Maybe it was due to a collective sense of fair play? The commanding officer of HMS Richmond was also appointed OBE and Richmond was on station in the Red Sea for a much shorter period and shot down far fewer targets. The CO of HMS Tamar, a patrol vessel operating in the Indo-Pacific and away from families for 20 months in the last 28, was also appointed OBE. Those were both exceptional leadership performances and well worthy of an OBE, but I guarantee you neither of those captains would have expected to get the same award as the CO of Diamond. Another reason for the odd award might be that Operation Prosperity Guardian isnt really working merchant traffic through the Red Sea is still choked off. HMS Diamond won the battle there but not the war so lets not shout too loudly. Or was it just that the decision makers in this instance are thats just doing your job types? Either way, in my view, the Navy has missed an opportunity here to reward exceptional operational leadership at the appropriate level. Commander Evans should have been written up for a DSO with a fall-back option of DSC. Ships of the Royal Navy are at sea a lot and on operations much of the time. However, operations in the face of the enemy are rare and its therefore doubly important that when they occur and people do well, they should be rewarded appropriately. Its probably not the most important thing in the world but then if there is a system in place, it may as well be used properly. The awarding of medals is a difficult and occasionally contentious business and whilst no system is perfect, ours is as good as any. But this one was an error. Commander Tom Sharpe OBE is a former Royal Navy officer Students protesting for higher pay for university staff - Jeff J Mitchell/Getty The university sector is struggling. Budget deficits are becoming the norm. Younger people are becoming more sceptical about how much an average degree can boost their life chances and, especially, their earning power. In this environment, an analysis of the travel spending and hotel stays of university vice chancellors has generated yet another sorry tale of apparent corporate greed. Shitij Kapur of Kings College, London has called for tuition fees to be hiked by as much as 35 per cent. At least four university head honchos (from LSE, Bristol, Cardiff and Nottingham) have apparently claimed more in expenses than the average UK salary of 35,000. Isnt that an outrage? The apparent hypocrisy is that folk of this ilk are rinsing hard up (although not necessarily hard working) young students for every penny they can whilst living the life of Riley themselves. For some this is another example of the unacceptable face of capitalism (albeit most of the faces involved at vice chancellor level are those of the bien pensant wokerati) However, the university sector is really neither fish nor fowl. In some ways, they act like private businesses, but the state also plays an enormous role in both regulating and subsidising them. Are they part of the free-market economy or part of the public sector education system? The answer is a bit of each and its all rather unclear and unsatisfactory. The most obvious political interference in universities comes in terms of price-fixing. We have the ludicrous situation in which the price of tuition for a year at university is set by politicians. The original concept was that this would be a cap but in a vast majority of cases, fees are set right up at the cap level. In the absence of meaningful price competition, universities compete almost entirely on brand. Perhaps also to some extent on course content. Overall, its not truly a functioning free market. Of course, no sector goes wholly unregulated in the UK. But if youre running a business where you can design the product, set the prices and decide your own internal management procedures and targets, criticism is far less vociferous when it comes to perceived largesse. What does JK Rowling spend on a foreign trip? How expensive are her hotel rooms? No one really cares. This is in part because she doesnt have to lobby the Ministry for Books to agree an acceptable price for a Harry Potter novel or bend the ear of the minister for amusement parks to haggle over the price of a ticket to a Hogwarts themed attraction. If you like what she is offering, buy it. If you dont, dont. How the Rowling empire then manages policy about office refurbishments, airline tickets and overnight stays is down to them. What has grown up in Britain is now an economy that is so mixed in certain sectors that we cant decide where political interference and public outrage should begin or end. Universities are only one example. The hopeless state of our railways is regularly blamed on privatisation but the privatisation was half-hearted and essentially botched. The energy industry is now so heavily (and unpredictably) regulated that its a marvel anyone can make a profit. The old argument about which industries should be in private hands and which state controlled is becoming largely redundant. Why would politicians want to spend money on nationalising an industry when they can regulate it so tightly that they are effectively in control anyway? The best thing for the higher education sector would be to set it free entirely and let it operate in a marketplace that sets its own prices as well as its examination standards and expenses policies. If one university offers its staff five-star hotels and first-class travel, they may have to charge more as a result. The risk of going bust also needs to be very real. Thats what genuine competition involves. The furore over vice chancellors expenses isnt an example of the unacceptable face of capitalism. Its the confused face of a sector that doesnt know whether its capitalist or not. The person who died when a Tesla Cybertruck packed with explosives burst into flames outside the hotel in Las Vegas part-owned by Donald Trump was a highly decorated US army Green Beret who was deployed twice to Afghanistan, officials have said. The driver and lone occupant of the electric-powered Tesla Cybertruck that caught fire and exploded has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger, from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Livelsberger, 37, died, while seven bystanders were wounded. Livelsberger was first identified in media reports. On Thursday afternoon the FBI said it believed the suspect was Livelsberger his military ID was found in the vehicle, and officials said tattoos gave a strong indication the body was his and was waiting for DNA tests to confirm this. Investigators discovered the vehicle was packed with fireworks-style mortars, camping fuel and gas canisters. Clark county sheriff Kevin McMahill said investigators had found that Livelsberger had two legally owned firearms with him, and is believed to have shot himself before detonation. The body was burned beyond recognition, officials added. The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but virtually no damage to the Trump hotel. McMahill said Livelsberger likely planned a more damaging attack but the steel-sided vehicle absorbed much of the force from the crudely built explosive. Damage from the blast was mostly limited to the interior of the truck because the explosion vented out and up and did not hit the hotel doors just a few feet away, the sheriff said. The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience, said Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge for the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The explosion occurred early on Wednesday morning, just hours after a mass killing in New Orleans in which a military veteran rammed a truck into a crowd. Related: One dead after Tesla Cybertruck explodes outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas Law-enforcement sources confirmed to local news outlets that the electric vehicle was rented from Turo, the vehicle-sharing service that was also used to rent the truck in the New Orleans attack. That prompted a day of questions, including from Joe Biden, Tesla owner Elon Musk and investigators about possible connections between the two incidents, including reports from news station Denver 7 that Livelsberger and the suspect in the New Orleans attack had served at the same army base at one point. An unnamed official told AP that both had spent time at the sprawling North Carolina base of Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, which is home to army special forces command. However, the official added that their time there did not overlap. At this point there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas, FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia told a news conference on Thursday. The US army said Livelsberger was an active-duty soldier from 2006 to 2011, before transferring to the national guard and then the army reserves. He rejoined the army in 2012 and was a special operations soldier. US special operations command confirmed that Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on leave at the time of his death. A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that investigators learned through interviews that Livelsberger may have got into a fight with his wife about relationship issues shortly before he rented the Tesla and bought the guns. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. He served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train US partners, the army said in a statement. He had been deployed twice to Afghanistan and also served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and DR Congo, the army said. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge, and an army commendation medal with valor. Livelsbergersmost recent military role was listed as a remote and autonomous systems manager, which he had been in for just three months. The FBI is conducting operations and searches in Colorado Springs in relation to the Cybertruck explosion, sources told ABC News, with the assistance of ATF. Investigators are following leads in at least four states and overseas, sources said. Colorado Springs addresses connected to Livelsberger were staked out and later raided by FBI agents. McMahill said investigators were able to track the trucks journey from Colorado to Las Vegas as the driver stopped at charging stations along the route, and that the truck was in front of the hotel for 15 to 20 seconds before it exploded. The sheriff said Musk helped the investigation by having the truck unlocked after it auto-locked in the blast, and by giving investigators video of the suspect at charging stations along its 800-mile (1,290km) route. McMahill also addressed the political questions that hang over the Las Vegas incident. Its a Tesla truck. And we know that Elon Musk is working with President-Elect Trump. And its the Trump Tower. So theres obviously things to be concerned about there, he said. A Turo spokesperson said in a statement: We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. Nazir Afzal says a national overarching inquiry into child abuse was published in 2022, but its findings were ignored by the Tory government. Photograph: Steven May/Alamy A former chief prosecutor and a police whistleblower who uncovered a notorious paedophile gang have hit back at demands from senior Conservatives and the billionaire Elon Musk for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation. Nazir Afzal, the ex-chief prosecutor who was central to successful prosecution of the Rochdale grooming gang, said lengthy and expensive inquiries were not acted upon by the previous Conservative government. Maggie Oliver, who resigned from Greater Manchester police to speak out about police failings in child exploitation, said she did not want to hear more empty promises and political manoeuvrings. Their comments follow a growing row started by Elon Musk, the billionaire ally of Donald Trump, who called for a national inquiry in the UK and accused Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute child rapists in Oldham in Greater Manchester. Musks intervention came as part of a long stream of posts on his own platform, X, late on Wednesday night, which included supportive comments about Tommy Robinson, the far-right activist who is in jail for contempt of court. Musk began posting after seeing reports that Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, had rejected calls from Oldham council for a public inquiry into child exploitation in the town. Phillips argued that it should be up to local councils to commission new inquiries, sparking criticism from Conservatives including Kemi Badenoch. The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal, the Tory leader posted. It later emerged her own party had also rejected a national inquiry while in government. A leaked letter shows that in September 2022, the then minister for safeguarding, Amanda Solloway, wrote to an Oldham councillor dismissing a request for a public inquiry. It is for the local authorities in individual towns and cities which are responsible for delivering local services, to commission local inquiries, she wrote. Afzal, who overturned a Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute the Rochdale gang, said a national overarching inquiry into child abuse was published in 2022, but its findings were ignored by the Tory government. That report, which covered England and Wales only, found children in Oldham were failed by agencies that were meant to protect them amid alleged grooming by predominantly Pakistani offenders. Led by Prof Alexis Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups after multiple convictions of sexual offences against children between 2010 and 2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol. A Labour spokesperson said the government is working at pace to implement the recommendations in Jays report. We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse, which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated. Afzal said: There has been an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, the catalyst for which was so-called grooming gangs. It cost millions and the last government failed to accept much of its recommendations. There has also been an inquiry headed up by [the former Conservative home secretary] Sajid Javid for the Centre for Social Justice which they ignored too, he told the Guardian. Local independent inquiries of the sort carried out in Telford are more likely to achieve safer streets and protect victims. Oliver, who left the police to speak out about the lack of protection for victims, told the Guardian: Weve already had a national abuse inquiry seven years, 20 recommendations and none implemented. We need someone who is going to do something not just talk more empty promises and political manoeuvrings. Meanwhile, senior Labour ministers say they believe the row has underscored the need for the government to leave X altogether, arguing it has become a tool for misinformation since Musk bought it. One MP said: [Musk] has pushed it too far this time. Twitter [now X] is really rapidly becoming a cess pit, even for disinterested non-partisan types. This article was amended on 3 January 2025 to clarify that the child abuse inquiry led by Prof Alexis Jay covered England and Wales only, not the whole of the UK. Police officers put out a fire during New Years Eve fireworks celebrations in Berlin. A local hospital said the severity of injuries was unusual. Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP German officials have called for a clampdown on illegally imported and homemade firework bombs after pyrotechnics for personal use killed at least five people across the country on New Years Eve. The use of personal firecrackers is widespread and only lightly regulated in Germany, leading to hundreds of injuries and massive deployments of police and first responders in cities at the end of every year. In Berlin alone, police and hospital officials said 17 people had been hurt by Kugelbomben, spherical explosives that are legally restricted to professional firework displays. Five victims including small children suffered serious injuries to their hands, faces and eyes while others sought help for burns and hearing damage. The number of patients treated compared to previous years was average or a little below average, a spokesperson for the UKB hospital in Berlin told local media. But the severity of the injuries is unusual. Most of the fatalities were young men killed in separate accidents while trying to ignite pyrotechnics, in some cases using illicit firework bombs that they had altered for more spectacular effect. The Kugelbomben had been mainly brought in from Poland or the Czech Republic and combined with components such as aerosol cans and plastic pipes for a bigger bang and a higher trajectory, authorities said. The spherical or ball bombs come in various sizes and are reserved in Germany for professional fireworks displays. Before New Years Eve, however, they could be seen on offer illegally on social media channels. Berlins regional head of the GdP police union, Stephan Weh, demanded a crackdown on outlawed pyrotechnic imports and a general ban on private fireworks. Rockets, firecrackers and compound fireworks are used to attack people and the number of Kugelbomben is growing, he said in a statement. Fireworks belong in the hands of professionals. A spherical explosive set off in Berlins central Schoneberg district, where young revellers have frequently clashed with police in previous years, severely damaged several buildings, leaving 36 residences uninhabitable and sending two people to hospital. A fire brigade spokesperson compared the scene of destruction to a battlefield. Another of the firework bombs went off in a crowd in the northern district of Tegel, injuring eight people, two of them critically including a young boy. The interior affairs spokesperson of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union in Berlin, Burkard Dregger, demanded tougher measures to prevent the spread of Kugelbomben in German cities during the December holidays. The import of banned fireworks Kugelbomben from eastern neighbouring countries has got to be stopped with even stricter border checks, he told the local public broadcaster RBB, calling for talks with the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic to reach a regional consensus. The opposition Greens called for a total ban on private firework sales. The question is why we as a society are prepared to have a night of setting off firecrackers with immeasurable collateral damage for people, animals and the environment, the partys interior affairs spokesperson, Vasili Franco, said. In the Netherlands, a 46-year-old man who was severely injured in a firework accident in the town of Tiel died in hospital on Wednesday, authorities said, bringing the number of New Years Eve fireworks-related fatalities across the country to two. A 14-year-old boy was killed in Rotterdam while trying to relight a cobra, a particularly explosive and illegal firework on Tuesday evening. Dozens more people suffered serious eye and other injuries despite sales of consumer fireworks being supposedly outlawed in 19 Dutch cities, including Rotterdam and Amsterdam, whose mayors have demanded a national ban. And in France, 984 cars were set on fire and 420 people arrested in an annual ritual described by the hardline interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, as gratuitous and endemic violence by thugs attacking the property of often modest, ordinary people. The female killer whale J35 with her newborn calf J61, who died. Photograph: Center for Whale Research An apparently grieving killer whale who swam more than 1,000 miles (1,600km) pushing the body of her dead newborn has lost another calf and is again carrying the body, a development researchers say is a devastating loss for the ailing population. The Washington state-based Center for Whale Research said the orca, known as Tahlequah, or J35, was spotted in the Puget Sound area with her deceased calf. Tahlequah is a member of the critically endangered southern resident killer whale population, an ecotype experts fear is on track for extirpation from the Pacific coast. The whale previously made headlines in 2018 when she pushed the body of her calf around the Salish Sea for 17 days in an apparent act of grieving. She has now lost two of her documented calves, both of which were female. Her first calf was born 14 years ago and is still alive. Her third was born in 2020 and is also healthy. Researchers were initially optimistic about Tahlequahs newest calf, known as J61, but soon suspected the newborn was suffering health problems. Early life is always dangerous for new calves, with a very high mortality rate in the first year. J35 is an experienced mother, and we hope that she is able to keep J61 alive through these difficult early days, the centre wrote on 23 December. The sudden death has left the team deeply saddened. The death of any calf in the [endangered southern resident population] is a tremendous loss, but the death of J61 is particularly devastating, not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline but also given the history of her mother J35 who has now lost two out of four documented calves both of which were female, the centre wrote. The discovery of a new calf, J62, however, resulted in a day of extreme highs and lows. Experts say the state of the critically endangered southern resident killer whales reflects an ecosystem in crisis, although there remains debate about the best way to blunt a looming population collapse. In recent months, conservation groups have called on Canadas environment minister to issue an emergency order, a rarely used but powerful legal tool used protect a species on the verge of extirpation. The powers have only been used twice before: once to save the greater sage-grouse in Alberta, and later on for the protection of the western chorus frog in Quebec. A recent assessment from various arms of the federal government found the southern resident killer whale population had dropped to 73 a figure confirmed by the Center for Whale Research. There are believed to be only 23 breeding females. Islamic State at its height in 2014 marching in Raqqa, Syria - AP Striding across the South Lawn of the White House, Donald Trump, then serving his first presidential term, paused in front of reporters and triumphantly unfurled a sheet of paper. On it were two maps of Syria. The first, daubed in blotches of red, showed how much territory Islamic State, the jihadist group also known as Isis, held in the country on the day he won the election in November 2016. The second map was almost a pristine white, save for a tiny red spot near the town of Baghuz, Islamic States final holdout on the banks of the River Euphrates. It would be gone by that evening, Mr Trump predicted. Although the deadline slipped a smidgen Baghuz fell four days later, on March 23, 2019 the expulsion of IS from its final Syrian stronghold was undoubtedly among the chief foreign policy achievements of the first Trump presidency. Donald Trump in 2019 holding up the contrasting maps of Syria showing the presence of IS - Alex Edelman/Bloomberg For more than five years, ever since it had raised its black flag over the Syrian city of Raqqa in early 2014, IS had threatened global order from its self-proclaimed caliphate, a vast swathe of territory the size of Britain that straddled Syrias border with Iraq. But the discovery of that fearsome black flag on the vehicle that ploughed through revellers in New Orleans on New Years Day, killing at least 14 people, is a reminder that while the United States diminished and humbled IS in the Middle East, it did not eradicate it. In fact, even as the group slipped from Western consciousness in recent years, security officials and analysts have been warning for months that a revival is underway. The pickup truck used in the atrocity in New Orleans is said to have had an IS flag tied to a pole in the back The worry emanates partly from the recovery of IS in both Afghanistan, where it benefited from Joe Bidens withdrawal of US forces in 2021, and in the lawless western desert of Syria. The loss of its caliphate in Syria and Iraq forced IS into hibernation but it has shown signs of a resurrection in the past 12 months. The group has carried out nearly 700 attacks in Syria since January, a threefold increase from the previous year, according to calculations by Charles Lister, director of the Countering Terrorism and Extremism programme at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank. As it has revived in Syria, Islamic States Afghan affiliate, known as Isis-Khorasan, has gained sufficient strength to carry out attacks abroad. Last year, it killed 84 people in a double suicide bombing in Iran and 154 more when gunmen opened fire at a concert in Moscow. The partial recovery of its capability aside, IS has received a significant propaganda boost from Israels wars in Gaza and Lebanon, which experts say has radicalised a new generation of Muslims, providing a flood of recruits to jihadi groups. The issue of Israel is so transcendental to the jihadist groups that it has definitely energised the global jihad movement in a way that has not been seen for many years, Shiraz Maher, an expert on jihadi groups at Kings College London, told The Telegraph in October. Many senior officials in the US security establishment worried that it was only a matter of time before there was a terrorist attack on American or European soil. At a time when the terrorism threat was already elevated, the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans inside the United States to a whole other level, Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, warned in a speech in April. We continue to be concerned about individuals or small groups drawing twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry our attacks here at home. Whether Israels wars were a factor in Jabbars murderous rampage through the streets of New Orleans remains to be seen. So too do his tangible links to IS. There is no doubt that IS cells seek to carry out atrocities on a spectacular scale in the West. In August, the CIA foiled an IS plot it said aimed to kill a huge number of people at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. Last year, the FBI arrested eight Tajik asylum seekers who had crossed the US border from Mexico after suspecting they had links with IS. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old American from Texas, was radicalised by IS before launching his murderous attack Yet Jabbar was not an asylum seeker but a born-and-bred Texan who had served for years in the US military and who most recently was working as a senior solutions specialist at Deloitte, the accounting giant. His radicalisation may have as much to do with financial debt and an acrimonious divorce as it does with his views on Israel, which remain unknown. It is therefore also possible that Jabbar, like others before him, was merely inspired by IS rather than receiving direct orders from its cells in the Middle East, Afghanistan or the African Sahel. While some previous acts of terror in the West have indeed been directed outright by IS, such as the coordinated attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015, others have had little to no contact with the movement. Lone-wolf terrorists in the past have often been self-radicalised by IS, among them Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who drove a 19-ton lorry through a packed crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks in Nice in 2016, killing 86 people. Such self-radicalisation has long been a key objective of both al-Qaeda and IS, which have published slick online magazines telling would-be jihadists how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mum and providing detailed instructions on how to ram vehicles into crowds as effectively as possible. Whether Jabbar was a self-motivated lone wolf or a directly recruited operative taking orders from IS commanders will be a central question for those investigating his attack. But no answer will offer Western intelligence agencies much comfort. They will be aware that eradicating IS as a physical entity was always going to be an almost insurmountable challenge. Destroying the ideology that it has fostered and cultivated will prove harder still. Sir Keir Starmer was the director of public prosecutions from 2008-2013, which includes the years of the grooming gang scandal - John Stillwell/Pool Photo via AP Labour has blocked an inquiry into Sir Keir Starmers conduct as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service while investigating the Oldham child grooming scandal. Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, refused to launch a public inquiry into historical sexual abuse by gangs in Oldham, saying it was for the council to decide whether one was necessary. The scandal was one of several across the country in which dozens of girls were abused by British Pakistani gangs. Police forces and prosecutors often did not take action for fear of being called racist or Islamophobic, a failing Sir Keir addressed in 2012 when he was running the CPS as the director of public prosecutions. Credit: BBC Elon Musk, the US tech billionaire, and Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, led criticism of the decision to block an inquiry, as revealed by GB News earlier this week. Mr Musk, who will have a major role in Donald Trumps incoming administration, has emerged as a vocal critic of Sir Keir and his Government in recent months. Writing on his social media platform X, Mr Musk claimed Ms Phillips deserves to be in prison over the disgraceful decision, which he suggested had been taken to protect the Prime Minister. He said: Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 20082013. Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Stamer [sic]. The real reason shes refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Starmer (head of the CPS at the time). In a later post, Mr Musk described the Prime Minister as two-tier Keir, claiming there was no justice for severe, violent crimes but prison for social media posts. Mrs Badenoch said: The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years, but no one in authority has joined the dots 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice. However, she was rebuked by Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, who said: Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level. Convicted members of the Rochdale and Oldham grooming gang Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, who has written to Ms Phillips urging her to rethink her decision, said any inquiry should look into Sir Keirs involvement as DPP. He told The World at One on BBC Radio 4: I cant speculate about Keir Starmers personal motivations, but I think looking into the conduct of the Crown Prosecution Service, including during the time when Keir Starmer was the director of public prosecutions, would be one of the things that this inquiry should certainly be looking at Thats why we need an investigation, a proper statutory inquiry to get to the bottom of that kind of question. Liz Truss, the former prime minister, also criticised Ms Phillips decision, writing on X: This is @jessphillips, the same Home Office Minister who excused masked Islamist thugs. Her title "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls" is a perversion of the English language. It's clear whose side she is on. https://t.co/Heg2O8rSW7 Liz Truss (@trussliz) January 1, 2025 A 2022 report found children in Oldham were failed by agencies that were meant to protect them amid alleged grooming by predominantly Pakistani offenders in council homes and shisha bars, and by taxi drivers. Sir Keir admitted that the CPS had let vulnerable girls down under his watch, after a case was dropped against a rape suspect in 2009 despite all evidence pointing to their guilt. Speaking in 2012, near the end of his five-year tenure as DPP, he admitted that the ethnicity of suspects had been an issue in securing prosecutions of grooming gangs. He said: In a number of cases presented to us, particularly in cases involving groups, theres clearly an issue of ethnicity that has to be understood and addressed. As prosecutors we shouldnt shy away from that. But if were honest, its the approach to the victims, the credibility issue, that caused these cases not to be prosecuted in the past. There was a lack of understanding. On Thursday, a former MP for Rochdale claimed that an ex-chairman of Labours parliamentary party had warned him that drawing attention to the ethnicity of grooming gangs could harm the partys electoral chances. Simon Danczuk, who represented the town from 2010 to 2017, said he was threatened by Tony Lloyd, who at the time was campaigning to be the Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner. Apology for failings Nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences in Rochdale, including rape, in 2012. Eight were of British Pakistani origin and one was an Afghan asylum seeker. Since then, a further 33 men have been convicted, and Greater Manchester police has apologised for failing to investigate earlier allegations more thoroughly. Mr Danczuk told The Telegraph he had been warned by two Labour MPs Mr Lloyd and Jim Dobbin, the MP for the neighbouring seat of Heywood and Middleton not to link the scandal to the perpetrators ethnicity. Social media commentators have suggested Ms Phillips had taken the decision not to back a full inquiry into Oldham because her constituency of Birmingham Yardley has a high proportion of Muslim residents. At last years general election, her majority shrank from 13,141 to just 693. Mr Musk also responded to a claim on X that grooming was covered up by authorities that did not want to let themselves get called Islamophobic, calling the practice contemptible. Replying to another post that said some of the authorities in the UK allegedly ignored the grooming gangs for fear of being called racist, the Tesla entrepreneur wrote: YES. Elon Musk accused Ms Phillips of defending her boss, Sir Keir - Reuters/Lukasz Glowala/ It comes after Oldham councils Labour group last year agreed to support an independent inquiry, writing twice to Ms Phillips urging the Home Office to support this work. It agreed to send the request as part of an agreement with independent councillors to allow it to remain in control of the council, despite losing its majority last May. Lewis Quigg, a Conservative councillor in Oldham, said: At the moment the council are now having to look and try to establish with the survivors how that inquiry will look. The power to compel at a public inquiry would be much more important. It would give them the confidence that something is being done to compel witnesses to come forward. At the end of the day we dont know how many people have been affected by this, and that is the key issue that is at stake. For a government to not take its own people and crimes against its own people seriously and not to help uncover those potential crimes that are yet to be discovered it just isnt good enough. Ms Phillips replied to the councillors letter, in a letter first reported by GB News: It is for Oldham council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene I welcome the councils resolution to do so, as set out in your letter, and to continue its important work with victims and survivors. Jess Phillips rejected a request by Oldham council for Home Office assistance - Heathcliff O'Malley for the Telegraph Labour defended its decision on Thursday, with a spokesman saying: Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most horrendous crimes, and the Home Office supports police investigations and independent inquiries to get truth and justice for victims. We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse, which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. This Government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated. Young girls were abused in the most cruel and sadistic way. Victims and the community need to know that all steps are taken to deliver justice and protect children properly in the future. We will welcome and support an independent investigation commissioned by Oldham council, which puts victims voices at its heart, following the examples of Telford and Rotherham. It emerged on Thursday that Amanda Solloway, a former minister, also refused to commit the previous Conservative government to a Home Office-backed inquiry in Oldham. She said in a letter in September 2022: The Government continues to be clear that it is for the local authorities in individual towns and cities, which are responsible for delivering local services, to commission local inquiries. Telford and Rotherham councils commissioned and funded their own inquiries into grooming gangs in their areas. The Broxtowe councillors are critical of the cut to the winter fuel allowance, the bus fare increase and Labours plans to scrap two-tier county and district councils. Photograph: Leon Neal/PA Twenty councillors at a local authority in Nottinghamshire have quit Labour, saying the party has abandoned traditional Labour values under Keir Starmers leadership. The move means Labour has lost overall control of Broxtowe borough council, which it gained in 2023, and those defecting include the council leader, Milan Radulovic, who had been a party member for 42 years. In a statement, the councillors who will now sit as part of a new Broxtowe Independents party said: It is with a heavy heart that we can no longer be in a party that has abandoned traditional Labour values under Keir Starmers leadership. They were particularly critical of the cut to the winter fuel allowance, the bus fare increase and Labours plans to scrap two-tier county and district councils, which are to be merged to create large unitary authorities. Radulovic said: I believe the concentration of power in the hands of fewer people, and the abolition of local democracy through the current proposals of super councils, is nothing short of a dictatorship, where local elected members, local people, local residents will have no say over the type and level of service provided in their area. I have therefore been left with no alternative. I cannot support and will not support another centrist government intent on destroying local democracy and dictating national policy from a high pedestal. One councillor, Ross Bofinger, posted a picture of a cut-up Labour party membership card on social media alongside a statement that read: Im leaving the Labour party because it has grown increasingly distant from ordinary people. The councillors claim about 100 grassroots Labour members in the area have also quit the party, and that 10 members of the group were blocked from standing as county council candidates in Mays local elections after openly criticising the winter fuel allowance cut. Related: Keir Starmer vows to rebuild Britain as Labour did after second world war Broxtowe Labour group said: It is incredibly disappointing that some Broxtowe councillors have decided to leave the Labour party and sit as independents when they were elected on a Labour ticket just over 18 months ago. These defections have no effect on the commitment of the remaining Labour councillors in serving our residents. The borough of Broxtowe lies to the west of Nottingham, and the council has fluctuated in political control since its creation. Most of the borough falls into the Broxtowe parliamentary constituency, a marginal seat gained by Labour in 2024 and represented by Juliet Campbell. The former Broxtowe Conservative MP Anna Soubry, who quit the party for an independent group and backed Labour at the last election, said the councillors who had quit never supported Starmer ... their treatment of their partys parly candidate from the time of her selection was appalling. Soubry said Campbell deserves the support of everyone in Broxtowe. In April last year, before the Labour party was elected into government, 20 Labour councillors from Lancashire resigned in protest at the partys leadership, saying it wants to control anything that any councillor wants to say. Broxtowes Labour group has had a number of high-profile disagreements with the national party in recent years. Members protested at the decision not to allow Greg Marshall, the former two-time candidate in the area, to stand again in 2024. Marshall had been one of the candidates during the Jeremy Corbyn years who was seen as close to the former Labour leader. A Labour insider said at the time that Marshalls inability to win in the previous two elections demonstrated the need for a fresh pair of hands to win the seat, but the decision to bar him from the selection process led to an outcry from local councillors and trade unions. The former Labour MP Rosie Duffield also quit the party earlier this year to sit as an independent, citing the winter fuel payment cut as well as a refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap. Duffield had clashed previously with the Labour leadership and some party members because of her gender-critical views. Nick Clegg speaks in London in April. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Nick Clegg, Britains former deputy prime minister and Metas current president of global affairs, is leaving the company after six years. It truly has been an adventure of a lifetime! Clegg said in a post on Facebook. I am proud of the work I have been able to do leading and supporting teams across the company to ensure innovation can go hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability, and with new forms of governance. Clegg joined the Facebook parent company in 2018 as the social media platforms vicepresident for global affairs and communications. At the time the company faced intense scrutiny over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and its role in the 2016 US presidential election. He was promoted to the chief policy role in 2022 after he helped to establish the Facebook Oversight Board an independent board that makes decisions on the social networks moderation policies. My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between big tech and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector, Clegg wrote. I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe. Related: US business leaders set to break record on donations to Trump inaugural fund Clegg will be replaced by his deputy, Joel Kaplan, who, Clegg wrote, is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time. Kaplan previously served as the deputy chief of staff for policy under former president George W Bush. He is known to be the most prominent conservative voice at the company who rose to the top ranks at a time when Facebook faced claims of liberal bias. During his time in the role, Kaplan pushed to partner with the fact-checking division of rightwing news site the Daily Caller in response to concerns from Republicans over the companys partnership with mainstream news organizations. Most recently, Kaplan was pictured at the New York stock exchange alongside vice-president-elect JD Vance during the Time person of the year ceremony. The policy team shakeup comes just weeks before the 20 January inauguration of Donald Trump. As Trump has come in and out of power, tech firms including Meta have vacillated between enforcing their moderation rules against Trump, including banning his accounts, and reversing those decisions. Days after Trump was elected, Meta donated $1m to Trumps inauguration fund and the companys CEO, Mark Zuckerberg dined with him at Mar-a-Lago. This comes after Trump threatened to punish Zuckerberg if his platform at all influenced the election. In response to Cleggs post on Facebook, Zuckerberg thanked the executive and said he was excited for Kaplan to step into the role given his deep experience and insight leading our policy work for many years. Youve made an important impact advancing Metas voice and values around the world, as well as our vision for AI and the metaverse, Zuckerberg wrote in response to Cleggs post. Youve also built a strong team to carry this work forward. Police and officials survey a taped-off area in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock As investigators examine the terrorist attack in New Orleans on Wednesday, they will be hoping to answer three questions: who was responsible, how was the attack executed, and why? All will be vital to answering the most pressing question of all: will there be another attack in the immediate hours or days to come? Their first priority will have been to identify the attacker. The FBI has said it believes Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old who drove a pickup truck into a crowd celebrating the new year, acted alone. He hired a vehicle and procured an assault rifle, as well as body armour and ammunition. He also fabricated what appeared to be several pipe bombs containing plastic explosives, which he may have positioned to target police. It is entirely possible that the former soldier was able to put together this arsenal himself, but, even if Jabbar was a lone actor, others probably had some idea, at least, of his intentions. Research has shown that many potential attackers sometimes, but not always, inadvertently reveal something of their plans to close friends or family or online before acting. Some commentators will be tempted to look at Jabbars personal circumstances for an explanation of his acts. But though some factors are seen as red flags, decades of research into terrorism has failed to definitively prove a clear link between specific contexts or character traits and violence. Many experts also say that such profiling is usually counterproductive. Establishing a connection to an extremist group is usually a more productive line of investigation. This is the X factor that often turns someone who is angry, alienated or otherwise vulnerable to an extremist ideology, into a terrorist, say security officials. For those who are radicalised or self-radicalise online, this is particularly true. It is the intervention of outside actors especially experienced, skilful and highly committed violent ones that can be the most important element in moving activity from the online to the real world, with sometimes lethal consequences. Jabbar had reportedly fixed the Islamic State flag to the vehicle used in the attack, and the US president, Joe Biden, said there was further evidence the attack was inspired by IS. This is thought to be a reference to videos Jabbar posted on social media in which he swore allegiance to the organisation shortly before the attack. IS is a shadow of the organisation that mounted the horrific wave of attacks in Europe almost a decade ago that killed hundreds of people. It no longer has the base or manpower it possessed then, and its ideas remain attractive only to a tiny minority. Yet it has survived which is the most important and often most difficult challenge for any such group and has established new hubs of activity across the Sahel region and in eastern Africa. The big attack on a concert hall in Moscow last year was the work of the Afghan branch of IS, which now appears to pose the greatest threat to international targets. Quite where the New Orleans attack might sit on a spectrum from closely directed by IS to merely inspired by the group is unclear. Precedents in the US suggest any link is likely to be ideological rather than organisational. The US has historically been more vulnerable to attacks by lone actors or small networks than big organised plots. The respected Soufan Center said on Tuesday that there was a significant rise in thwarted IS-inspired attacks in the US last year, amid a broader increase in IS-related violence worldwide. One reason for this increase may be more and better IS propaganda, and the continuing failure of authorities to stop the circulation of violent extremist material on social media. Another may be, as officials in the US and elsewhere have been warning for many months, the radicalising effects of the war in Gaza on individuals in the west and elsewhere. There are two important points from recent research that will worry investigators. One is that potential attackers are often inspired by previous tactics or behaviours. The second is that, however isolated the individual perpetrators, attacks by lone actors tend to cluster in time and space, meaning that more such violence is possible in the US soon. Sylvester Vinkabb ordered and removed medicine from Evans Pharmacy in Long Eaton between May 2022 and February 2023 A pharmacist who stole medication to send it home to Africa has been allowed to keep his licence. Sylvester Vinkabb was given a one-year suspension after a tribunal heard he ordered thousands of pills at the pharmacy he worked at and sent them to Sierra Leone. The pharmacist stole more than 16,000 diazepam and Xanax tablets as well as more than 100 litres of codeine to send to his home country, a tribunal heard. Mr Vinkabb said he was blinded by wanting to help people as he denied the charges presented at a disciplinary hearing despite admitting he sent the medication home. A General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC) panel ultimately found the six charges brought against him proved and ordered Mr Vinkabb to be suspended from work for a year. The panel heard that between May 2022 and February 2023, Mr Vinkabb ordered and removed approximately 330 boxes of Xanax and diazepam tablets totalling more than 16,000 pills from Evans Pharmacy in Long Eaton, Derbyshire. He did the same for more than 100 litres of codeine as well as approximately 357 litres of phenergan elixir. He paid for the medication himself but ordered them without permission, it was heard. The pharmacist was caught after a spreadsheet of discrepancies was presented to the GPC. Opportunistic rather than targeted He said he had been sending medicine back to Sierra Leone since 2022, taking medications from patient return bins in the pharmacy. This was not in any significant quantities, he said. For example, if old paracetamol or ibuprofen came back in their original packs and were unused and untouched, I would take them out of the patient returns bin, remove the labels and put them in a separate box, which was known as the Africa box in the branch. The box also included other medical products such as dressings, he said. This was opportunistic rather than targeted, so if something came in that I thought would be helpful back in the local community in Sierra Leone then I would put it to one side. He described how he would buy barrels from a shipping company in Leicester in which he would stash the supplies as well as old clothes and shoes before sending them to Africa which would cost up to 70 each. Mr Vinkabb said the barrels would be sent to his mothers house and distributed as appropriate. He continued: All go to my home, none are sold here. They all go in the barrel. I pay for it and send it. I am blinded by wanting to help people. He told the panel he wanted to make clear that none of the missing medicine was ever re-used in the UK and had only sent the medicines as they were being thrown away. The panel found him guilty of all six allegations against him and said he was plainly aware he was stealing the medication without permission. It was heard other staff members were aware of the Africa box but did not know where it was being sent and that Mr Vinkabb had taken steps to avoid detection. The pharmacist issued a full apology, despite denying the charges, and admitted he couldnt be certain he hadnt put patients at risk as result of his behaviour. The panel ruled that the dishonesty was not for the financial gain of the pharmacist but rather to help his mothers home community. It also found there was no risk that he would repeat the behaviour but said he had committed a very serious breach of standards. In some cities there will be extra accommodation made available to homeless people in the icy weather. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Public health bosses in the UK are expecting a rise in deaths from cold weather, amid severe weather warnings for snow and ice over the next five days. The UKs Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued an amber alert for social care in England, saying vulnerable people were at risk as the country braced for heavy snow and ice going into the weekend. Five days worth of yellow Met Office warnings are in place, beginning with snow and ice warnings stretching from the Shetland Islands to Derby and Nottingham, including north Wales and Northern Ireland. A yellow weather warning has also been issued for ice across western Wales, from 6pm on Thursday to 10am on Friday, the Met Office said. By Saturday, these warnings are replaced by a blanket warning for heavy snow across England, Wales and southern parts of Scotland, which will remain in place until Monday morning. About 5cm of snow is expected widely across the Midlands, Wales and northern England, with as much as 20-30cm over high ground in Wales and the Pennines, according to forecasters. A rise in deaths, in particular among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions, was likely, the UKHSA said. Some people will have challenges keeping indoor temperatures at the recommended 18C, leading to increased risk to vulnerable people. Charities said that some elderly people who were not given the winter fuel allowance by the government would find it difficult. Age UKs director, Caroline Abrahams, said the charity had already been contacted by some who were worrying about what to do when this moment arrived. She said: We urge older people to do everything they can to stay warm, even if that means risking spending more on their heating than they feel they can afford. The Met Office has also warned there is a small chance of power cuts, stranded vehicles, cancelled train and air travel, and some rural communities being cut off because of treacherous roads. The icy forecast comes amid flooding that has led to homes being damaged and cars trapped in fast-rising water. A major incident was declared in Greater Manchester on New Years Day, as hundreds of people were evacuated, including from a hotel housing asylum seekers and a Stockport block of flats, where residents had become trapped. The incident was stood down on Thursday afternoon, with almost 1,000 people rescued and efforts from emergency services turning to recovery. Firefighters, police officers and mountain rescue had been involved in the rescue efforts, with about half of the people rescued by boat. Major train lines were also flooded and the banks of a canal in Cheshire collapsed owing to a rise in flood water. A total of seven flood warnings were in place in England on Thursday morning, particularly in West and North Yorkshire. A further 40 flood alerts, where flooding is possible, stretched from the Tyne and Wear coast to Seaford, on the East Sussex coast, and from Shropshire in the west to the Suffolk coast. A flood warning in Ness-side, near Inverness, Scotland, also remained in place after a few days of heavy rain and wind that led to the cancellation of Hogmanay events, including the Edinburgh street party. Road and rail travel in many parts of Scotland was disrupted on Thursday, with no services on two railway lines in the Highlands after heavy rain led to landslips and flooding. There were also warnings of difficult driving conditions throughout the country, with some roads already closed due to snow. For those intending to travel despite the wintry weather, the Met Office and National Rail issued reminders to plan ahead. Difficult driving conditions should be expected, particularly in areas under a yellow weather warning. Allowing extra time was advised, with delays, diversions or hampered conditions likely for road users. Passengers on public transport were advised to check any timetables and services before setting out in case of delays or cancellations. National Rail said the poor weather would have an impact on trains running across Great Britain, with Northern, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales and ScotRail services all affected. Two new flood alerts were issued just before 6am on Thursday, with water levels peaking for the Lower River Wharfe system in Yorkshire and the Lower River Ure waterway in North Yorkshire. Both river systems and surrounding tributaries were at risk of flooding. Areas most at risk within the Lower River Ure system include low-lying land such as agricultural land and roads in the areas around Masham, Boroughbridge, Aldborough and Bishop Monkton. For Lower River Wharfe, areas at risk of flooding spanned from Otley to upstream of Ulleskelf, including Tadcaster. No further significant rainfall was expected in the area on Thursday and water levels were expected to begin falling in the afternoon and evening. People were advised to avoid using low-lying footpaths or any bridges near watercourses, and not to attempt to walk, drive or cycle through flood waters. In Bristol, a severe weather emergency protocol has been activated by the city council and the homelessness charity St Mungos, and will run until 8 January. There will be increased outreach shifts and more accommodation made available, with the aim of ensuring nobody has to sleep on the streets during such extreme weather conditions. London councils have also activated an emergency accommodation protocol for people sleeping rough in freezing conditions, which will involve extra beds being made available. The emergency measures have been active for three nights in the capital so far this winter. Tom Morgan, a Met Office meteorologist, said: At the moment weve issued a very large snow warning for Saturday until Monday but it doesnt mean that everywhere within that warning could see snow, its just a heads-up there could be some impacts. Separately, the Met Office has said that 2024 was the UKs fourth-warmest year on record, with the forecasters senior scientist Mike Kendon saying this was another clear illustration that our climate is changing, right now. Additional reporting from PA The device will predominantly be used on ships by the Royal Navy - POPhot Alex Ceolin Troops on military operations will soon be able to use a British-made atomic clock built with quantum technology instead of GPS for the first time. The quantum clock, which in the next five years could be used by troops to tell the time, position, and navigate in hostile environments, will dramatically improve intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance because it decreases the reliance on GPS technology, which can be disrupted and blocked by adversaries. The clocks precision is so refined that it will lose less than one second over billions of years, allowing scientists to measure time at an unprecedented scale. Developed at the top-secret Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), it is the first device of its kind to be built in the UK and is currently being trialled in partnership with Imperial College London, and quantum technology companies Infleqtion (UK), Aquark Technologies and HCD Research. The atomic clock technology has the potential to provide a stable sovereign-controlled capability - Creative Hub Photographer x3575 Quantum is really important to the UK, especially from a defence perspective, said Jonathan, a technical leader for industry partner Infleqtion, who did not give his surname. If you look at whats happening in the world at the moment, its becoming increasingly obvious that we need better and more robust position navigation and timing services, and thats something that quantum is uniquely placed to be able to provide. Although it is envisioned that the device will predominantly be used on ships by the Royal Navy, it is hoped that all three services will use it in future operations. Currently, the military, as well as other critical services, from telecommunications to transport, use global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) for accurate time and position information. However, their vulnerabilities are a known national security risk, with the 2018 Satellite-derived time and position: Blackett review stating that if GNSS were lost, it could cost the British economy 1 billion per day. The report also warned of the nations dependence on GNSS and the need to adopt potential backup systems in the event of a hacking attack. Now, atomic clock technology has the potential to provide a stable sovereign-controlled capability for the maintenance of precise time for critical operations. Not only can quantum clocks secure communications systems, such as encrypted military networks, but they also have the ability to enhance the accuracy of advanced weapon systems, such as guided missiles, which rely on accurate timing to calculate trajectories and coordinate attacks. Maria Eagle, the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry says, trialling of this emerging, groundbreaking technology could support high-skilled jobs - Andrew Milligan/PA Wire It will also enable the British military to gain an edge over adversaries in timing-critical operations, especially in areas like cyber warfare, where milliseconds can make a difference. Maria Eagle, the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, said: Integrating cutting-edge technology into existing capabilities exemplifies the Governments commitment to innovation in the defence sector, and to ensuring our Armed Forces have the best kit possible to keep us secure at home and strong abroad. The trialling of this emerging, groundbreaking technology could not only strengthen our operational capability but also drive progress in industry, bolster our science sector, and support high-skilled jobs. The applications of quantum clocks extend beyond precision timekeeping. According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), further improvement to GPS accuracy could transform global navigation systems, aiding in everything from satellite communication to aircraft navigation. In addition, further research will see the technology decrease in size to allow mass manufacturing and miniaturisation, unlocking a wide range of applications, such as those used by military vehicles and aircraft. Paul Hollinshead, Dstls chief executive, said: This first trial of advanced atomic clock represents a significant achievement in the UKs quantum technology capabilities. The data gathered will not only shape future defence efforts but is also a signal to industry and academia that we are serious about exploring quantum technologies for secure and resilient operational advantage. The Demonstration of Advanced Timing Apparatus is part of a planned series of experiments designed to understand the performance and limitations of quantum clocks, with potential benefits for military and national infrastructure resilience. Commander Matt Steele, the future technology officer for the Royal Navys office of the chief technical officer, said: The Navy has been looking at quantum technologies for a number of years and it is exciting to see that the challenges of physics and engineering in this area are now no longer a scientific concept, but is now reaching the cusp of reality. In the next few years, the ability to operate effectively, to survive, and to navigate and also to remain lethal with the use of quantum alongside GPS will secure operational advantage. The UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, supported by the MoD, has spent over 10 years advancing the research and development of quantum technologies. These systems are essential for ensuring future freedom of operation with applications in navigation, sensing, and communications in the future battlefield. A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground behind the pickup truck that was driven into a crowd on Bourbon Street, New Orleans - Gerald Herbert/AP It may seem crass for Donald Trump to be using the New Orleans terrorist attack to score political points but he knows, like every successful politician, that you should never let a good crisis go to waste. No sooner had Fox News claimed that Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, the suspect, had entered the country through the Texas border two days ago, Donald Trump Jr tweeted: Bidens parting gift to America migrant terrorists. Over on Truth Social, the platform favoured by the president-elect, Mr Trump repeated his previous claim that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, which he said had been denied by the fake news media but had turned out to be true. Democrats will, of course, condemn Mr Trump for shameless opportunism, but they will also know that his comments will cut through with the voting public in America. As it happens, the Fox News claim about crossing the border turned out to be unsubstantiated. According to investigators, Jabbar was a US citizen but for many Americans that will be an irrelevant detail now. Reports suggesting Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar had crossed into the country via Texas were contradicted by investigators Once again, Mr Trump has proved a master of controlling the narrative, however distasteful that may be, and support for his pledge to deport all undocumented migrants has just been turned up a notch. Just as the first unsuccessful assassination attempt on Mr Trump came at the right time to give his presidential campaign momentum, so has the terrorist attack put wind in the sails of his most controversial policy plan. He will be inaugurated in less than three weeks, and every opponent of his deportation plan will now have to frame their argument more carefully, knowing that the New Orleans attack will be used as a stick with which to beat them. In the black and white world of US politics, anyone who speaks out against deporting illegal migrants will now risk being characterised as a friend of terrorists. If, as suspected, the person who used his pick-up truck as a weapon to kill 15 New Year revellers turns out to have been a supporter of Islamic State, the attack will not have been Bidens departing gift so much as the terrorists gift to Mr Trump. At least 15 people were killed in the terror attack in New Orleans - Shawn Fink/Shutterstock By talking about an act of pure evil in New Orleans and telling the American public that the crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before, Mr Trump has made himself the hero of his own story, a crime-fighting crusader who will rid the country of bad guys. It may be simplistic, and it may be as fake as Mr Trumps skin tone, but it is also a clear, concise message that the American people will be able to instantly understand. The Democrats and Kamala Harris in particular discovered to their cost that wordy, worthy explanations of policies are no substitute for punchy, straight-to-the-point slogans that even a child could understand. Mr Trump told the American people that he would make food cheaper, and they backed him. When he says he will stop terrorist attacks by deporting illegal migrants, they will doubtless back him again, and potentially JD Vance as his successor when the next elections come around. Whether the perpetrator is an illegal migrant or born in the US hardly matters now. The Trump family have said this is the work of migrant terrorists another phrase that will stick in peoples minds and what people want in times of crisis is strong leadership. No matter how questionable Mr Trumps methods may be, they have got him this far. He is not likely to have a moral crisis now. Police and security personnel confer near the scene in Cetinje, southern Montenegro. Photograph: Stevo Vasiljevic/Reuters Twelve people, including two children, have been killed and four others seriously injured in southern Montenegro, authorities have said, in shootings that began in a restaurant and ended when the gunman shot himself in the head. The shooter, identified as Aleksandar Martinovic, 45, turned his weapon on himself after being cornered by police near his home in Cetinje, a small town about 40km (25 miles) west of the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, the interior minister, Danilo Saranovic, said. When he saw that he was in a hopeless situation, he attempted suicide. He did not succumb to his injuries on the spot but during the transport to hospital, Saranovic told the public broadcaster, RTCG. The public prosecutor, Andrijana Nastic, told reporters that 12 people had died in the shootings, which began at about 5.30pm on Wednesday in the village of Bajice near Cetinje. The victims were killed at five different locations, with the first four in the restaurant, Nastic said. Each location has been inspected and evidence was taken. Prosecutor and police actions are ongoing to determine the circumstances, she added. Four people were being treated for serious injuries in a hospital in Podgorica, the health minister, Vojislav Simun, said, with the lives of three of them still in danger. The government has declared three days of national mourning. Police have said the shooting was not believed to be connected to organised crime. Saranovic said the bar owner, his children and members of the shooters own family were among the dead. The level of rage and brutality shows sometimes such people are even more dangerous than members of organised criminal gangs, he said. The police commissioner Lazar Scepanovic said Martinovic had spent much of New Years Day at the bar and was thought to have been drinking heavily before the shooting. He went home, brought back a weapon and opened fire, Scepanovic said. The gunman had been given a suspended sentence in 2005 for violent behaviour and had appealed against a more recent conviction for possession of illegal weapons. Local media have said he was known for his violent and erratic behaviour. The countrys president, Jakov Milatovic, said he was shocked and stunned by the killings. Instead of holiday joy we have been gripped by sadness over the loss of innocent lives, Milatovic said in a social media post. The prime minister, Milojko Spajic, said there had been a brawl before shots were fired. He describing the shootings as a terrible tragedy and said authorities would consider tighter firearms laws, including a complete ban. Montenegro, which has a population of just over 600,000, is known for its deep-rooted gun culture, but mass shootings are comparatively rare. In 2022, also in Cetinje, a gunman killed 10 people including two children before being shot and killed. Despite generally strict gun laws, the western Balkans Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia still have many weapons, most dating from the regions bloody wars of the 1990s, but some more than a century old. Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report Sir Keir Starmer has joined other world leaders in condemning the shockingly violent attack in New Orleans after US authorities said 15 people were killed and dozens more injured. The Prime Minister said his thoughts with were with the victims, their loved ones and the wider US after a vehicle drove into a crowd in the citys popular Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Years Day. The FBI said US army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, from Texas, was driving a pick-up truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group which steered around a police blockade and slammed into New Years Eve revellers. The driver, who was shot dead by police, is not thought to have acted alone, the FBI said. US President Joe Biden said the attacker posted a video beforehand which indicated he was inspired by the so-called Islamic State group. Condemnation came later on Wednesday from countries including Britain, France, Germany and Mexico. Sir Keir said: The shockingly violent attack in New Orleans is horrific. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the emergency responders and the people of the United States at this tragic time. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said consular officials in the US were on hand to help any British nationals affected. Our hearts go out to the people of New Orleans and to all those affected by this horrific attack, he said. The FBI are now investigating this as a terrorist incident this is a fast-moving situation, and we continue to wait on further information. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the attack as senseless hatred while French President Emmanuel Macron said: New Orleans, so dear to the hearts of the French, has been struck by terrorism. Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said he was deeply saddened by the horrific attack and Mexicos president Claudia Sheinbaum said the country stood in solidarity with the families of the victims and with the people of the United States. British tourist Steve Hyde, 44, said he was in a bar in the early hours of New Years Day to celebrate his birthday; right by the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Street where the car careered into crowds. He told the BBC: We heard shots and saw people running past the window and didnt really know what was going on and then the sirens started. In the hours that followed, a heartbroken Mr Hyde described the citys New Years festivities that night as similar to what it is like for Mardi Gras; a massive party made up of crazy numbers of people. Its a bit chaotic (here) but also at the same time its eerily quiet, he said. Local authorities now believe that Jabbar, who died at the scene, may not have been alone in orchestrating the early morning assault. Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill told NBC News that she can say with some certainty that there are multiple people who are involved. As per CNN, Ms Murrill also told the press that the collection of improvised explosive devices, which were discovered shortly after the Bourbon Street attacker was apprehended, appear to have been made in a New Orleans home. A house fire occurred on Wednesday morning that was connected to this event where we believe the IEDs were being made, Ms Murrill said. The premises, a short-term Airbnb rental, was likely leased by those involved. A status yellow weather and ice warning has been issued across Ireland as temperatures are set to drop to minus three overnight. The cold snap will bring minus-zero degree temperatures over the coming days, with widespread frost and ice in many areas of the country. Met Eireann issued the weather warning, saying it could bring hazardous travelling conditions and animal welfare issues. The weather warning will come into effect from 6pm on Thursday and remain in place until 11am on Friday. Status Yellow Low Temperature/Ice warning for Ireland Very cold with widespread frost & ice as temps fall to -3 C or below in many areas. Potential Impacts:Hazardous travelling conditionsAnimal welfare issues For more information: https://t.co/3041XHjphi pic.twitter.com/NmCx1AmikL Met Eireann (@MetEireann) January 2, 2025 The forecaster said this weekend will be very cold, with very disruptive and impactful weather likely in the days ahead, with the possibility of heavy rain, sleet and snow. Some parts of the country have been warned to expect sleet and snow. Met Eireann said Thursday and Friday will be crisp clear days with temperatures struggling to remain in single figures during the day. There will be widespread frosts and icy patches at night as temperatures plumet below zero countrywide. Met Eireann meteorologist Liz Coleman said: Its going to feel much colder than it has recently, with daytime temperatures in the low single figures and night-time temperatures falling below zero in most areas. Widespread frost is expected with some ice, although generally dry conditions will limit ice formation to mainly areas of standing water or run-off. Nevertheless, do take care while out and about. While it will be cold, it will be mainly dry with sunny spells as the high pressure will prevent any significant rainfall. A weather advisory has been issued as sleet and snow are expected in some parts of the country. Valid from: Saturday 04/01/2025 to Monday 06/01/2025 For more information, visit: https://t.co/IMZz9b975Q pic.twitter.com/YxOfm6rtVz Met Eireann (@MetEireann) January 2, 2025 There will be showers at times in the north and west over the weekend, and in the east through next week, but rainfall amounts will be low. So, a lot of dry weather in the forecast. Friday morning will be frosty and foggy, and temperatures will remain between 2C and 6C. Meanwhile, widespread falls of rain, sleet and snow are expected on Saturday night. In Northern Ireland, a yellow ice warning is currently in effect. The UK Met Office said that icy surfaces will lead to difficult travel conditions. A yellow ice warning remains in place for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Tyrone and Derry from Thursday at 5pm until 10am on Friday. In a series of videos, the man responsible for the deadly New Years attack in New Orleans discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join ISIS, according to multiple officials briefed on the investigation. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more, posted five videos on Facebook in the hours and minutes leading up to the attack, Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBIs Counterterrorism Division, said at a news conference Thursday. Jabbar, a Texas-born US citizen and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, made reference in the videos to his divorce and how he had at first planned to gather his family for a celebration with the intention of killing them, two officials who had been briefed on the recordings said. But Jabbar said in the videos he changed his plans because he wanted news headlines to focus on the war between the believers and the disbelievers, Raia said. Jabbar stated he had joined ISIS before this summer, Raia added. The videos, which CNN has not reviewed, were posted on Jabbars Facebook page Wednesday between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m., Raia said. Jabbar also planted two improvised explosive devices in the hours before the attack, which took place about 3:15 a.m. Jabbar was killed while exchanging fire with police after ramming the truck through the crowd in the early hours of New Years Day. He had an ISIS flag in the truck he drove, according to local and federal authorities. From military vet to terrorism suspect Now, law enforcement authorities are reviewing the videos, as well as phones and laptops potentially linked to Jabbar, as they rush to piece in details about how he went from a military veteran to a suspect in a deadly rampage. His family is also trying to understand where he went wrong. Jabbar was born and grew up in Beaumont, Texas, and his brother Abdur Jabbar, 24, and his father, Rahim Jabbar, 65, told CNN they couldnt reconcile the attack with the kind, soft-spoken person they knew. He was very well-tempered, slow to anger, Abdur said in an interview in their home in Beaumont. Thats why it was so unbelievable that he would be capable of something like this. Abdur, who spoke with his older brother almost daily over the last year and half, said he thought there must have been a mistake when a relative first told him Jabbar had been identified as the suspect. But then he saw his brothers face plastered on the news. The brothers were raised Muslim and regularly attended a mosque on Friday nights while growing up, but Jabbar never spoke about ISIS or showed any signs of radicalization, Abdur said. Hes never shared anything like that or of that nature with me, Abdur said. He understood what it meant to be a Muslim It wasnt this tragedy. It was the complete opposite. Thats whats puzzling us, Rahim added. He wasnt going through something that we knew of. Jabbar served in the Army for more than a decade, an Army spokesperson told CNN. He served as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist on active duty between March 2007 and January 2015, and deployed to Afghanistan once from February 2009 to January 2010, the spokesperson said. After leaving active duty in January 2015, Jabbar served in the Army Reserve until July 2020, when he left service as a staff sergeant. Shamsud-Din Jabbar works in Fort Johnson (formerly Fort Polk), Louisiana, on November 16, 2013. - 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division/Reuters Serving in the military, Jabber said in a 2020 YouTube video pitching himself as a real estate agent, had taught him the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting is and crossing ts to make sure that things go off without a hitch. The video has since been taken offline. In the video, he sat next to a framed poster with the word Discipline in bold, and near a book titled Leadership. Jabbar received an associate degree from Central Texas College in 2010 and a bachelors degree from Georgia State University in 2017, according to an online resume. Both degrees were related to computer science and information technology. He later worked in business development and data engineering at the consulting firms Deloitte and Accenture, according to the resume. Georgia State University confirmed to CNN Jabbar attended from 2015 to 2017 and graduated with a bachelors of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems. Central Texas College and Accenture did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. In a statement, Deloitte said Jabbar served in a staff-level role since being hired in 2021. The company is assisting in the investigation and we are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm, the statement said. Jabbar obtained in 2019 a real estate license that expired in 2023, according to records from the Texas Real Estate Commission. The records show he took a range of real estate classes on topics such as contract law and finance between 2018 and 2021. He is also listed in public records as having previously registered or being associated with several companies in Texas and Georgia. Contentious divorces and run-ins with the law Jabbar had divorced twice, court documents show. His first wife sued him in 2012 over child support soon after he filed for divorce, and the court ordered him to pay amounts that increased over the years as his income grew. The case was dismissed in 2022. In 2020, a Texas judge granted Jabbars second wife a restraining order against him during their divorce case. The order mandated Jabbar to refrain from threats, physical harm, or other stipulated behavior against his ex-wife and either of their children. It required her to avoid the same behavior. In a court filing, Jabbars ex-wife stated the marriage had become insupportable because of discord or a conflict of personalities. Jabbar had previously had several run-ins with the law. Harris County court records also show that he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft of between $50 and $500 in December 2002, and served nine months of community supervision. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to charges related to driving under the influence while serving at Fort Bragg, a North Carolina military base, now known as Fort Liberty, according to court records. The documents revealed Jabbar was under the influence of an impairing substance in November 2014 and recorded a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. They also showed that he was driving with an open container of alcoholic beverage after he consumed alcohol. Jabbar was charged with Level 5 DWI the least severe level of the offense in North Carolina. According to the documents, he had his drivers license suspended, was placed on probation for 12 months, fined $200 and complied with 24 hours of community service. The FBI released Shamsud-Din Jabbar's passport photo. - FBI In recent years, Jabbar appears to have struggled with his finances. In a January 2022 email filed as part of his divorce case, he wrote that he could not afford a mortgage payment on his house, which he said was more than $27,000 past due and in danger of foreclosure if his divorce settlement was further delayed. Jabbar also stated in the email that a business he had formed, Blue Meadow Properties, had lost about $28,000 the prior year, and that other businesses he formed werent worth any money. He added that he had incurred about $16,000 in credit card debt. A rented truck Jabbar rented the truck he used in the New Years attack, a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, on the car rental website Turo, which lets owners rent their vehicles to other people. The trucks owner confirmed to CNN in a text message that it was rented on Turo. Jabbar picked up the truck on December 30 before driving from Houston to New Orleans the following day, Raia said. Mumtaz Bashir, a neighbor of Jabbars in Houston, told CNN he saw Jabbar load up the truck on the morning of December 31, and that Jabbar told him he was moving to New Orleans for a new job. I asked him if he needs hands for moving, help him out, as a neighbor, do you need any help moving things around? He said, Im OK, Bashir said. Jabbar appeared to be loading light, handheld items into the truck, he said. Bashir, who said he was shocked and very saddened by the attack, described Jabbar as a nice but quiet person who minded his own business. Bashir said he never saw any kind of red flag that Jabbar had been radicalized. The rental site was also linked to an incident in Las Vegas involving a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside a Trump Hotel Wednesday. The driver of the Cybertruck died in the explosion, police said. Authorities have not confirmed the name of the dead driver and are investigating whether the incident was a terrorist attack. We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents, a Turo spokesperson told CNN. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat. We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families, the statement said. Turo disabled the truck linked to the New Orleans attack for renting on Wednesday morning. Before it was disabled, the vehicle was listed as costing $105 a day, excluding taxes and fees, and it was unavailable to rent until 12:30 p.m. central time on Wednesday. CNNs Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Evan Perez and Pamela Brown contributed to this report. Editors Note: This story was updated to include new information on the suspect. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com President Biden said Wednesday that his reaction to the New Orleans attack that killed 10 people and injured dozens of others was one of anger and frustration. Speaking to reporters on the tarmac before heading to Camp David, the president declined to comment further on specifics, saying, Im not going to say anything until I get all the facts in front of me. A Texas man, whom law enforcement has identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove a pickup truck into the crowds on New Orleanss Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Years Day. Jabbar was killed while exchanging fire with police. The FBI said it is investigating the mass casualty event as an act of terrorism. An ISIS flag, weapons and a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) were found in the truck Jabbar drove. More potential IEDs were found in the French Quarter. Biden said in a statement earlier Wednesday he had been briefed on the matter and would continue to receive updates throughout the day. I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind, he said. My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday, Biden added. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nations communities. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A man is being held without bail for allegedly stabbing three of his family members to death, including an 8-year-old girl and teenage boy, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced. Kyle Chester De Los Reyes, 23, is accused of murdering three of his family members in their Baldwin Park home in Pomona, California around 6:48 p.m. on Dec. 26, Hochman said. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, the three victims were Paul Sebastian Manangan, 16, Rona Nate, 44, and Chantelle Narvaez, 8. It is unclear how the three victims are related to De Los Reyes and why he may have killed them. My office will work tirelessly to ensure that justice is served in this devastating act of violence, which has shaken our community and left a family forever changed, Hochman said in a news release. Violent crime not only robs us of innocent lives but also threatens the very fabric of our community. Let this be a clear message: those who commit heinous acts of violence will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman speaks after being sworn-in by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger outside the Hall of Justice as he takes office in Los Angeles, California, U.S., December 3, 2024. Kyle Chester De Los Reyes charged with three counts of murder De Los Reyes has officially been charged with three counts of murder, Hochman said. He also faces special allegations of use of a deadly weapon and committing multiple murders, he added. When Baldwin Park police arrived at the family's home, they witnessed De Los Reyes enter a vehicle and speed away, CBS News reported. He was initially detained as a person of interest and subsequently arrested and charged, according to the outlet. De Los Reyes' arraignment is scheduled to take place on Jan. 15 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Pomona Branch, according to Hochman. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man charged with murder in stabbing of 3 family members in California Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the suspect behind the Cybertruck bombing outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas failed to do widespread damage thanks to the vehicle's sturdiness. Tesla CEO Elon Musk hailed his companys Cybertruck for being strong enough to contain the blast from a massive explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Years Day. The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack, Musk touted on X Wednesday night, noting the limited damage despite the size of the fireball. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken, he added. A Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks-style mortars, camping fuel and canisters exploded outside the Trump Tower hotel in Las Vegas. Tesla CEO Elon Musk touted that the cars stainless steel armor contained the blast and protected the Trump building. The Washington Post via Getty Images Officials believe Matthew Livelsberger, 37 a former US Army special forces soldier was behind the wheel of the Tesla truck, which was packed with fireworks-style mortars, camping fuel and canisters, during the explosion Monday morning. They still are investigating whether the blast was a deliberate terrorist attack. Harrowing footage of the fireball shows the vehicle, parked a few feet from the Trump hotel, explode in a fiery burst that killed Livelsberger and injured at least seven people as fireworks were detonating in the aftermath. As he helped police investigate the vehicle used in the attack, Musk claimed the Cybertrucks stainless steel body served as the perfect mechanism to contain the explosion. Follow the latest on the Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump Hotel in Las Vegas: Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle, he wrote on X. Flames rise out of the truck just a few feet away from the hotels front doors on Monday morning. Alcides Antunes via REUTERS Officials say Musk has helped them investigate the truck, which locked itself after the explosion. LVMPD The Tesla CEO has often touted the Blade Runner-inspired trucks sturdiness, claiming it could even withstand 9mm handgun fire. Despite popular videos on social media debunking some of Teslas claims as hyperbole, the Cybertruck has proven itself to be surprisingly durable when caught in the middle of horrific incidents. In November, four people miraculously survived when the stainless steel electric SUV flipped over after crashing into a statue on a street in Guadalajara, Mexico. Matthew Livelsberger, a US Army special forces soldier, was the driver of the Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas. While the exterior of the Cybertruck was completely mangled and twisted, three passengers were found inside with regular injuries. Only the driver was seriously injured after being flung out during the crash. Cybertruck tougher than a bag of nails, Musk posted at the time. When police began probing Wednesdays blast, Tesla helped provide critical security footage of the vehicle at charging stations and other useful data, Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a Wednesday evening press briefing. I have to thank Elon Musk, specifically. He gave us quite a bit of additional information in regards to how the vehicle was locked after it exploded, due to the nature of the force from the explosion, McMahill told reporters. BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) Shamsud-Din Jabbar grew up in Texas, joined the U.S. Army and eventually settled in Houston, where he spun up a real estate business and made $120,000 a year for one of the worlds largest consulting firms. But the 42-year-old U.S. citizen, who authorities say plowed a rented truck through New Year's revelers in New Orleans before being shot and killed by police, also faced pressures. He finalized a third divorce in 2022, saying in filings he couldnt pay his mortgage and his business was losing money. On Thursday, authorities and relatives were still piecing together why Jabbar barreled through a crowd in a Ford F-150 on Bourbon Street, killing 14 revelers and injuring at least 30 others. Officials said the attack was inspired by the Islamic State group, making it one of the deadliest IS-inspired assaults on U.S. soil in years. FBI officials said Jabbar posted five videos to his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with IS. Authorities also found an Islamic State flag on the truck used in the attack early Wednesday. Its completely contradictory to who he was and how his family and his friends know him," Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, one of his brothers, told The Associated Press on Thursday at his home in Beaumont, about 90 miles outside Houston. The 24-year-old said his older brother had increasingly isolated himself from family and friends in the last few years but he hadnt seen any signs of radicalization when they talked. He said it had been a few months since he had seen his brother in-person and a few weeks since they talked on the phone. Nothing about his demeanor seemed to be off. He didnt seem to be angry or anything like that. He was just his calm, well-mannered, well-tempered self, the younger brother said. Law enforcement officials said after driving into the Bourbon Street crowd and crashing the truck, Jabbar exited the car wearing a ballistic vest and helmet and fired at police, injuring at least two before he was shot and killed by officers returning fire. Army, court and other public records piece together a picture of a man who had been stationed or lived in multiple states including North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Alaska, had been married multiple times and seemed to be experiencing financial difficulties as he tried to adjust to civilian life. Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. A spokesperson for Georgia State University confirmed Jabbar attended the school from 2015-2017 and graduated with a bachelors degree in computer information systems in 2017. He had been married at least three times over the last two decades and had at least three children who were mentioned in divorce and custody agreements. His two most recent marriages, in Georgia and Texas, each lasted about three years, according to court documents. Dwayne Marsh, who is married to one of Jabbar's ex-wives, told The New York Times that Jabbar had been acting erratically in recent months. Marsh said he and his wife had stopped allowing the two daughters she shared with Jabbar to spend time with him. The AP left a message at a number listed for Marsh Thursday. Messages were also left for Jabbars two other ex-wives at their numbers or with their attorneys. The AP also left messages for Jabbars mother that were not returned as of Thursday afternoon. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said their father had declined to speak with reporters. Divorce records also show Jabbar faced a deteriorating financial situation in January 2022. Jabbar said he was $27,000 behind on house payments and wanted to quickly finalize the divorce. I have exhausted all means of bringing the loan current other than a loan modification, leaving us no alternative but to sell the house or allow it to go into foreclosure, he wrote in a January 2022 email to his now-ex-wifes attorney. His businesses were struggling, too. One business, Blue Meadow Properties LLC, lost about $28,000 in 2021. Two other businesses he started, Jabbar Real Estate Holdings LLC and BDQ L3C, werent worth anything. He had also accumulated $16,000 in credit card debt because of expenses like attorneys fees, according to the email. Court documents show he was making about $10,000 a month doing business development and other work for the consulting firm Deloitte in 2022. On Wednesday, police blocked access to a Houston neighborhood where Jabbar's last address was listed, a small white mobile home in a gated community where ducks and goats were roaming in the grass. On Thursday, the FBI said it had finished a search of the area but did not release more details. Despite the tumult indicated by court documents, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said his brother hadn't shown any outward signs of distress or anger about his relationships. I think he blamed himself more than anything for his divorces. ... And he never was bitter towards his ex-wives, the younger Jabbar said. Childhood friend and fellow veteran Chris Pousson reconnected with Jabbar on Facebook around 2009, before the two lost touch again around 2019. From his home in Beaumont, he said his biggest takeaway from periodic check-ins with Jabbar were positive messages and praise for his faith, but nothing that raised any flags. I never saw this coming. And in the military, actually, I did anti-terrorism in the military. And if any red flags would have popped off, I would have caught them and I would have contacted the proper authorities, he said. But he didnt give anything to me that would have suggested that he is capable of doing what happened. ___ Associated Press reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia, Tara Copp in Washington, Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Michael Phillis in St. Louis, and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report. A former Florida sheriff's deputy has been identified as the suspect in a store clerk's murder that took place 45 years ago, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said. John Greer has been named not only as the accused killer of the store clerk but also in the death of his wife a few months before that, the sheriff's office said. Deputies also investigated another suspicious death and some reported sexual assaults connected to Greer, but weren't able to gather conclusive evidence on those cases. "I want to be clear that this individual does not represent the overwhelmingly great men and women who have worked for this agency over our century-plus of existence," said Sheriff Bill Prummell said in a statement about the case released earlier this week. Endless suspicions, little evidence At around 2 a.m. on Nov. 5, 1979, Greer radioed dispatch to say he discovered a homicide at The Farm Store, in Ridge Harbor, Florida. The victim, 25-year-old Adele Marie Easterly, an assistant manager at the store, had been shot once in the back and once in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun. The killer, the sheriff's deputy said, escaped with approximately $7.34 from the store. Anne Marie Easterly, a 25-year-old store clerk, was killed in Florida in 1979. / Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Investigators interviewed Easterly's friends and acquaintances but not enough evidence or information was developed to establish a solid suspect, the sheriff's office said. No arrests were made. Some deputies were suspicious about Greer, but said they didn't have substantial evidence to connect him to the Easterly case. A few months earlier, on Aug. 27, 1979, Greer had called the sheriff's office to report that his wife, Jackie Greer, had shot herself in their home in Port Charlotte. Investigators had suspicions about the incident, the sheriff's office said, but weren't able to link their concerns with evidence. Greer remained free. More possible victims, but little headway Roughly a year later, on Oct. 3, 1980, Greer resigned from the sheriff's office four days after a female friend of his was found dead. Former Deputy John Greer was identified as the accused killer in a 1979 cold case in Florida. / Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff's Office The sheriff's office suspected she overdosed on pills because empty pill bottles were found in the car and a suicide note was left behind. Her husband, however, told the sheriff's office Greer used to follow her around and attempted to have sexual relations with her. However, there are no records available to substantiate this theory, the sheriff said. The sheriff's office said it followed up on numerous leads in the Easterly case including a friend who said Easterly was having an affair with a married Charlotte County sheriff's deputy but eventually, the case went cold. Greer went to work at other police and sheriff's offices, usually near the west coast of Florida. He was also a pilot and held various aircraft positions. A recent CBS News investigation documented examples of abuses and chronic misconduct in a number of sheriff's offices around the country, including oversight failures that can enable abuses to go unchecked. Although the investigation focused on more recent years and mostly on situations involving use of deadly force, CBS News found misconduct was more prevalent in smaller, more remote communities where deputies typically had less training, fewer resources and limited oversight. In some cases, misconduct continued for years, and even then, sheriffs didn't always face consequences. A break in the case In 2016, the Cold Case Unit released a news statement detailing their suspicions in the case, without giving a name, "to let potential witnesses know a law enforcement officer was potentially involved." Their hope was that someone would come forward with information. And finally, the sheriff's office said, came their break in the case. A former Sheriff's Office Explorer came forward and told investigators Greer had sexually assaulted her and spoken about killing Easterly. She was also working the night the store clerk died and said she saw Greer had blood on his bare hand. The Cold Case Unit developed probable cause to arrest Greer, and in April 2023 investigators traveled to Tennessee, where he was living in an extended care facility in Kingsport. In his interview with investigators, the sheriff's office says Greer admitted to shooting both Easterly and his wife. Greer died at the care center in Tennessee on March 2, 2024. He was 77. After 45 years, the sheriff's office says the long-unsolved case is now closed. Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say What's known about possible explosives, suspect after truck slams into New Orleans crowd An intruder filmed himself breaking into Gracie Mansion, the official residence of Mayor Eric Adams, and stole a Christmas ornament in a bizarre stunt just hours after the city rang in 2025, sources said. Michael Aromando, 20, was arrested inside a bedroom in the mayoral mansion at 4:24 a.m. New Years Day, shortly after hopping a perimeter fence and leading cops on a short foot chase, sources told The Post. Aromando was apparently filming himself during the brazen break-in, which was also captured on surveillance footage, the sources said. After Aramandos arrest, he showed an NYPD detective a cellphone video from his escapade depicting him swiping a Christmas ornament from a drawer, court documents show. Michael Aromando, 20, was arrested inside a bedroom in the mayoral mansion. La Salle Academy The bizarre stunt at Gracie Mansion happened in the early hours of New Years Day. Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post Adams wasnt in Gracie Mansion at the time, the sources said. The mayor was in Times Square for the ball drop but City Hall reps didnt say where he went after the annual New Years Eve celebration. An officer with the mayors security detail cuffed Aromando in a bedroom quickly after he busted into the manse, court papers contend. He was found with several stolen items, including the ornament, the papers state. Aromandos last known address is an Upper East Side high-rise a few blocks away from Gracie Mansion, according to information obtained by The Post. Aromando is out on bail and must adhere to a curfew. Zandy Mangold A building worker as well as law-enforcement sources confirmed a photo of a Michael Aromando from the all-male Catholic high school La Salle Academy is the young man who lived in the building. The worker was shocked to learn from The Post about what Aromando allegedly did. Hes a nice guy, the worker said. I just saw him New Years Eve when he came to visit his mother. Aromando was a 2022 La Salle graduate who had been admitted to Marymount Manhattan College, according to an announcement from the high school. Marymount representatives didnt return a call for comment. As a Marymount student, Aromando won a Pi-Day contest in 2023 by writing a paragraph using 71 digits of the mathematical constant in order, a school announcement states. He was arraigned and released Thursday on second- and third-degree burglary charges in Manhattan court. A judge set his bail at $5,000 cash, with an 11 p.m. curfew and condition that he stay away from Gracie Mansion. Additional reporting by Amanda Woods A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2025. The FBI said they recovered an Islamic State group flag, which is black with white lettering, from the vehicle. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) WASHINGTON (AP) The FBI says it recovered the black banner of the Islamic State group from the truck that an American man from Texas smashed into New Year's partygoers in New Orleans' French Quarter, killing 15 people. The investigation is expected to look in part at any support or inspiration that driver Shamsud-Din Jabbar may have drawn from that violent Middle East-based group or from any of at least 19 affiliated groups around the world. President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI had told him that mere hours before the attack, (Jabbar) posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by IS. Routed from its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq by a U.S. military-led coalition more than five years ago, IS has focused on seizing territory in the Middle East more than on staging massive al-Qaida-style attacks on the West. But in its home territory, IS has welcomed any chance to behead Americans and other foreigners who come within its reach. The main group at peak strength claimed a handful of coordinated operations targeting the West, including a 2015 Paris plot that killed 130 people. It has had success, although abated in recent years, in inspiring people around the world who are drawn to its ideology to carry out ghastly attacks on innocent civilians. Here's a look at IS, its current status, and some of the offshoot armed groups and so-called lone wolves that have killed under the group's flag. What is the Islamic State group? The main group also goes by IS, ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. It began as a breakaway group from al-Qaida. Under leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS had seized stunning amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria by 2014. Within territory under its control, it killed, raped and otherwise abused members of other faiths and targeted fellow Sunni Muslims who strayed from its harsh interpretation of Islam. By 2019, a U.S.-led military intervention had driven IS from the cities and towns of its self-claimed state. Al-Baghdadi killed himself, and two children near him, that same year, detonating an explosive vest as U.S. forces closed in on him. Currently, the main IS is a scattered and much weakened organization working to regain fighting strength and territory in Syria and Iraq. Experts warn that the group is reconstituting itself there. And that flag? Typically, it's a black banner with white Arabic letters expressing a central tenet of the Islamic faith. Countless Muslims around the world see the coercive violence of the group as a perversion of their religion. Whats the influence of IS today? Some experts argue that IS is powerful today partly as a brand, inspiring both militant groups and individuals in attacks that the group itself may have no real role in. The group's credo and military successes have led armed extremist organizations in Africa, Asia and Europe to swear allegiance to it. It's a greatly decentralized alliance. Many of the offshoot groups have carried out lethal attacks. Islamic State-Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based group, is one of the most lethal currently. Attacks linked to that affiliate include the March 2024 killings of about 130 people at a Moscow theater, the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans as the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan, and killings in Pakistan and elsewhere. Whats the groups track record for inspiring attacks in the United States? The New Orleans rampage reflects the deadliest IS-inspired attack on U.S. soil in several years. Other attacks over the past decade include a 2015 shooting rampage by a husband-and-wife team who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, and a 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who fatally shot 49 people, pledged his allegiance on a 911 call to al-Baghdadi and raged against the filthy ways of the West. Those attacks coincided with an influx of thousands of Westerners some of them Americans who traveled to Syria in hopes of joining the so-called caliphate. In the aftermath of those killings, the threat from radicalized followers of the group had appeared to wane in the Defense Department strikes have taken out other IS members and the FBI has had significant success in disrupting plots before they come to fruition. But over the past year, FBI officials have warned about a significantly elevated threat of international terrorism after Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and the resulting Israeli strikes in Gaza. FBI Director Christopher Wray, who is set to resign at the end of the Biden administration, told The Associated Press in an August interview that he was hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once. The SITE intelligence group reported IS supporters celebrating in online chat groups Wednesday. If its a brother, hes a legend. Allahu Akbar, or God is great, it quoted one as saying. Gazas population dropped by 6% about 160,000 people in 2024, according to a new report, as Israels war against Hamas took a heavy toll on the Palestinian enclaves demographics. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a report released Tuesday that about 100,000 Palestinians had left Gaza since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, in addition to at least 45,553 who were killed in Israeli attacks in the strip, according to official figures by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the enclave. The report also warned 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza were endangered due to the lack of adequate healthcare and 96% of the population were facing high levels of food insecurity. Gazas population now stands at 2.1 million, including more than a million children under the age of 18, making up 47% of the population, PCBSs report added. Meanwhile, a separate report by Israels Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) found that Israels population was still growing but more slowly than before in a trend it attributed to Israelis leaving the country. The Israeli report cautioned, however, that the full impact of Israels multi-front war on long-term migration pattern was yet to be seen. In the report published Tuesday, the census office said that in 2024, Israels population grew by 1.1%, compared to 1.6% in 2023. The decrease is mainly due to the high number of Israelis emigrating from Israel in 2024, it said, adding that last year, some 82,700 residents left Israel, compared to 55,000 the year before. The Israeli city of Tel Aviv, on August 12, 2024, amid regional tensions during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. - Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP/Getty Images By December 31, 2024, Israels population was estimated at 10.027 million, the report said, topping the 10-million mark for the first time. However, the report included foreign nationals in the country as part of its count. Israel has also been rocked by political turmoil. In 2023, it was shaken by mass protests against controversial plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government to overhaul the countrys judicial system. It then launched a war on Hamas in Gaza after the Palestinian militant group led brutal attacks that killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 on October 7, 2023. Israels attacks since then have killed more than 45,000 people and injured 108,000 in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the strip. Israel is also fighting against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, which began firing at Israel on October 8, 2023, as well as conflicts with Iran, the Houthis in Yemen, and militants in Syria and Iraq who say they are attacking Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's military said on Thursday its special forces had raided an underground missile production site in Syria in September that it said was primed to produce hundreds of precision missiles for use against Israel by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. The complex near Masyaf, close to the Mediterranean coast, was "the flagship of Iranian manufacturing efforts in our region", Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told a briefing with reporters. "This facility was designed to manufacture hundreds of strategic missiles per year from start to finish, for Hezbollah to use in their aerial attacks on Israel." He said the plant, dug into a mountainside, had been under observation by Israel since construction began in 2017 and was on the point of being able to manufacture precision-guided missiles, some with a range of up to 300 km (190 miles). "This ability was becoming active, so we're talking about an immediate threat," he said. Details of the Sept. 8 raid have been reported in Israeli media but Shoshani said this was the first confirmation by the military, which rarely comments on special forces operations and it was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "This was one of the most important preventative operations that we have taken against the efforts of the Iranian axis to arm itself in order to attack us," he said in a statement. COMPLEX OPERATION Shoshani said the nighttime raid was "one of the more complex operations the IDF has done in recent years". Accompanied by airstrikes, it involved dozens of aircraft and around 100 helicopter-borne troops, he said. "At the end of the raid, the troops dismantled the facility, including the machines and the manufacturing equipment, themselves," he said. The military released footage showing Israeli troops boarding and dismounting from helicopters and moving through what appears to be a concrete-lined tunnel and industrial site, where they examine documents. Other footage showed senior commanders at a control centre, apparently as the operation proceeds. At the time, Syrian state media said at least 16 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the west of the country. Israeli officials have accused the former Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad of helping the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement receive arms from Iran and say they are determined to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon. As Assad's government crumbled towards the end of last year, Israel launched a series of strikes against Syrian military infrastructure and weapons manufacturing sites to prevent them falling into the hands of enemies. (Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones) MrBeast Thea Booysen and MrBeast MrBeast is about to have a missus! The YouTuber, 26, popped the question to girlfriend Thea Booysen, 27, on Christmas Day at their home surrounded by their families, who were in on the surprise. "My family flew out from South Africa for Christmas and we were going to do Christmas in our house so both families were here. We were opening presents, and then for the very last present he asked me to close my eyes because it was a surprise," Booysen exclusively tells PEOPLE. "I intentionally dropped a large box to make noise before presenting the real gift with the ring inside to her. And then I went down on a knee and proposed," says MrBeast (born Jimmy Donaldson). After Booysen opened her eyes, she "of course said yes" and was "extremely excited." MrBeast Thea Booysen and MrBeast "I was trying to think of the best way to catch her off guard so it would be a surprise," Mr Beast continues. "Thea is really close to her family, so I wanted to make sure that they were included in this momentous occasion. Christmas worked out great because they were in town from the other side of the world." Even though the social media star is known for his elaborate challenges and large-scale stunts, he wanted his engagement to be small and special. "My friends thought I would want to propose in a very public way, like some sort of spectacle at the Super Bowl or somewhere else really big like that, but I knew that I wanted it to be the opposite, to be really private and intimate," he says. Although the bride-to-be "would have been happy with a plastic ring," MrBeast proposed with a "beautiful" diamond on a rose gold band with additional diamonds on each side. MrBeast met Booysen, a fellow gamer and internet personality from South Africa, in 2022 when he was visiting her home country. During the trip, MrBeast went to dinner with a mutual friend who invited Booysen to join them. "When I met him, I was quite surprised how down-to-earth he was, and also how intelligent he was," Booysen recalls. "I thought YouTubers were just sort of a persona, but when I met him, I was quite surprised to see that he's actually a nice guy. He wasn't sitting there with an ego." Related: Rebel Wilson Shares Photos from Legal Wedding to Ramona Agruma in Australia: Felt Right to Do It in My Hometown The two quickly bonded over their passion for learning and got into a deep conversation about science, YouTube and beyond. "When we were first introduced, it came through right away how brilliant Thea is," MrBeast tells PEOPLE. "She has such a range of knowledge and can go deep on lots of topics. She told me about her work as an author and how passionate she is about her hobbies we vibed instantly. I kept thinking she is really smart and beautiful. I knew within the first few minutes of meeting that I wanted the chance to date her. Thankfully, she also felt a strong connection." MrBeast Thea Booysen and MrBeast While it's true that Booysen felt a connection, she thought it would end there as MrBeast was going back to the United States. "When I got home I was a little bit flustered, and I must say I thought he was really cute, but I thought that was the end of it," says Booysen, whose first serious relationship was with her now-fiance. Not long after, she opened her DMs on X (formerly Twitter) and saw a message from MrBeast. He asked if he could read the book she was writing at the time, The Marked Children, when it was finished. Not realizing he was flirting, Booysen didn't connect with MrBeast until more than a month later when her book was written. The two jumped on a three-hour call together, and the rest is history. "Then I knew [he was the one]," she says. "I fell in love with his brain. To me [that's] everything your brain, your drive, your discipline, your character, that's everything to me. So after that, he immediately planned to come back to South Africa to meet up with me this time, and we started dating the moment he arrived." The couple made their first public appearance at the Kids Choice Awards in April 2022, with Booysen later describing it as an amazing night" on Instagram. The following year, MrBeast told Booysen of his plans to propose. Before she headed to the United Kingdom to get her master's degree, he asked her when would be a good time to pop the question. She responded that he should do so after graduation. MrBeast ultimately proposed one month after Booysen graduated with a master's degree in human cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Edinburgh. She also has a bachelor's degree in law and an honors degree in psychology. Jon Kopaloff/Getty MrBeast and Thea Booysen at the premiere of the Prime Video competition series 'Beast Games' on Dec. 18, 2024 For Booysen, marriage is "just a formality" because she and MrBeast already act like they're married. "In my mind, we're already married. We're already on the same page about these things. We talk about children, how we're going to live together when we're 70 years old this was just another step in the process," she says. Even though MrBeast's schedule is packed, Booysen says they have great support for wedding planning. "We have the best team, I want to say in the world, who can quickly plan a wedding if we need to," she says. MrBeast has amassed more than 340 million subscribers on YouTube since 2012 and is considered one of the highest-paid content creators, but he doesn't want his big day to be in the spotlight. "This will definitely be more family and friends definitely more private," the groom-to-be says of his future nuptials. "I dont take much vacation because of how hard I work, so I definitely want to make sure that the wedding will be a time to celebrate with her and spend time with friends and family who we really enjoy being with. It will be the ultimate way to take some time away and enjoy things." Booysen adds that they're thinking of saying "I do" on an island. "We're thinking of doing it somewhere on an island where we're far away from just about everybody," she tells PEOPLE. "We're not going to try and have a big, extravagant wedding. It's going to be nice, but it's certainly going to be intimate [with] close family and friends." Thea Booysen/ Instagram MrBeast with Thea Booysen in the Maldives The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! MrBeast often keeps his personal life private but has posted about his relationship with Booysen on social media. On Dec. 21, the internet star shared a snap of himself and Booysen on Instagram at a red carpet event for his Beast Games reality competition show on Prime Video. Related: MLB Star Isiah Kiner-Falefa Marries Tayea Chun in 'Fun, Intimate' Wedding in Hawaii (Exclusive) Booysen posted pics from the same night and expressed her admiration for her partner. "Watch BEAST GAMES on Amazon Prime now! I'm so proud of you Jimmy!!" she captioned her post. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The couple seemingly started off 2024 with a vacation to Necker Island in the Caribbean. In January, Booysen uploaded a few behind-the-scenes photos of the pair enjoying their relaxing getaway. One of the photos features the two sitting in a lounge area by a pool with games of checkers and chess set up, while another shows MrBeast holding a beverage to Booysens face as shes covered in two blue blankets and wearing sunglasses and a fashionable sailor hat. Wherever he is, MrBeast's favorite part of his day is spending it with Booysen. "After working 14-15 hour days, I just want to chill and hang out and Thea loves doing a lot of the same things that I do," he says. "We have a lot of similar interests playing video games, spending time with our dogs and seeing the world. We also watch random shows, but we also like learning from different types of educational shows." Now, the pair are looking forward to life as husband and wife. Read the original article on People Security barriers in New Orleans that were intended to protect pedestrians from vehicles but at times malfunctioned were removed for replacement before an attacker drove a pickup truck into a crowd along Bourbon Street on Wednesday morning, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. City officials said other barriers, vehicles and law enforcement officers deployed strategically on Bourbon Street failed to prevent the attacker from driving onto the sidewalk, where he ran into pedestrians at about 3:15 a.m. local time on New Years Day. New Orleans was replacing the older barriers, known as bollards, ahead of the citys hosting the Super Bowl in February, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Bollards were not up because they are near completion, with the expectation of being completed before the Super Bowl, she said. Follow along for live coverage Investigators at the scene after a person drove a vehicle into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Wednesday. New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at the news conference that police were aware of the security issue and did harden those target areas where the bollards previously were with patrol cars and other measures. We did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around, she said. In this particular case, the terrorist just went all the way around up onto the sidewalk, she said. Video of the attack appeared to show the driver turning right off Canal Street and onto Bourbon Street, stopping just before Conti Street. We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it, Kirkpatrick said. The FBI is investigating the attack in which a gunman drove through the crowd and then exchanged fire with police, wounding two officers before he was killed as an act of terrorism. Authorities have found potential explosive devices and believe the attacker did not act alone, the FBI said. Asked about the security measures at Wednesday afternoon's news conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said: We recognize weve got a problem. Were going to fix it. It is going to be a top priority as we go into the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, and the solution that were going to come up with is going to be a permanent one, he said. A witness, Jimmy Cothran, told NBC News that he had been surprised to see that the metal barricades that usually block off Bourbon Street were not deployed on New Years Eve. They werent up, so you still kind of had to watch your back for cars, he said. The bollards were placed on Bourbon Street several years ago to guard against an attack like the one in Nice, France, in 2016, which killed more than 80 people when a truck plowed through a crowd of pedestrians. But the bollards soon malfunctioned, clogged with Mardi Gras beads, and the police found them inefficient, Cantrell said at the news conference. Bollards on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Feb. 16, 2021. Hosting the Super Bowl gave the city an opportunity to go further and deeper with infrastructure improvements, including replacing the bollards, she said. An engineer who worked on the bollard replacement project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team was not authorized to speak publicly, said there was a mad dash to rush this job so it could be done in time for the Super Bowl. The engineer said that when the bollards were originally installed several years ago, hydraulic roadblocks were added during construction to ensure Bourbon Street remained protected. This time, the engineer did not see those types of barriers; instead, there were simpler ones like orange traffic drums, the engineer said. The city Public Works Department, which is overseeing the bollard replacement project, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. The city said on its website that the bollards on Bourbon Street from Canal Street to St. Ann Street would be replaced with new removable stainless-steel bollards that could be securely locked behind each crosswalk. A conceptual illustration of the Bourbon Street Bollard Assessment & Replacement Project. The construction began in November with the removal of the old bollards, and then the replacement proceeded in phases, the city said. It was expected to be finished in February. New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno told WWL-TV that she and other council members believed the repairs should have been completed further in advance of the Super Bowl. Still, she said, she did not believe the bollards would have prevented the mass killing. This person was ready to inflict pain and death and harm on crowds in Bourbon Street, and I think he would have tried to find whatever way that he could, Moreno said. The FBI investigates the area at Orleans and Bourbon streets by St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter where a suspicious package was detonated Wednesday. Radi Nabulsi, publisher of the website UGASports.com, told NBC News that just before the New Year's attack, at about 2:30 a.m. local time, he saw a large law enforcement presence in the Bourbon Street area, as well as multiple white and orange plastic barricades and fencing. He said he did not remember seeing the bollards he had seen in the past. The problem is Bourbon Street is long and every block theres a cross street and theres not a barricade on each one of those, because cars are going north to south, crossing Bourbon, he said. But Nabulsi said he felt completely safe at the time. One person, with all the security they put in place, killed 10 people and injured many more, and that is just disheartening, he said. Another witness told NBC affiliate WDSU that the attacker's pickup truck mowed over the barricade. BERLIN, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Elon Musk looks likely to host the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of Germany's Feb. 23 national election in a live interview on X, his social media platform. In December, the Tesla mogul endorsed the AfD, an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party labelled as right-wing-extremist by German security services, causing consternation in Berlin, where all other parties have ruled out working with a party they regard as dangerous and undemocratic. A spokesperson for the AfD said on Thursday that party leader Alice Weidel was in touch with Musk's office, but said he could give no further details at present. Earlier, newswire dpa reported the two would talk on X, Musk's social media platform, on Jan. 10. Elon Musk, CEO of X and Tesla, arrives before the Inaugural Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum on Dec. 5, 2025. Musk, the world's richest man, has become vocal in his support for far right and anti-establishment parties in Europe since spending a quarter of a billion dollars to help secure Donald Trump's return to the White House. He called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an "incompetent fool" and said he should resign after a deadly car attack on a German Christmas market. Musk also described German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a "tyrant" for criticising the AfD in a speech. Now frequently seen with Trump, Musk has posted in support of Britain's anti-establishment Reform party as well as the AfD. Both parties are loosely influenced by economic libertarian and anti-immigration ideas. In December, Musk hinted that an online encounter between him and the AfD's Weidel was in the works, posting that "when I and Alice do an X Spaces conversation" critics would "lose their minds". Leaders of other parties have condemned Musk's intervention in German politics. Scholz told voters in a New Year's address that the Feb. 23 election would be decided not by billionaires but by German voters. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt, Editing by Gareth Jones) This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Musk likely to host German far-right leader for online chat WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Chinese government hackers breached the U.S. Treasury office that administers economic sanctions, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, identifying targets of a cyberattack Treasury disclosed earlier this week. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the Washington Post said hackers compromised the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Office of Financial Research and also targeted the office of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The department earlier this week disclosed in a letter to lawmakers that hackers stole unclassified documents in a "major incident." It did not specify which users or departments were affected. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (C), with Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min (R) and People's Bank of China Deputy Director Xuan Changneng at the Treasury Department in Washington, DC on April 16, 2024. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) (SAUL LOEB via Getty Images) Asked about the paper's report, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the "irrational" U.S. claim was "without any factual basis" and represented "smear attacks" against Beijing. The statement said China "combats all forms of cyberattacks" and did not directly address the Washington Post's reporting on specific targets. The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the newspaper report. The Washington Post quoted its sources as saying that a top area of interest for the Chinese government would be Chinese entities that the U.S. government may be considering designating for financial sanctions. The Treasury letter earlier this week said hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust. Chinese firms, individuals and entities have been a frequent target for U.S. sanctions, which Washington has used as a key tool in its foreign policy towards Beijing. The United States considers China's its biggest foreign policy challenge, and last month Yellen told Reuters that Washington would not rule out sanctions on Chinese banks as it seeks to reduce Russia's oil revenue and access to foreign supplies to fuel its war in Ukraine. (Reporting by Jasper Ward and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman) (Reuters) -Romania and Bulgaria scrapped land border controls to become full members of the European Union's Schengen free-travel area on Wednesday, joining an expanded bloc of countries whose residents can travel without passport checks. Fireworks lit the sky at a crossing close to the Bulgarian border town of Ruse just after the stroke of midnight as the Bulgarian and Romanian interior ministers symbolically raised a barrier on the Friendship Bridge straddling the Danube River. The crossing is a major transit point for international trade, and bottlenecks are common. "This is a historic moment," said Bulgarian Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev. "From Greece in the south to Finland to the North and all the way to Portugal to the West you can travel without borders." Checks on travelling by air and sea from Bulgaria and Romania were lifted in March 2024, but land checks continued until Austria last month dropped a veto it had maintained on the grounds that more was needed to stop irregular migration. Border checks between France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were first dropped in 1985. The Schengen area now covers 25 of the 27 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Ireland and Cyprus are not members of the Schengen zone. (Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Christina Fincher) (Reuters) -Venezuela opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, who says he resoundingly won a July presidential election but has been living in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest, said on Thursday he will travel to Argentina this weekend. Gonzalez's "international tour" comes days ahead of the planned January 10 inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term. Gonzalez has repeatedly said he plans to return to Venezuela to be inaugurated as president, despite the pending warrant for alleged conspiracy and a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest announced earlier on Thursday by the Venezuelan police investigations unit. Gonzalez will meet with Argentine President Javier Milei, who is involved in an escalating diplomatic spat with Maduro's government, at the presidential residence in Buenos Aires, Venezuela's top opposition group said on X. Gonzalez shared the post, adding "our tour of Latin America begins. First stop: Argentina." It was unclear where else Gonzalez planned to travel. Electoral authorities and the country's top court say Maduro won the July contest, but have not published full ballot box-level tallies of votes. Venezuela's opposition, a number of Western countries and some international organizations have decried the election as non-transparent and have called for the full publication of ballots, with some openly labeling the process fraudulent. The opposition published ballot box-level tallies on a public website, saying they show Gonzalez, who left Venezuela for Spain in October, easily won the contest. Argentina's government said earlier on Thursday it had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against Venezuela for detaining a member of its security forces, calling it a "forced disappearance." Venezuelan prosecutors say the man is being investigated for alleged links to terrorism. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb) The terrorist accused of killing 15 people by plowing a truck into a crowd of New Years Eve revelers in New Orleans had an extensive military background which is the No. 1 predictor for mass casualty offenders, according to one study. Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbars decade in the Army and his deployment in Afghanistan likely contributed to the development of his extremist views and Wednesdays ISIS-inspired attack, according to data collected and analyzed by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). The suspect has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Obtained by the NY Post The No. 1 predictor of being classified as a mass casualty offender was having a U.S. military background that outranked mental health problems, that outranked being a loner, that outranked having a previous criminal history or substance abuse issues, said STARTs Michael Jensen. When people with military backgrounds radicalize, they tend to radicalize to the point of mass violence, added Jensen, whose group compiled data on people with military backgrounds found to have been involved in plans including unsuccessful ones to commit attacks for political, religious or other similar reasons. Jensens team found that over 80% of extremists plotters with military backgrounds identified with far-right, anti-government or white supremacist ideologies, with the rest split among far-left, jihadist or other motivations. Veterans taking part in far-right, anti-government or other fringe movements have also allowed extremist plots greater potential for mass injury or death, according to the study. The suspect lies dead at the scene of the attack on Bourbon Street. Obtained by the NY Post Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street. Photo by Michael DeMocker/Getty Images Extremist ideologies have also become alarmingly common among veterans, according to a 2023 Defense Department report. While the study found no evidence that the number of violent extremists in the military is any different than the number of radicals among the general public, it noted there is some indication that the rate of participation by former service members is slightly higher and may be growing. Follow the latest on the terror attack on New Orleans Bourbon Street: A map of the New Years Day terror attack in New Orleans. For the veterans community in particular, loss of military identity appears to have a strong association with difficult adjustments to civilian life that can in turn contribute to negative behaviors, the report said. Jabbar, a 24-year veteran from Beaumont, Texas, worked as an IT specialist and was stationed in Afghanistan from February 2009 until January 2010, the service branch said. 15 people were killed in the terror attack. Reuters Emergency services attend the scene on Bourbon Street after the attack on Jan. 1, 2025. He served active duty from March 2007 until January 2015 and was a reservist from January 2015 until July 2020. He left the service at the rank of staff sergeant, according to the Army. The FBI is investigating the attack, including whether Jabbar acted alone or had co-conspirators. With Post wires RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) In one of his final acts in office, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the death sentences of 15 men convicted of first-degree murder to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday, reducing the state's death row population by more than 10%. Cooper, who was barred from seeking a third consecutive four-year term, will give way to fellow Democrat Josh Stein on Wednesday when Stein takes the oath of office. Cooper, who was previously the attorney general for 16 years, said his commutation decisions occurred following a thorough review of petitions offered by defendants and input from prosecutors and victims' families. Before Tuesday, North Carolina had 136 offenders on death row. Cooper's office said it had received clemency petitions from 89 of them. Cooper's office said it considered a variety of factors, such as a defendant's conduct in prison, the adequacy of legal representation and sentences received by co-defendants. These reviews are among the most difficult decisions a Governor can make and the death penalty is the most severe sentence that the state can impose, Cooper said in a news release. After thorough review, reflection, and prayer, I concluded that the death sentence imposed on these 15 people should be commuted, while ensuring they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. North Carolina is one of 27 states that have the death penalty as a criminal punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, although governors in five of those states currently have placed executions on hold. While North Carolina is not one of those five, an execution hasn't been carried out in the state since 2006. The number of defendants sentenced to death in North Carolina has also dwindled in recent years, as prosecutors have more leeway in state law to decide whether to try a capital case. Even after Tuesday's action, North Carolina has the fifth-largest death row by population in the country, according to the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Although some groups opposed to the death penalty have sought from Cooper a complete commutation for all on death row, they still praised him for what they called a historic act of clemency. State Department of Adult Correction records list 13 of the 15 receiving clemency as Black. The convictions dates for the 15 range from 1993 to 2011. Cooper joins the ranks of a group of courageous leaders who used their executive authority to address the failed death penalty, Chantal Stevens, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said in a separate release. We have long known that the death penalty in North Carolina is racially biased, unjust, and immoral, and the Governors actions today pave the way for our state to move towards a new era of justice. Cooper received national attention this year as he surfaced as a potential running mate for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Stein succeeded Cooper as attorney general in 2017. The Attorney General's Office participates in death penalty appeals. Among the 15 receiving commutations on Tuesday include Hasson Bacote, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 in Johnston County. Bacote had been challenging his death sentence under the 2009 Racial Justice Act, which allowed prisoners to receive life without parole if they can show that racial bias was the reason for their death sentence. While the law was repealed in 2013, the state Supreme Court ruled later that most prisoners currently on death row could still use the law retroactively. Bacote's recent hearing before a judge based on that law was considered a test case. Groups backing Bacote's litigation said Tuesday they still anticipate a ruling in his case because of the widespread public interest in the matter. Another whose sentence was commuted is Guy LeGrande, who was once set to be executed in late 2006 before a judge halted it and later cited LeGrande's severe mental illness. He was convicted in Stanly County of the 1993 killing of a woman whose estranged husband offered to pay him a portion of life insurance proceeds. Another death row inmate receiving clemency, Christopher Roseboro, was convicted of murder and rape in the death of a 72-year-old Gastonia woman in 1992. Last week, President Joe Biden announced that he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment. Separately Tuesday, Cooper announced that he had commuted the sentences of two prisoners convicted of murder so that they are immediately parole eligible. One defendant has served 34 years, while the other has served 27 years. A pizza delivery driver in Birmingham, Alabama, was fatally shot while making a stop on New Year's night, police said. Birmingham police received a call around 9 p.m. on Tuesday after receiving reports of shots being fired on Roebuck Drive, the department said in a Facebook post. A short time later, a second call came in about a person who had been shot, police said. When officers responded to the scene, they found an unresponsive man on a private roadway suffering from a gunshot wound, according to the department. Birmingham Fire and Rescue personnel arrived and pronounced the man deceased, police said. USA TODAY contacted Birmingham police on Thursday but has not received a response. Army record, DUI, financial trouble: What we know about suspect in New Orleans attack Police: No one is in custody for shooting the pizza delivery driver Police confirmed that their preliminary investigation determined that the deceased man was in the process of making a delivery when he was shot and killed. No one is in custody for this shooting, according to the department. WVTM and WBRC reported that the deceased pizza delivery driver was Derek Marcus Burpo, 51, of Birmingham. The TV station also said he was robbed. This is one of the most heart-breaking homicides that we have witnessed in our city, Birmingham officer Truman Fitzgerald said, per WBRC. You have a man thats out on the very first day of 2025 making a living, trying to support his family and someone committed the worst robbery that you can commit. Robbed a family of their loved one. Police said they are using their "technological resources" to assist them in tracking down the shooter. Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pizza delivery driver killed in Birmingham, Alabama shooting: Police WASHINGTON Police arrested a man driving along the sidewalk near the US Capitol around 10 a.m. on Thursday, one day after a driver mowed down New Years Eve revelers in a terror attack that left 15 dead in New Orleans. Capitol police officers took the suspicious man into custody after he drove his vehicle into a grassy area near the foot of Capitol Hill charging him with reckless driving. Authorities temporarily closed roads before a bomb squad declared the area safe. Police arrested the driver of a car driving down the sidewalk near the US Capitol. NBC 4 Washington Police did not immediately release the drivers name or age, or say if he is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In an initial statement, Capitol Police said: Before 10 a.m., our Special Operations Division officers spotted a car that had been driving along the sidewalk, near Peace Circle, and into the grassy area near Third Street, NW, and Constitution Avenue. Officers took the man into custody. Later, the department tweeted: Our bomb squad cleared the car and declared that it is safe. The driver is being arrested for reckless driving. Please continue to avoid the area, while our investigators continue their work. Roads in the area will re-open shortly. Have a safe day. The grassy square on that intersection is just south of the Labor Departments headquarters and southeast of the federal courthouse thats contains the US district court and DCs federal appeals court. Another office building feet away houses rented workspaces and is the former home of the Penn Biden Center, where President Biden allegedly mishandled classified documents after his vice presidency. The erratic behavior comes after the ISIS-inspired act of terror by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an Army vet and US citizen, who ran over more than a dozen people celebrating on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the early hours of New Years Day. Capitol police officers took the man into custody. NBC 4 Washington Hours later, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in another apparent terror attack, killing only its driver. The Washington, DC, Metro Police Department announced in the wake of the shocking incidents that it was heightening security measures in the nations capital. By Eduardo Baptista, Hyunsu Yim and Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's presidential guards and military troops prevented authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday in a tense six hour stand-off inside Yoon's compound in the heart of Seoul. Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec. 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and lead to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president. "It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing standoff," the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said in a statement. The CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Yoon supporters who gathered in the pre-dawn hours near his residence on Friday, vowing to block the arrest "with our lives". Some chanted "President Yoon Suk Yeol will be protected by the people," and called for the head of the CIO to be arrested. Officials from the CIO, which is leading a joint team of investigators into possible insurrection charges related to Yoon's brief declaration of martial law, arrived at the gates of the presidential compound shortly after 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday) and entered on foot. Once inside the compound, the CIO and police were outnumbered by cordons of Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel, as well as military troops seconded to presidential security, a CIO official told reporters. More than 200 PSS agents and soldiers formed several layers of human chains to block the CIO and police, the official added. While there were altercations and PSS agents appeared to be carrying firearms, no weapons were drawn in the standoff, the official said. Yoon, who has been isolated since he was impeached and suspended from power on Dec. 14, was not seen during the standoff, he said. South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said the troops were under the control of the PSS. The CIO called off the effort to arrest Yoon around 1:30 p.m. due to concerns over the safety of its personnel due to obstruction, and said it "deeply regretted" Yoon's attitude of non-compliance. The CIO said it would consider its next steps. The police, who are part of the joint investigation team, have designated the PSS chief and the deputy as suspects in a criminal case for obstruction of official duty and issued summons for them to appear for questioning on Saturday, Yonhap news reported. Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. Yoon's arrest warrant, approved by a court on Tuesday after he ignored multiple summons to appear for questioning, is viable until Jan. 6. In a statement after the arrest effort was suspended, Yoon's legal team said the CIO had no authority to investigate insurrection and it was regrettable that it had tried to "forcibly execute an illegal and invalid arrest and search warrant" in a sensitive security area. The statement warned police against supporting the arrest effort. The interim head of Yoon's People Power Party welcomed the suspension and said the investigation must be carried out without detaining Yoon. The current warrant gives investigators only 48 hours to hold Yoon after he is arrested. Investigators must then decide whether to request a detention warrant or release him. SURPRISE MARTIAL LAW Yoon sent shockwaves through Asia's fourth-largest economy and one of the region's most vibrant democracies with his late-night announcement that he was imposing martial law to overcome political deadlock and root out "anti-state forces". Within hours, however, 190 lawmakers had defied the cordons of troops and police to vote against Yoon's order. About six hours after his initial decree, Yoon rescinded it. He later issued a defiant defence of his decision, saying domestic political opponents are sympathetic to North Korea and citing uncorroborated claims of election tampering. Two South Korean military officials, including army chief Park An-su who was named martial law commander during the short-lived declaration, have been indicted after being detained by prosecutors investigating insurrection charges, Yonhap reported on Friday. Kim Yong-hyun, who resigned as Yoon's defence minister after playing a major role in the martial law decree, has been detained and was indicted last week on charges of insurrection and abuse of power. Separate from the criminal investigation, his impeachment case is currently before the Constitutional Court to decide whether to reinstate or permanently remove him. A second hearing in that case was held on Friday and the court set the first oral arguments for Jan. 14. Bae Jin-han, one of the lawyers for Yoon, told reporters Yoon may not appear for the first arguments but will likely do so at a future hearing to argue his position. (Reporting by Joyce Lee, Eduardo Baptista, Hyunsu Yim, Dogyun Kim and Josh Smith; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Sandra Maler and Michael Perry) Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures Starbucks Cortado Starbucks winter menu has some first-ever additions and fan-favorite items. Starting on Friday, Jan. 3, the Pumpkin Spice Latte founders are giving customers some new and returning drinks and snacks to kick off the new year. The coffee chain is adding two types of cortados to its permanent lineup: a cortado and a Brown Sugar Oatmilk Cortado. Cortado is an espresso-based drink originally from Spain that combines shots of espresso and steamed milk. Compared to lattes and cappuccinos, which have espresso, steamed milk and milk foam, cortados are more coffee-forward. Starbucks' cortado will combine three ristretto shots (meaning that it uses the same amount of coffee grounds as a regular espresso but with less water) of blonde espresso and steamed dairy or non-dairy milk. The Brown Sugar Oatmilk Cortado uses the same method as the original iteration but with steamed oat milk and a flavorful twist. Brown sugar syrup and a dash of cinnamon bring a little added sweetness to the simple beverage. Both cortados are only available hot and in an 8-oz. cup, also known as short size. Related: Starbucks Opens New Store with Views into North Korea PEOPLE got an early taste of the cortados and were immediately impressed (and buzzing with caffeine). The plain version is creamy and surprisingly, naturally sweet, which the baristas explained is because the ristretto method makes espresso less bitter than usual shots. For coffee consumers who typically go for a flavored sip, the Brown Sugar Oatmilk Cortado was a great option. The hint of cinnamon was a welcomed addition and one tester even proclaimed that it would be her new go-to order. Starbucks Starbucks Spicy Falafel Pocket The other newbie to Starbucks' permanent menu is the Spicy Falafel Pocket. The vegan wrap combines smashed falafel, hummus, roasted red peppers, pickled onions and a spicy herb sauce inside a lavash flatbread which fans might recognize from the Spinach, Feta and Egg White Wrap. This was another winner according to PEOPLE taste-testers. The falafel was flavorful and the pickled onions added a nice tanginess. Dont expect the chickpea fritters to be crunchy, though the smashed falafel balls are soft and almost blend into the texture of the hummus, but that wasnt a complaint from testers. Starbucks Starbucks Pistachio Latte Pistachio beverages are nothing new at Starbucks but they are making a limited-time return starting on Jan. 3. The Pistachio Latte (available hot, iced or blended) and Pistachio Cream Cold Brew are available for a short time this winter, though it is unclear just how long the nutty drinks will be around. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories. Like previous years, the latte combines espresso, pistachio-flavored steamed milk and a brown butter topping. The cold brew option adds pistachio cream cold foam and the same brown butter sprinkles to vanilla syrup-flavored cold brew. Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures Starbucks New Matcha Latte Also returning for a limited time is the Vanilla Bean Custard Danish and the Valentine Cake Pop. The former is a sugary vanilla custard baked in a Danish dough and the latter is a vanilla cake pop dipped in red-colored chocolate icing and decorated with a white heart and sprinkles. Friday also brings a change to one of Starbucks' core drinks: matcha. The coffee spot is updating its matcha powder to now be unsweetened. This way, customers can customize their green tea drinks to their preferred sweetness with pumps of syrup. Read the original article on People Lawmakers in the Texas Capitol are expected to act on a school choice program in 2025, advocates say. Texas State Capitol Facebook Page (The Center Square) While many states expanded and adopted school choice programs in 2024, some advocates are excited about new education options for families in 2025 made possible because of this years election results. According to EdChoice, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding school choice options, five states created new school choice programs, and six states expanded their programs in 2024. And 2025 holds promise for new programs in states like Texas, where school-choice advocates won seats in the legislature. Ed Tarnowski, policy and advocacy director at EdChoice, said that in 2024, five states created new school choice programs and six expanded existing ones. The new ones were Alabama, which got a universal eligibility program, and Louisiana, which also got a program with universal eligibility, Tarnowski said. We also saw states that passed more limited programs. Georgia passed a new ESA program that has limited eligibility. Tarnwoski said Nebraska created a new program, but it was overturned by a ballot measure in November. Its essentially defunct, but that would have been one of the five that created a new program, Tarnowski explained. Wyoming also created a new program this year, Tarnowski said. They created their first ESA program. Tarnowski said there were expansions in Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and North Carolina. Utah was a big expansion, Tarnowski said, because the state doubled the program's funding, doubling the number of students eligible for the program. In North Carolina, the Legislature overrode the governors veto on legislation to expand its school choice program. During the election, Tarnowski said school choice was a central issue in the swing state of New Hampshire. Republicans made universal school choice a central issue and saw gains in the state capitol. Tarnowski said successful incumbent candidates in the state had voted to expand school choice, and many legislative newcomers had campaigned on expansion. Tarnowski said New Hampshire is in a position to achieve true universal choice this year, especially because every student is already guaranteed funding. The state legislature would not have to pass new appropriations laws or alter funding caps, Tarnowski said. Doing so would make them one of the five truly universal states, Tarnowski said. Looking ahead, Tarnowski noted that Texas, because of the election of candidates backed by Gov. Greg Abbott, could achieve a universal school program next year. Texas does not have any type of private school choice program right now, and this might finally be the year, Tarnowski said. Tarnowski said Texas would be a huge win for school choice advocates because it would give so many students access to choice and really increase, nationally, the number of kids that are eligible for choice. Additionally, Tarnowski is expecting movement on school choice measures in Tenessee, Idaho, North Dakota and South Carolina during 2025. This story first published at Chalkboard News which, like The Center Square, is published by the Franklin News Foundation. James Ransom Christmas lights are one of the first signs that a new holiday season is on the horizon. While this age-old tradition brings joy each December, it can also become a nuisance if left up too long into a new year. Although there isn't one specific date to take down Christmas lights, many people have opinions about when to take down Christmas lights. While it varies from family to family, these are the most common days that Southerners pack up holiday lights for next year's celebration. Marta Xochilt Perez; Styling: Jenny OaConnor New Year's Day If you're someone who prefers to pack up Christmas lights by the new year, you're not alone. According to Opendoor's Home Decor Report, 51% of respondents take down their Christmas decorations right around New Years Day. The start of the new year means new beginnings, and Christmas lights bring parts of the previous year into the new one. If you're looking for a fresh start this January, taking your Christmas lights down near or on New Year's Day is a great way to start your year off on the right foot. Three Kings Day It's not just a catchy holiday tunethe twelve days of Christmas have historical meaning in the Christian faith. Twelve days represent the amount of time it took for the wise men, or three kings, to travel to Bethlehem for the Epiphany after the birth of Jesus. The twelfth day is now known as Three Kings Day, and it falls on January 6 every year. While not everyone in the United States observes Three Kings Day, it is a celebratory holiday that signifies the end of Christmas festivities in countries all over the world. For this reason, many believe that January 6 is the final day to keep Christmas lights up until the holiday season is truly over. Before February 1st Though a large amount of people take Christmas lights down by the first week of January, you won't be too out-of-the-ordinary if you leave them up for the rest of the month. According to the Neighbor's 2020 Undeck the Halls report, 33% of participants claimed that decorations should come down by February 1 or sooner. After 90 Days Even without a specific date on the calendar, a certain period is recommended for Christmas lights to stay up. According to the National Fire Protection Associations National Electric Code, Christmas lights should only be kept up for a maximum of 90 days to avoid electrical issues that could cause serious damage to your home. This timespan protects your home against potential house fires and saves money on your monthly electric bill since running Christmas lights all month can get expensive. Related: When To Take Your Christmas Tree Down, According To Tradition Read the original article on Southern Living The 119th Congress is around the corner, and confirmation battles featuring President-elect Trumps slate of nominees are set to take center stage. Since Trumps rapid rollout of choices, two nominees former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general and Chad Chronister to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency have already withdrawn themselves. But a number of his remaining picks are controversial, and Republicans are hoping to avoid further errors as the nominees barnstorm Capitol Hill and move closer to their confirmation hearings and potentially hitting the Senate floor. Here are the top five confirmation battles to watch. Tulsi Gabbard Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Trumps nominee to be director of national intelligence, meeting with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington on Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Tulsi Gabbard is staring down perhaps the toughest confirmation battle of anyone put forward by the president-elect. Gabbard, a former four-term Democratic lawmaker from Hawaii, has faced skepticism from segments of the Senate GOP conference for numerous reasons. Chief among them were her past remarks about Russias invasion of Ukraine that appeared to echo talking points from Moscow, a 2017 meeting with now-exiled Syrian leader Bashar Assad and her lengthy tenure as a Democrat. Adding to the issues is that she failed to impress multiple Senate Republicans during meetings on Capitol Hill in December, with at least a handful of them prepared to vote no on the floor if her nomination gets that far. Shes the most at risk of not being confirmed, one Senate GOP aide told The Hill. There are things that will never change with her, the aide continued, pointing specifically to the Syria and Russia issues. She has policy views that are totally contrary to where the majority of the conference is. Trump allies have maintained she will emerge from her confirmation hearings in solid shape to win a green light from the upper chamber. I havent heard any of that, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said about a report indicating as many as eight Senate GOP members are ready to vote against her. Theres not one single no that is on any of these [nominations] that have said no from the Republican Party. Theres a lot saying they want to talk to her, but thats part of advice and consent, Mullin added. Pete Hegseth Pete Hegseth, Trumps nominee for Defense secretary, is seen at a photo-op prior to his meeting with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. It was only a few weeks ago that Pete Hegseths nomination to lead the Pentagon appeared done and dusted, with Trump preparing fallback options. While his fortunes appear to have shifted, the toughest step could be yet to come in Hegseths quest to be Defense secretary. His confirmation hearings are around the corner, and the same issues that gave him trouble in December are certain to resurface in a very public setting. The former Fox News host faced questions surrounding a 2017 allegation of sexual assault, his handling of veterans organizations that he led and his own drinking as well as whether his background qualifies him to run the massive operation that is the Defense Department. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing. But backed by support from Trump allies and, eventually, Trump himself, Hegseth has appeared to win over key Senate Republicans. He held multiple meetings with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), an Armed Services Committee member and the Senates first female combat veteran, who has since warmed to him. The middle of last week, it felt like there was growing momentum against him. I think that has changed markedly, Sen. Ted Cruz. (R-Texas) said Dec. 11. The momentum has shifted considerably in Petes direction. I think Petes going to get confirmed. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trumps nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, arrives at the Capitol in Washington for a meeting Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. Gabbard and Hegseth along with Gaetzs short-lived selection had taken up much of the oxygen in December. But that could change as confirmation hearings for other controversial nominees kick off in short order, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. atop that list. The ex-independent presidential candidate, tapped to run the Department of Health and Human Services, has long been a polarizing figure due to his views on vaccines. He remains in solid shape heading into the new year, as there has been little criticism of him from Republicans, who control his fate. But land mines remain. Kennedy has said little to reporters coming in and out of meetings with senators, but made a point to tell them ahead of his first meeting Dec. 15 that he is fully supportive of the polio vaccine. That came only days after a report emerged that Aaron Siri, a Kennedy ally, petitioned the government to reconsider its green light of the polio vaccine in 2022. In between the report coming to light and Kennedys comments, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who battled polio as a child, issued a missive urging all of Trumps nominees to steer clear of skeptical chatter about the polio vaccine. The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed theyre dangerous, McConnell said in a statement. Anyone seeking the Senates consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts. Kash Patel Kash Patel, Trumps nominee for FBI director, is seen during a photo-op prior to his meeting with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist tapped to lead the FBI, has made his sharp opposition to the bureau known. He has created a list of whom he dubs government gangsters headlined by outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland who he says must be held accountable and exposed in 2024. He has also declared he wants to shutter the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. It is possible that few if any Trump nominees have attracted more vocal opposition from Democrats. However, none of this has dissuaded Senate Republicans as they talk up Patels background working for the House Intelligence Committee and as a federal prosecutor. Patel has also done himself favors by impressing members during meetings on Capitol Hill in recent weeks. Hes done well in his meetings, the Senate GOP aide said. Very well prepared, emphasizing that hes looking to end bad practices not replicate them. Hes charismatic and knows his stuff. Lori Chavez-DeRemer Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) arrives to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., for the first votes of the week on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) occupies a very exclusive spot on this list, as it is quite possible that she loses more Republican votes than most of the aforementioned nominees yet could end up with bipartisan support, as multiple Democrats have signaled they are open to backing her confirmation. Chavez-DeRemer lost her bid for reelection in a toss-up seat, but was tapped shortly after to become Trumps nominee to run the Department of Labor. However, her selection initially came under fire over her support of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a priority of Democrats and top labor groups. In fact, she was one of only three House Republicans to co-sponsor the bill, boosting Democratic optimism in the process. And as an original author of the PRO Act, Im glad to see Representative Chavez-DeRemer is a cosponsor of the bill I wrote with Representative Scott, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said when DeRemer was selected. But for now, Republicans are holding their fire and are giving Trump deference for the selection. Mullin was the first Senate Republican to meet with her and likened her comments to him about the PRO Act to those of Kennedy regarding abortion, which Kennedy supports being legal up until a certain number of weeks. That shes serving at the will of the president of the United States, and that shell be pushing forth his agenda, Mullin said. Shell be confirmed, too. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday ripped the US as a disaster and global laughing stock in the wake of the deadly New Orleans terror attack and Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel. In a fiery social media post, Trump blasted the countrys weak leadership for failing to protect Americans from violent scum just hours after authorities revealed they were probing the two New Years Day incidents as terror-related. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday ripped the US as a disaster and global laughing stock in the wake of the deadly New Orleans terror attack and Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel. Getty Images A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday. Alcides Antunes via REUTERS Our country is a disaster, a laughing stock [sic] all over the world, the 78-year-old raged on his Truth Social platform. The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job, he continued. They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself. Trump, who stopped short of mentioning the two deadly incidents directly, went on to blame ineffective and virtually nonexistent leadership for the current state of the country. In a fiery Truth Social post, Trump blasted the countrys weak leadership for failing to protect Americans from violent scum. The USA is breaking down a violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation, he said. His rant came hours after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an ISIS flag-carrying US Army veteran, mowed down New Orleans revelers with a pickup truck in a deadly attack killing at least 14 and injuring dozens. Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed at least 14 in a New Years terror attack in New Orleans. FBI/AFP via Getty Images The FBI has said it is probing the deadly massacre as a terrorist act and that investigators dont believe he acted alone. Meanwhile, authorities are also investigating the Tesla Cybertruck explosion that occurred outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel on Wednesday as a possible act of terror. Investigators at the scene of the deadly New Orleans terror attack. Fireworks mortars and camp fuel canisters were found stuffed into the back of the futuristic-looking pickup truck after it exploded killing the driver and leaving seven with minor injuries. Fiji police are investigating allegations of theft and sexual assault on two Virgin Australia crew members in the early hours of New Year's Day, the government said Thursday. The alleged attacks took place Wednesday in the nightclub area of the city of Nadi, home to the international airport, Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka said. "The alleged incidents are regrettable," Gavoka said in a statement. "There were two separate alleged incidents, one being alleged theft and the other being alleged sexual assault, which affected two different crew members," he said. "A suspect known to police for the alleged sexual assault has been questioned. Investigation continues." The crew members are at a local hotel used by the airline for layovers and they are set to return home this week after helping the police probe, the minister said. A Virgin Australia Aircraft at Sydney Airport on September 05, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. / Credit: James Gourley / Getty Images Virgin Australia has sent representatives to Fiji to provide support for the affected staff. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the Reuters news agency it was aware of the reports but declined to comment further. Gavoka, who is also the minister for tourism and civil aviation, said such attacks can happen anywhere and Fiji was not "immune." "We, as always, remind tourists to exercise caution in nightclub areas and late at night," he said. The most recent crime statistics posted by Fiji police in November showed the crime rate for the month of October increased by 6% compared to the same period last year. Fiji relies heavily on its tourism industry, with close to a million visitors a year. Last month, seven foreign tourists, including an American, were hospitalized in Fiji after drinking cocktails at a resort bar. However, authorities later said the tourists were not poisoned by alcohol or illicit drugs, officials said following a toxicology report. Truck used in New Orleans attack was flying large black flag from rear bumper, authorities say Suspect identified in deadly New Orleans truck attack Suspected driver who slammed truck into New Orleans crowd is dead, sources say Gorodenkoff // Shutterstock Nearly half of all women have "dense breasts"yet countless don't find out until later in life. Dense breasts have more fibrous and glandular tissue relative to fat tissue in the breast. Because both breast cancer and this breast tissue appear white on mammograms, those mammograms alone can miss up to 60% of cancers in dense breasts. JoAnn Pushkin, patient advocate and co-founder of DenseBreast-info.org, lived through this exact scenario. "My own cancer was missed for nearly five years in a row," she says. "During that time, I received a 'normal' mammogram report every one of those years. The cancer was present, but because my breasts were so dense, the cancer could not be seen. The day my cancer was big enough to feel, it still did not show up on a mammogram." Dense breasts are not something you can see or feel, explains Bonnie Litvack, MD, diagnostic radiologist at Northwell Health. Density has nothing to do with breast size or firmness. It is genetic, like hair or eye color. Dense breast tissue not only makes mammograms more difficult to read, but it is also a risk factor for breast cancer. Women with dense breasts have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who don't have dense breasts, Litvack says. Density can also vary over a woman's lifetime, mostly due to hormonal changes, hormone replacement therapy, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. This is why women need access to advanced screening tools in addition to mammogramsand why those tools need to be universally covered by insurance, Litvack and Pushkin say. In 2023, the FDA published a rule stating that mammogram reports sent to patients must include breast density, which should be described as either "not dense" or "dense." It took effect on Sept. 10, 2024. "[The new legislation] is a really great thing. We're happy about this," Litvack says, but it's not enough. Once women know they have dense breasts, they need to be able to get additional screening, such as an ultrasound or MRI, to help ensure cancer is caught. Nationally, insurance coverage for additional screening after a mammogram is inconsistent and can depend on a woman's insurance policy, her insurer, and state law. Without coverage for supplemental screening, "women are being left out in the cold," Pushkin says. "Women write to us all the time with insurance questions, often denials of supplemental screening." Surprisingly, this gap exists around the country in part because doctors fear more false-positive breast cancer screenings. More screening may include false positives, Pushkin acknowledges, adding "You will never die from a false positivebut you can die from a false negative. It is a small price to pay for the chance to find cancer at the earliest stage possible." Dense breasts are extremely common, and women are already being notified if they have themnow they need to be able to do something about it. It's critical that we: Ensure women are aware of their cancer profile early. "All women should know their cancer risk profile by the age of 30," Litvack says. "We all need to be in control of our own health, having the best information to make the best decisions." Women should ask their health care provider about the different models available to assess breast cancer risk and discuss which tests might be best for them. Cancer profile models include the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool (BCRAT), also known as the Gail Model. This tool assesses medical and reproductive history and history of cancer among first-degree relatives to determine a woman's risk of developing invasive breast cancer within five years and up to age 90. The Tyrer-Cuzik Model and the Black Women's Health Study (BWHS) Breast Cancer Risk Calculator also include race and ethnicity in the assessment. The BOADICEA calculates risk for breast and for ovarian cancer. Discuss additional screening for women with dense breasts. The United States Preventive Task Force recommends that all women get screened for breast cancer every other year, starting at age 40 and continuing through age 74, to reduce their risk of dying from the disease. But women at higher risk may need to start younger. High-risk women and those with dense breasts may need supplemental testing in addition to mammography. Women who have dense breasts and/or other risk factors need to have a conversation with their health provider about a breast screening protocol that is appropriate for them. Cover supplemental screening. Mammograms have improved over the yearsfrom 2D to 3D and contrast enhancementsbut more cancers are found when women have supplemental screening tests, Litvack explains. If and when women are notified that they have dense breasts, they do not need to panic. They should continue receiving mammograms, and they need to be able to requestand have coveredsupplemental screenings, such as MRI, contrast mammography, or ultrasound. In New York State, Litvack found champions in the legislature to push forward a bill enhancing insurance coverage for supplemental breast cancer screening for those with New York State health plans. The state legislature recently passed that bill, and it now awaits Governor Kathy Hochul's signature. Pushkin and others are advocating for the federal Find It Early Act, which would ensure all health insurance plans cover screening and diagnostic breast imaging with no out-of-pocket costs for women with dense breasts or a higher risk for breast cancer. Advocate for women, and empower them to advocate for themselves. The FDA rule mandating women be notified of their breast density is the result of intense lobbying by women who found champions in state and federal legislators to get laws introduced and passed. Women need to be empowered to share their screening, diagnosis and coverage stories en masse to ensure decision-makers are working for them. "Delayed or noncompliance with screenings are the kinds of stories that are important for legislators contemplating support of the Find It Early Act to hear," Pushkin says. Supplemental screening can improve women's chances of detecting cancer early. Physicians and legislators can help ensure women get the mammograms and supplemental screenings they need. "Information empowers," Pushkin says. "Give women the information to make the best decisions for themselves." This story was produced by Northwell Health and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. MALAYSIA The Malaysian Communications Regulatory Authority reported that it has granted Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok licences to operate in the country, a permit required for platforms with more than 8 million users under a law that came into force yesterday and is supposed to combat cybercrime. For applications owned by Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), the licensing procedure has not yet been initiated. SOUTH KOREA The extraction of data from one of the black boxes of the Jeju Air plane that crashed in South Korea on Sunday has been completed, while the second will be sent for analysis in the US. South Korean authorities also sent experts to Muan County, where the plane crashed, to investigate the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, the government crisis continues. Accused President Yoon Suk-yeol, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued, said he would fight to the end. JAPAN The number of Japanese teachers taking mental stress leave in public schools rose to 7,119 in the fiscal year 2023 (ending March 2024), a record for the third year in a row, according to the results of a recent government survey that highlighted the increasing workloads teachers are under. If teachers who took more than one month of sick leave are also taken into account, the number rises to 13,045, or 1.42% of the total. IRAN - AFGHANISTAN In 2024, the rate of executions of Afghan nationals in Iran increased sharply: data collected by the Iranian Human Rights Organisation indicate that 72 Afghans were executed in the past year, an increase of almost 300% compared to 2023. Most of the executions took place for drug trafficking charges, but according to experts, the problem also relates to the weakness of the Taliban government, which is incapable of protecting its citizens. INDIA Himanta Biswa, chief minister of the eastern state of Assam, said that in recent months there has been a massive increase in irregular migration from Bangladesh, encouraged by the political crisis. Sarma claims that workers employed in the Bangladeshi textile industry are trying to cross the border and that several Indian factory owners are encouraging this practice by giving a certain amount of money to illegally import cheap labour. MOLDOVA Moldova has decided to take a very bold step against Russia by nationalising all Gazprom assets in the country. Prime Minister Dorin Recan stated that the country owes no debt to Russia, after the announcement of the cessation of gas supplies as of 1 January, and instructed Justice Minister Veronica Moraru to prepare the international lawsuit. RUSSIA As of yesterday, the minimum wage has been indexed to 16.6%, from 19,000 to 22,000 roubles, affecting 4 million workers with an extra thousand roubles per month (around 10 euro) for care for the disabled and elderly, with increases in pensions and mother's capital beyond the third child, which can be automatically allocated to housing costs. The ethnic militia is expanding its gains in the western state where it now controls 10 key Chinese projects which experts say could be used as leverage to obtain benefits. The Arakan Army says the continuation of its offensive will depend on the actions of the military junta. Yangon (AsiaNews) The level of devastation of the offensive launched by the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine will depend on the military junta, said AA spokesman Khaing Thukha speaking to The Irrawaddy. After seizing one city after another, the region's most important ethnic militia announced on 29 December that it was willing to settle the conflict by political means rather than military action. To seek political solutions to political problems has been our policy from the beginning, said Khaing Thukha today, referring to a Chinese-brokered ceasefire attempt in January 2024. We continue to adhere to this policy and keep the door open [for talks]. Whether our offensives will cease depends mainly on how the regime responds. By taking Gwa, southern Rakhine, the AA now controls 14 of the 17 townships in the western state; as a result, 10 Chinese projects are under its control, which it has sworn to protect. Regarding foreign investments in our controlled areas, we have already stated that we will provide the best protection for any investments beneficial to our people, and we will cooperate as necessary. There is no change in this policy, said the AA spokesperson. Gwa is located about 400 kilometres from the state capital, which in turn is 250 kilometres from Yangon, the largest city in the country, where the militarys hold remains firm (for now). Rakhine State capital, Sittwe, also remains in military hands, along with Kyaukphyu (an important commercial hub) and Munaung. The AA, which is fighting for an independent country, is part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which launched a vast offensive against Myanmars armed forces in late October 2023. Since then, several areas along the countrys borders have been seized by ethnic militias fighting for greater autonomy from the central government since independence from British rule in 1948. China has tried to mediate between the ruling junta and resistance forces to protect its investments and infrastructure projects in Myanmar and the security of its citizens, so far unsuccessfully. Projects under the control of the Arakan Army in Rakhine include the Kyaukphyu deep-water port and special economic zone, the Mandalay-Kyaukphyu railway project, the Kyaukphyu-Naypyitaw road project, a series of oil and gas pipelines running from the Andaman Sea to China's Yunnan province, and wind power projects in the cities of Thandwe and Ann. For Beijing, Myanmar is a key piece of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a network of economic corridors to connect China to the rest of the world. For months, Chinese officials have been pressuring the other ethnic militias that make up the Alliance (the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army) to reopen diplomatic channels with the military junta, with little results so far. Despite a certain reluctance to intervene directly in the internal affairs of other countries, Beijing has signed an agreement with Myanmars junta to deploy private security companies to protect its investments, while it continues to target members of cross-border criminal organisations accused of human trafficking whose main victims are Chinese nationals. According to experts, ethnic militias are now trying to leverage the presence of Chinese projects in the territories under their control to obtain concessions from Beijing (on which the survival of the military junta also depends). This could lead to the creation of a series of semi-independent regions, which could clash with the creation of a federal state, the post-conflict project proposed by the exiled National Unity Government (NUG), composed of exiled lawmakers and ministers from the previous government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. Champion local news. Join our community of readers who value daily beat reporting and in-depth stories alike. Your membership allows us to continue the legacy of local, independent journalism in the Roaring Fork Valley. With your support, we can remain a free and accessible source of news for everyone, always without paywalls or corporate influence. Together, we can ensure that vital local stories are told. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Mali has once again denounced in an official communique the persistent interference of the Algerian authorities in Mali's internal affairs. Mali has strongly condemned Algeria's interference in its internal affairs and demands that it redirect its energies towards resolving its own internal crises and contradictions, including in Kabylia, and stop using Mali as a lever for its international positioning. In the official note, the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the fact that Algeria, through its Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, is constantly commenting on Mali's anti-terrorist strategy, and that it is also taking an active part in this issue, thus meddling in an internal policy that is so important for the Sahel country. The official communique from the Malian foreign ministry refers to Algeria's closeness and complicity with the terrorist groups destabilising Mali, to whom it has offered lodging and food, while controlling their criminal actions against the civilian populations of Mali and the Sahel. It is clear that the undeniable successes of the Malian armed and security forces and the pressure exerted on the terrorist groups supported by Algeria do not sit well with some Algerian officials, the Malian Foreign Ministry pointed out. Faced with the Algerian authorities undisguised sympathy for terrorist groups operating in Mali and the Sahel, the Ministry reiterates Mali's firm opposition to any form of Algerian involvement in its internal affairs, the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The official communique of the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is reproduced below: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has received with dismay, through the press, the statements of H.E. Mr. ATTAF, Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, commenting once again on Mali's counter-terrorism strategy. The Algerian Foreign Minister's statements illustrate the content of Communique 064 of 25 January 2024, in which the Transitional Government already denounced Algeria's closeness and complicity with the terrorist groups destabilising Mali, to whom it has offered lodging and food, while controlling their criminal actions against the civilian populations of Mali and the Sahel. It is clear that the undeniable successes of the Malian armed and security forces and the pressure exerted on the terrorist groups supported by Algeria do not sit well with some Algerian officials, nostalgic for a bygone era. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Mali expresses its deep concern at the persistence of certain Algerian authorities in carrying out acts of interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Mali, marked by paternalism, condescension and contempt. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mali The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation condemns in the strongest terms this new interference by Algeria in the internal affairs of Mali, through a member of the Algerian Government, and recalls that the strategic choices of the fight against armed terrorist groups, supported by foreign state sponsors, are the exclusive competence of the sovereignty of Mali and the choices of the Confederation of Sahel States. In this respect, Mali neither asks for nor receives lessons from Algeria, which in the recent past has conducted its fight against terrorism in full sovereignty. The Ministry therefore calls on Algeria to redirect its energies towards resolving its own internal crises and contradictions, including the Kabylie issue, and to stop using Mali as a lever for its international positioning. In view of the Algerian authorities' undisguised sympathy for terrorist groups operating in Mali and the Sahel, the Ministry reiterates Mali's firm opposition to any form of Algerian involvement in its internal affairs, and will not allow any outside actor to pursue a hackneyed fireman-pyromancer strategy. The Ministry reiterates Mali's determination to eradicate terrorism in all its forms, as part of the ESA Confederation with Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger. 2 January 2025 19:33 (UTC+04:00) By Isa Nuraliyev | AzerNEWS Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have been normalized for some time now, following the tensions that arose after the terrorist attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran in January 2023. Although Iran has always stated its intention to develop relations with Azerbaijan at a high level, for some inadequate reasons, this idea has not been reflected in the behaviour of official Tehran. For example, Iran, which for some time introduced itself with anti-Azerbaijani statements in the Iranian Parliament, biased statements under the guise of support for Armenia, or provocative propaganda, has now begun to expand in the form of a shabby political drama. But behind all these political manoeuvres lies nothing but threats and provocations. As the saying goes, barking dogs, seldom bite. Recall that once the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, attracted attention with a post on his X social page: "The Zangazur road means the Turkish road." Iran was also expressing its fear by this articulation. Tehran, which has long considered Armenia's southern border its "red line", is for some reason not at all worried about the increasing Western military presence in Armenia. Today, the collapse of a regime in Damascus (Syria) has put Tehran in a psychologically awkward position. The Turkish-Azerbaijani brotherhood, which has now become a threat in its eyes, trembles Iranian political circles at every strategic step. The insulting remarks made against Azerbaijan and President Ilham Aliyev on December 29, 2024, at an event in Ardabil with the participation of the representative of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Imam of the Juma of this city, Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan Ameli, was another blow to Irans diplomatic stance and its true intention to strengthen neighbourly relations with Azerbaijan. Last day, Charge d'Affaires of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Azerbaijan Seyyed Jafar Agayi Maryans summoning to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs was a sign of the gradual erosion of Tehran's trust in Baku. It is pointless to return to the matter of what and for which reason. However, Tehran should respect Azerbaijan's right to establish relations with any state as well as cease to interpret Turkiye and Azerbaijans foreign policy as a threat to itself. The visit of the Deputy Head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry to Syria a few days ago is an expression of the intention to further strengthen relations with the new government. It should be noted that during the time of the former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown in December 2024, Azerbaijan also put forward its interests in developing economic and political relations with Syria. However, the fact that the former leadership was more on the side of Armenia during the former Garabagh conflict cast a shadow over the relations. The neutrality of Syria and Iran in the joint convention of the UN Security Council against the occupation of Armenia was a clear manifestation of the insincerity of the former political structure. In addition, the support of Armenia by the Assad regime in a country with a similar political line to Iran, and the fake migrants transferred to Karabakh from Syria created an imbalance in political relations. Even during the Second Garabagh War, the militant groups sent from Syria to the occupied region were not only contrary to international law but also an open threat to Azerbaijan. Finally, after 12 years, the Azerbaijani diplomatic delegation visited Syria, which was under the control of the new government. Meanwhile, the restoration of the Azerbaijani embassy in the country indicates a more hopeful and confident approach to future prospects. If official Tehran is truly a partner for peace and stability in the region, then there is no need for them to worry about Turkiye and Azerbaijans political will to develop relations with the new Syrian authorities. 2 January 2025 14:20 (UTC+04:00) With the initiative and support of Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Azerbaijan State Pantomime Theatre has embarked on a tour in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, from December 22 to 25. According to Azernews, the Pantomime Theatre performed on the stage of the Termechikov National Drama and Satire Theatre, showcasing two performances: "Mangurt," based on the novel The Day Equal to a Century by Kyrgyz writer Chinghiz Aitmatov, directed by Ceyhun Dadasov, and "Iblis," based on the work by Huseyn Javid, directed by Bhruz Vaqifoglu. Presenting both works in the pantomime genre enhanced the emotional impact, leaving a deep impression on the audience with its non-verbal expression techniques, and they were met with great interest. During the tour, the Azerbaijani delegation visited the Moldobasanov National Conservatory of Kyrgyzstan, the National History Museum, the Aytiev National Museum of Fine Arts, and the Izibayev Kyrgyz State Circus. 2 January 2025 14:50 (UTC+04:00) On January 2, a group of officers from the Ministry of Defense, participants of the Patriotic War, and family members of the National Hero of Azerbaijan, Major General Polad Hashimov, gathered to visit his grave. The commemoration of his birthday is not just a personal remembrance but a national homage to a figure who epitomizes bravery and dedication to his country. Born on January 2, 1975, in the village of Vandam in the Gabala region, Polad Hashimov moved with his family to Sumqayit, where he received his secondary education at schools No. 28 and 34. From an early age, Hashimov exhibited a profound sense of duty and commitment to his homeland, which eventually led him to pursue a military career. He enrolled in the Azerbaijan Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev, where he graduated with distinction, ready to serve his nation. Hashimovs military career was marked by rapid advancement and numerous accomplishments. Rising from the position of a platoon commander to the esteemed rank of Major General, he distinguished himself through his unwavering dedication to his duties in combat zones. His leadership and strategic acumen were instrumental in defending Azerbaijans territorial integrity, particularly during the critical April battles of 2016. During these battles, Hashimovs efforts were crucial in maintaining the countrys sovereignty. His exceptional service did not go unnoticed; on April 20, 2016, he was awarded the 3rd degree "For Service to the Fatherland" order by President Ilham Aliyev. This recognition was a testament to his valor and commitment to his country, highlighting the significant role he played in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. The pinnacle of Hashimovs career came on June 24, 2019, when he was bestowed with the high military rank of Major General by President Ilham Aliyev. This promotion was not merely a reflection of his service years but a recognition of his strategic insights, leadership qualities, and his ability to inspire his fellow soldiers. However, Hashimovs legacy is most profoundly marked by his ultimate sacrifice. On July 14, 2020, he was martyred while courageously repelling enemy attacks and provocations in the Tovuz district, along the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border. His bravery in the face of imminent danger and his steadfast commitment to protecting his nations sovereignty underscored his heroism. In recognition of his supreme sacrifice, Hashimov was posthumously awarded the title of "National Hero of Azerbaijan" by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on December 9, 2020. This honor is the highest national accolade and is reserved for individuals who have demonstrated unparalleled bravery and service to the nation. The commemoration ceremony held on his birthday saw the leadership of the Ministry of Defense laying wreaths at his grave, paying respects to a man who has become a symbol of national pride and resilience. His family, comrades, and officials stood in solemn remembrance, honoring his memory and the values he stood for. Hashimovs story is not just one of personal achievement but a narrative that resonates with the spirit of Azerbaijan. His life and service are a testament to the countrys enduring spirit and the bravery of its soldiers. As Azerbaijan continues to navigate its path forward, the legacy of Polad Hashimov remains a beacon of inspiration, reminding the nation of the sacrifices made for its freedom and integrity. His dedication, bravery, and ultimate sacrifice serve as a powerful reminder of the cost of peace and the value of patriotism. Major General Polad Hashimovs name will forever be etched in the annals of Azerbaijans history as a true hero whose spirit continues to inspire future generations. 2 January 2025 15:25 (UTC+04:00) A plan for urban mobility will be developed in Agsu District. According to the information obtained by Azernews, the Agsu District Executive Power (RIH) has already completed the preparatory work related to this. The Agsu District Executive Power has assigned the task of preparing the urban mobility plan to the Azerbaijan Technical University and has signed a contract with them. According to the contract, the Executive Power will pay 20,000 manats to the university for the execution of the mentioned work. 2 January 2025 17:35 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijans Ministry of Foreign Affairs has extended its condolences to Montenegro following a tragic incident in the city of Cetinje, Azernews reports. In a statement shared on social media, the Ministry expressed its sorrow over the deadly attack: We are deeply saddened by the tragic attack in Cetinje, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wish a swift recovery to the injured. The mass shooting in Cetinje claimed 12 lives and left four others injured. In response, Montenegros government has declared three days of national mourning and canceled all events scheduled for the start of the new year. This is the second mass shooting to occur in Cetinje in the past two and a half years. A similar incident on August 13, 2022, left 10 people dead and six injured. 2 January 2025 18:10 (UTC+04:00) Esad Sheybani, the Foreign Minister of Syria's Transitional Government, has stated that his country is open and ready to establish dialogue with international parties, Azernews reports, citing the Qatar News Agency. Sheybani declared that Syria is prepared to develop relations with the United States, but this will depend on the actions of the U.S. He emphasized that relations with Washington will be based on the interests of the Syrian people. The Foreign Minister of the Transitional Government highlighted that relations with the United States are "crucial" and stressed the importance of lifting sanctions on Syria. It should be noted that today, Sheybani made his first foreign visit to Saudi Arabia. The visit took place at the invitation of the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister. 2 January 2025 19:15 (UTC+04:00) A three-day national mourning has been declared in Montenegro following an armed incident at a restaurant in the town of Cetinje, which resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people. According to Azernews, citing local media sources, the country's Prime Minister, Milos Spajic, described the deadly shooting as a "horrible tragedy." Local police officials reported that the incident occurred after a personal dispute broke out among the guests at the Cetinje restaurant. 45-year-old Aleksandar Martinovic, armed with a firearm, took the lives of at least 10 people, including two children. It is reported that he later committed suicide. Montenegro's Minister of Internal Affairs, Danilo Saranovic, stated that two of the victims were members of the shooter's own family, and three others were the restaurant owner and his two children. The identities of the other victims have not been disclosed yet. 2 January 2025 20:50 (UTC+04:00) Starting from January 1, new rules regarding mandatory military service have come into effect in Georgia. According to Azernews, conscripts will now only be sent to military service, which will be referred to as "National Mandatory Military Service." Military service will be carried out through random selection from the list of individuals aged 18-27 who are registered for military service, and the selection process will be completed by January 31. The mandatory military service in Georgia will be paid, and it will include vacation and rest days. The conscripts will have the option to choose one of three service options for themselves. It is reported that service in combat units will last 6 months, service in security and supply units will last 8 months, and service with a rank of junior commander or in specific specialties will last 11 months. The call-up for military service will be carried out in stages throughout the year. Specifically, the call-up for service in combat units will start on April 15. The call-up for service in security and supply units will take place in four stages: on March 15, June 1, August 15, and November 1. The call-up for junior commanders and specific specialties will begin on October 15. During their service, conscripts will retain their workplace, salary if they are employed in a state institution, and all privileges they had before the call-up. They will also be provided with free access to public transportation. Additionally, as part of this project, all religious confessions' service members will undergo alternative service. Students, if they wish, can choose a suitable option and attend an intensive course for one month once a year, or continuously, to receive a commission as an officer. Jordyn Zimmerman MEd21 is autistic and nonspeaking, and spent the first eighteen years of her life trapped in her own mind, unable to communicate with the world around her. But everything changed one day in 2014 as she sat in her childhood home with her mother and a disability rights lawyer. With the lawyers guidance, Zimmerman slowly dragged her finger across the screen of an iPad, selecting pictures and letters that represented how she was feeling. Suddenly, she was articulating her thoughts for the first time. Ten years later, Zimmerman has become a powerful champion for disability rights and education policy reform. Her motivation is nothing less than to change the worlds perception and treatment of people with disabilities. In 2022, President Biden appointed her to the Presidents Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. She has shared her story on CBS Mornings, and shes the subject of the 2021 documentary This Is Not About Me. In addition to her full-time job as head of project strategy at the education nonprofit The Nora Project, Zimmerman is also chair of the board of directors of CommunicationFIRST, a nonprofit that advocates for the civil rights of the millions of Americans who have difficulty speaking. To her many admirers and her thousands of online followers, she is a living example of what is possible when a person is given adequate accessibility. But painful memories of the difficult path she took to her success have never left her. That messaging that I didnt belong and that I couldnt learn, or wasnt worthy of learning, really made me passionate about ensuring accessibility today, she said, speaking via Live Speech, a feature that vocalizes words she types into her iPad. Zimmerman carries her iPad everywhere, often cradling it in her lap. When I asked her questions for this article, she took a couple of minutes to type her responses and then a female-sounding electronic voice reminiscent of Siri voiced her words. This method of communicating is a high-tech form of whats known as augmentative and alternative communication, a term used to describe all the ways that a person can communicate without speaking. Zimmerman identifies as nonspeaking rather than nonverbal, because of her ability to perceive and utilize language. Speech is the motor process of expressing language, she explained. I cannot effectively speak, but I am very verbal. But for the entirety of her childhood, she was unable to demonstrate those abilities. Growing up in Ohio, she was relegated in school to special education classes, some of them so under-stimulating that she remembers spending all day playing video games. Back then, her primary means of communication was using gestures. She had trouble regulating her body and would sometimes bang her head against walls or wander off. She recalled people treating her like she couldnt understand them, which made making friends almost impossible, and her lack of speech led the public school system to assume she was an incompetent student. Both at school and at home, [communication and regulation] were exceedingly difficult, she said. In 2014, Zimmermans mother contacted Disability Rights Ohio to discuss the mistreatment she believed her daughter was experiencing at school. A lawyer from the nonprofit met with Zimmerman to learn more about the situation, and became one of the first people to introduce her to using an iPad to communicate. It began a gradual process of her learning to use the iPad to interact with the world around her. Soon Zimmerman was taking the iPad to school, using the device to transform her learning and her life. Suddenly she could share her thoughts and deepen her relationships with other people in a way she could never have imagined previously. Before the iPad, I didn't have the opportunity to show my humanity or engage with the world, she said. Zimmerman graduated from high school in 2016 at the age of twenty-one, and went on to earn a bachelors degree in education policy from Ohio University in 2020. Less than two years later, she graduated with a masters in education from the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. Zimmerman may be a civil rights champion these days, but that doesnt mean she doesnt know how to have fun, too. Tauna Szymanski, executive director of CommunicationFIRST, said Zimmerman is known within the organization for her sense of humor, love for her dog, Einstein, and passion for activism. She loves to laugh and meet people, and at the same time shes incredibly professional and wise beyond her years, she said. Shes definitely the best boss Ive ever had. In her advocacy and policy work, Zimmerman is pressing for a ban on federal funds used to support the IQ testing of nonspeaking students in public institutions. She knows from personal experience that such tests are poor indicators of the intelligence of nonspeaking students. When students are given an IQ test but dont have access to effective communication, it puts them on a path of lifelong segregation, she said. Once that happens, its very hard to switch things up. Of course, Zimmerman herself has been switching things up for a decade now. In addition to everything else she does, shes currently working on an MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. Wherever that takes me next, my mission in life remains the same, she said. To make our communities more accessible and inclusive, especially for those of us who are historically most often left out." Another story has emerged like that of the West Virginia coal miners working as volunteers and using their own equipment rebuilding a hurricane destroyed road in a week that government officials had said would take over a year. This one involves Amish volunteers from Pennsylvania. With many housing units destroyed, temporary housing for hurricane victims has been a problem. In three months after the hurricane, FEMA had only promised 26 homes to the thousands who had lost theirs and only aactually provided 3 of those 26. Then 62 Amish volunteers drove their buggies down from Pennsylvania with $300,000 they had raised among their community. In 48 hours, they had built twelve tiny homes for hurricane victims. With their billions, FEMA could only provide 3 temporary housing units in three months, while the Amish with $300,000 provided twelve in 48 hours. https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2024/12/31/the-amish-is-doing-more-for-western-north-carolina-than-fema-has-done-with-another-29-billion-n2183794 FEMA under Biden seems to care more about promoting the radical DEI agenda than helping hurricane victims. It is an agency that badly needs reform under the new Trump administration. Maybe they should just contract out their responsibilities to the Amish. At least then, they would get done. China implements gradual retirement age increase to address population aging Xinhua) 08:02, January 02, 2025 BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's decision to gradually raise statutory retirement age took effect Wednesday, the first adjustment in over 70 years as the country proactively addresses population aging. Chinese lawmakers voted to adopt the decision in September. The statutory retirement age for men will be gradually raised from 60 to 63 in the course of 15 years starting Jan. 1, 2025, while that for women cadres and women blue-collar workers will be raised from 55 to 58 and from 50 to 55, respectively. Starting 2030, the minimum year of basic pension contributions required to receive monthly benefits will be gradually raised from 15 years to 20 years at the pace of an increase of six months annually. Meanwhile, people will be allowed to voluntarily retire by no more than three years in advance after reaching the minimum year of pension contributions. The new policies will also allow individuals to postpone retirement to an even later date if they reach an agreement with employers, but such a delay should be no more than three years. Behind the reform are four major changes in China's population structure: increased life expectancy, more years of schooling, deepening aging and a decline in working-age population. The average life expectancy in China has reached 78.6 years, the latest data showed. Official data also showed that China has entered a moderately aging society. There were 297 million people aged 60 or above in the country at the end of 2023, accounting for 21.1 percent of the total population. According to projections, the number of people aged 60 or above in China will surpass 400 million around 2035, accounting for over 30 percent of the total. In line with the retirement reform and the overall demographic trend, China has been making a series of policy adjustments in multiple fields. According to revised regulations that took effect Wednesday, the maximum age limit for applying for a medium or heavy bus or truck driver's license has been raised from 60 to 63. China is also stepping up elderly care initiatives. At a national conference on civil affairs on Monday, officials outlined progress in boosting home-based care, nursing facilities and protection for seniors in 2024 as well as new measures for 2025. In 2024, the central government allocated 300 million yuan (about 41 million U.S. dollars) to support elderly meal assistance programs nationwide while additional initiatives helped set up 358,000 in-home care beds. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Du Mingming) Courts TV presenter and DJ who crashed while more than twice the drink-drive limit is fined and banned Revealed | Plan proposed to dam Strangford Lough, reclaim 5,000 acres of land and build an atomic power plant Far-reaching proposal gave little thought to the environmental consequences of drastically altering a major feature of NI landscape Portaferry, Strangford Lough Sam McBride Thu 2 Jan 2025 at 07:00 A radical 1950s plan which would have dammed Strangford Lough to create a far smaller freshwater lake is set out in newly declassified files from the old Government of Northern Ireland. The Southern Trusts Chief Executive Dr Maria OKane has resigned from her role with immediate effect. The announcement prompted an MLA to call for a investigation into departures from senior leadership positions in health. In a statement, the Trust said Dr OKane is leaving to pursue other career opportunities. Dr O'Kane took up post as Chief Executive on 1 May 2022. She was previously the Trust's Medical Director from December 2018 and Interim Director of Mental Health and Disability from April 2021 to February 2022. Colm McCafferty, the Trusts Executive Director for Social Work, will be Acting Chief Executive. The Trust will now begin the process of recruiting a new Chief Executive. Speaking on behalf of the Trust Board, Chair Eileen Mullan said: I want to thank Dr OKane for her dedication and contribution to health and social care and the people we serve in the Southern Trust area and wish her well for the future. In January 2024 Dr OKane warned that the Southern Trust was in an impossible position and may no longer be able to meet all of its obligations in terms of quality healthcare delivery. At the time she said waiting lists in Northern Ireland were among the worst in Europe but would continue to deteriorate. Last October, she said the Southern Trust was under tremendous financial pressure. Dr OKane told a board meeting all Trusts in Northern Ireland were struggling to maintain productivity. SDLP Opposition health spokesperson Colin McGrath MLA has emphasised the need to support health trusts. He had called for an urgent ministerial intervention and for a departmental assessment to determine the reasons behind the current vacancies in two of the five trust CEO positions. SDLP MLA Colin McGrath said: "Our trusts are facing unprecedented pressure, and the demands placed upon them are substantial. "We have been informed that the CEO of the Southern Trust has departed, and the leadership position in the Belfast Trust is currently being filled on an interim basis. "This lack of stability during a period of immense strain on our health service is concerning. He added: "I urge the department to take immediate steps to provide assistance and to investigate the underlying causes of this situation. '"It is evident that our health service is grappling with significant challenges, and our Executive must prioritise the transformation of our health system to better serve patients. "However, adding the instability of vacant senior positions at such a critical time will undoubtedly make the pressures worse on an already strained service." Group planning fundraising drive for new project and assessing Belfast site for a monument A cross-border project to create a museum in honour of more than 1,600 Irish sailors lost at sea during the First World War is to launch fundraising efforts. It is hoped the digital museum will also include a physical monument in memory of those who died in the Great War, as well as subsequent conflicts. A working group is assessing a site for a monument at Belfasts Alexandra Dock, where First World War light cruiser HMS Caroline is moored. It is made up of experts including representatives from Belfast Harbour Commissioners, Belfast City Council, Irish Naval Service, Glasnevin Cemetery and the HMS Caroline Preservation Company. The group is chaired by Captain John Rees OBE, retired chief of staff at the National Museum of the Royal Navy and former director in charge of the restoration of HMS Caroline. He said the Irish sailors who died in the war, as well as those killed in subsequent battles, deserve recognition. There is no physical monument existing anywhere to honour the Irish sailor, said Captain Rees. When we were restoring HMS Caroline in time to open to the public for the centenary of the Battle of Jutland, we had been very conscious of this gap in history. Now our working group is progressing ways of resolving this by creating a physical and a digital presence which will allow families, descendants, and everyone to participate in the memory of these heroic men. Commodore Martin Quinn and former Harbour Commissioner Noel Brady. The group includes leading Belfast business figure and former Harbour Commissioner Noel Brady, who said all communities must be acknowledged in Irelands shared history. This is not a political expression of anything, added Mr Brady. It is acknowledgement that, as a divided society in pre-partition Ireland, we treated each other badly. These prejudices continued after partition and the historic ignorance of the roles played by people from all communities in Irelands past 100 years must be addressed. This memorial is one such step which will encourage continued reconciliation. Captain John Rees OBE. Commodore Martin Quinn, chairman of the HMS Caroline Preservation Company board of trustees, said the acknowledgement has been a long time coming. We enter a new year a quarter of the way into the century with renewed confidence as a society with dual identities, said Commodore Quinn. We need much broader acknowledgement of the roles played by all in our shared history, and as chairman of the board of trustees would very much wish to see the physical embodiment of recognition of the Irish sailor close to the ship which saw action in a battle that cost the lives of thousands of sailors, including many hundred Irishmen. The group is aiming to make an announcement on fundraising strategies early this year. As the world celebrated the beginning of 2025, some families were celebrating the arrival of more than just the New Year. Some of the first Generation Beta babies arriving in Northern Ireland were so keen to see in the New Year that they had to be delivered at home. Katie McCartney traded fireworks for flannel blankets on New Years Eve night, giving birth to the first baby of 2025 born here, Ezra Ashton. Ezra was delivered at Ulster Maternity Hospital just 32 minutes after the clock struck midnight and weighed 9lbs. Mum Katie, baby Ezra and maternity staff. Pic: Presseye Baby Ezra. Pic: Presseye It was all pretty fast, Katie explained. I got here last night at half ten and he was born within two hours so it was pretty quick. He is Katies third baby and both she and her partner were unaware of whether a boy or a girl was on the way until shortly before the birth. She said: He was a surprise as we didnt know the gender going in so we were 50-50 on names. It took us a few hours to definitely decide. We actually didnt have any girls names so we were hopeful it was a boy! Katie said Ezra was actually due on December 29 but was a couple of days over as fate would have it. The new year also marks the dawn of a new generation as babies born from 2025 onwards now fall under Generation Beta. The new mother said she was surprised to learn that Ezra is the first of the generation born here. I was reading that its a new generation from today, the Gen Alphas are no more. So Ezras the first of Gen Beta in Northern Ireland! Jill with her baby girl. Pic: Presseye Jill's baby. Pic: Presseye Less than 15 minutes after little Ezra entered the world, Jill Boobyer gave birth to a baby girl. Jill has yet to name her daughter who was born 44 minutes into the new year at the Ulster and weighs 10lb 5oz. Another one of the first infants was Blessing Obiakoezes son, Liam Nwokeji. Blessing with her new son Liam. Pic: Presseye Baby Liam. Pic: Presseye Liams birth was something of a surprise to Blessing, arriving earlier than expected for the now mother of two. She said: He was due to be born on January 3, so he was two days early. Everything just happened very quickly. Things moved so quickly in fact that Blessing had to deliver Liam in her own home. She said that it went really well and an ambulance team arrived in time to assist with the delivery. He was actually born before I could get to the hospital, she explained. I had him at home and the ambulance team had to come in and help me. Blessing added: It was an experience for all of us! The Met Office has issued a warning that icy conditions will continue tomorrow, after parts of Northern Ireland woke up to snow this morning. Icy conditions are set to remain, with a yellow weather warning in place between 5pm today and 10am on Friday. It follows an earlier alert from the forecaster for icy conditions, which was in place until 10am this morning. The Met Office has warned that icy surfaces could impact travel conditions. The majority of Northern Ireland counties are included in the warning, along with parts of England, Scotland and Wales. The Met Office said: Scattered wintry showers will be replaced by a longer spell of rain and sleet for a time on Thursday night, particularly across western Scotland and Northern Ireland. "As temperatures dip below freezing, this will lead to a risk of ice formation on untreated surfaces, especially inland." We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content An ice warning is in force for much of the UK as temperatures dropped. For some parts of Northern Ireland, this meant some snow in the early hours of today. Parts of Mid Ulster, County Antrim, County Londonderry, and County Armagh were among those affected by the brief snowfall. Stock image of NI snow. Photo: Press Eye Watch: Snow falls in Ballymena as temperatures plummet Ireland will also be placed under a low temperature/ice warning this evening. The Status Yellow weather warning will come into effect at 6pm on Thursday evening and will stay in place until 11am on Friday morning. Forecasters issued the warning as temperatures are set to fall to -5 degrees or below in many areas, and very cold weather with widespread frost and ice is expected. Stock image of NI snow. Photo: Press Eye Ice warning for parts of UK as temperatures drop following floods Spanish police believe the 37-year-old was killed shortly after December 14 Search technicians from K9 Search and Rescue NI have travelled out to Alicante to help with the hunt for John George (inset) A Northern Ireland search and rescue team has begun efforts to find a missing Belfast man who Spanish police believe was murdered in the south of the country more than a fortnight ago. John George, also known as John Hardy, last made contact with his father Billy on December 14. Spanish police believe the 37-year-old father-of-two was shot dead soon afterwards. Search technicians from K9 Search and Rescue NI (K9SARNI) travelled out to Alicante on New Years Day to help with the hunt for Mr George after a public fundraising campaign raised more than 23,000 to support the family. Searches for John George (36) are continuing in Alicante It comes after the award-winning charity revealed it would defy a controversial Department of Justice (DoJ) instruction to stop deploying its team to searches in NI. Its members are all either current or retired members of the emergency services, along with a dozen highly-trained search and rescue dogs, but the group was last month refused registration to the NI Search and Rescue Register (NISAR). The process of joining the register is governed by the Department of Justice. Groups which are not on the register are not insured and as a result cannot be tasked by the PSNI. Despite initially complying with a DoJ request not to deploy search teams, K9SARNI has said it will now be accepting direct requests from families. In a New Year post on its Facebook page, the group said: Roughly six months ago, we were asked to stop deploying our team, even at the direct request of families. One of the highly trained K9 Search and Rescue NI (K9SARNI) dogs being used to find John George Members of the K9 Search and Rescue NI team heading out to Spain on New Year's Day "To show good faith, we complied with that request. We sincerely apologise to the families weve been unable to help during this period. "However, with the initial decision of us joining NISAR (Northern Ireland Search and Rescue) under the Department of Justice NI still pending, we have made the decision to once again accept taskings at the direct request of families to search for their loved ones. As our appeal with the Department of Justice for Northern Ireland continues, we remain hopeful they will reverse their decision and allow us to join NISAR. "This would enable the PSNI and other statutory agencies to officially task us, ensuring we can provide our services to those who need them most, here at home. "This year, we remain committed to serving our community, standing ready to answer the call when needed. Thank you for your unwavering support it means the world to us and helps us continue our mission. Search technicians from K9 Search and Rescue NI have travelled out to Alicante to help with the hunt for John George (inset) Allison Morris reporting from Spain, on the missing man John George A vandalised Irish-English road sign on the Cullenramer Road, between Cabragh and Greystone, in Mid Ulster. Credit: Tuairisc.ie Bilingual Irish-English signage is going to be erected on a Co Londonderry road after a single resident said they would be in favour of it. Cairn View, Mayogall, will get a new sign on the basis that the only resident who actually gave a view was in favour of such a move which technically translated into a 100% majority in favour. In all, 10 survey letters were issued by Mid Ulster District Council, in keeping with the relevant policy on bilingual street signage requests. Nine out of the 10 residents didnt reply. The Mid Ulster District Council area is by far the worst for vandalism of dual language street signs, with two thirds of over 300 attacks in Northern Ireland since 2020 happening there. The 209 attacks have cost ratepayers there more than 21,000. Meanwhile, only four out of 20 residents surveyed returned their survey letters at Oakview, Dungannon. As they were all in favour of bilingual signage, new Irish-English street signs will be erected. This will also be the case at Sunnyside Road, Stewartstown, where 14 survey letters were issued. Seven residents offered a view, and all were in favour of bilingual signage. Things were a lot tighter on the Mullaghmoyle Road, Coalisland/Stewartstown, where 77 survey letters were issued, with 35 letters being returned. 17 were in favour, and 16 were against the erection of bilingual signage. Two survey letters deemed invalid were also returned. Oakview in Dungannon is just one of the places in Mid Ulster getting bilingual signage after only small numbers of residents took part in a survey - but those that did were all in favour of Irish and English signage With 52% of residents in favour of bilingual signage, the criteria a requirement of 51% or more in favour was just about met. Meanwhile, a majority of residents at Lismore Road, Ballygawley, and Armaghlughey Road, Aughnacloy/Ballygawley, have voted against the erection of bilingual Irish-English street signage. In accordance with Mid Ulster District Councils policy, all occupiers as listed on the electoral register residing in the above areas were canvassed by post. In the case of the Lismore Road, 23 letters were issued. Nineteen letters were returned, with 11 residents indicating they were against bilingual signage, and six being in favour (35%). In the case of the Armaghlughey Road, 53 letters were issued. Some 22 were returned, with 15 residents indicating they were against the erection of bilingual street signage, and six in favour (29%). As a majority of residents voted against the provision of bilingual street signage in these two areas, English-only street signs will remain. Meanwhile, residents at Lurgaboy Lane, Dungannon, and Chambre Park, Stewartstown, have contacted Mid Ulster District Council to request their own surveys. Residents at Orchard Park, Aughnacloy; Reaskmore Road, Dungannon and Meadowview, Moy, have already been contacted. Last month, the councils Environment Committee discussed the damage to 209 bilingual signs in the borough. I think we need to be sitting down with the police early in the New Year, because as far as Im aware no one has ever been arrested or charged with any of this, said Sinn Fein councillor John McNamee. If you look at the figures right across the different areas, it seems to be some sort of orchestrated campaign here. TUV spokesman Glenn Moore said: The preposterous policy of Mid Ulster Council which has resulted in Irish language signage being erected on the basis of a single residents request is transparently in need of urgent reform. There is minimal demand in many places for this signage and as the outrageous sums which have been spent on replacing signs shows significant opposition to the marking out of large parts of the council area as belonging to a single community and culture. Mid Ulster Council frankly needs to wise up and spend ratepayers money on the priority of local people rather than squandering it in a fashion which only alienates local people. After defending Latin Mass, DUP MP hailed as unlikely ally by Catholic traditionalists Member of the Orange Order says people shouldnt be shocked at his interest in Catholic theological debate DUP MP Jim Shannon, inset, has drawn admiration from some traditionalist Catholics after pressing the Government on the Latin Mass Sam McBride Thu 2 Jan 2025 at 07:10 A veteran DUP MP and Orangeman is being hailed by right-wing Catholic traditionalists after he pressed the Westminster Government about its attitude to the Latin Mass. Kemi Badenoch has called for a national inquiry into the UKs rape gangs scandal, after a minister denied requests to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham. The Conservative Party leader made the plea in a post on X and argued that a public inquiry into organised grooming gangs is long overdue. This comes as safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said she recognised the strength of feeling for a Home Office-led inquiry, but the Government will not intervene, in a letter to Oldham Council. Minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, Jess Phillips (Jordan Pettitt/PA) I believe it is for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene, she said. US billionaire Elon Musk said Ms Phillips deserves to be in prison, following her response to Oldham Council. He also appeared to place blame at the Prime Ministers door, as he argued that rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice during Sir Keirs time as director of public prosecutions. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content In her post, Mrs Badenoch wrote: The time is long overdue for a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal. Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots. 2025 must be the year that the victims start to get justice. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp reiterated calls for a national inquiry, adding: We do need to make sure this is fully looked at and anyone responsible for not following it up is held to account. Speaking to BBC Radio 4s World at One, he continued: The issues dont just apply in Oldham, they apply, Im afraid, in many other towns and cities as well, and its I think right, now, that we look at that. Im very disappointed the Labour government have been so silent on this topic. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content Mr Philp and shadow safeguarding minister Alicia Kearns wrote to Ms Phillips and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to say that only a public inquiry can adequately encompass the national nature of these crimes and issues and consider whether reports were ignored by the police, CPS and local council or even covered up. An Oldham Council spokesman said: Survivors sit at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation. Whatever happens in terms of future inquiries, we have promised them that their wishes will be paramount, and we will not renege on that pledge. Responding to Mrs Badenochs post, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level. Mr Musk responded: Exactly. Time for Reform. US billionaire Elon Musk criticised Sir Keir Starmer (Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA) Prior to this, Mr Musk had written on X: In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Services approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008-2013. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022, described the sexual abuse of children as an epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake. Led by Professor Alexis Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol. In November last year, Professor Jay said she felt frustrated that none of the probes 20 recommendations had been implemented more than two years after its conclusion. She said: Its a difficult subject matter, but it is essential that theres some public understanding of it. But we can only do what we can to press the Government to look at the delivery of all of this. It doesnt need more consultation, it does not need more research or discussion, it just needs to be done. Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth Rupert Lowe also called for an inquiry into the issue on Thursday, arguing it has been disgracefully ignored and suppressed for too long. Mr Lowe said the British people should be able to see for themselves the extent of the horror and that the Government should publish all detail. He added: What is the Home Office currently doing in order to prevent ongoing grooming, rape, exploitation or abuse of young British girls? How many girls are estimated to still be involved with these gangs? Will they publish a full nationality breakdown of those convicted for such offences, along with the location of their crimes? A Labour spokesperson said the Government is working at pace to implement the recommendations in Professor Jays report. They added: Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most horrendous crimes and the Home Office supports police investigations and independent inquiries to get truth and justice for victims. We have supported both the national overarching inquiry into child abuse which reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries and reviews including in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. This Government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated. In Oldham the crimes committed by grooming gangs were horrific. Young girls were abused in the most cruel and sadistic way. Victims and the community need to know that all steps are taken to deliver justice and protect children properly in the future. We will welcome and support an independent investigation commissioned by Oldham Council which puts victims voices at its heart, following the examples of Telford and Rotherham. We also continue to support wider work commissioned by Mayor Andy Burnham into child protection issues across Greater Manchester, following the review into historic safeguarding issues in Oldham which was published in 2022. The Home Office has been contacted for comment. A woman who disappeared more than five decades ago has finally been found alive after a single blurry photograph of her was released by police 52 years after she went missing. West Midlands Police said finding Sheila Fox after she vanished from Coventry in 1972 solves one of its longest-running missing person investigations. At the end of December, the force published a renewed appeal to help find Ms Fox, which included one grainy picture of her from around the time she vanished that was recently found by officers. Within hours of its release, members of the public got in touch with information that led to finding Ms Fox. Officers who spoke with her confirmed Ms Fox is alive, safe and well, and now living in another part of the country. Sheila Fox The announcement on Wednesday marks the resolution of one of the longest running missing person cases that the force has investigated. Detective Sergeant Jenna Shaw, from the Cold Case Investigation Team, said: We're absolutely delighted to have found Sheila after more than five decades. We searched through every piece of evidence we could find and managed to locate a photo of Sheila. We are a small team of officers and I'd like to recognise the work of DC Shaun Reeve, who managed to resolve this case with help from the public. Every missing person has a story, and their families and friends deserve to know what happened to them and, hopefully, be reunited with them. Police added that forensic and technological advances enable the team to pursue fresh leads on cases that have remained unresolved for a long time. Rosita Missoni, the matriarch of the Italian fashion house that turned colourful zigzag-patterned knitwear into high fashion, has died aged 93. Missoni SpA confirmed the death and planned a statement along with the family later, said Alberto Gualeni, an international spokesperson for the company in Milan. Local officials offered condolences and recalled Missonis ties to the small northern city of Gallarate where the brand was born in an artisans shop in 1953. Born Rosita Jelmini, Missoni grew up in a family that owned a textile factory that produced shawls. Italian designers Ottavio and Rosita Missoni founded a fashion brand (Antonio Calanni/AP) When she met and married Ottavio Missoni, they founded their eponymous fashion house in Gallarate that would turn into a fashion dynasty, with the couples three children and their offspring involved in expanding the brand. The Missonis got their first break in 1958, when the Rinascente department store commissioned 500 colourful vertically striped shirt dresses the first to carry the Missoni label. The Missonis first showed their collection in Milan in 1966 and the brand helped turn the city into a fashion mecca. Their signature fashions, with the trademark graphic zigzags, long had a reputation for wearability and for surviving many seasons of changing trends. Family members were often the brands best models, wearing Missoni creations in everyday life. The founders turned over the business to their children in 1997, though Rosita remained involved in the Missoni home collection. Rosita and Ottavio Missoni take to the catwalk after presenting their fashion collection in 1982 in Milan (AP) In 2013, as the company celebrated its 60th anniversary, the family endured a double tragedy. The eldest Missoni son and the companys CEO, Vittorio Missoni, died when a plane carrying him and five others disappeared off Venezuela. It took six months to locate the wreckage in the sea off the South American country, during which time patriarch Ottavio Missoni died, aged 92. In 2018, the family sold a 41.2% stake to the Italian investment fund FSI but maintained majority control of the house. In 2021, the youngest daughter, Angela Missoni, stepped down as creative director after 24 years. There are stark warnings for the future of our high street shops as we move into 2025. The perfect storm faced by retailers since the onset of Covid, now almost five years ago, shows little sign of abating. While it was encouraging to see so many out in our town and city centres in the run-up to Christmas, years of forced closures, transport strikes, rising costs in rent and products, matched with the onslaught of online shopping, have conspired against survival. In 2024, Belfast dealt with further issues over transportation, with the city centre often gridlocked, putting off many shoppers. Even the pausing of roadworks around the city centre did little to ease woes. While the big-name stores are in a position to absorb the effects, life is a struggle for independent retailers who do not have that more robust business chain to fall back on. Retail NIs Glyn Roberts said the traditional busiest shopping day of the year the Saturday before Christmas had been a good day, with many drawn in by the Christmas market at Belfast City Hall which offers something different in the festive period. And while heartened by that, the reminder is that Christmas comes but once a year. There will need to be many more good days if more of our city centre shops are not to join over 13,000 across the UK that closed for good in 2024. Belfast city centre The Christmas rush will also dry up for pubs and nightclubs now that the party season is over and a long, dark January sets in. Clouding the future even further is the double blow to retailers of higher National Insurance contributions and higher wages. If the money flowing in doesnt match that flowing out, simple economics show business is only going to go one way, and that will be to the detriment of all. What it means for the likes of Belfast is that new thinking is required. Initiatives to get shoppers and diners out of their homes and into the city. Belfast has to become more attractive, it has to have a public transportation system thats fit for purpose. But there is also an onus on the public. There is little point in sitting at home bemoaning the fact that high streets are becoming more like ghost towns than shopping paradises if theres a reluctance to actually go to these stores. Measures to improve public transport, efforts to clean up the city centre, a serious look at car parking charges. All must be on the agenda if we are to protect our shops. Theyre not just for Christmas. Law lecturer Edgar Graham was gunned down in broad daylight at Queens University on 7 December 1983. Sam McBride examines his life, legacy, and the unsolved crime Edgar Graham was just 29 years old when the IRA gunned him down on the street at Queens University in south Belfast. The young law lecturer and unionist politician had a brilliant mind and was widely believed to be a future leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. David Trimble said hed never have been Ulster Unionist leader if Edgar had lived. Forty years after a crime which even by the standards of the Troubles shocked Northern Ireland, Sam McBride investigates why the IRA targeted him, whether he was set up by a colleague, and where this lost leader of unionism might have led Northern Ireland. In this BelTel special documentary, Edgars friend Dermot Nesbitt, who was standing beside him when he was killed, revisits the scene for the first time in 20 years as he and others who knew Edgar well tell his story. This episode was originally published in December 2023. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Happy New Year everybody! I was delighted to have a snowy celebration for this iconic winter holiday and I hope that you are sitting happily with your feet up and a warm beverage in your hand. I am just finishing an hour of birdwatching at my kitchen window and when I am done writing this column I get to start completely brand new journals and bird lists. But before I indulge in this exiting activity, I get to do another one of my favorite things: look back at the previous year and recall the highlights. January was a rather typical winter month. We had some snow, we had some ice and there were a couple days off from school. The birds at my feeders were not particularly unusual, but what did mark the month as noteworthy was my installation of the very first Birch Perch. This was a very large branch from the tip of a gray birch that had fallen to the ground earlier in the year. All I did was place it near my feeders so I had some natural perches for photography. I also tied the record for January with 31 species at my feeders. February was another typical representative of winter. More cold, more snow and the arrival of red-winged blackbirds and purple finches to the feeders. Then, on Feb. 25, things got very interesting when I noticed a brown creeper exploring the trunk of one of the cottonwood trees that grow next to my driveway. The gods smiled upon me and I was able to get my camera and get some photos before the bird disappeared. Once again I tied the record for February with 35 species. March saw the arrival of the years first common grackles, but even more amazing was the fact that dandelions were already blooming in my yard by March 5. The temperature rose to the 40s and 50s for two weeks and by March 13 the mercury hit 67 degrees Fahrenheit! By the end of the month I had taken 5,000 photographs and set a new record of 38 bird species in the month of March. The tables turned briefly in April and a day of school was canceled because of heavy snow. In the middle of the month I traveled to Bermuda and spent 3 magical days pursuing the birds of this beautiful island nation. The stars of the show were the white-tailed tropicbird and the great kiskadee, both of which were featured in my columns. Meanwhile, spring peepers and American toads emerged from hibernation. Everything was going to plan. May and June were their typical gorgeous selves. The Thinking Chair was my regular destination on any morning that I didnt have to go to work, and on June 18 it became my destination on every morning that it didnt rain. Migrants arrived, the meadow sprang to life with birds eager to establish territories and raise their young. In July I went to Cape Cod for a week, and enjoyed a change of scenery by visiting First Encounter Beach, in Eastham. All three months were splendid. August was another spectacular month and the big event was my trip to Plum Island on the North Shore of Massachusetts. There I encountered many beautiful birds, including an immature eastern kingbird that posed for a portrait while I was exploring the dunes. September marked the beginning of a new school year and I celebrated this event with another bout of covid. Stuck home for a solid week, I exercised social distancing down in my Thinking Chair and by Sept. 20 I had already set a new species record and, almost without realizing it, I had reached 23,000 photos for the year! October was a very warm month and as the migration started to wind down the winter visitors started to arrive. Dark-eyed juncos and purple finches had arrived by Columbus Day and the continued warm weather allowed an extended Thinking Chair season. On Halloween the temperature reached 83 degrees Fahrenheit at my house and that just seemed wrong. However, the warm conditions did allow a lot of time for photography and by the end of the month I had reached 25,000 photos; just one thousand shy of the record. November was also ridiculously warm, with temperatures regularly in the 40s and 50s. By Veterans Day I had tied my record for the number of photos taken in a single year and then the door was slammed shut with the arrival of rain on Nov. 21 and then snow on Nov. 22. No Thinking Chair in the snow! However, the extra time afforded outside did result in a new record for bird species seen in November (38 species) and the sighting of a rusty blackbird. That bird continues to haunt me. Finally, we come to December. At the time I wrote this column I was one species short of the record for bird species observed in my yard in the month of December. One of the more unusual species to make an appearance was a northern mockingbird on Dece. 8. Then, without warning, winter decided to exert herself and the weather changed from mild to an attention-getting cold that reminded me of the winters of my youth. Great horned owls perch on my rooftop and sing almost every night, on Dec. 27 I recorded 61 mourning doves on my deck at one time, and the feeders need to be filled several times a day. Everything is just as it should be. I hope that 2025 brings even more adventures for me to share with you. I have a couple ideas in mind, but Ill refrain from explaining them so I dont jinx myself. Ill speak to you again next week, but in the meantime I have a LOT of photos to sort and catalog. The backlog reaches back to August! Sigh. HAPPENED SO FAST Adams Town Meeting representatives approved the idea of forming a Greylock Glen Commission, the language of the article engineered in part by acting town manager town employee Donna Cesan, in the fall of 2020, and former state Sen. Adam Hinds filed legislation to form the commission in 2022. But the bill didnt make it out of the Senate, as its description of the glen property, and an overall lack of specificity in its language, necessitated a rewrite. In 2023, Barrett introduced a new bill seeking a commission, but was told that before the legislature could take action, the town would have to again seek approval from Town Meeting. He asked that the town put the proposal on the town meeting warrant for a required re-vote. But the town didnt include the measure on either the 2023 or 2024 annual town meeting warrants. It took a citizen-led effort to get the issue on this months special town meeting warrant. BOSTON After 22 years advocating for South Berkshire County on Beacon Hill, the final days of his tenure last month were more than bittersweet for William Smitty Pignatelli. The Lenox Democrat is now the former state representative for 17 towns south of Pittsfield as well as Dalton, added to the 3rd Berkshire District in 2022. Although he chose not to seek reelection, Pignatelli acknowledged feeling a little bit melancholy and sentimental, missing the pomp and circumstance of that special day as he watched online the swearing-in of the new state House membership, including his successor, state Rep. Leigh Davis of Great Barrington, on New Years Day. But reflecting back, I left on my terms, I had a good run, weve done some good work, and I felt it was time to move on, he told The Eagle on Thursday. He recalled what the late Sen. Edward Kennedy told him many years ago during one of his annual visits to the Berkshires You know, Smitty, Ive been in public service a long time, Ive had a lot of associates but very few friends. Pignatelli said he shared similar sentiments I served with a lot of associates, but didnt have a lot of good friends. On Dec. 16, during farewell speech day on the Statehouse floor with 18 colleagues leaving the House, he offered his definition of friendship. The true measure of which, in these hallowed halls at least, is when you can have a conversation with a colleague and never talk politics," he said. Ive been blessed to serve with many dedicated members of the Berkshire delegation over the years, including John Barrett [of North Adams], who Ive known since I was in high school, when he served with my dad on the Berkshire County Commission, said Pignatelli during the speech. Weve agreed and disagreed on issues, but Ive never questioned our collective desire to represent the best interests of the Berkshires. He also acknowledged the late Gail Cariddi of North Adams, who represented Northern Berkshire County from 2010 until her death in June 2017. Thanking the voters of the 3rd Berkshire District for entrusting me to be your representative, weve accomplished great things together keeping the Berkshires on the map or as I like to say, Bestern Mass, said Pignatelli. He urged House members 160 representatives for over 7 million state residents to never to take the job for granted. Fighting back tears, Pignatelli addressed 18 family members looking on from the gallery who surprised me by being here today, including his daughter who works in television in Hollywood and his son Travis, 35, whos overcome some obstacles but accomplished great things. He defined public service as representing the needs of others, but not your own. Ive carried that belief with me every day in the Statehouse, never forgetting where I came from or the people I was here to serve. Quoting his close friend Gene Dellea, the former town moderator of West Stockbridge, Pignatelli, gazing at the clock above the rostrum, acknowledged that after 22 years, with the hourglass in the wings, I realize Gene was right. Time truly does fly, but memories last forever. As his final act, Pignatelli helped push through a home-rule petition for Lenox. The previous residency requirement for town managers specified Lenox; the new rule, approved by Lenox special town meeting voters on Aug. 13, expands the requirement to Berkshire County. Gov. Maura Healey is expected to sign it before the end of next week. Jay Green, a Pittsfield resident who just concluded six years as Adams town administrator, is about to begin his first contract through June 2027 as Lenox town manager. Now, although Pignatelli plans to be available for guidance if asked by any House members, he sees the time is right to tackle a new chapter. Specifics should be forthcoming in a matter of days, but he did confirm that his likely next job is in the public sector, based in the Berkshires. Jeff Robbins, a part-time resident of Stockbridge, is a former U.S. delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council and a former assistant U.S. attorney and chief counsel for the Democrats on the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He is the author of Notes from the Brink: A Collection of Columns About Policy at Home and Abroad. Perhaps in this moment of transition, it is time to seek some agreement upstream of politics: Can we once again value decency? If we can, then we have a model who happens to be on our minds this week: Former President Jimmy Carter. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. They alleged that Visionworks employs tracking tools to send information related to users searches and activity on the companys website to Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. The tracking technologies, known as Meta pixel and Facebook pixel, send tracked information to Meta to monetize users queries, in violation of federal and state wiretap laws, the suit alleges. That suit is on hold pending mediation efforts. Numerous other lawsuits making similar allegations had been filed against companies including retailer Costco, publisher Healthline Media, kidney dialysis services company DaVita Inc., laboratory services company Labcorp of America and health care network Scripps Health. The Monterey Melt is one of the menu items Whataburger is bringing back for its 75th anniversary this year. Photo courtesy Whataburger If youve been mourning the disappearance of the Monterey Melt and the Chicken Fajita Taco from Whataburgers menu, dry your tears. The San Antonio-based fast-food chain is bringing both items back starting Tuesday in honor of its 75th anniversary this year. The melt pairs two beef patties with Monterey Jack and American cheeses, grilled onions and peppers and Whataburgers jalapeno ranch sauce, while the fajita taco combines seared onions, poblano peppers and red peppers with grilled chicken breast in a flour tortilla. Customers have lamented the discontinuation of both items on social media and started an online petition pleading with the company to bring back the melt. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Whataburger also is rolling out a new beverage flavor for hot and iced coffee and shakes: Mexican Hot Chocolate. Were just getting warmed up for this 75th celebration. Leading up to our big birthday on August 8, Whataburger will reach back into WhataVault to choose other legendary menu items that customers have requested via social media, online petitions, emails, and snail mail to add to the menu for a limited time, the company said Thursday. The company said it also will begin offering monthly deals on its merchandise priced at $19.50, an homage to the year it was founded. The company is partnering with Wrangler on a 24-piece collection of denim jackets, jeans, graphic tees and ball caps that will be released this spring. Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton founded Whataburger in 1950 in Corpus Christi. Their idea was to serve a burger so big that it took two hands to hold, and so good that after a single bite customers couldnt help but exclaim, What a burger! Advertisement Article continues below this ad The company steadily expanded, with 17 restaurants open in Texas, Florida and Tennessee by 1960 and more than 200 restaurants across 12 states by the 1970s. Executives moved Whataburgers headquarters to San Antonio in 2009. They were concerned about potential hurricane damage, as they had shut down Corpus operations and set up temporary offices in San Antonio more than once because of storms. The company also had outgrown its space in Corpus and San Antonios larger workforce was appealing. In 2019, the Dobson family sold its majority stake in Whataburger to Chicago-based private equity firm BDT Capital Partners, which is now known as BDT & MSD after it merged with another firm in 2023. BDT said it planned to quickly expand the burger chain after years of slow, steady growth. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Whataburger began franchising again and adding stores in new cities as well as existing markets. Since 2019, the company has expanded from 828 locations in 10 states and sales of more than $2 billion annually to 1,080 locations in 16 states and sales of more than $4 billion annually. The terror attack in New Orleans in which a US Army veteran drove a pickup truck that bore the flag of Islamicc State into a crowd and killed 15 people dominates Thursday's front pages. The Irish Times leads with the attack, which occurred on New Year's Eve as people celebrated in New Orleans. The Irish Examinr leads with a report that found Irish house prices rose by 9 per cent in 2024. Advertisement The Irish Independent also leads with the New Orleans attack. The Echo leads with a story on hospital overcrowding in Cork. The Irish Sun leads with a story on the murder investigation after Mirjana Pap's body was discovered in Co Roscommon. Today's front page of The Irish Sun pic.twitter.com/QD8I5xc48L The Irish Sun (@IrishSunOnline) January 2, 2025 The Herald leads with the New Ross murder investigation. In the North, the Belfast Telegraph leads with a Northern Irish man in New Orleans describing the horror in the city in the aftermath of the terror attack. The Irish News leads with a story on unlawful stop-and-search operations. Today's #frontpage: PSNI fork out significant five-figure sum over unlawful stop-and-search operations pic.twitter.com/OKbIx95gkf The Irish News (@irish_news) January 2, 2025 The American horror story also leads Thursdays UK news, with dozens killed or injured in a terror attack in the US city of New Orleans. Advertisement The Daily Mirror, The Times, and The Daily Express all lead on the violent vehicular assault on revellers as they rang in the New Year on the citys famous Bourbon Street. Thursday's TIMES: 'Terrorist' truck attacker kills 10 in New Orleans#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/V8dEN0CqGW Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) January 1, 2025 Thursday's DAILY EXPRESS: Terror driver 'hellbent on carnage' kills 10#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/eo8yqzplpq Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) January 1, 2025 The Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian splash on FBI confirmation that the truck, driven by a 42-year-old Texan man, was adorned with an Islamic State flag when it mowed down innocent partygoers on Wednesday morning. Thursday's DAILY MAIL: New Orleans killer had Isis flag on truck#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/RsgdGbhdO2 Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) January 1, 2025 Thursday's DAILY TELEGRAPH: IS cell behind New Orleans terror#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/DXbshJ1AUe Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) January 1, 2025 Thursday's GUARDIAN: Ten dead after truck flying IS flag drives into crowd in New Orleans#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/k1ya06uvJP Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) January 1, 2025 The i shifts focus onto home soil, leading with a report on the UKs Covid courts, which will remain in operation until 2028 thanks to a significant case backlog. Thursday's i: Covid courts to stay open - as backlog delays trials to 2028#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/vol7UcYsxv Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) January 1, 2025 The Financial Times leads with a piece on tech giant Nvidia, as the Silicon Valley-based conglomerate makes major moves in the artificial intelligence sector. Advertisement Thursday's FINANCIAL TIMES UK EDITION: Nvidia pumps $1bn into AI start-ups riding on revolution its chips started#TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/JESv3w4Zwl Jack Surfleet (@jacksurfleet) January 1, 2025 And, lastly, the Daily Star tells the tale of Hilda, a rather special IVF-bred calf, who is destined to save the world with her fart-free constitution. Introducing #TomorrowsPapersToday from: Daily Star The cow that saved the world Discover more newspapers at https://t.co/vX9dQF0H0Y Support press freedom and buy a newspaper #buyapaper #pressfreedom #journalist pic.twitter.com/BUaI2MyduR The Sentinel Current (@sentinelcurrent) January 1, 2025 The New York Times leads with the New Orleans terror attack. Last month, in the waning days of the Biden administration, the SEC set a tight deadline of several days for demanding that Elon Musk pay a settlement or face civil charges relating to alleged securities violations during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022. Mr Musk broke the news himself in a social-media post: Oh Gary, how could you do this to me? he wrote, referring to SEC chair Gary Gensler. Advertisement He added a smiley-face emoji but attached a legal letter condemning the improperly motivated ultimatum: We demand to know who directed these actionswhether it was you or the White House. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment on the incident. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The SEC is not the only investigative agency Mr Musk has defied and accused of political harassment. The billionaire has long railed against government oversight, portraying himself as a victim of bureaucratic zealots stifling his companies potentially life-saving innovations. The White House will soon be occupied by Donald Trump whom Mr Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help elect rather than Joe Biden, who appointed Mr Gensler. Mr Trump has already named a new SEC chair to replace Mr Gensler, who plans to resign when Mr Trump is inaugurated. Advertisement Probes into Musk's empire Mr Musks potential to have extraordinary clout with the new administration raises questions about the fate of federal investigations and regulatory actions affecting his business empire, of which at least 20 are ongoing, according to three sources familiar with SpaceX and Tesla operations and the companies interaction with the US government, as well as five current and former officials who have direct knowledge of individual probes into Mr Musks companies. The inquiries include examinations of the alleged securities violations; questions over the safety of Teslas Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems; potential animal-welfare violations in Neuralinks brain-chip experiments; and alleged pollution, hiring-discrimination and licensing problems at SpaceX. Mr Musk, Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink did not respond to comment requests. Before the election, Mr Musk posted: I have never asked for any favors, nor has he offered me any. A Trump-transition spokesperson called Mr Musk a brilliant entrepreneur and said Mr Trumps administration would ensure law and order, treating all Americans equally". Advertisement The Musk-related cases could languish or be dropped by Trump-appointed agency and department heads, the current and former US officials said. Mr Trumps DOJ picks, for example, include lawyers who defended him in criminal and impeachment trials and a nominee for FBI chief whom Mr Musk vocally supported and who has repeatedly vowed to pursue Mr Trumps enemies, one current and three former DOJ officials said. Lower-level DOJ officials could also exercise prosecutorial discretion to avoid aggressively pursuing Mr Musk companies in light of his relationship with Mr Trump, said Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney in Detroit during the Obama administration who also worked as a federal prosecutor during the George W Bush and Clinton administrations. "To the extent they want to please the boss, I think they know how to do that. Risk of political interference Some legal experts downplayed the risk of political interference from Mr Musk, noting that an investigation's lack of progress could signal insufficient evidence. Advertisement Its also possible that prosecutors who believe they have strong cases will push forward regardless of Mr Musks role, legal experts said. "I don't think there's as much risk of Musk infiltrating to influence cases, said Robert Frenchman, a white-collar defense lawyer at Dynamis in New York. Most prosecutors bring cases they think they can win. Representatives of the DOJ and all departments and agencies with pending inquiries into Mr Musk or his companies did not comment on the probes or their ability to enforce regulations against Trump allies during his second term. The EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said they would continue fulfilling their legal and regulatory responsibilities. 'First buddy' Since the election, Mr Musk has called himself Mr Trump's "first buddy," frequented Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago club, shared Thanksgiving with the president-elect's family and weighed in publicly on his cabinet appointments. Advertisement Mr Trump appointed Mr Musk to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, a private entity advising on slashing budgets and regulations. It remains unclear what authority the role will carry. Mr Musk has touted his newfound influence and given specific examples of how he might use it. Before the election, Mr Musk said he would seek to use his efficiency-czar post to advance national driverless-vehicle regulations that would almost certainly benefit Tesla and eliminate irrational rules such as one resulting in a pollution fine against SpaceX. NHTSA officials have repeatedly scrutinised Tesla for nearly a decade, at times enraging Mr Musk. During one 2016 call, he screamed profanities at regulators launching the first of several investigations into Teslas Autopilot driver-assistance system after a fatal crash, according to two people familiar with the matter. There are currently five ongoing and open NHTSA probes covering driver-assistance technology and other operations in Tesla vehicles. Tesla autopilot Tesla has blamed Tesla drivers in defending itself against lawsuits and investigations over accidents involving FSD and Autopilot, saying it had warned drivers to pay attention. A DOJ probe into whether Tesla and Mr Musk exaggerated its vehicles self-driving capabilities is among those where investigators have faced challenges. Prosecutors have grappled with demonstrating that Mr Musk and Tesla crossed a line from legal salesmanship into knowingly making false claims that misled investors and harmed consumers. The probe had stalled before the election in part due to the legal hurdles, a person familiar with the investigation said. Another probe, by the US attorneys office in Manhattan, involves the driving range of Tesla vehicles and followed a Reuters investigation that found the automaker had rigged its in-dash displays to give drivers rosy projections about how many miles they could drive on battery power. It was unclear how far the probe has progressed. "To our knowledge no government agency in any ongoing investigation has concluded that any wrongdoing occurred," Tesla said in quarterly SEC filings. Reuters was the first to report some Trump auto-policy advisors have recommended killing a requirement that automakers report data on crashes involving automated-driving systems, a measure that could cripple NHTSAs ability to investigate and regulate the emerging technologys safety. Rockets and Nasa SpaceX already faces little regulatory scrutiny because the government has outsourced much of its space missions to Mr Musk's rocket-and-satellite firm, according to two former SpaceX officials and a current government official familiar with the companys interactions with Nasa, the EPA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). During a September summit, Mr Musk labelled insane an EPA inquiry that resulted in SpaceX agreeing to a proposed $148,378 fine for dumping pollutants, which Musk said were actually drinking water". The FAA separately in September proposed fining SpaceX $633,000 for allegedly failing to follow license requirements and not getting approval for changes during two launches in 2023. Mr Musk called for FAA chief Mike Whitaker to resign in September, shortly after the FAA fined SpaceX and delayed one of its launches. Whitaker said last month he would step down before Mr Trump's term. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Mr Musk has been in regular contact with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Three sources familiar with SpaceXs government interactions said any scrutiny into Mr Musks contacts with a US adversary would be unlikely under Mr Trump, who has picked tech billionaire Jared Isaacman to run Nasa. Mr Isaacman has financed and joined two private space missions involving SpaceX. Nasa declined to comment and Isaacman and a media representative for Mr Isaacman's company did not respond to a request for comment. Mr Musk did not respond to requests for comment regarding his reported contacts with Putin. In one instance, he responded with two laughing and crying emojis to a social-media post on X suggesting that Musk critics were attempting to portray him as a Russian agent. Rosita Missoni, the matriarch of the Italian fashion house that turned colourful zigzag-patterned knitwear into high fashion, has died aged 93. Missoni SpA confirmed the death and planned a statement along with the family later, said Alberto Gualeni, an international spokesperson for the company in Milan. Advertisement Local officials offered condolences and recalled Missonis ties to the small northern city of Gallarate where the brand was born in an artisans shop in 1953. Born Rosita Jelmini, Missoni grew up in a family that owned a textile factory that produced shawls. Italian designers Ottavio and Rosita Missoni founded a fashion brand (Antonio Calanni/AP) When she met and married Ottavio Missoni, they founded their eponymous fashion house in Gallarate that would turn into a fashion dynasty, with the couples three children and their offspring involved in expanding the brand. The Missonis got their first break in 1958, when the Rinascente department store commissioned 500 colourful vertically striped shirt dresses the first to carry the Missoni label. Advertisement The Missonis first showed their collection in Milan in 1966 and the brand helped turn the city into a fashion mecca. Their signature fashions, with the trademark graphic zigzags, long had a reputation for wearability and for surviving many seasons of changing trends. Family members were often the brands best models, wearing Missoni creations in everyday life. The founders turned over the business to their children in 1997, though Rosita remained involved in the Missoni home collection. Rosita and Ottavio Missoni take to the catwalk after presenting their fashion collection in 1982 in Milan (AP) In 2013, as the company celebrated its 60th anniversary, the family endured a double tragedy. Advertisement The eldest Missoni son and the companys CEO, Vittorio Missoni, died when a plane carrying him and five others disappeared off Venezuela. It took six months to locate the wreckage in the sea off the South American country, during which time patriarch Ottavio Missoni died, aged 92. In 2018, the family sold a 41.2% stake to the Italian investment fund FSI but maintained majority control of the house. In 2021, the youngest daughter, Angela Missoni, stepped down as creative director after 24 years. A major incident has been declared in Greater Manchester after flooding forced homes to be evacuated and closed train lines and roads following heavy rain. Hundreds of people were set to be evacuated from their homes on Wednesday, Greater Manchester Police said. Advertisement The major incident had been declared as mountain rescue teams have been deployed to help Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service deal with damaged properties and stranded vehicles, the police force added. The North West and Wales have seen heavy rain on Wednesday, which comes after the Met Office said some parts of the North West saw almost a months worth of rain within 48 hours. Honister Pass in Cumbria saw nearly 6in (150mm) of rain, while Rochdale in Greater Manchester had 3in (77mm). The police force added that the affected areas still under monitoring are Didsbury, Stockport, Trafford and Wigan. Advertisement (PA Graphics) Around 450 people were evacuated on Wednesday evening from a Didsbury hotel, while 400 homes were at a lower risk with no widespread evacuation needed, police said. About 400 occupants of a block of flats in Meadow Mill, Stockport, were also due to be evacuated on Wednesday. Chief Superintendent Colette Rose said: We are continuing to monitor the whole of Greater Manchester as we look to co-ordinate the emergency response involving a variety of services. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service have been key to this to ensure we can keep those people and communities safe after the severe weather we have had. Advertisement Thankfully, due to the efforts of all involved so far, no-one has been seriously injured or come to harm and we would like to thank members of the public for their continued co-operation, especially around the road closures in place and looking out for each other. Anyone still affected should continue to check the relevant detail being shared by their local council, the fire service and Transport for Greater Manchester to ensure they can get the support available that may be needed. Rain falls as people gather to watch the New Years Day Parade in central London (Jonathan Brady/PA) UK floods minister Emma Hardy said she met officials from the British Environment Agency on Wednesday to ensure that impacted communities are receiving the necessary support and added she wants to express my heartfelt thanks for the vital work that the Environment Agency and emergency services are doing to keep people safe. She added: The Government is working at pace to accelerate the building of flood defences through our new Floods Resilience Taskforce, so we can continue to protect people and their homes. Advertisement Councillor Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, said: We have been working closely with the police, fire service and Environment Agency through the night to monitor water levels across the city and provide support and guidance to our residents who might be affected. Some residents have been asked to evacuate where the Environment Agency has issued flood warnings, and these residents have been contacted directly and supported. Thankfully we are seeing signs that water levels are beginning to fall, and it is unlikely that further evacuations will be necessary. However, water levels will continue to be monitored over the coming hours. Advertisement A DFDS ferry arrives in stormy conditions at the Port of Dover in Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA) Tom Coulthard, a geography professor at the University of Hull from Didsbury, south Manchester, said they have had 70 to 80mm in the Greater Manchester region after measuring it on a rain gauge at his home. It started raining heavily at about 5 or 6pm on Tuesday evening, and then it just rained hard all night, Prof Coulthard told the PA news agency. All the local rivers and water courses have sort of filled up and flooded around the area. All around this part of south Manchester, Cheadle, bits of Cheshire, theres been local flooding. Roads closed. The motorway was closed, the M60, the M56 to Manchester Airport, that was all closed off. The last record level was set in Didsbury in February 2022, these record levels in the rivers around here are tumbling every year or every couple of years. Thats really probably a sign of just how our weather is changing, how climate is shifting this. This is in line with all sorts of the predictions that people in my profession have been talking about for 20 years or more, the impacts of climate change will be sort of warmer, wetter winters. Rain falls as marching band members from Riverview High School in Florida prepare to take part in the New Years Day Parade in central London (Jonathan Brady/PA) Prof Coulthard said that while his home was not impacted by the flooding, a local hotel was evacuated at 5am on Wednesday morning. He added: Were some distance above the river, so were OK. We have friends whove had some very close escapes last night. A total of 90 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, were in place for England on Wednesday afternoon, with nine for Wales and 15 for Scotland. Ben Lukey, flood duty manager at the Environment Agency, said significant inland flooding is possible after heavy and persistent rain and river levels will remain high across parts of the north of England until Thursday. He said: Environment Agency teams will be out on the ground, operating flood defences, taking action to reduce the impact of flooding, issuing flood warnings and supporting those communities affected. We advise anyone travelling or out celebrating the new year to be especially careful and urge people to stay away from swollen rivers and not to drive through floodwater as just 30cm of flowing water is enough to move your car. A number of train routes have been disrupted or blocked by flooding, mainly in the north west of England, with some Northern services, TransPennine Express services, Transport for Wales services, and South Western Railway services affected. National Highways said a section of the A628 Woodhead Pass between Woolley Bridge and Flouch is closed due to flooding, as is the westbound M56 between Junction 6 for Manchester Airport and Junction 8 for Bowdon. In Bristol, the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol has been activated by Bristol City Council and homeless charity St Mungos, which will run until January 8th, which will see increased outreach shifts and more accommodation made available, with the aim of ensuring nobody has to sleep on the streets during such extreme weather conditions. A yellow warning for snow and ice is in place covering northern Scotland until 10am on Thursday, as rain turning to snow is likely to lead to some travel disruption and difficult driving conditions, the Met Office said. Meanwhile, a yellow warning for ice has been issued from 4pm on Wednesday until 10am on Thursday, covering Northern Ireland, parts of North Wales, England and Scotland, which could also lead to difficult travel conditions. Yellow weather warning issued A risk of snow across parts of Scotland, England and Wales Saturday 1200 Monday 0900 Latest info https://t.co/QwDLMfRBfs Stay #WeatherAware pic.twitter.com/38go97OR7a Met Office (@metoffice) January 1, 2025 And a three-day yellow warning for snow has been issued for almost all of England and Wales and parts of Scotland this weekend as the Met Office warned that rural communities could become cut off. Schools could potentially be closed and there is a chance of power cuts and road closures as well as delays and cancellations to flights and trains, the forecaster said. A yellow warning is in place from noon on Saturday until 9am on Monday and covers all regions of England other than the South West, the majority of Wales and parts of southern Scotland. About 5cm of snow is expected widely across the Midlands, Wales and northern England, with as much as 20-30cm over high ground in Wales and/or the Pennines, the forecaster added. Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: At the moment weve issued a very large snow warning for Saturday until Monday but it doesnt mean that everywhere within that warning could see snow, its just a heads-up there could be some impacts. A US army veteran driving a pick-up truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group has killed at least 15 people as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into New Years Eve revellers in New Orleans before being shot dead by police. The FBI said it is investigating the attack early on Wednesday in the citys French Quarter as a terrorist act and does not believe the driver acted alone. Advertisement Investigators found multiple improvised explosive devices, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by the Associated Press. The bulletin, relying on information gathered soon after the attack, also said surveillance footage showed three men and a woman placing one of the devices. The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into mayhem, injuring more than 30 people. Pedestrians fled to safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. One man watched in horror as authorities placed a tarpaulin over his friends body after she was hit and thrown nine metres. Advertisement This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. The driver defeated safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, she said, and was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did. The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen and Army veteran from Texas, and said it is working to determine Jabbars potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organisations. Emergency services at the scene after a vehicle drove into a crowd in New Orleans (Gerald Herbert/AP) We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible, Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBIs New Orleans field office, said at a news conference. Advertisement Jabbar drove a rented pick-up truck on to a pavement, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was undergoing repairs in preparation for the Super Bowl, which is scheduled to take place there in February. Police killed Jabbar after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Ms Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two officers were shot and are in stable condition. At least 33 other people were hurt in the attack. US president Joe Biden said Jabbar had posted video on social media indicating he was inspired by the Islamic State group. Mr Biden said the man had expressed a desire to kill. Advertisement He said the investigation remained fluid. The president said: I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you. A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed. The intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said he was wearing a ballistic vest and helmet. The flag of the so-called Islamic State group was on the trucks trailer hitch, the FBI said. Advertisement Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle. New Orleans police and the FBI were at odds over whether the attack was terrorism-related (Gerald Herbert/AP) Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck barrelling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air. Mr Parsons said he heard gunshots and ran through a gruesome aftermath of bleeding and maimed victims. Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering, Mr Parsons told the AP. People crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground. His friend, 18-year-old aspiring nurse Nikyra Dedeaux, was among the people killed. Mr Parsons said he called hospitals and the morgue, searching for answers about the location of Ms Dedeauxs body. He later called her family to deliver the grim news. I hadnt had time to cry up until I called her mother and she asked me, Wheres my baby, Mr Parsons said. That broke me. Hours after the attack, several coroners office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades. Explained What we know about vehicle attack in New Orleans t... Read More We looked out our front door and saw caution tape and dead silence and its eerie, said Tessa Cundiff, an Indiana native who moved to the French Quarter a few years ago. This is not what we fell in love with, its sad. President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Delaware, said he felt anger and frustration over the attack but that he would refrain from further comment until more is known. My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday, Mr Biden said in a statement. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nations communities. Three people, including a child, have been rescued from floodwaters after a rain-hit region was again inundated by heavy downpours. Southern and central Queensland endured more flash flooding in the early hours of Thursday after experiencing similar conditions on New Years Eve. Paramedics assessed two adults and a child after a vehicle became stuck in floodwaters at 1.46am at Lockrose, west of Brisbane. A flooded bridge near Kingaroy this week. Credit: Deb Frecklington The trio were uninjured and did not require hospital treatment, the Queensland Ambulance Service said. The mystery of strange radio signals coming from space may have been solved by scientists. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long pulses of radio waves so powerful they can travel billions of light years and be picked up on Earth. They were discovered in 2007 and theoretical physicists such as Professor Avi Loeb, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, have suggested they could emanate from alien civilisations. Radio waves twinkle, or scintillate, as they pass through interstellar medium, giving scientists an idea of where they originated. Credit: Getty Images Now scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have pinpointed the origins of one FRB and found it to be suspiciously close to a neutron star an ultra-dense collapsed star that is just the size of a city but has the mass of the sun. Rhyma Castillo is a trending reporter for the Express-News and a member of its Digital Go Team. She can be reached at rhyma.castillo@express-news.net. A native of San Antonio and a Texas A&M University graduate, she is a journalist with nearly a decade of experience. She has reported on politics, immigration, climate change, gun violence, and workers rights. Additionally, she excels in lifestyle and entertainment writing, covering music, television, video games, technology, and relationships. In her free time, she enjoys painting, drawing, cooking, hiking, climbing, gardening, playing video games, cuddling with her cats, and making music with her band. It may seem crass for Donald Trump to be using the New Orleans terrorist attack to score political points but he knows, like every successful politician, that you should never let a good crisis go to waste. No sooner had Fox News claimed that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect, had entered the country through the Texas border two days ago than the president-elects son, Donald Trump Jr, posted on X: Bidens parting gift to America migrant terrorists. Donald Trump knows he should never let a good crisis go to waste. Credit: AP Over on Truth Social, the platform favoured by the president-elect, Donald Trump Sr repeated his previous claim that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, which he said had been denied by the fake news media but had turned out to be true. Democrats will, of course, condemn Trump for shameless opportunism, but they will also know that his comments will cut through with the voting public in America. Liz Teitz covers environmental news and the Hill Country for the San Antonio Express-News. She writes about the San Antonio Water System, news in New Braunfels and Comal County and water issues around Central Texas. She can be reached at liz.teitz@express-news.net. Liz joined the Express-News in June 2023. She has been a reporter for eight years, covering housing, government, education and other topics for the Ouray County Plaindealer, Hearst Connecticut Media Group and the Beaumont Enterprise. Liz grew up in Rhode Island and graduated from Georgetown University. The Energy Trust of Oregon helps people, businesses and organizations use less energy and save money on their energy bills. They also help connect customers to clean, renewable power. At this years Northwest Ag Show, the Energy Trust and the Oregon Department of Energy are working together to help farmers and ranchers save on their electrical bills. Representatives of both the Energy Trust and the Department of Energy will be on hand to discuss farmers individual situations and needs. Energy Trust serves 1.6 million utility customers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. That includes a large variety of people and communities: ranchers, farmers, renters, homeowners, schools, hospitals and even cities and towns in rural and urban areas. The independent nonprofit works closely with farmers to understand their operations, what their needs are, and help them identify which projects or changes could help them the most. It may consist of significant energy savings by updating a heating and cooling system or making changes to an irrigation system that result in sizable energy and water savings. Energy Trust offers irrigation rebates and incentives for big projects, like converting to drip irrigation, but also smaller upgrades. For example, farmers can purchase gaskets to replace leaky ones and receive financial assistance by simply sending in a rebate form. In addition to irrigation, Energy Trust also helps lower the cost of installing other energy-saving materials and equipment often used on farms and nurseries. Upgrades to lighting systems, insulation, heating and cooling systems and greenhouses are geared to improve the environment, save costs for the operator and make an operation run better overall. Oregon farmers have to manage the land while also successfully running a small business and we exist to help them do that, Kegan Craig of Energy Trust said. From heating and cooling to irrigation, we have funding and resources for upgrades that could lower their costs and cut down maintenance time. Every farm and business has its own challenges, Craig said. We collaborate with owners one-on-one and then help them identify what changes could be most helpful in saving them energy, water and money. Celeste Jackson, owner of the Dirty Cowgirl Saloon in Wasco, Ore., received cash incentives from Energy Trust and a grant from the USDAs Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) to help ease the financial burden of replacing outdated HVAC equipment. When they purchased the 100-plus-year-old building, all the equipment and every appliance was more than 30 years old. The Dirty Cowgirl Saloons new equipment qualified for $1,300 in Energy Trust cash incentives, which, combined with the REAP grant, funded just over half of the upgrade. Now employees and customers at the bar and restaurant enjoy reliable, efficient heating and cooling that saves the business over $200 a year on utility costs. A smart thermostat installation saves them another $100 a year on utility bills. Energy Trust and the state Department of Energy invite anyone interested in saving energy and increasing overall efficiency to stop by Booths 49 and 50 at the Northwest Ag Show to talk with a representative about how to start saving energy. People gather for a star gazing party at Boerne City Lake. This week will feature Quadrantid meteor shower, which NASA expects to peak Friday. Kin Man Hui/San Antonio Express-News Get away from city lights and look up the first meteor shower of the new year will peak at the end of this week. The shower typically delivers 20 to 30 meteors per hour under clear, dark skies during the peak, NASA said in a recent blog post. But it could produce as many as 200 per hour. Advertisement Article continues below this ad This weeks peak isnt the only chance to look at the shower. The meteors will be visible through Jan. 16. And all month long, four planets Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars will be visible with the naked eye. Unlike other showers, the Quadrantid meteors dont produce a long streak. Instead, they are known for their bright fireball meteors, which are larger explosions of light and color. NASA recommends that people view the shower during the night and predawn hours, away from city lights. Viewers should lay flat on the ground with feet facing northeast. Advertisement Article continues below this ad It can take about 30 minutes for a persons eyes to adapt to the darkness and start noticing the meteors. A CARLOW girl is officially a golden brainbox having been named the winner of RTE Kids series Whats Next? Kate Butler (12) from Barrowville, Kilkenny Road, Carlow was announced as overall winner of the popular show, which brought young innovators from across Ireland to develop solutions to some of the planets biggest challenges. It all culminated in an exciting season finale recently, where Kates invention Lights Out an app that gamifies energy saving impressed judges Mark The Science Guy Langtry and Fionn Ferreira the most. The show, created by Irish production company HopSkip Studios, challenged young minds to tackle environmental issues through creativity with a little help from social media star Adam Beales, actress Demi Isaac Oviawe and comedian MC Fitzpatrick. The winners of each episode went head to head in the final, with Carlows Kate emerging tops! Having secured her title of golden brainbox as the winner, Kate then had the chance to meet Rajesh Jaiswal at Technical University Dublin and ultimately pitch her idea to millionaire entrepreneur and investor Norman Crowley of pioneering energy-efficiency company Cool Planet. Kates innovative app shows how technology can empower us to make greener choices in our everyday lives using smart meters, appliances and wearables to turn eco-friendly habits into a game we can all challenge ourselves to win. Huge congratulations to every single one of our finalists and, in particular, Kate, who has proven herself to be a worthy winner of the title of Golden Brainbox, said Aisling Gallagher of HopSkip Studios. Throughout the series, our young disruptors and celebrity researchers MC, Adam and Demi came up with such brilliant ideas, giving our excellent episode judge Fionn Ferreira some really tough decisions. In the exciting final episode, we had really valuable input from Rajesh Jaiswal, Mark Langtry and Norman Crowley, who kindly shared their time, expertise and insights. We have no doubt that the young people in this season, including our fantastic winner Kate, will go on to achieve big things with their ideas and we cant wait to see whats next for them, she added. A first-year student at St Leos College, Carlow, Kate is the daughter of David and Paula Butler and has an older brother Noel. Recent weeks have been a very exciting and busy time for Kate, who is also a member of Spotlight Stage School and part of the cast for the Olympia Theatres Christmas panto Freezin, starring alongside Fair Citys Ryan Andrews and Maclean Burke, and comedian Al Porter. Kate is also represented by SRL Talent Management, run by Carlows Shauna Ray Lacey. Whats Next? is available to watch on RTE Player. Advertisement Landowners in Lukenya West, Mavoko, have called on the Kenyan government to halt developments on disputed parcels of land previously owned by East African Portland Cement Co (EAPC). The property was transferred to Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) as part of a debt settlement deal, with landowners required to pay KES200,000 (US$1547.20) per plot for regularisation. Despite making these payments, residents allege that a new developer, backed by armed security, has encroached on their land. Mark Nzioki, who owns eight plots, reported paying KES1.6m in fees, only to find trenches and construction activities on his property. Similarly, Timothy Kioko, a long-term landowner, expressed frustration over threats to demolish his structures despite having receipts from KCB. Machakos Woman Representative, Kamene Kasimbi, criticised KCB for allegedly accepting payments while selling the land to a new developer. She has urged immediate government intervention to prevent further chaos in Mavoko. KCB has acknowledged the grievances and stated that it is investigating the matter. Advertisement Cement dispatches in Colombia declined by 7.9 per cent YoY to 1.016Mt in November 2024 from 1.103Mt in November 2023, reported the country's statistics office, DANE. Cement production in Colombia picked up by 0.9 per cent YoY to 1.122Mt in November 2024 when compared with 1.112Mt reported in November 2023, according to DANE. Dispatches of bulk cement were down by 9.3 per cent YoY while bagged cement dispatches declined by 7.3 per cent YoY. Ready-mix concrete companies reduced their off-take in November 2024 by 19 per cent while sales to construction firms and contractors fell by 2.8 per cent. Dispatches to the retail and wholesale businesses were down by 3.9 per cent YoY. January-November 2024 In the January-November 2024 period cement consumption in Colombia shrank by 5.9 per cent YoY to 11.108Mt from 11.8Mt in the year-ago period. Bulk cement dispatches saw a 4.8 per cent YoY drop and bagged cement sales fell by 6.4 per cent YoY in November 2024. Sales to ready-mix concrete companies decreased by 8.2 per cent YoY. Dispatches to construction firms and contractors fell by 6.1 per cent YoY. The wholesale and retail sector reduced its off-take by 3.1 per cent. Domestic production was down five per cent YoY to 12.28Mt in the 11M24 from 12.92Mt. The Bernie Beck Gate at Fort Cavazos. Gen. Richard E. Cavazos was the Armys first Hispanic four-star general and a decorated veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. Billy Calzada/Staff photographer The late Army Gen. Richard Cavazos, a larger-than-life San Antonian who served as a role model for Hispanic soldiers, will be awarded the Medal of Honor. The White House announced that President Joe Biden will give Cavazos, for whom Fort Hood was renamed in 2023, and six others the nations highest medal for battlefield valor in a Jan. 3 ceremony. All but one of the recipients are dead. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Cavazos will be honored for his role in a battle on June 14, 1953 in the closing days of a bitterly fought Korean War when he served as the commander of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 65th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. The bilingual Cavazos led his men, most of whom were Puerto Ricans who spoke only Spanish, in a raid on the enemy near Sagimak, Korea. A United States Army National Museum biography said his ability to speak Spanish bolstered the unit "after a series of commanders who spoke no Spanish, which resulted in confusion and chaos during battles." Cavazos received the Distinguished Service Cross for his role in the raid. A commendation that accompanied his medal, awarded within a few months of the battle, described his actions that day. Then-Lt. Richard Cavazos led three assaults in the Korean War and made three trips to save injured GIs. He later became the first Latino 4-star general. "Lieutenant Cavazos three times led the company through the heavy barrage in assaults on the enemy position, each time destroying vital enemy equipment and personnel," the commendation stated. "When the United Nations element was ordered to withdraw, Lieutenant Cavazos remained alone on the enemy outpost to search the area for missing men." Advertisement Article continues below this ad "Exposed to heavy hostile fire, Lieutenant Cavazos located five men who had been wounded in the action," it said. "He evacuated them, one at a time, to a point on the reverse slope of the hill from which they could be removed to the safety of the friendly lines." Cavazos' only son, Tommy Cavazos, 59, of Albuquerque, N.M., said his father's love for his soldiers "drove him up the hill that night in 1953 to collect the men of his company and get them to safety." Family members say Cavazos' heroics that day were rarely discussed and practically forgotten when Biden called Laura Blevins, one of Cavazos' daughters, to let her know her father would receive the Medal of Honor. "I called my sister and we were talking about it, and I said, Nobody would tell me why this all came up again. And when I was talking to my sister, I said, You dont think that there was some kind of bias because dad was Hispanic? Its like, Oh, yeah," Blevins, 68, of Magnolia, near Houston, told the San Antonio Express-News. "See, it never occurred to me because Dad never made a deal out of it. I was aware that hes Hispanic, but it was never an issue to him. You know, he just proved himself." Two decades ago, Congress ordered a review of Jewish and Hispanic veterans' war records from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars to ensure those deserving the Medal of Honor were not denied because of prejudice. The military determined that 19 soldiers including two soldiers from San Antonio, Santiago Jesus Erevia and Sgt. 1st Class Jose Rodela had been worthy of the Medal of Honor but hadn't received it because of their race. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Col. Kevin Bradley of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment ands wife, Alison, stand by an image of Gen. Richard E. Cavazos after Fort Hood was redesignated as Fort Cavazos in 2023 Billy Calzada/Staff photographer They were honored by President Barack Obama at a March 18, 2014, ceremony at the White House. Cavazos will be among five Korean War veterans and two from the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor on Friday. The others include Vietnam War veterans Pfc. Kenneth J. David and Capt. Hugh R. Nelson Jr., who will be honored posthumously. The Korean War veterans include Pfc. Wataru Nakamura, Pfc. Charles R. Johnson, Cpl. Fred B. McGee, Pvt. Bruno R. Orig and Cavazos. Cavazos died at 88 in San Antonio on Oct. 29, 2017, and is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. He was also a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Word of the decision delighted retired Army Maj. Gen. Freddie Valenzuela, a former commander of U.S. Army South, who said Cavazos was one of his mentors. "That is unbelievable! Oh my God! That made my day," he said. "Most deserved. That really is the best news I've ever heard. "What a role model, what a mentor. He was a true hero," Valenzuela, 76, of San Antonio. A lieutenant who fought under Cavazos in Vietnam, Mel "Brave" Brav, 82, of San Diego, Calif., said, "It couldn't go to a nicer, better deserving person." Hes one of these kind of guys in the military, we used to say, He looked good from the top his commanders thought the world of him and he looked good from the bottom, because every troop thought the world of him, Charles Carden, one of his company commanders in Vietnam, said in a previous interview. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Middle Valley Church of God, located at 1703 Thrasher Pike in Hixson, announces that Pastor Mitch McClure will be preaching on Sunday, January 5, in the 10:30 a.m.service. His sermon title will be, You Have To Have A Foundation To Build Upon. All are welcome to participate. Each Sunday at 5:30 p.m. the church conducts a Prayer Meeting. The Prayer Meeting is open to all who wish to participate and is designed to encourage prayer. Each Wednesday at 7 p.m., an Interactive, Interesting, and Informative Bible Study will be held in the church auditorium. All are welcome to participate. Middle Valley Church of God is a community focused church with various ministries in the Middle Valley area and in Cusuna, Honduras. The community is welcome to join in times of worship and community service. MVCOG has been servicing the Middle Valley Community since 1948 in the same location. If you have questions, please contact the church office at 423.843.1539. All are welcome. The Advisory Board for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will meet on Wednesday, Jan. 8, in the James R. Mapp Building (410 E. 8th St.). The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. ET. The UTC Advisory Board was created pursuant to the UT FOCUS Act passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2018. The board is comprised of five members appointed by the governor and approved by the General Assembly, one UTC faculty representative appointed by the UTC Faculty Senate and one UTC student representative. The full agenda and materials for the meeting are available by contacting the individual below. Disabled persons who wish to attend the meeting may contact the individual below to request auxiliary aids or services needed to facilitate attendance. Contact may be made in person, in writing, by email, by telephone or other manner and no later than 5 p.m. ET on Monday, Jan. 6. All Hamilton County, Tennessee students in grades K-12 are invited to submit original works of prose and poetry for the 2025 Young Southern Student Writers contest hosted by SoLit and the UTC English Department. Entries must be submitted by Friday, Jan 31. UTC English faculty and graduate students will evaluate all entries based on creativity, content and style to select the outstanding writers in each category from each school. These young writers will be presented medals at a ceremony to be held in April at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall in the UTC Fine Arts Center. Winning entries will also be featured in an online publication. K-12 students from any public, private, or homeschool program in Hamilton County are eligible to enter via their teacher or homeschool supervisor. Each student may submit one entry per category. The maximum length for prose entries is 1000 words; maximum length for poetry entries is 50 lines. Each entry must be the students original work, and it must not have been previously submitted to another contest or competition. We are so excited to read and enjoy this years batch of incredible creative work from students across our county, says Chelsea Risley, SoLits executive director. Last year we received over 3,500 entries, and we hope this year well top that number so we can celebrate talented students from even more schools in our area. The contest was originally founded in 1999 by Dr. Verbie Prevost of UTC to promote and honor writing by Hamilton Countys students. All entries must be submitted together by the teacher. Teachers should visit SoLits website, www.solitchatt.org and follow the instructions for submitting student entries. Contact Chelsea Risley with any questions via SoLits website or at 267-1218. Circuit Court Judge Michael J. Dumitru has been named as a United States Magistrate Judge. Magistrate Judge Dumitru took his oath of office on Wednesday in a private ceremony in Chattanoogas Joel W. Solomon U.S. Courthouse. He will succeed Magistrate Judge Susan K. Lee, who is retiring after serving the Court since 2004. A public investiture will take place in the coming months for the magistrate post. The Trial Court Vacancy Commission will recommend to Governor Bill Lee nominees for the Circuit Court vacancy. After the governor has notified the commission of a vacancy, the commission solicits applicants, conducts a public hearing and interviews, and selects three nominees for consideration by the governor. Magistrate Judge Dumitru has worked as a Circuit Court Judge in Hamilton County since Sept. 1, 2022. Prior to becoming a Circuit Court Judge, he worked as a litigator for more than 10 years, including eight years with the law firm of Miller & Martin PLLC in Chattanooga. He earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2011, as well as a Master of Science in Global Affairs from New York University in 2006 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Fordham University in 2004. District judges appoint magistrate judges for terms of eight years. They have authority to issue warrants, to conduct preliminary criminal proceedings, such as initial appearances and arraignments, and to hear cases involving petty offenses committed on federal lands. In many districts, magistrate judges handle pretrial motions in both civil and criminal cases. While district judges try most civil cases, magistrate judges may also preside over civil trials if all parties consent. Magistrate Judge Dumitru joins Chief Magistrate Judge Christopher H. Steger in Chattanooga, Magistrate Judge Debra C. Poplin and Magistrate Judge Jill E. McCook in Knoxville, and Magistrate Judge Cynthia R. Wyrick in Greeneville. The eco-friendly glue company D-Glue, co-created by a Cal Poly chemistry research team with student involvement in partnership with an East Coast company, has joined an international corporate incubator program as of Dec. 1. Cal Poly Chemistry Professor Phil Costanzo (left) and chemistry students Sophia Newcomer and Ryan Donnelly in the lab showcasing their latest D-glue product. Nick Wilson, Courtesy Cal Poly Plug and Play, a global innovation platform that links startups, corporations, investors, universities and government agencies, has over 60 locations across the world, reaching across 25 industries. Plug and Plays three-month international program matches startups with business investors among its 45 Japanese corporate partners. D-Glue will partner with Plug and Play Japan Deeptech Program. The debondable glue is an innovative adhesive designed to be broken apart at lower temperatures, requiring much less energy, while maintaining the integrity of the item and reducing landfill waste. Extreme heat is typically required to separate recyclable materials from glues currently in use, discouraging reclamation and adding to waste and environmental pollution. The product, invented by Cal Poly chemistry Professor Phil Costanzo in coordination with Massachusetts-based Geisys Ventures, was patented in 2023. The team plans to expand production of D-Glue on a mass scale as a commercial product with the impact of reducing landfill waste. At this point, were really focusing on pushing our partnerships forward and advancing the scale-up of D-Glue in a variety of ways, said Kris Stokes, principal scientist at Geisys Ventures. Costanzo and Stokes will visit Japan from Jan. 13-21, 2025 to participate in Plug and Plays Startup Showcase. Only 10 to 15 companies from outside of Japan are chosen to enter this round of the showcase. There, they will meet potential business partners and research and development scientists who could help scale and launch D-Glue as a commercial product. Were excited about the opportunity to go meet more potential industry contacts, Costanzo said. I think were learning quickly that this program has much more of an impact than we thought it did. We really thought about apparel, electronics and energy, and now were hearing we have great potential to partner with automotive and construction companies and different types of manufacturing processes. Cal Poly students on the research team will continue to be involved in the process, conducting further study and preparing samples of the product to be given out during the showcase. This project has taught me how to think independently, analyze data, and propose ways to improve the performance of our materials and experiments, said chemistry student Ryan Donnelly of Redwood City, California. I have learned about the interactions between large corporations and smaller development labs and also mentored new students involved with the project and helped them learn about chemistry and work in an industry focused lab. Artist Ronney Stevens works on a piece at Little Studio Gallery at La Villita in San Antonio on Dec. 16. The city hired Stevens to paint murals at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News In a quiet moment in the gallery, artist Ronney Stevens works on a piece with several of his framed pieces surround him on the walls on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, at Little Studio Gallery in San Antonio, Texas. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Works by artist Ronney Stevens are displayed at Little Studio Gallery at La Villita in San Antonio on Dec. 16. The city hired Stevens to paint murals at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Artist Ronney Stevens talks with visitors at Little Studio Gallery at La Villita in San Antonio on Dec. 16. The city hired Stevens to paint murals at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Artist Ronney Stevens grins while talking on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, at Little Studio Gallery in San Antonio, Texas. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Sandra Alexander examines a portrait she commissioned artist Ronney Stevens to paint of her friend Linda Scholl, who passed away recently. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Sandra Alexander, left, holds a portrait she commissioned artist Ronney Stevens, right, to paint of her late friend Linda Scholl. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Artist Ronney Stevens poses with some of his artwork at Little Studio Gallery at La Villita in San Antonio on Dec. 16. The city hired Stevens to paint murals at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News "ZerNona" is a mural painted by artist Ronney Stevens at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center. City of San Antonio/Photo courtesy of the City of San Antonio "A Small History of the Eastside" is a mural painted by artist Ronney Stevens at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center. City of San Antonio/Photo courtesy of the City of San Antonio When San Antonio artist Ronney Stevens agreed to create murals for a new East Side community center, he didn't initially realize the job would take him full circle back to his childhood. The city of San Antonio hired Stevens to paint two murals one titled ZerNona, the other titled A Small History of the Eastside for display at the ZerNona S. Black Multi-Generational Cultural/Community Center at 333 Martin Luther King Drive. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Funded by a 2017-2022 bond program, the $5.5 million,10,000 square-foot center opened in early December. The center will offer after-school programs and also serve as a senior center. The facility features two buildings, a catering kitchen, classroom spaces and a landscaped courtyard. Stevens, a San Antonio native, was familiar with ZerNona Black, an educator who taught at St. Philips College. He also knew she worked with her husband, the Rev. Claude Black, a civil rights activist and former San Antonio City Council member. What he didnt know was the center would be built on a site he knew well a lot between Martin Luther King Drive and Hardeman Street, where he lived 60 years ago with his mother, Earlean Darden, and younger brother Perry Stevens. The artist said it was surreal to create murals for that very spot. I dont think it was a coincidence, said Stevens, 68. It was quite emotional because my brother and my mother are gone. I am eternally grateful they allowed me to take part in the project. Community connection Stevens, who is an artist in residence at the Little Studio Gallery at La Villita, said he's proud his work is featured at the center, which is next door to Mount Zion First Baptist Church, where the Rev. Claude Black was pastor from 1949 to 1998. Each of his murals at the center is seven feet tall and more than 20 feet wide. For ZerNona, Stevens painted ZerNona and Claude Black, with a focus on several projects the couple created: the Mt. Zions Meals on Wheels program and Project F.R.E.E. (Family Rehabilitation Education Effort). Advertisement Article continues below this ad With A Small History of the Eastside, Stevens depicts historic landmarks of the 20th century, including Hicks Beauty School, the Cameo Theater and Tuckers Lounge. There are scenes from the early 1960s of Claude and ZerNona Black and other community members peacefully protesting for the integration of lunch counters at downtown department stores and other public places. Stevens' link to the project began during the pandemic with a call from Bianca Alvarez, who was then the public art project manager for the city. He said Alvarez chose him for the assignment after shed talked to residents who wanted the murals to offer a a realistic depiction of the East Side. Alvarez said it was important to the selection panel which was made up of local stakeholders that an artist from the community was involved in the project. From what I recall... unanimous from all of the panelists that knew Ronney and his contributions to the community, Alvarez said. To learn about his story and deeper connection to the site made the project much more meaningful in so many ways. ALSO READ: Historic East Side church revived as San Antonio Black history museum Links to his past Stevens found more ties to his past while researching images for the murals. Charles Williams, owner of the Williams Historical Museum at Montana and Hackberry streets, shared photos that Stevens referenced in his art for the center. Williams, a civil rights activist and former barber, was also the only man Stevens mother trusted to cut her sons hair. After graduating from Brackenridge High School in 1974, Stevens moved to Los Angeles where he studied at the Otis Art and American Animation Institutes and focused on painting portraits. In 1999, he returned to San Antonio and studied oil painting at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Stevens work has been displayed at Prairie View A&M University, the African Market Place in Los Angeles and the Texas Capitol in Austin. Stevens was three years old when he started drawing with crayons given to him by his aunt, a school teacher. Five years later, as an 8-year-old, Stevens said he continued his artistic journey in a first-floor apartment behind a street-front house. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Some of my best artwork was done right there, Stevens said. He taught himself to draw superheroes from studying the art he found in comic books. Marvels Thor the God of Thunder, was his favorite hero. Drawing helped him cope with his familys financial woes. The fledgling artist bought lunch with money classmates paid for his drawings of muscled men and women fighting arch enemies. He also used the brown paper bags he drew on for practical means. Hed cut pieces of cardboard to cover holes scuffed out in his shoes. Keep climbing He recalled wearing pants, cut off to the knees, and no shirt as he walked barefoot along Hackberry Street to the original Carver Library. Although a sign warned that anyone not wearing a shirt or shoes wouldnt be served, the librarian never turned him away, he said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad On one visit, he checked out the Cat in the Hat, Curious George and a book on Greek mythology. Patrons could only check out three books at a time. When he returned home, he discovered the librarian had given him a fourth book a collection of poems by author Langston Hughes. The librarian was giving me a message, Stevens said. You're here to get some knowledge as well. He found stirring words in Mother to Son, a poem by Hughes that compares ascending a staircase to facing lifes challenges. In the poem, the mother says life hadnt been a crystal staircase, and talks about how to keep striving when life gets hard. The words resonated with Stevens, and when his mother died in 2010, he had the poem included in her obituary. Hes memorized the verses. The lines arent inscribed on his murals, or at the center, but theyll always symbolize the lesson he learned early in life at the East Side location: Keep climbing. A U.S. Border Patrol is questioning illegal immigrants near the southern border. | Screenshot: CBS Evening News via YouTube A recent report revealed that immigrants who entered the United States unlawfully contributed to a record high level of homelessness, with numbers exceeding 770,000 in 2024. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report, released in December, recorded the number of homeless individuals in the U.S. at 771,480 in January 2024. This figure represents an 18% increase from the 653,104 individuals experiencing homelessness in 2023 and marks the largest increase since HUD began tracking homelessness in 2005. While HUD cited several factors for this increase, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 Maui fires, a significant proportion of the growth occurred in areas overwhelmed by the influx of illegal immigrants seeking access to shelter systems. In response to the surge in illegal border crossings during the Biden-Harris administration, Texas Governor Greg Abbott began sending immigrants to sanctuary cities, including New York City, Chicago, and Denver. Reports indicate that these cities have utilized airports, police stations, and local schools to house immigrants, which politicians attributed to a lack of space at homeless shelters. In the 13 communities that reported the impact of illegal migration to HUD, family homelessness more than doubled, compared to "less than 8%" in the other 373 communities included in the report. HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman remarked, While this data is nearly a year old and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness. She further stated, We know what works, and our success in reducing veteran homelessness by 55.2% since 2010 shows that. At the time of the report's release, HUD mentioned that unlawful crossings at the border had dropped by 60%, with encounters reaching their lowest level since July 2020. However, assessing the exact impact of illegal immigration on the rise in homelessness is challenging, as city and federal officials do not track the immigration status of homeless individuals, as reported by The New York Times. A senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official informed The Associated Press that approximately 44,000 arrests for illegal border crossings occurred in December, marking the sixth consecutive month that arrests have been below the monthly average of 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas attributed this decline to asylum restrictions implemented in June and other border enforcement policies. Throughout his tenure, President Joe Biden and his administration have been criticized for immigration policies that Republican lawmakers argue have led to increased illegal border crossings. President-elect Donald Trump focused heavily on the issue of illegal immigration and border security during his campaign, promising to initiate deportation efforts for illegal immigrants. Accordingly, the Mexican government announced plans to open 25 shelters along its northern border for deported illegal immigrants, with the facilities scheduled to open on January 20. Pastor Jack Hibbs delivers a sermon at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, California, on Dec. 29, 2024. | Screenshot: Real Life with Jack Hibbs via YouTube Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in CA calls on Christians to armor up spiritually as they approach the new year. In his final message of 2024, Hibbs encouraged his congregation not to be unwise but to understand and embrace the will of God in their daily lives. Drawing from Ephesians 6, where Paul urges followers of Jesus to put on the full armor of God, Hibbs emphasized that this practice is essential for standing firm against spiritual battles. Every day with Jesus is going to be one of, Let's armor up, he emphasized. So weve got to wake up first, and then the next thing we do after our big toe hits the ground is we armor up. We put on the armor of God. Christians, listen carefully, you can't go outside without the armor of God. Hibbs reminded the congregation that the challenges faced by believers are spiritual warfare rather than mere earthly struggles, emphasizing the importance of prayer, Scripture reading, and vigilance. He stated, We are in a war, stressing that the enemy doesn't mind us going to church; what he's upset about is when the church gets hot for Jesus and hot for the Word of God, then the enemy gets all bent out of shape. If you are naked, you should be afraidvery, very afraidbut how much more so for the Christian? he asked. Do not enter the new year without your spiritual armament; you will be exposed, and thats why you're afraid. Hibbs emphasized that spiritual preparedness goes beyond church attendance; it involves actively engaging with Gods Word and living out one's faith daily, highlighting that prayer is essential for maintaining spiritual armor. Everybody prays when something's wrong, he said. Even the atheist will pray when something's wrong. The problem is no one's listening, but for us as believers, pray! That's part of being armored up. Highlighting the armor of God in Ephesians 6, he explained how each componentthe helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, and the belt of truthprotects believers from the wiles of the devil and spiritual forces of evil. Hibbs concluded his message by quoting John 14:31, stating, But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do you. Arise and let us go from here. That is our marching orders for this year. Every day, arise, let us go from here because God's Will and plan is for us to be ahead every day, amen? And none of us want to miss that, in Jesus' name. Home News Fmr. Episcopal Church head Michael Curry will apologize to family of suspended bishop The former head of The Episcopal Church will have to apologize to the family of a bishop who was suspended under allegations of abusing his ex-wife and two sons. Current Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, who was installed last November, issued a letter on Monday announcing a resolution to a complaint against former Presiding Bishop Rev. Michael Curry and Bishop Todd Ousley, in his former capacity of intake officer for Title IV allegations against bishops, filed by the family of Bishop Prince Singh. According to the complaint, Curry and Ousley failed to properly implement The Episcopal Church's Title IV disciplinary canons when handling the allegations against Singh. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Curry "has agreed to write an apology to the complainants, who alleged that he did not appropriately oversee the allegations against Bishop Singh," according to Rowe. In addition, Ousley "will also write an apology to the complainants" and will also "complete training in the Title IV disciplinary canons, which I will prescribe." The decisions were made by a panel that included Bishop Nicholas Knisely, president of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops; the Rev. Barbara Kempf, the intake officer for disciplinary matters concerning bishops; and Rowe. "We made this decision after reviewing an independent investigation that the reference panel, which previously included Bishop Knisely, presiding bishop-designate Bishop Jim Mathes, and intake officer-designate Mary Sulerud, requested last spring and received in late September," Rowe wrote. "I ask for your continued prayers that God's power will bring healing and reconciliation to everyone involved in this painful situation." The Singh family released a letter calling the resolution to its complaints "deeply inadequate," believing that the denomination's "repeated failures have caused immeasurable harm to our family and eroded trust in its disciplinary systems." "The suggestion that Bishop Ousley, after years of holding a position responsible for overseeing Title IV for bishops, now requires re-training is both absurd and deeply troubling," stated the family, as quoted by The Living Church. "It implies that he was never fit to hold the job he was entrusted with, an explosive revelation that calls into question every case he handled and the very decision to hire him." Singh served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester from 2008 to 2022, then was elected bishop provisional of the Eastern and Western Michigan dioceses in October 2021. In April 2022, Singh and his wife divorced, with her and their sons later communicating with then-Presiding Bishop Curry about the alleged abuse they endured from Singh. The Singh family went public with the abuse allegations in June 2023. An official Title IV investigation was launched, with Singh restricted from engaging in ministry in September 2023. The Standing Committee of Eastern Michigan and the Standing Committee of Western Michigan said in a joint statement released at the time that the resignation was "a mutual decision." In December 2023, Singh's family filed a complaint against Curry and Ousley, accusing the bishops of failing to properly follow the Title IV disciplinary canons regarding Singh. Last month, Rowe announced that "an accord" was reached with Singh over the allegations, which included having Singh undergo mental health counseling to reconcile with those he was accused of wronging and to remain suspended for at least three more years. A counsel representing Singh released a statement saying that while the suspended bishop "disputes the allegations brought against him," he was going to adhere to the accord. "Singh voluntarily entered into negotiations with the Presiding Bishop to alleviate further distress, begin the healing process, spare all parties, other affected persons and the Church from the emotional and spiritual trauma of a full hearing on the merits, and bring much-needed closure to these matters," stated the counsel last year. "Bishop Singh is grateful for the Presiding Bishop's devoted efforts to resolve these disputes consistent with the stated aims of Title IV and for his ongoing supervision and guidance." Home Books Former Australian prime minister details God's faithfulness amid trials: 'He's always been there' The former prime minister of Australia explained to The Christian Post how God sustained him when he led his country through an especially tumultuous time, and explained how he has learned to find his value not in power, but in God's love for him. Scott Morrison, a Christian who served as Australia's 30th prime minister from 2018 to 2022, detailed his faith journey in his 2024 book, Plans For Your Good: A Prime Minister's Testimony of God's Faithfulness. The book posits three main questions based on Jeremiah 29:11, exhorting readers to consider "Who am I?," "How should I live?," and "What should I hope for?" The book provides pastoral reflections on how to answer such fundamental questions while weaving compelling stories from his own life and time in office. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Morrison emphasized to CP that the book is not a political memoir, but rather a message of hope to readers facing their own doubts and struggles. "It's not a political book," he said. "If I wanted to write a political book, it probably would have been three times longer and would have been full of defenses and advocacy of my political agenda. That's what I did in politics, and I did that for a long time." Morrison said his faith was not something he went into very often in great depth while serving as prime minister, but that leaving the public stage has offered him "an opportunity for me to just to be very open about my Christian faith and to declare it." 'A very difficult time' Morrison's time as prime minister was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he described as the biggest crisis Australia had faced since World War II. The COVID-19 protocols in Australia drew criticism from some who believed they were too strict, though the country of 25 million people was one of the few able to bring new community-acquired COVID-19 cases down to zero in 2020. Morrison pushed back against critics who maintain there was a global conspiracy to oppress citizens. "It was a very difficult time, and I think there was a lot of uncertainty and anxiety at the time," Morrison said. "People were trying to understand and explain what was going on. I just knew that we were dealing with a pathogen which was very, very dangerous and we had to deal with it. If there was a conspiracy, no one invited me to the meetings." "It was tough. You're never going to get remedies and responses to that which was going to make everybody happy," he added. Morrison said dealing with the rise of China was the most difficult issue he had to deal with as prime minister, noting how the Chinese government "sought to bully and break Australia," even as they were straining under the weight of the pandemic, a recession and some of the worst natural disasters the country had seen "in quite some time." "Everywhere I went, I was seeing devastation and heartache in my own country, and that was heartbreaking," he said, adding that he credits God for strengthening him "to stand up to China and to do so with the backing of many of our friends, particularly in the United States, with whom I formed some very good personal and close relationships." 'Anxiety is human' Morrison is also very open in his book about how he began to suffer anxiety attacks while serving as prime minister that required medication in 2021. He urged Christians not to be ashamed if they need help with their mental health amid what he described as "an anxiety crisis, particularly in Western society." "Anxiety is human," he said, adding that his anxiety was not caused by policy challenges or security threats, but rather "physical exhaustion combined with the tenacious, relentless, personal, vindictive attacks principally through secular voices in the media and opponents." "We're all flesh and blood, mind and spirit," he said. "And these things can affect us after some period of time." "I say to Christians that you take a pill for a headache, and your mental health is no different," he said. "The stresses that we labor under at times need that sort of support." "I was on my knees at that time, I was praying, I was seeking the counsel and support of Christian friends and others, but there are physical things that happen that can affect your mental health, and you've got to be mindful of those things." Morrison also said Christians should acknowledge the spiritual aspect of anxiety by casting their anxieties on the Lord. "As Christians, we need to learn how we can just hand these things over to God; the anxieties are real, the things we're anxious about are real," he added. "We can't pretend they're not there, and we've just got to deal with them and hand them over to Him and allow Him to give us peace." 'Constant source of strength and wisdom' Morrison stressed the importance of having a community of believers who upheld him in prayer while he was in office, including a tight-knit group of pastors. "You can't live your faith other than in community of brothers and sisters in Christ, and that's intentional by design, I believe," he said. "God helps us when we're on our knees in prayer; He helps us when we're reflecting on His work, and He also encourages us and supports us through those he puts around us. I've always been blessed with that, and, frankly, sought it out." Morrison suggested the increasingly secular nature of Western societies makes Christian fellowship even more vital. "You can't live in a secular society faithfully and strongly if you're not in a community of those who love Christ," he said. "They are a constant source of strength and wisdom and support and love, and to be in such a community is one of the great joys and blessings of Christian life." 'We don't have to prove anything' A section in the third chapter of Morrison's book delves into the many setbacks and failures he has suffered, starting with when he was fired from his job in the country's tourism agency during his late 30s. He claims he was fired for political reasons by then-Prime Minister John Howard, with whom he had a good relationship and whose campaign he worked for. The experience, he writes, was "humiliating and soul destroying," but revealed to him how much he was placing his self-worth in his own accomplishments instead of in God's unconditional love for him. "We dont have to prove anything to God, even the things we think we are doing for Him," Morrison writes. "Gods love has nothing to do with what we think we can offer. He loves us just as we are, in all our brokenness." "Gods love is transformational if you allow it to be. Its one thing to accept it; its entirely another to let it transform you and allow you to see yourself through His eyes instead of through the perspective of what you have or haven't accomplished." That lesson would prove invaluable throughout the rest of his life and steel him to experience other losses, including ultimately losing reelection as prime minister in 2022. He writes that while some politicians who lose begin to crave the "relevance" they lost, he is free from such an "affliction." Morrison suggested to CP that one of the greatest lessons he has learned is God's faithfulness regardless of what vocation to which he is called in the different seasons of his life. "I just found God faithful to me in every walk of life, whether it was as prime minister, as a treasurer, as a cabinet minister, a member of parliament, a father, senior chief executive, all these sorts of things that I've done over the course of my life," he said. "He's always been there with me, and that's really what I'm trying to say. It doesn't matter what your vocation is, what job you have, what you're doing in life. The prize is Christ and His presence. That's what will sustain you always in everything." Home News Guardian Angels resume patrols of NYC subway after woman burned alive The Alliance of Guardian Angels, a volunteer crime prevention organization, vowed to resume patrolling the New York City subway system following several violent incidents, including an illegal immigrant burning a woman alive. Guardian Angles founder Curtis Sliwa told The New York Post on Sunday that the nonprofit plans to increase its numbers and training efforts and has a goal to have the same presence it did in the late 20th century. Founded in 1979, members of the nonprofit organization wear red berets and serve local communities by conducting unarmed patrols to defend vulnerable individuals. The group also offers youth mentorship programs and organizes service projects on behalf of the homeless. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The groups 150 members in New York City will start patrolling at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station, according to Sliwa. In addition to reporting any issues on the train to the New York Police Department, volunteers will offer wellness checks and water to the homeless or emotionally disturbed people. Were covering the actual trains from front to back, walking through the trains and making sure that everything is OK, Sliwa said. Were doing this constantly now. Starting today. Thats going to be our complete focus because the subways are out of control. Sliwa said hundreds of citizens want the volunteer prevention group to return to the subway after several high-profile incidents caused concern about safety on the subway. However, New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the group's efforts a "meaningless stunt." If Curtis wants to be back down in the subway system, if he sees something, he should say something and he should do something, Adams said Tuesday, according to The Daily News. Dont overstep your boundaries, like they did a few months ago when they arrested an innocent person. Let the police do their job. Adams' reference was to the group's February apprehension of a man in Times Square they accused of shoplifting, an incident aired while Sliwa was being interviewed on Fox News. A police spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that a "male was issued a summons for disorderly conduct" because he was "observed by officers to be acting in a loud, disorderly threatening manner on a crowded sidewalk causing public alarm." In December, prosecutors charged Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, with first- and second-degree murder and first-degree arson. Authorities say that the man approached a woman, later identified as Debrina Kawam of Toms River, New Jersey, on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station and lit her clothes on fire. Officers patrolling the area detected smoke and went to investigate, later assisting a Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker to extinguish the flames engulfing the woman. Surveillance footage showed Zapeta-Calil watching Kawam burn from a bench on the subway platform. Despite efforts to save the woman, authorities pronounced her dead at the scene. Police took the suspect into custody hours after the incident. Immigration officials disclosed that Zapeta-Calil had previously been deported in 2018 but later reentered the United States illegally at an unknown date and location. Last month, a jury found former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the May 2023 subway death of Jordan Neely. Neely, who was often homeless and sometimes earned money through street performances, reportedly threatened other subway passengers and behaved erratically around the time of his death. Penny placed the man in a chokehold. The defense argued that the former marine took action to protect his fellow passengers. Republican lawmakers have criticized the Biden-Harris administrations immigration policies, which they say compromised border security and allowed immigrants with criminal backgrounds to illegally enter the U.S.. Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang, has gained notoriety in the U.S. following reports of gang members present in apartment buildings and committing other crimes. Members of the Tren de Aragua gang are reportedly attacking the U.S. southern border crossings, according to a leaked Texas Department of Public Safety memo shared by The New York Post on Tuesday. Last week, 20 members of the Venezuelan gang, armed with blades, tire irons and broken bottles, attempted to storm a U.S. border gate. The memo warned of another planned attack on New Years Day. The Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to The Christian Posts request for comment. According to Victor Avila, a retired agent for Homeland Security Investigations, the gang is attempting to enter the U.S. before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Youre seeing that violence at the border because they know that its going to change in 27 days. Its going to change. Its going to be different, and theyre going to be sought after, he told The Post. Home News Majority of white Christians, Hispanic Protestants backed Trump in 2024: poll A new survey reveals that most white Christians and Hispanic Protestants supported President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election as discussions continue about the influence of voters religious beliefs on their political affiliation. The Public Religion Research Institute released a report examining the results of the 2024 presidential election broken down by religious affiliation. The report is based on responses collected from 5,772 adults and a subsample of 4,757 adults who voted in the 2024 presidential election between Nov. 8 and Dec. 2. The respective samples have margins of error of +/-1.7 percentage points and +/-1.9 percentage points. Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election, received his strongest level of support among white Evangelicals, measured at 85%. Just 14% of white Evangelicals backed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Trump received an even higher share of the vote among white Evangelicals who go to church once a week or more (88%). His support was lower among white Evangelicals who attend church either monthly or a few times a year (81%), as well as those who seldom or never go to church (74%). Trump also received the support of a majority of Hispanic Protestants (64%), white Catholics (59%), and white, non-Evangelical Protestants (57%). As was the case with white Evangelicals, a higher church attendance rate among white Catholics correlated with a higher level of support for Trump. A supermajority (64%) of white Catholics who go to church at least once a week backed Trump, along with smaller majorities of white Catholics who attend monthly or a few times a year (58%) and those who rarely or never go to Mass (56%). However, the opposite pattern emerged among white non-Evangelical Protestants. Only a bare majority (52%) of white non-Evangelical Protestants who go to church weekly supported Trump. Slightly larger shares of white, non-Evangelical Protestants who attend church monthly or a few times a year (56%) and never or rarely attend church (59%) backed the president-elect. Trump came up short among Hispanic Catholics, 55% of whom supported Harris. The overwhelming majority of voters belonging to all other religious demographics backed Harris over Trump. Harris support was strongest among black Protestants. The vice president captured 83% of the vote among this demographic. Harris also received majority support from the religiously unaffiliated (72%), non-Christian voters adhering to a religion other than Judaism (67%) and Jewish voters (62%). The results of the Public Religion Research Institute survey differ slightly from exit polling of the 2024 presidential election compiled based on interviews with 22,914 voters as they left their polling stations on Election Day. The exit polling found Trumps support among white Evangelicals at a slightly lower 82% while pegging his support among Latino Protestants at a higher share (64%). While the Public Religion Research Institute survey found that Trump lost Hispanic Catholics, the exit polling determined that the president-elect actually received a majority of the vote (53%) from this demographic. Harris support among black Protestants in the exit polling (85%) was identical to the finding of the Public Religion Research Institute. Polling conducted following the 2024 presidential election has revealed a massive shift in the voting preferences of Latinos compared to the 2020 presidential election. While the Public Religion Research Institute found that Harris received a majority (53%) of the Latino vote and exit polling measured Harris support among the demographic at 51%, both numbers represent a decline from the 65% of the Latino vote captured by President Joe Biden in 2020, according to exit polling. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, predicted that Latino voters would abandon the Democratic Party in droves in a 2022 interview with The Christian Post. Rodriguez characterized the Democratic Party as a new progressive, socialist, anti-right, anti-Christian party that completely ignores the rights of individuals and the idea that we are created in the image of God, with God-ordained rights. He insisted that Latinos are not going to stand for that because we are a people of faith. Home News Orthodox Christian man claims to have destroyed satanic statue outside NH state House 'My conscience is clear' An Orthodox Christian man remains unapologetic after claiming to have repeatedly destroyed the demonic statute that satanists erected outside the New Hampshire state House in Concord last month. "I live in Concord, New Hampshire. It was I who destroyed the Satan statue in front of the State House," Concord resident Joshua Cummings wrote in a Facebook post on Christmas Day. On Dec. 7, The Satanic Temple continued its annual holiday tradition of erecting satanic displays near Nativity scenes on government property by unveiling a statue of the demon Baphomet at the New Hampshire state House, according to a live Facebook feed of the ceremony. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The statue depicted a black-clad Baphomet with glowing eyes clutching a bouquet of purple lilacs in its right hand, symbolizing the state flower of New Hampshire. It was also adorned with a purple stole emblazoned with the inverted pentagram, goat's head of the TST logo, and two inverted crosses. Todays photos of the Satanic Temple's holiday display in Concord, NH ???????????? pic.twitter.com/agk8n544cf OneOutOfFour (@OneOutof4) December 10, 2024 The statue was repeatedly vandalized by multiple people, and Cummings readily admitted to having participated. "Other people have destroyed it on several occasions. It has basically become open season on the stupid thing at this point, but I (have lost count) did at least five times bash it on the head with my medieval mace in the middle of the night, and I was finally apprehended by police for it a few nights ago," he wrote. Cummings explained that police questioned him and read him his Miranda rights without arresting him, and he defended his actions to them by appealing to a higher authority. "What I said to the cops is the same thing I'd say before the press: that the presence of the statue hurts everyone in the city and even the whole state that the spiritual principality is a higher order reality than the legal municipality. The cops were surprised by my answers and didn't really know how to respond." When an officer asked if he destroyed the statue because he hates The Satanic Temple, Cummings said he responded, "I don't hate anyone. The Satanic Temple are a bunch of idiots, but I pray they repent. I hate Satan." Cummings said he doubts charges will be pressed against him, though he noted he's confident he would be able to crowdfund for his legal fees if necessary. The Christian Post has reached out to the Concord Police Department for comment and will update this story if they respond. Cummings went on to suggest that The Satanic Temple is mistaken in their public beliefs about Satan, and seemingly fail to understand the nature of the entity whose name they have assumed. The Satanic Temple claims not to worship Satan, but rather to embrace his name in an effort "to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions," according to their website. "Again, I maintain that Satan is not who the Satanic Temple says he is he is who he is he has no humility and no love, and hates everyone, seeking their destruction," Cummings wrote. "The 'Seven Tenets' of Satanism (which the Temple regularly cites as the reason for making their cause attractive) have nothing to do with the actual agenda of Satan. God forbid the members of the Satanic Temple die in their delusion and realize their eternal disappointment: Satan doesn't like you as much as you liked him!" Cummings pushed back against Christians who would defend satanic statues on First Amendment grounds and urged for anti-blasphemy laws, maintaining that "it is unChristian not to destroy idolatrous statues, a fact witnessed to by the countless saints who did not hesitate to topple monuments to falsehood." "What does it say about us as a people if we allow such a filthy and hideous image to appear before God in our most basic societal representation?" he asked. He closed by expressing his desire that if he does face legal repercussions for his actions, he hopes it will serve as "a confession for Orthodoxy, which has the fullness of theology to explain why it is perfectly Christian to destroy an idol in front of the very State House." He added that he regards what he did to the statue as "one of the greatest things I've ever done, dust as it is." "My conscience is clear, and should I be charged unfairly, then the crisis of conscience shall move laterally to my interlocutors. I may stand trial tomorrow, but we will all stand trial before the only Righteous Judge. Please pray for me, I'm not sure what is about to happen, but I maintain: Glory be to God for all things," he added. Cummings followed in the footsteps of U.S. Navy veteran Michael Cassidy, who traveled from Mississippi to Des Moines last year and toppled the Baphomet statue that The Satanic Temple had put up near a Nativity scene in the Iowa Capitol. Cassidy was to stand trial on June 3 and faced up to five years in jail if convicted of the hate crime, but he pleaded guilty in May to a third-degree criminal mischief charge in exchange for having the felony charge dropped. Last February, Pastor John MacArthur defended Cassidy's actions, but noted he will have to face negative consequences in a society that increasingly rewards wickedness and punishes righteousness. "You have to take the consequences if you do it, but that was a noble thing to do," MacArthur said. "That was something that he felt very deeply in his heart." "What are they doing having an altar to Satan in a state public building?" MacArthur continued. "That is the offense. The offense isn't that it was removed, the offense is that it was there. But it demonstrates where the culture is, that he gets punished, not the people who set it up." Home News Tony Evans' son describes 'punch to the gut' moment he learned father would be 'stepping away' from ministry Jonathan Evans, son of Pastor Tony Evans, has opened up about the moment he learned his father would be stepping away from the pulpit due to an undisclosed sin, describing it as a punch to the gut. Evans, who serves as an associate pastor at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship (OCBF), recently shared a video reflecting on the shock he felt earlier this year after learning his father, who led the 11,000-member Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship church in Dallas, Texas, would be stepping away from his pastoral duties for a season of restoration "due to sin, which has yet to be publicly revealed. It was a shock to us he told us that hes going to take a step back from ministry, go to a time of healing and restoration a time that he needs, Jonathan said. Were all praying for his restoration, recovery, and for him to be fully back doing what he loves to do and what hes called to do. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The younger Evans, who serves as team chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys, described the news of his fathers decision to step back from ministry in June as a sharp change for him personally and caused him to recalibrate. He has been doing [ministry] since I was born, so I dont know anything different, he said, adding that during that time, he studied Psalms 46, which states that God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in time of trouble. So I need you to understand that God is with you. Hes with you, even though you dont feel like Hes with you, he said. When my dad stepped back from ministry and stepped down from the pulpit, I needed this. I needed to know God is my refuge. God is my strength, and Hes very present. Be still doesnt mean dont move. Be still doesnt mean be physically irresponsible, he added. Be still means that you can be emotionally steady. Be still doesnt mean stop stepping. It means stop stressing. But do what God has called you to do with an unwavering confidence that He is God. So yeah, he continued, when my dad stepped down, it was a punch to the gut for me [and] my siblings. God says, Be still. Im still God. Do not fear. Do not be afraid. Ive already won. Just because theres bumps along the way doesnt mean victory hasnt already been had. Tony Evans, a bestselling author and ministry leader who had pastored the church for 48 years, did not provide specific details on why he was stepping away from the pulpit. However, he confessed in a written statement that though he did not commit any crimes, he fell short of the biblical standards espoused by his ministry, suggesting it was "due to sin." "The foundation of our ministry has always been our commitment to the Word of God as the absolute supreme standard of truth to which we are to conform our lives. When we fall short of that standard due to sin, we are required to repent and restore our relationship with God," Evans stated. The revelation came just months after his December 2023 wedding to Carla Crummie in a "private ceremony surrounded by family and close friends" four years after the death of his first wife, Lois. Tony Evans was married to Lois Evans for 49 years before she died of biliary cancer at the end of 2019 at age 70. In a 2020 interview with The Christian Post, Evans said: "There's no part of my life and ministry where her footprints aren't felt." Speaking during a Fathers Day sermon days after his fathers announcement, Jonathan Evans told the Oak Cliff congregation that he expects a triumphant return of his father to his pulpit. Let me tell you, let me put it this way, my dad has been there for all of my challenges. Yes sir, he's been there for a lot of y'all[s] challenges, whether it's counseling, whether it's preaching, radio, some of y'all YouTube, whatever medium [it] has been, he's been there, so it's an honor for me to return the favor, Jonathan Evans said. People have been asking me all week, 'how do you feel'? Let me tell you, I feel like we've already won. I feel like we're on offense, not defense. I feel like we already have victory. I feel like His Word is true. I feel like He's going to finish the work that He started. I feel like, if it's not good yet, God's not done yet. I feel like all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes. I feel like just because it's a shock to you, doesn't mean it's a shock to Him, he added. I feel like we have already won. And so, I have to go not based on just the circumstances, but based on the reality of the Savior, because His Word is true. So what are we going to do? We [are] going to play offense. We're going to go and do and be what God has called us to go and do and be. And when he returns, when my dad returns, when that time comes, we going to celebrate a victory we already knew beforehand that we had. Home News UN office suggests 'unsafe abortions' count as 'femicide,' accused of ignoring legal abortion deaths The United Nations has been accused of promoting a political agenda after the organization's Western European regional office suggested that the definition of "femicide," the intentional murder of women, should include deaths from unsafe abortions. In response to the issue of violence against women, the U.N. advertised the "16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence" campaign, which ran from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10. The campaign begins on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ends on Human Rights Day. On the campaign's first day, the U.N. Regional Information Centre for Western Europe shared an article titled, "Behind closed doors: the deadly reality of femicide." The U.N. regional office stated that 85,000 women and girls lost their lives due to femicide in 2023, but the actual number is unknown due to underreporting. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The article described femicide as "the killing of a woman by an intimate partner and the death of a woman as a result of a practice that is harmful to women." The organization suggested that the concept of harmful practices can apply to unsafe abortions. "These practices include, but are not limited to, intimate partner violence, dowry-related deaths, honour killings, and deaths related to harmful practices like female genital mutilation or unsafe abortion," the report stated. Michael New, an assistant professor of social research at The Catholic University of America and a senior associate scholar at the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute, said the definition of femicide should not include deaths from unsafe abortions. The pro-life researcher told The Christian Post the word "femicide" refers to the intentional killing of women, citing honor killings, sex-selective abortions and intimate partner violence as examples. New believes the death of any woman as a result of an unsafe abortion, while tragic, is not an action that involves the intentional killing of a woman. Therefore, he says such deaths are not consistent with the definition of femicide. "There is obviously a political motive behind the U.N.'s interest in including unsafe abortions in the definition of femicide," he said. "The United Nations supports legal abortion. They have criticized Poland and other countries that have enacted legal protections for preborn children." Pro-life advocates and doctors have noted that Poland, a country that prohibits abortion in most cases, has some of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. Earlier this year, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women accused Poland of "severe human rights violations," pointing to the country's laws against abortion. The CEDAW advocated for legal reforms to fully legalize abortion in Poland, claiming that the country's restrictions have "contributed to several preventable deaths." "The United Nations and other organizations that support legal abortion have always used inflated numbers of deaths and complications due to illegal abortions to generate political support for permissive abortion policies worldwide," said New, adding that the U.N. has expressed little interest in accurate data on deaths and complications from legal abortions. The U.N. did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment. New and other pro-life advocates have frequently criticized the lack of comprehensive data on abortion complications, particularly in the United States, which does not have a federal abortion reporting law. As these advocates have noted, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which collects data on abortion, states on its website that the process is largely voluntary. Another entity that collects abortion data is the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, but advocates have concerns about bias due to the organization's ties to the nation's largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood. In 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also eliminated a requirement for abortionists to report non-fatal chemical abortion complications, which pro-life advocates contend makes it harder to locate accurate data. "The United Nations has never criticized the United States for our lack of comprehensive data on deaths and complications due to legal abortion," New stated.